Cloudsdale needs water from Ponyville's highland reservoir once again. Now that Twilight Sparkle has recently acquired wings, Rainbow Dash insists she must help create the needed tornado with the other pegasi.
Due to some unforeseen events Cloudsdale Weather Factory has run out of water to make rainclouds and Ponyville pegasi are asked to raise water from their local highland reservoir once again. They have less than a day to accomplish said task, and Rainbow Dash is more than willing to give quick refresher training for Ponyville pegasi so they could create the needed tornado in time.
But there is one new pegasus in Ponyville, one that is hesitant to take part in the tornado duty. Or rather an old resident of Ponyville who just recently got her wings. Rainbow Dash insists that Twilight Sparkle must assist in creating the tornado, but the young alicorn isn't confident with her flying skills. Not confident at all. But lack of confidence has never before been a good excuse for Rainbow Dash, and it isn't this time either.
“Emergency meeting for all pegasus ponies of Ponyville! Seven o’clock in the library!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying over Ponyville. “Direct orders from the weather factory! Spread the word to the other pegasi!” She dropped several fliers with more details over various groups of pegasi as she flew by them.
Twilight Sparkle was in the market buying groceries for the evening as she heard Rainbow repeating those lines over and over, sweeping back and forth over Ponyville and trying to cover every inch to spread her message to everypony—or to every pegasus at least. Twilight was standing in front of Applejack’s stand, about to buy a few apples, but now found herself just looking up in the sky.
“Ya reckon what that fuss is all about?” Applejack asked, also having been watching their friend zigzagging overhead.
Twilight shook her head and looked down at Applejack. “I don’t know,” she said. “Last time Rainbow called for all the pegasi was when they were needed to spin up that tornado to raise water up to Cloudsdale, but it shouldn’t be Ponyville’s turn for that this soon again. And didn’t she say ‘emergency meeting’? I doubt getting water up to Cloudsdale would qualify as an emergency, since as far as I know they usually plan ahead and refill their water tanks well in advance.”
As Rainbow flew overhead again, she dropped one of her notes so that it fell right between the two and continued flying towards the other end of Ponyville, still shouting her announcements all around.
“Well, guess we’ll find our answers in this here paper,” Applejack said as Twilight levitated up said paper and started read through it.
“Hmm... a mandatory emergency meeting in library seven o’clock for all Ponyville pegasi... that we heard already...” Twilight skimmed through the leaflet, humming silently. “Hm... aha! Here’s the explanation,” she said after a few seconds.
“An extract from the minutes of an emergency meeting of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory high council,” she read aloud. “There has been a severe miscalculation concerning the rainwater regulations in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory, causing many areas to have been flooded with excessive amounts of rain. Consequently, they have prematurely run out of water to make rainclouds, causing many cities and towns of Equestria to have been left in drought with only miniscule amount of rain, if any at all. In addition to that, a wing fever epidemic has been spreading in the large cities at the eastern parts of Equestria, leaving majority of pegasi bedridden and unable to fly. These cities include Baltimare, which was supposed to be the next rainwater provider for Cloudsdale. Due to these unplanned circumstances, the council orders Rainbow Dash, the highest ranking officer in Ponyville division, to gather up all the grown-up pegasus ponies in Ponyville to raise water from their local reservoir up to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory by four o’clock tomorrow afternoon.”
“Well I’ll be,” Applejack said. “They’ve sure messed up quite bad this time. Runnin’ out of rainwater? If my farms were hit by a drought because of some miscalculation up in the weather factory, I woulda be mighty riled up too.”
“Yup, and that’s what the farmers in those places left without water have been complaining about,” Rainbow Dash said, swooping down next to them and joining the discussion. Her saddlebags were now empty, all the leaflets distributed all around Ponyville already. “Thus why we need an emergency meeting to get the cloud machines up and running again as soon as possible. The last thing we need is food shortages because of drying crops, or in worst case an Equestria-wide quarrel between earth ponies and pegasi, just like in that old Hearth’s Warming play.”
“That seems unlikely to me,” Twilight noted. “A single accidental drought wouldn’t cause earth ponies as a whole to start rebelling against pegasi, even if there may be some tension here and there.”
“Heh, yeah,” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head. “Maybe I was exaggerating that a little. But that doesn’t make the situation any less serious; it’s weather factory’s responsibility to provide rain for all parts of Equestria, and drying crops would cause problems to both farmers and the weather factory at the very least. We still need to fix the situation as soon as possible, and that means I have to gather up all the pegasi of Ponyville once again and give a quick refresher training so we could whip up that tornado again. So I’d better make sure everyone’s heard the news. See you later!” She took off and disappeared behind a row of buildings before either Twilight or Applejack could say anything.
“She’s sure got her hooves full of work for once,” Applejack said, turning her gaze from where Rainbow had disappeared to Twilight still standing in front of her market stall. “So, were ya gonna buy some apples, or did ya come here just for a chat? I’ve got some fresh ones here picked this morning.” She gestured towards the baskets full of apples next to her.
“Oh, yes, apples,” Twilight said, turning back towards Applejack. “That’s what I came here for. I’ll just have six of those red delicious apples.” She levitated up a pouch from her saddlebag and placed four bits on the table, and then levitated half a dozen of bright red apples into the her saddlebags.
“Thank ya kindly,” Applejack said, placing the bits into a bag behind the counter. She looked back at Twilight, keeping up the conversation. “Do ya think that call for all pegasus ponies includes you too? You’ve got wings nowadays after all.”
“Huh? Oh! Uh...” Twilight glanced back at her relatively new appendages, fluttering them a little instinctively. She hadn’t even thought that she may have to be in the tornado duty too. “I don’t know,” she said, looking back at Applejack. “I can’t really fly all that well yet, so I don’t think I would be much help for them.” While it was true she was still a weak and hesitant flier, even more hesitant than Fluttershy, it may have had something to do with the fact that she hadn’t really even tried to fly that much. She was simply more interested in magic, books, and science than flying. But that was a minor detail.
