Chapter 19 Flight School

Orange Juice

I stood and shook myself off. The Ponytrons were close, but they halted when I faced them. I went into a defensive stance, spreading my wings to their full span. They were both long enough to cover the entrance to the Tree of Harmony chamber. "Leave my friends alone!" I stuck my tongue out at the first Ponytron that attempted to pass. It stopped, looking confused, and I saw some of my turquoise magic drift off my horn and touch the horn on its head. It narrowed its eyes and creased its brows in confusion.

"I do not compute your request," it said to me.

An evil laugh became apparent, coming from behind the group of bots. "It won't be that simple, silly little ponies," came the first of the three ashlings. Where the other two had gone, it was unclear. "You see, I have my own Malice, and these bots bow to me."

"I bow to the Princess of Friendship." said the unicorn Ponytron. The other Ponytrons had glowing red eyes and were missing their horns. The ashling had made them all earth ponies!

"I am the Prince of Friendship!" I zapped its horn with my turquoise mana.

"Prince…alicorn magic detected, going into defense mode." it's mechanized voice stated as it slowly turned around and faced its former companions.

"What?! How can you do that!" the ashling's eyes widened when he saw my fluttering wings. I was slowly stretching and folding them, looking back at their humongous size.

"I don't wanna fight you," I said, turning my attention back on the ashling. "But me and my friends will if we must."

"Then you must, because Circle of Ash and Ritual of the Moon have both requested I kill you all." cackled the ashling. "Seeing as you've turned this bot against me," he lifted a hoof, where a stone was visible, "I'll just disable them all!" a white lightning bolt, or rather a bright flash of light, shot from the black crystal blew up all the bots. "And then I'll open a summoning gate," giggled the ashling. He lowered his hood, showing that he was a green pony who looked much like me.

"G-Greenie?" I folded my wings…"UP-1?" I backed away.

Ravager Blitzfire

"OJ! Get away from him!" I yelled, rushing forward when OJ finally lowered his wings. I saw before me the wreckage of three Ponytrons and a crying OJ. "What did you do to him!" I yelled at the green unicorn.

"I did nothing but reveal who I am. I also don't take kindly to my old designation. Circle of Ash helped me see the light. My name is Lucky Charm."

"That doesn't look like light to me," said Pumpkin, who had rushed forward to put a hoof around OJ's shoulders. Wonder was on OJ's other side.

"You're right, it is darkness, rather, isn't it?" Greenie laughed loudly and a small summoning gate opened. Darkness seeped from it, reaching for one of the fallen Earth Ponytrons.

I lifted my gun, "Don't even think about summoning a darkling or I'll kill you where you stand."

"No!" OJ jumped in front of him, turning to face the group and spreading his wings wide. "Don't kill him, he's my bestest friend!"

"He isn't your friend OJ, he has a black rock and is planning on killing us with it." Buck stepped forward. "Please, lower your wings before he summons a darkling.

OJ did as he was told and I trained my pistol on UP-1. "What's it gonna be."

"Please, please don't kill him," OJ had tears streaming freely down his face now. Something about this seemed exceedingly familiar to me. I looked at the green unicorn and pictured him as having black fur instead. Then I realized that to OJ he must be a friend because to me, if Greenie had green eyes and black fur instead of green fur and black eyes, he'd look exactly like Nexus Spark.

"Wait! There's something off about him," I lowered my pistol.

"What is wrong with you ponies!" Lucky Charm was looking between all of us, incredulous, "Here I am with an evil black stone, about to kill the lot of you, and you think you can just get lucky and sway me to your side? I'm so over OJ." he spat. But something in his eyes twinkled with recognition as he looked upon the newly born alicorn.

"He is a Prince now, doesn't that mean we gotta listen to him?" Pumpkin said.

"That would in fact be the case where I come from," said Lady Ashe. "Usually you marry into the title there though. Not magically sprout wings."

"You married into being Lady Ashe?" Wonder gave her a funny look.

"I was one of the lucky few who married the love of my life. To bad he is now dead, rest his soul."

"What are you all talking about? It is time to finish this!" Lucky held up the stone and the darkness grew again.

"It's the stone! It's making him be a bad pony!" OJ pointed at the stone and cried.

Ashe Erza sprang into action, "Then I shall spur the moment," she summoned a sword, and swiped the gemstone from Lucky's hoof. The magic instantly fell away and the light in the room grew again.

"Wh-what?" stuttered Lucky, backing away. "You…you dare challenge me? The great…Lucky…wait…" he looked at OJ, blinking. "UP-26? What are you doing here? What's going on?" then he fainted.

