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By Scootypuff

Scooting the Skies

        The wind lashed at her face as she raced across town. Scootaloo’s wings beat out a rapid rhythm as she zoomed across the market square, narrowly avoiding all the ponies bustling about on this busy day. She looked back to see one pony was waving her hoof at her angrily, but Scootaloo just grinned and kept going.

        She was late for class. Again. She had gotten carried away while playing with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders and completely lost track of the time. She’d have rather stayed and kept playing, but she had gotten into trouble already for skipping flight school too many times. It’s not that Ms. Glide was a bad teacher or anything, but Scootaloo just found the class… boring.

        She quickly braked her scooter as she arrived in the clearing where class was being held. All of the other students were already there, but there was no sign of Ms. Glide.

        “Is Ms. Glide here?” she asked, hoping she’d escaped another lecture on promptness.

        “Didn’t you hear?” said Lemon Drop. “Ms. Glide is out sick today.”

        “Really? Then why are all of you here?”

        “We have a substitute teacher today!” Trixiebelle yelled excitedly. “It’s gonna be so awesome!”

        “What do you mean?” asked Scootaloo. “I thought you liked Ms. Glide.”

        “I do, but our sub is, like, famous!”

        “Famous? Who is it?

        “She’s one of the best flyers in all of Equestria! Definitely the best in Ponyville!”

        “Who is it!?”

        “Rainbow Dash!”

        “Rainbow Dash? Is she really famous?”

        “Duh! She was just crowned the best young flyer!

        “And,” Lemon Drop added, “She’s the only one to ever do a Sonic Rainboom. I saw it myself! It was amazing!”

        “Wow, I didn’t realize Dash was so popular.” Scoot said.

        “What kind of pegasus doesn’t know Rainbow Dash?” Lemon Drop asked.

        “I know her, I just didn’t realize she was anything but… Rainbow Dash.”

        “Typical,” sneered Trixiebelle, “If you’d spent as much time practicing your flying as you do racing around on your little scooter maybe you’d be a little more up to date on the things real pegasi care about.”

        “I am a real pegasus! I-”

        Scoot was cut off as a shadow passed overhead, flying circles overhead as the young pegasi watched in awe. Quickly she fell into a dive, racing straight towards the gathered fillies at seemingly impossible speeds.

        “She’s gonna crash!” Mint Berry yelled out.

        Quickly she fell through the sky, until, at the very last moment she unfurled her wings and pulled up, raced a circle around the amazed girls, then landed gently in front of them.

        The girls stared at her in awed silence for what seemed like an eternity until Dash finally interrupted.

        “Hey girls! Who wants to fly?” she said. A raucous scream erupted from the clearly impressed young pegasi as they all pushed forward to get a closer look at the impressive aerial artist. Except for Scootaloo. She stayed back and watched while her classmates fawned over her.

        Only four of you? I thought Ponyville had a few more young pegasi than that?”

        “There’s five of us.” Trixiebelle said, pointing over towards Scoot, “You must have skipped over her. Don’t worry, she doesn’t even know who you are.”

        “Who?” Dash looked where she was pointing. “Oh! Hey Scootaloo! I didn’t know you were in this class!”

        “Oh, yeah…” Scoot mumbled, a slight blush coming to her face. The other girls looked back at her with their mouths agape.

        “You know her?” Lemon Drop asked Dash.

        “Sure! She’s my friend’s little sister’s friend!”

        “What?”

        Dash Rolled her eyes. “Yes… I know her. Anyways, let’s get started! Who wants to go first?” All of the hooves but Scoot’s shot up in the air immediately. “How about… you?” Dash said, pointing at the young white filly.

        “Who… me?” She said, looking confused.

        “Sure, why not?”

        “Um… you may not want to start with her.” Lemon Drop said. “She’s… uh…”

        “She’ll be fine. What’s your name, kid?”

        The little white pony stepped forward, stumbling slightly. “My name is Whoopsie Doo, Ms. Dash.”

        A startled look briefly crossed Dash’s face. “Doo? As in… Ditzy?”

        “That’s my mom!” she said excitedly.

        “Oh… well… let’s see what you can do then, Whoopsie.”

        Whoopsie took to the air, never getting much height. She tried to do a barrel roll at one point, but ended up flipping over and crashing onto her back. After her turn, Lemon Drop went, being able to manage a better height and speed than Whoopsie, but didn’t really try to do any tricks. Trixiebelle had a similarly steady performance next. After her Mint Berry strutted her stuff, being able to go higher and faster than any of the others. She even managed to do a fairly impressive flip. Next it was Scootaloo’s turn.

        “Okay, Scoot. You’re up!”

        “No thanks.” she said.

        “No?”

        “Nope.”

        “Scootaloo never flies.” Lemon Drop said.

        “You mean she can’t fly.” Trixiebelle taunted.

        “I can too!” Scootaloo replied. “I just don’t want to.”

        “Come on, Scootaloo. I’ll bet you’ll do just fine!” Dash encouraged her.

        “I don’t want to! Flying is stupid!”

        “I’m sorry,” Dash said, clearly annoyed. “What did you just say?”

        “I don’t want to fly! What’s the point?”

        “What’s the point? What’s the point? Flying is… it’s… It’s flying! There’s nothing like it!”

        “Well I’m glad you like it, but I don’t.”

        “But you’re a pegasus pony!”

        “So, that doesn’t mean I have to fly!”

        “Yes it does! All pegasus ponies fly!”

        “Listen,” Scootaloo said, “I just don’t want to fly. What’s wrong with that?”

        “Everything! Why don’t you want to fly? Are you afraid of heights?”

        “No.”

        “Afraid of going fast?”

        “Definitely no.”

        “Motion sickness?”

        “No.”

        “Restless Wing Syndrome?”

        “No.”

        “Avian flu?”

        “No! There’s nothing wrong with me, I just don’t like flying!”

        “Then something’s definitely wrong with you! How are you going to get around?”

        “I use my scooter.”

        “Scooter?”

        “Yeah. Check it out!” Scoot put her helmet back on and jumped onto her scooter, flapping her wings as fast as she could, tearing off across the field. She did a quick lap at top speed, then braked as hard as she could, stopping inches from Rainbow Dash, kicking up a cloud of dust which then coated the older pegasus. “I’d say that proves I’m not afraid of going fast, eh Dash?”

        Dash shook the dust off of herself. “Fine!” she shouted. “You got some speed on that little… toy of yours. But I’d like to see you do this!” She quickly took off straight into the air, shooting up several hundred feet before quickly turning around and diving straight back towards the ground, spiraling around as she did. Within inches of the ground she pulled up, turning into a short loop before landing on the ground right in front of Scoot. “Whatcha think of that, kid?”

        “Not bad. But check this out, grandma!”

        “Grandma!?” Dash yelled as Scoot took off down the clearing, straight towards the enormous oak tree that grew near the edge. As she raced towards it Dash began to panic, yelling out to her, “Scoot! Are you crazy? You’re gonna run into that tree!”

        But Scootaloo continued forward, oblivious to any of the other ponies in the field. She was only feet from the tree, and everyone braced themselves, expecting the foolhardy girl would surely crash into and hurt herself, but right as she got to its massive trunk she did a short ollie and planted her scooter against the trunk, flapping her wings wildly she began to race up the tree, never losing any momentum.

        She raced towards its peak as the other ponies looked on in amazement. Even Rainbow Dash’s jaw hung open. Scoot continued onward, nimbly guiding her little scooter through the branches that threatened to knock her violently back to the ground. In the thick foliage the spectators completely lost sight of the small pegasus, unsure of her fate. Suddenly they all let out a gasp as Scootaloo burst through the top of the brush, over the tree, followed closely by a massive swarm of leaves. Just as she started to lose her upwards momentum and began to fall she quickly spun around and reversed the beating of her itty bitty wings, creating a small vortex. The leaves all scattered around her suddenly shot towards her, sucked in by her flapping and sticking to her wings, one after another until they had formed a makeshift hang-glider. Grabbing the handlebars of her scooter in her mouth she began to glide down towards the awestruck group of ponies beneath her. She landed several feet in front of Dash and rolled the rest of the way on her scooter. As she came to a stop in front of her substitute teacher she flapped her little wings hard, flinging the leaves off of her, and covering Dash. “I’d say that proves I’m not afraid of heights.”

