Scootaloo the Fugitive

by Kaidan

10. Falling with Style

It was around noon that Dash finally had to get up. She had taken the weekend off from the weather team; it was scheduled to be sunny anyway. As she rolled over to get out of bed, she saw Scootaloo wake up and climb out of the blanket.

"Good morning squirt." Dash smiled at the filly whose short hair was knotted and tangled up from the long night's sleep.

Scootaloo yawned and looked around. "We're in your house? This is so awesome!" She jumped off the bed and began examining everything. The furniture, floors, and walls seemed to be made of a dense cloud material. Scootaloo flung a wardrobe open and saw a couple gala dresses and a Wonderbolt costume.

"Heh, best not go messing around in another pony's closet Scoots. I'll get a room built for you soon enough." Dash's cheeks had a hint of redness to them as she blushed. "What do you say to some breakfast?"

"Oh, that'd be awesome Dash! What are you going to cook?"

"Well. . . I don't really cook, Squirt. I've got protein shakes, protein bars. . . you know what I think we'll just eat out. The Café next to Sugarcube corner has amazing hay fries and eggs. After that we'll go visit Pinkie and get some cupcakes."

"Wow! This is going to be so cool, I used to have to wait and eat some of Applebloom and Sweetie's lunch. . ."

"Well, you won't have to go hungry anymore! If I'm going to get you flying you're going to need lots of protein and three meals a day. Not to mention a rigorous exercise routine!"

"Awesome! When do we start?"

"Right now Squirt, we're far above the café and you're going to have to glide down."

Scootaloo's smile faded as her eyes widened and her mouth opened to speak. "But. . . You mean, I have to fly right now?"

"You make it sound so hard, we were born to fly! We'll just fix that mane, preen your wings, and you'll be set to glide down."

Dash spoke with confidence, helping the young filly mentally prepare herself. "Ok, but I've never preened before. . ."

"Oh right, so no one has taught you about preening Squirt? Well I guess it's your lucky day! You don't get to be the best flyer in Equestria by neglecting your feathers."

"I have never seen Pegasi preening, it's got something to do with oils in spit or something?"

"Yeah, us Pegasi have special oil in our saliva that helps protect and waterproof our feathers. It's the same as taking a bath or combing your mane, we usually do it in private. Sometimes I'll do it in front of Rarity for fun, she freaks out and starts using big words like 'uncouth' and 'uncivilized.'"

Scootaloo chuckled a few times at that. "Alright so can you show me how?"

"Alright watch closely, you want to get as many of the primary and secondary feathers as you can. You don't want to bite the feathers, just gently run your teeth over them. If you're molting, this is when you'll notice a feather or two come out as another will begin to grow in. If you don't take good care of your feathers, they won't be much good for flying. A Pegasus who doesn't preen is like an earth pony trying to fly."

"Pinkie flies." Scootaloo stuck her tongue out and gave her a raspberry.

"Pinkie doesn't count, I bet if I broke a pinkie promise she'd find a way to hop out of my closet without a cloud walking spell. So, start like this." Dash extended her right wing and tilted it, allowing her to reach her feathers. She began running them through her teeth gently, and a slight sheen was appearing on the feathers. Soon, her right wing looked freshly combed. Each feather was aligned, smoothed out, and water proofed.

"Ok now I'll try!" Scootaloo stuck out her wing, tilted it and took a mouthful of feathers in her mouth. Half a second later she was coughing. "Eww they taste horrible and fuzzy."

"Well you did say you've never preened before, and I doubt you've had many showers either. How'd you like to clean up first?"

"Ok!" Dash pointed Scootaloo to the bathroom, then finished preening while the filly cleaned up. Dash heard some singing in the shower, and it sounded like a rock ballad she had once had the misfortune of hearing. Then she heard the filly get out and start drying off with a towel.

"Once we get you flying, the best way to dry off is in free-fall. Now you usually want to preen when the feathers are dry so let me make sure." Dash took the towel and rubbed at her wings. "Looks good, try again."