“Didn’t stop Rainbow from draggin’ Fluttershy into it last time,” Applejack pointed out.
“Oh, right. Well... I would be there anyway to help organize the whole thing, just like I did last time. But if I can avoid it, I’m not going into that tornado.”
“Good luck convincin’ Rainbow Dash to let you stay out.” Applejack chuckled. She smiled and waved. “Bye then. See ya later.”
Twilight said her goodbyes and left the market, apples being the last item in her shopping list. As she walked towards her library, she pondered whether she would have to be in the tornado tomorrow, or if Rainbow would be content with her just helping with organization again without her needing to do any actual flying. She wasn’t really fond of flying, and sometimes she even wished she hadn’t gotten those wings in the first place—not that she would ever admit that to anyone, especially to Rainbow Dash.
“Hi again,” Rainbow said, flying through library’s open door, seeing Twilight at the other end of the room. She landed next to her and asked, “Has anyone else come here yet?”
Twilight looked back at Rainbow. “No, not yet,” she said and glanced at a clock on the library wall. “It’s only twenty minutes until the meeting though, so I’m sure first ones will arrive any minute now.”
“Yeah.” Rainbow nodded. “I just came a bit earlier so I could count everypony as they arrive. Much easier that way than to count everyone once they are already crammed in the library. Oh, and before I forget to ask, do you still have that ane... ameno... what was it?” She scratched her head. “That thing we used last time to measure our wing powers?”
“Anemometer,” Twilight said.
“Yeah, that. I never remember the name of that thingy. Why did they have to give it so difficult to remember name anyway? Wouldn’t something simple like ‘wing power gauge’ make more sense?” She shook her head as Twilight was obviously about to give a convoluted answer about the etymology behind the name. “Whatever, doesn’t matter. You still have that lying around?”
“Sure! I just have to make sure it still works, make some test runs, recalibrate it, and—“
“Yeah, yeah, spare me the details.” Rainbow swung her hoof. “Just make sure it’s up and running by tomorrow morning. We need to start measuring and improving our wing powers as early as possible. We have even less time for this than we had last time.” She paused for a moment. “How about that educational film about using tornadoes to raise the rainwater to Cloudsdale? Do you still have that?”
“Uh, no. It kinda got destroyed last time, remember? Besides, the projector broke down too, and I still haven’t bought a replacement, as they don’t sell those here in Ponyville.”
“Oh, yeah. Whatever, we don’t need it anyway. Every pegasus here in Ponyville already knows the drill. A quick motivational speech combined with a call for the training tomorrow morning should be enough.”
As Rainbow had said that, she saw a third pony, Fluttershy, silently entering the library. The shy pegasus looked around, seeing nopony but Twilight and Rainbow in the otherwise empty library room. “Oh, did I interrupt something? Did I arrive too early?” she asked softly, glancing at the clock on the wall. “Sorry. I’ll just leave and come back—”
“Just come in, Fluttershy,” Twilight said smiling. “We were expecting for the others to come any minute now anyway.”
“Good to see you here, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said with a hint of surprise in her voice. She had almost expected that she would have to drag Fluttershy from her cottage herself. “So you’re not afraid of the tornado duty anymore, are you?”
“Oh, no,” Fluttershy said, now walking to the other two. “Or yes, I am, kinda.” She tried to hide behind her mane before continuing, “And I still really don’t like big crowds. But last time I learned that every little bit helps, and I know this is important, and we really have to do this.”
“That’s the spirit,” Rainbow said. “Just... stay with us from the beginning this time, alright? Nopony will laugh at you as long as you are with us and do your best. Or if they do laugh anyway, I’ll show them who’s the boss here!” She flew a feet into the air and bumped her chest with a hoof. “I’ll make them work so hard they don’t even have time to laugh!”
“Oh, you don’t have to be so hard on them because of me...”
“Nonsense,” Rainbow said. “If they give you any trouble, just tell me and I’ll take care of it.”
After she finished that line, fourth and fifth pony—Cloudchaser and Flitter—entered the library. They were soon followed by Thunderlane, Derpy, Snowflake, and a bunch of other pegasi, and the library was steadily filling to the brim. Rainbow hovered near ceiling and kept count on everypony entering to make sure nopony thought they could skip the meeting without consequences. As the library filled with ponies and chatter, she was delighted to see that every non-elderly adult pegasus had arrived. It was time to start her speech.
“Listen up, everypony!” Rainbow flew up in front of the crowd, raising her voice to make sure everypony heard her. The library room fell silent as everypony looked at Rainbow, listening intently. “I trust you have all read the notes I gave you earlier today, and you know why we are here tonight,” she said, getting small nods and a hushed chatter from most of the ponies present. “But in case somepony doesn’t know, here’s the short of it: Cloudsdale has run out of rainwater and is now in dire need of our highland water reserves by tomorrow afternoon. Our town was chosen as the water provider because we’ve done it recently already, and they trust we can fulfill their request even with the short notice. And you know what that means? It means we have to work hard to make another giant tornado to raise that water up to Cloudsdale once again! Cloudsdale need us! Equestria needs us! Are you with me?!”
“YEAH!” the crowd of pegasi shouted collectively. Rainbow was watching at Fluttershy—who was hiding in a shadowy corner at the back—during that shout, and she could have sworn she saw even her shouting a little ‘yay’ among the others. That caused a smile to creep on her face for a split-second, but in a moment she had put on her expressionless face again.
“Wonderbolt captain Spitfire would have come to supervise our performance again,” Rainbow continued her speech, “but the Wonderbolts were performing in Manehattan by the time a wing fever epidemic hit the city and unfortunately they caught it too, so they were asked to stay in the city to avoid spreading the epidemic further. That means I am now responsible of making this whole operation a successful one, and I’m not gonna rest until I’m satisfied with all of your performances!” She looked down at the covering yellow shape in the corner. “That goes for you too, Fluttershy,” Rainbow added, causing the yellow pegasus to retract deeper into the shadows. “I’m not going to tolerate the kind of fooling around you did last time, from anypony. Granted, in the end you helped us to push over the limit back then, but now I want everypony to be with us from the very beginning until the end.
