“Scootie, wait!”
Scootaloo skidded to a stop and growled. The front door, the magical portal to freedom, called to her. She’d come within six inches of making a clean getaway. “I’m gonna be late, Mom! I’m supposed to be meeting Rainbow Dash right n—”
A saddlebag landed on her back, nearly knocking the wind out of her. Her mother’s shadow fell across her a moment later. “Then you’d better remember to take all of your supplies. I packed you a lunch, a scarf, a—”
“Great-thanks-I’ll—”
This time a foreleg held her back. “Come on, Scootie, you know what to do before you go off with your friends.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Aww, but—”
“I swear that’s the last thing, then you can go on your little trip.”
That was all she needed to hear. In one fluid motion, she whirled around, brushed her lips against her mother’s cheek, and bolted for the door. “Thanks, Mom! Bye!”
Her mother’s voice carried after her. “Be safe, and have fun!”
Scootaloo wore a special smile, the one reserved for those rare moments when her three favorite things happened all at once: being out of the house, being airborne, and being with Rainbow Dash. The rushing wind made her eyes water, and she didn’t care. All that mattered was right underneath her: the steady beat of Rainbow’s muscular wings, a second heartbeat that they momentarily shared.
Rainbow nodded to the left. “There’s the place, squirt. See it?”
Scootaloo took the briefest of glances, but couldn’t see much more than her wet eyelashes and Rainbow’s billowing mane. “Kind of…”
“Should’ve packed you some flight goggles… Hang on.”
They rocketed straight up, doubling gravity as well as Scootaloo’s pulse.
Rainbow chuckled. “Look on three, okay? One… Two… Three!”
Scootaloo threw her eyes wide open just as their steep ascent came to a standstill. For one perfect moment, they hung at the apex of their flight in perfectly still air. The whole of Equestria seemed to stretch out before them, including a nearby plateau dotted with buildings and painted runways. “Wow! Is that—”
“Welcome to the Wonderbolts Academy, squirt!”
They skidded onto a runway a few minutes later, sending Scootaloo and her saddlebag bouncing. In response, she held on tighter, giving her surrogate sister one more secret hug. Thanks, Rainbow. Thanks for taking me with you.
Hours later, Scootaloo found herself staring at the grass and savoring the dregs of that blissful feeling. Their supplies were laid out on a blanket in the shade of the trees, and Rainbow Dash was tearing up the skies somewhere high above. Even with her binoculars, the most she could see was an occasional blur of one pegasus or another. She would’ve seen more action watching the weather team from her bedroom window.
She couldn’t even see much of the academy from here. The sprawling buildings and runways she’d seen from the air were completely hidden by the trees and bushes bordering her little campsite, and she didn’t dare wander off when Rainbow might come back at any moment. Not yet, at least.
She rolled a pebble under her hoof. “Thanks, Rainbow. Thanks for letting me come ‘watch you do flight drills with the Wonderbolts.’ The next two hours are gonna be great.” She kicked the pebble into the bushes. “Why can’t we ever—”
A flutter of wings silenced her. Rainbow’s name caught in her throat, but only until a yellow blur touched down in a neighboring clearing. The pegasus landed with an almost imperceptible thump, a sound as quiet and precise as a single hoofstep.
She crept to the edge of the bushes separating her from the newcomer. Even if it wasn’t Rainbow, it might be a Wonderbolt willing to give her an autograph. Instead, she spied a yellow and orange mane, caught the glint of medals adorning a blue uniform, and momentarily lost the ability to breathe. “S-Spitfire? C-captain of the Wonderbolts?”
Spitfire looked like she’d stepped right out of the poster hanging over Scootaloo’s bed. Everything about her, from her muscular wings to her fiery-orange mane to her crisp uniform looked too perfect to be real. Finally Scootaloo understood why Rainbow always mentioned her when she talked about the Wonderbolts.
“You just going to stand there and gawk, kid?”
Scootaloo’s wings clamped to her sides. Spitfire, her own idol’s idol, was talking to her. “I-I… uh…”
Spitfire sat down with her back against a tree. “I’m just here to take a break. As long as you don’t bug me, you can hang around. Maybe I’ll even autograph something, but only if you don’t bug me.”
Scootaloo smiled and frowned in rapid succession. “Thanks… I guess.” She approached the tree, one careful hoofstep at a time, and sat at what she hoped was a respectful distance.
