//------------------------------// // 13: The First Course. // Story: I Dreamt to Fly // by MrDynasty //------------------------------// It was the big day, the one that Scootaloo had been training hard for during the past two weeks non-stop. All the fillies were standing on what looked to be a Wonderbolts training ground that had been modified for this specific event, however the courses themselves looked to have a small bed of clouds bellow it with everything else being obstacles or checkpoints. The clouds bellow probably acted as a safe spot for ponies to fall on if something where to happen to them. There were also a couple buildings around the area as well. Some looked to be locker rooms while the main big building is probably where most of the Wonderbolts were staying. All of the fillies were on the starting platform just before the first course, waiting for their instructor to arrive and tell them what they needed to do. While they waited they all mostly chatted with each other, getting to know who they were competing against. Scootaloo stayed to the side of the group, not really joining in with their chatting. She did manage to recognise some familiar faces though, a couple of which being Rumble and Cotton Cloudy. From what she could count, there were at least 28 other competitors not including herself. It was quite daunting knowing she was just another filly among the many that had arrived to compete, since for some reason she thought there would be much less than there were. In the midst of her thinking, she heard her name being mentioned amongst the crowd, which made her ears perk up and her view shift over to the mass of fillies. A couple heads turned to look at her as Rumble had suddenly trotted over to her with quite a big smile on his face. “Some of the fillies don’t believe me when I say that you have a bit of metal in your head! Can you tell them it’s true for me?” He said enthusiastically as the heads of nearly every filly suddenly turned towards her. She didn’t understand why what was in her head was relevant to them, but she figured she’d answer anyway. “I do, why? I have it there because my skull was fractured two years ago,” she said sincerely. Of course a lot of the fillies began talking with each other then, some being oddly amazed about something Scootaloo considered pretty normal. She even heard some fillies theorising that she may have been part robot, which made her just roll her eyes in response. At least some fillies thought she was cool now, some even thinking that she had some sort of augmentation inside her head. They all stopped their chatting when they heard somepony clear their throat. They turned around to see Spitfire standing in-front of them, who was obviously calling for their attention. “If you could all look over to me and pay attention please. I’d like to thank you all for participating in the third annual Filly Wonderbolts League. I’m sure you all know me, but in-case you don’t. I’m Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts and also your instructor for this event,” she said as all of the fillies came over and sat down in somewhat random places in-front of her. Scootaloo inched over closer to the group, ending up sitting at the back. Spitfire was in her drill sergeant uniform, minus the shades however. “What you’re going to be facing is five different elimination courses designed to test everything you know about flying. They will all test you in different ways, obviously getting harder as they go along. Each of you will compete to be better than the rest, because if you’re score is too low, you’re out,” she said as some other ponies pulled over a mobile chalkboard that looked to have information on the first course. “This first course is very basic and will simply test your ability to fly. Maintaining speed here is key, since if you finish in 24th place or higher, you will be eliminated from the league. No ifs or buts about it I’m afraid,” she said, making some of the fillies suddenly look at each other, almost like they were scanning the competition. However Scootaloo felt confident that she’d pass, despite knowing that this probably wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. Spitfire cleared her throat to grab all of the fillies’ attentions again. “The checkpoint you need to reach is a large red flag on the opposite of this training ground, just over a mile away,” she said, pointing in the direction of the flag, which all the fillies easily managed to notice in the distance. She lowered her hoof as she spoke. “If you have any questions you wish to ask, now is the time.” To her surprise, not one hoof was raised amongst the large crowd of fillies. “…Then you should all prepare to start flying and only go when I say go,” she said, trotting over to an emplacement with a microphone on it. All of the fillies quickly scrambled to get into a good position, most of them getting in a shoulder-to-shoulder line just at the edge of the solid ground they were on, facing towards the start of the course. Scootaloo was last to get in place as her nervousness began seep through her otherwise confident exterior. She tried her best to push out any nervous thoughts, shifting her full focus towards the checkpoint far in the distance. Her legs spread apart as her front end lowered, gaining a better position in which to shoot off in. There was a period of silence in which all the other fillies readied themselves for Spitfire’s signal. Scootaloo took one last glance of the fillies she was up against, taking guesses as to who might be the strongest contenders in the group. “Ready…” Spitfire said, making the fillies tense up in preparation. “Set…” she said as a draft was created from the mass amount of wings opening at once. The next couple seconds felt longer than they should as Spitfire delayed her signal to see who was and wasn’t paying attention. Without waiting much longer, Spitfire suddenly shouted. “GO!” A majority of the fillies shot off at a decent speed, racing their way over to checkpoint at the other end of the training grounds. Scootaloo was no exception as she looked to be in the middle of the group. It was exhilarating to feel her blood pumping through her vanes, letting her competitive instincts take a hold of her as she was scarily focused on getting to the checkpoint. She migrated away from the large clump of fillies as her speed began to increase more and more, wanting to overtake as many of them as possible. She couldn’t believe her eyes! She was overtaking everypony! But she didn’t let her focus drift for too long though, not wanting to screw up her chances from being distracted. They all reached half way as a