For two days we had been back on the farm, and AJ was as equally happy about it as I was. Not that I didn’t like living with Cadance and Shining Armor; both had grown dearly in my heart, and I really liked counting them amongst my friends. Braeburn was also an interesting fellow, but I had only met him once. If I wanted to sound sentimental, then I would say that I had only gotten friendly with Shining because we had fought together. There was something to that “brothers in arms” mentality soldiers always talked about.

However, there wasn’t much to be done on the farm besides watering dried-up plants and trees, cleaning the cellar, and repairing a few carts. There wasn’t enough work for Caramel, Braeburn, Big Mac, AJ, and me, so someone always had free time. However, that was only a polite euphemism for ‘watch the Cutie Mark Crusaders’. This task was mostly left to me since the others were much more efficient at working than I was. Personally, I would have preferred to explore my skills, and Twilight wanted to explore me more thoroughly. However, Celestia had tasked her with another project that was of a much higher priority. All I got was that it had to do with levitating large objects and the like.

“You will never defeat me, Chrysalis!” Celestia aimed her horn at her enemy, who fell to the ground in pain. The heavily injured Armor was lying beside me on the meadow between the apple trees and watching the battle unfold.

“Ahhh! You’re too powerful….!” the changeling queen whined and collapsed.

“Now it’s time to banish you to Tartarus. Get her, Cerberus!” The three-headed dog jumped out of a nearby bush, throwing itself onto the enemy and beginning to tickle it furiously.

“Stop, hahahaha! Apple Bloom, stop it!” Scootaloo begged for mercy, but her friend showed none. Sweetie Belle couldn’t hold her laughter and joined the fight. The three foals rolled over the ground, having the time of their lives.

For me, the play was a reminder of what I had done in the past few weeks. There was nothing wrong with it, just the fact from where I got the bravery to do it. I wasn’t a coward to begin with, and I had stood my ground, even three against one. After a visit to a theatre once, I had been threatened by three thugs with clubs, wanting cigarettes. Since I was a non-smoker, I had none with me and that made them understandably angry. I had managed to disarm one and kick the other before the third one head-butted me, breaking my nose. To simply submit hadn’t been an option for me at that point. As a child, I had a lot to go through with my illnesses, and other children were cruel. They didn’t care if you were sick – you were different and that made you bad. During the fourth grade, I had it with the bullying and what followed was an incident that I was really not proud of. I smacked one of my tormentors, with a chair, right in the face. That was the point when I decided to fight back, not with violence but with words and an emotional shield. I couldn’t allow such things to get under my skin, and violence was only the tool of fools who couldn’t use words. If necessary, I would defend myself, but I would not shoot first.

“Why do I have to play Shining Armor? Just lying around is so boring,” Dawn asked his comrades, who froze in their poses.

“Erm…” Apple Bloom thought for a second.

“He is your uncle, right? So it’s logical!” Sweetie Belle added, and the others nodded in agreement. Not many knew about my part in the fight, and that was a good thing. I had let myself go; I had given up. That was why only the Bearers, Armor, his squad, and the princesses knew about it. I was with them on the front pages of the newspapers, just as Hawk, Glimmer, Star, and Trixie, but they rarely wrote about me. They hadn’t even noticed my changes. A few tabloids reported that I had primed and lengthened, for whatever good that was. However, they barely mentioned the changeling attack.

“Ummm… Mister Light sir…” I turned around and saw little Holly coming towards me. The few times I had spoken with her, it became evident how fast she was copying Fluttershy. What else you would expect: if you try to teach someone to become their own person, they would try to mimic their role model.

“Light is enough. What can I do for you?” Seemingly nervous, she was hoofing around and avoiding my gaze.

“Umm… where is…” The rest became unintelligible as her voice became quieter.

“Please, little one, speak louder.” She came a bit closer and whispered into my ear.

“I… erm… need to….” Okay, she wasn’t nervous; she needed to get to the toilet. I slowly rose up and looked at the Crusaders.

