Scootaloo stood shocked, hardly hearing her name called. She moved numbly up the ramp, never taking her eyes off her friend and the pony he sacrificed himself to help. After a brief moment, she shook her head, recovered her thoughts, and looked to the judges. Thoughts raced through her head as she watched them all nod.
Oh, Celestia. What do I do? I can’t let everyone I know down... but, I’ll never see Orion again... I suppose... I hope he knew that risk when he did that. I’m sure he’s thinking the same right now.
She glanced at Orion. He wasn’t looking at her. She took off, heartbroken. Instinct kicked in as the familiar rush of wind cooled her and blew her thoughts away. She stopped at the right altitude and then launched again, sensing and seeing every cloud, formulating a game plan on the fly. In a matter of a couple dozen seconds, the sky was clear. She did a quick loop in mid-flight, aiming at the first hoop. With a powerful beat of her wings, she propelled forward through the first ring, and then the second, and then the third, expertly turning and drifting with each one. She curved in towards the second last ring, near the bottom of the field. As she descended, she caught sight of Orion and Aurora, who were almost at the west gate now. Orion turned his head, and smiled weakly.
Her focus shattered for a brief moment before a voice in the back of her mind reminded her of where she was, and she cleared the final ring, her hind hooves missing it by inches. Then, she fell, her body running on autopilot as she snapped her wings open and flew to the end of the test.
With a blink, Scootaloo landed. She whirled around to look at the judges who gave her one emotionless look before turning back to the crowd of test subjects.
"Comet Blitz!"
Scootaloo blinked. Had she passed? Was it really over? She ran to the ends of the cloud, hoping that Orion and Aurora hadn't gone through the west gate already.
But they were gone.
A small sob welled up in Scootaloo's throat. Her closest friend was gone. Banished to live the rest of his live in exile with the rest of the failures.
"Sunny Skies!"
She looked up to see Sunny Skies completing her flight test. She landed next to Scootaloo and breathed out a deep, relieved sigh.
"Dang, I thought I was going to miss one of the clouds." Sunny lightly punched Scootaloo's shoulder. "Good job. Looked like you were going to hit one of the rings, but nice job recovering. Thought you were a goner when you were looking back at the failures."
A pang coursed through Scootaloo's chest, and her jaw wobbled for a moment. "Y-yeah... glad I made it."
"Same." Sunny wiped a bead of sweat off of her brow. "Hey, Cloud Swirl made it! Heard she's throwing a bit of a party for passing. Good thing she did, right? It'd be super awkward if her parents bought all of that stuff just to find out that, 'whoops, your daughter went into exile. You can't return anything, especially if it's because your daughter failed.' You gonna be there?"
"I guess," Scootaloo muttered, following Sunny over to where the rest of the successful pegasi were congregating.
"Asked my mom and dad if I could have one, and they said that I shouldn't get a party for something I should be able to do blindfolded. I guess they're right." Sunny nodded and waved to a few other ponies. "Looks like everypony else has made it so far."
Tears welled up in Scootaloo's eyes, and she took in a deep, shaky breath. "Yeah... that's good."
Sunny gave her a quizzical look before looking back at the test area. A look of comprehension crossed her face, and she nodded. "Yeah. Right. You and Orion were kind of close, weren't you?"
"He was my best friends since moving here. Orion was... we were..." Scootaloo took another deep, shaky breath, and couldn't stop the tears from falling. "I'd never felt that way about anypony before."
Sunny gave Scootaloo a sympathetic look. "Yeah, but there are plenty of other birds in the air, right? I mean, look..." Sunny waved her wing toward the rest of the successful students. "All kinds of ponies here that aren't failures. Typhoon is kind of cute. Silver Wing uh... suddenly became single about this time last year, and he's on the prowl. Night Breeze might be good enough for the Wonderbolts. So yeah, lots of options. And you can make other friends." She wrapped a wing around Scootaloo's shoulders with a smile. "Heck, I'll be your friend. We didn't talk a lot in Flight School, but you seem like a pretty cool pony, Scootaloo."
