5 years later
Scootaloo waited in the main atrium of the stadium, the cheers and applause for the last contestant quietly shook the room. Scootaloo was nervous, well, nervous wasn’t the word, terrified was more like it. To Scootaloo, this room might as well have been a prison cell, and the show organizer walking up to her was her executioner.
“Scootaloo?” The stuffy looking female pony asked with a small amount of masked contempt.
“That’s me.” replied Scootaloo, trying to bring back some of the false courage she had earlier that day.
“Alright you’re the last young flier of the show,” said the coordinator, her contempt no longer masked, “Look, we’re already running long, so try to wrap up your performance quickly, I doubt you’re going to top that last flier anyway,” and she walked past Scootaloo without a backwards glance.
Any false courage she had managed to muster back up was again broken. She slowly trudged down the tunnel leading to the main show arena.
“Who am I kidding?” Scootaloo thought to herself, “I don’t belong here, heck, the only reason I’m in this competition is because Rainbow Dash pulled some strings for me, I didn’t even go to flight school.”
Her legs were on autopilot, and before she knew it, she had crossed the threshold of the main stadium and was being announced as the final contestant in the best young fliers competition. She looked up to the main box where the guest judges, The Wonderbolts, sat. To Scootaloo, they looked so statuesque in their uniforms, well, actually they looked slightly annoyed and embarrassed. The cause of their embarrassment was the third rainbow haired Wonderbolt next to them that was jumping up and down and pumping her hoof in the air. Even though Scootaloo couldn’t hear Dash over the applause, she knew she had at least one person in the crowd that believed in her.
While she couldn’t hear Rainbow Dash over the crowd, she could still hear her friend Sweetie Bell, her voice easily cutting through the crowd trying to start a chant of Scootaloo’s name. Scootaloo scanned the crowd and located both of her friends. Sweetie Bell was still trying to get a chant going and her best friend Apple Bloom was vigorously waving a sign that read, “You Rock Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo walked to the edge of the main entrance platform and looked over the edge at the several thousand foot drop to earth below. She turned her back to the crowd and reared up onto her hind hooves. All the butterflies that had been vomiting in her stomach had disappeared, and they left her with a much different feeling than before, she was excited. She slowly leaned back and let gravity take her off the platform. The crowd gasped and Scootaloo smirked. As she let the momentum of the fall give her enough speed to perform her first trick, she had one final thought, “For the next 5 minutes, I own this stadium!”
A few years more
Manehatten Square Garden was a modern marvel of a stadium. It housed major sporting events, political debates, plays, and was the only indoor stadium that could house a flight show. While it was possible to do a flight show in the indoor stadium, it was not a good idea. The Wonderbolts hated performing at the Garden because there wasn’t enough room to get up to their top speeds, it was more dangerous to the fans, and the extra tight turns they had to perform to miss running into the crowd caused massive stress on their wings. The fans however loved these shows. Since the fans were so close to the action the fliers seemed like they were going faster than they actually were. The cramped stadium also forced the Wonderbolts to fly very close to the fans and in turn the fans got to see their favorite Wonderbolts up close. The Wonderbolts tried not to perform there too much, but sometimes the money was just too good to pass up, which was the case today.
Scootaloo couldn’t have been happier ripping off the mask of her Wonderbolt uniform. She threw it across the locker room where it slapped against the far wall causing Scootaloo to shudder thinking about how sweaty and gross that mask had to be. They had just finished performing at Manehatten Square Garden and it had been the hardest routine Scootaloo had ever been asked to do. Since the stadium was mostly indoors, all the flight formations were extremely tight and overall less fun to perform. Scootaloo had been given the task of closer for the show because the indoor stadium was so small and she was by far the most agile of the Wonderbolts. She had finished the show by flying in extremely tight circles, fast enough to gather the clouds in the arena and make a small tornado out of them. This was a move only Scootaloo could pull off with her small frame, but she didn’t like to do it since it made her really dizzy. After making the tornado she had flown up above it and dove straight through the eye of the tornado causing the clouds to explode off in all directions, lightly misting the crowd with ruined clouds. She had done this stunt a few times before and it was always a crowd pleaser, and tonight was no exception.
While Scootaloo didn’t like flying in Manehatten Square Garden, she did love the locker rooms which were each equipped with several hot tubs and a well stocked minibar. She grabbed a drink from the minibar, unzipped the rest of her uniform, and sunk into one of the massaging hot tubs. Nothing was better on a sore set of wings than a good long soak in a hot tub.
