//------------------------------// // Soaring Hearts // Story: Fly High // by KomodoBrony //------------------------------// It was yet another peaceful sunny day in the town of Ponyville, and a family of four could be seen walking in the park, fully geared for a family picnic together. Ignoring the stares given from others, the family eventually settled on a nice open field for them to set up the picnic. Claire was still holding her brother in her magic, letting the young kirin enjoy the thrill of flying that he sought so hard to learn to do on his own. When they heard their parents call them over Claire trotted quickly to the blanket and, after sitting down herself, place Turquoise down gently. T huffed at this, he wanted more time to fly around, he was brought out of his annoyance when his father spoke up. "Don't worry son there will be plenty of time to fly around once you finish you lunch." Spike stated with a gentle tone. He then winked at his daughter, making sure that neither T nor Rarity saw it. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't careful enough. "Spike darling, why did you just wink at your daughter?" Rarity asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice. Spike reared back at this. "Nothing dear, I think a fly just got caught in my eye is all, you know how that's always happening." He then rubbed his eye to make the tale more believable. "I still don't get why those insects get so close to you. After all, you'd think they would've realized what they're flying towards." she stated with a hint a laughter in her voice. "Yea well you know, dumb insects. So lets eat up already." Spike responded, desperate to finish so that he and Claire could get right to work on what they had planned for today. Minutes Later *BELCH* "Oops, excuse me." Turquoise stated. "Guess that means he liked what you brought him." Spike said, glancing over to his wife. Rarity put on a smile, still a little disgusted by her sons previous outburst. "Come on Claire, I want to fly around some more, please." "Hold on a second there kiddo." Spike said, stopping the young colt in his tracks, "I got a better idea. Instead of Claire flying you around with her magic, how bout me and her help you fly for real, on your own?" Rarity was taken aback by her husband speaking this, mouth wide open. "WHAT?" "Really dad, can you and Claire really teach me how to fly?" "Absolutely kiddo." "YAY!!!!" T yelled out before leaping forward and hugging one of his father's legs. Spike smiled at this, his smile faded once he caught a glimpse of his wife glare daggers at him in his peripheral vision. "You and your sister go on ahead, I'll clean up a bit and be there soon." "Ok daddy, c'mon Claire!" Both him and Claire ran up to the top of a hill that was near the place they had eaten at. Once they were far enough away, Rarity picked up one of the plates in her magic and smack it upside the side of Spike's head. "OWWW!!!!!!!! You know, I'm not as hard-headed as I lead you to believe." he said, rubbing the spot where the unicorn had struck him. He recoiled once he saw Rarity practically giving him Fluttershy's stare. "Look lets just try to talk this out as civilized individuals, OK?" He saw Rarity calm down a bit at this. Once she had regained her posture, she spoke up finally, making sure to be as serious and gentle as she could be with her words. "What in the name of Celestia are you thinking? You know how I feel about him flying at such a young age. What if the other colts at school tease him for flying too low to the ground and he flies too far up and falls? You know he's afraid of heights and will get dizzy if he does. I mean really darling, there's no amount of rational thinking that could've gone into your mind if you think this is a good idea." Once she finished she was huffing and puffing, probably from speaking all of that in one breath. "You done?" Spike asked, unmoved the least bit by what Rarity had asked him. "For now." she responded finally calming down fully from her long statement. "Good, because I know you'll want to here what I have to say about this. Look, you and I both know that no one at school would dare tease him, not so long as they know that Claire is his sister. I don't think I need to go any further into detail about that now do I?" Rarity simply shook her head, knowing perfectly well where Spike was getting at with his statement. "His fear of heights should go away as long as I tell him important things that Rainbow taught me. You know I use to be like him when I started flying, I was TERRIFIED of heights. I still remember how long it took for me to unlatch my claws from that cloud that rainbow put me on." Rarity giggled slightly at this. "It nearly took all day for you to get the courage to utter so much as a single comprehensible word as well." She was practically laughing now, remembering that whole incident. Spike chuckled a bit at this himself before he grabbed one of Rarity's fore-hooves and held it gently in his claws. "I promise honey, I won't let him hurt himself, and neither will Claire. Just think at how much flying is making him happy. Do you really want to take away that chance from him?" Rarity thought long about it. Deep down she knew that this day was coming whether she wanted it to or not, but she didn't expect it to happen this fast. She looked deeply into Spike's eyes and knew he was being sincere in his words. She then looked over at her kids, Claire was letting T fly around one more time in her magic while they waited. She took a closer look at Turquoise, taking in the look of utter joy that he felt whenever he was flying around. She knew that no matter what, she couldn't let her own fears of her children growing up too fast prevent them from growing up happy. "Alright Spike, go ahead and teach him, but promise me you two will be careful." she finally said, small tears starting to form in her eyes. Spike handed her a handkerchief that he carried around for her to help wipe up her tears. "I promise honey. You'll see, this is just what he needs to perk up his spirit." With that final note, Spike walked over to his children without looking back at Rarity. When he finally came up to the hill where his kids were playing, he spoke up "So Turquoise, you ready?" Claire put Turquoise down once she heard that their father had finally arrived. The younger colt jumped up and down with determination "YAY!!!! I'm ready daddy. Teach me. Teach me. Teach me." "Alright, alright slow down there a bit you little bunny rabbit." Spike joked grabbing his son by the tail during one of his jumps. T couldn't help but giggle as his dad held him upside down by his tail. "Where you get all this energy from, I'll never know." He looked at