Purity Corruption

by TheBlox


Of Horn and Feather

It was a calm afternoon, and only a gentle breeze was heard. Walking cautiously through the jungle, Altruise watched every angle around her; a frown upon her face of anticipation and preparation. The way she treaded the grounds of this jungle was as if she’s been doing this for a long time. She heard some rippling branches in a bush and she quickly turned to it.

“GOTCHA!!” Illuminating her horn, she casted a white ball of energy into the bush, making the leaves explode off the branches on impact, and they floated back down to the ground. To her dissatisfaction, her target was not in that bush. A bunny hopped out from hiding and scampered away from her. “Ugh… Stupid rabbit…” Raising her head, she glanced at all angles, focusing on her surroundings.

Suddenly from above her, she heard a whooshing sound of her target’s wings descending toward her at a rapid speed. Quickly, she turned her glance upward, and saw the silhouette of a pegasus blocked by the sunlight. With little time to react, the pegasus collapsed on top of her, and they rolled along the ground in a series of grumbling.

“AaAAH!!” Altruise growled, and shoved the pegasus off of her with a powerful force of concentrated magical energy. He flew back and slid across the ground, slamming against a tree to a stop.

“Ugh…” Drake rubbed his head and slowly stood back to his hooves.

“Ha! Got you this time!” Altruise stood proudly with half-squinting eyes. The smirk on her face made the pegasus roll his eyes.

“Yes, you did. But I still got you first.” Drake exclaimed abruptly, “If you can’t hold me back before I even strike, how do you plan on keeping a powerful unicorn off of you?”

“I um…” Altruise squinted, “I’m trying, Father.”

Drake sighed and sauntered up to the unicorn, “You can do better. You’ve got me a few times, but a few out of many isn’t a good sign if you plan on a real battle when the time comes.”

“Yeah… I know…” Altruise grumbled, and her horn sparked of anger, “I just want to go kill that creep. The sooner the better!!”

“In time, you will be ready. But right now, you are not.” Drake muttered solemnly.

“Well, when will I be ready?!” Altruise shouted, “It has been three years since you started training me! When will I be ready?”

“And in those three years you have indeed improved a lot. But there’s still much for you to learn.”

“UGH!!” The filly turned away from him and sat on her flank, frowning and looking to the grass beneath her feet.

“Patience, Altruise.” Drake put a hoof on her shoulder, “If you go after him too soon, you won’t stand a chance.”

“Father, I’ve perfected so many of my spells. Most forms of levitation I can do almost flawlessly, I can hit a target from a mile away, I can set things on fire at will…” Altruise turned to him with frustration. “Heck, I can even summon storm clouds when I choose to.”

“Yes, you can. But that doesn’t mean you’re strong enough.”

“I just… AGH!” She growled and fell to her haunches in frustration, “When will you allow me to leave this island to go looking for him?!”

“I told you, when you’re ready.” Drake declared, “I’m keeping you here for your own safety; until you’re prepared to battle Nebulous, I won’t allow you to go looking for him. I’d hate to watch you fall after all the hard work we’ve done to train you.”

Altruise just sat there and let out a long, aggravated and impatient growl.

“Come, let’s go eat.” Drake suggested, trotting off through the forest, “Maybe food will calm your frustrations.”

With a growling sigh, Altruise followed the stallion pegasus.

* * * * *

Returning to the shack, Altruise sat at the table. The unicorn was still frowning, and the pegasus wandered to his shelf of books, scanning them. Altruise glared at the basket of fruit in the center of the table that Drake had just gone to collect for her off the island that very morning. With a sigh, she levitated an apple and brought it to her mouth, biting into it.

“Okay, so I failed this afternoon’s test on defense against surprise attacks.” She muttered with a mouth full, followed by swallowing her food. “What else is new?”

“Your optimism has drained since I first met you.” Drake exclaimed, still cycling through the books on the shelf. Altruise ignored that statement and took another large bite out of her apple. The pegasus pulled out a book from the shelf and dropped it on the table in front of the filly.

“What?”

“I’m teaching you something new today.” Drake exclaimed, opening the blue book. He flipped a few pages with a hoof and stopped on a page with a sketched image of a pegasus. At the top of the page wrote “Pegasi Wings”.

