Scootaloo threw on her crusader cape as soon as she got home. The elements had just returned her and the missing ponies to their homes. She knew that school would be out soon, and she planned to give the crusaders a surprise. They must be worried about her, and they didn’t know about her cutie mark.
It didn’t take long to fly over to the school, and the timing was perfect. Scootaloo landed and trotted up to her friends.
“Scootaloo, you’re okay!” Apple Bloom shouted. Her and Sweetie tackled her in a hug
“Thanks, but relax. I’m fine,” Scootaloo said.
Sweetie got up and helped her friends to their hooves. “So, what happened?”
“Oh, the usual. I got fillynapped, tortured, and nearly killed. Then right when I was about to escape and beat everypony up, Dash showed up.” Scootaloo threw a few punches into the air to show them what she meant.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Sure. Ya always manage to escape and wrestle a wyvern or two when you tell a story.”
“It’s true! I led a prison uprising. Sure, for a moment there they tried to hang me—”
“What?!” Sweetie grabbed her friend and examined her neck. “Did they break anything? Have you noticed any swelling?”
Scootaloo pushed her off. “Hey, seriously, I’m fine. I even got my cutie mark for kicking flank.”
“Come on now,” Apple Bloom replied. “How gullible do ya think we are?”
“You tell me.” Scootaloo took off her cutie mark crusader cape and presented her flank.
“It’s a bird!” Sweetie shouted.
“It’s a plane!” Applebloom yelled.
“No, it’s a loser!” Diamond Tiara quipped. “That’s a ridiculous story. Nopony would believe that you got a cutie mark for choking to death.”
Silver Spoon laughed, and even Snips and Snails looked on skeptically.
“Oh yeah? Well, it’s a phoenix! And it’s way cooler than your special talent: wearing jewelry and being a stuck up bi—”
“Children!” Cheerilee shouted out. “What’s all the shouting for?”
“Scootaloo got her cutie mark!” Sweetie exclaimed.
“Congratulations, Scootaloo! What’s it mean?” she asked.
“Um. . .” Scootaloo rubbed a hoof behind her neck. “Well, Dash says it’s probably on account of me always getting up when I’m knocked down, and Twilight says it’s called tenacity.”
“Ha! So your cutie mark just means you're a tough little tomboy orphan. What’s your real special talent?” Diamond put her hooves on her shoulders and waved her forelegs like wings. “Tasting like chicken?”
Scootaloo was on her in an instant. “You take that back!”
“Or what, you’ll go get Dash?” Diamond looked Scootaloo in the eye and laughed.
“Diamond Tiara! That’s enough,” Cheerilee scolded.
“Anytime, anywhere, Diamond. I’ll teach you some manners,” Scootaloo said.
“Ah’d like to see ya do some tricks or somethin’, and prove her wrong,” Apple Bloom offered.
“She has a point,” Sweetie stated. “If your cutie mark is a phoenix, can you catch on fire when you fly fast enough? Like how Dash has a rainbow trail?”
“I uh, am not sure.” Scootaloo walked back towards her friends, feeling the eyes of all her classmates on her. “I don’t think it’s anything that special.”
“Well have ya tried?” Apple Bloom gestured to the road and they began to walk home, leaving the ill-mannered earth pony fillies behind them.
“Nah, I wouldn't know how. Dash says if it was gonna be anything cool like that, all I’d have to do is fly fast,” Scootaloo answered.
“Then why don’t you try? It’ll be fun!” Sweetie ran around in front of her. “Hey! And maybe you can help us with our cutie marks while you’re at it!”
Her wings fluttered and she looked up into the sky. “I’m not sure I want to find out if I can catch on fire. That sounds painful.”
“Bawk bawk bawk!” Diamond chanted from behind them. Silver broke out laughing.
Scootaloo spun around and glared at her. “You know I don’t like to be called chicken, and Cheerilee isn’t here to protect you!”
“Pfft, I’m not afraid of poor ponies. Besides, beating me up won’t prove your cutie mark isn’t worthless. I say you’re writing checks with your muzzle your flank can’t cash,” she retorted.
The orange filly spat on the ground, and took to the sky. In seconds she had flown up above the cloud layer and out of sight.
“Now see what ya did?” Apple Bloom asked. “This is her special day!”
“Pfft, I hate when ponies make stories up. If she’s gonna spin a fib it needs to be believable. I still can’t believe Dash would adopt that thing out of nowhere!” Diamond said.
High above her friends, Scootaloo hovered with a grim look of determination. She had figured out the direction of the wind, the altitude necessary to reach her desired speed, and positioned herself for the dive.
She took a deep breath, and plummeted towards the ground. Each beat of her wings pushed her closer to the ground, accelerating her until the clouds below were a blur. She hit the first layer of clouds and felt them scatter around her.
Scootaloo continued beating faster and faster, feeling the familiar sensation of a mach cone. This was as fast as she’d ever gone, having not broken the sound barrier yet. Looking behind her revealed nothing. No flames, smoke, or rainbow contrail. Just a boring old filly who was good at taking a hit.
