//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Rainbows, Chickens and Clouds // by Bunnybooze79 //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash was flying blind, the tears in her eyes made the world look like a blur. Angrily she shook them out of her eyes and flew as far away from the library as possible. A bank of clouds appeared in front of her and she tore into them with all her anger. It was meant to be a sunny day with light overcast. Within a couple of minutes the weather schedule was no more. Now it would be just a sunny day without any clouds. She would get into trouble because of this, but she didn’t care and just had to get her rage out of her system. The rage wasn’t even directed at Twilight, but rather at herself. Twilight had been absolutely right, she had to admit as she sat in a tree wiping away the last tears. She had not wanted to let Scootaloo get close to her. The last ponies close to her had left her all alone in the world and now she was on the verge of doing that to another pony. Rainbow Dash needed to think about everything from the ground up again. But first she needed to find the kid. While searching she would have plenty of time to think. With that in mind she took to the skies once more. ________________________________________________________________________ Scootaloo’s wings were beginning to hurt. Upon reflection of her day so far she reached the conclusion that it wasn’t her best of days. The thrill of sort of flying with a cloud had subsided long ago. Now she felt the fear slowly rise up. “I want to go home.” She whimpered into her marshmallow cloud. She felt tears beginning to form in her eyes. “No! Keep it together Scootaloo! What would Rainbow Dash do in this situation?” The answer was simply to fly away. What would Pinkie Pie do? Just pull out a bunch of balloons out of nowhere and float down, she guessed. Twilight would just teleport herself away. Fluttershy could fly as well. Rarity wouldn’t even have made the trip out of fear of getting dirty. And Applejack? She would have never done anything this stupid. Scootaloo groaned and silently wished for all of this to be a bad dream. A flash of light and the rumble of lightning tore her away from her thoughts. Normally she would have been happy that a thunderstorm was near. Unlike her friends that were afraid of the noise and light, Scootaloo always was fascinated by the power and natural beauty of thunderstorms. Perhaps it was because she was a pegasus. The thunder was loud enough to cause her entire body to vibrate. “It must be close.” She craned her neck as far as possible to look around. There! The large dark clouds of the thunderstorm were just below her, maybe forty feet she guessed. An idea came to mind. Without a second thought about the safety of her plan she stopped her wings flapping and let go of her silent marshmallow savior. For the second time this day she found herself falling at a high speed towards the hard ground below. She hoped the dark clouds beneath her would break her fall and would not be too hard to cause her any further injuries. Trying to slow her descent with a last ditch effort by using her wings, she soon impacted the clouds beneath her with a wet smack. Then she bounced up a short distance before again landing on the wide bank of stormclouds. She closed her eyes for a moment to swallow her fears. It had worked, it had really worked! With a mad grin she stood up on her three good legs. The ground felt more like a wet sponge than like her marshmallow from before. A lightning bolt shot out from underneath the clouds and the loud thunder made her jump a bit. The electricity in the air made her hair stand up. A surge of adrenalin followed and she drew herself up to her full height. “YEAH! What do you say now Equestria?! I am riding the lightning!” She felt positively giddy and looked over the wide front of clouds she was standing on. A rumbling from her stomach rivaled that of the storm almost. Hunger brought her joy down a few pegs and made her assess the situation. Not much had changed. She was still trapped on a cloud, but this time without danger of falling to her doom. There was no food to be found and she hadn’t eaten since this morning. The stress of her actions also made her feel really tired. And she was thirsty, but for that problem a solution was at least within her grasp. Unsure of what would happen she took a small bite of the cloud she was sitting on. The electricity trapped within fizzled on her tongue. I was a strange sensation, a bit like biting into cotton candy that had no taste. In her mouth the piece of cloud dissolved into water and managed to quench a bit of her thirst. She took a few more bites and once she felt no more thirst she decided on the next step. Her body took the decision away from her. She needed to regain her strength a bit before trying something else. While sleeping her hunger would also be kept in check. She looked around and saw a few lighter patches of clouds. With uneasy steps she made her way there