Angelswift

by Nevel

Chapter 8

Lance was late for picking up his sister from school. It was only by a few minutes, but he hated not being there for her. His boss had made him stay behind and help Penny carry a heavy parcel into the back. Lance didn’t mind helping the old mare, but why didn’t Post Pony Pete help her himself? He’d been there all day! As Lance made his way towards the school, he told himself that If Cherry was still as upset as she had been all week, he might consider pulling her out and finding a way to home school her or get an extra job, working day and night like he’d been for months back in Las Pegasus, just so he could afford to have a private tutor. Lance reached the school gate and had expected Cherry to be waiting either by the gate or on the school house steps, but she wasn’t at either of those places. Most of the other ponies and fillies had already left. Lance instantly walked onto the school grounds, worried.

Maybe she's just waiting inside? Lance thought to himself.

His attention was then brought over to the swings where he heard one of the two fillies yelling.

“Come on, Cherry! You can swing higher than that!” Lance turned towards the swings and couldn’t believe it. Cherry was with an orange pegasus filly and was swinging on the swing set, laughing.

“This is as high as I can go!” Cherry called back between laughs. Lance had almost never seen her this happy. The pegasus was swinging so high, that the swing was almost level with the bar. Cherry was only swinging at half the height. She was kicking forward wildly, not quite getting the hang of the timing of the swing. Lance stood over by the classroom watching them for a moment, swinging backwards and forwards. Cherry then made eye contact with Lance and she quickly brought herself to a stop. She galloped over to Lance and looked up at him with a huge smile on her face.

“Hey big brother! Were you watching? Did you see how high I got?” Cherry asked excitedly.

“Yes I did, well done!” Lance was so happy seeing she was in much better spirits now. “So, who’s your friend?” He asked. Cherry turned around and saw that her friend had come over to join them.

“This is Scootaloo. Scootaloo, this is my big brother, Lance!” Cherry said. Scootaloo looked up at Lance.

“Hey there!”

“It’s nice to meet you, Scootaloo.” Lance turned back to Cherry. “So you’ve had a good day today then?” Cherry nodded then looked up to her brother.

“Can me and Scootaloo stay and play for a little while longer?” Cherry asked.

“Well I dunno,” Replied Lance. “I mean, doesn’t Scootaloo have to get home too?” Cherry looked at her, but she just shook her head.

“Na, I can be home at any time.” Scootaloo said. Lance then smiled at Cherry.

“Go on then, but only for five minutes.” Lance gave them both a smile as they ran off towards the slide. Lance watched them having fun with the entire playground to themselves. Cheerilee came outside and saw Lance watching the girls playing.

“It seems she’s finally getting used to it here at school.” Cheerilee said, smiling. “And all it took was a friend.” Lance never took his eyes off the two fillies as they played.

“I’ve been getting really worried about her. But it looks like everything’s gonna be okay now.”

* * *

It was Saturday morning. The clouds were being cleared from the sky after a night of rain. Lance and Cherry were sitting down at the table having a daisy sandwich. For the first time, Cherry was disappointed that she didn’t have school today, which Lance found himself laughing at. After they finished eating, Lance took the plates over to the sink and then there was a knock at the door. Lance looked around, a little worried. He wasn’t expecting anypony today and he didn’t have to go to work till later today. Lance approached the door and unlocked it. Then slowly, he opened it a crack.

“Hey, Mr. Angelswift, is Cherry home?” Lance exhaled a breath he didn’t realise he was holding. It was Cherry’s friend. The orange pegasus from her school.

“Oh, yes, umm… Scootaloo, right?” Lance asked. The filly nodded her head, smiling up at him. “Please, come inside.” Lance opened the door wide and let her in. Cherry came around the corner from the kitchen, to have a look at who it was. She jumped excitedly when she saw her newest friend.

“Scootaloo!”

“Hey Cherry. You wanna come outside and play?” Scootaloo asked. Cherry looked overjoyed at the idea.

“Sure! Can I, big brother?” She asked Lance. There was no way he could say no, seeing her face all lit up like that.

“You can, but do remember that I’ve gotta go to work this afternoon, so I’d like you to be home before then.”

“Okay!“ Said Cherry and immediately she and Scootaloo ran out the door. Lance watched them as Scootaloo put on her safety helmet, picked up her scooter, then they both went off together, with Cherry running alongside her to keep up.

I do hope she’ll be careful.

* * *

Cherry and Scootaloo travelled for a while, along the edge of the forest. Scootaloo had promised to show Cherry something really awesome, but wouldn’t say what it was though. They soon reached the top of a hill and in the area below them were all kinds of custom built ramps.

