Execution
“I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. It just makes so much sense!”
Rainbow Dash was in a particularly good mood. Nearly a week had passed since Scootaloo's last flight, and Nurse Redheart had reluctantly cleared the young pegasus for more lessons. Scootaloo hadn't even been hurt after that crash, really, just a little sore. And she certainly wasn't blaming Dash for not teaching her how to turn.
Unlike some ponies, anyway. Dash peered over the edge of the cloud at the beach below, searching for the dark purple unicorn whose cutie mark should have been a lectern. She loved Twilight, she really did, but sometimes that pony could be an aggravating little...
Aha! There, near the water's edge, a spark of sunlight was reflecting off a pair of binoculars held in front of a certain filly's face. Feeling smug, Dash waved down at the pony.
“Hey! Twilight!” she called. “Thanks for coming out to help!” She held a hoof over her mouth and snickered. As if Twilight could be of any help from down there.
Behind her on the cloud Scootaloo was having the time of her life. It was a thin cloud, and the young pony was stomping holes in it with her hoof to peer down at the lake below.
They were much higher than the balcony. The cloud Dash chose for their exercise was at least a thousand feet above the lake, drifting slowly away from the beach in the gentle summer breeze. Below them ponies were splashing in the water or lounging on the beach.
The balcony was a good start, but it lacked two important components, Dash had realized one night. First, it wasn't very high. Second, it was over the ground; hard, unforgiving ground.
The lake, on the other hand, was much softer. You still didn't want to slam into it at full speed, as Dash had learned years before, but it definitely beat running into the ground. Or trees. Or houses.
And so, on the first day Scootaloo was allowed to fly again, Dash carried her to a cloud high above the lake, to review what they had learned.
“I am such an awesome teacher,” Dash said quietly, looking down at the beach.
“Huh?” came the curious voice of Scootaloo, right behind her.
“Ah!” Dash jumped into the air and spun, hovering a few feet above the cloud. “Ahaha, just talking to myself. Anyway, are you ready?”
“Of course!”
“Okay, what are the four forces of flight?”
“Uh, lift, gravity, drag, and... uh...” Scootaloo screwed her face into a squint, trying desperately to remember their lessons.
“And?”
“And... speed?”
“Hm, close enough. Now, it's a hot day with the sun out. What's that mean for the air?”
“It's thinner, so I'll need more speed to generate the same amount of lift as a cold day. It also has less oxygen, so I'll get tired faster.”
“Right! Now, winds?”
Scootaloo looked up at the higher clouds. “Light, generally from the west, but blowing from the lake onto shore down near the surface.”
“Good. Flight plan?”
“Big circles over the lake. Only flap for thrust. Try to maintain altitude as long as possible. Land in the shallow water near the beach. Oh, thrust! Thrust is the fourth force, not speed.”
Dash grinned. “Not bad. I'll be on your wing, and remember, this is a long flight. If you try to hover you'll just wear yourself out, and then it's a long way down.”
The young pegasus gulped audibly, then nodded. Together then stood at the edge of the cloud, staring down at the lake far below. Neither moved.
Several minutes passed. From below the two were visible only as tiny dark dots on the edge of one of the lower clouds, unless one had binoculars, in which case they were slightly larger blue and orange dots on the edge of the cloud.
Dash glanced at the filly beside her. Scootaloo was trembling ever so slightly, her wings held stiff and frozen out to her sides.
“You know,” the blue pony said quietly, “Not many ponies here know this, but the first time I tried flying I hurt myself very badly. It was a month before I could even walk again, much less use my wings.” Beside her Scootaloo had stopped shivering, and appeared to be listening as she stared at the water.
“The next time my parents tried to take me to fly I was terrified,” she continued. “I didn't even want to try jumping from trees, like most young pegasus ponies do. I figured I could just spend the rest of my life on land, like a unicorn or earth pony.”
She laid down on the cloud, her forelegs and head draped over the edge. “Finally one of my friends, who hadn't started flying yet, asked me for help. He said that if I could survive a crash like that, then I must've learned something important.”
“Is that why they call you 'Rainbow Crash?'” Scootaloo asked quietly, now also lying down beside her.
Dash scowled at her. “How did you... ugh, nevermind. Anyway, even after seeing what happened on my first flight, he still wanted to fly and trusted me enough to help him. So we both went to the edge of one of the clouds in Cloudsdale, closed our eyes, and jumped together.”
Scootaloo stared at her, eyes wide as saucers. “And? What happened to you?!”
