Scootaloo rubbed her front hooves together, nervous. The group of five young pegasi stood in a line as a Columbia blue mare, their drill sergeant, explained the many complicated rules of Flight Camp. “I only have one rule: everyone flies, no one fails.”

The orange filly gulped. Despite her frantic mosquito-like flapping and her impressive jumping skills on the scooter, she never really got off the ground enough to get into a proper flight. Her aunt Vinyl had to fly her up in a balloon and drop her off, for pity’s sake! The whole thing made her shiver, but at least things couldn’t be any worse.

Naturally, the sergeant swiftly pierced that illusion. “For the next two weeks, your wings are mine. You will go through arduous training to perfect your flight in every conceivable aspect, culminating in a run on the Gantelope, under the supervision of the one and only Soarin’ of the Wonderbolts.”

Scootaloo gulped again. The Gantelope was every flyer’s worst nightmare, simply because every possible nightmare was on it. It was a course consisting of a ring track, a slalom, a dive, a cog cloud, the works. Even if you were good at a few, there was always something to throw you off. Getting your flyer's certificate would be easy if you could just stick to your strengths, but that was never really an option. As a matter of fact, the course wasn’t really adjusted to match different difficulty levels, only the dive got higher, and the timing got stricter.

“Now, don’t get too scared just knowing that. It’s not all bad. Look on the bright side, you’ve got a way out. Anytime you think I’m being too rough, anytime you think I’m being unfair, anytime you miss your mommy, quit! You sign form 1248, you pack your things, you take a stroll down Washout Lane.” An extended hoof marked the shameful exit doors, kind of obsolete for a place up in the clouds, but still intimidating. The instructor noted the shaking bodies of the young ones.

Scootaloo, however, wasn't shaking. While the rest of her squad was busy thinking about that intimidating speech, Scootaloo's mind went to the time she'd first heard those exact words.

I didn't know Rainbow Dash was a Verhooven fan.

“Now that we’ve made that clear, name call. Scootaloo?” The blue instructor flipped the page as Scootaloo confirmed her presence with a raised hoof.

“Zephyr?”

A lavender colt with a yellow bolt running along darker-hued his tail nodded. He had a cocky grin that Scootaloo recognised from all those ‘Young Elite’ sports colts. His legs were a little longer than hers, and his light blue eyes gleamed with confidence. That, along with the short cut of his violet mane, suggested he was on a provincial-level team, at least. If she had to wager a guess... either a bad apple striker or airborne controller, probably both.

“Rumble?”

That was Scootaloo’s blank-flanked classmate. That is, they shared a class occasionally, most of the time he was in the classroom at the back of their school. Grey with a dark mane that always seemed to flip back and shine like it was greased up, Scoot knew he was alright but she never hung out with him much. He nodded in acknowledgement, a little sheepishly but not shaking like Scoot was.

“Skyron?”

A snow-white colt raised his hoof, then grinned at Zephyr. This one was a little stockier, more top-heavy. His wings were only a little larger than Scootaloo's, but from the looks of it that didn't bother him one bit. Green-eyed and sporting the same hairdo as Zephyr, Skyron didn't follow the style in tail, at least. Where Zephyr sported a long tail to show off that yellow streak, Skyron kept his short. The two of them probably came from the same team, maybe even the same school.

Scootaloo sighed a little, a flightless filly surrounded by jocks, two of which already had a winged bolt and a snowy cloud adorning their rump. Just comparing wing size made her feel depressed.

“Doldrum Whimper?”

Scootaloo nearly burst out in laughter at that one. 'Doldrum Whimper'? What kind of a name is that?

Apparently it belonged to a blue colt with a spikey mane, one of the spikes just hanging over the side of his face as if he wanted to try and conceal his left eye. His dark blue mane and tail still drew the attention to his lighter fur coat, though. His physique was what struck her, actually. If the others looked like jocks, this one looked like a bona fide bullhead. His legs were thick as young tree trunks, and one could just about see little sinews poking out on his back and along the borders of his wings. His wings themselves looked slightly bigger than average, even out of place on a foal. Most likely they'd grown out a little before his body had. His short neck almost made him look like he was on steroids, just barely below that awkward structure that only unnaturally driven or overfed bodies could have. But his face gave him away. Shy eyes with a golden gleam in them, and a few suppressed gulps that had left his expression in an uncomfortable grimace. A big pushover, at first glance.

