When I Can Fly

by Poppinfresh

I Can Avoid the Issues

When I can fly, I can get away from everything.

And sometimes, I have to get away from everything.
Not because I’m sad, or because I’m mad or scared.

I just need to get away.

I step out of my home. The clouds cushioning my hooves, pushing down a little but still giving me a steady footing.
I stretch my wings, and I inhale a breath of fresh air. It fills me with a certain kind of peace, a peace I only know when I’m in the air.
The sun is shining, causing the morning dew on the grass below my home to sparkle and shine with life.

Sort of like her eyes.

I need to get away.

My wings gently lift me off, pushing harder more steadily the higher I climb.
The high altitude has on odd effect on the temperature. The air around me is getting colder, and the moisture in the air is something I have to worry about so that my wings don’t accidentally get too much water on them, but if I angle myself right, facing into the sun, the sun becomes warmer. I love it, feeling the sun warming me up, while the world around me grows colder. It feels just like the last time she hugged me.

I keep flying higher. I need to get away.

I’m not scared, and I’m not angry. I’m too good for that, I don’t back away from a challenge, and that’s all this is.

My wings pump a little harder, taking me higher.

At this point, I’m above the clouds that dot the sky for the ponies below, I stop my ascent and float for a few moments, taking in my surroundings.
The clouds speckle out in small clumps, stretching out in this fashion for miles. Perfect for anything ranging from providing small bits of shade for the inhabitants below, or for sleepy pegasus ponies to take a nap. I start to glide over them, every now and again I dive down a little and graze the clouds with my front hooves, sprinkling them with condensation, then I glide back up.
Today isn’t about going fast or practicing the kind of tricks that have found me in that familiar hospital bed so many times. Today is about getting away, straying farther than my thoughts can, and enjoying life in the ‘stop and smell the flowers’ kind of lane. Up here, I’m as light as a feather, I can do whatever I want, I can fly, I can make it rain, or I can clear up the clouds and let the sun shine. Up here I can control everything, even my emotions. Up here, I don’t have to worry about thoughts I don’t want to think about catching up to me, because up here, I can outfly them. I can even outfly her.

Of course I can outfly her, I could outfly anypony if I wanted to. I just mean that I can outfly… Thinking about her.

Guess I’m not flying fast enough though.

I take a steep dive, pushing myself and my wings to go faster and faster. The wind in my mane has it streaked back. I’m leaving my trademark trail of color behind me. My eyes are watering, I’m probably a few miles an hour short of creating another sonic rainboom. That’s ok though, not many ponies can make me fly that fast, I’ve only ever done it for a few ponies in my life. First Fluttershy at the Junior Speedster’s camp, then for Rarity at the Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale.

BOOM.

…And now for her.

I pull up sharply, the force almost snaps my back and my wings. I start climbing towards the sky, my wings flapping furiously but not quite in sync as I desperately try to get as high up as I can as fast as I can. I guess I just didn’t fly fast enough is all, but I can fly faster, I know I can.

Faster than a sonic rainboom?

Don’t be silly, Dash.

NO.

Don’t be scared, Dash.

I can fly as fast as I need to. I can do whatever it takes, whatever it takes to keep her and everything else out of my head. I’ll do whatever I have to, if it means I’m not taking a relaxing flight anymore then fine, I’ll start practicing and training. It’s worked before, every time I’m scared all I have to do is train a little harder. Make myself a little better, a little more impressive.

But impressive for who exactly?

Everypony of course! I am Rainbow Dash! I am the Element of Loyalty! I am arguably the world’s fastest flyer! I’m impressive for everypony, because I work to impress EVERYPONY.
Not just one filly! Or even a few! I work so that the whole of Equestria, the whole world! Will know who I am and STAND IN AWE. Not just some pretty egghead who spends more time buried in books and crammed up in a tree than she spends in the real world will think I’m cool! I practice, I train, so that everypony will talk about me with the kind of respect usually reserved for Spitfire or Soarin!

I don’t train just for some stupid egghead.

I train for everypony, the most important of them being ME. Not some stupid egghead.
So I start training. I start dashing, and rolling and twisting, and zigg-zagging… I start doing everything. There is no method to my madness. Just pure, distilled awesomeness, streaking across the sky. I dart through a cloud, breaking it up, then I dive under another one pulling up sharply so that I can arc over the next one. Agility, that’s what I’m working on now. If I can’t speed faster than my thoughts, then I’ll fly around them.

It’s working, too. I’m not thinking about her anymore, just my flying. I’m not thinking about her, or her soft, purple mane, or her delightful laugh. Not thinking about how she helped introduce me to reading, letting me get lost in the pages of Daring Do the same way I could get lost in her deep, sparkling eyes… The way they light up with excitement and life over a new book or spell, the same way mine light up when I learn a new trick…

Still not working. Oh hayseeds!

