Guitar Strings and Dragon Wings

Metal In Equestria: Chapter 13

His bones creaked and his muscles ached, not because of fatigue, but because they had never been used. The wings took some getting used to, but the warm air and flowing wind made them feel as real as his hands and feet.

Patrick had never understood how that bird felt; that bird he had caught in his mother's tree when he was younger.

"Alright!" said Fluttershy, "Now we can really begin. Let's see what you've got." She gave him a confident smile.

Packie of modern day now focused on the task at hand. Just like she said, this has to be perfect, he thought; give it all you got!

He jumped off the rock and forced his wings to flap. Packie was struggling to follow Fluttershy's example. Her instructions were clear. All he had to do was stay airborne for as long as he could. There was no complex maneuver or acrobatics. The only thing on his mind was to stay off the ground.

His white wings flapped once… and twice, but he could only manage to make it over the stream before landing on the opposite side. He had covered some distance without the use of legs, a small victory in itself. Any distance now was leaps and bounds ahead of where he was just a few moments ago.

"HELL YEAH!" Packie yelled. His inexperience with flying made him feel slightly insecure, which he tried to make up for by yelling. It was all he could do to keep up the illusion that he wasn't in fact terrified.

Silence again.

She came to land beside him. "That was pretty good. Want to try some actual flying?" she giggled innocently, as if trying to benignly offend him. Fluttershy never wanted to actually hurt his feelings, and Packie would never admit that she did. His pride was the most important thing to him.

"Sure, let's go." he said.

"You might want to get a running start."

"Yeah yeah, you go first though."

"Oh…" she wanted to follow him, "…alright I suppose. I won't go too fast." she giggled quietly to herself again.

Fluttershy jumped off the ground and started flapping her wings, making her way off further into the distance. To Packie this was an exercise in how far he could go, not how long.

Jumping off into a sprint he unfurled his wings. The wind resistance became immediately apparent and he could feel himself getting lighter as he ran faster. When he was about to lose his footing he jumped forward, pushing all of his weight onto his legs. The wind took him up and he began to lose speed, like a paper airplane flying up and stalling.

How do I keep my momentum going forwards? He asked himself.

"Flap your wings!" he heard Fluttershy yell. She was already about half of a football field ahead of him.

"Oh…" he said, "duh… why couldn't I figure that one out?" He flexed hard and his wings responded, pushing air underneath him and backward. He pulled his arms in close to his body. With less wind resistance Packie quickly gained speed. With his wings flapping he was able to stabilize. His blond hair progressed down his forehead and blew lazily in the wind, right in front of his eyes. After a quick brush away with his hand he could see he was catching up finally.

This is just like running, he thought, except my legs are on my back. Boy that's a weird thought.

Packie zoomed past Fluttershy, leaving her in the dust. She quickly responded and picked up speed as well. "Oh no you don't! I'm the teacher here, Mr. Bossy Pants!"

"Ha-ha! That's the worst comeback I've ever heard!" he chortled.

They flew for a few minutes, weaving in and out of trees. Every flap felt like his heartbeat and kept pace with his soaring emotions. This felt like true freedom.

Why would I ever want to change from this? I want to stay like this forever. Screw that shape-shifting crap.

Each tree seemed to be part of an obstacle course and Packie was more than willing to slalom and weave in and out of the way. This newfound control was so liberating. Now he could go anywhere with ease and truly test his limits.

Packie was having too much fun and Fluttershy was honestly just glad he hadn't crashed yet.

"Yet…" she mumbled. Doubt crept up on her. They started to climb up and up. They went above the trees and had a clear view of the entire forest. Each beat of his wing propelled him faster and he didn't want to stop.

"Patrick! Umm…we really should go down now!" she yelled.

"Already? But I was just starting to have fun!" he retorted.

"Please!" Fluttershy pleaded with him.

"Oh alright!"

Packie thought his landing would be routine. He thought that he would bring his legs out and come to a slow landing like parachutists do after a sky dive, but as he started to lower his head and fly downwards; he began to realize that he didn't know how to stop.

Much to Fluttershy's horror, he started to nosedive.

"FUCK!" he yelled. "HOW DO I STOP?"

He did the first thing that came to mind.

Push the air the opposite direction! He yelled in his head.

Packie put all of his effort into pushing air down, rather than behind him.

FLAP*

His speed decreased a little but the ground was still fast approaching.

FLAP*FLAP*

His speed decreased more, but impact with the ground was still eminent. He didn't expect the brush to be so thick on the way down. His wing clipped a branch and sent him spiraling out of control.

Got to think of something fast! He thought.

"PATRICK!" Fluttershy screamed with all her might.

"FUCK IT!" Patrick yelled.

He gave it every bit of strength he had.

SMASH!*

Packie's wings collided together with such force that he immediately stopped, only feet off the ground. There was an audible popping sound as some of the cartilage keeping his wings together snapped in half. A short blast of wind blew back the surrounding leaves and grass beneath. The sound could be heard from miles away.

