Why Can't I Fly?

by Pre-Animation Man

Sweetie Belle asks a question.

Rarity flew through the sky without a care in the world. She did several loop-de-loops before finally landing atop a cloud; she looked down towards the world below her. As she surveyed the land, she spotted Sweetie Belle on the ground looking up at her. Rarity hopped off her cloud and zoomed down to Sweetie Belle.

"Hey squirt, what's up?" Rarity asked. Sweetie Belle did not respond. It was then that Rarity noticed the forlorn expression on Sweetie Belle's face. "Sweetie Belle? Are you doing okay?"

"Rarity…" Sweetie Belle started weakly and then paused, before continuing, "…how old were you when you were first able to fly?"

Rarity considered the question, "I guess I first started when I was 1 or 2, maybe earlier…" Rarity then suddenly realized the probable reason Sweetie Belle asked the question in the first place.

"Wait, you haven't been able to fly yet, yet have you?" Rarity asked.

Sweetie Belle nodded her head slowly.

"But I'm way older than 2! So, I should be able to fly! Right?" Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity intently, a desperate look in her eyes.

"was there anything special you did before you first flew around? Are there any special training exercises? Do I need to eat a special diet with proteins or antioxidants or whatever?"

Rarity stood there unsure of how to respond. She desperately wanted to help her friend, but she honestly couldn't think of anything special about the time she first flew. She just… flew. And that was it. She desperately searched inside herself for an answer but came up blank. She noticed tears starting to form in Sweetie Belle's eyes and Rarity instantly felt regret and failure, like she had let Sweetie Belle down.

"Do you think," Sweetie Belle choked back a sob, "do you think there's something wrong with me? That I might never fly?"

Rarity continued to stare blankly desperately trying to think of something. If only she were smart, like Diamond Tiara; she would think of something. Rarity then mentally smacked herself. Of course! Diamond Tiara! She always had an answer to every problem. She brightened up a little as she said: "Hey, let's go talk to Diamond Tiara. She's a total egghead, she probably knows exactly what to do to help you. And if she doesn't, she'll have a book that will help, I just know it." Sweetie Belle seemed to a brighten up a little too.

"Yeah, heh, she probably does."

The two made their way to Diamond Tiara's house. Rarity knocked on the door rapidly before it was finally opened by Diamond Tiara herself.

"Rarity, you don't have to knock so vigorously—" Diamond Tiara started admonishingly.

"Sorry, Diamond Tiara," Rarity cut in, "but this really important, can we come inside?"

Diamond Tiara seemed to notice the sad atmosphere around them both and let them inside. They all sat around Diamond Tiara's house awkwardly, neither Rarity or Sweetie Belle seeming to know how to start or even who should do the initial talking.

Finally, Sweetie Belle burst out, "Why can't I fly?"

Diamond Tiara was taken aback by the suddenness of the question. "Well…" she started, "I must admit I've been wondering the same thing myself, though I've never put too much thought into it before." She stared off into the distance, apparently lost in thought. "I initially thought that you were just a late bloomer but you seem to be developing normally in all other regards." She inspected Sweetie Belle closely. "you seem to be the appropriate height and weight for a filly your age. Your head, legs, and wings all seem the right size too…"

"Wait," Sweetie Belle piped up, "you just said that my wings are a normal size for a filly my age. Doesn't that mean that they should be big enough for me to fly?"

Diamond Tiara considered the question briefly. "The size doesn't actually matter that much. If you want to get technical, all pegasi wings are too small for them, ponies are simply not very aerodynamic, pegasi are mostly held aloft by magic, the wings are largely vestigial. That's why baby pegasi are sometimes able to fly, all baby ponies are prone to sudden magical outbursts—" Diamond Tiara suddenly frowned and then ran to a bookshelf and started to pull book after book out of her bookshelf, looking at the cover of each briefly before throwing it behind her. Finally, she took one of the books and plopped it open on a nearby desk.

"I've got it! All this time I thought that Sweetie Belle's problem was physical but what if it's magical?" She flipped through the pages quickly. "here we go! Magical deficiency! Ponies with magical deficiency are shown to be unable to access the magical abilities normally granted to ponies are their type."

"wait a minute," Rarity interrupted, "I thought magic was something only unicorns did?"

"That's a common misconception," said Diamond Tiara authoritatively, "in actuality, ponies of all types have magic powers. Unicorns have telekinesis, Pegasi have buoyancy powers, and Earth Ponies have incredible strength and stamina—"

"Wait," Rarity said, interrupting yet again, "does that mean that all those times AJ complained about me cheating by flying she was cheating by using her Earth Pony Strength?

"I… guess?" Diamond Tiara responded. "More to the point; if Sweetie Belle was magically deficient it could explain why she can't fly."

"well, great we know the cause, so now just look in that book for a cure!" Rarity interjected.

"First off," Diamond Tiara said, "there is no known cure for magical deficiency, second we don't know if Sweetie Belle is actually magically deficient."

"but you just said that she was!" Rarity responded.

"I said it could explain why she can't fly, "Diamond Tiara said, trying to hide her exasperation, "not that it was why she can't fly. It's only a hypothesis."

"you mean like a theory?"

"no, a theory is actually… that's not the point. The point is: we don't actually know if that's the cause or not. It just might be."

