Flying Grounds

Scootaloo stretched her wings as wide as she could muster and smiled insecure to her honorary sister. Rainbow hovered over her, tried to grin encouraging, but failed, as she saw how miserable the filly looked.
The small wings on her back trembled and she lost her composure for a moment.
“Spike can fly!”
Rainbow landed and just nodded. Scootaloo looked to the group of ponies and two dragons on the training grounds.
She listened to Smolder's and Twilight's small banter about the right amount of training for one day.

“I've told you no more, than a few rounds first.
No obstacle course, no race and especially no dangerous tricks!”
Scootaloo sighed as the little dragon with the oddly familiar color scheme tried to smile and brush it off with a claw swipe.
“Well I kind of thought, that's Spikes own wish to see what he's capable of and to prove himself, that...”
The smaller dragon cleared his throat and tried to stop his friend, but Twilight pouted and opened her mouth after that.
She inhaled but Scootaloo had heard enough and frowned. She turned away from the scene and looked into Rainbow's eyes. The mare could clearly see her agitated thoughts, but decided to distract her from her feelings with hard training.
“We should begin, don't you think Squirt?
Maybe you will...”
Scootaloo nodded and started the repetition of her last lesson. But her eyes darted time and again to the other trainees.
She tried to avoid the usual sight of Rumble training with his family and stayed on the two dragons instead.
Spike hovered aside Twilight and a small sting ached in her chest. But she bucked it up with a loud yell and started to propel herself into the air with a buzzing pair of wings.
She even started to hover a little bit and shared a surprised look with her mentor.
But it didn't rest for long even as she tried as hard as she could, she landed on the ground again with a small thud.
She just couldn't stop there, but tried and tried and tried again and again and again.
Scootaloo tried it with a few improvements, tried to tip her wings in different angles, tried to feel her magic, but failed every time.
She jumped off a small cloud and tried to glide instead, but the only thing she could trust wasn't her wings, or her magic, but only the grip of the earth. So she hit the ground harder and harder after every failed attempt.
She bruised up more and more and felt her wings going number and number every passed minute.

The filly got more and more frustrated and risked even more on every jump to compensate her bad feelings.
She forced it more and more, jumped higher and higher from the clouds, but even as she jumped down far away from the ground and was almost blasted off from the headwind, she didn't fly, but had to be rescued by Rainbow Dash.
The mare caught her almost worried and scolded with a worried undertone.
“Wow Squirt, that's a little bit extreme, even for me.
It's not a competition, you know.”
Rainbow held her trembling worn out body in her strong hooves and the little firecracker tried to calm her breath down for an answer.
But on the way down she spotted the other group of friends and another jab of pain hit her, as she saw how far Spike has gone.

He whooshed through a small scale obstacle course and his screams of joy sounded over the whole compound.
Scootaloo tried to struggle herself out of Rainbow's grip, but her wings were so sore, that they didn't even respond to her anymore.
So she just stayed into Rainbow's hooves, till they arrived the ground safely. She felt every muscle in her body screaming for a break and wobbled around, as she went slowly to her saddle bag.
“Maybe we should take a break, Scoots. It's...”
Scootaloo just sighed and put the saddlebag on. She nodded and skulked dispirited away. Rainbow followed her depressed lowering tail and heard a murmured sentence.
“Even Spike can fl.
Why can't I?”
Scootaloo sighed, but cried out, as Rainbow fetched her away from the ground and flew high into the air.
She carried her to a high dark cloud in the middle of nowhere and threw the filly onto it.
“So, mope around if you like, Squirt.
I've told you time and again, that you're...”
The smaller filly jumped back onto her wobbling hooves and stomped into the gray mess of cloud.
Her tail waved erratically from side to side and even lashed from time to time.
“I'm awesome.
Even if I don't fly, I know!
And I have to be patient and shouldn't loose hope.”
She sounded more and more hurt and bugged as she spoke. Finally she yelled a last sentence.
“I''m so sick of it.”
Her outburst didn't seem to bother Rainbow, but her expression wasn't one to calm Scootaloo down either, so the filly just yelled along.
“I've felt something similar to flying and thought that would trigger a growth spurt.
But Spike has gotten wings instead.
He can fly!”

