Wheels of Fire, Wings of Fliers
She rode down the street, going a speed that reduced all images into blurring colors. She relished in the feel of the wind cutting at her coat and ripping through her mane. This was what she loved the most, the speed, the adrenaline, and the wind in her mane. Sounds were lost on her as she went even faster, flapping her small wings to gain the additional speed. She was rapidly approaching the makeshift ramp that Apple Bloom had made. She was really good at carpentry, always able to make things like that in a few minutes. Scootaloo shot towards the ramp, and hit a small stone in the road. Her scooter threatened to topple, and she shifted her weight to stop its falling. She hit the ramp going nearly rainboom speed, the small boards in them breaking as she shot up them. Her scooter left the ramp, taking her with it as it soared through the sky. It was time.
With a shout, she jumped from her scooter, flapping her wings even harder than before. The wind flowed beneath her wings, drawing her up into the sky above the clouds. She knew that she couldn’t keep up her wing’s fast rhythm, and she aimed for a cloud to land on. Instead of landing on it though, she crashed into it. She sat up slowly, shaking her head to rid herself of her disorientation. She felt as if her stomach had disappeared as the cloud opened up beneath her. She dropped towards the dirt like a stone, her wings flapping uselessly on her sides. With a crash, Scootaloo landed into the mud, and she heard something snap. Spitting out the dirt that had somehow gotten into her mouth, she looked around dazedly. There, standing a small distance away was Diamond Tiara, smiling cruelly as she held up her camera and snapped another photo. Scootaloo groaned, knowing that her failure would make it onto the papers. Spitting out a bit more dirt, she stood up and limped over to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell, who were looking at her sadly.
“It’s all right girls, I’ll try again tomorrow.” Scootaloo knew that she wouldn’t be able to throw off her concerned friends that easily, and she was proven right by Apple Bloom.
“Are ya sure Scootaloo? Ah mean, we still got all day.” When Scootaloo didn’t answer her, Apple Bloom fell into silence. Sweetie Bell followed her example, and they didn’t talk as they went to retrieve the scooter from the ground, a good distance away from the ramp itself. The poor thing had been through a lot with her, through all of her various and common crashes. Now it had a large crack running through the board on the bottom, and the handles were bent at a nearly ninety degree angle. For some reason, the loss of her scooter hit her harder than the failure itself. She wouldn’t be able to try again for a long time. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she dashed away from her friends, and her crushed dreams of flying.
Her tears began to form a small little lake of their own, soaking the ground underhoof with her sadness. The small drops of water rolled down the many different scratches in the ground, pooling and overflowing in the ridges. It’s just like how the world is, Scootaloo thought to herself, Each pony’s life gets overtaken and is soaked up in the flood. My dreams of flying matter to nopony but myself. Everypony else just calls me the outcast, as if I can’t hear them laughing. Scootaloo slid her hoof across the rivulets of water, stopping their flow as she stopped her own tears. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell already have their cutie marks, and I don’t have mine! Her friends had discovered their special talents a few weeks ago and were trying tirelessly to help Scootaloo find her own, but they were having no luck yet.
Sniffling, Scootaloo stood up from where she was hiding. She began walking back towards her house, dragging her hooves in the mud a little as she made her way through the town. Everypony was inside, for some strange reason. Scootaloo looked up into the sky, and received a generous amount of rain in her face as the clouds unleashed their contents. The rain poured hard, almost to the point of where each drop hurt when it struck. With the rain pounding on her back, she came to her house, a small shack on the edge of ponyville, where she lived alone. She would have a house further into ponyville, but her parents had left her only with a few bits when they kicked her out, so she had to settle for this shack. She hated it, but it was home.
Off to the side of her door, Scootaloo noticed a strange shadow underneath the overhang. It looked like a vehicle of some kind, meant for a pony to stand on with front hooves on its handles. There’s no way that that’s mine. My scooter is still in Ponyville, Scootaloo thought as she walked over to the strange object. On its handle there was a note scrawled in Apple Bloom’s mouthwritting.
Dear Scootaloo,
Sweetie Bell and I had been saving this thing for your birthday, but today it seems that you need it now.
Mouth open in disbelief, Scootaloo circled her new scooter. It had a built-in braking system and a small airbag in the center of the handlebars. It had been painted with a glossy orange paint job, with purple lines spelling out her name on the bottom. While looking at it, Scootaloo recalled the ramp that was still sitting in Ponyville right now, waiting to be jumped. Smiling to herself in anticipation, she picked up her new scooter and wheeled it to face into Ponyville.
She rubbed the small cuts and bruises that were on her body, aching from falling again. The rain had made the ground muddy and slick, making it hard to keep upright. Wiping the mud off of herself, she stood up her scooter again and rolled back to her starting point. She felt the rain pouring still, and could barely see as she mounted her scooter again, preparing to take off. Her wheels spun in the mud for a second, but then she shot forward with a sudden jerk. With mud blazing behind her, she shot towards the ramp, the rain whipping around her as she gained speed. She hit the ramp, and rode straight through the rain that poured down it, launching into the air. She jumped from her scooter, and flapped her wings hard to stay airborn. Using the momentum, she punched through the rainclouds. Above the clouds, she realized that it was her wings that kept her airborne now, and she flew a little bit to test her theory. When she didn’t drop from the sky, she cheered and did a series of loops and spins that she had seen Rainbow do. She nearly fell from the sky as she tested her new-found abilities, and then she dropped down to the clouds below.
“What are you doing up here Scoots? Don’t you know it’s dangerous for you?” Rainbow Dash flew down right next to her. When Scootaloo shook her head, Rainbow turned her head to the side, obviously confused.
“I can fly now Rainbow.” Her voice was dead serious as she told her hero her about her achievement. “I can fly.” She couldn’t hold it together anymore, and she tackled Rainbow with a hug, soaking the rainbow mane with tears. She felt a hoof pat her back awkwardly, and then felt Rainbow draw away from her.
“Is that so little chicken? Well, just try to keep up with the fastest pony in Equestria,” Rainbow shot into the sky, with her prism of colors trailing after her.
Laughing, Scootaloo shot after her hero, her wings glistening with wetness in the setting sun.
