Chapter 3: Starting Slow.
“All right, everypony, Cloud Kicker and Raindrops are with me today, the rest of you do the usual routine,” Rainbow Dash announced. “Meet back here at eleven.”

As the Weather Patrol captain saw the rest of her squad off, she turned and flew towards the west end of town, with Raindrops on her left and Cloud Kicker on her right. Raindrops flew closer, curious. “What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow gave her colleague a pensive look. A yellow pegasus with greenish blue mane -- Tiffany blue, some said, but Rainbow never got into colour names – Raindrops was a competent flyer but not a strong one. Though she had decent speed, she lacked confidence and that affected her ability to use pegasus magic. Despite getting into the Wonderbolts Academy, she’d never really shaken her habit of always assuming the worst.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just splitting up the work differently,” Rainbow Dash explained as they reached the skies over Froggy Bottom Bog. “There’s a downpour scheduled for today so the swamp doesn’t get too much rot piled up.”

Cloud Kicker frowned. “And you needed our help to get all those nimbus clouds into position?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head matter-of-factly. “No. But ever since you had that accident and hurt your back, you’ve only been doing the lighter clouds. And I saw Raindrops at the Academy trying to clear heavy clouds. You had even more trouble than the rest of the cadets.”

“So you brought us here for training, then?” The lavender mare brushed away a bit of her blonde mane -- ‘jasmine with a lemon chiffon’, Rarity would insist – out of her eyes.

“I brought you here for a little practice. Both of you need to work on getting the thicker clouds to move. You’re both C-level weather ponies, and you’re good enough to be B-level, at least. I just want you to build some core strength for now, and in a couple of weeks you can decide if you wanna try for the promotion or not.”

Raindrops’s eyes widened. “You think we’re up for promotion? Really?”

“Sure, if you can get your skills up before the test, and if you want to take it. I’m not gonna make you, but it’d help the Patrol. In the meantime, I’m going to go get some of the cirrus clouds from a few miles south, you two start pushing the nimbus clouds closer, and we’ll start the downpour once we’ve got a pile,” Rainbow Dash explained, before taking off. “Oh, and don’t push any clouds on your own. Work as a pair.”

“Got it.” The mares saluted their captain. Rainbow Dash turned and rushed off with a burst of speed.

Turning to the task at hand, Cloud Kicker and Raindrops pushed against the first nimbus. After some prodding, they both threw their full weights into it and flapped their wings harder to get the thing moving. With their arms extended, they barely got it to budge.

Raindrops grunted. “This one’s really thick. What is Rainbow Dash thinking?”

Cloud Kicker grunted in kind, her face turning red at the exertion. “I guess she just wants us to be better at our jobs. Maybe the mayor asked her: we do have mostly C-levels on our squad, and you need to be B-level to help the fire brigade. Remember that one time me and her went to the Wonderbolts Academy? The whole squad was exhausted after just one week.”

“I get that, but... “ Raindrops grunted and gave the cloud another burst of strength to get it into position. “She sounded like she doesn’t think we’re up to the job.”

Cloud Kicker panted when they were done, then looked up. “There’s about twenty more of those things we have to move. I’d say she’s right in thinking that.”

Raindrops wiped her brow and bared her teeth in defiance. “Come on, we just need some practice. Although I will admit, this is a lot harder than she makes it look. This is way different from Wonderbolt training.”

Grunting and flapping their wings to no avail, they both gasped when the nimbus suddenly shot forward. Rainbow Dash was flying slightly above them, looking down. “See what I mean? Suppose you had to get one of these big ones to put out a fire. You’d be in trouble.”

“Look, we’re trying our best here, Rainbow,” Raindrops protested.

Rainbow Dash didn’t flinch, or even get angry at the protest. “Exactly. And if you can’t do it by now, that’s my fault. The Weather Patrol is supposed to be prepared for emergencies. We’ve only got C-levels and me right now, and that’s not safe. So save your breath and let’s get to the next one.”

