Flying With New Wings

I could hear voices. Not voices in my head, I mean real voices. Groaning, I buried my head into my pillow a little more and tried to return to the Land of Nod. My ears flattened, trying to ignore what I was hearing. Unfortunately, it didn’t work worth a damn. I groaned as the sound of talking, although quiet, refused to let me go back to sleep. I blinked my eyes open, only to squeeze them shut from the light.

It’s way too bright... I grunted as the light from the window, now that I noticed it, was blinding me through my eyelids. “Celestia, turn your sun off, would you?”

I curled up away from the window and into the wonderful shadows. I let blissful sleep slowly take over once more.

Wait. My eyes shot open. What did I just say?

“Oookay... I think I’m taking this whole transformation thing a bit farther than necessary.”

Deciding that I didn’t need to sleep anymore, I oh-so-carefully slid out of bed. And subsequently smashed my face into the floor. Thankfully, I didn’t fall all that far, so it didn’t hurt that much. The bad news was that it still hurt.

Oww...

Pushing myself off the wooden floor, I struggled into a standing position. Then I fell forward again, but this time I caught myself. It was at this point that I decided looking over my body would probably be a good idea.

“Oh... that explains that.”

My entire body had finished changing over night. There wasn’t anything about it that resembled the physical form I’d lived with for the past twenty five years. My ears sagged slightly as I realized that. It’s not that it was unexpected -- quite the contrary, really -- but it still sucked. This is not what I wanted for my birthday. And yet, here I was, stuck as this... Pegasus. Admittedly, he was one of my favorite characters from the show, but seriously? Heaving a big sigh, I took note of all the differences as best I could without a mirror.

Wings? Check. Hooves? Four of ‘em, check. Tail? Check. Mane? Also check. Mane looking its best? ...Check later. Guy parts? Check. Thank Luna. I mean, I knew Soarin’ was a stallion, and it was still weird having those things change the way they did, and -- wait.

I just thanked Luna for that. Luna. Earlier I’d asked Celestia to dim her sun. I’d mentioned yesterday that my mind seemed to be changing, but this was just stupid. I could understand the desire for more pony-like foods over meat and such... but changing my attitude and how I deal with things in general? That’s going a bit far... but, just like all the other changes, I didn’t have a choice. Sighing again, I slowly stood up from where I sat on my haunches and went about relearning how to walk. The wood floors creaked slightly under my weight, but they did that normally anyway. Glancing at the bed across from the one I’d used, I noticed it was empty. As was the one in the room across from me. It took me some time to figure out how to move my legs just right so that I didn’t pratfall, but I have to admit that it was a lot easier than I had initially thought. Once I was confident that I could stumble down the stairs without pain, I slowly approached them and very carefully started down them. As I did, my ears flicked slightly towards the voices I’d heard. They were coming from the living room.

“How far along is he now, Andrew?”

“It’s complete.”

“Ugh. I wish we knew why this was happening.”

My friends were talking about me? Curious about what they were saying, I stopped where I was on the stairs and listened. I could hear Clayton’s heavy sigh from where I was, and the subsequent squeaking of the couch springs.

“I hate not knowing the reason for all this.”

“I think he hates it most. He cried about this a couple days ago, remember?”

Audrey spoke next, “I’ve been close to doing that myself. I mean, there’s nothing we can do to help him with it!”

“I know what you mean,” Clayton agreed. It sounded like he was tired for some reason. “All we can really do is hug him and be like, ‘Don’t worry, we’re still friends!’ But I want to do more to help him, and we can’t!”

“It’s really annoying,” Andrew commented. “What a birthday, huh?”

“No kidding.”

“It... makes me worry that I was the reason it started,” Audrey said quietly.

I frowned. Why would she think that?

Clayton apparently had the same thought. “Why would you think that?”

“Well... I was the one who made and gave him that plushie of Soarin’ on his birthday. I... I know we agreed early on to not show we were worried for him, just so he wouldn’t freak out more than he already was, but... I still feel like it’s all my fault.”

“You had a hard time keeping that in, huh?”

I’m not sure what compelled me to move at hearing that, but I found myself walking over to them and catching their attention. “You didn’t need to do that, you know.”

