Chapter 8:
Flight

I woke up the next morning to the sound of soft snoring and something warm attached to my back while the sun’s rays poured in through the window.

Oh boy, how am I going to get out of this one…

Rainbow had me in a vice grip, clinging onto me like her life depended on it. It took me a good few minutes of carefully prying myself Rainbow’s grip, only managing to turn my body around to face her before she desperately grasped onto me again.

Well, shit. I guess she’ll wake up like this then.

Rainbow pressed herself deep into the soft feathers of my chest, letting out a relieved sigh as she did so. Her messy hair splayed out over the pillow she was resting her head on. I slowly ran my talons through her hair which was surprisingly soft for how rough it looked.

She should grow it out some more. The short rough tomboy look isn’t bad, but her hair would be real pretty if it were longer…

I lay there for another few seconds before I truly processed my train of thought.

Wait, you thought she looked pretty… again? Switching species must be screwing with my mind worse than I thought... Ugh, I’m going to have to deal with this sooner rather than later since I’ll be going home at some point…

Right?

Rainbow stirred in her sleep as the light from outside was rapidly getting brighter, making slumbering much tougher.

“Good morning,” I said as Rainbow yawned widely and her eyes fluttered open. She immediately grew a blush as she noticed the position she was in on my side of the bed.

“I-I uhm… Good morning to you too,” she settled with, though she had yet to untangle herself from me. “Sleep well?”

“Much better than sleeping on the ground, yes,” I replied as she only now decided to pull herself from my fluffy chest.

“I guess we should check to see if Twilight’s up already.” Rainbow leaned forward unfurled her wings, stretching her body in the same way a cat would do. “You coming?”

Stopping my staring at her butt I swiftly rolled out of the bed, briefly having the urge to put some clothes on but then remembering that it wouldn’t matter anyway around here. Downstairs we found Spike working on some sandwiches in the kitchen.

“Morning,” I told him as we came into the kitchen.

“Oh, good morning. Hey Dash, did you not go home last night?” The little guy said as he stacked the food he’d made on plates and placed them around the kitchen table.

“Nah, it was a little late so I decided to stay here,” Dash casually waved off.

“Well, in that case, I’ll make another sandwich. The one at the head of the table is yours, Jack,” Spike pointed out as he got some more ingredients to make a fourth sandwich. Twilight soon joined us as well at the table to get ready for the day.

“So, do you have anything you want to do today?” Twilight asked of me while eating her sandwich.

“Other than think of something to get out of your hair? Not much,” I admitted. “Dash did show me a gym but without cash I’m pretty sure I’ll be going nowhere.”

“The Princess did send a letter to inform me that she’ll be giving me an allowance to cover your costs, the amount she’s allocating is definitely enough to cover that bill,”

“Heh, awesome! I could show you around, Bulk has plenty of stuff in there that can strengthen your wings.” Dash exclaimed, wrapping a wing around me and pulling me close, only to immediately blush and let go again.

“That would give me the peace of mind to write up the petitions to the various universities for the data from the magic event…” Twilight pondered. “Are you sure you can keep Jack entertained today, Dash?”

Rainbow chuckled and smirked confidently. “An awesome pegasus like me? Of course I can!”

Twilight shook her head but couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks Rainbow. Well, I’ve got my work cut out for me, I’ll be in the lab downstairs if either of you needs me. Spike, you have the library.”

“Yes ma’am!” Spike smirked, giving Twilight a crooked salute.

I’m going to teach him the proper form for that before I’m gone.

Twilight disappeared from the kitchen, soon followed by Spike, leaving me with Rainbow. “So, how is miss awesome going to entertain me today?”

“Why don’t you follow me and find out?” Rainbow smirked, running out of the kitchen and forcing me to swiftly follow. The pegasus continued to keep me on edge as she used her wings to fly through the streets of Ponyville while I clumsily struggled to follow her, though my speed increased incrementally as I got more comfortable with my own movement. Bobbing and weaving through the crowd we passed ponies starting their workdays and fillies that had their bags packed with books for school, soon Rainbow’s lead wasn’t as big as it had been at the start of the run.

“Come on! Catch me, slowpoke!” Rainbow taunted as she entered the fields of grass that lay beside the town.

Oh you’re so on!

Opening my wings I flapped them hard once, flinging myself through the air right towards Rainbow who in her cockiness wasn’t looking behind her. It wasn’t exactly an elegant flight but that didn’t matter as I wrapped my arms around her midriff and pulled her to the ground with me. We rolled a couple of meters before coming to a stop with me pinning Rainbow to the ground on her belly.

“Caught ya!” I smirked, making sure Dash couldn’t struggle out of my grip.

“Fine, you win,” Rainbow grumbled as her struggles weren’t getting her anywhere. She stretched for a moment after I let her go.

“So, why did we go out here?” I asked, looking around the open field.

