How many weeks had it been since Scootaloo had first set hoof in the Cloudsdale practice field? Truth was she had lost track. They had been at it so long that interruptions to the weekly tradition had become unavoidable. In fact, many times they hadn’t even bothered to come to the practice field for the week’s lesson, favoring open-air lessons, using Rainbow Dash’s house as the crash landing pad.
Today was an unusual one. Rainbow Dash had told her that she had other business in Couldsdale and wanted to know if she wanted to tag along, even if it meant just being dropped off at the practice field. Right now Scootaloo was regretting having said ‘yes’. How did she think that today she would be any better then the last time she was here? Her progress had been so slow and steady that she was almost sure she was more waiting for her body to grow than learn anything. Her ears deflated at the depressing thought.
So now Scootaloo sat waiting on her usual launch ramp. At least it was her new ‘usual launch ramp’. Now that reaching the far side of the practice field from the five hundred foot ramp was easy, she had moved down to the two hundred and fifty foot launch ramps. Still, using the far right lane at least kept her out of mind of most of the other young pegasi.
But that was just one of the problems. Usually she had the third floor to herself. Maybe once in a while a class would come up for a gliding or stall recovery lesson, but for the most part she had been able to practice away from the other fillies and colts. Not so here on the second floor launch ramps. Ponies came and went all day long and Scootaloo had yet to be the only one using this floor. Forced into the presence of the other ‘weak flyers’, she had no choice but to observe that she was always the oldest pegasus here. Oldest trying to learn anyway. Sometimes she would see a filly or colt her age around but they were always helping a younger sibling learn to fly. Additionally, Scootaloo had noticed that she rarely saw the same young learners for more then three weeks in a row before they never seemed to come back.
Scootaloo’s eyes drifted down to one more thing that set her apart from the other young pegasi. The blue band on her front leg. After she had cleared the safety wall, the next time she came back, the practice field employees had made her pick out a colored leg-band. At first she was happy to have a small trophy of her accomplishment. But eventually she learned that the band was to mark her as ‘dangerous’ in that she could clear the safety wall but still couldn’t truly fly. As a result, now she wasn’t allowed to jump from the launch ramps without an adult watching her. Normally that wasn’t a problem, but with Rainbow Dash elsewhere in Cloudsdale today that meant Scootaloo had to wait for one of the field employees to watch her.
So she sat there, waiting, thinking. Inevitably the frustrations of being unable to fly came in to her mind, and it made her give a cynical laugh. It was funny, Scootaloo wasn’t sure who was more frustrated that she couldn’t fly, herself or her mentor. Either way the filly wasn’t too happy with her slow but steady progress. Part of her was driven to live up to her mentor’s example. Part of her wanted to give up so she could stop embarrassing herself in front of her idol. Ultimately the part of her that knew giving up would disappoint her mentor the most won out, so here she sat, waiting to try again.
A stallion with a white coat and gray mane came over and took note of her leg-band. The cap on his head marking him as a practice field employee. “Ready?” was all he asked.
Nodding, Scootaloo backed up, giving herself as much room as possible. Her wings came to life and she took off running at the ramp. Instead of jumping, she intentionally hooked the end of the launch ramp, pulling herself downward, and kicking upward with her hind legs as she fell past the ramp. Launched into an immediate high-speed dive, Scootaloo was beating her wings scooter style as hard as she could. She wanted as much speed as she could gather, as quickly as possible.
Feeling the winds around her wings stabilize she kept diving, until she shot past the first floor like a rocket, then she commanded her wings to fly. With her inward command she instantly swapped over to a proper wing form.
Pulling out of her dive with a good fifty feet between herself and the cloud field below. Flapping her wings furiously, Scootaloo shot down range with extraordinary speed, and had cleared the halfway marker pylon by the time she felt herself losing speed.
Pointing herself into a shallow dive, she shot past the three fourths marker pylon. First she was running out of altitude between herself and the field, so she leveled out and pushed her wings even harder. Then she was running low on speed and knew if she lost much more of it she would stall. She made another quick dive to only ten feet above the cloud field.
The safety wall wasn’t far now. The winds around her wings destabilized. Scootaloo made one last attempt to get some speed back, but it only bought her a second more air time. Gravity overcame the lift on her wings and she fell. Scootaloo didn’t try to land. She stayed in her flight form and let herself dig a small trench in the clouds sliding, tumbling and rolling. Sliding into the safety wall would be good enough in her mind. She could accept that as a win.
Having run out of momentum, Scootaloo lifted her face up from the cloud field. Only a few feet separated her from the safety wall. She had fallen short. She raised her hooves into the air in frustration at failing to reach even her petty goal of the moment. “Dang it!” she shouted, slamming her hoof down hard on the cloud below her. Her body froze in surprise as the patch of cloud below her lit up like a floodlight and a thunderous boom assaulted her ears.
