//------------------------------// // Prologue and Ch1 Test Flight // Story: Limitless Skies // by Priceless911 //------------------------------// Prologue The young colt stared into the endless sky with his mind in a complete daze. Although it wasn’t long before his daydreaming trance was broken as the teacher called to him, “Allen?... Allen?... ALLEN KEY!” With his mind back on where he was, the young colt looked at the teacher as he replied, “oh… um… Y-yes sir?” The rest of the class laughed at the embarrassed colt as the teacher sighed, “Well since you like to keep your head in the clouds, maybe you should come up and answer the question on the board, since you seem to know it already.” Not feeling the least bit worried, the colt stood up and trotted to the chalkboard to where the long math problem was written. Then without any hesitation between the moment he picked up the chalk and the moment he place it against the board, the colt wrote only one number, “Seven.” The teacher was surprised as he asked, “um… you need to show your work. How did you get seven as the answer?” The colt gave the teacher a confused look as he replied, “um… because seven is the answer.” The teacher tried to explain, “Well… yea it is… but you still need to explain to the rest of the class why seven is the answer.” The colt seemed completely confused, “Because it is… the answer to this question is seven… there is no real reason other than the fact that the answer is seven.” The rest of the class started to laugh at the confused colt as the teacher started to explain, “look I know the answer is seven but you need to tell me how th…” The teacher was silenced as the school bell rang leaving the rest of the class to stand up from their desks, then the teacher sighed as he spoke, “alright class, everypony break for recess, and after that we will move into our future goal discussions. Today’s speaker will be…” the teacher looked at his clipboard as he sighed with hopelessness, “Allen Key.” As the students started leaving the room to go to the playground, the teacher stopped Allen Key and spoke, “not so fast Mr. for daydreaming in my class and mocking my teaching, I think todays recess for you will be sat out. Now go to your desk and think about what you did.” Allen Key moped as he trotted back to his desk and sat down. The teacher then pulled a book from his desk and began reading for his break from teaching. As Allen sat there disappointed that he couldn’t go outside and play, he felt a nudge from the filly sitting at the desk next to him. After feeling the nudge, he looked at her as she smiled, “hi.” Looking at the nice gray filly made him smile back as he replied, “hi…” The filly continued, “That was pretty neat… I don’t think I could ever solve a long division problem without writing it out… then again… I’m not very good at that sort of thing to begin with.” Allen smiled as he replied, “thanks… if you want I can help you with that. For some reason I’m really good at math.” The filly smiled, “Thanks, you’re new here aren’t you?” Allen replied, “Yea… I just got here today. My name is Allen Key.” The filly smiled, “Oh, I’m Ditzy, Ditzy Doo… but by friends call me Derpy. That is… if I had any friends, I’m a little clumsy so everypony tries to avoid me. That’s why I’m in here; I accidently broke a window when I slammed the door too hard.” Allen smiled, “I'll be your friend. I usually have a hard time making them anyway.” The filly smiled, “Really! That would be…” “You two quiet!... You’re in here for a reason so just sit quietly until recess is over!” The two ponies did as they were told, but they still smiled at each other in a way that showed that their friendship was official. After recess ended the teacher stepped to the front of the room and spoke, “Alright everypony settle down. As you know this month, we are bringing each one of you up here to talk about your future goals. Well since you all have had a turn, I think today we will let our new student come up and speak. Allen?” Allen Key stood up and trotted to the front of the room, as he did Derpy whispered to him, “Good luck…” When the young colt reached the front of the class, he took a deep breath before beginning, “well… I hadn’t put too much though into it… but I’m certain I know what I want to do. When I grow up… I want to fly in the sky!” The class laughed at the embarrassed earth pony as one of the pegasus students spoke up, “that’s silly. Everypony knows that only pegasuses can fly!” The young colt felt nervous as he replied, “Well… what if they