Twilight turned, pangs of guilt searing at her chest, as she demanded her mouth to move, but the emotions coursing through her were too overwhelming. Her legs shook violently, demanding rest, and her head bobbed down slightly as she struggled to stay upright. Her wings sagged, twitching convulsively, the happy arch gone from her tail as it drug along the floor. Silently, choking on a plethora of emotions that were both her own and absorbed from Dash's, she reluctantly watched her friend storm out. Why would I say that!?
After Dash took off, three pony heads popped in. Concern etched deeply into their features as they assessed any level of danger before slowly venturing forth to rescue their princess.
Dash flapped furiously towards her cloudhome. Stupid Twi! I didn't think any of that! Dash beat the air harder, savoring the pain that rippled through her wings. I hate this! I have enough to deal with! I knew going to see Twilight would jack everything up! Dash's house quickly came into view. Scootaloo caught her eye at the edge of the walkway next to an outer pillar. What is she doing? She jumped!? Dash frantically dove on instinct. I won't make it!
Scootaloo nervously watched the the hill leading to Ponyville. Good! Not back yet! Her hoof left the ledge, legs splayed out as she fell. The air whipped through her mane, and smelled crisper and cooler as she picked up speed. Her wings blurred behind her as she fearlessly plummeted with a smile on her lips. The ground came up swiftly at first, but then slowed its advance, and halted altogether for a brief moment before steadily continuing closer. Scootaloo watched, fascinated at how she could almost control how swiftly the ground came up. I'm not falling to the ground. It's coming to me! She giggled ecstatically. Soon, I will be able to make the ground go away, and flip, and twist! She mused in innocent excitement, but for now Dash made the ground disappear for her.
Dash slammed into Scootaloo, unable to fully control her descent with cramping wings as she hit the ground in her trademark roll. Scootaloo, suddenly wrapped in a blue sister comet, screamed in panic, and struggled to get loose. The rope attached to her drew taught, ripped her out of Dash's grasp, and slung shot her up, screaming passed the base of the cloud home. Scootaloo's screams blinded Dash into further panic as she force skidded to a stop, and looked up just in time to see Scootaloo draw taught at the ropes summit, and snap back to plummet towards the ground. I'm such an idiot! Of course she has the rope on! Her heart skipped a beat, hooves scrambled against the dirt as she clamored forward. She's actually going to hit the ground at that speed! With monumental effort Scootaloo flipped over midair, her wings buzzing furiously, the ground angry at her earlier defiance, raced towards her. Dash leapt forward, dived for the impact point, and braced herself. Forelegs outstretched she reached for Scootaloo, and waited anxiously.
Scootaloo fell towards Dash very slowly, and something in Dash's mind refused to click. Is it adrenaline? Maybe I'm so tired I'm seeing things. She's moving so slow, like she's just floating on air. Scootaloo haltingly dropped lower, and Dash was hit by a sudden consistent blast of wind. Finally, the sounds of humming registered through Dash's addled brain. Scootaloo unhitched the rope from her harness, and touched down -oomph- on Dash's chest. Her wings blurred too fast to be seen against the bright sky and a goofy smile played out on her lips as she stared down in adoration for her mentor.
"Scootaloo, how did you? I've only been gone for an hour!" Dash stared up in dumbfounded wonder.
"You taught me."
"No I didn't, I just kicked you off a ledge! If it were that easy we wouldn't need flight training schools."
"No...It's not that. I kinda already knew I could fly a little, but I couldn't practice flying because of all the pain in my stomach. You got rid of my pain, so you taught me to fly. I still can't take off though, or move forward, or..." Dash pressed a hushing hoof to Scootaloo's lips.
"I'm sorry." Despite her anger with Twilight, and the awkward pain of her next words. Dash steeled herself, feeling almost calm and detached from her emotions. She let her head rest back, and stared at the cloudy sky. Briefly she mused at how the slacking of her weather team was not lost on her years of experience. "I'm so sorry."
"What? Why? Oh, the whole panicking thing again? Yeah, I kinda figured you would," Scootaloo laid down on Dash's chest, her chin resting on the curve of her sister's neck. "I was trying to watch for you, but I never saw you coming. So you wouldn't have to worry, but I guess I screwed that up."
"There you go again. Worrying about everypony else." Dash took a long deep breath, Scootaloo flapped a few blurry times to keep her balance on Dash's chest. Then she let it out in one big blast, steeled her resolve further, and just said it. "I can't train you."
