Mid-July 2008 on Alnilam. It was hot. Very hot, very sunny and very humid. The unicorns had shifted their herds to within the forest or down by the beach to ward off the sun’s rays. Mistral had a guest: RiftDoc from V’s neck of the universe.

They were standing under the shade of the trees talking about their weather-control powers. They were chuckling at a story Mistral had just told.

“Yeah,” she said. “I was always showin’ off when I was little cuz I could do things nobody else could ’cept Daddy. S’weird that I got the weather control cuz Tornado, my big brother, can’t do it.”

“Perhaps he took after your mother,” offered RiftDoc.

She canted her head to the side and nodded. “Yeah, prob’ly. Looks like ’er, too.” She made that strange unicorn smile and puffed up proudly. “I look like Daddy.”

“I’ve noticed.”

Mistral giggled and fluffed out her wings. RiftDoc asked, “Your wings…are they functional?”

The filly nodded. “Yep!” She proceeded to prove it by taking off and making a circle around him, landing gently where she’d left.

“Interesting. I wonder…if I could use my powers to fly.”

Mistral’s ears perked forward, interested. “Ya think ya can? What’re you gonna do? Hitch a ride on the back of a tornado?” She giggled at the mental image.

“I think that would be a little dangerous.”

“But fun!”

He gave the equine a look. She flicked an ear and smiled.

RiftDoc began thinking of a way to accomplish flight using his weather-control powers. The winds he could create were very strong, he reasoned, so perhaps he could use that.

He shut his eyes and concentrated. Focusing his mind had become easier with practice, though it still took a toll on him if he tried too much for too long.

RiftDoc envisioned a breeze picking up to carry him a short distance. The next thing he knew, he was up in the air. He gasped in surprise, opened his eyes…and promptly crashed to the ground.

Mistral immediately trotted to his side offering a wing for support as he stood. “Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.

He nodded. “Yes, I think so. I was surprised it worked and lost concentration.” He brushed green pollen from his cargo pants. “I’m going to try again.” The filly stood back as he shut his eyes again.

This time he anticipated being lifted from the ground as a strong gust of wind enveloped the two of them. Still concentrating – or trying to – he opened his eyes to find himself a good three feet off the ground. Mistral was beaming at him.

“You’re flying!” she exclaimed, the wind he’d conjured ruffling her mane, tail and feathers.

“I’m floating…” he corrected. “Let’s see if I can manage flying.” Screwing up his face in concentration, he focused on propelling himself forward.

The wind gusts became stronger and he started to move. He was so surprised that his concentration nearly broke again, though this time Mistral sent up a draft to break his fall. He caught himself just in time to regain concentration and continued to float. Trying to fly, he focused on positioning himself like Superman for lack of better inspiration. With wind under his stomach and pushing at his feet, he suddenly shot forward and up.

“Great Scott!” he yelped, out of control.

Mistral came up beside him, beating her wings furiously, shouting, “Focus! You’re doing great!”

“I most sincerely doubt that!” he shouted back, but he squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated as hard as he possibly could. For now, he just wanted to get back on the ground.

Unfortunately, that caused the wind below him to dissipate quickly and he rocketed to the ground. He managed to buffer his fall just enough to not kill himself, but not enough to not sprain his neck and shoulder.

Mistral galloped up, beaming at him, her horn pulsating. “You flew! You did great!” She held out her wing again for him, trying not to prance around in joy.

RiftDoc boosted himself up, rubbing where it hurt. Now that he was back on solid ground, he allowed himself to get excited. The wind picked up fiercely and a wide grin split his face.

“Great Scott! That was exhilarating!” He winced. “Ow…” It had started to rain. RiftDoc looked up. “Oh, good grief…”

Mistral giggled. “A little rain never hurt anybody. Plus it might cool some things down.”

“It’s only going to be within a five-mile radius, though.”

“That’s what you think!” It was Alien Lisa’s (AL’s) voice as she teleported to their location. She was holding an icepack. “I just got word from my alter ego that it’s raining in front of her theater on Earth. With sunshine. And the ground isn’t even wet. She also said you’d need this.” She handed RiftDoc the icepack.

“Thank you,” he said, sticking it on his neck and shoulder. “I don’t understand, though. How could what I’m doing affect Earth?”

“I told you part of it the last time you were here,” said AL. “Alnilam is…linked, in a way, to Earth. Sort of. Once in a while we get different weather, but more often than not, Alnilam and Earth are the same. Again, that’s why the heat and humidity shot up a thousand percent a couple years ago when my alter ego moved south. Only good thing about it is that it doesn’t snow here anymore. What were you doing, anyway?”

RiftDoc chuckled, then winced. “Trying to fly. And I can…though I have problems landing.”

“Well, didn’t we all.”

“I’m going to need more practice…once this pain goes away.”

“Don’t do too much too soon. V would kill me if something real bad happened to you. Come on back to the house and I’ll give you a painkiller.”

“Want me to stop the rain?” asked Mistral.

AL shrugged. “Don’t matter either way. C’mon, Doc.”

The End

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