• Published 8th Mar 2015
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Tales of a Wizard: Passing Connections - Applechip



These are the small adventures of the Elements of Harmony and wizard Harry Dresden as Equestria makes her first steps through the Veil and into the wilderness beyond.

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Ascension

Contrary to what my depressingly long monster hunting resume might suggest, I am not necessarily the most stable pony in the middle of a crisis. I’m not the most stable pony outside of a crisis either. I have only really survived as long as I have through a significant amount of prep work, reliance on much more prepared friends, and a whole lot of blind luck. That being said, when I inevitably do get blindsided, I have at least a few investigative instincts that I can fall back on.

“Where the heck is Twilight?!” I frantically shouted out into the Ponyville’s library central browsing area. “What happened to her?!”

Calm, cool, and collected I am not.

I stood on the middle of Twilight’s library surrounded by her precious books and even more precious friends. Near the center of the room was a massive scorch mark where apparently Twilight Sparkle had been standing mere moments before, but no longer. The remaining Bearers of the Elements, each with their respective Element hung around their necks, stared at the mark where their friend had been with varying degrees of abject horror.

Both Rarity and Applejack stared at the scorch mark, eyes wide and mouths nearly on the floor in an almost comical expression of complete shock. Fluttershy backed away from the mark until her flank bumped against one the bookshelves lining the wall and curled up into a tight little ball, her eyes dangerously close to exploding in tears. Rainbow Dash merely hovered in the air and frowned down at the room, as though she were still processing what she had just seen. Only Pinkie seemed to not be overly horrified by what she just saw and was practically pressing her face to the floor to get a better look at the ash where Twilight was.

“We don’t know, Harry,” Fluttershy whimpered and flinched a little further away while holding onto the Element of Harmony around her neck all the harder. “S-she was just standing there, reworking some old spell that backfired earlier.”

“That spell of hers made all of our cutie marks get switched around, start trying perform each other’s duties, and in general caused mayhem because of it,” Applejack added as she leaned forward a little and studied the burn mark with new determination.

“She managed to fix it though, I think, I’m not too familiar with this form of magic,” Rarity added, her eyes constantly shifting back and forth between the charred floor and myself. “When she recast the spell, we were all wearing our respective Elements and everything got set right again, but then there was this bright light and all of our Elements hit Twilight with their energy.” Rarity turned and mimicked Applejack’s inquisitive stare at the burn mark. “Then Twilight was just gone.”

My head swiveled around towards the library’s front entrance while my lungs expanded in preparation to shout. “SILVER GUARD!”

The front door immediately swung open, and through it three heavily armed and armored ponies poured through. One was an earth pony clad in probably the heaviest barding imaginable and carried a long spear in a harness across his back, the second was a pegasus wearing a tunic of chainmail held together with belts of crossbow bolts, the final was a unicorn wearing an interesting blend of flowing linen robes with armored plates woven into the fabric. All three of the ponies bore a silver pentacle, similar to the mark on my flank, embroidered on their respective chest plates, of my Silver Knights. The Unicorn stepped forward while the earth pony and pegasus stayed behind to flank the entrance and keep a wary eye on every possible point of ingress.

“Bearers, Sir, you called?” the unicorn said with a small bow to my friends and then to me.

“Guard,” I snapped at the lead unicorn, instinctively adopting a commanding tone as my heart raced in my chest and multiple worse-case scenarios played in my mind’s eye, “the White Council representatives are still in their camp, right?”

“Yes sir, only one messenger has left since they made camp a few days ago, and none of them are willing to cross into Equestria again after their personal wards failed. I believe the elder McCoy is aiding Princess Luna in rebuilding her keep within the Nevernever.”

I grunted a little in the affirmative and glared intently at the soldier. “Good, you will send word to them that Celestia’s personal protégé, Twilight Sparkle, has gone missing. If she inadvertently crossed into the Nevernever, I want her found. Understood?”

All three ponies simultaneously snapped to attention and belted out a “Yes, Sir!” In short order, each of the soldiers turned and charged out of the entryway, the unicorn’s horn glowing brightly with amber light, presumably charging up a spell to rend the Veil. As soon as the door slammed behind the soldiers, with an accompanying flash of brilliant light, I too pivoted on my hooves and made for stairs leading to the bedrooms upstairs.

