• 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 9: Reconciliation

Rose’s words stung me to the depth of my core. She had told me she loved me countless numbers of times, but even though we had had plenty of fights over the years she had never once said that she hated me, and they hurt more than anything. My family was everything to me. I needed their love and support to be strong. Hearing her say she hated me felt like it was going to break me right there.

Rainbow Dash’s words came back to me, then. She had told me that if I didn’t shape up that Rose Blossom would do as I did long ago and go off on her own to prove herself. And here was living proof of her words. I had been treating my sister as just a child. I wanted to keep her safe, so I had been afraid to give her more than a gentle push in her training. Rainbow Dash had been unhesitatingly tough on me, and it made me grow much stronger than I had been in the past. But I hadn’t been willing to do that for Rose. In trying to protect her I was only driving her away. If I had been honest with her and trusted her like she and Rainbow Dash had trusted me then this never would have happened. It was my fault.

Bending down I picked up the wheel Rose had thrown at me, and I felt a deep pain in my heart. I looked over at the scooter, and I saw that all the wheels had popped off. The piece that held the wheels had cracked and broken, but the board and handlebars seemed fine. With one act I had tarnished both gifts; the one given to me by my grandmare, and one given by me to Rose. I had lost control.

Tears began streaming down my eyes. “Rose Blossom… we need to talk.” She didn’t respond. I hadn’t expected her to. “You’re right about everything. Since the day I first gave you the scooter my grandmare gave me I have been having bad dreams. Each night they got worse.

"The night that you came to wake me up and I slept with you I had a nightmare that I came home from school and you were there sobbing. I found out that Mom and Dad were dead.” Rose turned her head slightly towards me. “Last night, my first time sleeping alone again since that first nightmare, I dreamed we went on a picnic, and a tree fell on all of you, leaving me alone.”

She turned around to me now, and said angrily, “Why didn’t you just tell me? I knew something was wrong! But you kept lying and making excuses!”

“I didn’t want you to stay awake all night. I wanted you to enjoy your first day of school.”

She walked up to me and slapped me with her hoof. The pain was minor. I was actually more shocked than hurt. She was shaking and crying. “THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE! All the time you tell me you want us to be close sisters and we shouldn’t keep any secrets. If one of us has a problem, we should always tell the other so we can work through it and feel better. That’s what YOU told me. I’ve always kept my word. Even if I didn’t feel like talking about it right away I knew I could at least come to you for comfort. But you’re breaking your own word, lying and keeping the truth from me.

“Miss Cheerilee showed me an article she had saved from back when you were in school. Were you ever planning on telling me about saving me as a baby? Or about having stunted wing?

“Don’t you love me? Or am I just a big joke to you? I guess you never trusted me after all. You’re not Scootieloo anymore. You’re just plain old Scootaloo. And after lying and keeping secrets from me I don’t even know if that’s really your name. Go be a hero to someone else. You’re not MY hero anymore. I don't even think we should be sisters anymore.”

If I had thought I couldn’t feel worse I was proven wrong. My vision went blurry as she turned away to leave. Tears began running down my face. It quickly gave way to sobbing. I lay on my bed, tremors running through my body as I completely lost it. My heart burned as I held myself, the world feeling so cold and empty once again as I had lost my biggest supporter.

I felt something pulling at me, and I opened my eyes to see a blurry Rosie. She put her hooves out to me. I didn’t question. I just held her to me, apologizing as often as my breathing would allow.

I don’t how long I cried, but it was probably around ten minutes. The whole time we never let go of each other. When I finally began to settle down Rosie said, “I’m sorry too. I also got mad and said some things I didn’t really mean. I could never hate you, and you’ll always be my hero and sister.”

It relieved me so much to hear that. “I love you, Rosie. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

“I love you too. I said I wasn’t going to hurt your heart anymore, but I did anyway. I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”

“It’s okay, Rose. I forgive you.”

“Well, I don’t forgive you.” She didn’t say it with any anger. She stated it plainly.

“Why not?”

“I’m not gonna forgive you unless you promise me that you won’t keep any more secrets from me when you’re feeling hurt or scared. We’re a team. You were the one who taught me about love and being tough. If you can’t be honest with me then how am I supposed to trust you? I know there are some things that you won’t be able to talk to me about because I won’t understand. But why do I have to understand everything? Sometimes we just need someone to listen to us talk.”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t promise I’ll tell you everything that goes wrong, because sometimes we need a little privacy. And some things are simply beyond what you can handle. That’s not your fault. You’re just a lot younger than I am. However, I do promise you I’ll tell you whatever I can. And to start with I’m going to start taking your scooter lessons more seriously.

"While you were out having your adventure I went to talk to Rainbow Dash. She always tells me the truth, even if it’s a harsh truth, because she knows that it’s for my benefit. She scolded me for being so lenient with you and that my trying to protect you was doing more harm than good. And she said I wasn’t being a good sister to you and that would wind up with you getting in over your head or in a dangerous situation you couldn’t handle because of false confidence. And she was right. It’s a good thing your friends were still hanging around the park when I got there.”