Altruise swallowed the food in her mouth and it took her a moment to register what this spell was. She leaned toward the book in surprise, and her eyes widened. “You’re gonna teach me how to make artificial wings?” She looked up at him with ears twitching, “You’re gonna teach me how to fly?”

“Yes.” Drake announced. “I never showed you this spell before, because there are risks.”

“Risks?” Altruise raised a brow, “Father, just about every bit of your training is a risk.”

“Yes, but this is different.” Drake declared, “One wrong move, and you can end up killing yourself.”

“That’s comforting.” The filly muttered with sarcasm.

“This spell requires a strong sense of multitasking.” Drake explained, “You need to focus both on keeping your faux wings attached, and you need to focus on flapping them at the same time.” The pegasus educated her, “If you lose focus on the spell for just one second, they’ll vanish in a blink. If you lose focus on flapping them, you’ll lose control, and either way you’ll result in plummeting to the ground. Unicorns were not exactly made to fly, making this one of the hardest spells for a unicorn to learn.”

Altruise popped the remainder of the apple into her mouth, chewed and swallowed, and hopped off the chair. She trotted to the door and looked back to Drake. “Well, are we going out to practice then or what?”

“Heh.” Drake shook his head at the eager filly and picked up the book in his wing. “Alright. Let’s go then.”

* * * * *

Altruise and Drake trotted to their usual practicing grounds, which was now a field of mostly debris and charred wood from all of her magic over the years. Altruise paced back and forth impatiently as Drake read through the blue book.

“Okay so what do I do to grow wings?” Altruise was excited to learn this new spell, but all the same, she was impatient like she had grown to become.

“I’m figuring out how to properly explain this spell. It’s a little tricky.” Drake exclaimed, flipping through pages. “Practice something else for now; I need to read through this a bit.”

Altruise rolled her eyes and turned to a boulder three times her size. She lifted it with a quick levitation spell, and with a grunt, she hurled it over the forest, and it fell into the ocean with a large splash.

“Bored?” Drake presumed, acting casually about her sudden boulder toss, as if this had become a natural simplicity of hers.

“Very.” She muttered, sitting on her haunches.

“Ah, here we are…” Drake put the book down, “Now, to make these wings requires an open mind with a large imagination.”

Altruise was focusing on something else, daydreaming. She shook her head and looked up at him. “What was that?”

“Imagination.” Drake repeated, “That I see is covered.”

“Heh.” The filly glanced to the side, “Yea sorry. I’m just—”

“Bored. I know.” Drake cleared his throat and looked back into his book. “Now… To activate the wings, you must think like a pegasus.”

“And how, pray tell, does a pegasus think?” The unicorn muttered.

Drake spread his wings, and closed his eyes, breathing in through his nostrils. Gracefully flapping his wings in a standing position, he then exhaled. “Think, fly…”

“That… doesn’t help much.” Altruise rolled her eyes, and with a shrug she tried what he was doing. She closed her eyes and stood tall, thinking about flying.

Drake opened his eyes to see the filly standing with her eyes closed. Curiously, he watched her. “For this you need patience.” He said to her, “Concentrate…”

With her eyelids shut, Altruise raised a brow, and slightly nodded. Breathing in deeply, she exhaled with a gentle breath in a form of meditation.

The pegasus walked around her in circles, watching her as she did this practice. “For this spell, you do need to be calm. Imagine yourself in the sky, thousands of feet in the air; the gentle breeze rushing through your mane.” He stopped walking around her in circles, and stood in place in front of her, “Imagine your wings.”

A gentle glow was suddenly sparkling on her shoulders where pegasi wings usually start. Drake watched and smiled, “Keep thinking about the wings, Altruise; the graceful feeling of flying through the air.”

The sparks on her shoulders began to expand, and a silent humming sound echoed from the emerging glow of magic. The look on her face was that of total relaxation, deep in a dream. Her eyes closed, and her mouth slightly hanging open, she could see and feel herself in the sky, as if weightless.

“It’s remarkable…” Altruise murmured, enjoying the feeling.

“Open your eyes, Altruise.”

