Prompt number 4 has arrived. It's a big part of MLP, too, since so many characters can and are involved in the act of

So there's bound to be some stuff you could write about it.

For those who don't know, prompt threads like these will simply be short stories, posted in the thread, under or around 1500 words long that are relevant to both ponies and the prompt word. These prompts can be anything, and the link to the prompt can be either obvious or subtle: that's up to you. Keep it SFW, and if you write an actual story about the prompt, don't link to mature stuff. Site rules and all.

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Promot? I'll promot my arse. Hue.

4617831 Spelling is for chumps.

Fixed.

Oh jesus. So can I kick a story to both this and the month contest?

4617994 Yup. No need to choose: just participate in whichever you want, and as many as you want.

Although if you do feel you need to choose, I'd recommend the contest. The rewards (such as they are) are higher for that.

4618001 I meant. My entry for the monthly is pretty much all about flying.

4618156 Oooh. Hmm.

I don't see why you can't double-post. Seems perfectly harmless to me. So long as it's published after this prompt went online, I should think there's no problem at all posting it here.

4618163 well now that I have a one-week deadline I should be in good shape.

4617742

"Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle squinted her eyes at the silhouette in front of her.

"Oh, hey, Sweetie Belle. I didn't see you back there."

"What are you doing at the edge of a cliff. Are you waiting for the sunset?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"You know how you sometimes can't do something, but when it matters the most, you end up doing it anyway?" Scootaloo looked forward.

Sweetie Belle puckered her eyebrows. "Like what?"

"Like flying." Scootaloo jumped forward.

"Scootaloo, no!" Sweetie Belle yelled at the empty cliff edge in front of her.

4618335 Well, that was a quick with a sudden stop.

Rather like I imagine Scootaloo's flight was.

4617742

*Sees 4618335's post*

Wait, we're allowed post entries that short? Maybe even I can finally come up with something for one of these prompt threads, if that's the case...

4619009

under or around 1500 words

Totally. You could do one with only three words if you wanted.

It might not be very good, though. I'd need at least seven.

4619014
Well, you did say "around 500 to 1500 words in length" over in one of this group's early threads, which is why I wasn't entirely sure about that...

4619042 I probably did.

I probably also forgot, and ceased to care.

The ultimate point is that they're supposed to be short, oftentimes too short to get published. While I also have no problem with people writing stories way longer, ultimately, if you want to write a short one, that's cool, broseph.

4619059 umm, I'm a newbie here so... where do I give my story to you?

4620206
Just post it in here.

4620206

If it's a full story, just a link will do. If it's too short to be published or you don't want to publish, just stick it in here somewhere.

"Okay, snowball. I've been looking at your performance over the past few weeks, and yeah, I've seen improvement," Spitfire growled. "In every area but flying. Push ups: no problem. Pull ups: sure. Anything to do with those miserable excuses you call wings: utter faliure." Spitfire adjusted her glasses, catching her breath from her furious tirade. "Listen, I like you. I like your family. The Bicep-Cloudingtons have a magnificent history of military service. But usually, with their considerable bulk, comes equally large wings."

"...yeah..." Bulk replied hesitantly.

"Well, I was told by command that, since I have already filled my quota of fired recruits, I have to make sure you can keep up with the best of the worst. Your teammates."

Bulk bit his lower lip as he expected flying laps. Some strange wing-stretching device. Really, anything was fair game for Spitfire.

"We have several ponies in Research and Devellopment who have been working on a solution for you. You are the only pony who will be part of this project. The ultimate aim of our work is to make you sky-worthy. Your physical strength combined with the manoeuvrability of flight would be an unstoppable combo, snowball."

From behind Spitfire, another pegasus emerged, hidden in laboratory coats. He gave off a thick smell of oil and charred fur.

"Chief of R&D Velocity," he said. "A pleasure to experiment on you."

Bulk widened his eyes,, panic beginning to take over.

"Don't you even think about going AWOL, snowball," Spitfire warned. "You belong to us. You belong to Programme... um..."

"MBFASAP," Velocity said.

"That's right. Make Bulk Fly As Soon As Possible. Bulk... we're going to strap rockets to your arse."

No mercy for the flyless. This prompt seems to habe brought out the dark streak...

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Isn't that your 84684687687e project, Verbose ?

She was out of the house at dawn. First came her wing-ups, then a run around the estate grounds, followed by her warmup stretches. An easy enough wake-up routine to get her muscles limbered up. She trotted back inside, sweaty and wild-eyed. Time for a cold shower to wipe away any lingering morning laziness. Aces aren't lazes, Dad always said. Eye-rolling stuff, but lame Dad sayings like that stuck with her.

Breakfast was some purple energy goo that didn't quite taste like blackcurrants. She imagined it was liquid energy, a little packet of fuel that she would burn through in mere minutes to reach her top speed. It wouldn't keep her hunger away for long, but like Dad said, the only weight worth carrying is a gold medal. She squeezed out the last drops of goo, then pumped her well-toned flight muscles for altitude, the tiled roof of the house shrinking below her. It was time for some precision flight training.