Letting her go I told her to stay there while I left the room. I wrote a note to our parents that we weren’t going to be there for dinner and I would explain things when I got home.

I returned to my room, throwing on my saddlebag after throwing a small bag of bits in it. “Come on, Rose Blossom.”

“Where are we going?” she asked as she hopped off the bed.

“You asked about the past and want me to trust you, so we’re going to start now so I can repair the cracks in our relationship. You own a large portion of my heart, so I cannot afford to lose your friendship.”

So the two of us went for a walk around town. I gave her my life story. I told her about my mysterious beginnings, of being found injured by the Everfree Forest, and of never getting to know my birth parents. She looked upset at that. I knew the feeling. Up until I had been adopted I didn’t know what having parents felt like.

I spoke of getting adopted by my grandmare and raised by her; I told her about being diagnosed with stunted wing and believing I would never get to fly; I told her about meeting Rainbow Dash, and how she had quickly became my idol and eventually my sister, and how she had unintentionally helped cure me, as well as my many flying lessons.

Then I got to the part she was especially interested in: my saving of her. I still remembered that day vividly. What had pushed me so hard wasn’t honor or recognition or a desire to impress Rainbow Dash. In those moments, when adrenaline rushed through my body and time slowed down to a crawl, all I was thinking about was saving another baby from having to suffer through the fear I did for all those years.

I was still new to flying at that time, so I screwed up the landing and had gotten hurt a little bit, but it didn’t matter because she was safe.

After that I got to foalsit her almost every week because I felt a connection with her. She had been the first life I had saved. She was the one who made me see that my life really was worth something, no matter how small and insignificant I felt, because I had able to protect her from a terrible fate.

Then I got to the harder topics. I told her about my reckless decision to fly to a great height alone because I felt confidant I could do it, and of how Rainbow Dash had royally chewed me out for it. I had deserved it for not considering the consequences of failure. I tried to impress upon Rose the parallel between that situation and the one she had been in.

For the next part I had to sit down. I told her about coming home to find my grandmare dead, her last words to me, and of how devastated I had been afterword.

Just when I felt I was about to be crushed by despair…that’s when Mom and Rose had come to save me. Star Gazer offered to let me live with them, a life for a life, to repay the debt they felt they owed me. It wasn’t out of duty that they did it, but out of love. They loved me for saving their daughter and taking an interest in her welfare, so they knew I would be perfect big sis material.

I continued on with the rest of my history, but more summed it. Rose knew more about that time since I was living with them. Throughout she kept being interested, looking utterly fascinated.

When I was done she just looked out at the world, a thoughtful look on her face. “Wow… I knew you were cool before, but now I think you’re super-duper awesome times infinity!”

I let out a laugh. “Thanks, kid.” I mussed up her mane a little.

“Hey!” she said with a giggle. “I have to say I’m sorry about Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Well… I knew you spent a lot of time with her, and she was your other sister, but I always thought she was just so full of herself and not that impressive. But it was with her help that you became the hero you are today. Rainbow Dash is pretty awesome too. If it wasn’t for her you would have been a lame, flightless blank flank the rest of your life.”

“Don’t I know it,” I responded, knowing it was true. “So as for you, I think we’re gonna alter between scooter lessons and flying lessons every day. Or maybe we could just split the time fifty-fifty.”

“But I like to scooter. I don’t care about flying.”

“This isn’t up for debate!” I said sternly. “In case you weren’t paying attention, being able to fly is an essential skill if you want to become a master scooter rider. Strengthening your wings leads to harder flapping and thus greater acceleration. I’ve always been too gentle with you. That needs to stop. I’m not going to go as far as Rainbow did with me, but I’m your older sister and you’re going to listen to me whether you like it or not. I’m not letting you get into danger by being unprepared for what’s out there.”

Rose looked a little mad at first by my attitude, but then her face lit up. “Okay, Scootieloo. You win.” An uncertain look came to her face. “I guess I’m just scared. If I go high up in the sky and lose control I’ll go splat on the ground and die. Or break a lot of bones.”

“You don’t have to be scared, Rosie. You’re not starting out with stunted wing like I did, so you’ll probably get the hang of flying much faster than I did. Flying is a process that’s worked on in many steps. Flying up to the clouds isn’t something for brand new fliers like you. For now you’re just going to focus on getting off the ground at all. You’re got to be super tough and brave if you want to succeed, because you’ll fall flat on your face just as much, if not more, than when you began learning to ride your scooter. But after a while it becomes natural.

"So now what do you say we get some dinner? I’m hungry.”

“Sure!”

We went out to eat, just telling silly stories and making jokes, and I felt more normal and relaxed than I had all week. I had found my courage again; the courage to face life. I felt pretty certain that, tonight, the nightmares would finally stop.