Robert took the train home. He'd had all the flying he could handle for one day, and didn't feel like trying to get a teleport. Pinkie was waiting at the train station. “Hello Pinkie, sorry I didn't catch you the first time I came back.”

“It's okay, I know it was an emergency requiring a quick teleport to Manehattan and the rescue of Gilda the Mean-meanie pants griffon from certain death.” Pinkie replied. “I really wanted to hear about the rest of your trip.”

“Sugarcube Corner?” he asked. “I've been missing their Super Chocolate Muffins.”

“Muffins?” Derpy asked, appearing from thin air. “Where?”

“Sugarcube Corner, duh.” Pinkie laughed. The trip was short, and soon they were seated, eating muffins while Robert told the story.

“So, did they mention me at all?” Pinkie asked. He thought it over.

“Not by name, but he said to tell my Ponyville friends hello.” Robert answered after a moment. “So Hello.” Pinkie coughed.

“Hello!” Derpy grinned. Robert laughed. “What?”

“Nothing. So, that everything you wanted Pinkie?” Robert asked.

“Yeppers. Oh, and welcome back.” she stood up. “Gotta get back to work.” she pronked into the kitchen.

“What about you Derpy?” Robert asked.

“Got the day off actually.” she coughed. “I was going to see about a job, but you're back and well...”

“No problem. I've seen everyone but Rarity and Applejack. And those two are going to be a little bit longer of a talk anyway.” he sighed. Rarity wouldn't be a problem. Applejack was going to be a bit of a strange one.

“Okay. So.. you want to hang out?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Robert nodded. “Sounds like fun. Do you know where Lyra's gone? I was looking for her before I left and she seems to have vanished.”

“No, I'm not sure exactly. We've been forwarding her mail to her parent's in Canterlot. None of it's come back so she must be getting it.” Derpy said. “I haven't seen Bon-bon in a while either, come to think of it.”

“Ah, probably having a romantic get away then.” Robert nodded.

“Probably from the flute.” Derpy grinned.

“Which probably annoyed the glaziers to no end.”

---

The flute playing had been getting better, but not nearly fast enough for Bon-bon's neighbors. Some of them had taken to throwing things to make the noise stop, which meant the windows broke, which unfortunately only amplified the noise.

Eventually, the local glaziers had caught on and started throwing things at calculated weak points. That guaranteed the window would break, and thus would need replacing. After the third night, Bon-bon had stopped replacing the windows and taken to returning fire. Since one of her specialties, was getting others to help, she'd enlisted Pinkie to bring all the rock candy she could muster up. Pinkie had brought a catapult as well.

Twilight sent them away for a while to cool down. Lyra had wanted to bring the flute. Bon-bon voted rather enthusiastically NO. They'd just gotten back in time for the Ponytones, which Bon-bon had no intention of missing. Twilight offered to let Lyra practice her flute in the castle of the Two Pony Sisters, figuring nothing out there would be bothered by the noise. So she was sitting at the pipe organ. She'd rather thorougly made her excitement known. Bon-bon, who'd come with just so Lyra wouldn't be alone, it was still the Everfree even if everything avoided the castle like mad, had a hard time reminding her she was hear to learn the flute, not play the pipe organ. The mint green unicorn had finally, reluctantly agreed on the condition she would come back and play it later.

Bon-bon was not Twilight's biggest fan. She didn't actively dislike Equestria's newest princess, but found her just a little... more eccentric than she preferred. Which was saying something considering her marefriend. However, Twilight's novel solution both to Lyra's problem, and her own had done a considerable amount to improve her opinion of the princess. Lyra's problem was simple enough, she couldn't play because she didn't know what it was supposed to sound like. Twilight had procured records of flute performances through some connections in Canterlot. Neglecting to mention that said connection was Trixie, was a political maneuver worthy of Celestia. The second had been Bon-bon's own growing distaste for even properly played flute. Which was why the pony in question was now wearing a pair of... ear rings that sat at the base of each ear, and filtered out the specific notes which a flute was capable of producing.

Lyra had been slightly disappointed that she was losing her primary audience, but Bon-bon had replied that she wasn't losing an audience, she was gaining a surprise. If Bon-bon couldn't hear what she was playing, then the first time she played her composition in full would be a surprise. Lyra had been mollified a little. So they practiced in one of the upstairs rooms, so as to be out of the way if Twilight came to do more research in the castle.

“I think I've finally gotten it.” Lyra said. The sound was slightly blurred, since Lyra's speech patterns naturally crossed the frequencies with that of the flute. It was an unfortunate, but also uncorrectable flaw in the design of the sound muffling rings. Bon-bon raised an eyebrow. “Really this time. Willing to listen?”

