Tracy was glad they had somewhere else to go, and nowhere too private to hide in. As frustrating as these last few months had been, he wasn't quite ready for anything too extreme, and it felt like Rose probably wasn't either. It wasn't like he needed much time to get to know someone he'd already been living with for months, but...
Still, it was a good thing when a distant bell finally distracted him from Rose long enough to realize he was about to be late.
They hurried across Canterlot after that, climbing between ramps and spiral staircases. Eventually Tracy hurried through the doors of the flight school, mane disheveled and completely out of breath. Instead of taking up one of the first chairs in the room, he was relegated to the back. But that was probably for the best.
Tracy had been half-expecting them to leave the classroom immediately and start jumping off cliffs, at least from the way Giselle spoke last time. But no—their entire first hour was review, mostly of techniques that he clearly couldn't employ, given they relied on control of specific feathers to change direction, or slow down, or stop.
But that was a little longer for the review he hadn't had a chance to make, skimming through the rest of the book until he got to the section on landings. Might as well start with what he knew the least.
Too bad I can't ask Sable about some of this stuff. She could probably summarize these chapters in a few words. So far he'd found nothing inconsistent between the advice he received and the contents of the book, though of course one had been presented to him in a far more memorable manner.
Eventually the review was done, and Giselle actually picked up the chalk, sketching a simple diagram in front of them. "This is your first jump. It's off High Horse peak, a short walk from here. It's half a kilometer to the lower city below." Instead of drawing the tops of buildings, or angry spikes ready to catch the unwary, she sketched a cartoonish, fluffy cloud.
"None of you would be in my class if you were comfortable with this, so I want to make this clear. At the bottom of our jump-arena is five meters solid of the densest cloudbank Cloudsdale can manufacture. I've heard rumors it's thick enough to catch an earth pony, though I do not invite any to try it. But each of you—no matter how much you feel like your wings are made of lead, you still belong in the sky. Cloudwalking does not require conscious effort. If you fail to glide and fall, you'll sink, and the ground-crew will dig you out, unharmed.
"Worst injury we ever had on the first jump came from somepony who tried to change their mind halfway through, and ended up scraping along the cliffside all the way down."
A series of winces and pained mutters echoed through the room at her words. Tracy could imagine the bloody smear something like that must've left.
"That's why the jump works the way it does. Walk to the end of the plank, away from the cliff, and glide. If you move in a straight line, you'll coast all the way to our sister office on the south side. If you fall, you get the march of shame back up here. About half of you will fail your first time. It's the ones who go that second and third time who graduate."
"We'll do it!" exclaimed the youngest student, a filly in the front row. "We're ready to fly, Miss Giselle!"
"We'll see." She laughed, then gestured for the door. "We'll go by row. Can't have you jumping at the same time, or you'll smack into each other. That... goes as bad as you think it does. First row, up. Stairs. Everyone else, move up and make room. Ponies who fail will be back. Ponies who fly, lesson's over for the day. Good luck."
So it began. Tracy watched the first wave go, feeling a growing gnaw in the pit of his stomach. Now he'd done this before, it was true—but he also had coasted down a hill, not jumped off a cliff. There wasn't just grass and rocks if he went off course. What if he crashed through a window, or got skewered on a spire?
After the first group, Giselle returned to class, leading away the next. It took longer than he'd expected, and being in the back of the class, Tracy had plenty of time to stew with his fear.
Then the first wave of ponies came back from their failed jumps. Well, one did. The orange filly, who had been so excited earlier, slunk back inside. Her tail dragged, her ears were pressed flat, and she barely seemed to see the room around her. None of the other students were here.
Maybe he should've just let her sulk. But he couldn't help himself. "How was it?"
She looked up, eyes wide and watery. "Are you saying I—" Then she stopped, finally seeing his face. "Oh. Sorry. Not good."
What have you been through, kid? He shuffled back a few places in line, so that he was now last—only in front of her. The other students just moved up, visible impatience growing.
"The way I see it, you're ahead of the rest of us," he muttered. "You're the youngest one here. The rest of us have been stuck on the ground longer than you've been alive."