“Right then, you’re all where you need to be, which just leaves my tardy assistant.” Rainbow Dash looked up from the page in surprise. ”Twilight Sparkle?"

With bright and loud rip in the fabric of the real, the purple unicorn appeared.

“Sorry I’m late, everypony! Derpy asked me to help her fix her fanbase before taking off. That thing’s really taken a beating recently.” She panted and blushed, embarrassed at her own tardiness.

“Yeah, she can avoid the propeller easy enough, but somehow she always manages to crash into the part of the fan that’s not moving. I’d just move the thing away from her front door and be done with it. Anyway, class, this is Twilight Sparkle. Twilight: Scootaloo, Zephyr, Rumble, Skyron, and Doldrum.”

The instructor turned to the last two pages. Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief: there was one upside to all this: she'd get to train with the most awesome pegasus pony in history.

“And for those of you who’ve been living in a cave for the past few years and don’t know me, you have been missing out. My name is Rainbow Dash.”

This was a mixed bag for the girl, truth be told. The prospect of bunking up with four boys wasn’t that scary (there wasn't any real reason to separate them, after all). And at least she’d be getting flying lessons from her big idol. However, if she failed in front of Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo would be an embarrassment to the pony she adored. She really did not want to look bad in front of the most awesome pegasus pony in Equestria.

“Now, for the training. You need to understand that everyone comes in at a different level. This is where you learn to fly officially, so I don’t expect all of you to be able to fly on your own yet,” Rainbow started.

“Wimpy,” someone whispered.

Dash continued undisturbed. “That’s why these lessons are done in smaller groups. We’re going to start by getting some strength in those wings, then when everyone’s nice and warmed up, we’ll get to the first and trickiest part of the Gantelope, the dive. Today you’ll just do one dive. You start slow to get used to the exercise you’ll be getting, after that you’re free to do whatever’s on the schedule.”

Scootaloo tried to steady her racing heart at the thought of it. At least she’d be prepared when the inevitable fail came. Being the only filly in a herd of colts wasn’t helping much, either.

The group warmed up with a few laps of running, Zephyr and Skyron taking an effortless lead with Rumble galloping not too far behind. Whimper trailed behind with a steady trot, and the filly felt a little bad about leaving him behind. She kept herself a little further from the rest, not wanting to make the blue colt feel awkward. The gap between her and the lead widened, though, and soon enough she was behind a lap, then another. She bit her lip when she sped up, determined to at least finish with some respectable time. Not that anyone was clocking her, it just felt that way.

Rainbow Dash sighed, the distance large enough to avoid being overheard. “That Doldrum’s gonna be a problem.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight checked the notes. ”It’s only the warm-up, he’s just pacing himself.”

“I guess you’re right. I’m just nervous about the Wonderbolts, that’s all. I’d hate for anyone to be embarrassed in front of them. What are you doing up here, anyway?” Dash raised an eyebrow.

“I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see how pegasi learn to fly. Plus, I figured you might appreciate my input, since it’s your first time coaching kids.”

“Err, no offense, Twilight, but… no wings?” Rainbow wriggled hers to illustrate.

“Oh, I can’t fly, true, but I have been reading up on flight dynamics for quite a bit. I know the theory behind it, you know the practice. Besides, would you ask anypony else for help if you needed it?" Twilight asked with a knowing smile.

Rainbow grunted. "Do you even know what you're supposed to do up here?"

"Follow your lead?" The unicorn raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"Exactly."

Meanwhile, Doldrum Whimper had finished his laps. Zephyr and Skyron seemed to be muttering something under their breaths.

“Aren’t you going to say something, Dash? I thought you’d want to nip any sort of bullying in the bud.” Doldrum and Scootaloo hadn’t gone fast enough to be panting, but the other three were breathing a little heavily, though the long break they’d had waiting for the stragglers was certainly some relief.

“Not yet, it’s just a little nickname, after all. You need to toughen them up just a little first, let them stand on their own hooves if they can. I’ll talk to Doldrum when he’s alone, Scootaloo too, if I have to. I want them to understand that they need to stand up for themselves, but I’m not about to let them get knocked down if they can’t. Oh, and another thing, not sure if you’ve noticed.” Dash leaned in to whisper before the kids got there. ”Scootaloo’s got a problem with her wings. I’m not sure what it is, she can flap fast as anything, but for some reason she never gets off the ground. Think you can find something to help?”

