You squint up at the subsonic blur racing through the clear sky from your spot under a large oak tree, its light coat making it nigh impossible to see. Pulling a turn so sharp you could feel physics cry out in pain the blur charges at the ground with breakneck speed. Slowly, a cloudy cone of white forms around the diver, growing thinner and thinner until…
KABOOM!
An ear splitting din erupts from the now supersonic flier, along with a glowing corona of prismatic color growing outward in a ring. So stunned you are with the sheer beauty of what you see that you forget to brace yourself from the shockwave of the aerial maneuver.
CRASH!
With a yelp you’re thrown from your feet and sent on your own short flight. You land with an “Oof!” and cover your head, not wanting any of the flying debris or dust the shockwave picked up in your eyes. When the ground stops rumbling and the dust settles, you rise and look distastefully and the dirt now coating your front.
Dusting off, you hear a voice in the distance call out your name. You ignore it and finish cleaning yourself off. Again it calls out, louder this time.
Done with the bit of self grooming, you turn to the direction of the voice to see the blur flying in low. It comes at high speed down and stops just a few feet short of mowing you down, reveling the hovering form of your best friend.
The one and only Rainbow Dash, whose sporting a face splitting grin.
”So Anon? Whatcha think? Huh? Huh?!” She asks quickly.
Your own grin comes to life as you ruffle her multihued mane.
“Dash you truly live up to your reputation as the best.”
If it was even possible her grin grew as her magenta eyes sparkled with the praise.
You look back up at the cloudless Equestrian sky, stretching up into infinity and marked only by the bright sun.
“Flying must truly be something…” you say almost wistfully
Rainbow looks up too “Yep, there’s nothing like it.” She lands and seats herself, tucking her powerful wings to her sides “The freedom, the space, the thrill!” Rainbow wiggles in her spot “I wouldn’t trade it for anything!” she exclaims, her voice ripe with conviction. She takes her magenta dyed orbs from the sky to you “I sort of feel sorry for you Anon, it sucks that humans can’t fly.”
Oh? Did she truly think that?
Your lip curls upward in amusement.
“Don’t be too hasty in your assumptions Rainbow.”
The pony tilts her head, skepticism laced into her expression.
“Perhaps you would care for a quick history lesson then?”
”History?” Rainbow blows a raspberry at you “Yeah, no.”
Playing hard are we? “Are you sure? It’s about human flight.”
”But you don’t have any wings!”
You smile, leaning forward and giving her a poke on the snout. “Exactly.”
Now listening, Rainbow settles herself in the shade of the oak tree, impatiently waiting for you to start. You sit as well, leaning back against the tree as you debated where to start.
“It was millions of years ago that man pulled himself from the primordial ooze to walk the earth. Even without sapience, without complex thought, he looked up into the blue expanse above him and desired to be there, to call his own what he was never meant to have.”
You stop and look at Rainbow and see her paying rapt attention, her eyes focused on you and you alone. You continue.
“And with him began the human race’s obsession with the sky. Generations upon generations would gaze up in awe, be it the star laden night or the bright blue day. They would reach up with wanting hands, wanting nothing more than to sate their rabid curiosity of the border of their world.”
By now Rainbow had moved up closer, not wanting to miss a word.
“Then they began to use it, stars acting as guides for the early nomadic tribes of people and the sun acting as an infallible compass. This continued for hundreds of thousands of years into recorded history. And for every year passed, the obsession grew, some driving themselves mad in pursuit of the supposedly unattainable.”
You feel Rainbow lay her front half in your lap, but you’re getting to embroiled into your speech to care.
“Fast forward to the year 1903 in the human world, a pair of brothers put their heads together after seeing many failed attempts of flight. After much hard work and numbers crunched, they do what no other man has ever done before…”
”What?” Rainbow asks quietly, a far cry from her usual tone.
You look her in the eye, a wide smile on your face. “They created a flying machine and flew.”
Rainbow’s jaw slowly drops, the concept of a true flying machine being almost too much for her.
“Wide wings, a weak propeller, and sheer luck let them fly. It was only 15 feet from the ground and 20 seconds long, but it shook the whole wide world to its core, and started the frenzy to perfect flight.” You take a breath and continue. “Over the course of almost 110 years humans began to spread their metaphorical, but all too real metal wings. Different, spectacular, outrageous, and even dangerous designs began to pop out of every nook and cranny. From the blatant copies of the Wright Brother’s flying machine, to the first bi-winged airplane, to Nazi Germany’s failed hovercraft, to the huge and mind bogglingly fast jet engine fitted fighter planes that rival even you, but that’s not all…”
Rainbow jumps up so fast that you can’t even register that she moved.
”How can that not be all!?!” she almost screams, equal parts excitement and disbelief in her scratchy voice.
You just smirk and point up.
“Tell me Rainbow, what is beyond the sky?”
The pegasus scrunches her face up in confusion “Um, space? But why does th-!” She blinks and looks at you “You’re not serious are you…?”
You nod with a smile. “That however is another lesson, care to hear?”
Rainbow puffs her cheeks out in annoyance “You’re going to turn me into an egghead at this rate.”
You just laugh
“Where to begin… Ah! Let me tell you about Sputnik…”
