• Published 12th May 2014
  • 4,032 Views, 61 Comments

Not Another Romance! - LordBrony2040



The long-dreaded Sequel to Not Another Alicorn! A few months after becoming an alicorn, Ranbow Dash tries to get back to her life in Ponyville.

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Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Day in the Life

The personal office of the head weather pony in Ponyville wasn’t much to look at. In truth, it was little more than a hole in the wall with a desk that took up more than half the room, and other necessities that filled another quarter of it. If the door to the office opened inward, nopony would have ever been able to get in. In the small amount of room that was left open, Rainbow Dash sat behind her desk while she reviewed the application in her hooves before looking up at the pegasus standing there at attention, waiting for her decision.

“Well…everything seems to be in order,” she told him before glancing back down at the paper. “Says here you worked Manehattan weather for two years, and Dodge Junction for another on top of that. You’re familiar with country weather I take it?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“And you seem to be in good shape, work out a lot do you?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Have you had any experience with chaotic weather systems like the Everfree before?”

“No ma’am!”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Well that’s to be expected,” she said. After all, there were no other chaotic storm systems like what was in the Everfree. Even after her ascension, the place still didn’t make much sense to Rainbow and even made efforts to resist her control the deeper into it she went. “Now, for my final question…are you really a soldier of the royal guard, sent here by Princess Celestia to try and keep tabs on me despite the fact that I can take care of myself just fine, and she’s wasting a slot on a weather team that has to deal with some of the most unpredictable and dangerous weather in all of Equestria just so she can try and keep tabs on me at the expense of a real weather pony?”

Her eyes narrowed as she drew herself to her full height and flared her wings, letting them crackle with electricity. The room darkened as the clouds it was made from changed color, and the temperature dropped several degrees. “And you need to think very long and hard before you answer that one, soldier.”

Under the alicorn’s gaze, the stallion wilted, and quickly took what was obviously a falsified resume before quickly dashing out the door, past the other five pegasi waiting to fill the new positions on the Ponyville Weather Team. Rainbow Dash glared at them all for a moment, not recognizing a single one of them. Most likely, it was thanks to the influx of ponies that were wanting to move to Ponyville now that it was a princess town, but that didn't mean a few of them weren't in town under orders from the crown.

Just thinking of how many ponies were trying to get into Ponyville simply because she lived in the town was kind of...scary. Thankfully, Rainbow had managed to talk her mother into making the town a special case in the name of commerce and a bunch of other junk she had managed to talk Twilight into looking up for her. While a few new businesses coming into the little village would help everypony, Rainbow Dash didn’t want her little paradise destroyed by an influx of too many ponies for the local businesses to sustain, or too much competition that would destroy the local economy.

Then there was the weather team. As much as Rainbow Dash hated to admit it to herself, the Ponyville Weather Team needed some help. Mostly due to her lack of busting clouds for the past few weeks. She had already handed over the field work kind of stuff to Cloud Kicker via a promotion, and now served mostly as an auxiliary role. Rainbow spent her mornings filling out forms and showing up on random ponies weather duties later in the day to lend a helping hoof. But she still needed to get some more ponies to replace the loss of labor that Rainbow Dash put in. Then there was the extra hires she needed for the night shift…she didn’t really like to think of the reasons for them though.

On the upside, at least she understood why Twilight ‘ran’ the Ponyville Library that hardly anypony used. She needed the free time to study magic. While Aurora had grown up with the stuff, meaning Dash knew what magic could do, possibly even better than Twilight herself, knowing how to actually do it was another thing altogether. Using her best friend as the model, the alicorn was hoping to just get by with a little paperwork each morning, followed by just giving the normal weather ponies a little help every now and then.

But, that meant hiring her replacements…

Maybe I should just make Ditzy a full-time weather mare, Rainbow thought to herself. Although, that would still leave an opening in the patrol that needed to be filled. And Ditzy working weather all the time these days...that may be a little too dangerous for a mom.

“Okay…um,” the alicorn paused as she looked around the weather department’s main room at the other five pegasi who were waiting for their turn to be interviewed. They were a mixed bag. There was a pretty stallion, a sky blue pegasus, a fit pegasus with light green skin and a yellow tail, a mare with a dark coat, and a large white stallion. “Let’s clear this now, if any other ponies here are members of the royal guard, or have any connections to the military whatsoever, leave now or I’ll turn you into blocks of ice and let you drop through the clouds that way.”

The mint green pegasus raised a hoof. “Does that include Wonderbolt reserves, your Highness?”

Rainbow Dash sighed at the mare’s question. “Yes,” she said before looking through the list of ponies who applied to get the mare’s name, “Lighting Dust.”

A second later, three of the ponies hung their heads, and headed towards the door, leaving Rainbow alone with the dark pegasus and the pretty boy stallion. After they had departed, the pretty-boy stallion looked around at the empty room and grinned. “Does this mean we get the job?”

“Do you wish an occupation simply handed to you, foal?” the dark female pegasus asked him with a frown. “Where is your pride as a pegasus?”

Resisting the urge to simply kick the pretty stallion out and hire the dark pegasus on the spot for her remark, Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath and released it slowly to help clam her nerves. Unfortunately, she couldn’t follow all of Twilight’s advice to picture her restlessness leaving like a dark storm cloud as she exhaled. The first time she tried that, it really did create a dark storm cloud that got off a few lightning bolts before needing to be dispelled.

“Come with me Ms…Starry Night?” Rainbow Dash read before looking back up to the dark pegasus with the dark blue, almost black coat and light blue hair.

A second later, the mare complied. As they got inside the office, Rainbow Dash managed to get a good up-close look at the pegasus. Despite her full-grown size, she still had a bit of…youthfulness about her that tugged on…something in the back of Rainbow’s mind.

She just shrugged it off. After remembering her past life, Rainbow couldn’t help but feel that way when it came to some ponies. It would appear at the oddest times, a half-remembered face, a new song that sounded like something five thousand years gone, different types of food that nopony knew how to make anymore, anchient curse words that nopony even understood. The whole bloody thing was burning annoying.

“So let’s see,” she muttered before looking down on the paper, “Eighteen huh? Just moved to Ponyville? And on your birthday?”

Starry Skies nodded. “That’s right um…is it Highness, or Princess Rainbow, or-”

“Just Rainbow,” Dash emphasized, “Ms Dash when we’re on duty…if I decide to hire you that is. And your special talent?”

