//------------------------------//
// 20: A Storm Over Your Head. 
// Story: I Dreamt to Fly 
// by MrDynasty 
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Scootaloo was sitting in her room, trying to imagine what the final elimination course might be like. Was it going to be a compilation of everything they had done so far? Was it going to be something completely new that she hadn’t seen before? She had no clue what to expect, so she had no clue what to train for. 

Of course she tried asking Rumble about it just after they finished the fourth course, but she was told that it changed each year apparently, probably to stop the contestants from memorizing each course. The lack of any information annoyed her, but she didn’t know why she was annoyed. She wasn’t given any info for any of the other courses prior to seeing them, so this should have been no different.

She laid her head on her bed and pouted, trying to come up with something that she could train for. Her mind quickly drew a blank as she was unable to come up with anything at all, making her groan in frustration. 

Rainbow Dash seemed to have heard her frustrations, as she had knocked on her door and opened it slightly. “You alright, Squirt? Usually something is wrong whenever I hear groaning from you,” she said, fully opening the door. 

Scootaloo shrugged and looked over to her, holding her head up from the bed with one of her legs. “I dunno, Dash. I’m trying to come up with something I should be training for since the final course is just around the corner, but I have no clue what it’s going to be like!” She said as she buried her head onto her thick covers and sighed. 

Rainbow Dash trotted over and sat down beside her, pulling her head back up from her bed. “Listen. What you’d probably learn from training right now, you’d probably learn better once you get into the course. You shouldn’t be trying to pinpoint exactly what you’d need to learn to beat the course, because what you’d need to do to beat the course might not even be anything useful when flying normally!” She said, putting one of her front legs around her side and pulling her closer. “You need to look at it a bit simpler; because what the course wants you to do will inevitably boil down to how skilled you are at flying, and not how skilled you are at cheesing the course.”

Scootaloo nuzzled Rainbow Dash’s fur a bit after she was pulled closer. “…I guess you’re right, Dash. I should just try and improve at my flying!” She said, wrapping her legs around Dash’s chest and hugging her. “But how do I try and get better at something that should just come naturally over time?” Scootaloo asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash ruffled up her mane with her hoof. “By doing something that challenges what you can already do. If I wanted to try and improve how well I could fly, I’d make up my own circuit around Ponyville. Give myself some rules as to where I’m supposed to go and how. Although I could easily do any configuration I set with ease,” she said, putting her hoof on her chest, looking proud of her skills.

Scootaloo broke away from Rainbow Dash and tilted her head. “Should that be something I should do?” She asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Maybe, but I honestly don’t think you need it to pass! What I think you should do is just take a break from training, since you won’t want to end up overworking your wings,” she said, pulling her over again and smiling. “…You know, you remind me a lot of when I was a filly. If I wasn’t sleeping, eating or hanging out with friends, I was racing around and around Cloudsdale until I mastered every nook and cranny of every playground course!” She said, chuckling a bit and remembering how determined she was when she was younger.

Scootaloo smiled curiously, looking up to her and hugging her again. A small pause came from Rainbow Dash before she smiled nervously. “But hey, I bet you don’t want to sit and hear me talk about that forever and ever,” she said, waving her hoof about a bit.

Scootaloo shook her head suddenly. “No! I do! I do want to hear you talk about how you were when you were a filly!” 

Rainbow Dash tilted her head and grinned. “Really? I know I’m awesome, but I wouldn’t want to end up boring you with all these silly memories. Who knows, I might start nagging on about how the old times were so much better!” She said, chuckling again. Scootaloo nodded to her before nuzzling her slightly. 

“Well, if you really do want me to, then sure I guess! But what to talk about… hmm,” she said, putting her hoof on her chin and looking around Scootaloo’s room a bit. “…When I was younger I used to want to train as much as possible, just like you do right now, so I ended up doing nearly four straight weeks of non-stop training and practice. I wasn’t doing it for anything in specific, other than to gloat about how amazing I was at kicking all of the other fillies’ flanks at flying, but eventually my wings began to cramp up and stiffen from the sheer amount of pressure and stress I put on myself at the time. It lead to me not being able to fly the same for two weeks, where if I tried, the joints just felt like an old, un-lubricated door,” she said, unfolding her wings and moving them back and forth a bit.