They seemed surprised for a moment, before realizing that I was eavesdropping. “You heard all that?”

“Some of it,” I shrugged. “From when Andrew told you that I’m... this, now.”

“Sorry...” Audrey said quietly.

I gave her a smile. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

“But it could be! I mean, you didn’t have that stupid mark until after I gave that to you!”

I shook my head. “No, it appeared before then.”

“...Wait,” Clayton started. He picked up where I was going with this pretty quick. “You mean when you spaced out on the way here?”

“Yeah, I think it started then.”

The three of them nodded a bit at that, although they looked a bit confused. Audrey looked like she was about to say something, but I spoke first.

“And... guys... thanks for... for being so supportive. It’s... it means a lot to me.”

“No problem, dude. It’s the best we could do,” Clayton said.

“Which is still incredibly stupid, by the way,” Andrew huffed. “I mean, really? I know it was really hard on you, but... not being able to help in anyway other than not showing how much we were worried sucks.”

I gave a wry smile, “I know how that feels. The same kind of thing you feel when someone’s in the hospital and all you can do is hope and wait.”

“That is exactly how we feel,” Audrey agreed. She sighed again. “I’m so, so sorry this happened to you...”

“Like I said, it’s not your fault. I’m just thankful that you guys stuck around and didn’t call the cops or anything.”

Clayton smiled slightly, “There wasn’t any point in doing that. It’s not like they’d be able to do anything.”

“Aside from drag me to some lab for whatever experiments they’d come up with...”

“And that is something we were not going to let happen.”

I gave him a grateful nod and walked over to the fridge. It took me a moment to figure out how to open it with hooves instead of hands, but once I did, I grabbed myself an apple and immediately started chowing down.

“There’s some waffles left over on the table for you,” Andrew commented. “Need help?”

“Maybe. Let me try doing it on my own first.”

I spent a minute or two just munching the delicious apple, before tossing the core in the trash. It took me a moment to scramble onto the chair at the table, but once I did, I spotted a plate in front of me and several waffles on a big platter in front of me. Oh, how I wanted to chow down on them...

“Have you guys already eaten?” I asked. I didn’t want to take more than my share.

“Yeah, we’re all good.”

I nodded and grinned, using a hoof to drag the platter over to me. I had to sit there for a moment on how to do the transfer of food from platter to plate, before just using another hoof to push some over. Considering how much my stomach was grumbling, despite the apple, I decided to go with three to start. All of which I very carefully poured a satisfactory amount of maple syrup on. It was then that I thought of something: how was I going to eat it without making a mess of myself? Damn, I wish I was a unicorn.

“Here,” Clayton said, holding out a fork with a zip tie.

Grinning, I let him tie it to my right foreleg, with enough space to cut it off later. Not another second was wasted as I cut off a small corner of the pile of waffles, and shoved it in my mouth.

“Mmm... fanks!”

During the next five minutes, my friends watched, chuckled and laughing, as I proceeded to absolutely annihilate the small stack of waffles on my plate. When it was empty, I finally took a deep breath.

“Hungry?” Andrew asked with a chuckle.

I was about to respond with a ‘no’, but then I paused. Then I grinned again. “Yes.”

I grabbed the rest of the waffles and proceeded to eat them as well. It wasn’t until they were completely gone that I was finally satisfied. With a pleased sigh, I relaxed in my chair and very carefully manipulated the fork on my hoof out of its bindings, before placing it on the plate. I then wiggled the zip tie off my leg and set that on the table as well.

“Okay, now I’m full,” I said. Then I burped. “And there’s the proof that I am.”

“...Jeez, you were really hungry, huh?” Audrey said. Glancing at them, I chuckled at the looks they had on their faces.

“Obviously. Thanks for cooking, guys.”

“Uhh... yeah, no problem...”

I hopped off the chair and went to grab the plate in my teeth to put it on the counter. Clayton beat me to it, though. Thanking him, I moved towards the couch, before remembering something from yesterday.

“Oh... right...”

Clayton glanced at me, “What?”

“You got your computer?”

He raised an eyebrow, but nodded and sat down on the couch next to me, machine in his lap. With a few directions, I guided him to the same article that I’d read and commented on yesterday. I noticed that Spitfire had responded recently, too. I snorted at what I’d read.

