UNDER THE NIGHT SKY

Part 1

Author's Fore-note;

   Here there by dragons, shipping, and a lot of scene-skipping. It's just the way I roll. Skip to the bottom for further commentary/notes from the author.

   “Twilight! Twilight, you gotta see this!”

   The purple Unicorn's head emerges from under a small pile of books, rubbing her face with a fore-hoof, “wh-...Spike? What is it?”. “Just come look!” her assistant insists excitedly, repeatedly pointing at the balcony door. Twilight offers a momentarily skeptical look, but shakes it off and climbs to her feet, tiredly crossing the library floor to walk out onto the balcony.

   She gazes out over the town of Ponyvile, slowly scanning around the visible scape of it to recognition of no visible difference than any other night, save that it was curiously easier to see for the time. Spike offers his assistance, by gently grabbing the Unicorn's head and pointing it upward accompanied by a point of his other claw “look!”.

   Twilight blinks once or twice in skeptical curiosity, but the her eyes open wide; the higher cloud of the sky had been spread so thin as to turn it a rich blue, with elegant swirls of lower cloud radiating from an open expanse around the moon, causing them to light up like gentle silver waves across the night sky under the moon light, she had never seen a night like it.

   “That is beautiful, dear sister” Princess Celestia reports warmly, as she walks up to her younger sibling on the balcony of the castle, observing the same night sky from some distance away. Princess Luna seemed to struggle to take her eyes away from it, turning to look back at elder sibling, “It is...but w-...I mean, I didn't do it”. Celestia is taken aback by this momentarily, regarding the sky once more to offer a soft smile, “is that so...?”.

   The next morning rolled on with no particular direction. The delicate cloudwork of the previous night had long since been undone by the weather pegasi, having set it as it should be for the day; a pleasant summer's day, if maybe a bit hot. The town of Ponyville was alive to the sound of its residents going about their daily business, though little of it was evident from within the library.

   “I thought we talked about this whole 'reading eleven books at a time' thing” Spike mumbles to himself in strain, as he struggles under the weight and balance of the half dozen books he was awkwardly guiding back to their shelves. “I told you” Twilight begins, magically manipulating her brush to set her mane, “advanced magical studies involves a lot of … well, studying. It can't be helped”.

   Spike rolls his eyes as he slots the last two books into their slots, then jumps down off the ladder to pick up the last two on the ground, holding either out before himself. One was titled Everything you ever wanted to know about earth ponies, and probably more, the other titled A hundred and one facts about Unicorn horns; Spike didn't see the connection between them and the subject at hand, but he knew any question was likely to draw an essay-length answer, so he simply sets about putting them back.

   Or he would have, had his cheeks not suddenly bulged out; he promptly drops the books for their own safety, not a moment before he pushes out a belch of green fire, producing a scroll that falls into his hands, “oh, hey. A letter from the Princess”.

   Twilight virtually fell off her elevated bedroom deck in the process of clambering over to Spike's position, neglecting to even use her magic … or remove her brush, which was now lodged in her mane, she grabs the scroll with both hooves and unfurls it hastily, “oh no, don't tell me I've fallen behind already...”

   My faithful student,

   You may have noticed the remarkable state of the sky last night. I believe it was the work of a pegasus paying tribute to Luna, and so would like you to find out who the pegasus was on my behalf, so that they can meet. I think it would do Luna a world of good to meet someone who appreciates her night, don't you?

   Princess Celestia.

   Twilight breathes a deep sigh of relief and visibly relaxes, draping the scroll on Spike's head and trotting off back to her mirror, “oh thank goodness”. Spike pulls the scroll off his head to reveal that he was less amused by it, but shrugs it off and reads the scroll for himself, “I guess we should ask Rainbow, huh?”.

   Twilight regards the question momentarily, “no, I don't think that would help. Dash doesn't take the time to memorize all the other pegasi, much less ones who could do that much work on their own”. Spike nods along slowly, and illustrates with a claw “you got a point. But then what do we do?”.

   “Do you suppose the dear is sick?” Rarity ponders aloud in concern, as she and Applejack canter down the street leading to the library. “Ah reckon” the earth pony returns with similar concern, “ain't normal fer Twilight t'disappear on us fer days at a time”.

   As they drew closer to the library, they quickly detected the sounds of an awful ruckus going on inside. Without a moment's forethought, Applejack takes off in a gallop and flying-bucks her way through the door, “Twilight! Ah'm here sugarcube!”.

   By the time Rarity trots in behind her, Applejack had gone from active to ponderous, bearing a confused cock-eared look and tilted head. The white unicorn follows her gaze, to gain much confused surprise of her own, as she finds a suddenly winged Twilight – hovering awkwardly, upside-down, and a library full of knocked over furniture and displaced books.

   “This uh...this isn't as easy as it looks” Twilight reports sheepishly, swinging her hind legs around to try and flip herself over, only to succeed in performing a rolling somersault strait down into the floor, where she hands upside-down again heavily.

   Spike sticks his head out from under a makeshift bunker made of books carrying a shell-shocked expression, “take her! Take her away from here! For the love of Celestia, the mess!”. Twilight shakes off her daze to give a frustrated “augh!”, then swings her hind-legs over again, this time managing to flip herself over into a proper seated posture at least, rubbing her head with a hoof, “so maybe I should have done this outside...”.

   “Woah nelly!” Applejack reports, pulling back on the rope tired around her waist, the other end attached to Twilight's, using her body-weight to anchor the purple unicorn. They were outside now at least, Applejack keeping Twilight on a leash of sorts, as the two and Rarity stood in the field out the back of the library.

   “Darling, are you sure this was a good idea?” Rarity inquires with concerned skepticism, watching her friend repeatedly veer off in random directions, only to be stopped by the length of rope, or the ground, though she seemed to be somewhat better at avoiding the latter now.

   “I had to” Twilight insists awkwardly, managing with some considerable effort to organize herself into an upright hovering position, “I have to find a particular pegasus, and this is the best way to go about it”. Applejack and Rarity shoot each other an unconvinced look, before turning back to their friend, “uh...sugarcube? How's this meant t'help you? Y'cant even go in strait lines”.

   Without prior warning, Twilight unfastens the rope from her waist and lets the line fall away – Applejack and Rarity immediately drop to the ground and duck for cover...but much to their surprise a moment later, the purple unicorn remains largely stable in her hovering position. “See? I'm getting the hang of this now” Twilight reports confidently, crossing her front hooves in a posture much like that often used by Rainbow Dash, “it's just a matter of balance and concentration”.

   “NO WAY!”

   The sudden outburst startles Twilight, causing her to flip over, but manage to stop herself before going head-first into the ground again, awkwardly flipping herself back over and returning to her hovering position. Rainbow Dash hangs out from over the edge of a cloud above the trio, wide-eyed and excited, “Twilight! You can fly now too!? That's awesome!”.

   “It's temporary, dear” Rarity informs, accompanied with an under-breath thank Celestia from Applejack to the side, “Twilight is on a mission to find a particular pegasus and needs to be able to fly to do so”. Rainbow Dash however had taken little notice of Rarity's explanation, rolling off her cloud and hovering down to a position just behind Twilight, inspecting her newly acquired wings close up, “hey they even look real. I thought that temporary wing spell made fro-frou things?”.

