• Published 26th May 2014
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Big Sis Scootaloo - Never2muchpinkie



Scootaloo's all grown up. Having completed her journey she takes some time just to be part of her adoptive family and watch her little sister grow.

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Chapter 3: Best first day of school EVER!

Author's Note:

Rose Blossom takes control of the narrative for this chapter. Further chapters will shift back and forth between them.

I woke up in the morning feeling so excited. I didn’t think I had ever felt this excited in my whole life…well, except maybe for watching Scootieloo beat Rainbow Dash in that race. That was so awesome! My big sister is the best! Seriously, no one is as cool as her. And now she’s trying to teach me to be cool too! Now I was going to school, and maybe I’d meet some friends like hers.

I got up, checking my saddle bag to make sure I had all my supplies, before heading to the kitchen to get my breakfast. I saw Scootieloo at the table, facing away from me. “MORNING!” I cried out happily. I saw her jump, and Mom and Dad both said good morning back. “First day of school! I’m so happy! I can’t wait!”

“Well, you better wait until you get some breakfast in your tummy,” said Mom. “You don’t want to go to school on an empty stomach or you won’t be able to concentrate.”

“Yes, Mom!” I sat at the table and gave my big sis a big smile.

She looked back over to me and gave me a small smile. She wasn’t looking so good. I felt some of my happiness leave. “You okay, Scootieloo?”

“Um… yeah. I… stayed up too late trying to finish my book report. I’m just a little sleepy.” She rubbed her eyes before taking another bite of her breakfast and closing her eyes as she rested her head on her hoof.

“Hm…” I thought it was a bit more than that. I wondered if she had another nightmare because I hadn’t been there to protect her. Nah! She knew she could always come to me or Mom or Dad if she was having problems. She wouldn’t lie to me. She could always stay in my bed if she had any problems.

I ate my breakfast in a rush, eager to go to school. When I was done I asked Scootieloo, “Are you still gonna take me to school today, or are you too tired?”

“I said I would, Sis, and so I will.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” she said as she stuffed her last bite in her mouth. When she swallowed she said, “Come on. Go get your helmet.”

“ALRIGHT! Let’s do it!”

I went to my room and grabbed the scooter that she gave me. I loved it so much. It was the best gift ever! She had told me how important it was to her, so I had been taking good care of it like I promised. Every time I was done riding it I made sure to check it for any cracks or problems, and then scrubbed it clean. I know I didn’t have to wash it every time, but I wanted to prove to my awesome sis that I was taking my promise seriously. She had trusted me with the most important thing she had, and so I would do anything to protect this piece of her heart. I didn’t want her to cry over it anymore.

As we headed out I unfurled my wings and kicked off. The feeling of the air rushing past me was something I never got tired of. I had Scootieloo by my side in case I messed up, so I wasn’t afraid at all. I only felt excitement and adrenaline rushing through my whole body. The path we were on was straight, but I wanted to do something a little more fun before we got to school, so when I saw a hill I headed toward it, jumping and letting out a shout of pure joy as I flew through the air.

“Rose!” I heard Scootieloo suddenly cry out. “Push forward!”

“Hmmm?” I looked and saw I was heading right toward a tree branch. I pushed the handlebars forward to go lower. As I passed under it I felt like doing one of my sister’s tricks. I took my hooves off the handlebars and grabbed the branch as I kicked the scooter forward. As I rotated around I let go, and as I went flying I felt a thrill in my tummy as I landed back on the scooter just before it hit the ground.

I slowed down and come to a stop, beaming with pride. “How was that, Sis? Not bad, huh?”

Scootieloo came to a stop next to me, but she didn’t look happy. “Rose Blossom! What were you thinking? It’s still too early in your training for you to try pulling off a stuff like that. You could get hurt! Don’t do it again!”

I let out a sad sigh. “Sorry, Sis.” I kicked off again, going slower than before. I knew she was tired, but she didn’t have to get so mad. It had been great riding scooters with her but she didn’t want to teach me anything. Or at least it seemed that way. All we had really been doing is riding on the ground, and sometimes she’d let me jump a hill. I hadn’t complained because I still had fun, but I thought she would be glad that I had pulled off a trick like that.

