Scootaloo woke up a bit differently than usual. Usually, she woke up with a jolt, coming to her senses fast, happy to have surfaced from a nightmare. But today was the opposite of that; she woke up slowly and pleasantly, and tried to hang on to her dream as long as she could.
Scootaloo huddled into a ball, sighing contentedly as she recalled the dream- a camping trip with her one and only idol, Rainbow Dash. The dream ended with Rainbow Dash taking the filly under her wing. Just like a big sister would! It's too good to be true...
It is too good to be true, isn't it? A voice in her head mocked her. She didn’t [really take you under her wing, did she?
Scootaloo felt a tear welling up in her violet eye. Some things just aren’t meant to be, she remembered her parents saying…
Like them surviving the crash, the voice at the back of her head catcalled. Scootaloo tried to shut it down. She fought the tears as best as she could.
Scootaloo's thoughts were slurred and slow from sleep. She wanted to shake her head to wake up a bit more, but her still waking body would not listen. So instead the worried filly debated in her head whether she really dreamed the camping trip or not.
It felt so...real!
Her voice in her head interrupted, Yet…it was just so perfect…too perfect! Things like that just don’t happen in the world. If the world was that perfect, your parents would still be here, you’d have your cutie mark, and you’d be Rainbow Dash’s little sister.
The pegasus squeezed her eyes shut tight. She knew the only way to answer her nagging question about her dream. I must find the answer out myself…
Be brave. Like Rainbow Dash would be. This time, it was her own voice saying something.
Scootaloo counted down from three: three…two…one…and turned over slowly and carefully. She sneezed immediately as blue feathers brushed against her snout. Scootaloo’s violet eyes made her way up the figure: blue feathered wings, a slim, fit figure, deep purple eyes, and that famous rainbow mane.
“R-rainbow Dash!!” Scootaloo tried not to seem too excited but lost control as she threw herself onto the blue pegasus.
“’Morning, kiddo,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, yawning and stretching out on her cloud bed. “Ready for the most awesome day of your life?”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo flung the covers off of her body and scrambled upright. Time for a new life, Scootaloo thought proudly, banishing the voice from her head. It was time for a new way of doing things, and that voice would never help her get started.
Rainbow Dash slipped out from under the covers and waited for Scootaloo to follow. Scootaloo jumped off the bed and hurried after her idol. The fluffy clouds bounced under Scootaloo’s hooves as she trotted down the stairs. Every once in a while, she would look out one of the staircase’s many windows to see the never-ending blue sky. She hadn’t been so high in the sky ever since she had lived with her parents. Scootaloo laughed and realized she felt right at home in the clouds.
Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she found herself in a big kitchen with various stoves, counters, and fridges all molded from the fluffiest cumulus clouds. A wraparound countertop wound around the kitchen area in a semicircle, complete with stools. Scootaloo climbed up on one and sat herself down contentedly. “What’s for breakfast?”
Rainbow Dash took a moment to get two bowls of Apple Jacks, slid one across the countertop to Scootaloo, and let her dig in. Then the pegasus turned on a television that was perched on top of the countertop, and switched it to the weather channel.
A pastel yellow pegasus with a sky blue mane appeared on the television. Scootaloo recognized her as Raindrops. “Looks like Ponyville’s got quite a snowstorm coming their way today, everypony! Watch out for freezing flurries and high winds. Seems like right in time for Hearth’s Warming Eve, too. Stay warm, ponies!”
With that, Rainbow Dash clicked the television off. "I got the weather committee to make it snow for the holiday,” she said sneakily with a sly wink.
"So…awesome!" Scootaloo exclaimed for loss of better words. “Does this mean we get to stay inside and play board games all day or something?”
“No…” the rainbow-maned pegasus paused dramatically. “…we have a giant snowball fight!!”
“Oh…right!” Scootaloo chirped. Together, the pair finished off their breakfasts and got ready for their day outside.
Scootaloo wrapped one of Rainbow Dash’s scarves around her; it was a bit long, and made her head feel heavy. She loosened it a bit, strapped on her helmet, and mounted her scooter. “Ready!”