The dark pegasus smiled. “I’m into astronomy Ma’am,” she replied enthusiastically. “And…I know it doesn’t say anything about my job history…mostly because I don’t have one. But! I have moved and kicked clouds plenty of times before! My family lived out near the Smokey Mountain, next to Tall Tale, and that place always makes it so hazy I needed to clear the skies every night just to see the stars around our farm. I know it’s not Everfree weather Miss Dash, but-”

A raised hoof and a little chuckle settled the obviously nervous pegasus down quite a bit. “Okay that’s enough,” Dash told her. “Moving out as young as you did…takes guts." It also hinted at things best left unspoken in a job interview, but Rainbow put those concerns on the back burner for the moment. "I like that, you’ll need it for Everfree weather and…I take it you’ve worked weather at night before?”

“Oh yes! But…if you don’t mind…I would prefer afternoon work,” she explained. “I don’t really mean to be so demanding, but…I’m only here to help pay for my tuition to Canterlot University. I’m actually taking a personal study course in-”

Once again, Rainbow Dash cut her off with a raised hoof. “Hey no worries my…a friend of mine is in the same boat,” she told the filly. “Afternoons are fine. If you can past a test later today, we’ll get it all settled in the next few days. Send the next guy in on your way out, would you?”

As the dark pegasus made her exit, Rainbow thought she saw an odd glint out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked over to face Starry Night, the pegasus was already gone. Need to tell her not to wear jewelry while flying, the alicorn told herself. Although, Rainbow couldn’t seem to remember just what kind of earrings the pegasus had on.

A few seconds later, the other pegasus walked in and sat down while Rainbow Dash pulled out his resume and looked it over. “So…Flash Sentry? Oh come on! With a name like that, do you honestly think I’m not going to guess royal guard?”

The tanish-orange pegasus put on one of those playcolt grins that stallions such as him seemed to be born knowing how to do, and leaned forward over Rainbow’s desk. “Actually Ms Dash, I finished my tour of duty a few weeks ago and didn’t sign on for another,” he told her while pointing it out on the paper the alicorn held. “And I have had military training when it comes to working weather, things like precision lightning strikes and using fog as cover. But I’m sure I can push around a few clouds if it comes down to it.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Rainbow admitted after thinking things over for a moment. In truth, Ponyville’s weather management department was a bit of a redundant thing with her around. A simple act of will could change the skies from cloudy to clear and vice versa in seconds, no weather factory required. It was when her thoughts drifted, or when Rainbow Dash dreamed that things became…difficult. She supposed somepony with military experience would be an asset.

Unless of course he was really there as a plant by Celestia, while the twelve other guardsponies who applied for the position where just there to draw fire to allow the last one on the list to slip in undetected thanks to the fact he was no longer officially in the Guard with his tour of duty being over. But…Rainbow didn’t think Celestia would have been that sneaky about something.

After turning her attention back to the stallion, Rainbow looked over to the duty schedule hanging on the wall, and then back to Flash. “You’ll be taking the evening shift. Assuming you pass your entrance test later today,” she added as an afterthought. Although as far as she could tell, that was a forgone conclusion. Any pegasus could work the weather after all. “I’ll help you get started, but it’s really nothing more than just standing around and seeing if some rouge weather from the Everfree comes in, or if any bad weather just appears. If that happens, just come and wake me up.”

“Bad weather just…appearing?” the pegasus asked.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Luna makes sure I don’t have anything in the way of nightmares anymore,” Dash told her before putting everything away in her desk and scooting the other pegasus out of her office so she could lock up; remembering to grab the letters waiting in her inbox; one of which she noticed bore the official weather office seal from Cloudsdale. “Just make sure you report for duty on time, and it’ll all go fine. I’ll introduce you to everypony and we’ll go from there. The night crew is a little laid back, but, they’re good ponies.

“Now, I gotta get going or I’ll get chewed out,” she finished before heading to the exit as fast as she could. The last time that Rainbow Dash had been tardy for Twilight’s magic lessons, the little purple unicorn had made the alicorn understand it was never going to happen again. Having to live through the consequences just once was bad enough.


Twilight completed the circuit of the library that was her home as she finished making sure all the preparations for Rainbow’s magical lesson were completed. The bookshelves had been covered in glass with an enchantment to make them magic reflective, the warning signs had been posted outside, Spike was off at Rarity’s for his daily session of helping the unicorn with whatever it was that she would be needing for the day, and Twilight’s special teaching aid was resting behind her unicorn bust until she was ready to deploy it. With the final check to her checklist complete, Twilight activated the magical wards that would insure anything less than a magical explosion strong enough to annihilate Canterlot would be contained within her tree.

As was usual whenever she thought about such things, Twilight found herself thinking back to the first library that had gone up in flames and comparing it to her current one. Aside from the extra floor that held enough room for a living space that didn’t double as a storage closet like her old room, it wasn’t all that different. Being in the trunk of a tree, the overall area was still round, with an upper floor that let to a balcony and a spiral staircase that took up half the room. Twilight had even managed to find another unicorn bust to replace the one that usually sat in the middle of her large table. Replacing the telescope had been a bit of a chore, as she and Spike had to find the material for the lenses themselves to insure for the best quality of work before commissioning the best telescope maker in Canterlot for the job. Getting everything not book related had created quite a bill, but Rainbow Dash had 'princess ordered' Twilight to put everything to the princess’s royal account since she had been the one to blow up the old library.

Of course Twilight had explained time and time again how it wasn’t Rainbow’s fault, but Twilight’s own for pulling at an alicorn’s horn, but Rainbow that just made Rainbow start pulling rank to end their argument. Then she literally flew the unicorn all over Equestria looking for the best bed, stove, and lab equipment to replace what had been destroyed. It had been an…interesting weekend, being held in Dash’s forelegs as she darted from city to city at speeds approaching that of sound. Twilight had tried to talk her into just letting the unicorn order something from a catalog like a normal pony, but it seemed Rarity was rubbing off on the alicorn, what with her ‘need to examine everything personally’ explanation.

And, it had been kind of fun, Twilight told herself. Being in the sky with Dash's legs wrapped around her, seeing the world from the princess's perspective was something she had never done before. While balloons gave a bird's eye view, they did not allow for the feel of the wind, the scenery rushing below her, the rejuvenating feeling of being driven through a raincloud for a quick cleansing. It was a learning experience Twilight would cherish for the rest of her life.

The door banged open, drawing Twilight out of her memories as her student rushed in with a cry of, “TEN SECONDS! I’M STILL ON TIME! I STILL HAVE TEN SECONDS!”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at the panicked look on the goddess’s face as her rainbow mane danced around like it was on fire. She still didn’t understand how Celestia and Luna had theirs look so pristine, but Rainbow’s was just as messy as ever, only… slightly more mobile as it flanked her neck and came down around her shoulders while it shimmered with the magic of a divine being. “That you are Rainbow,” Twilight admitted while she glanced up at the clock just in time to see it tick to 10AM. “So, let’s get started, shall we?”

