Chapter 4 Flight Lessons
Spot cracked his eyes open, the feeling of a hoof around his waist starting to come back to him. He lay motionless until Twilight snored from behind him. “When did you snore?” He said, then realized that it hadn’t been Twilight. In the middle of the ceiling there was a sag and the sharp snore came again.
Slowly, Spot lifted Twilight’s hoof off him. She just rolled over and mumbled something about Smarty Pants or whatever. She’d always been a heavy sleeper.
Spot stretched, cracking his wings and arms in the most satisfying way before falling back onto all fours. Across from him, laying haphazardly on the floor, was a plastic container with his name written on a paper that had been taped to the lid. More curious than excited, he made his way to the box; feeling the cloud sag under his weight he remembered the snoring squatter on the roof.
Twilight’s here, so everything’s fine, he thought.
Spot sat next to the box, it’s hinges like little hooks keeping the lid in place, and opened it with a pop.
Colorful, bright Mogos, hundreds of them.
Mogos were building blocks that fuel a child’s imagination. Each and every Mogo started out as a simple, colorful brick, and if a filly or colt thought of a material, be it brick, stone, or hay, the brick will turn into that material the moment it sticks to another Mogo. Magic allowed any pony, young and old with an imagination to create something spectacular. Towns, lifesize castles even exact replicas of ponies themselves have been made.
Spot’s heart skipped a beat. Everyday after school he'd headed over to Cloudy’s work where these specific Mogos always were. Whenever he didn’t have to help a child pass through some tough time, or Cloudy didn’t want him listening in on her meetings for “learning” purposes”, he’d sit in the front room building small castles or reading his favorite books.
He remembered something and moved to the counter. Underneath was a cabinet. “Please be there, please be there,” opening the cloud doors, he gave a sigh of relief before a bubble of excitement formed in his chest. The copy of Red Diamond, Cloudy read to him was still there, but more importantly, his first edition of the entire series of Daring Do books, minus the first one (no one could find that) was situated next to it.
The thought of waking Twilight up and showing her his collection was almost too good to resist, but his mind came up with something even better. Moving back, he poured out the Mogos. He would make something to show off his amazing mind.
He would build the best castle ever.
Methodically he separated the blocks by type. The green baseplate went in the center, bricks of varying size and color went to one corner while the Mogo ponies, tiles and studs went back into the box for later.
Laying the brick work for his castle, he imagined the walls to be sandstone. Spot didn't notice the snoring disappear along with the sag in the roof. Memories of his mother’s office, the cool kids he played with, his mother’s praise at his art, all came rushing back to him. By the time he'd finished his smile was stuck to him like the bricks to the baseplate.
The castle was done, but it was bland and boring, a simple sandstone tower. It needed decorations and ponies to bring it to life. Not bothering to be quiet, he riffled through the extra parts until he found a blank Mogo pony. Closing his eyes he focused on an image in his mind and, with a flash the pony erupted in blue magical fire. When the fire dissipated, a tall black pegasus stallion with red dots in the middle of his wings, a sword in his mouth and a spiky red mane that’d need magical intervention in the real world stood motionless before him. He imagined up some red knight’s armor and put the hero of the story, wing blades extended, in place. A big purple dragon with an orange underbelly and purple flames, a pink unicorn princess complete with flowing blue dress later, followed by some burning trees, burning flags, add a whole lot of screaming towns ponies and you had the ending of Red Diamond.
Spot took a step back, not noticing the floor door opening, and marveled at his work. He posed like his knight, ready to face the dreadful dragon, to protect his princess, when someone stepped beside him.
“Aw, Mom, I wanted to…” Spot’s words were cut short when a hoof plugged his mouth.
“Quiet, Squirt.” Spot’s eyes widened when he saw Rainbow Dash stand over him. “I wasn’t expecting Twilight to be here.” She released her hoof and fell to the floor, admiring Spot’s work. “You know, this is pretty awesome, kid. I like the dragon. Does he eat the knight?”
He blinked, unable to figure out where Rainbow came from. Then her words hit him “No!” Spot shouted, “the knight kills the dragon, then becomes part of the royal family and marries the princess. They live happily ever after!” He seethed, as if the remark had been a personal attack.
