Rainbows, Chickens and Clouds

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 1

It was summer in Equestria.
The bright sun slowly made its way across the clear blue sky.

On the outskirts of a small town named Ponyville, three small figures emerged from a small cluster of trees. They were moving very slowly and seemed to have trouble even with the smallest of movements.

A casual observer might have thought that they were walking through mud, but the ground was dry and it hadn’t rained for a few days now. Had the observer been closer he or she might have heard the heavy breathing and occasional grunt that was uttered with every step the figures took.

At a snail’s pace the UFO’s (Unidentified Foalish Objects) made their way from the trees to the nearby stream of water.
“Finally!” the first one to reach the stream said and dipped a hoof into the cool water, desperately trying to wash off the tree sap that covered not only the hooves but the entire body and head as well.

As soon as her front hooves were free from the tree sap she used some water to clean off her flank. It took more effort than usual and the being hoped to see something special under all the sap and pine needles. Alas the only thing to be revealed was orange fur, the flank as blank as it was before.

“Anything?” squeaked the vaguely unicorn shaped blob of tree sap next to her.

“Nothing.” Scootaloo replied annoyed.

“Mmblff! Fm brglf mblffmbl.” The third figure mumbled.

“What was that Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked and watched as her friend walked with a sigh to the water. After a quick scrub of her face the country filly finally managed to get rid of the sap that had covered her mouth.

“Ah said, Ah really thought it would a worked.” Apple Bloom said and looked defeated at her friends.

“Yeah, me too.” Squeaked the blob named Sweetie Belle.

“Me three.” Scootaloo joined in automatically.

“I really thought we were on to something here this time. Cutie Mark Crusaders Tree Sap Collectors really did sound like a good idea. I bet nopony else is as good at collecting tree sap like us three.” Sweetie Belle said while carefully cleaning herself with the cool water of the stream. “Rarity would have a fit if she saw us like this.” She mused more to herself than to the others.

They washed themselves in silence, all of them momentarily defeated by another setback in their quest to earn their cutie marks. Soon however the young spirit returned to them and they started splashing each other with water, giggling like the fillies that they were.

The heat of the sun was more than enough to dry their coats as they made their way back to the clubhouse. Once inside Sweetie Belle looked around for a brush to take care of her messy mane. Scootaloo watched her for a couple of seconds before addressing the thought on all of their minds.
“So what do we do now crusaders?”

A loud gurgling sound suddenly echoed through the clubhouse. She turned to face the source of the noise.

“Ah guess that was a good answer right?” Apple Bloom said sheepishly and grinned at her now laughing friends, while holding her rumbling stomach.

“Yeah, climbing those trees was difficult. Do we have anything here that we can eat?” Scootaloo asked and looked around.

“Our crusader snack bowl is empty.” Sweetie Belle answered while brushing the last knot out of her tail.

“Well we could always have a couple o’ apples to eat. Ah bet Applejack wouldn’t mind.” Apple Bloom suggested.

“No, no, no. That will not do!” Scootaloo said and drew herself up to her full height with her chest puffed out and small wings outstretched. Just like her idol Rainbow Dash sometimes did when she told another awesome story about herself. The other fillies just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t you see?” Scootaloo said after looking into the puzzled faces of her friends. She pointed a hoof at the empty snack bowl. “We now have a quest to refill our snack bowl!”

It only took a fraction of a second for the other crusaders to latch onto the idea of the small pegasus.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Snack Bowl Refillers!” they cheered in unison and headed out of the clubhouse, once again full of energy and determination.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The three crusaders were now speeding away from Sweet Apple Acres heading to the town square of Ponyville.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom sat in a little trailer being pulled along by Scootaloo on her scooter. The little orange Pegasus buzzed her wings fast, driven by her need for speed and her hunger for a nice treat from Sugarcube Corner. She enjoyed every minute riding on her scooter and in absence of her ability to fly yet, it was the next best thing.

While the two friends in the trailer were discussing which treats and snacks to buy, Scootaloo focused her attention onto the road ahead. On the outskirts of town there wasn’t much to worry about, save for maybe a hole in the road or other smaller obstacles. But now nearing the town proper she had to be a bit more careful not to crash into anypony. Especially today as it was the weekend. Not any regular weekend, but the first weekend of the summer break. As such many families were out in town to buy food and other supplies for their plans during this time. The market place in town square was really full with ponies surrounding the stalls and standing around talking with other families.

