//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: "When's the Wedding?" And Other Rumbaloo Tales // by Candy-Sweets_12 //------------------------------// "You okay?" Rumble asked, he landed next to Scootaloo, matching her pace. Scootaloo sighed. "Yeah, I'm just a bit tired, ya know?" "Did you get any sleep?" "Yeah, I guess so. I just can't shake this feeling, though." "What feeling?" Rumble asked, arching a concerned eyebrow. "I know that Comet said he'd try harder, but I guess I have my doubts." she admitted. "I can't say I blame you, I'd probably be the same if I were in your position." Scootaloo let out another sigh, stepping out of the building and stretching her wings. "I just wish that we could maybe prove ourselves ya know? I know we can both get better results. I just hope things'll turn out for the better." "Yeah." Rumble agreed. The rest of the recruits were already outside, some of which were using the obstacle course for warm-ups. Rumble felt he had to lift Scootaloo's spirits somehow, and he had a pretty good solution. "You wanna race?" he asked hopefully. Scootaloo tried to hide her smirk. "I don't know, depends on the prize." "Loser has to clean the house for a week." he tried. "Are you sure about that? Right now you already owe me dinner," she reminded him. "You up to it or not?" he asked. "Hm," she teased, putting a hoof to her chin, considering the offer. "how about two?" she challenged, smirking to her heart's contempt. Rumble mirrored the expression, "First one to the end of the course wins." "You're on." The last thing Spitfire expected was to see a few of her recruits flying about the place, using the obstacle course with noticeably improved results. And some getting a head start on their daily exercises. She smirked and grabbed her whistle, blowing harshly into it. All of the recruits immediately snapped to attention, before rushing forward. Comet who had been talking with another pony, noticed the look on Scootaloo's face as she passed by, and he couldn't help but feel curious as to why she had such a smug smile. Rather than taking the chance to ask her about it, he gave her a look, one that was asking, 'what's the deal?', a look she didn't seem to notice. For she was far too happy to have won her little race. She held back a chuckle as Rumble got into formation with a disappointed demeanor. "Today," Spitfire began, "you'll be working on our famous air obstacle course, the object of this exercise is to work on precision flying under extreme circumstances." She paced in front of the line, motioning to the multiple machinery met to simulate harsh weather. "Don't worry about winning, this isn't a race." She glanced at over everyone when she said this. "Get on your mark!" she yelled. The recruits responded by strapping their goggles in place. "Ready?" Scootaloo asked Comet. "I was born ready, sweetheart." he replied. Scootaloo prompted to rolling her eyes as she took to galloping off the runway, Comet close behind as they took off. Scootaloo couldn't help but smirk once she saw Rumble wink at her a few teams ahead. "I'm sorry, but did I miss something?" Comet asked, turning to her. "What do you mean?" "What're you smiling like that for?" He then adopted a smug grin. "Are you excited to finally do this course with me?" "Nothing important." she responded, ignoring the last sentence. "Just stay in sync." Comet narrowed his eyes but obeyed, matching her quick but steady speed through the rings. Scootaloo stole another glance to Rumble, who was smiling back at her for a quick second. "Watch out!" Comet said, Scootaloo snapped back to attention, barely missing a cloud as she flew out of it's way. "Keep your head out of the clouds, lead-pony." Comet sneered. Scootaloo bit her lip. "Sorry, I guess I got a bit distracted." "Then don't, you were the one lecturing me yesterday about cooperating, do I have to tell you to pay attention?" he threatened. "No, I'm fine. I just have a lot on my mind." she objected sternly. She quickly dove around a few other clouds before they made their way to more rings. "Stay in sync," Scootaloo reminded him sternly. "I get it, I will." he replied, "Bossy." he muttered. Scootaloo made a series of sharp turns through the rings, making sure Comet would be able to keep up. At one point, she did a dizzying spin before turning through at an unusually sharp angle. "Show off, much?" he stated. "Look who's talking." she shot back. "At least I kept up with you." he ignored the comment. From below, Spitfire kept a close watch on the teams, seeing how noticeably better one certain pair got. "Not bad." she thought aloud, noting the matched paces, and the speedy, yet agile turns around the obstacles. Once they made it to the rain, Comet didn't seem to have much of a problem getting through the harsh winds. Scootaloo however, struggled a bit to keep pace. The wind nearly blew her back, and knocked her off course, Comet immediately noticed this, and flew a bit slower for her sake. "Come on, it's just a little weather." he beckoned. "It's easy to get through." Scootaloo nodded and flapped a bit harder, she wasn't the best when it came to flying in the rain, she never really got used to it. "You can fly faster, I've seen you in our other exercises." he