Soaring on Little Wings

by tom117z


21 - Higher Education

Cloudsdale Flight School, Some Years Later



The locker gave a notable metallic clang as Little Wing swung it shut, ensuring it was locked and all the contents safely tucked away inside. The hallways within the main Cloudsdale Flight School was bustling, teenage pegasi of various pastel colourations chatted loudly as they traversed the halls in many differing directions. Most were heading to the final class of the day, whatever that may be for each individual pegasus, but for Little Wing that was not the case.

For Little Wing, her final class for the day had been fortuitously cancelled. The teacher had apparently come down with a sudden case of the flu, and without a substitute available to take over the afternoon’s class was canned entirely. This meant that Little Wing could just go on home. Or not, as she had knowledge of a Wonderbolt practice ongoing within the city. She thought that might as well drop in.

As for the cancelled class, Little Wing would have had a history class run by an egghead bookhorse of a mare, her enthusiasm for the subject hindered by her natural monotone. The teacher would have to be at least the second most monotone mare Little Wing had ever met in her life, the first being a guest lecturer they had previously who also happened to be the elder sister of one of Rainbow Dash’s best friends.

Small world.

But that had been some time ago nevertheless, the lecture lost somewhere among the previous three years the thirteen-year-old mare had spent in the flight school, moving on to a higher form of education compared to that of the Junior Flight School before it.

Thirteen. The last time she had reached those numbers, she had died. That was something ever present in the back of her mind, and yet seemed so many lifetimes ago. It was, of course, in fact only one. But that didn’t stop the almost vague nature of it, the memory of staring down at Emma’s corpse before being accepted among her family with open hooves.

Little Wing shuddered at the image. Sometimes she wondered if all of that was just a dream, something produced from the trauma of being abandoned as a foal perhaps. Sometimes she also wondered if she was just crazy, imagining up a whole other life that never actually existed at all.

But not, she knew she wasn’t. That elusive alicorn had appeared before her twice since that fateful day, and what she remembered was far too real to be a dream. What was, had been. Her former species had even garnered a mention from her eldest sister, though only via second hoof information that itself came from Princess Twilight Sparkle. They were real. Earth was real. Emma was real. And now here she was again, a big one and a three dominating her age. Square one, and very much alive.

Emma stared into a slight reflection coming off of the locker, Little Wing staring right back at her.

“Little Wing?”

Little Wing jumped wildly as a hoof touched her shoulder, her feather’s standing on edge as she gave an indignant groan at the owner of said hoof. It was a very familiar and not so unwelcome pegasus holding more than a few textbooks underneath one of her wings.

“Misty! Don’t. Do. That!” Little Wing protested at the other mare’s sneaky antics. “I’d rather live past thirteen this time, thank you!”

“Uh, um, sorry about that…” Misty apologised with an embarrassed blush, but then blinked at the second part of her friend’s objection. “Uh… Huh? I have no idea what that means…”

Little Wing groaned. “Ugh, forget it. Are you heading off home?”

Misty considered the previous few awkward moments forgotten and locked away behind a mental lock and key. “Yup. With class cancelled, there’s no point to stay really.”

Misty Gust opened up her locker, conveniently right next to Little Wing’s, and began to load up her text books inside. They were regarding a variety of subjects from the mechanics of pegasus magic to those relevant to the very history class they would have had that afternoon.

“What about you?” Misty Gust asked. “Want to fly home together?”

“To a point,” Little Wing responded. “I’m heading to the Wonderbolt training grounds. I haven’t seen Scoots in action since she became a part of the main team. I really want to see her alongside Dash and Spitfire!”

“Oh, fair enough,” Misty replied. “I still can’t believe that Fleetfoot retired. You ever find out why?”

“Not a clue. Rainbow said it was for private reasons,” Little Wing explained. “She’ll be fine, and it gives Scootaloo her time to shine!”

“I’ll bet,” Misty said with a slight chuckle at her friend’s enthusiasm. “Well if you’re going there, I might go my own way too and head to the library. I need to do some extra studying for that test coming up.”