"Thanks. You too," Scootaloo muttered. She took a deep breath and slid out from under Sunny's wing. "So listen, I gotta..." She jerked her head toward the street. "You know. Been a long day. I want to take a nap."
"Totally get it. I kind of want one myself after everything. The adrenaline is wearing off." Sunny punched Scootaloo in the shoulder again. "Glad to see you made it. We're gonna do big things. Praise the Flock."
"Praise the Flock."
With that, Scootaloo took to the air, pumping her wings and flying higher and higher until the testing ground was barely visible. If she had a say, she'd never go near it again.
They were both supposed to succeed. They would hit up a local ice cream parlor to celebrate. Scootaloo would order mint chocolate chip with sprinkles like she always did. Maybe she'd have been able to get Orion to order two scoops of vanilla ice cream this time. It was a celebration. They'd done it. Maybe after that, they'd go back to Rainbow Dash's house and play games until late in the night, just like they'd done dozens of times before.
Maybe she'd finally be able to profess her feelings.
But that was gone now. Orion was banished to wherever they sent the test flight failures. All she had left was Rainbow Dash. She'd be so proud of her.
"I knew you had it in ya, squirt! Bet it was really easy for you! Probably finished the course in ten seconds flat. I'm really proud of you, you know that? Someday you might even be almost as good as me."
A small smile crossed Scootaloo's face for the first time since the start of the tests. Yeah, Rainbow Dash would be proud of her. They'd spend some time flying together, just happy as sisters. And Sunny was right. With Rainbow Dash as her mentor, Scootaloo would do amazing things for the Flock.
Scootaloo glided down until she landed on the street. After everything that had happened, maybe she should walk for just a bit. The cooling air felt pleasant on her body, her pegasus fur helping to protect from the worst of it. Down the street, ponies were milling around outside of their houses, gossiping about the latest news around the city. Probably mostly about the flight tests. It was always the main topic of discussion whenever they happened.
Suddenly, shouting filled the street, and everypony turned in its direction. Curious, Scootaloo followed the noise until she reached a home with two ponies standing at the doorway, with a third pony in a suit blankly standing in front of them. The stallion was the one shouting while the mare had collapsed on the ground, sobbing.
"--you mean my son failed his flight test?! We practiced it a hundred times! He never made a single mistake!"
"Regardless of practice, he did not open his wings in time and hit the ground. He has been taken for exile."
"No, no, this has to be some kind of mistake," the stallion growled. "Can I talk to somepony about this? Can I at least see my son and find out what happened?!"
"I have told you what happened. He did not open his wings in time and hit the ground. As for seeing him again, he has already been sent off. There's nopony to talk to, and even if there was, nothing would change."
"There has to be somepony," the stallion said, desperation creeping up on his face. "If there's something we can do... talk to him... maybe somepony to... pay. I have the bits. Just tell me who to talk to. I can write a check with any amount on it. Maybe he can take his flight test again. One simple mistake doesn't make him a failure!"
"It does," the second stallion said. "The Flock has no use for ponies that crumble under pressure. There is no payment option. There is no second flight test. There is nopony to talk to. The failure has already been exiled."
The mare glared at the stallion through tear-filled eyes. "His name was Bright Summer, and he's not just some failure!"
"He is. I understand that breeding a failure is a shame. Have another and see if it will benefit the Flock." The second stallion tilted his head. "Good day."
With that, the second stallion walked onto the street, leaving the mare sobbing and the other stallion with a baffled look on his face, his mouth flopping up and down as though he wanted to say something else, but didn't have the words.
Scootaloo stood there, watching the stallion go down the street. He spotted Scootaloo and made eye contact with her. He stopped, and, after a moment, a faint smile crossed his face, and he nodded at Scootaloo.
"Well done. Praise the Flock."