Scootaloo took a mouthful of feathers in again and fought the urge to laugh from the strange sensation. "Scootaloo, you don't have to do them all at once. Try to get one or two at a time."

"Oomph—kay" Scootaloo spit some feathers out and tried again.

"Good, now just pull back gently. . . easy. . ."

"OW!" Scootaloo spit the feathers out and one drifted to the floor. "Aww shoot."

"It's okay, they get loose before molting and that feather was probably about to fall off anyway. Now, just keep going on the other feathers gently, try and think about some ice cream or something to get the saliva flowing."

Scootaloo slowly picked feathers out of her wing, and coated them in the saliva. "This—ish sho—weird." She quickly finished her right wing, and proceeded to her left. It only took a few minutes and a few loose feathers before she was done.

"Great work, let me take a look." Dash walked around the filly that stretched her wings out proudly. "Pretty good, you got most of them. It's harder as a filly since your wings aren't at their full size yet." Dash ran her teeth over a few stray feathers, and soon the filly's wild wings looked smooth and uniform. "There that should do it, gliding should be a cake walk now!"

"Awesome! So, where are we going to practice? Maybe the staircase?"

"Please, there's only one way for Pegasi as awesome as us to learn. It's an old trick my dad taught me. Follow me."

Scootaloo followed Dash out to the front porch of the home, and took in the majestic view of Ponyville spread out below them. It was beautiful, she could not remember having ever seen anything from this bird's eye view. The ponies were tiny dots moving around a town the size sugar cubes.

"Now, watch closely." Dash waited for the filly to face her. "The key things to know about flight are speed, drag, gravity, and lift. We just took care of drag by fixing your mane and feathers, keep your legs tucked in and you won't slow down as fast. Next is speed, you'll gain speed going down and using gravity, or by flapping your wings. For now, we're going for a nice glide so just hold your wings open and level like this. Last thing is lift, you can gain altitude or turn by tilting the wings like so. Now, spread your wings out to glide."

Scootaloo spread her wings out and Dash inspected them. "Very good, tilt them down just a little. Now, this isn't like riding a scooter. If you try and fly like a hummingbird, you're going to get tired. Our goal isn't to beat the air into submission, it's to slice through it." Dash approached the edge and looked down, and nodded to Scootaloo to do the same.

"Flying is in our blood Squirt, it's like magic with the unicorns or freakish strength with the earth ponies. We're born knowing how to do it, the only thing stopping us is our fear. Are you afraid Scootaloo?

"Um. . . no?" Scootaloo was shaking on her hooves, her wings folded tightly against her sides.

"It's okay to be honest, sometimes fear helps us know our limits. Even I was a bit scared my first time. It's a natural thing, and once you feel the wind through your feathers you'll never want to walk anywhere again."

"Ok. . . it's a little scary, I mean look how high we are!"

"Good! Facing your fears, I like it. Now, spread your wings like I showed you."

Scootaloo spread her wings open wide. "But. . . Dash. . . is this a good idea?"

"Let's find out. Geronimo!" Dash pushed the filly off the edge of the porch and dove after her.

"OMIGOSH OMIGOSH AAAAAHH" Scootaloo was flailing around and flapping her wings madly. Her legs kicked out in various directions as she tumbled head over flank.

"Hey Squirt, didn't we just go over this?" Scootaloo looked to see Dash in a relaxed pose, plummeting beside her. "Wings out, level, slice through the air!" Dash spread her wings and rocketed forward without having to flap once.

Scootaloo gulped at the rapidly approaching ground. She closed her eyes and spread her wings as widely as she could. She felt the wind whipping up past her, then it began coming from the side whipping her mane and tail back. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was now flying straight towards Ponyville and descending rapidly.

"Awesome Squirt! You're flying!" Dash was flying along beside her, watching her glide down to the earth.

"Dash! That was awesome! Except the part where you shoved me!"

"Heh, like I said, I taught you just like my dad taught me." Dash stuck her tongue out at Scootaloo.

