Dear Princess Luna,
Today I learned that sheep are fucking fast when they’re running away from you.
After about an hour of chasing a sheep named Cot, I had to admit defeat and sit down, completely winded. I was covered in sweat and dirt, but god was it fun to trot around and release some of that energy after being cooped up for the past few days. Cot trotted back over to me before simply sitting next to me and bleating.
“Yeah, yeah, you win.” I rolled onto my side to let my legs rest for a moment. “Curse these stubby legs. If I was bigger I’d catch you in a heartbeat Cot!”
Cot simply bleated in response before resting his head on my neck. After another few minutes of deep breathing - not too deep since ribs and all - I got back to my hooves. Cot bleated one last time before heading off to get something to eat.
I rolled my eyes before I started to head back to Fluttershy’s cottage, ready to lie down and take a power nap. I vaguely wondered why my ribs didn't hurt as much as I thought they would, but with no real knowledge of how pony ribs worked, I filed it away to ask later. No use complaining when no one was treating it as strange after all. Probably some pony thing like more endurance or faster healing or something. As I got to the door I could hear two voices arguing with each other: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s. I frowned slightly before opening the door, the voices quickly silencing as the handle turned under my hoof.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were both sitting on the sofa, while a turtle slowly trodded along the floor. Fluttershy was hiding in her mane, radiating an aura of anxiety. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had a scowl on her face that she quickly hid as I entered the room.
“Oh, hey there Flurry.” Dash smiled awkwardly and waved. “Fluttershy here was mentioning how you want to learn how to fly. I’m taking Scootaloo out for some flight lessons if you want to join.”
I looked at Fluttershy nervously, worried about her being so stressed out all of a sudden. The gentle pegasus met my eyes and gave me a small nod that she would be okay. “Sure, I’d love that. Would be nice to finally figure out how to use these things.” I gave the best confident look I could to Dash, despite the fact that I wasn't actually super confident.
“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash gave a quick look at Fluttershy before clearing her throat. “Alright, stretch your wings out for me! Let’s see what we’re working with.”
I stretched both of my wings out while Rainbow Dash gave them a quick once over. Didn’t have to be an expert in pony expressions to know that she didn’t look too pleased with how they looked.
“Have you ever preened your wings before?” Dash asked from behind me, prompting me to shake my head. “Okay, so let’s walk through it then. You have to preen your feathers every morning, as pegasi saliva has oils in them to help waterproof them. Always start with your primaries, they’re your biggest feathers and are the ones that actually propel you through the air.”
As she bit and moved my primary feathers I didn’t feel the need to flinch every time like I did when Rarity tried to do it. They were still sensitive as hell sure, but Dash knew how much pressure to use to move them.
“The other two rows of smaller feathers are your secondary and tertiary feathers. They help you glide and gain lift in the air. The tertiary feathers are less important but are still useful for when you have to do a sick stunt.” Dash plucked out one of the broken secondary feathers and spat it to the side. “A broken feather should regrow in a few weeks, just don’t try to pluck one that’s freshly growing or you’ll have problems. Try flapping your wings now.”
I gave my freshly pruned wings and flap or two and noticed that unlike before it wasn’t like I was fighting the air anymore. The air simply moved around and through my feathers naturally, not in chunks. I gave my wings a few more flaps in glee before turning back to Rainbow Dash and giving her a hug.
“Thank you, Dash! You have no idea how much that was bugging me.” I let go of the hug and let my wings close.
Dash chuckled and ruffled my mane. “No worries Flurry, just make sure you do that every morning.” She looked back at Fluttershy with a worried look. “Are you going to be okay, Flutters? We can talk more when I come back if you want.”
Fluttershy gave a small sigh before shaking her head. “I’ll be fine Dashie, you two go have fun. Just make sure you don’t forget about tonight, okay?”
Rainbow Dash simply nodded before leading me outside. Once we stepped a safe distance from the cottage she had me hop on her back and we soared into the sky.
We landed in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ treehouse in record time, and I could almost swear there was a rainbow contrail behind us as we flew. I couldn’t help but fall off her back, landing on my face as I fell. I quickly got back to my hooves and shook my head to fix my mane.
“Heh, sorry kiddo. Probably should have got you some goggles until you got used to the wind.” Dash rubbed the back of her head and gave an awkward chuckle.
