//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: A Distorted Reality // by URMajin //------------------------------// The sun rose as it did every morning. Giratina shared his goodbyes with the two sisters before making his way to Fluttershy’s home. He was strangely intrigued by the cottage’s design and the animals who were attracted to it. As he walked by, different animals stared at him before running away, startled by the newcomer. He thought nothing of it, instead, he made his way towards the entrance and knocked on the front door. It took a few minutes however Fluttershy opened the door and peeked her head out. At first, she was surprised by his appearance, almost startled, but she reminded herself that he wasn't a threat and opened the door fully. “G...Good morning,” Greeted Fluttershy. “Welcome to my… My home. Please watch where you're going, I don't… I don't want any of my friends to be frightened…” “Good morning, I shall keep that in mind,” Said Giratina as he stepped inside. He was surprised by the amount of small creatures running and flying about. To him, it seemed to be a peaceful yet chaotic environment.  Once he began to walk around, most of the animals were made aware of his presence. All but one, which was a white rabbit. The two of them caught each other’s gaze and stared at each other for what felt like hours. However, only a few seconds had passed and the two nodded at each other, seemingly accepting each other's presence. Fluttershy looked over at the two and gave Giratina a little smile. “Oh…! That’s Angel… He tends to be a bit… Bossy but he’s very sweet.” Giratina nodded his head, acknowledging the information given to him. “I see…” He responded before turning back to Fluttershy. “May you show me where I shall be staying?” “Oh..! Of course!” Fluttershy nervously chuckled before walking over to a spare room. “Here, this will be where you’ll sleep… Don't worry! I've made sure none of my… of my friends would bother you!”  Giratina nodded his head once again. “Allow me to ask, do you know where Rainbow Dash is? I would like to ask her for some flying lessons.” “Flying? Why… Why flying?” Fluttershy asked with a suspicious tone. “Ah, the gravity in this world is not the same as my own, it’s a strange thing to understand but it hinders my ability to fly which was why I was hoping to ask lessons from her.” Fluttershy was a bit doubtful although she gave him the benefit of the doubt and nodded her head. “Well… She might be at her home… If… If you’re still struggling to fly then… Then I’ll get her for you.” “Thank you, that would be much appreciated.” “Alright, uhm… Would you like me.. to get her now?” “Yes, I'd like to get started as soon as I can.” Fluttershy nodded her head before she made her way out of the cottage with Giratina following behind her. She began to fly up into the sky, leaving the hexapod by himself.  Fluttershy soon arrived at Rainbow Dash’s house and awkwardly knocked on the door. “Rainbow? Uhm, I’d like to ask you something…” She called out in her meek voice. Rainbow dash opened the door and tilted her head. “Yeah? What’s up?” “Ah… You see…” Fluttershy began. “Giratina said that… Because of the gravity here, he can’t fly properly… He… He was asking if you could give him some flying lessons.” “Well, he came to the right person!” Rainbow Dash said proudly. “The fastest pegasus in Ponyville would love to give him a lesson or two!” With that, Rainbow dash zipped back down to the ground, causing Fluttershy to spin around from her speed. Giratina was surprised to see Rainbow speeding her way over to him with Fluttershy far behind. She came to a sudden halt in front of him with a big grin. “So! I heard you want some flying lessons from me!” Rainbow Dash said quite arrogantly.  “Yes, you will help me?” Giratina asked. “Yup! Now come on! Let’s go to some clear area to make this more easier with fewer distractions and obstacles!” She soon zoomed away in a certain direction, leaving Giratina to follow behind.  Once the two had found a clear area, Rainbow Dash began her first lesson with him. “Okay, do you know how to fly first of all?” Rainbow asked as she lifted herself off the ground using her wings. “Ah, yes, I believe so…” Replied Giratina as he began to flap his bat-like wings and lift himself off the ground. It took a while as he was not used to this form and the gravity although he was sure he’d ease into it after some practice. “Awesome!” Rainbow cheered as she began to fly forward at a slow pace. “Here, try to follow me!”  Giratina tilted his head, unsure of how. Before he could even ask, Rainbow was ready to give an answer. “All you gotta do is give yourself a little thrust! If it helps, go back on the ground and give yourself a running head start, like this!” Rainbow got back on the ground and ran up before she used that momentum to thrust herself and fly forward. Giratina nodded his head and mimicked her running head start before he jumped up and used his wings to thrust himself ahead. “How do you slow down?” He asked, beginning to worry about his momentum as it was faster than Rainbow Dash at the moment. “Just pull yourself back a little!”  