First Day in Spring
The first morning of spring dawned, casting light through the open windows of the cloud home above Ponyville. Rainbow Dash rolled over, not yet ready to greet the coming day. She mumbled in her sleep, attempting to ignore her natural alarm clock.
The light intensified over time and eventually she was forced to rise. She yawned, squinting in the bright morning light.
Something dawned on her. She wasn’t cold.
She sat there for at least a minute, registering the thought.
“That’s right,” she said slowly, “It’s Spring!” She hopped out of bed and trotted into the hall, past the small bed where the dark green form of Tank still slept, hidden within his shell.
Once in the kitchen she prepared breakfast for herself. Cereal and eggs, perfect for an athlete. She ate quickly and once ready, headed out the door. She had spent all of last night thinking over it. She wanted to put the whole Scootaloo incident behind her, and to do that she needed to resume her regular routine.
She crouched, and readied herself. Then, with a giant leap she launched off of her cloud home and plummeted towards the earth below. The ground rushed up, 300 feet, 200, 150, 100, 50. She pulled up at the last second and pulled off a spectacular flip.
“Oh yeah!” The blue pegasus cried into the open air, “I’m feelin’ good today!”
---
The same sun that woke Rainbow Dash, also worked its way into Scootaloo’s room. She submitted to its will far sooner, and was in the kitchen before Fluttershy was even stirring. She ate quickly, left food out for Angel, and headed out the door. She considered feeding the animals for today, but decided to let Fluttershy deal with them, it was her special thing to do anyway.
Around the back of the house, near the chicken coop lay her scooter. It was newly thawed in the spring sun.
“Well well, look who’s finally showed up. I thought I lost you.” She said to the inanimate object.
She had left it outside during the first snowstorm, and by the time she thought to go get it, it was too late. The red scooter had been buried under the white layers and frozen into the pack ice.
She gave her transportation a once-over before mounting and buzzing her wings. Only to find that they wouldn’t move fast enough.
She got off and looked over her shoulder. The filly had done some real growing over the winter, and where there had once been tiny excuses for wings, were now nearly full grown, or they looked full grown on her small frame anyway.
The orange filly flapped her wings and felt the gust of air rush forward.
She grinned. She had noticed the growth, but hadn’t realized just how much of an impact the change in size had. In moments she was back on the scooter, and with a powerful thrust of her wings she rocketed forward.
“This…” she began as the wind whipped at her face, “Is awesome!”
The orange and purple form zoomed down the path to town, a huge smile plastered across her face.
---
Shops were opening just in time for the two Pegasus heading to town that morning. Mrs.Cake was outside of Sugarcube Corner, placing an ‘open’ sign in the window and cleaning the frosting off of the wall from an incident the day prior, Bon Bon was also opening the doors of her shop, Bon Bon’s Bonbons. Quills and Sofas was open 24/7, so of course it was ready for business, and the library was also open to any potential book borrowers, not that many ponies checked any books out.
Scoots made it to town faster than she ever had before. Her wings were amazing, they felt elegant, they felt powerful, this was a new world of feeling for the young pony.
I wonder if they’re strong enough to learn to fly? she thought as she made her way into the quiet hamlet of a town. She slowed herself with a single backwards flap and continued at a much slower pace.
I was great to be back in town after so long. She hadn’t seen the place in a whole season, not that it changed all that much, but she still missed tromping around it.
Suddenly, she stopped in the middle of the road, eyes flitting between two buildings. She had reached a dilemma. One that everypony in the town faced from time to time.
Which sweet shop to eat at.
Now, in Ponyville there were two places to sate you sweet tooth. You could go to Sugarcube Corner, and get some of the greatest baked goods in the land, or you could buy from Bon Bon’s Bonbons, and get some amazing chocolates and taffy.
She pondered this for quite some time before making her usual choice and entering the gingerbread house of Sugarcube Corner.
Once inside, she was greeted by a rush of pink, and an excited, bubbly voice.
“HI SCOOTALOO!” Pinkie Pie was mere inches away from the filly, with a smile that was physically impossible for anypony to actually be able to pull off, but Pinkie wasn’t one to pay attention to physics.
“Hi Pinkie,” Scootaloo responded, slightly meekly. She had forgot to properly prepare herself for the likely chance of a Pinkie Pie assult.
“SO!” Pinkie began, opting to bring her volume down just a little, “What can I get ya? I’ve got cupcakes, and normal cakes, and muffins, and brownies, and cookies, and toffies, and turnovers, and…” the list went on for quite some time. Scootaloo listened to Pinkie list off the shop’s entire inventory, and as she did she noticed a strange smell.
“Uh… Pinkie?”
“And biscotti, and alligator food, and… Yes Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo pointed towards the kitchen with a hoof.
“I think something’s burning.”
She was right. Caught up in her exuberant listing of tasty treats, Pinkie had forgotten to check on the batch of cupcakes currently in the oven.
