It was nearly time for the semi-final course to start as all four of the passing contestants had finally arrived at the course. Scootaloo was the last to arrive, coming shortly after Rumble did. The first thing she noticed upon arriving at the course was the many rows of spectators lined around it. They weren’t quiet about announcing their presence, as their cheering and talking could be heard from quite a bit away.
She could easily see Rainbow Dash and Twilight amongst the crowd of spectators; their colours contrasting against the others, specifically Rainbow Dash’s. She wished she had known there would be quite a crowd of ponies watching, as just suddenly finding out now made her feel almost like she had stage fright.
She trotted up towards the other contestants, not wanting to be the loner in the group. Most of their chatter revolved around how excited they were to have gotten this far in the league, to which Scootaloo let out a nervous smile and nodded. Rumble looked over to her with a small grin. “What’s with the wonky smile, Scootaloo? Not nervous are you?”
Scootaloo laughed to the question, obviously showing she was quite nervous. “Well, there’s like over a hundred different ponies watching, along with some of the best fliers in all of Equestria. I have absolutely no reason to be nervous!” She said, clearing her throat shortly after. Rumble rolled his eyes playfully and turned his view back towards the other two fillies in the group, continuing their previous conversation.
All Scootaloo could think about at the moment was what would happen if she lost, what all of her friends and family would say about it. She knew Rainbow Dash said she’d never be disappointed in her, but the thought of it actually happening still made her anxious. Her thoughts quickly came back on track as she saw Spitfire fly down towards her. She seemed to have been preparing to start as she tapped on all of the fillies’ shoulders to get their attention.
Once they were all looking at her, she began to speak. “Congratulations in making it this far into the league. You passed all five elimination courses, not something a lot of fillies were able to do. I have to say I’m quite impressed with all of your performances, so I’m happy to have you all be Junior Wonderbolts material. You’d all be good fliers for us, but sadly, we can only choose one winner. In this course, only one of you will be eliminated and the rest will go through. If you come in in fourth place, you won’t be participating in the final course tomorrow. So hey, no sweat,” she said with a smile. Of course she was being sarcastic on the last quote; but at least it livened up Scootaloo’s mood a bit.
Spitfire turned around and trotted over to some of the other Wonderbolts to chat with them, letting the fillies prepare themselves before the course started. Scootaloo tried her best to feel confident with her own flying abilities, letting herself remember how well she did on the elimination courses.
This course looked to be a pure speed course this time. It seemed to combine nearly everything they had done previously, testing their limits all at once. There were only two obstacles she could see in the course, along with a decent amount of sharp turns as well. It didn’t look particularly complex though, so she assumed there were multiple laps. This was probably still going to be quite a challenge; she could only imagine what the final course was going to be like; hopefully she was going to get to see it either way.
A whistle signalled that it was nearly time for the course to start. Each of the fillies trotted over to the starting line and spaced themselves accordingly, allowing themselves all room to let their tiny wings branch out. Scootaloo managed to make herself feel somewhat confident, but the crowd of spectators was still making her feel more nervous than she’d like to be.
The crowd seemed to quiet down when they saw all of the fillies line up, probably waiting on the signal for them to start before cheering again. It looked like Spitfire still had something to say, as she was given a microphone by one of the other Wonderbolts. “Thank you all for coming to the third annual Junior Wonderbolts League! Twenty nine fillies were put through five different courses that aimed to test their precision, agility, strength, and persistence. Only four of those twenty nine made it through all five courses, so give our passing contestants a round of applause!” She said, pointing her hoof over to the four lined up fillies. A loud batch of cheering and clapping hooves echoed around the course, only stopping when Spitfire raised front leg to the sky.
She put her leg down when there was no noise coming from the crowd. “Today’s course will decide what three contestants will head into the final course tomorrow. There they will compete for the spot in the Junior League, with the winner of the course claiming it. I wish all four of these fillies the best of luck, and with that we shall start the semi-finals!” She said, giving the microphone over to one of the other Wonderbolts.
