Episode Five: What We Leave Behind - [Slice Of Life]
Scootaloo trotted down the dimly lit street as quietly as she could. The Sun hadn't come up enough for her to see properly yet, so she found herself tripping over her hooves more than once. Casting a glance back to the saddlebags swinging at her sides, she idly hoped that she'd packed enough for the trip.
The daunting stature of the train station came into view and Scootaloo narrowed her eyes in determination. Determination which took her all the way up to the double-doors before it decided to up and leave her. She held her hoof just a few inches away from the door as butterflies began to flutter around inside her stomach. But she knew that she couldn't stop now – she'd already come this far, hadn't she?
Gulping down her fears, Scootaloo pushed into the building. The glare of the light made her cover her eyes for a moment, but when she looked up she found the lobby mostly deserted. Other than the unicorn couple cuddled up on a bench at the opposite end of the room, there was only Scootaloo and the earth pony stallion behind the ticket booth, who was idly fiddling with some papers.
She started slowly towards him. Her every hoofstep seemed to echo around the deserted room. Mercifully, nopony looked up to watch Scootaloo – which was just as well because she didn't think she could handle even one set of eyes watching her. Her heart beat ever faster against her chest as she drew up to the ticket booth.
“E-Excuse me,” she muttered. The stallion didn't seem to notice her, which she'd been half-hoping that he wouldn't. She found herself thinking that it wasn't too late to turn around and go home – if she went back to bed now, nopony would ever know she sneaked out in the first place.
With a shake of her head to dismiss the thought, she looked up at the ticket stallion and cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she said a little more loudly. The stallion turned away from his papers to meet Scootaloo's gaze with a look of surprise.
“Oh, pardon me young filly! I didn't see you there,” he said with a gentle smile. “Are you lost?”
“N-no,” said Scootaloo, shaking her head definitively. “I, um... One ticket to Manehattan please.”
The stallion furrowed his brow. “Manehattan?” he repeated quizzically. “You want to board the train?” Scootaloo gulped and nodded a couple of times.
“Yeah. H-How much is a ticket?” she asked, feeling her voice starting to quiver in her throat.
“Um, it's one bit for children, but... you're not travelling alone, are you?” he asked, sounding a little worried.
With a quick nod, Scootaloo shrugged off her saddlebags and turned to rifle around in one of them for her pouch of bits. It was a small comfort that the ride was so cheap – as long as the second part of her journey was the same, she wouldn't find herself stranded in Manehattan.
When she found her pouch, she pulled out a bit and stretched up to put it on the counter. The stallion eyed it uncertainly, biting his lip as he did. “Um, I'm not sure I should take this...”
“I-It's okay,” said Scootaloo with a very forced smile. “I've got lots left.”
The stallion shook his head. “No, no, I mean... Does your mommy know you're here? I'm not sure I should be letting a filly on the train to Manehattan all by herself...”
Scootaloo's heart sank. If she told the truth, there was no way he'd let her on board. But it wasn't right to lie, was it? She might get the ticket stallion in trouble... or she might get herself in trouble. She just stood there, frowning to one side and trying to come up with an answer.
The echoing of hoofsteps came from behind her and she turned her head slowly, expecting to see her mom stomping towards her with a disappointed look on her face. The last thing she thought she'd see was Rainbow Dash, striding across the room with a totally unreadable expression. Scootaloo gawped in fear and awe, even though Rainbow wouldn't meet her eyes. What would Rainbow think if she saw Scootaloo here? Would she repeat the ticket master's question? If she did, then it was over – Scootaloo knew she could never lie to Rainbow Dash...
As Rainbow drew up to the booth, she met the eyes of the ticket stallion. “Me too,” she said simply, unfurling a wing and dropping two bits onto the counter.
“Oh!” cried the ticket stallion, eyes widening in surprise and understanding. “O-Of course, Miss Rainbow Dash! Right away!” He scooped the bits over the counter and into a pot before reaching down to retrieve a pair of tickets. “H-Here you go! Is there anything else I can get you?”
“Nah, we're good. Right, squirt?” said Rainbow, turning to smile confidently at Scootaloo, as she always did. Scootaloo wasn't quite sure how to respond, so she just gave an uncertain nod.
“O-Okay, enjoy the ride!” said the stallion with a nervous grin. “The Manehattan train boards in a few minutes.”
