Nocturnal Mayhem

by Silvak

Chapter IX: Liftoff

"So, how much flying have you ever done?"

"Hmm... does falling count?"

"...Really?"

"Well, I don't think being thrown by somepony counts," I commented, a Rainbow put a hoof to her face as she let out a groan of annoyance. Shortly after selecting Rainbow and Pinkie to be my retainers, along with sending everypony off with a compensation for their time spent coming here, we went off to Luna to see if she approves those two being my retainers. Considering that Rainbow was the Element of Loyalty, and I learned that Pinkie herself was the Element of Laughter, Luna was ecstatic to see me being guided by two of Equestria's greatest heroes. Though, considering the appearances of those two, I'm starting to wonder if a disaster consisted of a bunny attack or a kitten stuck in a tree.

Due to there being a few hours before Luna would be free to continue my magic lessons, Rainbow thought it would be best to get started on my flying lessons, which Pinkie agreed to since she thought it would be fun. Hence, here we are, getting ready to start my first try at flying... indoors. I had a bad feeling about all this, but Rainbow said that if I'm starting out, it wouldn't hurt to start indoors first. At least we were in a hallway which had a rather high ceiling.

Brining her hoof down her face, Rainbow said, "Okay, this will take longer than I thought, but no matter. I'll get you flying in less than a week!" as she pointed a hoof up into the air.

"That's some pretty high expectations you have there," I replied, causing her to look at me with a deadpanned expression.

"Okay, first things first, you need to have confidence," Rainbow declared as she hovered over to me. "Think about yourself, in the air, flapping through the skies."

"And then crashing into a wall," I added, causing Pinkie to let out a giggle-snort as Rainbow let out a groan. "Which I'm confident will happen today."

"Look, let's just start by seeing how strong your wings are, so we're going to start out with you giving them one big flap, using all your strength, but make sure to stretch them first, like so," Rainbow instructed as she landed down, spreading her wings out as she demonstrated proper wing stretches. Looking at my own wings, I spread them out as well, but instead, I started to twitch every part of them, getting a feel for each bone and muscle they possessed. "You're doing it wrong," Rainbow said with a frown as she saw what I was doing.

"Just getting a feel of my wings first," I replied before going through the wing stretches, before finally having my wings ready and spread out. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Relax, it's just one big flap of your wings, what could go wrong?" Rainbow responded, causing me to raise an eyebrow at her before I turned my head around as I lift my wings straight up before bringing them down. Instantly, instead of seeing Pinkie, who was eating from a bag of popcorn, I saw darkness around me. Oh, and I felt a brief pressure around my head before feeling like it got stuffed into a tight place as the rest of my body dangled below me.

"Is that suppose to happen?" I heard Pinkie said, though it was muffled. Apparently, I crashed my head into the ceiling, which was only a mild surprise to me. I always possessed a strengthen form, even if my previous body wasn't on the muscular side of things. It was believed that is wasn't a genetic trait and was instead some ability that I possessed, which might be true based on what just happened. Or alicorns are just really strong fliers, or both.

"Oh mi gosh no!" Rainbow cried out as I felt somepony tugging at my rear legs until my head was freed from the ceiling, where I immediately saw Shade and Rainbow hanging onto my legs before letting go to grab onto my body. "Are you alright‽"

Calmly turning my head around to look straight into Rainbow's face, I said, "I did tell you I had a bad feeling about this. However, I am fine, thank you for asking."

Her look of concern turning into one of mild annoyance, Rainbow sighed before she said, "Alright, let's go outside. I didn't expect your wings to be that strong."

---

Outside, in the castle gardens, Rainbow started to say, "Okay, since there is no ceiling in the way for us this ti—"

"But there are trees," I interjected, causing Rainbow to scowl at that fact before marching over to a clear spot as the rest of us followed her.

