The two tore through the sky, doing their best to beat the other. Eventually the two stopped, landing atop the biggest cloud. Scootaloo was the first to speak.
"Well...now that we're both here, let's get to some new tricks." She panted, sparking a smile to form on Rumble's face. "What do you want to do first?"
"I've always been taught that ladies are always first." Rumble proclaimed. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and playfully shoved him, nearly knocking him off.
"Okay then Romeo, I want to see you fly around these clouds as fast as you can." She said, folding her arms.
"But-"
"You never know until you try." She smirked. Rumble groaned and flew to the farthest cloud while Scootaloo flew to the ground. She cupped her hooves around her mouth. "Go!" She called out.
Rumble sped off, doing his best to avoid whatever clouds came his way. "You're straying too far!" Rumble tried getting closer but ended up clipping the next puff of cloud.
"That's too close! Keep your eyes ahead of you!"
"Maybe I could if you'd stop-" Just then Rumble plunged face first into first cloud ahead of him. Causing Scootaloo to burst out laughing. She laughed harder when he spat out a puff of the stuff before gagging. She flew up to him, deciding to tease him a little further.
"I told you." She said, wiping away a tear.
"Can you just get me out of here please?" Rumble asked.
"Alright, come on lover boy." She grabbed his tail in her mouth and set her hooves on the cloud before pulling with all of her might. Causing Rumble to pop out immediately.
"How the hay are you so agile?" He asked, referring to the other times he's seen her fly before. He started trying to remove the remaining tufts of the stuff from his hair. "That's way harder than it looks."
"You think I learned it all in one night? It took a lot of practice you know. Plus, it's kind of a part of my special talent ." She said, pointing to her cutiemark. Moving closer to him, she brushed a bit of the white stuff from his coat. "Okay, now do it again."
Rumble stretched his wings as he landed on the ground. "I never thought that I'd miss the ground so much." Rumble sighed.
"Quit being such a baby, I promised you that you could teach me what you know tomorrow." She said, in an annoyed tone.
"You can be a pretty tough teacher."
"And practicing with the Wonderbolts will be so much better." She replied, her words dripping with sarcasm.
"Good point." He admitted.
"So what're you teaching me tomorrow?" She asked.
"Well for starters, we're not going to get stuck in clouds as much." Rumble said.
"Do you have any clue about what to teach?"
"Nope. Not at all. To be honest, I think that you could teach me more than I can teach you."
"You could teach me how to deal with high altitudes and all of those dizzying turns." She hinted.
"That's actually not a bad idea."
"I don't get how you don't feel dizzy after making all of those giant arcs and loops, or being higher than the clouds."
"It takes a lot of practice. It's not something you can learn over night." Rumble teased. Scootaloo smirked and punched him in the shoulder roughly, causing him to smile back.
"Ow." He said, milking it a bit. Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
Eventually they made it to town, where a few spectators had gathered. Rumble and Scootaloo walked by, trying to ignore the whispering as they walked by. A few familiar faces from school sneered as they walked by.
"Geez, you can't do anything without ponies talking about you." Scootaloo whispered.
"You got that right." Rumble agreed.
"Hey you two." The pair whipped around to find Rainbow Dash flying towards them.
"Oh, hey Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to hang out with you after school, but I couldn't find you. So I went looking for you and suddenly I'm here." She explained.
"Oh...sorry about that." Scootaloo blushed.
"Don't worry about it Squirt, I understand. You two looked great out there."
"You saw?" Rumble asked.
"Yeah, and I say you two are Wonderbolts material."
"Well that's convenient, considering we're trying to get into the Academy." Scootaloo said.
"Well, if you keep at it, you two will be in for sure." She looked to the town clock and jumped into the air. " I gotta go, have fun on your date Scoots."
"It's not a date!" The two replied, a tinge of red spotting their cheeks. Rainbow Dash flew away, laughing hysterically at their response.
Rumble teasingly bowed as he pushed the door open for Scootaloo. "M'lady," He said in a royal accent. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and walked in.
"I'm impressed, I expected some fancy expensive restaurant." She teased.
"Whatever, do you want to eat or not?"
"I'll take some fries with my hayburger if you don't mind please." She smiled. Rumble rolled his eyes and walked to the counter to order. Eventually the two found themselves eating at a table together. Both of them doing their best to act casual.
"Anything new with you Rumble?" Scootaloo asked, tossing some fries into her mouth.
"My old foalsitters came for a visit." He said, deciding to leave out the awkward conversation he had with them days before. Scootaloo nearly choked.
