//------------------------------// // 12: Fine Tuning. // Story: I Dreamt to Fly // by MrDynasty //------------------------------// “What are you reading, Twilight?” Spike asked as he walked over to her. Twilight was sitting down on her throne, the place she usually sat at to read books. She responded without taking her eyes off from the book, not even to take a glance at Spike. “I’m reading about injuries. Broken bones, burns, fractured skulls and other stuff like that,” she said, finally moving the book from her face to look over to Spike. He walked over closer, trying to take a look at the page she was on. “And why are you reading about that? Is there a specific reason or is it another gut feeling?” He asked, climbing up onto the table and skimming over the page. Twilight promptly pulled the book from his view, half closing it so he couldn’t see. “I wouldn’t read this, Spike. It’s got pictures I’m sure you’d rather not see, and to answer your question, yes there is a specific reason!” She said as she closed the book fully and put it down on the table. “Scootaloo being over here so often reminded me of this book, it’s the same one I was reading to help treat her injuries over two years ago. Granted, some of the book is outdated now as it’s quite old, but it still worked as a basic instructor at the time.” Spike seemed a little annoyed from her denying him from reading the book, but he didn’t care that much. “The way you mentioned ‘fractured skulls’ gave me a hint that that’s what you were reading it for,” he said as he hopped down from the table. “But if that book is outdated, why not just ask Celestia for a more up to date version?” He asked, motioning his hands into a shrug-like pose. Twilight levitated the book up with her magic, flicking through all of the many pages it had. “You don’t get it Spike; this is almost like an encyclopaedia for physical injuries. This IS the most updated version. If I wanted to get a newer more up to date version, I’d have to ask for books about specific injuries most likely.” Spike rolled his eyes as he sat town on his ‘throne’ beside Twilight. “And that’s a problem how? Actually, I find it hard to believe you wouldn’t already have books about stuff like that somewhere in your collection.” Spike said as he placed his elbow on the arm of the throne and held his head up by his hand. Twilight placed the book back down on the table again, pushing it away from her to focus on Spike. “Well, I’ve never broken a bone before, neither has anypony else I know. So books about injuries other than cuts and infections never crossed my mind that often. And even if I have books about bone injuries, they’re probably still outdated,” she said, giving a small sigh. “…I suppose I could ask Celestia for more updated books, wouldn’t see a reason not to.” Spike got up from his seat and started walking into the other room as he spoke. “I suppose I’ll go and get my paper and quill then.” “Alright, Squirt. If you’re going to compete in the junior wonderbolts league, I’m going to have to teach you a lot of what I know about flying,” Rainbow Dash said, standing tall as both her and Scootaloo where in the middle of an open field. It was quite the sunny day with a cold breeze drifting through the air. It created a very nice and blissful temperature around most of Equestria. While Scootaloo was confident she would be able to get past at least the first test in the league, she knew that there was plenty still to learn and adapt from. She felt lucky having one of the greatest fliers in all of Equestria teaching her, hoping to pay strict attention to her words as she was sat down in-front of her. Rainbow Dash lifted up her hoof as her posture continued to stay tall. “The most important thing you’ll probably need to know is recovery. Every time I’ve seen you make a mistake, you stop and either try again or wait until you’re ready again.” She said; her hoof lowering as she floated up and hovered in the air. “The best advice I can give you for this is to consider flying kinda like a continuous rhythm. I know I’m not good at explaining things, so bear with me here,” she said as she prepared to start flying. She suddenly swooped up and around in a circle before intentionally losing her balance near the end of the loop, making her body start to tilt uncontrollably to the side. However she quickly recovered by doing a sideways flip in the air until her body became level with ground, allowing her to continue on flying straight with a recovered balance. Scootaloo was nothing short of in awe of Rainbow Dash’s quick but impressive performance, being amazed on how she was able to regain composure in what would have been quite the dangerous fall. Her mouth hung open as she watched Rainbow Dash swoop back around and landed on her four hooves again. “And you thought those flips were just for show, didn’t you?” Rainbow Dash said, trotting back over to her original position in front of Scootaloo. “In short, if a dent gets hit in your balance, you should always go with the flow to recover as fast as possible. What I did was just one example of a lot of potential situations, so there are a lot of things to account for,” She said, smiling to Scootaloo as her mouth finally closed. Scootaloo still had a question as she instinctively raised her hoof up. “But why didn’t you just tilt in the opposite direction you were losing your balance from?” She asked curiously. Rainbow Dash opened up her wings and fluttered them slightly. “I didn’t do that because it would have taken too long to do. Instead of trying to fix my current balance, I created a ‘new’ balance, if that makes sense to you. It should all come instinctually once you get the hang of being in a rhythm, where you’ll understand what does and doesn’t work,” she said with a confident smile. Scootaloo placed a hoof on her chin and pondered for a bit. “…So you could consider flying like a type of dance? Where it’s all meant to flow and mould together?” She asked. Rainbow Dash gave a small nod before laughing nervously. “Wow, if I’d have just said that then that would have explained it better. I did say I wasn’t good at explaining things; I can never find the right words for it,” she said as she rolled her eyes at herself. “But yes, flying is basically like a type of dance, and I’m going to teach you as much of it as I can before the League comes. A week is plenty time to get teach you a few new tricks.” Rainbow Dash spent the rest of the day trying to teach Scootaloo about various ways of flight recovery, knowing that balance was most likely going to be the main killer of her chances. Not losing her balance was deemed more important than teaching her anything to do with gaining speed at the moment, since no matter how fast you can be, if you can’t maintain it, it’s going to fault you more than benefit you. It almost seemed normal at this point to be training every day. Similarly to the previous two weeks, this next one was going to be filled with even more training, with Rainbow Dash trying to teach Scootaloo as many new tricks as she could. Even though they had just a week left to train in, a lot could be done in that week to improve her flying substantially. On every single day of the week they trained again, except instead of just physical training, there was a lot of educational training as well. Scootaloo needed to understand what she was doing almost more than being able to do it, instead of the other way around. Rainbow Dash seemed like a decent enough tutor, but she occasionally showed that she wasn’t too good at being clear with her words. She thrived in showing examples, being better at showing than telling. Her inexperience in teaching didn’t hamper Scootaloo’s learning though, as she paid close attention to whatever she was doing or saying anyway. Each day, Scootaloo felt she was getting better and better at flying, even on the days she didn’t do much of it. By the end of the week, she was confident she’d impress Rainbow Dash in the League, hoping to maybe get farther than the second course. She didn’t expect to though, as she still felt that beating the first course would already be a big enough accomplishment for a late flier. The start of the League was but a couple hours away by the time the new day hit, but Scootaloo felt both nervous and excited from the thought of being there. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself by losing on the first course, so it worried her that maybe she wasn’t as good as she thought. Paranoid thoughts washed over her mind, probably at the worst of times to do so as well. She couldn’t back out now, but the thought that that might have been less embarrassing than screwing up almost tempted her to call in sick. No, she had to show everypony what she was made of! She wasn’t a quitter, not by any stretch of the imagination. If she scores out in the first course, who cares? She can come back next year with even more of a motive to join in. She was brave and confident, which is why she asked to be signed up in the first place. No nervous or paranoid thought was going to get in the way of what she signed up to do. …Maybe. It was still quite hard to fight her mixed emotions on the situation.