Beaten. Defeated. Overcame. Words of meaningless meaning. They were never supposed to make sense. Not for her anyway. For others maybe. For those who couldn’t excel. Those who tasted other things than the sweetness of victory. Those who weren’t Rainbow Dash.
And yet there she stood in her locker room absorbed by the irrevocability of her situation. She was silently contemplating trying to perceive her surroundings, looking for something to hold on to in this whirling world. She spotted something, a strange swirl of colours on a softly glimmering surface. One by one six colours slowly unravelled themselves from the cacophony making up the entire spectrum of the rainbow, framing an eerily familiar face. Yet she couldn’t shake of the feeling that the rainbow maned pegasus she saw wasn’t really her anymore. Was she the Rainbow Dash they all talked about? The one who could never lose? Was she even real? Maybe the always successful Rainbow Dash was just the dream of the rainbow maned pegasus. Or to the contrary, what if all this is just the nightmare of Rainbow Dash? Or was she the one who dreamt all three of them?

‘Knock-knock.’

Somepony was gently rapping at her locker room door. That soft sound was enough to break Rainbow’s stream of consciousness. She shook her head a few times, giving her time figuring out who was on the other side of the door. Not that it wasn’t obvious.

“Come on in Soar, it’s open” Rainbow said loudly. To her shock the first response she got was a short, cheeky snicker.

“While my heart is soaring, my name is not.” That voice, a familiar deep female voice, caught Rainbow so unprepared that her heart skipped a beat. However, life was never known for its empathy so it left little time for Rainbow to recover from her stupor. The door opened, mercilessly taking away any time for Rainbow to prepare for anything that was about to come.

“Hello Rainbow,” Scootaloo said timidly. “Erm… I’m here… I guess” she gingerly took a few steps towards Rainbow but she soon ran out of bravery and stopped a good ten feet away from her.

“Erm… Scootaloo… What a surprise. Yes, definitely a surprise…” The last words slowly faded leaving nothing but the silent echo in Rainbows head.

Surprise… What a nice, pleasant little word. Harmless, easy in the tongue and easy on the ears. Rainbow felt the gryphon word “Überraschung” fitted much more aptly to their current situation even though they ought to mean the same. Leave it to the dreaded predators of the sky to create a word that describes so profoundly that feeling when a set of razor sharp talons carve into your flesh, after looming as a spot of shadow circling the area for what seemed like years, never striping you completely from the most disingenuous of feelings: Hope.

For Rainbow knew this conversation was coming, she knew it was going to happen one day, yet hope like some sort of servile drug, came to her help. It dulled her fears that this was that day. But for the first time in five years hope lied. That day had arrived. The filly for whom she flew into a burning building without batting an eye, the teenager whom she adopted and raised as her own and the mare who rejected her in favour of an other racer, eventually becoming her downfall, had come to tell a story. A story of how she turned from the most important pony of her life into a stranger she had dinner with on every last Friday of every even month from eight to eleven o’clock. A story of drives, trials, and emotions. A story of life.

As Scoots spoke again Rainbow couldn’t help but shudder a bit as if she was just suddenly woken up in the middle of the night. “Great race, Rainbow. You really gave us a run for her money. I thought we had this in the bag, but I guess we can never count you out.” And a story of desperately delaying the inevitable, apparently

“Well thanks I guess. Turns out I’m not as bad as I look. That’s certainly reassuring.” Rainbow deadpanned. Though she was grateful that they stole another five minutes from Fate (or did it steal those from them?) but she would’ve certainly appreciated if hadn’t involve the mentioning of her defeat.

“Oh come on, you know I didn’t mean like that.” Scoot rolled her eyes “I just looked at the perf…”

“I know” Rainbow was definitely not amused.

The silence that fell on the room was so deep and awkward Rainbow was sure that somewhere nigh. 5 miles below them a little cricket started to play on its tiny violin. The two ponies just stood there looking into each other’s eyes trying to decide what the appropriate words would be. After ten seconds of blatant perplexity a little smile started to appear on Scootaloo’s face, quickly gaining traction and before Rainbow could ask anything she broke out into laughter.

“Have I ever told you that I just love the fact that you spent most of the last two decades being a national hero, meeting dignitaries and whatnot while I was there for a big portion it and the two of us still can’t keep up a polite chatter for even ten seconds.”

