Epilogue 2: Scootaloo
Apple Bloom wanted to have a crusaders meeting that day and rush to keep the ball rolling for her other two friends, but she had too much to do at home. She knew her sister was going to throw her a party at home instead of at Sugarcube Corner. She invited them to come visit later on.
After school Scootaloo was riding her scooter along the path by the park. Along the way she heard the sound of crying. Her eyes looking around for the sound she saw a filly that looked two or three years younger than her by a tree, curled up and her eyes closed.
Skidding to a stop she said to the filly, “What’s wrong, kid?”
The filly was a pegasus just like her, with a peach colored coat and red eyes. Tears were still coming down her eyes as she looked up. “I’m not doing it!” she cried out.
Scootaloo’s eyebrow rose. “Doing what?”
“My sister sent you, didn’t she? Or my mom? I’m not going! And I’m not doing it!”
“Doing WHAT? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just came over because I saw you crying.”
The filly stared at her suspiciously for a short time, like she wasn’t sure if she believed it, before she uncurled herself and stood up. “I… I’m scared. That’s why… that’s why I ran away.”
“Ran away from what? You keep beating around the bush.”
“I’m supposed to be going in for surgery today. I have a wing condition that they told me can only be cured by surgery. Everyone keeps telling me it’ll be fine, but I don’t believe it. What if something goes wrong? What if I die? Or what if they do it wrong and my wings end up ruined? I can’t take it! I’m too scared!” Tears spilled down her face as she began sobbing again.
Scootaloo acted on instinct. She didn’t even need to think about it. She placed her hooves around the child, holding her close. “It’ll be okay.”
The surprised filly didn’t know how to react, so she just stood there. She thought that this orange pegasus felt warm and comforting, and she settled down a bit, almost naturally sinking into the older girl’s hold as she was held tighter.
She sat down, pulling the filly with her onto her lap. “I’m Scootaloo. What’s your name?”
“P-Peach Mango,” she responded.
Scootaloo considered something. She thought it was the longer way around the path, but with the state Peach Mango was in she couldn’t hope to fight the kid’s fear head on at this point. “I’ll tell you what. Let’s make a deal, you and I.”
“A deal?”
“I’ll keep my mouth shut and I won’t tell your mom or your sister where you are. Let’s just forget about the surgery and play for a little while.” Scootaloo could tell she had hit on the right approach as she felt Peach Mango’s tense body go limp in her lap almost instantly as she let out a big sigh of relief.
“Sure… that sounds good.” She stood up, but then a questioning look came to her face. “Well… what do you want?”
“Hmm?”
“You said we were making a deal and that you wouldn’t tell my family where I am, so what do you want in return?”
“I’ll tell you later. For now let’s just let play together, okay?”
“Alright,” she responded, wiping her face.
So the two of them ran around, playing tag, hide and seek, and other fun activities. Through it all Scootaloo could see Peach Mango get more relaxed the longer they went.
After almost an hour Scootaloo took Peach Mango on a scooter ride, telling her to hold on tight as she did tricks, jumping hills and doing spins as her riding buddy cheered and laughed.
Following the scooter ride Scootaloo took Peach Mango to a bench. “I want to show you something,” said Scootaloo. Opening her wings she jumped off, flapping hard as she cleared the tops of the trees, going in small circles for a short time before she suddenly lost her tempo and began plummeting to the ground. She managed to recover just before she crashed but she still hit the ground harder than she meant to.
“Well, that was about fifteen seconds. I know it’s not much, but you should have seen the helpless case I used to be. I used to only be able to hover a foot off the ground, and only then for about three seconds. Twelve seconds of extra time in a year may not seem like much to you, but I’m proud of every one of those seconds because I worked hard for them.
"I used to get mocked and bullied all the time by some of my classmates because I couldn’t fly, but now I’m getting there because of my friends and my older sister Rainbow Dash. They never stopped believing in me. They told me it didn’t matter if I could fly or not, because I was cool anyway.