Rainbow Dash gave him a quick smile before grabbing her ticket and turning to head across the lobby, towards the arched door leading to the platform. Scootaloo stood in silence for a moment, still trying to process what had just happened. She only came back to her senses when Rainbow looked back at her from the doorway, at which point Scootaloo shoved the ticket inside her saddlebags, slung them over her back and quickly cantered after Rainbow.
She wanted to say something – to ask Rainbow why she was helping, or if that was even what she was doing – but she couldn't bring herself to do it. When she caught up with Rainbow, she fell into step and together they walked out onto the platform.
A long, businesslike passenger train was just pulling into the station, rattling the wooden platform beneath Scootaloo's hooves. A pair of engineers dashed over as the train came to a halt and climbed into the car at the back, presumably checking to see that the train was in fit shape for its next trip.
Rainbow trotted over to a bench beside the lobby wall and hopped up onto it, crouching down to settle in and rest her eyes while she waited. Scootaloo followed her up to the bench but didn't climb up next to her, she just stared in question.
“So, Manehattan huh, squirt?” said Rainbow, eyes still closed. Scootaloo's gaze fell to the floor nervously. When she didn't answer, Rainbow went on. “You hoping to make it big in the big city or somethin'?”
“...No,” said Scootaloo after a moment. “I'm just stopping there before I go to--” She broke off. “--Where I'm going,” she finished lamely. Rainbow grunted and gave a vague nod in confirmation, though Scootaloo suspected that she wouldn't be content to settle for that answer.
They waited in silence for a while, as a small group of passengers departed the train and made their way into Ponyville with lazy, early morning smiles on their faces. They didn't pay any mind to Scootaloo as they passed, though she watched them idly – wondering if any of them were in similar situations to herself. But she doubted it...
“Does your mom know where you're going?” asked Rainbow.
Scootaloo hesitated before hanging her head shamefully. “No.”
“Does she even know you've left?”
Scootaloo shook her head. Of course, she would've liked to say goodbye to her mom, but she knew that, if she had, her mom would never have let her go. She hoped that the note she'd left would be enough for her mom to know that she was safe...
Rainbow said nothing else, so the two of them fell into silence again. Soon, there came a whistle from the head of the train. “Now boarding for Manehattan!” yelled a stallion outside the door from which the other passengers had left.
Rainbow cracked an eye open, looking first to the stallion, and then to Scootaloo in a silent question. Scootaloo gave a slow nod before starting towards the train, hearing Rainbow's hooves clop down onto the platform behind her. Together, they made their way past the smiling stallion and into one of the train's passenger cars.
The car was empty except for the two of them – so Scootaloo settled herself onto a firm couch inside one of the compartments and Rainbow took the seat opposite her. Scootaloo eyed her curiously. Rainbow looked back with a nonchalant smile.
“...Aren't you here to take me back home?” Scootaloo found herself asking.
“Who, me?” said Rainbow, as if Scootaloo could have meant anypony else. “Nah, I've got some stuff to take care of in Manehattan too. Just thought we could go together.”
The lie was obvious, even to Scootaloo, though Rainbow clearly didn't put much effort into it. Lying wasn't exactly a very nice skill to practice anyway...
“So, you're not going to tell me how dangerous it is to go alone? You're just going to go with me to Manehattan?” said Scootaloo sceptically.
“Why not?” said Rainbow with a shrug as she turned to look idly out of the window. “Besides, it's not like I'm the one to tell you not to do something because it's dangerous,” she added with a little smirk.
Scootaloo wanted to chuckle at the joke, but it didn't really feel right. She looked down at the table and sat quietly while she waited. It seemed like forever before the train finally whistled again and jerked forwards, signalling the start of their journey. She looked to the window, outside of which the platform was slowly sliding away... being left behind – Ponyville along with it.
Ponyville... Scootaloo knew that she would leave someday, but she never thought that it would be like this. On the other hoof, she never thought that it would be with Rainbow Dash either. Though they wouldn't be staying together for very long, it was still a little comforting to know that she wasn't alone yet.
“You going to tell me where you're headed?” said Rainbow Dash, snapping Scootaloo back to reality.
“...Cloudsdale,” said Scootaloo reluctantly. “To join flight camp.”
“Huh,” grunted Rainbow, sounding mildly surprised. She opened her eyes and cocked her head at Scootaloo. “Does that mean your wings are working? How'd I miss that?”
Scootaloo hung her head. “No,” she admitted. “But there has to be somepony there who can teach me!”