Rainbow did a quick turnabout to see Spot’s loud words had waken Twilight.
Twilight rubbed her eyes, then blinked, “Rainbow, why are you here?”
Groaning, Rainbow gave Spot, who wore a devious smirk, a glare. “I wanted to surprise Spot. You know, put my best hoof forward with him.”
“Oh, well, that’s fine,” Twilight sounded normal, no magical laser beams like Spot wanted, “I’d like to get some food before I hand Spot to…” she trailed off, her eyes finally reaching the castle. “Woah,” she got up, stretched much like Spot had earlier, and moved to her son’s side. “Did you make this Spot?”
“Yep!” Spot chirped, “I wanted to wake you but Rainbow came and ruined the surprise.”
“That’s fine,” Twilight waved a hoof at Rainbow, “I’m proud either way. I just have two questions?”
“What?”
Twilight leaned in close, a wicked smile forming on her lips, “I haven’t had my coffee yet, but is the knight you and the princess Chrysanthemum?” She giggled as a blush grew on Spot’s cheeks.
“I never thought of it that way, Mom. It was always just a knight protecting a princess from the evil dragon.”
“Yeah Yeah Yeah, the knight kills the dragon,” Rainbow cut in, literally getting between Twilight and Spot, “Let’s get some food! I went to the Sun Shack and got me and my godson each a stack of pancakes. There’s blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, whipped cream, every kind of syrup under the sun and,” she leaned close to Spot, “Chocolate chips! These are amazing, I mean, I had one at three in the morning, just before picking up the pancakes really and, oh my Celestia, I think I know how Pinkie Pie gets her energy!"
“Thanks, Rainbow” Spot said. He readied his wings. If Twilight wasn’t mad at Rainbow, then there was no reason for him to be either. He flapped as a pilot might check the controls of the plane, making sure everything was there and in line. “I think I can fly to your place,” suddenly Spot’s eyes widened, “Mom, look! My collection of first edition Daring Do books is here!”
Spot rushed to the cloud cabinet, pulling it open before proudly displaying the spines of each book. Rainbow said nothing.
“Funny,” Twilight said, touching the felt spines of each book, “I remember that being empty last night. And where did the Mogos come from?” She eyed Rainbow, who gave a childish snicker. “Rainbow?”
“So as Spot’s godmother,” Rainbow started, giddy clear in her voice, “I was given all the stuff from Cloudy’s office. The Mogos, the books, and I thought, hey, Spot’s living with me for a week. I know he’s in his old home right now. Why not bring the stuff to him?” Rainbow buffed her wing as if posing for some award.
“You came into Spot’s home,” Twilight said, glaring at Rainbow, “in the middle of the night to plant books and Mogos?”
“That’s kinda creepy Rainbow,” Spot said as he opened the floor door. He expected to see the ground below, and gave a soft shriek when he saw more cloud, “Where did the ground go!!”
Twilight looked at Rainbow.
“Alright, stop looking at me like that Twilight. All I did was move the cloud box on top of my house,” again, she stood as if readying herself to receive an award, “I just thought the little squirt deserved a bedroom, and what better bedroom than his old home?”
“So on top of breaking and entering,” Twilight started in a low tone, “you kidnapped the two of us? Is that what I’m to understand Rainbow Dash?”
“I really don’t know how to feel about that Rainbow,” Spot said sitting on his haunches.
“What! I said I was going to put my best hoof forward and I did! I woke up in the middle of the night, did work in the freezing cold to make sure Spot had a pleasant morning as well as a new bedroom in my house! Why am I suddenly the bad guy?”
“Because it’s…” Twilight stopped and groaned, “It’s too early in the morning for this stuff. Forget it, let’s just get some food.”
Spot floated down the passageway to Rainbow's adjoining home, Twilight was about to follow when a hoof blocked her way. “And where do you think you’re going Twilight?”
“To have breakfast with my son. You stole us so the least you can do is feed us.” Twilight pushed the hoof away.
“I’m sorry, but right now he’s my son so you can go get food somewhere else.” Rainbow got right back in Twilight’s way, going as far as to push the princess back a few paces. “Go on, shoo.”
