I Always Wanted to be Like You – Part 6 – Happy Ending
Authors note: Keep in mind that ponies don’t live as long as humans. A year of training to them, is about five years of training to us.
The day of the competition had finally come. One way or another, this was the day to determine how the rest of her life would play out. Her nervousness had hit a peak. She climbed out of bed and promptly ran to the bathroom and threw up. When she eventually exited the bathroom, Jecht was standing near the door, looking faint.
‘Feel better?’ she asked gently
‘A bit…’ she said, finding her voice weak.
Jecht walked into the bathroom and closed the door, then met Scootaloo at the breakfast table five minutes later.
‘Do you think you could eat anything?’ asked Scootaloo
‘Probably not… Better try anyway. What about you?’
‘Yeah, I suppose’ conceded Scootaloo. She headed over to the cupboard and grabbed a couple of carrots.
‘Do we have anything lighter?’ asked Jecht
‘Nothing but cloudwater and hay’ Said Scootaloo
‘Well, alright, then.’ Said Jecht, taking one of the carrots. She only ended up eating half of it before her father came down the stairs and into the kitchen.
‘Good morning, girls. Wow, the tension in here is thick enough to cut with a knife!’ he said, emphasising with a cutting motion of his hoof.
‘Oh, come now, it’s just a joke’ he said after noticing the looks on their faces.
‘What’s up? Can I help? You know I’m here if you need me. Either of you.’
‘No, dad. Just… I’m worried. We both are. This is a huge point in our lives. We… We’re worried.’ Said Jecht
‘Well, I’d say don’t, but… I dunno. Do your best and I’m sure everything will work out fine. Would it help if I said I was cheering for you? I’d cheer for you over my own sister. Both of you. My daughters are the most important thing in my life.’
‘Thank you… Dad…’ said Scootaloo.
Jecht’s father was taken aback. He treated her like a daughter of his own, and even sometimes called her his daughter, but she had never called him dad… not even ‘father’. He suddenly trotted over and pulled them both to himself in a hug.
His wife came in just as they all broke apart. She had been standing just beyond the doorway, listening. She trotted over to her husband and leant against him. She had never been more proud of him, or of her daughter. She also considered Scootaloo to be family, even if not blood.
The two girls didn’t eat anything else, and so they left while their parents were eating breakfast.
When they arrived at the aerodrome, their coach was waiting for them.
‘This is it. You’re probably the youngest fillies… no, the youngest mares to have ever been given a chance to compete against the Wonderbolts. Remember your training and you’ll do fine. Heck, I think you might be able to win.’ He said in his rough voice. This in and of itself wasn’t too praising, but coming from such a stern coach, it meant more to them than anything said to them all day.
‘Thanks, coach. We’ll try our best.’ Said Jecht
‘No, not your best. Do harder! Remember your training! 110%!’ he said, his voice louder than necessary. ‘Err, give it all you’ve got’ he said, lowering his voice again.
‘We will. I promise.’ For Rainbow Dash. Thought Scootaloo
‘The Wonderbolts are already here. They arrived sometime last night in an attempt to avoid the crowds. It would have worked, but Spitfires hair can be seen from a mile away. Don’t get sidetracked, Jecht.’ He said.
‘I was given a chance against them, once. I blew it. I was neck in neck with your father, but he sprinted to the finish before me. From that day forth, I’ve cut my mane twice a day. Without it, I would have won.’ He said, eyes glazing over as he recalled the memories.
‘Well, here’s the run-down. The first competition is going to be aerobatics. You have fifteen minutes to show your stuff before they mark you. That barely counts for anything. The real points come from the races. There’s one race, circuit, with thirty laps, then there’s another, where you just have to fly your hardest for the finish line and the fastest pony wins. No special moves, no agility, no flexibility, just pure, unbridled speed. Remember, that’s where you leave your mark. The Wonderbolts are fancy fliers, but they are nowhere near the fastest. Watch out for foal play and fly your best. Make me proud, girls.’ He said, then turned and flew off to the grandstand.
Training. Warm up. ‘C’mon, Jecht. We need to warm up our wings.’ Said Scootaloo.
They spent the next 20 minutes doing mid-speed laps of the aerodrome, so as to not lose much energy, followed by 15 minutes of fancy-flying. Their moves weren’t perfect, but they were acceptable. By the time they finished the warm-up, other ponies began to fill the seats of the aerodrome. Every so often they would hear a cheer for the two Pegasus-ponies who had just finished their warm-up.
