Unseen, Unheard

by Nocturnal Reverie

Chapter 2: The Formation of Habit

Rainbow Dash squinted against the wind, fighting back against a growing annoyance.

‘The currents just had to be against me today, didn’t they?’

Rainbow had woken up early, unable to fully fall back asleep last night. What had followed was almost half an hour of pacing as she absentmindedly remembered to eat and tried to decide whether or not to take the train. Since she was with a non-flying friend yesterday, they’d had to take the train. Now that she was alone, there was nothing stopping her from just…going.

Her only objection was the strain it would put on her body. That was quickly trumped, however, when she thought about how much faster she’d get there via her own wings.

She blinked as she burst through a cloud, mood lightening considerably once she saw Baltimare only a couple miles away. She squinted through the breeze, eyes watering from the stinging wind. Scanning the steadily-approaching city, she followed the path from the large train station, and her eyes lighted upon the Baltimare Orphanage.

Beaming, she landed in the middle of the familiar courtyard, and trotted up to the entrance.

Just as she was about to knock, she hesitated, her body suddenly frozen as she realized she didn’t know what was going to happen once she stepped through those doors.

“She’ll…remember me, right?”

She shook her head. “Of course she will, you idiot! You just saw her yesterday.”

“But…how do I—“ She gasped as she suddenly remembered.

“The name-sign! Ugh, duh! Of course she’ll remember that.” She grinned at her own insecurity. “Stupid…”

Her hoof hesitated again. “Will they even want me here?” Her hoof touched the concrete again. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

The other side of her rose in a wave, shaking her head again. “No, no. It’s fine. Who wouldn’t want you here? You’re Rainbow Dash!”

She gave another chuckle, her smile slowly fading. “It’s…just your nerves talking. You’ve got this. Just go in there, and ask to see Scootaloo…piece of cake!”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, ignoring the sweat beading at her temple, she raised her hoof.

A blue aura engulfed the doorknob, pushing the door open. Rainbow Dash froze in surprise as Foggy Day stepped out, eyes rising to Rainbow’s own before she stopped, equally stunned at the sudden appearance of the pegasus.

“Oh,” Foggy regained herself, a small smile twitching her lips, “hello, Rainbow Dash. What can I do for you?”

Rainbow shuffled in place, offering the shadow a nervous grin. “I, uh…I’m here to see Scootaloo, actually.”

The cyan mare glanced at Foggy Day, seeing a spark light behind her pupils. The unicorn’s breath seemed to catch in her throat, and her smile only grew wider. “You are?” she asked breathlessly.

“Y-yeah,” Rainbow replied, pulling on her confidence a bit easier now. “I…well, I just…I had fun with her yesterday,” she finally admitted, “I just, uh…I wanted to see if she wanted to hang out again?”

Foggy’s eyebrow rose, smiling teasingly at the mare. “Why don’t you ask her?”

The other door was nudged open with her magic, and Scootaloo stood before Rainbow Dash, instinctually reaching for Foggy’s foreleg when she felt the breeze from the opening door.

Foggy watched Rainbow’s eyes light up, easily feeling the pegasus’s excitement. Giving her her own smile, she instructed. “Reach for her hoof, and move it so your hooves touch like this.” Foggy demonstrated with Rainbow’s hoof, taking and touching it on a vertical plane.

Rainbow nodded, mimicking the movement, Scootaloo perking up at the touch that hadn’t come from Foggy.

Once their hooves were where they needed to be, Foggy continued, “Now trace your name-sign with her hoof.”

Rainbow Dash did as she was told, moving the filly’s hoof in the little arch before cutting it back to the start point. Immediately, Scootaloo broke out in a wide grin, an airy little gasp escaping her before she grabbed Rainbow’s hoof, nuzzling her fetlock.

“Nice to see you again, too, kiddo,” Rainbow grinned.

Foggy Day chuckled softly, translating the greeting. A murmur of a chuckle rose from Scootaloo, Rainbow’s heart fluttering.

“What are you two up to today?” Rainbow asked Foggy.

Before the shadow could answer, Scootaloo hummed, reaching out for Foggy. The shadow gave the filly her hoof, and Scootaloo’s hoof bent and twisted as she tapped out her sentence.

“‘Wanna see me do my exercise?’” Foggy Day translated.

“Sure!” Rainbow beamed, mussing the filly’s mane as she gave an airy little giggle. “Whatcha got, kid?”

Foggy tapped out Rainbow’s response, and Scootaloo smiled, using Rainbow’s hoof to pull herself up. She let go of it and hummed, pointing a hoof toward the courtyard.

“She needs to get to the courtyard,” Foggy explained. “Can you stand next to me for a moment?”

“Oh!” Rainbow blinked, realizing she was directly in the filly’s path. “Uh, sure.” She side-stepped, shuffling next to Foggy. “Now what?”

Foggy smiled patiently at the mare, and gave an encouraging nudge to Scootaloo’s shoulder. The filly’s face fell, her brow creasing in concentration. To Rainbow’s increasing shock, Scootaloo slid her hooves forward, lightly brushing the concrete before committing to her steps.

Rainbow’s eyes flicked to the stairs Scootaloo was steadily approaching, her anxiety rising. “Don’t you need to—“

“Just watch,” Foggy smiled patiently.

Wings fluttering nervously, Rainbow Dash watched Scootaloo, only a step away from the staircase, slide another hoof forward, stopping when it reached the disappearing concrete edge. With a confident hum, she stepped a bit closer, and crouched as she reached down. Her forehoof found the next step, and slid forward until her foreleg couldn’t reach any further. Nodding to herself, eyes wide and searching, she brought herself down the next step. A slide of her other hoof, and she found the edge again, repeating the process.

Foggy lightly nudged Rainbow Dash, who was watching with enraptured excitement as the little filly navigated her way down the stairs without any help from her shadow. The two mares gently stepped down the stairs, careful to avoid Scootaloo and potentially break her concentration.

Lighting on the courtyard walkway, Rainbow Dash looked up as Scootaloo finished the last three steps, scuffing a hoof forward for a couple steps to make sure she was on the ground. Humming through a grin, she hopped happily, her wings fluttering and keeping her hooves off the ground for the barest hint of a second.

“That was so cool!” Rainbow Dash praised Scootaloo. To Foggy, she asked, “How’d she learn to do that?”

Foggy chuckled, translating Rainbow’s sentence for Scootaloo, who giggled joyfully. “It took a lot of practice,” Foggy explained. “Spatial awareness and object permanence were the hardest things to teach her, but now she’s a natural.”

At once, Rainbow felt confusion clog her brain. “Uh…what?”

Foggy Day blinked, confused by Rainbow Dash’s confusion for a moment before it clicked. “Oh!” Keeping her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, she explained, “Spatial awareness is knowing where things are in relation to yourself. Object permanence is knowing something still exists even though you aren’t perceiving it in that moment.”

Rainbow’s forehead scrunched as she took in the information. “Oh, okay. So, like…knowing where I am in the sky based on what the ground looks like…and knowing how to get home from wherever I am?”

“Yes, exactly!” Foggy beamed. She rubbed Scootaloo’s shoulder, smiling softly down at the filly. “So…you can imagine how difficult that may have been.”

“Yeah, no kiddin’.” Rainbow tilted her head in thought. “How’d you manage to teach her?”

