A/N: Hmm, now that I think of it, the T rating might stick, and the reason why is I think the whole girl/girl or in this case mare/mare is more for adults, even if there isn't anything really all bad going on, just the mare/mare would be enough to rate it T. Ok readers, I'm asking your opinions, do you agree that mare/mare is reason enough to put it as T rated? Also, sorry for the names, I know... they suck but I can't think of anything good T_T oh yeah, Wishful Comet is also a pony I created, hehe, I almost forgot about her too T_T so yay, I get to introduce her ^^
Chapter 24: Flight Camp
The morning of the day Lucky goes to flight camp, Lucky woke up extremely early. Her family and friends all stayed at Granny Smith's place last night. Family: Big Mac, Cheerilee, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie. Friends: Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Lyra, Bonbon, and Derpy. Even her coworkers will be coming before she leaves. It was 5 in the morning when she became aware of her surroundings, but 5:30 before she got fully awake.
Everypony was not happy when she woke them up. "Lucky... why so early? It's barely daylight.", Rainbow said. "Sorry Rainbow-mama. I just was too excited about going to camp. I dunno why I woke up when I did, but I did." They were all outside sleeping, almost like a camp out. Lucky will be leaving at 8. "Well, I guess it's somethin' we can't help. Every filly or colt would wake up this early if there was somethin' excitin' goin' on that day. I do the same thing, well did.", Apple Bloom said. "Apple Bloom's right. Any foal Lucky's age would do the same thing.", Cheerilee said.
The others all understood. So up until 7, which was breakfast, the others all tried to become fully awake, they all talked to each other. Mostly to Rainbow and Fluttershy asking what camp was like when they were little that way Scootaloo and Lucky would get a feeling of what it might be like when they're there. When they're finished with their story, Lucky and Scooter were even more excited. Then it was breakfast time. They all had oats and milk with orange juice.
"Aw man, I can't wait to go to camp, I actually can fly all the way there. You'll be coming with me though, right Rainbow-mama and Mama Applejack?" They both nodded. Applejack will be riding on Rainbow's back. So, when it came time, the workers that Lucky works with at the Town Hall were there and wished her good luck in flight camp, and Lucky got a group hug from the ponies who weren't going with her to the camp. "Thanks everypony. I'll be back in a month, and I'll totally catch up in the paperwork I missed. I'll miss you all and I'll write to you."
Everypony smiled at that and waved as she took off with Scootaloo, Rainbow, and as said earlier, Applejack on Rainbow's back. As they flew up to Cloudsdale, they saw Rainbow's old cloud home. "I wish we could visit there. I would like to see what it looks like now.", Lucky said. Rainbow agreed with her, she also would like to see what it looks like now. They went past though and reached Cloudsdale. "So, where's the camp?", Applejack asked. "It's not too far, we kinda have to go to another cloud though.", Scootaloo said.
So they walked to the edge of this portion of Cloudsdale and then flew to another big cloud, and it definitely looked like a camp. When they landed, Rainbow saw her old camp leader and grinned. "Well, if it isn't Rainbow Dash. How are ya kiddo?" Rainbow high hooved her leader, "Long time no see. I'm good. I'm just bringing my little filly to camp. She's 8 years old and when she was 5, she told me she wanted to come here like I did when I was her age that she is now." The camp leader looked at the blue filly that Rainbow pointed to and said, "That's your filly? Princess Lucky Fire is your filly?"
Rainbow chuckled. "Yep, she's Applejack's filly too. Applejack and I are marefriends, and we adopted Lucky. I hope you don't judge us and hopefully you'll still take in Lucky Fire." The camp leader just smiled, "Oh, don't worry Rainbow, I had a feeling you might like other mares, the way you always acted in flight camp. I don't really mind. I'll be happy to take Lucky Fire in my group. Well, come on over here Lucky, let's see what you got in flight so far. I see you were able to fly over here from the other side of Cloudsdale." Lucky went over to him and then flew around camp 5 laps, then touched back down in front of him.
