On a crisp fall morning, Scootaloo let her wings unfurl open, basking in sugary sweet sunlight near the edge of a cliff. Rainbow Dash stood anxiously next to her, impatiently trotting in place and widely grinning.
"Come on, Scoot," the cyan pegasus laughed, flapping her wings competitively. "we don't have all day!"
"R-right... It's just..." Scootaloo shook her head to clear the dark thoughts that fogged up her mind, searching for words that were caught in her throat. "n-never mind! Alright, what's first?"
"Uhh," grumbled Rainbow Dash, searching for the correct word choice. With a flick of her tail and a beat of her wings, she was up in the air and directing Scootaloo. "first yo- Well, you just flap your wings in rhythm, and by instinct, you fly!" her answer was over all not very helpful but the orange pegasus wasn't about to second guess her mentor, role model, and Wonderbolt captain.
She looked down, back up, and behind her before sending her wings downwards and floating up off the ground. The young mare's eyes brightened and she flapped them again. After a few more experimental flutters of her coral wings, she was soaring through Grabby Gorge, the soggy rocks brushing against her fur.
Scootaloo looked up as she floated gracefully towards the top of the cliff. All she could see was a vast sea of cobalt, speckled with a few stray clouds. She stopped when Rainbow Dash was just a pastel colored dot in the distance. The air was thin up here and her lungs felt as if they would pop.
With a final glance downwards, she slammed her wings into her sides and fell backwards, dropping like a rock. Her coat felt like it was on fire, white hot flames lapping at her withers. Her eyes drifted shut, and she relished the feeling of wind roaring in her ears and sending her mane haywire.
Sooner than she expected, the orange pegasus could smell the enticing scent of wet stones. On a dime, Scootaloo forced her wings to spring open, causing her to shoot upwards faster than Dash could keep up with.
The coral pony squealed and did graceful arches in the air, looping and diving like a trained Wonderbolt, even if she had just learned to fly.
Meanwhile, a cobalt pegasus stared off in awe at the pegasus filly, watching eagerly as Scootaloo whipped around the sky at dizzying speeds.
"Alright Scootaloo," Rainbow's raspy voice called out, snapping out of her stupor. "that's enough practice for today."
Scootaloo couldn't agree more. Her wings felt sore from her stunt and her lungs burned from traveling through rushing air so fast. Her eyes stung from trying to keep them open while careening downwards and her mane was highly disheveled.
"Y-yeah," stuttered the coral pegasus, running a colored hoof through her magenta hair in an attempt to tame her wild locks of dark pink. "I'm going to go to the c-clubhouse and meet up with the CMC."
Rainbow snorted a little. "You're still called that? You got your cutie marks already!" She pointed towards the young mare's flank, adorned with a storm cloud shooting a flash of rainbow lighting.
"Yeah, I guess so..." she paused, mulling over what Dash had said."bu-but why should that matter! It's a really cool name!"
"I wasn't insulting it, featherhead." The cyan pegasus took to the air, flapping her wings furiously. "I better be off. I have new recruits in the Wonderbolts. One blind, one afraid of heights, and one that's never flown before. Gotta dash!"
"See ya later, Rainbow!"
"Bye, Scoot!"
-_-_-_-_-_-
"Scoots! Yer finally here!" Apple Bloom drawled. She was of reasonable height; not too tall, not too short with a paintbrush for a cutiemark. A bulk of red locks covered most of her head, occasionally getting in her eyes.
"It took you long enough," mused a voice smoother than silk, belonging to Sweetie Belle. The alabaster unicorn had long, spindly legs and a thick waterfall of lavendar curls cascading over her ears and along her neck. Her cutiemark was two linked eighth notes, even though half of it was covered up by a rugged white and green saddle bag.
"Quit your griping, guys! I learned how to fly today!" This coaxed a burst of shouts.
"YOU DID?!"
"WHAT KIND OF STUNTS DID YOU PULL OFF?"
"DID YOU ATTEMPT TO DO A SONIC RAINBOOM?"
All of their excited banter was silenced by a bang on the door. The older Cutie Mark Crusaders sat stock still and quiet as death.
Apple Bloom beckoned a hoof. They slunk under the hoof painted desk and waited.
"See, Silver Spoon?" gloated a prim voice. "Nopony ever even glances at this dingy old clubhouse anymore. We can probably pay Apple Bloom a couple of bits to fix it up," the crusaders could hear the voice pause for a moment. "that is, if she has a fraction of a brain in that country bumpkin head of her's!"
Scootaloo looked over at Apple Bloom, only to see the filly's hoof clenched in her teeth to prevent her from shouting.
