Widget

by funkyferret

Flying Lessons

“Come on! Enough prep work, let’s get this show on the road!” Rainbow Dash demanded. The blue mare was sitting in the basket of a large catapult, placed in the middle of town. A group of curious bystanders had stopped to watch. She was wearing her goggles, as well as a safety helmet. “This is going to be way better than that stupid seesaw I tried to get Applejack to help me with,” she gushed. “With this much speed, my tricks are going to be so amazing. Launch me!”

Widget looked up from where she had been tinkering with the catapult’s more delicate mechanisms. She frowned at the pegasus. “I’m almost done,” she said. “I have to make sure I have it calibrated right. Otherwise your trip might be a lot… uh, shorter than we planned.”

Rainbow nodded. “Alright. I’ll give you props for coming up with such a killer idea in the first place,” she said. “So just hurry it up a little okay?”

A small clinking noise came from below. “I’m all done!” Widget declared, stepping out from underneath the device.
“Sweet,” Rainbow declared. “Now launch me on the count of five. Five… four… three… two… one… now!”

Widget pulled the trigger. The catapult twanged, and the pegasus was flung through the air. She whipped out her wings and began to perform a complex series of aerobatic stunts. Widget didn’t know the names for them, but they were amazing to watch. She gasped along with the crowd then broke into cheers with them when the daredevil had landed. “Amazing!” she declared as the pegasus approached her, waving to her fans as she flew.

Rainbow Dash puffed up her chest. “I know right?” she said. “But still, I couldn’t have done it without you kid. If you try hard enough, maybe you can be nearly as good as I am someday.”

Widget blinked. “Practice what?” she asked.

Rainbow looked at her, brow furrowed. “Flying of course!” she said.

“I don’t fly,” Widget responded flatly.

The pegasus’s eyes bulged. “Don’t fly? Then what, are your wings just for show?” She grabbed the offending digits.

Widget shrunk back slightly. She may have stopped wearing her cloak around town, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be touched. “I-I just can’t fly very well,” she said. “I’m alright for short distances, but I usually crash into things.”

“Come on! You just need more confidence!” Rainbow declared. Suddenly, she grabbed Widget. She flew her to the catapult and dumped her unceremoniously into the basket.

“What are you doing?” Widget cried.

The cyan pegasus winked at her and shoved the helmet on her head, before darting to the ground to wind up the catapult. “Relax,” she said, “You can fly, and all you need is a little encouragement. Lucky for you, I’m here to help you out.”

“I don’t think this is a very good- “Widget began. The catapult fired. “Idea… aaaaaaaahhhh!”

Rainbow Dash shaded her eyes and watched the wyrmkin hurdle through the air. Widget’s wings flapped randomly, sending her into a wild spin. “Huh,” Dash said, “I guess she wasn’t kidding.”

Twilight was in her library, reading as usual. She was studying a large dusty tome, pausing periodically to take notes. Something heavy hit the door with a loud thud, breaking her concentration. The quill she had floating in her magical grasp broke. “Ugh!” she grumbled. She marched over and yanked the door open. “Can’t you just knock like a normal pony…?” she stopped, looking down at the crumpled form lying on her doorstep. “Widget?” the unicorn asked, “What happened to you?”

Widget’s “flight” had been anything but fun. Mostly it just involved screaming and desperate twitching, which was abruptly ended by her head suddenly meeting with a solid surface. Now, she found herself being starred at by two blurry purple unicorns that slightly overlapped each other. She shook her head, and the two images coalesced into a single concerned unicorn. “It’s alright, Twilight,” she reassured the librarian. “I told you before, my body’s pretty sturdy. Sorry about the door.”

“Don’t worry, the door is just fine, so- Wait! You never answered my question! What happened?” Twilight stomped her hoof.

“There was a… incident with a catapult.” Widget said, “Somepony wanted me to take a turn, and it didn’t go as planned.”

“Who would be crazy enough to…?” Twilight began, before catching sight of a fast approaching blue blur.

