Scootaloo

“See ya, Sweetie Belle... Stay in contact, o-ok?” an orange filly sobbed.

At the same time, a cyan mare was doing exactly the same thing.

“See ya, Rarity... Stay in contact, ok?”

“Of course I will,” they both replied, “how could I not stay in contact with my best friend?”

“I'm your best friend?” the former duo asked, elated.

“Of course, and you will always be so!”

“Goodbye, Scootaloo! See you soon!”

“Goodbye, Rainbow Dash. Do visit Saddle Arabia when you can.”

Both pegasi waved after their friend. Rainbow Dash trotted over to her young protégée, draping a wing over her back. With tears in her eyes, Scootaloo looked ahead to her retreating friend and fellow Cutie Mark Crusader, sure that she would never see her again. It had been but three weeks since the orange pegasus had lost her best friend Apple Bloom to arson, and now she had lost another to the press. As she wept, the wing across her body curled and wiped her eyes.

“It's alright, Scoots, it's alright. Listen, I managed to get tickets to the Wonderbolts Show in Canterlot. I was gonna go with Fluttershy, but you can come if you like,” the wing's owner stated. Scootaloo looked up at her idol with glee in her eyes.

“Really? I can go to Canterlot with you?” she asked.

“Of course you can! You're like the sister I never had, Scoots. Remember that, ok?”

“I'll... I'll always remember that, Rainbow Dash... Thankyou...” Scootaloo replied, smiling.

The stage was set. The pegasi seating area, coincidentally made of clouds, had been crafted, set, and prepared. This floating embassy happened to be above the earth-and-unicorn pony seating, and the pegasi had the best view in-house.

This, of course, was the point.

The Wonderbolts! Scootaloo thought happily. The fastest fliers in all Equestria! … Apart from Rainbow Dash, of course, she added. The introductions of the troupe had been carried out, and, again, the stage was set. What for, however, nopony was expecting.

“Hello, everypony, and welcome to the Canterlot Wonderbolts Flying Show!” a firey-maned pegasus mare spoke into an enchanted megaphone. Her voice seemed to radiate from her muzzle, permeating every crevice, every nook, and every cranny. The crowd cheered, enthralled by Spitfire von Redwings, the lead Wonderbolt. “Before we begin out show, we are pleased to welcome the combined musical talent of Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch – DJ-0CT-3!!!”

As the aforementioned mares took centre stage, Scootaloo noticed something off about Spitfire's wingpony, Soaring Feathers. Perhaps the way Soarin' shifted his eyes to a random point in the crowd, almost imperceptibly nodded, and immediately drew his attention back to the proceedings. Or maybe the way that his face, clear as crystal to the filly's young eyes, sharply contorted into a look of disdain, mixed with worry and fear when meeting her eyes. Or, quite possibly, the fact that directly after Scootaloo detected all of these things, a sharp pain between her wings knocked her unconscious.

“Scootaloo? Scoots?! Speak to me, sis, say something!” Rainbow Dash called out.

And then, time stopped.

“She'll come to within the week. Get yourself to a safe place, away from the castle. I only ask that you stay in Canterlot, and keep your head down,” a voice echoed, seemingly from all directions at once.

“Who are you? What have you done to everypony?” the mare replied, frightened.

“Who I am is unimportant. And in answer to your question, I have temporarily elevated you from the time-space continuum. In other words, you are outside of time, and therefore cannot affect anything around you. For example, if you were to, oh, I don't know, change Spitfire's trajectory slightly?”

As Rainbow Dash began to do so, she asked, “What would happen? Something awesome?”

“No. The answer is,” the voice started as Rainbow answered her own question, “that you can't. As I just said, you are outside of space-time. You have simply, from the universe's point of view, just stopped existing. Thankfully, the universe doesn't care.”

“Now then, I shall move you and your self-proclaimed sister to a safe place. Before you ask, yes I can do that. Off you trot!”

“-ootaloo, wake up!”

Ugh, my head...

“Rainbow, stop shouting. My head feels like I just ate all the confectionary in Sugarcube Corner, and I really do not need that right now. 'Kay?” Scootaloo groaned.

“Oh, thank Starlight you're alright! You've been out for four days, and when I saw you coming to, I had to make sure you were... Oh, buck it,” Dash said, fiercely seizing her and pulling the filly into a bone-crushing hug.

“Rain... bow... crush... ing... can't... breathe...”

At this, the cyan mare released her sister and began rapidly filling her in on the events of the previous four days. She described how, immediately after Scootaloo had been knocked out, Soarin' had sucker-punched Spitfire out of the sky; How the crowd had gone completely ballistic at this; And most importantly, the dissolution of the celestial triarchy. She explained that she was now the head of the Starlight Rebellion, making the filly recall Rainbow's remark when she had awoken. When asked, Dash simply smirked and said that it sounded cooler than Twilight – 'no offence to Her Royal Highness'.

“So, what you're basically saying is that Celestia and Luna are actually evil bitches, our damned local librarian is our last hope, and you're the orchestrator of the resistance.”

“Yep.”

“For buck's sake, Rainbow. For buck's sake.”