//------------------------------//
// Flying Lessons 
// Story: On Lightning's Wings 
// by Seawolf 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia and head librarian to the Golden Oaks Library wasn’t really a morning pony and that Spike wasn’t really a morning Dragon either. Still needless to say, they were a little shocked when Sapphire staggered into the room like a zombie muttering one thing. “I need coffee.”

“Morning Sapphire,” Twilight said in a groggy tone.

“Morning Twilight, Morning Mr. Dragon. God, where do you keep the coffee?” Sapphire groaned.

“First, my name isn’t Mr. Dragon, it’s Spike! Here I’ll pour you a mug. You don’t look well, you alright?” Spike, asked.

“Just give me a cup of coffee and a bagel if possible and I’ll be good,” Sapphire grunted.

“Okay,” Spike said with a yawn.

Without further ado, Sapphire sat down heavily on a stool, nearly overbalanced, and fell flat on her back. Or she would’ve had Twilight not caught her with her magic. “Thanks, I hate morning blues. What day is it today?” Sapphire asked bleary eyed as Spike poured a steaming hot cup of coffee and grabbed a bagel and put it on a plate before giving both to Sapphire.

“Monday,” Twilight said.

“That explains why I am still half asleep, I hate Mondays,” Sapphire grunted.

“Who doesn’t?” Spike asked.

“Exactly,” Sapphire replied before taking a sip of her coffee.

“So how did you sleep?” Twilight asked.

“I had the strangest nightmare/dream that I’ve ever had. As in on a scale from one to ten it was probably about a twenty,” Sapphire groaned.

“Let me guess. Princess Luna visited you in your dream?” Twilight asked.

“How did you know?” Sapphire asked, still groggy but her voice sharp and clear, somehow.

“Princess Luna has visited me in my nightmares on occasion. Now that I think about it. She’s probably protected every single pony in their nightmares at least once,” Twilight said.

“Huh, go figure. Still, it was a strange dream,” Sapphire mused, taking another sip of coffee.

“What happened in the dream you had?” Spike asked.

“Trust me, it started off rather bland, then got incredibly scary, then it sort of turned surreal, before just becoming sad,” Sapphire grunted.

“Sad? Sad how?” Twilight asked.

“Mainly because one sorrowful song was playing the background, behind these five tombstones was an American Flag at half-mast, while those five tombstones, had the name and rank of my fallen squadron mates.” Sapphire said looking down.

“Oh,” Twilight said in understanding.

“Still, thanks Twilight for having me over. Don’t know where I would’ve slept otherwise,” Sapphire said as she took a bite of bagel.

“No problem. But I do remember hearing a thud shortly after I went to bed. I take it you likely fell off the bed?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Sapphire said blushing.

“Happens to all of us sometimes during nightmares,” Spike said.

“Point. Still I got an interesting day ahead of me today. I mean I got flying lessons, got to work on a house design, gonna get a tour of the town, and who knows what else!” Sapphire said.

“You don’t say. However, I got to ask. What the hell was up with that stance that you had when you walked in?” Spike asked.

“What do you mean?” Sapphire asked confused.

“You walked in, walking on your hind legs only.” Twilight said and Sapphire promptly face hoofed.

“I knew I was feeling a little awkward while following my nose to breakfast. Goddamnit, I can’t really function without coffee in the morning. I mean I can, but not very effectively.” Sapphire groaned.

Everyone blinked.

“That normal for you Sapphire?” Spike asked.

“What do you mean by that?” Sapphire replied before taking a sip of coffee.

“Oh, you know…” Spike began.

“Being practically a zombie in the morning when you don’t have coffee, yes it’s true,” Sapphire deadpanned.

Everyone at the kitchen table laughed.

“So, Sapphire have you thought of any designs for your place?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, a few ideas. But the main one I am thinking about is nice and simple; with a lovely loft design as it would give me lots of flying room,” Sapphire said looking thoughtful.

“Oh? What’s the basic house design?” Twilight asked.