Scootaloo scanned the area ahead and let out a little sigh. Riding through town at the current speed wasn’t an option anymore. The best course of action would be to stop and leave her scooter and trailer behind, while they made the rest of the trip on hoof.

Just as she was about to slow down she saw a familiar sight within the crowd of ponies. Ahead Scootaloo recognized the figure of Applejack, standing behind her stall selling fresh apples to hungry customers. The crusaders were coming up from behind the stall, but the hat on the earth ponies head and the long blond mane and tail were unmistakable. However what really caught Scootaloos eye was the pony that Applejack was talking to while serving her customers.

The multicolored hair, the cyan coat and the powerful wings resting on her sides, there was only one pony in all of Equestria that matched that description. It was of course Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo’s idol and since her camping trip with her and her friends, now also her big sister. Something that Scootaloo was immensely proud of, even though not much had really changed between them. Rainbow Dash took a bit more time away from her usual activities now and spent it with Scootaloo telling her really cool stories, but other than that it was still pretty much the same as before. The young Pegasus had hoped that Rainbow Dash would help her learn to fly or earn her cutie mark, neither of which happened.

Still, it was awesome that she could call her “Big Sister” even if it was in title alone. Scootaloo sometimes wondered if it would be different if she could fly already. Perhaps then the pony she looked up to would spend more time with her. Perhaps she just needed to impress Rainbow Dash somehow to get her to notice her more. She scanned the area ahead again, this time with another mindset.

There! Behind Applejacks stall stood an empty cart, probably the one that she used to ferry her goods from Sweet Apple Acres to the market and back. Resting against the side was a long thick board. Scootaloo’s eyes suddenly had a glint in them, as an idea came to her mind. It really did look like a perfect ramp.

As good as she could manage she tried to look past the ponies in front of Applejack’s stall. The line of ponies in front was not very long and behind them was an open space. A grin spread over Scootaloo’s face as she put her plan into action and sped up instead of slowing down.

“Scootaloo? Why are you going so fast?” Sweetie Belle asked as she felt the acceleration pressing her a bit further to the back of the trailer.

“Ya shouldn’t speed through here! Ya might hit somepony!” Apple Bloom’s concern fell on deaf ears as the pegasus pulling the trailer concentrated fully on the task in front of her. She even accelerated more once she hit the smoother roads in the town center. The two friends in back looked past the buzzing wings of their friend in front and saw the ramp.

“No! Are you crazy!?” they shrieked together, but it was too late and all they could do was hold on as tight as possible. With a thud they hit the ramp and not even a second later they were airborne.

Contrary to what you may have read in various newspapers or magazines, Ponyville is a quiet and peaceful town in the countryside of Equestria. Sure, they may have had issues with Parasprites, Ursa Minors, rampaging dragons, revenge seeking unicorns and may have been once named the Chaos Capital of the world, but apart from those events the town was as peaceful as could be.
So the sight of an airborne trailer being pulled by a madly grinning small Pegasus with two screaming fillies in the back was not something that the local residents were accustomed to. The stunned crowd watched in horror as the three fillies flew, more or less gracefully, over the stall and the line of ponies in front of it. With a heavy thud the scooter and trailer finally touched ground again, the impact making the two screaming passengers momentarily silent, before regaining enough air in their lungs to scream once more.
Scootaloo dug her hooves into the ground and opened her wings to bring the vehicle to a stop. They slid on for a few meters and the momentum of the trailer spun them around so that they were now facing the stall they had just jumped over.
Trying to regain her cool, Scootaloo took a couple of deep breaths and tried to ignore her wildly beating heart. The adrenaline made her shake a little as she tried to look as casual as possible by resting one hoof on her flank and leaning with the other foreleg on her scooter. She wanted to just give her still silent audience a cool little smirk, but the adrenaline in her veins turned it into a mad grin that Pinkie Pie would have been proud of.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stopped their high pitched shrieking once they realized that they had stopped. Now they looked rather shaken, but were happy to have reached the ground safely. Scootaloo took off her helmet and was waiting for… well anything. She had hoped her stunt would have the ponies around stomping their hooves in awe, but instead she was treated to a still stunned silence. Slowly the locals regained their senses and she heard a few mutterings of “Irresponsible!”, “Dangerous!” and “Somepony should tell her parents!”, before they resumed their business.