weren’t the only ponies to do it. What if I found a way to make me fly?” The class laughed even more as another student spoke, “Throwing yourself off a roof isn’t flying ya know.” Another student commented, “Flying earth ponies is impossible. You’d have to be crazy to believe otherwise.” With that said, the class continued laughing at the embarrassed colt as Derpy remained the only pony who felt bad for Allen. Finally, the teacher spoke up as he stepped between the class and Allen, “Alright everypony that’s enough! Look Allen, I know you’re new and you had no time to think of anything for a future goal. But that gives you no reason to make jokes like that. Now if you’re done making a mockery of my class, then you can go take a seat.” Allen Key tried to speak up, “But… I want making a mockery of anything. I really do want to fly som…” “Just go!” With the class continuing their laughing, Allen slowly trotted back to his seat where he sat down and tried to forget the hazing that everypony was giving him. Later that night after school, Allen key sat on the back porch of their new home as his mother and father spoke inside, “he’s been sitting there for hours now… just… staring into the distance.” The mother asked, “Did something happen at school?” His father replied, “I don’t know… he hasn’t said a word since he got home.” The mother coughed once then started to open the door, “I'll go out and speak to him.” The father replied, “Honey don’t. You’re still sick and you don’t need to be outside. He’ll eventually get over it. Colts his age usually do.” The mother shook her head, “but he isn’t like all the other colts… he’s our son. And what kind of a mother would I be to let him sit out here to get sick too.” With that said, the mare trotted past her husband and quietly sat next to her son who only continued looking into the sky. As his mother started to look at the sky too, Allen spoke, “mama?... do you think I’m… Crazy?” The mare looked at her son and replied, “Crazy? Why would you ask that sweetie?” Allen replied as he continued looking up, “Today at school… I told everypony what I wanted to do more than anything in the world. But… they laughed at me. They called me crazy because what I wanted to do was impossible for me. It… it’s not fair… I didn’t ask to be born an earth pony. I wanted to be a pegasus like you and daddy.” Seeing her son in pain made the mother feel upset, so she tried to cheer him up, “you know what?... maybe you are crazy. Or at least I hope you are.” The confused colt looked at his mother as she continued, “In all my life, I have seen many impossible things take place. And you know what? There isn’t a single one of them achieved by any normal pony. Each and every one of them were at least a little crazy, otherwise they wouldn’t have tried it to begin with. So if what you say is true and flying is really impossible for you, then I hope you really are crazy, that way, you will fly.” The colt smiled with joy as he hugged him mother and replied, “You know what? I hope I’m crazy too. Thanks mommy I feel better now. And you know what? I did manage to make a friend today.” The mare smiled “well then go inside and you can tell me all about it. Your dinner is getting cold anyway.” Allen Key smiled and turned to trot inside, “Ok I'll go wash up!” The now happy colt trotted by his father as he happily trotted inside for dinner. After he was inside, Allen’s father trotted outside to his wife as he spoke, “are you sure it’s a good idea to encourage him like that? I know he is just a colt, but if we let him believe that he can fly for too long then it will just hurt him more when he discovers the truth.” The mare gave her husband a disappointed look as she replied, “Why do you think it’s just a simple dream? If you ask me, I think he should believe in whatever his heart desires. Whatever he wants most, I'll gladly support.” The mare started to trot inside as the father replied, “And do you think he truly will fl…” Before the stallion finished his question, his wife lost her balance and stumbled under her own fatigue as he quickly cough her, “Honey! We need to get you inside now! We will get you into bed then…” “N-no…” the mare regained her stance as she replied, “I… I’m fine. I can get some rest later… right now my little Allen has a friend he wants to tell me about. Sick or not, I’m interested in hearing about this pony. Now let’s go, as I said, dinner is getting cold.” Trying to ignore her illness, the devoted mother trotted inside their home and greeted her son as if the