“It would likely be easier if I could draw it out. If only I knew how though,” Sapphire said.

“I can imagine, I’ll be more than willing to show you,” Twilight said.

“Thanks,” Sapphire said.






Thirty-minutes later, after taking a hot shower and making her bed, Sapphire was sitting with Twilight. Between them was a table with a large piece of paper as well as a pencil. “Alright, since you're a pegasus, you don’t have access to levitation magic like unicorns do. You have two different options for manipulating items. Well technically it’s three, but as a rule of thumb for pegasi, you don’t want to use your wings to manipulate items, it’s not good for them. Which means you have your hooves and your teeth primarily,” Twilight said in a teaching tone.

“Alright,” Sapphire said, nodding in understanding.

“Now then, how do you want to start?” Twilight asked.

Sapphire thought about it. The idea of using my teeth to manipulate objects is a unique prospect. But the idea of using my hands, dammit Lisa they are called hooves; would likely be better. Less awkward.

“Let’s start with using my hooves first. It’ll probably be less awkward,” Sapphire said.

“Fine by me. Alright, first let’s focus on finer motor control, you seem to have a firm grasp at being able to pick up stuff like coffee mugs. Then again, once you get past a certain age, that sort of thing just seems to become ingrained,” Twilight said.

Sapphire laughed out loud. “I can agree on that,” she said.

Thus the next fifteen minutes were focused on just picking items up and manipulating them. At first it was difficult and a couple of times Sapphire swore sharply, introducing Twilight to several new curse words, including a certain four letter one that made the unicorn admonish the pegasus sharply.

Then finally success. “Alright, come on you bastard. Come on,” Sapphire muttered, trying to get her hoof under the pencil. Suddenly, her hoof slipped underneath the pencil and she succeeded in picking it up. For several long moments Sapphire simply stared at the pencil she was now holding in her hoof.

“WOOHOO! I did it!” She cheered at the sight and Twilight smiled slightly.

“Good job Sapphire,”

“Thanks, it was tricker than I thought it would be. I mean I was easily able to grasp that mug,” Sapphire said looking at Twilight.

“Probably because the mug was more or less designed to be held in hooves. Probably because, well, most ponies that I’ve met tend to be a little nonfunctional in the morning after waking up,” Twilight replied.

“Yeah, anyway. Here’s the idea that I got. It’s modest in my opinion,” Sapphire said she began, with some difficulty to sketch out a design. It had only two flat walls, on the exterior, one on the front and one on the back, while between that were curved sections that formed both the exterior walls and roof.

“Wow, that is modest, but why would you want to live in a house like that?” Twilight asked looking at it.

“I am, well I was in the military however it wasn’t any Equis Military, but if I have too I will fight again for freedom, liberty, and equality. Anyway, this building was actually a type of prefabricated structure that the military used. It could be built without the use of experienced labor and served in all sorts of roles from barracks to latrines. You could say that it’s just my way of wanting to maintain connections to my old life,” Sapphire said as she looked nostalgic.

“I can understand that. But how was your old home different from Equestria?” Twilight asked.

“Very different from Equis, one of the main differences being the name, my homeworld you could say is called Earth. Plus it’s not the only difference either other differences include that there is only one dominant species, Humans, also there was many different nations, each with their own government, well most of them did a couple, particularly in the Balkan Peninsula and Africa there is no government because they either collapsed or have so little actual power it's not even funny; those areas are known as “Lawless Zones”. I was a member of the armed forces, to be specific the Air Force for a nation known as The United States of America or just The United States or U.S.A or U.S. as it was also known,” Sapphire said her eyes gaining a nostalgic look with her tone becoming the same.

“How many nations were there on Earth? Here in Equis there's Equestria, the Griffon Empire, the Minotaur Lands, and the Changeling Kingdom,” Twilight said.

“Let’s see, last time I checked there was 174 countries in the United Nations. Each one was different and unique, having its own culture and heritage. So it’s certainly a lot more diverse,” Sapphire said.

