18: Learning to Fly
Chapter 18
Of all the methods of flight I've used, including carriages, being worn by a panicking friend and being worn by a panicking enemy. Being carried precariously in the hooves of a rapidly rising pegacorn, is the new worst.
Granted, Loony is holding on pretty tight and I'm fairly certain she wouldn't drop me on purpose. It’s just that, well, all my limbs are being dragged behind me and my mist is barely keeping up. For flight, we'll never beat the self-contained box of a carriage.
After a few more moments of displeasure from the wind rushing through my mist, I was pleasantly surprised by the feeling of a spongey material on my shoes. Loony, was gradually lowering me to some sort of heavenly material and even appeared to ensure I was comfortable before gradually loosening her grip.
“Phew, We were worried thou may hast fallen through,” came some slightly relieved words from above me.
“Why would I have fallen?” I decided to ask, while looking up to my winged saviour. Sadly, my eye holes could only see her rear, as she rapidly flew away. Heh, she wouldn’t have let me fall. Saying that, technically I did fall over as I’m laying down, but who cares? I’m comfortable.
How did she make this weird bed stuff in the sky anyway? Oh no, it’s a cloud, isn’t it? Never knew I could stand on these. Guess if I’d seen the griffons can do it, it should have been obvious they were solid. With that discovery, I thought it would be best to sit up a little and watch Loony fly around. Wonder what she’s actually doing? She, hopefully, hasn't just left me up here as a joke.
After a little bit of flying, it appeared Loony’s target was another fluffy cloud, which she happily grabbed in her forehooves and began pushing towards me. I’m so gonna ask her if she can bring one of these things into my room. A cloud bed is probably amazing. Or, would that fill my room with water when it melts? At least it would probably fix my slight bug infestation.
Once my friend had pushed her own cloud mattress nearby, she immediately perched upon it with a look of pride, “We are here, Eclipse. We would have cometh sooner, but the weather ponies had done such an excellent job, there was only a sparse number of clouds available.”
Weather ponies? Do they make it rain on purpose? Do they manufacture clouds, or do they just move them away from their cities? This world really has some peculiar laws of physics.
Rather than bore my favourite pony with questions about her reality, I decided a "thank you" was in order. “You know Loony, I really appreciate that rescue earlier. Twilight was seriously getting on my nerves.” Does it make sense to thank her for taking me to sleep heaven as well? Clouds might be my new favourite thing, aside from dark blue pegacorns anyway.
“'Tis our pleasure, Eclipse. Thy well-being is of importance to us,” the dark blue pegacorn said, while attempting to make her wings look presentable.
“Well thanks anyway,” I replied, before steadily returning to my lazing position. It’s gone from a terrible day in Twilight’s lab, to a wonderful day, lazing on a cloud with Loony. Nothing gets better.
A few minutes of welcomed genial silence went by, until a sudden throat clear originated from my companion. This prompted me to slightly lift my helmet and provide her my attention, “Hmm?”
She was still sitting where she’d landed and was levelling a pretty heavy, curious head tilt at me, “art thou really so tired after young Twilight’s experiments?”
“Not really. I just thought we were enjoying some pleasant time together on fluffy clouds,” I said lazily, while continuing my vacant glance in her direction from cloud heaven. There is no other reason to be up here really, unless…
Loony’s sudden laughter broke me from my musings, “we can still enjoy the clouds together, friend. We were just intending for thy time to be slightly more productive, while similarly enjoyable.”
With that, I rolled onto my front, pointing myself at the amused pegacorn, before cautiously asking, “What did you have in mind?” I really hope it isn’t flight training, because I can tell that’s exactly what it’s going to be.
The blue fluffball decided to wander up to my lazing position, and put a tentative hoof on my pauldron before proving me right, “We thought thou would relish the opportunity to be taught by thy ward. Were We mistaken?”
This is really nice of her to offer, but we’re actually on a fluffy cloud. Can’t we just lay down? “Luna, I’m honoured by your offer, but…” I began, before stalling at the realization that my excuse sucked. What was worse, was the steady loss of my friend’s pretty smile. Oh, why do I suck? She gets me out of an experiment, then gives me a present…
With that, my thoughts turned to the feather sticking out of my helmet. Of course! The excuse is obvious, “Isn’t your wing hurting? It might be best for you to lay down here with me until it recovers.” Ha, nailed it. Now we’ll just have to continue with the quality relaxing time. Maybe she could be my pillow?
Sadly, it appeared my plan was unsuccessful, as Loony just rolled her eyes at that before retracting her hoof, “Come now, Eclipse. It was just one primary. Flesh and blood creatures may not be as sturdy as thou, but we alicorns can still take more punishment than that.”
Whoops, damage control. “I wasn’t trying to imply you were weak, or anything like that.” Wow, those words flew out way faster than I would have liked.