Giratina followed, leaning back as his speed began to decline. It soon reached a state where he was simply hovering rather than flying ahead. “Yeah! That's it!” Rainbow said proudly as she flew to his side and gave him a pat on the back. “For now we’ll work on the basics, flying forward, turning left, right, and back, stopping, slowing down, speeding up- then we’ll work on gliding and soaring!” “Will there be other techniques I will learn from you?” “Nah, not really! I think the things I'll be teaching you for today would be enough to last till the sun sets! So now, let's continue!” Giratina nodded his head, staying mid-air as Rainbow dash flew in front of him. “Now, it should be pretty obvious how to turn, right? You just gotta lean to the side you wanna go to!” She began. “First, let's try when we’re not moving! Just leaaaannn like this!” She leaned over to her right side, causing her to spin to her right. Giratina nodded as he followed what she had done, leaning to the right. Once he had noticed he turned, he tried to lean on his left side, and then until he did a 180 and a 360 spin. “Yeah! You got it! It’s the same thing when you're moving but you gotta be slick with it!” Rainbow Dash began to fly around, turning left and right. “Oh yeah! I’ll show you how to go up and down later cause that's a whole different thing!” Giratina began to move forward, at first he started at a slow pace, getting used to turning around before he sped himself up. After a few minutes of turning around a few cones Rainbow Dash had set up while he was practicing, he was already used to it. “Alright! Now before I teach you about going up and down, let’s try to speed up and slow down!” She said. “If you wanna speed up, flap your wings as fast as you want! And to slow down, you gotta change the angle of your wings.” She landed on the ground and showed him an example, lifting her wings up so it was at a higher angle. “Like this, this is how you slow down! Cause the wind and all that.” Giratina hummed as he observed her wings and the angle it was at. He began to fly up and attempted to increase his speed by flapping his wings faster before he held it at a certain angle, which caused him to slow down. While he held it at that angle, he tried to flap his wings slower than he did before, finally reaching to a full stop. “Aha! Look at that! You’re really good at this!” Rainbow Dash said with a big grin. “Man, one day I bet you'll be as fast as me! Not faster though, cause I bet you can’t make a sonic rainboom like I did!” “A sonic rainboom?” Giratina repeated with a curious tone. “May I ask what that is?” “It’s like a mix of a sonic boom and the rainbow effect! I made a huge circle that had the colors of the rainbow and I got my cutie mark at that exact moment!” She said with a proud tone, showing off her cutie mark as she explained. “I see…” Giratina muttered before he nodded his head. “Well, shall we move on to the next lesson?” “Yup!” Rainbow nodded her head. “Now, let me show you how you fly up! All you gotta do is have enough lift to help you out! So make sure the wind is pushing you up and have your wings like this to help them out, but you gotta flap your wings too!” She demonstrated first, flying up and reaching a certain height before Giratina followed along. It took him a minute or two to properly reach the same height as Rainbow dash and he insisted on another try, this time getting it right after a few seconds. “Now, to go down, you just gotta lean yourself down a little, not completely cause that’s a nose dive and you're going to hurt yourself that way!” Rainbow dash warned as she demonstrated the safer way to fly down. “This one is basically gliding!” Giratina nodded his head and followed along, keeping his wings out and his body at a slight angle of depression, and finally hit the ground softly. Rainbow turned towards him. “Let’s try the faster way! I know you’ll be fine, all you gotta know is that you have to have your front hooves ready to soften the impact. Watch me first!”  Rainbow flew up before pointing her body at an angle of depression and flew down faster than before. Before landing, she used her front hooves to soften the impact before her back hooves reached the ground. She turned to Giratina once again. “Did you get that?” Giratina nodded his head. He flew up once again and prepared himself. He dove down, holding out his front hooves as he prepared to hit the ground. He landed on his front hooves first before the back two, landing softly as Rainbow dash did.  “Woo! We’re almost done and it’s only the afternoon!” Rainbow cheered proudly. “Now, I’m pretty sure we got soaring down, I just have to make sure that you can soar for longer! And here’s how we do that!” Rainbow Dash zoomed away for a moment, leaving Giratina by himself. She soon arrived back with a cloud. “Man, I just saw Apple Bloom with a hula hoop while balancing some plates, how weird-” “Apple Bloom?” “Yeah, Applejack’s little sister,” Said Rainbow Dash. “Man, she must have gotten her cutie mark, I can’t wait till Scootaloo gets hers. And before you ask, Scootaloo’s like my younger sister!” Giratina nodded his head before looking at the cloud she had. “What is the cloud for?” He asked. “Ah, here,” She gave it a kick with her hind hooves, causing a huge gust of wind to begin blowing. “Try to stay soaring for 5 minutes with this! Soaring is like gliding, just keep your wings out and have it so that your wings are pushing the wind down to help you stay up in the air.” Giratina nodded his head as he flew up towards the wind, being blown back by the force before he flapped his wings to stay in a steady position and began soaring. He had to adjust his wings once in a while to ease himself to a better position and not be pushed back. Minutes passed and finally, Rainbow Dash gave the cloud another kick, causing the wind to halt. Giratina glided his way back to the ground and rested on his hooves. “Ah, I must admit, that was a bit of a pain…” He said before Rainbow Dash laughed gleefully. “Aha! It feels like that when you haven't used your wings in a while! All you gotta do is give them a stretch!” She said as she stretched out her wings, motioning Giratina to follow. Giratina nodded his head and began to stretch his wings out as well.  “Ah, with that over with, what shall we do next?” Giratina asked, expecting there to be more to learn. Rainbow Dash grinned brightly. “There’s nothing left to learn actually!” She gave the hexapod a or on the back. “Now just keep practicing while I set up a nice testing grounds to see if you pass my lessons!” “Alright, how long shall that take?” He inquired. “Hmm, maybe an hour? I’m gonna make it more difficult since you mastered all of these pretty quickly!” Rainbow Dash patted his back. “I’ll be off now! Train here until you're ready!” She zoomed away in an instant, excited to prepare the testing grounds. Giratina nodded his head as he began to fly around the clearing, turning every once in a while. He decided to give himself a challenge and began to fly around a few trees, turning left and right to dodge them and sometimes flying over a few trees if they were too small for him.  Eventually, he felt like he was used to his new form involving flight, it was not the same as his previous form as he was able to float around and the change of gravity was something he had gotten used to now. Previously Giratina was able to float around in the distortion would due to the lack of gravity although, in the dimension, he felt the gravitation pull which definitely caught him off once in a while.  It had been past an hour and Rainbow finally returned with a gleeful smile. “Hey! Big fellow! It’s ready! Come along!” She said as she flew up into the sky with the hexapod following close behind her. The two pierced through the clouds, revealing a well-created and difficult obstacle course made entirely out of clouds.  “This is the obstacle course! Pretty cool, amirite?” Rainbow Dash said with a grin as she crossed her arms pridefully. “Yes, I am looking forward to completing this.” “But! There’s a catch!” “And what may that be?” Rainbow Dash grinned once again. “You’ll be going up against me!” Giratina nodded his head, unfazed by the catch. “Alright, shall we begin?” Rainbow nodded her head as the two made their way to the starting line. “3…” Both ponies began to prepare themselves, getting into position. “2…” Rainbow Dash glanced over at Giratina, observing his facial expression. He seemed very calm, she didn't know how to feel about that. She decided that maybe she can go a bit faster than what she intended to go. “1…!” She brought her focus back on the track and grinned, she was the one who made the track, she knew how it goes. She was confident that she was going to win. “Go!” The two began flying, Giratina’s speed matching Rainbow Dash’s. She hadn’t expected that so she began to speed up, causing Giratina to speed up as well to stay on track with her. The two sped through the course, taking sharp turns and flying up and down, dodging and going through whatever obstacle was on their way.  The course tested out all that Giratina had learned, speeding up, slowing down. turning, flying up and going down, as well as soaring over a certain section. With this, he began to understand his new form and this new way of traveling. To him, it seemed far different from his previous form, although there were some similarities, the gravity he felt and the structure of his body was something he had to get used to and finally did. It was at the final section, both of them kept speeding up, trying to take the lead over the other. Giratina may not have seen this as a race but Rainbow Dash did. Seeing him inch closer and ahead of her gave her the motivation to go faster and faster just so that he wouldn't take the lead. Both zoomed across the finish line and slowed down, Rainbow was catching her breath while Giratina stood up and stretched his wings. “No, no, no!” Rainbow whined. “That was too close to tell! Let’s do it again.” Giratina nodded his head, “If you insist.” He said. The two started the course once again and as before, it ended off too close to tell. This resulted in another one, then another one, then another.  It was the evening, Rainbow Dash was out of breath from all the racing she had done. “One...More…!” She muttered out as she stood on her hooves. “Rainbow Dash, I believe we should take a break and do this another day,” Giratina suggested. “You have been training me since the morning, I do not recall you ever eating or drinking something.” Rainbow Dash groaned before her stomach grumbled. He was right, she had been so focused on training and teaching him that she was starving and exhausted. “Fine…! Next time, I’ll finish first!” Giratina nodded his head. He watched as she returned to her home and waved goodbye before making his way back to Fluttershy’s home.  Once he arrived, he saw Fluttershy busy feeding and caring for the animals. She spotted him as well and waved at him. “Hello… Did everything… Did everything go well?” Asked Fluttershy. “Yes,” Responded Giratina. He glanced over at the table and saw a meal left there. “I am assuming that this is for me?” “Yes… I hope it's alright.” “Thank you.” He took the plate before turning to Fluttershy. “I’ll be taking this to my room and finishing it there. I hope you don’t mind.” “Oh, I don't… Enjoy…!” Giratina simply nodded his head and entered his room. He settled the plate on the table before he began to eat. He did not need to eat at all although he thought it would be impolite to decline a meal made for him. As he ate, he glanced up at the sky once again, thinking of all the flying he had done today. His wings were a little sore although they were nothing too bothersome for him. However, he was glad to get the opportunity to fly. Learning in this new dimension was something he was interested in and he could not wait for new information to learn about this place known as Equestria.