"Yeah, the only half-intelligent one of the three is Sweetie Belle! Now, let's see what secrets this dingy old deathtrap holds!" Scootaloo looked awestruck. She glanced over to the unicorn filly and saw that she was screaming silently into her saddlebag. As Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon rummaged through their belongings, Apple Bloom had curled up in a tight ball and squirmed whenever they would pull something out.
"Hey Silver Spoon! Read this!" mocked Diamond Tiara, yanking a tattered piece of paper from beneath a microphone. "Dear Feather Weight," Scootaloo could hear the violet unicorn cackle and stomp her hind leg. "would it be possible that you spy on Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?"
Apple Bloom looked over to Sweetie Belle and whispered, "Ah thought Ah told you ta throw that away!"
"Pony feathers! Sorry I forgot!!" Sweetie Belle murmured, raising a hoof to silence the yellow earth pony.
Diamond Tiara continued. "She's been driving me up the wall and she looks over my shoulder in math test. Eavesdrop as much as you can with out getting caught! Signed, the CMC. Pffftt... AHAHAHAAAABAAHAAA!! They still use that idiotic nickname? I thought they learned their lesson when we hijacked their talent show act! I could have sworn that giant globe would've crushed Sweetie Belle if we had loosened it more!"
Scootaloo had enough of this. She threw herself out from under the desk, the two other ponies following her.
"WHAT?!?" Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon looked on in fear, but their expressions of chagrin quickly changed to sinister grins.
"Well, what have we here? The accused sits and shakes with fear!" Diamond Tiara hissed, glaring at the three ponies infront of her.
"GET OUT OF OUR CLUB HOUSE YA CITY SLICKERS!" Apple Bloom screamed, turning around and raising her back hooves, while glaring at the snide fillies. "AH WON'T THREATEN TA KICK!!"
"BACK OFF BEFORE I SHOVE YOUR FLANK UP YOUR HEAD!!" Scootaloo shouted, quickly taking to the air. "I mean, your head up your flank!"
"I KNOW BAG-FU!!" Sweetie Belle bellowed, swinging her green saddlebag's strap around her hoof. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both snapped their heads towards her and shot the unicorn an annoyed look. "What? Have you ever been hit by one of these?"
"DOESN'T MATTER!" Apple Bloom shrieked, pulling her back hooves towards her more. "AH'LL SAY IT ONE MORE TIME," she had a crushing glare swimming in her eyes. "GET. OUT!"
Tense silence hung like a vice over the club house. Applebloom glared harder, Scootaloo hovered menacingly over the clique, and Sweetie Belle shifted her weight from one hoof to the other threateningly.
Diamond Tiara's surprised expression dropped to disdainful, and then to devious. "I'm surprised you even know what having a cutie mark is like! What's your talent, Sweetie Belle? Crushing random notes together and seeing what garbled mishmash it makes? And you, Scootaloo, I bet your talent is stomping on clouds like that one gray retard pegasus! And Apple Bloom? Scribbling like a filly, I bet!" She sneering in a wheedling voice, making exaggerated expressions and motions along with her degrading comments.
"Wow, you really just got your friend into some hot water! What's her talent? Spooning?" Scootaloo snapped back, a pointed grin on her muzzle emphasized by pronounced canines.
Silver Spoon blushed and hid her face behind her hoof. "It's actually my talent with silver..."
"Well, Ah didn't want ta do this, but ya've forced mah hoof!" the yellow earth pony sighed. "Scoots?"
"I'm on it!" grinned Scootaloo, quickly saluting her friend. "Hi-YAAAAH!" With that, she shoved her hooves forward and crashed through the wall.
"And that was supposed to do what, exactly?" Silver Spoon sneered, jeering and narrowing her eyes competitively. Diamond Tiara swished her tail as Sweetie Belle approached them in lurching steps.
"Back off, you uncultured swines! You-you pig headed, hoof licking, mud demons!!!" Sweetie Belle howled, mimicking her sister's fiercely aristocratic nature. She quickly charged at the two fillies, and launched her bag at them.
"Ahm not usually fer takin' back promises, but Ahm gonna give you ONE FINAL CHANCE ta scram," Apple Bloom snarled in a dark voice. "Ah've got more strength in mah back hooves than you do in yer entire body."
"Ooooh, I'm SO SCARED!!" Diamond Tiara mocked, pressing a hoof to her chest in artificial fear. "A country bumpkin is going to knock me silly with two tiny hooves!"
"Uh, Diamond Tiara? You do know that we have a pool of mud surrounding our tree house," Sweetie Belle as-a-matter-of-factly mused, pointing a hoof to the large hole in the wall. "If Apple Bloom bucks you out of this club house, not only will you get a black eye and a busted lip, but your outfit will get ruined."