“Sure.” Bon-bon reached up and raised the rings. Lyra concentrated, horn flaring to life. The hands gripped the flute, and she played. Bon-bon's eyes slowly widened. The melody floated in the air around them. She recognized it, she'd heard it often enough, and knew it well. Yet this time, it was note perfect. The trouble spot approached, and then flowed past without so much as half an octave off. Bon-bon noted idly that the hands had grown another finger each. Whatever it was seemed to work, and Lyra played through to the end. “Wow.”

“Thanks.” the unicorn managed after a moment. “It's a bit harder than it looks.”

“I can imagine. You know, now that you've learned to play, perhaps we should take advantage of this lonely castle, full of nothing but old shadows and the two of us.” Bon-bon grinned.

“Ooh, I like the way you think.” Lyra laughed.

---

“This flower, it contains all the required power.” Zecora said. Robert had flown out with Derpy. “But night time is the right time for the potion brew. No other time of day will do.”

“I think she's reaching.” Derpy said.

“All the time you rhyme, and reach you will my delightful peach.” Zecora chuckled.

“Indeed, hard it will be to find the words you need.” Robert said, straight faced.

“Not you too.” Derpy rolled her eyes, one in each direction.

“Sorry, can't help myself.” Robert chuckled. “Anything I can do to help oh teacher mine?”

“Nothing. We simply need work the potion by the light of the moon. Until then, there is nothing to be done. Return then, and we shall fix this, no moment too soon.” Zecora smiled.

“Alright, thank you teacher.”

“No problem. Now go, and when you return we shall solve 'em.” she shooed them out the door. “Fly, fly, go now off into the sky.” she slammed the door.

“I guess that means she doesn't need help.” Robert chuckled. Zecora's head appeared out of her window.

“No, No, Go, Go!”

Derpy laughed, turned, and took off into the sky. Robert shook his head, and followed her up.

“So, you know the problem with flying around like this.” she said after a minute, as they headed back towards town.

“She's working.” Robert said.

“You think that matters?” Derpy asked. “She never works except the last ten minutes of any shift.” Derpy said.

“Who doesn't?” Rainbow asked, appearing from above.

“You.” Derpy replied. “Unless it's an emergency.”

“Yeah, I'm that awesome.” she laughed, and rolled over to take up position left of Derpy. “You two going flying? And not asking me along?”

“No, as a matter of fact, we were looking for you.” Derpy said. “We figured you wouldn't want to miss a flight on such a nice day.”

“Liar.” Rainbow laughed.

“Not at all. I wanted to avoid bothering you, Derpy said we should go find you before you found us.” Robert said.

“Liar.” Rainbow grinned. “But thank you both for it.” she rolled up into the air over them. “Come on, let's fly.” she burst out ahead of them. Derpy threw herself into the chase. Robert didn't bother. Endurance, spades. Speed? Not so much. Not that he didn't speed up a little, but he wasn't going to be matching Derpy, much less Rainbow. He began climbing though. The long slow climb took him high up, where he could see the majority of Ponyville. Rainbow was clearly visible, staying just ahead of Derpy. The fact that Rainbow could have simply blown away from Derpy, yet was only keeping a little ahead of her spoke volumes about the prismatic Pegasus. He knew from tales from the others, that for all her loyalty, she'd always had a huge competitive streak. She must have come a long way from that to be keeping just ahead of the pony she was racing. They stopped in the park, hovering just above the tree tops. Robert tipped his wings and dove, swooping down just out of sight behind a two story house, then swinging around the side. He looked for all the world as if he'd been trying to keep up with them for most of the race.

“Hey there Slowpoke.” Rainbow teased. “Nice of you to finally join us.” Robert used several naughty words. Two of them in griffon, which prompted laughter from Rainbow and confusion from Derpy.

“What's funny?” Derpy asked after a long moment.

“His accent.” Rainbow managed and continued laughing. “It's...” she collapsed out of the air. The other two followed her down to the ground. “He was speaking griffon.” she managed after several minutes.

“Meaning?” Derpy prompted. Rainbow took a deep breath. The other two sat, recognizing her explanation inhalation. Twilight had named it and said it meant what she said next had about a fifty-fifty chance of being true.

“Look, I roomed with Gilda while we were at Junior Speedsters. I was the only one not afraid of her to start with. She spoke Equestrian, but also a lot of griffon. She taught me a lot. Mostly the swear words. But I can't speak it well. It's meant to be spoken with a beak, and without one...” she shrugged.

