Twilight fluttered her wings nervously. "You can do this. You can do this. She takes her nap every day around this time, and you haven't been cornered yet." She stood poised at the door of the library. "Ready, Spike?"
The dragon nodded, holding a grocery basket up in one claw and grasping the doorknob in the other. "Why don't you just let her do it, Twi? She's gonna catch you eventually. You're just dragging it out."
The alicorn glared at Spike. "You don't know that! She might forget, and then I'll be off the hook!" She looked around, then whispered conspiratorially, “I don’t want to go through the crazy training Rainbow Dash will do to ‘condition’ me for flying.”
“Are you sure she’s going to do that? I mean, I think she would take it easy on you since you didn’t have wings a month ago.”
“She’s a cadet for the Wonderbolts Academy! I’m pretty sure she’ll make me do wing pushups until my wings fall off!”
Spike rolled his eyes. "Sure, that's gonna happen."
Twilight frowned and chose to ignore the remark, crouching in a ready stance. "On my mark, Spike. Three... Two... One..."
On a silent "zero," Spike pulled open the door to the library. Twilight whisked past him, wings firmly clamped. She levitated the basket from his claws and made her way onto the street like a purple, midmorning, conspicuous ninja. She scuttled on the tips of her hooves to the marketplace, her hooves barely clacking on the cobblestone, thanks to a muffling spell she learned. "So far, so good," she whispered.
Twilight ran through her mental diagram of the market section, playing through her planned route and making adjustments for the weather as she saw fit. "Get in, get groceries, get out, and she won't even notice you're here."
Twilight used the lumbering figure of a nearby stallion to mask her presence from one side of the street, earning herself a bunch of strange looks from every other pony who could see her. She tiptoed from patron to patron with mixed success. Sometimes a stray wing was poking out, other times her horn, and at least one instance occurred in which her head was the only thing hidden from view at all. Still, through some manner of divine intervention, she managed to sneak her way to the slightly busier main area of the marketplace. Twilight let loose a sigh of relief, allowing herself to relax a bit and simply blend into the crowd as much as a pony sporting both wings and a horn could. Granted, it didn't help that the crowd, no matter how thick, seemed to part for the princess, making the mare stand out like a big, purple, misshapen blob.
The princess hurried over to her first stop on her grocery run. She noticed Applejack perk up as she neared the booth. "Well, howdy, Twi-" Applejack managed to call out before her mouth was suddenly occupied by a purple hoof.
"Shh, I don't want her to know I'm here!"
AJ dislodged the hoof from her face and chuckled at her friend, although she did so at a lower volume to humor Twilight. "Listen, sugarcube, I'm pretty sure if RD is anywhere around, she's already noticed your little party trick here." The orange earth pony gestured to the tightly-formed ring of onlookers making a perfect circle around the apple cart.
"Well, have you seen her today?"
“Not for a while. Dash stopped by earlier, said she was going to catch a nap and keep the skies mostly clear today. Haven't seen her since."
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Applejack. Now, can I get some Golden Delicious?"
Twilight trotted away with her goods in tow, moving from produce cart to produce cart as fast as she possibly could. The vendors gave the antsy mare looks to let her know she was acting irrationally, as they had been doing for the past week whenever Twilight attempted to hide under their goods, or occasionally their bodies.
Twilight zipped through the streets, her full grocery basket floating behind her. "Perfect. Now, all I have to do is make it back to the library and I'm home free." As the words left her lips, the shadow of a low flying pegasus swooped across the ground. Twilight paled, not even looking up to confirm it. "Oh, no..." she instinctively ducked beneath an awning. The shadow circled once, twice, thrice, then vanished into a cloud shadow.
Twilight gave up all semblance of subtlety. She bolted, preparing herself for a hasty teleport. Klaxons wailed in her brain, and she channeled a flow of magic to her horn.
Her attempt was brutally cut short by a flying tackle. Her grip on her grocery basket was lost, letting it drop to the ground like a stone. The pony who tackled her sent the both of them into a tumble. They landed with Twilight on her back, looking straight up at a triumphant looking Rainbow Dash.
"Found ya, Twilight! I've been looking for you."
Twilight felt herself pinned to the ground, Rainbow's hooves held firmly against her sides. She paled, looking at the blue pegasus who just tackled her.
"Hey, Twilight. Guess what time it is," she whispered in her friend's ear, crouching over her excitedly.
