Prove it
Rainbow Dash flew back up to her house to find Scootaloo still sleeping peacefully. Actually, peacefully wasn’t quite the word. Scootaloo was firmly unconscious, her legs splayed at odd angles and her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Rainbow checked to make sure she was still breathing; confirmation of which gave her the peace of mind to settle into the chair next to the couch and read Daring Do. Eventually, Scootaloo began to stir.
Upon waking up, Scootaloo let out a noise that was halfway between a groan and a yawn. “Ugh, my head feels all fuzzy,” she said, still blinking her eyes in an attempt to get readjusted to the light.
Rainbow looked up from her book to quickly examine her sister. She appeared stiff and unsteady on her hooves, but other than that she looked okay, and Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll bet it does. You need to take it easy, Scoots. How ya’ feeling otherwise?”
Scootaloo twisted her neck and stretched her forelegs, then fluttered her wings a little bit, wincing as she did so. “I think I’m okay. It still hurts a bit.”
Rainbow winced empathetically. The sight of Scoots in even minor discomfort still bothered her. “Sorry ‘bout that Scoots. The doctors needed to do some medical stuff.”
“It’s okay. Umm, so do we know what’s wrong with me?” Scootaloo asked tentatively, her voice filled with uncertainty.
Rainbow looked Scootaloo straight in her wide purple eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re awesome. But, ummm... the doc thinks that you can’t fly because of some kind of lump on your spine.”
“Oh,” Scootaloo said sadly. If Rainbow had told her that there was anything she could do: train harder, stop scootering, she would have done it without hesitation. But there was nothing she could do about a lump; she didn’t even know it was there before ten seconds ago.
Seeing Scootaloo standing there looking dejected hurt Rainbow again. It was a look she never wanted to see. “Hey, the doctor needs to run some tests and stuff and then she’ll let us know what we can do, okay? So chin up there, Scoots. We’re gonna beat this thing,” she said, offering what she felt may have been false hope. But if she had any other kind...
False hope or not, Scootaloo brightened up and Rainbow mirrored her smile. “Yeah. You think I’ll really be able to fly?”
“Sure do, Scoots, but we can’t do anything just yet, so how ‘bout you pick what you want for dinner?”
“Can we get pizza? With artichokes?” she asked excitedly, the previous malaise quickly vanishing.
Rainbow chuckled at the filly’s enthusiasm for pizza. “You bet, Scoots.”
The two pegasi ate dinner, watched some Trotting Dead, then went through their usual bedtime ritual. After tucking Scoots in, making sure she was all warm and snug in her bed, Rainbow found herself outside staring up at the night sky. Looking up at the stars, Rainbow remembered hearing stories of the sky spirits who watched over pegasi and gave them the ability to fly. She knew that it was just a legend told to little fillies, but there were still some pegasi who believed in the old tales. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to cover her bases, she began to speak. “Umm, I don’t know if you’re really up there, but if you are, maybe you could do Scoots a favor. If you really do watch over us, well... you know how awesome she is and if anypony actually deserves to fly, it’s her.” She waited and listened for some sign that her prayer was answered, or even just acknowledged, but all she heard was the gentle rustling of the breeze as it washed over her. “I know that in the olden days, I’d be expected to offer a sacrifice and what not. Well, I don’t have anything to sacrifice, but if you want to put it on my tab, I’m okay with that.” The sky still offered no response other than the twinkling of the stars. “Just think about it, alright?” Rainbow said to the empty sky, before turning around and going inside.
The next morning, Rainbow woke up and went downstairs to start fixing breakfast. A few minutes later she heard the muted sound of tiny hoofbeats and she held her breath, half-expecting Scoots to triumphantly announce that she could fly, but as the orange filly rounded into view she was still very much earthbound. She seemed relatively cheerful though, so there was that.
After a quick breakfast the two pegasi began their trip to school. On their way to the schoolhouse, Rainbow saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, presumably also on their way, and so she decided to drop Scootaloo off with her friends, trusting them to make it the rest of the way without incident. Shortly after Rainbow Dash flew off, however, the CMC had the misfortune of running into Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Scootaloo froze up and Sweetie Belle stayed with her friend, but before either of them could suggest taking the long way around Apple Bloom began sprinting toward the two fillies.
“Hey, Diamond!” Apple Bloom shouted as she ran over to where Diamond and Silver were talking, her friends reluctantly trailing her. “Ah owe you a reckonin’!”
Diamond Tiara looked up from her conversation, seemingly more annoyed than scared. “What is it with everypony and Loserloo?” she wondered out loud.
“Stop calling her that!” Apple Bloom snapped.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Diamond snapped back.