“I think I can work with that,” she whispered back as they got within range of their class. ”And by the way, it’s 'Whimper', not 'Doldrum'. 'Doldrum' is not something you want to call anyone.”

Dash just shook it away as she went to show them the next exercises. After that brisk run to warm up, she had the little ones stretch their muscles while Twilight watched. As was tradition (and common sense) on Flight Camp, the coach was the one who demonstrated proper form, while the assistant kept a vigilant eye on the students to catch any hint of trouble. It was the coach’s job to make sure they did what they needed to do. The assistant’s job was to make sure they could do it properly to begin with, as well as intervene in case of any trouble, physical or otherwise. The two-pony coaching system meant that if a child had a problem or a medical emergency, it could be dealt with without interrupting the exercise.

Rainbow Dash’s form was flawless, as one would expect from a weathered Weather Patrol member and a trained athlete. She showed them how to do the cat stretch for the upper body, the side butterfly where they lay on their sides and let their outstretched legs or wings stick the ground, then slowly roll so the joints are pressed into the ground with the rest of the body rolling on its back, giving a little pull at the lines of power that run from the base of the arms and wings to the chest. On and on she went, always calmly showing how it’s done, and never just snapping from one position to the next. She was being oddly calm about it, not at all her usual dashing self.

But then, she was trying to set a good example now. Despite her getting edgy when she had to slow down, she couldn’t just go rushing about the place and botch the exercises.

Twilight, meanwhile, kept her eye on the kids. Zephyr, Skyron and Rumble were doing fine, the two young jocks no doubt accustomed to some stretches. Rumble was keeping up nicely, but his range wasn’t quite the same as that of the other two. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, had a hard time stretching her wings, having to stay at an awkward angle through the strain. Twilight couldn’t make sense of why, though. Judging from the speeds Scootaloo got while rushing through Ponyville she had to be more than a match for the jocks in terms of physical shape.

The real shocker, though, was Doldrum Whimper. For being a bit bulky for his age, he followed Dash’s instructions marvellously, even going farther into the stretch than the actual athletes. She made a mental note to ask him about that.

Then came the inevitable push-ups. No one, not even Zephyr or Skyron, was particularly happy about push-ups. They all groaned and grunted as they pushed off, and even more so when they then had to do it again with their wings. Poor Scootaloo was contorting her face in pain, but she wouldn’t relent, despite those little stubs barely having the length required to lift her, let alone the strength.

Rainbow Dash sprang up and smiled at all their tuckered-out faces. “Okay, everyone, take a breather. I’m going to go and introduce you to the nurse, and then we’ll get to diving.”

Scootaloo looked anxiously at Twilight, who just left her to her own devices with a knowing smile. Whimper came trotting over as the other three were boasting to each other about their strength. Rumble -- for never having met the other two before -- seemed to be getting along quite well with them. Whimper pushed the orange filly up from her prone form.

“Are you all right?” he asked. His voice sounded pretty soft for a colt, like he could only really whisper instead of talk. It sounded slightly familiar, actually. The spike of hair hanging low on his face certainly added to the familiarity.

Scootaloo gave him a nervous smile. “Oh yeah, sure. Not like I don’t do stuff like this all the time,” she didn't lie, per se: she was pretty good on her scooter. Besides that, she’d developed a firm set of muscles from her time with the Crusaders, if nothing else from pulling at whatever random sticky substance decided to land on them.

Whimper smiled nervously and looked away, before lightly kicking at the ground. An awkward silence fell between the two.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. The posture, the little kick and looking away, it was nearly identical to when she’d met Fluttershy. “Say, Whimper, could I ask you something? You look like a strong, fit colt. What sort of sports do you do?”

The darker-hued colt seemed taken aback by that. “Oh, umm… nothing, really. I don’t like competition, but everypony keeps telling me I need to keep moving. So I mostly just, um, lug stuff around. I live close to a rock farm and a cherry orchard. Nopony minds me helping out, and my parents always know where to find me.” Twilight had to restrain herself from asking if he was at all related to Fluttershy. The way he talked and moved, it just looked too much of a coincidence.

