Cotton stopped beating her wings. Beginning to descend, she spread her wings wide and tilted forward. Cotton began to glide downwards and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath of the cold, winter morning air. She exhaled, though it could not be heard over the wind. Cotton smiled. Opening her eyes again, she was much closer to the wooden building. She tilted to the left, beginning to circle above the building while losing altitude. Eventually, she got close enough to the ground. Beating her wings quickly to slow her remaining velocity, she hovered down to the ground.
With two pairs of hoof clops, Cotton landed. She began to trot towards The Princess' Orphanage. As much as she loved the chill while flying, it got to her on the ground. Something to do with moving to keep you warm? Cotton shook her head and headed inside. Pushing the doors open, she saw a splotch of red to her right.
Cotton waved. "Hello, Solid!"
He nodded with a new smile. "Hello, Cotton. How are you?"
She smirked. "Doing better, now that I'm inside. How about you?"
Solid nodded. "Also okay, if a bit tired." He gestured towards her scarf, "May I?"
Cotton mock-swooned. "Such a nice stallion!" She smiled and hoofed him the scarf. "You may."
He hung the scarf up on one of the few coat racks in the front and nodded once more.
She thought back to the previous day and smiled. Feather is doing okay. I need to meet up with her more. Cotton quietly sighed. Life is nothing like school anymore. Glad she's doing alright. Realizing that she had been standing in place, Cotton shook her head, clearing away her thoughts. "So, did Aqua cast anything yesterday?"
He nodded. "She did. Though, she avoided anything while she said her horn hurt."
Cotton groaned.
"With all due respect, good luck, Cotton." Solid had a smirk on his face.
She shook her head. "Thanks, though she's the one who needs it." Beginning to hear other foals wake up, Cotton decided she should go wake Aqua. She never wakes up by herself...
"True enough."
Cotton walked towards the bedrooms, occasionally passing fillies and foals, some dragging along bedding. Is that a duck pillow? She shook her head and continued towards Aqua's room. She knocked on the door three times and waited a few seconds before pushing the door in. Knowing no sound would wake the filly, she approached, reaching a hoof out. The filly was holding a small pillow she had been given. A small square cushion. She was wrapped around the cushion more akin to a snake than a pony. Her tail wrapped further around, nearly circling the larger-than-Aqua-sized cushion twice.
Cotton held back an audible appreciation of what was in front of her. She's too cute for her own good...
Continuing with her hoof, she rubbed the filly's whithers, side to side. Slowly, the filly stirred with a mumble. "Nuh..."
The mare leaned in and whispered to the filly, "Aqua... It's time to wake up, Aqua."
The filly mumbled once more, beginning to move.
"Aqua... Food'll be waiting for you."
The filly spread out her hooves in all directions and quietly groaned.
"There you go, Aqua. It's time to wake up."
After holding the stretch for a second and then collapsing, she turned her head to face Cotton. The filly slowly opened her eyes, facing her, yet not focused.
Cotton smiled. "Almost there, Aqua."
The filly blinked once. Twice. A few times... She then hummed aloud.
"It's morning. time to wake up, sleepyhead."
Aqua blinked a few more times and rubbed her eyes. "Oh yeah... 'M wake."
The pegasus patted the filly's back. "There you go."
"Morning..." Aqua yawned. "Morning... Cotton?"
She nodded and hummed in an affirmative tone. "Yep. Are you hungry, Aqua?"
The filly slowly smiled lazily. "In a moment... Come closer."
Cotton leaned in. "Yeah?"
The filly suddenly jerked towards Cotton as her horn glowed. The pegasus let out a yelp as she felt like she got shoved into the bed. Cotton lost her balance and fell onto the bed, thankfully not landing on the filly.
"Heh. You fell for it... Literally." Said filly sleepily climbed onto the collapsed pegasus. "Now I get to climb Mount Cotton." The filly then yawned and lightly grimaced as she rubbed her horn. "Ow."
Cotton frowned as she got her hooved under herself again, still laid down so as to not jostle her living saddlebag. "I thought you weren't going to be using any magic until we saw Raven tomorrow?"
"I mean..." Aqua covered her mouth with a hoof and spoke quietly. "That's not what I said."
Sternly "Aqua."
