//------------------------------// // Flight // Story: A Three Foal Wish // by Seeking Dusk //------------------------------// “It’s… a long way down,” Flare observed nervously, having second thoughts about this whole thing now that it was looking him in the face and there was no way to back out of it without actually going through with it. He meeped with momentary panic as his support was jostled. “Of course it’s high,” Thunderlane chuckled as he moved the cloud more than a few hooves higher than its previous position. “It works out better for you this way too.” Flare huddled in the middle of the cloud, his wings held to his sides and hooves firmly at his barrel. “How could this possibly work out better?” Thunderlane observed Flare’s posture and sighed, running his hoof over his hair. “Okay, tell me if I’m guessing wrong. You grew up in a grounded city, right?” Flare nodded. Thunderlane kept going. “And you didn’t have a pegasus parent? Or even a relative that was around very often? So mostly around earth ponies and unicorns?” “See, that’s your problem,” Thunderlane said when Flare confirmed it all. “Pegasi kids like you tend to pick up on bad habits because they don’t have anyone around they can mimic. Your wings grew in early, and even if your magic is still growing, you should be able to glide and soar easily enough.” “Really? But, don’t pegasi use magic to fly?” Flare asked. He remembered hearing that. Distinctly. “We do, but even if you don’t have enough for active flight, the same magic that lets you sit on that cloud would let you glide and soar if you try,” Thunderlane said, bopping the cloud slightly. “It’s called free gliding. All you have to do is spread your wings and let the air carry you. Your instincts will kick in enough to help keep you relatively level as long as you don’t try to flap.” “That sounds way too dangerous!” Flare declared. Why did he agree to get help from Thunderlane? He should have asked someone like Fluttershy. Thunderlane huffed as he lazily flapped in circles around the cloud. “Foals start flying at different times. There are a few fillies in town that fly perfectly even though they’re younger than you. Even Rumble can fly. I’ll be beside you to catch you if you start fumbling, so you don’t need to worry about.” “But…” Flare said, gulping as he pecked over the edge again. Pegasi have naturally powerful vision, and he could easily make out Rumble, far below his cloud, waving encouragingly. He’d already gone through the practice, and managed to free glide just fine. But then, he could already fly for the most part. Pegasi with a fear of heights wasn’t unknown, Fluttershy was one, but it wasn’t so much the height that was the issue as it was the falling. He might have the wings on his back, but he also had two decades of experience being a wingless land bound biped. One who didn’t think too kindly about falling. Rumble cupped his hooves over his muzzle and yelled up at Flare. “You’ll be fine!” “See? Nothing to worry about,” Thunderlane said confidently. He landed on the cloud beside Flare. “I’m one of the best fliers in town, you can trust me. Just hold out your wings straight and strong, but not too stiffly. You want to be able to react to the wind flow around your feathers.” He demonstrated the posture. “You try it.” Flare gulped again, but unfolded his wings and tried to match Thunderlanes’ posture after a jab. A hoof here and there from the mature pegasus adjusted his tilt and angle until Thunderlane nodded, pleased. “Excellent. Now, we’ll both push off on three.” “I don’t know about this…” Flare repeated again, legs trembling slightly. “I could always do it the hard way and take you down,” Thunderlane grinned. “The first time is one of the hardest. You’ll love it and you’ll be fine. Promise.” “Pinkie Promise?” “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Thunderlane recited, going through the motions. Everypony in Ponyville knew what a Pinkie Promise was. It was silly, but it did make Flare feel better. “Okay…” “Then on three,” Thunderlane said, grouching and spreading his wings. “One… Two… THREE!” Flare closed his eyes and pushed off into the emptiness, leaving the yielding surface of the cloud behind. For a moment he fell, and he almost started flailing at the emptiness under his hooves, the clutch of gravity in his chest. “Don’t panic! Keep your wings and eyes open!” Thunderlane yelled over at him. Flare cracked one eye open forcibly and the feeling of falling eased with the perspective. Something