Junior Flight Camp: The Crusader and the Bullhead

by Wise Cracker

The Gantelope

Chapter 14: The Gantelope

Scootaloo came buzzing in excitedly. “I did it! I did it!”

Whimper smiled as she hopped and down, that all-important scroll dangling from her tail. “Congratulations, Scootaloo. You got your certificate.”

The colt and filly looked over to the Gantelope, then to the officials, with Soarin’ supervising in his uniform. The stallion and mare who were taking notes had kept a weather eye on the proceedings, and on some machines hooked up to the landing cloud via wires.

The first-timers, as tradition dictates, had opened the proceedings. Rumble had gone first, passed. Then Zephyr, passed despite flying off course at the rings. Then a shaky Skyron barely got the cog clouds turning, but managed to pass the Gantelope course with a few seconds to spare. Soarin’ looked happy at the young foals’ results, but he wasn’t talking much. He just handed over the Flight Certificates after one of the officials put their seal and signature on it with a standard “Good job.”

And then Scootaloo’s turn had come and gone. Those stubby chicken wings had buzzed all the way through, and the Wonderbolt clearly hid a grin when he gave her the certificate.

Twilight walked up up behind Whimper, before turning back to all the other instructors and foals who were waiting to take their turn. She felt their eyes on her back. “You’re sure you want to do this, Whimper? You don’t have to if you don’t think you’re up to it,”

He scrunched his nose as he thought. “Umm… how good was I in training?”

Twilight checked her notes. “Just as good as everypony else. All your weaker points are pretty much compensated for, the numbers check out. There’s no reason to think you can’t do it, unless you think you can’t do it.”

“I think I can do it.” He looked up at the jumping platform.

Scootaloo patted his neck. “You’ll be fine. Even if you fail, at least you tried. And Flight Camp was fun, right?”

A little grin appeared on his face, though it seemed to hide some worry, too. “You’re right. It’s been really fun. Thank you, Scootaloo.”

“Doldrum Whimper, you’re up,” one of the officials, a brown pegasus stallion with an hourglass cutie mark, announced.

Slowly, Whimper trotted over to the cloud staircase, all the eyes of the foals and instructors of Flight Camp on him. He didn’t turn back to see. Can’t lose my nerve now.

Scootaloo wasn’t worried. The colt had loosened up a lot after whatever Rainbow Dash had told him. He hadn’t talked about it, he hadn’t moped about it, it was like he’d just decided to let go and stop worrying. Whatever problems he’d had, he stopped trying to fix them by panicking.

And their reputation on Flight Camp would last for years.

Between the kissing (which eventually was revealed to everypony as a fake, though some girls still insisted it wasn’t) and the shenanigans at every activity they participated in (they still hadn’t figured out how that giant snowball had landed in the kitchen, which luckily meant no one could prove anything), Scootaloo and Doldrum Whimper would be mentioned together for years to come. Lyra was even tempted to write a song about them, despite warnings from both Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

And yet, deep down it felt like Whimper still hid something. He was fine, sure, but something was on his mind now. As the filly looked up to the platforms, a tiny part of her wondered if maybe she just hadn’t caught it. Maybe she wasn’t sensitive enough to see her friend was still in trouble.

Rainbow’s eyes went wide when she looked up. “Whimper! You’re up too high, that’s the advanced level!”

The filly’s heart sank as she saw her friend on the highest cloud, the one for the experienced flyers. Even from that great height, she could tell the colt’s face wasn’t looking normal. She saw him take a deep breath and lock his wings against his sides.

His eyes closed as he seemed to gather his courage, even though he was trying hard not to shake as it was. His breath came in slow and calm, like he was just falling asleep.

“He’s going to black out again. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Rainbow Dash crouched, ready to intercept him.

“Nopony move!” Soarin’ interrupted as some of the other foals and instructors were getting scared. ”If he wants to do this, let him. I know that look.”

Scootaloo grimaced in thought, not liking what this looked like.

It can’t be. This is some kind of joke, it has to be.

Was he saying goodbye?

He wouldn’t… he was finally happy.

With another deep breath and his eyes closed, he jumped.