"Please, Rainbow, not now-" Twilight struggled feebly, trying to work herself out from under her.
"Wrong! It's time for flight lessons!" Rainbow Dash bolted to her hooves and latched onto Twilight's torso, flapping her wings madly and dragging the mare skywards.
Twilight squeaked unintelligibly and struggled to free herself. "Rainbow Dash, if you don't let me go, I will make a new law banning the word 'awesome' from being spoken!"
"Haha, yeah right! Nice try, Twilight."
"I mean it! You'll be forced to broaden your vocabulary if you don't let me go!"
"Good luck with that!" Rainbow deposited her friend on a fluffy cumulus cloud and pushed it away from town, wings flapping furiously.
Twilight clung to the cloud, thoughts whirring in her brain. No, no, this wasn't supposed to happen! She had everything planned out so perfectly, too! Sneak in, hide under the cover of the crowd, grab her stuff, and get home. No teleportation flashes to draw attention or anything, and she had been doing this all week with no problem. What could have gone wrong?
Why wasn't Rainbow talking about what they were going to do for her lessons?
"You're terrible at sneaking around, Twilight. You know that, right?"
Twilight looked up from her obsessive trance. "What? What do you-"
"You're, like, the only pony for miles around with wings and a horn. You had no disguise or cloak or anything, and every time you go outside, everyone clears a path for you. Kinda hard to miss."
"Then why didn't you-"
"'Cause I hoped you would stop hiding." Rainbow hopped on the cloud and let it coast. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to chase you down."
The alicorn looked down ashamedly. The ground drifted by lazily as the cloud floated along the sky. “Where are we going?”
“I have a place picked out for me to teach you how to fly, right out… There!” Rainbow pointed to a meadow. Twilight recognized the place where Rainbow did a lot of her training when she wasn’t at work or with friends. It looked like the pegasus had prepared a low lying layer of clouds over the meadow, neatly covering the ground in a soft blanket of stratus.
Rainbow Dash hopped off the cloud they were riding and flew underneath it, pushing it up and over the cloud layer. She stopped the cloud, and Twilight looked around. The cloud layer extended far enough in every direction that even if she tried, she couldn’t miss falling into it unless she flew a significant distance.
“How long did it take to put together all those clouds, Rainbow?”
“About five hours. I did it this morning.”
“Oh.” Twilight looked down at them again, then back up. “So, are we going to start with some training? Wing pushups? Crunches?”
Rainbow looked at Twilight as though the mare had gone utterly insane. “What are you talking about? I’m teaching you how to fly, not training you for a cross-country flight… is that why you’ve been hiding from this?”
Twilight blushed furiously, and Rainbow burst out laughing, nearly rolling off the cloud as she chortled mirthfully. “You mean to tell me that you were hiding from me because you were worried that... hahahahaha! Oh, that’s hilarious, egghead!”
“Don’t call me egghead!”
“I’m sorry, Twilight, but that’s just… HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Rainbow Dash kicked her hooves gleefully, still on her back as she laughed at her friend. The pegasus finally composed herself, rolling slowly back to her hooves. She let out a small giggle, clapping Twilight on the shoulder. “Well, now that you aren’t afraid of being turned into an Iron Pony, I’m gonna teach you how to fly.”
Rainbow floated around and sculpted the cloud they were standing on so it was more like a platform, with enough room on it for both of them to spread their wings fully. “Okay, now stand here, at the edge.”
“Okay.” Twilight moved over, looking at the drop from the cloud. “Uhh, are you sure I’ll be okay?”
“Hey, don’t worry about it, Twilight. I fluffed those clouds down there. If you fall, it won’t hurt a bit. I’ll just carry you back up to this cloud and you can try again.” Rainbow moved over next to her friend and peered over the edge. “Heh. This brings back memories.” She coughed and looked over to the alicorn, who was shaking slightly. “Hey, calm down. You have wings too.”
She shook out her prismatic mane and took a deep breath, recalling some old memories of her own first flight. “Okay, Twilight. Look out at the sky. Don’t look down.”
Twilight blinked in surprise at the soothing voice Rainbow was using to talk to her. She felt herself being lulled into an odd sort of peace, although her hooves were still locked onto the cloud. Twiligh put aside her concerns of aerodynamics long enough to listen to her friend. After all, Rainbow just spent hours preparing this for her.
