Flight
I lay on a cloud suspended perfectly in mid-air. I don’t know how we pegasi do it, but we manage to stand and move about on clouds as if they were solid ground. I remember it having something to do with magic and science but that’s all I know. It truly has been an exhausting day of cloud kicking here in the Northern Kingdom. I can picture the town now, everypony getting ready for the Crystal Fair. Even me; the pariah of the city, the Crystal Pegasus.
I continue to rest on my cloud, the gentle updraft blowing through my white mane and tickling my golden crystal body just waiting to set my wings flapping. I almost pity the ground dwellers, for only the Princess and I know about the wonder of flight. The strong down currents, the gentle up currents, and that sweet spot in the middle of it all where you can just glide. She taught me you know. It’s not something I’d like to brag about, but she was the only one who could. I notice something different about the air now, it’s hotter and a bit muggy, definitely different than the northern sky that is cool and sharp. I peer down to the earth below me. I’m definitely not in the north anymore. Instead of white snow is an expansive forest.
“My cloud must have floated south!” I squeaked to myself. “How long was I sleeping?”
Now is the time for flight. I gingerly push myself up and shake off excess water on my coat. I open and close my wings. Once. Twice. Three times, just to work out all of the sleeping kinks. I leap from the cloud and kick it. The water evaporates instantly under my hard buck. I don’t know what to do, so I looped around aimlessly for awhile just testing the warmer air under my wings. I suddenly had an idea.
Stalling is what a Pegasus does when she or he goes up too high and the air pressure and gravity make you begin to fall in mid air. I’ve never done it before, but I saw the Princess do it. She told me to never go up that high and demonstrated by shooting upward and plummeting, regaining her balance shortly after. I wanted to try it.
I began pumping upward ferociously with my wings. Climbing the sky higher and higher, faster and faster. The pressure in was building in my head as I went even further upward crashing through clouds, trailing a streak unique to only the fastest of pegasi. My brain is screaming to me now.
“GO BACK DOWN! GO BACK DOWN!” while my heart is screaming, “HIGHER! HIGHER! WE CAN ONLY GO HIGHER! DON’T GIVE UP!” I want to listen to my head but I’m listening to my heart right now. Nopony can stop me at this moment in time. Now I am high above the cloud layer and far off in the distance a blurred shape is what I can only assume to be Cloudsdale. I can feel it now, the pressure weighing down on my wings and pinching my head. I didn’t think this far. What if I stall and crash into the ground? It would kill me. It would certainly kill me, that means I need a plan. Then it dawns on me. Going down at this speed might tunnel me into the earth. The ground would yield to me and create a soft landing if I just… then it happens. My wings seize up and pin themselves to my body. I turn in the air slightly so my front hooves are pointed directly at the earth, like an arrow. The wind whistles sharply in my lain back ears as I plummet to the unforgiving ground faster than I previously was flying. Tears streaked down the sides of my face. I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I close my eyes as I pass through the cloud layer trailing thousands of water droplets behind me. Why did I fall asleep on a cloud? Why did it take me here? Why did I decide to unknowingly plummet to my death? Maybe it was in my universal plan to die like this. I think I said “Celestia, save me.” And I hit earth.
Well, not exactly hit earth. I produced a sonic boom and then my body dug a hole. My own grave I supposed. The hole I dug wasn’t my grave either. It let out into a cave system. Since the earth had slowed me down from my stall all I had to do was after breaking through the ceiling was start flapping. The cave is very loud, wait that is my breathing. But something is falling through the hole… It’s rain. Golden rain. How in Equestria is that possible? I gently climbed out of the hole and saw that the golden rain was covering every plant and stone where my blast had happened. I stood in the clearing, everything was beautiful, crying was near my only option. Passing out from exhaustion was the other. I chose the second option and slept.
When I awoke the clearing had a crystalline sheen. The rich gold had become crystal. Like my homeland. I peered back into the cave the golden water had formed a crystal pond. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Something like this must be magical, but I dared not touch the surface. I had to go home after all! I exited the cave, flew up and alighted on another cloud then willed it to take me home. Home to the Princess and the Crystal Fair. Home to the scorn filled looks of the citizens. Home to the warmth of my bed. Home to my name; Cloud Burst and where my job means so much to the citizens. And one day very, very soon I’ll show them. I will show them what it truly means to fly.
Ok Bubbles, here are your credits for making Cloud Burst and asking to write a one-shot for her. Yes, I will also write your Oc a fic. Just gimme his/ her stuff and I'll be off.
