Sisterhooves Practice [Closed: SteelEagle]

[Scootaloved]

@SteelEagle

 

To say Scootaloo was nervous would be understating it.

 

It'd been pretty anxiety inducing, approaching Rainbow to ask about the upcoming Sisterhooves Social - mainly because the two of them never participated in it together before. Still, she managed to buck it up for the time being and ask. Scootaloo thought that might be the end of it; once Rainbow said yes to it (which she did, thank Celestia), then Scootaloo would have a merry ole' time and the two of them would blow away the competition once the actual Sisterhooves Social came round. Scootaloo even remembered being excited at the time once Rainbow agreed and arranged a place and a time for the two of them to meet to prepare for it. The little pony had been counting the days down as they came by, and now that it's finally happening...

 

...that's when the doubts decided to make themselves known.

 

Here Scootaloo sat, at the spot that Rainbow herself established for the two of them, and if she wore any she'd be quaking in her boots. Some nervous chattering of her teeth and shuffling of her hooves later, and she managed to suppress the butterflies running rampant within her stomach enough to look the part of the confident pony. To be fair, the image was pretty practiced at this point, so it was easy to slip into; but it did nothing to actually quell the worries that came floating by.

 

After all, as luck would have it, this was when her thoughts decided to crash upon her, setting her into a state of supreme unease.

 

What if I'm not cool enough? What if I get hurt? What if she gets hurt? What if I get her hurt? What if I mess up the routine and she'll never wanna see me again? 

 

The doubts became so prevalent that they were practically paralyzing, and it took her attempting to observe a tree in the fields to refocus herself. She swallowed thickly, straightened her sitting position, and hoped to the sun above that Rainbow would get here soon. Surely she'd start feel better once the rainbow-maned pegasus appeared to put all of her fears to rest.

 

That was, of course, assuming she'd actually show up.

 

"Where is she?" Scootaloo muttered to herself, agitation growing. Okay, so she was here early, but still! Surely Rainbow wouldn't ditch on her... Right?

[SteelEagle]

 

Rainbow Dash's schedule was a constantly expanding roster of athletic contests and shows that would weary and weaken anypony in the world. Luckily for her legion of adoring fans, Rainbow Dash wasn't a normal pony, or even an extraordinary pony. She was Rainbow Dash and that meant she could handle the constant physical stress. After all, she is the pony who made sure to stuff her schedule full of those activities. She got sore and worked through it, got tired and flew as fast as she could. There was time to sleep and rest and it wasn't when she was flying and as long as she was flying she was going to fly hard, fly well, and fly fun. That was what had attracted such a legion of followers even before she had joined the Wonderbolts, after all. If you wanted to maintain your position as Equestria's coolest pony then you had to work hard at it!
 

That didn't mean she couldn't find time in her life for those that were important to her, and that was why she was using a nice draft to make good time back to Ponyville. She could fly harder of course but nopony was looking and the draft was warm- she deserved a small break en route to her rendezvous with Scootaloo. The little filly had asked Rainbow to be a member of her team for the annual Sisterhooves Social and it didn't take Rainbow more than a second to say yes. She had always found most of Ponyville's traditions equally charming and fun as silly and outdated, but had never really been able to participate in the Sisterhooves Social. She was an only child ad it was strange to try and involve yourself in a familial event when you lacked the familial necessity. Luckily she had found an enormous loophole in the cover of an excited orange filly.
 

Scootaloo was a good little pony even if she rarely saw it herself. She was vulnerable and excitable, intensely focused and easily swayed. She was one of Rainbow's legion of fans but Scootaloo was enamored with the pony Rainbow was, not the pony she imagined her to be. In return Rainbow cared for the pony Scootaloo was and wanted to be, not who she feared she couldn't be, and had grown protective of the little filly over the years. Scootaloo considered Rainbow Dash her big sister. Twilight would have a lot to say about the sort of complex a pony had to make a case for that, but Rainbow just accepted it. She wasn't gonna deny Scoots a thing even if was a little bit weird to others. The ponies that mattered to her didn't care; why should see?
 

Rainbow Dash found the stream dying not far from town, so she took control and started booking it. She flew over the tops of the houses and shops in a carefree manner, spotting Scootaloo a little while before reaching her. She looked a little...tense. Probably worried about screwing it up, but that was unlikely. Scootaloo could do it. And even if she couldn't Rainbow was here and she knew that she could, so they were a shoo-in to win. She came in from behind Scootaloo, her wings flaring out to slow her down on descent.