Foggy answered with a smile, internally thrilled at the genuine curiosity she could feel from the pegasus. “I created the walking exercises. We began indoors, but she was too scared at first to even try, so we tried again at the spokes by the gate.” She nodded toward them as she talked. “That day…something just clicked.” Foggy grinned at her own memories. “From then on…she took off, and now she loves practicing her independence.”

“Cool,” Rainbow grinned. “So, was she just practicing going down the stairs, or…?”

The unicorn chuckled. “No, no, she was just showing off. The real practice begins now.” Her horn lit up, and in a flash of blue, Foggy Day held a small stack of blank cards in her magic. “I’m going to place these at various points in the courtyard. They have instructions on how to find the next, and Scootaloo has to find all of them to complete the exercise.”

Confusion sparked in Rainbow Dash’s mind again. “But…how does she read?”

Foggy pulled the top card away and passed it to Rainbow. “Run your hoof along the card.”

Rainbow’s brow creased in curiosity, and she took the card. Looking at it closer, she could see raised dots along the thickened paper, arranged perfectly in line as if creating a sentence. She ran her hoof along the dots, easily feeling the distinct, almost sharp points.

“What is this?” Rainbow questioned.

“It’s called Braille,” Foggy explained. “It’s how blind ponies read. Each series of dots represents a letter, on a plane of three-by-two.” At Rainbow Dash’s tilted head, she added, “It’s a bit odd to learn from just looking at a card. I can give you a crash course a little later, if you’re interested.”

“Sure!” Rainbow smiled, giving the card back to Foggy. The shadow separated the twelve cards, glancing over them before her magic rose in a wave and placed eleven of the cards in seemingly random locations throughout the courtyard. The twelfth card, she handed to Scootaloo; and the filly ran the toe of her hoof along the card as she held it against the concrete. With a confident hum, she tucked her instructions under her wing and turned right, her hooves shuffling along the walkway before she stepped into the grass, walking for five paces before she paused. Her hoof shuffled again, and she picked up the second card, turning right again.

“How long has she been doing this?” Rainbow asked, impressed. “She looks like she’s not even trying!”

Foggy chuckled as Scootaloo found the wall, picking up the card laying against it. “That’s just because this is the easy part. The hard part comes once she finds the last card.”

“How do you mean?”

“While she’s finding all the cards, she not only has to follow the directions, she has to keep track of every move she’s made to find them, so she can keep up with where she is in the courtyard. Once she finds the last one, she has to go straight from where she’s ended back to where she began.”

The two mares looked up at a chuckle from Scootaloo, where the filly had accidentally bonked her head against one of the spokes as she found the fifth card. She shook her head, continuing on with the next step.

Giving a low chuckled, Foggy explained, “She mostly counts out her steps, but sometimes she loses track, and she has to remember the last few steps to figure out where she is. We began with just two or three cards, and we’ve slowly worked up to twelve over the years.”

A hum of a laugh rose from Scootaloo, the filly pausing at the gate where card number six leaned, turning left and stepping steadily toward number seven. She found it after only two steps, running her hoof along the dots.

3 o’clock, find the wall.

She nodded to herself, her throat moving. She tucked the card under her wing, scuffing her hoof to her right and turning, stepping back onto the grass and feeling the soft blades as she trudged along, easily finding the brick wall after nine steps.

The card rested right against the brick. As she felt the dots, she giggled. Foggy sometimes liked to turn a card or two upside-down to try and confuse her, but she could always tell. She turned the card around, and read:

8 o’clock, three steps.

She followed the instructions, her hooves finding the ninth card perched on top of the grass.

4 o’clock, five steps.

Rainbow Dash watched with a steadily growing grin as Scootaloo tucked the ninth card under her wing, turning and shuffling to card ten. Once she’d found it, she turned a bit to her left, heading to the back corner before stopping about halfway there. The filly read the eleventh card, turning to the corner where the stairs met the wall, and marching along until she found the last card.

Find your way back.

Scootaloo hummed in thought. She hadn’t even realized she was near the end of her practice, she had gotten so enthralled in her usual scavenger hunt.

If she had counted her steps correctly–which she had–and knew the courtyard like the back of her hoof–which she did–then she was by the stairs on the right side of the entrance near the back wall. She began at the base of the stairs, which meant…

Foggy watched with pride as Scootaloo turned herself around to be parallel with the stairs. Head bowed in concentration, the filly scuffed her way forward. She bumped the corner of the stairs with a hoof, and Foggy guided Rainbow Dash out of Scootaloo’s way as the filly found the base of the stairs, stopping and looking up at nothing as she smiled brightly, giving a happy, triumphant hum.

The unicorn reached out with her magic, brushing Scootaloo’s hoof and tapping out, “Excellent job! That was perfect!”

Scootaloo giggled, taking Foggy’s hoof and hugging it to her chest. “Thank you!”

Scootaloo felt Foggy pause, then her shadow’s hoof moved to her fetlock. “Rainbow Dash said, ‘You make that look so easy! That was awesome!’”

She felt her throat move in a delighted laugh. “It feels pretty easy when you do it for so long,” Scootaloo told Foggy’s hoof , letting a pause pass as Foggy told Rainbow Dash what she’d said.

“Rainbow wants to know if you want to go flying again,” Foggy informed her.

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped, her heart fluttering with the memories of the wind grazing her skin and tickling her ears. She gave a nod. “Yes, please. Can we just fly around this time, though?”

She let a pause pass, and Foggy’s hoof moved again. “She said, ‘We can do whatever you want, squirt.’”

Scootaloo’s chest shook as she laughed at the funny nickname. “Okay. Thank you!”

She felt Foggy’s magic tingling her skin as she was lifted off the ground. She could never feel which direction she was being carried, but found her bearings again when she felt fur under her hooves. She let her back legs dangle on either side of Rainbow Dash as she lay on her belly on the mare’s back, feeling the brush of Rainbow’s feathers as she reached her hooves around her neck.

She felt a vibration from Rainbow’s neck, and she assumed she was saying something to Foggy. Scootaloo closed her eyes as she felt Rainbow’s wings move. With a flap down, she felt her body move upward, and with a flurry of feathers, Scootaloo felt Rainbow’s body tilt, and the mare carried her up away from the ground.

Scootaloo pressed her cheek into Rainbow Dash’s neck, the mare’s mane tickling her nose. She spread her little wings out, shivering at the cool wind breathing across her feathers. She took in a deep breath through her nose, the air somehow smelling differently up in the atmosphere. She nuzzled Rainbow Dash’s neck, hugging her neck tighter in thanks.

Even though she didn’t know EHS, Scootaloo could tell Rainbow got the message as the mare hugged her forelegs.

Scootaloo settled down into the older pegasus’s fur, giving all of her focus to her skin. The cool air of flight felt far more calming–far more freeing–than she had ever let herself imagine. A content sigh escaped her lips, and the little filly let herself relax in the gentle movement of flight, not even noticing as she slowly but steadily fell asleep.

Rainbow Dash landed softly back on the courtyard walkway, returning Foggy’s smile as the unicorn trotted up to get Scootaloo. The shadow touched the filly’s shoulder, before cooing in a laugh.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked.

“She fell asleep,” Foggy giggled. Rainbow gave her own chuckle as she eased Scootaloo’s forelegs from her neck.