   The white unicorn is actually taken aback by this, remembering that indeed when Twilight had used the spell on her, they had produced a rather stunning pair of wings, far from ordinary. “Well the wings that come out depend on the pony” Twilight explains, with an oddly cautious tone, “they uh...look like whatever the pony thinks is ideal, basically”.

   Rarity nods at this in agreement, considering her own experience, but Rainbow Dash gains a slightly puzzled, skeptical expression, before her eyes go wide, “Hey! Then why do yours look like Fluttershy's, not mine!?”. The purple unicorn averts her gaze off into space with a non-committal uhh... while Applejack and Rarity stifle a laugh.

   “Thanks again for agreeing to come and help me” Twilight speaks, as she and Rainbow Dash fly along at a relatively leisurely pace – especially for the latter – above Ponyville, “I must admit to being a bit daunted by the task of finding one particular pegasus, with no clue at all who they could be”. Dash gives a casual shrug as she flies alongside her friend and smiles, “hey I'm just happy to finally have a flying buddy that actually talks. But Celestia really gave you NO clues who this pegasus is?”.

   The purple unicorn shakes her head, “all we know is that she redid all the clouds last night”. Dash ponders this for a moment, rolling over to continue flying along on her back, “that's weird, you know? Pegasus don't really work at night, it's too cold and hard to see”. Twilight observes her friend's impressive flying, then cautiously rolls herself over – once too many times – but manages to copy Rainbow Dash's upside-down flying stance. “Hey, you're getting good at this!” Dash beams excitedly, “it's too bad this is only temporary”.

   “Yeah about that...” Twilight begins, taking a moment to bite her lip nervously, then rolls over back into a proper flying posture, “I didn't tell the others, but...the way I set up this spell, my magic continually maintains it. I did it so it would last as long as I needed it to, but I'm not actually sure how I'm going to turn it off when I'm done”. Dash characteristically brushes off the negative, “hey what's the worst that could happen? You're winged for the rest of your life – sounds awesome to me”.

   The purple unicorn shares a laugh with her friend in response to this, but then turns her head to conceal a momentarily concerned break, speaking under her breath yeah...or I could burn out my magic for good..., she isn't left with long to dwell on her concerns however, as Dash performs a skillful corkscrew and a half around her friend to end up on the other side of her, “so I'm thinkin' we should hit the local Weather Office first. They'll have a registry of all the pegasus in the area”.

   Twilight nods affirmatively to this and takes a confident smile, “that's an excellent idea. We should also check in with the observatory in Canterlot”.

   Applejack pushes her hat up with a hoof and brushes her forehead, gazing up at the summer sky – it was getting hotter as the day drew on, making working the orchard that much harder. She reaches back to rub her lightly aching side, where the harness for the apple-cart she was pulling was attached, but promptly stops as she spots Rarity and Fluttershy approaching.

   “Howdy y'all” the earth pony greets with her usual friendly gait, albeit tempered with a bit of tiredness, “what brings y'all 'round?”. “Concern, darling” Rarity reports with a lightly furrowed brow, “Fluttershy dear, you explain” she continues, gesturing to their timid friend. The yellow pegasus rubs the front of one foreleg with the other hoof and lowers her head, “well, you see...um...there's been these weird noises...”

   Applejack flusters slightly waiting for Fluttershy to eventually get to the point; Rarity observes this and gently interjects, “poor Fluttershy has been hearing strange noises, in the forest near her cottage in recent nights. I'm concerned there may be some dreadful creature lurking near her home”.

   “Well that jus' won' do” Applejack responds with a light stomp of a hoof, “don' you worry none, ol' Applejack will come by later'n check it out”.

   In the lobby of a building, predictably enough made of clouds, though with some actual wood and glass used as well, Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat side by side in front of a board, with a large diagram of the weather layout over Ponyville and the nearby areas, divided into sectors, accompanied by assignment-sheets of the various pegasi assigned to each sector.

   Twilight read out each name as she used her magic to scribble them down on a list, accompanied by a running commentary from Dash of short descriptions like slow worker, early sleeper, bad sense of direction, and similar reasons they were unlikely to be the target pegasus, though one suspected largely derived from Dash's personal opinion alone. Twilight couldn't help but attach her own description of lazy when transcribing Rainbow Dash's own name, in counter to Dash's own description of awesome.

   “So after all that...” Twilight begins, scanning over the list once more, “only a handful of names stand out as realistic possibilities”. She was evidently oblivious to the veritable parade of confused pegasi gawking at the winged unicorn as they passed by.

   “Dash? Actually paying attention to your assignment for once?” the weather official snorts as she walks up behind the girls, inspecting what they're doing. “Ha ha” Dash retorts dryly, before placing a hoof to her chest and raising her nose, closing her eyes, “if you must know, we're on an important mission for Princess Celestia. Trying to find a particular pegasus”.

   The official takes particular note of the fact Twilight was actually a unicorn with wings, but says nothing of it, instead offering a hoof forward, “then perhaps I can be assistance?”. The purple unicorn nods affirmatively, “that would be appreciated. We're trying to identify the pegasus responsible for last night's sky”. “Ah?” the official returns with a knowing tone, “you're looking for the Night Dancer?”.

   Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash puzzle at this response, the unicorn canting her head, “Night Dancer?”. The official gives a sage nod, turning her head off into space, “yes, the Night Dancer. Oh that isn't her actual name, but then no one knows her actual name. Nopony's ever met her, though some have seen her”.

   Twilight regards the mysterious way the pegasus official delivers the story with visible skepticism, Rainbow Dash seemed largely uninterested. “Her handiwork was first seen in Fillynois” the official continues, taking a matter-of-factly tone, “then she she disappeared, and her handiwork later appeared over Fillydelphia”, Twilight seems to actually regard this with some thought as the official continues, “then she disappeared again...and I guess she's around here now”.

   “Let me guess” Twilight finally responds with a mildly skeptical tone, “she only appears at night, nopony's ever seen her up close – only from a distance, and seems to disappear into a burst of starlight”. The official halts at this with a blink or two of surprise, and stands down normally, “that's right, actually. You've heard the stories before?”. Twilight gives  slow shake of her head, “no, but I've heard just about every other version of this story. They're all ponytails about Princess Luna”.

   The official seems momentarily bemused by Twilight's response, then gives a dry chuckle and shakes her head, “actually it's just a fanciful story about a strange pegasus named Nightsky” she reports, “there's nothing mystical about her, but ponyfolk always come up with funny stories for things they don't understand”.

   Twilight is taken aback by the frank response, momentarily regaining her composure, “so you KNOW her?”. The official gives a slow shake of her head, “no, nopony actually knows her. But I went to school with her, so I know it's her”.

   Twilight gains a visibly perturbed look at this, furrowing her brow and gritting her teeth slightly, “so why didn't you just TELL us that in the first place?”. The official gives an idle shrug of her shoulders, “the story's more interesting? And it really doesn't matter. Even knowing her name, you'll never find her. She avoids other ponies completely”.

   Twilight gives a frustrated “augh!” as she and Rainbow Dash walk away from the weather office, stepping off the edge of its cloud blank and resuming flight in the direction of Ponyville again, “can you believe that pegasus?”. Dash shakes her head, “oh you have no idea. She's always been a pain in the flank”, she turns her attention from her friend down to the landscape in the distance, “but you know, she kind of has a point. If a pegasus doesn't WANT to be found, our chances aren't so great”.

