"No, no, no, no! You have to angle your wings like this." The rainbow maned pegasus tilted her left wing, overemphasizing the motion. "We're flying here, you gotta leave that foal-fluttering behind you."
The orange and purple filly nodded enthusiastically. "Oh I see!" She adjusted her wings and continued the short, swift strokes she had been making.
Dash slapped a hoof to her face and groaned. "Kid, you're killing me." She looked out at the sun. It's progress across the sky gave lie to Dash's feeling that an eternity had passed. Somehow, only three hours had elapsed. Three hours since she'd finished breakfast. Three hours of watching Scootaloo do nothing more than a foal's light hovering, not real flying at all. "Alright let's take a break and I'll try to think of some way to explain this better." She tried to remember how long it had taken her to learn to fly, but she honestly had a hard time remembering a time when she couldn't.
"Whatever you say Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo's enthusiasm still leaked into her voice. Even though she'd repeated that line again and again she still had not grown weary of agreeing with her idol. Having the Rainbow Dash tutor her in flight was just amazing, awesome, stupendous! The mere thought of it made her wings quiver in excitement. They hadn't gotten anywhere, but the mere fact that she had spent the entire afternoon hanging with the Rainbow Dash made the entire exercise worth it.
When she'd first summoned up the courage to ask Ponyville's awesomest pegasus for assistance, her two friends urging her on, she'd never dared hope that the brash flier would say 'yes,' and certainly not so quickly. That she wasn't already soaring through the sky at breakneck speed was concerning, but Rainbow Dash must just be taking it slow because it was her first day.
"Actually squirt, I think I'm gonna get something to eat. You wanna meet back here in an hour?" Without really waiting for the expected "Whatever you say, Rainbow Dash," she spread wings—wings that were curiously sore considering she'd been on the ground for the last few hours—and zipped off.
"I'll be waiting here... Dash!" she hazarded a nickname and, when no rebuke was forthcoming, squealed with glee. "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!" she exclaimed. "No wait, that's not right. I'm supposed to say it five times." She looked around to see if anypony had noticed her gaff. Seeing herself all alone, but still feeling as though somehow, somepony would know, she added a fifth "ohmygosh" under her breath. Just to make sure.
Had Scootaloo been paying more attention to the fleeing pegasus rather than concentrating on mimicking her speech patterns, she would have realized that neither Dash's home nor any other of the various eateries in Ponyville were in that particular direction.
Bonk, bonk, bonk. Three rapid knocks echoed throughout the library. Twilight didn't even glance up from her copy of An Egghead's Guide to Critical Reading as she waited for Spike to answer the door. The knocks rang out again only a moment later. Bonk, bonk, bonk.
The purple unicorn looked up from her book in irritation. "Spike!" she called, "would you please get that?" Having delegated responsibility, she returned to her guide.
"Sure thing, Twilight," Spike answered back from the kitchen.
Bonk, bonk, bonk.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Spike grumbled loudly. "Don't toss a shoe," he muttered much more quietly. He straightened the white chef's hat that adorned his head and readied a sharp retort for whichever pony was interrupting dinner time. As he jerked opened the door, the words died in his throat as he looked up at the hovering form of Rainbow Dash. It wasn't the shock of seeing her at the library nor seeing her flying mere inches from the ground when her own four legs could have sufficed to carry her. He looked over his shoulder just in case. Nope, the books were still neatly arranged on the library shelves. The multi-chromatic pegasus had managed to arrive at the library and not make a mess of the whole place.
"Hi Spike, is Twilight around?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Spike tried to answer, but astonishment stayed his voice. After a moment of awkward silence, he merely pointed towards the study area. Suddenly a shrill beeping filled the library. Spike's face contorted into a mask of horror. "My eggplant!" he yelled, before scampering back towards the kitchen.
An amused smile decorated Rainbow Dash's muzzle as she flew across the threshold and landed just inside the library. Twilight looked up again from her book, her irritation at the interruption disappearing to be replaced by a smile. "Rainbow Dash, it's great to see you!" She levitated a blue ribbon into place between the pages of her book as she closed it and walked around the stacks of literature she had yet to consume in her studying.
"Well, um... I, ahh..." Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck, her eyes darting to focus anywhere but on her knowledgeable friend. "I kinda need your help with something."