“You’re always studying for that test,” Little Wing retorted. “You could always come with me?”

“Tempting. But some ponies like to revise before committing to the examiner’s judgment.”

“I revise!”

Little Wing received a critical and knowing look from her best friend.

“…Sometimes,” Little Wing said less confidently. “I do fine! You just love to have your muzzle in a book.”

“I’ll make sure to drag you with me before the test some point.”

“That’s fine, it’s different when reading with you,” Little Wing stated. “Remember when we were foals?”

“Could I ever forget?” Misty replied, a small smile on her face. “But algebra is not Daring Do.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

“I could always get those Daring Do math books for foals if it’ll help…”

Little Wing gave Misty a deadpan glare. “One, just no. Two, those aren’t even canon so forget it.”

“You could always ask your parents to revise with you. Mine do.”

“Please, that stuff confuses them more then it does me half the time,” Little Wing retorted. “It isn’t exactly Rainbow’s strong suit either. Hm, maybe I should ask Scoots…”

“Yeah. Trust the special snowflake to rely on her overachieving NOT sister,” a stallion’s unwelcome voice called as it did on an unfortunately frequent basis. “So sad.”

Little Wing groaned, muttering to Misty: “Crap. Douche alert.”

“What was that?” Silver Breeze called over from his own locker, his buddies nearby. “Don’t talk behind other ponies’ backs!”

Little Wing rolled her eyes and ignored him, beginning to trot away with Misty Gust at her side. She, in true fashion, didn’t get far before being intercepted.

“Hey, don’t ignore me either!” Silver Breeze demanded. “Be rude to me and I’ll buck you head first into a storm cloud!”

Little Wing snorted, pointing towards her cutie mark. “Hey genius, remember what I got my cutie mark for? While you ran further than anypony else might I add?”

Silver Breeze growled, all but muzzle to muzzle with Little Wing. “I only went with everypony else, don’t lie about that!”

“Then get out of my face.”

“Then maybe you should be a little nicer to me, huh?”

“Me? Did I turn into a mirror?”

Misty nudged Little Wing. “Let’s just go. You wanted to watch Scootaloo, remember?”

Little Wing glanced at Misty. She gave a hesitant nod, and then began to move off once again. Silver Breeze did not move to follow this time, but tracked their movements with a disdain filled scowl.

“Yeah, go with your marefriend. Better for you that way.”

“Am I missing something?” Little Wing demanded to know, stopping and spinning on the spot part way down the corridor. “Because you’ve been a pain in my flank for ELEVEN years! Eleven! Do you get a kick out of this, or am I some sort of twisted outlet for some pent-up emotions? Maybe both? Simply put, what the hay is wrong with you!?”

Silver Breeze’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve been a perfect gentlecolt compared to what I could do. So, you might want to watch it.”

Little Wing snorted. “Yeah. Sure. News flash, I’m done with you. Bye.”

A couple of Silver Breeze’s friends couldn’t help but laugh at how their ringleader got shrugged off like he was nothing. A sharp glare in their direction cut that off, before turning back towards the departing mares. He was not done with them, especially not after that.

Not that Little Wing cared all that much, paying him little mind. She put Silver Breeze at the back of her mind, locked away next to Emma, and exited the school with Misty walking right alongside her.


Wonderbolt's Academy



The Wonderbolt Academy was located on a cleared away mountaintop high above the clouds. A large complex ran across one side of the clearing, while another held considerable space and a runway running along from end to end. It wasn’t too far a flight from where Cloudsdale was situated at the time, so it was simple of Little Wing to detour from the flight home and to the facility.

Normally ponies weren’t allowed to just come sightseeing to the training grounds, especially considering that rather than just being purely for show the Wonderbolts were also a special branch of the EUP. Exceptions were usually made to family, however. At least it had been while under the command of Captain Spitfire. And since Little Wing was already quite well known to all those working in the Wonderbolts, the various personnel around the site didn’t think much as to her arrival.

