Return to Flight

by Outlaw Quadrant

6 - Up and Away

I’m afraid of heights? There’s no way! Absolutely no way!

Rainbow paced around the living room, waiting for the stallion to return. Rearrange the patrol’s schedule, that was his reason to leave but not before telling her the first major hurdle to her recovery.

“I gotta think of a way to deal with your fear of heights that doesn’t involve hanging you in the air like a piñata.”

He closed the door, denying her any follow up. Instead, she spent the next twenty minutes testing his assertion: standing on the couch, gazing from the second story window and sliding down the staircase railing. She would’ve made it onto the roof had he not arrived earlier than expected.

Rainbow walked right up to him. “How can I be afraid of heights, Fly?”

“Dunno,” he answered, shrugging. “Probably something to ‘protect’ us from even trying to fly again.”

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“Look, I know you want answers but even after everything I’ve gone through, I barely got any. Just follow my lead on this.”

Rainbow grumbled. “All right, all right. What do I have to do, exactly?”

“Not much.” He began stretching, “I’ll be taking for you a ride.”

“Huh?”

She imagined him carrying her on his back above the clouds, the moon casting a light on them as a slow and passionate song played in the background.

Rainbow shuddered. “Bleh! None of that warm and fuzzy stuff, Fly!”

“What are you talking about?” He opened the door wide. “It’s just a simple cloud ride. I worked on it a bit so it’s nice and comfy.”

Past the doorway was her white chariot, a much better mode of transportation for her. “Oh, okay!” She began snickering, “But are you sure you can push me like that with those flabby noddle hooves of yours?”

“Just get on the cloud,” he tersely answered, pointing behind him.

Once both walked past the threshold, the door swiftly closed and deadbolts locked into position. Moments later, a smiling Angel waved at them before shutting the blinds and turning off the lights.

“That little pest! Hey! What’s the big idea?” she protested, banging the door.

He lowered his goggles. “No worries. If this works, you can finally sleep at your place tonight.”

Her own bed in her castle home, the rabbit can keep her out for all she cared. Rainbow tossed herself right into a material that made her standard fare feel like stone-cold concrete. The condensed water vapor caressed her body in such a scintillating fashion that she just had to coo her delight.

“Oh-kay,” said a bewildered Swift. “Taking off now.”

With a shove to the cloud’s side, the stallion steadily applied power but the cloud only inched forward. He pushed wings to maximum, earning him more momentum but robbing him of the requisite breaths for a warning to his relaxed passenger.

At five feet off the ground, Rainbow’s mirth immediately switched to a heart-stopping panic. Air, she was up in the air with nothing but cloud material between her and hard damp ground.

“Stop! Stop!” she screamed to the heaves. “I’m gonna fall!”

Leveling off the climb, “You won’t, all right? I’m right here.”

Rainbow crawled up into a ball and clutched onto the cloud as though her life depended on it. “Please? Go back down! I don’t wanna do this! I quit! I totally quit!”

Swift bit his lip, wanting nothing more than grant her request. Then again, his trainer never did and he had to do the same. That thought did nothing to stem the heartache as she continued pleading with him that this was too much. He might be able to take this for minutes but not hours, even less so when her pleading shifted more toward stifled weeping.

“Just talk to me about something, okay? Something that’ll distract you.”

Rainbow would if her mind would stop telling her she’d fall through her ride any second now. “I–I don’t know what to say.”

Wiping the condensation from his goggles, “First thing that comes to your head. Just let it out.”

There was only one thing she could focus on, her awful predicament. “Why me, Fly? What did I do to deserve this?”

Swift frowned as he increased the climb rate and turned the cloud into a wide spiral path. “Don’t say that. You didn’t deserve this.”

Rainbow rubbed her face on the cloud’s surface. “Yes I did. I did this to myself. I should’ve listened to Fluttershy, but I didn’t. I’m always impatient. I’m always pushing my limits. I just don’t listen.”

In an instant, she was no longer on the cloud, but back in that dark realm where the wall stood firm off in the distance. That voice, there it was again but still too far away to comprehend the words. However, its condescending tone had her marching forward - somepony was getting a buck in the face. Then, she relived through her crashes a second time, starting with the last one through to accident number one.