"how can we find out?" asked Sweetie Belle who had been silent for so long that Rarity and Diamond Tiara had almost forgotten she was in the room listening to them.

"I'm glad you asked, Sweetie Belle." Diamond Tiara answered having gained a seeming spring in her step, "the best way to find out if a hypothesis is true or not is with an experiment!"

The zeal in Diamond Tiara's voice was countered by the annoyance by Rarity as she rolled her eyes. "Ugh, not your egghead science stuff."

Diamond Tiara glared at Rarity, "you came to me for egghead science help, you get egghead science help. And I'll have you know that experiments are, de facto, the best way to see if something is true or not."

"and what type of experiment would we do?" Rarity countered, "Throw her up in the air and see if she flies?!"

"of course not," Diamond Tiara answered, "we already know that Sweetie Belle cannot currently fly. Our experiment would have to be centered entirely by her magic ability. A test. Something that would go one way if she was magic deficient and another way if she wasn't. Something regardless of her ability to fly."

"That's stupid," said Rarity, "the ability to fly is just the ability to fly. There's nothing else to it."

Diamond Tiara considered that for a few seconds. She took another book off the bookshelf, held it in front of her and flipped through the pages. She read a bit before finally placing the book down on the desk next to the first book

"I've got it. Clouds! Pegasi can stand on clouds and are capable of doing so since birth, which is why so many of them live up in Cloudsdale. Sweetie Belle, you were born in Seattle, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you've never been to Cloudsdale or stood on a cloud, right?"

"I… don't think I have," Sweetie Belle responded.

"So if she's never stood on a cloud," added Rarity, "does that mean she's magically deficient?"

"No, Rarity. Just because she hasn't done so doesn't mean that she can't. That's why we have to do an experiment."

Rarity and Sweetie Belle looked towards each other. "What kind of experiment?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Diamond Tiara flexed her own wings and opened the door, "come outside with me."

She went outside and looked up into the sky, Rarity and Sweetie Belle followed her.

Finally, Diamond Tiara spotted a particularly fluffy cloud and said, "there. For this experiment, we will judge Sweetie Belle's ability to stand on a cloud in order to determine whether or not she is magically deficient." Diamond Tiara spoke in a business-like voice, she hadn't done a real experiment in quite a long time and she wanted to make sure that this one was done as professionally and correctly as possible.

Rarity, personally, thought that Diamond Tiara was enjoying this a little too much.

"First, I will grab Sweetie Belle and fly above the cloud, Rarity will hover below the cloud. I will then drop Sweetie Belle onto the cloud. If she lands on the cloud she is not magically deficient and there is another reason for her current inability to fly. On the other hand, if she falls through the cloud, Rarity will catch her and we will conclude that she likely is magically deficient."

She turned around to the two ponies behind her "okay, everyone knows their positions, let's do this!" She then noticed the apprehension on both of their faces "you are okay with this experiment, right Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle thought nervously. The thought of doing this experiment terrified her for a reason that she couldn't quite place. She had no idea what was worse: not knowing why she couldn't fly, or knowing that there was nothing that could be done about it. She also didn't quite know how she felt about falling through a cloud. She trusted Rarity, but what if something went wrong?

"I think we should do it." Said Rarity; Sweetie Belle turned towards her. "if we don't know what's wrong we can't do anything about it. But if we know, then we can figure out what to do next." She smiled weakly, trying to be strong for Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle nodded, "let's do this."

-

All three of them were in the sky, their hearts all beating rapidly.

"Are you ready Rarity?" Asked Diamond Tiara.

"Ready" Rarity responded.

Diamond Tiara hesitated, breathed in and out and then dropped Sweetie Belle.

She watched Sweetie Belle fall down, hit the cloud and then continue falling straight through where Rarity quickly caught her.

It was as if, for a moment, the whole world had paused as they all considered the weight of what had just happened. Tears entered Sweetie Belle's eyes again.

"so… that's it… I'm never going to be able to fly."

Rarity stayed silent, Diamond Tiara simply said, "I'm so sorry Sweetie Belle." In her head though, she considered if that was really it. She didn't say anything out loud, but she felt like there had to be something she could do. Some way that Sweetie Belle could fly. She just had to think of it.

Rarity flew over to Diamond Tiara's house. She landed by the front door and slowly knocked on it.

Diamond Tiara meanwhile was caught up in reading and only barely noticed the knock. She looked up from her book and quickly flew over to the door and opened it.

"Hello, Rarity."

"Hey Diamond Tiara," said Rarity as she walked into the door. She looked around a bit before continuing "Sweetie Belle's still really upset about the magical deficiency thing. She's putting on a brave face, but it's really upsetting for her, knowing that she can't fly. Don't know if she's told her parents about it yet or not." She suddenly stopped talking and sighed.

Diamond Tiara nodded sadly. It had been a little more than a week since the three of them had done their experiment and determined that Sweetie Belle lacked magic of any kind. Since then Diamond Tiara had become much more reclusive than before. She poured over book after book trying to find out whatever she could about magical deficiency.

Rarity suddenly turned towards Diamond Tiara and asked, "are you sure that there's nothing that we can do? I feel so useless, being unable to help her!"