Scootaloo's gaze flicked over to Bright Summer's parents. "Yeah... thanks."
The stallion's eyes narrowed, and he took a menacing step toward her. "Is something the matter? You're not sympathetic to the failures, are you?"
Scootaloo flinched back for a second, then forced a half smile on her face. "No, sir, praise the Flock. Sorry. Just tired. I'm ready for a nap. Who cares about a bunch of failures?"
"Hm. Very well. Have a good night."
Once the stallion left, Scootaloo turned her attention back to Bright Summer's parents. His mother was still sobbing, and his father sat next to her, his wing around her shoulder.
"I-it c-can't be too bad, right?" his mother moaned. "Th-there are a lot of ponies wherever he's going. He'll make friends, and h-he'll know that we'll never forget him and will always love him, no matter what h-happened."
"Of course he'll know that," Bright's father said. "He was always strong. He'll be okay." He let out a slight chuckle and motioned to the sky. "We used to say that rainbows had gold at the end. Maybe the real end of the rainbow is where he is. Every time we see one, we can think of him and imagine how well he's doing."
Scootaloo had heard enough. She turned around and took to the air once more. She couldn't watch any more. Right now, all she wanted was the nap she kept lying about. Maybe Rainbow Dash would already be home by the time she got there. She'd be so proud.
After a short flight, Scootaloo landed in front of the door to Rainbow Dash's house. It was unlocked as always, so Scootaloo opened the door and trudged inside. None of the light clouds had been activated, so the room sat in darkness now that the sun had gone down. Now that she was actually home, the exhaustion overtook her, and she managed to drag herself up to her room where her soft, comfortable cloud bed lay waiting for her.
Just as she was about to lay down, something caught her eye. On her desk stood a photo of Orion and herself. She was smiling at the camera, but Orion was sticking his tongue out at her and flashing two feathers behind her head. Scootaloo let out a half laugh/half sob. He never could take a normal picture.
She took it off of her desk and rolled onto her bed. holding the picture close to her chest. Now that she was alone, truly alone, she finally broke down and cried herself to sleep.
* * * *
She awoke some time later to the sound of the front door opening and closing. It was still night, so she hadn't slept until morning like she'd hoped. Rainbow Dash must have come home. Scootaloo walked out of her room and flew down the steps to see Rainbow Dash turning on the light cloud. She couldn't miss the stress and exhaustion painted on every inch of her idol. It had doubtlessly been a long day for her as well.
Rainbow looked up as Scootaloo landed next to her, and Scootaloo noticed the barest amount of stress washing off of Rainbow.
"Hey, squirt," Rainbow muttered before walking to the kitchen. "Glad to see you. Heard you did well." She motioned to Scootaloo and let out an amused chuckle. "I mean, you're here, and you had me as a teacher, so of course you did."
"Yeah, it was no sweat. A foal could do it."
"Definitely." Rainbow Dash opened up the fridge and pulled a bottle cider out, popping the top off and taking a long drink before turning back to Scootaloo. "Heard what's his face that you always hung around didn't make it. Too bad." She shrugged. "Eh, we all know somepony. There were one or two in my flight class that didn't make it. There was one filly I was good friends with during Flight Camp, Star something or other, that I was sure was going to make it, but she missed a cloud." She took another drink. "Ah well. The Flock doesn't need failures like that. Like you said: a foal could do the test."
"Uh-huh."
Rainbow drained the bottle, then threw it in the trash and grabbed another. "We should celebrate, or something. Ice cream, maybe. You like mint chocolate chip, right?"
"Yeah."
Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, let's do that. Really happy to see you passed. You had the best teacher in Cloudsdale, so how could you not? I'm excited to see what you do next."
"M-maybe I..." Scootaloo's voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. "Maybe I could help you in your job?"
