//------------------------------// // *revised* chapter 3- flight. // Story: when heroes aren't there to save you // by Rainbow warrior //------------------------------// chapter 3-edited by: luna's guard The next morning came, and Scootaloo couldn't have been more excited to start her training. She sprang out of the bed and onto the carpet. Upon doing this she forgot that yet again, she had just been kicked in the stomach last night. She bent over and cringed in pain. She hoped that training today wouldn't be as brutal as it was yesterday , because if she had to push herself like that in the condition she was in, she knew that she wouldn't make it. She looked over at the clock and almost fainted. The clock read 6:50 a.m. and she was supposed to be there by 7:00. She galloped out the front door and hopped on her scooter carefully. Even with that, as soon as she got on ,she took off as fast as she could, trying not to flare up her pain even more. She clenched her stomach all the while steering the best she could with one hoof. Every bump on the road slowly sent a surge of pain up her body to her stomach. Regardless, she ignored the pain and focused on the road ahead of her, and set off to the edge of the Everfree forest, hoping that Rainbow Dash would still be there and wouldn’t notice that she was late. It was 7:03 a.m. when Scootaloo finally arrived. Scootaloo looked around for Rainbow Dash, but saw no sign of her. With her head down , she began to walk back in the direction she came. "You’re late." a familiar voice penetrated Scootaloo's ears like a harpoon; She turned around to see an angry rainbow dash. Rainbow dash noticed the bandages Scootaloo had on her and raised her eyebrow. "Bandages? You're not going soft on me now are you?" As she asked this she gave a somewhat playful kick to Scootaloo's injury. Scootaloo winced, but she did her best to put a smile on and said "Me? No of course not, I just uh have them there for uh…….circulation purposes…." Scootaloo was lying through her teeth and Rainbow Dash could easily see it. She squinted at the filly for a few seconds and then gave a grin much like the one she had the day before. “Circulation purposes huh? Then you won't mind if I doooooo-THIS?!" Rainbow rammed Scootaloo who then felt a surge of extreme pain emit from her stomach and let out a yelp as she fell to the grass clutching her stomach in pain and agony. "Uh huh, that’s what I thought, now that you've learned your lesson not to lie to me, I think we can begin our real training. See that hill to the left? That’s where I learned to fly and that's where you’re gonna learn to fly today." Despite being in so much pain, Scootaloo very much liked the idea of getting to fly where her mentor did when she was her age. With that in mind, she got up and headed to the hill. When they got to the top of the hill Scootaloo noticed it was far too steep for anypony to trot down. "Now even though I don't like gliding, it does help you a bit here, what I want you to do first is get some speed by gliding down face first and then pulling up, the wind will catch your wings and then nature will do the rest." Scootaloo looked down again and thought she was going to throw up, She didn't want to get hurt anymore and was about to complain about being way to sore when suddenly from behind her she heard a sharp "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Scootaloo got so scared that she jumped off inadvertently, even though she managed to make it off she was gliding way too close to the ground. Her heart pounded a mile minute, and she was way too scared to focus on flying and because of this, she hit the steep ground hard. She saw that she hit the ground but the pain didn’t register to her. she didn’t feel anything, and she was in shock,. Even through she was so scared but she didn't scream, she just slowly saw the world going dark as it was spinning violently all around her from one direction to another. She watched this and slowly faded into the black. "ey.........ake.........hey............ke up...........cootaloo............ALOO WAK........." Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes a little and her eyes began to adjust to the light, Just then she felt an ice-cold sting surround her body and she shot straight up and would have almost screamed if she hadn't then realized that it was just water. She looked around and noticed she was still in the Everfree forest. She looked down to see her arms and legs were riddled with cuts and bruises. It was the afternoon and the sun was about to set. Evidently, she had been knocked out for a while. She then turned her head to see Rainbow Dash throwing away a pale of ice water to the side. She looked upset and Sootaloo knew why. "That was THE MOST pathetic attempt at flight EVER! I can't believe I even considered having you as my apprentice, if I had known that my apprentice was going to be a weak, worthless little shit, I woulda asked a fuckin’ earth pony to fly. I'm done with you kid you were just a huge waste of my time." Scootaloo felt tears coming out of her eyes; she knew that it was a horrible attempt but she thought Rainbow Dash would have had more patience. Suddenly a surge of anger and adrenaline rushed through her veins, she was mad, and she wasn’t going to let Rainbow Dash give up on her this easily. "HEY! I CAN-TO FLY AND I'LL GO RIGHT BACK AND SHOW YOU!" "Hmph, that's mighty big talk for someone who rolled down a hill when I clearly instructed you to fly, do you care to prove this?" "Yes I do, right now, I'll make you regret saying that." Scootaloo didn't know how, but she was going to do what she had said. She climbed up the hill, got to the top and then looked down. Doing this, she readied for the worst. Without hesitation she jumped and glided downwards. The whole time she had her eyes closed and was hoping that nature would indeed “kick in”. It did and she felt the air flow around her face and mane and under her wings. She couldn't believe it, she was actually flying! She opened her eyes, and saw how high she was and laughed. She began doing 360's and loops in excitement and joy. In fact, she was having so much fun she almost forgot Rainbow Dash was supposed to be watching her but Scootaloo had flown so far away from their training spot that she was sure Rainbow had forgotten about her. Just then a streak of blue shot past her, the force from the streak almost knocked her off balance, but she maintained her position and noticed that Rainbow Dash was actually flying right next to her. She looked at rainbow dash , and smiled while Rainbow Dash smiled back. "Gotta admit kid, you're pretty good at making a doubter a believer. Now go home and get some flying in, we’ll work on maneuvers tomorrow. I'm proud of ya’ kid,. I really am. Now get out of here." Scootaloo saluted in affirmation and proceeded to fly home, still in disbelief that she was flying, and very earlyat that too! Most of the pegasi in her class still couldn't fly. She was on top of the world and no one could bring her down. She saw her foster home and flew down to it in a slow, calm, descent. When she got inside she was surprised to not see Ms.Burns ready to give her another lecture or another beating. But instead of pondering it for too long she went into Avion’s room. The little gray Pegasus was fast asleep, and Scootaloo carefully walked over to the side of his bed and gave him a kiss on the forehead and whispered “Thank you for believing in me Avion. I couldn’t have done it without you.” She smiled and walked back to her room. As she was getting in bed she was contemplating about today. She hadn’t gotten beaten by her foster mom, she learned how to fly in a matter of two attempts, and most importantly Rainbow Dash said she was proud of her. To Scootaloo, this was a blessing in disguise; this was her last thought before she drifted off into slumber. “Wha-where am I?” Scootaloo woke up from her sleep to see that she was in her room from her old home. It was the home of the place where her nightmares never seemed to end. It was her parents’ house. “Oh no……oh no-no-no, I can’t be here, I can’t, I gotta get out of here.” She tried to get up only to see that she was tied to the bed by some thick rope. She tried to wriggle around violently in an attempt to break free, but then she decided to stay put as she didn’t know what tied her to the bed , and she didn’t want to wake or provoke her captor…whatever it was. As she stopped she looked around to see her old room like it used to be. She remembered how there was a loose floorboard she used to hide under when her father came home drunk and threatened to beat her. She remembered getting hit by her mom in the left corner of her room. All the memories of her past rushed in her at once and she began to swallow tears. Just then a gray and orange figure emerged from the doorway ever so slowly. “Scootaloo sweetie is that you? Oh my, how wonderful we’ve been so worried about you.” The room was dark but the figures stepped next to the window and the moonlight revealed the figures; it was her parents. Scootaloo’s eyes went wide in fear and she began to sweat and wriggle around some more. She didn’t know why her parents fillynapped her , but she knew it couldn’t have been to welcome her back home. “N-no, you can’t be real, y-you’re supposed to be gone b-both of you. LET ME GO, I DON’T BELONG TO YOU ANYMORE! SOMEPONY HELP!” The larger orange stallion crept closer to Scootaloo and said in an insane voice, “Oh my dear sweet child, I don’t think you realize where your place is in this family. When you left us that fateful day it KILLED your mother and I. Your mother and I were wrongfully accused of a crime and then they took us away from you. Your mother loved you so much that she took her life before they caught us. She was hoping that you were dead so that way she could see you in the next life, but unfortunately she didn’t go to her pre-determined destination and instead ended up in a place of eternal suffering and sorrow. She tried to cut out her own heart for you Scootaloo. Look at what you have done to your poor mother.” As he said this, the other figure emerged from the darkness only to reveal what looked to be an emaciated white mare. Blood was pouring out from its stomach and blood was dripping out of its mouth. Scootaloo was to petrified to even scream. She only looked on in fear at this monstrosity before her. “THAT is what you did to your mother Scootaloo. Look at her she doesn’t even know you’re here! She’s gone, mentally, of course, but now that you’re here we can be a family all over again.” Scootaloo couldn’t believe what she was seeing. This “thing” was supposed to be her mother. She looked on in horror as the orange pegasus pulled out tray of what looked to be like surgical equipment. “Wha-what are you doing?” Scootaloo whimpered, tears forming again. “I thought I told you dear daughter! Now that you’re here we can be a family again. But in order to do so, your mother needs a heart. Now, I think she would much rather prefer the heart of her own daughter than some other random filly, wouldn’t you agree? That way a part of you still lives on inside your mother. She’ll be so happy to know that the very thing that gives her life is her own daughters beating heart. She won’t have to suffer anymore and we’ll be a happy family all over again.” His voice took a dreamy quality as he said that and he wheeled the tray closer to Scootaloo. Scootaloo kicked and screamed violently in a desperate attempt to break free but it was no use. The big orange pegasus drew a scalpel from the tray next to him and proceeded to lower it to her chest. “P-please……….d-don’t” Scootaloo only let out soft little sobs, hoping that her father would have even an ounce of mercy and let her go. Sadly, it was to no avail as the big orange Pegasus only turned meet her face and a twisted evil smile curled across his lips. Her father began to chuckle, than it turned into a fool out insane laugh. He then stopped in place and only turned his eye to meet Scootaloo's. The look on his face would forever haunt Scootaloo's dreams. It was the most evil and twisted expression she had ever seen before. Her dad resumed lowering the knife slowly in the style of a mad doctor. It drew even closer and almost penetrated her skin when Scootaloo let out a scream and bolted up. She looked around and her parents were gone. Now she was back in the foster home. Scootaloo was drenched in cold sweat and panting heavily. jSuddenly a torrent of liquid surged from her stomach and out of her mouth and her vomit spilled on to the carpet below. She was still a bit sore from her workouts and the sudden movements made her cringe in pain. She began sobbing again and sniffling. . “R-rainbow Dash………….Where are you? Please come save me Rainbow Dash, I love you so much and I don't even care that you hit me sometimes I know that you are just trying to make me a better flyer. Am I not giving it my all?” Scootaloo contemplated this as she crawled back into bed. She was sure that the only reason Rainbow hadn’t adopted her yet was because she wasn’t giving Rainbow any reason to. In that very moment Scootaloo made her mind up that if she didn’t experience any pain when she went training, then her chances of being adopted were only getting slimmer. She wanted the pain; she welcomed it with open arms. She then began to drift off into a more peaceful slumber, as she closed her eyes she whispered to herself: “Don’t worry Rainbow, yawn* I’ll make you proud.”