"Alright, alright. I did do some yesterday, but just as I said, I was only gonna do it when it wasn't painful." She lightly rubbed her head with a hoof. "Sadly, it's still painful."
"So you just lied?"
Aqua looked up with a focused expression, thinking. "Technically, no..." The filly smiled. "Anyway, other than soreness, nothing else happened.
Incredubiously, Cotton replied, "And how is that technically not a lie?"
Aqua snuggled closer and yawned. "Well, I was talking about yesterday, not today."
"Aqua..." The pegasus face-hoofed. "That's still a lie."
"Nuh-uh." The filly shook her head. "No, it's not. It's so close it might be, but it's not."
Cotton sighed.
Aqua rubbed her horn lightly. "Anyways, how's Feather doing? She doin' okay?"
"Yeah. She's good. Mostly the same as usual, but now she has a crush on this one coworker. He's a unicorn accountant by the name of Clear Ledger."
Aqua tilted her head, ears following. "Oh?"
The pegasus hummed. "Yeah. They both work at the castle, so they even up coming across each other. Fairly often, too."
"Makes sense. Hope it goes over for her well."
Cotton nodded before getting off the bed, the filly still holding on. "Same." She smirked. "Well then, not-quite-a-liar, let's go get some food for you."
Aqua blanched with exaggerated disgust. "Ew. That requires leaving the bed. I think I'm good without that."
Cotton started walking to the door. "So, you're saying you're not hungry?"
Aqua leaned to the side. "Well... That's not what I said."
An eyebrow quirked and a smirk. "Is that so..?" Cotton closed the door behind her and began to head towards the cafeteria.
The filly sounded smug. "Yeah."
Cotton expected the filly to continue, but when she didn't, she shook her head. "Alright then. Let's."
A tiny hoof tapped the back of the pegasus' neck. "Oh, can we make a stop by the restroom before eating?" Aqua spoke through a yawn.
Cotton giggled and turned around. Seems we have a little delay.
"Thanks."
Bigger wings are probably cooler but you know what isn't? Bigger wings with downy feathers, y'know on account of them being warm!
... I'll see myself out but nice chapter!
don't know man, bigger wings means more preening, but i guess it does look cooler
Bigger wings but being bat wings, that's cooler
Aqua is growing up to be a smug smartass little gremlin cuz they keep letting her get away with it by being cute. I'm all for that.
Shame these chapters or so short though, I need more cotton and aqua.
Hah! Managed to drag Cotton down to her level.
Also she was technically correct. The best kind of correct.
This is such a strange story to me. I'm enjoying it so far, don't get me wrong. But with the short chapters and almost disjointed narrative it's a bit challenging to follow. I keep having a feeling like we are on the cusp of a big reveal or two but I have zero idea of how close we actually are or even if we are close at all. I don't know what direction the story will lead as it meanders along. I'm just here for the ride.
Nice.
Looks like another reason for Celestia being best pone.
Mount Cotton In beautiful Queensland.
nice
Think I caught an error.
11687377
Is it even possible to fly with wings made of purely downy feathers? I understand that baby birds mainly only have those, but they also can't fly that early because they haven't learned how to. to my knowledge, at least. I therefore conclude that a Downy Feather Wing is not a proper wing.
Though, it'd probably be really cute to look at.
11687392
Large wings on a being tend to induce respect, or at least a lesser form of it, fear. If the rest of them match their radiance, then that is amplified even more so as a result. Let's take one of the alicorns. If Luna didn't have wings, would she be nearly as intimidating? The main two have the advantage of being older, even with the lunar diarch's hiccup in size. Despite this, they're both shown to have the biggest and uniquely unique wings. Another example is classical European dragons. With the rest of their features and tendencies, they're already horrifying and/or heavily respectable. However, add back in their wings, and their ability to intimidate goes up drastically. There's a reason why making yourself bigger when presented with a predator is a valid strategy. One final example is the Quetzalcoatlus Northropi. It is the biggest confirmed-to-have-flown thing in our planet's history. Having a wingspan of a few cars wide, the pseudo-bird often hunted for food by simply diving into a large dinosaur and scooping the thing into its mouth as it continued its flight. Another amazing thing about the Quetzal is the fact that they were mainly gliders. Wither their body mass and size, it's fairly hard to take flight. Why not just glide for a bit and catch a thermal that carries you up kilometres instead? The Quetzal was very proficient in gliding. so much so, that they were capable of gliding for a week, travelling a distance roughly equivalent to the width of the United States of America. The largest living thing that can fly nowadays is one of the Albatross. I haven't researched them as much as Quetzals so I don't know as much, but their wingspan is roughly four-ish meters. Around two people stacked on top. I'm pretty certain they're also amazing gliders. Large wings do that very, very well, after all.
