"Dirt kickers"

Chapters

Chapter one: Hit the ground running
Chapter two: The Iron Wall
Chapter three: Walk before you run, run before you fly

Chapter one: Hit the ground running

My name is Silent Charge and I am a big pony. Like, a BIG pony. When I look in the mirror I see a very tall, very muscular stallion. My coat is a mottled mix of black and white hues with a plate of steel shaped like a shield for a cutie mark. My most distinguishing feature would have to be my wings. Black and leathery, these damn wings have always made me look a lot more menacing than I really am, it’s hard to give a good first impression when they think you might try to eat them. Even worse than that is that because they are leathered and not feathered like they ought to be they are both more fragile and less useful than a feathered wing would be. But even if I did have so called “normal” wings, the probability of me being able to use them effectively would still be slim to none.

I am what the pegasus community so lovingly refers to as a “Dirt Kicker” or the less derogatory “Trotter”. In lay ponies terms this means I have the wings of a Pegasus and the frame of an earth pony. You may think that would be awesome, I mean I have wings and big muscles best of both worlds right? Oh how I wish I could be so naive. It may seem cool at first glance but in reality those two things don’t mesh well. Pegasus biology is all about being as lightweight and agile as possible. Lean and well-toned muscle supported by hollow bones allow them to flit between clouds with ease. Any pony with my affliction is born without these things. I have a dense bone structure and metabolism that doesn’t stop muscle growth that would inhibit flying. Because of these oddities in our biology we become steadily less and less able to fly over time without constant training or physical therapy. By the time we reach adolescence most of us are almost completely grounded, and so we are labeled as dirt kickers, Ponies that as my father so eloquently put, “…Are a shame to the proud Pegasus race.”

So flying, something that came naturally to everypony I grew up around and went to school with, has always been very difficult for me. My father always hated the fact that I was so different, sometimes I even wonder whether or not he hated me too. He seemed to go out of his way to ignore me, the only times he took an interest in me where when he was scheduling flying lessons. I think that he was just disappointed that his wife died giving birth to something “broken”.

Despite my unfortunate relationship with my dad I never really got persecuted until I got into flight school. Although I had failed most of the aptitude tests I got good marks on flight theory and weather patterning so my father was able to use his influence in Cloudsdale to get me into the famous Cloudsdale Academy School for Gifted Pegasi. In a school full of those who prided themselves on their ability to fly, a pony like me stuck out like a sore hoof. Not being able to fly for more than a few seconds at a time got me nothing but scorn and hate. If it wasn’t for my success on the hoofball team I probably would have gone through my while four years their without talking to a single pony.

After graduating I began to stop doing my regimented physical therapy, it was too much work for too little gain, or so I thought. Slowly but surely my ability to fly became more and more impeded, my body kept getting heavier and my wings stayed just as useless as they had always been.

Being a Dirt kicker meant that I wasn’t suited for normal pegasus work, being on weather patrol had never been an option, but I really needed a job. I’m sure that if he wanted to and if I asked my father could have gotten me a job at the drop of a hat. But to be honest when someone constantly shows that they want as little to do with you as possible, it’s only natural to begin to reciprocate those feelings. He seemed to truly believe that all I would ever be good at was throwing my weight around. So to spite him I found a job that let me do just that, I would be the opposite of everything he was. I began looking for a position as a farmhand. And within a few weeks I found one, it was a huge farm outside of Ponyville that was absolutely desperate for another set of hooves with only two ponies currently working the fields. It was a giant apple orchard called Sweet Apple Acers. I had my cloud house shipped there once I got the position and began working almost immediately.
And that, is where our story begins…

After working with Big Mac for a few weeks he noticed that I was having trouble just getting up to my house. The fact that I wasn’t doing my daily wing therapy compounded with the fact that I was gaining even more muscle than I had before meant that flying had become nearly impossible. Iknew that it was getting worse, but I never thought I would see the day when I couldn’t even make it back up to my own home.

As I tried once again to throw myself upwards and into my house, I got so close I could feel the moisture coming off of the cloud, but right when I thought I had done it, gravity said otherwise and I fell back to the ground.

“Hey Silent, you ok?” He asked me after I hit the ground, “because ya sure don’t look it.”

“Ah, yeah, I’m fine, I just need a running start,” I said while backing up.

As soon as I felt I had caught my breath and that I put enough distance between me and my takeoff point I bolted past
Big Mac as fast as I could, I may not be a flyer but I can sprint if I need to.
But the second I left the ground I knew that the boost wasn’t nearly enough, and I came careening back down to the ground. Not having enough energy to right myself I landed on my back with a dull thud.

“What the buck Silent?!” shouted Big Mac, “What’s going on with you?”

“It’s fine,” I reply with heated breath. I didn’t want him to see this; I didn’t want anyone to know about that. “I am fine, I’m just a bit-“ the words caught in my throat, “I-I just need to catch my breath.”

“Now we both know that’s a load a’ sour apples.” That’s Big Mac for you, he seemed to always have just the right apple related saying for any situation “You’re coming back to the barn and you’re spending the night with us,” Big Mac said, and I didn’t have the energy to argue with him.

Big Mac was definitely not what I had expected in an employer. When I first met him I immediately noticed he was the only pony I had ever met besides the princess’ who had a stature that could rival my own. It was intimidating yet exiting at the same time. I quickly found out that size wasn’t the only thing we had in common, we both enjoyed the physical labor of the fields, we both were relatively quiet, although Mac was a bit more so, and we both respected each other for who we were. To be totally honest, Big Mac was probably the first pony I think I ever had that much of a connection with.

As we were walking back to the barn he asked why I didn’t get anyone to help my with my flying. I had to go through the painful ordeal of explaining just how looked down us “Dirt Kickers” are in the Pegasus community. You see, getting a flight coach as a dirt kicker is nearly impossible. If the stigma against us isn’t enough to drive them away than the frustration of constant failure will very little chance of success nearly always is.

"Well ah can’t help you much with flyin’,” Said Big Mac with a bit of a frown, “and ah don’t know too many pegasi, but mah sister knows a few of em. Maybe one of them can help you out.”

At that point I had never met Applejack before, Mac was a bit overprotective when it came to his sister but apparently by that time I had proven that I was a nice enough guy to not go after my friend’s sis. I believe that I had seen her once or twice in the orchard kicking trees but I had never actually gotten the chance to even call out to her. Whenever I was about to do so Big Mac always seemed to be there to shuffle me off to another part of the farm.
When we got back to the barn it was pretty late.

