Beyond Flight

by MasquePony

Rating: everyone
Tags: Comedy, Slice of Life
Length: 1084

A young colt struggles against racial and social barriers to reach his quite unlikely dream.

Sometimes what your heart wants and what your body will allow don't quite go together. When a little earth colt decides that he wants to learn to fly, this innocent little quest will turn in to a life journey, where he'll fight against racial, social, and mental barriers in order to reach his goals.

(( Note 1: To be completely honest, I'm not sure if I'm going to update this story or not. It's nothing really technical, but I don't get motivated to write very often. I had the idea for this story for about a month before I actually wrote anything.

Note 2: I'm also open to constructive criticism. That means you should tell me a way to improve, and not just what was wrong. It doesn't help me much to know what's wrong if I don't have some way of going about fixing it. ))

Happy reading!

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-03 22:34:01 UTC

Chapter 1

“Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they’re gonna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.”

“Fillies and Gentlecolts, please rise and welcome, The Wonderbolts!”

As the announcer screamed into the microphone, the up-beat music played in the background, and the crowd cheered, The Wonderbolts flew overhead with their smoke trails behind them. They split off in different directions, with some doing twists and flips along the way. Once each of them hit their target altitude, they folded their wings in and fell back down. For a few moments, every member was in free-fall. As they began to pull up one by one, the smoke trails were left behind, they formed a wall, and the last pony to pull up went right through it, creating an opening in the clouds. While everypony’s attention was on the single pony left below, the others set off a specially made lighting beacon from above, and it flashed brightly. Once everypony in the audience could see again, they opened their eyes to see The Wonderbolts hovering steadily in a triangular formation.

They then split off once more as the crowd cheered them on, and continued with their loops, barrel rolls, and various formations. The crowd loved it, and as the time went by, the pegasi gradually amped up their tricks and their speed. It was truly a sight to behold, whether you liked flying acrobatics or not. Fortunately, this show was in Ponyville, and low enough to the ground for anypony to watch without having to figure out a way to get up the the stadium. The only drawback was how difficult it was to see. You could pick out the individual ponies, as well as their smoke trails, fairly well, but you had to strain to figure out which one was which.

“Whoa!” A little earth colt called from below. He was on his way home from a delivery, and the performance caught his eye. Who could blame him? It wasn’t really discreet. As he stood and watched what he could from the ground below, and had to rely on the smoke trails to keep track of them all. When they ducked, dived, twirled, and spun, he watched, fascinated. The colt wondered how it felt to be up in the clouds, how it felt to fly, and how those ponies got so good at it. He'd always liked the idea of flight, but he never knew it could be done to this extent.

“They’re quite somethin’, aren’t they?” Said an older pegasus, who had trotted up beside him.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. They’re pretty amazing alright.” He responded.

“It’s something, really. To be able to fly through the air like that with such control; to feel the air beneath your wings...” The older stallion trailed off into his own thoughts, as if remembering something.

“I wish I could fly... Just to see how it felt. I bet it’d be cool.”

The pegasus raised an eyebrow and looked at him quizzically. “Oh, and why can’t you?”

“Um, helloooo? I’m an EARTH pony. I don’t have wings like you, see?” He tapped his side, indicating that he was, in fact, an earth pony. It wasn't really a mind-blowing discovery.

“Ah, that shouldn’t stop you, should it, kid?”

“It should, actually... It’s kind of hard to fly without wings.”

“Hey, you don’t have your cutie mark yet. Do you know what that means?” The older one said, pointing towards the younger’s flank.

“That I’m a blank flank?” The colt responded, as if this question as simple as one plus one.

“Well, yes, but that isn’t what I’m getting at.” He chuckled, and continued on. “It means you can be whatever you want yourself to be, regardless of whether you’re an earth pony...” He gave the colt a nudge, and then pointed to himself. “A pegasus, or a unicorn.”

“I guess so... But nopony but unicorns can do magic.” He answered, skeptically.

“Would you like to see me do some magic then?”

“Sure, but... You’re a pegasus. You can’t do any magic.”

He took that as a simple yes, and ignored the last part. With a quick reach into a saddlebag, he pulled out a small book. Afterwards, he reached for a leaf off the tree. “What do you see here?”

“Umm... That’s just a book and a leaf.”

“Exactly.” He then flipped open the book to a random page, and slid the leaf between the pages, with about a quarter of it hanging out of the top. “Ta-da! The leaf is now a very useful bookmark.”

“That’s not real magic. That’s still a leaf.”

“It’s whatever you want it to be.” He took the leaf from the book, and held it out on a hoof. With a quick blow, he sent it off in a small gust of wind. “Just like a certain little pony here.”

“So, to get my cutie mark... I should go become a bookmark!” He piped up, obviously excited over the chance of getting his cutie mark, regardless of what it was.

He rustled the little colt‘s mane with a hoof. “Hah, no, no. Not that at all. My point was that you can be whatever you want to be. You can change into anything, and still be yourself at heart. There’s nothing stopping you from being able to fly, or do magic, or even become a bookmark, as silly as that sounds.”

“You know, you’re right, mister whoever-you-are-pegasus. I can totally find a way to fly like them!” He raised a hoof and pointed towards the Wonderbolt Show, which was now wrapping up with the flying ponies doing a cyclone maneuver.

“What’s your name, little colt?” The pegasus asked with a chuckle.

“Dural. It’s Dural. Who are you?” He responded, not looking away from the action above.

As the crowd above them cheered, and the Wonderbolts were taking their bows, the pegasus turned to face Dural beside him. “Me? I’m just Soarin’.”

-------------------------------------------------End Chapter One-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(( Thanks for those of you who read through. I know it's a little short, but I'm not one to write thousands of words in a chapter. If I do continue the story, I'll try to improve a bit there, and get a little more in depth. Thank you again, and Farewell for now! ))

Image: http://cf1.8tracks.us/mix\_covers/000/878/157/39753.max1024.jpg

Quote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPnudujlBZI