//------------------------------// // 22. Talk to me Goose! // Story: Scootaloo the Fugitive // by Kaidan //------------------------------// "Okay, close your eyes." Sweetie waited until Scootaloo and Applebloom closed their eyes to get her surprise. "Keep your eyes closed. I'm sure this time at least one of us is going to get their cutie mark!" Scootaloo sighed. "You say that every time and it hasn't been true yet." "Any many miny moe, pick a filly by her hoof. If they holler let them go. My sis said to pick the very. Best. One. And. It. Is. You!" "Gahh!" Applebloom made some gurgling sounds. "Uh Sweetie, do I open my eyes now? What's going on?" Scootaloo cracked an eyelid to see what the surprise was. "I did it! I did it! I got my cutie mark!" Sweetie was jumping around in sheer ecstasy. "Now Rarity will have to let me help her in the basement! Best. Day. Ever!" Scootaloo was frozen in horror as Sweetie jumped around. Her coat was stained red and a knife cutie mark adorned her flank. "I told you two I'd do it. Gah hahaha!" Sweetie's face twisted into something to horrible to be described. Scootaloo bolted upright in bed. "Dang it, I wonder if Twilight can send Luna a letter. I'm getting tired of all these grim, dark nightmares I'm having. I'm still afraid to be alone around Big Mac." Sighing, she flopped back down on the cloud. She had spent the last couple of days after the 'prank catastrophe' training hard with Dash. She was determined to win the upcoming Best Young Fliers competition. Scootaloo looked out the window, seeing the first hints of sunlight. "Great, I bet Dash will come down right when I fall asleep to begin training." Scootaloo lay down, and closed her eyes. She waited a minute and peeked one eye open. There was still no sign of Dash. Exhaling with relief, she rolled over and wiggled her way deeper into the cloud. "Rise and shine Squirt! Today is the day we put the routine together, I just finished setting up your own personal cloud obstacle course!" Dash waited a minute as the filly shoved a puff of cloud into her ears. "I said wake up Squirt!" Dash jumped on the best, bouncing Scootaloo out of it. "Bah, worst coach ever. The sun isn't even up." "With that attitude you'd have to enter the Best Young Whiners." Dash walked around to the grumpy Scootaloo. "Oh, you didn't sleep well again?" "It's nothing, I'm plenty brave to handle a few nightmares. After all, I know if they were real we could totally kick their flank." Scootaloo stood up and began stretching. "Though I may take a quick nap during the free-fall stunt, so be ready to catch me." Scootaloo giggled and launched out the window before Dash could reply. Scootaloo flew up above the cloud home, headed for the impromptu obstacle course they'd used the last couple days. Dash let her stay in the lead as they reached the obstacle course. "Alright Squirt, this is as close to Cloudsdale Stadium as I could get it. Between all the sporting events and flying competitions, there are a wide variety of stunts to choose from. You've still got time to substitute some stunts if you'd like." "So, agility, precision, weather control, and then speed. Seems like a solid routine to me." "Just remember to save energy for the speed bit, you'll have to do a 200 meter sprint pretty fast to impress the judges. After all, a sonic rainboom occurs at 760 miles per hour, not that I expect you to go that fast." "I still think I could pull one off, not a rainboom but breaking the sound barrier." "Maybe when you're a little older, I've heard of other pegasi breaking the sound barrier but none of them can pull off an epic rainbow at the same time." "Because breaking the sound barrier involves our innate pegasus magic and every pegasus is different. I know. It still doesn't help me find my cutie mark." Scootaloo looked down to her flank. "Scootaloo, you're doing this for fun, for the thrill of competition. If you're just doing this for a cutie mark, you're going to end up disappointed. I wish I could just tell you what your talent was, but you really just need to stop trying to get it and let it happen." "Alright enough talk, I've got 6 hours of Cheerilee talking to look forward too, and that's plenty for one day." "Alright Squirt, let's put that attitude to use. Show me what you've got!" Dash slammed a hoof on the nearby radio. The first set of obstacles was ahead. It was a slalom course, with each pair of gates 9 meters apart. Scootaloo thought it was plenty of space her first time through the course, but as she gained speed it began to take everything she had to stay on course. Seventy pairs of slalom gates were scattered, zig sagging left, right, up, down. The Best Young Flier's rarely even attempted the slalom. If Scootaloo could master it, and stop clipping the gates, she could make history. Scootaloo flew through the first gate, the wind whipping her hair straight back. She leaned left and flung her hind legs out in front of her. Tilting her wings, she