episode outside never took place. Even though she was weak and sick, she was determined to hide it so that her only son wouldn’t worry. Limitless Skies Chapter 1 Test Flight As the sun beamed into the stallion’s room, Allen Key turned over and looked at the ceiling as he shielded his eyes, “that dream again… every day and still going. But soon, I will make it real.” The stallion sat up and climbed out of bed as he looked over at the picture that sat next to his bed, “good morning mom… Today is the day.” Allen Key climbed out of bed and began trotting down stairs and towards the front door. Before reaching the door, a voice caught him off guard, “Morning Allen, where you off too?” Allen Key turned to his father as he replied, “Oh… morning dad, I gotta stop by work to pick up a few things.” The old stallion gave him a skeptic look as he replied, “Really? You’re not going off to do your flying thing… are you?” Allen gave him an innocent look as he lied, “What? No, no, I’m just… um… I have to finish inventorying my tools for the shop… I um, it’s a monthly thing.” Allen’s father wasn’t fooled for a second but since he didn’t feel like getting involved, he just sighed, “alright… well, then I'll see you later.” Allen Key nervously turned towards the door as he replied, “well alright dad… I'll catch you la…” “Oh, and one more thing?” Allen looked at his father as he smiled, “say hi to Derpy for me.” Allen tried to act innocent as he replied, “well… alright, but I don’t think I'll see her around my shop today.” Trying to get out of the house quickly, Allen opened the door and tried to trot out as casually as he could but his father could see clearly, what he was up too. So he could only sigh after the door was shut, “that colt… I wish he would just stop this nonsense.” Thinking he fooled his dad completely, Allen Key trotted across town to a mechanic shop just on the other side. When Allen arrived at his workplace and trotted inside he saw his boss standing at the counter as he was talking to a customer, “Well if we make the tube out of aluminum then it will be light enough for you to carry just about anywhere.” The customer smiled “Okie dokie loki, you’re the mechanic Mr. Paladin, I’m just here to make sure it works. So will it design an entire room with only one shot?” Paladin smiled, “yep, rest assured Pinkie, this baby will make any size room ready for a Pinkie sized party.” Pinkie Pie turned around and smiled, “Rightly-o then! I'll leave it to you. Bye bye Mr. Paladin!” Pinkie Pie then turned and hopped by Allen with a joy-filled smile as she left the shop. After she was gone, Allen Key trotted up to the front desk and spoke, “Hey Paladin. Did Pinkie Pie need more repairs on her party cannon?” Paladin smiled, “Yea… she uses the darn thing so often, it’s only natural that it would eventually break down… often. It’s nice to know that she makes the journey here from Ponyville though even if it’s only twenty minutes away.” Allen nodded his head as he added, “By hoof… it’s only a few minutes for Derpy.” Knowing that he was veering into a touchy subject, Paladin continued while trying to choose his words wisely, “True… but… well… um… I thought you were off today. Or did I forget to tell you again?” Allen shook his head, “No, no, you remembered this time. I’m only here to get my blueprints. If all goes well I can put my invention through a trial run.” Paladin started reaching for Allen Keys saddlebag as he asked, “So… do you think it will work?” As Allen Key took his bag, he began looking through it at all the blueprints then replied, “I’ve calculated it almost fifty times now. Today’s wind should give me enough lift to get off the ground. That in combination with the hill I'll be rolling down should be enough.” Paladin grabbed Allen Keys safety goggles as he continued, “yea, but are you absolutely sure it is enough. I’m not so worried about the hill, but more about the sudden drop on the other side. I'd hate to lose my only coworker to a miscalculation.” Allen key put the saddlebag on and the goggles on his head as he replied, “don’t worry about it, the cable mobility system I installed on is a stroke of genius if I say so myself. With that in mind, it should fly without a hitch. The only worry I have now is whether or not the wings can handle the cable bracing.” Paladin gave Allen Key a concerned look as Allen Key reassured him, “oh don’t worry, I’ve checked and double checked way too many times for it to fail.” Paladin nodded his head, “well good luck. I can’t say I agree with your dream. But