“We don’t have a guest bedroom in the house, but ya’ can sleep in the barn if you’re up to it.” Big Mac clearly felt bad about having to put me there, but to be honest I really didn’t mind. There was plenty of hay to rest on and I was never very picky about where I slept anyway.

“This will definitely do, but if it isn’t too much trouble could I ask you to lend me a blanket of some sorts?” I asked him.

“Of course partner,” He quickly responded, “I’ll be right back.”

As he left the room I took a moment to think back on the past couple of weeks that I had been working here and how much things had changed. When I first got here Big Mac seemed like he had to ration his words out carefully, as though he could have run out at any moment. His answers to my questions rarely ever stretched past one word. I eventually realized that it wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to me, but instead he just hadn’t ever had anyone to talk to before. He was completely secluded in the fields, the only times he ever had help with the plow was on winter wrap up but that was one day a year. Even when he was at home he was one stallion in a house with three mares.

After about two weeks of me working there he really started to open up, not in any great emotional way, just in a stallion to stallion way. I was pretty worried the first time he ever initiated a conversation with me, I thought for sure I had done something wrong. But instead it quickly became apparent that he was dying for someone to just talk to. Eventually he became somewhat of a brother to me, we could shoot the shit in the fields for hours, after all there isn’t much to plowing than just pulling it along.

“You there Silent?” a voice brought me back to reality and I saw that Bug Mac had come back with the blanket I had asked for.

“Oh… yeah sorry about that.” I apologiesed and took the blanket from him. I had the awful tendency to get lost in thought sometimes. I just zone out and my body goes on auto pilot, I swear I could walk right off a cliff and not even realize it if I was thinking about something when it happened.

We said our goodbyes and goodnights and soon I found myself alone in a barn lying down on some hay with nothing but a quilt to keep me warm. I had gone from my own house to someone else’s storage space in just under one day’s time.

“This is going to be a long week” I said to myself. And slowly but surely I eventually fell asleep.

* * *

I was sitting at the table at the Apple family’s house the next morning. There were three other ponies at the table with me and I could hear a fourth one coming down the stairs. One of wich was Big Mac, but I had only just met the other two.

One of them was an adorable little filly named Apple Bloom. She was as small as small could be but she had the exited energy of twenty fillies. Her coat was a bright yet soft shade of yellow, and her hair was the same red as the bow she sported on top of her head. It was almost as big as her noggin and I couldn’t help but wonder how it didn’t fall off despite being so large.

The other mare was the elderly Granny Smith. She had a faint green coat and her mane had grown white with age. Despite being so old she was certainly still kicking and I could tell she still had a few tricks up her sleeve. One thing that did worry me was it was hard to tell if she was going a bit zany from her age or whether or not she was just kidding around.

One thing that struck me was the lack of a mother or father in the house. I had never met my own mother and my dad was never too much of a parent so I understood that bringing something like the missing parents up would probably not be the best idea.

Then, about halfway through breakfast Apple Jack trotted in; she looked stunning despite having quite the case of bedhead. She had a sort of home-girl class to her; she was all country with her sun-kissed orange coat and her straw blond hair. I could tell why Big Mac wanted to keep stallions away from her, she was quite the catch.

“Hiya Big Mac,” she yawned greeting each one with her eyes still closed, “Hi Granny Smith, mornin’ Apple Bloom.”

“Well Good morning to you too,” Granny Smith said in reply.

“Mornin’ Sis.” Apple Bloom chirped.

Then she turned to me saying, “Mornin… wait who-” Her eyes shot open and her face gained a panicked expression. She yelped and jumped up into the air then shot into the next room dragging a wide eyed Big Mac behind her. As he rounded the corner I could have sworn I saw him mouth the words “help me”.

I could hear a very unhappy Applejack and a somewhat confused Big Mac. Poor guy, it’s too early in the morning for a stallion to have to deal with that. He had a long day ahead of him and nopony should have to deal with an angry mare before he even finishes his breakfast.

About four or five minutes later Applejack came back into the room with a much less messy mane with a confused Big Mac trailing behind her.

“Mornin Silent, mah brother here tells me that you’re the one who’s been helping around the fields lately, sorry I never got to meet you before now,” she shot Big Mac a stare that could burn holes though metal, “But Ah’m sure we can get along just fine.”

“Very nice to meet you Applejack—”

“Mah friends call me AJ…” she interrupted. I thought it was kind of weird for her to call me a friend when I hadn’t even introduced myself yet, but I have always known better than to turn down a friendship when it’s offered.

“…AJ, my name is Silent Charge.” I said after a pause, “Big Mac tells me you may know someone who can help me out with a certain problem I have.”

“Alright?” she said giving me a look somewhere between confusion and concern

“Oh, it’s nothing weird or anything, I just need to know if you know anyone who can help me with my flying.” I told her, causing her to adopt an almost more confused look than before.

“Why would you need help with flyin’, you sure look strong enough to me, heck you’re like Big Mac with wings!” She
replied. I can’t really blame her for thinking that, for its pretty common for non-pegasi to think that muscle means flying power. I couldn’t really expect her to have taken a course on Pegasus biology could I?

So, to rid her of any unnecessary confusion I took a quick fifteen minutes to explain everything about my predicament, down to the very last detail. And I have to say, she was great. When I told her what my problem was I have to say I was surprised by how pissed off she was about some things that had never really bothered me that much. I got an extra dose of this when I explained to her about how and why “Dirt kickers” were discriminated against.

“Ah mean what in tarnation is so bad about earth ponies that you gotta be mean to somepony for lookin’ like one! That’s just ridiculous!” Applejack burst out in a sort of rage.

“It’s the same as any type of discrimination; some ponies just aren’t willing to except the differences in others. It’s a shame that it has to be that way but it’s just the way things are.” I told her trying to calm her down.

I guess I should have expected something like that though; I was talking to a very proud earth pony about being discriminated against for being more like an earth pony than normal pegasus.

After everypony had calmed down the conversation drifted back to where it had started, getting me a flight coach.

Apple Jack had to think about it for a few seconds but eventually her eyes lit up and it became obvious that she had an idea.