caught the wind just as her body weight from her flanks spun her ninety degrees. With a quick flap of her wings, she zoomed towards the next gate in a hairpin turn. Scootaloo reversed the procedure to make it through the next gate. That was the easy part. The gates turned into circles of cloud as the vertical ascent began. Flying straight up wasn't hard, at first. After one hundred meters of it, however, it strained her muscles to a point of sheer exhaustion. Pushing those thoughts to the back of her head, she took the first six gates easily. They were only spread at a forty-five degree angle from one another. As her wings began to tire, the gates stretched to sixty, seventy-five, then ninety degree angles. As she crested the final gate at the peak of the one hundred meter ascent, she flung her head backwards. Tucking her wings in after a single stroke, she let gravity carry her backwards in an arc towards the next gate. It came out of nowhere, vanishing in a puff of clouds as she missed her mark. Scootaloo had messed up her trajectory again, flapping quickly to correct it. The goal was to reach the highest point in the course, and free-fall in a perfect curve down through ten more gates. Any slight miscalculation meant using your wings to correct your trajectory, and losing points from the judges. Scootaloo put her head back in the game as she neared the final gate. By now she had slowly rotated from upside down to pointing straight down. Throwing her wings out, she strained against the extreme g-forces and wing trying to pull her wings out. Slowly her wings converted her momentum from terminal velocity into an orange missile. Holding fast, she quickly found herself darting forward at blinding speeds, weaving through more gates. If the uncontrolled descent was hard, then this was Tartarus. She felt like she would break the sound barrier at any minute. The speed was so great that any stray thought would distract her long enough to miss two to three gates. It took all her focus and willpower to dodge up, up, down, down, left, right, left, left. . . dang that was supposed to be right. Scootaloo quickly got back on course. If nothing else, she'd only missed three gates out of the sixty she'd passed. That was a dramatic improvement from yesterday. Angling her wings careful, she pulled up into a tight loop, then approached the final gate. She heard Dash cheering her on. "Quick, do a barrel roll!" Scootaloo added the flourish as she passed through the final gate. "Yes! Woohoo!" Dash flew over to her as she reached the finish line. Scootaloo collapsed against the fluffy cloud at the end of the slalom course. Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was having a heart attack. Only now did she realize the sweat drenching her fur. Dash considerately pulled a towel out of her saddlebag, and a small raincloud. While Dash wiped her off, Scootaloo greedily squeezed the fresh rainwater out of the small cloud. She had never been so grateful for pegasi magic, she could make this cloud rain until her thirst was quenched. "Not too much Squirt, you don't want to cramp!" Dash batted the cloud away and smiled. "Come on Squirt, the competition is timed! Go go go!" Dash turned on the next song. Vinyl had promised her that the song alone would ensure Scootaloo's victory. Scootaloo groaned, then flipped into the air and took off towards the precision obstacle course. There were twelve rings suspended from small puffs of cloud. Each ring was just big enough to fit a hoof through with half an inch to spare. It was a hold-out from the militaristic days of the Pegasi, when the ability to joust with incredible precision had lead the Pegasi to victory over the Griffon armies. To this day, the Griffons were still sore about that defeat. Scootaloo sped up the required speed. The small rings were difficult to see, even with the keen eyesight of a pegasus. The starting line was a wall of clouds, and as she burst through it she had a split second to react and spear the first ring. Reaching out with her right hoof, she barely managed to get it onto her foreleg. Darting left she closed her wings and fell ten feet spearing another ring, before using her momentum to launch her back upwards, She continued to bob and weave, looking for the floating rings. Any ring knocked loose was a five second penalty from the time it took to collect all twelve. It took Scootaloo forty seconds, with a ten second penalty for two missed rings. In a familiar ritual, she quickly plowed into the rest zone for a quick break before Dash would send her off to the next set of obstacles. "Strong work Squirt, you keep this up and you'll put Spitfire to shame. You just need to be—" Scootaloo interjected. "20% faster, yeah yeah. I'd like to see you do the slalom." "Heh, there's a reason I did a sonic rainboom, Squirt. No pony since Spitfire had gotten a perfect score on the slalom." "No pressure then, huh?" Scootaloo stood up to shake all the rings loose