“Harry, where are you going?!” Fluttershy squeaked as I bolted past her. “Shouldn’t you go with the soldiers to look for Twilight?”

“I am looking for her,” I shouted back while my hooves hammered up the wooden stairs.

My mane whipped up around my face as I dodged and weaved around the various furniture and decorations of my new home. While passing by our large cushioned bed, one of my favorite wizarding tools flew from its resting place on my bedside table to follow after me, a deep red aura surrounding it completely. My second stop brought me to Twilight’s personal grooming station, and my prize was waiting for me in the middle of the desktop among several other cleaning supplies.

Treasures in my magical grip, I bounded back down the stairs and landed with a resounding thud back on the first floor among five of my newest friends. Each of the mares stared at me in shock and confusion while I didn’t dare waste a second and set to work on the objects in my grip: a hoof-sized crystal suspended on a string and a tuft of deep lavender hair.

“What in tarnation are you doing, Harry?” Applejack asked and leaned in a little to peer at my tools. “Is that Twilight’s hair?”

“Yes, I used to do this all the time back at my old job,” I idly responded while carefully wrapping the length of purple hair around the crystal. “Long story short, I’m going to use magic to create a link between this scrap of hair back to the source material, Twilight. If she just teleported instead of crossing the Veil, then we’ll follow that link and find her.”

“So if this spell doesn’t work?” Pinkie asked and tilted her head slightly.

With the lock of hair secure around the crystal, I released it and let it dangle before me on its string. “Then she’s in the Nevernever, and Luna and McCoy will find her.”

“B-but,” Fluttershy stammered, successfully drawing my attention away from my only real lead to finding my lost marefriend, “what if she’s not there either?”

Fluttershy recoiled slightly under my heavy gaze. I tried my very best not to actually entertain her very valid concern, but I couldn’t quite stop my eyes from drifting back over to the scorch mark in the center of the library. I took a small steadying breath and focused ever more intently on the crystal in my grasp.

“She is either here or in the Nevernever,” I growled softly under my breath, my usual lighthearted nature suspended in the face of my outright denial to accept a possibility I didn’t like.

An uncomfortable silence befell the room as the mares turned their respective gazes towards the hair-wrapped focus hovering in front of me. My magic carefully wound around the crystal, and through it, the fragment of Twilight. My trademarked tracking spell quickly formed around the lavender locks, took hold of the essence within, and sought out its source.

Almost immediately, the crystal shone with a brilliant purple light and flew to the side as far as the length of string would allow. The string connecting the focus to my telekinetic grip hung almost parallel to the ground as the crystal tried very hard to get at the library’s main entrance.

“AHAHA!” I cheered and did a small joyous hop almost worthy of a certain pink party pony. “I told you she’s still around here somewhere!”

“Really?!” Pinkie cried and casually bounced a good few feet higher than my feeble attempt at excitement. The moment the hyperactive pink mare hit the ground, she sped towards and crashed through the library’s front door in a massive pink blur of motion, followed quickly by a high-pitched, “Are you all coming or what?!”

My rump and hind legs abruptly lifted off the floor a few inches as a heavy force hit my flank and began pushing. I craned my head around and found Applejack almost flattening her signature Stetson against my flank as she pushed at me with her head.

“You heard her, Mr. Magic Man,” she said and backed off a couple of steps, letting the hooves of my hind legs hit the wood floor again with a loud thonk. “Get yer flank moving, you and that fancy rock of yours need to lead the way.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” I responded and eagerly followed Pinkie out through the Library’s door.

The chill of the night air washed across my face the moment I crossed through to the outside. Luna’s large moon hung in the sky over Ponyville, its luminescent glow lit the small town almost as well as the morning sun. Ponyville’s moonlit streets were mostly vacant in the evening hours; only one straggling couple could be seen returning home off in the distance. It’s too bad that peaceful little picture didn’t last very long.

“She’s this way!” I shouted into the quiet town and charged ahead at full speed after the crystal bobbing lazily in front of me.

Behind me, each of the Bearers of the Elements galloped and flew after me as fast as their hooves and wings would allow. Unsurprisingly, both Applejack and Rainbow Dash fairly easily kept up with my longer than average legs and the faster gallop therein. Pinkie, keeping true to her usual quirky little self, hopped along behind Applejack at the same speed AJ was galloping. Both Rarity and Fluttershy lagged behind the rest of the group slightly, their attention more devoted to searching our surroundings for their missing friend.