Spitfire took a pair of sunglasses out of her pocket and rubbed them on her jacket. “So, who brought you here?”
“Rainbow Dash.” Just saying the name started Scootaloo smiling again.
“She your big sister or something?”
“I wish! She’s so cool, I bet she’s the best flier in Eq—” Scootaloo gasped “—I-I mean she’s great and all but I’m sure you’re totally—”
Spitfire put on her glasses. “So if she’s not your sister, why’d she bring you here?”
“She’s teaching me how to fly.”
“How’s sitting down here in the dirt doing that?”
Scootaloo glared up at the sky. “Something about watching the best fliers ever… I wish she’d just take me flying on her own like she keeps promising.”
“Why not just get your parents to teach you?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Dad’s an Earth Pony.”
“What about your mom?”
Scootaloo crossed her forelegs. “She can’t help with anything.”
“Why not?”
“She just can’t, okay?” The words came out a little louder than she meant them to.
Spitfire stretched her wings and looked up at the sky. “That’s rough. My dad taught me me everything I kn—” She left the ground in a burst of wingbeats.
Scootaloo waved dust out of her face and coughed. “What’d I sa—”
Spitfire’s thunderous voice nearly stopped Scootaloo’s heart. “Back in formation, Mayfly! You just earned your squad another hundred laps! Now MOVE!” She landed a moment later and resumed lounging against the tree. “Sorry about that. Keeping everypony in line is basically all I get to do during flight drills. It’s boring, but if I go soft on the cadets even once, they start acting like this is playtime.”
Scootaloo pushed some dirt around with a hoof. “Is that what being a Wonderbolt is like? Getting yelled at all the time?”
“Only if you slack off.”
“But—”
“This isn’t grade school, kid. Wonderbolts are supposed to be the best of the best, and that means keeping your skills sharp. It’s my job to make sure everypony pushes themselves; when they don’t, I push for them.”
“But where’s the fun in that?”
“I never said it was fun.” Spitfire spread her wings and her ample muscles bulged against her uniform. “I didn’t get in this kind of shape by taking it easy. When I was your age, my dad had me practicing flight routines every morning. He expected excellence, and that’s what he got.”
Three seconds of silence passed before Scootaloo caught herself staring. “I… uh… Are all your friends super-strong fliers too?”
“Friends?”
“Well, yeah. You hang out with the rest of the Wonderbolts, right?”
“We fly and train together. That doesn’t mean we ‘hang out.’ There’s ponies under my command, ponies at my level, and a few ponies above. We work together all the time, and that’s it. I don’t really have time for friends. That’s kind of how it’s always been: flying came first.”
Scootaloo looked at the ground and sighed. “Oh.”
“What?”
“It’s just… just…”
Spitfire stomped her hoof and spoke in her authoritative voice. “Spit it out.”
Scootaloo jumped. “F-friends are awesome! I-I know that sounds lame, but it’s totally true. I’d go nuts if I didn’t have friends to talk to and do stuff with. You should try having some.”
Spitfire chuckled. “Friends are that great, huh?”
“Y-yeah!”
Her smile faded. “Even if you’re right, it’s not that simple. Not for me, anyway. It’s different when you’re just around ponies that you work with.”
“Why not? Just do fun stuff together, and be nice to them. That’s all it takes.”
Spitfire glanced at the teams of pegasi flying above and grinned. “Maybe Soarin counts. We’ve gone out a couple times.”
Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. “Eww, that does not count!”
Spitfire grinned. “Not into girly stuff?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Definitely not.”
“Good, me either. I remember when I was in school, all the other fillies were into frills, and bows, and dresses—”
“Yuck!”
“I know. Sometimes I think about breaking the thing with Soarin off, but… When we get talking after a long day I feel all funny inside, like he’s going to surprise me any second, and that I kind of want him to. It’s nice.”
Scootaloo gagged and clutched her stomach. “I’ll skip the mushy stuff. I just need Rainbow to hurry up and teach me how to fly. I’m totally going to be a Wonderbolt someday, just like you and her.”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Why just like us?”
“Because you’re both awesome fliers!”
“Who said that’s a good reason?”
Scootaloo’s mind went blank. “Uh… Because… Because the Wonderbolts… That’s what awesome fliers do?”
