I Dreamt to Fly

by MrDynasty

23: Confidence.

Scootaloo had returned to Rainbow Dash’s house straight after she left the Friendship Castle, not doing much else along the way back. She was greeted back by Rainbow Dash, who seemed to have some exciting news that she couldn’t hesitate to tell. “Hey, Scoots! The Wonderbolts left a letter at the door while we were out, it details what place you came in on the fifth course!” She said as she sat on the couch, looking excited to share the results.

Scootaloo was curious about how well she did in the course, considering Rainbow Dash’s enthusiasm about it. She quickly trotted over to the couch and climbed up onto it, speaking shortly after. “Well it must be good seeing as how happy you are about it!”

Rainbow Dash nodded as Scootaloo wiggled herself a little bit closer to her side. “It’s really good! You came in third place!” Rainbow Dash said gleefully, looking over to Scootaloo with a huge grin on her face.

For some reason, Scootaloo felt a little underwhelmed with the score. “…Wait, third place? But that’s the second lowest score I could have gotten to pass, so how is it so amazing?” She said, seemingly ignorant of how well she actually did.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “What are you talking about?! It is amazing! There were eight other contestants and you came in third place out of all of them! Don’t compare yourself to the group of you that passed, compare yourself to those that didn’t!” She said, nudging her side a little with her hoof.

Scootaloo thought about it for a second before a small smile crept over her face. “…You’re right. I don’t think I ever expected to get this far anyway, so the fact that I scored so highly against the other competitors really is amazing for me!” She chuckled nervously. “I remember back when I thought that I’d be happy enough with passing the first course, let alone the fifth,” she said as she lifted her leg up.

Rainbow Dash nodded again to her, pulling her slightly closer with her wing. “You’ve done phenomenal, Squirt. None of us expected that you’d get this far in the league with only a couple weeks’ worth of training. In-fact, that still baffles me when I try to think about it, I almost feel jealous of how talented and quick learning you are,” she said with a smirk on her face.

Scootaloo let out another nervous chuckle. “It baffles me too; I feel like I shouldn’t be getting as far as I have,” she said, clearing her throat. “Anyway, I was going to ask if the letter had a date for the semi-finals, since obviously I’d like to know that.”

Rainbow Dash put her hoof around Scootaloo’s side and nodded again. “It did; it said that the semi-finals were tomorrow afternoon, with the finals being the day after that. Still, I’d like you to know that if you don’t get to the finals it’s more than okay. I’m just so, so impressed and proud of how well you’ve done, and that’s never going to change,” she said, pulling her into a tight hug while she smiled.

Scootaloo felt a little uncomfortable about the hug at first, but she quickly hugged Rainbow Dash back, wrapping her arms around her chest in glee. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash. I don’t exactly expect to pass anyway. If I pass, I pass. If I don’t, I don’t,” she said, having a soft smile on her face before she was pushed out of the hug slightly.

Rainbow Dash waved her hoof in the air as she placed her other hoof on Scootaloo’s chest. “That’s not the attitude you should have! You should at least be hoping to pass, instead of expecting not to. You have to motivate yourself, Squirt!”

Scootaloo’s ears flopped back. “But if I hype myself up and then lose, I’ll be even more disappointed with myself!” She said, looking a bit confused.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “There’s a difference between being cocky and being confident. You need to be confident. Don’t expect less of what you know you can do, because when you do do less, it will only make you think even less than you did before,” she said, speaking with confidence. Suddenly she seemed to click back into reality. “Whoops, I was about to start ranting wasn’t I? Anyway, you get what I mean, I hope.”

Scootaloo nodded, gaining her soft smile again. “It’s okay, I don’t mind when you rant on about something. You’re still an amazing motivator, Dash!” Scootaloo said, inching closer and hugging her again. “…So, you have anything planned for the rest of the day?” She said, tilting her head.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, not really. I was going to just sit here and chill until it was time to go to sleep or something,” she said, lifting her front legs up and putting them behind her head.
Scootaloo gave another small nod as she slid off of the couch. “Well, I think I’ll hit the hay early. I don’t want to wake up too late because then I might end up being half asleep at the semi-finals, and that wouldn’t be too good,” she said as she trotted off and over to her room.