"Very good. By the month is over, you'll be stronger and can fly very far distances, just like all the other pegasi. You as well little filly, now what's your name?" Scootaloo grinned and said, "My name's Scootaloo." Camp Leader nodded, "Nice to meet you Scootaloo. Show me your skills please." Scootaloo grimaced. "Well, I'm not too good of a flier like Lucky, even though I'm two years older than her." "Hmm... well, as I told Lucky, you'll be flying like the other pegasi by the time you're done here." Scootaloo smiled, "I hope so, well, let's get to it! I wanna fly like Rainbow!" The older ponies laughed. "Well, she's very enthusiastic. Let's get to your bunk house."
Lucky nuzzled her mamas. "Ok, I'm going now. I'll write to you in 2 days, that way I'll have gotten my first training done and can tell you how it went. I love you guys and see you in a month." Her mamas nuzzled back then got a surprised look on their faces. "That's the first time you said you loved us. So, gettin' comfortable sayin' that now huh? Ya never did before, even though ya called us yer mamas and have been adopted by us fer three years.", Applejack said. Lucky grinned a bit embarrassedly. "Well... I guess I felt it was time I said that, especially because I'll actually be away from you for more than just hours, I'll be gone for a month."
Rainbow said, "Well, I guess I can understand that. Though it would have been nice to hear 'I love you' from you when you were still 5." Lucky nodded once. "I'm sorry Rainbow-mama and Mama Applejack." "Aw, it's quite alright sugarcube. At least now we know you'll be sayin' that from now on, right?" Lucky smiled, "Eeyup! I really gotta get going now, see you in a month!", she said as she trotted towards Scootaloo and her camp leader. "There she goes. I can't wait to see how much she's improved when she comes back. Hopefully she has her own move instead of the Sonic Rainboom, maybe Sonic Bloom. Hehe, cross between 'blue' and 'boom'."
Applejack chuckled, "Nice one Rainbow. Maybe, but let's git back to the others." Rainbow nodded then took off. When they got to the farm, they waved and touched down, "Well, they're both there safely and both have the same camp leader you and I had Fluttershy." Fluttershy smiled, "That's awesome. I'm glad." Rainbow agreed, "Me too." Applejack hopped off Rainbow's back. "Well, how's about we go fer a walk around town? It's better than just standin' here." The others agreed.
~with Lucky and Scootaloo~
"Wow! This is so cool!", Lucky said when she went in the bunk house. "All the bunks are made of clouds, I wonder what they're like? Ooo, I call the top bunk Scooter." Scooter just grinned, "Yeah, well I call the top bunk next to your bunk, we can put our heads near each other so we can talk." The camp leader cleared his throat. Both fillies giggled and said, "Oops. We were caught." The leader then chuckled. "Well, it seems like both of you are typical fillies. I'd suggest you both don't talk too much into the night, you both need your sleep."
They nodded. "Good, well. Wanna meet your fellow bunk mates and flying buddies?" "Yeah!" The leader then took them outside and in front of the bunk house. "They'll be arriving in different time spans, you two were the first ones to arrive, so one by one you'll meet them all. Although we will meet in the bunk house and introduce ourselves properly. That's how we always do it here in my group. There will be 8 others. There's usually, but not always, ten in each group, but all will be eating together in the dining hall."
"Ok, sounds fun.", Lucky said. "Yep, so. How do you like being the Princess of Ponyville? Is it hard work?" Lucky shook her head, "Not yet, I only have paperwork and it isn't really too much, when I get to the office at 3:00 well, after school, I get to work and I usually finish around 7:00 or 7:30 depending." The leader was impressed. "Wow, seems like you're busy during the school year, homework and paperwork from your work being Princess." Lucky shrugged, "It ain't that bad really. Yeah I'm exhausted at the end of the day, but I'm usually happy with what I accomplished."
