//------------------------------// // 15 - Onwards and Upwards // Story: Soaring on Little Wings // by tom117z //------------------------------// Cloudsdale, Two Years and Three Months Later “Little Wing, it’s time for school!” Windy Whistles shouted up from the bottom of the stairs. “Okay, be there in a minute!” Little Wing shouted back from her bedroom, the four year old filly scanning her room for her saddlebags. Little Wing grumbled to herself at the lack of success finding said saddlebags, looking everywhere from under her bed to among her toys. She tapped a hoof lightly, racking her brain in an attempt to remember exactly where she had left it the previous Friday in her excitement for the weekend to come. It was obviously not in her room, but she still had one more place to look. Little Wing trotted towards the doorway at one end of her room, a doorway that hadn’t been there for most of her second life. Rather, the doorway led into an extension to the house her parents made, the reasons for which could only make Little Wing roll her eyes. She rolled her eyes again when the door opened and some over dramatic music greeted her as a result, something her father has insisted added ‘character’ to the door. She wasn’t so sure that the door really needed the ‘added flavour’, or that the bits were at all well spent. The same went for the whole room in general, why did she even need a trophy room? A quick examination allowed the filly to quickly locate her target, the saddlebags sitting on the floor just next to a podium containing a trophy celebrating the start of Little Wing’s third year at Junior Flight School. One of many. Her parents had always been supportive to an… embarrassing degree, something Rainbow Dash had sympathised with greatly. But Little Wing swore that it had only increased in magnitude after the creation of the room in which she stood, or maybe it was just because she’d gotten older. And there were many more years to come until she finished Junior Flight School and that, Little Wing shuddered at the thought, meant many more pointless trophies. Pushing her parents’ overenthusiasm from her mind, she sauntered up to the saddle bags and quickly looked through them. Everything was where it should have been, no stray utensils she would have to hunt for within the dreaded chamber. Depositing her saddlebags onto her back, Little Wing made her retreat from the room and back into her own. With everything now in place, Little Wing was ready for whatever the day had to throw at her. “Little Wing, don’t make me come get you!” her father’s voice warned from downstairs. “Yes, I’m coming!” she responded, quickly making her way out of the bedroom and across the landing. On coming to the staircase she saw that both of her parents waiting for her at the bottom, wondering what had been taking her so long. “There you are,” Bow Hothoof said, giving her a beaming smile. “Get lost, kiddo?” “No, I was looking for my saddlebags,” Little Wing explained sheepishly. “They were in that room.” “That room? You mean your trophy room.” “Yeah, I guess,” she replied with a noncommittal shrug. “At least she found them, we should still be on time,” Windy Whistles stated. “Unless we want to just stand around and talk for hours on end.” Windy punctuated her point by opening the front door and gesturing for her husband and daughter to exit with an outstretched wing. They both got the message, and trotted on outside. Windy followed them out, closing the front door as she went. Little Wing could see a few other colts and fillies being escorted by their parents to the same location she herself was about to head to, and even one family who had a foal going to the Sky Dance Kindergarten. She missed it some days, particularly Mr Bright Spark. The Junior Flight School was so much larger than the kindergarten, it boggled her mind just thinking about how that could further increate to the main Cloudsdale Flight School. “Ready dear?” Windy Whistles enquired of her daughter, looking towards her expectantly. Little Wing gave her wings a happy ruffle in response. It may have just been a trip to the local school, something other colts and fillies found mundane and a chore, but it was something that Little Wing never grew tired of. She loved being a pegasus. With a sudden gust of wind being battered around outside the front of their house, the family of three left the cloud beneath their hooves behind and entered unrestricted flight. The kindergarten had always been in walking distance, which Little Wing HAD found mundane, but everything was better when flying was involved. Truly she was