//------------------------------//
// High Flyer  
// Story: Quirky 
// by MrRedRang1 
//------------------------------//

"What do you mean you can't fly!" Crimson and Thunderlane were standing just outside the field, it was surrounded by a giant, metallic net. 

"I mean I can't fly, simple as that." Ponies were now starting to arrive at the field for there first pegasi lesson.

"Why can't you fly?" Crimson couldn't tell if Thunderlane was angry or confused, he kept changing the tone of his voice, not knowing how to tackle the situation.

"I don't know I just didn't really get around to it."

"What do you mean you didn't get around to it, it's not like a book you didn't get around to reading, it's being able to feel the wind rushing through your mane and seeing the world in a new way, it's just like the best feeling ever."

Crimson was thinking of what to do, it took him a little while but he came up with an idea.

"Hey! Why don't you quickly teach me!" Thunderlane was left speechless for a moment.

"What?!"

"You could teach me just how to hover for now, I'll figure out the rest later."

"Did you not hear me a few minutes ago? They have one of the hardest flight courses in Equestria!"

"Oh please Thunderlane, it'll only take a second, please."

Thunderlane was considering what his answer would be, he didn't want to be late for the first lesson of school but he also didn't want his new friend to be humiliated by all the other ponies in the class for not knowing how to fly.

"Well.........OK. But we have to be quick."

"Thank you Thunderlane!" Crimson went for a hug but was pushed away.

"Whoa dude, let's just hoof bump."

Thunderlane extended his right hoof out to Crimson and at first he didn't know what to do, he remembered seeing something like this in town. Crimson accepted Thunderlane's offer and softly punched his hoof. 

"So the first thing you want to do is focus, focusing is the most important thing you have to do, no must do." Thunderlane  opened up his wings and started to flap them. He began to lift himself of the ground, he was then floating just above Crimson.

"You know, that does look pretty fun."

"What did I just say about focus?"

"OK, sorry."

Crimson started to really focus now, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Go on, continue."

"You must let every bad and scared feeling go, you must think hard of only the good things in your life and focus them into your wings."

Crimson started to have good, happy thoughts. He was thinking of things like his mom, school, dreams and memories. He began to feel a tingling sensation in his stomach, but it was only small. Out of nowhere a new thought appeared in his head, he was thinking of Vinyl Scratch, the feeling inside of him grew, and also moved from his stomach to his heart. He had never felt such an emotion before. Crimson's wings were starting to erect and grow larger, they were nearly fully upright now.

Crimson opened his eyes to see Thunderlane smiling at him.

"Yeah Crimson! You did it!" 

Crimson turned around to see his wing's, they looked strong and powerful. A large smirk grew on Crimson's little face.

"I did it, I can't believe it!" He then tried moving them, he was successful, moving them was just like 2nd nature to Crimson now. He could flap them in different ways, only the left, only the right, both, he could move them in anyway he desired. 

"I want to try and fly now. Am I ready?"

"Yeah, yeah sure, you just have to be quick." He was peering over the tall net. "The whole class is nearly there."

Crimson proceeded to move his wing's at a growing speed, they were getting faster and faster, Crimson was starting to feel lighter as well, his hooves were beginning to float of the ground. Crimson was now completely off the floor but was still focusing. He was about 5 feet of the ground now and was still rising, after a few moments he was at the exact height of Thunderlane.

"Dude, hurry up there waiting for us." Thunderlane cocked his head to where Crimson was standing to see if he was flying yet, he was amazed and startled at seeing Crimson flying right next him. He had a massive smile stretching from one side of his face to the other.  

"Oh jeez, you scared me!"

"You were right Thunderlane! It does feel good!"

"That's great Crimson, now we just have to sneak in with class."

Crimson gazed off to the middle of the field and saw about ten students lined up in an orderly fashion, in front of them was a tall mare talking to the class, it seemed the students were afraid of her, none were talking, none were messing about, they were like soldiers in the army. She started to walk to a nearby shed to get equipment for the activity they were about to do.

"Look, there's our chance. Let's go!"

Thunderlane put all of his hooves on the top of the gate and vaulted forward, he sped to the class and Crimson was left alone (yet again). He did as Thunderlane had and put all of his hooves on the gate, he jumped forward and his wing's sprouted and begun to flap. Crimson nearly fell to the floor but pulled himself up just in time. He kept his balance and flew towards the class. Crimson felt the wind rushing through his mane, it was the best feeling ever.

