> Over Yonder
>  by theNDinspector
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Physical Therapy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hospitals are often seen as the setting of turning points in life and emotion in addition to a place of healing.  These range from the unbridled joy at the miracle of birth to the bitter pain at the loss of a loved one and nearly everything in between.  Ponyville General was no exception, serving as Ponyville’s major medical provider for decades.  However, not everypony wished to go there.

“No no no no NO!”  Scootaloo shouted down the hallways.

Nurse Redheart was struggling to push the wheelchair that the pegasus was strapped to since Scootaloo was pushing her hind legs against the floor.  Still, the determined and surprisingly strong nurse managed to traverse most of the hospital despite the difficulty, but it was taking a toll on her.

“I won’t do it!”  Scootaloo yelled.  “I’m a grown mare! You can’t make me!”

A red pegaus, who had been following close behind, sighed and shook her head.  Less than a week before, Needlepoint had to pick Scootaloo up from the Wonderbolt Academy after an accident that occurred due to her daughter’s overexertion on one of their training exercises.  Thankfully, she hadn’t been killed, but Scootaloo was in no condition to fly for a while—which was why they were at the hospital in the first place.

“Redheart, can you give us a moment please?”  The panting nurse obliged and Needlepoint stepped in front of the wheelchair to face her daughter.  

Scootaloo was in a sorry state: her right forehoof was in a brace and held in a blue sling while her wings hanged loosely at her sides.  All of the other scraps and bruises had either scabbed over or disappeared.  Understandably, Scootaloo was in a foul mood due to her injuries, but this constant resistance was grating on Needlepoint’s nerves.

“What is your problem?”  Needlepoint asked sharply.

“I’m not doing physical therapy,” Scootaloo stated, putting on her best pouty face, but Needlepoint wasn’t having any of it.

“It’s supposed to help you get better, dear.”

“That’s what you said last time, but I hurt even worse after that.”

Needlepoint sighed, “It’s going to hurt more before you get better.  If you want to go back to the Wonderbolt Academy then you must do this.  Besides, you haven’t even experienced foaling yet.”

Scootaloo looked up to her mother skeptically.  “Seriously Mom?  That’s something completely different.  And I thought that you didn’t want me to go back to the Wonderbolts.”

Needlepoint scowled at her daughter.  “You’re right, I don’t.  But you wanted to continue with it and I said that I would support you.  But if you keep acting like this, then I might just change my mind.”  She gritted her teeth and let out a snort to emphasize her point.  “Besides, you need to do this therapy if you even want to fly again.  Do you understand me young lady?”

Scootaloo folded her forhooves as best as she could and looked a way for a moment, still frowning.  “Fine.”

“Good.  Now take your hooves off the floor so we can make it to your appointment!”

Reluctantly, Scootaloo lifted her hooves onto the hoofrest.  Nurse Redheart returned from the nearby bench she’d been resting at and resumed pushing the wheelchair through the hallway.  Though Scootaloo didn’t push back this time, she was still fuming and apprehensive for the painful ordeal still to come.


***


“Good morning Scootaloo,” a tan colored mare unicorn said as they entered the therapy room right next to a gym.

“Morning Dr. Fitness,” Scootaloo replied half-heartedly.

Nurse Redheart helped Scootaloo onto a padded examination table for her to lie on while Needlepoint took a seat at the other end of the room.  Like the rest of the hospital, this room was spotlessly clean with a slight smell of disinfectant everywhere, but also the smell of metal weights of various equipment of the gym next door.

“So how are we doing today?”  Dr. Fitness asked as she consulted her clipboard and Nurse Redheart took Scootaloo’s vitals.

“All right, I guess,” Scootaloo answered.

“I see, have you been doing the exercises I instructed you on last time?”

Before Scootaloo even opened her mouth to respond, Needlepoint blurted out, “Nope.”

“MOM!”

“What?”  Needlepoint shrugged.  “Somepony’s got to tell the truth.”

Scootaloo glared at her mother, who maintained her blank face in return.  Scootaloo knew that she meant well, but that didn’t make it any less annoying for her to interfere with personal matters.

Dr. Fitness sighed, “I really wish you had, because it’s only going to make this a lot harder on you and your recovery if you don’t.”

“Just get on with it.”  Scootaloo grasped the edges of the table, bracing herself.

On cue, Dr. Fitness came up to the table and put her forehooves on Scootaloo’s back.  A piercing sensation tore through Scootaloo’s tender muscles as the doctor massaged her back.  Scootaloo bit her lip as she felt her stiff wings being stretched and moved against their own accord.  It took all her will power to keep herself from screaming.  Instead, she focused on the rustling of her feathers rubbing against each other—a sound that she had not heard for nearly a week.

Soon, it was over, although it felt like an eternity for Scootaloo.  She sat up on the table and was pleased that she currently had near-complete flexibility in her wings without too much pain.

“Okay,” Dr. Fitness said as she helped Scootaloo off the table and into the wheelchair before pushing her into the other room.  “Now we can move on to some strengthening exercises.”

Scootaloo looked back at the doctor, “You mean like some wing push-ups or something?”

Dr. Fitness shook her head.  “No, it’s still too early for that, but we will work on your wings as much as possible.”

They stopped in front of a weight-lifting machine that Scootaloo often saw in gyms.  It was designed with a pulley system and a series of block weights stacked on each other and a small pin that was put into the desired block to indicate how much weight was being lifted.  At the other end of the pulley-line, Dr. Fitness attached a couple of straps and fitted them onto Scootaloo’s wings.  Then using her magic, the doctor put the pin into the very top block.

“That’s like no weight at all,” Scootaloo commented.

“I know, but it’s going to be a lot harder to pull than you think,” Dr. Fitness replied.  “Now, I want you to move your wings back n’ forth slowly and gently.  I’ll be right here behind you.”

“Okay,” Scootaloo said raising an eyebrow and then started pulling her wings forward.  Despite lifting only about two-and-a-half pounds of weight, the pulley barely moved at all.  Concentrating, she managed to pull her wings as far forward as they would go and then released—letting the weight fall with a loud, metallic clang.  The sudden movements caused another surge of pain to course down her wings and through her back.  “AAAAAGH!”

Dr. Fitness immediately removed the straps and started massaging Scootaloo’s throbbing wings.  “I told you do it slowly!”

Scootaloo bit her lip and was too busy fighting back tears to reply immediately.  As pain subsided, she managed to take a few shaky breaths, “I…c-couldn’t…hold it.”

“Then let me know when you’re struggling,” Dr. Fitness rebuked.  “The last thing we want is to injure you further.  I can help you, but you need to do most of the work yourself.  And never drop my weights again!”

Scootaloo simply nodded as the doctor continued to rub her wings.  Once the pain was all but gone, the straps were reapplied and Scootaloo started to pull the weights again—this time being spotted by the therapist.  She managed to do five repetitions before being unable to pull anymore.  After removing the straps, Dr. Fitness put some cool packs onto Scootaloo’s wings and then grabbed some pills.

“Now take some of these,” Dr. Fitness said, also levitating over a cup of water, only to have Scootaloo scrunch her nose and turn her head away.  “Listen, we’re dealing with a lot of muscle tissue damage here.”  

Dr. Fitness levitated over a piece of paper and drew two lines on it: one the entire length of the paper, and the other only a couple of inches.  Indicating to the longer one first, “You’re going to hurt about this much.”  She then pointed to the smaller line, “these pills will only help about this much, but it can mean a lot in being able to move around comfortably.  Don’t be a hero.”

“Fine,” Scootaloo relented and took the pills and drained the cup.

“Good.  Now be sure to do those exercises I taught you and move your wings as much as you can.  That way you might be able to recover quicker.”

“All right.”  Scootaloo got back into the wheelchair and was moved back to the therapy room, where her mother was waiting with a smug smile on her face.

“See, I told you it wasn’t as bad as foaling,” she smirked

“Shut up Mom.”
 

> Chapter 2: House Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

THUMP thump thump THUMP thump thump THUMP thump thump.

Scootaloo was lying in her bed, bouncing a ball off the floor to the wall and back at her left forehoof.  It had been nearly four weeks since she came home from the Wonderbolt Academy.  Four weeks of being cooped up in the house and visiting the Hospital nearly every other day for physical therapy.  About a week-and-a-half ago, she was able fly again for the first time since the accident.  She also no longer needed to brace her right forehoof and could walk normally.  In all, she had been cleared by Doctor Fitness, and was now awaiting the doctor from the Academy to come by and give her the okay to return to the academy—if he would give it, that is.

Other than her visits to the hospital, Scootaloo remained cooped up at home—despite the fact that she was physically able to move around on her own.  Her mother wanted her to rest up.  Once, Scootaloo tried to go out and ride on her newer scooter—just to get out of the house—but Needlepoint caught her and locked up the wheeled contraption.  Scootaloo had considered using her old scooter that was sitting in the opposite corner of her greyish-blue room, but that was out of the question.  It was far too small for her now—not to mention that the wheels were pretty loose no matter how well she repaired it, and the whole thing would break in half if she set even one hoof on it.

Basically, she was stuck with nothing to do except eat, sleep, exercise, and try to find something to entertain herself—usually books, games or listening to music.  Occasionally, she did get a visitor; the most frequent one was Apple Bloom.  The apprentice carpenter would stop by nearly every evening on her way home from the wood shop, chat and see how she was holding up.  Rainbow Dash managed to visit a couple of times as well.  Sweetie Belle, unfortunately, was away in Canterlot attending a Fine Arts school for music and couldn’t find time or money to come over.  She did send an overly glittered “Get Well Soon” card that sat on Scootaloo’s bedside table.

Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

A long, drawn-out screech emanated from the house.  It wasn’t the fire alarm, but it sounded important.  Scootaloo looked towards her door—the ball she was bouncing then subsequently hit the side of her head.

“Gah!”  Though it didn’t really hurt, Scootaloo rubbed the place where she got smacked.  The ball rolled off into her closet.

Curious, Scootaloo got up, opened the door and walked down the stairs to find the source of the noise.  Once downstairs, she was drawn to the radio sitting in the living room where the noise was coming form—interrupting the music it was playing.  The screech continued for a moment before stopping; then the voice of a stallion was audible.

“This is an Emergency Equestrian Broadcast Notice,” the voice said.  “Minor earthquake tremors have been reported in the valley regions beneath and around Cloudsdale.  No severe damage has been caused in any villages, towns or the railway and only minor injuries have been reported.  We urge caution to travelers in and out of this area and that residents review earthquake sheltering procedures according to the age and style of the building they are located in.”

There was static and a couple of electronic beeps before the radio went oddly silent.  Then another voice came on the radio, this one more feminine and very agitated.

“Hey!  Nopony interrupts my show like that!  Who do they think they are?!”