"I've actually been researching possible ways to help Sweetie Belle," Diamond Tiara responded, "I've been going from book to book. I've even sent letters to Princess Celestia asking her if there was anything she knew." Diamond Tiara paused as Rarity leaned in expectantly. "There was actually a moment where I thought I had come across a solution. I realized that if Princess Celestia was able to turn me into an alicorn, there should be some way for her to give magic power to Sweetie Belle."

Rarity suddenly flew up with excitement, "Hey, that's actually a really good idea! Why didn't I think of that?" she added.

Diamond Tiara nodded again, "unfortunately that avenue turned out to be a dead end."

Rarity fluttered down with disappointment, "How come?" she asked slightly more aggressively than she had intended.

"It turns out," Diamond Tiara responded, "that Princess Celestia wasn't actually able to give me more magical power than I originally had. According to her, all potential alicorns -such as myself- are born with an excess of magic; much more than we could normally use on our own. She referred to the processing as being more akin to unlocking a dam than any actual transformation. Once an alicorn has their potential 'unlocked', the excess power goes towards the other two pony abilities. She also described advanced alicorn magic where magic can be funneled out of one ability and into another one allowing them to strengthen one particular ability for a short time. She even described an even more advanced and rare type of magic where magic ability is funneled in a special way allowing two abilities to be used simultaneously and form a new ability that acts as a fusion of the two abilities."

Rarity stared blankly, she was starting to lose track of this conversation.

Diamond Tiara noticed the look on her friend's face and realized that she had gone off topic. She cleared her throat and started again, "the important part is: magic can't be created or destroyed. Ponies can neither gain nor lose any magic power. They're stuck with the amount they're born with, essentially."

"So that's it then." Responded Rarity. "There's no way to give magic power to a pony without magic."

"Pretty much." Said Diamond Tiara sadly.

Rarity gave Diamond Tiara a look "Pretty much?" She repeated, "Is there more to it than that?"

"Well…" Diamond Tiara started, "there are some edge cases I've found that can allow ponies to gain or lose magic power." She paused as she gathered her thoughts. "There are some beings like Tirek who can remove magic power from a Pony and give the power to themselves. And similarly, in order to combat Tirek, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence were able to temporarily move their magic power to me."

Rarity nodded, "I'm guessing there are problems with both of those right? Else you would have started with them."

"Correct," Diamond Tiara responded, "it's actually the same problem. Although there are ways to move magic power, actually using the power in the intended way is something else. For example, Tirek's abilities included draining others and shooting lasers. So, when Tirek drains a pony he can only use the magic power for those two abilities. To put it another way, when Tirek drains a pegasus he doesn't gain buoyancy and when he drains a unicorn he doesn't gain telekinesis. He can steal raw magical power but not the actual magical abilities.

Similarly, when the other princesses gave me their power, that only worked the way it did because all four of us were alicorns. Were they to give their power to a unicorn, said unicorn would only gain an increase to their unicorn abilities; the same is true if they gave their powers to an Earth Pony or a Pegasus. Ponies can only use magic power towards their own abilities.

"Princess Celestia told me that the process is temporary anyway. After moving magic power from one pony to another, the power would eventually start a gradual shift back to the first pony. It would take 2 or 3 months for the power to fully return but only a week for the power loss to become noticeable, it's really only good as a temporary solution."

Diamond Tiara paused again and grabbed a glass of water which she drank before continuing. "The problem with Sweetie Belle's case is that magically deficient ponies have neither magical power nor abilities. Even if we were to give her magic power she wouldn't have any abilities to channel that power into. She'd be in the same situation she's in right now."

"but what if you unlock her abilities or whatever?" asked Rarity, "couldn't Celestia give Sweetie Belle the ability to funnel magic into flying, like she did for you?"

"I wish it were that simple," answered Diamond Tiara, "unlocking magic abilities requires a very complicated ritual and a great deal of magic power in both the caster and the recipient. Using the ritual on a pony with a normal amount of magic power could severely harm them, using it on a pony with no magic power or ability would have a very high chance of resulting in death."

Both ponies paused to accept the gravity of what Diamond Tiara had said. Diamond Tiara looked up in thought for a few seconds, "I suppose that Luna, Cadence, or myself could temporarily give our magic power to Sweetie Belle, after which Celestia could perform the ritual on Sweetie Belle. I would be extremely worried about using the ritual on a pony with borrowed magic. It's never been done before, as far as I or Celestia know, so the results would be unpredictable."

"But it could work?" added in Rarity, "If you don't know what's going to happen that means there's a chance it'll give Sweetie Belle magical abilities?"

"Yes," Diamond Tiara said flatly, "it might unlock her ability to fly. It might also kill both her and the pony who donated the power. Or create an explosion so huge that the casualties would be widespread across Equestria. It's too big a risk, rituals like this are extremely dangerous and almost always end catastrophically if they aren't followed to the letter." She paused again and thought for a moment before continuing, "I honestly think the best-case scenario if we did the ritual, would be if the magic power suddenly returned to the donor. In that case, only Sweetie Belle would be at risk of death. To put it bluntly, we can't use the ritual, not without several years of research and experiments first. And even then I'd be hesitant.

"That's all pretty sucky, ya know" Rarity said bluntly, "so basically there's nothing anyone can do? You've gone through every possibility?"

