//------------------------------// // Intermission: You Can Fly // Story: Another Hatchling // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// "So what did you have to do back in Magmoor?" Rarity asked curiously. "Other than let Spike have a lava bath, I mean?" Samus chuckled. "Well, we-" At that moment, the door crashed open and three bundles of chaotic energy and the best of intentions burst through, nearly knocking over the Map Table in their exuberance. "We heard Spike's back!" Apple Bloom said eagerly. "Where is he?" Sweetie Belle demanded. "We want to take him Crusading again!" "Have you seen Spike, Mister Dragon?" Scootaloo asked Spike. "He looks a lot like you, but a lot smaller, and he doesn't wear armor." She blinked for a bit. "Are you his long lost big brother or something?" Spike couldn't help but chuckle as the others giggled. "Yes, I have seen Spike," he said innocently. "Quite recently, in fact." "Really?" all three Crusaders demanded eagerly, rushing up to him. "Where?" Laughing, Spike replied, "When I looked in the mirror this morning." While Apple Bloom's eyes widened in realization, Sweetie gasped in horror. "What's Spike doing in the mirror?" she demanded in fear. "Did he get trapped in there when a Kyoma got out, and is now running around free while Spike is unable to escape? We need to catch that demon and force it back in the mirror to set him free before it's too late!" Scootaloo, who had looked confused before Sweetie started talking, started shaking in terror. W-w-w-w-we're going d-d-demon hunting?" she stammered. "Girls?" Apple Bloom interrupted. "I'm pretty sure he meant his own reflection." Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both stared at her in shock, Sweetie with surprise and Scootaloo in relief. "T-this is Spike?" Sweetie asked in shock. "So...no demons?" Scootaloo asked worriedly. Spike turned to Luna. "Do demons taste good?" he asked. "If you encounter one, feel free to take a bite and find out," Luna offered. "If they try to hurt anyone I care about, I'll do just that," Spike replied firmly. He then glanced down at the young fillies. "Sorry about teasing you like that, girls." They all stared up at him in awe. "Is...is that really you, Spike?" Apple Bloom asked. Spike nodded. "It is. I just...grew up a bit." "How'd you get so big?" Sweetie Belle asked. "By eating healthy," he replied. At a judgmental cough from Twilight, he bristled. "What? You've been listening! Phazon is healthy for dragons!" "How'd you get those wings?" Scootaloo breathed in amazement...and a dash of envy as her own small wings buzzed. Spike smiled as he stretched them. "They came in as I grew," he replied. Seeing the way Scootaloo's eyes locked onto them, he grinned. "Would you three like a ride?" All three fillies gasped happily. They then leapt into the air, high hoofing and shouting, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DRAGON RIDERS, WOOF!" "Excuse me?" Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all demanded as Pinkie giggled loudly. "I mean, Yay?" all three Crusaders corrected simultaneously. Spike shook his head ruefully. "Come on you three," he said, turning his back and spreading his wings. "Hop on." Grinning widely, all three fillies clambered onto him, each of them grabbing a back spine. "But...story!" Pinkie whined. "I can tell you more while they're flying," Samus explained. "Nothing really big happened for a while. Just a few more power ups..." As Samus continued to speak, Spike raced outside and leapt into the air, flapping strongly past the clouds. "Yah-hooooooo!" Scootaloo shouted eagerly, buzzing her wings as she stretched to catch as much air as she could. "This is amazing!" Apple Bloom cried out, glancing all around at how the land looked from so high up. "Stop the ride! I wanna get off!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out as she hid behind the ridge she'd grabbed hold of. Chuckling, Spike leveled out to a gentler flight. "Better, Sweetie?" he asked. Sweetie slowly uncurled herself. "Well...I suppose..." She began to relax. Then she made the mistake of looking down. She promptly hid underneath Apple Bloom. Scootaloo glanced down eagerly. "Wish I could fly this high..." she breathed enviously. "We could try," Spike offered. "What do you mean?" Scootaloo demanded, both other fillies turning to look at him. "We're high enough up," Spike explained. "If I were to throw you forward to give you enough impetus for flight, I could easily get under you if you started to drop without even straining. Want to give it a try?" Grinning eagerly, Scootaloo scrambled into Spike's clawed hand, despite Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's worried looks. "Let's go for it!" she shouted eagerly. Grinning, Spike pulled back his hand and threw her forward, going into a slight dive to build up enough speed to keep up with her, staying just a little below and behind her. Scootaloo buzzed her wings as fast as she could, but despite her best efforts she started to drop. She struggled, angling herself just as Rainbow had showed her, keeping her body as horizontal as possible for best aerodynamics, her forelegs stretched out before her with her hind legs pointing straight out behind. Regardless, she began losing altitude rapidly. Spike activated the scan function of his visor, locking onto Scootaloo as rapid streams of data raced across the screen. A few images of vectors appeared. "Scoot!" Spike called out. "Pull your forelegs to your chest! Lift your head up, and swing your hind legs forward into a landing position. Now!" While the words of advice seemed counter intuitive to everything she'd been taught, the tone brooked no opposition. Scootaloo immediately altered her position until she was nearly vertical, just about in the position she stood on her scooter at rest in. Much to her surprise, her descent slowed rapidly until her flight leveled out. Her forward momentum also decreased rapidly, but she was maintaining altitude. She stared as a cloud nearby passed to one side of her, her altitude remaining constant without straining against her body as she flew past it. "I...I'm flying?" she squeaked out, shocked. "H-how?" Spike flew up besides her as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started cheering. Holding up his armored claw, he activated a holo-projector in his gauntlet. It showed a pegasus flapping her wings normally, lines of force coming back and downward from her wings. "When a pegasus flaps their wings normally, the force generated goes down and behind them, providing lift." Another image appeared, this time of Scootaloo flapping her wings while horizontal. However, the line of fore from her wings went back and up. "This is where the force of your wing flaps was going, which is why flapping your wings gives you so much thrust on your scooter. "Now, the options there for you and flying were either retraining you to angle the force differently, meaning you wouldn't be able to ride your scooter anymore...or..." The holographic image of Scootaloo rotated until it was in the same position Scootaloo was in now. The line of force rotated with the image until it was pointed back and down. "Reorient," Spike finished simply. Scootaloo gasped. "You mean...all I needed to fly was...point my wings differently?" Spike nodded. "Your wing thrust is about 75 degrees off from where it's supposed to be, due to you flapping your wings differently than most pegasi. It's just how your wings are built." He grinned widely. "Reorienting, however, your wings are already more than powerful enough for you to fly. You just need to learn the right angles. Once they know the right question to answer there, Twilight and Rainbow should easily be able to figure it all out. You won't be as fast in the air as you are on the ground, but you'll be more than powerful enough to do all sorts of stunts if you're careful." As Scootaloo began squealing happily, Sweetie Belle turned to Spike. "How'd you figure it out so quickly?" she asked. Grinning, he tapped his visor. "The scanners here were able to analyze the directions of force that were operating regarding Scootaloo's flight," he explained. "After that, it was just basic visualization and simple mathematics." "I gotta go show Rainbow!" Scootaloo shouted eagerly, lowering her head to reangle herself for a dive. "Hang on there!" Spike shouted out, diving after her. As she approached the ground, however, Scootaloo easily swung back to the right angle for level flight as she buzzed forward. "Rainbow!" she called as she buzzed through the Crystal Tree Library Castle, nearly clipping Rainbow on the head with her hind hooves. "Rainbow, look! I'm flying! I'm flying!"