Looking down, Scootaloo saw the patch of cloud she was standing on had turned into dark storm cloud. Gingerly, she tiptoed off the dangerous patch of cloud and looked over her shoulder. Her frustration vanished in an instant, as she felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Opps, that was me, wasn’t it?” she whispered to the wind, hardly able to hear herself through the ringing in her ears.
When she had looked over her shoulder, she saw all activity at the launch ramps had come to a stop. All eyes were on her. Even the ones from the balconies of the homes that lined either side of the practice field were all locked on the orange filly and her patch of darkened cloud at the end of the field.
A moment latter, the stallion who had watched her jump came gliding down. “I know it must be frustrating to still be at it so long, and having so little to show for it. But please refrain from kicking lightning out of the clouds. The field is in a neighborhood,” he said, landing on the patch of storm cloud. Three blasts of lightning later and the cloud had turned back to its normal white. “Wow, you really charged that cloud up didn’t you?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Scootaloo apologized, head and ears held low.
“Just don’t do it again or we’ll both be in trouble,” the stallion said, with a bit of a laugh. “That’s that, let's head back,” he added, lowing himself to the clouds, offering a ride back to the launch ramps.
Scootaloo climbed on and soon they were heading back. The stallion stopped not far from where they had started to add a colt, who had been practicing gliding, to his passenger list.
The colt who joined Scootaloo on the ride back was easily a year or two younger than her and had blue fur and a light blue mane and tail, only his green eyes kept him from being blue head to hoof. “Thanks a lot. Now my ears won’t stop ringing,” he growled at Scootaloo.
“Hey, if you think you had it bad, think how loud it was to me!” Scootaloo protested, her ears still ringing just as bad as before.
“You caused it,” the colt said, with a cold, unsympathetic voice.
“I didn’t mean to. It was an accident!” Scootaloo said, in her defense.
Scootaloo felt the colt’s head bang on her back. “You mean to tell me that you kicked lightning by mistake? I’ve been trying to learn how to do that for months! And now you’re telling me that even a flightless blank flank like you can figure it out?” he whimpered, adding in a lower voice, “...I must be so pathetic.”
“Hey, don’t say that kid. Most pegasi your age can’t kick lightning. Heck, some pegasi who never train in weather management never learn how,” the stallion they were riding spoke up.
Scootaloo went silent, as her mind started processing what she just heard. Her eyes fell on her flank, the absence of a cutie mark proving she had yet to find her special talent, her place in life. She didn’t mean to, but on instinct she tilted her head enough to see the colt’s cutie mark. It was a wispy cloud that seemed to symbolize wind more than clouds.
Was it really hard to kick lightning? She hadn’t even thought about it before. Probably because Rainbow Dash had made everything weather control look so natural that Scootaloo had just assumed that any pegasus could do it on a whim. What if handling lightning was her talent? Pondering that for a moment she sighed and dismissed the thought. Even Rarity’s talent for gemstone embroidery came with the talent to find the gems. What would be the point in being talented in an aspect of weather control if she couldn’t fly up to the clouds to use that talent?
“I know where she’s going, but where am I dropping you off, kid?” the stallion asked the colt on his back, as they neared the launch ramps.
“I can get back up there myself. Thanks for the ride,” the colt said, releasing his hold and flapping his wings, he took off, climbing toward the five hundred foot cloud ramps.
The stallion landed by the very ramp Scootaloo had taken off from. He looked down the row of launch ramps and satisfied that nothing needed his immediate attention he said, “Want to go again?”
‘Flightless blank flank’ the colt’s words echoed in Scootaloo’s mind and stabbed at her heart, draining her desire to continue practicing. Closing her eyes, to hide the tears forming in them, she shook her head. The stallion nodded and looking down range, spotted some young pegasi walking back towards the launch ramps. He took off to offer them a ride back.
Curling up by the wall behind her lane, Scootaloo pondered what to do. Looking at the shadows coming off the clouds around her, she saw that It was still the heat of the day. She knew that it would only take three good thermals for her to get back to Ponyville. As tempting as the thought of going home on her own was, two things stopped her. One, she wasn’t sure if Rainbow Dash would be proud of her for flying home on her own or mad at her that she risked trying to fly home alone. And second, she knew if she failed to find the thermals needed, she’d be in for one heck of a long hike back to Ponyville and she was certain Dash would be mad at her if she had to search for her in the hills between Cloudsdale and Ponyville. Deciding she had no choice, Scootaloo waited for her mentor to finish her business around town and come to pick her up.
Scootaloo’s mind began to wander, but it always came back to the same question. Why was she doing this to herself? Flight lessons had stopped being fun after the first few weeks and yet she had continued to frustrate herself all day one day a week, week after week. She just wished she could give up, go home and enjoy a good fun ride through town on her scooter.