Rainbow gave a little chuckle. “Uh, and how're you planning on getting up there without your wings?” She paused for a moment in thought, then nodded. “Ah, I get it – you're going to Manehattan so you can catch a balloon, right?”
Scootaloo gave a grunt and a nod. It had seemed like a good plan at the time – leave before dawn, arrive in Manehattan for midday, then catch a balloon and get a room in Cloudsdale before it got dark. Nopony was supposed to be the wiser to her plan – not even Applebloom and Sweetie Belle – but she saw little point in keeping the whole thing from Rainbow Dash now.
“I just want to learn to fly,” she said, looking up at Rainbow pleadingly. “Then I can come straight back to Ponyville!”
Rainbow frowned and turned to look out of the window. “You know it can take a long time to learn, don't you, squirt?” she said solemnly. “Even if there's somepony up there who knows what's up with your wings – if there even is anything up with them – it could be years before you finally nail it.”
Scootaloo said nothing. She'd been telling herself that it would be a quick fix – weeks or months at the most – but she knew that that was just a fleeting hope. Years before she saw Ponyville again. Before she saw her friends again. Before she saw her mom again...
“You know,” said Rainbow, turning to her with a smile. “I totally respect that.”
“W-What?” Scootaloo stammered in surprise.
Rainbow nodded reassuringly. “Yeah – chasing your dreams and all that. It's cool – I did the same thing when I was your age.”
“Really?” said Scootaloo, leaning forwards all of a sudden. “But... I thought you grew up in Cloudsdale...”
“Uh huh,” said Rainbow with another nod. “And I was in flight camp since I was pretty young – top of my class!” she added with a proud smirk that quickly wavered. “Well, sort of.”
“But then where did you run away to?” Scootaloo asked. As the words left her lips, she felt a little lurch in her stomach, but she managed to shake it off quickly enough.
“The Skyhaven Academy for Gifted Fliers,” Rainbow recited with a little smile. “AKA – fast track to joining the Wonderbolts.”
“Wow,” breathed Scootaloo in awe. “Skyhaven, really?”
Rainbow chuckled. “Of course! This is me we're talking about, remember?” she said confidently. “My Sonic Rainboom caught the eye of one of the Academy's scouts. She said that, if I wanted a place in Skyhaven, all I had to do was ask. Ah, man – back then it felt like the most awesome day of my life.” Her smile began to grow as she continued her recount. “I flew straight back home and told my mom. We stayed up all night talking about it – what Skyhaven would be like, how I could join the Wonderbolts when I was finished there, all that stuff...”
As Rainbow paused and turned to look out of the window, Scootaloo could swear that she saw her smile falter a little. “But, uh, I didn't want to wait,” Rainbow continued. “I figured 'what's the point in trudging through flight camp when I can just go straight to Skyhaven?' I knew I was good enough so, a couple of days later, I dropped out.”
“You dropped out of school?” said Scootaloo, eyes wide.
“Yeah,” Rainbow confirmed, looking back at her with a smirk. “And I don't regret it for a second – that place was holding me back, leaving was the best decision I ever made. Even if my mom said it was a dumb idea at the time...”
“Was she mad at you?” Scootaloo found herself asking.
“Nah, just disappointed,” said Rainbow indifferently. “But she got over it soon enough – once she figured out that I wasn't going to change my mind. She actually backed me up after that, and she even helped me pack for Skyhaven. It was... pretty awesome of her,” she added with a smile. Scootaloo returned it faintly. She wondered if her mom would've helped her out if she'd let her in on the plan...
“Anyway,” Rainbow went on. “Skyhaven was so cool – even better than the stories everypony used to tell about it. In just the first few days, I learned so much about flying and performing... The Wonderbolts even came in to hang with us sometimes – I'm telling you, it was like a dream come true.”
“It sounds awesome!” said Scootaloo with a grin. “I bet the Wonderbolts thought you were great, right?”
Rainbow opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her smile faded a little and she turned her head. “Yeah, I bet they would have,” she said quietly.
“Would have?” Scootaloo repeated in question. “What happened?”
“I left,” said Rainbow abruptly.
When she didn't elaborate, Scootaloo felt herself growing more curious by the second. “Why?” she asked before she could stop herself.
Rainbow stayed quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful as she stared out of the window. “As awesome as Skyhaven was, there was always going to be one thing wrong with it, y'know?”