Ashe had a hoofkercheif, which she used to retrieve the black gemstone from where it had fallen on the floor. "Time to wrap this up finely, the magic radiating off of it seems to have come from the ceremonial sword from my homeland used last year to perform the Circle ritual. Nethecite is a dangerous stone in the wrong hooves." she pocketed the shard.

"I…think I wanna go back to Double Diamond City now…"

Lady Ashe nodded, "I can easily seal this chamber and create a hidden portal between here and there. The magic stemming from you has bolstered me as well. Like Celestia said, I'm a princess too." she turned around and her horn began to glow a furious red, "I call upon my ancestors to seal this chamber in your glorious light. Do me the honor of casting this gate. Teleport!" the entire room was awashed in a powerful glow and it appeared to be stemming from the stone in Erza's pocket. She looked down at herself curoiusly and pulled it out. It was glowing a furious white, the darkness draining from it.

Greenie was beginning to come to. "What's happening guys?" he blinked at all of us.

"That magic that once held you captive is changing to Light. The nethicite is now magicite. I can use it as a one way teleportation stone through the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Once we leave this place we cannot come back. Is everypony ready?"

"I was born ready!" Pumpkin hopped into the glowing light portal. It was so bright she became invisible the instant she touched it.

"Think only of Double Diamond's gate! Or you will not appear in Our Town Proper." Erza called into the portal. She waved the rest of us through and we all followed Pumpkin Spice. Greenie was just before Ashe Erza, and Erza was last. The portal sealed, leaving the Tree of Harmony forever.

Orange Juice

When I jumped through the portal, my wings snapped open on accident and I went soaring through the air on the other side, before I crashed into the ground and went rolling to a stop in front of the Guardian. "It looks like you're gonna need flying lessons. That'll be quite the task."

"Actually," said Erza, who had just come through the now sealed gate, "I can put in a call for Felia Heart and Joyride, I'm sure Joy would love to teach OJ how to fly."

"I would speak to DD about using a radio then," said Party Favor, who was just walking up. "Hey all, we noticed gate activity and I was sent to check on it. Glad to see it's just you guys. How went your mission, I see there's a new alicorn in town!"

"Hi! I'm the Prince of Friendship and I have no idea what that means," I bounced up and smiled at Party Favor.

Pumpkin was by my side and she began laughing, "Oh, OJ! You crack me up!" she popped a piece of Niponese candy and began chewing, the pink taffy like substance visible in her mouth getting stuck to her teeth.

"I want one," I whined.

"Here, but next time say please," she passed me an orange flavored Hi-Chew. My favorite! Something about it tasted much better today.

I looked back at my wings and stretched them out a little as I chewed my candy. They were so big, I could block out my peripheral view if I wasn't careful. I wondered if Joyride could help me. He sometimes flew with wings when Heart used her magic on him, but that was only in the field and they normally weren't field ponies. Only within the last year had they begun their training for work outside the Fort. I think Joy really loved it but Heart was a very cautious pony.

"OJ, stop staring at your wings and come here a moment." Ashe Erza was waving at me from the ski lift. I folded my wings and galloped to her.

"What's up?" I smiled, sticking my tongue out and making a silly face.

"Party told me Double Diamond is in a house at the second peak. It used to be a government office, but they've been working to convert the second floor into a living space. It's sorta like an inn." The lift jolted into action, lifting us up, up and away. We gradually climbed to the top of the three mountains, where the explosion of Broncston Commons had caused a cave in and an avalanche on the third peak. It was now completely inaccessible via that destroyed ice bridge. The lift came to a stop on the second peak.

We got off and the Colonel showed me the way to the inn. Ponies all around the street were watching me with wide eyes. "He's an alicorn," whispered one. "I can't believe my eyes," said another. All eyes were on me as Lady Ashe and I entered the inn. A sign above the door read, The Cave Inn. It was funny because it referenced the destroyed Broncston Commons and the fact that part of the building was built into a system of caves on the side of the second mountain.

Upstairs were the rooms. A few had been converted from their original office state into fine looking bedrooms, with fancy beds and everything. "The Inn is coming along nicely," said Ashe as we found Double Diamond in one bedroom.

"Holy mother of alicorns, dude! You've got wings!" Double Diamond was smiling with his whole face as his eyes traveled up and down my body. "Looking good my pone!"

"Th-thanks I guess…I still don't know how to use them. They're big and awkward." I trying flapping them a little but the space in the bedroom was too small.

"That's kinda why we're here," explained Ashe Erza. "We need to use the radio in the lower offices to contact the Fort. We have one pony there that has experience flying and I think he could really teach our little prince here." she beamed down at me. "I'm proud of him by the way, he's come so far in this last year."