Scootaloo turned her head to her useless, tired wings and tried to move them a little bit, but they didn't respond. She moaned and inspected her feckless attachment.
“I'm a pegasus, I should be able to fly.
I know it's an old thought, but it nagged inside of me, Rainbow.”
Her eyes darted to the older mare, who tried to interject, but the filly's expression stopped her from doing it.
Scootaloo kicked into the cloud again and groaned another bulk of words.
“I loved the feeling in Seaquestria.
I...I wish it...it would...”
A small sob escaped her mouth and the filly brushed away a few tears. She frowned and chewed on her lips frantically. Finally she couldn't held herself upwards and threw herself into the gray mess.
She pulled the cloud around her, covering every little inch of her body and hiding her whole existence from the world. Rainbow remembered a similar habit, as she tried to avoid everypony, as she felt downcast.
The cyan mare sighed and dived into the cloud with another yell.
“I understand, but you can't bury yourself in pity.
I thought you would be inspired by Spike's development.
Look it's...”
The filly crawled away and kicked out. She even hit her with a hoof and grumbled an answer.
“Go away.
Leave me alone.”
As grown up as the filly had gotten, now she didn't respond like a pony with a Cutie Mark, but rather like a small filly.
Rainbow could understand, that it was a difficult time, but self pitying wasn't the right thing to do right now.
“Come on, Squirts.
I just try to...”
The filly yelled another sentences and crawled deeper into the cloud.
“Buck off!
You're a terrible teacher!”
Rainbow frowned and lashed her tail once. She flapped her wings and hovered out of the cloud.
Her own anger got the best in her and she yelled at Scootaloo on her own.
“Fine, I'll go.
Look how you get down from here on your own!
Or cry out for help, I'll wait down there!”
The filly huffed and didn't bother to answer. Flapping wings left her alone and she just pressed her eyes into the gray cloud under her, to block everything and everyone out.

The time went by in a hurry and Scootaloo laid pouting and huffing in her cloud. The aching wings reminded her on every failed attempt and her memory lapsed back onto every little positive feeling down in Seaquestria.
Gliding with schools, whooshing around with friends. Even jumping out of the waters with dolphins. Every little thing hit her like the ground, but they were good memories.
Finally she heard a small thump outside of her circle of sadness and a whisper didn't seem to address her.
“Well, it's soft and seem to hold me.
Are you sure the spell couldn't fail, Twilight?”
A mare answered the male voice and Scootaloo crawled deeper into the pillowlike cloud.
She covered her ears with her hooves and moaned, as she felt that her left back hoof had already left the cloud.
So she couldn't crawl deeper into the cloud, but had to stay where she was.
Someone crawled into the cloud and searched for her. Spike's voice sounded dumb through it and the filly sighed aloud.
“Scootaloo, where are you?”
She didn't answer, but sighed loud enough, that the little dragon was able to find her.

He crawled closer and felt for her. Finally he found her head and touched her mane. She sighed bugged and mumbled a sentence.
“Go away!”
Spike didn't respond, but petted slowly over the filly's mane. He tried to crawl closer, but Scootaloo hit his petting claw with a hoof and cried out.
“Leave me alone, Spike.
I'm not in the mood.”
The dragon didn't listen and crawled closer to her chest. He hugged her and the filly tried to flinch away, but felt that her other back hoof and a little bit of her back slipped out of the cloud. She cried out and had to hold on to the only thing, that could prevent her from falling, Spike.
The small dragon mistook it as an open up from her and petted her mane again.
“It's alright.
I can understand...”
The filly could feel, that she had already slipped halfway out of the cloud and stopped his encouraging speech with another yell.
“Spike I'm falling!”
She struggled to keep her grip on the dragon and Spike pulled her back into the cloud, before she could fall.
The filly trembled and nestled closer onto the dragon's warm chest, as the realization hit her like the ground would.
“You saved me, Spike.
If you wouldn't be so strong I would fall and...and nopony would know.”
The small body of the dragon shivered and pulled the little filly closer into the hug.
“I won't mind it to everypony else, Scoots.”
The filly nodded thankfully and nuzzled the little dragon's face. Spike giggled and answered with another hug, but let the filly loose quickly.
“But I have to ask.
Are you mad at me?”

Scootaloo's ears perked up and she tried to rehear it, but Spike felt silent and even blushed a little bit. The filly moaned again and answered with a question of her own.
“You've talked with Rainbow, didn't you?”
Spike nodded and laughed nervously. He looked back onto his back and eyed up his own wings.
“Well yes, I know it must be nagging to...”
Scootaloo pushed him away, tried to scoot away, but felt, that the hooves left the cloud again and squeaked.
She curled herself into a ball and shivered.
Spike sighed and hugged the little filly again.
“I didn't want to make you sad.
Really I didn't! I didn't want to boast with it.
You have to believe me. I didn't want to make you mad about me, Scootaloo.
It's just...”
Scootaloo stopped the stammering little dragon and smiled. She gave his wings an envious glance, but sighed it away quickly.
“I...I know. I know...”
First she sounded really bugged and even shouted almost directly into Spikes ears.
But after that she covered her mouth in surprise and whispered the second continuation.
The smaller dragon flinched one step away, but stopped immediately.
He grinned at her and closed the gap again.
“You're almost as loud, as my volume changes back than, you know...”
The filly just grinned halfhearted back and sighed again.
“It's just not fair.
I...I want to fly.”
She emphasized the I so heavily, that the rest of the sentence was barely audible. Scootaloo wiped away a tear and sniffed once.
She crawled closer to her friend and laid her face against the bigger dragon. Spike felt a small wet drop on his chest and smiled gently.
“I'm sure you will be flying soon, Scootaloo.
Don't worry!”
The filly raised her head and yelled again.
Spike didn't flinched this time and petted her mane very gently.
Scootaloo led out a long sigh and pressed her sobbing head against Spike's chest after that.
“Everpony says that.
I am no fool.
I should have been flying a long time ago.
Maybe I should go back to Seaquestria and live there.”
Spike took a deep breath and petted over the filly's mane again.
She cried into the hug and the dragon thought about a good response, but couldn't find one and just hugged his friend.

