• Published 16th Feb 2022
  • 1,521 Views, 315 Comments

A Unicorn and an Alicorn Walk Into a Library - Damaged



It's a new life for Lyra Heartstrings, a new set of responsibilities, and a new princess to serve. Now she just needs to survive Ponyville to fully enjoy this new future.

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Chapter 6

Lyra had set herself up in the town square with a notebook, a pen, and her whole day off to write about her latest idea. Dinky was putting out new spells on a nearly daily basis, and though she couldn't see the average unicorn being quite so prolific, they could certainly create more spells than they were likely to ever keep memorized.

She was so engrossed in her writing that she didn't notice somepony had walked right up to her until a shadow engulfed her paper. Jerking her head up, Lyra was almost snout to snout with a dark colored pony wearing a frock. "Maud?"

Clearing her throat and staring ahead impassively, Maud Pie said, "Hello, Lyra. It has been a relatively short period of time since we last met—geologically speaking." And, while talking, she used a perfect monotone.

It took Lyra a second to realize the gag behind the comment, but before she could do more than start to smile, Maud cracked up laughing. "Have you been practicing that?! Wow!"

"All the way here on the train. I didn't expect to see you in Ponyville. I came to see Pinkie and—I might have messed up a bit with her friends." Maud slumped into the chair opposite Lyra. "I thought I'd do the same joke with them but they didn't realize it was a joke. At all. It's been two days now."

"Two days?" Lyra folded her notepad closed. "I would have expected Twilight to pick up on it. It's good to see you again, Maud. How was college?"

"Grueling, but great. The course changed about halfway through my second year as they caught up to the changes magic was making to Batstralia. Because there was nopony there with much knowledge of rockforming, I was able to make my thesis based on that—as applied within Batstralia of course." Maud slumped a little. "I have my thesis defense next week. I should be practicing for it, but this thing with Pinkie's friends is messing me up. If I break character now, they'll think I did all this intentionally to make fun of them."

"Well, firstly, come with me." Lyra tucked her things into her saddlebags and stood up. "We're going to visit the local library."

Looking at Lyra with one eyebrow raised, Maud stood up too and started following her. "A library? I think Pinkie said—You're taking me to see her friends, aren't you?"

"Of course. Don't you dare try to avoid this." Giving Maud a big smile, Lyra trotted backwards for a bit to make sure she was being followed.

"I just—"

"She's the princess of friendship, Maud. You don't get that title by turning down a pony who wants to correct a little mistake and be your friend." Lyra turned back around when Maud kept following.

Resigned now, Maud asked, "So, what are you, her fanclub?"

"Nope. I'm captain of her guard."

It took Maud the entire rest of the walk to figure out that Lyra wasn't joking. Though, when Lyra just reached for the door and started opening it, a little panic flooded her. "You're just going in?"

"This has really gotten you shaken up, hasn't it?" Reaching out, Lyra put her foreleg over Maud's shoulder and gave her a quick hug. "I promise you will feel better after you've told her."

After all her time away from family, Maud appreciated the hug. "I know you're right, but it doesn't make it easier. Thank you, Lyra."

"That's what friends are for." Finishing the hug, Lyra opened the door and walked in. Within was just Twilight and Spike, the former looking up at her and smiling.

"Lyra, isn't it supposed to be your day off—?" Twilight froze at the sight of Maud walking in behind Lyra. Maud had proved to be a vexing problem for Twilight—she just couldn't get a read on the mare. As the pony in question entered her library, though, something seemed different. "Hello, Maud. I—"

The pressure of her joke's bad reception had built up like a boil, and even a princess talking couldn't stop the pressure now Lyra had told her she had to lance it. Maud cut in, "Twilight, I need to confess something."

Maud's speech seemed far removed from the slow and aloof monotone she'd spoken with before, and it threw Twilight off a little to hear worry and sorrow in the words. "Please, if you need to get it off your chest, I promise I'll listen."

Taking a deep breath, Maud started, "I do the monotone thing as a gag. It's something Lyra and I used to practice in high school together. Pinkie was in on it, but please don't blame her. I never meant for it to keep going but none of you seemed to get the joke and now I'm rambling because it's my fault you are all so awkward around me and how do I stop talkin—" Maud hoped her whine, when Lyra shoved a hoof in her mouth, was taken as a thank you.

Lyra waited a short moment to remove her hoof. When Maud seemed to be bereft of words, she sighed in relief.

Twilight had a few seconds to think of her reply. "Maud, it's okay. I can appreciate that sometimes ponies have different senses of humor and they don't really work as well in a—Wait a moment. How long have you known Lyra for?"

Looking to Lyra, Maud shrugged. "Since we were both about sixteen. She was a human back then, and I was just a filly attending the same school as him—her. Sorry."

Shrugging her shoulders, Lyra let out a laugh. "Don't worry about it. I was comfortable and happy as a man, now I'm comfortable and happy as a mare. There's nothing weird going on in the middle of those two points."

"Some bat ponies aren't doing as well as you are with that," Maud said, before turning her attention back to Twilight. "I'm sorry. I was only trying to make my sister, and everyone else, have a laugh."

Twilight knew her moment to shine as princess of friendship was right now. Stepping forward, she held out a hoof to Maud. "Everypony deserves a second chance. A third, too—possibly even a fourth and fifth. As long as you still want to be friends, I would love to have a friend in you."

Maud's eyes widened and she lunged forward, ignoring the hoof, and hugged Twilight. It was that moment of relief when the pressure and torment vanished and she could just feel relief and joy again. She had no words, though, hugging Twilight and letting her emotional knot unravel on its own.

Figuring Maud just needed a little more hug time, Twilight looked over to Lyra and raised an eyebrow. When Lyra shrugged at her and grinned, Twilight was left wondering again how many ponies Lyra knew. It was almost like all of Twilight's life she was surrounded by ponies that not only knew of Lyra, but had a profound relationship with her.

When the hug ended, as they all inevitably do, Maud leaned back and felt renewed. She sat there for several seconds just letting herself feel the release of telling the truth and being forgiven. "Can we start from the start?"

"I'd really like that," Twilight said. "Hello, Maud, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Please, don't let the wings fool you, I'm just a moderately confused unicorn most of the time."

"Hello, Twilight, I'm Maud Pie. You probably know my little sister, Pinkie, as well as my foalhood friend, Lyra. While I could go on and on about rocks, I'm pretty sure you're not interested in them as much as I am, so I'll reserve all that for a gneiss joke at some point." Waiting for the groan, and Twilight did groan for her bad joke, Maud looked around the library. "Where'd Lyra go?"

