22: I will see my dream come alive at last, I will touch the sky.
I will see my dream come alive at last, I will touch the sky.
Chapter published 28th June 2013
*************************
Late Nov 1216AC
Winter in Ponyville always held its own special brand of magic. The soft crisp snow covered the ground like a blanket of pristine whiteness while the still air carried the bustling sounds of the townsfolk happily going about their business, all wrapped up warm against the seasonal chill.
On the outskirts of town the apple orchards of Sweet Apple Acres stood like towering monuments of white, as if they were standing guard over the immediate area, guarding the local ponies from the untold dangers which might one day venture forth from the nearby Everfree forest.
On the whole it was quiet, peaceful, serene.
Or at least most of it was.
“Come on Scoot. You can give it more than that!” Rainbow Dash yelled at her young protege as the kid’s wings beat furiously, probably more furiously than they’d ever been worked in their lives.
“Come on. Cloud Kicker’s getting away.” The rainbow maned mare screamed in encouragement. “You gunna let her get the better of you? You can catch her, I know you can!”
High over Sweet Apple Acres and just ahead of the young orange pegasus at her tail, Cloud Kicker was flying in an erratic pattern, suddenly jinking to the left or to the right whenever it looked like Scootaloo was starting to get too close. Not far off to her side Blossomforth was acting as her ‘spotter’, calling out warnings and directions to her marefriend whenever it looked like she was in danger of being caught.
In a straight line race Cloud Kicker could still easily outpace the youngster (even though the kid was getting that little bit faster with every passing day) but that wasn't the point of today’s exercise. Rainbow had asked her to continually let Scoot get close enough to almost touch the end of her tail before darting away again to one side.
The boss had said something about young Scoot still needing to work on both her observation and quick direction changes but to be honest Cloud Kicker was just enjoying the game of Tag. Much as she was a mare who liked to do the chasing, sometimes it was just as nice to be the one being chased for once. Life lessons to live by, kiddies.
As Scootaloo darted around the skies in hot pursuit of the older mare, Rainbow Dash was never far behind her young fan, continually shouting out both encouragement and advice in equal measure.
While most of the town’s residents might have written the flighty cyan pegasus off as some dumb jock or big-headed glory hound, for those who’d been paying attention it was easy to see from how she’d helped her young student along over the last year that there was a lot more going on under that chromatic mane than most ponies gave her credit for.
“Kicker...” Blossomforth suddenly shouted from off to Cloud Kicker’s right. “You’re almost out of zone!”
Looking down at the ground far below her, Cloud Kicker could see she was fast approaching the north east orchard’s’ outer fence, which meant she was about to leave the farm’s airspace and lose the game.
“I don’t think so!” The blonde pegasus shouted back, pushing herself with a sudden burst of acceleration before angling her wings for a steep climb.
From her pursuer’s point of view it looked like her quarry had suddenly sped away from her before rapidly climbing up and over the youngster’s head, heading back in the direction she had come from in an amazingly tight half loop.
As Scoot stared up in wonder at the older mare flying over her head and back towards the farmhouse... and upside down as well, Cloud Kicker impetuously poked her tongue out at her pursuer before performing a perfect little half roll to put herself back the right way up, completing a full (and quite stylish) ‘Immelmane turn’ maneuver.
Almost too late Scoot realised she was also about to go out of bounds, which would mean forfeiting the game right in front of her big sister and all-time hero which just wasn’t going to happen.
Not today, no way.
Angling her own wings for a rapid climb, she forced as much power as she could muster into her already complaining appendages. Almost instantly her view of the horizon dropped away and all she could see were clouds, clouds, more clouds, some sky, the hazy winter sun and then the horizon again.
“Oh wow, it’s upside down.” She muttered to herself before realising that the ground wasn't where she needed it to be if she was going to stay in the air. Her wings were still angled to push her ‘upwards’... which wasn’t going to do her any favours right now as her ‘up’ was the rest of Equestria’s ‘down’... and that solid lookin’ ground was coming up to meet her pretty quickly.
“ROLL! ROLL OVER, KID!” Rainbow shouted desperately as her young student started to drop out of the sky. Readying herself for a mid-air interception and pushing her forelimbs forward to grab her young friend if need be, the cyan mare shot forwards. As she came up close to the orange youngster, she could see a look of panic behind Scootaloo’s goggles, though it was quickly replaced by a look of steely determination.
Scoot quickly pushed out with one wing, spinning herself over so she was the right way up before pulling her hooves up tight against her body as she attempted to flatten out her descent.
Bringing herself level just a scant few hoof widths above the snowy field, tendrils of loose snow were pulled from the ground and into the air as she shot across and above the surface, swirling clouds of shimmering snowflakes forming in the disturbed air left spinning in her wake.
