Chivalry Reborn

Chapter 17:

Adaptation

“Dash!” I yelled toward my so-called instructor, fluttering slowly across the sky. I could barely keep a good speed beyond a slow trudge if I were walking. Using these things was quite a bit harder to do than I anticipated. “Wait up, damn it!”

“Oh, come on, Winston!” Rainbow Dash called back, turning around. She sounded impatient with my slow learning process to fly with speed, looking at me from a ways off. “We’re almost there! Pick up the pace!”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that!” I shouted at her sarcastically, adjusting my flapping rhythm some more.

It’s only been a few minutes since I first transformed into a pony; the least she could do is be considerate and PROPERLY tell me how to fly. When I say that, I mean tell me what pattern works best to adjust speed and angle, how to land, how to turn, that kind of thing. NOT blast off right off the bat, leaving me to eat rainbow-dust.

I groaned to myself at how annoying she was being right now, but at least she’s waiting up for me.

Putting more vigor into it, I pumped my newly-found wings with more power. To my surprise, I suddenly gained a sufficient boost in speed, quickly catching up to Dash.

“Whoa, whoa~!” I uttered, almost hitting Rainbow by accident. I jerked to the side slightly, before regaining balance.

“Now you’re talkin’!” Dash smiled at the change of pace, starting to zip off again, leaving behind a stream of colors.

“I swear, if you don’t slow down..!” I growled at her lack of perseverance. Slow down a little, ya obnoxious little…!

“GET BACK HERE!” I bellowed in a fit of frustration, slamming my wings downward. In a mere second, I blasted forward making my ears pop from the sudden air pressure.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to see in front of me as I kept forcing my wings up and down at a rapid pace. I could see that I was slowly making my way back up to Dash. Come on….Lemme at her…! I was focused solely on grabbing Dash by her arm, holding her there until she asked me to stop.

I could see Dash turning her head back, smiling at me. I couldn’t tell just what kind it was, because of all the turbulence in my face, but I could tell it wasn’t smug. What in the world is she thinking about now…?

Just before I could get within hoof’s reach of her hind leg, Dash suddenly slid into a downward angle.

“Wah!” Is all I could shout, before I skidded to a halt without thinking. I turned myself around, looking down to look for that blasted rainbow mare. She was going down towards the town, aiming for the giant oak tree that was the library. Ah..

We were already at the library by the time I learned to gain speed while flying, it seemed. I was a little disappointed at this. I was about to start showing that smug pony what for, too. I smacked my lips slightly, closing my wings slightly and letting myself fall towards Ponyville.

I let my body tilt backwards, allowing my head to point down towards the ground as I plummeted. It felt kind of weird just closing my wings and letting myself descend like this on purpose. Considering how I came here by falling, you would think I’d be more hesitant to do this, but I just didn’t. The way the wind was hitting my face as I fell felt kind of….nice.  I let my eyes shut, enjoying the sensation.

……..

My eyes snapped back open, as an afterthought came to mind. ...Whoops, almost forgot about the ground.

I snapped out of my falling daydream, noticing the ground was getting close now. I flipped myself back upright, while I flicked my wings back open, making the rest of my body jerk upward from the burst of wind going into them, much like a parachute. I guided my landing towards the ground at a slow and steady pace, closing my wings as my hooves met the ground once more.

Rainbow Dash moseyed my way, whistling with a smile on her face.

“That wasn’t too bad at all for a beginner.” She praised me with a slightly dismissive tone to it. “But don’t get ahead of yourself. Your form’s way too sloppy, and you wobble a lot while flying.” She patted me on the shoulder, much like a teacher encouraging a special student. “You’ll never catch me like that. I wasn’t even trying!”

“Oh, nag, nag ,nag.” I grumbled, walking past her and moved towards the library door. “Let’s just talk to Twilight already.”

“Sure, whatever you say, Fumbles.” Rainbow Dash snickered to herself, following me.

Ugh, this damned girl is gonna drive me off the wall. I mentally complained. …That or Pinkie Pie will. I  finished the thought, as I reached over and knocked on the door.

“Coming!” Twilight’s voice rang from beyond the door frame, as I could hear her voice be followed by a soft clutter and then the sound of hoofsteps coming towards the door.

As the door swung open, Twilight greeted us with a smile she probably wore to all customers to the library. “Welcome and-” She looked past me to probably notice Dash behind me. “Oh, hello Rainbow Dash! Who’s this?”

Dash looked to the side, scratching the back of her with an awkward grin on her face. “Heh heh…Yeah, about that. This is-”

I grunted to cut in before telling her myself. “It’s me, Twilight. It’s Winston.”

