1 The New Filly
It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, and the Weather Patrol had ensured that not one cloud was in the sky. It was a rare day of perfection for everypony to go out and enjoy the fresh air. Too bad Scootaloo was feeling none of that. Staring longingly out the window of Cheerilee's classroom, her mind wandering, thinking of all the more exciting things she could be doing besides learning maths. Scooter tricks, flying lessons with Rainbow Dash, crusading for cutie marks. Yes, today was a perfect day. And she was getting none of it.
"Scootaloo!" Cheerilee's voice rang through the classroom, drawing her attention to the annoyed teacher. "You look as if your attention is undivided. Do you think you can tell us the answer to this question?"
Scootaloo looked at the board, 5x13. She hated multiplication. It was so much more complicated than addition. Scratching around in her blank mind, Scootaloo starting searching for an answer to Miss Cheerilee's question, but came up with nothing. "Uhhh...ahhh...hmmm...fifty....two...?"
Cheerilee brought a hoof to her forehead, and the class erupted into laughter. Sighing in frustration, she glared at Scootaloo, who just smiled weakly in response. "Scootaloo, don't think I haven't noticed your constant slacking off today in class."
"I'm sorry. It's just that..."
"It's just what, Scootaloo?" Cheerilee interrupted, eyebrows raised.
Scootaloo hesitated before answering. "It’s nothing." she answered, slumping back down onto the desk. Cheerilee looked over at the window that Scootaloo was gazing out of. Sunny skies and undisturbed beauty, no wonder she wasn't paying any attention. Cheerilee sighed.
"Ok class." she announced. "Due to a lack of work actually being completed, I'm going to make you all a proposal. You can all either learn multiplication now, or I can give it to you for homework and you go home early. What do you say?" The response from the class was practically immediate.
"Yes please!"
"Send us home!"
"The second option!"
"Give us homework!"
"Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear as a teacher." Cheerliee thought to herself. "Very well. The questions for you to complete are on the board. I expect that all of you will have finished them by tomorrow. And with that, class dismissed. Have a good day everypony."
A cheer went up in the class as fillies and colts hurriedly packed away their things into their saddlebags and rushed for the door as if it would close if they didn't reach it in time. Scootaloo was first out the door, the fresh air enveloping her like a warm bath.
Fillies and colts ran outwards, away from the school house in all directions. Scootaloo went straight for her scooter. Dropping her saddlebag in the trailer, she popped on her helmet and gripped the handle bars.
"Hey Scoots. Wait up." Scootaloo turned to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle running towards her. Sighing, she got off her scooter and waited for them to reach her.
"Why'd you have to run out the door?" asked Sweetie Belle, panting for breath slightly. Scootaloo shrugged in response
"I just didn't want to be in the classroom anymore. This day is perfect and spending it in there..." she gestured to the school house, "...is totally uncool."
Apple Bloom glanced over at the school house before looking back at Scootaloo, frowning. "Ya know that school is an important part of bein'a filly."
"I know that, but am I not allowed to admit that I don't want to be there?"
"I suppose not..."
"Good." Scootaloo concluded. "Now come on. We've got cutie marks to crusade for."
Apple Bloom and Sweetie jumped into the trailer of the scooter. Scootaloo's wings buzzed to life, and she gave the school house one more glance before leaving.
Then she saw her.
A young filly, about her age, wondering around the school house. The filly had an orange mane. Her coat was coloured light purple. She looked a little lost. The filly turned slightly, and walked around the corner of school house, but it was enough time for Scootaloo to notice that the filly had wings. And no cutie mark.
And that was enough to spike her interest.
Taking off her helmet, Scootaloo jumped off her scooter and turned to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who were patiently waiting in the trailer.
"Can you guys just wait a sec? I got something I need to do quickly."
With that, Scootaloo ran after the filly. She rounded the corner the filly disappeared by to find...no-one. Frowning, Scootaloo turned her head around, looking in all directions. The filly was nowhere to be seen. It was as if she had just vanished. Shrugging to herself, Scootaloo turned to walk back to her friends. Then the purple filly revealed herself.
"BOO!"
"AHHH!!!" Scootaloo jumped several feet in the air.
She could here giggling from behind her. Turning around, she saw the filly. Her wings were buzzing as she hovered upside-down behind her, several feet in the air. She couldn't stop giggling. Scootaloo just stared at her. Her orange mane and purple coat mirrored her own mane and coat perfectly, just with reversed colours. The fillies mane was even styled in a wavy motion, similar to her own.
"What are you looking at?" The filly had stopped laughing and was now looking down at Scootaloo, still hovering upside-down.
Scootaloo shook her head to snap herself out of her stupor. "Sorry. It's just...we look exactly alike."
"Really?" The filly quickly scanned herself, as if she had forgotten the colours of her body. "Oh cool. We do. That's creepy."
