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// My First Flight 
// Story: Making Hearts Melt 
// by Faith Everlasting 
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	“I told you!” Heartburn whooped as we zipped around a heavy cloud. I was flapping my wing along with his and he had gotten a bit ahead of himself. “You can do anything!” He suddenly aimed himself for a cloud and dragged me along with him. We crashed into it and came out the other side, both of us sneezing from bits of cloud coming into our nose. I looked around nervously and continued to beat my wing as fast as I could.
“Don’t you think we should slow down?” I was panting heavily and my wing was beginning to lose energy. Heartburn didn’t seem to hear me. He had a dangerously happy smile on his face as he continued to loop around and slam through clouds. I coughed as I inhaled one, then I gasped in pain. My wing had snapped and was now bent backwards, making me incapable of moving it at all! Heartburn and I both screamed as we began to feel ourselves losing altitude. Faster. Faster. Faster! We continued to gain momentum as we turned over and over again in the air. I closed my eyes and I sighed peacefully. I’ve felt this sensation before.
“I didn’t want you! I never wanted you… Goodbye.”
“Perfect! Perfect!” I opened my eyes to find myself still hovering in the sky, but Heartburn was trying his best to hold me in his front hooves as his wings flapped vigorously. I shook my head, trying to get out of the blur of my daydream as Heartburn gently set me on the ground. We both looked at my wing which looked like a piece of crumpled paper.
“I’m… so sorry, Perfect. This was all my fault,” His eyes started to tear up, so he turned away from me, hiding his face in his wings. I looked at my wing, but then back at him. 
“Heartburn, you have no need to be sorry,” He removed his face which was now soaked in tears and his chest still heaved with sobs. “You gave me something that I thought I could never have!” I placed my hoof on his shoulder and he glanced once more at my wing, but then I put my other hoof under his chin and brought his eyes back to mine. “Thank you,” Then I kissed him. Not on the lips, of course! But I kissed him. I don’t know what came into me, but I felt… warm when my lips brushed his cheek. I pulled myself away from him and saw that he was blushing. I quickly moved away from him. “Sorry!” 
“That’s OK,” he let his hoof slide over his cheek where I had kissed him and he looked like he was in a daze of some sort. Suddenly, I saw his blue eyes turn red and his body cringed for only a slight second. Then he returned to normal, panting heavily and looking towards me.
“Are you OK?” I started to come close to him again, but stopped when he nodded.
“I’m fine… now,” Then he started to come close to me. I flattened my ears against my head, intimidated by his approach. He placed his hoof on my shoulder and stroked the other one across my cheek and gazed into my eyes. Then he kissed me. On the lips. I didn’t know what to do! I was too stunned to move! But then I felt my entire body warm up and I melted into his arms, kissing him back. 


Super Star saw the whole thing. The takeoff, the flight, the fall, the catch… the kiss. She saw everything and she was not pleased.
“It didn’t work!” She muttered as she watched Heartburn and Perfect kissing. She snarled under her breath and slammed her hoof into the ground. “Scorched Shoe told me that it would work on anypony, including the one that I love!” Her eyes welled up with tears as she watched Heartburn actually enjoying the pony that he was kissing! They were both enjoying it! 
With one final glance, she galloped away, furious yet determined.
“This time, it will work,” She galloped past Ponyville and ran towards the outskirts of town where Scorched Shoe lived in a little makeshift home. It wasn’t anything impressive since he made it himself and since he wasn’t much of a carpenter, but it was perfect for his business. Super Star threw herself into the front door, making it break off of its hinges at the impact. The door then slammed to the floor, making Scorched Shoe jump in surprise and drop a hot metal rod on his hoof.
“YEOW!” He hollered, quickly lifting up his hoof and blowing air onto it. “Ya ever hear ah knockin’?” He said with a slight southern drawl.
“You ever hear of customer satisfaction?” Super Star shot back. Scorched Shoe froze where he was and stared back at her. “The spell didn’t work on Heartburn! This stupid horn doesn’t work!” She reached her hoof up to her forehead and ripped the horn off of it, tossing it uselessly to the side. The horn shattered into a thousand pieces on the ground and a small noise sounded as if something was shutting down. Scorched Shoe scooped up the pieces and sighed.
“I told ya! This is just a prototype, darlin’,” He glared over at Super Star and made a gesture to her wings. “And don’t ya be thinkin’ ah rippin’ those off either!” Super Star looked down on her wings and smiled with pride.
“At least these wings haven’t let me down yet,” She tossed her mane to the side of her head and sighed with passion. Scorched Shoe rolled his eyes and growled.
“Empty-headed mare,” He muttered under his breath. “That’s all ya care about!” Super Star was frightened at his sudden change of tone and took a few steps back. “You’re lookin’ at the small picture, darlin’, think ‘bout the future!” He started pacing the room.
Oh, my gosh, he’s been planning his whole speech. Super Star rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, save your speech for another time. Right now, I need a new horn. More powerful than the last one!” Super Star interrupted. She approached Scorched Shoe and snarled at him.
“Please, honey,” He said sarcastically. “Nopony can intimidate me,”	
“You will do it,” She demanded
“Why should I? Just to make you and your colt-friend live happily ever after?”
Then, Super Star pulled a large sack out from under her wing and threw it at Scorched Shoe. When it hit the ground, hundreds of bits poured out around his hooves and he stared at them wide-eyed. Then he cleared his throat and looked back at Super Star.
“Very well, darlin’. I’ll see what ah can do,” Super Star smiled maliciously and then left his cottage. Scorched Shoe rummaged his hooves through the bits, acting like a money-crazed lunatic, but then he smiled mysteriously and raced for his desk. “You want a powerful one, eh?” He chuckled to himself. “One that’ll make lover boy fall for ya, eh?” He opened up the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a synthetic horn coated with silver. “This one’ll do the trick.” He took a rag to it and shined it up to look more presentable for the prissy mare. With a whir, it came to life, glowing ominously in his hoof. He smiled and placed it back down on his desk.
“If this works,” He said to himself. “Then I’ll no longer need ‘er assistance,” He chuckled and then returned to his normal work. 
All around the room, one could see numerous designs plastered onto thin paper. Most of them consisted of unicorn horns and the equations that can be used to replicate unicorn magic. All of the designs were signed with two large “S”s and a horse shoe stamp. 
“There!” Scorched Shoe yelled triumphantly. “Good as new!” He pulled a crooked piece of metal out from the water bucket that was now steaming and he placed the cooling metal on the ground. Scorched Shoe stared at it with pride as he stroked the long curve near the top. “You’ve brought me so far, kid,” He whispered to it. Then he continued his work.
Not many ponies knew about Scorched Shoe’s clients or who exactly he made the horns and wings for, but what lay on the ground that night was too horrific to talk about. What can be said is that it looked like a horse shoe. An iron horseshoe.