//------------------------------// // Race Day (extended) // Story: Scootaloo Blues // by Ribe_FireRain //------------------------------// Beep, Beep, Beep! Scootaloo's alarm awoke her with a jolt, causing her to jump out of bed and her covers to fall to the floor in a heap. Looking over to her bedside table and seeing her alarm that was still blaring like a fog horn, she angrily slammed a hoof onto the top of it, silencing it in an instant. Allowing a relieved breath to escape her mouth, she slowly, ran a hoof from the back of her head down to her fringe to press down her bedraggled, purple mane that was sticking out every direction in twisted strands that hung like purple swirls. Satisfied, she rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes and took another glance at her alarm clock. And then she gasped in shock upon the realization that she had overslept for an hour more than her alarm was set for. The race begins in less than an hour! Panicking, Scoots feverishly grabbed her helmet, strapping it on as fast as she could before she grabbed her scooter and hurriedly left her house, not even bothering to find the time to get some breakfast before she did so. At this moment, all Scootaloo could care about was getting to the race, which was taking place near Sweet Apple Acres. In her hurry, she decided that riding her scooter was the fastest option to go for, and so without thinking, she hopped on and flared out her small, orange wings and began to flap them, generating more speed to push her along faster. Speeding through Ponyville, she did her best to avoid ramming into ponies, nearly having a few close calls in the process. Her wings buzzed louder and louder as she found it in herself to push harder and coming to the end of the street and shocking everypony, she guided herself up a nearby ramp that was propped up against a wooden box and launched herself into the air, the wind whisping at the loose strands of her mane from under her helmet along with the adrenaline that fueled her veins. Feeling the rush course through her, she pushed her limit, now blasting her way towards the farm. *** *** *** ''Hey, has anyone seen Scootaloo?'' Sweetie asked through the crowd along with Apple Bloom, only getting shakes of the head from other ponies who looked hopeless to her whereabouts. The crowd that was observing the race was like a living sea made from ponies of all races and Sweetie and Apple Bloom haven't even managed to get a positive answer on their missing friend and they were slowly becoming increasingly more worried with every passing minute. The competitors in the race were that of a mix of colts and fillies of varying ages, yet none of them appeared to be that much older than Scootaloo who also had an interest in scooters and racing. There was about ten or so competitors in total and they all looked just as enthusiastic and optimistic at winning the race as the last. The track just on the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres was constructed with dirt for the main part of the track which was constricted with different depths of terrain and turns for a challenge whilst the outsides of the track were lined with hay bales to serve as crash barriers. Amongst the crowds were numerous ponies, from every place around Equestria, but most of the familiar faces were that of the ponies who lived in Ponyville, including Rainbow Dash and the rest of her friends who tagged along to cheer on Scootaloo. Seeing that the colts and fillies were eagerly waiting to start, the starting flag holder, a middle-aged stallion with a brown coat and mane and a whistle for a cutie mark came in front of them with the flag in his mouth, about to drop it to signal the start when a screech of tires against dirt was heard, catching every pony's attention. It was Scootaloo, panting heavily and looking a little tired from the ride to the race. ''W-Wait!'' She said, pulling up behind the last colt on the starting line before regaining her composure. ''Ready.'' She said in a much calmer tone. Rolling his eyes, the stallion dropped the flag with his mouth and in an instant, the race was underway. Being the expert that she was with her scooter, Scootaloo found herself easily in front of the first few colts and filly racers with little difficulty and thankfully, her modifications to her old scooter had turned out perfectly for the terrain of the track. At fifth place, Scoots saw a bend coming up on the track and as the first few racers went by, she could see them struggle with making the turn and one of them, a filly, managed to lose her balance and get thrown off of her scooter and directly into a haybale. Grinning cockily, Scootaloo engaged her wings to generate more speed for a swift turn and carefully steering the wheels to