Rainbow Dash would have said how she was being concerned about too many minute things, but she realized that she’d probably be concerned about silly things like that too. Not like going to bed early would lessen Scootaloo’s chances at all anyway.

Upon entering her room, Scootaloo quickly jumped up onto her bed and tugged at the covers. She tugged until they were down just enough for her to slide inside. She then pulled them back up with her teeth once she was snug inside of her bed

She wasn’t one to toss and tumble around until she spontaneously fell asleep, if anything, she was quite the opposite. In less than a couple minutes she ended up sound asleep in her comfortable, warming bed, with nothing there to disturb her from her heavy slumber.

Everything was quiet as Scootaloo was sleeping; with the only sound being her own breathing. However, she began to hear more sounds appearing around her. The quiet but eerie dripping of water echoed through her ears as the sudden feeling of falling began to take hold of her while she slept. The feeling of an impending splat onto the ground rattled around her body until…

With a large jolt she woke up unexpectedly, breathing heavily and rubbing her forehead. Upon sitting up and looking around, she realized that she was no longer in her room. Actually, the place she was in looked oddly familiar, being quite cave-like and having next to no light.

Out of curiosity, she jumped out of bed and continued looking around. She looked back over to her bed, suddenly noticing that it was a smashed, broken mess of wood and metal. She was still confused as to what was going on, but her curiosity continued to push her forward.

She trotted away from the bed, going the only other way she could vaguely see as an opening in the rock walls. There was nowhere else she could go, so it was either through here, or staying in her smashed up bed. The walls dribbled with water and reeked of rotten stone as she continued to trot through a barely visible corridor made of rock. The ground was wet and felt like it was sand, dirt, or both.

A sudden batch of noises rumbled on through the interior of the cave, echoing back and forth seemingly all around her head. It made her realize she may not have been alone in these caves; making her anxious. The noises continued to grow louder and fiercer, almost sounding akin to growls and barks.

Scootaloo’s paranoia and fear was rising, uncertain of what she was hearing. Her simple trot sped up into a jog as the sounds continued to grow louder, as if they were getting closer. She began to look all around; hoping to try and catch a glimpse of what might be chasing her. Being distracted caused her to suddenly trip over something, giving her a quick way to sample the taste of gravel on the ground.

In a panicked frenzy, she got up and galloped through the cave as best she could, unsure of what she tripped over. She bashed into some of the walls with quite some force, the darkness near completely shrouding any sort of vision she had.

The echo of the sounds continued to draw closer and closer behind her, as if something was chasing after her. It only made her more panicked, causing her to gallop almost like headless chicken.

In what seemed like a sudden strike of luck, she saw bright light creeping down one of the hallways of the cave. Of course she galloped towards it, as it was the only sign of hope she could see. The sounds echoed and bounced around her ears as she approached the only sign of light she was able to see, hoping that it would lead to the exit of whatever cave she was in.

She galloped around the corner to see the brightly shimmering moon in the sky, shining light inside of the cave. She stopped in her tracks upon realizing that the cave was up the side of a mountain with nowhere else to go. It was like a slide going from the entrance of the cave to the ground, a very rocky and nasty slide, one that she didn’t want to take part in.

It was at this moment she suddenly realized that the sounds hadn’t stopped, and they were still getting closer and closer to where she was; she was conflicted in what to do. She could either tumble down the steep mountain and get potentially injured or worse, or sit and wait for whatever might be creeping its way towards where she was.

She shook and trembled where she stood, looking back and forth in and out of the cave. She didn’t have much time to make her choice, so of course all she could do was sit and panic. She closed her eyes in fear, sitting down and covering them up with her front hooves.

