//------------------------------//
// To be forgiven 
// Story: Life in a slower lane. 
// by JuyUnseen 
//------------------------------//


To be forgiven.


For at least a week before the date of the Ponyville talent show, the town was already abuzz with talk. Ponyville was a quiet town, so even a small show or performance could get the residents excited. The occasional flier hung, taped to a window, but the real source of excitement was word of mouth.

Last year’s show had been interesting to say the least. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had stolen the show, for better or for worse. Their ‘rock opera’ had led to the destruction of an entire set, along with the stage’s curtains and multiple floorboards. Needless to say, the only pony happy with the outcome was the town carpenter.

Although the performance had left much to be desired, the stage had been completely rebuilt, which meant that this year’s performance would be on a newer, bigger stage, and that fact alone was enough to excite everypony.

Most of the foals had entered before winter, giving them an entire season to practice their acts, but Scootaloo had only submitted her entry slip days before the performance lineup had been made. Because of this, she got shuffled into the order as last act, and that was perfectly fine with her.

“Do you have your bag?”

“Yes Fluttershy.”

“And your lunch?”

“Yes.”

“Your record?”

“Yes I… no! Where is it?”

Scootaloo dashed over to the shelf where the musical disks were kept.

Her’s wasn’t there.

“Oh no oh no oh no! What if I lost it?!?”

The filly began dashing around the living room, searching high and low, low and high.

“Calm down,” Fluttershy giggled, “It’s right here.”

The yellow pegasus lifted it off of the record player and passed it to Scootaloo.

“Oh thank Celestia…” Scootaloo sighed as she placed it into her bag, “I thought I’d lost it….”

She gave Fluttershy a hug.

“Thanks~”

“Oh, no trouble.” 

Fluttershy smiled. Seeing the filly happy was enough to warm her heart.

“So, you’ll be back before dark right?” Fluttershy asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
Scootaloo simply rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I promise.”

“And don’t do anything too dangerous.”

“I’m just going to practice.”

“I know but…”

“Don’t worry.” Scootaloo smiled up at her mother figure, “I’ll be careful.”

With another quick hug, Scootaloo was on her way. Her scooter rocketed down the path towards town as she headed towards the stage.

She had been getting in practice time on a real stage in preparation for the actual performance. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had been on spotlight duty, keeping it trained on her friend as the filly became an orange blur of pirouettes and leaps.

Scootaloo felt a rush as she arrived and stepped onto the stage.

It felt completely natural.

In one motion she swung her saddlebag onto the wood paneling and opened the top. Inside lay three things.
First, there was her lunch, a sandwich and thermos of juice. Simple enough.

Second, there was her record. It was a mystery to her how so much sound could be stored on so small a disk. She set it to the side, revealing the third thing in her bag.

Her dress.

It was possibly her most cherished possession. It had been less than a week ago when Fluttershy had returned from her early morning trip to Carousel Boutique with a bag containing the wonderful garment.

It was bright red, with three layers of fabric for the skirt, each longer than the one on top, and bordered with about an inch of white fabric.

The sleeves were short, barely going past her shoulders. They were layered just like the skirt, but poofed out more.
The belt was black, with an intricate design of leaves and swirls running along its entire length.

It was perfect.

Scootaloo donned the dress, and became an entirely different filly.

She changed from Scootaloo, the orphan;

Into Scootaoo, the dancer.

She couldn’t wait a moment longer to begin her practice.





Atop a cloud, sat a cyan form.

Rainbow Dash lay back in a reclined position. If any of her friends has seen her there, they would have suspected her to be slacking off or napping, which, on any other occasion, she would have been.  But not today.

Today, just like every day prior for almost a week now, she was waiting; waiting for the telltale sound of music to announce that a certain orange filly had arrived.

Rainbow Dash had been much more upbeat this past couple of days. Her time was spent working, practicing her tricks, and, in secret, watching Scootaloo practice her routine.

Rainbow Dash had never been one to enjoy dance, it was too slow for her, but in the hours spent watching the filly practice, she had to admit that it was rather impressive. There was something about the flow of the act that brought to mind her intricate aerial routines. Yet, when compared to the dance, Dash’s routines seemed… rough. They lacked the grace that gave the dance its appeal.

Either way, Dash now knew the routine down to a T. She had the music memorized, down to every last note.
Her plan couldn’t have been more perfect.

It was exactly what Scootaloo needed.

Her dance alone was good, but Dash knew that she could make it shine.

The music floated through the cottony cloud, into Dash’s ear. The pegasus smiled.

It was time to watch once more.





Scootaloo ran her routine three times before breaking for lunch. She had worked up quite a sweat, and with it an appetite. 
She sat down, still wearing her dress, and dug into her lunch bag. The sandwich was downed quickly, as was the juicebox, but as she moved to throw the bag away she felt something else rattling inside.