“I’ll show Holly the loo; be back soon. Don’t cause any trouble.” The collective grin of the four foals didn’t bode well.

Slowly we, the little one and I, went to the house. The entire way, I could see her straining, but galloping wouldn’t have helped. As soon as we reached the house, I escorted her inside and showed her the room. Like lightning, she disappeared inside, and I used the opportunity to get myself some apple juice from the fridge. With a relieved sigh, I put the now empty glass into the sink and savoured the chill. Summer was in full effect, and the outside temperatures must have been around the thirty degrees, Celsius that was. My coat had the practical ability to make the heat more bearable, something I had never expected. In that moment, a thought crossed my mind. Pegasi were much more resilient against weather, right, so why not run around with a pair of wings for a while? I just had to push the trigger. I had trained the last few days, and with a bit of effort, or rather concentration, or maybe a bit of both, I could feel those wings on my sides.

“Woah! How… ah… did you do that?” Holly was standing behind me, her large eyes fixated on my new appendages “I thought that…” She looked at the floor, not daring to finish the sentence. “Are you… like me?” I was a bit taken aback. I didn’t know what Fluttershy had told her or what she had found out herself. She must have realised that she was different. I had never seen a pony with black coat or with insect wings and a horn for that matter.

“No, but I’m a bit different too. Honestly, it feels similar to what you feel. I too came here and was accepted by my mother, even though I’m like this. So what can I say, I have my family and my friends here. Don’t worry about it.” I couldn’t think of anything better to say to the little one. I had a hunch that she wouldn’t always have it easy among ponies, but I wouldn’t remind her of that if it wasn’t necessary.

“And why can you do something like that? If I may ask?” Fluttershy had a good influence on her.

“Well, it’s my special talent.” I showed her my cutie mark. “It stands for the changing of matter.” I could see in her puzzled expression that “matter” wasn’t a formulation she was familiar with. “I’m good at changing objects.”

“Can.... Can you change me?” This time I was the puzzled one. “I know how ponies look at me in the big city or when I was with Flutt… mother in the market this morning.” Tears were running down her cheeks, and I felt completely overwhelmed.

“No hold it just a minute, sugarcube. You are you. If somepony has issues with that, then they have issues with all of us!” AJ had arrived just in time to help me out.

“Exactly. Also, no one would dare upset Fluttershy,” I added with a wink. What surprised me was that she hugged me with her forelegs.

“Hey, it’s alright.” I patted her head. “Now come on, the others are waiting.

After a short walk back to the open fields, Holly and I were looking out for the other Crusaders, but they had vanished without a trace.

“Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Sweetie Belle? Dawn?” I called but got no response.

“Maybe they don’t want to play with me anymore….” Holly remarked with sadness in her voice.

“Nah, they’re just hiding somewhere…” Just as I finished the sentence, I felt something heavy land on my back, and with sound of four screaming foals, I ended up on the ground rather painfully.

“We got you now, changeling!” Scootaloo shouted and reared up in front of me.

“Yeah! We got you now!” Apple Bloom repeated.

“Very funny. Can I stand up again?” I tried to rise, but the weight of the foals kept me down.

“As if we would believe your fabrications,” Sweetie Belle hissed and poked me with her horn.

“Ow!”

“His what?” Scootaloo asked, confused by the word.

“His lies,” Apple Bloom clarified.

“Sheesh, are you both now dictionaries?” The little pegasus groaned.

“Two lexica and a chicken.” I grinned, gaining the ireful looks of the three. “So, why do you girls think I’m a changeling?

“Light is a unicorn, but you have wings and look like him,” Dawn summarized the situation. During the drama with Holly, I had totally forgotten to change back. The weather was simply more bearable this way. A little bit of concentration and I changed back to my regular form.

“Satisfied?” I asked, but they were looking at me with wide eyes.

“That’s the proof he’s a changeling. He changed right in front of our eyes!” Sweetie Bell screamed, and they began running around like crazy. Finally on all fours, I caught them one by one with my magic and pulled them towards me.