"Hey there squirt, ready to train?" She said as she landed, one wing petting Scootaloo in an effort to sufficiently mussy up her mane.

[Scootaloved]

 

As Scootaloo predicted, it was Rainbow's arrival that chased away the doubts that were swirling about in her head. More like popped, actually, once she saw Rainbow drifting down toward her, and Scootaloo quickly jumped up from her sitting position as her little wings buzzed in her excitement rejuvenated. She still had knots within her stomach, but the sight that Rainbow hadn't at least ditched her proved to set at least part of her at ease. And on top of the flutter within her chest provoked by Rainbow mussing up her mane with a wing, Scootaloo nodded eagerly. "Y-yeah! I'm ready if you are!" She mentally congratulated herself for the way that she phrased that, which was really cool. She hoped that she impressed her big sis with that, at least.

 

Thoughts of performance anxiety began to dissipate as she imagined what exactly would come out of this interaction, much like she had when Rainbow first said yes. Visions of the two of them running and jumping together with ease made the idea all the more appealing, and she couldn't help but verbalize it in a babble, "Soooo, what're we gonna practice first? The hoof-race? Jump-rope? Pie-eating!?" To be fair, the last time she'd been anywhere near a Sisterhooves Social, she hadn't actually been able to participate, so she didn't remember the exact events, but she was pretty sure that those were in there somewhere. And Scootaloo was confident in the ability to win a hoof-race if nothing else. (Though she wasn't sure how happy her stomach was at the idea of pie-eating, even if she knew that also was one of the events...)

 

Come to think of it, did Rainbow know what the events were herself? The thought only just occurred to Scootaloo - she kind of just trusted she would know what to do up until this point. Well, they were about to find out on that front.

[SteelEagle]

What did they even do at a Sisterhooves Social? Rainbow Dash had watched it so it wasn't like she entered into this completely ignorant but she certainly didn't think too much about most of the activities. She had mostly been watching her friends run around and cheering them on when something seemed to go wrong, but was mostly running through flight methods, tricks, and routines in her head. Challenges- well, she was confident. The physical ones, c'mon, she didn't have to worry about those very much. If she was worried about anything it was embarrassing the rest of the sister teams so badly that they left dejected. Pie-eating? That didn't really go down all that well. Maybe they could test out their treat eating methods on cake, on cupcakes, or dirt. She'd rather eat some nice hard-packed dirt than pie. Still, she'd gobble down some in the name of competition. She'd gobble some down in the name of good, old-fashioned sisterhood. 

 

Didn't mean she wanted to train in that, though.
 

"Hmm, what to do," Rainbow said, rubbing her chin. Truth be told she hadn't given it a great deal of thought. Scootaloo had been so excited about this that Rainbow had kinda assumed she had a big list of things she wanted to try. If they were relying on Rainbow's memory of the event things would get trickier. Race training- well, maybe not now. Scootaloo may not have appeared as apprehensive as when Rainbow had started her approach but Rainbow knew better than most how failure could cascade. Best to start with something a little easy. And also something that Rainbow knew she couldn't take charge of and win immediately. "Y'know, I think we can win any race and I'm sure we can scarf down the pies faster than anypony else, even miss buck and her sister, little buck," Rainbow said playfully, pantomiming Applejack kicking while making crazy eyes. "But I think we both could use a bit of training on that egg thing they do. What was it- we each balance an egg on our noses? A spoon? I forget," Rainbow shrugged, "but lets do that. Think you're up for it?"

[Scootaloved]

 

It seemed that Rainbow Dash hadn't prepared a regime for the two of them in advance, either. Scootaloo was starting to get a little worried as Rainbow thought - they should've been more prepared for this, hadn't they? More like she should have, considering she was the one who presented the idea and Rainbow simply agreed to it, and Scootaloo began to fret a little that it might have been off-putting that Scootaloo was so ill-prepared. She relied on the adult to know what to do better than she herself, given that she had so little confidence in her ideas to begin with, but maybe she should've at least tried to present something to offer.