Twilight stared at me confused for a good while, probably thinking I was some relative of Pinkie who just so happened to know about Winston Flash.  I couldn’t blame her for not believing this ridiculous story anyway. I still can’t truly wrap my head around it, either.

“No,” She laughed a little, shaking her head, “no that can’t be. Winston is a-“

And now it’s once again time to play “Teasing My Little Pony!” My brain began to raise flags and ideas to take advantage of the situation. This is too good to pass up.

“Human, right?” I finished her sentence, stepping towards her with a small plotting smile on my face.

She faltered back, but stood her ground, looking at me with a wary stare. I got close to her and moved my head next to her ear.

“What’s the matter,” I secretly pressed her with a toying voice, “still don’t recognize your ‘Daddy’?”

Her face burned red as I finished, eyes widening to the size of plates. Mission accomplished. I smirked to myself, pleased with her reaction.

I sauntered by her, speaking with a false sense of grief “Oh, I’m sooooo hurt~…!”

I stopped when I reached the center of the main room and turned back around to look at the doorway. Twilight was looking back at me with wide eyes, her face glowing with shy embarrassment. Rainbow Dash was just looking at her librarian friend perplexed. I nudged my head back, telling them to come in already. I couldn’t help but laughed to myself from seeing how well I messed with Twilight like this. She almost makes this too easy sometimes.

Twilight kept looking at me in shock, before regaining her sense and glaring at me with a pout,  as she stomped towards me. Dash simply glanced around herself before walking in, still at a lost of the situation.

Twilight got right in my face, giving me a sharp kick to my right foreleg.

“Ow!” I lifted my assaulted appendage off the ground and away from Twilight’s range.

“Quit calling yourself that around me!” She hissed quietly, still giving me a harsh look. “I was half-asleep at the time, for Celestia’s sake!”

“True, but it got you to believe my story, right?” I cracked, grinning even though my leg now stung.

“Ugh!” Twilight groaned, backing off. She probably knew I was right, but still absolutely abhorred the teasing all the same.

“Um…” Rainbow Dash finally intervened, muttering this while tilting her head to the side. She must really be bewildered by now.

“Forget about it, Dash.” I assured her, still laughing a little. “It’s an inside joke.”

“Well, I still wanna know.” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as she said this. “What the hay happened between you two the night before, anyw-“

“IT DOESN’T MATTER!” Twilight broke in, yelling to get Technicolor speedster to shut up. I could have sworn that all the boots shook in the shelves in fear of the normally quiet librarian’s loud outburst. Seeing that Dash had snapped her mouth shut, she coughed, letting a moment pass for the blush leave her face fully before speaking.“Look, just tell me what happened to YOU,” She shoved a hoof in my face, before continuing, “and why you’ve come here to start with.”

“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, seemingly to have dropped the whole episode between Twilight and I at the memory of what happened at my house. “You should have been there, Twilight! So I went over to Winston’s to get the reason why he left Pinkie’s party, and then-”

I griped in silence, letting Rainbow explain it. I may as well. I don’t want anyone else to know about my dreams anyway. Besides, maybe she’ll mention how long I was gone in a daydream. This shape-shifting technique won’t really be useful, if I have to wait a bit before it’s finished.

Ah, she’s getting to the transformation bit now, actually. I returned my attention to Dash, who was still giving a very animated story to Twilight.

“-so then he just in the middle of the room, with this really serious look on his face. After that this HUGE wall of light flashed up around him, and I couldn’t see anything! When I could see again, he was like this!” She pointed at me and my new shape, finishing her story.

I then decided that now would be a good time to start explaining too.

“After that, I decided to come see you, because I believed you could teach me some things about things you ponies can do. I already kind of learned how to fly by coming her with these.” I nudged at my sides, pointing to where my wings rested.

“I taught him!” Dash boasted proudly, sticking her nose up in the air.

“Like hell you did…” I growled under my breath. You barely waited for me!

Twilight stood at attention the whole narration, nodding her head time and time again.

“Okay,” She paused,  adding up all the pieces we had just given her to summarize the whole story. “So you want me to teach you how to use this new form of yours…?”

“Yes.” I answered her, confirming her summary.

“Okay then,” Twilight turned to the staircase, letting her horn start to shine. “Wait here, I’ll be right back with some textbooks on basic magic and history.”

“Fine.” I responded calmly, looking around for something to kill time with. I could probably find a few things to do here. Maybe Spike was around here somewhere. I need to talk to him about last night, anyway.

“Hey.” Rainbow Dash called for my attention from behind me.

I sigh, turning back around to face the mare. “What now?”

“Can you tell me what was with earlier now?” Dash started to interrogate me, walking my way.

“What are you talking about?” I rose an eyebrow, unsure what she was getting at.

