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// Chapter 2: A crash course in flying techniques 
// Story: The seventh """Element""" 
// by Ensil 
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“Listen up! If you want to become decent at flying then you do what I say! Got it?”

“Uh, Rainbow, why do you-... why do you sound like you're about to, uh, draft me into the- Wonderbolts?”

“Come on, Rush! You gotta get in the spirit for proper training!”

It was Rush’s first training session with Rainbow. They decided that the best location for this was outside of Ponyville, as neither of them wanted to pay for any potential property damage.

“Whatever. Do a few laps around those clouds and we’ll start from there.” 

Rainbow instructed while pointing to a few clouds in the sky. The course she planned for Rush had a few moderately tight turns, but it was mostly straight. He nodded, and took off. He gave the course a try, going at it way faster than his normal flying speed, but he overshot the first turn, and lost control trying to correct his path. He tumbled downwards, finally regaining control just in time to slightly slow himself down before crashing into a tree. Rainbow watched the whole thing, flinching when Rush crashed. 

“Seems like we have a lot of work to do…” Rainbow thought.

She helped Rush get off of the tree, and after he collected his bearings, she gave actual instructions.

“Let’s start with slowing down.” She took off to give Rush a live demonstration. “You just have to spread your wings out and catch as much air with them as possible.”

She sped forwards, then stopped using the aforementioned technique. After she was done, she pointed at Rush.

“Now you try!”

He took off again, and sped up, before trying to stop like Rainbow did. It took him much longer to come to a complete stop than it did for her, and if he was flying any lower, he would’ve hit another tree.

“Now that’s a start! Keep doing that for a while.” She flew down and lay under a tree. “I’ll be down here if you need me.”

He did as he was told and practiced breaking, while Rainbow rested under the tree’s shade. Right as she was about to doze off, her trainee appeared in front of her.

“Done already?”

“Y-yeah, I, uh, I don’t think I’m getting any better.”

“Alright, come with me!”

They walked some distance away from the tree.

“So, here’s what’s gonna happen. I will go stand somewhere between here and that tree, you have to pick up as much speed as possible by the time you reach me, then stop yourself before you hit the tree. Got it?”

Rush just nodded in response. Rainbow flew away, and stopped somewhere between him and the tree, leaving more distance for speeding up than slowing down. She gave a signal to Rush by waving, who revved up his wings and flew towards Rainbow as fast as he could. After passing her, he tried slowing down, but he couldn’t stop in time, crashing into the tree’s trunk instead. The impact shook a bird nest off from the branches, which fell on the dazed pegasus’ head. The inhabitants of the nest flew down, and gave him a piece of their mind. Of course, he didn’t understand any of it – and even if he did, he couldn’t have processed it due to his headache – but that was maybe for the best. After chirping some very rude things, the two birds picked up their nest and moved it back to its previous resting place. Rainbow also showed up, looking super unimpressed.

“You can steer, right?” 

Rush shook his head and stood up, stumbling around a bit from dizziness. He was holding a hoof to his head in response to the ache up there.

“...You said I had to stop before the tree…” he replied, his voice wobbling after the head injury he just suffered.

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean you should fly head first into it!”

“I’m sorry…” He looked at the ground, still holding his head.

“You don’t have to apologize. Look, I’m not giving up on you just yet, buuut you should probably go home for today. I need to come up with a better plan… and maybe look for a helmet.” She scratched the back of her head.

The two said their goodbyes and departed home, though one of them had a bit more trouble flying than the other. Still, he managed to make it without any more damage done to himself.





Upon getting close to his house, he noticed Rarity, carrying a medium sized box, talking with his mom, before turning around and walking away. He landed on the street in front of the house, the sound of which was loud enough to catch her attention before she went too far.

“Ah, there you are! I’ve been looking for you!” she said cheerfully, prancing up to him.

“I’ve been, uh… ‘training’ with Rainbow, ” he explained, a bit unsure of whether it could really be called training or not.

“Feel free to come inside!” Rush’s mom chimed in, more so referring to Rarity.

The three of them headed inside the house, where Rush’s mother offered them some refreshments, and Rarity showed Rush the box.

“Let me guess, it’s the, uh… dress…? Uh, you started making for me the other day.”

“Well, it’s not a dress. It’s something a bit more fitting for a stallion.”

Inside the box was a hooded cloak matching his eye color. It had golden stripes lacing its edges and a buckle on its collar for holding it together when worn, which was in the shape of a starburst like his cutie mark (and it also appeared to be made of gold).

“Woah, Rarity, t-that’s… W-where did you even get all this gold from?” he spoke in amazement, holding up the cloak and looking over it.

“Oh, golden strings are barely uncommon, darling… And the buckle is not actual gold, hehe.” 

She rushed the second sentence, almost as if she was embarrassed by being unable to get a pure gold buckle for something she made for somepony she barely met. 

“Do you like it?”

