Chapter Two

The Lesson

"Alright Scootaloo, since I'm your only family, I guess the decision is up to me!" said the older mare, striking a pose that lit up Scootaloo's face. "And I have decided that I'm going to have you flying by the end of next week, starting now!"

Scootaloo was a bit taken aback. Her idol wanted to start now? She still could not believe how willing Dash was to get to know her. "O-okay, Rainbow Dash, I guess we could start now, but why so soon?"

"Well we need to start soon so you can fly soon," said Dash. "This sort of thing takes perseverance. You won't just wake up one day and fly, you need to practice."

Dash motioned for Scootaloo to follow her out into the field. "Let's start with you showing me how long you can stay airborne."

Scootaloo slowly unfolded her wings as she joined her companion. The small orange apendages had been kept shut for hours, so they were a bit stiff. She shook them to get the kinks out, then she began beating them fiercely like a hummingbird. Scootaloo jumped in the air and stayed there for just over three seconds before feeling her hooves touch back down onto the grass. The orange filly looked down and let out a sniff. Dash saw this, and persisted.

"Hmm, you should be able to stay in the air for longer than that at your age," said Dash, provoking a distressed look from Scootaloo. "Here, let me see your wings".

"Wh-What? What's wrong with my wings?" asked Scootaloo, fearing the worst. She lifted her left wing, and Dash took it in her hooves. She inspected it for a moment before finding an abnormality.

"Oooh, yeah, I see the problem," said Dash causing Scootaloo's eyes to shoot to the small orange wing.

"What's wrong…are they broken?!" asked Scootaloo with distinct worry in her voice.

"No, they aren't broken, it's just that the muscles in your wings are developing wrong." diagnosed Dash. She let go of the wing and took the other, finding the same problem inverted. "See here, these muscles," she pointed to the front underside of her wing, "they're really small. The same thing is on the other side too. And here, look at these ones," she pointed to the back underside of the wing, "these are wicked strong. Both of these muscle sets need to be pretty much the opposite of what they are now." Dash took a moment to ponder what could have caused these strange deformities. One look at the blue scooter propped up against the tree gave her the solution.

"Oh...I think I know why," said Dash as the realization dawned on her.

"What…what?! Why are my wings like this?" demanded Scootaloo, prodding Dash for information.

"It's because of your scooter. You've grown your muscles for scootering, not flying." Dash noticed that this news looked to be a bit much for Scootaloo.

"Wh-What does that mean, though?" asked Scootaloo.

"It means that riding your scooter all the time has grown your wings for it," said Dash. "You haven't allowed your wings to grow naturally. They're not really built for flying anymore; the muscles needed to get off the ground are mostly unused. Instead the muscles for scootering are strong. Here's another thing, try turning your wings forward."

Dash turned her wings as she said this, only able to point the top side down a little bit. Scootaloo followed suit, and found that she could point the top side down almost all the way. This surprised Dash; she hadn't known just how much Scootaloo's wings had adapted for her scooter.

"Woah. Yeah, you see? There's another thing. You shouldn't be able to do that. See how I have mine? I can't turn them that far." Worried looks hung on both of their faces. "Here, I want to see something else"

Dash flew over to the little blue scooter propped up against the tree, picked it up, and set it down in front of Scootaloo.

"Okay, now what I want you to do is get into a starting position, okay?" requested Dash. Scootaloo climbed on, and got into position. The filly put her front legs up onto the handle bars, and pointed her wings the way she normally has them. She never noticed that her body, almost fully upright, was parallel with her wings being pointed all the way behind her.

Fully conceptualizing her handicap, Scootaloo reluctantly let a single tear streak down her face. She turned away from her sister so as not to reveal her distress. Dash saw how Scootaloo had her body positioned, along with the tear, and attempted to live up to her honorary title as "big sister."

"Hey, this is something we are trying to fix, and we haven't even started fixing it yet," she said. "There are going to be contrasts from here to the end. So with that in mind, stay strong and we'll get there, okay?"

Dash wrapped her hoof around the filly for comfort. Scootaloo calmed down enough to co-operate, and narrowed her eyes. "Okay, Rainbow Dash, I'll be strong. Let's just get this done, okay?"

Dash was surprised with how easy that was. She was proud of herself in the way she was able to calm her sister. It was a well-known fact among the residents of Ponyville, and to Dash, that she will never be the touchy-feely, compassionate type in any random group. The idea of her being able to set her sister at ease filled Dash's heart with pride.