“Don’t worry about it.” I brushed the dirt off my nose. “Huh, I thought we were getting Scootaloo. Shouldn’t we go to her house?”
“Oh, you’ll see why in 3, 2, 1-”
Before Dash could finish an orange blur flew out of the treehouse and collided with Dash, sending them both spinning into the ground. I blinked at the suddenness of the blur but couldn’t really react in time since I had my own greeting. I was tackled to the ground by a marshmallow-colored filly and hugged like I had died or something.
“I’m so happy you’re okay Flurry!” Sweetie Belle cried into my neck. “We were so worried about you! Rarity said you ended up in the hospital but we weren’t allowed to visit since Twilight didn’t allow us to!”
I frowned and lifted her head up with one hoof from where I lay on the ground. “What do you mean she didn’t let you visit me?”
She sniffled before tilting her head, now looking more confused than anything. “She said that you were resting because you were super hurt.”
“I mean, I did get my ribs broken. So no offense, but please get off me you’re starting to hurt me.” I winced, feeling her weight slowly overcome my ability to lift her up.
She quickly got off my slowly breaking body and helped me to her hooves, spouting apologies as she went. We were quickly joined by Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom, the latter two giving me a quick hug in greeting.
“Alright, come on girls! We got some flying to do!” Rainbow Dash announced before leading the four of us to a clearing. Above us were a handful of clouds at various heights, all of them large enough to hold a pony but not too big. “So, which one of you wants to go first? Flurry? Scoots?”
Scootaloo quickly jumped in front of me, her wings literally buzzing in excitement. “Oh, oh! Me!”
I couldn’t help but laugh and took a step back. “Go ahead Scootaloo, gives me time to get ready.”
Scootaloo pulled her goggles and helmet on and took a rather interesting pose to propel herself into the air. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle cheered from the sidelines for their friend as she hopped into the air, her wings buzzing dramatically....only to crash right back down.
“Uh, Squirt? Try again with less buzzing and more gentle flapping.” Dash counseled before giving an example flap with her own wings. “If you keep buzzing like that you’re just going to throw off whatever lift you’d get.”
Scootaloo frowned before trying again, this time buzzing slightly slower. She got a few inches above the ground before crashing right back down. Thankfully Dash caught her this time, saving her from a few bruises.
“Woah, careful there Squirt!” Dash sighed before tapping her chin with a hoof. “Maybe we should try gliding first?”
“I dunno.” Scootaloo sighed, her shoulders sagging as she pawed at the ground with a hoof. “Maybe I’ll never fly.”
“Hey!” I yelled from the sidelines. “That is wrong and you know it! Just believe in yourself and focus! You got this Scootaloo!”
“Flurry’s right Squirt. Take a breath and keep trying. Come on.” Dash picked up Scootaloo and carried her up to one of the lower hanging clouds.
After a moment Scootaloo jumped off the low cloud, spreading her wings out as she fell. Her wings twitched once or twice but she closed her eyes and let her wings stay stretched out. Her descent was fast but as she fell she began to level out and glide across the ground for a solid minute before softly landing on the grass.
“Whooo! You did it!” I yelled over the other two fillies’ cheering, the three of us hopping up and down. Scootaloo yelled and hopped up and down from where she landed, clearly excited at her success.
Dash flew by Scootaloo and picked her up in her forelegs, holding her up in the air as she cheered. “Nice job Scoots! Soon you’ll be flying as awesomely as me!”
I smiled to myself as I watched the two spin around in the air, celebrating the small victory. However, something nagged at the back of my mind about the image. “I just realized, are Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash sisters?”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both started laughing their flank off, causing me to frown at the two of them. Apple Bloom wiped a tear from her eye before responding. “No, but ah’m sure Scootaloo wishes she was. Dash is ‘er mentor.”
“Ooooooh.” I rubbed a hoof under my chin contemplatively. “Huh, I am happy they’re so happy then. It's really cute. Wish I had a relationship like that.”
Lost in my own mind I didn’t notice the two pegasi land in front of me, too busy in a daydream of having a cool older sibling. “Hey, Equuis to Flurry. It’s your turn to flyyyyyy.” I snapped back to reality to see Dash grinning in excitement and amusement. “Then again, if you’re daydreaming about pulling cool stunts like me I understand, I am pretty awesome.”