“That’s interesting, but is there anything special about the United States?” Twilight asked and her ears drooped when Sapphire laughed.

“I could be here for a couple of hours telling you what’s special about the United States. The U.S. has been an independent nation for 244 years, since the year 1776, won the ensuing war for independence against Great Britain in the year 1781 which at the time was the strongest nation in the world. Just thirteen small colonies won a rebellion, with really only receiving aid from the nation of France after a decisive victory near a town called Saratoga. Now one of the things that the United States pioneered was that it recognized individual rights, rule of law, and separation of powers. But since it’s been years since I’ve reviewed that sort of stuff, I can’t really explain more in-depth about those things; but then again I am was a fighter pilot not a politician or a historian on the United States government for that matter,” Sapphire said.

Twilight looked thoughtful before continuing. “First you mentioned fighting for freedom, liberty, and equality earlier why would you fight for that?” She asked.

“All men and women are created equal, there is no such thing as a second class citizen in the United States or anywhere for that matter, the liberties are the various civil liberties that you have, and the freedom is the fact that you're born free and you can’t be born into slavery however it also is stuff such as Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and Freedom of Religion. But the cost of that has been high, very high. But Freedom, Liberty, and Equality they are worth fighting and dying for, as for why? They are values that are always worth fighting for,” Sapphire said her tone sorrowful.

“The way you spoke, it sounded like you were remembering fallen brothers and sisters,” Twilight said, looking at Sapphire.

Sapphire smiled in a melancholy way. “It’s because I am. When you join the military, you join a family thousands strong. A family that’s not of blood, but one that’s formed through traditions, oaths, grueling training, ordeals, and trials of fire. You feel a special connection to them no matter where you are,” She said.

“Wow, that was kind of deep,” Twilight said looking at Sapphire.

“Yeah, but I failed my closest military family members: my squadron mates. I should’ve died with them over Canada, but instead I was granted a reprieve a second chance on life. A second chance I feel like I didn’t deserve,” Sapphire said, her tone turning even more sorrowful.

“You shouldn’t. How would they feel if they saw how you're taking surviving while they died?” Twilight asked.

“Not well, but it’s a type of Survivor’s Guilt. It’ll probably go away in time but it’ll take awhile,” Sapphire said.

“Oh,” Twilight said.

“Don’t fret about me. I’ll just have to deal with my inner demons and such personally,” Sapphire said leaning back into the chair.

“Sapphire it’s not good for you to be dealing with this on your own. You have to have friends, somepony that you can stand on for support when needed,” Twilight  said.

“True, but I am just worried that if I become friends with you and your friends, and then something unexpected and bad were to happen … well you get the idea,” Sapphire said.

There it was out in the open. Twilight’s ears drooped and her eyes widened with shock. Did Sapphire seriously believe that due to the loss she had gone through that she now wished to distance herself from making any friends?

“But Sapphire, here in Equestria the most powerful magic of all is friendship. So why are you pushing that away, if there’s any magic in Equestria that can help with your mental wounds it’s the magic of friendship,” Twilight said shocked.

Sapphire’s voice turned bitter. “Last time I made friends and acquaintances. I was utterly helpless to prevent their deaths and they weren’t peaceful deaths either. If it had been on a hospital bed with me by their side, I would’ve been shaken and saddened but I would be willing to make new friends. But all of my closest friends met their makers in the frigid skies over Canada and I didn’t when I should’ve met my maker,” She said.

Before Twilight could think of a response, there was a knock at the door. “I got it,” Spike said.

Sapphire had to admit that while Spike was an honest to god dragon, something that Jake would’ve been head-over-heels for, it was also a little strange to see. Of course, now that she thought about it, this whole situation was strange.

“Hey Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy,” Spike said and the two pegasi walked in.

“Hey Twilight,” they both greeted as they walked in.

“Hi girls!” Twilight said.

“Hello,” Sapphire greeted.

“Hey Twil and Sapph. What are you working on, Sapph?” Rainbow asked.

