Appleloosa was a growing town. For the most part, the ponies who lived here were members of the Apple family, who were working hard to keep the town feed. But, there were others who were constantly arriving. Mining ponies arrived to check and see if there was any potential for coal, gold, or any other precious metals. Then, there were ponies who had come to set up shops, banks, and other businesses that a growing town needed.
So, it didn’t seem odd to Sheriff Silver Star when two new ponies showed up out of nowhere. He had seen the two flew in on pegasus wings, while wearing heavy hooded cloaks that hid most of their feature. The taller of the two was light blue with a barely visible cutie mark of a lightning bolt in a bow. The shorter of the two was bright yellow with a quill cutie mark. They carried with them heavy saddle bags, which most likely contained all of their valuables.
At the time, the sheriff had been going around, making sure everypony was helping to defend the town, while they waited for help from Canterlot that they were sure was coming. They had been busy making pies to be used as weapons, building up their fortifications, and making sure that all of the young ones would be safe. When he saw the two newcomers enter town, Silver Star felt conflicted. While they did need everypony they could get their hooves on, it seemed wrong to force two newcomers, who didn’t have a stake in anything, to fight for them.
So, doing what he felt was the best course of action, he walked up to the two. As he did, he made sure that his sheriff’s badge was out in plain sight, so that they would know they could trust him.
“Howdy,” said Silver Star, once he was close enough. “Welcome to Appleloosa.”
“Thank you,” the blue pegasus commented with gratitude. Judging by the voice, Silver Star assumed that the blue one was a stallion. “We have been traveling for the last several days with little food or water. Finding this place is like a blessing from Celestia herself. Didn’t even know there was a pony town out here.”
“Was just built this year,” replied the sheriff. “Sadly, you picked a poor time to show up. We’re gearing up for a showdown between us and the buffalo and bat ponies.”
This got a reaction out of the two. At the same time, the two turned to look at each other before returning their unseen gaze at the sheriff.
“D-did you say bat ponies?” questioned the yellow one in a flowery sweet mare voice. “But, why would they even be out here in the desert?”
“That doesn’t matter,” replied Silver Star. “Because we plan on making sure that they won’t be here for long. We’re going to be ready for them and the buffalo when they show their faces. Hopefully soon, soldiers from Canterlot will be arriving, so we can drive them all out. Now, I know this isn’t really your fight and all, but we would really appreciate a few more pairs of hooves.”
The two pegasi looked at him for a moment, before they turned around and began whispering to each other. Silver Star tried to listen in, but their voices were so quiet that he couldn’t make out a thing. He didn’t really mind much that they were acting like this. This was a difficult situation and he wouldn’t be surprised if they said no. It wasn’t their fight after all. But, that didn’t mean he wasn’t hoping that they’d say yes.
After a minute or two, the couple turned around.
“If bat ponies are involved, we’ll help,” said the stallion.
“Good,” said Silver Star with a nod. “I’ll show you both around real quick. Please follow me, er…”
“Thunder Shot,” said the stallion. He then gestured to the mare. “And this is my wife, Dreamy Words.”
Sheriff Silver Star nodded as he gestured them to follow him. Yet, as they walked away, nopony noticed a pony flying above them as they laid their traps. This pony watched with a smile on his face as he flew back to tell the buffalo and other bat ponies what he had seen.
-x-
“Ok, Scootaloo, let’s try it one more time,” called out Shadow. The orange filly nodded as she prepared to give the current exercise one more goes.
After Twilight had left her in the care of Shadow Blade, the stallion had gotten to work showing her the basics of flying. The first was a simple exercise in controlling her height. Shadow flew up several yards straight up and told Scootaloo to fly up to his level, before hovering in place.
At first, Scootaloo thought this would be easy. Yet, to her shock, it was harder than it looked. Each time she took to the air, she would zoom in one direction or another. And, when she did go straight up, she shot right past Shadow.
Eventually, she managed to get to his level, but found hovering there to be difficult. She had to keep flapping her wings at just the right speed to keep herself in place. Anymore and she would begin to rise. If she slowed down too much, she would then begin to fall.
Falling wasn’t something that Scootaloo was worried about. Once she was in the air, the pegasus filly was under the watchful eye of Shadow. Whenever it looked like she was going to go out of control, the bat stallion would swoop in to catch her. Then, he would tell her what she was doing wrong and how to fix it. With him around, she felt safe.
Once she had gotten the hang of the first exercise, Shadow began to set up the next more. In the air above the training fields, there were several cloud poles that Shadow had moved so that they were spread a bit farther apart than usual. The point of this exercise was to weave back and forth between the poles. In order to do this, Scootaloo would have to shift her weight from one side of her body to the other.
“I think you can handle this one,” Shadow had told her at the start. “It’s very similar to how ponies ride a bike or, in your case, a scooter. Just shift your weight to the right or left, depending on what direction you want to go. And take your time, there’s no need to rush it right now. Just worry about getting the basics down.”