Rainbow Dash flew down the stairs with her own scarf on (which was obviously rainbow). “Perfect timing,” she remarked, trying not to laugh at the oversized scarf wrapped around the filly’s neck. “Let’s get going!”
They made their way out of Rainbow Dash’s home, trekking across the wide expanses of sun-lit clouds. Rainbow Dash poked a small opening in the clouds just large enough for them to fly through. Then, taking Scootaloo in one hoof and noogying her mane with the other, Rainbow Dash streaked down through the clouds into the open sky below.
Scootaloo was once again awed by the powerful push of feathered wings, up, down, up, down again, creating a sort of rhythm that she had always savored. Snowflakes sprinkled across the sky, and one fell on her nose, tickling it as Rainbow Dash’s feathers had this morning. Quickly, she licked the snowflake off her nose and closed her eyes as she drank in the feel of cold air kissing her face. For the thousandth time, she yearned to fly, and found herself stretching her wings…feeling the air catch on them, she pushed down as hard as she could, then up again. She heard Rainbow Dash gasp, and silently let go, hoping to see her first flight…
…Suddenly the wind was rushing up against her face, and it seemed less gentle and inviting than it had just moments ago. Scootaloo opened her eyes and screamed in alarm: the ground was coming up to meet her, too fast for her wings to react.
She was going to fall.
Like her parents.
Then, out of the blue, a bright rainbow trail shot across the heavens, racing for the falling filly, and Scootaloo let it catch her. She found herself face-to-face with Rainbow Dash again, and she let out a breath, realizing she had been holding it in. “Um…t-thank…”
“I’m so, so, so sorry…” Tears were forming in Rainbow Dash’s eyes, warping her purple irises. Scootaloo wasn’t sure if it was from the speed at which they were moving or the incident that had just occurred. “I thought you were going to…” She stopped talking. Scootaloo realized Rainbow Dash didn’t want to hurt her feelings by saying she failed. As quickly as they came, the tears disappeared. “Nice try, squirt,” she said. “You’ll get it sometime soon. I know it.”
The two were silent the rest of the way; it wasn't the same blissful silence like before. To Scootaloo, this silence seemed more condemning: would she ever learn to fly? Who knew how long Rainbow Dash could last with a relatively flightless companion. Maybe she would need to borrow Tank's propeller...if Diamond Tiara caught wind of it, she'd never hear the end of it....
Lucky for the young pegasus, the rest of the ride to Ponyville went by shortly, and before she knew it, Rainbow Dash was setting her and her scooter down on the soft, cold snow. The blue pegasus cleared her throat for a second, deciding to pretend to forget about the event."Time for a snowball fight!"
Scootaloo swallowed all her troubles and looked up to her idol. "Let's do this thing!!"
Times were tough for Team Scootaloo. The weather was slowly but surely getting wilder and wilder, for one thing. Plus, while Team Rainbow Dash could easily generate 20 snowballs per minute, Team Scootaloo barely made 12 per minute. Not to mention that while Team Rainbow Dash had incredible speed, she also had impressive skill in aiming and firing.
After regenerating snowballs, Team Rainbow Dash would expertly throw snowballs at Team Scootaloo's fort, directly at the weak points. Team Scootaloo's fort was slowly crumbling. At least the snow was coming down harder by the second, to make up for her fort’s missing areas.
As Scootaloo thought about this, she narrowed her eyes and keenly watched Rainbow Dash and her snowball fight tactics. As the wind buffeted her mane, she found her hooves forming a snowball exactly like Rainbow Dash did: scoop snow up, roughly shape it, set it down. Before Scootaloo knew it, she had a big pile of snowballs. Filled with new vigor, she took aim carefully, looking for a weak point in Team Rainbow Dash's fort. There! Over by the corner- a patch of hastily patted-on snow covered up a crumbly area. Holding her breath, she flung her hoof as fast as it could go and watched the snowball arc across the cloudy sky, which was now dappled with thousands of snowflakes. In slow motion, the ball of ice made its way down to Team Rainbow Dash's fort...