“Wow,” Rainbow Dash said, “You went a lot farther than I thought! That was… What?”

Twilight was staring at her, face crunched up in a frown. “Rainbow, have you been launching random ponies for no reason?” she demanded.

“Of course not, Twilight,” the pegasus said, waving off her friend’s concern. “I was just helping Widget with her flying. I thought it was just a matter of confidence, but it looks like we’re going to have to start with the basics.”

“Well I have a book that might…” Twilight began, heading into her lecture mode.

Rainbow cut her off. “Seriously?” she asked. “Just leave it to the professionals, egg-head. I’ll have her up and flying in no time.” She grabbed Widget and dragged her off.

Twilight put her ears back and frowned again. “Professionals?” the unicorn grumbled. “She’s never taught anypony before… at least not that I know of.”

“I still don’t understand why we couldn’t let Twilight help,” Widget said.

Rainbow sighed. The two of them were walking through Ponyville, looking for a good place to practice. “She’s a unicorn!” the pegasus said, matter-of-factly. “She doesn’t know anything about flying that isn’t in those dusty old books of hers. With her as your teacher, you’ll end up like that.” Dash pointed at a pegasus who had just crashed into a nearby mailbox.

Widget cocked her head and watched the pony. The mare had a grey coat and a light-yellow mane. She was wearing a brown satchel, and was currently trying to pull her head out of the mail-slot. “Who’s that?” the wyrmkin asked.

“That’s Ditzy Doo, but everypony calls her 'Derpy Hooves'.” Rainbow explained. “She’s the mail-mare, and the clutziest flyer in town.”

Widget thought she was being overly critical. After all, if the mare was as much trouble as Rainbow Dash claimed, the town wouldn’t have given her the important task of delivering mail. Everypony was entitled to their own opinion though. She would have to ask somepony else about the unusual mare later.

“Here we go, this is as good a place as any,” Rainbow declared. They had returned to the square where the catapult was set up. Somehow, the pegasus had found a hat and whistle to wear. Dash blew the whistle, making Widget jump.

“Alright let’s get started! Now first we’ve got to get you off the ground. Let’s see you flap those wings!”

Widget shrugged. She started fanning her wings up and down.

“Harder!” Rainbow yelled.

Widget increased her pace.

“You call that flapping? Harder!” her coach yelled.

Widget flapped her wings as hard as she could. She lifted a few inches off the ground, and then slowly toppled over on her side.

Rainbow Dash face-hoofed. “Ugh,” she said. “This is going to be harder than I thought. I guess we’ll have to go over the very basics from flight school. Let’s see… you feel the natural air currents as they flow around your body, and… Buck! I never really paid attention to those dumb lessons anyways. Flying is the most natural thing in the world. Besides, you’re not a little filly who needs to hear all that stuff anyways. Let’s just try the catapult again.”

Widget’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks. She gulped.

Twilight was once again interrupted by a heavy body crashing into her library. She went outside and looked up. Widget was currently tangled in the branches of the tree-house, while Rainbow Dash worked to get her free. She sighed.

The pegasus flew up to her with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Twilight,” she said, “We umm… just had a little setback.”

“Little?” the unicorn scoffed. “If a ‘little setback’ causes somepony to crash into my library, what does a big setback do, knock the whole tree over? This is what you get for refusing my help.”

“Your help?” the blue mare demanded. “Why would we need your help? We’re doing just fine as it is.”

Widget fell to the ground next to them. “Actually… I wouldn’t mind a second opinion,” she muttered.

Rainbow frowned. “You are one weird pony,” she said.

Twilight beamed. “Let me get my books, and we can get started,” the unicorn said. She trotted off into the library.

Rainbow Dash moaned and rubbed her forehead.

Widget blinked, confused by the pegasus's actions.