 

Thankfully, Rainbow once again dashed her fears by offering a suggestion of her own, saying that they could race fast enough and scarf down pies like the best of them... And mimicked Applejack in a way that did have Scootaloo giggling a little bit. And then Rainbow offered something to practice that Scootaloo hadn't even considered, and she was mentally kicking herself for it. Right... Of course! One of the events does have an egg balancing thing... Yeah, she remembered that event specifically now that Rainbow pointed it out, since she thought of the mental remark that it was kind of weird that none of the mud on Rarity's muzzle got on the egg when she was balancing it.

 

"It's the nose," Scootaloo corrected Rainbow, and her grin widened as her wings buzzed yet again, "and yeah! I'm totally up for it! I'll be the best egg...um, balancer?... there ever was!" In truth, Scootaloo was just bigging it up to make herself sound more impressive; she couldn't help it. She felt compelled to when she was around Rainbow, considering her technical big sis made literally everything sound cool, and she sought to emulate that as best as she could. "Sooooo... We need somethin' to actually balance for that, right?" Her head twitched about as she looked for something that could be a viable substitute for eggs; there weren't exactly any that they had on hoof, and even if they did, the things could crack easily enough and that would be a pain to deal with. And Rainbow only just thought of that now, it seemed like, so she doubted she had anything, either. Scootaloo's eyes lit up after a moment when her gaze roamed over something in the distance. "Maybe those rocks over there?" She pointed at a collection of them near the base of a tree with her hoof.

[SteelEagle]

Rainbow Dash knew for a fact that she wasn't always the most understandable when it came to her competitive streak in almost all things. She would race anypony over anything and would even eat ice cream sundaes if it meant winning something. But she knew, KNEW, that she had to slow that down a bit. It was annoying to others. The real problem was that it sometimes meant Rainbow Dash didn't enjoy the little things that went along with these things that made them honestly enjoyable. How many times had she made something a competition, won, enjoyed the thrill of victory, and later regretted? More times than she would honestly care to admit. She wanted to win the Sisterhooves Social bad- real bad, that was just part of her mental makeup- but she had to stop herself from making this too much about winning. She wasn't here for herself, not at all.

This was about Scootaloo. She so desperately wanted that sisterly connection and Rainbow was more than happy to oblige. Being an only child all her life it was kinda fun to have a little sister, especially one with the smarts and gumption of somepony like Scootaloo. But part of being a big sister was making sure that she didn't do something to lead Scootaloo down the wrong path. It was strange for Rainbow to have thoughts like this but as previously stated, she was protective of the filly. Rainbow knew that Scootaloo looked up to her a bit too much and that was bad, but she was sure that once Scootaloo had dared to excel, she'd be able to be the best Scootaloo she could be. She wanted to do well by her. Doing well by her meant two things. Yes, it meant that Rainbow wanted to win and hoist Scoots up in the air with a medal hanging delightfully on her neck.

It also meant she had to make sure she didn't become a jerk like Rainbow could be. “Right, right...oh, I got an idea!” She said, picking up two rocks from a tree nearby. She cleaned them off and hovered back to Scootaloo, handing her one of the rocks. “If you can balance a rock, you can balance an egg. Well...maybe, but it should work? I think?” She shrugged. “So, think you're ready? Take a deep breath, exhale. Do it a few times. Then we can get to it,” Rainbow said, doing so as to make Scootaloo comfortable. She then placed the rock on her nose and held it in place with her hoof.
“Okay, we go on three. One...two...three!” she said, releasing her hoof and getting to the going of balancing the rock.

[Scootaloved]

 

Looks like Rainbow picked up on her idea! Scootaloo watched as the cyan pegasus made her way over to the rocks and dusted them off of the dirt (personally, Scootaloo wouldn't mind if they were still dirty, but it was nice for Rainbow to think of that anyway) before handing her one of them, which Scootaloo held within her hoof. As Rainbow encouraged Scootaloo to take some deep breaths, the little filly did just that, inhaling and exhaling, and some of the heat built within her chest relaxed; it was a good thing, then, that'd she done it. Yeah, yeah, she could balance a rock like this, or an egg, no problem! And she'd prove that to Rainbow, that she didn't have to worry too much about her prowess as far as that was concerned. Scootaloo knew all about balance, after all; she took rides on a scooter, and it was common for her to use her athleticism to her advantage. While other little fillies may be lacking in that department, especially pegasi, Scootaloo's inability to fly had the side effect of allowing her to build up proper muscles and balance elsewhere.

 

With a determined nod in response to Rainbow once she'd managed to achieve something like zen within her brain, she held up the rock, keeping an eye on Rainbow as she too held up her rock. On the count of three, and Scootaloo tightened her legs in response to that count before finally, she heard three, and as a result, placed the rock upon her nose.