Lightning Dust felt a familiar itch in her wings. Ruffled by this nagging intrusion into her training schedule, she flared short of the first ring of her obstacle course and came down hard on a cloud. Her landing was graceless, and the heavy impact of her hooves set swirling puffs of white swirling off into the breeze. The mistake would bother her, but for now she pushed it to the back of her mind, and ducked her head under her left wing for a close-up critical inspection.

There wasn't a feather out of place. Lightning kept her wings in stunt-worthy condition as long as she could. Lightning inspected her thick primary feathers, tugging each one gently with her teeth. She knew it was that time again, but training came first. Maybe she could put it off until tomorrow. For now, she crouched low, and stopped thinking. It was time to fly.

Lightning was halfway through the toughest part of the slalom when the nagging feeling returned. Zigzagging left and right at this speed only needed the slightest tilt of her wings. Left right, left, right, itch. The crease of Lightning's concentrated frown deepened. Her lips drew back in a snarl with each controlled breath she took. Itching. Itching in her feathers. Itching right to her bones. She clipped the edge of a cloud ring, and banked hard out of the obstacle course, a frustrated scream scratching her throat. When that didn't make her feel better, she dipped back down to give the offending ring a good buck, fragmenting it into wisps of morning mist. It was no good. She couldn't hold it off any longer.

Lightning barely flared at all on her next landing. Hitting the ground hard, she almost bounced off her hooves with the forward momentum, but a few good strong flaps corrected her forward motion. The gusts from her powerful wingbeats also toppled the flower display in the middle of the street, scattering petals across the dirt. The earth pony behind the stall started squawking at Lightning, trying to make a scene.

"You blew over my hydrangeas! Do you know how much those cost per stem?" The flower pony was really hamming it up too. She was probably about to demand a few bits from Lightning over a bunch of plants. She could just grow some more, right?

"Okay, sorry," Lightning scoffed, not really paying much attention. She didn't need the village drama queen in her face the moment. Keeping her wings arrogantly held to attention, the light turquoise pegasus trotted away from the commotion before the earth pony's stupid friends could come clucking over.

Lightning generally considered rural Equestria to be nothing more than flyover country for a pegasus, and that was coming from somepony who lived on the ground herself. There was one pony down here worth visiting though. She couldn't get this kind of treatment in Cloudsdale that was for sure. As she pranced into the Ponyville Spa, her self-assured smirk transformed into a genuine beaming smile. As much as she hated trashing her precise training schedule, she looked forward to these days with a mixture of guilt and mad delight.

"Hey Aloe. Ready for a Lightning Dust Special?"

Lightning flashed Aloe her most camera-friendly grin. Aloe's smile back was strained, but Lightning forgot about that as the pink spa pony led her into a private room with a massage table. She could feel her stomach quivering as she laid herself out and stretched her wings to their full span. It was so, so bad. Dad would have been ashamed, letting an earth pony do this to her. But that was all part of why it felt so good.

A few minutes later, a very pleased Lightning Dust sauntered from the spa, wings still firmly extended. Aloe was always so precise with them. Lightning didn't think another non-pegasus could do what she did, and virtually no pegasus would. The Lightning Dust Special was exclusive, and Lightning liked it that way. Her post-spa warmth cooled a little as she found herself eye-to-eye with a familiar face. Rainbow Dash hovered above the ground, hooves folded, and a sobbing flower pony laying on the histrionics behind her.

"Lightning Dust! I should have known when I heard some pushy pegasus was making ponies cry," Rainbow Dash scolded.

"Oh, hey Boss." Lightning yawned and avoided eye contact, bracing for the impact of her lead pony's newest moral lesson. When the monologue about the Golden Rule wasn't forthcoming, Lightning looked back up at Rainbow. The cyan pegasus was staring at Lightning with a slack jaw and wide eyes, her ears pinned to her head.

"What… what in Equestria happened to you?" Rainbow asked, her abrasive tones reduced to a wavering squeak punctuated with adolescent cracks. Lightning Dust followed Rainbow's gaze to her wings. She smiled at the neatly clipped stumps of her primary feathers.

"I had an itch."

4617742 >That feel when everyone else seems to have worked so hard on theirs and yours is just a last minute thing
Also, I really hope that spaceflight counts.I'm also hoping I didn't miss any stray errors; I didn't look this one over quite as much. This was originally going to be for the contest, but it didn't end up being sufficiently anachronistic; an individual flashback doesn't really count.
EDIT: The story can also be found here. The password's haphazred.

Luna's Doctor

He stood down by the base of the spaceship and looked up. The rocket was nearly done. He could see the workers putting finishing touches on the top of the ship. Soon, his travels would begin. And she would be there with him. He could still remember, quite clearly (even though it had been many years ago), how this had all started. How his spaceship had went from a half-finished dream to a confident reality. He even remembered the very conversation that had prompted this all. It was his very first time meeting her, the pony who had become the most important pony in his life.

