Scootaloo's alarm clock never had a chance to ring. She awoke to a mighty thunder clap and an explosion of nearby lightning illuminating her room. Startled, she threw her arms forward and sat up in bed, letting out a sharp gasp. Rain pattered strongly against her window pane. 'Now is as good a time as any to get up, I guess.' She had a quick breakfast of fruit and a glass of milk.
Once Scootaloo had finished her morning routine she donned her raincoat, gathered her things, and headed toward the barn. Applejack greeted her outside of the barn doors.
“Good morning, Scootaloo. Are ya ready ta have a good day today?”
“You bet!”
“How about a great day?”
The filly stared at Applejack, a look of confusion strewn across her face.
“There's a little surprise waitin' fer ya inside. Why not find out what it is?”
Scootaloo's eyes widened as she smiled ear to ear. Wasting no time at all, she flung open the door and ran inside. As she made her way around the tallest part of the park a multicolored tail came into view. There's only one pony Scootaloo knew of with such style. It was her hero.
“RAINBOW DASH!”
The cyan pony turned around to face her fan.“Hiya, squirt. Word around town is that you're looking for me.”
“Ohmygoshohmygosh! This is so amazing! I can't believe you came!” Scootaloo made exclamations of disbelief for some time before Rainbow Dash interjected.
“So what is this thing you've built anyway? It looks like a lot of nonsense.”
Scootaloo regained some composure, still in shock that she was finally talking to her life-long idol. “Well, it's a scooter park. Everything was put together just so that I could ride my scooter around on it.”
“Really? That's sounds pretty cool! Why not show me a few moves?” Dash raised an eyebrow in a teasing gesture.
“You've got it!”
Scootaloo gave Rainbow Dash a demo of her capabilities on the shiny wooden equipment. Not once did she fall or miss any trick she tried, including things she failed at the day before. Scootaloo came to a sudden stop in front of Dash and Applejack, who had been watching the entire display with her friend.
“That was awesome! You are one crazy filly, Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo blushed deeply and coyly turned her head away from Rainbow Dash in an attempt to hide it. “You really think so?”
“Absolutely! You'll take the gold in your competition and leave everyone else in the dust.”
“You know about the EX Games?”
“Applejack caught me up on all of the details. I really came down here to see what she had built. As far as I know, this is the first scooter park of its kind ever built in Ponyville. But Twilight had mentioned specifically that you were looking for me. So what's up?”
Scootaloo thought back onto her original plan to have Dash clear the clouds so that she might practice outside. Now that she had the scootpark indoors, it didn't really seem necessary. Unless...
“Well, I know you don't exactly run the weather or anything, but do you think you could clear a big enough space in the clouds for all of this to sit outside? I don't want it to get wet, but if I got pictures of me outside with lightning in the background it would look totally epic! The judges would put me in the competition for sure.”
“That's an awful big request Scootaloo,” remarked Applejack. “It would take all of us just ta pull this thing outta tha barn. Then Dash would have ta clear a path as we brought it out. Once it's out there, it might be out there fer good. It'll probably sink inta the mud an' we won't be able ta budge it.”
“If you're worried about the rain, this is the last major storm of summer. Anything after this should be a light drizzle.”
“Ah'm worried about having this thing taking up space behind the barn. I don't want it any place it's gonna disrupt the workflow of tha farm.”
“Well, if it's too much trouble...” Scootaloo started to sniffle and cried crocodile tears. The mares were wise to it, but could tell having the park outside was important to the filly. They gave each other a long look and came to the same conclusion.
“If'n it means that much to ya, we'll do it Scootaloo.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up like it was Hearth's Warming Eve.
“We're just going to wait until Sweetie Belle shows up. In the meantime, why don't you show me where you want to put the park?”
Scootaloo led Rainbow Dash to the back of the barn and opened the door. She went over in great detail where she wanted the park. The idea was to have as little of the surrounding farm in view so that the chances of capturing lightning in the pictures would be greater.
“You know I can drum up some lightning for you on cue. All you have to do is tell me when.”
By the time all the pertinent details were laid out, Sweetie Belle had arrived. The Apple family walked in with her, eager to start the move. Ropes were attached to the strongest parts after Mac had lifted the park enough to get rollers underneath. Every pony except Dash helped drag the wooden behemoth from the barn. The pegasus cleared the skies as they moved it, being careful to be far enough ahead to allow the rain that did fall to fall before the park was in range. Once it had been set in place the rollers were removed and the sky surrounding it was filled back in with cloud cover.
Sweetie Belle wasted no time setting up her camera. Scootaloo followed suit and began a trial run of the line she had perfected while Dash watched her earlier. Rainbow took notes on where Scootaloo would be most often and planned accordingly where to set up lightning clouds.
“Alright everypony. I think it's time to get underway. Sweetie, Dash, you know what to do?”
“My camera is loaded and ready Scootaloo.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let's get this going. I'm missing out on some valuable nap time.”
So the Apples sat and watched an amazing display of both technical skill and personal expression as thunder rolled and lightning blazed through the sky. Scootaloo was in the zone as the sound of Sweetie Belle's whirring camera clicked with precision. After a few hours of hard work on the part of the two pegasi and the unicorn the skies cleared on their own. It was just as Applejack had predicted: the scootpark had sunken into the mud for good.
Pleased with another day of practice, Scootaloo thanked everyone for helping her yet again. "It wouldn't have been possible for me to try without the help of such wonderful, hard working, and thoughtful friends."