//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: The Joy of Flight 
// Story: The Gamer's Game 
// by Chrome Masquerade 
//------------------------------//

(Moon's Day, just outside of home)

I decided that I'd stalled for long enough and that I should teach myself how to fly fluidly.Princess Celestia (You might remember that she wanted me to call her Amal) gave me my first flying lesson, and i'd passed with flying colours. But as far as I'd heard, Pegasi coming into their power have a boost to their flight abilities. Pinkie Pie had to catch Pound Cake a few times.

Anyways,  I made sure to get Princess Twilight to spot me; make sure I didn't hurt myself. I figured that she might also have some pointers, having recently gotten control of her flying.

"Okay, Button." She said, "You may make your first attempt whenever you're ready."

I felt for the muscles that controlled my wings. I'd practiced getting that far before, but it still took a little effort. 



Attempt 1



After that, I fully extended my wings and gave them a couple of flaps. When I realized that I was actually off the ground -a fair 40 hooves, at that-, I stopped flapping out of surprise and dropped like a rock.

"Don't worry." the lavender princess assuaged, "That happened to me too." This was another reason that I'd chosen princess Twilight to aid me. Rainbow Dash would've been too gung-ho. Fluttershy would've been too soft. Princess Twilight ought to be just right, I figured.

Her being one of my Divine Parents didn't hurt either. 



Gained 22 EXP in Pegasus Magic.





Attempt 2



After a few slow-flaps to make sure I had it right, I attempted again.

This time, after I'd reached about 50 hooves, I tried turning, which was... relatively easy. Tilting forward slightly, I angled my wings -still flapping enough to stay aloft- I went forward.

Only to overbalance and nearly crash. Fortunately, princess Twilight caught me.



Gained 25 EXP in Pegasus Magic.



"Ooh! That might've been a painful one. When you crash like that, it's because you have an unbalanced body position. You're in control."

She projected an image of a standard pegasus flying.

"Take a look here. With the slightest movement of your body, you can control your flight. You can turn in position -you covered that- go up or down," the pegasus did all of that, "With enough practice, you can even fly upside down, or spin on your head like a top. With Celestia having given you your wings, it should make it even easier. Come on, let's try again. I'll even keep you balanced."

This time I took out a pair of flight goggles from seemingly nowhere. I'd bought it from the Chaos Auctions site.

"Where did you get that?" princess Twilight queried

I shrugged in response, putting them on anyway.



Flight Goggles equipped; +3 Agility, +2 Endurance



I took a takeoff stance for the third time.

"Make sure not to put too much energy into your hooves when you push off the ground. We'll cover hot takeoffs later."

I took a deep breath, exhaled and -with a clear mind- extended my wings again. Music began playing in the background.(1)



Attempt 3



I carefully took flight, I could feel princess Twilight's magic holding me steady, subtly shifting my wings to make sure I was balanced. With this confidence booster, I sped up slightly as the music began to swell.

I was flapping harder, speed increasing steadily. The wind was whipping past me, blowing my short mane back. By this time, Twilight had let me go, not that I noticed. A mach cone began to form in front of me.

I kept looking straight on, focusing on reaching the next cloud bank, then the next one, then the next. It became harder to do so over time, but it helped at first. I did a midair somersault as the music increased in tempo.

The mach cone condensed, but I hadn't broken the barrier yet. I would never be as fast as Rainbow Dash -who could easily reach mach 4 BEFORE entering her Iconic Sonic Rainboom mode-, but I was fine with that. I could feel the pressure increasing...

On top of the next cloud was what looked to be a Super Star. Not questioning it, i grabbed it as I flew by, new energy flowing into my body, inccreasing my speed yet again!

As the music reached a crescendo, I finally broke past the sound barrier.

"Yahoo!ahoo!ahoo!" I exclaimed as my speed increased again.





Twilight turned toward the audience. "When a flying object breaks the sound barrier, a sonic boom occurs -that's the sound you would've just heard.

Since Button doesn't seem to want to come back down, I'd say this about does it for this session."

She whispered conspiratorially, "He'll realize I let him go eventually. He should be fine, though, since I cast a Feather Fall spell on him. On the bright side, he'll learn about gravity, too."