Pulling up and away from the field, an anxious Rainbow Dash trailing right behind her, Scootaloo used the speed she had built up in her rapid (though unplanned) descent to fly a few rings around Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker - who had both been hovering nearby in matching states of mild shock - before coming to a stop next to her earlier target.
“Gotcha.” She cried triumphantly as she pushed the base of a forehoof against Kicker’s cutie mark.
Blossomforth burst into laughter as her marefriend just turned to stare at the youngster’s hoof against her flank.
“She’s got a point, Kicker.” Blossom remarked through the tears (of both relief and laughter) in her eyes. “She got you, good and proper. No point arguing. No ma’am.”
Rainbow came to hover next to them, her expression equal parts anxiousness and pride. Seeing her mentor’s arrival, Scoot eagerly rushed to her side.
Many might have said it wasn’t possible to bounce up and down in mid-air with pure excitement but it certainly looked like the young pegasus was eager to prove them wrong today.
“So how did I do, Rainbow Dash?” The irrepressibly exuberant filly cried. “I pulled off that totally sweet move and caught Cloud KIcker! This has got to be like the best practice session ever!”
“Yeah kid, you did great.” RD patted her on the head. Between two humans it might have seemed like a condescending move but for ponies with their more physical and tactile body language it was much more of a congratulatory gesture. “That was a nice recovery you did there. We might wanna work on your rolls and loops a bit more but you did real good.”
As young Scootaloo almost squee’d herself into another dimension at her hard earned praise, Blossomforth put on a playful pout.
“What about us, boss?” She asked, her bottom lip stuck out as far as it would go, the effect even more comical due to the fact that Blossomforth was easily the most serious minded of the three weathermares present.
“Yeah, yeah, you too.” Rainbow laughed. “Your spotting and calls were totally on the money, Bloss’. Plus I was really impressed with how used that lump of cloud as a club earlier. I mean, wow, smack, right in the kisser. Impressive, these days not many pegasi can solidify a cloud by hoof that fast.”
“Yeah, but it was me she hit with it.” Cloud Kicker pointed out. “Not sure what that taught young Scoots here.”
“I dunno.” Rainbow agreed. “Let’s ask her.”
Rainbow turned to Scoot who was still bobbing up and down at this point.
“Hey, squirt.” She asked. “Did you learn anything from Bloss’ hitting Kicker in the face with a cloud earlier?”
Scootaloo gave it a good bit of thought, making a big show of rubbing her chin with a forehoof while arching an eyebrow in the older mares’ direction.
“How about that Cloud Kicker probably shouldn’t have stuck a snowball under her marefriend’s tail when she thought the rest of us weren’t looking?” The young pegasus offered.
At the news that they’d been spotted horsing around earlier, much of the white pegasus’ face heated to a colour similar to the pink stripes in her mane. Rainbow and Cloud Kicker just burst into fits of laughter, both at Blossomforth’s reaction and at the offhoof manner in which Scoot had let them know that the the two lovebirds weren’t nearly as sneaky as they thought they were.
“Okay.” Rainbow added, trying to hold back another batch of giggles. “Apart from that?”
Scoot pondered the question a bit more, sticking the tip of her tongue out of the side of her mouth in that very human manner that she’d picked up from Lero. Rainbow thought it looked darn cute on either of them.
“You have to use what you have to hoof if you want to win?”
“Yep, got it in one.” Rainbow rubbed Scoot’s head again. “Sometimes you gotta think outside the box if you wanna come out on top, kiddo.”
As all four of them floated gently down to the ground where a collection of bags and scarves were hanging from a low tree branch just waiting for their owners to return, Rainbow motioned towards Blossomforth who was trying (and failing) to look calm and composed. “Better watch her, Kicker. I think she’s after your job.”
Cloud Kicker just snorted at the notion.
“What, as your second in command?” Blossom puffed out her chest and spread her wings wide. “Nah, you got that wrong. I’m after your job, boss. I keep telling you, a few years from now and it’ll be my name on the door to your office.”
“Yeah, right.” Rainbow scoffed whilst wiggling her own wings in Blossom’s direction, answering Blossom’s mock territorial display.
This kind of good natured banter between the two wasn’t an uncommon sight recently; Blossom had made absolutly no attempt to hide the fact that she was working towards heading up her own weatherteam and, while she wouldn't admit it, Rainbow was secretly grooming the young mare as her replacement for the inevitable day when the Wonderbolts finally gave her the call to action.
Of course, this didn't mean she couldn’t tease the life out’a the kid in the meantime though.