        Dash flapped her wings, scattering the leaves around her. A look of severe irritation on her face. “Okay, kid. That was pretty good. But I can think of something else you can’t do with your scooter.”

        “What’s that?”

        “Check it, shorty!” Dash took off like a bullet, disappearing into a gathering of clouds that hung overhead. The students all looked on expectantly, not sure what they were about to see. Suddenly the center of the clouds began to spin. It spun faster and faster until the cloud seemed to be sucked into it. Rainbow Dash burst out of the top of it, then quickly raced in circles just outside of it, spinning it even faster. The spinning clouds began to stretch out forming a small tornado in mid air. Dash dove down and pushed against the bottom tip of it, slowly pushing it around until she had flipped the whole thing upside down. She then took off away from the twister and sat in the air watching it for a moment. She took her time, being sure to make sure she had the timing and speed exactly right. Then she took off straight towards the mini cyclone, doing one more lap around it in the opposite direction it was spinning. The tornado came to a violent stop and burst into a massive spray of water, which then rained down on the young pegasi watching, drenching them all.

        Dash landed in front of a soaking wet Scootaloo. “Taste of your own medicine, eh Scoot?” Scoot just stared back at her while Dash laughed to herself. “I’d like to see you top that on a scooter!”

        Scoot only lowered her head. At seeing the little girl defeated Dash suddenly realized what she’d just done. Feeling ashamed of herself Dash said, “Listen Scootaloo, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go off like that. I mean… you’re pretty good on that scooter and-” Scootaloo suddenly began to laugh softly to herself. “What the hay? What’s so funny?”

        Scootaloo lifted her head, grinning widely at Dash. “Ooh… you blew up a cloud. Real impressive there Dash.”

        “Oh yeah? I’d like to see you beat that!”

        “Easily.”

        “What?”

        “Watch and learn, Rainbow Dash. Watch. And. Learn.” Scootaloo shot off again towards a different edge of the clearing. Again heading straight for a tree. This time none of the on looking ponies were all that worried that she’d hurt herself. This time, though, when she reached the tree she didn’t go up it. She began to spin around it. Quicker and quicker. Once she had gotten up to the speed she wanted, Scootaloo edged closer towards the trunk. The other watched on as the little pegasus spun around the tree at insane speeds, seeming to be a tiny orange blur. The little filly pressed even harder against the tree’s trunk until sawdust began to spray off of it. She kept spinning around the trunk as its base began to shrink. Soon it was little more than pencil thick and Scoot came to an abrupt stop next to it. She placed her hoof on it and gave it a light push, sending it tumbling down right towards Rainbow Dash. Dash started to panic but the tree landed a foot short of her, right in a puddle caused by Dash’s previous trick, splashing her and covering her with mud and leaves and twigs.

        Scoot casually rolled up next to her. “So… I’d say a tree is a bit tougher than a cloud. Wouldn’t you agree, Dash?”

        Dash stared at Scoot speechlessly. Suddenly a commotion broke out behind her. The other girls from the class ran over to Scootaloo, yelling.

        “Scootaloo! That was amazing!” Trixiebelle exclaimed.

        “I have got to get my parents to buy me one of those scooters!” Lemon Drop yelled out. “Would you teach me to ride it?”

        “Uh… sure, Lemon Drop.” Scoot said, blushing slightly.

        “Wait just a minute!” Rainbow Dash yelled out. “We’re pegasi! We’re supposed to fly!”

        “But that scooter’s so cool! Who needs to fly?” Lemon Drop said.

        “Let’s settle this!”

        “Settle it? How?” Scootaloo asked.

        “You and me. Tomorrow. Right here. A race across Ponyville.”

        “Fine!”

        “See you tomorrow then!” Rainbow Dash took off and flew out of sight.

        “I guess class is dismissed, then.” Trixiebelle said.

By Scootypuff

Scooting the Skies part 2

        Word had spread across Ponyville about the race, and when Scootaloo showed up the next day she was shocked to see so many ponies had shown up to watch. Rainbow Dash landed right in front of the young pegasus.

        “Are you ready to settle this?” She said.

        “What exactly are we settling?”

        “That pegasi need to fly!”

        “Oh. I thought this was about how I totally kicked your flank yesterday.”

        “Did not!”

        “Well that sap behind your ears begs to differ!”

