The Price of Wings

by Arcict

Chapter 06: "Snow Devils and Silver Linings"

- - - - - - - - - -
Report: (M/D) 1376 FE; from: Cobalt Skies, AKA, Simon Carbuncle Baker

I’M FLYING!

I’m actually FLYING!

Last week, I caught myself flying in my sleep. I’ve suspected this has been the case for some time. I would have dreams of flying, not the usual dreams, but flying inside the room. Then I’d wake up for no apparent reason, but the covers would be off of me and sometimes I’d be on the floor instead of in bed. When I did catch myself, I actually bumped my head on the ceiling.

The injury was a tad odd. I hit the crown, the top of my head, but it was the forehead that hurt the most. Maybe I just hit it oddly or pinched a nerve or something.

At any rate, it taught me a lot. There was a feeling that I hadn’t realized was there, like energy flowing through my wings and into the air. It was when I started focusing on this feeling that I started getting off the ground.

I don’t really know any tricks yet, it’s hard enough just trying to control my flights in order to go anywhere, but I’m learning fast. I was in the air a lot today, several hours I think.

Tomorrow, what else? More flying practice. Though I should do it away from the house, apparently my flying is disrupting the air around me so much that it’s started knocking down some things in the house whenever I practice.

- - - - - - - - - -

In fact, flying had proved a greater challenge than Cobalt had anticipated. While true, he had found himself flying while asleep, waking up in mid-air, actually getting into the air in a controlled or even consistent manner was proving another thing entirely.

Cobalt, though trying to fly, had more often failed, flailed, flopped, fluttered, fallen, floated, flittered, flipped, flattened, flung, and fumbled himself in a flurry of attempts that left him fuming, festering, and wanting to fold.

The "energy" he that felt was proving fickle; it was the key to getting anything other than embarrassment out of flapping his wings. The problem was, whenever the power was “on” he’d just end up shooting up into the air uncontrollably; it was as though his wings were either “off” or “OVERPOWERED” with no in between settings.

He was starting to get the hang of takeoffs though, if he focused on symmetry between his wings he could usually keep his direction straight enough that he could often predict his landing. Gliding back down was fairly easy, just keep his wings straight and keep the power on until he landed, simple enough.

He paused around lunch time to take a break, hoping that a bit of lunch and a fresh perspective might help him to see something he might be missing.

After a few apples and some hay, Cobalt was back to the flight-training-grounds he'd selected for himself, far enough away that he wouldn't cause any damage, but not so far that he couldn't make it back if he... broke anything.

Cobalt saw a dust devil kicking up along the snow in the field. Watching it as it wisped along, twisting and dropping as much snow as it picked up, a strange feeling started to come over him. Cobalt no longer wanted to train, he wanted to follow the breeze, to blow away, like a leaf on the wind, to see the world while not really being a part of it. Cobalt wanted to see it all, to orbit the trees and clouds, even if he was never really one of them.

The dust devil died away as it lost energy and a new feeling filled Cobalt, one of emptiness and loss. A dust devil is a relatively common phenomenon, but tended to be hard to spot because they could only be seen by the debris they kicked up, if any; being common, but feeling rare, thus Cobalt felt a sense of loss as the dust devil died.

And a new thought began forming.

“If I’m ‘flying’ by pushing on the wind... can I push on the wind without flying?” Cobalt thought.

Some practice and a few flaps later and Cobalt was making his own dust devils. Pushing the air and watching it curl, arcing to 90 degrees of where he had sent it, and then arcing from that direction, and from that one, and from that one, spinning and twisting as it did so. Unnatural dust devils as he created were even more short lived, however, relying purely on momentum to exist but still, Cobalt was proud of himself for having unlocked this particular pegasus power.

He started working on just waves instead of devils.

The game continued, first with a few more waves, then trying to see what happened when he made a wave that clashed with an oncoming one. Then he tried really strong waves, pushing the energy higher and flapping harder to make a really big burst of wind. That one had pushed back at Cobalt, flipping him onto his back and nearly causing him to miss the wave he'd created as it tore across the field, dissipating a quarter of a mile later. Still feeling strained, Cobalt tried to tone it down after that, no sense hurting himself over a little light game.

The smaller waves weren’t as fun or impressive, but they were a little curious.

Cobalt looked at one of his wings, as if for the first time.