“Gee, thanks for the warning.”

Andrew, looking over Clayton’s shoulder from over the couch, glanced at me. “You did that?”

“Yup. Yesterday afternoon. I said I’d head out to find her.”

“Why?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure. I... well... I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“Saw the ponies and couldn’t stop yourself?”

“Something like that, yeah. I recognized the Pegasus as Spitfire, Soarin’s boss, and I just felt like I had to somehow let her know I was out there. So... I did.”

There were a few nods at that, and Clayton closed the browser. “You’re going to fly there, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Do you know how?”

I paused at that. He had a good point -- I wasn’t sure how to work my wings right now. Glancing over my shoulder at them, I wondered just how I was to open and inspect them. Tracing the barely-visible lines of the tendons in my back, I could see where they led to the wings and which muscles seemed to control them. Focusing on those areas, I twitched the muscles there, and was pleased when I saw my feather appendages move as well. Satisfied that I knew which muscles to use, I proceeded to very carefully open them. By which I mean, they snapped open and one of them smacked Clayton in the face.

“Ow!”

“Sorry!” I turned to him and watched as he rubbed his nose, where he’d taken the hit full-force. “I’m sorry! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine... just got me by surprise that’s all.” He pulled away his hand from his nose, and I gave him look-over.

“No bleeding... sorry about that.”

“Seriously, it’s fine. You didn’t know it would happen.”

“I was trying open them slowly, but nooooo...”

The three of them chuckled a bit, and after moving to a spot where I wouldn’t harm anyone or anything, I began practicing how to open my wings properly. It didn’t take me nearly as long as I thought it would to get it down to the point where I could curl the limbs and use them to hold things. My friends suggested us going to a spot nearby where I could practice my flying, but they didn’t know where. Thankfully, I did. It was only about five minutes away by car, so it wasn’t far at all.

Those were the longest ten minutes of my life.

I have never wanted to get out of a car so badly before. The moment I had finished directing them to the large hill that we would be climbing, I was the first out of that stupid thing. I ignored my friends’ laughter, and led them up the steep, mile-long hill. It curved around a bit, before finally coming to rest upon a place known as Cape Disappointment. Despite the name, it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It’s called that because this is where Lewis and Clark ended their journey across the United States. It stands about a mile above where we parked, and it houses an old abandoned WW2 bunker, where soldiers kept an eye out for the Japanese during that time.

“Wow,” Andrew said. “I know you’ve mentioned this place before, but I didn’t think it was this awesome.”

I smirked as they stepped up to the empty gun turret in front of us. The thing was empty -- aside from rainwater and wildlife -- and measured about thirty feet across, and about three or four feet deep. The dead center of it was where the turret itself sat, and that part’s at least a yard wide. There were concrete and metal barracks that led to another turret nearby, and this was where I planned to learn how to fly. With all the soft grass around the area, it would be perfect. I was going to stay away from the edges and just focus on hovering for now.

“So how does this work?” Audrey asked. “Aside from the ‘flap your wings like crazy’ part.”

“I’d say it’s more of ‘flap my wings in a precise and controlled manner’ sort of thing.”

In essence, that is just what I did. Now, admittedly, my wings were somewhat large, so I had a big space between me and my friends. Looking them over a little more closely than I did before, I finally noticed the ridiculous amount of feathers that were in each of them. The primaries were large, and dominated my wing in terms of numbers. I could feel the breeze blowing over them, as the wind shifted its current ever so slightly around them. And let me tell you -- that feeling was undeniably, unquestionably, absolutely amazing. The only thing that I could think to do next was to flap them.

So, I did.

Squeezing my eyes shut to focus, I raised my wings -- and brought them down with as much force and speed as I could. Now, from that moment, I’m not sure what exactly happened. I remember bringing my wings back up for another flap, and felt myself leave the ground... and the next thing I see is... well, it’s something like a movie theatre. Except rather than an actual movie, I’m watching through my eyes and senses as my body moves almost on its own. I could sense another mind encompassing my own, having taken over. It took me a minute as I watched myself quickly take off for the wild blue yonder.