and laid down on the damp greyish surface. She was happy to be a pegasus in that moment. Her coat was thicker than that of earth ponies and unicorns. Not only did it do a much better job of keeping her warm, but in also proved to be thick enough to not let the dampness get through to her skin. All part of the natural abilities of a pegasus that normally would be confronted by cold airs and rain while flying through the skies. Scootaloo curled herself into a ball and very quickly fell asleep. _________________________________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash had checked the few locations that she could think of where Scootaloo might have gone. Every one of which was void of any orange pegasus filly. She saw Applebloom and her brother making their way through the orchards looking for their friend. Rainbow Dash ignored them and sped off in another direction. It saddened her more than she realized as it came to her attention how little she actually knew about her number one fan. Perhaps she should start at the beginning she mused and headed back into Ponyville. After a quick flight she stood in front of Ponyville’s only orphanage. Like all houses in the small town, this one looked homely and inviting. Yet somehow she felt at the same time uneasiness and sadness emanating from within. Perhaps it was just because of her own experiences. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, knocked on the door and headed inside. It looked nice she had to admit, unlike the orphanage in Cloudsdale. It was very quiet and told her that however many kids were living here that they were out for the moment. A certain kind of sadness hung in the air and Rainbow Dash felt as if she could cut it with a knife. An elderly earth pony mare suddenly appeared from one of the doors and gave Rainbow Dash a warm smile. Her mane was tied to a bun, the dark blue hair having faded and now streaked with grey strands. The mare’s coat was beige and also showed smaller patches of grey. On her flank a cutie mark of a birds nest could be seen. Her hazel colored eyes widened when she recognized the pony before her. “Rainbow Dash! So good to finally meet you.” The elder mare said with a friendly voice. “You know who I am?” Dash asked confused. She had seen this pony in front of her a few times, but never knew until now what she actually did. “Why of course. You are nearly everything that young Scootaloo talks about. Apart from her crusading of course.” That made Dash feel worse somehow. “But where are my manners? I am Nest Maker. Call me Nettie.” She said while offering her hoof that Rainbow Dash took without much hesitation. “Is Scootaloo here?” she asked. “No unfortunately not. She went out to play with her friends. At least that was what she had written on the note she left me. Twilight Sparkle was here asking about her whereabouts as well just a short while ago. Why are you looking for her? She is not in trouble is she?” “I actually just wanted to see where she lives. Never been here before.” While it wasn’t a lie, she did not want to alarm the seemingly kind elder pony in front of her. “Allow me to give you the tour. I am sure she wouldn’t mind.” Dash followed the caretaker through the orphanage. All the time she showed her a few select rooms. The kitchen, dining room, play room for the youngest, study room for the kids that went to school already and finally the living quarters. “Normally the children share their living quarters with each other. Four in each room. But there were a few events that made me give her a single room.” She explained. Rainbow Dash tried her best to swallow her memories and keep her voice calm. “What kind of events?” “Well I have to be honest with you. She did not get along very well with the others here. Scootaloo is a very nice filly, make no mistake about that. It’s just the fact that she is the only pegasus here. Three unicorns and four earth ponies are also in my care. I do my best to keep things calm around here, but they did tease her about being the only one of her kind. The fact that she can’t yet fly also made them say a few not very nice things. I do my best to stop them, but I am not as young as I once was and cannot keep an eye on them all the time. I heard from Cheerilee that it also sometimes happens at school, which is sad. Kids can be cruel at times I am afraid. I gave her her own room to try and shield her from possible bullying during nighttime.” Nettie explained with sadness and let her ears droop. “But thanks to her friends and you, she does not let it get to her anymore like she did in the beginning. This is her room.” The caretaker opened a door leading into a small room. Not much more than a bed, a small table with school supplies and a wardrobe. Opposite the door they came in through was a window that gave a clear view of the fields beyond the train tracks. What stuck out however were the posters and drawings that lined the walls that had no windows and made Rainbow Dash fight with her emotions. Scootaloo had drawn pictures