//------------------------------//
// Look At Him Go! 
// Story: One Bolt, Many Questions 
// by Boltsinger 
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As the sun rose for another day in Ponyville, Spike was walking through the Castle of Friendship, calling out the name of the resident Princess. He had checked her bedroom, but she wasn't in there. She normally wasn't one to sleep in this late unless she had overworked herself, as she often does. However, the previous night, all that had happened was a party. Normally, after a party like that, she was so tired that she went straight to bed, making her absence from her room all the more confusing.
“Twiiiiliiiiiihgt!” Spike called, cupping his claws around his mouth. He looked in various doors, turning his head every which way. “Where has that pony gone to?”
Before too long, in the library, the Princess in question slowly got up, yawning and stretching. “Mmmmmm...” she began, still a little groggy. “What happened? Did I fall asleep in the library again?” She looked around, putting a hoof down and causing the stallion below her to wake up with a sharp exhale. Upon her realization of the situation, her eyes widened, and she bolted up into the air with a shrill scream.
Boltsinger, the stallion in question, screamed in kind and flew to a corner of the library.
“I'm sorry!” he shouted. He continued to apologize profusely while Twilight saw what was going on, and began fluttering back down towards the floor.
As the Alicorn landed, the door to the library swung open, with Spike running in at full speed. “TWILIGHT!” He screamed, running towards his first and best pony friend. “Are you okay?!”
Twilight lifted a foreleg, embracing the dragon as he came in for a hug. “I'm fine, Spike. I was just a little startled.” She directed her attention to the orange pony shuddering in the corner and apologizing repeatedly. “Boltsinger?”
The Pegasus kept apologizing.
“Boltsinger!” Twilight shouted. To her surprise, even after raising her voice, the pony she was talking to still didn't respond. He seemed to be in a panic. She closed her eyes and remembered Celestia's words to her once more, about how his 'problem' was far more than magical, and how Luna had sensed a kind of sorrow in him. She took a deep breath, placing a hoof at the base of her neck, and then extending her foreleg out, before trotting over to Boltsinger and placing a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, Boltsinger... It's okay! You haven't done anything wrong...”
The stallion's breathing began to slow, looking up at the pony that was talking to him, still breathing heavily. “Are you sure?” he asked. She nodded, smiling. “I... I swear... I didn't do anything...”
“Oh?” she started. “What exactly happened?”
Boltsinger slowly got up. “You practically fell asleep while you were walking, and you were falling over... Your head was about to hit the table, so I caught you, and then... Well...”
“Well...?” Spike added, looking at Boltsinger suspiciously.
“I fell asleep with you on top of me!” he quickly finished, covering his face with his wings.
Twilight laughed, closing her eyes and backing up a bit. “Well, thank you for being honest with me. Shall we have some breakfast?”
Boltsinger moved some feathers away from his eyes, looking again at the smiling pony. “Umm... Yeah! Breakfast sounds... good!” He moved his wings back into their resting position and perked up, and the two ponies walked with Spike towards the kitchen.





After a hearty breakfast, Twilight and Spike gathered up all of the dishes, leaving Boltsinger alone in the kitchen to ponder. It was then that the doors to the castle burst open. A rainbow streak flew in, stopping perfectly in the dining room. Out of the rainbow appeared Rainbow Dash, forelegs folded as she hovered in the air in front of Boltsinger, whose expression turned to surprise at the sudden appearance.
“ARE YOU READY?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“READY FOR WHAT?!” Boltsinger replied at the same volume.
“TRAINING!!!” the Pegasus mare answered.
“Wait, what?” the Pegasus stallion said, as if changing the beat. “What do you mean, 'training'?”
Rainbow landed on the floor, then sped over to her fellow winged pony. “Yeah! You were talking about how you don't have any control when you 'take off',” she explained, poking at his wings. “So I thought the best way for me to help would be to train you and make you an awesome flyer!” She sped in front of him, rearing up and spreading her wings.