“Now look here.” My words were insufficient to overcome their screaming. “SILENCE!” boomed my Royal Canterlot Voice over the fields. It was nice to be able to use it without that stupid echo. The effect was instantaneous. “This is just a spell that I learned. I mean, your sister Rarity had wings too, right Sweetie Bell?” She nodded, and I let them down to the ground.

“Uh...Are you really that scared from changelings?” Holly asked the still thunderstruck crusaders.

“I’m not scared…” Scootaloo announced but got a jab to the side by Apple Bloom in response. “Alright, maybe a little…” she admitted.

“But you are not one of them, right girls? Sweetie Bell had understood the question, and her friends nodded with her in agreement. I could see how much this relieved the little one.

“So, Light, you can change into a pegasus?”

I nodded and added, “And an earth-pony as well.”

“Show us, show us!” was their call now. I thought for a second and decided that a little demonstration wouldn’t hurt.

“Everyone take a step back.” My exercises in the past few days consisted of me in my pegasus form using my wings for propulsion and shortly before hitting a tree, or any obstacle for that matter, changing into an earth-pony and bucking it as hard as possible. Of course, I wasn’t using AJ precious apple trees for practice but rather the oak trees at the edge of the farm, not far from where we were standing. I took a small run-up and went into a full gallop. It took me a bit of time to get some feeling in my wings, and once those were flapping, I had to take care not to trip over my hooves from the extra speed. One of the trees was coming closer pretty fast, and I prepared to change my form. Internally, I was counting down to three and tried to shapeshift, but nothing happened. “Damn it….” The word had barely left my mouth before I struck the massive tree squarely.

Pain flowed through my body as I tried to regain my bearings. “Light, you okay?” Apple Bloom asked, her voice worried.

“Yeah. Demo effect,” came my mumbled answer.

“Can you actually fly?” Scootaloo inquired as she examined my wings more closely. I remembered Rainbow’s reaction to my statement and decided to spare her the shock about winged ponies not wanting to fly at all.

“Nope.” Dawn and the others looked at me and grinned sheepishly.

“Then you should come with us to Rainbow Dash this afternoon!” the little colt announced.

“Exactly, she will teach you how to fly.” What did I get myself into?

Trixie was on cloud nine. An article in the papers about her heroic feats together with Light - her secret brother - and Shining Armor’s squad, were still the number one topic in Canterlot, even after a full week. Equestria had repelled a changeling invasion two times now, and just like the last one, there hadn’t been any victims, only minor injuries. The best part, however, was that the she was literally drowning in requests from nearly every theatre in town. It was all running according to plan.

“Mommy, look, she’s from the newspaper!” A little unicorn foal was pointing at her while she was trotting down the broad streets of Canterlot. She revelled in every moment of attention the townsfolks presented her with. With the outcry of the foal, more and more ponies looked at her, and the gossiping began.

“I heard she fought Chrysalis.”

“But she lost.”

“Who can blame her for that? Even the princess had problems with her from what I know.”

“Is your source reliable? I heard that she once claimed to have vanquished an Ursa Major.”

“The princess herself commanded her, so there must be something to it.”

How could they still doubt her? Hadn’t she risked her life to save theirs? Pissed off as she was, she turned towards the gossiping mares and threw them an evil eye.

They realised that their cover had been blown and quickly dispersed in different directions.

Once out of earshot, a frustrated sigh escaped her lips. It was too good to be true, but that wouldn’t ruin her performance tomorrow.

“Give me twenty wing-ups for warm up!” Somewhat irritated since I had no intentions to learn how to fly, I stood with Dawn and Scootaloo below Rainbow Dash’s cloud house and began the exercises under her stern instruction. However, I thought that being able to break one’s fall would be a good idea. It was not likely that I would get into a similar situation anytime soon, but I hadn’t even expected it when it first happened. Also, this was Equestria and more specifically, if I wanted to challenge destiny, Ponyville. So I did as I was told and our trainer nodded in satisfaction.