The filly gave a sudden hum, and Rainbow strained her neck to see her clouded eyes blinking open as Foggy tapped something on her shoulder. Scootaloo’s forelegs moved, tapping Foggy’s in return as she yawned.

“She said, ‘Thank you for flying me around again. That was fun.’”

“No problem, Scoots,” Rainbow replied as Foggy helped the foal off her back. “I’ll come back in a couple days, and we can go again.”

The pegasus didn’t notice the spark in Foggy’s eyes as she translated the sentence. Scootaloo gave an excited gasp, beaming up where she figured Rainbow Dash was. “‘I’d really like that,’” Foggy translated.

“Cool!” Rainbow replied. She bit her lip as Foggy translated, trying to make out the letters in Foggy’s movements, but unable to make any kind of connection. Shuffling a bit, she finally asked. “So…how do I talk to her?”

“Hm?” Foggy asked, looking back up at her.

“If, uh…if I’m gonna keep coming back, I wanna be able to talk to her. How…um, how do I do that?”

Foggy blinked, a small smile tugging the corners of her lips. “Oh! I…I could teach you. I’m sure Scootaloo would love to help, too.”

“Cool,” Rainbow Dash grinned. “I have plans tomorrow, so I’ll be back in a couple days, okay?”

“Uh–” Foggy beamed, seeming to shake herself from her own excitement. “Yes! Yes, that’s perfect. Um, I’ll have everything ready by then. It may take an entire day for you to get everything, though.”

“That’s fine,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I’ll be able to stay all day, no problem!”

Foggy beamed. “Great!” She tapped a sentence onto Scootaloo’s shoulder, and the filly stepped to Rainbow Dash, reaching up and finding her shoulder before hugging the mare’s neck.

Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat as she hugged the filly back with a foreleg, pressing her muzzle into Scootaloo’s shoulder. Not wanting to let go, she pried her hoof from the filly’s withers, and gave a final smile to Foggy.

“I’ll see you two soon!”

Rainbow Dash looked around the empty room again, her imagination going wild. She could still feel Scootaloo’s forelegs around her neck, and her heart sank a bit as her hoof reached for the spot, only to find her own fur.

She looked to the platform of boxes. Hovering over them, she hefted up the box with the shelf picture. With a quick glance around the room, she deposited it in the furthest corner from the door. As she hovered back to take in the placement, a self-pointed taunt rose in her head.

‘What happened to can’t adopt her, huh?’

“I’m not,” Rainbow retorted to herself. “I’m just…starting to set up the guest room, that’s all.”

“…And now you’re lying to yourself.”

Rainbow hesitated. “So what if I am?” With a groan, she landed. “I don’t know how this is gonna go, I just…” The phantom sensation of a filly on her back made her shiver. “I’m just…thinking…”

“...About adopting her?”

A blush spread up Rainbow’s neck, and she bit her lip. The same word that seemed lodged in her throat the night before suddenly settled into her chest, sending small pulses of joy through her body with every heartbeat. She smiled to herself, looking down at the boxes beside her, filling a space the perfect size for a foal-sized bed.

“...maybe…”

Two days later, Rainbow Dash felt her heart leap as she landed on the steps of the Baltimare Orphanage. She didn’t hesitate this time as she raised a hoof to knock.

A small moment passed, and the door opened, an earth pony stallion meeting her at the door.

“Uh, hi,” Rainbow Dash greeted. “I, uh…I’m here to see Foggy Day and Scootaloo?”

“Oh, yeah,” the stallion smiled. “Foggy told me to expect you.”

“She did?” Rainbow asked, surprised as the stallion held the door open for her.

“Yeah. Follow me.”

A few foals trotted past Rainbow Dash and the attendant as he led her to the left down the hall. Only a few doors down, and the stallion stopped.

“This is one of our smaller classrooms. Scootaloo needs a space away from the other foals so she can learn one-on-one,” the stallion explained. “Usually, it’s Foggy that teaches her, but she’s had a couple tutors that Foggy’s translated for.”

“Huh,” Rainbow Dash hummed. “Is she on the same level as the other foals?”

“Eh, you’ll have to ask Foggy about the specifics,” the stallion admitted. “But from what I know, she’s only a couple months behind, and that’s mostly just because of the communication barrier.”

Rainbow nodded in thought. “Thanks,” she smiled, the stallion nodding goodbye before trotting back down the hall. The pegasus knocked on the door.

Foggy perked up at the knock. She left Scootaloo to her reading, moving to the door and smiling as she greeted the familiar pegasus through the window. She let Rainbow Dash in, the two sharing their greetings and moving over to join the filly.

“Scootaloo’s been excited for today ever since you were last here,” Foggy beamed, letting Scootaloo know Rainbow Dash was here.

“Oh, really?” she smiled, getting her affirmative answer when Scootaloo gave a happy giggle, reaching for Rainbow Dash.

As the filly nuzzled Rainbow’s hoof, Foggy nodded. “Yes. It’s not everyday she gets to teach somepony.” With a flare of her horn, Foggy pulled over a blackboard with a diagram of a hoof and all twenty-six letters in perfect alignment. “She’ll be demonstrating, and I’ll walk you through what she does. I went ahead and took the liberty of mapping out the letters for you to make it a bit easier for you.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly, taking in every dot, point, and curved line that paired up with one of the written-out letters.

Her attention was pulled with a hum from Scootaloo, and the filly took Rainbow’s hoof, turning it upside-down. She ran her toe along the bottom of Rainbow Dash’s hoof wall before tapping the heel of Rainbow’s frog.

Foggy smiled warmly as she verbally filled in what Scootaloo was demonstrating. “Each letter uses different parts of your hoof wall or frog. You have to tap out each letter to spell out your sentence.”

Rainbow gave a low whistle. “There’s not a faster way for her to talk?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Foggy grimaced. “While we have worked on her feeling ponies’ lips to tell what they’re saying, the only way she can talk to others is through Equestrian Hoof-Speak, or EHS, for short.”

“Woah.” Rainbow’s brow shot up. “So, she can tell what ponies are saying just by…feeling what they’re saying?”

Foggy chuckled at the confused excitement pulsing from Rainbow Dash. “In a way. It took almost a year of practice, but she can tell what words are being formed based on the vowel and consonant movements ponies’ lips make. It’s not her preferred way for other ponies to speak to her, but it’s there just in case she’s in a situation where the other pony doesn’t know EHS.”

“Gotcha,” Rainbow nodded, looking down as Scootaloo ran a series of differently-positioned hoof-taps on her fetlock. After she’d finished, she reached for Foggy.

“‘That’s your name,’” Foggy translated.

Rainbow Dash blinked, eyes flicking to the board. “Uh…can you do it again, squirt?”

Foggy tapped out the sentence, keeping a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “Watch the board while she spells your name. Keep in mind that what you feel will be mirrored to what you see, since that’s the way she’s tapping. Her left is your right.”

A nod from Rainbow Dash, and Foggy removed her hoof. Scootaloo tapped slower this time, taking a small pause between each letter. For each letter that passed, Rainbow’s eyes flicked to the letter she knew was supposed to be corresponding to the tap. She took in the shape, a map of the specific area of the hoof as she felt the tap that went along with the area, understanding slowly creeping in.