“Too true,” Rainbow smiled. She never could be angry with Scoot for too long. “In my defence I’m used to being able finish everything important in less than ten seconds”

“Poor Soarin” Scootaloo flashed an ear to ear grin that gave Rainbow a pretty good look at her perfect set of teeth. Rainbow wondered for a moment if her own face was this punchable when she smiled like that. She realised that if anything, she must have been worse so she dropped the thought, and replied with all her eloquence.

“Hey!” Rainbow really tried to sound offended but even she couldn’t help but smile at that remark.

“Okay! Okay!” Scoot snickered “That was a low blow, I know.”

“No biggie, I really ran into that one.”

“Yeah you kinda did.”

A long uncomfortable silence settled on the room again. Despite how the situation was weighing more and more on them neither of the mares wanted to mention the elephant in the room, though they both felt they would be forced to do it sooner rather than later. It was like a tug of war contest with both mares desperately holding on to their end of the silence, whilst knowing that if they continue the rope will break and both of them will end up on their rump. Eventually it was Rainbow who ran out of patience.

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth: “Look Scoot, I’m tired, I’m sad and no matter what you managed to dig up to blackmail her into letting you do this Harshwhinny’s gonna show up here eventually and kick both of our asses.” She reopened her eyes and looked into Scootaloo’s with a stern glare “So in order to kickstart this thrice dead conversation I’ll be nice enough to ask you: Why?

"Why what?” Scoot scratched her neck awkwardly “You’re gotta be a little bit more specific.”

“No I don’t.” Rainbow slightly shook her head “If I did, you wouldn’t be here.” She said with a no-nonsense face.

“You are not making this any easier for me.”

“You learnt to fly on a set of wings about which three different ascellalogists declared that they are incapable of lifting anypony up. And you’re complaining about hardship.” Rainbow showed no emotions and just glared into Scoot’s eyes, waiting for answers.

“I would give my scrawny wings up to get out of this situation.”

“Really?” Rainbow gave no other visible reaction other than a slightly raised left eyebrow.

“No.” Scoot admitted.

“So you’re just wasting our time yet again. I’d rather you didn’t.”

“You have no idea what it’s like.” Scootaloo shot at Rainbow in a gust of long repressed annoyance. “Growing up never knowing what you wanted, not even after you got cutie mark cuz crusading doesn’t translate into any day job.” Scoot looked away slightly, her eyes unfocused, staring at nothing. “Never even knowing what you truly were cuz apparently you are incapable of doing the one thing that defines your entire race. Then finally after years of hard work you succeed, you manage to get off the ground, just barely but still. And suddenly it just clicks.” Looked back into Rainbow’s eyes with a slight smirk on her face “You want that.”

“What?” Rainbow slightly tilted her head sideways.

“That. That feeling when you manage to achieve a great feat through the concentrated effort of you entire being. You want to feel the dreamless obsession, and then the never fulfilling ecstasy of success.”

“I’m positive I know those ones pretty well” Rainbow said confidently.

“I’m not finished” said Scootaloo, rather irked by the interruption. “So… I knew I was never gonna be an athlete. So I decided I would be a thousand athletes instead.” Rainbow noticed a small smirk appearing in a the corner of Scoot’s mouth. “Generations after generations of flyers training under my wing, winning everything there is to win.”

“That’s my Scoot.”

“So as soon as I hit the age criteria I enrolled in the Firefly flight academy and started to learn how to teach. But you already knew how this went didn’t you? I came, I saw, and I aced the shit out of every single test they had. Summa cum laude, honours, they basically threw everything they had to me trying to acknowledge my awesomeness.”

“I wonder where you got your humility from.” Rainbow remarked with delightful pretentiousness.

“Maybe it’s in my genes” smiled Scootaloo, raising the smug pollution levels in the room into infinity. “Anyhow, my degree got a lot of doors open for me. I could’ve easily got a job as a coach in various youth programs around the country, a few analyst jobs, scouting, and I even had assistant coach offers from some of the smaller name racers in the circuit. Looking back these were really good offers and I could’ve expected nothing more as a rookie, but that cocky little kid I was admittedly wanted more. Call me spoiled but I’m used to being around the top.”

“Yeah I was there when you grew up. You’re definitely spoiled. And I’m not regretting it one bit.” Rainbow said with a single shake of her head.

