I Dreamt to Fly

by MrDynasty

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Scootaloo, Slice of Life, Spitfire, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Rainbow Dash
Length: 66198

Proceeding the events of "I Dream to Fly", Scootaloo's dreams of learning to fly slowly become a reality.

This is a sequel to I Dream to Fly. I'd highly recommend you read it first.
Two years after the incident that happened with Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash finally sees it fit to help the young filly learn to fly. With the upcoming junior Wonderbolts League, Scootaloo may have the chance to show ponies what she's really made of.
But will she be held back by the past?

Published 2015-11-06 00:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-05-08 03:28:47 UTC

1: The Start of a New Beginning.

Luna turned to face Twilight, who followed her over to the balcony at the side of her room. She lifted her hoof slightly, looking at the warm dusk sky. “The only way you can help her, is if you help her now. Every mystery unravels itself, Twilight, and until it does, you should make sure that her future matters more than her past.” She said delicately as her horn began to glow a bright blue hue. The moon started to creep up along the sky, resting itself in the sudden night time glow.

Her head moved to face Twilight, whom was still standing next to her with a small smile. “I hope my words help you, Twilight. I'm afraid it is all I can share with you, as it is as much on the subject I know.” As she spoke, the lavender coloured mare nodded in support.

“Thank you, Princess. You were a big help. I’ll make sure to do what’s right for Scootaloo.” Twilight said, bowing her head slightly before trotting off back out of Luna’s room. The shimmering maned mare proceeded to look out of her room’s balcony and up to the sky again, staring at the stars that shone in the blue. She stood for a moment and revelled in the sky’s beauty.

“What did you say, sister?” Princess Celestia asked as she approached Luna. Luna paused without an answer for a short while, turning her head to her big sister with a small smile.

“I mentioned that it is not the past that is important to Scootaloo, but that her future is. I'm positive Scootaloo will discover her past herself, maybe with the added support of Rainbow Dash. Until that time comes, it should not matter what we don’t remember. What does matter is what we will remember.” Luna spoke, seemingly happy with her response. Her older sister nodded in agreement before getting closer to Luna’s side.

The stars glistened in the sky as the night time aura shrouded all of Equestria in a mellow blue tint. Celestia smiled along with her sister as they both sat down on the balcony, looking up to the breath taking sky.

Two Years Later.

Both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash stood out in a green field with pieces of paper laid down beside them and a saddlebag the side of the rainbow maned pony.

“Alright, GO!” Rainbow Dash shouted, holding a stopwatch in her lifted hoof. As she shouted, Scootaloo jumped into the air with as much force as her little legs could lift her. Upon reaching the peak of her jump, her wings extended out and began fluttering as hard as they could, creating a cold draft to her sides. She stayed mostly in the same place, hovering above the ground and having not much of a trouble doing so.

With a small smile, Rainbow Dash spoke. “See, told ya that after a days’ worth of training you’d be able to hover with ease!” Scootaloo just kept herself in the same place, crossing her front legs in front of her.

“Psh, hovering was always easy… sort of. Okay maybe it didn’t used to be, but now I can! What I stink at is keeping my balance or having the right direction or how to move accurately or-” She was cut off shortly by Rainbow Dash, who spoke confidently.

“Hey! Don’t worry about it. We’ll get you flying like a pro in no time, just you watch! Plus, you can hover while moving, that’s really good!” She stopped the stopwatch, seeming to not need it any more for Scootaloo’s hovering test. With a soft smile, the filly fluttered back down to the ground and looked up to her mentor. The rainbow maned pony looked at the papers on the ground that stated what training exercises came next.

Scootaloo laughed nervously, looking at the papers. “A-Actually, my wings are starting to hurt, think we could take a break for now and do something else?” She asked. Rainbow picked up the papers with her mouth and placed them in the saddlebag that was beside her. “Of course we can. Don’t want to stress out your wings too much. We’ll just continue to take filly steps.”

Rainbow hauled the large saddlebag up and over her back, beginning to trot towards Ponyville as the filly followed shortly behind. Rainbow looked up to the sky, noticing Cloudsdale quite a bit in the distance. “You know, the junior Wonderbolts class is going to start looking for new fillies soon. I could enter you in if you wanted. See if you could classify for joining them!”

Scootaloo let out a shy laugh, the opportunity still seeming like too much of a task for herself in her current flying state. “N-Naaah… I’ll get stumped by the first hurdle. There are so many fillies around here that can fly so much better than me.” She stated, not having much confidence in her abilities.

Being confident, Rainbow Dash disagreed. “You’re talented, just in your own way! Also, it’s me who’s teaching you, you’ll be in the sky in no time, I promise.” Scootaloo liked Rainbow’s confident attitude. Where it may have been considered over cocky at times, her confidence was no doubt able to motivate anyone.

“Thanks, Dash. I'm so glad you’re able to help me.” Scootaloo said, trotting faster as to catch up to the cyan coloured pony. Rainbow looked back to Scootaloo with a soft smile. “What type of carer would I be if I didn't help you learn to fly? It’d be pretty selfish and rude of me. Plus, I really care about you, Squirt. I wouldn't ever leave your side.” She said, making Scootaloo look happy.

Scootaloo nuzzled up against Rainbow Dash as they trotted. She spoke with a hint of confidence. “I know you wouldn't, Dash.” She stated, knowing that what Dash said was true. She isn't the element of loyalty without a reason.

It didn't take long before they entered the busy and friendly space of Ponyville, both mares and stallions alike wandering the town. There was a time when Ponyville seemed pretty quiet, but that time has long passed.

However, at least somewhere else was quieter than Ponyville was as a familiar thump of a book being opened echoed the crystal interior of Twilight’s tree. Twilight scanned through some pages of the book, familiarizing herself with the book she had previously read. Although Twilight doesn't like to admit it, the crystal tree she lived in now didn't have the same feeling as her now almost entirely destroyed wooden library. The absence of the warming oak scent left something to be desired for her.

Spike walked up through the shiny and long hallway, carrying some more books that he eventually placed next to Twilight. “I never asked, but why are you reading through books you've already read, don’t they lose their touch after the first couple reads?” Spike questioned, looking up to Twilight. The purple furred mare shrugged and turned one of the pages with her magic.

“I like to familiarize myself with what I've already read. Just a sort of check up to see what I do and don’t remember.” Twilight stated, moving her view towards her questioning assistant. With a roll of his eyes, Spike went to grab more of the books that Twilight requested. He spoke as he walked away. “If it’s every book you do this with, then you have a long list of things to read.”

Before Spike was able to get very far, a loud knock from the front entrance echoed around the interior. Letting themselves in, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo came up the reflective hallway and over to the large table Twilight was sitting at. Twilight slid off from where she sat, trotting over to the two similarly maned pegasi. “Judging by the smile on your face, I'm guessing the training went well?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash gave a slight nod. “Of course it did! Little ol' Scooter over here hovered like a pro!” She proceeded to pull out the bits of paper from inside her saddlebag. “After dropping off this stat junk, me and Squirt are gonna go hit Sugar Cube Corner for some chow. You want to come with?”

Twilight thought about it before shaking her head slightly, levitating the bits of paper over to read before motioning her hoof for them to leave without her. “No, that’s okay. I have a lot of reading to do; you two go have your fun.” She said with a soft smile on her face.

Picking her saddlebag up, Rainbow Dash began to trot away. “Alright then, we’ll catch you later!” She said, waving as she trotted towards the entrance. Scootaloo waved as well, following Rainbow Dash shortly after. Spike was silent throughout the quick conversation, which made Twilight move her view over to him. “You seemed awfully quiet, anything on your mind?” She asked.

Spike shrugged, shaking his head at the same time. “No, I just tend to notice Rainbow Dash being nicer around Scootaloo. Usually she ends up gloating or complaining or something.” Twilight placed the papers down and trotted back over to where she had sat before, speaking to Spike afterwards. “She’s always been nice to Scootaloo. I think what happened two years ago really hit her hard, first time I saw her in a dire state of emotions that wasn't over Daring Doo.” Twilight said with a joking tone.

Author's Note

Q: Is this in the show's canon?
A: Yes and no. Don't be surprised if something conflicts with the show because this loosely follows it's storyline. Only loosely. Working on the basis from a story conceptualized three years ago is difficult considering how much the show has evolved since then.

Q: I don't understand what's going on, you came in too suddenly!
A: Maybe, but considering it's a sequel I think it's justified to have it come in like I did. Before the "Two Years Later." is a recreation of an exact scene from the previous story, except played from a different perspective.

Q: Who are you exactly?
A: John Cena.

Oh wait I mean ~~~ Mr.Dynasty :moustache:
Feels good to be back. ~~Also scary.~~

2: Back Home.

“Sooooo, what have you been up to, Dashie?” Pinkie asks; placing down a tray filled with sugary treats on the table that the three were sitting at. Scootaloo reached her hoof over and picked up one of the baked sweets, taking a big bite out of it shortly after.

Rainbow Dash reaches over and takes one as well, saying “Nothing much, just helping this young flier over here with her flying problems.” She leaned closer to the filly and ruffled up her mane with her hoof. “It might take some time, but I'm sure she’ll be flying before you can even say-”

“Pinkie picked a patch of puffy pony feathers!” Pinkie Pie said with a wide smile and a giggle. She grabbed a couple of the baked goods and one at a time shoved them into her mouth to eat, still giggling occasionally from what she said.

Interrupted by Pinkie, Rainbow Dash just laughed upon hearing her response. “Well, that too I suppose. Also you might want to slow it down with the whole eating thing, wouldn’t want you to choke.” She proclaimed, motioning her hoof with her speech. Scootaloo had finished the sugary bun she was munching away at in the middle of their conversation. She reached over for another from the tray.

Pinkie Pie swallowed the food in her mouth before talking. “What did you learn then, Scootaloo?” She asked, placing another bun in her mouth and chewing as she was looking at the small orange filly. Scootaloo’s view perked up to the pink pony, placing down the partly eaten bun on the table. With a small heave, she jumped up into the air before extending her wings out and flapping.

The confident filly gave a smirk from her ability to hover. It may have been something simple, but she was proud of herself nonetheless. “I can hover in place easily now! I mean it wasn't that hard to hover before, but now I feel like I got the hang of it for good.” Scootaloo said, slowly floating back down onto the seat she was sitting on.

Pinkie Pie clapped, beginning to talk with her mouth full by accident. “I'm so happy for you Scootaloo! Continue to be confident like that and no doubt you’ll be flying to the top of the sky in no time! Just like Dashie!” She swallowed just after talking. Scootaloo smiled to the pink pony and gained a small blush.

Finishing off the last of the buns, Pinkie Pie grabbed the tray and got off her seat to drop it off for cleaning. “You want another batch? I have plenty made for all my friends!” She said, causing Rainbow Dash to laugh nervously and shake her head.

She slid off her seat and stretched her wings a little while speaking. “No thanks, Pinkie. I think me and Squirt will head home for now; do something else for a bit. So I guess I’ll see you later then?” Scootaloo grabbed the bun she was still eating and hopped down, trotting towards the entrance and waiting for Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie waved to them both. “Oookie dokie lokie then! See you soon!” She said enthusiastically before bouncing off and away into the back of Sugarcube Corner. The rainbow maned pony just trotted up to and past Scootaloo, leaving the bakery. The filly followed shortly behind, not straying too far from Rainbow Dash.

“Are we going to fly back home or trot there?” Scootaloo asked, looking into the distance and seeing the faint outline of Rainbow’s cloud house. Rainbow just shook her head slightly, stopping and leaning her back lower so that the filly could climb onto her.

“Of course not, that’s way too far for me to just trot there.” She stated, jumping up into the air and beginning to fly in the direction of her house. Scootaloo had wrapped her front legs around Dash’s neck, making sure not to fall off. Rainbow seemed to notice Scootaloo doing that a lot; holding onto her harder than she needed to.

She was either just being safe, or having a fear that she’d fall. The latter seemed like more of a probable reason considering the fall she took two years ago, but Rainbow Dash knew she’d never let Scootaloo fall like that again, even if it wasn't her fault when she fell the first time. She looked back to the filly. “You okay, Squirt? You never seem comfortable holding onto me.” She asked while slowing down.

Scootaloo hesitated on answering, but perked her head towards Rainbow’s. “I-I am, sort of. I don’t know how to describe it, but I just feel… paranoid. Knowing that there’s such a big drop below me and that I could slip at any moment is…” She paused for a bit, scanning the vast land of Equestria.

Rainbow Dash finished her sentence for her. “Scary?” She said as she tilted her head slightly, looking worried for the filly. Scootaloo nodded to her, gripping back onto her as tight as she could. Rainbow lowered herself towards the ground so that Scootaloo might not feel so worried, even then she felt like she needed to say something.

“…Don’t tell anypony about this, but I felt the same way you do back when I was a little filly. Way younger in fact. It is scary having such a big drop below you, but when you’re able to fly, the fear disappears over time. Big drops aren't so scary when you can control the fall just as naturally as trotting.” Rainbow Dash said with a soft smile, being sincere to Scootaloo.

With a small smile dawning over Scootaloo's face, she felt much more comfortable from her carer’s words. “Thank you, Dash. I suppose it’s just me being paranoid then, nothing to worry about.” She paused before she suddenly frowned. “But I can’t fly; does that mean I’d just fall?” She asked.

Looking back again to the concerned filly, Rainbow Dash shook her head to her. “Of course not, you can hover remember? It might be scary; but if you ever did fall you can just hover to safety. That’s if you did fall, which I promise will never happen to you as long as I'm by your side; no matter what.” Her words were reassuring to Scootaloo, making her feel much more comfortable. Her grip loosened very slightly from Rainbow’s neck, just trying to enjoy the ride as best she could.

It was starting to get dark in Equestria, where the sunset was the only sign of light left. After half a day of training, Scootaloo was starting to get tired as she yawned on Rainbow’s back. The stars were starting to shine in the sky as the moon soon became visible, casting a blue and white hue over the land of Equestria.

Upon approaching her cloud house, Rainbow Dash pulled Scootaloo over her head and into her arms as she flew up to her house’s height and onto the front entrance. She placed Scootaloo down on her hooves; the filly took no time in getting inside, going to the room that Rainbow Dash had re-purposed for her.

The first thing Scootaloo did when she went into her room was lay on her bed, feeling relaxed and happy to be home. Rainbow Dash followed her shortly behind, coming into her room and looking at her. “Guessing you want to go to sleep?” She asked. Scootaloo responded with a ‘mhmm’ sound as she stood up on her bed then going under the covers. Her room was similarly painted as to how it was in her old home, along with having a lot of important things from it as well. The light blue painted walls accompanied the sky like bedsheets perfectly.

Scootaloo had the covers pulled over her as she laid her head down on the pillows, getting comfortable again where she was. Her carer trotted around her room before picking up something with her teeth and placing it next to the filly. It was the familiar doll of Rainbow Dash that Scootaloo had had for years, the same one she always had. It was tidied up and given repairs where necessary, but otherwise it was exactly the same.

Leaning down towards the orange coated filly, Rainbow Dash smiled and said. “Goodnight then, Squirt. I love you.” Scootaloo responded by hugging the doll and saying “I love you too, Rainbow Dash. Goodnight.” with a yawn afterwards.

With that the cyan Pegasus left the room, but not without turning out the light first. It seemed like it was going to be another one of those nights where Scootaloo would sleep like a baby. She had never felt happier than she did now in her life; it probably couldn't get any more perfect.

Probably.

