Soaring on Little Wings

by tom117z


9 - The First

Clousdale, Four Months Later



Misty Gust laughed with Little Wing as they happily played together in the middle of one of Cloudsdale’s public parks. Various benches sat around along with apparatus set out with the enjoyment of children in mind. Slides and other such structures designed for playing on. With a mischievous smirk, the young cyan foal picked up and moulded a bit of cloud into a shape not dissimilar from a snowball. That was probably due to the fact that it would then be used in the same aspect as a snowball, Little Wing playfully throwing it in Misty Gust’s direction. It splattered harmlessly against Misty Gust’s muzzle, a single spec sitting on the end of her nose.

Misty glared at Little Wing as the filly entered a fit of giggles at the direct hit. That fit of giggles was cut off when she was clotheslined by a ball of cloud sent in response to the unprovoked act of war.

And what a war of the ages it would be.

As the two fillies battled it out, their families were sat nearby. Or if you were Rainbow Dash, napping on top of a climbing frame. Windy and Bow were sat up at a bench with Misty’s parents, Violet Rain and Wild Ace. They were deep in discussion about their respective foals and how they were progressing, the mares in particular getting all emotional at ‘how they were growing up so fast’. It was a pretty relaxed Saturday afternoon in all, and an undeniably fun one.

“The next thing you know, they’ll be starting school!” Windy Whistles noted almost disbelievingly. “Can you imagine that?”

“I know…” Violet Rain agreed. “I mean, I still can’t get my head around my little Misty talking…”

“How is that progressing by the way?” Bow butted into the conversation.

“Quite nicely,” Violet responded. “She’s always practicing, we have new words each and every single day!”

“She loves it,” Wild Ace added in, glancing proudly at his daughter. “Can’t get enough of her own voice.”

“Aren’t all foals like that after their first word?”

“I suppose so,” he conceded. “What about Little Wing, has she said her first proper word yet?”

“Not quite yet,” Windy replied. “We’re getting there though. She’s always trying to form all sorts of words, but it still comes out as random babbles. It is quite cute.”

“I can imagine,” Violet said.

“Little Wing!” Misty moaned as she got hit with two balls of cloud at the same time. “It not fair!”

Little Wing decided to respond with an outstretched tongue and a raspberry blown in her friends, direction. Misty Gust was incensed by the audacity of such an action, and decided she couldn’t let it slide.

Little Wing yelped at the sudden barrage of cloud coming her way, attempting to duck under one group as another intercepted her at a lower angle. Misty was like a machine, creating and throwing each ball faster than Little Wing could even comprehend. The whole situation very quickly devolved into a ‘tactical’ retreat and Little Wing’s part while Misty gave chase. That being the two foals running around in circles as if they were headless chickens.

Rainbow Dash yawned as the shouting from the foals interrupted her nap. She stretched her various limbs to rid them of stiffness before sitting up and examining her surroundings.

“Welcome to the world of the living!” Bow teasingly called up to his eldest daughter. “I would give you the best napper ever trophy, but I believe we already did.”

“Hey, napping is good for the soul… or something like that anyway,” Rainbow Dash responded nonchalantly, then seeing her little sister’s unfortunate predicament. “Huh. What did I miss?”

“Nothing much, they were just playing around,” Bow informed her. “And now I think Little Wing regrets starting something she couldn’t finish.”

“Really? No idea where she could have gotten that from,” Rainbow Dash remarked, ignoring or not noticing the knowing glances pointed in her general direction. “But I won’t leave a sister of mine hanging, or my name isn’t Rainbow Danger Dash, the Element of Loyalty!”

“Your middle name is Ashleigh,” he deadpanned.

Rainbow Dash ignored him and hopped off of the climbing frame. A short glide landed her next to the two scampering foals where she proceeded to create a small ball of cloud herself and gently throw it at Misty. It hit the target, the foal stopping in her tracks and looking around to see where the new attack had come from.