Rainbow's smirk evaporated, and her ear flicked. She looked down to the bottle in her wing before taking another drink. "Sure. Maybe. Someday. Gotta work really hard to get there. Sacrifice a lot. A lot a lot. Worth it to help the Flock, though." Rainbow looked back to Scootaloo and frowned, tilting her head. "'S that?"
Scootaloo looked down and saw that she'd unknowingly taken the picture of her and Orion down with her. "Oh, uh, just a picture."
"Of you and that failure?" Scootaloo nodded. "Hm. Not sure I'd keep that, squirt." Rainbow Dash took the picture from Scootaloo's hooves and tossed it into the trash before throwing her second empty bottle after it. Scootaloo flinched when she heard the glass of the picture frame break. "Wouldn't look very good for either of us if you kept a picture of a failure hanging around the house of somepony with my position in the Factory." After pulling out a third bottle, Rainbow smiled at Scootaloo and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Great job. Knew you could do it. Praise the Flock, and all that. Just keep following me, and you're gonna do great stuff."
"I know," Scootaloo whispered. "Got a great teacher."
"The best ever. I made you work hard, and you passed with, uh, flying colors. In any case..." Rainbow nodded and started walking out of the kitchen. "Good job. We'll go for ice cream tomorrow if I'm not held up at work."
"Sounds good."
"Cool. Let me know if you need anything. Maybe get some sleep. You've had a long day."
With that, Rainbow walked up the stairs, leaving Scootaloo staring at the trash can.
A small bell chimed above the door as Scootaloo pushed her way into Sugarcube Corner. She took a deep breath, and for the first time in a few days, she managed a small smile. The feeling of the warm bakery combined with the pleasing smell of the rows of baked good behind the glass counter caused some of the tension that had been a constant companion since the flight test fade away.
"Scootaloo! Hey, Scoots!"
Scootaloo's smile widened a bit more when she turned to the source of the voice and saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sitting at a corner booth waving at her. Sweetie Belle had a tall vanilla milkshake in front of her, while Apple Bloom had chosen a blueberry scone and a cup of coffee. Black, if Scootaloo remembered right.
"Hey, girls," Scootaloo replied, sliding into the booth next to Apple Bloom. "Sorry I'm a little late, but I got a bit of a slow start today, and it's been throwing everything off."
"Aw, not worries, Scoots," Apple Bloom said with a wave of her hoof. "We haven't been here that long anyway. We just got our stuff, so this is actually pretty good timing."
"Yeah, I haven't even finished my whipped cream yet!" Sweetie Belle scooped a bit of whipped cream off of the top of her milkshake with her straw and poked some on Scootaloo's muzzle. "See? Just got it."
Scootaloo giggled and wiped the whipped cream away with the back of her hoof. "I'm glad you haven't been waiting too long. I know you hate drinking cold coffee, Apple Bloom, though you I could never figure out why you take it black."
"Ah don't." Apple Bloom nudged the coffee cup. "Started drinkin' it with two sugars now."
Scootaloo frowned and tilted her head. "Huh. That's weird. When did you start doing that?"
"'Bout six months ago," Apple Bloom replied. "Gave it a shot and liked it well enough that Ah just kept on goin' with it."
"Dang, it has been a long time," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. "Last time we got together, you swore you'd never drink anything but black coffee. Now here you are with two sugars! What's next? Is Sweetie Belle going to start eating plain oatmeal for breakfast?"
"Now that one won't ever happen," Sweetie Belle said before popping the cherry on top of the mound of whipped cream into her mouth. "I know that ponies change, but that's too ridiculous."
"Well, we'll just have to get together more frequently than once every six months, then," Scootaloo said with a nod. "Otherwise, who knows what you two will be like?"
"Who knows?" Sweetie Belle said with a shrug. "But who cares about that right now? We're here to celebrate you! You passed your flight test!"
"And Ah bet ya worked up an appetite flyin' all the way here from Cloudsdale," Apple Bloom chimed in. "Go on, get somethin' ta eat. Our treat."
