Rainbow Dash flew lazily in large circles around Ponyville, cooling down after her morning workout. She smiled and let the cool air tossle her mane and wick the sweat from her coat. She was in her natural element where she was most at peace and everything was right in her world. Her comfortable flight was interrupted by a scratchy cracking voice calling up to her in an annoyed tone. "Rainbow Dash! You get down here! You promised!"
It was Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash's biggest fan and honorary little sister. She groaned to herself. She knew without being told what the tiny orange pegasus was on about. She dreaded the coming interview, as Scootaloo had been begging for months for flying lessons, but the subject was still too painful for the fearless pegasus to approach. Not after what happened last time. Nevertheless she landed quickly and showed a false smile at the offended pony. "Oh, hey scoots.Sorry I~"
"You promised me a flying lesson today!" The orange pegasus snapped.
The Wonderbolt tried to mollify the outraged filly. "Yeah I know! I was just about to come get you after my cool down."
Scootaloo stamped a small hoof in annoyance. "That's what you always say! Then something always comes up!" She turned sharply. "It's like you don't care about me at all!"
Rainbow's mood darkened instantly, and her face hardened. She roughly grabbed Scootaloo by a wing tip and hauled her up to the very highest whisp of cirrus cloud, so thin she could barely gain a hoof hold on the meager perch. Scootaloo could see the puffs of her terrified breaths in the frigid high altitude air. Rainbow Dash, being more used to the elevation and the cold hung in air several yards in front of the cringing pegasus. She stared hard as she barked, "Now fly to me."
Scootaloo's hooves shifted and slid on her insufficient scrap of cloud, and she looked down at the dizzying height they were at as she whined, "I can't!"
The usually boisterous sports pony turned cruel instructor lost no time. She sprang over to the terrified filly and gently but firmly pushed her off her cloud perch. Scootaloo screamed as she fell. She tumbled head over hoof as she plummeted like a stone towards the ground. Distantly she heard her idol's commanding voice say, "Level out." Through her terror she awkwardly attempted to spread her tiny wings and stabilize her position in the air. She tried desperately not to, but couldn't help but steal fearful glances at the ground that was very quickly rising up to meet her.
She had just barely managed to stop herself from tumbling end over end, when she felt a burning pain from her right wing as Rainbow Dash grabbed it in her teeth and hoisted her roughly back onto her tiny cloud perch. Scootaloo cried as she begged, "Please! I'm sorry! Let's stop here." But the stone faced mare didn't listen. She once again gave the terrified mare a firm push off of her cloud and sent her tumbling down towards the ground several thousand feet below.
Scootaloo once again feebly extended her wings and gained something approaching stability, but when she began to beat desperately against the air howling around her, it was like trying to push back against a tidal wave. "You really think a pegasus flies with their wings? Come on! Stop trying to fly and FLY!" She heard called out from far above. She beat her small wings as hard as she could, but it was no use. She felt the rushing air begin to warm as she neared the ground. She clenched her eyes shut, thinking she was about to be a stain on the dirt road, when again her wing was almost pulled out of joint by an increasingly annoyed Rainbow Dash. For a third time she was placed on her tiny scrap of cirrus, and again the heartless command rang out. "Fly to me. Now."
"NO!" Scootaloo screamed as she clung desperately to her shred of cloud with all four legs. Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate. She without a second thought bucked the cowering filly's only support into a formless cloud of vapor and she dropped like a lead weight. Scootaloo flapped her tiny wings in a blind panic, unable to focus on maintaining a constant rhythm. This time however her tormentor was in free fall right in front of her. Rainbow Dash was only barely using her wings to stabilize herself as she stared stone faced at her honorary little sister. Scootaloo desperately tried to will herself towards her idol to grab a hold of her, but Rainbow Dash maintained her distance effortlessly. The falling filly cried out, "Rainbow! Help me! Pl~"
"SCOOTALOO!" Rainbow Dash barked angrily. Scootaloo was shocked out of her mortal terror when she saw that Rainbow Dash, THE RAINBOW DASH, had tears being whisked off of her face with the updraft. In a breaking voice she said, "You have to let go! It wasn't your fault!" Scootaloo gasped as the memories flashed across her mind.
Scootaloo's mind was reluctantly dragged back in time. Before meeting her two best friends, before her move to Ponyville, even before . . .
Scootaloo remembered everything. The terror of dropping like a stone towards the ground, the joy of seeing her mother coming to save her, the pain of the impact. She remembered how the doctor had told her that she might be able to fly someday, but it was unlikely. She remember how much Rainbow Dash had begged for forgiveness. She remembered how everytime she thought of her mother the memory came with a crushing sense of guilt. It had been her fault, she'd always thought. Her mother had died to save her. She remembered everything.
Scootaloo wept bitterly at the memories. She felt a hoof on her shoulder and through eyes soaked with tears saw her idol smiling knowingly at her. Before she could ask why she was smiling, she noticed the two of them were still in the air. She looked about in wonder and saw that she was treading the air, just above the ground. SHE WAS FLYING! For just a moment her face lit up with joy before falling again at the memory. She resumed her wing and Rainbow Dash pulled her into a hug. The two hung there in air, their tears calling onto the dry dirty road beneath them.
"I know."
"I miss her too."
A Tumble Down Memory Lane
A much younger Scootaloo gleefully watched her very favorite babysitter Rainbow Dash performing the tricks she'd learned at junior speedsters flight camp. Her mother had warned Rainbow Dash to keep her away from the edge of the clouds, so she was only doing the basics. Scootaloo clapped her tiny hooves together as the rainbow maned pegasus dove and rolled and twirled effortlessly in the air. Her head swung back and forth as the sky blue filly rocketed as fast as she could across the cloud lawn.
Rainbow's glances back to make sure Scootaloo was okay became less and less frequent as she soared higher and higher through the clear blue sky. The orange filly had to lean further and further out to see her first hero displaying all that a pegasus could do. Before she knew it the rainbow streaking across the sky had been replaced by the green and brown of the world below rising up to meet her. By the time her scream had hit Rainbow Dash's ears she was already halfway down to the ground. Rainbow Dash gasped and booked it down to the shrinking orange dot, but even as young as she was she knew she'd never reach the falling filly in time.
Just as she was about to give in to despair a yellow blur rocketed past the young flyer. Scootaloo saw her mother speeding towards her and she reached out desperately for her. Rainbow Dash's heart rose for the shortest moment when she saw that she'd get to the plummeting pony before she hit the ground. Then her eyes snapped open when she realized Scootaloo's mother would never be able to pull out of the dive in time. She let out a silent scream of horror at what she knew was about to happen.
A second before she hit the ground Scootaloo's mother pulled her tight to her chest and rolled to cushion the impact on her daughter. The pair hit the ground at full terminal velocity with a sickening crack that Rainbow Dash, as high as she was in the air, was able to hear. She dashed down as fast as her wings could carry her, but she knew it was too late. Scootaloo's mother lay limply on the ground, eyes glazed over, blood seeping slowly from her mouth and ears.