As the alicorn’s face turned from one of panic to calm, Twilight practically felt the weight of her responsibility settling on her shoulders. The newest princess, Rainbow Dash, was coming to Twilight to learn magic. While it had originally been a punishment placed upon her by Celestia, Twilight had come to see it for what the sun goddess probably meant for it to be: a great responsibility and tremendous honor. Twilight knew there were probably a dozen unicorns who were better suited at the task than her, but she was the one Celestia had put her trust in to give her reborn daughter the proper magical education an alicorn required.

It was a task she would not fail…difficult as it may be.

With that, Twilight cast a conjuration spell, and bright signs saying ‘NO HOOVES ALLOWED’ appeared in various corners of her library to remind her student of their number one rule while Training Time was in effect. She just hoped Time Turner didn’t wander into the library again. That incident with the discrimination lawsuit wasn’t something Twilight cared to remember anytime soon.

Then she cast her second spell to help with the complete immersion method that Twilight had decided to pursue with Rainbow’s training. It was a simple spell, meant to keep foals from touching things with their hooves in museums whenever there was a large display ponies had to walk around to enjoy. Whenever a pony got within a few inches of an object under the enchantment, a tiny shock of static electricity would zap them away. It was completely harmless, and helped teach younger children not to mess with things that weren’t theirs.

After the spells had been cast, it took a moment for Rainbow Dash to look around the room and notice something that was off from her usual training sessions. “Where’s the weights?”

“I think we’ll try something a bit different today,” Twilight told her while trying not to look too excited about what might be a breakthrough, as long as her theory about Rainbow’s magical control problem panned out. She would need to keep the plan close to her chest of course. If there was one thing that Rainbow hated worse than failure, it was letting her friends expectations down. “But first, do you remember our last big success?”

The princess frowned at the smaller pony, clearly upset. “You mean when you put most of me in a force field bubble and jumped off my house? Yeah, I had nightmares for three days after that!”

Twilight cleared her throat and looked away from her most loyal student as she remembered the unscheduled weather that had shown up during those nights. The weather team had put in a great deal of overtime and was still expanding in case of emergency situations. “Yes…but! You did manage to keep me from crashing into the ground with your horn!” she replied as happily as she could. They had laughed about it at the time, but…Twilight supposed that it might have looked a little risky from Rainbow’s perspective.

“Only because you kept teleporting away when I tried to catch you!” the former pegasus exclaimed. “Not to mention what I had to do to break that stupid shield! My wings were blackened for a week from that discharge.”

Yes, I forgot that she could generate lightning direct from her body, the unicorn told herself. It had also scared the hay out of Twilight. A burst of that much lightning from her wings…if Rainbow Dash had still been a pegasus, Twilight doubted her friend would still have her wings, or even a working spine. The flash of light and the accompanying boom had been one of the scariest moments of her life, and she had almost forgot to teleport away when Rainbow attempted to grab her like a pegasus instead of saving her like a unicorn would.

“But you didn’t tear me apart, just like I knew you wouldn’t,” the purple mare continued, beating back the horror of that memory with the joy she felt at finally making a breakthrough with Rainbow’s magic training.

Rainbow gave Twilight a glower that made the unicorn wonder if her alicorn friend also understood the secrets behind Fluttershy’s stare. “You mean like I’ve done with everything else? Fine, I can move stuff with my stupid horn! But if its not a big hunk of metal, or pony, I just rip it to pieces!”

It was a deceleration Twilight had heard several times before. After Rainbow Dash had finally tapped into the magic of her horn. It wasn’t that far off from the truth either. The alicorn’s telekinesis was volatile. Small objects got so much force put behind them that Twilight had seen some of the things Rainbow practice with get thrown into distant mountains. She could move the larger things, if in an extremely jerky fashion that screamed a lack of control. Hollow objects without enough reinforcement were usually crushed by the pressure Rainbow’s magical aura exerted on them. So Twilight had been trying to teach her with a number of large spherical weights that were completely metal.

The alicorn let out a dejected sigh and lowered her head. “It’s been half a year and I still can’t even do stuff a foal can do with her horn,” Rainbow mumbled. “That stuff that happened in the Everfree may have let me access my unicorn magic, but let’s face it Twi…I totally buck at this stuff. Alicorns are suppose to all have super magic talents, but I’m…pony feathers, I’m…a total loser.”

Anger bloomed inside the unicorn as she watched her princess berate herself and lower her head to the ground with a sigh for what Rainbow Dash saw as failings. Twilight could understand it…somewhat. Rainbow was a genius at flying and Aeromancy. During their time together, Twilight had even learned the alicorn had a kind of hyper awareness that allowed her to take in everything around her and instantly process the information; it was a talent she had gained from her past life out of necessity while leading troops from the front lines. To a pony like her, not mastering, or at least understanding something right off the bat was a failure.

“That’s not true, and you know it!” Twilight insisted. She stormed over to the alicorn and did her best to make herself seem as physically threatening as she could to the mare who topped Twilight by a head and had enough magical power to level Ponyville with a sneeze. Then she poked Rainbow in her chest with her hoof. “Of course you’re going to have control problems! Foals need to use nearly all their magic just to turn a page or open a box! They learn control as they grow. You have enough unicorn magic to crush a mountain! The fact you can move anything at all without turning it into a deadly projectile or blowing it up is a huge improvement!”

As Rainbow looked away from her teacher, Twilight picked up her student’s barely audible mumbles. “Says the magic genius with perfect control.”

“Are you kidding me?” Twilight nearly shouted. “What you’re seeing as perfect control is the result of years worth of study under Princess Celestia! When I was six months into using my magic, I turned my parents into potted plants and Spike into a giant baby dragon!

"Rainbow, you’re miles ahead of where I was back then if you count by experience!” She decided to leave out the part that it was because she had a guide while Twilight had been self taught. As irate as Twilight was at the moment, she was still able to keep her focus. Dash needed a little ego boost with her perspective, and the unicorn intended to give her one.

For a moment, that seemed to satisfy Rainbow, until she mumbled ‘potted plants’ to herself, then looked back to Twilight with a frown. “Wait a minute…that’s your cutie mark story!” she exclaimed as she pointed an accusing hoof at Twilight. “Of course your magic went out of control! You got caught up in the positive energy burst of my Sonic Rainboom and got your magic amped up way too high for it to be controlled. So that doesn’t count! The magical influx of a Rainboom…”

Twilight gulped as Dash continued her explanation about the effects of the event which gave her a cutie mark. After just a few seconds, Twilight’s anger was completely forgotten.

As much as she hated to even think it, when Rainbow got all…egghead, the unicorn felt a heat rise beneath her tail that was very akin to what she experienced for one week a month. It didn’t help at all that the alicorn wasn’t anything bad to look at either. In fact, Rainbow more akin to physical perfection than any other pony Twilight had seen before she ascended. Now, the extra height, muscle, and mass that filled Rainbow out simply completed the completed the picture of a perfect mare topped by her pointy horn.