"This energy..." Cobalt said, "it's more than just 'on' and 'off', isn't it. I can push it... or restrain it."

Cobalt flapped again, keeping the energy "off" this time, as he expected, nothing unusual happened, feathery wings through a gaseous medium.

Then he squeezed a tiny bit of the energy out, just enough that he could barely feel it, and flapped again. This time, the air responded, but barely, more so than to his previous “off” but definitely less than his “on” before.

Cobalt continued to practice, testing his energy to get more comfortable with the control thereof, never at full strength, but never “off” either.

"I've been using too much," Cobalt said to himself after a while. "Too much energy and the air responds like it's almost a solid, and every small mistake gets multiplied, no wonder I can't control it, if I'm not spot-on perfect with each movement I'm going to go tumbling out of control."

He flapped hard and rapidly, and slowly he began to rise. When he'd reached ten feet, he stopped flapping and simply glided his way back down to the ground. Then he tried again, a few more times, doing his best to gauge the results. After that, he began again, pushing the "energy" just a little higher, comparing the results there.

As he pushed the "energy" more, his wings seemed more deeply rooted in the air and forced it to flow more. Because of this, at higher energy states, he could burst and accelerate a high degree, but the air also fought him. Whenever he tried to move in a straight line, the higher his "energy" was, the more the air bunched up and fought him.

And that was another weird thing he discovered about the "energy", the more of it that he used, the more it seemed to react with the air around him, not just his wings, but the very air itself. At higher "energy" levels Cobalt noticed that the air, even when he wasn't flapping, just seemed thicker, more present, almost tangible.

It wasn't perfect, indeed, Cobalt's flying was far from even calling it “good” and he crashed several times, but he comforted himself with the knowledge that he now knew how basic flight mechanics worked. He was actually flying now.

Cobalt did it again, landing and taking off several times. Eventually, Cobalt decided he needed to start giving names to the energy levels he was using. With some experimentation he came up with “flight energy” which was the most comfortable energy level he felt like using when flying. He figured this energy would change as he got more used to it but he didn’t care, it was defined by what it was, not by some stupid number. As the day drew on, Cobalt came up with a few more names that he hoped he could remember as he turned back to the farm to the next set of challenges that awaited him... the day’s chores.

Over the next few days, Between the chores he did around the farm and his flying practice sessions, Cobalt found himself often getting to bed as a nigh zombie. While this helped him to sleep well, yet it also meant that it was harder for him to get up in the mornings and he often slept in when he could get away with it.

Cobalt was, therefore, still asleep when he heard a knock at the door.

"Cobalt, get up, there's a pegasus here to see you," Cobalt heard Red's muffled voice coming through the door. It took a few moments for him to really pick himself up, during which time Red knocked again.

"Yeah, I'm up," Cobalt called back, slowly peeling himself from the bed.

Silver Lining considered himself a patient stallion, he had raised 2 foals and had worked and risen his way up on the corporate ladder to the Division Chief of the Weather Watching division. True, it wasn’t a very glamorous division, but wild weather could crop up from any direction, even from within (thanks to the Everfree Forest) and the weatherponies could be caught off guard if somepony wasn’t watching out for it.

Being given this task, to coach and train some colt how to fly, felt insulting. Cementing the affront was the messenger, who kept insisting that this absurd order came from Celestia herself, as if that would ever happen. It was more likely that the Cloudsdale elders simply wanted to have some fun at his expense.

Silver Lining’s patience became even more strained when, instead of the colt he was waiting for, only a lone blue stallion emerged. Said stallion also had obviously no real sense for taste, if you're going to wear an ugly gray cape you might as well not wear anything at all. Even worse was that it covered up the stallion's cutie mark, making it look like he was trying to hide something... badly at that.

“Are you... Cobalt?” Silver Lining asked.

“Yeah,” Cobalt said, holding back a yawn.

Silver Lining rolled his eyes, “I’m Silver Lining, and I was supposed to be here to train some colt how to fly or something but honestly, if it’s just a prank then, I’m out.”

Silver Lining turned to fly away.

“I need help,” Cobalt said quickly. “At least... I might.”

“You’re a stallion!” Silver said. “How can you need help?!”

“I’ve never flown before!” Cobalt insisted. “I literally haven’t gotten my fee... my hooves off the ground before! I’ve only managed to start flying within the past week.”