“Ah think I know the perfect pony to help you out here, her name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest darn Pegasus this side of
The Everfree, she is. I'm sure she could help out with your flying problem.” AJ said, much to my surprise. I was sure I’d heard her name somewhere.

“Say,” I ask with a bit of apprehension, “is this the Rainbow Dash that won the Young Flyer’s competition a while back?”

“Sure is sugarcube, were you there to see it?” She asked eyes brimming with pride for her friend.

“No, I wasn’t able to get tickets, but there was a whole page and a half on her in the Cloudsdale Chronicle after she won.” I answered her with a hint of disappointment, from what the paper had said it was quite the once in a lifetime event. “Is it true she saved four ponies at the same time?”

“Yup, three of them were Wonderbolts. She is training to be one herself you know,” she proclaimed proudly.

“What about the fourth one?” I asked with a confused expression.

My only answer was AJ muttering under her breath about some show off. I'm pretty sure I heard her say the word diva as well.

“Anyway, not to doubt you, but are you sure that she will be able to take the time out of her training schedule to help a trotter like me?” I figured this was an innocent enough question but AJ’s face definitely said otherwise.

“Silent, Ah’m an awful liar, isn’t that right Big Mac?”
I turned to see Big Mac with a slight grin nodding in his approval of her statement.

“So, when I tell you that I think that Rainbow Dash will be able to help you out, you can trust it really is the honest truth.”

“Ok Apple Jack-” She gave me a stern look, “Ok AJ, I believe you.” I told her. I still not completely convinced that her
plan would work, but honestly I had a lot to gain and almost nothing to lose so I figured I might as well go with it.

“Well, it’s still early, do you mind if we go see her now?” I turned to Big Mac, “that is if you don’t need any help in the fields Mac”

“Ah tilled those fields before you got here and ah can till them now, you go talk to Rainbow about helping you fly better.” Big Mac paused before saying with a grin, “Anyway, the faster you get flying, the faster I can get you out a’ my barn.”

"Alright Macintosh, don’t get all riled up now,” Applejack began to motion toward the door for me to follow.

During the walk to town Apple Jack and I talked a bit and got to know each other a bit better. I told to her about how I had found out about the farm through an ad in the paper and how I liked working on the farm but I tried to steer away from much of my life before then. My life story isn’t exactly tragic but it still is a lot to unload on a pony after just meeting her.

She, on the other hand attempted to give me a synopsis of her whole life and still somehow evaded the topic of her parents entirely in doing so. She was absolutely in love with her farm. She really couldn’t think of living her life any differently than how she was living it then and I couldn’t blame her. Sweet Apple Acers had such a good and home-like feeling to it, even I was starting to see it as more of a home than a workplace and I had only been working there for a few weeks.
Eventually we arrived under what I presumed was Rainbow Dash’s house. It was huge, even more so than a regular Pegasus home. The clouds used to make houses are pretty much free so you didn’t have to be rich in order to have a big house but what I found myself standing under bordered on the extreme. It was also completely out of my altitude, seeing as it was nearly twice as far of the ground as my own home was. Because of this, me and Apple jack had to yell for what felt like half an hour before the Pegasus who I had to guess was Rainbow Dash, if only because of her Rainbow colored mane, finally opened up the door. And I’m not going to lie, the first time I saw her, I didn’t like her.

She hadn’t done anything wrong to justify these feelings, but what made me resent her was that she was everything I wasn’t. She was short, light, had perfectly proportioned wings, she seemed to be made solely for the purpose of flying. She was everything the jerks at flight school lorded over me for all those years bundled up into one light blue Pegasus. What made things even worse was the way that she looped around at a pace far greater than was necessary during her decent. It was almost as though she was showing off her ability to fly.

When she reached the ground and saw me her eyes got about as big as dinner plates.

“Everything ok there Dash?” AJ asked, apparently this wasn’t her usual reaction to meeting new ponies.

Then Rainbow did something that I can honestly say I have never had done to me. She backed up about ten feet from me and got into a starting position as though she was at a race.

“Psst, AJ, what is she doing?” I asked the earth pony standing next to me.

“Ah got no idea sugarcube.” She responded… sweet mother of Celestia, I absolutely loved that country drawl.

Then without warning Rainbow Dash rocketed from her crouched position and slammed into me. Back in the Academy when I was on the hoofball team I had gotten used to people crashing into me, my ability to almost never go down even after the worst of hits is what netted me the nickname Ironsides. And because any of those stallions were a lot bigger than she was, It was no surprise that after she impacted me I had to help her get back on her hooves.

“I-I thought I recognized you, I think you went to… the same flight school as me… played on the… hoofball team…
really hard to push down,” she said dizzily as her head rocked from side to side, “but I think you graduated… like a year or so ahead of me.”

“I went to Cloudsdale Academy, the names Silent Charge.” I figured that I might as well try to get as many brownie points as possible, before she found out that I was a Dirt Kicker asking for help flying.

“But most of the people in Cloudsdale Academy called me Ironsides—”

“Wait, YOU’RE IRONSIDES!?,” she said, a lot more excitedly than I thought she would.

“Yeah, have we met before?” I asked, not knowing exactly where she was going with this.

“Dude, you’re a LEGEND!” She replied seeming to completely ignore my previous question.

“What?” This was definitely new to me.

“Um, duh, you had the most scoring punt returns in the Academy’s hoofball teams history, all without ever leaving the ground. I remember watching a game against Hurricane High school where you literally carried three of the defending linemen forty yards, you were a monster!” She practically beamed at me.

“Yeah, I also remember having the rest of the team hate me for doing those kinds of things,” I said. I was never the most popular one on the team, but most of them accepted that while my way of doing things was unusual, most of the times it worked.

She leaned in to ask “Is it true you broke Magnum’s hoof with your jaw?”

“Well, not exactly, the rumors were pretty exaggerated, his hoof did break but I didn’t come out of the fight nearly as well as everypony seems to think I did. I had to eat through a straw for a week after that.”

“This is so cool!” she said jumping into the air once again completely ignoring what I was saying.

Ok, now I was getting a bit embarrassed, “Trust me, I’m really not as impressive as a lot of ponies made me out to be. Most of those crazy rumors were just put out there to scare the other hoofball teams. For instance, I never really flew through a concrete wall during gym class; in fact I can barely fly at all.”