“Vinyl,” a second mare’s voice said, rather exasperated.  “It was a national broadcast on all channels for very important information.  Every show was interrupted.”

“Well, I didn’t ask them to interrupt my show for it.”

“Ugh!  Vinyl, I swear, trying to reason with you is like rolling around in a pile of shit sometimes.”

“Um…Octy…you do realize that we are on the air right now, right?”

“WHAT?!”  There was a noise of rustling and various sound effects as buttons were being pressed.  Laughter could also be heard on the radio.  “Oh Sweet Celestia!  Where’s that button again?”

Suddenly, music began playing again on the radio.  Scootaloo blinked a couple of times and then decided to sit down on the couch and leaned on a cream colored throw pillow with some embroidering of flowers stitched into it—her mother’s design.  The mare in question then walked into the room from the kitchen, wiping her hooves on a towel after having cleaned the dishes.

“Hmm, more earthquakes?”  Needlepoint muttered as she draped the towel over the back of her neck.  “I remember the earthquake we had here a few months ago and broke all my good dishes.  Well, at least we were fine.  I swear, it’s like something drastic happens around here every other week.”

“I know,” Scootaloo smirked.  “I’m just glad it’s not us for once.”

Her comment was received with a slap of a damp towel to the face.

“That’s not funny Scootaloo!”

“Okay, okay…I’m sorry,” Scootaloo pleaded.  “But you have to admit that it’s kinda true.”

Needlepoint puffed out her cheeks and her face was going redder than her natural red coat.  Before she could say anything however, a knock came at the door.  She sighed and turned around, “I’ll get it.”

Scootaloo just nuzzled herself deeper into the couch, making herself a little more comfortable.  Then she heard a burst of laughter come from the direction of the front door.  Needlepoint trotted back in, trying to stifle her giggles with a hoof to her mouth.

“Scoot…Scootaloo,” Needlepoint said, trying desperately to keep a straight face.  “It’s for you…it’s Doctor Hawkeye.”

At the mention of his name, an olive-green pegasus with a slightly messy black mane entered in a most bazaar fashion.  He was wearing a long white coat—common for doctors—but in addition to that, he also had large, clown-like shoes and a multi-colored shirt that would cause Rarity to faint.   On his face, he wore a pair of fake glasses with a pink nose and mustache attached to it—much like the one Scootaloo saw Pinkie Pie wear a few times for laughs or whenever she was trying to sneak around disguised as a bale of hay.

“Helloelloello,” Hawkeye said excitedly as he took over-exaggerated stomping steps into the living room towards the couch.  Then he veered off course and then placed his stethoscope onto the clock.  “Hmm, sixty beats per minute, that’s a little high, but nothing too serious.  Have you been feeling ill lately?”

“Umm…doctor,” Scootaloo said, trying hard not to laugh as well.  “I’m over here.”

Hawkeye turned around and looked at Scootaloo as if he had only just noticed her.  “Oh, I see.”  He then turned to the clock and whispered, “You better watch out for this one.  She has it in for fine clocks such as yourself.”

Scootaloo absentmindedly rubbed her right forehoof—remembering how she sprained it by smashing an alarm clock back at the Wonderbolt Academy that was to wake her up every couple of hours due to her suffering a concussion.

“You know, I normally don’t make house-calls like this,” Hawkeye commented as he took Scootaloo’s vitals.  “However, it’s nice to get out of the base every once and a while and let loose.  They’re so strict in the dress code there.”

Scootaloo glanced at the doctor’s multi-colored shirt again and rolled her eyes.  “Yeah, I can’t imagine why.”

“I know, right?”  Hawkeye said, apparently missing her sarcasm.  “Anyways, I talked with your therapist and she believes that you are fit for anything now.”

A glint of hope sparkled in Scootaloo’s mind.  “And what do you say?”

Hawkeye took off his fake moustache-glasses.  “Well, to be honest, it’s been a month now.  Normally, you wouldn’t be brought back—at least not in the same spot you were in to begin with.”

Scootaloo sagged a little in her seat, her hope failing.

“However,” Hawkeye continued, causing Scootaloo to look up again.  “Colonel Spitfire really wants you back with your particular group for some reason—and I can’t say no to that—but I want to see how well you can handle flying right now before I decide anything.”

“All right!” Scootaloo shouted, jumping for joy out of the couch.  She practically sprinted out the front door—eager to get out and do something as well as prove that she was ready to go back to the Wonderbolt Academy.

Scootaloo relished any moment she could get flying, especially after being grounded for so long.  She was accustomed very well to life on the ground—being as she spent most of her fillyhood there—but there was something about the wind in her face and under her wings that thrilled her.  It was part of the reason why she idolized Rainbow Dash so much—along with her being the most super-awesome “big sister” ever and that she took Scootaloo under her wing so many years ago.  

After flying around for a few minutes in both basic maneuvers and some more complex tricks, Doctor Hawkeye seemed satisfied with Scootaloo’s health.  

“Well, everything seems normal,” he said after taking her vitals again.  “I send my report to the Colonel and I imagine she’ll get back to you very soon.”

“SWEET!”  Scootaloo began to jump again, then stopped and moved to a more downplayed pose by examining her hoof.  “Yeah…that’s cool.”

“Right.”  Hawkeye gave a knowing smile, then spread his own wings and took off.

Once he was out of sight, Scootaloo started bouncing around again.  “I’m going back to the Academy!  This is so great!  Oh, I just wish I could go right now.”

Scootaloo’s celebration was cut short as a hoof came to her shoulder and held her down.

“Scootaloo dear,” Needlepoint said, a deep look of concern in her eyes.  “Can you at least try to promise me that you won’t go overdoing this and putting yourself in harm's way?”

“Oh, come on Mom,” Scootaloo complained.  “Fine…I’ll be careful.”  Her mother continued to look at her disbelievingly.  “What?  Do you want me to Pinkie Pie Promise?”

Needlepoint stopped her daughter from making the motions of a promise that she knew would be hard to keep.  “No, that won’t be necessary.  Just be safe, okay.”

“I’ll be fine Mom…really.”

> Chapter 3: Reinstated
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Scootaloo could hardly contain her excitement and almost felt like doing some loops in the big blue sky before her—almost being the key word.  It had been a while since she had taken such a long flight, and being grounded from the air for nearly a month didn’t help matters.  It took all of her concentration and effort just to keep moving forward in a steady course.  Scootaloo was out of practice for sure, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.  If she had to practice every waking moment at the academy, then so be it.

Eventually, Scootaloo could see the Unicorn Range below her, and just up ahead was Wonderbolt Mountain—the training center for the Wonderbolts.  Before she got any closer, she was stopped at a checkpoint occupied by a brown pegasus stallion with short-cut black mane.  Even though summer was close to an end, it was still hot enough for him to still wear the short-sleeved uniform.  Scootaloo landed at the check station, a simple cloud building structure about a quarter of a mile away from the Academy itself.

“Ma’am, you do realize you’re flying into a restricted airspace, right?”  The stallion said in a very official tone like any gatekeeper would.

“Yes,” Scootaloo replied.  “I’m a cadet here at the Academy.”

The stallion simply raised an eyebrow, but otherwise remained as stoic as a royal guard.  “Then why are you out here instead of at the compound?”

Scootaloo sighed.  “Because I was out for a month because I was injured, but I’m better now and the Colonel said I could come back.”

“Do you have any proof of this, any leave of absence papers?”

Scootaloo smacked her hoof against her forehead.  She was given a leave of absence form when she left with her parents, but she had completely forgotten about it at home.  In truth, she wasn’t even sure where it ended up after weeks of being stuck at her house.

“Miss, if you don’t have any papers, then I can’t let you pass.”

At this point, Scootaloo started to panic.  “Listen, can’t you call ahead and ask the Colonel or something?  She told me over the phone that I was to come back today.”

The guard stared at her for a couple of moments.  “Very well; do you at least have some form of ID?”

Scootaloo took a card out of her saddlebags and handed it over to the stallion who looked it over.  Satisfied that it was valid, he picked up a phone.

“Yes, I have a Miss Scootaloo here claiming that she’s a cadet here at the academy and requesting entrance…She claims that she was on medical leave…No, she does not have any papers…Yes, I can wait.”

The stallion remained silent as he held the phone to his ear.  Scootaloo gulped.  She could feel cool sweat drip down the back of her neck as her heart raced.  For ten agonizing minutes, she stood there waiting.

The worst case scenario would be that she would have to fly all the way back home and search her room for that stupid piece of paper.  If that happened, then she would be late coming back here.  She was already gone for a month and told to come back today.  The last thing Scootaloo wanted was to be late because of some dumb mistake.

“Very well.”  The stallion put down the phone.  “Well it seems that you have been cleared.  Welcome back Cadet.”

Scootaloo let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding.  The guard returned her ID as well as giving her a stamped piece of paper granting her clearance.

“You’re to report to Colonel Spitfire’s office,” he said.  “I trust you know the way.”

“Yes,” Scootaloo said and took off.

With the entrance issues out of the way, she headed straight for the compound, consisting of large training grounds and fields that could be set up in a multitude of obstacle courses or other flying exercises, a flight control tower, and wooden buildings of the barracks, infirmary, mess hall and administrative office.  It was to this last one that Scootaloo flew to.  Inside, the walls were painted navy blue to compliment the Wonderbolts traditional colors.

At the end of the hall was Colonel Spitfire’s office, the commanding officer of the Wonderbolt Academy.  Two officers stood outside as guards and stopped Scootaloo from coming any closer.

“Um, I’m supposed to see Colonel Spitfire,” Scootaloo said awkwardly.

“Yes, we know,” one of the guards said.  “But the Colonel is currently occupied, so you’ll have to wait.”

Sure enough, she could hear somepony talking behind the closed door.  She took a seat against the wall and waited.  Whatever was going on the room, it certainly wasn’t very pleasant.  Soon she could make out some muffled shouts—mainly coming from Spitfire.

“I’ve had just about enough of this attitude of yours!  Back when I was a cadet, you’d be out of here like that!”  Some clapping hoof noise could be heard before Spitfire’s voice came again.  “But I’ve decided to be patient, and you have worn that down pretty thin.  Thankfully, we won’t have to worry about this anymore.”

Suddenly the door opened and out stepped a red-faced, yellow pegusus with a fiery two-toned orange mane and navy blue uniform.  Her glaring amber eyes looked around and zeroed in on Scootaloo.

“You!”  Spitfire shouted, pointing a hoof in Scootaloo’s direction, causing her to flinch.  “Get in here!  NOW!”

Scootaloo tentatively got up and walked towards the opened door.