STOP THINKING LIKE THAT TWILIGHT, the unicorn told herself before she could begin to remember the feeling of Rainbow wrapping her hooves around the smaller mare and the warm security she had felt while they had flown across Equestria to get her home restocked. Acknowledging Rainbow’s attractiveness from an analytical standpoint was one thing, but getting heated about it was just wrong. Rainbow had been her friend, and now she was her student, and her PRINCESS! All of which implied a level of trust, responsibility, and authority that made such thoughts towards the alicorn completely forbidden!

Not to mention it's all physical anyway, she thought. Years of foal sitting by Cadence had taught her that while looks were a good thing in a stallion or mare, basing a relationship off them was the deepest betrayal of love one could do. And looks were the only thing Rainbow Dash had.

Only looks.

That was all.

Her ego and…other stuff Twilight was sure she could think of at a more appropriate moment completely ruined any chance of Rainbow being a viable romantic partner.

Not that Rainbow Dash was even an option for anypony’s fantasies. She wasn’t Cadence, an enlightened alicorn who was chosen by Celestia. She was a goddess, Celestia’s daughter. It would have been the same as a pony who thought about Celestia Herself in such a fashion!

“…uh, Twilight?”

A poke on the end of her horn brought Twilight out of her ruminations, and back to reality with a startled cry. “WHAT?” the unicorn shouted as she hopped back in fright for a second. After realizing what she’d done, Twilight blushed. “Sorry I was just…sorry.”

With Rainbow’s face showing nothing but confusion, Twilight figured that was the end of their little debate and decided to switch the subject. “Look, let’s take a little break from practice today…okay?” she asked hopefully. Rainbow had always been an athlete first and foremost, and since gaining her horn and extra memories, she had only become even stricter when it came to practicing thanks to the fact proper preparation meant the difference between life and death back in Aurora’s day.

It was actually a very noble quality, how Rainbow Dash could stick to a schedule.

“Uh…why?” she asked hesitantly, turning her head to look at Twilight out of the corner of her eye, as if expecting some kind of trick.

The fact that Twilight was planning to do just that made the unicorn turn her head away and cough. “Well, you tend to work better when you’re calm Rainbow, and…we’re not exactly mellowing out right now,” she explained as truthfully as she could. “Plus…there’s this.”

Twilight wrapped the face-down book she had hidden from Rainbow behind the unicorn bust in her magic, and showed it to her student. As the alicorn’s eyes widened in what Twilight could tell was surprise, then got even bigger in excitement, Twilight prepared herself for the inevitable-

“Squeeeee!” the Alicorn of Storm and Sky, Defender of Equestria and unofficial Goddess of War exclaimed in a foal-like voice before she was able to express herself with real words…sort of. “Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! Is that the new Daring Do book? How did you get the new Daring Do book? That’s not due out for like…two months! How’d you get this? I can’t even get this!”

With her princess jumping on her hind legs with excitement in her voice Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she continued to hold the copy of Daring Do and the Temple of Time in her magic. “I know a pony,” she said with a smile.

Of course, that pony was Princess Celestia. She was a fan of the books, and always received the very first copy of every book in the series before they were even finished printing them all, much less shipped all over Equestria.

“So, do you want to take a little break today and read it?” Twilight asked.

The reaction Dash had to the question was almost laughable. First, she froze solid, then all four hooves dropped to the ground in a loud thunk. An expression of hesitation crossed her face, and Twilight watched as the alicorn’s entire body seemed to shake, as if the decision to continue her lessons or take an unscheduled day off from training was causing an actual physical conflict. “Well…I…um…okay. I guess one day couldn’t hurt,” she finally said. “I mean, it’s not like missing a few hours of practice is going to make me any worse, right?”

“Great! I’ll get everything set up then!”


Fifteen minutes later, Twilight held the tray of tea and cookies in her magic along with the Daring Do book as she climbed up onto her bed and got in place. A few seconds after that, and the alicorn climbed up to lay down beside her and draped a wing over Twilight’s back. As the unicorn inched closer to the princess, there was a minor change in the air around her from Rainbow adjusting the temperature to the exact degree that Twilight liked it while keeping a steady airflow.

“Okay here we go-ow!” Rainbow exclaimed before the zap from the spell Twilight had placed on the library kicked in, keeping the alicorn from touching the tome. Then she looked over Twilight and sighed. “Twi, you forgot to turn off your torture spell.”

Twilight resisted the urge to give her student an evil grin. She even managed to give her princess a look of complete cluelessness about what she knew was coming. “Actually Rainbow, that spell is on a timer. It can’t be turned off once cast,” the unicorn lied.

A sigh escaped the alicorn’s lips. “Well you’ll just have to turn the pages then. No biggie.”

“But then who’s going to hold the food?” she asked as innocently as she could before levitating the platter front of the alicorn’s face. Then, to add to her half-baked excuse, Twilight pulled a quill out from her desk as well as one of her empty journals she kept on hand since learning Rainbow’s old languages. “Not to mention I need to keep a transcription spell going to record your words, and make sure the pen always has enough ink, and-”

Rainbow’s half-lidded eyes and humorless expression cut Twilight off before the alicorn’s words ever did. “You want me to be the one using magic on the book?” she asked evenly before looking over to the object in question for a moment, then back at Twilight. “This is the magic practice for today, isn’t it?”

Well, that was three excuse quicker than I expected, Twilight thought to herself, thankful she didn’t have to resort to faking a horn injury. After putting her writing utensils aside, the unicorn smiled up at her friend. “Rainbow, do you know why I jumped off your house that day when we got you to use your magic to catch me?”

“Because you tend to go completely nuts when you get desperate?” she replied, raising an eyebrow at the unicorn and smirking. Twilight didn’t think the comment was all that funny.

Still, she managed to keep calm, just like Celestia would want her to be, and let out a cleansing breath before speaking. “It’s because I knew you would never hurt me,” she told the alicorn softly while laying a purple hoof on top of Rainbow’s blue and giving her a gentle smile. “Magic channeled through your horn obeys your deepest desires, not spur of the minute emotions like your wings. You may have been afraid, and panicky, and a dozen other things, but I knew you would never hurt me with your magic, even if you tried to.”

Twilight blinked when she caught the scent of a fresh spring morning, and realized she and Rainbow’s muzzles where little more than an inch apart. Upon realizing their situation, she froze, then quickly drew her head away while Rainbow did the same. Okay…that was a little…intense, the unicorn told herself before clearing her throat and speaking. “Ahem! So…um, I thought to myself, if that was what it took for Rainbow to learn how to move a pony, then I needed to find an object you could use to accomplish the same thing and…well, here it is.”