"She'll be upstairs breaking her promise to me." Walking toward the stairs, Twilight gestured with a wing upward. "Come on up."

Maud wasn't sure what to expect from the private quarters of a princess, but the cozy kitchen and dining area wasn't it. Lyra was at the bench making sandwiches while a kettle picked that moment to boil. "What do you mean 'breaking her promise'?" she asked.

Twilight giggled when Lyra spun around with a guilty expression on her face. "That she promised me she wouldn't come to the library or do any work today. I have never known a pony more ready to give up every ounce of her free time to work."

Barking a laugh, Lyra looked back at Twilight. "Then you don't own a mirror."

Giggling, Twilight nodded. "Guilty as charged. I guess that's why we work so well together."

"Would you like some tea, Maud? Maybe a sandwich?" Lyra asked. She was already making tea and sandwiches for Twilight and the latter only for Spike.

"Yes please," Maud said, taking a seat at the table to avoid getting in the way. She watched Lyra work, using magic in creative ways to prepare the sandwiches and even cut them neatly. "You've gotten better at magic."

Twilight picked up on that and nodded. "I remember when Lyra first came to Princess Celestia's school and she needed help learning to use magic."

"When she was still on Earth, she kept having magic surges. Candela said that when foals have them, they have so little power that they barely do anything. Lyra was sixteen and making marching bands worth of instruments appear out of thin air." The memories of that time in her life were a little old, but Maud cherished them. It was a time of change for her—she left one world behind to study in another.

"I only did that a few times," Lyra said, trying not to blush. "And I fixed the fence eventually."

The sound of the library's front door opening, followed by Pinkie's voice calling out, "Maud?!" was followed by all four hooves bouncing on the wooden floor downstairs.

Twilight jumped to her hooves and rushed to the top of the stairs. "Up here, Pinkie."

By the time Pinkie reached the top of the stairs, she gasped. "Maud! Wait, you were talking to Twilight? Are you best friends now?" Each sentence was punctuated by a widening of Pinkie's smile until her face was dangerously close to imploding.

Dropping back to her monotone, Maud half closed her eyes and looked at her sister. "No, Pinkie. I came here to throw rocks at Twilight until she was buried up to her neck."

Pinkie froze. Her expression registered shock and panic as she looked from her sister to Twilight, then she regained her grin when she saw Twilight was smiling. "You finally figured out Maud's joke?" She was bouncing in place already, expecting the answer.

"Maud explained the mix up. I guess we need to call a meetup of all our friends and fill them in on it." Knowing she couldn't avoid the tackle-hug from Pinkie, Twilight stood and hugged her friend back in reply.

Looking down at the pile of sandwiches she'd just made, Lyra shrugged her shoulders. "Looks like I need to make more. Pinkie, do you think you could let everypony know lunch will be sandwiches?"


Maud had retired from the impromptu party at the library to spend the evening with Lyra. Her heart felt lighter for having straightened everything out with Pinkie's friends, but while they weren't actively disliking her now, she didn't have much in common with them.

Strumming her bass with the volume down, Lyra was about as relaxed as she could get. "Do you ever wonder what might have been if all the craziness back in Cowwarr didn't happen?" She looked over at Maud.

"I think I'd be a lot more lonely. I was a lot like Marble as a filly, and if it weren't for meeting you and your sister I think I'd still be that way. Plus I wouldn't have spent nearly ten years studying rocks." Pulling her best stoneface expression for the last word, Maud almost ruined it by smiling. "What about you? You'd still be human."

"I don't have a problem with humans. The thing is I just couldn't imagine myself as one anymore. To be that cut off from magic and destiny would be like having a leg removed." To highlight her feeling, Lyra pitched a grip on the strings that was off-chord and strummed, making the poor guitar practically cry in pain. "Wait, it's really been ten years?"

"Eleven, but it took me a bit to get settled in and classes to start. I volunteered at the school helping to fix things."

"Eleven years. That's a long time to spend away from other ponies." The moment she said it, Lyra realized she'd been less than charitable. "Right, there are ponies there, but I mean bat ponies have a different outlook on things than Equestrian ponies."

"It's changing. Princess Screech is so charismatic, and whatever it was that Robin did to help people adapt really pushed at the pony way of life. There are still a lot of wild parts to the world, but there are also some cute ponies." The moment Maud said it, she blushed. "I mean, ponies."

Lyra's playing took on a more twangy note. "Cute, huh? So you've met some cute bat ponies?"

"You're not going to let me drop this now, are you?" Maud asked. When a grinning Lyra shook her head, Maud slumped back into the chair. If it wasn't so comfortable she might have had an excuse to make a run for it. "Guys. I've been with a few, but it was never a long-term thing. They liked strong mares, I like a stallion with"—Maud winced in advance, knowing Lyra would have more to say—"wings."

"Ooooh." Lyra plucked a little arpeggio on her bass. "I get you. Well, not personally on the whole wings thing, but Sweetie has a thing for wings too." Nodding, but still grinning at the mild teasing of her friend's thing, Lyra started to just slap-strum her bass, getting a slow rhythm going. "I'm with your stallion-friends, though."

"Solid?"

"Muscles," Lyra said. "You'll know what I mean when you see Sweetie."

The door opened and Maud expected fate to deliver the mare Lyra was talking about. Instead, a young pegasus trotted in. Maud blinked in surprise and was about to say something when she saw Lyra make a quelling gesture.

"Hey, Scoots, school out early?" Lyra played an epic-introduction power-chord on her guitar. "Maud, this is Scootaloo, the most amazing filly in all Equestria. Scoots, this is Maud, one of my foalhood friends and a super secret agent—uh, don't tell anypony about that last bit, okay?"

Scootaloo's problem was that with the circles Lyra walked in—Maud might just be a secret agent. She'd met Blue Blood, and she was positive he was a spy, but when Lyra went this far Scootaloo always suspected a joke. "Super secret agent, huh? For which country?"

It didn't take much to realize the game Lyra was playing. "Griffonstone, of course. I am on loan to them from Princess Celestia due to their not having a good spy to infiltrate Equestria with." Her delivery was careful, not a monotone, but not giving away any hint that it was a joke.

Looking from Lyra's deadpan expression to Maud's slightly dismissive one, Scootaloo made a choice. "Lyra, you have to do better next time."

"She got you," Maud said, shrugging. "I'm just one of Lyra's foalhood friends. I've been studying in Batstralia for years and had a chance to come and visit my sisters and found an old friend."

"If you hadn't given up so quickly, she would have believe it." Lyra sat up straighter in her chair when Scootaloo approached and gave the filly a big hug. "I should probably introduce you properly. Maud, this is Scootaloo, my daughter."