   A Fluttershy remained securely cowered in the background, Rarity and Applejack continue past the boundary of her cottage grounds into the nearby forest. Even darkened by the canopy of trees overheard, the earth pony quickly notices the patchwork of heavy hooftread across the path a short ways in, “ain' no great mystery, looks like somepony's jus' been runnin' through here a lot”.

   Rarity regards the tracks with an ever-attentive eye, being careful to only stand in the least dirty-spots of the dirt track – which was a feat in itself, “but Applejack dear, all these tracks go in the same direction”. Applejack turns her glance back down on the tracks and looks closer, “I reckon yer right...that does make less sense, why'd they only run'n th'one direction?”

   Rarity ponders over this a moment, and perks with a thought, “perhaps this is just one part of a larger circuit the pony runs?”. “Ya maybe onta somethin' there” the earth pony returns, nudging her hat up with a hoof, “still, I can' think of many a pony that runs the Everfree Forest fer their health...ain' that what they call 'counter-intuition'?”. Rarity stifles a gentle laugh, and nods softly, “close enough, dear. And you are correct, it would seem like an awfully strange thing to do”.

   Applejack continues studying the hoof-prints closely, as Rarity turns her attention to either end of the track, noting that neither end seemed to go in any particularly practical direction – one end just looped back into the forest, and the other lead out to the middle of nowhere in the rather vague general direction of Canterlot. “Now's it just me, or d'these tracks look awful deep?” the earth poiny suddenly queries skeptically, drawing the unicorn's attention back.

   “Now that you mention it, they are rather deep impressions, and this ground doesn't feel particularly soft” Rarity returns, though doesn't dare to test the integrity of the ground itself lest it become stuck to her hooves, “perhaps we are looking for a colt?”.

   “Stride's too long” Applejack returns with a notably analytical tone, “Big Mac's mighty big an' he still don' stride this long, too heavy fer it”

   “Guys!” Rainbow Dash calls down, as she and Twilight fly overhead of the pair, banking down from her path and slowing to land in a short trot, and finally coming to rest nearby, “what's up?”. Twilight follows her down at a more moderated pace, landing next to Dash.

   Rarity seemed preoccupied by something while looking at Twilight, but Applejack speaks before she has the opportunity, “jus' checkin' out these here tracks. Fluttershy was getting' the willies from some noises over here, but it turns out somepony's just been runnin' through here of the night”.

   “How as your own investigations been going, dears?” Rarity finally adds curiously, though she was still preoccupied with some detail of Twilight's appearance. The purple unicorn had noticed by now, but leaves it for the time being, “well we think we've found out who we're looking for, but it sounds like the pegasus in question avoids contact with other ponies, so this may be as far as we get with it”.

   “Nothin' doin' sugarcube” Applejack reports confidently, “if'n you wanna find this pegasus, ol' Applejack will make sure it happens”. Twilight presents a thankful smile, “thanks AJ. Anything you can think of would be a great help at this point”.

   As Twilight turns to leave with Applejack, Rainbow Dash goes to follow along, but is halted by a gentle tug on her tail courtesy of Rarity's magic, “Rainbow darling, would you mind awfully coming to help me with something?”. Dash's first thought was to protest, but she quickly notices the suppressed look of concern on the unicorn's face, and drops from her hover onto the ground, “oh, uh...sure thing”.

   As the temperature cooled and the sun drew down lower, the sky gained a more orange tint, and a gentle breeze began to temper the previous heat; as later afternoon drew into evening, it was evident it would be a pleasant one, at least.

   Rainbow Dash and Rarity by this point had arrived at her boutique – judging from Dash's bored gait, as she hovered along in an upright, but slouched posture with her arms crossed, one presumed they'd done little talking or otherwise on the way.

   “Now Dash, having spent virtually all day with Twilight, I must ask” Rarity begins with a concerned but thoughtful tone, turning to face her friend, “have you noticed anything...strange...about her today?”. The pegasus regards the question with momentary thought, staring up and to the side as she does so, then gives an idle shrug, “not...really, why?”.

   Rarity gives a small shake of her head and gestures to her horn with a hoof, “you hadn't noticed? Her horn was nearly half its normal size when we crossed paths near Fluttershy's cottage”. Dash is again paused to think over this momentarily, dropping onto her hooves to stand properly this time, “now that you mention it, she used pretty much no magic today, which is kinda weird for her”.

   The concern on Rarity's face grows at this, furrowing her brow momentarily in consideration as she glances out the nearby window, “I fear our dear Twilight has made some kind of error with her spell, but I do not understand her level of magic well enough to say what”.

   Dash sits up on her hind legs, crossing her chest with one foreleg and rubbing her chin with the other hoof, closing one eye in thought, “she said...this morning I think it was, that the spell she's using for those wings is constantly maintained by her magic, so it lasts”.

   Rarity's eyes immediately grow wider at this, turning sharply on her hooves toward her friend, “darling are you sure!? Oh this is terrible!”, she promptly begins making for the door, “come, we must have Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia at once!”. Dash just blinks a few times in skeptical confusion at this, “uhh...why?”. “Because!” Rarity returns, sounding a little desperate now, “if the spell is continually feeding off her magic, that means it can deplete it completely. If it is so dire that it is actually causing her horn to shrink...”.

   “Wait...you don't mean...” the pegasus ponders over the implications, gaining a deep concern of her own, “she's gonna burn it all up!”.

   The sun by this point was just setting behind the mountains in the distance, as Fluttershy sat on the stoop out front of her cottage. She bore a nervous, but weakly determined expression for once, her eyes continually gazing back and forth along the tree-line of the forest edge near her home, waiting.

   Right on cue, she hears the familiar muffled thundering of hooves on the track behind the tree line, distant at first, but quickly drawing close, accompanied by the occasional rustle of branches or pitched crack of a stone being trampled.

   With a nervous swallow and a big breath of summoned courage, the yellow pegasus marches across her yard and steps through the tree-line to stand on the track, to one side, where she closes her eyes and firmly issues an order, “stop!”.

   The figure that emerges from the darkness of the far end of track approaches rapidly, but at the sudden order, the pony digs their hooves in deep and carves a set of grooves in the ground as they arrest their intense pace as quickly as possible, grinding to a halt a few feet short of the timid pegasus.

   Fluttershy almost immediately looses what little bravery she'd managed to summon by now, sinking in her posture a little and averting her gaze, “u-uhm...sorry...it's just...you make so much noise...” her voice gradually becomes inaudibly quiet. The halted runner, evidently a pegasus herself, simply stood in silent observation of the timid Fluttershy, lowering one ear and lifting the other, trying to to work out what she's saying.

   After a few moments, Fluttershy carefully turns and lifts her gaze to find the other pegasus, and her eyes widen at the sight – she stood noticeably taller than any of her friends, and had wings of a curiously large proportion and design, which rather than being folded simply hung down at her sides, almost like they were too heavy to lift. Her mane was also peculiarly similar to Twilight's at the back, as was her tail, though the top, front, and sides of her mane were of merely similar style, they were ostensibly longer, with one side completely covering one of her eyes. She was a darker cobalt in colour, her mane and tail primarily a more pastel blue, with her multi-toned mane and tail striping similar to Twilight's, but beginning with a bold ivory and fading to a soft powder gray. Her one visible eye was a piercing yellow, and peered at Fluttershy from amidst a largely disinterested expression.

