Later that afternoon, James came out of his room after he had showered and gotten some fresh clothes to wear. James went downstairs to the den where he was met by the sight of Dart and the Crusaders all taking up the couch. The Crusaders were all showered and dressed in clean clothes.
“Where am I supposed to sit?” James said with irritation.
“Between me and Sweetie Bell,” said Scootaloo, James squeezed between them and saw Dart resting his head in Apple Bloom’s lap.
“You really have got used to him,” said James.
“He’s really calm and friendly,” Apple Bloom said as she stroked the dog. The front door then clicked and opened, Dart looked up and dove off the couch.
“More room for me,” said Sweetie Bell as she shuffled over in the empty void where Dart was once lying.
“You back mother?” James asked.
“Yes and I bring good news,” his mother replied.
“Please be that we can go to South Dakota,” James thought to himself.
“The first bit of the good news is that we can go to South Dakota,” said Katherine, “We've even got the same house that we had last time.”
“That’s fantastic,” said James, “What’s part two?”
His mother tossed a letter to James, the letter landed on the table in front of him and James picked it up. The letter was from the National Guard and it was addressed to James Rogers.
“Probably a recruitment letter,” James said as he tore it open and read it, “I might join up if I can’t become an En-”
James stopped suddenly, he then held the paper closer to his face and read it again.
“This cannot be right,” he said.
“We went through a lot of trouble in order to give this letter to you,” said Katherine.
“What is it James?” asked Sweetie Bell.
“It’s an approval letter,” said James, “I’m going to be an Enforcer.”
“That’s great!” said Apple Bloom.
“It’s not just great, it’s downright impossible to get one of these letters,” James said he then looked at his mother, “How did you get this for me?”
“Me and your father have our ways,” Katherine said. James shot up and dove over the table, he then slid across the floor and ended up hugging his mother.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” he said, “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”
“What about us?” Scootaloo asked irritably.
“Okay second best,” James said letting go of his mother, “You guys are still the first.”
“You asked why you didn’t get much for your birthday, this is why,” said Katherine.
“You’ve made one happy kid even happier,” said James, “When do I start the initiation?”
“That’s the one problem with this,” Katherine said, “You can’t do the initiation.”
“Why?” James asked, “I’m old enough and I can handle a gun.”
“Reason being is that the Enforcer base hasn’t been built yet,” said Katherine, “It will be completed in August.”
“So long as we have our vacations I can wait,” James said.
A week later Dave was going flying and James had decided to come along to pass the time while his mother helped Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell pack cases for the trip to North Carolina, James had just come back inside to retrieve his flight helmet and his dad’s headset when Scootaloo came downstairs.
“Hi James, are you going somewhere?” she asked.
“Yes I’m going out,” James stopped himself for a minute, this was too perfect. Scootaloo; the flightless pegasus would finally experience what it would like to be in the sky, for the first time she would technically be flying.
“Wait here,” said James. He bolted out of the house and ran to his dad in his Mercedes.
“You have everything?” Dave asked.
“Yes,” replied James, “Also, can Scootaloo come with us?”
Dave looked at James then to Scootaloo who was standing behind the screen door.
“Why does she want to come?” Dave asked.
“Because she’s always wanted to fly, she never had the chance before until now,” James said.
“She wants to fly?” asked Dave.
“It’s a perfect time to show her what it’s like to fly,” said James, “But I want to keep this a surprise.”
Dave looked to Scootaloo and back to James.
“Lucky thing I brought the spare headset,” Dave said, “She can come, but only if she’s packed her bags.”
James nodded and went back to the house, Scootaloo was leaning against the wall until she saw James approach.
“I was going to ask where you were going until you ran away,” Scootaloo said.
“Why don’t you come with us then?” James asked.
“I can come?” Scootaloo asked excitedly.
“Only if you packed everything in your bags,” said James.
“I finished several minutes ago,” said Scootaloo.
“Come on then, lets go have fun,” said James.
Scootaloo got in the seat behind Dave, as she was squeezing behind the drivers seat James leaned over to his dad.
“Remember that you can’t mention anything about what we’re doing,” James whispered to his dad. His dad winked and nodded.
Driving to the airport where Dave flew planes took some time, but before they got there James pulled a scarf from his flight bag and handed it to Scootaloo.
“Here, you’re going to have to blindfold yourself,” said James.
“Why?” Scootaloo asked.
“Well it’s that would ruin a perfectly planned surprise if you didn’t,” James replied.
Scootaloo started giggling, she stopped and wrapped the scarf around her face.
“How’s this?” she asked James.
“Perfect,” James replied as he looked through the mirror to see that Scootaloo had blindfolded herself.
Dave pulled the car into the airport and stepped out of the car and helped Scootaloo get out from the back seat. James opened the truck and retrieved his and his dad’s flight bag.
“You alright Susie?” James asked as he pulled his flight helmet from the car.
“I can’t see anything,” replied Scootaloo.
“Don’t worry,” said Dave, “I’ll guide you.”
Dave guided Scootaloo to the plane, the aircraft was a Cessna four seater that Dave had been flying for the past five years. James took hold of Scootaloo’s hand and Dave opened up the cockpit for her to clamber in the back.
“Where am I?” Scootaloo asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” replied James as he tossed the bags into the seat next to Scootaloo, “Don’t remove that blindfold until I say to.”
