Mayday
Spike and I reached the park and sat on a clearing. We let the time pass by watching the staggering tiny clouds Rainbow Dash left to make the sky appealing, she obviously clearing clouds somewhere around Ponyville. It was about noon, the sun was at its peak in the sky.
"So did you get your wings working yet?", Spike asked
"I got the hang of it, sorta", I said, "if flapping your wings when you get startled counts."
He chuckled, "It's a start. Let's just hope you don't smash into a pony like Fluttershy...", he paused, "or a tree."
"I'll try to aim for a pond then, I'll even yell out "mayday" if I have to."
"Mayday? What does that mean?" He asked.
"It's a codeword for aircraft pilots if they're about to crash, you never heard of that word before?"
"If I was about to crash while riding a balloon or a carriage, I'd scream my lungs out in panic instead of "mayday""
"Good point. I bet I will do the same today", I chuckled.
"Hey Spike! What's up?", said a kid's voice a few metres away.
"Oh hey Scootaloo, are you looking for Rainbow Dash too?", he asked.
"Yeah, is she here yet? She said she was going to help me with my flying today.", the little orange filly asked while approaching us. She had purple eyes and a short purple mane.
"We're waiting for her to finish her weather patrol", Spike looked at his wrist as if he had a watch, "she should be finishing up by now.", he pointed at me with both his arms like I was a prize in The Price Is Right or something."This is Johnny Bass, he got here in Ponyville yesterday."
"Hi there!", I smiled at the filly.
"Are you the one Rainbow Dash and Twilight yelled out the other day?", she asked me. "I was hanging out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle in the park and we heard them yell out "JOHNNY!" from far away. It was pretty weird."
"Yeah... that was me they were yelling at.", I muttered.
"What happened?", she asked curiously.
"Two words: cutie marks"
"They were angry with you about cutie marks?", she tilted her head confused.
"You don't want to know...", I looked away to a random direction.
"Alright then...", she said, still curious about what happened. "Oh look it's Rainbow Dash!", she pointed towards a cyan blob heading towards us. "Are you going to help her with my flying, Johnny?"
"She's going to help BOTH of us, actually", I replied.
"I'm just here to watch to watch the show", added Spike, "Be right back, I'm gonna buy some popcorn", he left to the popcorn cart that was passing by some fillies and colts playing volleyball.
"Wait, what?", her head snapped back to me in confusion, "You still don't know how to fly!?"
"It's a long story...", and with that Rainbow Dash landed in front of us.
"What's up, Scoots? Ready for your training?", asked Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo nodded happily. Rainbow turned her head to me, " and did you get used to working your wings yet, Johnny?"
"Sure did!", I said with a grin, and flapped my wings slowly to show her. "I can feel them giving some thrust with one short flap, this is pretty cool!"
She watched my wings for a few seconds, one of her brows raised, "I'll have to teach you a thing or two about taking care of your wings", she said slightly concerned, "you don't want to be losing feathers all over the place."
"Why? What's wrong with them?", I asked. Don't tell me this is like "hair loss" for pegasi..., I looked at my wings trying to see if there was anything wrong with them. They sure didn't feel strange, well... Having wings is already strange to me but you get the idea.
"Don't worry about it for now, I'll explain later. For now let's start by warming up", she said.
We spent about 5 minutes doing some basic wing movements, some jumps and push-ups (She said it was for lift-offs). Rainbow Dash did some push ups of her own with her wings instead of her legs, show-off. Scootaloo did a lighter version of my exercises, since she was much smaller, but in the end we all broke some sweat.
"Alright, I think we're ready for some actual wing action!", said Rainbow Dash, getting up from her wing push ups. "Before we begin some actual flight, I have to give Johnny here some "Flapping 101" lessons, okay Scoots?"
"Sure, Rainbow Dash", said Scootaloo with a smile. Spike finally came back with his popcorn.
"What took you so long, Spike?", Scootaloo asked.
"Some pony was taking waay too long to choose what drink he wanted. It's either apple juice or Hoofsi (Pepsi) for Pete's sake!", said Spike, putting a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "The lhine wahs ghething phretty bhigh.", he swallowed his popcorn and continued, "and welcome to the club, Johnny".
"Club?", I asked, tilting my head. "What club?"
"The Rainbow Dash Chewers Club, of course.", said Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo chuckled under her breath. "Now, less talking and more flapping!", she said in a military-ish tone.
She spent a few minutes explaining me the basics of wing flapping. How to flap to go forward, how to brake, how to glide and some take-off and landing positions. After I got used to the movements and positions on the ground, Rainbow Dash decided it was time for some actual flights.
"Alright, first off is Scoots. Since you can't really fly really high you can do some hovering laps around the park. Meanwhile I'll get Johnny to do some take-off jumps and some hovering.", Rainbow Dash said.