I think. I still don't actually know how old ponies get. For all he knew they aged like horses, and the people in front of him would be lucky to see forty. Would that mean Rose was only a few years old? I know what I'm asking her when this is over.
The kid looked up, expression hardening. "You're trying to make me feel better. But it won't work. You ponies never cared about flying. But I've been trying for years now. Eight or... nine or... as long as I can remember. Never could."
Tracy breathed a silent sigh of relief, though her actual words were filled with disappointment and pain. You're a young teenager, thank God.
But the young pony was watching him now, enough to puff out her chest and spread her wings in defiance. "What? Are you gonna make fun of me after all?"
"No, sorry." Tracy took a few nervous steps back, looking away from her. "I can't imagine what that's like." He eyed her wings, which looked short and stubby even for a younger pony. More like something from a hummingbird than the songbird wings more typical to ponies he'd seen. It wasn't an age thing either—he'd seen ponies much smaller than this one flying all over Ponyville.
Clearly he'd stepped on something far more complex than he understood. Should've just kept my stupid mouth shut. "Good luck, uh..." He trailed off awkwardly. "I'll be rooting for you."
"Scootaloo," she muttered. "You too."
Finally Giselle returned, leading his group away. They passed more returning failures in the hall, a much larger crowd this time. Despite her worries, Scootaloo wasn't the only one who had trouble.
Tracy caught one look at Rose in the waiting room, waving weakly to her before crossing out to the back of the school.
Everything was basically as Giselle had said it was, with a railing positioned precariously over a sheer, dramatic drop. The city's lowest, sprawling level was far below, with streets and carts and power lines. What it was supposed to do, Tracy couldn’t be sure—but there was a patch of thick cloud directly below, kept unnaturally square by powers beyond his imagination.
It must not be the same stuff, even if it looks like clouds. That filly looked like she really fell, even if it was just her pride that was injured.
"You, bat." Giselle approached with heavy, deliberate steps. There were other ponies orchestrating the jump—a pair of pegasus ponies who hovered in the air beside a vertical plank maybe five meters long.
"Saw you slink to the back of the class today. I hope you did your reading because you're not getting out of this if you didn't. Falls build character, make you better at doing your homework next week."
She was so huge. If she'd been standing on her hind legs, maybe even as big as his friends looked on the wrong side of the door. Only with two razor sharp claws and a beak that could tear out his throat without effort.
"What, swallow a bug?" Those gold eyes narrowed. "Look at that, only one jump left ahead of you. Say your last prayers to the moon if you need to."
"I..." He glanced over the railing, his limbs going stiff. "Oh god. That's... that's so far."
"I was joking about the prayers, they won't help." Giselle wrapped one wing over his shoulder, squeezing him with surprising warmth. "It's height, isn't it? All that time in caves has you spoiled. Makes you think flying is just walking in the air."
He opened his mouth to protest, but couldn't manage anything more than a frightened grunt. Apparently that was enough confirmation for her.
"I can't tell you what it's like to fly with those wings. I can't even tell pegasus ponies, tell you the truth. It's all theory and rehearsing what pegasus trainers have taught me. But here's one piece of advice that every griffon hatched learns: watch your target. If you look down, that's where you'll go."
She walked with him, up to the gate. A pegasus stallion wobbled out onto the edge of the platform, spread his wings, then sunk like a stone, screaming as he fell.
Tracy gulped, and his legs began to shake. He watched the fall, as the pegasus struck into the cloud with an explosion of fluffy white.
Moments later, and he crawled out onto a... platform, made of clouds.
"I've been gliding before," Tracy whispered, mostly to himself. "I can do this. It's just... gliding."
"That's the spirit!" Giselle pulled the gate open with a claw, shoving him out onto the platform. "Jump quick, fly straight. Longer you're out on the platform, the harder it is. Just spread your wings and take a running start. You'll thank me."
Tracy nodded, though he didn't thank her as the gate shut behind him, smacking into his rump. He yanked his tail free, taking a few nervous steps forward. This was nothing like what Sable had done. He could see ponies far, far below, like toys. Well, more like toys than they usually looked.
