Chapter Three: Hypsos
It had been two days since her transformation. Twilight had informed the rest of her friends to mixed, but supportive reactions. Rainbow Dash had been boggled. Rarity and Pinkie had already begun to plan a dress and a party respectively. Fluttershy had been mostly curious, after all, an alicorn was simply another type of creature, and a rare one at that, though it helped that she was already good friends with this particular one.
The letter to Celestia hadn’t gone nearly so well. The immediate reply was a summons to the palace and a pair of train tickets for that afternoon. A quick series of letters back and forth had let the princess know in no uncertain terms what AJ thought of that idea. The diarch had relented gracefully to the refusal, leaving Applejack feeling more than a bit guilty. She had shrugged it off and thrown herself into her chores. Now it was barely noon and she had run out of things to do. Her shocking boost in strength and endurance had let her haul a good four barrels at a time and give Big Mac a break on the plow without even breaking a sweat. Sighing, she turned to a low hanging cloud. “Alright Rainbow, I’m done fer tha day.”
A double pair of eyes and wings popped out of the cloud, “Really?”
“Yep, we can go practice if ya like.”
“Sweet!” The cloud disintegrated as Rainbow Dash somersaulted out of it. “This way!” She zoomed off in the direction of the big field behind Fluttershy’s place.
***
Fluttershy, currently wearing Applejack’s hat for safekeeping, and a small audience of critters looked on in interest as Rainbow Dash examined Applejack’s wings like a craftspony examining a plank for knots or defects. “Mare alive, AJ, you’re gonna have a fantastic cruising speed if these beauties fly half as good as they look. Of course, they’re a little too big for the kind of awesome aerobatics I do.”
Applejack rolled her eyes, “Ah’m not expectin’ ta do a rainboom. Jest show me how ta use ‘em so Twi’ll get off mah back.”
“Alright, first thing’s first, I want you to give me a dozen good flaps. Don’t try to get off the ground, just do what feels natural.”
A massive gust of displaced air blew from Applejack’s wings as she obliged her coach. Her raw wingpower nearly blew some of the watching chipmunks head over tail.
Rainbow Dash looked on appraisingly, corrected her student’s posture and wing attitude and said, “Again.”
This time the draft was much more controlled and directed towards the back. Applejack felt her rear hooves start to leave the ground, causing her to flap even harder in panic and overbalance onto her face. Fluttershy let out a small “Oh my.”
It took a good five minutes before Rainbow Dash could stop laughing. “Ahahaha! You shouldn’t try to stop yourself when you’re generating that much thrust, hehe, next time you think you’re going to fall over, run with it. Aheheheh.”
Applejack frowned and pawed at the earth, ready to give it another try, Mama Apple, Faust rest her soul, hadn’t raised no quitters.
***
By the time evening rolled along Applejack had managed to get in the air a few times, falling back to earth mere seconds later, covered in sweat and dirt. “Ah jest don’t get it Rainbow, y’all make it look so easy flittin’ about like ya do. Heck any pegasus makes it look easy compared to me.”
“Well, it takes practice.”
“Ah know that, but Ah’m plum whipped. Ah wuz haulin’ more’n a ton and a half of apples at one go earlier and Ah didn’t feel this tired.”
Finally, Fluttershy piped up, “Um, I have a suggestion.”
Coach and student both looked over at the mostly earthbound pegasus in surprise. “Yeah?” Said Dash, “What’s that?”
Blushing, the mare timidly pointed at their wings, “Um, I’ve been watching you two fly and I’ve been thinking…”
“Thinkin’ what?”
“Um, well your wings are so very different when you’re in the air. Rainbow Dash looks like a falcon when she flies, very tight wingspan and really good agility, able to flap really fast… Um.” This time it was a bird on her shoulder who gently pecked her into continuing. “Oh, um, but Applejack, your wings are really broad and long, like an eagle. Maybe when you get into the air you should go for altitude first and then just, um hang from your wings, not do like Rainbow and keep flapping low to the ground.”
Dash looked over at Fluttershy, genuinely impressed. “That, makes a lot of sense Fluttershy. Try it Flapjack.”
“Whut did you call me?”
“Just do it, alright?”
Applejack grimaced and limbered up her wings. She didn’t like the idea of going very high right off. She hadn’t dared get more than half a dozen hooves off the ground on her previous attempts, then again, Fluttershy had said that might have been why she hadn’t succeeded. Rearing back and giving a quick flap she broke into a fast gallop as she continued to beat her wings to boost her speed. As soon as she felt light enough she kicked off the ground with an almighty leap, leaving divots in the uneven sod. Sweat streamed off her forehead and into her personal jetstream as she pumped for all she was worth. After what seemed like an eternity of nothing but rising and flapping, she leveled off, figuring she must be high enough by now. Her wings snapped open to their fullest extent and simply caressed the wind as she leveled off. Her glide steadied as she got used to the feeling of hanging from nothing. A smile broke onto her face and she risked a look down. The vista that greeted her took her breath away. It was simply too much, she had no way to judge distance or size or even time. That, that must be Ponyville. All of it. That’s Canterlot, way down there. Off in the far distance she thought she saw the lights of Baltimare gleaming in the evening twilight and to her right she could just make out the San Palomino Desert and the tracks headed out towards Appleloosa. To her left was Cloudsdale, huge and gleaming in the near distance. Below her was a small multi-colored streak that quickly grew into Rainbow Dash as the speedster caught up with the farmer.
“Heh, I’ll admit it, you really caught me off guard back there.” Applejack just nodded, not trusting herself to speak. “Whew, that big ol’ body of yours must come with quite a set of lungs, even I’m getting winded at this altitude.”
“Yeah, Ah guess this is why we don’t see tha princesses flyin’ about as much as pegasi. They… We’re all range and endurance, but clumsier‘n a peg-legged goat when it comes to short hops.”
Dash snickered at the thought of Celestia hopping around with a pack of piratical goats before glancing at AJ again. “Well, you’ve kinda got the first half down, now you’ve got to land.”
“Oh sweet Luna…”
***
As Applejack stormed off to a well-deserved bath she caught the tail end of RD explaining, “Well at least now we know she’s mostly indestructible.” Rolling her eyes and bolting the door, she removed the tie in her tail and hung her hat on a convenient hook. She’d have to get a strap fitted on it if she wanted to wear it while flying. A few minutes later she lowered herself into the warm suds with a sigh of pure contentment, letting the warmth soak into her fresh bruises and aching wings. Oh, she could lie here forever, nothing but the warm water and the delicious smelling soap and the gentle rapping at the window…
Applejack sunk lower into the tub and pulled the curtain around, refusing to acknowledge whatever it was. She was tired, darnit! Didn’t a girl deserve a little peace and privacy? After a minute more the rapping stopped and she sighed in relief. Her relief was short-lived as a sudden whip-crack and an explosion of suds announced the teleport of a unicorn into her bathtub. “Nightmare take you Twilight! Get out of mah tub!” Wiping the soap out of her eyes she came face to face with… Luna.
“We saw thee flying this evening!”