"You even know big words at your age, you don't cease to amaze me Ponyville Princess." They see another foal come to their cloud. "Hello Skipper. How are you this morning?" The filly named Skipper smiled and said, "Good. Oh my gosh, it's the Ponyville Princess. It's so nice to meet you. I saw your coronation three years ago on tv. I thought it was awesome." Then Skipper bowed. Lucky grinned and bowed back, "Thanks Skipper. You know my name is Lucky Fire, right?" Skipper nodded after standing back up. "Ok then, I can say, it's nice to meet you.", Lucky then said. Skipper said in return, "Nice to meet you too."
Another foal came, it was a colt. Lucky recognized him from school. "Hi Featherweight. It's nice to see you again." Featherweight smiled, "H-Hello P-Princess." He has a crush on her, and she knows it, but she's not really interested in him. She never told him she's not into him, only because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. When it comes down to when he asks her out, she'll have to decline, though she'll decline as nice as she can. He hasn't asked her out yet though. Besides, she's only 8, she doesn't need a special somepony yet. "So, I see you already know Featherweight." Scootaloo said, "I know him too, both Lucky and I know him from school."
"I see. That's good." So 10 minutes passed and all the foals in Lucky's group were all there. Now they were in their bunk house introducing themselves. The camp leader went first. "I'm your camp leader, Rain. We'll go around telling our names and what our likes and dislikes are. Lucky, you'll go first." Lucky nodded and said, "You all know me, but I'm Lucky Fire, the Princess of Ponyville. My likes are singing, swimming, coloring, cats, butterflies, and rainbows after it rains. My dislikes are lightning, bugs, especially spiders, I said butterflies in my likes because they're the only bugs that are pretty and nice. Um... oh yeah, I'm afraid of dogs but I won't get into that."
"Very good Lucky. Scootaloo, you're next." Scootaloo grinned, "My name's Scootaloo. I like riding on my scooter, dancing, and I love doing dangerous things. My dislikes... I don't really have any. Actually, I don't like being hugged, that's just about it." The others giggled/chuckled. Featherweight went next. "I'm Featherweight, and I like photography. My dislikes are being bossed around by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They're Lucky's, Scootaloo's, and my classmates." Skipper went next, she was yellow colored with a purple mane and tail and with the cutie mark of a jump rope.
"I'm Skipper and I love skipping of course. I'm always happy, unless something bad happens... Um, so skipping, drawing, singing, jumping rope, and playing hopscotch. I don't like worms, snails, and slugs. They're just gross." The other fillies made faces, typical fillies. The colts didn't say anything. The next one to go up was a cream colored filly with a darkish red mane and tail and the cutie mark of three cherry flowers. "My name is Cherry Blossom. I love cherries and helping my mom grow and harvest cherries. I don't like caterpillars because they are a nuisance and often eat our cherry flower petals so that keeps our cherries from growing. We always have enough cherries though, despite the caterpillars. I live in Dodge Junction.
"I can always help my mom because I can fly to the top of the trees and pick the ones highest up, along with my dad. Oh yeah, and my mom's an Earth pony. Dad's a pegasus. Dad likes being on the ground because he can see everything up close. He lives with mom and I on the ground. He does fly too, he loves flying just as much as he likes being on the ground, so he does enough of both to keep him happy." Next was a very light gray colt with a black mane and tail and the cutie mark of a dark gray cloud with a lightning bolt. "I'm Thunder Storms. I love thunder and lightning storms, my dad controls them under the supervision of Rainbow Dash, which is the leader of the weather team.
"Rainbow is really cool from what I've heard of her. I always see her zipping around when the weather team does their weather stuff, she's always giving orders to other pegasi to keep the weather steady, like if a cloud is going astray, she tells one pony to get it and bring it back to the mass of clouds. I would love to be like her, the leader of the weather team someday. There isn't really anything I don't like." An orange colt with a yellow mane and tail the cutie mark of a lone yellow lightning bolt goes next.
"I'm Flash. I love going extremely fast. Though I don't go fast enough to break the sound barrier, that's Rainbow Dash's job. I've seen her do the Sonic Rainboom, which is awesome! I hate going slow." A pure white colt with three light blue snowflakes went next and his mane and tail are also light blue. "I'm Frosty, and I just love the snow. My mom is on the weather team as well and she helps make it snow. I think that's why I love the snow so much, but I don't like it when it's blazing hot outside. I just can't take it." Another pure white foal, though this one is a filly, and she has a comet with a trail of orange behind it and sky blue mane and tail.