from her legs. "Well on the bright side, I'll either win or fall like a rock when my wings cramp. "That's the spirit! Victory or death!" Dash collapsed laughing on the cloud. "Yeah, you would think today's a good day to die." "Come on—haha—next obstacle now!" Dash gestured at her as she finished her laughing, and Scootaloo reluctantly took off. The next part was the calm before the storm, literally. Several clouds were scattered around, and it was her job to quickly group them up, kick the storm clouds to spread the lightning across the whole mass, and then force a torrential downpour out of the clouds. Unfortunately for Scootaloo, weather control didn't come that easily. More often than not, she'd end up zapping herself like the town mail mare. Yesterday she had messed up and turned the thunderhead into a hurricane. Dash still couldn't explain how she pulled that off. Scootaloo circled around the clouds, edging them towards each other. She had to gently nudge the thunder clouds lest she be shocked. Once they were close enough together, she spun and bucked the storm cloud. The lightning arced, darkening the other clouds. This was the moment of truth. If she had packed the clouds properly, she could land in the dead center and start a downpour. If she hadn't. . . Scootaloo dove down into the center of the clouds. She heard a loud crack of thunder as she landed, and expected to wake up smelling like singed chicken. Fortunately for her, it had worked for once. She could hear the rain beneath her. "Dash! Dash! I did it!" Scootaloo looked around for her teacher but couldn't find her. Peering over the edge of the cloud, she saw wisps of smoke and a rainbow mane sticking out of a cloud below them. "Dash!" Scootaloo quickly landed to find Dash and a grey filly laughing together. "Wow, I've never seen a pegasus take a lightning strike and stay in the air like that!" Gale complimented Dash, and then noticed Scootaloo hovering there. "Gale." "Scootaloo, nice aim. You nearly took Dash's head off." Gale laughed, and was joined by Dash. "Don't worry squirt, my cutie mark isn't a lightning bolt for nothing. I'm nearly immune due to the good ol' pegasi magic. Gale here just saw the flash and thought I might be in trouble." "Oh that's nice of you, thanks." Scootaloo was still a little uneasy around her. "Oh no problem, I was actually coming to see if me and my dad can come out and borrow your obstacle course later. I've been training for the Best Young Flier's competition." "Oh." Scootaloo looked at Dash who was sitting up behind Gale. Dash was making a strong arm pose and flexing her muscles, as if to tell her to be strong. "Yeah sure, I've already got this contest in the bag. Nopony is faster than Dash and me." Dash smiled as Gale made a calculated reply. "Is that so? Well have you done the speed run yet? Five bits says I beat you in a race." Scootaloo gulped, and even Dash looked taken back. Dash quickly winked at Scootaloo to give her some confidence. This was how rivalries started, it was also a great way to get humiliated at school if she lost. She took a deep breath. "You're on!" The trio began to fly up to the top of the course. If there was one thing every pegasus loved, it was flying at unsafe velocities. The speed run was usually twelve to twenty-four miles, allowing the fastest pegasi to reach speeds at or near the sound barrier for a minute or two. The Best Young Fliers had a significantly shorter speed run. The replica Dash had built was little more than a starting gate, and a finishing gate down at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack had agreed to let Dash position a large catcher's-mitt shaped cloud over her south field. In case anypony lost control at the finish line, they could look forward to a soft cloud instead of a spine-shattering collision with the ground. Gale and Scootaloo lined up at the start line. It was only a matter of miles to the farm, and the best speed of the young fillies it might take them a minute or two to race there. The two did some quick stretches. "Alright I want a good clean race, no physical contact and no deliberately spiking your slipstream to send the other pony into a spinout. First one past the finish line wins." Dash clicked the radio on "I feel the need. . ." Dash looked at Scootaloo, who joined her in their chant. "The need, for speed!" "Racers, on your mark!" Dash pulled a flare gun out of her saddlebag. "Get set!" Fluttershy, Derpy, and Cloud Chaser had taken seats on a nearby cloud to watch. The trigger on the flare gun clicked, snapping the hammer into the blasting cap. "GO!" A red flare shot out of the gun, visible to anypony in Ponyville who looked towards the south end of town. Scootaloo kicked hard off the cloud. The race was designed to be at a forty-five degree angle, helping the younger pegasi gain speed. She was thankful for this as her muscles were already burning from Dash's relentless training regimen. Ahead of her, Gale looked