"Lady Ashe!" I blushed and covered my face with one wing.

"Well no kidding! Have you seen his cutie mark? It looks different from the last time I saw him. We all looked, and I noticed that my entire flank had been filled in with turquoise fur surrounding the orange fruit cutie mark. The straw had disappeared and there were white dots scattered all throughout the turquoise wave.

"Whoaaaa…" my eyes widened in curiosity as I stared at both my hips. It was spectacular.

"It's quite impressive," said Lady Ashe.

DD led us down to the radio room he had in the main offices of the slowly transforming inn. All around were ponies busy at work restoring the old government building and changing it from its old drab appearance to a cozy place of rest for weary travelers. I loved it! Office buildings were boring! The radio room had a couple ponies inside occupying the stations and tweaking some dials on a large colorful control board. "If we increase this signal and allow arcana burst here, it should allow radio waves through the gate." somepony was muttering.

"Have you figured it out, Phoenix?" DD asked the red unicorn pony at the station.

"Almost there!" said the antsy pony, who was jumping from hoof to hoof as he messed with the dials. "Ah, I got it! Party Favor was right, not a hard spell at all."

"Who's this?" asked Ashe Erza.

"Colonel, OJ, meet Phoenix Flame. He's Party's Apprentice."

"The sorcerer's apprentice, if you will, and please, call me Nix." he held out his hoof and I grabbed it to shake.

I like to shake hard and fast, smiling big as I did so. "Nice to meet you!"

"I like this one, so much spunk!" Nix flipped his purple bangs from his face.

"Spunk?" I don't know what it meant, but I liked the way it sounded. I wiggled in place as I waited for Ashe Erza to shake his hoof.

"Now that the formalities are out of the way, may I ask to use your radio?"

"Of course, now that it's operational, it is open for business." Nix backed away from the receiver and Ashe took over. "Just select who you'd like to contact and the gate should patch you through to them."

"Welcome to Fort Task Room, who am I speaking with?" came a crackly voice from the speakers.

"Ah yes, this is Colonel Ashe Erza, designation code 887. Patch me through to the General if you will."

"Right away ma'am!"

"General speaking," came the voice of the old stallion.

"Good afternoon, sir. I would like to put in a request for Felia Heart and Joyride. I have Orange Juice here who was just dubbed Prince by old alicorn magic. If Joyride can, I'd love to have him come give Orange Juice some flying lessons."

"From what Lily has told me of the ashling and darkling situation, it sounds like you can use all the magic users you can get. We haven't seen any darklings here, thank the sisters." the General said.

"Very good, sir."

"I'll send for Heart and Joy as soon as I get off this call. We'll have the Puppydog learning to fly within the hour. Is he there with you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Son," the General addressed me, "I wanna give you my congratulations. The moment you return home I will be awarding you a medal of honor. Everything you've done for us and for Stable 28 this past year has been more than enough to earn you one. We're all proud of you."

"Oh…th-thank you, sir!" I didn't know what to say.

There came a knock against the doorframe to the radio room. "Is OJ in here?" a mare asked. She had on a nurse's hat. "I just came over from the clinic in the town proper. Somepony named Greenie has asked for OJ."

My heart dropped when his name was mentioned. "Greenie?" I gulped.

Greenie was snuggled in blankets on the hospital bed in the Double Diamond clinic. He looked unwell, his eyes were sunken. "Hey OJ," he coughed and a nurse took a thermometer out of his mouth.

"Hi…" I bit my lip. It had been a long time since I'd seen him, I thought he had died.

"I'm sorry for what I did…" his voice trailed off as he stared downward, looking ashamed.

"You didn't do anything wrong!" I exclaimed. "It wasn't your fault."

"OJ…I have to tell you something. That sunstone you took from me wasn't the only one of its kind. Another pony you know very well has another almost identical stone. A moonstone."

"Somepony I know well?"

There came a shouting from outside, "Extra, extra!" it sounded like Piper, "The Institute strikes again. This time with a new model of synthetic pony called a Magistrate. This advanced Courser technology is arcane science at its worst. Extra, extra! Read all about it!" the window was open and I looked over to it, staring at the clouds in the sky and wondering what it would be like to touch them. I bet it was fun, and I imagined they'd be soft and fluffy. They looked like ice-cream scoops.

