Come on, faster, faster! Scootaloo used her tiny orange wings to propel her forward on her scooter. If I don’t make good time, Rainbow Dash will never see me.
Ahead, she spotted the blue pegasus by her brightly colored hair. She was walking out of Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie waving to her. Scootaloo tested the limits of her own speed, knowing that it wasn’t wise to go this fast. The last thing she wanted was to wipe out in front of Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo called, as if she was Rainbow’s closest friend. Rainbow Dash looked around to find the source of the voice. This was it! Scootaloo raised her hoof in a wave and prepared herself to do a 360. But going this fast on a little scooter while riding one-hoofed was difficult. She swerved, and her wheel hit the pebble. She caught air and spun around in the air a few times before hitting the ground hard. By some miracle, she had managed to stay on the scooter.
“Wow!” shouted a familiar voice. Scootaloo almost passed out. Rainbow Dash had seen that?
“Uh, h-hi, Rainbow Dash,” gulped Scootaloo.
“That was SO AWESOME!” gushed Rainbow. “You didn’t even fall when you hit the pebble! You were going so fast, I could barely see you! Wow! You could be a member of the scooter Wonderbolts!”
“A Scooterbolt?” joked Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash laughed, and Scootaloo’s heart soared.
“Have you ever seen them?” asked Rainbow Dash, referring to the Wonderbolts. “Oh, you have to! I saw my first show when I was a little younger than you. I’ve got two tickets right now, in fact. I’m not sure who to give the second one to, since Fluttershy’s my only pegasus friend, and she’s not that into sports.” Rainbow perked up. “HEY! What if you came with me?”
Scootaloo gasped, her cheeks growing pink. “Really? You mean it?”
“Sure! Just meet me here at 9:00 a week from now. We’ll fly up together and see the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow Dash flew off the ground. “Gotta dash! See you around, Scoots!”
And she flew off.
Scootaloo stood in place for so long that a mare on the sidewalk asked if she was all right. Her heart had stopped with joy. Rainbow Dash, the coolest pony in Ponyville—and maybe in all of Equestria—had asked if she, a tiny orange filly, wanted to fly up to Cloudsdale with her.
Fly up to Cloudsdale with her!
Fly . . . fly up to Cloudsdale.
Fly?
Scootaloo’s world came crashing down around her. The pegasus pony had never gotten the hang of flight, which was the last thing she wanted to admit to Rainbow Dash, who had earned her cutie mark by doing a sonic rainboom.
Scootaloo began breathing faster. She opened her mouth and did what any practical filly would do.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
She burst into the clubhouse. “Guys . . . you . . . have . . . to . . . help . . . me,” she gasped. She had scootered at top speed all the way to the clubhouse. She collapsed in a chair.
“Scootaloo, what’s wrong?” cried Applebloom.
“You look like you just saw a ghost!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle, worried.
Scootaloo felt like she was going to break down crying. But would Rainbow Dash do that? “Rainbow Dash invited me to hang out with her in Cloudsdale!” she whimpered.
The Crusaders’ faces lit up as they congratulated her. “I don’t understand,” said Applebloom. “How is that a bad thing? You’ve waited for this sort of thing to happen ever since you met Rainbow Dash!”
“Cloudsdale,” Scootaloo said patiently. They looked blankly at her. Scootaloo took a deep breath. She’d hoped she wouldn’t have to explain it. “Have you ever noticed that I don’t fly much?” she asked.
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Well, you don’t spend much time in the air,” she said slowly.
Scootaloo gulped. “Well, I—I can’t . . . I can’t fly, all right?” she blurted out. “I just don’t get it! Are my wings too small? Is my body too big?” She buried her head in her hooves. “I feel like everyone knows it. The Cakes’ baby pegasus can fly better than I can.” She leaped up and raised her voice. “The Cakes’ baby unicorn can fly better than I can!”
Applebloom cringed. “Well, my sister always says that everyone develops at a different rate,” she said, putting a hand on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “That’s why we don’t have our cutie marks yet!”
“My sister says the same thing,” added Sweetie Belle.
“Rainbow Dash is like a sister to me,” Scootaloo said, her voice dark. “But she has never said that to me. She said that she was the first in her class to get a cutie mark! I don’t have my cutie mark and I can’t fly and I’ll never be as good or as pretty as her!” Scootaloo’s voice cracked with emotion.
“Aw, Scootaloo, no one cares that you can’t fly,” said Applebloom gently. “Heck, Sweetie Belle and I didn’t know until you told us!”
“Rainbow Dash is sure going to notice when I can’t fly for more than a few seconds,” muttered Scootaloo.
“Well, you’ll just have to learn to fly!” chirped Sweetie Belle.
“Really?” asked Scootaloo, brightening. A smile sneaked out of the corner of her mouth. “Can I do it in a week?”
“ ’Course you can!” said Applebloom. “And we’ll help you. We can be Cutie Mark Crusader . . . Cutie Mark Crusader . . .”
“Cutie Mark Crusader Flight Teachers!” said Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah!” they shouted together, bumping their hooves.
“Are you sure that this is safe?” asked Sweetie Belle nervously, peering over the edge of their clubhouse’s porch.
“Of course it is,” said Scootaloo. “Mother birds push their babies out of the nest so they can fly, right? You guys can push me off the edge, and I’ll be flying in no time!”
“Uh, if you say so,” said Applebloom uncertainly. “On the count of three: one . . . two—”
Scootaloo braced herself, but Applebloom shoved her off before “three.”