The smirk that crossed Rainbow’s face made Twilight a little nervous. It wasn’t her confident smile, or the one that she put on while trying to placate somepony when all she wanted to d was get away. It was Rainbow’s ‘I know something you don’t’ smile, and it made Twilight frown in worry. “You forgot something Twilight.”

“What?”

“I’m a pegasus that’s fought in wars…kind of, a little shock isn’t much when I’m ready for it,” Rainbow Dash told her before aching out to touch the book. There was the accompanying zap, which got a flinch from the alicorn, but she kept her hooves on the cover despite the electricity’s attempts to dislodge it. “See? This is-”

Both of the ponies blinked when smoke started to rise from the book’s cover.

“Oh, buck, it’s on fire,” Rainbow mumbled as she withdrew her hoof.

Seeing her one of a kind, first printed Daring Do book begin to smolder, a million alarm bells went off in Twilight’s mind. Quickly going into full-on panic mode, Twilight let out a scream at the horror her eyes were witnessed to. Then, she reared up in surprise and backed away from the flames before looking over to the princess next to her in a panic. “Stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopit!”

For her part, Rainbow looked at Twilight almost helplessly, then back to the book and then the unicorn as Twilight came down from her rearing when her plot hit the bed’s headrest before finally turning her attention back on the book. Then, she flared out her wings and gathered her magic before an arctic blast of cold air and snow. A second later, the book-cicle fell to the ground in a block of ice, the alicorn registered a crash and the sound of breaking glass, then looked to see she had blown their snacks onto the ground, shattered the tea cups, and soaked a good part of the bed she had been standing on in snow.

“So um…I don’t suppose you have a replacement? Eh-hehe?” the princess asked nervously.

As the image from one of her more vivid nightmares died down, Twilight took in a breath to help slow her quickened heart. On one hand, she knew it had been an accident. But Rainbow had just burned a book, the greatest sacrilege short of bucking Celestia Herself in the muzzle! Then, to top it off, she was that ‘I know I’m guilty but look how many teeth I have’ grin!

It was infuriating!

“You…book! GRAAAAH!” Twilight managed to scream as her thoughts continued to do battle against her burning anger.

Rainbow took to the air and looked around the room in a wild panic while Twilight seethed at the…alicorn.

“Hey um…I’ll clean this up and, then-”

The alicorn princess.

“-if we can’t fix it, I’ll get you another, I swear,” Rainbow finished as she landed to look around the room and started trying to tidy up, using her own wings of all things.

Her alicorn princess.

Her alicorn princess, that was looking to Twilight for guidance in the ways of magic under the direct orders of her past and present mother: Princess Celestia.

And so, Twilight was able to choke down her anger with a little reminder, as she had been doing since they began studying magic back in Ponyville. Remember Twilight, she’s your princess and your student…remember how many accidents and foolish things you did when you were learning magic? Well Rainbow doesn’t have the limits you did back then!

Letting out a long breath to push away her anger, Twilight put on a fake smile for the alicorn’s benefit. “It’s okay Rainbow, I’ve got fail-safe spells for stuff like this,” she assured her princess. It would probably mean taking a nap in the middle of the day thanks to the energy required, but at least her mattress would be dry.

“And the book?” the goddess asked hesitantly.

Twilight sighed and looked down at the block of ice. “I can fix that too but…don’t think this is going to get you out of your magic practice,” she told the alicorn, resuming her teaching stance. “We’ll get everything cleaned up, and start again.” And when I do finally get you able to use a quill like a normal unicorn, you’re going to be writing ‘I will not use my hooves during magic practice’ one thousand times! Ruler, goddess, and daughter of a goddess that had taught Twilight everything she knew or not, Rainbow's status only went so far.


“I love you,” Dash said.

“W-what? Since when?” Twilight asked.

“You remember that day, at the university, when you brought those pages for me to translate?” Dash continued. “Since then. You were so kind, and understanding. How could I help but not fall in love with you?”

“But, why didn’t you tell me?” the unicorn went on.

“I…I told myself it was because you weren’t ready,” Dash said. “I mean, you never looked at me like that once and…I…oh pony feathers who am I kidding? I was scared. Scared of what’d you say, that you’d reject me, that…that it would have made things so awkward between us, we couldn’t even be friends. I was such an idiot.”

“No! I was the idiot! I should have seen, should have been paying attention,” Twilight said, “I just…I never had anypony like you even notice me before. But…for what it’s worth, I think I love you too, Daring Do.”

The unicorn shifted be book back over to the alicorn, who took up reading the text. “Then, the pegasus took up the seemingly elder academic in her forelegs. She was careful to hold her as gently as possible, or else Rosetta’s bones, made frail before their time by the temple’s curse of aging would have been damaged. By her mental calculations, Daring guessed the unicorn who had unknowingly stolen her heart had reached the triple digits in her physical age, but all she could see was the brilliant mare that she had run into those two years ago.”

Having reached the end of the paragraph, Rainbow scooted the book back to Twilight and listened as the unicorn went on. “She bent down, and the two explorers, who had become the closest of friends, shared their first, and last, kiss while the Temple of Time collapsed around them as it was turned to dust by the aging magic. A moment later, and Rosetta joined it, her body falling apart and being blown away by the wind before it could hit the ground.”

The chapter came to its end, and Rainbow just found herself staring at the book in front of her, unable to turn the page to move on to the final battle between Daring Do and the Neighzies. After working through the shock, the alicorn turned to look down at the unicorn laying on the floor mat with her, safely tucked under her right wing. “Did…did they just kill off Rosetta?”

“Actually the book only has one author and…looks like it,” Twilight replied. “Got to say, I’m relived. That whole romance thing the author was building up in the previous book seemed pretty forced.”

The complete lack of interest by her best friend made the alicorn shudder a little. “What do you mean forced? Daring and Rosetta were perfect for each other!”

Twilight just rolled her eyes at Dash’s comment, much to the alicorn’s annoyance. “Please, it was completely out of character,” she replied. “Daring Do is supposed to be this fearless pony who faces death on a weekly basis, and she’s afraid of what her best friend will think if she admits to a crush? I don’t buy it.”

With the unicorn just tossing that kind of idea out there, the alicorn found herself frowning at Twilight. “Hey! Death defying stuff is easy because if you mess up, you die and don’t have to worry about it afterwards,” she countered. “Telling somepony how you feel…that’s hard. You don’t just go back to being friends or…anything really. Either the one who has the feelings gets mad over being rejected, or the pony she has feelings for distances herself from the first one to try and avoid the issue.”

Rainbow took a deep breath and shook the old memories away to try and clear her head. She hadn’t thought about that pony in…well, centuries really. “Then there’s the guilt over ruining everything, and it is ruined. Some ponies say things go back to normal eventually, but that’s just a load of manure. When it’s love, real love that comes from knowing a pony better than anypony else in the world and wanting to spend the rest of your life with her…things never go back to being just friends. It just hurts too much.”