After going and sitting on a bench off to the side of the stadium, they noticed a strange pink balloon. The saw it through one of the high windows, and it was coming closer and closer to the stadium. Just as they were sure it would hit the window, a purple glow came across the balloon and a glowing rope tied itself to the cloud wall, then several earth-ponies and unicorns climbed out.
That shouldn’t be possible… only Pegasus-ponies can walk on cloud… thought Jecht.
‘That would be Twilight. She has a spell to let earth-ponies and unicorns walk on clouds, but I’ve never seen her use it before’ said Scootaloo, almost reading Jecht’s mind.
‘Oh. Right. She must be talented to do a spell like that. I’ve never heard of it before!’
‘Yeah. She’s the student of Celestia herself, but she lives in a library in Ponyville, last I heard. She’s a friend of Rainbow Dash.’ Said Scootaloo, looking downcast.
‘Well, maybe we should go and talk to them’ said Jecht, wanting to cheer up her friend. ‘come on, Scoot’.
They flew over and noticed that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had come with them. Twilight was double, and probably triple checking her knot to make sure the balloon didn’t blow away, while Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Spike all took seats in the cloud grandstand.
‘Well, these seats are simply marvellously soft, if a little crude to the eye. I say, Applejack will be sorry she missed out on th- *gasp* Scootaloo! Just the mare we’re here to see! And I see you brought your friend, too. Uhh… Terribly sorry, dear, but your name has slipped my mind’ said rarity all at once with a regal tone.
‘It’s Jecht. I think we met once… You run a boutique in Ponyville?’
‘And she remembers me! Oh, you are a charmer,’ said Rarity, obviously flattering her. ‘I think you made the right choice in friends, Scootaloo’
‘Yeah. So do I’ she said, looking over at Jecht.
After a moment, Twilight came over. ‘Well, I see the spell worked okay, and my knot looks fine. Scootaloo! Hi, how are you? Are you ready for the race?’ she asked, offering a hoof.
‘I think so, but I still have butterflies in my stomach’ she said, shaking her hoof. She glanced at the grandstand which was nearly full, despite the last-minute seats being added to it and her stomach gave a lurch.
‘I might have a spell to calm your nerves,’ said Twilight, ‘but the judges might count that as cheating… sorry, Scootaloo’.
‘Thanks anyway, Twilight. I wouldn’t want the spell even if you could do it… This is for Rainbow. I need to do it on my own energy.’
‘For Rainbow’ piped up Spike
‘For Rainbow!’ cheered the rest of the ponies there.
‘We’ll be watching.’ Said Sweetie Belle, sitting next to her sister.
‘Yer gonna win, Scootaloo! The Crusaders are right behind you. We’ll be cheerin’ for ya!’ said Applebloom.
‘I guess, um, just do your best and, uh, have fun?’ said Fluttershy quietly. ‘That is, if you want to…’
‘Who wouldn’t want to have fun?? Fun is the most fun a pony can have! It can be even more fun if there’s a party and *gasp* when you win we’ll throw you a party! And everypony here can come and all of Ponyville will surely turn up to congratulate you! They would be here, but it would have been too much work for Twilight to do and-‘
‘Pinkie, I think she gets it.’ Interrupted Twilight
‘Oh, yeah, I guess. Just go out and have FUN!’ she pretty much yelled, with a few heads turning in nearby seats.
‘We will, Pinkie’ said Scootaloo.
‘You can count on it! I’ll have enough fun for the both of us, at any rate!’ said Jecht.
Pinkie’s face lit up and she grinned ear to ear. ‘That’s what I like to hear! Give it all you’ve got!’
As they flew back to their bench on the side of the stadium, Jecht spoke to her. ‘Is she always like that?’
‘From what I remember, yeah. She actually seems to have calmed down a bit, but she hasn’t matured since I left’ said Scootaloo.
‘Hey, look. It’s dad’ said Jecht, pointing with a hoof to a seat fairly close to the bottom row. ‘Mom’s with him.’
‘Should we go and say hi? Actually, no. There are too many people around… Maybe just wave’ said Scootaloo, raising a hoof to wave to them.
Jecht waved too, and they saw her mother excitedly say something to her husband.
‘Probably just stating that we waved.’ Said Jecht. ‘Hey, look over there!’
The Wonderbolts suddenly flew in from the roof. Scootaloo didn’t see them come in, but there were four of them flying in circles around the aerodrome. The crowd quickly turned their heads skyward and collectively cheered a deafening bellow to announce the arrival of the Wonderbolts.
