If there was one pony that I hate, it's Rainbow Dash. I stood by and watched her the first time she made a sonic rainboom. As amazed as I was, the jealousy I felt that day was unbearable. It really got to me! For many times I practised afterwards, but I simply never could get fast enough. Rainbow Dash was always better than me. I never could make a Sonic Rainboom. Once, in a dive, I felt myself coming close. I had finally accumulated enough airspeed! But because of how fast I was going, I couldn't pull out fast enough, and I hit the ground hard. It almost broke my neck. It could have killed me! I spent about a month in hospital. When I finally left that place, I could only look up at the sky and feel utter hatred for it.
My parents paid for me to have re-orientation training. Just my luck my dad is a palace guard. He told me time and time again he WOULDN'T have a son who doesn't fly! It took weeks of counselling before I could take to the skies again and regain my confidence.
Why am I thinking of all this right now?! Shit.
Valkyrie left the thick layer of clouds which revealed Ponyville sprawling out below him. It was much darker down there. Above the clouds, the sun was still slightly above the horizon.
He used his wings to vector the thrust in the correct direction, guiding his descent towards his house. Each wing worked in unison, almost subconsciously controlled, to keep himself balanced. His right wing flapped slightly harder than the other, because under it he carried a bag full of books. Valkyrie was extremely careful not to descend too quickly, as he always had been since the accident. A few times, he had brought himself to a complete hover by mistake. Valkyrie had now guided himself below rooftop level. Some pegasi, like Rainbow Dash, fold their wings away at this height and would simply fall the last few feet. Valkyrie didn't even consider that. He brought himself neatly onto the ground, back hooves first.
“Hey, Valk!” A familiar, friendly voice said quickly and loud. He knew who it was immediately because only one pony shortens his name. Valkyrie sighed and turned around to see Pinkie Pie grinning, her being only person it could have been to have greeted him in such a way. He smiled back slightly, he was happy at least she was happy to see him, but still fed up of being bothered by her.
“Hi,” he replied.
“You were flying really high!” Pinkie Pie grinned.
“At a higher altitude there's less air, so you can go faster with less effort,” he sighed.
“Wow!” Said Pinkie Pie happily, clearly amazed at this fact.
“Hey, what'cha got there?” She indicated at the bag tucked under his wing.
“It's books from Canterlot,” Valkyrie turned away and opened the door. “Ooh what are they?” Pinkie Pie squealed excitedly, but Valkyrie closed the door without saying anything.
He carefully removed the books from the bag. Some were thick, and some were thin. Some hardback, some paperback. Paperbacks with illustrations or photos on the cover and hardbacks without. He smiled at them. They were ancient, really ancient. Not cheap either. Each containing myths (or legends, for Valkyrie who believed some of them) about flying that machines humans built and operated. Some ponies believe humans used to walk Equestria, many millions of years ago. But other ponies thought of them as mere fiction. Saying that there is no way such a creature could have existed, or that there isn't enough evidence for them. Valkyrie would never admit it, but he truly believed that humans existed, and that maybe some were still out there. No, I LIKE to think that there are humans still out there. He turned towards the kitchen window and looked up at the stars. If there really are humans out there, then they probably have more power and influence than we might think. After realizing what he had thought, Valkyrie buried his head in his hooves while sitting down next to his books. Now I've become one of those 'believers'. Fucking hell.
His internal monologue was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the door, provoking a feel of unease that distracted him from his thoughts of humans as he hesitantly went over to answer it. It was Pinkie Pie, who was smiling as usual. “Hey, Valk, why did you close the door, Silly?” Pinkie Pie cheerfully jumped up and down. Clearly oblivious to Valkyrie trying to dismiss her.
“Uh...hi,” he mumbled.
“Hellooo,” said Pinkie Pie, letting herself in. Before Valkyrie could say anything, she had picked up the first book on the pile, “F-4 Phantom II vs MiG-21 USAF and VPAF in the Vietnam War,” Pinkie Pie read curiously, “hey look at the name of the author! Ponies back when this was written must've had really funny names!” She exclaimed, and laughed.
Valkyrie simply rolled his eyes, “be careful with that. It's expensive,” he said, now getting annoyed at her. But Pinkie Pie didn't reply; too intrigued by the cover, but also confused. Raising one eyebrow, she asked, “what's going on on the cover?” Then Valkyrie grinned. Now was his opportunity to disturb this pony and wipe that constant smile off her face.