back and Scootaloo could see her grin. It was no ordinary grin, oh no, this was the you've already lost you chicken! grin. And nopony insinuated that Scootaloo was a chicken. Scootaloo looked deep within herself, reaching for every last bit of energy. Her muscles almost seemed to stop burning, as the second wind kicked in. She quickly gained on Gale, whose grin vanished when she looked behind her. Scootaloo was mere feet behind Gale and off to the side. Neither pegasus could see anything beyond their tunnel vision towards the finish line. All that existed was the stretch directly in front of them, and their opponent. Gale used some foul sorcery to gain another boost of speed. Scootaloo tightened up every muscle in her legs and abdomen, forming the most aerodynamic shape possible. Her legs screamed at her as she tried to shape herself into a living bullet. Gaining slowly on Gale, she was amazed at the wind resistance. Squinting hard allowed her to almost see where they were going. The grey blur was her opponent, the large green blur with the tiny white dot must be the south field. Scootaloo forced her mouth closed as the wind threatened to flap her cheeks right off her face. Finally alongside Gale again, Scootaloo was almost able to flash her own smile at her. The duo were so engrossed in the race they didn't notice the other pegasi waiting at the finish line, the velocity at which they were traveling, of the fact that the finish line was barely a few hundred yards away and not a few miles. Scootaloo's body felt numb as she willed every muscle to help her put the pretentious Gale in her place. She couldn't even remember why she wanted to beat Gale, her whole mind fully absorbed in micro-managing each wing beat. She could swear she was pulling ahead as the air got turbulent. Scootaloo didn't want to look around, it would mess with the aero-dynamics, but it felt like Gale was messing with her slipstream. The air was beginning to feel solid, rough, bouncing her around between wing beats. She wanted to stop for safeties sake, but that part of her mind was quickly silenced. This was her victory, and if Gale wanted to take that from her she'd have to do better than a little turbulence. Dash, Fluttershy, Derpy, and Cloud Chaser were sitting on a cloud near the finish line. They were all wisely out of the path of the racers. Down on the ground, Applejack, Big Mac, Applebloom, Sweetie, and even Granny Smith were watching. The two blips in the sky were indistinguishable at this distance. Only Dash and Cloud Chaser as trained weather ponies were able to discern which one must be Scootaloo. Dash smiled in pride to see them flying neck and neck. Were she not the fastest flier in Equestria, Dash wouldn't have made it to the finish line in time to see her little sister win. Everypony was cheering as the two neared the finish line. Everypony but Dash. Scootaloo had brief thoughts flash through her mind, and she quickly squashed each to maintain her focus. I've never gone this fast! She tightened up her core muscles. can't see, eyes watering. Scootaloo strained her eyelids against the win. I'm so awesome! Scootaloo brought the image of Gale up in her mind's eye, silencing the stray thoughts. It's time to win this! By now Dash had a look of horror on her face. She turned to Cloud Chaser, who was just now beginning to realize the danger. "Cloud, they shouldn't be going that fast!" "No ****, I haven't seen a filly fly that fast since, well, you!" "I'll take Scootaloo, you take Gale." The turbulence was increasing. Scootaloo could feel Gale close to her, eddies forming between them. She wanted to get a little further away for safety, but doing so would cost her the race. The turbulent got even more violent as a white haze filled her vision. She pushed her hooves together and strained them to stretch out as far and straight forward as possible. First she noticed her wings seemed to be. . . wrong. The air felt different, between compensating for the turbulence, the wind flow felt so different over her wings. The resistance of the air doubled than tripled. Scootaloo strained to figure out what was going on, when a snippet of a conversation she once overheard came to mind. It was Dash describing what it felt like to break the sound barrier. A moment of doubt entered her head, as she recalled the hundred plus attempts it took Dash to do it without crashing. She opened her mouth to yell a warning to Gale, useless in the wind. Dash and Cloud were poised at the finish line, muscles taught and ready to step in if the fillies lost control. To their horror, the turbulent air of the juvenile mach cones exploded, sending the two fillies off in separate directions. They had been far too close together to safely go that fast, not that anypony expected them to be capable of such a feat. Dash took to the air like a bullet fired from the head of a missile being carried on the back of a meteorite. Scootaloo was tumbling through the air