Rainbow Dash lounged beneath a tree at Ponyville Park, feeding her pet tortoise Tank some tasty lettuce leaves. Tank's flying equipment sat off to the side during his lunch break. Next to it was a small cardboard box Dash had brought with her in case she needed to carry him home.
Scootaloo sat beside her heroine, idly petting Tank's head as he slowly chewed his food. "Rainbow Dash," she asked, "what’s it like to be up there, flying faster than anypony else?"
"Well, it's awesome, of course!" said Rainbow Dash, with a grin. "There's this rush of adrenaline: the air pounds against you, fighting you, but it still can't hold you back. It's a lot like winning against the entire sky! But words can only describe so much. It's something you have to experience for yourself to understand."
"I want to feel that someday," she whispered quietly, looking up to the sky.
"You will, kid! One way or another," said Rainbow Dash, scruffing Scootaloo’s mane with her hoof. "Don’t they teach you anything about pegasi in school?"
"Yeah, but I'm not always the best student," admitted Scootaloo. "I'm always wondering about stuff, and I have a hard time paying attention. I feel like I won't understand anything about flying until I know how it all works. Like, why can we walk on clouds? Why is the sky that light blue color? How do clouds move around in the places we don't control?"
Rainbow Dash scrunched her muzzle up for a moment in thought. "Well, I dunno, kid. Those are Twilight Sparkle questions. I get curious too, which is why it's useful being best friends with an egghead," she said. "But maybe that's part of the problem. Facts are important, but flying is something you just have to learn by doing. When Twilight needs help learning some new aerial trick, she comes to me instead of a book. It's a different kind of smarts."
Scootaloo ran her hoof along Tank's hard shell, distracted even while Dash was talking. "Most animals cover their bones with their skin, and this guy covers his whole body with a hard shell. Why is that?"
Dash narrowed her eyes for a moment. "Well, why is his shell covered by a cardboard box?" she asked, flipping the box so it landed over the tortoise.
"Uh, because you just put it there?" said Scootaloo, wrinkling her brow.
Dash shook her head. "No, you're not getting the idea yet. Look, Scoots... Tank doesn't know the answers to any of these questions, and look how awesome he is at being able to use that shell," she said, as Tank poked his head out from under the box and very slowly began to smile. "When I do a Sonic Rainboom, if I try to do it, it ain't gonna happen. It only happens when I let go of questions and the need to know stuff, and just let my body do its thing. Some stuff in life you can't overthink. I mean, it's more like the Rainboom does me, than the other way around. That took forever for me to learn, but pretty much all flying is like that."
Scootaloo smiled, her wings buzzing excitedly. "I guess I need to stop worrying so much about it," she said.
"That's the spirit, kid," said Rainbow Dash, giving the filly a hug.