As Scootaloo reached the last letter in Rainbow’s name, Rainbow Dash gave a determined half-smile. “Okay…I think I understand the concept. I’m guessing it’s the memorizing and speed part that’s hard, huh?”

“Yep,” Foggy chuckled. “Why don’t you try spelling out Scootaloo’s name to her?”

Rainbow gave a determined nod, taking in a breath. She moved her hoof to Scootaloo’s fetlock, the filly waiting patiently as Rainbow Dash read over the letters, mentally preparing to spell out the foal’s name.

Suddenly hyper-aware of her own hoof, Rainbow Dash tilted her hoof this way and that as she meticulously tapped her hoof, only letting the designated areas outlined on the board touch Scootaloo’s skin.

She hesitated, almost forgetting where she was as her eyes jumped from ‘T’ to ‘A’ to ‘L’, carefully tapping as precisely as she could. With two final taps, she finished Scootaloo’s name, and the filly gave an excited shout as she grabbed Rainbow’s hoof, nuzzling her fetlock.

“Did I do good?” Rainbow asked breathlessly. Foggy asked for her, and Scootaloo nodded happily, tapping Foggy back.

“‘That was great!’” Foggy spoke for the filly. “Let’s try some other words,” she suggested, tapping out the same sentence on Scootaloo’s shoulder.

Scootaloo nodded, reaching a hoof to Rainbow’s cannon bone, beginning to tap once again.

Morning bled into afternoon as the three worked, Rainbow and Scootaloo passing words back and forth as Rainbow Dash quickly became accustomed to the alphabet of Equestrian Hoof-Speak. Her initial assessment was right: she could understand the words just fine…as long as she was looking at the board to help her translate. Every time she forced herself to look away, she missed at least three letters. Still, she refused to let that dampen her spirit, knowing Foggy had spent years perfecting the language and knowing Scootaloo had had to grow up with it.

Scootaloo herself didn’t mind that Rainbow was messing up, and was just happy she was willing to learn something that would let her get to know her better. She, in turn, was ecstatic with the thought of being able to talk to Rainbow Dash directly.

She knew it may take a while, but she didn’t mind in the slightest.

The three took a break for lunch, Foggy showing Rainbow Dash the kitchen, Scootaloo practically dragging the older pegasus down the hall, excited to continue the lessons. After a quick lunch–Scootaloo spelling out different foods to Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash trying to return as best she could–the trio kept up their practice in the classroom.

Afternoon crawled into evening, as did Rainbow’s skill. After a multitude of attempts, Rainbow Dash finally found herself remembering all the letters, recalling them faster and faster as Scootaloo tapped out words and small sentences on her fetlock. She smiled at her own newfound confidence as she was able to return words and answer the small sentences with her own without even a glance at the blackboard.

Foggy felt her own excitement grow exponentially as she watched Rainbow progress at an impressive rate. It seemed the mare’s drive to learn only fueled her confidence in the matter, making the short-term recall of each letter that much easier.

She glanced at the clock for probably the fiftieth time that day, giving a small smile when she realized it was probably time for Rainbow Dash to go. “It’s five-thrity.”

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash looked up, still feeling Scootaloo spelling something out on her skin.

WIth a chuckled, Foggy repeated, “It’s five-thirty in the evening. You may need to leave soon.”

“Oh, shoot,” Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself, glancing at the clock. “Is today done already?”

“I’m afraid so,” Foggy smiled. “You’ve made amazing progress today. Next time you come back, we’ll work on some punctuation so you can ask questions and form compound sentences.”

Rainbow grinned. “Sweet.” She looked down at Scootaloo, who had paused to wait for Rainbow’s next sentence. She bit her lip, fighting the urge to glance at the board as she slowly tapped out, “I need to leave…Scoots…Its getting late…”

Scootaloo hummed a little whine. “Already…”

A bark of laughter escaped Rainbow’s throat. “Ive been here all day…squirt…Time flies when youre having fun…”

The little filly gave an even littler chuckle, smiling upwards. “Yeah…I guess so…”

“Ill see you tomorrow…okay…”

“Okay…”

“Why doesn’t she have a name-sign?” Rainbow Dash asked herself as she lay out the bottom shelf. “I mean…it’s not that hard to spell her name, but it’s just so long!”

She screwed in the four square rods, laying the next shelf on top. “Sure, half of her name is just ‘O’s, but still…” She jiggled the shelf, making sure it was in place, picking up the next four rods.

“Why hasn’t Foggy given her one? I guess it’s more for Scootaloo to remember ponies’ names, but…wouldn’t it make it easier for others to say her name?”

The second four rods in place, she laid and secured the third shelf. “Maybe…I could give her a name-sign?”

The prospect made her pause, the rod she held only screwed on halfway. “Would that be overstepping it?” she wondered aloud with her lip in her teeth, tightening the rod in place. “Maybe she just doesn’t want one?”

She thought for a moment, grabbing the fourth shelf. “But…it’s something she does for everypony else, so…maybe she would like one?”

She secured the shelf and twisted the next four rods in place. “Maybe…I can give her one, and if she doesn’t want it, we just won’t use it.” She hovered up, placing the fifth and final shelf in place. With a grimace, she banged her hoof on the back corner, the screw popping through the designated hole.

She landed, snatching up the final knobs and twisting them into place. “What kinda name-sign fits her, though?” she asked aloud. “The one she gave me is more literal, but the one she gave Foggy is more focused on what fog looks like…feels like?”

Rainbow Dash landed, smiling up at the completed shelf. With a final shake of the entire structure, she deemed it sturdy, and observed her handiwork. A frown tugged her lips downward as she realized:

“Those top shelves are dangerous.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t want her trying to get up there and hurting herself.” Humming in thought, she looked around, spying the two blanket boxes. “Aha!”

She tore open one box, pulling out the three blankets. She adjusted the folded fabric, placing two on either side of the fifth shelf, and rolling the third to fit in between the two. She did the same on the fourth shelf, nodding confidently to herself. “Good, now those are taken up…” her head tilted at the shape she’d made, the two rolled blankets nearly touching, the fifth shelf itself being the only thing in between them.

“She likes aerial tricks,” Rainbow thought aloud. “And half of her name is ‘O’s…that…that actually works.”

She smiled to herself, the figure eight almost glowing in her mind’s eye. “But…maybe not straight up-and-down, that’s too boring. Maybe…” she frowned in thought, looking down to the floor. She traced a figure eight into her floor, the shape indenting slightly into the cloud. Biting her lip, she circled the figure, taking it in at every angle she could think of.

She leaned to the side, her head twisting as she found an angle that stuck out to her. The figure leaned in a perfect diagonal, the new directions of the figure as a whole reminding Rainbow Dash of the dips and flips she had flown Scootaloo through the first day they’d met.

“That’s perfect,” she breathed to herself.

Rainbow Dash trotted down the hall to the classroom, her excitement growing with every step. She ran each letter through her head, refreshing her memory as she knocked on the door. She beamed at the unicorn that answered the door, the two greeting each other once again.

“Welcome back,” Foggy beamed. “Ready to get started?”

“Just about,” Rainbow Dash answered. “I wanted to give Scoots something first.”

Foggy’s brow rose in interest, letting the pegasus in. Rainbow Dash’s heart soared at the sight of the little filly in her seat, patiently running her hoof along a line of Braille as she read.