“Now,” she continued with a raised voice to the whole group, “I know you all are not as athletic and awesome as I am, and I know most of you haven’t kept up training since the last time, so we’re going to have an intense training session tomorrow to get all those wings of yours back to working order. Are you ready for some hard training?!”
“YEAH!”
“I can’t hear you! Louder!”
“YEAH!” The resounding shock wave threatened to break some windows of the library.
“Great! Now go take a hike and stretch those wing muscles tonight, and meet me at the racetrack tomorrow morning! I’m expecting everypony up and awake by sunrise, and I don’t want to see anypony missing! If you have any questions, ask them now!” Rainbow waited for a second for anypony to say anything, but the room stayed silent. “No questions? In that case, go! Stretch those muscles! And remember to be at the racetrack by sunrise!”
As Rainbow finally landed on the floor in front of the crowd, the room was once again filled with chatter. The ponies were exiting through the door in a steady stream, quickly clearing the room until there were soon only three ponies left: Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash herself.
“Don’t you think you were unnecessarily tough on them?” Twilight finally asked Rainbow. “May I remind you that we are not in the Wonderbolt Academy, and neither is this a military drill.”
Rainbow waved her hoof dismissively “Nah. If I were giving commands in Wonderbolt Academy, I would have been at least ten times harsher. Besides, pegasi are an ancient warrior race; we appreciate it if there is somepony taking charge with a commanding and brash attitude.”
“I don’t like brash attitude,” Fluttershy said softly.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Okay. Most pegasi like to have a leader with brash attitude.”
“Aren’t you stereotyping here?” Twilight asked. “I’m sure just having wings doesn’t mean you’ll automatically like something more than the others.”
“It’s not just the wings; it’s in the pegasus genes,” Rainbow explained. “Or that’s what I was taught in Cloudsdale as a filly anyway. But obviously there are some exceptions, with one example in this very room.” She looked at Fluttershy, then back at Twilight, scratching her head. “And I guess you’re an exception too, Twilight, since you were not born a pegasus.”
“Well, if it’s really in the genes as you say, then that would be true.” Twilight nodded affirmatively. “Me ascending to my alicorn status didn’t change my genotype as far as I know, so I obviously wouldn’t have these inherent pegasus genes in my body. It’s still just one factor though, and I’m sure upbringing and foalhood education play a major role here too, and—”
“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “don’t try to turn this discussion into a lecture about what defines our personalities. If I wanted you to give a lecture, I would have asked for it. And I don’t remember asking, so you can stop it now.”
Twilight pouted a little; she never got to give good impromptu lectures to her friends. “Oh well, maybe later then,” she said. “Anyway, I’ll just go and make sure the anemometer is still in working order, and you should probably go training or preparing otherwise for tomorrow. See you in the morning; I’ll be there again to help measuring your wing powers and to wish best of luck to you all.” She started walking towards the basement door to fetch said anemometer.
“Hold on,” Rainbow said, causing Twilight to stop in the middle of the room. “You should go training? Measuring your wing powers? Wish best of luck to you?” She flew to Twilight and landed just a foot in front of her, giving her a stern look right into eyes. “Twilight, I think you misunderstood me, as you’re talking like you wouldn’t be taking part in creating the tornado. Let me just clarify that when I asked for all the pegasi for the tornado duty, that meant you too.”
“But I’m not a pegasus. I’m—”
“Do you have wings or not?” Rainbow snapped, poking a folded wing on Twilight’s side. “I don’t care if you have a horn or if you’re a princess, but as long as you have wings and you know how to use them, in my books you’re just as much of a pegasus as I or Fluttershy. Or should I have called for ‘all the pegasus ponies and that one alicorn princess of Ponyville’ or something? Doesn’t matter. You’re a pegasus now, and you’re going to help us, like it or not. Not only in organizing, but actually in creating the tornado. Deal with it.”
“But—”
“No buts!” Rainbow interrupted. “I got a direct order from the chief of the weather factory, and she clearly said I was to gather up every adult pegasus capable of flying to ensure we had enough wing power to funnel the water all the way up to Cloudsdale. She also made me responsible for this whole operation, and I’m not letting any pegasus stay out of this as long as they can fly! You remember what happened last time, right?”
“Yes, I was th—”
“We almost failed because of a few sick ponies! We were all doing our best, but still if it weren’t for Fluttershy—the only flight-capable grown-up pegasus left in Ponyville not yet in the tornado—suddenly joining our ranks, we wouldn’t have been able to make it! That time we all learned that every little bit and every pegasus counts. And that means your effort counts too, no matter how small it is.”
“But I’ve had these wings only for a few weeks now!” Twilight shouted, finally managing to get a few words in. “I’m not good eno—”
“Stop right there!” Rainbow interrupted once again. “I’ve seen you flying, so I know you can do it. It doesn’t matter if your wing power is just point one or something, as long as you do your best! You remember Fluttershy last time we did this?” The shy pegasus in question, still in the room with the other two, shrunk deeper into the shadows. “Her wing power was only point five when we started the measurements, and she managed to over quadruple her wing power in just one day, all on her own!”
“I can’t really argue with that,” Twilight said, taking a step backwards to put a little distance between herself and the pegasus, who was now almost yelling right into her face. It seemed Rainbow was finally giving her a chance to talk back. “But you have no idea how hard it is to learn to fly when you’ve just grown wings out of nowhere and never have had them before. It’s like I’ve grown a new pair of limbs which I’m just learning to control somehow, and my body needs time to adjust. Just imagine if you suddenly grew a horn; do you think you would learn to levitate things overnight? Not to mention casting any harder spells?”
“Hard to imagine as I’ve never had a horn... but I get your point anyway,” Rainbow said, calming down a little. “But how come Rarity learned to fly so quickly with the wings you created for her back when I attended that Best Young Flier competition, but for you it took over a week until you could even hover for a few seconds?”
