Our little group, not counting our security detail, was directed to a large amphitheater in the clouds where we got to sit in a box seat no less. It was located in a row of box seats just above the first tier of bleachers. Behind us were three more tiers, but the bottom tier is what was filling up. Security fanned out and we waited.
After a while a Wonderbolt, who is nearly as pale as me with a bright yellow puffy mane and tail that reminded me of Pinkie, trotted out onto the stage at the base of the amphitheater. It came as no surprise to me when she started making balloon animals. After all, she is just there to be a distraction. Still, though, it was fun to watch her antics.
“I’m going to get a balloon animal,” Scootaloo announced and started for the exit.
“Scootaloo, stay please.” Lofty called.
“But?”
“Where are you going to hold it?” I asked. “There’s bound to be an opportunity later on. Your mom is Commander Spitfire, after all.”
“Right she is!” exclaimed the pony who’d been on stage not a moment before as she popped up in our booth.
“Gaahhh!” I protested as I fell over backward. “You’re as bad as Pinkie!”
“Ooo, high praise,” She replied, and the next thing I knew I had a balloon crown on my head, followed by guards attempting to tackle the crazy Wonderbolt only to miss.
“Oh, we are over-eager,” Surprise chastised with a wink as she pronked away.
“Lieutenant Sloe Poke Surprise, knock it off!” Spitfire shouted as she dropped into the box. “Honestly, you are lucky you didn’t get blasted dropping in on them like that.”
Mom’s horn is lit and perhaps the only reason she hadn’t blasted LT Surprise was due to an inability to get a clear shot.
“As long as she’s here, Scootaloo wanted a balloon animal,” I offered.
“Right you are,” Lt Surprise affirmed and a moment later Scootaloo has a balloon something or another. It was looking strangely draconequus like.
But never mind the balloon. Spitfire escorted Lt Surprise back to the front, mom relaxed and a moment or two later Spitfire was welcoming everyone to Flight Camp. What came next was the usual safety precautions and then our introduction to the gathered ponies.
“Today we have Princess Luna and her daughter Nova joining us,” Spitfire announced. “Security will be keeping an eye out for any creature trying to cause them trouble.” Her announcement generated a fair number of murmuring in the gathered flock of pegasi. “Princess Luna, how about giving everyone a friendly wave?”
Luna stood up, walked to the front of our box, and called out, “How do I know if I’m doing a friendly wave or not? I’m still learning modern manners.”
“Jus… just wave, smile, and wave,” Spitfire said with a big grin.
I bust up laughing.
“Care to share?” Mom asked as she looked back at me.
“Snerk – take too long to explain! Aah, ha, ha, ha, he, he, he, snicker. Smile and wave. Smile and wave.”
“What’s going on up there?” Spitfire called up.
“I have no idea?” Mom called back, smiled, and waved her right front hoof as she looked about at the wide-eyed faces. “Something about smile and wave, but it’d take too long to explain.”
“So, perhaps Princess Nova would like to say high to everyone?” Spitfire called.
“Hi everyone!” I call out as I pop up so ponies can see me. I have a big infectious smile on my face as I do the pony equivalent of an elbow-pivot wave. Scootaloo gets up next to me and mirrors my movement.
Our reward is a brief moment of silence followed by an outbreak of giggles sweeping across the amphitheater.
“And the little darling with them is my very own Scootaloo,” Spitfire offered with a big smile.
Stunned silence followed.
“Yes, she’s my daughter and I’m her mother,” Spitfire added. She’s with the Princesses due to her Aunts being the Royal nannies. It just sort of worked out that way.
“For those of you who have been following the News,” Spitfire continued, “The Palace has been having issues with ponies who have been less than on their best behavior. Princess Nova signed up for flight camp before any pony knew who she was, and following the incidents, Princess Luna was unwilling to let her out of her sight. Ergo the reasons for this year’s heavy security presence.
“And now it’s time to form up our groups,” Spitfire announced followed by cheering. She waited a moment. “We’ve all got our color-coded badge. Just look for the Wonderbolt with the same colored badge. I’ll be leading the greens, Soarin has purple...”
