Chapter Seven

The Wings

A few weeks had gone by since Rainbow Dash had taught Scootaloo the stretches and exercises that would strengthen the flightless filly's wings, and in that space of time, Dash had gone to the Wonderbolt Academy, where she spent those few weeks showing her heroes what she had. Scootaloo could almost feel her heart break when her sister broke the news, but thoughts of her return soon soothed the bittersweet feeling of Rainbow Dash being gone to pursue her dream.

Today was the day that Dash was heading home from her training. With the training finished, the Wonderbolts were now in the process of selecting those few that really stood out. Her vigorous training sessions now over, Dash longed to get home as fast as possible to get on with the lessons she'd administer.

Dash bid her farewells to the friends she had made at the academy, and gracefully lifted off the tarmac. After casually flying off into the distance, away from the place where she usually kept a calm and dominant demeanor, she kicked it into high gear and frantically shot home; she didn't want to keep her sister waiting.

After flying at a brisk pace for a couple of hours, she finally saw her home, Ponyville, just over the horizon. Dash couldn't wait to get back to teaching her sister everything she knew, and one of those things that she knew was that Scootaloo couldn't wait either.

Knowing her hyper-active pink friend would be throwing some kind of party, Dash decided to take it slow when approaching her cloud home. After landing her hooves onto her front porch, she contemplated her moves. She finally resigned, and decided to blindly walk through the front door.

She was expecting her friends to jump out and say "Welcome back!", but nothing could prepare her for the overwhelming amount of sensory information that was shoved in her face.

First, there were her friends and the Crusaders screaming "Surprise! Welcome back, Dashie!", then there was her entire living room festooned with all kinds of party decorations. Streamers, banners, confetti, balloons, and a cake the size of her couch was set upon the coffee table.

But most importantly, a small orange filly was galloping at full speed towards the returning pegasus. Scootaloo leapt the final few feet and tackled Dash to the ground, giving her the biggest hug her little forelegs could muster.

Dash returned the hug, and they remained in their embrace for a few moments before the two let go and stood up.

"I'm glad you're back, Rainbow Dash," sighed Scootaloo

"Me too Squirt, me too," said Dash. She tousled her sister's mane. The seven assorted ponies, including Rarity and Sweetie Belle who had returned from vacation, were staring at the two pegasi with accusing smirks.

"What?" asked Dash. The other ponies just giggled and rolled their eyes as Dash closed the front door. They all knew Scootaloo was something special to the rainbow-maned mare.

The next few hours played out like most Welcome Home parties. Dash was asked a multitude of questions, and she tried answering them to the best of her ability. She was a bit exhausted after her flight, but she was hardened from her lifetime of athletic exertion, so she knew she could keep going for hours if needed.

As the sun set, the once mountainous cake had been devoured and reduced to crumbs. Most of it was put away by the sugar filled tornado of pure ADHD known as Pinkie Pie, and the punch bowl was drank from until dry, along with the other three bowls.

Nearly everyone had left, with only Dash and Scootaloo remaining. They were both lying on the couch lazily; looking at the meter wide cake tin that was still set on the coffee table.

After sitting there for a while just listening to each other's slow breaths, the older mare broke the silence.

"So Squirt, how have you been getting along with your flying?" Dash asked.

"Uh, pretty good," replied Scootaloo, snapping out of her daze. "I've been doing all of my stretches and everything every day since you showed me them, and I really think I'm making progress."

"That's awesome!" said Dash "Here, let's see your wings"

The two heaved their cake filled bodies off of the couch, and Scootaloo raised her left wing to show Dash. Remarkably, her muscle sets were already how they were supposed to be.

"Wow," said Dash with a very impressed tone. "You really have been doing them, huh?" Dash tried turning the orange wing forward and evoked a pained response from her sister when she got them pointed downwards just the tiniest bit.