“What in tarnation do ya think yer doin’?” Applejack said as she left her stall and came running over to the three crusaders. “Are ya’ll ok?”

The two fillies in the trailer nodded their heads.

“Well thank Celestia nothin’ bad happened. What made ya do that Scootaloo? That there was somethin’ really dangerous. Ya’ll could have been hurt!”

Scootaloo’s ears folded down. This wasn’t going at all like she had imagined.

“Whooa! That was a really wicked cool move there Squirt.” Rainbow Dash said as she landed next to the little Pegasus. Instantly her ears were perked up again and she beamed her smile towards her idol. “I have never seen anypony get that kinda air like that before!”

“Thanks Rainbow Dash!”

“Don’t encourage her Rainbow! That was reckless and she was lucky that nothin’ happened.”

“Relax AJ. The Squirt knows what she is doing.” Rainbow Dash tussled Scootaloo’s mane with a hoof. “After all, she does look up to her big sister, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that she would try something awesome herself to be like me. Still got a long way to go to reach my level, however.” She said and gave her number one fan a wink.
Without waiting for a reply Rainbow Dash took to the skies and gave a little wave to Scootaloo before she vanished behind some clouds. The little filly was still grinning up to the sky when Applejack spoke up once more.

“Don’t listen to her! Her head is obviously always up there in the clouds.” She stepped a bit closer to draw Scootaloo’s attention.

“Are ya listenin’ to me? Ah can’t have ya endangering others with yer will to impress Rainbow Dash like that. Perhaps Ah should have a talk with yer parents about that.” Applejack was muttering the last sentence more to herself than to Scootaloo and therefore didn’t see the reaction it had on the little filly. The smile she was wearing vanished in an instant and was replaced by a look of dread.

“No, no! That won’t be necessary Applejack.”

“Sweetie Belle is right. Ya don’t have to talk to her parents. It was our fault just as much as hers.”

“Yes, we thought it would just impress everypony.”

Applejack turned her attention to the fillies in the trailer.
“Ya’ll had that featherbrained idea?”

They nodded.

“Then why were yer screamin’ like that?”

“Well, we had ta make some kinda noise so that other ponies knew that we were comin’. Otherwise we might have hit somepony.” Apple Bloom explained after a few seconds thought.

“Just what were ya’ll trying to do here anyways?”

“We… uhm… wanted to try and get our cutie marks in stunt performing?” Sweetie Belle offered.

“That’s right! Perhaps we shoulda thought this one through a bit more. Sorry Applejack.” Apple Bloom looked at her older sister with a sheepish expression.

“Just promise me ya’ll keep yer hooves on the ground from now on. An’ no more stunt drivin’!”

“We promise!” all three fillies said with sorrow in their voices and watched Applejack return to her stall.

“Thanks guys.” Scootaloo said and turned to her friends. “I’m really sorry I scared you like that.”

“Well don’t do somethin’ like that without tellin’ us before!”

“I just wanted to impress Rainbow Dash.”

“Well that did work I guess, but we both would like to be informed in advance about your ideas the next time you want to do that.”

“I promise.” Scootaloo paused for a moment and looked around to see if anypony was near them. “Thanks for not telling Applejack about my parents.”

“Don’t mention it. Now could we please get to Sugarcube Corner? Ah think Ah need an extra big cupcake after that scare.”

“Slowly this time please.” Sweetie Belle added. Scootaloo smiled at her two best friends and slowly set their mode of transportation rolling once again.

Comments

[River Road]

It was summer in Equestria.

The bright sun slowly made its way across the clear blue sky.

On the outskirts of a small town named Ponyville, three small figures emerged from a small cluster of trees. They were moving very slowly and seemed to have trouble even with the smallest of movements.

A casual observer might have thought that they were walking through mud, but the ground was dry and it hadn’t rained for a few days now. Had the observer been closer he or she might have heard the heavy breathing and occasional grunt that was uttered with every step the figures took.

At a snail’s pace the UFO’s (Unidentified Foalish Objects) made their way from the trees to the nearby stream of water.

“Finally!” the first one to reach the stream said and dipped a hoof into the cool water, desperately trying to wash off the tree sap that covered not only the hooves but the entire body and head as well.

Best story intro ever!

...Admittedly, for me that probably just translates to "best story intro I've read in a while", but given how much I've read lately, that still means a lot.

[Fluttershyisacutegal]

wicked moves scoots