I do enjoy seeing how determined you are to make it a reality.” Allen Key put the goggles over his eyes as he smiled confidently, “don’t worry about a thing… I got this.” With a confident, cool, and somewhat corny trot, Allen Key left the shop and closed the door as if he were off to save the world. About an hour later, Allen Key was sitting on the top of a hill that stretched to a wooden ramp before plummeting three hundred feet to a rocky ravine. As he sat there, he was putting the final touches on an invention of his that was made entirely of plywood beams, ship sails, and thin cables. The bat shaped object stretched from nose to tail at about ten feet while its wing span was near ten feet for the front wing, but only five for the back with a one foot fin on the top of the rear wing. Though the large invention was completely made to fit his calculations. Most would say it seemed to have bat style wings but a bird like body. Nevertheless, Allen Key believed in all his heart that today would be the day, that his motorless aircraft would finally touch the sky. As Allen Key tightened the last of the wires, a voice snuck up behind him and caught him off guard as it yelled, “HI ALLEN!!!” In his surprise, Allen Key not only dropped his wrench but he released the tension on the wire and caused it to unravel on the wing. As soon as he looked at who yelled at him he smiled, “oh… good morning Derpy. And how are you on this most historic of days?” Derpy gave him a funny look as she replied, “Um… why are you talking so weirdly?” Allen reached down and picked up his wrench as he replied, “Well… today’s a special day. I’m finally going to be the first earth pony to fly in the sky without some kind of balloon hanging over my head.” Derpy started tapping the partially uncoiled wire as she replied, “So… after today, you’re going to be a big shot right? You know, fame, fortune and all that you ever wanted… right?” Allen smiled, “well… it wouldn’t amount to anything if you’re not there to celebrate it with me.” Still tapping the wire, Derpy smiled, “are you sure there will be room for me at the to…” before she could finish, the wire unexpectedly uncoiled some more but in the process wrapped around Derpy’s hoof as it started squeezing it in a painful way. As Derpy started to scream in pain, Allen Key jumped into action, “DERPY! FREEZE!!!” Quickly following the instruction given, Derpy froze in place as Allen carefully reached up and started untangling the mare’s hoof from the wire. As soon as she was free, Allen Key started turning her hoof around as he searched her for any cuts from the jerking wire, “you got to be careful Derpy, those wires hold enough tension to cut through steel. I couldn’t forgive myself if you got hurt because of my…” as Allen looked up at Derpy’s face, he could see that she was bright red as he realized that he was holding her hoof in an awkward way. As soon as he realize it, he dropped her hoof and looked away as he tried to divert from the awkward moment they shared, “Yea… well… just… be careful. Okay?” Hiding her blushing face Derpy smiled as she replied, “um… okay…” trying to kill the awkwardness of the moment, Allen Key cleared his throat as he started tightening the wire up again, “Sorry about that, I’ve been tightening these wires all day and I’m almost done. Once I finish, we can get ready for takeoff. Would you like to do the honors of casting me off?” Forgetting what happened a few seconds ago, Derpy smiled with joy, “Really? You want me to do it?” Allen Key smiled, “of course I do. Derpy, you’re my best friend.” Derpy smiled with glee as she trotted over and picked up the rope that was connected to the chock block in front of the wheels “Ok ready when you are.” Allen smiled at Derpy as he finished tightening the last wire and put the goggles on his face, “alright… Let’s take to the skies!” With great enthusiasm, Allen Key climbed onto his aircraft and grabbed the two controlling sticks that he made and started moving them around to check the plane’s movement, “everything looks good. All right Derpy, Pull out the block in… Three… Two… One… NOW!!!” With the command, Derpy yanked the rope as hard as she could as the large plane started to slowly roll down the hill. As the plane continued, it started to pick up speed so Allen watched the small flag he had on each wing to measure his speed. Once the plane picked up enough, Allen pulled both control sticks back and hoped for the best. With both rudders on the plane pulled completely back, Allen could feel the front of