“Those were magical wings made of gossamer and morning dew, making them almost weightless and easier to control,” Twilight explained, having studied the wing spell further after learning to channel her magic better to actually cast that spell without exhausting herself completely. “But the most important thing is that they were, well, magical. Practically Rarity only had to think about flying somewhere, and the magic in those wings did the rest. That kind of wings are good for precisely controlled slow flying, but as a downside they are way too fragile to create significant winds or to build up speed. For those purposes real pegasus wings are far more preferable, but in turn using them is a lot harder to master. Not to mention replicating pegasus wings with unicorn magic would be nearly impossible.”
Rainbow stood silently for a moment, trying to process all the information. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. But anyway, now you have pegasus wings and I know you can use them for flying. And like I said, it doesn’t matter how bad a flier you are; as long as you can at least get airborne, we can work with that, so I’m expecting you to show up at the training tomorrow. Not just as an organizer, but as a participant. Full stop, no objections,” Rainbow said, not wanting to argue about the subject anymore. “I have to get to training now so I would be in top shape tomorrow morning. The most important thing in coaching others to fly faster and stronger is to show a good example yourself first. See you tomorrow morning! And remember to bring that amenemo... amone... anamo...” She shook her head. “Ugh! That wing-power-measurement-thingy with you! Bye!”
“It’s anemometer, and it doesn’t exactly measure wing power straight away; it just measures the wind speed a passing pegasus causes, and from that we can in turn calculate the—” Twilight started, but stopped as she noticed that Rainbow had already flew out through an open window, leaving her alone in the library with Fluttershy. She sighed. So much for giving another short lecture.
“Um...” Fluttershy finally voiced after a moment of silence, “I’ll go now too, if that’s okay? I’ve got to go feed the animals...” She turned away to exit through the door.
“No, wait,” Twilight said, causing Fluttershy to turn around to face her. “You said you were afraid to enter that tornado at first, right?”
“Yes. And I still am,” Fluttershy said. “I mean, I’ll do it anyway, because it means so much for you and the others, especially Rainbow Dash. But even then I still don’t like doing it.”
“How did you overcome your fears? And how can you be so calm even though you know you have to do it again tomorrow?” Twilight asked, hoping that it wasn’t too obvious that she was afraid to go into that tornado too.
“Oh, knowing that I’ll be helping others gives me a good motivational boost. And if that isn’t enough, I always have my animal friends helping and encouraging me. Angel is such a good friend, always there when I need him the most. But...” Fluttershy hushed her tone, her voice barely as loud as a whisper. “But even if I seem calm on the outside, I’m still a nervous wreck in the inside. I’m just trying to be a little more assertive.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” Twilight said with a wan smile. “Truth be told, I’m somewhat nervous too. Well, I’m not keeping you from your animals any longer, so I guess that’s all for tonight. I’ve got to make sure that anemometer is still working, and apparently I have to start working on my flying too.” She sighed in defeat. “No getting away from that, I guess.”
Fluttershy smiled assuredly. “Don’t worry. It’s not really that bad.”
Twilight smiled back with a slight chuckle. “Thanks. Well, I’ll see you in the morning then. Goodnight,” she said, turning towards the basement door to finally fetch that anemometer like she’d intended to do a few times already.
“Goodnight.” Fluttershy turned to exit the library, now leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts. She hoped Fluttershy was right when she said it wouldn’t really be that bad—a shy pony like Fluttershy saying something isn’t bad would surely mean that it really couldn’t be that bad for her either.
“Come on, Flitter! You can do better! I’ve seen butterflies flying faster than that! Go, go, go! Flap those wings! Now that’s more like it, but I know you can still do better! Keep on practicing!”
Rainbow was already in full swing coaching some early risers as Twilight arrived at the racetrack on the outskirts of Ponyville with Spike perched on her back, right on time as the sun was just peeking from behind the horizon. As Rainbow noticed Twilight had arrived, she immediately left Flitter’s side on the racetrack and swooped right next to the alicorn.
“Morning, Twilight,” she said, wearing a cap and having a whistle hanging from a string tied around her neck. “Ready for some warm-up rounds?”
Twilight sighed. “I guess I have no choice. Just give me a few minutes so I can assemble this anemometer first so we can start measuring wing powers right off the bat.” She levitated four propeller blades, a few metal supports and bolts, and the base of the anemometer with an attached gauge, setting them on the ground.
“I can do that,” Spike said, jumping off of Twilight’s back. “You just go warm up with Rainbow Dash while I’ll build this thing up. I’ve done it enough times already that I’m sure I could do it with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back.”
Why did you have to open your mouth? Twilight thought, glaring at her dragon assistant. There went that last plan to procrastinate the flight training, even if it could have only given her a few minutes more.
“That’s settled then,” Rainbow said before Twilight could protest. “Come on Twi! First fly a few laps around the track so I can see your flying and give you some expert advice. Once you’ve got the basics right we can start working up the speed.”
Twilight gulped. Closest to the flying she had done over the last few days had been to just flex her wings, as she had been way too engrossed with her studying and experiments in the library to even think about flight practice. And her “flying” before that had really been nothing more than hovering in place for short times or fluttering several feet forwards at a steady pace—usually ending up with a nosedive into the ground below. Even last night when she knew she should have been practicing, she had only read several books on flight theory, and before she knew it had already been long in the night. And now she was asked to fly in front of not just any pegasus, but one of the best fliers she had ever known, if not the best.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, here goes...” she said, having no more excuses to avoid getting airborne. She flared her wings open and started to slowly flap them; it was partly instinctive already, but getting airborne still asked for great conscious effort on her part. Nevertheless, she managed to lift herself a few feet off the ground, and managed to keep herself aloft, even though her hovering was quite wobbly.
“Hmm...” Rainbow inspected her flying a few feet at her side. “I’m not saying that’s a good start, but a start anyway. You hover like you haven’t been sleeping for a week, or like you’ve just had a little too much hard cider.”
“Oh, thanks for encouragement,” Twilight said sarcastically, almost losing her balance mid-air, trying to concentrate both on flying and talking at the same time. “But I can assure you I have been sleeping well the last few nights, and I am completely sober, thank you very much. What next?”
