//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Living Nightmare // by Autum Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter 11 ___________________________________________________________ The bell rang, ending the school day. I waved goodbye to Miss Cheerilee as I trotted out the door with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Scootaloo had told us she was hanging back to talk to her sister about something and that she’d catch up. As we walked out the school I saw Dinky with her mum and waved to Ms Hooves, who smiled and waved back. “So, who’re you staying with tonight, Stellar?” Sweetie asked as we headed down the road. I look up at the sky, frowning us I try to remember the order Twilight had told me I’d be staying with her and her friends in. “Um... Rainbow Dash, I think.” Apple Bloom whistled. “Scoots is gunna be mighty jealous.” I turned to the Earth Pony, frowning in confusion. “Why would Scootaloo be jealous of me staying at her big sister’s house—?” “And where do you think you’re going?” The three of us jumped and looked up to see Rainbow Dash was hovering in the air above us, her forelegs crossed like a human would cross their arms. “Uh... to play with the crusaders?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure if that was the right answer. Dash snorted and shook her head. “Not a chance, kid. You’re under my care today, which means we’ve got no time to waste.” Waste? Waste why? Why was—? “Rainbow Dash!” We all turned to see Scootaoo running out the schoolhouse door and heading towards us, the biggest grin on her face. “Cheery said okay!” I glanced at Apple Bloom. “Cheery?” She shrugged. “Sisters usually have personal nicknames fer each other. Sometimes Ah call Applejack AJ.” Okay. Sort of explained that, but... what had Miss Cheerilee said was okay? Dash grinned and nodded. “Okay, then. Guess I’ll be giving both of you training.” Scootaloo stopped, cocking her head and an eyebrow in confusion. “Both?” Dash nodded to me. “It’s my turn to look after the little devil.” I wilt a bit. Devil? “Whoa, sorry.” I look up to see Rainbow has flown in front of me, looking sorry. “I meant that in a nice way. You know, how older ponies always jokingly call little fillies and colts devils. I didn’t mean... You’re not a devil, okay, Stellar?” I nodded, wiping the tears that had started to form in my eyes. If it was only a joke, I suppose it was okay. “Wait. I haven’t seen Stellar fly before, have I?” Scootaloo asked, looking surprised. “Strange. You’d think she’d know how, since she practically does when she’s that cloud thing.” I blinked. Fly? Well, I guess it could be called flying when I was that cloud form. Though, it was more like hovering, really. I’d never gone too high off the ground in that form. Dash’s smile returned and she flew up, grinning. “Okay. Sorry, squirt. I forgot you were coming over today. Then again, Stellar did come six days ago and things have been a little hectic to get in order.” Scootaloo nodded, though I could see a little bit of disappointment in her eyes. She must have wanted some one-on-one time with her sister and now I was butting it. “Hey, don’t worry,” Dash wrapped a foreleg around me and gave me a noggie. “Squirt won’t mind. Besides, you’ll both be having too much fun training for her to feel sad.” I struggled out of her playful noggie, then blinked. Training? “Get your scooter, squirt,” Dash said, turning to Scootaloo. “We’ll take both your things to my house, then we’ll get started.” Started with what? Scootaloo nodded and hurried off, returning on her scooter a few seconds later and indicated for me to get in. I nodded and hopped into the wagon attached to her scooter and put on one of the three helmets in there. We said goodbye to Sweetie and Apple Bloom and headed off, Dash flying and Scoots’ wings making us zoom down the road. When we reached Rainbow’s house my jaw hung open from shock and awe. Her house looked like the Greek buildings I’d seen in Disney’s Hercules. It was more like a mansion than a house. But what shocked me the most was it was made of nothing but clouds. How does that even work? Suddenly a ladder made of cloud dropped down in front of us, causing me to jump. “Don’t worry,” Scootaloo grinned at me, getting off her scooter and taking off her helmet. “Rainbow put the ladder in because I can’t really fly yet. This way I can climb up there.” I just stared, trying to understand what Scootaloo had just said. Rainbow had made her a ladder made of clouds, to climb up to a building made of clouds? Seriously? Was Scootaloo insane?! You can’t walk on clouds! You’d fall right through them! How do you even make a house out of clouds in the first place? Scootaloo stepped forward and, to my completely and utter shock, put her hoof on the ladder... without it passing through. Then, to dumbfound me even further, she started climbing up the ladder. I stared, my eyes fixed on the filly climbing up clouds and not falling through them. This was defying all the laws of reality I’d been taught by the Magic School Bus show. This... this wasn’t possible. “So, are you coming up or just gonna stand there all day?” Scootaloo called, glancing back down at me. I shook my head to clear it and, slowly, lifted a hoof to rest on the cloud ladder. To my surprise, my hoof didn’t pass through it. In fact, it was like any other ladder back home. I glanced up at Scootaloo, the question of how this was possible on my face. She grinned. “Pegasi can walk on and touch clouds.” I blinked. Then how come I could when I wasn’t... Oh, right. Alicorn’s have all three, including pegasi. Shaking that from my mind I climbed up, using my mane to hold my saddlebags in place and carry up Scoots’ scooter and wagon. Soon as I reached the top I put the scooter down, before realizing it would fall right through the clouds— only to not. I frowned, looking to Rainbow