‘What’s going on?’  Scootaloo couldn’t understand why Spitfire was so angry or how she was somehow involved in whatever mess this was.  She had only just arrived back and hadn’t done anything.  ‘Was the paperwork I forgot that big of a deal?  I thought that was taken care of.  And what does she not have to worry about anymore?’

Whatever it was, Spitfire’s stern glare was offering no answers, instead eliciting a sense of dread.  With her heart pounding, Scootaloo walked into the office.  Inside was the other pony that Spitfire had been arguing with.  Based on the yellow and blue training flight suit, it was a cadet.  The more slender build of the pony indicated it was a mare.  She was sky-blue with a white puffy mane and a cutie mark of a sun behind two mountain peaks.

“Blue Yonder?”  Scootaloo said, recognizing the pony as her friend and partner when she first entered the Wonderbolt Academy.  Despite the recognition, Scootaloo was unclear how to react.  On the one hoof, she was excited to see her friend again.  However, she was also confused as to why Blue Yonder was here and why Spitfire was apparently angry with her.

“Scootaloo?”  Blue Yonder looked just as surprised, if not more so—mostly due to the sudden appearance of her old wingpony than anything else.  She also couldn’t contain the smile forming on her face.  “You’re back.”

Spitfire spoke up before Scootaloo could answer, “Yes she is, and seeing that you both worked so well as a team before, I want you two to fly together again.”  She turned to face Scootaloo.  “You’ve missed out on a lot of training, and no doubt are a bit out of practice.  I’m not going to lie, it will be difficult, but I feel Blue Yonder can help you pick up the slack.”  Spitfire then turned back to Blue Yonder, “As for you, I do not want to hear any more complaints.  Otherwise, KP might be the least of your concerns.  Got that?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Blue Yonder replied.

“Good,” Spitfire said sternly.  “Now, you two better get ready soon.  You have a lot to do in training today.”  She looked over the two cadets and paused on Scootaloo.  “Cadet, what’s wrong with your hoof?”

Scootaloo looked down and saw that she had been holding up her right forehoof slightly curved towards her body.  It was the one she had sprained about a month ago after her accident.  She immediately put it back down and looked sheepishly up.  “Sorry Ma’am, force of habit.”

“I see.  Well, head over to the quartermaster’s office and get yourself a new uniform.  Major Soarin is expecting you within the hour.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Scootaloo and Blue Yonder said in unison as they saluted.

“Dismissed.”

With that, both Scootaloo and Blue Yonder walked out of the office and to the other side of the building.  It was an awkward reunion and neither was sure how to break the ice.  They continued walking in silence until they were near the quartermaster’s office.

“So,” Scootaloo said as she was getting measured for her new uniform.  “KP?”

Blue Yonder looked away and rubbed the back of her neck.  “Yeah…I’ve had to work in the kitchens a lot this past month.”

“Ah.”  Scootaloo nodded as the quartermaster put a flight suit into her hooves. 

“So…how’ve you been?”

“A lot better than when I left.  It’s great to be back though.  You?”

“All right,” Blue Yonder said a little too quickly, but Scootaloo decided not to press farther at the moment.  “So, you ready to fly?”

Scootaloo grinned.  “You know it.”

> Chapter 4: Changes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After dropping off her saddlebags in the barracks, both Scootaloo and Blue Yonder made a quick detour to the mess hall—it had been a long flight from Ponyville, and Blue Yonder herself had all but skipped breakfast during that talk with Spitfire earlier.  The selection was rather sparse since meal time was nearly over, but they managed to grab a couple of apples each.  Afterwards, they made their way to a nearly empty table.

“Wow,” Scootaloo said looking around.  “This place seems to change when there aren’t that many ponies around.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Blue Yonder sighed.

“Mmrly,” Scootaloo with a mouth full of red apple.  “Like what?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”  Blue Yonder paused and took a bite out of her apple.  “Do you remember that one grey stallion with the mustache that inspected our barracks that one time?”

Scootaloo tapped her chin for a moment before her eyes lit up.  “Oh yeah, Lieutenant What’s-his-name….did you ever find out his name by the way?”

“No, actually.  When we got back after our three-day leave, we learned that he got promoted and works somewhere else in the Academy.  I’m not sure what he does, but I’ve seen him around a few times.  He never does anything with us though.”

Blue Yonder took a few bites out of her first apple while Scootaloo was halfway done with her second.  The gold badge on Blue Yonder’s chest gleamed a little in the light.  Scootaloo looked down on the silver badge on her own chest and thoughtfully rubbed her chin.

“Who was your wingpony while I was gone?” Scootaloo asked.

Blue Yonder swallowed her food before responding.  “Well, for the first week, I was with Morning Light—the pink mare from our cabin—but she decided that she didn’t want to be a Wonderbolt anymore, so she left.  I’ve been with Silverwings ever since.”

“Ah,” Scootaloo nodded, remembering Blue Yonder’s childhood friend that always tried to hit on the other mares even though he didn’t have a chance.  “Wait, isn’t he Hot Shot’s wingpony?”

Blue Yonder took in a sharp breath and her lips disappeared into a thin line.  The apple she was holding was in danger of being mashed against the table with all the force that she was putting into it.

“Yes,” she finally replied in a strained manner.  “Yes he is.  There were an odd number of ponies then, so I was put into a group of three.”

“So how did that work, since two of you are lead ponies and all?”

The apple finally gave up as bits and pieces spread all over Blue Yonder’s tray and part of the table.  Ignoring this, Blue Yonder continued, “Hot Shot made most of the decisions.”

Scootaloo would have asked more, but the deadly look in her friend’s eyes said that she didn’t want to talk about it.  This was rather odd for the enthusiastic, book loving pony that she remembered being with at the start of the Academy—making it really hard to figure out how to approach Blue Yonder.  Instead, Scootaloo decided to change the subject.

“So, anything interesting happen with those film ponies lately?”

“Huh?”  Blue Yonder turned to look at her with a confused look before realizing what was said.  “Oh, they actually left before we came back.  It’s kind of nice not having ponies watch you all day and put it on camera—even though that is what saved us earlier.  But apparently, we are going to get some sort of magic show this weekend.”

“Magic show?”

“Yeah, the poster’s right over here.”

They got up and Blue Yonder took them to the bulletin board on the wall.  Among all the other diagrams, records and information there was a paper that stood out.  It had a dark silhouette of a pony on its hind legs wearing what appeared to be a cape and a pointy hat.  Yellow lines were coming out from behind the pony, looking vaguely similar to a sunrise.  Beneath it in bold letters was the phrase:  




Come One, Come All!
See the Great and Powerful Trixie




	Scootaloo groaned.

“Is something wrong?”  Blue Yonder asked.

“Well,” Scootaloo started.  “You see…Trixie has a bit of a history down in Ponyville.  When I was a filly, she came by twice.  The first time some ponies had a problem with her boasting during her show.  Sure, it was annoying at times, but I thought it went well with the show and didn’t really hurt anypony.  Then two fan boys who took her way too seriously decided to wake an Ursa Minor and bring it into town for her to defeat.”

Blue Yonder’s eyes widened.  “An Ursa Minor?”

“Yep.  She couldn’t take care of it of course, but Princess Twilight did…although she wasn’t a princess at the time.”

“And the other time?”

“After the Ursa Minor incident, Trixie became a laughingstock.  So she came back with some Alicorn Amulet that gave her great powers and completely took over Ponyville and threw Twilight out.  It was a mess, but Twilight finally outsmarted her and I haven’t seen her since.  Apparently she made up with Twilight, but I honestly don’t think I can forgive her for what she did.”

“Whoa.  I didn’t know any of that.”

Scootaloo gaped at Blue Yonder.  “How?  She enslaved an entire town for Celestia’s sake!”

Blue Yonder shrugged.  “I live in Cloudsdale.  We don’t get any travelling, showpony unicorns, let alone even hear about them.  I was actually looking forward to it.”

“Well, it has been years,” Scootaloo sighed.  “And her first show was pretty decent from what I can remember.  You can go if you want to, but the thought of that mare leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Blue Yonder nodded, but didn’t say anything else on the subject.  She turned to the far wall and grimaced as she looked at the clock.  “Shoot!  We’re going to be late!”

She grabbed Scootaloo and ran out of the mess hall and towards the eastern field.  Once there, Scootaloo’s jaw dropped.  There were significantly less cadets in her group than when she first came to the Academy.  From what she could remember, there were about twenty of them originally; now there were less than half of that with five stallions and only one additional mare besides her and Blue Yonder.

They skidded to a halt and lined up with the others.  Scootaloo saw various levels of shock and disbelieve on each of their faces as they stared at her.  It made her a bit uncomfortable.

The only one not looking at them was a pale blue stallion in a navy-blue uniform that matched his mane.  Instead he was looking at a watch, which he promptly put into his pocket.

“I’m glad to see that you two have finally decided to join us,”  Major Soarin said.  “But since you’re both late, you’ve cost everypony here an additional two hundred laps.”

“Aaaaw!”

> Chapter 5: Catching Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“On your left!”

Scootaloo winced as another pair of cadets passed them again.  This was starting to become embarrassing.  Scootaloo knew she wasn’t the fastest or most agile flyer around, but she was never so bad as to keep being passed multiple times by everypony.  Even Blue Yonder found it hard not to pull ahead a little bit.

About five minutes after everypony else had completed their laps, Scootaloo and Blue Yonder skidded to a halt.  Scootaloo arched her back and stretched out her wings to try and fight off the burning sensation of strenuous exercise.  After her breathing normalized and had taken a large drink of water, Major Soarin came up to the group again.

“Alright everypony, get into position to start practicing some signature Wonderbolt manuevers.”  He then stopped in front of Scootaloo.  “Since you’ve been absent, you can sit this one out and watch.”

“I can do it!” Scootaloo shouted without thinking who she was talking to.  Once she did, she gave an awkward salute.  “Um…sorry sir, but I don’t want to sit out.”

“Are you sure?” Soarin asked.  “You haven’t flown with these ponies for a month.”

“I can do it sir!”  Scootaloo put her hoof down to emphasize her point.  “I’ve practiced a lot of moves with Rainbow Dash.”

Soarin still seemed skeptical, but finally relented.  “All right, but you’re going to have to follow your lead pony very closely.”

“Yes sir.”

With that, all the cadets gathered up into their respective pairs and got ready to take off.  Their first move was called the Weeping Willow—where they flew straight up and then arched downwards in a sweeping motion.  Scootaloo noticed that they weren’t going fast enough to leave the smoky trails that were common with Wonderbolt shows, but they were still going a bit faster than she could keep up.  

The first manuever wasn’t too hard, but the rest got progressively harder and more complex.  Scootaloo found herself veering wide in the turns.  Even though she knew many of these moves thanks to her training with Rainbow Dash as a filly, her fellow cadets were more proficient and well-practiced.  More than once, Scootaloo found herself narrowly avoiding collisions.

