Junior Flight Camp: The Crusader and the Bullhead

by Wise Cracker

The Wind of Hope

Chapter 5: The Wind of Hope

“What do you mean, he can barely breathe? Is he out of breath or is he choking?” Rainbow Dash paced around him, panicking. “Why can’t he get up? He was supposed to be fine, I said he’d be fine. Why isn’t he fine?”

“Well, he’s breathing, but he needs medical attention, now. I’ll take him.” Twilight gently picked him up in her forelegs.

“No.” Rainbow Dash put her head under the boy, took his weight on her back and wrapped his forelegs around her neck. ”I’ll take him, you keep the others going. Stay on schedule, we’ll talk when we get back.”

Twilight nodded as Rainbow Dash took off, the colt held on her back in between her wings. She really thinks he’ll be back for training. She has no idea.

Scootaloo was still frozen. Just like that, everything had fallen apart. Her friend, her new friend... she’d done nothing. Nothing but make his life miserable.

“Okay, everypony, cooldown laps.” Twilight motioned to the track, a little shaky. ”Fly slow and fly together now.”

---

“Lyra? Medic!” Rainbow Dash called out as she barged into Lyra’s cabin.

The green unicorn was practising on her lyre again, still happy about her success with Scootaloo, her back turned to Dash. “No need to thank me Dash, it’s all in a day’s… oh.” Her expression shifted when she noticed the wheezing Whimper on the mare’s back. She lifted him with a green glow and slowly put him on a cloud bed, checking him over. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash’s voice cracked. ”We were doing half laps around the track, he said he was slow so I put him on interval training. He was getting up to speed, he was doing fine, even if he was a little out of breath. Then he did his final lap and… he just collapsed. Twilight said it’s called Eagle’s Grasp?”

Lyra closed her eyes in repressed guilt and nodded, placing the kid on his belly and making sure his wings were relaxed and stretched over the sides. “Okay. This is important, did he stop breathing at any point, lose consciousness?”

Whimper shook his head meekly. As Lyra placed her hooves on the irritated back, Dash tried to recall exactly what happened. “No. He didn’t really close his eyes. He stayed awake the whole time, he just went down after his last lap. He wouldn’t move, he wouldn’t get up.”

The bard felt out the little sore spots on the colt’s back, and grimaced as the severity of it became clear. Her face seemed to convey the pain Whimper wasn’t capable of showing. “Aww, poor baby. You’ve got it bad, don’t you?”

Whimper groaned and nodded, a little preoccupied with breathing to worry about dignity at this point.

“Is he going to be okay? How bad is it?” Dash hovered over the bed as Lyra started rubbing two small spots near Whimper’s shoulders.

“He’ll be okay. He didn’t lose consciousness, that means there’s no brain damage from lack of oxygen. Eagle’s Grasp doesn’t make you pass out, it just makes you stop, normally. It’s when you keep going that you get in trouble. Some ponies just can’t move too fast, or their body overreacts.”

Lyra sent some warm energy into her hooves and pressed, then massaged the points. Whimper arched his back into it with a low whine, the tension and the rash making those points very tender.

“When they get to a critical rhythm of moving, like running or galloping, at a certain point they get out of breath, and then the brain sends out a panic response. Wires get crossed, signals get mixed up and the body goes into overdrive. It reacts as if it’s sick, focusing on the lungs. Inflammation occurs, the heart starts pounding, and the chest and throat start to tense up. Nose usually gets stuffed up before that, too. You can tell an Eagle’s Grasp case from someone who’s out of breath by these three little pressure points here.” Lyra nodded towards three swollen spots on the colt’s back. ”They tense up and get irritated when it happens, and that’s pretty much the beginning of the end. If you don't relax those points, the lungs stay closed.”

The green unicorn slowly rubbed along those points, before stroking the boy’s back with the same warm healing energy. Whimper’s squeal-like breaths came in faster, the pain triggering a slight panic response but his body unable to flee.

“When they’re out of breath, their back starts to chill. In the middle of an attack, the skin on their back turns rough like sandpaper. That’s why it’s called Eagle’s Grasp. It feels like an eagle landing on you, digging its claws into your lungs and pecking into you.”

“He kept his wings up and he didn't say anything. He hid it.” Rainbow Dash pressed a hoof to her forehead, looking down and giving the kid a very disapproving look. Whimper didn’t look up at her, the little guy didn’t have any fight in him left. His breath slowly went back to normal, though, with deeper inhales, if still wheezing when he exhaled.

Lyra pushed him unto his side once the pressure points near his shoulders softened up, simply pressing into a third point right along his spine. “There now. Feel a little better?”

The blue colt nodded, still avoiding Rainbow’s gaze but looking the nurse in the eye. He croaked a little as he spoke, relief washing over his face. “Uhuh, thanks.”

Lyra levitated a rag and a bottle of green stuff towards him, wetting the rag with some aromatic oil.

Whimper backed away, shaking his head. “No,” His voice cracked and his eyes watered when he saw it.

“I know, sweetie, I know. But I have to.” The nurse gave a sad smile of sympathy as the aromatic rag was brought closer.

“No. Nonono, please.” He gave a muffled moan as the rag was pressed into his face and his toned body went limp. A tear rolled over his face, his head started to go down like a ragdoll’s.

“We’ll be right outside, okay? Won’t be long.” Lyra patted him and put a blanket over the young pegasus as his belly and chest started moving in spasms.

Rainbow bit her lip. “I wanna stay with him.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to hear this. And he doesn’t want you to hear it.” Lyra nodded her head towards the prone patient, who was quickly losing the struggle to keep in his coughs.

As soon as they stepped out, the wheezing coughs could be heard beyond the door.

