First Flight
* * *
“Remember to keep your wings straight,” said Shining Armor. “Lean into any gusts, and spot the landing. Ready?”
Flurry Heart gurgled in joy from where she was tucked under her father’s foreleg, being tickled. The winds of the Crystal Empire had faded down to a light breeze, the weather shield was letting enough warm sunshine in to make updrafts around the Royal Castle, and it was perfect flying weather for his daughter’s first flight.
“Okay, make Daddy proud.” Shining Armor hefted his daughter up over the balcony rail. “One. Two…”
“Wait!” shrieked Princess Cadence as she flung herself into the bedroom behind them.
“Oh, Mommy wants to see you spread your wings and fly,” cooed Shining. “Come right over here next to the balcony, dear. You’ll get the best view from there.”
“What are you doing? Why are you holding our daughter over a ten-story drop?”
“Twelve story,” said Shining. “I thought it would work best to teach her to fly where I threw you to save the Crystal Heart. Oh, and Spike.”
Cadence spluttered for a moment, which let Shining Armor continue. “I made her stretch first, of course. Cramps are bad. And she’s in a fresh diaper.”
“Gusts!” managed Cadence. “Falling damage!”
“Feathers reduce falling damage to a maximum of 3d6,” said Shining. “She’s got a lot more hit points than that.”
“Our child is not a character in one of your games!” Cadence scowled at the character sheet that Shining waved in front of her. “She’s a real infant alicorn… Why do you have her Charisma statistic so low? She’s adorable.”
“Four point penalty for being underage,” explained Shining Armor. “Getting an early start on flying is going to be critical for her early development. Besides, didn’t I see you with a catalog for private preschools just yesterday?”
“That’s… um… different!” Cadence grasped for another excuse while Shining Armor hefted Flurry onto one shoulder.
“Isn’t this how you learned to fly, dear?”
“I had tutors!” shrieked Cadence. “Instructors! Classes! it took three months before I was allowed to hover indoors!”
Shining Armor shrugged. “Seems like a giant waste of time when we have all these tall buildings around. Do you want to go first and show her how it’s done?”
“No! I mean I already know how to fly!”
“I know that, dear. And so does Flurry.” Shining Armor pointed up into the clear blue sky. “Daddy gave your Mommy a boost from right here when she was saving the Crystal Empire. She flew right up and caught the Crystal Heart… Oh, and Spike.” He lowered his voice. “Everybody forgets Spike. That’s why we made a statue. Now let’s get you started on your first flight.”
“Don’t you dare!” Cadence put one hoof down solidly, which would have worked better if she was not standing on bedroom carpet so thick it only made a small thudding noise. “You are not throwing our daughter of out the window—”
“Off the balcony,” corrected Shining Armor.
“Well… Anywhere!”
“Honey.” Shining Armor gave her a long, patient look. “You said we’d share in the responsibility of raising a child, right?”
“Well.” Cadence reluctantly admitted, “Yes, but—”
“And you’ve fed her,” continued Shing Armor. “You read bedtime stories to her, and showed her Luna’s stars at night, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“And you and Twi got to play with her all morning in the garden and teach her about butterflies, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“So I get to teach her how to fly.” Shining Armor hefted his daughter up again and turned to the broad expanse of the Crystal Empire outside the balcony. “Here we go, Flurry. Ready, set, and—”
“Wait!” Cadence grasped for inspiration and grabbed onto the only logical lever she could think of. “Twilight’s visiting today!”
“Oh! You’re right, dear. I didn’t even think of that.”
Cadence focused her magic as hard as she could. Twilight Sparkle was only a short distance away, but it took all her concentration to teleport Equestria’s newest princess to them, and she appeared in a burst of purple smoke.
“Twilight,” gasped Cadence. “My husband is trying to throw Flurry Heart out of the window!”
“Balcony,” corrected Shining Armor.
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes grew wide, and she stalked toward her brother. “Shining Armor! What do you think you’re doing?”
Cadence finally managed to take a calming breath.
“Taking Flurry Heart and throwing her off the balcony!”
It was so good to have some sanity in her life when her husband was getting weird.