Scootaloo’s pondering was interrupted when she saw her mentor rise up by her ramp and spot her curled up in the corner. “Nap time huh? Tempting but let’s go. We’re done here,” Rainbow Dash said, practically beaming.
Raising an eyebrow, Scootaloo found two things wrong with this turn of events. In all her trips her mentor had never once ordered her to call it a day early. And then there was the oddly enthusiastic smile on Rainbow Dash’s face. What was she so happy about that couldn’t wait? Odd as Scootaloo found it she had wanted to go anyway, so she was more than happy to jump to her hooves and make a quick dive off the ramp to the first floor. There she found the shelf by the front door and dropped her leg band in the small box with the others like it. Then she went over to a small wall with a bunch of names scrawled on it, and with a quick wipe of her foreleg removed her name from the cloud wall.
Once out on the streets of Cloudsdale, Scootaloo looked up at the towering cloud buildings and felt a wave of depression wash over her. She had once been proud to tell her friends she had been to the pride of pegasus cities. But now, all she felt was out of place here.
“Ready to go scoot?” Rainbow Dash asked, still in a cheerful tone.
“Can we fly?” Scootaloo asked, the pleading look in her eyes making the true meaning of her request clear.
“Sure we can, I wasn’t in the mood for a slow glide anyway. Besides I think I finally figured out what you’re doing wrong.”
“Really?” Scootaloo said, as she leapt into the air. Her wings coming to life.
A nod was all the answer Rainbow Dash gave as she too leapt into the air, catching and balancing her student on one hoof.
Scootaloo felt her mentor’s hoof digging slightly into her belly and pressing on her ribs, helping push her faster through the air. It wasn’t true flight but it was close enough to enjoy it. With that little boost she didn’t have to give up speed or altitude to stay airborne. When she turned, her mentor followed her lead. If she climbed, so did Rainbow Dash and the two of them raced through the streets of Cloudsdale until they emerged into the freedom of open sky. From there they headed back towards Pnoyville.
Scootaloo had been leading them more or less toward Pnoyville, weaving their way through the scattered clouds. It was no scooter ride, but it felt liberating all the same, it lifted her spirits to be soaring through the sky. Even if she still needed that little bit of extra help to do it.
They had been flying for almost five minutes by the time Scootaloo noticed that her mentor had been silent the whole time. “Well? Aren’t you going to tell me?” she asked, as she brought her hind leg down to tap her mentor’s leg.
“Heh. Was wondering how long you were going to wait to ask,” Rainbow Dash said. “It may have taken me a while to figure it out. But I can defiantly say you picked the right mentor. I’m probably the only pegasus in the world that would have thought of it.”
“Well what is it already?” Scootaloo asked, anxious to know what she was overlooking.
“To put it simply. Magic.”
“Umm. Rainbow Dash we’re pegasi, not unicorns. We don’t use magic,” Scootaloo stated the obvious.
“This coming from the pony that just kicked lightning out of a cloud,” came her mentor’s retort.
Scootaloo was instantly frozen in bewilderment. So simple a revelation, so obvious and yet she had never heard anypony liken a pegasus’ ‘abilities’ to magic before. Then a red flag went up in her mind. “Wait, you knew that was me?” she asked.
“I may have made an off the hoof comment about somepony throwing a tantrum when I first got back to the practice field. And one of the field guys may have mentioned something about it being you that was responsible for the thunder in the middle of a quiet neighborhood,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Sorry,” Scootaloo apologized reflexively. Being a cutie mark crusader had only increased the frequency she had to do that for one reason or another.
“Sorry? For what? Do you know how awesome it is that you can do that already?” The lack of response was enough to prompt Rainbow Dash to continue, “Let me put it to you this way. Any pegasus can kick lightning out of a storm cloud. A trained weather pony can kick lightning out of any cloud. But you have to be really good at handling lightning to charge a cloud up like that.”
“Really?” Scootaloo asked, not sure if her mentor was telling the truth or just trying to cheer her up.
“Yeah, really,” Rainbow Dash said, with a smile that meant it. “Now back to the point. The thing is pegasus magic does more then just let us walk on clouds and control the weather. Some of it helps us fly.”
“So you think that’s what I’m messing up?”
“I think so. I mean let’s be honest here. When we first started, you’re flight form was terrible. But now there’s nothing wrong with your form or wing beat pattern. In fact you have a more professional flight form than most pegasi I know.”
“Really?”
A nod accompanied the answered to Scootaloo’s question as her mentor continued with her point, “Yeah. But that’s just it. As far as I can tell you should be flying rings around most pegasi. So if there’s nothing wrong with your technique anymore, what’s left but magic?”
“So you think my magic is broken?”
