“Hey, Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash called as she walked through the door to their house. “Come here, I need to talk to you about something.”
Scootaloo came down into the living room and looked at Rainbow with a smile, “What is it sis?”
“Well, you know that winter wrap up is coming soon,” Rainbow started explaining, “I was just at Mayor Mare’s office, talking about the teams and everypony’s jobs.”
“And?”
“Well, we were handed out the vests that tell you what team you’re on to give to everypony on our team and there’s one here for you.” Rainbow finished with a smile handing the blue vest to Scootaloo. “This year you’re on my team kiddo.”
“Cool! What am I going to be doing?” asked Scootaloo tilting her head to one side.
“Well, because I’m the team leader and because you’re my sister, we are going to be overseeing every Pegasus as they do their jobs and we’ll be helping when needed.”
“Oh, okay…” said Scootaloo dropping her head a little.
“Hey, don’t be sad about it, it’s training for taking over my position eventually.” Seeing as how this didn’t cheer her up she said, “I know what will make you feel better, we’ll be part of the main cloud busting team, and I know you like cloud busting.”
Scootaloo looked up and smiled at Rainbow happily. “Alright!”
“Come on, let’s go and have fun in the snow while we still have the chance.” Rainbow said as she turned and took off back out the door.
Scootaloo’s alarm went off with a sharp ring, she quickly smacked it with her hoof and sent it flying through the wall. She got up, rubbed her eyes and looked around her room, she saw the hole and blushed, quickly covering it up.
Fluttershy fainted as she saw the small alarm clock fall right in front of her face and land in the snow right where she was about to step.
Scootaloo, unaware of poor Fluttershy almost getting hit by her alarm clock, went out and looked around the house for Rainbow Dash. Not finding her in the kitchen or living room, Scootaloo went back upstairs and over to her sister’s room. “Come on sis, you were the one who said to get up early today!” she said grumpily.
“I did say that didn’t I?” came a voice from out of the window looking into the hall. “Glad to see you up, now we can get started, come on.”
Scootaloo quickly grabbed some toast, put on her team vest and flew out the door. She joined Rainbow Dash, trying to eat her toast while flying, and they flew off towards the center of town. Everypony was already up and moving about, going to their respective team leaders to get their jobs assigned.
Rainbow and Scootaloo waited up in the sky for all the pegasi to come up to get their jobs. Scootaloo waited patiently, listening to all the jobs that the pegasi needed to get done and see who was doing what.
After handing out all the jobs, Rainbow Dash turned to Scootaloo and said, “Okay, now we just go between checking on the jobs and checking in with Twilight, she is the mastermind organizer after all. We don’t start jobs until she gives the say so, not after what happened a few years ago, it almost happened again when Twilight first came here but she managed to put us on track and keep us organized.”
“I remember, the flood…” said Scootaloo solemnly.
“That’s why everything goes through to be approved by Twilight first.” said Rainbow.
They kept close to Twilight Sparkle all day to make sure they could tell the pegasi waiting to do their jobs to go ahead. All of the team heads did, it showed Scootaloo how much everypony relied and trusted in Twilight.
“Alright, the last of the animals have been woken up and are out of their dens… Rainbow!” Twilight yelled turning towards Rainbow Dash, “You can start busting up those clouds and letting the sun in to melt the snow!”
“Yeah, now we get to have some fun! Let’s see what you can do pipsqueak!” Rainbow shouted as she flew high into the sky, breaking through several clouds on her way.
“I bet I can bust more clouds than you!” Scootaloo called up after her.
Taking this as the signal to start, the other pegasi tasked with busting the clouds began doing so. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were flying side by side, each trying to hit more clouds than the other. Rainbow started to swoop and dive to hit more clouds while Scootaloo started spinning to gather a bunch of clouds in her range.
Without realizing it, Scootaloo was making a big black storm cloud.
“Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash yelled causing everypony within earshot to look up at the little orange streak surrounding a billowing black cloud that had started to emit small bursts of static. “Don’t do that, you’re making a lightning cloud!”
It was too late for warnings, as Scootaloo flew circles around the growing cloud it let out a huge discharge, hitting the filly.
“Scootaloo no!” Rainbow shouted and she flew down to catch her sister before she hit the ground.
“Rainbow quickly take her to the hospital!” Twilight shouted up at her, but Rainbow just hovered there holding the unmoving Scootaloo in her hooves and crying. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted again.
Fluttershy rushed up to Rainbow, still hovering, unable to move due to shock, grabbed them both and flew as fast as she could with the two ponies to the hospital.