Scootaloo found herself smiling every time Lyra did that now. Just daughter. Not adopted daughter, not ward, and not some filly who was living in my house. She gave an extra little squeeze.

Maud took stock of the situation. Unless Lyra got pregnant the moment she left Batstralia and came to Equestria, Scootaloo wasn't her filly. She was left with either adoption or Lyra's wife being the mother. "Do you like rocks?"

It was a surprising question, but Scootaloo figured she should take it on. "Uh, sure. What kind of rocks?"

"All rocks," Maud said, grinning. "Well, you passed my test. You can now be a super secret agent too. Anypony who likes rocks is okay by me."

"Oookay." Scootaloo wasn't all that sure how to handle Maud, but she could get a sense that the mare wasn't laughing at her, but with an old joke she shared with Lyra. "I'm going to hang with the girls. I'll be back in time for dinner."

Waiting for Scootaloo to rush out the door again, Lyra let out a happy sigh. "She's the greatest filly in the world."

"You're really doing it all, aren't you? I wish I had this much of a grip on my life. I'm almost thirty and I haven't found a special somepony yet."

Tilting her head to the side, Lyra couldn't keep from breaking out into a smile. "How long before you have to go back to Batstralia?"

A shiver ran over Maud. She knew exactly when she had to be back, but she could also smell Lyra cooking up something weird. "I have a week—" Lyra vanished from the room with a loud pomf that surprised Maud for nearly five seconds before it sounded again and she was back. "Why?"

"Okay. I couldn't teleport fast enough, but I got Spike to send a message to Princess Celestia, who sent a message to Cadance. She'll be here tomorrow—since I called a best friends love alert—and then we can see about finding you a—" Catching her breath, which actually took a moment, Lyra asked, "Uh, fillies, colts, both…?"

Maud's eyes widened. It had finally sunk-in what Lyra planned. "N-No! I have to go back, uh, right now!" She was halted getting out of the chair by Lyra—who had teleported the two ponylengths needed to be standing right in front of her. Slumping her shoulders because she saw no way out of this, Maud sighed. "Colts—Err, stallions."

Lyra summoned a notepad and started jotting things down. Starting off with male. "Excellent. And just to be clear, wings are required or just a plus?"

"Are you really going to do this? Who is Cadance?" It was starting to become an interesting idea, particularly, Maud reasoned, if she'd get to meet a bunch of pegasi stallions. "Wings are—a huge plus. No. Ugh. Required." Maud covered her face with a hoof and tried to hide her blush.

"Smart or sporty? Both? Don't care?"

"You're not going to let me rest until I've told you my ideal stallion, are you?" The chair, Maud wondered, might be able to come to life and swallow her if she wished it hard enough. So far it didn't seem to be working. "Further testing is needed," she muttered.

"No. No I'm not. Also, I'm going to put down both. You deserve both." When Maud blushed even hotter, Lyra felt a buzz in the air that she liked to imagine was a small sliver of what Cadance felt every time she helped a pony find true love. Thinking about her friend, she realized Maud had asked about her. "Cadance? Oh, you're going to find she's the perfect pony to ask about this kind of thing. Okay, tall or short?"


Maud stared for a good minute while Lyra and Cadance caught up. She tried not to, she really did, but Lyra had neglected to mention a tiny little detail about her friend. "You're the princess of love?"

Having answered Lyra's emergency request as quickly and directly as possible, Cadance bowed her head to Maud. "At your service. Lyra said you have returned to secure a stallion before you go back to finish your doctorate?"

Eyes widening, Maud looked at Lyra, who gave her an encouraging grin. "I—Err—Well."

"Do you think we could get Maud a private show by the Wonderbolts? Just something small, maybe just the stallions?" Lyra nudged Cadance with one elbow, trying not to actually pronk in place.

"Another mare who has a thing for wings?" Cadance nudged Lyra back. "We can ask Spitfire if she'd be able to do something. It might not be today, though. Cloudsdale is definitely a good start, though."

"I'll make us some brunch to take with us. I already checked and Cloudsdale down over Appleoosa right now. They were having some unusually dry weather that the local weatherponies couldn't halt, so they called in the big guns."

When Lyra headed out to the kitchen, Maud was uncomfortably aware that she was standing there with a princess and had nothing to talk about. She dredged up topic after topic, but every time she was about to say something anxiety struck and she snapped her mouth closed.

"Lyra said you were Pinkie Pie's big sister?" Cadance asked.

"Pinkie?" How Pinkie knew another princess, Maud wasn't sure, but the princess sure knew of Pinkie. "I mean, yes, Pinkie's my little sister. We went to the same school as Lyra in Batstralia. Well, before it was called Batstralia."

"It's fascinating to hear of that world. I can't imagine a place where no magic exists." Family, Cadance knew, was often a way to get a pony to open up and just talk. Maud had only actually spoken to her when Cadance had mentioned Pinkie. "I also still struggle to think that Lyra was anything but a unicorn mare. What was she like before she came here?"

Maud giggled at that. "She was every bit a younger version of who she is now. My youngest sister, Marble, was so shy she couldn't say a word to most people. Lyra stood up for her, made friends with her, and coaxed her into conversation. If Lyra wasn't who she is, I probably would have run screaming from this crazy plan of hers."

Nodding, Cadance gestured to the kitchen where Lyra was. "That's the normal reaction you should have to anypony else getting this excited about helping a friend. Lyra is a special case."

"She definitely is." Maud realized she'd been in such a fugue over the misinterpreted joke and the fallout from it to spend much time with her sister. Good friends with two princesses—what else had Pinkie been up to, she wondered. "So we're going by train, then?"

"Unless you want to see how Lyra flies, I would suggest it."

"Lyra can fly? I thought that was rare for unicorns?"

Cadance snorted and shook her head. "Lyra flies by throwing herself at the ground and missing. It's both terrifying and shocking to watch."

Walking out of the kitchen with panniers full of snacks and drinks, Lyra looked between Maud and Cadance. "So, how are we going to get there? Fly?"

"Train!" Cadance and Maud both said at the same time.


The train ride was far more cozy and relaxing than Maud had expected. Cadance had chatted to her as if she weren't the ruler of a whole city-state. Lyra had joined in and kept the topic moving, and it had become far more fun than the ride back to Batstralia had seemed.

It almost seemed normal—so long as she didn't think of what the subject of this trip was. "We're just going to watch, right?" she asked.

"Watch? Well, yes. There will be watching." Cadance's smile was as non-threatening as she could make it—Maud wasn't her enemy, ponies living a loveless life, when they wanted more, were. "There will also be talking. Maybe even dating. We have a week?"