“You best polish up your moves then, marefriend. With those lame ass wings you couldn’t outpace my pet turtle.”
All four pegasi waited for the almost inevitable ‘TORTOISE’ to come floating over to them on the winter breeze and were all slightly disappointed when it never came.
“Anyway ladies, when you’re both done posturing, me and Bloss’ have to get going.” Kicker pulled her partner close. “My mom’s coming to town today and I said we’d go meet her at the station. She’s bugging us both about ‘finding a good stallion and raising some grandfoals’ for her. Arrrgh. She’s driving me nuts.”
While Cloud KIcker continued to complain about her mom, Blossomforth and Rainbow’s eyes met briefly, a few unsaid words passing between them. When it came to mothers (and the lack of them) the subject was still something of a sore spot for both of them.
“Hey Kicker, you should really cut her some slack, you know.“ Blossom sighed. “She’s still better than having no mom.”
“Bah, you can have her.” Kicker threw her forehooves in the air in exasperation. “She’s pretty much adopted you by now anyway.”
“That’s true.” Blossom agreed even though she still wasn’t completely sure if it was a good thing or not. “Anyway girls, we’d best get going. If we leave Gusty unattended too long she’ll probably try and set us up again with the first poor unlucky guy that walks past. She caught hold of Thunderlane last time and he’s still not letting me forget it.”
As if called forth by their conversation a train whistle could be heard from the direction of the station, the shrill sound carried so clearly by today’s cold, still air that even a non pegasus would be able to hear it right across town.
“And that’s the train, we’d best go meet mom before she grabs the first free stallion she sees.” Cloud Kicker used her wingtips to grab two scarves from the tree, passing one over to her marefriend while throwing the other around her own neck.
“No worries, thanks for helping out, guys.” Rainbow held out Kicker’s satchel so she could slip her head though the loop. “Just keep your mom away from Lero. He’s got three mares already, he doesn’t need you two as well.”
“Ooooh, I don’t know.” Kicker’s face briefly took on that lecherous expression she used to get whenever she was on the prowl back in the days before Blossomforth came into her life. ”I did see him in a pair of rather tight shorts when he started his ‘swim club’ thing for the schoolkids back in the summer. He’s got a really cute butt for a biped.”
Behind her marefriend, Blossomforth just rolled her eyes.
“Speaking of teaching.” Blossom tried to change the subject while Rainbow was still trying to figure out if Kicker was being serious or not. It was just so hard to tell with her. “Hey, Scootaloo, do you want me to teach you how to play Sky Ball in the spring. I’m a pretty good player. They didn’t call me ‘Roof Attack’ back at the orphanage for nothing!”
“Really?” Scoot gushed. “That would be so awesome. Can I, Rainbow Dash? Huh, huh, can I?”
“It’s cool with me kid.” Rainbow nodded. “But it’s your mom you should be checking with. If she’s good with it then I got no complaints. I’m a preeeetty good player myself so we should see if we can get a proper team together. I know Flitter and Stormwalker used to play, and Derpy before she... well, yeah.”
“Oh, this is gunna be so awesome.” Bounce, bounce, bounce... there was much bouncing. Where did the kid get all this energy? “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
After checking their bags and scarves, Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker gave their farewells and headed off back into town. As the pair disappeared over the treeline Rainbow grabbed her own saddlebags, pulling out an energy drink and cupcake each for both her and her eager (and bouncey) student.
The energy drinks were included for obvious reasons and the cupcakes were a good source of extra sugar energy and not as a sneaky reward for her student’s impressive performance.
No, not at all.
And they certainly didn't have extra icing and chocolate sprinkles either.
As they both sat on a log and ate their cupcakes, Rainbow reaching over to wipe some errant sprinkles (that absolutely positively didn’t exist) from Scoot’s face, the older mare motioned in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Flutters’ll be here soon. She’s gunna help us out with slow speed maneuvers. No pony can fly as slow as that mare, not even me, I just don’t have the patience.”
“Why do I have to do it then?” Scoot groused. Flying slowly wasn’t exactly on her list of favourite things, one of many things she shared with her mentor. Scootaloo may have been a late bloomer but there was no way she was going to let that hold her back now.
“Cos flying slow and steady is as important as flying fast and awesome... hey, stop laughing.” Rainbow reached over and gently bopped the laughing filly’s nose. “If you’re gunna be as awesome as me you need to know all the different styles, even the ones that ain’t much fun. Look at all the stuff I’ve had to learn to be in with a shot at the Wonderbolts. At the last round of tryouts they said I almost had it in the bag. So if I work on the bits I’m not so fond of then I’m definitely in with a shot when the next bunch of openings come around in the spring.“
Rainbow remembered the day of the tryouts well. Spitfire’s younger brother, Rapidfire, had come over to her as she was packing up and told her he was impressed with her moves.