“It sounds very, very silly.” Robert nodded. “I know just how bad my accent is.”

“Doubt it.” Rainbow laughed again. “You really are a slow flier.”

“Some of us have speed, some of us have endurance. Some of us have great precision.” Robert shrugged.

“You saying I don't have endurance?” Rainbow asked, poking him with a hoof.

“I'm not saying that.” Robert said. “I'm just saying your wings are meant to go fast, while mine are meant to go forever and ever.”

“So you're saying you've got more endurance than me.” Rainbow said, far too calmly.

“S'all I'm saying.” Robert nodded firmly.

“That's it!” Rainbow lunged. Derpy laughed.

---

“No Twilight, I don't wish to explain my eye.” Robert said. Twilight glared at him. “It's none of anyponies business.”

“Look if someone hit you...” Twilight started.

“Twilight. Look at me.” she did for a moment. “I'm fine. No one, lays paw on me, nor hoof.” he smiled, then winced. His eye slightly swollen. “If I don't have a problem with it, you shouldn't either.”

“That doesn't make sense.” Twilight snapped. “Why wouldn't you have a problem with it? Some one hit you!”

“Yes.” Robert leveled a stare from his good eye. “I am a tiger. We are far and away more physical with both our emotions and our disagreements. I've had far worse than this over who had watch duty at night.” he shrugged. “Besides, it was an accident.”

“I... I...” Twilight shook her head. “Who did it?”

“I did, got a problem with that?” Rainbow asked, limping slightly as she walked towards them.

“What? Why?” Twilight flickered back and forth between them. “What happened to you?” she demanded of Rainbow.

“We were wrestling.” Robert replied. “Just enjoying the day and she went to grab me, and missed. Then I slipped and fell. On top of her.”

“Tiger boy needs to go on a diet.” Rainbow grunted.

“I am all muscle.” Robert said, sticking his nose in the air.

“Awfully squishy muscle.” she replied. Robert did the mature thing, and stuck his tongue out at her. Twilight made a strangled noise. The day, or rather evening was saved by Applebloom.

“Hello Robert, Twilight. Zecora sent me to get the two of ya.” she said, after a moment.

“What for?” Twilight asked.

“It's almost moonrise, and she said she's going to need our help with the potion AJ said it's okay if I stay up since it's not a school night.” Applebloom said.

“Well, I guess it's time to get unstuck.” Robert smiled.

“Aw man, I'm gonna lose a flying buddy.” Rainbow sighed.

“Don't count on it.” Robert chuckled. “If I'm right, I should be able to fly permanently now. Any time I have wings at least.”

“Awesome.” Rainbow grinned.

“So, does that mean you'll be an Alicorn?” Applebloom asked. Robert looked skyward.

“It'd bloody well better not.” he said to no one they could see.

“Don't worry, I promise it won't.” said a strange looking pony walking past the door.

“Who's that guy?” Twilight asked.

“Author Avatar?” Rainbow asked. “He just shows up sometimes. Then he disappears. He's like a Pinkie Plus on the Weird-o-meter.”

“Oh.”

---

The three ponies, Rainbow Dash having come along since she had nothing else to do, and one tiger landed in the clearing Zecora had first botched a potion in.

“I did not botch a potion. Beyond my control were the events in motion.” she said. “But now a fix I can apply, with the mix which we will supply.”

“Great, more rhyming, Yay.” Rainbow said. “I'm going to stand over there.” She pointed off in one direction and flapped away in another. Applebloom shook her head and leaped off of Robert's back.

“So oh dear teacher, what do we need to do?” Robert asked.

“You, stand in the midst of the circle.” Zecora pointed. “Twilight, I require a Lunar focus, as described in the manual.” she pointed at a book. Twilight nodded. She was moderately familiar with them already, as a study of Zebrican magic was one of her personal projects. It was simply a matter of following directions.

“Can do.” the alicorn said and trotted to the table.

“Apple Bloom, come and attend. The magic of this night and flower we must apprehend.” The Zebra and Earth Pony worked quietly, mixing magics and alchemical ingredients. Once Twilight finished her task, Zecora set her to work carving a circle around the clearing. Clouds began to obscure the moon, and Rainbow was pressed into service to keep the sky clear. She didn't even complain.

As midnight neared, Twilight finished her careful inscriptions in the dirt around the clearing, then checked them over. The potion began to glow, and Zecora carefully crushed several petals from the Thaumus Orchidae into the cauldron. She carefully dipped out a bottle, stoppered it, then spoke.