Scootaloo immediately took off. Jecht didn’t know what she was doing, but she quickly followed. Her auntie was there. Spitfire ignored Jecht as she flew close behind another Wonderbolt. Scootaloo grabbed Jecht’s hoof, and turned straight up. Without a word passing between them, Jecht knew this was the Skyward Barrel Roll. They held each other’s front hooves as they spun rapidly toward the ceiling, then mere inches from hitting it, broke apart and spun together back down toward the floor, leaving interwoven blue and purple streams behind.
The crowd cheered even louder.
They broke apart again and immediately flew to opposing sides of the stadium, then, without stopping, flew straight at each other. Half the distance to centre-stage, they began to roll in the air, then Scootaloo went down and Jecht went up. They finished their move by flying in a fast circle around each other, then toward each other one final time, and slamming their hooves together, floating in mid-air for a second, then gliding to the floor.
The cheering from the crowd reached its peak as the two descended. They noticed that the Wonderbolts had landed and were watching with interest. When they touched down, panting slightly, the voice of their coach came over a loud-speaker.
‘Well, wasn’t that something? Who’s looking forward to the show we have on today?’ he asked.
The crowd cheered their approval.
‘I thought as much. Today, we have a competition between the world-famous Wonderbolts-‘ he paused for a cheer- ‘and Cloudsdale’s very own Scootaloo and Jecht’ he finished, with another cheer going up.
‘These two have been training together for more than a year now, but will a mere year’s training be enough for them to take on the Wonderbolts?’ he asked. The crowd responded with a mix of cheering and booing. This made Scootaloo feel far worse, after they had been cheering for her and Jecht but a moment ago.
‘The first competition will be in skilful flying. The Wonderbolts will send out two competitors, followed by Scootaloo and Jecht. There is a group of judges for this, but it points will also be awarded for the biggest cheer, so get those lungs ready!’ he said as the crowd roared.
A colt with a dark blue mane and a mare with an electric yellow one flew to the centre of the stadium.
‘And it looks like they’ve sent out Soarin and Shockwave; an unusual combination for any competition. It looks like we may see some new moves, everypony!’ said the voice over the loudspeaker, and the crowd shouted their approval.
‘Their fifteen minutes begins as soon as they take off’ he said. Suddenly, numbers appeared on either side of the stadium. 15:00, they read.
They muttered a few words to each other, then trotted to opposing sides of the stadium. Suddenly they began to gallop toward each other, and a mere two yards from each other, jumped into the air and gave each other a high-hoof while taking off.
‘And there they go! They’re picking up speed and getting ready for their first trick!’ shouted the coach, barely audible over the din of the crowd.
They flew hard and fast around the stadium, to the top, then angled toward each other, letting out a stream of thundercloud. As they spiralled toward each other, the cloud shape behind them remained, and then they cut off the stream when they reached each other. Shockwave flew down and Soarin flew up above the shape, and they both began madly flapping to spin the shape. As it spun faster and faster, it began to strike lightning more and more until it was a glowing, swirling spiral.
12:47
Soarin flew around it and toward the centre. Shockwave attached a stream-cloud to the point in the spiral where the two other streams connected, and flew half way to the floor. Soarin reached her and started a stream from this one, going a short way out and around, to meet back up where he began in a three-yard wide circle. Shockwave made two more of these, all connecting at the top and bottom, so there was a circular cage. Soarin flew into the rotating cage and began to fan it to spin the other way. It stopped moving while the spiral continued to spin, and the distance between spiral and cage began to shorten as the stream connecting them tightened and spun.
When the two were half the distance from each other as they had been, he quickly flew out and away as the cage began to spin rapidly. It rotated so fast, nopony could see through it, but it lit up in a small rainbow as thunder crackled inside it.
It’s too small… the rainbow cage always looks better than this! Thought Shockwave to herself. Well, she thought, if there’s one thing I know; it’s how to play with thunder.
9:42
She quickly waved Soarin away, who looked confused as to why it wasn’t working as it should, and she flew toward it. She positioned herself directly below the cage and bucked at the point that the three tings all came together at the bottom.
There was a deafening boom that even drowned out the noise of the crowd for a moment, and the entire structure flashed. Electricity raced out from the point that Shockwave had kicked it, and shot out along the spiral.