“Oh yeah, ah almost fergot!” AJ said, remembering why she had introduced the two of them in the first place. “Rainbow, Silent here needs a flying coach. He is a bit heavy and his wings aren’t that strong. Sometimes he has a hard time even getting back up to his house after working in the orchard and fields the whole day.”

Ouch, even though it was true, too hear it said so bluntly still hurt.

“Yeah, that makes sense” she said looking me over again with a chuckle, “I remember my dad had the same problem, thought he was a bit smaller that you are big guy.”

“Hmm?” That sure wasn’t what I was expecting, “You’re dad was a trotter? But you’re tiny! And from what AJ tells me you’re training to be a Wonderbolt!”

“Yeah, he says that I take after my mom,” Rainbow says with a small smile, “I like to think that I can fly for both of us, he is one of the big reasons I got into racing in the first place. He never missed a meet!”

Wow, this is the first time I have ever had anypony, much less a speedster like Dash, actually sympathize with me about being a trotter.

“So, what do you say, can you help me out?” I ask sheepishly

“Pffft” she began to laugh.

I knew it, not to say that she was a bad pony or anything but why would she take time out of her Wonderbolts training to help me get off the ground. She seemed like a nice mare but it took more than just being nice to sacrifice that much time from doing something you loved to help out a random stranger.

“Oh well thanks for your time, sorry to bother you.” I smiled politely and turned around to start my walk back to Sweet Apple Acres. I had been used to letdowns like this for a while now and honestly it didn’t bother me that much. Though I did really think she was going to say yes for a moment there.

“Hey wait up!” I hear from behind me causing my ears perk up. “For a stallion nearly the size of a chimera you act a lot more like a filly. Anyway you didn’t let me answer” She tells me with a smile.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I say feeling a bit confused.

Rainbow gives me a knock on the noggin, “What it means is," followed by a quick smile,

“You’ve got yourself a flying coach."

Author's Note

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say that this is my first real attempt at a serious fic so please don't pull any punches, I want to know everyone honest opinions about this

Chapter two: The Iron Wall

“Wake up, Mr. Silent, wake uuuuuup!!” I heard a high pitched voice besides my bed.

“Not now, now is sleeping time, not waking time,” I groaned. It was too early in the morning to be clever.

“Not if Ah have anything to say about that.” I heard the little voice mutter under its breath before belting out at a volume I didn’t think possible. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ALARM CLOCK YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!”

And with that, the young filly that I now assumed to be Apple Bloom began to spring up and down on my chest. It actually looked pretty fun. I didn’t really mind it too much, she could do that for days and I wouldn’t get hurt, but I definitely wasn’t getting back to sleep.

“Mr. Silent yur gonna miss breakfast!” She whined. I suppose that was a good enough reason to get out of bed.

“Alright, okay, I’m getting up, but I do need you to stop jumping on me, Apple Bloom.” I told her.

“Awww...” she groaned when she realized her fun was over. I knew it, she was having a good time up there.

With that I slowly got out of the makeshift bed Big Mac and I threw together when I moved into the barn. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it got the job done. I was only planning on staying until I got back on my hooves... wings... whatever. As I exited the barn I was greeted with a beautiful sight. There was not a single cloud in the sky (save for my house of course, but that didn’t really count). This was going to be a great day for flying--assuming I could get myself off of the ground.

As I made my way into the house I was greeted by the smell of pancakes. Today was shaping up to be a very good day. The rest of the Apple family was already at the table, digging in. Looked like I wasn’t the only one who loved pancakes. Almost before I sat down a plate stacked high with wonderful-smelling flapjacks was laid out before me. I dug in enthusiastically; I could definitely get used to this.

After a little bit, I noticed Apple Bloom looking impatiently between AJ and me and I noticed AJ rolling her eyes.

“Is everything okay, Apple Bloom?” I asked her, “It looks like something is bothering you.”

I was concerned, as she looked like she was about to burst. She looked up excitedly and began to speak “Well Ah-” but stopped herself and looked to Applejack as if to ask for permission.

AJ gave a small nod that clearly said “go ahead”.

“Ah was just wondering how you got your cutie mark, Mr. Silent.” Apple Bloom asked with eyes like dinner plates.
I chuckled a bit, telling her “You don’t have to call me Mr. Silent, just Silent is perfectly ok. And I would be happy to tell you how I came to get my cutie mark.”

“It was my last year at Cloudsdale Academy, about four weeks into the school year, and the new flyers were doing some laps around the hoofball field while I was doing strength training. It was a nice day, not too much lateral wind, but the updraft was strong enough to keep a pony airborne without much effort. Perfect conditions for flying, or so I’m told. It was pretty late in the afternoon and the new edge guards were still training-”

“What's an edge guard?” Apple Bloom blurted out, letting her curiosity get the best of her.

“It’s not polite to interrupt, Apple Bloom,” AJ chided her little sister.

“No, it’s fine.” I tell both of them, “I probably should have realized that she wouldn’t know what an edge guard is.”

“You see Apple Bloom, most buildings and areas inhabited by pegasi are made out of the clouds that float hundreds of feet off of the ground. The edge guards are there to make sure that if anypony were to fall off the edge and couldn’t right themselves, somepony would be able to save them before they hit the ground,” I explained.

“Anyway, like I was saying,” I started back up again, “the new edge guards were still training, but it had been a few years before anything scary like a freefaller happened and no one could even remember the last time anypony had gotten seriously injured from a fall. Because of this, the guards were mostly seen as a formality and an easy way to make a few bits. Whenever the older guards didn’t feel like going on duty, they usually pushed the hours onto some poor newbie who couldn’t say no to an upperclassman.

So I was doing some weight training on the sidelines when I heard a scream from right above me. A young pegasus, she looked to be about three years younger than me, was plummeting from the sky. My first guess is that it had to be some sort of wing cramp. Flying with one wing is something that takes years of training and it certainly didn’t seem like the mare that was falling had any idea of what she was doing and was simply flailing around in a panic.

My eyes immediately shot to the edge guard and I immediately noticed two things about him. First, he was about the same age as the mare that was falling, only a first year at most.
Second, the shock and fear that overcame him had completely frozen him in place.

They say that in times of panic, your body takes control and is completely separate from your mind. When this happens, the actions that your body takes can differ drastically from one pony to the next. The edge guard's body had kept him still, my body had thrown me over the edge of the cloud after the mare.”--*crash*

I was interrupted by the sound of a plate shattering.