Author's Note

The next chapter was actually meant to be this chapter. But I felt it needed a transition, so this is essentially part one of chapter two. :trollestia:

~~~ Mr.Dynasty :moustache:

3: A Bright New Day.

“Boo!” Rainbow Dash said, standing to the side of Scootaloo's bed. The filly jumped and let out a small scream from the sudden wake-up call. She just coughed a little, sitting up on her bed and looking to Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes with her hooves, feeling dizzy from the long sleep. “W…What time is it?” She asked, looking around her room and then to the curtain covered window. Rainbow Dash trotted over and pulled away the curtains, allowing the bright morning light to shine into the room.

“It’s just around 6AM. I thought I’d wake you up early so we could get some training done. Maybe we could make you soar today! Flying soar that is, not hurting sore.” She said as she smiled to Scootaloo, who was still in the process of waking up.

The filly stretched and yawned, letting her wings extend during the stretch as well. “I guess I slept long enough. Although you could maybe do a softer wake-up call next time.” She stated, getting out from under the covers and onto her hooves as she hopped down onto the ground.

They both trotted out from her room, obviously going for breakfast first before anything else. Scootaloo's mane was a bit of a mess from sleeping so long, but she didn't mind that much. “What are we having for breakfast?” Scootaloo asked, trotting up to the side of the rainbow maned pony.

Rainbow just shrugged slightly, looking back to Scootaloo. “Well, whatever you want for breakfast. I don’t mind!” She says, heading into the kitchen and opening the fridge. There was surprisingly a lot of healthy food in the fridge, which someone might not expect knowing Rainbow Dash. But she was an athlete after all so staying in top shape was important to her.

Scootaloo sat down on one of the chairs and looked towards the fridge. “I’ll just have cereal I think, nothing special.” Rainbow nodded, grabbing a carton of milk with her mouth and bringing it over to the table. She got the rest of the essentials as well, like the cereal, bowl and spoon.

What she decided to eat herself was a couple apples and something to drink. Scootaloo made her cereal and had already started eating it, looking over to Rainbow Dash who started trotting around while eating. She was putting things in a saddlebag in preparation for them to go out. It was mostly things she needed to write down any results that came from the learning. Of course the statistics weren't for her; they were for Twilight who asked if she’d write them down, being curious about how Scootaloo's learning would come along.

With a final gulp, Scootaloo finished her cereal quite quickly. She slid off the chair and trotted off into the nearby bathroom to fix her messy mane. Upon looking in the mirror the filly noticed the high amount of rogue hairs she had, picking up a brush that was to the side and beginning to comb her mane back into its usual spiky form. She didn't need to do much for the flick at the top of her mane as it was just naturally there anyway.

She seemed happy with how her mane looked now, feeling almost fully woken up. “I'm ready, Rainbow Dash! Are we going right now?” Scootaloo asked from the bathroom as she rubbed her mane. The cyan Pegasus just made the common ‘mhmm’ sound in response, still eating the apple she had.

Scootaloo came out from the bathroom and trotted over to the entrance of the house. Rainbow Dash wasn't far behind, following the small filly and opening the front door when she got there. They both left the house, closing the door behind them and going over to the edge of the cloud house.

Rainbow Dash lifted herself up into the air with her wings, hovering over Scootaloo and picking her up by wrapping her hooves around her stomach. She had to carry Scootaloo down to the ground, since she couldn't fly herself, but it wasn't much of a problem since the filly didn't weigh that much anyway.

Until Scootaloo's hooves touched the ground, Rainbow Dash didn't let go of her. When they both got their hooves on the ground, they looked for a place where they wouldn't be bothered that much. Of course it didn't take long for them to find a somewhat empty area, big enough for any sort of safe flying without any obstructions.

The saddlebag thumped onto the ground as Rainbow Dash took it off her back. She looked over to Scootaloo and thought for a bit. “Since you can now hover, I think it would be best having you learn how to balance yourself and move around while in the air. If you think you’re comfortable with that, that is.” She said.

Scootaloo nodded, seeming excited at the thought of being able to move around mid-air. “Yes! I’d love to be able to do that! Just taking the weight off my hooves would feel nice for a while I bet.” She says with a smile on her face.

Rainbow Dash nodded to her and flicked open the saddlebag. “It does feel nice! I guess that gives us pegasi an advantage in long treks, right?” She said, grinning a little and letting out a small chuckle. “Anyway, I need you to start hovering, okay Squirt?” She asked while trotting over to her.

The filly obliged her request, jumping into the air and letting herself hover where she was. Using one of her front hooves, Rainbow Dash placed it at Scootaloo's underbelly to help her stay balanced at first. “Okay, now try and move forward. Lean your weight a little and angle your wings slightly.” She said to the filly.

Scootaloo did as she asked, slowly beginning to move forward in place. Rainbow’s hoof was stopping her from fully losing her balance, just so she could try and get used to the feeling of moving first. It was working! And Scootaloo felt somewhat proud of herself, despite her just moving forward with the training wheels on.

Rainbow stopped her from going too far away, being happy with her performance. “That was great! Do that a couple more times and you’ll be a natural!” She said with a grin, making Scootaloo even happier as well.

They did it a couple more times just so Scootaloo could get used to doing it. By that point it seemed that flying forward with a support was a breeze for the filly, however Rainbow Dash felt the need to do it one more time, just in case.

“Alright, go!” The cyan Pegasus said, holding Scootaloo from the bottom. The filly did as usual; angle her wings and tilt herself very slightly forward. Like all of the other times the same outcome happened, but for some reason Rainbow Dash wasn't stopping Scootaloo like those other times. Being confused, Scootaloo looked back before noticing that her carer wasn't even under her. In fact, she was back where she originally said go.

Rainbow Dash just had a wide grin looking to the filly, seemingly very proud of her. “Looks like you didn't even need me anyway, Squirt.” She said as Scootaloo hovered back down to the ground and trotted over to her.

“You mean you weren't supporting me on that last one the entire time? I flew by myself?!” Scootaloo said, as her eyes started dilating and her smile getting wider.

Rainbow Dash nodded as she giggled; not having felt more proud of the filly than she did now. “You did do it all by yourself! You’ll probably have to practice that a bit more before you fully get the hang of it, but otherwise that was very impressive! I'm proud of you Scoots!” She said, ruffling up Scootaloo's mane with her hoof.

Meanwhile back at the Friendship Castle that Twilight and Spike stayed in, Spike was sitting on one of the thrones with a bowl of gems in his arm, flicking them into his mouth one at a time. “Twilight, you've been reading for the past two days, give it a rest and do something else for a change! Like visit your friends to see how they’re doing.” He said as he threw another gem into his mouth.

Twilight seemed still engrossed in her book as she turned one of its pages, only idly hearing Spike’s suggestion. “I'm sure if there’s something wrong, they’ll come visit me.” She said, her view moving over to Spike.

The small dragon only rolled his eyes at her response. “Yeah, but that’s not really the point. Remember when you used to go out all the time? You’d always run into them doing something silly then fixing whatever problems they had. Now all you do is sit inside and read books when you used to spread good vibes everywhere.” He stated, seeming bored.

Twilight’s head tilted slightly, looking confused. “Do I not still give out good vibes? Plus, I've always just sat inside and read books, even back when I first met them.” She said, starting to read the book again.

Spike finished off the bowl of gems, placing it on the table and standing up on the throne. “Yes you used to do it before, but not as much as you do now. The books aren't going to go anywhere you know?” He said as he jumped down from the throne and walked towards Twilight. “Come on, Twilight. Your friends are more important than books you've already read; and even if they’re not in trouble, that doesn't mean you should limit when you meet to those times.”

Twilight paused for a second before pulling a bookmark over the page she was reading. “You’re right, Spike. And it is getting pretty stuffy in here, all this reading is drying me out.” She said, smiling and closing the book. She got down from her throne and trotted towards the entrance. Spike followed her closely behind, being happy that he’d get to leave the castle after being in it for so long.

Once getting out, Twilight looked around and wondered who to visit first out of all of her friends. She knew Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo would most likely be out training somewhere, so she couldn't visit them. “I suppose we could just go until we find someone, see who we run into!” She said smiling. Spike seemed to agree so they both just started trotting around Ponyville in the hopes they could meet up with any of their friends.

It didn't take long until they ran into Pinkie Pie, who looked to have been making a delivery of baked goods to somewhere. However she stopped in her tracks and went towards Twilight upon seeing her. “Heya Twilight! You look a little pale you know?” She said, letting out a giggle. “I'm only kidding! Anyway, where you heading? Must be some super important job I'm going to guess.”

Twilight shook her head, lifting one of her front hooves up. “Nope, I'm just going around and seeing how everypony is. I hope I'm not interrupting anything with you though.” She said, looking to the box tied to her back.

Pinkie looked around to the box and smiled. “I have plenty of time to deliver this, so I'm able to be a bit lax with getting there. Don’t worry about it! But it’s nice to see you wandering Ponyville again after being stuck in that castle for so long. Ooh, ooh, you heard about Scootaloo? Dashie's doing really good at helping her to fly! She showed me that Scootaloo can hover now, isn't that exciting?” She said, having a large smile on her face.

Twilight nodded to Pinkie. “Yeah, I did hear about that. I asked Rainbow Dash to write down what happens when she’s teaching her, since I'm interested in Scootaloo's learning process. I just find it odd a filly of that age hadn't at least learned to consistently hover yet.” She said.

Lifting a hoof up to her chin, Pinkie pouted and nodded. “It is strange. After all, Pound Cake was a natural at flying at only a couple months old! Strange isn't it? Oops, gotta run! I’ll catch you later, Twilight! I hope you have fun with the whole researching thing!” The pink mare said, dashing off in the direction she was going originally.

Twilight waved to her friend before the gears started turning in her head. It WAS odd how Pound Cake flew perfectly while still being in diapers and having quite small wings compared to her weight. What’s so different about him in contrast to Scootaloo? She thought.

It was a question to sit on for a while until she figured out any possible answers, so she just proceeded to go back to trotting around Ponyville with Spike. This day was now about relaxing and not thinking too hard, so she felt comfortable about leaving the question for another day.

Spike knew she was thinking about something deep down, she always does. But like Twilight, he knew the day was about kicking your feet back. Whatever it was that she was thinking about could wait to another day.

4: Visiting Old Friends.

Scootaloo was hovering around slowly in different directions, stopping each time she changed. She wasn't able to change on the fly, but at least it was something. She and Rainbow Dash had been training for about two hours, including some minor breaks to rest.

Upon going right, Scootaloo started to lose her balance mid-air and wobble a bit. Rainbow Dash quickly held her up with one of her front hooves. “Whoops; almost lost it there Squirt. But you’re doing extremely well! You can now hover forward for the most part I think, but your balance is off when you go to the sides and we haven’t touched going backwards yet. Trust me when I say that it’s the hardest to do.” She said smiling and pulling her hoof down.

The filly nodded with a smile, moving to the left and having some minor balance troubles again. However she managed to keep her balance and hover back down to the ground. “Thanks, Dash. It means a lot coming from you, one of the greatest fliers in all of Equestria!” She said as she saw the cyan Pegasus moving over to the papers on the ground.

Rainbow Dash picked up the papers and placed them in the saddlebag, hauling it over her back afterwards. “I think we've done enough for now since you've made a lot of progress today! But I told you you’d be flying in no time with my help.”

With a confident trot, Scootaloo went over to Rainbow Dash and hugged one of her front legs. The rainbow maned Pegasus ruffled up the small filly’s mane with her other hoof, chuckling slightly. “You’re welcome. It’s always nice helping someone you care about so much. Anyway, I need to go give these notes and junk to Twilight, duty calls.” Rainbow Dash said, beginning to trot in the direction of the Friendship Castle.

Scootaloo nodded, trotting in a different direction from her carer. “I’ll go and visit Applebloom and Sweetie Belle then. See what they've been doing without me. I promise I won’t get into any trouble!” She said, quickly galloping towards the centre of Ponyville.

It didn't take her much time before she ended up in the calm but crowded centre of Ponyville. A lot of ponies had shops set up there where goods could be bought, but no sight of Applebloom or her big sister. Scootaloo trotted around the shops, looking at what they were all selling.

Before managing to move on outside of the shop area, Twilight and Spike saw Scootaloo and waved before moving over to her. Twilight lifted one of her front legs once she reached the filly. “How are you doing, Scootaloo?” The cheerful alicorn asked.

With a wide grin, Scootaloo jumped up into the air and started hovering. “I'm doing great! Rainbow Dash has been teaching me a lot, like hovering and moving while hovering. Soon enough I’ll be learning how to soar across the sky!” She said with an excited tone. She hovered back down and looked to Twilight.

Twilight nodded and giggled. “I hope so! I’d love to see you flying across Ponyville. Also speaking of Rainbow Dash, where is she if she’s not with you?” She asked as her leg was lowered back onto the ground again.

Scootaloo placed a hoof on her chin and said “You didn't see her yet? She’s going to your place to give you the notes or whatever. Surprised you didn't pass her when you came out.” Spike looked to Twilight before moving his view to Scootaloo.

“Actually, we've been walking around for nearly two hours now I think? I think that’s correct. But we've been visiting our friends and seeing how they've been. I convinced Twilight to leave the castle for once since she had her head stuck in the books for a looooong time.” He said, crossing his arms.

Twilight just gave a glare to Spike, noticing his passive aggressive response. “It was not a long time; I was reading for two days! Either way we better go back if Rainbow Dash is coming over, knowing how fast she is she’ll probably be there by now!” Twilight said, quickly trotting the other way back to her castle and saying “See you later Scootaloo! Thanks for the heads up!”

Spike sighed and started following Twilight. “We better be coming back out once you get those notes, don’t use this as an excuse to stay there!” He shouted to the alicorn, picking up the pace.

Scootaloo just chuckled a little, not knowing if her mentioning Rainbow Dash did more bad than good, specifically to Spike. The filly turned around and trotted in the direction of Applejack’s barn in the hopes of finding Applebloom. If she wasn't in the town then she was probably there.

It didn’t take the filly more than five minutes to get to Applejack’s barn, passing most of Ponyville’s landmarks in the process. When she got there the first thing that she noticed was the air giving off quite a distinct smell of apples, which of course she expected. She trotted over to the small house in which the apple family stayed in, knocking on the front door with one of her hooves.

She knew who was going to answer the door just from the hoof steps she heard coming over to it. Small but quick taps preceded the opening of the front door with Applebloom standing at the entrance. “Heya Scootaloo! How have you been? Haven’t seen you in the past couple days.” Applebloom said, moving aside to let Scootaloo in.

Scootaloo trotted inside and smiled to her southern friend as she looked at her. “I've been doing great! Rainbow Dash has been teaching me the basics of using my wings to fly and such, so I have been a little busy. What about you though?” She asked Applebloom.

Sitting down, Applebloom pulled her hoof up to her chin as she responded to Scootaloo. “Me? Well a've not been doing anything that exciting lately. I've mostly just been called to help around the house a lot with stuff like cleaning and carrying things. I don’t mind helpin' my family like this though, even if it seems boring.” She said with smile.

Sitting down as well and nodding to the red maned filly, Scootaloo said “Yeah, it does sound pretty boring; I don’t know how you could just do chores all day. Also, any chance of us getting back together to do some cutie mark crusaders stuff? It seems like whenever one of us isn't busy; the others are, so we've not been able to do much crusading.” She asked, fluttering her wings a little.

Applebloom had to think about it first, letting out a small ‘hmmm’ noise. “A'm pretty sure I don’t have anything going on tomorrow, and even if I did I'm sure Applejack wouldn’t mind me takin' a break to hang out with ya'll.” She said, putting her hoof down.

Scootaloo nodded. “What about Sweetie Belle? You think she’ll come?” She asked, lifting one of her front hooves up. Applebloom gave a small shrug to Scootaloo from not knowing the answer.

“I ain't too sure if she will. From what I heard from Applejack, apparently Sweetie Belle is goin' into some sort of music class or something. Suppose we might just have to go to her when tomorrow comes?” Applebloom said as she stood up on all four hooves.

Scootaloo stood up as well as she nodded again to Applebloom. “We’ll have to! No crusader left behind! Anyway, want to do anything now or are you busy?” She asked as she looked around, trying to find anything they could do together.

The red maned filly trotted over to the closest window and looked out of it. “Well, we could help out Applejack in harvesting more apples. She’s been at it for a couple days so it must be gettin’ tiring. I know it ain't exactly a load a fun, but you said you've been learning some stuff about flyin', so you could show me while we did it!” Applebloom said with a smile as she looked back to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo trotted over to the entrance of the house. “It’s okay that it doesn't sound like fun, but I’d be glad to help. Who knows, maybe we can make a game out of it! Whoever gets the most apples wins!” She said, having a competitive grin on her face as she looked to Applebloom.

Coming over to Scootaloo and having a slight grin herself, Applebloom lifted up her hoof for Scootaloo to bump and said. “Well you better be prepared to eat my dust, because you’re on!”

Back at the Friendship Castle, Rainbow Dash was just about to leave after placing the notes on Twilight’s table, but she was suddenly stopped by the alicorn herself coming through the front entrance. “Rainbow Dash! Sorry I wasn't here when you came in, me and Spike decided to wander around Ponyville a bit to have a break from reading books. We came across Scootaloo who told me that you were coming here, so I had to make sure I got the notes.” She said as Spike came up behind her.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and started trotting back inside the castle. “I was planning to just drop off the notes anyway, so I don’t see why you needed to rush back here for it.” She says, Twilight following her back inside and going down the long hallway.

Twilight quickly opened her wings and flew over to her table, picking up both the previous and new set of notes that Rainbow Dash had given her. She came back over and landed next to the cyan Pegasus immediately after. “Well, I wanted to ask you some things since these notes aren't exactly as informative as I’d like. No offence of course.” Twilight said, smiling nervously to the other Pegasus.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes slightly at her friend. “Implying I’d be good at writing down notes. I just wrote down what happened and stuff, not really anything specific which I'm guessing is what you meant.” She said, fluttering her wings

The alicorn nodded in response, reading through the new batch of notes that Rainbow had placed on her table. “Yes, I’m looking for specific information like how Scootaloo reacted to certain tasks. Also how you motivated her, how you helped her get to grips with flying, just general stuff like that.” She said, looking over to the cyan coloured pony.

Rainbow Dash chuckled slightly and grinned. “You want to ask me what I had for breakfast too?”

5: Thinking Back to Old Times.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight were sitting down next to each other as they were going through a series of questions that Twilight had for her cyan coloured friend. Twilight was writing down all of the answers she got on a piece of paper. “Okay, so what main things did you do to motivate her during training?” She asked, looking over to the Pegasus.

Rainbow Dash gave a small shrug to the question before answering. “I just told her that she could do it. I guess moral support? I think the thought of flying is enough to motivate her alone though.” She said as Twilight wrote down her answer.

Twilight seemed to disagree, shaking her head slightly to her cyan friend. “That can’t be true though. If she had that much of an aspiration to start flying, she’d have already been doing it by now. Maybe she’s just a slow learner, but that also doesn't make sense considering how fast she’s learnt with you.”

The Pegasus fluttered her wings and rolled her eyes. “Twilight, you’re thinking too far into something that doesn't need to be thought into. Scootaloo didn't know how to fly, so I'm teaching her how to fly. I'm pretty sure it’s that simple.” She said, lifting up her front hoof in motion.

Putting down the quill she used to write with, Twilight gave a small nod. “You’re probably right, but I'm just trying to figure out how Pound Cake managed to start flying when she got into diapers, but Scootaloo struggled on hovering until now.” She said, placing a hoof on her chin and thinking.

As she stretched, Rainbow Dash lifted herself up and started to hover around the room, looking at all the books that were scattered around. “I'm no egghead, but I'm pretty sure that if that question meant something it would have been answered already. This probably isn’t the first time a baby has flown years sooner than a filly you know.” She said, picking up some of the books, reading the titles and then dropping them to the side afterwards.

Despite Twilight seeming to want to cling onto her question, she just nodded in agreement to Rainbow Dash. “I guess you’re right. Maybe I am thinking too far into it. Anyway thanks for coming over and answering some questions for me, I'm still interested in her learning process, so it’s nice to keep up to date with it.” She says, smiling and pushing the notes on her table to the side.

“No problem Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said cheerfully. She was still floating around the room, picking up random books and reading their titles. Most of them were history books, which of course Rainbow Dash had no interest in. Even the Wonderbolts history books were thrown to the side by her, most likely because she was confident she knew everything already. “What’s with all the books everywhere? Doing your weekly rearrangement again?”

Twilight got off her seat and trotted over to where Rainbow Dash was throwing the books down, making whichever ones she threw float in the air using her telekinesis. “My book rearranging is actually every two weeks, not one. But no, I'm not rearranging my books right now; in fact I was just reading through them again since I like to keep up to date.”

Rainbow dropped the rest of the books in her grasp, looking uninterested. “Reading history books you've already read before? Yawn. I can’t read through one the first time without falling asleep.” She said, looking down to Twilight.

The alicorn just shrugged to her, placing all of the floating books back in a neat pile on the table. “Well that’s you Rainbow Dash. I find it quite exciting and it brings back so many memories of when I first read them. Some of these go all the way back to magic school. The good times there of course, not the bad times.” She said as she trotted back over to where she sat.

Rainbow Dash floated back down to where she sat before as well. “Well I wouldn't have any of that, since I never read books in the first place. I don’t know what I’d have nostalgia for, maybe seeing the Wonderbolts when I was younger? Still gets me pumped up today so I guess that counts.”

Twilight nodded slightly to her. “I’d imagine you’d have some sort of nostalgia for the Wonderbolts. I do too actually, since I did watch them when I was younger! I was more fascinated by the moves they could do; how precise and coordinated they were. It was riveting to watch and for the most part still is!” She said, having a small smile on her face.

The cyan Pegasus paused for a bit, just letting herself remember some of the old Wonderbolts displays she watched when she was a small foal. “…Actually, that reminds me of something. You know how the Junior Wonderbolts league is coming up soon? I was thinking that maybe Scootaloo could join in. I know she can’t exactly fly yet, but she’s getting there!”

Having a small frown on her face, Twilight tilted her head to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash, that’s not a good idea. Most of the fillies that enter that league have usually been flying for years, whereas Scootaloo doesn't even know how to yet. Maybe hold off until next year’s league so she can get to grips with flying first?” She said as she started arranging the books on the table with her magic.

Rainbow Dash didn't do much but nod, understanding that doing this year’s league was quite a stretch. “You’re right; it is a pretty silly idea considering that she might just lose on the first course. Boy would that crush her motivation. Okay yeah, next year then.” Rainbow Dash said, having a small smile but feeling a little disappointed inside.

Twilight knew that Rainbow felt a little upset, hoping to say something that might make her cheer up. “…Well, maybe you should ask Scootaloo? If she does manage to start flying before the league starts, then you could ask her and see if she wanted to participate.” She said as she looked over to her cyan friend, who seemed a bit more cheery from Twilight’s words.

The rainbow maned Pegasus just rolled her eyes pre-emptively. “And again, you’re right. Why don’t you just set up an advice giving shop because I'm sure you could make something out of it.” She started floating up with her wings. “Thanks for the advice Twilight, and I hope you have fun with your… notes stuff. Anyway, catch you later!” She said before zooming out of the castle.

Twilight raised her hoof when she was about to respond, only to see her friend already gone. “You’re welcome!” She yelled, before pulling a book over from a stack and opening it. She was going to continue reading before she was interrupted by Spike coughing to get her attention. It took her a second to realize what he was asking, only closing the book and smiling nervously afterwards. “Whoops, sorry Spike. I suppose we could still visit some more ponies in the meantime.”

Both Applebloom and Scootaloo were racing to pick the most apples in the shortest amount of time. They both decided on getting fifty each before they were able to say they won. Applebloom had been using a strong and quick approach, bucking the trees like her older sister would do until an apple fell down to the ground. Scootaloo used a slower but more guaranteed approach, floating up and grabbing a few apples before coming back down and dropping them, only to repeat the process again.

They were both head to head a lot of the time, or at least it looked like it any way. There wasn't an easy way to tell who the winner was, but they both finished at roughly the same time, changing the tie breaker to how many apples they actually collected.

Both fillies were counting in their head as they assessed the apples they collected. “I collected fifty three Scootaloo!” Applebloom said, feeling proud she went over the initial goal. Scootaloo was still counting hers, moving them behind her with each one.

Eventually she reached the last couple apples, having a grin on her face. “Well I got fifty six! Looks like my tactic worked better!” She said, gloating a little at her small victory.

Applebloom giggled and trotted over to her. “I guess it did. You won fair ‘n’ square then, but I blame the trees only givin' me one or two apples sometimes, if only they gave me three more. But don’t worry, I don’t feel jealous or sour or anything. We at least helped out Applejack a bit with her apple pickin', so that’s a win for both of us in my books!”

Scootaloo nodded to Applebloom with a smile. “That’s the most important part!” She said, taking a small breather to look around at the apples before looking back to Applebloom again. “So, cutie mark crusaders meet up tomorrow then? Hopefully we can get Sweetie Belle involved if she isn't busy.” She said as she sat down in front of Applebloom.

The red maned filly nodded in response, hoping their other friend would be able to join them. “I’d like to hope so too. I haven’t heard much from her since that whole music class thing, startin' to miss her company. But don’t tell her I said that.” She said, pouting and sitting down along with Scootaloo.

Without much of a notice, Rainbow Dash had suddenly flown right next to the two fillies, having just come back from Twilight’s place. Scootaloo quickly got back up on her hooves and tried to hug the hovering Pegasus. “Rainbow Dash! How did you know I was here?” Scootaloo asked Rainbow as she dropped to the ground.

Once she was on the ground the orange filly managed to hug her, wrapping her hooves around one of Rainbow’s front legs. “I have vision like a hawk! Also you told me you were going to visit Applebloom or Sweetie Belle, this was just my first guess.” She said, rubbing the filly’s mane with her other front leg. “So what have you two been up to? Finding your cutie marks again or just chatting?”

Applebloom shook her head to Rainbow Dash. “Nah, we challenged each other to see who could collect the most apples. Scootaloo won by three o' them.” She said, standing up on her four hooves again.

The rainbow maned Pegasus just grinned as she spoke. “Oh did she now? You win some you lose some, you just move on from what you lost. But at least you two had fun! Or at least it seems like you did.”

Scootaloo pulled herself off of Rainbow’s leg. “We did have fun, and it gave me time to practice what I've learned from the flying training stuff!” She looked over to Applebloom with a smile. “But I better head back with Rainbow Dash now, save whatever else we might have done for tomorrow. Don’t want to end up having nothing to do.”

Applebloom nodded with a smile as well. “That’s okay; I need to tell Applejack about all these picked apples over here anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow Scootaloo!” She said as she waved to her friend.

Scootaloo waved back to Applebloom and said her goodbyes to her as well before being lifted onto Rainbow Dash’s back and flown back towards their house. While the time was only the afternoon, Scootaloo still wanted to go back home to relax a bit. All that training and apple picking really expended most of her energy for the day.

But tomorrow was a new day and she had plans for it, hoping to hang out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle again after not being able to for a while. Training can go on pause for a day or two; she didn't want to stress out her wings too much at once.

Author's Note

I planned this to be around 1,400 words. Not 2,000+. Whoops.

6: Reunion.

“Nice to see you've been keeping the clubhouse clean, Applebloom!” Scootaloo stated as she walked inside of their small but cosy Cutiemark Crusader clubhouse. It hadn't changed a bit since its initial creation; it didn't really need to. The orange filly looked at some of the small knick-knacks that were set up at the sides of the room; they were just random things they collected on their crusading journeys.

Applebloom climbed up the slanted ladder that lead to the attic of the clubhouse while she spoke. “Thanks for noticin' Scootaloo, wouldn't want it all dusty and gross in here!” She started rummaging amongst things while she was up there, obviously looking for something.

While Applebloom was exploring the depths of the attic, Scootaloo continued to look around the clubhouse, taking notice of its decorations again. One of the posters that were on the wall was the common Wonderbolts poster, the one with the four black silhouetted fliers above the three grounded ones. It was obvious Scootaloo put this one up, mostly in admiration for Rainbow Dash's obsession with them.

Without much of a warning, a generic reporter's hat was thrown down the ladder and landed on the ground. “Look what ah' found! It's that hat Sweetie Belle used when we did that news stuff. There's a lot of old things in here we used to use when searchin' for our cutie marks. There's even one of them old capes we used to wear! It has a tear in it, so I'm guessin' it's yours.” She said, still messing about in the attic.

Scootaloo remembered when it got torn as well; it was when they were being chased after by the Cockatrice. It was their true first adventure together as the cutie mark crusaders; it would be a hard thing to forget. “Wow! How old is that thing? Did we even wear them again after that one time?” Scootaloo asked, trotting over to the bottom of the ladder.

Applebloom started climbing down the ladder, turning around and looking at Scootaloo at the same time. “I don't think we did, probably for a good reason.” She said hopping off of the ladder once she got down far enough. “But you know one thing I can't wait for? All three of us coming back here after we all grow up. Think of the memories we've shared here! All those things in the attic would be quite a sight.”

The orange filly agreed, nodding her head to Applebloom. “That would be something alright. But anyway, should we go and see if Sweetie Belle wants to hang out today as well? My first guess on where she'd be would be Rarity's place.” She said, trotting closer to Applebloom.

Applebloom started trotting towards the entrance of the clubhouse. “That would be my first guess too, so I suppose we should start there. If she ain't at the Boutique, then at least Rarity would probably know where she is.” She said as she quickly got outside the clubhouse and waited for Scootaloo at the bottom of the stairs.

Scootaloo took no time in following her friend, except she floated down from the clubhouse instead of taking the small set of stairs. They both started trotting together afterwards, going on their way to Rarity's Boutique.

They both trotted into Ponyville together, looking around at yet again another buzzing day for the town. Ponies were everywhere, enjoying the scenery and bartering to their heart's content with the local shops scattered around the place. Every day seemed like a peaceful day; a bright sun, warm air and a slew of good weather. Scootaloo liked to imagine that Rainbow Dash had something to do with the clear weather.

“What you planning to learn next with your flying stuff, Scootaloo? Or have you not finished the moving around while hovering thing yet?” Applebloom asked, continuing to trot alongside Scootaloo at the same time.

Scootaloo looked over to her friend and gave a small shrug. “I'm not sure. Rainbow Dash said that I still needed to learn hovering backwards, and I know I need to practice going from side to side more. But besides that, I don't know what I'll be learning next. Who knows, maybe I'll learn to soar around in the sky next if I'm ready!” She said as she seemed excited and happy.

Applebloom gave a big smile to Scootaloo, feeling excited for her as well. “That would be great! It would also make gettin' to places easier. But I can't wait to see you flyin', would be quite a sight.” She said as they were getting close to Rarity's Boutique.

Just before they went inside, Scootaloo said “Better late than never!” as she held open the door for Applebloom to come inside as well. Like they would have expected, it was very clean inside the Boutique. With no Rarity in sight however, both of the fillies decided to go to where the pony of generosity made all of her fabulous wares.

Scootaloo knocked on the door to the room that the fashion mare commonly worked in. “Hello? Rarity? It's Scootaloo and Applebloom here, hoping to find Sweetie Belle!” She said, waiting at the door for anyone to come over.

Eventually a pony did, opening the door and letting the fillies inside. “Sorry about that, I was a bit busy with some stitches I was in the middle of. Sweetie Belle is inside her room, or at least she should be.” Rarity said as she stepped to the site.

Both fillies thanked Rarity for letting them through before heading over to Sweetie Belle's room. Of course they both announced their presence audibly, shouting for the pink and purple maned filly. When they entered her room, Sweetie Belle jumped off her bed and trotted over to the two other fillies. “Hey! Nice to see you two come for me, I was starting to get bored of being cooked up inside this place.”

Sweetie Belle opened her arms for a hug, to which the other two fillies obliged, hugging her back with a smile. When the hug was over the first filly to speak was Applebloom. “We figured we'd come over and see if you wanted to hang out with us for a bit. Maybe do some crusading stuff for our cutie marks!” She said, trotting in place.

The pink and purple maned unicorn nodded in response to Applebloom. “Of course I'd like to! It beats just sitting in here anyway.” She said as they all began to leave the room and trot outside the Boutique.

When they got out, Sweetie Belle sat down and took in the fresh outside air. “So what are we going to do to try and get our cutie marks? We could try fishing again. It didn't work out so well last time but at least we know what we did wrong!” She said as she smiled.

Applebloom shook her head. “Nah, fish stink too much for me. But you know what we could do? We could visit Zecora in the Everfree Forest! Maybe we could learn how to make mystical potions!” She gave a small grin with Scootaloo seeming to be okay with the idea.

Sweetie Belle seemed a bit more anxious about the idea of going into the Everfree Forest though. “Maybe we should wait for her to come to us since she occasionally does that. I mean we shouldn't really be going in the Everfree Forest anyway.” She said as she smiled nervously.

Scootaloo decided to back her up. “Yeah, we shouldn't. While I think we could easily go through the forest, if you're not feeling up to it then that's fine. We can just wander around until we do find something to do!” She said, lifting a hoof up.

Neither of the other two fillies seemed to mind the suggestion as Sweetie Belle stood up and went next to Scootaloo. “Sounds like a good idea! We'll just visit Zecora another time, preferably whenever Rarity or Twilight could come with us.” Sweetie Belle said before they all started to explore Ponyville together.

They ended up wandering the town for a bit, chatting and sharing stories in the process. Scootaloo was mentioning stories about when she and Rainbow Dash played some intense hide and seek inside their house, saying how her size allowed her to win from being less seen. Applebloom just talked about all the things she had to do in the past week with Applejack and the rest of the apple family. Most of it was chore work like cleaning the barn or moving hay.

Sweetie Belle mentioned her music classes, saying that she was one of the singers in the class and that she commonly got a lot of praise from the teachers. It was then Scootaloo started to realize she never really made anyone proud except for Rainbow Dash. But at least her praise was extremely important to her.

They were coming up to a news stand that sold newspapers. Sweetie Belle mentioned that there were posters of her class around the town, including some at the news-stands. Like Sweetie Belle had said, there was a poster of her class at the stand and it's advertisement for more fillies to join, in-fact the entire section of the stand had a lot of advertisements.

The one that caught Scootaloo's was of course the Wonderbolts one. It seemed to be about the Junior League and that they were accepting all Pegasus fillies who wanted to come and join. On the poster it stated that the league was a set of elimination courses followed by two final races between the top competitors. Applebloom realized the poster caught her friend's attention and looked over to it as well.

“You could enter that someday you know! I bet you'd go really far in the competition, maybe even win!” She said as she smiled to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo shook her head, smiling nervously as her wings fluttered. “Nah… I can't even stay stable on my two wings. I'd get blown out in the first course instantly.” She said as her wings tucked back in.

Applebloom couldn't do much but nod. “I know, but I mean when you do start flyin'. Obviously I don't mean right now since you're still workin' on it. But you could try someday.” She said.

Scootaloo stared at the poster for a bit before gaining a small smile. “Maybe someday. I bet Rainbow Dash would be really proud of me, but I wouldn't want to disappoint her.”

Sweetie Belle came over and smiled to Scootaloo as well. “Rainbow Dash wouldn't get disappointed in you if you lost, Scootaloo. If you fail, try and try again! I'm sure that when you start flying, you'll get the hang of it in no time. It just comes naturally once you get a feel for it! Or at least that's how I felt with singing.”

Scootaloo just smiled to Sweetie Belle and thanked her, trotting away from the news stand with the other two fillies as well. All that really mattered right now was that she was learning to fly; with the pony she admired the most being the one teaching her.

7: A Long Time Coming.

It was the next day after Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom had hung out; they didn't end up doing any cutie mark crusading, but at least they chatted and had fun. Spike was sleeping soundly in his small bed, still being tired as it was quite early on in the morning as well.

His deep slumber was rudely interrupted by the sound of thumping books, giving out a quiet groan and pulling his small duvet over him more. Sadly the increased cover from his bed didn't do much to dampen the many sounds of books being used. It prompted him to groggily get out of bed and walk towards the main room of the castle.

Twilight was sitting at the table, still rereading books she previously read but at a much faster pace, almost glossing over them occasionally. She stopped from hearing Spike clear his throat however, turning her view to face him. Spike looked tired and still half asleep as he rubbed his head. “Twilight, could you maybe be a bit quieter with the stuff… I can't sleep with all that noise!” He said.

Twilight smiled nervously, not realizing she woke her assistant. “Whoops, sorry Spike. I'll be quiet while you go back to sleep, sorry I woke you up.” She said, closing her book. Spike didn't respond much, just heading back to his bed in the hopes of being able to sleep again.

In order to not disturb Spike's slumber, Twilight decided it'd be a good idea to read outside again like she used to. She picked up some books with her magic and flew out the castle as to not make any trotting noises from her exit. Once outside she sat down at the side of her castle and began reading again.

The time was around half past six in the morning, the sun already having dawned over most of Equestria. Despite the clear sky and beaming sun, it wasn't a very hot day, but it also wasn't a cold day either. The temperature was comfortable and relaxing, with a light breeze brushing up against Twilight helping to make the day feel like one of the best this year.

Twilight would have gone and visited Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, just to see how they were doing and maybe even watch as Scootaloo was being taught. But she didn't want to leave Spike all alone when he woke up, despite knowing that he was old enough to handle himself anyway. She just thought it would be rude of her to just leave like that without a notice.

“Hmm… I could leave a note though. I'm sure Spike wouldn't mind it if I left for a bit to let him sleep.” She said talking to herself. She took most of the books back inside the castle, flying inside as to not disturb Spike's sleep again. Using her magic, she picked up a piece of paper and a quill to write a note that stated she was going to Rainbow Dash's for a bit.

When she finished writing it she placed it down on the table she was constantly at, making sure that Spike would be able to see it easily when he woke up. Afterwards she flew back outside again, levitating the two books she left on the grass back over to her and flying towards Rainbow Dash's hard to miss cloud house.

She liked to take in the scenery wherever she went, admiring the lovely contrast of Ponyville and its inhabitants as she flew over most of the buildings. Despite everything that went on through the years that she had been in Ponyville, it still retained that sense of friendship and friendliness that she eventually grew to love.

It didn't take her that long to reach Rainbow's cloud house as she flew over to the front door and knocked on it. “It's me Twilight! I decided to come over to check up on how you and Scootaloo were doing.” She said as she stopped flying. She waited a couple seconds before noticing there was no response, meaning that the two pegasi were most likely out at this moment in time.

She trotted over to the edge of the cloud house and peered over it, looking for any sign of the two pegasi. Upon scanning the landscape, she did notice something in the far distance of an open field nearby. She decided to check it out anyway, hopping off of the cloud house and flying over towards the field.

When she got close enough, she finally managed to see that it was Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo training. Scootaloo was hovering in the air again, except she seemed to be moving much more confidently and fluidly than before. Moving forward wasn't an issue and going side to side was getting there, but she quickly lost her balance when trying to hover backwards.

Rainbow Dash quickly held her up again as she was about to fall from trying to go backwards. “Careful there Squirt, you almost lost your balance again. Although I don't blame you, it is pretty tricky going backwards at first, even if you're pretty good at going side to side. It isn't an essential right now though, so don't worry if you don't get the hang of it soon enough.” She said as she gave Scootaloo a small push forward.

Twilight flew down next to Rainbow Dash, making the Pegasus look slightly surprised. “Twilight? What are you doing here?” the cyan Pegasus asked as Scootaloo turned around and hovered back over to them.

Twilight smiled to her rainbow maned friend. “I came over to see how you two were doing. I tried your house but you weren't in, so I looked around and saw you in this field. I was thinking I could stay and watch as Scootaloo learnt to fly, maybe get a good idea of what exactly is helping her.” The purple mare said.

