Fluttershy
12/14/85
What’s it like to fly? Ask a dozen different pegasus ponies and you will get a dozen different answers. For example, if you were to ask my friend Rainbow Dash, she would go on at length about how awesome it is. Wind in your mane, with not a care in the world. If you were to ask Star Catcher, she would likely say how liberating it is, and how by having the gift of flight, the pegasi are truly blessed. If you were to ask Thunderlane, he would probably explain how flying is liberating and how he loves to explore the unknown. But to me, flying reminds me of friendship. For without my best friend in the world, I never would have been able to overcome my fears and finally soar through the sky.
Most pegasi take flying for granted. I’m sure you’ve already read several papers talking about the adrenaline rush, or descriptions of wind whipping through fur, feathers, and hair or about how flying through clouds can be kind of ticklish. You’ve probably read a few essays talking about how flying gives their authors a sense of freedom because they’re not confined to roads and paths on the ground like unicorns and earth ponies are. And don’t get me wrong, I love those feelings too. But that’s not what flying means to me.
I suppose it’s no secret that I’m among the weakest flyers in school. I’ve struggled just to meet the bare minimum flight requirements and I’ve been picked on because of it. I can’t help it – flying absolutely terrifies me. Or at least it used to. A few years ago the school therapist diagnosed me with acrophobia and the fear of falling. She recommended that I transfer to Ponyville and she drew up all the paperwork to that end. My parents signed the papers and I thought that was the end of that. I was apprehensive about it because it meant leaving everything I knew behind me, but I was also looking forward to it because it meant no more being bullied because I couldn’t fly.
But it turned out that there was one pony that objected to this plan. My best friend in the world, Rainbow Dash, wouldn’t let me go. She even offered to transfer to the new school with me, even though doing so would almost certainly put an end to her dreams of one day becoming a Wonderbolt. Since I couldn’t transfer until the next school year, I made a deal with her – if she could help me improve my flying I’d stay here in Cloudsdale. Every day after school I trained under her instruction. I trained as hard as I could. I just couldn’t bear to see her throw away her dreams on my account.
Rainbow Dash is a lot of things: awesome, cool, talented, the best flyer to ever come out of Cloudsdale (she was reading over my shoulder as I wrote all that, she’s also kind, sweet, and dedicated to her friends but she wouldn’t let me write any of that because she thinks it’s too mushy and would destroy her image – she can be silly like that sometimes) but she’ll be the first to admit (and I’ll be the second) that she’s not very patient. I know it was frustrating to her to spend hours every day helping me train instead of working on her routine to impress the Wonderbolts, but to her credit she never once complained about it.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that she’s not a very good teacher. She demonstrates and expects that to be sufficient. I think she lacks the words to exactly explain what’s so engrained into her from years of practice. But Rainbow’s a great friend and a surprisingly competent coach. With her guidance I became an adequate flyer by the end of that summer vacation and I stayed here in Cloudsdale with her (I guess that’s kind of obvious or I wouldn’t be writing this essay).
And this is what it’s like for me to fly. Every time I take flight I think back to how Rainbow Dash was so distraught at the thought of losing our friendship that she went above and beyond what most ponies would do just to keep me in her life. I’ve never thought I was anything special and Rainbow really is so very talented. I think about how even though she’s impatient by nature she was patient with me. I think about how I was able to overcome my fears because of her being there for me. She never once let me fall. By thinking about all this while flying, it helps me push out the fears I still feel naturally. I suppose I can’t help that I’m scared, but I’ve learned how to overcome those fears. That means a lot to me and it’s why I’ll never take flying for granted.
In conclusion, flying makes me think about my friends, and the sacrifices one in particular had to make just to help me soar through the air with her. One day when I’m older I’ll probably move to the ground – I can’t help it, I visited there once by accident and I fell in love with all the cute little animals like bunnies and butterflies that we don’t have here in Cloudsdale. But even though I’ll be living on the ground, I won’t be grounded like I would be if I had taken the easy way out and moved to Ponyville two years ago.
This is an excellent paper, Fluttershy. As always, you provide unique insight into the topic. Even your predictions of your classmates’ papers were spot on in their accuracy. Speaking of your classmates, I can tell you helped Rainbow Dash with her essay (I can always tell when you help her with her homework) and you have my condolences for having to listen to her dissertation on Wonderbolt flight techniques.
-Miss Morning Monarch