Note~
I personally felt the ending was a bit too sad, even for my "heart of stone." So for anypony who is also feeling this way, I wrote a happier ending that has a little less crying involved. Liked the original? Don't read this. Didn't like it as much as you had hoped? Here you go. Enjoy~
Scootaloo woke up dripping with sweat and breathing as if she had just raced a marathon. Her eyes were wild, her mane frazzled, her hooves wild as she struggled to remember where she was. Her vision was very hazy and blurry, but before long she was freed of her hanicap. She looked around and saw that she was in Town Centere, surrounded by carts that eagerly awaited to be seen. The filly quickly got to her feet, dizzy at first, but found her footing and inspected her surroundings once more. All the carts were in her dream- the Apple Family Cart, bubbling over with pies, the flower trolley with crimson roses... It was as if she was seeing that awful future again- but for real this time.
There was a rustling by the flower cart and Scootaloo instintively backed away. A single rose fell out, drifting slowly to the dirt bellow, and a much larger one followed. "Wait-" Scootaloo thought to herself- "That's not a flower."
Sure enough a yellow rump toppled out of the flower cart, along with the velvet red tail of Applebloom. Scootaloo felt herself hallucinating as she saw her friend's legs come out- they seemed a bit longer than they were on their last adventure. As she spoke, her mind threatened to collapse on her. Even Applebloom's voice sounded just a pitch lower than last time they saw each other. "Scootaloo? Scoot-scoot-scootaloo?" Applebloom knew that always annoyed her pegasus friend.
The earth pony called a few more times, but did not find Scootaloo's hiding place. "Ya playin' mind games on me Scootaloo?" She asked a peach cart. Unfortunately, it did not answer.
The Apple Family Cart rumbled and a two-toned tail of purple and pink crept out from between two pies. It nudged one over the edge, and Applebloom hurried to pick up the mess. While she was working the rest of Sweetie Belle slid out and landed on her back. The earth pony gasped and began her special self defense maneuver Applejack engraved in her mind- bucking like mad. She bucked the air, the surrounding carts, anything to get her attacker off- whoever it may be. Her strong back legs hit the strong wood of a Soap Stand and it splintered greatly, spilling soap every which way.
On her back Sweetie Belle was yelling at the top of her lungs "stop it, you silly filly! It's just me!" But her friend couldn't hear her over the splintering of wood and the falling of the contents inside the carts that were violently assaulted.
Finally the unicorn filly had enough of this wild ride and she grabbed Applebloom's mane with her hooves. "Woah there cowgirl! It's just me!" She yelled as Applebloom skidded wildly to a stop, almost hitting another unlucky cart. Her bow bounced uncontrollably against the force of her stop, but she quickly moved it back to its original position once Sweetie Belle had gotten off her back. "Sorrah, Sweetie, "Applebloom apologized sulkily, "ah didn't know you was on mai back." She pawed the dirt, embarrassed.
Sweetie Belle wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and began to laugh. It sounded like bells.
"It's okay. Now we just have to find Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle hopped anxiously and winked at Applebloom, who smiled and winked back. They both took a deep breath, and simultaneously yelled:
"SCOOTALOO! SCOOT- SCOOT- SCOOTALOOO!"
The ground seemed to shake and from a cloud high above them a light blue pegasus with a ball of yarn for a cutie mark glared down at the two fillies. "Quiet down!" She screeched, ripping off a piece of cloud and making it into a tight ball. She threw it with amazing force for an old mare, but when it reached the two Crusaders it merely exploded into mist. "Darn you blasted fillies!" She grunted and laid her head back down for another snooze.
The two Crusaders looked at each other and shrugged. They began whispering their friend's name in hope of drawing her out, like you would a mouse with cheese. But their efforts were fruitless- no Scootaloo in sight.
The pegasus filly was in fact hiding behind a building next to the Town Circle. She surveyed it and remembered that her future self had landed just in front of the same exact building.
"Coincidence? I think so." She whispered.
"Ah just heard 'er! Ovah 'ere!"
Scootaloo heard hooves pounding towards her and braced her muscles to run for dear life. But Applebloom was quicker than she, and she was pulled out of her hiding place and into the open. "Whatcha hidin' from, Scootaloo?" The farm pony asked, bracing her own muscles to buck if unnecessary. "Somepony try to hurt yah?"
Scootaloo got to her feet and shook her head. "No no no no no. Nothing's wrong." Her ear twitched and her irises dilated.
Sweetie Belle cocked her head. "You like like you've seen a ghost, Scoots!"
Scootaloo convulsed when she heard the familiar nickname.
"Was it something I said?" The unicorn filly reached out a hoof to help, but Scootaloo hissed and swatted it away.
