//------------------------------// // To Be a Pegasus // Story: Wings // by Silent Bob //------------------------------// To Be a Pegasus "So then I got to know Tom's family a little better at dinner. Can you believe this though, they actually eat meat! It's so gross!" "M-Meat?" Fluttershy asked as her. "You mean... they eat other animals?!" Rainbow Dash nodded, her face as firm with disbelief as Fluttershy's. Tom rolled his eyes at that. "We have to eat meat, though. Without it we wouldn't be as strong and healthy." "Still though, bleh!" Dashie said, sticking out a tongue. The three of them sat in a rather large playground outside of CD-12 during their version of recess. Tom's school had been one of the few lucky ones to still have playground equipment that was bought before the depression. It was rusty, but still usable at least. The ponies had similar things to them; swings, slides, that kind of thing, though they were completely made out of clouds. The pegasi used the former in what must have been a much more fun manner than humans, though. Even the ones without the ability to fly (and there were quite a few who could, some, to Tom's chagrin, even Dashie's age) could get a lot of air-time by fluttering their tiny wings after leaping off the swings when they were high enough. Their swings were also much higher than the ones on Earth, the pegasi using their wings to propel themselves to incredible heights. Tom had to admit he was feeling a little envious at their natural gift. "W-What'd your friend say?" Fluttershy peeped. "That he needs to eat meat," Dashie replied. She then grunted in annoyance. "Mph, if there was only some way for you two to talk and stuff..." she mused. "I'm sorry, I'll leave if I'm being a bother..." The yellow pony said softly. "Oh it's no sweat, Fluttershy," Dashie said. "Yeah, it's no problem," Tom agreed. "Gosh... I feel bad for her; she just seems so timid," Tom whispered Dashie's way despite the fact that was completely unnecessary. Dashie nodded at that. "What'd he just say?" Fluttershy asked curiously before sulking her head slightly. "I mean... if it's alright for me to know and all." Rainbow grinned her way. "Tom just wants you to know he thinks you're a really cool pony and wants you to stick around." Tom nodded in vigorous agreement despite the fact he had never said such a thing. He wished he had, though. "R-Really?" Fluttershy said, a small smile creeping on her face as her wings swung open. Tom gazed at this curiously. It was one of the things he had noticed about these ponies; whenever they became excited their wings would spread and stick up. He found it to be kind of funny, actually. "Oh... thank you, Tom," Fluttershy said, glancing towards him. She must have noticed where Dashie was turning her head when Tom spoke. Dashie then explained to Fluttershy how she had gotten home, and like she said earlier, she didn't have any sort of experience of flying through space. Tom shook his head in disbelief at that. He couldn't have simply imagined it, could he? Or did it simply work different for him? He supposed he'd find out when he got back home, he supposed. "So you can enter each other's worlds by sleeping?" Fluttershy asked, her face riddled with disbelief. "Yep! We don't know if it's a permanent thing though." At that, their bonding time was cut short when Sweetsong's whistle blew. "Ah shoot. Back to boring old lectures on gryphons...." Dashie said, a hint of spite in her voice. Tom perked an eyebrow at this. "You don't like gryphons? I think they're kind of cool. They have a really interesting history. A group of animals who were created for the sole purpose of warfare becoming a civilized society-" "They're anything but civilized" Dashie spat, taking Tom by surprise. He had never expected any sort of hatred to come out of his cyan friend's mouth. Sure she was fairly aggressive but never spiteful. "They're a bunch of nasty, angry birds is what they are. Nothing else." "Come on, they can't all be like that..." Tom reasoned. "You said yourself, they were made for the purpose of war by that Teranid mage. They're like our version of the 'huns' you keep mentioning." Dashie's eyes narrowed in a glare, though it didn't seem to be at Tom. That was enough to shut Tom up. Thinking quickly, he found a way to change the subject. "What's a Teranid anyway?" Dashie shrugged at that. "We had a lesson on them one day but..." she grinned sheepishly. "I kind of fell asleep during it." The farm boy shot her a smirk. "What?!" She said defensively. "I was up late the night before