The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 3 -- Follow the Equestrium

by shysage

Chapter 9, Second Summer, Pegasus Fun

This second Summer was mostly devoted to two activities. When it wasn't stinking hot, Shysage's family was flying together. When it was stinking hot, the girls played in the river while Shysage and his Mare hugged in the shade.

Shysage's Mare had a pretty good plan how she wanted the flying to go this Summer, and she and her Stallion talked about it a lot. Shysage deferred to his Mare on this, she clearly knew better.

Summer's main goal was to be able to visit some places, here in the past, that had some significance to Summer and Shysage in Equestria Present, and Shysage thought that was a good idea. This part they would not tell the girls about; there was just no need. All of these places would be fun to visit anyway.

Still, the first week or so, the family would just fly around their big meadow, and get their strength back up; they would need it.

The family dove right into this. The first three days they just flew to the meadow, played all day in the air, ate some Oats from around the perimeter of the meadow, then flew back to the house, drank some water, and usually bathed in the river. Flying was a good work-out.

By then everypony was beat, and they went inside and slept.

Those first few days, Shysage split things up like their first day at the end of Spring. Cel and Lu would fly together around the outer diameter of the meadow, and Shysage and Summer would fly together lazily, next to each other, near the middle.

It was clear however, that everypony was ready for Summer's next step.

---

One of the most important 'emergency' skills Summer knew her Pegasus girls needed to learn, was the ability to 'glide'. Summer was adamant that the girls had to learn this, and Shysage agreed. If they were ever in a situation where they became winded, and couldn't flap their wings, gliding could save their lives.

On their next trip to the meadow, they all just landed in the center.

Summer first discussed the mechanics of gliding with the girls. The important thing was to hold their wings out straight, and then adjust the angle of their wings as well as the angle of their body so they did not lose altitude quickly.

Before doing anything, Summer had the girls hold their wings out straight to the side, and she helped them see what control they had like this. She also showed them the approximate position their wings needed to be in, to glide.

The optimum angle was probably about 20 degrees above 'straight', but Summer could only show the girls that. They would just have to get a feel for this themselves.

While learning this skill, Summer stressed that if they were losing altitude too fast, all they had to do was start flapping their wings again, and they would stop dropping down. In other words, starting a glide did not prevent again flapping their wings.

But if they were dropping too fast, a glide would probably be the only way to pull up in time.

Summer also told the girls that, the more a pony weighed, the more difficult it was to get everything right for gliding. Cel would have a more difficult time than Lu because Cel was a bigger pony.

Summer knew that the girls needed to be comfortable with all of this.

Summer's exercise for this was simple. She led them all in a slow, wide spiral up to maybe 100 feet, then had them glide back down, following the same spiral flight path.

It took both girls maybe 10 seconds to get everything right for the glide down the first time, but the family was soon gliding back down towards the ground, in the same large spiral.

Still maybe 30 feet above the ground, Summer had everypony start flapping again.

This first time, at the bottom of the glide, Cel had issues starting to flap her wings again, and just landed to avoid crashing.

Summer had the rest land too.

Summer explained to Cel that she had done the right thing. Crashing can seriously injure a Pegasus, and sometimes can cause a pony to never again be able to fly... ...or worse... They had to be very careful.

When Cel was ready, they were all off, and did the same exercise again. Spiral up to 100 feet, glide back down to 30 maybe.

At the bottom, Lu had problems this time, and just landed, even though Cel did ok. Still, Summer had everypony land anyway.

This was a family activity.

The next time they did the same thing, everypony did fine.

It was boring and monotonous, but they did that same exercise most of the rest of the day, maybe fifty more times.

Summer explained that these skills needed to be 'second nature', i.e. something they did without having to think much. That's the only way it would help them in an emergency.

For the last hour or two, they just all flew around and had fun before it was time to head home.

The next day they did it higher, maybe around 200 feet. Everypony did fine, so they just did that the rest of the day. Nopony complained. And Summer knew they shouldn't rush this step.

The next day was 300 feet approximately. Again, everypony did fine, they just couldn't do as many runs before the Sun headed down.

Summer was guaging their height by watching the level of the natural cloud bank off in the distance that would be Cloudsdale some day. That was Summer's main flying goal. The girls needed to be comfortable flying that high, maybe 1000 feet. Summer was not in a hurry.

