12 Flying Lessons

"DDeeeeeeeerrrrrrrpppppppyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!"

Beta was falling face first toward the canyon. His first thought was  how fast the canyon floor was approaching. Then he realized he needed to count...

"12345" he said outloud in about 1 second. he then put his legs and arms together before a moment later opening up and releasing his wings. He stopped so fast it left him breathless and giddy for a moment. he looked around, and just... marveled. he was free...

He was completely free for the first time in his life. he could dive and die, turn and glide, hold here and just slowly lower to the ground. THIS was freedom. He experimented with moving, leaning left and right, how his tail and long ears affected how he moved through the air. the he looked over and saw Derpy gliding down in that graceful yet somehow unconventional way she did.

"What do you see?" Beta asked out loud, but nearly to himself as he looked at Derpy... and noticed her eyes were completely closed, and a peaceful smile was on her face. a moment later she banked left and shot way up above Beta. Almost as if by instinct he rolled onto his back to watch her. air swimming' he would later refer to it, like back peddling in a pool lazily.He watched her climb, then at her apex she nosed forward and fell straight down, but her wings were still straight out, she zipped past him. Rolling again to follow her, he felt a very cold jet of air as his left paw crossed where Derpy flew down. he felt all the lift in that paw disappear. He realized he had to move away.

As he banked to the right again he saw that Derpy had caught another air current and was raising again but slowly.

"She's flying without.. flying" He realized. He then closed his own eyes trying to feel what was around him. He sensed the cold near his left paw. but then he thought he felt a warmer current near his right. when he banked that way, he flew past the edge of the warm current and found himself shot "backwards" straight up into the air! His eyes then snapped open, and he was positive, for half a moment he could see the air currents.

Beta made many more jumps over the next few hours. Whenever he landed Derpy would land and bring him back up. and he would jump again. slowly his movements became graceful. He understood when to bank or turn, how to catch a daft here and there, and Derpy explained about the various currents.

There are the Cold or drop zones that will send you straight into the ground sometimes. The hot zones that will send you straight up! and the currents. All these change and move around, and you have to become very sensitive to notice them. Most pegasai ignore them, or only generally notice them. Most are power flyers, moving because they flap their wings. Derpy used a combination of the two. As soon as Beta realized this, her entire way of moving and flying made sense.. and why things "just happened" sometimes.

During a break, when Beta and Derpy were enjoying the view, and some apples Beta turned to Derpy.

"You're very graceful out there" He said, gesturing to empty space.

"thank you... but I think you;re about the only pony in Equestria who thinks so" Derpy replied, grateful for the rare compliment, but looking away, nosing in her saddlebag for a snack she'd prepared earlier.

"I have a history of being a... clutz. I... I break things." she finished, looking infinitely sad.

"Whats wrong?" Beta asked "And don't say nothing"

"When I was a foal, I had a friend... Butter hooves. He was so funny and happy... so was I, I guess. At least when I was around him I was happy." She said wistfully, as thought grasping at a gosimer thread of happiness caught between strands of ropery misery. "We played around alot etween and after school lessons. But one day we were climing." She then opinted with a hoof "that ledge over there. and we fell." Her look of misery grew "I had.. small wings as a foal, and especially ack then. I'm only half pegasus, and I was only jsut starting to learn how to fly. Butter was never very good and holding things in his hoof." she added almost as an after thought.

"My mom was an earth pony and my father... " she stopped. it was clear even now thinking about her family was too painful. The Doctor and Ponyville were her family now. Beta didnt press. Two minutes passed before Dery stopped crying enough to continue her story.

"anyway... *sniff* my wings were small and weak, and I didn't know how to carry anyone. Heck i could barely lift myself. heh Scootaloo reminds me of myself at her age in so many... sad ways." she paused again. Beta knew of the young classmate of Apple Bloom. He'd also seen her zooming around town here and there. She would grow into an amazing pony one day. He could tell by her determination not to let her small wigs inhibit her ambitions, whatever that happened to be. He mentioned more than once Rainbow Dash should take her under her wing. She'd said she'd consider it.

"so..." Derpy finally resumed "I... I didn't know how to cary another pony... and Butter had always been to bad about grasping things and just...the rocks fell on us. He fell so far, and i.. I got hit pretty hard on th ehead, and I fell. Thats why my eyes are like this" She noted. Beta nodded and she continued "The doctors tell me I was lucky that my eyes are all that happened to me... that I could have gone bliund or even died if the rock hit me anywhere else. But... poor Butter, he wasn't so lucky I guess." she began to cry again, tears running down in a steady stream, soaking her head furr

"Hoovesie... he got sick. He was in a coma for months." the tears refused to stop, like twin waterfalls the water streamed off her cheeks. Beta understood how much it was costing her to tell him. but it seemed as though she needed to tell someone, and he may have been the first pony...person to be interested or willing to listen to her story.

"I watched over him every day. when I had to goto school I would hurry back as soon as I could. i studied by his side i..." her voice caught. the next part neary brough her to sobs as she recalled the horrible moment. "One day he got relaly still... so I yelled for the doctor to come up. then Hooveie began to glow a bright yellow - golden glow.It was like Celestia had heard my prayers and had used golden sunlight to heal him but..."

The tears would not stop. Beta wondered how much of a change there had been. He reached into Derpy's saddlebag and pulled out a container of water and handed it to her. She smiled ever so slightly, and drank. when she finished she managed to blink the tears down to a trickle from a torrent.

"He was different. He kept asking strange questions, not recognizing anyone... but me. Somehow he knew me.. kind of. He looked at me with those eyes of his... those beautiful wise eyes. He... he knew me but he didnt. it was like we were all strangers." She said, gulping back more tears.