“Watch it, eh!” 

Scootaloo turned just in time to prevent herself from flying into an aqua-green mare with a curly pink and blue mane.  Scootaloo’s heart pumped at an alarming rate after yet another close call.  It took all of her will power just to keep up with Blue Yonder as best as she could.

“All right Cadets, that’s enough,” Soarin called out.  “After lunch, you will report to the obstacle course for further training.  Blue Yonder.  Scootaloo.  I’d like a moment with you two.  The rest of you are dismissed.”

Scootaloo stood still next to Blue Yonder as the other cadets left the field.  She took notice of her right foreleg lifting off of the ground again, so she put it back down into the grass.  She could also feel cold sweat trickle down the back of her neck and her throat go dry.  Once everypony else was gone, Soarin came up to them.

“I’ve noticed that you seem to be having a bit of trouble—”

“Listen,” Scootaloo interrupted.  “I know that I’m out of practice and slow, but I swear I can fly and—”

Soarin held up his hoof to stop her.  “I don’t doubt that you can fly cadet, but like you said, you’re out of practice.  That’s why I want you two to work on your own after lunch instead of with the other cadets.”  He turned to Blue Yonder.  “I want you to help Miss Scootaloo get up to speed as much as you can on the maneuvers that you’ve been taught.  You’ll have the entire afternoon.  Think you can handle that?”

“Yes sir,” Blue Yonder said, snapping into a salute.

“Good, I expect that you should be fine on your own.  Dismissed.”

He returned the salute and the two mares walked quietly away towards the mess hall.  


***


Amidst the hustle and bustle of getting their food, Scootaloo and Blue Yonder found a spot at a table where most of the other cadets in their class were sitting.  They were all listening intently to something that the aqua-green mare was saying.

“So we finally found the poor stallion half-buried in the snow—thankfully he managed to keep his lantern lit.  He was quit a sight after we dug him out.  He was covered in ice and his hooves had turned purple and were swollen.  One of them was about to fall off too, and the puss was frozen over.”  Most of the other cadets started gagging, but the mare continued.  “We took him all the way back to Vanhoover for medical treatment.  Unfortunately they had to amputate a couple of his legs.  He has to go around in a wheelchair now, but at least we found him in time before he froze to death.”

A grey stallion with silver tinted wings spoke up after fighting back some dry heaves.  “Aurora, you really shouldn’t talk about such things while we’re eating!”

“You’re the one who asked me what I did for a living before coming here,” Aurora responded while holding her hooves up in the air.

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to hear such graphic details,” Silverwings complained.

“Well sorry, but that kind of stuff often happens in search and rescue missions near the Frozen North.”

Silverwings gagged once again and turned away from Aurora.  It was then that he noticed the two other mares that had joined them at the table.  Taking advantage of this opportunity, he changed the subject of conversation.

“Well, if it isn’t our favorite surviving miracle,” he said, cozying up towards Scootaloo.  “How was your vacation?”

Scootaloo held out her hoof to prevent the stallion from sliding any closer.  “Boring mostly.  I had to lay down around the house a lot, and go through physical therapy.”

“Yeah,” Aurora said.  “We were beginning to wonder if you’d come back at all.  That was a pretty nasty fall you took, eh?”

“So I’ve been told,” Scootaloo replied nonchalantly as she picked at her food.  “But I’m back now.”

“And we couldn’t be happier,” Silverwings said.  “Even if we were a bit shocked earlier.  I guess this means we won’t be flying together anymore, huh Blue?”

Blue Yonder shrugged, “I guess not.”

“About time, too.”  Every pony turned their heads towards the other end of the table to where a golden-yellow stallion with a red mane was sitting.  “You’ve been doing nothing but hold us back anyway.”

Silverwings rolled his eyes.  “Oh, Hot Shot—”

Blue Yonder slammed her hoof against the table.  “WHAT?!”

Everypony’s eyes darted between looking at the icy glare of Blue Yonder and the smug face of Hot Shot.  Nopony said anything as they could feel the tension build at the table.  Any moment now, something was going to snap.

“I’m just saying, you really haven’t been pulling your weight around here,” Hot Shot said.  “You’ve been spending all your time complaining or in the kitchens to mope.  Some lead pony you are.”

“Okay, that’s it!”  Blue Yonder got up from the table and grabbed Scootaloo’s tail.  “Come on Scootaloo, we got work to do.”

“But we haven’t finished lunch yet,” Scootaloo stated while pulling her tail out of Blue Yonder’s grip.

“We don’t have time for that,” Blue Yonder said as she stomped through the doors.  “We have too much we need to catch up on.”

Scootaloo sighed followed her partner out the door.


***


“Okay Blue, what is your deal?”  Scootaloo asked once she caught up with her lead pony at one of the training fields.

“Nothing,” Blue Yonder hissed.  “I’ve just realized that we need all the work time we can get.”

“And it has nothing to do with those idiotic statements that Hot Shot made?”

At this, Blue Yonder snapped, “Just get in the air and follow my lead!”

Scootaloo frowned, but spread out her wings.  “Fine.”

They took off, and Scootaloo followed closely behind Blue Yonder as they turned in every which way imaginable, did some loops, circled and other various flight exercises.  All the while, she could hear Blue Yonder mutter something under her breath.

After a solid hour, they stopped flying around and Blue Yonder instructed Scootaloo about the various maneuvers and tricks that the cadets had been working on for the past month.  Then she continued to drill them over an over again.

“No!”  Blue Yonder yelled.  “You’re banking too much in that last turn.  You need to keep your wings arched up.”

“I’m trying!” Scootaloo snapped back, breathing heavily after yet another run-through.

“Let’s do it again.”

Scootaloo felt her sides and wings ache from all this exertion, but took off again anyways.  ‘No pain, no gain, right?’

They continued to drill for hours, but nopony came up to them as they were too busy working elsewhere.  Scootaloo could feel her wings burning as she kept flying, but continued to work.  They weren’t taking any breaks other than for a sip of water every now and then.  Soon, though, it was getting to be too much for her.  Scootaloo shook her head as her vision grew blurry.  She tried to land, but collapsed in a heap on the ground, clutching her barrel.  Her lungs flared in pain every time she tried to take in air.

Blue Yonder landed beside her.  “Come on, get up.”

Scootaloo tried to put her hooves underneath her and push herself off the ground, but fell back down immediately.  “I c-can’t!”

“Yes you can!”  Blue Yonder shouted.  “Come on, we’ve got more work to do!”

Scootaloo continued to clutch her chest.  “What are you trying to do, kill me?”

Blue Yonder was silent for a moment.  Scootaloo looked up and saw the glare on her face turn into a wide-eyed look of shock and then panic.

“Oh Sweet Celestia, what have I done?”  Scootaloo felt herself being lifted off the ground and leaned against Blue Yonder’s side.  “I need to get you to the infirmary.”

With that, Blue Yonder trotted off back towards the main compound—Scootaloo still clutching her sides in pain.

> Chapter 6: Doctors of Medicine and Rocks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A few minutes after arriving at the infirmary, Scootaloo started to regain some strength.  There were apparently two doctors that worked at the academy, because the doctor currently looking over Scootaloo was not the same one who cared for her during her original accident or visited her home.  This time it was a stallion by the name of Hunnicolt—a yellow pegasus with a brown mane and moustache.

“Well, you seem to be all right,” Doctor Hunnicolt said with a smile on his face.

“Great, can I go now?”  Scootaloo was anxious to leave since she had enough hospital visits this past month to last her a life time.

“Not quite yet.”  The doctor pulled out a small cup with a removable lid and pointed towards a small bathroom on the other side of the room.

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped.  “Seriously?”

“We got to check every possibility,” Hunnicolt shrugged.

“But I didn’t have to do that last time I was here.”

“We took a blood sample back then.”

“Fine,” Scootaloo growled.  She snatched the cup from the doctor’s hoof and walked over to the bathroom.  A few moments later, she reemerged with a half-full cup and gave it back to him.

“All righty,” he said jovially.  “I’ll take this to the lab, and assuming I don’t mix it up with some lemonade, I’ll be back in a few minutes.  Please wait right here until I get back.”

Hunnicolt left, leaving Scootaloo and Blue Yonder in the examination room.  Blue Yonder was sitting in the corner with her face towards the floor while Scootaloo was on the padded table.  Scootaloo mad it a point to keep her partner out of her line of sight by looking at one of the many medical posters in the room.

After shuffling her hooves around for a moment, Blue Yonder finally looked up.  “Scootaloo…about today-”

“I don’t want to talk to you right now,” Scootaloo interrupted harshly, not even turning her head.

An awkward silence filled the room.  Scootaloo grew tired of reading the complicated names of the various bones in a pegusi wing and looked around the room again—while still avoiding the far corner.  She noticed a small radio on the countertop.  She turned it on and tuned it to the K-COLT station just in time to listen to her favorite show.

“Look into the sky.  Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  Nope, it’s the Vinyl Scratch.  Still the most popular talk show for nearly twelve years and counting.  I’m your host, the maniacal megalomusician herself, DJ-P0n3.” 

“And I’m Octavia, still here after all this time.  Seriously?  Megalomusician?  That’s not even a real word.”

“You’re just jealous because I thought of it first.”

“How can I be jealous of something so…juvenile?”

“Hey, I’m not the one who swore over the air with thousands of ponies listening.”

“I thought we agreed to never speak of that again!  And I already apologized for that.”

Vinyl snickered.  “You know I’m joking.  To be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that children listen to this show, I think you should do it more often.”

“Vinyl!”

“Anyways, we got a rocking show for you here tonight folks.  Octy, why don’t you introduce our guest?”

“What, really?”

“Yeah.  Is there a problem with that?”

“No, it’s just…you usually introduce the guests to here on the show.  I normally just sit here, and hope the whole thing doesn’t blow up in our faces…again.”

“Hey, that incident with Iron Will was a one-time only thing!”  

“Sure it was.”

“Besides, it’s your show too just as much as mine.”

“Well, thank you.”  Octavia paused for a moment.  “It really means a lot.   Anyways folks, we have a special guest tonight, Doctor Maud Pie.”

Scootaloo lifted an eyebrow at the mention of that name.

“A doctor, huh?" Vinyl said, catching Scootaloo's attention again.  "Hey Doc, I’ve been having this pain in my flank, do you think you could take a look at it?”

“VINYL!  That’s entirely inappropriate!  Have you no shame?!”

“Nope.”  Laughter could be heard while another pony groaned in frustration.

“Just sit back down!  I’m really sorry about all this Doctor Pie.”

