Prologue: These Strange New Wings
Five years ago
It was getting deep into the afternoon, just before the moment where the streaks of light of the sun were overcome by the blue hues of the night. The moment when the final breaths of Celestia’s sun begun to sink behind the Canterlot Castle perched high on the mountain, overlooking the town of Ponyville. The moment when Scootaloo decided it was time for her first flight.
The moment when nurse Redheart wouldn’t see Scootaloo testing her new wings before she should.
She didn’t fly alone. Beside her, Rainbow Dash lazily glided through the air, her hooves barely missing the tops of pony’s manes below. Despite her unnatural slow flight through the air, she showed no anger from it as she often shouted words of encouragement to Scootaloo.
“You got it, kid!” she encouraged, flapping her wings to allow herself some more height, her tail dragging behind herself as she slowly glided. “Now, how about landing?”
Scootaloo took a moment to answer, her breaths coming out in large gulps. Her face held the mask most other pegasi had at their first flight: utter terror that they would fall, combined with the strong breaths from the new exhaustion coming from their wings as they carried their small body through the air.
“Well then, Scoots?” Dash asked, an encouraging grin spreading along her face. “Whaddya say?”
Clearing her throat, Scootaloo flapped up to the other pegasus’ height, her wings flapping disjointedly at first. Getting into a steady rhythm, she looked at the rainbow pegasus and gave a firm nod of her head.
Rainbow Dash launched herself, uncoiling from an invisible launch pad, sailing upward to a small tuft of cloud not too far away. Rolling to the side, she swiftly arced over the white cloud, before landing on her four hooves and looking back to Scootaloo.
Nearing the cloud, Scootaloo took a gulp, before copying the movement Dash had just performed in front of her. Giving a small grunt, she furiously flapped her wings, tilting her body on the angle that Dash had spoken to her about, holding her top half upright. Squeezing her eyes shut, she focused on the muscles along her back near her wings, thrusting forward and backwards in quick successions.
Opening her eyes once more, she found herself flying higher from the ground, staring down onto the backs of the ponies beneath herself. A shudder passed through her wings as they suddenly overtook a feeling of rubber, the ground stretching on for what seemed like forever.
As soon as the vertigo appeared, it quickly wiped itself from her memory as she looked back up to Dash. Staring intently at the cloud, she furrowed her brow as she approached it. When was she supposed to put her legs out? What about her wings?
Guessing what to do next, she hovered up beside the clouds edge before snapping her wings shut. Placing her hooves back down, she suddenly realized her wings were supposed to be still out as she quickly thrust them out.
The orange pegasus crumpled into the ground in the crash landing. She made no sound as her small body slid across the puff of cloud without any movement, slowing to a stop in the clouds middle.
“Scootaloo!” Dash yelled as she galloped to Scootaloo’s side. Gingerly, she stretched out an orange wing, before it shuffled itself away, nestling close to Scootaloo’s back. Sitting back up, Scootaloo faced Dash, her smile spread from ear to ear.
“That…” she managed to breathe, her heart racing from the excitement. “Was so…cool!” Dash let out a sigh, her worried expression washing off instantly, before she took a side glance at the filly’s wing.
“Is your…?” she began, her face changing as she tried to say the word Redheart had told her the day before. “Are your wings okay? Even after your hospital visit?”
“Oh, those…” Scootaloo muttered, slowly stretching out a wing before herself before running a hoof along the top bone. A thin shadow was cast where the joint of the prosthesis began, the small plastic tubing which bolted itself onto the crook of her wing.
“Yeah, they’re fine,” she reassured Dash, “just sore from the surgery.”
A split second of the hospital room broke into her thoughts. The clean smell of antiseptic, the reassuring wing covering her side as Dash took her in as the foal’s guardian, the plastic as it pushed firmly down onto her nose, lulling her to the long depth of sleep…
“Shame Twi couldn’t fix it, huh?” Dash mused. “Turns out there are some things magic can’t fix.”
A few seconds passed as Scootaloo found herself back in the hospital room before her surgery. The doctor explaining how her bones were simply too small and frail to lift her body from the ground. Back then, the implant seemed jagged and horrifying to the pegasus, though as she looked down to the lump where the bolt stuck out, it didn't seem so frightening, just another part of her skeletal frame.
Looking back up, Scootaloo watched the sun slowly let itself be swallowed by Canterlot Castle. The fine light formed by the bright object slowly shaded to a final shadow, before disappearing from view.
