The sun would rise soon by the power of Celestia. For now it was still dark and a small lone filly stepped out of Ponyville’s only orphanage. Scootaloo had snuck out without anypony noticing. Not an easy task using only three legs. Her caretaker had been worried when she came back yesterday with a foreleg in a sling. Scootaloo felt bad having lied to her and simply saying that she lost control over her scooter. She felt even worse having lied to her friends. They made her promise not to try something like that again and that she should get her rest until she was fully healed. In her mind however another plan had begun to form and after a more or less restful night she sat out to make it happen.
After much thought, she came to the conclusion that her idea of forcing her flying instinct to take over wasn’t so bad. It just lacked the needed kick-start in her opinion. Perhaps the height was not enough, perhaps she was too slow. Only one way to find out and that was to try and get as high as possible. As silent as a whisper she got on her scooter, thankful that her sprained foreleg did not interfere with her ability to drive all that much. With the buzzing of her wings she set out towards the Everfree forest.
It took longer than expected to reach the trail through the forest. Scootaloo wanted to conserve her strength for her big moment later in the day. Now that the sun was shining high up in the sky, she sped up a little. The forest here wasn’t as scary as she had imagined. Rainbow Dash had told her several times how they used this very trail to reach the cave at the top of the mountain. There they had battled a dragon and Rainbow Dash mentioned as often as possible how she charged in and kicked the dragon in the face. Scootaloo had listened to the story with wide eyes and memorized every single thing that her idol had told her. After a while she now was at the base of the mountain. The climb would be steep, not impossible to tackle while riding her scooter she thought, but she needed the strength in her wings later. So now she would tackle the climb on hoof.
Hours passed before she finally reached the end of her climb. Her legs hurt from the effort and she decided to take a break and eat the apple she had brought along. Before her a long wide path led higher up into the mountain. If she remembered correctly this was where Rainbow Dash and the others were caught in an avalanche. Scootaloo removed her helmet to wipe away the sweat on her brow. While taking a bite out from her apple she glanced back to where she came from.
Ponyville was no more than a speck in the landscape. It looked like a little dolls houses from this distance and height. No doubt the residents would be getting out of bed around this time. Scootaloo had left a note for her caretaker, stating that she would be out for the rest of the day playing with her friends. Another lie and she felt bad about it. But the potential reward for her actions silenced any doubts in her mind.
After finishing her apple she put her helmet back on, but didn’t bother securing it properly. Cautiously she followed the path up the mountain. It didn’t seem all that dangerous to her, even though there were quite a large number of boulders and rocks in her path. With ease she passed through them, but soon found herself stuck in front of a wall made up from rubble. After a few minutes she realized there was no way through. The Pegasus looked around for a way over and noticed that the cliff looming above her had a slightly curved base. With enough speed she could use her scooter to ride the wall in theory. Determined she gave it a try and much to her surprise and glee it worked like a charm.
“HA!”
Her small shout of joy was out of reflex for clearing the obstacle behind her. The shout bounced around the cliffs and canyons, while the origin of the shout stood frozen in place with a hoof in front of her mouth.
Soon a rumble was heard that eliminated any hopes Scootaloo might have had to not cause an avalanche. Without hesitating she sped onwards, not a moment too soon as a pony-sized boulder slammed into the spot she was just standing in. How she managed to get through without sustaining injury she couldn’t remember. It was no more than a blur in her memory. Behind her she could still hear large rocks slamming into the ground, but here near a tree none of the bigger rocks could make it that far.
The smaller ones however did, she found out the hard way as a rock the size of an apple struck her helmet. She lost balance of her scooter due to the shock of being hit, her helmet preventing any damage. Now she slid along the ground for a few feet, her scooter beside her. Due to the fact that she had not secured her helmet properly, said accessory bounced off her head and rolled towards the edge of the cliff. Scootaloo scrambled to her hooves and tried to reach her potentially lifesaving helmet before it rolled over.
Unfortunately she was too slow and could merely watch how it bounced off the side of the cliff and flew in a wide arc towards the ground. It may have even bounced far enough to reach the river far below that looked like a long blue snake from this height. She let out a sigh and hobbled over to her scooter. There was still a fair amount of climbing to do.
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A couple of hours later Applejack slowly made her way towards the library in Ponyville. The talk she had last night with her sister was still fresh in her memory and had kept her up late during the night. She had to talk to somepony else about her discovery, not because she wanted to gossip, but rather finding a way to help the little orphaned filly. As she entered she heard the unmistakable voice of Rarity.
