Purple Sparks at Zephyr Heights

Chapter 2: The Flight School

Weeks went by and Purple Sparks still couldn't believe it. She had just been recruited by Rainbow Dash, an extraordinary opportunity to fulfill her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. However, one anxiety persisted: to definitively join the prestigious team, she would have to master flying in public. Sitting in her room, Purple let herself go to desolation. Slumped on her windowsill, she watched the aerial activity outside. She could see other pegasus flying with ease, just to get around. Some even performed elaborate acrobatics, eliciting applause and admiring laughter from their comrades. The worst part was that some of these ponies were much younger than her. This reinforced Purple's sense of helplessness, and she wondered if she would ever be able to overcome her fear and fly confidently in front of an audience.

She looked away at the wall next to her bed. On the latter, several posters of the Wonderbolts were neatly displayed, but it was the one of Rainbow Dash that was enthroned in the center. On it read: "For Purple Sparks, my biggest fan. R. Dash. – Rainbow Falls Show, April 8, 1011 of the Celestian calendar." At the time, Rainbow Dash had no idea that the autograph she had just signed in black marker, as she had signed thousands of similar ones, would be for the first pegasus she recruited after her appointment as captain of the Wonderbolts.

Purple Sparks looked at her idol's print. Staring into her eyes, she frowned. "It's my dream to be a Wonderbolt!" she exclaimed as she climbed down from her windowsill. Opening her window, she positioned herself in the middle of the room and flapped her wings to take flight. Determined, she sped towards the window and flew outside, as the students of the school watched in amazement as they watched – for the first time in their lives – their classmate fly through the air. Sensing the surprised and worried looks, Purple closed her eyes. In her mind, she imagined a scene where she was flying in the center, under a spotlight, in front of hundreds of ponies. As pressure pressed on her eyelids, tears began to roll down her face, a mixture of fear and anxiety. She felt a wave of emotions wash over her before she lost control of the situation.

Her wings no longer responded, and fear overtook the young pegasus, who, in her fall, clung desperately to the ledge of her bedroom window. Her heart was pounding as the emptiness beneath her seemed insurmountable. Around her, the other pegasus, frozen by the scene unfolding before their eyes, remained silent, their air charged with a palpable tension. An oppressive silence enveloped the scene until Purple's desperate scream broke the calm. "Help! I'm slipping!" Her call echoed through the air, laden with anguish and panic.

As luck would have it, Destin, who was in the area, was alerted by her sister's scream. His heart pounding, he realized the urgency of the situation and flew at full speed towards her. The wind whistled in his ears as he rushed to rescue her, the feeling of helplessness clenching his chest. In a moment that felt like an eternity, Destin arrived just in time to grab Purple as she had just let go. Relief filled his heart as he pulled her towards him, preventing her from falling into the abyssal void below.

Once again, the big brother gently placed his little sister on the floor before settling down himself. "No, you're crazy?! What the hell were you doing up there?" He asked in shock, his own emotions swirling in his mind as his sister wept bitterly, shaken by the ordeal she had just gone through. "I wanted to try..." Purple replied.

- "Try what, sister?" asked Destin, his voice tinged with concern.

- "To fly to other ponies," Purple continued, her trembling voice betraying her restless state.

Destin looked down slowly, a heavy realization weighing on his shoulders, as if a burden had suddenly fallen upon him. The challenge his sister faced every day suddenly became apparent to him in all its complexity. He felt a wave of deep empathy for her, realizing how trying her inner struggles must be. She aspired to fulfill her dearest dream: to become a Wonderbolt. But at what cost? As he gazed into his sister's worried face, he realized that the barriers she would have to overcome were far deeper and more arduous than he had ever imagined.

Hugging his sister to comfort her, Destin felt a mixture of compassion and determination. He wanted to offer her comfort, but also to convey his own belief in her abilities. His own fears for her mingled with a sense of brotherly responsibility, and he felt determined to support her no matter what the cost. He began gently, "Listen, Purple... I'm convinced of one thing: you excel at aerobatics. You'll be an exceptional Wonderbolt." As she expressed her fears and doubts, Destin felt a lump of emotions in his throat. He tried to be strong for her, to offer her words of comfort, but at the same time, he felt a deep sadness to see her so distraught. His own mind was tormented by thoughts of what his sister would have to face to achieve her dreams, and he felt both helpless and determined to help her as best he could.

When she whispered that she felt incapable, Destin felt a twinge of heartache. He couldn't bear to see his sister so defeated, but he knew he had to offer her more than empty words of hope. He had to show her that he believed in her, that he was there to support her every step of the way. "Hey! Don't say that, sister! You just need practice. But risking your life by jumping out of the window won't solve your problem. Look, you're flying in front of me... You are able to fly in front of others, believe me!" He replied with renewed conviction, trying to instill in her the confidence she needed to overcome her fears.

Purple didn't answer, knowing full well that her brother was right. Still, a twinge of nostalgia washes over her heart as she thought back to her youthful days, when she flew confidently ahead of the other ponies. She even remembered winning a few races. But that confident and determined version now seemed far away, as if that part of her had vanished.

Indeed, on her first day of school at Cloudsdale Flight School, a life-changing event changed that. A gang of older, and obviously unsympathetic, ponies had come to mock her.

- "Look at this microbe, guys. This fly claims to be able to fly! " said the pony who seemed to be the leader of the group.

- "I'm not a microbe! And I can fly!" Purple Sparks replied, exasperation piercing through her voice.

- "Shut up, gnat! If I tell you that you can't fly, it's because you don't know how to fly!" The leader of the gang insisted arrogantly.

Determined to silence their mockery, Purple Sparks retorted firmly, "I can fly and I can prove it!" Her eyes shone with fierce determination as she asserted her abilities, without showing the slightest trace of fear or doubt.

The kingpin, whose eyes sparkled with sly mischief, issued a challenge to Purple Sparks that echoed through the schoolyard like a thunderclap. He pointed with his hoof at the school's air duct, a narrow and perilous passage that had suddenly become the scene of a dreadful ordeal. "Everyone in my gang did it, microbe!" he proclaimed with a smirk, knowing full well that it was just a brazen lie designed to make her even more ridiculous.

Undeterred by the mocking stares on her, Purple rose to the challenge with unwavering determination. Her heart was racing, but she refused to back down in the face of adversity. She took flight, her wings flapping with renewed firmness, and darted towards the conduit, her will to prove her worth burning like a blazing fire within her. Yet, when the high-speed spinning fan hit her head-on, reality dealt her a stinging blow. Ejected from the duct, she lost control of her flight and crashed heavily to the ground, the heartbreaking pain of her wound mixed with shame and humiliation. Her face bloodied and her wing broken, she felt the tears of disillusionment roll down her cheeks, as the cruelty of the deception was revealed to her with icy brutality.

As the group of ponies burst out laughing, the world seemed to collapse around her. The physical pain was nothing compared to the deep wound that tore at her soul. In this time of disarray and distress, she bitterly realized that she had been duped, that her trust had been betrayed, and that the terror that now inhabited her was far more insidious than any physical pain.

Sincethat traumatic experience, Purple Sparks had been haunted by fear. She leftflight school and even Cloudsdale, seeking refuge from those painful memoriesthat followed her like shadows. She hoped to find peace at the co-educationalschool in Rainbow Falls, but the invisible scars of her past continued to haunther, like so many elusive ghosts.