The filly slowly opened her eyes, and realized right then that she was hovering at least three feet above Drake. In a sudden panic, she looked left and right, and she had wings attached; her hooves were off the ground.

“WH-WHAT THE?!” Her wings suddenly vanished in a puff of magical sparks, and she fell to the ground with a thump. “WhAH—OW!” Recollecting herself, she stood up from her haunches and looked up at Drake wide-eyed. “The heck just happened?!”

“You were flying.” Drake snickered.

“That was creepy.” Altruise stood wide-eyed, “How’d that happen?”

“Well whatever you were doing, it worked.” The pegasus declared, “What were you thinking about?”

“Well… It was certainly interesting.” Altruise murmured, “Thought about flying, like you said.”

“And why did you panic when you opened your eyes?”

Altruise shrugged, “I’m afraid of heights.”

“Oh.” Drake scratched his chin with a hoof, “Yeah, I think I remember you telling me something like that once… That could do it.” He put his hooves down and cleared his throat, “Alright, well if you’re going to fly, you’re going to have to get over that fear.”

The filly grumbled, “I hate heights…” She looked back at her shoulders where she briefly had wings.

“You know, I’m impressed that you managed to sprout those wings on your first try.” The pegasus exclaimed, “Even if they only lasted a few seconds. It’s not an easy spell to keep a controlled focus on. Once you try multitasking with too many things, or if your mind wanders, your wings can disappear like they did.”

“I see…” Altruise winced, “I don’t know if I’m ready to fly then.”

“Nonsense.” Drake disagreed, “You’ve spread those wings on your very first attempt! Of course you’re ready.”

“Sheesh, you have way too much faith in me, Father…” Altruise murmured.

“Yes, yes… Try it again.”

“What?”

Drake cleared his throat, “Close your eyes and imagine yourself up in the clouds again. Do what you just did.” A pause, “Except, this time, when you open your eyes, don’t panic and don’t lose concentration on the spell.”

“That’s easy.” Altruise muttered sarcastically.

“Now then, what are you waiting for?” The pegasus waved his hoof to get her to carry on, “Once more. I’ll watch you and make sure you don’t fall and hurt yourself.”

The filly winced at that, “You didn’t catch me the first time.”

“I thought you’d land on your hooves; that wasn’t a very far drop.”

Altruise sighed and rolled her eyes. With a breath of concentration, she stood calmly and closed her eyes again like before. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled softly.

“Good… Now, think about the clouds. Think about flying.”

“Think pegasus, I got it, I got it.” Altruise grumbled, and tried to relax. Drake stood watch, waiting for something to happen, and kept quiet to allow her to concentrate. Raising her head, she pictured the clouds, and she imagined her wings once more; a peaceful feeling. Moments later, her shoulders began to spark again with a gentle hum of magic.

“Very good…” Drake murmured, trying to talk calmly not to disturb her concentration, “Hold that thought. You’re flying with the pegasi now.” The pegasus watched her wings slowly form from the magical glow on her shoulders. They spread out two feathery spans of beautiful wings.

Altruise began murmuring to herself like she was daydreaming, and she began to gracefully flap her wings. “I feel weightless…” She exclaimed to Drake as he watched her lift off her hooves. He decided to let her ascend, and didn’t tell her she was flying.

“Keep that thought.” He grinned, “You’re doing good.”

“I feel the wings…” Altruise exclaimed, and she opened her eyes, catching herself in the air again. She panicked again, but not as much as she did the first time; more of a jolt of surprise. She took a deep breath, and exhaled, trying to relax herself. The filly glanced to her left and right to witness her flapping wings. “I… I’m flying?”

“Don’t lose concentration on that spell. Hold onto it.” Drake exclaimed, “Keep thinking pegasus.”

“Th-this is p-pretty high…” She whimpered, looking down, trying not to let go of her concentration.

“Altruise, you’re four feet in the air…” Drake muttered unimpressed, “You’re fine when you climb that mountain, what’s wrong with this?”

“Uh… No support.” Altruise exclaimed, “I’m in the air, and I’m not holding onto anything.”

“You don’t need to, your wings are holding you up.” As Drake was speaking, her wings vanished in a puff of magical sparks, and she fell back to the ground, landing on her rump. “Or… maybe not.”