“I don’t think it’s broken, I’m thinking that somehow you’re redirecting the magic that’s suppose to help you fly to one of your other passive magics.” Rainbow Dash hadn’t really thought this far ahead, so she was mentally scrabbling for something that sounded hopeful, so she added, “Maybe you’re sending your flight magic to your pegasus shield by mistake?”
“Pegasus shield?” Scootaloo asked, having never heard the term before.
“The passive magics that protect us from high speed flight. Sorry, I’m making up names as I go. Most pegasi doesn’t even think about our magics so it's not like they have formal names or anything.”
“Okay… how do we find out for sure?” Scootaloo asked, sensing her mentor’s uncertainty.
“I have an idea, but to try it I need you to promise me to keep everything I’m about to tell you super secret,” Rainbow Dash called back, with a sudden seriousness in her tone.
“Of course I’ll keep your secrets!”
“I’m talking super-duper-take-to-your-grave kinda secret here, Scoots. You sure you can do that?”
Pausing to take in her mentor’s words, Scootaloo already knew her answer but it was clear she needed to sound as serious as Rainbow Dash when she answered. Putting on her best brave face, the filly looked her mentor in the eyes when she confirmed she could keep a secret.
“The key to the sonic rainboom is to force your pegasus shield into a cone, so it can punch through the air resistance you get when approaching the sound barrier. I didn’t realize I did it the first time but eventually I realized that it was the first form of passive pegasus magic I learned to actively control.”
Scootaloo couldn’t believe the magnitude of what she had just heard. She had just been trusted with the secret to the most legendary of pegasus stunts. A flick of her mentor’s wrist snapped her out of her awe as she felt her support disappear. A Second latter Rainbow Dash’s front hooves collided with Scootaloo’s back hooves and the shear force of Dash’s wings pushed the both of them forward at incredible speed.
They zoomed forward, leaving Scootaloo’s minimum glide speed in the dust. As the speed built up, the force of the wind in Scootaloo’s face increased and soon she felt the air pressure on her front hooves too. A Thin layer of white appeared an inch in front of her hooves.
“See the sparks of lightning?!” Rainbow Dash shouted to her student. Scootaloo examined the thin layer of water vapor and shouted back when she saw small flashes of electricity. “That’s your pegasus shield! Force it into a cone!” Rainbow Dash yelled, barely audible over the roar of the wind.
“How?!” Scootaloo called back.
“I don’t know! It’s not like controlling your body or even thinking. Our magic doesn’t come from the body or mind, it’s more like it comes from the heart. You have to command it with shear force of will! Like when you make yourself be brave even when you’re scared! Or stop yourself from crying even when you’re still sad!” Rainbow Dash shouted the lesson over the winds, making it up as she went.
Not body, not thinking, more like controlling emotion. It wasn’t much to go on but it was all Scootaloo had. Glaring at the lightning crackling in the wall of compressed air, she thought anyway, You heard her shield, I need a cone not a sphere. Try as she might to keep her body out of it, she was also tensing and relaxing the mussels in her forehead and forelegs as she tried to focus her mind and feelings.
Scootaloo felt something change in the core of her being and the wall of compressed air around her close in for a second. Grabbing onto the feeling, she tried to force it to repeat itself. Her shield fluctuated a few times but refused to take the form of a cone. Trying to tweak the feeling one way and another, Scootaloo tried to get her shield to take the requested form. But despite her best efforts she couldn’t get it to do anything other than collapse into a half-oval shape.
She felt the compression taking a toll on her body. The wall of air pushing her back and her mentor pushing her forward. They had been at it too long and it was becoming too much. She knew her legs were on the verge of buckling under the strain.
“I can’t do it!” Scootaloo cried. In an instant the pressure on her evaporated along with the wall of compressed air in front of her. A quick glance back confirmed that Rainbow Dash wasn’t flapping her wings anymore. “I’m sorry, all I could get was an oval,” she added to her mentor, unable to look her in the eyes.
“The fact that you got anything at all is promising. It took me years to figure out how to control my shield. Of course I didn’t have anypony to help me. But more importantly, I could feel the strength of your shield and let me tell you it’s way too strong for a pony your age. I just know we’re on to something here,” Rainbow Dash called back, over the lessening winds. “Now that I think about it, we may be treading new ground, but I’m sure if we practice other forms of pegasus magic it will only be a matter of time before you figure out how to focus your energy back into you flight magic.”
“You really think so?” Scootaloo asked, looking into the reassuring look on her mentor’s face.
“With me teaching you, I know so. Now let's see if we can get back to Ponyville before you run out of momentum,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing behind them, smiling a knowing smile.
Sure enough a quick look around confirmed that they had overshot Ponyville by several miles. Though they still had enough speed and altitude that Scootaloo figured she had a good chance of making it back without further help.
With the stress of the lesson over, Scootaloo was able to enjoy the momentary taste of flight. With her spirit renewed and a new hope driving her, she knew she could persevere.