Why Did I Choose to be Trixie?

by Mike the Red

Learning to Fly

My sleeping was interrupted by Princess Celestia entering our room and nuzzling me awake. Trixie had embraced me again, her muzzle against my neck, her fore-legs clasping my mid-section tightly. She had a smile on her lips as she hugged me tightly. My wings and fore-legs were wrapped around her body as I held her close.

"Michael, I have need of your services. My students informed me of your success in dealing with the Changeling Queen and her army, however, there is a new threat to my realm. A certain very powerful dark King from the Crystal Empire is threatening the stability of Equestria, and I need your assistance."

I mumbled something in my hazy half-asleep state about having already raised the sun and being too tired to do much of anything else for awhile.

"What? My counterpart here made you raise her Sun? Why would she do ... oh, your cutie mark. I should have noticed that earlier. I don't know how long you have been in your current form, but if my counterpart would teach you to raise her sun, she must have a great deal of confidence in you. I would like to talk with you again soon, perhaps in my realm. Other than that, I am sorry to have troubled you -- I believe my students and I should be able to deal with this matter appropriately."

"Make a crystal heart out of poison joke for him," I muttered in my half-lucid state. "Trick him into eating it and don't give him a cure..."

The Solar Princess from the other universe chuckled at the suggestion and teleported back to her universe.

I allowed myself to drift back into sleep, but not before giving Trixie a quick kiss on the lips. "Sweet dreams, lover girl," I whispered to her while she continued to snore lightly, her smile widening a little. Before too much longer, I was woken again, this time by Celestia again.

"Michael, it is time for your next lesson. I will be teaching you the proper use of your wings for flight," the Sun Goddess said cheerfully. "I'm willing to wager you've never flown before."

"Only in an airplane," I mumbled through my sleepiness.

"Well, Michael, there's a reason you have wings -- which I see you have wrapped around your wife -- and today I will be teaching you how to use them to fly under your own power. So I need for you to get out of bed and follow me back to my balcony."

I got up from the large bed and rubbed sleep from my eyes and followed Celestia once again. Standing on her balcony and looking out across the landscape during the day gave another stunning panoramic vista. I felt the the wind rushing through my wings, a feeling which I found truly exhilarating. I spread my wings wide to get the full effect of the air currents flowing around, above, and below my span. I could sense my new muscles tensing in anticipation, almost involuntarily moving my wings up and down in an attempt to gauge however much strength I would need to achieve the necessary lift and resistance to allow me to fly. The sensation was quite intense, instilling within me a feeling of giddiness. I smiled broadly as the Sun Goddess watched.

"I see you have instinctively adapted to the wind current. Good. That is the first step, Michael. I suggest, since this is the first time you have attempted to fly, that you crouch in your stance. You should leap into the air and flap your wings a little to become accustomed to the wind's resistance. Try gliding at first, riding the wind current."

I crouched a little, continuing to feel the wind resistance and currents. I jumped up, allowing the current to hold me aloft as I glided as best I could. I flapped my wings in a front-to-back motion, grabbing for air to propel myself forward. Truthfully, I wasn't doing very well, as Celestia admonished me that I was gaining too much altitude. I allowed myself to descend, gliding through the air in a slow descent. I must have panicked upon the first sensation of actually falling, unable to control my flight to the Solar Princess' satisfaction. She used her telekinesis to grab my body, my limbs flailing wildly in an attempt to right myself and regain control. I was returned to the balcony we had initially been standing on. I hung my head in disappointment.

"You're going to need some more practice, Michael, but I'm sure that after a few more tries, you'll be flying around with more confidence and skill soon enough. When you have mastered flight, you will never want to return to your previous status as a Unicorn, of that I am fairly certain!" Celestia chuckled.

It took me a few moments to recover from the shock of free falling, a sensation which was quite terrifying. "Um, Princess, I request a short break before resuming this lesson, if you would be so kind," I said, still shaking a little.

"Certainly, Michael. When did you last eat? Would you care to join me for lunch?"

"I haven't eaten since last night, so food and drink sounds quite good right now."

She beckoned me to follow her to the private dining area she usually shared with her sister and had her chefs prepare some food for us. I requested hay pancakes, which I had become accustomed to eating, a scrambled egg and a glass of orange juice. Since Celestia had already had breakfast earlier in the day, she was going to eat lunch at this point. We had a short discussion of what else I was going to be learning, more flying practice, more practice raising and lowering the Sun, new spells to learn, studying in the Royal Archives, and what Trixie would be doing while I was staying at the Castle. Apparently, Trixie would be learning new magic as well as helping around the Castle with various tasks as she was assigned, though I mentioned she would probably complain bitterly about being given work to do. The Sun Goddess stated that the labor would be in exchange for our extended stay at the Castle as well as covering our meals as well. When we were done eating, we returned to her balcony once again.

