The balloon was beginning to float off of the ground. It was rising terribly slowly, a single mare sat in the basket, her rainbow mane fluttering in the breeze brought by the flame above her head filling the balloon with gas.
“RAINBOW DASH!” Scootaloo came streaking out from around the corner of the library and ran screaming towards the clearing. Her hooves were hurting from the amount of running, yet she wouldn’t stop!
At the sound of the yell Dash looked up from the floor of the basket. She smiled at the sight of her loyal little friend. “Hey kid! Glad you could make it!” Scootaloo skidded to a halt, if the basket was lower she may have made the jump, but it was too high, her forehooves flailed in the air as she reached for the base of the basket.
“Rainbow wait! Please!” She kept jumping, hoping to reach the wicker basket now completely out of her reach.
Rainbow Dash’s head peered over the side of the little pod she sat in, she smiled but there was obvious sadness in her expression. “Sorry kiddo, but I’ve gotta get going.” Scootaloo jumped again, she unfurled her wings as she did so. They flapped helplessly, trying to catch the air, trying to get back to Rainbow Dash.
Her wings did nothing, she simply fell back to the dirt floor. Scootaloo’s eyes filled with tears as she watched her hero, her only thing she had that resembled a family, float up into the sky.
“Then, please! Take me with you!” She whimpered sorrowfully. How could Rainbow do this to her? Scootaloo needed her!
“Sorry kid.” Sighed Rainbow Dash, “Touring isn’t a life for a filly.” She was very high up. Scootaloo had to shout to be heard now.
“I don’t have to be on tour with you! I can just live in Cloudsdale, you’ll be there most of the time! I can live on my own while you’re away!” She was pleading now, grasping at any slight chance she could find to stay with the only Pony she felt close to. It felt as though Scootaloo was losing her parents all over again! She wasn’t sure if Rainbow could even hear her now, she was so high up and was drifting away towards Cloudsdale on the breeze. “JUST DON’T LEAVE ME! RAINBOW DASH?! RAINBOW DASH? RAINBOOWWWWW!” She couldn’t hear Scootaloo anymore, all that was left was to watch as the purple weather balloon took Rainbow Dash away.
Scootaloo noticed the patter of light hoof steps behind her. “Scootaloo? Did’yah miss her? Did she go?” Apple Bloom had caught up finally. Scootaloo now fell to her haunches and slumped in misery and defeat, looking at the dirt floor beneath her hooves as though it had insulted her. “Scoot?” The little country pony asked worriedly. Scootaloo shook her head. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure what to say, the closest thing that she had ever lost was her doll from when she had just been born, and she knew it couldn’t come close to how Scootaloo must have been feeling.
Scootaloo sniffed hard, trying to keep her cool in front of her friend. She felt the warm hoof of the country filly rest on her shoulder. She shrugged it off, wiping her nose with the back of her foreleg as she turned away from her friend. Keep it together! Just keep it together until you get back... where? Get back where? She didn’t have a home. She’d been secretly sleeping in the crusader’s clubhouse for the past month!
Rainbow Dash had been her only hope. A chance at a normal life, to have someone care for Scootaloo as though they actually loved her! She couldn’t remember her parents, so many years had passed and now they resembled blurry black blobs whenever she tried to remember them. She had believed she’d never find someone who cared for her again. Then she saw Rainbow Dash. Months of idolising her had passed, Scootallo had become the president of her fan club, had tended to her every need whenever she had been given the chance.
It had all seemed to be paying off; Rainbow had begun to act as though Scoot actually meant something! She had come along to the talent show, had come backstage to congratulate them all along with all the other sisters. Maybe that was when Scoot had thought...or even hoped that Rainbow thought of Scootaloo like a baby sister. Maybe she would adopt Scootaloo, and then she could move into that amazing cloud house just outside of Ponyville.