Scootaloo flinched back and flattened her ears. "Oh, no, I couldn't ask you two to do that for me. I'm not all that hungry and--"
"Hogwash. Stop tryin' ta be polite, and eat up." Apple Bloom turned to the counter and waved. "Hey! Pinkie! Scoots here is real hungry!"
Pinkie Pie's ears instantly perked up, and she bounced out from behind the counter with her usual huge smile. The years had washed off of her, and she seemed like the Pinkie Pie Scootaloo had always known growing up in Ponyville. Always there with a smile and the offer of some kind of baked good.
"Hey, Scootaloo!" Pinkie said as she stopped right in front of their table. "Been a while. Congrats on passing your flight test!"
"Thanks, Pinkie," Scootaloo replied with a small smile. "It was nothing."
'Aw, don't sell yourself short, Scootaloo!" Pinkie Pie replied. "I'll bet you did a super amazing job and the judges were like 'wow! That was the best flight test we've ever seen! Make this awesome filly a manager at the weather factory at once!'"
Scootaloo snorted and shook her head. "No, I landed and they instantly called the next pony."
"Well, it's probably what they were thinking, but they just didn't want to make the other ponies who hadn't taken the test yet feel bad," Pinkie Pie said.
"Well maybe, but they're not tripping over themselves to make me the head of the CWC," Scootaloo said. "Rainbow's probably going to pull some strings to get me some entry level position in a few weeks here. You know, just something to get my own bits while I think of what I want to do with my life."
"In the meantime, this filly here is hungry," Apple Bloom said, motioning to Scootaloo. "Our treat."
"Oh, no, seriously, girls, I'm not that hungry," Scootaloo insisted.
Sweetie Belle sighed and shook her head before throwing her foreleg around Scootaloo's shoulders. "Scoots, you don't have to lie to us. We're your friends, and friends make sure that their friends are okay, and right now, you're in the best confectionary in all of Equestria with the offer to get whatever you want. If the issue is that you don't know what you want and are just trying to be polite, we'll just have to order you one of everything and see what you like best."
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow and looked at Apple Bloom, who gave her a mock serious nod. A glance over at Pinkie had the same result. After a few moments, she groaned and facehooved. "You girls are the worst. How could you threaten me like that? Me? Your friend?"
"Looks like she can't decide," Apple Bloom said with with a sad shake of her head. "Welp, guess that makes it pretty easy for us. Pinkie--"
"Alright, alright, fine. One hot chocolate and a lightly toasted chocolate chip croissant."
"Coming right up! We've got a batch of those going right now, so I'll get that to you in a few minutes," Pinkie said before bouncing back to the front counter.
"See? Was that so hard?" Sweetie Belle said before pulling her milkshake back over to her and licking up some of the whipped cream that had started to melt. "You need to loosen up a bit. You look like you did when you'd fail one of Miss Cheerilee's tests. Glum for the rest of the day."
"Yeah, what's got ya down, Scoots?" Apple Bloom asked. "Everythin' alright?"
"Orion didn't make it," Scootaloo said, her voice barely above a whisper.
The jovial mood of the other two instantly evaporated. Apple Bloom froze as she reached for her coffee, and Sweetie Belle gasped and put her hooves up to her mouth, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry," Sweetie Belle squeaked. "We didn't mean to make you--"
"It's fine," Scootaloo muttered with a wave of her hoof. "I should have told you two earlier." She sighed and thunked her head down on the table. "I guess... I guess I just thought that if I wrote and told you two about it, it'd become real. I'd have to face that it wasn't some nightmare that I can wake up from. I think I always hoped that I'd walk out of my house one day and he'd be there, smiling that confident smile at me that I liked. He'd been given a second chance to take his test, or they'd accept that he just wanted to help somepony. That's what it all boiled down to. The first filly broke her wing trying some of the maneuvers, and he wanted to help her instead of taking the test, so they just failed him instantly and... that was it. By the time I'd finished my test, he was gone."