Rainbow was in a park on top of a slide. Her microscopic wings fluttered at the idea to put on a demonstration to all the other foals gathered at the bottom. They rode down the slide just like an earth pony would but she’d be different. Today, they’d all remember that Rainbow Dash beat them all to the skies. Thank Celestia no adults were present to stop her. Sure, this was her first attempt ever but what better motivation than having an audience.

With one leap forward, she did exactly as what her parents told her many times over - flap those wings and let the wind carry you. Unfortunately, words alone could not give her lift and as such, her tiny body landed on the slide at the halfway point and at the end, went head first into the sand. The taste of bitter failure was nothing compared to the loud guffaws and name-calling that tore right into her. Somehow, she got up and shrugged off the mistake before marching to a faraway brush. There, Rainbow could cry away her shame, or at least try to do so. Even as she returned to present day, the tears burned the same.

“Do you know my nickname’s Rainbow Crash, Fly?” she said, rubbing some buildup on her nose.

Swift’s ears perked up, “What does that mean?”

Now she felt ridiculous for revealing the derisive moniker, but with her silence allowing fear’s claws to draw her in, she continued. “I think I’m so great, that I’m the best flier in Equestria but when I was a foal, I just had so much trouble learning how to fly.”

“Eh? You?”

“Mhm. All I could do was crash into everything, and everypony made fun of me for that. You don’t know how many lumps I had to take just to get where I’m at right now. I make flying look so easy, but that’s only because I practice hard every single day.” She let out a melancholy sigh. “That doesn’t always work, though. If I’m off my game even just a little bit, that’s when the trouble starts.”

“Hold up. Why not trust your instincts?”

Her face turned beet red, so she hid it behind her forelegs. “My instincts are… they’re not as sharp as I want them to be. You know, I don’t know why I bother trying to be a Wonderbolt. Just one bad day and everypony in Equestria will know what a total loser I really am.”

With a tug, Swift halted Rainbow’s journey through the skies. “Cool your jets, Rainbow. Don’t be calling yourself a loser.”

“But it’s the truth.”

“It’s not.”

“A pathetic good for nothing loser.”

Swift pried her hooves apart, “Don’t say that!”

His gaze cut through his goggles and the rain right into the depths of her soul. Somehow, he appeared stronger without gaining an inch of height or a lump of muscle.

“B–but—”

“Don’t put yourself down like that. I’ve known other pegasi that aren’t natural-born fliers and they’re no slouches, but you, Rainbow, you’re something else. I didn’t even spend a whole day with your friends but they wouldn’t stop telling me how much you’ve done. You’ve rescued the Wonderbolts, you’ve won the Best Young Flier competition, you crushed just about all my camp records as if it was nothing and you’ve bailed out your friends many times over with your wicked speed. You’re the Element of Loyalty, for Celestia’s sake!”

He paused to catch his breath.

“My point is that it doesn’t matter how you started. Look at where you are now. My pops always tells me, Just keep aiming for the skies and you’ll get where you wanna go. You, Rainbow, you’re up there with the stars.”

She didn’t have an immediate answer, for his smile drew her into a sense of reassurance. In this one moment, he turned her grey cloud white again. “Fly?”

“Yeah?

After a long pause, “That was the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Eh?” Swift planted his face onto the cloud. “You know, I think I’m going to hide here for a while.”

Rainbow giggled at his expense, only for guilt to stifle it. That’s when she noticed right in front of her the abundance of medium blue hair sitting on top of his head. Despite its dampness, it drew her in like a fresh batch of cider. Without even asking, she dug right in and rubbed, hard.

“But I really needed that,” she said, grinning. “Thanks.”

Swift pulled away and touched his singed head. “Ow! That’s how you thank ponies?”

“Not really. Just curious how soft your hair was.”

“Oh-kay. I’m just glad you’re feeling a lot better now.”

She gasped. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Hey? How far up are we?”

His pupils shrank, “Rainbow, don’t—”

Rainbow saw her answer - twice the height of Town Hall. Immediately, she shrieked before covering her eyes once more.

“Let me off! Let me off! Let me off!”

Groaning, he resumed pushing the cloud. “No worries, all right? C’mon. Just start telling me about something you know like, the Wonderbolts. Yeah. I heard you’re a huge fan, aren’t you?”

