//------------------------------// // Entry 17: Flying Like a Kite // Story: Bound Elemental // by Kendallonian //------------------------------// Starlight came to my room early this morning. “Hey.” she said. “I thought that… maybe we could try something today. See if you like it.” I tensed a bit. “Uh… It’s not more mind magic, is it? ‘Cuz if it is…” “No! No. Heavens no.” Starlight said. “We’ve both had enough of that for a long while. This is… just a hobby of mine.” I tried to look through what was left of Starlight's memories inside me to see what she was talking about, but they’d been fading quickly ever since the incident. All I could get were vague blurs now. “I guess… yeah. Sure. What are…” I trailed off once I saw Starlight dispel the forcefield holding me in. “I’ve… just set up some things in a room down the hall.” Starlight said, seemingly sensing my surprise. “Uh- right. Lemme just…” I quickly donned the oven mitts Pinkie had given me and collected ten pieces of parchment from around my room, depositing them in a neat pile in the corner. Wouldn’t want to accidentally trample them when I came back, after all. When I looked back at Starlight, she was staring at me thoughtfully. “Um… am I gonna need these?” I asked, holding up an oven mitt. This seemed to snap Starlight out of whatever deep thoughts she’d been formulating. “Uh- Probably.” she said. So I kept the mitts on as I followed her a few doors down. The room we entered was a bit larger and rounder than mine is; at the far end I was surprised to see an opening into clear air; a balcony stretched out into the sun where I could see a few pegasi flying by. Between us and the balcony stood a small, square table that held a pair of curious objects. Some flicker of Starlight’s memory gave them a name; “Kites?” I asked. “Yeah. I was just thinking about how… in the, ah, dream, thing, we were flying around at some pretty good speeds at one point, and you showed me how to take the tight turns by flattening out; this is basically the same thing, except we’re using light materials to make something that catches the air enough to keep it afloat in equestria’s gravity.” I took a look at the two constructions on the table; One was made from wood and sky-blue cloth. it unfolded into a hollow rectangular shape. The other was smaller, and made from stiff wire and tin foil. It was flat, and looked more like a diamond. “I tried to make you something you could carry around without burning it.” Starlight said. “Couldn’t quite figure out a non-flammable replacement for the string, though, so you’ll have to be careful.” I grabbed the shiny kite with mitted hooves and inspected it closer. This thing could fly? “I, uh… was a bit rushed to get it done.” Starlight said. “I would’ve made it bigger, but-” “It’s perfect.” I said, smiling. Then I looked to the balcony beyond and wondered. Starlight followed my eyes and caught my attention with her own smile. “Here, let’s go try ‘em out!” She led the way onto the balcony, and I was surprised to see that no forcefield delayed her; I walked out and I was truly just exposed to the open air. I suppose if I felt like it I could have just jumped over the railing and made a break for it, but… well that didn’t work so well last time, and I was feeling less confined in this place by the second. Starlight started babbling the instant I came out. “So the according to the weather schedule today, there should be a stiff breeze passing over Ponyville all day today, since we’re expecting a shipment of rain clouds from Cloudsdale…” I stiffened at the mention of rain. “Emerald? Oh… sorry. don’t worry. No showers scheduled until tomorrow. Late tomorrow. We’ll be fine out here for a long time.” I nodded in confirmation, then stretched my neck and legs to get the sudden tension out. Okay, I’ll just deal with that when we come to it. For now, kites. Starlight handed me the spool for my own kite; I grasped it firmly between my hooves and started letting out the line. “Oh, don’t let out too much line just yet.” Starlight said. “You’ve got to keep it stable all the way up. Here, I’ll start you off with magic…” Starlight’s horn glowed, and so did my kite. Starlight lifted it up a few meters above our heads, until the line was fairly taut, then let go. For a second I panicked and thought that the thing would just drop to the ground, but then the wind took over and yanked at the string in my hooves. I momentarily lurched forward as I struggled to control the thing, but soon enough it was stabilized. I was flying a kite. I couldn’t help it; a grin spread across my face as I pulled on the string and it pulled back. I experimented a bit with different motions, figuring out what made it dive and what made it stall; what sort of sweeping motions I could make by pulling it from one side to the other. A few seconds later Starlight was able to get her own boxy kite into the sky, and we were flying side-by-side. In some ways, it was just like the time we’d spent frolicking in the plane of fire, or rather, my mind. Y’know, before I got all… revenge-y, and stuff. When it was just the two of us, enjoying… life. Being here. Being able to enjoy simple things like flying. in some ways, however, this was… different. We weren’t really going anywhere, we were just… sitting. Sometimes Starlight gave me a tip or two about how I could keep the line stable, or show me how to do a neat trick, but most of the time we didn’t really speak. It was quiet. I never really knew that I could enjoy quiet before. Or maybe that’s just because her memories have been camping out in my brain. Anyway, things got exciting again when Starlight started talking about building kites. She liked talking about all the engineering behind it, and all the different models of kites you could make, but I was more interested in just seeing how awesome I could make mine look. I was thinking flames; not real ones, of course, the kite would never last long if it was on fire, but if I could get my hooves on some materials, maybe some orange paint, and some scissors, I could make something that would look pretty nice. Maybe a phoenix. Seems… appropriate. I think that, all in all, It was a good day.  Oh, and Spike, tell Starlight I forgot to thank her for letting me keep the kite with me in my room. I’ll treasure it for as long as I can make it last.