Still, when they had worked up to 600 feet maybe, they would take a break and fly up the stepped mountain near the city that would one day be Canterlot.

The next few days, they had worked their way up to 500 feet, with Cel and Lu doing very well at gliding down, then transitioning back to flapping. They were Pegasus mares, after all.

---

For the following three days, it was too hot to fly. The family just stayed close to home. The girls played in the river. Summer and Shysage played with them some, but mostly hugged in the shade. They both enjoyed that.

The second day, in the afternoon, Summer was playing in the water with the girls, and then headed back to Shysage, who was laying on his side watching.

"I'm soaked..." Summer warned.

"Mare, I love you, it doesn't matter" Shysage replied quietly, smiling.

Shysage was soon hugging his wet mare.

"Mare, I have a confession though" Shysage started. "You look hot when you are wet. Did that make any sense to you?"

Summer blushed... Summer's blush was bright, you could usually see it through her coat even.

Still, Summer quickly replied "Yes Stallion, Rarity explained that to me in the Equestria Girls world once. And honey, coming from you that is an amazing compliment."

Summer also rarely said that word, only if she really meant it.

Summer paused here a minute, put both her front legs over Shysage's leg that was hugging her, and said softly "You are hot too, Stallion, I just wish my body would respond... It's like it's asleep or something..."

"Summer, I love you, asleep or not" Shysage said just as softly, and hugged her tightly.

The girls enjoyed the water the rest of that day, and the next day as well.

---

Their next flying day, Summer changed her plan a little, and decided to try to fly to the 'stepped mountain' that would one day be Canterlot.

The ponies' capital city was built below it for some reason, and it didn't look like it was that far away. Still, Summer knew that from a distance, looks could be deceiving.

From outside their home, they all flew quickly up to maybe 200 feet, then headed for the first level of the mountain.

Summer was a little concerned that the girls had to ascend to that level in the midst of a lot of trees, but they did fine, laughing as they dodged tree branches and such. They really hadn't talked about this.

At about 200 feet up, they flew slowly towards the first level of the 'stepped mountain'. Still, Summer kept checking with the girls to see how their energy was doing. The mountain wasn't very far after all.

On the way, Summer and Shysage were talking about how strange this mountain was. It looked very bazaar.

Summer began to remark about the train, and Shysage immediately saw it coming, and quickly interrupted, and said "I love you, Summer."

Cel (Sue) had a very good memory; they had covered this rule just the third day after they rescued the girls. Cel reminded dad that he just interrupted mom.

Shysage thought for a minute, then said "Cel, you are right. Summer, I apologize for interrupting you. What should I do, to show you I'm sorry for that?"

Summer didn't even think. She said softly "Just love me tonight, Stallion."

The girls just laughed... ...like that would ever NOT happen.

The first flat area was up at about 300 feet, and the family flew up to it and quickly landed. They just wandered around for a little while.

Once everypony was rested, they headed up to the next clearing, which was maybe 300 feet higher. It was a bit of a climb, but the girls did fine.

Nopony wanted to stop there, and everypony wanted to get to the top level, maybe 300 more feet up. They all did.

Once they landed at the top, Summer hugged the girls, and told them that they were both making amazing progress on their flying.

---

The clearing at the top level was quite large, with a lot of grass and some trees. Well, an entire city would one day be here, but nopony said that.

Shysage sternly warned the girls to stay completely away from the edge. In addition, they suspected little danger here, but still, everypony HAD to stay together.

Plus, everypony quickly decided they would spend the night here. It was not cold at all, and this would be a fun spot to relax.

Still, Summer was strangely quiet. This flat spot on the top of the strange mountain held a lot of memories for both of them.

Shysage and Summer both sat where the approximate center of the main commons outside the audience hall would be. Shysage hugged his Mare, who was soon weeping softly. He just held her.

Summer told Shysage a number of times she loved him.

He just hugged her back, and was soon weeping himself.

After half an hour, Summer was mostly back to her normal self, and she and Shysage faced each other, and just hugged a few minutes, and rubbed noses.

The girls were maybe halfway between them and the cliff edge of the clearing to the North just staring calmly off into the distance beyond the edge. The view really was breathtaking.