Both fillies stared at each other in a shared silence, until they both burst out laughing. Calming herself down somewhat, Scootaloo managed to speak. "So why'd you scare me?"
"So sorry about that. I just couldn't help myself."
"Sure you couldn't. Do you always scare ponies who try to approach you?"
The filly did a loop in the air and landed down next to Scootaloo. She stuck and reached out with a hoof and ruffled Scootaloo's mane. "Only when they're chickens that are just begging for a fright." Scootaloo's anger flared slightly, and she slapped the filly's hoof off her head.
"Don't call me chicken!" She said in a livid tone. "I hate that name!"
"Sorry. Sorry. Honest mistake."
Thankfully, the filly's apology managed to calm Scootaloo down. "So are you new in Ponyville?"
"Yep, I just moved here. How'd you know?"
"I've just never seen you in Cheerilee's class before."
"So that's the teacher's name? Cheerilee? Cool. My parents are going to be enrolling me soon. I thought I'd check out where my education would be taking place first."
Scootaloo nodded. She then suddenly remembered that the pony sitting next to her had no cutie mark.
"I couldn't help but notice you're a blank flank." The purple filly looked down at her bare flank before looking back up at Scootaloo.
"You're not one of those bullies who pick on ponies who don't have their cutie marks yet, are you?" She asked with narrowed eyes, her voice filled with suspicion. "Because there were a few of those at my old school, and they never gave me a break about how they were so much more superior over me because they had a picture on their butt that told them what they were destined to do for the rest of their lives."
Scootaloo giggled. The filly was right. A cutie mark was basically at picture on a pony's butt. The way she made it sound was pretty funny though. Realising that her laughing would soon make her look like a bully herself, she stopped and answered the filly's question. "No. No. I'd never do something like that. Although I should warn you, we have two of those bullies in our class. But it's ok. I'll help you steer clear of them."
"Oh, thank you." The filly looked relieved.
"No problem. Now about you being a blank flank. How would you like some help with getting your cutie mark?"
"You'd actually help me get my cutie mark?"
"Yeah, me and my other friends are part of a very exclusive club. The Cutie Mark Crusaders."
The purple filly suddenly snorted with laughter. "I'm sorry. The Cutie Mark what?
"Crusaders. Cause we're on a crusade. You know, to get our cutie marks."
"You crusade to get your cutie marks?"
"Yeah, we try all kinds of things. Like candy making, and bowling, and skydiving..."
"You've been skydiving?"
"Yeah, well, sort of. When I say skydiving, I mean we jumped off a bridge. It was a small bridge too."
The filly thought for a minute as she tried to picture it in her head Scootaloo jumping off a bridge into a river with a parachute on. The image made her giggle. "That sounds awesome."
"Trust me when I say it, it is."
The filly giggled again before speaking again. "I just realised, we've been talking for quite a while now, and I don't even know your name."
"My name's Scootaloo. What's yours?"
"Jinx Stars. It's nice to meet you Scootaloo." She reached forward and took Scootaloo's hoof in her own and gave it a shake as if they were old friends. As soon as Scootaloo let go of her hoof, a familiar voice called out from behind her.
"There ya are!"
Scootaloo turned to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle walking up to her. "Where've ya been? We've been wait'n in that trailer for ages."
Scootaloo got and walked towards them. "Sorry. Sorry. But I promise you, the wait was worth it." Moving so that her friends could see the purple filly, Scootaloo introduced her.
"Girls. Meet the newest member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Jinx Stars." The two CMC members stared blankly at where the 'next crusader' was. "Jinx who?"
Scootaloo frowned in disapproval. "Jinx Stars. Say hi. She's right there..." Scootaloo glanced over to where Jinx was, but was greeted with an empty space. Scootaloo turned her head rapidly, scanning for the Jinx Stars, but she had vanished. Looking back to the crusaders, both of them where now staring at her with concerned looks.
"Scootaloo, are you feeling alright?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Let's go." She got up and walked briskly past the crusaders. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned and walked along side her. Sweetie Belle continued to press her concerns. "Are you totally sure you're feeling okay."
"I already told you that I feel fine." Scootaloo insisted as they reached her scooter. All the other fillies that had left the school house with them had gone home. Putting her helmet back on, Scootaloo gripped the handle bars of her scooter and looked at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. They were both still giving her worried looks.
"Come on girls. Stop worrying about me. I'm 100% sure that I'm fine." Hearing this caused the earth pony and unicorn to cease their concerns slightly. "Now come on, to the club house. Our cutie marks aren't going to crusade for themselves."
"Yeah!" The other two crusaders shouted in half heartedly as they climbed into the trailer. Luckily, Scootaloo didn't pick up on their weak shout, and took off down the road, with her two worried friends in tow.