Thankfully, my friends next words proved I hadn’t caused any offense, “We are well aware, ‘tis very sweet that thou cares for our wellbeing.” She then sat back while extending her wings for me to see. “But as thou can see, our wings are still in top condition.”
Her display would have likely had a greater effect if I understood how "top condition" wings were meant to look. Which wing did the primary even come from? I can’t tell. Oooh, maybe that’s the point? From the way she was stood waiting, Loony clearly wanted some sort of response. “Your wings are very impressive.” Compliments are always a good fall back.
True to form, Loony accepted the compliment, “We are well aware of our alicorn nature.” She then folded her wings, before reaching forward with a hoof, preparing to pull on mine. “Now come, let us inspect thine own set. We must see what we are working with.”
While stifling a groan due to my failure, I relented and displayed both misty wings. Loony then wasted no time with the review, “hmmm, they look very interesting. May We touch them?” She practically is already.
“Well, apparently you’re my owner, so sure,” I decided to joke. To be honest, she doesn’t really need permission for that. We normally end up with a wing across each other at some point in the day anyway, usually during night court.
“We know thou art aware, We do not think so little of thyself,” was Loony’s nonchalant response, before she began running her hoof over my misty appendage. “Thy wings have a very interesting design. They seem to be capable of channelling incredibly large quantities of magic. A decent quality in any set.”
“Thanks, I made them myself,” I said, while sitting up fully. Might as well act like I’m up for this, which I really should be.
Loony then removed her hoof from my wing and kept it at chest height, “Art thou ready now?”
All I could do was shrug non committedly, “I’m ready if you are.” Fine, she did save my rear back there and she is sort of doing this as a gift for me. I should really stop complaining.
At my words, the pegacorn gained a cheeky knowing smile, “Excellent, hast thou ever heard of the modern phrase, thrown in at the deep end?”
That got a tilt of my head, “I’m quite familiar with modern language, so yes.” Why would she ask that?
Before the gears could finish turning within my helmet, my best friend in the whole world simply said, “good.” Then, using her already raised hoof, she pushed me off of the cloud, to the music of her laughter.
Due to how absurd the situation was, my first reaction was to think, "there is no way she just did that." This was quickly followed up about a millisecond later by a little scream of, “Looooonnyy whhhyyyyyyy?!”
Okay, okay, what do I do? Looking down below me, Canterlot Castle appeared to be rapidly approaching. Why would Loony betray me? It was this moment I realized there was a fluffy blue shape falling headfirst next to me. She appeared to just be watching me fall. Thank goodness, a lifeline. Sadly, her reaction to noticing me looking, was to stick her tongue out, which might have amused me if it was in any other situation.
Well, that’s just incredibly rude, but it doesn’t matter. “Loony, please, help!” I desperately yelled. It might have sounded a bit pathetic, but falling 10000feet isn’t on my to do list. Loony is sure to help me, forgetting the fact she caused this situation.
Luckily, my pathetic words didn’t fall on deaf ears and the blue angel decided to provide aid, of a sort. “Extent thy wings.” It wasn’t really that helpful to be honest.
“What?” Still falling.
“We said extend thy wings.”
“Huh? Oh, okay.” When she said in at the deep end, she really meant it. Following her advice, I opened my wings wide, hoping to at least slow my fall. “Now what?” My descent doesn’t feel any slower.
With that, Loony gracefully spun behind me out of view. I was about to ask her where she was going, until a sudden feeling of her hooves pulling on my wings began, “Dost thou feel a tug from the air?”
“I think so?” I can definitely feel something tugging, but I’m not quite sure if that’s just a set of hooves.
“Excellent, try to hold thy wings steady and thy form should angle into a glide,” she said entirely confident in my apparent abilities. So confident in fact she decided to let go.
“Oh, erm, okay.” Well here goes nothing. Holding my wings as steady as possible in the provided orientation, was actually fairly easy. The only problem was that the promised glide never seemed to materialise. In fact, the tug she mentioned clearly disappeared upon her release of my wings.
Everything’s fine, I’ve probably made a mistake somewhere. It’s not like Loony would let me hit the ground, right? With that thought, I decided to look at the rapidly approaching ground. Okay, that is way closer than it should be. Well seems it’s time for my inevitable rescue.
Looking up for my guardian angel caused a little bit of worry to surface. She did appear to be flying towards me with her hooves outstretched, but the ground felt like it was approaching at a much faster rate. It didn’t entirely dawn on me that she wouldn’t catch up, until I saw her face fall before scrunching up in concentration. This caused her horn to glow and some tasty magic to feed into me. Sadly, this did nothing to affect the rate of my decent.