"Wow," Apple Bloom muttered. "Ah'm real sorry, Scoots. We're sorry we made fun of you a bit. If there's anything you need..."
"Thanks." Scootaloo squeezed her eyes shut to prevent the tears that had formed from spilling out. "I always thought we'd be together forever. Even if we didn't become each others' special somepony, I thought we'd at least always be friends. Nothing against you girls, but you're not pegasi. Things are a lot different up in Cloudsdale, and he just... got it. He got me."
"Yeah, I know how that goes," Sweetie Belle said, idly stirring her milkshake with her straw. "I'm glad that the pony tribes are united and all that, but there's still stuff about being a unicorn that the two of you couldn't understand. I could talk to you about the struggles with getting your magic in late and you'd generally understand, but you two could never get it."
"Same here with earth pony magic." A slight frowns creased Apple Bloom's face. "Though Ah still haven't ever figured out why they do the whole flight test and banishment thing. Ah mean, Sweetie Belle's magic came in a little late, but there wasn't some big test that she had to do in Canterlot where they would have banished her to, Ah dunno, some farm where Old Unicornia used to be, or somethin' like that."
"Well, a lot is at stake with pegasi," Scootaloo replied. "If we're not at the top of our game, the weather would go completely out of control, and you wouldn't be able to farm anything if we just left everything the way it was, or... I dunno, you wouldn't be able to farm as much stuff. Equestria would collapse without us, so we have to be perfect. If it isn't just the strongest and best pegasi that help Equestria, we all fail." Scootaloo quietly sighed and shook her head. "Or... I dunno, that's always how it's been explained to me. Something like that."
"But without earth ponies, there's no food to grow period," Apple Bloom said. "That's the whole point of the Hearth's Warming play, remember? We're all our best if we work together with the other two, so it ain't like pegasi are the most important tribe."
"I know, and that's not... I mean... that's not quite what it mean. It's..." Scootaloo groaned and leaned back in her seat, staring up at the ceiling. "If there's a bad harvest, that sucks, but it's not the end of Equestria. Imagine if we had a pony who failed her flight test... I dunno, working in the Cyclone Room at the weather factory. Ponies could get really hurt. And... You know..."
"Sooo maybe just don't give that pony a job in the Cyclone Room," Sweetie Belle said. "Not every pegasus works for the CWC."
"Right, it's just..." Scootaloo growled and straightened up. "It's hard to explain. Maybe Rainbow Dash could do a better job of it than me. She's worked at the CWC for a while now, and she's the most awesome pegasus there is. She could explain better."
"Ah dunno," Apple Bloom said with an uncertain look on her face. "Ah've had a few pegasi try ta explain it ta me, but it ain't ever really made much sense. Some ponies are better at stuff than others, and some just don't pick up on stuff so fast."
"Like me and my magic," Sweetie Belle chimed in.
"Right. Doesn't make Sweetie Belle a failure, and she don't need ta be banished because of it. Everypony is different."
"Yeah. It's especially weird that they banished Orion because he was trying to help somepony," Sweetie Belle said. "You'd think they'd be really impressed that he wanted to take care of her. Ponies like that benefit any society."
"Yeah, but she failed her flight test, so..." Scootaloo groaned and waved her hoof. "Again, Rainbow Dash could probably explain it better."
"If you say so," Apple Bloom said, exchanging a glance with Sweetie Belle. "Banishing ponies is just weird. How come nopony has ever tried ta come back from where they send them? And where do they send them anyway?"
Scootaloo shrugged. "Some Old Pegasopolis territory, I think. I dunno. Nothing I could find on a map. Nopony really thinks about it up there. 'Don't fail the Flock or you'll get banished' is essentially something we take with our foal food. I've never really thought about it too much. Nopony does. There's a story we hear that a reporter tried to find out exactly where they get sent once, but since she was betraying the Flock by trying to help flood our society with failures by bringing them back from banishment, she got banished, too."