“What about Zephyr and Skyron?” Scootaloo asked. ”You know them?”

He winced and made a sound that resembled a nervous squeak. “Um, yes. They’re my classmates. They think they’re big shots just ‘coz they’re in the bad apple team. Zephyr’s our captain and a striker, Skyron’s an airborne controller and a feeder.”

Twilight’s ears perked at that. That did explain why those two were in better shape. Bad apple was not a game for the meek, certainly not one for meek pegasus ponies. On fields of varying composition with high and low ground, two teams would attempt to hit each other with rotten apples (hence the name), stored in barrels that had to be knocked open first. Different types of pony had different roles. Pegasi were usually strikers or controllers, either swooping fast in with an apple in hoof or controlling enemy movement by pelting apples from afar, though occasionally some chose to be the feeders who would toss the apples for their team mates to use without the need for giving up ground. In any event, if they did it in a competitive scene, that meant they were a little better at flying than average.

“But you are stronger than they are, right?” Twilight frowned. He certainly didn’t look like the type who’d get pushed around or called names. If anything, he reminded her of her brother, or a young Big Mac. Hay, even Snow Flake, or Horse Power as everyone called him, wouldn’t have been an unfair comparison.

Whimper blushed. “I-I really don’t know, and I don’t wanna know. I just wanna learn how to fly, that’s all.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. No wonder he gets picked on.

Rainbow Dash knocked on the door of the nurse’s office, before entering and poking her head into the cabin. Another door, the smell of disinfectant alcohol and a small hallway greeted her, but no pony. “Hello? Nurse?”

She wasn’t sure who’d be in charge of the medical side of things, since most of Flight Camp was run on a public service deal with some volunteers mixed in. She heard a faint sound from beyond the actual office, though.

She dismissed it at first, because the sound implied something that wasn’t possible. As Rainbow came closer to the door of the infirmary’s main room, she pressed her head against the door just to make sure she wasn’t going insane. The result did bode well for the pegasus’s mental health.

What she heard was the sound of a lyre.

She opened the door and found a lime green unicorn with white and grey mane, the trademark lyre both on her flanks and in her hooves.

“Lyra Heartstrings? What are you doing here?” Dash stopped herself just in time from saying ‘Wow, they’re really lettin’ anypony up into the clouds these days,’ though that would pretty much have summed up her sentiment.

“Hey, Dash, I’m the nurse here. Time to introduce me to your little flight of pegasi, I presume?”

Dash shook her head in confusion. “Hold on, answer my question, please. You’re a nurse? How?”

“I took a summer course, of course. Turns out knowing first aid in Ponyville makes you really popular, really fast.” She grinned.

As much as Rainbow hated to admit it, that made sense. “Okay, so why are you here nursing pegasi?”

“Oh, well, you know how it is with us artists. We need intense experiences or our creative juices run dry. Besides, this was the perfect opportunity to get some time alone with Twilight. You know, I’ve been frantically trying to get her to talk to me for years.” Lyra smiled brightly at her success at such, finally.

“Huh. I never noticed,” Dash offered.

“Neither did she,” Lyra replied dryly.

“But what would you want to talk to Twilight about? She doesn’t know that much about music, does she?” Dash tilted her head in the confusion.

To that, miss Heartstrings put up her best drama face.

“I will have you know, Rainbow Dash, that I am first and foremost a bard, a very capable one at that. I am not merely a musician, I am a mage. My talent is the magic of music, not music itself. My cutie mark also isn't just a lyre, it forms an ancient sigil meaning ‘the breaking of silence’. So yeah, I do have a couple of things in common with Twilight, like most unicorns who study magic. I'm nowhere near her level, of course, but we're still colleagues.”

Rainbow Dash was flabbergasted. She knew she was flabbergasted, Twilight had taught her the meaning of the word after that horrendous ‘Rainbow Paint’ experiment, of which they both promised to never speak again. “Let me just get this straight. You’re saying that your talent lets you do the same things as Twilight?”

“Kind of. Some of the same stuff, but on a smaller scale. Matchstick to a forest fire.”

“And you’ve been trying to make friends with her for years because you’re basically the same, talent-wise?” Rainbow Dash pictured it more vividly than she cared for.