“Whooo!” My voice cried joyously, whooping as “I” went through various tricks over the hillside.

Soarin’. I realized with a jolt. Soarin’s controlling my body! When did he -- how -- what?!

I don’t know if he knew I was still aware of him controlling what was my body, but despite that... this was still the best thing ever. Flying, I mean. It was... it was... indescribable. Seriously. There is absolutely no way for my to explain, in mere words, how it feels to be flying like this under my own power. Well, Soarin’s power... no, wait... ah, screw it. Finally, after almost five minutes of doing the best thing I’ve ever done, I finally landed -- and realized that the real Soarin’ was still in control.

“Heh,” Soarin’ chuckled, grinning wide. “Been a long time since I flew like that without my suit and goggles.”

“You have flight goggles?” Audrey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’s standard-issue for ‘Bolts.”

That was their tip-off that I wasn’t actually in control.

“Thomas...?” Andrew began to say, coming closer slowly.

I could feel the confusion Soarin’ felt at being called that. “Uh, what? My name’s Soarin’.”

They glanced at each other. “Uhh... what happened to Thomas?”

His confusion grew, and I decided to see if I could converse with him from our shared mind.

They mean me.

He jolted a bit, wings unfurling slightly. It takes him a bit to realize that it had come from inside his head, and turned his focus there. I could go into the details, but long story short, I convinced him to step out of the spotlight and let me take back control. I shook my head once it was done. If I focused, I could more or less feel him in the back of my mind, lurking there and watching. Oh, well. I’ve become an exact physical copy of him -- albeit with my flanks a tad rounder than I remembered seeing in the show -- so having the mind come with it wasn’t all that surprising.

Having him able to take control out of the blue like that, however, was very surprising.

Holding a hoof to my head I gave my friends a wry smile, “Sorry about that. The real Soarin’ sorta showed up there for a moment.”

“The real Soarin’?” Clayton confirmed. I nodded. “What the hell.”

I nodded again. “Well, I’ll be, uh, ‘talking’ to him later... but at least I know how to fly now.”

“How? I mean, he was in control, right?”

I smiled and explained what I’d experienced, making sure to prove my point by hovering over them. After another minute, I finally breached the subject that we needed to talk about.

“Guys... about that article comment I made...” I started to say. “I... I really need to... find her.”

They looked at me for a moment, watching my expression and my reaction. Andrew was the one to break the silence.

“It’s that important to you, huh?” He asked quietly.

“Yeah... it is. And it’s important to Soarin’, too.”

He nodded, “Are you going to take anything from the beach house with you?”

“I was thinking of taking a bag, my phone, some of the apples we’ve still got, and my wallet. Not much more.”

“Alright. How about we meet there, you grab your stuff, have a quick lunch, and... we’ll see you off.”

I agreed to this, and flew towards the town. Seeing as I simply went over all the bothersome traffic, I was there first. It took a good few minutes for my friends to catch up and open the door. I’d given the key to Clayton, since I was now stuck with hooves. I was pretty hungry from my flights, and ate quite a bit of food. For lunch it was sandwiches, and for me, a few filling veggies. Afterwards, I stuffed a small messenger bag with the items I was taking, before meeting my friends on the front porch. We stood there in silence as the sun sat overhead.

“I... I guess I’ll see you guys later,” I finally said after a good five minutes of silence.

Audrey gave a sad smile. “Yeah... see ya, Thomas. Keep in touch, okay? Stay out of trouble.”

I nodded and licked my lips a bit. Then I jumped up and grabbed her in a tight hug. I did the same for my other two friends, before flying high into the air. I gave them one last look, wishing severely that it hadn’t come to this -- but I’d told Spitfire that I’d meet up with her. Not to mention going into town like this was impossible. So, it was simply better to leave... but it certainly wasn’t easier.

Not by a long shot.

I hope Spitfire’s where she said she was, I thought, trying to keep my mind off my overwhelming sorrow. It was like trying to fight the tides with a broom. And I hope Soarin’ can explain to me what’s going on here... because I don’t know if I can do this sort of thing again.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts as I flew off, that I didn’t notice a few flashes from the people on the ground. I just hoped that the rest of this stupid journey thing wouldn’t be so hard.

I hate good-byes.