Ah geeze, why the hay did I have to say something like that? Now Twilight’s going to think I’m weird, and…yep, thinking about Twinkle again, Rainbow told herself with a sigh. It just wasn’t fair, Rainbow Dash had never even met that stupid unicorn! She had died thousands of years ago!

But that was the problem with super alicorn memory power. The goddesses needed to remember thousands of years worth of knowledge. So an alicorn who had barely been around for a hundred years, after missing several millennia in-between, had near crystal clarity in her recollections.

What the hay was it with her and librarians anyway? Okay, archivist, Dash corrected herself. Twinkle Star hated being called a librarian. Libraries didn’t carry the ancient pagean scrolls describing Aeromancy. She was the royal archivist of Trottingham. Well, Old Trottingham, the Trottingham that was around in current times wasn’t like the former Equestrian capital at all. It had been settled by some ponies too in love with stories of the past some five hundred years ago.

“Is this…um…sorry, you…I know you don’t like talking about your past life,” Twilight said, a little depressed. The alicorn understood though. A walking piece of history was in front of her, and while Rainbow gladly went on about things like Starswirl, and what her own family was like during the beginning of their reign, Aurora’s life was a little too personal for her to just go yakking to anypony.

Rainbow looked down at her best friend and smiled. Anypony else, she might have had a problem with talking about it with. They would have thought she was uncool, or being totally lame. But Twilight…she had already seen the alicorn at her lowest point, and she hadn’t laughed or held it over Dash’s head that the great Rainbow Dash had been afraid of a stupid piece of paper.

“Her name was Twinkle Star,” Rainbow began softly as she practically felt the old memory envelop her. “She was…this unicorn who was in charge of the royal archive back when I was Aurora. She um…I’m not sure what her talent was, but her cutie mark had a bunch of pink stars and…hay, she even had one of those crazy natural highlights.” The alicorn poked the unicorn’s head with a laugh, tracing the pinkish-purple streak in Twilight’s mane. “It was pink though…with a white mane and coat.”

“She? I thought you married a stallion? I specifically remember you talking about having foals!”

The reminder of her old husband got sigh from the alicorn. “I did, and don’t get me wrong, he was…nice,” Rainbow admitted hesitantly after a moment of thought to try and find the right word. “But…it wasn’t the same back then Twi. You…well…you got married because you were supposed to have foals. Things like love, that was supposed to come later.” And Rainbow supposed she had loved the stallion who courted her, they had plenty of good moments. But the fire she had felt for her first crush just hadn’t been there.

“So what happened?” Twilight asked, the concern evident in her voice. “To Twinkle, I mean.”

Rainbow felt the moisture in her mouth increase so much she had to swallow. She couldn't just throw a tiny scrap to Twilight like that. It would drive the nerd insane. “I told her how I felt, like an idiot. She thought I was joking, not the funny Pinkie kind of joke that makes you laugh, the Discord kind that makes you flinch. Then, like a moron, I told her again a few seconds later and I…kissed her.”

The memory of that particular incident made Dash shudder. Twinkle had been accepting…at first. Only an idiot turned down a noble’s advances. Aurora had been royalty, and the daughter of divinity. If Aurora hadn’t of cared enough to notice the other mare’s trembling, if she hadn’t asked what was wrong and thrown off the ‘nothing’ the unicorn gave in response…

If I had just ignored it…would I have been able to show how much I really cared for her? Rainbow Dash asked herself.

After I basically raped her five or six times? Dash’s conscience retorted.

“And then?” Twilight inquired.

Using an old trick she had learned from a military commander, Rainbow pushed the feelings of self-disgust down into her stomach, and took in a cleansing breath. She put on a fake smile and gave it to Twilight. “It didn’t work out. She was all books, and I had…other things to do.”

Rainbow pushed the mental image of the unicorn sobbing on the floor, begging Aurora not to banish her from the castle, from the only life she had ever known. Twinkle had been the infant daughter of the fallen nobility when Celestia took power, abandoned by her parents when Andromeda’s forces fled to the north. She not only lacked a noble house to protect her, but her linage practically made the unicorn a target of retribution for every other pony in the castle with a grudge against the old system.

Afterwards, things had just been too…disturbing.

Every time Aurora would pass Twinkle in the hallway, the unicorn would shudder in fear and avoid the pegasus’s gaze. The one time she had tried to apologize and get the bottom of things, cornering Twinkle in the archive, the unicorn had broke down into sobs and peed on herself in fear. After that, Aurora had simply stayed away from her friend, intent on not scaring her anymore and sending a servant to find what she needed in the archives while Twinkle became even more of a recluse. A week, later, Aurora went off to oversee the construction of Cloudsdale and begin her life in the military.

When she came back the following year and managed to drag Celestia out of her immortality experiments, Aurora had found out the archivist Twinkle Star had just disappeared. Nopony seemed to have known where she went off to…or even cared. And if Luna didn’t know where a pony was, then that pony wasn’t around anymore.

The old memories sent a shiver of fear down Rainbow’s spine, and she looked over to Twilight, her eyes pleading. “We’re still friends, right Twilight?” she partially asked, but mostly begged. “Even with this stupid horn, and…and the whole alicorn thing. We’ll always be friends, right? Even if I have to put on a stupid crown, and-and have to sit on a throne and-”

Twilight’s expression went from surprise, to a slowly softening calm. A glow of magic closed the alicorn’s mouth, and she smiled up at the mare with the living rainbow mane. “Of course we’re friends Dash. We’ll always be friends.”

Is she just saying that? Rainbow had to ask herself. How many times had she been given false smiles, both in the past and present? The new generation of nobles were just as fake with their words as the old, although the literal backstabbing had gone down with Celestia ruling for thousands of years.

The touch of a pony’s cheek against her neck made Dash flinch. A second later, the rising panic in her heart was completely crushed as Twilight continued to nuzzle the larger mare. In its place was something that left the powerful alicorn feeling as small and weak as a breezie. It was the knowledge that Twilight would never abandon her, never run from her, fear or mock her. And it made all her fears seem nothing but the product of a foolish mind.

“Thanks Twilight,” she mumbled, bringing up a foreleg to wrap it around the tiny unicorn and bringing her into a deeper embrace that involved more than just a wing. “If my best friend started treating me all…royal…I don’t know what I’d do.”

Twilight let out a soft giggle. “Oh come on Rainbow, we’re close…but I can’t be your best friend. That’s Fluttershy.”

