There were only twelve ponies competing in the Scooter Youth competition. Only a qualifier for the finals was held to determine the top five ponies who would be left to battle for the gold. Scootaloo had never felt as much pressure as she did when stepping in front of the crowd that day. Thousands of ponies from all over Equestria had come to witness the festivities and now all of their eyes were trained on the scooter course. The filly felt the beads of sweat collecting on her forehead.
Flipping Cricket came up behind Scootaloo and gave her a friendly clasp on the shoulder. Scoot did her best not to jump out her skin at the sudden friendly gesture. “Best of luck to you out there,” the aqua pony remarked with a smile. “You're going to need it.”
“Same to you, Cricket,” Scootaloo replied, and she strained a smile through gritted teeth.
Each pony had ten minutes of warm-up to themselves. When it came time for Scootaloo's, she felt her stomach flip. After some mental coaxing, she launched into the routine she had planned. On one particularly daring jump over some stairs, Rider screamed out, “Don't blow it, doofus!” Scootaloo landed awkwardly on her scooter and flipped over the hoofbar, landing on her back. The crowd let out a collective gasp. Rider laughed cruely at the stunned filly, but she recovered quickly on her own and practiced through her remaining time without any more slip-ups.
Finally the qualifying round began without much ceremony. Each pony had fifty seconds per their three rounds to show what they had. If anypony should fall during a round, the round was forfeit and the next pony's round would begin. A few of the Youth competition let the pressure get the best of them and were disqualified for falling in each of their rounds. Rider and Cricket each performed flawlessly in their rounds and moved on effortlessly. Scootaloo wasn't so lucky. During a transfer between quarter pipes with a small stair set between, she miscalculated a bar spin and wound up landing with the scooter sideways, causing her to do the same. However, she made up for this failing and scored the fifth spot in the finals with an amazing no-hoof back flip roll-in on her final round.
In-between the qualifiers and the finals, there was an hour long rest. Cricket and Scootaloo met up and congratulated each other for having made it through. Rider wasn't exactly as gracious.
“What do you think you're doing?” he demanded of Scootaloo.
“Look,” she retorted, “I don't know what your problem is with me, but it ends now. I've made it here fair and square.”
“Fair and square? You won a contest! The only thing you have on your side is luck!”
“It took skill and dedication to get here, not luck! I worked my feathers off to impress the judges when they came to interview me.”
“But it's not fair!”
“What? Just because I haven't been riding in competitions my whole life? Sometimes ponies are just born naturals. I don't doubt you worked hard to get here. In fact, I know you must have! But if you think you're being robbed of your chance to win, you're right. I'm going to take that gold all the way back to Ponyville with pride.”
Rider stood in front of the two girls with his mouth agape in disbelief. Tears began to well in his eyes. “No one talks that way to Rider! You're going to be sorry you silly filly. I'm going to show you just how I got this far.”
“Bring it.”
The foal stormed off in a fit. Flipping Cricket looked at Scootaloo in shock. “Wow. Where did that come from?”
“I'm just sick of him mocking me! It's all he's done since I showed up yesterday. Besides, you said yourself he always acts that way. Sounds to me it was about time somepony put him in his place.”
“I certainly think you did. Save some of that energy though. We've only got a little while to cool down before the final round.”
“I know. I think I'm going to take a little walk to clear my head.”
“Alright. See you on the flips.”
Scootaloo couldn't help but laugh. “No way, did you really just say that?”
Flipping Cricket just grinned like a fool. “Now get out of here! Go clear that noodle, you purple-maned poodle.”
Scootaloo walked away laughing. Soon, her face showed a more somber mood as she thought over what a whirlwind the last few days had been. Long travels, new friends, crazy tricks, and loud music. It was a lot to take in and it almost over already! She found a quiet grassy knoll to rest on and watched other ponies go by. It wasn't long until she heard the P.A. System call out, “All Youth Scooter finalists to the course, please. Youth Scooter finalists to the course.”