"Orange Juice, you have to listen to me. They changed her from what she really was!" Greenie was getting overworked. "She's no longer pink! She's no longer herself! Connect the two pieces and I don't know what will happen! Gah!" Greenie gagged as a nurse stuck him with a needle. "No, no! I have to tell him what I know. OJ, she's going to attack Sanctuary! You have to stop her and help her see the light again or you'll never stop the ashlings from destroying the Institute."

"Calm down sir, you're going to be okay."

Greenie's eyelids started to droop. "Priscilla…she's not what you…think… *yaaaawwwn!*" with that, Greenie's eyes closed and he was fast asleep.

Ravager Blitzfire

"Extra, extra! Read all about it!" Piper was waving a newly printed newspaper around and trying to sell it, but ponies just dodged her in the street. I saw her waving the print around and I walked up to her.

"How much for one?"

"5 caps." she smiled in glee as I passed her the change. She gave me one of the papers. "You're one of my first customers in a long time. Good on ya." she winked.

The paper she had written criminalized the Institute and painted it out to be a horrible monster that only made these so called "Courser Magistrates" because they wanted to take over the world. "Why do you hate the Institute of Friendship so much?" I asked her as I lowered the paper.

"Have you seen the old propaganda Twilight put out during the war? I have! I have memorabilia and posters and even letters sent to Celestia from Twilight herself." Piper took a huge breath and continued talking really fast again. "That 'friendship never changes' crap was a lie they fed the public. What's really going on is that they replaced real ponies with copies, trying to win an unwinnable war by drafting anypony off the street against their will with no say in the matter."

"I…don't think that's what happened. My tomfriend is one of the first generation synthetics and he wasn't used to replace himself."

"That's what they want ya to think!" she snapped, a smirk on her face. "What do you think happened to the real Capper Dapperpaws? Have you ever even asked him? He'll give you some line that he is the real Capper, but you don't really know what happened to his old body, do ya?" when she saw my face fall she beamed with pride. "See, makes sense don't it?"

"It is a creepy twist on it, but I fell in love with this Capper, not the other one, so I don't think there's too much of a problem. Besides, even if the real Capper had lived through whatever may or may not have happened, it's 200 years past the date the synthetic Capper was created. He'd be long dead by now."

"But what about anypony else? The Institute is still around and I heard they've just created a super breed of synths. You gotta wonder why."

"Everypony in the wasteland is crazy in their own way. I try not to think too much about it," I told her.

Just then the gate flared up a bright blue and two ponies stepped through. A blue earth pony with a swept over dark blue mane wearing a huge green knapsack looked around at the town with curious brown eyes; and a mint green unicorn mare with wide scarlet eyes and an umbrae purple mane wearing a flowing pink dress that had small wing attachments adorning it. I assumed these were Joyride and Felia Heart. Orange Juice was just emerging from the clinic.

"Oh colt, oh colt! I can't wait to fly." he galloped toward the two ponies. There was a short conversation and instructions on safety.

Then I saw Felia work her magic. A pink mist filled the area and Felia leapt into the air with her friend Joyride following her. "I call on the strength of our evergreen bond, commence link!" the two touched hooves and bounced away from each other, white light bursting from the contact.

"Exceeded form!" Joy sprouted white wings, looking angelic, and the white light turned to violet-pink magic from Felia. She was surrounded by a huge orb of it and she floated in the air with her eyes closed.

"Go now, Joy, and teach Orange Juice the ways of the sky."

"Aye, this is the way!" he chuckled as he swooped down and picked up Orange Juice. Grayish white magic swelled around Orange Juice and Joyride brought the colt high into the air. "You're gonna wanna snap your wings open and catch yourself…" his voice trailed away as he got too high for me to hear him.

My heart nearly leapt from my chest when I saw what Joyride was planning. He dropped OJ from the sky and OJ began to yell. Joy shouted something and Orange snapped his wings open. He swooped forward and he screamed, but it sounded joyful this time. "Looks like he's having fun." Capper was behind me.

I jumped, "You scared me!" I punched him playfully and he gave me a kiss.

"Buck wants to see you." Capper told me when we pulled apart.

"Oh, I see. Well, lead the way then mister. But you owe me a makeout session for interrupting it like that." I stuck my tongue out and followed Capper to the ski-lift. I wondered what was so urgent Buck wanted to see me.

(Footnote: So, remember the pony from Rebel Heart that OJ made friends with while still UP-25 in the Stable? That's Greenie! UP-1! Beside that, I am totally excited to bring Joyride and Felia Heart back. They will definitely prove helpful in teaching Orange Juice how to fly. How do you feel about Piper? I used her to push the story forward, because the main goal is the Institute, in both Fallout 4 and this story. Anyway, time to get back into the story...Love ya guys!)

Brohoof! /)