“Alright Rumble, are you ready?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Rumble said. “How about you? Are you sure about this?”
“Try to have some confidence Rumble!” Scootaloo said, knocking Rumble a bit with one hoof. “We’ve been practicing this trick for a few days now. I’m sure we’ll be able to do it just fine.”
“Alright then if you’re so sure,” Rumble said with a smirk. “Let’s get started.”
Scootaloo and Rumble both jumped on their hind hooves. The half flew/half walked to a point where they were back to back, wings outstretched. They both then squatted as best as they could and jumped into the blue air together with as much force as they could. For a few seconds while in the air they flapped their wings in unison before they broke off and flew in opposite directions.
Scootaloo and Rumble then did several arcs and flips in exact mirror of each other making sure not to break formation. They would fly far away from each other and then in a long flowing arc they would go so close to the middle to the point where there was only an inch away from each other and the slightest movement back would cause them to collide and if their wings weren’t perfectly in sync they would crush wings against each other. They were both facing downwards and heading straight for the ground. Their hearts started beating faster as the green ground started rushing up to them.
“Alright Rumble, this is it!” Scootlaoo yelled above the noise of the wind. Rumble uselessly nodded even though Scootaloo couldn’t see it right now.
When they were still some distance from the ground Scootaloo and Rumble put a bit of distance between themselves and started doing several front flips. Then while they were still spinning they managed to touch their hind hooves together and proceeded to kick off from one another sending their momentum in a different direction and causing them to arc to the ground—just barely missing it—before they start angling and go upwards using the airflow they gained from the front flips they did.
They continued arcing in the air until they once again met each other in the middle, in which they went back for the ground. Once they reached back on the ground Rumble stated taking several deep breaths from the work they just did in the air. Scootaloo on the other hand looked for the only spectator they know that they had at the moment.
“Hey Sweetie Belle, how was that?” Scootaloo asked as soon as she found her friend.
The white unicorn looked at her friend and said “Well I was worried you guys were going to crash on several occasions and you didn’t so I guess that’s something.”
“Oh come on,” Scootaloo said, flapping her orange wings triumphantly. “You should have known me and Rumble would make it through.”
“Rumble and I,” Sweetie Belle corrected.
“You weren’t the one in the sky,” Scootaloo said. She then got down into a ready position once again. “And this isn’t even the last thing I have planned.”
“Scootaloo what are you…?” Rumble asked as he finally walked up to where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were talking. But before he was able to finish what he was asking Scootaloo took off for the right where her scooter was lying against a tree. She grabbed it and flew to the top of a hill in the distance.
Scootaloo, now an orange spec within Rumble and Sweetie Belle’s eyes, got on her scooter and started riding down the steep slope of the hill. She continued using that to go faster and faster until she reached the bottom of the hill she jumped of her scooter and snapped open her wings. She moved them faster and let the inertia she gained from the hill give her the strength to fly as fast as she could.
“10 bits says she’s going to hurt herself,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I really don’t want to take that bet,” Rumble replied.
Scootaloo started flying closer to the point where Rumble and Sweetie Belle were standing at as high speeds as she could manage. She flew faster and faster towards them to the point where a cone stated forming around her due to the air pressure. The cone started going narrower and narrower as she reached closer to the speed she wanted to break.
“She’s going to try and break the sound barrier again,” Rumble redundantly noted, his eyes fixed on Scootaloo.
“I’ve noticed,” Sweetie Belle said. “Looks like she is still trying to be Rainbow Dash.”
“Well that is why we’re training together,” Rumble said. “I want to be as good as Thunderlane someday and Scootaloo wants to be as good as Rainbow Dash. I think I have the easier goal though since I don’t have to do that.”
“Well if she does it she’ll be the first teenager that managed to break the sound barrier,” Sweetie Belle said, “and since there is no technical ‘proof’ that Rainbow Dash caused the Sonic Rainboom when she was a filly and she didn’t do it again until she was a mare anyways she would technically be the youngest.”
“I wouldn’t tell that to Scootaloo though,” Rumble said. “She might feel glad she is technically the youngest pony to break the sound barrier, but she would hate having that title when it should belong to Rainbow Dash.”
Scootaloo got close to the speed she wanted to break, but eventually she was stopped and ended up bumping against the air pressure she was trying to pass. The cone then pushed her back into the air and caused her to lose momentary control of her wings. She was falling headfirst into the ground with no way of stopping it.
Rumble, acting without thinking, rushed over to where she was landing so that she would land on something other than the hard ground. He jumped and pushed his wings forward and after that push he started sliding on the ground to the point where Scootaloo would land. He closed his eyes and braced himself for impact, but the impact he was expecting never came. Instead when he finally opened his eyes he saw Scootaloo over him by a few inches, being hung by her purple tail which was suspended in the air by a green aura. Sweetie Belle walked up to them, her horn glowing with the same green aura.