“Don’t worry,” a third voice said in a droll monotone.  “I have three sisters and had to share a room with two of them for nearly twenty years.  There’s not much that can surprise me.”

“I see, but we still don’t treat our guests such a…vulgar way…usually.  Please apologize, Vinyl.”

“Why?  She said she was cool with it.”

“Just do it!” A loud thump followed by yelp of pain indicated that Octavia hit Vinyl.

“All right ‘mother.’  I’m sorry for mooning you Doc.”

“I accept your apology, though I should clarify that I am not that kind of doctor.”

“Then what are you a doctor of?”  Vinyl asked.

“Rocks.”

“Rocks?  I didn’t know rocks even needed doctors.”

“She means that she’s a geologist with a doctorate, Vinyl,” Octavia explained.

“A geo-what now?”

Octavia groaned.  “She studies rocks.”

“Well that sounds boring.”

“Actually it’s quite fascinating,” Maud said, in a tone that sounded the exact opposite of fascination.  “You see rocks can be formed in various ways like being compressed from the earth around it for thousands or millions of years and-”

“Yeah, it was usually around this point where I zoned out back in school.”

“Vinyl, that’s incredibly rude,” Octavia scolded.  “She worked very hard for this.”

“Yeah, but I’m not interested in that sort of stuff.  The only rocks I care about are in Rock N’ Roll baby!”

“Could you at least try to act interested?”

“It’s okay Octavia,” Maud said.  “I can understand her feelings.  Geology and rocks aren’t something that interest most ponies.  There are actually very few in that field of study.  Usually they work for rock farms or mines, but I also study geologic formations formed through erosion, earthquakes or other forces.”

“Now that you mentioned earthquakes, what do you have to say about the recent earthquakes in the region around Cloudsdale?”  Octavia apparently decided to give up and tackle this interview herself.

“That is actually an interesting case,” Maud said, continuing her monotone. “Mainly because the earthquakes around that aren’t really earthquakes.”

“What do you mean?  How can an earthquake not be an earthquake?”

“Well, it is an earthquake, but not a normal one.  Most earthquakes occur at tectonic fault lines, and the Cloudsdale Valley is far away from any known fault lines.  It could possibly be an intraplate earthquake which is very rare, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because they are unpredictable and have little to no warning.  Rocks are very surprising like that.”

“Well, it certainly did seem to come as a surprise.”

“To most ponies that would be the case, but I have been studying the charts formed by Richter recorders, and found that these tremors have actually been continuous.  Earthquakes normally last for only a few seconds, but this one has been going on for months.”

Octavia gasped, “Months?”

“Yes,” Maud confirmed.  “Near the beginning of this year, tremors started happening just north of the Ghastly Gorge.  It has been traveling steadily northward ever since.  It actually passed through Canterlot four weeks ago.”

Vinyl spoke back up again, “Well, I don’t remember feeling anything.”

“As I recall, Vinyl, about four weeks ago, you kept blasting the subwoofers all night long for an entire week about a month ago.  How could we possibly tell with you shaking the entire city?”

“Actually, these tremors have been rather low on the Richter scale,” Maud continued.  “So ponies wouldn’t be able to feel it, but it was still detected.  Most of this has actually been pretty low.  It’s only been recently that the magnitudes have increased, and thy’re still heading north.”

“Is there anything we can do about it?”

“Not really.  We might be able to manipulate nature a little bit at times, but we can’t control it completely—rocks are too stubborn for that.  Besides, most geologists don’t even think that these events are even related.”

“But you do?”

“Yes.”

“So what does it mean?”

“Well, in my opinion, something is causing all of this—something that dwelt at the Ghastly Gorge—and it’s moving.”

“Wow,” Vinyl said.  “That would have been awesomely creepy, if it wasn’t ruined by the monotone.”

“Vinyl!  Why must you insist on constantly insulting our guests like that?!”

“Because it bugs the hay out of you.  Seriously, how long have you known me?”

“Too long, it seems at times,” Octavia said with a muffled voice.

“You know you love it.  Anyways, that’s our show for the night.  We’d like to thank Doc Maud for joining us tonight, even if she did put me so sleep for a bit.”

“Thank you for letting me be here.  I’m quite the fan really.”

“Yeah, I can totally see that,” Vinyl said in a confused tone.  “Anyways, thanks for listening, and we hope to shake your world the next time you tune into The Vinyl Scratch.”

Scootaloo switched off the radio.  She returned back to the examination table, deep in thought over what she had just heard.

“Maud?”  She muttered.  “Where do I know that name from?”

Before she could ponder any further, the door opened again.  Doctor Hunnicolt walked in with his clipboard and a smile.

“Well, Miss Scootaloo,” he said.  “It seems that you’re drug-free.  Your incident was likely due to some fatigue, but some food and a good night’s rest will clear that up.  I can even just say ‘take two pills and call me in the morning,’ but you’ll be just fine.”

“That’s good to know,” Scootaloo replied, hopping of the table.  “Is there anything else?”

“Just your signature here.”

He held out the clipboard and Scootaloo took the pen to sign her name at the bottom.  After signing the last letter she turned to leave, only to be blocked by another stallion walking in who was busy looking at his own clipboard.  She recognized the stallion as Doctor Hawkeye—now much more suitably dressed for his line of work.

“All right BJ, I’m here to take over the...”  Hawkeye looked up to see the two cadets.  “You didn’t tell me we were going to have guests; I’d have brought over some drinks.”

Hunnicolt rolled his eyes, but then Blue Yonder walked up to him.

“BJ?  What’s the ‘B.J.’ stand for?”

Hunnicolt shrugged.  “Anything you want.”

Blue Yonder stared at him in disbelief.  “But-”

“Come on,” Scootaloo interrupted, still fuming from the afternoon’s events.  “Let’s just go.”

With her stomach growling, Scootaloo walked out the door with Blue Yonder right behind—yet they could both still hear a conversation between the two doctors.

“What does the ‘B.J.’ stand for?”  Hawkeye asked

“Anything you want.”

“What, is it some kind of mystery?  I’m your best friend.  Why are you being so secretive all of a sudden?”

> Chapter 7: An Awkward Evening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a reinvigorating meal and shower, Scootaloo and Blue Yonder finally made it back to the barracks—where their only other roommate was waiting.

“There you are,” Aurora said, looking up from her bunk at the far side of the room.  “How’d the training go?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Scootaloo noticed that Blue Yonder had lowered her head in shame.  Scootalo, meanwhile, grabbed her saddlebags and moved as far away from the bunk closest to the door as possible.  Not feeling up to climbing up to the top, she took the bottom bunk of where Lavender used to sleep.  It still had the faint flowery smell that followed Lavender—the bed’s previous occupant—everywhere, but was now somewhat bearable.

“That bad, eh?”  Aurora asked.

Scootaloo slumped onto the bed.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Sorry.”

Scootaloo simply grumbled as she stretched on the bed, her aches and pains being relieved as she did so.  Today had most certainly not been a good day.  When she arrived, she thought that it would be a great reunion with the friends she made at the academy.  Instead, it was a hectic display of just how far she had fallen behind and became disconnected with everypony.

Even the evening time at the barracks were a shadow of their former selves.  Scootaloo remembered the laughter of several mares as they watched Blue Yonder struggle to get out of her uniform the first night, or the time when they found old pictures of past cadets.  Now it was quiet, with one pony refusing to talk, another not looking anypony in the eye and the last stuck in between the previous two.

“So,” Aurora said awkwardly.  “I guess I’ll just lay back down over here then.”

As Aurora got back into her bed, a thought came to Scootaloo.  “Aurora, do you know anything about a Doctor Maud Pie?”

Aurora frowned and rubbed the side of her head.  “No, I don’t think so.  Why?”

Scootaloo shrugged.  “I just heard her on the radio at the infirmary and her name seemed familiar to me.”

“Oh, okay….wait, why were you in the infirmary?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Scootaloo turned around on her bed deep in thought.  She knew only one other pony that had the name Pie—and apparently she had two or three sisters—but Scootaloo didn’t really know them.  So why was this name so familiar to her?  She struggled to find any sort of connection until she fell asleep.


***


Spitfire sighed as she finished the last of paperwork on her desk.  She took off her reading glasses—which she was starting to rely on more and more in order to even see the small print—and rubbed her eyes.

“Why do I have to get old?” Spitfire groaned.

Knock knock knock

Spitfire straightened herself back up.  “Enter.”

In walked one of the nurses from the infirmary who handed her some more paperwork.  Spitfire sighed and put back on her glasses.  The only thing she hated more than wearing glasses was wearing them in front of other ponies.  She frowned as she read the name on the form.

“Why was Scootaloo in the infirmary today?” 

“She collapsed during training today,” the nurse answered.  “It wasn’t serious and she was better after a few minutes.”

“And why didn’t Major Soarin inform me of this?”

“Apparently Major Soarin had the two of them do a private training session, Ma’am.”

“I see.  I guess I’ll have to talk with them in the morning.  Thanks, dismissed.”

The Nurse walked back out after Spitfire signed the form.  It wasn’t always this way; while she often acted as the Director of the Wonderbolt Academy in the past, she also had her own squadron and would fly in air shows all across Equestria and beyond.  Unfortunately, a mistake and oversight on her part during the qualifying races at the Equestria Games many years ago seriously tarnished her reputation among many fans and fellow Wonderbolts.  Soon, she found herself permanently working the glorified desk job at the Academy.  Still, it was a job she loved and one that needed to be done, so it wasn’t all bad—even if it meant dealing with a lot of complaints from cadets about the program.

Spitfire looked at her desk.  Amongst the paperwork, name plaque and flying pegasus statue, there was picture of the very first squadron that Spitfire was in command of.  She picked it up to get a better look at it.

Alongside Spitfire were two stallions—Soarin and a steel-blue stallion named Cool Breeze—and two mares.  The first mare looked almost exactly like Spitfire except for her mane, which was a solid orange as opposed to two tones.  Spitfire knew this mare better than anypony since it was her very own twin sister, Blaze—which made for some very interesting interactions as a squad leader.

The last mare was a very…bizarre case.  She was white with a curly yellow mane, purple eyes and five purple balloons for her cutie mark. She had the composure of an overexcited puppy at just about everything and loved to sneak up on ponies and just wait for them to almost say her name before popping up out of nowhere and shout it—often with a bunch of confetti.  She was such a character that Spitfire thought she was one-of-a-kind, until she met a pink earth pony who had almost the exact same traits.  Yet, despite that fact, Spitfire always enjoyed this mare’s antics, even if they seemed extremely inappropriate at times.  In fact, the millisecond before this picture was taken, the white mare had donned on a party hat, clown nose and held the biggest, goofiest grin she could muster.

Spitfire chuckled.  “Oh Surprise, you were such a hoofful, weren’t you?”

