Hivemind

The morning had started out nice and peaceful like most others. Twilight sat in the kitchen, reading a book and eating breakfast. It was almost perfect... almost. It didn't take long, though, for the morning to turn chaotic. Within a couple of minutes, the kitchen was turned upside down. Twilight's breakfast now covered her face and her book, dishes lay scattered across the floor, pancake batter painted the entire room in multiple places, and at the center of it all was a baby dragon pinned down by a not so happy changeling.

"What is Equestria is going on?" Twilight asked, cleaning up the mess on her face.

"I was in the middle of a good dream when mister fire breath here decides to burn me awake," Aurora growled.

"Well, that sounds like a pleasant way to wake up," Twilight said sarcastically.

"You weren't waking up any other way," Spike pointed out, "And my air horn doesn't work".

"Then maybe you should've let her sleep," Twilight said, "Burning her wasn't really nice".

"Look, I'm sorry, alright?" Spike pleaded.

Aurora said nothing, but opted, instead, to snap her jaws mere centimeters from Spike's face before turning and walking away.

"And before either of you even think of getting something to eat, I believe the kitchen needs to be cleaned," Twilight said.

"Oh come on!" Aurora said, "He burned me for Celestia's sake".

"And chasing him caused the kitchen to be destroyed," Twilight pointed out, "You're both at fault here, so you get to clean up together".

After finally filling her belly... or, well, both of her bellies, Aurora decided to go to the clubhouse to meet up with the crusaders. Without any fear, Aurora walked around undisguised. The ponies had long since gotten used to seeing a changeling walking around Ponyville, and though there were still some who didn't like it, nopony would dare bring Aurora any kind of harm.

"Hey there!" Pinkie Pie said, jumping out of seemingly thin air.

"Where did you pop of this time?" Aurora asked.

"What are you talking about silly?" Pinkie asked, "I've been here this whole time".

"Yea, sure," Aurora said, "I don't want to be rude, but I kinda want to just hang out with the crusaders today".

"Aww, come on, we just got this new cupcake recipe and I really wanted you to try it, but it looks like you really don't want to and that just," Pinkie said before a brief pause, "Bugs me".

Aurora would've rolled her eyes if she could, but a sigh would just have to do.

"You know, that pun has gotten quite old already," Aurora said, "As for the new cupcakes, I'll stop by and try one later".

With that, Aurora was off, once again heading towards the clubhouse.

"Head's up!" Came a voice from above.

Aurora ducked just in time to avoid the living missile. As she turned to see who almost flew into her, she saw a blotch of purple among the wreckage of what used to be a pile of barrels.

"Um, you ok?" Aurora asked, walking over.

"No, I'm not a cupcake," The pony said.

"Scoots? I get that you want to be more like Rainbow, but this is kind of ridiculous," Aurora said.

"Figured I'd try gliding for a bit before you showed up," Scootaloo said, coming out of her daze.

"With nopony there to catch you if you slipped up?" Aurora asked.

"Well... I just don't want to feel weak all the time," Scootaloo said.

"You're not weak if you know you need some help," Aurora said, "Now come on, let's get on to today's lesson if that's what you want".

For a while now, Aurora has been helping Scootaloo learn how to fly whenever she can. It started off as just simple exercises and stretches, but recently, Aurora has been taking Scootaloo out to a few high up places and letting her get a feel for moving through the air. And, as the good friend she is, Aurora has been, well... most of the time, right by Scootaloo's side the whole flight to make sure she doesn't get hurt.

Today, Aurora decides to take Scootaloo up to a cliff on the edge of Ponyville.

"So uh... what are we doing today?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, besides that crash earlier, I think you're ready to pass on gliding," Aurora said, "Let's try actually moving in the air. Just follow me and do what I do".

With that, Aurora puts up her disguise and takes off. Scootaloo, eager to start actually flying, is not far behind. It starts off great, but it's not long before Scootaloo's inability to fly catches up with her and she takes yet another tumble. She tries to get herself on a glide path, but, as with her earlier attempt, she fails and continues to tumble towards the ground. Aurora swoops down to catch her orange friend.

"Alright, so maybe I jumped the cannon on that," Aurora said after catching Scootaloo.

"Alright, just be honest, do you really think I'll ever be able to fly?" Scootaloo asked.

"You'll fly one day, I promise," Aurora said, setting Scootaloo on the ground, "Just don't give up, whatever you do".

"Alright, so what now?" Scootaloo asked.

"You need to learn how to recover from freefall," Aurora said, "I'm going to demonstrate for you real quick, watch how I move not only my wings, but the rest of my body to compensate for the fall".

With that, Aurora flew upwards a little bit before folding her wings in and taking a dive. As the ground got closer, she opened up her wings and angled them so as much surface was facing the ground as possible before throwing her head back to give her some upward circular momentum and aid with the correction. Within seconds, she was in a glide path and followed it all the way down.

"That doesn't seem too difficult," Scootaloo said.

"It's really not," Aurora said, "Want to try?".

"You bet!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

With that, Aurora grabbed hold of Scootaloo and lifted her up to a high enough point where she should have more than enough to recover safely.

"You ready?" Aurora asked.

"Just let go already," Scootaloo said confidently.

"As you wish," Aurora said, letting go.

Scootaloo was once again in freefall. As she fell, spread her wings and threw her head back... but forgot to angle her wings properly, so that momentum went completely to waste as she continued to plummet.

"Angle your wings towards the ground, and THEN throw your head back!" Aurora called out.

Aurora's call went unheard as Scootaloo continued to plummet towards the ground. Taking this as her cue, she shot downward towards the orange pegasus. Upon catching her friend, Aurora corrected her flight as best as she could. She didn't take into effect Scootaloo's weight, however, until it was too late to avoid a crash. She did the only sensible thing and dropped her disguise and put as much of her now hard, chitinous body as she could between Scootaloo and the ground. Her speed, coupled with Scootaloo's weight forced her into the ground upon impact.

"Aurora! You alright!?" Scootaloo called as soon as she came back to reality.

"I'm fine," Aurora said, "But, could you please get off of me?".

"Oh yea, sorry," Scootaloo said, getting up and stepping out of the small hole.

"You need to angle your wings towards the ground as much as possible before throwing your head back," Aurora explained as she climbed out of the hole, "It's all about surface area. The more of your wings that is aimed at the ground, the more surface area there'll be. Then you throw back your head to get some momentum and get some more surface area of your wings and start to glide. Understand?".

"Yea, that makes sense," Scootaloo said, "Oh, and thanks for saving me".

"Well, that's what friends are for," Aurora said.

"And you're sure you're ok?" Scootaloo asked.

"Exoskeletons are tougher than you'd think," Aurora said, "My chitin as almost as tough as Spike's scales".

"That's good, at least I didn't get you hurt," Scootaloo said.