Rainbow nodded approvingly as she saw Twilight let her gaze move to the distant horizon. “Okay, now breathe deep. Feel the air moving inside you. In...”
A filly Rainbow Dash quaked at the edge of the cloud. A light blue pegasus stallion stood next to her, his quiet voice compelling her to listen. “Okay, now breathe deep. Feel the air moving inside you. In… Out. In… Out. There ya go, sport.”
The filly nodded shakily, her hooves dug into the cloud. “Wh-what do I do next, Dad?”
The stallion nodded to the distant horizon. “This isn’t about what you do, Dashie. This is about you and the sky meeting for the first time. Just breathe. Feel the wind on your feathers. Feel the breeze in your mane.”
Rainbow tried to follow where her dad was looking, but could only see the empty sky. The sun shone brightly overhead, and the only cloud in the sky was the one she was standing on. There was a small carpet of stratus below her, laid specifically by her father to catch her if she were to fall. She finally gave up and stared off into the distance. The air did feel nice, though… the filly realized her eyes were closed, and she had no idea why or when she closed them in the first place. Her small wings were spread as wide as they could go. The wind tickled at her very first set of primary feathers, the ones she was so proud of finally getting. The muscles in her back itched for some reason…
“Remember, Dashie. It’s just you and the sky.” The filly felt her father nearby, hearing the sound of his own wings catching the air as they were unfolded. The itch in her back travelled through her wings, and she gave them a flap. It felt good. Her eyes still closed, she gave her wings another quick beat, and another, and another. Her hooves weren’t dug as fiercely into the cloud anymore. Her fear was pushed to the wayside, her wings beating slowly against the air.
“Open your eyes, Dashie.”
“Open your eyes, Twilight.” Rainbow grinned broadly as she watched Twilight’s eyes open. She reveled in the indescribable emotion flickering across her friend’s face as Twilight realized her hooves were no longer on the cloud. “Nice job, egghead. Now, close your eyes again.”
The pegasus bit at her lip in excitement as Twilight nodded, closing her eyes again. “Okay, now imagine that you want to reach out to somepony, but they are just out of your reach.”
The alicorn’s forelegs reached out into the space in front of her, and she started drifting forward.
“Okay, now lean a bit closer.” Rainbow silently hopped off the cloud, her own wings nearly silent as she followed her friend. “You’re doing great, Twi.”
“You’re doing great, Dashie.” The filly beamed proudly, eyes still closed tight. She felt her mane rustling in the breeze, and the wind flicked at her feathers. “Are you having fun, kiddo?”
“Yeah, dad! When do I get to start flying around?”
“You already are.”
Rainbow’s eyes opened in surprise, and she realized that she was moving at a healthy speed over the landscape. The clouds her dad had laid to protect her from hitting the ground were behind them, and she was soaring along without any help from her dad.
“So, how do you like it, Dashie?”
“This… Is…”
“...Awesome!” Twilight beamed at her friend, her wings flapping in a steady rhythm.
“Welcome to the flying club, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash grinned and banked towards Ponyville, gesturing for her friend to follow. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Not really, no.” Twilight’s grin faltered a little. “I’m sorry for hiding from you all week, Rainbow.”
The pegasus suppressed a hearty snicker. “Hey, it’s okay. I understand.” She gestured to the road leading into Ponyville, indicating to her friend they should land. "Okay, just slow down your wing beats, and go back to what you were doing when you were hovering. Close your eyes, and feel the air carrying you to the ground."
Twilight nodded, following Rainbow's instructions and slowly descending towards the road. She stumbled a bit as she hit the ground awkwardly, but recovered quickly enough to keep from losing her balance. She panted from the exertion of her first flight, but her enjoyment of the surprisingly soothing activity was undeniable. "That was breathtaking."
"Yep. It's awesome, isn't it? Feeling all that sky there for you to explore." Rainbow hovered over the ground while her friend walked back to town, keeping apace with Twilight.
"I didn't expect it to be like that at all... Is this how you learned to fly?"
"Yep."
"Thanks, Rainbow Dash."
The pegasus smirked, landing next to her friend to lightly sock her shoulder. "No, thanks for letting me teach you."
Author's Note
I did most of the writing late at night, so yeah. I won't be correcting or editing this, mainly to teach myself the importance of doing such things before I upload.