Raindrops and Cloud Kicker sighed, but obeyed.

“Oh, and another thing. On the heavy rainclouds you need to push with your shoulders, don’t stretch your forelegs into it. You go slow at first, then when it starts to give you flap harder. If you push hard right away, it’ll push back and you might wind up getting zapped if it’s still got some thunder in it.” With that, Rainbow Dash demonstrated the proper form and gave the cloud one firm shove, sending it right to the airborne pile with in one big swoop. “Just like that. Any questions?”

Twilight yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Spike?”

Spike saluted her as he bolted in. “What do you need, Twilight?”

She didn’t turn to look at him, she just kept her eyes covered, relieving some pressure. “Did you rearrange the history section like I asked?”

“Yes, ma’am. All magical history and pony history is now separated and easy to find.”

“And did you find that missing tome on the history of apple farming?”

“Yup. It was on the bottom of that pile in the basement.” Spike looked away and started fidgeting his with his index fingers.

The mental picture formed, the mental movie started playing, and the ending to it mingled with the dragon’s tone of voice to tell her the obvious. “Oh. I take it the basement needs cleaning up, then?”

“Yeah, it does.” Spike sighed, resigned to his fate.

Twilight shrugged. “All right, I’ll get to that tomorrow.”

The little dragon raised his eyebrows at that. ”You’re not gonna make me clean it up?”

“No, Spike, those books are mine. I put them there, it’s my mess. Besides, I’m thinking of using the basement more as a lab. I’ll be using some heavy machinery and some unstable magics that might be dangerous for you. So from now on the basement is off limits, not your job anymore. The library, however, still is. Would you mind taking care of it for me again while I’m gone?” Twilight finally opened her eyes and got up. She collected her saddlebag with some quills and paper and led the way down.

“No problem, sure,” the dragon replied with a shrug, happy with the responsibility.

“Thanks. If anyone asks, I’m doing some new research. I should be back before dinner.”

“Umm, Twilight?” Spike asked as they went down the stairs.

“Yes?”

He gathered up his courage to look her in the eye. “Is something wrong? You look like your eyes hurt from just two hours of reading. But I’ve seen you do whole days, easy.”

Twilight stopped. “You noticed that, huh?”

Spike nodded. “It’s not the first time, either. Something’s changed about you, like when Discord turned everypony grey, only the other way around. There’s something different about your colour.”

As she headed towards her front door, Twilight weighed his words in her mind. “I guess that dragon sight picks up subtler stuff than any pony can. But you don’t have to worry about me, Spike, honest. Cadence said I might have some trouble reading at first after... you know...“ Twilight wriggled her wings to illustrate her point. “It should get back to normal in a week or two.”

Spike winced, then shrugged it off. “Well, if you say so.”

Twilight smiled at the little dragon, before exiting. The sun felt warmer than she remembered, the air in her lungs more potent. Being an alicorn now, she could feel the influence of pegasus magic and Earth pony magic coursing through her body.

She still hadn’t quite decided how she felt about that.

With a few cursory flaps of her wings and a tiny sliver of pegasus magic, she took off and flew towards Rainbow Dash’s house. Not that she wanted to avoid most of the ponies in Ponyville, she just needed the practice. She only took minor altitude for safety’s sake, to have a cloud to rest on in case her wings cramped up again. It wasn’t to avoid the other pegasus ponies, too.

Though if she was totally fair with herself, she had to admit that avoiding other ponies was exactly what she wanted to do. Even if she didn’t wear her crown all the time – or at all, for that matter, the thing had a nasty habit of falling down when she tried to read – she had the energy and presence of a princess now. There were things she really didn’t want to do right now, questions she really didn’t want to answer.

Looking down, she realised one such question would have found her if she’d stayed in the library. She spotted an orange dot down below flanked by a yellow and a white one. Even up so high, Twilight could feel the anticipation of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Can you help us get our cutie marks, princess Twilight?