Silver just looked at him, his face stuck in utter disbelief.

“What!” Cobalt said. “It’s true!”

“No, just... no,” Silver said. “It is just not possible for a pegasus to be that old and never have gotten up into the air before!”

Silver began pacing, trying to get over the absurdity of what he was hearing.

“If you’re really here to train me,” Cobalt said. “Then... perhaps you were given some paperwork or something that... explains what’s going on?”

Silver looked at him, his face a mask of consternation and uncertainty. Finally he shook himself.

"Look just... just do some laps for me okay?" Silver said, reaching into his saddlebags and fishing out some papers he’d been given.

"Laps?" Cobalt asked. "Like, fly around the farm or something?"

"I... yeah sure, whatever," Silver said, not looking up from the papers.

At first Cobalt felt a little cheated, he'd gotten up out of bed early to be bossed around by someone who didn't even want to be here. As he got ready to do a few laps though he started to feel differently, he'd done laps before but they were always on his own volition, for his own reasons, it felt selfish, like he was only doing it for himself. But this time, now that someone else wanted him to do them gave him a sense of purpose, a reason, it wasn’t a big reason, and he didn’t know the purpose, but he still felt something different, meaningful, about it.

Cobalt liked flying low, if he flew too high he couldn't get a good sense for how fast he was going, and a part of him feared getting lost if he didn't keep sight of the farm. His hoof still ached sometimes when he thought about being lost out here.

There was the field and then the side yard where he crossed the road, then there was the patch of trees that often got in his way. Cobalt considered his habit, which was usually to fly over them, for some reason, he didn't want to do that this time.

Though fast approaching, Cobalt considered the factors, flying over was a bit of a cheat and required more energy to go up higher, energy that was in a way, wasted, because he'd just go lower again after he got past the trees. On the other hand... or hoof, the two biggest issues were the branches and brambles and then the trunks themselves. The brambles and underbrush Cobalt wasn't worried about because it was still winter, and with enough snow that anything still standing was probably bogged down. The branches were also less of an issue because the trees had been fairly well maintained and the lower branches were trimmed.

Time was up, Cobalt had to choose, he stayed low.

The trees came up and zoomed past him far faster than he was comfortable with and he found himself searching frantically for a way around.

"Stop" Cobalt thought to himself. "Don't see the trees, focus on the negative space between them, this is easy, just like the playground."

With a new vision, several paths opened up, Cobalt chose one that looked easy and followed through, looking for the negative spaces between the trees, weaving between them as he followed his chosen path. Ironically, as he mused on the experience later, the weaving probably took more energy than just going over them would have. Soon he saw the end, the edge of the trees but again, a choice to be made, he could expend a little more energy and avoid the tree before him entirely or he could be lazy and narrowly avoid it.

Decision made, Cobalt focused on the tree and, turning sideways, actually managed to kick off of it, gaining a small burst of speed as he tore out of the trees and into the open again. Looking back Cobalt saw that his speed was kicking up a good deal of snow behind him, it actually reminded him of the smoke or snow effect that he'd see in movies and car commercials.

Smirking, Cobalt couldn't help but want to see what was up next, and how could he have fun with it like he'd had with the trees.

It took Cobalt a moment to recognize where he was going, having usually gone over the trees he'd usually had a bird's-eye-view of his next step. He turned, making a long and lazy curve, taking advantage of the open field as he crossed back towards the road and.

Cobalt gulped, the clothesline. While it was too cold during the winter for clothes to dry outside, yet the posts were still up. Cobalt had always intended to find out if the lines were still up, every single time he circled the farm he wanted to... up until the point where he finally landed and his mind got caught up in other things.

The disruption to his routine meant that "the line" caught him off guard and had to make a quick decision, high or low. Cobalt's mind weighed the few factors that mattered to him, the short time he had, the uncertainty and probability of the line being there at all, the odds of it hanging low enough for him to go under it and, finally, how much time he'd need to go safely over.

Cobalt took a gamble and slowed down, pitching and tucking his head at the last moment so that he hit the ground, rolling under where the line would likely be and then kicked off back into the air as soon as he was past the poles.

The gamble worked and he didn't get caught, though he was still unsure whether the line was even there to get caught in.

