Chapter 14: And Some Were Broken
Theo’s claws scraped uselessly at the edge of the Horizon, staring over the railing at the distant forest. “Out of curiosity, Sharp… what’s our altitude?”
“About… two thousand feet,” he answered. “We could do ten times that if we wanted to lose some of our ballast, but I thought you would be more comfortable learning down here.”
“More comfortable…” she muttered. Out in the empty air, little Emerald was flying back, somehow pushing a cloud along ahead of her. It was several times larger than she was, yet somehow it didn’t break apart as she got it closer to the ship. She kept going straight down, making a wide platform maybe a hundred meters away. Except it didn’t look so wide when seen from up here.
“There!” Emerald landed on the deck beside her, just a little out of breath. She was still wearing the polaroid camera around her neck, though its screen was dark. She was following Theo’s instructions about keeping it off while they weren’t using it. “The first thing to learn is the glide. Our wings are… similar, so it should be about the same. Watch me, okay?”
Theo whimpered, turning her back on the open sky. “You’re… really invested in this for some reason.”
“Not ‘some reason!’” She stuck her tongue out. “We’re flying on airships across the whole world at this rate! What happens when you get blown off the deck? As Sharp’s apprentice, I couldn’t let that happen.”
Maybe she’s not mad at me anymore. It was enough to keep her involved, even if she wasn’t sure yet about actually doing any of what this pony was suggesting.
While Sharp went below to fix lunch, the two of them practiced on the deck. Theo could barely control her wings—sometimes they moved when her legs did, as though her brain was still struggling to figure out how to control them. Other times she couldn’t get them to do anything, even with intense concentration. But they were hers. After a few hours, she could open and hold them in the way Emerald taught, spreading them to catch the wind.
Sharp brought the table to the top deck, waving them over. “Made sandwiches! Better enjoy these veggies while they’re still fresh!”
Theo hurried over, eager for any break from her rigorous taskmaster. “Thanks, Sharp. I didn’t think flying would be such hard work.”
“You’re not flying yet!” Emerald sat down beside her, adjusting her scarf a little tighter around her neck. “I was fast, and it took me… at least a few weeks to learn lots of flying. But the instincts are all in there.”
“I’ve heard that griffons just push their chicks right out of the nest,” Sharp said, conversationally. “Either they fly before they hit the ground, or…” He winced. “They hit the ground. So every griffon can fly.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Theo said, glowering. “Maybe that works for birds. But I’m not really a bird, remember? I’m a two-legged alien from another world. One who’s terrified of heights and not too happy about jumping off an airship.” She glanced briefly over the side, at the empty sky on either side. The ground seemed deceptively close when viewed horizontally, but she knew that wouldn’t be the case if she got closer to the railing.
“We didn’t even get close to the edge!” Emerald argued, sticking her tongue out again. “You’re worried about nothing! A glide is so easy you really can learn it on your first day. Just hold out your wings and… well, keep them out. Worst thing that can go wrong that way is you end up landing somewhere you didn’t expect. I guess you might glide into that lake down there. But you can swim, can’t you Summer?”
“I can swim.” She finished her sandwich in grumpy silence. “Is this really normal, Sharp? Every pony with wings in Equestria can fly?”
“Almost all of them. A few grew up in towns without many of their own kind, and they end up taking remedial classes later in life. Seems like most of them enjoy it, though. You’re born for the sky; you don’t usually have to be forced into it.”
“Not us,” she said. “Humans fly all the time, but only once we’re safe inside our airplanes. Closed metal shells, pressurized for your comfort with meal service available along the way. Cross the continent in a few hours, or the ocean in half a day. None of this… being in the air stuff.”
“Then it’s a learning experience for all of us,” Sharp said. “And when you do return to the Travelers, you can teach. Though… I’m guessing you don’t have wings back home. Or you wouldn’t be afraid of heights.”
“If I couldn’t see Emerald do it, I wouldn’t believe wings like this could fly. Obviously I’m wrong about that, they work fine… but just because I know it doesn’t mean I believe it.”
“That’s why you have to jump,” Emerald said, pushing her empty plate aside and rising to her hooves. “Come on! We’ll do the drill three more times, then you’re jumping.”
“Into a cloud,” she said, unable to keep the sourness from her voice. “Which won’t even slow me down if this doesn’t work right.”
“Yes it will,” she argued. “You’ll just have to trust me. Aim for the cloud, but keep your wings open. If you get it, I’ll help you fly to the cloud. If you don’t, it’s right below us, and you’ll land on it anyway.”
Unless I miss, Theo thought. She swallowed, watching nervously as Emerald retracted the railing, stepping back from the newly opened hole in the side of the ship. There was nothing past her but empty air.
“Go on!” she suggested, spreading her wings to demonstrate one last time. Theo imitated her, feeling far less confident. “Now, when you step off, the weight of your own body is gonna smack into your wings. Hold them steady, as strong as you can. And if that doesn’t work… just fall straight, okay?”
I’m about to jump off a cliff because a kid said so, Theo thought, eyes wide. I have lost my mind.
A light breeze blew past her then, carrying with it the smells of pine and the sweet perfume of wildflowers far below. I don’t need to be afraid. I’m a bird. I’m meant to be up here.
She jumped. Theo’s wings spread, the wind catching her mane, and for a few seconds she imagined what a bird might’ve felt. The ground was incredibly distant, and she felt as though she was swimming in an invisible sea.