Altruise grumbled and stood back to her hooves, rubbing her sore flank with a hoof. “You said you’d catch me!”

“You were four feet in the air…” Drake rolled his eyes, “Whatever, keep practicing until you’re able to hold onto the spell.”

“For how long?” Altruise muttered, “It’s hard!”

“I’ll say ten minutes; if you can even just float for that long, I’ll take you higher and teach you how to fly like a pegasus.”

* * * * *

Several attempts later, Altruise was soon able to hold onto her wing spell longer with each try. After many failed attempts, she was soon able to hold onto it and deactivate it at her own concentration. She wasn’t able to fly too far with it without breaking concentration, but she was able to hold up in the air long enough to Drake’s satisfaction.

“Good, Altruise. Very good.” The pegasus called up to the filly floating about six feet above him with flapping wings. “Try flying forward again.”

“Um, okay.” Altruise murmured, trying to keep her spell focused. She tried flapping her wings in a motion to thrust herself forward; unlike her previous attempts, her wings didn’t vanish this time. “I think I’ve got it…”

“You’ve been up there for fifteen minutes now. How do you feel?”

“Well, I think I’ve figured out how to keep the spell from failing.” She exclaimed.

“Is the height still bothering you?”

Altruise squeaked, “Yeees…?”

“You want to go higher?”

The filly looked down at the pegasus like it was a stupid question. “Are you crazy??”

“I don’t think so…” Drake shrugged with a smirk, “In fact, going higher might help ease your fear of heights.”

“How in Equestria does that make any sense?” The filly shrieked, whining loudly, “This is dumb! I’m gonna die. I’m gonna fall and I’m gonna die.”

Drake rolled his eyes, and flapping his strong wings, he flew up to the filly and hovered next to her. “Here, don’t look down, and just follow me.” He began flying backwards, slowly so the filly could keep up. Altruise flew forward, following the pegasus as he looked back at her.

“Th-this is an uncomfortable height.”

“Altruise, we’re only six feet in the air.” Drake muttered, “Just don’t look down.”

“I don’t have to look down, I know how high I am!” Altruise panicked, still managing to concentrate on her spell to keep her wings intact. For a brief moment, she lost balance with her flapping, and she did an accidental flip to the side. “WOAH!!” Gliding sideways, she crashed into the ground. Grumbling, she stood up to see that her wings had vanished again. “Aw DANG it!” A frown on her face, and she tensed her legs. “Come BACK you stupid wings!” With a magical pop of light, her wings reformed back on her shoulders. A grin, and she looked up at Drake. “It’s easier to activate than it was.”

“Good. Now fly back up here.” Drake waved a hoof to gesture her back up.

“Ugh…” Altruise grumbled, and began flapping her wings. She lifted off the ground, and flew up to Drake; slowly and with a bit of trouble, she managed to reach his height. “Phew. There.”

“You flap like a buzzard.” Drake said with half-open bored eyes, “Full, graceful flaps. Like this.” He demonstrated by flapping his own wings, flying slowly backwards.

Altruise rolled her eyes and tried flapping like Drake was doing. “Okay, so, flap lightly, and—AH!!” Her wings vanished, and she began falling with flailing hooves in the air. She landed gently into a bush of leaves, and after a pause, she let out a loud grumble.

“You forgot to concentrate on the spell while you were trying to concentrate on flapping at the same time. Like I said, this requires multitasking.” Drake exclaimed, “Still, you’re doing quite well being that this is your first flying lesson; for a unicorn, at least.”

The unicorn muttered to herself and struggled her way out of the bush, then once she was back on the ground, she stood in concentration. “C’mon, wings.” She winced, and with a magical pop, the wings came back. Glancing left and right, she smirked. “Ha! Gotcha.”

“Good, now try again. Fly back up here.”

Altruise leaned forward, and lifted off, flapping her wings hard and fast. Drake watched her flapping and just shook his head.

“Stop flapping like a dodo bird.”

“Huh? Dodo birds can’t fly.” Altruise raised a brow.

“Exactly!” Drake replied, “Now, gracefully! Full, graceful flaps. You don’t need to flap so hard to stay in the air, humming birds do that. You’re not a humming bird, you’re a pony.”