Not what I had in mind, but it worked nonetheless. Thought Shockwave
When did she learn that? Thought Soarin
Something went wrong. The thunder doubled back. It was racing back along the spiral with more intensity than the first shock. Before it reached the cage again, Shockwave bucked a chunk out of the tether between the cage and the spiral. The cage began to fall, still spinning, and the lightning travelled closer to the missing bit of tether.
8:01
I have no idea what’s going to happen. Maybe we should have started with something easier! Oh no! thought Shockwave.
She flew away from the structure as fast as she could, just as thunder boomed and struck out from the missing piece of tether. It flew in all directions, barely missing the Wonderbolts in the air, but hitting the other end of the tether, connected to the now falling cage.
The light pulsated along the cage faster and faster as it lit up and flashed out a rainbow.
Oh, now you work, you useless bucking light ball thought Shockwave.
Then the cage hit the ground and exploded. Lightning flared everywhere. The ball had charged as it was falling, and the thunder spraying from it was four times the energy that had been put in with the buck, despite the amount lost when travelling between tethers.
The thunder shocks didn’t make it to the crowd; however they did hit Soarin, who had been hovering nearby. He fell to the stage floor, smoking, and unconscious. The crowd collectively gasped as Shockwave flew to help her fallen comrade.
‘Well, I think we might have to call this show early and get Soarin to a medic.’ Said the coach.
The timer stopped on 6:52 and three white Pegasus ponies flew from a corridor leading away from the stage toward the fallen pony. They checked his pulse, and one checked for breathing with a stethoscope, then the four gathered him up and flew back down the corridor with Soarin between them.
‘We will be taking a short, twenty minute break while the Weather Patrol gets cleans up the stage. Feel free to make use of the canteen in the lobby.’
The coach flew out of the main box and down to the stage. He trotted over to Scootaloo and Jecht who were still frozen in shock.
‘Well… You’re sure to win now, eh?’ he said
‘Soarin… Shockwave… He…’ stammered Jecht
‘He’ll be fine. He’s probably just in shock, that’s all. Err, excuse the pun.’ He said
Scootaloo snapped out of it, but Jecht still stared at the spot he had fallen, mouth agape. ‘If you say so, but… that looked serious…’
‘Don’t worry. I know for a fact that he’s had worse. I was there when he slammed into a pole once. He tried to fly through a column of cloud as a stunt, but some prankster had simply covered a pole with clouds and said it was a column. He broke his nose, had a concussion, and was unconscious for a day and a half. The lightning shock will have him twitchy for a few hours, but he’ll be fine’ he said with a malicious laugh. ‘I probably should have told him not to fly at the column of cloud so fast, but it must have slipped my mind. You should probably use this break to perfect your routine, eh?’
‘Yeah… we’ll just do that…’ said Jecht, somewhat coming out of her trance.
As he flew away down the corridor the medics had flown through a few minutes ago, Scootaloo turned to Jecht.
‘We’re ready. This will be easy. We don’t have any cloud-streams, but we do have our skill and our speed. This is what a year of training boils down to. We can do this.’ She said.
‘Yes. We have to. For us, for Cloudsdale, and for Rainbow Dash.’ Said Jecht. Scootaloo was somewhat surprised that her friend had remembered Rainbow Dash as a main source of inspiration, but shook it off as they moved out to the stage to go through their routine. They went through the moves in their minds, verbalising what order to do them, and slowly flying around to practise the more difficult parts. They landed as the stands began to fill again.
‘The good thing is that nothing like that can go wrong, haha!’ said Jecht, returning to her normal vigour. ‘Our act relies on skill, not tricks of light and clouds.’
‘Right. We will win this. They will accept us. By the end of the day, we will be Wonderbolts!’
---
Rainbow Dash stirred. She had nearly fallen asleep again, but Applejack kept telling her not to. Whenever she laid her head down to sleep, Applejack would tell her not to go. She would say to come back to her.
‘But, Applejack, I’m tired!’ whined Rainbow Dash. Applejack didn’t respond. She looked at Rainbow Dash with longing and care in her eyes.
‘Fine.’ She said. She felt like something was going on, anyway.
In much the same way Pinkie could tell if there was a party nearby, or Twilight could tell if there was a new book to read, Rainbow could sense when a race was going down. She could feel her mane tingle.
Her mane was tingling right now. She had the occasional twitch on the nape of her neck every couple of days, followed by an image of Scootaloo looking happy with a strange blue pony, but not like this. Her whole mane was brimming with energy, as though she could shock someone just by looking at them.
