//------------------------------// // 8 - Ponyville // Story: Soaring on Little Wings // by tom117z //------------------------------// Ponyville, One Month Later Ponyville couldn’t have stood in further contrast to the sky city of Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash had parked herself on a cloud a fair ways above the sleepy earth pony built town, setting down her little sister so she had a breathtakingly beautiful view of the settlement. The clean Friday afternoon air made that view even better. Rainbow Dash also made sure to keep a close eye on Little Wing, lest she slip and fall from said cloud. Little Wing, on her part, had her eyes wide with both childlike curiosity and glee. She was examining every detail, from the gigantic castle to the small red schoolhouse where she swore she spotted Scootaloo running around with two other fillies her age. “So, what do you think of my place Squirt?” Rainbow asked, before pointing at one specific structure. “My actual house is the cloud mansion over there, I’ve got your room all set for your stay.” “Bwashe!” Little Wing exclaimed happily, the babble being some attempt to say Rainbow Dash’s name. “Glad you like it,” Rainbow Dash responded. “It’s no Cloudsdale. But it’s a home.” Little Wing looked towards Rainbow Dash’s own home, before her gaze slowly trailed back to the royal castle sitting on the edge of town. Such a small town wasn’t somewhere Little Wing would have thought she’d find such a thing, and it had her immensely curious. It looked like a giant crystal tree in a lot of ways, the kind of treehouse small girls would dream of having in their gardens while playing princess. It appeared one little girl got her dream, because of course its owner definitely would have cared about such fantasies as a young child. Right? Rainbow Dash spotted that her sister was looking at the castle, and gave an amused chuckle. “Like the castle huh? Took ages for Twilight to actually sleep in it without becoming a ‘pancake’ the next morning.” Little Wing tilted her head as she looked up at her sister. Just who was this Twilight? Rainbow Dash ruffled Little Wing’s mane. “I’ll introduce you to the girls later, we’ve got a meeting at the castle later on today anyway.” Now Little Wing was confused. Why could her sister just walk into a big castle like that? She had gathered that Equestria was ruled by four royal queens or princesses or something by her plushies back home, along with some of her mother’s memorabilia. The absolute last thing she wanted was to catch the wrath of such a person by committing breaking and entering. Then again, she couldn’t spot any guards near the castle. What kind of queen or princess doesn’t have any guards? “Alright, that’s enough sightseeing,” Rainbow Dash announced, picking Little Wing up and placing the foal onto her back. “Since Scootaloo is also staying over, I’ve got to pick her up from school.” Little Wing looked back towards the schoolhouse where she had spotted Scootaloo earlier, and sure enough her big sister opened her wings and jumped off of the cloud. They simply glided forwards for a few meters before Rainbow Dash did a gentle turn so not to dislodge her small passenger. As they descended, the ponies who had been mere ants from the sky came more into focus. There were all kinds of ponies everywhere. Pegasi, earth ponies and unicorns were in far more equal number than she had ever seen in Cloudsdale, courtesy of the floor being solid for everypony if Little Wing had to hazard a guess. She also noted that earth ponies seemed to be more prominent than the other two kinds of pony, but only just. The flight was calm and devoid of any showing off, even if it was painfully obvious that Rainbow Dash was resisting the urge for Little Wing’s sake. They proceeded to come in for a landing on the other side of the schoolhouse, which had been largely obscured by the building up in the cloud. It was fairly recognisable as a playground, Little Wing having seen much of the equipment before from… a different time. Not that she had ever used them, rather she had just seen them on television seeing as she never left the house back then. Little Wing closed her eyes and shook her head, those were memories best forgotten. Nearby to the swings, five fillies appeared to be deep in conversation. Scootaloo was recognisable among them, and she was joined by a group consisting of pink, grey, pure white and pale olive fillies. The white and olive fillies seemed to have eerily similar cutie marks to Scootaloo, while the other two had a tiara and a spoon respectively. Scootaloo seemed to stop mid-sentence when she spotted Rainbow Dash land, her features brightening up. “Rainbow Dash is here!