An actual Wonderbolt... came to find her... and he liked her moves!
Plus he was one of the hottest stallions she’d ever seen. If she wasn’t a soon-to-be-married-mare she’d have probably melted into a little pool of goo there and then with how hot this guy was.
“Rapidfire said if I can get my cooperative flying down tight and do well on the eggheady stuff like the written and oral exams then he’ll write me a personal recommendation. I gotta practice though, awesome just ain’t enough anymore, I wanna be perfect. If Rapidfire’s gunna be talkin’ me up to his sister then there’s no way in Tartarus I’m gunna let the guy down.”
Rainbow had taken Rapidfire’s advice to heart and had been practicing her flying almost religiously ever since. At least twice a week she’d been dragging Thunderlane and Cloudchaser out over Sweet Apple Acres and running through synchronised flying drill after synchronised flying drill until their wings had been about ready to fall off.
A year ago Rainbow would never have even considered practising her moves with another pony, let alone a ‘competitor’ for a place in the Wonderbolts. But that was then and this was now and with all the hours the three of them had been putting in, supporting and encouraging each other as they went, pushing each other just that tiny bit further with every drill, it looked like all three of them were in with a better chance of making it to the academy than before.
“And you know what they say; practice makes awesome... which I totally am.” Rainbow rubbed her forehoof between Scoot’s ears which the younger mare secretly loved even though she was too much like her hero to admit it out loud. “And it’s you too, kiddo. I can’t believe how good you’ve gotten just in the year since Winsome Falls. You’re almost as good as I was at your age.”
“Almost?” Scoot gave an exaggerated pout much like Blossomforth had done earlier.
“Yeah, almost.” Rainbow laughed, giving the kid a playful slap on the back. “Hey kid, you pull off a sonic rainboom an’ then I’ll say you’re as good as I was. But as only me and one other pony, well technically that was me as well, so okay, only me and another me have done any in the last however many hundred years then you’re gunna have to get up preeetty early to beat ol’ Rainbow Dash.”
Spreading her wings wide she fell forward off of the log and onto all fours, taking a low combat stance as she moved. “And I did one of them carrying Rarity and three sparked out Wonderbolts! Beat that and I will personally crown you ‘Lady Scootaloo, Princess of the Rainbooms’.”
The filly giggled as Rainbow pranced about in the snow, pantomiming a dainty princess receiving her crown, maybe taking a spot of tea as well while she was at it.
“I’ll do one, just you wait and see.” Scoot hopped off of the log to join her hero in the snow. “I’m gunna be totally awesome at it too.” Flapping her wings she ran in circles around her big sis, digging a small trench with her hooves. “And I’m gunna join the Wonderbolts and then you’ll be my captain and we’ll both be totally awesome.”
“Yeah kid, I bet we will.” Rainbow caught the excited filly with her forehooves as she ran past and deftly threw her up in the air, watching as she spiraled back down to the ground again
“Just don’t go doin’ any double rainbooms though. We’re still not totally sure what the hay happened that time I managed to pop a double. Even after Twi got the timeline all snapped back into shape the town still looked pretty messed up. I'm just thankin' Celestia's beard that nothing I broke actually stayed broke.”
Rainbow turned in place, casting her head about as if trying to spot something that might be sneaking up on her unannounced.
“And we still got no idea where the hay that blue thing Pinkie Pie stole went either.”
Satisfied that no... whatever that thing was, was creeping up on her, Rainbow turned back to her student.
“You just gotta belive in yourself, kid. And when you can’t believe in yourself then believe in me, me and your friends, ‘cos we believe in you. And if you do fail...” The cyan pegasus shrugged. “Well, it happens. Just get up and do it again and again and again untill you don't fail.”
Rainbow twisted so she could point a forehoof back in the direction of town, more specifically the direction of the schoolhouse.
“Remember those dumb bullies that told you you’d never fly, well look at you now. They said you’d never get your Cutie Mark and look what you got.”
Scoot twisted her own body to take in her cutie mark; a hoop made up of roaring flames with a golden lightning bolt passing through the middle of it. She’d only had it a few months now and it was still her pride and joy.
When Apple Bloom had received her mark first of all the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had been so sure that the days of the CMC were over and that their earth pony friend would leave them behind.
Their fears had soon turned out to be unwarranted when Apple Bloom had turned up at the clubhouse bright and early the following morning ready for their next great adventure in crusading. That day they’d sworn that no matter what happened in the future, cutie marks or not, the Cutie mark Crusaders were forever.