“Hey, squirt!” Rainbow Dash shouted playfully, getting into an ‘attack position’. “Pick on somepony your own size!”

Little Wing saw her sister coming to her aid, her eyes sparkling with glee at Rainbow Dash’s arrival. She knew her sister would come to her aid, she always did!

Misty Gust gave the Wonderbolt an odd look, glancing at herself before looking back at the older pony with a hoof pointing her way. “Bigger…”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Technicalities…”

Misty looked unimpressed, only to receive another cloud ball to the back of the head from Little Wing.

“Bwah!” she shouted victoriously, ducking to dodge the retaliation.

And so the war continued, only with Rainbow Dash attempting to distract Misty while not creating any further balls of cloud herself.

“Aw, look at them,” Windy squeed. “I’m so glad that our Dashie took to Little Wing.”

“You’ve been saying that for months,” Bow pointed out. “She loves Little Wing. Combine Scootaloo and they are quite the trio.”

“I’m just happy to see Misty out and about, playing like they are now,” Violet stated. “She’s normally so engrossed in her story books at home. I think she’s going to be a little bit of a bookworm.”

“Little Wing reads to herself sometimes, but she prefers her Wonderbolt action figures,” Windy noted. “She’s actually played with them more and more since Dashie foalsat her some months back. Between you and me, I think she might be starting to idolise her sister.”

Back at the ongoing conflict, it appeared that Misty Gust had figured out Rainbow Dash’s distraction tactics and was trying to block the mare out completely. Little Wing was forced back again as she dodged a few projectiles thrown her way, throwing the single cloud ball she had on hoof at Misty and missing.

Then she tripped up on her own hooves.

She went down with an audible “oof”, quickly rising back up to her hooves as if nothing happened. However the brief moment had rendered her a stationary target, and another ball of cloud was sailing towards her.

Only for Rainbow Dash to flap her wings for a burst of speed and then, in a rather overdramatic fashion, dive in the way of Little Wing and have the projectile impact her directly on the belly. Even more dramatically she acted as if the ball had any actual severe force behind it and slumped to the floor motionlessly. There she laid, completely still on her back.

Little Wing knew her sister was fine, a little bit of cloud would never hurt somepony like her! And yet the irrational side of her young brain through panic into the mix. What if she had been hurt? It would have been all Little Wing’s fault!

As a result, Little Wing quickly scampered forwards and hopped up onto Rainbow Dash, standing on her stomach. Misty stood back and watched from a distance, a slightly worried and guilty expression forming onto her face.

Little Wing looked at Rainbow Dash’s face, her eyes were closed. She prodded her with one hoof, and then gently shook her a little. Getting no response, she next decided to jump up high into the air and allow gravity to drive her hooves back down onto her big sister’s stomach.

“Oof!” Rainbow spluttered out at the impact, Little Wing and Misty Gust both giving sighs of relief. Rainbow Dash chuckled.

Rainbow Dash adjusted her position slightly, though remained laying on her back with Little Wing now sitting down on her belly. Rainbow chuckled lightly, booping Little Wing on the nose.

“Gotcha!” Rainbow teased. “But you gotta admit, taking that for you was pretty heroic and everything…”

Little Wing laughed in response. “Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!”

Time froze. Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof had her that exclamation, slow grins creeping onto their faces.

“SHE SPOKE!” Windy announced to the world in a great impression of the Royal Canterlot Voice, no longer in her seat but fluttering up in the air. “DO IT AGAIN! ENCORE!”

Rainbow Dash lifted Little Wing off of herself, placing her down onto the ground with a grin of her own. Her mother and father rushed up to the suddenly self-conscious foal, Little Wing glancing around at all the proud and happy faces.

“Come on sweetie, say your sister’s name,” Windy encouraged, pointing at Rainbow.

Little Wing followed the hoof and looked at her elder sister, also pointing at the mare while turning to look back at her mother. “…Rainbow Dash?”

Windy squeed again, Bow having a tearfully proud look about him. “Our daughter, has that much time really passed?”

