It was the first day of school after the autumn break, the morning air was chilly. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo came gliding down in front of the school side by side, holding each other’s hoof. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both came running up to them as they landed.
“You can fly?!” Sweetie Belle squeaked with excitement, “That’s what you were doing over the break, learning to fly?”
Scootaloo nodded. “But it’s only been two weeks, you’re telling me that you learned to fly in just two weeks?” asked Apple Bloom suspiciously.
“Well, I still can’t fly very far on my own, or very high. I need to build up my flying muscles.” Scootaloo admitted.
“Don’t forget the fact that you have an awesome teacher.” Rainbow Dash added. She waved goodbye and flew off. She needed to get to work early, there was a newcomer on her team of weather ponies.
Scootaloo and the others walked inside the classroom to get out of the cold, still chatting excitedly. They sat down in their seats and took some paper out of their saddlebags. Miss Cheerilee came in and asked everypony into their seats.
“Before we begin today’s class,” she started and beckoned somepony standing in the doorway in, “We have a couple of new students here, why don’t you introduce yourselves.”
A small lavender unicorn filly with yellow mane and yellow eyes walked in, followed by a light brown Pegasus colt with an orange mane and blue eyes.
“I’m Dinky Doo.” said the little unicorn with her head pointed at the ground.
“My name is Cloudwhisp.” the Pegasus said proudly.
“Why don’t you both tell the class a little about yourselves?” Miss Cheerilee asked, smiling encouragingly at them.
“My parents just moved here from Cloudsdale,” Cloudwhisp started, “my dad got a job as a weather pony here so we had to move closer. I like to draw a lot, it’s relaxing.”
Dinky was having trouble saying anything through her nervousness, “My mommy’s Ditzy Doo the mailmare and my daddy’s Time Turner, he owns the clock shop.”
“And what do you like to do Dinky?” Miss Cheerilee asked her.
“Eat muffins!” Dinky yelled, the class laughed at her sudden outburst.
“Alright then, take your seats, you can get to know each other a little better after class, now it’s time for learning.”
The two ponies headed towards the only empty seats in the back of the class. “Today we’ll talk about…”
Rainbow Dash was directing her team, they needed to form snow clouds so they could start the season’s snowfall tomorrow. Everypony was gathering clouds and putting them all together into one huge layer of cloud that would cover the whole sky. Suddenly a yellow Pegasus broke through the cloud they had just formed.
“Rainbow! Twilight needs us at Sweet Apple Acres, there are Timberwolves.” said Fluttershy quickly.
“You guys keep it up with the cloud, I’ll be back.” Rainbow Dash told the weather ponies then sped off with Fluttershy.
Twilight and the others were running through the orchard, chasing the Timberwolves through the trees. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy joined in. They tried to cut off the Timberwolves before they could get to Applejacks house.
Seeing the ponies pulling ahead of them, the Timberwolves stopped. They snarled and glared at the ponies, the Timberwolf leading the pack lunged at them. Applejack charged right at it and bucked it straight in the nose, it’s logs fell to the ground in a heap. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both got on either side of a second Timberwolf and crushed it between them in a pincer maneuver. The Timberwolves howled and another attacked, Twilight shot a burst of magic at it that sent it’s logs flying all over the orchard. Rarity grabbed a huge rock with her magic and let if fall onto the last Timberwolf.
“Hey, now don’t go dropping things in my orchard!” Applejack yelled at her.
“Well what was I supposed to do, I can’t buck them like you do.” said Rarity bitterly.
The Timberwolves’ logs started floating and putting themselves back together. “Right, I forgot they did that.” said Twilight and she smacked her face with her hoof.
One of the Timberwolves lunged at Fluttershy but Rainbow Dash jumped in the way, pushing Fluttershy out of harm’s way. Rainbow went flying back by the Timberwolf, she smacked right into a tree, her wing which was bent behind her made a loud snapping sound as she hit it.
“How dare you hurt my friend!” shouted Twilight.
Her horn started glowing, the magical aura was growing. She was completely engulfed by the aura, the Timberwolves started backing away and whimpering. Twilight shot a burst of magic that sent all pieces of the Timberwolves flying back into the Everfree Forest.
“Rainbow, are you alright?” Twilight asked as she ran up to her.
“I think my wing is broken.” Rainbow Dash said through her tears.