"That's how it looks." Said Diamond Tiara, "I've been doing as much research as I can on magical deficiency, trying to see if there's anything that can be done. Anything that anyone missed. Any way to solve the problem indirectly without actually affecting her magic abilities."

"Anything?" Rarity asked without any hope.

"Besides giving her a hat to wear with a propeller on it? Nothing. And even that wouldn't give her full control over her flight. She'd mainly be able to use it to go upwards and hover; both of which can also be done more efficiently with a hot air balloon.

"I'm sorry Rarity, I've looked at everything and there's really nothing that anyone can do."

"Ugh, this is stupid!" Rarity suddenly burst out, "so… what? Celestia and the rest of the alicorns are too weak to do anything? What if we used someone stronger than Celestia?" Rarity was fighting a losing battle as she tried to keep her voice from dripping with venom. This whole situation was just so frustrating. She hated having stuff that was completely out of her control, she hated being told she couldn't do something, and most of all she hated giving up.

"No one is stronger than Celestia." Diamond Tiara immediately responded trying not to sound too upset over the perceived sacrilege. She knew that Rarity had good reason to be upset.

"You don't know that," Rarity retorted "what about Discord? He stole our wings and horns and put them in a box. After that, we couldn't fly or use magic. Or are you going to tell me that there was some stupid thing going on with that too?"

"Actually…" Diamond Tiara started before she paused, she suddenly flew over to her bookshelves and started frantically pulling out book after book. She regarded and rejected the books at a speed which Rarity found dizzying. Even when Diamond Tiara did open a book to read it contents she almost immediately threw it behind her onto a pile which was growing ever larger. After exhausting her search, Diamond Tiara flew back to Rarity

"It has just occurred to me," said Diamond Tiara, "that there is remarkably little literature written on draconequi. I'm not even certain if that should be plural, Discord might be the only one." Diamond Tiara paused for a second then continued. "I don't want to jump to conclusions, but Rarity, I believe you've just hit upon a major breakthrough!"

"I did?" asked Rarity, "I mean… of course I did! So Discord? you think he's the solution?"

"Maybe!" Said Diamond Tiara who was slowly getting more excited. She paced back and forth and flapped her wings energetically. "I was so preoccupied with techniques that I was knowledgeable on, that I never even considered looking into something that no one really knows anything about. I honestly have no idea how Discord was able to remove our magical abilities, but if he could do so easily, without any dangerous ritual; it stands to reason that he should be able to grant magical abilities too. Hypothetically of course. I don't want to get too excited yet, but our next step is clear. We need to find Discord and ask him directly if he can do what we want him to do." She stopped, "I have no idea how we're going to find Discord…"

"Aren't he and Twilight doing a weekly tea thing?" Rarity asked, "Let's just go to Twilight's cottage and ask him there."

"Right," said Diamond Tiara, "to Twilight's cottage!"

Diamond Tiara and Rarity made their way to Twilight's cottage. When they got there, Diamond Tiara knocked twice on the door. After about a second of waiting, Rarity rushed forward and started knocking frantically.

"Twilight! are you there?"

Diamond Tiara stared at Rarity who slowly stopped knocking.

"S-sorry. This whole thing just has me so antsy."

After a few more seconds the door opened as Twilight timidly poked her head out.

"Oh, Diamond Tiara, Rarity, hello there"

"Twilight," Diamond Tiara started, "is Discord in there? We need to talk to both of you."

"Yes," answered Twilight, "we've just been drinking tea and talking about—"

Without waiting for Twilight to finish her sentence Rarity burst into her house and started calling out.

"Hey Discord, we need to talk to you! It's super important!"

Discord slithered into the room from a crack in the ceiling

"You called for me and I appeared!"

"Discord," Diamond Tiara started, "back when you first escaped from stone, you were able to remove our horns and wings. I was wondering how exactly you were able to do that."

"how I was able to do it? I just did it. It's as easy as breathing or eating a pomegranate." to demonstrate he reached out and grabbed Diamond Tiara's horn off of her head flipped it into the air before catching it and placing it back on.

"We were wondering, if you're able to remove magic abilities from a pony could you also give magical abilities to a pony who is magically deficient? We're trying to help out Sweetie Belle."

Discord contemplated the question for a second. "hmmm, to be honest, I've never thought of giving powers to a pony. Even so, I don't think that would be possible."

"And just why not?" asked Rarity indignantly.

"I suppose I could try. It is always good to try new things." He then got extremely close to Rarity and put his fingers on his head as if concentrating extremely hard. Rarity instinctively took a step backwards.

After about 3 seconds Discord leaned back. "Well, I just tried to give Rarity a horn but to no avail. It's a rather complicated affair. I mean, if you wanted to steal candy from a baby all you'd have to do is reach out and grab it. But if you wanted to give candy to a baby… where would you get the candy from, you couldn't very well do it if you didn't have any candy to give, now could you? What do you newfangled kids call it, 'the law of equivalent exchange' or somesuch?"

"Ugh! Are you kidding me?!" cried out Rarity, "so it really is hopless."

Diamond Tiara who was sitting in thought replied, "not necessarily. Discord, you essentially said that you could easily take somepony's magic, but that you couldn't give magic abilities that you don't have. But if you took magic from somepony, you should be able to easily give the magic you took. After all, you were able to give us back our wings and horns without any difficulty. Following from that, you should also be able to take a magic ability from one pony and then give that ability to a second pony, correct?"

