Chapter 1

"I can't do it...RAINBOW!" The little pegasus hurkled as she plummeted from the top of Ponyville's clocktower toward the hard earth beneath. Recovering quickly from Rainbow’s surprise shove, her stunted wings worked their hardest, the muscles at their bases burning through her feathers. Though Scootaloo's effort succeeded in slowing her descent, gravity fought back viciously and the filly felt fear and sweat soaking her coat as her exhausted wings gave out. Her trembling eyelids kissed, her eyeballs too terrified to perceive her impending, crushing destruction. She had always known this would be how it ended. She had had plenty of nightmares about it. Nightmares brimming with deep red blood and broken wings, snapped feathers. Nightmares even Princess Luna couldn't mute.

The little crusader's defeat was, of course, prematurely admitted, as her surrogate sister acted as her name would imply, dashing to catch her. With the filly safely on her back, the two returned to the darkening sky and soared over to a nearby cumulus. Still shaking, Scootaloo rolled onto the cloud and took up a clump of it in her hooves, using it to conceal her tear-stained face. The setting sun cast its rays over her tiny form, drawing dark shadows in the threads of her mane.

"Hey, kid, come on! I was never gonna let you crash. You know that! What kind of sister do you think I am?!"

Scootaloo nodded in response, but followed it with a deep, throat-scratching sob.

Rainbow flicked her tail nervously, glancing around to ensure nopony else was nearby. Then she hunched down and ran a hoof through Scootaloo's wind-swept mane. The shadows disappeared as the thin hairs smoothed out under Rainbow's loving caress. Her little pony sniffed hard with her muzzle still in the cloud, and Rainbow could tell that she was trying to stop her crying - trying to be the brave pony that everypony else would like. The mare knew her sister was always trying. Trying to be fast, like her. Trying to be strong, to be tough, to be cool. And nature fought against her efforts in the cruelest way - by keeping her grounded, and without a scrap of confidence. Rainbow wanted to help her, but every move she made was just another error. After all, what kind of sister would push the poor girl off a clocktower?

After brushing her eyes dry, Scootaloo gently pushed away Rainbow's hoof and stood up, her scrawny legs trembling as the breeze tickled her wings.

"Listen, Scoot. Why don't we go h-"

"Let's do it again." She turned her deep, violet eyes to Rainbow's ruby ones and threw determined force behind each word. She wasn't about to give in to her fears. Not tonight. She could fight them by herself, and she believed with earnest that in order to please Rainbow Dash, that is what she had to do.

"What? No, kid. That wasn't cool of me. Let's call it for tonight. We'll try something else tomorrow."

"Let's do it again!" Scootaloo's cheeks blushed and she started for Rainbow's back. Rainbow frowned and spread out her wing to halt the angry filly. Frustrated, however, Scootaloo took a few blue feathers between her teeth and tugged them out, spitting them out bitterly. This only mildly irritated Rainbow, not really hurting her at all. But she wasn't about to let her get away with it.

Setting a heavy hoof back on top of Scootaloo's head, this time to keep her down, Rainbow ordered her to stay still. "I know you're startled and disappointed," she consoled, "but don't let it get to you, squirt! Settle down!"

But Scootaloo only shook her head and leapt once more for Rainbow's back. A puff of cloud caught her right hindhoof in this attempt, and she tripped into the bigger pony's long legs, which buckled at the suddenly introduced weight. Caught off guard and unable to maintain her balance, Rainbow Dash wobbled and tumbled, with a quick yelp, off the edge of the cloud.

Of course, as one of Equestria's very best flyers, Rainbow had nothing to worry about. But Scootaloo was instantly met with her own traumatizing visions of falling through the cold sky as she watched her beloved sister disappear, and she gasped and bolted straight off the edge after her, in an ill-conceived attempt to battle the nightmares. Nopony else was going to do it for her, after all, she thought.

Tears again flooded her eyes as the wind whipped her body. She was flying vertically. She imagined the hard ground below them, and the impact their bodies would make when crushed between it and gravity's constant force. She saw again the dark scarlet blood and felt her useless wings bent in disturbing twists, utterly destroyed by their own failure.

Rainbow had already recovered and was lying on her back, in the air, with her wings fluttering to keep her above ground. When Scootaloo's flailing body struck her stomach, Rainbow grunted, but was able to stay afloat, with the cowering pony clinging desperately to her ribcage.

Openly sobbing, Scootaloo looked back into Rainbow's eyes and choked, "I-I thought you were le-leaving. I th-thought that y-you-" She finally gave in to her tears and allowed them to dampen the soft blue chest beneath her. She submitted herself to the nearly set sun and the dark night and its promise of dreams of failed destinies.

They drifted slowly back to the earth, and Rainbow circled her forelegs around her quivering sister. They lay in silence for a while before she nuzzled her short, tangled mane and the two began to make their way home, walking most of the way. Rainbow Dash glanced down every now and then at Scootaloo, who continued to stare, broken, ahead of her. Releasing a silent sigh, Rainbow set to coming up with a way to teach her little sister that there were certain things that she didn't need to try to do alone.

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