trying to get these stupid things to work..." She glanced at her wings, her mood dropping once again. "I never really did..." Tom shot a reassuring smile her way. "Hey, no sweat. You've got to be the most driven person.. pony I know. One of these days..." A sliver of a smile came on her face. "Thanks Tom, but I say that every day and nothing ever comes of it," she sighed. Fluttershy, who had been listening quietly to the conversation, apparently not feeling that joining in would be prudent, finally spoke up, "you know, I can't fly either," she said. Dashie gazed at her in disbelief. "But your wings... they seem so strong." Fluttershy drew a hoof against the cloudy ground at that. "They aren't that strong... and it doesn't bother me that much anyway..." "How can you not want to fly, though?!" Dashie asked. "Well... earth ponies and unicorns do fine without it... I figure even if I never learn to fly I can just move to the ground..." "B-But we're pegasi!" Dashie complained. "The skies belong to us! Every pegasus needs to fly..." "Maybe..." Fluttershy squeaked. "But sometimes I don't think it matters what everybody else is doing as long as we... well... enjoy what we're doing ourselves." "But what about the jerks who make fun of us!?" "It's not like everypony cares that much," she said. "Would you look down on me if you could fly and I couldn't?" Tom couldn't help but smile her way. While she was shy, it seemed to hide a smart interior. She seemed brighter than him, at least. "Well...no..." Dashie grunted. "It still doesn't mean I'm not going to give it my all, though. One day I'm going to show all the pricks who make fun of us for being stunted what it means to be a true pegasus, just like my father before me. Noble, strong, brave, and ready to take on anything thrown at Equestria! I'm not going to be some pansy bully who puts down others for their own kicks." "Wait, the pegasi do the fighting for Equestria?" Tom asked. "Yep!" Dashie said proudly. "We make up the bulk of the military. Even most of Celestia's guards are sporting a pair of these babies," she said, glancing at her wings. "A long time ago before the three races came together, we were a mighty tribe of warriors. While the other two races were interested in politics, magic weaving, and farming, we were busy keeping the murderous Eastern Naga and Wolves out of pony lands!" "So your history is boring, huh?" Tom chuckled. Dashie huffed in annoyance. "Well... no... the cool history isn't boring. Anyway, nowdays we defend Equestria from not only the gryphons to the east, but the southern Badland Wolves, rogue dragons, the remaining vættir and void shadows to the north, and the changeling threat within." Tom's eyes widened. "D-Did you just say dragons?" Fluttershy eeped at that as well, shivering slightly upon the mention of them. Rainbow nodded at that. "Yeah, they aren't anything to mess with either. Most of them can grow as big as Celestia's palace, some even bigger." Both Tom and Fluttershy gulped. "I think I'm glad I'm stuck in ghost-mode while here..." Fluttershy glanced at Rainbow pleadingly. "Can we please change the subject... if that's alright," she squeaked. Dashie rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "Don't worry, you two. They rarely show up anymore." "The key word there is rarely," Tom noted. He then composed himself slightly. "What about the Naga, though. What happened to them?" Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "We wiped them out. All of them." The farm boy's eyes widened in horror. "Equestria did?! They weren't smart like you and I, right?" "Oh, they were plenty smart alright. But no, the Pegasi Tribe did under the rule of Commander Hurricane right before the Great White Winter." She tilted her head in thought. "It's not really the most... liked thing in our history.." Tom shook his head, befuzzled. "One that's going to take me forever to learn..." Rainbow chuckled before sticking out her tongue. "What are you, a historian now? You should be focusing on that music of yours..." she then cocked a grin. "And hanging out with me. Bet you can't beat me in a race back to the school!" "Dashie, I've got legs of steel!" Tom bragged. "You forget I work on a farm." "Well, let's put them to the test cowboy!" Dashie challenged with a friendly smirk. Tom laughed at that. "Oooooh you are so going down now. Ya may have four legs but my two can keep up with em' all the same." "W-What are you two doing?" Fluttershy asked. "Racing," Rainbow said, her cocky smirk not fading. "Wanna join in?" "Oh... no... how