It was quiet for the next few minutes before Scootieloo said, “I’m sorry, Rose Blossom. I didn’t mean to snap at you. You always talk about how you love me too much to want to see me hurting, and I feel the same way about you. I don’t want you to attempt a high level trick like that until you’ve had more practice. You’ve been so eager for school you don’t want to have to miss it because you broke a leg trying out a stunt you’ve never attempted before, y’know.”

“Okay,” I said quietly with a shrug.

“Come on, Rosie. Don’t be mad at me. I said I was sorry.”

I cheered up a little. Whenever she called me by my full name it usually meant she was angry. If she was calling me Rosie again it meant she had calmed down. “Are you sure you’re okay, Sis? You can tell me anything. That’s what a good sister does, and you always listen to me whenever something bad happens.”

For a moment I could have sworn she looked like she was about to cry, but then she suddenly rushed ahead, saying, “Catch me if you can!”

I laughed, flapping my little wings hard. I guessed I had just imagined it. I closed the gap, but just before I touched her she was suddenly coming to a stop. “We’re here, Rosie.”

I looked over at the schoolhouse, my heart beating fast in anticipation. I gave her a big hug, and she threw a hoof around me too. “I’ll see you later, sis. I’ll do my best!”

“Be good for the teacher. Miss Cheerilee was my teacher when I was younger, so you behave yourself, young lady.”

“I will, Scootieloo! Goodbye for now.”

“G-good… bye…”

I felt her shudder, and she hadn’t sounded right when she had said goodbye. I backed up from her, trying to see her face, but she quickly turned away, turning her scooter around.

“Why are you upset, Sis?”

She didn’t turn around, but she did answer me. “I… I’m just so… proud of you. And I’m going to miss you.”

That didn’t seem quite right. She went to school during the day so she didn’t see me in the mornings anyway. I could tell that something was bothering her, but I didn’t know what it was. Well… she did say she was really proud of me. I know that mom got teary eyed and emotional sometimes when she was proud of me for something. I don’t know. Maybe I was just thinking about it too much. We were the closest sisters around. She wouldn’t hide anything from me.

I was just being silly. I should be focusing on all the new kids I was going to meet instead of finding ways to make myself miserable about something that was wrong. She was just tired. “I’ll see you after school! Goodbye, Sis!”

She gave me a wave before she took off. Without flapping my wings I just kicked off the rest of the way there until I came to the door. I saw a rack on the side of the school where the kids could put their bikes and scooters and stuff, but I didn’t want to leave it outside. It was too important for that.

I felt really, really thrilled to see a scooter already sitting in the rack. Someone else liked scooters too. Maybe I really would get a scooter buddy. I wondered how good they were. Maybe they could take lessons with Scootieloo too. Maybe they already had an older sibling who taught them and we could do it all in a big group. I didn’t even know if they had an older sibling but I was sure that in a race Scootieloo would beat them easy.

As I opened the door and walked in I saw ten other kids were in seats already, chattering away. I hadn’t had too much of a chance to play with other foals before this, so I already knew I wanted to be friends with all of them!

At the front of the class was the teacher, Miss Cheerilee. She looked cute. She had a purple coat, with a mix of two different kinds of pink for a mane. She looked really friendly.

As I went to the front she looked down at me with a great big smile. “Well, good morning!” she said. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing great!” I said with a huge smile. I liked her already. “I’m ready to learn and make friends!”

“Well, that’s great! I’m glad to have you as one of my students with that attitude. What’s your name? I’m Cheerilee.”

I knew her name already, but I knew she was just being polite. “My name is Rose Blossom, but my sister always calls me Rosie. You can call me that if you want.”

“Well, thank you. I’m honored.” I saw her look over at my scooter, and her grin faded a little bit. “We don’t allow vehicles in the classroom. We have a rack outside for those, and you can use your scooter during recess.”

I thought she would say something like that. “I know, but I can’t put it out there.”

“Why not?”