"The doctors said it was because of the illness and coma. that was probably why he had amnesia, that all his memories should return soon... they were wrong" she finished almost bitterly. "Butter hooves was... dead" and she buried her cafe in her hooves and shook with misery, crying that way only children can. Complete and total misery draining crying, much like Beta had done when he'd arrived.

'How long has it been' Beta wondered to himself 'must be nearly a month now. i arrived on a full moon. it's nearly time for the next one...' and he was struck with another thought 'is it time to help Luna return herself?' Beta didn't know where that idea had come from, or what it meant. He did know he would have to figure that one out on his own however.

After a few minutes of hard crying Derpy composed herself enough to continue with her story. "I was the only person he would let help him." she began again  and even smiled a little that way she does every time she talks about the Doctor, and that's when Beta started putting things together.

"I had to show him how to do everything again. somehow he even forgot how to do things like a pony does. it was so weird" then she giggled and blushed "The first time her went to the bathroom.... I um... " she'd stopped crying at all and was so red from blushing at the memory of helping her friend use the latrine "hee hee it was the first time i'd seen him um... you know. and he didn't know how to it was.. really funny actually" she half laughed "but messy" and Beta nodded, smiling imagining going to the restroom as a pony for the first time, he also chuckled a little.

"But..." she looked sad again "It really wasn't my butter hooves. So I just called him hoovesie for a while. I didn't know what else to call him. Shortly after that we went to different schools. I went up to CloudsDale to learn how to be a pegasus, and he went to a fancy school in Canterlot. He always came back during vacations, even though his family had moved. he... he came to see me" She said smiling with a warm glow of love

"Somehow that fall ... everything, made him very smart. He graduated with a doctorate in engineering in the same amount of time it took me to finish Pegasus school in CloudsDale. I asked to return to PonyVille... because this is my home and he..." she blushed and looked away, but Beta could tell she was smiling a smile of the happiest pony in the world. "He came back to ponyville for me... He said that he'd seen a lot in his life, learned alot at school even experienced a lot the one summer he interned at the castle guard... but never for one minute did he forget me. I was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes from his Coma. And he said he wanted me to be the last thing he saw before he closes his eyes for the last time.  He then... He then.." And she squee'd louder than an animal could hear "HE asked me to marry him!"

"I tried to be coy... to say 'Hmm I don't know. You go off and disappear for a whole summer. I barely hear from you the rest of the time' OK... he actually wrote to me a lot, and I wrote back. but it was fun to see him squirm... for about a second then i flew into his hooves and kissed him!" She finished, beaming brighter than an afternoon sun. The joy showing on her face.

"Then before I could actually say yes, we had a crazy adventure. We nearly died and I realized that this was how our life would be together... it'd never be normal. Any foals we have will have to deal with this insanity that our life seems to be. Afterwards, we were at my old home and he was at the door. He was ready to leave. He didn't want to put me in anymore danger" She said. a little sad, recalling that she almost lost him forever. "One of my wings was broken and bandaged up. He had broken 4 ribs, and was bandaged up himself. We were a complete mess." She smiled and laughed a little."I told him that he had no right to leave me! Not after everything we'd just been through. That what kind of wife..." she choked, smiling crying a few happy tears at the memory "What kind of wife would let her husband go out in the state he was in! I put my hoof down... then collapsed from the pain in my wing. He came running over to me... I simply looked up focused both eyes on him and said 'Yes'" She finished her story. Happy tears  drying on her smiling face.

"The Doctor is everything to me" she began again "Sure he can e cold sometimes, especially when he is thinking hard on something or working on a problem or something... but he always makes up for it. he has never missed my birthday or our anniversary or.. anything..." She continued that warm glowing smile. "I..."

"You love him" Beta said smiling

"Yes" She said simply enough

"Why do you call him The Doctor, not hoovsie still?"Beta asked, a conclusion beginning to form in his mind.

"It's who he is. He likes it... and I only called him Hoovesie because I didn't know what else to call him for a time. He's not my Butter hooves. Maybe that's best. I miss Butter, I do... but The Doctor is my life. He's always been there for me ever since the accident." She finished.

"How long has it been since the accident?"

"About 6 years"

"That short?"

"Like I said he's very smart. and he breezed through most of his education. We've been married about 3 years now" She said, beaming again. proud to be his wife. Beta couldn't help but smile... to the extent his jaw was starting to hurt. He realized how much he was smiling since he arrived here.. 3? 4? weeks ago.

"I don't know if my old Hoovesie... my butter hooves is in there ... in his mind or body, but it doesn't matter anymore. I love the Doctor. He makes me feel.. special."  she said.

Beta smiled at her and nodded.He thought he understood her feelings about the Doctor.  He was up here because Rainbow Dash made him feel special. He wanted to surprise her, but he also wanted to feel... free.He had only been here a short time. A handful of weeks but he had come to care dearly for the people er.. ponies of this place. He felt his heart reaching out... but he wasn't sure to who.

He cared deeply for Rainbow Dash, but Apple Berry was also finding her way into his heart... perhaps in a more natural way. They had more in common... well as much as a mutant from earth and an older mare from a world of ponies could have in common. Maybe flying was just his way for him to gain freedom.

Thinking about flying, Beta realized he was beginning to be able to feel... sense the various types of currents in the air. Derpy really was a great teacher.

"Derpy, you're truly a great teacher." Beta said causing Derpy to blush then she stood and walked over to Beta, hugging him... before she pushed him over the edge calling out to him "Thank you... break is over, now glide!" she said, giggling before jumping off the ledge to follow him down.