“We should go,” Scootaloo began. “Before Redheart finds out.”
Getting up from the puff of the cloud’s surface, she wandered over to the high ledge. The strong sense of vertigo passed through her mind once more, the ground seeming much further than it actually was. All kinds of scenarios passed with the dizziness. If she were to suddenly fall…
Looking back from the edge, Scootaloo looked back to Dash, who was still cemented in spot as she gaped up to Scootaloo. Confused, the orange pegasus traced the path of where Dash’s eyes were looking at, before her heart stopped dead in her chest as she gaped at her flank.
“Is that my…?” she began, though didn't want to finish the sentence, afraid it would cause her to wake from a dream like it had so many other times. Frantic, she rubbed the new addition, before letting go of a small squeak as it remained on her flank after she pulled her hoof away.
Her own Cutie Mark.
It was different to how she’d expected it; a wheel, closely resembling one from her scooter, with two white and one yellow feather pointing outwards behind it. However, she found a small sense of regret slowly weighing down on her slowed heart. Surely, it wasn't a girly one, which she was glad about, but it wasn't a cool one, either. Squealing, she ran to Dash and wrapped her hooves around her in a tight hug.
Quickly coming to her senses, she pushed herself away from the dazed blue pegasus, stammering an apology. A small chuckle came from Dash as she pulled Scootaloo close to herself and playfully rubbed a hoof along her head.
“I knew you could do it, kid!” she exclaimed, before quickly letting go. The small grin on Scootaloo’s face fell as she turned back to Dash, being met with a serious expression on her face.
“There’s this thing I've been meaning to do, but I was waiting until another pegasus went with me,” Dash began as she held out her hoof in offer, Scootaloo leaning closer as she hung onto each word she said. “I mean, Fluttershy’s not up for it, and Twilight’s too bust with her royal duties, but now that I’ve got you, and your new wings, I’ve got an offer for you.”
“Uh-huh,” Scootaloo nodded, holding out her hoof before hearing the rest of the offer. Dash’s shoulders tensed into a straight line as she quickly asked the question in a rush.
“Do you want to go to Spitfire’s Wonderbolt academy with me?” she asked, the sentence almost coming out as a complete word, each word forming onto the next. In an instant, Scootaloo placed her hoof down onto Dash’s.
“Yesyesyes!” she quickly answered, bouncing on the cloud as she shrieked the answer. “Of course I would!”
The excitement faded quickly as she looked back to Dash, who was slowly trailing a hoof along the cloud edge, mirroring none of Scootaloo’s excitement. “There’s uh, one more thing about it…” she continued, looking away from Scootaloo.
“You can’t come back.”
“’Can’t come back’?” Scootaloo echoed in a question. “What, here? Not come back to Ponyville? But why?”
“It’s a part of the work load,” Dash comforted. “But, once you come back, you can boast about it, you can pick up where you left off later on. You can only become a trainee once, but you can have your friends forever.”
Looking down to a coil of the cloud, Scootaloo studied the ground beneath herself. Slowly, as Luna’s moon began to crawl behind her, the cold setting in under her skin, she thought over the idea of the academy. Tugging at a few strands of her tail, Scootaloo stared down at the ground before herself as she mulled over the idea. Clearing her throat, she blinked as she looked back up to Rainbow Dash.
“I’ll do it,” she answered clearly. “I’ll become a trainee.”
Arriving at Sugarcube corner the following morning, Scootaloo found herself overcome with the strong scent of sugar assaulting her nostrils. Her new wings were lightly tucked away, the muscles throbbing from the late night practicing in the eyes of Luna’s moon well into the night.
Nosing the door open, both her and Dash walked into the room, Scootaloo letting out a small shriek as Pinkie Pie jumped into her vision. Like usual, her blue eyes were shining as she bounced around them, before pulling them close into a tight grip of a hug.
“I got every pony together, just like you wanted, Dashie!” she exclaimed excitedly, before bouncing through a doorway, releasing them from the constricted hold. Scootaloo gave a confused look to Dash, before both she and Dash shrugged before they followed Pinkie Pie into the room.
A smile crawled along her face as Scootaloo recognized the ponies seated around the rounded table. Along with Pinkie Pie, the other four Elements of Harmony were eagerly awaiting their presence, as well as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, who both had the red Cutie Mark Crusaders capes tied around their necks.
On the rounded table was a square cake, swirled writing on top, along with a small stack of napkins sitting alongside it. Streamers and balloons were strung up in the corners, glitter sticking to the floor as it glistened in the light, as well as the odd inflated balloon resting on the floor.
“Y’know, you didn’t have to do all this,” Dash began. “We just wanted to say goodbye and get going, registration closes at ten.” The wide smile never faded on the pink pony’s face as she heard the news.
“What?” Pinkie Pie asked, feigning a look of sadness. “No party for a leaving friend? Who can say no to cake?”
“We can stay for a few minutes,” Scootaloo answered, trotting over and standing beside the table next to Sweetie Belle. “I have to talk to these guys before I go.”
Opening her mouth to object, Dash gave a small huff as she sat down, joining the group. Bouncing in excitement, Pinkie Pie jumped down beside Dash, who began showing signs of neglect, giving a small pout to Pinkie Pie before starting conversation with the other five Elements of Harmony.
Listening to snatches of the conversation, Scootaloo found herself left out as she was soon lost about what they were talking about. By the sounds of Dash mentioning the training schedules and how they’d sorted it all out, she decided to let Dash inform the adult ponies about the Wonderbolt academy.
Glancing to Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo found the unicorn leaning over her side, a hoof hovering over one of the new wings like a snake to its prey. Looking back up, Sweetie Belle pulled the hoof away, running it down her foreleg as she acted like nothing happened.
“Does it hurt?” Sweetie Belle asked, placing her hoof down to the floor. Before answering, Scootaloo looked to Applebloom, before finding her mirroring the same as Sweetie Belle, taking in the details of her larger wings.
“Nah,” Scootaloo shrugged, before flinging open her tense wings, unfurling them quickly like a spring. Quickly, the two Cutie Mark Crusaders ducked out of their way, the feathers lightly grazing over the tops of their manes.
“Sorry,” Scootaloo whispered, tucking the wings back away. The apology went unheard as Sweetie Belle lightly ran a hoof along the orange feathers, stopping at the small bulge left by the plastic pins under her skin.
“This is great, Scootaloo!” she gasped. “You don’t have to be grounded anymore! You can finally--”
“—you have a cutie mark!” Applebloom cut in, pushing aside the long feathers as she lifted a wing. Prodding her yellow hoof along the orange flank, Applebloom’s smile faded as she looked down to the floor.
“You can’t crusade for it anymore…” she discovered, “You can’t be a crusader…”
“Course I can!” Scootaloo answered after the statement floated in the air for a few seconds. “I might not be able to crusade for it anymore, but I can help you guys!”
“Really?” Applebloom asked, her ponderous golden eyes looking deeply to Scootaloo. Giving a firm nod of her head, Scootaloo gave a playful knock on Applebloom’s side.
“You didn't think I was abandoning you guys, did you?” she asked. “What would you do without me?”
“So,” Sweetie Belle began, changing the subject. “You’re going to the academy?”
Scootaloo felt a small jump of her heart at the topic, as though it was the first time she heard the subject. “Yeah…” she mumbled, sliding herself on the empty seat beside Sweetie Belle. Through the bout of excitement, it was still weighed down by the weight of the catch.
“Didn’t ya need to send a letter or somethin’?” Applebloom asked. “My sis was talkin’ about how Dash faked ‘er letter gettin’ in and how she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Like that one time we lost half a harvest and she felt it was her fault.”
“Dash said I was a ‘late entry’, I think…” Scootaloo pondered, knitting her brow together as she tried to remember the long conversation from the night before. “It’s really confusing adult pony talk, to be honest.”
“So you’re not in yet?” Sweetie Belle asked, a little excited. “You can still come back for one more year?”
The suggestion was a new spark to Scootaloo. Quickly, the introduced thought floated around her mind, where she thought over the circumstances. If she didn’t get in, she would come back and fly around Ponyville. She could think over the idea for one more year. She could keep her friendships.
“Don’t be silly, Sweetie Belle,” Applebloom complained, before pointing a hoof to Scootaloo. “Look, you’ve gone and made her sad now.”
Quickly looking back to the other two, Scootaloo wiped the frown from her face. “No I was just thinking,” she nervously laughed back, placing a smile on her face.
“Well that’s dangerous,” Applebloom laughed back, before Sweetie Belle jumped into the conversation.
“Girls I got it!” she piped up. “Remember that one time that we got a medal in comedy at the talent show? What if we work on our act and show it to Scootaloo once she gets back?”