"Huh?!" Rainbow Dash cried unexpectedly. It was a fatal blow; half of her fort fell to pieces as the snowball hit the weak spot.
Scootaloo picked up a snowball thoughtfully. One more strategically thrown snowball, and she could actually win! Imagine that-winning against Rainbow Dash!! She needed to take advantage of the situation, now. Quickly, too, as Rainbow Dash seemed to be recovering from her blow.
Scootaloo eagerly checked out her opponent's fort. For the most part, the fort was all sturdy, tightly-packed snow. Then she spotted it- the snow by the corner of the fort was powdered and not sticking together right. This could be my ticket to winning!
Scootaloo aimed as best as she could...and fired.
Just then, a colossal burst of wind pounded against Scootaloo’s ears, lifting her up, blinding her with millions of swirling snowflakes. She heard a yell, and wasn’t sure if it was Rainbow Dash’s voice or her own. Maybe it was both. The wind spun the filly around in circles, leading her in one direction and then throwing her in another. Snowflakes danced around her, seemingly mocking her with their grace, as she tumbled around and back again. The scene would have been pretty, had Scootaloo not been in the center of it. The pegasus felt as if she weren’t in her own body anymore, but that she was watching herself suffer from outside the situation. She wondered if she was dead.
After what seemed like an eternity of being tossed and mocked, the wind died down at last. Scootaloo was gently lowered down to the ground. For a moment, everything seemed black. Then she realized that her eyes had been closed. Once she opened them, all she could see was white. White covered the ground and clouded over the sky for as far as she could see. She imagined flying high up in the sky- she would be a tiny, insignificant splash of color among the white.
A thought crossed her mind- just how far had she traveled? The snow looked untouched, so she couldn’t be anywhere near civilization. All she knew was she should try to go back to Rainbow Dash. But how could she go back if she didn’t know where she had come from in the first place?
It’s a hopeless case…
Well, she could always walk home. Maybe she could count her hoofsteps so she could backtrack and go in another direction if she needed to…. Scootaloo twitched her wings in thought.
Wait a second…
Wings! That was it! “If I somehow learn how to fly, I can fly back home!!”
Back home…home…home… the words echoed across the vast lands of snow. With every echo, Scootaloo wondered more and more about how she would learn how to fly. The most she could manage was a little hovering for a few seconds. How could she all of a sudden fly back home? It could be a long way…too long for her to be able to fly. She started to sink back into despair as she remembered what had happened on the way there. She could have killed herself had Rainbow Dash not been there to save her….
Scootaloo lay down on the cold ground, placing her head between her hooves. Her wings sadly draped over her back, useless. She tried desperately to block the incident from her mind- the hope, Rainbow Dash suddenly letting go, and the fall. She couldn’t risk it again.
The incident stubbornly played itself over and over in Scootaloo’s mind. Scootaloo shook her head after a minute. No more! I can’t bear to see myself fail…over and over….
If you hadn’t freaked out, maybe if you kept flapping your wings hard, you could have stayed hovering, another voice in Scootaloo’s head suggested.
Wait, where did that thought come from? Scootaloo sat up immediately, shaking her head. The event died down slowly, but the voice did not. If you try a little harder, and flap your wings as hard as you can…
“No! I don’t want to put myself in danger!” Great. Now she was stuck in the middle of nowhere and talking to herself. But…the voice was right about flapping her wings harder….
Don’t give up, and don’t get scared. Keep those rules in mind when you fly.
“Who are you, anyway?” Scootaloo couldn’t help but wonder aloud. She had to admit, this voice in her head was a little better than the other one she had had earlier today.
I’m you. Your courageous side.
“Riiight,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes. But inside, she was curious. Maybe this voice could help her get home somehow.
By the way, don’t call me a “voice”. You are giving yourself ideas. I’m you, remember?
Scootaloo closed her eyes and tried to ignore the voice. She needed to brainstorm, and flying was now officially out of the picture.
I guess you don’t want to see Rainbow Dash ever again, then, do you?