"I'm Wishful Comet. I actually live in Canterlot. I like the emo bands. I'm into the whole emo thing. My parents aren't part of the weather team, they are the CEO and owner of an estate in Canterlot. They're never around much. When they are, they always spend time with me. They're usually busy with their business, which is why they're never around. I don't like bright and cheerful things." A cream colored colt with a brown mane and tail and the cutie mark of two arrows crossing each other, making an 'X' spoke up next, well, last.
"My name is Shooting Arrow. I also like being fast, but I also like going slow too. Sometimes I'm klutzy, and then my wings give out. Sometimes my classmates call me Klutzy Arrow. I don't like being teased and being klutzy. That's why I came here to see if coming here would help my klutziness." The leader smiled at Shooting Arrow. "It's ok Arrow, we'll work with you and see if we can't get rid of your klutziness." Arrow smiled a small smile. "Well, I think we should actually give how old we are too, I won't, I don't like giving my age, then I feel old." The campers all laughed at his old comment.
(now I bet you readers are curious too, although you know Lucky's and Scooter's ages, so I thought I'd give everypony else's ages too. Oh for Featherweight, I think he's the same age as the CMC idk for sure. I'll just say he is.)
"I'm 10.", Scootaloo, Skipper, and Featherweight said. "I'm 13.", Wishful Comet and Cherry Blossom said. "I'm 8.", Lucky said. "I'm 11.", said Thunder, Flash, Arrow, and Frosty. "Well then, seems the Princess of Ponyville is the youngest here." Lucky pouted a little. "Still the youngest. I am also the youngest in my class too, aren't I Scooter and Featherweight?" They both nodded. The leader chuckled. "Well, don't feel bad. Rainbow and Fluttershy were the youngest here too." Lucky giggled, "Poor Rainbow-mama and Aunt Fluttershy. Well, at least I have something to tease her about, haha, just kidding." The others, except Scootaloo all looked amazed.
"You mean to say Rainbow Dash, the weather team supervisor, is your mother?", Thunder asked. Lucky nodded, "I only call Aunt Fluttershy what I do because Rainbow-mama said that her and the other 5 ponies she hangs out with are kinda like sisters." Lucky's keeping quiet about her other mama, she doesn't know if these other foals will accept them or not and besides, not their business.
Thunder and Flash both took on curious looks. Flash asked, "How can Rainbow be your mother? She never said anything about having a filly, who's the father? Besides, I never seen you with her when she's on the weather team, because I too watch her direct the weather team. Thunder and I never saw her outside of the weather team only because we stay in Cloudsdale and be with our families and we hang out with each other too."
"Well, she actually adopted me, because I was orphaned at 5 years old. I've been with her for 3 years. Also, when I was 5, I couldn't fly as high as her, when I first came here I couldn't fly at all." The others who didn't know her story were sympathetic towards her. Cherry Blossom asked, "So, she raises you on her own?" Lucky bit her lip, she didn't know whether she should tell them Applejack actually is her mama too or not. Blossom did ask if Rainbow raised her by herself... she didn't want to lie but she didn't think she should tell either. Quite the pinch to be in.
"Um... well... that is..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Rainbow is helped by Applejack, Rainbow and Applejack are actually marefriends and the three of them live in an apartment." Lucky lowered her head, not what she expected. "Scoot..." Scootaloo looked at her, "What? That's what you wanted to say wasn't it?" Lucky then looked back at Scootaloo. "That's just it. I didn't know if I wanted it said or not. I don't want to just go around all willy nilly and spread it. It might make them mad if I did." Scootaloo sighed.
