A Different Kind of Practice
The small, puffy cloud drifted through the open sky. It was mocking her. She was sure of it. Angling her wings, Rainbow Dash whipped around, careening at its frail form. She let loose a war cry as she cut through her target. Dissipating wisps of its decimated remains formed a contrail behind her.
"And don't you forget it." She pointed accusingly back at the now-empty air. "That's what you get for messing with me."
It made no further protest, and all Rainbow could hear was the steady whistling of the high altitude wind. At length, she returned to her practice. One small wisp of cloud escaping her first pass wasn't a bad performance, but it was still a mess-up. If she wanted to be the best, and if she wanted to stay the best, she needed to do better than that.
She returned to flying over the countryside: farms, mostly, with some foresty patches here and there. The canyon was visible in the distance, and Ponyville not much further than that, just far enough to not be disturbed by a sonic rainboom. She didn't want the mayor or Twilight or somepony-else-who-was-feeling-lecturey to stop her and explain to her, again, that not everypony liked having sudden awesome rainbow explosions spicing up their dull lives. Though today wasn't really a sonic rainboom day. Instead, Rainbow had spent most of the afternoon working through a hooffull of trickier manoeuvres, or trying to. She was still on the second.
Gliding into place above a modestly sized cloud, Rainbow took a steadying breath and rolled her shoulders. Her flight muscles were a little stiff. Well too bad; she wasn't stopping to stretch. She took a quick dive to gain speed, bringing her to level with the cloud. Then began a series of quick, tight circles. A small twister took form, and she guided it toward the cloud. The spinning left her a little dizzy, but nothing she couldn't handle. Satisfied, she rose up, breaking off from the twister. For a moment, she hung upside down, staring down at the cloud. The twister reached the cloud, and both were swept into a vortex of frail vapours. She leapt down, right for the centre. Something blue struck! It was in her face. Her eyes were stinging. She felt her wing catch on the rough winds of the twister's edge. She was thrown twenty feet, but recovered. She glared at the cloud as its spinning slowed. Her own feather lazily drifted down to settle atop it.
She bucked the both of them into the nearest storm cloud, hard. It rumbled with thunder. So maybe she hadn't preened herself properly that morning. That was still a load of crabapples!
It wasn't like she couldn't do these tricks. She had the skills. She'd done them all before. Heck, she'd invented one or two. It also wasn't like she needed to master them right now; there wasn't another flying competition or Wonderbolts tryout for months. She wished there was. Much as she was glad nopony was witnessing this slew of slip-ups, it also meant there was nopony to cheer her on, nopony to beat, and nopony to brag to. As she flew, the howling of the wind melded into the roar of a crowd, and for a moment Rainbow stood there again, in the middle of the stadium of the young flyers' competition. She raised her head and drank in the jubilation, and a face full of chilly rainwater. Sputtering, she pulled her head back out of the cloud. Had she just - and without noticing - into a cloud - while flying? That was it. She was taking a break.
She fell limp, and then fell far. Facing down, she tucked in her wings, reached out her hooves, and willed herself to go ever faster. Only once the air began to grow solid before her did she pull up, bringing herself horizontal without losing a speck of speed. The ground shot by below, the clouds rolled on above, and the wind sped past all around. It whipped through her coat and mane, drawing the tension and frustration from her and leaving it well behind. Rainbow took a deep breath, not an easy thing at such speeds, and finally allowed her pace to slow somewhat.
There weren't any farms nearby now, just empty fields, leafy patches, and small lakes. Ripples spread across the lake below her, despite having no obvious source. As she watched, a stone flew out from under a nearby tree and sunk into the lake with a small plop. This tree sat at the edge of the lake, in a slightly rocky section, and sheltered a small filly, who slowly picked up another stone. Rainbow watched as she spun the stone out over the lake. The lake swallowed it up with an underwhelming plonk. If that filly was trying to skip stones, she was failing, miserably. Rainbow was going to have to show her how it was done.
She folded her wings against her back and, a moment later, landed with a thud not far from the tree. She was surprised to see Scootaloo poke her head out of the shade. The other crusaders were nowhere in sight.
"Rainbow Dash! Hey!" Scootaloo ran up to her idol, beaming. "What are you doing here?"