“T-thanks Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo grunted. “C-can you let go of my now? It’s sort of painful being hung by my tail.”
“Uhh no wait,” Rumble said but it was too late. Sweetie Belle let go of her magic causing Scootaloo to fall on top of Rumble.
“Ow!” both Rumble and Scootaloo both said on impact.
“Hey you told me to let go,” Sweetie Belle said.
“You could have waited until I was out from under her,” Rumble said.
“Now why would she want to do that?” asked a voice that immediately snapped Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s attention. Rumble looked up as well, but much more slowly since he didn’t recognize the voice and was more interested in seeing what Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were looking at. Walking up to them was a light pink earth pony wearing a silver tiara.
“Diamond Tiara, what the hay are you doing here?” Scootaloo asked.
“I was just standing here waiting for you to fail just as I knew you would,” Diamond Tiara said. “After all, as much as you would like to think you are Rainbow Dash’s kid, you aren’t. You might want to do break the sound barrier, you might want to get into the Wonderbolts, but we all know you’re not going to.”
“You wanna bet?!” Scootaloo said. She got off of Rumble and got ready to stand her ground against Diamond Tiara should she need to.
“Woops, sorry Rumble,” Diamond Tiara said. “Looks like I ruined the closest think you will ever have to a romantic moment with her. Is what I’ve heard true? I’ve heard that you two haven’t even kissed each other yet.”
“Who asked you?!” Scootaloo said angrily.
“It’s too bad Rumble,” Diamond Tiara continued. “You actually get a mare and of course it has to be a mare that you can’t even date. I guess that’s too bad for you. Maybe you should go looking for some other mare that you can actually have your way with.”
“Yeah so what?” Scootaloo asked. “We don’t do all of the dating romancing stuff that most couples do. Rumble doesn’t care.”
“Really, is that what Rumble thinks, or is that just what you think?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Why don’t you let Rumble speak for himself?”
Diamond Tiara looked at Rumble who was finally getting up himself. As he got up he got the eyes of both Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara looking at him. The only pony right now that wasn’t giving him a look was Sweetie Belle, who was instead looking angrily at Diamond Tiara.
“Yeah, I’m uhh fine with it,” Rumble said unconvincingly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sweetie Belle said. “Diamond Tiara is just jealous.” Sweetie Belle walked forward and started going on the offensive herself.
“What do you have to say about jealousy?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Who has Pipsqueak decided to date this week huh? You or Dinky?”
Sweetie Belle blushed in frustration at the memory, but she didn’t let Diamond Tiara gain any ground. “Neither,” she said. “He’s going to wait and think about it before he starts dating one of us again. And if he decides to date Dinky, I’ll be perfectly fine with it.”
“Are you sure about that?” Diamond Tiara asked tauntingly. “Because I’ve heard how you reacted when he first started dating Dinky instead of you. And something tells me you weren’t ‘perfectly fine with it.’ What’s stopping you from reacting the same way next time?”
Sweetie Belle’s horn started glowing so Rumble and Scootaloo immediately hit the ground and covered their ears. They were expecting an ear splitting sound to come from Sweetie Belle’s mouth, but before the sound came Sweetie Belle shook her head and stopped her magic. She then looked back at Diamond Tiara, still with an angry expression.
“Yeah well at least we have friends,” Sweetie Belle said. “You don’t even have that ever since Silver Spoon transferred schools.”
Silver Spoon’s transferring was a day that goes down as one of the greatest days in the lives of the former Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had already gotten their Cutie Marks at this point so Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon already lessened their bullying due to the fact that the insult ‘Blank Flank’ could no longer be used, and on that day when Silver Spoon transferred, the bullying became non-existent. The bullying still happened every once in a while, as it was today, but nowhere near as much, and it didn’t really bother them since they would take the offensive as well.
“I have plenty of friends!” Diamond Tiara said in her defense. “And just because Silver Spoon transferred doesn’t mean we don’t talk! We just…send letters to each other most of the time.”
“Well maybe if you were, I don’t know, nicer,” Scootaloo said intensely “you would have some more friends. Did you ever think of that?”
“Now why don’t you leave us be?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You can go home and be jealous somewhere else.”
“Fine I’ll go for now,” Diamond Tiara said as she closed her eyes and turned around to leave. But before she got more than two steps away she heard a somewhat familiar, but quite different, voice.
“There you are Diamond Tiara. I was wondering where in Ponyville you were.”
Diamond Tiara opened her eyes. “Silver Spoon is that you?” she asked as she looked in the direction of where the voice was coming from. As soon as she looked around and her eyes locked on Silver Spoon, her mouth dropped open.
Scootaloo, Rumble, and Sweetie Belle all noticed Diamond Tiara’s reaction so they all moved to either the left or right to get Diamond Tiara out of their sights so they could see what she was looking at. And as soon as they caught sight of Silver Spoon, their mouths opened up out of shock as well.