A long way down.
The filly looked over the edge of the cloud, her ears pinning back against her head as she scooted back. “I-I don’t know about this,” she quivered, looking back at the other Pegasus.
“Come on, squirt,” Rainbow Dash rasped as she put a hoof on the younger pony’s back. “I’ll be there with you the whole way down. If you get in trouble, I’ll catch you. Pinkie Promise.”
Scootaloo looked over the cloud’s edge again, gulping. “If you say so,” the young Pegasus said, stepping right up to the edge and spreading her wings. Rainbow could see that her number one fan’s ears were still pinned back in nervousness.
“We don’t have to if you don’t want to, Scoots,” the Wonderbolt said. “You’ve gotten better, but if you think this is too much, we’re done and no one hears about it.”
“No,” Scootaloo whispered. “I’m ready. I just…” She gulped. “I just don’t want to let you down.”
Rainbow reached over and gave the filly hug before ruffling her mane.
“I doubt you could, squirt,” she smiled. “Ready?”
Scootaloo leapt over the edge, her wings spread.
“Guess that’s a yes,” Rainbow said, following after a moment of watching the filly fall.
Scootaloo pulled her wings in tight, feeling the air pull at her mane and feathers. Her heart was thudding in her chest as she passed clouds. She tucked her legs up close to her and snapped her wings out, eyes closing for a moment as memories started playing through her head.
Of trying to hover up to the bottom branches of an apple tree with Bloom watching. Of gliding down from the top of the Carousel Boutique or Town Hall with a few tumbling landings until she got it down. Of managing to get up to the clubhouse without using her hooves, despite how tiring it made her.
It made it into her head that she wasn’t falling anymore, and she opened her eyes to see that she was gliding slowly forward, a slight updraft ruffling her primaries.
Tears filled her eyes as she shouted loudly. “Yes!” she cried, pumping her hoof.
And then started falling as her wings lost purchase on the air currents. She wobbled a little and flung her wings out again, pumping hard. She managed to stall her fall a little as she felt the updraft push against her again, and she saw Rainbow come down alongside, flying along with the gliding pony.
“Not bad, squirt,” the athlete said. “Not bad at all. You think you can gain some altitude now?”
Scootaloo started pumping her wings, but all she managed to do was raise a few inches. She sighed in frustration as she switched to a hover, her altitude dipping and rising as she kept her wings going. “I don’t get it,” she growled.
Rainbow shook her head. “It’s not a matter of just pumping your wings, Scoots,” she said as she glided a little closer. “You have to feel your place in the air, the direction of the wind, the updrafts, the downdrafts and cross-currents. It’s more than just wing power, our magic itself isn’t just walking on clouds or bucking weather systems. It gives us a better feeling of the air.”
Scootaloo frowned in confusion. “But what do I do?”
Rainbow drifted back, her wings still languidly flapping.
“I can’t tell you, squirt,” the mare responded with a sad smile. “It’s different for everypony. What I can tell you, though, is that a lot of it has to do with a center of calm.”
“Calm?”
Rainbow reached out and tapped the filly on the head just beneath her forelock. “If you’re not calm, then you can’t feel it,” she ruffled the forelock. “Picture a happy thought, and let it fill your mind.”
The filly closed her eyes, and her hover became a little more stable and her wings started to slow a little.
“Good,” Rainbow said. “Now, keep that image in your mind. Can you feel the wind?”
“Yeah,” Sootaloo said. “It’s weird, it feels…”
“Squishy?”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo nodded. “Like a cloud, almost.”
“That’s good,” Rainbow said. “Now push off it. Gently.”
Scootaloo flaped her wings, feeling the strange sensation slip through her feathers as she gained a little altitude. An inch, then two. Then five. Then a whole length.
Rainbow shot up alongside. “That’s it, kiddo.”
Scootaloo looked at her idol. “But if it’s always this easy, why was it so hard for me?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno,” the athlete responded honestly. “Most Pegasi can feel it instinctively. But I was talking to Fluttershy one day and she mentioned how much easier it was for her to fly since she found us and started seeing Applejack…and I got to thinking, what if it wasn’t your wings so much as you having an issue with using Pegasus magic?”
“And how did you know?”
“I took it to an expert in magic,” Rainbow said. “Twilight ran a few methods by me and I thought this one would work best.” She turned and pointed down towards Sweet Apple Acres. “Lets go get something to snack on. You might want to grab on, by the way.”
Scootaloo wrapped her arms around Rainbow’s neck. “Why?”
The air sped over her body as Rainbow lived up to her name and dashed forward then canted upward, gaining altitude swiftly.
“Rainbow?” the filly shouted over the wind. “What are you doing?”
The Wonderbolt didn’t reply as her climb ended and she gently fell back, now speeding towards the ground and a swiftly increasing velocity. “Reach out and feel it, Scoots!” she shouted.
Scootaloo watched as the ground stared to speed upwards towards them, and then she felt it, the threads of magic flowing over her coat, soft but firm at the same time. She then saw a white shimmer start to appear in their path, starting flat and then slowly warping into a sphere.
Then a cone, small cracks appearing along the edge.
The cone shattered, a rainbow flying away as a loud booming sound cracked over the land, and Scootaloo felt a rush like she never had before as Rainbow pulled up slowly, eventually landing in the edges of the orchard, all speed bled off.
“That was awesome!” Scootaloo cried, hugging her big ‘sister’ excitedly.
Hugging the filly back, Rainbow smiled. “One day, squirt, I want to do something nopony ever has before.”
“What’s that?”
“A Double Rainboom,” she rasped as they trotted forward, giving their wings a rest. “With the best little sister a Wonderbolt could have.” She grinned at the smaller Pegasus. “If you feel up to it.”
Scootaloo grinned. “I look forward to it,” she grinned.
Rainbow laughed. “I can tell,” she said, pointing down.
Scootaloot looked, and flushed.
She had started hovering without realizing it and was moving forward. It may not have been very high, but it was flying.
But her heart was still up in the clouds, riding the edge of a Rainboom.