With a quick glance, she discovered a hidden treat in the bag. A single, heart-shaped cookie, topped with colored sugar. Scootaloo grinned at Fluttershy’s secret gift, and quickly ate that too.

She rested for a time, letting her food digest.

She stared up at the clouds. She enjoyed watching them lazily drift overhead. There had been a time when she would watch the clouds, hoping for a glimpse of Rainbow Dash, but those times were long gone.

Rainbow Dash…

Her memories of that rainbow-maned Pegasus were varied. Some were good, but others were painful. It always seemed to be the painful ones that surfaced when Scootaloo’s thoughts turned to the pony that used to occupy her dreams.

With a sigh, Scootaloo got back on her hooves, intent on practicing at least once more before heading home, but as she did she caught a glimpse of something in the cloud directly above her.

It had looked like a pony’s face darting out of view.

A blue face.

Has Rainbow Dash been watching me?

The thought made her happy, no matter what her feelings to the pegasus might actually be.

She returned to her practice with a redoubled effort, intent on putting on a real show for her possible audience.





The two days left until the talent show blurred by. Scootaloo practiced and practiced until she felt confident that she could perform her routine in her sleep. Her days were nothing but sleep, practice, and meals with Fluttershy and Angel.

It had been one of the most tiring weeks of her life.

She loved it.

The night of the show was a flurry of activity at Fluttershy’s house. Scootaloo seemed to have misplaced everything. The record wasn’t on the player, her bag wasn’t at the door, and her dress wasn’t hanging up where it usually was.

“Have you seen my bag?”

“Um… no. Try checking under your bed.”

“But I already looked there.”

“Well… try again?”

“Found it!”

“And where was it?”

“Under my bed.”

“But you said you already looked there…”

“... uh... Fluttershy? Have you see the record?”

Fluttershy sighed. The stress of getting out the door was quite a lot more than she had imagined, but with time they were out the door and headed down the path towards the town, and the stage where ponies were already gathering.

The two of them made good time, and Scootaloo was ready to go backstage and get into her dress when Fluttershy stopped her with a hoof on her shoulder.

Fluttershy kneeled down to eyes level with the filly, and opened her mouth to speak.

“Are you um… nervous?”

Scootaloo nodded, “A little.”

“Don’t worry. You’ve worked hard for this. Whatever happens, I’ll be proud of you.”

Fluttershy gave the smaller pony a quick hug before shooing her backstage.

“I’ll be cheering you on.”





Fluttershy made her way through the crowd out front of the stage. Almost all of Ponyville was in attendance.

Crowds like this usually intimidated poor Fluttershy, but not tonight. Tonight, the only thing that mattered, was seeing Scootaloo preform.

Amongst the crowd o pastel coats, one pony stood out. Fluttershy weaved her way through the crowd to Rainbow Dash’s side.

“Oh, you came. That’s so wonderful! Scootaloo will be so happy.”

Rainbow Dash smiled at her friend.

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

The lights around them dimmed, signaling that the show was about to begin. They sat, side by side as the first act prepared itself to go on stage and begin the show.

They were both excited.





Scootaloo got backstage and changed into her dress as quickly as possible. Once changed, she dropped her record off with Vinyl Scratch, who had volunteered to take care of the music for the show this year.

“Please don’t scratch this one.”  Scootaloo pleaded to the D.J. pony.

“Hey,” She laughed, “Just because that’s my name doesn’t mean that’s all I do. Your record will return to you in one piece. I promise.”

Scootaloo thanked the D.J. and headed to the waiting area, she had quite a long wait ahead of her. She was the last act after all.

A half hour passed, and only nine of the twenty acts had gone. Scootaloo was getting anxious. She hadn’t been expecting for it to take this long.

What if I mess up?

You’ll be fine.

But what if…

You’ll. Be. Fine.

It took her a moment to realize that she had been arguing with herself.

“I need to calm down. The stress is going to my head.”

She continued to sit, waiting, growing more anxious with every passing minute. As she waited, the few others who remained in the waiting room slowly disappeared until she was all alone.

Then it was time.





The second to last act finished up on stage, and the performers packed their things. The stage was clear, and a spotlight ready.

Fluttershy stared, excited. It was time finally; time for Scootaloo to shine.

“Are you ready Rainbow Dash?” She whispered to the pegasus next to her.

Only Rainbow Dash wasn’t there. Her spot was empty.

She had left.

She had sat every other act, but was going to skip out on Scootaloo's

Fluttershy felt a pang of sadness in her heart. Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to go through with it. She wasn’t here to cheer Scootaloo on.