Nothing for it. Tracy spread both wings as Sable had taught him, taking a few nervous steps forward. It wasn't a run, but he did speed up as he approached the edge.
A hovering pegasus mare nodded to him, encouraging. "Go on, bat! Straight out. It's a kilometer glide, that's all."
He sped up, driven by fear and adrenaline. The edge of the plank was three meters away, then two. Both wings were rigid, ready to glide as he'd already done. Besides, it wasn't like he would get hurt even if he fell, right? If the kid could fall, he could fall.
Then he got to the edge of the plank, and the uninterrupted view of the city below hit him. Tracy screamed in protest, legs locking up in a desperate, futile attempt to stop.
There just wasn't enough of the polished metal, not enough resistance from his hooves. He slid right over the edge and out into open air.
Both wings were already open, held rigidly in place—but he was tilted down. What might've made for a comfortable glide when he held his body horizontally took him into a twisting, accelerating dive.
Tracy began to accelerate, the cliffside blurring by faster and faster. He screamed, kicking out with all four legs in futile resistance. It did him no good.
"Pull up!" somepony yelled. It was the same white and blue pegasus from before, diving after him with both forelegs reaching out. "Pull up! Spread your wings!"
He did, but the stress against untrained muscles was just too much. They bent back all the way, sending him tumbling to the side. Tracy saw a blur of tiled rooftops rushing to meet him, then nothing.
Pootis Poot Poot' lmao i love this story keep it up mate
Eject! Eject! Eject! Oh, wait! Crash! Crash! Crash!
That would be a serious case of rock-burn.
Nice new chapter even if it ends with a darn cliffhanger. I hope both Tracy and Scootaloo manage to graduate.
Perhaps a blindfold is something to try next time.
As the saying goes, "Success isn't measured by what you achieve, but by the obstcles you overcome."
Terrain, terrain. Pull up, Pull up!
Too bad Equestria doesn't have wind tunnel for beginner flyer.
So the cloud catcher is only for ponies that fall straight, and the assumption is that if you miss it, you're in a good, safe glide? And a partial glide/fall winds up ...
I've said before, Pound Cake can fly. Flurry Heart can fly. Bulk Biceps can fly. You'll get there.
Now this is a cliffhanger or should I say, cliff-faller
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/868/036/4f5.gif
Anywho, I know its a little thing, but I love that Fleetfoot was one of the, lifeguards trying to dive after Tracy Guess this is what she's up to between wonderbolt events
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mwahahahahahaha!~ we shall tug at those feels from weeks ago!~
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They'll likely add some new safety regulations for this.
Gods, I'm surprised they didn't start with getting up on a table to practice basic gliding.
Well that went brilliantly. Just goes to show really, no matter how much work you put into safety measures there will always be that one idiot.
Good thing he went last eh? This woulda put a real damper on morale if the rest of the newbies saw it.
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There's a wonderbolt right bloody there for emergencies, she was seconds away from grabbing him before Tracy managed to dodge and fling himself into the rooftops.
Either the cloudbank catches him, someone catches him, or he's gonna spend a few days in the hospital. Not good if it's number three as he's gonna lose a few days at work as well. Comes to show that he needs specialized teaching for his anatomy.
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Tracy has working internet he could show them the concept. Pegasus engineering that builds weather factories could come up with an equivalent easily enough.
Hopefully the prospect of watching a terrified Tracy fling himself off a cliff was too tempting for Discord to pass up and the worst Tracy will have to do is wash off all the sugar.
So long as any geobraking manuever doesn't result in rapid unplanned disassembly, I think he'll be fine.
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reminds me of a story where Scootaloo asked Bulk Biceps for flying lessons.
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Do you mean?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/201365/scootalift
----
Ooh, and Tracy was doing so well, with Sable's help...
So basically you're asking them to get off of their High Horse.
Okay then.
Poor Scootaloo. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't see that coming. Somehow that's worse.
Yeah, of course he'd somehow be the first to actually miss the clouds.