Pinkie dashed back into the kitchen and Scoots followed close behind. The oven door opened and released a puff of smoke along with the smell of burnt cupcakes.
Scootaloo coughed, Pinkie giggled like a madpony.
“Oh, they’re not that bad!” Pinkie grabbed one of the many blackened lumps and popped it into her mouth. The sound of her biting down was something akin to the sound of rock cracking. She chewed happily on the lump that would have likely shattered any other pony’s teeth.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
“So.” Pinkie said, liking her lips to clean off the burnt crumbs and turning back to the filly, “What can I get you?”
“Well, I was in the mood for a cupcake, but a guess I’ll have to make due with a brownie instead.”
“Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie Pie hopped back into the main room of the confectionary and quickly bagged a rather large, and extremely fudgy brownie for the filly.
“So how was your winter?” Pinkie asked as she placed the four bits Scoots had given her into the cash register.
“Great!” Scootaloo chimed from around the chocolaty treat in her mouth. She swallowed. “I was living with Fluttershy!”
“OOH! That sounds fun! … well everything sounds fun to me, but still, that still sounds like it’d be a whole lot of fun to get to spend all that time with…” Another Pinkie rant began, this time talking about all the fun things she’d do with Fluttershy if they spent the winter together, Scootaloo chewed on her treat and idly listened, wondering how the pink mare could talk so much all the time. It was quite a shift after spending all her time around such a quiet pony, to have Pinkie's voice assulting her ears.
---
Dash’s flight to town was very enjoyable. The warm spring air felt amazing in her wings. She decided to get her weather duties taken care of as soon as she could so that she could focus on enjoying the rest of the day.
She set to work, and in moments the clouds were bunched together into one raincloud which she herded over to one of the further edges of Sweet Apple Acres, then let loose the torrent of water contained within.
Satisfied with her work, she headed back to town. She was hungry for a cupcake, and she knew just where to find one.
Her scooter, near the chicken's coop.
I see what you did there.
47002
What're you takilng about, what did I do?
47004
OH SNAP
GAH! These cliffhangers drive me to insanity! Oh wait... I'm already there. MOAR!
i concur, more please
Gimme that cliff hanger
ARGH, now here's something I've been putting off for a while now...okay, let me get this quickly out of the way: I like this story. I like the concept, I like the interactions(though you go overboard with Fluttershy every now and then, in my opinion) and I can plow through most of it without coming across any really jarring faults.
WITH THAT SAID
There is one major issue I did have with this story though. This chapter doesn't go much into it, but the earlier ones sometimes really made me cringe and that is: nopony gives a flying fuck about Rainbow Dash apparently. Yes, there was a little pep-talk from Twilight and Applejack, but overall I kept getting the feeling that either no one really seems to care. Sure, I guess it could be blamed at winter to some extent, but I'm pretty sure they would in no way wish to pretty much lose contact with each other for a whole season, not to mention somepony really could have noticed something might be amiss. I personally thought even Fluttershy would talk to her about this, to be honest. In any case, it's still an interesting read, it just leaves me with a slightly nagging feeling in the back of my head. XD
47062
Well. About that. there are two main reasons why that's happening. Reason One. Dash has been doing her best to hide her feelings, and when everyone was stuck inside during the winter, she was stuck inside, In her cloud house. Nopony, save fluttershy, could get to her. That said I do hope to have some happy reunions between the characters
Reson two. I personally do not really care about Dash being happy. That's just me. I for some reason don't find having that character happy all the time to be all that important, so life isnt being easy to her. That's my fault, a little bit of me rubbing off onto the characters. I like rRD, but she's a bit of an asshole so...
OH SHIT
SHIT IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN
And when Dash enters Scootaloo doesn't recognise her.
The End.
Derp.
Curse you, that pinkie, physic defying smile made me laugh with coke in my mouth
47164
ARGH. Dammit, now I have to write a new ending
Uh-oh, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I hope Dash can take the news of where Scootaloo has been all winter.
Please do keep up the good work upon such a great tale like this one.
LOL
47310
Oh, uh, but isn't Pinkie already your waifu?
next please
and dude these cliffhangers are just going off the edge, you need to stop putting them in every chapter
47342
HAHAHAHAH
Hoooo I see what you did there
Such a sweet story, I'm curious how Dashie will react to seeing scootaloo again
BLAAAHWARGLBLARGL! I REQUIRE MORE LIFE FORCE!!
Oh Pinkie how you can talk and talk and talk haha.
So I am going to guess that the cupcakes weren't burning when Scootaloo came in...
SO HOW LONG WAS PINKY TALKING FOR!?!?!
47818
Here, I'll let her tell you herself.
well I started listing off our menu, and I guess I got caught up in the moment talking about fudge and brownies and cupcakes and powdered donuts and regular donuts and glazed donuts...
*talks for upwards of an hour*
lol you would think she would have a pinky sense for something burning.... sounds like it would be handy to have considering how much baking she does.
Shitstorm approaching!!