Twilight sat in the open field with a book in front of her. It was entitled “The Mechanics of Flight.” Widget sat nearby, waiting for her to finish. Rainbow hung out on a cloud above them, looking disinterested. The unicorn read aloud from her book. “It says here that lift is produced by the action of air flow on the wing. This occurs because the air has a lower pressure just above the wing and higher pressure below it. When gliding, a bird or pegasus can obtain a vertical and forward force. This is possible because the lift force is generated at right angles to the air flow, which in gliding flight comes from slightly below the horizontal, because the flyer is descending. When a bird flaps, as opposed to gliding, its wings continue to develop lift as before, but the lift is rotated forward to provide thrust…” She continued on and on.

Widget did her best to listen, but after a while her eyes started to glaze over as her thoughts began to drift away. Above her head she heard soft snoring. It seemed that Rainbow wasn’t listening to the lecture either.

“Alright,” Twilight said startling Widget. “That’s the basics, so now let’s get started.”

The wyrmkin didn’t want her friend to know that she hadn’t been paying attention to her lesson. She decided to do her best. Widget understood the basic concepts of lift and drag. After all, she used them in her calculations all the time. Maybe Twilight was trying to tell her to apply a similar formula to her flying? If that was the case, then she would try her best. She sat in the grass for a minute, crunching numbers. Twilight gave her an awkward smile. Calculations finished, Widget launched herself into the air.

Twilight watched her friend’s progress. The wyrmkin had managed to get off the ground, and was making a slow circuit around the field. Her movement was jerky and distracted, but she was doing quite well. Rainbow flew down next to her.

“What the heck?” the pegasus said.

Twilight just smiled. “I guess my teaching method isn’t that bad after all. Pretty good for an egg-head, isn’t it?”

Rainbow just grumbled.

Widget’s thoughts were all over the place as she tried to run her calculations, while executing them at the same time. She figured she would have to do more than just a simple circle. Maybe she should try a loop? The math for that was going to take some work. As she focused on this new set of calculations, her wings flapped slower and slower. She didn’t notice her loss of altitude. The laws of physics decided to remind her of their existence.

“Oh my, are you alright?” a familiar voice asked.

Widget groaned and opened her eyes. Fluttershy was looking at her, concerned. “Ugh,” the wyrmkin said. She looked around and winced. “Sorry about your house Miss ‘Shy, I hope I didn’t break anything.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “My house is alright, but I’m more worried about you.”

The wyrmkin sat up slowly. “I’m alright. I was just taking flying lessons. They… haven’t been going so well.”

The yellow mare opened her mouth to reply.

“Widget, there you are!” Rainbow Dash yelled. She flew up to land next to the wyrmkin. “I hope you didn’t break Fluttershy’s stuff. I told you Twilight’s lesson wouldn’t be any good.”

There was a flash of purple light, and Twilight appeared beside them. “Well,” the unicorn said. “I guess we need more practice.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth to retaliate. She never got the chance.

“I appreciate that both of you want to help me,” Widget said, “But… maybe I should try a different approach.” She cringed. When nopony yelled at her, she turned to Fluttershy. “Miss ‘Shy,” she said, “I’ve seen you teach baby birds before, maybe you can help me learn how to fly?”

“Well… I’m not sure,” Fluttershy said, “I mean… Twilight and Dash are much better teachers than I am…”

“Actually, I think it might be a good idea,” Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash just shrugged.

Widget decided they both agreed with her. She proceeded to stare at Fluttershy, making her eyes big and doe-like. She felt really bad for manipulating her friend, but she couldn’t see any other way to convince the shy pony to teach her. If anything, maybe it would help the pegasus with her own confidence as well.

The yellow mare sighed. “I-I guess I can try,” she said. Widget hugged her, making her “Eep!” and blush with embarrassment.

The wyrmkin was doing well. It had taken a while to get off the ground, as the yellow mare seemed to have trouble teaching somepony who could talk back to her. Once in the air, things got a little easier. Fluttershy had told her that part of the problem was that Widget’s wings were more like those of a bat than a pegasus or bird. As such, her flying style would have to be different. With her help, the wyrmkin was able to handle a slow, gliding flight. It was time to pick up the pace.