“It's a war,” he began, in a dramatic voice, “one that was fought by humans. See those things in the sky? They're built by humans. You see the bottom part of the cover? Look at that one that is on fire. There are two humans inside it. And they're both about to DIE!” Upon hearing this, Pinkie Pie's mouth dropped open.
She gasped and her smile faded, “Oh...oh my, that's terrible!” Valkyrie grinned and gave a little laugh. He took pleasure in Pinkie Pie's discontent. That sure knocked her down a few steps! He thought to himself. Although, what he was saying wasn't completely true, and Valkyrie knew that. The two humans, or maybe just one of them, could potentially still survive. They could eject from their burning F-4 Phantom.
“A-and what's going on in the top half?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously, trembling slightly.
“Oh, that's just an F-4 firing a missile,” Valkyrie shrugged casually, “to KILL the human in the MiG!” Pinkie Pie gasped again and put the book down on top of the pile.
She shakily turned her head back to him, “V-Valkyrie, why would you read about these?” Pinkie's innocent eyes were wider than before as she looked at him. Suddenly he felt uneasy. Her eyes were usually cheerful. And now they were disturbed and he sensed some worry in them, too. He now felt bad for what he had done to her.
Pinkie Pie was now keen to change the subject. She looked around to either side of her before saying, “hey, I'm meeting some other of my friends at Sugarcube Corner. Want to join us?” Valkyrie considered this carefully, but soon reached a conclusion, “Sure,” he replied.
“Great!” Pinkie Pie jumped for joy, “we'll be there at noon!”
“Great,” said Valkyrie, expressionless. He quickly wanted to get rid of Pinkie Pie, and quickly found an excuse. “I'm gonna get to sleep,” he said suddenly.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Said Pinkie Pie, “yeah, it really is getting late.” Valkyrie began gently pushing her towards the door, “I'll see you tomorrow, good night.”
“Goodnight!”
He shut the door then locked it in all five locks. He laughed quietly. He wasn't planning on going to bed any time soon. Instead, Valkyrie picked up the book Pinkie Pie had been so disturbed by, and read it until his eyelids became too heavy to fulfil their function of staying open. Valkyrie cared nothing for humans if there was such a thing. Or at least, not nearly as much as it seems Pinkie Pie does. They were just information to him, nothing more. Even so, he loved to read about the humans that built and operated their flying machines. They were the stuff of legends. And the machines themselves? He thought they were absolutely beautiful. No mare in Equestria could come even come close.
Valkyrie thought of all this as he lay in bed. Then his consciousness turned it's attention to meeting Pinkie Pie and some other friends of hers at Sugarcube Corner. He felt both nervous and excited for it.
What's that word Pinkie Pie uses to describe that emotion? Oh, that's right: 'nevrouscited'.
Valkyrie's eyelids were completely operational again, after a good night's rest. Although, they did have to shut automatically to protect his brown eyes from the bright sunlight as it shone through his bedroom window. Too bright. Wait, what time is it? He sat up immediately to check what the time was. He tried to pick up his alarm clock to look at it, but instead he clumsily knocked it off his bedside table and onto the floor. After picking it up, he stared straight at it. It was 11:00 A.M. I'm supposed to be meeting them at noon. Fuck!
With the assistance of his wings, he lifted his body out of bed. The wings provided extra thrust to complete such a task. But he hadn't closed them completely before he tried to trot through the door and into the upstairs hallway. This took him by surprise; yelping, he fell back onto the cold floor with his front limbs in the air. After getting all hooves back on the floor, he rolled his eyes and quickly walked out into the hallway. I might be able to get there in time if I fly quickly, he thought.
After closing his front door, Valkyrie spread both his wings, flapping them a couple of times to test them for any sign of defects, as though he were filling out a mental check list. It is said that human aircraft had wings that would fold up so they could fit into a smaller space on the ground. His mind took him back to when he couldn't walk through the door because his wings were still spread. Then he felt goose pimples appearing along his body. Valkyrie ignored them and flapped his wings with enough intensity to gain airborne. Hovering above rooftops for a moment, Valkyrie could see Sugarcube Corner in the distance. So he quickly gave himself a burst of forward thrust, gliding with his wings stretched out wide, then swooping down next to Sugarcube Corner before pulling up to purposefully stall himself, allowing him to bring himself slowly to the ground now that he was no longer moving forwards.