Rainbow Dash promptly rolled her eyes with a small grin. “That's the nice way of saying my notes didn't satisfy you I'm guessing. But I don't see why you couldn't watch, unless Scootaloo was uncomfortable with it or something.” She said as she looked over to the hovering filly. Scootaloo just shook her head, not seeming to mind if Twilight watched or not.

Twilight then sat down beside Rainbow Dash, putting the book she was carrying onto the ground and opening it. Rainbow Dash only continued from where they left off before Twilight came over; trotting over to Scootaloo before manually changing the filly's posture mid-air. “Okay, when you hover backwards, try to rise while you propel yourself back with your wings. Don't let your balance get too off though, just stop and wait until you're comfortable enough to keep going.” She said with a smile.

Scootaloo did as Rainbow Dash said, letting herself start to hover backwards. It didn't take long before her balance nearly got thrown off; stopping and waiting like her carer had told her to do before she continued to move backwards again. While it was far from perfect, it was the first time she didn't end up on her backside upon trying it.

Rainbow Dash was proud of the filly, knowing that even she struggled back when she didn't know how to fly. Scootaloo's progress was incredible to the cyan Pegasus, having only taken a couple days before she was somewhat comfortable moving in most directions in the air. “You did fantastic! I knew you would be able to do it with a little bit of practice!” The cyan Pegasus said as Scootaloo just smiled in happiness.

It was motivating to hear the pony she always admired complementing her; she knew that without Rainbow Dash's help she probably wouldn't have gotten too far by herself. “Thanks Rainbow Dash! I couldn't have done it without you!” She said, floating back down to the ground and heading over to hug Rainbow Dash's leg.

Twilight was intrigued by how much Scootaloo had learnt in less than a week when somehow she never learnt much in the past four years before then. The gears were still turning in her head as she watched on.

Rainbow Dash had leaned down and gave Scootaloo a small nuzzle, thinking that doing it quick would mean less people saw her being such a softy. After the filly's grip had broken away, Rainbow Dash wanted to see if Scootaloo could take it one step further. “Alright Squirt, I think you might be ready to try and fly. Not anything extreme or super cool mind you, but just simple flying.”

She expected a nervous or un-ready response from Scootaloo, but to her surprise, the filly was more excited than nervous. Knowing she was comfortable with trying it out, she flew up into the air and picked Scootaloo up with her, lifting her over her head. She wanted to be close to the filly in case anything happened.

“Alright, I'm going to fly forward at a slow pace. I want you to extend your legs out like all the other pegasi do when flying fast; I'll support you at first, but when you're ready I'll let you control yourself.” Rainbow Dash said, holding Scootaloo up from her stomach with her hoof. The cyan pegasus made sure to have them going in the direction of a large area with nothing in it, just so Scootaloo wouldn't bump into anything by accident.

The filly extended her legs into the common flying position as Rainbow Dash started out slow at first, just easing the filly in. When she felt that Scootaloo was ready, she started to speed up to a jogging style pace with the filly now flapping her wings as if she was actually flying.

Rainbow Dash carefully pulled her hoof away from supporting Scootaloo, seeing if she would be able to fly by herself. Scootaloo did notice the lack of Rainbow's physical support, wanting to imagine it was still there as she tried her best to remain composed.

After a couple seconds without Rainbow Dash's help, Scootaloo looked down and quickly gained a grin, feeling a sense of wonderment and glee as she realized that she was finally flying. “I'm flying! I'm flying!” She said excitedly, making Rainbow Dash's expression change to that of amazement as well. She had never felt prouder in the filly than she did now, that after so long she was finally able to achieve what she always wanted to do.

8: One Hoof At A Time.

Rainbow Dash was standing in front of Scootaloo, somewhat far away but still close enough so that she could be heard normally talking. “Changing directions while flying is actually less complex than when you’re changing directions while hovering, but at the same time it’s actually more complex. Most of the time you fly, you’ll be dodging things more than actually changing directions. All you need to do to do that is tilt your body,” Rainbow Dash said, standing still where she was.

Scootaloo realized that Rainbow Dash wanted her to fly around her, which made Scootaloo feel slightly nervous at the thought of bumping straight into her carer. Rainbow noticed the filly’s hesitation, prompting her to say more. “Hey, don’t worry about it! It’s alright if it doesn’t work out the first time, I know that it might be tough to do. Just have at it and if you make a mistake then that’s okay, we can just try again.”

The filly felt much more comfortable than she did at the thought of making a mistake now, since she didn’t want to end up disappointing Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo trotted back a bit to have a small build up so that when she started flying, she wouldn’t just idly hover. Her movement suddenly accelerated as she jumped into the air and stretched her legs out, beginning to fly towards Rainbow Dash.

It seems she made a mistake before she even reached the first hurdle, as it didn’t take long before she lost her balance and her nose went straight into the grass. She pulled her head back up and cleaning her nose slightly, feeling embarrassed from the small misstep. Even with her impressive display of flying before, she hadn’t exactly mastered the take off part yet.

She trotted back to her starting position and decided to give it a second try. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to say much about the small mistake the filly made. Inside she wanted to laugh, but she knew that it wouldn’t be a good thing to do in front of her right now. When she had recomposed herself Scootaloo gave it another try. She started galloping before jumping into the air, spreading her wings and stretching out her legs.

This time she didn’t crash into the ground however, making it over to the statue-like Rainbow Dash acting as an obstruction. Scootaloo tried to tilt herself as best she could when she neared Rainbow Dash, but it wasn’t enough as she clipped the side of her shoulder and then lost her balance again, falling to the ground.

It was still a pretty good attempt for a first time flier though. Rainbow Dash came out from her statue like state and trotted over to the filly lying on the ground. “You did pretty well! Better than I did my first time trying to dodge something, except I bumped into a wall and not somepony else. Still, I’m very proud of you Scootaloo,” She said, sitting down in-front of her and pulling her up off the ground.

When Scootaloo was helped up, she immediately scooted over and gave Rainbow Dash a small hug; to which Rainbow Dash immediately hugged back. While the two pegasi were in a warming embrace, Twilight was writing down notes in the blank pages of the book that she had taken with her. She had been lying down the entire time the two pegasi had been training, mostly staying unnoticed and quiet.

Rainbow Dash pulled out of the hug and stood back up again, her view gazing around the open field as she said, “I think we’ll give it a break for now, Scoots. You’ve made a ton of progress in the last hour and I think you deserve one.” Her view peered over to Twilight, who still seemed to be distracted. “Hey Twilight, you coming with? Me and Scootaloo are going to go head into Ponyville for a bit, see what we can dig up,” Rainbow Dash said.

Upon hearing her name, Twilight’s view had perked up towards the two pegasi, snapping out of the small trance she had been in from her reading. “Huh? Oh… yeah. Sorry I wasn’t paying attention, I guess I just got too caught up in my thoughts,” she said vaguely with a small nervous laugh afterwards. She picked up her book with her magic and began to trot over to the two pegasi.

Rainbow Dash had noticed the vague response Twilight had given, deciding to think nothing of it and that it was just Twilight being Twilight again. She continued to trot alongside Scootaloo as they all went over towards Ponyville. “So, did you get enough info this time? Since I saw you writing down stuff in that book,” Rainbow Dash said with a passive aggressive tone.

Twilight nodded in response to Rainbow Dash as she followed her shortly behind. “I guess I did. But truthfully I only really wanted to watch Scootaloo progress! But what I saw reinforced some of my theories, which of course I had to write down. Spike seems to think what I’m talking about is bogus but-” she said as she cut herself off, suddenly remembering something she had forgotten about. “Oh shoot! I forgot about Spike! I hope he’s okay all alone in the castle. I’ll talk to you two again later, I need to go and see if Spike’s okay,” she said as she suddenly flew away from the two pegasi in a rush.

While Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had just continued to head casually into Ponyville, Twilight didn’t take too much time in getting back to the friendship castle. Upon reaching her destination, she trotted inside and kept a look out for Spike. Soon enough she reached the main table she always sat at when reading, noticing that all the books scattered around it previously were now cleaned up and put back in their rightful location.

“What’s with the rush, Twilight? Don’t think I’m old enough to take care of myself?” Spike said, crossing his arms as he was behind Twilight. She turned around and laughed nervously at Spike, prompting him to raise an eyebrow to her.

Once Twilight had recollected herself, she cleared her throat and shook her head slightly. “No! I do know you can take good care of yourself when you’re alone. I was more worried that maybe something might have happened while I was gone,” she said, adjusting her mane with her hoof.

Spike seemed to accept her explanation, giving a small shrug in response. “Okay, but it’s fine if you think I can’t handle things on my own,” he said as he started walking into the nearby kitchen.

Twilight followed him close behind, wanting to reiterate with what she said. “It’s my responsibility to look after you, Spike. It’s why I rushed home to see if you were okay. It’s not that I don’t think you’re responsible enough to handle things on your own,” she said as Spike opened one of the cupboards and reached inside, pulling out a small bag of crisps.

He opened the bag and started eating as he spoke. “I know, I know. Anyway, what did you end up doing at Rainbow Dash’s place? You were there for at least an hour from what I could tell.” He continued to eat as they both walked out from the kitchen.

Twilight pulled up the book she had carried back with her that had some notes in them, opening it and skimming over what she wrote. “Actually, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were training in the middle of a field. I finally got a chance to see how Rainbow Dash was teaching her upfront, which was nice. Surprisingly, what I saw reinforced my theory that pegasi need a lot of emotional support for them to fly! Pound Cake was flying from an extremely early age, which doesn’t make sense if we compared her to Scootaloo. But Pound Cake was around Pinkie Pie at the time she started to fly, and she’s probably the happiest pony in Ponyville!” She said with a gleeful smile as she looked to Spike.

He was still eating, still seeming sketchy of the idea. “But don’t you remember? Pinkie Pie said that she got very upset and angry that day because of the two foals, doesn’t sound too emotionally supporting to me,” he said, munching down on some more crisps.

Twilight nodded to Spike, closing her book and placing it on the table as they got over to it. “Well you know how everypony has that sort of… aura around them? Not a physical aura of course, the type that you feel more than see. Well I think that might have something to do with it!” She said with another happy smile.

Spike had finished eating the bag of crisps he had, scrunching up the bag in his hands. “So what you’re saying is that pegasi learn to fly faster depending on who they’re around? Well obviously, Twilight. Un-supportive parents would obviously put their foal in a bad mood if they’re un-supportive,” he said as he threw away the scrunched up bag in his hands, making Twilight glare at him for making a small mess.

She nodded again to Spike, pulling one of her hooves up and motioning it with her speech. “That’s true, but I think it may affect them subconsciously more than just emotionally. Kind of like an emotional inhibitor! But this also means something else. It means Scootaloo had un-supportive parents.” While Twilight seemed happy with her discovery, Spike just rolled his eyes.

“Twilight, her parents don’t matter anymore. Remember what Luna told you two years ago? She said to just put all of that behind us and forget about it. Scootaloo is happy with Rainbow Dash now, so I’m sure that whatever we could dig up about her parents isn’t needed anymore,” Spike said, crossing his arms again. Twilight ears flopped back as she looked away.

“Yeah, I know that. But it’s just a question that was bugging me back then and is still bugging me to this day! How her parents just magically disappeared without anypony lifting a feather,” Twilight said, turning around and rubbing the cover of the book she had previously placed on the table. “But I suppose you’re right, Spike. I should listen to what Luna said and just forget it again. After all, it’s still her future that matters the most.”

9: Practice Makes Perfect.

A couple days had passed since Scootaloo’s first flight, where nothing really interesting had happened in those days asides from more learning. Scootaloo had never been more determined on getting herself in the air than she did now; knowing that she was more than half way there helped motivate that desire. She trained hard, trying to use her wings everywhere she went to get accustomed to them as best she could.

While their previous learning sessions had lasted roughly around an hour to two hours, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were now spending three hours a day just trying to fine tune her new-found flying capabilities. While Rainbow Dash thought that Scootaloo was pushing herself too hard, her excitement and enthusiasm was inspiring. It reminded her of when she was a young filly just learning to fly, where she was so focused on being the best that taking second place was never an option.

Rainbow Dash assumed that this new day would be their final day of hard-core training, since everything Scootaloo needed to learn she had learnt. While her flying was still very stiff and unpractised, Rainbow Dash felt that it was a good time to see what Scootaloo was able to do.

With a small yawn, Scootaloo began to wake up from another long sleep. She opened her eyes to look around her brightly lit room, trying to look for a clock before remembering that she didn’t have one on her wall. Instead she had a small alarm clock on a desk that was to the side of her bed. She tugged and inched herself closer to the desk before getting close enough to pick up the clock, only to notice that the time was nearly nine in the morning!

This made Scootaloo jolt up from her bed and look slightly alarmed, thinking that she must have overslept. Usually she was woken up around six, so either Rainbow Dash forgot or she slept through her callings. Upon dropping the clock, she quickly jumped out of her bed and went into the living room.

Despite sitting on the couch and being in the process of reading a book, Rainbow Dash had noticed Scootaloo coming out from her room and gave a small smile to her. “Did you have a good sleep? I’ve just been sitting here reading some books Twilight brought over, most of it seems like junk but at least it’s something to do,” she said, putting the book down and trotting over to Scootaloo.

Concerned about the time she woke up, Scootaloo decided to question about it. “Don’t you normally wake me up at six? Or is it actually six and my alarm clock is just broken or something?” She said, lifting up a hoof.

Rainbow Dash shook her head and sat down in-front of her. “Your clock isn’t broken, don’t worry. The reason I didn’t wake you up so early this time is because you’ve been working yourself to exhaustion, which isn’t too good for a small filly like you. So I just let you sleep until you woke up yourself,” She said as Scootaloo trotted back inside of her room and over to desk, picking up a brush that was on it.

She spoke over to Rainbow Dash from inside her room as she was cleaning up her mane with the brush. “What about the training stuff though? Weren’t we going to do that like we did for the past week?” She asked.

Rainbow Dash trotted insider he room as well, hanging by the door and watching Scootaloo brush her mane. “We still are going to do that training junk, but I think it’s time we laid off it for a bit. Take it a little easier so that your wings won’t end up getting overused. You can do pretty much everything you needed to learn to do; the rest is just practice and getting comfortable flying around!” She said with a happy smile on her face.

Scootaloo turned to face Rainbow Dash and nodded in agreement, knowing not to stress herself out too much. “I suppose you’re right, so no training today I’m guessing?” She asked as she started to trot over to her room’s entrance.

Rainbow Dash shook her head again, leaning to the side to let Scootaloo pass through the doorway. “We are doing some training, but it’s more of a test if I’ll be honest. I want to see you take what you’ve learned and actually try flying around things like they were a course,” she said as she followed her shortly behind, speaking again. “I know it might be a bit scary, but if you do make a mistake, the best thing to do is get back up and keep going! “

Scootaloo still seemed nervous at the thought of doing some complex flying, complex for her skill level anyway. “You sure I’m up for that? What if I just make so many mistakes to the point that you get disappointed with me; I don’t want to disappoint you,” she said, looking away from Rainbow Dash.

As she flew in-front of Scootaloo’s view, Rainbow Dash just pulled her chin up and grinned confidently. “Trust me; I will never be disappointed in you. I’m already really proud of you, Squirt. A couple missteps in something you need to practice with won’t bum me out, I promise,” She said.

Scootaloo couldn’t help but smile, knowing that she’d always have Rainbow Dash’s support. She quickly leaned over and hugged her neck while she was still flying. “Thanks again; I’m so happy to have someone so awesome and supportive by me all the time.”

Pulling the filly up, Rainbow Dash returned the hug and gave a small chuckle. “I am pretty awesome, but thanks. It means a lot coming from you though,” She said as she put Scootaloo back down on the ground, hovering over to the entrance of her house as she said. “So how about you show me how much of an awesome flier you can be?”

Scootaloo nodded, quickly trotting over to the entrance as Rainbow Dash opened the door and flew out. Like all of the other times they left the house, Scootaloo had to be carried down from the sky high cloud house, even though she now had the capabilities to fly herself down.

As they wandered around the top of Ponyville, they both looked for areas that would make a good temporal training course. Seems Rainbow Dash already had a place in mind, going over to a specific area instead of just exploring like Scootaloo expected. However, her interest had peaked when they approached the Apple Farm of all places.

The abundance of trees and small structures at the Apple Farm would make a perfect spot to manoeuvring around tight spaces, Rainbow Dash had thought; with the buildings providing a wider approach to turning as well. It seemed like the perfect place to start at that wasn’t an official filly flying course.

Scootaloo still seemed nervous despite Rainbow Dash saying she could make as many mistakes as she liked. She felt like she had some sort of reputation to keep and that making a lot of mistakes would tamper it. It’s obvious her self-confidence was nowhere near as good as Rainbow Dash’s, but at least she had a reason to feel confident.

It didn’t take them long to reach the Apple Farm, with Scootaloo being dropped off as Rainbow Dash hovered to her side. “Okay; what I want you to try and do is make your way through this batch of orchards. You can take it as slow as you feel comfortable with; don’t worry about getting through fast, just try to manoeuvre around the trees as best you can,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew to the other end of the long clump of orchards.

Scootaloo laughed nervously once Rainbow Dash had left, not feeling confident with her flying just yet. She did say that she could take it as slow as she wanted, but she assumed she had to at least be going fast enough to be considered flying.

Collecting herself and taking a deep breath; she galloped towards the orchards before jumping into a flying position, using her wings to keep herself in the air as she began to intrude the batch of orchards. It took no time before she started to have a struggle going through the trees, clipping some as she weaved around them as best she could. It was very tough for her to judge just how much she was going to shift from side to side every time she leaned, most of the time either over tilting or under tilting and only occasionally meeting the sweet spot.

She met her first speed-bump as she slammed too hard into one of the trees, spinning out and losing control of her flight all of a sudden. Luckily she sustained no big injury, just a small scrape on her arm and a butt covered in grass. She felt like she was doing decently well until then, at least for a near first time flier. She immediately got back up again and continued on with her flight through the thick population of trees, knowing that she was able to make a couple mistakes.

She kept as focused as she could; scraping less and less trees as she progressed through the large batch of orchards. It wasn’t long before she began to see the near endless amount of trees start to thin out, allowing her to take wider turns. She managed to stop scraping trees all together as she drew closer to finishing, getting a feel for simple dodging.

To her surprise, she had suddenly exited the clump of orchards at a high speed, making herself come to a halt shortly after and turning around mid-air to take a second look at the trees. Oddly enough she didn’t see Rainbow Dash when she exited; at least not until she was picked up by her and pulled up higher into the air. “I was watching you the entire time, since the leaves aren’t that hard to see through. But still, look what you just passed through!” She said, showing Scootaloo the mass of trees she had just flew through with relatively minor hitches. “You seriously don’t know how surprised I am by how well you did! I saw you take that one fall and I knew it must have demotivated you. But I’m so proud that you got back up again; I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Squirt.” She said with a wide smile as she let Scootaloo go in-front of her.

Scootaloo practically had stars in her eyes as she widely grinned from the praise. It was her true first flight, and even though it may not have been that exciting, it was a good enough starting point. She turned around to face Rainbow Dash, who had her hoof up in-front of her for a hoof bump. Of course Scootaloo obliged, smacking her hoof harder than she intended in her excitement.

She hoped it would just be the beginning of what she would be able to do, finally having her dream to fly come true.

10: Surprise.

After they had left the Apple Farm, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash went into Ponyville to visit Pinkie Pie again. Upon entering Sugarcube Corner the two were welcomed by Ms. Cake at the counter. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! Although I’m guessing you two are looking for Pinkie Pie. She’s up in her room, so feel free to go visit,” she said as a warming smile spread over her face.

They both thanked Ms. Cake before trotting past her and up the stairs that led into Pinkie’s somewhat large room. The first thing they noticed was Pinkie Pie giving Gummy a bath in the middle of the room, but it was being done in a small wooden bucket instead of a large bathtub. The bucket was full of bubbles as the only thing that poked out of it was Gummy’s head, which was also covered in bubbles.

Of course Rainbow Dash approached her first, with Scootaloo tagging on behind. “Sup, Pinkie? I see you’re a bit busy with… things,” she said as she lifted a hoof. Pinkie Pie pulled Gummy out from the bucket and quickly wrapped him in a towel.

After Gummy was practically encased inside a towel on the floor, Pinkie stood up and gave a small smile to Rainbow Dash as she talked. “I was just giving Gummy a bath; he got in with Mr and Ms Cake’s laundry when I wasn’t looking, the small adventurer that he is.” She giggled, picked him up again and began to dry him.

With the thoughts of Gummy running through the Cakes’ laundry, Rainbow Dash shivered and put her hoof down. “…Gross. Anyway, Equestria’s newest and greatest flier here managed to go through Applejack’s entire field of orchards with only one fall!” She said, pulling Scootaloo over from the side.

Scootaloo was about to speak before she was suddenly pulled into a hug by Pinkie Pie, who was very excited about her accomplishment to say the least. “You flew?! Do you know what this means? We need to hold a celebration party for you! We’ll invite all of your friends over and have cake and balloons and party games!” She said, practically crushing Scootaloo as their cheeks were pressed together from the tight hug.

Scootaloo managed to pull away once Pinkie Pie’s grip loosened, letting out a small nervous laugh to Pinkie. “N-No, that’s fine. No need to hold a party for something so silly,” she said, scooting back closer to Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie jumped a bit in place as she grinned. “It’s not silly! It’s a life changing thing you’ve been able to do! I think it deserves some form of celebration, or at least a bit of cake!” She said before she suddenly zipped downstairs and back up again faster than Rainbow Dash could fly. She brought up a plate with a slice of cake and a small party hat; plopping it onto Scootaloo’s head and handing her the plate. “There we go! If we can’t have a party, at least we can have a bit of cake!”

Scootaloo took a small pause to process what happened before taking a bite from the cake, then swallowing before she spoke again. “Thanks Pinkie Pie. I was getting a bit hungry anyway.” Rainbow Dash ruffled up Scootaloo’s mane with her hoof, having a small smile on her face.

Pinkie Pie picked up Gummy again as she finished drying him off, pulling him out of the towel and placing him on the ground when she was done. “Glaaaad I could be of service! Nothings better than a slice of cake in the morning, or at any time for that matter!” she said with a giggle.

Scootaloo sat down on her backside, holding the plate up to her mouth to take bites out of the cake. Pinkie bounced around her room, tidying up things a bit as she looked over to Rainbow Dash. “Sooooo, what’cha here for? Did you come here to pick up Twilight’s order?” Pinkie Pie asked, frolicking back over to the two pegasi.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head in confusion as she lifted a hoof up. “Twilight made an order? I didn’t know anything about that; I just wanted to come over and mingle for a bit… and to tell ponies about Scootaloo’s flying and stuff. She trained harder than any other filly I’ve seen!” She said with a happy grin. Scootaloo’s ears twitched upon hearing Rainbow Dash’s comments, making her smile as well.

Pinkie Pie leaned over and gave a wide smile to Rainbow Dash, making her pull back a little in response. “Well now that you’re here, you could take the order to her if you wanted. Would save her trotting all the way over to here,” she said, zipping over to the stairs with a cheerful hum. Rainbow Dash looked to Scootaloo and shrugged, figuring that they could easily stop by Twilight’s since they had nothing much else to do.

Scootaloo had finished the cake that she was given, putting the plate down onto the floor and wiping her muzzle with her hoof. Pinkie Pie didn’t take long in coming back upstairs with a medium size, tied up box in her mouth. “Mmmh Mmhh!” She said, not being able to talk with the heavy box in her mouth. Rainbow Dash leaned over and picked up the box herself, taking it off of Pinkie and allowing her to speak again. “Found it! I meant to say,” she said with a giggle. “It’s to go directly to the Friendship Castle, but there’s no rush since it was meant to be delivered by the end of the day anyway.”

Rainbow Dash put the box on her back, holding it in place with her wings and then starting to trot over to the stairway. “That’s cool; me and Scoots will just head over there now then since we got nothing better to do. So I guess we’ll catch you later Pinkie!” She said, waving over to her friend. Scootaloo followed her shortly behind, waving to Pinkie Pie on the way out as well.

Both pegasi passed through the reception area and out of Sugarcube Corner, starting to trot in the direction of the Friendship Castle.

They both didn’t say much on the way there, since they were mostly just sightseeing as they trotted. Sadly there wasn’t much that they could look at that they hadn’t seen before. Having been in Ponyville nearly all of their lives, they had seen nearly all of what it had to offer. They did pass through the stall area with all of the bartering ponies though, occasionally stopping to take a look at what they were selling.

A familiar stall was held up in the same place it was before as the two pegasi passed it, with Scootaloo stopping to take a second look. It was the advertisement stall with all the posters and social activities that ponies could sign up to. She quickly recognised the music poster that Sweetie Belle had shown her, with her view then gandering over to the same Wonderbolts poster that she had seen the last time she was here.

She decided to read the info box that was on the poster.

Are you a Pegasus filly between the age of 8 and 16? Do you think you have what it takes to be one of the very best? Then look no further! Join up to the annual Junior Wonderbolts League, where fillies from all around Equestria compete to be the best! You will be put through several different courses over the span of a month, in which the best of the best will come out on top and be accepted into the official Wonderbolts filly crew!
To apply, ask a consulting parent or guardian and then head over to the Wonderbolts Training Camp just outside of Cloudsdale.

“What you lookin’ at, Squirt?” Rainbow Dash said as she had noticed Scootaloo wasn’t following her. Scootaloo pointed to the poster, making Rainbow Dash shift her view over to it and in an instant, recognising what it was about. “The Junior Wonderbolts League? What about it? Do you want to compete?” She asked as she looked down to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo pulled her hoof down and gave a small nod. “…I’d like to try! I know I’ve only been flying for basically a couple days, but it’s still a little bit away. I could practice and get better before it starts then see how far I could get!” She said with a smile.

Rainbow Dash obviously had an iffy look on her face, not sure exactly how to respond. She knew that right now Scootaloo would most likely not get past the first course, and even thought that would be disappointing, would the opportunity to even try getting denied disappoint her even more? She gained a confident smile and looked Scootaloo in the eyes. “…Maybe, we’ll see how things go. If you still want to join a week before it starts, I’ll ask to add you into the roster, how about that?”

Her leg being suddenly hugged by Scootaloo gave the answer to her question. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash! I promise I’ll try my very best if I get in!” She said as Rainbow Dash had to pull her along by her leg as continued to be hugged.

“I know you would, Scoots.”

It was a long haul for Rainbow Dash as she eventually reached the Friendship Castle, carrying both a baked good on her back and an over excited filly attached to her leg. She firstly knocked on the double doored crystal tree, with not much of an answer following it. Since she knew Twilight, she figured it would be okay to just go in without an invitation like she usually did.

Upon entering the castle and getting into the main hallway, Rainbow Dash bumped into Spike, who stepped back and rubbed his head afterwards. “If I knew you were going to let yourself in, I wouldn’t have tried coming over. Don’t blame me if it takes too long to answer the door, these hallways are way too long!” He said, just starting to walk back in the other direction as Rainbow Dash followed.

Of course Scootaloo had gotten off from Rainbow Dash’s leg, trotting alongside her as they went down the long but somewhat pretty hallway. Spike was right, the hallways in this place were too long to be practical, but at least they reached the main room in not that much time anyway. Like usual, Twilight was sitting at the table with an opened up book in front of her. It would be silly expecting to see anything else during her ‘reread’ phase.

The two Pegasi did catch her attention though as she proceeded to fly up from her seat and over to the two. “What brings you two over here? Or did you just come to chat for a bit?” She asked with a warm smile.

Rainbow Dash turned her body very slightly to the site to show the box on her back. “We were visiting Pinkie Pie when she suggested that we’d take over this order you made, figured we could since it was something to do,” she said before the box was suddenly lifted off of her back and onto the table with Twilight’s telekinesis.

Twilight began to open it with her magic, clapping her hoofs together. “That’s perfect timing, also very convenient!” She said with a big smile. Both pegasi were a bit confused by what she meant at first. When the box was finally opened and the baked good could be seen inside, a loud “SURPRISE!” could be heard from Twilight and Spike, making Scootaloo jump.

Both Spike and Twilight looked over to Scootaloo with a wide grin; not noticing that the cake that was in the box already had a slice taken out from it. The cake also had icing made drawings all around it, mainly of clouds and wings. Twilight clapped her hooves together again before she spoke. “Rainbow Dash told us about you being able to fly now, so we thought it would be a neat idea to hold a small celebration for such an event!”

“…You’re joking.” Scootaloo said with a nervous laugh afterwards.

11: Sign Me Up.

Scootaloo had stuck around for the small celebratory cake that was made for her, not wanting to be rude by leaving early. It took a bit of time to eat, with the other ponies taking slices as well, since of course Scootaloo couldn’t eat it all by herself. Eventually the two pegasi had left the Friendship Castle, with Scootaloo breaking off from Rainbow Dash to hang out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle for the rest of the day. The League was in just over two weeks, which means she had quite a bit of catch up to do if she wanted to get in.

Knowing she had an opportunity to impress everypony and especially Rainbow Dash, she trained hard the next day, tackling every obstacle she had with her new-found ability to fly head-first and making sure that there was nothing she couldn’t fly around. Any mistake in a league that was so competitive could potentially kill her chances in an instant, so minimising that chance was number one on her to do list. The lack of Rainbow Dash accompanying her during her training wasn’t that much of a loss since it made her feel comfortable on making as many mistakes as was needed. It helped knowing she wasn’t being silently judged from the side. Of course she made very little progress in a single day, but it was a small step above the day before which is what in the end, mattered the most.

She trained like this every single day for the rest of the week, sometimes to the point of pure exhaustion. She began to feel frustrated with any mistake she made as time went on; but knowing that she was able to fix it with enough practice is what kept her head cool. Even when she had done everything she wanted to do right, she did it again and again and again, knowing that practice makes perfect.

Rainbow Dash was concerned about how hard Scootaloo was hitting her training each day, in which it might have been damaging her health quite negatively. However she was confident that Scootaloo knew her limits, and that she was only pushing herself to them and no further.

At the end of the week she was confident that she had made astounding progress with her flying capabilities, thinking that she could now match up to some of the competitors who would be in the League. Did she expect that she would be able to win? No, she didn’t. But being able to get past the first course with a guaranteed spot in the second would be enough of an accomplishment for her, no matter how small it might seem.

Since it was now around one week until the League started, Scootaloo figured she’d ask Rainbow Dash if she could join again as she needed her permission. She decided to ask in the morning while they were in the middle of breakfast.

Scootaloo was eating cereal again while Rainbow Dash was eating a couple sandwiches. Scootaloo’s wings did hurt a little from the excessive amount of use they were given over the past week, but she ignored it knowing that they just needed a small break. Her view perked up from her cereal and over to Rainbow Dash who was sitting at the other side of the table. “So Rainbow Dash… I just wanted to ask you something.”

Scootaloo managed to grab her attention as she looked over to her, swallowing the sandwich that she had in her mouth before she spoke. “Sure, what is it?” She asked.

With a confident smile Scootaloo asked. “Could you enter me into the Wonderbolts League? I think I could get past the first course at the least.” She leaned up a bit in her seat, hoping that she’d be allowed to compete.

While Rainbow Dash still had some concerns about how she would do, she did say she would enter her in if she still wanted to join a week before it started. “You’re absolutely sure you want to join in? You don’t have to if you don’t feel like it just now,” she said as she put down the sandwich she was holding.

Scootaloo’s view drifted a bit as she wondered how Rainbow Dash would respond to an opportunity like this, wanting to follow in her hoofsteps more than she already did. There was a small pause of thinking from her where you could practically hear the gears turning around in her head. “…I’m pretty sure I want to. I know I should at least try,” she said in a soft tone, looking directly to Rainbow Dash again.

Rainbow Dash got out of her seat with a smile. “I suppose so, not much of a reason not to try. Let’s go and sign you up then,” she said before grabbing the half eaten sandwich with her mouth to eat it on the way to Cloudsdale. Scootaloo quickly finished her cereal and slid off of her seat, wanting to go and get ready to leave. She brushed her teeth and combed her mane, wanting to look as good as possible from the possibility of meeting any real Wonderbolts.

Once they were both ready they set off on their way towards Cloudsdale. Of course Scootaloo didn’t need to be carried to places anymore since she could now fly herself, but she still stayed quite close to Rainbow Dash in the event that anything might happen.

It was the first time that they actually flew together without it being training, which gave them both a warm feeling of happiness in their stomachs, almost like butterflies. Minutes seemed to pass pretty quickly as they flew, getting to Cloudsdale in what seemed like no time at all despite it being a decent bit away from Ponyville.

Upon reaching Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash took the lead and began searching around to try and find where they would sign up. She flew around and looked for a mass amount of fillies or Wonderbolts posters, those being the two things that would probably indicate where to sign up the most.

Instead of helping her search, Scootaloo floated down to the ground and decided to try asking other pegasi on where you’d sign up. It didn’t take her long before getting an answer, with a pegasus pointing over to where they had to go. She thanked the pegasus before flying up and over to Rainbow Dash and telling her where they had to go.

When they found where they had to sign up, the first thing Rainbow Dash noticed was that there was a very small queue of two fillies and their parents. She expected much more for some reason, but nonetheless they both dropped down to the ground and got in the queue.

Scootaloo was very excited, almost not being able to stay in one place as she bobbed from side to side. Rainbow Dash ruffled her mane with a big smile, not having seen Scootaloo this excited in a long time.

The recruitment desk was covered in all sorts of Wonderbolts decorations, from posters to flags to even trophies. There were even some of the official Wonderbolts in the area, the most recognisable of them being Spitfire and Soarin, both in their costumes. The two didn’t take long in recognising Rainbow Dash, with Spitfire trotting over and pulling her goggles up. “Is joining the official Wonderbolts too tough for ya, Rainbow Dash?” She said teasingly.

Rainbow Dash waved her hoof with a confident grin. “Pssh, you wish. I’m actually here with Scootaloo since she wanted to see good she could do,” she said, pulling Scootaloo closer to them with her wing.

Spitfire looked to Scootaloo with a soft smile. “Oh hey, Rainbow Dash told me about you. I’m guessing you know how to fly now since you’re here, good on ya!” She said lifting her hoof up. “If Rainbow Dash is the one who helped you to fly, then I bet I can expect to see some good things if you compete.”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head and fluttered her wings slightly as she spoke. “You’re going to be there? I thought you only appeared at the winners’ performance at the end of the league.”

Spitfire shook her head and motioned her hoof up. “Of course I’m going to be there, I’m the one that’s going to be leading all the fillies,” she said, putting her hoof down. “Surprised you don’t know that, Dash.”

While Scootaloo was slightly in awe that Spitfire was going to be the leader of the league, Rainbow Dash gave a somewhat cocky shrug to her. “I should have known that, but some pony watching a bunch of fillies from far away wouldn’t look too normal don’t you think?” She said with a small grin to Spitfire.

Spitfire only nodded with a small grin back. “Point taken,” she said before the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted her. They all looked over to the recruitment desk, where the pony sitting there was waiting for Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to come over and sign up. “Whoops, I didn’t mean to hold you up. Anyway, best of luck to you Scootaloo, I hope to see you there,” Spitfire said, pulling down her goggles and going back over to Soarin.

Scootaloo waved to Spitfire excitedly while Rainbow Dash pushed her up to the recruitment desk to enter into the League. What they had to answer and write down was pretty simple stuff. Name, age, their address, parent/guardian and other common personal details like that. However the pony at the recruitment station gave a weird look to Rainbow Dash as she said Scootaloo had only been flying for around a week. Nonetheless, it looked like they had gotten in and Scootaloo had a shot at flying competitively.

Even with her inexperience in flying, Scootaloo felt confident she would pass at least the first test.

12: Fine Tuning.

“What are you reading, Twilight?” Spike asked as he walked over to her.

Twilight was sitting down on her throne, the place she usually sat at to read books. She responded without taking her eyes off from the book, not even to take a glance at Spike. “I’m reading about injuries. Broken bones, burns, fractured skulls and other stuff like that,” she said, finally moving the book from her face to look over to Spike.

He walked over closer, trying to take a look at the page she was on. “And why are you reading about that? Is there a specific reason or is it another gut feeling?” He asked, climbing up onto the table and skimming over the page.

Twilight promptly pulled the book from his view, half closing it so he couldn’t see. “I wouldn’t read this, Spike. It’s got pictures I’m sure you’d rather not see, and to answer your question, yes there is a specific reason!” She said as she closed the book fully and put it down on the table. “Scootaloo being over here so often reminded me of this book, it’s the same one I was reading to help treat her injuries over two years ago. Granted, some of the book is outdated now as it’s quite old, but it still worked as a basic instructor at the time.”

Spike seemed a little annoyed from her denying him from reading the book, but he didn’t care that much. “The way you mentioned ‘fractured skulls’ gave me a hint that that’s what you were reading it for,” he said as he hopped down from the table. “But if that book is outdated, why not just ask Celestia for a more up to date version?” He asked, motioning his hands into a shrug-like pose.

Twilight levitated the book up with her magic, flicking through all of the many pages it had. “You don’t get it Spike; this is almost like an encyclopaedia for physical injuries. This IS the most updated version. If I wanted to get a newer more up to date version, I’d have to ask for books about specific injuries most likely.”

Spike rolled his eyes as he sat town on his ‘throne’ beside Twilight. “And that’s a problem how? Actually, I find it hard to believe you wouldn’t already have books about stuff like that somewhere in your collection.” Spike said as he placed his elbow on the arm of the throne and held his head up by his hand.

Twilight placed the book back down on the table again, pushing it away from her to focus on Spike. “Well, I’ve never broken a bone before, neither has anypony else I know. So books about injuries other than cuts and infections never crossed my mind that often. And even if I have books about bone injuries, they’re probably still outdated,” she said, giving a small sigh. “…I suppose I could ask Celestia for more updated books, wouldn’t see a reason not to.”

Spike got up from his seat and started walking into the other room as he spoke. “I suppose I’ll go and get my paper and quill then.”

“Alright, Squirt. If you’re going to compete in the junior wonderbolts league, I’m going to have to teach you a lot of what I know about flying,” Rainbow Dash said, standing tall as both her and Scootaloo where in the middle of an open field. It was quite the sunny day with a cold breeze drifting through the air. It created a very nice and blissful temperature around most of Equestria.

While Scootaloo was confident she would be able to get past at least the first test in the league, she knew that there was plenty still to learn and adapt from. She felt lucky having one of the greatest fliers in all of Equestria teaching her, hoping to pay strict attention to her words as she was sat down in-front of her.

Rainbow Dash lifted up her hoof as her posture continued to stay tall. “The most important thing you’ll probably need to know is recovery. Every time I’ve seen you make a mistake, you stop and either try again or wait until you’re ready again.” She said; her hoof lowering as she floated up and hovered in the air. “The best advice I can give you for this is to consider flying kinda like a continuous rhythm. I know I’m not good at explaining things, so bear with me here,” she said as she prepared to start flying.

She suddenly swooped up and around in a circle before intentionally losing her balance near the end of the loop, making her body start to tilt uncontrollably to the side. However she quickly recovered by doing a sideways flip in the air until her body became level with ground, allowing her to continue on flying straight with a recovered balance.

Scootaloo was nothing short of in awe of Rainbow Dash’s quick but impressive performance, being amazed on how she was able to regain composure in what would have been quite the dangerous fall. Her mouth hung open as she watched Rainbow Dash swoop back around and landed on her four hooves again. “And you thought those flips were just for show, didn’t you?” Rainbow Dash said, trotting back over to her original position in front of Scootaloo.