“It’s awesome! Thank you, Rarity. Uh, what do I owe you?”

“Oh no no no, you owe nothing, dear.”

Rush was about to object, but felt like he wouldn’t have won.

“If you say so…”

“Why don’t you try it on?” his mother suggested.

“Right...”

Rush put the cloak on, wearing the hood of it over his head, buckling it together at his neck.

“How does it look?” he asked the others present.

“You look fabulous, darling!” Rarity responded.

“It looks good on you, ” his mom also replied.

“I’m glad you like it, but I must go now. I still have a few dresses I need to finish.”

They saw Rarity off to their gate and bid farewell. Returning back inside, Rush took off his new clothing and hung it up in his – pretty empty – wardrobe. He spent the rest of the day reading comics before going to bed earlier due to having weather work to do tomorrow.





“Okay, everypony! We need to clear out all the clouds above and near Ponyville, got it?”

The weather ponies all nodded at Rainbow.

“Also, Rush. After our ‘training’ yesterday, you might wanna wear this as well.”

She picked up the protective helmet she had laying on the ground next to her with a wing. Nopony audibly questioned why she brought it with her, but now that she said it, they all burst out laughing. Well, the stallion in question didn’t find it very funny. In fact, he was moderately mad at Rainbow, who didn’t even intend to embarrass him. Having to wear goggles for casual flying at this age was embarrassing enough.

“Everypony, quiet! You all have work to do!” she shouted.

They all immediately departed, even Rush, but the incident remained the day’s biggest topic among them. Luckily, Rush finished his part of the sky before lunch, so he didn’t have to listen to everypony laughing at him. After he was done with clearing away clouds, he checked in with Rainbow before leaving work, as was required.

“Alright, good job! Oh and uhhh… Sorry about earlier. I really didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“It’s… okay… I guess… See ya!”

His mood left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she was going to make it up to him… once she figured out how to do so.





The next day, Rainbow was running late because Pinkie Pie was doing Pinkie Pie things and held her up. Twilight just so happened to be walking through town though, and she noticed a group of three pegasi laughing at something and some other nearby pegasi watching in disgust. She was curious what the commotion was about so she walked closer. It was lucky she did, because the something they were laughing at was actually a somepony.

“Hey, Rush, why didn’t you wear the helmet? You could’ve hurt your little head.”

“Seriously, how did you manage to get Rainbow Dash to train you if you need a helmet?”

“Being that bad is actually impressive.”

“What in Celestia are you doing!?” Twilight interrupted, furious with how they were treating her newest friend.

“Rainbow came to work yesterday with a helmet and…”

“...and she told Rush to wear it after some training they had apparently.”

“It was hilarious!”

“How would you feel if everypony was laughing at you because no pony helped you learn how to fly?” Twilight argued.

“Uhh, that’s what flight school is for.”

“He never got to go to flight school… and his parents couldn’t teach him either.”

“Wait, you learned to fly like that on your own?” 

The pegasi turned towards the stallion they were just bullying, who could only nod in response.

“That’s more impressive than how bad you are.”

Neither Rush or Twilight were pleased by this statement.

“What’s going on here!?” Rainbow arrived as well.

“These ponies were making fun of Rush, ” Twilight explained.

Hearing Twilight’s explanation and seeing Rush tearing up made Rainbow furious as well.

“WHAT!? Rush, you don’t have to work today and you three fill in for the both of us!”

“But that’s so much more sky!”

“Well, maybe you shouldn't have acted like foals. Now get to it! We need it to be slightly cloudy today.”

All the weather ponies with the exception of Rush and Rainbow took off, and hastily started filling the sky with clouds.

“Uh, th-thanks, you two.”

Rush finally felt comfortable enough to speak. He wiped his tears away as he thanked his friends for standing up for him.

“Aw, it was nothing.”

Rainbow waved it off and Twilight nodded.

“By the way, Rainbow, did you give the book I gave you to Rush?” Twilight inquired.

“Right… I’ll go get it real quick.” Rainbow dashed off.

“Uh, book?” Rush asked curiously.

“It’s something I found in the library that might help with your training. On that note, I better go now. I have some things I need to take care of. Goodbye Rush!”

“See ya!”

He sat there alone until Rainbow came back a few seconds later with a book in her mouth that she handed to Rush.

“Here you go!”

“Uh, ‘The Science Behind a Pegasus’ Flight’…?”

“Yeah… I told her it most likely won’t be useful, but she said you should have it anyway.” She shrugged.

“Aerodynamics? Center of mass? Thrust? Gravitational force?” Rush listed off terms he didn’t understand as he flipped through the book. “Do you learn this stuff in flight school?”

“Nope.” Rainbow shook her head. 

“Yeah… This is, uh, way over my head.”

“Aaaanyway, since we don’t have work to do today, do you want to continue your training?” 

“Forget it, Rainbow.” He looked at the ground and sighed. “I-I don’t think we’ll get anywhere...”