“Yeah, no.” This time, Twilight used her magic and levitated Rainbow out of her way.
“I’m good with kids!” Rainbow spat, actually getting spit on Twilight’s face.
“I’m not leaving,” Twilight hissed. “If you can prove that you’re capable of handling him, then I might consider it.”
Breakfast was held in Rainbow's kitchen where an awkward silence hung over the room like fog. Spot’s few attempts to start a conversation were met with 'eat your food’. Despite his concern after being virtually kidnapped, Spot had actually looked forward to hanging out with Rainbow, wondering what she would do to try and win him over, but now, he just didn’t know.
Rainbow gave Twilight a cup of coffee, but nothing else. She kept glaring at her, especially after Spot ended up giving Twilight a few of his pancakes. Rainbow knew she couldn’t do anything about. No matter how much she wanted to.
Food eaten, the three made their way outside to the edge of Rainbow’s home. Looking up, Spot noticed that his house had been awkwardly attached to what looked like a straw of clouds. It was like seeing a virus attach itself to Rainbow’s house.
“Alright,” Rainbow shouted, “let’s get you in the air!” All the worry and anger left her voice and for the first time, Rainbow seemed to be getting back to her old self.
Spot lifted off, as well as Twilight, and headed up to meet Rainbow, who had moved to what looked to be a few stray clouds about two hundred meters above where they once were.
“Don’t you think this is too high, Rainbow?” Twilight said as she and Spot each landed on one of the clouds. They were well above the sky line. To the point where breathing got rather difficult.
The clouds were a set of three, and now looked to be put there on purpose. Spot realized that they were platforms much like diving boards. Rainbow stood on one of the three while Twilight and Spot stood on the others.
Wordlessly Rainbow leapt off and went into a swan dive. Spot watched, shaking ever so slightly, as the rainbow mare performed turns that were so tight he wandered if she got whiplash.
After she did a few loops, Rainbow looked as if she were falling sideways before she landed on a cloud that looked like a white dot from the mile high platforms, and shot back up leaving her trademarked rainbow trail behind. Once more she landed on the platform, and buffed her hoof, waiting for her praise. Spot gave it with a couple hoots and hollers before falling into a stunned silence.
“You doubt my skills anymore, kid?” Rainbow said, her ego through the roof.
“No!” Spot shouted, bouncing up and down.
Twilight stood, worried.
Rainbow showed Spot the proper way to do a loop, how to angle his body to perform a corkscrew and had him work on tightening his turns, all of which he went rather slow for. Twilight watched, sweat dripping down her brow as Rainbow went into momentum, showing how a loop could fall apart at slow speeds. She talked in greater detail than either expected, and Twilight realized that Rainbow was in the groove of things.
Then, as Spot’s excitement was at an all time high and he started speaking more openly to the other pegasus, Rainbow turned the subject to instinct.
“Your wings know when you’re in danger, Spot,” Rainbow said as she guided him back down to the cloud. Spot gave Twilight some affection, much to Rainbow’s dislike, before moving back to his new teacher. “I’ve seen my other student and number one fan, Scootaloo falling out of the sky and watched her wings open automatically. I’ve felt Instinct kick in when I fell out of the sky a few months ago. I didn’t understand it at the time and crashed, breaking a few bones in my wing, but now I do, and I want to teach you the signs so you can get out of danger.”
“How are you going to do that?” Spot said. He wished he’d brought a notebook. “Is it going to be dangerous?”
“Well,” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head, “it kind of has to be, but trust me when I say it’s important. I could have avoided a lot of hospital bills if I learned what you’re about to. And don’t worry about the danger, I’m right here, the fastest flyer in equestria. I’ll catch you.”
“I don’t like this, Rainbow,” Twilight shouted. “Spot’s still a weak flyer, and even if you could catch him in a free fall, the risk is too high. I think this is something he should learn on his own.”
Spot turned, sudden worry visible on his face. “If Twilight thinks it’s too dangerous, then I do to.” he stomped his hoof in the cloud, unable to shake the feeling of just how high he was. The houses below looked like ant hills!