Guess I’ll just have to fly harder and faster. That’s ok though, I can do that.
I start to add twists to what I’ve been practicing, adding a barrel roll here, a loop-de-loop there. I’m doing great too! Boy when she sees what I can do-!

Time to turn it up a notch.

I start racing toward the ground, my eyes tearing up again at the speed.
I heard about this trick somewhere before, something one of the first wonderbolts ever, did. I’m going to gather up as much energy behind me as I can, focusing all of the light behind me, and turning it into a giant beam. Then, as I reach the ground, I’ll throw out my wings suddenly and all of the light behind me will follow the subsequent gust, spreading out and showering the land below in hailstorm of flashing light.
I clear my eyes, this is going to look amazing.

Hayseeds again.

Twilight Sparkle’s library is right below me, and is much closer than it should be.

I throw out my wings attempting to stop myself before it’s too late. All I do is slow myself down though, it looks like the branches are gonna have to break this fall.
The last thing I see before I black out is the dew on the leaves reflecting the shower of light I created when I tried to stop my fall. I’m happy, my trick still worked.

My dreams are frantic. Everypony I know and love is laughing at me. I can’t see their faces, but I can hear them laughing, and I know who they are instinctively. I can hear one pony crying though, but I don’t know who exactly it is. Also, the sky is exploding for some reason, which is kind of weird.

“Rainbow Dash… Dashy?”

I wake up, confused, disoriented, and in a lot of pain. What’s going on? Where am I? Who’s talking-?

Oh.

“Hey egghead…” I say shakily, “What’s hangin'?”
“Well, as of ten minutes ago, you were.” She responds. “I pulled you out of the branches when you crashed into the library and brought you into my room. You’re pretty hurt, Dash.”
I look at the source of my pain. I’d rather not describe exactly how my wing looks.
“Ow…” I squeak out pathetically.
“You bet ow,” She says, “But, I may have some good news Dash, if you’re willing to let me try something on you.”

You can try anything you want on me, anytime.

“And what’s that, egghead?” I say suspiciously.
“Well, I’ve been reading about this new healing spell…” She says hesitantly.
“Go on…” I say even more suspiciously.
“And well… truth be told, I need somepony to practice on.” She laughs a little, “I was just waiting for you to crash into my home sometime so that maybe I could get a chance.”

She’s been waiting for me…
Oh, don’t be an idiot, she’s just joking around.

“Well, if it’s faster than being stuck in a hospital and being forced to read more books, then do whatever you have to do. I don’t think I’ll luck out like I did with Daring Do last time.”
“You might be surprised at what you like Dashy.”

I wish you’d be surprised with what you like.
Wow, that was stupid.

“Whatever egghead, just do what you need to do.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll try not to put in you in more pain by talking about reading.”

She steps back from me and starts to concentrate, her horn glowing. Surprisingly enough, my wing is glowing too.
I clench my teeth, waiting for the inevitable pain that will come. It doesn’t though. After ten seconds of creepy glowing, She opens her eyes and my wing is completely back to normal.

“…Wow.” Is all I can blurt out.
“Yeah, wow is right. I didn’t think it would work that well.”
“Well then what did you think was gonna happen!?”
“Take it easy Dash” She laughs, “I just thought that I was going to speed up the healing process, not completely finish it.”

I spread my wing and flap it a little.
“Looks like you did finish it though.”
“Looks like I did.”

Man is She amazing. She tries to heal my wing, just a little bit, and on her first attempt she completely fixes it! She could be a doctor! She could be my doctor…

Time to go.

“Well, uh, thanks Twilight,” I say, hopping off her bed and beginning my speedy exit, “I really appreciate it, I do, but I have to get back to practicing. Ya know, Wonderbolts and competitions and all that.”
“Oh is that what you were doing?”
“What.” I say stupidly.
“Practicing. Did you make that shower of lights before you crashed?”
“Um, yeah.”
“They were beautiful.”

She thought they were beautiful.

“Thanks, I guess.” I start to wander out the door like a foal before I realize it.

I can’t go fast enough, I can’t out maneuver it, even when I’m falling uncontrollably I can’t avoid it. My whole life whenever I felt this way, I’ve done everything I possibly could to help my situation, except for the one thing I should have done. And it took this brilliant, beautiful egghead to show me the right answer, even if she doesn’t know she showed me.

I need to face it, I need to stand up and lay it out. I need to stop avoiding her just because She scares me now, and brings up emotions I don’t know how to cope with. I’m going to tackle this head on. I’m going to tell her, I’m going to tell her the one thing I’ve never been able to say to anypony, even when I want to say it and mean it. And boy do I mean it more than ever now.

“Twilight hold up a sec!” I say, turning around.
She looks back at me, “Yeah, Dashy?”