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Then I think that’s our cue to leave,” the pink filly stated. “Come on Silver Spoon.” “Coming, Diamond Tiara,” Silver Spoon responded, quickly following after her friend. “Yeah, see you girls on Monday!” the olive filly called after them with a wave. “Hey there Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash cheerfully greeted as she approached the group. “Ready to blow this joint?” “You bet I am!” Scootaloo said in turn, then spotting Little Wing on her idol’s back. “Oh, so she came after all!” Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I convinced my parents to let her stay the weekend eventually. Then I had to convince Mum not to come along. This is a sister weekend, not a clingy parent weekend.” “Well I’ve been looking forward to it!” Scootaloo assured, going up to and smiling at Little Wing. “Hey there Little Wing! Remember me?” “Swootluu!” Little Wing exclaimed in confirmation. Scootaloo’s ear twitched. “Was that meant to be my name?” “She’s trying,” Rainbow Dash stated. “But Mum says it’ll be another few months before she actually gets it right.” “Oh, right.” Scootaloo then turned and pointed at the other two remaining fillies. “Well Little Wing, that’s Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, also known as Apple Blossom.” “Scootaloo, nopony calls me that!” Apple Bloom objected in an irritated tone. “Ugh, why in tarnation did you feel the need to dig up my birth certificate? How did you even manage that anyhow!?” “Because I’m awesome!” Scootaloo smugly responded. “And it was right there, your name was down as Apple Blossom. Why don’t you use it?” “Because Apple Bloom is just better, alright!” Sweetie Belle groaned. “This has been argued about all day…” “Well cut it out girls, we need to get a move on anyway,” Rainbow Dash said. “Come on Scootaloo. Though when we get to my house I’m going to need to take Little Wing up first and then come back for you.” Scootaloo seemed visibly downcast at that statement. “Yeah, alright.” Little Wing blinked. Why couldn’t Scootaloo just fly up herself? Though when she looked again, Scooatloo’s wings did seem a little smaller than the other pegasus colts and fillies running about the play area. But with no way to actually ask the question on her mind, she simply elected to remain quiet and remain on her elder sister’s back as they began to walk in the direction of cloud mansion. The fact that they walked only further cemented the conclusion the saddened filly had come to. Through some disability, Scootaloo couldn’t fly. Twilight’s Castle Rainbow Dash walked on in through the massive front doors to the castle, Little Wing once again on her back while Scootaloo had been given free reign of the cloud mansion for the time being. The past hour or two had been spent in the cloud mansion, where Rainbow had shown Little Wing her room. Much like back at her home in Cloudsdale, Little Wing’s room had been converted from a guest room into one more suitable for the foal. Rainbow Dash had also mentioned that she had been assisted in that effort by two of her friends, Rarity and Fluttershy. Her elder sister’s enthusiasm was in stark contrast to the Rainbow Dash whom Little Wing had first met many weeks prior, ever since that night of bonding and cookies. But now they walked through the crystalline halls of the castle, of which there were so many spanning out in so many directions it made Little Wing’s head spin. She was glad that Rainbow Dash knew where she was going. Except for that one time they walked into a broom closet, that didn’t count. Eventually however, Rainbow Dash gave a shout of victory as she found the door that led into the castle’s main throne room. Pushing it open, the two sisters were met with a vast space which was dominated by a large crystal table sitting at its centre. Six large thrones, and one smaller seat, spanned the edge of the table with what appeared to be the roots of a tree hanging high above the table. Said table also had a holographic map gently flickering on its surface. There were also several adult ponies sitting in those thrones. And on top of that, one of them was a slightly more living version of one of Little Wing’s plushies, a purple pony with both wings and a horn. And then there was the fact that one of the thrones had her big sister’s cutie mark emblazoned on the backrest. That seemed like an important detail. “In short, our latest mission of friendship couldn’t have been a bigger success,” the royal pony announced to the gathered mares. “Even if we’re still missing a member,” the orange pony with a southern accent muttered. “Actually, she just turned up,” another new voice stated as a light purple unicorn entered the room alongside some kind of small purple lizard. “Took her long enough.” “Hey, I was busy!” Rainbow protested. “Looking after a foal is a full time job!” “…Huh?” The blank looks from all but two of the ponies around the table was very