"Yup!" Lyra leaned over and put her foreleg around Maud's shoulders, trying to pull her closer. Being an earth pony, Maud could resist such a physical attempt short of Lyra using Guardpony tricks. She didn't use those on friends—often. "Right?"

Surrendering her resistance, Maud leaned toward Lyra. "Right." Lyra and Cadance were both still staring at her like she had to say more. "What?"

"Have you ever seen the Wonderbolts before, Maud?" Lyra asked.

"N-No." Maud didn't want to tell them she had Wonderbolts posters. Nor did she want to tell them she had a significant amount more of those posters than the average Wonderbolts fan. "No."

Always able to see a little beyond the surface when it came to passions, Cadance smiled a little wider. "Then we'll see about arranging a dinner with them. There aren't a lot of stallions in the Wonderbolts right now, so we can play cover by inviting the whole team to dinner, then you can turn your attentions on those that catch your interest."

Blushing now, Maud tried to remember which Wonderbolts were in the lineup she'd last seen. She hadn't really paid attention to them since she left Equestria to study abroad. "W-Who are the current Wonderbolts?"

"Spitfire took over leadership about seven years back, I think it was." Letting go of Maud, Lyra tapped her chin in thought. "I know Soarin's with them as a training sergeant now. There's also Surprise and Cloud Bank. Uh… Maybe we should have brought Sweetie along. She knows all of them."

"Can we get there any faster?" Maud asked.

"Sure we can!" Lyra made her horn glow for effect. "Just let me teleport the whole train to Appleloosa. The tricky bit is getting the wheels lined up on the tracks. Well, no, that's easy. The real tricky bit is not swapping different ponies around into each other's bodies. Here we—"

"No!" Cadance and Maud both shouted together, then looked at the other and started to laugh.

"Hrmph." Lyra did her best fake pout. "Party poopers."


Getting off the train, Maud was struck by a growing sense of anticipation in the air. She arched her head up, wondering if there might be a pegasus or two about, only to see Cloudsdale itself hovering low over Appleloosa and, along with the huge city, hundreds of wings were visible as pegasi went about their daily lives up there.

Not for the first time she tried to analyze her feelings for winged ponies. She loved the look of wings, but there was always something about how a pegasus looked while flying that made her shiver in a happy way. Gazing up toward Cloudsdale, Maud's eyes flicked between several pegasi who seemed to be out flying just for the joy of it.

"Hey! Maud!" Lyra said, for the fifth time. "Maud!"

The shouting finally snapped Maud out of her distraction. She lowered her head and looked at Lyra—and the two ponies with her that weren't Cadance. Mare with orange and dark orange mane, yellow coat, wings that looked in pristine condition. Stallion with brown-gray and orange mane, white coat, wings likewise in pristine condition. Both were wearing Wonderbolts uniforms. Her eyes seemed locked on the stallion. "Y-Yes?"

Snorting, Lyra set about introducing them again. "Maud, this is Commander Spitfire and Lieutenant Fire Streak. We were just discussing attending their show this afternoon."

Wings, Maud thought, looking at Fire Streak. She shook her head after a nudge from Lyra. "A show! Yes! Yes a show!" She had never been more out of control with her emotions. It was like her latest time spent without somepony special had left her on edge or something. Taking a slow breath, she nodded.

Cadance shot Spitfire a look that she hoped explained everything.

Spitfire only barely managed not to mutter fangirl under her breath. "Well, we'll be seeing you at Wonderbolts HQ a little later. Come on, Lightning, we gotta get prepared for this."

Maud only had eyes for Fire Streak as the pair took off. When he tilted his head back and gave her a wink, she almost melted onto the parched ground.

"Soooooo." Grinning at Maud, Lyra gestured up to Cloudsdale with a hoof. "We need to get up there, and one of us can't fly."

"Lyra"—Cadance's tone held an edge of warning—"whatever mad plan you have, we can—"

Casting the spell, one Dinky had made explicitly so she could fly with her mother, Lyra stuck her tongue out at Cadance. Both she and Maud now had feathery wings—wings that made Lyra look like an alicorn.

Her mouth open to continue warning her friend, Cadance closed it and let out a huff. "That's actually pretty good. New spell?"

"Yup! Friendship magic. It was created by Equestria's greatest living spellcrafter. Gives wings and cloudwalking in one combo." Spreading her wings, Lyra gave them an experimental flap. Friendship magic, still acting within the constructs, converted her unicorn magic smoothly to assist with her flying. It wasn't as good as what a pegasus could do, but she had to admit it was a lot more graceful than using teleports.

Not as much fun, though.

Spreading her own wings, Maud lifted off the ground with barely a thought. She barely held back a laugh.

"Friendship magic? Great spellcrafter? Why didn't you just say Twilight?" Taking to the air too, Cadance started ascending toward the lowered Cloudsdale.

"Because"—Lyra did a quick loop in the air—"Twilight hasn't made nearly as many spells as this pony."

"You?"

"No. My protege." Almost getting carried away enough to sing, Lyra gave a laugh. "Dinky Hooves!"

"I—" It took Cadance a little time to recall everyone she knew from Celestia's school. "Who's Dinky Hooves?"

"She's a unicorn filly a little younger than Scootaloo. When I taught her everything I knew about making spells, it just clicked for her. She took to making spells like I take to overworking myself." Lyra was glad she got another laugh from Cadance before the truth of the matter settled in.

"Wait." Cadance checked to make sure Maud was keeping up, even if the mare was quiet—and blushing again. "So you trained a little filly to make spells using Twilight's new form of magic, and she's made more spells since you started than any pony in Equestria?"

"Technically Star Swirl The Bearded has made more spells, but you should have heard Twilight rant! It was amazing!"

One question remained to Cadance. "Did you do this explicitly to poke at Twilight?"

"What? No. She told me to make spells. I had been itching to do it, but it was a lot of work for me. You should see Dinky work—what would take me days of planning and focus, she does in under an hour. Sometimes it's a challenge to slow her down long enough to write the spells out."

"I'm going to have to foalnap you when I have a foal. Even if they're not a unicorn, I think you'd be the most amazing teacher any foal could have." Cadance was surprised by Lyra's sudden wide-eyed surprise. "What—?"

"You're pregnant?!" Lyra grabbed Cadance and completely forgot about flying, but the raw intensity of her excitement kept her from falling—also Cadance holding onto her.

"Flap your wings!" When Lyra started flapping again, Cadance let go of her. "I'm not pregnant, but Shiny and I are trying."