She had quickly learned her way around this Cloudsdale. It seemed small, though she didn’t know why, as it was all she had ever known. A new building had appeared. It didn’t just spring up in front of her, but she had turned around and it had just been there. The building was made of fluffy white cloud, and was about 20 yards across, and 15 yards high. She walked through an open archway, which sealed behind her. Applejack hadn’t come in with her. She was alone.
Just as she began to worry and look for an exit, the opposite wall lit up. She saw Scootaloo and another strange, blue mare on it. The picture was big. If only I could move back to see better. The picture’s way too big to see from here she thought. Just then, the screen shrank until it was about a yard across. Dash sat down in front of it and watched.
She saw Scootaloo talking to her friend. She couldn’t hear what they were saying over a crowd cheering. Off behind the two mares, she could see a crowd. Right then, a voice cut across everything.
---
‘We apologise for the delay, and assure you that Soarin will be fine! He is already conscious again, we have simply had to restrain him. He seemed to want to cause as much damage to Shockwave as he could in the smallest amount of time possible’ he joked. A few members of the crowd laughed, but others whispered to each other about whether he was really okay, and just how much ‘damage’ he had caused Shockwave before being restrained.
‘Same rules as before. Your 15 minutes’ he said as 15:00 appeared on the timer ‘starts as soon as you leave the ground.’
They glanced to each other and nodded before returning to their saddlebags. If the Wonderbolts could use tricks of the eye, so could they. They each grabbed a small bag full of grey powder and tied it to their necks. This was the same gunpowder Pinkie used in her party cannon. They each powdered their inside hooves and sparked a high-hoof while taking off. They flew to opposing ends of the arena and spun together. After powdering their hooves lightly again, they clicked their hooves together in a near-collision and a blue-and-purple flash came out from between them; the crowd ‘ooh’ed and ‘aah’ed all the while.
Ouch, I don’t think we can do too many of them... thought Scootaloo, looking at her already blackened hooves.
She did a single barrel roll to signal the next move to Jecht and they both flew to the top of the arena, and began to spin in a loose spiral to the centre. As soon as they came together, they sparked their iron horseshoes together and lit the gunpowder. Both darted away from the burning gunpowder as a rainbow flame began to shoot along the airborn structure. Some of the gunpowder was missed while falling, but ignited as soon as it hit the stadium floor.
12:13
Enough flashes. We need to get to some skill-moves thought Scootaloo
She began barrel rolling in a loop to the centre, Jecht a mirror image of her. When they came together, each pushed off the other’s hooves, Jecht flying down and Scootaloo flying up. The crowd cheered. Scootaloo closed her wings and Jecht flew up above, then just as Scootaloo was about to hit the floor, Jecht caught her and threw her up, adding a gust of wind from below to lift her. They flew up together, all four hooves toughing each others, and the crowd cheered more. Flying vertically was difficult at the best of times, but one slip-up here and they could well kick the other out of the sky.
When they both neared the top of the stadium, they spun out to face opposite directions, each holding the other’s left hoof. They held their wings straight and spiral-glided down together, before beginning to do more barrel rolls. The crowd was beginning to lower their racket, but were still cheering heartily.
‘We’re losing them, Scoot!’ shouted Jecht over the wind in her ears
‘Let’s get up some speed!’ shouted Scootaloo
Jecht nodded and flew out, doing fast circles of the track. Scootaloo did the same. After a mere lap, they both began to let out slipstreams of blue and purple. They flew straight at each other and pulled up to slam their hooves together, then kick off and do more jetstream loops around each other. The mix of purple and blue was creating brown wherever it crossed over, the effect being a multi-coloured cage similar to that made of cloud that the Wonderbolts had.
7:23
---
Dash continued to watch the screen as Scootaloo and that strange, yet familiar pony did their aerial tricks. Every time the crowd cheered, she felt more energised; but when they slowed their cheering, she felt tired again…
Strange… it’s almost as though… I need her to win.
They began to circle each-other, multi-coloured streams coming together, making rainbow flashes again. When Dash leaned closer to the screen, she noticed their hooves were smoking and Scootaloo was beginning to wince in pain.
The timer was quickly ticking down as the two continued to make rounded shapes with their streams. First they made yet another spiral, then a flower with a purple stem, and then a 3D ball.
The two seemed to be putting on more speed again, and a white cone began to encircle either of them. They began to make more complex shapes, and their slipstreams took far longer to disperse, now. They made a 3D ball within another ball, purple within blue, then cut through them and made a cube by making sharp, 90 degree turns at the corners. Dash couldn’t be more proud of Scootaloo right then. Dash herself had spent the better part of a year trying to perfect that move alone. She couldn’t have chosen a better protégé.
