As her brain processed Swift Wing's request, Rainbow Dash felt a whirlwind of emotions tumbling around in her head. She wasn't confused about Swift's lack of flying ability; contrary to popular belief, it wasn't that abnormal. Pegasi who ended up in the foster care system, for example, usually didn't have parents to teach them the basics of flight. Not to mention there could be any number of other reasons for his problem. Rainbow didn't know the intimate details of his life. She did have quite a bit of curiosity about his exact reason. There was some anger as to how this could've happened; one of Rainbow's core beliefs was that every pegasus deserved their chance to fly. Additionally, she was concerned about the stallion himself, wondering how he'd managed to make it this far in life without flying.
Eventually, her curiosity won out. "Why can't you fly?" Suddenly, she bit her tongue, realizing how tactless she'd sounded, but it was too late.
Swift's face fell, and his wings snapped to attention, the way a pegasus' wings did when they were surprised by something. He glanced from side to side, and his ears twitched. "W-well..." he started, as sweat began to drip down his head.
"No, no, no, it's fine!" Rainbow insisted. "I'm sorry, I really shouldn't have asked that!"
Swift released the breath he'd been holding. "Thanks," he answered. "I appreciate it. Like I said, would you mind keeping this a secret from everypony, please?"
"Of course," replied Rainbow. "I already promised. I wouldn't spill your personal information."
"Element of Loyalty, right?" Swift said with a smirk.
Rainbow and Swift shared a small laugh at that, before an uncomfortable silence followed. Now they were back at the main topic, and neither of them wanted to breach it.
"I-I'm not asking you to train me into a Wonderbolt or anything," Swift insisted, awkwardly waving his hooves, "I'm just asking if you can bring me up to speed on the basics. I'm gonna need to be able to get off the ground for my job eventually, so I was hoping you could help me with that."
Rainbow nodded in understanding. Swift didn't seem to be the most social pony, so she, being the first pegasus he'd really gotten to know in town (other than Fluttershy, who wasn't the best flyer), was the one he'd gone to.
"Well," Rainbow started, "I suppose I could. I've never really taught any beginners besides Twilight, but I think I could. Of course, I have my weather job, and Wonderbolt work..."
"I understand," replied Swift. "I'm not asking you to give up any of that. Just when you have time."
Rainbow came over to the crimson pegasus, lifting his wings and examining the appendages, careful not to touch his saddlebags. "Hm," she noted, brushing the feathers apart. "Odd. Normally, with pegasi like you, the wings have almost started to atrophy from lack of use. Sometimes the feathers just fall out like crazy. Yours almost look new."
"Heh...good genetics, I guess," Swift replied, sheepishly.
"You'll definitely need to build up some muscle, though," Rainbow remarked. "Okay, I can take some time off tonight to get you started after you get off work. You know where I've got my cloud house parked? Just past Twilight's castle?"
"Kinda hard to miss it," Swift joked, "especially since that giant mass of crystal draws so much of your attention."
"Yeah," Rainbow acknowledged, "anyways, meet me there when you get off work, and we'll get started. See exactly what we're working with."
"Got it."
Rainbow Dash waited patiently for Swift to arrive. As she did so, she mulled over exactly what she should do about Swift's situation. His problem was nothing to be ashamed of, and there were entire organizations dedicated to helping pegasi who'd never learned to fly. They could probably do a better job than she could all by herself. She considered whether or not she should tell him about those, or inform them about his situation.
Then again, she had promised Swift she'd never tell another pony about it. Part of being loyal was keeping promises. She decided she wouldn't go to anypony else without his permission, but perhaps she should refer him to somepony more experienced in this kind of thing. He probably didn't even know there were ponies trained for this sort of thing. Heck, Rainbow herself hadn't known until a few years ago.
She looked down, noticing the pegasus in question coming up the road. Rainbow tossed the idea around in her head, deciding that she'd see how we she did as a teacher before trying to pass him off. Swift clearly wanted as few ponies as possible aware of his condition, and she had to respect that.
She took off from her cloud house, flying down to land in front of Swift. "So, you ready to rock?!" Rainbow yelled, slipping easily back into her confidant persona.
"I hope so," replied Swift, sounding somewhat apprehensive. He had a genuine smile on his face, though, so that was a good sign.
"Alright," Rainbow began, "let me give you some lessons about how flying actually works. A lot of non-pegasi don't know this, but it's not only wing muscles that go into flying. There's your leg muscles, which you need in order to push yourself off the ground. Also, you'll need your gluteal muscles to help hold your body up in mid-air." She came over to Swift, gently prodding his muscles, getting a feel for their strength. "You've got some pretty good legs. Didn't you say at the party that you were into running?"
"A bit. I mean, I'm no athlete, but I used to go running at least once a day."
Rainbow chuckled a bit. "At least you'll be easier to train than Twilight. I wasn't surprised, because, y'know, she's a bookworm, but she had practically no muscle built up. Her alicorn wings didn't come packed with muscle, either. We needed to spend a lot of time building those up."
"I'm guessing I'll need to as well, in order to get my butt off the ground."
"Well, let's see where we're starting." Rainbow flapped her wings, lifting her into the air a little bit. "Why don't you try getting off the ground, and we'll see where we have to go from there?"
"I don't have to do a running start?" asked Swift.
"Sometimes, that helps, but most of the time, you won't have to," said Rainbow, "When your wings get strong enough, you'll be able to take off from anywhere. Also, since you're a beginner, you'll want to have the wind behind you at all times. It'll help propel you forward a little bit. Otherwise, you could go gliding backwards."