This was more than enough to send Diamond Tiara and her friend shrieking high pitched screams and running off at full-tilt, or at least as fast as they could manage in a fresh Poni-Pedi. Before they could get far though, Scootaloo flew into the wrecked clubhouse. She had wood chips in her hair and the two squirming fillies tucked under her arms.
"May I do the honors?" she asked, flying backwards just a bit so she was directly over the moat of mud.
"Ya sure can," Apple Bloom was grinning manically, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were thrashing as if their life depended on it, and Sweetie Belle was dusting off her Saddlebag.
Scootaloo raised her arms and the two fillies fell into the pit of mud. The pair of fillies screeched and the crusaders laughed so hard, they had tears in their eyes when they settled down.
"What was that about me being similar to a retard?" Scootaloo's voice was full of snark as she glanced down at the two fillies, convulsing and kicking up globs of mud, only getting dirtier and grittier by the second.
"I'd say we've taught them their lesson," Sweetie Belle sighed, just now recovering from the bout of laughter. "We'd be sinking to their level if we left them all muddy like that. Scootaloo? Try the Rainblow Dry thing, I'll get a bucket of water."
Scootaloo flitted out of the clubhouse and to the squirming fillies, who had given up and were lying face down in the mud. They look shocked when they were scooped up and dropped on the balcony of the clubhouse. "You guys promise to quit harassing s and stay out of our clubhouse?" the coral pegasus shouted from high above.
The shivering ponies nodded weakly. "Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo yowled, wincing as she heard a loud splash and the two ponies shrieking.
"Close your eyes and hold on tight!" Scootaloo pulled on the weather team goggles she had brought from the clubhouse and shot downwards, then circled the ponies incredibly fast. What once was a coral pegasus was now nothing but an orange blur, mixed with water and mud. The blur fused into a small tornado, and the wet silt funneled out of the top and onto the grass below.
"Forget this ever happened," Scootaloo mumbled, landing gracefully and propping the goggles on the top of her head. "Now scram, before anypony catches us." she haughtily smiled and shooed the pair off, then sauntered back into the clubhouse.
"Life is good," she sighed, sinking into a beanbag chair and closing her eyes.
Three days later, Rainbow Dash had invited Scootaloo to fly along side of her in Ghaslty Gorge, Quarray eels and all. The coral pegasus had responded with bright eyes and a bobbing head, not expecting anything that could- and would- go wrong.
Far from th Quarray eels, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash landed on the highest peak of the canyon. Scootaloo closed her eyes and listened contently to the soft breeze and gentle sound of flowing water. Her relaxing was cut short by drunken singing from somepony deep in Ghastly Gorge. The orange pegasus shot Rainbow a confused glance and leapt off the cliff, searching for the source. Soon she found a light blue mare stumbling around with a mug of deep cerulean liquid that shone and sloshed around in the cup.
"Niteny blotters of monshin on da wall, HIC! Niteny shezenty ther bolters of mon! Glub won don, poos it aroound, HIC! Eiht btullers of wheat on da well! HIC!" The mare was highly inebriated by the thick blush and the slightly crossed eyes she wore. The mare focused her vision on the two pegasi in front of her. "Aw, hyey, Celerster and Lune! Howsh it gogin? I'm Moonshine, a monshin berwer. Wat shome? HIC!" Moonshine had a dopey smile as she offered her mug of moonshine to the open space next to Rainbow Dash, but they were already gone and at a different cliff. Scootaloo thought she saw Quarray eels. Instead of worrying, she shrugged it off and flew forwards.
But when Scootaloo saw the dark-red serpents slowly sliding from hole to hole, her heart jumped to her throat and her mouth went dry. "A-are you sure that th-this is safe?" Scootaloo had to force the words out of her mouth as she trembled hopelessly next to a gleeful Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah! Me and the tank always weave through the old Quarries!" she paused, looking out into the seemingly endless gorge. "you just fly between them and... Try not to get killed!"
Scootaloo felt sick. She stood tensed and alert, trepid and fearful, and the particular eel that was glaring right at her with a single maroon eye wasn't helping at all.
Rainbow Dash took to the air, motioning for the coral pegasus to do the same. As the two ponies glided through Ghastly Gorge, they started out slowly, meandering and bouncing along beside each other on drafts of warm air. The stress melted out of Scootaloo, thinking that maybe they would avoid the Quarray Eels altogether. But as they got closer and closer to the Quarray Eels, slowly picking up their pace, her muscles became taught again and her flying faultered as she drifted next to her mentor. And soon enough, they were flying at dizzying speeds, testing each other's flying abilities. Dash would inch towards the starboard, Scootaloo would drift to port. Within moments, they were but a few meters away from the Quarray eels and closing the gap.
