It was a bright, sunny afternoon in Cloudsdale, and Rainbow Dash was awake, stretching her cyan wings as she soaked in the rays. She then slowly crossed what was designated the 'town square,' placing her trainer's hat and whistle on, expecting Fluttershy quite soon.

As she walked toward the edge of town, she kept a lookout for the yellow pegasus, hoping that she would cut her afternoon regimen of caring for the animals for once so they could get started on flight training. Fluttershy said she wanted to be better, and well... being better starts with being on time for training. Rainbow Dash huffed, then sighed, rolling her eyes as she stopped at the edge of Cloudsdale, which was the perfect training area... no other pegasi darting in and out about their daily lives, no foals getting in the way... and just enough clouds to clear.

Nodding to herself with a smirk, Rainbow Dash took pride in her ability to be a good trainer, because even though Fluttershy was still a weak flyer, she was able to clear clouds efficiently, almost making good time. Not up to the academy's standards, of course, but still pretty good. She already had flying down, so next was fall, then recover. Mentally going over her training regimen in her head, she didn't notice Fluttershy landing gently on the clouds behind her until she heard a tiny, "Hello..."

"About time, Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash said, turning to face the other pegasus, who took a rather apologetic glance down.

"I-I'm sorry... Angelbunny refused to eat his breakfast so I had to, uhm... make it dance for him..." Fluttershy grinned slightly at her friend's dubious expression at this explanation until the cyan pegasus cleared her throat.

"...Riiight, well... Today we're gonna' be adding fall and recover to the mix... I'm sure since you have clear and fly down pat, these steps won't be hard, either!" Rainbow Dash looked into Fluttershy's eyes, searching for any sort of confidence, but she only saw fear. Stepping back with a loud sigh, she rolled her eyes. "C'mon Fluttershy, you can do it! You learned the first steps easily!"

Fluttershy chewed at her lower lip as she listened to Rainbow Dash, kneading at the clouds with her forehooves, trying to gain the confidence to spread her wings as they had snapped against her body during her friend's speech. She shook out a little tremble that rose in her body before nodding her head rapidly. "Y-yes! Y-you're right, Rainbow... I-I can do it...! I can do it!" Her face lightened into a smile and she moved to the edge of the clouds, looking up at the ones she were to clear against the bright blue sky.

"All right! First we're gonna' clear! So, up to you go, in three... two... ONE!" Rainbow Dash held her whistle in one hoof, took a deep breath, and blew hard to signal to Fluttershy that she should take off at this moment.

"Clear!"

At this command, Fluttershy took off into the sky, flying with ease as she struck at each cloud in turn. She had vaguely counted twenty clouds from her starting point and she struck at each one, but when she bucked her back legs at one, she stumbled a bit and landed on the cloud below her. The yellow pegasus sat there for a moment, about to let defeat overcome her until she heard Rainbow Dash cheering her on from the edge of the clouds below and once more, she spread her wings, kicked off the cloud, and charged at the other clouds once more.

From below, Rainbow Dash's chest swelled with pride at Fluttershy's determination to do well. The normally-shy pony bucked and reared at each fluffy obscurity in a sort of gracefulness she had ever seen in The Wonderbolts... Fluttershy must've been taking notes at the shows they went to. The cyan pony laughed and cheered her friend on even harder, as pride flooded through her entire being. Fluttershy would be as good as her in no time!

"Fly!"

Fluttershy heard Rainbow Dash's next command and the clouds higher above her were her destination, as this was to be her obstacle course. With a powerful downstroke of her wings, she darted into the next area of her training, swerving, corkscrewing, and weaving over and under, keeping in mind where to bob her head and hold it to keep from getting dizzy, just as her friend taught her. She then flicked her wings out as she rose above the obstacle course, hovering and panting heavily, her ears turning forward to hear the next command, glancing down at the dizzying sight of the ground below her, unobscured by clouds.

"Fall!"

Tucking her wings tight against her body, Fluttershy shut her eyes tight as this was the scariest part of flight training. In an instant, the yellow pegasus began dropping altitude as the wind whistled past her ears. She ignored her instinct to spread her wings too early and fail today's training, she wouldn't dare risk coming so far just to throw it all away.

Rainbow Dash's heart made a slight drop as she saw how Fluttershy tucked her wings, knowing this was a fear response... but she kept cheering her on. She wasn't going to distract her friend during the time she needed to concentrate most. This was a particularly dangerous part and even the slightest mess up could hurt her, so the cyan pony watched, eyes tinged with horror as she went down... down... down... She counted the seconds in her head for when to call the next command, to let Fluttershy know it was time to spread her wings and dart to land beside her. It was simple.

"All right Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash said to herself, still counting the seconds in her head as she stepped to lean down over the clouds to scream her next command, "RECOVER!"

The seconds continued to tick by, Rainbow Dash's heart started to pound and the horror spread to her entire face as she began to panic, her hooves prancing side to side in a nervous manner at the cloud's edge as she raised her voice yet again,

"RECOVER...!"

"Recover..."

"...Recover..."

Author's Note

Sorry for the sad little fic.
All of my ideas come from sorrow.