//------------------------------// // Dedication // Story: A study of Harmony // by Sugar Dove //------------------------------// The group had not responded as Dove had hoped. The giggled at the idea of a grown pegasus sitting a flight test and then after a moment moved on and started going on about how wonderful their day had been. Even Edge seemed a little more relaxed. Dove overheard him mention a pegasus he had met but she was hardly in the mood to listen. They just went on and on until Dove just couldn’t take it anymore. Sneaking out of the inn she waited until she was out of sight and sound then galloped off. She didn’t care where she just galloped. However not being the fittest in the group she didn’t get far. But at least it was away. She couldn’t sit a flight test. She would never pass a flight test. She eventually stopped trotting around and was about to sit herself down on the spot with an immense amount of displeasure when in the distance a building caught her eye. The setting sun glowed around its edges making it all the more clear and brilliant. The Cloudsdale Stadium; one of the oldest buildings in the town and one of the most loved. From where Dove stood she could hear a familiar sound, one which she had not heard since the last winter solstice festival. The shooting stars of Cloudsdale; the replacement squad for the long disbanded Wonderbolts. The familiar shimmering sound and whoosh of a pegasus in flight was very familiar to her after having sat with Luna at their last display. Perhaps watching them fly would calm her nerves. With a little shimmy she cantered over and let herself into the stadium and worked her way to one of the seating areas. The ponies which flew about Dove were all acquaintances of Luna but despite being a student at the Castle Dove had never plucked up the courage to say hello at any of the displays. She watched as the oldest colt Star Dust yelled up brashly at the youngest of the team. His belt was a dusty pale navy and like his team he had stars emblazoned on his flank. Dove had always thought he was very loud and a little obnoxious. One the benches near him was Star Light, a white pegasus although her flank looked silver in this light, she swept her blue mane back with her hoof as she took a drink from a stadium side fountain. Dove didn’t know much about her but knew she was quieter than Dust. Above were Star Sky and Star Fighter. It was easy to notice these two. They always stood nearby each other at events and Fighter had the most peculiar mane. The tips would glow red in the dark. In fact it was very rare to see any of these ponies about in the daytime. Maybe they just trained a lot Dove thought to herself. Star Sky was very gentle natured, and was often heard during displays encouraging her team mates. She was also the hardest to spot at night with her dark grey pelt and dark blue mane. During displays they often used her for crowd sweeps. Nopony would see her coming. Fighter was the easiest to spot and despite the obvious presence of their trainer he was the most noticed. Just now in the sunset his black flank was very visible and his single star cutie mark looked out of place in the daytime. Dove watched them fly about in turns then as a group. They must train for hours. The sun had long since set and Dove wasn’t even tired. She could watch these ponies all night. The moon had now risen and now some stars were twinkling in the dark night. By now the pegasus were getting tired and Dust shouted for them all to cease. He went throw what Dove can only assume was some finishing stretches then dismissed them. Light left straight away without a goodbye or any gesture of recognition. Dust wasn’t far behind her. But the two most tired ponies sat by the water fountain and giggle with each other and smiled. Fighter and Sky. It was at that moment Dove realised how alone she was. Her friends didn’t seem to understand and now she was sitting outside alone in the dead of night. She started to cry. At first she didn’t even notice the tears. But soon they were just coming and she just sobbed as silently as she could but her breathing quickly became heavy and it was hard to stay silent as she hiccupped to breath. She didn’t hear the two pegasus approach her. “What’s wrong sweetie?” Star Sky bent down to look dove in the eye, standing a little in front of her. Dove startled tumbled off her seat and hiccupped. “I’m sorry.” She sobbed, “I...I didn’t mean to ...disturb you.” Star Fighter kept the most straight face Dove had ever seen but he had a very calming voice. “Its alright we’d finished for the night. Now what is the matter?” “It’s nothing really.” Dove tried to bluff. “Come now,” Star Sky smiled a little, “we’re not going to go telling anypony.” Dove looked up at her, this is the first time had ever seen a pony with eyes like hers. One green and one red, very unusual but very beautiful and she was most sincere. Dove spluttered everything in one go, “I have a flight test tomorrow and I will undoubtledly fail and my friends don’t seem to understand and if I fail I’ll have to stay behind then all that we’ve achieved will be worthless and I will not be able to finish my study and Luna will be upset and...” “Woah woah!” Star Fighter held a hoof up. “One thing at a time. Now, did you say Luna?” “mmhmm,” Dove