“You didn’t even tell me!” Twilight Sparkle produced a camera. “You know I need to get pictures for her baby book!”
Then again, the Sparkle family was very close, like a tree chock full of nuts. And squirrels.
“Aren’t you going to help me talk sense into your brother?” asked Cadence in a very small voice while Twilight was busy taking a photo of Shining Armor and Flurry Heart.
“Of course I am,” said Twilight. “Now get over there next to my brother. And smile!”
The camera went off with a flash of light, leaving Cadence to blink away the aftereffects. Unfortunately, there was no sudden burst of normality that followed, and she was not waking up from a terrible dream where her husband had gone insane.
“Here, Cadence.” The camera was pushed in her direction. “Take a picture of us.”
She did, rather numbly, and passed the camera back. “I can’t believe you’re accepting having my daughter thrown out the window—”
“Balcony,” said both siblings together.
“—so calmly, Twilight.”
“I’m not calm. I’m excited,” said Twilight. “It’s just like when we were young.”
“Wait a minute.” Cadence took a moment to blink, which she had not done in some time, and turned to her husband. “You used to throw your sister out of the win— I mean balcony?”
“No, of course not,” scoffed Shining Armor.
“Oh, thank the stars,” managed Cadence.
“We didn’t have a balcony in the house,” continued Shining Armor. “I had to throw her off the roof.”
“She’s a unicorn!” screamed Cadence before backtracking. “I mean she was a unicorn. Are you telling me you threw your sister off the roof at home?”
“Of course,” said Twilight as if it were the dumbest question in the world. “How did you learn to fly?”
“She had tutors,” whispered Shining Armor.
“Terrible waste when we had the whole house,” whispered Twilight back.
“It was only a few times. And she had a big pile of leaves to land in, like those.” Shining pointed to the bottom of the tower where a tiny pile of crystalline leaf-matter was currently blowing away in the light breeze. “Once Twiley became an alicorn, I hurried right over and we tried it again from her tree-library. It was a lot easier to get the leaves that time, and there wasn’t as much elevation as this, but after five or six tries, she caught right on.”
“But. Twilight. Father,” gasped Cadence, reduced to single words between desperate gasps for air.
“Dad has a whole scrapbook full of pictures,” said Twilight. “He and Mom used to stand out in the yard and cheer.”
The world got a little fuzzy for Cadence, probably because she was holding her breath. It made her miss the moment when her husband lobbed their firstborn child into the crystal city, but the rapid clicking of Twilight’s camera brought her back to reality — or at least what was passing as such right now — in a hurry.
“Flurry!” she screamed, rushing to the window… that is balcony, clutching her chest with sheer terror as little Flurry Heart fluttered and wobbled on her flight path. It was already too late to fling herself after the baby since her instructors had always insisted she stretch for ten minutes before flight, and Flurry was wobbling in the rough direction of the crowd.
“That’s my girl!” cheered Shining Armor.
“She’s a natural,” said Twilight Sparkle while clicking away with her camera. “Here comes the ground…”
“And what a landing!” shouted Shining Armor, leaping up and down like the Canterlot Champions had just scored a hoofball goal.
“Spike caught her just the way he used to throw himself underneath me at home!” Twilight Sparkle did a little circular dance on the bedroom carpet with her brother. “And it’s a lot better than my first landing.”
“Yeah, Spike is still standing up. Look at all the ponies cheering and waving.”
Shining Armor waved back. “Let’s go get her and try again.”
“You bet!”
Brother and sister rushed down the stairs, leaving Princess Cadence looking down from the balcony at her daughter far below. She appeared to be unhurt and even seemed to enjoy the attention, but…
“She really glided further than I expected,” mused Cadence before shaking her head. “No! Just because she’s progressing so well in her flying…”
Cadence took a deep breath and considered the insane idea. It had been an educational experience for Flurry Heart, and her sister-in-law had been through the same flying process. Besides, there were crazier things in her life. Like her husband. And the rest of the alicorns in Equestria, one of whom was her daughter.
“Maybe…” hedged Cadence. “She does need the practice.”
And by the afternoon, and about five packages of antacids for Cadence, Flurry could glide all the way to the end of the block.
