concoursec | Butterfly in the Sky, I Can Go Twice As High

Entry tags:

Butterfly in the Sky, I Can Go Twice As High

Characters: Rainbow Dash, Ed Elric, and Twilight Sparkle
Location: Twilight's room to start
Rating: PG (Ed is kinda foul-mouthed)
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: Rainbow and Ed have a deal. Ed, if you will forgive the term, is ponying up his part first.

Knock knock knock. There's a Rainbow at Twilight's door.

"Twilight! Hey Twilight! I need your magical expertise!"

The pegasus pony practically radiated delight. She'd been looking forward to this for some time, now, and finally having the chance to put it into motion meant she was just plain thrilled.

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That made one of them. The biped in the vicinity was hanging a short distance back in the corridor, looking slightly despondent about his lot in life. But mostly irritated at Rainbow Dash, which was standard.

How was this even going to work? Would he have to take his shirt off?

It could be worse, he tried to remind himself. Maybe everyone around here would be too busy doing, you know, break things not to pay too much attention to them. Or, maybe...

"You think she's in?" There was no disguising the small note of hope in his voice.

The door opens, and out comes the sought-after pony.

"What for, Rainbow Dash? I take it something to do with Edward here?"

Rainbow leaned back, slung an arm around Ed's shoulders, and hauled him forward with a grin.

"Yep. Remember the spell you used to give Rarity wings? Can you make it work on a human? We have a deal where HE does something I think he'll enjoy, and then I'll do something he thinks I'll enjoy!"

Well, so much for hope.

He attempted to lift Rainbow's foreleg off his shoulder, just in case he wasn't properly conveying his reluctance already. "Yeah, except she never said a thing about order. But close enough."

Tell her you're busy, Twilight. Please.

"You don't really sound excited about this, and I'm not sure how much you know about that spell..." she told Ed. Flying was all well and good, but...

...butterfly wings. (Fragile ones, at that.)

"But it is break. Sure I'll do it."

His fleeting look of despair quickly gave way to one of his more usual scowls. "Not a damn thing, obviously. You're the magician here."

Then he paused. "There's... gotta be some kind of catch, right? I'm guessing a really stupid one, too." He jerked his neck towards Rainbow, and never was there a more appropriate verb. "She said some crap about building wings out of ice..."

Nope, no clue about the butterfly wings so far. Or, for that matter, any uncannily apt mythological allusions.

"He agreed," Rainbow said, more for Ed's benefit than Twilight's. "And I promised not to laugh at him, at all."

More directly, she continued, "You can't fly too high or the wings burn up. But we'll go later in the day when the sun isn't high up and as strong, so you shouldn't have a problem."

Ed waved a hand quickly, without looking away from Twilight. "Yeah, I get it, you said. But is there anything else? Are they made of ice? 'Cause if it's normal ice, I can see you running into some other problems there... And, I don't know - where are they supposed to go? Do I have to move them, or what?"

Nobody could accuse him of not trying to make the best of the situation.

"They're not made of ice, they're gossamer and morning dew, both of which have a rather low burning point. Ice wings would be too heavy and fragile to be practical. The real issue is what they look like - Rainbow may have promised she wouldn't laugh, but that doesn't prevent anyone else from doing so," said Twilight, failing to provide any more relevant information.

"As far as moving them, it shouldn't be that hard. The spell was designed to be easy for the recipient to use properly."

You know, like that fairly recent potion. She was almost surprised she didn't make that connection sooner.

He'd never thought there'd be an occasion when he actively resented being right. "So the other catch is, they're gonna look so stupid even you think..." He stopped himself, though. He was outnumbered here. ...And he had no way of knowing if rants like that upset Twilight as much as Rainbow said they upset her, anyway.

So he just shrugged. "Well, anyway, glad that's clear." And, silently, started going over the composition of spider silk in his head. Just in case.