"I was taking a break from flying tricks. What about you, kid?"
"Oh, ah, Sweetie's off with her parents, and Applejack wanted Bloom to help her repair a barn, or something. I came out here looking for crusading stuff for us to do later. Haven't found much, though."
"Let me guess: Cutie Mark Crusader Pebble Skippers?"
"Heh, nah." Scootaloo grimaced. "Ponies don't get talents their bad at."
"Who says you're bad at it? I bet we could get you skipping stones so far they hit the other shore."
"Sure! Ok. So, wait, you're good at skipping stones?"
"I tried skipping bottled lightning back in Cloudsdale. It's basically the same thing." Rainbow began walking toward the shore, Scootaloo close behind her.
"Skipping bottled lightning? That's awesome! How did you convince anypony to give you lightning to play with?"
"Um, well I didn't really ask anypony for it." Rainbow smiled sheepishly. "On second thought, stick to rocks. They make less ponies mad. They also blow up in your face less."
Scootaloo snickered. "I'll remember that."
They reached the shore then, and Rainbow started inspecting rocks. There were round ones and spiky ones and big ones and tiny ones, but not many flat ones good for skipping. As she searched, Scootaloo fell silent and sat down, her gaze drifting out over the still water.
"Too dense. Too brittle. Made of solid diamond. Is a stick. It's like there's not a single flat one here."
"Yea, I sort of ran out of them an hour ago."
Rainbow snapped her head up at Scoots, then looked around at the still-reasonably-large section of rocky beach, and then back at the quiet orange filly. It seemed to take Scootaloo a moment to realise she was being watched. Even then, she continued to look around, only glancing at Rainbow.
"Scoots, how long have you been here?"
Scootaloo shifted from hoof to hoof. "A while, maybe."
The two remained like that for a moment, at which point Rainbow Dash had had enough. "Hold on tight. You're coming flying with me."
To her credit, Scootaloo held on very tight, and only screamed a little bit during Rainbow's steepest dives. When she looked over her shoulder, Rainbow would see the filly both shaking from head to tail and grinning like a maniac. It was a real shame about her tiny wings; she would have made a fantastic stunt flyer.
They were gliding now, winding through a idle storm bank well above the ground. Rainbow let herself drift closer to the clouds they passed, the tip of her wing pressing against them. The light grey mist broke upon her feathers, and trails of water dropped away in their wake. Occasionally, a spark of electricity would shoot down the tiny waterfall, or sometimes back into the rolling clouds. It tickled slightly where it touched her; being a pegasus had some great perks.
Rainbow felt movement on her back. She turned to watch as Scootaloo tried to hang off her side, reaching for the storm cloud. A few droplets touched her hoof, and she smiled. A bright flash and a loud crack and the weight on Rainbow's back was suddenly on the other side. Scootaloo glowered at the cloud bank. Rainbow chuckled. Scootaloo glanced at her, then exhaled slowly, and lay back down on Rainbow's back.
To be honest, Rainbow was starting to get a little sore. Spotting a small, fluffy cloud below, she coasted down and landed atop it.
"Alright, off ya get."
Scootaloo fell to the cloud, landing in a white puff before clamouring to her hooves. "That. Was. Awesome!"
Rainbow grinned. "You expected any less?"
"Course not. You're the best flyer ever! You can do sonic rainbooms at will! I bet you could to a rainboom in your sleep!"
"That would be awesome." Rainbow sat down and started stretching out her flight muscles. "Though I hope I don't. I live in a cloud."
"Oh, yea, I guess it would kinda destroy your house." Scootaloo flopped down and turned to check the sun. By now it was beginning to set.
After a moment, she got up and walked over to Rainbow. "I probably need to head back now so I don't miss dinner." She hugged Rainbow's leg. "Thanks for this, um, sis."
"Yea, it was fun." Rainbow got to her hooves. She leaned down for Scootaloo climb onto.
"Hey," Scootaloo asked as she prepared to pull herself up, "You'll still be my big sister if my talent turns out boring, right?"
"Huh?"
"I said -"
"I heard what you said." Rainbow got back up and turned to face Scootaloo. "Why the hey would your talent turn out to be boring?"