AJ had dropped hers on the floor but didn’t even seeming to notice, Apple Bloom’s eyes widened in a mixture of awe and terror, Granny Smith’s teeth fell out, and Big Mac was utterly speechless (well, more so than usual). I never thought much of it, but i guess it is kind of shocking when you think about it.

“Anyway,” I resumed. “I was quite a bit heavier than the mare who was falling so I quickly caught up with her, and as I grabbed her I regained control of my body. After carefully analyzing the situation I was in, I came to the conclusion that I was falling out of the sky and that slowing down might be the best course of action. So, I unfurled my wings. That lasted about five full seconds before my wings were dislocated, that whole trotter concept had really slipped my mind at the time. When the mare saw how my wings were fluttering lifelessly above me she began to sob, seeming to accept her fate. I on the other hand had other plans, I jumped off of a cloud to save this pony and I’d be damned if I didn’t do everything I could to do just that.

I told the mare to hold on as I wrapped my front and back legs around her and positioned myself between her and the ground. I closed my eyes and waited. The only things I could feel or hear was the air rushing past me and the sobbing of the mare clinging to me for dear life.

Then there was the impact.” I finished.

You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife if you wanted to.

Apple Bloom jumped up “What in tarnation!” she yelled.

“What happened?! Did the mare survive? Did YOU survive?” she asked in a flurry.

Tension gone. Everyone in the room, myself included, burst into laughter. Apple Bloom had a very confused look on her face until she looked at me for a second and, seeming to realise the craziness of her third question, joined in on the laughter herself.

After everypony had calmed down AJ asked, “But really Silent, what happened? Nopony just up and walks away from hitting the ground that hard.”

“Well,” I began, “The mare who I was trying to save was all right, she had a few bruises and was a bit shaken up, but aside from that she was fine. I on the other hand was a different story. I had broken my back in thirty-five places and each of my ribs were split. If my wings hadn’t been limp because of dislocating them, the doctors told me that I would never have been able to use them again. I just consider myself lucky that I landed on a grassy field and not some rocks. I woke up three weeks later. The doctors told me that no one else would have been able to survive the fall like I did. Pegasi have naturally crash resistant bodies, but the fact that I had solid bones and about six times as much muscle than the average pegasus my age bolstered the shock absorbing effects that my body naturally had. when I was finally able to get out of bed I took a look in the mirror. It is amazing what modern magic can do. Aside from the casts and bandages that riddled my body I looked much the same as I did. But there was one very distinct difference that I was very excited about.” I paused for a second to turn to Apple Bloom could see where I was pointing to.

“This.” I said as I motioned to my cutie mark, a solid steel plate in the shape of a shield.

Apple Bloom stared at it in awe, “That is so amazing, Silent!” she said

“The story’s not over yet though,” I said, making Apple Bloom visibly confused.

“You mean you got another cutie mark!” Apple Bloom squealed with delight and began to dart around me trying to find the nonexistent second mark.

“No, not that kind of mark, but I like think that it is just as cool,” I said with a smile.

“Cooler than a cutie mark?” Apple Bloom immediately sat down in front of me, eagerly awaiting the continuation of my story.

“About a week after I got out of the hospital I got a letter from Princess Luna herself. She and her sister wanted to meet me personally. When I arrived at the castle, I had never been more nervous, and that’s considering I had fallen a few hundred feet off a cloud just a few months ago. When I entered the royal throne room I was greeted by one of the most intimidating yet beautiful sights a stallion can see. Both the Princess of the Sun and the Princess of the Moon were sitting on their ornate thrones. The Princess of the Night was the first to speak. She told me to rise, and I was confused before I realised that I had absentmindedly prostrated myself before them. Both of the princesses asked me about the events that had taken place and I explained in much the same way I just explained it to you. After I had finished, the two sisters nodded to one another, and Princess Luna stood from her seat and told me that I might kneel. She then told me told me to bring one of my front hooves out in front of me.

When I did, she placed her horn first on my right shoulder, saying ‘For thine willingness to throw thine life away to protect that of another,’ and then placing her horn on my left shoulder, ‘and for thine bravery and resourcefulness in doing so,’ then placing the tip of her horn on my outstretched hoof, ‘I dub thee, Sir Silent Charge, Seventh Night of the Royal Court.’ And upon contacting my hoof with her horn, it was emblazoned with the seal of the two sisters.

‘Arise, Sir Night,’ She said to me, and so I did.

I felt both honored and worried about what had just happened. Obviously what the Princess had just done was not something that everypony was able to say they had done to them, and I was extremely grateful for it. But it also worried me, I was fearful as to what this title might imply, and what I might be called to do in the future because of this.” I paused to collect my thoughts.

“Hold up there partner,” Applejack stopped me from starting back up again.

“What is it?” I asked a bit concerned about the questioning look on AJ’s face.

“Ah’m a bit confused here, some things just aren’t adding up.” She began, “Well, all of this seems like a sorta’ big deal, Ah mean, if you saved some mare from plummeting to her death and then got knighted, wouldn’t ya think that ah would have heard of ya before now?”

I paused for a moment, that question actually did make a lot of sense. One would think stories like that would be journalistic gold.

“I hear where you’re coming from there, but both of those issues are fairly explainable.” I began, “First off, there is the matter of explaining the absence of a story on how I saved the mare from falling to death. For that lack of coverage you can thank my father. He is the owner of a large firm in Manehattan and has the resources to keep a story about me out of the papers. As to why he would do that, well, he is a pegasus with a lot of pride. He would do anything to stop attention from being drawn to the fact that his son is a dirtkicker.”

Applejack looked livid for a moment so I decided to add “But honestly it doesn't matter to me, I didn’t do it for the attention anyway.”

“And then there is the matter of the lack of publicity in regards to my Nighting. There is a very big difference between being a Knight beginning with a K and a Night beginning with an N. The former group is comprised of individuals who are considered to be heros throughout equestria, they are the faces that everyone will recognise. Soldiers of merit, philanthropists donating millions of bits to the impoverished, those types of folks. They are Knighted in front of crowds of hundreds by Celestia.” I continued to explain.

“The Nights beginning in an N on the other hand, the group I am a part of, are the ones that are not as well known, but are heroes in their own right. We are not meant to be well known, that way we can lay low and report on the status of the kingdom from the average ponies perspective. I report to princess Luna once a week on how things are going in my personal life and the town I was assigned to.”