had snagged him, not like hitting a wall, but more akin to a wave, or a pillow. It pushed against his wings, holding up in its embrace. The wind that had been rushing in his ears and face seemed to change, no longer something to panic over, but a comforting song that he should have known a long time ago. His feathers tingled and twitched as they reacted to breeze that flowed through and around them. A slow smile spread across his face. He was flying. Under his own power. Not in a plane or even from a hang-glider, but only with his own personal pair of wings. He let out a whoop of pure joy that almost upset his aerodynamics, but only rocked him slightly. It didn’t matter. The wind was far more gentle than he thought it would be; blowing across his face and bring a sense of peace to him. Ponyville was sprawled out like artwork; rolling hills and fields outside the town, the thatched roofs of the town proper, the clouds in the sky tended to by a few on duty weather ponies, and the sunlight spilling over it all. The moment was almost perfect, and he found himself giggling over it. “How you doing?” Thunderlane asked, coming up beside him, a knowing smirk on his face at Flare’s obvious enthusiasm. “This is awesome!” Flare said, channeling his inner Rainbow Dash. “I told you you’d like it,” Thunderlane said. Unlike Flare, he was flying, rather than simply gliding. He flapped a few times and pulled ahead of the foal slightly, spreading his own wings as he settled into a glide of his own. “Now that you’ve got that, I want you to follow my lead on the way down!” Thunderlane led Flare though a series of gentle maneuvers as they spiraled around the hill that Rumble was cheering them on from, mostly different ways to bank and turn while reading the air currents as they ruffled mane and feathers. It was going fine until Thunderlane got a bit too ambitious, more used to Rumble’s level of skill than Flare’s relative lack. “Just drop your right wing slightly, and pull your left one back,” Thunderlane said, demonstrating and going into a tighter spiral that would end with them landing on the hillside. “Okay!” Flare said, following Thunderlane’s lead, dropping his wing slightly and fighting the urge to flap instead. His balance got thrown off as he shed too much lift on that side and he found himself plummeting in a dive. He started yelling in panic, both wings snapping back out, as his muzzle pointed earthwards. Even with his wings spread it did little more than keep the world from pinwheeling. “I’m gonna crash!” The strong beating of wings was the only warning he had before two strong hooves snagged him and pulled him out of the dive, the ground’s headlong rush towards him aborted as his descent was one again leisurely. Panting heavily, tears in his eyes, Flare looked up to see Thunderlane’s sheepish face. “Sorry, that one was a bit too much for you,” he admitted as he brought them to the ground. Rumble quickly hurried over, half flying, half running as Thunderlane continued. “Are you okay?” Flare swallowed as his hooves touched the ground again, and nodded. “That was so cool!” Rumble said. “Except for the last part, but my brother caught you.” “You dropped your wing too much,” Thunderlane , explained. “I guess I should have warned you about that.” Flare finally managed to find a voice and looked up at Thunderlane with a shaky smile. “Can we go again?” ---------- “So, did you go again?” Proud asked as they shared their days experiences over dinner. Chili with fresh bread, a light salad and cheese. “No,” Flare sighed with disappointment. “He had me and Rumble go through flapping drills and wing power building exercises.” He shifted his sore wings slightly. “Between the gliding and all that flapping my wings are killing me…” “How does gliding make your wings sore?” Proud asked around a mouthful of bread. “Manners,” Aunt Rain said absently, reading the day’s paper. “You have to hold your wings out stiff against the wind…” Flare tried to think of a good analogy so those without wings would get it. “It’s like holding your arms out straight with a bucket in each one. You eventually get used to it, but until then… ow.” “Sounds… fun,” Silver mumbled. He hadn’t really touched his meal, most of the chili cooling in his bowl, his bread chased around the plate. In fact, the only thing he ate was the salad and cheese. “It was, actually,” Flare said, smiling. “I actually got to fly! When I was up there it was like… nothing else mattered. The world was there but it wasn’t