I didn’t bother to listen any further and as every pony in our group had purple tags we all got up and made our way up to the front. Granted that we probably should have waited, but then no pony else was much for waiting either. The moment Spitfire announced her color group all sprang up and a form of semi-controlled chaos soon followed.
“Rumble!” I called on seeing him. He’d the same color and I couldn’t be happier. We were soon joined by Featherweight, Zipporwhill, Wind Sprint, and Cotton Cloudy. Cotton Cloudy was sort of an off-white grayish pony with a sea-foam-colored main and tail, and Wind Sprint looked suspiciously like she might be related to the Sparkles.
“Oh gee, golly, wiz, I get to be in the same group as a princess.”
That voice. Oh dear god.
I turn towards the voice and sure enough, it’s Cozy Glow. Well, it is, and it isn’t. She’s bouncing excitedly, but the super-tight Shirley Temple curls just aren’t there. Surprising me even further her cutie mark was not the familiar red tower, but a golden heraldic rook. Gone were the battlements at the top of the tower-like structure replaced by two stylized wings looking a bit like a jesters cap.
My mind immediately clicked on the origins of the Rook. That rook cutie mark was shouting out protector and quite possibly meant she was destined to pull a chariot.
“I heard about that pony who went after you at the school. You must have been so scared,” Cozy stated in a drawn-out way that seemed more accusatory than questioning.
She was still bucking annoying.
“Cozy dear, manners,” scolded a light alabaster mare with a pink curly mane and tail.
“Oh, that’s right. Do please forgive me, your Majesty,” Cozy stated while doing a slight curtsy.
“Miss Cozy Glow, it’s ‘Highness’ and if you could, please say ‘Miss’ instead of Ma’am,” I requested as nicely as I could. “And if you must know, by the time I’d figured out what was going on I was too full of adrenaline to be scared. That and angry. At first, I didn’t know what was going on. You see I have a charmed amulet that I wasn’t allowed to use during testing and I thought that just maybe the amulet had been boosting my magic. When I realized there was someone in the room actively hindering me it occurred to me that they were there to block entrance into the school of ponies not already approved of by certain parties unknown to myself.”
“So you got mad and assaulted them, was it?” Cozy accused. Everyone who heard her accusation just stopped everything they were doing.
“Miss Cozy Glow, I was being actively assaulted by an adult pony. Every effort I made to break free of their intentions was being countered. The other adults in the room had no clue what was going on, or if they did they failed to react in time to help. That pony fully intended to do me harm. As is I was taxing my abilities to the limits. My last-ditch effort to make them stop caused me to pass out. Had they anticipated my last spell and countered it, I might not be here now.” I took a breath and let it out slowly, fairly sure my ears had gone back in an aggressive display.
“Now, if you’ve any other misconceptions, I’d be more than happy to help you out if I can.”
“Well, I read that-”
“Whatever you read, doesn't apply to ponies like me.”
“Miss Cozy,” Mom interjected. “My daughter has a talent for doing the impossible.
“And Nova, I realize recent events have been difficult, but that’s no reason to lash out.”
“Alright, if I can get every pony together who’s in my group?” Soarin called cutting off any retort I might have had. “Come on, every pony this way.”
“I sure hope those fuzzy wings don’t give you a problem,” Cozy offered as we followed our assigned Wonderbolt. “Those long thin wings don’t look like they’re going to be much good. I read that wide wings get more lift.”
“Sleek bodies move through the air with less drag,” I countered. “But don’t worry, pigeons can fly too.”
“Terms you should be familiar with,” Soarin said as he walked along and Cozy fumed. “Are thrust, lift, drag, gravity, G-force, apparent weight, and the physical effects of g-forces. Pegasi have the largest sternum along with some more bird-like features needed for flight. Your movement vectors are pitch, yaw, and roll. Think of pitch as the direction you go when your nose goes up or down with your body matching the movement. Yaw is when you turn your body on a flat plane, and roll is just rolling over. Something I’m sure you can all do.”
Cozy lifted one wing high into the air bouncing to get Soarin’s attention. He stopped and the group stopped with him. “If you need to use the little fillies room there are little porta-stations strategically positioned,” He offered and then pointed out several little cloud towers that looked suspiciously like pigeon lofts.
