Education
Chapter 1
Bright Eyes looked up at the sky nervously. “I-I don’t know, Lancer… Maybe we should just go through the motions again.”
“But we’ve been through it six times,” Lancer pointed out, “I think you should be pretty familiar with the motions.”
“And if something goes wrong?”
“Then I’ll catch you.”
Bright Eyes blushed slightly, “Um… Well…”
“Just try to focus on getting off the ground,” Lancer suggested, “and landing on your paws.”
Bright Eyes swallowed, and flapped her new wings once- nothing.
“Try a running start. And be more confident about it.” Lancer motioned across the grassy clearing they were in to the other side, which was a good distance away.
“Um… O-okay…” Bright Eyes huffed, then started running, pumping her wings nervously as she did so. She continued running and flapping her wings.
Soon enough she finally built up enough courage to try. She jumped and started to feel herself rising above the ground. “Yes!” she barked, “I’m doing it! I’m-” She looked down and saw a yellow aura underneath her. She immediately glared at Lancer and stopped flapping her wings.
“What?” Lancer asked, taken aback. “I was just helping you out.”
“By lifting me with magic?”
“At least you’d be able to get the feel of it.”
“But how am I supposed to learn with your pushing me with magic?”
“Didn’t your parents use magic to help you walk?”
“Lancer, my parents were earth wolves. We didn’t use magic.”
Lancer bit his lip, “Oh, uh… I forgot…”
“Your parents used magic for you?”
“Pretty much…”
“Well you can’t just pamper me like this,” Bright Eyes barked harshly, “now will you let me down!”
Lancer sighed, “Fine,” He brought Bright Eyes down to the ground.
Bright Eyes didn’t say anything, but rather flicked her tail angrily as she left.
“Great…”
Luna was walking toward Lancer. She wanted to check up on the two wolves to see how the learning session was progressing, only to find Lancer standing there, alone. She sat by him and put a wing over his back. “Is everything alright, Lancer?” she asked softly.
“Not really… Do you think I blew it with Bright Eyes?”
“Well… I don’t know what you did…” Luna confessed.
“Oh… Well, I was teaching Bright Eyes flying, and when she got up there, I tried to help her using magic, you know, like dad and you did for me with-”
“Lancer… She didn’t grow up like you did; she was brought up differently.”
“I know that now, but she never grew up with wings either,” Lancer replied in a defeated voice.
“Yes, but she’s been learning how to do things on her own. You’ll just have to trust her.”
“But what if she gets hurt?”
“Then she’ll just be more careful the next time.”
“But I don’t want her to get hurt, I just-”
“Maybe someone else should teach Bright Eyes.”
“No, that’s not necessary.”
“Your feelings for her are clearly clouding your judgement.” Luna stood up. “I’ll see if Firefly would be willing to teach Bright Eyes.”
And with that, Luna walked off.
Lancer made a swipe at the ground. “Yup. I blew it.”
******
Bright Eyes walked through the forest to a stream Twilight had showed her some months back. Sometimes she’d find the older wolf at that peaceful spot, sometimes watching the stones in the river. She hoped that maybe Twilight would be there now.
Unfortunately, when she’d arrived, the normally warm rocks were devoid of the purple wolf, and by extension any other wolves. She went to the bank of the stream and sat down. She sighed. Twilight was probably looking after Stargazer or trying to figure out her new form, as well. Of course she wouldn’t be here.
Bright Eyes lay down and started thinking about Lancer. He had meant well, but he was treating her like a puppy, and not a full grown wolf. It’d be a good lesson for him to learn, she assured herself as she averted her gaze towards the rushing water. He needed to know she was perfectly capable of doing things without his aid.
“Howdy do, howdy do, HOWDEE doo. What’s up, my little wolf?”
Bright Eyes looked back and instantly tried to back away, falling into the stream in the process. She quickly scrambled out and shook off before looking at the source of the voice. What she saw was a tall, scrawny human. He was wearing black pants, black shoes, a white button-up shirt, and a white lab coat. He had black hair with a white streak running through it. His goatee on the other hand was completely grey.
Of all the times she would have wanted to fly, this would be one of those times. She had this feeling about the human that was confronting her, something that she wanted to stay far away from. She half-expected a dart to knock her out, just as it did Twilight, but nothing happened. Still, her neck fur bristled threateningly. Her lips curled up to reveal her sharp teeth. She may not know how to control her wings or magic, but she was not going to let this human take her.
“Now is that any way to treat a visitor,” the human asked, “or do you wolves really have no manners?”
“Well, if some strange creature snuck up on you like that, you’d do the same thing,” Bright Eyes growled thinking that he wasn’t going to understand her. However…
“So you mean to tell me that I, Dr. Discord am a strange creature. Sounds to me like you’ve never seen a human before.”
Once again, Bright Eyes nearly collapsed. “Y-You can understand me?!” She heard about how Megan was able to understand the wolves, but it required a mystic necklace. So how was this guy able to understand her?
“Of course! Why, I’ve dedicated my life to studying animals, and talking to them, as well as understanding them, is my greatest achievement.”