At this Applebloom narrowed her eyes and stepped up to her poor friend. Scootaloo eyed her and shot out a hoof to attack in her rabid state, but the farm pony's reflexes were quick and she deflected it easily. "Now Scootaloo, Applejack and Big Macintosh always tell me that if any of yah friends are goin' through somethin', you should always lend a helpin' hoof." She smiled and sat down next to Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle cautiously did the same.
"Now what's ya problem?" She asked calmly.
Scootaloo couldn't tell them about her dream. It would give them the same feeling she had- dread, anger that she couldn't change anything. She didn't want her friends to carry that heavy burden.
Applebloom's eyes lit up with understanding and she grabbed one of Scootaloo's wings, which was bent at an odd angle. She must have slept on it that way. "This musta' been from a flyin' accident! Ya still dunno how to fly, do ya Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo couldn't think of a better excuse and she nodded.
The two fillies got up and grinned mischievously. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FLIGHT COACHES!!" They yelled in unison. Another cloud ball from the old mare flew towards them and strings of water vapor flew around their noses. Scootaloo sighed and got up again. "No, it's quite alright. I don't need any- WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" She was interrupted as her friends picked her up and began to climb the summit of the building she hid behind, a Quill and Sofa shoppe. "Cutie Mark Crusaders Flight Coaches, remember?" Sweetie Belle explained, snorting with the effort of carrying the pegasus uphill. "We aren't called that for nothing!"
"Put me down! I don't need flight training!"
Applebloom stopped abruptly at the tip of the building and the other two Crusaders bumped into her. "Really!? Can you show us, Scootaloo?" She pleaded. "Pleasepleaseplease?"
Scootaloo held back a gasp as she looked down the building. It was quite a ways down, and the mark she would leave on the pavement wouldn't be pretty.
"You know, " she flexed her wing and winced slightly, "this bad boy is pretty tired. He doesn't work well under pressure, you know?"
Sweetie Belle looked pretty puzzled, but didn't say anything for a while as she tried to comprehend Scootaloo's excuse. She blinked a few times before shaking her head and turning to Scootaloo with a response. "No, I don't know. We've never seen you fly, Scoots. How do we know you're not lying?" She put extra emphasis on the "ing" in lying.
The pegasus filly felt sweat drizzle her forehead. "Well, Lefty here is exhausted. Right Lefty?" She lifted her wing and talked "Lefty's" voice out of the side of her mouth. "Yeah, I am plum-tucked out. Try again tomorrow."
Sweetie Belle screwed up her face and stomped her hoof. "One, I don't see because I haven't seen you fly yet! And two, how can I believe you, 'Lefty?' Are you a spy?"
Applebloom shoved herself between them. "Girls, girls. No need to fight ovah sucha lil' thing." She turned to Scootaloo and narrowed her eyes. "But ah would like an answer 'bout why yah won't show us." Sweetie Belle looked over her shoulder and nodded solemnly.
Scootaloo knew she couldn't hide it any longer, and her chest was practically bursting from the weight of her lies. "Fine. I'll show you. If you really want to see."
She stepped up to the edge of the building and breathed in the sweet smell of the clouds. It would be her last.
Scootaloo unfolded her wings slowly, and she thought back to the dream. Her wings felt bigger now- not small stumps that lifted her an inch off the ground, but feet off the ground. Miles, even. She let the wind caress her aching feathers. She got ready to jump...
But her friends beat her to it.
There were four hooves on her back, a huge push, and she was off the building. "Help me!" She cried as the ground rushed to meet her. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle yelled some encouragement, but it was caught in the wind and swept away. She wriggled wildly, not knowing what to do at a time like this.
Suddenly heard a voice ring out over the wind- the world seemed to slow in order to hear the words. But it was not her two friends still watching from the building.
"Flap, you featherbrain!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
Scootaloo smeared a look of determination on her face and she flapped her wings once, twice. She didn't move from her flight line, heading towards the ground. She grunted and flapped harder, faster...
And she swooped up from the ground at the last second.
"Scootaloo! You're flying!" Sweetie Belle cheered. "Great job, Scootaloo!" Applebloom joined in.
But she didn't hear their praise as she dived and rolled and enjoyed the feeling of wind in her face. "Am I- I dreaming?" She whispered to herself, looking down her orange wingspan. "I never want to wake up!" She did a loop-de-loop and laughed.
After a while the orange filly landed on the building once again and folded her graceful wings. At once Applebloom ran up to her, followed close behind by Sweetie Belle. "Woah! That was totally amazing, Scoots!" Sweetie Belle clapped. "Yeah, amazin'!" Applebloom chimed in.
She liked the praise, but eagerly Scootaloo was trying to find the pony that saved her life. But Rainbow Dash was no where in sight.
She sighed, shoulders sagging, and turned back to her friends. They chatted like schoolfillies, laughing away, as if everything outside their friendship didn't matter anymore.