Just as soon as she had taken off, Alysanne realized just how long it had been since she had taken flight. Short, little flights – like across a small lake to reach a friend – were rare and longer ones were rarer still. She had walked all the way here from Nocturne – believing her sense of direction better when she was walking than above.

Obviously, she was quite wrong. Considering her relatively new surroundings. At first, she did not plan on spending more than a couple weeks here – gather her bearings and then make her way back to Nocturne. But that had changed when she started finding her dear friends here, and heard the news that her son was safe with his aunt.

Oh, she missed him and planned on returning soon – he may be old enough to survive without her but he was still her little son – but the news of his safety delayed her somewhat. She could afford to take her time, learn more about Helovia. Maybe this was a place where her family could settle, if it was truly as peaceful as it seemed.

Aside from just not practicing, one of the major faults that Aly had when it came to flying was her attention span. Yes, there was a certain beauty associated with seeing things from above – but things were so much more interesting on ground level.

For example, as she was in flight and passing over a thistle and flower bright field, she spotted a filly – beautiful white and gold standing on her own. Now there was nothing more interesting than that in the sky! So she circled, or tried to, and made her descent. Flight was relatively easy, but the landing she always found tricky. Wary of the location of the filly (oh god it would be so terrible to knock her over), the white and black Pegasus came to land a ways down the river. She meant to land in the grass and so she did - but misjudged her speed and ended up running right into the river – causing some commotion with her splashing.

Ah yes, perfectly graceful on her hooves but using those wings was an entirely different story.

With a laugh – why let embarrassment get to her? – she folded her wings and returned to dry land, making the rest of the way to the filly on foot. She was older than Arty would be, but young still. But age didn’t change the fact that she was greeted with a bright smile – those emerald eyes alight with the laughter at her landing just moments ago. “You didn’t see that did you? I think I just disgraced generations of Pegasi.” Her tone made it clear that she was joking – though, of course, what sort of full-grown Pegasus did not know how to execute a smooth landing? Her mother would not be impressed, but her father would have laughed with her.

“Maybe you could give me some tips!” The filly had a beautiful pair of wings, no doubt about it. “I’m Aly, what’s your name?”