“I wouldn’t have had it any other way either. But truth be told, I was up for some serious bridge purchasing if it hadn’t been for a certain racing legend who just so happened to be looking for a new coach.”

“Gee I wonder where you got your intel from?” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I'd been discussing this possibility with you and Soar at basically every dinner for the previous month or so before I finally set my mind to going public with it.”

“Well, perhaps I had certain… advantages over any other candidate, and had a little more time to prepare for the interview but even with that I’m still proud of how it went.”

“As you should be. At first I wasn’t even willing give you a chance.” Rainbow admitted this the first time. After she gave Scoot her job she silently promised never to talk about it again, because this topic would have been dicey either way. But she felt the dice have been cast already anyway so she might as well spill the beans. “You were a rookie, had no experience in working in the big league, and ponies would have started spread some harmful rumours that you only got your chance because I was your guardian. It could’ve seriously hurt you in the long run. It was actually Soar’s suggestion, that you could learn a lot from this experience and as long as you don’t get the job it won’t cause too much uproar.”

“But everything changed when you showed up with your little presentation. Sweet Celestia you were thorough. You had everything laid out; you knew what you wanted, why you wanted and how you wanted. You wanted to correct everything I did like I was some struggling newbie looking for guidance.”

“Of course I did! I knew every single training technique in the book, I knew how a pegasus’ body is built up, how it’s connected to magic and how they can use one to manipulate the other. I had so many ideas on how to improve anypony’s preparation. Great, revolutionary ideas and I couldn’t wait to put them into practice. Especially on you. I’d been watching you religiously since I was, like, six? I knew that I’ve seen you fly more than anypony else in the world, so I knew your patterns and habits better than anypony. I was a serious creep. I watched you train, race, getting it on with Soarin…

“What?” Rainbow’s pupils dilated faster than the borders of the universe.

“Just kidding, just kidding, don’t get upset.” Scootaloo cackled, then her gaze suddenly slid to the walls as if was trying to tell something she didn’t know how to say. “Although there were times when you could have been less… loud? I know you were both used to cloudwalls and those insulate voices pretty well but since we were living on the ground back then…“

“Ok, Scoots lets move on before my face literally melts off from embarrassment.” Rainbow stammered, burying said face in her hoof.

“Why? it’s not like I didn’t know what was going on. In fact with Rumb-“

“Scoots. Move. On.” Rainbow demanded, desperately trying to block her own imagination. It was a lost cause.

“Okay, okay, geez. Anyhow working with you was a dream come true. Even though there were some unforeseen… obstacles. Like the fact that I found myself leading a coaching staff of fifteen ponies? Maybe more? All of whom were masters of their craft and probably didn’t like that they were being ordered around by me. Although they were highly professional and never really complained, I felt they had their resentments.“

“Well I was forced to almost double their pay just to convince them not to leave the day I appointed you, so I guess you are right about that.” Rainbow said nonchalantly. Which made Scoot stop for a moment as she re-evaluated her life.

“You couldn’t convince Vapor apparently,” Scootaloo groused through her teeth. Rainbow couldn’t really hear but she decided not to ask about it, since it visibly upset Scoot. But she had a pretty good guess what she had said anyway. Luckily Scoot quickly moved on and started to speak audibly again. “Anyway that certainly explains a thing or two. Like why you never let me even glance into your finances. I remember that it made it really awkward when I had to hire Green Leaf and I didn’t know what I could pay her. By the way, I know I said this before, but to this day I’m flabbergasted that you achieved what you did without a proper nutritionist.”

“I wasn’t going to be the one who explained to Pinkie why I stopped eating her treats.”

“Yeah, now that you say it, it certainly sounds like a dangerous undertaking. But all things considered she took it well. She even had fun coming up with healthy cake recipes.”

“Those taste like crap though. But they still beat seeing Pinkie sad… or upset” Rainbow shuddered.

“Amen Sister Rainbow. Amen to that” Scoot nodded sanctimoniously.

“Scoot we are getting side-tracked again, you should really hurry up.” said Rainbow in a serious tone.