Rainbow was persistent. “Would both of you cool your jets. I haven't even explained what you’d do. I did this with Scootaloo and every other kid I taught. A few of them went into freefall and I caught them like it was nothing. Trust me, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.”
Twilight flew over to Spot. She put a hoof on his back, noticing him shake, “Spot, if you’re scared, I can –”
“He’s going to be fine!” Dash hissed, “All he’ll be doing is falling into clouds! A hundred feet up, just falling into these clouds! And you know what, Twilight? I’ll be right next to him. If the clouds can’t hold him, I’ll catch him! If he misses, I’ll catch him!"
Spot’s fears abated a little. Dash seemed so confident that he could look up again, yet a single sting of doubt, that ever present ‘what if’ question rattled through his brain like beans in a can. “I’ll do it, but Mom,” he said before looking at Twilight, “could you be below me? Just in case?”
Rainbow felt a similar sting, but instead of doubt, it was rage, “I’m your mother, Spot.”
Twilight got between the two, “Rainbow, you’re my friend, and I guess hearing you say you want to take away my son has put me on edge, but all I want to do is ensure Spot’s safety.” She turned to Spot, “I don’t care who you call mother, Spot. If it’s Rainbow that’s fine; if it’s me, I’m all for it.” Looking back at Rainbow, she put on what Spot called her ‘lecture face’, “Rainbow, I’ll let you do your instinct training, but be warned, if I have to catch Spot, you will concede your wishes to become his mother.
“The first rule is safety!" Twilight got close and spoke in a whisper, “don’t let him fall.” With that she gave Spot a hug and took her cloud to the base of Rainbow’s cloud home.
When Twilight was out of earshot, Rainbow took to the skies with Spot quick to follow. “You will call me Mom, Spot,” she said, “you are my son, no one else's, got it.”
“Okay, Mom,” Spot said as they reached a hundred feet above the two clouds.
“Listen up, Squirt,” Rainbow said, putting a hoof around Spot’s back, “I’m going to show you what you need to do. It’s really simple, just fall in a way that you’ll land on the clouds. Watch.”
Rainbow closed her wings, and her eyes. She went limp, letting gravity take her in its grasp. The mare fell with grace, and Spot could see her wings twitching. Rainbow landed without a sound and flew off as if an alarm went off in her head the moment she hit the cloud. One second later, she was back and the cloud was twenty feet away.
“You’re new so I don’t want you falling too far,” Rainbow gave a glance at Twilight below. The other mare watched with an unwavering glare, “Trust me. I'll catch you. Just close your eyes and feel the signals your body makes. You should notice your wings twitching. Those are your instincts kicking in.”
Spot nodded. He aligned himself over the cloud, then, just as Rainbow had moments earlier, went limp. Immediately his wings twitched and fear kept his eyes open, but he resisted like Rainbow did and landed safely on the cloud.
“That’s the way!” In the blink of an eye. Rainbow was at Spot’s side cheering him on. “You felt it? Your wings I mean. They wanted to open, right?”
“Yeah, and,” Spot rubbed the back of his neck, as if nervous, “If you weren’t here I would have given into them.” he gave Rainbow a hug, not noticing her tense up. “Thanks, Mom”
Rainbow had been hugged plenty of times before. Scootaloo, her number one fan and favorite pupil for example, gave her a hug every time she did something neat. But this, this hug from Spot, her son, felt completely different. Suddenly Rainbow wanted to stop the training, call it a day and get some lunch even though it had only been half an hour since breakfast ended.
She couldn’t though. Rainbow had to impress Spot if she wanted to win him over. Pushing Spot away, she looked him in the eye. “Let’s double the distance. After a few runs of that I’ll teach you what to do when you feel those twitches.”
Spot nodded and the two went at it for another half an hour.
Twilight watched, nervous. What if’s ran through her head like rats through a maze. Her legs twitched and it took everything she had not to bite her hoof. Part of her, most of her actually, wanted Spot to fall. To end this whole charade and take her son home.
But what it she missed?
“It’s simple Twilight, just line up the trajectories and bam!! He’s safely in your arms. Nothing more to it." She nervously chuckled, “nothing more to it” Still, the thought of missing persisted, a termite eating away at the wood of her brain.