nodded, getting to her hooves. “Why would Luna be upset?” “I’m her student,” She stated, “and I’m on a journey with my friends to gain information for her on a new study. And if I don’t pass this test I’ll hold everypony back.” “Why would you fail a flight test?” Star Sky tilted her head in curiosity. Dove just lifted her wings, they were slightly larger than a normal pegasus and always stopped her from doing some of the necessary manoeuvres for a flight test. “My wings are awkward and I’m uncoordinated.” The pair giggled, Dove felt bruised on the inside. She must have looked it too as the two stopped. “Well then...uh...?” “Sugar Dove.” “Sugar Dove, why don’t we help? I’m sure you’d be wonderful at gliding with wings like that and I bet I could teach you to swirl and dive no bother!” Star Sky said excitedly. Dove was taken aback. One of the Shooting Stars offering to teach her would be a privilege but she could accept such an offer. She was about to state as such when Star Fighter piped up. “That would be great! It would be fun to teach somepony instead of taking orders. I do my best flying at night anyway. So how about it?” Dove wrinkled her nose. “o.k” She said slowly. “Yeah!” Star Sky squealed, “You can call me Sky and this is Star. It’s much easier than referring to us as our full titles. Come on!” Sky leaped down to the open expanse of the stadium landing on one of the training clouds. Star smiled and slowly trotted down after her. Dove was so unsure but followed anyway. Why would these two ponies help her? They don’t know her or owe her anything. “So you study under Princess Luna?” Star asked. He had a very steady and slightly quiet voice. It reminded Dove of a foal in a strange way. “Yeah,” she responded, “She is trying to recover knowledge that has been lost to equestrian for a hundred years. And the topic at hand is my speciality.” Dove indicated the cutie mark on her flank. “I’ve only met Luna for a moment myself.” Star confessed, “Star Dust deals with all the royal affairs. I haven’t spoken with her since before ...” He trailed off. Dove has a sense that she shouldn’t ask. “Come on slow pokes! We need to stretch before getting started!” Sky giggled. Star rolled his eyes in a sarcastic manner, “To think she is normally a quiet mare.” Dove came and joined her, gliding clumsily over to the training cloud. Sky was already stretching, Wings to opposite hoof first then push ups, which Dove couldn’t do, then jumps and hovers. Dove was so unfit she struggled to keep up with the athlete. Hovering was a real struggle; Dove couldn’t really get off the ground from the spot. That was the main reason she avoided flying with her friends. When Sky was satisfied with Doves attempts to get started she signalled for her to join her in the air. So Dove stepped up to the cloud edge, took one look down and forward and froze on the spot. She began to panic. What if she couldn’t do it anymore? Star came and stood beside her. He opened up his wings and crouched down slightly and motioned for Dove to copy. For a moment she just stared at him. He wasn’t much taller than her and his wings were only slightly smaller than hers. With a wrinkle of her nose she copied and took a deep breath in. He leaned forward tipping off the cloud slightly and went into a short dive and glided back to a sensible height before using his wings to stay aloft. Dove leaned forward and made a squealing noise as she felt a breeze rush against her face. She was both excited and terrified. With a sudden jolt something pushed for forward, her open wings stopped her form going into free fall and instinct kicked in. She pulled her head up and evened out. She didn’t gain much height but she wasn’t falling anymore. She flapped her wings down hard but she failed to stop on the spot and most certainly didn’t hover. “Eeeep!” “Keep calm.” Star said coming up beside her, “Curl your wings with the air currents. That will change your angle. You can do it.” “Yeah Dove you can do it!” Sky gleefully exclaimed from in front of her. Dove was so unsure that each beat of her wings felt heavy. Like her very feathers were made of rock. Gradually and with some very heavy breathing on her part she came to a halt in the air and she beat her wings down against the invisible air around her until she was hovering. She exclaimed loudly, “I did it! I’m hovering!” Sky withheld a giggle by planting a hoof over her mouth. Star seemed very reserved about the entire exercise. Dove wasn’t sure he approved of the sudden flight lesson with a stranger. Or maybe he thought Dove was a little pathetic. Hovering was a basic manoeuvre and Dove was failing horribly. It was hard to tell. “Ok let’s get you doing some turns. I’ll spread out some clouds and rings and such and we’ll get you ready for a galloping start.” Sky stated as she flew off midsentence to set up. “Um...ok but how do I....?” Dove began but didn’t get the chance to finish but Star responded. “Do what?” Dove blushed and looked at her hooves. “What?” He asked with a hint of concern. “How do I start moving again?” Star did a little eye roll. “Tilt your wings as you flap and lean forward. To turn change the pacing of your flaps or the angle at which you hold the wind in your wings.” Dove just smiled and eased herself forward. It was a moment of wobbling and