Lyra tilted her head towards the door. “Eucalyptus, mint, some etheric oils. It clears the airways, sends them into an uncontrollable coughing fit. He’ll be able to talk a little, but his throat’ll be raw, so you won’t have long. I will have to put him to sleep so he can recover fully.”

The blue mare nodded with a sigh. At least Whimper wasn’t in any danger.

“Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah. I’m just shaky, you know? I mean, can you believe this kid’s luck, getting sick on his third day of Flight Camp?” She smiled meekly, mostly to try and fool herself.

Lyra looked her right in the eye and smiled sympathetically. “Come on, Dash. You saw how he reacted when he saw the bottle, you know that’s not how it is. Eagle’s Grasp isn’t something you catch, he was born with it. And this isn’t the first time he’s had an attack like that.”

Rainbow Dash tapped her hooves a little nervously. “Well, at least we can get it fixed now, right? He’ll get better.”

Lyra shook her head. The dry coughing beyond the door kept going unabated. “He’ll breathe normally again in a bit, if that’s what you mean. But this is going to keep happening, you do realise that?”

“Okay, fine. I’ll ask Twilight to look up a cure, fly off tonight to wherever it is and be back by morning--” Dash started.

“Rainbow--”

“-- Maybe I should head down to get Spike, ask princess Celestia or Zecora too, just in case --”

“Rainbow! You’re not listening to me. There’s no cure. Trust me, a lot of ponies have looked. This has been around for centuries and no one, not even Celestia herself, has been able to get rid of it. There’s no healing water, no rare plant, no epic side quest you can go on that’s going to stop this kid from wheezing every time he speeds up.”

Rainbow Dash scowled. “Oh, don’t say that. We have magic, don’t we? Twilight’s travelled through time, how hard can it be to fix a breathing problem?”

“You can’t cure Eagle’s Grasp with magic, Dash. It’s not like a wound you can stitch, it’s something that’s a part of you. It comes with your body. This is a problem that’s rooted as deep as a pony’s magic itself. If you even try to fix it, you wind up taking his innate magic away. That means no way to move on clouds, no weather control, no making himself lighter. He’d never even get a cutie mark if you so much as touch him at that level. The only thing that might properly cure it is a polymorph spell.”

The pegasus let her head hang low. She’d heard this lecture once before. “And if you’re going to fix something with a polymorph, you might as well turn him into a dragon and be done with it, I know, I know. I just… I don’t understand how this happened. We were standing right there, Twilight wanted him to stop. I did this, Lyra, I made him think he could do it.”

“He probably wanted you to think he could do it, too. You are one of the best flyers in Equestria, maybe he just didn’t want you to write him off right away.”

“But I never wrote off Scootaloo and he knows that. Why didn’t he just say something? ”

The coughing started to get slower and quieter. The nurse shrugged. “He was probably embarrassed about it. It makes sense, though. He only has a problem when he tries to move fast, which means muscle training isn’t an issue. Neither is wrestling, if he watches his tempo.”

“Then why wouldn’t it be on his record? Why doesn’t he have any pills with him or something?” Dash wouldn’t relent.

Lyra shrugged. “It’s never put on record because it varies. There are light cases who can run just fine if you give them five minutes to ease off. There's no point in registering cases when it varies like that. He’s not handicapped, you know, not officially. He still has to do everything all the other ponies do, including gym class, and he’s not outright banned from Flight Camp, that’s something to consider.”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “Of course he’s not handicapped, but there has to be some kind of special treatment or training or whatever to make this easier, right?”

“He did bring a rune page. You can treat it a little bit with hypnotherapy, but it depends on the severity. At least a part of it is stress-related, just getting them to relax can help a little. He's pretty much got everything he could get up here. But you can't tell who has it until they get an attack, there's no symptoms to watch for outside of that. As for medication? Most of it isn’t all that useful if you want to stay active. It works fine, but it all has some side effects. What I gave him now’s gonna leave him woozy for a while, and some of the other stuff can be worse than the attacks.” Lyra rolled her eyes at the thought of it.

“So? Can’t he take something before he flies so it doesn’t happen?” Rainbow tried.

“Err… sure, there’s one thing that always works, I guess. And we do have it in stock.”

“Good, we’ll give him that and he’ll be racing with the rest in no time.” The winged mare smiled as the problem was resolved.

“Noted side effects include heart arrhythmia, hypertension, and hypothermia, especially in the extremities.” Lyra kept her voice slow and even, careful to break this to Dash.

“Hyper and extreme sounds good.”

“That means his heart will be pounding, his legs will be shaking, and his wings will be freezing. And that’s before he even takes off.”

“What kind of a medicine is that?” The pegasus had to stop herself from shouting.

“The kind you only use in emergencies. Look, this isn’t as big a deal as you think. Lots of ponies have Eagle’s Grasp, Flitter’s training three of them right now. I’m pretty sure a few ponies in Ponyville have it, too. They just grow out of it, mostly, it gets better with time. They can never run very fast, but most ponies don’t really need to. And pegasus ponies… their wings get bigger, flying becomes easier when their magic grows stronger. They lag behind but they don’t fail their tests when they’re older.”

The coughing had stopped by now.

“But if he tries it the way he is now, he’s gonna fail, right? There’s no way he’s going home with what he wants?” Rainbow Dash asked with a quiet edge in her voice. She really didn’t want to risk Whimper hearing this.

“I doubt it. There’s no training regime I know of that would work, and I don’t think you do, either. Not unless you know a way to make him go faster without having to move faster.” Lyra let silence fall as she opened the door.

The two walked in. Whimper’s face looked like he’d been mangled, but at least the wheezing had quieted down to a vague squeak.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Rainbow Dash got right to the point.

“I did tell you. I’m slow, and you told me how to get faster. So I did what you told me, and it worked.” Whimper croaked, throat raw from the coughing. Lyra floated a drink towards the prone colt. He winced in pain as the juice ran down his throat, but it didn’t seem to last long.

