Chapter 10

Flying Lessons with Coach Spitfire

Unlike most of the classes Twilight took so far, her next class involved flying on broomsticks. The first years stood outside the castle's courtyard with wooden brooms at their sides. Marching towards the students was a yellow orange-maned pegasus wearing a pair of shades and a whistle around her neck. "Alright, listen up newbies!" the pegasus commanded in a strict voice.

"I am your instructor, Coach Spitfire. It's my job to train you to be the best flyers you can be!" she explained. "In a few years tops all of you will be experienced enough to compete in buckball, the greatest flying game in Canterlot. However, buckball is only for the top flyers so we will start with the basics." she announced.

"On my whistle, I want all of you to raise your hooves over your broomsticks and say, 'up.'" Spitfire grabbed her whistle and blew it causing a high-pitched noise to sound across the courtyard. "Up!" everypony chanted at once. Twilight's broom levitated upwards allowing her to grab it. Unlike Twilight, the other students could barely move their brooms at all.

After a few minutes, everypony managed to lift the brooms off the ground. "Not bad for the first time." Spitfire complemented. "But most of you newbies need to work on calling forth your brooms. Now, mount your brooms so we can begin the lesson." The students grabbed on to their brooms with their fore legs while keeping their hind legs firmly on the ground. "For this first lesson, we will keep it simple and fly our brooms around the courtyard 3 times." Spitfire instructed.

"Now, kick your hoofs off the ground in 3,2-" Before Spitfire could blow her whistle, Fluttershy started to feel as light as a feather and her broom ascended the ground on it's own. "Fluttershy, we haven't started yet." Spitfire told the frightened pegasus. "I can't control my broom, ma'am." Fluttershy explained feeling nervous. Before anypony can react, the broom took off like a rocket flying further from the ground. "Somepony, please help me!" Fluttershy screamed.

Spitfire swiftly took out her wand in an attempt to stop Fluttershy's broomstick, but it was to fast for her to get a proper aim. Fluttershy soon lost her grip on her broomstick causing her to fall in the grass below her. Everypony rushed towards her to make sure she was alright. "Out of the way! Make some room!" Spitfire said passing through the crowd surrounding Fluttershy. She then knelt beside Fluttershy and began examining her. "It's only a broken wing." she sighed. "I'm going to take Miss Fluttershy to the hospital. Nopony will fly any brooms until I get back. Otherwise, the one who is caught flying will be expelled faster than they can say buckball!"

Right after Spitfire left, Twilight noticed Trixie picking up a shiny object from the ground. She quickly realized that the object was, Fluttershy's memory crystal. "I can't wait to see the look on Fluttershy's face when she realizes that her memory crystal is gone." Trixie snickered to Snips and Snails. "I'll bet somepony will pay a good amount of bits for this fancy object." Twilight approached the stuck-up unicorn who was thinking about who to sell the memory crystal to. "Give it back, Trixie!" Twilight demanded. Trixie merely smirked at Twilight. "Actually, I think I will keep it." Trixie stated.

She quickly grabbed her broom, flying out of Twilight's reach. "What's the matter, Twilight? Can't keep up with the great and powerful Trixie?" the unicorn taunted. Twilight grabbed her broom as well, only to be stopped by Rarity. "Twilight you mustn't!" she begged. "You heard what Coach Spitfire said." This made Twilight stop for a second. She was either going to risk being expelled or let Trixie get away with the crystal. She made up her mind and flew after Trixie. "Hand it over Trixie! It belongs to Fluttershy!" Twilight demanded.

"If you want it so badly then go catch it." Trixie threw the crystal across the castle grounds. Twilight immediately forgot about Trixie and focused on flying after the crystal. She eventually managed to catch the crystal before it could shatter on the ground. Twilight gave a sigh of relief and flew back to the courtyard, but not before being spotted by Professor Cadance. Everypony cheered for Twilight as she slowly reached the ground.

However, her victory was short-lived when Cadance approached her. "Twilight Sparkle! Come with me!" she ordered strictly. There was no way out of it. Twilight decided to accept her fate and follow Cadance. "But, professor!" Rarity stepped in. "Trixie just tried to-" "I don't want to hear it!" Cadance interrupted. "Follow me, Miss Sparkle!"

Things couldn't get any worse for Twilight. She went through the trouble of getting back Fluttershy's memory crystal and now she is going to be expelled for sure. She knew that Cadance will send her back to the Riches and she will never use magic again. The unicorn trembled the whole way as Cadance came to a door at the end of the hall and opened it. "Professor Discord, may I borrow Soarin for a moment" Cadance asked the draconequus. "Why of course!" Discord answered before continuing his lesson.

Soon a light-blue, spike maned pegasus stepped out of the class. "I'm sorry to bother you, Soarin, but I want you to know that I think we have found our new seeker!" Cadance announced. "No way!" the pegasus gasped from excitement. "Who is it?" "I would like you to meet Twilight Sparkle." the alicorn introduced. "I just saw her catch a memory crystal in the air like it was nothing. So I was hoping you wouldn't mind showing her the basics of buckball." "No problem! Come with me, Twilight! I will teach you everything there is to know about buckball!"

Outside the castle, Soarin lead Twilight to an open field carrying a trunk to the center. "You are so lucky, Twilight!" Soarin commented. "You are going to be the only first year to ever play buckball." "Thanks, Soarin, but I don't know what I should expect from this game." Twilight explained. "Which is why I'm going to help you." said the pegasus He opened the trunk revealing balls of different colors and sizes along with a couple of clubs.

The first ball Soarin grabbed was a red one. "As you can already guess, this is a buckball. We start out the game by bucking this ball to the other players for them to catch and then we focus on bucking it into the other team's goal." Soarin explained. "So, what is this ball for?" the unicorn asked pointing to a black ball that was fiercely struggling against it's chains. "I think it would be easier to explain if I showed you, but you might want to take a club just in case." Soarin warned.

After both ponies grabbed their clubs, Soarin carefully unlocked the chain. The ball rushed out of the trunk and started flying in every single direction. It looked like a cannonball with a mind of it's own. Angry at being locked up for so long, the black ball charged at the two ponies. Twilight started to brace herself for the worst. Soarin, however remained calm. He took his club and smacked the black ball high in the sky. "What was that thing?" Twilight asked getting over her shock. "That nasty little thing is called an anti-buck ball." Soarin answered.

"It's the beater's job to knock anti-buck balls away from our teammates. The only thing the seeker should focus on is this." Soarin took out a small golden orb with wings. "This is the golden crystal orb. It is worth 250 points, so if you catch this we win the game."

The crystal orb extended it's wings, flying through the field like the anti-buck ball only a lot quicker. The two ponies watched the crystal orb fly into the distance only to notice that the anti-buck ball was coming back madder than ever. This time, Twilight swung her club at the anti-buck ball, knocking it through the cross sticks of a statue. "Not bad, Twilight." Soarin complemented. "You would make a good beater."