Scootaloo tilted her head curiously. “Did it stop you from doing something you wanted to do in those two weeks?” She asked, still leaning against her.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof on her chin again. “…I don’t think it did. Nothing must have been going on at the time since if there was; I’d probably have remembered it. I’d have been devastated if it stopped me from doing something like a race or a league like you’re, but we never had the league back then. Still, what I’m trying to tell you is that practice can sometimes be worse than relaxing, since everypony needs to take breaks from time to time. While I don’t think doing one lap around Ponyville would cramp you up; what I really think you need is to take it easy.” She says, putting her arm around her and smiling. “If you’re going to pass that final elimination course, you’d be able to do it both with and without a simple lap around Ponyville, so trust me, you don’t need it.”

Scootaloo nodded, wrapping her arms around Rainbow Dash’s side as she smiled. “Thanks, Dash. You’re probably right. A tiny bit of training today won’t change much tomorrow, so I might as well let all my wing power go towards it instead,” she said as they both hugged each other tightly.








It was the day of the final elimination course, meaning that today was the day the weakest links in the league were going to get weeded out. It was a do or don’t situation for all eight fillies who had passed up until this point, where one mistake could easily doom their chances at passing to the semi-finals. 

Before each filly came into the usual debriefing area about the course, they were given a pair of goggles and a specifically coloured arm band to put on just before they started. They were mainly curious as to why they were given the goggles; even the fillies who got this far before didn’t know what they were for, obviously meaning that all of the previous final elimination courses were completely different from this one. Scootaloo took no time in putting on the goggles she was given, wanting to get used to them before she started. 

While they were all fiddling about with the new gear they were given, Spitfire flew down to the side of them and tapped her hoof on the ground to call for their attention. “Nice to see you’re all so eager to see what the new fifth course is going to be like. All of you returning contenders should know at this point that the final course changes with every annual league, meaning everything you learned from last year’s course will be irrelevant here,” she said as a mobile chalkboard was pulled over to her side yet again.

The chalkboard seemed to show less information about this course compared to the previous courses. Spitfire pointed to it nonetheless. “You should all know that weather is an important factor on your flying abilities, if you don’t, then this course might stump you a bit. As silly as you think it may be, you do not want to get caught in the middle of a rain shower. Not only does one make you wet, but it also adds unneeded weight to your light wings. Getting your feathers wet during flying can be a catastrophic mistake, but also a near unavoidable mistake. However it is still very much possible to fly in the middle of a rain shower, quite easily if you know what you’re doing,” she said, suddenly pointing over to what looked to be the course.

Its size was immense thanks to the huge portions of dark, misty and rain filled clouds above it; it was quite a terrifying looking course to say the least. It was the only course that pulled an emotional reaction from Scootaloo prior to starting, with her already feeling cold and scared. She wished she could have gotten an umbrella alongside her goggles as well, but that would have been too much to ask wouldn’t it?

She felt completely uneducated in the subject, where weather had never been a varying factor in her flying before. Suddenly the benefits of having a carer whose job it was to keep the weather sunny at all times was starting to show it’s downsides.

Spitfire smiled and coughed to re-gain their attention. “Now that’s not all that you will have to look out for in the course, hence the coloured armbands you were all given. There are flags all around the course that you will have to keep a keen eye for, and whichever colour your armband is, is the colour of the flag you collect. There is three of each colour inside the course, and if you miss one, you’re out. If you come in 5th place or higher, you’re also out,” she said as some pegasi take away the chalkboard. “Now, any questions?”

There was a small pause before one of the fillies raised their arm, making Spitfire point over to them. They put their arm down as they spoke. “What if a pony in first to fourth place has two flags?” They asked, making the other fillies look curious about the question as well.

