For the life of me, I could not get my mind off Rainbow Dash! Two weeks had gone by since the day she left, and guilt had began driving into the back of my head like a silver nail… I had to see her… I had to go to Cloudesdale… But how? I couldn’t fly, and I had serious doubts that Cloudesdale airspace wasn’t exactly lax when it came to automated means of flight… I knew I had to gain a pair of wings somehow…

Alright… Think, Cooper, think… You’re a scientist, you can come up with something…
I sat, unmoving in the armchair set off to the left of my television set for several minutes, racking my brain for a method. The minutes soon rolled into hours… Nothing came… That is, until a loud rap against my front door startled me out of my thoughts. A quick glance out the window off to my right revealed the shroud of darkness that covered the sky… Not many of Ponyville’s residents went out after dark, save for the occasion of Nightmare Night… Who could possibly be calling on me at this time…?
A peak through the peep-hole in my door had me taken aback. Out in the dark stood an attractive lavender mare. My friend…

“Twilight Sparkle!” I cried upon opening the door. “Come in, you’ll catch your death out there like that!”
In the heavy rain that was falling, Twilight’s hair had frizzed up quite a bit, and she stuttered when she spoke… In truth, it was quite amusing…

“Th-Th-Thanks… S-Seb… D-d-d-d-do you ha-have a blanket I could use…?”
Moments later, I had the freezing young lady huddled beneath a thick comforter, sipping at hot cocoa.

“What in Equestria were you doing out there in that weather?” I asked, rubbing her arms from behind the couch.

“I j-just got c-caught…”
Twi’s hooves shook visibly, but she wasn’t hypothermic… She had probably been out only for about ten minutes…

“Sheesh… You work too hard, Twilight. Take it easy for a while, okay? Do you want anything else? Another blanket?”
Twi shook her head.

“Actually, I’d like to talk to you.” Her voice had stopped shaking and she wasn’t stuttering anymore… A good sign…

“Talk to me? What about? Is something wrong?”
For some reason, I found myself panicking, but as I rounded the couch to sit with my companion, her eyes erased any doubt. She was alright. Those dark orbs held within them a certain urgency, but still remained soft and conversational. She wanted to ask me something, but there was no need for me to freak out just yet…

“Rainbow Dash told me what happened that night.” Twilight began

Oh God. I’m in trouble, aren’t I?

“Oh… Yeah…” I replied, throwing a bashful glance at the floor as the memories played through my mind once again.
Truth be told, I had come to regret not submitting to Dash’s advances… In fact, that was probably why I couldn’t get my mind off of her…

“I’m curious, Sebastian. Why didn’t you go for it? Almost anypony would have given anything just to be in that situation.”
Twilight’s inquiry struck me as a bit odd. The phrasing of it made me ponder for a moment if she was jealous, but quickly perished the thought. Twilight wasn’t the jealous type anyhow…

“I’m not sure, Twilight. I actually regret not giving her what she wanted. I really want to see her. To apologize. Y’know, maybe even make it up to her…”
There was a long silence. It was thick and pensive… After a solid minute, Twilight stood.

“I can help you get to Cloudesdale.”
My ears twitched at their bases at this (as they can’t actually twitch, being so floppy and all).

“What do you mean?”
Her smile brought me a small measure of pleasure… It was so bright and knowing…

“Magic is my element, Sebastian.” She said, her smile dissolving into a smirk. “And I know a spell that can give you wings. Just stand up, and you’ll have them in a snap.”
Without a second thought, I jumped up and lifted my shirt over my head, discarding it haphazardly onto the floor. For a moment, Twilight blushed. I took a mental note of how adorable she looked when she did that… Her eyes began wandering my bare frame, studying the valentine-shaped burn on my chest.

“You still have that scar?” she asked.
She was kind of dazed judging by the distant edge in her voice. I could feel my ego inflate just the tiniest bit at her admiration, but I wasn’t patient enough at the moment for a show.

“Yeah. Kinda hard to get rid of a third degree burn.”

“Right… Oh!” Twi’s eyes widened in the realization that she was staring, and she shook her head, refocusing. “You ready?”
I nodded.
In the moments that followed, I could have sworn I saw the very face of God… The light that enveloped my body absolutely had to be divine. It was blinding and yet it didn’t hurt… It lifted me a solid foot into the air, and yet it didn’t tug… Once I came back to myself, I was acutely aware of a strange weight between my shoulder blades… I craned my head back to admire the work my friend had done.

“Huh. Check it out… I’ve got wings…” I commented in sheer awe.
They were… Beautiful! Eight feet from tip-to-tip, the raven black appendages were stretched outward, flexing in slow, laborious flaps.

“Twilight… They’re wonderful… Thank you so much! Is there anything I can do to repay you?”
My dark-coated companion shook her head with a knowing smile.

“Just go see her. Tomorrow.”

“I will. I swear.”

“Pinkie Pie swear?”
My smile waivered for a moment, recalling the nightmare behind that name, but I realized Twilight hadn’t meant any harm. Just an inside joke between friends… I crossed my heart, flapped my arms, then pretended to stick a pastry in my eye.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye…”