“Lavender seems really quiet this morning,” Blue Yonder commented as she sat down at the table.
“Lavender’s always quiet,” Silverwings pointed out. “What’s so different about today?”
Blue Yonder quickly looked at Scootaloo and noticed the tension in her eyes. Both had agreed not to tell anypony about what happened yesterday between them and Lavender—feeling that it was a deeply personal matter that Lavender should disclose as she desired. As far as they were concerned, only four ponies knew about it—and they weren’t keen on expanding that number more than necessary.
“Nothing,” Blue Yonder said quickly. “Just…mare problems.”
“Okay, I don’t need to hear any more!” Silverwings exclaimed.
He then grabbed his tray and left the table. The two mares watched Silverwings as he made his way to the other side of the mess hall and willingly sat next to Hot Shot. Once he was out of earshot, Scootaloo glared at her companion.
“Seriously,” Scootaloo sneered. “That was the best excuse you could come up with?”
“Well how else was I going to have him drop the subject entirely?” Blue Yonder said defensively. “Besides, you have to admit that it worked—although I didn’t expect him to leave entirely.”
Scootaloo grudgingly agreed and returned to eating her breakfast. She had decided to go with a simple bowl of cereal and toast today.
“Do you know what we’re doing today?” Blue Yonder asked.
Scootaloo had become the resident “inside pony” due to her knowledge about how the academy worked and the general program. It wasn’t an unfair assumption since, so far, she had been right about everything. But this time was different.
“I’m not quite sure,” Scootaloo admitted. “Rainbow Dash was a bit vague on the details and she was in an…interesting situation at that point.”
“You mention Rainbow Dash a lot,” Blue Yonder stated. “I know she’s like your sister and all, but why did she tell you everything that she did?”
Scootaloo was getting a little irritated by all of this prying from Blue Yonder.
“You know,” Scootaloo started. “For a pony who loves to talk about and know other ponies, you never once talked about yourself. What was your life like? Why do you want to be here? What does your cutie mark mean?”
Blue Yonder went into defensive mode again.
“There’s really nothing to tell,” she said quickly. “My life was pretty boring, okay! Living in Cloudsdale isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. So don’t worry about it.”
Scootaloo was about to argue further, when….
BOOM!!!
Everypony jumped. A loud, thunderous noise rang through the mess hall, but it didn’t come from the building. Several ponies shrieked and hid themselves under the tables—expecting the walls to fly apart at any second.
“What in Tartarus was that?” Blue Yonder asked when nothing else happened.
Other ponies were asking the same thing. Scootaloo looked over to the window and noticed a shimmer of multi-colored light outside.
“It can’t be,” Scootaloo muttered as she made her way to the window,
Sure enough, she could see the perfect arc of a rainbow—and not a single hint of rain in the sky. The rainbow stretched over the entire compound. Underneath it were three ponies leaving cloudy trails behind them in various curves beneath the rainbow. Then the three pegasi went into formation and were joined by a fourth, who left a completely different trail.
“Showoffs,” the voice of Colonel Spitfire said next to Scootaloo.
Scootaloo looked over at the commander and noticed that, despite her words, Spitfire had a little smile on her face. Everypony went outside in order to get a better view. It was clearly a Wonderbolt squadron. They all gazed up in awe at the majesty of the scene before them. Scootaloo had seen this many times, but it always filled her with pure glee.
The four pegasi landed and were met with thunderous applause. Even Scootaloo started cheering. Colonel Spitfire walked up to the group and shook hooves with the visiting Wonderbolts.
“Well newbies,” Spitfire said, addressing the crowd. “I am pleased to introduce the 1st Wonderbolt Squadron; lead by Captain Fleetfoot and special demonstration by Lieutenant Rainbow Dash.”
Everypony cheered again and flooded the visitors. They had to be pushed back by some of the academy officers. However, that didn’t stop one particular pony.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted.
“Hey squirt,” Rainbow Dash answered. “How’s my number one fan and protégé?”
Scootaloo blushed, but she continued to look at her idol. It was nearly impossible to recognize Rainbow Dash in her blue, full-body flight suit. The only distinguishing feature between her and the other Wonderbolt flyers was her rainbow-colored mane and tail. Rainbow Dash’s pink eyes could also be distinguished when she wasn’t wearing her flight goggles.
“Oh, stop it Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said before bursting out in laughter along with her foalhood hero.
“Oh, but seriously,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “How are you doing? I bet you’ve broken every record here.”
Scootaloo rubbed her right forehoof through her mane.
“Eh, not exactly,” Scootaloo admitted. “I don’t think I’ve beaten one. I’m not even the lead pony.”
“Hey, that’s all right,” Rainbow Dash said, patting Scootaloo’s shoulder. “You know, I was the wingpony when I was here.”
“Yeah, but only for the first four days,” Scootaloo pointed out. “Besides, Blue Yonder is awesome! Though, she doesn’t seem to think so.”
“Well, at least she has an awesome partner to show her the way,” Rainbow Dash said.
“I told you,” Scootaloo exclaimed. “I’m not the lead pony!”
“That doesn’t matter,” Rainbow Dash asserted. “You learn from each other.”
Scootaloo sighed and gave up trying to argue any further. Still, she was happy to be there, talking with the pony she had looked up too since she was a foal. Then a creeping thought entered her mind.
“I’m glad to see you and all, but why are you here, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, kiddo,” Rainbow Dash said. “But you’ll find out soon enough.”
“Aah,” Scootaloo whined. “Why not?”
“Sorry Scoots, but I have my orders,” Rainbow Dash said; then she looked around and leaned in closer—lowering her voice to a whisper. “But just between you and me, it’s going to be awesome.”
“Attention cadets!” Lieutenant What’s-his-name shouted. “Social time is over! Report for training NOW!”
Both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash jerked up and looked over to the lieutenant with a megaphone. Apparently they weren’t the only ones still hanging out.
“Ah, and just when I was about to show my little brother what it really means to be a Wonderbolt,” Captain Fleetfoot said as she put Silverwings in a noogie.
“Stop it!” Silverwings moaned. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Because you're my baby brother, that’ss why,” Fleetfoot stated, causing Blue Yonder to burst into hysteria.
“You better get going,” Rainbow Dash told Scootaloo. “Otherwise you might end up with dish duty or something. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said and then trotted off. She was looking backwards and so she ran into somepony. “Umph! Oh, sorry Lavender.”
“What?” Lavender replied, clearly dazed. “Oh, okay.”
This caused Scootaloo to pause for a moment and look back. Lavender was just standing there, glancing from Rainbow Dash to Scootaloo and back again. Then she walked off without another word.
‘Wow, she really is out of it today,’ Scootaloo thought.
She couldn’t reflect on the moment for long because Lieutenant What’s-his-name was getting angry. So Scootaloo joined the rest of the cadets to report for the morning exercises.