“Oh, come on! You’ve only tried once, and I didn’t even do a good job explaining everything. Don’t let the others discourage you!” 

Rush stayed silent, but it didn’t take him long to make up his mind.

“Fine, let’s go…” he replied in defeat.





The two flew out to where they were practicing the other day.

“So, there’s a bit more to stopping than just spreading your wings out. You also have to shift your weight backwards, and… how do I explain this… you try to flap with your wings like when you take off, but instead of flapping upwards, you flap backwards…?”

“Makes sense… I, uh, I think.”

“So try it! We’ll do what we did yesterday. Just maaaybe try avoiding the tree this time.”

They did the stop-before-the-tree exercise again a few times – with less crashing into trees this time – and gradually shortened the distance by which Rush overshot the tree. He still couldn’t stop before it, but they were making progress at least, even if not a lot of it.





After the training, Rush headed to the library in hopes he can return the book Twilight gave him. When he got to the door, he had to take a moment to calm himself, and collect his thoughts. Eventually he mustered the courage to knock, and Spike opened.

“Hey Rush!”

He froze up a bit as he was expecting Twilight.

“Oh, uh, h-hello Spike.”

“Are… you okay?” It wasn’t hard to notice Rush sweating bullets.

“Yeah, I’m-I’m fine. I, uh, was going to, uh, give this back to, uh, Twilight, ” he explained with a forced smile. 

He showed Spike the book, who turned around to call for her.

“Twilight! Rush wants to see you!”

“I’m coming!”

She soon appeared at the door.

“Hello, Rush! Oh, did you like the book?”

“I… didn’t, uh, understand much of it, ” he said while keeping the awkward smile.

“Oh well. Thanks for bringing it back, though I don’t think I’ll be needing it.” She took the book from Rush with her magic.

“Who-who knows?... Maybe you’ll sprout wings one day…?” 

Rush quipped, causing Twilight to chuckle.

“That sounds ridiculous!” She added with a smug expression.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments.

“Well, I-... better be going, uh, home now.”

“I have some stuff I need to study too. Bye!”

“Bye, Rush!”

“See ya, guys!”

As the door closed in front of him, Rush let out a sigh and held a hoof to his chest, before turning around and flying home.





The next day when Rush arrived at the weather ponies’ meeting spot before work, he was approached by the pegasi who bullied him previously. He felt his chest grow heavy again as they got near, but he was pleasantly surprised by what they had to say.

“Hey, uhhh, sorry about yesterday…”

“We really didn’t know you grew up like that…”

“We thought you failed flight school or something…”

Rush and the two other pegasi deadpanned at the fourth one, who couldn’t keep himself from awkwardly smiling back.

“We’re sorry…” the three finished in unison.

“It’s… it’s fine… just don’t do it again, ” Rush responded.

“No way, my wings are so sore from yesterday.”

“Me too.”

“Me three.”

“Glad you learned your lesson, ” Rainbow chimed in. “Now, the crops need a few days of rain so they can grow.”

“OH, COME ON!” 

The ex-bullies shouted, not being thrilled by having to fill every inch of the sky with clouds multiple days in a row with sore wings, but they had no other choice.





The next time Rush and Rainbow had some spare time (and energy) to train again, they decided to try something new.

“To turn sharper, you have to shift your weight towards the direction you’re turning, flap less with your wing towards the turn, and stronger with the other wing. Also, you might want to slow down a bit.”

“Uh… how exactly do I, uh, do that? Sounds like a lot of... complicated… wingwork…”

“It’s not that bad when you get used to it. Try to circle those clouds.” She pointed at some clouds in the sky creating a triangle.

He went around the course slowly. He feared that going much faster would cause him to spin out again, so he refrained. This however didn’t do much to improve either his stopping or turning.

“You should try going faster!” Rainbow instructed him after flying up as well.

He tried his best, but the faster he flew, the more he overshot the turns, which caused him to slow down again.

“Yeah, this isn’t working, ” Rainbow commented.

“...Any other, uh, ideas?” Rush stopped to ask.

“Not really… maybe you should practice stopping more for now. I don’t think I need to be here for that, so I’ll go home if you don’t mind, but you know where to find me if you do need help.”

“It’s, uh, it’s fine… I can figure it out…. I think.”

The two pegasi parted. Rush spent some more time trying to improve his air breaking on his own, but he still couldn’t have stopped himself if he flew towards the ground. Luckily, Rainbow continued helping him out every once in a while, and their weekly training sessions did help both Rush’s flying and confidence, mostly the latter though. That being said, even Rainbow admitted he had a lot of potential. Maybe one day he could become the second best flier in Ponyville. 





The weird birds appeared again. Still unnoticed, they’ve lurked in the background, always watching. Even if somepony did know they were there, they still wouldn't be able to tell how many there are, or why they’re there. All except one…