The more we galloped through Ponyville though, the more I was sure that something wasn’t quite right with my spell. At first my eyes were so locked on the hair-wrapped focus that I didn’t notice anything odd in relation to our surroundings. It wasn’t until my neck was starting to burn from my craning head that I decided to shift my attention to our environment. It was only then that I realized that as we traveled further into town, the tracking crystal slowly crept up and up into the air until I was facing the night sky.

Our impromptu stampede through Ponyville came to an abrupt end as we neared the fountain in the town square. I slammed on my brakes once I realized that something was amiss, my hooves skidding across the stone pathway several feet with my accumulated momentum. Before I could give much attention to our new heading, I was brutally reminded exactly why it’s a bad idea to stop suddenly when leading a charging mass of ponies.

One after another, the Bearers of the Elements each let out a surprised shout and crashed into my pentacle emblazoned flank. Where there once was a herd of ponies charging through an empty town square in the dead of night, there was instead a mass of tangled limbs and confused shouting. Only Rainbow Dash and her compulsive need to fly everywhere was spared our fate.

“Whoa there, Harry” Rainbow chuckled and strafed in the air around the moderately sized pony pile we had become. “What’s with the brakes?”

“A little warning would have been nice,” Applejack added as she carefully extricated herself from the rest of us. In a few short seconds she and the rest of us were standing in a small, if disheveled, huddle around me. “That trinket of yours find something, Harry? I don’t see any trail Twilight would have left around here.”

“I thought you said that tracking spell would point us right to her,” Fluttershy squeaked, worry for Twilight making her voice an octave or two higher and causing her wings to twitch against her side.

“It is,” I responded back while scowling at the crystal still pointing defiantly into the sky. “Or at least it’s supposed to.” My eyes shifted past the crystal and began scanning the starlit night sky. “The tracking spell is supposed to point in a straight line at Twilight. That line could theoretically be warped if a powerful enough spell was interfering, but it wouldn’t have formed at all if Twilight wasn’t here somewhere.”

“Well maybe she just got teleported up to Cloudsdale somewhere,” Rarity offered and turned her eyes skyward as well. “She’s used magic to land safely on clouds before.”

“Yeah, I bet that’s it!” Rainbow cried and shot into the air before shouting back, “Just give me a minute. I’ll go find her!”

“Wait!” I bellowed after the overeager pegasus.

Each of the mares around me paused in their various fidgeting and searching to give me their full attention. Even Rainbow, in a rare moment of compliance, snapped her wings as wide as possible to expertly stop on a dime in midair. The pegasus flipped right around and performed one of her signature dive bombs before stopping just over our heads, consequently sending a large wave of air over us in the process. I paid their actions little mind however, as something else in the sky caught my attention.

I lowered my head slightly until I was looking down the length of string with one large amber eye. From my vantage point I could see that the string and the crystal at the end was pointing directly at one particular star in the night sky. The star in question shone in the sky with a slight purple glow and was even surrounded by multiple smaller glints of light. It looked almost like Twilight’s cutie mark.

“Twilight’s been trying to get me caught up on all things Equestrian, but we’ve yet to do any astronomy.” I pointed my left foreleg alongside my tracking crystal at the curious star, “Does that look right to you all, or am I seeing things?”

As one, each of the mares followed my hoof up until their eyes met with the star. None of them answered immediately, choosing instead to collectively stare up at their friend’s cutie mark in stunned silence.

Rarity was the first to find her voice and muttered under her breath, “What in Equestria?”

“Since when did Twilight have her own star?” Pinkie pipped up and hopped in place with barely contained excitement. “I wonder if this calls for a ‘congratulation-style party’ or a ‘birthday-style party’.”

Rainbow’s wings fluttered slightly as she came to land beside the pink earth pony, while never losing eye contact with the symbol. “As much as I hate to admit it, I’m pretty sure I can’t fly that high up.”

“Forget about flying up there,” Applejack interjected and pointed her own hoof at the star, “I think it’s coming down here!”

For a good few seconds I just stared up at the gleaming star and just tried to process what AJ said, something about the sky literally falling didn’t quite want to mesh with my mind. But sure enough, the large lavender-tinted star was indeed not only slowly growing brighter, but descending. Almost immediately after I made this observation however, the cutie mark star kicked into overdrive and abruptly plummeted towards the earth, directly at us.