Up above, Rainbow motioned to the cloud a hundred feet away. “Now watch me.”
Again, she fell, but this time face first. Moments before she hit the cloud, her wings popped open and she flew back up. When she looked Spot in the eye, she said with an emotion she wasn’t all that familiar with. Concern. “You know what to look for with your instincts, now is the time to act upon them. When you can open your wings just before hitting the cloud like I did, we can go into town. I want to show you some of the best places to take naps,” she leaned in close, “Twilight and the others think I just choose a random cloud, no, there’s a process.”
“Cool!” Spot shouted, pumping his hoof in the air like his favorite hoofball team just scored a homerun. “All this training is making me tired anyway.”
“Alright, earn that nap!"
Spot nodded before diving down.
One thing he didn’t realize though, was that going down is completely different from going up. Gravity pulled him like he was attached to a rope, speeding him up far faster than he wanted, and seeing all those ant sized ponies race towards him was more then enough to make his stomach do flips.
Suddenly the ground changed, and Spot didn’t know whether it was his imagination, but the bright happy homes he’d gotten so used to disappeared. He was left with a cold, dark gorge.
He popped his wings open and stopped before the ten foot mark.
“What was that?” Rainbow said, “You weren’t even close!”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted from below.
Rainbow groaned, not noticing how Spot shook. “I almost forgot you were there Egghead.” She saw Twilight open her mouth for what could only be another lecture about safety. Celestia, what’s there to worry about when you have the best and safest couch around? “I told you, Twilight. I’ll catch him! Nothing’s wrong! He’s just never looked down before! A simple fear of heights, that’s it!”
“Don’t you ignore me, Rainbow!” Twilight screamed, straining her throat, “Do you even know what he’s been through?”
That ticked Rainbow off. She briefly remembered waking up on a cold december morning with something missing. Turning a harsh glare Twilight’s way, Rainbow shouted right back. “Are you KIDDING me! Do I know what he’s been through? Do I know what’ he’s been through!! Did you really just ask me that!!” A flash in her mind, like lightning, and the thought occurred to her. She never told them.
“Yes! And I expect an answer!”
Spot had calmed down just in time to see the Rainbow Dash, wilt. He’d never seen her rub her hooves and fly completely still. The way her eyes fidgeted was not normal, and he was about to say something when she slowly floated towards Twilight.
Rainbow’s mind was ablaze. She hadn’t told them why she went to therapy in the first place. How was Twilight supposed to know what she’d been through if she hadn’t bucking told her? “Look,” she tried to steel her nerves, tensing her body as if for a blow. She refused to rub the back of her neck. She wasn’t scared, couldn’t be scared in front of Spot. How would that make her look? Like a pansy who no one would follow, that’s what. “I’ll tell you later, hopefully. The story’s just, a little personal to me and, well, you see. I do know what Spot’s been through. I’ll tell you later.” She flew back up before Twilight could properly respond.
Twilight couldn’t have responded in the first place. Like Spot, she’d never seen such a change in Rainbow. It caught her so off guard that she forgot to shout how that wasn’t what she wanted to say.
“Alright, Alright, everything’s going to be fine.“ One of Rainbow’s best defense mechanisms was to just distance herself from a troublesome situation, and this was no different. She put on the familiar mask of Couch. “I know you’re scared. The ponies down there really do look small and we are really high up right now.” She put a hoof around Spot’s neck, “But I want to tell you that you aren’t alone. Everyone, even myself, goes through this dramatic change in view. In fact, the first few times I flew this high, I had to scream for my mother to get me because I was too scared.”
Spot’s eyes widened, “You were scared of heights? How did you get over it?”
“By taking it step by step. It took me about a year to completely get over it,” Rainbow paused as words spoken to her by the one she lost came out of her mouth. “You see that cloud?”
Spot nodded.
“Well, the average height for a two story building is twenty feet, and that cloud is only twenty feet away. Twenty is a lot less scary than a hundred bazillion, right?”
“Yeah, it does sound less scary.”
“Well it’s not!”
Spot turned, his nerves suddenly on fire. Wasn’t she supposed to help calm him down in this situation?