The panic I’d felt at the initial fall returned full swing, prompting me to begin wildly flapping my wings in a vain attempt to stave off the impact. My final act of attempting to defy gravity’s wishes, was to once again call out, “LOOOOOONY!” before I inevitably collided with the castle courtyard ground. This resulted in an incredible clank as the world suddenly became very dark.
Well, that went well. At least it never hurt. It appeared the front half of my armour had become firmly wedged into the ground, with my rear legs lying a not too inconsiderable distance away. Deciding to rectify my situation as quickly as possible, I magnetted my rear legs into position before immediately heaving my helmet out of the ground. This allowed me to once again, see the sweet, sweet light.
Can’t believe she let me hit the ground, was all I could think, while scraping off the layer of dirt that now covered me. Some even needed to tipped out of my shoes. Everyone hates having a stone in their shoe.
As my bearings returned, I couldn’t help noticing the courtyard was not as devoid of life as I’d initially hoped. Numerous day and night guards appeared to have turned their attention away from whatever they were doing to view my interesting interruption. Feeling the embarrassment of their numerous eyes, I couldn’t remain silent, “erm, sorry for damaging your training area.” This prompted a few of them to review the crater my uncontrolled decent had produced.
Seeing as I had the undivided attention of the masses, it made sense to put it to use, “Have any of you seen Princess Luna by chance? We got separated up there.” I finished by pointing to the sky.
To my fortune, many of the guards raised their hooves and pointed to somewhere off to my side. A few appeared to be wearing pretty large smiles, for whatever reason. Suppose that’s a good thing, really. It means my little show didn’t scare them.
With the helpful reply, I decided to nod and say “thanks” to the guards before going to look for my traitorous friend. Sadly, I didn’t turn my helmet in the direction they pointed fast enough, as a sudden impact from a blue blur soon catapulted me back skyward. I’m not too proud to admit that the surprised sound I produced, likely wasn’t the most dignified. Especially due to the voracious laughter that faded with gained altitude. Damn those guards.
After a few moments of the terrifying rapid ascent back into the air, I found myself deposited back onto my safety cloud. When my betrayer landed next to me, I couldn’t quite help gripping it tighter.
From the disarming smile my betrayer was giving me, you wouldn’t believe she’d just thrown me from my safe haven, “Thou hast quite a terrifying battle cry for one falling uncontrolled as thou did.”
Erm, yes, a manly battle cry. She then lost some of her smile, “That being said, for thy first attempt, We shall admit it was not quite as impressive as We had first hoped.”
“You threw me off.”
Rather than pay attention to my complaint, my teacher began making a list, “For starters, We believe the angle of thy wings may have been incorrect to maintain a glide.” She put them in that angle. “Second, We believe thine uncontrolled flaps prevented any form of lift and…” Luna suddenly appeared very embarrassed before continuing, “more importantly, We are sorry for our failure to catch thou. Thy fall was akin to that of an anvil’s and We failed to predict that eventuality.”
“Can’t believe you threw me off.” My desire to complain may have distracted me from Luna's words.
Loony gave me an understanding look, “Come now, Eclipse Every pegasus learns by crashing a little.”
However, that didn’t really deter my accusations, “You threw me from a height taller than the clouds.”
The pegacorn decided to continue as if that was an everyday occurrence, “We went for the increased height to give thou more time to practice, before regrettably… meeting the ground.”
I decided to rest my helmet on the cloud, still full of disbelief, “I still can’t believe it.”
“Art thou mad at me?” She said with notes of genuine concern.
“No, it’s just I can’t…”
Her concern quickly fled after my no, resulting in a swift interruption, likely hoping to end my train of thought. “Yes, yes you cannot believe it. Dost thou not remember that We were fully informed of thy fall from the Everfree castle bridge, nay? Thou did not suffer even the most minor of scrapes, and even mentioned how it was only an inconvenience due to the required climb out. A poor pegasus would not have just found such a severe fall inconvenient, but would have likely struggled to ever rise again from such trauma. Did thou forget?”
Why do I tell people things? To be honest that last fall was nowhere near as bad as the Everfree one. For starters there wasn’t any rocks to hit on the way down. At the blue furball's apparent logic, I decided to relent, “Fine. Just wish you’d warned me.” That deep end stuff is a terrible idea. Imagine going to a child, "hey you, as an inexperienced swimmer, why not jump in that large body of water that could easily drown you?"
My final complaint gained me a pensive look, before Loony had an idea, “maybe some of the guards should be assigned to catch thou? It may make our next attempt less... stressful.”
That seems like a good idea on paper, but what if I hit one and they’re flattened? Don’t think I want an injured guard on my conscience. “Loony, it’s fine. We don’t need to bother the guards. Hitting the ground doesn’t hurt anyway.”
“If thou insist,” my friend began, before regaining her good-natured smile, “art thou ready for another try?” Well, at least she isn’t going for another surprise.
“I’m never going to be ready,” I half joked. Pretty sure nothing was learned other than how fast I can fall.