        “Sap?” dash brought her hoof up to her ear and began rubbing it hard. Scootaloo just laughed to herself and walked over to the starting line.

        “Alright ponies!” Pinkie called out from the megaphone in her balloon. “It’s almost time to start the race!”

        Rainbow Dash joined Scootaloo at the starting line and stretched out her wings. The grin on her face showed no sign of nervousness. She looked over to her diminutive rival and observed her putting on her helmet and stepping onto her small scooter. “You ready, kid?” Dash asked.

        “I was born ready.”

        “Are you ready race fans?” Pinkie Pie called out from her aerial perch. “Cause this is going to be a crazy one!”

        “That’s right Pinkie Pie” Spike said from his seat next to her. “Today’s race isn’t your typical pegasus flying race!”

        “It isn’t?”

        “No. Today’s race is going to be an obstacle course. The two ponies will have to race as fast as they can across Ponyville while weaving through and avoiding various obstacles.”

        “Wow! That’s amazing! I didn’t know that!”

        “Then why did you say it was going to be a crazy one?”

        “Because I forgot to take my medication!”

        “Right… well… anyways, to keep things fair for the younger pegasus Rainbow Dash is prohibited from flying more than fifty feet in the air, or flying over certain obstacles.”

        “What’s a feet?” Pinkie asked.

        “It’s like a hoof. Only squishier.”

        “That’s weird.”

        “I know. Oh! It looks like the race is about to begin!”

        Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo stood next to each other at the finish line, each of their eyes narrowed, waiting for the signal to start.

        “Ready!” Spike called out over his microphone. “Set!”

        Rainbow Dash looked over at Scootaloo. “Hey.”

        “What?” Scootaloo scowled back.

        “Good luck, Scoot.”

        “Scoot blushed, embarrassed at having snapped at Rainbow Dash like that, but shook her head and returned her focus back to the race.

        “Go!” Pinkie Pie called out.

        “Hey!” Spike said. “I was gonna say that!”

        Dash and Scoot tore off as fast as they could into Ponyville, following the markers placed for them. They stayed fairly even the whole way until the reached the first obstacle. Before them was a large, rapidly spinning wheel with holes cut into it. Since Dash wasn’t allowed to fly over it she darted into one of the quickly moving holes, making it through easily.

        Scootaloo was just behind her, aiming for a hole much closer to the ground. As she hopped through it though, one of her wheels got caught, causing her to tumble forward and crash. She looked up to see Rainbow Dash speeding away from her. Not wanting to give up she quickly grabbed her scooter and hopped back on, chasing after her.

        “Looks like Scootaloo didn’t make it through the wheel very well. I hope she’s not hurt.” Pinkie Pie said from overhead.

        “Well, it seems to have stalled her a bit, but her pace hasn’t slowed down at all. She is one determined little pony.”

        “And so adorable!”

        “Uh… yeah.”

        Dash looked back and saw that Scootaloo had fallen well behind her. While she was looking back, however, she came to the second obstacle. As she passed between two buildings she failed to notice the cannons placed on top of them. By the time she did notice them, it was too late, and an apple hit her right in the head, causing her to tumble to the ground.

        “Sorry Rainbow Dash.” Applejack called out from her seat atop the apple launcher. “Nothing personal.”

        Dash shook her head, trying to get standing again. Suddenly an orange blur flew by her, weaving in and out of the apples being launched her way. As Applejack and Big Mac tried to hit Scootaloo as she went past, they missed and once again knocked Rainbow Dash senseless in a pile of red and green apples.

        “Opps. Uh… sorry Dash.” Applejack said.

        “Eyup.” Big Mac said.

        Rainbow Dash did her best to recover quickly, shaking off the apple onslaught she received. She shakily took to the air again to pursue her scooter bound opponent.

        “Rainbow Dash sure got the worst of that one!” Spike said.

        “She sure did, Spike.” Pinkie replied. “I bet she wishes she was wearing a helmet, too!”

        “No doubt about it. So much for an apple a day keeping the doctor away.”

        Rainbow Dash charged forward, unsure of how much ground she had lost to Scootaloo. She reached the next obstacle, a maze of stone pillars jutting out of the ground close together, with barely enough room to weave through. As Dash made her way through the twisting stone spires she saw no sign that Scootaloo had been tripped up by it at all. She emerged outside the pillars on the outskirts of Ponyville, the rest of the race leading towards the rocky terrain of the nearby mountains.