---
The coach’s voice rang out over the din of the crowd, ‘That is a difficult move to do! Only the best fliers in Equestria can make such sharp turns while flying so fast! One slip and it’s all over’.
3:22
Their time was nearly up, but their moves were running out faster. Each had half a bag of gunpowder left, but that was needed for the final move. The last move they had left before the finale was the Helicyclone. They flew together and linked tails, then turned slightly to opposite sides and spun. They didn’t rise, or lower, they just spun. After a few moments, the wind began to pick up and the crowd went nearly silent with anticipation for what was coming.
They held the cyclone for a moment, then broke away from each other and flew up and down it in circled. The spinning wind began to turn orange and blue, with streaks of purple and yellow. Scootaloo up top and Jecht down the bottom, they began to lead the cyclone into a circle. After 20 seconds or so of pushing, they had it spinning around in a circle shape. They had to keep constant pressure to it, else the whole structure would crumble and spin out of control.
‘Wow! I have never seen anything like this before, folks, and I’ve been doing this for a long time!’
The crowd cheered their support for such a strange move.
2:09
The roaring of the crowd mixed with the wind was too loud. Scootaloo had no chance of communicating to Jecht with words. She waved her arms for attention then pointed to the bag around her neck. Jecht understood. They both poured the remaining powder out of the bags and into the round cyclone. When the cyclone was completely visible with grey dust, they braced themselves and Jecht clicked her front hooves together.
Everything seemed to slow down. Scootaloo saw the spark in front of Jecht, followed by the ignition of nearby dust. There was too much, she wouldn’t escape the blast. Jecht turned and flew as fast as she could, but the fire was gaining on her. The crows collectively gasped as the rainbow fire chased Jecht away from the point of origin.
Scootaloo took off. The world was moving in slow motion, but she was going normal speed. She didn’t seem to be able to go any faster than a light run. She pushed and pushed, but there was some sort of barrier blocking her way to get to her friend.
Fire nipped at Jecht’s tail, and Jecht turned to get one last look at her friend, her love, before she was engulfed.
That look in her eyes. That look of absolute desperation, followed by acceptance of death was what did it. Scootaloo gave an almighty flap of her wings, and the barrier disappeared. She was rocketing towards Jecht faster than she had ever moved before. The fire seemed to stop completely as she wrapped her forelegs around Jecht and continued to fly away. When they reached the other side of the stadium, Scootaloo looked back. The rainbow fire was gone, and in its place was a wave of rainbow light, followed by an almighty boom. She had broken the sound barrier, and she had produced a sonic rainboom.
---
Rainbow watched in awe. She had been the only one to ever produce a sonic rainboom. She actually didn’t think it was possibly for anypony else to. She was the fastest. She had all the rainbow power to do it, nopony else!
But there, on this screen, Scootaloo had done it. She had produced what Rainbow Dash only ever had by accident. She suddenly felt more alive than ever before. She absolutely leapt in the air, cheering as loud as she could for her student and protégé, before finally settling back down on her haunches.
---
Applejack watched in awe. The heart monitor was beeping faster and faster while Rainbow Dash moved. It was only a twitch, but it was something. Her front hoof had twitched, f only by half an inch, and she had exhaled. The heart monitor continued to rise more and more, as she galloped out to get a nurse.
---
Scootaloo was losing speed. She didn’t dare to let go of Jecht, nor to land, until she was going slower. Her jetstream caught up with her and disappeared, then she landed away from the crowd just as the timer reached 0:00.
She put Jecht down and fell back onto her haunches, exhausted, just as Jecht dived on top of her. Before she knew it, Jecht had her muzzle placed firmly to Scootaloo’s own, and was holding her as though she never wanted to let go. Scootaloo stopped struggling and they broke apart as th crowd continued to cheer.
‘Scoot…’ was all Jecht managed to say, before being hug-tackled by Scootaloo. Tears in both their eyes, they both said the same thing. ‘I thought I’d lost you.’
They didn’t break apart until they heard a nose being blown loudly. ‘It’s just, *sniff*, such a happy moment!’ Pinkie continued to sob and blew her nose again before offering the hankie to Rarity.
‘Err, no. I think it best if you keep it, dearie.’ Said Rarity
‘That was some of the best flying I’ve ever seen, squirt.’ Said a husky voice from behind. ‘might even be good enough for you to join us.’
