Skyward
Chapter 1
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER HANG-GLIDERS!"
The gleefully shrill cry of two fillies echoed out over the Whitetail Woods. Up on a high, high precipice overlooking the woods way down below stood three young fillies, wide and excited grins on two of their faces. All three were positioned beneath an over-sized orange hang-glider, hooves resting over the long steel handlebar and safety helmets adorning their heads. There was absolutely no way this could go horribly, horribly wrong.
"This is our best idea yet!" cried Apple Bloom, her eyes wide and excited as the high-altitude wind harshly whistled through her mane.
"I'll say!" Sweetie Belle agreed as she pumped a hoof in the air, but then froze as a thought struck her. "Wait, haven't you done this with Rainbow Dash before?"
"Well, yeah Ah have," Apple Bloom replied. "But Ah didn't even get off tha ground that time, and y'all haven't tried it yet either."
"All right then! What are we waiting for?" Sweetie Belle asked as she slapped her goggles down over her eyes, her face steeled in anticipation.
"Yeah! Ya ready down there, Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom called down to her winged friend. After a moment of absolute silence, she tried again, "Uh, Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo, for her part, had been completely and utterly silent the entire time. Her normally orange face had turned a sickly ashen color as she stared out over the edge of the cliff. With a tentative prod, she tested the edge with her hoof, but immediately pulled the appendage back and began to shake violently when rocks crumbled off into the abyss at her touch.
"Scootaloo!"
Apple Bloom's third call seemed to have garnered an answer as the poor orange filly nearly jumped out of her skin. "Yeah, yeah, what, what?!" she replied in a high-pitched panic as her pin-prick irises darted all over her surroundings at a dizzying pace, even crossing a few times.
"Are ya ready?"
Scootaloo managed to get a hold of herself long enough to take another long stare out into the open air. They were so high up that even the clouds were giving them incredulous looks. The young pegasus took a mighty, dry gulp as she began to wobble forward then back and from side-to-side. Casting a wary glance downwards nearly made the poor filly lose her lunch and her vision began to fade in and out of focus as she stared down at the field of trees that seemed to be a million miles below.
"I-I-I don't k-know about this, g-guys..." Scootaloo stuttered out, her face scrunching up into a terrified mess.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged disbelieving looks before giving Scootaloo skeptical quirks of their brows.
"...Seriously?" Apple Bloom said, her voice an apprehensive deadpan.
"You sounded pretty confident about this while we were walking up here!" Sweetie Belle added.
"Y-yeah, w-well...." Scootaloo gulped as her mind raced for a plausible excuse. "I-I didn't think it'd be so... h-high."
The incredulous looks on the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders' faces seemed to double in intensity as they stared at the shaking pegasus.
"You are a pegasus, right?" Sweetie Belle asked, both brows now quirked in disbelief.
"Seems more like a chicken to me," Apple Bloom murmured, just loud enough for Scootaloo to hear.
Offense seemed to overshadow Scootaloo's dread as some of the color returned to her face, but in the form of an angry, red tint to her cheeks. "I'm not a chicken!" she rebuked with a stamp of her hoof.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Well what do ya expect me ta say? Every time we try somethin' involvin' heights or flyin', yer always too scared ta do it. Ah thought this time around ya'd finally go through with it."
"That's- I'm- I mean...." Scootaloo stumbled over herself in an attempt to rebuttal, but she had none. With her eyes beginning to water from stress and embarrassment, Scootaloo detached herself from the hang-glider and took off back down the mountain path in a frantic gallop, her two friends watching her go with confounded expressions on their faces.
"What's with her?" Sweetie Belle asked as she watched the frightened filly's purple tail disappear around the bend.
"Ah have no idea," replied Apple Bloom, a hoof touching her chin in thought. "But Ah intend ta find out."
* * *
"Whewee!" Applejack let out a relieved sigh as she shook the sweat and dirt of a hard day's work from her mane upon entering the Apple Family farm house. "Sure could use a bath."
"Big Sis! Big Sis! Big Sis!"
Applejack let out a grunt as she was bowled over by the impact of a filly that sped at her out of nowhere.
"Well, hey there, Apple Bloom," Applejack wheezed, though cheerily, through her battered lungs.
"Ya gotta help me!" Apple Bloom said urgently as she got off of Applejack and allowed her big sister to stand back to her feet.
Applejack took a moment to readjust her stetson before peering down at the large, pleading eyes of her little sister and warmly replying, "What with?"
Apple Bloom sucked in a chest-full of air and Applejack grimaced, her ears flattening against her head as she prepared for the incoming verbal onslaught. "Well whenever we try ta do anythin' involvin' heights or flyin' Scootaloo never goes through with it even though she's always talkin' about wantin' ta do it and Ah was tryin' ta think of a way ta find out what's wrong with her but then Ah remembered how big a fan she is of Rainbow Dash and yer friends with her so can ya please please please help me an' ask Rainbow Dash ta talk ta Scootaloo fer me."