Rainbow Dash traced her name-sign on Scootaloo’s shoulder, the filly’s face lighting up at once. “Hi Rainbow…”

“Hey Scoots…” Rainbow returned. “I wanna give you something…”

Scootaloo tilted her head curiously, eyes jittering back and forth. Rainbow Dash took a breath to chase away her worries and steady her hooves, her hoof moving to Scootaloo’s fetlock and beginning to tap out the filly’s name.

Scootaloo’s brow furrowed in thought, wondering what the mare was doing. She felt Rainbow Dash move her own hoof so they touched flat against each other. Rainbow Dash guided her hoof a bit to the side, down, around, and back up again before continuing upward and curving around and back down again, ending where they had previously began.

Her brow creased in confusion. A small moment passed, and Rainbow Dash tapped out the filly’s name again, before beginning the swooping over-and-around motion again, moving Scootaloo’s hoof in a sort of lopsided figure eight.

Scootaloo thought for a moment. For a third time, she felt Rainbow’s hoof tap out her name, a bit slower this time, each tap a bit more direct, as if she were trying to emphasize each letter of Scootaloo’s name. She nodded, letting the mare know she understood her own name, and then Rainbow Dash took her hoof again on that vertical plane. Her hoof was moved in the simple shape, again at a slower pace, as if the mare were emphasizing it…in the same way she emphasized Scootaloo’s spelt-out name.

Rainbow Dash grinned as realization made the filly’s eyes widen and mouth drop open. Scootaloo’s eyes rose above Rainbow’s head as she tried to look at her, the shock obvious on her face.

“Do you like it?” she tapped out. Scootaloo didn’t respond, just kept looking at her the best she could with those big eyes. With a small pull of air, they filled with tears. Rainbow Dash’s heart leapt to her throat, trying to read Scootaloo’s eyes. The usually-hyperactive orbs of lavender were frozen somewhere near Rainbow’s left ear, and the pegasus finally moved her hoof to ask:

“Are yo—“

Scootaloo grabbed her hoof, cutting her off before tapping out, “I love it!” She grinned through her tears, hugging Rainbow Dash’s hoof to her chest, nuzzling her cannon bone while she sniffed softly.

Rainbow Dash smiled, still a bit confused at the filly’s initial reaction, before she mentally shrugged it off and gave in to her emotions to pull the filly into a hug, spelling out on her withers, “I’m glad you like it.”

Foggy Day couldn’t take her eyes off Rainbow Dash, something settling deep inside her soul. Her breath caught in her throat, looking down at the tearfully laughing Scootaloo, her own tears springing to her eyes. She knew why Scootaloo never gave herself a name-sign, and knew why she was reacting the way she was.

Through the ache in her heart, she smiled, coming to the same conclusion Scootaloo had. Rainbow Dash had just done the one thing nopony else had, and given Scootaloo something she had refused to ask of anypony, waiting for the right one to come about naturally.

And with it, with any hope, came something far greater than a simple name-sign.

“Alright,” Foggy began, blinking away her tears. “Let’s get started.” Rainbow Dash grinned up at Foggy. “Today will just be punctuation, which is just a few basic motions, mostly the tracing of the punctuation itself.”

Rainbow nodded in determination. “Let’s do it!”

In the span of an hour and a half, Rainbow Dash became comfortable enough with the punctuation of Equestrian Hoof-Speak that she was able to discern and create full complex sentences. With her main lesson done for the day, she had given her full attention to Scootaloo, the little pegasus insistent on talking one-on-one with the older mare.

“Thank you so much for letting me teach you!” the filly grinned.

“Thanks for teaching me!” Rainbow returned, resisting the urge to gather the filly in her forelegs and hug her as tight as she could.

Scootaloo paused for a moment, her tongue in her teeth as her eyes flicked back and forth in thought. “I wanna show you something I’ve been working on. Wanna come see?”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but blink at the request, surprised. “Sure, kiddo. Where are we going?”

“My room,” she responded. Scootaloo hummed, reaching out to the side. Foggy took her hoof, and Scootaloo tapped something out.

With a raised brow, Foggy smiled, and tapped something back. “She wants to show you something in her room,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s what she told me,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “What is it?”

Foggy Day gave a wry smile. “Wait and see.” She helped Scootaloo off her seat, letting the filly walk from her seat to the classroom entrance. Foggy motioned for Rainbow to follow, and the pegasus walked behind Foggy Day and Scootaloo, the filly leading the way with scuffing hooves and an outstretched wing, the feathery appendage brushing the wall as she walked.

Chuckling, Foggy Day explained, “She’s showing off again.” Rainbow Dash giggled. “She knows the orphanage like the back of her hoof, and she can find her way anywhere by herself. She prefers to have me near, of course, but she’s better at navigating the place than she’s ready to admit.”

The filly led the two mares to a corner in the hall, where the trio came to a set of stairs. Scootaloo bumped the stairs with her hooves, carefully taking them up. The filly gave a confident grunt to herself once she reached the top, leading the two mares to the hallway. She bumped the corner with a hoof, feeling her way around it before extending her wing again and trudging down the hall.

Two doors down, the filly stopped, reaching a hoof up and sliding it up the frame before she reached the knob. Barely able to graze it, Scootaloo stretched as far as she could, unable to grip it well enough to turn it.

Chuckling softly, Foggy placed her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, easing her back down. The filly returned with a sheepish giggle of her own, and Foggy opened the door, reaching out with her magic to flip on the light.

Rainbow blinked at the tiny room as she stepped in, the space a little over half the size of the guest room in the Cloudominium. A small bed made up the corner of the room, a small dresser on the adjacent wall. Placed precisely, staring right at the three mares, was an army of white figures standing on top of the dresser.

It was these figures Scootaloo almost trotted towards, stopping right before the dresser and extending a low hoof, bumping the drawer before it traveled upwards. She nudged a Rubit’s Cube, seeming to use it as a sort of landmark as her hoof traveled in a straight line toward one of the figures.

Scootaloo’s little hoof felt the figure a moment before she plucked it up and turned back around. Sitting, she hummed up at the two mares, drawing Rainbow Dash’s name-sign in the air.

Curious, Rainbow approached, an eye staying on the little white figures as she sat down. She wasn’t able to observe them for long before Scootaloo took her hoof and gave her the figure she had picked up.

“What do you think?” Scootaloo tapped on Rainbow’s fetlock before letting her hoof go.

Rainbow Dash looked down at the figure of the pony in her hooves, forehead scrunching in thought.

The little figure, no more than twelve centimeters tall, was completely made of hardened clay. This figure in particular was a pegasus, its wings spread wide as a bright smile adorned its face. Completely colorless, its iris-less eyes stared at nothing, a hoof raised as if ready to take a step. Its mane, wind-swept and light, sat upon its shoulder, its delicate ears up in curiosity and delight.

Rainbow Dash peered at the features of the figure, a strike of familiarity turning on a light in her brain. Eyes wide and jaw slack, she reached for Scootaloo.

“Is this me?!”

Scootaloo gave a delighted giggle, nodding excitedly. “Do you like it?”

Rainbow Dash responded at once. “‘Like it’? This is awesome!”

Scootaloo’s head ducked a bit, a blush rising in her cheeks at the compliment. “I make one for every pony I meet,” she explained to Rainbow’s fetlock before gesturing to the others on her dresser.