“Hey, I’m just honestly telling how your flying looks like,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “And I already said what’s next: go fly a few laps around that racetrack.” Rainbow pointed towards the racetrack with her hoof. There were five pegasi flying some laps around it already, apparently having a race against each other, while several other pegasi were around it either stretching or doing wing push-ups. “Well, what are you still waiting? Go, go, go!” She blew a quick blast into her whistle, causing Twilight to cringe.
“Okay, okay, I’m going!” Twilight shifted her weight forwards, just like all the books about learning to fly had said, to propel herself forward. Trying to get a hasty start she shifted her weight a little too much though, and all she managed to do was to make a crash landing a few feet in front of her, accompanied by a brief scream.
“Ow,” she said flatly with a muffled voice, her muzzle buried in the soil. As Twilight pulled her head off the ground, she could see Rainbow and Spike stifling their laughter. “Yeah, very funny,” she said. Despite the setback, she was soon back on her wings, this time concentrating more on her flying, and actually managed to fly forwards in a steady pace. A steady and a very slow pace.
“Hey, you’re supposed to fly, like, soar through the sky,” Rainbow said, lazily flying circles around Twilight. “Not just hover and let the gentle breeze carry you around. I know you can do better than this! Try leaning forwards a little more and put more force into those flaps.”
Easy for you to say, Twilight thought, still focusing intently on her wings just to keep herself in the air. She tried to do what Rainbow suggested anyway, and to her surprise and delight managed to keep her balance this time, increasing her flight speed significantly in the process.
“That’s better!” Rainbow said, having to actually put tiniest bit of effort in flying circles around Twilight now. “Buuut... it’s still way too slow. You really need to work on it. You know what? Forget about those laps around the racetrack for now, and just fly around here and get used to those wings of yours. I can see you are still having problems with controlling them and that’s not really something I can help you with, but I’m sure an hour or two of continuous flying will make that better.”
“Sounds like a—whoa!” Twilight said, losing balance momentarily as she looked at Rainbow, but with a quick correction somehow managed to stay in the air this time. After regaining her balance, she continued, “Eheh... I meant to say, sounds like a good plan.”
“Great! Just fly around, and try to work on speed once you get the balance right. And no slacking! I’ll be keeping an eye on you as well as all the others. I’ll get to coach the others now, but I’ll get back to you after an hour or two, so we can work on speed flight. Later!” With that she zoomed off to the middle of the racetrack, and started shouting her orders and encouragements to the pegasi there. Almost everypony had arrived already, and only a few were still missing, Fluttershy among the few.
As Twilight continued her flight practice in solitude, Spike had finished assembling the anemometer and had carried it next to the racetrack to start measuring wing powers with Rainbow’s assistance. The rest of the pegasi also arrived soon, everyone checking up at Dash before going to perform various training routines, save for Fluttershy, who after arriving talked with Rainbow Dash for a moment, and then came to see Twilight.
“Um... Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, hovering next to her.
“Oh, hi Fluttershy,” Twilight answered, having been so engrossed with her training that she hadn’t even noticed the other pegasus until she was right in front of her and spoke up. Her hovering was almost on an instinctive level already, so she could now easily talk with her without losing balance, as long as she didn’t do any sudden movements. “What are you doing here? Didn’t Rainbow give you some training to do?”
“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said. “But she told it would be best if we two trained together, because we’re close friends and all. She also thought I would be a good pegasus to teach you some basic flying techniques. She said I was the only one who could take things slowly enough for you to keep up.”
Typical Rainbow Dash; disguising an insult as a compliment... though I’m not sure whether she insulted mine or Fluttershy’s flight capabilities more, Twilight thought. “Well, that was quite thoughtful of her, and makes sense too. We are the slowest ones of the bunch by far after all, so it’s just logical to let us train at our own pace while Rainbow coaches the others. You’re my teacher now then, I guess. So, what should we do first?”
“Oh, uh, I don’t know.” Fluttershy fidgeted nervously. “I’ve never taught flying to anypony. As a filly I was always the last one to learn everything, and I never thought I would ever teach somepony else flying. I don’t even know where to start.”
“How about you start with the very basics?” Twilight suggested. “Like, for example, how do I turn around mid-air? So far I’ve managed to hover on place and fly to nearly every direction, but I’m still trying to figure out how to make myself turn around with these things without losing my balance!” she shouted in frustration, emphasizing her point by making a sharp ninety-degree turn to the right—only to end up in a spin towards the ground below, landing face first with a loud thud.
“Oh... oh my,” Fluttershy said, Flying down next to Twilight, who was already recovering from her crash landing. “Are you all right?”
“Yes... mostly at least,” Twilight answered groggily, rubbing her temples with a hoof to alleviate a throbbing headache caused by the crash. “That wasn’t my first face to face meeting with the ground today, and I’m afraid it won’t be the last either... Anyway, let’s get back on the training before Rainbow sees us and comes to scold us for not doing any flying like she ordered, shall we?”
“Hi again, Fluttershy. How are you two doing here?”
Twilight and Fluttershy were still flying on the side as Rainbow flew by to check on their training. Twilight was now flying in wide circles twenty feet in the air, while Fluttershy was hovering below and overseeing her.
Fluttershy nodded upwards at the spinning alicorn. “Twilight has been improving significantly since we started. She’s been flying circles up there for a few minutes now, and to be honest, I’m getting slightly dizzy even just watching her.”
Rainbow nodded approvingly, looking up at Twilight, who was indeed flying in nearly perfect circles, albeit the wing power in her flying couldn’t have been any more than one. “That’s basically what we have to do in order to create that tornado—fly in circles—so it’s good to see she’s got that right at least,” she said to Fluttershy and looked back down at her. “And how about you? I know you’ve already got the ‘flying without constantly crashing or losing balance’ checked, but I hope you’ve been improving your wing power on the side while watching over her.”
“Oh yes,” Fluttershy answered, glancing down at an assortment of animals accompanying her. “My little animal friends have been helping me with my training just like last time, and they are doing a wonderful job in it too.”