“At twenty feet you can still get hurt,” she flicked one of his wings, “and your instincts tell you that. What you’re going through is normal..” Rainbow pointed to the cloud twenty feet away. “Focus on where you’re going to land, be it ground or cloud, and keep it there. Take your mind off the height by figuring out a plan. What are you going to do when your reach your destination?”
“Open my wings and fly away?” Spot said, nervous instead of scared now.
“Exactly, just keep your eyes on the cloud and mind on when you’ll release your wings. It’ll take some time to get used to and it’ll still be scary, but that’s why I’m here.” Rainbow gave Spot a gentle thump on the chest. “You were able to fall backwards because of me, and that tends to be scarier than forward. You can’t see where you’re going then.”
“Okay, I think I can do this.” Spot gave Rainbow another hug. Rainbow again flinched at how foreign it felt. “Thanks Mom.” He turned and raced downwards.
Pegasi ponies were a proud race. And that’s easy to see with how they are the sole race that can physically interact with clouds. They make clouds, make snow clouds, rain clouds, lightning, even rainbows. Pegasi are proud of themselves and how they deliver life giving rain to a dry farm, make the snow that turns into snow ponies and snow angels. Pegasi are proud of their heritage and who they are, but if there was one thing they weren’t proud of, it would be their inability to control the wind.
Wind just comes with the storms as if drawn by a magnet. It is as elusive as the wild clouds in the everfree, yet, when Spot focused on the cloud and Rainbow on him, neither thought about it. Rainbow did know wind tended to be stronger the higher up you go, but when she planned for this height, she did it with Spot’s fear of heights in mind, not the wind.
Spot sped towards the cloud, feeling that ever present twitch in his wings, counting down the seconds until he’d open them.
“3”
“2”
Before he could get to one, a strong gust of wind blew from the north. It made Twilight brace and Rainbow briefly stall. But, even worse, it pushed the cloud.
Spot’s sight went from the white puffy cloud, to the harrowing town. His insides churned like butter and he lost control.
That’s when it happened.
Bright sunlight turned to dark moonlight. The colorful ground changed to the menacing rock of Ghastly Gorge, and as Spot spun in circles, fear exploding in him, he saw a flicker of those green eyes widening.
Open your wings!
The command that had saved his life a year and a half ago came, and Spot obeyed it.
He opened his wings, not realizing that to perform a successful reorientation in wind, his wings needed to be like knifes, using the wind to his advantage.
His wings were flat against the wind, and he was blown to the left.
Rainbow heard the scream. She knew Spot was spinning out of control.
Yet she didn’t move.
Inside, she saw Spot replaced with herself. Then a bold pink and blue blur race after her. “Mom,” Rainbow said, unable to hear the desperate shouts from Twilight below.
Everything changed. Rainbow was at one of those high canterlot parties wearing nothing. Her pink and blue mother stood proud, wearing her Wonderbolt costume for the last time in her life. “I’m quitting the Wonderbolts to raise my daughter.”
“No,” Rainbow said, unable to tell if she was talking to herself, or her mother. “Don’t quit. It was your dream to be a Wonderbolt.”
A sharp pain burned her right cheek and everything shattered. Reality came rushing back, clouds, sky, Rainbow floundered in the air, feeling her heart move into her throat for a second before she got herself under control and flapped normally.
“What the buck is wrong with you, Rainbow!” Twilight screamed. Rainbow looked up to see Twilight fly just above her. Just like at Froggy Bottom Bog, she had lost it and her mane was set a blaze, but that wasn’t what kept Rainbow from speaking. It was the murder in her eyes. “You say you’ll catch him if he falls. Oh don’t worry, Twilight, I understand what he’s been through,” Twilight’s words were laced with sarcasm like poison in a drink. “If you did then you’d know that Spot watched his mother die while he fell face first down Ghastly Gorge! You’re a bucking moron! That's exactly what you made him do! I will never trust you with my son again!” She turned and flew downward just as Spot’s uncontrollable sobs reached Rainbow’s ears. She saw him desperate for solace. Desperate for evidence that he was in fact, alive. “If you ever come near him again, I’ll take you to court.”