Rainbows, Chickens and Clouds

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 10

Once Twilight arrived at the orphanage she was treated to a sight she had not expected. To the right of the building a few feet away a lone tree stood surrounded by bushes. Halfway inside one of the bushes was Rainbow Dash. Twilight could not see what she was doing there as only her rear end stuck out. Just as she altered her course the cyan pegasus stepped out of the bushes and carefully closed the hole she had made in the branches and leaves. She nodded once seemingly satisfied at whatever she had done.

Then she turned around and sat on her haunches facing the orphanage. Doing so she noticed Twilight approaching. She made no sign of wanting to leave, nor did her body language show signs of hostility towards the unicorn drawing nearer. Twilight took it as a good sign and ignoring what Fluttershy had said earlier she decided to talk to her.

“Hello Rainbow.” she said softly.

“Twilight.” Rainbow Dash kept her eyes locked on the orphanage’s front door, but her voice did not show any sign of anger. Twilight decided to cut straight to the heart of the matter.

“Listen Rainbow, about what I said yesterday…”

“You were right.” the pegasus interrupted before Twilight had the chance to fully explain.

“The things you said. They were right. I did some things in the past and recently that I shouldn’t have done. I was stupid and I made somepony else suffer because of it.”

For a moment Twilight was unsure of how to respond. The calm tone of her friend was unusual, as well as the fact that she had willingly accepted that she had done something wrong. Normally it took a lot more to get through to her.

Obviously the rainbow maned mare had something on her chest, emotional baggage maybe. Twilight was more than willing to lend her a hoof in that matter.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she carefully offered.

“No offence Twilight, but the only pony that I need to talk to right now is the kid.” she replied and gave Twilight a look that told her not to push the issue right now.

“Well if you ever need an ear, you know where to find me.” Twilight smiled briefly as she saw that Rainbow Dash had acknowledged her offer with a very slight nod. She was just about to turn back towards home when Rainbow Dash groaned quietly.

“Ponyfeathers. I forgot they would be here aswell.”

Twilight looked towards the orphanage and saw Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom exit the building. Both of them sat down and began chatting, awaiting the third crusader to emerge from the door. It was obvious that Rainbow Dash wanted to talk to Scootaloo alone and Twilight smiled at the chance to be able to do something for her friend after all today.

“Leave it to me.” she said and left Rainbow Dash sitting beside the bushes in the shade of the tree.

Rainbow Dash watched Twilight walk up to the waiting fillies and talk to them for a bit. Both of the crusaders looked over to Rainbow Dash briefly before turning back to Twilight. Then they nodded at whatever Twilight told them and the three ponies moved away from the house. After a while they disappeared from her view and all that was left to do was to wait patiently for Scootaloo to appear.

Just a few seconds later Scootaloo came out of the house. She frowned when she couldn’t see her friends outside waiting for her. Her head whipped around in search of them and froze when she saw Rainbow Dash. With a waving motion she beckoned the filly to join her under the tree. She hesitated for a while and finally with a heavy sigh hobbled over to the waiting Pegasus. The frown never left her face causing Rainbow Dash to feel uneasy. Finally the orange pony arrived and sat down, before Rainbow Dash could say anything Scootaloo spoke first.

“Nettie told me you came looking for me.” there was an angry undertone to her voice. Rainbow Dash merely nodded to her question. “And why are you here now? To rub it in perhaps?”

Rainbow Dash defensively held up her front hooves in a calming manner. The filly was not only upset but quite obviously angry. She felt she somewhat deserved it, but she had things to tell her and did not want to risk her running off or shutting herself in.

“Calm down, Scoots. I am not here to do any of those things.”

“Then what? Want to pity the chicken for not having any parents? I don’t want your pity.” Although her wings still hurt from her long flight she flared them open in a pegasus typical fashion when enraged.

“I know how you feel.” Dash said calmly and set her hooves back onto the ground.

Scootaloo laughed at the comment. It was no more than a short barking sound but got the point across.

“How could you understand?”

“I’m an orphan too.” Any anger the filly had felt was instantly replaced with confusion at Rainbow Dash’s words.

“What?” for a moment she thought her ears had deceived her or the fatigue was making her hear things.

“My.. parents died when I was only a bit younger than you. They stuck me in an orphanage in Cloudsdale.” The filly merely looked at the older mare with a confused expression. When Rainbow Dash saw no other reaction she continued.

“I stayed there for a few years, did a lot of stupid and bad stuff and after getting kicked out of flight school permanently I came to Ponyville.”

“Listen Scoots, I have to talk to you about what happened up there on the mountain. Why I…reacted the way I did. What is going to happen next. I…” she struggled for the right words.

