Morning came, and I rubbed my eyes to clear my sight. I got to bed later than I wanted, what with all the excitement I had yesterday with the prospect of learning to fly. My sleep, however, was pockmarked with images of my mom’s face, tainted with an accusatory look, along with disappointment. Other shadowy figures made their presence known, but no words were said. Certain events in life replayed themselves in my mind’s eye, like when I found out my Dad was cheating on my Mom. I thought that what happened afterward was all my fault, like if I was a better son, then he wouldn’t have needed to find someone else for his life.
After my morning bathroom rituals were completed, I headed into the kitchen for breakfast. Spike smiled and nodded to me as he inquired about what I’d like. I offered a polite half smile in response and made myself a bowl of cereal, sat down at the table and assured him that this would be enough.
“So,” he began, “Today is the big day huh?”
“Hm?”
“Well, when you learn to fly. Twilight told me.”
“Oh.” I nodded with a mouth full of cereal, “Well, that’s the plan, right?”
“Yeah,” said Spike as he watched me eat. “Are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem kind of out of it.”
I sighed and moved away from my bowl, “Just a rough night is all.” I quickly glanced up at the clock that hung in the kitchen, “Oh hey look at the time. Gotta go don’t wanna be late.”
I could feel Spike’s gaze on me as I walked out of the kitchen and past the map room. I quietly nodded a good morning to Twilight as I passed her in the hall and made my way out the front door shutting it behind me. “Some mornings,” I muttered to myself knowing that I still had a good hour or so before I was due at Fluttershy’s.
It wasn’t until I was moving through Ponyville when I noticed that the wing where I plucked the feather from still felt a little sore, and I stretched it out to ease the tension. It caused me to frown a little, and I hoped it wouldn’t impact my flight much. I closed my eyes to try and clear my mind of the tension of last night’s sleep, which wasn’t helped by the smell of fresh grass and lilacs, which reminded me of some of the flowers in my mom’s garden before she got sick. On my way, I tried to frolic through the streets of Ponyville in an attempt to lighten my mood. I even stopped at SugarCube Corner for a muffin and a joke from Pinkie before continuing through town.
It wasn’t until I changed tactics to thinking about my upcoming flight lessons that I got out of my ‘funk’. I began to wonder about helping out at winter start up, but I wasn’t sure whether we were in the current season, so I made a mental note to ask Fluttershy when I get there.
As I trotted up to her house, I noticed Fluttershy feeding some of her bird friends on one side. For a brief moment, I stopped to watch her as she moved about gracefully. I made sure she knew I was coming, as I didn’t want to scare her.
“Morning, Fluttershy.” I yawned.
“Hello, Maverick. Umm..are you ready to begin, you look a little tired,” she said quietly, her pink hair framing her face in her own demure way.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I was just too excited last night for today and had trouble getting to sleep.” I shuffled my hooves in excitement.
“I can understand that, Maverick. As long as you can concentrate, we’ll be fine.”
“Do you think my wing will be ok after yesterday?” I asked and stretched out my wings to show her that I had properly preened and was prepared, minus one feather.
She took a look at where the missing feather came from, “Your wing looks fine, you shouldn’t have any trouble. Let’s go to the field over there, it’s soft in case you crash.”
“I had another question, I think it’s summer, but how close are we to fall? I’d like to be flying by winter start-up.”
“We are in the middle of summer, but if you apply yourself, I think you’ll be ready in plenty of time! It will be at least 4 moons until winter start-up.”
I hopped back and forth on my hooves excitedly, “Thanks, Fluttershy! I won’t let you down!”
We trotted over to the field, using a nice, flat stretch of grass that felt smooth and soft under our hooves, the nearest tree was about 30-40 feet away. She first had me do some wing-ups. This was something I wasn’t expecting--I had seen them do it in the show, but had no clue how it would feel. I spread my wings and placed them on the ground. I carefully pulled my forelegs up and was surprised that I was holding myself up with just my wings. Slowly, I lowered myself down almost to the ground, then pushed myself up. I repeated it, and was surprised at how easy it seemed, but I was really sweating at 10 wing-ups.
“Good going, Maverick, especially for somepony new to wings!” Fluttershy beamed with pride.
“Thanks, Fl-Fluttershy.” I said panting, “That means a lot coming from you.”
She then had me do 20 more before we were done warming up. At the end of the warm-up, I looked toward the tree, to see Squirrely looking at us, a curious expression on his face. I just stuck my tongue out at him and didn’t care how it made me look. Besides, I already looked foolish earlier when he stole my muffin.
After a short break, she had me practice flapping my wings in sync without actually trying to take off. The goal was to increase my ‘muscle memory’ so that using my new wings would feel natural. Considering what happened at the lake, I was eager to give it a go.