The very thought of those girls calling her ‘princess ‘made her shudder. It just felt wrong, right to her core. Twilight picked up some speed to feel the wind in her mane. Though that made her feel slightly better, it didn’t block out the other question she really didn’t want to hear.

Could you teach me how to fly, please?

Truth be told, Twilight wasn’t entirely sure how she was flying now. It didn’t feel like she was putting that much effort in it, but she wasn’t going that fast, either. It just happened or it didn’t. She certainly had no idea how to teach Scootaloo to fly.

She shook those thoughts away as she neared her destination. Rainbow Dash’s cloud home hung right above an open field, which allowed Rainbow a lot of airspace to practise her moves in as well as a very impressive view in the morning. It looked lonely, though, now that Twilight could see it on her own instead of visiting with the rest of her friends.

Twilight took a deep breath to steady her nerves, then landed. She rang the bell.

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash greeted when she opened the door, “got everything you need?”

Realising she was getting excited over nothing, Twilight nodded calmly and trotted in at her friend’s gesture. “Yes. I’ve done some extensive research and I know where to start, as well as some basic exercises you can try on your own.”

“Okay, sounds good. So I just lie on the couch?” Rainbow already took the position with her forelegs resting stretched out next to her sides.

“Yeah, the couch will do fine. I just need to know a few basic things before we start.” Twilight got out a piece of paper and quill in her magical grasp.

“Okay. What do you need to know?”

Twilight read the first item on her list. “Have you ever had any training in just relaxing? Any meditation, breathing practice, things like that?”

“Yeah, a little.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Okay, a lot. I used to be pretty hyperactive when I was little. I had trouble concentrating, so my mom and dad taught me to count my breath to slow down.”

Twilight marked that first point off. “And how quickly do you breathe normally?”

Rainbow sighed. “Seven a minute, in and out. But I know I’m supposed to cut it in half. I’ve been trying, but… nothing works. I think it used to be slower, though.”

“Okay, so your breathing sped up at some point in the past, and you grew out of the concentration problem, right?” Twilight already knew the answer to that one since she’d seen Rainbow Dash’s rendition of Commander Hurricane, but it was on her checklist so she asked anyway.

“Mostly. I don’t have any trouble getting pictures in my head, if that’s what you mean.”

Twilight took some more notes and steadied herself. “That’s what I thought. Umm, you don’t have to answer this question if you don’t want to, but it’ll help if I know. And I won’t tell anyone, no matter what you answer.”

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and braced herself. ”All right, let’s hear it.”

“About the problem you said you have with intimacy, can you remember when it started?”

The pegasus blinked. Not the question I was expecting. “No, I don’t know when it started. I know when I started noticing it, though; back in high school. I was dating Thunderlane, and it was fun. We flew together, we had some laughs, but…”

Twilight kept taking notes, but stopped when her friend did.

“I don’t know why, but something always felt off when we tried to kiss. It didn’t matter if I started or he did, it never felt right. And I really liked Thunderlane, a lot, and I know he liked me, too. But I never felt right. Never even had the nerve to tell him what was wrong with me.”

“Was it just kissing that felt off or any affection? Did you get that same feeling when you rubbed wings together or held hooves? Assuming you ever did.” Twilight hoped the presumption wasn’t a step too far on her part.

“We did.” Rainbow’s face lit up with a smile. “And yeah, it was everything. I tried, though. Like I said, I don’t know what went wrong. I didn’t think he looked bad or smelled bad, and he was the sweetest guy in school. It was something wrong with me, definitely. But we’re still friends, we don’t hate each other. I hardly ever even see him nowadays.”

Twilight put away the notes. “Okay, that’s all I need to know. So, before we start, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to start talking you into a trance, and you need to follow my instructions for it to work. At first it’ll just make you relax, and help you concentrate. Then, when you’re deep enough, I’ll talk you through some basic images to get you used to the idea of being hypnotised. If I’m right, then you should have quite a knack for it and it’ll be like walking in a dream. But I will make sure you start feeling, smelling and tasting things in the dream as well. That’s pretty standard stuff.”