In response Loony stifled a laugh, before pointing a wing off the edge of my safety cloud.
Fine then, I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be. Steadily I got to my shoes, extended my wings and gave the encouraging pegacorn one last look, hoping for mercy. As she never stopped pointing, I just sighed before jumping to my inevitable doom.
This time, the fall was a little less daunting, as I knew Luna had likely jumped behind me, “Erm, am I doing it?”
A pull on my wings was the answer I received, as my friend attempted to hold them in position. “Thou should be gaining some lift at this angle.”
That pull is just her hooves again, isn’t it? “Not sure if I can feel anything.”
“Hmmm, it appears thy wings might not be up to the task after all. We shall take thou back to the cloud and investigate.”
After hearing Loony casually state flight was potentially impossible for me, more than a little irritation surged into my helmet. Am I too heavy? Oh, that’s just brilliant. It’s taken smashing into the ground a second time, to work out, flight might never have been on the cards. This time I’m at least going to stick that landing.
Rather than calling to Loony for aid, thus risking her safety, I decided to try and take the fall like a champ. Quickly I rotated my body, so my shoes were below me and held onto my parts as rigidly as possible. This did mean I had to close my wings, for the fat load of good they were doing me. Closing my wings did have the side effect of pulling them out of Loony’s grasp, eliciting a cry of surprise. I’m probably falling too fast for her to stop anyway.
When my form met the ground this time, I landed upon all fours, didn’t face plant and never lost a single part. The resounding clang remained, but that seemed fine to me. What made my successful landing all the sweeter, was the mild cheer from a newly formed crowd of guards, who apparently had taken great interest in my training. While bowing to said audience, I couldn’t help thinking of how I’d managed to pull off an actual super hero landing. It was still terrifying and if I had knees, they likely would have exploded, but it got the job done.
Even Luna decided to congratulate me after landing at my side, “That was a most impressive display and a most efficient method of travel might We add. Maybe We do not need to catch thou?” Probably should have told her I was aiming to land unassisted.
“Efficient in one direction,” I then mimed travelling straight down with a shoe, which made me worry for a moment, “Erm, Loony, do I have dents in my shoes?” That landing felt harder than I'd like.
My friend made a show of inspecting both of my held up foreshoes. Even slowly rubbing the bottom of one with a hoof, which, it turns out, is actually quite ticklish. Who knew? “Nay friend, thine appearance is as impeccable as always. Now come, We have another idea.” She then immediately spread her wings and moved towards me. This gave me enough time to think not again, before we once again rocketed into the sky and I was carefully dumped upon the cotton ball.
Before I could reacquaint myself with my new favourite spot, Loony explained her newest theory, “We believe thy wings are too ethereal for flight. Thou will likely need to make them more physical to more effectively catch the wind.”
That feels like a guess. It also made me think about the fundamentals of pegasus flight a bit more, “How do you fly anyway? Your wings don’t look big enough either.”
From the immediate reaction of Loony rapidly folding her wings, it was pretty clear I’d said something wrong, “Dost thou believe our proportions to be on the heavy side?”
Damage control, “Wo, I’m not calling you fat or anything. Celestia’s way bigger than you.”
“We are glad thou agree. Our sister is definitely in need of a diet,” came the thoughtful reply.
That was not what I was implying at all. “Look, I just meant when I’ve seen birds fly, their wings are much larger in comparison to the rest of their body. In contrast a pegasus has relatively small wings. Shouldn’t that make pegasus flight dependant on magic or something?”
Loony actually appeared surprised by my observation, “We are glad thou can make such observations of flesh and blood creatures. We know how different they are to thee.” Hey! I understand how other creatures exist fine.
She then followed up with her educational tone, “While magic does play a large roll in a pegasus’s flight, their wings air displacement also plays an important role. We believe thou shalt need to make thine wings more rigid.”
Well, we are already up here, so why not give it a shot? With that I pulled the feather Luna gave me out of my helmet, and gave it a quick review. This gained me a mild approving look from the pegacorn. Once my evaluation was completed, I replaced the feather and began filling out my spectral wings with silver metallic copies.
Upon completion Loony simply said, “Ooo, very fancy. Thou appear more than ready for another round.” Before once again gesturing off the edge with a wing.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't try and catch me this time, I got this,” was the last thing I said, before jumping to the inevitable.
One more failure and this time an oooo from the audience for messing up the landing later, and I found myself once again deposited upon the safety cloud.
“Okay, Loony. I think it’s probably time to give up,” This is getting more than a little frustrating now to be honest.
Sadly, my taxi service didn’t agree, “We believe thou almost had it. Did thou not notice the fall take slightly longer?”
“I’m one hundred percent certain, I fell straight down. Those craters are right next to each other.” I said with my helmet hanging off the clouds edge.