I would like to see more media portray Dragons as gliders instead of dogfighters in regards to flight. Sure, they can turn fast or hover in the air, but it would be extremely stressful for their wings, back, and joints. Maybe have the smaller ones better at hovering, though. It would be a cool way to help diversify dragons in a way that hasn't been done often.
One last thing. Since this is turning into a college essay. With the skeletal structure of dragons, there's a reason they typically have a large chest. With flyers, they tend to need to have a sturdy chest and back as a framework for the wings. All birds nowadays have an extra bone that resembles a ribcage at the front of their chest, that the strongest of their flying muscles hook onto. this muscle is the main force that pushes the wings downwards, granting the bird lift. If the wing is turned, it would generate mostly sideways velocity...
If you couldn't tell, I like wings a lot. Big wings, even more so.
11687393
As I touched on in the previous little response. Just above this. Also, heh. Little. Leathery wings are very cool, though they help more with inducing a sense of fear, rather than resplendence that feathery wings display. Thought that response was very likely due to us not seeing leathery wings often, and very often seeing feathered ones.
On a different note, Aqua really is becoming a smartass. If you were cute and aware of it, would you not abuse it? And even if you didn't want to, would it not happen naturally? If a kid is trying to act all serious, it just wraps around to being cute again.
Sorry about the shortness, I'm not confident in my skill and don't know how to write full chapters yet. Doesn't help that I haven't tried to make a larger chapter in this story yet, though. Most of these chapters are made with the intent to finish, start to finish, in one sitting. Bathroom breaks and the like, but you get it.
11687436
Glad to hear you still love it.
With the topic of pain from the magical scan that Raven attempted. It's worth noting that it worked for Doctor Windhorn. Also, with the pony-derivative species, they all have a significant and noticeable magic in their body. Earth Ponies are stronger, and more connected with nature. Pegasi are both able to fly and are connected with the weather and climate. Unicorns are capable of harnessing the forces of these magics to affect their world in drastic ways, though they lack the resistance the other two have in their respective fields. With thestrals, they tend to be portrayed as silent in all forms of movement, especially attuned to staying silent. Hippogriffs are shown to be especially aggressive and able to fly farther due to their increased size. And finally, the Kirins are especially fire-immune and are able to harness all that encompasses a domain of heat. I'm very likely missing out on extra subspecies, but I'm saying that each one is unique. Not to mention that all have been shown to possess a Mark, granting them a near-mastery of whatever that mark happens to be. I'll also briefly put in the note that Alicorns are basically all of the above. All ponies are magical, that is a given. But, when your magic is infused with another's, a problem can occur. As you put it, the same with blood. If a Unicorn's magic is mixed with a pegasus without caution, a problem is natural to happen. Another way a problem can logically occur is essentially being overfilled or underfilled. If you're only capable of holding a set amount of blood, what would happen if you suddenly had double, even triple that amount inside your veins? Not a fun time.
11687437
This is one of those things I both dislike talking about and absolutely love the theory behind it, sadly. The cognitive dissonance that crops up from this discussion is always annoying. I won't be talking about my story exactly, though I'll talk about the theory presented. Let's take a brief example from human stamina instead of mana, as it's the closest thing we have to a real example. You have lazy people, average people, and Athletes. Those who don't move often, aren't able to run for a long time. Athletes, depending on their chosen vocation, have extremely good stamina. Average people don't have amazing stamina but also are able to move a good amount. with Athletes, most of them improve their amount of stamina. Why would they focus on being able to run a marathon two days after a previous marathon? However, they're still better trained to do runs more often than the average person. With our ancient ancestors, they were persistence hunters. They had to run and move very often. It would stand to make sense they were better at that than even our current-day athletes because of a necessity to improve. You had to run more than a marathon every day. Just to get food for the day, and hopefully the next. You can improve both your body's maximum stamina and your ability to recover from fatigue. Why wouldn't you be able to for mana?