Scootaloo and Jecht turned as one to face a mare in a blue suit, only recognisable by her flaming orange hair.
‘Spitfire! I- we- I mean- it’s stammered Scootaloo
‘It’s alright, calm down. Don’t get your tail in a twist. That was actually incredible. Your name’s Scootaloo, right?’
‘Y-yeah’
‘I think I speak for the rest of the team when I say that we’d be happy to have you with us.’ Said Spitfire.
‘But… what about Jecht? She’s just as good as I am… better in fact…’ she mumbled
‘I’d have to actually ask Soarin about that, but maybe. I didn’t see anything too spectacular from her’ she said, refusing to make eye contact with her niece.
‘Well I think maybe you should. I never would have made it this far without her, and I won’t go any further unless she can come with me.’
If Spitfire was surprised at how she had turned down the offer for her friend, she didn’t show it. She simply turned to go confer with Soarin, who was still jittery, and said ‘Make up your mind right now. We’re heading back to Canterlot by sundown.’
Jecht turned to Scootaloo. ‘Scoot… I know how much this means to you. You need to do this. Do it for yourself and do it for Dash… She… I… I can try again some other time. Heck, with you already one of them I might have a better chance of getting voted in!’
‘No way. We do this together. After today, I never want to be parted from you ever again. I can’t go and become one of them without you by my side… It wouldn’t be right. You have worked just as hard as me to get here, and you would have done the same thing back there for me. Don’t think my better than you. I’m not.’
Twilight and her friends were still watching them talk, when suddenly Spike spat out a letter from the princess. After a moment of reading it, Twilight said they all had to go immediately. She said Scootaloo should come, too.
‘Just one minute, Twilight… we need to take care of something’
She quickly trotted over to the Wonderbolts, Jecht in tow, and asked Soarin directly. ‘What’s your answer?’
He looked at her for a few moments before answering. ‘We have d-decided. Jecht can join, so long as you b-both sign a t-t-two-year contract.’ He said with a twitch. He was obviously still shaken up from the shock earlier.
Scootaloo had never been happier. Not only had she become a Wonderbolt, but Jecht had, too, and she had also made a sonic rainboom all in one day. She was completely speechless. Instead, Jecht answered.
‘Thank you, Soarin. You haven’t any idea what this means to us… to me…. There is a matter we need to take care of, though. Celestia has called for Scootaloo and I’m going with her. We will be in Canterlot the moment you call us, but we can’t stay for now, nor can we go with you. Send a message as soon as you can.’
She turned and nudged Scootaloo to get her started off toward Twilight, then followed. When they reached her, she immediately teleported them all into the air-balloon basket and used magic to untie the knot holding it in place.
‘Scootaloo, Jecht, and Fluttershy, we need speed. Could you all push the balloon toward Ponyville?’
‘Um, okay’ said Fluttershy.
They all took off and began to push, as Twilight used her magic to pull the basket along.
---
Applejack was leading the nurse back to Rainbow Dash’s room. It had taken her too long to find the nurse. Why ever she had decided to make a coffee at such a life-changing moment wa beyond Applejack in her frantic state.
She pushed the door open and ran in, to find Dash sitting upright, rubbing her eyes.
‘Great Celestia of Equestria!’ shouted Applejack
‘Yes, my faithful subject?’ called Celestia herself from just outside the doorway. Somehow Applejack must have missed her in one of the many hallways and corridors of the ward.
‘Oh mah, oh… err’ she stammered, before dropping to her front knees.
‘Rise, Applejack. This is, indeed, an important moment. Twilight and company should be here momentarily.’
Just as she said this, a small pink and purple blotch became visible from the distant cloud city of Cloudsdale.
‘Rainbow! I- I can’t believe yer… Yer awake…’ said Applejack, a tear in her eye.
‘Not quite. She has been asleep for more than two years. I know not what she experienced in this sleep, if anything at all, and we must wait for Twilight to get here before we attempt anything to revive her completely.’ Said the princess.
After what felt like an eon, but what was really 10 minutes, the balloon landed just outside the hospital and all of the ponies climbed out and ran in. Suddenly a purple flash in the hallway marked them all arriving via teleportation and they ran in.
‘Sorry it took so long, Princess. I needed directions to teleport up here, and most of us can’t fly.’ She said, immediately dropping to her front knees after, the rest following suit.
‘Rise, my faithful subjects. Twilight, do you remember the memory spell you used while fighting Discord?’
