Summer break is once again upon Equestria's schools, making hundreds of fillies and colts cheer out with delight at their newly granted amounts of free time in Celestia's sunlight. With rejuvenated energy previously spent on the final school day prior, the cozy yet unpredictable and wild town of Ponyville was packed with children running through the streets.
One filly in particular however, was still indoors, her little body covered by a soft teal blue blanket. Sadly, the wonderful world of dreamland was vanquished as stray beams of light shot through the cracked open curtains that were draped over the window parallel to her bed.
Instead of the typical groan and pulling of the teal blanket over her head in an attempt to block out the sunlight, the filly held back from making any noise and sat up. She rubbed the remaining drowsiness from her eyes with her forehooves, before smiling as she glanced out the window. Seeing all the fillies and colts rushing around reminded her of exactly why she'd wanted to get up earlier the night prior.
"It's the first day of SUMMER!" Scootaloo cheered, leaping out of bed and onto the carpeted floor of her room.
Scootaloo moved like lightning around her room, throwing some objects into her saddlebags and latching them firmly shut. Not a second later were they strapped to her body, her hooves now holding onto her trusty blue and red scooter. One quick test flap of her little wings later, and she shot out of her room like a rocket.
With practiced skill and precision earned by doing this multiple times before, Scootaloo propelled her scooter onto the heavily reinforced guardrail of the stairs and grinded it all the way down. The wheels of the scooter didn't even earn a scratch as they were met with the wooden floorboards of the house, nor did the floor for that matter. After all, they were composed of some of the strongest wood out there for this exact reason.
"Gonna hang out with the Crusaders!" Scootaloo stated as she passed the archway leading into the kitchen/dining room, where her two aunts were currently sitting and waiting for the filly with smiles. They already knew what she'd been planning to do, and her excitement for the summer. So the two aunts had made the necessary precautions to make sure that neither Scootaloo's stomach nor the front door would become a casualty to deal with later.
And by that, they'd simply prepared a breakfast for her and put it in a brown bag next to the front door they'd left open. Scootaloo spotted the bag and scooped it up with a forehoof, before shooting out of the house like a Windigo out of Tartarus. If the two aunts hyper focused their ears, they'd hear a distant but cheerful "Thanks!" for their taken precautions.
Ponyville was as lively as ever, with the streets packed full of ponies of all ages wandering about. Some were doing some early morning shopping or catching up with friends, others out for a morning trot, and some were simply tending to their gardens. All of this was but a mere blur to Scootaloo as she used her wings to propel her scooter faster, which roared down the dirt roads of the town. She easily dodged around a watermelon stand and ramped off of a piece of wood, grinning the entire time.
Scootaloo was more than ready for summer, as it meant all the time in the world to hang out with her friends and crusade for her cutie mark. She didn't want to waste anymore time getting to the clubhouse, where the other crusaders agreed to meet up once school was done. So she kicked her wings into overdrive, speeding up even more in an attempt to get to the farm faster.
It didn't take long for Scootaloo to exit Ponyville and arrive at Sweet Apple Acres, weaving between several apple trees as she made her way towards the clubhouse at quite high speeds.
The filly spotted the peach colored wooden tree house which stuck out rather well against the green leaves of the apple tree it was resting in. She pulled the handlebars on her scooter to the left, parking it next to the cucumber green ramp that led to the front door.
Scootaloo took off her helmet and set it down on one of the handlebars, before she galloped up the ramp and towards the door.
"I'm here!" Scootaloo called out, swinging the door to the clubhouse open.
The walls of the clubhouse were made of bright yellow wood and had several hoof-made posters scattered about for the usage of maps and plans for crusades. A few shelves were also spread throughout the room, some holding books while others held writing utensils, spare tools from adventures, and photos. Near the back of the room was a small panel made out of dark oak wood, resting on top of it was a journal which listed all of their previous crusades.
Two other fillies were inside the clubhouse, one was a yellow earth pony filly with a red mane and tail, said red mane also sporting a rather large pink bow on top of it. The other was a white unicorn filly with a curly light pink and purple mane and tail. Neither fillies had cutie marks.
"Hey Scootaloo!" Both fillies said in unison, happy to see their final member arrive.
"Hey Apple Bloom, Hey Sweetie Belle! We all ready to get our cutie marks this summer!?" Scootaloo asked, but she already knew the answer.
"Ya betcha!" Apple Bloom responded, her southern accent clear as the skies.
"Yeah! We've got the entire summer to figure out what are special talents are." Sweetie Belle stated.
The three fillies quickly took their positions for debating what to do, Apple Bloom standing behind the wooden panel while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sat down on some bean bag chairs.
With the whack of a gavel from Apple Bloom, the session had officially started. Apple Bloom flipped open the journal on the panel she was standing behind and took some mental notes on what they'd previously done to try and earn their cutie marks.