“Come now. We should go again. We could attempt to hold onto thou throughout the entire flight, if it is thy wish?” Loony gently suggested. It’s not a flight, it’s not even a glide.
“I said no Luna. You won’t have a courtyard left if we continue.”
The pegacorn decided to try clutching at straws, “The guards don’t mind. It gives our drill instructors something to yell at them for.” There is no way that that was a positive.
“Can we just relax together on this fluffy cloud. It’s over.” I pleaded while beckoning for her to lay on the cloud.
“Come on, please. We do not want thou to miss out on the joys of flight,” she then began giving me the patented pony eyes. Unluckily for her, I’m way to embarrassed by failure for them to change my mind. Seeing how her pity stare was ineffective, Loony attempted to be physically encouraging, by gliding over with her hooves outstretched, ready to pick me up, “maybe We could carry thou through the movements the entire way? We know we can carry thy weight. We shall just go slow.”
This got me to stand up in an attempt to get my point across, “No, I’ve given up.”
The pegacorn didn’t seem to like the idea that I’d entirely given up, and again tried to guilt me into continuing, “We are trying our best to help thee.”
While she was very effective in her attempts to make me feel guilty, she also needs to learn when to take no as an answer. I decided to get eye level with the flying pegacorn, by standing on my rear shoes, which was actually a lot easier than I remembered, before pathetically proclaiming, “Look Luna. I’m really sorry that I can’t fly. I know my failure is disappointing, but it’s just not in my wheel house.” Really wish it was possible.
Rather than pay attention to my sad little rant, Loony appeared to be staring at the cloud in thought. “Erm, what are you looking at?” I’ve upset her, haven’t I?
In response, she decided to land and take a closer look at my rear shoes for some reason. She even let out a slight hmmm sound, as if I’d given her another terrible idea.
“Okay, what is it?” I decided to ask, after once again returning to all fours.
“We believe thou could be correct that pegasus flight is not currently conceivable.” Glad we can finally agree. “But maybe another form of flight is available? We wish to do a quick test and then we promise, if thou wishes, to join thee on this cloud.”
Well, I knew how to answer that, “you said no more experiments on Eclipse today. We were both there and I’m sure we have two witnesses.”
My half joke rewarded me with a slight wince, before the pegacorn reverted to her teaching voice, “An experiment related to teaching. We promise that thou will not feel anything harmful happen. Besides maybe falling on the, fluffy, cloud.” She decided to place extra emphasis on the fluffy in an attempt to entice me.
This is starting to remind me of when Celestia decided to cut off a piece of my mist. Nevertheless, I remained stood upon the cloud ready and willing, “If you zap me, I’m jumping off and going to bed.”
“All thou will need to do is stand up and look straight ahead. Don’t look anywhere else.”
“Fine.”
She then put her muzzle near the side of my helmet and whispered, “Thou must try thy best not to move at all.”
“I’m feeling a little déjà vu.” If this ends up with Twilight jumping out of the woodwork to try and suck out my soul again, I swear down.
Instead of the evil horse attack I was expecting, Loony just casually picked up both of my fore shoes and pushed them against my chest piece.
“Okay, now what?” this plan of hers, seems a little strange.
Instead of answering, the moon pony began casually walking around me, “You’ll see. Just keep thy shoes still.”
This inspired me to sigh once again, “okay.” When can I look?
She then decided to repeat the same action once again with my rear shoes. Placing them both against my rear. What’s that part of armour called again?
When she walked back in front of me, her face was beaming, “Well isn’t this extraordinary?”
“Have we achieved something?” I asked cautiously. This kind of seems like a waste of time.
She appeared to become a little curious without losing the smile, “Hast thou truly not noticed any difference?”
Any difference? So, she has done something. “Hmm, it feels a little more difficult to balance. Maybe a little magic drain?” They were the only differences I could think of and they were pretty negligible.
Loony just nodded in an understanding fashion, “Ah, wonder why that is? Maybe thou should investigate?”
Okay, somethings clearly up. Upon looking down, the realization should have been obvious. It also resulted in my instant collapse onto the fluffy surface. Before I’d noticed, not a single one of my shoes were holding me off the clouds surface.
The sight must have been pretty comical, as Loony immediately laughed at my discovery, “We always wondered how thou stayed up.”
“I, I actually flew?” I said in astonishment. Well, seems Loony’s persistence might have actually paid off.
“We believe it was more along the lines of floated,” Luna analysed, before putting a hoof on her muzzle in thought, “it appears a psychological barrier is all that prevents thou from taking to the air.”
“To be honest, I never really thought I’d fly after that first failure,” I mentioned a little ashamed at the connotations. It’s probably been my negative attitude holding me back this whole time. If it wasn’t for Loony, I’d be asleep instead, probably brooding over my earlier unpleasant experiences.