Altruise was beginning to get aggravated, “Are you going to keep comparing me to different birds?”

“Until I see you fly like a pegasus, yes.”

The filly sighed and continued following the backwards flying pegasus, slowly and crookedly. She flapped and tilted left and right with gusts of wind trying to push her out of the air. “Wooaoah!” She leveled out her wings and glided for a moment. “Oh, neat. I can stay in the air without flapping.”

“Looks like you caught a gust of wind under your wings, very good.” Drake flapped a little higher, “Alright, let’s go higher.”

“Higher? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Altruise winced.

“Of course, you’ll do better up here, trust me.”

“If you say so…” The winged unicorn sighed, flapping higher to follow the pegasus. Her flapping was becoming more natural and graceful to Drake’s satisfaction.

“You’re doing good, Altruise.” Drake flew a little faster, “Keep up. Eyes on me; focus on the spell and the flapping.”

“Uuhh…” Altruise pushed a little harder, flying faster to keep up with Drake. Flapping on, she was slowly improving her flying, and was starting to be able to keep up with the pegasus. Drake suddenly started flapping from side to side. “Woah, hey, hey! Stop making this so tricky for me.”

“Tilt to steer.” Drake exclaimed, demonstrating as he tilted from left to right like he just did. “C’mon it’s simple.”

“Yeah for you maybe.” Altruise grumbled, trying to tilt, “Alright, so um… Whoaah.” She was suddenly steering to the left, and her grin grew wider, “This is starting to get fun.”

“Good! Now tilt to the right.”

“Uh, right. Tilt to the right… Um…” She pushed her body to tilt the other direction, and she successfully began steering to the right.

“Perfect! Alright, higher now!”

Altruise nodded and straightened herself out, and tilted back to fly higher toward him. “This is so cool, I…” She looked down. “I…”

“You’re doing great so far—ALTRUISE!!!”

Suddenly in the puff of magic, her wings vanished five hundred feet in the air, and immediately she began plummeting downward. “AAAAAAAHHH!!! AAAH FATHER HELP ME!!”

Drake made a quick nose dive heading down for the falling unicorn, “Altruise, get those wings back on! Activate the spell!”

“I’M GONNA DIE!” Altruise panicked, flailing her helpless hooves in the air, “I’m gonna DIE!!”

“ALTRUISE, WINGS!!” Drake shouted to her, “CONCENTRATE, DO IT NOW!!”

Less than a hundred feet and still falling, Altruise felt a sinking feeling in her gut the closer she got to the floor of Equestria. Hyperventilating, she flailed her arms, and started doing flips in the air.

“STOP PANICKING!” Drake yelled.

Altruise tried snapping out of her fears, and stared at the island floor that was coming closer and closer. Closing her eyes tight, she gritted her teeth. Whimpering, sparks on either shoulder emerged, and with a distance of thirty feet above the ground, her wings magically popped back intact. “AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” Her eyes sprung open, and quickly she leveled herself out, and just before she slammed into the ground, a gust of wind caught her and she did a full ninety degree flip, suddenly upright with the earth, going at an intense speed only a few feet above the ground. Ahead of her was a forest. “SHIIIII—” No time to pull up or react, she flew straight in through the trees, and steered menacingly as tree after tree whipped by her with a loud whoosh of air. After a heart pounding rush through the forest, she pulled back up into the sky, breathing hard.

Blinking a few times, the flying unicorn looked back at the forest she had just exit below, and the terrified look on her face was suddenly wiped clean with an enormous grin. “YEEEAAAHHH!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!” She screamed with pride, stopping in the air to turn to the ground, pointing a hoof. “IN YOUR FACE, TREES!!”

Drake was flying at a hovering state not far from her, slowly and proudly clapping his hooves. “I am in awe.” He said with a bright grin, “Very good job, Altruise. Very good.”

Altruise looked back at him and smiled. She no longer had a reason to fear heights like this. Looking back down at the ground she smirked and flew down to the shack in the forest. “Last one home’s a rotten egg!”

“Hm?” Drake’s ears twitched and he realized she was already taking a head start. “Ohh, no you don’t.” He called out to her, nose diving after her toward the shack below.

* * * * *