The mare looked over each figure, briefly taking in the details of each one. A unicorn that was clearly Foggy Day stood in front of them all, twenty-seven figures flanking her. The further back Rainbow’s eyes traveled, the more rough and imperfect the figures, the small brigade an obvious telling of how the filly’s skill had grown over time.

“They’re like pictures for me,” Scootaloo explained as an impressed grin crept up Rainbow Dash’s face. “I make them so I can ‘look’ at other ponies whenever I want.”

Rainbow Dash lightly shook herself from her stupor, eyes falling back to the miniature her she held in her hoof. “I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff in my life,” she spelt out on Scootaloo’s fetlock, “but these things take the cake!”

Scootaloo hummed a laugh, hugging Rainbow’s speaking hoof. “Thank you.”

“How long have you been making these?” Rainbow asked, giving the figure back.

The filly hesitated, replacing the hoof-made Rainbow Dash figurine. “As long as I can remember.”

Rainbow looked up at Foggy. “When did she first make these?”

The unicorn snapped back to reality, her eyes heavy as she lost herself in thought staring at the figures. “Oh! Um…she made the first when she was two. It took a few tries to make a final version, but…she’s considerably improved over the years.”

Rainbow Dash blinked, suddenly realizing with embarrassment: “So, uh…I just realized—“ she cut herself off with a sheepish chuckle. “How old is she?”

Foggy Day chuckled goodnaturedly. “She’s seven. If you ask her, she’ll insist on putting ‘and a half’ at the end of that.”

“Huh,” Rainbow trailed to herself, deciding to test that. “You’re really good at this, kiddo. How old are you?”

“Seven and a half!” Scootaloo returned with a grin.

Rainbow Dash snorted, Foggy Day snickering behind her.

Rainbow Dash flopped onto her bed, a grin frozen on her face. As she let her mind replay the moments of the day, she giggled to herself, her forehooves wrapping around her as if to keep herself from exploding.

She glanced outside, nighttime painting the sky with its stars. Pulling in a deep breath, she pulled her covers over her, eyes wide as she waited for her mind to tell her body to shut down.

She waited…

Waited…

Waited…

…

She stared at the wall, feeling as if she could run a marathon. She felt…wrong. She couldn’t name what for the life of her, but something was unmistakably, irrevocably…wrong…

Frowning to herself, she sat up, dragging her comforter with her as she stepped out of her room, running through a mental checklist.

‘I locked the door,’ she reassured herself, heading for the stairs. ‘I didn’t miss an appointment…my friends didn’t make any plans with me…I’d know if I forgot one of Pinkie’s parties.”

A shiver ran through her, remembering the last time she’d forgotten a Pinkie Party. Her eyes landed on the guest bedroom, still cluttered with its boxes—filled or empty—and the singular piece of furniture she’d put up. Another smile crept up her face, and she traipsed in.

“She’ll have plenty of room for anything she makes,” she muttered to herself, “with room for even more.”

She looked around the room, its features transforming in her mind’s eye. All at once, she could see the completed room in all its glory, ready to welcome home the only foal in all of Equestria who was just as awesome as it was.

All at once, the tension in her muscles melted, and she blinked sleepily as she sat down. Enthralled in her thoughts, she wrapped her comforter around herself and lay down on the floor.

“I’ll get a dresser in a couple days,” she promised herself, curling into herself and snuggling into her comforter, breathing evenly and peacefully as her body floated off into sleep.

Applejack knew something was up when she went an entire week without once finding Rainbow Dash napping in one of her family’s apple trees. It was this observation that sent a series of realizations spiraling through the farmer’s head.

A few days back, the six friends had met for lunch, wanting simply to spend time together and catch up after about a month of surprising normalcy. The entire time, Rainbow Dash—normally the first to speak up, with a boastful story on the side—had been nearly silent the entire time. The weather mare’s eyes were trained to the sky for most of the meal, and she had an odd look on her face as she picked at her food.

On their trot around Ponyville to see how the locals were doing, her eyes had stayed trained on the ground; and every once in a while, she would chuckle to herself, not at all timed with what was being said in that moment.

Applejack frowned to herself, almost wanting to call her friend’s actions—or lack thereof—rude, the only thing keeping her from doing so being the distracted look she’d had in her eyes the entire time.

If she knew Rainbow Dash the same way everypony did, she’d know the mare was never distracted when it came to her friends. So just what in the wide world of Equestria was keeping the Bearer of the Element of Loyalty from being in the moment with her friends?

A zip of rainbow interrupted her pondering. ‘And now she’s late,’ Applejack nearly grumbled out loud.

The mare in question landed, eyes wild. “Sorry, AJ!” Rainbow Dash all but shouted.

“Dash, where’ve y’all been?!” Applejack seethed. “Ah asked ya ta have the sky cleared over the west branch half an hour ago!”

“I know, I know, I’m really sorry,” Rainbow Dash apologized. “I just…I…uh…”

Amidst her stammering, Applejack noticed the small bags under Rainbow Dash’s eyes. Instantly, her anger and annoyance softened. “Hey…are ya alright there, sugarcube?”

“Uh…yeah,” Rainbow squeaked, trying to shrug off the question as she rubbed her eyes. “I just…had a hard time falling asleep last night.”

Applejack frowned. “Ya know…Ah haven’t seen ya around for a while. No pony else has, either. Where’ve ya been, Dash?”

Rainbow Dash froze in hesitation. “Uh…n-nowhere,” she offered unconvincingly. Her crimson eyes flicked to the sky, wings fluttering in anticipation.

An eyebrow rose as Applejack recognized the warning signs of a sudden Dash-off. She sighed, “Alright, alright. Just…please clear the sky, and then you can get back to yer…’nowhere’.”

Something flickered in Rainbow’s eyes, and she gave Applejack a sheepish smile. “I’m on it,” she nodded, leaping into the air and becoming nothing but a blur of rainbow.

The farm pony rolled her eyes, adjusting the basket on her back as she hefted over to the cart.

Ten seconds later, and a harsh breeze nearly blew her stetson off her head. She clapped a hoof over it just in time, looking up to see the smudge in the sky that was Rainbow Dash speeding away from the farm.

“What on earth are ya headin’ east for?” she wondered aloud.

Rarity knew something was up when she saw Rainbow Dash stepping down the streets of the market square…voluntarily.

She had noticed her pegasus friend hadn’t seemed quite herself as of late, and was on her way to do some shopping on her behalf when she saw the daredevil trotting into the furniture store, of all places.

Curiosity piqued, Rarity snuck in a moment after the pegasus, hearing her friend’s voice at the desk.

“I was wondering if you guys had any corner dressers,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yes, right this way,” the stallion replied.

Rarity didn’t like snooping or spying—she found it rather unladylike. But…she couldn’t deny her curiosity.

And…she could use another bulk holder—genuinely, she had an order of a new pattern of fabric coming in.

So, she trotted along the wall where the quilt holders sat in wait…right across the way from the dressers.

The stallion motioned with a hoof, Rainbow Dash looking around as she bit her lip, trying to take in all the dressers. “Do you have any with cool carvings on the drawers?” Rarity heard Rainbow Dash ask.

‘What on earth…why so specific?’ Rarity couldn’t help but wonder.