Beyond the posts were a few scattered trees and the garden in the back, both of which Cobalt gave a wide berth to. Then he was back to the yard where Silver Lining was still reading his papers.

"Here's where the chores begin," Cobalt said, bracing himself for the tedium of repetition, despite his recent changes to the routine. He kept the laps up, remembering the line this time and flying deliberately over it.

As usual when he was bored, Cobalt's mind started wandering and, as he had a few times when he'd flown around the farm, he started imagining things, dreaming them up in his head. He wasn't flying past and around trees, he was dodging between AT-ATs on Hoth. Out of the trees in the open, he was Deidara trying to evade Gaara's sand (which was white now because it was snow kicking up behind him). He was Harry Potter, riding a broom to evade a dragon who was, somehow, always right behind him.

His daydreams got frustrated with the clothesline and eventually he just stopped and paused by one of the posts, getting a closer look at it and confirming that yes indeed... the clothesline had been taken down for the season. With that in mind, Cobalt continued his laps around the farm until Silver Lining stopped him.

"So, according to this," Silver lining said, holding up his papers. "You're supposed to have some kind of ambassadorial status or something, I don't understand half of it because it seems to be deliberately avoiding giving anything specific."

"Can I see the papers?" Cobalt asked, having landed close by.

Cobalt looked over the papers, being careful not to let them fall onto the snow, which was tricky with hooves. He didn't want to waste time to he skimmed as much as he could, trying to pick up the gist of the wording without getting bogged down with the details. It appeared that Celestia had tried wording the document to indicate that he (Cobalt) was some kind of ambassador or something, it was infuriatingly vague. It made it sound as though the reason Cobalt needed lessons was because he hadn't been "allowed" to fly where he grew up.

"I'll be honest," Cobalt said, looking up from the papers to address Silver directly. "I don't like the wording on them."

"How are you an ambassador?" Silver said skeptically. "And where in Equestria is a pegasus pony not allowed to fly?"

"What do you mean in Equestria?" Cobalt asked, trying to bring home the logical conundrum. The papers had tried hinting that Cobalt wasn't from Equestria.

"I..." Silver said, stopping to think about what he'd said.

"Look, I... I'll level with you," Cobalt said. "My... my existence, where I'm from, what I was, it's all one really big secret. Most people from back home don't even know I've left, let alone know what I'm doing."

"Okay, but why don't you know how to fly?!" Silver exclaimed. "I watched you, you're, well, you're good enough for a colt but... how?!"

"Because I've never had wings before," Cobalt said solemnly. "That's really the big secret, that I used to be something different... something that didn’t even have wings."

"What you were?" Silver said, still trying to comprehend. "Like... you were transformed through magic? You... you were something else?! What were you?!"

Cobalt hesitated, finally responding with "I'm not allowed to say. I’m sorry but seriously, it'd be a big breach of national security if I did."

"So, I'm just not allowed to know then? Is that it?!" Silver said, more than a little angrily.

"Nobody is. But, if it helps, it is a bit of a testament to how much Celestia must trust you that you are allowed to know this much," Cobalt said, trying to calm Silver down. To help reassure him, Cobalt handed back the papers. If Silver wanted to know more he could always reread them and try to glean more from them. Silver indeed did look them over again, but quickly, as though he could just will the missing information to reveal itself within a few seconds.

Silver looked back up at Cobalt, the look on his face saying everything that needed to be said. Silver didn't know what to do.

"How about," Cobalt suggested. "I do a few more laps and you go over the papers again, ya know, a fresh look."

Silver grumbled something and then opened the papers again, looking them over. Cobalt took back to the air and started doing a few more laps. Two laps in and Cobalt noticed something curious, the landscape had changed.

Landing, Cobalt looked around for a moment. The changes he saw were fairly subtle, but not encouraging. The trees, which were barren for the winter, appeared blackened and scorched and he could see that they were missing branches. The snow, which previously had only a few shoots of grass poking through the snow's surface was now bleak and devoid of even long dead weeds. Turning Cobalt was a little startled to find that the patch of woods was basically gone, only a few barren trees remaining, like the others they too were missing several branches. Turning again, Cobalt saw the most horrifying sight yet, the farm itself was all but gone, only a few posts from the foundations and a couple blackened stones from the chimney. What was worse, from the scattering of stones on the ground it looked like the house hadn't fallen in so much as it had been blown away.

