Flying Machine

by TheCrazyAsian

First published

Twilight builds an airplane.

Twilight has always wanted to know what it was like to fly through the air, but sadly she was born a unicorn and not a pegasus. But what unicorns lack in wings they make up for in ingenuity. So Twilight decides to build a flying machine, but the rest of her friends aren't so enthusiastic about it.

Inspired by this quote "Now, somehow, in some new way, the sky seemed almost alien," by Lyndon B. Johnson. Though the quote pertains to space flight and not flight itself.

Stupid Door

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Flying Machine

By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A. Feasttalon

Chapter One: Stupid Door




"I've done it, I've done it", Twilight exclaims. Infront of her, what appears to be, several pieces of canvas stack on top of each other with a motor and propellor on the back. But she knew it wasn't just some fabric, no it was something more. It was a flying machine. Based on how it functioned she would call it an airplane.

The air part based on how it would soar through the air. The plane part because the canvas would be used as a plane to manipulate air pressure, so the device could cut through the sky. She then falls onto her back, from both excitement and exhaustion. She'd been up for the good part of three days trying to finish her device, and she had done it. She had finished her crazy contraption, despite what so many other ponies said about it.

"It couldn't be done", they said, "It's impossible". Well she had proved them wrong, at least theoretically. Based on her calculations she would be able to lift up to two ponies at a time into the air. No longer would earth ponies and unicorns be stuck to the ground, there would now be a machine that could match, and perhaps surpass, the flying ability of pegasi. She knew that this object would at least surpass hot-air balloons and the "Magic Wings" spell.

Now she could fly through the sky without exhausting herself with spells, and no longer being at the mercy of the wind in that glorified balloon. She wished she could just collapse there and sleep, or to stumble into her room in the main library. But there was no time to sleep, she had to test her airplane. That way she could show that it would also work in practice, but she would also need somepony else to be the second pony in order to prove her equations. She would show those neighsayers that Twilight Sparkle knows what she's doing.

Her checklist was in this order:

1. Design flying machines, check!

2. Run equations, check!

3. Build machines, check!

4. Come up with a catchy name, check!

5. Fly machine, prove equations

6. Become famous, submit article to Scientific Equestrian

So next up was, to fly the machine, with an extra test subject as to prove her calculations. Who should she choose, who should she choose. She started going through the list of her friends in her head, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were eliminated immediately, they can already fly they won't be interested. Rarity, no, she's still afraid of flying since the whole Best Young Flyer's Competition thing. Pinkie Pie, no, she'll probably break it. That just leaves Applejack. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

At this point the purple mare bolted upright and open the door to her shed. She then tried getting the airplane out of the shed by using her magic to levitate it out the door, but she discovered that the door was smaller than the plane. After all of her planning she never thought of how large the contraption would be. "Uhhhhh", she complained, "Why did I have to make the door so small". Time for plan B.

Twilight went over to her tool board, there were all of her tools, neatly hung and labeled. Hacksaw, hacksaw, where was her hacksaw! She panicked, how was it that she had lost her hacksaw, this was terrible. She glanced around, desperately trying to find it. She was pacing around in a circle thinking, "WHAT AM I GOING TO DO I LOST MY HACKSAW!!". She continued this for about five more minutes, at that point she looked up for a moment and found her hacksaw. safely stored on the board, only it was in the space for the circular saw.

Now that she had found her saw she began to think of how she was going to saw her way out of this. She eventually decided to start on the left side on the top, then the right, then to use her magic to rip the top edge of the door off. She levitated the hacksaw with her magic, then she began sawing down from the top of the left side of the door. It made it's way down through the wooden planks, but at a speed that was painfully slow. It took her about 15 nerve-wraking minutes to cut through the left side, knowing that at any time the saw could break.

Thankfully it did not, and then she started with the right side. Like the left, the right side went without any major problems. Now that both sides were separated from the left and right walls of the shed she started using her magic to break the top of the door. She focused and used all her energy to try and break the top of the door. '

The door started to glow purple and let out some sounds that most people would be concerned about, many loud thwacks and cracks filled the air. She now realized that she could have just used her magic to break all three sides of the door instead of panicking over a hacksaw. Several exhausting moments later she was able to break a large hole into the side of her new shed, big deal, she could just build a new one.

At this point it was more important to her to get her new invention out to Sweet Apple Acres so she could see if it would really be able to work. She knew the perfect place to test it out, the old field at the south side of their property. It had a nice slope where she would be able to launch the plance up at an angle. It was all coming together nicely.

Her walk to Sweet Apple Acres would not be an easy one, she would have to walk through all of Ponyville. Everything will pose a threat, anything from the side of the building to Pinkie Pie's party cannon, which was being used more often for some strange reason. She levitated the airplane with her magic and began to walk outside. She had to hold it higher than her treehouse library as even one touch of it's branches could ruin the delicate canvas. Her exhaustion didn't make moving the machine through the dangerous maze any easier.

End Chapter One