Scootaloo had been high before, but she'd never been this high. It was trippy, to say the least, and she was still getting used to it.
As she stood on the cloud, staring over the edge, she could see the whole of Ponyville stretching out beneath her. She could literally see her house from there, and it was disturbingly tiny from this far away. A gust of wind blew through her mane, making her rock in place and giving her a sense of vertigo that she would supposedly get over with enough practise.
“You ready, squirt?” said Rainbow Dash, stepping up beside her.
Scootaloo frowned and leaned a little further over the edge, looking down at the lake directly beneath them. It looked more like a puddle. She sighed. “I guess so.”
“Come on, where's the confidence?” said Rainbow, bumping her on the shoulder. Scootaloo looked up to see her beaming back at her. It was kind of encouraging, and she managed a smile of her own. “That's more like it,” Rainbow said. “It's cool to be afraid when you're falling, but when you're up here, you've gotta know you can do it.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Scootaloo, without much enthusiasm. “It's just kinda hard to think that, when the last five times I haven't done it. And we're a lot higher up this time.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Being higher up makes it easier, trust me. And you only missed the last times 'cause you didn't believe. C'mon, say it. 'I can do this'.”
Scootaloo huffed. “I can do this.”
“I can do this,” said Rainbow, stomping a hoof for emphasis.
Looking over the edge again, Scootaloo gulped. “I can... do this.” She closed her eyes, and felt her legs shaking again. It was the same every time she got up here. It seemed like such a good idea when she was safely down there on the ground. But when she was this far above that safety, she always suddenly remembered, 'Oh yeah, this is terrifying.'
“Hey.” Scootaloo felt a firm wing on her back. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Rainbow had knelt down to her eye level, and was giving her an encouraging smile. “You can do this,” she said.
Scootaloo stared at her. Those deep magenta eyes, filled with pure awesomeness, stared back into hers with a confidence and honesty that Scootaloo had only ever seen from a handful of ponies. Rainbow believed in her, there was no doubt about it. And if Rainbow Dash believed in her, then she could at least try to believe in herself.
So, finding a smile as her legs stopped shaking – mostly – she gave Rainbow a nod. “I can do this.”
“That-a-girl,” said Rainbow. She patted her on the back with a wing again, then stood up to one side. “Okay, you ready?”
Scootaloo took a steadying breath. “Ready.”
“Then jump!”
Scootaloo jumped off of the cloud, towards the ground that was miles below her, without so much as a parachute or a pair of wings that could carry her. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
She didn't scream this time, though it took no small effort to achieve that as the wind buffeted her face and the lake below started to draw closer. It grew slowly at first, and with the immediate danger relatively far away, the sudden rush was actually pretty awesome. The sense of speed, the blustering wind, the way the tips of her wings tingled with energy. She actually cracked a grin for the first time. And when she saw Rainbow Dash diving beside her, looking as awesome as ever in flight, she decided that it was just about the best feeling in the world.
Until she looked back at the ground and saw how fast it was approaching. The grin vanished. Suddenly, the only thought going through her mind was, 'Oh no, not again.'
The wind was so intense that she had to screw up her eyes to see properly. Her heart hammered in her chest, and in her head. Her whole body burned.
“Ready?” Rainbow Dash screamed from beside her.
Scootaloo cringed. The lake was seconds away now. She was going straight into it.
“Now!”
Scootaloo flared her wings and flapped them furiously. The change in speed and effort hit like a crash in itself, almost hard enough to make her lose focus and slip up, like she had done before. This time though, she managed to hold on and keep working her wings in a vain attempt to stop her fall. It probably wouldn't do much good.
Rainbow Dash shot straight past and broke the surface with a roaring splash, kicking up a massive wave. Scootaloo would hit too, she wasn't slowing down enough. She worked her wings harder, screwing up her eyes and biting her tongue in concentration. Her muscles burned, but the primal fear of falling made that seem dull and far away. All that mattered was stopping before she hit.
And she did.
The rushing wind had suddenly ground to a halt, and she felt a weird sense of weightlessness. Still flapping like crazy, Scootaloo snapped open her eyes. She found herself hovering a foot above the water's surface.
“Ha!” she gasped. She'd done it! Gripped by a sudden urge to take the momentum further, she tried to flap harder and carry herself back up. It actually worked for a few seconds, before her body suddenly remembered that its wings weren't strong enough. They slowed, her concentration slipped, and she tumbled into the water.
Her eyes were closed when she hit, and the muffled sound of the splash gave way to the familiar pressure of water against her ears. When she opened her eyes, she saw the sparkling surface not far above her, and a dark silhouette that was Rainbow Dash. For a long moment, she just floated there, with her mind suddenly blank and a pleasant, relaxed feeling in her wings.
She would've liked to enjoy the feeling for longer, but after a few seconds, she remembered that she needed to breathe. She shook her head and propelled herself upwards with a few practised kicks. When she broke the surface, she took a long gasp of air as she felt the freezing wind on her face.
And then she started laughing. She couldn't help it. It bubbled up in her chest for no apparent reason and just started rolling out, loud and unrestrained. She had to fight with her wings and legs to keep herself afloat, and that just made everything seem all the funnier.
A second laugh joined hers, as Rainbow swam over and grabbed her in a headlock. “You did it, squirt! You did it!”
Scootaloo laughed louder and squirmed in vain as Rainbow tussled her hair. “I-- I can't-- I actually-- Hahaha!”
“You're both insane!” came a yell from the shore.