"Are you ready to try again, Michael?" Celestia asked, She looked at me expectantly, smiling softly. Her multi-colored mane and tail billowed rapidly in the wind current or maybe it was the solar wind blowing it in the opposite direction. My bright yellow and orange mane and tail were being blown about likewise.

"I believe so, Celestia," I stated with a little apprehension. I spread my wings to their full extension once again, the wind buffeting them as I steadied my stance. Once again I crouched slightly, leaping into the air to get a feel for the wind. I flapped my wings harder and faster in order to get a good rhythm going, then moved forward, accelerating and gaining altitude as well. The Solar Princess flew after me, trailing me in order to make sure I didn't lose control.

"You're doing good, there, Michael!" she shouted at me. "You might want to slow it down a little!"

A blue blur passed me in the opposite direction, then changed its vector and returned in my direction. A familiar cyan pegasus with chromatic mane and tail approached me while I was flying.

"WOW! Awesome, dude! I KNEW Celestia was gonna teach ya how to fly! Pretty cool, huh?" asked a very excited Rainbow Dash. "Hey, wanna race?"

"Rainbow, I'm just now learning how to fly, and you want me to race you? Fastest flier in all Equestria challenging ME to a race? That wouldn't be fair!" I called to her. She giggled and laughed and flew off to Ponyville. I followed her down to the ground, but found that landing was going to take some practice as well. I thought I could flap my wings and glide in to a landing like I've seen geese do, but I ended up rolling a few times before coming to a very ungraceful stop. The cyan pegasus laughed at my failed landing attempt.

"Looks like you're gonna need some more practice LANDING as well!" she chuckled. The Sun Goddess landed gracefully a short distance away from us.

"Your Majesty!" Rainbow exclaimed and bowed deeply before her.

"Michael, we need to depart for the Castle. You will be able to visit your friends here in Ponyville from time to time, but right now I have more lessons to teach you. I suppose Rainbow Dash can teach you the finer aspects of flight at a later time, but we DO need to return to the Castle." She turned her attention to the cyan pegasus. "I hope you're keeping an eye on the weather, Rainbow Dash."

"Yes, Princess Celestia, I am -- and I'll get back on it right now!" she exclaimed as she took to the sky once again, pummeling stray clouds here and there.

"Michael, since you flew all the way here, I'm sure you can fly all the way back to Canterlot," the Solar Princess smiled at me.

"I'd be tempted to teleport, Celestia, but you are correct. I have to get more flying practice in, and hope I don't end up doing another rolling somersault when I try to land on your balcony again," I responded.

I leaped into the air once again, and this time I was able to fly a bit better. It seemed to get easier with practice, and the rush of the wind around me was quite thrilling as I flapped my wings against the resistance. I tried to fly faster which agitated the Sun Goddess, still trailing behind me.

"Don't go so fast! Save your strength!" she shouted after me.

Truthfully, I felt like a kid who had been given a brand new toy and wanted to play with it as much as I could. I felt myself laughing at the feeling of flying. Celestia's earlier words were proving true -- I definitely did NOT want to give THIS up! It felt way too good and I wanted to keep on flying, but the Castle was already coming into view rather quickly. I gained more altitude to make it to Celestia's balcony once again, then slowed my approach and descent, gliding in on the wind current, flapping my wings to keep myself aloft. I bent my knees to make a landing, but still ended up tripping onto my face. At least I didn't end up somersaulting on the floor.

"I'm going to have to work on landing a bit more," I stated flatly, rubbing my muzzle with my right fore-hoof.

"You can practice more of that later, Michael," she chuckled. "I would like to take you on a tour of the Royal Archives, but I have Day Court to attend to. Would you care to observe the activities of Day Court? You never know when I might ask you to cover for me, should the need arise."

"Your counterpart from the other universe came to me earlier when I was trying to recover from raising your Sun this morning. She mentioned something about needing my assistance to deal with some rogue King and a Crystal Empire," I stated flatly. The Sun Goddess raised an eyebrow.

"Why didn't you apprise me of this situation earlier, Michael? If it's King Sombra she's talking about, you should assist her in whatever way you can. That one is quite dangerous, and dealing with him will be difficult."

"I told her to fashion a crystal heart out of poison joke and feed it to him," I stated. "As well as informing her that after raising your Sun, I felt very tired and needed some time to recover." Celestia glowered at me, frowning.

"I suggest you travel to her realm and deal with that problem properly, Michael. I don't know how well my counterpart can deal with such a dangerous threat, and since you have proven yourself to be quite capable of dealing with these matters, you would do well to assist her and her ponies. Go now, and help them. I will await your return."

Comments

[Luckyfanisaac]

I felt the the wind rushing through my wings,