Flight Training
Chapter One-Prelude
Derpy Hooves started to fly away from Rainbow Dash’s cloud manor, thinking about what a normal day of deliveries would be like. For the last few days, Rainbow had not been her usual self. She was obviously expecting a letter, because she had been meeting her at the door every day for the last three weeks. Today, though, she had received a letter from the EAA . Rainbow had an almost giddy expression when she received it.
“Thanks, Derpy,” She said, hurriedly, “See you tomorrow!” After which she slammed the door, almost hitting the grey mare in the face. Derpy shrugged it off, and walked to the edge of the cloud walkway. “Funny way of showing it, you could have at least told me what it was...” she muttered to herself as she took off.
About 30 seconds later, she got a good idea.
A scream of delight was sent flying from the cloud mansion out into the heavens, waking up most of the sleeping town of Ponyville. Apparently, whatever the EAA wanted with Rainbow Dash, it was good news.
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Twilight Sparkle did not have a good night. After staying up way past her normal bedtime working on a treatise on Portal Dynamics, she spent the last four hours staring up at the ceiling of the library, thinking about a certain blue Pegasus. She had been acting weird lately, obviously stressed about something. Whenever she had asked her about it though. the only response she got was a shake of the head and the words, “It’s a Pegasus thing.”
She asked Fluttershy about what that could possibly mean a few days ago, but even she didn’t know. She had told her, “Maybe it has something to do with the class she took about a month ago. I know she was wanting to get her CFI, but I don’t know if she finished it yet.”
Twilight had an unusual look on her face, confusion, “CFI? What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s a Pegasus thing.” Fluttershy had told her, not wanting to make too much of a fuss, “Basically it means she can teach other pegasi to fly.”
She was awoken out of the memory of that conversation by a piercing scream. It startled her so much that she jumped out of bed and looked out the window, expecting to see a stampede of rabbits or something.
Instead, what she saw was Rainbow Dash, giddy with excitement. She was performing the most unusual aerobatic routine, obviously with no forethought into what would come next. Must be some kind of Pegasus happy dance, she thought to herself.
She rushed out the door to the library, and tried to catch Rainbow Dash’s attention. She failed.
Eventually, Rainbow looked down, and saw Twilight looking up at her, frustration building. “Hey, Twilight, what’s up?” She said, barely containing her giddy excitement.
“What, in the wide, wide world of Equestria has you all excited at 6 in the morning!” Twilight’s ability to contain her anger was waning.
“Oh, right.” the blue mare said, scratching the back of her head as she came down from the clouds. “I got my CFI certificate in the mail this morning! I guess I got a bit overexcited.”
She landed, and handed to Twilight a little blue card. On it, it read:
ROYAL COURT OF EQUESTRIA
EQUESTRIAN AVIATION ADMINISTRATION
NAME
RAINBOW DASH
ADDRESS
CLOUD MANOR
PONYVILLE
HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE PROPERLY QUALIFIED TO EXERCISE THE PRIVILEGES OF
FLIGHT AND GROUND INSTRUCTOR
“Wow, um,” Twilight said as she read, “I didn’t even know we had an aviation administration.”
“Yeah, it’s a Pegasus thing. They give out certifications to us so that we can fly outside of Pegasus cities like Cloudsdale.”
“Is that what had you so worked up the last few days?”
“Probably, I took the checkride almost a month ago. I guess I’ve been worried I may not have passed.”
Twilight’s confusion spread a bit further, “But, you’re the best flyer in Equestria, how could you not pass?”
Rainbow, emboldened by the compliment, continued, “Well, the CFI is not so much about flying. It’s about techniques for teaching someone else how to fly. It’s a lot different.”
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Scootaloo woke up to an unfamiliar noise. The scream had an unusual air of joy to it, something must be going right for somepony in town. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, no point in trying to sleep anymore after that rude awakening. Rolling out of bed, she looked over and saw a streak of rainbow flash past her window. Rainbow Dash must be having a busy day, she thought to herself, as she walked down the stairs of the cottage, she thought more about what this summer had in store. She had signed up to take her flight training at the Cloudsdale Flight Camp.
To say she was nervous about the coming months would be an understatement: she was downright scared. She had never been the strongest flyer, but her practice lately had been very nerve-wracking. Yesterday she had almost broken her leg after crashing into the neighbor’s flower garden. She rubbed the half-healed bruise on her neck where a gust of wind sent her into a tree last week. Hopefully she’d have a good instructor; somepony who could teach her how to land properly.
While eating breakfast, a knock came on the door. She lethargically limped to the living room, and opened it. Derpy was standing there, holding a bundle of letters.
“Good morning, Ms. Hooves. What have we got today?” She said, rubbing an eye with her hoof.
“Good morning, Scoot. A bunch of letters for you today, including one from Flight Camp, probably instructor assignments. How’s your leg this morning?” Derpy asked; she had been delivering a package to her neighbor’s house when Scootaloo had her accident.
“Oh, it’s fine, a little sore this morning.” Scootaloo paused as Derpy’s statement about flight camp hit her. “Did you say Flight Camp?”
“I did, I wasn’t reading your mail, I promise!”
Scootaloo grabbed the bundle of letters with her mouth, ran inside, and slammed the door. Before the door fully closed, Derpy heard her say “Hank Hoo!” through a full mouth.
Derpy blinked in astonishment. It’s a rare day that she gets a door slammed in her face, but to happen twice in one day? She shook her head as she turned around to leave.
Suddenly, the door behind her opened, and a streak of orange ran past her, almost knocking her off the porch. She spun around like a tornado for a few seconds, and came to a stop on her back, letters strewn around the yard.
“At least I can assume I’m delivering good news!” She said to herself as she pulled herself back to her hooves. She picked up the remains of her spilled mailbag, and continued her rounds.