like a rag doll, and Dash knew exactly what that was like. She had felt it hundreds of times perfecting the technique to safely break the sound barrier. There was a reason she was world famous for being able to break it. The tangled orange missile was closing in on the ground, as Dash scooped her up at the last second. Careful not to arrest her momentum too quickly, she slowly angled them away from the ground and began a wide turn around towards AJ and the others. If a pegasi turned too fast at high speed, they could black out. Dash also had a great deal experience with black outs and red outs from the g-forces. If only Twilight would believe Dash that it wasn't her fault for always crashing into the library, it was gravity! Were it not for the grace of Celestia and a pegasi's anatomy, Dash wouldn't be here today. But Scootaloo wasn't Dash, she was her sister, and the most precious thing she had. All she could think about as they landed was how horrified she was. The thoughts of pride at the amazing display of speed were choked by the strange new motherly feelings of concern. "Scootaloo! Scootaloo are you ok?" Dash shook the filly who had blacked out during the descent. "Easy there!" Applejack ran over quickly and pulled something out of her saddlebag. "Smellin' salt from mah first aid kit." The small white ampule was waved under Scootaloo's nose, causing a remarkable, and agitated, regaining of consciousness. "Bah! Stop it!" Scootaloo batted a jello-like hoof around. "Gah whoa I'm all numb and tingly." Dash sat down with her, keeping her legs propped up. "Easy there squirt, are you alright? What happened? How could you be so reckless!" "Whoa now Dash, ah reckon ya ought to slow down a little. Ain't no way she seen that comin'." Applejack smiled at Dash as Applebloom trotted up. "Wow Scoot, that was so awesome!" Applebloom was beaming at her friend. "Ah never thought you'd go from scootin' to turnin' into a meteorite!" "Heh. . . thanks. Uh, water?" Scootaloo licked the sandpaper like roof of her mouth. Applebloom ran off to get some water. Dash had calmed down a little, as the adrenaline and sheer motherly terror faded. "Thank Celestia, Scootaloo. I didn't think either of you would get going that fast. If you didn't nearly turn into a Scootapancake, it would have been quite impressive." Scootaloo just nodded. "Gale!" Scootaloo tried to struggle to her hooves to check on her rival. If something happened to her. . . "Ah saw her with Cloud Chaser, filly is lucky we had a couple o weather ponies here to spectate. Ah doubt Fluttershy or Derpy could catch a butterfly." Applejack chuckled. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Derpy walked up behind them, with Dinky following. "Ah shucks, I didn't mean no offense Derpy." Applejack took her hat off. "Heh, none taken. I know my special talent, and it isn't catching fillies." Derpy smiled as her left eye drifted skyward. "Uh. . ." Scootaloo swallowed, which helped dry her throat slightly. "What—your talent?" "Oh, I thought I'd told you." Derpy looked back at her flank. "You ever seen bubbles float in the wind? There is so much more to the air then we see. Air currents, columns of warm air rising, things the birds use to migrate hundreds of miles. I'm able to sense the air currents much better than most pegasi, I could glide from here to Cloudsdale without flapping once." "Oh really? I think you and I ought to try that out sometime Derpy. If that's true you may have a thing or two to teach me for a change." Dash smiled at her. "Heh, just because I can't stomp on some storm clouds doesn't mean I can't fly, Dash." Derpy stuck her tongue out. Applebloom got back with the water and Scootaloo greedily drank it. After a few more minutes everypony seemed to be doing better, so they headed over to check on Gale. Gale stood there like nothing had happened, and Scootaloo couldn't tell if it was an act. "Hey." "Hey." "So nice flying up there, chicken, didn't think you had it in you." Gale smiled, and somehow Scootaloo could tell she hadn't meant it in a cruel way, but a sort of almost-friendly rivalry. "Thanks, not so bad for a grey old mare either." Scootaloo cocked half her grin up, giving off a hint of wickedness. "Heh, we'll see who is laughing at school today. You look like you can barely stand. Until the next race, Scootaloo." Gale turned and flew off towards school. Scootaloo could tell Gale was exhausted, though she hid it much better than her. "Dash, I don't suppose I could take a day off school? Does nearly getting turned into a puddle count as sick?" "That depends Squirt, do you want to tell Gale you were too tired to go to school or should I?" Dash flashed a knowingly evil grin at Scootaloo. She just wanted to make sure Scootaloo didn't miss any more homework and get a lower grade. Instead, she had used the new rivalry to trick Scootaloo into going to school. Who knows, Scootaloo might even stay awake during class for once, if only to spite Gale.