as important as it was before. It was just me and the sky. I can’t wait to actually fly on my own!” Silver and Proud stared at him with curious expressions, not really sure how to react to it. Aunt Rain chuckled. “It’s a pegasi trait. Earth Ponies are linked to the earth, unicorns to the magic field, pegasi to the sky. Most all of them revel in being in the air. If you pay attention, you’ll see that a good number of older pegasi fly often, if only to hover above the ground.” "Like Rainbow Dash?" Proud chimed in. "She pretty much always flies. Everywhere." He smiled knowing what would happen with the Poison Joke incident and how Rainbow seemed to refuse to walk and let her spazzy wings crash her into everything. “I… never noticed that,” Silver admitted. To be fair, he’d been holed up in the house or library for the most part. He claimed it was just to learn as much as he could since he was never the type for physical activities, but Flare and Proud both placed bets on it being him trying to avoid a certain filly or two. “Well, if you left the house and went outside for once,” Proud teased, raising the topic. “I went to the arcade with Button this morning, then spent some of the evening with Aunt Rain. She showed me a lot of the things she does at the dam.” “Really?” Silver said, suddenly interested. “How come I didn’t get to come?” “You ran out to the library when we were ready,” Rain commented. She pointed a hoof at Silver’s bowl. “Is there a problem?” Silver blinked and looked down at the bowl with obvious distaste. “I don’t like beans,” he muttered. “I see,” Rain commented. “You still have to eat them.” Silver muttered something under his breath. “What was that?” “Nothing!” Silver said, sticking a spoonful in his mouth with a grimace. His brothers snickered as he chewed, earning a glare. “So what did you do all day?” Proud asked. “Hide from Dinky and Coronet in the library again?” “I wasn’t hiding! I was reading the Daring Do books!” Silver protested, his outburst even getting a raised eyebrow from their aunt. “Not that it helped anyway…” “Oh?” Proud said, eyes growing as he sensed a story. “What happened?” “Dinky and her sister showed up- Shut up,” Silver said, glaring again as his brothers laughed at his expense. “Sorry, it’s just…” Flare wiped a tear from his eye. Rain stayed out of the conversation, for all appearances caught up in her paper. Flare managed to get his snickers under control. “Did you run off again?” “I only did that once…” Silver mumbled. “And it was four of them ganging up on me. I got to meet another unicorn colt today, though.” “You did?” Proud asked, casting glances at Silver’s still mostly untouched bowl of chili. “Who? Where? How?” Flare asked. Silver had been complaining about the number of unicorn fillies around, but the lack of colts to try and hang out with. “Dinky dragged me off to play star halma,” Silver sighed. Both his brothers looked confused. “Chinese Checkers. Corner Piece was my partner. We lost though.” “Corner Piece?” Proud asked. He still looked lost, having never heard of it before, and being more into chess. He poked Silver and made a show of looking at the bowl. Silver rolled his eyes and shoved it towards him, and he took it gleefully. “Yep. Orange colt. He’s not in our school block though,” Silver said. He reached for some more of the salad. “Too many fillies in ours, if you ask me.” “Really?” Rain commented. “Give is a little longer and you will find your opinion changing.” “I’m… trying not to focus on that, Aunt Rain” Silver said, an eye twitching slightly. “It’s perfectly natural for colts your age to start seeing fillies in a different light,” Rain said, almost smiling. Almost. “In fact, considering how you like to present yourself as mature for your age, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s already starting. Proud was telling me about Ditzy Do’s daughter…” “AUNTIE!” Silver said, the look of horror back on his face as he put both hooves on the table. “Manners,” Rain commented one again. “You three still need to get your supplies together for school. Your first class is tomorrow. Groaning won’t change anything.” “But Aunt Rain… do we have to? I mean, with all that’s going on,” Proud sighed. “Yes,” she said firmly, leaving no wiggle room in the tone. “You are. The princess told you to wait while Princess Luna recovers her power and you are in my care. You will still be going to school. Now hurry and finish eating, and don’t think I didn’t see you give Proud your share, Silver.”