“And what can I expect from that? Afterwards, I mean? Are there any side effects?”

“It might help you focus on some of your senses, but that’s something you can work on later. Some ponies have been known to get sharper senses out of trance, but it’s hard to predict and not what we’re aiming for at first. You need a good foundation to start off with.”

Rainbow nodded slowly. “Makes sense.”

“But aside from that… I’d like to get started right away with your emotional problem.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath to keep herself calm. “What do you have in mind?”

“I was thinking, since you like the idea of giving up control, that I could put a fantasy in your head, to be played out when you’re alone and there’s no harm. I wouldn’t make you think of anypony in particular, of course, but just put in some actions and gestures for you to think about. And I’d make you forget what they are, exactly,” Twilight hastily added.

Rainbow Dash tensed up. “What? Why?”

The alicorn felt her wings and arms rise up in a defensive posture. “It’s not to fool you or prank you, if that’s what you’re thinking. But right now the thing that arouses you physically is something that makes you feel bad. You like the idea of giving up control because without control, you can’t make mistakes or get embarrassed. But if you take that idea and make it so it’s something you feel good about, then you can use that as a stepping stone. By making you forget, you have something good that you don’t have absolute control over. That’ll help associate the pleasure of the loss of control with the pleasure of a normal fantasy.”

Rainbow Dash bobbed her head left and right as she processed that information. “What about you, then? Don’t you need help, too?”

Twilight backed away at the sudden question. “Me? Oh, I-I’m not really that much into romance or anything physical. I just… I like being right. I like being the one with the answers. And now that I’m a princess, I’m kind of supposed to have all the answers, that’s all. It’s just weird for me to know a friend has a problem and I can’t help them, I guess, now that I’m… you know, like this.” She pointed to her wings to illustrate. “I’m not going to try and force you to do anything you don’t want to do, I won’t actually make you my pet or anything silly like that. Unless that was what you wanted?” She mentally slapped herself for even suggesting it.

“No.” Rainbow Dash thought it over. “Not really. Maybe. Sort of. I don’t know. I mean, I’d let you have a little control, but --”

“But If I started referring to you as ‘pet’ while I put you under, would that make it easier or harder for you to relax?”

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and sighed. “Easier. A lot easier, I think.”

“Then I think we’re ready to begin,” Twilight announced. “Trust me, you’re gonna enjoy this.”

Author's Notes:

Hit the Publish button a little quick on this one, so there may be more errors or even more missing than in other chapters.

This chapter's kinda weird, in that it's meant to portray Rainbow Dash taking charge at her job, as the previous chapter indicated she should. The basic feel of that is that she's becoming aware of what's causing her to feel bad, and doing something about it.

Twilight's also a weird factor in this story. Even knowing where she'll be four chapters from now, it's really hard to pin her down and write her properly. To add further complications to the equation, the next few chapters focus more on Twilight, because that's where the interesting stuff starts to happen. I want to still keep it Rainbow's story, though, so once the initial focus shifts to Twilight it will shift back to Rainbow, rest assured. Twilight's reading problem is a side note, subtle reference to Whimper's condition, ditto on the counting breath thing.

Spike's sight is a bit of headcanon I'll be using in the Flight Camp sequel as well: the idea is that dragon eyes can pick up the shifts in greyscale that happened during the discording thing, while normal ponies cannot. 'Green isn't Your Colour', as well as 'Winter Wrap-Up', strongly imply ponies cannot see the magic glow that the viewers can, and in Winter Wrap-Up it looks like Spike can see Twilight casting the spell whereas Applejack cannot.

I will also be addressing Spike's Spike syndrome, where his personality/maturity shifts depending on the episode, in a later chapter.