“In short, if a dent gets hit in your balance, you should always go with the flow to recover as fast as possible. What I did was just one example of a lot of potential situations, so there are a lot of things to account for,” She said, smiling to Scootaloo as her mouth finally closed.

Scootaloo still had a question as she instinctively raised her hoof up. “But why didn’t you just tilt in the opposite direction you were losing your balance from?” She asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash opened up her wings and fluttered them slightly. “I didn’t do that because it would have taken too long to do. Instead of trying to fix my current balance, I created a ‘new’ balance, if that makes sense to you. It should all come instinctually once you get the hang of being in a rhythm, where you’ll understand what does and doesn’t work,” she said with a confident smile.

Scootaloo placed a hoof on her chin and pondered for a bit. “…So you could consider flying like a type of dance? Where it’s all meant to flow and mould together?” She asked.

Rainbow Dash gave a small nod before laughing nervously. “Wow, if I’d have just said that then that would have explained it better. I did say I wasn’t good at explaining things; I can never find the right words for it,” she said as she rolled her eyes at herself. “But yes, flying is basically like a type of dance, and I’m going to teach you as much of it as I can before the League comes. A week is plenty time to get teach you a few new tricks.”

Rainbow Dash spent the rest of the day trying to teach Scootaloo about various ways of flight recovery, knowing that balance was most likely going to be the main killer of her chances. Not losing her balance was deemed more important than teaching her anything to do with gaining speed at the moment, since no matter how fast you can be, if you can’t maintain it, it’s going to fault you more than benefit you. It almost seemed normal at this point to be training every day.

Similarly to the previous two weeks, this next one was going to be filled with even more training, with Rainbow Dash trying to teach Scootaloo as many new tricks as she could. Even though they had just a week left to train in, a lot could be done in that week to improve her flying substantially.
On every single day of the week they trained again, except instead of just physical training, there was a lot of educational training as well. Scootaloo needed to understand what she was doing almost more than being able to do it, instead of the other way around.

Rainbow Dash seemed like a decent enough tutor, but she occasionally showed that she wasn’t too good at being clear with her words. She thrived in showing examples, being better at showing than telling. Her inexperience in teaching didn’t hamper Scootaloo’s learning though, as she paid close attention to whatever she was doing or saying anyway.

Each day, Scootaloo felt she was getting better and better at flying, even on the days she didn’t do much of it. By the end of the week, she was confident she’d impress Rainbow Dash in the League, hoping to maybe get farther than the second course. She didn’t expect to though, as she still felt that beating the first course would already be a big enough accomplishment for a late flier.

The start of the League was but a couple hours away by the time the new day hit, but Scootaloo felt both nervous and excited from the thought of being there. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself by losing on the first course, so it worried her that maybe she wasn’t as good as she thought. Paranoid thoughts washed over her mind, probably at the worst of times to do so as well. She couldn’t back out now, but the thought that that might have been less embarrassing than screwing up almost tempted her to call in sick.

No, she had to show everypony what she was made of! She wasn’t a quitter, not by any stretch of the imagination. If she scores out in the first course, who cares? She can come back next year with even more of a motive to join in. She was brave and confident, which is why she asked to be signed up in the first place. No nervous or paranoid thought was going to get in the way of what she signed up to do.

…Maybe. It was still quite hard to fight her mixed emotions on the situation.

Author's Note

How do I show the exposition of a week after just showing the exposition of a week. I suck at writing the progression of time.

13: The First Course.

It was the big day, the one that Scootaloo had been training hard for during the past two weeks non-stop. All the fillies were standing on what looked to be a Wonderbolts training ground that had been modified for this specific event, however the courses themselves looked to have a small bed of clouds bellow it with everything else being obstacles or checkpoints. The clouds bellow probably acted as a safe spot for ponies to fall on if something where to happen to them. There were also a couple buildings around the area as well. Some looked to be locker rooms while the main big building is probably where most of the Wonderbolts were staying.

All of the fillies were on the starting platform just before the first course, waiting for their instructor to arrive and tell them what they needed to do. While they waited they all mostly chatted with each other, getting to know who they were competing against. Scootaloo stayed to the side of the group, not really joining in with their chatting.

She did manage to recognise some familiar faces though, a couple of which being Rumble and Cotton Cloudy. From what she could count, there were at least 28 other competitors not including herself. It was quite daunting knowing she was just another filly among the many that had arrived to compete, since for some reason she thought there would be much less than there were.

In the midst of her thinking, she heard her name being mentioned amongst the crowd, which made her ears perk up and her view shift over to the mass of fillies. A couple heads turned to look at her as Rumble had suddenly trotted over to her with quite a big smile on his face. “Some of the fillies don’t believe me when I say that you have a bit of metal in your head! Can you tell them it’s true for me?” He said enthusiastically as the heads of nearly every filly suddenly turned towards her.

She didn’t understand why what was in her head was relevant to them, but she figured she’d answer anyway. “I do, why? I have it there because my skull was fractured two years ago,” she said sincerely. Of course a lot of the fillies began talking with each other then, some being oddly amazed about something Scootaloo considered pretty normal. She even heard some fillies theorising that she may have been part robot, which made her just roll her eyes in response.

At least some fillies thought she was cool now, some even thinking that she had some sort of augmentation inside her head. They all stopped their chatting when they heard somepony clear their throat. They turned around to see Spitfire standing in-front of them, who was obviously calling for their attention.

“If you could all look over to me and pay attention please. I’d like to thank you all for participating in the third annual Filly Wonderbolts League. I’m sure you all know me, but in-case you don’t. I’m Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts and also your instructor for this event,” she said as all of the fillies came over and sat down in somewhat random places in-front of her. Scootaloo inched over closer to the group, ending up sitting at the back.

Spitfire was in her drill sergeant uniform, minus the shades however. “What you’re going to be facing is five different elimination courses designed to test everything you know about flying. They will all test you in different ways, obviously getting harder as they go along. Each of you will compete to be better than the rest, because if you’re score is too low, you’re out,” she said as some other ponies pulled over a mobile chalkboard that looked to have information on the first course.

“This first course is very basic and will simply test your ability to fly. Maintaining speed here is key, since if you finish in 24th place or higher, you will be eliminated from the league. No ifs or buts about it I’m afraid,” she said, making some of the fillies suddenly look at each other, almost like they were scanning the competition. However Scootaloo felt confident that she’d pass, despite knowing that this probably wasn’t going to be a cakewalk.

Spitfire cleared her throat to grab all of the fillies’ attentions again. “The checkpoint you need to reach is a large red flag on the opposite of this training ground, just over a mile away,” she said, pointing in the direction of the flag, which all the fillies easily managed to notice in the distance. She lowered her hoof as she spoke. “If you have any questions you wish to ask, now is the time.”

To her surprise, not one hoof was raised amongst the large crowd of fillies. “…Then you should all prepare to start flying and only go when I say go,” she said, trotting over to an emplacement with a microphone on it.

All of the fillies quickly scrambled to get into a good position, most of them getting in a shoulder-to-shoulder line just at the edge of the solid ground they were on, facing towards the start of the course. Scootaloo was last to get in place as her nervousness began seep through her otherwise confident exterior. She tried her best to push out any nervous thoughts, shifting her full focus towards the checkpoint far in the distance. Her legs spread apart as her front end lowered, gaining a better position in which to shoot off in.

There was a period of silence in which all the other fillies readied themselves for Spitfire’s signal. Scootaloo took one last glance of the fillies she was up against, taking guesses as to who might be the strongest contenders in the group.

“Ready…” Spitfire said, making the fillies tense up in preparation. “Set…” she said as a draft was created from the mass amount of wings opening at once. The next couple seconds felt longer than they should as Spitfire delayed her signal to see who was and wasn’t paying attention. Without waiting much longer, Spitfire suddenly shouted. “GO!”

A majority of the fillies shot off at a decent speed, racing their way over to checkpoint at the other end of the training grounds. Scootaloo was no exception as she looked to be in the middle of the group. It was exhilarating to feel her blood pumping through her vanes, letting her competitive instincts take a hold of her as she was scarily focused on getting to the checkpoint. She migrated away from the large clump of fillies as her speed began to increase more and more, wanting to overtake as many of them as possible.

She couldn’t believe her eyes! She was overtaking everypony! But she didn’t let her focus drift for too long though, not wanting to screw up her chances from being distracted. They all reached half way as a noticeable difference in who was slow and who was fast was now apparent. There were a couple fillies that were quite far behind and a couple who were quite far in front, but judging by the fillies Scootaloo could see ahead of her, she was amazingly in 4th place.

The adrenaline she felt from going this fast was like nothing else she had ever experienced before, almost beginning to feel numb around her body. Actually, she was starting to feel numb around some parts of her body, along with a sudden burst of exhaustion washing over her. Suddenly she began to see stars in her eyes as she seemed to lose most of her energy in an instant. However she continued nonetheless, pushing her body to its limits in terms of energy.

They were getting close to the end as several fillies at once began to pass by her as she felt like her wings were about to cramp up. It was scary seeing so many fillies at once just boosting past her like it was nothing. She was still going close to the same speed she had accelerated to, so what changed?

She knew she couldn’t give up, her heart pumping in her throat as her wings burned in agony. She felt like her eyes were about to pop out of her head, along with most of her peripheral vision beginning to become a blur as the end of the course was nearing faster than she could comprehend. She finally began to slow down from the burning agony she experienced in her joints, the stars in her eyes almost completely covering all of her peripheral vision at the same time. In a flash, she had crossed the finish line, her wings giving up and retracting once doing so.

Her speed was so fast that she ended up smashing into a cloud-made wall meant to cushion fillies that would have been going too fast to stop. Because of the clouds her impact did no damage what so ever and instead just brought her to a sudden stop, but it didn’t cease the agony she felt from her now cramped up wings.

She had ‘dug’ into the clouds somewhat, choosing to stay in there from the exhaustion she just experienced. She trembled where she was, her wings twitching as she just let her entire body collapse inside the clouds. She was wheezing for air, feeling extremely weak and lightheaded.

To her dismay she was suddenly pulled out from the clouds by a stallion pegasus who looked to be one of the Wonderbolts out of costume. They were holding Scootaloo up by her sides, checking to see if she had any seriously injury from the impact. “Are you okay? Does anything seriously hurt?” He asked with concern.

Scootaloo gave a small nod, letting out a quiet wheeze as she looked to the stallion. “…My wings… burn…” She said in a raspy voice. The stallion carefully put her down into a sitting position before examining her wings, pulling them out and moving their joints. As she was set down, she was able to see all of the other fillies who had all managed to slow down and land on their four hooves. It left her confused but also envious of everypony else. How did they all manage to suddenly dash past her yet were also able to land on their four hooves like it was nothing?

“You’re fine; I think you just sprained your wings a bit since they’re very stiff now.” The stallion said to her with a soft tone. She slowly looked behind her to the clouds she smashed into, only to see that she had gone at least a metre inside of them from the speed she was going. She still felt exhausted as only now her eyes had stopped producing stars. The stallion was sitting beside her to make sure she would be okay.

It seemed that every contestant had now finished as they wondered what place they all got. It didn’t take long before Spitfire had come over to give the results, having paid close attention to who did and didn’t get through. She did all of the other fillies before trotting over to Scootaloo to tell her if she passed.

“I think you’ll be pleased to know that you came in 17th place, meaning you get through to the next course,” Spitfire said with a smile. She looked over to the stallion and motioned for him to leave, sitting down on the ground in-front of Scootaloo afterwards. “Listen, at first I was impressed by how fast you were going, but it didn’t take me long to see what you did wrong. You blew all of your energy in the first half of the course, meaning you had none left to finish.” She looked over to the other fillies before speaking again. “The reason they all passed you was because they saved their energy for the final stretch. I shouldn’t be telling you what you did wrong since you’re meant to come in here with what YOU know, but I was very concerned near the end of the course and I don’t want to see it happen again.”

Scootaloo shakily nodded, her wings drooping down and touching the ground. Spitfire stood back up and gave a small smile to Scootaloo. “But you did pass despite that really big mistake. Rainbow Dash should be over here shortly to take you home; you need to take it easy after that and let those wings have some rest,” she said, trotting away and over to the other Wonderbolts, probably to chat about the results.

Scootaloo hesitantly stood up and slowly trotted past the group of fillies, but not without one of them noticing. “What happened? Got your wiring all wrong or something, Cyborg?” A tough sounding colt said as he pushed some of the other fillies out of the way to look at Scootaloo.

She didn’t respond, not having both the energy and the care to fight back. The colt was going to say some more things, but was suddenly stopped upon seeing Spitfire giving him an angry glare.

Scootaloo trotted inside the large building to sit down in a more comfortable place, just waiting for Rainbow Dash to come over and pick her up. She saw most of the fillies going home by themselves as they passed by her, which did embarrass her more than she liked to admit. Spitfire followed behind the last of the fillies, who were the ones that didn’t make it through to the next course. “Better luck next time! I hope we’ll get to see you all compete again next year,” she said before her view glanced over to Scootaloo, noticing she seemed a bit embarrassed from not being able to fly home herself.

Spitfire trotted over and sat beside her. “Hey, don’t sweat about it. Sometimes I had to be helped home after a tough flight! Better to be safe than to chance losing control so high up,” she said, trying to comfort Scootaloo as best she could.

Scootaloo grew a soft smile, feeling better now that she knew it happened to everypony on occasion. What really mattered was that she got through to the next course, even if it was a bit more of a challenge than she initially thought.

At least she had a reason to lie in bed for the rest of the day when she got home.

Author's Note

Really happy with how this chapter turned out.

14: Too Close.

A loud knock echoed through the Friendship Castle, prompting Spike to get up and walk over to the large front doors. When he opened the doors a gloomy post-pony was standing there and looked to have a decently large package for Twilight. “Delivery to Twilight Sparkle from Canterlot, I’ll need your signature please.” He said as he handed over a small clipboard with a pen attached to it.

Spike obliged, signing where he needed to sign. He gave the pony a small smile, handing it back over to him. After getting back the clipboard, the post-pony began to trot away from the castle. Spike waved as he spoke to him. “Thank you! Have a good day!”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” the post-pony replied with a hint of annoyance in his tone. Spike took a second to process the reply before shrugging it off and pushing the package inside. It was around his size and entirely filled with books, or so he assumed since it was the only thing that would logically be delivered here.

He expended most of his energy trying to push the package harder, almost slipping off his feet in the process. However he landed face first into the ground when Twilight magically levitated the box up and over to her, beginning to open it with her magic. “Whoops, sorry Spike! I couldn’t see you pushing it from this angle,” she said with a nervous grin.

Spike got up on his feet again, rolling his eyes in response. “The fact that it was moving didn’t give you a hint I was behind it?” He said, dusting himself off. “I’m guessing that’s the last set of books you wanted from Celestia? We’ve been getting a new batch every day for the past week!” He said as he held his arms up to his sides.

Twilight gave him a small nod as she had finished opening up the package, pulling out a couple dozen books from its packing-peanut filled interior. “It should be. There shouldn’t have been that many books left to be delivered since we had nearly all of them by yesterday,” she said, skimming over the covers of the books as they were levitated past her face. A decent amount of the books were about injuries and diseases, the type of books she had initially asked for. There seemed to be a couple bonus books as well though, most of them being more up to date versions of books Twilight had previously owned.

“Oooh, there are even books that I forgot I originally had! I think they got destroyed when Tirek blew through the Golden Oak Library. Still, it’s nice to see Celestia remembers some of my collection.” She said with a grin across her face as she trotted over to the room she kept all of her books in, carrying most of the new ones along with her.

Spike followed shortly behind, picking up the books that she didn’t take with her and walking them over to the room as well. When he got there, the books were quickly taken out of his hands and placed in the bookcase the rest were put in. “And there we go; all of the new books have replaced the old ones!” Twilight said as she put all of the outdated books into a pile on the floor.

Spike smiled and placed his hands together as he spoke. “So can we now go do something exciting? Maybe we could visit Rarity or Applejack; since I’m sure they’d appreciate our company!”

Twilight nodded again, fitting the books tighter into place with her magic. “Sure; we’ve been cooked up in this castle for a while and I can read these new books sometime later,” she said as she trotted out of the room with Spike following close behind.

Twilight looked back to Spike as they went towards the front entrance. “Did you hear that Scootaloo got into the Wonderbolts League? From what I heard, she apparently passed the first course yesterday,” she said.

Spike shook his head as a happy smile came over his face. “She did? That’s great news! She must be such a quick learner if she’s beating ponies that have already been flying for years. When does the next course take place?” Spike asked, continuing to walk alongside Twilight.

Twilight used her magic to open the front doors, trotting outside of the castle and into the morning sunlight. “I’m pretty sure the first five courses are back to back this week, just like they were the last two times. One for every week day,” she said, raising a hoof as she glanced to Spike.

He gained an idea as he walked in-front of her and turned around. “What time does it start? Would we be allowed to go watch it?” He said as he seemed more than excited.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin, trying to remember if ponies were allowed to watch. “It starts in a couple hours but… I’m not sure if we can watch. If my memory serves me well, they don’t usually allow ponies to watch because they might distract the contestants,” she said, putting her hoof back down onto the ground.

Spike glanced away, his arms drooping to his sides. “That’s a load of horse hockey! It seems more like an excuse than a reason to me, but there would be no harm in just asking the Wonderbolts, right?” He asked as his he regained his posture.

Twilight gave a small nod to Spike. “I suppose there isn’t a reason we can’t just ask them; not like we have much else to do that’s on the list,” she said as her wings unfurled and gave a small flap.

Spike’s tone quickly changed into that of sarcastic, but also with a hint of being seriousness. “Please don’t tell me you actually brought a list with you, since I don’t want to end up sitting in a cloud while you file off reports or something.”

Twilight giggled as she lifted a hoof. “Don’t worry; I didn’t bring a list with me. We’ll just head over to the Wonderbolts training ground and ask the Wonderbolts if we can watch, no lists involved,” she said as she lowered her wings down to allow Spike to climb up onto her back. When he was on, she began to fly in the direction of Cloudsdale.

After a previous day of almost non-stop resting, Scootaloo felt more energized than Iron Will. She was standing near the starting line of the next track as she examined the course itself. It looked to have three different types of obstacles they had to go through; almost like what she envisioned the final course would have looked like. It seemed pretty terrifying to say the least.

However the other 22 fillies that had passed the first course didn’t seem to be breaking much of a sweat, which made Scootaloo feel left out but also reassured her a bit. Maybe the course looked much worse than it actually was?

They were about to find out as Spitfire flew over and landed in-front of most of them. “Nice to see all 23 of you that passed the first course chose to come back for the second, but trust me when I say that this one isn’t going to be a simple dash to the finish. This one is about precision flying, manoeuvring around and in objects while maintaining a decent amount of speed. However speed should be the secondary objective when it comes to this course, as the main thing that’s going to send you out will be imprecise flying,” she said as two pegasi brought over a small cloud to her.

A lot of the fillies looked confused from the random cloud she was given, while some seem to already know what it was for. Spitfire placed her hoof onto the cloud and then took it off, showing her hoof to the fillies. It was suddenly coloured a bright drippy white. “These clouds are coated in white paint, meaning if you scape against them, you’ll have quite a visible mark on your coat. I bet a lot of you white coloured fillies suddenly gained the same idea, but let me tell you it isn’t going to work,” she said as a pegasi brought over a bucket of water, allowing Spitfire to clean off her hoof as she spoke again. “You can’t cheat the system as the paint is a quick drying paint, meaning your fur will visibly be dried out. Meaning you can’t take as many bumps and scrapes as you want.”

Scootaloo wondered who would be stupid enough to try and cheat the system, but no doubt it would have crossed her mind if she was coloured white. She still seemed quite nervous about the course, knowing she was going to end up choking at one point or another.

Spitfire trotted over to the starting line of the course, wanting them all to line up in preparation as she spoke. “Passing will be determined by two things. If you come in 19th place or higher, you’re out. However if you are covered in more than three patches of paint, you automatically get disqualified,” she said with a serious tone. All of the fillies got in a line at the starting line, waiting for Spitfire to tell them when to start.

Scootaloo took a glance at the lined up fillies as she got into the line herself, trying to see if anyone she knew made it through. Surprisingly enough, both Rumble and Cotton Cloudy beat the first course by the looks of it. Her attention suddenly sprung back into place as Spitfire gave the first signals. “Ready… set…” Like last time, a large draft blew across the starting line from the amount of wings that had opened at once, eagerly awaiting Spitfire’s signal to start.

“Go!” Spitfire suddenly shouted without much of a delay, making the entire group of fillies boost ahead and into the start of the course. Like last time, Scootaloo was around the middle of the pack as they all encountered the first set of obstacles fairly quickly. All they had to do was pass through hoops that got smaller and smaller as they went along, but it was made a little bit harder by how they lead in the shape of a loop-de-loop.

Scootaloo handled this with no problem what so ever, in-fact the only part that hitched her was how she had to fly upside down for a couple seconds, but even then she seemed to do alright. She came out of the last hoop with no scratches of paint what so ever, gaining a bit of confidence in the process.

There were seemingly large breaks between the obstacles, probably meant to act as a means to easily get past the other fliers without the danger of being covered in paint. Scootaloo was going to try and capitalize on the situation, using some of her energy to fly faster than some of the other fillies, but it seemed like the others had the same idea as not only did she pass some fliers, but she was also passed by ones faster than her. She probably didn’t gain much in terms of her position in the race, but at least she didn’t lose much either.

The next set of obstacles approached at quite an alarming speed for Scootaloo as she began to pass around them. These obstacles were just vertical lines of clouds that they had to weave in and out of continuously. They were quite close together, causing Scootaloo to brush up against one because of her speed.

She ignored the mistake and continued on with the obstacles, not stopping to examine the wet patch of paint she felt on her side. She made another mistake when she neared the end of the obstacles, brushing against one of the clouds with one of her wings as she weaved through them. It was quickly crushing her confidence to succeed.

She let out a breath of relief as she had passed the last of those obstacles, still having the opportunity to make one more mistake. She increased her speed, trying to push ahead of some of the other fillies before they reached the next challenge they’d face.

She managed to push ahead of around four fillies, sliding herself into place again once she overtook them, but whatever confidence she gained from that was quickly lost as she saw what was coming up next.

It was a large tunnel made of clouds and it did all sorts of devilishly sharp turns by the looks of it. She had no choice but to slow down as she entered the tunnel, not wanting to brush up against any of the inside walls. Luckily she wasn’t the only one who slowed down more than they had liked to, as a lot of the fillies behind her did the same.

Each change in direction was a huge risk in such a tight space; any mistake could cost her ticket to the next course, so she flew as carefully as possible while going through the tunnel. The more she progressed through the tunnel, the bigger the lump in her throat grew. On one of the turns, she accidentally brushed the side of her back leg against the clouds, placing a patch of paint on it as the third mistake she was able to make now was used up.

She tried to concentrate as best she could on getting out of the tunnel, hoping to make it out with no more patches of paint on her. Her chances had already dwindled to nearly nothing; that was until she saw the exit of the tunnel. She booked it as fast as she could out of the tunnel, using all of her speed to try and race to the finish line.

There was still a chance she could get in if she placed 18th place or lower, so that was her new objective. She burst ahead of some of the other fliers as she expended as much energy as she could on reaching the end, and luckily for her it wasn’t that far off.

With a final flap of her wings, she passed the finish line at a decent speed. She was still able to slow herself down and land on the ground with ease as a large smile grew over her face. She knew she was 18th place at the very least, there was no way she couldn’t be, but a quick analysis of her body revealed that that wasn’t the part she was going to fail at. One blotch of paint on her side, one on her wing, one on her back leg… and one on her tail.

She couldn’t believe it! Her heart sunk as she saw her tail, realizing that she had scraped the obstacles more than she was allowed. She had a small pause, not knowing what to think as loads of questions drifted through her head at once. What would Rainbow Dash think? Will she be disappointed? Did she try for nothing?

It was quickly upsetting her to the point she just wanted to hide, so she sat down and covered her eyes, trying her best to hold back the tears she felt like releasing. Suddenly it felt really quiet to her, but she wasn’t sure if it actually was. Maybe she was just drowning out everything else at the moment as she sat in dismay.

She seemed to come back to reality as her shoulder was pressed, making her pull her hooves away from her tear covered eyes and look forward. Spitfire was standing in-front of her, confused on what she was upset about. “What’s wrong? You came in 16th place with three strikes,” she said, having a look of concern on her face.

Scootaloo didn’t want to answer, she couldn’t. Her throat was too choked up to respond as she hiccuped in place. Spitfire was still confused on why she was upset, wondering if she just didn’t see any other paint covered spots on her body. She examined Scootaloo harder, looking all around her body before noticing the bit of paint on her tail. She realized why she was upset, but for some reason gained a soft smile.

“Tails don’t count, you know?” She said, lifting her hoof up. Scootaloo looked suddenly surprised, not knowing if she was being serious or not. Spitfire decided to sit down front of her and clarify. “You don’t have much control over your tail when you’re flying, so we decided that it would be unfair if it counted. So if you’re wondering, yes, you get through to the next course.”

While she still had the feeling of being upset in her stomach, Scootaloo’s mood was lifted tremendously from the good news as she rubbed her eyes. “Really?! I still pass?” She said excitedly.

Spitfire nodded with a happy grin. “Yes, of course you do! There’s no need to be upset, trust me,” she said as she stood up.

Suddenly Twilight flew down to the side of Scootaloo with Spike on her back. He quickly got off with a large smile. “That was amazing! We’ve never seen you fly like that before!”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s sudden entrance. “I thought I told you two to stay in the clouds if you were going to watch.”

Twilight grinned nervously, looking over to Spitfire. “We know, but we just figured since the course was over we could come over and talk with Scootaloo.” She said, raising a hoof.

Spitfire’s view zipped between the two for a second before shrugging. “I suppose; at least you won’t be distracting them during the course, so I guess its fine,” she said as she trotted away and to the other fillies to tell them how they did.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, thinking she was going to be kicked out. “Anyway, why were you crying Scootaloo?” She asked, tilting her head slightly.

Scootaloo looked away, feeling embarrassed. “…I thought I didn’t get through, since I had too much paint on me. Luckily for me, any paint on my tail doesn’t count!” She said with a big smile all of a sudden.

Twilight grinned and trotted over closer to her. “That’s great! That’ll be some good news to tell Rainbow Dash when you get back!”

Scootaloo nods, rubbing her eyes again. “I hope she’ll be proud of me!”

Twilight ruffles up her mane. “I know she’ll be, Scoots.”

15: Deja Vu.

It was the start of the next day, where Scootaloo was still sleeping soundly in her sky coloured bed. Rainbow Dash came through into her room and shook her shoulder, making her begin to groggily wake up. “Hey, Scoots. It’s time to get up! You better get up and ready for the third course,” she said, continuing to shake her shoulder.

Scootaloo let out a small groan, digging her head into her pillow in response to Rainbow Dash’s shaking. “Can I get like… five more minutes?” She said in a croaky voice.

To her dismay, Scootaloo wasn’t going to get her request it seems as Rainbow Dash only continued to shake her shoulder. “Nope, you need to get up now. Five more minutes is nothing at all and will only make you harder to wake up,” she said.

Scootaloo rubbed one of her eyes and gave out another small groan. “Thirty minutes then?” She said, testing her luck. When she got no response she opened her eyes and sat up, realizing she wasn’t going to get any more sleep. “Okay, I’ll be up in a minute or two.”

With that, Rainbow Dash trotted out of her room and waited outside for her to get up. Of course going back to bed again was a very appealing option to Scootaloo since she was no longer being bothered, but she knew better and decided to just get up and out of her bed before she got in trouble.

She grabbed the brush that was on her desk, using it to comb her messy mane back into its usual style. Since she had to take a bath the night before from being covered in white paint, her mane was quite soft and fluffy. It took her a bit more time than usual to get it into its style, but she managed nonetheless. The next thing she wanted to do was go brush her teeth, so she trotted outside her room and over to the bathroom.

When Rainbow Dash saw that she had woken up, she stopped hanging outside of her room and trotted over to her couch to sit on it.

As Scootaloo began brushing her teeth in the bathroom, she heard Rainbow Dash talking with somepony. Their voice was familiar, but in her still sleepy mind-set, she couldn’t pinpoint who it was. After spitting into the sink, she trotted out of the bathroom and over to where Rainbow Dash was to see who she was talking to.

She should have recognised by the voice as both Twilight Sparkle and Spike were sitting beside Rainbow Dash on the couch. “Good morning, Scootaloo! I hope you slept well,” Twilight said, raising a hoof as she looked over to her. Spike gave a small wave as he smiled to her as well.

Scootaloo only nervously waved back, confused as to why they were both here. “Good morning to you too, I suppose. And I guess I did sleep well, so thanks for asking.” She lowered her hoof and climbed up onto the couch they all sat on. “Sooooo, I don’t mean this in a rude way, but why are you over here this early?” She asked as she looked over to Twilight.

Twilight smiled over to Scootaloo as she talked. “We’re over here because we’re going to be coming with you to the third course, just to watch of course. Maybe Rainbow Dash would be able to join us as well, since I’m sure if we asked, she’d be allowed to watch with us.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and placed a hoof on her chest. “Plus, Spitfire knows me. I’m pretty sure she’d allow one of the greatest fliers in all of Equestria to watch a simple course,” she said, giving a small grin to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo tried to act enthusiastic, even though she thought she would get more nervous the more eyes there were watching her. “Yaaay…? I mean yay!” She cleared her throat a little, making Rainbow Dash lose her grin and tilt her head.

“You okay? Do you not want us to watch? Because if that’s so, I don’t think we’d mind not watching if it made you feel more comfortable in the long run,” Rainbow Dash said as she grew a soft smile.

Scootaloo shook her head to her, smiling nervously in-front of her. “N-No. I just feel like I’m being silently judged. And what if I mess up? I wouldn’t want the only time you watched me to be the only time I messed up,” she said, looking away from Rainbow Dash as her ears flopped back.

Rainbow Dash put her wing around Scootaloo and pulled her over. “You won’t fail, and even if you did, it wouldn’t matter to us. All that matters was that you already got this far!” She said with a big smile. “Your goal was to pass the first course right? Well you did that and even went as far as to reach the third course! We’re already so incredibly impressed with you, so even if you did fail the next course, it would never change how proud I am of you,” she said, pulling Scootaloo in closer to the point they were touching.

Scootaloo’s ears flopped back up as she grew a soft smile, giving Rainbow Dash a tight hug. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash! It means a lot to me that you’d say that.” She said as she stretched her wings out and tried to put them around her as well. Of course they didn’t reach very far, but it was cute nonetheless. Scootaloo soon wondered what time it was as she never checked after she woke up. “Wait, so when is the next course starting?” She asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash put a hoof on her chin as she tried to recall the time, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted by Twilight speaking. “It’s forty minutes to eleven, so we have around forty minutes until you’re meant to be at the training ground,” she said as Spike continued to quietly sit beside her.

Scootaloo’s pupils suddenly contracted as an expression of surprise came over her face. “I slept more than eleven hours?! You’re kidding right?” She said, her view shifting between both Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

Rainbow Dash shook her head slightly as her wing retracted back into its idle position. “Nope, I’m pretty sure Twilight is right. I knew it was around 10am when I woke you up, so she’s probably right about the time. These courses must be tiring you out more than you think if you’re sleeping that much,” she said as she gave a soft smile to her.

Scootaloo let off a nervous laugh. “So that’s why you didn’t want me sleeping any longer, I’d probably have missed the course if you didn’t wake me up,” she said, hopping down off the seat and quickly trotting towards the kitchen. “Anyway, I better get breakfast and stuff before we go there, I don’t think I’d enjoy flying on an empty stomach.”

It was just about time for the course to start, with every filly who passed being there, except for Scootaloo. Spitfire looked around as she wondered where she could have been. “She’s here!” Rainbow Dash shouted as both she and Scootaloo had arrived just in time for the course to start.
Spitfire trotted over to the two, going past the large group of waiting fillies as she spoke. “I was wondering where you went since I didn’t want to start without you,” she said, looking down to Scootaloo. Her view looked up to Rainbow Dash and then suddenly over to Twilight, who had just flown over to them both with Spike on her back. Spitfire pouted to them both. “Okay, so what are you all doing here? Scootaloo normally arrives on her own,” she said.

Twilight nervously laughed, rubbing her own mane with one of her hooves. “I know you said to stay low when we watch, but I was just wondering if Rainbow Dash could watch as well,” she said with a pleading smile to Spitfire.

Spitfire sighed and gave her a small nod. “Fine, she can watch. Actually I tolerate her watching more than I tolerate you watching, since she has more of a reason to be here. You can watch if you just don’t interfere,” she said, trotting back over to the original position she normally talked to the fillies in.

Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo a small hug while Twilight and Spike just waved to her. They both left and headed towards where they were allowed to watch, leaving Scootaloo to join the rest of the fillies.

Spitfire cleared her throat as Scootaloo had trotted over to the back of the group. “Congratulations on making it this far, but I have a feeling this next course is going to stump a lot of you,” she said as a stallion came over with a mobile chalkboard detailing the course. “This will be similar to the last course, except this time it’s about both speed and precision. Except you won’t need to worry about being covered in paint now as this is about finishing first, meaning you can make as many mistakes as you want. However, making mistakes is obviously not preferred, as it will slow you down in the middle of the course.” She said, pointing to the chalkboard.

The chalkboard had numerous examples of what obstacles they were going to be facing. They all looked like they were made to make the fillies lose balance, some even purposefully made to make them dizzy. “The main focus of this course is to test your ability to keep yourself composed in disorienting situations. You may be a fast flier, you may be a precise flier, but that can mean nothing if you can’t control it.” Spitfire said as she looked over the group of fillies. “If you come in 14th place or higher, you will be sent out of the league. You may all line up for the course and wait for my signal to start.”

All the fillies lined up shoulder to shoulder at the starting line again, eagerly waiting for the course to start. Like last time, Scootaloo looked at all of the other fillies in the line, hoping to see somepony she recognised. While it looked like Cotton Cloudy had been sent out, Rumble was still there. She didn’t recognise the rest of the fillies, assuming most of them were from either Cloudsdale or Canterlot.

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by Spitfire’s signal to go, making all of the fillies blast off into the course. The first obstacle they had to deal with was like a large corkscrew that headed upwards, forcing them to go around in circles as they ascended. Even with her only having done a couple loops around the corkscrew, Scootaloo couldn’t deny that it was quite disorienting from how tight it was, almost making her want to stop to keep herself from getting dizzy. She persisted nonetheless, ignoring any feelings of wanting to stop.

The corkscrew soon came to an end with the next obstacle being quite a bit away from the last, probably to give the fillies time to reorient themselves. Scootaloo used this as an opportunity to gain some speed and pass some of the fliers ahead of her.

One of the fillies she passed was the same one that made fun of her just after she finished the first course, and they didn’t look particularly happy about being overtaken. “Hey! You are so cheating!” He said, with an angry tone in his voice.

Scootaloo looked back to the colt, raising an eyebrow at the claim. “How am I cheating?” She asked as she continued to fly ahead of him.

The colt sped up and went to the side of her, giving her a small shove with his hoof. “Because not only do you have some sort of stupid implant in your head, but you’re also friends with a Princess! Next to none of us have ever heard of you before but you still managed to beat ME on the last course?!”

Scootaloo didn’t take too kindly to the shove as it caused her slow down, meaning the colt was suddenly in front of her. She would have sped up again to counter his argument, but the next obstacle was too close to try and overtake now.

The next obstacles were walls that had vertical holes in them, meaning they had to tilt to their side as they passed through them. Luckily enough each wall was decently spaced apart, meaning they had time to rebalance themselves between walls.

It was a little tricky for Scootaloo to tilt to the side over and over again without bumping into the cloud-made walls. Sometimes she barely skimmed them or tilted just a tiny bit too far, meaning she lost an uncomfortable amount of her speed from this obstacle.

Upon exiting the last wall, Scootaloo sped up again to try and overtake some fillies, but a lot of her motivation to get ahead was now thanks to the colt that shoved her. She managed to get up beside him again, looking somewhat annoyed. “If I beat you on the last course, then shouldn’t you be out of the league?” She asked as the colt gained an angry look.

He was about to shove her again, but Scootaloo swerved away from it and kept both of them at arm’s length away from each other. “You didn’t come in last you know!? I did! I barely got through to this course because you overtook me!” He said as he looked over to her.

Scootaloo kept to the side of him as they spoke. “This is a competitive league! Are you saying I shouldn’t try to overtake other ponies?”

The colt flew closer to her to try and shove her away again, but she quickly pushed his arm away. “No! I’m saying you shouldn’t be cheating! You either have some sort of stupid bonus in the back of your head or your Princess friend is giving you an advantage or something, anything that you can use to abuse the system!”

Scootaloo’s expression turned to that of confusion. “I don’t even know how to abuse the system! I’ve only been flying for just under three weeks!”

The colt seemed angrier than before as he shouted. “WHAT?! I’ve been flying for over four years but you’ve only been flying for three weeks?! Yet you STILL manage to beat me?! You are such a cheater!” He said as he flew quite far ahead of Scootaloo and stopping in-front of her path. He waited until she was close enough to kick her in the head with his back legs.

Scootaloo realized too late what he was trying to do, only ducking her head as best she could in response. But it wasn’t enough as his back hooves connected with the top of her head, causing her to scream in pain from the hard kick as she lost all control of her wings. She grabbed the back of her head as her wings gave up, retracting back to the side of her body as she began to plummet to the safety bed of clouds under the course.

All she could hear was a loud ringing in her ears, the burning pain of her skull being too distracting to continue with the course. It didn’t take long before she hit the bed of clouds, causing a small ripple that signalled somepony fell onto it.

She curled up into a ball and rubbed the back of her head as she shook in place. She tried opening her eyes, but all she could see was a blur as they felt like they were spinning around in her skull. Her only instinct was to start crying in pain, hoping she’d be seen sooner rather than later.

Sadly for her, nopony seemed to have been paying attention to what just happened, either being preoccupied or just distracted. Even Twilight and Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice at first from Spike talking.

The ripple in the cloud bed is what caught Rainbow Dash’s attention though, as her focus shifted over to it and interrupting Spike. “Hey! Somepony just fell I think, I wonder who it was,” she said, looking over to all of the fliers still doing the course. There were still quite a lot of fillies left to finish, so not being able to see Scootaloo made her slightly worried. “Twilight, can you see Scootaloo on the course? I can’t,” she said, looking over to Twilight.