Applejack's ears straightened back up as Apple Bloom's tirade left the little filly noisily trying to refill her lungs with air and staring up at her big sister pleadingly.
"Well, Ah guess Ah can-"
Before Applejack could even finish, Apple Bloom lunged forward and latched onto her front leg in a tight, excited hug. "Oh thank ya, thank ya, thank ya!"
A warm smile spread across Applejack's snout as she patted the filly on the back. "Yeah, yeah," she said with mirth in her voice as Apple Bloom detached herself from her leg. Applejack playfully ruffled her little sister's mane with a hearty laugh, earning a mutual giggle from the little filly. "Now get along, ya little scamp." With a nod and a huge grin, Apple Bloom pranced off towards her room.
* * *
Applejack let out a grunt as she bucked her legs against an apple tree, her entire body vibrating from the impact. With a sigh, she listened to the thudding of apples falling into the wooden buckets placed strategically around the base of the tree.
"Sure is hot today," she said as she wiped beads of sweat from her forehead. The sun was mercilessly beating down on the poor, hard-working earth pony that afternoon, and there was not a single cloud in the sky to give her comforting shade. Not even the leaves of the apple trees were of any assistance. With a vigorous shake of her head, Applejack loosed her mane, which had become plastered against her neck in the heat. "Some clouds would be nice..." she grumbled through an irate scowl as a certain rainbow-maned weather pegasus flashed through her mind.
A weary sigh escaped Applejack’s lips as she closed her eyes and let her head sag, stopping to take a breather. After a minute, she began to feel much cooler, curiously so. "Ahhh... that's better...." she cooed as she let out a satisfied breath. However, after a moment, it struck her as to how odd it was that it had suddenly become cooler with no shade previously in sight.
Opening her eyes to investigate this odd phenomenon, Applejack found that a fluffy, cloud-shaped shadow had surrounded her and was ever so slowly inching past her. Peering upwards, she spied that a singular cloud had appeared in the sky and was lazily floating by. Squinting her eyes, she managed to make out that there was a vaguely pony-shaped figure lounging atop it, clearly asleep.
"Speak o' tha devil," Applejack joked.
"Hey! Rainbow!"
Despite the volume of Applejack's shout, Rainbow Dash remained fast asleep on her cloud. Snorting in irritation, she called out again, louder than before, "Rainbow Dash!!"
The dozing pony seemed to start at this cry and sat up on her cloud, looking about in bleary confusion. Rainbow stood to her hooves, stretched, unfurled her wings, and alighted down from the cloud to land in front of Applejack.
"Hey, Applejack," Rainbow greeted pleasantly.
Applejack looked unimpressed. "Y'know, it's awful hot today, maybe somepony should be doin' her job."
"But... uh... I am!" Rainbow replied with a sheepish grin as her eyes shifted around suspiciously.
"Right," quipped Applejack, her voice dripping sarcasm. "Look, Ah di'n't call ya down here ta berate ya 'bout yer job. Ah actually need a favor."
Rainbow Dash perked up at this, though she did her best to look aloof and disinterested. "Yeah? Whatca need?" she replied coolly as she inspected her hoof.
Applejack rolled her eyes at the display. "Well, Apple Bloom asked me yesterday ta ask ya if'n ya'd be willin' ta talk ta Scootaloo fer her. Apparently she's been havin' trouble with heights or somethin'."
"The Squirt?" asked Rainbow Dash as she began to look around in an unsure manner. "Well... I dunno, my schedule is pretty full today."
"With what? More nappin'?" Applejack retorted with an incredulous snort. "Rainbow, can ya think about somepony else fer once? Everypony in Ponyville knows that li'l filly idolizes tha hay outta ya. So could ya talk ta her, please?"
"Alright, alright," Rainbow relented as she put her hooves up as if she were being frontally assaulted. "Sheesh, can't catch a break," she mumbled as she turned and took to the air with Applejack returning to her own applebucking.
* * *
Scootaloo gazed out at the fading purple and gold sun from beneath the pleasant canopy of an oak tree. Her mouth was turned down into a slight frown and her overall expression was a stony scowl as her solemn gaze scanned across the horizon. But most of all, her eyes kept flickering up towards the darkening sky, following the scant few clouds that blew by across the heavens, or the birds that twittered as they flew by. Slowly raising a hoof towards the sky, she uselessly motioned at the clouds as if she were doing her best to snatch them from their lofty perch, before allowing her foreleg to fall back to her side. An indescribable feeling welled up within the young pegasus; she felt empty, incomplete, and a burning jealousy towards those that floated through the sky with careless ease. A sudden wave of despair crashed over her and caused her entire body to slump against the trunk of the tree, her eyes now focused on the green grass, but even that reminded her of what she wanted, but could not have.