“Oh good golly no, Mr Soarin, I had a flight question,” Cozy stated, sounding annoyed.
“Which is, Miss?” Soarin asked.
“Well, I read that smooth wide wings get the best lift.”
“And your question?”
The irony here was that my long wings were every bit as wide as hers and only looked thinner when folded.
“Well, wouldn't fuzzy wings be a hindrance to flight?”
“Not at all. Smooth or fuzzy, each set of wings have their own unique characteristics. Flight is obtained by combining thrust and lift. All thrust and you’ll never be able to glide. Lift without thrust will get a flier off the ground but they aren’t going to go very far without a thermal to ride on, and may even find themselves walking a lot. Ponies obtain flight by overcoming gravity with lift and thrust. So long as we have enough lift and thrust to overcome gravity, we will fly.” He looked about at where we were. We’d passed out of the amphitheater to a large open expanse of clouds that looked a bit like gently rolling hills.
“Alright, I’d say this is as good a place as any,” Soarin announced. “I want every pony to spread out and we are going to start with some basic exercises.”
“Pardon, I’m going to need a little more room,” I prompted of the ponies next to me. Cozy was right on my nine o'clock position.
“Oh my gosh, I should have known a Princess would need more room,” Cozy stated in a tone that was really starting to sound like she was mocking me. My keen hearing picked up the voice of Cozy’s mother hissing at her to be polite.
“I’m so sorry, I should know better than to presume that I might need more room, just because I’m a princess,” I said loudly while unfolding my left wing and bringing the wrist portion of my wing down to pat her on the head. I’m rewarded with giggling from the other foals.
“When I said spread out, I meant spread out,” Soarin called out. “Stretch out your wings as far as they’ll go and start side-stepping until you all have plenty of room. Both wings, come on, spread out.”
To both my delight and annoyance Cozy had to be physically moved. Although, the thing that bugged me the most is that I couldn't tell if she was doing it intentionally or if she just didn’t understand that what she was doing wasn’t appreciated. At least I’d be relatively free of her for the moment.
Soarin set to having us do some wing stretches, first, one wing straight out, followed by the other, forward sweep, and then back. Rotating our wing wrist clockwise and then counterclockwise…
My wing intersected with another. “Cozy, what are you doing?!” Yes, Cozy Glow had slowly shifted closer and closer until she’d gotten so close we were bound to mesh. And I was sure it had been her short of the clouds had been shifting under my hooves.
“Oh golly, I’m so sorry, was I in your way?”
“Cozy, whatever it is you are doing, stop it,” Her mother scolded as she trotted over. Now move back over to where we put you.
“But I just want the princess to like me,” Cozy protested.
“I’m not going to like you very much if you get me hurt from trying too hard,” I scolded. “For heaven’s sake, just relax and try to be mindful of your actions.”
To my bewilderment she looked more surprised than scolded.
“We can talk later, alright?”I offered hopefully.
“I, I guess. It’s just that you might be in danger,” Cozy replied cheerfully enough.
“Cozy, we are surrounded by security,” I offered. My mind clicked on an idea. “Listen, are you any good at feeling air currents?” She nodded her head. “Well then, the best way to help is to feel for, how should I put this, anything out of place that doesn't quite make sense.”
“Invisibility charms have their weaknesses,” Scootaloo informed her. “The stallion that went after her in the school was too clever for his own good and gave himself away. Clouds will reveal an unseen presence, and the wind has tells too. I’ve been practicing. I’m better at hearing the earth.”
“You can hear the earth?” Cozy asked incredulously.
“Mixed heritage,” I provided.
“Are we quite done over there?” Soarin asked.
“Oh, golly Mr Soarin, I’m sorry,” Cozy replied.
“Alright, next I want every pony to move your wings up and down really fast,” Soarin commanded. He smiled as he looked out over the foals. Most weren’t going anywhere. Scootaloo, Rumble, and I went straight up.
“Alright, you can stop,” Soarin called.
Scootaloo and Rumble cupped their wings to drop back down softly on the cloud surface, and I decided to create a quick little platform to perch on.