 

Its uneven shape proved to be the best practice for the egg balancing, as almost immediately Scootaloo found it was beginning to swerve off of her muzzle. So quickly had it moved, in fact, that Scootaloo yelped out in surprise, pushing her face forward to compensate for the way that it began to tilt in that direction. Unfortunately, Scootaloo wasn't exactly proving how impressive she could be with balance, as the rock kept moving to and fro, and Scootaloo herself as a result started to sway along with it with a few panicked noises in response to it in a desperate attempt to get it not to fall. And she hadn't even started to walk yet, which the egg balancing required!

 

Actually, what was far more impressive was the way that Scootaloo managed to contort her body in an attempt to keep the rock stable. Everything from bending over backwards to tottering on one hoof because the others weren't able to keep up, Scootaloo's balance over herself was greater than the object she attempted to carry. She kept her mouth very very shut, or as shut as she could, in an attempt to prevent as much movement as possible -

 

- but there was one slip in her attention, especially as she glanced over to see how Rainbow was doing, and the one hoof she'd been balancing on fell out from underneath her, making her crash right onto her bottom jaw. Aaaand as if to add insult to injury, right after Scootaloo let out a rather justified, "Owwww," the rock rolled right off of her nose and toppled onto the ground, which she watched as if it was in slow motion.

 

"... That looked so easy when I watched them do it," Scootaloo complained. And that was just a rock. How was she supposed to balance an egg!?

[SteelEagle]

 

 

And with as much ease as could be mustered, she commenced the task. Part of her thought it was all a bit too silly for a Wonderbolt. Other parts of her were already having fun, professionalism be damned. Rainbow Dash did her part easily enough. Balancing a rock wasn't very difficult for somepony who committed herself to high-g turns at ninety-degree angles at speeds approaching mach 6. A little rock wasn't going to really compete with that difficulty. It shifted and so did she in very smooth, subtle fashions. It started to move to the left, she moved to the left. The right, she moved right. It wasn't very hard for her. The only real problem she was having with the rock was ensuring that she didn't drop it on Scootaloo. She was sure it would be fine but that didn't mean she would take risks. All in all Rainbow was doing just fine. All was right in the athlete's world. She had very strong neck muscles. Always looking around and having to make snap decisions at such high speeds meant you couldn't afford to take your time turning your neck.

It also helped her keep aware of how Scootaloo was doing. The young mare-slash-older-filly wasn't a slouch when it came to athleticism either. While she lacked Apple Bloom's strength or physical regimen, all those stunts and time spent on her scooter meant she had some rather impressive body control. She was contorting around to keep it going. Of course the more you contorted the more slight muscle contractions could cause accidental movements which required more action on your part. Vicious cycle without end. Eventually, it got a little much for Scootaloo and she fell, followed by the rock. It wasn't a bad first try though. This was weird little event anyway. Conquering it the first go-around would have said more about the event than it would say about them. Still, if she knew her best little fan a third as well as she thought she did, Rainbow was sure a bit of doubt would creep in. And heroes never let the doubt creep in for those who followed.

“Oops-” Rainbow said as the rock slid off of her nost and knocked against her hoof, skipping a few paces away. She laughed, “well, nopony's perfect the first time! That's why we're training, right?” She asked rhetorically as she trotted over to pick her rock up. “I think the Apples probably have lots of free time to balance eggs and come up with new and weird countryisms. I wouldn't worry about them. We'll be the best egg-balancing team ever, just you wait and see,” she said as she picked hers up and went back in front of Scoots. This time Rainbow sat down so she wasn't much taller than her. She had seen when Scootaloo had fallen that it was because she had been looking up. Now she could look across at a happy, smiling, determined face and not have to break for it.
 

“Okay, we're off to a really good start. This time, I want you to start the countdown, okay?” Rainbow said as she assumed the position, rock, hoof, and nose in their proper positions.

[Scootaloved]

 

Well, it'd speak poorly of Scootaloo's endurance if she gave up after just one little failure, right? She was annoyed, sure - but it was fine. It was all fine. Still, that didn't mean that it didn't help at all when Rainbow took it so casually and easily, making Scootaloo's shoulders relaxed... While she certainly addressed some of her fear with her hero before on that camping trip, it didn't mean that it didn't still linger to some degree. Rainbow already accepted to be her big sister figure, but Scootaloo didn't want to give her reason to regret that decision.