“Yeah, yeah.” Scoot sighed “So fast forward a year, we won everything, you set more records than ever before and we started the next year with everything nice and peachy. When one day you just came up to me and tell me that you are pregnant.” Scoot put on a solid mime show re-enacting the flurry that just hit her at that moment, before settling down and continuing. “Let me tell you I’ve always thought I’m a pretty liberal and compassionate pony. But when a little beggar comes into my country without permission, he can’t speak the language, doesn’t even have a cutie mark, but still ends up taking my job? I couldn’t help but sympathise with those xenophobic jerks.”

“Watch out Scoot, or you may end up in the Winglerjugend.” Rainbow snickered “Although I seem to recall that despite the beef between you two, you always enjoyed spoiling him rotten whenever you were having dinners with us.”

“It’s not my fault,” pouted Scootaloo. “You made him too cute.”

“I’m not gonna argue with that one. Though all this still doesn’t explain why you ended up with Misty.” Rainbow asked, to get the conversation back on track.

“Yes, yes I was just getting to it.” Scoot rolled her eyes annoyed “So after your son put me out of my job I had to start to look for a new one. Even though I was one of the few ponies who always knew you were coming back. An other one was Misty strangely, though I didn’t know that at the time of course. Anyway after all the accolades we collected I thought it was gonna be a breeze to find a great job. Even the timing was great. The entire racing community was buzzed up by the fact that finally somepony else could win something. Coaches were fired and hired by the second and I just had to find the right opportunity. But wherever I looked all I found was closed doors and rejection.”

“I just couldn’t figure it out why. I mean I knew my career was short but even that couldn’t take away the fact that I had more chips than any coach other than Spitfire, and she settled down with her family after you two parted ways. It became increasingly more and more frustrating, the market was getting stuffed Everypony found their coach and started preparations for the next season. I had to bite my tongue and settle for being an assistant coach or analyst just to remain in the circuit, and then one day it happened.”

“I was at an other job interview, I don’t even remember what the job offer was, or who I was supposed to work for. All I remember is that after the interview both me and the other applicant was called into a room to hear the results. And when it was announced that they didn’t choose me I lost it. I demanded an explanation.” Scoot spat these words like insults, unintentionally stomping the ground to stress her point. “I wanted to know what that other dude had over me. What was the reason that I couldn’t get a fucking job.”

“I should have been thrown out there and then.” Scoot said slowly, shaking her head. “I wish I’d been. But no, the headcoach -that smirking bitch- took her sweet ass time to explain it to me.” As Scoot looked into her eyes with that hard unstirring gaze Rainbow couldn’t help but feel that she was at the court waiting for her verdict of her sins.

“It was five years ago but I still remember every word. It still haunts my dreams. They’re still the words I repeat to myself every time I think I’m about to give up.” Rainbow saw a certain fire ablaze in Scoot’s eyes. One that she’d never seen there before, yet it was way too familiar “Why would I have chosen you? What did you do to earn this job? You learnt how to fly at the age of seventeen, you managed to almost kill yourself twice so that biggest legend of the sport adopted you, which landed you a job you’d no right to get. You managed to win a lot of stuff, with the racer who – guess what – always wins everything anyway. And now you have the audacity to come to my office and demand a job like it was you birthright? Newsflash: You are no one. You are nothing but a misbegotten by-product of blatant nepotism. But you know what? I can forgive Rainbow. She’s a legend and done more for this sport than anypony ever will. She can do as she damn well pleases. As for you? I’ve no intention of letting you turn my favourite sport into a mockery any longer.” As Scoots eyes slowly filled with tears, for an elusive moment it seemed as if refractions in that thin layer of gingerly vibrating water just multiplied the passion within. Then the moment vanished as Scootaloo closed her eyes and let the teardrops slowly roll down on her muzzle.

Rainbow let the tears slowly dry on Scootaloo’s face even though every fibre of her being screamed at her for doing so. The guilt of her inadvertently causing this whole mess was suffocating. She even knew this was going to happen and she chose to go against her better judgement. She had a pretty solid guess who that “Smirking Bitch” must have been though this wasn’t the time to reveal that. But after half of minute of quiet sniffling Scoot found the strength to continue.

“I was spurned. I was humiliated. I was crushed. I remember I locked myself up my room and didn’t come out for three days.” Rainbow felt a little embarrassed that she had thought Scoot had just broken up with her coltfriend, explaining was why she was moody back then. “But after three days of alternating between destroying my property and bawling my eyes out I finally had a plan. Maybe not a plan quite yet, but at least I knew what I wanted to do. I swore revenge. I wanted to show everyopony that I’m the greatest coach that ever lived. And I knew what I needed, I needed a young promising flyer whom I can turn into a champion.”