“If they hadn’t encouraged me and believed in me I might have listened to the bad voices telling me it was impossible, or that it was hopeless and I shouldn’t even try, and then I would have stayed a loser and become the pathetic filly they saw me as.” She went and sat down next to Peach Mango. “But I didn’t listen to those voices, and I became a much stronger pony for it.
“You asked me what it was I wanted from you before, and now I’m going to tell you. I want you to be brave like I was, and stop listening to the bad voices inside YOU that keep telling you everything is going to go wrong.” Peach Mango looked afraid again, but not nearly as much as before. “I’m going to keep my word to you. I’m not going to tell anyone where you are if they come looking for you, but in the end, when you’re found, they’re going to make you have the surgery.
"In that case it comes down to a choice: Are you going to have to be dragged in there kicking and screaming and crying and pleading not to have to do it, or are you going to be brave and face your fear head on, and tell it that it can’t control you? Only you can make this choice. Your only other option is to spend the rest of your life running away from your family, and we all need our family to help us through the hard times. I wouldn’t be who I am today without my friends and family.”
Scootaloo closed her eyes, considering the concept she was about to bring up. Was she really willing to say what she was about to? ‘Rainbow Dash,’ she thought, feeling how her idol was so far above her. If she ever wanted to catch up she had to follow along in the hoofsteps of her hero, and she had to do it now.
“Peach Mango… have the surgery. I know it’ll work out. I believe that entirely. I’ll accompany you until they put you under. If by some unfortunate miracle it doesn’t go right, and your wings are crippled, then I’ll take responsibility for encouraging you so hard to do it, and I give you my word that I will never fly again for the rest of my life.”
Peach Mango looked at her like she had three heads, her eyebrows going up. “What? What did you say? You… you don’t really mean that.”
“You’re darn right I do!” Scootaloo didn’t avert her gaze, only kept staring right at her with determination.
“B-but why? You just met me. Why make a promise like that for me?”
“Because you’re important to Ponyville’s future, and have the potential to be great and amazing. You won’t achieve your goals and dreams if you’re not at your best. Who you are or how long ago I met you means nothing. The only important thing that matters is that you need help, and I’m the pony who is here to give it.
“Rainbow Dash is my idol. She’s the one who showed me what courage and believing in yourself is all about. She’s risked herself to save her friends and Equestria plenty of times. I want to be just like her and one day surpass her, but I’ll never do that if I only play it safe and never take any risks.
"If it means helping out and improving even one life, then putting myself and what I value on the line is a small price to pay, and it’s something I will always do if it’s within my power. I don’t have her strength and skill, but I do have courage and faith like her, and that’s what I want to give to you today.
“So what is it gonna be? Are you going to hide and cower, or are you going to trust me and your family when we say that everything will turn out okay?”
Peach Mango could hardly believe what she was hearing. She could see that Scootaloo was being dead serious. Her body clenched as she closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath. She then took a deep breath, and sighed as she reopened her eyes, some of Scootaloo’s feelings washing over into her. “I… I’ll do it. I’ll try to be brave like you.”
“Good to hear!” Scootaloo said happily, hugging Peach Mango again before playfully rubbing her hoof through the girls mane. “Way to go, kid. I’m so proud of you for making the right choice.”
Scootaloo's words helped her to feel some pride in herself. She still felt anxiety over what was to come, but the fear no longer felt like it was going to crush her. “Can we ride the scooter to my house?”
“No problem.”
The two of them left the park, Peach Mango holding tight onto her new friend, giving Scootaloo directions along the way until they arrived.
Scootaloo knocked on the door and a short while later the door opened to reveal a mare that looked like an older version of Peach Mango. “Yes?”
Scootaloo responded, “I have someone here who wants to tell you something.” She pushed Peach Mango away from her hiding place behind her.