The next hour was spent with Luna repeating numerous tricks to try and get me to float, and then maintain the feat once it was achieved. Most of the early attempts ended in instant failure, but at the 30-minute mark, Loony had gotten me to reliably float subconsciously, basically on command. It took the rest of the hour for me to finally figure out how to balance on nothing at will. When the feat was achieved however. Well, the feeling was practically euphoric.
Looking down below me and wiggling all four shoes in the air, actually proved our time had been well spent, “I can’t believe we actually did it.” It was a group effort after all.
“We are truly proud of thine achievement, but now, we must move onto the next step.” Luna was casually stood to my side, lowering her hooves, seeing no further need to lift me up.
Her declaration surprised me a little and with some new found enthusiasm I asked, “What’s step two?”
“We believe that should be obvious,” she calmy spoke, as she walked to the opposite side of the cloud. She then sat facing me and outstretched her hooves in my direction, “Come to us friend.” Okay, she may be acting like I’m a foal learning to walk for the first time, but I probably deserve it.
Without any further prompting, I began flapping my pseudo wings a couple of times. This only caused me to wobble around in the air until I again rebalanced. Looking up at my friend I then asked, “how?” Seeing as she clearly had all the answers.
“We shall have to learn together.”
A slight groan of disappointment escaped me. Well, that isn’t what I wanted to hear. It’s ok, I’m not going to be ungrateful. Really wish we’d call it a night.
After a few attempts at movement, where at one point I tried to push off the cloud, Loony decided it would be best to lower my safety cloud out of reach. This had the unintended consequences, of allowing me to see the long fall that awaited if my concentration lapsed for a moment. “Erm Loony? I liked that cloud.”
“Thou hast nothing to fear from the fall. Even if thy concentration should fail, all that will happen is another crater. Remember, thou hast nothing to fear from falling,” the pegacorn reassured. Another crater, or a flattened guard. Wonder if any of them are still down there? It’s been quite a while.
Numerous attempts were made to move me through the air. These included flapping wildly, which Loony found mildly irritating. Attempting to run in the air, which my friend actually encouraged and finally swimming, which Loony found the most amusing likely due to my lack of equine swimming knowledge. The only real movement I achieved, was when my friend pushed me around like one of the clouds.
I will admit to maybe giving up a little bit. Allowing my shoes to just dangle below me, while Loony flew around with the occasional word of encouragement. Really wish I had her confidence. This is basically hopeless. Just need to look on the bright side. At least I’m not stuck with Twilight.
With that thought, my gaze drifted back to the window we’d escaped from hours before. What I beheld would have taken my breath away, if I had any. Through the window I could see two Twilights. One with her patented clipboard and another glowing green copy sitting there looking bored. Poor little bug, maybe we shouldn’t have sacrificed her to the purple menace? After a word from the real pony, the Twilight clone flashed green and turned into a perfect copy of Celestia, that immediately flourished it’s wings. Oh yeah, that reminds me, she can probably blast her tormentor if needs be. She did take out both pegacorns. Now wouldn’t that be terrible?
A misheard shout from my friend, pulled me from my musings, “Sorry, what was that?”
“We said, hast thou attempted to use thy spirit mist in anyway?” Loony quickly repeated, while flying off to my side.
“Erm, I’ll give it a try now.” I said a little sheepishly. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh yeah, it’s because she’s been the ruler of a country for thousands of years, while I’m some idiot spirit that just sat on his rear within the void. Some people have all the luck. Excluding that nasty business with her banishment of course. Okay, she hasn’t been that lucky.
As soon as I figured out how to use my mist to push backwards against the air, I received a decent amount of thrust steadily propelling me forward. This gave me the idea to return my wings to their once misty form. More mist means more propellant, right? It turned out my theory was correct as I floated forward at a respectable jogging speed with a short trail of mist behind me.
With my newfound ability, I immediately began flying straight towards Loony, who was waiting for me in the air. “I’m actually doing it,” I couldn’t help exclaiming in delight. Seems hard work does pay off. Who knew?
“Impressive work for one night it would seem,” the moon pony said in congratulations.
As she was waiting in my path, I inevitably collided with her in what amounted to a slow car crash, which I decided to disguise as an intentional attempt at a hug, before apologising, “Oops, sorry Loony. For the crash and… being a terrible student. I’d love for you to teach me more.” She’s actually really patient to be putting up with my constant whining. Especially for something that only really benefits me. I might have actually put Celestia on the sick.
“Really?” Loony exclaimed happily, before gladly returning my intentional hug. She then looked to the moon she had raised half an hour ago and said in a hopeful tone, “The night is still young and there is much for thee to learn.”
It took me a monumental amount of effort to suppress a groan at that. I meant at a later date.
Before I could come up with a decent excuse for us to retire, Loony smiled warmly and leaned in closer, “Is thou interested in trying a real pair of alicorn wings?” She then casually flicked her wings a couple of times.
“Huh,” was all that came out of my helmet. That could be fun.
Que five minutes later and Luna was flying in a slightly wonky fashion, while donning me.
Without warning she suddenly said, “Okay then. Eclipse bank right.” Trying my best to follow her instructions I tucked in her legs and reangled her feathery wings. This resulted in the desired change in direction and gained me some additional praise, “Well done. We knew thou had been mimicking the correct motions first try.” Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.
“Thou appear to have basically mastered pegasus flight. Maybe we should make this more interesting? Would it be possible for thou to put more of thine magic into our wings?” The pegacorn asked coyly.
“Erm ok, I’ll give it a shot,” I replied without much confidence. I’ve sort of done it before on instinct, how hard can it be? Apparently not very as I easily pushed a large quantity of my magic into Loony’s wings. This elicited a cry of surprise from my wearer, as we suddenly accelerated.
Due to the direction we were flying, we would have smashed straight into Canterlot castle, had the surprised pegacorn not reacted quickly enough. Instead, she turned us to the right, resulting in an incredible smash into the courtyard, likely leaving a much larger crater than any previous.
Upon crashing, I immediately checked on my wearer, “Loony! Are you ok!” Before scrambling to dig us out of the ground. She could have broken her neck or anything! “I’m so sorry, the boost was just so unexpected.”
It took me a moment to realize, after removing Loony’s head from the ground, that she was laughing almost uncontrollably. Really hope that isn’t a sign of brain damage.
Luckily, Loony quickly started to put my mind at ease, “That was fantastic Eclipse! Let us try again; we should be able to breach the sound barrier with ease.”
“Does that mean you’re okay?” I asked incredulously. Not sure it’s a good idea to attempt flying like that after such a major failure.
This prompted her to giggle once again, “We are more than okay. That was most exhilarating. Come, we only have a few hours left with which to practice.”
It was impossible for me to suppress my groan of disappointment at her words, which she clearly misinterpreted. “We are sorry Eclipse, but we shall have to stop to take part in night court,” the pegacorn said sympathetically, inspiring me to groan again. Can’t we just skip night court and lay on the cloud?
As I’d already stood us up, Luna quickly spread her wings before rocketing us back into the sky, “We believe thy power boost shall prove to be most useful.”
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i can see rainbow trying to suck up to him in the future just cause she wants to use him
Ha. Learning to Crash may have been a more apt title.
Rainbow Moon
Hmmm, race between Rainbow and an enhanced Luna in the future??
Oh no... Lulu speed demon
Anyone else thinking of Latias and Latios when he was learning to float?
11231339
Thank you
Sonic Moonboom! ... .... Eh, working title. 🙃
Considering it's been engaging in nearly non-stop action, we can understand a certain desire to rest and relax, especially after the mini torture. Frankly surprised it didn't just glom onto Luna and make her lay still. 😇
In any case, learning has occurred! Now it just needs to make whirring spaceship sounds while putting around in the air. 😂
11231544
Yes. 💆
Will Luna be able to do a Sonic Starboom?
11231755
Who knows these things? :)
11231555
To be honest, I'd been debating on whether or not this chapter was ready since Saturday.
Ending up thinking, if I don't upload it soon, the story will grind to a halt, so here it is.
11231365
It's hard for a brick to learn how to fly. :)
11231361
11231408
11231430
There may be some sort of occurrence with Rainbow. We'll just have to see. :)
11231582
Ah, one of the potential alternate realities this chapter went through.
Jumping on Luna and forcing her to laze on their cloud with them, didn't seem very polite to Eclipse.
11231788
Yes, the M-rated spin-off ...😈
"Luna, why are you suddenly... oh.... Um... 😊 ooohkaayyyy...."
11231813
Well I wouldn't say it would be rated M. Just encouraged nap time. Laziness is contagious.
11231775
All he need is to miss the ground.
Where is your avatar picture from?
11231915
I typed in google "armoured demon horse" and that's what I found. It was initially used for this story and then I decided to use it for my avatar as well.
11231934
Author of that is a concept artist for multiple games and movies, including Gear of War and Pacific Rim. Shadowmane though seems to be un-adopted to any
11231956
Huh, I never really looked into it. Had you seen it before? Or did you google it like I am right now?
Edit: finally found them
https://www.artstation.com/andrewdoma
11231775
For a brick, he flew pretty good!
11231997
Like any brick, they can achieve the ability to fly if someone is there to help. Luna was there to throw said brick, allowing them to break all the windows they like.
Ah, doing your best petunia bowl impression?
Very nice chapter, I loved the flight lesson and how they figured it out.