"I am going to spoil your foals so much! I will be Aunt Lyra, and I will teach them a spell to create candy." Flapping her wings and circling around Cadance, Lyra giggled. "And chocolate! Oh gosh, I'll make a chocolate fountain and we will dip ourselves in chocolate and—"

"Lyra, stop. I'm not even pregnant yet, and today is meant to be about Maud."

Snapping back from the precipice of aunt-madness, Lyra looked around. "Where is Maud?"

Cadance blinked in surprise and looked around too. Her eyes narrowed and she looked up. "She went up there."

"How can you tell?"

"The trail her flapping left in the air." When Lyra just stared at her, Cadance groaned. "I was born a pegasi, remember? She went up. Come on!"

Maud had a problem. Though there weren't a lot of stallions in the Wonderbolts, there was more than two. She might have had two eyes, but generally they could only look in one direction at once.

"Hey there. New to Cloudsdale? I'm Soarin."

Jumping in surprise, Maud was only a hoof's width away from being nose-to-nose with yet another stallion in a flight suit. "Maud! Soarin, hi I'm." The words were a jumble and she tried again. "Hi, Soarin. I'm Maud."

"Well, Maud, are you here to sign up for the Wonderbolts?" Soarin had seen some solid pegasi before, but Maud was something else. If he didn't know better (and he didn't) he'd have thought she had some earth pony blood.

"I—" Maud had a moment to decide on whether to tell the truth or let him keep believing a lie. Recent history came back to slap Maud in the face like a locomotive. "I'm not actually a pegasus."

Narrowing his eyes, Soarin wondered if this was some new kind of pickup line. Expecting her to fall off the cloud at any second and demand he rescue her, he stepped away from the edge. "Sure you're not. Hey, are those wings on your back or did you just become a princess?"

"Actually, a friend cast a spell to give me wings so I could fly up here. She'll probably be along any second now." Despite wanting to wait for her friends, Maud was distracted by Soarin enough to walk with him. "I'm actually an earth pony who works with rocks a lot."

Soarin barked a laugh, then stopped. "Really?" When Maud nodded, he let out a slow breath. "Sorry, it's a bit of a cliché and I didn't mean to—"

"It's fine, really. A few days ago I almost ruined my chances of making new friends because I tried the same joke on them. Uh, I heard you're going to be putting on a show today?" Moving the topic along and trying to show that she didn't take offense was a juggle, but Maud was far more used to communication after so many years at university.

"Oh, yeah. This isn't the first time we've gotten 'love-emergency requests' to put on a little show. Apparently Princess Cadance is helping out one of her friends who has a friend that's far too single and needs—needs…" Soarin wasn't always the quickest pegasus in the Wonderbolts, but his brain started to put things together—in particular how much Maud had been ogling the practicing Wonderbolts—and he came to a conclusion that somehow he'd stuff all four hooves and his wings in his mouth at the same time. "Would it be best if I try to change the topic or just stop talking altogether?"

Rolling her eyes, Maud shrugged off the description of herself—mostly because it was accurate. "I am far too single and I'd really like to find a nice pegasus stallion. Even just to have a chat with and maybe dinner."

Blinking in surprise, Soarin had to ask, "Did you just invite me out on a date?" When Maud nodded, he nodded back. "Sure, but only if we can ditch the royalty. If we hurry, they won't find us. Come on."

Laughing, Maud had to spread her wings and take off after Soarin. He barked orders to other pegasi and soon enough there were winged bodies flooding in behind them. "They all just listen to you?"

Nodding, Soarin said, "I am second in command here. Plus I'm also fairly terminally single and they look out for me."

By the time Lyra and Cadance landed on the cloud where Maud and Soarin had been, all there was to see was Wonderbolts flying odd patterns that seemed to always pass right in front of the pair.

Spitfire, recognizing a defensive-screen when she saw it, landed and walked up to the pair of outsiders—giving a few flicks of her wing as a signal to the others that she was on the job. "Your Highn—Lyra?! Let me guess, you spent too long with Princess Twilight and she decided you needed another promotion?"

Blinking a few times in confusion, Lyra followed Spitfire's gaze and remembered the wings. "Oh! Yeah. New spell to grow wings for a short time. You want an extra pair?"

Struggling with the surprise of being asked if she wanted to try extra wings—and her further surprise that she might say yes—Spitfire managed to shift the topic a little. "A new spell? Just like that? Bam, new magic? Isn't that what Twilight did?"

It wasn't anything she wanted an answer to. Spitfire knew that her Wonderbolts wouldn't fly a screen like that—against a princess and a lieutenant—without a good reason. She put it together with the fact she had seen Soarin leaving the practice field with a mare and came up with her needing to do a lot more screening—which meant asking stupid questions with complicated answers.

Not realizing she was being nerd-sniped, Lyra began her explanation. "Making spells isn't like making new magic. When Twilight made friendship magic, it was like if there was suddenly a new type of cloud in the sky that behaved entirely different to other clouds. What a new magic spell does is takes that new type of magic and uses it to do something fancy. And, besides, I didn't invent this one. I've been teaching a filly to make her own spells, and this is one she made so she can fly with her mother."

Her own plan, working as it was, had blown up in Spitfire's face—now she was curious. "You trained a filly to make new spells? Isn't that—that seems like something that should be hard to do."

"It is! But it shouldn't be. Dinky is a natural at creating spells, though, so she can make them whenever she finds a problem she doesn't know another spell for—or thinks she can do it better. Honestly, I just love winding her up with ideas and seeing what she does. Twilight says it's a teacher thing, but—" Lyra would have gone on and on about her latest favorite subject, but she realized Cadance was giving her a raised eyebrow. "But we gotta find a friend of ours. Have you seen her? About this tall, likes wearing a frock, uh, has about double the average pegasus body-mass?"

Rolling her eyes, but grinning at Lyra, Cadance said, "Earth pony with wings. We brought her up here for the show later. She"—Cadance sighed—"she's really into pegasai and I hoped she could maybe find somepony to connect with, if just for a night or two."

Connections were made and everything made sense in Spitfire's head now. "Well, I might have an idea where she went, but I'm sure she'll be at the show later. Why don't you both relax and get some flying in? Test out those wings against the real thing?" To show what she meant, Spitfire spread her wings and raised an eyebrow behind her sunglasses.

"You're not going to tell us where she went?" Cadance asked.

Smirking, Spitfire shook her head. "I mean, I've bought them enough time it doesn't matter now."

That perked Cadance up. "'Them'?"