telling. Rainbow shifted to one side so Little Wing had a full view of the group and the group had a full view of her. Of course, Little Wing instantly tried to hide herself between her sister’s wings. “Little Wing, meet the girls.” Rainbow began to point at them one by one while calling out their names. “Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle. The other two are Starlight Glimmer and Spike.” “Other two?” Starlight parroted in an irritated tone. “And she’s a foal, does she really care about names?” Spike deadpanned. “Hey, I wanted to introduce my little sister to you guys so I did!” “Now hang on a darn second,” Applejack interrupted. “Little sister? Since when?” “Ohhh, right,” Rainbow Dash stated sheepishly. “I forgot to tell the rest of you beforehoof, didn’t I?” “I thought you said you were going to tell them before she came up to stay?” Fluttershy enquired. “She is right, you did say that,” Rarity stated in support for Fluttershy’s comment. “Yeah well… it slipped my mind.” “Hang on sugarcubes,” Applejack said to both Rarity and Fluttershy. “Ya’ll knew about this?” “She might have mentioned it to us when she wanted our help getting the foal’s room ready, so yes,” Rarity responded. “And we didn’t say anything ourselves because, well, she is Rainbow Dash’s family and not ours…” Fluttershy added in. A sudden flash of purple magic heralded the arrival of Twilight appearing from thin air next to Rainbow Dash and Little Wing. “Well whatever the case may be, we still got to meet her,” Twilight pointed out, looking down at Little Wing. “Aww, she’s so shy!” “Only around people she doesn’t know,” Rainbow Dash stated with a chuckle. “You’re all new to her. Hay, Twilight, she might be confused as to how one of her toys suddenly came to life.” “Huh?” Twilight was momentarily perplexed at her friend’s statement, before putting two and two together. “Oh… She has a toy of me or something doesn’t she?” “Yup. Along with the other alicorn princesses.” Alicorn princesses. At least Little Wing knew what they were after that remark. “I can’t believe you have a little sister!” Pinkie suddenly appeared right next to Rainbow and Little Wing, examining the foal excitedly. “Well aside from Scootaloo but we all know who she is, what’s her story?” Little Wing nervously examined the pink earth pony. Pinkie Pie had a giant pink mane that had poofed up to the point where it seemed like candy floss, eerily familiar candy floss. This was joined by that fact that her cutie mark being that of three balloons. If she had wings you’d swear she was Surprise with a dyed mane and coat. “Well, it’s a bit of a long story,” Rainbow Dash explained. “My parents adopted her a couple months back. She was alone, so they gave her a home.” “D’awww, isn’t she the cutest thing!” Pinkie cooed gleefully. “Please tell me you had an adoption party!” Even word for word she was Surprise’s clone. Or was it the other way around? Who knew? “I think it would overwhelm the poor darling,” Rarity pointed out, though that caused Pinkie to deflate a little. “T-though I’m sure we can sort something else out!” Pinkie inflated again, humming in thought. “Yes… I’m going to need to retreat to the party planning cave and come up with some ideas.” The others left the pink pony to her deep rumination, and it was the Princess who spoke next. “So, how long is she staying for?” “The weekend,” Rainbow replied. “Thought I’d show her Ponyville, and hang with her and Scootaloo. A sister weekend.” “Well if you need any advice on how to handle a foal, just talk to me!” Twilight offered. “I have several books on the subject, each labelled in the most logical and clear order so it’s easy to navigate!” “Yeah… I think I’ll pass.” Twilight was disappointed, but not yet done. “Well, I had to offer. But I can give some advice myself too, I am the B-A-E to Flurry Heart after all!” “I can manage,” Rainbow bluntly stated. “But if you get such a stupid acronym, do I get one? B-S-E, best sister ever instead of best aunt ever?” Little Wing made a noise of disapproval. “Yeah, the squirt is right,” Rainbow agreed. “It sounds just as stupid.” Twilight’s cheeks puffed up rather adorably. “It’s not stupid!” “It is a bit,” Starlight muttered from one corner of the room. “You’re all just jealous!” Twilight decided. “If you say so.” Little Wing began to sit up a little more, gaining confidence. The Princess wasn’t nearly as scary as she thought she’d be, quite the opposite really. Though she was still surprised that her sister had such a high profile friend. But then again, Rainbow Dash was a Wonderbolt. As the friends around her continued to chatter, Little Wing couldn’t help but wonder exactly what else her big sister had been a part of before she had come into her life. What was she to discover as she got older? But one thing was clear, she had a lot to live up to.