From the Outside In

by DarkParable


Chapter four: In which the finer points of feathers are discussed.

"No no no, good grief, I'm beginning to think you're incapable of flight..." said the stern voice of Dark Wing, Red's flight instructor. "Come on, thirty more wing push-ups then you go gliding again." Red could only groan softly and do as he was told, despite the sore wing joints. He'd been at this for about three days, mostly flying by night just to avoid the embarrassment of tumbling down into a crowd of ponies face first. As it was he'd given a fairly nice could a bit of a scare when he'd crashed through their roof. There were a lot of red faces that night, and a nice little new born on down the road because of his dropping in uninvited.

Red sighed softly and looked over at Dark with a bit of an annoyed expression. He had to admit the fella knew what he was talking about, despite all the pain and such that he was being put through at Dark's direction. The other pegasi was aptly named, for the only spots of color on him were his cutie mark, mane, and tail. Otherwise his coat was an unbroken inky black, quite impressive at that. His mane and tail were a bit at odds with that, various shades of blue ranging from light to dark, while his cutie mark was a winged crescent moon of pale yellow. Funnily enough Red found him good company when he wasn't being taught by him, the guy treated him like a military recruit during lessons.

Despite all the problems Red was indeed getting better at making use of his wings, he could even manage to hover in place a bit before gravity said "Nope!" and dropped him right back down to earth. His record for hang time so far was about five seconds. He'd just set that one too, which had earned him the thirty push-ups as opposed to the usual fifty. The moment he'd finished, further adding to the ache in his wings, Dark sat him down with a sigh. "Never mind the gliding practice tonight, You'll just go scaring more nice young couples... again." he said, to which Red could only sigh with relief and sprawl out. "Kid... Anypony ever explain just how flight works to you?" asked Dark, head cocked a bit. "Because I think it high time someone did."

Red was kind of lost in thoughts of his bed and a couple Icy-Hot patches, if they even existed here that was, so he simply nodded not listening too closely. Dark was no spring chicken and cuffed him over the head. "Pay attention you. The fact that somepony your age doesn't have a cutie mark and can't fly is just a disgrace." The older pegasi sat himself down at Red's side, lifted one of his wings and pointed to the primary feathers. "You're not making use of your wings properly colt. You should feel the air over these," he touched one of Red's primaries lightly, "like a current in a stream... In fact Go stand on that ledge over yonder and keep your wings out straight. Just feel the wind."

It took a good deal of prodding to get Red to do just that, but he did eventually, though with a good deal of complaint. That said however the point was well made by Dark. He'd never taken the time to simply sit and feel the air as it passed over his wings. Never stopped to appreciate just how lovely it felt to simply feel the sensation of air passing over his feathers. He let his eyes drift closed and simply relaxed in the sensation. He relaxed just a bit too much however and was completely unprepared for the shove that Dark gave him, sending him right over the edge. Red yelped, immediately flailing his limbs around and flapping like a startled chicken before he got the point and locked his wings out wide, turning his fall into a steep decent. He altered the angle of his wings ever so slightly and smiled as he pulled out of the dive and leveled off, coating on the faint thermals of the city below. He sighed softly, his smile faltering as he asked the obvious question to nopony in particular. "Ok.... So when were you going to teach me to land?"