Her Teacher, Her Sister

“C’mon Scoots! You really gotta flap ‘em hard!” Rainbow exclaimed excitedly to her young trainee. Scootaloo nodded with a grin, then jumped up into the air and flapped her wings hard, trying to gain some altitude. She smiled as she went up a few feet and was able to hover there, which was a massive accomplishment to the filly. Just a few weeks before she hadn’t been able to do even this. As Rainbow watched the excited filly however, she noticed the young pegasus had to flap harder and faster than she should have needed to merely maintain such a low altitude.

After a couple of moments, Scootaloo lurched suddenly to one side and fell with a surprised cry. Rainbow’s heart rate spiked as she saw this and dashed forward, catching the filly before she could hit the ground, then gently landed and set her down.

“Oh my gosh! Are you OK? What happened?!” Rainbow rambled off quickly in concern. She’d deny it to anypony she didn’t know well enough, but Scootaloo was very important to her. The filly was a sister to her and, as any sibling would, she cared for and worried a great deal about her.

Scootaloo shook her head gently to try and clear it from the shock of the fall, then looked to Rainbow with an embarrassed smile. “Yeah, I’m fine sis, don’t worry.” Rainbow let out a relieved sigh and smiled. Ever since the camping trip where she agreed to take the filly under her wing, Scootaloo had started calling her ‘sis’ or ‘big sister’ and, not that she’d ever admit it, it made her happier than she knew how to describe.

Rainbow had never had a sibling, older or younger. She chuckled quietly to herself as she thought back to when she was a filly. She constantly asked her parents when she’d get a little brother or sister. One time she even went so far as to lock her parents in their bedroom and tell them they couldn’t leave until they gave her one. When her parents learned that she had taken in Scootaloo as a sister, they convinced her to bring Scootaloo to their house and told her the story, much to Rainbows embarrassment.

“Umm… Hello? Equestria to Dash!” Scootaloo called out after a few moments of Rainbow zoning out, waving a hoof in front of her face.

“Huh? What? Oh, sorry kiddo, just kinda zoned out for a sec.” Rainbow replied with an embarrassed smile. She then remembered what had happened and looked to Scootaloo. “What the hay happened back there? You looked like you just suddenly lost control.”

Scootaloo looked back to her wings and shrugged. “I don’t know! All of a sudden I just couldn’t get enough air under one of my wings.” Rainbow rubbed a hoof under her chin and hummed as she thought about what could cause that, then walked over and looked closely at one of Scootaloo’s wings. After a moment she facehoofed and groaned.

“Scoots, your wings are a mess! No wonder you’re having so much trouble! They look like you’ve never preened them in your life!” she exclaimed with a frown.

Scootaloo looked to Rainbow with a confused expression. “Preening? What’s that?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Uh huh, yeah. Acting like you don’t know won’t get you out of trouble.”

Scootaloo just looked even more confused. “No, I really don’t know! What is preening?”

Rainbow just looked at Scootaloo with a dumbfounded expression. “What is preening? How can you not know this? You’re plenty old enough to know what it is! Your parents really should have taught you by now, it’s important! I think I need to to talk to your folks about this.” Scootaloo’s eyes shot open and she paled.

“No! You can’t! I-i mean, they’re busy right now a-and I don’t really want to bother them.” she cried out, making rainbow recoil in surprise, before trying to calm down and stuttering her words as she averted her eyes from Rainbow. Rainbow held a hoof to her muzzle and shook her head.

“No squirt, this is important. Pegasi parents are supposed to teach their kids how to preen when they’re younger than you are. I want to know why they haven’t taught you. Now let’s go.” She stood up and started leading the way out of the park they were in, before turning around and looking back to Scootaloo. “Huh, come to think of it, I don’t actually know where you live. Why don’t you lead the way?”

Scootaloo sat there shaking slightly, then let out a shaky sigh and looked down. “I can’t…” Rainbow got a confused look.

“What, why not? It’s not like you don’t know where it is…” She walked over and sat in front of Scootaloo, confused as to why the filly was so opposed to the whole thing.

Scootaloo just shook her head. “No, I can’t because… because I don’t have a home to lead you too… I-i live in an old shed at Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Bloom fixed it up for me like she fixed our clubhouse.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped in shock. “W-what? How is… When did... Why didn’t you tell me?” she pulled Scootaloo into a hug as the young filly started crying.

“I-I didn’t… Want you to… W-worry about m-me, a-and I didn’t want you to c-care for me out of p-pity…” she sobbed into Rainbow’s chest as the older pegasus held her close. Rainbow looked around and worried for a moment that someone might see them, then shook the thought away.

Buck my reputation, Scoots is more important than that.