That had been six tries so far and Scootaloo felt like she hadn’t made any real progress. The first time she tried, she leaned too much to the right and ended up doing a barrel roll. The second try she didn’t lean to the side enough, which caused her to fly right into the first cloud pole. After that, she got a little better but still ended up hitting the second.
“Just like riding my scooter,” muttered Scootaloo to herself, taking off again. This time, she tried going a bit slower. Leaning to her right, she avoided the first pole. As soon as she passed it, she began to lean left and avoided the second. As she went, she could hear Shadow shouting out encouraging words to her, telling her she was doing great. By the time she was finally done, she felt so tired that she began to fall slowly to the ground.
Luckily for her, Shadow caught her and helped her land.
“You’re doing great, Scootaloo,” said Shadow with a grin.
“Really?” asked Scootaloo, who was a little surprised by this.
“Definitely,” answered Lightning Dust as she flew towards the two. “Kid, let me tell you something. Back when I was learning to fly, it took me a week before I got to where you are. But, then again we were learning it as a class, and the instructors couldn’t watch everypony like Shadow is with you.”
“That could be it,” said Scootaloo as she looked over at Shadow. “I do have a great teacher.”
“Thank you,” said Shadow with a grin. “And, speaking of teachers, I think it’s time you took a short break and did some studying. Your mother would be very unhappy with the both of us if we spent all of our time having fun.”
“Sure thing, Dad,” said Scootaloo without any hint of sarcasm in her voice. Truth was she had begun to think of him like a father figure ever since he told her about Genetic Code. And after today, he fit the bill of what she believed a dad should be.
A father, to her at least, does all the fun outdoorsy things, like teaching his foal how to play hoofball, going camping, or teaching them how to fly. A father tells his kids the hard things, like when Shadow was telling her about what Genetic Code did. A father protects with actions, rather than words, like when Shadow scared away Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon when they were bullying her.
Besides, he and Twilight were going to be getting married soon, thus he was going to be her father soon anyways, so he might as well get used to being called that.
If Shadow was shocked to hear this, he sure didn’t show it. To be honest, he hadn’t expected anypony to call him that for a few more years. Heck, he didn’t even think he’d be ready by then. But, hearing Scootaloo call him that didn’t make him nervous in the slightest. Instead, he felt proud to be called that.
As Scootaloo walked over to the side of the training field to get her bags, she noticed a group of ponies heading her way. A moment later, she was tackled to the ground by two fillies.
“Scootaloo!” cried Sweetie Belle, wrapping her hooves around the pegasus’ neck. “I was so worried about you!”
“Heavy,” groaned Scootaloo as she tried her best to push her friend from Ponyville off of her. “Can’t breathe.” As the two got off her, Scootaloo took a moment to notice who the other filly was. It was Apple Bloom, a filly she had seen in class back in Ponyville, but never really spoke to. The only thing she really knew about her was that she lived on a farm and didn’t have a cutie mark.
“Howdy, ah’m Apple Bloom,” introduced the earth filly as she reached out a hoof. “Sorry for tackling ya like that.”
“No prob,” replied Scootaloo as she hoof-bumped. “The name’s Scootaloo.”
“Is it true?” asked Sweetie Belle. “I heard you got adopted!”
“Yep,” replied Scootaloo with a nod and a grin. “And my new parents are really awesome!”
“Not as awesome as I am,” said a voice from above them. The three fillies looked up and saw Rainbow Dash hovering above them.
Scootaloo felt a little nervous being this close to the mare she idolized for so long. In fact, for the longest time, she wished that Rainbow could be something like a big sister to her. But now, things were a little different. And, in a strange sense, she felt a little different. After everything she had seen and done in the Republic, her definition of awesome had been expanded upon.
“And who are you?” asked Lightning Dust, walking over to the rainbow-maned mare.
“Rainbow Dash,” proudly come the reply as she landed on the ground. “Fastest pony in Equestria.”
As Twilight and the rest of the ponies from Equestria walked over, they could hear Lightning snicker at the comment. In fact, many of the other lunar ponies in the area had an amused look on their faces, like they had heard somepony tell a really funny joke.
“Fastest in Equestria, huh,” said Lightning once she had stopped. “Is that an official title, or just something you like to say?”
“Hey, I am the fastest,” said Rainbow defensively.
“It’s true,” said Applejack. “Rainbow here is one of the fastest mares ah know. Defiantly the fastest in Ponyville. Wouldn’t surprise me none if she was fastest in Equestria.”
“Thank you, Applejack,” said Rainbow with nod to her friend.
“Whatever,” said Lightning, rolling her eyes. “Like being the fastest in Equestria is really something to brag about here. Around these parts, I’m the fastest.”
“You mean second fastest now that I’m here,” said Rainbow as she locked eyes with Lightning Dust. The two mares then began a stare down, actually beginning to sweat as their looks grew more and more intense.