She wasn’t going to keep her promise.

She was going to be disloyal.

Fluttershy’s saddened train of thought was interrupted when the music started. It began, soft and low as a small orange figure trotted to center stage.

Scootaloo’s dress shined under the spotlight, a ruby at center stage.

Then, the music jumped, and so did Scootaloo. Her routine began to bring across the stage, from end to end. She danced her heart out, banishing all of her nervousness with her first few moves.

She was a blur of motion and grace, flowing across the stage, leaving no floorboard untouched.

The music ebbed and flowed, like tides on a beach, and Scootaloo was the sea breeze, flowing along the sandy banks.
The routine progressed, and the music built.

Then, with the final pirouette and the crescendo of the music, something happened.

Just above the stage, a rainbow exploded, as if it had been summoned by the orange filly’s dancing.

She held her final pose, and stared in shock at the wave of color that seemed to exist only to highlight her existence.
Silence.

As the rainbow began to fade, and motes of light began to twinkle down onto the crowd, the awe-struck ponies that made up the audience exploded into applause.

Scootaloo nearly cried. Never in her life, had she felt so truly happy.

With a bow, she left the stage, heart soaring.





Being the last performance, the night had already fallen around Scootaloo’s routine. It was the perfect cover for Rainbow Dash’s plan. 

She had told nopony about it. Nopony had any idea what she was planning. She watched the performance from the sky, waiting for the perfect moment in the routine she knew so well. Then she descended towards the stage below.

Never in her life had Rainbow Dash performed a trick to do anything but draw attention to herself. That’s what the tricks were meant for, to draw attention to their performer, but not tonight. Tonight’s Sonic Rainboom was for one pony only. It was for Scootaloo.

Of course, even though nopony in the audience had any idea where the mysterious rainbow had come from, Scootaloo knew the instant she saw the sky light up.

Rainbow Dash had done something for her.

For her alone.

As she stepped out of the changing room, two pegasai waited for her, one yellow, and one blue.

“Hey Squirt…” Rainbow Dash murmured, softly hugging the filly back.

“Rainbow Dash… thank you so much.”

The Rainbow pegasus took a step back and smiled at the filly.

“It was nothing. Nothing you didn’t deserve anyway.”

“Listen… Rainbow Dash… I…”

But she was cut off as a magenta pony interjected into their conversation.

“Scootaloo,” Cheerilee chimed, “It’s time for the award ceremony”

“Oh, um…”

Scootaloo looked from Cheerilee to Rainbow Dash until the cyan pegasus nodded.

“Go on. You deserve whatever you get.”

With a smile plastered onto her face, Scootaloo followed her teacher back to the stage, and once there, she waited.
The awards were handed out one by one. Best magic show, best comedy routine, all the usuals were there.

But one was given out that hadn’t been in last year’s set, a medal that the situation for its awarding hadn’t arisen in years.

“Our final award for the night,” Chimed Cheerilee, “Goes to… SCOOTALOO!”

Scootaloo gasped. She couldn’t think of any award she would have won.

“W-what did I get?” she asked, dashing towards her teacher.

With a grin, Cheerilee produced an award the little filly had never seen before.

“You’ve won, the Cutie Mark Award!”

She was dumbfounded.

“W-what?!?!”

With a sly grin Cheerilee pointed to Scootaloo’s flank, and sure enough, there it was.

Her Cutie Mark.

Depicted on her flank were two ballet shoes, each pale yellow with pastel pink straps, Fluttershy’s colors. But these weren’t normal ballet shoes, they were winged, and the wings were cyan.

Fluttershy’s colors were there to keep her hooves on the ground, and Rainbow Dash’s wings for when she wished to soar.
As the medal was placed around her neck, the crowd exploded into applause once more, but two voices stood out louder than any of the others.

“Way to go Squirt!”

“WooHoo! She did it!”

Those two pegasai cheered loudest, and it brought a tear of joy to her eye.





Scootaloo returned home that night; home to Fluttershy’s cottage, or in Scootaloo’s mind, her mom’s cottage, although those words never were said aloud. Even so, Scootaloo sensed that Fluttershy thought something similar.

The filly fell asleep with a smile on her face. This had most definitely been the best night ever, and tomorrow could only be better.

Rainbow Dash had promised her some flying lessons, seeing as her wings were finally big enough.

Scootaloo had asked for only flying lessons though, no tricks or stunts. She was a dancer after all, not an acrobat.
The filly ran over her schedule for the next day.

Wake up,

Get breakfast,

Feed the animals,

Maybe go crusading with her friends,

And finally, Fly.

And thus began Scootaloo’s new life.

The end.






Author’s note: Here it is. The shiny new rewritten ending. I hope you enjoyed it.
-Juy