The filly saw him go into free fall, wings locked still. He looked like he just gave up. I thought I knew him, why would he do this? With all her attention fixed on him, she nearly jumped when his eyes shot open halfway through the fall. There were tears flowing from his eyes, flying off into the wind as he went straight down. He clenched his jaw, visible terror washing over him. For a moment, Scootaloo could have sworn she heard him in her mind.

It's over. It’s finally over.

---

Twilight Sparkle had already written her letter to princess Celestia when the foals were getting ready to take the test. Whatever Rainbow Dash had told Whimper, it had worked. The boy was still shy, but at least he wasn’t shaking at random anymore. He still held Scootaloo’s tail at night, but that was more of a friendly affection than a necessity. Scootaloo had loosened up, just like him. That was just her way of saying it was okay to be a big softie sometimes.

Scootaloo still gagged at the love songs around campfire, though.

As she ran all that through her head, Twilight re-read her letter to summarise all she’d learned.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am pleased to report I have learned many new things with the pegasus ponies on Flight Camp. I learned that ponies who are different in body are different in mind, and that sometimes it’s hard to tell which difference comes from which.

But more importantly, I have learned a very important lesson about friendship, one I feel I should have learned far sooner. It’s about what friendship is, but especially about what friendship isn’t.

Friendship is not about stopping all bad things from happening to your friends. Bad things can and will happen, no matter how hard we try.

Friendship is not about never hurting your friends. Being different from your friends means you can’t always know what hurts them. Even if we try not to hurt our friends, we can’t always avoid it, and sometimes we even knowingly hurt them thinking it's for their own good.

Friendship certainly is not about making your friends be perfect. Not only is being perfect impossible, just trying it can be painful. Ponies like to be the way they are, and it’s up to them if and what they want to change, not us.

Rather, friendship is about helping friends find the good side to their imperfections. Sharing your mistakes, no matter how painful or embarrassing, can help a friend avoid that mistake. Getting a new perspective on what we think is a weakness can help us understand that sometimes the weakness is really a strength in disguise.

Sometimes, as hard as it is to accept, the good just comes with the bad.

In short, I learned that a friend isn’t someone who likes you despite your flaws, but someone who understands that maybe they aren’t flaws at all.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

---

Scootaloo walked over to the prone colt. He lay face down, that hard, taut belly plastered over the clouds. She nudged his motionless body with her nose. Lyra was standing over him, shaking her head. Scootaloo grunted, annoyed. “Come on, Whimper. Get up.”

No response came. She nudged him again. “Get up, Whimper, you look ridiculous.”

Still he wouldn’t move. She got her head under his shoulders and shoved him on his back. “Come on, you big lug...”

His arms fell limply at his sides as his body was rolled over, his wings followed suit. He still didn’t respond. She gave off another grunt before whispering to him. “Don’t make me chew your ear again.”

He groaned as he regained consciousness. “Urrff… gimme a break, will you? I think all the blood’s drained from my head.”

Scootaloo smiled. “You’re a hard act to follow, you know that? You had everyone scared witless, even me.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t really thinking. I’m not sure what happened. But I think I managed to black out when I wanted to. Really deep, you know, pulled out all the stops like in the fight. I remember now, everything. I even know what I said to Kludde to get him so angry.”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight came towards him as he was getting back to his senses. “Really? What was it?”

He chuckled, then coughed. ”He asked how it was possible that I could still move under his spell, that it was a terror. I told him his spell crushes our spirits and steals our breath. To other ponies, that’s a terror. To me, it’s just gym class.”

At that, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo both started laughing out loud, even rolling over the clouds in synch with each other.

Still woozy, the colt sat upright. Lyra floated him something to drink and checked his pulse again. Back to normal, as she'd suspected. “That must’ve been some adrenalin rush you had, kid, moving like that. You managed to stop from collapsing for pretty long, too. You didn’t even wobble when you went to get your certificate.”

“Uhuh. Didn’t think I had it in me." He sighed after a little sip. ”Shame I didn’t get it, though.”