“It is pretty awesome.” Scoot rubbed at her cutie mark as if to check that it was real, as if one small part of her still couldn’t accept the fact that she finally had a mark of her very own. “I didn’t get it on my own though. Lero helped, I might not have got it at all without him to help me.”
“Well, maybe he did help, but it was you who earned it.” Rainbow poked Scoot’s cutie mark with her own forehoof to help get her point across. “Just like he helped Bloom and Sweetie get their marks too. He’s pretty cool like that.”
“Hey, maybe that’s his special talent, helping other ponies earn their cutie marks.” Scoot’s bouncing had returned with such enthusiasm that she managed to bounce herself clear off the ground permanently and ended up hovering next to Rainbow’s head. “Maybe he doesn’t have a cutie mark because if he did then he’d have like ALL the cutie marks and he just doesn’t have enough room for them all.”
Rainbow laughed at the idea, not because it was silly or childish but because of how great it’d be it that turned out to really be the case.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right kid. Hey, that reminds me, Lero wanted to know if you and your mom fancied coming over this saturday. He’s gunna try teaching Twi how to make that Pasta Carbonara thing with the prawns that you like.”
Scoot clapped her forehooves together at the thought of Lero’s cooking. He always made an effort to include seafood on the menu when he knew she’d be visiting as he knew she didn’t often get it at home.
“Great, I'll ask mom if we can come.” The youngster replied happily. “She doesn't get out much these days, what with all the snow and stuff.”
While the majority of the town’s resident were earth ponies there were a growing number of unicorns and pegasi who’d made Ponyville their home. Scoot’s mother, Quickfix, was one of the town’s number of ‘grounded’ pegasi. She’d arrived in town just over three years ago with her daughter and had soon found her place as the town’s mechanic.
Unfortunately it seemed she’d also found her place as Berry Punch’s main customer.
“So... how’s your mom?” Tact wasn’t exactly Rainbow’s strongpoint so she just came straight out with it. “She still.... er, she still drinkin’?”
“Yeah. But she’s not as bad as she was though.” Scoot kicked at the ground with a forehoof sending a spray of snow quite an impressive distance. “She has good days an’ bad days but she’s getting better. I think you helping me fly’s helpin’. She hates being off the ground, hates flying. She don't want me to see it but it’s pretty obvious. Even when she could get from one side of the workshop to the other with just a couple of flaps she’ll still walk all the way around rather than fly.”
“So, she’s doin’ okay then?” Rainbow wasn’t great at being sympathetic but damn if she wasn't going to give it a go. “You want me to come talk to her or anything? See if she needs anything?”
“Yeah, she’s good, she’s...” Scoot hung her head, not wanting to look her her mentor in the eye.
“No, no she’s not. Since dad died she’s just not been like she was when we lived with the herd. Now she won’t talk to the rest of them and since she moved us both here she won’t even let me see them any more. I think she thinks they don’t like her.”
Scoot shrugged, kicking at the snow some more before lifting her head and catching Rainbow’s eye. Her own eyes held so much pain, so much going on in her life that she didn’t understand or felt utterly powerless to do anything about. It was times like this that Rainbow felt the need to pull the girl into a tight hug.
So she did.
“She’s proud of me though, learning to fly so well in such a short time.” The filly sniffled from within the older mare’s embrace, large blue wings wrapped around her in an attempt to shield her from stark reality of the world, even if only for a few moments. ”She just... she just don’t want to fly herself. I dunno, I think it reminds her of dad too much.”
Scoot had shown Rainbow a picture of her departed father some months ago, a picture she’d had to smuggle out of her house when her mother hadn’t been looking.
Cannonball, for that had been his name, had been a fine figure of a stallion. A tall, lean pegasus with not an extra unnecessary ounce of body fat to his frame, he gave the impression he didn’t even need his wings to outpace even the fastest of Cloudsdale’s flyers and would instead just use his runner’s build to sprint past without even leaving the ground.
Lero had taken one look at his picture, at his sleek build, at his bright yellow coat and silver mane, and declared the guy to look like a “drag strip racer with wings”. Rainbow wasn’t sure what the hay that meant but it certainly sounded about right.
A veteran flyer with the Border Guard, he’d been part way through a tour of duty along the Neighagra Falls some years before when a rather nasty and unplanned storm had touched down along his patrol route.
His patrol partner had spotted an earth pony mare and her foal trapped by the rampaging waters of a swollen river and when they’d tried to pull the pair to safety they’d been taken by surprise by a large amount of debris which had been carried downriver from an accident further upstream.
Both the mare and foal had survived, both scared and shaken but thankfully still in one piece. His partner had lost an eye to a large piece of wood which had essentially ended her career. Unfortunately Cannonball had lost his life.