"Alright girls, we've got plenty ah've time on our hooves. What should we do first?"
"I've got a few ideas..." Scootaloo answered in a tone which sent shivers down Sweetie Belle's spine.
"Why do I have a sudden sense of doom?" Sweetie Belle asked, her words being completely ignored by the pegasus.
Above the planet Equus...
Two space ships were currently engaged in a firefight between each other, one smaller green transport ship which was fleeing from a much larger orange and red battleship. The red ship was laying down waves of red lasers, most only narrowly missing the green ship. But the smaller ship knew that the cargo it was carrying was too precious to have fall into the hands of evil. It returned fire on the ship, managing to strike the bridge of it.
The massive ship quickly retaliated by charging up its center laser, which began glowing a bright shade of crimson. The laser was fired, striking the back of the small ship with so much force that the entire rear end exploded into several pieces.
The front end of the ship, now drifting through space without its thrusters to guide it, shot an escape pod from the barely intact hull. The escape pod soon broke apart as it entered Equus's atmosphere, leaving a silver orb to get encased in flames as gravity took hold of it, pulling it towards the ground at a rapid pace.
The orb plummeted through clouds, its course set directly towards Equestria.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders slowly made their way back towards the clubhouse, signs of their previous crusade for their cutie marks still visible on their features.
Celestia's sun had begun to lower, slowly being replaced by Luna's moon in the sky, marking that the first day of summer was already almost over.
"Never...again..." Sweetie Belle muttered, still recovering from the adrenaline that was slowly draining from her body.
"Agreed..." Apple Bloom seconded, also recovering from the failed attempt.
"Same..." Scootaloo finished, still seeing the faint outline of light in her vision.
Even Scootaloo had to agree that this was probably the stupidest attempt from the group yet. She was shocked that Sweetie's mane hadn't caught completely on fire, unlike her helmet.
The trio soon reached the clubhouse, stopping at the base of the ramp which led to the door. They looked up at the sky, taking note on the time.
"Well, ah better be gett'n home. Don't wanna miss supper." Apple Bloom stated.
"I should head back home as well, Rarity's probably wondering where I am right now." Sweetie Belle followed up.
"We meet up at the clubhouse tomorrow?" Scootaloo questioned.
The other Crusaders nodded, before splitting off in the directions of their homes.
Scootaloo navigated her way through Sweet Apple Acres, wings quietly buzzing as she propelled her scooter forwards. As she reached the outskirts of the farm, she spotted a familiar cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail shoot through the sky at a neck breaking pace.
Rainbow Dash is and always will be Scootaloo's idol, with her awesomeness and skills always ready to help out anypony who needed saving.
Scootaloo watched as Rainbow Dash did a few tricks in the sky, Luna's moon illuminating her movement. It was quite the sight to say the least. Scootaloo halted her scooter so she could focus more on her idol, who did a few more tricks before taking off towards home for a well deserved rest.
Scootaloo took off her helmet and set it on her scooters handlebars, before looking up at the night sky. Not long after did a shooting star fly through the sea of darkness. Remembering what her mom had told her about shooting stars, Scootaloo shut her eyes.
"I wish, that someday I can be a hero alongside Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo said out loud, before opening her eyes, which quickly shrank when she noticed that the shooting star had somehow changed course and was hurtling right towards her!
Scootaloo quickly moved out of the way on her scooter, watching in shock as the shooting star crashed right into the ground next to her, leaving a massive crater in the ground which had a large amount of steam flowing out of it.
Scootaloo cautiously got off her scooter and approached the crater, before peaking into it. Inside the crater was a strange metallic orb which had the most steam coming off of it.
"Is that what a shooting star looks like?" Scootaloo questioned, leaning forward to try and get a better look.
Suddenly, the ground below her hooves broke free, sending the filly rolling down into the crater with the strange object.
Scootaloo hit the ground with a thump, quickly getting back to her hooves when she noticed that the orb had begun to open. The top of the circle had split apart, letting out another wave of steam, and exposing a black interior with a glowing green light coming from inside.
Scootaloo approached the orb and peeked inside it, only to spot a strange black, silver, and green object resting in it. The object looked sort of like those fancy watches that Filthy Rich sometimes wore, only this one didn't seem to have a clock on it.
Curiosity eventually got the better of the filly, causing her to extend her left forehoof out towards the object. Not a second after her hoof entered the orbs interior, the object seemed to liquify and somehow leaped onto her hoof, becoming solid once again.
"AHH! GET OFF! GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!" Scootaloo shouted, frantically tugging at the watch which had anchored itself on her hoof.
After struggling for a few minutes, Scootaloo climbed out of the crater and took off running for her scooter. She frantically put her helmet on and took off on her scooter, zooming away from the scene as fast as she could.
What in Equestria has just stuck itself on her hoof!?