Scootaloo racked her brain for what Rainbow could be talking about, but came up with a blank. “No?” she tried uncertainly, though she knew that Rainbow hadn't really meant it as a question.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “It wasn't home,” she said, a little smile forming on her lips. “Sure, there were a lot of jerks in Cloudsdale, and I sure as hay didn't go back to flight camp – like I said, dropping out was the right thing to do. But there were some things back there that were special – that I wasn't ready to leave behind.” She turned to smile at Scootaloo. “Like my mom.”
Scootaloo felt another, more powerful lurch in her stomach. She tried to pass it off as motion sickness, but lying to herself was just as pointless as lying to Rainbow Dash. She turned to look idly out of the window – over the rolling, grassy hills outside. The Sun was just starting to lift up over the horizon, teasing the whole scene with a gentle, orange glow.
“But what about your... dream?” said Scootaloo thoughtfully. “Did you just give up on it?”
Rainbow scoffed. “Give up? C'mon, squirt – when have I ever given up?” She met Scootaloo's eye with a smile again. “Sure, I might've lost the chance of joining the Wonderbolts when I was a kid, but that doesn't mean I'll never join them. Back then, there were just... more important things to worry about than dreams, right?”
Scootaloo gave a thoughtful grunt. 'More important things.' Like friends, like family... was learning to fly really more important than spending more time with them? Earlier that morning, she would've said 'yes' for sure – after all, she could always come back and see them later, right? But Rainbow's recount had gotten her thinking...
She had to gulp down a nagging worry inside of her before she could make herself ask the next question – knowing full well that the answer might not be what she wanted to hear. “Do you regret it?” she asked shortly. Rainbow furrowed her brow and gave her a questioning grin. “I-I mean, if you could go back and do it again, would you?”
Rainbow gave an “Ah,” of understanding and looked up in thought. “You know what? I think there is one thing I'd do differently.”
“W-What?” asked Scootaloo.
“I wouldn't go to Skyhaven,” Rainbow replied simply. “When I think back on it, I guess I'd just want to spend more time hanging with the ponies that mattered. That's way more important than learning a couple of tricks that I would've picked up on my own anyway – it just took me a while to figure that out, y'know?” She offered Scootaloo a meaningful smile. “Dreams can wait – it's more fun if you have to work for them anyway.”
“More fun,” Scootaloo repeated with a humourless chuckle. This was decidedly not fun – the thought of leaving Ponyville, her friends and her mom behind... was it really worth it to risk that, just so she could learn to fly a few years earlier? When she really thought about it, it was an easy question to answer – it probably would've been so even before she'd heard Rainbow's story, but that just helped to hammer it home.
Rainbow Dash extended a kind hoof to Scootaloo, holding it just out of reach. Scootaloo eyed it thoughtfully. It was obvious now that Rainbow had followed her just to share that story, and the decision before Scootaloo was now plain – Take the hoof and go back home without another word, or simply shake her head and leave Ponyville behind.
She took the hoof.
With a wordless smile, Rainbow helped Scootaloo out of the compartment. She crouched down so that Scootaloo could clamber up onto her back, ready for the journey home. Once Scootaloo had locked her hooves around Rainbow's neck, Rainbow trotted over to the window and slid it open with a hoof.
The wind boomed past Scootaloo's ears and the sound of the rattling train wheels against the track was suddenly overwhelming. She shut her eyes and pulled herself closer to Rainbow Dash as they took to the air, and soon the sound and the rushing of the wind both began to settle into a gentle silence.
When Scootaloo opened her eyes again, she and Rainbow were soaring through the morning sky, back towards Ponyville – where Scootaloo's mom was no doubt waiting eagerly... probably to ground her for running off in the middle of the night without a word. But that wasn't so bad, was it? After all, dreams could wait...
A thought suddenly crossed Scootaloo's mind as the two of them drew close to home. “Hey, Rainbow Dash?” she called out.
“What's up, squirt?” came Rainbow's voice from beneath her.
“What was the other thing?” Scootaloo asked curiously.
“Other thing?” Rainbow repeated.
“You said there were things that were special to you back in Cloudsdale. One was your mom, but what was the other thing? Or things?”
“Oh, right,” grunted Rainbow in understanding. “Yeah, there was another thing,” she admitted. “A really, really special thing...”
“What was it?” Scootaloo asked impatiently.
Rainbow just chuckled. “That's a story for another time, squirt. If you stick around long enough, you'll hear it.”
Scootaloo frowned at that. “Promise?” she pouted.
“Promise!”
~FIN