//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: The Pros & the Cons // Story: The Adventures of Fragment // by A Dark Reminder //------------------------------// "Hello, everyone. My name is Hofnarr, and I will be your support flight instructor for today. Here to laugh at your mistakes and be glad that I don't have to do something that makes me look as stupid as you." Was the first thing Hofnarr said as Spitfire prepared to begin our training. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous. I wasn't nervous about making a fool of myself as much as I was about hurting myself. I had no idea what to expect from Spitfire nor did I know how easily I'd learn to use my wings. I may have had them this whole time but I had never used them before now. "First things first." Spitfire began. "Hofnarr, you need to give us basics on changeling flight, which means Blast Shield will need to unbind your wings." And with that, I knew that I could predict nothing from Spitfire. "Sorry, I didn't hear you; I had a crazy idea in my ear. You want me to do what?" Blast Shield said, hoping he simply misheard Spitfire. However I could smell Spitfire was dead serious about it. And I think Blast Shield figured it out from the expression on her face. "Unbind him." Spitfire said seriously. Blast Shield hesitated before he turned to Hofnarr and his horn began to glow with blue magic. An aura of the same color appeared around Hofnarr's wing binds and Blast Shield pulled a key out of somewhere. As the straps around Hofnarr's wings came off, Blast Shield used the key to unlock the cuffs around Hofnarr's hooves, which fell to the ground afterwards. As Blast Shield gathered the straps and cuffs, Hofnarr stretched his limbs while he smiled. "Let me tell you." Hofnarr bean as he cracked his neck. Which was weird because it wasn't restrained in anyway. "It does not feel good to have your mobility brought below that of a snail." He said as Spitfire turned to him with a serious look, instantly making him lose his smile. "Don't try to get too comfortable, Hofnarr. You're going to be right here with me helping Fragment fly. Got that?" She said as she brought her face up to Hofnarr's. "Depends on how you define 'got.'" Hofnarr replied with a new smile. However, it slowly faded once he saw how unamused Spitfire was. "Word of advice." Soarin said as Hofnarr turned to him. "Take this seriously." Was all he said as he began to walk away. Hofnarr turned back to Spitfire with a nervous smile. "S-so what exactly do you want me to do?" "Like I said, first I want you to show us the basics of changeling flight, then you and I are gonna work together to teach Fragment. So, why don't you demonstrate how you fly?" Hofnarr's nervous expression became one of confidence as his wings began to buzz very quickly. His semi-transparent wings became a blur as they flapped and Hofnarr lifted about a foot into the air. "Challenge accepted." Hofnarr said as he began to fly around Spitfire, Blast Shield and I while he kept his body facing us. His wings were causing quite a bit of loose dirt to be knocked into the air and carried away by the wind. "Observe the fact that I can keep flying in this circle around you and keep myself facing you. This is something you can't so easily do with pegasus wings. Or almost any other kind of wing. Our wings can't make us go as fast as others, but are far more maneuverable than most. Hovering and strafing are easy and stable. But to get to telling you how to use them, most of the idea is to always keep your wings moving; while it is possible it's very hard to glide with these wings. Thus, keep 'em buzzing. Beyond that it's pretty similar to other flight methods." He said as he landed in front of me. "Now start flapping. I'll give you more instructions as you progress." I still wasn't sure of my capabilities, but I knew I had to try, so I mentally prepared myself and removed my cloak. With what felt like very little effort my wings started flapping incredibly fast, becoming a light blue blur while they made a rather loud buzzing. My wings flapping was also kicking up loose dirt. Hofnarr and I noticed that I was beginning to lift into the air. "I'd recommend staying down here a bit longer, buddy. Don't want a hawk or something mistaking you for something it wants to eat." "I think I could deal with a hawk if I needed to." I said as I slowed my wings so I was firmly on the ground. "Regardless! Spitfire, how 'bout you take it for now and once he's in the air I hop back in and give him a helping hoof from there?" Spitfire thought for a moment before nodding to Hofnarr's idea. With that decided Hofnarr stepped aside while Spitfire walked up to me. "Pay