That was somewhat easier said than done--it was the two extra appendages on me that I still had trouble commanding at times. When I thought I had them both flapping, it turned out either only one was flapping, or they would alternate one after another. It started to get frustrating, but I took a deep breath to calm down before I went at it again. Eventually, I was able to move them properly. With that accomplished, my excitement grew as my dream came closer and closer. With every flap, my coordination had improved to the point where they flapped in perfect sync and it felt natural to me.
Fluttershy smiled in approval, “Well done! You’re getting the hang of it, Maverick!”
“Thanks Fluttershy,” I said as I tucked my wings in, “You don’t know how much this means to me. Soon I’ll be among the clouds! Zipping along faster than I’d ever imagined!”
“I think we’re ready to take the next step,” continued Fluttershy, ”Some light hovering.”
“Oh.” I replied quietly.
“Maverick, we need to take baby steps here. If you go too fast, you could hurt yourself, and I don’t want you to repeat what happened when you arrived.”
I grimaced at the memory of that day, splashing down into the pond and Twilight saving me, but what Fluttershy said made complete sense. Even back on Earth, people would start on simulators or with a flight instructor for a while before even starting to fly on their own, so it wasn’t too much of a leap to think it would be similar for pegasi learning to fly. “You’re right, Fluttershy. I was getting ahead of myself. Thanks for keeping my head out of the clouds, so to speak. Let’s get started.”
This was it, time to finally get off the ground under my own power. I really wanted to get to flying but as she said, ‘baby steps’. I tried flapping my wings a little harder, but when I did, it turned out that it was a bit too hard and they catapulted me about 50 feet in the air, which startled me. The fall down caused me to panic, stop flapping, and flail my legs uselessly. When all was said and done, my face met a dirt pile and I relived the memory of spitting out what made its way into my mouth. At least this wasn’t in an F-22 -- there was no chance of an explosion if there’s no fuel.
I must have been quite a sight as Fluttershy rushed over to me. “Oh, my. Are you alright?”
I had to spit out some dirt before I could respond. “Yes, only my ego took a direct hoof to the face. I guess it wouldn’t be flight training without eating dirt.”
I heard somepony laugh and, as I looked around, noticed Squirrley on his back. I muttered, “It’s not that funny, you little nimrod.” Most of the time I thought squirrels were cute, but this one was starting to get on my nerves. I wished I still had hands, I had a finger with his name on it.
“Ok, are you ready to try again? Don’t flap so hard this time.”
I shook the dirt out of my coat, at least what I could get, and with determination replied, “Yes, just let me get set.” I set my hooves firmly and started my practice flaps. I slowly went faster until my hooves were several inches off the ground. I kept up the hover for several minutes when a rush came over me as I shouted “Woohoo!!! Eat that, Air Force!!”
This, however, made me somewhat overconfident, as I flapped a little harder, causing me to shoot up like a jet performing a vertical climb, then come down like before, ironically into the same patch of dirt. It took a few seconds in the dirt to clear my head from the dizziness I inflicted upon myself. It felt as if the world had slapped me in the face again.
This time, even Fluttershy facehoofed, and I couldn’t really blame her. After all, she had emphasized ‘baby steps’. I heard something akin to squeaking and looked back to where Squirrely was laughing at me again. He then showed off by gliding down to one branch, then doing a backflip to another. “Ha ha, but you can only glide, can’t you?” Great, I just taunted a squirrel - again.
“Maverick, ignore him and focus on what we’re trying to do here.”
Unable to stop myself, I shouted, “He started it!”
“That doesn’t matter. You need to remember that being able to fly requires concentration and confidence. Letting Squirrely into your head will only slow down your flying. You have to get the basics down and learn how to use your pegasus senses well enough that you will be able to fly comfortably without hitting anypony.”
Determined to not let Fluttershy patience be in vain, I tried again, with Fluttershy offering words of advice all the way. It felt like forever, but, upon reflection, it was more like a couple of hours until I was able to hover, raise and lower my altitude. It wasn’t the most graceful of hovering, but at least the ground wasn’t a familiar face anymore. With more practice, I’m sure this would get more natural. However, we had not yet practiced moving around while hovering.
Fluttershy was excited, “Very good, Maverick! Let’s keep practicing that for a little more and we can take a break for lunch.”
“Lunch already? What time is it?” As if in response to the question, my stomach growled.
“It’s just past noon. Back to our lesson, however. What you need to remember is that hovering is rather easy once you have your pattern down. Actual flight, including moving while hovering, however, is a bit trickier as you have to deal with air currents and other creatures that can fly. Pegasi have a normal sense of the currents, you just have to learn how to read them. That will be more important at higher altitudes.”
“Umm...isn’t there a lot less oxygen up there?” my concern was apparent.