   “I...I take care of small animals, you see...” the yellow pegasus tries again, swallowing nervously, “and they need their rest...and it's just...y-you make a lot of noise when...you run through here...”. The other pegasus doesn't say anything in response, simply walking over to one of the nearby trees, where she kicks an alarmingly deep indentation into its trunk at eye-level, then begins walking past Fluttershy along the track.

   “Won' happen again. Ah'll know t'be quiet 'round this spot nex' time” the pegasus finally speaks in a low, distant tone, with an accent curiously similar to Applejack's, though it sounded by ear to be from a merely nearby but diferent region. And with that, the pegasus continues to walk off along the track without another word; a few long moments after fading from view, the distant sound of her breaking into gallop again could be heard, but quickly fades away.

   “So what's the plan again?” Twilight inquires curiously, as she and Applejack stood on opposite sides of what appeared to be the same track of the forest, but in a different location. “S'really simple like” the earth pony responds, gesturing to the far end of the track from them with a hoof “when they come'a runnin' through here, we'll stop 'em, and jus' let 'em know they're scarin' poor Fluttershy when they run through here. Then we'll go see what we c'n do about getting a word in with yer mysterious pegasus”.

   Twilight nods affirmatively and assumes a readied posture, fixing her gaze at the far end of the track as they wait. Applejack, planning ahead, readies a length of rope and keeps it ready to grab and throw, but for the moment, leaves it slack.

   As they stood there in waiting, Applejack relents her preparation momentarily to cast a mildly concerned glance across at her friend, “uh, Twi...I been meanin' to ask...”. The unicorn glances across at her friend in turn, “hm? What's the matter AJ?”.

   “Yer uh...yer horn there...why'sit getting' smaller?” the earth pony continues, motioning toward it with a nod. Twilight raises a hoof to feel her horn, promptly noting it was, by this point, almost a third of its original size. A heavy sense of dread visibly washes over her, but she firmly shakes it off and resumes her readied posture, “I'll explain later, okay? Lets do this first”.

   Applejack clearly wasn't convinced, but out of respect for her friend's feelings, she forces herself to let it go for the time being, and returns her attention to the approach end of the track. Not a moment in time as it turned out, as it was just then that the same pegasus Fluttershy had encountered emerged from the bend in the track heading toward them.

   “Hold up there y'all!” Applejack calls down the track, quickly getting ready to use her rope if need be afterward. The pegasus once again digs her hooves in and grinds to a halt, though this time several feet back from the pair, and with a visibly more defensive gait as she backs up slightly.

   Twilight takes this opportunity to look past her slightly strange appearance, to notice the pegasus' cutie mark; a pastel purple crescent moon with a star set into its opening, both filled with a fade-in pastel white from the center, her eyes open wider, “Nightsky? You're Nightsky, aren't you?”.

   The pegasus looks visibly shaken by the identification, becoming apprehensive and glancing around for a way past the pair; she quickly notices the rope Applejack has prepared, and that the other pony has wings, but is clearly not a pegasus.

   Whether by calculation or desperation, Nightsky reacts as she sees it; she hop-steps back once more, inciting Applejack to prepare the rope to stop her, then immediately drops low on her launches and leaps into the air, her hooves leaving indentations in the track from the force – she throws her heavy wings upward, the initial force actually pushing her down, but then powerfully strikes them down and back, sending her hurtling at an angle up and forward at a startling speed.

   Applejack casts her rope, but can't throw it fast enough to catch the large pegasus as she takes off, hastily working to draw the rope back for another try as Twilight swings around on her hind-hooves and briefly runs after her, only to jump into the air and take off.

   By now Nightsky was coasting along on her initial momentum, which gave Twilight an opportunity to catch up fairly quickly, but only until the larger pegasus realizes she's being followed; she promptly strikes her wings again and hurtles forward, leaving Twilight to beat her wings furiously to try and catch up again.

   “I just want to talk to you!” the unicorn calls ahead in a fluster of effort and mild frustration, “please!”. As she coasts on her momentum, Nightsky glances back along herself at the winged unicorn, her composure seeming to soften as she thinks it over, she calls back cautiously“w-...what'd'y'alll want with me...?”

   As the built up momentum wears down, Twilight manages to pull up alongside the larger pegasus, allowing her to soften her tone to speak across to her, “Princess Luna was really impressed by what you did with the sky last night” she explains, reaching back along herself to pull out the original letter that started her mission, “Princess Celestia asked me to find you, so we could arrange a meeting, that's all”.

   Nightsky allows the purple unicorn to glide in close enough for her to get a better look at the letter, difficult to read as it flapped in the wind, but she seemed to be taking it in, “a-ah dunno 'bout that...meetin' a Princess? Ah dun think ah cou-”, her response is cut short as Rainbow Dash hurtles up alongside them. “Hey, Twilight, is this the one?” she inquires excitedly, though in her haste startles the larger pegasus, who abruptly strikes her wings again and hurtles forward once more.

   “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yells impatiently, “that isn't helping!”. “Don't worry!” Dash calls back energetically, “I'll catch her!”. “No! That won-” Twilight begins, but it's too late – her friend had already taken off after Nightsky with her typical reckless haste.

   Although curiously it seemed to be doing her no good – Dash easily caught up to the larger pegasus, but this only inspired her to continue striking her wings periodically, the repeated effect of the timed, powerful bursts causing her to retain enough sheer momentum to stay at the limit of Dash's own speed, neither pulling ahead from the deadlock.

   “Hey you're actually pretty fast!” Rainbow Dash calls across to Nightsky with an impressed smirk, “but I can keep this up all night!”. As if in response, the larger pegasus suddenly draws back her wings and goes into an angled dive, which Dash quickly follows her into; Dash continues beating her wings, first compensating for the weight difference between them, then starting to pull ahead, before Nightsky begins striking her wings into the dive, causing her to speed up radically.

   Dash's mouth falls open and her eyes go wide at this, before she grits her teeth and furrows her brow, pointing her hooves ahead of her and beating her wings harder – she forgot all about why she was even chasing the other pegasus now, she couldn't let her be faster, even if it meant showing her the Sonic Rainboom, regardless of the time of day.

   In fact Rainbow Dash was so recklessly determined, she didn't notice when the other pegasus glanced back from her dive, having evidently been waiting for this, and suddenly spreads her oversized wings out to either side at flat angles – the immense up-current catches her immediately and sends her hurtling upward suddenly, sailing past Rainbow Dash and allowing her to convert it into a high speed forward cruise that carries her off into the distance.

   Not thinking it through, with the vapor barrier forming up around her, Dash tries to pull up sharply to resume chase – in doing so, scrubbing off too much speed and presenting too much surface area to the resistance, producing a slingshot effect that sends it hurtling off...backwards.

   Twilight could do little but repeatedly blink in a perplexed manner as Rainbow Dash went sailing backwards past her a few moments later - , in a mostly upside-down orientation with her forelegs crossed and wearing a rather unamused look - “all yours from here”.