"Ow," squeaked Scootaloo. "Yeah, I have. You told me that this sort of thing takes perseverance, so the exercises were pretty much the only thing I've been doing besides school, sleeping, crusading, and eating. And I can't ride my scooter anymore, so it wasn't like I had anything better to do, right?"

Dash let go of her sister's wing and looked her in the eye. There was just something about Scootaloo that made Dash proud to call this filly her sister.

"Humph," said Dash. "Well, since you have your wings how they should be already, I guess we can go on to actual flight training, and see about getting you off the ground." Dash tousled the purple mane again. After a short yawn and a glance at the setting sun, she continued.

"I'm bushed after that trip home." She smiled at her next thought. "How about you stay here tonight? My return is a special occasion, after all." The mare then turned to head to her room with the thoughts of her comfortable, soft, warm bed swirling around her mind.

"Wait hold on," piped Scootaloo. "Could we do one more thing before bed?"

Dash turned back to her sister. "Uh sure," she said as she rubbed the back of her neck. "What do you wanna do?"

"Umm, I was just thinking that, you know before the sun sets and all, we could go out for a short flight maybe? I wanna know what going really fast feels like, so I can know what I'm aiming for."

Dash wasn't sure if she could muster the energy, but the look on her sister's face sealed her fate. "Why not?"

The two sisters strolled out onto the front porch, and Dash motioned for Scootaloo to climb on her back. After getting a good hold of her sister, Scootaloo was ready. Dash took off slowly; she didn't want Scootaloo falling off.

"Oh come on, Rainbow Dash, let's go fast!" challenged Scootaloo.

"You sure?" asked Dash "You might fall off-"

"I'll be okay, I'll hold on tight. Just go fast, please," plead Scootaloo.

"Okaayy…" replied Dash. She wasn't sure if she could keep her sister on her back at high speeds, but she was being issued a challenge, so she went with it. Dash began to accelerate slowly at the beginning, but a rumbling groan from her sister was the last straw. She then rocketed away, creating that signature rainbow trail behind her.

After continuous acceleration, they were approaching the kind of speed that granted a Sonic Rainboom. What am I doing?! Said Dash to herself. She then stopped accelerating, and kept a constant speed.

The rainbow streak was slicing through the air, flashing by behind layers of cloud. Then, things started to go wrong. Scootaloo was beginning to lose her grip. Dash could feel the tiny hooves slipping, but she was too late. Before she had had a chance to slow down, the orange filly was swept away by the winds from her back.

Dash flared her wings out, slowing to a hover in seconds. The feeling of the absence of her sister on her back sent chills down her spine. She scanned the surrounding area, below, all around her. After finding no orange or purple, just white, Dash began to worry.

"SCOOTALOO!" she shouted into the clouds. She began to turn fiercely, focusing on portions of the clouds surrounding her, then quickly darting her eyes to focus on another portion of the sky.

"SCOOTALOO, WHERE ARE YOU?!" She was now feeling the deep, icy claws of dread shred their way through her heart. Her sister had probably already hit the ground, her life ending just as it was beginning to get better.

Images of her sister's twisted body lying motionless on the blood-spattered grass began to flood Dash's mind. There's no way her sister could be gone. Dash began to black out, but something pulled her back into consciousness.

"Told ya I'd be okay."

What? Was Scootaloo's voice now haunting Dash? No, it couldn't be, the sentence was so clear. Dash looked around on the clouds adjacent to her, but found no orange fillies. Dash was starting to think that she was schizophrenic.

To her surprise, she began picking up on this strange buzzing noise, but couldn't pinpoint its source. Dash looked in all directions for this strangely familiar new noise, but couldn't find it.

"What's the matter, Rainbow Dash?"

There it was again. This time Dash could tell from where it was coming. She slowly lifted her head to look above her, and found the source of the voices and the buzzing noise.

There was that special orange filly, floating above Dash with her hind legs crossed, forelegs behind her head, and wings buzzing like a hummingbird.