Scootaloo's vision came to rest on an innocent little rock lodged in the dirt. Focusing all her pent up frustration on this piece of rubble, she lashed out with her hoof and sent it skittering out across the ground. Following it with her vision, her mouth fell open when the rock came to rest in front of a cyan hoof.
"Hey, Squirt."
Scootaloo's head slowly rose, her field of vision panning up from the hoof, to a foreleg, to an entire body, and then the head and signature rainbow mane of her idol.
"Rainbow Dash!" cried Scootaloo, her despair evaporating in an instant as she sprung to her hooves, her wings puffing out in glee.
Rainbow smiled at the positive reception as she came closer to the young filly. "How's it going, kid?"
At Rainbow's prompting question, the feelings that had been dogging Scootaloo all day came back to her, dampening her fangirly joy.
"Oh, it's been going good...." Scootaloo mumbled as she looked at the ground and scuffed her hoof in the dirt.
"Uh huh...." replied Rainbow, clearly unconvinced. Coming closer, she awkwardly spread her wing out over the dejected filly. "One of your friends told me you've been having some problems with flying?"
Scootaloo's mouth twisted into a sour glower. "Probably Apple Bloom...."
"Yeah, well," Rainbow meandered about as her wing twitched between retracting back against her body and remaining as a comfort over Scootaloo. She felt very uncomfortable at the entire situation, since when was she supposed to be a mentor? "So what's the problem, kid?" she pushed, her tone cool.
Scootaloo remained steadfastly silent, prodding and kicking at any pebbles within her reach.
A cocky grin stretched across Rainbow’s snout and her eyes began to sparkle as an idea popped into her mind. “What if I showed you a few new tricks I’ve been workin’ on? Maybe then you’ll feel more like flying?” she offered, stretching her other wing in anticipation as she suddenly felt eager to show off to her usually jubilant little fan.
Scootaloo perked up ever so slightly, but only for a second, and Rainbow’s grin fell when she remained in her gloomy state. "Kid, you're a pegasus, aren't you? So what's the deal?" Rainbow pushed, trying her best to sound comforting, but even as the words left her mouth she thought of how harsh and irritated they sounded.
Scootaloo cringed as if Rainbow had physically struck her, and this sudden motion caused the weather pegasus to jerk her wing back against her body. "It's nothing, alright?" Scootaloo grumbled as she slowly began to edge away from her hero, her gaze remaining transfixed on the ground and her brow furrowed in discontent.
"C'mon, kid-"
"I said it's nothing, alright?!" Scootaloo yelled as she wheeled around to face Rainbow Dash, her eyes set hard in sudden anger and her stance aggressive. Rainbow was shocked by the strong outburst from the little filly and her jaw fell open as she stared in disbelief. Scootaloo instantly shook out of her anger as she realized that she had just yelled at the one pony she held above all others, and her eyes began to swim. "I-I-I..." she stuttered as her hooves began to wobble. "I'm just scared of heights!" she cried as tears began to leak from her eyes and quickly clenched them shut and jerked her head to the side so that Rainbow would not see.
Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words as shock shook her system. 'A pegasus afraid of heights?' she thought as Fluttershy instantly sprung to mind, but even Fluttershy would fly when she needed to. Then, it all struck her at once, how she had never even once seen the orange filly flying. "You've never flown at all...?" Rainbow cautioned.
Scootaloo slowly shook her head as a tiny sob rocked her body. "No...."
'A pegasus that's never flown....' Images of herself as a filly, rocketing through the sky, filled Rainbow's mind and all the emotions she enjoyed so much about it. The adrenaline, the wind in her wings, she did not know what she would do if she could not fly. A strange kind of resolve flooded her veins and she found her features setting into hardened determination. 'That's just not right....'
However, before Rainbow got her chance to say anything, Scootaloo suddenly turned and dashed away from her.
“Scootaloo, wait!” Rainbow called out as she reached out for the fleeing filly, but it was too late.
In almost the blink of an eye, Scootaloo had hopped onto her scooter and taken off down the road, moving surprisingly fast for a flightless pegasus. Despite this, Rainbow could have easily caught up to her if she took to the air, but something held her in her place. The surprised crease in her brow gradually fell as her lips thinned into a hard-set line. Even though Scootaloo was long gone by now, Rainbow’s hoof remained raised, though it slowly bobbed up and down through the air as if it was not sure what to do. Finally, her hoof came to rest back on the ground and she stood, silent and motionless, her gaze fixated into the distance, where she could just barely see a trail of dust speeding along the road.