Lightning Strikes

The day was over and Scootaloo sighed. The sunset matched her coat and the clouds matched her hair. She sighed and looked at the clouds. Scootaloo just learned to fly and was ready to show off! But how? She already showed her parents and peers. Every pony who cared about her was ecstatic. That is except the one pony she wanted the attention from most; Rainbow Dash.

The Wonderbolts Academy had called back all the successful trainees months ago (her idol included) and it wouldn’t be another week until they could come home. Even then, Scootaloo knew Rainbow wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Pinkie Pie’s most recently received letter had told her that the Wonderbolts needed her. The academy was so impressed by her physical performance and synergy based attitude, she was assigned a secret mission! She was finally becoming the Wonderbolt she had always dreamed about.

And Scootaloo…

Scootaloo looked up. She focused on a low hanging cloud. She was just a beginning flyer and could not fly for very long. With a running start and large leap, she beat her wings down, kept her body flat, and glared at the sky as though daring it to drop her. It took a long time, but the little pegasus figured out what was wrong.

Before, Scootaloo thought jumping off high places and buzzing like a hummingbird or dragonfly would be her key to success. It took careful study of other pegasi and a few books (she probably won’t admit to) from Twilight to earn her place in the sky. Buzzing like an idiot worked as well as standing on a box fan and expecting it to carry you. She needed to work out her abdomen and prepare her body to stay flat all throughout flight. In her previous attempts, she hardly moved herself at all and concentrated too much mass in one place; like how a crumpled piece of paper will fall faster than a regular one. Even finding those things out didn’t get her in the sky.

Twilight was kind enough to share some of her flight knowledge with Scootaloo. The princess explained that when she beat her wings to fly, she could feel magic flowing into them. Twilight was even nice enough to teach Scootaloo to meditate and focus her magic into her muscles. Scootaloo never took so much into account at all. She completely relied on the idea that flapping her little wings should get her airborne. Flying was much more effort than that! There was form, even paced beats, allowing energy to move, and lots of practice and failures. How do the adults make it look so easy?

Scootaloo focused herself to be calm. She always tried to convince herself she was a professional and flying was no big deal…when in fact it was a huge deal. But getting too excited made her become stressful. Stress leads to lack of focus. Lack of focus allows bad habits to come back. Bad habits include getting back in upright position, buzzing wings, and constriction of magic flow. The pegasus tripped in the air but recovered quickly. No big deal, no big deal she chanted mentally. The second her hooves touched the cloud, her excitement ate her concentration. She gripped the cloud as hard as she could and pulled herself up. Landing still needed work.

Scootaloo gazed at the sunset and sighed. She wondered what Rainbow Dash was doing and what she would think when she saw her fly. Scootaloo giggled to herself. Rainbow would be so psyched! She would teach her flying stunts, how to land right, the Sonic Rainboom! It was all Scootaloo ever dreamed about; having a sister in Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo didn’t have any real siblings. Her father worked all day and her mother worked all night. Scootaloo would usually be at home right now to kiss her father goodnight and her mother good bye, but neither was home. They said it was a ‘Mommy-Daddy Vacation’ just for the week. They explained that they needed to relax after work and get away from life’s stresses. It was hinted not-so-subtly raising a foal was stressful. Scootaloo promised to be on her best behavior and they left. It wasn’t their fault; life is just a stressful thing.

White clouds oranged as the sun set further and further down. Scootaloo yawned. The moon began to peek from the east horizon when something caught her eye. She followed the yellow streak and the connection was clear; a shooting star! She loved shooting stars! Her mother told her that shooting stars were pegasi flying out of the heavens to help those in need. Scootaloo bowed her head and shut her eyes.

“Star light, star bright,

The shooting star I see tonight

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have this wish I wish tonight”

The orange filly still remembered when her mother taught her that poem. Admittedly, she grew out of it a while ago, but she was feeling pretty down anyway. No harm in wishing.

That day was an awful day. She sniffled a bit and continued on. Not even a year ago, her chances of becoming a Wonderbolt were pulled right from under her by her friend! Just because they disagreed on a few details shouldn’t give any pony the right to…to ruin another friend’s life! To slaughter her reason to live!

Ever since she was a tiny filly, she wanted to fly. She would flap her premature wings like a bumblebee until they became sore. When she finally reached the sky, she hit the clouds flapping. Like her mother and father, flying was in her blood. The sky was her nature and no one could tame her. As she grew older, she was already the fastest and strongest flyer in the class. That’s when flying hit a wall.

It was boring.

Flying was boring. It was mundane and uninteresting. In fact, she could still remember walking to school just because it was more entertaining than flying. Stepping on rocks, kicking trees, and pulling a rope was more invigorating than flying, picking fruit by air, or putting the flag at the very top of the pole just because you could. Even after a whole year of being self grounded, when challenged, she’d still win by a landslide Every. Single. Time. The sky was a dumb domain…until she saw the greatest thing she could ever have imagined.

Seeing their daughter so distraught and indifferent about their personal passion, her parents took her to a Wonderbolt game. Her life was changed from that point on. Everything was changed. Her life was flying again. Her heart was in her wings. Her soul went past the clouds. And her body craved it. If she wasn't practicing, resting, or performing, she wasn't alive.

Her cutie mark appeared after performing her first trick. It was an intense obstacle course using the playground equipment. Left, right, up, down, touch the fence then somersault and twist, then do it again. Every colt and filly was jealous. In fact, she was the first to get her cutie mark.

It appeared on the trick’s grand finale. She climbed up the sky as though the sun’s rays were a ladder until no student on the ground could see her past that blinding celestial body. Then she dived. With less and less altitude, she pushed that fire in her soul to burn brighter than that sun. The idea was to make it look like a little piece of the sun was following her; and it worked. Lightning patterned streaks whizzed off her body as she came closer to the ground. At the last second, she opened her wings like a parachute. She dragged across the ground with her hooves kicking dust around her. Every child and teacher looked on in awe. She stood brilliantly in the clearing dust. So happy and proud, some pony had to tell her she got her cutie mark. Since then she was determined to become a Wonderbolt so all of Equestria could see her perform and be a licensed professional flyer. She was born for greatness and her cutie mark sealed the deal.

Lightning Dust cried. She was flying back to the academy to beg them to let her try again. Gliding low, Lightning Dust folded her wings and let herself face plant into the earth. What was the point? The academy was still thirty-five miles away and the night had fallen. They probably wouldn't accept her anyway. She wiped her eyes to see, but didn’t realized her blonde streaked mane caught the eye of an orange pegasus filly.