of herself with her crusader friends, but a large number featured a crudely drawn orange pegasus with a larger rainbow maned pegasus at her side. They were flying together in the skies, or just sitting by a lake with happy smiles on their faces. Sometimes the little orange one would be sitting on the ground looking up to the flying one above her a rainbow trail following the flyers wake. A large Wonderbolt poster took a large portion of one wall up for itself. The foremost pony was Spitfire, but a cutout picture of Rainbow Dash’s head was carefully pasted on top of her head. The Wonderbolt in the background, Fleetfoot, had a small picture of Scootaloo herself pasted on top. She looked happy. “She really has taken a liking to you as you can see.” Rainbow Dash let her eyes wonder over more of the drawings. Nearest to the headrest she saw a more recent picture. She knew it was recent, because she was there when the events in the drawing took place. It showed Rainbow Dash hugging Scootaloo on top of a waterfall in front of a large moon. Words were scribbled in the space that the moon held. “My big sister.” Rainbow Dash read aloud and nearly choked on the words. “I remember that day very well, when she came back here after your little camping trip. She wouldn’t talk about anything else for a long time. Even her crusading for cutie marks wasn’t as important to her. I must say that I was very happy for her that you decided to be a sister figure to her.” The words cut Rainbow Dash’s heart like knives. Gingerly she raised a hoof and carefully stroked over the drawing. She felt tears rise up and fought hard to not show them. “If you don’t mind me asking. Have you maybe considered making your bond a more permanent situation?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I don’t even think I have what it takes to be a sister to her, let alone that what you are asking.” The elder mare sighed. “Perhaps in time. Maybe once your bonds are stronger you might reconsider.” Rainbow Dash said nothing, her eyes still fixed on the drawing. The sudden urge to fly out and look for the little filly overcame her in an instant. She excused herself from the caretaker and didn’t bother walking through the house. The window was open anyway so she took the more direct route and headed over to where she hoped to find Fluttershy. _________________________________________________________________________ Sure enough she found the timid yellow pony searching along the river and carefully checking every bush and grove. “Fluttershy!” The pony looked up just as Rainbow Dash landed next to her. “Rainbow Dash! Have you found her?” “No. I need to know where the helmet was found.” Fluttershy told her and after hearing the information Rainbow Dash took off again, not giving her a chance to say anything else. Rainbow Dash followed the river from high above, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of Scootaloo or some hint as to where she might be. To the left of her the tall mountain rose up out of the ground. She remembered that this was where they had tried to fight a dragon once. The image of her telling Scootaloo about it shot into her mind unasked. “She wouldn’t have….” Instead of following the river she now took course towards the mountain. She carefully circled around the base looking for anything unusual. Her search seemed fruitless, until her eyes caught a glimpse of something odd. The rocks and large boulders in front of her seemed to only recently have fallen from up above. The craters were still fresh. “Oh no.” Without stopping she took off to the avalanche prone area. She was right, there had been a recent rockslide. She carefully and especially noiselessly looked around. There! She saw the faint tracks of wheels. They were leading further up the mountain. With an uneasy feeling she began to follow the tracks, until after a while she reached the large plateau. She gave the big cave a single glance and concentrated of the tracks in the dust. Small hoofprints were all over the place and finally also a much more visible set of tracks leading from the back of the plateau all the way over to… her heart sank like a stone in water. As fast as she could she flew to the edge of the cliff not wanting to believe what must have happened. “No, no, no. Why would you do that?” The Pegasus paced back and forth, fighting her desire to leave and not face the horror that might await her and her need to help the filly if she needed her. “A fall from this height...” she left the rest of the sentence unspoken. With a deep breath she dove off the cliff and raced the long way to the ground. She had to force her eyes to stay open and look for any signs. It didn’t take long for her to find something that made her heart sink even further. The blue color stuck out amongst the green like a sore hoof even from the height she was flying at. She held her breath as she landed in a small clearing. Branches and leaves from nearby trees were lying scattered about and among them the shattered pieces of a small scooter.