"Wow, even I learned to hover on my own, Johnny", said Scootaloo letting out some chuckles. She hovered away at trotting speed around the park.
I was going to make a witty comeback, but decided not to. I'd probably get burned when she come back around the park, so I just looked back to Rainbow Dash and went back to my training.
"Right", said Rainbow Dash clearing her throat, "let's not waste any more time now. Try hovering for now, baby steps you know...", she winked.
"Very funny...", I muttered. I gave a good strong flap and a small hop to get started. By keeping a constant flapping motion I managed to stay in the air stationary like a helicopter (without the blades) about 2 metres off the ground. I heard Scootaloo yell "Way to go Johnny!" from the other side of the park, she was halfway through her course and was coming back now.
"Well I guess it's a start.", I said, "How come Scootaloo doesn't fly higher than me? She definitely seems like she can go higher than our shoulders", I asked.
Rainbow Dash took off and hovered next to me. "She's kinda scared of heights", she whispered, "weird, but this is why I'm getting her to fly this low, just to give her some confidence. I'm going to fly higher with her next time we train, hopefully she won't freak out."
"So her case is like riding a bicycle without support wheels?"
"What's a bicy- I won't even ask...", she shook her head and continued, "Moving on, try flying forward. Don't go too fast or you'll end up like yesterday outside Ponyville", she pointed a hoof to a patch of dirt below us.
"Nom nom", I said while making munching movements. We shared a chuckle and I accidentally banked forward a bit too much from my laughter, hurling myself forward and right onto a tree. Between the muffled noises and the loud ringing from my massive headache, I could hear Spike laughing his guts out.
For some odd reason I didn't fall down. My face was stuck to the tree, my legs hugging the trunk and my body pancaked to it. I managed to get my face out of the tree, the rest of my body followed suit and I started falling. I just barely managed to turn around to land on my legs, still pretty damn dazed from the crash.
"I thought only Fluttershy wanted to be a tree.", said Rainbow Dash, "but in her case she wanted to be a tree herself, not become one with a tree!". She laughed for a few seconds and recomposed herself. "You should get some ice for your head, you're almost growing a horn there."
"Holy guacamole Johnny, that was a pretty short flight!", said Spike catching up to us, "now I lost 5 bits because of that. I thought you would last at least 30 seconds without crashing".
"You made a bet?? Really Spike!?", I scowled.
"With who?", asked Rainbow Dash, who was looking a bit mad herself.
A gray pegasus with a sky blue mane landed next to Spike. "Alright man, pay up", he said. Spike grunted and gave him the coins. "Hi Dash!", waved the pegasus.
"Oh it HAD to be Thundercloud", she rolled her eyes.
"When Spike said he never flied before I just had to see this! Sorry Johnny, but I just knew it was going to be interesting", said Thundercloud.
"I thought the same thing this morning", I nodded in agreement, rubbing the lump on my forehead. Holy crap it does feel like a horn!, "not a pleasant experience..."
"Heh, I was like you when I was a little colt in Cloudsdale", he smirked, "the only difference is that we had clouds to cushion our crashes, your tree is not exactly cushion material", he chuckled. "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, I gotta head to the weather station and prep up the rainfall for tonight. Catch you later Dash!", he flew off to the clouds waving at Rainbow Dash.
"Uh... hey Johnny?", asked Spike.
"Yeah?", I turned to him.
"It HAD to be a tree, didn't it?"
"Maybe because you jinxed me with that statement when we first got here", I muttered. "And where'd Scootaloo go?"
"She saw you crash and started laughing so hard she had to slow down and not crash into something herself", said Rainbow Dash chuckling, "and here she is."
"Sweet Celestia, Johnny, I've seen some pretty funny crashes before but this wins a gold medal!", approached Scootaloo who was wiping tears off her eyes.
"Yeah I think I'm done for today, I'll go to Pinkie Pie's and see if she needs any help", I said. I don't mind gaining attention from crowds, but now it was just getting uncomfortable. "Catch ya later Dash!", I hopped and started hovering again. If I was going to avoid crashing into other things I have to practice.
"I'll see you at the party then", said Rainbow Dash, "I'll get Scoots to fly a bit more for now", she waved.
"I'll head back to Twilight now", said Spike, "she's probably getting overwhelmed by customers right now", he looked at his imaginary wristwatch again, "see ya later Johnny Crash!". He ran to the library laughing.
"Rainbow Crash and Johnny Crash... hmmmm", said Scootaloo tapping her chin with a curious grin, almost giggling. Rainbow Dash's face almost flushed red before she shut her up and went back to flight training.
Time to talk to the party animal... and with that I started hovering to SugarCube Corner, my head still throbbing in pain.