Widget beat her wings faster. The wind whistled in her ears. Fluttershy seemed to be saying something. “What?” Widget asked, “Could you repeat that?”

“Mumble mumble,” Fluttershy said. Even with Widget’s keen hearing, her response was swallowed up by the breeze.

“Huh?” Widget asked.

“Mutter mutter mutter!” Fluttershy yelled. Given her personality, this too was lost in the wind.

Widget frowned. Maybe she should stop and find out what the pegasus was saying. Her vision was filled with a field of gray, as she was interrupted by her fourth crash of the day. At least this one seemed to be slightly squishier than the other crashes. Her resulting encounter with the ground was just as hard as ever though.

“I’m so sorry,” Fluttershy was saying, “I tried to warn you, I guess you didn’t hear me.”

The wyrmkin was lying on the ground in a tangled heap with the grey object that had interrupted her flight. Fluttershy, Twilight, and a number of onlookers, were all watching her with concern. She still didn’t like being stared at. Overhead, Rainbow was sitting on her cloud snorting with barely contained laughter.

Widget rubbed her head. “It’s my fault for going too fast,” she said. “What did I hit this time?”

“I-It’s not a what, so much as whom,” Twilight said.

Widget looked at the object she had been tangled up with. It was the same grey mailmare from before. The pegasus’s nose was crunched up in confusion. Widget looked into the other mare’s yellow eyes and gasped. The pony’s eyes were looking in two different directions. “Oh no,” Widget cried, “I hit her so hard I broke her brain!”

Rainbow Dash lost it. She rolled around on her cloud laughing.

Widget frowned. Brain damage was nothing to joke about.

“It’s alright,” Twilight said, pulling her to the side. “Ditzy has been like that since I first met her. She suffers from a condition called “Strabismus’. It’s nothing you did by bumping into her.”

Widget looked at the mailmare, who had gotten back up on her feet. She was busy putting the mail lost during their encounter back into her satchel. “How does she fly then? I would think she lacks depth perception.”

Twilight frowned. “You know what,” she said, “I’m not really sure. Hmm… maybe I should study it sometime.” She continued to mutter to herself absently.

Widget left the librarian to her musings and approached the pegasus. “Excuse me, Miss Doo?” she asked.

“Huh?” the pegasus said, spinning around to face her.

“Would you…” Widget began, then found herself suddenly unable to continue. She mentally kicked herself. She wasn’t a tiny nestling; she ought to be able to ask somepony a simple request. “Would you teach me how to fly?” she blurted.

“WHAT?” the surrounding ponies asked in unison. Fluttershy just watched her. Even Ditzy seemed surprised by her request.

“Are you sure you didn't take one too many blows to the head?” Rainbow asked. “Why would you want her to teach you?”

Widget blinked. Wasn’t the answer obvious? “Well, Twilight said she has no depth perception,” she said.

Rainbow just raised an eyebrow. “Yeah,” she said, “so what?”

Widget realized she was going to have to spell it out for them. “She has no depth perception, and yet she is still able to fly,” the wyrmkin declared. “Not only that, but she’s good enough at it that she’s been given the task of delivering mail!”

Twilight’s eye twitched.

“So will you do it Miss Doo?” Widget asked, “Please?”

The grey pegasus smiled. “I’ll do it, but only if you come over to my house for muffins afterwards,” she said. “I just have to finish delivering the mail first.”

“Alright, that sounds like fun!” Widget declared. She shook hooves with her new instructor. The mailmare returned to her deliveries. The wyrmkin following behind, practically hopping in excitement.

Rainbow Dash landed next to Twilight. “That pony is nuts,” Dash said.

The unicorn nodded in agreement. The librarian’s mane was starting to look slightly unkempt.

Fluttershy said nothing. She merely smiled as she watched the two new friends enjoying their time together.