Discord thought for a second and then without a word grabbed Diamond Tiara's horn off of her head and slapped it into place on Rarity's head.

There was a brief moment of silence before Diamond Tiara uttered, "R-Rarity? Can you… Can you use unicorn magic?"

Rarity looked confusedly back and forth between Discord and Diamond Tiara. "I… I don't even know how to use a horn. Do I just point it at something or…?"

Diamond Tiara looked around the room before settling on a small teacup sitting on the table. "Rarity. Look at this teacup and concentrate on trying to lift it up. Focus entirely on this teacup moving upwards."

Rarity gulped and stared at the teacup. She stared intently at the teacup and put all her thoughts into the teacup rising. After a moment, she started to sweat. At first nothing happened, but slowly a white glow surrounded her horn and within a moment the same white glow surrounded the teacup. The teacup shakily rose a centimeter off of the table before crashing down, spilling the remaining tea on the table.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Diamond Tiara muttered to herself. Discord plucked the horn off of Rarity's head and snapped it back onto Diamond Tiara.

"So now what?" asked Rarity, "that means there's a solution. We can give Sweetie Belle the ability to fly."

"We would still need a donor," Diamond Tiara mused out loud.

"A donor?" Rarity turned back to look at Diamond Tiara.

"Equivalent Exchange, my dear," said Discord, "if I were to give your friend the ability to fly, I would have to take the ability away from some other pony."

"And then they would become magically deficient." Responded Diamond Tiara flatly.

Rarity looked back and forth between them. "Well that's not fair!" She called out. "You're not really curing magical deficiency, you're just giving it to somepony else!"

"Thems the breaks" shrugged Discord.

"No way!" Called out Rarity, "we got this far, there has to be something we can do! What if we took magic from a flying animal like a bird or a phoenix? They wouldn't miss it as much as a pony would."

"Phoenixes and birds aren't held aloft by magic. They're light enough that their wings can provide sufficient lift without any magical assistance." Diamond Tiara responded.

"What about griffons? They're heavy, do they have magic flight?"

"They… do… but, you do know that they're sentient right? Taking magic from them would be just as bad as taking magic from a pony." Diamond Tiara said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well yeah but… I don't know! There has to be something, right? Could we do it half and half? Sweetie Belle and another pony both get half power."

"Pretty sure I could do something like that," said Discord. "Not an exact 50/50 split, seeing as I failed geometry."

"That wouldn't work," said Diamond Tiara, "ponies don't have a lot of extra magic. A Pony would need over 90% of their natural magic power in order to fly, give or take 5%.

"I suppose you could find a large group of 10 or more ponies, take small amounts from each of them. But you would need a large number of willing participants and there's always the risk of taking away too little or too much magic, or of one pony having a magical disease that gets transmitted by the power share… It's doable, but there would be a lot of logistics involved. Magically deficiency affects a little less than 1% of the population, so there should be enough magic amongst the rest of the population for everyone, but that assumes that there wouldn't be any other complications."

"Woah, wait, slow down." Rarity cut in. "Who cares about other ponies, we're just talking about Sweetie Belle here."

"Rarity, I am a princess for all of Equestria. I can not and will not show favoritism. If I'm going to find a cure for this, preferably it would be one that fixed the problem for everyone, or at least for most magically deficient ponies, not just the one I know."

"'Most'..." Rarity repeated flatly, "so even if you found a cure, Scootalo might still never be able to fly. Because you'd rather prioritize some random pony you don't even know over one of your friends!"

"Sweetie Belle would most likely be one of the first treated, we would prioritize children above older ponies. We would also prioritize based on an individuals needs and desires. An Earth Pony with a job as an accountant simply would not need magically increased strength as much as one who works on a farm or at a delivery company. A young pony like Sweetie Belle, with aspirations towards stunts and dancing would be very high priority." Diamond Tiara considered for a bit, "actually we wouldn't have to give her flight, the increased stamina from Earth Pony magic might be better suited to her chosen profession… err, we'll just give her whatever kind of magic she wants. But I guarantee you, Rarity, we will give Sweetie Belle magic."

Rarity closed her eyes and considered everything Diamond Tiara had said.

"Fine," she replied, "but if after all this, Sweetie Belle still can't fly… I'm going to be royally mad."

Diamond Tiara nodded, "that's fair." She turned to Discord.

"Discord, I want you to try splitting Rarity and my flight magic. Take half away from both of us, then switch the halves."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Rarity as Discord was already removing their wings.

"I want to do a trial run, see if this will actually work."

Discord stared at the two pairs of wings in his hands.

"I'm not entirely sure how to split this? Do I just give you one of each wing? Or maybe…"

he took the two wing pairs and smushed them together into a swirling indigo ball. Rarity and Diamond Tiara couldn't help but wince. Discord then spun the indigo ball like pizza dough and flung it into the air. He caught the disk as it fell and pulled it apart into two lumps which quickly morphed into the shape of two pairs of indigo wings. He slapped a pair on each of them.

"Alright then," Diamond Tiara stated. "Now we just need to see if we can fly."

Diamond Tiara and Rarity flapped their wings but found that neither of them could get off the ground.

"What did you do?!" Cried out an agitated Rarity, "you broke our wings!"