I took in a deep breath and then said in a rush, “Because this scooter was a very special gift and it used to belong to my sister and it was her gift from her grandmare and her grandmare died so it was really important to her and she didn’t want to give it to me but she did anyway because we didn’t have the money for a new one and she wanted to make me happy and then she started crying because she was afraid I was gonna break it and break part of her heart so at first I tried to give it back but then she told me she wanted me to have it and made me promise to take good care of it and I have but it’s really important so I don’t want to risk it getting stolen and hurting her heart again because it’s irreplaceable and I don’t want to ever make my sister hurt.” I gasped in another big breath. “So that’s why I want to keep it inside.”

At first she looked confused, but I think she understood what I was saying. “I understand. You want to keep it safe for your sister’s sake because it’s one of the things her grandmare left behind.” I nodded. “Well… I guess I can make an exception for that. You can put it in one of the corners of the room by my desk, but this is a privilege. If I catch you trying to mess with it before recess that privilege will be revoked, okay? So just be a good student and we won’t have any problems.”

I put the scooter in the corner like she said, then ran back over to her and gave her a big hug. “Thank you, Miss Cheerilee. My big sis was right. You are a great teacher!”

I saw her blush a bit. “Why, thank you, Rose Blossom.” She looked down at me, a curious look on her face. “For some reason I feel like I’ve seen you before. I would think it would be difficult to forget such a distinctive mane and tail combination. I just can’t put my hoof on it.

“Oh, well. Maybe I’ll remember it later. For now please head to your seat. Class will be starting in a few minutes so take this time to meet some of your fellow students.” She directed me towards one of the seats. Mine was the second seat in the second row.

As I sat down I joined a conversation between a unicorn filly and a pegasus colt about what they liked. When I started talking about my love for scootering the colt’s eyes lit up.

“You like to scooter too?” he asked.

“Yeah! It’s so amazing!”

“I know, right! I brought mine to school too.”

“That’s YOUR scooter out there? You wanna ride them during recess?”

“Sure! I’m Rock Climber.”

“I’m Rose Blossom.” I turned to the girl he had been talking to. “And who are you?”

“I’m Sun Glimmer,” she responded.

“Wanna be friends?”

“Sure,” she said with a smile.

I smiled too. Not even in class for five minutes and I already made two friends and a scooter buddy. School was AWESOME!

Sun Glimmer was a light yellow with a mane that was pretty much the same colors as Miss Cheerilee. Rock Climber was a blue-gray, with blue eyes and a dark blue mane.

While we were talking I noticed an earth pony who wasn’t talking to anyone. She was probably shy, so I invited her over to our group. She looked nervous at first, but I kept pushing her to talk and made sure she felt accepted into our group until she settled down a bit and started opening up, then she sounded normal and seemed to be having a good time too. While we were talking I found out her name was Honey Drop. She had a light green coat, with a yellow mane and purple eyes.

Now I had three friends! Scootieloo would be so proud of me. I couldn’t wait until I got home and told her.

After all the seats were filled Miss Cheerilee called on the class to quiet down. “Good morning, everyone!” she said with that bright grin of hers. “I look forward to getting to know all of you, so I thought I’d take the first half hour to ask all of you to come up to the front and tell us a little about yourself.”

One by one she called out each of my classmates. Honey Drop looked petrified when Miss Cheerilee called her up, but I pushed her to go up and so did Sun Glimmer and Rock Climber. She looked reassured to have all of us encouraging her. She still sounded a bit nervous when she walked up to the front, but I kept rooting for her. Quietly, of course. I didn’t want to get in trouble and lose my special privilege. By the end she seemed to have gotten over her nerves, but she still looked relieved when she headed back to her seat.

“You did great!” I whispered.

“Thanks,” she whispered back.

She called on me next. I wasn’t scared at all. I hopped my way to the front, feeling so alive. “Hello, everyone!” I called out with my biggest, brightest smile. “I’m Rose Blossom. I live with my mom and my dad and my big sister. My mom is named Star Gazer and my dad is Cloud Chaser. They’re really fun and great to be around. My big sis is named Scootaloo. She’s the best sister around because she always spends time with me and plays with me and now she’s teaching me how to do tricks on my scooter. She gave me her old one and I’m taking real good care of it because I promised her I would and it means a lot to her.