“You are such a selfish brat. You think it’s okay to hit Scootaloo?! She’s-” Applebloom would have finished that sentences, but as she turned to look at her friend, she saw those wide purple eyes silently pleading with her not to finish that sentence. “-mah friend,” she finished somewhat quieter than when she started. “If ya mess with her ya mess with me,” she snarled.
Rather than be cowed at Apple Blooms decree, Diamond appeared angry. “She hit me first!”
As Scootaloo watched the argument unfold in front of her, she heard a familiar voice echo in her head. Good thing you’ve got Apple Bloom around to fight your battles for you, since you’re too weak to do it yourself.
Shut up, stupid voice. I’m not weak.
Yes, you are. Whenever you get scared, you go running for Rainbow Dash like a little foal, and now Apple Bloom has to stick up for you.
I don’t need Apple Bloom’s help to deal with Diamond.
Prove it!
Scootaloo walked a few steps forward and placed a hoof on Apple Bloom’s shoulder. “You wanna fight me, Diamond?” she asked softly.
Apple Bloom appeared stunned, and even Diamond Tiara was taken aback. “Three against two is hardly a fair fight. Even someone as stupid as you should know that,” she scoffed.
Scootaloo turned her back to Diamond and faced Apple Bloom. “I’ve got this, AB,” she whispered.
“Ya sure, Scoots? You don’t have to do this alone. Me and Sweetie are here for ya’.”
“I’m sure.”
Apple Bloom remembered learning about the ancient ponies who lived in warring tribes. Among pegasi, it was common practice for a leader to go around and look his or her soldiers in the eye before a great battle, to see if they truly had “the warrior’s spirit” with them on that day. When she heard of this tradition, Apple Bloom dismissed it as an overly poetic interpretation of an inherently barbaric culture, but looking at her friend she was forced to reconsider that notion.
Sure, the orange pegasi standing in front of her was clearly nervous, but Apple Bloom could tell that there was something else inside her friend, and that something needed to prove itself. Whether that was the ‘warrior’s spirit’, or not, didn’t seem to matter. She nodded wordlessly and extended her hoof in a show of solidarity. Scootaloo accepted her hoofbump with a smile and a brisk nod, one brave pony to another, and Apple Bloom backed away, leaving Scootaloo alone to face Diamond Tiara.
Apple Bloom’s gesture gave Scootaloo a much needed jolt of confidence and she turned to confront her nemesis, standing a little taller than she was previously, her tiny wings puffed out. “There, now it’s just me.” Diamond Tiara scoffed again, only this time there was a decided note of insecurity in it. “I don’t want to spend the rest of the year looking over my shoulder. I shouldn’t have hit you. Not because you weren’t being a major plot head, but because hitting ponies is wrong.”
“Hmph, so you admit you started it.”
“And now I’m ending it. You can either fight me, and if you win I’ll leave you alone, or we can call a truce, but I’m through being scared of you. You don’t even make the top ten of scary stuff I’ve had to deal with,” which was both true and as close as she was willing to come to confiding in the pony standing across from her.
“You’re still a blank flanked chicken,” Diamond shot back, with a small note of relief coloring her tone.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You’re still a plot head.”
Diamond hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. “Fine, truce. Daddy always says that fighting’s for ponies who aren’t smart enough to figure another way out anyway. C’mon, Silvy. I don’t want to catch their blankness.”
“Wait, I want to talk to Silver,” said Scootaloo, before both ponies could walk away.
Diamond looked skeptical but Silver just shrugged nonchalantly. “Whatever. I’ll meet up with you in a sec. Okay, Di?”
Diamond Tiara trotted off leaving Silver and Scootaloo alone, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie watched from a distance, keeping their pledge not to interfere. “AB and Sweetie told me that you helped pay for my scooter. I wanted to say thank you,” Scootaloo said, still dealing with a mixture of pride and relief that was strangely overwhelming.
“Well, Diamond shouldn’t have broken your old one.”
“Y’know, you don’t have to hang out with her. I’ll bet if you apologize to AB and Sweetie they’d let you hang out with us,” Scootaloo offered.
Silver shook her head, not exactly dismissively, but still deliberately. “Di was wrong, and she can get carried away sometimes, but you and your friends did ruin her cutecienera. She’s still my best friend; I’m not going to abandon her because she made one mistake.”
“But she’s so mean to everypony. You at least can be nice when you want to be.”
“She’s not mean to me. Look, I’m glad you like your new scooter, but this doesn’t make us friends.”
“Fine.”
As Silver Spoon hurried away to rejoin Diamond Tiara, the other members of the CMC ran over to Scootaloo. “That was awesome, Scoots,” cheered Apple Bloom as she crashed into the orange pegasus, half tackling her with a jolt of force from an impromptu hug.
“Is Diamond going to be nice from now on?” asked Sweetie, piling on.