“HELLS BELLS!” I bellowed and instinctively reached for my power.

With reflexes born from far too many near-death experiences, magic surged through the spiraled horn on my head, and through the ruby shield charm resting on the base. An instant before the star came crashing down, a large transparent crimson dome popped into existence over myself and my very surprised friends. Moments later it met the ground and its brilliant light completely blotted out all else in the world, and took two forceful stabs into my eyes.

“Whoa there, what’s going on?!” Applejack cried out somewhere off to my right, and judging by the reverberation I felt through my spell, stumbled into the inside of my shield dome.

A second, much harder impact hit the inside of my shield from just over my head, accompanied by the unmistakable voice of Rainbow Dash shouting, “I can’t see, what did I just hit?!”

Curiously enough, the star itself never actually hit my shield. If my past experiences with Murphy’s Law were anything to judge by, then a speeding comet of light actually NOT hitting me was nothing less than divine intervention. My own shock aside, I raised a hoof to shield my eyes from the blinding light while simultaneously properly reinforcing my shield up to my usual standard.

Behind my outstretched foreleg, the light of the fallen star slowly began to dim. I squinted through my eyelids as vague shapes began to take form within the brightness. As the light waned, a very familiar magical aura washed over my senses; despite my combat instincts screaming at me to ready a blast of fire or force, I found myself relaxing under the sensation slowly relaxing my hold on my shield. Then in a matter of seconds, the light faded completely and revealed a certain lavender pony shaking slightly in the middle of a massive scorch mark.

Several excited cries of, “Twilight!” rang out from each us as we all bounded forward towards the lost pony, with me at the lead. My crimson shield shattered instantly when the tip of my horn met the dome of energy, and dispersed into a cloud of harmless red sparkling mist.

Twilight didn't look up as the six of us galloped towards her, while her head was held high, her eyes were downcast as though she were still recovering from some shock. I was the first to reach her and her very frame shook as I pressed my furred chest to hers and wound my long neck around her own in a simple hug. The rest of our friends were hot on my hooves and quickly huddled around us, each of them either cheering for their friend’s return or raining down constant stream of questions.

“Twilight, what happened?!” I said just loud enough to be heard over the ongoing ramblings of the other five Bearers, while steadfastly refusing to break away from the pony that had presumably exploded earlier that evening. “I was in the basement working, there was this flash of light and magic, and when I came up we thought that you were gone. What happened?”

“I’m alright,” Twilight shakily said aloud and leaned into my neck, returning my small gesture. “Just a little shaken.”

I was about to take a step away and begin a cursory medical onceover before pushing our wonder medic Fluttershy forward, when I felt Twilight stretch two limbs around my back and a more traditional hug. I didn’t contest the motion, more for her benefit not my own I swear, and simply enjoyed the warmth after our collective panic attack. The details behind this panic became much more important however when I noticed two odd things: first, the other five Bearers of the Elements stopped their barrage of questions in favor of a deafening silence, second, Twilight’s forelegs were still firmly planted in the stone beneath us. Which kind of begged the question, what was hugging me?

Very quickly, calmly, and not at all like a venomous spider had just dropped on the end of my muzzle, I twitched up and away from the limbs wrapped around me and got my first good look at Twilight, and dear Lord she was beautiful. Twilight stood before me on slightly unsure legs, free of the spell-layered robe she’d made shortly after our first meeting, and craned her head around to inspect the two large purple feathered wings that had sprouted from her back. The limbs, once I broke free from their hold, defaulted to stretching out in the air beside her. Their simple feathered nature brought to mind the elegance of a great number of majestic birds, or even Celestia herself.

My own wings, which up till now had remained glued to my sides like a leech, twitched and flapped slightly out beside me as though I were about to attempt one of Rainbow Dash’s “exercises”. The feathers of Twilight’s wings lay perfectly in line, each of the primaries lay flat and sleek while the downy fluff protecting the central bone structure was likewise trim and padded to insulate her wings. In the relatively short time I had my wings, they had fallen into a state of disrepair. My primary feathers stuck out at odd angles to each other and the down was puffed up to the point where the leading edge of my wings were essentially long grey pillows. While they may be comfy after a long day of lessons on everything Equestria with Twilight, they did kind of bring to mind the wings of the flightless ostrich.