She could hear the growling sounds right in-front of her, almost as if whatever had chased her through the caves had finally reached its prey. However, her fear had begun to subside upon hearing her name being called. She opened her eyes and pulled her hooves away, only to see the Princess of Night herself standing in-front of her.

“Scootaloo? Are you okay?” She asked, leaning over and lifting her leg. Scootaloo was dumbstruck and confused, unsure of what was going on.

“Princess Luna? Where did you come from? Is this a dream?” She asked, looking around to check and see if anything about the environment had changed in the Princess’ sudden appearance.

Princess Luna reached over and pulled Scootaloo away from the edge of the cave entrance, making sure she didn’t fall. “This is not a dream, but it is a nightmare. I felt it was appropriate for me to intervene, as I could tell that something was bothering you as of late,” she said, sitting down in-front of her.

Scootaloo had eased up slightly, getting into a more comfortable sitting position. “There is? If there is something bothering me, then you know just as much as I do on what it is. Maybe more actually; do you know what it is then?” She asked, tilting her head.

Luna shrugged slightly to her in response. “I have a few guesses, but your actions in these nightmares tell me a lot. When your floor collapsed and your bed fell in the nightmare you had before this one, you could have easily just started flying to stop yourself from falling, but you didn’t. The same could be said for a couple minutes ago, where you could have flown down out of the cave. I’ve heard news of you being a great flier, so not seeing you use those skills when they would be needed the most confuses me,” she said as she used her magic to position the moon lower, allowing more light to enter the cave they were in.

Scootaloo seemed to get a little nervous, looking away from Luna slightly. “…I don’t know, actually. I guess my brain just hasn’t gotten used to them yet?” She said, tilting her head again.

Luna shook her head and lifted one of her legs. “If I had to make an educated guess, I think it has something to do with the accident that happened two years ago. You aren’t confident with your own flying abilities to save yourself, are you? You’re not afraid of flying, you’re afraid of falling,” she said as she fluttered her wings.

Scootaloo had to think about it for a couple seconds before she inevitably nodded. “Now that I think about it, I suppose I’m not that confident with my own flying abilities. But then again, how can I fly so greatly when it comes to the league then?” She questioned, looking back over to Luna.

Luna put her leg back down and closed her wings. “I think that’s because you have a window of safety there. There are so many ponies watching and at the same time, you have a thick bed of clouds to break your fall if anything might go wrong when you’re flying,” she said, clearing her throat. “I can also tell that you don’t like being alone, that you never want to be lonely. Not only for flying, just in general,” She said softly.

Scootaloo nodded again, looking down to the ground. She seemed embarrassed and sad upon hearing what she was scared of being recited back to her, especially when it was by such a royal figure. Luna reached over and put a hoof on her shoulder, giving her a soft smile at the same time. “It’s okay, Scootaloo, it’s understandable that you would feel unsafe by yourself. I hope you realize that,” she said as Scootaloo lifted her head up and nodded. Luna continued speaking, “I know why it isn’t nice to be left alone, as I was trapped inside the moon for 1000 years with no one but myself to talk to. If I tripped and fell, there was no one there to aid me. If there would be anypony who can empathise with you, Scootaloo, it would be me.”

Scootaloo looked around and thought for a moment. “…So, how do I help my fears then? Is there a way to help it?” She said, tilting her head to the princess.

Luna shook her head in response. “I’m afraid not; at least not suddenly. These fears are fears that should subside over time as your confidence grows. Soon enough you will learn to trust your wings more than you currently do, and soon enough you will learn to trust yourself more than you do. That is all I can help you with I’m afraid, as the rest is up to you,” she said, standing up.

Scootaloo stood up as well, fluttering her wings to her. “…So what now?” She asked, looking up to her.

Luna pointed to the moon, which was slowly going under the horizon as the sky began to turn a bright orange. “It’s time for you to wake up, of course.”