"Our wings are fine," mused Diamond Tiara, "we can flap them fast enough to create lift, we're just not buoyant enough to actually fly. Discord, are you sure that we both have Pegasus Magic?"

Discord made a shape with his fingers, like a director framing a shot, and peered at them.

"You both definitely have a normal amount of magic… but something's amiss. Your magic is flickering."

"Huuuh…" Diamond Tiara considered for a moment.

"Discord, put our magic back where it was, please." She said.

Discord snapped his finger and Diamond Tiara and Rarity's wings returned to their original colors.

Diamond Tiara flapped her wings and flew into the air. Rarity followed Diamond Tiara's lead and also flew into the air. The two then landed back on the ground.

"Okay, now give Rarity my horn again."

Discord complied and Diamond Tiara continued:

"Now Rarity, try flying in the air." When Rarity flew up Diamond Tiara said, "Okay, now try lifting the teacup."

Rarity concentrated hard on the teacup. Finally, the teacup started to lift into the air. But as soon as it was up, Rarity crashed to the ground, losing her concentration, the teacup clattered down onto the table.

Diamond Tiara nodded, "now try doing it again in reverse order. Lift the cup then start flying."

Rarity nodded in turn and set her eyes back on the cup and lifted it into the air. She flapped her wings but found it hard to lift off, when she finally did get up she ended up dropping the cup again.

"That's harder than it looks…" Rarity muttered.

"Okay, now Discord, give me my horn back."

Discord complied and Diamond Tiara, with ease, flew up into the air and levitated the cup.

"Show off…" Rarity continued to mutter.

Diamond Tiara just shook her head. "Discord, switch our flight magic."

Discord plucked Diamond Tiara and Rarity's wings off their bodies and switched them around.

Diamond Tiara once again tried to fly and lift the cup at the same time. She got the cup up but struggled to bring up her own body. When she finally flew up, she dropped the cup just as Rarity had.

"Okay, I'm going to try that again. Discord can you use your magic sight again?"

"Of course," he said, making the appropriate hand gesture.

Diamond Tiara once again flew into the air and tried to lift the cup. And once again found that she couldn't do both at the same time. Diamond Tiara nodded again to herself.

"What did you see, Discord?"

"Fascinating. You have Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn magic. But the Pegasus magic is slightly different. Like it's operating at a different frequency. I think you can only activate one frequency at a time."

"That's what I was afraid of," Diamond Tiara said solemnly.

"So… uh… what does that all mean?" Asked a confused Rarity.

"It means we can't split magic between ponies." Responded Diamond Tiara, "if we took magic ability from ten ponies and put it into one pony, that one pony could 'activate' any of those one-tenth abilities, but not multiple at the same time." She thought for a moment, "Discord, could you change the frequency of someone's magic?"

Discord shrugged, "dunno. Not entirely certain how magic works, I can move it but I don't think I can modify it without it blowing up in our faces. Literally. Or maybe I'd break it permanently. Or maybe I'd accidentally unlock some hidden potential and turn Sweetie Belle into a god with power to rival my own."

"Okay," said Diamond Tiara, "we should probably avoid that for now. As far as I can understand it, we would have to completely remove someone else's magic ability in order for Sweetie Belle to fly."

"It should be me!" Rarity called out. "I'm the closest to her, and I'm the best at flying, and I'm the Element of Loyalty, so um… I'm totally willing to do this for her."

"Rarity… you don't have to do that." Said Diamond Tiara.

"But I want to!" Rarity said forcefully, "I feel completely powerless Diamond Tiara! Please, just let me do something for my friend!"

"Ah… um… sorry… but um, can I say something?" Twilight stuttered out.

"Twilight?" Rarity asked, "when did you get here?"

"I-I've been here the entire time… This is my house Rarity."

"Oh… right." Rarity responded.

"Um… anyways" Twilight continued, "I uh… think I should be the one who gives up my flight. Because… Rarity really likes flying, but I won't miss it, so if you took it from me that would make everyone the most happy, so… um… you can do it however and it'll be fine, I'm just making a suggestion, you don't have to listen to me if you don't…" Twilight stopped as she realized she was rambling.

"I think Twilight makes a good point." Said Diamond Tiara, "taking flight from Rarity isn't exactly tenable. I'm sorry Rarity, I know you want to do this for Sweetie Belle, but you'd have to give up your lifelong goals, your house, your main method of locomotion. I wouldn't want you to give all that up, and I know Sweetie Belle wouldn't either."

"It's okay Diamond Tiara! It's okay! I would give anything to let Sweetie Belle fly. And I wouldn't want Twilight to give up… whatever she would have to give up without flight… please, just let me do this for Sweetie Belle." Rarity pleaded desperately.

Diamond Tiara considered the issue at hand. Finally, she spoke: "I have an idea… I know that some people would debate that it isn't ethical… but what if we took magic from old and sick ponies who are close to death? If they're going to die soon anyway, they won't miss their magical ability." She shrugged awkwardly.

"Holy horsefeathers." Muttered Rarity, "are you actually suggesting we scavenge dead bodies for parts?"

"It's no different from organ donations." Defended Diamond Tiara, "except you would have to do it slightly before they die because magic dissipates on death."