Spitfire took off her sunglasses and folded them up. “Kid, if every pony with a pair of wings turned into a Wonderbolt, who’d take care of the weather?”
“Huh?”
“The Wonderbolts are great, but we’re not everything. Equestria needs pegasi busting clouds, working the weather factory, delivering mail… We’re needed all over the place. Everypony isn’t cut out for what we do anyway.”
Scootaloo hung her head. “But… I don’t want to do any of that other stuff. I want to be just like you and Rainbow Dash.”
“Then try out for the Wonderbolts someday, but only if it’s for the right reason.”
“There’s a wrong reason?”
“What’s your name?”
For a moment, Scootaloo couldn’t remember. “S-Scootie—I mean Scootaloo! My name is Scootaloo!”
Spitfire patted her head. “Let me put it this way: Equestria already has a Spitfire and a Rainbow Dash. We need a Scootaloo, too. You can only be a Wonderbolt if it’s for you, and not because you want to be just like somepony else. Deal?”
“I guess… Dea—wait!”
Spitfire withdrew her hoof. “What?”
Scootaloo shut her eyes and swallowed hard. What she said next would definitely qualify as ‘bugging’ Spitfire. “You’ve gotta make some friends.”
She held her breath, waiting for somepony to come escort her to the edge of a cliff. Instead, she heard Spitfire laugh. With great caution, she opened one eye.
Spitfire was grinning. “Is that an order, Scootaloo?”
“N-no! N-never! I-I’d never—”
“Deal. How about I start with you?”
Scootaloo’s wings took over. Their rapid buzz raised her an inch off the ground. “Me? Really?”
“Might as well. We’re talking and hanging out, right? That just leaves doing something nice…”
Spitfire leaped into the air and cast a withering glare on her underlings. “Rainbow Dash, front and center right now! Soarin, Fleetfoot, two minutes!”
Rainbow Dash appeared before Spitfire’s echo could fade away. She gave her commander a stern look and saluted. “Right here, ma’am!” Her gaze drifted down to Scootaloo, and her eyebrows shot up.
Spitfire got right in Rainbow’s face. “Eyes up here, Cadet. Is that a problem?”
Rainbow snapped back to attention. “No, ma’am! Just checking on my guest, ma’am!”
“So you admit to bringing this filly with you today?”
Rainbow nodded. “Yes, ma’am. There’s no rule against bringing guests… right?”
Scootaloo couldn’t breathe. She hadn’t gotten Rainbow in trouble, had see? Spitfire was really just kidding around, right?
“Right. In fact, bring Scootaloo any time she wants, and next time make sure she’s got a better view. Understand?”
“Ma’am?”
Spitfire turned to Scootaloo. “You want to come hang with me again?”
Scootaloo gave a gasp followed by an emphatic nod. “You bet I… err… Yes, ma’am!”
“Good. Now go tighten up your squad’s formation, Rainbow Dash, I don’t want to see one feather out of place.”
Rainbow saluted again. “Yes, ma’am.”
She sped off just as Soarin and Fleetfoot arrived, both at a much more leisurely pace. Scootaloo could almost picture a frame bordering this perfect image; the three most elite Wonderbolts were hovering right in front of her.
Fleetfoot came forward. “What’s up, Spitfire? Who’s the filly?”
Spitfire’s militaristic glare gave way to a smile. “She’s just a friend of mine. You… uh… You guys doing anything this Saturday?”
A shiver traveled up Scootaloo back. Spitfire said it! She said it in front of other Wonderbolts even!
Fleetfoot and Soarin looked at each other. Finally Soarin shook his head. “You mean on our day off?”
Spitfire nodded. “Yeah… How about the three of us get lunch?”
“Lunch?”
“Yeah. You know… just… as friends?”
Fleetfoot shrugged. “Sure, I guess. Want to meet at headquarters around noon, and we’ll pick a place?”
“Sounds great.”
Soarin nodded. “Yeah!”
“Okay, good. That’s it… That’s all I called you over here for.”
Fleetfoot chuckled. “That’s it? You just wanted to grab lunch with us?”
“We can do that, right? Just as friends?”
“Totally. It’ll be fun.”
Spitfire glanced back at Scootaloo, who stifled her excitement enough to give an approving nod. “Oh, and Soarin?”
“Huh?” Soarin replied.
“Want to have dinner tonight?”