“So, what you think?” Scootaloo asked. Cherry wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It was like a poorly built playground with nothing to play on. “I made this all myself. I’m not as good as Applebloom at building things, but this all works awesomely.” Scootaloo said, sounding proud of herself. “I finished building it last night. I wanna show this to the rest of my friends when they get better.”

“Are they still sick?” Cherry asked. Scootaloo’s friends, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had been off school the last two days with a cold. Scootaloo said that they had all gone swimming in the lake, trying to earn their cutie marks as deep sea divers. The water was still cold at this time of the year, as it was spring, and summer was a long way off. Scootaloo bragged about having a tougher resistance to the cold, but really she had been the last one into the water and was out again very quickly.

“Yeah, but don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll be back to school on Monday and then I can introduce you to them.” Cherry was looking forward to making new friends and she couldn’t wait. She turned her attention back to Scootaloo’s creations.

“So umm… what is all this?” Cherry asked. All of the wooden planks were all wet from the rain last night and most of it looked unsafe.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Scootaloo said. Looking a little insulted like somepony asked her what a cloud was. Suddenly they both felt the wind blow past them with a whoosh. They both turned and saw a cyan pegasus flying towards a few clouds. She kicked three clouds as she flew past them and each of them turned vertically. “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo called out loudly. Cherry looked at Scootaloo and saw her eyes grow wider.

“Who’s Rainbow Dash?” Cherry asked. Scootaloo turned to face her.

“’Who’s Rainbow Dash?’ Only THE greatest young flyer to ever come out of Cloudsdale!” They both looked back up and Rainbow Dash was flying upwards past each cloud, cutting them in half, bottom to top, using her wings. The three clouds had become six and looked like pillars floating in the sky. Rainbow Dash flew around the clouds, causing them to move and line up in a top left to bottom right formation. Each cloud was pretty close together with hardly enough room for a pony to pass through. The two fillies watched as the cyan pegasus flew higher into the sky and then when she was barely a dot in the sky, came flying down at a speed like Cherry had never seen before.

She watched in awe as Rainbow Dash came closer to the clouds leaving a faded rainbow trail behind her, moving so fast as she did a slalom between each cloud, yet somehow, amazingly kept her turns so tight that the trail she’d left behind in her wake seemed to not bend from the straight line she had made. Rainbow Dash turned, just in time to see the rainbow trail fade. She looked disappointed and bucked a cloud next to her in frustration.

“Why’s she so upset? That was amazing!” Cherry said, looking up at the pegasus as she cleared away the clouds.

“Ahh, she’s always like that when a trick doesn’t work.“ Scootaloo turned her scooter around and pointed it down the hill. “She was trying to make the clouds themselves spin as she flew past them, sending the rainbow trail across the sky. But as you saw, it didn’t work.” Cherry looked up at the clouds.

“I didn’t think something like that would be possible.”

“That’s what Twilight told her. Since then, she’s been determined to find a way to make that work.”

“Umm, who’s Twilight?”

“Oh she’s the pony who runs the library. Bit of a book worm, but she’s cool, I guess.” Scootaloo then, without another word, shot down the hill and flew up one of her custom built ramps. She spun her scooter in mid-air, and then landed on the other side of the ramp, then jumping up and grinding along a long bar above an oblong box. She hopped down from it and went up another steeper ramp, jumped off the end, flying higher than before, and then finishing up by coming to a stop at the bottom of the hill. Cherry had no idea what half of those trick were but Scootaloo was simply amazing on her scooter, just like Rainbow Dash was amazing in the sky. Scootaloo walked up the hill to Cherry’s stomping applause.

“Wow, Scootaloo. That was amazing!” Cherry cheered. Scootaloo took her helmet off and placed it on the handle of her scooter.

“Na, it’s really nothing. I just practise a bunch. That’s all.”

“I’d never be as good as you, even if I did practise.” Cherry looked down the hill then felt something heavy being put on her head. “Hey, what the…?” Scootaloo had put her helmet on Cherry and then handed her scooter over to her.

“You’ll never know unless you try!” Scootaloo said with a smile. “Come one, just give it a shot. It’s super easy.” She said as she pushed Cherry onto the scooter.

“But I’ve never been on one before. I don’t know how to ride it!” Cherry protested. Scootaloo ignored her and strapped the helmet on tight.