Then she realized she was falling. Her stomach fell out from under her, her legs began to kick and claw desperately at empty air, as though she could somehow hold herself in place. She couldn’t, and she began to accelerate, moving faster and faster. The lake wasn’t below her, despite what Emerald had said. “I’m going down!” she squealed, her voice echoing over the valley. “Help, Emerald! I don’t want to die like—”
She hit the clouds. Not “passed through on her way to her death” as she imagined. Hit like she imagined it would be to fall out of a moving vehicle during a car accident. The wind was knocked from her lungs, and her body spread out, scattering clouds all around her in an explosion of white fluff.
Then she wasn’t falling anymore. For a few seconds she just held still, her heart racing in her chest. Had her wings really held her up for even a few seconds? Or was that more of her imagination talking, trying to convince her that it hadn’t been as much of a failure?
Theo opened one eye, and saw only empty sky. She was sticking out of the bottom of something white and viscous, with her face and both claws poking free of the white. “Oh God, I’m dead.” As if she hadn’t been afraid of heights before…
Instead of kicking and squirming like she had while she fell, Theo froze completely still, not even a feather on her wings twitching. “Emerald, I… I’m stuck. And It looks like I’m about to fall. I hope you’re… gonna be here soon!”
“Yeah!”
The ground shifted beside her, and her leg slipped all the way through. Two huge chunks of cloud began to break apart, with Theo stuck halfway in each one. “Soon? Preferably soon!”
Something yanked her up. Emerald wasn’t that strong, but she was determined, and Theo was helping. She passed up through the crater she’d made, and landed on her back on something wet. It had to be snow, there was no other way to explain it. The fluffiest, most comfortable snow. Except it wasn’t cold against her skin, and it only got wet if she put too much pressure on. Theo sat up violently, and nearly fell off the edge of… a cloud. She was sitting on a cloud, much smaller now thanks to her first attempt at flight.
“See, what did I tell you? Clouds are great for falling onto.”
“I nearly fell though this one,” she pointed out, her voice flat, annoyed. “Look at that hole!” But even so, Emerald had been right about one thing: she really could walk on clouds. They could support her weight, and didn’t even seem to be losing altitude.
“I thought you’d glide a little better than that, but that’s okay.” She took off, hovering beside the cloud.
“Wait, don’t leave me here!”
“I’m not!” She pushed up on the cloud from below. “I’m taking you back to the ship. You look scared half to death… that’s enough practice for one day. I don’t want you to get so scared of flying that you don’t want to learn.”
Little late for that one, kid. She kept her mouth closed, waiting anxiously as the Horizon grew closer and closer beside them. Little bits of fluff on the edges of the cloud bled away as they moved, wiping away like little strands of cotton. But still, it behaved nothing like she’d expected.
“I’m actually… sitting on a cloud.”
“You’ve got wings,” Emerald said. “Of course you’re sitting on it. You’re not an earth pony. They’re so dense, they fall straight through.”
“That’s no way to speak about your master, Aurora,” Sharp said, though he was grinning as they approached. Emerald didn’t expect her to cross between the cloud and the ship, she just pushed off with her hooves and they smacked into the deck. The cloud dissolved as it hit, exactly the way she would’ve expected from a completely insubstantial wisp of moisture.
“I’ll admit, I’ve seen more graceful birds in my life,” Sharp said, helping her to her hooves. “But maybe that comes with practice. You said you’d never flown before, right? Now you have!”
“Straight down,” she muttered, adjusting her vest. At least it had stayed firmly on during her dive. “Just start us back up. Maybe I’ll feel more like practicing again after Canterlot.”
Sharp made his way over to the helm, and the engines were soon rumbling beneath them again. The Horizon accelerated to a comfortable pace, the wind whipping past her as it had during the fall. Without realizing what she was doing, Theo spread her wings wide, as though she were going to catch the breeze of their passing and fly again.
Maybe I’ll practice more flying tomorrow. If the clouds at the bottom were bigger, it wouldn’t be so bad. Landing didn’t even hurt.
But then she smelled fire. She wasn’t the only one—Sharp jerked away from the helm, looking behind them. Theo turned, and saw a trail of thick black smoke following them. After a few seconds they started to slow back down, and the billowing smoke caught up.
It was coming from the engines. “Emerald, on the helm!” he called, all amusement gone from his voice. “Summer, with me. I might need your help.”
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The worst part about finding a new story you like is running into the end of the written chapters
Engine fire? Oh, crapbaskets.
Flying sound exciting.
Well, that's definitely not good. And going by the suspiciously fruitless trip to the Crystal Library, I doubt it's an accident. Of course, investigation comes after mitigation.
You left your human mind behind in the other world, and now you have a bird mind.
Never good when your airship spontaneously combusts.
9662086
I am really curious, how did you get that idea?
Whereupon Emerald pushes Theo off of Celestia's balcony.
Celestia: "Why did you do that?"
Emerald: "Summer needs to learn to fly."
Celestia: "...."
Celestia: "She's not doing a very good job at it."
Emerald: "Um...no...she's not."
9786252
*snicker*
Scoots......
I wouldn't be so glib saying I could swim. You have a extra set of limbs, plus the other four you have are completely different from what you knew. You are now in a quadrupedal (or sextipedal if you want to be technical about it) body frame, and are covered in fur and feathers, none of which you have any experience with in water. So chances are that swimming will be just as much of an issue as flying.
10219113
Horses float easily so she probably could swim.
10219113
The basic motions of swimming is pretty much universal... The doggy paddle I mean
Through