Soarin couldn't help but smile as he looked up at me. “I see that some of you have figured out a few tricks. As for the rest of you, what went wrong? Why didn’t you lift off?” He got no answer. “I’ve no doubt you’ve all been told to just flap your wings as hard as you can.” Several individuals nodded their heads. “Hate to tell you this, but the pony who gave that advice was an idiot.”
“Rainbow Dash always said I should flap as hard as I could,” Scootaloo offered.
“And is that what you were doing just now?” Soarin asked.
“Well, um, ah, no.”
“If all we do is flap our wings up and down it’s not going to matter how hard we flap because we’ll never get enough lift. Now, the first thing I’m going to tell you is that you are not too heavy. If you were you’d be sinking into the clouds. Pegasus magic can only go so far. That said, our magic is tied to our physical fitness. Couch potatoes never fly.” He waited a moment for the snickering to stop. “You all have your flight feathers, or at the very least, junior flight feathers. The secondary feathers and that’s this section,” He unfolded one of his wings to indicate the wrist back to the shoulder, “..is where you get most of your lift. Your primaries out on the end provide lift and thrust. To take off you have to adjust the angle of attack.” He then demonstrated by pivoting the pitch of his wing. “Bring your wing up at a steep angle, allow the air to flow through, and then sweep forward and down adjusting the pitch of the wing to push down as much air as you can. Sweep back just a bit to push forward, bend at the joints, bring up that angle of attack, and repeat the cycle.” He waited a moment, and gave me a funny look. He nearly burst into laughter when my horn started glowing followed by my little cloud dropping back down to merge with the clouds we were standing on. “Alright, I want everyone to go through the motion, slow like. You should be able to feel it working. I want you to go through the motion a few more times just so we can get that into muscle memory and I’m going to go around and check how you are doing.”
Soarin walked around the group and every so often he’d stop and give some pony some pointers.
“Your angle of attack is really shallow,” Soarin offered as he came over to me.
“It sure is,” I replied. I shifted to catch and push more air down and immediately lifted off. From there I spread my wings to soar mode, pulled up my legs, and just hung there on the slight breeze.
“Show off,” Scootaloo called.
“Most ponies have elliptical wings,” I offered. “Relatively fast and can maneuver in tight spaces. I seem to have a compound wing that favors extremely slow soaring speeds while allowing for both high speed and maneuverability. All depending on how I use my wings. Speed takes a lot of effort unless I cheat.”
“Cheat?” Soarin asked.
“I’ve found that I can increase my thrust with my unicorn magic. I can even push myself without having to flap at all.” Yes, I’d figured it out. No idea how efficient my rudimentary use of magic was, but I could do it.
“It’s a pity that’s not something I can teach everyone,” Soarin offered with a smile.
“Afraid I can’t really answer that,” I offered. “Maybe there’s a way for a pegasus to do it using only their own magic. Can’t say at the moment because I just don’t know enough about magic yet. Good possibility Rainbow Dash is doing it subconsciously simply because the kind of speeds she can obtain should by rights be impossible. Even for an alicorn without at least three different assist spells.”
“Assist spells?”
“A spell to provide propulsion, a spell to shield the body, and some way to provide good air because at those kinds of speeds it’d be difficult to breathe.” My recollection was that birds adapted to highspeed flight actually had little cones in their nostrols that worked the same way as the cones on a jet engine intended for high-speed flight. Pony nostrils didn't have that adaptation but could be folded to control the amount of airflow. It still left the issue of the air becoming rarefied when we needed it the most. Sure a Peregrin Falcon could exceed two hundred miles per hour, but that was only while in a dive and never prolonged.
“You might just be right,” Soarin replied with a grin.
Soarin walked back up to the front. “Our first exercise is going to be a little gliding, but before we can do that, you need to know how to stop.”
I couldn't help but contemplate the reality of a species born with wings not instinctively knowing how to fly, as Soarin demonstrates how to slow down and stop with wide sweeping motions of his wings. This was followed up with every pony mimicking him. More than a few found the need to do it real slow-like or get propelled backward.
