The End of the Crusade

by playnwin

Chapter 3 - The End of the Flight

Chapter 3 - The End of the Flight

It was a sunny day in Cloudsdale, as it usually was, being above the clouds, and Scootaloo had decided to start her spring cleaning early. She had allowed her home to get into quite a mess, one that would impress even Twilight Sparkle, though not quite on purpose. She was busy these days, working a job that required her to fly all across Equestria on the drop of a hat, and this kind of environment was not conductive to a clean, orderly home. But, the time of the year had come around again, and Scootaloo resolved to clean quickly, so she could get back to doing more worthwhile things.

Opening her door, Scootaloo walked in from the front porch, stopping only a step inside, partially from shock and partially from the sudden lack of available walking room. The floor was covered in junk, ranging from pizza boxes to books to clothing. She hadn’t been gone that long, had she? It had been only... there was that trip to Manehattan, then the one to Canterlot, then... Okay, maybe it had been a while.

Hearing cats meowing throughout her house, she stepped over a pile of discarded food, around a stack of Daring Do novels, and came to the door to her kitchen. Scootaloo pushed it open and stepped through, before promptly tripping over a half-disassembled unicycle.

“Where did that even come from?” Rising, Scootaloo dusted herself off and gave considerable thought to simply kicking the cloud that existed as her floor into oblivion. Where was Cloudsdale currently floating over anyways?

Grabbing the broom, Scootaloo pushed heaping piles of trash into the trash bin she had attached to her porch. With the living room now traversable, she went upstairs to grap the vacuum she would sorely need.

Hours passed, the monotony of cleaning wearing down Scootaloo’s already-diminished motivation for cleaning. Eventually, the first floor was cleared, and she worked her way up through the second floor, then her bedroom. This room was far better than the rest of her house, so Scootaloo began to have hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Then she opened her closet and a mountain of stuff fell out. With a sigh, that hope was snuffed out, and she began to sort through it.

She had nearly finished when she came upon a dusty, cracked picture frame; opaque to the point that Scootaloo couldn’t see the picture. Taking the back off, she took out the picture contained within. With a start, she saw which picture it was, and was surprised at the pain it evoked. It was taken not long before she had gotten her cutie mark. The original Cutie Mark Crusaders stood in a group hug, grinning at some excapade or another. With a sudden catch in her throat, Scootaloo realized that this image captured one of the last times the Crusaders had ever spent time together.

It had been six long years since she had seen them.

When confronted by a giant purple inferno that replaced the sky, half of Ponyville wondered if it was the end of days. The other half wondered what the Cutie Mark Crusaders had gotten themselves into this time, and sent rescue squads immediately. The Elements of Harmony were included on these teams. When Rainbow Dash, who had recently been inducted as a Wonderbolt, noticed the purple column of flame that she, instinctively, knew could only be from her adopted sister, the resulting surrender of the speed of sound shattered the Wonderbolts barracks into a rapidly-dissipating chromatic pile of rubble.

After their doomed biplane ride, which, to both the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Ponyville, quickly became known as simply, The Event, the Crusaders became wrapped in their destinies. Scootaloo understood that they each needed time to focus on their talents, and devoted herself to the art of flight. Not even a month had gone by before the Wonderbolts came a’knockin, looking for fresh talent, coincidentally the mare who had lit the sky on fire.

It wasn’t until then that Scootaloo truly understood what her destiny was. Not only did she enjoy flying, she was good at it. On her second week as a Wonderbolt, Soarin had, on a dare since Rainbow Dash was away on an errand, offered to teach the Buckaneer Blaze to the green mare. Everypony expected to get a good laugh at the newby trying, and failing, to execute a second-year trick. The only pony who had been amused was Rainbow Dash, when she returned to a grinning Scootaloo and a team of blinded pegasi.

But her success couldn’t be chalked up to beginner’s luck. The trainer hated to train Scootaloo, not because she was a miscreant or anything, but because she would sleep through their lessons. And what only angered them even more was that, after missing the entire session, she would be shaken awake, only to then execute the move perfectly. Eventually, the trainers gave up, and left her to develop her own tricks.

And develop tricks she had. Along with her “Light the Sky” technique, she had developed many others. She had developed the method of lengthening one’s contrail, and drawing complex shapes with it, as well as many of the other artistic contrail techniques. She had also designed Rainbow Dash’s technique of sideslipping the mach barrier, and the various techniques enabled by that, incredible loops, gut-wrenching dives, and much, much more.

In a collaboration with Twilight Sparkle, Scootaloo had evoked the dark magicks of Science, utilizing Twilight’s newfound theories on the universe she called “Quantum Mechanics”. In her new trick, she could almost literally be in two places at once. (In reality, she was either in one or the other, but nopony could ever tell which.) The first time she had done it, Scootaloo had savored the disbelief on the crowd’s face. Only later did she learn that Twilight had waited in releasing her thesis on the subject, allowing Scootaloo to dispel the scientific doubts her revolutionary ideas would face. Scootaloo didn’t mind, having the added benefit of doing what was considered impossible at the time.

Being a prodigy led to quick ascension in the Wonderbolt ranks, perhaps too quick. Only half a year after her entrance to the Wonderbolts, Spitfire announced her retirement, and that a new team captain would be voted upon. Only a few months earlier, Rainbow Dash would have been a shoo-in to win, but now, Scootaloo, despite neither wanting the position, nor running for it, seemed to have a good chance of winning it. At every turn, Scootaloo would ask everypony not to vote for her, that she didn’t want it, wasn’t running for it, even removing her name from the ballot three times, yet she still ended up with nearly half the votes.

Despite the accidental competition, she and Rainbow Dash remained close to one another. In all those months, and the following years, their bond had never broken. They still competed, as they knew all of the other’s tricks but one. Scootaloo, with all her talent, had never been able to replicate the sonic rainboom, and Rainbow Dash, with her natural speed and power, hadn’t been able to light the sky yet. An ongoing competition, both of them knew it was only a matter of time until the other mastered it.

Scootaloo was broken out of her reverie by a knock on her front door. Opening the door, she looked around for the knocker for a moment, before noticing the letter on her step. Picking it up, she opened it, and softly read it aloud to herself.

“Dear Scootaloo,

Twilight Sparkle has invited us to lunch at the library in Ponyville, to discuss the Wonderbolts and their performance schedule. She says to be there by two in the afternoon. I’ll be there early to help set up. She’s having some renovations done, so come in the top landing. It’ll be unlocked.

Sincerely,

Rainbow Dash”

Looking at the clock, Scootaloo noticed that it was almost one, and she had a hour-long flight ahead of her. Recognising Rainbow Dash’s “accidental” delivery at the last possible minute, Scootaloo grinned to herself as she gathered her things, then promised to pay Rainbow back for that as she blazed her path towards Ponyville.

Author's Note:

Alright! Here's the first modern-day chapter! Let's all ignore that 2/3 of my headcanon just broke yesterday! This is a fanfic for a reason!
Please comment your thoughts below!