The stallion now holding the microphone cleared his throat before starting a countdown, making all of the contestants tense up and focus on the course ahead. “…5, 4…” The stallion said as Scootaloo’s heart began to speed up. A sense of adrenaline had begun to overpower the nervous feeling she had felt prior; her hooves repositioned and twitched in-between each of the elongated countdown seconds. “2… 1, GO!”
Like Pinkie Pie with a craving for sugar near a 90% off sale on sweets, they were off! The speed at which they launched managed to create a draft that the crowd of spectators could feel, even if just a little. Cheering had begun again as each of the fillies entered the start of the course. Despite each of the fillies starting at the same time, they slowly broke away from each other, eventually landing in their own places.
Scootaloo was in third place, straight behind the filly in second place. Judging by what she could see on the course, there wasn’t much room to overtake the other competitors, meaning she was going to have to time it correctly if she wanted to move up. They had all quickly passed the first turn, which was easy considering how wide it was.
The first obstacle they had to go through was a set of cloud-made pillars they had to weave around, an obstacle they had done in a previous elimination course. However, this version had the pillars much closer to each other. The two fillies ahead of Scootaloo seemed to get into the rhythm of weaving around them quite easily, while she herself found it somewhat difficult.
She had to slow down from the first couple pillars; otherwise she was going to bump into one of them. This gave the filly in fourth place the opportunity to overtake her, pushing Scootaloo into last place quite early on in the course. She didn’t let this get to her though, as she knew she had many opportunities to get back her spot. She continued to weave around the pillars, trying to get a feel for how she was supposed to do it effectively. She gradually picked up speed again before bursting through the rest of the obstacle and into one of the “sprinting” portions of the race. They had to pass through large hoops occasionally, just so they were all kept on track with no cheating or short-cutting allowed.
This “sprint” period would have been an opportune time to overtake somepony, but she was too far away from the filly in fourth place to be able to do that in a timely manner. Instead, she just caught up as much as she could before she reached the next set of obstacles. The crowd was loudly cheering for all of the fillies; even Rainbow Dash and Twilight were cheering, despite Scootaloo being in last place.
The next set of obstacles seemed devious in design. They were tight, short tubes made of clouds that they had to pass through while they were flying. Scootaloo noticed that the filly in first place was completely closing their wings when passing through them, giving indication as to how compact she was going to have to get to pass through them.
It was suddenly her turn to pass through the tubes, since every contestant ahead of her had already started. She had little time to prepare, causing her to close her wings a little bit too early and hit her back legs off of the lower end of the tube as she exited it. She remained undeterred despite the hiccup, as she continued flying up to the next tube without hesitation. If she lost anything from that small mistake, it wasn’t something worth worrying about.
Each new tube was positioned slightly different from the last, meaning they couldn’t just stay in a straight line while flying. Scootaloo’s second attempt went a lot smoother as she managed to close her wings just in time to get through without a scratch. She re-opened them up again once she was through and dashed towards the next ones.
She was getting uncomfortably behind the rest of the contestants, and it lowered her self-confidence. She didn’t let it get to her as she still had at least two more laps to correct her shoddy first lap.
She finally went through the final tube, allowing her to pick up more speed to try and scoot back into third place again. She began trying to close the gap between her and the filly in third place, expelling a lot of her saved up energy to reach them as best she could.
It took no time at all before they had suddenly crossed the line that signalled the first lap was over. They crossed the line with such a ferocious speed that the Wonderbolt spectators nearby caught quite a big gust of wind when they passed. The Wonderbolts seemed impressed by the speed that the fillies were able to gain, especially after tackling some decently hard obstacles prior.
It was the start of the second lap, with Scootaloo being one place behind where she started. The large period without obstacles allowed her to tail the filly in third place, coming right up behind them as they passed the first wide corner again. She knew she didn’t have time to pass them with the approaching pillars again, so she just kept herself behind their tail.
She slowed down ever so slightly to get some buffer space between her and the filly ahead of her; she didn’t want to bump into them in-case they made a mistake. Scootaloo learned from her past mistakes on the first lap as she began to traverse the pillars again, now being able to weave in around them with relative ease.