"Is that a true story?" Apple Bloom said with a raised eyebrow.
Scootaloo shrugged. "Dunno. It's one that every pegasus has heard a hundred thousand times at least; enough that I don't really bother thinking about it all that much."
"And here we are! One hot chocolate and one chocolate chip croissant right out of the oven!"
Scootaloo flinched back at the sudden appearance of Pinkie Pie, but before she could react, Pinkie had placed her order on the table.
"Oh, uh, thanks, Pinkie. It looks great."
Pinkie beamed. "Yeah, I hope you like it. We're trying out something new with the croissants, so let me know if you like them."
"Will do, Pinkie," Scootaloo said, picking it up. "It looks delicious."
"Cool! If you like it, I'll give you a couple more to take up to Rainbow Dash." At that, Pinkie seemed to deflate a little, and her wide smile fell slightly. "And tell her to not be such a stranger. We'd be happy to see her again. Really happy."
"Oh, um..." Scootaloo averted her gaze to the table. "Yeah. Will do."
The group was silent for a few moments as Pinkie walked back to the counter. Apple Bloom broke the silence first. "Yeah, Applejack was tellin' me ta tell you that, too."
"Same with Rarity," Sweetie Belle chimed in. "And I know the rest of them feel the same. My sister won't say what exactly made them fall out, but since then, the other five have started growing close again these last few years. Rarity said that they'd love to see Rainbow Dash again to try to mend things."
"Yeah, Rainbow Dash doesn't really talk about that kind of stuff to me," Scootaloo said. "I don't know what happened either, and I'm sure that she'd like things to go back to the way they were, but she's... I dunno, really busy, I guess. She has a lot of responsibility at the CWC, and a lot of days are her getting up, going to work, coming home from work, then going right to bed."
"She could at least write every once in a while," Apple Bloom grumbled.
Scootaloo flinched at that. "Y-yeah. I guess. And I'll try to get better at writing to you two as well. The last few months have been kind of rough. Wish I could come down and see you more, but that'll be especially hard once I get a job."
"Ah know, and we'll do our best to write to ya, too." Apple Bloom smirked and crossed her forelegs. "And it'd probably make you write back. Make sure you wouldn't 'forget'."
Scootaloo snorted and rolled her eyes. "As if I'd forget you two. I'll try to make it down to see you more often."
'Aww, you girls are the best!" Sweetie Belle squeed before grabbing the other two in a tight hug. "Cutie Mark Crusaders forever!"
"Forever!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom replied.
It's not like I really have anypony up there, Scootaloo thought.
* * * *
Scootaloo took a deep breath and adjusted her white workers outfit and hard hat.
"Alright, day one at the CWC," she said to herself. "Goal: survive the first day. Next goal? Survive the second."
It wasn't the best pep talk, but Scootaloo decided that it would do. She stepped out of the locker room and followed the signs to the Rainbow Room. The other ponies were already going about their business in the never ending grind of making the beautiful rainbows for all of Equestria. Before she could truly take in her surroundings, she heard a shout.
"Hey, newbie! Scoots, or whatever. Head up to Station One. We got some Spectra coming in!"
Scootaloo nodded at him and flew over to Station One just as a door opened in the ceiling, lowering a large, battered container covered in old, dry Spectra; the mixed colors creating a sickly black color on the steel walls of the vat. The machine lowered the vat to above Station One, then with a shout of "clear!" from one of the ponies, the bottom opened up, dumping pure Spectra into the hole in front of the gathered ponies.
Scootaloo stared deep into the depths of the pool of pure color as the workers around her gathered their tools. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Even the bright colors of Rainbow Dash's mane couldn't compare to the bright red Spectra in front of her.
One of the workers next to Scootaloo noticed her staring and let out a small chuckle.
"It's really beautiful, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Scootaloo whispered as she stared, transfixed. "Beautiful."