        Having made it through the stone pillars Scootaloo knew she still had a good lead over Rainbow Dash. She raced onward at a breakneck pace until she reached the final obstacle. A narrow pathway revealed itself heading steadily down what was, at all other points, a sheer cliff. The narrow ramp had a rope fence on either side of it, but over head floated several heavy weighted bags, being held up by the magic of several unicorns. Scootaloo hesitates momentarily at the top of the ramp, but heads down. As she does so the heavy bags fly towards her.

        Rainbow Dash has almost caught up as she sees Scootaloo head down the ramp of the final obstacle. She pushes on after her trying to make up all of her lost ground. As she follows down the ramp she sees she has almost caught up with the young pegasus.

        “I’m not gonna let you win!” Rainbow Dash yells out.

        Scootaloo glances back a moment to see Dash catching up. She flaps her little wings as fast as she can, trying to maintain her slowly shrinking lead. As Dash Pulls up next to her a heavy bag swings towards her quickly, causing Dash to pull up and sacrifice some of her regained ground. The bag, however, was unnoticed by Scootaloo until it connected with her left side and knocked her off her scooter. And over the rope fence.

        Scootaloo felt a hard impact and her vision went black for a moment. She looked up and realized she was falling. A Panic set in and she flapped her tiny wings as fast as she could, trying for all she was worth to fly back up. But she couldn’t. Try as she might, Scootaloo could never fly. And so she fell.

        Rainbow Dash flew past, thankful of her good luck. When she looked back, though, she was horrified at what she saw. The little pegasus was flapping her wings for all she was worth, but she was falling down the cliff side.

        “Scootaloo!” Dash dove after the young filly.

        As Scootaloo was falling she could almost hear Rainbow Dash calling her name. Her vision was still fuzzy but she saw a blueish blur fly past her. Suddenly the walls seemed to stop flying by and she could feel herself being lifted. She looked up and saw Rainbow Dash’s face looking back at her. Dash set her back up on the stone pathway.

        “I thought you said you could fly!” Dash yelled.

        “I can’t, okay!” Scootaloo looked over the edge to the stone floor below. At the bottom she saw a tragic sight. The wreckage of her scooter was strewn across the ground. “My scooter…” she said, tears forming in her eyes.

        “Hey, don’t worry about it. We can get you a new one.”

        “But…” Scootaloo began crying. She grabbed onto Rainbow Dash and began sobbing in her arms.

        “Maybe… maybe we can fix that one. It’ll be alright, Scoot.”

        “Thank you!” she sobbed. “Thank you for saving me.”

        “Of course. I’m not gonna sit back and let a friend of mine fall.”

        Scootaloo looked back over the edge at her scooter. “I guess you win the race.”

        “Tell you what, Scootaloo. You let me teach you how to fly, and we call it a tie. How does that sound?”

        “That sounds great Dash. But I still prefer my scooter. Or I did.”

        “I can see why! You rock on that thing!”

        “That sure was an amazing race, huh Pinkie Pie?” Spike said from the balloon.

        “It sure was Spike. I can’t stop jumping up and down, I’m so excited!”

        “Well, to be fair Pinkie, you rarely sit still anyways.”

        Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo ran together to the finish line. Where they were greeted by all the cheering ponies.

        “Great job, ponies!” Twilight exclaimed.

        “Thanks Twilight.” Scootaloo said. “I kinda wish we had gotten to finish, though.”

        “Do you think you’d have ended up winning, Scootaloo?”

        “Are you kidding?” Rainbow Dash said, “She’d definitely have had a good shot at it! I’ve never seen anyone move that fast without flying before! She’s amazing on that scooter.”

        “Thanks Dash!” Scootaloo said, grinning up at the older pegasus.

        “Sounds like you two sure learned a lot today.”

        “I know I did” Dash said.

        Dear Princess Celestia,

        Today I learned that, even though someone has a different way of doing things than you do, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wrong. You should be willing to listen to new ideas, and most importantly, accept when someone else has a different view than you do. Just because something works for you, doesn’t mean it will work for them, too.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle