Flightless

Me and Rainbow Dash spent the rest of the afternoon together. We raced over the fields until we were both completely worn out, and then we grabbed a couple of milkshakes from Sugar Cube Corner. Rainbow pulled down a far off cloud, and placed it just above the ground, for us to lounge upon until dark. Then, she walked me home and gave me another hug, followed by a pegasi high-five (we use our wings.) I then removed my helmet, and we said our goodbyes.

“Well Squirt, it’s been a long day, you should probably get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow after Wonderbolt training okay?”

Oh yeah, did I mention? My sister is training to be a Wonderbolt – how cool is that?

“Aw Rainbow, but you’ve got Weather Duty all morning as well… won’t you be tired?” I asked,

“Never too tired to hang out with you, Squirt.” Rainbow Dash ruffled my spiked purple mane.

I smiled as I watched her fly off across the dark sky; the rainbow trail she left behind looked so beautiful at night.

I had a few scooters to fix up the following day; Scooting had become rather a fad in Ponyville, all thanks to yours truly. My job doesn’t have fixed hours; as long as I get the work done, and the vehicles are returned to their owners on time, I can work whenever I like. Nevertheless, I decided to get up relatively early the next day to start on them. That way, even if I fell behind for some reason, I'd still have the entire evening free for Rainbow Dash - a good worker always leaves time for unexpected delays.

You can imagine my surprise, when I was woken by Rainbow knocking loudly upon my door the following morning; it was even earlier than I’d planned to get up myself. When I opened that door, my sister was hovering outside with a letter grasped tightly in her hooves. It looked like an unravelled scroll.

“Hey squirt? You heard the news?” She seemed incredibly excited about something.

“What news?” I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

“All pegasi are being summed to the Town Square, right now!” She pointed and flapped her wings,

“But what about the weather…” I started to say, but Rainbow interrupted,

“It’s regarding a request from Princess Celestia herself! Something about a 'Special Secret Task'! Come on, it sounds awesome! And I’ll bet there will be a chance for you and Firefly to show off your stuff!”

I leapt eagerly at that thought, and grabbed my prized scooter. The two of us headed down to the Town Square; we were the first to arrive, which my sister was pretty proud about. Soon after us came Raindrops and the twins; Cloudchaser and Flitter, and soon pegasi were arriving from all directions.

The Ponyville Mayor was standing on her wooden platform as expected; this is where she gave all of her speeches. There were two of Canterlot's pegasi soldiers either side of her, looking noble in their impressive golden armour. The Mayor pulled out a scroll, and recited it's message;

“By order of Princess Celestia, the pegasi of Ponyville have been summoned to Canterlot on special business. The Princess requires you all to attend a meeting this very evening regarding the task at hand. You will fly tonight, escorted by Celestia's pegasi guards, and stay in Canterlot until morning. I will now call out the names of all participants, to ensure that you are all present for this announcement. Please raise your hoof and fly toward the sky once your name is called.

That’s when it hit me; if it wasn’t for Rainbow Dash, I wouldn’t even be aware of this meeting. These other pegasi had all received letters this morning, telling them to assemble in the Town Square - but I hadn’t. It would be pretty embarrassing if all the other pegasi flew upwards, and I was the only one left on the ground.

I rapidly lost all hope for me and Firefly. I guess her name is a little ironic, as were my incredible looking -yet incredibly useless- wings. Rainbow Dash didn’t so much as glance at me during the roll call; she was grinning wide eyed at the cool pegasi soldiers. I wasn’t offended; she probably hadn’t figured it out yet.

The mayor began to read out the names of the Ponyville pegasi, and they ascended one by one toward the sky.

“Acrobat”

“Aerial Acer”

“Asteroid”

“Angel Wings”

“Blossomfourth”

“Breeze Caster”

“Bulk Bicepts”

"Chaos wind"

“Cloudchaser”

“Cloudkicker”

“Dark Skies”

"Daydreamer"

"Drizzle"

Having my name begin with a letter so late in the alphabet made the anticipation all that more excruciating. I started to wonder if maybe Celestia had arranged something special for me. She was the Princess of Equestria after all, and she knew about my inability; could it be that she had actually found a way for me to travel with them? Perhaps she had arranged a chariot, or maybe was going to use her alicorn magic to cast a spell on me, allowing me to fly for a while, or forever… that would be incredible!

The mayor read past the D’s, E’s, and F’s, and finally reached 'Rainbow Dash'. At the sound of her own name, my sister looked more excited than ever. She turned and winked at me, as though expecting my name to be called shortly afterwards. The mayor soon reached the S’s and Rainbow’s face beamed with anticipation, which turned to instant disappointment when the mayor finished the S's without including my name.

Rainbow’s face dropped. We looked at one another, but nothing needed to be said – Rainbow understood perfectly. This didn’t mean that she was going to take the news well, however. When the mayor moved on to the T's, my sister spoke out.

“Wait a sec! Haven’t you missed somepony?” Rainbow flew up higher than the other pegasi, drawing every ponies attention to herself.

I anxiously waved my hooves trying to signal for her to come down, I knew she had good intentions but… oh Rainbow.

“Miss Rainbow Dash?” The mayor looked up in confusion.

“My sister, Scootaloo! She’s a Pegasus too ya know?” Rainbow shouted,

“Oh… well…” The mayor rechecked the list, “She doesn’t seem to be included. I’m sorry dear.” She looked sadly toward me, I gave a fake, awkward chuckle as every pony stared.

“What!? Why not?” Rainbow Dash was getting angry.

One of the Canterlot guards then spoke up, addressing myself rather than my flustered sister.

“I apologise Miss Scootaloo, but the task Princess Celestia is entrusting to these pegasi involves constant flying.”

“Oh…” I blushed, trying desperately to hide my disappointment, “Sure, that’s okay.”

“It’s not okay!” Rainbow butted in, “She's awesome! Surely there’s something she can do?”

“I’m sorry Miss Rainbow Dash, but your sister must stay in Ponyville, for her own safety.”

The guard was firm, and Rainbow didn’t know what else to say, she couldn't argue with that statement - my safety was more important to her than anything else.

“If it makes you feel any better Scootaloo,” The mayor continued, “You aren’t the only pegasi staying behind.”

“I’m not?” I asked, a little happier to hear that.

“No,” The mayor replied, “Miss Derpy Hooves has also been excluded.”

That didn’t make me feel better at all; Derpy was the Ponyville 'klutz'. She had recently lost her position on the Weather Team, after continuously messing up and obtaining several warnings. She was even fired from her part-time job as a mail pony, due to her tendency to deliver mail to the wrong houses, and damaging packages. Derpy was a clumsy flyer, and had a reputation for causing accidents and screwing up. I could see why Celestia had decided to exclude Derpy from the mission, and in all honesty, I could see why she had decided to exclude me from the mission, too.

I sighed, as Rainbow slowly levitated back to the ground,

“Don’t worry Scoot." She put a hoof around me, "It’s probably just a boring errand anyway, nothing special.” She obviously didn’t believe that for a second, but I appreciated her trying to cheer me up, “Besides, Ponyville needs you here! Who else is going to fix up those scooters? Ain't no other pony who's got your skills!”

I smiled; I didn’t want Rainbow to feel sorry for me,

“Yeah, thanks, Rainbow Dash.”