“Just a basic design for my place. It’s not much, but I like it mainly because it’s simple and utilitarian,” Sapphire said.

Rainbow flapped her wings and took off and began to hover over Sapphire’s shoulder as she looked at it. “I can see why you called the design simple and utilitarian. But it can get absolutely freezing here in Ponyville, so I would recommend adding a fireplace,” Rainbow said looking at the design.

“Thanks, because these things back home, well they don’t come with fireplaces and despite being fairly well insulated they could get it well let’s just say I would prefer to wear a jacket inside,” Sapphire said with a barking laugh as she added a chimney.

“Wow, who would build a building like that?” Fluttershy asked.

“The military, naturally,” Sapphire deadpanned.

“I think it looks nice, it’s unique,” Fluttershy said.

“Thank you, I wasn’t aiming for it to be unique though. But I guess it was because I was hoping to have things to remind me of home, although Quonset huts don’t come in two-story, loft type layouts. Nor do they have a fireplace. Now that I think about it, I never really thought about how it would look,” Sapphire said in a mildly amused tone.

“Go figure on that, still I’ll get to work on this,” Rainbow said before calmly rolling up the design and then went to fly out of the library, only to fly face first into the door jamb, actually succeeding in chipping the paint.

“Sonofa!/You alright?!” Sapphire and Twilight said in unison as they galloped over to the groaning pegasus.

“Ow, I thought your door was wider Twil,” Rainbow groaned as she stood up and shook her head.

“Shouldn’t you go and see a doctor? You clocked yourself pretty-” Sapphire started to say before she was cut off by Rainbow.

“No! Nononononono, I hate doctors, I am not going to the doctor!” she said before racing out the door and then taking flight off into the sky.

Sapphire looked at Fluttershy and Twilight. “Is she always like that?” she asked.

“Usually, although with her it’s typically trees that she tends to crashes into, she’s never to my knowledge crashed into a door jamb before,” Twilight said.

“Okay, thanks. But she seemed to flip out when I told her about taking her to a doctor what was up with that? If I conked myself like that, I’d be asking someone to help me to a medical office just to see if I have a concussion or not,” Sapphire said, slightly concerned.

“Rainbow doesn’t really like going to the doctor. I am not entirely sure why though,” Fluttershy said.

“Right, well I know I’d feel better once we get her to a doc for a checkup,” Sapphire said with a sigh.

“Rainbow is tougher than she looks. Last year she had pretty bad crash, broke a bone in her wing, as well as three ribs, plus she either cracked or bruised several others plus got a minor concussion out of it. Twilight how fast was she going again? I forget,” Fluttershy asked.

“Just a hair over I think it was 150 miles per hour. She was lucky, had she hit that tree branch dead on with her wing instead of just a glancing blow, it likely would’ve shattered most of the bones in it and would’ve resulted in a amputation. She suffered the wounds to her ribs and head came when she hit the ground. It wasn’t pleasant to watch,” Twilight said meekly.

“I can imagine. Any sort of crash involving flying of any sort always has exactly one setting and that’s ugly. Still, if she survived that crash and only got a minor concussion out of it then she should be okay,” Sapphire said, remembering when the news broadcast about Asiana flight 214 crashing.

“But you still want her to have a check up?” Twilight asked.

Sapphire sighed. “Yes, if only to be on the safe side,” she said.

Truth be told, neither Fluttershy nor Twilight could really argue with that logic. It made sense, being safe than sorry.

Twilight then smiled slightly. “Hey Sapphire ready to learn how to fly?” she asked.

Sapphire suddenly felt extremely nervous.






Thirty minutes later found Twilight and Fluttershy standing in a grass field outside of town, hovering above them was Rainbow Dash and standing a few feet away was a very nervous looking Sapphire.

They had decided that Fluttershy and Twilight would help with theory as well as taking off, hovering, and landing from a hover while Rainbow would handle the actual flying lessons.

“Can we please start with just simple hovering? You know what they say you got to crawl before you can run,” Sapphire said nervously, her tail flicking from side to side and causing her to glance at it. Damn the more she really thought about it, the more she realized that this was likely going to end so badly.