Rainbow Dash’s younger sister. Without a word they were then underway, Bow taking the lead while Windy Whistles flew alongside her daughter as the filly in question did her routine examination of the vast landscape rolling out around them. “So, how has school been lately?” Bow Hothoof asked from the front. “Anything interesting?” “You’re always asking that!” “Because I’m always interested,” he rebutted. “So, how has it been?” Little Wing relented. “Good, I guess. Danger Flight put a spider in Light Breeze’s mane…” “A spider?” Bow questioned. “How did one of those even get up here?” Little Wing shrugged, she hadn’t exactly been asking that particular question while watching the ongoing chaos in the classroom. “Your father pulled that trick on me once,” Windy Whistles mentioned ever so casually. “I almost bucked one of his teeth out as a result, quite by accident though I would add.” “How was I supposed to know you’d react like that?” Bow defended feebly. “That seems kinda mean,” Little Wing noted. “Oh don’t mind that,” Windy replied. “Your father was always a bit of a dork.” “Charming actually,” he remarked back at her. Windy giggled. “No, definitely a dork.” “If not charming, how did I win you over?” he asked. “Maybe I like dorks,” she countered. “You are so mean,” he replied with a laugh. “What about you, Little Wing, any colt strike you fancy?” Little Wing struck her tongue out in disgust. “Ew, colts are icky.” “Yes, she’s too young for that talk,” Windy rebutted her husband. “So behave.” Little Wing gave both her parents an odd look, before shaking her head and deciding to ignore the whole conversation. It wasn’t long after that until their destination came into view, the Junior Flight School sitting on a cloud sitting apart from the majority of Cloudsdale while being connected via a few bridges for those who decided to walk for one reason or another. The main Cloudsdale Flight School was apparently much the same, but Little Wing had yet to see it. Either way, the school day was about to begin. “There you are!” Misty Gust happily announced as she fell into step beside Little Wing, the two of them walking through one of the school’s corridors. There were many other children, and teachers, walking past them to and from various other rooms. There were fillies and colts their age all over the place, but equally there was plenty of students far older than them, ranging all the way up to eleven years old and preparing themselves for the move to the main flight school by the end of the school year. After that those older fillies and colts would remain at the main flight school until they were sixteen, then leaving at that age to pursue whatever goals and dreams they had. Little Wing had all that to come, but it was a long way off. “Hi Misty!” Little Wing greeted in return. “Heading to class?” “Where else would I be going?” she asked rhetorically. “What was our subject for the morning again?” “Science,” Little Wing replied. “Anatomy, I think.” “Anatomy,” Misty parroted. “Sounds yuck.” “I thought you liked learning new things?” Little Wing asked mirthfully. “I don’t want to dissect a frog!” “What about a parasprite?” “No! They’re cute.” Little Wing gave her friend a side glance. “Cute? My sister said they’re ‘annoying totally un-awesome bugs’.” “Have you seen a picture of one? They’re adorable little balls of fluff!” Misty argued back. “They ate Ponyville once.” “Huh? How could a little thing like that eat a town?” Little Wing shrugged. “Dunno. That’s just what Rainbow Dash said.” “Right, well… Maybe Rainbow Dash was pulling your leg?” Little Wing gasped, appalled by the very notion that her elder sister and idol would ever do such a thing. “She would not!” “Well I thought that elder sisters were supposed to make fun of their little sister.” Little Wing puffed up her cheeks. “How would you know? You don’t have a sister.” “I read!” Misty rebuked with a pout. “Well… not all books are that good anyway,” Little Wing stated, even if her best friend wasn’t entirely, or at all, wrong. “Don’t say that, the Princess of Friendship might hear you!” Misty warned worriedly. “I heard some of the older kids saying that if you are mean to lit- liter- books that she’ll find out and punish you.” Little Wing snorted. “Please, I’ve met her. She’s not that terrifying.” “But they also said she might send you to the moon!” “You hear the weirdest things,” Little Wing noted, giving her friend an unconvinced look. Now it was Misty’s turn to puff up her cheeks. “Well if you get sent to book prison, I’m not to blame!” With that in mind, the two fillies finally made it to their classroom. Most