Little Wing had to wonder if the same would be true in less peaceful times. But on the flip side of the bit she couldn’t really recall any prolonged conflict with another nation that wasn’t a thousand years past. The changeling invasion was before her time, but had lasted a mere afternoon. The closest thing she could think of was the Storm King, and even that only lasted a couple days.

Little Wing decided not to think about it too much, and thank her lucky stars war was such a foreign concept for Equestria.

Little Wing could already see the various Wonderbolts out in the open skies, deep into their practice routine. The teenage mare decided to stop mid-air for a moment and just watch from a distance.

“Crash, manoeuvre Alpha Six!” Spitfire roared out against the g-forces, ensuring her underling heard her order.

“On it!” Rainbow Dash confirmed, doing a stylish one hundred and eighty degrees turn and speeding off towards a set of three set up clouds.

Rainbow Dash stormed on through the three clouds as if they weren’t even there, three of the other Wonderbolts coming in from the opposite direction. Scootaloo, Surprise and Soarin shot back up through the three newly created rings with a glass shattering boom before splitting up into three different directions upon exiting the final ring.

All the while, Spitfire was watching them from above. Her gaze, as always, was extremely critical.

“Alright, not bad,” Spitfire stated as the other four assembled in front of her. “But there’s room for improvement. It could be flashier. And we also need to work on your synchronised flying, Flutaloo.”

Scootaloo saluted. “Yes ma’am!”

Spitfire nodded. “Alright, take a break. We’ll start again shortly, be ready.”

With that, Spitfire shot off back towards the academy. Surprise followed on quickly, though Soarin turned back to Rainbow Dash.

“You coming, Dash?” Soarin asked, winking at the mare.

Rainbow blushed. “Uh, I think so? I mean, yes! Coming.”

Soarin chuckled. “Alright, don’t take too long.”

Soarin then followed on after the other two, leaving just the two mares behind.

Scootaloo gave Rainbow an odd look. “If you wait any longer to do it, you’ll be an old mare.”

“Huh? Wait for what?” Rainbow Dash replied defensively.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Forget it.”

“I already have. You coming?”

“Yeah, I- Hang on a second…” Scootaloo tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder as she made to fly off, pointing towards an open patch of sky nearby.

They both saw Little Wing waving happily at them from a short distance away.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo glanced at each other, before flapping their wings and quickly making their way over to their little sister. Little Wing stopped her waving as the two Wonderbolts approached, though her smile didn’t let up even for a moment.

“Hey guys! What’s up?”

“Wing? Shouldn’t you be in school?” Rainbow Dash asked carefully.

Little Wing shrugged. “Last class got cancelled, and I wanted to see how Scootaloo was getting on with the other coolest ponies in Equestria! Speaking of… Flutaloo?”

Scootaloo chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, uh… It’s my nickname. First session I got so nervous I couldn’t do much talking, and when I tried what came out ended up sounding like the whistles of a flute. So, you know… Flute and Scootaloo…”

“Flutaloo, right…” Little Wing deadpanned. “When I join the ‘bolts, will I have to have such a dumb nickname?”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “Not if you don’t mess up on your first day.”

“You would be the first,” Scootaloo added with a knowing smirk.

Oh yeah, she was definitely getting a nickname down the road.

“So, while we scheme what to name you,” Rainbow Dash said with a devious smirk. “You’re welcome to watch the rest of the session, Wing. Maybe you could pick up a few pointers of what to do when it’s your turn!”

“And what not to do, sometimes,” Scootaloo added in.

Little Wing nodded. “Sounds awesome! Count me in!”

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Alright then! Come on you two, let’s head back down.”

So the three sisters gave a flap of their powerful wings and soared down onto the academy below. Soon enough Spitfire would send her team back into a variety of drills to enhance their flight performance, Little Wing watching on in complete wonderment.

She would be up there one day, flying alongside both Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. And nopony would stop her.