"Anything Rainbow!" This was a rare opportunity to help her friend. Dash seldom came to her with problems. The pegasus treated every problem like a new trick, if she tried enough times, she'd get it right eventually.
"Well, since I'm such an awesome flier and all, I sort of agreed to teach squi- Scootaloo how to fly." Dash looked down at the floor, hiding her eyes with her bangs. "And it's, um, been less than awesome. I was wondering if you had anything that could help."
Twilight wrestled with her emotions, foremost among them being shock. Rainbow Dash admitting she couldn't do something? Something related to flying? Twilight never thought she'd see the day. Twilight worked her mouth a time or two before she could force words out. "I'd be happy to help, but what could I know that you don't?"
"Well, you're always reading books and stuff." Dash absently kicked at the floor. "I figured maybe you read a book on teaching flying and could help me with the little squirt."
"You mean you've never taught flying before?" Twilight's eyes widened. "And you're starting with Scootaloo?" Visions on Dash blowing her whistle while the eager young filly hurled herself off of a cliff flashed through Twilight's mind.
"Yeah. It didn't seem like it would be that hard, you know?" Dash thrust her chest out. "I am the best young flier after all, a future Wonderbolt, the only pony to pull off the Sonic Rainboom." She dropped her head and wing tips towards the floor. "I can't mess this up, Twi. Nopony will take me seriously if I can't help one filly learn to fly."
In the year she had known Rainbow Dash, she had learned a bit about how her friend worked. Dash wasn't worried about being seen as not knowing how to do a lot of stuff. She couldn't bake, couldn't sew, and knew only the barest rudiments of navigating a card catalog, but she knew flying, more than knew it. She lived it and breathed it. She considered herself a master of anything related to flying, from weather control to Wonderbolt trivia. She didn't distinguish between failing at something so closely related to flying and flying itself.
Twilight moved swiftly to comfort her friend. "Dash, teaching something and being good at it are two entirely different things." Twilight rested a hoof on Dash's shoulder. Rainbow lifted her eyes to meet her friend's. "Your flying is amazing, but without real training in teaching, it's extremely difficult to effectively communicate exactly what it is you do to somepony else."
Dash raised one eyebrow quizzically. "But I showed her exactly how I do it." Dash flapped her wings as if demonstrating her technique to the ground bound unicorn. "But she just doesn't get it!" Dash's wings both flared and she stomped her two front hooves. "At this rate it'll take all week before she gets off the ground. Maybe even two!" Dash's ears dropped again.
"If all teaching took was talent at what is being taught, we wouldn't need ponies like Cheerilee." Twilight gave her friend a reassuring nuzzle.
Dash sighed and stood straighter. "You're the egghead Twi, so if you say teaching is different, I guess it's true. But it's totally not awesome to leave my biggest fan hanging; I've got to get her airborne."
"Maybe she's just not a visual learner," Twilight helpfully supplied. "She could be an auditory or kinematic learner."
"A ken-a-what now?"
"Kinematic." Twilight tilted her muzzle up, her voice gaining a confidence that she rarely displayed outside of a seminar. "There are three recognized types of learners: kinematic, those that learn by doing; visual, those that learn by seeing; and auditory, those that learn by having it described to them." She opened her eyes, contentment at having her knowledge help a friend in need pasted a smile upon her face. A smile that flattened as she looked into Rainbow's blank face.
She realized the irony inherent in expecting a lecture, a most auditory means of delivering information, to help her multi-chromatic friend, a prime example of a 'do-er' if ever there was one. Twilight sighed and raised a hoof to massage that spot right below her horn. "You said you tried showing her, right?" Rainbow's nodded. "And you tried telling her?" She paused again to wait for her friend's nod. "Have you tried just having her do it?"
"Yes Twilight," Dash said, annoyance peeking through her voice as she glared at Twilight. She threw a hoof up and rolled her eyes. "I figured I'd just throw her off of a cloud and hope for the best."
"What! No!" Twilight recoiled, her tail sticking straight out behind her. "I meant like a step ladder or a hill first!" Twilight threw her leg out to the side. "Start with gliding or something easy like that."
