//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Ghost Lights // by Winston //------------------------------// Ghost Lights Chapter 15 Azure waited for a response. I could see in the way she was looking at me that she wanted me to say something, anything, but I was at a loss for words. It was tense and I just kept looking at her, with her hornless head and the wings she was carrying at her sides in an uncomfortable way. This was still hard to believe. In the distance, down along the beach, the sea was more even-minded about things. Its waves were heedless of our awkward staring at each other and kept eternally rolling along, filling the world with their gentle backdrop of cyclical white noise. Time passed. I shifted my weight and scraped at the sand with one hoof. "You're mad at me, aren't you?" Azure flattened her ears and cringed, lowering her head as she asked. "I don't really know," I said. It was the truth. I really didn't. "I mean, how did this happen and how's it even possible, I guess would be the first things." "I could explain it, but it would take a while, and... to get to the point, the short answer is magic," Azure said. "It's a spell I've been working on for a long time. I only just now figured out the last details I needed to finish it and really make it work the way it's supposed to." "And it made you a pegasus?" "Umm... yes." Azure nodded. "Is this... permanent?" I asked. "Because if it is..." "I know, I know, there needs to be a unicorn here," Azure said. "And no, it's not. At least I don't think it will be. The reconfiguration is designed to only be stable for so long before my original state should kind of snap back into place and undo this." "How long is 'only so long'?" I asked. "Well, it's my first time casting the spell successfully, so I couldn't really say, but based on my experience with other spells sort of like it, and how much energy I put in, I think maybe six hours. Plus or minus a bit," Azure said. "I guess we'll find out." I was relieved to hear her say that she'd become a unicorn again. Once there was a rational explanation for how this turn of events came about and I knew it was temporary (probably, at least), things didn't seem so surreal or frightening at that point. I began to get more settled and gather my thoughts. It was actually almost worse to be through the first wave of near-panic, though, because with that out of the way, there was room to start getting upset with her, especially after taking a few moments to think about the full implications in the situation surrounding what she'd done. There was also a kind casualness in the way she'd said it would be 'plus or minus a bit' and that she 'guessed we would find out' how long this lasts that got on my nerves for some reason, as if she just sort of flippantly considered this no big deal. Looking back at it now and trying to see things from her point of view, maybe it wasn't. She's the magic expert, I'm not. At the time, that didn't really occur to me. All I saw were the worst possibilities. "You know, it wasn't very responsible of you to experiment on yourself with a spell that can do something like this while we're out here in the middle of nowhere," I pointed out. "What if something had seriously gone wrong? I know I'm not a unicorn and all, but aren't there some common sense safety rules about this kind of thing? I know Princess Twilight had to have taught you better than to be reckless." "She did, yes." Azure nodded. "But... uh... this isn't the kind of spell Princess Twilight really would have approved of. I'm going to have to be honest about that. This is really sort of the only place I thought I could do it, out here away from everypony else." "Then why'd you do it at all?" I asked. "I don't really... it's hard to explain," Azure mumbled. "I just had to. I don't know how else to say it. I had to." "Alright. So was there any specific reason? Anything in particular you plan on doing for six hours as a pegasus?" I asked. "See, that's why I said I needed help," Azure said sheepishly. "I'm sort of finding out the hard way that... well... I kinda can't fly." She looked away, embarrassed. "What do you mean?" I asked. "What's the problem?" "I mean I just can't get off the ground!" Azure said. "I've been trying, and I keep flapping but nothing's happening." I paused and thought for a moment. "...Show me," I found myself saying, in spite of my misgivings about this whole situation. I really couldn't help it. I guess the curiosity was too strong. Hesitantly, Azure spread her newly gained wings while I watched. With an uncertain look about her, she held them stiffly straight out from her sides and started pumping them up and down in an awkward, ungainly way. They pushed a lot of air around and kicked up sand and small bits of leaves and debris, but her hooves stayed right there on the ground. She looked at the sky and strained upwards with her neck, as if that would help somehow. I couldn't help but smile and laugh a little bit, even while I had to kind of turn my head and squint and raise one foreleg in front of my face to shield my eyes from the sand flying through the air. It was cute in an unexpected way, because it reminded me of pegasus toddlers when they've just realized they have wings and make their first few clumsy attempts at stretching them out and seeing if they can get somewhere. They never do the first time, and if anything does happen it's inevitably just an undignified faceplant. Scrapes, tears, and band-aids are the common outcomes, rites of passage for all pegasus foals. I was glad Azure was on soft sand. Hopefully even if she could make something happen, she wouldn't hurt anything worse than her pride when she gracelessly came back down again. As I thought would be the case, though, nothing came from this effort. She stopped flapping after a little while and just looked at me inquisitively, huffing for breath. "You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" I asked, shaking my head. "I thought it would be... I don't know, I was hoping it would just come with the wings!" Azure exclaimed. "It seemed reasonable. When I researched it, I read that pegasi have a strong flight instinct. It certainly seemed that way. They always make flying look as easy as walking to them." "That's because it is like walking to us: something you start doing at a young age and never stop practicing," I told her. "But you still have to learn to walk, and every pegasus still has to learn to fly. It doesn't just happen on its own." "So teach me," Azure said. "I don't know if it's really a good idea," I said. "Even if I thought it was, I can't promise you'll actually get anywhere in just six hours." "Well, I can try, can't I?" Azure asked. "Guess I can't really stop you." I shrugged. "Then I might as well at least be doing it the right way, right?" Azure prodded me further. "Captain Dash always said you're one of the best fliers in the guard." "Maaaaaybe, but I think I'm still not quite as good as her." I shook my head. "Don't be modest. You're still far more than good enough to show me how it's done," Azure said. "Careful. Flattery