“Oh hay… I am not good at this.” In order to get her thoughts straight she rubbed her face with both hooves. Scootaloo drew her own conclusions to what Rainbow Dash meant with next.

“I get it. I remind you of yourself back then. That’s the reason you don’t want anything to do with me anymore right?” her guess was void of any emotion in her voice and she simply kept staring at the mare.

“What? Yes..no..both.” Dash was taken aback by what the filly had said and tried to make any sense of the swirling thoughts in her mind. The filly turned to move away out of Rainbow’s life.

“No,nonono. Wait! Let me explain.” Scootaloo stopped in mid-movement and waited.

“Argh! Just.. just hear me out ok? I am really not good at this stuff so please just wait and see if it makes any sense.” She let out a small sigh of relief when the filly turned back and waited.

“I reacted… oh hay, I am a bad sister ok?” Scootaloo looked even more confused than before. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath before continuing.

“When I was in the orphanage I wasn’t the best behaved. And that’s putting it mildly. I got into all kinds of trouble. I did that because I was angry and above all else alone. One day I was having fun with my mom and dad, the next I was thrown into a home with nopony to help me. I lashed out at everypony there, even though they didn’t deserve it. When I found out that I had my flying skills I hid behind them and thought myself better than the rest. It still didn’t help me from not crying myself to sleep sometimes.” Rainbow Dash lowered herself onto her rump and was now at level with the filly.

“When I would lay in my bed I often wished to have somepony there for me. A friend, a sister, a brother. No matter how hard I wished it never came true. I told myself I did not need anypony else, after all I was the best flyer in the home so nopony could touch me. For a while I believed it myself. I met Fluttershy while in flight camp as you already know. Of all ponies she was the only one that never tried to get on my case or be mean to me. Eventually we became sort of friends, but only real friends when I moved here to Ponyville.”

“You are a lot like me Scoots. Putting yourself in dangerous situations just because somepony told you you couldn’t do it or made fun of you. I did that a lot when I was your age. You even wished for a sister to look out for you. I gotta be honest here, it freaked me out.”

The filly was about to respond to that last piece of information, but Rainbow Dash held up one hoof to keep her quiet.

“Hear me out, please. It freaked me out, because I saw myself in you just wishing for a sister to be there for you and help you through anything that may come your way. You had made me into that what I had always wanted. You should know that I have been trying to avoid you at times. It just scared me being responsible for another pony in that way. I am truly sorry that I did that. If it had not been for… a friend who rattled my brain a bit, I might have never seen what was before me.”

She studied the patiently waiting filly in front of her, desperately hoping she somehow made sense to her.

“I was angry with you on the mountain, because I had just realized what you meant to me and I had almost lost you. My guess is you are still angry with me and you have every right to be, I won’t blame you. But I am here now and I do want to be your big sister, with everything that includes. You just have to sometimes steer me the right way, as I don’t always know what to do. Never been a sister before. Would you want me to be that?”

Neither of them moved or said anything for nearly a minute. Rainbow Dash began having doubts if the filly sitting in front of her was even still awake or sleeping with her eyes open. She sat up on her haunches and wanted to carefully nudge Scootaloo to see if she indeed was still asleep.

Before she could make any such attempt the filly launched herself at the sitting mare and hugged her as tightly as possible with only one good leg. Feeling a massive weight drop from her heavy heart Rainbow Dash gladly returned the hug.

“So I guess that means yes?” she asked with her trademark smirk.

Scootlaloo lifted her head and looked up to her once again big sister with teary eyes. All she could do was nod with a big smile on her lips. They hugged each other for a few moments longer before Scootaloo remembered that they were out in public after all and didn’t want to appear all sappy where other ponies might see them. Oddly enough Rainbow Dash seemed ok with the affectionate display.

“Sorry.” The little filly finally said while smiling up to the cyan Pegasus.

“What for, Squirt?”

“Being angry with you earlier, jumping off the mountain. Basically anything stupid I may have done sometime. I wanted you to be proud of me.”

“Hey, I am proud of you. Jumping into a bank of storm clouds. Using one of them as an improvised scooter. That’s kinda awesome and I’m sure nopony else would be brave enough to do something like that.” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin. As reckless and dangerous it had been it still was something quite amazing.

“But seriously, Scoots. Don’t try something like that again. I would like to be proud of you many more times in the future and jumping from cliffs and mountains does not count.”

“I promise I won’t do that again.”

“I know you won’t.” Rainbow Dash moved back a bit towards the bushes. “There is one other thing. I kinda found your scooter while I was looking for you. Or at least I found what was left of it.”

“Yeah, I figured that it wouldn’t be in good shape after that fall.” Scootaloo said with a hint of sadness. She had that scooter for a very long time until now and had been through a lot with it.

