Ever since Blue Yonder carried her back to the infirmary that evening, Scootaloo had been confined to the bed and put under constant watch. Still, Scootaloo hadn’t realized just how tired she was and drifted in and out of sleep all evening. One particular occasion after waking up, Scootaloo looked at the clock and groaned; it read 21:04.
Due to the fact that she had a concussion, an alarm went off every couple of hours to wake her up and somepony would make sure that she hadn’t slipped into a coma; or worse. To be honest though, it was annoying. All Scootaloo wanted was some sleep and being woken up constantly irritated her. What was worse was that she had woken up an hour early.
She looked at the pony seated at her bedside. Rainbow Dash had also dozed off for a while. Blue Yonder would’ve been there too, but she was forced to return to the barracks for the night. Thankfully Rainbow Dash wasn’t a cadet anymore and didn’t necessarily fall under those regulations. Even if they wanted her to leave, they’d be hard-pressed to remove the Element of Loyalty from the side of her friends or family—particularly one she cared about as strongly as Scootaloo. Either way, Scootaloo was grateful that she was there.
Doctor Hawkeye had kept visitors to a bare minimum, but a few ponies came to check on her. Silverwings was one of the first. He had congratulated her on her flight performance before the crash and wished her well. If only Scootaloo could remember the flight. She knew she did it and how it was based on what others had told her, but there was a strange disconnection from the event due to her memory loss.
Her teammates Aurora and Snapshot also came and visited her. Apparently they had been waiting for a while since she was asleep at the time. Snapshot had this goofy grin on her face and Scootaloo couldn’t figure out why.
The only other pony who had visited her was Major Soarin. He came both to see how she was doing and to figure out what had happened. Unfortunately, Scootaloo couldn’t remember so she couldn’t explain why she had crashed. That bothered her more than anything else about the incident.
‘Why did it happen?’ She often asked herself.
What surprised Scootaloo the most about her visitors was the one who did not come; Colonel Spitfire herself. Scootaloo was certain that Spitfire would come at any moment and chew her out for messing up, kick her out or something like that. But she never came, and that made Scootaloo uneasy. Rainbow Dash had explained that Spitfire was busy doing all of the evaluations and would be working all night. Still, that didn’t ease Scootaloo’s paranoia.
Scootaloo looked back at the mare sitting beside her bed. She was grateful that Rainbow Dash was with her; yet, her presence had both comforted Scootaloo and made her feel tense. She felt as though she had let her idol, her foalhood hero, her “sister”, down. And yet there she was, still watching over the young orange pegasus, even if she was currently fast asleep.
“Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo said taping the mare’s side. She couldn’t bear to be alone with her thoughts anymore.
“Wha…what is it?” Rainbow Dash said, waking up. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Scootaloo answered, although she still felt uneasy. “I…I’m sorry Rainbow Dash.”
“Sorry for what?” Rainbow Dash said, looking very confused.
Scootaloo couldn’t believe it. ‘How could she not know?’
“I’m sorry for disappointing you,” Scootaloo expounded.
“Why would I be disappointed with you?” Rainbow Dash asked, with that same confused look.
‘Really?’ Scootaloo thought. ‘How could she not be disappointed at all?’
Rainbow Dash continued to look at her oddly. Scootaloo felt a sense of déjà vu again. This time, she was reminded of that one camping trip where Rainbow Dash had found her running in the forest in the middle of the night and wanted to know why. Back then, Scootaloo was afraid because of the ghost stories which Rainbow Dash had told. However, Scootaloo didn’t want to admit it because she feared that Rainbow Dash would somehow think less of her and never want to associate with such a wimp; let alone take that wimp under her wing. Although the details were different this time, it was practically the same situation.
“It’s just…” Scootaloo started. “I completely blew the exam today, and you never would have crashed like that.”
Rainbow Dash continued to look dumbfounded before she burst into laughter.
“Rainbow Dash, this is serious!” Scootaloo yelled.
“I know…I’m sorry,” Rainbow Dash said, trying to catch her breath. “You seem to have the wrong idea about me kid. I’ve had some pretty nasty crashes in my time. They didn’t call me ‘Rainbow Crash’ at flight camp for nothing. In fact, one time I even had to go to the hospital, much like you. Just give it time and you’ll be fine.”
“But I practically messed up everything this week!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “I was rude to Lavender, penalized the team during the flag hunt, nearly passed out after the obstacle course, and now this! I almost walked out completely today! How could you not be disappointed in me for any of that?”
Rainbow Dash considered Scootaloo’s words. Rainbow Dash often had the reputation for brushing things off, but she took this seriously. She sighed and looked back into Scootaloo’s purple eyes.
“We all make mistakes, Scootaloo,” Rainbow Dash finally said. “Sometimes we regret them and look back at what could have been. You may have crashed today, but you prevented yourself from making the biggest one. I was ready to walk out of the Wonderbolts because I thought that they were looking for the best and not care about the well-being of other ponies. You almost left because you doubted yourself.
