It was soft, and warm, and...loud? Rubbing her eyes open from her long night's slumber, Scootaloo found herself in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar bed. Next to her was a cyan mare snoring louder than most stallions. It was Rainbow Dash. She was in Rainbow Dash's house—in her bed!
With a newfound energy she bolted straight up out of bed into the air. She looked to her wings in rapture. It wasn't just a dream! She could fly! In her excitement she tried to do a backflip. It didn't end well. After barely tilting at all she lost control and plummeted straight down onto Rainbow's belly.
"Gwoof!" Rainbow sat up as Scootaloo bounced off of her.
"Sorry about that, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo shook off the mist from impacting the cloud floor. "I, uh...lost control," she buzzed into the air.
Rainbow was struggling to suck in air. She didn't have a clue what just happened, but it felt like she just got socked in the gut.
"Are you okay?" Scootaloo asked as she floated down to the floor.
"I-I'm fine," she grimaced.
"Do you...remember anything?" Scootaloo tentatively prodded.
Rainbow Dash pondered a it minute. There was something. Water...and splashing, but it didn't seem to make sense. She shook her head as she dismissed it as a dream. "I remember yesterday, but that's it."
Scootaloo hung her head. She should have been ecstatic. Rainbow Dash still thought she was her little sister. But...Rainbow Dash still didn't remember. Maybe there was something really wrong with her. Worse still, when she did get her memory back, Rainbow would know that she had been lied to.
Scootaloo, you big dummy, she kicked herself.
"Um, hey, it'll be okay!" Dash scrambled to comfort to rather forlorn-looking filly. "I'm sure I'll remember all about us in no time!" she smiled as she took to the air. "Maybe I just need something to spark my memories. What do I usually do?"
Looking up at her idol, Scootaloo only felt worse. Without her memories, Rainbow Dash was relying entirely on her. Dash would almost certainly swallow any lie she told. After all, she didn't have any past experiences to tell her not to trust a little, lying filly.
"Hey, d-don't be so down," Rainbow Dash landed in front of Scootaloo and reached a hoof out to caress her cheek.
Scootaloo drew a foreleg across her face to wipe away her emotions and the tears that threatened to fall. "I-I'm fine, really."
"I'm sorry I don't remember," Rainbow hugged the smaller pegasus.
Scootaloo recoiled against the earnest affection. "It's not your fault! I-it's, I-I-I just," she stopped and sighed as she tried to reign in her emotions. "You're Ponyville's weatherpony. M-maybe you can get your memories back if you try."
"Weatherpony?"
Scootaloo hung her head. Despite being a huge fan of Rainbow Dash's, she had little idea of what she did on a day-to-day basis. "Um...well you handle the weather and stuff. Bust clouds and...uh, I guess make rain, and...stuff."
"Huh? Well, I'm sure it'll come to me if I just try," Dash smiled confidently. She turned and zoomed out the window. A moment later she stuck her head back in, "Oh! Do I take you with me?"
"I can go!?" Scootaloo beamed, momentarily forgetting her woes as well as her lies.
Placing an x-ray on a backlit display, a unicorn doctor scrutinized the image of a pegasus wing. "Hmmm, there doesn't appear to be anything broken, so it's likely just a sprain," he said as he turned back to his patient: a rainbow-maned blue pegasus.
"So what's the damage?" Rainbow Dash urged. "How long until I can fly again?"
The doctor sighed at his patient's...impatience. "Keep that wing immobilized. If it's not feeling better in a day come back and see me. Either way, you should take it easy for at least seventy-two hours."
"Wha-three days!?" Dash exclaimed.
The doctor rolled his eyes. "Have the nurses help you with your discharge papers. Go on now," he ushered Rainbow Dash out.
As soon as Rainbow Dash walked back to the waiting room, Fluttershy shot out of a chair and to Dash's side. "How was it? Are you going to be okay?"
Dash sighed as she accepted a small stack of forms. "He said it's probably just a sprain," she muttered as she absentmindedly marked the papers with a provided quill. "I have to stay grounded for three days," she groused.
"Oh, well that's a relief," Fluttershy sighed her worries away, earning a glare from Dash. "I mean...I'm glad it isn't anything serious."
"I'm gonna have to get Thunderlane or Cloudkicker to pick up my weather patrol duties," Dash slid the papers back to the nurse. "And now I'm not gonna be able to work on my new stunt, either."
Fluttershy smiled at her friend. Given her energy, Dash had to be just fine. "I'm sure you will do great with a little rest. Do you need me to help you back to your house?"
Rainbow Dash sighed again as she looked to her bandaged wing. "The doc' said I needed to stay off of it all day, so yeah," she hung her head a bit as she walked out beside Fluttershy. "Thanks Fluttershy. But first we need to find somepony to take care of the weather."