Crimson didn't want to be in trouble and tried to fly faster, he was gaining on Thunderlane, who was only fractions in front of him, they could see the teacher coming out of the shed with a strange cannon like device, the two stallions looked at each other knowing they would be caught, luckily though she went back inside to grab something else. Crimson and Thunderlane sped up and were so close to the class now, Thunderlane went full throttle and was now way in front of Crimson.

Thunderlane slowed down and safely landed at the class, the entire class glared at him, they all promised to not say anything to the teacher. Thunderlane looked back to see Crimson coming closer and closer, he couldn't react quick enough and was directly hit by an incoming Crimson Fire missile, the two toppled over one on top of the other. They were in a lot of pain but swiftly put that to one side when they heard the teacher getting closer. The class were still watching and giggling at the sight of two large stallions lying on top of each other.

"Dude, get off me!" Thunderlane pushed Crimson off and they both hastily lined up with all the other ponies.

The teacher trotted out of the shed and gave Crimson and Thunderlane odd looks but shrugged them off. They were trying to hide the fact they were lightly sweating and were heavily breathing. She was carrying a big brown bag with green tennis balls inside.

With Crimson and Thunderlane now here the class contained twelve students, some had taken their attention off the two late studs and were once again focused on the teacher, but others were still amazed at the sight of an alicorn. The teacher had a dark blue coat and was wearing a purple jacket, the jacket had a name tag on and said 'Mrs Ports', her cutie mark was a white hurdle. 

"Now class, you may know this already but this right here is a tennis ball machine and that over there, is the finish line." Mrs Ports pointed to a white line painted on the ground quite far away. "Your objective is to reach it before one of these tennis ball's do." The teacher was met with mixed reactions, some were excited and were ready to go but others groaned and wanted the lesson to be over. 

5 minutes later the class were standing 50 feet away from the finish line awaiting there name to be called. Crimson was looking at all the students in the class and thinking how different they all were. On his right was Thunderlane preparing himself and on his left was a light blue mare with a multi colored mane and tail, her eyes were a mix of red and purple and she had a lightning cloud cutie mark, the lightning bolt was also multi-colored. 

Crimson didn't know it but while he was glaring at her cutie mark, she was looking at him too. 

"Um dude, do you mind not staring at my butt please?" Crimson instantly brought his eye's the the mare.

"Oh no! I'm not staring at you I was just looking at your cutie mark." 

"OK well, that's understandable. I mean it is pretty awesome isn't it?"

"Yes it is. How did you get it?"

"Well the story's way too cool, it'll probably blow your mind by how great it is. I'm Rainbow Dash by the way." Crimson was quite happy by how fast he had got a new friend without even trying.

"My name's Crimson Fire, but you can call me Crimson if you like." They both extended their hooves and hoof bumped.

Crimson and Rainbow Dash talked for a while until they noticed nearly everypony in the class were 50 feet away, at the finish line. The two ponies begun to stretch and get ready, they heard different name's being shouted out followed by large bang's from the tennis ball machine.

"Rainbow Dash!" Mrs Ports screamed. "3....2....1.... GO!"

The tennis ball machine spat out a small green circle and Rainbow Dash leaped forward with tons of power and speed, she was obviously faster than Thunderlane and Crimson. For a couple of milliseconds the tennis ball was in front of Rainbow Dash, but she pulled through and made it to the finish line first. The rest of the class were applauding her and patting her on the back.

Crimson and Thunderlane were the last two ponies to go.

"Thunderlane! 3....2....1....GO!"

Thunderlane shot through the air and tried his hardest to reach the finish line before the tennis ball. He was speeding through the air, fighting the wind, but sadly Thunderlane made it to the finish line after the ball. 

Crimson knew it was his turn now since he was the last one there, he was once again worried but like last time he just focused.

"Crimson Fire! 3....2....1....GO!"

The ball shot out of the machine and flew to the finish line where everyone was waiting. He extended his wing's and jumped into the air like all the others, his wing's started to move up and down, Crimson was picking up speed at a good rate and was gaining on the tennis ball. 

The tennis ball hit the ground with a loud thud and followed was Crimson, he was sad that he didn't get there first but was still happy he didn't crash this time. He got to the finish line in great time though, he was even slightly faster than Thunderlane.

"I have to admit Crimson, that was pretty good." Thunderlane offered a hoof bump to Crimson and he accepted.