Dash, who grinned. “My house is made of very special clouds that anypony can walk on, even if they’re not pegasi.” And she couldn’t have told me this earlier because...? I put that aside and Dash showed us to the room we’d be staying in. It wasn’t big, we’d both just fit in there, she must have forgotten to build a bigger room. I watched as she literally made a bed out of the cloud floor. We put our stuff down and followed her out the room and back outside. “So, what exactly are we doing?” I asked as Scootaloo and I climbed down the ladder. Dash grinned. “You two are gonna learn how to fly.” ___________________________________________________________ “Uh... Dash?” Scootaloo gulped, looking over the edge of Ghastly Gorge. “A-are you sure this is safe?” Dash nodded, a confident look on her face. “Sure. Pinkie got me in contact with this strange Pegasus named Fractured Loyalty who used this technique herself. Worked like a charm. Though I really don’t like that her parents called her Fractured Loyalty.” “What does fractured mean?” I asked. I knew loyalty meant never giving up on someone. “It means broken.” I blinked. Broken Loyalty. Did that mean... did this Fractured Loyalty give up on someone? Dash shook her head. “Anyway, we’re not here to talk about some random pony who I still don’t understand how Pinkie sent letter between us. We’re here to start your flight training.” She flew up into the air to a nearby cloud and broke off two pieces of it (I had to rub my eyes to make sure I hadn’t imagined her doing that), then came down and presented the two clouds to us. They were small, big enough for us to sit on either one and hold on with our legs. Turns out that’s just what she wanted us to do. We got onto the clouds and hung on tightly. “Um... what now?” I asked, though I had a bad feeling I already knew. “Just remember to open your wings and you should be fine,” she said, walking up behind our clouds. “Don’t worry. If you fall I’ll catch you.” If we fall?! Before I could do more than realize what she’d just said, Dash pushed our clouds off the edge and my stomach went into my throat as we began falling down, both of us screaming as we clung onto our separate clouds. “Open your wings!” Rainbow’s voice called to us from above. We both did so, though it took a few seconds for me to do so, due to my wings pinning themselves to my body in fear. The moment our wings were out we were both jerked upwards. I blinked as Scootaloo and I became level and slowly glided along the air, the ground of Ghastly Gorge far beneath us. I glanced at Scootaloo, who had a grin on her face that I was sure mirrored mine. “See? Told ya it’d work.” We both looked below us to see Dash flying upside down beneath us. “Fractured said this was how her dad taught her how to glide. I’ll admit, it did seem crazy at first, but Twi told me it’s how pegasi used to train their young in the past, so it must work.” I blinked. Did she just tell us that she wasn’t sure this would work? “This. Is. AWESOME!” Scootaloo cried, looking down at the ground passing beneath us. “I’m flying! I’m really flying!” “Well, technically you’re gliding,” Dash said, dropping behind us and then flying upright between us. “And while you’re both doing pretty good for beginners, there’s still a long way before you’re finished with gliding and we can move to flying.” “Oh,” Scootaloo said, looking down, then grinned. “Ah, who cares? I’m in the air without anypony holding me up! Proved you wrong, Diamond Tiara.” We spent the whole day working on our gliding. It was the coolest thing ever, seeing everything beneath us and feeling the wind in my wings. By the time the sun was starting to set, Dash said we were better than she’d have thought possible, having finished five different lessons in gliding. Dash helped us glide on our clouds back to her house, then let us kick the clouds to make them poof. Dinner wasn’t anything fancy. Rainbow had ordered pizza and orange soda; a Pegasus delivered them a few minutes after we got back. I’d never tried flowers before, but the lilies pizza with tomato sauce was really nice. It was a shame I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it when I went home and became human again. I’d tried flowers back when I was four. They hadn’t tasted very nice back then. When dinner was over Dash should me how to shower in her cloud bathroom. It was... interesting. It was kind of like being in a washing machine, but without the tumbling around. We brushed our teeth, then Scootaloo and I headed for bed. “Sure you two went before bed?” Dash asked and I knew she meant the toilet. “Yes, Rainbow,” we said in a bored tone at the same time. Dash grinned, waving a hoof. “Okay, okay. Just checking. And don’t worry about the beds. Good thing about cloud homes is they purify any liquids that fall in them.” It took a second for me to understand what she meant and I blushed, but before I could tell her off (while also wondering if it was Rarity or Fluttershy who’d told her about my little accident at Rarity’s) Scootaloo took a step forward. “Dash! You promised not to say anything in front of anypony!” she sounded... hurt? The look in her eyes were as if Dash had just betrayed her. Dash merely winked. “Don’t worry, Scoots. I didn't say anything, cos you’re not the filly I was talking to just then.” Scootaloo blinked, before her eyes widened and she turned to me, a look of shock in her face, before she blushed. My blush deepened as I realized what had just happened. Dash had been talking to me because of my accident at Rarity’s, but Scootaloo must also wet the bed sometimes and thought Dash and been talking to her in front of somepony else who didn’t know. Dash chuckled at our blushes and sent us to bed. Neither Scootaloo or I said anything us we walked into the room and got into our beds aside from goodnight, our embarrassment too strong to say anything else.