“Bruck! Thers sumthin I wunt tu say tu yu!” Rainbow Dash looked across the café table at me in my Equestria dreamscape. We were on our lunch break and Dash and I were splitting a pan of freshly made cornbread; I smiled and waited until she’d swallowed her mouthful of cornbread with melted butter and honey on it before replying.

“Yes and that would be?” RD took a swig of her cider.

“Brick your weather working has been solid and your attendance and work ethic has been great, and I was not joking when I said I wanted to make you one of my assistant coordinator. But…”

“But what?” I stared at the prismatic mare. RD fidgeted in her seat for a moment.

“Well, Brick. I’ve wanted to say this to you for a while, but I’ve been uncertain how you would take it…”

“Take what?” There was something about RD’s body language and voice that got my attention. My boss poked at her napkin.

“Well, I know we’ve only known each other for a year or so, but I feel if our relationship is going to grow I think I need to say this to you.”

“Yes Dash.” My mind was racing back to Ice Hoofs comments in REWS cantina in Cloudsdale.link I took a bite of cornbread.

The Element of Loyalty took a deep breath closed her eyes, and then opened them and stared at me and in most serious of tone of voice she spoke.

“Brick you fly like a little foal.”

I chewed my cornbread slowly and then swallowed it. “I fly like a little foal? Really?”

Rainbow nodded her head. “Yeah, I want to make you my regular wingpony but before that happens you’re going to have take flying to the next level. At the moment you can barely keep up with me.”

I swirled my cider around in my mug and took a sip of it. “Well if you weren’t the living cannonball I might stand a chance of keeping up with you. I don’t know if I’ll ever develop the speed necessary to match yours boss.”

RD shook her head. “This got nothing to do with flat out speed. It is all about how you maneuver and position yourself so can keep up and hold formation with another pony. Right now your still flying like some foal who’s only had their flight wings for a couple years!”

I coughed and put my mug down. “Well boss maybe that’s because I’ve only been flying for a year now. You do remember that I was originally a unicorn? After all you were my flight instructor.”

RD was starting to respond to my comment when the full meaning of it sank in. She paused and then gave me a sheepish look.

“Oh, yeah. Hee hee! Sorry Sky Brush.” I knew she was serious when she used my proper name. “I’ve just gotten use to you being a pegasi now.”

I put my best spin on that comment and decided that it was a compliment. “Thanks RD, but where do you think my flying needs improving? I haven’t crashed in months and my endurance has greatly improved; heck I’ve got night flying pretty well nailed down and hope to get ok’d for zero-visibility weather work this fall.”

Dash shook her head as she wolfed down another piece of cornbread. “Ya gut the basucks down Bruck!” She paused and swallowed. “But you’re too timid with your maneuvers; you make large sweeping, shallow banked turns when you could use a half-roll or a loop to keep on my lead. Instead of you following me I have to change my flight path to keep you my wing. That slows down my weather work and really cramps my style.”

If I had learned one thing about Rainbow Dash it was the simple fact that one should never interfere with her flying, and cramping her style would count as interfering.

“Yeah boss but remember you’ve never taught me how to do a half-roll or a loop. In fact you were very clear at the start of my flight training that you did not want me attempting aerobatics because I was so new to flying.”

Dash glanced over the rim of her cider mug at me. Slowly lowering it stared at me and then with an air bogus pomp and circumstance she spoke.

“Well Brick! Since Princess Celestia assigned me to be your official flight instructor I hereby declare that you Sky Brush have met all the prerequisites to begin aerobatic instructions. Beginning this afternoon I’ll start teaching you basics of awesome flying from my vast pool of awesomeness!”

So that afternoon I received my first lesson in aerobatics. Needless to say the first lesson was more watching Dash bounce around the sky like Ping-Pong ball in a clothes dryer than I physically practicing any maneuvers. However by the end of the first day I had actually performed something that vaguely resembled a half-roll.

After that my lessons were three times a week, weather working permitting. Since Dash was still preparing for the Best Young Fliers Competition link she started to use her practice as a way to demonstrate how some of the basic maneuvers could be employed. While they were some of the most fascinating lectures I’d ever witnessed it was a bit difficult to stay focused on academic aspects of lesson when you had young attractive mare doing an aerial pole dance in front of you. It also didn’t help that I had Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher!”You Tube playing in my head the whole time she was giving her lectures/ demonstrations.

To be continued.