“To practice your flying of course!” Rainbow laughed again, “You got those wings but now you need to learn how to use them.”

“Oh boy, this’ll be fun.”

“I know!” Dash squealed before starting to instruct me, putting me through various stretches and warm-up exercises. Then after some time, we moved on to some hovering and glide exercises which we did until my wings were burning.

“Tired already?” Dash smirked after what felt like an entire day of flying.

“First time… real hard… Also got shot with arrows like two days ago...” I gasped, still completely out of breath as I lay splayed on the ground. Rainbow was only amused at the sight of me completely being out though.

“Ahh, does the little griffin need somepony to hug him?” She said in the most demeaning voice possible while poking me.

“Let it be known that I hate you right now.”

“Hey Rainbow!” a squeaky voice called out from the village as the quick buzzing of wings signalled the approach of an orange coated, purple-haired little pegasus.

“Hey squirt, how are you doing?” Rainbow chuckled as she left me on the ground to talk with the kid.

“Got a free day from school and I saw you flying around, wanna hang out?” The little pegasus squealed.

“Well… I’m supposed to babysit that Griffin over there-”

“Screw you.”

“-but I’m sure we can find some time to hang out,” Rainbow finished ignoring my rude comment.

“Awesome! Want to go get milkshakes at Bon Bon’s?” the little girl asked, giving Rainbow the biggest puppy eyes possible.

“Wow, that’s A grade extortion right there,” I smirked, having caught my breath and found my paws again, draping a wing over Dash’s back. “Just look at those eyes, are you going to say no to that?”

“Ugh, fine, we’ll get some milkshakes.” Rainbow immediately relented, pushing my wing away and walking ahead.

“So what’s your name?” I asked the little scooter riding pegasus.

“I’m Scootaloo! Rainbow’s number one fan!” She exclaimed, briefly hovering up in excitement. “How do you know Dash?”

I chuckled. “We met up north, spent a good week in various forests with her afterwards. I’m Jack Grey by the way.”

“Huh, so you met and went on a camping trip?” Scootaloo questioned eagerly to get more information out of me.

“We’ll go with that, yes,” I settled with, preferring not to tell the story about being hunted to the kid. We soon after arrived at the little store Scootaloo had asked to go to, Rainbow going in to get the milkshakes while Scootaloo and I held down a table outside.

“So why are you skipping class?” I asked calmly as the shop’s door closed and Dash couldn’t hear us anymore. Scootaloo’s eyes went wide in surprise.

“I-I’m not! I did s-say I had a free day from school, r-right?” she stuttered, nervously trying to put up an innocent face.

“Of all the things I am, I’m not imperceptive Scootaloo. I saw other children carry books this morning. Schoolbooks,” I pointed out, Scootaloo’s smile dropping as she realised she’d been caught.

“Are you going to turn me in?” she quietly asked.

“Right now I’m only asking why you’re skipping class.” I folded my claws in front of me while I waited for the answer.

“There are two bullies in school… I was supposed to hold a presentation about a hero of mine today… they were making fun of me all throughout the week… Telling me how useless I am…” Scootaloo sniffed as her eyes teared up. I extended a wing and wrapped it around her, holding her to my slightly sweaty coat though she didn’t seem to mind.

“Look kid, there’s something an instructor of mine once told me after I got into a fight with someone I absolutely despised. He said that you can’t always change a person, what you can do is change your own response. Those two may be jerks that tell you that whatever you want to do is impossible, but what does that matter? The only thing the word ‘impossible’ should serve as is motivation to prove whoever said it wrong.”

“You really think so?” Scootaloo still sniffed but there was hope on her face.

“I’ve personally seen someone who everyone, even his doctors, thought would never walk again telling them to screw off and get back on his legs. It took monstrous amounts of work but the key factor in all of it was that he never gave up, not a single moment. Of course there’s a measure of luck in anything you do, but if you’re not putting the effort in you’ll never get where you want to be.”

Scootaloo stayed silent for a bit, mulling over my words. “It’s just like Rainbow Dash. She’s crashed so many times when practising only to get back up and try again… That’s what you mean…” in a single moment Scootaloo had attached herself to me in a hug and smiled. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem kid,” I smiled, and checked my watch seeing it was almost twelve. “Does your school have a break in the afternoon?”

Scootaloo nodded. “Between twelve and one.”

“Do you want me to come along so I can talk to your teacher? It should be easier without your class there.” I asked getting another nod from Scootaloo. Dash chose that moment to return with the three shakes, dividing them among us.

“Sorry about the time, Bon Bon had to get the ice from out back and I got into a conversation with Lyra,” Rainbow apologized as Scootaloo got her milkshake and started downing it happily.

“No worries Rainbow, it gave me some good chance to get to know Scootaloo here a bit better,” I laughed, tasting my own shake and finding it to be strawberry flavoured.

Oh, this is really good. Not some processed chemical shake but one with actual strawberries.