“Also true.” Lyra’s face betrayed not one wit of emotion at the peculiarity of her previous situation.

“Before she even met me and the other Elements? ‘Coz you’re from Canterlot too, right?”

A nod followed. “Yeah. I went to magic kindergarten with her, actually, we used to hang out but we kinda drifted apart when she got Celestia’s attention. You’re getting the picture now?”

“Wow. No wonder you freak out so much.”

“It comes with the territory. So, who are the fortunate souls to get to train with you?” Lyra led the way outside.

“Okay, everypony, meet Lyra Heartstrings, she’ll be in the nurse’s office,” Rainbow Dash announced as Lyra sat down and put on that patented ‘excited slasher smile’ with a wave. For some odd reason, Lyra seemed to prefer sitting on her haunches or standing on two hooves. Rainbow Dash didn’t pay it much heed, probably just her thing. She knew well enough that ponies sometimes did weird things that actually made perfect sense once you knew them.

“Hi, kids! I’ll be tending to whatever bones you break, whatever fevers might break out and any embarrassing bugs that have managed to get up this high scrounging on your skins. Hope to see you in my office soon!”

Such behaviour might get misinterpreted as mere social ineptitude, but there was a reason for her crude approach. It was a time-honoured and very effective tradition at Flight Camp for the nurse to give some ’encouragement’ regarding safety regulations.

But seeing as a unicorn wouldn’t have too much authority on pegasus safety, Lyra preferred a ‘Be careful, or else’ routine. The odd looks this garnered from the young ones told her that all that experience with drama really did have some practical use.

“Right. Anyway, if you need to go to the nurse’s office during the lesson, you have to talk to me or Twilight first. You are not allowed to be away from your group while we’re training, remember that. If you need medical help, talk to us and we’ll give you one of these.” Rainbow held up her left front hoof to show two rainbow-coloured bracelets. Twilight had the same on hers, only they were purple with a star in the centre.

“If it’s not a big emergency, you can go alone, but only if you’re wearing my bracelet or Twilight’s. That’ll tell nurse Lyra here that we sent you. You do not run around where we can’t see you during training. Keep in mind you’re up in the clouds now, we’re responsible for you. We need to know where you are or there could be trouble. During breaks, there’s always somepony on guard duty. But while we’re training, everyone’s scattered in their little groups, so we don’t want any confusion. Are we clear on the not running off part?” Rainbow Dash let her stare go over all five foals.

They all nodded.

“Okay, then we’re off to the Gantelope for some diving practice.”

Rainbow Dash led the way, and Lyra seemed intent to tag along with Twilight. “Shouldn’t you be in the nurse’s office?”

“Don’t worry. If anyone needs me, there’s a buzzer that yells ‘Medic!’ loud enough for all of camp to hear. Besides, if you’re going to be diving, I might as well stand by for practicality’s sake,” Lyra said with a most inappropriate smile.

Rainbow Dash suppressed a groan. She was feeling more than a little anaemic knowing that there were now two Twilights to consider. A third or fourth Twilight would probably suck her dry. Luckily, they arrived at the site before her face turned pale. Dash got into character again.

“Okay. This is the first part of the Gantelope, the dive. As you can see, there’s three clouds, one for every skill level. The bronze certificate you’re all aiming for requires a jump from the lowest cloud and a proper landing. Now before any of you go whining about how even a chicken can make a decent landing --” Scootaloo smiled nervously at that one ”-- you need to understand that this sort of exercise is supposed to prove that you can make it safely to the ground when you’re knocked off course. Winds can kick up at any time, someone careless can rush past you and make you lose your balance. And if you ever get on a Weather Patrol? Trust me, you need this. You’ll also want to be able to keep some of your momentum so you don’t slow down too much as you enter the rest of the trials. In case nopony told you, you’re timed on the Gantelope as soon as you hit the landing cloud and pass through the first ring.”

The little pegasi looked up at the clouds. One jumping platform was about five meters high, the other about ten, the last one twenty, at least. The landing cloud would let one bounce right into the second part of the trial; a line of rings set in a fairly complicated pattern, that would no doubt require some mid-air rolling to get right.