Sensing that things might go the wrong way soon, Twilight thought it best that she stepped in. Shooting Spike had gotten things off to a rocky start and she didn’t want things to go any further downhill. Also, she didn’t want one of her best friends to get into trouble. So, taking a deep breath Twilight stepped forward.
“Ok, how about we-” began Twilight, but stopped as the two began to snort at each other like bulls.
“There’s only one way we can settle this,” said Rainbow Dash. “A race!”
“Fine!” shouted Lightning Dust as she began to take off her armor. “First to do ten laps around the castle wins.”
“You’re on!” said Rainbow.
Twilight looked at the two and then at everypony around her. For the most part, she seemed to be the only pony worrying. The Royal Guard seemed to be taking this very lightly as they were passing bets between themselves. The mares from Equestria seemed to be cheering on their friend, who was stretching her wings. Quickly, Twilight trotted over to Shadow.
“Aren’t you going to stop this?” she whispered in his ear.
“I don’t see why I should,” he replied with a shrug.
“Because a member of Princess Luna’s Royal Guard is about to race against a representative of Equestria for no real reason,” hissed Twilight.
Shadow shook his head. “Trust me, Twilight,” he soothingly declared, placing a hoof gently on her shoulder. “They need to do this.”
Sighing in defeat, Twilight looked at the scene in the hopes that nothing went wrong. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Scootaloo was standing near the other two fillies and Spike. It seemed that both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were both staring at the pegasus’ flank with jealousy.
“I don’t believe it,” whined Sweetie Belle. “First Spike gets his cutie mark, and he’s not even a real pony! Then, when we find you, we find out that you’ve got one as well! How did you get your cutie mark?”
“Laser tag,” said Scootaloo simply.
“What’s laser tag?” asked Apple Bloom.
Before Scootaloo could go into the details, somepony blew a whistle. All head turned to see the two speedy pegasi standing in front of a big red line. Both of them were wearing similar expressions of confidence as they crouched low to the ground, their wings up and ready.
In front of them was a guard pony with one of his front hooves held high in the air. The two pegasi mares watched the hoof with the same intensity as a lion watching its prey. Then, in a split second, it was lowered, signaling the start of the race.
Rainbow was the first to spring into the air, while Lightning seemed to be waiting. Thinking that the lunar pegasi was chickening out, Rainbow smirked as she started her first lap at a medium pace for her. There as she turned a corner, she thought to herself that it was too easy.
“Is this really what the best flyer in Equestria can do?” asked a voice above Rainbow. The multi-maned pegasus looked up to see Lightning Dust flying on her back with her hooves behind her head. From the way she was flying, she was easily keeping up with her. “If this is the best you got, then you might as well just give up now.” With that said, Lightning righted herself and took off, leaving Rainbow Dash far behind and took the first lap.
“What the hay?” shouted Rainbow in surprise.
Lightning Dust looked behind her and grinned. “There’s a reason they call me Lightning Dust,” she gloated. “I move as fast as lightning and I leave everypony else in my dust!”
“Oh yeah,” called Rainbow with a grin. “Then, you’re going to have to change your name after this race!” With that, Rainbow sped up to her full speed. At first, it looked like it wasn’t enough. But, with each second, she inched her way closer and closer to her opponent.
This didn’t go unnoticed to the trained eyes of many of the ponies below. Many of the guards were cheering not just for Lightning Dust, but also Rainbow Dash. They could clearly see that she did have the skills and the speed that a true racer had. Many of them began to believe that if Rainbow hadn’t taken it easy, then Lightning would have already lost. But, in the end, it didn’t matter for they were right now watching a very close race.
Lightning looked to her side and was shocked to see that she and Rainbow were almost neck and neck. Using all of her might, Lightning tried to push more speed out of her wings. She managed to get another inch ahead of Rainbow as they made their way to the final lap.
Yet, Rainbow only responded by pulling out even more speed. Finally, in a blur, the two crossed the finish line. Once they did, the two landed on the ground, sweating up a storm and panting hard. Together they looked at the others.
“Who won?” they both asked at the same time.
“Ah don’t know,” said Applejack. “Looked mighty close.”
“Dear, I couldn’t even make either of you out, because you were both going at such ridiculous speeds,” exclaimed Rarity.
“It was a tie,” noted Shadow with confidence. He then looked at the two to see if they would argue with his verdict.
At first, the two just stared at him with a ‘you gotta be kidding me’ look. But then, after a moment, the two just looked at each other with a bit of respect in each other’s eyes. Lightning was the first to hold up her hoof and point it in Rainbow’s direction. Smiling, Rainbow lifted her own hoof and the two bumped.
“It was a good race,” said Lightning as she lowered her hoof. “We should do it again before you leave.”
“Yeah,” agreed Rainbow. “Next time, it’ll have to be more awesome.”
“Totally,” agreed Lightning. “With some explosions and obstacles.”
“Wicked,” said Rainbow as the others either cheered or shook their heads.