attention, Fragment, because if I have to repeat myself no one's going to be happy." I found her attitude rather scary. "One of the key elements of flight is balance. If you can't keep balance you can't stay in the air for long. Assuming you can even get into it. Once you're in the air you should keep your legs either tucked in or sticking out in front of you, that way there's less drag as well as better balance." She explained as she jumped into the air and darted off into the sky, with Blast Shield, Hofnarr and I watching. "I think it's implied that you observe." Blast Shield said. Taking what he said into account, I examined Spitfire while she flew. She kept her hind legs close together and her forelegs sticking out in front of her. Wouldn't it be easier to just let your legs be against your sides rather than in front of you? I wondered as Spitfire followed a seemingly random path in the sky until she made a U turn and flew back to us. "It's only as hard as you let it be." Spitfire said as she landed in front of me. "Now it's your turn. Start flapping your wings and slowly increase your speed." With a nod, I began to flap my wings again, buzzing loudly while kicking up debris and slowly elevating me into the air. Once my hooves were completely off the ground, I felt very uncomfortable. It was weird to have no sturdy surface to stand on. I tried to keep my calm as I got higher off the ground while Spitfire and the others watched me with the same observant expression. "See? It's not that hard." Hofnarr said with a grin while Spitfire's expression remained unchanged. The further I got from the ground the less debris was knocked into the air. I felt very nervous once I reached six feet off the ground. "Okay, now hold your altitude and try some actual flying." Spitfire said as I gulped nervously; there wasn't a chance she would settle with a causal flying speed. Taking in a deep breath, I began flapping my wings harder and leaned forward. I was surprised by how fast my movement was with my wings, but the speed wasn't exactly helpful at this point. I tried to lean back to stop but over-corrected and ended up going backwards. I saw Spitfire facehoof and heard Hofnarr laugh as I tried to regain stability. "Hofnarr, get up there and help him. This is what they brought you for." Spitfire said as Hofnarr's laughs turned into a disappointed 'aw.' "I didn't sign up to do my job." Hofnarr said as he flew into the air and quickly got to me while I still struggled to stabilize. "Good morning, sir. How may I help you today?" Hofnarr said with a large smile. "Help me hold still." I replied as I almost flew into Hofnarr. Hofnarr hooked my horn with a hoof hole, thus stopping me from going very far and somehow helping me regain balance. Once Hofnarr was sure I was balanced, he removed his hoof. "Okay, Captain silly, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, flight is a rather difficult for a noob like yourself. But don't worry, I'm here to help ya through it!" "That does not comfort me, Hofnarr." I replied as Hofnarr displayed a hurt and sad expression. Whether it was genuine or not I couldn't tell. "Now that kinda behavior is why no one likes our kind. If you want my help with flying then you gotta not be rude or a jerk. Okay?" He finished with a raised brow. "Okay, okay." I said with a sigh as my hovering became unstable again. "Can we start with keeping balance, please?" I asked while I stretched my legs out in different directions in a futile attempt to stabilize myself. "First of all you need to calm down, then I can start helping." Hofnarr said as he crossed his forelegs and laid his head on them, like they were resting on a table or something. I stopped pointlessly flailing my limbs around and took a few deep calming breaths while still failing to gain stability. Once I appeared calm to Hofnarr, he spoke. "First things first, relax your legs. You're flying, so your wings are what you're counting on." I did as told. "Not to become balanced, you need to be up but kinda leaned forward. Like if you were standing on your hind legs and leaning over a balcony. Of course you don't need to when you get good at it. Heck, you just need to be decent and you'll do fine. As far as balance goes, that is." Taking Hofnarr's advice, I straightened up and leaned forward some. It took a moment but in that position my stability was regained at last, and I was able to truly relax for a bit. I gave a sigh of relief as Hofnarr began to circle me. "So what's next?" I asked as Hofnarr tapped his chin and Spitfire began flying towards us. "I was thinking some slow flying so you could get a better feel for it, but let's hear what the pro here thinks," He replied as he stopped circling