“Well, yes, but pegasi have larger than normal lungs to make up for that. That’s also why we are more naturally resistant to cold temperatures.”
I took a very deep breath and almost immediately noticed a difference. I was able to hold my breath a good two minutes! That was another plus for being a pegasus. Twilight is sure to have a book on Pegasi anatomy, as I should get more familiar with how my new body works.
Fluttershy gave me a nudge that brought me back to the present and the fact that my wings felt like they were burning up, along with the muscles in my che..barrel. I pushed through it to continue my hovering practice until it was time to eat.
I fluffed my wings after I landed. It was tiring practice, but not in a bad way. When I got myself all settled, Fluttershy led me back into her cottage, where she made some salad, full of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots and olives, along with some apple juice. I eyed the dish with trepidation. Even on a good day, I wasn’t the one who would really be considered a vegetable lover, at least unless it was on meat of some kind, and silently wished I had a nice, juicy cheeseburger instead. I slowly leaned my head down and took a sniff of it and found it to appeal to my new pony senses, at least, that was the only thing I could come up with. My mouth found a nice bunch of lettuce to chomp down on, along with a couple of the tomatoes and gingerly started to chew. The explosion of flavor that greeted me surprised me to say the least, and my eyes went wide. Needless to say, my next bite was bigger.
“Fluttershy, this salad is amazing! I’ve never tasted anything like it.” I gushed, making her blush. That wasn’t a lie, either. The lettuce was really crisp, and the onions, tomatoes, carrots and olives all tasted as if they had just come off of whatever plant they grew from. While meat would be missed, this started to change my mind about salads. “Fluttershy, what else can pegasi eat? I know that for the most part we are herbivores, but there has to be something else, right?”
“Th-thank you, Maverick. As to your question about what we can eat, fish can be a part of our diet, however that’s mostly for those near the coastlines where one might need something to eat right away.” Fluttershy smiled back at me.
That would explain why my teeth seemed close, yet so different to what I had back on Earth, and I nodded in understanding. I then had that familiar feeling where I needed to relieve myself. “Umm…Fluttershy, where’s your bathroom?”
“Through that hallway, second door on the left.” She pointed out.
All done with my business (which I’m still not totally used to), we headed back out to the field to practice my hovering, which included some slow movement in all directions. After showing great progress and control, she has me go near the top of a tree, but not very high. She instructed me to spread my wings, jump off and try to glide down.
I took a deep breath, spread my wings and jumped forward. While my wings helped me glide for several feet, like my earlier attempts at learning to hover, they shortly betrayed me, folding upward and let me fall face-first into the ground, where I tumbled head over hooves. Fluttershy rushed over to see if everything was alright. I could only respond with a groan of pain as I righted myself. Once again I had to spit dirt from my mouth, but I had a taste of real flight! The wind on my wings and through my mane, however brief, only served to spur me on. I noticed that that squirrel was laughing at me again. I wasn’t going to respond again to his taunts. Fluttershy, on the other hand, gave Squirrely a look that stopped his laughing in its’ tracks.
My wings seemed to be ok, other than a feather or two that were out of place, but they were easily put back where they belonged. I stretched out my body, with my wings fully extended.
Glad that I was ok, Fluttershy replied, "Maverick, try this. Go back up to the branch you were on and spread your wings, but before you take off, I want you to close your eyes and just feel the air moving through your wings, and be calm."
I took Fluttershy’s advice seriously, as the ability to fly under your own power was just a dream on Earth...I wasn't going to let this failure stop me. “Ok, Fluttershy. I trust you.”
I hovered up to the branch and stood there for a moment before I did what she had asked. With my eyes closed and wings spread, I felt the muscles that controlled them, the slight wind moving through the feathers, and the strange, yet comforting sensations as they ruffled. When the right moment came, I opened my eyes and jumped forward. This time was different, my wings held, yet still moved along with the currents of air and I made it a fair distance before I landed. I was excited until Squirrely flew by and landed a further distance away from me. Undaunted, I repeated that success several times, but still wasn’t able to out-glide the squirrel.
She had me try again but at a lower height. I kept at it and got slightly better, enough to have stopped faceplanting and rolling along the ground every other time. Before we knew it, it was about 4pm and sweat poured down my face. How ponies could sweat was beyond me, but then again I didn’t know much about horses or equines in general to begin with, so I didn’t pay it too much attention.
My reverie was interrupted by Fluttershy, “You’re making good progress, Maverick. You can go home now; you look like you need the rest. We can continue on tomorrow. Oh, and make sure you keep moving your wings so you don’t cramp up.”
When I had turned to leave, Rainbow Dash had landed nearby, “Wow, when Twi told me the story, I couldn’t believe how bad he flew!”
Fluttershy gasped, “Rainbow Dash!”
“What,” Rainbow asked. ”It’s true isn’t it?”