“Peachy!” cried out the mare. “Where did you get off to? We’ve been worried sick.”
“I… I want to be brave,” she responded. “I want to be brave like Scootaloo. I was so scared before of the surgery because I didn’t know whether it was going to go right. I just wanted to run away. But if I do that I’ll never have any courage and I’ll just be scared of everything.”
“Well said, Peach,” said Scootaloo, patting her on the head.
“This is my mom, Caramel Coffee,” said Peach Mango. “And this is my friend Scootaloo. I just met her today.”
Caramel gave Scootaloo a hug. “Thank you for looking after my child.”
“No problem," Scootaloo replied. "I’ll do anything for my friends. She just needed some time to relax before she could face her fears, so I played with her a while before encouraging her to stand up for herself.”
Caramel let Scootaloo go before signaling Peach Mango over, hugging her as well.
“I love you, Mommy,” she said, crying now at her mother’s comforting touch.
“I love you too, my sweet daughter.”
When they broke apart Peach Mango said, “Scootaloo is going to come with me. She promised.”
“Very well. There’s not much time so we have to go now or we won’t make your appointment.”
Scootaloo waited outside with Peach as her mom grabbed a few things. Out of the house came a filly in-between the size of Peach Mango and Caramel Coffee, who was introduced as Silver Star.
Peach held onto Scootaloo as they rode towards the hospital. Since they were faster than the other two Scootaloo did tricks to help keep Peach calm and to pass the time until they caught up.
As they entered the hospital they greeted the receptionist and were directed on where to go. When they were outside the door Peach gave each of them a hug. Though she was clearly afraid she tried to hold her head high. “I… I have to open the door myself, right? No one else can make me do it. I have to make this choice.” She let out a sharp breath before raising her hoof and pushing the door open, facing her destiny.
For the next two hours it was relatively quiet. Scootaloo chatted with Peach’s mom and sister, but a part of her was feeling nervous of her own part in this. She probably wouldn’t see Peach Mango after this. She was making a promise where only she would be able to enforce her role in things. Would she really never try to fly if the surgery went wrong? It was a promise built solely on the honor system. Truthfully she didn’t need to fly. She did plenty well on her scooter. It was just something she wanted to do alongside Rainbow Dash.
She sighed. She would follow through with it. If she didn’t then her words would be empty and meaningless, and she would be undeserving of being trusted. If she wasn’t willing to commit to something risky for the sake of others she wouldn’t be worthy of standing alongside Rainbow Dash and she would just stay a kid forever.
When the surgeon finally opened the door he invited the three of them in. “How did it go?” asked Scootaloo, her heart racing.
“It was a huge success,” he responded happily. “She’ll need some time to recover, but she’ll be flying again within a month or two.”
The three of them let out sighs of relief.
When they entered the door Scootaloo saw Peach Mango on her stomach, her wings wrapped to her body with bandages, an inscrutable expression on her face. When they greeted her she turned to look, still with that uncertain appearance. “Scootaloo… I… I did it. I was… I was brave… wasn’t I?”
“Definitely!” she responded excitedly. “You did absolutely amazing! How do you feel?”
She grimaced a bit as she shifted positions. “It hurts. The doctor said it’s going to for a day or two.”
“Yeah, and he said the surgery was a huge success. You’re going to be fine now.”
Tears began streaming down her eyes. “Thank you for believing in me, Scootaloo.” She turned to her family. “And I should never have run away. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.”
“Oh, don’t fret, my daughter. Your fear was normal,” responded Caramel Coffee.
Silver Star hugged her sister around the neck. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. You’re fine now.”
“Can you walk?”
"Yeah," Peach responded as she stood up and hopped off the bed, following along after the three of them as Caramel finished filling out paperwork and paid for the surgery.
As they left the hospital Scootaloo asked, “What’s wrong, Peach? You don’t look too happy about the good news.”
“I was being so stupid. I didn’t have anything to be afraid of.”