me and Spitfire got to our level. "What do you think, madam? Shall we continue at a less than skilled speed or kick things up a notch?" "With how poorly you've been doing compared to the average flier, you should probably start slow." She told me while Hofnarr chuckled. "Hofnarr, you're going to help Fragment with basic flight techniques while I check on the other teams in training. Got it?" Hofnarr gave a salute as a reply. Spitfire then turned and flew to Blast Shield. "Make sure neither of them do something stupid." She told him before flying off. Hofnarr looked at Blast Shield and said: "What exactly can you do from down there?" He got into a laying down position while hovering as he continued. "I mean, what's stopping me from just flying away and going home now? I hardly think Fragment could catch me." "Oh, I think I know plenty of spells to stop your get away. But I suppose if I can't then that assassin pegasus will." Blast Shield gave a relatively dark grin as he said that, but Hofnarr gave a visible shudder at the idea. "Let's change the subject, shall we?" I said as I clumsily flew closer to Hofnarr. "So, basic flight techniques. What can you tell me?" "Well keeping balance is pretty much the most important part, the thing now is just learning how to keep that balance while you fly. You'll need to constantly adjust based on your speed. It's more of something that you learn yourself than it is something you're taught because everyone has their own style. I can give you a few tips here and there, but you're otherwise on your own. I'd suggest we start with the most basic kind of flight. Moving forward. Go on and lean forward nice and slowly, and be careful about your balance; speed equals unstable." I nodded as I turned away from Hofnarr a little. Still feeling nervous, I took another deep breath to try relaxing. However it didn't help much. Deciding that I needed to work through the nervousness, I leaned forward and slightly increased the rate I was flapping my wings. I started to move forward with Hofnarr staying near me. My flight speed was the same as my walking speed but was much less stable. I was wobbling rather uncontrollably as I moved, but as I adjusted and picked up speed, it became easier to fly stably. "Good, good. Now let's gain some speed, eh?" Hofnarr said as he darted ahead of me. "Come on, slowpoke!" He taunted as he kept going. I began to move fast as I tried to catch up to Hofnarr while paying close attention to how stable I was. Hofnarr stopped once he had gotten about two-hundred feet ahead of me and turned around. He crossed his forelegs impatiently while I tried to fly faster. I kept my stability decent as my speed increased, but once I was about halfway to where Hofnarr was, I heard what sounded like someone screaming. But not a scream of terror or pain, but more like someone was... falling? I stopped and hovered as I tried to locate the source of the noise. "What's the hold-up?" Hofnarr asked as the screaming became louder and more understandable. "LOOOOOOOK OUUUUUUUUT!" Before I could even ask, something slammed into my side, completely destroying my balance in the process, sending me plummeting to the ground below. As I tried to stop my fall, I saw the pegasus that had hit me crash into a table with various drinks on it, sending them into the air, with one cup full of water landing on Blast Shield's head upside down, thus spilling the water onto him. Once I was only a few dozen feet away from the ground, I felt someone grab me. I looked up to see Hofnarr holding onto my mid section, bringing me to the ground. "What the hay's going on over here?" Soarin asked as he landed near the crash site. Once Hofnarr let me down, we both ran over to Soarin and Blast Shield to see what exactly had happened. When we got there, we saw Blast Shield pulling a pitcher of water off of a grey pegasus mare's muzzle. This pegasus had a blond mane and tail, amber eyes and was wearing some kind of bag with what appeared to be letters sticking out of it. She had a cutie mark of... Bubbles? After a few seconds of struggling with the pitcher, Blast Shield yanked it off creating a loud 'pop' sound. "Thanks." The mare said as she rubbed her face with a hoof and stood back up. I noticed that one of her eyes was looking off to the side. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Soarin asked. "M-my name is Derpy, mister Soarin sir." She said nervously. "I'm supposed to deliver a letter to Fragment from Ponyville." She explained as she pulled a letter out of the bag with her mouth. "A letter for me? From Ponyville?" I asked as I stepped a little closer to Derpy. She didn't feel too comfortable around me, but she nodded and put the letter in her hoof. I picked it up with my magic and examined it. It appeared to be an ordinary envelope, but with no return address or name. Just a stamp saying Ponyville and information about where to be sent. "Why is it surprising that you got a letter from Ponyville? I thought you were exchanging letters with one of the ponies there that had helped you." Blast Shield said. "I am. But I haven't sent my reply to her yet." I said, making mental note to send the letter once I was back in Canterlot. But then I refocused on the letter I just received. "Do you know who sent this?" I asked as I looked back to Derpy from the envelope. "Yeah! It was an earth pony filly. She had a bright yellow coat, a pink mane and tail that had been braided, and she didn't have a cutie mark yet!" She recalled as my mind focused on a single part of what Derpy said. "A filly sent me this?" I asked, to which Derpy just nodded. "A filly?" "Yup." "Really?" "Uh-huh!" "... And you're sure?" I asked again, having no idea how a filly could've known where I was or what they could possibly want to tell me. "I don't know why you're questioning me when I'm giving you the same answer." Derpy said as she hopped back into the air and started slowly, and clumsily, flying away. "Sorry about the mess!" She said before picking up speed and flying off. Once she was gone I looked back to the letter while Soarin mumbled something about cleaning up this mess and walked away. "So who do you think sent that?" Blast Shield asked as he and Hofnarr stared at the envelope. "I have no idea. A filly, who somehow got the information of exactly where I was―" "Wait, wait, wait, does the letter say that supposed to be sent here? To the academy?" Hofnarr asked with wide eyes. "No, it says Canterlot castle. I guess whoever Derpy talked to at the castle told her that I was here." I replied as Blast Shield rubbed his chin. "Why didn't a Canterlot mailpony deliver that here?" He asked. "Well either way, open it and we might get some answers." Hofnarr suggested. As I moved a hoof to open the letter, Hofnarr shouted: "WAIT! A letter sent by a mysterious filly with no return address...? It's obviously poisoned!" He exclaimed dramatically as I rolled my eyes and opened the letter. I pulled out a folded up paper from inside, unfolded it and began to read it out loud. "'Dear Fragment, you have gotten yourself quite a bit of publicity since you have been in Canterlot; being in the local newspaper is not something changelings are known for doing of their own choice. Nevertheless, given the information provided from the headline, I am well aware of your status of having amnesia. It must be very hard to cope with such a condition, having no idea who you really are or who you can turn to. But I believe I can provide you something that you will desire...'" I stopped reading as I saw the next word, "... Dunkel..." "Whoever this is knows your real name?" Hofnarr asked as he tried to get a better look at what the letter said. I shook my head and resumed reading. "'I do not know if the Equestrians will try to view the content of this letter without your consent, so I will simply say this: return to Ponyville and I will contact you again. I can teach you what a pony never could. Alicorn or not. Share this with no one.' It's signed by 'a friend.'" I said as I finished reading the letter. I began rereading it as Blast Shield spoke. "Who in Tartarus are you dealing with? Someone, a changeling no doubt, from Ponyville apparently went through the trouble of writing that letter, shapeshifting into a filly, and personally bring it to a mailpony to have it brought to you. And that's not even taking into account the fact that he or she knew exactly where you were." He said as Hofnarr seemed to be deep in thought. "Shapeshifting into a filly isn't that challenging, actually." "What if it's Gezähnt? The bastard seems Tartarus-bent on giving me problems." I said as Hofnarr looked at me and shook his head. "Gezähnt doesn't work that way. He'd take someone that you cared about so that you'd have to come after him." "He already has..." I said bitterly as Hofnarr took half a step back from me. "A-and that assassin got Gezähnt anyway, so how could it be him?" Hofnarr said with an unsure smile. "After Cyclone Shade paralyzed me, I saw him putting cuffs on Gezähnt's legs. I don't know what Cyclone Shade wants, but I don't think it involves killing." "Say that to Jäger..." He replied with a sad expression as his head slowly looked down. In that moment I was reminded that Jäger was Hofnarr's best friend. When we had tried to talk to him after he had turned himself back in, he said that he had lost his best friend and the one he could count on