“Alright, you two, you know the drills, so head out for a small one around the block, but not too high.” Much to my amazement, Dawn swung himself with one stroke a few meters up in the air and began to fly a large circle over the fields. Scootaloo did as well but she only managed to hold three meters above ground level and with much more strain in her flapping. “I never thought I would see you here, Light. Finally want to feel the best part of the world?” she asked with amusement.

“Not really; those two talked me into it. It’s more in case of an emergency if a certain someone pulls me up into the sky on a cloud again and I fell down.” I had hoped that that would hit its mark. Considering her mirthful laughter, it probably missed a mile wide.

“Your screams were so funny. I’ve never seen such a wuss before, except Fluttershy maybe.” I felt that she didn’t understand what I meant.

“Rainbow, I have vertigo. That wasn’t just a simple prank! I was scared to death up there!” She sighed and looked away.

“Alright, alright. I’m sorry, okay?” That was probably the best that I could get from Rainbow, but I didn’t take that the wrong way.

“We’re good. Now, how do I use these things?” Suddenly, she was all over my face.

“These ‘things’ are very sensitive. You’ve got to feel the wind; you need to align yourself with them and let them carry you,” she snapped at me. I took note to never talk bad about anything that was even remotely related to flight in her presence. “So, first things first. Pegasus wings have a lot of magic.”

“Like a unicorn’s horn?”

“Maybe. It’s important to adapt to this circulation.” I would have expected ‘pumping’ and similarly simple words.

“Wow, such a big word from you…”

“You want to learn or not? I’m no Twilight, but I know how my wings work, okay?”

“Alright, alright.”

“Now, try to feel the magic within and build up a matching rhythm. It’s different from pegasus to pegasus, so I can’t help you with that. If you want to know how it doesn’t work, just look over there.” She pointed at Scootaloo, who still had problems remaining in the air.

“Where did you learn all this?” I just couldn’t imagine her being a striving scholar.

“Flight School in Cloudsdale. Since Twilight and Sunshine can’t fly and don’t even live up there, I teach them.” She wasn’t unlike me when it came to school. If a subject had been uninteresting, then I had done only so much so as to not get an F in my school report. Once my interest got awakened, the grades had reflected it. My subject was math while hers was sports or something. I still couldn't figure it out.

“Sunshine? Is that Scoot’s mom?” She isn’t a pegasus?” Rainbow became unusually serious.

“Yes, and she’s paralyzed. She couldn’t use her wings since birth, so she never learned how to fly. The docs even reckoned that Scootaloo might get it too. Lucky for her, it only turned into a deficiency. She will be able to fly, but nopony knows if she will ever get good at it.” That explained why her wings were smaller than Dawn’s even though they were of the same age.

“You seem to know a lot about her mother.” I could see that this topic was unnerving her.

“When I was young, she lived in my neighbourhood.” She nudged me a little. ”Now let’s get going. If you want a tea party, you better visit Rarity or Fluttershy.”

I nodded and began to focus, even though I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to focus on or what I was looking for in the first place. She said that it was like a magical cycle, something like heartbeats maybe, something you could build up a rhythm to. I closed my eyes and tried to feel for some kind of pulsing in my wings or if something would turn visible in my soul, but there was nothing except the wind flowing around my extended feathers.

“There’s nothing there, Rainbow,” I said after a few minutes.

“It’s there, trust me. It took Scootaloo a few weeks, and even I look for it sometimes for a whole hour. A whole hour!” She must have really put herself into that one hour.

I may have not been born to fly, but I could concentrate if I wanted to. Curse you, Internet! I closed my eyes again and began to focus. It was boring. I just stood there, humming a melody and waiting for something to happen, something not wanting to happen.

“I’m going to look at the kids. You… just keep doing that.” Meaning that ‘it’s much more entertaining to watch them fly their rounds than you’. “Looking good, Scoots!” she called from a distance.