“Twilight, pour the cauldron's contents carefully into the circle.” The cauldron was engulfed in magenta light, and lifted into the air. She poured it through a funnel into the circle. It flowed through the circle to the inner ring through the symbols. Zecora began speaking, in a tongue none of them understood. It was not, those who knew Zebrican. It wasn't Tiger, and it certainly wasn't Equestrian or even griffon. Had Spike, or even Celestia been present, they could have correctly identified it not only as Draconic, but as an ancient Dialect, so old it was known only as the Eldertongue.

The Everfree seemed to recognize it as well, and began to swell towards it, magic drawing magic and world following magic. The trees began to actually bend towards the clearing, energy beginning to flow off of them in waves. High in the sky, even Rainbow Dash began having trouble keeping the sky free of clouds. After a few minutes, Twilight took wing to help her. The circle meanwhile began to glow brighter and brighter. As midnight approached, Zecora motioned to Applebloom, who took the bottle of potion and threw it to Robert. He caught it, and waited.

“When Ah give the signal, drink the bottle, but not before.” Applebloom called over the chanting. The moon moved slowly towards midnight. As it approached, Zecora's chanting changed, but also picked up in tempo. Applebloom readied. She knew the point to give the signal, and was waiting. Twilight and Rainbow ran racetracks around the sky, veering off only to push back errant clouds. The wall was thickening, but they were holding. Zecora threw her head back and raised her voice. The entire Everfree seemed to have been roused. A careful observer could have seen dozens if not hundreds of species. As the Zebra's chanting began to crescendo, several creatures picked up the chant. The ground thrummed with energy, the air crackled with it. Some sixth sense told Zecora the time was right, and she bellowed one final word.

Applebloom threw her front hooves up in the air and waved. Robert drank the bottle. The moment he did, the potion flashed to life in the circles and flared up into the air, swirling around before pulsing once and slamming inward onto him. He screamed in pain, then an instant later a silver flash of light exploded outwards from the center of the circle. All at once the entire forest was silent, the magic fading into the background again. It took a moment of work to locate him, no longer in the center of the circle. He was, fortunately uninjured. He was also nearly a hundred yards away, leaning against one of the big trunks. Worst of all, he was giggling in a reasonably disturbing way. A first look showed that he was wingless. A second showed that he actually had only one wing.

“Did we do something wrong?” Applebloom asked Zecora. The Zebra shook her head.

“All things went right. I'm not sure what has happened this night.” she replied. Twilight walked up and waved a hoof in his face.

“Robert? You okay?” she asked, concern evident in her voice.

“Okay? Am I okay? I'm better than okay!” he shrugged himself forwards, stood up and shook. He looked her in the eyes. “I''m BACK.” He spread his wings, then folded them. And they vanished. He turned sideways.

“Your stripes!” Twilight said. Indeed, they were nearly to his shoulders now.

“Exactly.” he grinned at her. “You heard the scream?” nods all around. “As soon as the ritual opened the block, I got all these stripes at once. Unfortunately, I lost control of my sight and well, I was in the middle of a magical forest, undergoing a magical ritual of rather impressive power. That hurt my brain. Like, a lot.” he shook his head. “And then things exploded, and well.” He waved a paw behind him. “Tree.”

“You're not injured?” Twilight asked.

“Not that I can tell.” he said and shifted himself around. “Nope, everything seems to be in working order.”

“Your shiner is gone as well.” Rainbow noticed, somewhat jealously.

“'s good to be a wizard.” Robert laughed. “Best of all?” wings appeared on his back. He spread them and took to the air. “Still can't do magic up here. Not a lot anyway, but..” he swooped in, landed and turned to face them. “I can do this.” He closed his eyes. His wings stretched, and grew even larger. He opened his eyes, and took wing again. He swooped a path around the field, then landed again. “Much better.”

“Really?” Twilight asked. “Does the ten percent flight surface really generate that much of a superiority?” she asked him curiously.

“No, but the extra ten percent makes it that much easier to get and stay in the air. Having wings that aren't quite big enough is like having legs that are just a little too short.” he said. “It'd be like eating out of a high chair your entire life.” Twilight shuddered.

“Doesn't bother me.” Rainbow said, waving her wings.

“Yeah, but you've got Pegasus magic on your side, and I'm like three times your size.” Robert grinned. “Plus you're made to go fast.”

“Yeah, I'm kind of awesome like that.” Rainbow grinned. “All speed, all the time.”

“Right.” Twilight said. “So, we done here?” she looked around. “I really don't like this place at night.”

“Indeed we are. Now home we go, be it never so near.”