“Ugh…damn it! Not again!”

I fell asleep on my couch with the photo album open again, most of the pictures were spread about everywhere that they shouldn’t be. On the floor, in the cracks of the couch, and one even managed to make it’s way into my shirt collar somehow. Thank goodness none of the pictures were ruined, I would’ve never forgiven myself for even the slightest of wrinkles or folds on even one of them. When I had finished putting away the photos I heard hoofsteps coming from Dashie’s room.

“What happened Pops?”

“Don’t worry about it Dashie, it’s alright. Go back to sleep, you’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

“Okay, G’night Pops. Love you.”

“I love you too, Dashie.”

Dashie truly did have a big day ahead of her, performing with the Wonderbolts is no easy task; you either fly hard and give it your best, or you’re out. I still remember the day that Dashie became a Wonderbolt, we had just been summoned to the Princess‘s (though I like to call her the Queen) quarters to talk about weather matters, apparently the cloud making machines weren’t functioning correctly, and most, if not all, of them were making way too many clouds, I don’t know much more than that, truth be told I didn’t really pay much attention. The entire meeting was boring and used words about weather I couldn‘t even begin to attempt to understand. There were Pegasi ponies everywhere in the meeting room, the Wonderbolts included. There must’ve been at least a quarter of the entire population of Cloudsdale sitting in a large room screaming and arguing with each other about the best possible course of action to take against the problem at hand - or rather at hoof. I still need to get used to this pony vocabulary.

The meeting went on for what felt like hours but eventually it ended when they came to a consensus, splitting into groups of four and taking care of the excess clouds manually. All the able bodied Pegasi were on cloud duty, pretty much if you had a pair of functioning wings and the know-how, which wasn’t much, you were asked to do cloud duty. Dashie’s group was Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, A purple mare by the name of Cloudkicker, and another grey mare whom Dashie calls Ditzy Doo. I think that’s a bit rude just because she’s clumsy she get’s a nickname for it, some of the other ponies even have the gall to call her Derpy, and play it off as if it isn’t an insult. Still, the grey mare didn’t seem to let it bother her so I guess I’m just yelling at air. When Dashie and I left the castle we said our goodbyes, hugged, and she left with her group to clear the sky. I walked home, something I hadn't done in a while, to work on my new wing project, but on the way home I stopped at Twilight’s library for some advice in the matter.

I knocked on the wooden door to the giant tree library, and within seconds I heard hoofsteps inside, or so I thought they were hoofsteps. To my surprise Spike had answered the door, I didn't know how that door opened until I looked down at him. He looked exhausted, his eyes which were glancing up at me had dark purple bags around them, and his scales looked unkempt, Twilight must’ve had him reorganize the entire library again.

“Hey Spike, is Twilight here?”

Spike nodded and turned around, then beckoned for me to follow him. He walked up the stairs to Twilight’s room, after knocking on her bedroom door and Twilight shouting for him to come in, through the door I heard “The humans’ here, Twi. He‘s gotta talk to you or something. I dunno.” Not very eloquent, is he? Well, he’s only a baby dragon but still at least learning my name would be enough, I do have a name after all but most of the ponies just don’t seem to care enough to learn it. I’m constantly being referred to as ‘Rainbow’s Father’, ‘Sir’, or ‘Mister Dash’, and honestly it got a bit annoying after the first hundred times. First it was cute, sort of. Now it just gets on my nerves a little bit. I’m constantly reminding ponies to call my by my first name yet they constantly forget, well, maybe there's a few ponies who remember, but I digress...

I heard the door upstairs open and the hoofsteps echo down the stairs. I knew of Twilight's OCD like behavior from the television show, and her habit of reading for days upon days when something goes wrong, looking for a spell to cure whatever is wrong, but she looked normal to me. It really surprised me, I expected her to be unkempt and on the brink of insanity like in that old episode, Lesson Zero, but she looked perfectly healthy, that‘s the entire reason I decided to visit. Only if she was herself was I going to talk about making a flying apparatus. Her mane had no split ends, she had no awkward smile, her ears weren’t flopping and her voice was calm, not erratic.

“Hello Brian. How are you today?”

I unzipped my sweatshirt and got a bit more comfortable. “I’m good, how about you Twilight?” I was genuinely concerned for her, what with the cloud troubles I‘d thought that she‘d be burying herself in the books, looking for a spell, but she looked entirely normal to me.

“I’m doing fine. What do you need?”

I started to twiddle with my thumbs, I felt as if my request was silly. Wanting to fly. Humans aren’t meant to fly, not least by themselves. The flying wasn’t for me though, it wasn't even for Dashie. It was for us as a whole. To fly with her would be a dream come true. Literally. Dashie and I share dreams sometimes, it’s a side effect of the teleportation that we had both undergone. In these dreams I’m a Pegasus, but sometimes I'm human. Dashie and I fly over forests, valleys, and mountains alike. I’m a full grown Pegasus stallion, my brown coat is flawless and my wings are large and powerful, my jet-black mane and short cropped tail flow gracefully in the wind, and from what Dashie tells me I have got giant blue eyes like Pinkie.

“Twilight, I-I want to know if there’s a way that I can fly with Dashie.”