I am Sparrow Feather, gryphon lord of the Everfree and Prince of Equestria. And today I’m struggling to finish the task at claw.
“We’re almost there daddy!” Scootaloo calls out from behind me. We had been flying for almost an hour and so far weren’t running into any problems. Scoots had managed to get twenty other fans to have permission slips signed allowing them to go to cloudsdale. Unexpectedly Cheerilee had insisted that she come along, and her being older than me I decided not to argue and let her come along, it’s not like the extra weight would kill me. The act consisted of flying an area of land the exact size of the stadiums lower outlet to the stadium. Being there is no floor Rainbow, Scoots, and I rigged beams to hold the platform in place while the kids, and now adult, watched and cheered.
“Featherweight, how far is the stadium from here?” Scoots asked. The poor love stricken pegasus was flying back and forth between Scoots and Cheerilee and making sure every pony knew what they were doing, as well as the rules.
“Hold on,” He replies diving down to the ground. Earlier that morning I had instructed all the fillies and colts, that they were not to leave the dirt, and to make sure that if Cheerilee called them they were paying enough attention to hear her. After having walked to the land mass we had carefully measured, I began checking the various chains I had bolted to the flight pad. finding they were tight I moved to the center of the pad.
“Hey Dad, how heavy do you think this thing is?” Scoots asked. I took the time to think about that before I answered.
“Well once you kids are on it, more than likely it will weigh about three tons,” I answered after figuring the amount of weight per pony. The days I had spent training for this had paid off, and I was moving at a good pace and nothing had gone wrong, later Scoots told me there were Pegasi flying along side the platform.
“If you speed up, we can be there in about fifteen minutes Dad,”
“Tell Feathers to warn the kids that I’m gonna pick up the pace, and have them all move to the middle,” I ordered knowing that if I put on the speed the platform would tip and I didn’t want the kids rolling off with the height we were at. When scoots gave me the all clear I put on the heat and began flapping my wings harder, and harder, climbing steady till Scoots let off the pedal. I was now beginning to feel the burn from the lifting harness around my shoulders and hips, knowing the pain I would feel long after this was over I began to question if I should have done this or not.
No stow that thinking idiot, you know why you’re doing this and there ain’t no going back.
Almost ten minutes later, by the sounds of cheering I realized we were almost at the stadium and Scoots began putting pressure on the pedal letting me know to slow down, and get ready to lower the area into the center.
“Going down Dad, nice and easy. ... Almost there, slower, slower, perfect!” Scoots yelled, mashing the pedals and digging into my skin. As the weight on my shoulders lessened I slowly drifted down to the pad, removed the harness, and walked off to the side where Scootaloo hopped off and ran to her club and started preparing them to support their hero, as I walked off the dirt and into the clouds to sit and listen as Dashie performed for her crowd.
“That was quite a feat of strength out there,” Some unknown mares voice called from beside me. I rose to my feet and turned my head towards her voice.
“Thank you, it was my honour to do so,” I answered. Not being able to see was beginning to agitate me, as I could not be more personal with whomever I spoke to.
*sniff* *sniff* “Judging by the smell I’d be hard pressed to believe that I am speaking to Spitfire, the current captain of the Wonderbolts, and hero to Rainbow Dash, Yes?”
“Thats me. Say can I ask you a question?”
“Fire away, I don’t mind at all,” I reply.
“Why are you wearing a blindfold?” The question took me off guard. Earlier that morning I had put a bandana over my eyes to cover the wrappings that AJ and I used to help heal my wounded face.
“Well if you wouldn’t mind I could use some help removing it, Scootaloo got it a bit tight, and it’s beginning to hurt,” I answered. A moment later she undid the bandana and pulled it off.
“Wow you really must have done a number on your face,” She comments.
“Yes I did. Now Miss Spitfire, if you had to choose a new member for the wonderbolts, what qualities would you like?” I asked. I was genuinely curious, and also had an ulterior motive.
“Well in all honesty, I would like to find a pony, or gryphon, or a dragon that, has spirit, potential, honesty, courage, grit, and is a kind character,”
“Quite a laundry list of a character ain’t it?”