“Yeah,” Rainbow started. “But some also state that you have to gallop before you can walk.”

You, Rainbow Dash, and Tony Stark would likely get along quite well. Mainly because you both like to run headfirst into things without thinking, Sapphire thought sourly. “In some cases yes that would be the better but in this case it isn’t,” she said nervously.

“In this case that’s actually correct. It would be wiser to start simple,” Fluttershy said looking at Rainbow with a serious look.

“First can you explain how pegasus magic even works?” Sapphire asked expanding her wings for emphasis before folding them back up.

“I dunno, I didn’t really pay attention during the biology classes in school,” Rainbow said with a yawn.

“I can explain, but it gets rather complicated really fast, so please try and bear with me,” Twilight said.

“Probably can’t get more complicated quicker than trying to understand high school physics when dealing with atoms,” Sapphire deadpanned.

Twilight ignored her and continued. “Anyway, all species of pony, whether they are Earth ponies, unicorns, or pegasi have something called magic leylines. Think of it like the cardiovascular system; except instead of blood flowing through veins and arteries it’s magic that is flowing through them and they aren’t like veins or arteries but more like shallow channels,” Twilight said.

One question quickly came to Sapphire’s attention. “Is it possible to injure your leylines?” she asked.

Twilight blinked at the sudden question but nodded. “Yes and thaumaturgic injuries are usually very severe and life-threatening. For a unicorn it could mean that they could lose most of their magical powers they could cast through their horns or if the injury is severe enough may result in having the horn amputated, for Earth ponies it would mean greatly decreased magical strength and stamina, and lastly for pegasi it could mean a number of things from greatly reduced to flight stamina to never being able to fly again,” Twilight said and Sapphire nodded in understanding.

“Something tells me that thaum-thaumat-” Sapphire said trying to pronounce the complex word before giving up “that magic leyline injuries are extremely painful.”

“Very painful, I suffered one when I was a filly and it had me bedridden unable to even read a book or even talk for the better part of a week. All things considered, I was extremely lucky it could’ve been a lot worse,” Twilight admitted.

“Alright, note to self. Don’t do anything incredibly stupid that results in a magic system injury,” Sapphire mused.

“Anyway, for a pegasus. The natural thaumaturgic system is focused primarily along the spinal column and wings, with a few minor ley lines extending into the hooves to help cushion the impact from rough landings. Now, to help lighten the burden on the thaumaturgic system, the bones that comprise the skeletal system of pegasi are actually hollow to reduce weight. Another thing that’s different from other pony species is that the heart beats at a much higher speed when compared to unicorns and Earth ponies, also the lungs that pegasi have are not only more efficient than the ones that a unicorn or Earth pony have but they are also larger,” Twilight said.

“Twilight, not to sound rude or anything. But you're starting to sound like an Egghead, because about half of that went right over my head.” Sapphire then blinked and flattened her ears when Rainbow burst out laughing, while Fluttershy appeared to be giggling slightly, and Twilight had an amused expression on her face.

“Is something wrong?” she asked confused.

Twilight smiled slightly. “No, it’s just that, Rainbow usually calls me “Egghead” as a nickname.”

“Oh,” Sapphire said, blushing slightly. “Sorry about that. Anyway I how do we start with flying or at the very least hovering?” she asked.

“It’s rather simple. First spread out your wings to as far as you can,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright, that’s easy enough,” Sapphire said under her breath, expanding her wings.

“Now it gets a little complicated, but now focus on the air around you and then give your wings a couple of flaps while at the sametime willing yourself upward,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” Sapphire said, as she focused on the air around her. To her immense surprise she could actually see minor updrafts in the air around her and then she gave her wings an experimental flap and to her immense shock it felt like power surged through her and then she yelped as she gave a few more flaps and felt her hooves leave the ground, to be specific her forward hooves followed shortly by her back ones.

