//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1- Trying to Fly 
// Story: Ratchet Earns Her Wings 
// by RatchetFlash 
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	The filly looked at her small wings. She let out a unhappy sigh as she flapped them up and down, trying to catch the feeling of wing on her feathers. She looked down her to dad. He was holding a cloud just below the edge of Cloudsdale, waiting for the filly to try and fly again. Ratchet was about 8 and she didn't have her cutie mark nor could she fly. Every single time she tried to fly, she did exactly what her father told her to. Crimson always just brushed it off, thinking that she did something wrong. He knew deep in his heart, that there was something wrong with her wings. He just didn't want to accept it.


"D-Daddy?" The scared filly muttered over the cloud edge.
"What is it, kiddo?" He asked softly. He could see the fear in her eyes.	
"I-I don't want to jump." She muttered shyly. Crimson moved his ear.
"I don't think I hear you, Ratchet, you have to speak up."
"I don't want to jump! I won't be able to fly! And I never will.. Just like how I will never get my cutie mark..." The filly sat down on the cloud and sobbed into her hooves. Crimson frowned as he flew up to his youngest filly and wrapped his wing around her.
"Why not give it one last try? Then we can head home to Ponyville." Crimson whispered into her ear. She sniffled and nodded as he flew back down to the cloud and adjusted its position. "Okay. On the count of three, Jump. Spread you wings as far as you can. Ready? 3. 2. 1." The filly took a deep breath as she jumped off the cloud. She spread her wings as far of she could, and for a moment, she felt the air catch on her wings, before she started to fall down towards the ground. Crimson flew the cloud under her and she landed softly on it. 
"See Dad? I won't ever be able to fly." The filly sighed heavily as her father grabbed onto the cloud with both hooves and began his descent back down to Ponyville.




8 years later

Ratchet groaned to herself as she turned around in her bed. "I am sixteen, bucking, years, old. I still don't have a cutie mark and I can't fly." She looked out her window to see a white unicorn filly, a orange pegasus filly who was on a scooter and a yellow earth pony. The earth pony and the unicorn were staring at the cutie mark on the pegasus' flank, a flaming wheel. Ratchet assumed her talent had something to do with that horrid scooter that was always crashing into her back yard. All three of the fillies appeared to be anywhere from seven to eight. "Wow. Ever a bucking seven year old has her cutie mark. I am sixteen and I don't even have a cutie mark! What the hay!"
"Scootaloo! Ya finally got yer cutie mark! Ah'm so proud of ya!" The earth pony shouted. Scootaloo grinned at her friend.
"Isn't it awesome! I can't wait to show Rainbow Dash!" The white unicorn broke out into a song for her friend.
" We are the cutie mark crusaders," Ratchet closed her window with a groan. 
She. Hated. Singing. Ponies. It seemed like every single day, somepony was singing. She remembered one day when the Elements of Harmony were strolling down the streets singing about 'A True, True Friend'. Ratchet hid under her pillow that whole day and in the morning the purple unicorn was singing about morning in Ponyville. Ratchet thought Ponyville was full of a bunch of crazy ponies. The only uncrazy ponies in her eyes are Stardust Shot, Zealous Spike and Zecord Blitz. Her only three friends. Even all her friends had their cutie marks. Stardust's talent was taking photos, Zealous had a talent for fiddling with technology and Zecord has a talent in video games. 



In fact, Zealous had made two pairs of metal wings. He was wearing the first pair he ever made and Zecord had the second pair he made. Right when Zealous got his cutie mark, he started a project on finding a way to connect the nervous system into mechanical wings so that Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Zebras and even pegasi with crippled wings could fly. Then, after all the thinking Ratchet was doing, an idea popped into her head. She would ask Zealous to make her a pair of mechanical wings!
"Daddy!" She shouted as she ran down the stairs, excited to tell her father her brilliant idea.
"Yes?" Crimson said as he raised and eyebrow at the almost fully grown filly running towards him.
"I know how I can fly! So you know how my friend, Zealous he makes wings an-" She was cut off by her father.
"Ratchet, I already know what you are gonna say." He smiled softly. "But I should talk to your mother about this." Ratchet smiled widely as she jumped up and down. "Rainbow!" Crimson shouted out into the back yard, where a purple pegasus mare was basking in the sun. 

"Yes Crimson, what is it?" Ratchet's mother said as she got off the chair and walked towards Crimson and her youngest filly.
"Well, dear, you do know how Zealous can make working mechanical wings? Ratchet was thinking... Maybe she could get some?" Ratchet and Crimson both smiled sheepishly at Rainbow Flash.
"I don't think so." She said with no emotion in her face. "I don't think she should be given the right to fly until she has her cutie mark." Ratchet's heart sank as she sighed and turned away and sat on her blank flank. "I'm sorry Ratchet, but I just don't want you flying until you know your talent."
"Mom! What if my talent IS flying?" She frowned as she dragged her hoof along the ground.
"Ratchet, if your talent was flying, then you would have been born with working wings." Rainbow said softly. "Instead of being cooped up all day on the Ponynet, why don't you go out and spend time with the other stallions and mares?"
"Because mom! Everytime I go out in public Green Spark, Fireball and Shinning Blade all just follow me around calling me a flightless blank flank..." Ratchet mumbled softly as she turned away from her mother.
"Don't let them put ya down kiddo." Crimson said as he wrapped a wing around the filly. "Just ignore them."
"Yeah, just ignore them, like you father said." Rainbow reinforced Crimson's statement. A grin spread over Ratchet's face as she walked away from her parents. 
"Oh, and I think I might have an idea of how to stand up to them." Ratchet said as she trotted out of the hole in the fence that goes around the backyard. "That fucking scooter pegasus..." She mumbled to herself.