 

She would be too young to know that Rainbow put in those little teasing comments about countryisms for the sake of prompting a giggle out of Scootaloo, but that certainly didn't prevent such methods from succeeding. And some of the brief anxiety that flared up from the failure was clamped down entirely as Scootaloo managed to stand up again, her smile a bit more convincing than it had been earlier. The sense of ease that Rainbow was attempting to instill in Scootaloo was certainly getting there, now. "Okay! Yeah. Yeah. I got this," and maybe it sounded a bit like bravado, but the determined look in her eyes was no farce; she wanted to master this and kick tail with it. And with Rainbow by her side, surely she could succeed at that! Why she thought that one little slip-up was going to bring the whole party down, she had no idea. As Rainbow said, it was practice. The point was to work to get good at it!

 

With a nod and probably the best serious game face that she could manage (which looked goofy and comically exaggerated on her youthful face, unbeknownst to her), she got to work with picking up the rock again as Rainbow instructed. This time, she told her that she would do the count. "On go, then! Three...two...one..."

 

And there she went, putting the rock again on her nose, this time her little wings buzzing in her enthusiasm to master this particular trick. "Go!"

 

Something like a concentrated pout overtook her face, and she was practically making herself...a little cross-eyed, watching the rock upon her nose and keeping it in place, a Very Serious Business Frown marking this concentration.

[SteelEagle]

 

 

Rainbow Dash took a few deep breaths, repeating the exercise from before. It was no real problem for her once again. She moved smoothly with it, knowing full well that this balancing act was unequal in some way. This was bigger and had a more random shape meaning that not everything would translate perfectly to an egg. Then again since it could be considered harder if they could get this down then they should be able to get an egg easily enough. She was just hoping to see Scootaloo succeed. Rainbow wanted to win this like she won everything else, but Scootaloo was the type of pony who by Celestia deserved some wins in her life. She counted down and seemed to have far fewer problems this go around. Only ever made sense, after all. She was a sister-by-choice of Rainbow Dash and what, was a little rock supposed to give her trouble? Pssh. Of course not. She was Scootaloo and she as going to beat this thing.

She had a very determined look on her face as she went about it. From Rainbow's point of view she seemed to move a lot better. Maybe having Rainbow down at eye level allowed that to happen easier. She'd subscribe to that newsletter any day of the week. Still, this was supposed to be fun so Rainbow kept a silent and easy-going smile on her face as they spent some time balancing some rocks on noses. After what seemed like long enough, Rainbow decided it was time to start phase two of this whole egg-nose-balancing thing. Eyes looking forward to Scootaloo she started to speak. “Okay, we're really good at the whole balancing thing when we're still, but I think they move it to a basket or something. There is a tree to our right, about...twenty paces?” Rainbow said, not sure if it was accurate, She was used to air-based measurements which wouldn't have made sense to Scoots and she didn't want her to get caught up on that.

“On the count of three, we get up and make our way there and we'll dump the rocks at the base of the tee like its a basket. You can follow me. Are you ready?” She waited for the response. Then she audibly took a deep, big breath. “Okay. One...two...three,” she said, standing up from her sitting position and starting to slowly walk towards the tree, making sure to do it in such a manner as to ensure that Scootaloo could keep Dash in sight and not lose her way- metaphorically and otherwise.

[Scootaloved]

 

Scootaloo was definitely growing accustomed to the rock upon her nose this time. Just as she thought she had it down to pat, Rainbow interrupted her concentration once again, though this time for a very clear and specific purpose. Rainbow wasn't exactly shouting from the rooftops about how awesome Scootaloo was, but that was fine - she wasn't expecting that kind of praise (even if a part of her craved it), especially for something as trivial as balancing a rock on her nose. And as Rainbow said, the two of them were going to have to carry the eggs by a distance, which meant that really, balancing it on her nose at a standstill was the baseline. Scootaloo withheld the urge to nod emphatically in response, just barely managing to remind herself that she still had the rock upon her nose and if she moved too much, it was going to fall again, and instead allowed her throat to hum out an, "mhhmmm!" With that, she took her eyes slightly off the rock in order to watch Rainbow Dash, and...