Twilight squinted her eyes as she leaned forward, trying to spot her amongst the many flying fillies. “…Nope, I can’t either. Maybe she finished?” Twilight suggested, still trying to look for Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash looked over to the finish line, but there was still no sign of Scootaloo. “No, she didn’t finish. If she isn’t on the course and she didn’t finish, you think that’s her that fell?” She said, raising a hoof as she started to look really worried.

Twilight couldn’t do much but give a small shrug to Rainbow Dash. “I don’t know. Maybe it was? Maybe she just got tuckered out and had to rest?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head, standing up. “No, Scootaloo wouldn’t get tuckered out and just fall like that!” She said as she blasted off to the bedding of clouds before Twilight was even able to reply.

When she reached the clouds, she zipped around trying to look for the filly that fell. Eventually she found her, soon realizing that it was Scootaloo that fell. She flew down and prodded her shoulder, looking very concerned as she spoke. “Scootaloo, is something wrong?” She asked, sitting down beside her and turning her around.

She was still crying and shaking, seemingly unable to respond as she continued to hold the back of her head. It took Rainbow Dash by surprise since she had never seen Scootaloo in a state like this in over two years. Many thoughts raced through her mind on what could have been wrong with her, not sure what to do in response. The only thing she could think to do was do the same thing she did two years ago, take her over to Twilight in the hopes that maybe she’d know what was wrong.

16: Recalling.

“Scootaloo, is it?” A doctor said as he stood opposite from Scootaloo, looking through what seemed to be previous medical records as he spoke. “Alright, I need you to tell me exactly what happened so I can get as much information as possible about your injury,” he said, putting the clipboard down and looking to her.

Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight were in the room as well, but only Dash was paying attention as Twilight was just reading up on a book about head injuries. It had been a couple hours since the course ended, at least for Scootaloo anyway. She was still jittery, having a throbbing headache and a small pin like tingle in the back of her head. “…W-what injury? I'm not injured am I?” She asked, having a look of fear on her face.

The doctor quickly shook his head. “No, you’re not injured. I’m talking about what happened two years ago, since I need to know if the information I have here is still correct. We’ll get onto what happened today shortly,” he said as Rainbow Dash inched over to butt in on the conversation.

“I think I might be a better person to ask about what happened two years ago, since she was barely conscious at the time of it happening,” she said, lifting a hoof up.

The doctor nodded to her. “I understand, but if that’s the case then I’d like to have both perspectives, starting with you Scootaloo. So could you tell me what you remember?”

Scootaloo gave a small nod, trying her best to recall what happened. “…I was climbing a tree, trying to find a cloud I might be able to get onto. I don’t know exactly what I was thinking in doing, but I think I was just being silly.” She said, rubbing the back of her head. She was quickly stopped by the doctor, who leaned over and pulled her hoof away from her head.

She continued talking about what she remembered. “I tried jumping to the cloud but I just ended up falling to the ground and… I think I bumped my head on something? No one was very specific when they tried telling me, so all I know is what I was told and what I think happened,” she said, looking over to Rainbow Dash in the hope that she could clarify for her.

The doctor’s attention shifted to Rainbow Dash when she saw Scootaloo’s did. “Think you could tell me what happened, Miss Dash?” He asked as he glanced at the medical reports.

Rainbow Dash nodded to him, sitting forward. “She fell and hit her head on a rock in the ground. It ended up fracturing her skull, so I rushed to Twilight to see if she might be able to help. She suggested we go to a doctor immediately and that I should have done that in the first place. After we went to the hospital, they performed an operation on her to put a metal plate in the back of her skull to cover the fracture.”

The doctor skimmed through the records, seeing if his information was still correct. “That checks out. Just out of curiosity, but do you know why we gave you a metal plate, Scootaloo?” He asked, looking back over to her.

Scootaloo tried thinking about it, but eventually just shook her head in response.

“We gave you a metal plate because you had small fragments of your skull missing. And if we don’t have all the parts to the puzzle, we can’t exactly complete it,” he said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. “So we needed something to cover what you didn’t have anymore. Anyway, we should move onto today, since I’m sure you’re eager to hear our analysis.

Both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were paying attention, waiting for the doctor to skim through his notes again. “So what happened was that you were flying in the League, a colt went in-front of you and he kicked your head with his back legs. Sound correct?” He asked, glancing over to Scootaloo, who nodded to him. “You said you experienced a loud ringing in your ears and your eyes couldn’t focus. You said they felt like they were rolling around in your head. Right now you said you have a throbbing headache and the constant feeling of wanting to puke. Correct?” He asked, getting the same nodding response from Scootaloo as he looked back up to her.

“Okay, so nothing serious is wrong with you, you’ll be glad to hear that. What we suspect might have happened is that the metal plate in the back of your head was ‘irritated’ from the kick you took. Don’t worry, it’s still in place and hasn’t moved an inch, but we have a feeling that it’s just been irritated,” he said, putting the notes down to his side. “The back of your head may feel weird for the next couple days, but the feeling of you wanting to puke should disappear much sooner. I recommend you try and take it easy for the rest of the week, give your head time to heal from the beating it took.”

Scootaloo looked over to Rainbow Dash, seemingly worried. “But what about the league? Don’t I have to attend the course tomorrow?” She said, lifting a hoof up.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but hesitate on her response, not wanting to tell her. “...I’m afraid you classed as DNF, Squirt. It means did not finish. Because you didn’t finish, you were automatically disqualified from the rest of the league,” she said with a raspy tone, knowing that it was probably going to hurt her.

Scootaloo had paused for a couple second before she just looked down to the ground and hiccuped. Her eyes were quickly filled with tears as she couldn’t help but start to cry. It broke Rainbow Dash’s heart seeing Scootaloo cry like that, knowing she felt cheated and unfairly disqualified.

Rainbow Dash didn’t want to stand for this, seeing that some of Scootaloo’s first experiences with flying might have been tainted forever and ever because of this. All because of a colt that couldn’t take losing as an option and was still participating in the league unpunished.

She felt a mix of anger and sadness fight against each other in her mind, knowing she had to do something to at least make sure the colt didn’t get away with what he did. But right now, she wanted to support Scootaloo as best she could.

She trotted over to her and pulled her into a hug, nuzzling her chin against Scootaloo’s head. “Hey, hey… it’s okay. You did incredibly well in the league for just having started flying. I am so, so, so proud of you, Scootaloo. You got farther than any of us could have ever imagined,” She said as she rubbed Scootaloo’s back, trying to comfort her.

Unfortunately, Scootaloo’s crying didn’t stop, even though Rainbow Dash’s words did make her feel a little bit better. She was still upset that not only did she ‘lose’, but she lost to something that wasn’t even her fault.

Rainbow Dash continued to rub her back as she looked over to the doctor. “I suppose we should just go back home and get some rest then?” She asked as the doctor glanced over his notes again.

He looked back up and over to her, giving a small nod. “You should, but if anything out of the ordinary starts to happen to her while she’s resting, please do come back here as soon as possible. She should be completely fine, but it’s just in case,” he said, putting all of the records and notes back into a neat pile.

As much as she didn’t want to, Rainbow Dash had to stop hugging Scootaloo so they could both leave the doctor’s room together. Twilight followed them both out of the room as she had the book she was reading tucked under her wing.

Rainbow Dash was curious on what she was reading, trying to read the cover as they all trotted down the hospital’s long hallway. “…What were you reading? Had to have been interesting since you didn’t say a word during that entire appointment,” she said, still trying to read the obscured cover.

Twilight used her magic to levitate the book out from under her wing, holding it to the side of Rainbow Dash for her to read. “It’s a book about head injuries. It explicitly details nearly everything that can happen to both the organs and the skull itself, including fractures,” Twilight said, putting the book back under her wing as she continued to speak. “I figured I might as well read it now that it’s somewhat relevant.”

Rainbow Dash’s expression turned to that of bored. “I don’t know how you can just sit through a book like that and enjoy it, it just seems way too serious and drab,” she said, making Twilight pout.

“Rainbow Dash, if anything I think YOU’RE the one who should be reading this book. Even if you just read the part about skull fractures,” Twilight said as she lifted a hoof up.

Scootaloo was trotting closely behind Rainbow Dash and Twilight, seemingly stuck in a day dream. She couldn’t help but feel upset, even if she knew Rainbow Dash wasn’t disappointed in her for losing. She felt like a failure, that everything she practised for was thrown down the drain in an instant. Maybe she was too ambitious? Maybe she bit off more than she could chew? Either way, all she wanted to do right now was lie in her bed and forget about today. Maybe when she wakes up she’ll no longer have the burning migraine in the back of her head; but she doubted she’d feel any better mentally.

When they finally got back home, the first thing Scootaloo did was trot into her room and into her cosy bed. Rainbow Dash followed her into her room, sitting down next to her bed to see if she was going to be okay, or at least somewhat okay.

Scootaloo laid to her side in the bed, facing Rainbow Dash and opening her eyes. “You don’t have to sit and watch me, you know,” she said.

Rainbow Dash nodded as she pulled her covers up closer to her with her mouth. “I know I don’t, but I just wanted to see if you’ll be okay,” she said, standing up.

Scootaloo put one of her arms under her pillow and buried the side of her head into it. “I’m as okay as I’ll ever be,” she said in a croaky voice.

Rainbow Dash knew what she said wasn’t true, but she decided it would be best to just let her rest. Before she left, Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo a small kiss on her forehead, hoping that she’d feel better when she woke up. She then left her room to give her some peace and quiet, shutting the door behind her.

Twilight had followed them back to their house, sitting on the couch and reading where she left off in the book. Rainbow Dash trotted over and sat on the couch as well, looking both worried and annoyed at the same time. She kept trying to think of a way to solve the situation, but it seemed like everything was against her. Even if Scootaloo got back into the league for some reason, she wouldn’t be in any sort of shape to continue flying through the rest of the courses. Rainbow Dash figured the only thing she could do was hope that the colt would be found out and disciplined for what he did, but she doubted that would fix Scootaloo’s mood.

She groaned and rubbed her eyes. “I have no clue what to do right now! Come on Twilight, tell me what I should do to try and fix all of this! You’re so good at fixing seemingly impossible situations, surely you can come up with something that can fix this,” she said as she pleaded to Twilight.

Twilight put down her book and gave a quiet sigh, looking over to Rainbow Dash. “Sorry Rainbow, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do to help. I think it might just be best to do nothing for now,” she said as she had a small frown.

Rainbow Dash slid down on the couch, slouching as she looked to Twilight in the corner of her eye. “Are you serious? We have to be able to do something!” She said, hopping off from the couch and trotting over to her house’s entrance.

Twilight looked concerned, getting off from the couch and following her. “Rainbow Dash, wait! Where are you going? What about Scootaloo?” She asked worryingly.

Rainbow Dash turned around when she got to her front door, having a determined look on her face. “I need to do something, anything! I’m going to go to Spitfire and see if I can at least get that bully out of the competition! Of all ponies, surely she’ll listen to me!” she said, about to go out the front door as she placed her hoof on it.

Twilight pulled her back with her magic and pointed to Scootaloo’s room. “But what about Scootaloo?! She needs your support more than anypony else’s right now! You can’t just leave her alone like that!” she said, making Rainbow Dash pause and look over to her room.

“…I know. But I need to at least try while I can. That’s why I need you to stay here and look over her while I’m gone; I won’t be that long, I promise,” Rainbow Dash said before bursting out the front door, not giving Twilight enough time to respond.

Twilight sighed, trotting back over to the couch to continue reading. Who knows, maybe she will be able to do something to help. At least she could try and give the colt their just deserts.

17: Too Much Sleep.

Scootaloo was sleeping soundly in her bed, with nothing but the faint sound of a clock ticking in her bedroom. The peaceful silence was interrupted by her stomach making a low toned grumble, signalling she was getting quite hungry. Despite how quiet the grumble was, it caused her wake up and squirm around in her bed.

She felt groggy and tired, trying to ignore her stomach’s call for food. But the feeling of hunger got the better of her, making her sit up and rub her eyes. On the bright side of the situation, she no longer had the throbbing migraine in the back of her head, meaning the feeling of her wanting to puke had now completely subsided.

After a while of some vigorous eye rubbing, she opened both her eyes and looked around her room. Of course it was the exact same as it had always been; no reason for it to have changed while she slept.

She didn’t know if she just wanted to continue resting after she ate or if it was just her being lazy, but she decided to call out instead of going to get the food herself. “Rainbow Dash, I’m starting to feel hungry!” She said, waiting where she was in her bed.

Oddly enough, no pony at all came over to her room; she never even heard any hoofsteps either. She figured that maybe they just didn’t hear her. “Rainbow Dash? Twilight? Is anypony there?” She shouted as a small feeling of loneliness started to wash over her.

Like the last time, no pony seemed to respond to her call outs. It left Scootaloo both confused and frightened at the same time; was she really alone? Maybe Twilight and Rainbow Dash were just sleeping and didn’t wake up from hearing her?

Considering no pony seemed to take notice of her calling out to them, she had to get up and get something to eat herself. She leaned out the bed, pressing her two front hooves onto the ground. Suddenly the floor collapsed at where she put her hooves, making her jump and recoil back onto her bed.

The sounds of the floor cracking and breaking echoed through the room as the rest of her floor began to plummet around her bed. She leaned over and looked to what was now a near endless looking chasm at where her floor used to be, suddenly gaining an extreme case of vertigo.
She pulled herself back onto the middle of her bed, starting to unintentionally hyperventilate. She didn’t feel safe where she was, so she quickly backed up to the top of her bed so she could lean against it’s board.

She started to question her safety as the ground her bed was on began to crack and break, with her whole bed tilting ever so slightly the more the flooring snapped bellow her. There was nothing she was able to hang onto, being completely helpless as she was seconds away from falling into the dark, endless chasm that took up nearly every bit of her flooring.

With a few final cracks from her floor, her bed began to drop into the chasm, bringing her with it. All Scootaloo was able to do was scream and cover her eyes in fear that this may be the end for her. She uncovered her eyes to look up to the dilating light that was her room, with it being the only thing that generated any sort of light inside the deep chasm.

She had never shook or hyperventilated as hard as she did now; completely unsure of what to think or do in the situation she was in. All she could do was wait for what might have been her untimely doom. She leaned slightly over the edge of her bed as it fell; looking down into the pitch black darkness she had fallen into. She swore she began to see a light at the bottom, but before she was able to even comprehend it, she smashed into the ground.

Suddenly she woke up screaming, having sweat pouring down her face as her heart was racing. She quickly sat up in her bed, frantically looking around her room to see if what had just happened was real. Her room still had its flooring, making her look somewhat confused and distressed.

She could hear the faint sound of hoofsteps coming closer to her room, quite quickly as well. Suddenly her door was slammed open by Rainbow Dash, who trotted over to her bed and put her two front hooves onto it. “What’s wrong? Why did you scream?” She asked, looking worried for her.

Scootaloo was still shakily looking around her room, unsure about what just happened. “…M-My floor collapsed and then so did the floor under my bed! There was this large dark hole that me and my bed fell into and… and…” She said, unsure of what else to say that could explain what she just experienced.

It took her longer than she’d like to admit to realize that what she might have just had was a nightmare, with Rainbow Dash saying the same thing shortly after. “It’s okay, Squirt! The floor didn’t break and you never went anywhere. You probably just had a nasty nightmare in your sleep, but you’re here now,” she said, reaching over and pulling her into a hug.

Scootaloo hugged Rainbow Dash back, burying her head into the side of her neck while trying to calm herself down. On the bright side, her migraine WAS gone at least, but one thing that wasn’t gone was the feeling of her stomach grumbling in the middle of the hug.

She pulled out of the hug, looking down to her stomach and smiling nervously. “O-Oh, so I AM hungry after all. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to bed with an empty stomach,” she said, looking over to Rainbow Dash as she rubbed some sweat off of her head.

Rainbow Dash chuckled and smiled as she trotted away from her bed and towards her room’s entrance. “I’ll go and get you something to eat to sort out those hungry nightmares of yours. Don’t worry, you won’t have to move an inch,” she said as she left her room to go to the kitchen. While Rainbow Dash went to go get something to eat for her, Scootaloo decided to check the time on her desk’s clock. To her surprise, it was quite near midnight. She must have been sleeping ever since she came back from the doctors, since she couldn’t recall waking up at any point in-between then and now.

The bright sunlight of the next day beamed through Scootaloo’s bedroom as she was awoken by the sound of Rainbow Dash’s doorbell. She went to bed pretty late, sort of. After getting something to eat she stayed up couple hours after midnight, meaning she ended up waking up in the afternoon the next day.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned, beginning to stretch under the covers of her bed. After stretching, she quickly got out from her bed so she wouldn’t continue to sleep, having already felt like she overslept in the first place. She decided to do what she’d normally do in the morning. Brush her teeth. But her journey to the bathroom was short lived as her attention shifted to who Rainbow Dash was talking to at the front door.

She curiously trotted over to the door to see who she was talking to, only to see that she was talking to Spitfire. Spitfire noticed that Scootaloo came over, giving a small smile to her as she lifted a hoof. “Good afternoon Scootaloo, glad to see you’re okay. Rainbow Dash came to me yesterday and told me about what happened, and you’ll be glad to know that there is a spot reserved for you in the fourth course,” she said.

Scootaloo honestly thought she heard wrong for the first couple seconds, but her mood drastically changed upon realizing that what she heard was correct. “…Wait really?! B-but I was disqualified!” She said, her tail swishing back and forth excitedly

Spitfire gave a small nod to her. “You were, but a space became available and I figured that you deserved it,” she said as she looked over to Rainbow Dash, who had quite a big smile on her face.
Scootaloo was curious as to what happened that made a space available, and why she was chosen specifically. “Wait, so what happened that made a space available?” She asked, tilting her head and lifting a hoof.

Spitfire looked down to her again and grinned. “Well…”

2 hours ago at the Wonderbolts Training grounds, just before the fourth course should have started.

All of the fillies who passed the previous course had arrived, eager to take on the fourth course. Everything seemed to go as normal until Spitfire arrived. She flew down next to the fillies and coughed to grab their attention. “Good morning to all of you and congratulations for passing the third course. While I’d like to jump straight into the fourth course, something was brought to my attention that may end up postponing it,” she said, causing all of the fillies to look confused to each other.

Spitfire tapped her hoof on the ground so they’d all look to her again. “Yesterday on the third course, a filly by the name of Scootaloo was struck by one of the other contestants, causing her to fall and get disqualified from the course. She was sent to the hospital before I was able to get an explanation, but luckily, her carer came to me a couple hours later to tell me what happened,” she said, suddenly looking a bit more serious than before. “If the one that struck her is here right now, they will have one chance to tell me that they did it. If whoever did it is here and we find out later that it was you, you will be permanently banned from entering into any further filly leagues,” she said in a serious tone.

Every filly began to look around in the group, seemingly to look for who might have done the deed. Spitfire’s attention was quickly grabbed by Rumble, who shouted over to her. “Ms Spitfire! I know who did it!” He said, pushing some of the other fillies out of the way as he pointed to one of the colts in the middle of the group.

Spitfire recognised the colt he pointed to as the same one that was making fun of Scootaloo in the first course. Of course the colt revolted on the accusation. “WHAT?! Why me?!” He said, growling to Rumble in response.

Rumble rolled his eyes and put his hoof down. “Because I saw you do it! You two were arguing and bickering while you were being overtaken!” He said, making a lot of the other fillies nod. They all seemed to agree that Rumble was right; they WERE arguing and bickering with each other, so of course it’s to be assumed he did it.

Realizing there wasn’t much of a way for him to recover, the colt decided that it might have been best to admit it while he could. “F-Fine! I did it! I’m the one that hit her! But I didn’t do it without a reason; she was cheating!” He said, trying to damage control the situation he was in.

Spitfire frowned and looked somewhat angry as she spoke. “Even if she was cheating, it doesn’t excuse what you did. I will not tolerate such behaviour from anypony, so you’re disqualified from the rest of the league,” she said, motioning for him to leave.

After pausing and beginning to cry, he became angry, stomping on the ground in a tantrum. He quickly trotted away and began to fly back home, both embarrassed and infuriated.

“So you disqualified the colt that hit me?” Scootaloo asked, having a wide grin on her face.

However her happiness was short lived, as Rainbow Dash butted in to talk to Spitfire. “A-actually… I don’t think she can participate. The doctors explicitly told us that she had to remain on the ground until she recovered, and they said it could be up to a week!” She said, looking slightly disappointed.

Scootaloo’s grin disappeared as she was reminded of that, having forgotten about what the doctor said. But Spitfire leaned over and pulled her head up. “Hey, don’t worry about that! I’ll just postpone the fourth course until next week when you’re better,” she said as she smiled to her.

Scootaloo looked slightly surprised before she laughed nervously. “N-No, you don’t have to do that. What about all of the other fillies who passed? Isn’t it unfair for them?” She said curiously.

Spitfire shook her head. “It’s only fair you get another chance, since you were unfairly disqualified. We’ve made delays in the past, so this should be no different. And even if you don’t pass the fourth course when you’ve recovered, at least you had a fair chance to try it,” she said with a smile

Of course Scootaloo’s mood lifted again, almost feeling through the roof about it. Rainbow Dash was extremely happy as well, knowing that Scootaloo was going to get a fair chance at competing again next week.

Author's Note

Might take a small break with the next chapter. May be a day later than usual or something.

18: Bonding.

There wasn’t much that Scootaloo could do to pass the time until she was fit enough to fly again, so the first couple days of her week long recovery just involved her resting and lying in bed.

On the third day, she started to question why she was still in bed since it seemed like all of her injuries were completely healed up by then. She figured there would be no harm in getting out of bed and moping around the house for a bit, even if Rainbow Dash wanted her to stay in bed. The only time she felt pain was when she pressed her hoof against where she was kicked, since it was quite bruised and sensitive. Otherwise, she felt completely fine.

She wanted to go outside and hang out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t allowing her to as she was too concerned something might happen while she was out. Scootaloo understood her concern and why she wasn’t allowed, but it still annoyed her that despite how fine she felt, she wasn’t able to do anything fun.

At least Rainbow Dash had a decent amount of knick-knacks and interesting trinkets lying around that she could play with. Her room was filled to the brim with Wonderbolts memorabilia ranging from trophies to posters to merchandise; she seemed to have it all. If it wasn’t Wonderbolts related, it was Daring Doo related. Despite how cluttered her room was from top to bottom in tat, the one place that wasn’t cluttered was her bed. Her bed was on a darker, raised floor and had two bedside cabinets to its sides. One of the cabinets had a lamp on it, while the other had a framed picture. Upon closer inspection of the picture, it was of Rainbow Dash and Tank hugging, quite cheerfully as well. It still surprised Scootaloo how tidy and regal Rainbow Dash’s house was despite the abundance of tat, especially considering the mess that Rarity’s can be in at times.

Scootaloo was exploring her room a bit, looking at all of the random trinkets that were strewn about the place. She noticed that there were also Wonderbolts action figures on some of the tables, but they looked to be just faceless generic pegasi and not of anypony in specific. She didn’t want to touch them; just in-case Rainbow Dash had specifically arranged them that way. Even though she knew it was rude to snoop around someone’s room, she went over to Dash’s closet and looked inside of it. To her surprise, it was full of outfits and clothes, stuff ranging from Halloween costumes to pyjamas to just general clothing. It was amusing seeing that she still had everything she wore from the previous Halloweens, with the most recent outfit looking something akin to an astronaut costume.

With a bit more digging inside of the closet, she managed to find what looked to be a home-made Wonderbolts outfit. It looked pretty old and would nowhere near fit Rainbow Dash now, in-fact, it looked more like it was made for a filly. She knew she had a Shadowbolts outfit from one of the previous Halloweens, but it at least looked official if you didn’t look at it for too long. The filly sized Wonderbolts outfit had some old looking designs compared to the current in-use outfit, not to mention it was quite dirty and tattered as well.

Before she was unable to put it away, Rainbow Dash had trotted up behind her and startled her when she spoke. “You shouldn’t be snooping around ponies’ stuff, Squirt,” she said as Scootaloo jumped where she sat.

She smiled nervously to her, putting down the outfit and giving a small, uncomfortable chuckle. “I know, Dash. I just came in to have a look at all the cool things you had in your room… aaand I got a little carried away with my curiosity. Whoops,” she said, standing up and turning towards her.

Rainbow Dash glanced down to the outfit before leaning over and picking it. She spread it apart as best she could with her front hooves, examining its tattered fabric. “Oh hey, I remember this! It was made for me back when I was a filly, back when I was really, really into the Wonderbolts,” she said, putting it down on the ground and speaking again. “Actually, I guess I still am really into the Wonderbolts, but it’s nice to know I still have that old costume.”

She kicked the outfit back into the closet and looked over to Scootaloo with a bit of an annoyed look. “But don’t be snooping around my stuff, Scoots. Even I don’t know what I have stored sometimes,” she said, trotting over to the closet and closing it.

Scootaloo nodded, trotting backwards and out of her way. “Sorry, I just got a bit too curious… and I’m pretty bored. It’s no fun having just learnt to fly then not being allowed to do it for a whole week…” she said, her head dipping down.

Rainbow Dash leaned over to her and pulled her head up with her hoof. “Chin up, Squirt. You’ve done a lot of flying in the past three weeks, so I think your wings deserve a rest. And even though you’re not supposed to, you can hang out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle tomorrow, as long as you don’t fly around and stuff.” She said, smiling down to her.

Scootaloo nodded to her, her wings fluttering a bit. “Sure! I don’t think I’d have much of a reason to fly around them anyway, unless I wanted to show off. I won’t do it either way,” she said as she smiled back to Rainbow Dash, who was trotting around her room and looking at all of the random merchandise she owned.

For the rest of the day, Rainbow Dash showed Scootaloo a lot of the trinkets and junk she had in her room, explaining where and when she got them. She seemed to have a lot of stories to tell, despite never really telling them. Some of the stories were more recent than others, stuff like meeting the true author of the Daring Doo books and meeting Gilda again in Griffonstone; and while Scootaloo had already heard a lot of these recent stories, she never heard them in detail before. She felt like they were bonding more, which was always a nice feeling.

On the next day, just like Rainbow Dash had said, Scootaloo was allowed to go and hang out with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom as long as she didn’t fly. Meaning Rainbow Dash had to carry her down from the house when she wanted to leave.

Just like the last time she went to go hang out with them, she decided to visit Applebloom’s place first, except this time she had quite a lot of stories to tell to them both.

Scootaloo trotted into the Apple farm then over to the main building where the apple family stayed. She knocked on the front door, which was quickly answered by Big Mac who stepped out of the way to let her in. “Heya Big Mac! Is Applebloom here?” Scootaloo said, trotting inside and away from the door.

Big Mac closed the door and pointed up stairs. “Eeeeuuup,” he said enthusiastically to her.

She started trotting up the stairs, looking back for a second to thank Big Mac before she reached the second floor. The first place she went to was Applebloom’s room, probably the most obvious place to go first. But when she opened the door, she managed to see that she wasn’t in her room, making her close the door again and wander around the second floor to find her.

She trotted over to some of the other doors, listening in to try and hear where Applebloom was. At one of the doors she could hear two ponies talking, so she knocked on the door to gain their attention. The door was answered by Applebloom, who was wearing quite the frilly looking dress. “Oh thank the stars! Granny Smith is making me try on all of these old and cutesy dresses, and they keep gettin’ more and more complex to put on!”

Scootaloo let out a chuckle when she saw her friend in such an unfitting dress, making Applebloom pout to her in embarrassment as she blushed. “This is serious! I smell so old and pretty I feel like I belong in a Friday night bingo event!”

Their conversation was cut short by Granny Smith, who was taking out dress after dress from a cardboard box in the middle of the room. “Oooh, look at this here dress Applebloom! Isn’t it just the cutest thing?” She asked, holding it up in the light.

Applebloom smiled nervously as she trotted back over to her. “It sure is, Granny Smith,” she said with a nervous giggle. “Listen, I’d love to stay here and try on dresses. But Scootaloo is at the door waitin’ for me, so I think I better go and hang out with her for a while,” she said, continuing to smile nervously to her.

After a small pause, Granny Smith started putting the dresses back into the cardboard box. “Sure thing, Applebloom! I wouldn’t want your friend to sit and wait for you, so we could do this again when you get back!” She said enthusiastically.

Applebloom began trotting away as she yanked off the frilly dress she was wearing. It took quite a bit of pulling, almost to the point of her falling. “Thank you Granny Smith! I guess I’ll see you later!” she said as she quickened her pace out the door with Scootaloo by her side. When they were both far enough away from the room, Applebloom wiped her forehead with her arm. “Phew! That was a close one. You showed up at just the right time, Scootaloo! I might have been tryin’ on dresses all day if you didn’t come and save me!”

Scootaloo smiled and lifted her leg up. “You’re welcome I suppose. But those dresses did not suit you at all; I wouldn’t be surprised if Rarity was rolling around in her sleep from how much of a fashion disaster you looked!” Scootaloo said as they both began to trot down the stairs together.

Applebloom giggled and rolled her eyes. “You know, if I was saved by Sweetie Belle instead of you, I could have said I was saved by the Belle. Not that I’m complainin’ or anythin’, but it’d have still been a funny joke to make,” she said with another small giggle.

Once they got to the bottom of the stairs, they both went out the front door and towards the entrance to the apple farm. “I’m guessin’ we’re going for Sweetie Belle now?” Applebloom asked, looking over to Scootaloo.

She nodded, raising a hoof. “That’s the plan I think. Hopefully she isn’t busy or anything since I have a lot of cool things to tell you two about! Well, some of it’s cool. Some of it is kinda bad,” she said, rubbing her cheek as they trotted along.

Applebloom tilted her head in concern. “I hope it’s not that bad! You could tell me before we get over to Sweetie Belle’s if you’d like, unless it’s something you want us to hear together,” she said as they had fully left the apple farm and were on their way to Ponyville.

Scootaloo shrugged to her. “I guess I could tell you right now then,” she said, lowering her hoof on her cheek to the ground. “I entered the filly league and managed to get all the way to the third course, but a colt there thought I was cheating and kicked me in the back of my head. Now I have quite a sore spot back there, not to mention I was disqualified for not finishing the course. My head was too sore for me to continue flying when I was kicked, so my wings just gave up on the spot,” she said, seeming a little sad before she remembered that she was allowed a second chance. “…Oh but I was allowed to have another chance at the league! So it’s all good now. They found out who the colt was that hit me and they disqualified him, allowing me to take his place in the fourth course in three days.”

Applebloom’s mood shifted quite heavily as Scootaloo spoke, eventually ending on being happy. “That’s great! I mean it kinda is yet it kinda isn’t. Wait, isn’t the league like a day to day thing with one course happening each day? How come the fourth course takes place in three days then?” She said, tilting her head again as she raised an eyebrow.

Scootaloo smiled to her. “Well, Spitfire decided to delay the rest of the course while I recovered. She figured it was only fair to allow me to have a second chance at it,” she said, touching the back of her head to see if touching it still hurt, which it did so she lowered her hoof back down.

Applebloom grinned back to her as she spoke. “Well that’s awfully nice of her to do that just for you! I’m positive you’ll do amazing when you get onto the fourth course!”

“I’d like to hope so,” Scootaloo said, smiling softly as she continued to trot alongside Applebloom.

19: Second Chance.

“So you were allowed to get through because you only technically had 3 spots of paint?” Sweetie Belle asked Scootaloo as they were both trotting to the sides of Applebloom.

Scootaloo nodded, lifting her leg up. “Yep, tails didn’t count apparently! So I just barely got through to the next course,” she said as she smiled.

They were exploring the outskirts of Ponyville, seeing if they could find anything interesting together. They didn’t have any ideas to try and gain their cutie marks and even if they did, they probably couldn’t do it since of Scootaloo having to take it easy.

Applebloom raised an eyebrow. “Wait, so why don’t tails count? Would your mane count if tails don’t?” She asked, looking over to Scootaloo.

She shrugged to her in response. “I don’t know about the mane thing, but I’d like to imagine that it doesn’t count as well. From what I was told about the rules, tails don’t count because we barely have control of them when we’re flying. And I suppose we don’t feel them rubbing up against the paint if they do. Would seem kinda unfair if they did count,” she said, lowering her leg.

Applebloom nodded as she spoke. “I suppose that makes sense... but me and my sister can control our tails though, so is that an earth pony thing then?” She asked.

Sweetie Belle began swinging her tail around behind her as an example. “No, I think everypony can do that. I think that it’s because you’re flying at such high speeds that you don’t have much control over your tail. At least I’m assuming that’s the reason, right Scootaloo?” She asked, waiting for her to respond. “…Scootaloo?” She asked again before realizing that she wasn’t beside the two any more. It didn’t take her long to see that Scootaloo had stopped trotting with them and was looking over to a partly torn down house not far back.

Both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom turned around and went over to her, going by her side. “Did you find something interesting, Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking at the dirty old house.

Scootaloo hesitantly nodded and looked over to her. “Sort of, maybe. I just gained a deep feeling of déjà vu since this house looks a lot like where I used to live by myself. I’m pretty sure it isn’t it though since this one has large gaping holes in the sides; I’m pretty sure I’d remember if my old home had those” she said, beginning to push onto the front door to try and get inside. The door was jammed to the point that she was unable to make it budge, despite any efforts she made at pushing it.

Applebloom pulled Scootaloo out of the way and faced her back towards the door, preparing to kick it with her back hooves. With all the force she could muster, she slammed her hind hooves onto the brittle wood, causing the entire handle to break off and allow access to the house. “I ain’t the sibling of an apple bucker without a good reason!” Applebloom said as she gloated at her strength.

Sweetie Belle laughed nervously, rubbing her leg as she glanced away. “Isn’t this breaking and entering? I don’t think I want to get a cutie mark in burglary, Applebloom,” she said as Scootaloo peeked her head inside of the house.

It only took one glance of the inside for Scootaloo to realize that it WAS actually her old house. The same familiar set up of a room at each side with stairs leading to the second floor gave it away. There also seemed to be a lot of lighting in the house, which was then easily explained by the large gaping holes in the roof. She slowly trotted inside, looking around as she entered. “This IS where I used to live! Boy did this place take quite the beating. How did it get this badly damaged?” She asked curiously.

Sweetie Belle trotted in afterwards, looking around and wincing at the sight of such a dusty and dirty household. “I couldn’t tell you, but if I had to make a guess, maybe that big red guy Twilight defeated a while back? Could he have blasted holes though this place?” She asked as the loud crunching of broken tiles on the ground echoed through the house.

Applebloom came in after Sweetie Belle, picking up some of the rubble with her front hoof and examining it closely. “You know, I’m surprised my kick didn’t bring down the rest of this place. Better be careful you don’t cough too hard,” she said jokingly, throwing the rubble behind her and beginning to trot up the stairs to explore some more.

Scootaloo was going to go into the kitchen, but her attention shifted over to Applebloom as she heard her make a large gasp when she looked inside one of the second floor rooms. Scootaloo quickly trotted up the stairs and went over to her side, wondering what she was gasping at.

When she finally saw what she was gasping it, she couldn’t help but let her mouth drop in surprise. Her old room was a complete and total mess, with walls being torn to shreds and wallpaper sticking out everywhere. They would have gone in to have a better look, but the fact that the entire floor had also collapsed was stopping them from doing so.

Applebloom nervously stepped back and turned around. “I think we better leave before the rest o’ this place falls down. I don’t want to end up becomin’ an apple sandwich,” she said, trotting down the stairs.

Scootaloo couldn’t help but continue to stare at her near completely destroyed old room; it was barely recognisable anymore. She agreed with Applebloom, this building was a disaster waiting to happen. So she turned around and trotted down the stairs as well, following her friend’s hoofsteps. “I guess I won’t be sleeping in there ever again, and not just because the floor fell,” she said, looking up to the fragile roof.

They didn’t take long in getting out of the building, noticing that Sweetie Belle had already left before them as she was waiting outside. Only now did Scootaloo realize how much of a mess her old home used to be back when she lived in it. Seeing the state it was in now only made her that much happier that she moved in with Rainbow Dash two years ago.

They all continued on with their exploration around the outskirts of Ponyville, feeling happy that they at least found something interesting before the day ended.

The remaining days until the fourth course seemed to pass by quicker and quicker, with Scootaloo’s physical state getting better and better along with it. She was hoping that she might be able to get some warm-up training before the fourth course started, considering she was probably going to be quite rusty at flying. However Rainbow Dash didn’t want her to; trying to stick with the doctor’s request that she should take it easy for the whole week.

By the end of the week, the back of her head no longer hurt to touch and she seemed perfectly fine again. Sadly she never had any time to actually practice flying again, so she felt that her rust might be her downfall on the fourth course. At least she could get some practice on the way to the course, right?

There were only 13 fillies left in the league, one of them being Scootaloo. She felt pretty weak compared to the rest of them, but she must have had some sort of talent if she was able to get this far despite just learning to fly.

She was sitting to the side of the group, who as usual, were chatting away with each other. She wasn’t socially awkward, if anything she was quite the opposite; she just didn’t want to interrupt their conversations just to try and fit in.

It looked like she didn’t have to interrupt them, as Rumble trotted over to her with a small smile on his face. “You could probably thank me for getting you back in, since I was the one who snitched about the colt that hit you,” he said, lifting his leg up. “You’ll probably be glad to hear that they stormed off in a tantrum after their cover was blown,” He said, chuckling slightly.

Scootaloo chuckled as well and nodded. “Thanks Rumble, I guess I owe you one for that. Sorry about the course being delayed because it had to wait for me though, I imagined it might have been frustrating,” she said, lifting a leg and looking somewhat sad.

Her mood was quickly lifted again by Rumble, who shook his head in response. “Not at all! If anything it allowed me and all the other contestants to get more practice than we already had! And it’s a good opportunity to take a small break and get your energy back, since these courses can be quite brutal on your energy after a while,” he said as she lowered his hoof and smiled again.

He saw Spitfire about to come over, so he quickly went back into the group of fillies to get ready for the fourth course. Scootaloo was upset she never got to have any bonus practice like the rest of them did, effectively making her competition even more skilled than they already were.

She nudged closer to the group as Spitfire landed next to them and called for their attention. “I hope you all had a good week of practice and rest, since I know a lot of you use the time to hone your skills. Either way, congratulations on making it to the fourth course, but for a lot of you this is where your road ends. No other course has taken out more competitors than this one has, even the final course can’t compete with this one. And they aren’t taken out by what place you finish in, they’re taken out by the course itself,” she said as a mobile chalkboard detailing the course was taken over and put beside her.

It actually looked like somewhat of a simple course, which was odd to Scootaloo. Spitfire pointed to the start section as she spoke to the fillies. “This course tests your ability to angle yourself during flight. The first 25% of it is going to be going at a 45 degree angle upwards, and when you reach the peak height, the course will change into a long 30 degree angle downwards, allowing you to pick up a lot of speed,” she said, running her hoof along the rest of the course on the chalkboard before getting to what looked to be the end. “At the very end of the course, you will suddenly have to do a 90 degree angle straight up. This part of the course has not only made a lot of fillies crash into the clouds from their high speed, but it has also made a lot of them slow to a snail’s pace for safety, causing them to finish in a higher place in the course than they originally were in.”

It looked like half of the fillies here had already encountered this course before, as half of them were looking worried while the other half seemed fine. It was quite an intimidating course, even just in concept. No obstacles, nothing to stop ponies from overtaking others, just a devilishly sharp turn at the very end that killed your speed faster than you might be able to yourself.