“The thing is, Scootaloo, I’ve always been proud of you; even before you started flying. I would watch the little filly hang out with her friends and ride on that scooter better than anypony I know. And you never gave up. You were always determined to overcome challenges anywhere; not just with flying. You performed incredible feats on that scooter that I could never hope to do.
“I may have taken you under my wing, but the truth is that I’ve looked up to you just as much as you look up to me. Just by being there and believing in me has helped me more than you realize. I just wished I could’ve done the same for you more often. You really are all kinds of awesome, Scootaloo. Don’t forget that.”
Scootaloo’s eyes watered up. “What’s going to happen?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I did what little I could to convince Spitfire of all the work you do and what comes out of it, but it’s all up to her now. She says that you need to rise or fall on your own; but if she doesn’t see you for what you truly are, then it’s her loss not yours.”
Scootaloo couldn’t help but smile. She yawned and laid her head back on the pillow. It had been a long day for everypony.
“Thanks for being with me Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said before drifting off to sleep.
Rainbow Dash looked at the unconscious mare and smiled. Her biggest fan and biggest source of inspiration lay before her. She reset the alarm on the clock and stroked Scootaloo’s mane.
“You’re welcome Scootaloo,” Rainbow Dash said softly before leaning back in her own chair.
***
Spitfire leaned back in her chair and let out an overwhelming sigh of relief. She was finally done with the stack of papers that were the cadet’s files. She had even finished earlier than she thought, so she could get plenty of rest for the next day.
Then her ear twitched. Spitfire looked over at the far side of her desk. There stood a lone file with the word ‘Scootaloo’ on it that hadn’t been evaluated yet. Spitfire groaned and leaned over to reach the paper
grrrmmmrr!
Spitfire looked down at her growling stomach. She hadn’t eaten anything all evening—having cooped herself up in her office in the vain attempt to get her work done at a reasonable hour. She looked back up at the file and stared at the name.
GRRRRRMMMRRRRR!
“Fine!” Spitfire exclaimed and slapped the file down on her desk. “I’ll get back to you in a minute.”
She left the office and made her way to the mess hall. After grabbing some leftovers from the kitchen, Spitfire made her way to a lonely table and ate. Satisfaction filled her as food found its way to her protesting stomach.
Once her tray was empty, Spitfire looked up. The mess hall wasn’t as abandoned as she had supposed. Two ponies stood at the far end of the room by the bulletin board. It was Major Soarin and that one lieutenant whose name constantly escaped her. Spitfire walked a little closer and noticed that they were updating the Academy Records board. This piqued Spitfire’s interest.
‘We haven’t had a new academy record for a long time,’ she thought. ‘I wonder what it could be; fastest lap…wing push-ups…long-jump?’
Spitfire continued to theorize as she got closer to the board. Once she reached it, she quickly found the new name and under what category. She frowned and stared at it incredulously.
Dizzitron:
Scootaloo—5.5 seconds
“Are you sure about this, Soarin?” Spitfire asked.
“Yes,” Soarin replied. “I timed it myself?”
“When did this happen?” Spitfire continued.
“Yesterday,” Soarin answered.
“And why wasn’t I informed of this?” Spitfire said with gritted teeth.
“You weren’t?” Soarin asked and frantically flipped pages on his clipboard. “It was after I had turned in my report, so I made a supplemental, but I was sure I gave it…oh, here it is.”
Soarin felt rather embarrassed as he handed her the supplemental—which she immediately snatched out of his hoof.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Spitfire said, stuffing the piece of paper into her pocket. “What are your thoughts on this?”
“Well, it’s quite amazing really,” Soarin stated. “Not only had she beaten Rainbow Dash’s time by half of a second, but she did it on the highest setting too.”
“Really?” Spitfire said in amazement. “Who was the last pony with the best time at the highest setting?”
Soarin looked at the records listed on his clipboard. “That would be…Lightning Dust. Huh, I don’t remember that pony.”
“I do,” Spitfire mumbled, her gut clenching at the mention of that particular mare. “And Scootaloo just did this out of the blue?”
“No,” the lieutenant said, speaking up for the first time. “She and her lead pony worked on it for nearly an hour. The film crew practically got the whole thing on tape.”
“They what?” Spitfire gaped.
“I said they got it all on camera…Ma’am?”
Major Soarin and the lieutenant were now staring at an empty space where Spitfire used to be. They then heard the mess hall doors creak shut and the sound of hoof beats outside.
***
Spitfire galloped across the compound. All the while, her mind raced just as fast.
‘This can’t be happening. They’re actually going to be useful for once.’
Finally she reached her destination; one of the spare barracks that they used if they ever had a large influx of cadets. They certainly had a large influx this year, but it wasn’t cadets. Spitfire knocked on the door and it was opened, revealing a very tired pony.
“Film Reel,” Spitfire said, recognizing him as the director. “Quick, I need you to get me some of the footage from this week.”
“Can’t it wait ‘till morning?” Film Reel yawned.
“I’m afraid not,” Spitfire replied. “Now I need the footage of the new cadets; particularly of their performances today and everything you filmed at the Dizzitron yesterday.”