She nuzzled Scootaloo and gently rubbed a hoof along her back to try and calm her down. “Hey, it’s alright. I’m here for you…” Scootaloo cried for a few minutes, letting out the fear and emotional pain she’s gone through for so long. As the tears slowly came to a halt, the filly looked up to her adoptive sister.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Rainbow Dash, but I was afraid to. I didn’t want you to only care about me out of pity. Even when I knew for sure that you cared about me anyway… I was still afraid to tell you. I was afraid you’d be upset that I kept it from you, that you’d think I didn’t trust you. That’s not true, I trust you more than anypony. You’re the only one who ever wanted to call me family,” The filly said sadly, leaning into the older mare’s embrace.

“Well… Maybe I could make you my sister officially.” Rainbow smiled slightly and nuzzled the filly, trying to comfort her and cheer her up. Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow with a shocked expression.

“You’d… You’d really do that Rainbow Dash?” She asked incredulously, shocked that Rainbow would take her in like that. Rainbow nodded and looked at the filly seriously.

“Of course I would! I told you that you’re my sister, and I meant it!” Rainbow exclaimed, stomping her hoof for emphasis. “I’m not going to let my sister be homeless and not have a family!” She looks around and notices it’s starting to get dark. “We’ll go see Mayor Mare in the morning. For tonight, let’s go home and I’ll teach you how to preen your wings.” She smiled and stood up, then knelt down to let the filly jump up on her back. Scootaloo looked to the older mare in shock for a moment before shaking it off and climbing onto her back, wrapping her hooves around Rainbow’s neck.

“Thank you…” Scootaloo whispered softly. Rainbow smiled and turned to look at the filly, nuzzling her cheek affectionately before facing forward and taking off into the sky, heading for her cloud home.

Our cloud home now. I kinda like how that sounds. Rainbow thought, then smiled wider as she landed on the porch of her home. She opened the door and walked inside, closed the door behind her, then headed into the living room. When she got there she knelt down so Scootaloo could hop off. “Hop down and sit down on the couch squirt.” Scootaloo nodded and hopped off of her sister’s back, then walked over and hopped up onto the couch. Rainbow followed suit and sat to her left. “Alright Squirt, turn to the right and spread out your left wing. Things may feel a little ‘weird’, but I’ll try to keep that from happening too much ok?” Scootaloo nodded and did as she was told, turning away from Rainbow and spreading her left wing.

Rainbow inspected the filly’s wing before sighing softly at the terrible shape it was in. She leaned in and latched onto a feather with her lips before slowly readjusting it. Scootaloo gasped and shuddered at the strange feeling it caused before forcing herself to hold still. Rainbow giggled softly, remembering when her father taught her to preen and how awkward it was. I hope this doesn’t end up like that… She thought as she moved onto the next feather. A few feathers on she found one she’d have to pull. “Hey Scoots, I’m going to have to pull this feather, ok?”

Scootaloo looked back with a confused expression. “What, why?” Rainbow mentally facehoofed, having forgotten that Scootaloo didn’t know anything about preening.

“Because if your feathers aren’t clean and in the right place, then you won’t be able to get lift. If a feather is damaged or old, then you need to remove it so that a new one can grow in it’s place.” Rainbow replied. Scootaloo nodded in understanding before facing forward again. Rainbow leaned in and gently licked at the base of the feather, trying to wiggle it loose, before pulling it out and making Scootaloo wince. Rainbow spit out the feather, then leaned in and gently licked at the spot where the feather used to be, trying to ease the pain.

Minutes passed as Rainbow carefully preened the filly’s wings. Each time she gently adjusted a feather, or licked over a spot where she’d had to remove one, Scootaloo felt more and more of that strange new feeling, sending tingles down between her hind legs.

“R-Rainbow Dash? I’m getting a really weird feeling… down there. I-is that normal?” the filly asked nervously, causing dash to sigh.

Crap, this is totally ending up like that time with dad… She thought before nuzzling Scootaloo reassuringly. “Don’t worry squirt, that’s perfectly normal. It happens to most pegasi, some more than others.”

“I-I kinda like it, can you keep going?” Scootaloo asked, blushing nervously. Dash sighed and sat in thought for a moment, before standing up and heading upstairs to her room.

“Alright squirt, but let’s move upstairs. I’ll show you even more ways to get that feeling.” She said, laughing softly. Well, let’s hope I’m less awkward about it then dad was a least.

Author's Note

Well, other than that awful background story for my OC that I wrote at 2 AM and uploaded, this is the first thing I’ve really written myself in a long time. I may or may not write a second, clop-filled chapter. No promises… Unless Scratch convinces* me to write it. Anyway, hope you like it folks.
-DonnE Starside

*= Read as “forces”