   Feeling like it had taken her half the night, as the moon now slowly rose in the sky behind her, Twilight finally spots Nightsky again at the bank of a lake. Thinking ahead, she doubles back a short distance as she descends, so that she can land a distance back from where the strange pegasus was, and then slowly walks the rest of the way.

   “Nightsky? Please don't run away again” the purple unicorn begins with a gentle approach, slowly walking up behind her, “I'm sorry about my friend. Please, I just want to talk to you”.

   Nightsky glances back from her upright seated position at the water's edge, giving a weak, defeated sigh as Twilight arrives just behind and to the side of her, “can't y'all jus' leave me be? I don' bother nopony, all ah'ask is th'same”. Twilight gives a small shake of her head and bears a thoughtful expression, “I'm not trying to harass you, Nightsky. My friend was just a bit overzealous”.

   Twilight takes the opportunity to glance past the odd pegasus, to note the book. Inkwell and quill sitting in front of her, even from a distant glance she could see it was full of the pony's drawings, poetry, and journals – though as Nightsky notices Twilight looking at it, she promptly closes it.

   “You know, before I arrived in Ponyville, I never really understood the point of friendship. I spent all my time in books and study...” she muses thoughtfully, offering a gentle smile, “but now I couldn't imagine my life without my friends”.

   “Lucky you” Nightsky responds, though with a curious lack of any malice or ill-will of any kind, she actually sounded sincere. Twilight puzzles over this response at first, but shakes it off and resumes her thoughtful smile, “maybe if you didn't avoid everypony all the time, you could make some friends of your own...”.

   Nightsky gives a slow shake of her head, “ah'on't need no friends. Bein' alone suits me jus' fine”. As the conversation continued, Twilight was inherently oblivious to the fact her horn – and the wings she'd used it to make – had disappeared completely by this point.

   “Surely you get lonely” Twilight furthers, continuing to look at the back of the odd pegasus, who didn't seem intent on turning around any time soon. “Lonely's a state of mind” Nightsky responds in that same, almost hauntingly calm, yet depressive tone of hers, “if'n y'all got friends an' ya on your own too long, y'get lonely. If'n y'all got no friends, yer always on your own, nothin' to change”.

   To her surprise, Twilight actually finds herself at a loss for counter to this point. It was a sad notion from her perspective, but the logic to it was airtight. After a few moments though, a thought visibly occurs to her, “so...you don't make friends, out of fear that they'll leave you alone?”.

   Nightsky turns her head slightly in Twilight's direction at this, though there's no noticeable change in her attitude, “if all them friends of yours disappeared t'morrow, how'd you feel?”. Twilight doesn't even ponder the notion, shaking her head, “horrible. Lonely, sad, abandoned. But that would never hap-”. Nightsky cuts off her response as she continues, “an I reckon you'd do jus'bout anythin' t'avoid that, right?”.

   Twilight once again finds herself unable to respond – she wanted to say yes, but she consciously realized that was also the point of what Nightsky was saying. It was quickly dawning on her that the strange pegasus had had a difficult life, and that her own intelligence had led her to where she is now.

   “Just about anything, yes” Twilight finally responds, closing her eyes, “but I'd also like to think, that if it did happen, I wouldn't give up on ever having friends again. Knowing the joy it brings to my life, I would have to try again. And again, and again after that”.

   As Nightsky doesn't seem to have a response to give to her last, Twilight instead turns her attention back to her original task - “anyway, as I was saying earlier...” she begins to use her magic to pull out the letter again, only to realize nothing's happening, prompting her to quickly lift a front hoof to feel her forehead – her composure quickly sinks as she realizes its completely flat now.

   Shaking lightly, she slowly reaches a hoof back, brushing past her also completely bare sides to her saddlebag, from which she pulls out the letter and sets it down next to the strange pegasus, “Princess Celestia asked me to find out who you were, so we could arrange a meeting with Princess Luna”.

   She was by now starting to tear up, but she continued holding her composure, somehow. “Drop by my library, if you want to arrange it...” she finishes, climbing to her feet and glancing back in the direction of Ponyville, shivering on her legs, “it was nice to meet you, Nightsky”.

   “Twilight?” Applejack calls up into the door of the library, “c'mon now open the door sugarcube”. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but it wasn't as hot as the other day – a soft breeze tempered the weather quite nicely. After a long few moments of silence, Applejack lifts a hoof and knocks on the door again, “Twi? I know y'all c'n here me, why won't y'open the door?” the earth pony tries again in concern.

   Rarity gives a slow shake of her head behind Applejack, with a concerned and saddened gait of her own, “the poor dear hasn't come out in days, she wont answer the door, she sent Spike back to Canterlot...I tell you it's just dreadful”.  “Y'aint leavin' me with many options now...” Applejack continues with concerned, mild frustration – Rarity takes the cue and backs up, covering her face with one hoof, and shielding her mane with the other – a moment before the earth pony swings around and bucks the door in with a sharp crack.

   Applejack promptly walks inside with Rarity in tow – but the white unicorn quickly recoils as a cloud of dust billows out of the now opened door, peering cautiously and in mild horror inside, “in the name of Celestia, the dust...!”. Applejack, far less concerned with such matters, continues further inside the library – it was caked in days worth of unattended dust from being sealed so long, with no one doing anything to rectify it. Just about every book imaginable had been torn from the shelves and scattered around carelessly.

   “What in Equestria...?” Applejack begins in bemusement as she surveys the scene, but snaps out of it when she realizes Twilight isn't even present, “Rarity, she ain' even here!”. “Well duh” Rainbow Dash reports, appearing from over the edge of the roof above Rarity, “she headed over to the orchard like ten minutes ago. I'm amazed you didn't run into her”.

   “Oh heyseeds” Applejack remarks, glancing up at Rainbow Dash as she comes out of the library door, turning off down the street Twilight had to have taken, “ah'll catch her up”. The two friends watch the earth pony gallop off into the distance, leaving them in a silence last a long few moments.

   “So...uh” Rainbow Dash starts awkwardly, rolling over onto her back and assuming a lazy-nap posture, “what are your plans for today, Rarity?”. “Besides worrying about Twilight...” the white unicorn responds with a distant, concerned tone, before her eyes widen and she snaps out of it, glancing up to Dash's position, “going to the spa, perhaps...if somepony would like to come along?”.

   Rainbow Dash makes gestures of violent illness, at first...but stops and rolls over to peer out over the edge again, blushing slightly “that uh...that might be so bad, I guess”.

   Some distance up the road, nearing the outskirts of Ponyville where the road branched off, Applejack finally eased out of her gallop – she could see Twilight up ahead, slowly walking along the road to her orchard ahead. She takes a moment to gather her composure, then canters along to catch up to her friend.

   “Howdy Twilight. You had us awful worried...” she begins, but trails off as she notices Twilight actually seemed to be smiling, if perhaps a little weakly. “AJ, I was just on my way to see you” Twilight returns, looking across to her friend, “I'm sorry if I made you guys worry”.

   Applejack wasn't quite sure how to process this turn of events – that Twilight seemed to be okay when her horn still hadn't grown back, even if Princess Celestia had assured her it would – seemed to defy reason. This was Twilight, who freaked out over a late friendship report, inherently unconcerned that she can't even perform magic for an unknown length of time.