Forcing her eyes open, Scootaloo saw Twilight Sparkle at the edge of the lake, and even as she shook her head in disbelief, she had a tell tale grin on her face. Behind her, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were screaming and bouncing around hysterically. They looked how Scootaloo felt.
When Rainbow released her from the headlock and held her at hoof's length, Scootaloo finally started to calm down. Mostly because her lungs were burning, if she was honest. She panted a few times to let out the last few laughs, then met Rainbow's proud look with a toothy smile.
“What'd I tell you?” said Rainbow, with one eye hidden behind her soaked mane. “Knew you could do it.”
Scootaloo just stared back at her and revelled in the words. She'd done it. It'd taken her a bunch of tries, but she'd finally done it. The laughter made sense now, because she realised how happy she felt, knowing that she'd beaten the test. Seeing in Rainbow's eyes that she was proud. It was an amazing feeling.
“Scootaloo!”
She looked towards the shore again, and saw Applebloom and Sweetie Belle swimming out towards her.
“You're crazy!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, grinning from ear to ear.
“Crazy awesome!” Applebloom amended.
Scootaloo let out another small laugh and broke free from Rainbow's grip to swim over to them and celebrate. “Guys! You saw that, right? How cool was that?!”
Rainbow let her go and started swimming back to shore. She gave Twilight a wide smile.
For her part, Twilight just kept shaking her head, with a smaller smile now. 'Insane,' she mouthed.
They all went for ice cream to celebrate – courtesy of Rainbow and Twilight – and spent a good half hour talking about how cool it was, what it'd looked like from the ground, and otherwise how much renewed pride and respect everyone had for Scootaloo. Scootaloo herself thoroughly enjoyed it, body and mind still buzzing from the excitement of the fall for a long time.
When they all split to head home for dinner, Rainbow offered to walk Scootaloo home as usual, and Scoots graciously accepted.
They'd been walking for all of twenty seconds since the ice cream parlour before Rainbow flashed Scootaloo a little smile. “You flew,” she said simply, letting the words carry their own weight.
Scootaloo smiled, but shook her head. “I hovered. I could already do that.”
“Are you kidding? You broke out of that fall. You were falling insanely fast, and you still managed to stop yourself before you hit.” Rainbow was grinning now. “You stared gravity in the face and you kicked its butt! Call that what you want, squirt. But I call it flying.”
Hearing Rainbow say it out loud brought on a good feeling, and it made her wonder whether she was right. Had she really flown? When she thought about it, it was definitely a step up from before, since she all she'd been able to do was hover above the ground for a while. She'd never done it over water before, and she'd never actually managed to gain any height. And turning that much momentum around had taken a lot of strength she didn't know she had. Maybe she had flown.
“So, are you gonna tell me why we started with that, uh, 'exercise' now?” she asked, turning to Rainbow. “You said you'd tell me when I nailed it.”
“Oh, sure,” said Rainbow. “It's, uh, kind of an old military training exercise they had up in Cloudsdale, to help fillies like you get started with flying.”
Scootaloo frowned. “An old training exercise?”
Rainbow pursed her lips and went silent for a moment. “They might have discontinued it a while back because it was... crazy.” She cringed, as if expecting Scootaloo to yell at her.
She didn't though. In fact, the news didn't come as a huge surprise to her – she doubted that it was common practise to have fillies jump off of Cloudsdale into a lake.
“But hey, it wasn't really dangerous with me and Twilight there,” said Rainbow. “I would've caught you, and Twilight enchanted the lake and everything around it, in case anything went wrong.”
“You didn't tell me that,” said Scootaloo.
“Well, if you knew it was safe, it wouldn't have worked,” Rainbow countered. Scootaloo tilted her head, and when Rainbow saw she was listening, she went on. “Twilight could probably tell you the science-stuff behind it... But basically, when you're falling like that, and your heart starts hammering because you're scared, your head stops working and your body takes over. Everything starts to slow down, so you get more time to react, and you get stronger. You know what I'm talking about?”
Scootaloo thought about it, and nodded. “Yeah, I felt that.”
“The most important thing is that it makes you stop thinking,” said Rainbow. “Your body won't let you think, 'I can't do this' or, 'My wings aren't strong enough.' Because it knows you have to – you don't have a choice. If you don't, then--” Rainbow broke off. “--Er, well, then you'll bounce harmlessly off the ground, in this case. But you didn't know that, so your instinct to protect yourself took over.”
“Huh,” said Scootaloo. “So, basically, I only can't fly because I think I can't?”
“That's probably got a lot to do with it,” said Rainbow. “It's not everything – you've still gotta build up your wing muscles and keep practising – but the whole point of the jump is to give you an idea of what you actually can do without realising it. You're a lot stronger than you think.”
Scootaloo glanced down at the ground, then gave her an awkward smile. “How did you know I was?”
Rainbow shrugged coolly and looked straight ahead. “I like to think I know you pretty well by now. And I know a natural flier when I see one.”
That made Scootaloo grin. A natural flier? That was saying something, coming from Rainbow. And she'd be the one to know, in any case. “Mean it?”
“Wouldn't say it otherwise,” said Rainbow. “You'll fly high, squirt. Trust me.”
Scoots looked down again, then turned her eyes to the path ahead. If Rainbow Dash believed in her, then she could do it. It might take a while, and she knew it wouldn't be easy, but she'd get there.
Rainbow drifted across and bumped into her gently. Scootaloo smiled and bumped her back. They didn't have to say anything – that'd become something of a sisterly gesture between them. They walked the rest of the way in companionable silence.
~FIN