Flap. Flap.

Glide. Correct for cross wind. Visualize target, adjust glide path. Flap. Flap.

Uh-oh. Too fast! Adjust! Adjust! Flapflapflap!

I hit the cloud at a bit of an angle, just enough to pull up some, but even for magical flying ponies, energy is energy. Altitude is sacrificed for speed and I slammed into the other pony, sending us sprawling in a tangle of limbs.

Coming to a halt I couldn't help but groan, “Ow. I think I'll stay here. I like this cloud. I live here now.”

Twilight sighed and let her head drop back down onto my chest, “...The depressing thing is that you are still doing better than I did at first.”

I blinked and raised my head to look at her, “I am? I'm doing horribly.”

“You are not leaving craters behind, are you?” She said with a grin we shifted to untangle from each other. She looked down at me, “Flying? It's just... kinda wrong. Pegasi just don't understand that.”

I snorted up at her, “I know exactly what you mean. The idea of flying is awesome, but when I'm doing it and I look down with nothing holding me up... every instinct I have keeps screaming at me that I'm about to die.”

Twilight nodded and settled down next to me on the cloud, stretching her wings before folding them again.

“You are okay, right?” I asked and rolled onto my stomach next to her. There was a small twinge of pain in my left front leg, but nothing serious.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Twilight answered and glanced back at her wings before twisting to nibble along a couple of out of place feathers to get them back in line, “You learn how to catch high-speed pegasi quickly, living around Rainbow.”

Nodding, I followed her example to study my wings, stretching them out in search of out of place feathers before flapping them twice and folding them again. Wings were quite high maintenance. Not only to look good and allow you to fly properly, but also because they were really sensitive and out of alignment feathers were insanely ticklish.

I frowned back at my right wing and flexed it again. Something was out of order there and was pulling at the rest. Twisting to check, I nosed along the feathers as Twilight worked on her own. Annoyingly enough, this was actually the most practical way of doing this, magic just didn't have the sensitivity to do it right so in this case, alicorns didn't have an advantage over pegasi.

There you are you little fucker.

I gave the feather a lick and guided it right before letting go and flexing my wings again. There we go.

Sighing I relaxed against the cloud, pushing at the... material with my hoof. Clouds were fucking awesome. Soooo soft.

“So when is the next book coming out?” Twilight asked and settled down next to me again.

I shrugged, “Will be a while still. Lots of things keeping me busy. It's written, but I'm working on the editing. It's taking quite a while... I'm only on the first pass.”

“...I could read it through for you.” the purple Alicorn suggested with a smile, “help you with the editing.”

I raised an eyebrow at her and poked her side with my wing, “You just want to read it early.”

“Well... yeah.” she admitted with a grin, “At least tell me what you are writing!”

“Time traveling golem sent back in time to stop the resistance leader against their rule from being born.” I said with a shrug, “It's going to have a horror warning label on it or Luna wouldn't allow me to turn it in for print.”

Twilight flicked her ears, “Well, I look forward to reading it.”

“Hope you'll like it. How are things going with that chest? Any luck getting it open?”

The purple alicorn groaned and shifted, “...No. I'm almost starting to reconsider your suggestion of a really big hammer. I have tried everything!”

“You'll figure it out. You are one of, if not the, smartest pony I know, Twilight. You'll get it open.”

“...You are the one that thought of ducking out of the entire royalty thing.”

I blinked at her, “Not enjoying it?”

Twilight frowned and poked at the cloud, “I don't know. I mean... I still do what I always did, but now I have all this responsibility and ponies keep referring to me even when I have no idea what to do.”

“And some ponies wonder why I avoid that like the plague. I get enough of that just being with Luna.”

“Yeah...” Twilight sighed and shrugged her wings as she frowned at me, “As long as you can keep it hidden. You know it won't last, right?”

I sighed at that and then nodded, “Yeah. Even if I don't screw up, if nothing else, sooner or later somepony is going to notice I'm not aging.”

“Mmm.”

Well, it’ll last as long as it lasts. My life was hardly normal as it was, but I could enjoy it until then. Sighing again I closed my eyes and relaxed.

Clouds are awesomely comfortable and despite the slight wind, I wasn't cold. That was something really useful about this entire alicorn thing. I get now what Luna meant that she had not been cold since her ascension.

I could still feel the cold. But there is a difference between cold and feeling cold. Just like between alone and lonely.

I slowly let myself drift off into my realm.