Cobalt stood up, looking around, wondering, fearing, breathing hard. How? How had the world changed so rapidly, even the snow looked like it held a sickly green-

"Hey, you awake?" Silver said, putting a hoof on Cobalt's shoulder, jerking him out of his stupor. Cobalt looked again, everything was back the way he remembered it, the snow was just as it should be, as was the farm, and the trees and everything else.

Cobalt shook himself and blinked a few times just to prove that the world was right again. It didn't change back.

"Sorry," Cobalt said. "I must have... spaced out."

"It's all right," Silver Lining said, removing his hoof from Cobalt's shoulder. "Look, I've reread everything and... it's crazy. It's just crazy but... well, I guess if you really don't know how to fly, I mean, really fly, then yeah, you need a teacher, and one who can... keep your secret I guess. I don't suppose... oh crap you haven't!"

"Haven't what?" Cobalt asked.

"You haven't even taken The Flying Learner’s Aptitude Probe yet!" Silver exclaimed.

"I don't know what The Flying Learner’s whatever’s even is," Cobalt retorted mildly.

"It... well," Silver said, trying to figure out how to explain it. "See, every pegasus is basically on weather duty, whether they're good with the weather or not. We're basically the only ones who can do the job so we're all needed to do it. But that doesn’t mean they can just give you a job, not without knowing what you’re good at first. The The Flying Learner’s Aptitude Probe, F.L.A.P. for short is designed to help them know what jobs to give who."

"Sounds... like it'd take some amount of practice to work up to," Cobalt admitted, thinking it sounded like the SAT or ACT back home.

"Yeah... er, by the way, what is your cutie mark?" Silver Lining asked.

Cobalt groaned lightly, he'd been dreading this question. With all the gusto of pulling off a generic-brand adhesive bandage Cobalt moved aside his cape/blanket, revealing his flanks were blank.

Silver Lining just stared at him.

"Yeah," Cobalt said, hiding his flanks behind the blanket again. "Yeah, that, I haven't been a pony long enough to get my mark yet."

Silver Lining just shook himself.

"It's... uncanny how casually you can say that," Silver said. "But, yeah, you're right. I guess that... if you haven't been a pony for that long... Wow, I just... wow."

Silver stopped, then went back to the papers, looking them over quickly, apparently looking for something specific. Finally he stopped rifling and just stared at one particular paragraph for several moments.

"Three weeks" Silver said, a little weakly.

"What, what is it?" Cobalt asked.

"The F.L.A.P.," Silver said. "It... you’re scheduled to take one in three weeks."

"That’s... not a lot of time," Cobalt said under his breath. "So, what do I need to do?"

"I... I don't know," Silver said. "Colts and Fillies spend years learning, they don't take it until they're really ready to start looking for a job instead of just volunteering. We... ROADAPPLES three weeks!! Three MONTHS maybe, you don’t know anything about... ANYTHING!"

"I think I know more than you think I do," Cobalt said, pride and confidence joining the mix of his emotions.

"What can you possibly know? Silver Lining challenged. "You've never taken a flight test before, heck, if what you say is true, I doubt you've ever even SEEN somepony fly before! Do you even know what a roll is?"

"A 'roll' is where you rotate, your turn being centered around the Z-axis," Cobalt said, not missing a beat. Flying games and games with flying segments were amongst his favorites.

"Okay, so you do know what a roll is," Silver Lining said. "Alright, maybe this can work."

"I think we should go over what gets tested, I can see what I know and what I don't and work on what I'm weakest at," Cobalt suggested.

"Maybe," Silver said, still thinking things over. "Maybe."

Report: Cobalt Skies- - - - - - - - - -
This past week has been a blur of work, training, practice, and trying out new things and tricks and stuff. All for the purposes of getting ready for my "The Flying Learner’s Aptitude Probe "... yes, FLAP for short. Seriously, the way some of them talk you'd assume that they were always in front of a live audience and always trying to crack a joke or something.

From what I understand, the FLAP will test the following...

Wing Strength - this is apparently the overall strength of the muscles in your wings.

Flight Endurance - How long you can stay in the air while carrying a weight (not sure how heavy)

Polarity - This one is weird, apparently when I synchronize with the air I can shift its temperature a little... “North” = colder, “South” = warmer. We currently think mine is "north" which means I turn the air colder, but being winter it’s hard to tell.