"We do?" Fluttershy asked as the duo walked out under the pure azure sky. When they had arrived, stray clouds had accumulated in Ponyville's skies leaving it dull and grey. Somepony had to have cleared them all. But for somepony to do it in the short time the two mares were in the hospital...they would have to be on par with Rainbow Dash's skills.
"What the...hay?" Rainbow Dash just stared up into the sky.
"Um, excuse me," Fluttershy stopped a passing mare. "Who cleared the sky?"
The mare chuckled a bit at Fluttershy before pointing a hoof at Rainbow Dash. "She did, of course."
"No I didn't," Dash turned to emphasize her bandaged wing. "I busted my wing yesterday."
The mare gave Rainbow Dash a strange look. "I saw you clearing the sky," she said before shaking her head a bit and moving on.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stared at each other a minute before Dash spoke, "What?"
On a lone cloud, two pegasi were curled up together. Rainbow Dash was dozing light enough not to snore too loudly while Scootaloo tried to get comfortable. It wasn't easy. Sure she had a warm, fuzzy pegasus curled up against her and soft, fluffy cloud below her, but her mind was gnawing at her.
Playing with Rainbow Dash, learning to fly, clearing the sky with her—it was all a dream come true. But whenever she had a chance to stop and think about it, her conscience haunted her. She wasn't stupid. It wasn't normal for a pegasus to just lose all of her memories. There was something wrong with her idol, and she was exploiting it instead of trying to help.
When she wakes up, Scootaloo resolved, I'll take her to Twilight Sparkle. She'll know what to do.
"It's weird," Rainbow Dash groused from one end of the small table outside the cafe. "Everypony says they saw me clear the sky. You know I didn't.
Fluttershy nodded as she sipped from her iced tea on the other side of the table. "Maybe there is a similar pony around here?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "You have got to be joking. Everypony knows me! There is no way anypony in Ponyville could mistake my awesomeness for some other pegasus."
Fluttershy sighed. "I know...but what other explanation is there?"
"Time travel!" Rainbow Dash clopped her hoof on the table. "Clearly in the near future I do something so awesome that I accidentally went back in time. I just haven't realized it yet."
A raucous laughter drew their attention to a nearby table where Derpy seemed to be having lunch with a brown stallion. "Ah, no, sorry. It was something else" the earth pony chuckled in an accent in response to Rainbow Dash's glare.
"What other explanation is there?" Rainbow Dash turned back to Fluttershy.
"Maybe we should ask Twilight Sparkle?" Fluttershy responded as a server brought out two plates and set them in front of the two pegasi. "Surely she might know what's going on."
Rainbow Dash let out a frustrated grunt. "If my wing wasn't banged up I'd just track down that imposter," she confidently claimed.
"We can worry about it after we eat," Fluttershy said as she demurely placed a napkin in her lap.
"This is where Twilight Sparkle lives," Scootaloo informed Rainbow Dash as they approached the mighty oak. "She's a Princess now, but she's still the smartest pony around. You're one of her closest friends."
"Really?" Rainbow Dash puzzled as Scootaloo knocked on the library's door.
After a few seconds, a purple alicorn opened the door, "Yes?"
"Twilight! We need your help!" Scootaloo urged as she pointed to Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow Dash's lost her memory!"
"Hmm?" Twilight looked up from Scootaloo to see Rainbow shrug at her. "You...lost your memory?"
Dash nodded. "I can only remember what happened today and about half of yesterday," she admitted as she rubbed her head. "Scootaloo says you're the pony to talk to."
Twilight's jaw fell open before she adopted a puzzled expression. "You don't...remember me?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Not at all."
Frowning, Twilight lowered her head so that her horn was pointed at Dash's forehead. "Hold still," she urged as a magenta aura encompassed her horn. "A memory spell should have you good as new."
Scootaloo flinched as the magenta aura hit Dash. She expected Rainbow Dash to yell at her, or at least scold her as her memory returned. That didn't happen. Instead Rainbow and Twilight just exchanged confused glances for a moment before Twilight ushered them in.
"Spike!" Twilight yelled as she dashed over to her bookshelves.
"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"My spell didn't work! It should have restored your memories, or at least shown you your memories. But it didn't!" Twilight panicked. "It just showed the memories that were already there. It's as if...as if your memories before yesterday really are just...gone!"
Spike stopped dead in his tracks about halfway down the stairs. "Uh...Twilight, why are there two Rainbow Dashes?"
"What?" Twilight looked up to Spike before sweeping her gaze behind her. Sure enough, there was Rainbow Dash standing next to Scootaloo in the library, as well as Rainbow Dash standing next to Fluttershy in her doorway. "What!?"
"Two Rainbow Dashes!?" Scootaloo excitedly buzzed into the air a moment before going back down to the ground.