“Hey! Whoa!” she shouted, flailing her hooves around. Oh, right! Wings! She buzzed her wings faster than a hummingbird after one of Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes, but it was futile. She hit the ground hard.
“Scootaloo!” shouted her friends in unison. They ran down from the clubhouse. “Scoots, are you all right?” asked Applebloom urgently.
Scootaloo’s left leg was in pain, but more hurtful than that was the fact that she hadn’t been able to fly. “I’m hopeless!” she groaned. “It’s like you guys always say: I’m a dodo, a chicken. I’m a flightless bird!”
“You’re not a chicken, Scootaloo,” said Sweetie Belle. “You called us dictionaries, but that doesn’t mean that we’re . . . uh . . . big chunks of words.” She frowned. “That didn’t make any sense, did it?”
“We’ll find a way to make you fly. Don’t you worry!” said Applebloom. She ran back into the clubhouse and grabbed a box of crayons. In no time at all, she had drawn a detailed plan of all the ideas she had for Scootaloo to learn how to fly.
Plan A was put into action.
Scootaloo flexed her wings for ten seconds before leaping up and fluttering her wings as fast as she could. She hovered for a few seconds. Encouraged, she flapped harder, but she quickly fell to the ground.
Plan B:
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom hoisted Scootaloo up in the air. On the count of three, they were to throw her up.
“Ugh!” grunted the two Crusaders as they lifted their friend up.
“All right,” said Scootaloo. “One, two . . . three!”
In seconds, they were all lying on the ground with twigs in their manes and Scootaloo’s hoofprints all over them. Scootaloo cringed.
Plan C: Failed.
Plan D: Failed.
Plan E: Failed.
Red X’s were appearing all over their plans. It was beginning to get hopeless.
Plan L: (Not really a plan)
Scootaloo jumped up and down furiously. “Come ON!” she screamed. “Wings, work work work work WORK!!!!”
Her wings did not heed her. For the next week, she practiced constantly, barely touching her scooter. Nothing worked.
A week passed, and it was several minutes to 9:00. Scootaloo shut her eyes and swallowed hard as she waited for Rainbow Dash. How was she supposed to tell her idol that she was earthbound?
Sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I can’t see the best flyers in all of Equestria because I can’t fly myself?
I’ll probably get my cutie mark for being a loser, not for doing a sonic rainboom?
I’ll never be like you, because I can’t fly?
Scootaloo moaned. What would Rainbow Dash say?
“Hey, squirt!” called Rainbow from up in a cloud. She zipped down for Scootaloo. “Are you ready to see the most talented flyers in all of Equestria?” She laughed. “Of course you are! I sure am! I’ve been practicing my moves all week! I’m sure that you didn’t need to practice. I bet you’re as good in the air as you are on that scooter of yours!”
Scootaloo swallowed hard. She hadn’t seen anyone so bouncy since, well, since she last saw Pinkie Pie. She didn’t want to see Rainbow Dash’s face go from excited to disgusted.
“Let’s dash!” said Rainbow, bursting off. After a few seconds, she frowned and looked back at Scootaloo. “Hey, are you okay?”
Scootaloo took a deep breath. Wings, please please PLEASE work now. I need you. She jumped up and down and flapped her wings, but to no avail. She swallowed with shame and avoided Rainbow Dash’s eyes. “R-Rainbow Dash? I probably should have told you earlier, but . . . I can’t fly. I practiced all week, but I can’t even hover! I’ll never be as good as you.” To Scootaloo’s horror, she felt herself begin to cry. “I’m just a chicken! I’m a stupid flightless bird! I don’t deserve to see the Wonderbolts. I’m sorry for slowing you down on your way to Cloudsdale. You’d better just invite Fluttershy.”
Rainbow Dash flew down to the ground. She did the last thing Scootaloo expected: Gave her a big hug. “Scoots, you’re only a filly,” she said soothingly. “You have lots of time to figure out flying. You can ride on my back on the way there.”
“But—but won’t you be embarrassed?” Scootaloo said, sniffling. “There will be all the fillies who go to flight school who can fly like you, and I’ll be like an earth pony.”
“Scootaloo, how could I be embarrassed by you?” said Rainbow Dash. “Plenty of fillies don’t get flying. When I was at summer flight camp—the same summer I got my cutie mark—I met a shy, clumsy, little filly who could barely fly five feet. And do you want to know who she is today? My best friend.”
“Fluttershy couldn’t fly?” asked Scootaloo in wonder. “But I’ve seen her fly lots of times. She has to fly to feed her birds and butterflies.”
“Of course she can fly,” said Rainbow Dash. “She’s a pegasus. She might not be a Wonderbolt, but she can get her hooves off the ground.”
“But . . . but what if I can’t?” stammered Scootaloo. “What if I’m a chicken forever?”
Rainbow Dash dismissed this with a wave of her hoof. “You’re not a chicken, squirt. You went into the Everfree Forest, didn’t you? Would a chicken do that? I sure didn’t go there when I was your age! I was more chicken than you are! Which isn’t to say that I was afraid of anything.”
“No way! You aren’t chicken!” gasped Scootaloo.
“And neither are you, Scoots,” said Rainbow Dash. “Now c’mon, or we’ll miss the show! You don’t want to miss your first glimpse of the Wonderbolts, do you?”
“No way!” shouted Scootaloo, hopping onto her idol’s back. Rainbow Dash burst off the earth, and for the first time, Scootaloo was not on the ground.
Some day, I’m going to do this myself! Scootaloo thought to herself. Some day, I’ll be able to fly like all pegasi.
But for now, riding on Rainbow’s back was perfect.