"Well done guys." Mrs Ports had walked up to them. "I do think you would've have gone faster if you arrived on time though." 

"Sorry Mrs, I had to help Crimson."

"It's alright guys, just don't do it again."

For the rest of the lesson, they talked about things like how to fly faster and without getting tired and stuff like that. Another bell rang out and the class was dismissed, the next lesson they had was a red one, it was Math. Crimson walked with Thunderlane to there next lesson and on the way there they got to know a lot of thing's about each other; there hope's, dream's and past. Crimson didn't tell Thunderlane about being home schooled though, he was sort of embarrassed.  

Crimson and Thunderlane were lining up outside their next class, Music. Once again Crimson looked at the array of different students. While he was eyeing up the class he noticed Vinyl and Heartsworth at the back of the line. Crimson decided to go talk to them, he casually stepped out of the line and walk to his friend's. They saw Crimson and gave him warm smile's.

"Hi Crimson. I was just telling Heartsworth about my time at a Knife Pony concert, they played some sick song's like Destroy Them With Laces and Campfire, oh and not to forget Mail Friends." Crimson didn't understand a single word Vinyl said but still pretended he did.

"Yeah I uh, love those songs."

"Oh you like dubstep?" She was happily surprised at Crimson's little white lie.

"Yeah definitely, I just love, dubstep."  

"You know I dabble a little in the mystical ways of dubstep." Vinyl was talking about dubstep as if it were a holy gift and the more she went on the more Crimson got interested. 

"Maybe I could show you if I get the chance?"

"OK, that would be grea-"          

"Settle down now class, it's time to go inside." The teacher unlocked the door, opened it and the class were allowed in. The teacher was standing outside still, examining everypony. When Crimson walked past he saw the teacher fully. He was a unicorn with long brown hair and a yellow coat, his cutie mark was a guitar, he was also wearing a green, flowery shirt.

Inside the classroom were about thirty different instruments ranging from drums to pianos to trumpets. there was a large whiteboard at the back of the room, there were some table spaced out around the room also, everypony went with there instincts and sat on a table with their friend's.

Crimson went to a table on the far left of the room, on his table was Vinyl, Thunderlane and Heartsworth. Crimson noticed Rainbow Dash on another table as well. She was sitting with very different ponies; one looked shy, one was laughing, one was reading. They were all different.

"OK class, my name is Mr E and I know some of you may be a little scared since it's your first day here, so I think we should break that fear and just have fun!" The pink mare on Rainbow Dash's table screamed 'Yay'. "Just for today, you guys can just try out all my lovely instrument's." The entire class copied the pink pony and screamed in happy delight. 

The whole class got up and ran to the instrument they most desired, Crimson looked around and saw a lonely drum kit, with no one on it, sitting in the corner, he decided to go and have a try. 

Crimson arrived at the instrument and sat down, he was completely clueless of how to play but he did see two drum sticks with small dents in them. Crimson put two and two together and thought about whacking the sticks on the drum. He put one of the sticks vertically in his mouth, lifted his head and slammed it down. An awesome sound occurred as the stick made contact with the drum. 

Crimson was about to smash every part of the drum kit but a familiar face appeared. 

"Get lost, I'm going on those drums." It was RT, his eye's were still full of anger.

"Well this lesson lasts for an hour so I think we'll both be able to have a go."

"I don't care care. Get off." Crimson was getting scared.

"I've only been here for like, five seconds though."

"Again, I don't care! Buck off!"

"What does that mean?"

"What!? Are you 'special'?"

"Well yeah, I kinda think I'm special. You probably are too." Out of nowhere Heartsworth ran over and tried to help Crimson.

"Whoa! Crimson, I think I've found you an even better instrument than this crappy old thing. Come with me."

"But I was here first."

"Please dude, just come with me." Crimson slowly stepped away from the drums and went with Heartsworth. RT stared at Crimson with his evil eyes while claiming the right to the drums.

Crimson and Heartsworth were standing in the middle of the room talking. 

"So Heartsworth, wheres this cool instrument you we're talking about?"

"There isn't one, I just didn't want you to have you're face smashed."

"What?"

"Look. I went to middle school with RT, so just trust me when I say 'Don't mess with him'." Heartsworth walked away, leaving Crimson in the center of the room.