“Still, why should I blindly trust you?”
“Wouldn’t you want the key to having wolves and humans get along with each other?”
“What makes you think I don’t already?”
“You know, a lot of humans can’t even stand the sight of wolves.”
“A lot, but not all.”
“But wouldn’t you like a lot to like you?”
“Yes, but-”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“How can I know I can trust you?”
“How can you know you can’t?”
“You said it yourself: ‘Humans hate us’.”
“I did say that, didn’t I,” Discord said stroking his goatee, “But I don’t hate you.”
Bright Eyes sighed, he was able to talk to her, that didn’t mean he hated wolves, right? Maybe she should take him up on his offer. “I’ll think about it…”
The doctor sighed, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, same time, same channel!”
“Huh?”
It was too late; he was already gone.
“Okay… that was odd…” Bright Eyes immediately started to walk back towards the pack. She was still mad at Lancer for what happened earlier. Besides, Zecora would probably be more suited to answer her questions...
******
Lightning Thrash was flying way towards Megan’s wolf shelter. He was going over to help escort some of the wolves to his pack. Some of the wolves decided that they wanted to go with Rainbow Dash, since they saw her as a friend. It was still pretty crazy that she is actually the daughter of one of the wolves in his pack, but still.
It wasn’t going to be an easy escort, considering one of the wolves had a young pup, but as he landed near a small pile of rocks, he figured he could handle it. How hard could it be?
A sudden clap of thunder erupted above him. “Oh, great!” he spat as he sped up towards the shelter. So much for this being easy.
*****
Spike watched Rarity as she played with Lionheart from his point inside the shelter. He couldn’t admit it to anyone, he didn’t want to know how anyone would react. It was his darkest secret...
He was a mountain lion, who had a crush on a wolf.
Both creatures were often at each other’s throats, how would a relationship work?
But… when he’d first seen her, despite being pregnant, she was elegant. And now that he was watching her play with her pup, she looked even more beautiful. Her smile... her eyes… It was just too much. And that said nothing of her generous heart and her beautiful voice...
CRA-BOOM!
All three jumped at the sound of lightning striking the ground. Lionheart gave a startled whimper as his face was buried in her chest. Rarity mouthed something to her pup before nuzzling his head. She quickly ran inside with Lionheart safe in her magic.
Spike, meanwhile, dealt with his neck fur spiking up. That thunder! The rain had come out of NOWHERE.
******
Fluttershy was laying on Megan’s bed. The storm outside and the fact that Megan wasn’t back were beginning to scare her. What if she was driving home and the car wrecked or something?! Or it broke down and she was standing out there in the rain?!
Or maybe she was just looking after her friends as they left for Twilight’s pack.
That’s probably all it was. She needed to stop worrying over every little thing. She jumped off the bed and went over to Megan’s window. She then got on her hind legs and peeked out the window to see if she could spot Megan’s car.
CRA-BOOM!
She immediately ducked under the bed. She started to whimper, “Why’d she have to go? She knew it was going to rain.” She sighed. Maybe she should just keep her mind off Megan. Just think about life… or something.
She slowly got out from underneath the bed and wandered downstairs. She could hear Danny and Molly watching TV, and smelled some nice food coming from the kitchen, most likely Megan’s grandmother making lunch. Among all of the other foods being cooked, there was bacon. She loved the rich smell of the stuff, but she knew that it would be a terrible idea to eat it. She could also smell lettuce, tomatoes, and bread, but they didn’t smell as appetizing.
She started to head back to Megan’s room, but she heard someone call her name. She glanced in the direction of the voice and saw Danny standing in the doorway. She began to cautiously walk towards Danny, but lightning struck again, causing her to yelp quietly.
“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” Danny said in an appeasing tone, approaching the frightened wolf, “You’ll be fine.”
Fluttershy looked at Danny. ‘Maybe he’s right...’
She moved closer to him, her feathers starting to close back up, though her fur was still standing on end. But when she reached him, Danny lay a hand on her back and started petting her. Fluttershy started to calm down, but the shock was still frightening…
Megan finally walked inside, shedding her raincoat upon entry. Fluttershy ran to Megan and jumped on her. “Whoa, easy Fluttershy,” Megan told the wolf.
Fluttershy jumped down, grinning sheepishly. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just so worried about you in that storm.”
“Well, I’m here now, so there’s no need to worry.” Megan smiled and gave Fluttershy a quick scratch between her ears.
Fluttershy was unaware of how fast her tail was wagging, “Are the others doing alright?”
“They’re fine, but I think I’ll have to postpone letting them go to the pack because of the storm.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
“Yeah…” Megan rubbed the back of her neck, nervously.
Fluttershy sensed her uneasiness, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh nothing… Just can’t believe it’s time to let them go.”
“Yeah...I’ll really miss them…” Fluttershy whimpered.
“Me too.” Megan sighed, “But we can’t keep them forever, they need to be in their natural habitat.”
“Yeah… But there is this one thing that I’m still confused about.”
Megan raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“You say that all of the wolves need to be in their natural habitat, yet why do you keep me?”