Claire, who simply rolled her eyes with a smirk at his statement. "Anyways so this is what were going to do. I'll fly you up a bit and you tell me whether I'm going to high for you or not; Okay?" T nodded at this. "When we get to where you feel comfortable, I'll give you a few seconds to flap your wings while I'm still holding on to you. Then when I count to three, I'm gonna let go and let you try to fly on your own." T became nervous at this. "But, what if I don't fly, won't I get hurt." he asked with concern. "Don't worry that's where your sister comes in. If you can't fly back up, she'll catch you in her magic way before you hit the ground." He looked over at Claire, "If you can't catch him in your magic, then you try to get under him and catch him with you forelegs; understand?" Claire nodded quickly at this. "Don't worry daddy, I'll do whatever it takes to keep T safe." she said with a smile. Spike smiled at her and patted her on the head. He then looked at T with the most sincere look he could muster. "If you don't feel like your up for this you tell me right away. I won't force you into doing this." The young kirin took in a deep breath and looked at his dad with the best smile he could summon. "Let's do this." Spike then grabbed T with his second claw, this time on one of the spines on his back. He let go of his tail and held his first claw underneath the colt as he opened up his wings and slowly started to ascend. He looked at T and noticed how surprisingly calm the young kirin was, he knew that today was the day. "Remember to tell me when I get too high. I don't want you throwing up from being up too high again." After 10 seconds passed Turquoise started to get a little dizzy. "STOP!!!" he shouted, practically disoriented. Spike stopped dead in the air, still clutching the younger hybrid in his grasp. "That's a little too high can you go back down a bit, please." "Sure thing kiddo." The adult drake then descended a bit until T told him to stop. When he did, Spike guessed that they had to be at least 20 feet off the ground, but he worried a bit when he realized that if T flew a bit forward, he would be tumbling down the hill if he hits the ground. 'I really hope you got this covered Claire'. He looked down at Claire who waved at him, telling him that she was ready. He didn't dare look over at Rarity, fearing that her look of dread would just make him nervous, well more nervous than what he already was. "Ok T, start flapping your wings as hard as you can, and don't look down for any reason. Looking down will make you nervous and that can make you mess up. You already have seen what happens to Fluttershy when that happens to her." Spike at this point was trying to make Turquoise less nervous about this, so that he wouldn't make a mistake. He was happy to see that it worked when he heard his son giggle a bit at his last statement. At this point Turquoise started flapping his wings as hard as he could, with a smile still on his face. After about a minute or so, Spike spoke up again. "Ok Turquoise on three. Ready?" Turquoise nodded, and everything went silent to Spike, broken only by the sounds of his sons wings flapping and his heartbeat. "1...." Spike started to sweat, "2....." time seemed to slow down, ".....3!" he let go. Turquoise stayed afloat in the air for 3 seconds before he fell like a stone, making the drake's heart sink. "Claire, catch him!!!" Without having to be told a second time, Claire's horns lit up and she tried to catch him in her magic, but she couldn't get a lock on him, he was falling too fast. Without hesitating Claire ran as fast as her legs could carry her, she was hoping she could get underneath her brother before it was too late. But it was just as Spike feared, T had flown a bit forward and was falling at an angle, she knew that she wouldn't be able to get to him in time. "TURQUOISE!!!!!!" they both bellowed out as the ground drew closer and closer to the young kirin. Everything then went silent. Then *POMPF*. Rarity's Perspective Rarity's heart was beating like a drum when she saw her husband carrying Turquoise up into the sky. "Deep breaths Rarity, just take deep breaths" the young fashionista pony said to herself, practically hyperventilating the entire time. "Celestia please watch over him." Just then her heart stopped when she saw Spike let go of him. She calmed down once she saw him start to float a little bit, but soon she froze with fear when she saw him plummet to the ground. She started panicking when she realized that Claire couldn't catch him in time. She tried to get herself to move,but her body was going into shock; she couldn't move. When she heard her husband and Daughter call out his name, she closed her eyes and started crying. She sat there, waiting for so much as a single sound that hinted towards her precious colt hitting the ground. But the sound never came, instead she heard something else. "YAY!!!!!!" Rarity was shocked to hear her daughter cheering out. 'What happened? What's going on? Is he okay?' The more she mentally debated with herself, the more she wished her body would let her uncover her eyes and see what was happening. Finally, she heard what sounded like wings. She thought that Spike had flown back to her, until she realized that these wings were too small to be his. The sound awoke her body from it's shocked state and she opened her eyes, only to jump back in surprise at what she saw when she opened them. She was greeted by two little turquoise eyes and a young, smiling kirin looking back at her. "Look mommy I'm flying on my own now." Turquoise then flew up to his dad and fly a few times around him before diving down to Claire, where he flew all around her for a bit. Rarity still had a look of disbelief on her face. She was relieved to see that Turquoise was safe and unharmed, but she couldn't help but feel something else; something that she hadn't felt for quite a while now. It took her only a few seconds to realize what that feeling was: PRIDE. She was proud of her son, and happy for him. "My little baby is growing up so fast" she said, tears of joy starting to form in her eyes. She didn't notice when the young kirin was approaching her until he woke her form her trance. "Mommy are you okay. I'm sorry if I scared you earlier, but I'm okay now, see?" Rarity looked at her flying son and smiled, almost as big as she had smiled when Claire started using her magic. "I'm just fine darling, mommy's just.....so proud of you." T smiled and lunged forward to embrace his mom. They were soon joined by Claire and Spike, who joined on the hug. Before they knew it, they had packed everything up and were heading home; Turquoise flying all the way there, flying high for now and forever more.