“Then why did you move to Manehatten? If you wanted to find promising new pegasus talent Cloudsdale is the place to look.”

“Yes,” Scoot nodded, “but Cloudsdale was completely mapped out in terms of talent. I didn’t want anypony to have the chance to attribute his or her success to anyone but me. Not in terms of training or scouting or anything. Also every parent in cloudsdale doubles as a flight coach. Everypony there thinks that they know better because they figure that teaching flight is nothing more than showing your foal how to flap their wings.” Rainbow cringed a little bit. Though she knew Scoot didn’t meant it, it still struck way too close to home. “That being said these were not the things I wanted get away from the most. It was you.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because let’s face it: You own Cloudsdale. You were born there, maybe you moved away later but then came back and now ponies would erect shrines to every single one of your hoofprints. It hadn’t mattered because I’d adored you just as much as the next pony there, and I still do today, but then? I couldn’t have come out of your shadow, no matter what I did. I needed a fresh start, a city with a good pegasus population that was relatively under the radar. That’s how Manehatten came into the picture.”

“Okay that’s understandable. But why Misty? She wasn’t that young, she didn’t show that much promise, her results at least certainly didn’t. So why did you choose her?”

Scootaloo’s cheek turned red in heartbeat. She let out a weak, nervous chuckle and looking like a little filly caught red hoofed in a biscuits jar. “Erm… Because she was willing to pay in advance?”

“What?”

“You know how it goes.” Scoot face turned redder with every word “I was upset, I was in manehatten… I wanted to have little fun… I met a few cute colts… and fillies… and my savings kinda… sort of… disappeared. Combine that with the fact that I didn’t have a job yet, and you get a stupid filly who was almost homeless by the end of her second month in town. The only income I had was from some illegal lessons I gave, but I could only offer my services under a fake alter ego because I didn’t want to get any job based on my surname.”

“But we wrote each other every week, you said in your letters that you had a great time! You told us you got a job and you are doing fine.”

Scoot rolled her eyes as if she was explaining this for at least the hundredth time. “Yes because I was obviously going to tell you that: ‘I’m so toasted right now that I can’t even fathom how I can write in complete sentences.‘ Or that: ‘I haven’t eaten anything in the last three days besides that stale bread I found in a garbage can. But don’t worry I scheduled a lesson for tomorrow so if the dude actually shows and doesn’t turn around as soon as he sees where I live, I might be able to afford canned oats for the rest of the week. Thank Celestia it’s Friday.‘ Come on you would have rushed here and scooped me up before I could say so much as ‘strong independent mare.‘ And then I would be back at the starting line. Or even worse because you would have never let me go off my own again after you realise how spectacularly I failed the first time. No, I had one way to go and that was forward.”

“And that was when Misty showed up at your doorstep.” sighed Rainbow.

“Hey you know this story already. Then I don’t have to continue.” joked Scoot with an embarrassed smile on her face.

“Scoot!”

“Alright, alright. Despite my big mouth about the only way being forward, I was seriously on my last leg. I haven’t eaten for a while and the rent was due the next day. I didn’t have enough money to send a letter to Cloudsdale, let alone a train ticket, and there was no way in Tartarus I could have made the journey home, even when I’m not severely malnourished. I had nothing to sell because of a little… accident in the casino a few weeks prior. I couldn’t tell anypony because all my ‘friends‘ vanished as soon as my money was gone. If I had lost my place and my bathroom there would have been no way I was ever gonna be able to give another lesson looking like a beggar. There was no way in hell that a near crippled Pegasus could find any other job with no experience whatsoever in that economy. So I really didn’t have any choice. I remember I was laying on my bed, looking at the flickering light of the apartment and trying to cry myself to sleep, but my stomach rumbled way to loudly for that. And that was when Misty showed up at my doorstep.”

“I couldn’t believe my ears, she was willing to pay six months in advance if she got to be my only student. We would train twice a day seven times a week. It was perfect. All my problems; just solved in an instance. I mean even if she hadn’t turned out as great as she had, six months would be enough to prepare her for a few races. I could have made some name for myself and then be gone from there. Somewhere deep down below I knew she only made this offer because she had somehow figured out who I was, but she never mentioned it, and at that point I was willing to make that compromise with my own ego.”