Hopefully not too injured from this, though, because if he ends up bedridden from this (or at least just out cold for longer than a day), he could very well be out of a job at this point, because--consider--he'll be injured and stuck on the Equestrian side of the portal, and if in a hospital at Canterlot, miles away from the tech that would allow him to notify his work. So unless he can get Rose to run grab his cell phone for him real quick before he's due to next come in for work--a real gamble considering both the travel time and that Rose likely has no idea what a cell phone even is--he'll really be up a creek without a paddle.
Assuming Janet doesn't just fire him on the spot the moment he tries to call in and explain anyway, because she doesn't seem to understand the concept that he has a life beyond his place of work and sometimes things happen beyond anyone's control, because she's made it clear he's already on thin ice there.
And then, either way, no doubt Discord will get involved somehow, and...
Let's just hope he's not so injured he can't quickly shake it off and get on with the day again instead.
Whomever tells him to pull up clearly doesn't realize Tracy doesn't know how to do that. I hope that Tracy will form a friendship with Scootaloo eventually given that they both struggle with flying. I also wonder how Tracy could have done things differently given that it's not exactly easy for him to adjust his position. Being the only batpony in the class can't help.
Oh, Scootaloo...
Yes. Ask your girlfriend how old she is. That will surely end well.
Mind you, Tracy has to survive the impending crash first. Though with Fleetfoot on standby, that shouldn't be too hard. Embarrassing, but not hard.
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Appropriate for a falling ape, though I was thinking more along these lines:
Maybe Rainbow Dash is around seeing as Scootaloo was there.
If he truly splatters that would be bad for the insurance rates of the flight school.
As odd as it sounds, Sable might be able to help Scootaloo more than any other pony could. A different point of view.
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Rapid Unplanned Disassembly -- nice rocket euphemism.
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eyup, that's the one!
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Because Fleetfoot did so well catching Rarity in Sonic Rainboom.
who else thought this would happen at the end ? xD
awesome story and awesome pictures to go with it, the jump uh dive looked funny xD
poor scood's always scotaloo
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Im guessing Fleetfoot didnt have a lot of options and was running out of time, so just shouted instructions at him in hopes he'd figure it out.
Not like it would make it any worse by trying.
The story is nice and the art work is beautiful
Welp. Character building time. I hope it doesn’t effect his job on the other side, but I’m betting it does.
So... he stalled and, in attempting to correct it, he exceeded the wing stress.
Where's an Arresto Momentum when you need it?
Then again, Rainbow Dash has probably survived worse. Cartoon physics, ahoy!
Hes dead jim
He has a problem that is rare among pegasi, fear of heights. Probably will be exacerbated after this failure.
Tfw he blacked out from taking the potions instead of actual collision. Broken leg/hoof will be interesting to explain at work....
This is how you become an example to future classes.
"Now remember when you jump off don't point yourself down or you'll wind up like one bat pony we had who managed to crash into the home of Icy Breeze."
Also poor Scoot's I hope this do work out for her.
Given the totality of that second piece of art, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he doesn't actually get injured and he just straight up blacked out. Fleetfoot to the rescue.
"So, how exactly did you break both of your arms?"
"I jumped off a cliff"
"Wait, you thought you could fly or something?"
"yes..."
That said, the fact there isn't a course with cloudwalls is a bit of a flaw if you can miss the safe area easily.
There could be a market for emergency parachutes with AADs here. Falling beyond a certain speed below the level of the safety 'net', then pop. Gives the attending pegasus a few more seconds to come get you before you mash into something.
This is going to be Tracy
Assuming he lives.
Lifespans: a long time ago... back almost the better part of a decade now... several wags calculated pony lifespans based on several episodes, most notably 'Family Appreciation Day' and 'Winter Wrap Up'.
In 'Winter Wrap Up', it is stated that ponyville was settled 'hundreds of years ago'. The minimum number to make hundreds plural, is two. Granny Smith, Applejack's grandmother, was a young mare - not a foal - during the initial settling of Ponyville. Granny Smith discovered Zap Apples, for example, during the period where Ponyville was literally being carved out of a portion of the Everfree Forest, which originally covered all of the land that Ponyville exists within. This is shown in the episode 'Family Appreciation Day'.