the right, she pulled herself around the corner before pushing the handle bars the opposite direction and making it through the bend with ease. Smiling to herself, she continued her way through the track's rough terrain and obstructions designed to knock participants from the race. Lucky for Scootaloo, she made it through all of them without much difficulty, with a heavy thanks to her modifications. However, that all changed when it came to the last obstruction - a dirt ramp with a trench in the middle of it. Gulping softly, she fired up her wings once more and began to flap them wildly, pushing hard to generate more wind to push her along. In the crowd, she could hear the voices of her friends and Rainbow Dash over the massive crowd of ponies and as much as she would of liked to find encouragement in the cheers and applause of her friends, it did block some of her concentration, and coming up to the ramp, Scootaloo felt something jingle and thump as the speed she was building got too intense. And then a metallic bang and clang sounded. Cautiously, Scootaloo tried flapping her wings the opposite direction in which she was already flapping to slow her down, but it was of no use. She was simply going too fast to slow down at this rate and as if it couldn't get any worse, another clang sounded and the front left and right wheels of the scooter broke loose, along with the shaft that they were connected to the handle bars with, disabling the ability for Scoots to control the direction she was going. Now frightened, Scoots saw that she was heading directly for the trench and in her scared state, tried to jump from her scooter to save herself but the fear was too over powering for her to bear and caused her legs to stay frozen in place. Seeing what was wrong, the crowd all let out an alarmed gasp as they watched Scootaloo plummet into the deep, dirt trench. They all almost wished that they didn't hear the scream come from the terrified filly as they watched her fall in, and the last thing that Scootaloo saw before everything went black was her scooter landing on top of her with a hard impact along with a quick glimpse of rainbow mane and cyan fur. *** *** *** ''Scootaloo! Come on, kid, wake up!'' Rainbow Dash said, holding Scootaloo's body loosely behind her neck and back as she looked down upon her face. ''Can you hear me, Scoots?'' She asked again, speaking to deaf ears, causing her worry to rise. All around her, members of the crowd were gathered around her out of curiosity and worry for the young filly. Rainbow's and Scootaloo's friends stood beside her, all wearing worry some expressions upon their faces, hoping that she wasn't hurt too bad. Right after she fell, Rainbow managed to get her out of the trench but not until after her heavy scooter had fallen on top of her and knocked her out, breaking in the process. Suddenly, Scootaloo gave a deep gasp as she recollected air to her lungs and her eyes shot open for a second before closing again and she started to cough shakily, pain etched clearly on her face that was visible to Rainbow Dash and the others. ''Scoots!'' Rainbow said, relieved that her younger sister was alright. ''Thank Celestia you're alright.'' She said happily as she hugged her softly, nuzzling her cheek. Sweetie and Apple Bloom joined in and hugged their friend as well. Feeling groggy and a little light headed, Scootaloo touched a hoof to her cheek, recoiling as she felt a painful sting. Pulling her hoof back, she could see her orange fur covered lightly in blood. Besides the pain she felt from it, it compared nothing to the aches in her head and back from having her scooter drop hard on her. ''M-My body h-hurts.'' Is all Scoots could manage, her head hurting too much to even manage a long sentence. As her friends pulled away, they eyed her concernedly, really hoping that she wasn't too hurt and required treatment. ''Does anything feel broken?'' Sweetie asked, lightly touching her shoulder with a hoof. ''I-I don't think so.'' Scoots said, blinking a few times. ''What h-ha-happened anyway?'' She asked cautiously, earning a frown out of everyone. ''Ya crashed, Scoots. Ya'll had a nasty fall down in a trench 'an ya'll broke your scooter.'' Apple Bloom said and motioned over to the now in bits scooter laying nearby in a heap with a hoof and Scootaloo frowned when she looked over to it but she seemed too hurt to even care about that at the moment. ''But ya'll are alright now an' that's all that matters.'' Apple Bloom said, briefly hugging her pegasus friend. ''Come on, Scoots, we should probably get you home.'' Rainbow said, picking her up carefully in her hooves and holding her close before she flared out her wings and took to the skies, heading towards Ponyville and leaving two worried friends behind.