   “Uh, Twi? Everythin' okay?” Applejack musters in mild skepticism – Twilight's mane was kind of messy, but otherwise she seemed fine. Twilight seems to notice Applejack's attention to her mane and gives a playful roll of her eyes, “I'm not used to brushing it without magic, AJ. That's all. I'm fine, really”.

   Applejack smiles weakly at this, but can't help shake the feeling this just didn't seem right, “really now, Twilight, you c'n tell ol' Applejack if-”

   Twilight shakes her head and gives a light chuckle, “AJ, really I'm okay”, she assures, swinging around on her hooves and starting to walk backwards, “I've decided...that this is an interesting experiment, in what life is like without magic. It's something I've never experienced before, and I think I can learn from it”.

   At this, Applejack finally calms, taking on a warm smile of relief – this, finally, sounded like the Twilight she knew - “well ah'm mighty happy t'hear that sugarcube. So why were ya comin' lookin' for me anyway?”. Twilight gestures her head toward the farm, “I thought maybe I could help out for a while. Get a feel for working the old fashioned way”.

   The earth pony ponders at this skeptically, “uh, Twi...y'aint exactly built fer...”, she cuts herself off as she thinks it over a bit further, and resumes her warm smile, “well why the hay not, it'll be mighty nice to have y'around, and we c'n always use the help”. Twilight smiles to this, swinging around on her hooves to walk normally again, “then it's settled” .

   “Hold still, darling” Rarity insists impatiently, magically manipulating a tube of lipstick, “you don't want to end up looking like a clown”. Rainbow Dash slumps into a defeated, upright seated posture – her mane had been set into a double braid, and her tail into a single braid, and she didn't look particularly amused – but she wasn't fighting back.

   Rarity was evidently finishing up the last of the girlifying makeup touches on her face at this point, and clearly overjoyed to be doing it, on the other hand.

   “There!” the white unicorn announces, standing back from Dash with a proud smile, “darling you look amazing, see?” she floats in a body-length mirror to rest in front of the pegasus. Rainbow Dash observes herself in the mirror, initially looking like she was about to snap – but after a long moment, she blushes and smiles faintly, “yeah...I guess I do look kinda nice...”

   It was just about that moment the irrepressible self-titled trio, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, burst in through the door of the boutique, rather literally. Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom seemed to be carrying a half-intelligible conversation about decorating the clubhouse, oblivious to the two older ponies as they passed strait through – Scootaloo, on the other hand, stops dead in her tracks at the sight of Rainbow Dash, wide eyed and mouth agape in horror.

   The sun by now had begun to descend toward the horizon as the evening neared. It was still fairly warm, and the breeze had died down too much to ease it off, but the pegasi above were busy organizing the cloud for a night storm, quickly lowering the temperature in the process.

   Twilight huffed a bit with effort and strain, visibly struggling to keep pace with Applejack as they both pulled apple-carts toward the barn – though one couldn't help but notice Twilight's had half the amount of apples in it. Applejack gives a small shake of her head with a soft chuckle, “y'don give up easy do ya?”.

   Twilight shakes her head with a defiant smile, “not a chance. I'm not going to be beaten by an applecart”. Her pace labored and slowed as they neared the barn, and she was visibly loosing the battle to pull the weight, but she dug her hooves in and kept at it, finally rolling it in the last few inches before slumping onto her stomach.

   Applejack gives an approving smile and a soft chuckle, detaching herself from the harness of her own applecart, then moving over to release Twilight from hers, “ah gotta admit, ah din' think you'd manage half'a what y'did today, but y'sure showed me”.

   Twilight climbs to her feet, smiling proudly, if tiredly, and shaking a little from the exhaustion as she and Applejack slowly walk back toward the farmhouse, “today was just what I needed, AJ. It was hard work, but I had a lot of fun hanging out with you”.

   She pauses for a moment in thought, then looks back over at her friend, “I admit, this morning I really was still pretty down, just putting on a brave face. But after today...”, she pauses herself, glancing out at the orchard, then back to her friend, “well, if my horn never grows back, I think I could be just fine here”.

   Applejack blushes faintly at this, lifting a hoof to rub the back of her neck – Twilight may have drastically exceeded her expectations...but they were pretty low to begin with, not having expected her to last the first couple of hours. Still, she'd worked so hard, and showed such determination at it, she couldn't help but believe if she kept at it, she'd become as strong as she was herself.

   “You know, Twi...” Applejack begins softly, smiling warmly and blushing a little more, “ah think ah could get'ta likin' that”. Twilight blushes faintly at this, wondering if she was reading more into it than she should, finding herself unable to come up with a safe response. Applejack becomes visibly nervous by this delay, herself wondering if she'd gone a step too far, but before she could say anything else, Twilight smiles widely through her blush, “I'm glad you feel that way, AJ”.

   A long moment of comfortable silence passes as they simply smile at each other, eventually being broken by the heavy hoof-steps of Big Macintosh walking up to them. “Gonna need to git'a start on dinner, ah reckon” he reports idly, apparently oblivious to the scene he'd walked into.

   Applejack and Twilight both turn slightly and rub the back of their necks with a hoof, gazing off into space. “Uh, yeah” Applejack begins quickly, “ah reckon yer'right...”, she pauses a moment and glances over at Twilight, “you wan' stay for dinner, sugarcube? Least w'could do after all th'work y'put in today”.

   Twilight smiles softly, but gives a small shake of her head, “as much as I'd like to, there's something I should really follow up on”. Applejack seems a little dejected at first, but returns a soft smile and a small nod of her head,”well awright then”.

   “I'll be back tomorrow through!” Twilight blurts out, blushing at how slightly over-zealous she'd sounded, “I mean...if you'd like me to come back tomorrow, I'd like to do this again”. Applejack smiles widely at this, “ah'd love that, Twi”. Big Macintosh observes the whole scene from nearby with a dry smirk, then gives a shake of his head and proceeds into the farmhouse.

   The night was already rolling on by the time Twilight finally reached the lake where she'd met Nightsky previously. It was drizzling slightly, but the rain the clouds had been organized for hadn't yet properly started – though from the looks of them, it wouldn't be long now.

   Twilight slowly walks along the water's edge, gazing around for any sign of the strange pegasus – all too aware this was a long shot at best. Consequently she finds herself in surprise when she comes upon a large piece of parchment fixed down with a rock roughly where they'd been talking last time.

   With noticeably improved manual finesse, Twilight slides the rock aside and unfolds the parchment, careful to shield it as best she could from the drizzle with her body as she looks it over – a hand-drawn map, consisting of the lake she was currently at, leading back to part of Ponyville, and on past that to an area just beyond it's northern outskirts, from the look of it.

   Elsewhere at that moment, the scene was quite different. Once more in Rarity's boutique, in the dining room/kitchen specifically, lit only by candles on the table, the aforementioned white Unicorn and Rainbow Dash sat at opposite ends of the small table with dinner spread in progress between them.

   For the longest few moments in history, Dash just gazed in complete loss of how to react, at the very skilfully prepared, but excessively fancy food before her, of which she'd eaten relatively little so far, largely as a result of not being entirely sure how to appropriately do so.

   “Is there...something wrong with the meal, dear?” Rarity inquires nervously as she observes her friend, finally breaking the silence. Dash quickly lifts her head in surprise, and shakes her head, “oh, no, no, not at all. I'm...just not used to food like this, I guess” she assures nervously.