“I’d like to think of it as a way to judge a new face,” She explains.
“Well, how would you feel if that one, person if you will, was here today and you overlooked them?”
“I suppose I would be upset, why?”
“Because for about oh, five years, you will overlook one of your strongest candidates, by that time someone will take your place, and near the middle of their term as captain they will finally pick that one who patiently waited, waited for years, hoping they might finally get to fly with the hero they so faithfully followed. That one faithful person will make you proud, but she will never know you cared unless you tell her, that pony, that filly, is down there cheering on her hero and yet she has no clue you care about her future, and you, will only be known to that filly as her hero’s hero, unless you go down there and introduce yourself to her. And if you don’t she will struggle to ever see her potential,” I tried my hardest to explain how important she was to Scootaloo’s future, all the time wondering how I knew all this but writing it up as being part alicorn.
“You make it sound like I’m pretty important if this filly is ever going to grow up,” She replies.
“Oh believe me, no pony, not Celestia, or Luna, not even me, is as crucial as you,”
“Then I guess I better pay her a visit eh?” She says flying off.
Now if only I knew how I knew all of that.
“Well its been an amazing day here at the tryouts and there have been quite a few amazing acts!” The announcer bellows. “We’ll give the Wonderbolts a few minutes to decide and then they will announce today’s winner,” He continued. flicked my ears back and laid my head back down. on my arms. I was hoping Scootaloo had a great time, as it would be a bit before I came back up here, I didn’t mind the height or the chill, just everything being made out of clouds was kind of unnerving.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts, the judges have made their decision. and the winner is, Sparrow Feather!” the announcer shouted.
Well time to be amazing. I thought to myself. I made my way back to the center of the arena and back to the harness so I could take Cheerilee and the kids home. As I reached the center of the arena, the crowd’s massive cheers suddenly stopped. I slipped the harness on and strapped the guide box back on.
“Well Sparrow are you going to head to the Wonderbolts skybox, and find out where you’ll be staying?” Some strange feminine voice asked.
*Sniff* *Sniff* “No Princess Luna, I will not, it would be quite ridiculous for a blind gryphon to train with pegasi that are out of his league, it would be better fitting for second place to go in my stead as the winner,”
“Well then folks, today’s winner is fan favorite Rainbow Dash!” The announcer yelled. No sooner had the announcer finished, than the crowd was roaring again, and amidst the roaring Somepony whispered in my ear that they would send a chariot to my house to fetch me.
The princess wants my company, how flattering.
A few moments later Scootaloo hopped on, strapped in and we headed back to the launch pad. Once we landed Cheerilee took a roll call and sent them home.
“Sparrow I want to thank you for doing this today it meant a lot to my school children, and it was wonderful to see them so happy,”
“It was nothing Miss Cheerilee, but can I ask you for a favor?”
“Of course,”
“Could you help me wash my face, the princess is sending a chariot to get me and I would like to look presentable in front of her?” halfway into my question I began blushing and lowered my head trying to hide it.
“Oh dear.” Cheerilee remarked. “If the princess wants to see you then I suppose you really would like your face cleaned and re wrapped?”
“Yes I would, thank you so much,” I replied thanking her. A few minutes later I walked out of the schoolhouse washroom with fresh wrappings and a refreshed feeling on my face. Saying goodbye to Cheerilee, Scootaloo and I walked back to the house.
“Dad, what does it mean to be blind?” She asks.
“It means that you can’t see, honey,” I answered.
“So you can’t see mee?” She asks, sounding as if though she would cry.
“No, honey, I can’t see you. But I remember what you look like, and I don’t want to find that your beautiful face is stained with tears,” I told her having stopped and held her face in my claw close to my face. “And honey no matter what happens, I will always love you, and nothing can change that,” I said hugging her tight and stroking her mane while she cried into my chest feathers. when she finished we continued walking till we got to the house, I went inside and grabbed my hoodie and a snack for Scoots, then we boarded the carriage and left.
“ONWARDS & UPWARDS! ALLONSY!”