//------------------------------//
// Sunny Day 
// Story: The Day Dash wasn't Loyal 
// by Bromad 
//------------------------------//

For the third week straight of summer, the sun seemed twice as bright than it normally is.
"Celestia really needs to turn down the sun!" Scootaloo said to herself.
Looking off to the left, she could see the fringes of Sweet Apple Acres with Applebloom busy doing chores on the farm, trying to keep the orchards from drying up, and to the right in the direction of Rarity's boutique. Sweetie Bell didn't hesitate to take her sister's offer to go to Horseshoe Bay Beach for the day. In the shade, it was the only cool place in the park while she waited for Rainbow Dash to appear. 
Stretching her wings, they did nothing to keep herself cool when they were folded in. Pawing at one orange feather, time passed at an agonizing pace when she couldn't help but pull at it until the feather finally came loose with just a tiny pinch. Yawning, Scootaloo looked to the dried yellow grass, digging one hoof into the ground until she heard the familiar toll of the town clock chime once plus the the three follow up bells. "It's only 1:15? Well, at least she's might not be late this time..." 
Flopping to the ground in boredom, she rolled over and looked to the sky- not a single cloud to be seen. 
"Ahg!" She moaned, Is Rainbow ever going to show? 
Scootaloo watched a faint puff of a cloud raced across the sky at speeds that could only be matched by a certain cyan pegasus. Peering up with her hoof blocking the sun, Scootaloo could make out the six colored mane attached to Rainbow Dash. Rolling up and back onto her hooves. 
"Hey Rainbow! You're late!" she shouted playfully. The blue blur passed by without slowing down, in fact, Scootaloo could see Rainbow's wings beat even faster, flying beyond the park and out of her line of sight. 
"Oh... you're busy. I get that." Scootaloo said out loud. "A lot of ponies are..."
Scootaloo stared at the ground, silent for minutes, only speaking when she felt a tear drop make it to the tip of her nostril and fall to the grass which was eagerly sucked up by the dry ground. 
"It's not like I haven't been waiting an hour and fifteen minutes for you but I have. Still waiting on you. Again." 
No pony was around, no bugs, no birds, not even a summer breeze to help carry her words beyond a few feet.  
"It's no big deal, maybe next time, or tomorrow, or next week, or in a couple months. Whatever works for you." Scootaloo said, trying to conjure up the last shreds of hope about Rainbow Dash.
"I guess I'll go home..." Standing up, she tested her wings. Hovering a few inches off the ground, she feigned a smile at the buzzing motion they made compared to the steady relaxed wing beats a fully grown pegasi could maintain while flying. Settling back down with all four hooves beneath her, Scootaloo sighed. 
Reaching for her scooter, she recoiled when one hoof grabbed the metal bar that had been sitting in the sun for hours. "Ah," but even the short reminder of pain seemed half heart-felt. This time, she grabbed the plastic tips of the handlebars and started off towards home. Through the streets of town, all the ponies were lounging beneath any source of shade they could find, all while fanning themselves or silently coping with the heat by drinking iced lemonade.
The door to her home drew closer every moment, but seeing the familiar wooden door phased her. Leaning her scooter against the side of her house, she couldn't stop her hooves from moving around the corner and down the street. 
"She never makes it." Scootaloo thought. Never the word came again, cementing the fact into her mind. 
Six times, She wanted to scream, Make it seven times! 
The words "fair" and "unfair" bounced back and forth in Scootaloo's mind, making her head heavy in the burdening heat

Walking down the street, nopony even acknowledged her aside from a sideways glance that dismissed her the moment she walked out of their sight.
"At least tomorrow is going to be better." She heard one pony say, Oh, really? Like what could possibly make tomorrow better than this scorcher-all her friends were busy, her hero abandoned her, and she couldn't shake the feeling that everyone around her was depressed..." 
"It might rain," "Might' so, might not. They've been saying that for weeks." Somepony said, but now it was her turn to give the dismissive glance.
Great, another thing to get sad about. Nothing makes it harder to fly than doing it in the rain. Not like I could fly in the rain anyway.   
The town market was practically deserted aside from the ponies manning their stalls, Lily Bloom was frantically spraying water onto flower petals to keep them hydrated, but it was clearly apparent that the fight against the heat was a loosing battle as they slowly wilted. 

Sun bearing down, Scootaloo let her mind go blank, ignoring the heat, the sweat, and the slowly forming tears that lead from her eyes down her cheeks. The drops that fell to the ground were sucked in by the dry dirt as she kept moving out of town and along the roads leading in directions she vaguely knew where they went. East she said to herself, The sun is at my back. 

It hadn't even occurred to her that the ground beneath her hooves was cold and had faint bits of dew. Finally a thought that had taken hours to develop came forth, reminding her that it was time to return home. Looking to her surroundings, the sun was gone, the stars were out and the moon was already halfway into the sky. Scootaloo turned 180 degrees and saw the way she just came, it was nothing but forest and a rocky slope. She saw a faint outline of her own hoof print and jumped in that direction, but screamed when she botched the landing and rolled downhill. Coming to a crash with her back to the rocks, she gasped for air, swallowing it as fear and pain took hold of her. Her front right leg was scratched and cut, there was just a faint glisten of red blood that surfaced, but what bothered her the most was how much skin she scraped off. 
"Ow..." She said to herself. But, as much as she didn't want to cry, inflated disappointment and sorrow flooded into her body, amplifying the pain. Pushing herself up, she collapsed and weaped as both wings fell to her side. 	
I don't wanna stay out here! I want to go home! Can't I just... Her sobbing took control of her thoughts, shuddering and giving a hiccup to the despair she'd been blocking away behind a mental dam made of hope and white lies she's told herself for so long. Her eyes felt red, burning even. Scootaloo couldn't even bring herself to curse the name that made her feel this way, despite her mind bringing up the image of magenta eyes, a cyan coat, and rainbowmane.

The only thing that could, and did make her night even worse were the clouds that Rainbow Dash and all the other weather pegasi gathering for three weeks were finally ready for a long two day rain production that broke over Scootaloo's head with crashing thunder and bright lightning. 

Dragging herself beneath a tree with minimal protection from the rain, her back legs refused to stand up, so when she finally reached the trunk, she curled up, forced her wings to wrap around her frame, and silently cried with the passing of falling raindrops.