“Hello there, Valkyrie!” Called Pinkie Pie after he touched down. Valkyrie didn't reply as he walked up to Pinkie Pie, who was standing outside Sugarcube Corner, “you're right on time!” Pinkie Pie smiled, “Twilight and Rainbow Dash have just showed up!” Valkyrie's eyes opened wide and he paused everything.
“R-Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah, you know her?”
“Yeah,” Valkyrie nodded and entered. The first thing he saw was a purple alicorn smiling and chatting. Valkyrie hadn't seen many alicorns other than her; he had seen her around town a few times. Twilight Sparkle. Being an alicorn, she was easily recognizable. He already knew who she was talking to. He would recognize that rainbow coloured mane and blue coat anywhere. Rainbow Dash.
“Oh hey,” said Rainbow Dash casually as he walked over, “I know who you are, or course.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I've seen you 'round, and in the sky since you're a pegasus too. Twilight here has only just began flying.” There was something about how casually Rainbow Dash was being that made Valkyrie feel as though she was acting with malice. Rainbow Dash was unintentionally attacking him with her mannerisms that had never been a cause for complaint by anypony else before. “So what've you been up to?” Rainbow Dash now sounded more interested.
Valkyrie thought about that question. She's just toying with me. That's why she sounds more interested. Hmm, what HAVE I been up to? “Oh, urm, I-I...” He tried to think of what to say. But Pinkie Pie sensed the tension and interrupted him.
“Twilight, this is Valk!” She said quickly.
“Valkyrie,” he corrected her.
“Yeah, I know all about him from Flight Camp. You were the jealous type, weren't you,” Rainbow Dash spoke as though her words had no meaning other than for her to recap on her own memories. Valkyrie gritted his teeth.
Twilight Sparkle was quick to change the subject to something less sensitive, “hey, Pinkie Pie told me you like reading about human flight. Mind if I borrow some of your books?”
“Uh, err, okay,” Valkyrie looked away, then back to her, “have you never read any before?”
“Well, a little, but I don't think I've read about it much as you have!” Twilight Sparkle seemed nice. Valkyrie was starting to like her. He now felt slightly less cautious around her. He smiled at her.
“I guess you could borrow some. Have you read about Tupolev?”
“So anyway, how's about a race?” Said Rainbow Dash excitedly.
“What?!”
“You know, let's see if your flying skills really have improved since Flight Camp. Or the acciden-” Rainbow Dash was excited, but hurting Valkyrie the more past she dug up.
“So tell me, what was it they used? What were called? Propellers, wasn't it? Haha,” Twilight Sparkle was trying to change the subject. She looked over to Pinkie Pie for any ideas. Pinkie Pie looked a little helpless at Valkyrie's hurt facial expression.
“Well it wasn't just propellers. Later on, they developed...” Valkyrie was trying to explain.
“Just a sec, Twilight, I wanna see if he's gonna do the race! Or are you too chicken?” Asked Rainbow Dash.
“I...well, no,” Valkyrie looked to the floor.
“So, you will do it?”
Valkyrie looked back at Rainbow Dash, “mhmm, I'll do it,” he declared.
The course for the race was soon decided: to a clearing in Everfree Forest, touch and go in the clearing, then down to Ghastly Gorge before flying straight back to the town hall in Ponyville. “You all ready?” Asked Rainbow Dash, flexing her wings outside Sugarcube Corner, ready to start the race.
“Yeah,” replied Valkyrie, “let's just get this over with.”
Rainbow Dash smirked smugly as she spread her wings fully. Valkyrie spread his, too. Rainbow Dash looked at him, containing her surprise at at the size of his wings. Pinkie Pie walked out in front of them. “Ready? Three, two, one...GO!” She squealed and jumped into the air as both pegasi took off. Valkyrie repetitively flapped his wings, gaining airspeed while riding the air, he had gained lift, thanks to his velocity created by his wing movements. As he did, he looked around for Rainbow Dash. She was taking a different route to him, he could see a rainbow trail streaking off a few streets away. But he continued on his course on a slow climb. He was careful not to get above the clouds, because if he were above the clouds, he wouldn't be able to see the clearing.