Rainbow Dash sighed with him as she got to her hooves. He had a breathing problem, his body was wired differently from everypony else, and after all he’d gone through he wouldn’t get his certificate. Poor kid just can’t catch a break. “Hey, don’t feel bad about it. It’s my fault. I should have told you.”

“You did tell me, on day one. It’s my fault. I should’ve noticed it sooner. I just wasn’t thinking straight, I’m not used to it. I would’ve noticed if I hadn’t been so distracted.”

Scootaloo groaned and threw her front hooves into the air. “Noticed what? Come on, you had a good time! You even managed to pull up from a dive, at the last millisecond, without spraining your wings. Why didn’t you pass?”

Rubbing his sore head as the blood came back to it, he pointed to landing cloud and to the machine that was wired to it. “Because the timer starts when you hit the cloud. I pulled up right at the last moment. I never actually touched it, so I wasn’t timed. And that means I failed. No second chance, no exceptions, that’s what they said.”

Scootaloo let her forelegs fall in defeat. “Wow, and you didn't even get your cutie mark. Even after all that. I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “Don’t be, it’s not your fault. I got to try, and I had fun. It’s not like I really needed to get my certificate right now.” He looked right at her then. "And I think I've figured out my special talent now, so my cutie mark... I think I know what I need to do to get that, too."

Scootaloo followed Whimper's gaze as his eyes turned to Rainbow Dash for some reason. The whole thing rubbed the filly the wrong way. He deserved to get his certificate, the only reason he didn’t get it was because he'd actually done something more awesome than he was supposed to.

“Excuse me.” A deep male voice caught everyone’s attention. ”While they’re getting the paperwork ready for the next group, I’d like to give you this.”

Scootaloo barely registered what was happening. A hoof extended towards her friend, with a piece of paper in it. The hoof was covered in blue spandex, with yellow bolts running in a ring around it. Soarin’ is handing over the certificate?

Whimper’s ears perked up, and his wings went rigid with nerves. His head darted back and forth from the paper to the pony giving it to him. “Bu-But…I failed. Those guys said they couldn’t break the rules.”

Soarin’ put the paper closer, until the blue colt took it and read it.

“They can’t. Officially, they’re not allowed to put their seal and signature on a Flight Certificate if someone fails the test. So I put mine on yours, instead.” He gave a little grin.

Scootaloo’s eyes widened. The certificate looked genuine, the seal looked a little different, but it had Soarin’s signature on it.

“But that doesn’t count, does it? I mean, you’re not an official. You’re a Wonderbolt, sir. That’s not in your job description, is it?” Whimper's eyes were fixed on the paper.

“Well, I’m flattered you think I was born wearing blue spandex, but I wasn’t.” That little grin widened.

Scootaloo and Whimper looked up from the paper, not really getting it just yet.

“What do you think my day job was before I joined the squad? That seal, my seal, is still recognised as official, and that signature means that if anyone ever doubts your flying capacities, they have to contact me about it. Nopony else gets to question you. And I timed you the old fashioned way. Even if I'm off by a few seconds, I know you passed.” He got out an old stopwatch he kept around, for stopwatch emergencies.

“I can’t accept this. Isn’t that unfair to everypony else?”

Soarin’s expression turned hard then. “Kid, you might have gotten the Royal Guard to hold on to something that belongs to you, but the Wonderbolts are not your personal stash keepers. I’m not taking that piece of paper back. Accept it, it’s yours. You’ve earned it, like you’ll earn a lot of other things.”

Whimper’s face lit up. “Thank you, sir.”

“Oh, and another thing.” Soarin’ looked left and right, then lowered his voice, whispering in the boy's ear so not even Scootaloo could hear.

When he withdrew, Whimper nodded in a mix of surprise and understanding. “I’ll-I’ll keep that mind, sir.”

“Good. You’ve got real potential, kid. I look forward to hearing more about you.”

Scootaloo grinned as Whimper gave the most embarrassing ‘squee’ in the history of embarrassing ‘squee’s.

“And as for you, Scootaloo --” Soarin’ continued with a sterner tone of voice.

Scootaloo froze in fear. He knows my name? How?