Dave and James then were performing the pre-flight checks, as they were checking the plane they constantly heard questions referring to what Dave was saying.
“What’s a gyroscope?” Scootaloo asked after Dave had took his spot in the pilots seat and James had claimed the co-pilots seat.
“It’s a device that keeps us stable,” James replied plugging in his helmet communication wires into the dashboard. He then took the spare headset, plugged that in and stuck it on Scootaloo’s head.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Communication gear,” replied Dave, “Clear forward!”
Dave turned the ignition key and the plane roared into life, Scootaloo was a little scared but James said to not worry. The plane then rolled onto the runway and stopped at one end.
“Everything checks out, clear for takeoff,” Dave said as he looked at the instrument dials.
“Full throttle!” James said and gunned it down the runway.
James pulled back on the joystick and the Cessna rose into the sky. The sky was barely clouded and rather sunny, the city of Philadelphia could be seen from their altitude, miles upon miles of trees coated the land below them, several gaps between the trees indicated housing developments.
“Now for the best part,” James whispered to his dad, James turned around to see Scootaloo trying to figure out where she was.
“Where are we James?” she asked as she felt around the cabin.
“Why don’t you take off your blindfold and see?” replied James.
Scootaloo pulled her blindfold off and looked around the plane, outside she could only see blue and a bit of glint from the sun.
“This is boring,” Scootaloo said.
“Why not look outside?” James said. Scootaloo then shifted closer to the window, looking outside she saw nothing but trees and sky, Scootaloo then realized what was happening.
“Am I flying?” she asked.
“Welcome to the sky,” James said.
“I’m flying,” Scootaloo said, “I’m actually flying!”
“Settle down,” said Dave, “You shouldn’t get so excited, it could have some unfortunate consequences.”
Scootaloo calmed down and admired the scenery, but she still could not believe she was actually in the air for the first time in her life. A half hour later of flying around, Dave guided the plane in for landing, they touched down with little trouble. As James guided the plane back to it’s parking spot Scootaloo was bugging Dave and James to go back up into the air.
“Come on,” she whined, “Why can’t we go again?”
“Two reasons,” Dave said turning the plane off, which shuddered to a halt, “One problem is that we’re almost out of fuel and the second is that there’s no one to give us any.”
Scootaloo huffed and slumped back into her seat.
“No need to be like that,” James said as he took off his helmet, “We can always go again.”
“Can I ask something?” Scootaloo said.
“Go ahead,” replied James.
“Why were you flying over roads and stuff?” Scootaloo said.
“We were seeing if there were any road works that we have to avoid for tomorrow,” Dave said.
“It’s an ingenious idea, because I though of it,” James said, still gloating while he opened the door. James took all of the flight gear and led Scootaloo back to the car, Dave had gone inside the office to fill out flight related papers and to pay for using the plane.
“So James, can you fly planes?” Scootaloo asked.
“Only small planes like the Cessna and the Spitfire we own,” James replied as he tossed the bags and headgear into the trunk, he saw the confusion on Scootaloo’s face.
“Spitfire?” she repeated, “Like the one in the book?”
“Exactly the same,” said James, “It belonged to my great grandfather who let us have it through his will.”
“Where do you keep it?” Scootaloo asked. James turned her to look at a hangar that was at the far side of the runway, it was smaller than the other hangars and painted a distinct green.
“She sits in there,” James said, “Had to bring the plane across the Atlantic piece by piece when we got it. Now it sits in there, waiting for me to take it back up into the big blue.”
“When did you get so poetic?” asked Scootaloo.
“It happens sometimes,” James replied, “Right then, we’ll wait here for dad then get back home so that we can ready up for the trip.”
Once they got back home James made way for his bedroom so he could check if he had everything for the trip, he barely noticed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell who looked rather annoyed as he passed them. Scootaloo however, saw them both glaring directly at her.
“What’s up?” Scootaloo asked.
“Where did you go?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I was with James,” said Scootaloo, “We went-”
“Why did you go without us?” Sweetie Bell interrupted, “We always stick together.”
“You don’t understand!” Scootaloo said, “I was flying for the first time in my life.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell dropped their gaze.
“You were flying?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“I sure was, well I was in the sky,” Scootaloo said.
“What was it like?” Apple Bloom asked.
“A bit boring if you ask me,” James said as he thundered down the stairs, “You wait until we get my old kite up and running.”
“Your old kite?” said Sweetie Bell.
“James had an old Spitfire plane that he can fly,” Scootaloo said.
“That sound cool!” Sweetie Bell said.
“Well if we are done with the topic of flying I’m going to spend my afternoon doing my usual lazy routine,” said James. And with that he drifted into the den and toiled away the hours by playing Portal 2. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo accompanied James as he played one of his favorite games. The night came quicker than expected, Sweetie Bell managed to claim the spare bed in James' room before Apple Bloom or Scootaloo could. This turned out to be an advantage because James was told to wake everyone at four in the morning so they could be on the road before the traffic clotted up the highway. Apple Bloom seemed capable of waking up at this time because she had done it three times last week, she could wake up Scootaloo while James used his alarm clock in order for him and Sweetie Bell to wake up, as a failsafe James selected one particular song on his iHome alarm that would guarantee a wake-up.