“And Misty turned out better than I could ever imagine. She didn’t have your level of talent, but let’s be real here nopony ever will. However she made up for what she lacked with her work ethic. You were no slouch either but what the girl does is straight out nuts. Every day she wanted to do more, every second she was looking for ways to improve. She completely and utterly committed herself to the idea of her getting better. She could never be good enough, be fast enough or do enough. One day she begs me to continue the training - it was around midnight mind you – and I jokingly told her that the only way we could train more was if she found a method to rest faster. The next day she enrolled in a yoga class.”

“Sweet Celestia. That filly sounds seriously mental” Rainbow shook her head in disbelief.

“Aren’t we all Rainbow? Aren’t we all?”

“I guess we are.” Rainbow agreed with a sour, reluctant smile on her face. “There is still one thing that is not clear to me.”

“I knew there would be,” Sighed Scoot, knowing the biggest question was still yet to come.

“When I came back from retirement I went to you personally and asked you to be my head coach. I know that you loved us working together just as much as I did. You loved winning and, all things considered, I still would have been your best bet for that. Plus I was getting to an age where they couldn’t just scoff at your contribution in whatever we get to achieve. Not to mention that from what you said about her I’d guess Misty would’ve loved to work with you even at a later part of her career. So why did you rejected me?” Rainbow asked in calm and collected manner.

“Oh yes, you did give me a few sleepless nights with that offer. To this day I don’t know if I made the right choice. The reason I ultimately rejected you was because I felt like you wouldn’t have wanted that.”

“Excuse me?” Rainbow asked sharply “I just went to your doorstep and made it pretty clear what I wanted: You as my head coach.”

“Yes, yes I know it sounds crazy but, think about it. You are the Element of Loyalty - how would you have liked if I chose you instead of the mare I was working with for two years and our efforts just started to bare fruit? I couldn’t defile everything you taught me to believe in such a way. I had to be more loyal to my student”

Rainbow didn’t believe this for a second. No, she didn’t think Scoot was lying, she knew that Scoot believed in every word she said. However, that didn’t make it the truth. Scoot could have just as easily justified that she wanted to be loyal to her first student whom she left before. No, Scoot was not being loyal to her student, she was being loyal to her vendetta. Loyal to the idea that she could show that she was the best. And Rainbow couldn’t have been any prouder. After all, ages pass and ponies come and go, but ideas; ideas are immortal as long as anypony stands by them. And that is what loyalty truly means.

For a moment Rainbow could feel the pride fill her heart washing away any doubt or fear. She just stood there happily for the sake of happiness. Finally, it was beyond any doubt that Scootaloo was her… Then her soul froze. She felt that, the thought she never finished waking a long slumbering beast in her heart. One that even if he seemed less threatening than the other they just dealt with was just as significant. One that now that he’s awoken could not be put to rest again unsated.

The battle in Rainbow’s core must have been mirrored on her face because Scootaloo asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“There is another ‘Why?‘ Another answer I need to know.” Rainbow fought a little battle for every word she uttered. “When Soarin and I were planning our marriage , why did you deliberately pushed the date after your eighteenth birthday?”

“What?” asked Scootaloo a bit fazed “I’ve always figured that one is quite obvious. I thought that’s why you never bothered to ask.” Despite her nonchalant tone, Rainbow could have sworn she heard the slightest traces of fear.

“Well your goal surely was obvious.” Rainbow agreed “Your reason however, that I couldn’t ever understand. You always seemed to like Soarin. If you didn’t I would have never let him close to me… to us. It hurt him, a lot you know. That proud buffoon never said anything but I knew. And honestly I couldn’t blame him. He did do everything he could for you. I for one think he’d done a great job, and yet you forcefully shut him out.”

“Yes, he’s great. And I’m so happy for him… for the both of you. I couldn’t have asked for a better stepfather, and I was so glad when he finally got the child I couldn’t ever be.” As Scoot lowered her head down she looked so vulnerable. Rainbow suddenly regretted her curiosity. She thought the other question would be harder for her but now she realised that they barely scraped the surface of her heart compared to the avalanche they were about to set off.