“Uh huh.” Dash kept glaring at him. ”And look where it got you. You could’ve gotten really hurt, you should have told someone you have a breathing problem.”

“And then what? It’s always the same. Either they tell me I need to buck up and try harder, or they tell me not to try at all. I can’t try harder, and I don’t want to get left hanging at the side lines. You're the only one who's actually managed to help, I never went that fast for so long. What am I supposed to do?”

Rainbow Dash put her hoof to her forehead and sighed. Seeing and hearing this sort of thing brought back memories, most of them bad. Her heart ached with pity, as much as she wanted to deny it. “Kid, it’s not as bad as it could’ve been, but you’re hurt right now. And you’re going to keep getting hurt if you try that again.” Rainbow Dash leaned in to face him.

Whimper gritted his teeth and looked almost angry as he got up, with what strength he had left to back it. He was buckling, though, both from the exertion and the medicine. His eyes looked a little off, like he had a splitting headache.

“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t want pity. I don’t care if I’m always gonna be last, just let me finish with the rest, please, I have to --” He gave a weak cough as some leftover tension worked out of his throat.

“Okay, that’s enough out of you.” Lyra came towards him, her horn glowing and some sort of lullaby starting to play from it.

Whimper widened his eyes and backed away again. “No, I don’t want to --”

“Shh.” She touched his forehead with her horn, and the lullaby playing from it sank into his ears, a green glow appearing in his eyes as the spell made his body go heavy. He moaned meekly and rolled his eyes as he fought to stay awake, but it was a lost cause. His mouth started hanging open as he went down again. His legs collapsed, but kept moving as he went. One wing tried to flap feebly to get away even as the spell was doing its work, lullaby in his ears and one big blur in his eyes. A hind leg kicked at random, then fell silent and limp along with the rest of him.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip, then sighed in defeat. “It’s okay. I’ll think of something, Whimper.”

With that, his eyes drifted shut, his body losing strength under the magic. Lyra posed the boy’s body like a rag doll, he didn’t so much as stir in his sleep as she closed his mouth. Rainbow looked away. Not that she wasn’t all for relieving pain, but there was just something fundamentally unsettling about a child being forced into losing consciousness by an adult.

The nurse carefully made sure his wings and forelegs weren’t placed so he’d lie atop them, since her lullaby spell immediately sent ponies right into dreamland, like a heavy sedative. It wouldn’t do to put a kid to sleep to ease the pain, only to have him wake up with muscle cramps. She rubbed his mane and gave him a little kiss. “There. You rest now, sweetie.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus looked on confusedly at the gesture. She does have a good bedside manner, I guess. “I hope you never try that on me.”

Lyra smiled at the thought. “Don’t worry, I can’t do grownups… yet.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

“I’m just kiddin’. I can knock you out whenever I want to.”

The winged mare was about to comment on the bard’s incredibly poor sense of humour, but she stopped herself. The big crisis was averted, Whimper was safe. It was okay to lighten up. “Look, um… I need to get to back to the rest of my group.” The thought got stuck in her head and made her freeze.

“Of course. Whimper should be fine once dinnertime rolls around. I don’t suppose he’s brought anything to sleep with?”

“Yeah, a stuffed bat, in our cabin, probably to keep his back warm.” Dash pondered as she walked out of the infirmary, Lyra in tow. ”But… I just realised, Zephyr and Skyron, they knew about this, right?”

Lyra shrugged. “Of course. It’s probably why they pick on him. No matter what he does, they’ll always be faster.”

“And they didn’t say anything either. They just laughed at him when he kept trying. He shouldn’t have to take that. He’s as good as anyone, he even went up against Clod, or whatshisname.”

Lyra’s expression turned to shock. “Kuh-Kludde? You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not. At the wedding, when I was practising my Sonic Rainboom, I saw Whimper’s picture hanging next to mine, and the symbol underneath it was the one for fighting monsters. I wasn’t sure of it at first, but it’s him, it has to be. I’ve sent a letter to Shining Armour to see what the whole story is. He told Scootaloo about it, something about getting a necklace back for his friend. I don’t think he’d lie about that.”

Lyra plopped her rump down on the cloud in utter amazement. “You’re serious. He took back a necklace? Do you even know what Kludde is?”

Dash shook her head. “No, what’s wrong?”

“Y-You need to ask Twilight, she’ll explain it better than me. Her brother went up against that thing and lost. As a matter of fact, the entire Royal Guard has a special… oooh,” Lyra was blinking a lot as she tried to make sense of it all.

“What?”

Lyra blinked once more as the facts sank in.

“Nothing, you should head back to your flight. I’m going to get Whimper his stuffed bat. But Rainbow? Don’t mention this Kludde business where anypony else can hear it. This is a very big thing, and I’m pretty sure Whimper doesn’t want it to get out. If Shining sends a reply, I’m going to want to see it.”

The pegasus wanted to keep asking, but the fact was that she didn’t have time. She had four other kids who had to be told that their team mate was out of harm’s way, and her head wasn’t geared towards another long explanation, certainly not from a drama pony.

It was, however, geared towards some retribution.

---

Scootaloo was shaking the whole time they were flying. Twilight wouldn’t let them get a moment of peace, determined to keep their minds off little Whimper.

It did not work.

All she could think of was her friend gasping for air because she’d failed to see what was wrong. He hadn’t let her down once. He’d dived right after her every time he saw she would fall, never even hesitated. He hadn’t backed out of the cloudwrestling, never even called her out about it, he’d tried to cheer her up when she was down, and what she done?

Pretty much the same thing she did to all her friends, nearly get him killed.

The jocks were grunting about something, and Rumble didn’t seem to understand what had happened. Twilight kept them moving from one exercise to another, no doubt getting ahead of schedule.