No, definitely not. In fact, I expected him to be more irritable, considering Twilight was treating him like an object! It just shows how forgiving in the short term he is. But I really hope twilight gets the "just because it's not a pony, doesn't mean it's not a person" lesson beat into her head next time we see her.
I'm looking forward to more of this.
Good chapter
“Art thou mad at me?” She said with notes of genuine concern.
“No, it’s just I can’t…”
_________________________________________
Are you kidding me. That armor has a few screws loose if he doesn't get mad for getting thrown off a cloud. I mean what does it take for him to flip his table at these ponies.
This is almost into the realm of masochistic with what he is willing to take.
Ultimately they do figure out how to make him "fly" but I don't know maybe it's cause I associate falling with a but load of pain and suffering...
Maybe it's cause I guess he really doesn't feel pain per say that he allows himself to be put through that process without getting mad.
Wonderful chapter but I get the feeling the ponies are taking advantage of Eclipse's niceness.
11231773
I think the chapter turned out just fine didn't see no typos so I think you're good there
11232398
i agree, turned out fine. However, I do admit the low amount of content for the long wait is a lil disappointing. I just want more of my favorite walking sentient piece of socially awkward armor
Being irritable at someone treating you like a slave with no rights is understandable.
11233011
I guess it is. :)
11231786
An even more speed-enhanced Rainbow Dash? Gosh, whatever could go wrong there.
Although it's probably better than getting kidnapped by Rarity to be the most fru-fruest of fancy dresses in the history of fashion...
11232634
Well, the next chapter is probably going to be between 8000 and 10000 words. Hopefully that'll be something to look forward to. :)
11233472
As things currently stand, Eclipse gets on quite well with Rarity. She would probably have greater success in convincing them to do something than Rainbow. Especially since Rarity helped them out for the Gala.
11232398
11232165
Glad you think so. :)
11232023
While it wasn't intentional, that reference is great. :)
11232312
While they say they aren't mad to Luna, internally they aren't the happiest at that point. They just didn't want to admit it. Later on, they do get fed up with the situation and tell her they want to give up.
Eclipse is a pretty lazy individual and is more likely to find things irritating or disappointing, as that's easier than getting full on angry.
11232318
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.
Eclipse is pretty naive when it comes to all things pony. They don't really know what's expected to maintain a friendship, so they just do their best to keep their closest friends happy.
11233474
it is indeed
11233518
Better not let Twilight know or she'll be all over Eclipse trying to be the teacher for a change. Gonna learn you so much friendship it'll be coming out your phantom ears!
Twiggles being a sociopath feels bad.
11234658
Yeah I know. It wasn't really how I intended her to come across. Hopefully, down the line, balance will be restored.
Can eclipse fully disolve his armor into smoke?
11236323
That's an interesting question.
They've never actually tried, or even considered that an option so far.
11236373
mabey when he gets more time to experement. Tecnicly he could also do the full blooded pony thing but he seems to need work on that but till he figures that out you could play with him making a form that is similer enough but doesnt have anything inside. I mean it will help with making an outward appernce and then all he needs to do is learn biolagy
11236386
That's true. Lack of competence is the main factor holding them back from that.
They also kind of swore off trying for a little while, due to mentally scarring everypony around them.
That being said, there may be something in the works relating to that idea down the line. However, it's so far away that it may never make it in, we'll have to see.
11236392
you might be able to get him help to advance if that is what you want for him. He does trust luna and due to his nature its not out of the question that through a mix of luna and the changlings help he could be given the infomation about how to make such a form directly. With luna being able to do quite a bit with dream and mind magic and changlings being natural shapeshifters luna could verry likely help him with an accelerated rate using those factors (dont want to assume too much about your world).
11236397
While Eclipse does want to advance and improve, they don't really put that much effort in. It does make sense that Luna would give them a helpful push, if she believed that was what they wanted. :)
Skitter, has also shown a passing interest in teaching Eclipse shapeshifting, in the previous chapter.
Using mind magic might be an interesting idea, but it would likely be considered immoral by both Luna and Skitter.
As for dreams, they have yet to experience any real ones since waking up in the Everfree. Pretty sure that's soon going to be rectified.
For now, Eclipse is still going to be the awkward, metallic, ghost horse wandering around with the occasional wardrobe change, but I will take your comment under advisement for the far future.
11236435
to clarify i wasent suggesting luna zap the info into eclipse and was insted suggesting that luna bring eclipse and skitter into a dream together where eclipse can make a body then have luna and skitter show him how to improve. That way he is working with his mind and is in a space where he can afford to make more mistakes and the other 2 can correct him easyer
11236438
I may have assumed some things about information being downloaded into some brains. Jokes. :)
I got what you meant with the dream stuff. I think that's a good idea. The dream training, not the mind download thing.
11236442
i mean i did consider the mind downlode thing but i dont think luna would do that so i thought up the dream training thing insted