“Mr Soarin, I think I did it wrong!” Cozy complained. It was all I could do to not bust up laughing at seeing her on her back, with her wings spread, and her hooves straight up. “Help I’m stuck!”
“Cozy, any chance you can pull in your wings and just roll over?” I asked.
Cozy Glow looked at me, then her left-wing, followed by pulling it in. from there she lay on her side while pulling in her right-wing.
“Well, golly gee, I must sure seem like quite the fat head to you all,” Cozy offered as she got up.
“So do you all have a general idea?” Soarin called out. He waited a few moments to see every pony’s reaction. “Alright then, it’s glide time, follow me.”
I have to admit that I am just a little excited as we follow Soarin over to a small cloud hill. Our helpers shadowing us to make sure no one somehow manages to get lost on the way.
“Alright, every pony line up. Every pony is going to get a chance. What we are going to do is have each of you glide off of the hill a short distance to practice control and landing. I can tell you what to do, but in the end, you need to figure out what you need to do. We teach you this way so we can make sure you can handle the basics before we set you loose.”
“You’re first flight,” I whisper to Scootaloo.
“Ya, I was all over the place,” Scootaloo admitted.
“Oh golly, what was it like?”Cozy asked while butting in. Meanwhile, Soarin was giving last-minute tips.
Featherweight nearly blew away and had to be fetched, Rumble had no trouble with the exercise, Zipporwhill was all over the place but somehow managed to stick her landing, Wind Sprint nosed into the clouds almost immediately and Cloudy dug a furrow through the clouds.
Some how or another Cozy Glow got ahead of Scoots and me. Naturally, she just had to impress upon Soarin all the fun little facts she knew about flying. Getting her to actually do it was proving difficult.
“Cozy, there are ponies here who can catch you if something goes wrong,” I offered in a tone I hoped would be encouraging. The downside is that her reluctance to go was making me nervous.
What better time than now to listen to the wind. Listening to the wind could be tricky with so many pegasi about. Try to imagine singling out a single ripple in a river churning with rapids.
Nothing.
Of all the tells in the wind I could find nothing that seemed suspicious. At least until I felt a small tremor. Cozy was shivering. No, make that quaking in fright. Could she be afraid? I stepped up so she could hear me whispering.
“Cozy, are you listening to the wind? Listen to her voice. So gentle and soft. Listen for her voice. It’s there, hidden under all the noise. Listen, she’s calling. Spread your wings and I will embrace you, spread your wings and I will lift you. Listen to her voice. I know you. I have known you your whole life.”
“I, I can’t,” Cozy said softly.
“It’s alright,” I offered softly. “Take a chance. Listen…”
I couldn't resist a little air pressure manipulation, a little backup music.
“Can you hear her?” I whisper.
*If you change your mind, I’m the first in line Honey I’m still free, take a chance on me…
I add my voice to the song I know so well, *“If you need me, let me know, going to be around If you’ve got no place to go if your feeling down…”
Cozy’s ears have switched from back in fright to straight-up telegraphing surprise and delight.
Suddenly she is singing along.
Could that be Heart song magic? Can’t be, it’s ABBA. Cozy spreads her wings, steps forward, adds a hop as instructed, brings down her wings, sweeps them back, in, and then forward and out to glide.
*“Going to do my very best and it ain’t no lie, if you put me to the test, if you let me try,” Cozy sang as she glided out over the clouds.
*That’s all I ask of you Honey, the wind whispered back.
Given the magic of Equestria I wasn’t entirely sure if it was my doing or the wind had actually answered.
I on the other hoof had become one with the wind. My wings spread I kept pace with her. Suddenly Scootaloo is by my side adding to the song. A moment later Mom and Soarin had joined as we’d gone much further than we were supposed to.
Cozy Glow is oblivious as she delights in the experience of flight, and when she had decided she’d gone far enough she did the stopping motion and safely set down on the clouds.
I pull up even as Cozy is delighting in the triumph of her first flight. Soarin drops down to check on her, Scootaloo and Mom follow me. A moment later cozy is back in the air. A few moments later our entire class is in the air.
Undeterred, Soarin continued the class up in the air and when lunchtime rolled along we were all hungry enough that no pony needed to be prompted twice.