Not long after the news had made its way back to his herd, Quickfix had packed her bags, grabbed her daughter and left home, eventually ending up here in Ponyville. And as always, Ponyville’s ever active rumour mill had churned out tale after tale, each more scandalous (or just plain dumb) than the last.
One popular story doing the rounds was that the herd’s lead mare had not exactly held Quickfix and her daughter in high regard; another that the herd’s second stallion had ‘inappropriate’ designs on both mother and daughter prompting the mare to flee in the dead of night. Either way, the only thing Quickfix confided in these days was the bottom of a cider mug and the only places she tended to be found were her workshop, Berry Punch’s ‘Good Time Store’ or Frosty Mug’s bar.
Keeping her wings wrapped tight around the young pegasus, Rainbow (not for the first time) felt that there must be more that she could do, that there had to be something she could say, some action she could take, which would help out somehow.
“Hey kid, I know it’s not much but I something that’ll cheer you up.” Rainbow released Scootaloo from her wings and motioned for the youngster to move with her back to their waiting gear.
Patting a log for Scoot to sit on one forehoof while she reached into her saddlebag with the other. “I want you to have these.”
Lifting her hoof from the bag she held out a pair of flight goggles. They were obviously old and well loved, showing signs of both heavy use and great care. The headband was clean and tight, the glass lenses were still crystal clear and undamaged and the gold framework still shone as if they were sitting in a showroom even with the occasional nick and ding in the metalwork.
Scootaloo reached out and gingerly took the proffered eyewear. She wasn't used to being given gifts so was understandably nervous about how to react. Staring in wonder, Scoot turned them over in her forehooves before holding them up to the sky and peering through the lenses.
“Lyra got me a new pair for my birthday, the upgraded model and everything.” The older mare motioned to the goggles currently resting on her forehead. Were it not for the fact they they we obviously newer than the set in her friend’s hooves then they could almost be mistaken for the same pair. “I think she noticed that yours were going to be getting too small for you pretty soon.”
“I bought these with my first coupla’ pay packets when I moved to ponyville.” Rainbow laughed. “Think I might have spent a bit more than I could afford on them actually. Doesn’t matter though, they’ve been good friends to me over the years and now I’d like you to have them.”
“I... Wow, thank you.” Scoot turned the goggles over in her hooves again, the maker’s logo catching the winter sun as she did so.
“Wow.“ she stuttered. “These are Cart-Zeiss. They must have cost a bomb.”
Scoot almost couldn't believe her eyes. When it came to flight goggles then Cart-Zeiss were like the best of the best. She looked up at her mentor, a touch of suspicion in her eyes.
“Just how much is the Weather Bureau paying you anyway?” While she wouldn't come out and say it directly, she wanted Rainbow to know that even a filly as young as her knew how much these would have cost. “And how can I get some of that sweet action?”
Rainbow laughed, she did that a lot around the younger pegasus these days. “Just wow ‘em with ya awesomeness, kid. Worked for me. They ended up just throwing bits at me when they saw how much of a kickass weathermare I was.”
This wasn't strictly true. Rainbow had put herself in debt for those goggles back in the day, to the point where she’d hardly had enough to eat for a couple of months. She’d wanted to prove to herself that she was serious about getting into the Wonderbolts and that she wasn't going to be just a weathermare the rest of her life. ‘Gotta put ya money where ya mouth is’ her dad had always told her. If it hadn’t been for Fluttershy coincidently dropping by on a regular basis with suspiciously large amounts of ‘leftovers’ she’d probably have starved to death within a month.
Lifting her old (and admittedly quite tight) goggles from her head, Scoot slipped her new gift over her ears, letting the frames sit on her nose. It was easy to see that they were too large for her - though not by much - and she grinned like a loon nonetheless.
“Hey, you’ll grow into them.” Rainbow ruffled Scoot’s mane. “You look after them and they’ll look after you.
“I will, sis.” Scoot tilted her head into the larger pegasus’ hoof. “I’ll make you proud of me, just you wait and see.”
“I know you will.” Rainbow moved her forehoof to the filly’s nose and gave it a playful bop. “You got me as a big sister, how could you be anything but awesome?”
If there was one thing Rainbow had learnt from the time she’d been spending with the orange filly over the last year, it was this:
Being a big sister rocked.
“Come on kid, let’s see if we can get a few more of those awesome moves in before Fluttershy gets here.”
*******************
After about half an hour of practicing an astoundingly large number of types of emergency stops (which were totally essential to get the hang of if you didn’t want to spend half your time flying into the side of a library... tree, Rainbow totally meant into the side of a tree) the poly-chromatically maned speedster spotted her stallion making his way across the vast white field, slowly trudging his way towards them through the snow.