11687463
Technically correct is always the best kind of correct.
11687494
I'm glad you're enjoying it, even if only a little bit. I want to ask so that I can improve it more. Do you know what is pointing towards there being a major thing just around the corner? In stories like these, sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. Though my story has been fairly eventful as of late, and I'm not talking about the upload schedule. Still, thank you for reading.
11687570
Despite the fact that her name is in my Username, Luna is actually not my favourite of the series. Though, there is more than one reason that Celestia is in this story.
A quick side tangent since we're talking about favourites. Of all the creatures shown in the show, Changelings are by far my favourite. However, their sparkle candy-bug look looks horrible and are objectively cringe. Nothing will change that. If there's ever going to be changelings in my stories, they will be their pure bug forms.
11687756
That it is... I didn't know that. Neat.
Also, this comment took nearly 3 hours to type out. Though after the first hour, I got extremely distracted.
Also, this comment is 1467 words long...
11687905
Thanks.
11687906
You would be correct! Thanks for catching that. I know I certainly wouldn't have.
11687980
How Aqua obviously knows about Celestia and how there might be a meet up at some point. That and Cotton will eventually press Aqua about all the secrets she's keeping. I feel there will be a reveal to one or both at some point as Aqua can't keep it all bottled up forever.
11687980
That awkward moment when your comment is the 4th longest chapter.
And hell yeah I'd abuse being cute AND blind. You can't be mean to the blind foal, it's just not done.
That said this is vaguely reminding me of "And it's friggin cold up here" a story of a blind pegasus. I think MiWC did a thing on it too.
As for leathery wings being to incite fear, yeah, sure, but that's if you get them mad, but if they've been treating ponies well, you'd likely see it as a defenders wings and somepony who takes the hit for you, cuz they're tough and cool. You'd go to feathered wings for comfort, leather wings for safety.
Maybe that's just me.
11687980
Nice, Lore on each creature's magic bonus, obtained!
Also, that comment was suppppppeeerrr long. A whole chapters worth of words and then some. Thanks for taking the time to really go into depth.
11688000
I understand. Thanks for the response.
As you said, keeping your feelings to yourself is extremely unhealthy. And it sounds like Aqua is holding a lot of things in...
11688038
I never once thought I would write a comment longer than my chapters... What a cruel day this is.
I vaguely remember reading that story once upon a time. It's about a human getting displaced as Snowdrop while dealing with a cigarette addiction, yes? Though, I'm sad to say I don't know what MiWC is...
Perhaps you have a point about the leather wings being for safety... When I was rereading my comment, I realised I forgot to elaborate further upon what I said. When I mentioned that we've seen feathered wings more than leathery, I mean in regards to seeing birds more than bats. Because of that, leathery wings become more rare, and as a consequence, more mysterious which also makes them a little scarier.
11688039
Haha. When writing those out, I was mainly writing down my observations about the different kinds of subraces from what stories I've read. If any appear in my stories, they might be different due to a variable amount of reasons, but they'll very likely stick to that theme.
It's fun to go into depth. I generally always enjoy doing it. It's my pleasure.
11688083
MiWC is magic is witch craft, a redub and alteration of a few select episodes of MLP. Absolutely worth the watch.
And yes, you're correct about snowdrop.
As for bats being mysterious/scarier because they're rarer, and more unknown, makes sense and checks out.
11688116
Oh, god. I've completely forgotten about Magic is Witchcraft. Despite the fact that I'm still writing in this fandom, I haven't actually interacted with the community other than reading since like 2015... I haven't even finished watching the show. G4, that is. I haven't seen a single episode of G5. I think I stopped watching a little before the episodes that introduced Thorax. Despite my love for the bugs, I never even finished that arc. I commented earlier on my hate of the skittle versions of them, but I honestly haven't actually seen them in the actual show. Only fanart and stories that include them...
11688119
So you and I are both fake fans, got it!
For serious though, I only got into the fandom myself last year around this time, and it was through fanfiction more than anything else. I haven't seen more than a hooffull of episodes and the only g5 stuff I've seen is what I've read here in fanfiction as well.