Aura Skies slowly made her way to Fluff Puff Point, making sure to stick to the pathway and not get lost. Or fall off and have to be rescued again, she thought with a shudder.
As she pondered over this, Aura accidentally bumped into somepony.
"Whoops, sorry," she apologized. The pony turned around to reveal a mean, tough-looking teen.
"Watch where you're going, klutz!" he barked. Aura Skies squeaked another apology and got away from there as fast as she could.
"Hey! Aura! Stop" a voice screeched. She turned around to she Rumble, flying in the air and panting. "Do you know," he began, "how fast you're flying?!" Aura Skies looked down and saw that she was 10 feet into the air and all the flight instructors were gaping at her. She felt pride for a moment, then extreme fear. Aura's wings clamped to her sides, and she fell on a not-so-soft cloud. Rumble helped her up. "Are you ok?" he asked.
"Yeah, thanks," she mumbled. Before anypony could say "smoozheberry", she ran out of the small clearing as fast as she could.
When Aura Skies arrived at Fluff Puff Point, she saw a yellow mare with a long, pink mane smiling and holding a lesson plan.
"Hello, I'm Fluttershy," said the flight instructor. "I know you dislike flying, so I've decided to start with something simple, but Twilight says it works really well."
"Um, hi. I'm Aura Skies," she said. Aura wondered what this "Fluttershy" had in store for her, and who she wondered, is Twilight?. Fluttershy disappeared for a moment, only to come back with the mean teenager behind her, who was pulling a strange grey contraption, with all sorts of gears and fancy jimjams. If this was Fluttershy's definition of simple, then Aura didn't want to know what "complicated" was. But before she could say anything, Fluttershy took out a small thing from the back of the strange machine. It was two wing straps connected to a pulley system, its purpose, Aura was unsure.
"Ok, just strap yourself in, I mean, if thats ok with you," said Fluttershy. Aura Skies got in the little mechanisim. It fit well, but she realized she'd have to open her wings to do this correctly. Aura nervously fit her wings into the straps.
Fluttershy said, "This machine is designed so that you won't fly, but it strengthens your wings. Now go ahead and start flapped, um, if you want to."
Aura Skies nervously flapped and was startled at the strain on her large wings. But, she knew if she wanted to make her mother proud, she'd have to do this. So Aura Skies, no matter how terrifiying or hard it was to flap, she flapped.
She kept on flapping for the next 30 minutes. It had become a sort of natural movement now. It was a little easier too. There wasn't much strain, in fact hardly any at all, and she didn't feel as frightend because she knew she'd never get off the ground. In fact, Aura was beginning to enjoy it. It did feel good just to flap her wings, but she would never ever fly. No way, José. Not a chance. At least not willingly, she thought, recalling the day's earlier events.
"Ok, you can stop, only if you really want to." Fluttershy's voice snapped her back to Cloudsdale.
"Sure, Miss Fluttershy," Aura said, before undoing the harness. She flopped onto a soft cloud and rested there.
"You can call me Fluttershy," said her instructor. Aura Skies noticed that this was the first time Fluttershy hadn't been so...shy. She acknowleged it with a nod before sinking into the cloud and forgetting all her worries.
The next thing she knew, Fluttershy was waking her up.
"Uh, would you like to countinue napping, or finish the lesson?" asked Fluttershy.
"Finish the lesson," replied Aura. They flapped for another 20 minutes before it was time for the 30 minute break. Aura Skies had barely made it out of Fluff Puff before Scootaloo nearly crashed into her.
"OhmygoshIhadthemostamazingtimeIlearnedsomuchseehowfastIcanflynowIevenlearnedhowto-" Scootaloo stopped when Aura Skies shot her a look. But before Scootaloo could apologize, Aura Skies told her about her day so far.
"Well, um, I can open my wings now, without getting scared, and I can flap them a little, too..." Aura expected Scootaloo not to be very enthusiastic, but the orange filly surprised her yet again and shouted "THATS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT! GOOD JOB!" before giving her a painful, yet rewarding noogie.
"Come on! Tornado Bolt is going to teach us how to make tornadoes!" shouted Scootaloo.
"B-but isn't that...not allowed?" whispered Aura Skies. But Scootaloo was half flying, half dragging poor Aura to someplace, so Aura just gave up and went along for the ride.
************
Scootaloo zipped through the air, unsucessfully dodging any unlucky pegasus that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Forgetting she had a passenger, Scootaloo proceeded to do a few flips in the air, not knowing or caring that Aura Skies was hanging on for dear life. She cut through a training course and tried out a few dives, navigated a very twisty maze, and practiced a barrel roll or two, while her friend was screaming her head off.
**************
By the time they got to Tornado Alley, where Tornado Bolt directed them to, Aura Skies looked and felt more green than white. Scootaloo landed roughly on a cloud and finally noticed Aura.
"Oops. Heh, heh, sorry about that," said Scootaloo sheepishly. If looks could kill, Scootaloo would have been dead just from anticipation. The white pegasus glared at the orange one for at least a full minute before a light grey pegasus with flyaway hair broke the silence.
"'Sup. I'm Tornado Bolt. You ready to make a tornado?" she asked. Aura Skies felt pretty sure that she wasn't ready at all, but before she could refuse, Scootaloo just had to jump in.
"We're in!"
Aura Skies suppressed a groan as the other two pegasi took to the skies.
"You coming or not?" shouted Tornado Bolt. "We don't have all day here!"
"Yeah, I-I'm coming, um, I have to, I mean, well you see, UGH!" shouted Aura Skies unexpectedly. "Look, you two, I can't fly and I don't care who knows it! And I will NOT, I repeat, will NOT make a tornado! I am NOT a pushover! Flying feathers, everyone at camp has been messing around with me! SO BUG OFF!"
Scootaloo and Tornado Bolt stared at her for a few seconds before they turned tail and flew far, far away, probably to make a tornado. Or more likely, discuss how to get back at her. Aura sank into a cloud, and cried quietly there. This was unlike her. Getting upset over hardly anything. Overeacting. She was a monster.
"Stupid, stupid me," she whispered to the cloud.
***************
Scootaloo and Tornado Bolt had finally flew off to a place where there wasn't some counselor to chew them out. Scootaloo thought that her so-called "friend" was being just plain stupid, and any reasonable pony watching would bet 1,000 bits that Tornado Bolt felt the same way. The two read up on how to make a tornado for a bit, before catapulting themselves into the air.
The two pegasi spun faster and faster. Scootaloo's wings were starting to hurt. The air current was looking more like a tornado every passing second. But the ignorant pegasi didn't know that their little "tornado" was spinning out of control. And it was headed right for Aura.
She had no idea of the danger everypony was in. She had no idea that the counselors were trying and, ultimately, failing to stop the chaos. She had no idea that anyone without flight would be sucked into the vortex. Scootaloo just cared about one thing.
Awesomeness.
Scootaloo was enjoying it. It was so exciting. Until she heard the screaming. She recognized it. Uh oh.
A white shape was hurled around in their tornado. She was screaming and crying. Her lavender and green mane was flying all over the place. Her large wings worked fruitlessly to steady herself. But she had no chance. Before Scootaloo could think up a way to help her, Aura Skies crashed into her. Then everything went black.