for a plan, and given that Gezähnt was the highest ranked of them, that most likely meant that Gezähnt was the one Hofnarr counted on for a plan. Hofnarr cleared his throat after a moment. "Well... if you're done with the non-poisoned mystery letter, I suggest we get back to business. Kind of the whole reason we're here, you know?" Hofnarr said as he jumped into the air and started flying up and backwards. "Right..." I said as I folded the paper back up, put it in its envelope and tucked it with my cloak. Then I started flapping my wings, slowly lifting back into the air. This time around, my flying felt much more stable and natural. Because of this, I decided to increase my speed and climb higher into the sky. Hofnarr looked rather surprised when I flew past him and kept heading up. The more elevation I got the more I increased my speed, and once I got fast enough I started to enjoy it. The rush of air past my ears, the freedom of the open sky, and the pure adrenaline was amazing. Going as fast as I could, I was quickly approaching a large layer of white clouds. Seeing no reason why not, I moved fast toward the clouds, when I suddenly felt massive pain in my head. "AH!" I shouted as I clutched my head. As the pain in my head grew I unintentionally stopped flapping my wings, thus causing me to free-fall. I could faintly hear a distorted voice in m head as I fell. Fragment... I heard as I plummeted to the fast approaching ground. I was only a few hundred feet from the ground when I felt myself slowing down but didn't feel anything touching me. As I opened my eyes to see what was going on, I felt the pain in my head decline. I saw Hofnarr fly towards me from a few feet above with his horn glowing. "What the heck happened up there?" He asked as I started flapping my wings again and he released me from his magical hold. "I don't know. Everything was fine before my head started to hurt. I heard something say my name while it was happening." I explained as Hofnarr facehoofed. "That voice was me. I was trying to tell you not to go through those clouds." "Why? And didn't you know that I get hurt from use of the Hive Mind?" "Yeah, Gezähnt told me what happened when he tried to talk to you with it, I just kinda... forgot. And I was trying to stop you from going through those clouds because this is a pegasi academy, meaning that those clouds are probably part of an obstacle course where you might have been hit by someone flying it." Hofnarr explained as I looked back up to the clouds above. The thought of suddenly finding myself in front of a speeding pegasus was rather intimidating. "That would have been bad..." "Exactly." Hofnarr replied as he flew past me. "Come on. You seem to be getting the hang of it, now let's try some new tricks." I nodded as a reply and flew to catch up. "Last one to the front doors of the academy building is a smelly tomato! GO!" Hofnarr shouted then darted off. Figuring that his challenge would be a decent way to test myself, I too quickened my flight and headed for Hofnarr. The main building of the academy was nearly a hundred yards away and I had to closely monitor my flying to make sure I wouldn't abruptly lose balance or something. I was gradually gaining on Hofnarr, but his superior experience gave him a strong advantage. Hofnarr made a display of how confident he was by making various loops and barrel-rolls as I tried to close at least some of the distance between us. Every time I got within a thirty feet of him, Hofnarr would instantly push himself to get further ahead of me. Using all of my strength and will to try to catch up, I found myself quickly gaining on Hofnarr but also very unstable. We were getting close to the academy and I was getting pretty close to Hofnarr, but once we were within twenty feet of the academy he stopped in mid air. "BRAKES!" He shouted as he flew to the left to get out of my way. My mind barely had time to process what he had said when I realized how close to the building I was. Knowing that there was no way I'd be able to stop in time, I pulled up, narrowly avoiding the brick wall of the academy. It did not, however, stop me from slamming into a window above that wall. With a loud 'smack' I hit the window, making what appeared to be a janitor inside jump in surprise. Turning to the window, he looked frightened by me but approached anyway. With me somehow still sticking to the window, the janitor said "I just cleaned that window ten minutes ago." He said with a dissatisfied look on his face. "Sorry..." I said as I then started to slide down the window, creating a squeaking sound and leaving a trail of saliva from my mouth. Once I reached the bottom of the window I fell off of it, hitting