the plane begin to pick itself off the ground, but before he could confirm that he was in fact airborne, a loud snapping sound was heard followed by an unexpected rocking on the left side of the plane. With the plane still increasing in speed as it barreled towards the cliff, Allen frantically started looking for the cause of the planes uncontrollable rocking. As he looked at the left wing, he noticed that the rudder that was supposed to control his banking was flapping uncontrollably in the wind. As soon as he saw this, he knew exactly what happened, the bolt holding the wire in place striped itself from the wood frame and left his left wing completely out of his control. Trying to look around for a solution to his problem, Allen noticed that not only was the plane moving too fast to stop, but he had already crossed the line that he designated the point of no return. Trying to regain control, Allen Key tried to turn the aircraft to avoid flying off the edge, but when he did, the rudder on the left wing jerked up and sent the wing into the ground as it both ripped the fragile wing apart, and caused the small aircraft to start spinning as it continued down the hill. Now not only was he about to go off a cliff in an uncontrollable aircraft. But he was going to go with only one wing, and spinning like a top. Allen decided that it was time to abandon his mission, so he unstrapped the safety harness that was attached to him and tried to time the perfect opportunity to jump without going over the quickly approaching cliff. With a final feat in desperation, Allen Key leaped off his spinning invention only to have the right wing swing around and hit him in the face with enough force to crack his goggles. As Allen Key hit the ground rolling, His invention that went horribly wrong went flying off the cliff as it dropped to the ground, shattering into pieces on impact. With Allen Key now lying motionless at the bottom of the hill, Derpy, who was in disbelief sprinted towards the stallion as she called, “ALLEN!!! ALLEN ARE YOU OK!?!” As she approached him, she quickly rolled him over on his back as he slowly opened his eyes, “D-Derpy?” When Derpy saw blood running down his face around his broken goggle lens, she quickly removed them to see if he was all right, “Its ok Allen… I’m here.” Derpy was relieved to see that the goggles did their job and protected his eye from the impact, and that the blood was from the rim of the goggles that cut into his face. As she wiped the blood from his face he asked, “D-Derpy?... where is my invention… did… did it survive?” Derpy replied, “Don’t worry about that, I’m just glad you’re ok.” “N-no… please tell me… how bad are the damages… can… can I repair it?” Knowing that he was too determined to worry about himself, Derpy stood up and trotted to the edge of the cliff as she looked down, “Um… well… it can be repaired… I think. But… you may want to consider building a new one.” Though he was still in pain, Allen rolled his head over as he sighed in disappointment, “that close… I was that close… if I didn’t make the wire so tight it would have flown… I just know it.” Derpy helped him off the ground as she replied, “Allen… you’re the smartest pony I know. If anypony can rebuild your flying thingy… it’s you. And I'll help. You’ve been there for me when I was being bullied for my clumsiness and awkward eyes. So I'll be here for you when we try again.” Allen smiled as he replied, “Thanks Derpy… you really are a true friend.” Derpy smiled as she continued, “ok so should I get you home?” Allen shook his head, “no, I should go to my shop. I'll clean myself up there so dad won’t suspect anything. Oh… he says hi by the way…” knowing what he was talking about, Derpy helped Allen Key gather his tools, then leaving the wreckage where it was, the two ponies went to where Allen worked and patched up his cut. Later that evening, Allen Key returned home to find his dad sitting at the table reading the newspaper as he greeted him, “Well, you’re home later than usual… rough day?” Allen Key replied with a smiled, “You have no idea.” Allen’s father gave him a suspicious look as he replied, “really… what happened to your face?” Feeling nervous, Allen quickly though up a lie, “oh… uh… we got in a hot air balloon motor that kinda blew up on me. Luckily, nopony was seriously hurt. This little gash was all I got.” Allen’s father put the newspaper down on the table as he continued, “well… seems you had quite the day. Anyway… did you ever meet up with Miss Derpy today?” Allen replied, with