//------------------------------// // Hooves, Talons, and Wings // Story: This One Time, At Flight Camp... // by theRedBrony //------------------------------// Author's Note: Sorry I took so long, writer's block and all that :P It was a long day at flight camp. We started out in the morning with a lesson on proper thundercloud handling procedures… LAME! The weather control stuff was always boring. But it was kinda funny when that little grey pony electrocuted herself. What? She was OK! And who knows, right? Maybe I'll use that weather crap someday. Maybe. Anyway we got to the fun stuff later. At the end of the day, me and Dash were out practicing loop-the-loops with all the other ponies. We just came out of a loop, perfectly sync'd with each other by the way, when we looked at each other for a second, mid-flight. Dash had that sneaky smirk on her face, and I probably did too. We both knew what the other was thinking. You, me, race. Right now. So instead of turning around and heading back to base, we kept flying. We didn't even stop to start the race officially, we just sped up. We didn't know where we were going, and we didn't care either. Those were the days, when we could just fly. Just enjoy it, ya know? We were pretty evenly matched. I was giving it my all. But now that I think back about it, and I hate to admit it, but she might have been going just a little bit easy on me. She always told me she did a sonic rainboom once, but I never really believed her. Even if she wasn't supersonic, I never did understand how she could be so fast with those tiny little wings. Anyway, we weren't going anywhere in particular, but we caught sight of a mountain peak off in the distance, we looked at each other, and agreed silently again. Talking at those speeds would be pretty useless anyway. That peak was our finish line. Dash started getting ahead of me. I flapped as hard and as strong as I could. I was straining so much, I had my teeth grit and my talons clenched. I had to catch up to her! My pride, my life, the reputation of all griffons was on the line! Yea, I know I'm exaggerating a bit here, but that's how I felt in the moment! Luckily, a couple of clouds were in her way, so she had to move around them. I was far enough to the side that those clouds didn't bother me. In the time it took for Dash to dodge the clouds, I caught up to her. She looked back and saw me right behind her, she gawked at me, obviously surprised to see me catching up, and looked forward again. We were almost there. I got ahead of her by just a feather, and when we finally got to the finish line I slowed down and landed gently on a rocky piece of mountain top. Dash came in too hot and slid on her hooves on the rocky ground before rolling head over hoof. She lazily sat down and didn't bother brushing herself off. Her coat was covered in dust from that sloppy landing. We both sat there panting for breath. The cold mountain air burned my throat, I was glad when I was finally breathing normal again, and I walked over to where Dash was sitting. "That was a close second, Dash," I said, nudging her in the shoulder. "WHAT?! NO WAY, I was first!" She looked ridiculously shocked. "Shyea right dude! I totally landed first!" "But I was HERE first!" She pointed a hoof to the ground. I gave her a dirty look she did the same back to me, still breathing hard. After a second or two we both smiled and just broke out laughing. It was one of those times when you laugh so hard, you cry, even if it's something stupid you're laughing at. I haven't had one of those in a while… When I was done wiping the tears from my eyes, I walked up next to Dash and said to her, "You're crazy dude." And I put my arm around her shoulders. She shivered a little bit. "What's wrong? You don't mind me touching you, do you?" I asked her. "What? No. I don't know, I just got the shivers when you did. I dunno why." Dash shrugged. "Oh, OK…" I think maybe my talons kinda freaked her out a little bit. I found out later that most ponies are kinda scared of them. Probably didn't help that we just had a fist… um… hoof? -fight a couple days before. We sat there together just looking at the scenery. There were a bunch of woods down there with splotches of grassy land, very green. Everything looked so small, I think we got higher up on the way to that mountain. I'm not big on mushy stuff like watching sunsets, but it's always nice to cool down after a good flight. Yes, the sun was setting, by the way. "I bet Mr. What's-his-face is gonna be pretty ticked that we just took off," I said. "Who, Mr. Thunderclouds? Yea…" She snickered, "He will. But I'll just tell him that big mean Gilda made me do it." "What? HEY!" Dash snickered and nudged me with a hoof. "I'm just messin' with ya Gilda!" "Ha ha. Good one, Dash." I put my arm back around her. I noticed she looked at the talon hanging over her shoulder. She looked back up at me with eyes like a little cub that did something wrong, and asked, "Hey Gilda?" "Yea Dash?" "What's it like having claws?" "Talons," I pointed out… literally. "You know what I mean…" She rolled her eyes at me. "Hmm, I dunno, I never really thought about it. I guess it's easy to grab stuff..." Even back then I knew I probably shouldn't mention killing little critters with these bad boys. "How do you do stuff with hooves, anyway?" "Just like this!" She reached up and ruffled my crest feathers. I looked up. "Ya don't say?" I took my arm off her shoulders and messed up her mane (more than it was already). She giggled and answered me, "I guess it IS a little hard to grab things…" She looked down and scooped up a stray rock from the ground with a hoof. "That didn't look so hard," I said, giving her a crooked smile, and pointing at the rock in her hoof. "Yea, yea. But don't even get me started on brushing my teeth!" "It can't be that bad…?" "It is! Stupid unicorns have it SOOO easy, they can just make stuff float around with their freaky magic!" She waved a hoof around in the air. "Yea… but the freaky unicorns can't fly." Dash looked at me with a little smirk, and I could see in her eyes, she knew exactly what I was thinking. "Race ya back to camp?" "Last one back is a gnarly dragon egg!"