//------------------------------// // 15: Deja Vu. // Story: I Dreamt to Fly // by MrDynasty //------------------------------// It was the start of the next day, where Scootaloo was still sleeping soundly in her sky coloured bed. Rainbow Dash came through into her room and shook her shoulder, making her begin to groggily wake up. “Hey, Scoots. It’s time to get up! You better get up and ready for the third course,” she said, continuing to shake her shoulder. Scootaloo let out a small groan, digging her head into her pillow in response to Rainbow Dash’s shaking. “Can I get like… five more minutes?” She said in a croaky voice. To her dismay, Scootaloo wasn’t going to get her request it seems as Rainbow Dash only continued to shake her shoulder. “Nope, you need to get up now. Five more minutes is nothing at all and will only make you harder to wake up,” she said. Scootaloo rubbed one of her eyes and gave out another small groan. “Thirty minutes then?” She said, testing her luck. When she got no response she opened her eyes and sat up, realizing she wasn’t going to get any more sleep. “Okay, I’ll be up in a minute or two.” With that, Rainbow Dash trotted out of her room and waited outside for her to get up. Of course going back to bed again was a very appealing option to Scootaloo since she was no longer being bothered, but she knew better and decided to just get up and out of her bed before she got in trouble. She grabbed the brush that was on her desk, using it to comb her messy mane back into its usual style. Since she had to take a bath the night before from being covered in white paint, her mane was quite soft and fluffy. It took her a bit more time than usual to get it into its style, but she managed nonetheless. The next thing she wanted to do was go brush her teeth, so she trotted outside her room and over to the bathroom. When Rainbow Dash saw that she had woken up, she stopped hanging outside of her room and trotted over to her couch to sit on it. As Scootaloo began brushing her teeth in the bathroom, she heard Rainbow Dash talking with somepony. Their voice was familiar, but in her still sleepy mind-set, she couldn’t pinpoint who it was. After spitting into the sink, she trotted out of the bathroom and over to where Rainbow Dash was to see who she was talking to. She should have recognised by the voice as both Twilight Sparkle and Spike were sitting beside Rainbow Dash on the couch. “Good morning, Scootaloo! I hope you slept well,” Twilight said, raising a hoof as she looked over to her. Spike gave a small wave as he smiled to her as well. Scootaloo only nervously waved back, confused as to why they were both here. “Good morning to you too, I suppose. And I guess I did sleep well, so thanks for asking.” She lowered her hoof and climbed up onto the couch they all sat on. “Sooooo, I don’t mean this in a rude way, but why are you over here this early?” She asked as she looked over to Twilight. Twilight smiled over to Scootaloo as she talked. “We’re over here because we’re going to be coming with you to the third course, just to watch of course. Maybe Rainbow Dash would be able to join us as well, since I’m sure if we asked, she’d be allowed to watch with us.” Rainbow Dash nodded and placed a hoof on her chest. “Plus, Spitfire knows me. I’m pretty sure she’d allow one of the greatest fliers in all of Equestria to watch a simple course,” she said, giving a small grin to Scootaloo. Scootaloo tried to act enthusiastic, even though she thought she would get more nervous the more eyes there were watching her. “Yaaay…? I mean yay!” She cleared her throat a little, making Rainbow Dash lose her grin and tilt her head. “You okay? Do you not want us to watch? Because if that’s so, I don’t think we’d mind not watching if it made you feel more comfortable in the long run,” Rainbow Dash said as she grew a soft smile. Scootaloo shook her head to her, smiling nervously in-front of her. “N-No. I just feel like I’m being silently judged. And what if I mess up? I wouldn’t want the only time you watched me to be the only time I messed up,” she said, looking away from Rainbow Dash as her ears flopped back. Rainbow Dash put her wing around Scootaloo and pulled her over. “You won’t fail, and even if you did, it wouldn’t matter to us. All that matters was that you already got this far!” She said with a big smile. “Your goal was to pass the first course right? Well you did that and even went as far as to reach the third course! We’re already so incredibly impressed with you, so even if you did fail the next course, it would never change how proud I am of you,” she said, pulling Scootaloo in closer to the point they were touching. Scootaloo’s ears flopped back up as she grew a soft smile, giving Rainbow Dash a tight hug. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash! It means a lot to me that you’d say that.” She said as she stretched her wings out and tried to put them around her as well. Of course they didn’t reach very far, but it was cute nonetheless. Scootaloo soon wondered what time it was as she never checked after she woke up. “Wait, so when is the next course starting?” She asked curiously. Rainbow Dash put a hoof on her chin as she tried to recall the time, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted by Twilight speaking. “It’s forty minutes to eleven, so we have around forty minutes until you’re meant to be at the training ground,” she said as Spike continued to quietly sit beside her. Scootaloo’s pupils suddenly contracted as an expression of surprise came over her face. “I slept more than eleven hours?! You’re kidding right?” She said, her view shifting between both Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Rainbow Dash shook her head slightly as her wing retracted back into its idle position. “Nope, I’m pretty sure Twilight is right. I knew it was around 10am when I woke you up, so she’s probably right about the time. These courses must be tiring you out more than you think if you’re sleeping that much,” she said as she gave a soft smile to her. Scootaloo let off a nervous laugh. “So that’s why you didn’t want me sleeping any longer, I’d probably have missed the course if you didn’t wake me up,” she said, hopping down off the seat and quickly trotting towards the kitchen. “Anyway, I better get breakfast and stuff before we go there, I don’t think I’d enjoy flying on an empty stomach.” It was just about time for the course to start, with every filly who passed being there, except for Scootaloo. Spitfire looked around as she wondered where she could have been. “She’s here!” Rainbow Dash shouted as both she and Scootaloo had arrived just in time for the course to start. Spitfire trotted over to the two, going past the large group of waiting fillies as she spoke. “I was wondering where you went since I didn’t want to start without you,” she said, looking down to Scootaloo. Her view looked up to Rainbow Dash and then suddenly over to Twilight, who had just flown over to them both with Spike on her back. Spitfire pouted to them both. “Okay, so what are you all doing here? Scootaloo normally arrives on her own,” she said. Twilight nervously laughed, rubbing her own mane with one of her hooves. “I know you said to stay low when we watch, but I was just wondering if Rainbow Dash could watch as well,” she said with a pleading smile to Spitfire. Spitfire sighed and gave her a small nod. “Fine, she can watch. Actually I tolerate her watching more than I tolerate you watching, since she has more of a reason to be here. You can watch if you just don’t interfere,” she said, trotting back over to the original position she normally talked to the fillies in. Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo a small hug while Twilight and Spike just waved to her. They both left and headed towards where they were allowed to watch, leaving Scootaloo to join the rest of the fillies. Spitfire cleared her throat as Scootaloo had trotted over to the back of the group. “Congratulations on making it this far, but I have a feeling this next course is going to stump a lot of you,” she said as a stallion came over with a mobile chalkboard detailing the course. “This will be similar to the last course, except this time it’s about both speed and precision. Except you won’t need to worry about being covered in paint now as this is about finishing first, meaning you can make as many mistakes as you want. However, making mistakes is obviously not preferred, as it will slow you down in the middle of the course.” She said, pointing to the chalkboard. The chalkboard had numerous examples of what obstacles they were going to be facing. They all looked like they were made to make the fillies lose balance, some even purposefully made to make them dizzy. “The main focus of this course is to test your ability to keep yourself composed in disorienting situations. You may be a fast flier, you may be a precise flier, but that can mean nothing if you can’t control it.” Spitfire said as she looked over the group of fillies. “If you come in 14th place or higher, you will be sent out of the league. You may all line up for the course and wait for my signal to start.” All the fillies lined up shoulder to shoulder at the starting line again, eagerly waiting for the course to start. Like last time, Scootaloo looked at all of the other fillies in the line, hoping to see somepony she recognised. While it looked like Cotton Cloudy had been sent out, Rumble was still there. She didn’t recognise the rest of the fillies, assuming most of them were from either Cloudsdale or Canterlot. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by Spitfire’s signal to go, making all of the fillies blast off into the course. The first obstacle they had to deal with was like a large corkscrew that headed upwards, forcing them to go around in circles as they ascended. Even with her only having done a couple loops around the corkscrew, Scootaloo couldn’t deny that it was quite disorienting from how tight it was, almost making her want to stop to keep herself from getting dizzy. She persisted nonetheless, ignoring any feelings of wanting to stop. The corkscrew soon came to an end with the next obstacle being quite a bit away from the last, probably to give the fillies time to reorient themselves. Scootaloo used this as an opportunity to gain some speed and pass some of the fliers ahead of her. One of the fillies she passed was the same one that made fun of her just after she finished the first course, and they didn’t look particularly happy about being overtaken. “Hey! You are so cheating!” He said, with an angry tone in his voice. Scootaloo looked back to the colt, raising an eyebrow at the claim. “How am I cheating?” She asked as she continued to fly ahead of him. The colt sped up and went to the side of her, giving her a small shove with his hoof. “Because not only do you have some sort of stupid implant in your head, but you’re also friends with a Princess! Next to none of us have ever heard of you before but you still managed to beat ME on the last course?!” Scootaloo didn’t take too kindly to the shove as it caused her slow