“But when it came to changing my name again, I just… couldn’t… It didn’t feel fair.” Scoot said softly, fighting back her emotions, her eyes fixated on the floor.

“How so?” asked Rainbow as gently as she could.

“Soarin was a great guardian. He really was, even if we never officiated it. But he wasn’t the one who took that scared little filly under her wings. He wasn’t the one who played with me, laughed with me and neither was he the one who stormed my burning home to save me without any hesitation. He wasn’t the one to bury my parents, two ponies he barely knew, and take me into his home no matter the cost”

Scootaloo stopped, the loss and self-reproach still weighing heavily on her back even after all these years.

“He wasn’t the one who spent countless hours teaching me how to fly. He wasn’t the one who spent all her afternoons teaching me the basic set of moves over and over. He wasn’t the one who sat there for days on end watching me crawl my way through the pain and suffering as the perpetual beacon of hope, never giving up on me. And when I did cave in to desperation, he wasn’t the one who kept his head, when it was all about him, I was losing mine, and blaming it on him.”

Scootalo stopped again with pure unadulterated disgust on her face. The memory of that foal was not an easy one to bear.

“And when it finally became indubitable that I was incapable of learning how to fly the way every Pegasus ever had, he wasn’t the one who relentlessly looked for a way to fix me. He wasn’t the one to swallow his enormous pride as a wonderbolt and ask the help of a “horned-egghead” for the off chance that it might help me if I learn more about the theory of Pegasus magic. He wasn’t the one who watched over my shoulder as I did homework he hadn’t got the slightest clue about. And when I was finally off the ground his wasn’t the shoulder I bawled my eyes out on.”

Scootaloo stopped for third time, lifting her head and with a face full of hope and resolve she said.

“Soarin was my guardian. You are my mother.”

A lifetime worth of memories withered away in that moment. Everything she had ever been was striped from her, giving way to a feeling, one that she always had, yet now it just erupted in her heart eclipsing anything she ever felt. It shone with the power of a thousand suns emanating joy, pride and everything that was good in the world. It felt like as if she completely immaterialised and worrilessly levitated in the saturated nothingness of celestial elation.

It felt just as sweet yet completely different than winning a race.

Except this time she didn’t win anything.

Instead she stood in a smelly locker room, faced with her firstborn child as she became a sweaty, smelly, crying heap of mess who could barely even utter the words: “You never called me that before.”

“I never thought you wanted me to.”

“I still don’t, I will tear your tail off if you do it again.” Rainbow said as she hopelessly tried to wipe her tears away.

“You would have to catch me old sport.” Scoot teased her mercilessly.

“Come here my little cripple” Rainbow opened up her forelegs.

The two ponies closed the distance between them and hugged each other tightly, silently letting their tears fall into the other’s manes, oblivious to the world.

After what Rainbow thought was way too little time, Scoot broke the hug and with a strangely nefarious expression on her face she whispered to Rainbow.

“You know, as much as I’d hate to put an end to this, there is a young mare on the other side of the door who would be dying to meet you…”

“Who are you talking…”

“…if she wasn’t, you know, a robot who’s like, way above mortal imperfections like dying.”

Author's Note

No, ascellalogist is not a real word. Stop googling it. I made it up with the latin version of wing because I found the word wingologist wanting. Fun fact it could also mean armpitologist which i found absolutely delightful.

"Vapor" is indeed refers to Vapor Trail however her story probably not gonna be explained anywhere in the story because I just couldn't find the right place to do it. Well that's a lie. This is the right place.
So Vapor was in Rainbow's coaching staff and as a long time Wonderbolt colleague and the second in command of the staff everypony expected her to became the successor of Spitfire as Rainbow's coach. Even Rainbow. But that made Vapor cocky and she didn't properly prepared for the interview, and Rainbow was looking to find something new and exciting anyway, so all of these factors combined with fact that Scoot was really-really good led to the appointment of Scoots.
And yes Ms "Smirking Bitch" is also her.

The orginal version of the first sentence was: Beaten. Defeated. Overcame. Words of meaningless meaning never meant to mean more for her than being means to be mean with those closer to the mean.
While it was fun to write and had some merits Lys complained that it kinda broke the atmosphere. Anyway I'm quite proud of it because according to the dictionary I used every possible meaning of the word mean.