"Soarin has a thing for strong mares. Your friend is probably the toughest thing on the clouds today, and if you say she has a thing for wings, I think they'll have a lot of fun if you just leave them alone to figure out what fun is." Doing her best to ignore Cadance (who was practically vibrating with excitement), Spitfire turned to Lyra. "Well? Wanna see if you can fly with them?"

Lyra scoffed and said, "I can fly with them. How do you think I got up here?"

"No. I'm asking if you can fly with them?" Snapping out her wing and pointing upward, Spitfire only had to wait a half a second for a squad of three Wonderbolts to blast by just a ponylength above her.

Cadance, her mission to get Maud a date with a Wonderbolt seemingly completed, was excited for something else now. "Do they make uniforms in my size?"

Laughing, Lyra poked at Cadance with a wing. "Hey, why don't we race each other. I'm sure the Wonderbolts would kick both our butts."

"Speak for yourself. One of us was born a pegasus, after all." Cadance used her whole shoulder to shove back at Lyra, comfortable in the knowledge that she was one of the few unicorns who could take such a push and not stumble—and she didn't.

"Winner gets to play a part in the show." Spitfire liked a little competition, and if a little was good, a lot was better. "So, why don't we go with a standard newbie practice run?"


Not a mare of the aristocracy herself, but attached to it enough to know how to act, even Cadance couldn't deny the fact that she was hot and sweaty. She glared at Lyra. "How did you get so good at flying like this?"

"Practicing. Why don't you use your magic?" Lyra, back on the ground after their second time trial, looked at Cadance with a glint of challenge in her eyes.

"Because that would be cheating." Cadance didn't need to look at the scoreboard to see that they were one-apiece in a best-of-three contest.

"Cheating?" Lyra laughed, though she had to admit privately that it was a struggle. She could run for days on end, but flight muscles were new muscles and she literally couldn't get them stronger thanks to the spell's fade time. "How would it be cheating?"

"Because one of us has pegasus magic and the other doesn't." Despite the joke, Cadance was having a great time just having fun with Lyra. What was a little unnerving was having the Wonderbolts gather around for the last race. "Ready when you are."

Raising her right wing, Spitfire twisted her feathers so they were under heavy tension, then let go so they would make a crack. Her left wing clicked the stopwatch to start.

"Why are you even bothering to time them?" Surprise asked. "Neither is going to get close to any records."

"One of them has already recorded two records. First for fastest unicorn flying with wings, then she broke that on her second try. This might become a thing, Slowpoke." Checking Lyra's split on the first leg of the course, however, told Spitfire that there wouldn't be another record. So, while Lyra was struggling with tired wings, Cadance was just reaching her stride.

"They both need more practice."

Nodding, Spitfire could well support that assessment. "Yeah. I'll arrange to have a pegasus sergeant in the Crystal Empire start getting on her case about—"

"Lyra too. If she's going to use that spell, she should be able to fly well. I know she can't use pegasus magic and she can't train those muscles, but maybe we can teach her some tricks that will make flying a but easier. Who trained her so far?"

"Civvie. She's not even using basic Guard tricks while flying. Who do we have that we could send to Ponyville for a few weeks?"

The next split, again, saw Lyra behind. Surprise shook her head. "You know we have a big rush coming in a few weeks with that new program. If Soarin didn't have himself a fillyfriend here today, he'd probably kick me forward as your first choice."

"Bingo. You got the job—again. I'll put in a request for Cloudsdale to linger over Canterlot for the duration. If it's approved, you won't have far to fly." Spitfire clicked the stopwatch as Lyra crossed the finish line—behind Cadance. "Nice try, newbie, but it's hard to beat a pegasi at her own game."

Struggling with her sore wings, Lyra landed and then just fell into a heap. "Ugh, why am I so tired and she isn't?"

Walking over and offering a hoof to help Lyra up, Surprise hauled hard. "She might be an alicorn, now, but I bet she flies on those things for hours a day. It's the same for all pegasi—though more so some than others. You might not have pegasi magic, and you might not be able to train your muscles, but there are still things you could do better to improve your flying."

Sighing, Lyra couldn't say no to such an offer. "Thanks. I guess it's probably best that an actual princess get to do this rather than a unicorn faking it."

"Don't sell yourself short. You show a lot of talent with those wings, and if you could actually put muscle training into them, you'd give a few pegasi without much magic a run for their money. Commander said you used a spell—maybe you could try one that allows the wings' state to persist? Can you even do that?" Surprise kept back from where the Wonderbolts were congratulating Cadance. "Is she always like that?"

"Popular? Yeah." Stretching her wings slowly, Lyra was trying to ensure she wouldn't get any cramps in them. "You can always tell a couple is head-over-hooves for each other when they don't notice Cadance."

"You've known her for a while?"

"She officiated at my wedding, and my wife at hers. Kinda. That was a complicated day." Lyra folded the wings back on her sides.

It wasn't often that Surprise got namesaked, but she hadn't really connected Cadance with the princess at the center of the changeling invasion, nor Lyra with being one of the heroes of that day. Then she remembered reading the report on how Chrysalis got taken down in the end, and gulped. "So, about the training, do you think you could solve the muscle problem?"

The change in Surprise's demeanor caught Lyra off-guard. "I'll try. Is something wrong?"

"Oh, you know, just realizing who I'm actually talking to. I don't know whether to salute you or bow to Cadance. I came in through the Guard, and it just clicked that you're the Lyra who blasted her way through ranks alongside her wife who is just as big a legend. It's easy to forget that when—" Surprised stopped because Lyra had used her magic to pull her lower lip down and fold her upper lip under it. "What are you doing?"

The next face Lyra pulled required her tucking her eyelashes under themselves and rolling her eyes up in her head.

"What—?" Surprise couldn't stop a nervous giggle, then a more sure one when Lyra managed to make her lower teeth protrude out and over her top lip.

Lyra kept going until Surprise was laughing up a storm. It was the only defense she had against that kind of serious talk, and it proved effective. "Just remember any of those stupid faces next time you think I'm anything but a mare trying her best to make sure Equestria and its inhabitants stay in one piece."

"Yeah, but—" It worked exactly how Lyra had said. The moment Surprise tried to put Lyra on a pedestal again, she remembered the face with one lip behind the other. "This is my burden now, I guess," she said with a giggle.

"You taught my daughter when you served as pegasus trainer at Princess Luna's school." Extending a wing to examine it, Lyra pondered how to make a spell that would retain any changes made to a limb that a pony didn't normally have. "I'm sure she'll be happy to see you again, and in this one area you are definitely my superior."