“Now, there are a few ways of going about this,” Dash said in her drill sergeant voice. ”You can open your wings and let yourself glide down in a spiral. That’s what most pegasi will do. You can flap your wings to slow down as you go straight against gravity. That’s usually best if your wings aren’t that big. Either way, you’ll want to make a good landing and then bounce right back up to fly on. And then there’s the Peregrine Dive. The Peregrine Dive is the fastest and the best way of getting down, and it can be summed up in three simple words.”

The little ones all leaned in, except for Whimper, who raised an eyebrow.

“Not. For. You. Letting yourself fall with your wings closed is a risky move when the ground is trying to make friends with you, and you need to know how to get the impact of the landing into your body without causing any damage. It requires the near-perfect coordination and awesome reflexes of a hummingbird to land a Peregrine Dive properly, since you get knocked off course more the sooner you open your wings. Not only that, but of all the ways of landing, it is the most painful one to mess up, since you’re speeding up instead of slowing down the whole time.”

Skyron raised a hoof. “Question: why don’t you just pull up and keep your momentum to go through the rings?”

“Well, the rings on the next trial are placed so that you can’t really get the angle from a spiral or a slowed fall and for the Peregrine… there’s a problem with pulling up from a Peregrine.” Twilight winced at the thought.

The wince raised another question from the snow white colt. “What’s the problem with pulling up from a Peregrine?”

In response, a grey pegasus with a blonde mane came flying down at neck-breaking speed, pulled up, veered off and smashed into one of the cloud walls that were set up around the course.

Rainbow Dash slowly turned her head to look at the crash victim embedded in the cloud. “That.”

Twilight took a deep breath and got into her lecturing voice. “As you’re falling down, the air rushing past will start knocking you back and forth. Remember, the point is not to fly downwards. A Peregrine requires zero wing action right up to touching the ground. As soon as you open your wings and try to pull up, those little knocks turn into a random slam that can send you any which way, and probably injure your wings in the process. Opening them suddenly like that gives you a split second to get all that pressure divided evenly, and that's before you even start steering. Your feathers are numb like hair, keep that in mind. It’s not possible to feel the wind on your feathers, which means you need a lot of sensitivity along your flanks and wings to be able to judge when and which way to pull up. Even an experienced flyer like Derpy here can’t do it just like that."

Said experienced flyer pulled herself off the cloud, seemingly unharmed except for her derpy eyes. “I’m okay, everypony!”

“What’s wrong with her eyes?” Zephyr asked with a grimace.

“Nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her eyes,” Dash replied coldly before changing to a friendly tone. ”Everyone, you might know Derpy, the mailmare. She’s in charge of checking whether or not the equipment is still safe.” Mostly by crashing into it and checking if it’s not broken yet.

Derpy was alright, though, as far as Rainbow was concerned. You just had to set up a few rules when she was around, like keeping an open space for her to stand still in if you had anything fragile exposed, and making sure she understood that she shouldn’t move about. But once you did, she never argued about the little things, and she never gave anyone a good reason to be mad at her. She wasn’t even that dumb, as anyone who tried to beat her in strategy board games quickly learned, doubly so when betting muffins.

Derpy wasn't bad or anything, Derpy was just Derpy.

When the inspector peeled herself off of the impact-reducing cloud, the shape she’d made in it popped out, leaving that of another, smaller pegasus imprinted on it. Twilight gave the cushioning safety clouds around a good look as the blonde mare walked off to finish her other chores. The clouds all had the same imprint on them, or rather the same pony in different postures and positions.

Scootaloo had noticed too, apparently. “Umm, Rainbow Dash? What’s up with those clouds?”

“These cushion clouds are here to stop Lyra from overworking herself if anyone messes up. They are extra soft and fluffy and designed to pop back into shape after anything smashes into them.” Dash gave one a little tap to illustrate. Sure enough, it left an indent that popped back right after.

“Sooo… why is there still an imprint of a pony on them?” Scootaloo persisted.

Rainbow looked up dreamily. “Well, that’s one of the stories of the Camp. You see, these clouds are also used in Flight School, and if you believe the story: there was one student there who always kept trying the coolest, most dangerous stunts and wound up smashing into these clouds every single time. Some say it was dozens of times a day, others say it was hundreds. According to the legend, this student smashed into them so much that eventually every cloud decided to shame her by refusing to reform just once if she crashed into them. When she realised what was going on, she just decided to crash into all of them once. And so that one daring yet horrible flyer is imprinted on them to this very day.”