“You worry too much. Look, just simply stand on it, keep it going forward down the hill and then let it stop itself after you reach the bottom.” Cherry tried again to protest, but Scootaloo pushed her down the hill. Cherry screamed in fright. The hill suddenly seemed infinitely steeper and the speed she was going was terrifying. She wanted it to stop but she didn’t know how. The scooter wobbled uncontrollably for a moment, then she put all her strength into keeping it facing forward. Scootaloo cheered Cherry on, and then she shrieked as she watched the scooter hit a tiny dip in the hill, causing the scooter to tip forward and the brake peg on the front to dig into the ground. Cherry fell over the front of it and landed hard, rolling across the grass. Cherry screamed in pain. She was lying on her side, holding her right foreleg close to her without touching it. Scootaloo ran down the hill to where Cherry had landed.

“Cherry! Are you alright?!” Scootaloo asked. Cherry was crying loudly.

“MY LEG!! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!” She screamed several times. Scootaloo told her to quiet down. She knew Cherry was in a lot of pain, but her screaming wasn’t helping. Scootaloo couldn’t think straight and she started to panic. Just then, somepony flew in from above and landed next to Cherry.

“What happened here?!” It was Rainbow Dash. She was looking over towards Scootaloo as she got down on her knees to get closer to Cherry.

“She- I- I let her have a go on my scooter and I pushed her down the hill and she… she fell off.” Scootaloo couldn’t think of anything else to say. She was scared for her friend, as she continued to wail from pain.

“Hey, little filly.” Rainbow Dash was addressing Cherry. “Listen, I need you to calm down and be brave for me, alright?” Cherry did steadily quieten down, but she continued to cry. “Now, what’s your name?”

“C-C-Cherry.” She said between sobs, while still lying on her side.

“Okay, Cherry. Now tell me where it hurts.” Rainbow Dash had had many accidents when she was a little filly, even today she sometimes wakes up in hospital because of an over complicated stunt that went wrong, so she had a little knowledge about injuries.

“My- My leg it’s… It- It hurts!” She had started crying heavily again.

“Alright, lemme see it.” Cherry gently held out her injured foreleg towards the pegasus. “Okay, you can move your leg so it’s not broken. Can you move your hoof?” Cherry shook her head. “Okay. Sit up for me.” Rainbow helped the little filly to sit up. Scootaloo watched on, shaking from head to hoof, waiting to hear if Cherry was going to be okay. Cherry was now sitting up and her crying had calmed down to sobbing.

“Wha- What’s wrong w-with it?” Cherry asked. Rainbow’s best guess was a twisted hoof but she didn’t want to worry the filly. She took the safety helmet off of Cherry.

Thank Celestia she was wearing that. Rainbow Dash thought.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, but we better get you home. Where do you live?” Cherry wasn’t exactly sure where they were and wasn’t sure which way home was. Scootaloo then jumped forward.

“She lives by the house next to the Everfree forest. I’ll lead the way, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo picked up her safety helmet and quickly put in on as she reached her scooter and pulled it out the hill. There didn’t seem to be any damage to it, for which she was glad. Turning around she saw that Cherry was being lifted up onto Rainbow Dash’s back. Jealousy washed over Scootaloo for a second but then she forgot about it. She hopped onto her scooter and took off at speed, with Rainbow Dash right behind her.

* * *

Lance was sitting in the living room. He was ready to leave the house to go to work, and he was going to be late for work if Cherry didn’t get home soon. He looked out the window again. Still no sign of her.

“Come on Cherry. I told you not to be too long.” Lance said to himself out loud. He wondered where they had run off to. He then remembered the last time she’d disappeared. She had run off into the Everfree forest chasing Fluttershy’s rabbit. Lance shook his head. She wouldn’t go back there, not after she promised him. There was a rapid bang on the door, and then it opened.

“Mr. Angelswift?!” Lance heard Cherry’s friend from the hallway, she ran into the house shouting. Lance came into the hallway, and then saw not just Scootaloo, but also a cyan pegasus with rainbow coloured hair. Lance was about to ask who she was when he saw Cherry on the mare’s back. She was still crying silently.

“Cherry!? Wha- What’s going on? What happened!?” Lance looked back and forth between them all.

“Not now. Do you have somewhere we can put Cherry down? She’s hurt her hoof and can’t stand on it.” The pegasus said. Lance was worried about what happened to Cherry, but taking care of her first was a priority.

“Ye-Yes, bring her to the bedroom.” Lance led them to the room at the back of the house. It was the only room that had anything soft to lie on. He still hadn’t gotten the bits for any more furniture. They brought her in and Rainbow Dash placed her gently down onto the bed. Lance rushed to her and saw immediately that Cherry was being protective of her right foreleg. “Cherry, are you hurt? What’s wrong?”