The brilliant Moon shone down upon them as they walked, as bright as it would ever be, illuminating only their best features while masking their worst. The doctor, a brown, necktie-wearing stallion, looked most perfectly average. His companion, on the other hoof, was most perfectly not. Her tall, dark, and curvy form dominated over his. Her wings and horn only seemed to amplify his lack of either. They were a most odd match, yet nopony paid them any special attention, for this was Canterlot, the City of Magic. One was a god, and the other a mere mortal. And yet, this was not strange.

As they walked through the Canterlot marketplace, they began to talk. The Stars twinkled in rhythm with their heartbeats, as if out of sympathy for the two. It was as if their lives were special, marked for something great. But they were not. For even the most powerful of ponies meant nothing to the Stars, for how could even the most long-lived of them compare to the Stars? They were merely watching out of idle curiosity.

He had plans to change that. He knew that as smug as they were, their reign would soon come to an end. The lives of ponies need no longer be dictated by the Stars. He wanted to build a ship, a magnificent ship. One that could fly beyond even the Moon and reach the Stars. One that could show them that the lives of ponies meant something, that they were a force to be reckoned with.

She did not believe it could be done. After all, even the strongest of ponies could not truly move the Stars against their will. The Stars could only be moved because they allowed it to be so, and even then only at an enormous cost. She thought back to the days where the Sun had not grown lazy and would rise and set on its own, and had even been kind enough to bring the Moon with it as well. They were long gone, but they still held a kind of nostalgia for her. She knew that the cessation of this motion had been a test, a test of their race's strength; a test they were currently failing. Only two ponies were strong enough to move the Sun and Moon, and that was not good enough.

But that thought had led her away from the subject at hand. How could they ever be truly sure that even if they reached space, that they could ever reach the Stars? Even from the Moon, they seemed distant, taking the form of unreachable beacons in the sky.

And yet, somehow, he was prepared for that. He had a plan. His ship would not lift off directly, as a pegasus would, but would instead be catapulted through space by the magical force of several hundred unicorns before switching to traditional propulsion. Such an action was quite reckless, as it had a high risk of burning them out, but it also made her wonder: where would they get so many willing unicorns?

From here. He would target the poor, the elderly, the successful, anyone. Anyone willing to help and become a part of history. There wasn't anywhere near a shortage of them. And it wasn't like they wouldn't provide compensation. He estimated that there were more than enough willing unicorns in this city alone to get them at least halfway to the Sun. He even had plans for food for the rest of the journey. It wasn't the best plan, as gardening clearly was not one of his talents (among other things, he didn't seem to understand crop rotation particularly well), but it was a better plan than she would have thought of at his age. He was so young, and yet he thought so clearly, planned so directly and boldly. She could learn from him, and he could learn from her. They could be a team. Almost like how she and her sister had once been.

She had not expected such dedication to what seemed like a worthless dream. He made it sound possible, sound feasible. He had truly surprised her tonight; she loved it when her subjects surprised her. He had lit a fire in her; ignited her determination to see this dream through. She had only one request of her own before she approved the program.

It had taken him by surprise. They had been talking for hours, and the Stars had already started to fade from the sky in favor of the Sun, yet it had still felt like it had all happened so quickly. To go from being nopony to leading a team of researchers backed by the Lunar Princess herself in one night was quite impressive. He didn't care if he was rushing into things. He knew that this was what he had to do. He had to leave this planet. He had to see the Stars for himself. It was practically his destiny. He had built on where others had failed and had been working on this idea, secretly, for years. And now it was finally paying off. He had decided to agree to her one demand; after all, it wouldn't hurt.

She had asked to be brought along. His ship, as it was currently designed, was small; it was designed for seven ponies at most. So far, it was only them. The dreamer and the keeper of dreams. A perfect team.

They went their separate ways, each fully aware that they would reunite soon, that their parting was purely temporary.

"Au revoir, mon am... ie," he said, ending their conversation.

From the ship's cockpit, he could see the stars. They shone ever-so-brightly, beckoning to him even more had before. She was there as well— right next to him.

“It’s time,” he said, directed to her as much as it was to his radio.

Her horn lit up— as did many others across Equestria— and they were gone.

4631375 Sweet. I liked that one.

I hope they accounted for the negative effects of acceleration. Getting catapulted by magic unicorns doesn't sound healthy.

...

Sounds pretty fun, though.

4631408 Just realized they have no means of returning.

4631429 Ah.

Engineering constructive solutions to problems at it's finest.

Thankfully, space is mostly empty. If they don't decelerate, they'll still be travelling at pretty high speeds.

So don't hit the brakes.

Here goes

Storms are my addiction

Edit: approved.

Less dark, and hopefully not (too) off subject. There is lots of flying at least...

Today, we fly towards friend!

4631848 Adding both of these to the relevant new folder.
4631375