The night had gone exactly as Light Seeker feared. His parents were surprised when he came home a good hour after sunset. And once he explained how it had gotten too dark to find the hanger like he planed, they lectured him on the dangers of flying at night as if he somehow didn’t just scare himself half to death mere minutes earlier flying at night.
The morning had come too soon for Light Seeker’s tastes as he was still lying in bed well after the sun had come up, still pondering the night before. Now that the scary part of making his first true night flight was over, he was free to ponder what he had overlooked when actually flying home. Like how the sky had opened up into a field of stars and that field was the only thing he could really see. The more he thought about it the more he realized that the day did the same thing as the night. Day revealed the ground but turned the sky into an empty blue void, while night revealed the sky while turning the ground into an empty black void. No, that didn’t seem right. On the nights when the moon was brighter the night didn’t hide the ground from sight either. He promised himself that he’d have to sneak out for a night flight some night on a full moon to see the world when both the sky and ground could be seen at once, when neither was truly veiled from ones eyes.
Then the thought that he had promised Scootaloo that he would bring her scooter into town first thing in the morning crossed his mind. And he meant to keep that promise, after all he had yet to do a ‘first thing’ this morning. A growl from his stomach protested. Okay second thing in the morning, surely she didn’t expect him to skip breakfast despite his choice of words.
Urged on to fulfil his promise Light Seeker rolled out of bed and let himself fall to the floor. The clouds of the floor were only slightly firmer than ones of his bed and equally inviting him to go back to sleep. Resisting the idea he crawled to his hooves and headed to the kitchen to find something to eat.
A cold bowl of cereal was enough to help wake him up, though he was still toying with the idea of blitzing though his morning to do list then finding the nearest cloud to take a nap on when his father dropped a letter beside his bowl. Looking down at it Light Seeker saw it was from the dive shop that made his first pressure suit. He also noticed the postmark was dated almost a week and a half ago, it couldn’t possibly have arrived recently.
Seeing the questioning look on his son’s face the stallion answered, “Seems your mother took the liberty of hiding it in our closet. Guess she figured you couldn’t try again if you never got your suit fixed.”
“And you?”
“You’re my son so, I’m betting that means you can be just as stubborn as me when you get an idea stuck in your head. So I figure helping you is the best way to minimize the risks that I think you’re underestimating.” His father’s tone made it clear his dad still thought he was being too reckless.
Light Seeker forced a smile, “Thanks dad.”
Light then turned his attention to the letter. In all honesty he had completely forgotten about the Fillydelphia dive shop. The colt tore into the letter wondering why they would be sending him a letter. As he skimmed the text he remembered that he had sent them a letter asking for an estimated cost of revising the pressure suit to be airtight, not just watertight. His eyes widened as he read the number they gave him. It was almost as much as making the suit had been in the first place. Then the nagging feeling from a week ago came back with a vengeance. Rarity! He remembered. He had spoken with her for half a day and somehow the topic of the price of having her make the new suit never came up!
Light Seeker gulped down the last of the milk in his bowl and bolted for his room. He tossed on his saddlebags, threw the pouch with the few bits he had to his name in them and bolted out the door into the streets of Cloudsdale with the speed of a living rocket.
The flight to Ponyville was too long to stay panicked and that allowed Light to calm his mind and make a basic plan, first he’d keep his word to Scootaloo, swing by the hanger, grab her scooter and take it into town. Then he’d talk to Rarity and finally retrieve his wing pack from her tree and take it back out to the hanger. As calming as it was to have a simple plan the colt’s mind kept coming back to Rarity’s boutique. All the dresses in there had looked so fancy and had loads of gemstone embroidery in them. She was probably used to clients that could pay anything at the drop of a hat. Surely, she wouldn’t think a mere colt of his age could pay a small fortune, but the fact that price hadn’t come up didn’t bode well for him in his mind.
There by his hanger door was a scooter with a helmet hanging off its handlebars. Light swooped down and snagged them with his front legs as he continued his high-speed trek to Ponyville. Now he pondered where he was supposed to drop these off. Recalling something about a clubhouse and an apple farm he scanned the area. He didn’t have to look long to notice the fields of apple trees south of town. However, it took a little longer to spot the one with a clubhouse in it.
Light Seeker landed on the balcony and looked inside. Nopony was here, but he did spot one corner had several arts and crafts depicting a sky blue pegasus with a prismatic mane that matched every description he had heard of Rainbow Dash. I bet that’s Scootaloo’s hoofwork. He thought to himself as he placed the scooter and helmet next to the crafts.
With the scooter delivered the colt jumped back into the air and headed back into town, heading to the overly fancy boutique and the task that he dreaded the most. Hopefully Rarity wouldn’t be too mad that he couldn’t pay her right away. Hopefully with what he had on him she would see that he would be able to pay her eventually and just to hold on to the suit until he could pay her in full.
Light Seeker glanced at a nearby clock tower, it was a little past 9am, that didn’t seem too early for a shop to be open. And yet when he landed he must have sat there for a good five minutes before he worked up the courage to knock on the door.
“Come in.” The voice was definitely that of Rarity, so the young pegasus did as requested. Where he was immediately besieged with the mare’s seemingly prepared speech for the occasion, “Oh Light darling, your timing is perfect, I was just about to go looking for Sweetie Belle to have her and her friends go find you. It is finished,” she motioned as if speaking about an art piece.
“About that…” he began only to be cut off.