noticeable difference in who was slow and who was fast was now apparent. There were a couple fillies that were quite far behind and a couple who were quite far in front, but judging by the fillies Scootaloo could see ahead of her, she was amazingly in 4th place. The adrenaline she felt from going this fast was like nothing else she had ever experienced before, almost beginning to feel numb around her body. Actually, she was starting to feel numb around some parts of her body, along with a sudden burst of exhaustion washing over her. Suddenly she began to see stars in her eyes as she seemed to lose most of her energy in an instant. However she continued nonetheless, pushing her body to its limits in terms of energy. They were getting close to the end as several fillies at once began to pass by her as she felt like her wings were about to cramp up. It was scary seeing so many fillies at once just boosting past her like it was nothing. She was still going close to the same speed she had accelerated to, so what changed? She knew she couldn’t give up, her heart pumping in her throat as her wings burned in agony. She felt like her eyes were about to pop out of her head, along with most of her peripheral vision beginning to become a blur as the end of the course was nearing faster than she could comprehend. She finally began to slow down from the burning agony she experienced in her joints, the stars in her eyes almost completely covering all of her peripheral vision at the same time. In a flash, she had crossed the finish line, her wings giving up and retracting once doing so. Her speed was so fast that she ended up smashing into a cloud-made wall meant to cushion fillies that would have been going too fast to stop. Because of the clouds her impact did no damage what so ever and instead just brought her to a sudden stop, but it didn’t cease the agony she felt from her now cramped up wings. She had ‘dug’ into the clouds somewhat, choosing to stay in there from the exhaustion she just experienced. She trembled where she was, her wings twitching as she just let her entire body collapse inside the clouds. She was wheezing for air, feeling extremely weak and lightheaded. To her dismay she was suddenly pulled out from the clouds by a stallion pegasus who looked to be one of the Wonderbolts out of costume. They were holding Scootaloo up by her sides, checking to see if she had any seriously injury from the impact. “Are you okay? Does anything seriously hurt?” He asked with concern. Scootaloo gave a small nod, letting out a quiet wheeze as she looked to the stallion. “…My wings… burn…” She said in a raspy voice. The stallion carefully put her down into a sitting position before examining her wings, pulling them out and moving their joints. As she was set down, she was able to see all of the other fillies who had all managed to slow down and land on their four hooves. It left her confused but also envious of everypony else. How did they all manage to suddenly dash past her yet were also able to land on their four hooves like it was nothing? “You’re fine; I think you just sprained your wings a bit since they’re very stiff now.” The stallion said to her with a soft tone. She slowly looked behind her to the clouds she smashed into, only to see that she had gone at least a metre inside of them from the speed she was going. She still felt exhausted as only now her eyes had stopped producing stars. The stallion was sitting beside her to make sure she would be okay. It seemed that every contestant had now finished as they wondered what place they all got. It didn’t take long before Spitfire had come over to give the results, having paid close attention to who did and didn’t get through. She did all of the other fillies before trotting over to Scootaloo to tell her if she passed. “I think you’ll be pleased to know that you came in 17th place, meaning you get through to the next course,” Spitfire said with a smile. She looked over to the stallion and motioned for him to leave, sitting down on the ground in-front of Scootaloo afterwards. “Listen, at first I was impressed by how fast you were going, but it didn’t take me long to see what you did wrong. You blew all of your energy in the first half of the course, meaning you had none left to finish.” She looked over to the other fillies before speaking again. “The reason they all passed you was because they saved their energy for the final stretch. I shouldn’t be telling you what you did wrong since you’re meant to come in here with what YOU know, but I was very concerned near the end of the course and I don’t want to see it happen again.” Scootaloo shakily nodded, her wings drooping down and touching the ground. Spitfire stood back up and gave a small smile to Scootaloo. “But you did pass despite that really big mistake. Rainbow Dash should be over here shortly to take you home; you need to take it easy after that and let those wings have some rest,” she said, trotting away and over to the other Wonderbolts, probably to chat about the results. Scootaloo hesitantly stood up and slowly trotted past the group of fillies, but not without one of them noticing. “What happened? Got your wiring all wrong or something, Cyborg?” A tough sounding colt said as he pushed some of the other fillies out of the way to look at Scootaloo. She didn’t respond, not having both the energy and the care to fight back. The colt was going to say some more things, but was suddenly stopped upon seeing Spitfire giving him an angry glare. Scootaloo trotted inside the large building to sit down in a more comfortable place, just waiting for Rainbow Dash to come over and pick her up. She saw most of the fillies going home by themselves as they passed by her, which did embarrass her more than she liked to admit. Spitfire followed behind the last of the fillies, who were the ones that didn’t make it through to the next course. “Better luck next time! I hope we’ll get to see you all compete again next year,” she said before her view glanced over to Scootaloo, noticing she seemed a bit embarrassed from not being able to fly home herself. Spitfire trotted over and sat beside her. “Hey, don’t sweat about it. Sometimes I had to be helped home after a tough flight! Better to be safe than to chance losing control so high up,” she said, trying to comfort Scootaloo as best she could. Scootaloo grew a soft smile, feeling better now that she knew it happened to everypony on occasion. What really mattered was that she got through to the next course, even if it was a bit more of a challenge than she initially thought. At least she had a reason to lie in bed for the rest of the day when she got home.