Dash stretched her legs and wings and stood back up. “That doesn't matter, squirt. What matters is that we jumped.” She gave the young pegasus an expectant look.
Scootaloo thought about that for a moment. Then, without further hesitation or doubt, she stood, trotted to the edge, and leapt into the sky.
Behind her on the cloud, Dash grinned. “I am such an awesome teacher.”
And then she jumped as well.
***
A thousand feet below, peering at the cloud through her binoculars, Twilight saw the tiny orange dot leap from the cloud and fall nearly a hundred feet in just a few heart-stopping seconds. Just when she was starting to panic, the dot (now a bit larger) began to turn, slipping sideways through the air with surprising speed. It was joined a moment later by a rainbow-colored smear that followed as it began to trace a large circle around the lake.
“Oh my, she's going very fast,” said Fluttershy from beside her. The yellow pegasus pony had passed the time accumulating a collection of turtles, ducks and even snakes from around the lake, but was now staring just as intently as Twilight up at the two fliers.
“Is that safe?” Twilight asked.
“Oh yes,” Fluttershy assured her. “Young fliers are usually safer when they fly quickly. It's less tiring to stay up than trying to hover.” She paused, then added, “Of course, it can make landings a bit more difficult.”
***
Scootaloo had never expected flying to be so loud. The roar of the wind past her ears was like thunder; her mane was whipping like a flag in a tornado, and her legs were shaking so hard she thought she might lose the feeling in her hooves.
“Tuck your legs in, champ!” called a sudden voice to her side. Sparing a quick glance to the left she spied Rainbow Dash. The blue pony's flight was so steady she might as well have been ice-skating.
She duly pulled her legs up under her body and was rewarded with a suddenly calmer flight. The wind was still loud, but she found she could ignore its roar. Her wings were still a tad shaky compared to Dash's, and she was constantly trimming her pinions to try and stay level, but she was flying! She was flying!
“Look down!” Dash called beside her. Scootaloo did, and saw that the edge of the lake was rapidly approaching below them. Tipping her left wing slightly to catch more air, she began a wide turn to stay over the water. Dash mirrored her movements, not moving even an inch relative to the younger pegasus.
“You've got energy; trade it for height!” Dash yelled, before suddenly soaring up with a slight tilt of her wings. Scootaloo took another look at the lake below, then gave her own wings a slight twist, feeling them grab the air and shove her higher while also slowing her down.
“Doing good, squirt,” Dash said from above her. Now that she was slower they could have something resembling a normal conversation. “Remember to flap occasionally to keep your speed. Oh, and breathe!”
That was good advice. She hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath nearly the entire flight. It also made talking easier.
“Dash! I'm flying!”
“I know! Isn't it awesome!”
It was indeed.
***
The two stayed in the air for nearly twenty minutes before Scootaloo's wings began to tire. Not wanting to risk a rough ending to an otherwise fine day of flying, Dash took them down to the water in a low, sweeping arc that terminated with a hundred-yard-long skid across the water's surface, sending up twin fans of water that doused dozens of nearby ponies.
The two were still splashing each other when Twilight finally reached them, trotting on the surface of the water as though it was solid earth.
“Well, you two look like you had fun,” she said. “Dash, you really are an awesome teacher.”
“Well, duh! Nice hat, by the way.”
Twilight glanced up at the pith helmet she wore whenever spying on people, which was a surprising amount of her time. But then, Celestia had never told her how she was supposed to learn about friendship.
“Thank you,” she responded dryly. “And Scootaloo, you looked fantastic up there.”
“Simply amazing,” said Fluttershy, who was hovering above all three of them.
“Aw, it was all Dash's work,” she replied, blushing.
Dash waved a hoof dismissively. “Yeah, right. All I did was tell you to jump. You did the rest.”
“Well, let's get you two back to shore,” Twilight said, ever practical. “I hear Pinkie's already planning a party to celebrate your first real flight.” She grabbed Scootaloo's mane in her mouth and lifted her out of the water, and began trotting back to shore with the squirming bundle.
With a bit of help from Fluttershy, Dash managed to get out of the water and into the air. Thanking the other pegasus, she turned back to the cloud high above.
“Still awesome,” she whispered, then raced to catch up with her friends.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Cold in Gardez · 8.9k words · 651 10 · 13k views
- Cold in Gardez · 6.6k words · 632 7 · 11k views
- Cold in Gardez · 13k words · 709 17 · 12k views
- Skywriter · 11k words · 477 5 · 5.7k views
- Cold in Gardez · 67k words · 383 6 · 7k views
- Cold in Gardez · 4.8k words · 299 3 · 3k views
- Tamar · 3.2k words · 457 4 · 17k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.188 seconds
Total duration
989 users online
107,668 hits today, 2,328,677 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
this was nice
Scootalove always makes my day. This was beautiful.