Scootaloo scratched one fore-hoof with the other. "It's just something I was thinking earlier, when I couldn't find any crusading ideas. It's like we've already done everything exciting, and there's only stupid, boring stuff left. Sweetie keeps suggesting we try stuff like cooking and smelling flowers. I mean smelling flowers? Really?
"And I've never seem a pony who didn't enjoy their talent, not really, so I'm not too worried that I'll hate it. But it's not just that it's your talent. It's that, suddenly, everypony knows it's your talent. I mean, what if I actually got smelling flowers? I'd never live it down!"
"Whoa, slow down there." Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "So, this is about your special talent."
"Well, yea."
"Which, you're afraid," Rainbow did her best not to laugh, "is going to be smelling flowers?"
"Something like that."
Rainbow laughed. And she did not stop, even as she collapsed, sides heaving, on the cloud.
"Hey! I'm being serious!"
"How? Are you going to attach a plant pot to the front of your scooter? Are you going take jumps that are smooth enough to smell the flower mid-air, or see how many you can have launched at you and catch them all?" Rainbow took a deep breath, a few last chuckles escaping her.
For her part, Scootaloo looked ready to dive off the cloud, flight or not. Her mouth hung slightly open and her eyes were watery.
"Wow, you're... actually bothered by this, aren't you?" Rainbow climbed back to her hooves.
Scootaloo managed a nod.
"I, ah, well, I was the first in my class to get a cutie mark, and I knew who I was gonna be even before then. I never faced what you're talking about. I... don't know what to say."
Scootaloo took a slow breath. "It's ok. And it does kinda sound silly when you put it like you did."
"It won't happen, of course." Rainbow walked up and put a hoof on Scoots' shoulder. "Cutie marks reflect the ponies that have them. You're a cool pony. You won't get a boring cutie mark."
"Thanks." Scootaloo gave Rainbow a weak smile before looking back down. She wiped her nose on her fetlock.
Rainbow didn't have a lot of experience with this whole "sisters" thing, and she'd never seen Scoots like this before. She almost wished she was somewhere else, but she couldn't just leave Scootaloo here. The filly couldn't even get off the cloud without help, and there wasn't another pony in the sky. Hesitantly, she took another step forward.
Rainbow sat down beside Scootaloo, putting a wing lightly around her. "Hey, I... I'm sorry I laughed. I wasn't trying to make fun of you. I wasn't thinking."
Scootaloo shifted slightly to lean against Rainbow's leg, and continued staring forward. "It's okay," she said. "I mean, you're right, after all. I'll get a cool special talent, and then none of this will matter. I mean, smelling flowers? Me? That's silly." She gave a quiet chuckle.
"It is silly. Wouldn't stop me being your sister, though." Rainbow tightened her wing around Scoots. "In fact, if your special talent did turn out to be smelling flowers, I think I would have to drag you out to practice with me more often, make sure you don't forget what awesome's like."
Scootaloo smiled up at Rainbow. "I'd- I'd like that." Rainbow smiled back.
Some moments later, Rainbow smirked. "And sure, we could take your scooter-mounted flower pot with us."
"My talent is not flowers!" Scootaloo whacked her hoof against Rainbow's leg. She then glared up at Rainbow with the most indignant scowl Rainbow had ever seen on a filly. Rainbow had to bite her tongue; laughing had not worked out last time. But then Scootaloo started to giggle, and she figured it was ok.
Their collective fits lasted until Scootaloo's stomach decided to interrupt. Rainbow shook herself out. "Right. Dinner. Let's get you back." She bent down for Scootaloo to climb on.
Scootaloo pulled herself onto Rainbow's back. "Do you think I could come join you during practice, even if my talent's something awesome?"
"Heck yea! And it's 'when', not 'if'. I'm sure there are still awesome things you haven't tried."
"Well, we never could get our hands on a cannon."
"That's more like it." Rainbow stepped up to the edge of the cloud. "Now this is our last flight for the day, so I'm gonna make it fast."
"You make every flight faaaaaaa!"
Two pegasi disappeared in a mess of vapour and displaced air. Not a scrap of puffy white cloud remained.
Author's Note
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you have any thoughts to share about it, I'd love to hear them.