Rainbow Dash came flying in, the settled next to Twilight. She didn’t call out the other foals right away, just let them do the exercises as they should. Her mind was reeling, though. She remembered the harsh words she’d had to endure as a child, the callousness of her peers. More than that, she remembered how much Fluttershy had suffered at the same thing, constantly being broken by nothing more than names. Rainbow was never one for dwelling on the past, but the past had a way of coming back sometimes.

And while she may have made some wrong decisions in the past regarding dealing with these harsh words, her mistakes had taught her some valuable lessons, as well.

Words had power, she’d learned that a long time ago. And while the harsh words and hurtful names were plentiful, Rainbow Dash had also learned she only needed two words to counter them. Two simple, magic words that would make all the evils of the world go away.

Never again.

The foals landed after their final lap, a whole afternoon spent flying, Twilight marked the endurance training off her checklist. Rainbow Dash braced herself for what she was about to do. “Okay, everypony, line up.”

Without a word, the foals lined up in front of their coach: Scootaloo, Skyron, Zephyr, Rumble, she looked over every last one. Her intense gaze would have put a cockatrice to shame.

“I told you on day one that I only have one rule: everyone flies, no one fails. Whimper flew today, he didn’t fail. He has a breathing problem that triggers when he gets to high speed, that’s all. He couldn’t breathe normally, so he had to lie down. He’s fine now.”

Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief. Now she could plan some payback. Although it seemed that Rainbow Dash was about to beat her to it.

“Now, Zephyr, Skyron, I’d like to hear why you call Whimper names and why you didn’t step in before he hurt himself.” Rainbow kept her demeanour eerily calm. Twilight forced herself to keep quiet, not wanting to break the mood Rainbow was carefully setting up, at least not yet. She was aching for it, though. Rainbow was liable to punch those kids in the face, and even unicorn magic might not be able to stop her from doing just that.

Zephyr groaned. “Ugh, not this again.”

Skyron rolled his eyes. “Look, we don’t hate the guy, okay? But it’s no fun for us either.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but her blue friend stopped her with a raised hoof. She didn’t even turn her head, she kept her gaze fixed on the two kids. One could cut the tension with a knife. “Go on. I’m not gonna punish you for not liking someone. I just want to hear you say this.”

Rainbow Dash had had some time to think while they completed their exercises, and she’d contemplated the best move.

Aggression wouldn’t work, and would probably lead to angry letters from the colts’ parents. Outright punishing them wasn’t likely to help in the long term. Singling them out or making them work harder would only make them hate Whimper more. With so many intuitive solutions useless when dealing with kids, Rainbow Dash had gone for the final solution, the one thing she turned to when all other options proved useless.

What would a smart pony like Twilight Sparkle do?

“It’s always the same thing with Wimpie.” Zephyr threw his hooves up in frustration. ”We can’t get into a decent routine with him around, we have to slow down and wait for him every single time, and then we’re supposed to be nice to him? It’s not fair! We’re ace flyers, we shouldn’t have to let a wimp like him slow us down.”

Scootaloo felt herself shaking again, this time with a familiar anger.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Okay, I can relate to that. You’re better than him, you shouldn’t have to worry about his limits when you’re pushing yours.”

Zephyr nodded back, calming down. “Exactly. Me and Skyron, everyone in our class would be a lot better by now if Wimpie didn’t hold us back every time we try to get better at our game. We can't ever play at our top level, ever. It doesn’t matter what we do, we have to let him join because our teacher says so, and he drags everything down with him every single time. I mean, what do you do with dead weight like that?”

Scootaloo heard the phrase ‘dead weight’ ringing in her head. Exceptionally bad choice of words, considering what Whimper had looked like.

“Oh, me? I’ve had dead weight like that, a lot of it. I try to get rid of it, kinda like you.” Dash played along.

Scootaloo was fuming by now, but not at her idol. She knew full well this trap was about to get sprung.

Skyron sighed. “Right, except we can’t do it like you. We can’t get rid of Wimpie or our teacher gets mad at us, or some other grownup.”

“Yeah, that’s not the only difference, actually.” Dash looked back as she said it, faking indifference.

Zephyr tilted his head. “Huh?”

“See, I only try to get rid of dead weight when the dead weight is going to get hurt. I actually care about dead weight. And I don’t call them ‘dead weight’ where they can hear it.” She let an edge slip into her voice at that one.”But the real difference? I managed to make friends with dead weight, and it hasn’t stopped me once. If anything, I got better thanks to some dead weight. And you think you’re an ace flyer? What kind of an ace lets himself get slowed down by a wimp, anyway?”

Skyron shook his head. “Please, you’re just like everypony else. You think you’re cool, you think you know better, but you don’t even know Wimpie. He just sits by himself and hides behind grownups and silly fillies.”

Scootaloo gritted her teeth again. They were giving Whimper a hard time when he didn’t have his Earth pony friend with him, they’d have been worse if he didn’t have any comfort on camp. His friend always stuck up for him, she realised, and they mocked him even more for that. The idea that someone would that do that to Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle when she wasn’t around to stick up for them made her anger boil. The fact that it was happening to her new friend right now was maddening.

“And I guess you’re tough because you hide from the silly fillies, huh? Face it, you think he’s holding you back, but he’s managed to get pretty strong all on his own. If he really wanted to, he could do what you do to him, and worse. So which one of you is the dead weight, then?”

The colts both grimaced at that thought.

“Look, I don’t like it, either. But that’s how it is. You want to punish me, fine. Wouldn’t be the first time. But you’re not gonna change anything. We’re still gonna be flying circles around Wimpie, and he’s still only gonna wheeze every time he tries to fix that, you might as well keep a bed open for him in the infirmary. You wanna yell at us? You don’t even know what the rest of our class gets up to.” Zephyr was ranting by now.