about I play referee?" she eeped. "Sure, not like we're going to need one though. Tom isn't going to see the finish line behind my dust trail!" Tom glanced at the cloudy ground with a quirked eyebrow. "But there's no-" "On your mark!" Dashie called. Tom lined up by her, gazing ahead at the schoolhouse with feigned confidence. Despite the fact they'd been walking towards it, it was still about a good thirty yards away, them having been on the far end of the rather large playground. Tom was a decent sprinter, and his work on the farm had raised stamina by a ton. However, despite what he said, he still wasn't that confident he could beat a four-legged creature in a race with his measily two, especially if Dashie used her wings to propel her like he had seen the fillies and colts do on their swings. Nevertheless, it'd hurt his pride more to deny a challenge than to fail in one. It was on. "Get set!" To the side, he could see Dashie running a hoof across the cloudy surface; a pony preparing to gallop. Tom gulped slightly, but nonetheless quickly recomposed himself. "GO!" They were off. Tom had put his all into an initial burst of speed, hoping to gain a quick advantage over Dashie to demoralize her. He had achieved this, but only slightly. When he glanced back Rainbow was gaining on him, her eyes narrowed in resolve and still joined by her smirk. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "You know, you're going to look silly running for no apparent reason!" Tom huffed, gazing at the small amount of but still numerable students who had yet to make it inside the school. "Oh now that's a cheap trick. Trying to make me give up?!" The farm boy shook his head. That truly was only his... secondary intention. "No, I'm just-" "Hah!" Dashie said, gaining a lead on him, her tail swishing furiously in the wind. Surprisingly though, she wasn't using her wings at all. Tom grunted at this before putting his all into making his legs move as quickly as possible. With an extra boost of energy he had no idea he still had, he quickly pulled neck and neck with Rainbow. Glancing forwards, he saw they were now closing in on the school house, and to his disbelief, it actually seemed like it was going to be a draw. That was until Tom was forced to a screeching halt, his eyes widening in terror for the second time today. Standing at the side of the school was that same damned pony clown. It wasn't doing anything in particular, it was just standing there.... menacingly. However, that was still enough to send his mind into a panic. "CLOWN AT 12 O'CLOCK!" Tom shrieked, actually backing away from the school now. In the meantime, Rainbow had touched the side of the cloudy building and was now laughing hysterically. It then hit him what had happened. "RAINBOW!" He had been bamboozled for the second time today! With that, Tom facepalmed himself, him sighing in shameful defeat. I solemnly swear... Once I'm done with the Germans... I will begin my war against... Dramatic pause... More of a dramatic pause.... The clowns! Anyway, after that me n' Dashie sat through a very, very boring lesson on pony economics. Apparently their system is even more medieval than their houses. You see, they use coins called 'bits.' There aren't nickel and dime-like bits, you know, worth different amounts, just golden one-bit bits. I suppose they have other ways of making payments, maybe bit-checks or something like that for the larger ones, but I never saw em'. I wish I had been paying a bit more attention during it so maybe I would know now. Unfortunately (or fortunately), me n' Dashie had just spent the entire lesson imagining funny-lookin versions of ourselves. Yeah, as it turns out the whole imagination thing worked two ways. We could see each other's creations in both worlds, and that would turn out to be a pretty darn sweet deal. One of the renditions of Rainbow Dash I conjured up, this one called 'Sweet Home Alabama Dashie', her having two large buck teeth and a dumb-lookin grin on her face, was something that needed to be seen by somebod- somepony, at least. It was darn good work of imaginary art. However, she got back at me by making a version of myself with overly large arms and a big nose. Even I had to laugh out loud at it. The class started going by more quickly after that, and soon enough we were out the door and walking towards Dashie's house. Despite the fact I had already seen it, she seemed more than excited to show me it all over again. Unfortunately though, we ran into a bit of trouble on the way in the form of three trotting cliches... Three colts with brown fur blocked Dashie and Tom's path on the cloudy road that led to her house, each with wicked looking smiles on their faces. "Hey guys, look! It's the little bird who never could!" one of them laughed, pointing at a red-faced Dashie. The cyan pony growled his way. "Go eat manure, Stormfront." "Yeah, seriously. 