"Okay, back to the lesson, since you obviously have the wing strength for flying, let's see if we can get you hovering off the ground," Rainbow said, as she took off into the air to hover before me. After seeing her hovering about for a while now, instead of letting her continue what she said, I simply flapped my wings, sending myself into the air to hover as well, albeit with less flapping of my wings. "Huh? Guess you're a natural."

"Don't be so quick on that, Rainbow, I'm just imitating this based on seeing you hover about," I replied, as I try to keep the flapping to an adequate level, sometimes lowering or rising up a bit.

"Don't sell yourself short yet, now try leaning forward a bit, changing your flapping like this," Rainbow said as she leaned forward a bit as she slowly hovered forwards.

"Okay..." I started to say as I tried to repeat her actions, only to be moving forward too fast. "Wait, wait, no, not that way!" I yelled as I tried to correct myself, only to be hovering backward.

"Wait, hold on a sec," Rainbow stated as she tried to fly over to me, only for me to lose my balance as I hovered to the side. Sadly, before she could get to me, in my attempts to reorient myself, I ended up headbutting her muzzle, forcing her back as I tumbled out of control, before crashing my head into a wall as I heard Rainbow letting out a yelp of pain. "What the buck have you've been eating? Your head is ha—ah buck," Rainbow said after seeing me sticking out of the wall. As I felt her hooves grabbing onto my rear hooves, I felt like tonight was just going to be a long night.

---

"Nebula, your mother has arrived to continue your magic lessons. How did your flyi—oh dear Faust! What has happened here‽" Luna cried as she walked into the part of the garden we were practicing at.

"Er.... hi mom. Umm... turns out I'm not very good at flying," I said as I looked about. It's been only two hours of trying, yet there were over a dozen holes in the walls, a few broken branches, and even a broken window that a pair of ponies were repairing. Thankfully, my body was as hardy as my old one was, so I was no worse for the wear. The same couldn't be said for Rainbow, as her mane was frazzled from the frustration of teaching me how to fly.

"That is the understatement of the century," Rainbow muttered out before covering her face with her hooves. "At this rate, it'll take you all month to just learn how to fly."

"Ah, don't fret Rainbow, I'm sure you'll get Nebula flying like the best in no time," Pinkie said with a smile, only for it to disappear as a tree branch came crashing down.

"I... what... wait, are you uninjured?" Luna asked as picked me up, inspecting me for any injuries.

"Yes. Fortunately, I have a tough hide and a hard head, but I don't think the walls or trees would agree with me on that being a good thing," I answered.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Luna responded, "Nay, that is of little importance. All that matters is your own well-being," before taking a look around the garden again. "Though I recommend that you wear padding next time, for the walls' shake."

"I'm pretty certain that won't make a difference unless I'm wearing a pillow," I commented before seeing Pinkie holding a pillow with straps attached to that. "No Pinkie, I'm not going to wear one, so just put that away."

"Still, how did this happen?" Luna asked as she watched a couple of unicorns gathering the debris from the latest hole.

"Well mom, turns out that I have very strong wings, and when you couple that with a hard head and the tendency to flail about when I mess up, you get this," I answered as I waved a hoof around the scene.

Rubbing her forehead with a hoof, Luna said, "Well, at least you're unharmed," before she turned her attention to Pinkie and Rainbow. "I'll be taking care of my daughter for the rest of the night, hence you two and return to Ponyville."

Letting out a yawn, Rainbow stretched her upper body as she said, "Yeah, about time I head back, I got some sleeping to do. We're still getting that awesome sleep you promised us, right?"

"Of course. I assure you that you find your sleep to be the most rejuvenating sleep you ever experienced. Your transport is waiting outside the castle proper," Luna answered, as an evil idea crept into my head.

Before the duo could turn to make their leave, I exclaimed, "Wait! I need to ask you something, Rainbow!" As the two looked at me in confusion, I continued, "I know that it's rude to pry, but how often do you dream about punching foals in the face?"