Almost all of them had gone their separate ways now: Soarin still worked with Spitfire at the academy, Cool Breeze was discharged due to a family hardship, Blaze was captain of her own Wonderbolt squadron, and Surprise was working at the Wonderbolt Reserves.  It was definitely very quiet in Spitfire’s life without all of them around on a regular basis, but times change and ponies move on to different roles in life.

Spitfire looked up to the clock and was shocked to see that it was now about thirty minutes before Light’s-Out.  Even though she could stay up past that—being the commanding officer and all—she preferred to keep herself on the same schedule as the rest of the cadets as much as possible. 

Setting the picture back in its place, Spitfire got up, turned off the lights and left the office for her private quarters.  There was a lot of work that needed to be done the next day, and she needed as much sleep as she could get.

> Chapter 8: The Missing Month
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Scootaloo had almost forgotten how much she hated waking up early in the morning, but the trumpet call wouldn’t hush up.  Reluctantly, she got out of bed and started stretching her sore muscles.  It felt really good for some reason, like stretching your legs after a long cart ride.  

Despite the mishaps the previous day, Scootaloo was almost ready to move on from the whole thing.  Yet when she looked near the door where Blue Yonder was standing, Scootaloo’s lip curled into a snarl.  She looked away and quickly got her cadet uniform on and then walked out the door towards the mess hall.

Being breakfast time, the mess hall was jam-packed with cadets and academy staff.  Amongst the bustle, Scootaloo noticed that she was behind the two doctors from the infirmary.

“That must be some awful first name if you won’t tell your best friend,” Hawkeye complained. “Why won’t you just tell me?”

The other doctor sighed.  “B.J., Hunnicolt.  Doctor, E.U.P. Guard.”

Hawkeye facehooved.  “Okay, what if I guess it?”

Hunnicolt shrugged.  “Go ahead.”

“Okay, B.J.  Hmm…Belvadeer Jehoovsephat.”

`	“Got it; first try.”

“Don’t you lie to me.”

Scootaloo simply shook her head as the line came to a halt.  She felt completely famished due to her extremely active day yesterday.  She could see the food just beyond the two doctors and hear her stomach growl over the noise they were making.

Hawkeye spoke up again.  “Was your mother Spurnish?”

Hunnicolt shook his head.  “Nope.”

“Well that eliminates Barreldo Juarez.”

Scootaloo had enough.  “Will you two shut up and move on!?  Some of us are starving here!”

Both Hawkeye and Hunnicolt turned around to see just how long the line had gotten behind them and the many scowling faces in it.

“Well it looks like the cavalry has arrived,” Hunnicolt stated.

“Yeah, we better move before the commander here yells charge!”  Hawkeye then turned back towards his colleague.  “Hop to it Mustachiod Wonder!”

Hunnicolt extended his hoof and bowed his head.  “After you, Baby Face.”

With the way cleared, Scootaloo finally grabbed a tray and filled it up.  Once it was almost overflowing, Scootaloo left the line to get as far away from those doctors as possible.  Looking around, she found where the other cadets of her group were and headed in their direction. 

“Hey Scootaloo,” Barrel Roll said cheerfully as Scootaloo sat down.  “Where’s Blue Yonder?”

Scootaloo stabbed at her carrots.  “I don’t really care.”

“You still mad at her, eh?” Aurora commented, moving a pink strand of her mane from her face.

“What, why?” Silverwings asked, completely taken aback.

Aurora shrugged.  “Near as I can tell, something happened yesterday afternoon that caused Scootaloo to go to the infirmary.  Beyond that, I have no idea.  They were both giving me the silent treatment last night.”

Scootaloo continued to mutilate her food without actually eating it.  Looking up, she could see that everypony’s eyes were on her.  She grumbled a little before taking a deep breath.

“I thought I knew her,” Scootaloo began ranting.  “But when I get back and she proceeds to run me into the ground!  Sure, we worked hard before, but she never kept screaming at me like that!  What the hay happened!?”

There was silence at the table.  Aurora coughed while a few of the stallions at the far side of the table absentmindedly fiddled with their food.  Even Silverwings seemed to be at a loss for words.

After a few awkward seconds, Silverwings finally spoke up.  “I suppose I could answer that.”

Scootaloo looked back up as Silverwings leaned on the table and turned his head towards her.

“You see,” he began.  “Blue took it pretty hard after Morning Light left.  It was her second wingpony to go home in two weeks and she took that rather personally, thinking that she was somehow responsible for sending another pony home.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Scootaloo scoffed.  “She knew I was coming back.”

“I know,” Silverwings agreed.  “But that was her mindset.  Besides, we hadn’t heard anything concerning you at all for the past month.  We didn’t even know if you were actually going to be able to come back until you arrived yesterday.  By then, Blue had just about given up hope and was placed with me and Hot Shot until yesterday.”

“And how was that?”

Silverwings sighed.  “Well, to put it mildly, I’d have rather cleaned every single barrack and bathroom on the compound.  Blue Yonder and Hot Shot were constantly at each other’s throats.”

“Ahem!”  All heads turned to the end of the table where a golden yellow stallion with a red mane was sitting.  “Well if she would’ve just shut up and fell in line, then it wouldn’t have been such a problem, but all she did was complain like a foal.”

Silverwings frowned at the stallion.  “We talked about this Hot Shot.  You shouldn’t be condescending to ponies like that and you can’t just expect everypony to continuously work to ‘perfection’ like you do.”

“Hey,” Hot Shot said pointing a hoof at his wingpony.  “Only a few ponies ever become Wonderbolts, so there is no room for error here.  I’m not going to tolerate a pony that chooses to complain rather than put in the work.”

“SHE DID!” Silverwings snapped.  “She was with us every step of the way and managed to keep up with you despite every petty little thing you said about her!”

Hot Shot rolled his eyes.  “Well that doesn’t seem to be helping her now, is it?”

“You know,” Aurora said scornfully.  “I’m really beginning to see why Blue Yonder doesn’t like you very much.”

“Like I care?” Hot Shot said, shrugging his shoulders.  “I didn’t come here to be liked by second-rate flyers like her.  Besides, now she has her own wingpony to deal with that is just as ‘skilled’ as she is.”

Scootaloo really felt like jumping over the table and giving Hot Shot a piece of her mind…and a couple of hooves to the face.  Before she could follow through with that, however, Silverwings held her back.  That didn’t stop her from launching some verbal assaults though.

“She’s a better lead-pony than you’d ever be you dick!”

“Well it doesn’t seem that way.”

Hot Shot took his tray with his mouth and walked away from the table.  Scootaloo continued to glare daggers in his direction; she didn’t even care about all the strange looks she was attracting from the other cadets and staff.  After a moment, though, everypony went back to their own business.

Scootaloo stewed in her seat for a few minutes, continuously flaring her nostrils and making several snorting sounds.  Her own anger towards Blue Yonder was now forgotten as she found a new source to put it.  Then she realized just how much she had been alienating her companion.  She looked around the cafeteria, but there was no sign of Blue Yonder at all.

“Where is Blue Yonder?” Scootaloo asked

Silverwings bit his lower lip.  “I think I might know the answer to that too.”


***


Spitfire was always one to rise before dawn, so she was already done with breakfast before most of the cadets even had a chance to walk into the mess hall.  While it did seem to distance herself from them, it did offer some peace and quiet before what was almost always sure to be a stressful day in some capacity.

In an attempt to get a head start on her workload, Spitfire headed for her office—only to find a blue, white-maned mare sitting outside of the door.  Spitfire put a hoof to her forehead and sighed.  ‘I swear, Blue Yonder, you’re hanging on by a thread right now.’

Regaining her composure, Spitfire approached the downcast cadet.

“Why aren’t you at the mess hall, cadet?” Spitfire asked in an annoyed tone.

“I wasn’t hungry,” Blue Yonder said simply.

Spitfire frowned, but she knew there was only one thing that would satisfy this pony.  Opening the door to her office, Spitfire turned back to Blue Yonder.  “Get in.”

Blue Yonder complied and took an all too familiar seat in front of the desk.  Spitfire circled the cadet for a moment before taking her own seat.  She eyed Blue Yonder some more, noticing that the cadet was refusing to make eye contact with her.

“I wasn’t kidding in saying that if I heard another complaint from you, then KP would be the least of your worries,” Spitfire stated.

“It’s not about that Ma’am,” Blue Yonder replied quietly.

Spitfire raised an eyebrow at this.  For the past month, Blue Yonder had come into her office to complain about her companions—particularly Hot Shot.  Those meetings often got very intense between the two of them.  Yet here Blue Yonder was now, completely subdued and practically…guilt-ridden.

“Then what is it about?” Spitfire asked.

Blue Yonder sighed and looked up.  “I caused Scootaloo to go to the infirmary yesterday…doing pretty much the exact same thing that got her injured in the first place.”  She started to get a little emotional.  “I don’t know what I was thinking, but I just wouldn’t stop and…and then she collapsed.  I…I don’t deserve to be a lead pony.”

Blue Yonder put something on Spitfire’s desk.  When Blue Yonder lifted her hoof away, Spitfire saw the gold badge that used to be on the cadet’s chest.

“I request that you give Scootaloo another companion and I’ll take my leave.”  Blue Yonder closed her eyes and braced herself.

Spitfire looked at the badge, up to the cadet, and back down again—completely flabbergasted.  The cadet was being completely serious about this and was waiting for her judgment.  Even though Spitfire had given the threat of expulsion, she never thought that Blue Yonder would willingly resign.  It reminded Spitfire of that one day when Rainbow Dash nearly quit the academy.

Spitfire composed herself and looked directly into Blue Yonder’s still closed eyes.  “Denied.”

Blue Yonder opened her eyes in shock.  “What?”

“I said ‘denied’ cadet,” Spitfire reiterated.

“But…I…you said that—”

“I said that if you came in again complaining that I might do something worse than give you KP,” Spitire asserted sharply.  “Instead, you come to me admitting a mistake and want to leave because of it.  Well I have a newsflash for you newbie, we all make mistakes.  You are not that special.”

Spitfire knew she was acting a bit harsh, but she felt that she had to be firm in this case—especially considering the fact that she had been dealing with Blue Yonder in these meetings for almost a month now.

After a moment, Blue Yonder spoke back up again.  “But I could’ve crippled my companion and now she won’t talk to me.”

Spitfire got up from her desk and walked in front of Blue Yonder.  “Well of course she’d be mad at you; I’d be surprised if she wasn’t, but I also don’t believe that she is so shallow to completely abandon you for long.  Besides, do you really want to leave?  Because if you do, then you know where the door is.”

Blue Yonder was silent, but remained seated in front of the desk.  Spitfire took that for her answer and smiled inwardly.