‘Yes, princess… but why would we- *gasp* Rainbow!’ she shouted, noticing the blue pony sitting upright on the bed.
‘Yes, Twilight. I fear she may have been corrupted by that world. Only you know her mind well enough to restore her memories, so I need you to attempt it.’
‘Yes, Princess. At once’ she said, her horn already glowing.
---
The screen on the wall had disappeared. When Soarin said Scootaloo could be a Wonderbolt, the screen had immediately faded. The wall had opened up and she looked out to find not just Applejack, but all of her other friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Princess Celestia, herself waiting. Twilight was walking toward her, horn glowing.
‘Twilight? What are you doing?’ she asked her friend
Twilight stopped. She turned to the princess. ‘Can… is she awake? Can she see what I’m doing?’
‘Well, of course I can, silly! You’re standing right in front of me! Oh, watch out for that gap in the clouds. You nearly fell through it. Hey, there’s another one.’
Rainbow Dash looked around and noticed the clouds around her beginning to crumble. Bits of cloud everywhere were beginning to simply fall, and when she turned to look behind her, the building she was just in had fallen.
Celestia spoke up. ‘Hurry, Twilight. Her mind is attempting to shut down again, you need to cast the spell!’
‘What spell? I’m fine! You’re all in danger, the clouds are crumbling! No don’t step there!!’ she said, too late. Twilight had put her foot down one of the holes, but she didn’t fall… strange.
She continued to advance upon Rainbow. Rainbow tried to run, but found Applejack and Scootaloo holding her. ‘What are you doing? Let me go! Let me go!!’ she yelled.
Twilight’s horn touched her head. The clouds around her reformed to perfection then began to reshape themselves. She was sitting on a cloud bed, and surrounded by cloud walls. Even as she watched, they changed colour and flattened perfectly to walls, floor, and ceiling. The bed solidified and she became aware of how sore she was. She felt like she had been asleep for a really long time and all of her joints were stiff.
Then she noticed she could remember past a month ago. Fighting Discord, producing her second rainboom, fighting Nightmare Moon, meeting Twilight, it all came back. She fell unconscious again.
When she came to, all medical apparatus was gone except the heart monitor. It was going normal speed.
‘Well, you’re awake again. It’s been two days. Princess Celestia had to go back to Canterlot.’ Said Twilight, from her left.
‘Ugh, my head hurts… what happened?’ she asked, sitting up again. ‘Where am I? I think… I was trying a new trick with Fluttershy and… something went wrong… I… I was hit by lightning, right? That’s the last thing I remember.’
‘Yeah, that’s right. Fluttershy saved you. You took a mighty fall and nearly died. You might want to lie down again, yer not gonna want to hear this…’ she waited for Dash to lie down again. ‘Rainbow… You’ve been in a coma...’
‘That’s like a big sleep, right? How long for? A week? Two?’
‘Two years’ said Applejack slowly.
Rainbow Dash laughed. Surely it was a joke. Nopony can sleep for two years! She thought to herself. When no one else joined in on her laughter, she stopped. She noticed that while nopony else looked much older, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had, indeed, grown. Scootaloo looked much stronger in the shoulders, and they all had their cutie marks, along with having grown to their full size.
‘No…’ she whispered.
They all sat in silence until Dash eventually spoke again. ‘What have I missed?’ she asked.
Everyone glanced to Scootaloo, and she began to speak of her vision the day after the accident had happened, and of how she had trained all the way up to the current day. She spoke of what happened in the competition, until Dash interrupted saying she had seen Scootaloo and Jecht flying.
They continued to tell her about all of the things that had happened in and around Ponyville. Sugarcube Corner had opened a bigger shop in Canterlot, Granny Smith was still alive and well, and the Apple family had released a new apple sauce that everypony loved.
Visiting hours ended, and Dash wasn’t allowed to leave. The nurse wanted 24 hours of observation before she could go. Around midday the next day, Dash was free once again. She had gone through exercises to stretch disused muscles, and even had a spell cast on her to return her normal strength, but she hadn’t been able to fly indoors. She had noticed that no matter what the doctors tried, she had a limp in one of her forelegs. They said she had seriously broken it in the accident and even though she could still use it, it would never be as strong as it used to be.
When she walked out of the front doors and took a breath of fresh air, she met all of her friends there, waiting. Applebloom had remained at the farm, and Sweetie Belle was watching the Botique, while Scootaloo and Jecht had been called to Canterlot to finalise their joining of the Wonderbolts. The six friends were together once again, and the six Elements were still whole and untarnished.