Applejack Through the Ages

by Paradise Oasis

A Change of Form, part two

This... this was incredible!

She couldn't believe it, but... she was, she was FLYING! Not riding in a balloon, not walking on clouds, but actually flying like a real Pegasus!

The blue Pegasus soared over Ponyland, doing loops and arcs as she dove through the clouds. In all of her years as an earth pony, she never felt this free, this unfettered by the troubles on the ground below! Everything on the ground far below, it all looked so tiny from up here! Oh, there would have been a time that earth pony pride would have prevented her from even considering something like this. But now... now, she could never imagine being trapped on the ground as an earth pony again!

"Hey Masquerade, look at me! I'm flying!" The mare with the candied apple cutie marks exclaimed, flying in circles around the other Pegasus. "I never thought I'd be able to do something like this EVER!"

She had not taken to flying so easily at first, however. The new Pegasus had been barely able to flap her wings when Masquerade had taken her up, but her new teacher had been patient with her. Several hours of flapping, gliding, and going over the basics of flight. It had taken several days on slow and precise practice in order to simply hover, or just to gently glide through the air. But over the course of the past week, she had been able to take on enough skill to at least fly for longer distances, with her twinkle-eyed companion keeping an her as she went along.

The hardest part, the red-maned mare realized, was thinking and moving in three dimensions instead of two. She now realized how differently Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy must have seen the world, perceiving movement in an extra dimension their unicorn and earth pony friends. She had always wondered what it was like for Pegasus and flutter ponies to fly (she had once briefly flown as a breezie, but she didn't even remember that), and now she new what her poor little grounded earth pony life had been missing all these years! At last, the new Pegasus felt complete and whole.

At last... she felt free.

"So, are you ready to try and take a flight over the rest of Ponyland now?" Masquerade asked, a small smirk on her face. "I think you're ready for a much bigger challenge."

"Lets do it!" The mare replied, a smug smile on her face. "I can't wait to give these wings a try!"

Masquerade led her onward, and the two soared out over the forested landscape. Flying up and away from Dream Valley, the two Pegasus headed up towards the clouds, soaring in the bright and warm sunlight. Ponyland was an odd place to look down upon now, the forests having grown back, and the open patches of landscape covered with the crumbling ruins of Equestria's great cities. It had now been a century since the end of the horrors of the Grogar wars, and the scars that covered the landscape were slowly healing up by the growth of green everywhere.

They flew over mountains and valleys, over peaks and precipices, the new Pegasus wobbling clumsily around after her jewel-eyed companion. Twilight Sparkle had once been this clumsy with her first series of flights, the new Pegasus remembered (or thought she remembered), but something majesty had done to her must have granted this new Pegasus with an instinct for doing something she had never done before.

"Wow, this is so incredible!" The blue pony with the pink mane exclaimed. "It's like I've been doing this my entire life!"

The two flew onward towards the northwest, until they came upon a large and open valley. At it's center, the two Pegasus could see a large, circular city, surrounded by scaffolding, clockwork cranes and pulleys. From a far-off distance, the blue Pegasus could see unicorns, Pegasus, and earth ponies busily at construction work at various levels.

"Hey, what's going on down there? Isn't that the city of Tall Tale?" The new Pegasus asked, curiously. " It looks like some kind of construction project, but why do all the buildings look like they were built in Cloudsdale?"

"Boy, you have been out of the loop for awhile, AJ!" Masquerade snorted in amusement. "That's the city of Fort Rainbow Dash, and they are doing some repairs, after an attack by-" The twinkle-eyed mare suddenly gasped. "Applejack, GET DOWN!"

"Wait, what are you-MMPH!"

The other mare pulled her down into a cloud bank, as a large phalanx of Pegasus stallions in greco-roman styled armor swooped by. Masquerade held a hoof over the new Pegasus's mouth, until the group of soldiers had moved on.

"Mask! What the heck was all that about?!" The blue mare sputtered, when the other Pegasus finally let her go. "It was just a group of ponies who were-"

"Fort Dash Centurions... I've never seen them widening their patrols out this far." Masquerade mumbled, watching the stallion phalanx fly away. "Sorry to scare you like that, AJ, but those Fort Dashian ponies are known to spear first, and ask questions later!"

"You're kidding me, right?" The blue mare asked in utter disgust. "Is that how bad it's gotten now? Pony community at war with pony community?"

"Not other ponies, but this heard lives right on Midnight castle's doorstep." Masquerade replied, as the two flew back towards Dream Valley. "Plus, they are not exactly trusting on these new races coming into Ponyland."

The two mares flapped their way back towards Dream Valley, with the new Pegasus managing to keep up with her more experienced companion. Looking back at her flight student, the twinkle-eyed mare grinned at her achievement.

"Good flying, Applejack!" Masquerade told her proudly, happy that her training had paid off. "You're soaring around like you've been doing this your whole life!"

"Thanks, Mask... but don't call me Applejack anymore." The mare replied, looking back at her cutie mark. "From now on, you can call me Sugar Apple instead!"

As the two mares flew back towards the castle, Sugar Apple realized she was now ready for her undercover mission.

Wow, those Fort Dash ponies sounded scary looking! So, then you went back to investigate the humans?

That's right, apple blossom. But I wasn't with the humans for too long, before I soon realized I hadn't seen the last of those Fort Rainbow Dash centurions...

Comments

[FleetlordAvatar]

But I wasn't with the humans for too long, before I soon realized I hadn't seen the last of those Fort Rainbow Dash centurions...

That doesnt sound good.

[StarzGecko]

So who won that war? Like how did it end? Who beat the big villain?

[Zubric]

6396762 I suppoect it one of the authors other stories (i have yet ot check out his page as of yet.)