“Scootieloo once fought a dragon!” I saw them gasp and ooh and aah, and one of them asked me what happened. “She kinda lost, but only because she pushed someone else out of the way and took an attack meant for them so they wouldn’t get hurt. She was in real bad shape for a while. She broke all four legs and her wings. She’s doing okay now, though.”

“Oh!” I heard Miss Cheerilee’s voice behind me, sounding like she had just discovered something. When I turned to look she said, “I remember now.”

“Remember what?”

“I remember where I’ve seen you before. But I’m sorry. You’re in the middle of your introduction. Don’t mind me.”

“Okay.” I turned back to the class. “I’ve lived in Ponyville all my life. I like the ground and I’m not all that interested in flying. After watching my sister race against Rainbow Dash and saw all those amazing tricks on her scooter I know that’s what I want to do too.

“I haven’t had any real friends to play with around my age before this so I hope all of us could be friends. My sister’s friend Pinkie Pie says you can never have too many friends, and I feel that way too. I’ve already made friends with three of you.” I looked over at Rock Climber, Sun Glimmer, and Honey Drop, and they all nodded back at me. “Let’s all give it our best, everyone, and learn all we can so we can be just like our heroes!”

I heard Miss Cheerilee laugh. “I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever had a student as enthusiastic as you about learning. Let’s just see how long you keep that enthusiasm.”

I turned back to her with a grin. “My big sis says if you’re going to do something then you should do it all the way and have fun with it. If I have to go to school then I’m going to do my best and have lots of fun doing it.”

“I like your attitude, Rose Blo… Rosie.”

I liked hearing her call me by my nickname.

After everyone else went up she started teaching us about stuff. Class passed by pretty quick as we learned about Equestrian history, math, spelling, and other stuff.

When Miss Cheerilee called out for recess all of us got up and started heading outside, but she stopped me. “Rose Blossom, can I talk to you for a minute?”

My heart started racing. I hadn’t done anything wrong, had I? I had been good! Had I broken a rule without knowing it? It was only my first day. Surely she would give me a warning first.

I went up to her desk as she went into one of the drawers. I heard rustling papers for a minute until she finally said, “Ah! Here it is.” She handed me a folded up newspaper article. “Not too many of my students wind up in the newspaper. I’ve saved this one since your sister used to be one of my students.”

I could see I wasn’t in trouble, but I didn’t see what something that Scootieloo did in school had to do with recognizing me. As I unfolded the article I saw two pictures. The first one was of Scootieloo as a filly, holding a baby me. The second one was of our mom hugging her. It didn’t look familiar to me. I mean, I was only a baby so I wouldn’t remember something that happened that long ago, but I’d never seen these pictures before.

I looked at the caption up top. “Ponyville’s newest little hero.” I already knew Scootieloo was a hero. She fought a dragon and protected Ponyville from being destroyed, but she wasn’t this tiny when it happened. I went over to my desk and sat down, and began reading.

“This reporter has seldom seen the likes of the courage and selflessness displayed by this orange filly named Scootaloo. Star Gazer, the mother of baby Rose Blossom, said that she was walking her daughter in her carriage when she got too close to a hill. As the carriage went down the hill Scootaloo chased after it on her scooter. She wasn’t in time to stop it before it hit the peak and the baby was launched high into the air, the filly chasing after her. Discarding her scooter for greater control she attempted to catch the baby, but missed. But Scootaloo wasn’t ready to give it up just yet. She began racing down towards the descending baby without a thought to her own safety.

“Catching the baby right before she hit the ground she attempted to pull up but the effort proved too much for her and she ended up falling back down towards the ground. In order to keep Rose Blossom safe she flipped herself onto her back to make sure only she took any injuries as she hit the ground. Scootaloo rose, a little banged up, but safe. The grateful mother ran over to grab her child, clearly overjoyed at her safety, before passing her child over to her husband Cloud Hunter, and both filly and mother were crying up a storm as they celebrated a rescue that blows this reporters mind.

“I only had a short chance to interview her before she became overwhelmed and a friend or family member whisked her away, but she said she strove so hard to save Rose Blossom because she used to have stunted wing when she was younger, and didn’t ever want anything like that to happen to another pegasus. It warms this reporter’s heart to have been there to witness this act of incredible bravery and selflessness.”