Summer and Shysage headed to the girls, and sat next to them.

"Next time we play 'Queen for a day', my kingdom is gonna be right here" Cel said. Lu quickly agreed.

Summer and Shysage just looked at each other.

As the Sun headed for the horizon, everypony ate for a while. They needed to find some water.

The artificial ponds that Canterlot would have, were not there yet, so they headed to the back of the clearing.

They found a cave, which Summer knew would one day be the train tunnel. Next to that cave was a small pond.

Everypony drank their fill, but both Summer and Shysage knew this was the same pond Summer and Princess Twilight's girls drank from right before facing Sunset Shimmer. That next hour was one of the most scary of Summer's life.

Summer walked away quickly, and sat a distance off, and Shysage quickly sat next to her. She was weeping softly again. Her Stallion just hugged her.

After a while, Cel and Lu walked up.

Cel asked with a smile "Dad, are you going to love mom tonight?"

Shysage pulled Summer close and said "Of course, Cel."

Lu then asked hesitantly "...but you won't have a foal, right?"

Shysage and Summer both sighed at the same time.

Summer said "Lu, honey, come with me, we need to have a talk."

Shysage said "Cel, stay with me, please."

"I know, dad" Cel said quickly.

Summer and Lu walked back towards the cave, and Summer explained Pony Reproduction to Lu.

Shysage and Cel sat towards the middle of the clearing and just talked.

"Dad, I didn't put her up to that, just so you know" Cel said almost apologetically.

"Cel, it's ok. It is sort of a natural curiosity. It is just important to understand everything involved, and that's why mom took time with you and is now explaining things to Lu." Shysage said quietly.

Still Shysage wanted to avoid having to explain anything else, like why he wouldn't know how to start, since he was actually from a different world. That would just cause problems.

Shysage also knew that his Mare was having a difficult time here anyway, and so he was asking true friend to help her.

Shysage also realized that Summer and Lu were very close, and very similar, so he did not expect any problems overall.

It also hit Shysage that very moment, that Cel was actually talking to Shysage as a 'grown-up' now... This seemed like a rather abrupt change, but their girls were clearly growing up.

"Cel, I really love you, I hope you know that" Shysage said at one point.

Cel reached one of her front legs around dad's neck, hugged him, and said softly "I know dad, thanks."

Maybe an hour later, Lu and Shysage's Mare came back.

Summer was smiling at any rate...

...until Lu asked them both "Dad, why can't you and mom have a foal now? You both deserve this. You are both amazing."

Summer sat down right where she was, and started to cry immediately. Shysage walked over, sat next to her and hugged her close.

Shysage wasn't upset, and simply said softly "Girls, we will explain this some day. For now, we simply cannot enjoy each other the way we really want to. For us it is simply a matter of responsibility. We just can't. And please understand that this is very hard for both of us."

The girls immediately understood that this was why mom was crying, and they both hugged her. Summer said through her tears "Girls, I love you both so much..." They never really doubted that.

It would be night soon, and so everypony knew they needed to find a place to sleep.

Shysage led them all away from the edge, and towards the back of the clearing where the mountain headed up some more.

Shysage found a tree, and asked his Mare to sit there.

The girls found a tree maybe 50 feet away, with some intervening bushes, and asked if they could 'give mom and dad some privacy' for the night.

Shysage said that was fine, but he specifically did NOT want the girls wandering off or around in the dark. Here, that could be deadly. They promised they would not.

Summer was still weeping softly, and so Shysage asked her to lay down on her back, and he lay on his side, and put his head on her chest, then he looked into her beautiful eyes.

Summer grabbed his head with her front legs, and just held him close, and was soon calmed down, sighing contentedly.

Shysage worked on staying there all night. His Mare slept wonderfully, as Shysage gave her a wish she had voiced maybe 6 months ago. Shysage didn't sleep very well, but it didn't matter.

He loved her so... ...and he loved her that night.

---

The next morning, Summer and Shysage had enough of this strange mountain, but the girls wanted to stay until noon maybe, so they did.

Summer was not quite sure how to handle the trip back. Shysage suggested gliding, and Summer just said they would be very far up.

Shysage pointed out that they could see the huge tree that held their house, even from here.

Shysage also reminded her that the 'bunch of clouds' was this approximate height too.