In an instant whatever good feelings I may have had about my lessons evaporated. My face fell and I lowered my head. It was true. I wasn’t good at flying. The only thing I’d accomplished thus far was causing trouble for others. “I think I’ll be going now,” I said, sullenly and began to walk away.
“Wait,” said Fluttershy, and with surprising agility she managed to cut me off before I’d gotten too far, “Ignore Rainbow, she has a tendency to put things entirely too bluntly for her own good.”
“I guess.”
“Listen Maverick, you’ve really made great progress today,” she said with a small smile.
“I suppose so.”
“You weren’t born a pegasus. It’s going to take some time.”
“Thanks,” I said with a small smile before looking back at Rainbow Dash with a measure of disdain. “It seems no matter where I go I’m always running into jerks,” I muttered to myself.
"What was that?”
“Nothing,” I said, turning back to Fluttershy, “Just me talking to myself. I’m gonna head back to the castle now. I’m sure I have some work waiting for me there.” With that we said our goodbyes and I began the long walk home, my mood considerably worse than it was when I’d arrived that morning.
Each step toward the castle reminded me in a million different ways how many times I’d fallen on my face that day. Yet, even with the aches and pains I’d occasionally move my wings as Fluttershy instructed. As the castle drew closer I made it a point to take a shower and a couple of aspirin before doing anything else.
The moment I set hoof in the door Spike popped his head out from one of the side rooms and greeted me. “Hey, Maverick. How was your day,” he asked with a scroll in claw, which I could only assume was a list of chores that needed to be done.
I eyed the list and then Spike quietly before responding, “Oh, fine I guess. I could really use a shower. We can talk about it later, okay?”
“Sure!” he said, “Take your time. I’ll be around here doing the list.”
I nodded and headed to the nearest bathroom with a shower, turned the water on and stepped in. The hot water splashed off of my coat and mane working its way to my skin. A low loud moan of pleasure escaped my lips as I let the hot water cascade off of my weary form for a long time before I finally began to wash away the dirt and grime of the day.
When I popped out of the shower I felt like a new stallion and found Spike eyeing me from the hallway. “Dude, you okay,” asked Spike, “I’ve never heard anypony make that sound.”
“Oh.” I blushed and looked away, "Sorry, I guess I just needed that more than I wanted to let on. It's been a long day."
"But you can fly now right?"
"I can hover some," I said with a shrug and began to flap my wings. After a few moments I hung in the air a couple feet off the ground, "See?"
“That’s great, Maverick! It’ll come in handy for some of the things that Twilight needed done.”
I moved closer so I could look at the list along with him, one of the items was to clean some of the higher windows, “Hey, Spike, I’d like to try this one, it’ll give me a chance to work on my hovering. Plus, Fluttershy said I needed to keep my wings moving so that they don’t cramp up.”
I took a bucket, rag and a ladder with me. Upon nearing the top of the ladder I set the bucket down and began flapping my wings. Once airborne, I began cleaning the upper windows while Spike mopped the floor.
The late afternoon sun gave way to the inky black of night as we made our way around the great hall and cleaned our sections. When we finished the last room, Spike looked up at me and said, “You picked that up pretty quick!”
I could feel my cheeks flush as I made my way back to the top of the ladder. "Thanks, but, it's just hovering. It's not like I'm zipping around through the clouds or anything." I carefully set my hooves down on the ladder while Spike held it. "Though I will say that I'm getting better at landing and not crashing into everything."
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” said Spike cherrily, “Keep this up and you’ll be able to fly anywhere anytime sooner than you think!”
“Thanks, Spike.” I said as I climbed down the ladder, “I really hope so.”
We continued to talk while we worked. Spike continued to focus on the ground level stuff while I continued to push around the ladder and work on things that were out of his reach. Eventually he asked if there was anything I missed about being a human. "The hands," I said without hesitation, "They were just so much easier for grabbing things. I mean I can still grab stuff but, it just feels weird."
“Oh, you’ll get used to it,” called a voice from the far end of the hall. We turned our heads and saw Twilight walking through the hall and examining our work. “Wow, you two got a lot done in such a short amount of time,” she exclaimed, “Impressive!”
“Thanks Twi,” I said quietly as I stretched.
"I think this calls for pizza," declared Spike.
"I'm down but... wait ... what time is it?"
"9:30--it's kind of late for pizza Spike," replied Twilight.
"Oh come on! We haven't had pizza in forever!"
"Eh, if it's all the same to you two I'm kind of beat. I think I'll just grab something small out of the kitchen and head to bed." I yawned.
Twilight nodded, "That would probably be best."
I said my good nights and did just that and before long found my way into bed. Slowly I stretched out underneath the sheets and yawned. For the first time in what felt like a long time I was completely exhausted and sleep had no trouble in finding me.