The sun pierced my eyelids, blinding me momentarily as I awoke. It was a much different start than I was used to. Usually, the blinds were pulled shut, keeping any foreign light from entering the room, but, well, it’s hard to find blinds for a circle, and I don’t have any money yet. My new wolf friend was curled up against the wall in a pile of blankets off of my bed. Being the lazy, creative, and messy person I was, I yawned, pulled the sheets off of the bed, and threw them over my head, blocking out most of the light.
“Ugh. Too early.” I didn’t even know what time it was, but I knew sunlight was bad. Just then, someone began knocking on my door.
“Hey, you still alive?”
“Ugghh, go away!”
“C’mon, you’ve been out for too long.”
I moaned one last time as I threw my pillow at the door…just as my visitor decided to enter. I heard the sound of it fluff off of her face and sat up. Standing in my doorway was Rainbowdash, the pillow still on her face. “Umm, oops?” she grabbed the pillow off of her face and threw it back at me twice as hard. I ducked, trying to avoid it, but my head jerked back as it hooked onto my horn. It fell over my face, blinding me, and I could clearly hear laughter. When I pulled the pillow off of my horn, I saw Rainbowdash laughing and rolling on the ground. “Okay, I deserve that.”
“Aww that was hilarious!”
“GRRRR.” We both sat up at the sound. I immediately looked over at Hazmat, who was standing up, trying to look as menacing as a pup can look.
“Hazmat.” He looked over at me. “Hazmat, down.” With a whimper, he lowered back down into his bed, never taking his eyes off of Rainbow.
“When did you get a dog?”
“Actually he’s a wolf.”
“Okay…when did you get a wolf?”
“Yesterday when I was helping Fluttershy. We found him under a bush and she recommended I take him, since he seems to only like me.”
“I can see that. He’s a bit vicious for a pup, don’t you think?”
“Meh, he’ll be fine.”
“Riiigght. So what are you doing today?”
I yawned. “I don’t know, I guess I’ll learn from you today.”
“Learn?”
“Yeah, I follow you around and help you whenever.”
“Sounds good to me!”
“Why do I feel like I made a mistake?”
“Come on, don’t keep me waiting.”
I sighed deeply as I rose from my bed. “Alright, let’s go. Hazmat, stay.” He wined, but obeyed as he lowered into his bed. Walking outside, I took in a deep breath of fresh air, looking around at the early life of Ponyville. Rainbowdash walked out beside me.
“We’re on weather today. C’mon, let’s go!” She took off like a bullet into the air. I watched as she faded into a dot, then turned around and returned beside me. “You know, when I say come on, I mean come on.”
“I don’t know how to fly.”
“No seriously, let’s go.”
“I am being serious.” I looked back at my wings, which were still hanging at my sides. “How do you fly?”
“Well, I don’t know, just flap your wings!” I looked at her awkwardly. All she did was put a hoof to her face. “Close your eyes and think about your wings.” I did as instructed, and strangely enough I began feeling my wings, which were numb up until this point.
“I think I can feel my wings.”
“Alright, can you move them?” I tried, and at the command my wings flared to life, standing straight up. “Good. Now, flap them really fast!” I again looked at her, puzzled. “I don’t know how changelings work. The only ones I ever saw in flight were trying to kill me, so I wasn’t really paying attention to how they fly.”
“Right, okay.” I did as instructed once again and beat my wings rapidly, which surprisingly took very little effort. Faster and faster, it felt like a burden was being lifted off of my legs.
“Hey Amor, don’t look now, but your flying.” I looked down at my legs, which were now dangling below me.
“So I am.”
“You don’t sound very excited for your first flight.”
“I never get excited.”
“Apparently. So can you move, or are you stuck in one spot?”
“I don’t know, let me try.” I tried angling my wings to push air behind me. That did the trick, because I began shooting forward. Angling them the other way, I moved back. “Yeah, I can move.”