continued. Scootaloo pushed further, flapping her wings at a much more rapid speed, until they were flying through at the same pace. "Was that so hard?" he teased. "Shut up." Scootaloo stated. Although, she was kind of glad he didn't fly too far ahead of her, seeing how he had no problem getting through whatsoever. Maybe her lecture yesterday paid off. Lightning flashed around the pair, making them even more eager to escape the storm and pick up the pace. Once they reached the end of it, Scootaloo glanced to Comet. "You want to speed things up a bit?" "I don't know, I'm not the most agile pony." "Come on, I've seen you in other exercises, you can manage." she mimicked. "You know, as much as I like a feisty mare, you sure can be a pain in the-" Another duo raced past them, it took the two only a moment before they could catch themselves. "You see my point?" Scootaloo asked. "Whatever." With that, he pulled forward, and Scootaloo quickly followed, where they dodged the fierce winds, Scootaloo in a much more graceful way than her wing-pony. She even did a few more spins here and there, but made sure not to get too carried away. "Comet, watch out!" she said. The stallion was nearly blown back by the wind machine, but he managed to steady himself and dodge the rest. "How the hay are you able to do all of that?" "I can ask the same thing to you and the rain." "I grew up in a rainy city. If you think that's hard, try flying in the middle of stage four thunder storm." A chill went up her spine, she didn't even want to think about the damage that could be done. "I basically just practiced with my Dad, and Rainbow Dash." she said, as the two came to a landing on the runway. "Wait, you know Rainbow Dash? As in, the Rainbow Dash, one of the fastest current members of the Wonderbolts?" he asked, shock coming across his face. "Yep. That's the one." "That's a little unfair, don't you think?" "I can see why you'd think so, but trust me, I couldn't come close to her skills." "Whatever. It's still a little unfair." "You think everything is unfair, don't you?" Scootaloo commented. "It's not like she took me on like some sort of protégé or something. She's like a sister to me, and just helped me learn to fly." "You mean you didn't learn yourself?" "No." Scootaloo sighed, adopting a more mellow tone to her voice. "I was a late bloomer." she summarized, not wanting to give him all of the details. "I just so happened to have her help me out a bit when I needed it, but she wasn't always there, she had things to do sometimes. But once I got the basics, I learned everything else myself. And a bit of help from other ponies, especially my Dad." "I was a late bloomer too." Comet admitted. "Really?" Scootaloo asked. "Yeah, my brothers and my Mom helped me out the most. Two of them work for the Wonderbolts, actually, one helps with training and such," "Yet you say I have an unfair advantage." Scootaloo remarked. "But they did help me out. They taught me everything I know." "How many brothers do you have?" "Three, all of them older." "So you're the baby of the family?" "Yeah." he said. "Well, you're pretty good." Scootaloo admitted. "You're not so bad yourself, hot shot." he remarked, "I like that in a mare." throwing her another flirtatious smirk. Before a witty remark could be said, Spitfire approached them. "You two," she said. The duo stood up straight and turned to her. "Yes ma'am," they replied in unison. "At ease, I just wanted to say good job out there. Scootaloo, you need to work on getting used to rain storms, Comet, you need to work on your agility." The two nodded. "But I did see a major improvement, however. I'm assuming you two worked out your differences?" she said, peering over her glasses. "I guess you could say that, ma'am." Comet said, throwing Scootaloo another smirk and side eye. Who prompted to rolling her own eyes. "Good on you. I see you're finally attending to your positions, make sure you keep it that way." "Yes ma'am." "You two can go make yourselves busy, we're hitting the mess hall in ten." With that, she started towards the course, where a two or three recruits managed to get themselves stuck in the clouds. Scootaloo turned to the other pairs that made their way down. Finding Rumble and Sky Bound off to the side. The two waved at her. She then turned back to Comet, who was already making his way towards another recruit. "Hey, Scootaloo!" Sky Bound called out. She stopped doing her sit-ups and stared up at her. Scootaloo smiled and trotted over. "How'd it go?" Rumble asked. "Way better than yesterday. I wouldn't say we're friends, but I think we'll be able to get through the rest of the week." "Thank Luna, I'd hate for things to go South for you." Rumble replied. "I'm fine Rumble, he's not that bad." "Why do you say that?" "Well, even if he's pushy, and a player, annoying, and talks too much for his own good, he's not that bad. How'd it go for you guys?" "Everything turned out fine, we didn't have many problems. Except that lover boy here wouldn't stop blabbering on about how 'I hope Scootaloo's this,' and 'I hope Scootaloo will be that.' "Really?" Scootaloo asked, smirking and raising an eyebrow to the colt. "I saw you had a bit of trouble getting through the storm section, and it seemed like