“So my client wants to have something done in the style of the aristocrats of early century Prance. Although that style in my opinion is something to avoid, the client is always right and of course I shall do my best to recreate that… fashion. Do you have a book on that subject maybe?”
“I think I might have a history book with pictures that may help you find what you are looking for. Hang on, I’ll check.”
“You are a dear. Oh, hello Applejack.” Both unicorns turned to look at their friend, both of them noticing something a little off.
“Is everything ok? Did you have a talk with Scootaloo’s parents?” Twilight asked and stopped looking for the book momentarily.
Applejack took a deep breath before speaking.
“About that. Ah had a talk with Apple Bloom yesterday….”
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Scootaloo stood at the edge of the cliff. She could go no higher on hoof.
Behind her the huge cave loomed, now empty of any dragons, which was something she was grateful for. Peering over the cliff she could see very few clouds below her. Never before had she been this high up and she couldn’t help but marvel at the sight. Ponyville was far away hidden behind the mountain she had climbed. In the distance she could make out the spires of Canterlot. Everything looked like toys from this height. She grinned once more into the wide open space before her. Finally turning away she looked around at the plateau she had reached. It was big enough to accelerate to a high speed on her scooter. All that was missing was a ramp of some sorts. After searching around she found what she was looking for. A large smooth edge on the cliff side, higher than the surrounding edges and with a slope smooth enough to be used as a ramp. She peered over the edge and saw the long drop down to the ground. A few clouds obscured her view to the bottom.
“Ok, Scootaloo! This is the time!” she said to pump herself up and to block out the thought of how high she was.
Carefully she removed any obstacles in the path she would take. Every smaller rock she kicked aside, every branch she flung as far away as possible, until there was nothing but smooth ground left. She made her way as far back as she could go and climbed onto her scooter.
“This is it, Scootaloo.”
Doubts began to surface suddenly. She forced her mind to rather think of Rainbow Dash. To remember the words she had said. Rainbow Dash believed in her becoming as awesome as she herself was one day. Rainbow Dash had risked a lot to be where she is today and had to throw safety overboard to get there.
“If she can do it, then so can I!”
With those words she once again sped off like a bullet. The hard surface was perfect for gaining speed and before any further doubts could enter her mind she hit the ramp made of rock. The edge came closer much faster than expected. Suddenly the noise from the wheels grinding on rock stopped and she was airborne, hundreds of feet above the ground.
As she felt gravity reaching out for her she pushed herself off her scooter and pumped her wings.
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“Oh my, the poor dear.” Rarity was the first to speak after Applejack told them what she had found out.
“Why didn’t she tell anyone?” Twilight asked, but didn’t expect an answer.
“Ah reckon it is safe to say that Cheerilee knows about her situation. Guess the doctors at the hospital know about it as well.”
“Do you think Rainbow Dash knows?”
“Ah doubt it. The little one told no one except her closest friends and then only after they started askin’ questions. Ah doubt RD would know, since she does most of the talkin’ anyways.”
“Well I think she should know. Her role as a big sister just became a lot more important than any of us knew.”
“Twilight is right. I bet if she would have known she might not have been so careless to encourage the little one in doing something dangerous.”
“Ah just hope she’ll understand.”
Any further discussion was stopped the instant the front door burst open and an alarmed and worried Fluttershy flew in. Unlike her usual demeanor she was far from calm.
“Fluttershy? What…” Twilight began to ask but was interruped by the pegasus.
“Look what I found in the river flowing through Ponyville!” Fluttershy held aloft the helmet she had found. The markings left no doubt in any of their minds to whom this helmet belonged. What made them cringe however was the large dent in the side of the helmet.
“Where did you find this?” Twilight asked while taking the helmet from Fluttershy and examining it. The sudden knot in her stomach loosened slightly when she could not find any obvious trace of hair or worse, blood.
“I was just walking over the bridge in Ponyville when I noticed something floating in the water. I flew down and fished this out of the river, then I flew here as fast as I could.”
“We have to find her! Fluttershy, you go and see if you can find her along the river. Applejack, you go and check their clubhouse on your farm. Rarity go and check if she maybe wanted to visit your sister. I’ll go and see if she is still at home. Inform Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to meet us here in an hour.”
Without hesitating the four ponies ran out of the Library off into different directions on the search for Scootaloo.