Pegasi by Aileen Rose

Head in the Clouds

  The wind howled in his ears as he soared through the sky. He could never get over the adrenaline rush he felt when flying. There was nothing like it for him. The only care he had in the world was to go where he wanted to go.

It was up in the sky, that Dusty Crophopper felt free.

This is the life... he thought, closing his eyes as he dived between the clouds.

No crops... No sprayer... Just me, the sky... and my competition.

Dusty opened his eyes grinning as he spotted two grey and black griffons flying below him. He recognized them as members of the flight squadron the Jolly Wrenches by their gear and yellow helmets. They were in town today visiting and when they had heard that Dusty was around they wanted to challenge him to a race to see if was as good as some ponies said he was. Dusty could never back down from a race, so, here they were waiting for him.

I'll show them... Look out Jolly Wrenches, here comes Dusty Crophopper.

Dusty flew ahead of them before diving down and flying between them to catch them off guard.

He was able to startle one of them while the other still kept cool. Dusty chuckled as he made his way back around, a smirk crossing his face as he joined the two in their flight.

"Well hello, ladies. You ready to lose?" Dusty asked.

"Last one to the water tower buys a round of cider." the calm one replied, not faltering from his official tone.

"Tell you what? I'll give you guys a head start, you're gonna need it!"

"Later, loser!" The other griffon scoffed

The two griffons broke off, diving through the clouds. Dusty stayed where he was, counting thousands to give the two the head start they would need.

One one thousand... Two one thous- Ah, that's enough!

Dusty dived after them, his eyes locked onto them as the griffons came back into view. The three flew down close to the ground before pulling up, accelerating at great speeds. Dusty laughed as they soared over the fields and over the town.

The water tower came into view. Dusty grinned as he flew down lower to the ground before shooting back, spinning in the air with a trail of dust behind him he had kicked up from the ground. The griffons were showered with the dust as Dusty flew ahead.

"See ya suckers!" Dusty shouted. "Eat my-"

"DUSTY!"

Dusty gasped as everything faded away. The griffons disappeared, his sprayer was hooked on to him, and he had his boss, Leadbottom, right behind him, coughing up a storm from all the dust he had kicked up along the fertilizer he was spraying.

Ugh... just had to pull me back to reality right as it was getting to the good part... Dusty thought, sighing.

Leadbottom gave him an unimpressed look. "Pay attention, you're daydreaming again."

Dusty shook his head, giving his best innocent look. "Ah me? No, no no no, I would never do that."

Leadbottom's look didn't falter.

"... Okay yes..."

Leadbottom shook his head. "For an Earth Pony with artificial wings like myself, you sure got your head stuck up in the clouds, especially for some pony who doesn't even fly that high."

Dusty rolled his eyes. Here he goes again reminding me... Can't I least pretend for a moment that I'm a Pegasus?

"I could if I wanted to." Dusty mumbled.

"Well you ain't supposed to, you need to focus on what you need to be doing right now and not be lollygagging in some racing day dream."

"Leadbottom, really? How hard do you need to focus to do crop dusting? It's just the same old pattern, fly straight, turn around, fly straight, turn around and so on."

And it's the most boring thing in Equestria.

"Oh ho ho, are you disrespecting? We Artificial Pegasi have been developing this for years, there's a sweet size of aerial application to it all, and it's in your blood, crop duster through and through."

"I'm more than just a crop duster!" Dusty grunted as he flew ahead, doing the routine route he had always done for crop dusting.

Leadbottom followed behind him, rolling his eyes. "Don't go flap jawing about that Flings Around the Clouds air racing nonsense-"

Dusty gave a glare. "Excuse me, it's called the WINGS Around EQUESTRIA Rally."

"Oh for the love Celestia, Dusty, don't even start-"

"It's not nonsense!"

Too late. Here he goes again.

"I got the skills to do it and I can fly just like any other Pegasus."

"Oh, yeah? Know what else you got?"

Dusty sighed, giving an irritated look. "What?"

"A screw loose! Why in all of Equestria would you want to give up crop dusting? Clear blue skies, no other ponies getting in the way and that tangy scent of Vitaminamulch."

Leadbottom sighed as he started dropping his next load of fertilizer from his sprayer. "Just like mama used to spray."

Dusty cringed, wrinkling his nose a little.

Ack, and they say sense of smell is the first thing to go.

Dusty's ears perked up at the sound of a whistle off in the distance.

"Oh! Quitting time!"

He immediately stopped his sprayer and took off, ignoring whatever else Leadbottom was saying about crop dusting being the life. He didn't care for it, he had other plans.

Dusty smiled as Propwash came into view. Soon as he was on the ground he made a quick stop at his hangar, unhooking his sprayer and grabbing his radio headset.

Alrighty, time for the fun to begin.

He headed out, taking to the skies again and turning on his radio.

"This Dusty Crophopper to Chug, over." he said into the microphone.

There was a pause before an answer came from the other side.

"Chug isn't here! Come on, use the new call sign."

Dusty chuckled shaking his head. "Right, right, right, this Strut Jetstream to Turbo Coach Stallionzilla. Ready for practice?"

"You bet ya, Strut!"

Dusty looked down bellow as he saw a big brown stallion came galloping out into the fields wearing a hat with flames and some spikes on it with a book on his back.

Let's do this.

He laughed as he dived down below and pulled back up, feeling the wind rush past him.

"Alright, let's start with some corn row sprints drop and give me 20!" Chug barked.

Dusty did as told, getting lost in the training. The rest of the world faded away as he did more and more of what Chug was telling him to do.

"Doing good! Don't be dogging me now! Keep up the speed!"

Dusty chuckled as he swerved through some trees. He was in his happy place.

I'm gonna nail it at the qualifier... I just know it!

POP!

Dusty looked to see that some artificial feathers on his right wing had come loose and now had some smoke pouring out.

"Ah great..."

He sighed as he made his way to where Chug was. When Chug saw the feathers he cringed a little.

"Oh boy..."

Dusty sighed. "Yeah."

He knew exactly where he was going next.

Dottie is going to kill me...