Can't wait for MOAR
47114 Yeah, I was kinda figuring you'd be attributing it to such. I'd personally argue that especially after she went to Twilight and has been remarked upon numerous times as being down and all, that they'd react to that in some shape or form(lack of good sleep is pretty difficult to mask), but I can go by this. Like I said, it's just a bit of a nagging feeling it leaves behind for me.
49440
Listened, Reread the chapter, then looked at the picture. I was amazed by how fitting it all was
47915
Lack of sleep is incredibly easy to hide. I only have one friend who can tell when I didn't sleep the night before, and he has known me since we were six. Also hiding your emotions is incredibly easy, after all I have hid my emotions so well for so long that almost no one IRL can tell when I'm not happy. In text form I tend to let my emotions out more obviously though. Also the show skipped winter entirely because "We kept our hoofsies warm at home." and although they were given "Time off from work to play." most of the ponies in the show only do things together when they plan them ahead, or run into each other. It is not often that you would run into a pony asleep in her flying house.
47822
The best way to make me like your use of main characters from any show is by hardly using them. I love how well you hardly used Pinkie. She does talk too much, and half of the time she doesn't even care if you are listening. Casing point "and I said 'Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!' "
50576
This might differ between people though. Even my classmates can easily tell if I spent less than adequate time sleeping, because it really shows on me. I was just assuming that exactly because Dash is so quick to react and is often the one who ends up saying things she shouldn't, that she might be the kind who either can't or is not used to hiding her emotions all that much. Still, this really varies from person to person. About winter, I can somewhat accept that they'd spend a lot of time home, but considering how much they'd grown on each other and the stuff they've been through, that they'd be a little more inclined to see each other as often as possible. I hardly think they just hibernated and ignored the world for a couple of months. Then again, we had no winter episode, so what do I know?
I absolutely love this story, it's a nice spin on the usual "orphan Scootaloo" story that gets tossed around and honestly I find this much mroe believable than the ones where Dash eventualyl takes her in because it's mroe in character. I do like Rainbow Dash but from what I've seen she treats Scootaloo as more of a fangirl than a friend or anything of the like and it's hard to believe Dash taking her in even in the best written story.
Dash getting mad at Scoot and yelling her off is believable but even moreso is Fluttershy's treatement of Scoot when she finds that out and that she's an orphan, after all she offered her house for a sleepover when the CMC needed a place to stay in "Stare Master" so I can believe that. Scootaloo's actions are also believable, she'd have a tough time looking after animals and Flutter's patience, while stretched, doesn't extend beyond what could actually happen. Also the fact tha Scoot would keep her passion for dancing a secret makes a lot of sense, it's slower more melodic dancing compared to the more "cool" forms of dancing that she'd expect other ponies to think of her doing and she's afraid of losing her "cool" image plus that vestigial desire to have Rainbow's approval.
I really really hope that when she meets Rainbow in chapter 6 that they can patch things up enough but that Scoot doesn't go back to teh way things were. Scootaloo has a good life now, a pony who's willing to be her mom, a home where she can be warm and safe at night and thanks to the environment and encouragement from Fluttershy she's really close to earning her cutie mark.
Please continue writing this, good thing I jumped on board this late or I'd have been waiting a year for these latest updates
50600
As I've openly admitted, I really didn't think the winter parts through. I had not idea of what I could do with that season, and I wanted it to play hell with Dash's emotions, hence, timeskip. I really had not logic or thought on it past that.
50776
And here we have someone who gets exactly why the story is going in the places it's going.
As for chapter 6, I haven't started it yet because I'm thinking through their meeting. Yes. I will have them meet, but even I have no idea how they'll react yet.
And if you're referring to the reworking of the update system, I have no idea how it works, it confuses me too. One week I'm featured in the top bar, and then after the site revamping I update and hardly even get on the front page. It's weird
At first I was like
Then I was like
but now I am like
now I can't wait to see if Scootaloo learned the Stare from Fluttershy and if she will go on Rainbow dash.... either that or going along with the rage mode
so all I can say for now is: SHITSTORM INCOMING!!!
50904
Well I think that it would be awkward and that Rainbow would probably be crushed when she finds out that Scootaloo has adopted a new role model and even mother figure, plus I can imagine Scootaloo getting angry if Rainbow asks about her parents only to learn that Scoot is an orphan.
51412
Well actually some heavy brainstorming happened today, and through it I think I've decided on the title already, which is weird. The title usually comes last.
Anyway, working title for chapter 6 is "I was the only one cheering"
51661
Cool, I can't wait to see what you come up with, I eagarly await your writing.
Dat last sentence.... Dun Dun Dunnnnn! I cant wait to see what happens next! I want more
Incoming meeting in 5... 4...
Some serious conflict is about to go down! lets see if Rainbow Dash gets told by a little filly!
soon. soon dash will learn
47002 i get it. scoots and chickens' coup. anypony else get it?
Only two things to say about that last sentence!:
And
move down a line.
________________
Oh no.