“Good to hear,” Rainbow said, not even looking away from the other pegasus. “How about you two come over at the racetrack with us so we can measure your wing powers too. We’ve already got baselines for every other pegasus here, and only your measurements are missing.” Before Fluttershy could give an answer, Rainbow looked up again and shouted, “Twilight! Time to measure your wing power!”
“I’m coming!” Twilight shouted back, quickly dipping downwards to get back on the ground. She dipped a little too far once again though, and instead of making a graceful glide down like she had intended, she made a steep plunge right towards the ground. She managed to pull up right before hitting the ground slowing her descent, but still hit the ground with a thud, causing Fluttershy and Rainbow to flinch.
“I’m okay... I’m actually getting quite used to this already...” she said with a groan, standing up on the ground as the two pegasi landed beside her.
“Yeah...” Rainbow said slowly, scratching the back of her head. “You really need to work on recovering from nosedives, as well as on landing. Anyway, we’ve got some wing powers to measure, so come on!” She gestured for the other two to follow and took off to fly back towards the racetrack, where the other pegasi were still training nonstop.
“Only zero point eight? It sure felt faster than that...” Twilight said, walking back at the finish line to hear the result of her flyby. “Well, could be worse. It’s still better than what Fluttershy got on her first try last time.” She grinned sheepishly and turned towards the yellow pegasus. “Uh, no offense.”
“None taken,” Fluttershy said softly. She was on a good mood after having found out her wing power had increased to a whopping three point one since the last time, so she didn’t mind Twilight insulting the results of her old runs. She looked at Twilight, who seemed to be surprisingly content with her result; she could still remember her own reaction to finding out her wing power had been below one. “Aren’t you, uh... upset? Because of such a low score I mean. Not that being a weak flier is bad...”
“Upset? Me? Why would I be?” Twilight said with a laugh. “I’m just glad I’ve managed to do even as well as I’ve done. I mean, I’ve already flown today more than on the other days combined ever since I got my wings, and the day has barely even started! Princess Celestia always told me I was a quick learner, but I didn’t think I could improve in flying this quickly if I just put some effort in it.”
Rainbow had been checking the wing power records, and now looked up from the notepad with a snort. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you every day ever since you got those wings, but did you ever listen? No, you didn’t. You always had your nose buried in a book, or were doing some freaky experiments in your basement, or were busy re-shelving the books in the library, or had some princess duties, or whatnot. You never took on my offers to give you any flight practice. It’s almost as if you’ve been purposefully ignoring those offers and just made up some of the tasks as excuses.”
Twilight cleared her throat and looked aside awkwardly. She had thought Rainbow hadn’t been suspecting anything, but what the pegasus said about her ignoring her offers to give flight lessons was absolutely true. She had hoped nopony would have noticed, but she had been indeed actively avoiding most of the activities involving flying with her own two wings. Not because she was afraid of heights—that wasn’t true, and she even occasionally went to a ride with her hot air balloon or an open royal chariot—but because she had been afraid of flying with her own wings, fearing she might lose control of them high above the ground. Admittedly her fears had been quelled quite a bit already over the course of the last few hours, but she still didn’t find flying appealing to her.
“A-ha!” Rainbow shouted after an awkward moment of silence, pointing an accusing hoof at Twilight. “So I take it you have been avoiding my flight lessons on purpose, haven’t you?”
Twilight snapped out of her little mind trip and back to the present situation. She folded her ears back and slumped back in embarrassment. “Well... yes,” she said quietly. “But not all of those were excuses,” she continued with a defensive tone. “For example, last Thursday I really had a scheduled re-shelving day, and on the Tuesday before that—”
“I don’t want to hear you excusing your excuses or whatever you are doing now,” Rainbow interrupted her. “But what I would like to know is an answer for a simple question. Why? Why were you avoiding my flight lessons?” Her voice was curious and a little bit concerned, rather than angry or frustrated like Twilight had expected.
“Umm...” Twilight looked around, unsure what to say. She was relieved to see nopony else was paying attention to their discussion, save for Fluttershy, who was standing right next to them. “I... well...”
“She’s afraid of flying,” Fluttershy said, squeaking a little afterward. “Uh, I hope you don’t mind me saying that, Twilight.”
Twilight sat silent, with her mouth agape. A moment later she shook her head, and said to Fluttershy, “How did you—uh, I mean...” She sighed. “Okay, well, maybe I am a little afraid. Or at least I was. But how did you know? I don’t think I ever said that to anypony. I only said I was a little nervous, but I didn’t mention being afraid of flying.”
Fluttershy smiled gently. “You didn’t say it aloud, but I could easily tell that from your body language when we talked in the library yesterday. Especially those tiny twitches and droops of your wings during our discussion were sure signs of you being afraid of it, at least a little bit.”
“Huh?” Twilight looked at Fluttershy incredulously. “You really saw all that by just looking at my body and wings?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy said. “I didn’t mean to pry, but I... I just have an eye for that sort of details.”
“So... just to clarify,” Rainbow Dash said to Twilight, who now looked back at the pegasus. “You were afraid of flying, and because of that you didn’t want to take flying lessons? Why didn’t you just tell me that instead of making up those excuses?”
Twilight snorted. “I didn’t want anypony to know about my fear of flying. I bet you would have just dragged me on a cloud by force and dropped me down from there in order to make me fly the hard way if I had told you that. And what would everypony think about a princess who’s too afraid to use her own wings?”
“Hm. Good point,” Rainbow said. “That’s probably what I would have done too. But how about now? Are you still afraid?”
Twilight thought for a moment. On one hoof she still didn’t feel comfortable at flying on high altitudes, but on the other hoof she had been flying quite a lot today already, and hadn’t yet had any panic attacks or severe injuries. In fact, at the moment she wouldn’t have minded having a little flight around the meadow to learn controlling her wings better. “No, I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. “I guess my fears were quite unfounded. But I still don’t think I’m ready to fly into a tornado.”
“In that case you’ll just have to train harder.” Rainbow took a breath and blew to her whistle, causing Twilight and Fluttershy to wince at the shrill sound. She took on her wings and yelled at the face of the other two, “Get back on your wings and fly ten laps around the track, on the double! Both of you! Now!”