Dash could only stare, dumbstruck and unbelieving of what her eyes were telling her.

"You okay, Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo asked, releasing her relaxed demeanor. Dash was silent, her eyes just staring blankly at Scootaloo.

"Uhhh…Rainbow Dash? You there?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yo…you're…" stuttered Dash, finding a shred of her voice. "You're f-flying!"

"Yep!" responded Scootaloo, relieved to see her sister was okay again. "I've been persevering as much as I can, and look at what I have to show for it! This…is…so…awesome!" Scootaloo did a couple of spins in midair.

Dash could only stare; over encumbered from relief, shock, and her ebbing fear. Scootaloo could already fly? Dash supposed she should stop underestimating her sister's ability to amaze.

The mare, seemingly in a trance, ascended to the filly's level. She slowly and carefully wrapped her forelegs around Scootaloo.

"Don't you ever do that again…" she croaked into her sister's mane. "Ever."

"Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo breathed.

"I thought you died…" The mare was on the verge of sobbing.

The filly was downcast. "I'm sorry," she apologized.

"No, no, it's okay," comforted Dash. "Just don't do anything like that again. I…I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

Scootaloo looked up from burying her face into Dash's chest and into her bright, watery eyes. As much as it pained her to admit it, Scootaloo never really had someone feel this way about her before. "I'm sorry," she half whispered, half sobbed. "I shouldn't have tricked you like that."

"No, Scoot, it's fine. You just surprised me, is all." The two pulled away, and both stayed floating. Dash marveled at the sight of Scootaloo flying on her own. She realized something as she gazed upon the proud filly; something she was afraid to know the answer to. "How, uh, how long have you been flying? I've been gone for four weeks, so I haven't been here to, uh, mark your progress."

"Actually, I figured it out just this morning. I mean, what kind of timing is that?" the filly nervously giggled.

That was a relief. At least Dash could still be there the day Scootaloo started flying, but somehow she felt empty inside. To her, it still felt like she missed out on a huge milestone in her sister's life.

"Well, I…I guess we don't really need to do anymore flight lessons, huh?" said Dash "Now we can just get on with teaching you some cool tricks."

Scootaloo gasped. "Yes!" she exclaimed while doing a backflip "When can we start, tomorrow?"

"Sorry Scoots, not tomorrow," apologized Dash. "I have way too much stuff to get caught up on. First I gotta unpack, then check back in with the Ponyville weather team, and pick Tank up…just a lot of things that need doing. Sorry Squirt, maybe next time."

Scootaloo's face fell. She really wanted to spend more time with her sister, but she understood that there were other things that needed doing. She heaved a great sigh, and sat on a nearby cloud.

Dash fluttered over to her to do yet more consoling. "Hey listen, as soon as I have everything back in order, I'll be able teach you some tricks, okay?"

Scootaloo sniffed, and looked up at her sister. "Okay…" she said.

"Alright, now come on," started Dash. "Let's get to bed, I'm really tired."

The two got up off the cloud. Their heads slowly swiveled and their eyes met. The familiar look in the two sister's eyes foreshadowed coming events. Two pairs of wings shot up, and they were off.

Scootaloo, having only been able to fly for a few hours, was pretty slow. Dash knew this, so she just kept a steady pace with her. After zipping about in the sky, bursting clouds and twisting in midair, they arrived at the beautiful cloud home.

Dash walked through the front door, followed by a panting Scootaloo. "Don't worry, you'll get faster. But not as fast as me!" boasted Dash after closing the front door.

Scootaloo giggled between her huge breaths, and the two walked through Dash's bedroom door, and jumped onto the bed. Scootaloo didn't think she'd need to sidle up into Dash's arms, she wasn't sad or anything, but the older mare reached over and pulled her in close.

At that point Scootaloo knew she'd be with Dash forever.

You all KNEW I'd make her fly, but I don't think you thought I'd do it that soon. More chapters coming up!