May 20th, 995
Rainbow Dash stares at the letter sitting in front of her. It had arrived with the rest of the mail Derpy brought, and Doug had tried opening it like every other letter, not bothering to check who it was addressed to. He is still nursing the burn on his fingers, and now Rainbow Dash is hesitant to touch it as well. She inspects it again; the letter is addressed to Rainbow Dash, right there in the center. Nothing else written on the front.
She cautiously moves a hoof forward, picking the letter up. Well, Doug had gotten this far too, and she turns the letter over. There is a very stylized mark, looking like an 'S' with a diamond on the upper half of the 'S'. There are two weird... legs coming off the bottom; Rainbow squints at it, turning her head one way and then the other. Maybe.. two other 'S's? Triple S?
Rainbow peers at the mark for a couple more seconds before tentatively moving her hooves to the top of the letter. She closes her eyes and pulls her hooves apart, the satisfying rip of paper and a lack of searing pain. She sighs in relief, opening her eyes to see a simple piece of paper laying on the floor. She looks at the destroyed remains of the envelope in her hooves, yelping as they both ignite. She drops the incinerating paper onto the wooden floor before realizing her dilemma and stomping on the paper with her hooves.
The material doesn't go out, and it fortunately also doesn't ignite the floor underneath. Rainbow sighs in relief as the flames extinguish, leaving a pile of ash, before noticing a similar char starting on the letter that was inside. She quickly snatches it up, blowing on the letter and taking to the air. The char continues spreading on the paper, so she hovers up, flying out the window and landing on the ground outside, trying to read the letter. Multiple ignition points make it difficult to read, as they are quickly destroying the message inside, and unfortunately all she can make out is:
'Rainbow Dash,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxyou today
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for Scootaloo
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe alone.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxer'
Rainbow Dash sighs as the paper finishes disintegrating in her hooves. Well, that isn't ominous or anything. She smiles to herself; somepony should really write a book about this. She imagines herself fighting off a horde of bad mares, her mysterious alter ego dodging blows while performing awesome moves. She would read books if they had action sequences like this!
She sighs, thinking back. Well, not much to do now but see how Doug is doing. Then take Scoots out for a little, give her a bit more to practice. Her filly is doing well at transferring her magic to all four of her hooves and standing on a cloud, now to make this a little more interesting.
Later in the afternoon, Sunset Shimmer looks around the Ponyville park. Her note to Rainbow had been very specific, she shouldn't have messed it up. Is she really not interested? She had sounded so sincere earlier, and Sunset is not going to be denied this chance to really prove herself. She smiles to herself; this, showing that Dark Magic could be turned to good uses, to help everypony to see how truly talented she is.
Sunset starts another lap around the park, passively scanning behind and around her. Nope, still no pegasus, waiting in the trees. The unicorn grits her teeth; no one stands up Sunset Shimmer! Her horn flares, burning the grass around her; might as well start searching. The direction she will start - Sweet Apple Acres. Well, Applejack, I hope your trees are ready.
The unicorn takes off at a canter, keeping the pace up until she is out of the park before slowing down. She looks down at her sides, breathing heavily; why can't there exist some spell to just get your body in shape? It's not like she can spare the time from her studies, the applications of magical theory far more important than being winded. She smirks to herself; after all, why run when you can teleport?
One burst of magic later, an exhausted Sunset Shimmer breaths heavily, looking out over rows upon rows of apple trees. Well, maybe that's why you don't teleport to a spot you barely saw from the train as you were riding by. At least the spell's safeguards would have kicked in if she had tried to teleport on top of something else, either the spell failing if it is magically shielded or displacing either the object or herself, whichever massed less.
Sunset grunts, concentrating again on locating Rainbow Dash. She frowns as she hears something off in the distance; the pegasus is at an angle she didn't expect, high up in the air. She turns, walking towards the magical aura she tagged when they first met. Rainbow Dash's potential makes her stand out like a sore hoof, which should make her plan even easier, once she gets the proper spellwork down. She forces herself to go slower; it wouldn't look right to be out of breath when they meet up.
Sunset can make out Rainbow before she sees her, the chant of "Right! Front! Right! Left!" echoing from above. Sunset walks past the last few trees to see Rainbow Dash yelling commands at Scootaloo, the foal standing on top of a cloud, high in the air. Well, standing is the wrong word; the foal is dancing from two hooves to two hooves as Rainbow calls out which hooves can touch the cloud and which are to be raised in the air.