of the other fillies and colts were already at their seats, some leaning on their desks with a bored expression while others chatted amongst themselves. The previously mentioned Danger Flight and Light Breeze were present, the latter scowling darkly at the unrepentant colt. And then there was Silver Breeze and his little friendship group, who Little Wing just couldn’t seem to get rid of. Luckily, he was located at the back of the class while Little Wing and Misty Gust sat next to each other at the front. Little Wing cantered up to her own desk, setting her saddlebags temporarily onto her chair as she opened her desk up to deposit a few things inside. She frowned at what greeted her, being rather unexpected but more of an irritant over the likely reaction it was intended to create; inside the desk sat a spider, likely the same spider Danger Flight had used, but the sticky note reading ‘for the meat eater’ suggested said spider had been acquired and placed there by another individual. Little Wing groaned, letting the spider harmlessly crawl up into her hoof as she walked up to one of the windows in the classroom. She opened it up a crack, allowing the spider to climb off of her hoof and cling to the wall outside. She then closed the window, leaving the spider to its own devices as she grabbed the note and threw it into the bin. Little Wing returned to her desk, not failing to notice the glare of disappointment Silver Breeze was directing at her. She finished sorting out her utensils, then packing her saddlebags up and sitting in her seat. “What was that about?” Misty asked, leaning over to Little Wing from her own seat. “Nothing,” Little Wing lied. “It was Silver Breeze, wasn’t it?” she correctly guessed. Little Wing didn’t answer, instead seeing the teacher enter the classroom and simply electing to wait for the lesson to start. The teacher for that particular lesson was a pegasus mare with a blue coat, a brown mane and spectacles covering her light green eyes. After calling the class into order, she produced several rather simple diagrams depicting the anatomy of the various pony sub-species. Earth ponies, unicorn, pegasi, thestrals and even a diagram of an alicorn. The lesson dragged on, though eventually reached its conclusion. As did the next, and then the one after that too. The fourth and final lesson of the day, however, was flight practice. It was, by quite a few miles, Little Wing’s favourite lesson of them all. The teacher was a pegasus stallion with an orange coat and a yellow mane, a whistle hung around his neck and his attitude was always quite gruff and serious. Word was he used to be a member of the EUP, retiring and then choosing to teach the next generation of young fliers. It certainly fit the militaristic profile he had for himself. Saying that, however, Little Wing wouldn’t have called him harsh. He knew full well he was dealing with a bunch of kids, and knew how to not go overboard. That lesson was spent conducting various exercises designed to increase the strength of a pegasus’ wings. Little Wing was harldy a wiz when it came to things like mathematics, unlike Misty Gust, but it was here she was in her element. Her declaration to Bright Spark a couple years previously never had been forgotten by the filly. And then that lesson too came to an end, bringing with it the conclusion of another school day. Before they were dismissed, however, the teacher gathered them up for some kind of announcement. “What do you think it is?” Misty asked her friend, she and Little Wing gathered with the rest of the colts and fillies. “You don’t think it’s anything bad, do you?” “I hope not,” Little Wing responded as the teacher began to talk. “Let’s listen and find out.” “Alright children,” the teacher addressed the group. “I have a special announcement from the headmaster and the school faculty. One week today, a special guest from the Wonderbolts shall be coming to our school to give you all a talk about their group and in general about flight as a career. They will be discussing the Wonderbolts, various weather teams around Equestria as well as some other matters, and the whole school is to be in attendance in the main assembly hall.” Murmurs spread throughout the group of colts and fillies. Most couldn’t care less about the talk, but were more excited at the prospect of meeting a Wonderbolt. “Who is the Wonderbolt?” one of the colts asked the teacher. “I believe we have two mares coming over. One of the Wonderbolt’s main team, Rainbow Dash, and her protégé. Some sixteen year old by the name of Scootaloo.” Little Wing couldn’t supress a squee.