Scootaloo’s anger was reaching critical mass, she could just about hear the tea kettle whistle in her ears. She bit her lip. Not gonna say it… not gonna say it...

“SHUT UP, ZEPHYR!”

Scootaloo looked past the jocks. That shout, while well-timed and fully deserved, hadn’t come from her. Rumble?

“It’s not funny anymore, Zephyr. Whimper did fine, he’s just as fast as you are, but you… you just don’t stop.” Rumble’s eyes were wide with anger. “You knew he was going to get hurt, and the only thing you did was laugh!”

“Oh, please, like you haven’t been cracking jokes when his back was turned. You’ve been laughing at Scootaloo the whole camp.” Zephyr pointed a hoof her way.

“Yeah, because I know what she can take. And I don’t cross the line, not anymore.” Rumble shook his head, almost sobbing. ”You, you just like seeing other ponies get upset and cry. You know what they call ponies who like to see others get upset and cry? Sadists. You’re just jerks, both of you... and you made me into a jerk, too.”

An awkward silence fell as Rumble moved over to the other side to stand beside Scootaloo. The filly looked at her classmate, but he averted his gaze.

“And I’m not going to apologise for it, either. I know Scootaloo’s good for it. She laughs at me too, and she never crosses the line. As soon as she gets home, she’ll tell her friends and they’ll get even. I don’t care what they do, I deserve it.” He hung his head guiltily.

“Dude, come on, you’re overreacting,” Skyron tried.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m your friend. I’m not. I won’t bother Scootaloo or Whimper, either. I’ll just find somepony else to hang out with.”

Rainbow Dash suppressed a grin. Thunderlane would be proud of his little bro.

Twilight was seeing it, but she didn’t believe it. Rainbow Dash, the pony whose first response when faced with a giant dragon was ‘kick it in the nose’, was actually putting two bullies in their place, using words alone. Where in Celestia’s name did she get that? And on top of that, she’s actually rubbed off on Rumble, of all ponies, in a good way.

Rainbow rubbed her forehead with a hoof, before turning to the boys again. "Zephyr, Skyron, I want to make one thing clear to you two. You didn't warn anyone about Whimper's breathing problem and you knew he was going to get hurt. I'm not gonna punish you for that, since Whimper still decided to keep going on his own. I don't think I even wanna punish you for picking on him. But just remember, I'm not going to punish him either if he does anything to you. I might not even be fast enough to stop him from hurting you."

The colts shook a little at the threat. Skyron raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. "You're bluffing. He's not going to do anything. And you can't let one of us get hurt.”

"Why not? I just let Whimper get hurt trying to do something he shouldn’t, why should you be any different?"

“Ooo… kay, I think everypony’s said what they needed to say here.” Twilight interrupted before the mood got any nastier. She looked to Scootaloo, who’d remained silent for her own reasons. ”We should probably head off now.”

The orange filly snapped out of her reverie and flew over to Rainbow Dash just as she was pulling away from the chastised colts. “Err, Rainbow Dash, could I --”

Rainbow took off one of her bracelets and put it on Scootaloo’s foreleg. “Go. Go see your friend.”

---

Scootaloo showed Lyra her bracelet, just to make sure she wouldn’t get in trouble. She hovered into the infirmary, staying at eye level with Lyra. “Is he going to be okay?” Whimper was sound asleep, his bat wrapped around his neck. It was cute, but weird. He looked so helpless.

“He’ll be fine, don’t worry.” She could see the conflicting emotions in the filly’s eyes. “What about you? Are you going to be okay, Scootaloo?”

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like this is my fault, but it still feels that way.” She shook her head as she tried to voice her concerns. ”I-I want him to feel better, but I don’t know how. What do you say to boys like him, anyway?”

Lyra crouched down and patted her on the shoulder, grinning. “Just say what you think is best. Keep his spirits up, keep his back warm, and try not to get too mushy. I know you can do that. I’ll leave you two be, just make sure he doesn’t miss dinner. He shouldn’t be too hard to wake up.” She left with a wink.

With that, the bard walked off, leaving Scootaloo with her unconscious friend.

“Hey, Whimper, wake up.” She nudged him, still a little sad at his predicament.

He didn’t respond. He just lay in his death-like slumber.

“Wake up.” She nudged him again. She really needed to pay more attention to the colts in her class, or ask Twilight to borrow the manual of colts and stallions sometime. They had to have an on and off switch somewhere, why else would the older fillies insist that they knew how to ‘push a boy’s buttons’?

Doldrum Whimper’s head turned a little from the nudging, and now he did give her some response.

He snored.

“Hmm…” Scootaloo considered it for a moment, but shouting in his ear was probably inappropriate. She’d seen something like this in a movie a while back. What’s the best way to wake up a boy again?

She stroked his neck slowly and lovingly, just like in the movie. Leaning in close, she blew lightly in his ear, then nibbled it. Then she gagged to get the taste of ear out of her mouth. Getting that up close and personal just felt wrong, but she’d seen it in a movie, so it had to work.

Of course, she hadn’t seen the whole movie, since apparently it wasn’t meant for foals of her age. She didn’t see the big deal, really, colt ears did not taste well at all. Besides that, in the movie the stallion whose ear had been nibbled then proceeded to not only wake up, but after a while also start making some odd grunting sounds. She never found out why, though, since her parents had covered her eyes at that point and dragged her back to her bedroom.

“Whu…” Whimper opened his eyes at last. For some strange reason, his wings started unfurling as well. She always had trouble getting her wings to wake up after a nap. Must’ve been a boy thing.

“Hey there, sleepy head.” She smiled back at him. ”Dinner’s up. You ready to go?”

“Urrrff…” Whimper groaned as he started dragging himself out of bed all bleary-eyed. ”Don’t ever mess with Lyra. That nurse packs a real wallop.”