Wonderful story.
*wild applause*
And yes... flying IS awesome!
Another big win. Are you a professional writer? These stories are really extremely good.
11473
I'm a professional communicator, though not a fiction writer. This is strictly a hobby.
It used to annoy me that I didn't have much artistic skill; I couldn't draw or play an instrument, and my attempts at learning either always came up short. I didn't realize that my writing was as much an art form as other people's own skills.
So now I practice writing, and I think I'm getting better at it. The more I write the more I realize how much better I have to be.
Thanks for the compliment, though :) It's nice to know my efforts are making someone happy.
Twilight "So, turning..."
awesome. Also, first aid kits.
Incredibly cute story.
And I quote
: "Aww, that was such a sweet story." 
Really cute and well-written. Congratulations, have a thumb.
Wonderful. Simply Wonderful.
Also, I agree. There should be "First Fliers" Medical Kits.
I think that sums all. :)
I can't believe I had not previous commented on how awesome this story is. It definitely gets a place on my wall of epic stories.
Your background research into flying terminology and physics is much appreciated.
This looks like a perfect mlp episode. Everyone is ic, the story is awesome (like anything about dash is NOT awesome
) and it's incredibly uplifting. You just made my day 
That was sweet and simple and a fine read. Thank you for it.
This story was...nicedl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Fluttershy.png
So... what did happen when Rainbow Dash and the unnamed stallion jumped off that cloud?
J.
Or houses that ARE trees.
Yes! So good!
This was one of your first stories, yes? It is really quite good, I can only hope mine come out as well as this did.
1651316
It was my very first story, in fact :)
1651537
*Is jealous*
I just realized I didn't have this favorited. Silly me.
Nice piece -- a bit fluffy and lacking in any real conflict, but lots of enjoyable character moments.
2330801
I wrote this one waaaay back in July of 2011, just a few days after seeing the show. I'd stumbled across Equestria Daily, read a few of the stories featured there, and thought "You know, I bet I could write something that would get featured."
It wasn't as hard back then. Nowadays I doubt Maiden Flight would pass muster -- the standards are much much higher.
2330846
*nods* I've been significantly impressed by the depth of the other stories you've written that I've read so far -- Salvation and For the Love of Science -- so it was interesting to note how you've developed. Your characterization has been consistently very strong, but between this one and the others you've certainly developed much more of a sense of plot. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your collection
2330903
If you get a chance, consider The Glass Blower. It was written about four months after Maiden Flight.
Awesome story! And really beautiful! It was a sweet little tale that really showed the characters interacting, nice job.
Aww, what a sweet little story!
Did you write about it in one of your other fanfictions already or are you still planning on ever writing it? 'Cause that would be SO! AWESOME!
I really like the part where Dashie convinced Scoots to jump! And now you got me curious on the story she told!
I liked the story but I don't think it is really comedy
Very nice chapter, it's kind of freaky to hear Dash using so many technical terms and phrases. But I loved the flight over the lake, very nice and I can just imagine the look on Scootaloo's face as she finally flies under her own power. If you were going to give her a cutie mark, I think this would have been the perfect time to do it.
3923757
I agree, it's more a an adorable and many feels story.
4623759 thanks glad to know I wasn't the only one who felt that way
MOAR. NAO.
RD training Scootaloo is adorable.
This story remains a favorite of mine.
Written in the days of yore. Really liked this one. You seem to have Twi and RD down to a T. Great work with Scootaloo as well.
Switch this on when Scootaloo goes on her first real flight.
This was really good. In fact, Scribbler has done a fan fic reading of your story. She brought me here.
This is such a wonderful piece. :D
Oooh, it's baby CiG's work! It's amazing what six odd years of practice can do for a person's skill. Which is 100% not not intended as a dig at this, but as a compliment to your current skill. Incidentally, my unfinished piece for the last pony Writeoff was eerily similar to this, but with a different sort of probably-not-engineering-accurate ending.
Good work, 2011-CiG. My first bit wasn't nearly so tidy and respectable.
Awesome little story, kinda makes one wish it could happen in the show. Still, I loved every moment of this story, and the caring side of Rainbow Dash. Good work. :)
That was a very nice story.
Still a work of art.