Shysage said it was up to his Mare though.

Summer didn't want to take chances with the girls. To play it safe, they would glide down to the next clearing, and go from there.

At around the middle of the day, they did that. And from that middle clearing, they were able to glide most of the way to their house.

Watching the girls start their glide was amazing. They both just flared their wings wide, jumped off the edge, and laughed. Cel's wingspan looked huge, but she was a big pony.

Cel and Lu both were getting very good at gliding, and were able to adjust their wings and such, so that they glided almost to the city, then just flew home.

They spent that night in their house, and slept well.

---

The next day was a good flying day, and Summer again changed her plans.

They all ate a good breakfast, drank some, then rested maybe an hour.

Summer explained they were going to fly over the meadow, then head towards the cloud bank North-West of the meadow. It was about as high as the top level of the strange mountain, and would be a good workout.

Still, Summer stressed that should ANYPONY become winded on the way up, thy would ALL turn around and simply glide back to the meadow.

They were all quickly off, and Summer flew next to Lu so she could keep track of her energy.

Shysage stayed next to Summer, and Cel was next to him.

This required a little exertion for Shysage, but Cel could clearly do this twice. Shysage observed again that her wing-span was huge.

Summer was doing fine, and Lu was too.

The family was quickly up and over the cloudbank, over 1000 feet in the air.

Cel asked the obvious "Mom when are we going to turn around and glide back?"

Summer completely forgot about this. The girls didn't know yet that Pegasi could land on the cloud tops.

Rather than try to explain, and risk saying something wrong, Summer just landed.

Shysage led the girls in a small circle, and Summer called them down, one at a time.

The girls were totally amazed that nopony fell through the clouds.

Summer and Shysage both were sweating at the possibility that they might just disappear. This was clearly new, privileged information.

They didn't disappear.

Shysage sternly warned them to stay away from the edge again. He also indicated that they should not try to fly anymore until they glided back down. It was a long way back, and they would need their strength.

The family walked slowly together, some distance towards the center of the cloud bank, then just lay down on the cloud tops, and talked.

They watched the Sun go down, it was beautiful. They spent the night up on the clouds.

Pegasus family fun...

The next morning they lay on their bellies and talked a while more, then sat closely together for a family hug, along with a few tears. Then they all walked back over towards the edge, for the glide back down.

Still, Summer warned them they should jump and fly before they got right to the edge, and then trim for a glide past the edge of the clouds. The edge of a cloud was rather hard to determine after all, and surprises could disorient even a good flyer.

In maybe 30 minutes, they were back in their meadow, and had a good breakfast around the edge of the meadow.

Then they flew together back to the house, and spent the rest of the day playing in the river.

Early in the afternoon, Shysage wandered down the river a short distance, found a much deeper spot, and asked his Mare to join him there. Then he hugged her and asked her to stand up. They were both ponies. He didn't have anything on his mind, other than to see if they could do this.

They were standing in the water, on their hind legs, hugging, and rubbing noses. It was only the buoyancy of the water that enabled them to do this.

Cel saw them, looked away and said 'Mom, dad, not out here", then the girls started laughing.

Summer just sighed, then Shysage pulled them both over with a splash, and they headed back to the girls.

This was really a 'people' thing, but Shysage wouldn't say anything about that.

Anyway, the girls had made amazing progress with their flying. Shysage's Mare thought they still had two months of Summer left.

---

After relaxing at the house, and playing in the river for a few days, Summer took them back up to the cloud bank. They flew to the meadow, then up to the clouds like they did before.

They again spent the night on the clouds. The Moon was up that night, and it was amazing.

On the following day, Summer led them over to the edge near where Ponyville would one day be, and set them up for the glide down.

The "lay of the land' was the same, and they were quickly where town square would one day be.

Summer and Shysage said nothing about this.

Still, it was early in the day. And Summer knew they would need to find a place to spend the night.

It was very surreal to Summer and Shysage, but they wandered around 'Ponyville with no Ponyville' most of the day. They quickly found the area where Princess Twilight's tree-house, Summer's tree and the new Castle would be, but of course didn't say anything.

They did find something else there however, a few ponds. Ponds usually have Ducks, and Duck feathers can be used as quills for writing.