‘But how can Scootaloo ever trust me again?” Blue Yonder asked in a voice just above a whisper.

“I don’t know,” Spiftire shrugged.  “She could hate your guts for the rest of her life…but I highly doubt that.  I think your real problem is in trusting yourself, Blue Yonder.”  Spitfire placed the gold badge back into the cadets hoof.  “You made a mistake; so buck up and learn from it.  You need to decide what kind of leader you want to be.”

Blue Yonder stared at the badge and clipped it back onto her uniform.  Then she looked back up to Spitfire and saluted her.

“Yes Ma’am.”

Spitfire returned the salute.  Then they both heard a voice coming from somewhere in the hallway outside the door.

“Blue Yonder! Are you here?”

“You’re wingpony’s looking for you,” Spitfire said.  “Get out of here and eat something before you go out today.”

Blue Yonder chuckled nervously before saluting, which Spitfire returned.

“I will do that Ma’am,” Blue Yonder said and then walked out of the door.

Spitfire watched her leave and then sat back down at her desk.  She flicked the flying pegasus ornament on her desk and watched it move up and down.

“Well,” she sighed.  “At least we’re finally making progress.”
> Chapter 9: Mashed Potatoes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Ugh!”  Scootaloo cried out.  “How many potatoes does this place go through in one day?”	

Scootaloo’s morning outburst in the mess hall had not gone unnoticed and she was subsequently given kitchen duty that afternoon in preparation for dinner.  She was surrounded by three piles: a small mountain of unpeeled potatoes, a comparatively pitiful pile of peeled ones, and the many, many peelings.  Thankfully, she didn’t have to do this daunting task alone since Blue Yonder was also with her.  Even though she didn’t have to, Scootaloo’s wing-leader had volunteered to help out.

“Oh, just you wait until we have to clean all the trays later,” Blue Yonder smirked.  “I swear some of these ponies don’t know how to eat their food.”

Scootaloo was about to respond when the potato she was peeling slipped out of her hoof and fell into the peeling pile.  Groaning, she fished it back out, wiped it off and finished peeling it.  Scootaloo looked up and noticed that Blue Yonder was faring far better than she was.  Blue Yonder’s pile of peeled potatoes was twice as large and she had little trouble hanging on to the slippery spuds.

“How did you get so good at this?” Scootaloo asked.

Blue Yonder shrugged.  “Like I said, I’ve had to do a lot of kitchen duty this past month.”  She held up the half-peeled potato in her hoof.  “To be honest, when I first did it, I was a lot worse than you.  I couldn’t hold on to these things to save my life.”

Both mares chuckled for a moment before falling silent again.  They continued working, Scootaloo finishing one potato for every two of her companion’s.  Before long, Blue Yonder looked back up.

“Listen,” she said hesitatingly.  “I’m really sorry about yesterday.  I don’t know how I could have been—”

“It’s all right; I get it,” Scootaloo interrupted.  “Silverwings told me the whole thing.  If anything, I’m sorry for being so angry with you.”

Blue Yonder’s ears drooped downwards.  “I kind of deserved it though.”

“Not like that,” Scootaloo rebutted.  “Listen, how about we just move on from the whole thing and start fresh?”

Blue Yonder bit her lip uncertainly.  “Sure.”

“Good, and it looks like we’re finally done with these spuds,” Scootaloo said, tossing her last potato into the pile.  Just then, the cook walked in with a large sack and dumped even more potatoes right next to them, grabbed their peeled ones and walked out.  “OH COME ON?!”

The rest of the afternoon was filled with more grueling work in food preparation, serving and cleaning.  Scootaloo soon realized what Blue Yonder meant about cleaning the trays.  Not only were there dozens upon dozens of them, but most weren’t even properly emptied and many were practically glued together with mashed potatoes.

“Could it at least hurt them to scrape off what they don’t eat?” Scootaloo complained after pulling a couple of trays apart, rewarding her with some potatoes splashed onto her face.

Blue Yonder sighed as she started scrubbing.  “I tried to tell ponies that, but some of them just continue to eat like pigs.”

Scootaloo simply gritted her teeth and continued to clean the trays.  According to her, the only upside was that they didn’t have to deal with any of the other cadets when they ate in the kitchens, but it wasn’t exactly the brightest silver lining.

Finally, once evening was settling in, they finished their kitchen duty and immediately hit the showers.  Then they headed for the barracks for a long-awaited rest.  When they finally arrived, Scootaloo threw her towel onto her bed in frustration.

“Looks like you had fun in the kitchens, eh?”  Aurora said coyly.

“If I see another potato ever again, it will be too soon,” Scootaloo said through gritted teeth.

Aurora shifted slightly out of the corner of Scootaloo’s eye, but she couldn’t tell what the aqua-green mare was doing.

“You seem tense,” Aurora commented.  “You need to wind down a bit.”

Scootaloo closed her eyes and laughed. She turned her head to face Aurora.  “I don’t think anything short of pulverizing some trays will help—”

Scootaloo was interrupted by getting hit full in the face with a pillow.  She opened her eyes to see the smug look on Aurora’s face.

“Bet you can’t hit me,” she said playfully.

Scootaloo looked down to the pillow—which had landed near Blue Yonder’s hooves.  Sharing a nod with her companion, she turned back to face Aurora and grinned evilly.

“Oh, it is on!”

The remainder of the evening was filled with laughter in the barracks as they commenced in their three-way pillow fight.  Once the five-minute warning call came, they ended their battle and got into their beds in time for lights-out.  Having wound down a little, Scootaloo fell asleep almost instantly—waiting for the day ahead.


***


Spitfire was looking at several files spread out over her desk.  Once the argument between Scootaloo, Hot Shot and a few of the other cadets came to her knowledge earlier that day she had done nothing but study their files—pausing only for meal and bathroom breaks.  Yet despite her efforts, she was still no closer to figuring out what to do about it.

A gentle knocking came from the door, at which Spitfire called the pony to enter.

“You wanted to see me, Spitz,” Soarin said, entering the office.  He often ditched formalities, especially if they were alone.

“Yes,” Spitfire said, rubbing her face.  “What’s your opinion on these cadets?”

Soarin looked at the files on the desk and realized that they were all of the cadets he was in charge of.

“Well, they’re all hard workers in their own right.”  Soarin then picked up the files for Blue Yonder and Hot Shot.  “Although these two have been at each other’s throats.  The rest either take sides or ignore the issue completely and focus on their own thing.”

“And that seems to be the problem,” Spitfire stated.  “This hatred is driving them apart.”

“Well you can’t force ponies to like each other.”

Spitfire sighed.  “I know, but I need them to work as a team, not as individual units.”

“How do we do that then when we already try to teach them teamwork?”

It was a fair question, Spitfire had to admit.  They already had every cadet work drills, obstacles and flight exercises together throughout the entire academy.  They even had them do flight demonstrations in multiple companionships.  How were they supposed to do something else on the academy grounds they didn’t do already?

Then, all of a sudden, an idea came to Spitfire.  “We could have them leave the academy,” she said quietly.

Soarin raised an eyebrow at this.  “I’m sorry, what?”

“You know, like a survival training exercise—or rather a field trip,” Spitfire explained.  “They’re used to what they do here, so why not have them go out for a few days under supervision?  Hopefully, they’ll get to know each other better and work together.”

“Okay,” Soarin nodded tentatively.  “So do you want me to supervise them, or one of our other trainers?”

The smile on Spitfire’s face faded as she slumped back into her seat.  “That’s another problem.  They know how we all generally work here, so they’ll just behave the same way.  We need to get somepony else that they don’t have experience with.”

“But all the other Wonderbolts have received the same training we did,” Soarin stated.  “How will getting somepony else make a difference?”

“It’s not about the training, but rather the personality.  We need somepony they’re not expecting—one who can throw them through a loop.”  Spitfire sighed in resignation until a certain picture caught her eye.  A smile slowly crept onto her face.  “And I think I know just the pony.”

Soarin’s look of confusion instantly changed into one of concern.  “Surly you don’t mean…”

“Oh yes I do.”  Spitfire rummaged through a portion of the filing cabinet marked “R-S” and pulled out a file.  “It’s time to call her up.” 

> Chapter 10: A New Mission
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Scootaloo once again found herself fighting against the bugle call early in the morning.  She finally relented and crawled out onto the still messy floor from the previous night’s battle.

“They’d have a field day if we were inspected now,” she muttered while trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

Aurora spoke up in an annoyingly cheerful tone.  “Can’t be any worse than when we had to clean the entire compound after Silverwings put that ‘pie face’ sign on the Major’s back, eh Blue?”

Before Blue Yonder could respond, a series of knocks came from the door.  Since she was the closest, Blue Yonder opened the door only to find nopony there.  Stepping out to get a better look around, her hoof brushed against something left on the doorstep.

“What is it?” Aurora asked once the door was shut again.

“It’s a letter,” Blue Yonder replied, holding up a piece of paper.

“Why would somepony knock, just to leave a letter here?”

“Dunno.”

Scootaloo waved her hoof.  “Well don’t just stand there. Read it.”

Blue Yonder tore open the envelope, pulled out a piece of paper and read it aloud.

“Good morning Cadets.  Today marks a new phase of your training to become part of the super awesome Wonderbolts team.  You’re to report to the Eastern Field, Section D at 0900 hours, where you will receive details of your new mission—should you choose to accept it.  This message will self-destruct in five seconds.” 

Blue Yonder scoffed as she finished reading the letter.  “Okay, that’s ridiculous.  How can a letter possibl—”

In a puff of smoke, the letter turned into a pile of confetti and fell out of Blue Yonder’s outstretched hoof.  Scootaloo couldn’t help but snicker at her lead-pony’s flabbergasted expression.

“But….but how…what!?”

Scootaloo couldn’t hold it back any longer and burst out laughing, much to Blue Yonder’s dismay.

“It’s not funny!” she snapped.

Scootaloo gasped for breath and wiped some tears out of her eyes.  “Seriously…you don’t find that hilarious?”

Blue Yonder scowled as Scootaloo resumed laughing.  Even Aurora couldn’t help but giggle.

Aurora took a deep breath after calming down.  “Well, we should get some breakfast.”

“Wait,” Blue Yonder said, stopping Aurora from walking out the door.  “You’re not confused to the fact that we had an exploding letter here?”

Aurora shrugged.  “It’s probably just a prank, nothing more than that.  Now come on, the line is already starting to fill up.”

With that, Aurora left the barracks, shortly followed by Scootaloo.  Blue Yonder groaned in frustration, kicked the confetti with a swipe of her hoof and stomped out of the room.