"Oh!" Dash brightened at that. "That sounds like a great idea! Thanks Twi!" With that, the re-energized blue pegasus shot toward the open sky.
There was a loud thud followed by a waterfall of duller, quieter ones as the speedy flier crashed into the door and caused the bookcases to drop their pulpy cargo. The door had evidently swung shut at some point during their conversation and now Dash had just made up for her rather uneventful entrance.
Before Twilight could ask her is she was okay Rainbow Dash had jerked open the offending door and flown off into the blue sky. Twilight glanced around at the bare bookcases, surveying the extent of the damage. It wasn't the worst encounter with her friends by any means. Twilight resolved to pick up after dinner and turned back towards her desk. She stopped short as she took stock of the pile of books that now covered her work area. Her carefully written notes about speed reading were buried under the pile. On top of the pile she noticed a blue ribbon.
Twilight's ear twitched as a single strand of her mane popped out of place. She tried to maintain her smile and the good mood at having helped a good, dear friend.
"Alright, pipsqueak! We're gonna try doing this a different way." Scootaloo stood on her mentor's back, her helmet strapped tightly in place, a precaution the awesome pony had required of her. "No flapping, you're just working on wing control. Got it?"
"Whatever you s-" Scootaloo was cut off as Dash suddenly shot forward. She struggled to regain her seat and had just regained her balance when her mentor unfurled her wings. The orange filly dove forward and clamped her legs around Dash, just behind her wing joints. The pair was flying now, only about a meter above the ground, but it was high enough.
Scootaloo forced her suddenly weak legs to lift her into a standing position. The butterflies in her stomach were doing the kinds of flips she longed to perform in front of her idol. Those tricks, the loops, whirls, and dives, suddenly seemed like impossible goals. Though the breeze she was feeling was cool against her skin, she found herself sweating. She realized her mouth was dry as she tried to swallow. She knew they were fairly low, she had jumped higher on her scooter, but the ground seemed awfully far away just now. It was moving under them at no more than half of her top scootering speed, but without that wooden board under her hooves she could only think of it as faster than she could sprint.
"Alright!" Dash's voice was hard. She was giving orders now, and her tone said that she expected them to be headed. "Wings, out!"
Scootaloo's wings snapped out almost of their own accord, extending out to either side, leading edge up and pinions spread and cupped slightly. Immediately she felt pressure on her wings as they generated lift.
"Angle them down more," Dash snapped, "or you'll sail right off my back."
Scootaloo did as instructed, her legs suddenly bending under the increased weight. The filly and mare bobbed in the air for a moment as Dash compensated for the suddenly heavier passenger.
"Alright!" Dash order. "Now close your eyes and tilt your wings up until they've got about half your weight." Her voice softened a bit as she added, "Just go nice and slow, get a feel for the way the air moves over them."
Scootaloo's eyes had closed tight the minute the order had left Dash's lips. Excited and a bit afraid, she flexed muscles, shifting her feathers. The change in aerodynamics pulled on her wings and for the first time, she could make a connection between the position of a feather with a change her lift and drag. She continued to move her feathers, rapidly zeroing in on which movements and positions provided lift without threatening to pull her off of Dash's back.
Having worked out enough that she felt confident, Scootaloo did as her mentor instructed, slowly lifting her weight off of her legs. This was a completely different experience from her scooter. There she was always too busy steering or trying to go fast, beating her wings so hard the air became choppy and the only sensations she got was a directionless feeling of moving air. The sensation of the currents traveling around her feathers and the way the air pushed up on her wings tingled in a way she had never felt.
"Good, kid!" Dash's warm voice congratulated her. Hot on the vocal heels came another command from the drill instructor. "Now hold on, we're gonna try banking to the right, right..." Dash held the last word for an eon or two, "...now!"
Eyes still closed, Scootaloo's breath caught as her entire world tilted to the right and her weight suddenly increased. With no visual queues to give away her orientation and the force of the turn pressing her into Rainbow's back, she completely lost sense of down. Panicking, she crouched down until she was almost sitting.
"Stand up!" Dash ordered. "And try to keep most of your weight off of me."
