Scootaloo's Summer

by Kasper COEI


Chapter Four

Scootaloo stared up at the sky, waiting for Rainbow Dash to return. Her heart was racing because of the pure excitement she held in her body. She was going to train with Rainbow Dash! No, Scootaloo wasn’t training with Rainbow Dash… She wasn’t strong enough for that. More specifically, Rainbow Dash was training her!
Scootaloo grinned wildly when she saw the familiar-looking Pegasus return from the clouds above. But then, her grin dulled slightly as she attempted to make out what Rainbow Dash was carrying. As Rainbow Dash grew closer, Scootaloo recognized the thing slung across her back as a bag. It looked like a duffel bag… But what could Rainbow Dash have brought down?
As Rainbow Dash finished her decent and landed, Scootaloo stepped closer, curiously looking at the bag. Before Scootaloo could ask what was in it, however, Rainbow Dash unzipped the bag, revealing what appeared to be weights.
“Uhh, Rainbow Dash? Are those weights?”
“Yep! Like I said, Scoots, you have amazing endurance. But one of the reasons you can’t fly,” She paused, walking to Scootaloo. She pulled Scootaloo’s wing out, stretching it, and then flapped it a couple of times. She felt along the wing to Scootaloo’s back, and then pressed behind her shoulder. “Is because you don’t have much strength in your wings,” she finished.
Scootaloo turned her head, looking ad her wing, and then at Rainbow Dash’s folded wing. She then noticed the difference in bulk… Rainbow Dash’s wing always seemed larger than Scootaloo’s, but Scootaloo passed it on as just the age and size difference. It wasn’t until now that Scootaloo realized part of this size difference was muscle.
“So how am I going to strengthen my wing muscles?”
“Easy!” Rainbow Dash replied. She dropped Scootaloo’s wing, which Scootaloo folded against her body again, and walked back to the duffel bag. She pulled out the weights, which read ‘ten’ on either side. She then placed them outside of her body on either side, and pulled out straps from the bag. She attached them to the weights first, and then to the lower-half of her wings. From there, she began rising and lowering her wings slowly, raising and lowering the weights. “You do wing-lifts to start off.”
“Seems easy enough… But if you do ten pounds, then—“
“No, no, Scoots. I do much more than ten pounds. I got my old, light set so you could use them, however.”
“Really?”
“Yep! Now enough of a break.” Rainbow Dash quickly took the straps off of her own wings and held them towards Scootaloo. She smiled, almost too innocently.
Scootaloo could detect the slightly off feeling of Rainbow Dash’s smile, but stepped forward without hesitation. She opened her wings, and allowed Rainbow dash to attach the bands to her wings. She let her wings droop as the straps were put on and tightened, and upon Rainbow Dash backing off, let her wings lift to feel the weight she had on. She was surprised to find them almost light.
“I’m just lifting these up and down, right Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked, skeptical.
“Yep! You’re doing that twenty times to start off. But before you start,” Rainbow Dash paused, opening her wings. She spread all of her legs slightly, and bent them, lowering herself ever so slightly. She slowly lifted her wings up and down, keeping them perfectly level with the ground. As she continued her demonstration, she finished, “do you see how I’m doing this? This is how you need to do them. And if you do them wrong, you have to restart.”
Scootaloo nodded excitedly. “Got it!”
She spread her legs ever so slightly, copying Rainbow Dash to as close to perfect as she could muster, and then bent her legs.
“Good. Now start.”
Scootaloo began flapping her wings, fairly fast. Within three seconds, she’d been able to complete an entire eight lifts. She found this surprisingly easy. As soon as this thought had come across her mind, however, Rainbow Dash shook her head, interrupting.
“No, no, no, Scoots. Stop that.”
Scootaloo slowed her wings, and then let them rest, setting the weights on the ground. As Rainbow Dash remained quiet, eyeing Scootaloo, she understood that she had to figure out what flaws she had done. She thought for a moment, and then nearly jump with excitement.
“Oh! Right! Gotta keep them level to the ground, right?”
Rainbow Dash said nothing as Scootaloo adjusted her wings, staring at each one as she made them become parallel to the ground.
When Scootaloo seemed satisfied, Rainbow Dash instructed her, “Again.”
Scootaloo began flapping once again. This time, as the last, she’d reached eight flaps by the time Rainbow Dash interrupted.
“Stop, Scootaloo. Try again.”