“Older doesn’t mean better,” the alicorn mumbled. She loved Fluttershy like a sister. She would do anything for her, help her with any hardship, and utterly annihilate anypony, or minotaur, that dared to mess with her. But the trust she shared with Twilight, just wasn't there with Fluttershy.

However, Twilight wasn’t finished. “Applejack.”

“We’re more like…buddies,” Rainbow admitted. In truth, she had found herself growing rather distant with Applejack since that day in the Everfree. AJ didn’t joke or needle Rainbow like she used to, and the increased physical abilities that came with her size and alicorn status made physical contests way too one-sided to be fun.

Celestia had even gotten a letter out of that last one, talking about the nature of winning, and how it just wasn’t worth it without any competition. But without that rivalry that their friendship had been built on, Rainbow was finding her relationship with Applejack to be somewhat…hollow.

It was a pain that tore at her heart.

“And if the next words out of your mouth are Rarity or Pinkie Pie, I’m going to make an ice cube where Celestia don’t shine,” the princess threatened in a half-joking manner.

Twilight’s eyes went wide for a moment, and she broke out in a snicker. “Okay, you win,” she admitted. “And…well, we have kind of grown closer I guess. We both study magic now, and read the same books, and…you’ve helped me learning a whole new language and…” The unicorn’s eyes widened, and she let out another giggle. “Wow, we really have been spending a lot of time together, haven’t we?”

But, the happiness was not to last. Twilight’s face went back into a pensive frown that made her face scrunch up in the most adorable way possible and made Dash just want to squeal in delight at the level of her cuteness before she spoke again. “But that’s all stuff that I like, or at least why I should consider you my best friend…it still doesn’t tell m why I’m yours.”

“Because…” Dash managed to say before she froze. Because I love you. Because most gentle, most amazing mare I’ve ever met. You’re like a princess that came down from a mountain and found something worthwhile in an annoying showoff who went against everything you stand for. You gave me kindness instead of scorn, understanding instead of rejection, friendship instead of fear…or worse, she said in her mind, then pushed the thoughts away before they could bring the images that cam with the ‘or worse’ part, of her friends standing in front of the ruined castle after she had linked with the sky and…

“NO! Please! DON’T LOOK AT ME!” Dash’s memory of herself screamed before she was able to push it away with the knowledge that Luna had insured there weren’t any…adverse effects from the encounter.

“Because you know me better than anypony,” Rainbow told her truthfully. “Because I…” Love you. I love you more than you will ever know. “And I think you’re the coolest unicorn I’ve ever met.”

Twilight blushed and looked away from the alicorn. “That’s some pretty high praise coming from you.”

As the unicorn fell silent, Rainbow realized they were still locked in a tight embrace, and closed her eyes to savor it. For just a moment, she pretended that they weren’t just friends, that Twilight knew about her feelings and returned them in earnest. She imagined they ate lunch together as a couple every day, instead of as teacher and student like they had earlier when Twilight had complimented her on only destroying the Dearing Do book just seventy-three percent of the time Rainbow had tried to turn the pages with her magic. She imagined they spent every night together in an embrace like the one they were currently sharing, after a passionate night of love-making where Rainbow would make Twilight squeal in delight until the unicorn had a throat too tired to talk. She imagined them spending the rest of their lives together as Twilight argued the merits of Starswirl while dressing up in that ridiculous costume, and Rainbow shared secrets about her first mother that made Twilight laugh for a few seconds before her adorkable nose would snort and get a giggle out of Rainbow.

By the time they grew old together…

“Hey Dash, somepony’s here looking for you!”

…a roar from a dragon destroyed the library they had settled down in to raise the adopted foals.

Aww geeze, the alicorn told herself as she looked up from the mat they were on. “I thought we told Spike not to call unless it was an emergency,” she said before getting off the unicorn and standing on her own four hooves. The stiffness in her joints came as a surprise. They felt like they had been still for hours. “What time is it anyway?”

“Five twelve,” Twilight told her after glancing up at the clock hanging from her wall.

The answer made Dash’s body go stiff for a moment. Then, statement at her situation took over. “WHAT?” I was supposed to be meeting with the new weatherponies over ten minus ago!

She danced around nervously for a minute, looking around the room. Had she and Twi really spent all bucking day just laying around and reading Daring Do? They didn’t even get that far! Just…nine tenths of the way through, Rainbow Dash realized as she stared at the book that had been mangled and repaired multiple times throughout the day.

“Sorry,” the alicorn said to Twilight as she rushed over to her fantasy lover and…barely stopped herself from leaning down to plant a kiss on the unicorn’s cheek. “Work, weather stuff…um…gotta go!”

As she rushed out the door, her hearing was able to pick up a confused Twilight muttering to herself. “What was all that about?”

Downstairs, she found Cloud Kicker was waiting for her in the library’s main room, as she had kind of expected. The presence of Starry Night was a bit unexpected though. At least until Rainbow remembered she was supposed to be testing the newbie. “Hey girls, sorry I got held up…uh…” For a moment she considered pulling the princess business card out on them, but…that had gotten old after the first week since nopony called the alicorn on it.

“You finally get it on with Twilight? Cause then I’d totally understand Boss,” Cloud Kicker replied. What with Cloud being the town pervert, Dash would have been a little disappointed if she had asked anything else.

Star’s elated gasp and look of excitement, however, was very unexpected. “Did you?”

“Get what on with Twilight?”

Before Rainbow could tell Star to mind her own business, then demand Cloudy to tell her what she told Star that the dark pegasus took such an interest in Rainbow's relationships, the little dragon’s question made Rainbow Dash become a rigid as stone. “Um…nothing Spike…it’s…nothing,” she assured the young dragon rather awkwardly before giving Cloud a death glare that sent a shiver of terror down the pegasus’s spine.

“Well come on gotta go, need to train the newbie and see what she can already do,” Rainbow Dash said before she went out the door. Then, being as careful as possible, she wrapped Cloud Kicker in her magic and pulled the pegasus out of the library as well before she could ruin Spike’s innocence.

As CK blurred past her, screaming in terror as she was rocketed into the sky the second the pegasus cleared the door without being crushed into red paste, Rainbow called her half-controlled telekinetic yank a win. Then, while the sub-director of Ponyville’s weather department adjusted herself in the air and came to rest of a cloud that Rainbow created with a flap of her wings, the pegasus with the dark coat walked up to her and frowned. “You should be a bit more careful with your horn.”

Despite the reminder came from a total stranger, Rainbow found herself flinching as if her own mother had caught her stealing cookies. “Uh…right,” she said. “Didn’t meant to scare you or anything. It’s just…CK can be a bit…unfiltered when it comes to some stuff.”

“Yes, I found her idle chatter quite…stimulating,” Starry Night replied. “I take it ‘banging’ refers to sexual intercourse?”

“…how long was it before she asked you?” Rainbow groaned.