“Yeah!” Applebloom nodded. “We could get our cutie marks in sarcasm! Or maybe even being comedians!”
“That’s a great idea, Bloom!” Sweetie Belle replied, putting a hoof in front of Scootaloo, before Applebloom’s yellow hoof rested on top of it. “Whaddya say, Scootaloo? Cutie Mark Comedians?”
A smile grew on Scootaloo’s face as she rested her orange hoof on the top. Together, they chanted their tune before beginning all crusading adventures.
“Cutie Mark Crusader Comedians! Yeah!”
Pulling their hooves away, three plates surrounded by an aura of pink landed neatly before them. A small giggle came from Twilight as the supplied magic from her horn faded back into the tip.
“Good one, Sugarcube!” Applejack encouraged. “Got your strong magic all under control, now how ‘bout them wings get some use, huh?”
“Well Rainbow Dash has been giving me lessons, I just have to train now,” Twilight responded, peeling the tips of her wings from her flanks.
“Ohoh!” Pinkie Pie jumped, Twilight snapping her wings back against her body in fright. “It can be a race! See who can fly the bestest once Scootaloo comes back! I’ll throw the party for who wins!”
Giving a small chuckle, Scootaloo looked around the table, her eyes falling on each pony as they laughed. Nine ponies, despite the differences, were celebrating her pursuing her life. From the ever so elegant Rarity as she levitated a nearby napkin as she sipped her tea to the brash Rainbow Dash as she held her cake in her hooves despite the supplied fork. From the meek and quiet Fluttershy hiding in the corner to the loud and boisterous Pinkie Pie.
They were together, celebrating as they pushed their differences aside. Laughing as friends as they sat around the table. Connected by their friendships as they laughed about the adventures they had shared in Ponyville.
Like one big happy family.
“M-maybe she’s not here,” Scootaloo whispered to Rainbow Dash as they stood in the hallway of the large building of the Wonderbolt academy. Giving a nervous look up to the walls, she tried to push the thought aside that the framed photos adorning them were threateningly looking down at her.
“Nonsense, kid,” Dash replied, before pounding the large door in front of them a further few times. “She just hasn’t heard us yet.”
The sound of hooves clicking along the floor echoed lightly before the door swung open, an angered and uniformed Wonderbolt standing tall over the two pegasi. A guilty look fell over Dash as her raised hoof planted firmly back onto the floor.
“Is there a reason for this occurrence?” the uniformed pegasus asked. Even as she wore heavy tinted glasses, Scootaloo could feel her eyes staring down to her, making her feel small and out of place.
The yellow pegasus, once a former Wonderbolt, looked different when not adorning her usual tight costume. The sleek body usually hidden away in a blue suit stood taller and wider, her tucked wings resting on her shirt as she towered over the two, despite being Rainbow Dash’s height. Scootaloo quickly recognized the pegasus as Spitfire from her coat and mane alone, her chipped voice dripping with anger seeming alien to the usual welcoming Wonderbolt.
“Yeah, see, we’re here for the, uh,” Dash began, her voice trailing off as Spitfire raised an eyebrow at her. “About the…um…traineeship.”
The hard expression on the uniformed pegasus’ face never faded as she swung the door aside, before trotting off to the back of the room. The sound of drawers opening echoed into the empty room, before the slapping of paper hitting the desk followed.
“You can come in,” Spitfire called, her voice on the verge of frustration. Looking back up to Dash for some guidance, Scootaloo was shocked that the usually strong pegasus looked wary and frightened of the room in front of her, as though it were a savage animal ready to attack.
Taking a gulp, Rainbow Dash raised her head high, her chin tilted on a slight angle, before she trotted into the room. As she gave a swish of her rainbow tail, Scootaloo quickly ran up behind her, jumping as the door latched behind her. It was only a silent click, though to the silent room, it was more like a canon exploding.
Maintaining her quivering hooves, Scootaloo trotted up and stood beside Dash at the front of the desk. Two scrolls were splayed over the wooden surface, the words Trainee Interview Slip written in squared writing, standing bold on the page.
“So,” the uniformed pony began, taking her shaded glasses from her face and folding her wings in. “I do believe you brought the appropriate documents?”
“Yep!” Dash began, before leaning over and rummaging through her saddlebag. “It’s right in here…somewhere…”
Looking towards the uniformed pony, Scootaloo swallowed a nervous chuckle, looking past her interrogating glare and staring at the blank wall beside it. Slowly, her mind roamed into the time before she left.