The reception mare looked up to see Fluttershy holding a scorched Scootaloo and a horrified looking Rainbow Dash, “Quickly, we need a room and a doctor, now!”
A couple of the nurses came rushing in and took Scootaloo into the ER and Rainbow Dash into one of the rooms, leaving Fluttershy to wait in the waiting room. The doctor quickly ran into the ER and started looking Scootaloo over while a nurse tried to get Rainbow Dash out of her shocked state.
It had been just over half an hour, all of Rainbow Dash’s and Scootaloo’s friends had already joined Fluttershy in the waiting room, when the doctor walked out of the ER. When she saw him walk past the door to her room, Rainbow Dash jumped up and followed him out. He stepped into the waiting room and said with a hallowed tone, “Scootaloo’s going to be fine, the bolt of lightning just managed to miss her heart but we had to remove one of her kidneys and I doubt she will ever fly again.”
Everypony gasped, Rainbow Dash broke down in tears again and they all came up to give her a loving hug, they all started to cry at the pain of their friend and the sadness that her sister was going to endure for the rest of her life. The doctor brought Scootaloo out of the ER and placed her in an isolated room so she could have privacy. Rainbow walked into the room to go check on her.
Scootaloo was heavily bandaged, Rainbow couldn’t help but let out a whimper at the sight. She walked up to Scootaloo, sitting peacefully in the bed and held her hoof, “I love you sis. I don’t care what anypony might say or how you feel about yourself, I still love you no matter what.”
Rainbow Dash sobbed into Scootaloo’s sheets, a nurse stepped into the room and said, “Miss, you can’t see her yet. Please go wait until she wakes up, I’ll call you when she does.”
Everypony sat in the waiting room, waiting for Scootaloo to wake up, Rainbow lying in a disheveled heap. They all tried their best to comfort her but her heart was broken, she didn’t know how life was going to be like from now on, she was scared. The nurse came into the waiting room and said, “She’s coming to. Please only a few at a time.”
Rainbow walked back into the room with Twilight, Applejack and Rarity, the later wanting to see Scootaloo before they let their sisters she her. “Sis…” Scootaloo said weakly from the bed, “did I win?”
Rainbow Dash smiled and her eyes started to flow with tears, the others looking at Scootaloo with looks of concern. “Yeah sis, y-you won.” her voice cracked as she spoke, “You were great. Beat me by a mile.”
“Sis, what happened?” asked Scootaloo as she realized where she was.
Rainbow Dash looked at her sadly and explained what had happened as the others simply listened, tears starting to run down their own faces.
“Scootaloo, are you alright? I know it’s a lot to take in.” Rainbow said worriedly.
Scootaloo stared up at Rainbow Dash in astonishment. “May never fly again? But, that’s not fair.”
“I know it’s not fair sis, but that’s what happened, and we can’t change it, even Twilight said she doesn’t know a spell that will help.” said Rainbow, crying with renewed vigor.
Scootaloo looked over at Twilight, “Really, you can’t do anything?”
In reply, Twilight simply looked down at the ground and shook her head, letting out quiet sobs as she did so. Applejack and Rarity hugged Twilight briefly and then walked over to Scootaloo and kissed her forehead. “I think we should leave dear.” Rarity told Twilight, “let the others come in and see her.”
They walked out and Rainbow Dash sat there still holding her sister’s hoof. “N-no matter what h-happens, little sis… I l-love you.” Rainbow said through her tears.
“I know, I love you t-too sis, no matter what. Remember, you’ll always hold a special place in… in my heart.” Scootaloo said, her voice wavering.
Fluttershy walked in with Apple Bloom and Sweet Belle, both of whom immediately rushed to her side. “Are you going to be alright?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Does it still hurt?” said Apple Bloom not giving her time to answer.
Both fillies kept bombarding her with questions, Scootaloo looked at them sadly. Fluttershy pulled them back saying, “She needs room to breathe, just calm down a little.”
“I’m going to be more or less fine, it still hurts in places, especially if I move too much.” Scootaloo answered.
Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo a teary smile and nuzzled her. “You’re going to be just fine.”
The nurse walked in just then and said, “We’re going to need to give her a bath really quick, could you help me lift her out of bed please miss?”
“Of course.” Rainbow said and she pulled the sheets off of Scootaloo.
There was a loud gasp and Rainbow Dash ran out of the room crying very hard. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked over to see what made Rainbow so upset and saw on Scootaloo’s flank, there was a cutie mark there. It showed a lightning bolt emanating from a white flash.