Chapter 6
Falling With Style

I would love to tell you all about last night, how me and a mare I barely knew had crazy, wild, kinky sex of mass proportions that Equestria Daily After Dark would blush and 50 Shades of Grey would repent and live as a monk. Buuut… I don’t remember anything after the Semi-Finals. Zip, Zilch, Nada, Absolute Zero. I start to wake up and I notice a few things, one is the soft bed (felt like the cloud I fell out of), the sheets feeling damp, and a tan wing draped over my back- I like to sleep on my stomach-which belonged to the tan mare in the bed beside me. So, 1+1+wet= I got laid? I must have been thinking too much because she shifted closer to me and nuzzling her pillow.

“Morning Sunshine.” I whispered

“Mmm…. No Snaggletooth, stay. I like what you do to m….” She mumbled as she rolled over and rapped her hooves around my left arm. “Ugh… I did it again didn’t I? Well I’m going to shower and then we will talk.” She rolled out of the bed and walked into the bathroom, closing the door. In the silence that followed, I contemplated my next move and how to… Fuck it, I’m lying to you. As soon as she closed the bathroom door, I rolled over and slept.

After about 15 minutes I felt a rough kick to my hind leg, waking me up. I roll onto my back to find Rikoche smirking at me with a plate on one wing and a glass of milk in the other. On the plate was a godsend since I got here. Chocolate chip pancakes (oats not hay), hay bacon (a moderate substitute).

“You are so sexy right now.” I drool, staring at the food held by her wings.

“Hey, eyes up here you silver tongued snaggletooth. Anyways, I brought you some food. Eat it quickly because we a lot to discuss.” I had already eaten the whole plate and was in the middle of chugging the milk when she finished that sentence (old habits from back home, lotta work, not much daylight), so she continued. “First of all, whatever happened last night doesn’t count. I only remember us meeting at the Finals table and then waking up to your arm between my legs. And bases on what I heard in the Galley, you won the Drinking Contest, ergo the deal we had. So what is it you request from me?”

‘I guess that question remains unanswered.’ I shy away from her eyes feeling embarrassed about my request for her help. “I kind of need you to teach me how to fly.” I fluttershied.

“You need me to what?”

Swallowing my fear and the last of the milk, “I need you to teach me how to fly, because I honestly do not know.”

She gives me a blank stare, “Say what now? You’re telling me that a Dragon your size doesn’t know how! Explain that to me.”

I decide to tell her the partial truth. “Well at some point I must have known, otherwise I would be dead. All I remember is a guy hitting me in the face with a war hammer one afternoon. And the next I wake up as I roll off a cloud, fall at terminal velocity and crash onto the bridge of this ship. So, yea…” at my words her face goes from mirth and joking, to one of pity and sadness.

“Well shit. Not having the use of wings would suck, especially for pegasi. But didn’t you use your wings to sidestep Brosiph’s sucker punch?”

“Yea, so what is your point?” I deadpanned. Captain Oblivious, I choose YOU!!!

“My point is that you may not remember how to fly, but your body does!” She explains as if talking to a foal.

So that my readers is how I ended up where I am now. Falling with Style (Or with a lack thereof). Her unique thought process and logic was the cause of this exact method of learning. Basically, I fall from real high up, and hope that my instincts kick in BEFORE I impacted with the ground. Nothing had happened for about 500 feet, except for a 30 degrees wind change, and a thermal updraft had formed under me. I’ve no idea how I knew that, I just did. As a last ditch effort, I searched my brain.
‘Hey Brain?’
Yes?
‘Could you look around for a Flight Manual, Flying 101, or even Your Wings and You?’
Shure but it might take a while. You have no sense of organization up here. Please hold.
‘Well, I am only falling to my possible death, but I have time.’
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Thank you for holding. Your search is complete. I am sorry to say that the file(s) you requested were not found or were corrupted. You may feel free to panic now. Thank you for calling, and have a nice day!
*Click*

“Rikoche, I ain’t flying!!” I yell to her.
“Don’t worry! I have this all under control.” She shouts back with confidence. Yea, you got control BECAUSE your wings work.
“Too late, I am WAY past worry.” I panicked back. By the way, I have about 845 feet and dropping till I hit the solid hills below us.
“OK. New plan: Grab the ends of your wings, and manually flap them.” So like crank starting a B-2. Desperate to not die, I do as she said. After a few cycles my wings start to sputter.
Attention; A new Flight Program has been initiated, would you like to Install and Run?
‘YES’

And like a light switch, I start to decelerate as I gained lift and control of my trajectory. I stop and hover at 123 feet above the ground. “Hey! You did it!” She claps as she hovers in front of me. “Whoa, you wings are… well…uhh…your wings are quite scary.” She now had a ‘prey’ look on her face.

I look at the underside of my four foot left wing and see blood red on the membrane. “My badassness just leveled up. Twice.” I say with a smile across my face, only to then see pure fear and panic on Rikoche’s face. “What’s wrong?” I asked her with concern.

“I-It’s your s-spines. They’re the same color as your wings.”

To get a better look at what she had said, I flew down to a lake near us. Shure enough, the spines from my head down to my mid back, just below the wing base, was a glowing dark cherry red, But past my wings they were their usual translucence. The whole sight looked like a Mana bar from a role playing game like FF XII. After starring at myself, I feel a warmth building in my belly. Without warning I whip my head back, open my maw, and let loose a 10 foot green and black spiral cone of fire. As the last ember leaves my jaws, I look back at the lake. The water level is five inches lower than before. I look at my spines and the red has gone from my mid-back to between my shoulders. Oh, and my hair is now a dark crimson with a heavy fade to black. “Cool. Wonder what the beard would look like.” Is all I say as I fly back to Rikoche.

When I get within pony eye sight of her (I have way better vision), she seems to be slowly becoming less terrified. “What was that?”

“Magic. Ain’t gotta explain shit.” I feel full of power and a couple decades wiser. For dragons that’s like going from watching Saturday morning Cartoons, to watching Anime in Japanese without subtitles. That’s a decent leap!

“Okay. Want to race back to the ship?” she asked, slowly getting her composure back.
“On three?” I smirked.

We set up side by side. On the count of One, we each get into a ‘runners start’ position. On Two, she readies her wings; but I bolt off like a bullet, laughing at the look of her face as I got a 40 yard lead before she raced after me.

Hey there! It’s the ever friendly, Floating Voice!! And tonight I have the recap of the chapter.
Let’s see: Ripper got very Inebriated, lost at least three hours of memory from last night, He learned how to Fly- that’s pretty cool, he also got some Dragon Magic, and possibly has the start of a relationship with a mare! That’s quite the accomplishment for him.
That sums up tonight’s fireside chat- Oops, sorry. That’s not till 4:30 this afternoon. Bye for now, this has been your friendly Floating Voice with tonight’s Recap of the Day.

Author's Note

So I lied on that blog post. Ended up knocking this out before 2300. Anyways, here ya go!

A HUGE Thanks goes to Higherbeach and his advise on this chapter, and the Rabbit hunt i did Saturday. There's something about shooting guns that release writers block for me. Samething happened on my Christmas trip to Texas, ended up with the end to CH 11!

And I will let you all guess who the Floating Voice is! Thank you all.