Wow this feels weird. Sapphire thought as she hoovered probably about a foot or so off the ground. “Alright, this is feeling a little weird but I think I can get used to it, now then how do I land?” Sapphire asked looking around and marvelling at the fact that she was actually hovering under her own power.

“It’s like taking off but in reverse, make sure that you have your legs out and not folded against your body otherwise it’ll be uncomfortable,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright here it goes,” Sapphire said before focusing on the air currents around her. She slowly willed herself down, but she still nearly fell when she landed slightly off balance.

“Nice job, now then let’s do that again but this time go a little higher,” Fluttershy said sounding excited.

Thus the next twenty minutes were simply doing takeoffs, followed by hovering, and then landings. At least until Sapphire lost track of how high she was going and wound up nearly sixty feet in the air. “Jesus!” she yelped in shock when she looked down and realized the she was much higher than she intended to be.

Fluttershy and Rainbow flew up next to her. “Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, just didn’t expect being able to go this high with simple hovering! Thank goodness I am not afraid of heights,” Sapphire answered looking around.

“Think you're ready to handle flying?” Rainbow asked.

“Probably can we take it slow though,” Sapphire replied looking thoughtful and more than a little nervous.

Fluttershy nodded and then descended to a lower altitude, followed shortly by Rainbow and Sapphire. “Right, so flying is more complicated than simply hovering. This is because unlike hovering where you are mostly relying on your magic to hold yourself into the air, when you are flying you have to control not only your magic usage, but also your center of gravity for balance, the quickness of your wing beats for speed, the angle of that you have your wings are at for climbing, and even usage of your tail for turning. Plus as you approach the sound barrier it gets a lot harder to stay in control,” Rainbow said calmly.

“Wow Rainbow, I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable on the finer points of flying,” an amused Twilight said with a smirk.

“What?! I am the best flier in Ponyville and the first pegasus in living memory to be able to do a sonic rainboom and I am hoping to become a member of the Wonderbolts someday! So I have to have the know-how on how pegasi fly.” Rainbow crossed her forehooves across her chest -or was it barrel?- and fixed Twilight with a look.

“Alright Rainbow, just surprised that’s all,” Twilight said holding a hoof up in a placating gesture.

“All of a sudden I got the feeling that I am likely going to have a couple crashes before I figure out how to fly straight,” Sapphire groaned as her ears flattened.

“Wouldn’t be surprising, all pegasi when they are learning to fly always crash a couple of times when they first begin,” Rainbow said.

“That’s comforting,” Sapphire deadpanned.

As it turns out, Rainbow was correct. The first time Sapphire tried to fly, she wound up pushing her center of gravity too far forward. That resulted in her somersaulting downward before Twilight managed to catch her with a Telekinetic spell. Then gently set her down on the ground.

“How do you feel, Sapph?” Rainbow asked.

“Dizzy,” she stated bluntly.

“That looked scary, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“It was scary, mainly because I have no clue how to get out of a head over heel, err, hoof tumble, but yes I am fine,” Sapphire said as she took deep breaths in attempt to get her bearings.

Rainbow shook her head. “My old flight instructor had this saying about head over hoof tumbles, he said that they were incredibly dangerous and are almost impossible to recover from and that unless you're close to the ground or have a fellow pegasus to catch you. Well the way he put it when talking about them was “Start tumbling in this gear, start praying.” and to be frank it’s true, the proper term for that thing is “Gravedigger somersault” because if you're high enough and nopony can catch you; well I am sure you can figure out the rest,” Rainbow said.

“Alright, I’ll remember that.” Sapphire shakily got to her hooves.

It took the better part of five more minutes before Sapphire was comfortable enough to try and fly again. “Right, remember when transitioning from a hover to level flight you want to shift your center of gravity forward slowly, while at the same time increasing how fast your wings are beating and bringing in your legs. We’ll focus on the complicated stuff later. Ready?” Rainbow asked once Sapphire was hovering.

“Ready!” Sapphire said.

“Alright, remember what you’ve been told and get flying!” Rainbow exclaimed.