Angry, she angled into a steeper descent and increased her speed again. She aimed for a small storm cloud, spearing through it and destroying it. She felt the static charge trickle down her feathers into her spine. The air warmed noticeably behind Scootaloo.
Looking back, she realized it had worked! Somehow, she had ignited the air behind her. It then dawned on her that she now had a column of flame chasing her. The flames danced along the low pressure zone created as she flied, and left a contrail similar to the Wonderbolts. A deep purple smoke burnt off the orange flames.
Scootaloo panicked. She could feel the skin on her hind legs heating up, and imagined the horrible blisters they must be getting. Scootaloo focused ahead of her and tucked her legs in, turning her body into a spear-like shape. She convinced herself that breaking the sound barrier was the only way to keep the flames from catching up and consuming her.
The mach cone narrowed around her, pushing against her body. The air felt thick and fought to throw Scootaloo out of control. She burst through the final layer of clouds before the ground, and saw the specks of what were her friends.
Her vision blurred and color seemed to drain from around her. She focused on that one point at the tip of her hoof, which was vibrating furiously. Scootaloo held her hoof as steady as she could, watching the mach cone stabilize as she held her leg still.
The cone splintered, and in an instant vanished. Scootaloo flinched as it collapsed around her, then opened her eyes. She could no longer hear the sound of the wind or her wings. The faint crackling of flame was gone, and Scootaloo realized she only had seconds left to pull up.
Seconds earlier. . .
“She’s probably at home cry—”
“Look!” Silver interrupted. She pointed at the sky and the other fillies looked up to see what it was.
High above them they saw something that resembled the meteor shower they had watched a few months ago. A small ball of orange flame was plummeting through the sky, followed by a long trail of smoke.
“Sweet Celestia! Is that Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I. . . uh. . .” Diamond’s mouth flopped open and shut wordlessly as she struggled to comprehend what was happening.
“Is it just me, or is it getting bigger?” Sweetie asked.
“It is!” Silver exclaimed.
“Quick girls!” Sweetie grabbed Apple Bloom and jumped into a nearby ditch. Silver joined them seconds later.
“Where’s Diamond?” Silver asked.
Diamond stood on the road spellbound. The orange mass of flames really was Scootaloo, and the halo of flame surrounding her tail made her look like a monster out of Griffonian mythology.
It continued to grow larger, and Diamond saw a beautiful cone of air shaping around her. The flame danced along the cone as it expanded and lengthened. She smiled as the cone vanished and a beautiful orange and purple shockwave was created.
Diamond gasped, and was hit by the pressure wave of the air from the sonic boom. A second later, she felt the heat against her skin. As she was knocked back into the ditch, the heat of the fiery rainboom singed all her hair off.
She rolled into the ditch, dazed. A loud explosion followed a second later—the shockwave of sound following in the wake of the pegasus traveling faster than it.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie, and Silver peeked out of the trench after the loud boom. They saw the orange and purple fireball vanish towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Dash heard the explosion and knew immediately what it was. It was the sound wave that inevitably caught up with her when doing a sonic rainboom, and it was the most beautiful sound in Equestria. They swiveled and Dash followed her ears to face the direction the sound had come in. She saw an orange fireball in the sky.
“Yes! Go Scootaloo!” Dash yelled.
Applejack adjusted her hat. “Uh, Dash, ya gonna buy some apples or what?”
“Not now, gotta fly!’ Dash jumped into the air and zoomed off towards the fireball, adding her own sonic rainboom to the dazzling aerial display.
Across the street Max Pane smiled as countless windows shattered. It was quite profitable to be the only window salesman in Ponyville.
Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Silver walked into the apple orchard. Behind them a foul-mouthed Diamond Tiara followed. Her coat hair had been singed off, as had most of her mane and tail. Without the hair on her flank, her cutie mark had also been erased. She looked like one of the hairless pink gophers Fluttershy had in her garden.
“When I get my hooves on her I’m gonna knock that smug grin right off her face!” Diamond muttered.
“Ah don’t know, ah think the look suits you, blank flank!” Apple Bloom taunted. Silver and Sweetie began laughing at her.
“Silver! You stop that this instant!” she responded.
“Look!” Silver said, pointing ahead.
There was a path leading into the orchard. On each side of it the trees no longer had leaves. The ground had been scorched black. As they walked forward, it only got weirder.
“This is like something out of a children’s book!” Sweetie observed.
Sure enough, orange and purple flames were creating a trail along each side of the scorched dirt. They lead down the path as the ground began to be indented by the force of the impact.
“Do ya think she’s okay?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I think we’re about to find out,” Sweetie observed.
Up ahead near the clubhouse was a large crater, and a huge mound of dirt. The fillies trotted up to the edge of it, and looked inside.
Scootaloo lay on her back, panting heavily. It was at that moment Dash landed next to the fillies and saw her laying there.
“Squirt, are you okay?!” Dash asked.
Scootaloo opened her eyes and looked up at her fellow crusaders, Silver, and Dash.
“Best.
Day.
Ever!”