“W-well s-sir, it was-“ Scootaloo started saying, but Rainbow interrupted.

“They were playing together and Cherry fell down a hill and landed badly. Could of happened to anypony.” Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash. She had lied for her. Why? Rainbow Dash kept her eyes locked with Lance then he turned back to Cherry.

"We need to get her a doctor, or to a hospital or…” Lance looked up. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, flapping her wings.

“I’m on it!” She flew out the door leaving Scootaloo standing there feeling awkward. Cherry moaned quietly about how much her hoof hurt and Lance kept telling her not to move it. He’d never felt so useless. He knew nothing of first aid. Another minute or two later, they heard a bang as the front door swung open and the yellow pegasus, Fluttershy came into the room carrying a first aid kit in her mouth. She dropped it by the bed and immediately got infront of Cherry, pushing Lance away like she hadn’t even seen him.

“Cherry sweetie, are you okay? Oh my goodness, let’s take a look. Where’s it hurt?” Fluttershy was quickly caring for Cherry as she would have any of her animal friends. The cyan pegasus returned to the room and Lance laid down next to Cherry, comforting her, nuzzling her and drying off her tears. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo stood in the doorway, waiting on any good news. Fluttershy wrapped Cherry’s hoof in a tight bandage which made her cringe, but she didn’t whimper. She had now stopped crying and was feeling a bit better. Fluttershy then brought out an ice pack and slowly placed it on Cherry’s hoof. Fluttershy was a very gentle and caring pony and she’d helped so many small and tender animals that she knew how best to look after a patient. Lance watched everything Fluttershy did, trying to remember it and learn as much as possible. Maybe he’d take up a first aid course or something, just in case something like this happens again. Fluttershy then spoke to everypony in the room. They had all been so quiet that it was like she had been alone with Cherry.

“She’s just got a minor sprain. She’ll be absolutely fine in a day or two.”

“So…” Cherry spoke up. “So I’ll be alright for school on Monday?”

“Only if you stay off that hoof and get plenty of rest. Lance, you’ll have to keep that ice pack on her hoof to keep the swelling down.” Lance nodded.

“Thank you so much, Fluttershy. How can I ever repay you?”

“Oh no. You just make sure you look after her.” Fluttershy said with a smile. “And you…” She addressed Cherry. “Make sure to be more careful next time.” Scootaloo felt bad. Cherry was getting the blame for something she did to her. But Cherry and Fluttershy both laughed.

“I promise.” Cherry said.

“Come on squirt,” Rainbow Dash said to Scootaloo. “We should get going now.” Scootaloo looked up at her and then nodded before turning back to Cherry.

“I…I’ll see you at school, Cherry. Okay?” Cherry nodded and smiled at Scootaloo. “I’ll see you then. Get better quickly.” Scootaloo knew her friend was gonna be okay, but she still felt horrible. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash turned to leave, but then Lance jumped up.

“Wait!” Lance walked over to the cyan pegasus. “I just wanna thank you for helping Cherry. It really means a lot to us.”

“Na, forget about it. I’m always there to help when anypony needs me! Names, Dash. Rainbow Dash.”

“Lance Angelswift and Cherry Blossom” Lance nodded back to his sister as he said her name. Cherry smiled at Rainbow Dash.

“Thank you for helping me” Cherry said. The cyan pegasus gave her a wink then she and Scootaloo left, leaving Lance, Cherry and Fluttershy behind. After they got outside, Scootaloo turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Why… Why did you cover for me?” Scootaloo knew that she had done something awful and didn’t deserve being protected for it.

“Well, it was an accident, right?”

“Yeah…?”

“You feel bad for what happened, yes?”

“Yeah…?”

“And you’d never do it again, right?”

“No, of course not!” Scootaloo said loudly, shaking her head.

“Then there you go. You learned your lesson and there’s no point putting the blame on anypony.” Scootaloo looked up at her hero. She had lost the words to say. Rainbow Dash then hopped up into the air then looked down at Scootaloo. “Now you get yourself home, I’ve got more training to do.” Rainbow Dash flew off into the sky leaving Scootaloo behind. She wanted to call after her but she was already gone. Scootaloo sat there for a while by her scooter, thinking. She replayed the accident in her head over and over. She hurt her and wanted to make it up to Cherry. But how?

Comments

[Lk12Lk21]

Rainbow is best caring mare.