A Scootaloo Story

by Golden Tassel

Chapter 16

The week that Scootaloo was grounded for was possibly the shortest week of her entire life. At Rainbow Dash's suggestion, the young filly passed the time by exercising as much as she had the energy for. And she had a lot of energy; Rainbow Dash's promise to sponsor her at the competition and to help her train for it gave her something to work toward. Every time Scootaloo began to feel tired, she reminded herself what her idol had done to help her. Scootaloo was determined to not let Rainbow Dash down.

Once Scootaloo was free to leave the house, her first stop was the Crusaders' treehouse. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were there, and they were happy to see their friend again. Scootaloo didn't stay long, though; she already had plans to meet with Rainbow Dash to start practicing. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle offered to come along to watch and cheer her on, but Scootaloo asked them not to.

"I'm gonna be trying some new tricks, and it'll take me a while to get right," Scootaloo told her friends. "I think you two have seen me screw up enough lately. But I'll let you know when I've got my routine ready to show off."

Scootaloo's friends understood, and they wished her luck with their farewell hugs.

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To Scootaloo's surprise and disappointment, Rainbow Dash didn't want her to try anything new for her first day of training.

"You've got great enthusiasm, kid. I like that. But enthusiasm alone won't win you first place. You wanna win, don't you?"

"Of course!" Scootaloo bounced, and her small wings buzzed.

"That's what I like to hear! You've already got a lot of talent. I knew that much already, but I didn't realize just how much until I spent the last week trying to find anypony in town who knew as much about scooters as you do. It turns out that you're it, kid. So to start out I want you to just show me everything you know already. Start with the most basic tricks you can do. Those will be the building blocks for the fancy stuff, and you need to be able to do them without even thinking about it before we can move on to harder stuff."

That made sense to Scootaloo, but it also changed the way she looked at her idol: Rainbow Dash had always seemed so naturally awesome at everything she did, but now Scootaloo could see that there had always been a lot more about Rainbow Dash than she had ever seen before. She imagined Rainbow Dash practicing the building blocks of aerial stunts while she demonstrated her own basics on her scooter. There was a strange realization within that: Rainbow Dash hadn't always been this awesome. In a way, Scootaloo felt as though some of the magic and wonder she had held for her idol was now lost, but at the same time she felt encouraged—Scootaloo could become that awesome too. All it would take was practice, and it was suddenly within reach.