Zipp took a deep breath, dropped the aviator shades down over her eyes, and hit the record button on the camera before taking a step back in the large basement room of CanterLove Studios. The building as a whole was very much still under construction, but the team had modified this room to Zipp's specifications, and now the walls had impact padding, as did the floor, which also had built-in springs for further shock absorption.

This wasn't live. Zipp hated doing things live, and she would put up with editing if she could make herself look as confident as possible.

"Hello, pegasi everywhere, from Zephyr Heights and now beyond. Zipp here, to give you some of the basics you'll need to fly safer and easier. The very first thing I want to cover is how to prepare for a crash landing. Yes, you heard me right," Zipp began as she began pacing back and forth, looking at the camera.

"I know it's odd that you'd be learning about crashing as the first part of the basics, but it's true. If you can't get an available spot here at CanterLove Studios' basement flight practice room, even if you manage to gather pillows, mattresses, or foam pads, landing wrong can result in injuries that put you out of action while you recover, or Celestia forbid, you could permanently injure yourself. So before I show you how to stay in the air, you have to know what to do when grounding is imminent."

Zipp began lightly flapping her wings, but stayed on the floor.

"First and foremost, if you're flapping your wings, stop. If you're going out of control, flapping wildly will only exacerbate the situation. The best thing to do is keep your wings fully extended in gliding position, ready to catch any drafts that could help stabilize you," Zipp explained, as she did with her wings what she was explaining in real time. "But for lower altitudes, when you know contact will be in the next few moments, or more importantly, you don't know when contact will be, the following is crucial:"

The white pegasus snapped her wings into her body, and tucked her legs in, going into a somewhat graceful crouching position.

"First and foremost, tuck your extremities in; legs and wings. While it might feel right to try and brace yourself with your legs, it will almost never end well. Remember; scrapes and bruises heal a lot faster than broken legs and wings. Next..."

Zipp went into a gallop, with the camera tracking her movement as the software made it follow her on the gimbal. She went into a flying leap, then tucked her wings and legs in, and unceremoniously rolled a few times on the spring-dampened floor, sending her sunglasses tumbling away, before she came to a stop, laying on her side, as she looked at the camera again.

"Roll with the momentum. You'll get dizzy, you'll get dazed, and you'll get dirty. But the more you go with the momentum, the more kinetic energy you'll transfer into the ground without badly hurting yourself."

Zipp got to her hooves, and saw herself in the screen that was facing her, seeing her mane was a bit disheveled now, and ran a hoof through it to make it just a little more presentable.

"Now, when you've come to a stop, check yourself over, and carefully move your legs and wings to make sure nothing got dislocated or broken. And I'm not talking just once or twice. Take a minute or two to roll your joints and flex your wings. If anything hurts, stop and get medical attention immediately. Continuing while injured is the best way to permanently damage something. After that, if everything is fine, get back into the air. That's another important key; try, try again. So now that you know how to crash..." Zipp paused, picking up her shades, and put them back on as she stepped up to the camera.

"...Let's fly."

Author's Note