'The little bird who never could?' That's the best insult they could come up with?" Tom chided. "Ooooooh, look who's got more attitude today," a brown colt next to Stormfront cackled. Stormfront then took a threatening step forward, inching closer to Dashie's face, her glaring daggers at him as he did so. "We saw ya runnin' back to the schoolhouse today after recess," Stormfront said. "Good thinking. Gotta train up on those legs if you can't ever use your wings!" "Ignore em', Dashie. We both know they're already full of what you told em' to eat," Tom said. "Let's just walk around." He gestured to the side. Rainbow, however, would hear none of it. She took a step forward towards Stormfront, her face now inches from his. He seemed slightly taken aback by this; apparently Dashie sticking up for herself wasn't something they were used to. "I will too be able to use them, and one day I'll be faster than the three of you combined!" she growled. Stormfront quickly composed himself and laughed in her face. "Yeah right! All you do is slack off all day in class. I doubt you've got the ambition to train your wings, either!" His nasty little smirk then returned to his face. "This coming from the clowns who wouldn't shut up about the gryphons and let your teacher talk... definite signs of ambition there," Tom snarked. "I just don't care about stupid stuff like pony history, and neither do you three! I see you three sleeping in class all day too, you know!" she said angrily. Stormfront and his two cronies seemed to be taken aback by that. He inched slightly away from her face. "Well... uh... it's cus we're so smart we don't need to!" The other two nodded in agreement. "Yeah right. A Changeling Drone has more brainpower than you three, now get out of my freakin' face!" The three stood there somewhat dumbstruck, not budging, their tiny brains desperately trying to think of new ways to come back at the mare who had stood up for herself. It was then that Tom had an idea. Concentrating hard, the world became a canvas to him. With a mental brush he quickly modified the three colt's faces, giving them overly large snouts and bucked-teeth. They were now even dumber looking than before. Dashie realized what had happened immediately, and with that she turned her head towards Tom with an appreciative smile. Soon, she began to chuckle at the trio of bullies, their faces becoming riddled with confusion. They didn't seem to know how to respond to that, either. "What's so funny, dodo?!" Stormfront asked. "It's your faces!" Dashie giggled. The three glanced at each other. Somewhat self-consciously, the one who hadn't spoken before asked, "what's wrong with my face?" Stormfront then cleared his throat. "Whatever, let her laugh, she's probably crazy in the head!" he then tilted his head to the side. "Let's just get out of here..." With that, the trio of bullies cleared the street, Dashie still giggling. She then turned towards Tom, another warm, appreciative smile coming his way. "I hate to sound cheesy for the fifth time today, but you seriously are the best friend anypony could have, you know that, right?" Tom returned the warm smile. "Those three definitely had it coming, and it definitely felt good. I come from a place where it's seen well for everyone to stick together, the times being tough and all. 'Putting people down to prop themselves up don't do anyone good', my pap always says, 'because in the end we're all equally in the hole, and no amount of name calling will ever boost you out of it'. Cus of that, I can't stand bullies... pony or human, especially if they're messing with you." Dashie quirked an eyebrow, her smile not fading. "So that's what you're called? Humans?" Tom blushed slightly, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. "Yeah, it's silly. I don't know why I said we were called 'persons' before." "Humans...." Dashie said, sounding it out, her entering a mode of deep thought. "Kind of a neat word... Why does it ring a bell, though?" Her eyes then widened. "Wait a minute..." With a gasp, she suddenly began to dart back towards her house. "Woah, wait up Dashie! My legs still hurt from earlier!" Tom called. "But I have something I want to show you! Come on!"