an obvious lie, “Um… no she didn’t come by the shop today.” Allen’s dad gave him a skeptic look as he replied, “Really… well I was asking because a buddy of mine mentioned something about a wagon crash on the edge of town. He said that a wagon or something just went barreling off the cliff and crashed into the ravine. He says he saw Derpy there so I was just wondering if she was alright.” Allen tried to act dumb, “Really? A wagon crash… well I hope everypony is alright.” Allen’s father sighed with disappointment in his son as he replied, “oh I’m sure they are since… you were there too... care to explain that?” Knowing that the cat was out of the bag, Allen Key replied, “Dad, it was just an experiment gone wrong. I’ve had thousands before now and I'll have thousands after.” “Not if the next one kills you! Do you realize the danger you placed yourself in by doing this? I mean, what would I do if that crash had killed you?” Allen looked at the ground in shame, “Dad… I know what I’m doing. And if I’m ever going to fly then I ha…” “That again! Are you seriously thinking about that?” Allen tried to defend himself, “I’m only doing what I’ve always wanted to do! Why is that so hard for you to understand!?!” “Because it’s insane! You’re an earth pony! You know as well as I do that you can’t fly!” “Which is why I’m trying to! This is my dream! This is what I’ve always wanted to do, what mom says I can do if I try hard enough.” Allen’s father sighed as he looked at the ground in sadness, “Your mother was encouraging you because you were young! She hated to see a sad face on either one of us, why do you think she kept the seriousness of her illness secret from us! What we thought was a common cold was pneumonia the whole time.” Seeing the sad expression on his father’s face made Allen Key a little sad too, “Dad… I’m doing this because mom told me that I…” “Allen… you’re not listening to a word I’m saying… are you? Look at yourself… You’re almost Twenty one now and you’ve yet to tell Derpy how you feel.” Allen Key tried to deny it, “Whoa now… Derpy is my friend, and sh…” “Then what are you doing? You hold this little foolish dream above you like a dark cloud. You need to grow up already! Find something meaningful to do with your life! Invent something that helps ponykind or at least find a mare and make a family! You’re spending every waking moment either working or pursuing this pointless dream that will never come true!” “It’s not pointless…” “WELL IT ISN’T HELPING!!! That cut on your face didn’t just appear there overnight… how many more do you need to get the picture? Better yet what else do you need? A broken bone… a severed limb? You need to stop this now before you end up killing yourself… or worse… Derpy.” Allen Key was aged with the comment, “That will never happen! I only test my inventions on myself. Derpy stays out of it entirely. I would never put her at risk. Besides, I’ve made it my goal in life. While I’m still breathing I will touch the sky with my own hooves, and help from nopony!” Allen Key’s father tried to continue, “while you’re still breathing?... or before you stop breathing?...” Allen Key got tired of the conversation as he turned around and started trotting to his room, “Forget it… you will never understand. You can fly… both you and mom could. I just think it’s somewhat funny. Mom could see what made me special… but for some reason, you refuse to see it.” Allen’s father sighed, “Allen I…” “Don’t even try… it’s obvious to see that my dreams don’t matter to you at all. So if you will excuse me… I had a rather long day. If you hadn’t noticed, I nearly went tumbling off a cliff today and I’m a little tired.” As Allen coldly trotted away, his father could only watch and sigh as he mumbled, “I tried dear… I really did. What in Celestia’s name am I going to do with that colt?” After he got to his room, Allen Key took off his saddlebag and sat it down as he looked through his blueprints. Then he pulled out his cracked goggles and sighed as he ran his hoof along the crack, “as much as I hate to admit it… Dad’s right. I was one hundred percent certain that I would have flown today, but I didn’t. Now, the plane is totaled and I’m back to square one. And to make things worse, I even worried Derpy with all this. It won’t be long before she tries to talk me out of it too. Maybe… I should consider it. The next time I try this, could very well be my last. However, if I do… then what’s next for me? Where do I go from here… mom… if I could ever use your advice… now would be wonderful.”