With a carefulness that really showed that she was taking what she’d been told seriously, Sapphire slowly pitched forward while bringing her legs in against barrel and increasing how fast her wings were beating. With a feeling of forward motion she began to do it.

“Alright! You're doing great!” Rainbow cheered as she watched Sapphire fly for the first time.

“How does it feel?!” Twilight asked.

“Amazing, but girls, one question.” Sapphire said inquiry seeping into her voice.

“What’s the question?” Fluttershy asked.

“How do I turn?” Sapphire questioned sounding absolutely thrilled at the prospect of flying.

“Simple shift your center of gravity in the direction you want to go. Be careful to not-” Rainbow began before there was a sudden shout of alarm followed by a loud thud and a then pained groan. “Overdo it at low speeds and low altitude or you’ll stall and then faceplant into the dirt.”

Meanwhile Sapphire stood up and spat the dirt that had gotten in her mouth out and then shook her head to get the cobwebs out. “Right, that sucked. I guess I got too excited there,” Sapphire said in embarrassment.

“Happens to all of us at times.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Right, well I think that I can get turning down, but I would like to learn how to accelerate mainly because that would give me more energy to work with when turning. I can’t believe I forgot the adage “speed is life, energy is life insurance” and I wound up stalling like some nugget who was flying a plane for the first time!” Sapphire growled angrily face-hoofing.

Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy all looked at each other with confused looks. But while they didn’t understand some of the terminology they did understand the overall gist that Sapphire was making, she’d made a common rookie mistake.

“We all make mistakes. No need to get angry about it,” Fluttershy said with a slight smile.

“True.” Sapphire moved her wings up and down despite them being folded in the equal of a shrug. It was obvious that she was pissed but at herself but then she sighed.

“Ready to try again?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, you know what they say. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.” Wings expanding for emphasis and going into hover, Sapphire smiled slightly.

“That’s an interesting adage, alright let’s do this again. We can focus on turning after on learning to accelerate and decelerate,” Rainbow said.

Truth be told, over the course of the next four and half hours they found that while Sapphire had it made in the agility department, she struggled in the speed department and to make matters worse was below average in the acceleration department as well as rate of climb, the stress of not being able to improve in those areas started to get her. The fact that she had introduced herself to several trees Rainbow Dash style wasn’t helping matters at all.

“Ugh! Why the hell am I not improving?! We’ve been at this for hours, I would’ve expected at least a little improvement by now!” a peeved Sapphire ranted angrily.

“These things take time Sapphire, you must know that!” Rainbow said in a placating fashion.

“I know that, but it’s just while flying is a thrill, it takes forever to climb up to a decent altitude to fly. I have all of the climbing characteristics of a crippled whale and ugh, probably because of my poor acceleration I have a low top speed it’s just starting to get to me,” Sapphire groaned, still irritable.

“Ah, so you were hoping to see even just a little improvement by now? I guess that makes sense then. But every pegasus is different, still you’ll probably be showing improvement by the end of the week,” Twilight said in calm tone and Sapphire nodded.

“Look on the bright side though Sapph,” Rainbow said.

“What bright side?” Sapphire asked.

“I might be the fastest flyer in Ponyville, but your probably one of the most agile pegasi in all of Ponyville and thus that’s nothing to be ashamed of at all. So you may not be quick, but you're going to be a weather pony and thus speed really isn’t issue but agility like yours can be incredibly useful so don’t get down,” Rainbow said with a smile.

“Now when you put it that way, it makes a little sense. But I am sorry for snapping,” Sapphire said with a frown.

“It happens to us all, particularly if you’ve been training for the better part of a day but show no improvement, but I am certain that you will improve,” Fluttershy said, putting a comforting hoof on Sapphire’s shoulder before she could start pacing.

“Thanks, I guess. At least I can go high-subsonic so that’s not bad; biggest problem I have though is climbing at least I am good in the deceleration department.” Sapphire fixed Fluttershy with a grateful look.