Next several hours literally flew past with intense training, with just a short lunch break in between training sessions. Soon it was already late afternoon, and time for the last wing power measurements of the day. Rainbow was on the finish line, marking up the records with the help of Spike and shouting out orders to the others.
“Thirteen point six!” Rainbow shouted to Thunderlane, who had just flown by. “Now that’s very impressive! Not nearly as impressive as my own record of seventeen point eight, but impressive nevertheless. Flitter! Your turn!
“Nine point eight. Not quite hitting the target of ten, but almost there! Better than your last run by point four anyway, so keep up the good work! Cloudchaser, you’re next!
“Twelve point one! Wouldn’t have expected less from a fellow Wonderbolt Academy attendee. Derpy! To the start line, on the double!
“Nine point one. Not bad. Just try not to swerve off of the flightpath that much next time, okay? Fluttershy, your turn!
“Four point two! Great job Fluttershy! It may not be on the same level as with all the others...” She glanced at Twilight, who was getting ready for her flyby next to the start line. “...well, most of the others here, but it’s still a huge improvement over your record last time. You’ve almost doubled your wing power since the last tornado. If you would practice like this more regularly, like an hour or two every day, you’d have a wing power of over ten in no time!”
Fluttershy blushed. “I’m not really that good... and I don’t think I could keep up training like this for longer periods of time.”
“Nonsense, you have great potential, and you just have to find it from inside of you,” Rainbow said. “Anyway, last one! Twilight! Show what you’ve got!” she shouted towards the start line.
Twilight perked her ears at the call of her name, and stepped on the track right behind the white line painted on it. She took a few galloping steps and jumped into the air, beating her wings as hard as she could to provide maximum amount of thrust. And in a few seconds she found out she had already passed the finish line
“Two point seven,” Rainbow said after Twilight returned to the finish line, having genuinely surprised tone in her voice. “Not bad. Not bad at all, considering today is the first day you’ve ever got any real flight training. I wonder if your quick advancement has something to do with those alicorn wings; they at least look more sturdy than regular pegasus wings, and thus would probably give you better thrust.” She lowered her voice so that only Twilight could hear her. “Then again, if wing size was all that mattered, Snowflake wouldn’t be able to fly at all. And yet he’s one of the fastest pegasi here.”
Twilight took a discreet glance at the massive and muscular white pegasus with filly-sized wings on his back, and gave a tiny chuckle. “Well, I guess these bigger wings give a little advantage, but it’s probably the passive alicorn magic that matters more. You know pegasi wouldn’t be able to physically fly without some inherent pegasus magic assisting, and I think me being an alicorn makes that magic stronger. I really need to do some research and experiments on this later. Say, would you like to come to the library after the tornado, so I could—”
“No way,” Rainbow answered curtly. “Don’t try to pull me into your freaky experiments. I’ve got better things to do.” Twilight tried to protest, but Rainbow was already a few feet in the air, blowing three times to her whistle to get the attention of everypony. “Listen up everypony! Our wing powers are now measured, and according to the calculations we all together got way more than the required eight hundred wing power! I’ll go inform Cloudsdale that we are now ready, and we are moving to the highland reservoir in half an hour! Get yourselves ready by then!”
She zoomed off into the sky, leaving only a short-lived rainbow trail and a cloud of dust behind.
“All right everypony! Are we ready to pull this off?!”
“YEAH!”
A crowd consisting of all the grown-up pegasi of Ponyville—plus one alicorn of Ponyville—was gathered on the highlands next to the village. Rainbow Dash was flying in front of the whole group, ten feet in the air right above the artificial lake, giving last minute motivational speech before they were supposed to raise the water from the reservoir all the way up to the Cloudsdale.
“That’s what I like to hear!” Rainbow shouted, swooping above the crowd. “Keep those wings flexed, as we are going to start as soon as they get Cloudsdale steady on the right position, in just five minutes!” As she spoke, the cloud city in question was slowly drifting towards their direction high in the sky.
Rainbow landed next to Twilight, who was at the back of the group with Fluttershy, both wearing their flight goggles on their forehead like everypony else present. “Hey Twilight, Fluttershy. Are you two okay? Feeling nervous?” she asked with a smirk, seeing the obvious uncomfortable smiles on their faces.
Fluttershy was content with just nodding silently, whereas Twilight took a breath and said, “I’m feeling more confident than this morning, but that’s not really saying much. I still don’t like doing this, and according to my calculations you’ve got more than enough wing power even without my effort, so if you could just consider—”
“No,” Rainbow said curtly. “We talked about this already, and you are going in with us. I know we have enough wing power, nopony being sick this time and all, but it’s not really about pushing ourselves over the limit anymore; it’s just about the team effort. If everypony attends, it boosts everyone’s morale, leading for a better performance. Besides, you don’t want to be the only one to chicken out, do you?”
Shoot. Well, it was worth a try... Twilight thought. “Well... no, but—”
Rainbow sighed. “I thought this discussion was over already. Looking for your flying back in Ponyville at the end of our training, I know you can do it if you just believe in yourself.” She looked back at the other ponies in crowd. “Well, I’d better check everything’s is still in order before we start. See you in the tornado!” With that she flew into the crowd, but after just a few seconds came back for a few more words, “Oh, and Twilight? One reason I made you to take part of this whole operation was to finally give you some flight practice, and seems like I totally succeeded! See you!” Flashing a one final smug grin towards the alicorn she flew back into the crowd of pegasi, occasionally shouting a word or two or encouragement to various ponies.
That sneaky little... Twilight could feel a bit of anger starting to boil inside her, but she calmed down quickly; it had probably been best for her to finally learn some flying after all. The training hadn’t actually turned out to be as bad as she had feared initially, and Rainbow had been surprisingly understanding and calm with her. Besides, now she could finally check the ‘learn to fly properly’ field in her checklist of thing to do before next winter, that being something she had been procrastinating for way too long already.