will get you everywhere," I responded. "Will it get me in the air?" she asked hopefully. "Nope," I said. "If that happens it'll have to be all about you putting in the hard work it takes." "So let's get started!" Azure said enthusiastically, and smiled at me a little bit. "I still haven't said I would," I reminded her. The smile faded from her face, replaced by a more grave expression. "Please, Sunburst." She took a few steps toward me, then actually knelt down in front of me and lowered her head. "There's not many things I haven't been able to figure out and do on my own, but right now this is one of them. I need your help," she pleaded. Surprised and suddenly overtaken with a feeling of embarrassment, I recoiled and backed up a step. I looked down at her, and at that moment, I realized that I saw something I hadn't before. Azure Sky the personal student of the princess, Azure Sky the accomplished mage, Azure Sky the strong capable young adult unicorn - it was all gone. The Azure Sky in front of me was like a foal again, with all her special skills and strengths stripped away: no horn, no magic, no teacher. There was nothing left but a clumsy pegasus with a set of unfamiliar wings and not even a first-year flight camp filly's ability to handle them. She was helpless before me. Intentionally or not, she'd just put her fate for at least the next few hours in my hooves. It was both strangely unnerving and humbling to realize that she was placing that much trust in me. I had to make a decision. I don't know if I thought of it at the time, but I know now that this moment was pivotal. I could have said no, and this story would have ended there. I'd have been stuck uneventfully hanging out on the beach with her for six hours or so until she turned back into a unicorn, then we'd have finished our six months and gone home, and I doubt we'd really have ever really spoken about this again. I could have kept her at a distance like that. We'd have never had what we had, never achieved what we achieved together. In that moment, of course, I couldn't have known. All I knew was that, as much as I wanted to, as much as I knew it would probably be the right thing to say no... I couldn't. I'd known her too long. She was like family, and I... I loved her. I think this may have been one of the first conscious inklings I really had of that fact, and it was startling. Her trust pulled at my heart and moved me too much. I couldn't turn my back and not help. I yielded to her pleas. "Alright," I finally said. "Let's see what we can do." Azure looked at me with her eyes suddenly bright with happiness and a wide smile. She stood up. "Thank you!" she said. She looked about ready to hit me with a hug tackle, which would have made me feel even more embarrassed, so I decided we'd better get down to business before that had a chance to happen. I walked over next to Azure and turned to face the same direction she was, so that we were standing side by side. "Okay. So... this is probably going to be a little different than what you're used to. Learning how to fly isn't like book studying. It's a lot more of a muscle-memory thing than a brain-memory thing. The only real way is to repeat the motions over and over again until your wings more or less know how to do it on their own." I spread my wings and held them aloft. Azure imitated me and did likewise. "First thing first. Flapping. You need to develop a sense of the basic motion." I started moving through the process as slowly as I could. "Do what I do," I said. I cycled through the sequence a few times, showing my new student the way my wings were spread out wide and angled somewhat downward during the downstroke and pulled inward closer to my torso on the upstroke. I stopped and turned to watch Azure while she kept going, mimicking the basic cycle I'd shown her in slow motion. "How am I doing?" she asked. "Well, it's not gonna look like much right now, but just keep practicing," I said. Never having taught another pegasus to fly, as time passed I actually really thought that I should be the one asking her how I was doing instead, but after my instructions went on for a while and she didn't seem to have any problems with them I gradually became less self-conscious about it. Going over the most fundamental things in a way I hadn't even consciously thought about in so long reminded me of standing outside in the back yard with my father when I was a young filly, while he had me go through the same exercise of following his motions until I had it down on my own. I smiled as it brought back memories. Almost every day while I was learning the basics we practiced for at least a couple hours. Those were good times. I found myself sounding a lot like him while I coached Azure. "It needs to be a smooth fluid motion... Don't stop moving your wings up and down, always keep that rhythm going. Extend right at the peak of your upstroke and retract at the bottom of the downstroke, and don't pause for it, just keep it moving... Yeah, that's starting to get it... Keep it up. Now a little bit faster!" It's said that we tend to turn into our parents, but this was the first time I'd ever consciously discovered it happening to me. My father was very devoted in teaching me how to fly, and I could always tell that he loved spending time with me that way as much as I loved learning from him. Me being the teacher this time was kind of a weird feeling in a way, but it was also satisfying. Now that she was my student, I discovered firsthoof part of what had made Azure so successful when she was Princess Twilight's. When the will to accomplish something enters her mind, her determination is second to none. Most of our time was spent working on getting the correct flapping motion down to perfection. I saw her coordination improve and allow her to flap more and more quickly. It created a sense of accomplishment for me over those hours to watch the change as she started internalizing these lessons into muscle memory. She began from nothing, ungainly and awkward, and little by little refined her control to a more fluid and graceful motion, an instinct that she didn't have to think about consciously. As I guided her, we alternated between stationary exercises to refine the proper motion and flapping while trotting or galloping for a running takeoff. She worked there on that beach for six hours straight with only brief pauses of a couple minutes or so to catch her breath between the exercises we did. It was a tough workout, even for me, and I already spend a lot of time flying. I can only imagine that she must have been absolutely exhausted. She never really let it show, though. Her attitude stayed enthusiastic, as if she was sure the whole time that successfully getting into the air was just the next try away. It never happened, but she never seemed to stop believing she had a chance. I couldn't really fault her for that approach. After all, that's pretty much how pegasus foals do it - just keep trying until it works. I quickly lost track of how long we worked at it. At least time flies when you're having fun... even if nothing else manages to.