“It’s a pretty popular camp song, actually. I’ll be sure to teach it to you sometime. You might even hear it from the older camp members tonight.” Lyra grinned.

Rainbow smiled nervously. “Yeah, it’s not a very good song, though. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t sing it this year.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want kids to sing the song? Okay, I’ll make sure the other coaches get the message.” Twilight floated a quill and notepad before her and took note. ”What’s the song called, then?”

“The Ballad of Rainbow Crash.” Lyra smirked.

“Okay, now that we have that awkwardness out of the way, let’s do the exercise. Twilight, if you’d please escort the group to the first level cloud?” Dash suppressed a gritting of the teeth.

Twilight smiled sheepishly. The colts and filly walked up the fluffy stairs and lined up for their jumps, unicorn standing by for moral support.

“Okay, now, no need to be scared. Just do what feels natural.” Twilight offered some helpful yet awfully generic advice.

Zephyr needed no further encouragement and promptly jumped, wings spread wide to go in a steady spiral downward. Skyron came right after, following the good form of his team mate. Rumble tried to follow suit, but wound up having to flap his wings instead, lacking the wingspan and stability to go into a spiral on his first try.

Scootaloo was shaking like a leaf by the time it was her turn. “I-I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Don’t worry, Scootaloo, you’ll be fine.” Twilight looked down with a smile. ”Just try.”

“Hey!” Zephyr shouted from below. ”Don’t tell me you’re chicken!”

“Yeah, can’t get your chicken-wings to work?” Skyron added while Rumble just laughed.

The girl’s face contorted at the embarrassment. Said chicken-wings looked like they were shrinking, in fact.

Twilight sighed. “Look, I know you have trouble flying. I want to help you. But I can’t help if I don’t know what the problem is.”

“Come on! Hurry up and go already, or get Wimpy there to help ya!”

Whimper shuffled his hooves over the cloud, gathering his courage to speak. He sighed. “Don’t worry about Zephyr and Skyron, they just want to get you riled up. They make fun of me all the time. I can’t fly either, not the way I want to, at least. If you need help, I’ve got your back.”

Scootaloo closed her eyes. That was a horrendously corny thing to say, and it was coming from a wimp. A very buff wimp, but a wimp nonetheless. Still, she couldn’t just let it slide. “Okay. Here goes.”

She took off and started flapping her wings like she did on her scooter, hanging in the air with a veritable engine on her back.

And then she plummeted.

The wings did nothing to slow her down, and she couldn’t find the lift or balance to correct herself as she wound up rolling, then diving headfirst towards the landing cloud.

Twilight kept her eye on the flailing filly. She felt sorry for her, doubly so when the colts started yelling to just give up and fall already. She was snapped out of her reverie by a little whooshing sound. She looked left and right, then concluded that since she wasn’t in Maretropolis, that couldn’t have been Superstallion flying past.

Scootaloo braced herself, still flapping furiously and constantly trying to roll in mid-air to get some sort of lift going. She slowed herself down for a few short moments, but that never lasted long and she kept tumbling downward to go headfirst towards the impending cotton pop of a failed landing.

Something bumped into her in mid-air, something warm. She found herself falling with something soft underneath her now. Next thing she knew she wasn’t falling anymore. She was lying still on someone’s back, head faced up, and the thing underneath her had taken the impact. Judging from the size, it wasn’t a grownup, either.

Oh great, Zephyr caught me. Now I’ll never hear the end of it.

Rainbow Dash’s voice came from behind her. “Don’t move. Don’t move a muscle. Scootaloo, you can get off.”

Scootaloo blushed as she rolled off the colt’s back. Then she noticed the three colts standing in front of her. Doldrum Whimper was standing stock still on the cloud. No one had intercepted her from the ground, Whimper had just caught up to her somehow.

“How the hay’d you…” Scootaloo looked up at Twilight. The unicorn shrugged in confusion.

Rainbow Dash circled around the Whimper, inspecting his limbs. She gave his knee joints a few taps to see how stable they were, but he didn’t buckle one bit. His legs were slightly bent, his back was straight, his wings were unfolded halfway, the only thing unsteady were his ears, and that was just nerves about being inspected.

“A-am I in trouble?” He quivered in fear of the consequences if not shaken from his actions themselves.

