Author's Note
Here's a one-shot for you all to read. I have no idea where this one came from, but I wanted something to do to pass the time this morning, so I sat down in front of my keyboard and this is what followed. None the less, I hope that you enjoy this story about a child's dreams and ambitions.
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With love, from England,
First Flight
Flight of a Filly
By FireRain
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It's so quiet out here tonight.
Everything is so calm and peaceful that it's like she died and went to the Pearly Gates in the sky. Sat in the middle of the oh-so-quiet and desolate cloud garden where the flowers bloomed and the birds chirped, she sat outside and watched with a twinkle in her eye as she faced the sky.
''It's so quiet,'' The young filly spoke, her raspy voice, although near-silent, carrying loudly in the crispy, gentle breeze. ''It's just so quiet,'' She spoke again, giving not so much of a blink as the moonlight reflected in her magenta eyes.
She looked towards the moon and gave it a stare, wondering to herself what was really up there. Were the legends true? Did Princess Celestia, the ruler of the Equestrian Nation, truly and literally send her sister up to her imprisonment on the lunar surface? Dash's eyes could have sworn that they made out what was the silhouette of a dark mare, half of their face and the shadow of their elongated horn that sprouted up from their skull. She had a feeling that the glowing white spot that served as her eye was looking back at her, returning her stare.
Rainbow Dash curled her tail around herself as she laid herself down to make herself more comfortable, pressing her body lightly down onto the dry, shortly-trimmed green grass below her, hearing it give a light 'crunch'.
She rested her head between her hooves and thought to herself for a moment longer: what was really up there?
She had pondered upon this question for many moons and could only come up empty hoofed on an answer. She had heard stories, but her young mind didn't understand most of what was being detailed and laid out within said stories. Once, her mother had told her about something called a 'sat-ay-lite'. Something like that. The word was long and weird to her, and every time she'd try and pronounce the word with her underdeveloped tongue, she would always loll out something unintelligible and incoherent.
Her mother always told Dash that she was an adventurous little filly for her age, and she made sure to remind her every night when she tucked her into her little cloud bed for the night. Her father told her the very same, giving her polychromatic mane a playful noogie.
''You're my little rainbow,'' He said to her. ''I'm so proud of you.''
''Daa-aad! I'm not little anymore!'' Rainbow protested. Of course, she was still little, at only the spry age of six at the time. She always made a pout and an adorable flustered expression whenever her father called her that, and a couple of years later, she still reacts the same way.
Almost every night, Rainbow Dash came outside to observe the sky in all of its shimmering, navy-coloured glory. Being this high up in the sky made things all the more clearer to her curious and keen eyes, enhancing her imaginative satisfaction.
She loved the smell that carried with the breeze, a mix of floral scents coming from her mother's flower patch and the exotic scent of the rain clouds mixing in with the forming morning dew. To her, it was the best and most exhilarating aroma in the entire world! It was the smell that she lived for, the one that defined her and spoke to her like a ritual.
One day, Rainbow Dash vowed to herself, I'm going to soar up and touch the sky! These words she promised to herself, her personal goal, to fly up and experience the joy of being a pegasus, to have the ability to reach higher than everypony else. She knew she had it in her, and she wanted to feel the thrill, to satisfy her drive.
Unlike those unicorns (of which she referred to as 'cone-heads') and those earth ponies (which she referred to as mud-diggers), she could scrape the sky and make it her own. She was a pegasus, after all, and pegasi owned the sky, so it was only befitting of her nature! This was her territory!
Rainbow Dash's bright, anticipation-fueled eyes skimmed over one star to the next, watching their aura of glorious white sparkle and gleam. She wondered when she would do it, when she would become the best.
Every single day, she comes outside in the morning sun to practice her flying, getting stronger and stronger each and every day. She knew it, too. When she first started only a few months ago, she was hardly able to manage so much as a hover off the ground, only succeeding in raising her hooves mere inches from the ground before she collapsed.
She always got a face full of cloud, but she simply shook away the residue and tried again. And again. And again. And again. Each time that she fell, she felt her belly gradually become more warm, rising into a boiling bowl of defeatist rage. There was this one time that she came back inside her home after a day of flight practice with little no success or improvement, and her body was covered in small bumps and bruises, her eyes stinging with warm tears.
Rainbow's mother came to her with that standard-issue motherly concern written on her face to ask her if she alright when she saw her baby girl walk through the door in such a poor and dreadful state. Rainbow didn't even stop to tell her that she was fine. She kept stomping her little cyan hooves as she carried herself slowly towards her room, her head hung down low and her lips held in a tight pout, her lower lip sticking out and quivering from the pain she was in. It may not have been much, her injuries, but as a little girl, they felt like a gunshot wound.
