Taking Flight

by HorizonLine

Bonus

Start phase one.

Pushing off the cloud ground and with one strong flap of his wings, Soarin’ shot into the air. His mind was completely focused as he flew perpendicular from the stadium ground, climbing upwards until the stadium was barely in sight. He checked to make sure he was at the correct altitude and took a deep breath. He ceased his powerful flaps, tucking his wings firmly into his sides. His ascension slowed as gravity began to gain the upper hand.

Still slowing…

Almost there…

And for just a moment, his body was frozen midair as he reach the peak of his flight.

With a slow blink, he let his eyes wander around the sky, savoring the moment with a small smile.

However, the moment of near weightless did not last forever, and gravity now overpowered. He fell backwards as his body turned in the air, in a headfirst dive to the stadium below. Keeping his wings tucked in to make sure his frame was as aerodynamic as possible, he rapidly picked up speed. He relaxed his body and let his tail whip around with the rushing air. As he continued with his descent, he could start to feel little shocks of static dance off of his legs. An average pegasus would start feeling nervous at this point, the gut feeling to brake and slow down becoming too overpowering. But for Soarin’, this feeling only encouraged him to proceed, even if he was now flying at near-mach speed.

Just…a little…faster…

The once occasional static sparks began to arc more and more, and he could start to feel a current building up in his wake. Perfect. Now all that remained of phase one was finding the cloud he had requested to be placed in the arena. His eyes scanned the stadium below until, ah ha, there it was, a small cumulus cloud floating a mere hundred meters above the stadium. The static charge in his tail continued to build more and more as the now visible cloud rapidly approached.

Fifty meters…twenty meters…ten meters…alright here we goooo.

He shot into the cloud and out the other side. The static electricity that had gathered passed into the conductive cloud material and Soarin’ confirmed this as a rather sharp pain jolted through his back legs and tail base. Even after he exited out the other side of the cloud, he still continued to dive towards the ground, distancing himself from the now electrified cloud. The once white puffy cloud had started to turn dark and imposing, beginning to match the color of the night sky until the audience could barely distinguish between the two. Soarin’ could even see occasional shadows flicker as tendrils of electricity shot out at random over the moonlit stadium, a result of the reaction in the cloud.

Deciding he should probably end his chicken game with the ground, he shot his wings out and funneled the air while bending backwards in an effort to pull out of his dive. He came within less than ten meters of the cloud floor before managing to level into a mostly horizontal flight pattern. Not wanting to hit the stands and audience, he banked left and rolled while starting to flap again. In this flight path, Soarin’ flashed over the heads of the audience before he turned his body back to the center of the stadium. His job now was to distract the audience and buy time until the cloud had built up an even greater charge.

Phase two

To do this, why not show off a few tricks? He bent his right wing for an aileron roll, twisting his body once, twice, three times before correcting and leveling out halfway between his third and fourth roll. Now upside down, he banked and flew over the heads of the audience below, letting his mane and tail dangle a few hooflenghts above their heads. After one circuit over the stands, Soarin’ flew back to the center of the stadium. He angled his wings downwards and shot into another vertical climb.

As quickly as he entered his climb, he folded his wings and leaned back causing him to circle back to the ground in a tight loop. Twisting his wings and body simultaneously, Soarin’ corkscrewed and turned his body parallel to the ground once more.

He cast a quick glance up at the cloud, and it looked to be sufficiently charged.

Phase three.

Soarin’s gaze never left the cloud above and he angled his body and wings to follow his line of sight. With a few quick and powerful wing flaps, the distance between the underbelly of the cloud and him shortened. Just a couple more wing flaps away, Soarin’ could start to feel the hair on the back of his neck rise.

Just in time.

The static in the air tickled and sent small shocks through his front hooves and mane.

Almost there, come on nature don’t fail me now.

With a few more wing flaps, his hoof finally connected with electrified cloud. The gummy cloud could do nothing but float helplessly in his way as he plowed through the underbelly and out of the top at blazing speeds.