“So, you mean, like... being used to going that fast?” the blue-maned pony wondered.
Rainbow Dash calmed down from her hype and walked back over to Boltsinger. “Something like that.”
“Well, I'm already at least accustom to moving at that kind of speed, kinda...” Boltsinger gestured in a flapping motion with his wings. “I mean, I've flown that fast for a long time. I just... can't make it happen myself.”
“Well, that's what we're gonna work on!” she said. “Listen, that wind you made yesterday was totally awesome! You've definitely got some strong wings on you, but you clearly don’t understand just how strong they are. So, maybe, if I helped you learn more than just the basics of flying, you might be able to get a handle on those babies!”
Boltsinger opened his mouth, lifting a hoof. After a bit of a pause, his voice finally came out. “Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh...” He droned. “You know, that makes sense. I never really tried to influence the way I flew when I took off like that.”
“All right!” Rainbow shouted. “So let's hit the fields!”
Boltsinger slapped his face with his wings to psyche himself up. “Right! Let's do this!!!” he yelled, spreading his wings and taking off. Rainbow smirked to herself, hunching over and taking off after him. In no time at all, she'd overtaken him.





The two Pegasi flew through Ponyville, Rainbow Dash speeding through with a rainbow streak following behind her, and Boltsinger moving about as fast as most average flyers, seeming to flutter more than what Rainbow Dash would call 'flying'. The onlookers of Ponyville all looked as the pair passed by, with Rainbow alerting them, whilst Boltsinger seemed to be caught in her turbulence half of the time.
Eventually, Boltsinger followed the rainbow streak to what looked like a racing track, where a small fan-like device was set up on the inside of the track. Rainbow Dash circled the track several times, creating a spiral until stopping above the center of the field, striking a suitably 'awesome' pose in the air just as her new trainee landed.
Boltsinger looked up at the display, seeing the streak that followed the Wonderbolt fizzle up behind her as she panted, the routine having filled her with adrenaline.
“Well, that was pretty awesome!” the stallion told her. “So... What do we do first?”
Rainbow Dash landed and trotted over to her new apprentice. “Okay, first, drop and give me wing-ups!”
“Wing-ups?” Boltsinger repeated.
“Yeah! Wing-ups!” She confirmed.
“How many?” He asked.
“'Till ya get tired!” she said. “I wanna see just how much stamina you've got! So you're gonna be doing wing-ups until your wings can't take anymore!”
“ALL RIGHT!” Boltsinger shouted, finding himself caught up in Rainbow's energy. He immediately dropped to the ground on the spot, extending his wings to the ground and holding his body up with them, pushing himself up repeatedly.
Rainbow stood back and watched the Pegasus before her doing the exercise she ordered so diligently. She swelled up with pride in her coaching ability, along with a tiny stroking of her ego. As he kept going, she bobbed her head with his motions. This kept going for an hour, bringing a dull ache to the cyan mare's neck, but Boltsinger just kept going like it was nothing. She sat down across the track from him, still watching. After a while, Applejack trotted up to the field with a bag tied to her neck, approaching her Pegasus friend.
“Howdy, Rainbow!” she greeted, taking a seat next to the cyan pony. “How's the trainin' goin'?”
“I've got him doing wing-ups right now,” she answered, resting her head on her forelegs. “I wanted to test his stamina, so I told him not to stop until his wings got tired, and that was three hours ago!” She gestured out at Boltsinger with her right foreleg. In that moment, her stomach started to growl out loud. “Did you bring any food?”
Applejack chuckled a bit and took the sack off her neck and laid it out. With a delightfully sweet aroma, she revealed a bushel of apples, along with a few fritters, and some slices of pie. “Y'all didn't think I'd come to yer little trainin' session unprepared, didja?”
“All right!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she began to dig into her portion of the food.
“Hey Bolt!” Applejack called out. “Ya hungry?”