“-- the next time I see your name and picture in a newspaper, let it be for something you can be proud of. I don’t want to have to give another briefing on how to delicately handle gossip columnists. And save the stunts for a dirt track. It’s rude to get a dust cloud up in other ponies’ tea and pie.”

At that, as she was wont to do, Scootaloo topped Whimper’s performance with an embarrassing ‘squee’. “Yes sir, will do, sir.” She saluted the stallion.

“Soarin’?” the pegasus with the hourglass cutie mark called out. ”Five minutes ‘till the next batch.”

“Duty calls.” Soarin' trotted off.

“Could you excuse me for one second? I need to check a little something.” Rainbow Dash followed him.

Scootaloo barely had time to wonder what that was about before a familiar voice broke off her train of thought. “Hey, kiddo!”

Scootaloo’s face lit up in a smile. She flew up at the unicorn and gave her an excited hug around the neck. “Aunt Vinyl!”

“So you finally got off the ground, huh?” The DJ gave her cousin a rub on the manes. ”That’s good. Now I can stop looking down at you.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Very funny. And early. I thought you wouldn’t be here for another two hours.”

“Well, I was gonna wait until Pinkie Pie didn’t need her delivery balloon anymore, but it turns out she was busy with something else today. Apparently some flightless pegasus filly finally learned how to fly, and so now she’s organised a party for her… which should start in about as long as it takes for a balloon to get back to Sugarcube Corner.” Vinyl grinned and lowered her sunglasses to wink at the girl.

“Wait, there’s a party? For me? But how did anyone know I learned to fly? What if I’d failed?”

Whimper held up a hoof. “Um, Rainbow Dash got that training vest for me from down on the ground, didn’t she?”

Vinyl Scratch nodded. “Sweetie Belle said Rainbow had come down to Rarity’s place, she woke up from the noise. You can imagine how relieved she was when Dash told her you were airborne already. Your friends have been planning this party for a while now, Rumble’s invited too. So why don’t you get your things and we’ll be off?” She motioned to the back area of the camp, where Pinkie Pie’s balloon was parked.

Scootaloo’s heart sank as she landed. She turned to Whimper, whose eyebrow had been raised in confusion for a little while. He was staring at the unicorn for some reason.

“Something wrong, young sir?” Vinyl Scratch asked in a mock Canterlot voice.

“No, ma’am, nothing. It’s just... you’re Scootaloo’s aunt?”

“Oh, right. Umm, Doldrum Whimper, this is my aunt Vinyl Scratch. I told you about her, didn't I? I live with her on the ground, most of the time. It’s closer to school, and it’s easier in the mornings, since my parents have to leave for work really early.”

He nodded. Then he tilted his head, much to the amusement of the other unicorns present. “Vinyl Scratch? You’re DJ-P0N3, aren’t you? I’ve heard some of your gigs at the Bogsdown Arena.”

Vinyl chuckled heartily. “Well, well, kid’s got taste. Is this your boyfriend, Scoots?”

“We’re just friends, but you might hear a few rumours. Don’t pay any attention to it.” The filly rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. A pair of nearby unicorn mares snickered a little at that.

“Hey, bring him along, then.”

Scootaloo bit her lip in anticipation. “Well, could you, Whimper?”

He grimaced. “I can’t. My parents are picking me up in an hour and taking me to this all-you-can-eat place. They've made reservations."

The filly nodded. No matter how she turned it, he’d have to miss the party. “I guess this is goodbye, then.”

“I’ll catch you later.” He extended his hoof.

“If I don’t catch you first, you mean.” She tapped that hoof with her own.

For a moment, they locked eyes and just shook hooves.

Then Scootaloo pulled the colt into a hug and squeezed his tight body to hers until he melted inside. He returned the affection, and barely managed to conceal a tear as he (very carefully) pressed her to him. When they pulled away, Scootaloo just smiled at the sight.

She also ignored the annoying sound of "Awww..." coming from Twilight and Lyra.

Without another word, she turned and trotted off with her aunt to collect her things.

“He seemed pretty nice,” Vinyl started. ”Don’t think I’ve ever seen you hug anyone that tight. Is he the only new friend you made at camp?”