“So, have anything planned for the afternoon Rainbow?” I asked as I quickly finished up my milkshake.

“Well… I was sort of counting on you being completely out right now,” she sheepishly admitted.

“Miss awesome thinking that I couldn’t take a little training?” I smirked.

“You did better than I’d expected,” Rainbow grumbled in defeat. “I wanted to get some practice in for myself while you napped.”

“Hey you can still do that, I’ll be fine exploring Ponyville on my own a bit more.”

Rainbow looked over at Scootaloo, “Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, I remembered that I have to pick up some stuff at home anyway.”

“Awesome, when shall we meet back up again, Jack?” Rainbow asked as I checked my watch, finding it approaching twelve already.

How our world's time systems match up this perfectly is beyond me. Gotta ask Twilight how that's possible if she gets anywhere in her research.

“Say two o’clock in front of the library?”

“Deal! See you then!” Dash immediately launched herself into the air and barrelled towards the open field outside of town.

“So, let’s go get your stuff.” Scootaloo and I walked over to her house where she swiftly got her bags before heading on to the schoolhouse. As we arrived the other children were playing all kinds of games around the schoolhouse, some playing tag while others were going off the slide or swinging on the swing.

“Where have you been, blank flank?”

Scootaloo immediately froze as she heard the voice call out loudly. I could see two of the children approaching from the side as I interposed myself between them and Scootaloo. “Hello there, I seem to have missed your name.”

The pink filly with a tiara on her head looked up at me in annoyance. “I didn’t say. Now get out of my way, stingy chicken.”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” I calmly answered to the filly’s chagrin.

“Look, I don’t know who you are and I don’t care. Just get out of my way.”

“No.” The surrounding playground had grown a lot quieter as the other children were shooting glances in my direction to see how this would turn out. The pink filly seemed to snap at my stubborn refusal.

“Do you know not who I am?! My father-” As she mentioned her father I couldn’t help but burst out into laughter, tears in my eyes.

“Your father what?” I burst out, “Is he like a mob boss, going to send his goons after me for getting in the way of his kid?” The children around me snickered quietly while the bully was blowing steam out of her ears. “That’s right, he isn’t. Now stop bothering Scootaloo here, I'm no fan of bullies and you two seem to fit that category quite well.”

“Y-You… AAARGH!” The filly stomped away red hot with anger.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Scootaloo exclaimed, not being able to hold her own laughter.

“Scootaloo!” Two new fillies came running up, a yellow earthpony with red hair and a white unicorn with purple hair. “Where have y’all been? Cheerilee moved yer presentation to the afternoon in case you’d show up late.”

“Hi girls, I had some things that I needed to work out. Jack here helped me along.”

“You’re that griffin Rarity is fixing those strange clothes for, aren’t you?” the unicorn asked.

“Yes I am, and you two are?”

“Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo pointed out for me, the two nodding.

“Sounds good. I’m sorry you two but I promised Scootaloo I’d talk to your teacher with her and we already wasted some time with that little distraction just now.”

“Alright, that’s fair. We’ll see ya in class Scoots,” Apple Bloom called out allowing us to move to the large red schoolhouse. After looking for a bit we found Cheerilee at her desk looking through some assignments. I knocked on the doorframe three times to get her attention.

“Oh hello there, what can I do for you?” she said, looking up at me with a slightly forced smile.

“I’m just here to return a student,” I stepped aside a bit to allow Scootaloo through, her ears flat as she looked at her teacher.

“Scootaloo! I was very worried about you, where have you been?” Cheerilee immediately brightened at seeing her student.

“She was having some serious anxiety issues about her presentation, and how her bullies would react,” I answered for the filly. “The two of us had a talk and she wants to hold it anyway now.”

“Of course, I’d like to see you after class too Scootaloo, but if you still want to give your presentation then I won’t stop you,” Cheerilee smiled, “You go outside and play with your friends, I’ll talk with mister…?”

“Grey.”

“Mister Grey here.” She finished. Scootaloo nodded and ran back outside to catch up with her two friends while I took a seat on a stool in front of Cheerilee’s desk. “I’m surprised you got her to come in here, usually she’s gone for at least the entire day when she doesn’t show up.”

“It happens more often?”

“It could be worse but about once every month,” Cheerilee admitted.

“That’s sad, she sounds like a good kid with drive, just needs a push in the right direction.”

“You seem to have gotten through to her, would you mind checking in on her so every now and then?” Cheerilee asked, “It’d do her some real good.”

“As long as I am in Ponyville I’ll keep an eye out for her,” I smiled back in reply.

“Thank you, now I must ask you to leave since class is about to start again.”

“Of course, have a nice day, miss Cheerilee.”

“You too, mister Grey.”

Author's Note

I heard yesterday that the local trick and treat hasn't been called off and I've not had my cosplay fix in 8 months, it's gonna be so much fun stomping about in my Space Marine

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