No filly ahead of her seemed to be making any mistakes, meaning positions didn’t change at all during this obstacle portion of the course. Upon clearing and exiting the last set of pillars, Scootaloo increased her speed again, hoping to squeeze back into third place.
The crowd’s cheering heightened when Scootaloo began to overtake the contestant ahead of her. She slowly edged herself ahead before quickly drifting in-front of them so they weren’t able to try and re-overtake her, at least not now anyway. She was in the winner’s bracket again; all she had to do now was stay in it.
The second set of tubes was up next, and this time Scootaloo knew what she was doing. She charged confidently into the first tube, closing her wings and reopening them once she passed through it fully. She continued to confidently pass through each and every tube that came next, making next to no mistakes in the process.
When she passed through the final tube of the lap, she heard the crowd gasp in disappointment. She curiously looked behind herself to see if she could see the filly in fourth place, but it seemed they were considerably farther behind her now, making her assume that they made a mistake at one of the tubes.
Her focus shifted back to her front as she approached the end of the second lap, this time being eligible for the win. She could still easily be knocked back into fourth place at the last second if she made a mistake, so she was going to try her best to concentrate on the final lap. With another huge gust of wind hitting the Wonderbolt spectators, three of the fillies had passed the second lap.
Scootaloo felt comfortable being in third place; attempting to challenge the filly in second place seemed unnecessary, but would still be a good option in order to secure the win. Either way, all she wanted to do was pass, not get a high score. She increased her speed again to catch up to the contestant in second place, but she wasn’t going to try and pass them.
They turned the wide corner for the final time, approaching the now-familiar pillars they were going to have to weave through one more time. Scootaloo’s concentration seemed a bit over the top, as she felt like she heard nothing but the wind in her ears. Her heart raced both in adrenaline and worry, worry that she was going to get outplayed at the last second.
All three of the leading fillies had suddenly entered into the pillars again, weaving around them like they had done in the previous laps. Scootaloo didn’t want to lose any of her momentum going through the obstacles, as one mistake could doom her chances. Her concentration seemed to have paid off through, as it took no time at all before she had passed the final couple pillars she was going to face in the race.
It was the second sprint of the final lap, where each filly was given an opportunity to gain speed and overtake. It also gave Scootaloo the chance to look behind her, allowing her to see that the filly in fourth place was slowly catching up to her. A feeling of stress washed over her body as she turned back around to face her front again.
Despite the large period of no obstacles, no places had changed in the interval between the pillars and the tubes. By the time the filly in fourth place entered the first tube, the rest of the contestants had already started well ahead of them. They were all bursting through the tubes at an incredible speed, expelling their pent up energy to confidently pass through the final obstacles of the course. Upon exiting the final tube, Scootaloo deemed it was time to give it all she had, pushing her wings to their limit.
Every contestant had the same idea, causing them all to start speeding towards the finish line to claim their victory. Scootaloo didn’t know if the filly in fourth place was right behind her or a mile away, all she tried to focus on was passing the black and white flag right ahead of her.
She felt like she skipped a beat near the very end of the course, her heart partly stopping as she had blasted past the finish line in confidence. She merely relaxed, knowing that nothing else could be done to alter the results at this point. Did she get overtaken at the last second? Was it going to be a photo finish type deal? Or was she so far ahead that the filly in fourth place had no chance? She was about to find out either way.
She flew back towards where the Wonderbolts were, expecting that that’s where she was going to get the results. When she reached solid ground, her wings quickly retracted back to the side of her body, needing a bit of a rest after the three stressful laps. She sat down and panted, sweat dripping from her forehead as her body still hadn’t calmed down from the rush of adrenaline she felt during the race.
Spitfire seemed to have been giving the other fillies their results. She eventually trotted over to Scootaloo with quite a big smile on her face.
“Congratulations, Scootaloo! You came in at third place, meaning you pass to the finals tomorrow. I hope you’re okay, because you look quite shattered after that,” she said, continuing to smile to her.
Scootaloo laughed nervously, wiping her forehead and taking a deep breath. “…No sweat, just like you said.”