“I’m talking about the whole thing at your house!” Dash snapped at me, stepping in front of me. “How did you know you could do this? You were looking at blank piece of paper, and then all of a sudden you’re a pony! An Alicorn at that!” Alicorns? Is that what they’re called?

She continued. “Not to mention what happened between you and Twilight the night before. She never acts like this around anypony else!” She poked me in the chest with her hoof, her eyes narrowed. “Fess up!”

Shit, maybe I didn’t really think this over. I glanced to the side, thinking about what to say to her. She’s seen too much to just lie my way out of it by saying it was convenience. And now that I think about it, Twilight really was at my house all night. Of course that’s going to be suspicious! Not to mention someone saw us leave the house together! Sure it wasn’t exactly the smartest looking pony to spot us, but she saw us all the same! Crap, how should I do this…?

“Nothing really happened that night.” I lied in the most normal way I could. “We simply talked, that’s about our worlds a little bit more, and discussed what to do about the situation.” I looked to the side, trying to appear uninterested. “When we finally started to take note of the time, it was too late to let her go out alone. So I just let her stay over the night.”

Yeah, that should do. “As for the whole transformation bit-“

“Whoa, wait a minute.” She made me stop, eyes widening a little. “She stayed at your house over THE NIGHT!?” She got in my face, confronting me with this new information. “You didn’t do anything to her when this happened, right!?”

Crap. So she didn’t know. I should have just kept my mouth shut about that factor until she mentioned it herself. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

“Of course not!” I pushed her away slowly, protecting my innocence. “Why would I? I have nothing towards her.”

“You could have done a number of things to her!” She rammed her head into mine still giving me an icy stare.

“But I didn’t do anything!” I protested against her advancing offense.

“Prove it!” She challenged my defense, looking right into my eyes through narrow slits.

“He didn’t do anything, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight called from upstairs.

She walked down the steps, having a bunch of books trail behind her, each surrounded by the same magical aura that was emitting from her horn.

“The Princess merely asked for me to stay at his home to watch over him is all.” She said that tiredly, placing the books on a desk near the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh,” Rainbow blinked, looking over at Twilight with a softened expression, “well, what about the whole reading a ‘blank scroll’ deal, huh?” Dash turned back around, to keep quizzing me.  She apparently decided if she couldn’t get me on that, she’ll move right onto my ability to change to a horse.”Not only that, but your whole body’s changed to look like us! That’s not normal!”

“Neither is your Rainbow colored mane, I’d bet.” I poked fun at her hairstyle just to piss her off. She was starting to really annoy me with all of this distrust. “And I couldn’t tell you even if I KNEW the reason why.”

“Why not?” Dash snapped in question. She was glaring at me with a particular sharpness to it for the mane insult.

“Because it’s something only Twilight, the princesses, and myself really need to know about for now.” I answered her with a fact. “We can’t afford to let too many people know about it.”

She groaned deeply, dragging it out for a good second. “Fiiiine~…” Dash started to turn around and walk towards the door. “I’ll see you later, I guess. I have a job to do. You know, weather pony, and all.”

They can control the weather as well…? So not only do two princesses control day and night, but pegasi like that rainbow brat can mess with the weather!? That’s crazy! My mind was starting to rant, until I just remembered something: I just turned myself into a pony. Fuck logic.

Twilight was simply shaking her head with a knowing smile on her face. I guessed that she probably didn’t say that often….and meant it, anyway. I then remembered that she was the only flying pony that knows about my transformation.

“Hey, Dash!” I called out to her, hoping she wouldn’t ignore me.

She stopped at the open doorway, turning her head slightly. “Yeah?”

“Mind ACTUALLY teaching me how to fly sometime?” I asked Rainbow, making it sound like I was daring her.

I could see the lightest hint of a smirk show up on her face, before she faced forward again and walked out, taking off.

“Sure,” I could hear her answer me, yelling in the distance, “if you can keep up, that is.”

I scoffed at her nerve. So brash.

The door closed on its own as soon as Rainbow Dash was gone.  I turned to the side just in time to see the light disappear from Twilight’s horn.

“Now then,” She turned to me with a smile on her face, “ready to start your first lesson in the basics of Equestria?”

“Uh, sure…”  I looked at the stack of books nervously. It suddenly felt like a class you kind of don’t want to be in now.

Twilight's smile brightened, picking up the top book titled Canterlot: the Start of Equestria. “Good, then let’s start.”

Deep down in my gut, I could feel the twisting that came to me whenever I was about to sit do a REALLY long lecture. This one in particular felt like it was going to be longer than most of my professors back at college. I sat down on my haunches, beginning to (not really) listen to Twilight as she began to talk about how Celestia and Luna became so powerful.