The stallion hummed in thought. “We do, is there anything specific you’re looking for?”

Rainbow Dash shuffled in place. “I guess, uh…something that’s different for all three drawers?”

Nodding thoughtfully, the stallion answered, “Yes, I believe we have something like that.”

Rarity watched the clerk lead her friend into the maze of dressers, the duo coming to a stop in front of a white corner dresser with three drawers. Her eyes widened, the detail on each level so precise and exquisite, she could make it out from her spot meters away.

The top drawer depicted a decorative carving of a pegasus posed in flight, wings spread as clouds surrounded it on all sides. The middle showed a unicorn, horn alight with magic as tendrils reached out, twirling and twisting and bending to the outer borders of the drawer face. The bottom drawer held an earth pony galloping through a field, the grass intricately carved amidst trees and flowers.

“This…this is perfect,” Rainbow Dash breathed, drawing Rarity’s attention again. “I…thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for.”

“Absolutely, miss,” the stallion smiled. “Shall I place your order?”

“Yeah, sure,” Rainbow returned, and Rarity ducked out of sight as her friend turned around.

Creeping back close to the counter, she came back into earshot in time to hear the stallion ask, “Which color would you prefer, miss?”

“Uh…” Rainbow Dash thought aloud. “I…uh…well, the color doesn’t really matter,” she chuckled. “White’s fine.”

Rarity couldn't believe her ears. ‘Not matter?! I know Rainbow Dash is a little inept at fashion, but—‘

Her thoughts were cut off when Rainbow Dash spoke up again. “Actually, scratch that, the whole room is white. Uh…gray—no, too boring. Um…oh!” She heard a hoof tapping a page. “Lavender!”

Rarity’s brow knit together. ‘That’s oddly specific, for her.’

She peeked around the corner, watching Rainbow Dash sign the receipt before the stallion announced, “You should expect it about two days from now.”

“Sweet! Thanks again!” Rainbow beamed, trotting out of the store with a bigger smile on her face than Rarity had seen in a long time.

Mind twisting and blanking, Rarity was at a loss.

Pinkie Pie hummed to herself. “Hmm…something’s up with Rainbow Dash.”

She bounced along the streets of Ponyville, an old habit of hers whenever she was trying to think. She hadn’t seen her friend in over a week, the pegasus usually either napping on a cloud or practicing her flight tricks. She’d never been completely…missing.

Then, just earlier that day, she saw her friend helping a couple movers bring a large box into her house. She’d waited patiently, noticing her friend seemed a little nervous…excited? Nervouscited?

About an hour after the movers left, Rainbow Dash had finally come out of her house, smiling like she was in the middle of a good daydream.

“Dashie!” Pinkie had called up, snapping her friend out of her thoughts.

“Oh, hey Pinkie!” Rainbow returned. “Uh…what’s up?”

Pinkie Pie gave her prank partner a winning smile. “I was wondering if you wanted to help me do some baking at Sugarcube Corner.”

Rainbow Dash had blinked, her eyes flicking to the side. “Oh, uh…I would love to, Pinks, I really would, but…I kinda…already made plans outside of Ponyville.”

The response sent genuine shock and a near-insatiable curiosity through Pinkie’s chest. “Oh, yeah? Where’re ya goin’?”

Rainbow Dash had bitten her lip, stammering. “Uh…nowhere,” she’d finally spat out. “I mean, I, uh…I’m just…going…out.”

Pinkie Pie had narrowed her eyes, trying to read her friend’s face. She looked nervous, like somepony caught with their hoof in the cookie jar. But…why?

The party pony wracked her brain, trying to remember if there was a special event in a neighboring town that she had forgotten about. When she came up with nothing, she finally softened her gaze, letting her friend go.

“Okey dokey lokey!” she had sung. “Have fun, Dashie!”

“This is suspicious,” Pinkie Pie said with narrowing eyes, bouncing into Sugarcube Corner to begin her orders for the evening.

Twilight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. “Okay, so…all of you have noticed something weird, too?”

Four heads bobbed in agreement. With a sigh, Twilight asked, “Fluttershy? What have you seen?”

“Not much,” the pegasus admitted sheepishly, “just that Rainbow Dash has been leaving Ponyville every morning on her free days, and she doesn’t come back until sundown.”

Twilight frowned, taking note of the observation before asking Pinkie the same thing.

She had asked her friends to come over after she’d noticed that, other than their regular meeting times during the week, Rainbow Dash would disappear. Whenever she had seen her over the past two weeks, she seemed distracted, trotting around town, hardly speaking to anypony, and acting far more reclusive than she’d ever seen her.

Turns out, her friends had noticed the same thing.

She got Applejack’s and Rarity’s stories, each event only piling on more and more evidence—and making Twilight more and more concerned.

“Okay…” Twilight scanned the sheet of evidence, “now that we’ve got everything…I suppose the only thing we can do now is talk to Rainbow Dash and make sure she’s okay.”

“Y’all sure we ain’t pokin’ our noses inta somethin’ we shouldn’t?” Applejack asked.

“Ah, absolutely not, darling!” Rarity objected. “Whatever’s going on is clearly affecting her day-to-day life; and it is up to us as her best friends to make sure she is alright.”

“I agree with Rarity,” Fluttershy insisted. “I’ve known Rainbow Dash the longest, and she’s never been like this.”

“Besides,” chirped Pinkie Pie, “we all know she’d do the exact same thing if it were one of us!”

The others—Applejack, included—gave affirmative nods.

“Then it’s settled,” Twilight concluded. “We’ll all talk to Rainbow Dash at our next brunch together in a couple days. Agreed?”

Again, nods and replies of agreement rose up in the mares, the five friends’ concern feeling easier to bare now that they were facing it together.

Rainbow Dash barrel rolled downward, adjusting her flight into a corkscrew as she slowed. A squeal right behind her head made her erupt in her own laughter, the filly holding on tight.

She evened out, slowing to an easy glide as she and Scootaloo panted, coming down from their bursts of adrenaline.

“Can we go higher?” Scootaloo tapped out on Rainbow’s shoulder.

Rainbow felt a grin creep its way up her face. “Sure thing, kiddo. Hold on tight.”

The mare felt the little filly grip her neck harder, and she responded with a hard push of her wings, brow creasing in concentration as she aimed for a spot in the overcast clouds. “Cloud,” she managed to tap out, the only warning she was able to give as she soared for the suspended precipitation.

Scootaloo’s brow furrowed, confused. Before she could ask Rainbow Dash what she meant, however, she gasped at the sudden increased chill that passed over her body. She shivered, the air around her somehow…thicker than it was before. It was cold, and her more sensitive feathers felt like they were brushing water as the two flew upward.

She knew clouds were just water suspended in the atmosphere, she’d learned so in her classes. But she also knew her magic—as well as the magic of all pegasi—allowed her to touch them.

She had no idea she could actually go through one.

The mist erupted around Rainbow Dash as she broke through the top, a bark of laughter flying from her as she shook the remaining moisture from her mane. “That was a cloud?!” Scootaloo tapped on her collarbone.

“Yep!” Rainbow replied on the filly’s fetlock. “Pretty awesome, huh?”

Scootaloo responded with a delighted giggle, nodding her head into Rainbow’s neck. In a flash of desire and bravery, Scootaloo tapped out, “Hold still for a minute.”