“I do!” Scootaloo snapped. “It’s just that…I don’t want to risk flying. I don’t want to fail…or get hurt.”
Then why risk trying to get back home at all?
“Because…” Scootaloo couldn’t find any good comebacks. “Um…” The words sunk in slowly, and a lump materialized in her throat, making it hard to breathe. Her eyes welled up and spilled over. A sob escaped her throat. “I…I don’t know!”
Now, now. Don’t cry. We can do this together.
Scootaloo found herself nodding.
You have to have hope and take a chance. Right?
“R…right,” Scootaloo said, wiping her tears away. If she wanted to get back to Rainbow Dash, she’d need to take a chance.
That’s the spirit! Now, breathe in all your worries…
Scootaloo breathed in…
Now, breathe them all out.
Scootaloo breathed out as hard as she could. It felt strangely soothing. She was ready now. The filly pictured her idol’s face in the sky, and imagined her calling out to her, beckoning to come join her in the sky. “I think… I’m ready.”
Good.
Scootaloo waited. “Aren’t you going to tell me how to fly?” She asked impatiently after a moment.
Oh no, I’m not going to tell you. You must figure it out for yourself.
“But…”
Let your wings speak to you. Tune them in.
Scootaloo obliged, turning off anything going on around her. It was pretty easy, since all that was around her was white.
She knew to stretch out her wings first. She tentatively drew them out, and the wind ruffled their feathers reassuringly. Closing her eyes, she slowly pushed down with all her might.
Suddenly, her hooves didn’t feel the ground underneath them anymore, and she pulled her wings up again. She went higher up still…she didn’t know how high, and she wasn’t sure whether or not she wanted to know yet. Down…up…down…the steady rhythm calmed her. The slight breeze helped her along as she ascended higher into the sky. Her first aim would be to go as high as she could, so she could see more land below.
Okay. That should be high enough.
For a moment, Scootaloo wasn’t sure if the thought belonged to her or her voice. Then, she realized it was both- both voices were united.
More confidence washed over her at the realization, and she smiled and opened her eyes. She saw clouds all around her. When she turned her head, she saw her wings moving up and down without her thinking about it.
Then she decided to look down.
She was very high up- much higher than she had anticipated. She thought she saw a bit of color in the distance, but she wasn’t sure. She marveled in the fabled bird’s-eye view she had always relished in. Somehow, there was a difference between being carried by Rainbow Dash and seeing it and flying herself and seeing it.
Then, out of the blue, a sudden burst of wind blew past Scootaloo, knocking her balance off and sending her back into her memories of the fall. Her wings stopped obeying her, and she rapidly dropped like a stone to the ground.
Just like before…
Scootaloo tried to scream, but she could not make any noise. I’m doomed, she thought as she remembered her previous fall.
Her previous fall.
The ground was rushing up to meet her again…
She remembered the words of advice she had given herself.
Don’t give up, and don’t get scared. Keep those rules in mind when you fly.
She couldn’t believe that had once been her.
If you try a little harder, and flap your wings as hard as you can…
But as she recalled more and more, she began believing: that really was me.
The final thought she remembered was: I guess you don’t want to see Rainbow Dash ever again, then, do you?
“I do!”
Inches from the ground, Scootaloo swooped back up, powerfully pushing her wings up and down again, regaining her rhythm. She laughed out loud in delight as her wings caught on a gust of wind, sending her further up into the sky. She knew that with confidence and a little hope, she could make it back to Rainbow Dash.
After what seemed like only a few minutes of flying, Scootaloo began seeing more and more signs of civilization-houses, buildings, and ponies scattered around the snowy landscapes laid out before her. She could sense that she was reaching Rainbow Dash-she had to be. She remembered that building, that tree, that store, from when she flew her there. However, as soon as she sensed it, the signs began slowly fading away again, and white was all that she could see all around.
I can’t lose hope.
White surrounded her for a while. Scootaloo wondered if she had fallen asleep when she spotted a tiny but significant splash of rainbow.
Gently, she tucked in her wings and dove.
She wondered if her snowball had hit the right spot….