“So you’re a Night, starting with an N, and you report once a week to Luna,” Applejack questioned me with a very doubtful look on her face, “Seems kinda corny to me.”

“Really, I had thought it was quite clever myself.” I replied confidently.

“Oh and let me guess, there are only seven of you at any given time, one for each night of the week?” AJ said sarcastically.

“ Actually yes,” I replied with a start, maybe Luna was being a bit corny with the organization of things here. “That way Luna only ends up getting one report a day and she can space things out a little bit, I for example report to her each Sunday.”

Applejack still didn’t look too convinced so I figured I would have to prove it to her one way or another.

“If you want proof I can give it to you, what day is it?” I asked her.

“Friday.” she replied with a surprised expression on her face.

“Ok, so I will be sending my next letter two days from now. Luna’s response always arrives when the moon is highest in the night sky, I have to be outside when it gets here so it’s usually pretty chilly, but if you’re up to it I can let you see the letter after I read it.” I told her in the hopes that it would get her off my back.

I mean jeez, what was with this mare and her honesty issues. It felt like if I ever lied to her she would string me up on the spot.

“And on that note, I believe it is time for me to go.” I say, standing up and bringing my dishes to the kitchen. “I have a flight lesson in about forty-five minutes that I really don’t want to miss.”

And with that I said my goodbyes and headed towards Ponyville. Or more specifically, Rainbow Dash’s house.

Author's Note

HAI :D

I am having a hard time thinking of chapter names so i thought i might ask if anyone had an idea for a clever name for this chapter or the next one???

Chapter three: Walk before you run, run before you fly

When I had first arrived in Ponyville I was more than a bit disappointed, I mean what interesting things were there to do here, it was a little farming town. Despite It’s seemingly humble and quaint feel, Ponyville had hosted more catastrophes, disasters, and malicious entities, than any other town in Equestria. What I got from this was along the lines of me getting the most work of any of the Nights and having the least amount of fun while doing it.

I mean what in Tartarus was so interesting about freaking Ponyville, even the name is lazy and sort of meaningless. The most interesting thing that “should” be happening here was the Summer sun Celebration, something that is celebrated literally everywhere. And despite all of this, Last year the ponification of chaos and destruction just popped up out of nowhere and started literally turning the peaceful little town upside down.

Being one of the seven Nights I could have been assigned to any one of the major cities in equestria. I could have enjoyed the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the hustle and bustle of Fillydelphia, or even the grandeur and regality of the royal city of Canterlot. But no, I got stuck in the one place that seemed to attract every evil entity in Equestria and could still get boring.

Or at least that was how I had been thinking of things up until recently. Ponyville may at times be a troublesome place to live, but when things weren’t blowing up or being turned into parasprite food, it was actually a very nice place to settle down.

There was a certain magic about Ponyville that made everything about interacting with the other ponies who live their just so amazing, especially in the context of friendships. I somehow felt much closer to the ponies I had only recently become acquainted with here in Ponyville than those that I spent years with at the Academy. For example, I would have never asked a favor as big as finding me a flying coach from the quarterbuck from my hoofball team, someone who I had interacted with nearly every day for four years. Yet when I met Applejack it took me about four seconds to truly believe that she would help me out if I was in trouble. I had known her for a day or two at the most and I had already trusted her enough to talk to her and the rest of her family about being a Night. Sometimes it was unsettling even to me how much I just instantly seemed to trust these ponies. But dammit if it didn’t just feel natural.

As I began to approach Ponyville I realized for the first time that for all its simplicity, it was a really very nice place to live. It was a great place to raise a family, virtually no crime and with a great school system meant that foal’s would grow up safe and smart. While it was at time visited by the occasional evil monster these assaults on the otherwise peaceful Village were usually taken care of by the still unknown carriers of the Elements of Harmony. Generally things went from normal to crazy and then back again in less than a day or two; so everypony has either accepted it, gotten used to it, or both.

Lost in thought I found myself bumping into a mare while wandering through the marketplace. She looked to be only a year or so younger than me, about the same age as AJ.

“Oh, sorry about that ma’am,” I stuttered out finding it a bit hard to speak.

She was small so running into her didn’t hurt, what had struck me was the mare herself. She was beautiful, but not in a glaring sense. She wasn’t sexy per say, just cute, almost too much so. Everything about her seemed fragile, from her slender form to her small tucked in wings. She was butter-yellow with pink hair that covered her face almost completely. I was so stunned by her sudden and beautiful appearance that I very nearly forgot to help her up.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I stooped low to help her up off of the ground and back onto her hooves.

“...” When the mare hadn’t answered I began to feel a little worried.

‘I am pretty big and she is pretty small, I hope I didn’t break her.’ I thought to myself ’I don’t even know how fast either
of us were moving. She doesn't look injured but I can’t tell for sure. Maybe if I just...’

As I reached down to poke her (Celestia damn it man I’m a Night not a Doctor!) her eyes shot open and a uttered a short gasp of concern.

“Oh my, I’m so very sorry sir I didn’t mean t-“ As she looked up at me she froze in the middle of the process of standing up.

If it hasn’t become painfully apparent already, I am not a normal pony. I am big, dark, and have freaky bat wings. So I can understand how seeing me tower over you after being knocked to the ground could be... unsettling.

Then, without warning she sprung into the air, gathered up her things and took off at a speed that I didn’t think possible for such a small mare.

So I found myself standing in the middle of the marketplace, looking menacing as usual, after just knocking over and scaring off a young mare. I didn’t really know how to react to the situation and I was getting some weird looks from the other ponies in the market so I decided to move on.

Walking through the town I realized that I had no idea where exactly Rainbow Dash’s house was. Because it was a cloud house, and it was so far off the ground, there was no way of telling where it was unless you were a weather pony and had the wind charts for the day. So I decided to head to the center of town where town hall was. It was the tallest building in Ponyville and you could see pretty much everything in and around the town from the top.

“ Ugh, I am never going to-” *THUNK*

Something slammed into my side at a breakneck pace. Something very... Pink.

‘Is it just me or am I meeting a lot of ponies this way recently?’ I thought to myself before turning to see if the pony that had collided with me was all right.

“It’s just you.” The mare responded to my... wait what?