Diamond Tiara thought for a moment, "Discord, what happens when the pony whose magic is removed dies? Would it dissipates then, or when the recipient dies?"

Discord shrugged as he considered. He suddenly stood up straight and proclaimed, "I just remembered something!" He poofed out of the room.

One awkward minute later, Discord poofed back in holding a rock in his hands, he threw the rock into the air and it unceremoniously clattered to the floor. Sitting there, the gathered group noticed that the rock had wings and a horn.

"Discord, what the Tartarus is this?" Asked Diamond Tiara

"Many eons ago, as a joke, I stole magic from three different ponies and gave it to a rock… I also gave the rock sentience."

"Why… would you do that?"

"As I said, it was a joke. A politically charged performance art piece on how the princesses weren't special because even a rock could become an Alicorn. Don't look at me like that Diamond Tiara, it was a different time, I hadn't reformed yet. Anyways, that was like a thousand or a million or however many years ago, so the ponies whose magic I stole are probably dead by now, like 60% likely. Now, this rock could fly reasonably well back then, and now it can't fly at all. Also, I looked at it with my magic sight and it doesn't have any magic inside of it. So you do the math."

Diamond Tiara stared at the rock for a few seconds, "ignoring all the issues I have with this on a greater level, we don't actually know how or when it lost its magic. It could have lost it when the original magic users died, it also could have lost it after you were encased in stone, it also could have lost it years later due to entropy or some other cause." She paused before continuing, "you said it was sentient? Ask it when it lost it's magic, please."

"Very well," he picked up the rock, "Rocky, when did you lose your ability to fly?"

The question was met with apparent silence, punctuated by nods and "uh-huhs" from Discord who was apparently the only one who understood or could even hear the rock.

Finally Discord said, "well, really, there's no need for language like that." He turned to Diamond Tiara, "apparently he doesn't like me one bit. Also, he lost his powers 'a long time ago'. I don't think rocks have a good sense of time."

"Okay… Rocky, did you lose your powers a long time after everything went back to normal or a short time?"

Discord turned towards Rocky and nodded.

"He said it was before everything briefly went back to normal. Although, because he was created during my reign of chaos, it seems he believes that that's normal and your normal is his weird. Fascinating, really."

"That is… wow… okay, Rocky did you lose your powers a long or short time after everything went weird? The first time it went weird."

Discord again turned towards the rock to listen.

"Hey, I have a question." Rarity stated, "how do we know that Discord is telling the truth? That rock could be saying anything for all we know. Or maybe it isn't saying anything at all, or maybe-"

Discord snapped his fingers and Rarity went quiet. Finally, she spoke,

"What did you do?"

"I gave you the power to hear and understand rocks."

"Oooookay then. That's… cool. I think. Okay, alright, that rock talks… a lot. It's all cool though, I'm cool."

Twilight whispered something into Discord's air and he snapped his fingers again. Twilight then went outside to talk to some trees.

"Anyways," said Rarity, "Rocky says it happened sometime after everything went weird, but the stupid thing isn't being any more specific… I… forgot that it could hear everything I say. It is not happy that I called it a stupid thing… okay… Rocky also doesn't want me to call it an it… I mean, doesn't want me to call her an it?… him? Um… I'm sorry? Whatever, this is stupid- not you Rocky, just this situation!"

Rarity paused for a bit before continuing, "No, I am not rambling, you're rambling! You have been talking way more than I have- what do you mean the things I say don't have value, they have tons of value!"

"Anyways," said Diamond Tiara as Rarity and Rocky continued their heated discussion, "I think we can mark this down as inconclusive."

"Do you want me to give you the ability to listen to rocks-" started Discord before Diamond Tiara interrupted him,

"No! Sorry, no, I really do not want to get wrapped up in… whatever that is." She motioned towards Rarity and Rocky who were apparently now arguing about something related to the oppression of metamorphic rocks and how it related to the Equestria Games?

"Can we give Sweetie Belle magic from a pony who is dying, and will it remain after they die?" Asked Diamond Tiara.

"Here's a thought," Discord started, "What if we gave Sweetie Belle somepony else's magic, and then killed that other pony?"

"What! No! What? No, Discord, no!" Said a taken aback Diamond Tiara.

"Alright, then what if we took it from somepony who is seconds away from dying of natural causes and then gave it to Sweetie Belle?"

"That… I mean, I guess we could do that? Maybe? I'll have to ask Applejack, I'm not exactly the moral authority of this group."

Rarity flew back to the main group, "Good news guys, I taught Rocky how time works! She picked it up really fast! Check it out," she held up Rocky with her hooves, "Rocky, how much time has passed since we brought you to this cottage?"

There was a silence, punctuated by Discord exclaiming, "Impressive! He got it right, down to the last second!"

"Yep," said Rarity, "and he says that it was 25 years after stuff went weird that he lost his flight but it took 40 years for him to lose his magic."

"That's a pretty big range," commented Diamond Tiara, "that lends credence to the hypothesis that she lost magic after each of her recipients died." Diamond Tiara thought for a bit, "Wait… 40 years? Considering the average life expectancy of a pony back then… Discord, did you… did you steal magic from a child?" Everyone stared at Discord aghast except for Rocky because they did not have eyes or a face.