“Yeah, you always want to look on the positive side of things and know that if you keep up at practicing you’ll improve,” Fluttershy replied.

That’s when Rainbow remembered something. “Hey Sapphire have you ever heard of the term B.N.P?” she asked.

“No I haven’t. What does it mean?” Sapphire asked, confusion spreading across her face.

“It means Bucking New Pony, even though you're joining the Ponyville Weather Team and they are some of the nicest ponies you’ll ever met, well you're still new around here and a new pony joining the Weather Team,” Rainbow stated.

“No, I am not familiar with that phrase but we got two such phrases back home. F.N.G and N.U.B. those two phrases mean Fucking New Guy and New Useless Bitch respectively but the gist is the same, it’s always directed towards the greenhorn. Been awhile since I’ve been a F.N.G but at least it’ll be a breath of fresh air, besides back home we didn’t really have weather control unless you’d count cloud seeding so it’ll probably be fun,” Sapphire said with a smile looking somewhat relieved, happy for the change of subject.

“Still, you’ve been doing great Sapphire. At any rate it’s always nice to have a some extra hooves on the weather team, particularly considering that winter starts in just a couple of weeks it means that we are going to be very busy getting both Ponyville and the surrounding area ready for winter,” Rainbow said looking thoughtful.

“Oh, okay so who’s currently on the Ponyville Weather Team and where do you meet?”

“Let’s see you got Bulk Biceps, Thunderlane, Helia, Blossomforth, Buddy, Honey Rays, and Jetstream. Although for major events like Winter Wrap-Up for example it’s an all hooves on deck affair and thus all pegasi, Earth ponies, unicorns, and on occasion even Zecora help with wrapping up winter and bringing in spring. As for where we meet, it’s by the town hall, usually just before dawn.” Rainbow said.

“So wait pegasi control all aspects of the weather here in Equestria?” Sapphire asked surprised.

“For the most part, the only exceptions being the towns and villages on the Southern Frontier, the reason being is that most of them have few if any pegasi living there, others being any sort of large area between towns and cities can allow for such weather to occur, and the other is the Everfree Forest,” Rainbow replied.

“Alright, the frontier towns I can sort of get unless something is discovered that causes ponies to flock to the frontier they probably won’t be getting that weather control for awhile. But why the Everfree Forest doesn’t make much sense,” Sapphire mused.

“Sapphire, in Equestria well the Everfree Forest is enigma. It’s so unnatural, the animals who live there involve some of the deadliest predators in all of Equis, not to mention they take care of themselves without help from ponies, and the clouds and weather systems move on their own!” The three Ponyvillians said in a rising tone.

In response Sapphire’s right ear twitched a few times and she had to suppress full blown laughter. “Oh great, the Everfree Forest is probably like Australia where it’s easier to list what can’t kill you then it is to list what can kill you. As for animals taking care of themselves and the clouds and even full blown weather systems moving on their own, well that’s normal back home. Unless of course the animals are in a Zoo or they are pets, but that’s different,” Sapphire said.

“Australia?” Twilight asked confused.

“Name of a continent and a nation back home. Don’t ask me why that’s so but lots of stuff that can kill you and rather effectively live there.” Sapphire shrugged, but her tone of voice said that she was dead serious.

“Well this got very interesting, were we just talking about why Sapphire was struggling to improve in certain areas with her flying to suddenly about various other things,” Fluttershy said in a curious tone.

“Don’t ask me how that happened. Still thanks for everything you’ve done today. It means alot to me,” Sapphire said with a smile.

“You deserve all help you can get, considering what you’ve been through. Just remember we are here for you.” Fluttershy smiled and gave Sapphire a warm look.

Sapphire while grateful was also worried, true today thus far had been one of learning, fun, excitement, as well as painful -hitting a tree at seventy miles per hour was not fun- it had also been rather sad due to thinking about her fallen comrades. One part of her wanted to make friends or at least have acquaintances but another part wished to distance herself from others so that if any of them died she wouldn’t suffer as much, because she’d gone through enough loss already.