down, meaning the colt was suddenly in front of her. She would have sped up again to counter his argument, but the next obstacle was too close to try and overtake now. The next obstacles were walls that had vertical holes in them, meaning they had to tilt to their side as they passed through them. Luckily enough each wall was decently spaced apart, meaning they had time to rebalance themselves between walls. It was a little tricky for Scootaloo to tilt to the side over and over again without bumping into the cloud-made walls. Sometimes she barely skimmed them or tilted just a tiny bit too far, meaning she lost an uncomfortable amount of her speed from this obstacle. Upon exiting the last wall, Scootaloo sped up again to try and overtake some fillies, but a lot of her motivation to get ahead was now thanks to the colt that shoved her. She managed to get up beside him again, looking somewhat annoyed. “If I beat you on the last course, then shouldn’t you be out of the league?” She asked as the colt gained an angry look. He was about to shove her again, but Scootaloo swerved away from it and kept both of them at arm’s length away from each other. “You didn’t come in last you know!? I did! I barely got through to this course because you overtook me!” He said as he looked over to her. Scootaloo kept to the side of him as they spoke. “This is a competitive league! Are you saying I shouldn’t try to overtake other ponies?” The colt flew closer to her to try and shove her away again, but she quickly pushed his arm away. “No! I’m saying you shouldn’t be cheating! You either have some sort of stupid bonus in the back of your head or your Princess friend is giving you an advantage or something, anything that you can use to abuse the system!” Scootaloo’s expression turned to that of confusion. “I don’t even know how to abuse the system! I’ve only been flying for just under three weeks!” The colt seemed angrier than before as he shouted. “WHAT?! I’ve been flying for over four years but you’ve only been flying for three weeks?! Yet you STILL manage to beat me?! You are such a cheater!” He said as he flew quite far ahead of Scootaloo and stopping in-front of her path. He waited until she was close enough to kick her in the head with his back legs. Scootaloo realized too late what he was trying to do, only ducking her head as best she could in response. But it wasn’t enough as his back hooves connected with the top of her head, causing her to scream in pain from the hard kick as she lost all control of her wings. She grabbed the back of her head as her wings gave up, retracting back to the side of her body as she began to plummet to the safety bed of clouds under the course. All she could hear was a loud ringing in her ears, the burning pain of her skull being too distracting to continue with the course. It didn’t take long before she hit the bed of clouds, causing a small ripple that signalled somepony fell onto it. She curled up into a ball and rubbed the back of her head as she shook in place. She tried opening her eyes, but all she could see was a blur as they felt like they were spinning around in her skull. Her only instinct was to start crying in pain, hoping she’d be seen sooner rather than later. Sadly for her, nopony seemed to have been paying attention to what just happened, either being preoccupied or just distracted. Even Twilight and Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice at first from Spike talking. The ripple in the cloud bed is what caught Rainbow Dash’s attention though, as her focus shifted over to it and interrupting Spike. “Hey! Somepony just fell I think, I wonder who it was,” she said, looking over to all of the fliers still doing the course. There were still quite a lot of fillies left to finish, so not being able to see Scootaloo made her slightly worried. “Twilight, can you see Scootaloo on the course? I can’t,” she said, looking over to Twilight. Twilight squinted her eyes as she leaned forward, trying to spot her amongst the many flying fillies. “…Nope, I can’t either. Maybe she finished?” Twilight suggested, still trying to look for Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash looked over to the finish line, but there was still no sign of Scootaloo. “No, she didn’t finish. If she isn’t on the course and she didn’t finish, you think that’s her that fell?” She said, raising a hoof as she started to look really worried. Twilight couldn’t do much but give a small shrug to Rainbow Dash. “I don’t know. Maybe it was? Maybe she just got tuckered out and had to rest?” Rainbow Dash shook her head, standing up. “No, Scootaloo wouldn’t get tuckered out and just fall like that!” She said as she blasted off to the bedding of clouds before Twilight was even able to reply. When she reached the clouds, she zipped around trying to look for the filly that fell. Eventually she found her, soon realizing that it was Scootaloo that fell. She flew down and prodded her shoulder, looking very concerned as she spoke. “Scootaloo, is something wrong?” She asked, sitting down beside her and turning her around. She was still crying and shaking, seemingly unable to respond as she continued to hold the back of her head. It took Rainbow Dash by surprise since she had never seen Scootaloo in a state like this in over two years. Many thoughts raced through her mind on what could have been wrong with her, not sure what to do in response. The only thing she could think to do was do the same thing she did two years ago, take her over to Twilight in the hopes that maybe she’d know what was wrong.