Multiple fans have calculated the population of Ponyville (using sampling techniques common to population studies), and the area of it (from surveying and constructing an accurate map of the landscape from images from the show), and worked out how long it would take to build all that we see on the show (based on existing studies and reference materials). I agree with their careful analysis.
In short, the estimated life span of canon ponies on the show must be, at minimum, 250 years, with an average of 300 years. If all else (population size and city development) is considered, the number rises to almost 400 years.
This means, if one reasons that growth and development work normally, that our - as Faust put it 'young adult, probably around 19 or 20 in earth terms' Twilight Sparkle would have to factually be anywhere from 50 to 80 earth years old. Pony development would be slower, their childhoods longer, to fit their longer lifespan. They play with just this in the recent 'The Mandalorian' series, pointing out that the 50-year old baby Yoda-child ages differently. Which makes sense, because canon Yoda was 900 years old at death.
This means that Scootaloo, if roughly around 9 in earth development, would be between 25 to 40 earth years old. In Equestria, you get to enjoy a nice, long childhood. I envy this greatly. I didn't get much of any childhood, really.
We have seen a one-to-one correspondence of day and night with earth in this story. Thus Scootaloo in this chapter should have said she was much older than the number given. This, in turn, would be very surprising and intriguing both to Tracy and the reader as well.
So, the paragraph, I strongly argue, should be:
spin out.
Ooh, we got two pictures this week.
With all my experience rocket jumping, I'm telling you he's gonna land on a very slightly tilted roof and slide off while harmlessly landing on the ground.
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Which means we'll get two pictures from our googly eyed princess
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"Okay, so WHY did you think you could fly?"
"It's a long story"
"I've got time"
"No you don't. I had wings at the time if that gives you any idea."
"You mean like a hang glider?"
"No."
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I was wondering when this question would come up somewhere.
So the short answer is that I've definitely interpreted the cannon the same way before. In several of the 'universes' I've written in, ponies live a few centuries just as Granny Smith is suggested to have done. (Those being the PaP series, Message in a Bottle, and the My Little Apprentice series
But I made an intentional choice to use a lifespan more similar to humans for this story, primarily for thematic purposes. This story is building towards Tracy having to make a choice of which world he stays in. He already doesn't have a family left alive on earth. If he's also choosing hundreds of years of extra lifespan, the choice because so obvious it's no longer dramatic anymore.
So it's not that I don't think that a much longer lifespan isn't a valid way to see the canon, maybe even the most correct. But it wasn't the most dramatic for this specific story.
i.imgur.com/NBcyW2a.jpg
i.imgur.com/Kim4egi.png
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Tracy looks like a batponyorc. I'm kind of OK with that.
Scoots looks a little bit ... uh. Derpy. Hahaha.
Also, googly-eyes on the frogs? Hahaha.
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Pretty sure it's just an over-exaggeration + natural part that Earth ponies, just being closer to earth magic and "generally" healthier due to their more active lifestyle, ie Magic courses through their veins, they are a hardier tribe.
Explains why the ponies with horns tend to be crazy. Magic circulating too close to the brain and all that.
Though, having them live for upteenbajillion years is kind of ludicrous, otherwise their technological level would be ridiculous and their population density would be insane. And it even shows that Pinkie and Cheese popped out a kid and when said kid looks about 6-7, the pair look really old.
Unless you think "SEVENTEEN THOUSAND YEARS LATER..." Twilight ascended fully and Ponks shotgunned out a foal? C'mon. In that case the deer should be 10x longer lived because they are the equivalent of 'elves' within our own folklore.
I have to wonder whether Scootaloo's disability is physical or magical. She can produce plenty of forward thrust on her scooter, so maybe there's something wrong with her flight muscles? I used to think it was just that she can't properly channel her flight magic through her wings, but if that were the case, she wouldn't be able to produce much thrust at all.
Hummingbird indeed!
He totally psyched himself out. The key is to relax and feel the air, partnering in a dance of avian delight!
Funny how Giselle assumes, but he's too distracted to really call her out on it.
Keep going! ;)