His mind went through a lot of stuff, but he couldn't find anything useful.
His thoughts circled around his own little worries. What was the next step?
Smolder didn't seem to bother to tell him much about it. And asking Ember would be very embarrassing.
Growing up is strange.
Spike blushed a little bit, shook his head and turned his gaze back to the little filly in his claws.
“You can stay on the ground, like Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.
I'm sure they would miss you, if you're leaving for Seaquestria.”
The sobbing intensified after that blatant desperate try from Spike to cheer the filly up.
“I'm a pegasus Spike.
I must fly.
Every other pegasi will make fun of me!”
Spike took a deep breath and whispered an answer into Scootaloo's flapping ears.
“Rainbow didn't make fun of you, did she?
And I'm pretty sure Fluttershy and Derpy wouldn't either!”
The filly hissed, but after the second round of names she just giggled. She raised her head again and looked into Spike's face.
“You're really bad at cheering me up, Spike.”
The dragon grinned and wiped away a few tears. Her gently fondled over Scootaloo's cheeks and sighed.
“Be glad, that Smolder didn't come with me.
She is much rougher around the edges and I think more like you.”
Spike was hesitant to admit it and the filly snorted it away.
“A yeah, sure.
The big and flying dragon is like me!”
Spike took another deep breath, but the filly was quicker and brushed away a few more tears.
She forced a smile back onto her face and swallowed another sob.

“No for real!”
Spike cleared his throat, lifted her head with one claw and smiled directly into it. The filly looked for a mocking expression, but there was none, so she cocked her head a little bit and asked.
“Really?”
Spike just nodded, leaned closer and whispered.
“She likes risks, just like you.
Maybe you could hang around with her, if you don't mind her... well.
She also had said, that I should go away.
So she is rather blunt.”
Spike chuckled once and Scootaloo joined in after a deep breath.
“Than I'm glad, that you're here, Spike.”
The dragon grinned and rubbed his nose. Scootaloo sighed again, looked over her shoulder and glared at her small wings.
She buzzed with them, tried to bring them back in order, but failed.
They were hanging in different directions, the bulk of feathers were in total mess and the muscles were too numb to do the job, or even to held them straight, so Scootaloo shook her head.
“Could you ask Twilight, if she...can bring me down?”
The filly whispered and dropped her head slowly.
Spike just nodded and petted her mane again.
He hugged her quickly and whispered another answer.
“I'm sure she would prefer it, when you ask her that.
And I think Rainbow would also be eager to help you down.
Unless you're still mad at her?”
The filly blushed, shook her head and just mumbled an answer.
“No...I'm really sorry.
I shouldn't have yelled with her.”
Spike nodded and smiled softly. He helped Scootaloo on her hooves and hugged her again.

The filly sighed again and said another sentence, before he was able to answer.
“I should tell her that, right?”
Spike just smiled and nodded. Scootaloo sighed again and started to crawl out of the cloud.
Spike stayed behind and waited till Scootaloo was outside. He heard her apology and looked over the shoulders to his own wings.
“Rainbow, I'm sorry....”
The filly's mumble was silenced by flapping wings and died off quickly, as Spike stayed in the cloud for a few moments.
Even Twilight was gone and he had time to rethink the last experience of growing up.
Spike sighed again and reached out to his wings. He stroke them with an unhappy expression.
“I didn't want to make you sad, Scootaloo.
I really didn't want to.”
He flapped his wings and busted out of the cloud with a unreadable expression, not a smile, not a frown. But surely not a happy one.

“Growing up.
Changing.
Buck it!
I didn't want to hurt you, Scootaloo.”

He mumbled under a short sigh and turned to the castle and the school.
“I wish I could help you!”

Author's Note:

After I have seen the first image of Spike with wings,
I have pondered around a story like this.
Feel free to comment, if you like and I hope you enjoyed it a little bit.
Thanks for reading.

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