"Alright then, let's do this. You start going on your scooter, and I'll hold on like this so you don't go anywhere." said Dash, wrapping her hoof around the front end of the scooter. Scootaloo nodded, and began beating her wings as hard as she could.

Dash severely underestimated Scootaloo's strength. Before she knew it they were five yards away, with Rainbow Dash still holding onto the scooter. She grunted as she slowly got up. The mare dusted herself off, and thanked Celestia she wasn't hurt too bad.

"Ohmygosh! Rainbow Dash, I'm so, so sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" apologized Scootaloo, thankful that her idol wasn't too scraped up. Rainbow Dash laughed it off, and winced as she touched a sore area on her foreleg.

"It's okay, I've been through worse. Besides, that was my fault, I should have held on harder." Dash winced again as she touched another spot. The two sat back down on the cool grass after returning the scooter to its resting place.

"But that wasn't a failure," began Dash. "See, now we know where all of your wing power is going. My guess is that if you never even touched a scooter you'd be flying almost as fast as me by now. Well, almost as fast." Dash chuckled as her signature ego resurfaced.

Scootaloo's face lit up at the concept. Her wings weren't broken; they were just…misused. She felt disappointed in herself for deforming her wings and, through using this odd technique as a pass-time, further exacerbating the problem. When she found the scooter, she wasn't that fast as she simply used her legs. Yearning for higher speeds, the filly improvised and began using her wings. Riding her scooter in this manner granted the adrenaline-filled, high velocity rush that she desired. Scootaloo had been riding this way nearly every single day since then, and she was mad at herself for doing so.

Something else was amiss, and it took Scootaloo a minute to figure out what it was.

"Rainbow Dash, how come you know so much about flight training?" she asked innocently, wanting to know if the pegasus had done it before.

"Oh, that?" started Dash. "It's nothing. I was just a coach at a flight camp for a few years before I moved to Ponyville."

Scootaloo's expression shifted wildly from shock to sorrow. She now knew that, for one, Dash had the tools needed for teaching her how to fly this whole time. But what upset Scootaloo the most was the fact that she was not the first of Dash's students. "Oh," mumbled Scootaloo. "Ho-how many have you trained?"

"Oh, too many to count." started Dash. She picked up on the filly's real question, and answered it as well. "But don't worry, none of them matter as much to me as you do."

Scootaloo's looked up hopefully into the pegasus' eyes. Dash reached over and playfully tousled the magenta mane. She was really getting the hang of this comforting thing, feeling that at this point that she could calm any emotional storm.

"Okay," started Dash. "We're down to a tough decision. I can't remember what the word was, but basically you have to decide between two things, and you can't have both." Dash inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, preparing herself for the decision she was about to force Scootaloo make. "You can either stop scootering altogether, and learn to fly, or you can keep scootering, and most likely never fly."

Scootaloo's world was shattered. Before today, she didn't know that the thing she loved doing most was keeping her from doing the thing she wanted to do most. Momentarily losing her voice, Scootaloo weighed her options.

"I…I…I don't know which one to choose. Riding my scooter is just what I do, I can't just stop!" Scootaloo then stared blankly as she made a harrowing realization. "It's the only thing that I…that I'm…good at…"

Dash scooted over to the downcast filly and wrapped her wing around her. She noticed small drips of water disturbing the grass below the filly. [i]"We're not scheduled for rain today."[/i] thought Dash to herself. She looked up to the sun-lit sky to find it empty save for a few wisps of cirrus scattered about. After understanding where the drops of water were coming from, she lifted her wing and slid her foreleg around the weeping filly as well.

"But at the same time," Scootaloo began in a croaky voice. "I want to fly, up in the clouds, and be free. An-and I want to fly with you, and get close to you as you teach me all your awesome tricks." Scootaloo looked up at the pegasus above her. "I can't have both?" She really hoped she could, but deep down she knew she couldn't.

"I'm sorry Scootaloo," apologized Dash. "You can't have both. In order to start flying, you need to grow the muscles needed for it. And since they'll be in the way, you're gonna have to shrink the muscles you use for your scooter. I'm really sorry Scootaloo, but you have to decide between one or the other." Rainbow Dash looked at the upset filly and saw the amount of turmoil she was going through.

"I…I don't know what to do," said Scootaloo. "I want to fly so bad, but riding my scooter is what I'm good at."

Scootaloo knew that this was going to be one of the hardest decisions she will ever have to make, but she was happy that Rainbow Dash was there to help her every step of the way.