Oh, yeah! Pegasus from Hercules comes to mind. :3



Yes, I usually just roll with that assumption as well. It's the only way out, really, if one wants to be logical about it. XD MLP pegasi frequently fly in place, without moving in any direction, and then they can go from THAT stance to flying away quite fast, without having any previous build-up of inertia. As far as I know, only hummingbirds can actually do that, and they achieve it by beating their wings insanely fast -- 50 to 80 beats per second. O_O And then of course they need to eat lots and lots and LOTS to compensate for burning all those calories.



Since we don't see RD or Flutters binging on cupcakes every few minutes, I'm assuming they only need a relatively small amount of physical wingpower to fly. The rest of it is handled by their 'passive' pegasus magic, which they channel and direct semi-consciously, just like we blink some 28,000 times a day without realizing it.



I'm overthinking, of course, but I always love figuring out in-universe explanations for things. :3



But... personally, I think it's a little cheap when an author resorts to "don't ask, it's magic" for things that could very well be explained by real-world mechanics, with just a couple adjustments here and there. U_U