Bon Voyage
Bon Voyage was not an outstanding flyer by Pegasus’ standards. She was not particularly fast. She had no desire to do any fancy stunts or daring tricks. Her flying was strictly average in every sense of the word, save for one thing.
She could fly forever. The only other pony who could fly longer than her was Jet Stream, and Bon Voyage was pretty sure she could give the mare a run for her bits if it ever came down to an endurance test. So when Jet Stream had come to her to form a long distance team for the Equestria Games, she was happy to help, although she was still a little surprised that any pony remembered her.
Now she was high above Rainbow Falls, looking down at the colorful town in a way that only a Pegasus could. Colors assaulted her eyes from angles that no Earth pony or Unicorn would ever be able to see. To them, a rainbow always looked like a horseshoe, but she could make them appear to be lines, bending slightly at an angle that the eye couldn’t quite comprehend and the brain puzzled over. Clouds looked as though they were balls of cotton stuffed together with no smooth edges, unlike when a pony was looking at them from below.
The cream colored Pegasus reached up wit her hooves and adjusted her goggles. They pushed slightly against her face and the strap bit into her head. She took a deep breath as she stared down at the town, then readied herself.
Here we go.
Bon Voyage closed her wings and dropped like a raindrop. She enjoyed the feeling of wind smacking against her face, her blue and pink mane and tail whipping out behind her, and the sensation of blood being pushed to the edges of her body, but the sensation that she loved the most was going to happen in three…two…one…
Bon Voyage flared her wings well above the ground. She hadn’t been trying to do dive to impress anypony who might be watching. It was just how she warmed up before a flight. She closed her eyes as the wind pulled at her wings, cupping her feathers in an invisible hug. She took a deep breath as the blood rushed back into its rightful place, setting every nerve in her body into a tiny fit of elation. Her hooves took their positions as her back ones kicked straight out and her forelegs stretched out in front of her. She narrowed her eyes and focused on a distant spot and began to fly toward it.
Each flap of her wings sent a jolt of energy through her body. Bam! Bam! Bam! She kept the pace up in her head and she knew that the energy would turn to pain eventually, a dull ache in her wings that signaled that her muscles were starting to feel the burn. It was a strange sensation when it happened, having only her wing muscles being tired. It wasn’t like when her hooves grew sore from walking or her legs from running.
But right now, the pain wasn’t present. It was just the thrill of her body being as light as the air she flew through. She closed her eyes and smiled, allowing the wind to whip between her teeth. It flowed down her throat and into her lungs, filling them with fresh energy and renewed purpose. She exhaled, sending the energy to her wings and expelling the rest so that she could do it all over again, high above the ground and breathing air that was rarely touched.
Her pulse began to pick up slightly as her flight continued. Her wings began to feel as though each tip had its own mini heart, beating in rhythm with the wings themselves. She closed her mouth and then took a deep breath through her nose, clearing her senses and driving back the edge of blackness that had started to creep into her eyes. There was no scent on the air as it flooded her nostrils. Not this high up. No grass, no water, no smell of sweets (a small part of her mind wondered if her cousin would indeed come today), just the air itself. It stuck in the back of her throat, a rapidly cooling spot in the back of her otherwise hot mouth. She sucked in another breath, expanding the cooling sensation, then blew the air out through her mouth. She felt a slight splash of heat as she soared through her breath, smiling slightly as her goggles fogged for a fraction of a second.
It was getting close to the time when she would need to head back. She wasn’t tired in the slightest, but she didn’t want Jet Stream to come looking for her and miss registration. Sighing, she decided to turn herself around.
She began by locking her wings straight out, perpendicular from her body. She imagined that, from the ground, she looked like a cross in the sky, although no pony beneath her would be able to see her this high up. She turned her forelegs first, as though she was gripping a wheel, and then rolled her head to the left as well. Her left wing followed with her body, and finally her hind legs turned too.
Blood rushed to the left side of her body as she banked in a wide turn. Some Pegasi claimed that they liked to bank as hard as they could because of the feeling they got as the blood strained at the tip their wings, but she didn’t really care for the feeling. It always signal that she had reached the halfway point of her flight, and that now she was going back to wherever she had started.
As she completed her turn, Rainbow Falls came into view. It was speck in the distance, a good fifteen minutes away. Good. That meant she had at least another fifteen minutes of flying ahead of her. She smiled and narrowed her eyes even more as she set out on her return flight.
Her body was starting to hurt now. It wasn’t the type of exhaustion that dashing Pegasi got after pushing themselves as fast as they could in a race, nor was it the type that came when those same Pegasi flew longer than they were used to. It was the type of pain that let her know she was alive. It crept through every part of her body, but the strangest parts that felt the sensation were the tips of her feathers. A Pegasus’ wings were very sensitive, and now with the blood gushing through them instead of flowing gently, she was keenly aware of each feather on each of her wings. It felt good as felt the wind brushed through each on, and the pain began to diminish as her body pushed itself past its initial strain and settled into the familiar sensation of long distance flying. The blood flow toned down slightly, now only rushing through her instead of gushing, and her wings felt looser and more relaxed.
Bon Voyage’s mouth cracked open slightly and the air began to come steadily to her. She blew it out at a steady pace, relishing the sound of it mixing with the wind as she flew. She could keep going for much longer, but as she neared Rainbow Falls, a familiar sight caught her eye. Two ponies—one that looked awfully similar to her—were sitting on a bench, staring up at her. She waved and began to slowly circle to the ground, the rush of flying leaving her as she came closer to the ground.
“Jet Stream said you had flown off for a quick flight,” Bon Bon said as Bon Voyage landed in front of her cousin and her cousin’s wife.
“Yeah, half an hour ago,” Lyra said. “That’s not a quick flight. What were you doing?”
Bon Voyage smiled and pulled her goggles off of her face. “Losing myself,” she said.
“How can you get lost up there?” Bon Bon asked. “All you need to do is look down, and you’ll know where you are.”
Bon Voyae smirked. Before the other two realized what she was doing, she gave Lyra a quick kiss on the lips. “How can you lose yourself when you kiss her? All you have to do is open your eyes,” she said as Lyra’s jaw fell open. Her cousin glared at her for a moment, then smiled as she figured out what she was saying.
“Jet Stream said she was going to go register, and to send you her way if we saw you,” Bon Bon said, pointing.
“Thanks,” Bon Voyage said as she placed her goggles back on her eyes and took to the sky’s limitless embrace again.