Surprise's first reaction was to play that down and deny everything, but it was true. Lyra had the very basics of flight down, but needed refining. "You're not going to make this easy, are you? You're my her—"

"Don't say the word hero, whatever you do. Twilight's a hero. Cadance is a hero. Shining Armor is a hero. Me? I just do my job, salute, and shout yes sir when I get an order." Walking toward Cadance now, Lyra set herself the task of making Surprise see her for the mare she was and not some kind of ornament.

At the sight of Lyra approaching, Cadance took two steps toward her—which effectively cleared a path for her friend. Something about Lyra's expression told Cadance that there was a problem she was working on. "I assume you're already coming up with a way to beat me?"

Relieved to have somepony to talk to that would never see her as a hero, Lyra nodded. "Yup. Secret training techniques passed down to me by ancient gurus."

"You're full of something and it isn't training." Seeing her friend perking up, Cadance almost cheered out loud. "Do you want to see me completely fail to learn how to do the most basic stunt the Wonderbolts could come up with for me to do?"

"Do I ever!"


"If you don't want to miss the show, we should probably go now." Soarin looked at Maud across the table in the restaurant, his thoughts playing over what had brought them together. "You do want to see me fly, right?"

Maud's eyes widened a little and she nodded. She definitely wanted to see him fly. "Yes. That's a thing I want."

Soarin couldn't avoid the little rush of delight at somepony looked at him with the same hunger he felt for them. "Come on, then. We both have to go back and pay the piper."

"I thought you said you were in charge there?" Maud stood up and, when Soarin walked around their table for the door, she slipped up beside him so they had to press their flanks together to get out.

Both of them were a little quiet as they walked back toward the Wonderbolts' training area. Neither felt obliged to move away from the other enough to stop brushing together.

"Lieutenant! Thought you weren't going to be back today?" Fleetfoot couldn't help but smirk as the two quickly each took a step apart. "How'd the date go?"

Maud, trying to recover from her surprise at how well it went, answered first. "It went very nicely. Why have you been hiding all the cutest stallions here?"

Blushing, Soarin looked at Maud with surprise and, getting a smile back from her, felt even more excited to get to know her better. "I was going for strong and assertive."

"You are that, too, but you are cute, Soarin," Maud said.

"She's got your number, Clipper. You missed out on a crazy race earlier. Turns out our visitors were a unicorn and an alicorn, but get this, the unicorn is some kind of magic genius who can cast a spell to give her wings! Princess Cadance sent her packing in a race, though, and Commander Spitfire was so impressed she made a spot for her in the show. Now they have us all looking for the VIP they'd brought up for this show." Looking sideways from Soarin, Fleetfoot raised an eyebrow at Maud.

"Oh. Yes. That would be me."

Soarin snorted and stepped closer to Maud again. "We better hurry, then, or you might miss out on the best seat in the house."

The walk back wasn't spent quite as close as what they'd started, but Maud was comfortable enough walking with Soarin beside her. After spending the better part of the day just talking about themselves, she'd found a connection with him that made her want to know more.

"There she is!" Lyra called from the bleachers when she saw Maud. "Hey! Maud! Over here!" As Maud and Soarin approached, Lyra couldn't help but smile—they both kept glancing at each other. "Somepony found you or did you just decide to come up for air?"

Maud blushed and started to make an excuse, only to be cut off by Soarin.

"Sorry, completely my fault. Maudalina looked lost and I offered to show her the sights of Cloudsdale. I hope it didn't ruin your plans?" Soarin flicked his wing to brush Maud's side.

The touch, that Maud interpreted as a gesture of apology for the interruption, was quickly rewarded as she smiled. "We didn't get too far, though. There's just too much to look at in this city." She winked to Lyra.

"So I see." Lyra didn't need Cadance's special talent for love to see they enjoyed being together. "Though I think one will be stolen from you shortly—I think Commander Spitfire said something about latrine-cleaning and KP duty for a month if her first lieutenant wasn't back to lead a wing for this show. Do you know who that is?"

Soarin's wings shot up in panic. A month with the two worst duties in any military unit was not something he relished. With a neigh of worry, he shot off as fast as he could toward the briefing room to find his commander.

After a moment Lyra said, "You're checking out his rear, aren't you?"

"Yes." Maud put as much deadpan into her voice as she could and when she got a laugh from Lyra, considered it a job well done. "That is definitely one thing of his I was looking at."

About to reply with another joke, Lyra stopped before she even started as a V formation of pegasi streaked by overhead. The show had started.

Maud watched with rapt attention. The Wonderbolts were a sight to behold as they swept around and pulled off amazing turns in the air. She did her best not to fixate on Soarin, there were other stallions flying, but for some reason her gaze kept drawing back to him.

Paying more attention to the entire show than just one pony in it, Lyra was delighted when Cadance began her flight. She kept a tight arc and, as she flew, Wonderbolts would spiral a loop around and under her, pronk off her hooves while inverted, and zoom off again.

"You know they want to make this a regular thing? Me challenging Cadance. I don't know if I should, but they seem to enjoy watching us both fail to do their course in twice the time they do."

"You raced against a princess? You lost, right?" Maud asked.

"I won one race, but that was because she didn't take it serious. I can say, honestly, that she beat me twice and should have beaten me a third time." The finale of the performance, Lyra noted, involved Cadance revealing she had a smoke generator on her too, but hers made pink smoke as she drew a giant heart in the sky—then the Wonderbolts carved a second huge heart beside it in blue. "I think they're trying to tell you something."

Maud just snorted as she watched Soarin lead the group who drew the second heart. She watched him whoosh by just above their heads and sighed. "Lyra?"

"Yeah?"

"What if he's the one?"

"Then you need to find out. You have more time."

Only when Soarin landed out of sight did Maud look at Lyra again. "How long does this spell last?"

"Since I cast it on both of us at once, until I stop powering it. You have a week, fly-girl." Standing up, Lyra stretched. "And that gives me time to practice for the next race."


"Sooooo…" Scootaloo was fighting off both excitement and curiosity. "Why do you still have those wings? Wasn't that just a thing to help your friend?"

Sitting on the couch and not wearing her armor that she had absolutely refused to have remade with holes for pegasi wings, Lyra laughed. "She needed a week in Cloudsdale. If I keep this going, she keeps her wings and cloudwalking."

"Oh! Huh, I guess that would do it. Why didn't you just cast it on her so it'd last for a week?" Buckling on her armor, Scootaloo was getting ready for the big weekend with Firelance.

"Doesn't work like that. Needs a unicorn to cast it on themselves, I just spread it out to her. If I drop mine, Maud would fall through the clouds." Lyra turned her attention from the spell she was working on to Scootaloo. "Why're you putting on armor?"