***


The mess hall was stuffed with the usual sea of cadets and officers, all of whom idly chatting with one another while they ate.  Due to being held up by the mysterious letter, it took a while for Scootaloo, Blue Yonder and Aurora to find any available seats.  Soon they sat down with the stallions from their class—who were deep in discussion about something when they arrived.

“Hey,” Silverwings said as the mares sat down.  “You’re not going to believe what just happened to us this morning.”

“You got a letter telling you something about a mission and then exploded into a pile of confetti after five seconds,” Blue Yonder said bitterly.

Silverwings stared at her for a moment, utterly perplexed.  “Well, not exactly,” he finally said.  “Ours was a tape recorder telling us all that…before it started hissing, smoking and melted the tape.”

“Okay, at least that makes sense!”  Blue Yonder exclaimed.  “You can actually rig a tape to do that, but how the flying flank do you rig a damn letter to burst into confetti?”

Aurora placed a hoof onto Blue Yonder’s shoulder.  “Please, there’s no need for that kind of language.”

Blue Yonder wheeled around and snapped.  “How are you not concerned by this?  There’s no way this is some simple prank!”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Aurora said, holding her hooves up.  “But this is restricted facility, so unauthorized ponies don’t just come waltzing in—”

Suddenly, food sprayed out of Scootaloo’s muzzle as she snorted with laughter.  She tried to cover her mouth as best as she could before swallowing—still struggling to fight back open laughter.

“Sorry,” she said, coughing a little.  “Please continue.”

Everypony stared at her for a second before Aurora spoke up again.  “Anyways, it’s unlikely that somepony outside of the Academy did this.”  Aurora turned to Silverwings.  “Did you see who left the tape?”

“Nope,” Silverwings sighed.  “The only one who might have was Hot Shot, but he was too busy practicing.”

“That early in the morning?”  Scootaloo gaped.

“Yep,” Silverwings nodded.  “He tried getting me to do it too, but gave up after the first week.  I don’t do mornings.”

“Well,” Hot Shot’s haughty voice rang out.  “If you were more serious about becoming a Wonderbolt then you would do it.”

Blue Yonder leaned forward to look at the stallion.  “You never had me doing early morning exercises.”

“What, were you going to complain about that too?” Hot Shot sneered.

Blue Yonder’s face flushed, but Scootaloo pulled her back down before she caused another scene.

“Can you tell us more about the pony on the tape?”  Aurora asked in an attempt to move the conversation back to where it was.

Silverwings shrugged.  “Not really.  It was a mare, but none of the ones around here—and I would know.  I wonder if that yellow mare would talk to me again.”  Silverwings shook his head.  “Anyways, she talked really fast, and seemed really excited.”

“That’s not much to go on,” Blue Yonder lamented.

Suddenly, Barrel Roll came up to them.  “It’s about time for us to go.”

“Oh right,” Aurora said, getting up.  “Where are we supposed to be today?”

“The Eastern Field, Section D.”


***


Scootaloo’s mind raced as they approached the training grounds.  Who did place that letter outside their cabin as well as that tape recording in the stallion’s barracks?  Why would somepony pull a prank like that?

‘Wait, pull a prank?  No, it couldn’t be…could it?’

The letter also said something about “super-awesome” training with the Wonderbolts.  There was only one pony she knew who constantly used those words—especially when it came to the Wonderbolts.  

But how was that possible?  Wasn’t Rainbow Dash always busy in her own duties?  However, the academy was also a part of the Wonderbolts.  So she could come here and train others—and pull off some pranks while doing it.  But if she was here, then why pull a prank about training?   It was one of the few things Rainbow Dash actually took seriously. This didn’t make any sense.

Scootaloo was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t realize that they had reached their destination until she ran into Blue Yonder.  She also didn’t notice that Colonel Spitfire was right there waiting for them alongside Major Soarin.  It was hard to read her cold expression, since it was blocked by her sunglasses.  Soarin, however, seemed a little nervous and was sweating a lot—although that could have been from the rather hot morning sun.

“Well, good morning Newbies,” Spitfire said.  “I was beginning to wonder when you slackers would show up!”  She started pacing back in forth in front of the cadets, much like she had on their very first day—making them feel like prey to a tiger.  “You disgust me!  You want to know why?”

Spitfire stopped right in front of Scootaloo and stood nose to nose.  Scootaloo could clearly make out her amber eyes behind those purple sunglasses and feel their icy glare.  A shiver ran down Scootaloo’s spine and she could feel a lump in her throat, but couldn’t find the nerve to swallow.  Spitfire continued staring and it took all of Scootaloo’s willpower to keep her from backing down.

“Why, Ma’am?”  Scootaloo finally asked. 

Spitfire backed up her head a bit, but still kept her gaze fixed on Scootaloo.  “Because you are some of the worst cadets I’ve ever seen!”  

A small snort came from somewhere towards Scootaloo’s left.  Spitfire broke her stare and turned, instantly zeroing in on the source.

“Oh, don’t think your off the hook you hot-headed little brat,” Spitfire shouted as she got up into Hot Shot’s face.  “Oh, I know about your little early-morning training program, and let me tell you something.  I  DON’T  GIVE  A  SHIT!”

Hot Shot’s golden face instantly went pale.  Scootaloo stole a glance at Blue Yonder, who was struggling between smirking and keeping her face straight.  Yet, she still seemed terrified about the situation.

“The Wonderbolts,” Spitfire continued, “may be the best flyers in all of Equestria—and any one of them could outstrip you as if you were a butterfly—but they’re also a team!”  Spitfire resumed her pacing.  “So far, I have seen absolutely nothing to show me that any of you value teamwork.  Sure, you may get along fine with your wingpony, but most teams usually have more than two members.

“You may also get along fine outside of the training field too and think that you might have friends here.  Well, this isn’t HIGH SCHOOL!  You’re here to work together as a cohesive group, and what do I see?” Spitfire stopped pacing and turned to face the whole group.  “Arguments that nearly lead into hoof-fights, injuries, distrust and complaining!  I have half a mind to throw you all out right now.”

A heavy silence permeated the area.  Even the sounds of wind and cadets in other, distant training fields were muted echoes to Scootaloo’s ears.  Nopony bore even the slightest hint of a smile now.

‘Throw us out?’ Scootaloo thought angrily.  ‘But I just got back!’

“Now that I have your undivided attention,” Spitfire stated, “you better listen carefully to what I’m going to say next.”  She turned her back toward the sun and looked off into the distance—far beyond the other side of the compound.  “Under the supervision of an officer, you will go out and navigate the land around and inside the Galloping Gorge—without flying.”  

The eight cadets glanced at each other as Spitfire turned to face them again.

“Don’t take this lightly,” Spitfire continued.  “Completing this task will require you to work together as a team.  The officer may be in charge and offer guidance, but you will be doing the work.  Once you return, the officer will report to me and I’ll determine your future at this academy.”

Scootaloo and her fellow cadets remained stupefied at these words.  None of them dared to speak.  Scootaloo herself felt at a loss for words.  Her heart started beating hard as Blue Yonder raised her hoof.

“Excuse me, Ma’am,” Blue Yonder said and Spitfire nodded towards her.  “Who would this officer be?”

For the first time they saw all morning, a smile crept upon Spitfire’s face—which somehow caused Scootaloo’s heart to race even faster and more sweat to drip down her face.  She looked over towards Soarin and the other officers with him, but they remained silent.

“Oh, I wish I could tell you that,” Spitfire said gleefully, “but this pony often beats me to it with her own actions.”  She moved her head from side to side, as if looking for something, before turning back at the cadets.  “But it looks like I have to try as always.”

Scootaloo blinked in confusion, and noticed the same thing happening on Blue Yonder’s face.

Spitfire cleared her throat.  “Let me introduce you to Lieutenant—”



“SURPRISE!~”



Scootaloo jumped as she, and the seven other cadets, broke rank at the unexpected outburst.  They all turned around to see a white pegasus mare with a curly yellow mane and tail standing right behind them—a place where she wasn’t a second ago.  She had purple eyes, a cutie mark of five purple balloons and bore an extra-wide grin on her face.  Scootaloo had to do a double take in order to make sure this pony was indeed a pegasus, and not a particular earth pony she knew with a dyed coat and mane. 

She also wore what looked like a uniform, but very different from the other officers’.  Instead of the short-sleeved jacket, shirt, medals and tie making up Spitfire’s and Soarin’s uniforms, this pony wore a camouflaged jacket with two patches bearing the words E.U.P. Wonderbolts and Surprise.  She also had a flat-toped cap of the same camouflage material.  Yet it was hard to call it “camouflage” since the colors consisted of yellow and blue—much like the cadet flight uniforms.

“Hello everypony,” Surprise said in a high-pitched voice that was eerily similar to the same earth pony that Scootaloo mistook Surprise for earlier.  “This is going to be superduperawesomeriffic!  I can’t wait to—”

“Calm down Surprise,” Spitfire interrupted.

Surprise closed her mouth and immediately snapped into a salute.  “Yes Captain.”

Spitfire rolled her eyes.  “I’m not your captain,” she muttered under her breath.  She then called all the cadets back into attention.  “All right Newbies, you know what’s at stake.  I’ll be leaving you in the capable hooves of Lieutenant Surprise.”  She then turned to the newcomer.  “They’re all yours.”

With that, Spitfire walked away, followed—somewhat reluctantly—by Soarin and the other officers.  After watching them leave, all the cadets turned back towards Surprise, whose smile had returned.  She began to bounce up and down excitedly before she stopped, took a deep breath and began to pace back and forth in front of them.

“Okiedokieponies,” Surprise said.  “The Good Ol’ Captain wants me to get you working as a team, so we won’t be worrying about rank at all.”  The cadets muttered in confusion, but Surprise kept on going as if she didn’t hear them.  “There’ll be no lead or wing-ponies or partners.  That way, you can all work together.  Won’t that be fun?”

The cadets just continued to stare blankly at Surprise.

“Also,” she continued, “Surprise will be fine.  There’s no need to call me Lieutenant, Ma’am, la Reina de Prance, or Mr. Wilson—although that last one is really, really fun to shout out.  

“We’ll all have a superfun time out in the wilderness, although you’ll need a new outfit since flight uniforms aren’t really good for hiking.  So head over to Mr. Quartermaster and he’ll give you everything you need for our camping trip.  We’ll meet back in about an hour waaaay over there.”

She pointed towards the western end of the Academy and then started hopping away.

“See you later, alligators,” she shouted back at them.

All the cadets shuffled around uncertainly as Surprise continued to bounce farther and farther away.  After realizing that she wouldn’t be coming back at all, the cadets started walking towards the main building in order to carry out their rather vague orders.

“I’m not really sure how I feel about this,” Blue Yonder finally admitted.

Scootaloo chuckled and smiled.  “I actually think this is going to be a lot of fun.”