"Okay… before I answer that question Diamond Tiara," Discord started, "let me just reiterate, it was a different time, I hadn't reformed… and also yes, I stole magic from… several children. But in my defense I stole more magic from adults than kids, I was evil but I wasn't cruel. Okay, maybe I was also cruel. I would say that I wasn't a monster, but I'm pretty sure that I am in the Monster Manual, and am thus literally a monster… but not in my heart Diamond Tiara, not in my heart. And in the end, isn't that what matters most?"

"I don't think I have the emotional stamina to deal with any of that right now, so I'm just going to agree with whatever you said and move on. For now." Diamond Tiara said slowly.

"So, magic disappears when the original user dies, and leaves the recipient." Diamond Tiara mused, "that means that if we were to give magic it would have to be from someone about the same age as the recipient… which doesn't seem like a good permanent solution, but I think we can do a trial run with an older pony for now and work from there."

"Ah… so, does that mean that, um, t-that I'm going to give my flight to Sweetie Belle then?" Asked Twilight.

"Twilight? When did you get back?" Asked a bewildered Rarity.

"Oh… I think I've been back for maybe 5 or 10 minutes… I think."

"Huh, okay. Actually, Rocky says you've been back for exactly 7 minutes and 23 seconds."

"Oh, okay. I, um, guess I don't doubt you, um, Mr. Rocky. Or, is it Mrs. Rocky? Um, that's okay if you don't want to tell me. Not that it's okay for me to use the wrong term, but it's okay if you don't want to say anything, or maybe this is the kind of situation where I'm supposed to be, um, assertive. And… assert your right to be called what you want to be called even if you feel shy, do you feel shy? I feel shy a lot. I don't know what I'm supposed to do in this type of situation. I've never talked to a rock before, I… I… um… okay… um… hmm…" Twilight slowly backed out of the room, using up the last of her social energy to try to make her exit as smooth as possible.

"Okay," sighed a relieved Diamond Tiara, "Let's find Sweetie Belle and when Twilight is ready we can do the magic transfer. Rarity, you… are okay with Twilight doing the magic transfer right?"

"Yeah, sure, I guess, whatever's best for Sweetie Belle and everyone else I guess… wait, um, not to be insulting, but would it be okay to use Twilight's flight? I mean, she's not as good at flying as I am, wouldn't my flight be better for Sweetie Belle?"

"That… it probably doesn't matter whose flight it is." Responded Diamond Tiara, "there are a lot of factors that go into how well a pony can fly including personality and muscle mass, which are further determined by diet, amount of exercise, the body's natural rhythms and metabolism…" she cleared her throat, "the point is, pegasus magic only affects buoyancy, and the magic itself can't be exercised, only your own muscles and abilities, both physical and the ability to access magic. So, Twilight's magic should work just as fine as anyone else's."

"Can confirm," said Discord, "Twilight has just as much magical buoyancy as any other magically able pegasus."

"Alright, fine, I guess it's fine," muttered Rarity.

Diamond Tiara nodded, this was it, it was finally time for everything to come to fruition.

The moment of truth was upon everyone as Diamond Tiara, Discord, Twilight, and Rarity explained the plan to Sweetie Belle and were now in the process of enacting it. Discord grabbed Twilight's wings off her back with one hand and took Sweetie Belle's with the other. He then switched his hands around and place each pony's wings on the other's body. Once that was done, he snapped his fingers and the appearance of each wing changed to match the pony who received them.

"There you go," said Discord, "one magic wing transferral, done to perfection."

"How does it feel, Sweetie Belle?" Asked Diamond Tiara.

Sweetie Belle gave a slow, experimental flap of her wings. She then bent her legs and jumped up into the air. She flapped her wings hard and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she found that she was still airborne. She looked around in awe, she was doing it, she was really flying.

She dropped down to the ground, a little harder than she had intended, she ran to Rarity and hugged her, "thank you so much," she said, tears going down her face.

"Oh… yeah," said Rarity awkwardly, "you should really thank Twilight, she's the one who gave up her flight and everything."

Sweetie Belle slowly let go of Rarity and ran to Twilight and hugged her, "thank you." She let go and looked towards everyone, "thank you all so much." Sweetie Belle flew up into the air and grabbed her scooter and went outside, she zoomed forward and went up a ramp and then flapped her wings and soared into the air.

Twilight sat outside her cottage, 23 years had passed since she last gave her magic to Sweetie Belle, and in that time, Diamond Tiara (with the help of her dear friends) had worked hard and solved numerous problems, both social and physical. This included a cure for magical deficiency, one that could create new magic from the ambient energy around them, a solution that meant ponies no longer had to give up their magical abilities to cure others. It also meant that Twilight could regain her flight.

To be honest, Twilight had been putting off the procedure for several days. She had gotten pretty used to going about her life without flight, and the procedure was supposed to be rather lengthy. She didn't want to take up the time when it ran the risk of forcing some other pony more in need to wait.

Twilight flapped her currently useless wings a bit, really , she thought, I don't even need flight that much . She walked outside and looked at all the animals in her care. Twilight wondered if Rarity would be disappointed or upset if Twilight didn't regain her flight.

"I suppose I wouldn't have to get flight." Twilight mused aloud. She could gain unicorn magic, or perhaps earth magic would help her become more intuned with her animals. She sighed and shook her head, the possibilities really were endless.