Out in the rolling, grassy plains surrounding Ponyville, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash began Scootaloo's training. She couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed at the sudden and apparent responsibility she now had to fly. Even if Rainbow Dash said it wasn't her fault, Scootaloo couldn't help but feel some sense of pressure to figure this out. Why had Spitfire told Rainbow Dash such a thing anyways, she thought. But despite this feeling, Scootaloo felt more confident than ever to fly.
"So...Rainbow Dash? Are we going to start training soon?"
"Yeah, just give me a sec," she replied. "I'm...not really used to this whole teaching thing."
In reality, Rainbow Dash had no idea how to teach Scootaloo to fly. For her, flying was a simple matter of lifting herself off the ground with her wings, and the rest came naturally. She tried to think of some of the scientific terms Twilight had mentioned about flight in the past. Something about lift, thought Rainbow Dash. Let's go with that. "So, the number one rule for flying is to have lift. And you get lift from the wind rushing past your wings when you fly." Ugh, what am I even saying. This isn't working.
Scootaloo sat patiently.
"Tell you what, Scoot. How about we start off this flying lesson with some actual flying," said Rainbow Dash.
Scootaloo's eyes lit up. "You mean, you'll carry me?"
"And this time I won't be saving your life," she added and gestured for Scootaloo to get into her hooves. She excitedly hopped straight into them. "You ready?"
Scootaloo nodded excitedly.
"Alright!"
Rainbow Dash took off from the ground leaving behind a flurrie of dust and a rainbow contrail. Speeding high into the skies, Scootaloo watched the ground below them rapidly shrink and felt the wind rush through her mane. As Rainbow Dash slowed her vertical ascent to a sudden halt and in the lull between moving upwards and falling back down, Scootaloo felt the same feeling she had before when jumping Ghastly Gorge. That momentary feeling of weightlessness high above the world below caused a shiver to travel down her mane throughout her body and out the tips of her wings.
Rainbow Dash began flying horizontally and Scootaloo positioned herself on one of her outstretched hooves. She had done this a handful of times before with Rainbow Dash, of course. It was one of her favorite things to do to bond with her. She outstretched her wings and felt the wind forcefully cause them to flap about wildly.
Rainbow Dash took notice. "Keep your wings out straight," she said softly.
Scootaloo tried to straighten her wings in the tumultuous winds, struggling to keep them steady. Bend them too far down and the wind would catch them and push them down further. Bend them too far up, and the same would happen. But after a little practicing, Scootaloo managed to keep her wings level.
"Hey, I'm doing it!" she exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash smiled warmly. "That's awesome! You ready to try it on your own?"
"You mean...is that safe?"
Scootaloo already knew the answer. It wasn't safe, but she knew Rainbow Dash would certainly be capable of catching her if something bad were to happen. When something bad happens, she thought. She examined the feeling the rushing winds past her wings gave her. If she lifted them up just slightly, she could feel herself lift off from Dash's hoof.
"I'll be there to catch you," Rainbow assured her.
Scootaloo kept her eyes straight ahead on the horizon, wings outstretched. "Okay," she said confidently. "Let me go."
Rainbow Dash removed her hoof out from underneath Scootaloo. Immediately, she dropped rapidly downwards, but Rainbow Dash expected this. She watched as Scootaloo fell downwards with her wings outstretched. They're pointed too far down, she thought. She's got to learn to keep her wings up. Suddenly, another thought came to Dash's mind. The conversation they had after her Sonic Rainboom and resulting disaster, specifically what she had said about Scootaloo being the opposite of herself. Scootaloo was constantly putting herself down just like her wings were at this moment, and Rainbow Dash had problems with being too proud of her accomplishments.
"Ahhhhhh!" shrieked Scootaloo as she continued to plummet downwards as Dash had her epiphany.
Rainbow Dash turned her wings downwards and swooped towards Scootaloo. "I'm comin!"
Catching her in her hooves, Scootaloo stopped screaming from the free-fall.
"What took you so long?" she said, half angry and half terrified.
"Sorry about that, Scoot," Dash replied sheepishly. "I just realized something is all."
"I'm never going to learn to fly," she replied.
Dash slowed her flight to a halt and hovered in the air, flapping her wings to stay afloat. Suddenly, all the winds had died down and Scootaloo could feel the warm sun against her fur. "Scootaloo, you're so close."
"Yeah, well, close isn't going to let you become a Wonderbolt."
"Look, this is going to sound really sappy, but bear with me okay, Scoot? When you were trying to fly, I noticed your wings were angled too far downwards."
Scootaloo thought back to the free-fall. She must have instinctively done it as soon as Rainbow Dash let her loose. "That's it? I just need to angle my wings a bit differently?"
"Well, yeah, but it's more than that. A pegasus doesn't just get their ability to fly from their wings. Just like unicorns have magic, so do pegasi."
"But I don't feel any magic."
"That's because you're not letting yourself. Before I let you go, you were ready to fly. And believe me, I could tell. You had the magic in you, but when I let go, it's like it disappeared."
Scootaloo realized now, what was holding her back all of this time. Ironically, it was Rainbow Dash. She had held her in such high standings that her own self-worth was nowhere to be seen. All of her determination and driving force was being channeled into being like Rainbow Dash. And when Rainbow Dash let go, all of it went away with her.
Scootaloo felt another tingle go down her mane. "Let's try this again. I've got a good feeling this time."