As he got out, he stumbled on his heavy legs and landed on the filly. She managed to keep him up for the most part, though, and actually got a lot closer to emulating the scene from the movie than she’d ever know. Scootaloo realised that since he was hanging over her, this must be what grownups meant with the word ‘hangover’. But being hung over with a boy wasn’t as bad as the grownups had made it out to be, really. The heavy warmth of his muscles over her wasn’t anywhere near uncomfortable, though it would make an embarrassing sight. And at least she could carry him, not like the pileups she dreaded so much. Being hung over was kind of nice, she decided. Then again, there may have been some grammatical issues she was missing.

She checked her flanks, too, just in case a grape had appeared on it. She remembered Applejack mentioning something about Berry Punch having a hangover cutie mark, which looked like grapes. How one got from boys hanging over you to grapes was a mystery, though. And why did aunt Vinyl keep saying she woke up with a hangover when she didn’t bring any guys around? Grownups were confusing like that.

“Come on, get up.” She shook him off.

“I’m up, I’m up.” Whimper dizzily got back on all fours, shaking his head to clear it. He looked at her as the inevitable awkward silence fell. “Oh no, not you too.”

“I’m sorry,” she said anyway. She didn’t look at him with pity in her eyes, though.

He sighed. “It’s not your fault I went down. I’d have done what Rainbow Dash told me no matter what you did. I shouldn’t have come to Camp in the first place.”

“I don’t mean that, you sappy… I mean I’m sorry for not helping you. I saw you were in trouble and I froze. You caught me every single time I fell, and the one time you fall I wasn’t there. And I’m really sorry for leaving you behind. I was so happy being able to fly, and it was fixed so fast. I didn’t think you’d be worse off than me.”

The resentment and frustration in the colt’s face faded. He blinked a few times as it sank in. “Umm… well, I didn’t want you to worry. I don’t want anyone to worry.”

“But don’t think I’m going soft on you. I just wanted you to cross the finish line with me, even if you would be slower.”

“That’s okay. I don’t think I’d mind being stuck behind you.”He flashed her an awkward smile.

With that out of the way, the pair set off to the cantina.

“So what’s it like, then? Do you run out of breath when you go fast, or...” Scootaloo asked.

“No, not just that. My nose gets stuffed, my back gets cold and itchy, and my throat bunches up as soon as I go faster than a light trot. After a while, if I don’t stop, trying to breathe hurts, like I’m breathing in hot smoke. And when I can’t breathe, everything hurts like I’ve running all day, when I’ve only been running for a few minutes. It’s pretty stupid, really.” His muscles were still throbbing from the exertion, but his bruiser look clashed with the cute plushie still buttoned around his neck.

“I guess that’s why you’re slow, huh?” She kept her eye on his taut belly as his breathed, all those little muscles stretching like they should. His face worried her, though. He needed cheering up, and she really didn’t know any other way besides ‘get it all out’.

“It is. Peachy’s the only one who slows down for me, and she’s always hopping in circles around me.” He smiled fondly at the thought. Scootaloo vaguely remembered the filly who’d won the drama award during their last talent show. She seemed pretty nice, and she was quite decent on her rollerblades. At least he had a groundbound friend who made him laugh.

“Well, don’t worry. Rainbow Dash had a good talk with the other guys. I don’t think they’ll give you a hard time anymore. She didn’t punish them, but I think it’s okay if we get even.” Scootaloo was already scheming something.

“Nah.” Whimper shrugged sadly as they stood in front of the cantina. ”They'd only get worse after that.”

His eyes were watering up. Scootaloo wasn’t sure what to make of it. She’d seen boys cry before, but that was usually when she made them cry. They all deserved it, of course, and she’d cried like that herself a few times too, but she really wanted to forget about those times. The problem was that she’d never seen a boy break down and cry quite like this. He reminded her of Apple Bloom in her weaker moments, which didn’t help at all. It scared her, actually. “Aww, don’t feel bad about it. It’s not like you can’t do anything. You’re strong as an ox, you’re tossing kids twice your size.” Not exactly molly cuddling, but she got closer to it than she cared for.

“Yeah, I’m a real bigshot. Everyone’s always going ‘ooh’ and ‘whoa’ when they see how strong I am. Then they hear I have Eagle’s Grasp. And all of a sudden, I’m not the bullhead anymore. I’m not strong, I’m not impressive, I’m just some runt who can’t keep up with the rest and has to lie down whenever he tries. And that look… I hate that look.” He closed his eyes to stop the tears, but it didn’t help much.

Scootaloo looked at the door. Everypony probably knew what had happened by now. The big cloudwrestling champion had fallen. In a way, it was her fault. She’d gotten him into it, she’d made sure everypony knew Doldrum Whimper was the strongest pony on Camp. And now they’d look at him like he was sick, like he was a runt.

“Okay, someone remembered to pack their angsty pants,” Scootaloo started, but she didn’t keep that tone, since he was visibly hurting. ”Come on, it’s not all bad. I don’t think you’re a runt. You’re the coolest pony on Camp, next to me. Anyone more awesome is on staff.”

He sniffed. “You’re just saying that.”

She tried lightly punching his ribcage to snap him out of it. He didn’t move, she nearly fell over. “I mean it. I hang out with the sisters of the Elements of Harmony. I’ve been into the Everfree Forest, the last wild place on Equestria. I insulted Princess Celestia and still managed to be a flower girl at the last royal wedding. Back in Ponyville, I’m the fastest thing on wheels, and I see Rainbow Dash every day. I know what awesome looks like. And you? You got into an eating contest hosted by a guy who’s got a hospital wing named after him, and you fight like a pro without ever taking any lessons. Not only that, you stood up to a monster the size of a minotaur, didn’t you? You’re cool, Whimper, and we’re two leaves of a clover, whether you like it or not.”

