> Moments of our Lives - Mane 6
>  by HonestDoodle
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> Flight
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Twilight stood on her balcony high above Ponyville, one hoof planted on the ground and the other brought up to her knee, arms stretched outward in a T shape pose.  She wore a snug white sleeveless top, which also made it easy for her wings to spread, and her favorite sky blue sweats that she wore when doing her pre-flight stretching.  She breathed in slowly and exhaled through her mouth, letting her arms and leg relax.  Opening her eyes to the oncoming sunset, she walked over to the railing and leaned against it to watch as Celestia and Luna traded shifts for the day.  It had been well over a month since she had asked Rainbow Dash for some good exercises for her own core strength and muscles to help with her own flying.  She was quite proud of herself as she looked down at her folded arms on the railing, they were by far not anywhere near as toned as Rainbows or Applejacks but for her it was in improvement.

Twilight backed away from the railing, tying the strings to her sweats tighter.  She bent down low and let her wings spread upward. She knelt for a few heart beats, this moment always excited her, the moment before takeoff, something about it always made her skin tingle and her fur stand on end.  With a sharp exhale, Twilight brought her wings down powerfully, a gust of wind created all around her pushing her from the ground and soaring into the air.  The wind poured through her hair wiping it back and forth behind her, another flap of her wings sent her even higher before she arced of into a slow spin.  Twilight opened her eyes and looked up, though halfway through her spin she was looking truly down at Ponyville, the last lights of sunset washing over the land and a small glint of light that sparkled off of the now small tower she called home.  A few powerful flaps and she was able to correct herself and began a slow, gliding, descent.  Angling herself into the wind so her wings would catch more lift, muscles tensing at the pressure.  Then she angled herself downward, falling a few feet before angling back up, the strain on her back and wing muscles as she caught the wind and climbed back up in altitude.  Up and down she worked her muscles and flapping only to correct herself if she started listing to far to one side.  She inched closer and closer to the ground before she set down gracefully in the middle of town near the fountain.  She folded her wings and slowly unfurled them, in and out, working the stressed tendons before fully folding them to her back.  A few ponies were still out and about, most likely on their way home for the night.  Stopping to wave at a few before making the surrounding area clear.  She was going to attempt something today that she had been looking forward too for some time.

Looking around she saw no pony in sight and once again unfurled her massive wings, and took as sturdy stance, readying for what was about to happen.  She closed her eyes and concentrated on her inherent unicorn magic and found the arcane weaves she had become so familiare with,  having the spell in mind she focused the magic upon her wings.  As she did, her wings began to glow a faint lavender, each feather feeling the magical tingle of a spell.  The spell had been cast and now all she had to do was flap her wings a single time.  Anticipation, exhilaration, fear, so many conflicting emotions and yet one thing Rainbow Dash said long ago still trumped these emotions when the time needed, Don't think about it, just do it!  With that in mind, Twilight tensed her arms and legs, brought her wings to their maximum height and pulled them down with all her might an one powerful flap.  A shockwave of are exploded around her, the water in the fountain was blown clean out of the bottom, trees lost a good portion of their leaves and branches broke from the force of the wind.  Had there been any buildings Twilight was sure she would have shattered every window in the vicinity.  Twilight could feel the wind rushing past her, every individual fur on her face feeling almost as if they would be pulled from their pores, Her wings elongated behind her past her feet, unable to bring them in.  Had she been going any faster she was sure she would have broken the sound barrier and caused some kind of Rainboom of her own making. 

Mear moments go by and she had passed the height of her initial take off from her castle.  She could feel herself slowing more and more as she climbed closer and closer to the stars.  The spell had worked wonderfully, she had wanted a fast and safe-ish way to climb into the sky and she found a way to combine Unicorn and Pegasi magic to do just that.  The everyday use of the spell was practically meaningless but discovering new spells was fun in itself, at least that is what she told Spike when he told her how dumb the spell was.  Soon Twilight slowed to the point she almost felt the need to flap her wings to keep aloft, even the air felt thinner... but that was not the point of this particular exercise.  No getting high was not the point this time, this time was all about the descent.

With a smile, Twilight folded her wings in close, allowing herself to begin a free fall descent to the ground.  Years ago this kind of thing would have scared her half to death, but as she learned from other pegasi and even from stories of Celestia's past, flying and the control it takes to do so, it is the most relaxing and mind freeing experience there was in all of Equestria.  Though the mind of Twilight Sparkle was no ordinary one, and she would not help but feel the excitement other pegasi did but also calculate things around her, which brought a whole new level of exhilaration.  Faster and faster she fell, the ground racing up toward her, she couldn’t help but know exactly how fast she was falling and what speed she was gaining as she fell and just how long she would have to hold out until... NOW! she thought to herself.  Mere moments and feet from the ground, Twilight spread her wings to the fullest at just the right ark that she didn't lose any speed but caused her whole body to shift and arc almost parallel to the ground.  Her muscles ached as the force of wind fought against the massive surface of her wings pulling at the feathers almost threatening the rip them free, but they held.  Speeding along the ground her downward arc stopped and she began to rise again.  She arched her wings opposite to each other, her left arching down as her right arched slightly up, throwing her into a spin as she rose from her speedy decnet.  The wind tickled through her feathers and she couldn’t help but giggle.  She opened her wings out to their fullest span, stopping her spin.  Another powerful flap sent her directly upward until her climb slowed to a stand still.  Now having to flap at a constant pace to keep stationary, Twilight looked out upon the now moonlit world.  Breathing heavily, she could see lights begin to flicker to life as it became darker and in the distance the ever glowing city of Canterlot shone ever brighter in the night.

Twilight brought herself down to a low flying cloud and set herself down upon it.  Clouds always seemed to surprise her and how Alicorns and Pegasus have a natural ability to just land on them with little to no effort.  The nice thing about clouds is they were by far the most comfortable things in all the world!  She lay back, letting her wings spread to their fullest and aching from the strain of todays flight.  They hung slightly off the cloud edge as she got comfortable.  She knew relaxing this much was probably not good after a workout but hey, she deserved it, and she probably deserved that last slice of carrot cake too when she got back.  Twilight watched silently as the stars shifted oh so slightly in the sky, picking out constellations, her breathing coming back down to normal levels.  As slow as the stars in the sky her eyes began to close, slow enough that even the princess of friendship herself didn’t even know she was already asleep, but to fast to have noticed a cyan pegasus closing in slowly with a grin that could only mean bad intentions.