As she’d left, all signs of the happiness the day before were absent, the smiles on ponies faces a thin veil in front of their distraught frowns. As she had flown off with Dash by her side, the tips of their wings almost touching, she had risked a final look back.
She instantly wished she didn’t.
The five spirits of the Elements of Harmony had their heads bowed, small drops of tears wetting the ground. Below the taller ponies were Applebloom, one hoof waving to Scootaloo, the other comforting Sweetie Belle as she cried in her arms. Small tears trickled down the shaking mare’s face as she grabbed close to Applebloom for support, her sniffling almost audible to Scootaloo.
Quickly looking away, Scootaloo looked back to the clouds hovering above herself. The reality of her leaving them slowly began to sink in through her skin, causing tears to run from her eyes.
“You’ll be okay kid,” Dash had comforted, glancing towards Scootaloo before looking back to the area above herself. “The wind won’t annoy you when we get some goggles.”
The memory faded as Scootaloo found herself blinking with glossy eyes. Squeezing her eyes tight, she shut them for a few seconds, before taking a large gulp of air. Looking back to Dash, she blinked a few times, deleting any further traces of her threatening tears.
The cyan pegasus looked back to Scootaloo. A few seconds passed where Scootaloo realised the widespread grin covering Dash’s face, before the edges of it faded as the seconds passed.
“You don’t like it here?” Dash asked, her smile turning to a frown. “Do you want to go back to Ponyville?”
“Huh? What?” Scootaloo quickly stammered, backtracking into the conversation. Worried, her heart began to race as she realised she’d missed the conversation, too busy soaking up into her memories, that she had missed a vital part of information which she had to reply to.
Spitfire was quick to fill in for her. “Rainbow Dash was one of my finest students of last year’s Spitfire’s Academy, her skills by far superior to any other student I have experienced. By former training and the supplied paper work, you both have enough experience for you trainee application to be accepted.”
Looking back to Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo let out a confused noise. A small smile began to stretch back across Dash’s face the longer the pegasus looked up at her. “So…that makes Dash a…trainee?” Scootaloo eventually asked.
A small chuckle came from the uniformed pony as she reached for her glasses, before flicking them back onto her muzzle. “You look like you’ve just been dropped back to earth and missed out on anything we’d just said,” she mentioned, her hard voice softened as she walked around the large desk.
“Congratulations, kid, you’re our last successful applicant for this year’s Wonderbolt academy.”
It was with the final words that Scootaloo found herself unable to hear anything else. Her heart doubled in time as she felt the words sink in, a large bite down to her bones. “Oh my gosh!” she eventually managed, bounding around the room, flapping her large wings excitedly. “I’m going to become a Wonderbolt!”
Spitfire gave her minimal time to calm down before taking both pegasi on a tour around the main campus. From the mess hall to the dorms she was staying in, Scootaloo couldn’t shake the thoughts from her mind as they zoomed around it in a race.
She was in.
And better yet, she was in with Rainbow Dash.
Time passed as Scootaloo quickly overcome the large workload ahead of herself. The workload, though hard, slowly became easy as she slayed through it, pushing herself to the limits academically and athletically.
Though, once she washed the sweat from her body each night, as she laid into her small bed in her crowded box of a room, her darker thoughts slowly began crawling into her mind. The nights quickly began to drag out as she laid on the side of her bed, looking up at Luna’s moon through the small slit of a window, trailing a hoof around her bed as she pondered.
What were the others up to? Did they miss her? What if something bad were to happen to them? The thoughts slowly added themselves onto the list, each more worrisome than the last.
The long nights of thought soon caught up with her only a few months into being at the academy. It had come up to the point where she began sleeping though class, where teachers soon caught on with her sudden drop in performance.
Eventually, she had needed to attend counselling sessions with a middle aged mare. The mare started out with simple questions: how she was feeling and how she was finding the academy. Soon enough, the mare launched into facts of her private life: how long she’d been sleeping over the past week, how much food she had consumed in the past twenty four hours previously and the last time she had been to the bathroom.
Becoming frightened of the counselor, Scootaloo began to ignore her appointments with them. The idea worked, and before she knew it, she was applying the same techniques to her nightmares of questions. Soon forgotten about, she found herself easily overcoming her problems, pushing them aside to a corner and forgetting about them, allowing dust to gather over them.
But she would soon find that friendship could not be forgotten about.
And neither could nightmares.