varying heights before Dove made it back to the cloud for a galloping start. Sky had made some cloud swirls and bucked up some hoops. She was happily demonstrating at a fair pace while doing quick loop the loops and bouncing off the stray cloud puff. It was dizzying to watch. Star watched smiling at Sky. Dove could only assume he had a fond relationship of sort s with her; probably best friends. “You ready?” Sky hollered to them. “Yeah!” Sky responded, Dove just looked at him as she didn’t feel ready at all, “we’ll go together,” He said to her calmly, “I’ll match your pace, you match my movements.” Dove nodded and did a little wriggle in anticipation. She took a deep breath and galloped; she lost the feeling in her legs with nerves but kept bounding forward anyway. All she knew was that her instinct took over and the cloud edge was drawing closer and she had to leap and catch the updraft and then she was up in the air and the wind rushed under her and she had to move forward. She looked over to Star and watched his wing tips twitch to catch the breeze. She attempted to mimic. At first she was a little clumsy and he would have to move aside so she didn’t crash but after a moment she had it. After a little while she just assumed from the corner of her eye what he was going to do. A minute longer and she was doing the cloud turns. When she looked over she realised Star wasn’t there. For a second she panicked but only for a second as she realised. She was flying! After a few hoops and turns she had gained a little speed and was comfort with on the level flying. But she had a feeling there were some important things she still needed to know. “Sky?” “Yeah Dove?” “How do I land?” Again Sky tried to withhold a giggle. So she did a little loop and hovered up a few feet got closer to the cloud and let the air go so that she only dropped a short height. Behind her Star did a galloping landing, whooshing in at speed but trotting in the air so his hooves were prepared for the run. Once on the cloud he slowed himself. Dove nodded at them and did her best to copy. As per the norm her landings were shaky but much better than they had been. “Ok. Last question promise!” “Shoot?” Sky grinned. “When you are on the ground and you need to start flying how do you do it? There isn’t an updraft.” Sky had to think about this one. Star thankfully had this. “You can use the running start and use momentum to lift you or if you have good legs and strong wings you can lift yourself from a leap. It only takes a little air to lift us. Pegasus have inert magic that aids us in that way.” For a student under alicorns it surprised her she didn’t think of the inert magic of pegasus. “That everything? Good! Let’s go get a drink and chill!” Sky declared and trotted over to the fountain. Star and Dove trailing behind. Once the three were settled back on the seating they rested and watched the sky alight with stars and a shining moon. Dove sighed content. Learning to fly in one night was beyond a miracle. She had been lucky to find such good teachers. “What are you thinking?” Star watched Dove. “I’m just thinking how lucky I’ve been. You have both been wonderful I cannot thank you enough for all you’ve done!” “Any pony as loyal to a quest as you deserves the help.” Sky said beaming. Dove grinned. “I wish there were others with a heart like yours. Like the dedicated ponies of old. Like the Wonderbolts! I heard they were harder working than any pegasus you or I would know.” Star said as his coat seemed to dull and grey like he was looking back on a fond memory but the moment soon passed. “You’ll have to keep in touch now Dove. No excuse for hiding in the shadows as Canterlot affairs now. You can invite us to your table so Old Dusty can’t jibe us.“ Sky said as a matter of fact. “I’d love that!” Dove exclaimed, “Does that make us friends?” She said with a nose wrinkle. “Of course it does. “ Star said. “Now go get some rest and ace that test.” Dove leapt to her hooves. “You bet! Good night!” and she galloped off into the night. **** The crew were gathered around in the seating area of the athletics hall. The doctor was on the central cloud with his clipboard and was watching Dove do the basic flight test. She was going at a decent pace and wasn’t too showy although she did buck her tail out as she cloud hopped. Each time she went past Edge gave her a cheer and Rouge or Scribe would clap their hooves. It was a little intense watching the doctor tick or take notes down below. When Dove eventually landed and stood chatting with him a while the group help their breath before the doctor trotted off and Dove smiled up at them waving her hoof. She had passed! The gang came down to meet her and chat and talk about what to do next. But Dove wasn’t listening. There were some other bystanders she needed to talk to. She trotted over to the fountain where some shadowy ponies were standing and hugged them both. “Thank you both so much.” “You did great Dove! Just keep in touch.” Sky smiled hugging her back. “Whip that tail a little tighter on those turns and you’ll be flying with us in no time.” Star joked. The crew watched her unable to hear or fully make out the ponies from where they stood. But Scribe had an idea, “Is that the Shooting Stars?” He exclaimed but nopony was brave enough to find out.