Doldrum Whimper frowned at that. Some of it had sunk in, at least. “Yeah, about that? There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. It’s kind of awkward, but I really don’t have anypony to talk to about it.You did make national news, I guess local too, kinda like me. And since we are a little alike, I thought…”

Scootaloo started heading around the cantina with her friend in tow. If he wanted to avoid the gaze of the camp goers, they’d just have to slip in through the back door. “I’m listenin’, Whimper.”

“You know how I said I took on Kludde?” He’d stopped crying by now, but he kept his head low.

“You took back a necklace for your friend, right? That must’ve been pretty awesome.” Scootaloo tried to imagine the battle, but she’d forgotten what magic Kludde used, so she couldn’t get it too accurately. In her mind, Whimper had dodged fireballs and snatched the necklace out of the monster’s hands.

“Not really. Peachy Pie was already down when I got there, her necklace was already taken. I followed this shadow in the mist and well, one thing led to the other, I barely made it. I don’t even remember exactly what happened, but -- ” He took a deep breath to prepare. ”When I got out of the hospital, the Royal Guard offered me a medal.” He grimaced at the thought.

“Really? Cool,” she half-fawned.

“I turned it down.”

Scootaloo turned to face him, a little confused. “Why would you turn down a medal?”

“Do you know what Kludde is?”

“It’s a monster, right? Makes its body out of dead plants, used to look like a dog, now it’s minotaur-ish, takes trinkets?” She didn’t finish that trail of thought. That led to a silly conclusion, it just wasn’t possible.

“And it attacks through magic. The Royal Guard never managed to beat it or even catch it because they always had to fight with a handicap. As soon as Kludde spots you, he casts a spell on you. The spell does two things: make you feel like you have a crushing weight on your back, and make your lungs burn. It’s a spell that’s supposed to scare you, paralyse you, by stealing your breath.” He seemed embarrassed about something, but it didn’t add up at first.

Scootaloo finally realised it. “Ooooh, and that’s why you didn’t get your cutie mark afterwards, too. I just thought fighting was your talent, and that's how you beat it. That does explain it.”

“The only reason I even survived is because I have this stupid breathing problem. Kludde’s spell, the thing that keeps putting Royal Guardsponies out of the fight, the thing that inspires terror in the heart of every pony, is a terror that I get every time I try to run. I got lucky, and if they gave me a medal, all of Equestria would know about it.” Whimper let his head hang again.

Scootaloo winced in sympathy at his predicment. The only time he’d acted like a real hero, the one thing that he could really feel proud of, was tainted by a stupid health problem. “But you’re still a hero, right?”

“No, I’m not. They checked me for everything: ancestral spirits, past lives, bloodline traits, I got nothing. The only thing special about me is that I’m wheezy, bulky and jumpy.”

“Come on, nopony would think that. None of that stuff makes you a hero, what you did makes you a hero. You went in to defend a friend.”

“Sure, everypony would think I’m a hero, right up to the point they ask me how it happened. Then I go back to being a pathetic runt who can’t run or fly. Nopony would think I’m strong or brave, just sick and lucky. Suppose I don’t tell anyone, then something else happens and I’m too slow to help? Some hero I’d turn out to be. And if I do tell them? The only thing a medal would do is give more ponies a reason to pity me. It’s bad enough having to see those looks from the ponies I know, I don’t want that from the entire kingdom.”

“But you still fought something that’s as strong as a minotaur. Even if you didn’t really win, that’s pretty cool no matter how you look at it. Aaand… you can get your medal later, right?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“Suppose you were strong and famous enough to make the whole Eagle’s Grasp thing not matter, if you could say that you’re just that strong? If you were already known as a hero, nopony would even care how you pulled another heroic save. And if you do manage to fly fast enough, you’ll get to be a hero next time too, if there is one.”

The two were standing at the back of the cantina by now.

“I guess. I just want ponies to think that I deserve it, you know? That I’m really a hero and not some sick kid who got lucky. I don’t want to be a runt anymore. That’s why I came to Flight Camp. I thought, if I’m ever gonna get it fixed, it’ll be here.” Whimper leaned against the wall, lost in thought. He wasn't looking at her as he said it, though, which clued her off that he wasn't being completely honest. That he checked her response to it after he said it confirmed he was hiding something from her.

Something else was really bothering him, which probably didn’t have anything to do with his breathing problem, but now wasn’t the time to be pulling open actual wounds. The only reason she even noticed was because she’d gone through the same thing. The whole Gabby Gums debacle was largely made possible because the Crusaders kept telling themselves the same lies over and over. And Whimper’s tone of voice, as well as his whole demeanour, was looking awfully familiar.

He wasn’t just hiding something from her, he was lying to himself about something, and he’d gotten to the point where he believed it. She couldn’t think of what, though.

“Don’t worry about a thing. You fly over to Ponyville sometime and me and my friends’ll make sure your face is in every newspaper from here to Manehattan. We get up to plenty of stuff that needs a hero to fix. We can make you famous in ten seconds, flat.” The thought of seeing his name in the newspapers brought one little question to the filly’s mind, though. One that had been bugging her since they’d met.

“Thanks.” He smiled with a mix of embarrassment and gratitude. ”So why are we standing at the back of the cafeteria?”

“To get in through the backdoor.”

“Don’t we need a backdoor for that?” Whimper squinted as he inspected the solid wall. Funny how you forget about things like that.

“Hmm…” Scootaloo pondered aloud. ”Actually, if you’re okay with it, there’s just one more thing that’s been bothering me.”

“Shoot, Scoot.” He smiled sheepishly. Whimper had cheered up a bit, it seemed.