“Ten seconds after she asked the Sentry foal,” the dark pony with wings replied.

The mention of the other weather recruit brought a frown to Rainbow’s face. Right, he’s supposed to be here too, she reminded herself. “Hey where is Flash anyway?”

“The manner in which Cloud Kicker propositioned him had the foal needing to visit the-ah there he is,” Star said a minute before the pegasus came into Dash’s view; from the corner of her eye at least. The fact that Star had been looking at the alicorn and still notice something like that at the edge of her field of vision was pretty impressive. It was something that took both Aurora and Dash a long time of flying to develop, and weeks for her to do it all the time without the use of her wings.

The fact that Star could do it too pretty much made her a guaranteed her a position as a member of the weather patrol. A bit of hesitation entered her mind when she wondered just how a pony interested in astronomy had picked up such a skill, as it was mostly a military thing that some pegasi attributed to their magic…but such doubts were quickly thrown aside. Starry Night was…there was just something about her that said she could be trusted; and Rainbow Dash had always been a pony who went with her gut.

A second after Rainbow had cleared her head, the other pegasus landed next to Starry, smelling like he had flown through a rain cloud for a quick washing. “Hey guys, what’s-”

“RAINBOW DASH!”

The goddess froze in terror as the purple unicorn appeared in the doorway and glared at her princess with a look of fury on her face. “What did I tell you about flinging ponies around with that horn…of…yours,” Twilight finished, her voice changed from rage to a strange tone that only came when the unicorn was genuinely confused about something.

“Sorry Twi,” Rainbow apologized hesitantly. “It won’t happen again.” At least, for the rest of the day. She couldn’t make any grantees about tomorrow.

Apparently, the unicorn didn’t hear her, as she always knew when Rainbow was thinking that and made her also promise to try and do better. Instead, she looked right past Rainbow, and to the pegasi in her company. Her head titled the way it did when she was trying to figure something out that didn’t require critical thinking, more like when the problem proposed to her was just an inquiry, rather than a conundrum; or a Class C question instead of Class A+.

“Have we met?” Twilight asked.

Starry Skies drew her head back a bit. “W-What?” she stuttered while backing away a little from the unicorn looking in her direction. “No, I do not b-belive so, Ms Sparkle.”

The other pony in the pair smiled at her and stepped forward. “I think I’d remember a mare like you,” he said as he moved in front of Starry Night. “Name’s Flash Sentry, and you are?”

As the former guardsman got inside of Twilight’s personal space, obviously making her disturbed as a snowball in Tartarus for his intrusion, what with how she got all wide-eyed and everything a minute before she became so flustered her cheeks turned red and she let out a stutter. “Oh um…h-hello.”

Dash’s eye twitched, and thunder rumbled overhead. All the ponies looked up to see a storm cloud had formed over the library, threatening both rain and lightning. A second later, Twilight let out a little jerk, and then stood up to look at Dash…or glare at her, as that was what she was doing a second later.

A wave of her wings dispelled the storm cloud, and Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “Okay everypony, let’s go see if you’ve got what it takes to be one of my weather ponies,” the Goddess of the Sky announced a second before Cloud Kicker finally came in for a landing. She nodded to her second-in-command to take over the show.

“Okay we’re going to be going through some basic stuff today to see if you’ve even got what it takes to hope to handle Everfree weather!” the other mare announced a but too loudly for just two ponies. “That means speed tests, some cloud busting, and cloud corralling; and that’s before we even think about beginning to teach the two of you anything about how weather works to see if you're even worth our time! Now let’s get up in the sky and run some laps ponies!”

Before Rainbow could follow CK up into the sky, she found a bunch of letters floating in front of her face. The one from the Cloudsdale Weather Office stuck out the most.

“You forgot your mail,” Twilight said in a strangely absent tone. When Rainbow looked up, she understood why. The unicorn was looking up at the retreating figures of the three pegasi with that odd thinking expression on her face again.

In an attempt to focus on something else, Rainbow snatched the important piece of mail out of the air with her wings, then tore it open with her teeth to read what was inside. It wasn’t good news…at least, these days it wasn’t. A year earlier she would have been ecstatic, but now…the letter just served to remind her of the changes in her life.

“Buck.”

“Something wrong?” Twilight asked, making Rainbow look up before she handed the unicorn the letter.

After taking a whole second to read the bloody thing, Twilight looked back up to Rainbow. “Tornado duty?”

“It’s this procedure for Cloudsdale’s weather factory to refill its water stores and prepare rain and snow for the next year. This year, it’s apparently Ponyville’s turn to do the job.”

Twilight’s face brightened, nearly destroying the cloud over Rainbow Dash’s mood and keeping her from holding onto the emotion long enough for it to seep out into the weather. “That sounds exciting! You must be…wait, how come your not happy to hear the news?”

The question got a sigh from the former pegasus. “A year ago, I would have been,” she admitted. Hay, after hearing how the wing power record was broken in Fillydelphia, Rainbow had promised herself that when it came Ponyville’s turn to do things, they would smash the record with a 1K’s worth of wing power. Her voice dropped to a pathetic whisper “Now…did they pick Ponyville because I’m here? Am I supposed to do it all myself?”

She could. Using her link with the weather, making a tornado powerful enough to send the water up to Cloudsdale would be…simple. It was a bit of a disappointing revelation. Like the Wonderbolts, another one of her dreams had been taken away. It wasn’t as important, but…it was another thing about her old life that had been bled dry on the alter to her godhood. She might not have demanded sacrifice from other ponies, but her alicorn status sure as hay demanded it of her.

“Well if you don’t want to do it, then don’t,” Twilight told her bringing Rainbow’s heart from out of the dumps. “I remember you saying how you were going to break that record last year and how excited you were about it. If they just chose Ponyville based on you, just do it the old fashioned way and if they have a problem with it…t-tell them to go buck themselves and take it up with Princess Celestia if they want to make a fuss!”

The goddess stared at the unicorn, who quickly blushed under her wide-eyed gaze. Then, her lips curled into a smile. “Yeah! Let’s see…if we’re going to break the record, we’ll need to train, and…hmm, we should probably get something to figure out just how much wing power each pony has.”

Twilight practically squealed in delight. “Ohmygosh! I’ve got an anemometer in my lab we can use to measure the wake each pegasus creates, and I can make an equation that converts it to wing power!” she exclaimed before dancing on her hind legs in delight. “Math! Science! This is going to be so much fun!” Then, her face blossomed into true joy. “I need to go make a checklist! Meet me here after your done working, and I’ll go over what we need to do.”

A second later, Rainbow was wondering if Twilight teleported back into the library, but the trail of dust she kicked up and the door slamming closed her said otherwise. Leaving a slightly confused alicorn just standing in the middle of Ponyville.

“What just happened?”