As I turned to look at the apparently psychic mare was greeted with a small pink mare with three balloons for a cutie mark smiling wider than her bone structure should allow. Then several things happened at once; without warning she jumped up into the air, gasped, and released an irrational amount of confetti out of her hair before zooming past me. When I turned to look where she flew off to but she seemed to have completely disappeared.

'Well... that was strange.' I thought to myself before I continued my journey to the center of the town.

*WHAM*

“Ok this is getting to be worse than back when I played hoofball.” I said out loud to no one in particular.

‘I wonder what I must look like to the average onlooker?’ I thought to myself about how strange the day had been so far, ‘I mean, a big guy like me might accidentally knock someone over if he isn’t careful but so far I’m the one being run into.’

As I looked down to the newest pony to slam into my side I notice that she is somewhat of a returning customer.

“So Rainbow...” I say looking down at her at she tried to quickly right herself, “Is this going to be like a regular thing with you and me, because if it is you may want to invest in a helmet.”

“Oh, hey Silent,” she said wobbling from side to side still obviously dazed from the impact. “I was just about to head over to Sweet Apple Acres to come get you but I got... sidetracked.”

“Oh really now?” I asked her raising an eyebrow. “So what new trick are you working on?”

Her eyes lit up with the prospect of showing off her moves to someone new and she almost immediately shot up into the air... almost. Just before she launched into the air I was able to grab a hold of her tail and keep her grounded.

“Hey! What the buck, Silent!” She yelled as she struggled to become airborne.

“Dash, think about a few things first, we are in Ponyville, if you had crashed into anypony but me there is a really good chance that they could have been hurt.” I reasoned “How about before we go and fly off the handle (OH MY CELESTIA THE WORDPLAY) we find somewhere a bit safer to do it.”

“Oh, yeah, that would probably be a good idea.” She said as a bit of color was added to her face.

She then jumped up on my back and laid down saying “I’m going to take a quick power nap, wake me when we get there.”

As I began to walk towards the field between the edge of town and the beginning of the Everfree Forest she quickly fell asleep. This certainly wasn’t something I was used to. Dash was extremely light so having to carry her really wasn’t that much of an issue, but this certainly wasn’t a normal thing to do either. It was weird because I knew she was there, I could feel her on my back, but I couldn't turn to look at her which was something I for some reason had the intense urge to do. She was so soft, and warm, and feeling how light she was it seemed like she should be a lot more fragile than she actually was. It was hard to believe that she could survive crashing into things like trees, the ground, and occasionally... me. I found myself getting unnecessarily nervous about what other ponies were possibly thinking about me. It had to look rather odd, seeing a huge, dark colored bat-winged pegasus carrying what I would call my exact opposite; a small, light blue mare with a rainbow mane and beautiful wings. It was definitely making me uncomfortable.

It felt like years, though it was really less than an hour, had passed before I finally reached the field. I found a place that I thought might have been suitable for some flying, it was a nice open space with only one or two clouds in the sky. Knowing that we had arrived I tipped to my side a little bit and let Rainbow Dash slide off of my side. She hit the ground with a dull thud and for a second I was worried that I had been a bit careless, until I saw that she still sleeping like a foal on the ground. She was muttering sleepily and from what I gathered she was dreaming about some sort of training camp.

I cracked a sly grin before standing upright next to her and recalled back to the Tartarus week the seniors on the hoofball team were in charge of putting the new recruits through.

I breathed in deeply and with my best drill sergeant voice yelled at max volume:

“AttenTION!”

She immediately shot up into a standing position with one foreleg cocked forward in a hasty salute.

“Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt first class reporting for duty!” She yelled out reflexively before noticing where she was and how I was rolling in the grass laughing my flank off.

“Shaddap Silent.” She said while grinning herself before stretching her wings and floating calmly up into the air with a few small flaps.

“So are you going to show me this new trick of yours or what.” I asked her.

To be honest I did it more because she looked like she wanted to show it to someone that out of my desire to see it. I didn’t have any problems with ponies doing tricks, in fact some of them were pretty fascinating, but their value was lost on to me. It was neat to see other ponies do cool things but knowing that you could never replicate those feats always made these experiences bittersweet.

“Heck yeah!” She said rather enthusiastically before rocketing up into the sky at a blinding pace.

Watching her fly was pretty amazing, everything she did seemed spontaneous in nature yet was executed with a perfection that could only be obtained from countless hours of practice. She began with a few vertical loops that steadily faded into horizontal ones. Then without warning she exited her loop tucking her wings to her sides and turning her body to execute a lazy sort of back-flip. Then, as gravity finally began to kick in she shot her wings out and was flung forward at a fantastic rate. From there she began to rapidly gain altitude, flying higher and higher into the cloudless skies. Just before I lost sight of her she turned one-hundred and eighty degrees and beamed back towards the ground, gaining more and more speed until suddenly-

*FOOM*

The air around her seemed to shatter before my very eyes, the visible light spectrum flew out behind her as she cracked forwards and flying parallel to the ground. Tucking herself into a ball she began a series of impossibly fast front-flips causing her motion blurred mane and tail to both fling outwards creating a pulsating vertical disk of beautiful colors. Eventually she began to slow down and the rainbow disk began to fade, after which she started to plummet to the ground.

Worried at the strange patterns of her descent I began to sprint to where I thought she would land. But when she was only about ten feet off of the ground she made seemingly impossibly sharp ninety degree turn and began flying level to the ground again.

I stood there dumbfounded at what I had just seen. I had seen some amazing things before then; I had seen the crystal birds migrate over Canterlot mountain at first sunrise, I had seen the ritualistic dance of a king dragon and his queen, I had met the princess’ and even had conversations with them. But nothing I had ever seen could have explained the beauty of Rainbow’s new “trick”.

When she landed in front of me she began to look at me as though I had three heads. I quickly realized that I was still wearing my expression of absolute dumbfoundedness on my face. As I picked my jaw up off the ground Dash approached me cautiously and apprehensively.

“Well,” she said in an uncharacteristically coy manner, “What did you think?”

“That was... wow” I felt genuinely bad, I couldn’t even hope to put how amazing what I had just seen was. But for some reason RD seemed to take my silence as me trying not to hurt her feelings.

“Dang, was It really that bad?” She asked me looking crestfallen.

“NO!” I shouted, startling the cyan pegasus, “That was, the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. It was amaaaaaaaaaaazing.”