The Rainbow Dash next to Fluttershy leapt into the library as she adopted a confrontational stance. "It's the imposter!"
The other Rainbow Dash made sure to put herself between Scootaloo and the other cyan pegasus. "Is she...me?"
"Two Rainbow Dashes?" Twilight pondered. "H-how did that happen?"
"Didn't this happen before? With Pinkie Pie?" Spike asked.
Twilight pondered it a moment before nodding. "Did you go to the magic mirror pond?" Twilight turned to the Rainbow Dash nearest Fluttershy.
"Rainbow Dash mentioned crashing into an underground pond in the Everfree Forest," Fluttershy insisted.
The Dash near her nodded as she relaxed her aggressive stance. "Yeah. I mean...it might have been the mirror pond. Explains where that came from."
The Rainbow Dash near Scootaloo sat down as her face scrunched up in concentration. "I-I remember...I came out of the water of a little underground pond. That's...as far back as I can remember."
"All right, well, I just need to make sure," Twilight looked between the two Rainbow Dashes.
"I know this is the real Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy assured as she pointed to the bandaged Rainbow.
Twilight nodded before turning towards Scootaloo's Rainbow Dash. "That's what I suspected, too," she said as she lowered her horn towards the doppelgänger, "She doesn't have any memories from before yesterday because she didn't exist until yesterday." Firing a magical blast, the Rainbow Dash next to Scootaloo swelled up before bursting. As the wisp of magic flew away towards the pond, Twilight saw Scootaloo's horrified face.
"Wh-what did you do her!?" Scootaloo screeched as she looked around desperately. "Where did Rainbow Dash go!?"
"Oh, that wasn't Rainbow Dash," Twilight said matter-of-factly. "It was just a copy from the magic mirror pond. I sent it back to the pond where it belonged."
That look of pride and accomplishment on Twilight's face was nearly enough to make Scootaloo try to assault her. "Bring her back!" she shouted. "Bring her back right now!"
"Scootaloo, she was just a copy," Rainbow Dash assured as she proudly pointed a hoof at herself. "I'm the real one."
"I don't care!" Scootaloo snapped. "Bring her back, Twilight!"
Twilight shook her head a bit. "I-I can't. The spell only works one-way. I can't bring her back." Seeing the look of devastation on the filly's face at those words made Twilight's stomach turn. "It-it wasn't really Rainbow Dash."
"E-even if it wasn't Rainbow Dash...she saved my life!" Scootaloo aggressively stared Twilight down as angry tears flowed down her cheeks. "She taught me how to fly! She spent all her time with me! She...she was my big sister! Bring her back!"
Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves. Rainbow Dash hung her head. Spike just looked away as he rubbed his neck. And Twilight Sparkle was doing everything she could not to break down and cry.
What have I done? she stared regretfully at the sobbing filly. "S-Scootaloo, I...I can't bring her back," she shook her head as a tear spilled over her eyelid and her voice cracked. "I'm sorry."
"I hate you!" Scootaloo decried as she buzzed over and started pounding her hooves against the older pony. "You killed her! I hate you!" Her blows might have been filled with rancor, but given her smaller stature and the fact that she had to constantly swipe at her tears, she just wasn't able to do any actual physical harm to Twilight.
Fluttershy managed to coax the filly away from Twilight Sparkle, drawing her into a comforting hug. "Shhh," she drew a hoof through Scootaloo's purple mane.
Scootaloo only allowed the comforting embrace a few moments before she shoved Fluttershy away. "N-None of-of you even cared at all!" she choked out through her sobs as her fire started to die, ushering in the cold, empty sadness. Buzzing her wings, she flew out the nearest window and away from the heartless ponies that just banished her big sister from existence.
A chilly night breeze swept through a shadowy meadow. It wouldn't have been noticed by anything other than the grass it teased if not for the lone filly shivering under the moonlight. Alone with her thoughts and the stars, she was just curled up there, having long since run out of tears.
This meadow was special to her. Scootaloo hadn't noticed it until she found herself sobbing here untold hours ago. This is where Rainbow Dash... No. This is where her big sister took her and played with her all day until she learned to fly on her own.
Now that sister was gone forever. She had only known her for a day, but that day was her sister's entire life. And she was the only pony that would ever care that she was gone. She was the only pony that cared about her existence at all. She would be the only pony to remember her big sister and just how wonderful she really was.
It didn't matter to Scootaloo that she was magical clone created from the mirror pond. That pegasus that was so much like Rainbow Dash and so much unlike Rainbow meant so much more to her than she even knew—until she was gone. She never even got to say goodbye.
Even though it was utterly futile, Scootaloo craned her neck up to stare at the twinkling stars. "Goodbye, big sister," she whispered as a lonely tear spilled down her cheek.