Crimson didn't want to be lonely so he went over to Vinyl who was messing around with a giant set of turntables, they were attached to huge speakers, but it seemed that Vinyl was wearing headphones. 

"Hey Crimson, how ya doin'?"

"I'm fine." He didn't want to tell Vinyl about him getting forced off the drums. "What about you?"

"I'm alright. Hey do you wanna hear this quick mix I made." She took off hear headphones and offered them to Crimson and he took them, he placed the headphones over his ears. 

Vinyl begun pushing buttons and turned dials. Crimson could hear some quiet noises and a beat, slowly the sounds got louder and louder until they stayed at a calm pace. The sounds were quite relaxing but they were beginning to get angrier and then everything went silent, Crimson couldn't hear anything, but that all changed when the bass drop kicked in and Crimson got a taste of real dubstep. Crimson had never heard anything like it before, it was so angry and violent. Crimson's ears were nearly bleeding so he took the headphones off.

"So what do you think?" Vinyl asked.

What Crimson was thinking: "Oh my Celestia! My ear's! It hurts so much!" 

What Crimson said: "That was amazing, you should be a professional."

"Aw thanks, that's really sweet." Vinyl was now trying to stop herself from blushing. She put her headphones back on and proceeded to 'work'. 

For the rest of the lesson Crimson went around watching everypony play their instrument's and even got to join in sometimes. 

It was now recess and Crimson, Vinyl, Heartsworth and Thunderlane were walking around the school. They came across RT stuffing two ponies into trash cans. Once they were fitted in tightly RT walked away, no pony did anything, they just kept their head's down and walked away.

"How terrible." Crimson said. "What did they do?" Vinyl was the first to answer.

"Dude, how would we know? We all arrived at the same time as you."

"Well I'm going over there to help."

Crimson walked over to the two trash cans, the weird thing was neither one of the ponies were struggling to get out.

"Is he gone yet?" They were obviously talking to each other.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Well you could have like, super senses or something." 

"Oh shut up dude." Crimson had finally arrived at the trash cans.

"Do you guys want some help? RTs gone."

"If your offering, we would like some help."

Crimson managed to get both ponies out, one of the stallion's had a blue coat, long olive like hair and didn't have a cutie mark. The other had a dark yellow coat and was wearing a red woolie hat covering his hair and ear's, he also didn't have a cutie mark.

"Thanks, Crimson. My name's Rail." The one with the woolie hat said. Vinyl, Thunderlane and Heartsworth had walked up to see what had happened.

"Rail? What's that short for?" Heartsworth asked.

"It's short for Railby, which is short for Railby Getsum, which is short for Railby.P.Getsum, which is short for-"

"OK Rail, we don't need your entire family tree. My name's Jet." 

"What did you do to get RT angry like that?

"I didn't do anything." Jet said. "It was Rail's fault."

"No it wasn't!.................OK maybe it was. I accidentally bumped into his girlfriend, Lyra Heartstrings."

"You got stuffed into a trash can because you only bumped into her?"

"I kinda bumped into her from behind." The group was confused.

"What exactly do you mean 'from behind'."

"Well my head was facing the ground 'cause I was looking at the patterns on the ground and she was standing up directly in front of me, so my head kinda, hit her in the butt."

The whole group understood and even laughed a bit. 

"Geez, this makes me think of so many questions." Vinyl said. "How deep did you go? Are you gonna wash that hat? What did it feel like? What did she say?" None of the questions were answered due to Rail being slightly embarrassed. 

Yet another bell went off and everypony went to their lessons, Crimson went to his next class which was Math and he actually caught on quite fast, he learned how to divide fractions by their common terminator or something like that. The lesson went really fast considering it was Crimson's first ever Math lesson, before he knew it, it was time for lunch and Crimson was lining up to get some.

The cafeteria was situated in a massive hall where teacher's make big announcements and for indoor sports. The walls were full of posters telling ponies how to eat properly and stuff. The hall was full of ponies and was very noisy, there were also tables everywhere with ponies sitting by them. There was a stage at the end of the hall as well, preferably for Drama. There were two lines to get food in, there was the 'normal' line which served anything and then there was the 'healthy' line, which served salads and water. (That line was basically empty) 

Crimson was standing in the 'normal' line with Rail, they were talking about things like lessons, music, life and food.

"Hey I was wondering." Rail said with a soft tone. "Are we friends?"

"Yeah, of course we are."

"Cool! I've never had an alicorn friend before. Well to be honest, I don't really have a lot of friends."