   Rarity didn't seem completely convinced, and looked to be getting a bit self-conscious, so Dash quickly gives up a nervous smile, “so hey...today was...fun, you know? Not my normal kind of thing, but...it was nice”. One noticed that Rainbow Dash had done nothing to spoil the look Rarity had given her earlier in the day, which further suggested she'd done virtually nothing she would normally do.

   Rarity's white coat did not work in favor when it came to concealing a blush, however subtle it was. “I'm glad to hear it, Dash” she returns warmly, “I must admit, I would never have believed you would tolerate a day like today. It means a lot to me that you did”.

   Realizing what she'd just said, Rarity's blush only intensifies, and Dash gains one of her own in kind. A few moments of nervous silence pass, leaving the sentiment to brew, but before Rarity can add anything further, Dash suddenly blurts out awkwardly, “well it's not like I'd do it for anyone else, right?”.

   Dash promptly goes wide-eyed in embarrassed horror at what she'd just said, as though she'd observed it from a distance. Rarity, blushing profusely at this point, sat there with her mouth wide open, even as it caused a piece of half-chewed food to fall out onto her plate. The fact such a thing happened, and she didn't even react to it, was something of a statement in itself to just how stunned she was.

   By now Dash was having serious thoughts of escaping through the nearest window, open or otherwise, and one imagined Rarity knew it, as she promptly reached across the table to place her hoof on top of one of Rainbow's own, presenting a warm smile, “I have a fantastic idea...”

   Twilight stopped to pull out the map once again, as she neared the northern edge of Ponyville – the town was very quiet at this time of night, most ponies eating dinner or having turned in for the night. It was raining now, but Twilight had thought ahead to bring her hooded raincoat, within which she carefully shielded the map to check it by a street-lamp, before safely tucking it away and continuing on her way.

   A surprisingly short distance beyond the northern boundary of Ponvyville was a much older part of the original town, long since abandoned and largely run down. That is, save for just one structure – or rather, tree-home – what Twilight could only presume was the predecessor to her own library, which looked to be in what would've been the square of this area once upon a time.

   Twilight could tell even from a distance that it was still inhabited by the familiar stable radiance of reading-candles coming from the window of her facing. She walks past the letterbox that had clearly not been used in her lifetime up to the front door, takes a moment to prepare herself, then lifts a hoof and lightly knocks on the door.

   It takes but a moment for the door open, though the face that greets her on the other side was far from what she expected.

   “Sparkle” Trixie greets dryly from the other side of the door, before stepping back away from it inwards, “well...come in I guess”. Shaking off the initial shock, Twilight proceeds inside the tree-home, as Trixie closes the door behind her, taking a moment to glance around the interior.

   Compared to the outside, which suggested it was just as abandoned as the rest of the area, the interior was quite well restored, if a bit spartan. There were few books to speak of in the old shelves, and few of those shelves left to speak of to begin with, most of the wall-space having been replaced with large hand-drawn artworks and caligraphy, and a few of Trixie's old advertisement posters – more designs of which than Twilight had seen before.

   Trixie poits her nose skyward and trots across the main floor to a separated rear area, disappearing behind the curtain she closes, which separates it from the rest of the room. Within a moment of this, Nightsky slowly walks down from the raised bedroom area beyond, which one quickly noticed was further up and further forward than the layout in Twilight's library.

   “Ah wondered if'n y'were gonna show up” Nightsky reports calmly as she descends into the main area not far from Twilight, “suppose yer here t'tell me off fer not respondin' t'that invitation”. Twilight seems momentarily oblivious to the question, having long since forgotten her last act before becoming a recluse until recently was to report Nightsky's identity to Princess Celestia.

   “Actually, no” Twilight finally returns, finding herself unable to stop glancing around at the hand-drawn artworks adorning the walls, “I really just...wanted to see how you were doing, actually”. The strange pegasus takes a moment to look back toward Trixie's separated little area, “y'used all th'hot water again. Don' think I don' know”. The blue unicorn's head bursts out from between the curtains with a bemused and slightly worried look, “T-Trixie's mane requires a great deal of attention...sorry”, her head slips back through the curtains out of view.

   Nightsky shakes her head lightly, then gestures her head toward the door, before walking across the room and out of it herself, with Twilight in puzzled tow. Now slowly walking around the square surrounding the tree, in the pouring rain, Twilight observed the strange unicorn promptly become completely soaked down, but she seemed totally unfazed.

   “You should be careful...” Twilight insists as she follows Nightsky around the square at their slow pace, “you'll catch a cold or something”. Nightsky glances back past herself momentarily, then looks forward again, “not likely. Ah'm too used to th'cold to get a cold”.

   Twilight ponders this a moment, but finds herself with more pressing curiosities, “so....you live with Trixie?”. Nightsky visibly gives a shake of her head, “ah let'er stay with me, thas' all. Aint nothin' more to it”. Twilight couldn't help but wonder how this arrangement came to be, but found herself doubting she'd get the story and defers to other matters, “so Luna sent you an invitation to meet her?”.

   “Ye-uh” Nightsky returns idly, pausing her walk to glance up at the moon, “ah thought about it, but ah'm too set in mah'ways t'start changin' now”. Twilight puzzles at this, gaining a skeptical look, “what about Trixie? That doesn't seem like your 'normal' way”.

   Nightsky visibly gives an idle shrug of her shoulders, “ain't much sense to it, ah'know. Girl turned up on mah doorstep one day cryin' somethin' fierce an' about as ashamed as ah've ever seen a pony. Ah may be ah'lot of unpleasant things, but heartless ain' one of them”.

   Twilight couldn't help but feel a deep pang of responsibility to this information, but knew there was hardly anything she could do about it now, nor that it was actually her fault to begin with. “I don't think you're unpleasant” she responds finally, “that's not really the point though”.

   Nightsky just nods in agreement to this, finally stopping and turning around where she is to face Twilight directly, “now, look...” she glances off to the side in thought momentarily, then looks ahead to Twilight again, “ah'm sorry if'n you think it poor of me t'not go meet Princess Luna, the truth is ah'm just too afraid to”.

   Twilight puzzles at this, but Nightsky continues before she can inquire on it, “th'reason ah do everythin' at night is ah'get powerful weak under the sun. Always have, born that way. When th'night is yer natural climate, ah'pony has to figure they should be thankful to Princess Luna. Ev'n b'efore sh'came back from exile. But y'see, normal people are well enough able to disappoin' ya, let alone yer idol. An' so ah'm too afraid to meet'er”.

   Nightsky seems to have to take a deep breath after that, almost as though saying that much took a massive amount of effort – considering her personality, that probably wasn't far from the truth either. Twilight regards this for a long few moments in consideration, but finally submits a nod, “I think I see what you mean. I myself have idolized Princess Celesita most of my life. She's never disappointed me...but I've disappointed her at least once that I know of, and that was hard to take”.

   “...ah thought you lived in a library” Nightsky suddenly inquires, raising a brow at Twilight. The purple unicorn – however hornless at present – blinks once or twice in ponder, “I do”. Nightsky tilts her head slightly, “y'smell like y'live in'n apple tree”. Twilight pauses at this, then gives a shake of her head, “oh, no. It's just I spent most of today working at Sweet Apple Acres with my friend Applejack”.