Oddly enough, Scootaloo felt like she could do this, despite how intimidating the course looked. Rainbow Dash had taught her about angling herself to either slow down or speed up, so she has done it quite extensively in her training. She was sure that she’d be able to curve up far enough if she tried, even if it meant slowing down just a little bit. She could already tell that it was going to be better said than done though.

Spitfire pointed to the starting line, signalling that they should all get ready to start. They all rushed to the starting line to try and get in a decently good spot before any other filly could. Scootaloo came in after they had all gotten their spots, not wanting to get involved with the sudden rush.

Spitfire trotted behind all of the fillies, examining how prepared they were for the course. She withheld her signals for a couple seconds, leaving nothing but the concentrated silence from every filly at the starting line. “If you finish in 9th place or higher, you will not progress to the final elimination course. If you go face first into the clouds at the 90 degree turn, you will also not progress to the final elimination course,” Spitfire said.

“Ready… set…” Spitfire said, making all of the fillies’ wings tense up in preparation.

“GO!” She shouted, with a sudden large draft sweeping her mane afterwards as every single filly had bolted into the course.

The course looked to be just one long batch of cloud made rings that directed them to where they needed to go. There were no obstacles at all, so it looked like this was going to be another test of speed and control.

The start of the course was fairly easy, since all they had to do was follow the large rings to the peak height of the course. Scootaloo was flying around the back of the group, finding it somewhat tough to try and consistently fly upwards without any prior speed bonuses.

Some of the fillies had already reached the peak and began to dart down the rest of the course, already gaining quite the considerable lead on a majority of the other contestants.

Scootaloo pouted upon seeing that she was already at a huge disadvantage compared to the others who were ahead of her, so she flapped her wings harder to try and quickly get to the large dip in the course where she could gain as much speed as possible.

It didn’t take her long before she reached the dipping point, suddenly dashing down into the extremely long tunnel made of rings. Her speed began to accelerate tremendously, eventually allowing her to overtake some of the other fillies who were originally ahead of her. Suddenly she started to feel excited from her increasing speed, as looked like she wasn’t going to stop accelerating any time soon.

She was flying faster than she had ever flown before, making her blood begin to jump around in her body. A feeling of exhilaration coursed through her mind as she saw ring after ring become nothing but a blur in her vision as she passed each one. She quickly began to try and concentrate again, not wanting to be taken off guard by the brutal 90 degree turn that she could reach at a moment’s notice.

She could see at least five other contestants in-front of her, either going faster than or just as fast as she was. She might not have been able to make them out correctly, but she swore she could see Rumble in third place.

Her concentration suddenly snapped back onto the course as she saw the filly in first place crash into a a cloud wall, obviously showing that the 90 degree turn was closer than they expected. Realizing she had only a couple seconds to react, she began to slow down just enough so that she still had speed, but wasn’t going to end up in the same fate as the filly that crashed.

She quickly curved up and into the harsh turn, suddenly having some small struggles with flying straight up. Her wings felt confused in what direction they were meant to flap, causing her to slow down quite considerable compared to the contestants ahead of her. She continued to persist, using most of her energy to push herself all the way up to the top and land on the finish line.

She was exhausted where she stood, her wings stinging a little from the immense work they had to be put through in the final part of the course. She moved away from the finish line and sat down, just to get out of the way of the remaining contestants who still had to finish.

She noticed that most of the fillies that had finished ahead of her seemed to have no problem flying upwards, with one of them being Rumble. She got up and trotted over to him, raising an eyebrow. “How did you do that so easily? My wings were burning!” She said, tilting her head.

Rumble flapped his wings. “Did you fly straight up? Or did you fly up at a small angle?” He asked, lifting his leg up.

Scootaloo tilted her head and rubbed her neck. “I went straight up. I’m guessing I shouldn’t have done that.” She said.

Rumble nodded, giving her a small smile. “It makes it slightly easier if you’re at a small angle, but this is advanced stuff when it comes to flying. The hardest part for me was the big change in direction and not the direction I was going in,” he said, lowering his leg and closing his wings.

Scootaloo frowned slightly. “Oh, well I wish I had known that before I started. But wait, how come ponies like Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts can go straight up so easily then?”

Her question was quickly answered by Spitfire, who trotted up behind them both. “It’s because we’re professional fliers, that’s why. But I suppose I better tell you both what places you came in. Rumble, you came in 2nd place. You haven’t come in a single course above 5th place so far, quite impressive. Scootaloo, you came in 7th place, which could have been better, but at least you made it through,” she said before trotting over to the other fillies to tell them of their scores.

There was such a gap in-between their scores that it surprised Scootaloo, almost making her feel rubbish compared to him. “…Wow, I uh, never knew how much of a good flier you were, Rumble,” she said, laughing nervously.

Rumble shrugged to her. “I’ve entered into every single league so far, so I always know what to expect for the courses. On the first league, I got all the way to this course before I failed. On the second league, I made it to the semi-finals. And now I’m waiting to see how far I get on this one, since I know I have what it takes to win if I try hard enough!” He said, seeming very excited.

His self-confidence was somewhat inspiring for Scootaloo, more than she could say for her own confidence. While she was always confident in a lot of other things, flying obviously wasn’t one of them.

Either way, she made it to the final elimination course! If she gets through that one, she goes through to the semi-finals.

20: A Storm Over Your Head.

Scootaloo was sitting in her room, trying to imagine what the final elimination course might be like. Was it going to be a compilation of everything they had done so far? Was it going to be something completely new that she hadn’t seen before? She had no clue what to expect, so she had no clue what to train for.

Of course she tried asking Rumble about it just after they finished the fourth course, but she was told that it changed each year apparently, probably to stop the contestants from memorizing each course. The lack of any information annoyed her, but she didn’t know why she was annoyed. She wasn’t given any info for any of the other courses prior to seeing them, so this should have been no different.

She laid her head on her bed and pouted, trying to come up with something that she could train for. Her mind quickly drew a blank as she was unable to come up with anything at all, making her groan in frustration.

Rainbow Dash seemed to have heard her frustrations, as she had knocked on her door and opened it slightly. “You alright, Squirt? Usually something is wrong whenever I hear groaning from you,” she said, fully opening the door.

Scootaloo shrugged and looked over to her, holding her head up from the bed with one of her legs. “I dunno, Dash. I’m trying to come up with something I should be training for since the final course is just around the corner, but I have no clue what it’s going to be like!” She said as she buried her head onto her thick covers and sighed.

Rainbow Dash trotted over and sat down beside her, pulling her head back up from her bed. “Listen. What you’d probably learn from training right now, you’d probably learn better once you get into the course. You shouldn’t be trying to pinpoint exactly what you’d need to learn to beat the course, because what you’d need to do to beat the course might not even be anything useful when flying normally!” She said, putting one of her front legs around her side and pulling her closer. “You need to look at it a bit simpler; because what the course wants you to do will inevitably boil down to how skilled you are at flying, and not how skilled you are at cheesing the course.”

Scootaloo nuzzled Rainbow Dash’s fur a bit after she was pulled closer. “…I guess you’re right, Dash. I should just try and improve at my flying!” She said, wrapping her legs around Dash’s chest and hugging her. “But how do I try and get better at something that should just come naturally over time?” Scootaloo asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash ruffled up her mane with her hoof. “By doing something that challenges what you can already do. If I wanted to try and improve how well I could fly, I’d make up my own circuit around Ponyville. Give myself some rules as to where I’m supposed to go and how. Although I could easily do any configuration I set with ease,” she said, putting her hoof on her chest, looking proud of her skills.

Scootaloo broke away from Rainbow Dash and tilted her head. “Should that be something I should do?” She asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Maybe, but I honestly don’t think you need it to pass! What I think you should do is just take a break from training, since you won’t want to end up overworking your wings,” she said, pulling her over again and smiling. “…You know, you remind me a lot of when I was a filly. If I wasn’t sleeping, eating or hanging out with friends, I was racing around and around Cloudsdale until I mastered every nook and cranny of every playground course!” She said, chuckling a bit and remembering how determined she was when she was younger.

Scootaloo smiled curiously, looking up to her and hugging her again. A small pause came from Rainbow Dash before she smiled nervously. “But hey, I bet you don’t want to sit and hear me talk about that forever and ever,” she said, waving her hoof about a bit.

Scootaloo shook her head suddenly. “No! I do! I do want to hear you talk about how you were when you were a filly!”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head and grinned. “Really? I know I’m awesome, but I wouldn’t want to end up boring you with all these silly memories. Who knows, I might start nagging on about how the old times were so much better!” She said, chuckling again. Scootaloo nodded to her before nuzzling her slightly.

“Well, if you really do want me to, then sure I guess! But what to talk about… hmm,” she said, putting her hoof on her chin and looking around Scootaloo’s room a bit. “…When I was younger I used to want to train as much as possible, just like you do right now, so I ended up doing nearly four straight weeks of non-stop training and practice. I wasn’t doing it for anything in specific, other than to gloat about how amazing I was at kicking all of the other fillies’ flanks at flying, but eventually my wings began to cramp up and stiffen from the sheer amount of pressure and stress I put on myself at the time. It lead to me not being able to fly the same for two weeks, where if I tried, the joints just felt like an old, un-lubricated door,” she said, unfolding her wings and moving them back and forth a bit.

Scootaloo tilted her head curiously. “Did it stop you from doing something you wanted to do in those two weeks?” She asked, still leaning against her.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof on her chin again. “…I don’t think it did. Nothing must have been going on at the time since if there was; I’d probably have remembered it. I’d have been devastated if it stopped me from doing something like a race or a league like you’re, but we never had the league back then. Still, what I’m trying to tell you is that practice can sometimes be worse than relaxing, since everypony needs to take breaks from time to time. While I don’t think doing one lap around Ponyville would cramp you up; what I really think you need is to take it easy.” She says, putting her arm around her and smiling. “If you’re going to pass that final elimination course, you’d be able to do it both with and without a simple lap around Ponyville, so trust me, you don’t need it.”

Scootaloo nodded, wrapping her arms around Rainbow Dash’s side as she smiled. “Thanks, Dash. You’re probably right. A tiny bit of training today won’t change much tomorrow, so I might as well let all my wing power go towards it instead,” she said as they both hugged each other tightly.

It was the day of the final elimination course, meaning that today was the day the weakest links in the league were going to get weeded out. It was a do or don’t situation for all eight fillies who had passed up until this point, where one mistake could easily doom their chances at passing to the semi-finals.

Before each filly came into the usual debriefing area about the course, they were given a pair of goggles and a specifically coloured arm band to put on just before they started. They were mainly curious as to why they were given the goggles; even the fillies who got this far before didn’t know what they were for, obviously meaning that all of the previous final elimination courses were completely different from this one. Scootaloo took no time in putting on the goggles she was given, wanting to get used to them before she started.

While they were all fiddling about with the new gear they were given, Spitfire flew down to the side of them and tapped her hoof on the ground to call for their attention. “Nice to see you’re all so eager to see what the new fifth course is going to be like. All of you returning contenders should know at this point that the final course changes with every annual league, meaning everything you learned from last year’s course will be irrelevant here,” she said as a mobile chalkboard was pulled over to her side yet again.

The chalkboard seemed to show less information about this course compared to the previous courses. Spitfire pointed to it nonetheless. “You should all know that weather is an important factor on your flying abilities, if you don’t, then this course might stump you a bit. As silly as you think it may be, you do not want to get caught in the middle of a rain shower. Not only does one make you wet, but it also adds unneeded weight to your light wings. Getting your feathers wet during flying can be a catastrophic mistake, but also a near unavoidable mistake. However it is still very much possible to fly in the middle of a rain shower, quite easily if you know what you’re doing,” she said, suddenly pointing over to what looked to be the course.

Its size was immense thanks to the huge portions of dark, misty and rain filled clouds above it; it was quite a terrifying looking course to say the least. It was the only course that pulled an emotional reaction from Scootaloo prior to starting, with her already feeling cold and scared. She wished she could have gotten an umbrella alongside her goggles as well, but that would have been too much to ask wouldn’t it?

She felt completely uneducated in the subject, where weather had never been a varying factor in her flying before. Suddenly the benefits of having a carer whose job it was to keep the weather sunny at all times was starting to show it’s downsides.

Spitfire smiled and coughed to re-gain their attention. “Now that’s not all that you will have to look out for in the course, hence the coloured armbands you were all given. There are flags all around the course that you will have to keep a keen eye for, and whichever colour your armband is, is the colour of the flag you collect. There is three of each colour inside the course, and if you miss one, you’re out. If you come in 5th place or higher, you’re also out,” she said as some pegasi take away the chalkboard. “Now, any questions?”

There was a small pause before one of the fillies raised their arm, making Spitfire point over to them. They put their arm down as they spoke. “What if a pony in first to fourth place has two flags?” They asked, making the other fillies look curious about the question as well.

Spitfire lifted her leg up as she spoke. “Flags have priority over place. If the filly in second place has three flags while the filly in first has two, then the filly with three will automatically be considered first. The four of you that pass will have all three flags, unless at least 5 of you have 2 each, to which place then becomes more important. We will also not be announcing the winners today once you all finish; you will be told tomorrow if you go through to the semi-finals. I’d imagine most of you can probably tell if you won or lost though, depending on your overall score in the course. If there aren’t any other questions, I’d like you all to move to the starting line please.”

There was another small pause before all of the fillies trotted over to the starting line, putting on their armbands and making sure to memorize their colour. Spitfire trotted up behind them all, preparing to signal for them to start.

Scootaloo’s armband was coloured purple, meaning that was the colour of flags she had to collect. Her goggles were already pulled down over her face, so she opened her wings and leaned the front half of her body down in preparation to start flying.

Once every filly was ready, Spitfire took no time in letting the course start as she yelled. “Go!”

All the contestants blasted off into the start of the course, all flying at mostly the same speed. The rainy and cloudy part was yet to come, as the first set of flags was easily spot-able, all placed in the same area and formed in a circle.

Of course this was super easy for each contestant, as all they had to do was find their colour and snag it on the way by. Scootaloo zoomed past the flags, being able to grab hers on the way as she passed. She was curious as to where she might be able to keep it safe, before realizing she could stick it inside of the armband she was given. Nopony seemed to have been failing so far, but the worst was yet to come.

They were approaching the large rain-cloud faster than they thought, suddenly entering into its cold and wet shower. Each filly was quickly doused in harsh rain as winds began to pick up inside the storm, making flying somewhat of a challenge.
Scootaloo felt that the use of goggles was almost like an obstruction, with rain splattering across the lenses and masking her vision. She couldn’t tell who was where any more, almost feeling completely alone within the storm, despite knowing that she wasn’t.

Her focus snapped back into place, hoping she hadn’t missed any flags already. Luckily she didn’t as she could see some in the distance. Her view scanned all around the clump of flags she could see, hoping to catch a glimpse of her own flag before she reached them. It took a couple more seconds of searching before the hue of a waving purple flag grasped her vision, making her speed up in response. Her speed increased considerably before she swooped over to her flag, snagged it and placed it inside of her armband again. She already knew that by the end of this course she’d probably have a cold, but at least she wouldn’t have to shower.

Suddenly the sound of thunder blasted through her eardrums, the grey clouds roaring loudly above her. Every second she was inside the storm only increased the fear and cowardice she felt, but she refused to let it take a hold of her.

Her mane, tail and fur were getting even more drenched by the second. She began to feel the weight of the water on her body slow her down as she pushed her soaking wet mane behind her head and wiped her goggles clean.

She was able to see the final set of flags not far from where she was as she tried increasing her speed to reach them as fast as possible. Luckily, she managed to spot her last flag near the bottom of the storm on a small, floating cloud. She dove down and snagged the flag from its fluffy base, putting it in her arm band like she had done with the other two. Now it was a race to the finish line.

The clouds rumbled from the sound of thunder coursing through its blackened mist, making Scootaloo’s ears twitch and flop back. Her wings began to get sore; the added weight from the water forcing her to do more work with each flap.

Luckily she wouldn’t have to flap much longer as the finish line was much closer than she thought. She gave it everything she got, increasing her speed as much as she could, just to get past the finish line.

Once she crossed the finish line, she used every last bit of strength she had to slow herself down, but she still bashed into the wall of clouds just like she did in the first course. Of course it wasn’t anywhere near as severe, as she only dented the wall instead of digging into it. She floated off from the wall and onto the ground, sitting down and panting in place.

She noticed that a couple fillies had already finished ahead of her, with some of them looking to have gotten all three flags as well.

Now was a good time to go and dry off, especially considering she wasn’t going to get the results today. All she could do was hope that what she did was enough to secure victory.

Author's Note

What's my name? Procrastination! (I procrastinated on this hard.)

21: Unjustified Absence.

Scootaloo was sitting on the couch in Rainbow Dash’s living room, thinking about the nightmare she had a couple days ago. It was brought back into her mind due to her seeing the state her original home was in; especially considering the floor met a similar fate to the floor in her dream.

She couldn’t stop thinking about it, despite knowing that it was just a really weird coincidence. There were probably more logical reasons for her having a nightmare like that; maybe it was just one of those nightmares you have when you’re sick.

Visiting her old home again gave her quite an odd feeling, especially when she saw the state it was in now. All those memories she had of staying there seemed perfect to her, despite knowing that in reality, it wasn’t. She never realized how dirty and fragile the house was; that any shunt or bang could have easily knocked a screw loose while she was in it. But she was out of it now, so she figured it was best to just forget about it again.

She thought back to the nightmare and what might have triggered it. The only things that came to mind were a sense of loneliness and maybe even a small case of Acrophobia, a fear of heights. She does feel a little uncomfortable being up so high in the sky, especially when there’s nothing to catch her if she falls. It could easily just be a left over fear from two years ago when she fell and got injured.

“Something on your mind, Scoots?” Rainbow Dash asked as she was sitting at the other side of the couch.

Scootaloo shrugged as she looked over to her. “I guess so. Me, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle found the old house I used to live in, the one from over two years ago. It was all broken down and had holes all over the roof. My room was completely destroyed since the entire flooring of it had collapsed onto the bottom floor, meaning we couldn’t even enter it to examine the rest of the damage. It made me think about the nightmare I had a couple nights ago, where my floor collapsed in it as well,” she said, putting one of her hooves on her cheek.

Rainbow Dash nodded and pulled her hoof up onto her chin. “Hmm, it’s probably just coincidence. That house has been broken like that for quite a while, at least a year. It’s probably gotten much, much worse since I last saw it, but I already knew about your bedroom’s floor being collapsed,” she said, scooting a little bit closer to her.

Scootaloo tilted her head and raised one of her eyebrows. “Wait, you did? Since when did you know that?” She asked, taking her hoof off of her cheek.

Rainbow Dash had to think for a second, patting her hoof on her chin as she looked over to her again. “Maaaaaybe about… 13 months ago? I can’t remember exactly when, but it was like that the last time I checked,” she lowered her hoof as she continued to speak. “But hey, don’t worry about that house any more; at least you’re out of it now.”

Scootaloo nodded a little, having a soft smile on her face. “I know, I’m not worrying about it,” she said, starting to grin. “What, you think I’d like to go back and live there again? Even if the floor hadn’t collapsed, I wouldn’t go back. Your place is so much better than that house ever was, and I get to live with you! The only downside before was that there was quite a big drop between here and the ground, but now I’m able to fly down myself, so that isn’t a problem any more,” she said, her grin going back to a smile.

Rainbow Dash smiled back to her. “Well, it’s nice to know how much you like my house,” she said, pulling her over to her with her wing. “I would never have let you stay in that disaster of a house, it just wouldn’t have been fair, or safe. If you weren’t going to stay with me, you probably would have been able to stay with Twilight and Spike,” she put her arm around Scootaloo’s side. “…Actually, I wonder what they’re up to. Last time I saw Twilight was when I came back from speaking with Spitfire about the whole disqualification thing. I’m surprised she didn’t even come over to see if you were okay, but I’m going to guess she was engrossed in a book or something,” she said, shrugging.

Scootaloo gives a small chuckle as she began to speak sarcastically. “What makes you think Twilight of all ponies would get too focused on reading to visit her friends? Seeeeems a bit silly to me,” she said as she gained a small grin again.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and grinned back to her. “Just a hunch, that’s all. You never know what she could be up to!” She said, hopping off of the couch.

Scootaloo stayed where she was, sitting on the couch. She looked over to Rainbow Dash who seemed to have been heading over to the front door. “…Where you going, Dash?” Scootaloo asked curiously as she tilted her head.

Rainbow Dash shrugged again, waiting at the front door. “If Twilight isn’t going to come to us, then maybe we could go over to her instead. Plus, I’m quite curious as to what would be so important that she didn’t have the time to come visit us,” she said, fluttering her wings.

Scootaloo nodded and slipped off the couch, trotting over to Rainbow Dash and smiling to her. “I suppose we could. Not like there’s anything else we could be doing in this time.”

Rainbow Dash opened the front door, trotted outside and leaned over the edge. She waited until Scootaloo came out and over to her before flying down and over towards the Friendship Castle.

Twilight was sitting on her throne with her head buried in-between the pages of a book. Loud snores echoed through the interior and down the long hallway, causing a certain easily irritable baby Dragon to plug his ears with his claws. “It’s nice knowing you’re sometimes louder when you’re asleep than when you’re awake, Twilight,” Spike said, talking to himself as he rolled his eyes and groaned.

He walked down the hallway with his ears plugged before he entered the main throne room that Twilight was in. Upon reaching where Twilight sat, he pulled his fingers out of his ears and tapped on her shoulder. There wasn’t much of a response coming from her, even when she was tapped on the shoulder a couple more times.

She was in quite a deep sleep by the looks of it, making Spike put his hand on his chin. He wondered what made her go in such a deep sleep all of a sudden, but whatever it was wasn’t going to stop him from trying to wake her up again.

He shook her slightly by the shoulder, causing her to bob back and forth a bit. It only took a little bit more shaking before she suddenly collapsed and fell onto the ground, which inevitably woke her up. She quickly leaned up from where she fell and blabbed something incoherently. “I was just magnifying the words! I think… Spike?” She said, looking a tiny bit confused.

Spike walked over to where she was laying and chuckled slightly. “Sorry, I was just trying to wake you up. How long have you been sleeping there? Or more importantly, how long have you been snoring for?” He said, crossing his arms.

Twilight cocked her head in curiosity. “I snore? Since when did I snore?” She asked, standing up and looking over to the book she was reading. It looked like one of the pages was a little damp at the bottom.

Spike saw the small wet spot and grinned. “And apparently you drool too,” he said with a small giggle. “You don’t usually snore, but sometimes you do. And when you do snore, it’s usually loud enough to make Cerberus roll around in his sleep.”

Twilight picked up the book with her magic and rubbed the damp spot with her hoof. “What does that even mean, Spike? Isn’t the phrase ‘rolling around in their grave’ and not rolling around in their sleep?” She said, closing the book and levitating it onto a pile of books on the table.

Spike shrugged slightly to her. “I know; it’s just all I could think of on the spot. I think it still works though, but you know what I mean either way,” He said as he walked over to his small throne beside hers.

Twilight nodded, stretching and sitting down on her throne again. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Never knew I snored that badly though; I bet it must create quite the echo in this castle,” she stated, looking around the large interior of the throne room.

Spike nodded as he sat down on his throne as well, however his comfort was short lived as a loud pair of knocks came from the front door. Spike paused for a second and looked over to Twilight, seemingly annoyed that he had just sat down when the door was knocked. Twilight smiled nervously, getting up off of her throne and beginning to fly over to the large hallway. “I’ll go get that, I suppose,” she said, glancing back to him as she left the room.

Twilight floated down the hall until she reached the front door, where she dropped down onto her hooves and opened it with her magic. Standing at the front door was Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, seemingly wanting to come inside. “What’s up, Twilight? You busy or anything?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Due to just waking up, Twilight’s mind wasn’t as quick as it usually was. “Uuuhhh… yes! Wait, no. I’m not busy right now; I thought you asked if you could come in at first,” she said, laughing nervously. “…Sorry, I’m a bit tired; I have the usual woozy feeling from just having woken up.”

Rainbow Dash grinned a little. “Wait, aren’t you usually up before I am? It’s nearly twelve in the morning. Guessing you had a late night or something?” She asked, tilting her head to her.

Twilight stepped out of the way slightly, allowing both Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to come in. “Sort of, I’ve been engrossed in the books Celestia gave me not too long ago. I think I must have fallen asleep around midnight last night while reading, because apparently I was using one of my books as a pillow,” she said, following the two up the hallway.

Rainbow Dash chuckled as Scootaloo sped ahead of her. “You say that as if that’s a surprise, Twilight. Isn’t your bed made of books or something?”

Twilight caught up to her and pouted. “No! Why does everypony act as if I have some sort of romantic attachment to books or something, when I don’t?”

Rainbow Dash glanced over to her with a big grin. “Yeah, I think I’m going to doubt you on that one.”

22: Chatting Between Friends.

“So, what books are you reading? They must be pretty important if they’re all you’ve focused on for like a week and a half,” Rainbow Dash said, sitting down on the throne that had her cutie mark engraved on it.

Twilight levitates over some of the books that were in a pile on the table, glossing over their titles as she spoke. “Head Injuries, Bone Injuries, A Pony’s Guide to Organs and all sorts of books similar to that,” she said, putting the books down on the table again and looking over to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash was leaning on the table as she looked at the large amount of books resting on it. “Am I going to go to the doctors one day and just see you standing there in a nurse uniform or something? If that’s not the case then why are you reading all of these books?” She asked, leaning over and picking a book up off the table to skim through the pages.

Twilight rolled her eyes as she spoke. “Just because I’m reading books about injuries doesn’t mean I want to become a doctor, or a nurse. Biology is quite the important subject Dash, even if you don’t think it is.” She said as she came off of her throne and levitated all the books into a singular pile, including the one that was in Rainbow Dash’s hooves.

As the book was pulled out from her hooves she gave a small shrug to Twilight. “I know biology is important, at least the basics anyway. I just don’t see the need to go so far into something that most likely isn’t going to be useful, especially when you could be doing something else that further advances a skill you already have,” she said as she hopped off of her throne as well then going over to Twilight.

Twilight glanced over and cocked her head to her. “Knowledge, Rainbow Dash. While I agree with you that it most likely isn’t going to be that useful, it’s still worthwhile having the knowledge. You don’t lose anything by learning more,” she said, levitating the pile of books out into the hallway to put away later.

Rainbow Dash let out a ‘pssh’ sound in response, having a cocky grin on her face. “You lose time,” she said snarkily, obviously not having much of a rebuttal against Twilight’s point.

Meanwhile, Spike was hanging out with Scootaloo. They were in his bedroom, which was for the most part clean and tidy. There was of course an obligatory bookshelf, which every room in the house had to have it seemed. There weren’t many books on it though; probably just books that Spike would have been interested in. “So, can you do any tricks?” Spike asked Scootaloo as he was carrying a bowl of gems.

Scootaloo had to think for a second before shaking her head and shrugging. “Not from what I can tell. I probably couldn’t twirl or do any sort of fancy trick in the air, it’d probably just knock me off balance,” she said as she fluttered her small wings, letting off a light breeze.

Spike picked up one of the gems from the bowl and threw it into his mouth, beginning to speak as he started chewing. “You never know until you try, but it’s still great you can fly like a pro!” He said as small chunks of the gems in his mouth spluttered out and onto the ground.

Scootaloo gained a nervous smile from his comment. “Like a pro? N-Nah… I feel like I just got really lucky with the league. I don’t imagine I have any talent for flying, because if I did, I should have been able to fly quite a while ago,” She said, suddenly looking a little bit sad where she sat. She didn’t seem to pay much attention to Spike’s messy eating.

Spike swallowed the remaining gems he had in his mouth and smiled over to her. “What are you talking about? Of course you have talent! You just needed a little push to get up and off your hooves. What type of luck would you need to pass all five elimination courses? Since the courses are built around being a skilful flier, you’d need some mind blowing sense of luck to pass as well as you have,” he said, suddenly grabbing some more gems from the bowl and throwing them into his mouth.

Scootaloo’s ears perked up as she looked back over to him. “…I’ve passed four so far, still not sure about the fifth. And I’m not sure what type of luck I’d need; maybe all the other contestants were beginners like me?” She said, continuing to have a nervous look on her face.

Spike shook his head. “No way were they all beginners; the colt that hit you said he had been flying for over three years right? I’m pretty sure that proves that they weren’t all beginners. What you have is a lot of talent! You’re a quick learner!” He said with a gleeful smile.

Scootaloo’s ears flopped back as she sighed. “If I’m such a quick learner, then why didn’t I learn how to fly three years ago? I tried and tried and tried but I could barely get myself off the ground! Then I heard that Pound Cake started flying at the young age of zero, which didn’t help my self-confidence at all. I felt like a dolphin that couldn’t swim, like a spider that couldn’t spin a web…” She said as her head dipped down at the end of her speech.

Spike noticed her sudden change in mood, deciding to put down the bowl of gems and try to comfort her. He walked over and rubbed her back, continuing to smile to her. “That’s because all you needed was a little push from somepony else. Pound Cake had Pinkie Pie, one of the, if not thee, most motivating ponies in all of Equestria. But that shouldn’t matter now, should it? I mean, you can fly now, and you’ve pushed yourself all the way to the final elimination course of the filly league! Trust me, it takes talent to do what you can do, especially in the time-frame you’ve done it in,” he said, smiling softly.

Scootaloo’s mood seemed to lift from his words as she let her view drift over to him. “Thanks, I suppose. I still think I had some form of luck or something that carried me to the finish line, because I never knew what I was doing half of the time,” she said, her ears coming back up as she raised a hoof.

Spike shrugged to her. “Maybe you’re just very adaptive! You’re definitely a quick thinker, since you’d have to be to ride that scooter of yours as fast as you do. I think you’re a natural flier; you just had weights on your wings that needed the help of somepony else to cut off before you could lift off,” he said, stopping rubbing her back then going over to pick up his bowl of gems again.

Scootaloo smiled and nodded slightly. “Again, thanks. You’re such a great mood lifter, Spike,” she said, sitting up and looking over to him directly again.

Spike cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “You think so? I always assumed I was just a very skilled rambler, you know? Either way, you’ve still got a lot of talent for flying, Scootaloo,” he said as he began to shove more gems into his mouth and chew.

Scootaloo would have replied to him, but she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash who stuck her head through the door and spoke. “Hey, Scoots. If you want to head back to our place, you can. I’ll be heading back soon, after I’m finished talking with Twilight and stuff, so I’m just telling you in case you’d want to stay here some more,” she said, suddenly pulling her head out from the room and trotting back over to where Twilight was.

Scootaloo had shifted her view over to the entrance to the room and waved. “Okay! I’ll think I’ll stick around for a bit longer!” She said loudly before she looked back over to Spike again and then down to the bowl of gems. “…What does that taste like for you? I’m going to guess it’s very crunchy and dry or something.”

Spike shrugged again. “Sort of, they do have a flavour, but I think it’s dependant on the type of gem. But yeah, it’s pretty crunchy. Luckily my teeth are built to eat this stuff, since I think they’d shatter yours,” he said, crunching down on some more gems as she spoke.

Scootaloo put a hoof on her chin. “…If you can chew through them like they’re cookies, then have you ever tried a jawbreaker?” She asked, tilting her head.

Spike nodded before swallowing down the last of the gems in his mouth. “I have, and it was quite easy to break through. The only problem with a jawbreaker for me was its size, since you’re supposed to put it entirely in your mouth I think. But I’m pretty sure I could chew through one like an apple,” he said, lifting the bowl to his mouth and tipping it upwards, allowing the remaining gems to slide into his mouth. When he put the bowl down, his cheeks were puffed slightly as a bunch of loud crunching noises came from his mouth.

The cracking and crunching made Scootaloo’s ears twitch slightly. She looked to the ground to see small fragments of multi-coloured gems all over the floor, quite sharp fragments too. “…Do you clean this up or do you just walk around on what could be classed as shards of glass?” She asked, touching some of the fragments and running her hoof across them.

Spike continued to crunch the gems in his mouth, all the way until he was able to swallow the rest. “I usually clean it up, but these wouldn’t hurt me anyway, since I have quite strong feet,” he said, suddenly leaning his leg over and stepping on the gem shards, barely even reacting from it.

It made Scootaloo half panic for a second, almost wanting to push his foot off. “Jeez, warn me when you’re going to do something dangerous, even though it isn’t particularly dangerous for you,” she said rubbing her own hoof slightly in thought of the pain she would have gotten from doing what he did.

Spike just smiled and nodded, taking his foot off of the gem shards and brushing off the excess ones stuck to his foot.

While Spike and Scootaloo were chatting and having fun, Rainbow Dash had left and gone back to her cloud mansion.

Upon entering through the front door and closing it again, Rainbow Dash noticed a small envelope lying on the floor. She picked it up with one of her hooves and tried to determine who might have sent it. The decorative button sealing it gave quite a big clue as to who sent it, as the button had the iconic lightning bolt and wings of the Wonderbolts logo engraved on it.

She put the envelope in her mouth, trotted over to her couch and sat down on it. She held the envelope with both her hooves and her mouth, suddenly ripping off the entire top potion to gain access to its contents. With some small shaking, a letter fell out of the envelope and landed on the floor, meaning she had to reach down to pick it up again.

Upon opening the letter and reading the first couple sentences, a wide grin was plastered over her face. “Wow! Now that’s an impressive score if I ever saw one! Squirt is going to be absolutely ecstatic about this!”

Author's Note

Production is slow because it's the holidays + I'm lazy.

23: Confidence.

Scootaloo had returned to Rainbow Dash’s house straight after she left the Friendship Castle, not doing much else along the way back. She was greeted back by Rainbow Dash, who seemed to have some exciting news that she couldn’t hesitate to tell. “Hey, Scoots! The Wonderbolts left a letter at the door while we were out, it details what place you came in on the fifth course!” She said as she sat on the couch, looking excited to share the results.

Scootaloo was curious about how well she did in the course, considering Rainbow Dash’s enthusiasm about it. She quickly trotted over to the couch and climbed up onto it, speaking shortly after. “Well it must be good seeing as how happy you are about it!”

Rainbow Dash nodded as Scootaloo wiggled herself a little bit closer to her side. “It’s really good! You came in third place!” Rainbow Dash said gleefully, looking over to Scootaloo with a huge grin on her face.

For some reason, Scootaloo felt a little underwhelmed with the score. “…Wait, third place? But that’s the second lowest score I could have gotten to pass, so how is it so amazing?” She said, seemingly ignorant of how well she actually did.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “What are you talking about?! It is amazing! There were eight other contestants and you came in third place out of all of them! Don’t compare yourself to the group of you that passed, compare yourself to those that didn’t!” She said, nudging her side a little with her hoof.

Scootaloo thought about it for a second before a small smile crept over her face. “…You’re right. I don’t think I ever expected to get this far anyway, so the fact that I scored so highly against the other competitors really is amazing for me!” She chuckled nervously. “I remember back when I thought that I’d be happy enough with passing the first course, let alone the fifth,” she said as she lifted her leg up.

Rainbow Dash nodded again to her, pulling her slightly closer with her wing. “You’ve done phenomenal, Squirt. None of us expected that you’d get this far in the league with only a couple weeks’ worth of training. In-fact, that still baffles me when I try to think about it, I almost feel jealous of how talented and quick learning you are,” she said with a smirk on her face.

Scootaloo let out another nervous chuckle. “It baffles me too; I feel like I shouldn’t be getting as far as I have,” she said, clearing her throat. “Anyway, I was going to ask if the letter had a date for the semi-finals, since obviously I’d like to know that.”

Rainbow Dash put her hoof around Scootaloo’s side and nodded again. “It did; it said that the semi-finals were tomorrow afternoon, with the finals being the day after that. Still, I’d like you to know that if you don’t get to the finals it’s more than okay. I’m just so, so impressed and proud of how well you’ve done, and that’s never going to change,” she said, pulling her into a tight hug while she smiled.

Scootaloo felt a little uncomfortable about the hug at first, but she quickly hugged Rainbow Dash back, wrapping her arms around her chest in glee. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash. I don’t exactly expect to pass anyway. If I pass, I pass. If I don’t, I don’t,” she said, having a soft smile on her face before she was pushed out of the hug slightly.

Rainbow Dash waved her hoof in the air as she placed her other hoof on Scootaloo’s chest. “That’s not the attitude you should have! You should at least be hoping to pass, instead of expecting not to. You have to motivate yourself, Squirt!”

Scootaloo’s ears flopped back. “But if I hype myself up and then lose, I’ll be even more disappointed with myself!” She said, looking a bit confused.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “There’s a difference between being cocky and being confident. You need to be confident. Don’t expect less of what you know you can do, because when you do do less, it will only make you think even less than you did before,” she said, speaking with confidence. Suddenly she seemed to click back into reality. “Whoops, I was about to start ranting wasn’t I? Anyway, you get what I mean, I hope.”

Scootaloo nodded, gaining her soft smile again. “It’s okay, I don’t mind when you rant on about something. You’re still an amazing motivator, Dash!” Scootaloo said, inching closer and hugging her again. “…So, you have anything planned for the rest of the day?” She said, tilting her head.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, not really. I was going to just sit here and chill until it was time to go to sleep or something,” she said, lifting her front legs up and putting them behind her head.
Scootaloo gave another small nod as she slid off of the couch. “Well, I think I’ll hit the hay early. I don’t want to wake up too late because then I might end up being half asleep at the semi-finals, and that wouldn’t be too good,” she said as she trotted off and over to her room.

Rainbow Dash would have said how she was being concerned about too many minute things, but she realized that she’d probably be concerned about silly things like that too. Not like going to bed early would lessen Scootaloo’s chances at all anyway.

Upon entering her room, Scootaloo quickly jumped up onto her bed and tugged at the covers. She tugged until they were down just enough for her to slide inside. She then pulled them back up with her teeth once she was snug inside of her bed

She wasn’t one to toss and tumble around until she spontaneously fell asleep, if anything, she was quite the opposite. In less than a couple minutes she ended up sound asleep in her comfortable, warming bed, with nothing there to disturb her from her heavy slumber.

Everything was quiet as Scootaloo was sleeping; with the only sound being her own breathing. However, she began to hear more sounds appearing around her. The quiet but eerie dripping of water echoed through her ears as the sudden feeling of falling began to take hold of her while she slept. The feeling of an impending splat onto the ground rattled around her body until…

With a large jolt she woke up unexpectedly, breathing heavily and rubbing her forehead. Upon sitting up and looking around, she realized that she was no longer in her room. Actually, the place she was in looked oddly familiar, being quite cave-like and having next to no light.

Out of curiosity, she jumped out of bed and continued looking around. She looked back over to her bed, suddenly noticing that it was a smashed, broken mess of wood and metal. She was still confused as to what was going on, but her curiosity continued to push her forward.