"Oh, why not?"

"I don't really know, ponies say I have the attention span of a goldfish or something like tha- oh look pizza!"

Crimson and Rail were now at the front of the line and they could see all the food; pizza, cakes, chocolate, slushies and more junk food that'll make you obese in seconds. Crimson hadn't really eaten food like this before, his mother always gave him very healthy foods and rarely had any junk. 

Crimson grabbed a plate and begun ordering food from the lunch mare.

Five minutes later Crimson was sitting down at a table with all his friends, Heartsworth was probably the only one with salad. The entire table was surprised to see an average sized stallion have enough food to feed a family of ten. 

After their lunch, everypony went and waited for their lesson due to boredom. Crimson and Vinyl were standing outside English class talking about important things.

"Hey Crimson, did you know, some frogs can be frozen, thawed out and still survive?"

"I did not know that."

"Well you two surely are early birds." The teacher trotted up behind them and gave them a small shock. She was a tall mare with large blue hair curled neatly pulled back with a bobble. She had a pink coat map for a cutie mark. 

"You do know there's still ten minutes of lunch left, right?"

"Yeah, but there's nothin' to do." Vinyl said not trying to be rude. 

"Well if you want, you two could help me get all the books ready." She said it in a way which didn't sound like a question but a demand.

Crimson and Vinyl followed the teacher inside and placed work books around every table. The room was full of posters with witty phrases you would only find in an English class. The teacher went to sit at her desk, her name was on the front, it said 'Miss Starlet'. 

The good thing about putting all the books on the tables was that Crimson and Vinyl could choose where everypony sat. They put RT's book on a table full of whiny mares and Crimson put his book on the table with all of his friends. 

The lesson went quite smoothly with Miss Starlet being funny and nice. In the lesson, the class went around reading a book called 'The Pony Whisperer'. A weird thing that Crimson noticed was that ponies that chewed gum would sometimes stick it under the table. Well at least it's another lesson he learned today, never to feel under the table.

The next lesson Crimson had was Geography, he learned about the seven wonders of Equestria, it was all beautiful. At one point Crimson noticed a large map of Equestria, when Crimson saw it, he felt happy to know there was still a huge world to explore and enjoy. 

Once Geography had finished Crimson started to walk out of the class with Vinyl, there was a large crowd of ponies leaving the room and Crimson accidentally knocked into Vinyl, her skin felt warm and soft, she always acted tough but Crimson knew she was a softie underneath. When he bumped into her, he also knocked her glasses a bit, he was pretty sure he saw some red.

They reached the safety of the hallway and went to History class to pick up Thunderlane and Heartsworth. After they were all together they went back outside to walk home. 

They were mixed in with all different sorts of ponies while walking to get out of school, there were ponies that could easily blend in with teachers and then there were ponies that looked about five years old. After nearly drowning in a sea of ponies, the four friends made it out of Ponyville High. They were all standing just outside the school. 

"So I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then." Crimson exclaimed.

"See you later Crimson." Heartsworth said. Vinyl and Thunderlane said bye as well, they walked off together.  

Crimson looked around for his mom and saw her standing by the school gates; she looked kind of worried. Crimson ran over to her and said hi. Before she said anything, she put her hoof to Crimson's face and checked for bruises or cuts, she was relived when she couldn't find any. Once her little search was over she hugged Crimson.

"Did you have a good day at school, honey?"

"Yeah, I had an amazing day!"

"That's great Crimson, now if anypony hurt you today, you would tell me wouldn't you?" Crimson was thinking about telling her about RT but he didn't want her to worry, so he didn't.

"I promise, mom."

On the way back home, Crimson told his mom about his day and also showed her his new ability to fly. She was so proud of him, for a split second she thought of school being a good thing, but she remembered her secret and the thought was pushed aside.

Crimson walked in the front door of his home and gently placed his saddlebag in the closet. For the rest of the day Crimson talked about his day again, cleaned his room and went in the backyard for a while.

Crimson was now in bed and his mom was standing over him. She was kissing his forehead and tucking him in.

"I love you Crimson, I'm happy you had a great day."

"I'm happy as well mom. I love you too by the way." She kissed him one last time and left the room. 

Crimson was lying in bed reflecting on his day, he was so happy.

Wow, that was a great day. I can't wait for tomorrow. I get to learn more new things, go outside and even see Vinyl again. I really like her.