Bringing Harmony

“Before flying, try expanding your wings as far as you can.” Dash instructed.

AppleJack followed Rainbow’s command. Her orange wings shook with effort, and she felt the release of tension throughout her body. It was as though she were stretching after sleeping curled up for a long period of time. In other words, it was bliss.

“Okay, good. Now try flapping them.” Rainbow said, demonstrating. AppleJack rapidly flapped her wings, only stirring up dirt and leaves. AppleJack’s hooves stayed firmly planted on the ground.

“AJ, if you move your wings that fast, you push the air out sideways. You need to push the air towards the ground.” Rainbow Dash approached AppleJack to show her how to hold her wings. “If your wings are perfectly straight, you push the same volume of air up as down, so you stay in one place.”

AppleJack stared, open mouthed at Rainbow Dash.

“What?” Dash asked skeptically.

“You sound like an egghead yourself!” AppleJack chuckled.

Rainbow Dash began to laugh too. “Well, I didn’t get to be the best flyer in Equestria by sitting on my butt!” Rainbow Dash thought for a bit, before explaining it to AppleJack in a different way. “Think of it this way AJ. Try to push as much air toward the ground as possible. Just like when you swim, you push water behind, and try to put as little in front as possible.”

AppleJack did her best to follow Rainbow’s instructions. She soon found herself so focused on putting air below her, that she didn’t notice she was hovering about six inches off the ground.

“That’s great! You’re doing really well!” Dash encouraged.

AppleJack stopped focusing and came crashing to the ground.

“Oops! Sorry AJ. I didn’t mean to distract ya’.” Rainbow Dash apologized. “But if you bend your wings slightly, so that the tips are toward the ground, it will help you get more air.”

After two more hours of practice, AppleJack had fallen too many times to count. She was scraped and bruised, and slightly beaten up, but she was able to fly while holding a conversation, and with lots of encouragement from Rainbow Dash, could do a few simple tricks.

Rainbow Dash looked up higher in the sky as she flew with AppleJack. All of the pegasi were headed west. Dash assumed they were moving on to Unicornicopia. She spotted a cloud that was sporting a navy blue tail.

Dash caught AppleJack’s attention and motioned for her to silently follow. Dash pointed at the tail, and snickered softly. She flew up directly behind the cloud, while AppleJack looked on nervously from below. Dash snickered quietly to herself again, as she softly grabbed the tail in her mouth.

AppleJack sighed with relief that Rainbow had not been caught. It was too soon to be relieved. Dash grinned through her mouth full of tail, and yanked Storm Chaser out of the cloud.

Storm Chaser floundered for a minute before his eyes landed on his rainbow maned captor. Dash released his tail, and burst into laughter. Reluctantly Storm Chaser began to laugh too.

AppleJack flew up slowly to meet them.

Storm Chaser saw AppleJack approach and turned to greet her. “So, you must be Fluttershy.” Storm Chaser held out a hoof.

AppleJack’s face strained with effort as she slowly held out her hoof to shake. “AppleJack actually.” She corrected him.

“What? AppleJack?” Storm Chaser questioned, looking at Rainbow Dash. Dash nodded. “Aren’t you an Earth Pony?” Storm Chaser was genuinely confused.

“That’s right. Ah’m an Earth Pony. The wings are strictly temporary. Hopefully very temporary.” She said as she faltered, and dropped a foot in the air.

“I don’t understand.” Storm scratched his head with a hoof. “Why send you to Pegasopalous when Fluttershy is already a Pegasus?”

“Ah got roped into it. Fluttershy is very timid n’ Rarity won’t travel well. That left either myself or Pinkie Pie.” AppleJack was worn out from staying airborne. She awkwardly made her way to a nearby cloud. “Ah know, it don’t make sense.”

“Well, if you are going to come with me, you will need these.” Storm Chaser stuck his head back into the cloud where he had been hiding. When he reappeared, he held two blue tracking bracelets in his mouth. “Ear fu wooh.” he mumbled around them.

Both girls removed their brown bracelets, and replaced them with blue.

“So?” Dash asked. “Did you find a guard to help?” She leaned toward Storm Chaser, her eyes were wide with expectation.

“Yeah, I think I did. I think you will really like him. He’s a really nice guy, even if he is one of the Queen’s guards.” Storm Chaser looked up at the sun’s position in the sky. “Actually, I should be leaving to meet him now. Do you two want to come?”

“Yeah! Let’s go!” Dash said excitedly.

AppleJack hesitated before nodding.

“Great. He’s at the front gate right now. His lunch break starts in about five minutes. I told him we would meet him for lunch.”

Storm chaser and Rainbow Dash started North while AppleJack trailed a few feet behind. She didn’t mind not being involved in the conversation. Instead, she used all of her concentration to keep from falling too far behind.

The distance between them grew, and by the time Rainbow Dash and Storm Chaser reached the gate to Pegasopalous, they were specks to AppleJack. She took a deep breath, and pushed harder to move herself forward.

Rainbow Dash and Storm Chaser arrived at the gate laughing and talking. The two were interrupted by an unsure voice.

“Rainbow Dash?”

Storm chaser and Rainbow Dash turned to look into the eyes of a pale yellow pegasus with one outstanding feature. A rainbow mane.

“Rainbow Dash? Is that really you?” The new pegasus grew more excited.

Dash looked at him with her head tilted to one side. She was puzzled, but there was a foggy memory in the very back of her head that was just trying to peek through.

“Rainbow?” Storm Chaser asked. “How do you know-”

“Prism.” Rainbow Dash said softly. The name tasted unfamiliar on her tongue. She turned to Storm. “I’m not sure how I know him.” She confessed.

Prism laughed. “It doesn’t surprise me that you don’t remember. You were a pretty small foal when you went to live with our grandparents.”

Rainbow Dash stepped back, nearly falling off the cloud they were on. “How did you know that I was raised by my grandparents?”

“Because I’m your big brother.”