A warm bed, a loving home, all of it had been taken away! “Scoot?” Apple Bloom asked cautiously, she didn’t dare reach out again in fear of Scootaloo rejecting her again. All she gained was another sniff and a nose wipe from her orange friend. What could the red haired filly do? She had no idea how Scootaloo must be feeling. She had gone on for months how wonderful Rainbow Dash was, and had boasted how she would adopt Scootaloo any day now... and then this happened.
They sat there in silence. Neither pony knew what to say to the other. Apple Bloom wanted to encourage her friend that it would all be ok, and Scootaloo just wanted her friend to leave her alone, but neither could bring themselves to speak.
The silence was soon broken however, as the sound of more hoof steps approached. “Hey! You guys left me behind! Just ‘cos I’m a unicorn doesn’t mean I can do all the lifting with magic!” Scoot didn’t look up, she didn’t care. Apple Bloom turned to their third amigo and smiled half heartedly. Sweetie Belle was carrying Scootaloo’s scooter with her haze of pinkie/purple magic. She was panting slightly as beads of sweat were streaking down her face with the combined effort of using her magic and running to keep up with her already more athletic friends.
Sweetie set the scooter down and sighed with relief as she released her magic and her horn dimmed down finally. When she recuperated some of her strength, she looked around. “So where’s Rainbow Dash?” The question cut the tension like a knife, Scootaloo shuddered as though someone had just screamed down her ear, and Apple Bloom winced at Sweetie Belles brash words.
“Uhhh” The little country pony tried to find words that she could say in front of the depressed Scootaloo. When none came, she rushed over to the little platinum filly and whispered in her ear. Sweetie’s jaw dropped, she looked at Apple Bloom to make sure she wasn’t kidding.
“You mean she just left! No goodbye or anything?!?” Yet again Scootaloo’s shoulders sagged even lower at her friends words.
Realising what she had just done, Sweetie Belle flung her hooves into her mouth, stuffing them deep into her cheeks to stop herself from speaking again. The sight would have been comical in any other situation, but right now there was no one happy enough to appreciate the sight.
Apple Bloom took a tentative step forward, her lips were dry, she licked them nervously. “S-Scoot? Did yah at least get t’ talk to her?” It was difficult to tell with her back turned and her head hanging so low from her shoulders, but the orange and purple filly seemed to nod slightly at the question. A knot began to twist in Apple Bloom’s stomach, “An’... it didn’ make any... difference?” Scoot shook her head.
Behind the orange ponies closed eyes, images flashed by at a million miles a second. Talking to Rainbow Dash for the first time, she had been so nervous that the rainbow pony wouldn’t like her. Scootaloo’s birthday a few years back, she tore open the packaging of a brand new scooter. She gazed up at the face of the smiling blue furred racing mare beside her. “You kinda needed a new one kid.” She said jokingly. She got Scoot a present, not only that but the best present Scootaloo had ever received. Scootaloo flung her forelegs around Rainbow Dash’s neck and held her tight, dangling off of the floor as she kept close to the most important mare in her life!
A letter, on the floor of the library. Celestia’s mark on the scroll, and it was marked to Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo had come looking for a book to help the crusaders next attempt to find their marks, but the temptation had been too great. Why was it here in the library and not over in Rainbow’s cloud home?
“Dear Twilight, I have a message I would like you to pass onto your friend Rainbow Dash.
The Wonderbolts captain Spitfire has decided to finally hang up her wings (So to speak) and retire. Now the vice captain Soarin’ has become the leader and has left a place available. They remember your friend Rainbow Dash from the Young flier’s competition, and from the Gala.
They believe that Rainbow Dash is the best for the job. So they asked me to contact you to inform her of their decision. Please send her my dearest congratulations my student!
She has wanted this for so long by what your letters suggest.”
The letter had been dated two days ago; the other mares in town had seemed to be slightly sad about something over the past few days and Rainbow had seemed to vanish from the face of Equestria. This was it! Rainbow Dash was leaving! “She has wanted this for so long...” She really had, but out of some childish selfishness Scootaloo had hoped the day would never come, or maybe by some miracle Rainbow Dash would take her too! Had Scootaloo ever meant anything to her? Anything at all?