   Nightsky seems to regard the answer with some mild skepticism, lifting a slightly oversized ear from its usual slump, “frien'? Don' you mean....”, she cuts herself off, giving a small shake of her head, “ah-see. Well this'been great an' all but I got a sky to change, now's been enough rain”. “Enough rain?” Twilight inquires thoughtfully, glancing up at the sky, then back down to Nightsky, “oh I see...you only change the sky when it wont cause problems”.

   The strange pegasus seems almost bemused that even needed clarification, but she doesn't say anything to the subject. Instead, she slowly walks back to her tree, entering through the front door, reappearing a few moments later on the balcony with Trixie in tow. The blue unicorn holds up a large hand-drawn illustration of a night sky, which Nightsky studies closely for a moment or two, then nods to Trixie – who promptly backs away cautiously.

   Duckling low on her legs for a long moment, Nightsky makes a powerful leap into the air off balcony, throwing her oversized wings upward – in turn forcing her body down sharply – before giving them a powerful strike and sending herself hurtling up and forward at an angle, leaving a cleaved wake in the rain along the way.

   At the limit of the first strike's momentum, Nightsky uses a slow, timed rhythm of the powerful motions  to propel herself upward – the moonlight catching the white bands in her mane and tail, creating a radiant silver trail behind her as she disappeared into the dark clouds.

   Twilight couldn't help but watch in mild awe as the silver streak Nightsky left in her wake was all that could be seen against the dark sky, fluidly arcing back and forth through the clouds in a slow-form spiral formation that gradually draws the cloud-mass together into a spiral-arm mass itself.

   Just as the spiral cloud mass had gained enough momentum to continue rotating on its own, Nightsky plunges down out of its center and performs a wide revolving sweep around the outside of it, gathering a large vapor trail in her silver wake, sparkling from the light of it as it ribbons behind her, banking out of the circle once more into a low dive, and from that into a steep, high-speed climb strait up into the middle of the cloud-mass.

  As she enters it, she suddenly throws her wings out flat and her forelegs out to either side, the ribbon of accelerated vapor rushing up through the middle of the cloud-mass around her, the high-friction causes a spontaneous – and substantial lightning bolt to arc out from her position – the cloud mass literally explodes outward, covering the sky in delicate strands of gossamer cloud which illuminated silver under the moon above.

   Twilight was astounded by the spectacle, but this was quickly replaced with shock as she realized Nightsky was plummeting lifelessly from the epicenter of the effect. She broke into a desperate gallop to where she thought the strange pegasus would hit the ground, but promptly grinds to a halt at a distance when she sees Trixie already standing there, who uses her magic – and a visibly substantial amount of effort – to arrest the pegasus' fall, slowing her enough that she lands on the ground no harder than one would by tripping over.

   She could only watch in in a mixture of shock and surprise, as Trixie exerted herself to prop the large pegasus up, then strain as she carried Nightsky on her back, back to the tree. “Is...is she alright?” Twilight inquires with shocked concern.

   Trixie relents her usually obnoxious attitude with a tone of genuine concern, “she's fine, Sparkle. Doing that takes everything she has, that's all”.  The blue unicorn gives an awkward and largely unsuccessful flip of her soaked mane, the announces “true artists suffer for their art, and all that”, as she continues to carry Nightsky the last of the way back to the tree, pausing at the door momentarily to glance back in Twilight's direction, “...sorry about your horn”, promptly closing the door behind them after disappearing inside.

   Elsewhere in Ponyville, in the dark, smoke-machine and technicolor laser-show atmosphere of a late-night dance club, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were to be found on one of the dance-floors. Rarity had taken the elegant curls out of her mane and tail so they assumed more of a bang-like style, and adopted a collection of multicolored glowing bracelets for each leg.

   “Now this I imagine is much more your scene, no?” Rarity inquires playfully as she dances by Dash. The pegasus couldn't help by smile ear to ear excitedly as she danced with her friend, “you know it! I can't believe you thought of this!”

   Rarity smiles and dances in closer to Dash, quickly darting her face in beside the pegasus' own to whisper playfully in her ear, “like I'd do so for anyone else, right?”. As she pulled back, Rarity could help but smile at the intense blush – and exuberant smile – on Dash's face.

   Suddenly finding herself possessing of no concern for their surroundings or who may be watching, given they were surrounded by plenty of other dancers, Rarity spontaneously slides back in close and places a carefully timed kiss on Dash's lips. Rainbow Dash beams excitedly in the moment the white unicorn pulls away, only to gladly pull her back in for another in kind.

Author's Commentary

   Devon here. I just wanted to clear up any points that may, or maybe didn't occur to the reader, but may in future. Nightsky is my OC Pony, which is probably obvious enough, and I would like to illustrate the following;

  This series is effectively named after my OC pony, but it's not actually about her specifically. I know, that probably sounds strange, but the thing is – I don't conceive of my stories with titles. But without titles, they would be awfully hard to quantify or identify, so it's just simpler to donkey-title it. It is really that simple.

   And yes, it is a series. Or it could be. I have two more installments I could post, but I'll wait to see what kind of reaction (if any) I get first. Not a ransom, just common sense. Incidentally, I do my actual writing in openoffice, then transcribe it to the editor, so there may be missing italization (I don't use bolds). This may occasional confuse a line.

   Nightsky is not faster than Rainbow Dash by any means. The strange manner in which Nightsky flies simply means she maintains her maximum speed with far less effort – the trade off is that precisely because of the way she flies, she cannot accelerate and maneuver at the same time. Her wingspan and mass does enable her to perform some aerodynamic/physics actions a small, agile pegasus like Rainbow can't, though.

   Nightsky exercises by running because she requires a much larger initial leap into the air to achieve flight, due to the way she flies. I conceived her as being able to run exceptionally fast, and use her wings as aerodynamic assists while doing so, though I've not thought of any comparison between her running speed and the main-6. She consequently also has very powerful legs, though again, I'm in no mind to claim they're stronger than Applejack's. AJ is my favorite pony to begin with.

   Pinkie Pie doesn't and probably wont appear in my fiction because I am not satisfied with the way I write the character. As I do not feel my portrayal does the character any justice, omitting her from my work rather than half-assing it, is my way of respecting the character.

   Similarly, I'm not all that satisfied with the way I portray Fluttershy, so I tend to use her very little, but I'm gradually working that out.

   There is not and will not be a relationship between Nightsky and Trixie. There won't be a relationship between Nightsky and any official character. Call it a spoiler, but I don't work that way. I use my OC pony solely as a literary tool to provide additional situational material and context as necessary, not to indulge in any self-gratifying practice. Shipping Twilight and AJ, and Rarity and Rainbow together is all the self-gratification I require.

   On the subject of how big Nightsky actually is – she's somewhere in between the main-6 and Season 2 Luna, closer to Luna's end of the scale. She is not meant to be a part of the royal family by any stretch of the imagination, either. There are no cross-breeds in MLP to my knowledge, but that's basically how I conceived Nightsky – as a half earth-pony, half-pegasus, resulting in an oversized pegasus with oversized wings. She's also not related to Applejack at all, she just comes from a nearby region with a similar native accent.

   Actually let me fully literate that point – she isn't related, distantly or otherwise – to any official character.