"They probably would have found out eventually right? That is if these guys ever go down to Ponyville or something.", she said. Lucky just shrugged, she actually never seen these guys in Ponyville before, so she didn't actually know if they did go down there or not. Skipper just said, "Huh? You mean Rainbow is actually... hmm, well... from what I hear of her, she is kinda really boyish isn't she?" Lucky and Scootaloo nodded. "Well, it shouldn't really be a surprise right? I mean, you all have heard of her not being really too girly and liking girly things haven't you?"
They all look at each other and murmur. Then they nodded. "See, so even if you haven't told us, we would go down to Ponyville to see what it's like eventually and also to see how you do things around Ponyville, so we would have most likely seen them together and kinda guessed from there. Oh, and by the way, who's Applejack?" Lucky looked at her like, 'what are you talking about?'. "I'll answer that with a question myself. Have you ever had apple cider of which the symbol is a big red apple?" They all thought. "Actually, yeah. I have. It's in the store too. Why, is she the one that makes it?", Cherry Blossom asked.
"Yeah, her and her family. She's an orange Earth pony with a brown cowboy hat and yellow mane and tail and she always has her mane and tail tied with a red hair tie." They all looked at each other, "Actually, now that you described her, we have seen her. All of us went to Rainbow's Best Flier in Equestria competition and saw her win it with the Sonic Rainboom. So the orange pony cheering for her was Applejack? How could she have been on the clouds then? Earth ponies and Unicorns can't walk on clouds.", Frosty said. "That I have no idea. That was before I even came to Ponyville and I think even before I went to the Everfree and lived for a bit."
Scootaloo still couldn't believe Lucky lived in Everfree. "Everfree? Are you out of your tree?", Comet said. Lucky giggled, "That's exactly what Mama Applejack asked the first time we met. No, I'm not outta my tree and yes, the Everfree. It's a long story." Comet then says, "Well I want to hear it, and I bet our camp mates want to too." Lucky snickered, "You said 'tutu'." Comet glared at her, then the others started giggling/chuckling too. Comet, then lightening up after realizing Lucky was only being funny, grinned as well.
"Very funny Princess. Seriously though. I think we all want to hear it." The others all agreed. Lucky sighed, then consented. It took a long while, but she told the story and by the end, the fillies were all in tears and the colts looked impressed/surprised. Impressed in the fact Lucky survived in the Everfree and surprised something like that happened in in Manehattan. "I'm so sorry Princess... oh man, I couldn't imagine if I ever lost my parents. I'd be devastated." Featherweight said. The others nodded. "Well, it isn't so bad. I have parents again even though they're both mares.
"They actually make really good parents and I love them both, although I still miss my real parents, and they understand. I even have a picture of my real mom and dad in my office. I still pray and talk to them from time to time so they can hear from me myself how I'm doing. I also know they're watching over me too. They know Rainbow-mama and Mama Applejack are taking very good care of me, and I do think they're happy that at least somepony took me in and is being very good to me." Everypony there smiled.
"Well, it's almost lunch time, I say we go in the dining hall and get ready for lunch.", Rain said. They all agreed and stood up. Rain led them to the dining hall and showed them to their table. There were 5 different tables. There are 5 groups, each of them have ten foals in their groups, unless there isn't many foals that signed up for flight camp, but usually ten to each group. Lucky's groups' table was full, so were 3 others. Only one table wasn't quite full. There were only 7 in that group. 27 foals in all then for the flight camp this year.
"We also have a speaker today from Las Pegasus, her name's Princess Fire Dancer. She wanted to come and speak about her flying experience. She said she never went to a camp and actually learned how to fly on her own. Her parents didn't teach her or anything. I'll actually let her speak for herself. She'll be here after lunch. So, our first day is actually a special day, and usually it is, but for the rest of the month we'll be flying.", Rain said. "Fire Dancer is my cousin! I get to see her again!", Lucky said excitedly. The others looked at Lucky. "Are you serious? You're whole family must be royalty then.", Arrow said.
"Actually, yes. My whole family is royalty. My mom though, she didn't want to be royalty. She had met my dad in Fillydelphia, my dad actually came from here. He was part of the weather team here. His name was Down Pour, but mom met him and he wasn't royalty, and she wanted to be with him, so she told my grandparents that she didn't want to be royalty. They respected her wishes and told her she didn't have to be. She lost the golden things on the bottoms of her hooves and was a normal pony like she wanted to be. I was born without these golden things, but when I became Princess they appeared. My mom's name was Blue Rose."