"FUUUCK! GAHH!"

The pain was unbearable as he turned and fell the short distance to the ground, landing on his cracked wings. He winced in pain and held back a muffled scream, while slowly positioning himself on his side to relieve pressure on his wings.

Fluttershy landed quickly and came to comfort him. She laid her soft head on his neck as he lay on his side. At this point laying on his side was all he could do to lessen the pain, other than clenching his teeth.

"Huff*…well… that fuckin' sucked…wheeze*…heheh…. right Shy?" he leaned his head on hers.

Tears flowed freely from Fluttershy's milky blue eyes. "You'll be… sniff*… okay… I promise…" There were only more tears. "I'm sorry…" she barely mustered.

They stayed in that position for over an hour, her head resting on top of his.

Meanwhile, In Ponyville…

"So dude… you were totally pulling a Hulk earlier." Wallace laughed.

"I couldn't help it! Jiggs blasted back, "I didn't turn huge and start destroying everything." Twilight had lost track of their conversation a while ago. The trek back to their van was proving to be more time consuming than first thought. Jiggs and Wallace often asked why certain buildings were shaped a certain way or why it was so hard to find a bathroom. Nonetheless, Twilight put up with it because she had no choice.

"Finally!" Wallace yelled, "The van!" He picked up his pace again and ran towards the vehicle with joy. He barely noticed the dirt around him being shifted and the grass being blown around by his unconscious use of telekinesis. Wallace's abilities were still very raw and unrefined.

He rushed to open the double doors in the back.

"Look all of our shit!" he yelled with glee.

"It's mostly my shit." said Jiggs.

"Don't be such a killjoy. We have most of our clothes in here too. Oh! Shoes as well! Although they're not really super clean." Wallace fumbled around inside the back, moving the amps and instrument cases. "Found my Nike's!" He moved a large brown duffel bag out of the way. "Found the coffee maker too! Hot damn!"

"Don't you mean hot coffee?" asked Twilight.

"Human expression." Jiggs explained.

"Oh gotcha'. Why are you so surprised to find all of your stuff in here?" she asked.

Jiggs cocked an eyebrow. "Because Genius over here never packs and always relies on me to do it for him."

"Seems typical." Said Twilight. Watching Wallace rummage through the van only confirmed what Jiggs said.

"Hey Jiggs, I think it's low on gas." Wallace noticed this when they first came through the portal.

"Well why didn't you tell me earlier?" he said.

"It didn't really matter at the time cuz we all passed out. Remember?"

"Yeah I guess I do. I don't even know where the damn keys went anyway."

Wallace grabbed his drumsticks and hopped out, letting his shoes kick up dirt. A small plume of brownish fumes came from under his feet.

"Hey look!" he pulled out a CD case. On the front was a Siamese cat with pure blue eyes. "I found Cheshire Cat under my seat. I've been looking for that for forever."

"Did you find the keys?"

Wallace shrugged his shoulders. "Nah man, sorry."

Twilight determined this would be a good chance to test them. "Well why don't you move the van yourselves?"

Jiggs took off his black shirt to reveal his new, toned body. "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this." He rolled his arms around and stretched out his back. "But I know what you're tryin' to say. We need to pick it the fuck up and carry it."

"Well…. Yeah I suppose. Not really the way I intended but go for it anyways." she admitted.

"Easy! Stand the fuck back! Both of ya'll!" Jiggs yelled.

"You sound just like Applejack sometimes." Twilight noted.

Jiggs placed his hands under the back bumper and prepared to lift.

Suddenly a loud noise ripped across the land that was heavy and percussive.

SNAP!*

The sound was eerily similar to a gunshot. It echoed for a short time and died away.

"What the hell was that? Was that you man?" asked Wallace.

"Nah I haven't even lifted anything yet." Jiggs divulged.

Twilight lowered her head to listen more closely. Her ears perked up. "It sounded like Rainbow Dash just hit the Sonic Rainboom again."

"Sonic Rapeballoon? Hahah." asked Wallace.

"No. Rainboom, oh smart one." she sarcastically scoffed. Once the noise died down she raised her head. "I don't see a rainbow though. What was that noise?" a feeling of dread consumed her. "I hope everything's alright…" she mumbled.

"Fuck it!" I'm picking up the van!" Jiggs hugged the back bumper and squeezed hard. With a short thrust from his legs the entire van was lifted from the dirt road. The tires dangled freely. "It's like carrying a bag of flour! HAHA!"

He started to walk while holding the van. Every step his feet dug deep into the dirt path, leaving sizable footprints. Wallace carried his shirt and directed him where to go. To Jiggs and Wallace everything seemed completely normal.

Twilight followed close behind. "What was that noise…" she mumbled quietly to herself.

Needless to say the residents of Ponyville weren't nonchalant about seeing a human carry a 2-ton van down their city streets.

This has been an odd day so far, Twilight thought.