After a moment Twilight turned to Fluttershy, who looked surprisingly calm. Twilight remembered what the pegasus had said in the library yesterday about being a nervous wreck in the inside despite looking calm on the outside though, and suspected the situation was similar now too. “Are you feeling fine, Fluttershy?”
“Yes,” she answered, though it came out as an almost inaudible squeak. “I know I can do it, since I have done it before. How about you? Do you feel confident enough to do it?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, not really. But I’ll do it anyway, if only because if I now chickened out and stepped aside, I would never hear the end of it from Rainbow Dash. No, I have to at least try, no matter how nervous I am.”
Right after Twilight had finished talking, Rainbow Dash blew a whistle in front of the group to draw attention back to herself. “Cloudsdale is in position, so we’ll start now! And remember, even if we don’t have that fancy horn to give signals or a machine to measure the wing power this time, this is still serious business, and I want you all to do your best! Take off on my whistle!” A second later she took in a lungful of air, and blew her whistle with full force, discarding it on the ground afterward so it wouldn’t be on her way in the tornado.
The gathering of ponies started to take off, starting from the front end of the group. Twilight watched as the first pegasi in the formation were already starting to build up wind speed, forming a gigantic tornado right above the reservoir in front of her. Soon last of the pegasi would fly in, and she was expected to follow them. She glanced aside towards Fluttershy, who looked back at her. Fluttershy pulled her goggles over her eyes and gave a curt nod, having a determined look on her face.
Twilight gulped nervously, but also pulled her goggles on, returning the nod to the pegasus. They both turned their heads back towards the building up tornado right as the pegasi in front of them took off.
It’s now or never, Twilight thought, taking a running start and flapping her wings to get airborne. The other pegasi were flying much faster than she was, and even Fluttershy was getting ahead of her, but she wasn’t there to compete. She was there to be part of a team effort, to bring water up to Cloudsdale with the others. And to show Rainbow Dash that I am not a chicken!
As she flew closer to the tornado, which was spinning faster and faster every second, she could feel the wind trying to push her to the side and away from its center, so she put more force into her wing flaps. The forces were almost overpowering her, and she hesitated for a moment, thinking of just giving up—Rainbow said they had more than enough wing power to create the tornado even without her, so her leaving out wouldn’t be a big deal.
Except Rainbow Dash would never let me live it down, Twilight thought. If Fluttershy and all these other pegasi can do this, so can I! She put a determined look back on her face and pushed forward. She flew a few feet closer to the tornado, and yelped as the wind speed suddenly seemed to increase tenfold, and the direction of the wind was more inwards than outwards like it had been a moment ago. She knew there was no going back now.
She got sucked the rest of the way into the tornado, now flailing around among the other pegasi, getting a little nauseated in the process. She tried her best to correct her alignment while spinning around, but her wings were flapping on their own accord in the wind, making it almost impossible to do any corrections.
“Twilight!” she heard Rainbow shouting, barely audible over the roaring wind. “You’ve got to recover! Put more force in your wings! More determination!”
“I’m trying!” Twilight yelled. She tried her best to correct her flying, but the wind was simply too strong for her to fight. Her wing muscles were not as developed as with the others present, all of whom had been born as pegasi, giving her hard time to do anything. In her panicked state she thought of a few spells which could help her—temporary strength increase, reduced air resistance, self-levitation, and so on—but she couldn’t get focused enough to do any magic.
She put last of the strength she still had in her body into her wings, trying to fight the enormous power of the tornado. She managed to somehow regain some control and stopped her uncontrollable spinning, but the effort was quickly draining her of all of her strength. She closed her eyes and just pushed along the wind—she wouldn’t have to worry about colliding with other pegasi, since they flew faster than her anyway—and with sheer willpower and determination kept going on.
I can’t keep on going like this much longer...
The eight hundred wing power threshold was passed soon enough, and the water funneled through the tornado and into the sky, landing right into the carefully positioned water container in Cloudsdale.
As soon as the last drop of water had passed by all the pegasi, they let the tornado disperse by flying out of it starting from the top. The exhausted pegasi landed on the ground all around the now empty reservoir, cheering together for their yet another successful teamwork.
“Great work everypony!” Rainbow shouted, flying right where the tornado had been a moment ago. “We did it last time, and I knew we could do it again! We did even better than last time, thanks to nopony being sick and to our newest addition to the pegasus roster, Twilight Sparkle!” A loud cheering sounded in the field as every pegasus congratulated each other and the aforementioned alicorn.
Rainbow Dash didn’t join the cheering for any further though, as she scanned the area with her eyes. “Speaking of Twilight...” she mumbled to herself, looking at the crowds of pegasi, “where is she?” She saw Fluttershy sitting alone on the grass a few yards away from the reservoir, but couldn’t find Twilight anywhere. She even looked up to see if she was on some cloud or if she was still flying in circles like Fluttershy had been last time, but there was no ponies in the air, save for herself, and no clouds in sight.
“Has anyone seen Twilight around?” Rainbow asked, flying around the area filled with pegasi, but everypony just shrugged or shook their heads. She landed next to Fluttershy, and asked, “Hey, Fluttershy? Did you see where Twilight went to? I saw her flying in the tornado just moments ago, so she can’t be far away.”
“Um...” Fluttershy answered. “I’m not sure because I didn’t pay much attention to anything else but flying, but I think I saw something lavender colored fall into the rising water pillar right before the water launched up to Cloudsdale...”
Twilight coughed water out of her lungs as she was fished out of the water tank by a pair of pegasi wearing white weather factory lab coats. They set her on a cloud next to the tank, and after making sure their newest princess would be all right, they left to continue their work with the cloud-generating machinery.
“Ugh...” Twilight groaned, coughing a few more times and lying down on the cloud, her whole body soaking wet and wings still sore from the recent flying. In the end her wings had completely failed her and had gone limp, causing her to end up into the reservoir right as the pillar of water shot up, taking her along in the process. And now there she was, lying on a cloud in Cloudsdale next to the water tank they just filled up.
That’s certainly one way to get up here... A fast, but very uncomfortable way...