 

She watched the way that the older pegasus balanced it as she walked, hoofsteps slow. Scootaloo was pretty sure that for Rainbow this was about as difficult as sleeping and she'd likely be able to move much faster if she tried without any threat of dropping the rock, so no doubt it was for her sake. Maybe if Scootaloo was in a worse place and it was any other pony she would have been insulted at the insinuation that she couldn't handle it, that Rainbow felt she had to curb herself in order to allow Scootaloo to keep up pace... But this was Rainbow Dash, her unbridled hero, and Scootaloo was actually in a pretty good mood, given the already rather dramatic improvement between the two balancing attempts. If anything, she appreciated that she was going easy and keeping her in sight. Scootaloo wasn't sure what she was going to do if Rainbow moved too far ahead of her, especially since she just had to trust Rainbow's word on it that the tree was actually there.

 

With that, Scootaloo took a few tentative steps forward with the rock still balanced on her nose. It wavered a little bit, which caused her to stop in order to attempt to bring it back to the center, but thankfully, she knew a thing or two about balance; had to, when she was an athlete who used her scooter, and had a sense of rhythm that came from naturally being talented at dancing. As the rock was centered again, Scootaloo took a few more steps. Stop, then a few more. Stop, then a few more. This cycle repeated as she used the cyan of Rainbow's flank to keep an eye out for where she was going.

 

This time, it wasn't the rock that tripped her up, but her line of sight. Since she was taking a slightly different path from Rainbow Dash, she didn't notice the slight drop in the ground as it was a little uneven in the field. The step managed to throw her off balance, and while she might have been able to fix it, she realized belatedly that saying, "Whoa," in response to that had not been a good idea. As a result of the movement of her muzzle, the rock toppled over. Thankfully, Scootaloo herself hadn't this time, just a mild stagger, so it wasn't as painful. It was, however, equally as embarrassing, and had her looking down at the rock as it dropped with a slightly frustrated furrow of the brow. "Aw, man! I could'a had that one, too!"

[SteelEagle]

Rainbow Dash might have been frustrated in her earlier years by Scootaloo's issues. It wasn't a very hard task and it was being made hard by her...well, wanting it too hard. Rainbow knew all about that. Everything she had gotten good at in life she had gotten good at because she hit her head against a wall until the wall had rolled its eyes and made way for her. Being hard-headed was a trait that annoyed her in others even though she had it herself- a paragon of anti-hypocrisy, she was not. Plus her constant resetting of their progress. Nothing hurt a competitive spirit like being pulled back to the starting blocks multiple times. Yeah, her younger self would be getting pretty ticked off right about now.

Luckily, she wasn't her younger self. Patience had been the one virtue she had learned in spades over the years. Hard-work and dedication? Ambition and sacrifice? She knew these things well. Always had! But all it had gotten he were dreams and a nice job, far removed from her true desires. Only when she had learned patience had she come to understand how it all came together. Success didn't demand any one of those elements. It demanded all of them, sometimes in unequal measure. For now patience would be needed. Patience and some teaching. She had learned how to do that- as a teacher, to boot. Hopefully she could get Scootaloo to see beyond the cyan flank in her face even if was helping her for now.

“That was still pretty good, squirt. Don't get so hung up on not getting something right the first time,” Rainbow said, dropping her rock to the ground. She then picked Scootaloo up and sat her on her back. “Come on. Let's get a bite to eat. Working hard I one thing but I hate working on an empty stomach and I'm really, really hungry right about now,” she said, the half-truth working well enough for now. She wasn't all that hungry but maybe relaxing for a bit with Scootaloo would calm her nerves. That was most of the problem she was finding so far. If Scootaloo could just calm down a little and relax, she'd have lots more fun. And they'd be more successful. That'd make for a much better day. “Whatcha have in mind for something to eat?” Rainbow asked as she started trotting into town, her nose picking up a whole assortment of delicious smells. The options were almost as endless as Ponyville was comforting.

[Scootaloved]

 

It was a good call on Rainbow Dash's part, not that Scootaloo would know about it. She'd been about to deliberate on the mistake she'd made - a pretty feather-brained mistake, at that - when the older pegasus interrupted her thoughts to tell her not to get hung up on something she didn't get the first time around. Scootaloo'd opened her mouth in order to say something in response to that, but before the words could leave her Rainbow Dash scooped her up, which caught Scootaloo off guard (enough to earn her sister-figure a squeak in response, and Scootaloo's face was still hot with embarrassment by the time she'd been perched from that little show of 'coolness') and placed her on her back. Scootaloo scrambled a little to get settled between Rainbow Dash's wings, fighting off the urge to hug her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's neck in order to keep her grip, before settling down with a sigh. So preoccupied had she been by trying to make a position on Rainbow Dash's back that she nearly missed what her sister-figure said to her.