Shysage felt his three girls would have a serious problem with Shysage tackling a Duck, and pulling a few feathers out. They just wandered around the ponds, and found three good feathers at one point.

Shysage had Summer change him into a 'people', and the first thing he did was hug everypony as a 'people'. Shysage loved doing that... Well, he deeply loved his whole family.

Then he picked the feathers up, and tucked them down his pants on his left side. His plan was to change back to a pony, then when they were home, have Summer change him back to a 'people', and (hopefully) the feathers would still be there, and he would pull them out. Shysage decided that the feathers probably had to be touching his skin for this to work.

By the end of the day, the girls mentioned that they had enough of just a bunch of trees.

Summer and Shysage sighed together at this. Still, this made them both realize that what made Ponyville so amazing was their amazing and true friends that lived there.

They found a small cave about a mile east of where the town would be. They would sleep there.

Shysage asked Summer to change him into a 'people' inside the cave. Before it got too dark to see, Shysage picked up a sharp rock, and got to work.

Taking care not to bend the feathers, Shysage carefully scratched a large heart shape on the roof of the cave. Then he wrote inside the heart 'Summer + Shysage'. It took about 30 minutes to do this because the rock on the roof of the cave was pretty tough.

When he was done, he said softly "An enduring monument to my love for your mom."

The girls quickly understood what this meant.

Then, as a 'people', he hugged Summer, who was a pony, tightly, and went to kiss her. Summer backed away, changed into a 'people' herself, and then they kissed... ...for a while.

Their girls were used to this, and just found a comfy spot on the ground, and lay down.

Mom and dad were soon back to being ponies, and together, the family was quickly asleep.

The next morning, they ate Oats from a meadow East of town (no surprise). They found a creek and drank some too.

The girls wanted to just fly back to their house, so they did that, even though it took a while. Well, they flew to their big meadow first, played in the air a while, ate, then headed home.

On the way, Summer led them over the area where the Crystal Palace would be one day, but of course there was nothing there, and nothing was said.

It was fun trip, but they wouldn't do it again, because there was just nothing for the girls to do there.

And Shysage was right, when he got back to the house, and was a 'people', he pulled out the three feathers. Now, all they needed was ink and paper...

---

The next month and a half was simply a blur...

The family flew a lot, usually to either the top level of the strange mountain, or to the cloud bank.

Shysage would 'love his Mare', many more nights, by letting her sleep with his head on her chest. Summer loved this. The girls didn't seem to mind at all either.

At the end of the Summer, everypony was in very good flying shape. The girls were simply amazing flyers, and Shysage and his Mare had gotten back in shape too.

---

Summer was not a show-off by any means, well not any more. Still, both girls quickly realized she was a very skilled flyer.

On one of the glides back from one of the last few trips to the cloud bank, Cel asked mom while they glided "Mom what is the hardest thing you do while flying?"

Summer thought for a minute, then replied softly "I don't know if I should even tell you. It is very dangerous."

Cel was persistent "Please mom, you are a very good flyer, and I want to learn as much as possible."

Summer thought a minute, then said softly "You must never do this unless you can pull into gliding then flying no matter what.

"It involves turning into a steep dive, then flaring your wings out at the bottom to pull out of the dive when you need to. If you can't pull out, you will die when you hit the ground.

"If you need to dive down steeply, you just pull your wings in, leaving just a little out so you can steer. And again, this is very dangerous.

"I will show you at this height because it's safer.

"You all keep gliding, and just watch."

Summer flew up maybe 200 feet higher which wasn't very far, and flew ahead of them a bit too so they could watch. Then she pulled her wings in and turned down into dive just as she said. At about their level, she broke rapidly into a glide then used her wings to slow her descent down.

Summer was soon gliding again with them, but she was crying... "Shysage, that really hurt... And it was only from 200 feet..."

"Focus on landing first Mare, then we can hug..." Shysage said calmly.

Both girls knew immediately why their mom was hurting now... It was their fault... There was nothing they could do about it... The girls just started weeping...

As soon as they all landed, the girls both hugged their mom, and cried with her for a while. "We're so sorry mom..." they both said this a bunch...

After crying a while with everypony, Summer stopped both girls, then said softly, through her tears, "Precious girls, I love to fly... but you both are more important to me than flying. I would do it again if I needed to."

They both knew this was true...

They so loved their mom...