“Hey, Twilight! Come check this out! Lyra, can you get a camera for me?” Rainbow Dash nearly laughed out loud.

The two unicorns followed the order, albeit a little out of the loop.

“What’s the camera for?” Twilight asked as Rainbow Dash proceeded to take pictures of the colt from every possible direction. Lyra sat on her haunches and shrugged.

“This is just to make sure ponies believe me when I tell them I’ve got a colt on my squad who can do a perfect Peregrine Dive.”

Zephyr rolled his eyes. “It oughtta be perfect, it’s the only trick Wimpy can do.” His tone suggested this wasn't the first time Whimper had pulled it, and that it frequently got a little more attention than it should.

“Yeah? So where’d you learn that, then? Smile for the camera, Doldrum.” Rainbow took his picture as he smiled nervously.

“Umm… just practice on a few farms, is all.” The colt seemed almost embarrassed about his feat. ”Jumping down trees with cherry baskets, stuff like that.”

“Well, that’s a pretty awesome manoeuvre to pull off perfectly. Your posture’s perfect, your landing was flawless, and you didn’t even slow down until the very last second. That takes a lot of guts, kid.” Dash patted him on the back.

“So, can I move now?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Dismissed, everypony, that was good for a first training. I need to talk to Twilight to compare remarks.”

Scootaloo trotted off despondently with Whimper in tow. The grownups turned to each other to discuss.

Twilight’s mouth was almost hanging open. “What just happened? First I see Scootaloo flailing, the next thing I know Whimper’s on the ground catching her.”

“Yep, that’s how fast a Peregrine can be." Dash looked up in thought. "Didn’t even flap his wings to slow down. He must have gotten a lot of practice for that one. But did you see Scootaloo trying to fly? Did you notice anything off about her?”

Twilight exchanged a glance with Lyra. The unicorns both nodded.

“I think I saw something that might be the problem. I’ll have to read up some more on anatomy and dynamics before I can fix it, though. And I’d rather try it when she’s alone, just in case.”

“So what’s the problem then? Her wings?”

Twilight gave Lyra another look, not wanting to overly complicate the issue. Lyra answered her plain and simple. “Nope. Her wings are fine. It’s everything else that’s the problem.”

“Umm, hi, Scootaloo.” Whimper came trotting over to the filly as they made their way to the playground. Most of the pegasi there were already flying around and playing ballgames in the air. Scootaloo grimaced, not in the mood for any flying games nor for a wimpy tagalong colt.

“What, Doldrum?” she asked with a little bit of anger in her voice.

The colt backed away at her sharp tone, his ears flattened in fear. “I-I just wanted to say I’m sorry if I made you look bad. I didn’t mean to, I’ll just… I should leave you alone, I get it." He turned to leave.

“Wait, don’t go. I--” She bit her lip as she looked for the right words. She sighed. ”-- I don’t really have any friends here at Flight Camp. And what you did, you were trying to be nice. You did stop those jerks from calling me names, and I guess I can always get even with you later. Plus, that was a pretty awesome thing you did there. Are you sure you can’t fly?”

“Not like I’d want to, no. I can do a little, but...” He dropped his head low, making that one spike fall in front of his left eye as if he was trying to hide. Scootaloo realised then why he looked and sounded familiar: he was a lot like Fluttershy, in a weird sort of way. Cute, but weird.

She grinned at his shy demeanour. It looked so out of place on his bulk. “Come on, Wimpy.” Scootaloo tilted her head. ”Let’s try cloudwrestling, you and me. I wanna see if you can push me off the edge or not. Oh, hang on.” She turned back. ”I’m just gonna get us something to drink. Is apple juice okay?”

Whimper just nodded as he walked into the cloud arena. “Um, okay.”

After a while, Scootaloo came running back with two cups on her wings. Even if they weren’t strong enough to fly, at least she had some use for the silly appendages. She set the cups down just as the cloud they were on was raised, along with thinly woven walls of mist that made the whole thing look like a wrestling cage. Derpy called out when all the surrounding arenas were ready and a swarm of pegasi took their seats around the setup.

“Okay, everypony, get ready for round one of the Flight Camp Cloudwrestling Competition!”

Whimper’s face went pale, his eyes widening in shock.

“What competition?”