Lero was wearing a large woolen greatcoat in olive green with matching gloves that Rarity had insisted on making for him once she had heard that this winter was scheduled to be a harsh one. A thick wooly hat in mint green (horn knitted by Lyra) and long thick denim trousers tucked into a stout pair of walking boots completed the ensemble.
“Hey, it’s Lero.” Waving to grab Scoot’s attention she pointed down towards the ground. Once her young friend had spotted the newcomer, Rainbow put her forehooves up to her mouth.
“Hey, big guy.” She shouted, her call echoing loud enough around the area that it hadn’t needed any help to reach the human’s ears. Pegasi were naturally good at projecting their voices... at a thousand feet up you needed to be.
As he came closer, Lero cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted up at them “Hey, girls. Say, umm, could you both come down here a second, I really need to talk to you.”
At his call the two floated down to the ground, the soft snow crunching under their hooves as they touched down, Scoot pulling off a (rare) perfect landing with each hoof making gentle contact with the ground one after the other. Her hero’s stallion was one heck of a guy and she hated to make any silly mistakes around him if she could help it.
After pulling both of his gloves off and shoving them in a pocket of his coat, the tall human crouched down and put one of his large hands on Scoot’s shoulder. It was only now that Rainbow could see just how upset her stallion looked; the deliberate set of his jaw, the subtle tightening of the skin around his eyes that meant he wasn’t a happy man but was trying his best to hide it.
“Scoot, I've got some bad news. I, err, I just came from Town Hall. Mayor Mare asked me to come find you... there’s been an incident, over by the train station.” Lero said, his voice even and calm, making sure to keep the young pegasus’ eyes on him the whole time. By now he definitely had her full attention though Rainbow could tell that he was struggling with whatever it was he had to say.
“Scoot, it’s your mother, she’s had an accident.”
Taking a deep breath Lero looked like he’d just resigned himself to coming out with what he had to say directly, no more beating around the bush.
“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, honey, but I’m afraid your mom’s dead.”
In the still of the cold winter’s morn, Rainbow was sure she could actually hear the very moment her young friend’s world fell apart.
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
800 users online
657,300 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
*SQUEE*
....damn it dude...
denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw1858-132431147462.png
Yeah, I feel so sorry for that poor chicken now.
You know what? I like the chapters that push Lero more into the background for a little bit. It shows he's not this speshul snowflake but rather has just become part of the world.
Scoot had shown Rainbow a picture of her departed father some months ago, a picture she’d had to smuggle out of her house when her mother hadn’t been looking.
(There's more small mistakes here and there. Perhaps I'll find them later if someone else hasn't by then. Tired, I can't focus right now.)
Neat chapter. Not a fan of tragedy though.
Hmm. Interesting. The Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker shown here clearly have some influence from the Winningverse, but have enough differences to be distinct characters of their own. The Double Rainboom reference is... risky, let's put it that way. And then there's this:
What in the name of all things timey-wimey is that supposed to mean? There's definitely a story behind that, and I want to hear it!
Oh. And dead Scootamom.
Poor girl. I wonder if Dash is up for a transition from sister to mother...
Ug, he's had the whole walk to think about what to say and he flubs it with "your mom's dead." At least spring for "your mother has died" or "passed away." Geez. way to be sensitive Lero.
Xenophilia tells Scoot's story a few different ways, but never once has it been nice and heartwarming. Thanks for continuing the depression train, Quiet.
2791053
Its better to be blunt about things I feel but to each their own.
...dude, did you snag my idea 'pegasi are really good at projecting their voice' from Divided Rainbow, or do we just think alike? :) on another note... Whoa, heavy. Honestly, my mental timeline had always placed scootamom's death far earlier than this- before Scoot had learned to fly, or gotten her cutie mark. What made you decide to put it at this point? Either way, though, hits like a kick to the face.
Blue thingy...
Well I can only guess... What blue thingy that would be....
2791248 Maybe this blue thing...
encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQ92V6tJa-poKFCUijoEqLZpZJbx3ROfakVfdsthzO8nWGIAfg_w
There's a few times when the I in Kicker is capitalized.
Love the Winningverse reference you threw in here. Not entirely sure about the Double Rainboom thing, could never accept it into my headcanon, but whatever. All in all a great chapter with some heavy emotional baggage in there. Can't wait for the next update.
2791248
I imagine it makes a funny noise when you leave the brakes on.
Scoot never seems to catch a break.
I want to know where it was you took classes in drop kicking my feels. Because ow. This needs to be followed up.
