Butterfly in the Sky, I Can Go Twice As High

[elementofloyalty]

Characters: Rainbow Dash, Ed Elric, and Twilight Sparkle
Location: Twilight's room to start
Rating: PG (Ed is kinda foul-mouthed)
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: Rainbow and Ed have a deal. Ed, if you will forgive the term, is ponying up his part first.



Knock knock knock. There's a Rainbow at Twilight's door.

"Twilight! Hey Twilight! I need your magical expertise!"

The pegasus pony practically radiated delight. She'd been looking forward to this for some time, now, and finally having the chance to put it into motion meant she was just plain thrilled.

Comments

[elementofloyalty]

Rainbow had promised not to laugh, and she wasn't -- not even with delight, as she shot up into the air with him. "It's that EASY, Ed! When did I ever make flying look hard?"

She spun around him, not thinking that he could probably use with fewer distractions than more. "You actually made 'em look pretty cool, Twilight." For butterfly wings. "Was that on purpose or did it just happen?"

[marearcana]

"I think it just... happened. The book I originally got it from didn't go into very much detail about how the spell generates their appearance."

That might be something for her to look into later, if she ever got around to it. She doubted she'd have the need to use this again, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to keep it.

[rewritethis]

From Ed's direction came the sound of the hand clap he'd attempted just a few seconds ago, followed by... no glowing or crackling, but there was a surprised yelp as he reached too far over his shoulder and inadvertently rolled backwards in mid-air.

(Would that have counted as human transmutation if he'd been a bit more coordinated? Maybe that was why they were more difficult to catch than they looked...)

He steadied himself with a couple of slow wingbeats, then immediately wondered how he'd known to do that. Oh, this was stupid. Rarely in his life had he ever wished he was any closer to the ground.

Frustrated, but still a little too dizzy to try again right away, he sighed and let his limbs dangle uselessly beneath him. "Great," he said. "What else didn't it go into detail about? Anything like 'how the hell to get down'?"

[elementofloyalty]

She swooped up to Ed's side, patting his shoulder comfortingly. "They're just like any other limb, Ed, you don't 'think' about it -- you just do it, and they respond. You should have all the instincts built into you from the spell. Here, follow me!"

Down Dash dropped to the floor again.

[rewritethis]

Well, clearly someone's never had to deal with automail rehabilitation.

Gingerly, trying not to overthink it (both because of Rainbow's suggestion and because seriously, how the hell had he been talked into this?), he lowered himself until his boots were planted on solid ground again. It didn't reassure him nearly as much as he'd been hoping - sure, his feet were in the grass instead of hanging just above it, but that jarring feeling of weightlessness hadn't changed in the slightest.

He resolved to put a brave face on it, though. Or rather a scowl, which for him amounted to almost the same thing.

"Okay. Point taken. You can make a person fly. Do we really have to go through all of the rest?"

[elementofloyalty]

"Yes. Come on."

She grabbed him by the shoulders to drag him off -- and up. "Come ON, don't be a stick-on-the-ground! You haven't lived till you've soared a thousand feet above the ground, the wind in your mane, watching the clouds flash past!"

She paused her half-berating, half-encouragement to grin over his shoulder at Twilight. Rainbow knew she was going to pay for this when Ed's turn to cash in on the deal came around, but right now she was all single-minded enthusiasm. "Thanks again, Twilight! I'll let you know how he likes it!"

[rewritethis]

"I don't have a -"

He cut off suddenly as she whisked him into the air. It took him a moment to regain his composure, but once he had, he wasted no time in trying to push her legs away. "Dash, get off!"

Not that it was a powerful shove, especially by his normal standards. Part of him still wasn't convinced that he wouldn't just plummet the moment she let go.