“Never mind that, I was her first word!” Rainbow reminded them cheerfully. “Now I know how Pinkie felt with Pumpkin and Pound Cake. Awesome!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Little Wing said again, now feeling rather proud of herself.

Windy tapped her chin, an idea or two popping into her head. “I wonder… Little Wing, can you say ‘apple’?”

Little Wing looked at her oddly, wondering where she got that word from as a first example. It probably wasn’t at all important, but she couldn’t help but wonder what went on in her mother’s mind sometimes. She did a little jump to try and see over the adults, wondering if there was an apple back on a bench or something.

“That was jumping. What you did there was jumping,” Windy noted in slight disappointment. “Come on, apple!”

Little Wing related, rolling the word around in her head for a moment. “Wapple?”

“Not quite…” Bow stated. “What about… cloud?”

“Ald?”

“Well no duh that wasn’t going to work!” Rainbow Dash remarked. “Now try 'awesome'!”

Both Windy and Bow gave her an incredulous look.

“Hey, you never know!” Rainbow protested.

Little Wing chose not even to attempt it, instead going back to what she already knew. “Rainbow Dash!”

“There must be something else we can get her to say aside from that and ‘Bwah’,” Windy said with a sigh. “There must be a simple word, come on Windy think!”

Little Wing looked up to her mother, and then decided to try and say something that would undoubtedly make her day. “Wammy?”

“Hm?” Windy looked back down at Little Wing. “What was that honey?”

Little Wing concentrated, rolling the word around her tongue as she forced herself to form it coherently. “Mummy?”

Windy Whistles seemed to stop working.

Gleeful, Little Wing then turned to her father and pointed an enthusiastic hoof at him. “Daddy!”

“She’s catching on pretty quick,” Rainbow Dash complimented, Little Wing in turn clapping her little hooves together with a squeal of delight.

“So it begins, growing up…” Violet Rain commented as she and her own family joined their friends.

“Little Wing!” Misty exclaimed as she bounced up next to her best friend. “Little Wing!”

Little Wing looked towards her friend, having heard Misty say her name so enthusiastically and deciding it wasn’t fair that only one of them do it. Even if it was the last new thing she said on forever, she was going to do it! Determination emanated from the foal, she pushed past her less than a year old brain and her gained childishness and tapped into as much as her old self’s intellect as she could. That wasn’t much, considering she spent her whole life in a small house, but she could handle that one small task if she wanted to!

“M-M-M-Misty,” Little Wing uttered experimentally, grinning in victory. “Misty!”

“She’s catching on really fast,” Violet stated. “What’s that? Five words in the past two minutes? It took Misty a few hours to say her second and third!”

“She does still know more than Little Wing does,” Wild Ace noted. “Not too much competition yet.”

“Well you better watch it buddy!” Rainbow Dash warned. “Competition runs in the family!”

“She’s not wrong,” Bow added in.

The foals, meanwhile, didn’t much care for the competition that was mainly between their parents and one sibling. They were too busy giggling to themselves, reciting the words each of them knew.

“Little Wing! Bigger! Mama! Daddy!” Misty recited a few. “Cloud! Sky! Hello!”

“Misty! Mummy! Daddy! Rainbow Dash!” Little Wing responded.

“I’m surprised she managed Rainbow Dash first,” Violet remarked. “It’s not the simplest for a small child.”

“It just shows how much she loves her big sister,” Windy said happily, pinching Rainbow’s cheek.

“Mum!” Rainbow Dash protested in embarrassment. “I’m almost twenty one! You don’t get to do that on me, you have Little Wing for it!”

“I’ll do it on both my daughters, thank you very much,” Windy stated in such a way as to leave zero room for argument.

“Gah, whatever…”

“Still, we should take them home soon,” Bow Hothoof stated. “It’ll soon be dinner time.”

“And then bedtime,” Windy also noted. “And then onto another day! Oh, it’ll soon enough be Little Wing’s first birthday!”

Bow nodded. “And then after that… school.”