 

"Wha - Oh... Well, okay!" It was difficult to argue with that logic. Working on an empty stomach being a bad idea? She could get that. Scootaloo personally didn't allow herself to gripe too much when she was hungry, though, so she didn't join in Rainbow Dash's own complaint, although she bought it. She didn't give it much thought, expecting Rainbow Dash to tour it herself, instead focused entirely on how comfortable this perch was... And how higher up it was in the air. For somepony so grounded, being lifted off it, even a little, always brought a sense of warmth to her chest, and the little filly was gradually growing more and more relaxed. It helped that the perch she had was a stable, warm body of its own, one she could guarantee would catch her when she fell.

 

She might have sank more into appreciating it if Rainbow Dash hadn't asked her a question, a question that started Scootaloo a little bit since she hadn't expected to be asked. "What I have in mind? We-ell, ummm..." Scootaloo was clearly not used to this sister thing if everything Rainbow Dash asked felt like a pop quiz whose wrong answer would determine her worthiness of presence! Scootaloo mentally kicked herself for freaking out so much about this, and then afterward for blanking out and being unable to come up with an answer, which just led to her beating herself up more than actually come up with something tangible. She tapped her own head with a hoof, which she regretted as her weight shifted and she drew the hoof back into Rainbow Dash's back, digging it in a little unintentionally in an attempt to stay on. "Maybe just a sandwich with hay fries? But, uh, I'm not-" That hungry, but wait, would saying such a thing offend Rainbow Dash? She frowned, then tried again, "I'm good with anything, really!" Yeah, that worked.

[SteelEagle]

Rainbow Dash was happy to have little complaint from Scootaloo. Every competitive pony, or pony who wanted to believe they were competitive, chafed under the stigma of running from a failure. Everypony wanted, everypony needed, to come back and win one when they happened. Or that’s what they thought, at least. Rainbow once did. But sometimes you needed to pull back and regroup, collect yourself, and let the failure boil back down below the tumultuous waters.  Scootaloo didn’t seem super enthused by it but then again Rainbow Dash knew that her reputation preceded her, magnified even moreso by the filly’s idolization of her. The idea that she’d want to stop and get a bite to eat, even reasoned as it was, would be tough to swallow for somepony who thought of her as a one-stop shop for all things competitive. Nonetheless it was for the best and she was happy to lead Scootaloo into town in search of something to stuff into the gut.

Scoots didn’t have any real idea. Well, that was okay. Rainbow Dash had a few ideas of her own. “Could always sit down for some hay fries. Those always fill me up! But then I don’t feel like doing much work afterwards, so maybe not.  Some salad could be nice but…I dunno, that feels almost too light. What to do, what to do…” she said openly, her mind settling on what she wanted but not saying it for now. She knew Ponyville well and she trotted quickly through it. She could have flown, but she didn’t think it would be fair to Scoots to do so casually. She may have loved it in the moment but there was always that time later when she would look down and realize what it was she was incapable of. Perfect for an event or when Rainbow wanted her to experience something special. Not so much casually.

Quickly her trotting brought her in front of a small, but exciting looking shop. She had first tried it on Rarity’s recommendation, then on Pinkie Pie’s. She knew it had to be good because they almost never agreed on foods!  It had apparently first started up in Canterlot and broke out some unique flavors. Owned by a daughter and father, the daughter decided to open up a shop in Ponyville. And here it was, new and delicious and mouth watering all the same. It was the Tasty Treat run by Saffron Masala and Rainbow could hardly contain her excitement. The food was light but bursting with flavor, leaving her feeling full but not bloated. It was spicy and hot, comforting and fun, and she was sure that Scootaloo would love it too. Well, she hoped. Because if she didn’t then Rainbow would feel awful as she ate up a bowl of some high quality rasam.

“Oh, how about this: Some nice soups! Delicious, filling, doesn’t make you feel bloated. And this place is super awesome. Whatcha think? Wanna try it?” Rainbow offered excitedly, as she started to trot in. Nawww she wasn’t forcing the answer to be positive. Just…encouraging it by moving directly inside.