Boltsinger shook his head. “No, I'm feeling fine!” he said. “But thank you! The food looks really tasty!”
The wing-up session continued. Boltsinger would push his body up with his wings again, and again, and again, over and over for a while. Rainbow Dash and Applejack watched as he kept it up. Eventually, the Pegasus mare's head fell into her forelegs, a telltale snore making her current state obvious. Applejack simply bobbed her head with the movement of the pony she was watching.
“Wow...” she began. “He's really goin' strong, ain't he?” Her head bobbed and wobbled on and on as the exercise continued. She packed up the used plates, putting them in the bag. As she stood, there was a stumblenin her steps, her legs nearly as asleep as her friend. “Hey! Yer food is still here if ya want it! I've gotta head on back to Sweet Apple Acres!”
Without skipping a beat, Boltsinger pushed himself up far enough that he could make a quick gesture with his wing and continue his exercise. “All right, thank you! Applejack, right?”
Applejack laughed. “Yep, that's right!” she affirmed, waving a hoof and walking off.
Another three hours passed, and the sky was beginning to turn orange with twilight. At that time, the pony named for the hour trotted up, her dragon assistant in tow.
“So this is where you went!” she said, walking up to the field between the two Pegasi. She looked at each of them with a cocked eyebrow. “Um... What's going on here?”
Boltsinger continued, completely undeterred. Twilight looked over at Spike.
“I got nothing.” the dragon shrugged. Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled, looking over at her sleeping friend.
The Alicorn trotted up to the passed out Pegasus. “Rainbow Dash!” She shouted, letting the force of her voice lift her off the ground a bi5.
The attempt worked, as Rainbow Dash's head shot up, looking around in multiple directions. “What?! Where? HOW?!”
Twilight placed a hoof on Rainbow's head, directing her gaze towards Boltsinger, who was still focused on his exercise. “What's going on?”
Rainbow Dash looked hard at the pony she was training. “Whoa...” She got up and cantered over to him to take a closer look. He had built up a bit of a sweat, but he was still going like it was nothing, showing almost no signs of fatigue in the moment. “Umm... Okay, you can stop now!”
Boltsinger directed his gaze up to the mare. “You sure? You said I should keep going until I got tired. I'm not really there yet.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, trying to keep a cool expression. “Yeah, I think after this much, I have an idea of how much stamina you've got to work with.”
Boltsinger placed his front hooves on the ground, finally letting his wings return to their resting position. “All right... Now where is that food?” he asked, looking around. “That pie looked amazi-” His gaze fell upon Twilight. “Oh! Hello, Princess Twilight!” He got up on all fours and trotted over to the lilac pony.
Twilight waved at Boltsinger with one of her wings. “Just Twilight is fine.”
“Oh... Well, all right, then... Twilight,” he finished, looking over at the food and licking his lips expectantly. “If you'll excuse me...” He dashed over to the treats that awaited him.
Twilight laughed to herself and turned towards Rainbow Dash. “So, what was going on? Why were you asleep?”
Rainbow Dash looked back and forth between Twilight and Boltsinger. “I thought I'd try to tackle that wing issue of his by giving him some personal Wonderbolt-style training!” she stated, spreading her wings and striking a pose. “I was gonna see how much stamina he had so that I could figure out just how far I could push him, so I had him do wing-ups until he got tired, buuut...”
“Buuut...?” Twilight repeated.
“He never got tired! He just kept going!” she finished, looking a little bewildered that she was even able to say such a thing. “Applejack came over and brought food for us, but he just powered right through lunch time, and I... fell asleep...”
“So... He was doing that one exercise for the entire day?” Spike asked, putting a claw to his chin.
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash answered. “He may not have much aerial skill yet, but that stallion has stamina for actual days!”
Twilight brought a hoof up to her own chin, looking puzzled as she looked over to Boltsinger, who had just finished his apple-heavy meal. He looked over at the Princess, still having some pie filling around his mouth, and swallowed his food, smiling softly and chuckling to himself.