I let out a small chuckle before getting to my hooves, my wings twitching slightly in excitement and nervousness. Getting to fly was always a dream of mine, after all, it opened so many doors to travel the world. But actually getting to fly was nerve-wracking, since one mistake could mean smashing into the ground again. It didn’t really hurt in a dream, but would probably hurt like hell in real life. I shook my head to try to banish those doubts before walking to where Scootaloo had gone earlier under the clouds.
“Alright, what do you need me to do?” I gave Dash a nervous grin. “I’m about as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“First, stretch out your wings.” I did as Dash said, feeling the air slowly blow through my feathers as I did so. “Now try jumping up and flapping your wings to push you up into the air. Remember, not too fast, just slow and hard at first.”
A small part of me snickered at what she just said, but I pushed it from my mind. Instead, I sucked in a deep breath before hopping and giving my wings a hard flap. I found myself pushed slightly higher into the air with each push of my wings, albeit a bit slowly. I let out my held breath and tried to fly a bit faster to the lowest cloud.
“There you go Flurry! You’re a natural!” Dash yelled from the ground before flying up to the lowest cloud to wait for me. “Just make sure you keep flapping your wings!”
I nodded and took my time to fly to the lowest cloud, not wanting to run before I fully figured out how to walk. The wind pushing against the bottom of my wings with each push was a strange but oddly comforting feeling. It was almost like I was swimming through the air in a way. Probably some kind of pegasus instinct considering they were flying ponies but still. I didn’t really know what to do with my hooves so I just pulled them close to my body so they wouldn’t just dangle below me and kill my air resistance.
Once I got to the lowest cloud I carefully landed on it, feeling that same slight tingle in my hooves as before. Wasn’t a bad feeling per se, but kind of like the difference between standing on carpet and an air mattress. “Hey Dash, how come my hooves feel a little weird when standing on clouds? Come to think of it, how are we standing on this thing anyway?”
“Well, pegasi can stand and move clouds around.” Dash flew up to the cloud above us and gave it a push with one hoof. “Means we’re in charge of making sure the weather, like clearing the sky from clouds and making sure rain comes when scheduled and stuff. Pretty awesome, right?”
“I mean, it makes sense since you can fly and stuff.” I hummed and gingerly walked in a circle on the cloud. “Still feels weird after walking on nothing but grass and dirt. But this softness I can get used to.”
Dash chuckled from where she was hovering before waving to me to follow her. “If you manage to get to the top of this cloud course I’ll make sure that you get a napping cloud tomorrow. I always make sure I have one over Sweet Apple Acres. Relaxing like nothing else.”
I grinned at the challenge before leaping from the cloud to get a bit of height. The first flap of my wings was a bit jarring but getting into the routine was easy enough. Was kind of like riding a bike, the first few times you’d struggle but afterward you’d be fine. The main problem was making sure I stuck to one direction, as flapping my wings at the wrong angle would send me flying in a different direction.
Took me a few tries but I eventually reached the top cloud, flopping onto it with an exhausted sigh. Dash was right, a cloud was so much comfier than anything else I’ve laid on. Although I guess since I ended up in this world I’ve only really slept in hospital beds. I didn’t want to count the foalnapping experience in my list of places I’ve slept but eh.
“Did I do good?” I groaned up at Dash, who was hovering over me with her forelegs crossed. I was well and truly wiped, my wings sore from so much exercise after never being used.
“You did okay for your first time flying, but we’ve got some work to do before you’re in tip-top shape.” Dash nodded to herself, clearly making a plan in her head. “Just keep practicing every day and you’ll be flying like a pro in no time! And if you need help don’t hesitate to ask, me or Flutters will always help you out Squirt.” With that she tousled my mane with a hoof, making me chuckle despite myself. Made me feel like a kid, but I guess I was one so eh. “Now let’s head down, I have somepony I want you to meet.”
I nodded and got back to my hooves, my wings slightly protesting at the continued exercise. I gave a small wince as I flapped them once, feeling the muscles complain but comply with what I wanted. With no small grin, I jumped after Dash and began my glide down to the ground, back to the fillies who I felt I could now hopefully call my friends.