A Meeting

Some ponies would say fate brought the Sonic Trio together. Me? I don't believe in that stuff. Or, should I say, didn't believe in it. That is, until I meet Storm.

<~--***--~>

It began quite a few years ago, when I was just a little pipsqueak of 10 years old. Dash, Flare, and I were planning on playing a game of speed hide-and-go-seek.

"Whoa, Rain! Chill!" Rainbow had said, trying to hold me down.

"Dash, this is so exciting! Mom finally let us out of that dumb room, and let us go to the FOREST! You know I need to swim!" I said, struggling.

"Ha, I'm just glad to be in the Sun!" Solarflare said, doing an excited flip.

It was a considered a holiday when Mom let us go to the forest. Rarely was Firefly so sympathetic with us. The last time, we promised to play a good game a hide-and-go-seek, as a rematch. Rainbow would always beat us.

So, it was decided that Rainbow, since the victor, would seek. Flare and I darted towards the undergrowth on the ground. We split up then, she going east, and I, west.

I was hidden in a hole beneath a bush when something feathery pressed against my body. Hmmmm..... I really need to preen my wings. I dismissed it, but it just snuggled up against me. Ok, this is definitely not my wing. I slowly tilted my head down, afraid to scare whatever was there. What I saw was a little bundle of feathers with tiny eyes barely visible, shivering in the fall weather. It was looking up at me, scared.

"You ok little guy?" I asked.

In response, it warbled in fear, backing up to the other side of the hole. I got a good look at the thing, a grey color with blue eyes wide in fear, and a barely-visible beak.

"Hey, it's ok. I don't bite." At the word "bite" it shrunk back, seeming scared.

Sensing a sensitive subject, I steered away from that topic.

"You look cold. You could go under my wing, if you want." I said.

It hesitated, but shuffled to me cautiously. I covered it with my wing, and it cooed in satisfaction.

I guess that's what really started it all. It turns out that the little guys parents died from a manticore. I raised him myself, under the urging of Dash. I didn't see Solarflare that much, but later I found out why. Only three weeks later I decided to teach Storm how to fly.

<~--***--~>

"Storm!" I called. "Storm!"

A ball of feathers rolled down the stairs with Solarflare's new pet, Golden Flame. Storm looked up at me, glee written all over his face, his wings wrapped around Flame. Flame looked up at me with a pleading glance, screaming "Help me!". I complied, ushering Storm out the door.

He was especially excited today. It was his first flying lessons.

I brought him up onto a cloud, and showed him the structure of the wing, and the thermals he could ride. It took a few hours for him to finally get that down.

Then came the fun part. Flying.

"Now Storm, you've seem me fly, right? Well, this is sort of the same. But, you are going to have to flap faster, because you have smaller wings. You've preened your wings, right? Good. Now, I'm going to fly beneath you, so I'll catch you if you fall. Now, remember, flap your wings in sync. Short, powerful thrusts, like when you swim. Alright. Ready?" I asked.

Storm nodded his head, looking down at Ponyville, which we had flown too for practice. I took a breath, still scared of what might happen to him. Storm, on the other hand, looked determined.

Exhaling, I sighed. If he was going to do this, I would help him! "Alright. Get ready to jump off. Ready? Let's go. 3, 2, 1!"

Storm jumped. He dove down, spreading his wings. I followed shortly. We were about 5,000 feet off the ground. I could barely see him ahead of me, just a speck of silver-grey.

At roughly 4,020 feet, Storm performed his first flap. It was hesitant at first, but when he saw it took him a few feet forward, he confidently flapped again. He shot forward, and at that moment, I could see that his wings had grown larger, narrow and long, not like mine. That would allow him to flap less, as it was bigger than my wings and caught more air. Storm was catching onto this faster than expected.

"Alright Storm! Now try to change directions!" I shouted over the roar of the wind. Storm angled over to his starboard wing, turning. Now confident, Storm sped up still wobbly. He easily found a thermal I told him about.

I caught up to him, whooping in pure joy. "Nice job Storm! You learned to fly on the first day!" I beamed. Storm simply puffed up his chest, proud.

It was only two weeks after that Storm really got the hang of flying. And it was at that time I knew I had to let him go.

We both knew.

<~--***--~>

I flew out of the house alone that day, my hooves barely touching the clouds, taking my sweet time. Storm had learned to be quite the flyer, and he soared alongside me. It seemed like a dream when I finally arrived at a ledge that we had found. We were silent as we waited.

It wasn't three minutes before we could hear the calls of Storm's family. His sisters, brothers, aunts, and uncles were crying for him. It's wasn't long before the faint outlines appeared in horizon.

I instinctively scooted closer to Storm, not ready to say goodbye. The birds stopped before me, so close I could see their sharp beaks glinting in the morning light. I winced, scooting backwards.

Storm cawed, the others cawing back. He flared his wings out, getting ready to take off, sparing me a glance. Following his gaze, the others looked at me. I sat, frozen, afraid to move. Eyes like slits stared at me, 10 or 15 of them. We stood there for a while, hours, minutes, when finally the first let out a confused call. Storm answered hesitantly, the others still locked onto me.

Then, they gave me an approving look, and left.

It took me a long time to register what just happened. They let Storm stay with me. Wait....

THEY LET STORM STAY?!?!?

In a flash, I was in the air, whooping and doing flips, Storm clucking, a sound that I soon found out was laughing.

We were together again.