Here goes nothing.

…*gulp.*

“Twilight Sparkle, I love you.”

Comments

[Poppinfresh]

*Author's Note*
From here on out I'm just gonna make any additional notes I have to say in the first comment. Since putting them in the description or at the beginning or end of the story doesn't look good.

Anyway, author's notes on "When I Can Fly"
Apparently, shipping is popular, like really popular. I guess I already knew that since I've been reading fanfics for quite a while, and funny enough, my favorites were always shipfics.
After "Compassion For the Great" was published and the response I've gotten to it over "The Everfree Conspiracy" 's reception (Which is to say, none), I decided to write another shipfic. Hopefully this one will turn out well, I was originally going to do this as a quick one shot story. but I've found this style of writing to be entertaining and from what I've seen not often done.

As always, and as any good aspiring writer should say, feedback is always welcome. I even take the angry hate-filled vile that some people throw at me into consideration, because sometimes they actually make a good point somewhere between their brutish insults and poor spelling. Needless to say though, I do prefer positive, constructive criticism (or endless praise, your pick).

Regardless of what you may think of my story though, thanks for reading!

[Midway]

this is going to read later list it sounds really inrteresting tho :)

[Jmo4267]

D'aww, loved it. Great job :3

[LupoLycanth]

Leaving the story out because I didn't read (yet), you should give credit to nIde.
(The artist of the picture, pretty sure he doesn't mind you using it though.)

Just sayig.

[The Legist]

1084425 "I think I'm going to write another ship fic"
Wake up.
"poppinfresh has posted a new story..."

[chief maximus]

1st person Dashie? While she is more or less in character? I foresee good things in store for this fic my friend. However, I would be unable to live with myself if I didn't aid you by pointing out a few errors I found during my run through:

It feels me with a certain kind of peace
I think you meant fills.

The air around my is getting colder,
me?

There were a couple others, but those were the only ones that stuck out. This story wasn't bad, but with an editor, you could make it great. I recommend checking out this group if you are so inclined. http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=group&group=27

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

If I Could Fly - Joe Satriani

[Poppinfresh]

1085493
Thanks for the heads up, those two issues should be fixed now.
Unfortunately, I am my own editor and proof reader so I try not to let things too big get by me, but a lot of the smaller (and in my opinion, the most annoying) mistakes get through.

I'll give this another look through for errors again as soon as I can.

[Poppinfresh]

1085302
Source has now been added.
Thanks for the link.

[Pokey the Unicorn]

"Whatever egghead"

Yuck. Just yuck. This isn't Rainbow Dash at all. Your characterization of her is fairly good, I think, but why the hay is she talking to Twilight like that??

The chapter is fairly good otherwise. I'll look forward to the next bit!

[Poppinfresh]

1086579
The idea is to show that Rainbow Dash is intentionally being a little more crass with Twilight Sparkle than usual. The more she talks to Twilight, the more she will think about her. This is why unless Rainbow Dash is speaking to Twilight directly, she still only refers to Twilight as "She" or "Her."

Calling Twilight egghead to her face isn't a nice thing to do (though I will point out she calls Twilight egghead quite a lot in the actual show), but that's the point, you always hurt the ones you love.

I'll work on trying to get my points across better in future chapters and stories though, thanks for the feedback!

[Meltian]

I had to check this thing's completion status after reading, just to dispel my fears that that was it. You have no idea how relieved I was.

[shamrox17]

Usually I don't like the fanfics that have one of the mane 6 falling for another because thats not what i'm into but this is REALLY REALLY GOOD.

[aaaa_aaaa]

The paragraphing leaves a little to be desired, but characterization is spot on - for an example, that last line would have been out of character(too fast) if it wasn't for built up context as well as a bit of RD's impulsiveness; good job dodging that bullet.

[fallen starr]

I like it. :) You're right, non-ship fics don't get a lot of attention, and that should change, but this is still really cute and i'd love to see how it goes.

[Minecraftian Equine]

1085724 Yes. Just yes.
"I wish you’d be surprised with what you like.
Wow, that was stupid."
The sappyness and bits of humor throughout this story are just awesome; this kind of writing style, if done right, always gives me chills.
The TwiDash part doesn't hurt though

[Reader Wolf]

Lovely. This first-person introspective stuff is gold.

[Aklinstar]

encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQELIzMEFoywBYNoODBz8Wq9XcNg7IevzoFpNcZBH05MnvNDokn4w

[Midway]

man dat cliffhanger xD

[Phxntxm]

Why is she calling her Dashy?

[michaelajunker]

1389422 Yeah, it's kind of bugging me too.

[Plotbuster]

1984008 Anyone shipped with RD automatically refers to her as "Dashy". It's the sixteenth fundamental law of Equestria.