She did the only thing she could do, she tilted her wings like this and then rotated them just a little, pulling her weight away from her teacher. With extreme care she stood. Twice she almost fell, but caught herself, instinctually using her wings to aid in her balance. After what seemed an eternity of balancing on the brink of falling, she was standing. She was unsteady, occasionally having to risk widening her stance to keep from toppling.
Unlike level gliding, this flying required that Scootaloo continuously adjust her wings and feathers. She frowned, her eyes pinched in concentration as she struggled to find the motions that would keep her centered on her mentor's back and let her wings bear the majority of her weight. As the turn deepened she relied more and more on wing movements and less on her legs for balance. She kept this up for minutes, hours, until at last her wings returned to a level flight position.
Scootaloo exhaled and opened her eyes. Her body ached, her wings ached, she was damp with perspiration that the wind was unable to wick away. That had been one of the most exhausting, exhilarating, moments of her life. When had her heart started pounding so hard? She wanted to yell for joy, but she was still catching her breath, she wanted to leap in ecstasy, but she was all too aware of the consequences of that.
"Great job, kid! Ready for a left turn now?"
Scootaloo was ready for a nap more than anything, but she wasn't about to let a second of time with her idol slip away. "You bet, Dash!" It was amazing how clear her voice sounded when her entire body was trembling from a mixture excitement and fatigue.
"Alright then." Rainbow Dash glanced over her shoulder at Scootaloo. Her mouth curled in a smirk she said, "And this time, try not to wobble around so much."
"Whatever you s-" Scootaloo's jaw snapped shut to hold in the shriek she couldn't bear to let loose in front of her hero as Dash suddenly rolled to her left. She had no real time to think about what she needed to do, but her body seemed to know. Her wings rolled, her feathers splayed, as she found her balance before the urge to shriek had died away completely.
She remembered to breathe this time. With her eyes open she was able to see Dash's reactions to small variances in the wind and begin adjusting before she stumbled. This turn was a lot smoother and Scootaloo's face was turned up in a grin instead of pucked in concentration by the time the two leveled out.
Maybe her closed eyes had dulled the impact of the first turn or maybe the cumulative awesomeness had just hit its limit, or maybe even that part of her that pushed the young pegasus to try ever more daring stunts on her scooter reared its head. For whatever reason, Scootaloo couldn't resist the urge to give a little hop and flutter her wings. She couldn't have known that her teacher had been waiting for just such a reaction.
Quicker than Scootaloo could follow, Rainbow Dash rolled out from under her, losing what little altitude she had leaving her young student hanging in the air. She flared her wings and landed, breaking into a light trot.
Suddenly finding herself supported only by her own wings, Scootaloo froze. Her eyes widened and her all consuming smile spasmed into a grimace of fear. Her throat tightened as she began to list to the left.
"You'll do fine! Just remember to keep your balance!" called Dash as she trotted along behind the gliding filly.
Swallowing around a lump in her throat, Scootaloo hazarded a slight wing adjustment; nearly identical to dozens just like it she had made during the previous minute or two. It worked almost the same way it had before, but without her legs planted on Dash's back she over-rolled. Quickly, she made a small correction, and then another, and another. The mask of terror she had sported faded with each successful alteration she made, melting back into a smile. She may have only been gliding, but she was in full control of where she went.
The euphoria of her first conscious, controlled flight made her giggle. Without thinking about any of the things that had weighed so heavily on her mind, the ground and how hard it was foremost among them, she banked sharply, pulling herself into a tight spin. The world blurred around her. She pulled her turn tighter still. She could see the tip or her fuchsia tail in the top of her field of vision.
"Awesome, Scootaloo!"
She faltered. Scootaloo had been so caught up in free flight that she had completely forgotten her idol's presence. Had she been higher, she would have had time to recover. But she had started off very close to the ground and the minute or so of solo flight, flight without wing beats, had cost her most of her altitude. In the instant she was reminded of Rainbow's presence, she crashed.
It was a minor crash as these things go and Scootaloo had had far worse from wiping out on her scooter. She wouldn't even be sporting any scrapes or bruises this time. Still, tears threatened to leak out of the filly's eyes. She tried to hide her face, she couldn't burst into tears in front of the Rainbow Dash. That would be too mortifying for words.