“Why would your parents call you ‘Whimper’? I mean, ‘Doldrum Whimper’? Isn’t ‘Doldrum’ and ‘Whimper’ a bad thing?” Getting to some modicum of normal conversation would take his mind off things, and sate her curiosity on the matter. Besides, she still felt awfully silly calling her friend ‘Whimper’.

Whimper shrugged. “It’s an old name. Back when the tribes weren’t united, explorers used boats to get across long stretches of sea. See, the Doldrums are a place where there’s almost no winds, where you can barely move forward. It’s in the middle of nowhere, so you don’t even know which way to turn when the sun is up, or where exactly you are to begin with. If you got stuck in the Doldrums, it was pretty much the end of the line. But some of the winds that did come through the Doldrums were storms. Storm winds, because of how they sounded, were called ‘howls’ back then. A rare, mild wind, a good one, was called a ‘whimper’.”

Scootaloo frowned. “So you’re named after a wind that saved explorers?”

He shrugged. “That’s what my parents told me. It’s tradition in my family for stallions to be named after a wind. My name’s the boy version of ‘Twilight Sparkle’, basically, that’s what they called far off lighthouses. You could see them better when night was setting in, in the twilight, and from really far it was only a sparkle. ‘Twilight Sparkle’ means ‘Light of Hope’ --”

“And ‘Doldrum Whimper’ means ‘Wind of Hope’,” Scootaloo finished as she lifted off, Whimper following obliviously. ”So ‘Whimper’ is what they called a good wind, huh? I guess that is pretty cool. Better than ‘Zephyr’, anyway. I’m sure there’s hundreds of pegasus ponies called ‘Zephyr’.”

They both chuckled at that.

---

Twilight found the mood at dinner muted, at best. Zephyr and Skyron were hanging out with some of the other jocks, comparing strategies for bad apple, no doubt. Twilight realised that even though the two sports colts had been mean, their peers excluding them would only make their attitudes worse. They’d learn their lesson in time, she was sure.

Rumble was sitting quietly at a table with foals who were about a year and a half older than him, and Twilight was pretty sure one of the fillies was giving his hair one too many strokes with her wing to be considered introductory. Then again, she did have a cutie mark of a comb and scissors, she might just really have liked his mane. Twilight made a mental note to ask Thunderlane sometime what exactly he’d told his brother regarding fillies and the like. She still wasn't sure what to think of the fact that ten-year-old Rumble even knew what a sadist was. But then, what Thunderlane did in his own time wasn’t any of her business.

The unicorn was more worried about Whimper and Scootaloo. Everyone was keeping their eye on the entrance, waiting for the two to come in. She’d taken a table with Rainbow Dash and Lyra, all the way at the back with two seats reserved. They didn’t want Whimper to have to face all those looks of pity, but they couldn’t really stop it from happening when he came in through the door. The fact that they hadn’t shown up yet only made the tension worse.

A motion from the corner of her eye drew her attention. An orange pegasus filly set down two plates of food and some drinks. As Twilight turned, she realised Scootaloo and Whimper were sitting next to her. Rainbow Dash and Lyra turned to stare at them, confused. There was only one way in, right through the front door, and neither of them could teleport. None of the walls had holes in them, either.

The foals started eating their apple fritters, oblivious. Whimper had already set his bat down, not wanting to stain his precious plushie, no doubt. The grownups kept staring wordlessly. Scootaloo stared back and slowly chewed on a piece of apple, then swallowed.

She gave them an awkward look, then blinked and shrugged. “What? Haven’t you ever seen a pegasus fly in through the window before?”

Comments

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

Runnin' Wild - Airbourne

[Wise Cracker]

830281
Hmm...what do you mean by that? You don't approve of Whimper feeling sad ('Cry me a river'), or you do approve of him at least trying ('Cry all you like but I won't change my mind', and the title of the song)...or is a song called 'Running Wild' supposed to be a method of trolling a story about someone who can't run at all?
Or is that song pertaining to Scootaloo? Because there will be a song in this fic at some point...the Ballad of Rainbow Crash...I intend to put it in somewhere.

I'm a bit confuzzled now.

At any rate, it's a nice theme song for the story. Thankies for the comment.

[wariyoshi]

Scoot and Wimpy make a good couple

[Wise Cracker]

837527
Ooh, if you liked this, then you're really going to love the next chapter. But keep in mind, this is not a romance story. They're both ten, and they only just met. That, and Scootaloo is liable to crush anyone trying to make kissy faces with her, while Whimper would simply pass out if a girl got that close to him. If I made it into a proper romance, it'd feel like a cop-out. Of course, that wouldn't stop all the other characters from pointing out the same thing, would it? Not to mention the implications of a foal RD and Fluttershy on 'roids being a couple .

Better to have it be a colt/filly friendship that passes into the 'awkward' regions from time to time. Anyways, chapter 6 is nearing completion, it'll be a bit more filler and shorter in length, and have Derpy and Snow Flake talking. As for chapter 7: haven't started yet, but here's a teaser.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight send a very urgent message to the ground as the full consequences of their actions become clear .

There's a detail that's easy to forget about when writing a Flight Camp fic, and I barely caught it myself. So here's hoping it works out. And yeah, at some point I will have to explain what happened with Kludde, obviously.

Thanks for the comment, as always.

[wariyoshi]

839017 Well, they are young, but I thought that there'd be some epilogue in the future when they'd be adults and get together or something

[Draco Dei]

And if you’re going to fix something with a polymorph, you might as well turn him into a dragon and be done with it,
-You know, it is my third time reading this, and it only now occurs to me that if that were really an option... well, if he was a HEALTHY dragon, with functional wings, and would hit puberty on schedule (IE sooner than 4 years before he died of old age in a Pony's time due to the spell not extending his lifespan), then that would be a perfectly fine option IMHO. Spike could use the company, even NOT taking the events of Dragon Quest into consideration (which also says that it ISN'T magically possible).