Concern flashed in Rainbow Dash’s chest as she felt the filly loosen her grip around her neck. She stayed as still as possible in her flight, unable to ask the filly what she was doing as she felt Scootaloo’s back hooves plant themselves on her back. The filly’s forehooves carefully traveled up her neck, moving through her mane before finding her head.

The weight on her back shifted as Scootaloo grasped her head as best she could, the filly sitting on her shoulders and leaning against her neck, her chin resting on top of Rainbow’s head.

“Are there any other ponies around?”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed in confusion at the filly’s random, odd question. Still, she humored her, and looked in every direction, answering, “No.”

Tactile silence from Scootaloo reigned for a moment, her chest moving with deep breaths. The filly took in as deep a breath as she could through her nose, and let it out again. At her next pull of air, she opened her mouth.

Rainbow Dash jerked as Scootaloo suddenly let out a scream, the filly’s ill-used voice coming out broken and raspy. It bled into a laugh, and Rainbow Dash felt her forehooves leave her skull for a moment, the filly reaching her hooves out to the passing air. The little filly let out another holler, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin, basking in the sound of Scootaloo’s exhilaration.

Scootaloo pulled in a gasp, her breath catching in her throat. She felt tears prick her eyes, the wind stinging them. She reached out her hooves, feeling the rushing, swishing, blowing thing she couldn’t see. She let out another scream, her throat vibrating and beginning to hurt with how fast she expelled her breath. The scream shook her whole head, and she could feel it tickling her nose and beating against the parts of her ears that refused to work.

She let out another scream, forcing the air out as hard as she could.

Nothing changed.

Nothing ever did.

Rainbow Dash’s smile faltered, her ear flicking as she picked up a shift in Scootaloo’s screech. The filly against the back of her neck suddenly jolted, and her next sharp intake of breath caught in a series of hiccups. Tears sprang to her eyes as she heard Scootaloo’s shout turn into a wail.

Her eyes flew about, finding the closest cloud and gently slowing down so she could land. Once her movement changed, Scootaloo quieted down, and Rainbow Dash heard the filly sniffling.

She reached up, brushing the filly’s shoulder. Scootaloo gave her a hoof, and she guided the filly off her back, heart clenching at the tears streaking down the filly’s face.

“Are you okay?” she asked Scootaloo.

Scootaloo swiped at her tears, only for new tracks to be cut in her fur. She grinned up at Rainbow Dash, her eyes flicking wildly back and forth, the clouds growing misty as rains continued to pour. Her chin quivered, and for a split second, her smile faltered. She pulled it back on, only for her trembling jaw to shake its foundations once more.

The filly took Rainbow Dash’s hoof. “I can’t make it stop,” she tapped, giggling through her tears, the bubbles of sound popping.

Rainbow Dash watched the filly–the independent, strong, clever little filly–desperately try to keep everything together as something seemed to fall apart inside her.

Before Scootaloo could rub her fetlocks into her eyes again, Rainbow stopped them, running her hooves along the filly’s face and cupping her jaw. She wiped away Scootaloo’s tears, not caring that her own were dripping from her eyes. She pressed a hoof to the filly’s chest, and tapped out, “You don’t have to pretend with me.”

Scootaloo blinked, the tickle of tears dragging down her cheeks. Rainbow Dash’s hoof wiped them away again, and she grabbed the mare’s hoof, burying her face into the strong fetlock.

Rainbow Dash’s soul pulsed, and she could no longer fight her desires. She pulled the filly onto her lap, wrapping her forelegs around Scootaloo and hugging her as tight as she could, her wings instinctually pulling around her to surround the filly with her presence.

The mare felt the filly giggle, before the laughter broke, and Scootaloo pressed herself into Rainbow Dash’s chest, burying her face into the soft fur of the mare that had chosen to give her–and continued to choose to give her–one of the best gifts she could ever imagine.

Her shoulders shaking, Scootaloo brushed her hoof against Rainbow’s fur.

Rainbow Dash’s breath all but stopped, her tears pouring fresh. She pressed her muzzle into Scootaloo’s mane, her hoof hesitating as she tried to find what to say.

All were things Rainbow Dash longed to say, all were things she couldn’t bring her hoof to form. Instead, she squeezed Scootaloo a little tighter, nuzzling her head, trying her hardest to keep her tears from falling onto the filly, not wanting to clue her in that she was crying just as hard.

Finally, Rainbow Dash felt a little wiggle from Scootaloo, and unwrapped herself from the filly, finding a more stable smile on the filly’s face as she looked up at her as best she could.

Rainbow hesitated. “Wanna keep going?”

Scootaloo gave a happy nod, rubbing away the final remnants of her tears. Smiling, Rainbow Dash crouched and helped Scootaloo onto her back. The filly squirmed, situating herself in the same way she had before.

With a flick of her wings, Rainbow Dash launched into the sky again. Once they were back in the breeze, Scootaloo reached out her hooves, letting out a holler of excitement. Rainbow listened for a hint of the previous hurt, a content smile finding her face when she only heard cheer from Scootaloo, and with a rolling wave of her own glee, she let out her own shout right alongside Scootaloo’s.

The two pegasi cried their joy into the sky, and a thought lit up Rainbow’s eyes. She reached for Scootaloo’s rear hoof.

“Wanna try something?”

Scootaloo’s next shout was cut short, and she curiously reached for Rainbow Dash’s hoof. “Sure. What is it?”

Rainbow Dash chewed her lip. “Do you trust me?”

She felt the little filly on her back hesitate, and didn’t blame her for a second. After only a moment, she felt:

“Okay.” Rainbow grinned, gently taking the filly’s hoof. Eyes narrowing in concentration, she twisted her body in the air, pulling Scootaloo onto her stomach. The filly gasped in apprehensive surprise, suddenly finding herself on Rainbow’s chest instead of her back.

Before she could even think to ask how it was possible for Rainbow Dash to fly upside-down, she felt the mare’s careful hooves flip her over onto her back before wrapping securely around her chest and belly. Before she could object to what was happening, Rainbow Dash flipped over again.

Scootaloo’s throat constricted as she gave a frightened shout, suddenly finding her hooves–not touching anything–facing where gravity was pulling. Her hooves flailed, trying to find purchase on anything. She grasped at a pressure on her chest, finding Rainbow’s foreleg, securely holding her back against Rainbow Dash’s chest.

Slowly, then all at once, the shock wore off, giving way to a new intensity of excitement that she didn’t know existed until this very moment. She pried her trembling hooves off Rainbow’s forelegs, and felt the mare’s chest move with a laugh. She returned it, stretching out all four hooves as the unseen, unheard force that was the wind filled her lungs, swirled around her ears, combed through her mane, brushed across her fur, tickled her nose, and stung her eyes.

So overwhelmed was she at the feeling of freedom, that she didn’t notice her eyes filling with tears again.

Rainbow Dash looked down at the ecstatic filly in her forelegs, Scootaloo’s weight feeling more natural against her chest than she would have ever thought. Something inside her clicked into place, a longing, deep ache telling her she couldn’t live without the filly–the vulnerable, beautiful, joyful little filly–she held against her chest.

The pegasus pressed her muzzle into Scootaloo’s mane and finally gave voice to her deepest thoughts, her most intense emotions: