//------------------------------// // 3: A Bright New Day. // Story: I Dreamt to Fly // by MrDynasty //------------------------------// “Boo!” Rainbow Dash said, standing to the side of Scootaloo's bed. The filly jumped and let out a small scream from the sudden wake-up call. She just coughed a little, sitting up on her bed and looking to Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo rubbed her eyes with her hooves, feeling dizzy from the long sleep. “W…What time is it?” She asked, looking around her room and then to the curtain covered window. Rainbow Dash trotted over and pulled away the curtains, allowing the bright morning light to shine into the room. “It’s just around 6AM. I thought I’d wake you up early so we could get some training done. Maybe we could make you soar today! Flying soar that is, not hurting sore.” She said as she smiled to Scootaloo, who was still in the process of waking up. The filly stretched and yawned, letting her wings extend during the stretch as well. “I guess I slept long enough. Although you could maybe do a softer wake-up call next time.” She stated, getting out from under the covers and onto her hooves as she hopped down onto the ground. They both trotted out from her room, obviously going for breakfast first before anything else. Scootaloo's mane was a bit of a mess from sleeping so long, but she didn't mind that much. “What are we having for breakfast?” Scootaloo asked, trotting up to the side of the rainbow maned pony. Rainbow just shrugged slightly, looking back to Scootaloo. “Well, whatever you want for breakfast. I don’t mind!” She says, heading into the kitchen and opening the fridge. There was surprisingly a lot of healthy food in the fridge, which someone might not expect knowing Rainbow Dash. But she was an athlete after all so staying in top shape was important to her. Scootaloo sat down on one of the chairs and looked towards the fridge. “I’ll just have cereal I think, nothing special.” Rainbow nodded, grabbing a carton of milk with her mouth and bringing it over to the table. She got the rest of the essentials as well, like the cereal, bowl and spoon. What she decided to eat herself was a couple apples and something to drink. Scootaloo made her cereal and had already started eating it, looking over to Rainbow Dash who started trotting around while eating. She was putting things in a saddlebag in preparation for them to go out. It was mostly things she needed to write down any results that came from the learning. Of course the statistics weren't for her; they were for Twilight who asked if she’d write them down, being curious about how Scootaloo's learning would come along. With a final gulp, Scootaloo finished her cereal quite quickly. She slid off the chair and trotted off into the nearby bathroom to fix her messy mane. Upon looking in the mirror the filly noticed the high amount of rogue hairs she had, picking up a brush that was to the side and beginning to comb her mane back into its usual spiky form. She didn't need to do much for the flick at the top of her mane as it was just naturally there anyway. She seemed happy with how her mane looked now, feeling almost fully woken up. “I'm ready, Rainbow Dash! Are we going right now?” Scootaloo asked from the bathroom as she rubbed her mane. The cyan Pegasus just made the common ‘mhmm’ sound in response, still eating the apple she had. Scootaloo came out from the bathroom and trotted over to the entrance of the house. Rainbow Dash wasn't far behind, following the small filly and opening the front door when she got there. They both left the house, closing the door behind them and going over to the edge of the cloud house. Rainbow Dash lifted herself up into the air with her wings, hovering over Scootaloo and picking her up by wrapping her hooves around her stomach. She had to carry Scootaloo down to the ground, since she couldn't fly herself, but it wasn't much of a problem since the filly didn't weigh that much anyway. Until Scootaloo's hooves touched the ground, Rainbow Dash didn't let go of her. When they both got their hooves on the ground, they looked for a place where they wouldn't be bothered that much. Of course it didn't take long for them to find a somewhat empty area, big enough for any sort of safe flying without any obstructions. The saddlebag thumped onto the ground as Rainbow Dash took it off her back. She looked over to Scootaloo and thought for a bit. “Since you can now hover, I think it would be best having you learn how to balance yourself and move around while in the air. If you think you’re comfortable with that, that is.” She said. Scootaloo nodded, seeming excited at the thought of being able to move around mid-air. “Yes! I’d love to be able to do that! Just taking the weight off my hooves would feel nice for a while I bet.” She says with a smile on her face. Rainbow Dash nodded to her and flicked open the saddlebag. “It does feel nice! I guess that gives us pegasi an advantage in long treks, right?” She said, grinning a little and letting out a small chuckle. “Anyway, I need you to start hovering, okay Squirt?” She asked while trotting over to her. The filly obliged her request, jumping into the air and letting herself hover where she was. Using one of her front hooves, Rainbow Dash placed it at Scootaloo's underbelly to help her stay balanced at first. “Okay, now try and move forward. Lean your weight a little and angle your wings slightly.” She said to the filly. Scootaloo did as she asked, slowly beginning to move forward in place. Rainbow’s hoof was stopping her from fully losing her balance, just so she could try and get used to the feeling of moving first. It was working! And Scootaloo felt somewhat proud of herself, despite her just moving forward with the training wheels on. Rainbow stopped her from going too far away, being happy with her performance. “That was great! Do that a couple more times and you’ll be a natural!” She said with a grin, making Scootaloo even happier as well. They did it a couple more times just so Scootaloo could get used to doing it. By that point it seemed that flying forward with a support was a breeze for the filly, however Rainbow Dash felt the need to do it one more time, just in case. “Alright, go!” The cyan Pegasus said, holding Scootaloo from the bottom. The filly did as usual; angle her wings and tilt herself very slightly forward. Like all of the other times the same outcome happened, but for some reason Rainbow Dash wasn't stopping Scootaloo like those other times. Being confused, Scootaloo looked back before noticing that her carer wasn't even under her. In fact, she was back where she originally said go. Rainbow Dash just had a wide grin looking to the filly, seemingly very proud of her. “Looks like you didn't even need me anyway, Squirt.” She said as Scootaloo hovered back down to the ground and trotted over to her. “You mean you weren't supporting me on that last one the entire time? I flew by myself?!” Scootaloo said, as her eyes started dilating and her smile getting wider. Rainbow Dash nodded as she giggled; not having felt more proud of the filly than she did now. “You did do it all by yourself! You’ll probably have to practice that a bit more before you fully get the hang of it, but otherwise that was very impressive! I'm proud of you Scoots!” She said, ruffling up Scootaloo's mane with her hoof. Meanwhile back at the Friendship Castle that Twilight and Spike stayed in, Spike was sitting on one of the thrones with a bowl of gems in his arm, flicking them into his mouth one at a time. “Twilight, you've been reading for the past two days, give it a rest and do something else for a change! Like visit your friends to see how they’re doing.” He said as he threw another gem into his mouth. Twilight seemed still engrossed in her book as she turned one of its pages, only idly hearing Spike’s suggestion. “I'm sure if there’s something wrong, they’ll come visit me.” She said, her view moving over to Spike. The small dragon only rolled his eyes at her response. “Yeah, but that’s not really the point. Remember when you used to go out all the time? You’d always run into them doing something silly then fixing whatever problems they had. Now all you do is sit inside and read books when you used to spread good vibes everywhere.” He stated, seeming bored. Twilight’s head tilted slightly, looking confused. “Do I not still give out good vibes? Plus, I've always just sat inside and read books, even back when I first met them.” She said, starting to read the book again. Spike finished off the bowl of gems, placing it on the table and standing up on the throne. “Yes you used to do it before, but not as much as you do now. The books aren't going to go anywhere you know?” He said as he jumped down from the throne and walked towards Twilight. “Come on, Twilight. Your friends are more important than books you've already read; and even if they’re not in trouble, that doesn't mean you should limit when you meet to those times.” Twilight paused for a second before pulling a bookmark over the page she was reading. “You’re right, Spike. And it is getting pretty stuffy in here, all this reading is drying me out.” She said, smiling and closing the book. She got down from her throne and trotted towards the entrance. Spike followed her closely behind, being happy that he’d get to leave the castle after being in it for so long. Once getting out, Twilight looked around and wondered who to visit first out of all of her friends. She knew Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo would most likely be out training somewhere, so she couldn't visit them. “I suppose we could just go until we find someone, see who we run into!” She said smiling. Spike seemed to agree so they both just started trotting around Ponyville in the hopes they could meet up with any of their friends. It didn't take long until they ran into Pinkie Pie, who looked to have been making a delivery of baked goods to somewhere. However she stopped in her tracks and went towards Twilight upon seeing her. “Heya Twilight! You look a little pale you know?” She said, letting out a giggle. “I'm only kidding! Anyway, where you heading? Must be some super important job I'm going to guess.” Twilight shook her head, lifting one of her front hooves up. “Nope, I'm just going around and seeing how everypony is. I hope I'm not interrupting anything with you though.” She said, looking to the box tied to her back. Pinkie looked around to the box and smiled. “I have plenty of time to deliver this, so I'm able to be a bit lax with getting there. Don’t worry about it! But it’s nice to see you wandering Ponyville again after being stuck in that castle for so long. Ooh, ooh, you heard about Scootaloo? Dashie's doing really good at helping her to fly! She showed me that Scootaloo can hover now, isn't that exciting?” She said, having a large smile on her face. Twilight nodded to Pinkie. “Yeah, I did hear about that. I asked Rainbow Dash to write down what happens when she’s teaching her, since I'm interested in Scootaloo's learning process. I just find it odd a filly of that age hadn't at least learned to consistently hover yet.” She said. Lifting a hoof up to her chin, Pinkie pouted and nodded. “It is strange. After all, Pound Cake was a natural at flying at only a couple months old! Strange isn't it? Oops, gotta run! I’ll catch you later, Twilight! I hope you have fun with the whole researching thing!” The pink mare said, dashing off in the direction she was going originally. Twilight waved to her friend before the gears started turning in her head. It WAS odd how Pound Cake flew perfectly while still being in diapers and having quite small wings compared to her weight. What’s so different about him in contrast to Scootaloo? She thought. It was a question to sit on for a while until she figured out any possible answers, so she just proceeded to go back to trotting around Ponyville with Spike. This day was now about relaxing and not thinking too hard, so she felt comfortable about leaving the question for another day. Spike knew she was thinking about something deep down, she always does. But like Twilight, he knew the day was about kicking your feet back. Whatever it was that she was thinking about could wait to another day.