Spitfire lifted her leg up as she spoke. “Flags have priority over place. If the filly in second place has three flags while the filly in first has two, then the filly with three will automatically be considered first. The four of you that pass will have all three flags, unless at least 5 of you have 2 each, to which place then becomes more important. We will also not be announcing the winners today once you all finish; you will be told tomorrow if you go through to the semi-finals. I’d imagine most of you can probably tell if you won or lost though, depending on your overall score in the course. If there aren’t any other questions, I’d like you all to move to the starting line please.”

There was another small pause before all of the fillies trotted over to the starting line, putting on their armbands and making sure to memorize their colour. Spitfire trotted up behind them all, preparing to signal for them to start. 

Scootaloo’s armband was coloured purple, meaning that was the colour of flags she had to collect. Her goggles were already pulled down over her face, so she opened her wings and leaned the front half of her body down in preparation to start flying.

Once every filly was ready, Spitfire took no time in letting the course start as she yelled. “Go!” 

All the contestants blasted off into the start of the course, all flying at mostly the same speed. The rainy and cloudy part was yet to come, as the first set of flags was easily spot-able, all placed in the same area and formed in a circle. 

Of course this was super easy for each contestant, as all they had to do was find their colour and snag it on the way by. Scootaloo zoomed past the flags, being able to grab hers on the way as she passed. She was curious as to where she might be able to keep it safe, before realizing she could stick it inside of the armband she was given. Nopony seemed to have been failing so far, but the worst was yet to come.

They were approaching the large rain-cloud faster than they thought, suddenly entering into its cold and wet shower. Each filly was quickly doused in harsh rain as winds began to pick up inside the storm, making flying somewhat of a challenge. 
Scootaloo felt that the use of goggles was almost like an obstruction, with rain splattering across the lenses and masking her vision. She couldn’t tell who was where any more, almost feeling completely alone within the storm, despite knowing that she wasn’t. 

Her focus snapped back into place, hoping she hadn’t missed any flags already. Luckily she didn’t as she could see some in the distance. Her view scanned all around the clump of flags she could see, hoping to catch a glimpse of her own flag before she reached them. It took a couple more seconds of searching before the hue of a waving purple flag grasped her vision, making her speed up in response. Her speed increased considerably before she swooped over to her flag, snagged it and placed it inside of her armband again. She already knew that by the end of this course she’d probably have a cold, but at least she wouldn’t have to shower.

Suddenly the sound of thunder blasted through her eardrums, the grey clouds roaring loudly above her. Every second she was inside the storm only increased the fear and cowardice she felt, but she refused to let it take a hold of her.

Her mane, tail and fur were getting even more drenched by the second. She began to feel the weight of the water on her body slow her down as she pushed her soaking wet mane behind her head and wiped her goggles clean. 

She was able to see the final set of flags not far from where she was as she tried increasing her speed to reach them as fast as possible. Luckily, she managed to spot her last flag near the bottom of the storm on a small, floating cloud. She dove down and snagged the flag from its fluffy base, putting it in her arm band like she had done with the other two. Now it was a race to the finish line. 

The clouds rumbled from the sound of thunder coursing through its blackened mist, making Scootaloo’s ears twitch and flop back. Her wings began to get sore; the added weight from the water forcing her to do more work with each flap.

Luckily she wouldn’t have to flap much longer as the finish line was much closer than she thought. She gave it everything she got, increasing her speed as much as she could, just to get past the finish line.

Once she crossed the finish line, she used every last bit of strength she had to slow herself down, but she still bashed into the wall of clouds just like she did in the first course. Of course it wasn’t anywhere near as severe, as she only dented the wall instead of digging into it. She floated off from the wall and onto the ground, sitting down and panting in place.

She noticed that a couple fillies had already finished ahead of her, with some of them looking to have gotten all three flags as well.

Now was a good time to go and dry off, especially considering she wasn’t going to get the results today. All she could do was hope that what she did was enough to secure victory.