In a chain reaction faster than the eye can blink, built up electricity rushed to fill the hole Soarin’s body had created. The electricity collected and compounded until it became incredibly unstable. With only two directions to release the unstable current, the electricity took the path of least resistance, straight down.

A gigantic bolt of lightning shot out of the underside of the dark cloud while a blue Pegasus shot out of the top. This event was complemented by a dark trail of charged smoke which followed the pegasus, forming in his wake. The bolt of lightning illuminated the stadium and sent ripples of charged particles in every direction. This shocking effect caused each audience member’s hair to stand up straight, and a shiver to run from nose to tail.

A split second later, a boom shook the stadium and sent out a shockwave, pushing the audience further into their seats. It was a boom they could feel travel through the whole body, the kind of boom that caused eyes to widen and smiles to form. This wasn’t a show they could simply watch, but was one that they could also feel.

The lone provider of this unique experience continued to climb skywards, a charged, grey cloud trail still in his wake. He angled his wings back and somersaulted in the air before straightening out and pulling left into a downward spiral. Close to the audience once again, he flew one more circuit over the heads of the wide eyed and gaping crowd.

Soarin’ twisted his body and wings, banking back inwards. He continued this path in a horizontal spiral which gradually rose and closed the distance to the center of the circular stadium. The cloud trail that he continued to leave created a rising, cone-shaped curtain of smoke while he circled upwards. Once he was at the center, he angled his back up and right, turning his body vertical. Curving his wings, he sent his body into an inverted barrel roll. Airspeed slowing down as his altitude increased, the barrel roll transformed into a slow aileron roll and eventually the spinning came to a stop altogether.

Soarin’ gently flapped and hovered fifty meters in the air while looking at the remnants of the electrified cloud trail in the stadium. His chest was heaving and he could feel his rapid pulse, a throbbing in his ears. The crowd had been utterly silent as they watched his routine come to a close. Now as he looked around a low roar began to build, increasing in volume until the stadium began to shake from the building applause. Soarin’ smiled, removed his goggles, and held them high above his head with one hoof. Forehoof raised, he turned his hovering body in a slow circle as a way to thank everypony present. The cheers and whistles continued and their happiness was infectious. He gave them all a huge smile. I suppose I could get used to this.

As the applause and cheering reached a peak, he lowered his forehoof and began to sink back to the stadium cloud floor. He made his way over to a bench at the side so he could rest his now tired wings. The rush he got from flight started to wane which left nothing to combat the fatigue that usually set in. Just resting on the bench was enough for now though, he could sleep later. Soarin’ wanted to know now if what he did was enough.

The announcer grabbed the mic and boomed over the audience, silencing any remaining hoofstomping and excited yells.

Not sure if you guys caught his name at first, but remember it now. Let’s hear it again for SOA-RIN~!

Excellent! Now let’s give another yell for all of our four finalists tonight, Sonic, Aurora, Fireball, and Soarin. Show them some LOVE!

Down to business, who captured your attention, who made the show memorable,

who-

was-

the-

BEST?

Was it Sonic Wave with his impressive speed?

A smattering of hoof stomps and whistles filled the air.

Was it Aurora, who gave us all a light show from the north?

Even more hoofstomps shook Soarin's bench.

Was it Fireball with his HOT HOT HOT performance?

Soarin’ could feel his bench and ground vibrate as the audience showed their support.

Or was it the lightning racer, bringing us tricks we haven’t seen performed in decades, Soar..

The announcer couldn't finish the rest of his name, as the crowd exploded into applause and ecstatic screams.

The announcer continued to buy time for the judges who were finalizing their results and calculating scores. Soarin’ tuned out the crowd and tried to calm his mind, but he couldn't help that a goofy grin was fixed to his face. He was doing what he loved and ponies actually liked what he loved to do. The sky was definitely not the limit, no, it was the benchmark that should be passed to live the life of a aerobatic pegasus. Flying had been Soarin’s focus for as long as he could remember, and now that he was flying, letting his mind drift among the clouds, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of contentment. This, this is what he was born to do, he was born to fly.

And with the highest score we have seen in years, our winner for the evening and future WON-DER-BOLT is…

SSSOOOAAARRRIN’