Twilight Sparkle stood with her eyes closed, concentrating only on her breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. In, and then out. The sound of impatient flapping reached her ears, and Twilight could feel the soft plush of the cloud underneath her hooves.
“You gonna get in the air anytime soon, Twilight?” said Rainbow Dash, and Twilight cracked one eye open.
“In a minute, Rainbow Dash,” muttered Twilight, as she tried not to think about how far away the ground was, and how if she crashed there was a non-zero chance of breaking a bone or worse, her horn and wondered if she should just teleport back to the ground and go back to the safety of books and she was falling.
Why was she falling? She didn’t remember stepping off the cloud.
“Rainbow!” screamed Twilight, as she opened her wings and began to flap in the hope that she could control her fall and come to a nice soft landing. Twilight’s hooves just brushed the grass of the field that she had been practicing on as her wings converted downward motion into forward motion. Overjoyed by the feeling of having controlled her fall and converted it into flight, Twilight let out a brief yell of exhilaration.
That was when she hit the tree.
On the cloud up above, Rainbow Dash winced as Twilight peeled herself off the trunk of the tree.
“Lesson number two, Twilight! Look where you’re going!” she called out.
*****
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash glided through the air, with Twilight in the middle, and Rainbow Dash just off her side, and slightly behind her.
Once Rainbow was confidant that Twilight had managed to get a handle on stable, level flight, she pulled level with Twilight.
“Right, Twilight. Now let’s try something a bit more difficult. See those two trees down there?” Rainbow pointed out a pair of trees that were a couple of meters apart, easily wide enough for a pegasus to fly between with wings at full extension. Twilight nodded as she registered them.
“Just follow me, then!” said Rainbow, pulling ahead of Twilight, and going into a gentle glide and dive that took her between the trees, and then touched down on the ground on the other side with barely a scuff of dirt. Twilight copied Rainbow as best as she could, but as she was approaching the trees, there was a sudden crosswind, and Twilight was unable to correct her flight in time, and she smacked nose first into one of the trees. Rainbow winced and moved to help Twilight peel herself off the tree.
“Lesson three, Twilight. Respect the wind.”
*****
[Time]
Princess Celestia stared at her tired and battered former student as the youngest alicorn studied in the library in Canterlot Castle, and trotted up beside her.
“How are the flying lessons coming along, my dear Twilight?” asked Celestia. She was greeted with the sight of Twilight shooting six feet up in the air, and trying to go in every direction at once before realising that she wasn’t being asked to have another flying lesson. Twilight collapsed back down onto the reading cushion and sighed.
“I’m just not getting the hang of it, Celestia. Rainbow Dash isn’t exactly the best teacher, either. She just dumps me in situations and then expects me to use my wings to get out of them. And it’s not like she keeps to a regular schedule, either! She just swoops in and goes ‘we’re having a flying lesson now’ just like-” Twilight was cut off by Rainbow Dash diving through the window, picking up the ascended unicorn and tossed Twilight out of the window. Rainbow bowed to Princess Celestia, and then shot out of the window after her princess friend.
“Lesson time, Twilight! What were we up to?” heard Celestia over the screams and yells of her former student. Princess Celestia simply sat down on the cushion, and picked out a book to read.