This is good! I'm finally not scared of the sky anymore! He thought. Valkyrie grinned and swept his wings back as his airspeed increased further. What he did think was strange was that he couldn't see Rainbow Dash. He thought it was probably because she was taking a different route to him. But he had been sure she would know the quickest way there.
The individual trees were difficult to make out from how high up as he was. The forest just looked like a lumpy, green field. Then there was a shade of green that was different. The clearing! He could see it below him, so he dived at it, preparing for a touch and go.
Although pegasi had no airspeed indicator, they still had a good sense as to how fast they were going. But Valkyrie had lost all sense of speed. Am I lost in the moment? He literally could not tell how fast he was going. Something was wrong. Wind was picking up as he got lower down, crosswinds swept him off course. It became more and more difficult for him to correct his course for the clearing. Valkyrie had to correct his course, but simultaneously slow down. He twisted his wings around, facing their leading edges horizontal, away from the front of him, to touch and go as quickly as possible without getting injured. He thought he must have miscalculated the change in position of his wings, or something like that. Whatever had happened caused him to start to fly, no, fall rapidly towards the ground in a corkscrew motion. Valkyrie wanted to scream, but remained calm and tried to correct the corkscrew motion. He was able to return to level, straight flight within five seconds, not smashing into the clearing. If he had, it would probably have killed him.
After regaining level flight, he looked around to regain situational awareness. It was strange. He must have gone way off course when trying to correct his erratic manoeuvres. Valkyrie found himself above the clouds, the clean blue sky was the only thing above him. Clouds were not far below him, and they stretched and twisted from horizon to horizon. Some of them rising upwards like fluffy pillars.
He had no idea what altitude he was at. Which added to the strangeness even further because he never had any trouble feeling air pressure before. Valkyrie began to feel his limbs, or move his neck around to feel for any unexpected pains. While doing this, he noticed the clouds getting thicker, as though they were trying to smother him. It was then when he heard the noise. It was like nothing he had heard before, and it was getting louder. He looked around the clouds, trying to find where they were coming from. He found the direction the noise was coming from: 8 o'clock. He positioned his body to face it head on. Something was moving out there. Something was alive in the clouds.
Valkyrie was immersed in fear, but his curiosity made him hover in the same place. Then he saw it. The first thing he noticed was the thing had wings, which became more clear as it moved closer to him. The next thing he saw was it was trailing fire from it's left wing. Valkyrie realized, it was on fire. It screamed towards him. Valkyrie gasped at the size of the unidentifiable object in the clouds. As it got closer and clearer, he could see parts of it's skin had been ripped away. It was damaged.
His attention was drawn to the fact that it was headed straight for him. He tried to pull away, but his wings didn't seem to be strong enough to lift him away from the hover he was in. He struggled, groaning and panting. What was wrong?! By this time, it dangerously close to him, it was close enough for him to read 'USAF' on it. Then he remembered the title of the book he had read the night before. Then the crash happened.
He saw oddly-shaped pieces of metal and flesh get cleaved away as he scraped over the right wing. Feathers from his wing spewed everywhere. After that, an intense pain settled in. The pain was even worse than the time he had nearly broken his neck. The last thing he could recall seeing was the thing he had collided with was pitching down as more chunks fell off, and leaving a long trail of smoke into the clouds.
He found himself spiralling downwards, out of control. With the G-forces he was pulling, he saw blood spinning around him in circles. The blood was from the wound of his now-severed wing. Pegasi have an excellent perception of where the horizon is, but he now had no idea which way was up. Even while falling, the grey and white clouds seemed to go on forever. Correcting the spiral with his other wings will not have stopped him from falling, so that would have been hopeless.
Valkyrie was certain he was about to die in this mysterious airspace as he blacked out, then regained consciousness, then blacked out again. Everything was fleeting from him. All energy began to be displaced from his body, leaving only the matter to take it's turn to do the same.
The clouds cleared and the ground looked scarier than ever as it became more and more detailed the closer he got to it. The horizon spun and spun like a faulty gauge. He had now stopped trying to not fall. It was useless with only one wing. The only thing Valkyrie could do was accept his fate.
Then he hit the ground, painlessly.