“Biggest fan ever,” she said, sounding like she had asthma.

“Really? I’ll level with ya. I don’t know much about them, so how about you fill me in?”

She grabbed hold of him and shook him, “You don’t know? How can you not know?” Rainbow’s eyes drifted down. “Ahhhhh! Okay, okay! I get what you’re getting at! Umm, relax, Rainbow. Relax. Um, yeah! The roster! I’ll start with the roster.”

Satisfied with the response, Swift shoved the cloud ever higher through the persistent rain. He pegged the time spent talking about the Wonderbolts, at best, no longer than fifteen minutes.

He underestimated her, by a lot.

While Rainbow Dash was foggy on their history, she had plenty of material about the current squad: eating habits, hobbies, flying formations and their entire schedule for the past year. Her fear was not much more than a footnote other than when she accidently noticed she was closer to the peak of the unseen mountains than Ponyville proper. At that point, he took a breather, which he soon regretted. Getting the cloud back moving proved a herculean effort.

My wings are gonna fall off!

Eventually, they breached the bottom cloud layer and entered a foggy realm. She continued talking about the Wonderbolts without missing a beat about every single performance she’d witnessed. By now, he thought it was best to make this an actual conversation just to hear his own voice. He began with no-brainer questions but over time, Swift uncovered a few embarrassing truths hidden beneath a web of lies.

“What’s this about you and Fluttershy sneaking in backstage?”

The memory made her eyes roll. “Oh, yeah. I was hiding in the rafters, waiting for them to show up and guess what happens to me. I get tangled in between some wires, but get this. Fluttershy actually called Security to help get me down.”

He broke out into guffaws, forcing him into an all stop. “My, my bad. I just—”

“Hmf! Whatever. Anyways, I know she’s a great friend and all, but sometimes, she’s not the best pony to do cool stuff with. I mean, she complained about the show being too noisy. It’s the Wonderbolts! You know what I’m talking about, right?”

Swift looked away, rubbing his mane. “Well, yeah. Their show… um—”

“You’ve never been to a show, have you?”

He opened his mouth to answer, only to shut it tight.

“Darnit, Fly!” she replied, slapping her forehead. “One of these days, I’m taking you to a show myself! Got it?”

He resumed his cloud pushing duties, “Whatever you say. Guess I haven’t had the urge to watch them. I know my folks would love to see me go, but only because they want me to actually join the Wonderbolts someday.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, really. It’s your dream, but it’s not mine.” Raising his hoof, “I know, I know. You’re disappointed about that, too.”

Rainbow grimaced. “Uggggh! I don’t get you. You know how many pegasi out there would give just about anything in the world to have your talent. Yet you’re nothing more than some weather pony. Don’t you have bigger dreams than that?”

“Nah,” he said with a smile. “If anything, I’m sorta living my dream already, a nice gig by the beach with some great friends. Do I really need anything more than that?”

She looked him straight in the eye. “I don’t believe that for a second and you know why? That sounds really boring and that’s a big problem. You need some more excitement in your life. Well, don’t worry! With me as your friend, there’s plenty of that to come!”

His face turned pale. “But I have enough excitement already. Besides, I don’t have a problem.”

“Yeah, you do. I can’t even call you Swift without—”

He blocked his ears while shuddering. Even so, he heard Rainbow’s cackling piercing the otherwise serene skies. “I told you not to call me that,” he grumbled.

“See, right there,” she said, pointing at him. “I bet I can fix that if—”

“No way,” Swift replied tersely. “I’ve heard that line before!”

“Okay, fine,” she conceded, rolling her eyes. “So, are we done yet?”

Swift checked his surroundings; they had finally crossed over into open skies where the stars blinked hello. “Not yet. C’mon. Gotta keep talking.”

”So, about your name,” she started, wearing a devilish grin.

Swift snorted his displeasure. “Pick something else. How about Junior Speedsters?”

---

Even pegasi had limits on how high they can go before their life supply dwindled to dangerous levels. For Rainbow and Swift, they were fortunate that their climb ended short of that zone, and therefore, could make the trip toward the mare’s adobe in the skies. However, Swift was already short of breath after three hours of being an aerial locomotive, so he let gravity take over on the downward journey. As for Rainbow, the subject about a former friend she made in camp dampened her joy of overcoming her altitude sickness.