Scootaloo looked at her wings, and noticed that they’d stayed parallel to the ground. She wondered what Rainbow Dash was being nitpicky about… As she looked down at the ground in thought, she noticed what was wrong. She’d stopped bending her legs! She let them bend slightly once more, and looked expectantly at Rainbow Dash.
“Go ahead and start.”
Scootaloo nodded, and taking a moment to check her posture, continued flapping. Her speed dropped, but only ever so slightly. She was still able to manage a complete seven lifts.
“C’mon ,Scootaloo! Stop and think for a moment!”
Scootaloo was slightly taken back by this. Just a moment ago, she was being praised by the blue Pegasus. She didn’t blame Rainbow Dash, however. Whatever she was doing wrong, this was the third time she’d done it.
“I’m going to do this with you this time. I want you to copy me exactly.”
Scootaloo nodded, studying Rainbow Dash very closely now. As Rainbow Dash returned to the lifting position, Scootaloo checked everything that might be wrong. Scootaloo studied Rainbow Dash’s tail position, which directions her hooves faced, how far apart her legs were, her wing position and angle they were held at. Scootaloo copied everything to a dime. When Scootaloo nodded to Rainbow Dash, showing that she felt ready for Rainbow Dash to begin, Rainbow Dash gave a small nod back.
Rainbow Dash began lifting and raising her wings slowly. Her wings took a full second to rise to the peak of the exercise, and a full second to return down to the ground, which was the resting position. Scootaloo’s eyes widened as she watched Rainbow Dash. She realized what she’d been doing wrong. She’d been going too fast! Way too fast! Scootaloo wanted to kick herself for not realizing this, but she understood herself. She’d been too excited at the idea that Rainbow Dash was training her.
As thoughts rushed through her mind of how she could, and couldn’t, believe herself, she copied Rainbow Dash’s motions with her wings. Scootaloo let her wings rise and fall slowly, feeling the weight of the weights she’d been carrying. When she went quickly, she hadn’t felt any challenge to her wings’ motions, but now that she slowed down, she could feel the strain of her wing muscles. She could feel them getting exercise.
Despite the adrenalin still pumping from the excitement of it all, Scootaloo quickly began feeling the pain of the exercise. As she neared her seventh, eighth, and ninth times rising and lifting, she felt as though her wings could tear off. She gritted her teeth and pressed on, however.
She counted her twelfth lift. Her fifteenth. Her seventeenth. She was ready to let her wings drop to the floor by eighteen. Nineteen hit, and she wanted to cry out in joy. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash spoke.
“Now Scootaloo, pause mid-lift.”
Scootaloo obeyed without thinking. Her wings were only at half-rise of her final, twentieth lift. Her eyes widened as the burn in her wings slowly grew. She looked at Rainbow Dash with a questioning look.
“Almost there, Scoots. You did forty seconds of lifting. Now hold it for twenty, make it a minute…”
Scootaloo held her breath. She knew that twenty seconds wasn’t long, but it felt agonizing. It felt horrible. It ended.
“Aaand, twenty. You’re not allowed to drop them until you finish that rise!”
Scootaloo let her breath fly out, and she gasped in, trying to muster the final bits of strength in her wings. Slowly, painfully, they lifted. They went from half-rise to three fourths, where they froze for a moment. They dropped down again to half, and Scootaloo almost panicked.
Scootaloo could only imagine what Rainbow Dash might do if she dropped her wings! Above all else, the most threatening thought was Rainbow Dash taking back her word to train her. She let this thought drive her, and her wings surged upwards, finishing the rise. Her wings dropped to the floor, where the weights bounced upon impact. She sat down, unsure on how to help her wings recuperate.
At first, she couldn’t feel her wings anymore. And then the fatigue from the exercise kicked in. Despite how painful it was, it felt promising. It felt rewarding.
“Good job, Scoots!” Rainbow Dash praised the little Pegasus. She walked forward, and lightly bumped Scootaloo’s shoulder with her hoof. “I didn’t think you’d actually make that!” Rainbow Dash added.
Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash, a smile on her face, and she panted a laugh. “Neither… Did I…” She confessed.
“Well,” Rainbow Dash began taking the weights off of Scootaloo’s wings for her, “I’d say that was a good start. There’s a couple other things I wanna get through today, though, before we call it quits.”
Scootaloo was silent at this. How could she do more? Her wings felt like stone, and she could hardly move them. But she knew she had to. She wanted to. And so she would.