Rainbow Dash's voice was quieter as she consoled the filly. "Don't feel bad kid, everypony wipes out the first time they try a new trick." Rainbow drew herself up to her full height and proudly thrust her chest forward. "Every crash means you're trying something you couldn't do before. If you never wipe out, you're not reaching far enough." Leaning in closer Dash added, "That spin was pretty awesome for your first time solo."
It was just what Scootaloo needed to hear. She pushed herself onto her haunches, surreptitiously drying her eyes on a foreleg as she did so. She came face to face with Dash's smirk. Seeing her idol smiling at her let lose the floodgates.
"Ohmygosh! That was so awesome!" She bounced up onto all four hooves, her little wings buzzed and her grin nearly forced her muzzle off of her face. "I've never done anything like that before! I-" Her voiced seized, there were just too many things she wanted to say. She bounded into Rainbow Dash, propelled forward by her wings. Wrapping her forehooves around the sky-blue mare's neck, she softly said, "Thank you."
Dash placed a hoof on the back f her student's neck and chuckled. "Hey, no problem squirt. It's not like Rainbow Dash, Ponyville's most awesome flier, could possibly leave her biggest fan hanging."
Scootaloo held the embrace a moment longer, until Rainbow Dash began to fidget. Releasing the older pony before she embarrassed both of them, Scootaloo dropped back to the ground. Her first flight lesson had been a complete success! She couldn't wait to tell Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle about it.
Rainbow Dash ruffled her mane, causing her to wince a little bit. Maybe there was a bruise or two hidden under her bright locks. "Well, I'll see you around, kid." With that, Dash pumped her wings and shot off into the sky.
As Scootaloo watched her idol fly off, a realization hit her. She had flown, and that meant the lesson was over. It had been a great feeling, being airborne and under the eyes of the pony she most admired, but now she was back to learning on her own. She was surprised to find that she was very nearly wishing... well not that she had never asked, never that, but perhaps that she had asked for more than a lesson from the future Wonderbolt.
Scootaloo mulled over her conflicting emotions. She had never considered that success would bring such disappointment with it. Would it be like this if she got a cutie mark for bee keeping or something else totally boring like that? She was jerked out of her thought by a light blow to her head. Confused, she looked up to see that Rainbow Dash had returned and was hanging upside down in the air over her.
"Hey, Squirt! You listening?"
Scootaloo almost overbalanced and toppled backwards. "Wha-?" she squeaked.
"I said, 'do you wanna try again?' You know, another flying lesson." Dash mimed flapping with her front legs. "Maybe this time we could get you to work those wings a bit more." When she had not answered after a moment, Dash added, "Well, do ya? Scoots?"
Scoots. Nopony had ever called her that before. She had been given a nickname, and by the coolest, most awesome, most radical pony in Ponyv- Equestria. That alone would rank this moment as one of her top five memories. Combined with the offer to train again with her idol, she was near to bursting from joy.
Her mouth moved but no sound came out. Half a dozen different thoughts all demanded to be voiced at once. Gushing thanks, giddy acknowledge, words of worship, all fought for control of her mouth. She wanted to find some deep, fancy words to express herself, but she wasn't Sweetie. Small tears leaked from her eyes. She blinked them away and settled on the only answer there could be. "Yes!"
"Great! We'll do it next Wednesday, after class." Rainbow Dash wasn't really asking, but 'Scoots' nodded anyway. "We'll have you soaring through the sky in no time." The hovering pegasus gestured towards the filly's scooter. "And you'll be able to ditch the kiddy toys for good."
Dash's eyes were closed as she smiled at her fan, so she missed Scootaloo's smile slipping for a second.
"W- Whatever you say, Rainbow Dash."
Author's Note - Chapter 1
This took entirely too long to write. I think the first draft was several months ago as an entry for the WTG's week 8: A pony teaching another pony a skill. I have more than doubled the size of it, even if it's mostly gratuitous descriptions of flight. I've ALSO added to this story quite a bit and Scootaloo is going to have to do some growing up in the next chapter or two. I hate being mean to her, too many people are.
Thanks to Obscure for the original seed of the idea. Thanks to Cupcakes for the edit passes. And lots of thanks to Cloudy Skies for pushing me to write this and letting me whine at him and bounce ideas off of him.
<3 for All of you.