“I can’t believe Gilda could’ve been so mean to my friends,” she said, staring off into the distance. “Our friendship pretty much ended right after that.”

“Bummer, Rainbow,” Swift replied, sharing her frown.

She whisked away some of the soft white. “It’s okay. Time changes ponies, or in this case, griffons. It could just be that I didn’t know her as I thought I did. To be honest, I know as much about her life than I do about yours. Actually, even less than that. She never really opened up about stuff.”

“Well, I did tell you more than I normally would with somepony I just met.” His head then slumped, “Way, way more.”

“You make it sound like that’s a bad thing. That’s what friends are for, right? You tell me stuff, I tell you stuff. Of course, I expect you to keep what you know, especially what I said tonight, to yourself. Otherwise,” She slammed her hooves together.

While he was an agile pony, Swift did fear this mare could grab him and do unimaginable things to him if he had a loose tongue. “Gotcha.”

Soon, they travelled through the dense layer that made quick work drenching their coats. When they broke through the mist, Rainbow’s domain was floating in its usual location, far away from Ponyville proper. The colorful rainbow streams protruding from the rooftop had lost much of its luster. Whether it was due to lack of maintenance or the drab dark atmosphere surrounding it, she was unsure. Either way, what should’ve been a welcome sight for Rainbow Dash was instead more like approaching a prison in the middle of the ocean, as the method of escape required a talent currently out of reach. That was the price she would have to pay to stay here.

“I’ve assigned this section to myself,” remarked Swift, nudging the cloud toward the front door. “That way, nopony will have a reason to lurk around.” His mouth opened wide, which he covered to stifle a yawn. “I’ll have to think of what we should do next.”

“Will every step be like this, Fly? This was kinda rough at the start but it didn’t turn out too bad.”

“This was the easiest part for me, unfortunately.” After sighing, he pulled up the corners of his mouth. “No worries. I’ll do what I can.”

Swift slowed the cloud to a stop. She hopped off her ride and then slowly turned all the way around. Here she was above ground and yet, that fact wasn’t enough to muster much excitement. It was cold, damp and if it wasn’t for the stallion standing by her, more desolate than the bottom of a well. “So what am I supposed to do while I wait for you?”

He shrugged, “Hang tight, I guess. Just don’t try anything on your own.”

That wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. She was in no hurry grabbing the key below the welcome mat, and nudging the door open. All the surrounding moisture made it creak, so she stopped pushing it any further.

“You all right, Rainbow?”

A tremble traveled from her wings to her voice. “Well, I… it’s nothing. I’m cool.”

“Wicked. I’ll pick you up when we’re done with the weather tomorrow. Later.”

She waved goodbye to her friend, who disappeared into the damp cool darkness. Even with the persistent rain, Rainbow stood outside for a few minutes, pondering what turned out to be a rollercoaster Saturday.

What started out as a day where she believed flight was within reach went all wrong, just like the stunt she now remembered with crystal-clear clarity. A curse, Flying Stress Syndrome, threatened to break her spirits in two, but thanks to Swift Flying, there was hope for a full recovery. However, he was one pony, the only individual she could interact with for the time being.

Already, she wished someone’s voice would break the monotonous pattering sounds of water striking the overhang. She wished Twilight would lecture her, Rarity measure her for a frilly dress, or for Pinkie to surprise her with confetti, but all her friends were in Manehattan, having the time of their lives.

Are you guys thinking about me out there? Probably not. Rainbow released a mournful sigh. That’s okay. I told you I’ll be fine, here. By myself.

Rainbow dragged herself inside, but not before grabbing a piece of Swift’s cloud. She needed something comforting tonight, for she felt she lost a battle today, even though she actually won.

Comments

FIRST! for this chapter.
I can't wait to read more of this it is interesting and I want moar

[PuffyBrotherParty]

i cant stop reading,im loving it .3. <3!

[Dustchu]

Man, I feel so bad for Rainbow ;n; I can't imangine what this must be like.
But I am loving it! Nice job.

[marley]

Enjoying the story. Just thought I'd pass along a little coincidental thing. I actually ride horses and my first horse was a mare named Fly. Totally awesome horse.