There I was now, magical wings on my back, trying to feel something that wasn’t there. I could move them; I could flap them, but I couldn’t get off the ground with them. It was probably the magic in those things that kept the pegasi light enough to fly. Last time I checked, my bones weren’t hollow. At least the crash against that tree didn’t show any signs of that. Concentration was one thing, even if doing so was a bit strained with Rainbow barking orders around, but to feel something while the wind was whipping against my wings was different. How would I come to a result this way? It was time to put my brain into it. I had changed into a pegasus, but what did I know about the actual process? This you-are-half-an-alicorn thing and my powers made it possible, but I was still practically a unicorn, at least since my resurrection through Albia. If I wanted my magic to take effect, I had to create it. What would Rarity say?

“Idea!” If there was no magical pulse to be felt, why not create one? I started to alternate between tensing and easing my muscles. It somehow felt like I was clenching my butt. Much to my surprise, something was actually happening. One could call it a magical pulsing, but it came not quite from my body – rather, it came from my wings. It began from the tips and slowly passed through my body like a second heartbeat. It was a slow, continuous rhythm, just as Rainbow had described it. I started to move my wings to that rhythm, and a whole new feeling came over me: lightness. It was as if I had done one of those super diets, losing all my weight, feeling like a leaf in the wind. I also felt it much stronger now and let myself drift by it. “I’m flying! I’m flying!” I shouted with glee and looked down to my classmates, only to witness them having a moderate case of a laughing fit. Like the teacher, like the student.

“You call that flying? You’re barely hanging an inch above the ground.” But I was in the air. “Let’s call it a start.”

“How long did I need?” Surely I hadn’t taken that long. Rainbow only pointed at the setting sun.

I had made myself a fool in front of Rainbow Dash and, to cap it all, in front of Dawn and Scootaloo as well. After a short first flight, Rainbow had decided to call it a day and sent the youngsters home. She offered me some extra training, but I had done what I had intended, right? In case of an emergency, I could at least hover and break my fall. She was much more disappointed about that than I was, even going so far as giving a little speech on what I was missing out. Even Fluttershy was scared of heights yet flew sometimes. Rainbow’s words, not mine. I got the feeling that flight must be in the blood of the pegasi, so it was less something to overcome than an urge to satisfy, right? To cement my decision, I had turned back into a unicorn and left. It was not the proper way to finish a conversation, but Rainbow had asked for it. It was my decision, not hers.

Now I was sitting at the river that was flowing through Ponyville, just off the farm, thinking about the day. I hadn’t trained a single spell that day, so it was now or never. Since I hadn’t been stingy with my magic today, I decided to take it slow. Celestia’s magic, as powerful as it was, was getting boring. I hadn’t trained ‘simple’ alteration spells, and the water was practically screaming to be manipulated. I also could have used some refreshment. I stood up, stepped into the shallow water, took some of it with my magic, and formed it into a soccer ball.

“Well, at least something is working today,” I remarked with satisfaction and plunged my head into the ball. The cool water was pleasant after such a hot day and could spare myself the shower later. I immersed myself through it once and then shook myself dry. Who needed towels if you had a fur coat?

A new thought crossed my mind. Maybe I could combine my magic with Celestia’s? Some light in the water, breaking in the right angle, and I could create an artificial rainbow that would make the Cloudsdale weather ponies envious. I began to form a circle, and the water quickly started to glow. I was about to call it a success when the sphere hardened and fell like a rock into the river. “Oh no…”

The circle dissolved as the large water sphere shone brighter and brighter. I climbed out of the river as fast as my hooves could carry me and took cover near a large beech tree. I had barely made it when suddenly a large explosion went off, strong enough to be heard all over Ponyville. Water, rocks, and small bushes shot past the tree before silence settled. Cautiously, I peeked around the tree and saw one large crater, about fifty by fifty meters wide and a couple of meters deep, slowly filling with water.

“Well… shit!”

Author's Notes:

Soon we will reach a favorite chapter of mine. The accident at the end was a little wish fulfillment of mine. With this being a self insert what isn't you ask? Well, I tried my best to fuck up everything for myself. I weird that way...

Thanks to LtcWest for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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