“Not in a good shape is putting it mildly. But I have something for you here.” Rainbow Dash turned to the bushes and rummaged around in them for a moment, before pulling out a brand new scooter.

“I was supposed to give you this on your birthday, but seeing as you are in need of transportation cause of that leg of yours…. I think its ok to give you this now already. We all chipped in to buy you this.”

Scootaloo looked in wonder at the brand new scooter that Rainbow Dash had presented to her. The metal bits glistened in the sun. Dark blue wood polished to a shine without any signs of wear and tear. She respectfully circled around her new mode of transportation taking in every single feature. The tires caught her interest and she carefully prodded one of them. It was inflated.

“Cool, huh? Way better than your old full rubber tires am I right? Oh and check this out.” Rainbow Dash explained and carefully put a hoof on the scooter pushing is down a bit. Scootaloo could see springs move underneath the board.

“It even has suspension! You’ll have a really smooth ride with this baby! You also now have brakes and this cool horn to tell ponies to get out of your way.” Rainbow Dash honked the horn which emitted a sound similar to a duck being strangled.

“Hm… shoulda tried that out before we bought it. Nevermind, we can easily get you a cool sounding horn. So whaddya say?”

“Thisissocool!” the filly said after overcoming her initial disbelief that somepony would actually give her such an amazing gift. She hugged the rainbow maned bearer of gifts. “Thank you Dash!”

“Heh, no problem Scoots. But you have to thank the others as well. It is from all of us.”

The filly jumped up on her new scooter and with a big smile put herself in starting position. A cramp in her wing stopped her first ride before it had even begun.

“Ow.”

“Easy there. You need the give your wings a rest before using them again. Besides you can’t go off on the scooter without a helmet.”

“I lost mine during the avalanche.” She said slightly disappointed that she couldn’t speed off on her new ride. Instead she gave the horn another go causing it to make an even worse sound than Rainbow had made it do. “Yeah… the horn might need a bit of improvement.”

“Don’t worry. I bet by the time your wings are back in business, we’ll have found you a new helmet.” Rainbow Dash said with a wink.

A loud rumble escaped from Scootaloo’s stomach, causing her to grin sheepishly. During the emotional rollercoaster of the day thus far, she had forgotten how hungry she actually was and that her last meal was nearly a full day ago. Rainbow Dash smiled at the slightly blushing pegasus on the scooter.

“Seems like somepony is hungry. Why don’t we head someplace to grab something to bite?”

Scootaloo nodded eagerly in agreement and was about to step off her scooter, but was stopped by a cyan hoof on her shoulder.

“Stay on it. I have a better idea.” Rainbow Dash stepped beside the filly and gently laid a wing over her back. “Sugarcube Corner or the restaurant?”

“Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner first. I want to thank Pinkie and show the girls my sweet new ride.”

Rainbow Dash began walking while using her wing to push Scootaloo along beside her. The filly could not help but grin. She looked over to her temporary engine.

“Do you have another cool story you could tell me until we reach Sugarcube Corner?”

Rainbow Dash smiled and was just about to tell her another Wonderbolt-Tryout story, but hesitated before turning to look at the filly.

“You know something, I have a better idea Scoots. I have done enough talking for a while. Why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself.”

Comments

[Raven]

Most excellent story AND ending.

[tirilee]

Amazing story. It deserves more likes as it has!

[QuantumWalker]

Best. Story. Ever.
Just in the sweet spot between 'da feels' and 'pure entertainment'.
I love that the ponies are really in character (RD is just perfect.).
Would make a nice MLP ep! (although the theme would be a little hard for a show for small children.)

[TheGreatEater]

This had a cute ending. Does it have a sequel?

[Bunnybooze79]

3455794

The theme of Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo is continued in nearly all my stories thus far.
Ponycare would take place a short time after this story, so you might want to check it out.

[TheGreatEater]

3456051

Awesome. If I were to read your stories in order from this one. It'd be Ponycare than wich ones? And the Theme is it with an Adopted Scoots? Or is it random?

[Bunnybooze79]

3456720

All of my stories contain a little bit of Dash/Scoots.
I try to show how they are bonding more and more, until one day...maybe...RD might get a certain idea in her head.

If you read my stories from oldest to most recent you will see a few sprinkles of their bonding mixed in.

Except maybe Dressed for Revenge.

[StarLoverRainDestroyer]

Rainbow Dash honked the horn which emitted a sound similar to a duck being strangled.

set that off near fluttershy and wait for the funniest reaction in the galiscy

[superfun]

This story actually got me to tear up...

[Yumyums23]

So many feels

[Teraunce]

have all the slow claps.

[Crimson Eclipse77]

That was great! Scootaloo and Rainbow got the wake-up call they needed and the family they needed.