“Great, now follow me.” Again, she shot into the air, and I followed the best I could. When we were a good distance in the air, she stopped and looked around, scanning the skies. “Can you break a cloud?”
“I dunno.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that. Go try and break that cloud.” She pointed to the closest cloud, and I floated over to it. I gave it a light kick, and it disintegrated at the touch. “There you go! See, you are learning from me, and I’m an awesome teacher!”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Fine, fine, whatever. Just start kicking clouds, I’ll get to work over there.” She took off into the opposite direction, leaving me in the middle of the sky. With a heavy sigh, I went to work on the other side.
……….
It took a few hours, but I broke most of the clouds I could find. Searching the skies, I saw only one other cloud in the sky. I began mumbling under my breath. “Yeah, thanks for the help.” I gave the cloud a kick, and it broke apart, leaving a bright blue figure where it once was, now falling to earth. It was Rainbowdash. She was asleep. I panicked and dive-bombed straight for her, my wings clamping tight to my body. “Ohnoohnoohnoohno!” My tight slender figure was gaining speed faster than her sloppy one, causing some air resistance. I finally caught to her and wrapped my legs around her, now flapping my wings as fast as they could move. I finally slowed the free-fall to a slow, almost motionless hover.
“Huh? What?” She was finally awake.
“Next time, tell me what cloud you’re in before you go to sleep.”
“Uhhh, what happened? I feel like I was kicked in the back.”
“Y-yeah, that was my fault. I broke the cloud you were in and sent you into a free-fall to earth. I am so sorry.”
“N-no, no, it’s my fault. Sorry.”
“Seriously? I nearly killed you, but you’re sorry?”
“Yeah, that was my fault. I shoulda told you.”
“And?”
“And…I shoulda helped.”
“And?”
“And…I shouldn’t have been sleeping.”
“And?”
“And…what else do you want from me?”
“I just wanted to see what you would say. Now, could you help?”
“What do you…oh, yeah, sorry.” The entire time we were talking, she hadn’t noticed the only reason she wasn’t on the ground was because I was helping her up, holding her in a type of shoulder lock. “Not bad for your first time flying.”
“Just start flapping.”
“Right, right.” At the command, she pulled herself from my hold and flew up beside me.
“I just want you to know that I take full responsibility.”
“For what?”
“Nearly killing you.”
“How is that your fault? You can’t really blame yourself for doing what you were told?”
“Sorry, force of habit.”
“What habit could possibly have you blaming yourself because of what I did?”
“Well…whenever anything bad happens, my father would always blame me, no matter what.”
“Seriously?”
“Would I lie?”
“I don’t know…dang, that sucks.”
“Well, I’m cursed.”
“Your luck can’t be that bad.”
“Someone stole my dog when I was little.”
“Well…sorry to hear that. But it can’t be entirely your fault. I’ve been blamed for my fair share of things, most of them were actually my fault though, but always look at the bright side.”
“What bright side?”
“You just found out you’re a pretty strong flier.”
“I guess…”
“And you have a lot of friends.”
“Okay…”
“And you now have a loyal wolf and a friend who owes you her life.”
“Alright, I get it. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. That’s what friends are for.”
“Yeah, right, friends…”
“You…have had friends before…right?”
“Not many, and not any that I would actually trust.”
“Well, that all changes now. You have the liberty and opportunity to be friends with the one and only Rainbowdash! This is a chance that not many get, and those who do are very lucky.”
“Your overdoing it.”
“Do you want to be my friend or not?”
“A bit harsh, don’t you think?” I smiled. “Alright, sure friend.”
“That’s the spirit! So now what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know…I’m hungry, how about you?”
“Now that you mentioned it, yes, after nearly falling to my death, I am a little hungry. Come on, I’ll buy lunch.”
“That sounds great. I can’t remember the last time I ate…well, anything.”
“Great! Umm, I don’t really owe you my life, do I?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, Rainbowdash, you don’t, just buy me lunch and we’ll call it even.”