"Okay." With that, Swift turned to the appropriate direction, and tensed his body up, spreading his wings from their positions on his sides. Rainbow noticed that it took him a second to get them unfolded from their current position, but that didn't surprise her. If he'd never learned how to fly, he wouldn't have learned how to control his wings super well either. He managed to get them sticking straight outward, before crouching down with all four legs, and leaping into the air.
As he rose upwards, Swift began stiffly beating his wings, trying to maintain his flight. Rainbow took notice of his form, trying to catch all his mistakes so she could correct them. But he seemed to be holding it, at least for the moment. His wings pushed through the wind, using the air to propel himself upwards.
Unfortunately, that was when he began to beat them too hard, not gathering enough air to support himself, and each push of his wings wasn't enough to keep him airborne. Swift Wing wobbled in the air a bit, before he pitched forward, crashing face-first into the grass.
"You okay?" asked Rainbow, coming over to help him to his hooves.
"Yeah, just lost some dignity," Swift admitted. "So, how bad was my form?"
"Not too bad, actually," Rainbow admitted. "There isn't one perfect pose a pony has to do in order to fly. The biggest problem I could see was the way you flapped your wings. You had the rhythm down for a minute there, but then you sped up too much. I'm guessing you were trying to go higher, but not catching enough air to stay up. I think we should try to build up some strength in your wings, first."
"Fair enough. What do I do?"
"We'll start with some wing-ups. Brace the tips of your wings against the ground."
Swift nodded, before placing his front hooves behind his back. He then spread his wings again, before angling them downwards and placing the tips against the ground.
"You know, you might have an easier time if you took off those saddlebags," Rainbow pointed out. Indeed, he'd never taken them off in the entire time she'd seen him.
"Er...no thanks," replied Swift. "It's not that I don't trust you or anything, I just get nervous when I leave what's in these alone."
Rainbow shrugged. It was his choice.
Swift's wings held him up, and his back hooves kept his entire body braced. He then began bending the tips of his wings, attempting to push himself up, but one wing slipped, and he slammed down again.
Rainbow sighed. They had a lot of work to do.
Twilight, Starlight, and Spike stood by the side of the railroad leading from Ponyville to Canterlot. Twilight had brought a number of books related to dimensional anomalies, which Spike was currently carrying with no problem (he'd had more than enough practice carrying Rarity's luggage). The two mares were currently looking down at the grass, where a large hole stuck out in the field like a sore hoof, exposing the earth below. Around the hole, a circle of grass blades were singed black, as though burned, and Twilight was looking at them with a magnifying glass.
"So, based on our calculations, whatever it was that touched the barrier of Equestria's reality, it happened here," said Starlight.
"That would explain this grass," said Twilight. "A rupture in the fabric of reality would produce a significant amount of volatile magic. Lucky there was nothing important nearby to be damaged."
"It's too bad there wasn't any wet mud or anything like that in the area," said Starlight, "otherwise, if something came through, there'd be tracks we could follow."
Twilight put down her magnifying glass. "That doesn't mean we can't figure out where this thing might've gone," she stated. She looked from side to side, glancing between Canterlot and Ponyville. "If it's an intelligent creature, and not just some wild animal, it would probably make its way towards the nearest town."
Spike took a look for himself. "Well, Canterlot would require a lot of climbing. If it were me, I'd have gone towards Ponyville. Then again, we don't know if it can fly..."
Starlight put a hoof on her chin, deep in thought. "Well, obviously, there haven't been any reports of strange creatures wandering into Ponyville, so if it did come there, either it's hiding from sight, or..." She paled a little as an idea crossed her mind. "Or it can blend into the town."
"What, are you thinking it's a shape-shifter? Like a changeling?" asked Twilight.
"I don't know. We don't have any real idea what we're dealing with. It's from a completely different dimension." Starlight poked the ground with her hoof. "For all we know, it could be one of those hairless monkeys from Sunset Shimmer's world."
"Starlight, for the last time, they're called humans."
"Whatever."
Spike put down the books. "Well, Thorax once told me about a changeling spell that can detect changelings in disguise. Maybe we could get him to come and cast it around Ponyville?"
"We should probably use it around Canterlot, too," said Twilight. "We can't assume it thinks exactly like we do."
"But there's always the chance that, if it can shape-shift, it doesn't use what we would recognize as changeling magic," Starlight chimed in. "Or that it can't shape-shift at all, and is currently hiding out in the Everfree Forest. Or it's invisible and..." Starlight's voice died out as she started muttering about even more possible scenarios that could be going on.
"Is that what I look like when I'm Twilighting?" asked the purple alicorn.
"Pretty much, yeah," said Spike.
Twilight placed a comforting wing over Starlight's back, snapping the unicorn out of her rambling. "It's okay, Starlight. We'll come up with a plan to cover as many possibilities as we can figure out. Whatever this thing is, we'll find it."
Starlight smiled a little, her spirits lifted ever so slightly. "I'll write to Thorax. Even if he can't come himself, he'll probably be able to send a changeling capable of casting that spell."
"Good thinking." Twilight ignited her horn, levitating over a quill and a piece of parchment over to Spike. "Spike, can you write down a letter to Celestia for me?"
"Sure, what do you want to say?"
Twilight began to dictate:
"'Dear Princess Celestia, We've been making some progress in determining the source and result of the dimensional anomaly. Based on some information from Discord (and yes, I'm aware that it's Discord, but I trust him on this matter), we now believe that something may have passed through the barrier of our reality, into Equestria. We are not aware of its purpose in coming here, or if it even has one, or is merely lost in a world not its own. We are currently formulating a plan to search for it, and hopefully discover an explanation for its presence here. I will continue to provide you with updates as we make progress. Yours truly, Twilight Sparkle.'"
Spike finished writing the letter, before wrapping it up and breathing a burst of green fire over it, sending it to Celestia. "So what do we do now?"
"Now we start looking."