BridgeWorld

[994AB Day 078]
"Hmm… Still nothing, Lucius," Thomas Mane said as he stood there, flapping the prosthetic wings attached to his gray chainmail armor while trying to get them to lift him into the air. He looked up in annoyance at his son as Buck leisurely drifted around him.

"It should be working. We made sure the manna channels were set up the same way in all the suits," Lucius told him.

"Well, I'm trying," Thomas grumbled.

"'Do! Or do not! There is no try!'" Alfalfa spoke out.

"What was that?" Thomas demanded, glaring at her deadpan.

"That was what my old drill sergeant always told us," she explained, grinning. "It always worked on us. Well, except for Pinfeather. He washed out of the Guard when he accidentally fired off a mortar during Princess Celestia's inspection of our unit—"

"Fortunately, there are no mortars here," Lucius quipped.

"Very fortunate, indeed," Alfalfa agreed.

"Are you two done?" Thomas growled.

"No, sir. We're just getting started," Lucius replied with his customary toothy grin while Alfalfa smirked. Thomas just sighed in resignation.

"You're supposed to flap your wings, Master Buck," Alfalfa instructed.

"Um—I haven't figured out how," the colt nervously said, coming to a stop in his drifting around.

"He is at least moving around in the air as he wishes," Lucius pointed out, shrugging his shoulders.

"But that's not how pegasi fly," Alfalfa grumbled.

"He's not a pegasus," Thomas reminded her. "But he is 'doing', as you put it."

"True," she grumbled. "Maybe it's an 'age' thing?"

"…" Thomas replied.

"Good point," Lucius said, cocking his head to the two test subjects wearing what they had come to call the mutant chainmail armor that each had been modified with a pair of prosthetic wings and added manna channels to direct some of the earth ponies' magic from their hooves into the wings.

"How is it coming?" Mareta asked, bringing refreshments for all of them.

"Buck's gotten the hang of flying," Lucius reported, as Buck settled on the ground and he and Thomas walked over to join everypony.

"But not the 'hang' of being a pegasus, yet," Alfalfa grumbled.

"But Thomas still hasn't," Lucius finished.

"Although, Mister Thomas is able to flap his wings," Alfalfa pointed out.

"Maybe he needs to focus less on flapping and just concentrate on flying?" Mareta asked.

"You know—she just might have the right idea," Lucius suggested. "Would you mind giving it go, Mareta?"

"Oh! But I don't know—"

"You can't do any worse than me," Thomas grumbled.

"Don't feel so bad, Thomas," Mareta told him. "Cloudsdale wasn't built in a day."

"No, but she was tamed in a day," Alfalfa quipped. Everypony looked at her. "If you'll recall from history class, Cloudsdale was a storm that was about to hit Baltimare until Commander Hurricane's pegasi captured and tamed it."

"How does that get me up into the air?" Thomas demanded.

"It doesn't," Alfalfa replied. "It's just good to remember important events in history, Mister Thomas."

"Tell me, how did you guys ever fix the barometric problem with Cloudsdale?" Lucius asked.

"What barometric problem?" Alfalfa asked.

"That explains a lot," Lucius muttered.

"Explains what, again?" Alfalfa asked, puzzled.

"The soggy ground beneath wherever Cloudsdale is parked," Thomas told her.

"…" Alfalfa responded.

A couple hours later, Mareta was fitted with her own suit and stood with Thomas and Buck.

"I'm not sure how to do this," she complained.

"Just think of flying, mom!" Buck said, quickly lifting up and he began circling around his parents.

"Okaaay—" Mareta said. She closed her eyes and focused on what her son had explained about how he was able to rise up, and tried to imagine herself rising as he said.

"Hmm… Good, good," Lucius muttered.

"But you should remember, pegasi don't fly blind, Mistress Mareta," Alfalfa instructed.

Mareta opened her eyes and saw she was several feet up, with Buck hovering in front of her, grinning like he had gotten away with stealing cookies from the pantry and her stallion scowling like he had lost 50% on the stock market—

Wai—I'm how far up!? she thought, just before she dropped to the floor….