Scootaloo recoiled with a deadpan, "what?" As she swiftly removed the harness to toss it aside.
Dash met Scootaloo's painful gaze straight on, refusing the urge to look away, and steadily continued. "I've taught hundreds of pegasi how to fly, improve their skills, and how to do tricks even. I just..." Dash reflexively looked away, and forced her eyes back to Scootaloo's, pain and uncertainty etched on her muzzle. "I never cared about them...well of course I cared...but they didn't mean anything...well kinda...but not the way you do...you mean way more to me...and..." Dash stumbled awkwardly over her words, feeling the intensity of Scootaloo's gaze seer through her.
"I don't understand." All that was perky in Scootaloo drooped. "What do you mean? You can't train me because I mean something to you? What do I mean to you then? Can we fix that? I can be more annoying!"
Dash chuckled despite her agitation. "No Squee-chi, you couldn't possibly be more annoying." Dash wrapped her forelegs around Scootaloo's neck, and pulled the filly into a squishy hug. Scootaloo broke down. Her little filly wings shaking with the sorrow of her sobs as she cried into Dash's chest. With another sigh Dash settled for an uncertain half truth, the full truth being too painful to say out loud. "I want to be your sister, and I want to be your mentor, but I don't know how to be both. I'm sorry Scootaloo."
"So you are just giving up on me?!"
"NO!" Dash held Scootaloo's head, forcing her to lock eyes. "I will never give up on you! I will always be your sister. I will hire a personal flight trainer just for you. I will be with you every step..."
Scootaloo cut her off. "I don't want a personal flight trainer! I want you! I've always dreamed of being trained by you. I thought my dreams were all coming true! I thought that dream meant something to you! If I don't learn to fly from you then it doesn't mean anything, and I can never be the best! You have to train me so I can fly by your side in the Wonderbolts!" Scootaloo broke down completely, forcing her way out of Dash's embrace.
"Scootaloo, okay! I get it, I understand." Dash closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Your dreams mean a lot to me. I want to fly by your side too. Trust me. I know about dreams. We will find a way."
"No!" Scootaloo shook her head vehemently. Dash recoiled, confusion etched across every feature. "I don't want you too! Not if you don't want to! It doesn't feel right anymore. I always wanted you to train me, but I want you to want to do it to! Do you even want to not because I want you to?!"
"Uh-whaa?" Dash wasn't sure how to answer exactly, or if she understood the question. Wait, was that even a question? Scootaloo stomped on Dash's stomach -hyurrk-, hopped down, spun around, and bolted for town. Dash called after her, "Wait Scoot! I want to! I..." Dash turned to get up, and follow, but suddenly her limbs felt thick and heavy. Why am I such an idiot! "I do want to..." She said meekly to herself as she flopped back to the ground, stared up at the sky, and tried to rub away the increasing pressure behind her eyes and the tender spot in her gut. I can't even cry anymore... She threw an avenging hoof to smash at the abandoned harness.
Twilight paced in circles, wearing a groove in the floor of the library. Rarity, and Applejack sat on the stairs leaning on each other sleeping from exhaustion. Spike sat and watched Twilight, yawning, and munching on a few crystals before bed. "You know Twilight, you could just go, and talk to Rainbow Dash." He glanced over to Rarity who had suggested that exact same thing some fifty times.
"Spike that's the worst thing I could do! I will just screw it up." She looked around at the mess the library had become. As per her usual panic stricken frenzied knowledge search, haphazardly discarded piles of books littered the floor. "I found all kinds of communication, self help, and emotional coping books. However, I'm too emotionally distraught, and can't focus enough to read any of them. How could I possibly go over there completely unprepared like this?"
"Well first of all," Spike conjectured, "you already screwed things up pretty bad. I doubt you could make them any worse." Twilight let out a growling exasperated sigh, her head lowering in frustration. "Second of all, I really doubt you could find the answers in any book anyway, and since you can't focus on reading it's kind of pointless for you to keep trying. Third and finally, your friends," Spike waggled a claw at Applejack and Rarity, "are completely exhausted, and who knows where Pinkie went."
Pinkie busted through the door, sending Rarity and Applejack tumbling in surprise off the stairs, and onto the floor. On her back she carried a tray of muffins. "I'm baaack! And I brought my power energy muffins!"
"Oh thank Celestia! I pegged you fer passin' out in an apple barrel by now." Applejack sauntered over and snatched a muffin off the tray.
Pinkie giggled, "I gave one of these to Derpy once, and her eyes straightened out for a whole hour!" Pinkie cross waggled her eyes in demonstration making everyone present giggle despite the permeating sombre mood. "Sorry girls, it takes some special ingredients to make these. I had to stop by the Everfree to pick some specialties up since the stores are all closed."
Rarity startled dramatically, a hoof shooting up to her mouth in shock. "Pinkie! How could you go into the Everfree at night alone. Whatever would we do if you got hurt? You could have been ravaged by vicious wild animals!"
"No doubt she laughed them into their places." Applejack said dryly.
"Applejack, don't encourage her! This is serious Pinkie darling, you could have really been hurt. At least take a friend next time." Rarity placed a concerned hoof on Pinkies shoulder.
Applejack snickered. "Bet the poor vicious beasts never knew what hit em."
Rarity shot her a serious pony glare, but Pinkie intersected it. "Oh, would you two relax? Of course I took a buddy, silly filly gumdrops! Fluttershy came with me!"
Twilight dropped her books, and stared at Pinkie in disbelief. "You, alone, got Fluttershy to enter the Everfree forest in the dark?"
"Yeah, it was easy. I just told her you, and Dashie were having a fight, and I needed some herbs for some muffins so we could all stay up long enough to read to you the books that you can't read anymore because you are an emotional wreck right now, and she totally helped because she was super duper worried, and wanted to do whatever it took to make things better because she felt guilty for not talking to Dashie earlier when she saw the signs Dashie needed a good talking to!" Pinkie panted in exhaustion.
Rarity lifted a brow. "Well that was nice of her." She made a play of looking around Pinkie. "Not to be nosy, dear, but where did she go? We could have really used a fresh opinion on this problem and this is kind of her area of expertise."
"Oh she said she was going to go over to see Dashie, and set her straight for hurting Twilight's feelings."
Pinkies hair was blasted back as everypony in the room yelled at once, "WHAT!?"
A purple blur dashed out the door, leaving the rest to stare in shock. Pinkie stared back at the tray. "Well at least she took a muffin. So, we are going to follow her right?" Nods were given, energy muffins were woofed, and three concerned ponies and a suddenly wired jittery dragon bolted out the door.
I want to solve this problem! Back off Fluttershy! Twilight gasped at her own thoughts. "I don't really think that! I mean I want to solve this problem, and help my friend but I can't possibly be jealous of Fluttershy." She mumbled around the muffin as it worked it's energy giving magic into clearing up her sleep deprived thoughts.
Twilight munched on Pinkies muffin for as much reason to quell the queasy sick in her stomach as to sate the ravenous hunger tearing at her for not eating all day. Her wings buffeted the air around her and propelled her towards Dash's cloudhome. A little too swiftly. I need more time to think! I couldn't read anything today, and the others tried so hard but they read so slowly. I need to think. Okay, I don't have any good book knowledge on the subject. So what about... Twilight went over every single memory of the past two days that she had gleaned from Dash, trying her best to skim over the hurtful thought's Dash had before visiting that afternoon. Uhg, I have covered every sickeningly sweet moment she, and Scootaloo shared. It all comes back to what Scootaloo called Dash this morning. I even feel like taking Scootaloo home, snuggling with her, and calling her Squee-chi! What am I supposed to do? I can't even figure out how I would fix this if I were in Dash's place. Twilight growled, Gah...I don't want to be emotionally useless! I'm such a bad friend! Fluttershy is going to make everything better, and I will stand there useless because she's so much better than me.
"Wait!" Twilight stopped in mid air, falling slightly as she forgot to flap, and quickly recovered with renewed determination. "I get it now, Dash's thoughts earlier were as random, and pointless as my own are about fluttershy right now! Dash didn't mean any of that any more than I think bad about Fluttershy." Then why do we think them? Twilight shook her musings off. "I have more important things to think about!"
She reworked through Dash's memories one last time trying to pick out anything at all that would help. This time she focused on memories that didn't have to do with Scootaloo. Dash and Fluttershy's conversation came to mind. That's it! I have been looking at it as if I were Dash! I can't solve her problems myself I just have to fix the problem between us so she can focus on her issues. Wow. Fluttershy really is the princess of emotional trauma therapy! Twilight flapped hard and fast, nearly running into Dash's door before she could stop. Hold on Rainbow Dash! I can be your sister too you know! Her hoof went to knock, but the door creaked open, falling off a hinge as it swung inwards. Twilight peered in hesitantly "Rainbow Dash?"