“Come on, let’s get her to the hospital.”
Class was over, everypony was outside playing, waiting to get picked up by their parents or siblings. Scootaloo was showing off to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.
“Wow, you can fly so high!” squeaked Sweetie Belle.
“Can you do any tricks?” asked Apple Bloom.
“No, all I can do is hover and fly in forward.” Scootaloo replied with a slightly sad look, “Still better than not being able to do anything.”
“That’s amazing,” a voice came from behind them, “All I can do is get my front hooves off the ground.”
They turned to the source of the voice, it was Cloudwhisp. “You mind giving me some tips?” he asked.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned to each other and whispered something then smiled back at him and whispered again. Apple Bloom turned her head back toward Cloudwhisp but this time her attention was caught by a lonely looking unicorn sitting on the swings by herself. She brought the unicorn to Sweetie Belle’s attention as well. “We’re going to go over there,” said Sweetie Belle turning to Scootaloo, “see you later.”
“Yeah, ok,” Scootaloo said and watched them join the unicorn on the swings, “anyways, you need to keep yourself nice and nimble.”
“Hi there,” said Apple Bloom to the pony on the swing, “my name’s Apple Bloom.”
She didn’t look up, she just sat there, looking at the ground, her swing just barely swaying.
“I’m Sweetie Belle, are you alright over here by yourself? Would you like some company?” Sweetie asked as she stepped into Dinky’s line of sight.
Dinky jumped, she didn’t think that they had been talking to her, she nodded at them and gave them a faint smile. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom jumped onto the swings next to her.
“So are you always alone?” asked Apple Bloom.
She nodded again, “Most ponies avoid me, I’ve heard some say that if you stick around me to long you’ll catch my mother’s clumsiness.”
“That’s absurd!” squeaked Sweetie Belle, “How can anypony even think that that could be possible?”
“I dunno, they just do.” Dinky’s eyes were starting to well up.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Apple Bloom quietly.
“Nothing,” Dinky answered, “it’s just that the only ponies who have ever been this concerned about me are my mommy and daddy.”
“You don’t have to cry over that.” said Sweetie Belle.
“It just makes me so happy, that other ponies do care.”
“If you want, we can be your friends, I’m sure even Scootaloo will be your friend.” said Apple Bloom.
“Yeah, you can even join our club, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” added Sweetie Belle.
“Really?” Dinky asked them incredulously, “You want to be my friends? Mommy will be so happy that I managed to make friends, she’ll bake and extra batch of muffins to celebrate!”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle laughed and Dinky looked at them confused.
Cloudwhisp was getting increasingly frustrated, Scootaloo was hovering over him, telling him that what he was doing was wrong again. “You need to get used to the motion, don’t just try to put power into your wings before you’ve got a good rhythm going, my sister taught me that the rhythm is key.” Scootaloo explained.
“Yeah?” asked Cloudwhisp angrily, “And just who is this oh so great sister you keep talking about?”
“Only the best flier in all of Equestria-“ Scootaloo started.
“That’s impossible.” Cloudwhisp cut her off, “Everypony knows that the best flier in all of Equestria is Rainbow Dash, and everypony also knows that Rainbow Dash doesn’t have a sister.”
“Rainbow Dash is my sister!” yelled Scootaloo.
“Prove it then.”
“You’ll see, when she comes to pick me up, you’ll see then.”
They sat there waiting, everypony was slowly leaving one by one as their family came to pick them up. It was getting late and Rainbow Dash still hadn’t come to pick Scootaloo up. A shape came flying down into view, Scootaloo looked up at it expectantly, it was Fluttershy.
“Hah, I knew you were lying,” Cloudwhisp said and he started walking off towards home, “everypony knows that Rainbow Dash doesn’t have a sister.”
He was already out of sight when Fluttershy landed. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked her.
“She’s at the hospital, she broke her wing, I’m taking you to go see her.” she said as she extended her hoof for Scootaloo.
Scootaloo didn’t take it, instead she just took off, flying as fast as she could to the hospital, tears in her eyes. Fluttershy was amazed, she didn’t expect Scootaloo to be able to fly so well, Rainbow had told her that she still needed to hold her hoof to fly longer than five minutes. Fluttershy followed, she knew Scootaloo wanted to see her sister as soon as possible.