All of this information flowed through me as I stared shocked at the simple elegance of Twilight and her wings, and the only concrete thought my mind managed to conjure up was, Maybe I should try that preening thing Rainbow and Flutters keep trying to push on me.

“T-Twilight,” Rarity stammered with wide eyes scanning over Twilight’s new limbs. “Darling, what happened to you?”

“You look like a princess,” Fluttershy added in and advanced slowly on Twilight, as though she were going to perform one of her medical inspections.

“That would be because she is,” a familiar, soft, and melodic voice sang from somewhere off behind me.

Each and every single one of us jumped slightly in surprise, along with a total of four sets of wings springing to attention, and turned to face the voice’s source. Celestia, dressed up in her standard golden regalia, very calmly strode towards us through a gleaming white portal that had most certainly not been there a few seconds before. Her eyes tracked over each of us and her smile was so warm that the darkened town square actually brightened a good bit by her simple joy.

“Or, at least in part, I should say.” The solar princess took a few steps closer to us before stopping and fanning her wings out beside her.

Applejack took a nervous step forward and offered Celestia a small bow before saying, “Princess, what is going on? Our night’s been a bit more exciting than we usually like.”

“Speak for yourself, AJ,” Rainbow chirped and flitted to hover over and study her friend’s new limbs with a scrutinizing eye.

“Just something of a final test, dear Applejack,” the princess responded and offered the farm pony a small bow of her own before turning her attention back over her still stunned protégé.

“S-So when the Element’s reacted to her spell earlier…?” Fluttershy started to ask but her voice trailed off slightly as she processed what she was hearing.

“I was teleported somewhere,” Twilight finally spoke up, evidently satisfied with her preliminary inspection of her new wings and turned her attention back to us, a wide smile stretched across her muzzle. “I saw every happy memory I had with you all, every accomplishment, every revelation you helped me achieve.” Her smile soured a bit and her wings folded back down to her side. “Also our obstacles, our hardships…”

A certain amount of sympathetic pain, and genuine dread, seeped into my chest and pulled at my heart strings. Several images of recent death and destruction made themselves readily available to my mind’s eye, chief among them, the crumpled forms of Twilight’s parents left behind after the Red Court’s attack on Canterlot. Using time honored and very emotionally unhealthy practices, I pushed those thoughts back down as hard as I could and offered Twilight a warm smile. So soon after that catastrophe, I was still having some difficulty waking up in the morning and not thinking of such destruction, I couldn’t imagine Twilight having to re-witness that was doing her any favors either.

Just a few inches away, I saw Twilight visibly force her thoughts into order as well, and returned my weary smile. “And how we overcame them. Because of you, of all of you,” she added with a quick sweeping gesture over her friends, “we are made stronger together.”

“I’ll say,” Applejack laughed and knocked a hoof on the stone beneath her.

“We did kind of manage to get into more than a few hazardous situations,” Rarity added and rubbed a white foreleg under her chin. “Even before you showed up, Harry.”

Was that a shot?

Celestia’s bright aura flared up slightly, simultaneously silencing us all and drawing all eyes back over her. The large white alicorn slowly made her way towards us, her gold covered hooves curiously making little to no noise on the stone of the town square. Pinkie, Rainbow, AJ, and Rarity all wordlessly backed away as the demi-god approached. For a moment I was about to back away as well, under the assumption that Celestia wanted to say something to her student, but one glimpse into her large eyes and I felt my hooves plant themselves in accordance to the alicorn’s unspoken command.

“Twilight,” Celestia spoke softly once she’d come close enough to lightly tap her horn against Twilight’s forehead, “you have worked tirelessly and faithfully as my star pupil. You have grown far more than I thought possible, and a little bit faster than I would have preferred. I had feared that recent events might have left you pained and withdrawn,” Celestia’s eyes flicked between Twilight and I, and a wonderful wave of warmth swept over us both as the Sun Princess offered us a wide smile, “but I am delighted to see that is not the case. This one final test was all I needed to see that you had persevered despite all odds, and still champion the Element of Harmony that you represent. It is for that reason that I have given you the greatest honor I can bestow: an alicorn’s form.”

I gave Twilight a sidelong glimpse and was slightly surprised to see tears streaming from her eyes. The lavender alicorn opened her mouth to try and thank her mentor, but her voice caught in her throat. After several seconds of breathless mouthing, she conceded defeat and simply bowed her head in a silent thanks to her mentor. Satisfied with her, Celestia turned her attention back over to me.

“Harry Dresden,” she began, her smile withering only slightly as she bowed her horn to touch upon me as well, “your form was forced upon you, much to your distress, but no less deserved. Regardless of the circumstances, you came to Equestria’s aid in its darkest hour and were instrumental to all of our survival. You have a good heart and will stop at nothing to protect those you care about. I can think of nopony better to stand beside Twilight and the Elements of Harmony in the events to come. I can only apologize that you had to sacrifice your original self in your service.”

I let out a small bark of laughter, which for whatever reason caused my overly poufy wings to stand on end, and returned her smile, “Don’t worry about it, Celestia. Just do us all a small favor and next time let us know before you decide to give us a fright.”

“I will keep that in mind.” The white alicorn’s eyes quirked up over my back before returning to my face. “If you will take some advice from your friends on preening.”

“Thank you so much!” Twilight practically exploded, having only just then found her voice and bowed as deeply as she could for her mentor. “I-I never thought that I’d ever… that you’d ever…”

“You have earned it and more, my loyal student,” Celestia crooned. “Though like I mentioned before, neither you nor Mr. Dresden are true alicorns like Luna or myself. Your magical might does still have certain limitations. So please do not throw yourself into dangerous experiments and expect to come out fine.” Her gaze shifted to shoot an amused look at me. “Goodness knows I don’t need two of you.”

Again with the shots? I inwardly scolded. My ‘dangerous experiments’ saved your sunshiny flank.

Our friends each let out a small good natured chuckle that stung my pride only a little bit. Beside me, Twilight rose back to her hooves and joined in with her friends, her smile practically as radiant as Celestia’s white coat.

The alabaster alicorn in question took a few steps away while an aura of her unique magic lit her long horn. “There will be time for a proper ceremony in Canterlot at a later date. At the moment Luna and I are somewhat busy trying to keep that Senior Council member content in his encampment beyond the Veil. He is still very… irritated at being forced into a pony form when he crossed into Equestria.”

“I’d recommend breaking into your stash of Big Mac’s special cider for this one,” I spoke up, a small chuckle ringing deep in my throat. “I can tell you from experience that McCoy is a little more prone to forgiving and forgetting if you pump enough alcohol in him to threaten his liver.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Celestia laughed, her horn flaring up as she ever so casually reopened a tear in reality behind her. “For now though, I leave Ponyville, and the Silver Guard, under your well-earned rule. Princess Twilight, Prince Dresden, Bearers of the Elements, I know you will lead them well.”

Then as suddenly as she appeared, Celestia stepped back through her Way and sew shut the portal behind her, leaving only residual energy and Twilight’s new wings as evidence of her presence.

I still don’t like it when ponies call me that, I inwardly grumbled before turning around to face Twilight and give her some deserved congratulations. I really needn't have bothered.

"Oh my goodness, Twilight," Rarity nearly squealed and danced on the spot like an overly excited child. "Congratulations!”

Pinkie abruptly threw away any notions of personal boundaries she had and practically buried her face into one of Twilight’s wings, causing only a minor indignant eye twitch in the rest of us.

“Hmmmm, it’s going to be tough copying this pattern onto one of my cakes,” she muttered, her voice muffled slightly by the same feathers she was studying.

Applejack quickly planted her head on Pinkie’s side and began pushing her. “Now Pinkie, what have we told you about personal space?”

Fluttershy simply chose to sit back on her haunches and continue staring wide-eyed at the newly made alicorn as though she were the very personification of beauty.

“Thank you,” Twilight uttered, her voice and wings still fluttering slightly with the gravity of the situation, “but I think we’ve all had an eventful night, and I still need to learn a comfortable way to sleep with these things.” Her wings gave a single large flap for emphasis, though whether or not it was intentional was anyone’s guess.

“I second that,” I agreed and flicked my eyes upward. “And not just because Rainbow’s looking at us like she's about to eat us.”

Hovering over our heads, Rainbow Dash was smiling down at us with a predatory grin and rubbing her forelegs together almost exactly like a Red Court vampire inspecting its prey. My ears automatically swiveled towards her as I distinctly heard Rainbow mutter under her breath, “Now I can put both of you eggheads through my flight course.”

“Thank you again, girls,” Twilight quickly added, her entire form going a little bit rigid under Rainbow’s gaze. “We’ll meet again in the morning and break the news to the Silver Guard.”

My own much more disordered wing draped over Twilight as I gently drew her away. “I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of questions to dodge soon, but I plan to get a good night’s rest to smooth over my most recent heart attack. Goodnight, everypony.”

Each of my friends shot a quick glance between themselves before turning wide smiles to Twilight and I and echoing, “Goodnight!” back at us.

“Do you think we should tell the Silver Guard that Twilight’s okay?” Fluttershy finally chirped up, her wings lifting her in the air slightly as her head pivoted around.

“I’m sure Celestia’s got it,” Rainbow offered and continued boring a hole in my back with her stare, sending a distinctive chill down my spine.

Pinkie took off like a bullet shortly after Twilight and I made to leave, undoubtedly to go and prepare whatever party she deemed worthy for Twilight’s ascension. The mere prospect of such a party made the bottom drop out of my stomach, even more so than the idea of a work out session with Rainbow or a wrestling match with a Red Court vampire. In short order, the rest of my friends followed suit after Pinkie and made their ways back to their respective homes.

Twilight and I retraced the steps of her search party and slowly made our way back to our home. We walked back in almost utter silence, choosing instead to simply enjoy the fairly rare moment of serenity.

Our original stampede through Ponyville evidently roused some of the townsfolk from their rest, as more than a few tired eyes spied us from various homes. The fact that a new alicorn had taken up residence in the little town meant that common ponies were watching me curiously whenever I went out. While I will likely never be comfortable with the idea of others watching my every step, my forced status symbol was managing to calm my paranoia somewhat. That being said, my large left wing never quite left its place over Twilight’s back and her opposite side, effectively hiding her own wings under mine. I didn’t relish the idea of having our sleep disturbed by a horde of excited ponies hoping to catch a glimpse at the new princess.

That particular train of thought was derailed somewhat as one of Twilight’s wings twitched unexpectedly and buffeted against my barrel. My protective instincts were pushed aside and replaced with inquisitive ones when a single question popped into my mind, and demanded an answer.

“Sooooo,” I said, stretching the word out far more than necessary, “I’ve got to ask. Did it hurt?”

Twilight, bless her heart, actually took a full ten seconds to take in and process what I had just said before turning an amused scowl on me. “Harry, I swear, if you say: ‘When I fell from-’“

“No, no, no, no,” I chuckled and rolled my eyes at the lavender alicorn. “I’m not quite that cheesy. I meant that seriously, did getting the wings hurt?”

Twilight’s eyes blinked and went slightly out of focus as she tried to remember every detail of the process she underwent. “No, not really. It was mostly just really warm. I mean, Celestia was pooling a lot of energy into me throughout the transformation, including a lot of numbing magic. There was some pressure when the actual wings grew, but it was mostly just warm.”

“Hmm,” I harrumphed and turned my gaze decidedly forward, my mood slightly soured.

Twilight frowned and studied my expression carefully for only a few seconds before something visibly clicked in the back of her head.

“You’re grumpy by how you got your wings aren’t you?”

“I get shards of bone and sinew literally ripping their way from my back,” I said in a fake exasperated tone, “you get a warm summer breeze.”

Twilight craned her head around and rested it on the feathered pillow that was my wing. “Then you’d think you might take better care of them. I quite like them as they are, but I think Rainbow takes it as a personal insult every day you don’t preen.”

“Maybe she can teach us both.”

Chuckling while we trotted along, we rounded one last corner and the Golden Oaks Library came back into view. The warm comfort of our home was marred slightly by the shining Silver Guard ponies standing sentinel outside the structure.

I sighed heavily as I was forcibly reminded of the duties the Bearer’s and I now shared as leaders in this small town. “We’re making our first real expedition into the Nevernever soon aren’t we?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered, a slight bit of tension rising in her form as she did. “For the first time in centuries, Equestria will expand its borders, and we get to lead that charge.”

“Let’s get inside then, we’re going to need to be rested.” My wing squeezed tight around her barrel at the prospect and my hooves picked up speed, eager to get us home.