“Now first thing you should know is, when I realized that your resin treatment would make most any cloth airtight, and after hearing about the nature of your project form Sweetie Belle and friends I realized you’d need a stronger base fabric. So I took the liberty of using pegasus cloth as the base fabric. No stronger fabric in all the world them pegasus cloth after all, darling.”
“I can’t afford it!” Light Seeker blurted out seeing an opening to speak.
“On no don’t worry about it, I changed the fabric, and with friends like yours and mine it was no trouble at all. Though I must admit I was wondering where Scootaloo was getting all the pegasus hair at first. Took Zecora four days to figure out why that filly kept needing a potion to re-grow her mane and tail. In the end I’d say a good eighty-percent of your suit is made from Scootaloo’s hair alone, although she also got quite the lecture about the risks of overdosing on magic potions. But she learned something from it, and after her contribution it wasn’t that hard for Pinkie Pie to find enough pegasi around town willing to get a more reasonable trim for the rest of the fabric. Speaking of Scootaloo, she was such a dear testing the suit too. Took me three revisions to finally get rid of all the leaks.”
“Three? How…” Light began but was promptly cut off.
“How? Oh she put the suit on, turned on the air and then we threw some weights on her back to counter to buoyancy so she’d sink to the bottom of the pool, then her friends marked all the spots where air bubbles came out. Simple really. Oh you should also know I took the liberty of bleaching that resin so it came out white, so much easier to work with than that dreadful shade of gray it was before.”
“About that…”
“Yes, yes darling I know, function over form, doesn’t worry I didn’t forget, although I did take the liberty of staining the metal parts to an absolutely lovely shade of cyan, so now the suit matches your natural colors quite nicely, I’m sure you’re going to love it.” Rarity had been leading Light Seeker to an upper room where she flung open the door before them as she finished speaking.
He had to admit Rarity was right, the new suit did look much better than the old gray one back at the hanger. Although now that he stood next to it the slight blue tint of his otherwise white fur could be noticed. Still it was a close enough match to his natural colors that the colt couldn’t help but think it looked cool. Then he spotted the helmet hanging next to it. It was white with some sky blue detailing depicting a lightning bolt on the side. It also had fins that looked like they were to accommodate a pony’s ears in a folded back position.
Seeing her young customer had taken notice of the helmet Rarity remarked on it, “Ah yes I may have taken a little liberty with the helmet design too. Though I did consult Rainbow Dash on the matter and she assured me that this design would be sufficiently aerodynamic for high speed flight.”
It looked sleek enough that Light Seeker didn’t doubt the aerodynamics of it. Then came that sinking feeling, as nice as seeing the suit in all its glory was it didn’t change the fact that he didn’t have anywhere near enough bits to pay for it, at least not at the moment. Seeing as the mare had seemed to miss the point of his earlier confession the young pegasus simply took the coin pouch out of his saddlebag and set it down before the unicorn. “This is all I have, but I have an apprentice job so I can pay the rest eventually. How much do I still owe you?”
This time Rarity seemed to understand what he meant. A blue glow surrounded her horn and the coin pouch. It opened and the few gold and silver coins levitated out. She hardly paid the coins any mind as she set them on a nearby dresser, focusing instead on returning the empty pouch the colt’s saddlebags. “This will do.” Was all she said.
“Miss Rarity, I know that there’s no way that can cover the cost of materials and definitely not profit, this is a business deal after all.”
“Your grasp of value is advanced for your age darling, but value is a subjective thing you see. My sister and her friends have been so caught up in this little project of yours that they’ve managed to stay out of trouble for a full week! A full week! Do you have any idea how rare that is?”
“Apparently not,” Light Seeker muttered, extremely confused. Judging from the unicorn’s overly dramatic pose, he was sure she had just been talking about somepony saving the world, but his ears told him that she had said that three fillies stayed out of trouble for a week. And he was fairly sure that young ponies could do that on a regular basis. Bringing his mind back on track, he renewed his complaint, “It’s nice of you to offer the suit for so little but I really don’t like owing anypony favors.”
“Then, don’t darling, a gift generously given does not expect repayment.” Rarity’s magic enveloped the suit and helmet and brought them near the young pegasus. The look that appeared in the unicorn’s eye was both threatening and playful. It was clear to Light Seeker that he was leaving the boutique with the suit and the only question was if he was going to don the suit willingly or be forced into it by the mare’s magic.
With a sigh Light conceded, “Fine.” Past experience with the first suit ensured he knew this suit wouldn’t fold enough to fit in the saddlebag, and having made it, Rarity clearly knew the same. He let her help him put on the suit, she also draped his saddlebags over the top and showed him how to open the visor on the helmet so he wouldn’t need to turn on the air tanks just to make a quick trip.
Once Light Seeker was outside he flew up to the tree with the wing pack he had hidden there the night before. He took particular notice of how the stiffness of the suit made flapping his wings harder, just as the first one had done. But it wasn’t enough to stop him from taking the harness in his hooves and pulling the wing pack into the sky.
With the wing pack and suit safely stored away at the hanger Light Seeker turned his head to the east, to the nearby mountains. Focusing his eyes on a spot about three fourths of the way up, where he knew an abandoned mine was, and more importantly the launch ramp he had made from track parts he had salvaged. He figured the ramp would need to be reinforced if it was going to hold up to the strain of this next launch. And while Rarity might have considered their accounts settled Light didn’t, and he knew one way he could try to make it up to her so he took off not to the east, but south, he needed to find the crusaders.