Scootaloo was the only one currently in the locker room. The rest of the Wonderbolts had to go back to the stage to sign autographs. Scootaloo didn’t really have any fans yet, so she was never dogged about not going out to sign autographs. It had bothered her the first time she had gone out to the stage after a show with the rest of the Wonderbolts, only to watch kids run up to everyone but her and ask for autographs. She supposed it made sense though, she hadn’t really been one of the lead fliers until fairly recently. This was actually only the second show where she was one of the main 5 fliers and not one of the backup fliers. Today though, she was glad she didn’t have many fans, she could practically sense the jealousy of Rainbow Dash knowing that she was already relaxing with drink while Dash was standing out there getting peppered with photographs and getting a cramp in her hoof from all the autographs.
Scootaloo was so relaxed that she had almost fallen asleep by the time the rest of the Wonderbolts got back to the locker room. Rainbow Dash practically ripped off her flight suit and jumped into the hot tub adjacent to Scootaloo’s.
“Why the hay weren’t you out there with the rest of us signing autographs?” Rainbow Dash said, splashing some water from her tub onto Scootaloo’s head. The splashing made it seem like she was joking, but her tone was serious
“What?” asked Scootaloo, genuinely confused, “No one really wants my autograph… Do they?"
“Duh.” Said Rainbow Dash, all seriousness dropped, “Why do you think we put you up as the closer for the performance today?”
“Because you were all too lazy to do it?” Replied Scootaloo without missing a beat.
“No, she’s serious Scootaloo” Said Spitfire, the other female Wonderbolt, walking into the room and jumping in the tub next to Rainbow Dash, “There were a ton kids asking about you, your days of relaxing before the rest of us are over.”
“Kids whatever, there was a ton of cute stallions asking about you,” Said Rainbow Dash, who began laughing at the blush that started creeping up Scootaloo’s face.
Before Scootaloo could throw her empty soda bottle at Dash, Soarin popped his head in, “Hey Dash, um a bunch of my old flight school buddies are here in Manehatten and they got a poker game going on tonight…” Said Soarin, looking at the ground, seemingly embarrassed to be sticking his head into a room full of bathing mares.
“Go on and have fun with your friends,” Rainbow Dash sighed, not even leaning up to look at him from her bath, “Just make sure not to lose all my money.”
“Don’t worry babe, you know I’m a great poker player,” Soarin said, now leaning against the doorway in a failed attempt to look cool
At this both Scootaloo and Spitfire snorted in laughter and Rainbow Dash finally leaned up to look at her boyfriend. “Poker player?” Asked Dash holding back a laugh, “With your poker face, we’ll be lucky to have any money by the end of the night.” She then leaned back and let herself sink deeper into the tub, “Just make sure not to stay out too late, we have practice tomorrow.” Rainbow finished giving Soarin a slight wave with her hoof letting him know she didn’t mind him going off without her tonight.
“Thanks Dash,” said Soarin quickly trotting into the room to give Ranibow Dash a quick peck on snout. “I’ll see you later tonight,” and he trotted out of the room.
A minute or two later Scootaloo finally got out of her tub and toweled off. “Alright girls, I’m gonna turn in for the night.” She said and exited the locker room..
Spitfire and Dash shared a knowing look as Scootaloo left. Lately, Scootaloo had been moping around after shows and practices and didn’t seem to want to do anything. This was happening enough to make Rainbow Dash worried about her.
“See I told you, all she does now is mope around in her room after shows, like, you notice it too now right?” Said Rainbow Dash, almost pleading with the other Wonderbolt to see what she was seeing.
“Since you mentioned it to me, I have to admit it is a little strange for Scootaloo to be so… unexcited after the shows,” Said Spitfire, now also sporting a worried look. “Just a month ago she would be the first one to suggest we all go hit the town after a show, and now, I don’t know, she just seems tired… So, what are you going to do about it Dash?”
“Me,” Dash exclaimed, “Why does it have to be me, can’t you help?”
“Yes, I can help, but we have to find out what’s wrong first,” said Spitfire, clearly exasperated with her friend. “You have to talk to the girl. Whether or not you notice it, she still looks up to you. I bet if you ask, that girl would tell you just about anything.”
Rainbow Dash looked back down at her tub and idly let the massage jets of the tub push her front hooves around for a bit. Alright,” She said with a determined look on her face, “We are going to have a good night out on the town and I’m going to find out what’s wrong with her tonight.” With that she jumped out of her tub and trotted out of the locker room.
Spitfire was relieved that Rainbow Dash seemed ready to do something about her teammate. Ever since Dash had pointed out that Scootaloo was acting strange, she had gotten very worried about their youngest Wonderbolt. She already had a couple guesses about what was eating Scootaloo, but the tired look on Scootaloo’s face when Soarin kissed Rainbow Dash narrowed down her guesses.
Spitfire leaned back and sunk deeper into her tub. "To be young again," She thought to herself as she let the massage jets work on the cramping in her wings
XXXXXX Just a heads up, this is not a Scootaloo/Rainbow Dash storyXXXXXXXX