She trotted away from the bed, going the only other way she could vaguely see as an opening in the rock walls. There was nowhere else she could go, so it was either through here, or staying in her smashed up bed. The walls dribbled with water and reeked of rotten stone as she continued to trot through a barely visible corridor made of rock. The ground was wet and felt like it was sand, dirt, or both.

A sudden batch of noises rumbled on through the interior of the cave, echoing back and forth seemingly all around her head. It made her realize she may not have been alone in these caves; making her anxious. The noises continued to grow louder and fiercer, almost sounding akin to growls and barks.

Scootaloo’s paranoia and fear was rising, uncertain of what she was hearing. Her simple trot sped up into a jog as the sounds continued to grow louder, as if they were getting closer. She began to look all around; hoping to try and catch a glimpse of what might be chasing her. Being distracted caused her to suddenly trip over something, giving her a quick way to sample the taste of gravel on the ground.

In a panicked frenzy, she got up and galloped through the cave as best she could, unsure of what she tripped over. She bashed into some of the walls with quite some force, the darkness near completely shrouding any sort of vision she had.

The echo of the sounds continued to draw closer and closer behind her, as if something was chasing after her. It only made her more panicked, causing her to gallop almost like headless chicken.

In what seemed like a sudden strike of luck, she saw bright light creeping down one of the hallways of the cave. Of course she galloped towards it, as it was the only sign of hope she could see. The sounds echoed and bounced around her ears as she approached the only sign of light she was able to see, hoping that it would lead to the exit of whatever cave she was in.

She galloped around the corner to see the brightly shimmering moon in the sky, shining light inside of the cave. She stopped in her tracks upon realizing that the cave was up the side of a mountain with nowhere else to go. It was like a slide going from the entrance of the cave to the ground, a very rocky and nasty slide, one that she didn’t want to take part in.

It was at this moment she suddenly realized that the sounds hadn’t stopped, and they were still getting closer and closer to where she was; she was conflicted in what to do. She could either tumble down the steep mountain and get potentially injured or worse, or sit and wait for whatever might be creeping its way towards where she was.

She shook and trembled where she stood, looking back and forth in and out of the cave. She didn’t have much time to make her choice, so of course all she could do was sit and panic. She closed her eyes in fear, sitting down and covering them up with her front hooves.

She could hear the growling sounds right in-front of her, almost as if whatever had chased her through the caves had finally reached its prey. However, her fear had begun to subside upon hearing her name being called. She opened her eyes and pulled her hooves away, only to see the Princess of Night herself standing in-front of her.

“Scootaloo? Are you okay?” She asked, leaning over and lifting her leg. Scootaloo was dumbstruck and confused, unsure of what was going on.

“Princess Luna? Where did you come from? Is this a dream?” She asked, looking around to check and see if anything about the environment had changed in the Princess’ sudden appearance.

Princess Luna reached over and pulled Scootaloo away from the edge of the cave entrance, making sure she didn’t fall. “This is not a dream, but it is a nightmare. I felt it was appropriate for me to intervene, as I could tell that something was bothering you as of late,” she said, sitting down in-front of her.

Scootaloo had eased up slightly, getting into a more comfortable sitting position. “There is? If there is something bothering me, then you know just as much as I do on what it is. Maybe more actually; do you know what it is then?” She asked, tilting her head.

Luna shrugged slightly to her in response. “I have a few guesses, but your actions in these nightmares tell me a lot. When your floor collapsed and your bed fell in the nightmare you had before this one, you could have easily just started flying to stop yourself from falling, but you didn’t. The same could be said for a couple minutes ago, where you could have flown down out of the cave. I’ve heard news of you being a great flier, so not seeing you use those skills when they would be needed the most confuses me,” she said as she used her magic to position the moon lower, allowing more light to enter the cave they were in.

Scootaloo seemed to get a little nervous, looking away from Luna slightly. “…I don’t know, actually. I guess my brain just hasn’t gotten used to them yet?” She said, tilting her head again.

Luna shook her head and lifted one of her legs. “If I had to make an educated guess, I think it has something to do with the accident that happened two years ago. You aren’t confident with your own flying abilities to save yourself, are you? You’re not afraid of flying, you’re afraid of falling,” she said as she fluttered her wings.

Scootaloo had to think about it for a couple seconds before she inevitably nodded. “Now that I think about it, I suppose I’m not that confident with my own flying abilities. But then again, how can I fly so greatly when it comes to the league then?” She questioned, looking back over to Luna.

Luna put her leg back down and closed her wings. “I think that’s because you have a window of safety there. There are so many ponies watching and at the same time, you have a thick bed of clouds to break your fall if anything might go wrong when you’re flying,” she said, clearing her throat. “I can also tell that you don’t like being alone, that you never want to be lonely. Not only for flying, just in general,” She said softly.

Scootaloo nodded again, looking down to the ground. She seemed embarrassed and sad upon hearing what she was scared of being recited back to her, especially when it was by such a royal figure. Luna reached over and put a hoof on her shoulder, giving her a soft smile at the same time. “It’s okay, Scootaloo, it’s understandable that you would feel unsafe by yourself. I hope you realize that,” she said as Scootaloo lifted her head up and nodded. Luna continued speaking, “I know why it isn’t nice to be left alone, as I was trapped inside the moon for 1000 years with no one but myself to talk to. If I tripped and fell, there was no one there to aid me. If there would be anypony who can empathise with you, Scootaloo, it would be me.”

Scootaloo looked around and thought for a moment. “…So, how do I help my fears then? Is there a way to help it?” She said, tilting her head to the princess.

Luna shook her head in response. “I’m afraid not; at least not suddenly. These fears are fears that should subside over time as your confidence grows. Soon enough you will learn to trust your wings more than you currently do, and soon enough you will learn to trust yourself more than you do. That is all I can help you with I’m afraid, as the rest is up to you,” she said, standing up.

Scootaloo stood up as well, fluttering her wings to her. “…So what now?” She asked, looking up to her.

Luna pointed to the moon, which was slowly going under the horizon as the sky began to turn a bright orange. “It’s time for you to wake up, of course.”

24: No Sweat.

It was nearly time for the semi-final course to start as all four of the passing contestants had finally arrived at the course. Scootaloo was the last to arrive, coming shortly after Rumble did. The first thing she noticed upon arriving at the course was the many rows of spectators lined around it. They weren’t quiet about announcing their presence, as their cheering and talking could be heard from quite a bit away.

She could easily see Rainbow Dash and Twilight amongst the crowd of spectators; their colours contrasting against the others, specifically Rainbow Dash’s. She wished she had known there would be quite a crowd of ponies watching, as just suddenly finding out now made her feel almost like she had stage fright.

She trotted up towards the other contestants, not wanting to be the loner in the group. Most of their chatter revolved around how excited they were to have gotten this far in the league, to which Scootaloo let out a nervous smile and nodded. Rumble looked over to her with a small grin. “What’s with the wonky smile, Scootaloo? Not nervous are you?”

Scootaloo laughed to the question, obviously showing she was quite nervous. “Well, there’s like over a hundred different ponies watching, along with some of the best fliers in all of Equestria. I have absolutely no reason to be nervous!” She said, clearing her throat shortly after. Rumble rolled his eyes playfully and turned his view back towards the other two fillies in the group, continuing their previous conversation.

All Scootaloo could think about at the moment was what would happen if she lost, what all of her friends and family would say about it. She knew Rainbow Dash said she’d never be disappointed in her, but the thought of it actually happening still made her anxious. Her thoughts quickly came back on track as she saw Spitfire fly down towards her. She seemed to have been preparing to start as she tapped on all of the fillies’ shoulders to get their attention.

Once they were all looking at her, she began to speak. “Congratulations in making it this far into the league. You passed all five elimination courses, not something a lot of fillies were able to do. I have to say I’m quite impressed with all of your performances, so I’m happy to have you all be Junior Wonderbolts material. You’d all be good fliers for us, but sadly, we can only choose one winner. In this course, only one of you will be eliminated and the rest will go through. If you come in in fourth place, you won’t be participating in the final course tomorrow. So hey, no sweat,” she said with a smile. Of course she was being sarcastic on the last quote; but at least it livened up Scootaloo’s mood a bit.

Spitfire turned around and trotted over to some of the other Wonderbolts to chat with them, letting the fillies prepare themselves before the course started. Scootaloo tried her best to feel confident with her own flying abilities, letting herself remember how well she did on the elimination courses.

This course looked to be a pure speed course this time. It seemed to combine nearly everything they had done previously, testing their limits all at once. There were only two obstacles she could see in the course, along with a decent amount of sharp turns as well. It didn’t look particularly complex though, so she assumed there were multiple laps. This was probably still going to be quite a challenge; she could only imagine what the final course was going to be like; hopefully she was going to get to see it either way.

A whistle signalled that it was nearly time for the course to start. Each of the fillies trotted over to the starting line and spaced themselves accordingly, allowing themselves all room to let their tiny wings branch out. Scootaloo managed to make herself feel somewhat confident, but the crowd of spectators was still making her feel more nervous than she’d like to be.

The crowd seemed to quiet down when they saw all of the fillies line up, probably waiting on the signal for them to start before cheering again. It looked like Spitfire still had something to say, as she was given a microphone by one of the other Wonderbolts. “Thank you all for coming to the third annual Junior Wonderbolts League! Twenty nine fillies were put through five different courses that aimed to test their precision, agility, strength, and persistence. Only four of those twenty nine made it through all five courses, so give our passing contestants a round of applause!” She said, pointing her hoof over to the four lined up fillies. A loud batch of cheering and clapping hooves echoed around the course, only stopping when Spitfire raised front leg to the sky.

She put her leg down when there was no noise coming from the crowd. “Today’s course will decide what three contestants will head into the final course tomorrow. There they will compete for the spot in the Junior League, with the winner of the course claiming it. I wish all four of these fillies the best of luck, and with that we shall start the semi-finals!” She said, giving the microphone over to one of the other Wonderbolts.

The stallion now holding the microphone cleared his throat before starting a countdown, making all of the contestants tense up and focus on the course ahead. “…5, 4…” The stallion said as Scootaloo’s heart began to speed up. A sense of adrenaline had begun to overpower the nervous feeling she had felt prior; her hooves repositioned and twitched in-between each of the elongated countdown seconds. “2… 1, GO!”

Like Pinkie Pie with a craving for sugar near a 90% off sale on sweets, they were off! The speed at which they launched managed to create a draft that the crowd of spectators could feel, even if just a little. Cheering had begun again as each of the fillies entered the start of the course. Despite each of the fillies starting at the same time, they slowly broke away from each other, eventually landing in their own places.

Scootaloo was in third place, straight behind the filly in second place. Judging by what she could see on the course, there wasn’t much room to overtake the other competitors, meaning she was going to have to time it correctly if she wanted to move up. They had all quickly passed the first turn, which was easy considering how wide it was.

The first obstacle they had to go through was a set of cloud-made pillars they had to weave around, an obstacle they had done in a previous elimination course. However, this version had the pillars much closer to each other. The two fillies ahead of Scootaloo seemed to get into the rhythm of weaving around them quite easily, while she herself found it somewhat difficult.

She had to slow down from the first couple pillars; otherwise she was going to bump into one of them. This gave the filly in fourth place the opportunity to overtake her, pushing Scootaloo into last place quite early on in the course. She didn’t let this get to her though, as she knew she had many opportunities to get back her spot. She continued to weave around the pillars, trying to get a feel for how she was supposed to do it effectively. She gradually picked up speed again before bursting through the rest of the obstacle and into one of the “sprinting” portions of the race. They had to pass through large hoops occasionally, just so they were all kept on track with no cheating or short-cutting allowed.

This “sprint” period would have been an opportune time to overtake somepony, but she was too far away from the filly in fourth place to be able to do that in a timely manner. Instead, she just caught up as much as she could before she reached the next set of obstacles. The crowd was loudly cheering for all of the fillies; even Rainbow Dash and Twilight were cheering, despite Scootaloo being in last place.

The next set of obstacles seemed devious in design. They were tight, short tubes made of clouds that they had to pass through while they were flying. Scootaloo noticed that the filly in first place was completely closing their wings when passing through them, giving indication as to how compact she was going to have to get to pass through them.

It was suddenly her turn to pass through the tubes, since every contestant ahead of her had already started. She had little time to prepare, causing her to close her wings a little bit too early and hit her back legs off of the lower end of the tube as she exited it. She remained undeterred despite the hiccup, as she continued flying up to the next tube without hesitation. If she lost anything from that small mistake, it wasn’t something worth worrying about.

Each new tube was positioned slightly different from the last, meaning they couldn’t just stay in a straight line while flying. Scootaloo’s second attempt went a lot smoother as she managed to close her wings just in time to get through without a scratch. She re-opened them up again once she was through and dashed towards the next ones.

She was getting uncomfortably behind the rest of the contestants, and it lowered her self-confidence. She didn’t let it get to her as she still had at least two more laps to correct her shoddy first lap.

She finally went through the final tube, allowing her to pick up more speed to try and scoot back into third place again. She began trying to close the gap between her and the filly in third place, expelling a lot of her saved up energy to reach them as best she could.

It took no time at all before they had suddenly crossed the line that signalled the first lap was over. They crossed the line with such a ferocious speed that the Wonderbolt spectators nearby caught quite a big gust of wind when they passed. The Wonderbolts seemed impressed by the speed that the fillies were able to gain, especially after tackling some decently hard obstacles prior.

It was the start of the second lap, with Scootaloo being one place behind where she started. The large period without obstacles allowed her to tail the filly in third place, coming right up behind them as they passed the first wide corner again. She knew she didn’t have time to pass them with the approaching pillars again, so she just kept herself behind their tail.

She slowed down ever so slightly to get some buffer space between her and the filly ahead of her; she didn’t want to bump into them in-case they made a mistake. Scootaloo learned from her past mistakes on the first lap as she began to traverse the pillars again, now being able to weave in around them with relative ease.

No filly ahead of her seemed to be making any mistakes, meaning positions didn’t change at all during this obstacle portion of the course. Upon clearing and exiting the last set of pillars, Scootaloo increased her speed again, hoping to squeeze back into third place.

The crowd’s cheering heightened when Scootaloo began to overtake the contestant ahead of her. She slowly edged herself ahead before quickly drifting in-front of them so they weren’t able to try and re-overtake her, at least not now anyway. She was in the winner’s bracket again; all she had to do now was stay in it.

The second set of tubes was up next, and this time Scootaloo knew what she was doing. She charged confidently into the first tube, closing her wings and reopening them once she passed through it fully. She continued to confidently pass through each and every tube that came next, making next to no mistakes in the process.

When she passed through the final tube of the lap, she heard the crowd gasp in disappointment. She curiously looked behind herself to see if she could see the filly in fourth place, but it seemed they were considerably farther behind her now, making her assume that they made a mistake at one of the tubes.

Her focus shifted back to her front as she approached the end of the second lap, this time being eligible for the win. She could still easily be knocked back into fourth place at the last second if she made a mistake, so she was going to try her best to concentrate on the final lap. With another huge gust of wind hitting the Wonderbolt spectators, three of the fillies had passed the second lap.

Scootaloo felt comfortable being in third place; attempting to challenge the filly in second place seemed unnecessary, but would still be a good option in order to secure the win. Either way, all she wanted to do was pass, not get a high score. She increased her speed again to catch up to the contestant in second place, but she wasn’t going to try and pass them.

They turned the wide corner for the final time, approaching the now-familiar pillars they were going to have to weave through one more time. Scootaloo’s concentration seemed a bit over the top, as she felt like she heard nothing but the wind in her ears. Her heart raced both in adrenaline and worry, worry that she was going to get outplayed at the last second.

All three of the leading fillies had suddenly entered into the pillars again, weaving around them like they had done in the previous laps. Scootaloo didn’t want to lose any of her momentum going through the obstacles, as one mistake could doom her chances. Her concentration seemed to have paid off through, as it took no time at all before she had passed the final couple pillars she was going to face in the race.

It was the second sprint of the final lap, where each filly was given an opportunity to gain speed and overtake. It also gave Scootaloo the chance to look behind her, allowing her to see that the filly in fourth place was slowly catching up to her. A feeling of stress washed over her body as she turned back around to face her front again.

Despite the large period of no obstacles, no places had changed in the interval between the pillars and the tubes. By the time the filly in fourth place entered the first tube, the rest of the contestants had already started well ahead of them. They were all bursting through the tubes at an incredible speed, expelling their pent up energy to confidently pass through the final obstacles of the course. Upon exiting the final tube, Scootaloo deemed it was time to give it all she had, pushing her wings to their limit.

Every contestant had the same idea, causing them all to start speeding towards the finish line to claim their victory. Scootaloo didn’t know if the filly in fourth place was right behind her or a mile away, all she tried to focus on was passing the black and white flag right ahead of her.

She felt like she skipped a beat near the very end of the course, her heart partly stopping as she had blasted past the finish line in confidence. She merely relaxed, knowing that nothing else could be done to alter the results at this point. Did she get overtaken at the last second? Was it going to be a photo finish type deal? Or was she so far ahead that the filly in fourth place had no chance? She was about to find out either way.

She flew back towards where the Wonderbolts were, expecting that that’s where she was going to get the results. When she reached solid ground, her wings quickly retracted back to the side of her body, needing a bit of a rest after the three stressful laps. She sat down and panted, sweat dripping from her forehead as her body still hadn’t calmed down from the rush of adrenaline she felt during the race.

Spitfire seemed to have been giving the other fillies their results. She eventually trotted over to Scootaloo with quite a big smile on her face.

“Congratulations, Scootaloo! You came in at third place, meaning you pass to the finals tomorrow. I hope you’re okay, because you look quite shattered after that,” she said, continuing to smile to her.

Scootaloo laughed nervously, wiping her forehead and taking a deep breath. “…No sweat, just like you said.”

25: The Final Course.

It was the day of the League finals, where Scootaloo and two other contestants were going to battle it out in the final race. “Chin up, Squirt! You have nothing to worry about!” Rainbow Dash said, standing in-front of Scootaloo and pulling her head up with her hoof.

Scootaloo looked away and smiled nervously. “I-I know, Dash. I just hope you won’t be mad or upset with me if I don’t win,” she said, looking back over to Rainbow Dash again.

Rainbow Dash shook her head quickly. “No way in a million years would I be mad or upset with you! You’ve already impressed everypony, including me! I’ve told you this so many times, Squirt, so trust me when I say that I won’t be disappointed if you don’t win,” she said, gaining a confident smile.

Scootaloo stretched her wings and smiled as well. “Thanks, Dash. Sorry you have to keep repeating it to me; I’m just so paranoid about it,” she said, looking back over to her and giving off a nervous laugh.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof on Scootaloo’s chin and started moving her head from side to side. “Hey, as long as it’ll stop you from getting paranoid, I’ll say it a million times over,” she said, continuing to move Scootaloo’s head around with her hoof.

Scootaloo was a bit confused as to why her head was being moved from side to side. “…What are you doing?” She asked curiously, lifting up one of her front legs in an attempt to get Rainbow’s hoof away. Rainbow Dash suddenly licked her hoof and rubbed Scootaloo’s cheek vigorously.

“I’m just making sure you look your best in-front of the Wonderbolts, wouldn’t want you looking like you haven’t showered,” she said with a soft smile, eventually pulling her hoof away from Scootaloo’s cheek.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes in response. “But I haven’t showered!” She stated with a small pout. “I won’t even be near the Wonderbolts technically. Maybe Spitfire, but that’s about it,” she said, rubbing the cheek that Rainbow Dash had unpleasantly “cleaned”.

Rainbow Dash nodded as she sat down. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t want her thinking I was a bad caretaker or whatever; wouldn’t bode well for my reputation,” she said, raising one of her hooves while giving off a nervous grin.

Scootaloo sighed as she sat down as well, her tail flumping onto the ground like a small pillow. “That just made things a bit harder to stomach. Didn’t know I was representing you,” she said, suddenly gaining a small frown.

Rainbow Dash laughed nervously and shook her head in response. “No, no, no! You’re not representing me; some ponies would just assume I didn’t care for you if you arrived all dirty or whatever. But you look fine, I’m just being ever so slightly paranoid,” she said as her nervous grin continued to spread across her face.

“Its fine, but I suppose I’ll go and take a shower then, just in case,” Scootaloo said, standing up and trotting towards the shower room. When she got far enough away from Rainbow Dash, she began to mutter to herself. “No sweat, Scootaloo. Noooooo sweat at all…”

When Scootaloo arrived, she couldn’t tell if the crowd sitting around the course was larger than the crowd at the previous course, but they were certainly louder, that she could tell. She trotted over to the other two contestants, one of them being Rumble. Scootaloo gave a small poke to his shoulder. “Glad to see you made it here too, I would have felt lonely if no one I knew was here in the finals with me,” she said, giving him a warm smile.

Rumble smiled back and nodded. “I bet it would have, and I’m happy to see that you got through too. You just came out of nowhere!” He said, raising one of his legs excitedly

Scootaloo tilted her head slightly, not knowing what he meant. “Came out of nowhere? What do you mean by that?” She asked curiously.

Rumble put his hoof to his chin as he tried to think of a comparison he could make to explain it, but he couldn’t think of any at the moment. “…Well, I can’t think of an example. What I mean is that no one really knew who you were or how good you were at flying, then all of a sudden you just kick the flanks of nearly every other contestant! I don’t think anypony was expecting that,” he said, grinning to her.

Scootaloo laughed nervously in response and rubbed her cheek. “Y-yeah, I think I just got lucky. I was also usually around the back end when it comes to my position in the courses, I just so happen to keep barely passing despite my inexperience...” She said, looking over to him with a crooked smile. “…Anyway, good luck I suppose, I’m sure we’ll all need it.”

Rumble nodded to her before he began to trot around the starting area, not saying anything else in the meantime. If Spitfire was coming over, she was surely taking her time. The crowd was still cheering quite loudly; no doubt the ponies on the ground under these clouds would have been able to hear it.

Scootaloo took the time she had before Spitfire arrived to survey the course, hoping to figure out what to do before she even started. Oddly enough, there wasn’t anything to actually figure out. No obstacles, nothing to weave around or enter, just a medium sized course that connected back to itself. The course wasn’t a circle, or an oval. It was very inconsistently shaped, having multiple different turns that made it harder to traverse through, but not too much harder by the looks of it. The shape of the course was shown by a surplus of large hoops that were placed to keep the contestants going in the right direction. It was also making sure they wouldn’t cheat by short-cutting. Frankly, it was just your bog standard lap based course with no clutter whatsoever. Although, it seemed like anypony was able to overtake at any time during the course, meaning it was probably going to be quite the competitive race.

She heard the fluttering of a pegasus’ wings fly down to the side, making her look around to see if it was Spitfire. Upon noticing that it was indeed Spitfire, Scootaloo trotted over to the other two contestants and waited for the briefing they would usually get before the course started.

Spitfire trotted over to them and raised her leg. “Congrats on making it to the finals you three, it’s definitely something to be proud of,” she said with a smile. “Anyway, there isn’t a lot I need to say about this course. There are three laps, and that’s about it. Whoever comes in first place wins the League, so I wish all three of you the best of luck in winning; you’d all be great Junior Wonderbolts material though! Thank you all for participating either way; you may line up now,” she said as she trotted away and over to some of the other Wonderbolts.

Each of the three fillies went over to the starting line and waited for their cue to start. Scootaloo was beginning to feel a little stressed as she couldn’t stop thinking about how her family and friends would react if she lost, would they be disappointed? Would they be ashamed? It was still a worrying thought, even though she knew they’d all most likely be fine with it.

The crowd went silent as the same stallion from the previous course was given a microphone again, presumably to start the race. “Three laps! Winner becomes the next member of the Junior Wonderbolts. You may start in 5, 4…” He said, counting down. Scootaloo quickly pushed all of her paranoia aside and tried to focus on the race ahead. “…2… 1… GO!” He yelled loudly into the microphone.

With enough speed to wipe the dust off of an entire house, all three of the contestants blasted into the start of the final course. There was no determined place at the start as every single filly was relatively close by to one another. They were continuously trying to overtake each other already, despite having just barely entered the course. When the overtaking had eventually settled, Scootaloo ended up in last place. It wasn’t that worrying to her, as she still had plenty of opportunities to get ahead of the competition.

Scootaloo wondered when she should be trying to overtake, since she didn’t want to stray too far from the rest of the contestants while they were ahead. She knew that the end of the course was going to be hotly contested if they all managed to get close to each other, meaning it might have been wise to try and get as far ahead of them as possible

Scootaloo began to increase her speed, hoping to get into second place with relative ease. The pony ahead of her wasn’t having any of it; increasing their speed as well to try and counter her. Scootaloo pulled back, not wanting to expel too much of her pent up energy so early on.

The filly in second place decided to keep their speed up as they quickly dashed under the filly in first place and flew up in-front of them, switching their places. Scootaloo was trying to stick to the inside of the course, hoping to gain a small edge over her competition as she turned the corners slightly faster than they did. Her window to try and get in first place was quickly getting thinner by the second, so she was going to have to make a move sooner rather than later.

Suddenly they had all passed the first lap, with Scootaloo having never moved positions since she started. She decided to give overtaking another try as she quickly and confidently flew ahead of the filly in second place, barely giving the other pony time to counter it. Only after passing them did she realize that it was Rumble, meaning they were now in last place instead of her.

The crowd continued to cheer as the only available spot in the Junior Wonderbolts was being aggressively contested for. Rainbow Dash remained confident in Scootaloo’s abilities, while Twilight seemed a little more sceptical. “You sure she has what it takes to win?” Twilight said, looking over to Rainbow Dash curiously.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Well duh! Of course she has what it takes! She starts out slow and careful and seems to make up for it near the end. But winning doesn’t matter either way, at least not to me!” She said ignorantly, raising one of her front legs.

Twilight grinned and shook her head. “Okay, both you and I know that that isn’t anywhere close to the truth, Rainbow Dash. No one hates losing more than you do,” she said, making Rainbow Dash sigh in response.

“I can be a bit of a tight-wad sometimes, but not all the time! I can accept losing… it just takes like a week of cider and self-loathing to get over it,” Rainbow Dash said, crossing her front legs as she pouted.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I rest my case, I suppose. Still, I hope you won’t get like that if she doesn’t win,” Twilight said, raising one of her front hooves and looking over to her.

Rainbow Dash put her hooves back on the ground. “No way! I’m more worried about what it would do to her, not me. I wouldn’t want her getting de-motivated, or disheartened,” she said, rubbing her neck slightly.

Twilight nodded, looking back over to the course. “I’m sure she won’t, she doesn’t seem like the type of pony that would just mope around,” she said, beginning to pay attention to the race again. “Oh hey, they’re nearing the end of the second lap and Scootaloo is still in second place!” She said excitedly.

The places hadn’t changed in the middle of Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s conversation, meaning Scootaloo was still in second place and Rumble was still in third. They were quickly approaching the end of the second lap, about to start the third and final lap. Scootaloo was still thinking up her plan of action. When should she try and overtake the filly in first place? Would now be a good time? Or would it only make it harder in the long run? She figured that it would be best to try now, as she didn’t want to end up with no energy to overtake at the last second.

With a sudden burst of speed, Scootaloo pushed ahead of the filly in first place, barely taking their spot just prior to passing the second lap. They passed the second lap mere seconds later, meaning that Scootaloo had went from last place to first place in just one lap. The crowd began to cheer immensely, getting very excited from there being a new filly in the lead.

Now being in first place, Scootaloo was starting to feel stressed, worried that her position would be stolen from her when she least expected it. She didn’t want to fail now, she was so close! The race was one lap away from being over, meaning that the fillies had to give it all they got if they wanted to win. It wasn’t long before Scootaloo’s place was being contested by the filly behind her, prompting Scootaloo to swerve in front of them whenever they attempted to get past.

After being denied first place numerous times, the filly began to get agitated, leading them to smacking Scootaloo’s tail with their hoof. While it was quite a minor thing, it still managed to distract Scootaloo for a split second. However, she was quick enough to swerve back in-front of the filly behind her, yet again denying them the chance to overtake.

Realizing their strategy of trying to swiftly overtake wasn’t going to work, the filly flew to the side of Scootaloo, hoping to simply out-speed her in the final stretches of the race. Scootaloo was determined to win, not wanting to give the other filly any chances to squeeze into first place. She sped up even more, almost pushing her wings to their speed limit.

Scootaloo’s concentration was interrupted as she felt her shoulder get shoved. She looked over to the other filly, realizing that they were almost resorting to pushing to try and win. She simply ignored it and pressed forward, continuing to out-speed the other filly despite the shove.

Almost immediately after she regained her concentration, she was shoved by the other filly again. She could feel her head beginning to heat up in frustration, unsure if she should start shoving them back in retaliation. Despite her frustration, she decided to keep her cool and focus on the course.

All of the stress she had previously had been replaced with determination as the finish line came in full view. Suddenly the determination had turned into anger as she felt her shoulder get shoved one more time, prompting her to react. “STOP IT!” She yelled, quickly shoving the filly back with enough force to nearly knock them off course.

The other filly instantly came back over and pushed her, making Scootaloo push them back. Many gasps had come from the spectators as a fight had broken out mid-course, with both Scootaloo and the other contestant shoving each other back and forth as they continued to fly towards the finish line. Eventually Scootaloo stopped, realizing she was wasting precious time.

She shot towards the finish line again; ignoring anything the other contestant was trying to do to deter her. She didn’t know how far away she was from the contestant that was shoving her, but she didn’t let that concern her right now. Her vision was locked dead ahead towards the finish line as she was pushing her wings to their limit, her speed increasing to its near maximum.

In a split second, she crossed the finish line. Excitement rushed through her body to the point of not being able to hold it in, suddenly shouting in glee as she began to slow down. “YES! I DID IT!” She yelled, coming to a stop and lowering herself down to the ground shortly after. She had never felt so exhilarated in her life, her heart beating so fast she was seeing stars.

She sat down to regain her energy, trying to slow her breathing back down again. She wanted to stand up and jump around, but she just didn’t have the energy for it. The crowd was going wild, and it was like music to her ears.

She had a wide grin plastered over her face as Spitfire came over to her, presumably to tell her the results. “Congratulations, Scootaloo, but I’m afraid you came in second place.”

Suddenly Scootaloo’s heart sunk into the bottom of her chest, her expression changed to that of surprise, and her whole body began to feel light. Spitfire hesitated on telling her who won. “…I’m sorry to tell you, but Rumble won,” she said, leaning to the side and pointing over towards Rumble who looked to have been celebrating with his family. “They passed you while you and the other filly were fighting,” Spitfire said.

There was a small pause in Scootaloo, and it felt like an eternity had passed in that pause. When she came back to reality, she began to cry, putting both her front hooves up to her face and covering it so Spitfire couldn’t see it. She had never felt more disappointed and embarrassed than she had ever felt in her life. She was so convinced she won, so confident with herself, only for it to be taken away because of some stupid fight that wasn’t even technically her fault. A mix of frustration and sadness was enveloping her body. Why was she so stupid to engage with the other contestant like she did? Why didn’t she just continue to ignore it like she should have done? She felt like a complete idiot.

It was hitting her in waves as she didn’t fully realize she had lost until now. Rainbow Dash was going to be so incredibly disappointed in her, especially after the fight she just had that cost her the win. Scootaloo couldn’t stop herself from crying and hiccuping in her hooves as she covered her face. She didn’t want to see anyone right now; she just wanted to be left alone.

She was a complete failure.

Author's Note

Not over yet. (Also this chapter is long overdo)

26: Lets Talk It Out.

26: Lets Talk It Out.

Scootaloo had left before even meeting up with Rainbow Dash or Twilight after the race, seems she just got up and went home without much of a trace. Of course Rainbow Dash and Twilight were worried when they couldn't find her at the finish line, but they were quickly told by Spitfire that she decided to go home by herself. All Twilight and Rainbow Dash could do was fly back home as well and hope that Scootaloo was there when they got back.

On their way back, Twilight tried to initiate a conversation with Rainbow Dash, but nothing but silence seemed to come from her. "...The weather was nice today; was it you that cleared the clouds?" Twilight asked, flying alongside a drained looking Rainbow Dash. She didn't respond to her question, prompting Twilight to try and come up with something else to talk about.

"...I heard that Ponyville is getting another small vegetable store near the middle of town, apparently a lot of their stock will be imported," she stated as she raising her leg. Yet again, no response came from Rainbow Dash, not even an idle glance.

Twilight began to get annoyed relatively fast, annoyed that Rainbow Dash was doing the thing she said she wouldn't do if Scootaloo lost. "...You said you weren't going to be disappointed or upset, Rainbow Dash. So far you aren't proving that to me!" She said, her tone changing to something more serious.

Luckily, this garnered a response from Rainbow Dash. "I'm not upset, or disappointed! I'm worried!" She said, her head perking up and looking over towards Twilight. "She didn't even wait for us before leaving and it's making me paranoid!"

Twilight's ears flopped back as she placed her hoof on her chest. "You think I'm not paranoid too? I'm worried that she might have wandered off to somewhere that we wouldn't be able to find her; she could get lost if she isn't careful!" Twilight said, rubbing her own shoulder.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I heavily doubt Scootaloo would do something like that. She's most likely back at my place sitting in her room, feeling all gloomy," she said, beginning to pick up the pace a bit as she flew. "Even if I doubt she'd wander off randomly, we should still get back as soon as possible, just in case."

After a couple more minutes of flying, Rainbow Dash and Twilight finally got back to Rainbow's Cloud House. Taking no time at all, Rainbow Dash trotted through the front door and looked around, hoping to see Scootaloo somewhere inside. She wasn't in the living room, so Rainbow Dash's next best bet was Scootaloo's room. She trotted over to the door and knocked before listening out for a reply. Unfortunately, there was none. "...Scootaloo? You in there? It's only me and Twilight here," she said, opening the door slowly.

She peered inside when the door was open enough to fit her head through, but she still wasn't able to see Scootaloo, at least not directly. Her eyes quickly fixed onto the blanket on the bed, which was rolled up almost like a burrito.

Of course it intrigued Rainbow Dash, prompting her to open the door fully and trot inside the room. Upon getting close enough to the blanket, she poked it with her hoof and tilted her head. A small wiggle came from the blanket as it was poked, making Rainbow Dash realize that Scootaloo was probably wrapped up inside of it. "...Squirt? Why are you rolled up in your blanket? You could talk to me about what happened if you want to," Rainbow Dash said, placing her hoof on the blanket again.

Not much of a response came from Scootaloo, other than a few small wiggles.. To her dismay, Rainbow Dash began to unroll the blanket. Eventually her head became visible as the blanket was unrolled enough; her eyes were both wet and tinted red, hinting that she had been crying for quite a while. Her chin was lifted up by Rainbow Dash, who also leaned down to get their head's level with each other. "...Please, Scoots. Talk to me about it, I don't want you feeling upset!" She said in a soft tone.

Scootaloo's eyes glanced over to her, not sure of what she could even say. "...Sorry... about what I did," she said, rubbing one of her eyes afterwards.

Rainbow Dash shook her head slightly. "No need to be sorry, Squirt! We're all still so proud of you; not coming in first place wasn't your fault," she said, sitting down in front of her.

Scootaloo shook her head as well as she continued to rub her eye. "But it was my fault! I lashed out on the other stupid filly who was pushing me over and over. If I hadn't have joined in with the pushing, I would probably have won! I'm so stupid!" She said as she turned away from Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she rubbed her own neck. "Come on, Squirt. It's not something worth moping over. You did so fantastically amazing, we're all surprised that you even got this far! Remember what you said way, way back before the league even started? You said you'd be happy enough if you passed the first course, and then you ended up nearly winning! It's okay that you didn't win, because you learned so much and impressed so many ponies anyway!" She said, raising one of her legs up.

There was a slight pause after Rainbow Dash had finished speaking. Not much came from Scootaloo, other than an occasional tail swish. "...Rumble deserved it more than I did anyway, it wouldn't have been fair to take what he rightfully earned away from him," she said, letting out a shaky sigh afterwards.

Rainbow Dash's ears flopped back as she felt ultimately useless at trying to improve Scootaloo's mood. "You would have deserved it as much as he did, you worked super hard! ...Although, he did attend the previous two leagues while this is the first one that you've participated in. Whoops, I'm not helping," she said, seemingly annoyed at herself for speaking too much. "Okay, before I make things worse... maybe I should just leave you alone for now. Just know that I'm still super proud of you, Squirt. You're always going to be a winner in my eyes," she said as she rubbed Scootaloo's head.

She waited for a little bit, hoping to get at least a word out of Scootaloo before she left. It looked like that word wasn't going to come, so she decided to just get up and leave the room. She was met by Twilight as she left, who seemed to have been waiting for Rainbow Dash to come out of the room. "I'm guessing she's in there? Is she upset?" Twilight asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash nodded, letting out a small sigh. "Pretty sure she's upset; the wet fur around her eyes seemed to give it away," she said as she slumped down, putting her backside down on the ground. "Worst of all, she doesn't seem to be listening to anything I say, pretty much just ignoring it completely. I'd love to try and help her, but all I think we can do is wait and see if she feels better tomorrow. She's a tough kid, she's bound to get over it eventually," Rainbow Dash said, dawning a hopeful smile.

Twilight nodded to her. "Maybe, but I'd still keep an eye on her. See if you can talk to her about it sometime soon, surely that would improve her mood," she said, lowering her leg. "Anyway, I'll probably have to go and check on Spike back at the castle, I don't like leaving him alone for too long. Please keep me updated on Scootaloo if you can, hopefully she'll just feel better in time," Twilight said as she began to trot away.

Rainbow Dash's smile slowly vanished as Twilight left, eventually ending at a frown once she was fully alone. She would have gone back into Scootaloo's room to try and talk it out with her, but she figured it was best to leave her alone for a while. For now, all she could do was read a book or maybe play with Tank for a bit, but asides from that, she had nothing else to do. A nap sounded nice since it did seem like the best way to ignore her problems; who knows, maybe Scootaloo would be okay after she would wake up. Yeah, a nap seemed perfect right about now.

Rainbow Dash was laying awkwardly across her hospital green coloured bed sheets, having all of her limbs uncomfortably spread out like a snow angel, but if that's the type of position she likes to roll into while napping, then surely she must like it.

Her nap was coming to a close as the irritating sound of birds chirping echoed through her bedroom. She rolled over onto her side while lifting her head, taking a quick glance around her room before groaning. "Stupid birds! I was having a nice dream!" She said before letting her head flump back down onto her thick bed sheets.

She would have gone back to napping again, but she quickly remembered about Scootaloo and that she should go and check on her, just to see if she's okay now. She let herself slide down off of the bed and onto her hooves before she trotted out of her room and over towards Scootaloo's. She wobbled occasionally on her way there as she had just woken up from quite the deep nap, meaning she was still quite sleepy.

