Her life couldn’t get any better.
Rainbow Dash soared through the night-time skies of Ponyville, eyes focused on her rapidly approaching house. She relaxed her wings and landed softly upon the cloudy welcome mat before she began to rummage through her saddlebag for her keys.
“Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow’s ears perked up at her name as she turned around to face the noise. She hovered up in the air and looked over the edge of her house. Her eyes widened at the orange speck down on the ground, standing on her scooter as she waved up. Rainbow soared down onto the ground and gave a glance towards her house before she bit her lip and looked around.
“Scoots, are you okay?!” Rainbow asked, almost in a panic as she embraced the filly in a hug that would impress any chiropractor. Once she let go of the hug, she frowned. “You know that I can’t be caught with you. What if your dad catches us? My house is the first place that he’ll check if you’ve gone missing! And now that I think about it, how did you even get to the party in the first place without your parents knowing?”
Scootaloo jumped, but bit her lip as she took a step back from Rainbow. The saddlebag on her back was awkwardly leaning to one side, weighed down by something white that Rainbow couldn’t manage to make out.
“I don’t care about what they think anymore, Rainbow. I just left and went to the party. I know that Fix says that he will try and find me if I run away, but I know he won’t. If he was serious, he would have looked for me the first time I tried it,” Scootaloo mumbled as she dropped her rump to the floor. “My parents are controlling everything about my life now. They won’t even let me go on the next field trip to the Crystal Empire because they know that Apple Bloom is going too.”
Rainbow growled, her wings flaring in irritation, but she sighed upon realizing that there wasn’t anything she could do about it. “I’m sorry, Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo smiled lightly as she unclipped her saddlebag. “It’s okay, Rainbow Dash. I was upset about it, until my teacher told me that anypony could go with me if we both agreed that they were my guardian.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “What are you saying?”
Scootaloo’s smile turned into a beam as she pulled out a packet of papers, around three pages in length and folded them over her scooter. “This is the permission slip for the field trip. All you have to do is sign,” Scootaloo flipped the packet to the back and folded it until the dotted line was the only visible part, “right here.”
Rainbow smiled and looked at Scootaloo’s saddlebag. “You got a quill?”
Scootaloo’s eyes widened, her beam intensifying to the point where Rainbow thought that she was going to explode from happiness. “Really?!”
“Uh.. yeah sure. I’d love to go to the Crystal Empire again,” Rainbow chuckled. “Calm down, Scoots. We gotta do this quick, remember? I don’t want to take any chances.”
Scootaloo shook herself out of her enamored glance and rummaged in her saddlebag with one hoof, the other holding up the paper. “Oh, yeah. Wait one sec’.” After she opened another pocket, Scootaloo smiled and held up the quill.
Rainbow signed the dotted line and gave the quill back to Scootaloo. Scootaloo’s eyes widened as she looked down at the paper and folded it back into her saddlebag. She smiled and hugged Rainbow one more time before she pulled back.
“Thank you, Rainbow,” Scootaloo choked out as she sniffled and blinked back tears.
Rainbow’s eyebrows raised in worry as she frowned again. “Are you gonna be okay, Scoots?” she asked.
Scootaloo nodded and packed the scroll and quill into her saddlebag, before she hopped back on her scooter and smiled, tears still leaking down her cheeks.
“I’ll be fine, Rainbow. I’m just… so happy that you would do this for me.”
“Scoots, look at me.”
Scootaloo’s hesitant hues met Rainbow’s as she walked over to her and wiped her eyes. “I’ll do anything for you, if it makes you happy. I know I can’t do anything about your parents, but if you ever need a sister to talk to… I’ll be right up there.”
Rainbow pointed up at her house and smiled as one of her wings brushed up against Scootaloo’s back. Scootaloo sniffed and nodded as she turned her back to Rainbow.
“Thank you… Rainbow. I’ll let you know what day the field trip will be.”
Rainbow waved away Scootaloo’s thanks as she rose up into the air. “Anytime! The sooner you let me know, the better, since I can talk to my boss about getting that day off!”
Scootaloo waved and nodded before she sped away on her scooter.
Rainbow chuckled as she watched Scootaloo disappear into the night. She landed back on the threshold of her house and unlocked the door, sighing as she shut it behind her.
“She’s a good filly. I’d do anything for her.”