As Rainbow's face took on a look of utter horror as she looked at me, Luna and Pinkie could only gape at me in shock before turning their faces towards Rainbow, while I did my best to keep from laughing at the scene. After a couple of minutes had passed, Pinkie was the first one to break the silence when she said, "What are you talking about! Rainbow doesn't punch foals!"

Breaking out of her stupor, Luna added, "Indeed! A hero of Equestria wouldn't do such a thing! Why would you even think about that, my daughter?" as she looked at me, anger apparent on her face.

"Hey, I was just curious after she decked me in the face earlier in the night," I said with a shrugged, causing Luna to blink at me in shock as Rainbow sputtered about a bit.

"What are you talking about! I thought you said I wouldn't get in trouble for... that..." Rainbow said as her face paled as she just realized what she said, as Pinkie and Luna now looked at Rainbow in shock before Luna's expression began to morph into one of pure fury. However, before Luna could say a thing, I finally broke out in laughter, falling onto my side as I pounded a hoof against the ground.

"Buahaha, you three should have seen your faces! This is so rich!" I cried out as I continued to laugh, as Luna turned her face towards me in confusion. After a moment of laughing my lungs out, I looked at Luna, who was bearing an annoyed look, as I explained, "Don't worry, mother. I requested for Rainbow to hit me in the face, as a sort of test."

"Well, it's not funny that you pulled a prank like this on Rainbow," Pinkie declared with a deep frown on her face, as I finally composed myself enough to get back on my hooves.

"Relax, Pinkie. All this was just a spur of the moment, nothing more. My little test was entirely for something else," I replied, as Rainbow narrowed her eyes in anger at me.

"And what was it for, then?" Rainbow growled out behind her teeth as she snarled at me.

"It was to see if you're willing to hit me, cause otherwise, I couldn't have you help me learn how to fight while flying," I answered, causing Rainbow's face to changed into one of surprise, while Luna gave me a shocked look.

"Wait, you want to learn how to fight? But you're a foal!" Luna exclaimed, which caused me to let out a snort.

"Don't worry mother, it's more of something meant for self-defense. I'm not going to go out looking for fights, so you don't have to worry about that," I responded before looking at Rainbow. "So no hard feelings?"

Instead of bearing any traces of anger, Rainbow instead had an excited one as she... hoofpumped the air? "Buck no! It'll be awesome to see how an alicorn in action! Now I really got to get you flying like a pro by the end of the week!"

As Luna let out a sigh at what happened, Pinkie had a look of confusion on her face before her eyes brighten, her face taking on an expression of joy. Before I could say a thing, she dashed over to me, wrapping her hooves around me in a tight embrace as she exclaimed, "You smiled, Nebula! You finally smiled! Even if it was for a prank that was a bit mean, at least you smiled from having fun!"

I could only blink as Pinkie shook me about before I shrugged and rolled with it. As weird as tonight was going, at least it was entertaining so far. Though I was still looking forward to the morning, that would be a great way to end the night. Assuming I'm not sent to my room for the rest of the night for my mean-spirited prank.

Comments

[KingJoltik]

7933669 Yeah seriously, get in the ******* bag Nebby!

[StarzGecko]

Luna should just place her in the bag.

[Thunder--Clash]

Oh, I'm looking forward to it as well

Good job, I loved reading this chapter, I can't wait for the next part of this story

[Crystallizedpoop]

Ah they're going to get along so well!

[Erie]

hard head and the tendency to fail about when I mess up,

I think you meant flail about there

[Lazydrill]

Worth it!

[LostArchivist]

"I'm pretty certain that won't make a difference unless I'm wearing a pillow," I commented before seeing Pinkie holding a pillow with straps attached to that. "No Pinkie, I'm not going to wear one, so just put that away."

Do I want to know why she has that?

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

8812923
Incase of pillow strap emergencies

[Amos Anon]

Heeheehee, the poor castle. That scene had me giggling like a schoolgirl. 🤣

[hmaf43]

Luna should be knocked down a couple pegs. Fucking hypocrite.