Air Sensing - Most pegasi are able to sense the air around them, feeling out storms and weather. This is one I fear I'm not going to be very good at because even after a week of practice I can't sense much.

Air Space - A pegasus has a kind of "area" around his body where he can control the air. The larger the air-space the better. This one has me excited because, according to Silver Lining, my air-space is HUGE!

Spatial Awareness - Similar to air senses but more mundane. This is basically one's ability to remain spatially aware. I should mention that if somepony takes the test more than once it's because they expect scores such as these might have changed as they got older, this is one of the scores that is likely to change with age. Games like Descent and Halo are part of the reason I think I'm going to do okay with this one.

Air Thickness - The air a pegasus can control in their "area" can be made "thicker" in some way. I'm not sure how useful that is but apparently it really helps for taking off and for certain weather control situations. Much like my Air Space this one is cranked up pretty high, but... well, I'm less excited about it because it just seems like it might not be as useful.

Anchorage - Get this, pegasi... can walk on clouds. How well you can anchor yourself to the air and to the clouds determines how easy this is. Anchorage itself is how strong your anchorage is. Apparently this also affects how fast you can fly, anchoring yourself to the air and pulling yourself along via your wings.

Anchor Control - Again, this deals with anchorage (not the one in Alaska), though instead of how strong or anchored you are, it deals with how easy it is to control. A pegasus with good control can go from "clouds are solid" to "clouds are non solid" and basically pull a "phase through walls" for anything made out of clouds whenever they want.

Constitution (anti-airsick-ness) - This one seems cool. Turning and twisting around can really churn the stomach up. One's resistance to air sickness, or just feeling sick from getting twisted around and stuff is measured as "constitution".

Acceleration - how fast a pegasus can accelerate. The air thickness and anchorage can affect this, as can wing strength.

Breaking - Similar to acceleration but effectively the opposite, Breaking is how quickly you can get to zero, very useful if you don't want... er, mechanical breaking assistance offered by (hopefully) flat surfaces perpendicular with gravity.

Agility - Just because you can go fast doesn't mean that you can turn on a dime. Agility is, apparently, how sharp your turns are.

Flexibility - Just because I'm a pony doesn't mean I'm a statue, apparently flexibility is something they test for as well.

Straight Speed - Acceleration is cool and all, but they also test for one's maximum speed. Air thickness and anchorage do play parts but apparently making the air too thick actually works against you.

Generation (make clouds) - Apparently, pegasi can "create" clouds within the air they can control (See also, "Air Space"), this is how easily you can do it.

Reflexes - Reflexes are reflexes... just like back home.

Spin Control - Spinning, or torque, is different than simple acceleration, and takes different muscles and different forms of control. Spin Control is how well you can get into, maintain, and get out of a spin. Apparently, for advanced flight training and testing, there are machines designed to put you into an out-of-control spin to test yourself against.

Obedience - Obedience seems like a weird one to be tested on but, honestly, a part of me is surprised we aren't testing people in this back home anyway.

Creativity - I don't know how they test for creativity but... well, I guess they do. I should mention that we aren't given "scores" so much as "evaluations" so I guess being vague is a bit more accurate with something as subjective as creativity. I dunno.

Intelligence - Ah, the wizard's fallback attribute. And I guess it works well for accountants too, I dunno, I always thought their fallback attribute was “evilness”.

Understanding - This one feels like it's a redundant form of intelligence but upon further reflection I think I'm starting to see the point. Creativity, Intelligence and Understanding form like a kind of triangle. Creativity helps to think outside of the box, Intelligence calculates what's inside the box, and Understanding is knowing what the box is and what it’s for in the first place.

Cutie Mark - Ah, this one. I don't think I'm going to get it before the test which will make finishing it a fairly awkward thing.

Special Talent - Tied with the Cutie Mark is one's "special talent" which seems weird, even looking back on it. Still, it's a moot point without actually having a cutie mark... yet... hopefully.

There is a part of me that does feel nervous. I've never been one who really sweated going into a test. When they test you, they're just testing on what you know, if you want to do well... then learn more. But we're training pretty hard, there isn't a day now where I don't go to bed sore. If this is how intense the training is, I can't help but wonder... how hard is the test going to be?
- - - - - - - - - -