Rainbow calls out, "Four!" and Scootaloo plants all four hooves on the cloud, readying her body. Rainbow shouts, "Zero!" and Scootaloo leaps into the air. She briefly flaps her wings, barely affecting her momentum, as Rainbow waits till the last instant to yell, "Front!" and Scootaloo shifts her body, landing on her front hooves. They barely pierce into the cloud before her body rebounds, the foal landing on all four hooves on the cloud.
Rainbow nods, "A little sloppy on the last landing, but you're progressing much better. Now, passive mode. You'll need to be able to nap on a cloud, and so far that's been a little bit of a struggle. So, do you want the cushion?" Scootaloo shakes her head no, and Rainbow smiles, "Good. Alright, lay on the cloud, let's get started." Scootaloo bends her legs, shifting around to get comfortable.
Scootaloo rests her body, breathing heavily as she lays on the cloud. She closes her eyes; she can feel the cloud under her hooves and pushing against her barrel. She loves the softness, the way the cloud formed against her, holding her up, cuddling her like-
Scootaloo opens her eyes, confused at the sky surrounding her. She rotates around, seeing the ground coming up at her at an alarming rate. A voice to the side says, "Alright, Scoots, you find yourself falling. What do you do?"
Scootaloo shudders, "Big sis?"
The voice says, "I'm here if you need me, Scoots, but I'm not going to be here every time. What else do you have?"
Scootaloo beats her wings, trying to force her magic into her wings and slow her descent. The ground turns to sky as she begins tumbling, continuing her free fall to the ground. Tears form in her eyes as she cries, "Mama, I can't, I need you!"
A split second goes by before Scootaloo feels hooves gently grab her sides, stopping her tumble and slowing her fall until she feels herself gently gliding, the apple trees getting larger at a comfortable rate. She closes her eyes, burying her face in her dam's chest as she cries, still shaking from the fall.
Rainbow Dash sighs to herself; she hadn't meant for Scootaloo to fall through the cloud, she thought the foal is doing better than that. She holds Scootaloo close to herself, "Hey, Scootaloo, it's okay, I got ya." She hovers over the ground before a cough from behind startles her; Scootaloo opens her eyes as Rainbow turns, spotting Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow says, "Oh, hey Sunset. Can I help you?"
Sunset watches Scootaloo as the foal closes her eyes, starting to relax. She says, "Yes, Rainbow Dash. Did you happen to get a letter today?"
Rainbow shrugs, turning and slowly rubbing a hoof along Scootaloo's back, "Yeah; it burned Doug, and then lit itself on fire before I could read it. Why?"
Sunset mentally facehooves; of all the incompetent ways... well, at least it is easily fixed. "Oh, Rainbow, I'm sorry, I was testing a new spell and must have made it too fast." She smirks; that'll be sure to get under her coat.
Sure enough, Rainbow turns, a quick glare before she looks back to Scootaloo, saying, "Yeah? What of it?"
Sunset does a quick scan, making sure nopony else is nearby. Satisfied, she says, "Well, I wanted to talk to you about what we would be doing. Get an idea for what you are willing to do."
Rainbow scoffs, "I thought I told you that already." She lands, letting Scootaloo down, the foal looking up at her dam with teary eyes. Rainbow gently prods the foal with one hoof, and Scootaloo takes off towards the practice area.
Sunset shrugs; once Scootaloo is out of earshot she whispers, "Well, some mares might balk at the talk of a little... dark magic."
Rainbow turns, a hard look in her eyes. She studies Sunset for a few seconds before saying, "I'm listening."
Sunset Shimmer says, "Well, it won't be that dark. At least, not how we're using it. Have you heard of the name 'Tirek'?" Rainbow Dash shakes her head, a grin forming on Sunset's face, "Well, no matter. I'm going to need to do a bit of research into the spell. Make it... safe. It might take some time, just so you know."
Rainbow stares, eventually shrugging, "Whatever. Let me know when it's ready." She turns back, watching Scootaloo as the foal moves over to a low level cloud, settling on top of it and relaxing her face and body, this time staying on top. Rainbow says, "Alright Scoots, that was a good try earlier. There's a saying I grew up with, I want you to take it to heart: 'When the going gets tough, the tough don't notice, because they have hard shells.' So, I know this can be hard, and frustrating, and you might feel like quitting, but we need to build up that toughness. You can do this! We're going to start off with pushups on the cloud; let me know if you need anything."
Sunset glares at Rainbow's back, fuming as she walks away. If this didn't earn her those wings...