The Beginning
Rainbow Dash had a problem. A little filly-sized problem that went by the name of Scootaloo. She had promised the flightless filly that she’d hang out with her tomorrow a few days ago, but she had forgotten that the Wonderbolts were sending down a representative to see her moves tomorrow for a possible spot on the reserve squad.
It had always been her dream to join the Wonderbolts, even if it was starting out in the reserve squad. That's how every Wonderbolt started out; on the reserve squad until they had amassed enough flight hours to be considered for a lead role. They were the ones who would always perform the secondary roles in the shows, making the primary team of Soarin, Fleetfoot, and Spitfire look as good as they can be. Rainbow knew she had it in the bag, but she wasn’t sure how she would be able to manage handling both hanging out with Scootaloo and performing for the inspector.
Back at the Wonderbolt’s Academy, she had heard that the inspector would run you ragged, the entire day to be exact. While she usually pushed herself for hours at a time, she’d never been able to go full force for an entire day, so that’s why she was already laying in bed, trying to fall asleep so that she could get a good night of rest. She knew she had to get a full night of sleep if she was going to even come close to what she thought the inspector would put her through. Rainbow had no idea who the inspector would be. I wonder if I know them or not... If I do, maybe I can convince them to help me out a little bit?
Rainbow rolled over and looked out the window, watching as the moon rose from beyond the horizon. She fluffed the pillow behind her and tugged the sheets up past her shoulders, letting out a soft sigh as she kept wondering who would be observing her skills. The letter laying on her nightstand said to look for somepony familiar in the Ponyville park at nine o’clock sharp, the same time and place that she’d promised Scootaloo she’d be. At least it's gonna be somepony recognizable...
“Ugh…” Rainbow groaned as she hit the bed in frustration. “I sure hope tomorrow isn’t gonna be that hard…”
Little did she know how hard tomorrow was really going to be.
Scootaloo sat on her favorite park bench, the one where she had agreed to meet Rainbow. It was almost nine o’clock, but she’d already been there for twenty minutes just to make sure that she was the first one there. She wanted to show Rainbow that she was responsible enough to show up on time, so that’s why she’d set her alarm clock an entire hour earlier than normal.
Even though Rainbow had said that she’d take her under her wing a few months back on their camping trip, every time she had made plans with her idol, Rainbow would almost always back out at the last second, saying that she had little to no time for her right now because of her job and because of her training for the Wonderbolts. Even though she felt let down and thoroughly disappointed, Scootaloo had said that she understood and had forgiven her each time. It hurt to say that everything was all right, but every time that Rainbow had to bail on her, Scootaloo just swallowed her disappoint and smiled, telling Rainbow that it was alright and that she’d catch her later. She thought it was okay at first, but now it felt like the rainbow-maned pegasus was starting to avoid her, a fact that she'd rather not think about.
“If she blows me off again, I…” Scootaloo murmured under her breath as she rolled her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time. Looking at the Ponyville clock tower, Scootaloo groaned as she watched the minute hand hit nine o’clock. “So… where is she? She told me to meet her here, but I don’t see her anywhere…” she said as she looked around. Today was the day where Rainbow was supposed to show her how to manipulate clouds, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Letting her shoulders slump in disappointment, Scootaloo hung her head and was just about to get up to ride away on her scooter when she heard somepony rapidly flapping their wings. Rainbow? She looked up just in time to see Rainbow speed over her head, mere feet above her. “Yeah! Go Rainbow Dash, go!” she cheered as she jumped to her hooves, ecstatic that her idol was here. About time, too… She watched breathlessly as Rainbow looped around the perimeter of the park before she touched down on the complete other side near a familiar-looking other pegasus.
“What’s she doing over there, and who is she with?” Scootaloo softly asked herself as she slid off of the bench. She hopped on her scooter and started to push herself over there. Before she was even halfway done, she saw the two of them take off and land on some nearby clouds, but not before she was able to figure out who Rainbow was with.
She was hanging out with Spitfire.
Her eyes widening in excitement, Scootaloo felt a squee of excitement build up within her, but just before she let it out, she stopped, wondering why Rainbow hadn’t even stopped to say hi or give her some feeble excuse as to why she couldn’t hang with her today. Slowly coming to a halt, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Praying that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her, she watched as the two pegasi took off, flying towards the west where a lot of open land lay.
“Whaaaa... Are you kidding me?!” Scootaloo growled as she ground a hoof into the dirt. “Ugh! I can’t believe she did this to me again!” she yelled, throwing her scooter away as hard as she could. As she watched Rainbow fly away from her, she let a sly smile slip onto her face. “Time to teach her a lesson!”