"Wow.", Featherweight said. "I knew your father Lucky. We grew up together.", Rain said. "Awesome!", then it was lunch time after her exclamation. For lunch they had dandelion sandwiches, apple slices, orange slices, melon and a lot of other things to choose from. So after lunch, Lucky was bouncing in her seat, she couldn't wait to see her cousin again. She got her wish, in 10 minutes after lunch ended, Fire Dancer came in, then saw Lucky and got a surprised look on her face. "Lucky Fire, o genki desu ka?" Lucky tilted her head. "Um... Fire, you gotta speak English, even though I'm a Princess now, still doesn't mean I know Japonies yet."
Fire grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't know you haven't studied it. I thought you would have by now." Lucky just shook her head. Fire hugged her little cousin and then said, "What I asked you was, 'how are you'?" Lucky hugged back then said, "I'm good. Happy I'm able to come to Rainbow-mama and Aunt Fluttershy's flight camp, and even have their camp leader." Fire raised both eyebrows, "You live up to your name Lucky. You're very lucky to have gotten their camp leader at their camp."
Lucky grinned, "I know, that's why I'm named Lucky, because I am one lucky filly." Fire grinned back, "I better get up there and give my speech. See you later cousin." Then Fire went to the stage in the front of the dining hall and then started speaking. "When I was about 5, I noticed I had wings, and wanted to use them. Now, my parents being the King and Queen of Las Pegasus, they were extremely busy doing a lot of stuff, when I was a baby they took care of me, but as I got older, they had to get back to being the King and Queen. I did have a foalsitter, but unfortunately she was a unicorn so she couldn't teach me how to fly. I basically had to learn on my own, and I did. When I reached seven years old I had my first flight.
"I actually flew from my room to my parent's room after waking up from a bad dream. Two years I was training for hovering, but that night I actually flew. From then on I started flying more and more, and now I'm 16 and can fly extremely well, like all the other pegasi. After being in camp, you'll be able to fly like the other pegasi too. I would love to know how it went after you all leave camp, but unfortunately I cannot stay. I have to get back to Las Pegasus soon for my training as Princess. I'm sorry I have to leave so soon, but maybe I can come back for another visit some other time." The whole camp's foals groaned in disappointment.
Fire just smiled a friendly smile. "Don't be disappointed. I hopefully will be back sometime, I especially am saying this to my little cousin, Princess Lucky Fire. Come on up Lucky Fire, I bet all these foals would know who you are." Lucky sighed, wishing her cousin wouldn't have said that. She walked slowly up to the stage. "What, you can't fly at all? I thought you could.", Fire said, trying to get her little cousin upset enough to actually show Fire her skills. It did the trick, Lucky gave her a small look, then flew. "Fire, why must you push my buttons like that? You know I'm most likely to react to it or even prove you wrong if you say the right thing."
"That was the point. Can you show me what you got? You flew to the stage, now show me what else you can do." Lucky smirked, "Are you sure about that? You do know I have the Best Young Flier in Equestria teaching me, right?" Fire just nodded, then Lucky said, "Well, I'll gladly show you what I got." Everypony then went outside, Lucky saw cloud rings. "Perfect, hey Fire, how about a race to see what my skills are? It'll be of speed and tricks we can do. I know a few of them that Rainbow-mama showed me."
"Haha, you're on! The one who is the fastest and the best at her tricks wins. Actually, let's get some judges so we can get scores after we finish. So the one with the most points from our tricks wins." Lucky nodded, "That sounds better. Let's go!" So everypony in the dining hall went out to the field, well, cloud field. There were stands to sit on for the spectators, and stands higher up for the camp leaders to oversee everything going on. Lucky and Fire both went on the platform so they can take off. "Ok fliers! Get ready to take off, in 3, 2, 1... go!"