''I said I'm fine!'' Rainbow Dash snapped, and her mother winced at the bite in her voice. Dash's mouth was twisted into a horrid snarl and her teeth were barred, much like a dog that was ready to bite after a foal wouldn't stop jabbing it in the nose with their hoof. All the while, her chest was heaving and writhing with anger, like a cyan-coloured lava lamp suffering a catastrophic meltdown.
Rainbow didn't say anything else after she snapped at her mother. She continued with her storming towards her room, and the last thing her mother heard was the door slamming shut with tremendous force before she began to cry.
It always made Rainbow Dash feel guilty. She knew that her mother hadn't done anything wrong or to upset her, and she shouldn't have let her own frustrations get the better of her. It was something that she knew she had a problem with managing. She never was good at handling her emotions and keeping herself collected.
Just count to ten and start again, She had told herself whenever she got angry, and, much to the young filly's surprise, it seemed to do the trick, if only for a moment or two. Her father was the one that told her to try this breathing exercise, and she was thankful for the advice. She didn't want to be mean or unintentionally hurt or upset her parents with her mean words whenever she felt a spark ignite within her belly. She knew better.
So, sat outside with nothing better to do, Rainbow Dash took her eyes away from the sky and turned to face her house behind her, seeing that the lights were still off, meaning that her parents mustn't have noticed that she was out of bed. She made double sure by watching the house for a solid minute, clarifying to herself that she was indeed alone. She was.
Rainbow Dash looked back up to the sky with a longing expression on her face, one of deep desire, and she stood up on all four hooves. She felt the sensation of her short, deep breaths pulsing within her lungs, feeling her chest rise and fall slowly as she inhaled the crisp night air.
This time, I'm going to do it! Rainbow told herself, intent and keen on getting herself off the ground and into the air. After all of those previous failures, she just wanted one success, even if it was a small one. She wanted to have all of those previous days of long, hard, sweat-conjuring practice to mean at least something.
Dash inhaled a breath as she closed her eyes, holding it for a moment and allowing the air to circulate within her lungs before she released it, narrowing her eyes in a confident and challenge-accepting glare at the sky.
She began to breathe slowly as she unfurled her sprouting wings, their cyan feathers silky and well-preened. She began to flap them, pumping them up and down slowly for a moment or two before she increased their motion. Night air drifted over the feather and caressed them gingerly, and the sensation gave way to an excited tickle that trickled up Dash's little spine.
Rainbow Dash began to pump her wings harder, flapping them hard against the wind, now generating a gust as the wind collected underneath her wings. She continued to flap them hard, feeling her hooves become light against the ground as her body weight was slowly gaining elevation.
She felt her forehead become moist and her fur begin to become matted with warm sweat that was slowly cooled by the night air, bell-bottomed marbles of moisture rolling down the sides of her small cheeks before they fell and became absorbed by the cloud layer below.
''Come on! Come on, Rainbow Dash, fly!'' Rainbow Dash told herself, feeling her small lungs within her body begin to burn from the strain, along with the muscles connecting her wings to her being. By now, her muscles were crying and she had to grind her teeth together to refrain from squirming from the pressure her wings were creating against her frame.
Rainbow gave a groan and closed her eyes she continued to flap, undeterred by the strain running through the hollow bones within her wings, and she gave a huff as she drew in a deep breath. Ever so slowly, her hooves, one by one, began to gently lift themselves from the ground, and she felt herself become incredibly light.
Opening her eyes in surprise to how light the world around her seemed, Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion before she looked down, her magenta eyes beholding a sight that caused her to gasp, a smile curling its way upon her adolescent lips.
She was actually doing it! Rainbow Dash was flying! She had managed to get herself off the ground and into the air! She couldn't believe that this was happening!
She slowed down her wings, feeling herself become relaxed as the air being directed beneath her body caused her to feel weightless. This must be what angels feel like. She felt light and graceful in the air, and she gave a cheer of pure joy and ecstasy.
Rainbow Dash felt amazing, and she put this new feeling to the test by angling her wings slightly to push herself forwards, causing her to glide in mid-air. The cool breeze ruffling her cyan mane and caressing the fur on her face felt like a heavenly massage.
Daring to go further, Rainbow decided to push herself forward with an even harder flap of her wings, and she found that she went a little faster this time, and the thrill racing through her heart excited her and gave her a feeling akin to a sugar-rush. She loved it so much that she began to pump her wings harder. She went a little faster. She pumped harder. She went even faster. She pumped even harder. She went even faster than before.
She continued this until she became so fast that she could not stop or hold back her mental leash. She had a lust for speed, and she needed to satisfy it. And so, Rainbow Dash gave a daring smirk and licked her lips slowly, giving a hard pump through her wings with all of her might and catapulting herself through the air like a bullet from a gun. She went soaring through the skies, cheering all the while and lost in a world of bliss.
Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash, there were two faces in the window of the living room of her house watching her, two ponies staring up into the night sky in awe. A pair of golden eyes and a pair of pale magenta eyes, both teary-eyed as they watched their daughter take flight for the very first time.
They watched her until the sun came up.