Fleetfoot gave a long whistle and punched Soarin in the side. “Watch out, Soarin, the boss is puttin’ the moves on you. Are you game?”
Scootaloo gagged.
Soarin grinned. “You bet.”
Spitfire waved them away as Fleetfoot whistled again.
Scootaloo stopped her pretend retching once Spitfire touched down. “Did you have to do that part in front of me?”
“Yep. Just remember your half of the deal: be Scootaloo. Learn to fly for you, not for anypony else. The same goes for becoming a Wonderbolt.”
She pondered the pegasi flying overhead, and nodded. “Deal.”
Scootaloo didn’t say much on the way home. Despite all of Rainbow’s talk of not being even a little tired, Scootaloo could feel how much slower her wingbeats were, and how she was catching updrafts instead of powering through every gust.
“So, what were you two doing?” Rainbow asked.
“Huh?”
“You and Spitfire. Did she autograph something?”
“No… We just talked for a while.”
“Aww. At least she was nice to you… She was nice to you, right? You’ve been really quiet.”
Scootaloo automatically nodded, despite Rainbow’s eyes being fixed on the sky ahead. “Yeah, she was nice. She even said we’re friends now.”
“Whoa, cool! She’s never said anything like that to me. Most of the time she’s just telling us to bust our tails or else. What’d you two talk about?”
“Oh… Uh. Stuff, I guess.”
Rainbow snorted. “Stuff? You guess? This is Spitfire we’re talking about! When I was your age, I would’ve given up a leg to spend five minutes hanging out with the captain of the Wonderbolts. Did she tell you about any new flight moves she’s working on? She’s got some awesome ones.”
“Not really. We just talked about…”
“Don’t just say ‘stuff.’ ”
“Okay, okay. We talked about how tough being a Wonderbolt is, and how she works all the time, and how she doesn’t have any friends, and… She sounded kind of lonely.”
Rainbow glanced back at her, as if she was expecting to find a different filly clinging to her back. “But she’s the captain of the Wonderbolts! No way is she lonely.”
Scootaloo shrugged. “I dunno… That’s just what it sounds like.”
Ponyville spread out before them. Rainbow’s shadow raced ahead of them in the waning sunlight, seemingly guiding them to Scootaloo’s doorstep. “Your stop is coming up, Scoots. So… do you want to go practice flying with me tomorrow morning? I know I keep putting it off, but let’s hit the clouds first thing after breakfast. Talking with Spitfire might’ve been cool, but just wait ’til you’re flying next to me. Once we get you training hard, you’ll be Wonderbolt material in no time.”
A smile spread across Scootaloo’s face, but the ‘yes’ she wanted to scream just wouldn’t come out. Instead, she thought back to her deal with Spitfire, her promise to be herself. “That… uh… that sounds great, Dash. Thanks.”
“ ‘Thanks’? You’ve been bugging me about this forever. What gives?”
“Sorry. I guess I’m just thinking about stuff.”
Dash glided down for a landing, transitioning from flight to a quick trot with all the perfection that Scootaloo had come to expect. “Here’s home, squirt. I’ll show up bright and early tomorrow… or whenever I wake up, anyway. Deal?”
Scootaloo slid off her back and smiled big. “Deal. Thanks for taking me today, Rainbow.”
“No prob. Guess I’ve got orders to take you next month, too, if you’re game.”
“You bet!”
As Rainbow flew off into the evening sky, Scootaloo took a deep breath. The front door stood in front of her, the same door she’d escaped through this morning. She turned the handle, pushed the door open, and walked inside. She set her saddlebag by the coat rack and looked around. The kitchen looked just as she’d left it, right down to her mother standing in front of the sink doing dishes.
“I’m home, Mom.”
Her mother turned around and smiled. “Hi, Scootie. How was your trip? Did you have a fun time with Rainbow Dash?”
Scootaloo walked up to her side. “Yeah… Could you, um…”
“Hmm?”
“Could you show me how to fly, sometime? I-I get it if you don’t want to or something since you… B-but I wanna learn and I kinda made this promise to do it just for me and—”
Her mother’s hooves gently encircled her. “Of course, Scootie. I’d love to.”
Scootaloo raised her own forelegs. She held them in the air for a moment before properly returning the hug. Her hooves brushed against the featherless remains of her mother’s wings.