"You mean Flitter and Cloudchaser?" She asked, trying not to cough.
"I'm surprised you remember them."
"Well, with the amount of times Flitter asked me if I liked you every time I saw you three, and when she tried to hug me that one time and nearly squeezed the life out of me. Then there was Cloudchaser, who always asked if I was your girlfriend. They're not that easy to forget."
You got that right." Rumble agreed, waving his straw around. "But they were pretty good at watching me. Despite the amount of times they tried to put me in a bow." Rumble said. Scootaloo laughed at that.
"Geez, I never knew that practicing for so long would work up such an appetite." Scootaloo declared, propping herself onto one elbow.
"You're hungry? You were basically yelling at me and sitting back on a cloud the whole time."
"What can I say? Teaching you isn't easy. But you made some improvement." She teased.
"Whatever."
"What about Thunderlane, anything new with Blossomforth?"
"Yeah, he tells me that he has some 'future plans', but I think that he's thinking about popping the question." He said.
"Why exactly?"
"Well he's been dating her for years, and lived with her up until a year ago."
"You mean he just hangs around the house all of the time?"
"Yeah, he's always stopping by with Blossom to have dinner, but I can't say I blame him, Mom and Dad are excellent chefs."
"Maybe I should try it sometime if you make it sound so good."
"Is it always food with you?"
"Nope. I just eat a lot." Scootaloo stated, and it was true, she ate as much as any other colt she knew. And she couldn't care less.
"And how about Rainbow Dash, how's she doing with Soarin'?"
"It's still pretty weird to go to her house and find Soarin' snoozing away on the couch. But I'm getting used to it."
"Anything else?" He asked. Scootaloo decided it was probably better not to explain her conversation from the other day.
"Something tells me that those two are going to end up engaged sometime soon. I'm just not sure when." Scootaloo admitted. Chewing out of habit on the tip of her straw.
"Are you happy about that?"
"Of course I'd be happy for her when the time comes, I just hope that we'll keep our connection, ya know?"
"I'm sure you guys will."
"I hope so. How ya feeling about the Academy?" She said, quickly getting off of the subject.
"I just hope I can make it through your training before I get there."
"It's not that bad Rumble."
"It kind of is." He teased
"Whatever. You know for a fact that it'll be like, 50 times as worse this Summer."
"Yeah, you've got a point there." Rumble repeated.
"-Which you said for the umpteenth time today. You whine too much dude." Scootaloo said, turning the tables with the jokes.
"And you push ponies too hard."
"You're just gonna have to deal with it if you want to become a Wonderbolt." She said, popping a few more fries in her mouth.
"With you there, I might have to reconsider."
"Suit yourself." She jokingly shrugged, before a smile spread across her face. Soon reflecting on Rumble's.
"Though, if I were to be honest, I enjoy your company, regardless of whether your yelling at me or not." He said.
"I enjoy yours, even though you can act like a wuss."
"I'm not a wuss." Rumble claimed, crossing his arms and shutting his eyes.
"Whatever you say." Rumble looked to the door and sighed. Scootaloo followed his gaze to find Snails with Snips and Featherweight standing at the door. They spotted their friend and scooted into their booth next to them.
"Hey Rumble," Snips said, smiling at him as he sat next to Scootaloo.
"Hey guys. What're you doing here?"
"We just wanted to see what you were doing. Hope you don't mind if we join you for a bit." Snails replied. Scootaloo darted her eyes to Rumble quickly before smiling at the three.
"Well, we were kind of in the middle of a conversation..." Rumble hinted, hoping they'd get the message to leave the pair.
"Okay then, we won't bother you two." Featherweight said. Rumble sighed and put his head to his hooves.
"Maybe I should go." Scootaloo offered, looking to Rumble as she said so.
"No! You don't have to do that." Snips looked to Rumble and then to Scootaloo before a childish grin stretched across his face.
"Oh, I see, you two are on a date."
"What?!" The pair cried out turning to him.
"That explains why you wanted to sit alone," Featherweight said, "you wanted to ask her out in private."
"T-that's not the case at all!" Rumble said, holding his hooves up.
"There's no need to hide it buddy," Snails said, wrapping his arm around Rumble's shoulder. "We understand if you want to be alone."
"We're just friends." Scootaloo assured, mimicking Rumble's position.
"So sorry we interrupted your date then." Featherweight said, clearly the message wasn't getting to them.
"It's not a date!" The two yelled out, turning beet red.
"See you later lovebirds."
Scootaloo and Rumble sighed, knowing that it was going to be a long week.