the ground about ten feet below with a thud. As I groaned in pain I heard buzzing and then Hofnarr sigh. "I said brakes." He said as he landed next to me. "A little sooner on the warnings next time, please." I said as Hofnarr helped me stand back up. Then I heard the flapping of non-changeling wings. "What in Tartarus are you two doing?" Spitfire asked in an angry tone. "I was testing Fragment's reflexes and chose a bad place to do it." Hofnarr said as Spitfire gave him a very unpleasant look. Strangely, Hofnarr seemed completely unmoved by her. "In what way were you 'testing Fragment's reflexes?'" "I said stop when we got close to this building. It was bad idea without a doubt." "You're lucky that no pony got hurt in that stunt of yours. Keep your training away from the cadets and any Wonderbolt property. Do I make myself clear? To both of you?" "Yes, ma'am." Hofnarr said calmly while I just nodded. With that, Spitfire walked away. "As the arrangement says, let us not do that again." Hofnarr said casually as we began walking back to where we had started training. "You handled that well." I commented as I followed him. "I expected you to say something along the lines of 'Fragment did it' or 'you should be more careful where you put your buildings.'" "You really don't know how I work." He replied with a chuckle. "You can't be a wise ass all the time. It's all in the timing of remarks like that. If someone like Spitfire is pissed off, you'd better watch your mouth and answer their questions. I may act stupid but I assure you that I'm not." "Then why do you? It just pisses everyone around you off." "Because I don't see a reason to get so serious and stressed about the little things. And for me, getting on everyone's nerves is a good way to build tolerance, and for the observer it's a stress reliever. Look at it like pranking; it's all for fun and no one really gets hurt." Hofnarr explained as he hopped into the air and started flying up. "Now if I'm not mistaken, you still have flying to do. Put those wings of yours to some good use and let's go!" With that I took off into the sky and followed Hofnarr, while doing my best not to crash. Hours of training had gone by, and I was improving at a rate that surprised even me. I was no pro, that was for sure, but my flying was nowhere near as bad as it was when I had started training. It was getting close to three P.M when Spitfire came to us. "How's your training going?" She asked as I landed on Hofnarr's right while Blast Shield stood on my right. "Well, Fragment hasn't crashed into a window recently and I haven't gotten hit with a blunt object for about ten minutes, so I'd say we're doing good. So what's going on with you? Come to actually teach Fragment instead of me?" Hofnarr replied with a cheery smile. "Actually I'm here to tell you that you should get going." She said as she looked into the sky directly above us. "What? Why?" I asked as Blast Shield tapped my right shoulder. When I looked at him I saw him point up. Looking into the sky, I saw that where there had been white clouds before there were now dark storm clouds. "That storm's due to go through here and Canterlot bringing lots of heavy rain, thunder and lightning. While the cadets can train through that, I'd suggest getting yourselves back to Canterlot. Trying to train in this sort of weather isn't safe." Spitfire explained as there was rumble of thunder, as if to emphasize what she said. "I see what you mean." I replied as I grabbed and put on my cloak. I tucked the envelope under my right wing. "So, if we're all in agreement then I'd like to get under a roof before the rain starts pouring." Hofnarr said as he looked into the sky. "Right. So are we supposed to come back here tomorrow or what?" I asked Spitfire as there was another rumble. "Princess Celestia said that all of you will be coming here every day for the next week or so. So yes, you'd better be back here tomorrow. Ten A.M. sharp. Got it?" "Yes, ma'am." I said as there was a bright flash from a lightning bolt, followed shortly by thunder. "Come on, it looks like we don't have much time ahead of this storm." With that, Spitfire headed back to the main building while Blast Shield Hofnarr and I began heading back to the chariot. "Two things just occurred to me." Blast Shield said. "First, what have the guards who brought us here been doing this whole time? Just standing by the chariot doing nothing?" "I have no idea what they've been doing. What's the other thing that occurred to you?" "We're about to take a forty-five minute flight to Canterlot... with Hofnarr." Hofnarr just grinned as I stopped at the thought of it, after a moment I at last said all I could think of. "Well Fuck."