you and Comet were going at each other a few times." he admitted. "There's also how this guy nearly ran face first into one of the rings." "He does need to work on his agility," Scootaloo chuckled in agreement. "Hey! I'm not the only one, she had trouble with the wind machines." Rumble stated. "Not to mention you were a bit out of pace sometimes." "Okay, I'll admit, I've got my flaws." Sky Bound said. "Nopony's perfect." "So what's after this?" Scootaloo asked. "Well, once we get cloud busting out of the way, we'll have the final course tomorrow." Rumble said. "I meant for today, Captain Obvious." Scootaloo smirked. "Well, we've got about..." she glanced at the position of the sun, "...seventy minutes before we start the next exercise, so I'm saving my energy until then." "You up for another race?" Rumble asked. "Nah, I think we've done enough for now. We seem to do it a little too often anyway, don't you think? Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm going to win." "Don't be so sure, you know I beat you the other day." Rumble reminded her. "And I guess you do have a point, but what else is there to do?" "Wing-ups?" Scootaloo teased. Rumble narrowed his eyes. "Okay, a no for the wing-ups then." she quickly added. Later on, once the mess hall was cleared, Spitfire went to her office to fill out some last minute paper work, while the cadets were left with the next exercise. "You all have thirty minutes to clear as many clouds as possible, we'll be keeping score on how many each pair can clear. It's not a race, but it will go down on your final results." one stallion explained. "And just to let you know, no one should be able to finish, we'll be pumping out more clouds as you go on. So we shouldn't see anyone slacking off." A few cadets groaned. "And tornadoes are not permitted, if we see any sign of one, whoever's responsible will be expelled from the Academy." With that, he blew sharply into the whistle, and everyone took off. "What's with the tornado thing?" Comet thought aloud. "Who the hay came up with that?" "I think that somepony tried it a few years back, I heard a few ponies were nearly killed." Scootaloo recalled. "That's a bit obsessive to clear some clouds." he commented. Scootaloo nodded in agreement, before turning to him, he had his eyes set for a certain portion in the sky. "Ever bust clouds before?" she asked. He paused, "Sort of." Scootaloo rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'sort of'?" "I'm not really good at it." he admitted. "Half the time I just push it farther away." "You can't be that bad." Scootaloo said, swooping down to one set, within a few seconds, she cleared six clouds. "It's easy." Comet tried kicking at one, but his hooves bounced back. "Oh." Scootaloo said. 'That's pretty bad.' she thought. "See?" he asked. "Aim for the middle, clouds have certain soft spots you can hit." she said. She kicked at two other clouds, aiming towards the middle in a soft spot. "Try it." she said. He flew up to where she was and aimed at another set, managing to make it divide into three smaller puffs. He sighed at the pony taking score. "Try kicking harder, it's like flying, once you learn, you can't forget." she said. "I don't need another lecture." he snapped. "You don't seem like you can figure it out on your own." she shot back. He sighed. "Where do I aim?" "Just aim for the soft spot, in the middle, and don't hit it too softly." she said. He followed her advice, and drew in a deep breath. With that, he aimed for another cloud, managing to make it burst. "See? It's not so hard." Scootaloo teased. "Shut up," he muttered. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and smirked, the two started bursting through the clouds, Scootaloo, slicing through set after set, and showing Comet how he could do the same. Eventually, he got the hang of it, and managed to slice through more clouds even faster than Scootaloo could. In the end, the whistle blew, and everyone flew down. The ponies counted their scores and were shocked at how close they all came. Scootaloo and Comet were actually in the lead, another set was just a cloud short of them, and Rumble and Sky Bound were just three. Scootaloo turned to Comet, shock clear on her face. "Tell me I'm not miscounting that," she said to him. "I can see it too." he said. He smirked. "I guess that we're just the perfect pair. Who knows, maybe it was meant to be." Scootaloo was too shocked to acknowledge the comment, she looked to Rumble off to the side, who, with Sky Bound, threw her a supporting smile. 'I can't believe it,' she thought. She finally managed to prove herself. She smiled widely, unable to hide her grin. She felt like throwing her arms around someone, and she was sure that pony would be Rumble. "Yes!" she said to herself. The whistle blew three times, prompting everyone to turn their attention to the ponies left in charge. "20 laps around the Academy!" he screeched. Before anyone could let out a groan, he blew the whistle. Comet flew ahead, without much of a word. Scootaloo went up to Rumble, wrapping her arms around his neck. "We did it!" she said happily. "Good on you, Scoot." he said happily. "Guess that telling him off worked out." Sky Bound said. Scootaloo smiled. "Yep." she smiled.