"Twiliiiiiiight!" From behind Ed, Rainbow furiously waved a hoof, then motioned across her throat. "Ixnay on the aughing-at-lay! Don't worry, we're gonna be up in the sky, there's no one who's gonna see," she said to Ed. "Except me, and Twilight, and I promised. And Twilight doesn't laugh at people like that."

A bit late there, Rainbow.

"You mean except you, her and anyone who happens to look up?" Never mind the idea of being high enough above them that they wouldn't be able to see!

He sighed distractedly, the back of his mind still buzzing with half-remembered protein structures and the names of compounds. This almost made him wish more of his work back home had involved animals. Almost.

"Honestly, though, I don't care." And he meant it, whatever that was worth. He'd already set aside plenty of time for revenge later.

"I'm going to laugh, either," she said, confirming the words of her friend. "I take magic very seriously."

"But it's good to see that you have this planned out," she continued, "Are you going to do this now or some other time?"

She had nothing planned at the moment, a rare thing for her, but that didn't mean either of them didn't.

...Okay, it didn't mean Edward didn't.

"Whenever you're ready? Now is fine, if you can adjust the spell for use on a human without any trouble."

She has no intention of giving him a chance to back out, if she can help it.

"Hmm..."

"Give me two hours. I'll have it done by then."

Dammit, Rainbow. Not for the first time that day, she was receiving an unmistakable glare. He'd been just about to say -

Oh. ...Two hours wasn't that bad, he figured. Plenty of time to get himself eaten by a T-Rexaur or something. It would've been more convenient (and most likely less painful) for him if he'd genuinely had any concrete plans for today beyond that, but it couldn't be helped.

"Two hours, really? Heh, well, you know me, always busy... I mean, I could try..." Worth a shot. As he said it, he turned and began to nonchalantly walk away so that neither of them could see his face.

"Perfect, that way he'll get to see the sunset. All right, we'll be back in two hours! Thanks, Twilight," Rainbow said with a grin. "I owe you one."

She casually reached out to sling a foreleg around Ed's shoulders and draw him back. You're not getting away THAT easily, alchemist.

"Right, Ed? We'll see her in two hours?"

"...but, you know, lately it's been kind of hard to keep track of - hrk."

Make no mistake, Dash - revenge is going to be sweet.

He made a spirited (and quite literal) attempt to shake her off. "Two hours, yeah, I heard her. And back here, right? I'll see you then."

Sure, his ingenious plan would fall to pieces if she took it upon herself to ~~babysit~~ follow him around the entire time, but what were the chances of that? He wouldn't spend a whole two hours with himself, given any other option.

Yes she would. As he headed off she flew right alongside him, rambling on about flying techniques, awesome things he needed to see from up high, the Wonderbolts, and occasionally Daring Do.

Meanwhile, Twilight needed to check out a few books. She'd need more detailed knowledge of the human anatomy in order to properly realign the mana construction frame, and so forth, not to mention there had to be a way to get it to pass through clothes.

Once she'd gotten back to her room, it was time to tweak the formula.

One hour and fifty minutes later, it was ready.

One hour and fifty-seven minutes later, three guesses who had completely failed to get Rainbow Dash off his back, and the first two don't count.

With a hand over his ear in an attempt to block the relentless stream of Wonderbolts-related trivia - had she stopped yet? Hell if he knew! That would've meant paying attention! - he grouched his way down the corridor and didn't so much knock as hammer at Twilight's door.

"-and that's why Soarin' won the race by about twenty seconds," she concluded triumphantly as they came up. "Hey Twilight! You ready?"

"Yes, I am. It would be better to find someplace more secluded to actually do it, though." After all, there was a statistically significant chance of them being seen in the corridors.

"Why? Someone in there already?" He craned over, obviously trying to get a better look at the room behind Twilight. But then his face fell even further, and he stopped. "Oh, don't tell me. You're gonna need the space." Which would, of course, make the whole thing much easier for just anyone to stumble across... That was how these things seemed to work for him, wasn't it?

"Quit worrying and let's do it!" Rainbow said, spinning a circle around the two of them impatiently. "Where do we need to go and why aren't we going there right now?"

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