//------------------------------// // Sky High // Story: The Sparx of Friendship // by CaptainSparx //------------------------------// Tinker had always dreamed of flying. Watching the birds soar through the sky, seeing the pegasus ponies at work, it was so beautiful. The way things could just take to the air. At least it seemed that way when you weren’t stuck with a rope around your waist and tying you down to the door handle. “You know, you really need should read about things more before trying them.” Flo scolded from the kitchen. It was getting late once more and she was famished. A whole week of school, three days of work, she was grateful that tomorrow was the weekend. At least she should be able to get some rest. That is if that darn unicorn could get all that crazy spell reading under control. A loud crash and the sound of broken glass echoed form the main room. “Oops, sorry.” Tinker rubbed her head, bouncing along like a balloon along the ceiling. “Sure you are, just get down from there.” She tugged at the rope, reeling the wayward unicorn in. “Well maybe if you want to be test subject instead of me I could get this done faster.” “No thanks.” Flo let go of the rope, snatching it again a second later and jerking her friend back down. “You find the one that will get rid of my airsickness and then maybe, and only maybe will I reconsider.” “Ah horse feathers, fine. Just get me that book will ya?” Tinker floated back up to the ceiling, planting her hooves on pushing off towards the ground. Kinda like a reverse jump if you will. Flo held up the book and she grabbed it before she ascended once more to the ceiling. “okay, here goes nothing…” “Wait! First…” CRASH!!! “Nevermind.” Flo walked back to the kitchen to finish making dinner, it was cheaper than going out but it still never tasted as good. At least she remembered to wash all the grease off her hooves this time. Tinker took a seat at the table, holding a hoof to her head, as Flo set a plate in front of her. “Looks good… um… which plate is it?” “The one in the middle, you really need to leave flying to us pegasus's” “Yeah, no kidding.” Reaching to the left and missing the plate entirely. “Maybe you should just go to bed.” “I think I will.” She stumbled off. “Other way…” “…got it.” Every night for the past week she had been this way. Flo started putting the dishes away, scraping the food in the trash. It still didn’t taste just right this time either. Once she was done cleaning up she headed out to the main room and picked up the book on flight spells. She might not be able to do any of them, but maybe it would be better if she tried to at least find the one they needed just so she could take the books back and be done with it. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” She opened to a bookmarked page. “Cure for flight-sickness.” She read aloud. “You crazy, why didn’t you say so.” She flipped to other bookmarks. “A spell for flight, anit-gravity, increased speed and agility… this thing has everything! Why didn’t I look at this sooner?!” She didn’t even notice the day getting darker as the seconds turned to minutes, the minutes into hours. There was so much you could learn if you just read it. It sure beats reading all those boring lecture notes she thought to herself. Flo got up and grabbed a pencil and paper and scribbled down a few of the spells before she closed the book, set it with the others and headed off to bed. Morning seemed to come all too soon. Tinker woke with a dull headache, dragging herself out of bed and in to the kitchen for some breakfast. Hmm, that was odd. Flo was usually up by now, she looked at the clock to double check. It read a quarter till eleven, she sure had slept in late. She fixed herself a quick breakfast and then headed to check on Flo. She knocked softly on her door, then carefully opened it when she got no answer. “Flo? You awake?” She flipped the light switch, seeing the bed neatly made a pad of paper with some notes scratched onto it lying by the pillow. “Well what do we have here…” She picked up the note and squinted, trying to read the poor excuse for hoof-scratch. “’Be back later… gone library… take books back.’ No she didn’t!” She dashed to the living room and looked over where she had left the books the night before. They were gone! She was just about to panic when the door crashed open and in tumbled the klutzy pegasus, a big smile on her face. “OH, you’re finally up!” Flo smiled, getting up and shaking a few leaves out of her mane and tail. “You took then back didn’t you…” She glared. “Yes… but before you get all mad, I wrote down all the ones you had bookmarked, even that one animation one.” “But I wasn’t done with them yet.” “Please, if you read any more out of them I’d be looking for a new roommate.” “I’m not that bad.” Tinker looked down, scuffing her hoof on the ground. “No, there that dangerous. Seriously they have the potential to get you badly hurt.” “Fine, I guess you did the right thing…” “Oh and I got the unicorn who borrowed the books for me to do that anti-airsickness one. I feel great!” “But you still can’t fly in a straight line.” “Details, details, at least this way I can get in some much needed practice. Which is what I’m just going to do. What are you going to do today? With what’s left anyway.” “Oh I don’t know I have an idea, but it’s a surprise.” “Come on, tell me please!?” Flo begged, trying to look cute despite her rat’s nest of a mane. “Nope, just keep your eye on the sky while you’re out an about today. Now get going.” She pushed her friend out the door. Closing it with her horn. As she turned away, she stopped at several knocks. “The answer is no.” “Ah come on Tink.” The whining tone still apparent, though muffled by the door. “Nope, go learn to fly straight.” She trotted away and headed to her room, pulling out an old notepad. She jotted down a few numbers alongside of a few old drawings and grabbed her saddle bag. In went the notepad, a good sum of the bits she had saved and the old set of welders goggles Mechanic Mike had given her along with her promotion. She had a long list of things to get and only an afternoon left to finish putting them all together. Flo spent the rest of the afternoon in Central Park, trying her best to fly straight. Several broken branches, a few crash landings, and a hoof-full of hurt pride latter and she could just about make a straight path. She picked up some altitude, looking down at the ponies below as small as ants. She took a nervous gulp, closed her eyes and went straight towards the lone cloud down below. It was one cloud, nothing too technical. She just needed to build up enough speed and ram through it. THUMP! “Ow,” that hurt, she stood up on the cloud, rubbing her nose. She looked down at the strangely patchwork texture of the so called cloud. “I didn’t know they were this hard?” “Hello? Anypony up there?” “Hey that’s Tinker?!” She flew off to the side of the cloud and descended a ways. No way!! It wasn’t a cloud at all! She alighted on the deck of the small airship, barely noticing the sooty black smoke that was dirtying her mane. “By Canterlot, This is AMAZING! Where’d you find this thing hiding?” “I didn’t, I built it,” Tinker said proudly from the helm, turning hard to the side, using her horn to pull back on a lever at the same time. The airship slowly began to rise even higher, eventually floating amongst the real clouds. “You built this!?!” Flo’s jaw dropped. “Well sort of… you see I had these old sketches for this thing but I didn’t know how to power it. Then I saw one of those steam engines in class, but they were too heavy. So I built my own, out of a lighter metal. And what do you know, she FLIES!!” She grinned from ear to ear. “Well I’ll be a molting pegasus I thought only the rich could afford things like this.” “Not anymore, though I do think there’s a few things I need to tweak.” “But your flying! Without magic!!” Flo stuck out her tongue to taste a cloud as it drifted by. “Who says unicorns can’t fly!” Tinker smirked, sending the airship straight through a wispy cloud as the sun started to set. This day had turned from downright disgusting to utterly amazing. At this point she knew the sky was no longer a limit!