“Yup, just him. But trust me, he’s a doozy.” The filly grinned.

“And you can keep in touch?” the DJ asked.

“Sure. He’s from Bogsdown. That’s right past Froggy Bottom Bog, isn’t it?”

“Froggy Bottom Bog’s pretty big, as the pony runs."

Her grin turned into a smirk. “Yeah, but as the pegasus flies, it’s close enough.”

---

“Well, that didn’t take long.” Soarin’ turned back as Rainbow Dash caught up to him.

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to ask about joining the Wonderbolts.” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh? So you’ve stopped caring now?”

“I figure it’ll happen when those two over there get their cutie marks.” She motioned to Whimper and Scoot just as Vinyl was approaching them. ”You know, when the time is right.”

“That’s a pretty good attitude, Dash.” He smiled at that. ”So what’s on your mind, then?”

“Why’d you set me up?” She dropped the hammer.

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t volunteer for Flight Camp duty. I’ve never volunteered for Flight Camp duty, and seeing as how I left Flight School… the way I did, I’d always assumed I’d never get asked. But here I am. That was you, wasn’t it?” She gave the Wonderbolt an intense glare, one even he couldn’t withstand.

Eventually, he relented. “Actually… it was Spitfire’s idea.”

Rainbow recoiled, narrowing her eyes. “Why?”

“Part of the job is setting a good example, being able to share your experience. From what I’ve seen, you’ve managed to do that with a pretty varied group. And not just the ones who couldn’t fly, I mean all of them. You didn’t fix everything, but I hear you made things better all around, at least, and you listened to other ponies’ advice. We wouldn’t have gotten the chance to let you prove that otherwise.”

“Share your experience, huh? I guess that’s why you whispered to Whimper about counting his breaths. Four a minute won’t stop the attacks from coming, but it buys you more time. Did I hear that right?”

“You heard that?” His voice trembled a little.

“I've got a really keen hearing, it drives ponies nuts sometimes. So, you too, huh?”

“Eheh… I'd prefer to keep that under wraps, obviously. I don’t want anyone to think my funny flying style is because of my handicap.” He spat out the last word.”Not to mention my horrible track record at the derbies. I got lucky, I had a pretty good teacher myself. I figured one little pointer might help the little guy feel better about it.”

Realising Eagle’s Grasp wasn’t a topic she wanted to broach with a Wonderbolt, Dash went for the answers she really wanted. “So you just wanted to test me? Whimper and Scootaloo, you had nothing to do with me teaching them?”

He tilted his head back and forth a bit, lost for words at first. “Not quite. Spitfire set you up to do Flight Camp. Once we knew those two would be attending, I made sure they’d be on your team. And in case you’re wondering, no, we didn’t think Twilight Sparkle would follow you up here. I did, however, insist you be the one teaching those two.”

Dash considered it. There was no way even Soarin’ knew about the warrior’s heart thing, he couldn’t know all of the things that had played a part in what had happened. He knew about the fight, obviously, but he couldn’t know Rainbow Dash knew how to help. “Why would you do that?”

To that, Soarin’ looked back at the foals, just as they hugged goodbye.

His eyes settled on the speedy filly who hid her insecurities, then on the shy colt who didn’t know his own strength. Then he looked at Rainbow Dash, the awesome instructor who wanted nothing more than to be a Wonderbolt and who'd started off as a filly with hidden insecurities.

And finally, he looked down at his hooves, just as the other officials called him for the next batch of kids on the Gantelope.

Looking down at himself, he saw the former instructor who had made it to the big time. The colt who used to hide in a little corner, all grown up.

He weighed his words carefully before he looked back up at her.

“Let’s just say… history’s got a funny way of repeating itself.”

The End.

Comments

[Wise Cracker]

How is it that this chapter gets less views than the very last one? Have only 65 people read it all the way, and those extra 10 on the epilogue are re-reads? This confuzzles me.

[Enkiko]

1186160
Perhaps they skipped ahead because they wanted to see how it ends?

[Music-and-magic]

I know this is an older story, but I love how things kinda came in a circle ^_^

[derpyhooves15]

Loved this through and through.