"I told you about my date with Firelance?" When Lyra nodded, Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief. "We're going to do some sparring first."

"He's taking you out on a date after you are done trying to beat each other up?" Lyra asked.

"Yup!"

"Sounds awesome! Good luck, and don't hurt him too bad." Not for the first time did Lyra wonder at how she'd wound up with the coolest filly ever. "Oh, and remember the rules?"

Rolling her eyes, Scootaloo groaned. "Really?"

"Yes. Really. You know we have rules, Scoots. This is the important one."

"If there is an apocalypse-level monster event, I am not supposed to fly at it." It was silly, but given the track record of their family running into such things, it was probably a good one. Scootaloo looked into Lyra's eyes. "Happy now?"

"And the second rule."

Trying to stare Lyra down was an exercise in futility, Scootaloo knew, but she still tried it. "Fine! And no poking mysterious artifacts. The rule goes double if it is glowing."

Grinning now, Lyra held out a foreleg. "Get over here and give me a hug before you go."

Her family might just be the weirdest in Equestria, but Scootaloo wouldn't trade it for the world. She rushed to Lyra and grabbed her in a tight hug. "Thanks, Mom." The word slipped out, as it had been more and more often, without either surprise or regret. She squeezed just a little tighter, and got the same in return.

"Love you, Scoots, now go and make sure that colt doesn't get into any trouble." Lyra had to let go, though she didn't want to. Releasing Scootaloo, she reached out with a wing and booped her on the nose.

"Ugh!" Even with her groan at the silly gesture, Scootaloo couldn't stop smiling. "See you tomorrow night!"

Lyra hadn't been aware that Scootaloo would be out overnight, but it wasn't a huge deal breaker—certainly not worth stopping her to discuss. She trusted Scootaloo and she trusted Firelance too. She was surprised to see Twilight walk in through the open door Scootaloo left. "Your Highness!" Jumping to her hooves, Lyra bowed deeply. "You honor my humble home with your—"

Picking Lyra up in the air with her magic, Twilight hovered her closer so that—even bowing—they were on eye level. "Why do you still have wings? Is this some prank from Princess Celestia?"

"Further north. Cadance's orders. Maud still has three days left in Equestria and she wants to spend them in Cloudsdale with a certain Wonderbolt. You know how this spell works." Lyra didn't fight the magic holding her up partly because she had no chance of winning against Twilight but mostly because she was comfortable. "I was working on a better one."

"A better flight spell? Better than one that gives you perfect pegasus wings that even pegasi can't tell are magical, that let you beat an alicorn in a race?" Twilight brought Lyra closer so they were practically nose-to-nose. "And you plan to improve it?"

Turning and flopping on her side in Twilight's magic field, Lyra nodded. "Of course I plan to improve it. I heard Cadance is going to be starting a training plan that will have her as fit as a Wonderbolt for next year's race. I need to compete with that. Besides, when would you ever not want to improve a spell, Twilight?"

It was enough to take all the wind out of Twilight's righteous sails—because it was true. Levitating Lyra back to the couch, Twilight flopped down on it beside her. "So how are you going to do that?"

"Adding jet engines." When Twilight glared at her, Lyra laughed. "I want to make it so the wings can be improved by hard work. Training with them will make them better the next time you summon them. It's not been easy trying to build that permanence into the spell."

"Well you have the data storage problem." Twilight reached her hoof up and poked at one of Lyra's wings. "When the spell isn't active, and there's nothing supporting it, where is the information on the status of the wings stored?"

"Exactly!" Lyra waved her forehooves in the air in an irritated and impotent fury at the world of magic. "Where do I store the data?"

"You know about aetheric forms?" Twilight asked.

"Last I heard, that was a hypothesis." As she said it, Lyra watched Twilight quirk an eyebrow. "You mean it's been proven as a theory?"

"It has. You could try storing that information in the aetheric form, though that might have consequences. Aetheric forms are tightly linked to the body. If your body changes, your aetheric form does too—though there is a delay." It was a complete relief to Twilight to find a topic that Lyra hadn't studied and (possibly) written a book series about. "The hypothesis would then be, would the reverse be true?"

"That's—" Lyra winced as her head wrapped around it. "That's immoral for anyone to do."

Twilight nodded with an air of gravity the situation warranted. "Yup. That's why I am left wondering what the effects will be of a unicorn having and training with wings will be. Have you considered writing this up as a paper?"

"I'd need somepony not currently affected by any weird magic to assist. I wonder where I could find such a pony? I might even feel the need to put her name on the paper beside mine." Having effectively cut through the seriosness of the situation, Lyra summoned a notebook and pencil. "I began the experiment two days ago. Subject had experimented with the spell on three prior occasions for less than an hour each and no more than two hours total. Subject was, at time of beginning the experiment, a unicorn."

"You'd better come downstairs and we can figure out how to take pictures of your aetheric form. If this spell is capable of causing those kinds of changes on a permanent basis, it may need to be restricted." Leading the way to the basement of the library, Twilight was confident science and magic would get done, even if the outcomes might not be exactly what they desired.


With Maud departing for Batstralia again, Lyra was free to release the spell. It was odd, at first. With the constant draw on her magic, Lyra had grown more used to just maintaining an active spell even while asleep.

"Okay." Twilight ended the spell she'd used many times during their week of experimentation. "That clearly shows no changes to your aetheric form—at least by this spell and in this situation." It went without needing to be said that more experimentation was required.

"So what does that mean? Am I fine to use that to store the data about wings or could that be a step too far?" Lyra tapped at her chin. "I guess there's no other way to test this but personally."

Unable to help herself, Twilight said, "Assuming you can actually use that to store data."

"That's the trick, you see. I'll make the spell store that data as if they were actual wings. That way, the worst that will happen is I get stuck with a pair of wings."

"Oh, that reminds me, did you experience any wing-blindness during the week? Or maybe horn?"

"For sure. Around Ponyville it was all wing-blindness. Nopony seemed willing to acknowledge them at all. When I went to Canterlot yesterday, it was all horn-blindness. I knew you'd be interested in this." Settling back to her task of spellcrafting, Lyra had decided to not involve Dinky in creating this spell. "Oh, Surprise was telling me that the Wonderbolts are starting their new pre-approval training program. How much do you want to bet Rainbow will come to you the moment she hears about it?"

"Why would she come to me about it?" Twilight asked.

"Because half the application test is physical and the other half is a written exam. We both know Rainbow Dash isn't a stupid pony, but she usually acts it when she isn't sure about how to proceed."

Author's Note:

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any character within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right character to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post!

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