"What do we do now?"

"Well, once we get closer to Ponyville we just. . . land."

"Uh Dash?"

"So, I may have forgotten one tiny detail. . . how to land. The trick is to turn your wings nearly upright like this." Dash turned her wings, slowing down, then flew back up to Scootaloo. "And start running before you hit the ground! And remember to tilt to turn because the ground is coming up fast Squirt!"

Scootaloo took her eyes of Dash and faced forward. Less than a hundred feet away a large tree was directly in her path. "Tilt your left up and right down Scoot! Turn!" Scootaloo tried adjusting her wings, resulting in a barrel roll. She then began flapping them madly and flailing again, when she felt Dash grab her.

The pair collided with something solid, and skidded to a halt. There was a sound of something falling off countless shelves. Scootaloo hadn't felt the impact, and immediately began cheering.

"YEAH! That was so awesome! Let's do it again!" Scootaloo looked at Dash, who was sitting amidst a pile of books. Dash's head wobbled around for a bit as the dizziness cleared up.

"Uh oh Squirt, we better get out of here fast!" The pair heard hoof steps coming from the other room.

"Not again! I just finished re-shelving this room!" Twilight looked over at the pair of Pegasi.

"Heh, you know me." Dash smiled at Twilight and shrugged her shoulders.

"It was awesome Twilight! I flew down from Dash's house all by myself!" Scootaloo spread her wings to show her how well groomed they were now.

"Hmph. More like falling with style. I just hope you don't make a habit of crashing into my library like Dash does." Twilight began levitating books back onto their shelves.

Dash elbowed Scootaloo in the ribs "That's our cue squirt, we leave now or we'll be stuck around for a lecture." The pair quickly and quietly walked over to the door and left.

"Well I suppose since you want to learn about flying I can explain some of the laws of aerodynamics and thermodynamics while you're—" Twilight turned around to find an empty room. Sighing loudly, she called out. "Spike! We have some more re-shelving to do!"

Author's Note:

Whew, finally a first flight chapter. There's no way to learn like diving in the deep end, or in this case plummeting towards the ground.
Had a weird weekend, I felt so cooped up and tired, and couldn't focus on writing. So I'll try and finish a longer chapter of greater awesomeness for President's day. Now I'm off to visit a museum, which will hopefully fix my cabin fever.

Next Time on Scootaloo the Fugitive: Dash takes Scootaloo to visit the Rainbow Factory, and only one of them returns... mwahahaha!

Comments

[Cold Spike]

Cute chapter... MOAR! Also glad we have a story that is ignoring the damn last episode, sick of hearing about it!

[temerarii pulsat]

you missed a day
edit: was an awesome chapter keep it up ^-^

[Brony_9_9]

Next Time on Scootaloo the Fugitive: Dash takes Scootaloo to visit the Rainbow Factory, and only one of them returns... mwahahaha!

rafaelsos.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/fuck.jpg

[Kaidan]

2135728 Yeah I just finished Pegasus Device's final chapter, the reference seemed fitting. Not sure yet what the next chapter will really be about, but at least there are no more sad / tragedy / grim dark stories left on my reading list now. I might be able to read something where the protagonist lives AND is happy.

2135687 2135648 Yeah, as soon as the episode ended and I realized there would be no new episodes for like 9 months, and nothing to look forward too but complaining my brain stopped working. I couldn't focus enough to write, luckily it's nothing 13 hours of sleep couldn't fix.

Working on Sanctuary today, trying to get a new chapter done for the editor. He hasn't gotten back to me on the old chapter yet.

[temerarii pulsat]

2135796 can always count on me to be an idolt

[bahatumay]

/headcanon.update = true

[block_bot27]

Falling with style. Nice toy story reference

[Poets Dream]

~ "It's not flying -" ~

[Ellington]

Reading on how to fly are we Twilight? You'll need it. Trust me.

[Majk]

Welp, Twilights books are soooo screwed now. R.I.P.

[KawaiiPotato]

3151823 lol preach it bra its so true XD