"Here we go, squirt!!" Rainbow Dash shouted, flying directly through the slithering mass of red eels. With out any hesitation, she had shot through the Quarray Eels and was hovering triumphantly on the other side.
Scootaloo had two options. Fly through quickly, prove she wasn't a chicken, and run the risk of getting killed, or stop right there, fly slowly, prove she wasn't all Rainbow Dash thought she was. The coral pegasus took a deep breath and beat her wings as hard as she could.
Nope. Too late. Scootaloo tried to stop mid-flight, but the Quarray's jaws were already closed around her wiry frame, crunching at the hollow bones in her wings and twisting them this way and that like a piece of thick taffy.
Her highpitched screams filled the deep canyon. The pain around her wings and chest was unbearable. She felt excruciatingly dizzy, as if she had been around on the carousel in Ponyville a million times then backwards.
In an instant, her wings went numb, and red washed over her vision.
She heard Rainbow Dash's furious shrieking, and suddenly the pressure on her midsection was lifted.
"Buckbuckbuckbuuck, what do I do... Buck..." that's the last thing Scootaloo heard before everything went black and she passed out.
_-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-_
When Scootaloo woke up, her ears were filled with the steady beeping of a pulse-monitor and her nostrils were clogged with the smell of cleaning alcohol. Her back felt like it wasn't there, and her ribcage rattled with every shallow breath.
When the coral filly finally decided to open her groggy eyes, she could see bandages latticed across her rising and falling chest. The beeping quickened as she realized where she was.
Instead of crying for help, all she did was screech a earsplitting shriek and hide her face in her hooves.
After screaming, her chest felt as if someone had dug rusty scalpels into her lungs and were twisting them around. Scootaloo coughed and gagged, only inflicting more pain.
"Ah, Scootaloo," a starchy voice mused, accompanied with smaller twitters of worry. "you've woken up." the lanky, beige stallion that was standing infront of her hospital bed pulled out a plastic clipboard and began to scribble something down. "you've been in a coma for nearly a week now, and your wings- or what's left of them -are finally starting to heal."
"My- rest of- wings..." she echoed, terrified of what she had just heard. With a tentative hoof, she reached back and felt the two, slightly feathered stumps that sat lazily on the filly's back. She belted out another scream and hurled one of her pillows at the nonchalant stallion.
"Scootaloo, you must learn to adapt..."
"B-BUT I DON'T WANT TO LEARN TO ADAPT!! I WANT MY WINGS BACK!!!" After she had howled her displeasure at the surprised doctor, she curled up into a small ball, as small as she could with the thick gauze bound around her middle. Silently scolding herself for acting so childish, she pulled the thin blanket over her head and shut her eyes tight, wishing she could just disappear.
"Stethescope!! You're scaring her!" a softer, more feminine voice chided from across the room. Scootaloo could hear the gentle clop of hooves against the linoleum floor as she curled up tighter and folded the stumps of her wings to her body to make herself as small as possible.
"There, there, it'll be alright," the mare rested a careful hoof on the shaking filly's back. At first, Scootaloo flinched at the mare's soft cooing, but she slowly relaxed and was soon crawling out from under the sheet.
"Thatta girl," the mare sighed, brushing a tangled lock of mane from Scootaloo's face.
"I'm sorry..." Scootaloo hiccuped, rubbing her face with the back of her hoof.
"Why be sorry? You didn't do anything wrong!"
"Nurse Redheart? Stethescope? Special delivery! Metal wings, straight from Canterlot. Got a little tag on it. Signed it in rainbow ink, under the name Rainbow S- wait, that's a D-ash," a gruff voice grumbled. With a mechanical 'clank', there was a large basket with a pair of gleaming, steel wings.
Scootaloo's eyes brightened. "D-does this mean I could..."
"I suppose so!"
The coral pegasus' wide grin did all of the talking necessary.
Clack clack clack A month later, after many short surgeries and hospital visits, Scootaloo finally had two, shimmering metal wings transfixed to her back.
There they were, her and Rainbow Dash, standing on the edge of Grabby Gorge's slippery cliffs, all of Equestria watching them. A pod of excited Wonderbolts stood behind the two grinning mares, each with a separate story.
"Ready?" Rainbow Dash asked with determined eyes. With a flick of her neck, she pulled the top of her jersey over her head.
"Ready." Scootaloo did the same. With a deep breath from each and every pony in the audience, a pistol was fired and the two lead Wonderbolts dove off of the cliff.
This was truly the only way to fly for Scootaloo.
A/N: Woo! Now wasn't that a train ride! This took me a couple of days to write, so I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it!