Scootaloo blew on her hoof, in the manner of somepony showboating, before breaking out into a giggle. “Probably not, but I don’t think I have to worry about her anymore. Now, c’mon, I’ll race ya’ to school!” she said before taking off, leaving her friends behind her with shouts of “Hey, not fair!”
The rest of the school day passed without incident. Diamond Tiara didn’t even bully anyone at lunch, opting to eat quietly with Silver Spoon, by the swing set instead of in her usual place under the big tree near the middle of the yard.
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“She hit me first!”
Well Diamond, maybe if you didn't constantly rub Scootaloo's inability to fly in her face she wouldn't of gotten so pissed off to slug you. And the cmc didn't ruin DT's cutecienera. The Terrible Twosome spent the majority of "Call of The Cutie" mocking Apple Bloom's lack of a cutie mark at every opportunity especially at the party(which AB didn't even wanna attend, though ditching Twist as a jerk move). Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo merely stood up for AB, then Twilight called out the twosome on their teasing and everyone except them went back to partying. TL;DR nearly everything DT is blaming the cmc she brought on herself
5103281 What does TL;DR stand for?
5103411 Too long: Didn't read. It's a way of summarizing a long comment.
5103416 Wow! I like quick responses. Thank you sir
5103798 that comment made me think of this: skip to 1:30
5103880 If you're gonna throw a youtube video at me telling me I'm wrong, at least use this one:
5103993
I see clips from that show all the time. What is it, exactly?
I like the way you handled Silver Spoon's relationship with Diamond Tiara. I don't have any respect for either them of them as ponies, but what I can respect is a determination to stick with the ship whose mast you nailed your colors to.
So recently I have read this series from the first set all the way up to here and I have say I am really enjoying it.
Do now the bullying arc and legal guardian arcs are closed for the most parts in terms of major conflict. So far as I can tell, that only leaves the flying arc left unless you plan on adding in one more arc?
So are the options are:
a)Dark magic (cost at RD's hand)
b)Twillight finds something ( I find this unlikely)
c)High risk operation
d)She just flies (doubt it)
e) She doesn't fly at all
This should be interesting for the next few chapters. Cant way till more come out, but I guess I will have to.
5103832
Yeah, but they'd also have to be in sync with the rest of the gang. "Here's your new Rainbow Dash" would probably yield mixed results.
5104678 We've actually seen that with Spike in the Return of Harmony part 2
(there were several other things wrong at that time but it still applies as an example)
5104053 It's from a show called Scrubs. It wasn't actually that good...overly sappy sometimes and not at all believable even for a comedy..but Dr. Cox...the character in the video was pretty great.
All of this should be in italics. It's thougts - always use italics for that, unless, of course, if you have a complex mind system like It's A Dangerous Business Going Out Your Front Door, or Besides The Will Of Evil (an amazing series - everypony should read it. Start with Dangerous Business)
5106166 Oops I forgot that formatting doesn't transfer from gdocs to Fimfiction. Fixed, thanks.
Nice chapter.
5107221
Welcome to fimfic.
5107791 fixed thanks
Way to go Scoots. ^^
For a minute I thought it was out of line to ask SP to ditch DT, but actually, given that Scoots can't know the mechanics of their relationship, it was good of her to offer, even if it turned out there was no need for it.
I like what you did with DT&SP in this.
Keep up the good work.
5111145
You're welcome ^_^.
5122826
Exactly.
>> ElkinFencer10
5123896 I'm not sure a pony fic is the place to debate real world issues, and I would never presume to give anyone advice, but... My point of view at least in this case is that the cost of Scootaloo sticking to her guns and refusing to apologize vastly outweighs the harm caused by just apologizing. If Scoots refuses to apologize out of principle, then theoretically Cheerliee keeps her out of school, because Cheerliee has all the leverage. Scootaloo misses too much school then she gets held back etc.. This is one of those occasions where practicality outweighs principle, which is a good lesson for Scoots to learn, sometimes it's best not to pick a fight where winning doesn't actually get you anything, (See also Pyrrhic victory) .
Okay, that final scene, was cool. No other way to describe it.
5131358 Thanks, there are all sorts of explanations as to why Scoots can't fly, this one is mine.
Hey quick question are you just going to give up and say scoots will never fly for a reason. Because though it seems easy its kinda lazy and a way to continue dash and scoots the same way so well screw it idk nearly every fic just gives up and says she cant fly i hope this aint the same
5134603 The scootaloo flight arc will have a conclusion, that's all I'm willing to say at this time.
5135623 Thats good enough for me as long as you take time and dont take the lazy option as quick as possible
glad scoots stood up for herself.
Now that you mention it...that type of abandonment doesn't sit well with me, either...
Applebloom >> Apple Bloom
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