Wow, at first I was glad that Scootaloo has parents but then you had to get rid of her mother by the end of this chapter. Darn it just when I was thinking of "YES! Scoot's not an orphan."
Enough with the scootabuse
Why is her life always so tragic! 
2792319
If you look in the one shots, there is a happy ending for her, though it does get worse before it gets better. No idea if TQM will use the idea, though.
So, apparently, the Dead Derpy version of the Winningverse is starting to bleed through into the Xenoverse...
2792578 Nah, I'm pretty sure it's just a ref to Derpy having some sort of derping accident that herps her derp.
2791076
At least the version with Stuntcock isn't so bad.
Title for this chapter:
“I did see him in a pair of [[color=000]i]rather[[color=000]/i] tight shorts when he started his ‘swim club’ thing for the schoolkids back in the summer. He’s got a really cute butt for a biped.”
“If you’re gunna be as awesome as me you need to know all the different styles, even the ones that ain’t much fun. Look at all the stuff I’ve had to learn to be in with a shot at the Wonderbolts. At the last round of tryouts they said I [[color=000]i]almost[[color=000]/i] had it in the bag. So if I work on the bits I’m not so fond of then I’m definitely in with a shot when the next bunch of openings come around in the spring.”
Those directional double quotation marks bug me when they are going in the wrong direction. Is there some word processing program everyone on fimfic uses, that inserts directional quotes, but messes them up? Also, the italics are not a correction, as they're already in the original, I just put them there for easy “copy and paste”-ing.
“Remember those dumb bullies that told you you’d never fly, well look at you now. They said you’d never get your cutie mark and look what you got.”
Their fears had soon turned out to be unwarranted when Apple Bloom had turned up at the clubhouse bright and early the following morning ready for their next great adventure in crusading. That day they’d sworn that no matter what happened in the future, cutie marks or not, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were forever.
Personally, I make cutie mark one word when I write it, but I don't know of any rules that say that this should be done, I just like it as a compound word, as it makes less sense to me when they is separate. Seeing as how I think cutiemark is a common noun, it should not be capitalized. There are exceptions, like when it is used as part of the name: Cutiemark Crusaders. The acronym “CMC” for the Cutiemark Crusaders is a little confusing of course, as it uses the the “M” from cutiemark, but then… Who ever took acronyms seriously anyway? Who started the use of “CMC” anyway? I think that leniency can be given for the Cutiemark/Cutie_Mark Crusaders because it is the name of a group. I suppose it must also be noted that cutiemark is a relatively new word, with widespread inconsistency of it's capitalization and the matter of it being a compound word or not. If you do decide to make “cutie mark” all one word, then you may also have to use an apostrophe at the beginning of “mark” when using it by itself as an abbreviation of “cutiemark”. Ah!
The grammatical joys to be found within brony culture! 
Now she won’t talk to the rest of them, and since she moved us both here she won’t even let me see them any more.
One popular story doing the rounds was that the herd’s lead mare had not exactly held Quickfix and her daughter in high regard; another that the herd’s second stallion had ‘inappropriate’ designs on both mother and daughter, prompting the mare to flee in the dead of night. Either way, the only thing Quickfix confided in these days was the bottom of a cider, mug and the only places she tended to be found were her workshop, Berry Pinch’s ‘Good Time Store’ or Frosty Mug’s bar.
I sense a fellow practitioner of run-on sentences…
I'll call it quits here. If I keep going, I'll probably get progressively more nit-picky with correcting stuff.
2792129
And how long do you think Herd Bellephon will let her stay one?
Though we haven't gotten much about Lyra's family, we know Dash lost her mother, and is rather estranged from her birth herd (just like Scootaloo now). Lero, well his family might be alive, but his marooning on Equestria cuts them off as effectively as death. So yeah, the herd can relate.
simply arrrww... poor scoots... I know that feeling, not in regards of losing your mother but my favorite ant, barely 20 years older than me, far to early. And shocking like hell.
Ok, the circumstances where shocking and pretty fierce, but still I have a pretty good idea how that feels.
2810955 Uh, I assume you mean "aunt", right?
Because otherwise that is one long-lived insect.
2810955 My mom was in the hospital with pneumonia. On April First, 2008, I picked up the phone and the doctor told me my mother had passed on. My world didn't ask much shatter or crumble as it did fall over like a cheap, cardboard backdrop.
Isn't this before twilight becomes a duchess? Why out of order x.x it's probably the worse part about this story.
3189754
That's got to be one of the worst days of the year to get that call as well.
(Sorry for how insensitive that sounds, but it's the first thing that came to mind, and I imagine you may very well have been suspicious of the news on that particular day as well.)
All the same, I am sorry for your loss.