I found myself with my face very close to her’s without realizing it. She blinked twice her face turned bright red. After a few seconds of awkward silence both of us lurched backwards and fell on our flanks. As suddenly as the awkwardness between us was brought about it vanished and we both began to laugh uncontrollably about the whole situation.

About a minute or so later we both finally calmed down and remembered why we had arranged to meet up that day in the first place.

“So big guy,” She said scanning me with the eyes of an expert trainer, “Show me what you got.”

“Wait, just like that?” I asked, confused about the abruptness of how the lesson started.

“Well yeah, if I want to teach you how to fly I need to know what I’m working with.” She said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Makes sense.” I said before unfurling my wings.

My wings are strange, not only are they very large when compared those of a normal pegasus, but they are also not feathered wings but instead they are leathery like a bat's wings would be. Because of this, ponies used to have difficulty accepting my inability to fly, after all, bigger wings means more lift no matter how you slice it. The thing is, when compared to the rest of my body my wings are disproportionately small. Still, when I brought my wings out to full length it was quite the sight, or so I’ve been told.

Dash looked relatively impressed and even a little bit hopeful when she said, “That’s quite the wingspan you got there Silent. Now let’s see how well they get you airborne from a standstill.”

At this point my “flying ability” has degraded to a little less than extending my jumping ability. I hadn’t even tried to got off the ground without a running start for nearly two years.

“Here goes nothing.” I said apprehensively and began to beat my wings up and down. My wings caught a lot of air and I was throwing wind all around me. The grass beneath me began to flatten and Dash’s hair was being blown back but I remained planted firmly on the ground. I flapped up and down harder and harder but no matter how powerful I made my strokes, no matter how much strength I put into it I could not get off of the ground. It began to get infuriating, I was a pegasus Celestia damn it, I was getting off of the ground if it was the last thing I did. I began to pound my wings up and down with all of my strength, viciously tearing through the air around me until finally my body gave out. I crumpled to the ground, defeated and ashamed.

“Damn, Silent, you really have some crazy strength there,” Dash said in an extremely sympathetic tone, “I have no idea how you didn’t get off of the ground, how much do you weigh?”

This was a bit awkward, last year I broke a slightly embarrassing record. I was at that time, the heaviest pegasus in Equestria, I even outweighed Celestia by about two hundred pounds.

“Just above two thousand eight-hundred pounds.” I explained with a sheepish grin.

Dash’s jaw hit the ground, literally, she was walking over to be when she asked me and tripped over when she heard me answer.

“Wha-what?” She asked dumbfounded, Its not really that surprising to see her this shocked, after all Big Mac is about two thousand pounds and he is considered a giant.

“You heard me,” I said with a grin, “starting to regret telling me you would help?”

“But, that's impossible, I only weigh about four hundred...” she trailed off, looking at me in awe before realizing what she said and blushing. Who could blame her, no more likes to talk about their weight.

“Anyway, I should have said this earlier but I generally have to get some sort of a running start before I take off.” I told her.

This statement seemed to bring her back to reality. “Okay, lets try that then.”

I brought myself to bear and began to run across the field as fast as I could, the feel of the wind in my face always seemed to calm me down, I guess that makes sense seeing as I was a pegasus and all. When I finally felt I was running fast enough I envisioned a cliff where I was going to jump, having an obstacle to get over often helped to motivate me whenever I try to fly. As I neared the edge of my imaginary cliff I launched myself upwards and outwards, flapping my wings as hard as I could. I could get pretty good distance but generally it was nothing too much more than gliding would have gotten me.

As I landed hard onto the ground Dash zipped over to me looking excited.

“What’s got you smiling Dashie?” I asked her as soon as she touched down.

“Well, I’m not sure, but I think I can tell you what one of your problems is!” She said proudly.

“Did you Know that feathered pegasi and leathered pegasi fly using totally different wing strokes?”

“No, no I didn’t, in fact I don’t think anyone before now ever even bothered to tell me that there were different wing strokes.”

“Let me guess, you were the only pony in your flight class that had bat wings?”

“Yeah I was, why?”

“Well the thing is, different wings use different wing strokes in order to fly properly, and because you were the only one with bat wings and you were a trotter, the flying instructor probably didn’t bother to go over the basics of flying for someone like you.”

“Ok so I’m flying like I have feathers, it doesn't really seem like that change that much.”

“It changes everything!” she cheered jumping into the air and doing a little spin. “When you flap your wings straight up and down like that you are flying like a feathered pegasus should fly, the shape of our wings allow us to catch the air on the downstroke and keep air from getting caught in a vertical upstroke. Your wing aren't like that at all, because of the lack of bone structure on the actual flaps of your wings, they don’t keep their shape as well as a feathered wing would. Because they don’t keep their shape they can catch just as much air coming up as they can going down. So in essence if you are flapping straight down then back up again your wings push you up then right back down!” She explains looking rather proud of herself.

“Okay, so now that we know that, how do I fix it?” I ask excitedly, this could be the breakthrough I had been waiting for. For the first time in a long time flying seemed like a real possibility.

“I have no idea...” She said with a frown. But her saddened expression lasted only a second or two before she excitedly exclaimed “But I know who would!”

“Who is it? Are you sure they can help me? Do they have bat wings too?” I fire a salvo of questions at the poor cyan pony.

“She doesn't have wings at all, she is a unicorn.” Dash replied with a grin.

“Then how do you know she can help me?” I asked, skeptical that a unicorn could help me out with the mechanics involved in specialized wing movement.

“She read a book on it. Trust me.”

“Why would a unicorn read a book that explains how bat-winged pegasi fly?” I asked.

Dash responded with a roll of her eyes, saying,“Twilight reads books on everything, I don’t think she really discriminates by what the topic is.”

Author's Note

oook, so I have been working a bit on my descriptive writing recently and would love some feedback on how it sounds. also I realized that im introducing a lot of random info that isn't cannon at all, i.e the concept of dirtkickers, different wing strokes...etc. so some feedback on that would be great. Basically im asking you guys/girls/people/assorted...things, if you like the ideas I'm coming up with or not. Oh, and before it starts, Idk if this still happens but when I first came to fimfic whenever there was an oc story there was always a million other oc's asking to be in it (I have been guilty of it to) but I'm sorry to say that wont be happening, I have this story planned out for about the next ten or so chapters and none of them really involve something like another oc.

thanks for the support so far and stay awesome every pony

p.s. grammar/spelling in the authors note will never be perfect, sorry :P