“You weren’t stupid. We all have things that we fear. But if we don’t face them head on we’ll never be happy. Princess Luna taught me that. She saved me from a nightmare I was having and she told me that I would keep having them if I didn’t face what I was really afraid of.
"Before Rainbow Dash agreed to be my older sister I kept thinking that she would never think I was cool enough to want to do that, but when I actually talked to her about it she did.
"Don’t worry about it so much. You’ve shown that you can be brave and strong and courageous too. You are cool and awesome without a doubt!”
Peach started sniffing and shaking a bit, hugging Scootaloo again as she cried.
Scootaloo let out a little laugh as she patted the filly. “There, there. Don’t cry.”
When they broke apart Peach Mango asked, “Scootaloo? Would you be my big sister too?”
She smiled warmly at the filly. “Sure. But don’t forget about the sister you already have.”
“I won’t. I just want us to be able to play together again.”
“Well, maybe tomorrow. You just got out of surgery, so I would take it easy for today or you may just have to go right back in, and who wants that?”
“Not me!” She once again hugged Scootaloo. “I love you, Sister! Thank you so much for everything.”
Warm tears came down Scootaloo’s eyes as she returned the embrace. “You’re welcome, little sis. Well, I do want you to be safe, so let’s meet at the park again in, let’s say, three days instead, after school lets out.”
“You bet!”
After getting thanks from Silver Star and Caramel Coffee she waved her goodbyes as she got on her scooter and took off.
She was feeling great from helping a filly in need. As she reflected back on her adventure a mark appeared on her flank, of a scooter pulling a mountain attached to a rope behind her, signifying her lack of hesitance to do what was necessary for others.
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4152191
*Squee!!!*
4152281 Scootaloo keeps getting little sisters in my stories, doesn't she.
I didn't say it was going to be sad, only a bit emotional. It's tenderness and leading by example. "If I can do it you can do it too." Scootaloo showed some real guts right there. I don't think Rainbow Dash could have made such a promise.
I'm still working on Sweetie Belle's story. I might just finish it up tomorrow. I'm going out of state to visit my mom tomorrow for a week, but I'll have internet so I can still post the chapter when its done.
I saw you favorited my new story "Captured." Please check out my friends fanfic that inspired it.
The link is in the description of that story. Her writing style is a bit different from mine, but I enjoy it. 
4152364
She does!
I don't think RD would be able to do that eather.
I was going to give hers a quick read after reading yours.
I still live with my mom...
I'm only 17 though, so it doesn't matter.
Hmmmm, my main thought is on the cutie mark and a suggestion if you have Scoots go through a similar scenario in another fic. A winged shield would have also worked for showing her willingness to protect others and keep them safe while allowing herself to soar to new heights.
That said, I love Peach Mango and we need to have all of your various Scootaloo sisters meet up somehow. The way the chapter played out was interesting and very touching. I can totally see Scoots as a Guidance Counselor for a side job on top of being a Wonderbolt or X-treme Scooter competitor.
4154184 The cutie mark has a two-fold meaning. The first is sacrifice, meaning she'd be willing to give up anything or take any pain if it meant helping others.
The second is about a common metaphor, that Scootaloo would "move moutains" to help her friends. I also wanted to include her scooter in her cutie mark, thus keeping a friendship theme while still ackowledging their in-show talents, so I like her cutie mark here. Like I say in my next chapter, her goal was in leading by example. If Scoots was willing to put so much on the line and still go through with her word despite her fear, she hoped it would inspire Peach to do the same.
I also like Peach Mango. You'll get to see her again. However, this Scootaloo can't be the same one from my other story since she's still very weak at flying.
I'm heading to Virginia tomorrow for a week to see my mom, but I have internet so I'll be able to post the last two chapters there.
4154301 Obviously they can't be the same Scoots... that's why Twilight messing up a spell lets alternate Scootaloos and their little sisters meet.