I set the newspaper down. Scootieloo never told me this story. My memories of my babyhood were very blurry. I guess I just didn’t think too much about the fact that Scootieloo didn’t always live with us. Since I had pretty much grown up with her as my big sis it just never occurred to me before this.

I felt a bit cheated. Scootieloo had been keeping something from me. I thought we were close enough that she would tell me everything. I would have been amazed at this story, of hearing how Scootieloo saved me from serious injury. I guess it explained why mom adopted her into our family.

Something else came to me. Looking up at my teacher I asked, “Miss Cheerilee, what’s stunted wing?”

She smiled down at me. “Well, that’s a great question. Stunted wing is, obviously, a condition that only occurs in pegasi. When something is 'stunted' that means it has stopped growing or has only grown in a little bit. So, with that information, stunted wing means that a pegasi’s wings have not grown in correctly. It can lead to them not being able to fly at all, or severely limiting the distance and time they can fly. It can sometimes sort itself out for a lucky few, but most of the time it requires surgery to fix.”

Scootieloo didn’t tell me about that either. Now that was two things she had hidden from me. And with her behavior today that might be three things. I didn’t like it. I guess I would just have to get an answer out of her later. Right now I wanted to go play with my new friends.

“Thank you, Miss Cheerilee, for showing me the article and answering my question.”

“No problem, Rose Blossom.”

“I’m gonna go play.”

“Have fun.”

“I will.”

I went and grabbed my scooter, heading outside and looking for Rock Climber. I saw him just kicking off in slow squares, looking bored. He perked up when he saw me. At first me and him just rode slowly as we talked. Sun Glimmer and Honey Drop were playing ball with another group of kids. Honey Drop didn’t seem as nervous as before.

“Hey!” I said. “You wanna race?”

“Bring it on!” he said back.

With a laugh I unfurled my wings and began revving them and took off. After about ten seconds I turned to look at him but he was way behind me, looking a little confused. Now I felt it too. I slowed down until I caught back up with him. “What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Why are you using your wings?”

“What do you mean? That’s the best way to build up speed. Scootieloo has a scooter cutie mark and that’s what she always does.”

“Oh,” he said, looking a little down. “My brother never told me about that. I thought you were only supposed to use your hooves.”

“How old is your brother?”

“He’s about twice my age. He’s in high school.”

“So is Scootieloo. Maybe they’re in the same classes.”

I was feeling excited, but Rock Climber still looked upset. “What’s wrong?”

“My brother is a good scooter rider too, and we were supposed to be having lessons like you with your sister, but… well… he’s been busy with his new friends so he hasn’t had much time for me. And the time we do have together… well… um…”

He looked really out of it now. I didn’t know things were that bad. “Hey, would you like to come over to my house after school?”

“Huh?”

“If your brother is too busy then maybe you could join me in my lessons with Scootieloo. I don’t know if she’s gonna be able to do it today because she didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but we can both learn together. That would be so much fun.”

“I guess…”

“Come on. I’ll show you how my sister taught me. Just unfurl your wings and take a few breaths to steady yourself. Center your balance as you put both hoofs on the board, and then take off.”

It took him a few tries to do it. He was so used to using his hooves that he kept trying to use them instead of his wings, losing his balance and making himself fall off. I had to stop myself from laughing. I know that’s a mean thing to say, but I felt kinda relieved that there was someone worse than me. It only meant that Scootieloo was doing a good job of teaching me.

He did get it after a few minutes. And he saw how much more speed and control he had using just his wings for power. He still had trouble controlling things and with falling off. I thought to myself that maybe I had been wrong. Scootieloo had been teaching me well. I was just being impatient.

Picking himself up once again Rock Climber dusted himself off and said, “I think I’m gonna take you up on your offer. I definitely need some help.”

“Sounds great. I’ll help you practice for now.”

For the next ten minutes we practiced together. I tried to match his pace so he could watch what I was doing.

We had a little bit of time left after that so we joined Sun Glimmer and Honey Drop in playing ball until Miss Cheerilee called us back in to continue class. I placed my scooter back inside by her desk.

A scooter friend! I was so happy! We could play every day and learn and compete and be friends and rivals. Maybe one day I’d actually surpass Scootieloo. That would be so great.