Once she reached Scootaloo's room she knocked on her door, hoping to get an answer. "Scootaloo? You still in there?" She asked curiously. After a couple seconds of silence, the door was opened quietly by Scootaloo, who looked somewhat tired judging by the bags under her eyes. Rainbow Dash nudged closer through the open door, standing in the middle of it's frame. "Hey, you okay? You look all dried up and tired. Actually, have you even left your room since I went for a nap?" She asked, tilting her head and lifting up one of her hooves.

Scootaloo shook her head and rubbed one of her cheeks. "No, I've been in here for the past two or so hours. I didn't even know you went for a nap, I think I just assumed you went and did some flying or something," she said, looking up towards her.

Rainbow Dash shook her head and waved her hoof a bit as she spoke. "No way! I wouldn't have gone out and just left you here to mope. If I was going to go anywhere, I'd have asked if you wanted to come with me," she said, letting herself trot fully inside the room before sitting down. Scootaloo moved back to allow Rainbow Dash to come inside. There was an awkward pause after that, with neither of them knowing what to say.

Unlike two hours ago, Scootaloo seemed okay enough to talk now. Rainbow Dash figured that she would try talking to her about the race. "...So, you okay? If you want to talk to me about what happened, you can," she said with a soft tone.

Scootaloo shrugged, sitting down in-front of her. She seemed hesitant about speaking at first, but eventually gave in as she began to talk. "...I just think that if I hadn't have responded to the other filly that was pushing me, I probably would have won. My temper got the best of me and it allowed Rumble to get ahead in the last second. I was so happy when I crossed the finish line! I felt so impressed and proud of myself, only for all of that happiness to get pulled away from me," she said as she dipped her head down and frowned.

Rainbow Dash sighed, trying to think about what she could say to try and enlighten her about the situation. "...Rumble was most likely saving all of his energy for the final lap. Maybe he would have sped ahead of you anyway, even if you didn't lose your temper?" She said before seeming somewhat annoyed with herself. Her mood dipped as she let out another small sigh. "...I-I'm not very good at helping am I?"

Scootaloo shrugged again as she began to speak with a sad tone. "You're better than a lot of other ponies, that's for sure. No worries, though... I think I'll be okay in like a week. I still feel really disappointed in myself though, I probably could have done so much better than I ended up doing," she said, rubbing the side of her head.

Rainbow Dash pulled Scootaloo's head up and smiled. "You shouldn't feel disappointed with yourself! Look how far you got in the league, in-fact, you nearly won! You could barely even fly around six weeks ago, then you ended up beating some of Equestria's best flying fillies. You need to be proud of what you've achieved! Even I'm a little jealous about how quickly you learned compared to the lengthy training I had to do most of my childhood," She said as she had a soft smile on her face.

Scootaloo's mood seemed to lift a bit as she began fluttering her wings ever so slightly. "...I guess I did go from 0 to 100 real fast, didn't I?" A small smile crept over her face as she nudged closer to Rainbow Dash. "Even if you aren't very good at helping with my mood, thanks. I wouldn't have done any of this without you. All of your teaching and training really helped me get my hooves off the ground, quite literally," she said, looking up to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash ruffled up Scootaloo's mane with her hoof. "Hey, don't mention it. I'd do anything I could to make your dreams come true," she said, slowly standing up and stretching. "So, wanna go get some ice cream or something? The sun is still as bright as ever,"

Scootaloo nodded, standing up as well. "Sure, I could go for some ice cream," she said, smiling up to Rainbow Dash.

Author's Note

Not a big fan of this chapter myself. A bit too much filler and not enough killer. If anything, it's a transition from the last into the next.

27: Everything's Fine.

While Scootaloo's mood was better than it was after she ate some ice cream with Rainbow Dash, she still felt quite down afterwards. She felt too demotivated and tired to do anything, especially anything to do with flying. Once she got back home with Rainbow Dash, she quickly went back into her room and huddled up into her bed again, not to be seen for the rest of the day.

This mood carried on for next couple days, as Scootaloo continued to spend her time solely inside of her room. Rainbow Dash tried to motivate her several times, hoping to pull her out of the dumps and get her back on her hooves. Unfortunately, any attempt she made either had very little impact, or was completely ignored altogether. The only time Scootaloo ever came out of her room was to eat and drink, and even then she barely talked. Rainbow Dash felt ultimately useless at trying to help, just like she did before.

It took a whole week of moping around before Scootaloo started feeling somewhat better. She still wasn't as lively as she was before she lost the league, but it was still progress nonetheless. Instead of curling up into a ball inside of her duvet like she had done for the whole week, she chose to sit beside Rainbow Dash on the couch.

They both sat quietly, unsure of what to talk about. Rainbow Dash didn't want to risk ruining Scootaloo's improved mood, yet she still wanted to try and help her as best she could. Scootaloo looked around the room from time to time, feeling awkward about the seemingly endless silence that became increasingly annoying the longer it went on. A few yawns escaped her lips as she felt sleepier than she normally would.

Rainbow Dash twiddled her hooves together in silence, feeling concerned for how Scootaloo felt at the moment. If either of them was going to start talking, it was most likely going to have to be Rainbow Dash. "...Is there anything you'd like to do today, Squirt? I think both me and Twilight are free most of the day, so we could all go and do something fun together if you wanted to," she said, looking over to Scootaloo with a small smile on her face.

Scootaloo kept silent for a bit before shrugging her shoulders. "...I dunno, Dash. I doubt I'll be that interesting to talk to, especially considering how tired I feel right now," she said, rubbing one of her eyes.

Rainbow Dash nudged closer towards her on the couch. "I think you just need something to get you fully awake. If you sleep too much, you'll just end up sleeping more and more as time goes by. Plus, wouldn't it be nice to go do something fun? It would definitely kill the boredom, that's for sure," she said as she let out a small chuckle.

A small sigh came from Scootaloo as she continued to rub her eye. She knew she couldn't just sit here all day, and that it would clearly be much better to try and have some fun at least. If anything, it was only going to improve her mood, maybe even take her mind away from her problems. She put her hoof down and looked over towards Rainbow Dash with a crooked head. "Well, what could we do that would be fun?" She asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chin and pouted, trying to think of something fun that they could do together. She didn't want to suggest flying, as she didn't know if Scootaloo was up for it in her current state. "...We could go over to Twilight's place and chat with her and Spike? You seemed to enjoy Spike's company before. Either that or we could visit someone else, maybe Applebloom or Sweetie Belle?" She asked as she looked over to her.

Scootaloo quickly shot down the idea of visiting Sweetie Belle or Applebloom. "N-No, that's okay. I'd be a big wrench in their gear or whatever, probably no fun to hang around right now," she said, scrunching her mouth up as she rubbed her own cheek softly.

Out of nowhere, Rainbow Dash pulled her over and wrapped one of her arms around her. "Come on, I heavily doubt that, Squirt. I bet they absolutely love having you around! Even if you may be tired and down in the dumps a bit," she said as gave off a small smile. "But if you really don't want to visit them, we could just go to Twilight's like I said before. That or maybe we could go and get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner." She said as she lifted her hoof up in motion.

Scootaloo could feel her tummy rumbling when the thought of food entered her mind. "...You know... I suppose it would be as good a time as any to go and get something to eat."

Sugarcube Corner seemed to have been doing some good business today, as the place was packed by the time Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo got there. They were both sitting at one of the tables inside the establishment, waiting for what they ordered to be delivered to them. At least Scootaloo didn't feel awkward anymore thanks to the plethora of chatting ponies inside of the bakery; the less awkward silences, the better.

They didn't have to wait that long for their order to come as Pinkie Pie hopped over with two plates on her back. "Aaaaaand here's your big blueberry cupcake with extra sprinkles, Rainbow Dash," She said as she picked up the plate with her mouth and placed it on the table in-front of her.

Rainbow Dash gave her a small look of confusion. "I didn't ask for extra sprinkles," she stated, pulling the plate closer to her with her hooves.

Pinkie Pie nodded and gave off a wide, shiny grin as she spoke. "I know you didn't, I put them on there myself!" She grabbed the other plate off of her back and placed it in-front of Scootaloo. "And here's your caramel coated muffin! It's all nice and warmed up for you, oh and it's a bit gooey, so I included a napkin as well," she said before she suddenly shot off back into the kitchen again, presumably to help with the long, busy line of customers waiting to buy.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and picked up her cupcake with one of her hooves. "Pinkie Pie should stop altering orders like that, even if she has good intentions. Oh well, at least I got more than what I paid for," she said, taking a big bite out of the cupcake. A load of sprinkles broke off and dropped onto the table as she ate, creating quite a big mess for somepony to clean up later.

Scootaloo decided to sniff her muffin at first, but she accidentally got to close and dabbed a small amount of caramel on the tip of her nose. She licked it off with her tongue and picked up the muffin with her hooves. She bit into the muffin, taking a large, gooey chunk out of it. A thin trail of caramel followed her mouth as she pulled her head away from it. "Mmmb, thath pbretty schweet," she said, rudely speaking with her mouth full.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked up to Scootaloo and tilted her head. She took another large bite out of her cupcake, causing yet another barrage of sprinkles to fall down onto the table.

Scootaloo let herself swallow what she had in her mouth before she spoke again. "I said, that's pretty sweet." She pulled up the napkin that Pinkie gave her with one of her hooves and wiped her mouth, getting rid of the caramel that coated her lips.

She enthusiastically took another bite of the muffin before she heard her name being called. She looked over to where she heard her name, only to see Sweetie Belle and Applebloom come over to her with happy grins on their faces. "What's up, Scootaloo? Haven't seen you in over week! How did the league go?" Applebloom asked, looking up to where Scootaloo sat.

Scootaloo swallowed and wiped her mouth again, suddenly looking a bit more drab than she did before. "I...I, uh... lost," she said, putting the muffin down and frowning a bit.

Applebloom's expression stayed mostly the same except for her mouth, which straightened out into a neutral expression. "Oh. I'm guessing you're a bit upset about that." She stated before getting her arm shoved by Sweetie Belle. A small groan of pain came from her as she rubbed her arm roughly.

"That's okay, Scootaloo. It doesn't really matter," Sweetie Belle said, keeping a smile on her face as she looked up towards Scootaloo.

Scootaloo looked over to her and raised her eyebrow. "Wait, it's okay?" She asked curiously, not expecting her friends to be fine with her losing.

Sweetie Belle nodded, sitting down on the floor afterwards. "Of course it is! You got to the finals, which was already incredible enough! So what if you didn't finish in first place; there's always room for next year's league," she said, smiling up to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo gave a small nod before she gained a slight smile. "Y-yeah, I guess so," she rubbed her cheek a little bit with her hoof. "At least I learnt how to fly, that's the important part," she said, picking up the muffin again with her hooves.

Sweetie Belle stood up again. "From what I heard, you learnt a lot more than just flying, but I suppose you better tell us about it when we meet up again at the club house. Maybe even show us!" She said, having her voice crack mid sentence. "Anyway, me and Applebloom were just waiting to get something to eat when we spotted you sitting here. Figured we could chit chat a bit since the line was so long. We better jump back into the line now that it's shorter than it'll ever be, so I guess we'll talk to you again later!" She said, waving to Scootaloo as she began to eagerly trot away back into the line with Applebloom.

Scootaloo waved back, taking a big bite out of her muffin again. She glanced over to Rainbow Dash, who seemed somewhat cocky about what just happened judging by the small smile on her face, and a couple dozen sprinkles as well. "See? I said everything would be fine."

Scootaloo chuckled nervously. "Y-yeah, I guess you were right."

Scootaloo rushed back inside Rainbow Dash's house once the door was open, trampling over a bunch of un-read mail in the process. Rainbow Dash shrugged, trotted in and quickly closed the door. She ran her hooves through the pile of un-read mail, looking for anything that might be worth opening. A letter with a shining sequin quickly caught her eye, prompting her to pick it up to further examine it.

Upon closer inspection, the sequin was that of the Wonderbolts logo. She expected that the letter's contents were most likely going to be some sort of certificate of participation or something. She carefully tore open the letter with her teeth, trying not to damage it's contents.

Inside she could see a folded piece of paper and nothing else; didn't seem to interesting. She took the paper out of the letter and unfolded it so she could read what it was about. It didn't take too long for Rainbow to see that it was an invitation to the celebratory test flight with the winners of all of the Leagues! Everypony that participated in the league was allowed to come and watch all of the winners perform a small show in honour of their new member.

Her sudden smile quickly dwindled however, as she was unsure if Scootaloo would want to go. She figured she'd ask anyway. "...Scootaloo, where are you? Could you come here for a moment?" She asked, looking around to try and find her.

Scootaloo quickly trotted out from the kitchen upon hearing her name being called. "I was in the kitchen getting a drink," she said, coming over to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash glanced at the paper again before turning to face Scootaloo and passing it over to her. "The Wonderbolts invited us to a post-league celebration for the most recent winner. Anypony is allowed to go and watch, but it says we'd be allowed to go into the front seats. Anyway, I figured I'd ask if you wanted to go or not, since I know you're a little... upset... over it," she said as she rubbed her neck.

Scootaloo glossed over the letter before handing it back over to Rainbow Dash. "Well... it would be pretty rude not to go, probably. It'd look like I was a sore loser, which I am, but still," she said, pausing and letting herself think about the proposal. "...I suppose I'll go, might as well."

Rainbow Dash took the piece of paper and trotted over to a table she could lay it on. "Well, if you change your mind, just tell me. We have four days until it happens, so it's plenty of time for you to decide if you want to go or not. I don't mind if we do or if we don't go, I'm not too fussed," she said, looking over to Scootaloo with a smile.

Scootaloo smiled back. "I need to go and congratulate Rumble anyway. Even if I'm a sore loser, it doesn't mean I shouldn't have good manners."

28: I Learnt to Fly.

While sleeping, Scootaloo was able to sense the sudden bright flash of light that came from the newly opened blinds around her window. A small groan came from her mouth as she turned around in her bed, hoping to escape the blindingly bright morning light.

"Time to wake up, Squirt! The winner's celebration is in a couple hours, so if you still wanted to go, now would be a good time to slide out of bed," Rainbow Dash said, trotting over to the side of the bed that Scootaloo was facing.

Scootaloo tried to pretend she was still sleeping by not really responding to Rainbow Dash, but it obviously wasn't going to work. Her shoulder was promptly shook, making her to groan again in annoyance. "I know you're not sleeping, Squirt. I tried to get away with that when I was your age, but it never even worked once. So, rise and shine!" Rainbow Dash said, continuing to shake Scootaloo's shoulder from time to time.

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes before opening them and groggily looked up to Rainbow Dash. "...Ten more minutes... I was up pretty late," she said as she tried to pull her duvet over herself more.

The duvet was quickly yankd off by Rainbow Dash, who sat down at the side of the bed. "No you weren't, I usually know what time you go to sleep because I have quite good hearing. And I definitely know you weren't up after 1am. Meaning you've had at the very least, eight hours of sleep. So it's time to get up now!" She said as she smiled and waited for Scootaloo to hopefully slither her way out of bed.

Despite her bed sheets no longer covering her, Scootaloo continued to lay in her bed, not budging at all. Rainbow Dash pouted and leaned over. "I'm just going to sit here and annoy you if you don't get up. Plus, aren't you hungry for some breakfast?" She said, tilting her head.

After a small pause, Scootaloo leaned up and rubbed her eyes again. "Okay... I'll get up. No point in staying in bed if I'm not going to get any more sleep," she said, letting out a loud yawn.

Rainbow Dash nodded and stood up. "Good! I think you've slept enough anyway," she said as she began to trot away and out of the room. "I'll be back in five minutes, and if I see you laying in your bed again, I'm going to start getting really annoying!"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and looked over to the clock on her desk. The time was around half past nine, meaning she had just over two hours before the Wonderbolts' Celebration started. She was tempted on going back to bed, even if she was only going to get a couple minutes worth of Z's. Oh well, at least she was somewhat awake now.

"You know, we could still turn around if you don't want to go, Squirt," Rainbow Dash said as she was flying to the side of Scootaloo. They were both on their way over to where the celebration was being held, and Scootaloo seemed a tad bit nervous for some reason.

However, she shook her head and looked over to Rainbow Dash. "N-Nah, I want to go. No reason to be mad over what I can't change. Like I said, I still need to congratulate Rumble on winning; it was quite rude of me to just vanish like I did... and it probably made me look so childish," she said as she lowered her head.

Rainbow Dash prodded her shoulder with one of her hooves. " It's okay to be upset about things! I'm sure they'd understand if you just said that you got a little upset about it, no harm done!" She said, looking over to her with a smile.

Scootaloo lifted her head up and gave a small nod. "I suppose; but it still made me look like a butt-hurt baby. I hope nopony thinks bad of me because of that. If they do think bad of me, at least I can try and fix it when I get there," she said as she began to look around.

She forgot how soothing flying felt, the wind blowing through your mane and over your face, cooling you off in what would otherwise be a very warm day. Sometimes it was nice to just get into a rhythm and circle around a couple clouds for a while; let the time pass by letting your wings carry you around and around. She felt quite lucky knowing how to fly, despite not being able to merely two or so months ago.

She began to day dream as she continued to fly alongside Rainbow Dash, letting her mind think of whatever it wanted to. She imagined hanging out with her friends again, maybe even showing off the moves she learned over the past month or so. No doubt both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle would be impressed. Sadly they weren't able to attend any of the courses she participated in, as they were all held in the middle of the sky on top of clouds.

Her daydreams were cut short as she was poked by Rainbow Dash. "We're approaching the stadium, so I thought I'd snap you out of whatever was distracting you," she said as she continued to smile. Scootaloo nodded and began to speed up to reach the stadium.

There wasn't really an entrance they could go through, so they had to fly up and over to see where they had to go. The entire stadium had benches that circled around a mostly hollow centre, making it look somewhat like a coliseum. It was difficult to see where they would go to sit, thanks to the large density of pegasi ponies who already occupied a great chunk of the seating areas. With a little bit of searching, Scootaloo managed to see the recognisable, combed back mane of Spitfire, along with a bunch of other Wonderbolts around her. Scootaloo tugged on Rainbow Dash's arm and tried to make her follow her down to the Wonderbolts.

It didn't take that long before she landed next to Spitfire, with Rainbow Dash arriving shortly after as well. "Hey, Spitfire! Just wondering, but where do we sit?" Rainbow Dash asked, lifting up her hoof.

Spitfire turned around and smiled to them both. "Oh, hey you two. Glad to see you decided to show up," she said, trotting closer to them. "I was a little worried you two wouldn't show up since you seemed hesitant to stay before."

Scootaloo nodded and rubbed one of her front legs with the other. "Y-Yeah... I was a little upset. But I'm good now," she said, looking up to Spitfire with a soft smile.

Spitfire nodded to her. "No worries, it's happened before. Also, there's a second reason I'm glad you decided to come here, and that's because you forgot to take the silver medal we were going to give you for coming in second place. Didn't really have time to give it to you, or Rainbow Dash, but we could give it to you after the show the three Junior Wonderbolts put on for everypony, just come back over to me when it's done," she said, turning around and trotting away. She suddenly stopped and turned around to look at Rainbow Dash. "Oh! And you both can sit over there," she said, pointing over to some of the front row seats. "The other 27 contestants who participated get to sit over there too if they decided to come."

Rainbow Dash nodded and thanked her before she flew over towards the seats. Scootaloo closely followed her, as she wanted to sit beside her. They both quickly noticed that a decent amount of the contestants hadn't arrived yet, as only a fraction of the front row seats were taken. It lifted Scootaloo's mood somewhat, knowing that if she didn't show up, at least there would be a decent amount of other participants who didn't show up either.

Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash found a pair of comfortable seats, sat down, and looked over to where they saw Spitfire. It looked like that's where the winners were going to come out, as there was no other solid ground aside from there and the seating areas.

Scootaloo looked over to Rainbow Dash and tilted her head. "So, what's going to happen here? I'd imagine they're probably going to fly around," she said, lifting her hoof up to her chin.

Rainbow Dash nodded and gave her a small smile. "Well, if last year's winner celebration is anything to go by, it's going to be a small choreographed flight with each year's winner side by side. The stuff you'd normally see the Wonderbolts doing themselves, except on a much smaller scale; physically and literally I suppose," she said, chuckling to herself.

Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin. "Must be stressful, especially since they didn't have that much time to memorize it all," she said, putting her hoof back down.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "It depends, maybe it won't be that complex. Just a few circles around the place with a couple twirls and spins every now and then, that would be easy peazy," she said, gloating confidently.

Scootaloo continued to look over to Rainbow Dash. "Is that what they did last year?" She asked, tilting her head.

Rainbow Dash shrugged again. "I dunno, I wasn't there. I was told about it, but I was never given the specifics. Still, I doubt their routine would be super easy, especially when they're meant to represent the most awesome fliers in all of Equestria!"

Scootaloo nodded. "Well, I suppose we'll see what they do, shouldn't have to wait too long now I'd assume," she said, looking towards the centre of the stadium.

After a bit of waiting, a couple more of the participants from the league arrived and sat down next to Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo still wasn't able to recognise any of them, even though they were practically right next to her. One of the only ponies she recognised in the league was Rumble, and they weren't anywhere in the crowd, for obvious reasons.

Suddenly the voice of Spitfire could be heard throughout the stadium. Scootaloo looked over towards the centre again, where she saw Spitfire talking into a microphone. "Welcome ladies and gentlecolts! Thank you all for coming to the closing show of the annual Junior Wonderbolts league! This year's league was the most competitive yet, with 29 different participators who battled to become a part of the Junior Wonderbolts team. Those 29 were widdled down, all the way until we had our newest winner. I'd like to welcome all three of the League winners, Chip Mint, Cyan Skies, and our newcomer, Rumble!" She said as she lifted her arm up to the side and pointed over to the three fillies who were trotting over. They were all wearing the typical Wonderbolts bodysuit, along with the large goggles as well. The only way Scootaloo was able to tell who was who was by their manes and tails.

Once all three of the fillies were standing next to Spitfire, she began to speak into the microphone again. "Can we get a loud applause for all of our League winners?" She asked as the crowd began to cheer like there was no tomorrow. It was quite deafening from where Scootaloo was sitting, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Spitfire raised her hoof up in an attempt to stop the cheering, only speaking again when it had stopped. "I hope you'll all enjoy this short show that these fillies have prepared for you," and with that, Spitfire lowered the microphone and trotted away from the three fillies to give them some room to start.

All three fillies pulled down their goggles and got into their starting positions. Nothing happened for a couple seconds as the three began to speak to each other, presumably refreshing each other about what they were going to do in the course. Just after they were done speaking, they all shot off and began to circle around the stadium side by side. They left long streaks of multicoloured smoke behind themselves, the same type that the Wonderbolts would usually use in their shows. Scootaloo felt a huge gust of wind hit her face as they blasted past where she sat; she even had to readjust her mane from it.

After circling around the inside of the entire stadium, they went back towards the centre and span around in a spiral, creating a multicoloured spiral of smoke. Their coordination seemed very well done, but Scootaloo was still able to tell which one Rumble was, not only because she knew their smoke colour, but because their trail was noticeably messier than the others.

They eventually broke off from each other and began to spin around in the shape of a horizontal corkscrew, going towards the edges of the stadium again. This is where Scootaloo definitely noticed the skill gap between Rumble and the others. While the others had consistent and clean spins, Rumble's was very inconsistent, with each new spiral being either smaller or bigger than the last. Maybe it was just from a lack of practice, but it was still something she easily noticed.

She didn't want to seem egotistical, but the first thought that came to her mind was "I could have done that better." But she quickly realized that it was mere jealousy that drove that statement, and not experience. She didn't know if she could do better, if anything, she'd probably do worse.

Her focus went back to the show as she followed where Rumble was going. All of the fliers had turned around and started flying back towards the centre of the stadium again, but Rumble's trail wasn't looking very nice. It was all crooked and jaggedly, not smooth like the others. It was oddly sloppy compared to what she knew Rumble could do in the league, and they've had plenty years of practice as well. "...Is Rumble okay?" Scootaloo asked, tilting her head slightly.

Rainbow Dash let out a confused grunt, looking over to her. "What do you mean? They seem fine to me," she said, lifting up her hoof.

Scootaloo pointed to the trail that they had left behind. "Even their straight lines are off, it's oddly unlike them to be so messy. Although, I suppose I've never seen them flying with a trail before, so I guess I don't know what they flied like in the league," she said, putting a hoof to her chin. "...But it still seems to messy, especially when they're meant to be the best of the best from this year's contestants."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Maybe they're just nervous. I wouldn't blame them, considering they have to perform in-front of an entire stadium of pegasi. Even I'd be a little nervous about performing around that many ponies, even if I wouldn't show it. Actually, I don't think I've ever been that nervous performing around crowds, I think I've always tried my best TO perform around crowds. Hmm, well I guess I've never blah blah blah blah blah blah-"

Scootaloo's mind began to drift away from what Rainbow Dash was saying as she focused on the show again. As all three of the fliers had reached the centre, they all flew straight up into the sky, letting themselves begin to slowly drift upwards thanks to their momentum.

The other two fliers quickly looped back around, while Rumble seemed to continue going straight up, albeit slowly. Scootaloo looked somewhat confused, not sure if that was supposed to happen.

Time seemed to freeze as Rumble practically held in place at the peak of their upwards flight, when all of a sudden, they began to plummet straight to the ground, with no sign of them trying to recover."RUMBLE!" Scootaloo yelled, quickly leaping out of her seat and off of the stadium.

The crowd suddenly gasped in shock and horror as something seemed to have gone wrong with one of the fliers. Spitfire seemed to notice the gasp and frantically looked around to see what caught the audience's attention. When she saw the continuous falling trail, she quickly leapt off the edge she was on to try and catch whoever seemed to have fallen.

Scootaloo was already dive bombing down to the falling Rumble, barely using her wings at all to try and increase her decent. "Rumble! Lift up!" She tried yelling, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Rumble wasn't responding or moving at all.

Scootaloo tried to get herself closer towards Rumble, only to realize that they were falling faster and faster as she tried to catch up. She wasn't fast enough, even while dive bombing. Meanwhile, Spitfire was drawing in using mostly her wings, not allowing herself to free fall completely.

Panic began to course through Scootaloo as the ground approached closer and closer. Soon enough she was going to have to pull up, otherwise she'd practically be an orange paste smeared along the ground. The time she had to try and save Rumble was getting thinner and thinner. She pressed on however, trying her absolute best to catch up. Both her and Spitfire were drawing in at similar speeds, both going faster than anypony could in a normal course.

Scootaloo's view began to tunnel as her entire body felt numb. The blood coursing through her veins almost becoming audible to her. Her speed began to accelerate past Rumble's fall speed, meaning she was most likely going to pass him incredibly soon. Judging by both the speed she was going at, and how far away the ground is, she has one chance to try and grab him, and if she doesn't, then it might be too late.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, she swooped down and grabbed Rumble with her front hooves, quickly trying to curve herself up to stop them both from falling to their death. She carried the momentum from the fall into the curve, causing them to suddenly shoot straight up once the curve reached it's peak. They both sped straight past Spitfire, who looked extremely confused as to what just happened.

Scootaloo had already opened her wings, trying to keep both her and Rumble in the air. After letting herself look around in a slight panic, she realized that she was now hovering in place, all while "hugging" onto Rumble. She couldn't stay hovering for too long as Rumble was quite heavy to her, so instead, she began to hover back up towards the Stadium.

Spitfire was looking around in a frenzy, trying to find Rumble and hoping they didn't end up falling to their doom. It took her a couple seconds before she was able to see Scootaloo and Rumble going back up to the stadium.

Scootaloo was struggling, having already used most of her strength to nab Rumble in the first place. Her ascent was slowing down considerably, and she still had quite the climb to go. She was about to call for help, but it seemed like it already came without her request. Spitfire flew up and went under Scootaloo and Rumble, allowing them both to rest on her back as she began to hover back up. The stadium was in a panic, with many pegasi flying around, presumably still looking for Rumble.

It didn't take too long for Spitfire to get back up, even with the two fillies sitting on her back. She flew up to where the winners had started their show, lowered herself down until she touched the ground, then leaned forward so Scootaloo could take Rumble off of her back safely.

Once Scootaloo had lowered Rumble to the ground, Spitfire quickly investigated him, looking for any signs of injury or trauma. She moved his head around with her hoof, seeing if maybe he bumped his head somewhere just before the fall. However, there was no sign of injury at all, which led Spitfire to believe that they must have just fainted.

Spitfire glanced over to Scootaloo. "It looks like he just fainted, but can you keep an eye on him for a second? I need to go tell everypony that he's safe now," she said, waiting for a response from Scootaloo.

Scootaloo nodded and went closer to Rumble, allowing Spitfire to quickly jog away into the nearest building. Scootaloo was surprised that Rumble was still out cold, considering he may just have fainted.

Spitfire quickly trotted back out of the building with a microphone held by one of her wings. "Rumble is alright and safe, everypony! There has just been a small accident. Would Rumble's parents please come over to me," She said, lowering the microphone afterwards.

While Scootaloo was still looking over Rumble, she heard her name being called. She turned around to see Rainbow Dash landing behind her, and she looked to be a mixture of both anger and worry. "Scootaloo! What did you think you were doing?! You could have gotten injured, or-or worse!"

Scootaloo skipped some breaths, suddenly feeling confused on how she should feel about being told off. She looked back and forth between Rumble and Rainbow Dash, trying to think of something she could say to justify her leaping off the stadium like she did. "B-but, I couldn't just let it happen! It just felt right to try and help," She said, starting to feel lightheaded from being told off.

Rainbow Dash's face scrunched up and one of her legs lifted up. "Well...well, it was dangerous! You're lucky that Spitfire was also there to save you too, otherwise I don't want to imagine what would have happened!" She said, her ears flopping back. She was about to say more, but she was interrupted by somepony else.

"Actually, she saved Rumble, I didn't," Spitfire said, trotting over to both of them. "She must have seen it happen quicker than I did, that, and she was much faster than me at going straight down. I was quite dumbfounded when Rumble was suddenly snatched out of my vision; I didn't even know somepony else was going after them as well," she said, looking over to Scootaloo with a small smile. "...But, it was still very dangerous. I'd rather you have left it for somepony professional to do it."

Scootaloo frowned and gained a look of annoyance. "But... I had to do something!" She said, not knowing what else she could say.

Spitfire nodded, lifting her hoof up in the air. "I know! Now that I know that was you that swooped in and grabbed Rumble, I'm incredibly impressed! But I think both me and Rainbow Dash still have a right to have been worried, don't you think?"

Scootaloo pouted before giving a small nod. "...Yeah, I suppose," she said, looking up to Spitfire.

Meanwhile, Rumble finally seemed to be waking up as they were looking around in a confused frenzy. They were quickly calmed down by Spitfire, who went over and began talking to them to make sure they were okay. Scootaloo had to trot over to Rainbow Dash's side as to make way for Rumble's parents, who flew down next to Spitfire.

While Spitfire was dealing with Rumble, Rainbow Dash began talking with Scootaloo again. "So, you actually grabbed them and pulled them up?" She asked, tilting her head.

Scootaloo nodded, looking over to Rainbow Dash. "I did. I used the speed I gained when falling to curve back up, kinda like how one of the courses went in the league, but more intense, I suppose," she said, sitting down.

Rainbow Dash smiled a little and sat down as well. "Well, nice to see that the league taught you what I forgot to mention," she said with a small chuckle. "Still, it was pretty dangerous to do something like that. But like Spitfire said, it was still really impressive. You seemed to spot something was wrong miles before anypony else, so it seems like you have quite the keen eye," she said, smiling more.

Scootaloo lifted her hoof up and waved it around as she spoke. "I think my skateboarding is what gave me that keen eye. I was always looking out for things when strolling along, since one small pebble could have knocked me straight into a bush if I wasn't careful. But thanks, if there's one pony I'm always trying to impress, you'd probably be it," She said, giving her a soft smile.

Rainbow Dash would have spoke back, but she was interrupted by Spitfire again. "Looks like everything is fine. Rumble is still in a bit of a shock from what happened, but he's awake and well. I guess we'll need to post-pone any shows we had planned with these three fillies, give them a bit more time to practice next time. But thanks for your help, Scootaloo. If I was able to have two winners per-league, no doubt you'd have been the second." she said, giving her a soft smile.

Scootaloo's smile grew wider. "Really?" she asked curiously, her tail swishing slightly in excitement.

Spitfire nodded. "Of course! You have a lot of talent packed into those small wings, so keep it up!" She said as she began to trot back over towards Rumble. She stopped and turned her head around to look at Scootaloo again. "I hope I'll be seeing you again at next year's league; it'd be a shame to not have you participate."

Scootaloo gave a small pause as she thought of an answer. "...Of course I'll be there, no reason not to be," she said as she continued to smile.

Spitfire nodded again and turned her head back around. However, she didn't even have time to start trotting again as Rumble zoomed past her and over towards Scootaloo.

Scootaloo was a little surprised when she was suddenly given a tight hug by Rumble. "Thank you so much! Without you, I might have been pegasi paste!" He said, nuzzling her neck.

Scootaloo hesitantly hugged him back, unsure what to do or say. "...W-Well, don't worry about it," she said as Rumble pulled out of the hug. There was a small pause of silence between the two as they looked at each other. "...Umm... oh, congrats on winning by the way. I'm sorry I didn't stick around long enough to congratulate you at the league," Scootaloo said, rubbing the side of her neck that Rumble had nuzzled.

Rumble shrugged. "That's okay, I suppose saying it now is better than never saying it at all," he said, smiling to her. "...You deserved to win more than I did though. I'm not too cut out for performing in-front of a crowd... as you could probably see," he said, rubbing his neck.

Scootaloo chuckled nervously. "N-nah, you won fair and square. I'll get another turn next year, maybe then I won't let my temper get the best of me," she said, giving him a small smile.

Rumble nodded to her. "Well, just know I'll be rooting for you," he said, with a small pause coming straight after. "...Thank you so much for saving me though, I don't know what would have happened if you weren't here," He said, giving her another quick hug before trotting back over to his parents.

Scootaloo waved to him as he left, letting herself continue to smile. She looked back over to Rainbow Dash, who also had a smile on her face as well. "Well, as long as nopony was hurt, I suppose everything is okay. Proud of ya, Squirt!" She said, giving Scootaloo a small noogie with one of her hooves.

Scootaloo pushed Dash's hoof away in the middle of the noogie. "Thanks, Dash. That means a lot to me," she said, empathetically. "...So, do we go now or what?" She asked, looking around.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I suppose we do."

Two months later.

"Come on, Scootaloo! We know you can do it!" Applebloom said, sitting next to Sweetie Belle as they were watching Scootaloo try to traverse the heavily concentrated area of apple trees without scraping a single one. It was the same area that she had practiced in around four months ago, except that it had changed quite considerably from when she was last there. The arrangement of trees was completely different, and the amount of them in general had stretched farther across the field.

Scootaloo was standing at the cusp of all the trees, preparing herself to try and soar through them all again. She had tried several times to get through the forest, but she wasn't accepting a single mistake. She would have already finished several times over if she had just flown normally and carefully, but where's the fun in that? The only way to truly show off is to show that you can do something, and then some!

A bit of cheering came from Applebloom and Sweetie Belle as Scootaloo prepared to blast off into the apple tree rich forest. "I know I can do it too, but I want to make it look better than just a casual stroll!" Scootaloo said with a small grin on her face.

She placed her hooves hard onto the ground, arched her back down, and opened up her wings. A small flick of her tail and a shake of her flank preceded the sudden burst of her flying into the forest faster than what would be considered sensible.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle continued to cheer on as they watched Scootaloo begin to traverse the dense collection of apple trees. They were able to catch glimpses of her from time to time thanks to her bright orange and purple colours clearly visible through the forest.

Scootaloo weaved around each of the trees that she was mere milliseconds away from hitting, doing occasional spins and poses as well for style. So far, she wasn't scraping or hitting any of the trees, just like she was hoping she wouldn't.

While the trees were easy, it was the branches that threw her off every time. Sometimes they were so thin she wasn't even able to see them at the speed she was going, at least not until it was too late. Luckily, she was able to narrowly avoid each of the branches that skewed out from the trees, all while weaving back and forth with ease.

It only took a couple more seconds of flying for her to suddenly burst out of the densely populated forest; it almost took her by surprised how fast she finished. However, one look at where she popped out made her realize that she must have been going at a weird angle, as she didn't actually finish the full length of trees and came out from the side, instead of all the way through. After a couple seconds of hovering in the air and thinking, she shrugged and began to fly back over to Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.

Some cheering came from Sweetie Belle and Applebloom as Scootaloo came back to them. "So, did you finish without hitting anything?" Sweetie Belle asked as she sat down with a curious, tilted head.

Scootaloo shrugged. "Yes and no. I came out from the side a bit too early, didn't really see where I was going. But whatever, I think that's about as much progress as I'll make today," she said, lowering herself down to the ground next to the two fillies.

Applebloom nodded in agreement. "You've been at this for most of the day, so I think it's definitely time you took a break," she said, giving Scootaloo a small smile.

Scootaloo nodded as well. "Yeah, and it's getting late. It's about time I headed back home since the sun is going down, and I don't want Rainbow Dash getting worried about me,"

Sweetie Belle stood up and stretched her limbs. "I could say the same for Rarity. Are we meeting up again here tomorrow?"

Scootaloo began to hover as she shrugged again. "Nah, probably not. Don't want you two to just sit here being all bored and stuff while I practice and show off," she said, stretching her limbs as well. "Besides, I have at least 9 or so months until the next league, so I don't have to practice every single day."

Sweetie Belle smiled. "Well, I suppose we'll see you whenever we see you again, hopefully soon! I'll catch you around!" She said as she began to skip away back towards the centre of Ponyville.

"See ya' later, Sweetie Belle! And to you too, Scootaloo," Applebloom said, waving her hoof to her before turning around and trotting back up to Applejack's barn.

Scootaloo just waved and flew away, letting herself zoom up and over to Rainbow Dash's cloud house.

In the minutes that it took for Scootaloo to get back home, she sucked in the environment. The look and smell of the ground bellow her along with the tone changing sky was something quite special.

Upon reaching the cloud house, she set her hooves down onto it's fluffy, outdoor flooring, opened the front door and trotted inside. She was quickly greeted by Rainbow Dash, who was sitting down on her large couch. "Heya, Squirt! Did you have fun with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom?" She asked, sitting up in her seat.

Scootaloo nodded to her. "I did! I showed them some more of my moves and also practiced a bit at the same time. I tried to go through Applejack's apple tree cluster without touching anything again. I kinda did it, yet kinda not. I must have flown in at a weird angle, since I ended up only going through about 75% of the forest,"

Rainbow Dash shrugged and smiled. "Well, it was still something! I'd be too bulky to try and do that now, so you have it pretty easy considering your size. Still, nice to know you had fun at least!" She said, laying back on her couch again.

Scootaloo wandered back into her room and eagerly jumped onto her bed, letting herself lay there and relax. Another wonderful day of hanging out with friends, and she managed to squeeze in some well needed practice for next year's league.

It was only five months ago that she didn't know how to fly, and now, she could practically do it in her sleep. Maybe it was just beginners luck that allowed her to get so far in the league, or maybe she did have talent, just like Spitfire said. Either way, she still had a lot she needed to practice in hopes of winning the next one, but she has plenty of time until that.

She turned her head towards her window as she continued to lay on her bed, letting herself watch the orange tinted sunset slowly edge down below the horizon.

And with a small, relaxed sigh, she thought to herself.

What a beautiful sunset.

Author's Note

That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed making it!