I Dreamt to Fly

by MrDynasty

18: Bonding.

There wasn’t much that Scootaloo could do to pass the time until she was fit enough to fly again, so the first couple days of her week long recovery just involved her resting and lying in bed.

On the third day, she started to question why she was still in bed since it seemed like all of her injuries were completely healed up by then. She figured there would be no harm in getting out of bed and moping around the house for a bit, even if Rainbow Dash wanted her to stay in bed. The only time she felt pain was when she pressed her hoof against where she was kicked, since it was quite bruised and sensitive. Otherwise, she felt completely fine.

She wanted to go outside and hang out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t allowing her to as she was too concerned something might happen while she was out. Scootaloo understood her concern and why she wasn’t allowed, but it still annoyed her that despite how fine she felt, she wasn’t able to do anything fun.

At least Rainbow Dash had a decent amount of knick-knacks and interesting trinkets lying around that she could play with. Her room was filled to the brim with Wonderbolts memorabilia ranging from trophies to posters to merchandise; she seemed to have it all. If it wasn’t Wonderbolts related, it was Daring Doo related. Despite how cluttered her room was from top to bottom in tat, the one place that wasn’t cluttered was her bed. Her bed was on a darker, raised floor and had two bedside cabinets to its sides. One of the cabinets had a lamp on it, while the other had a framed picture. Upon closer inspection of the picture, it was of Rainbow Dash and Tank hugging, quite cheerfully as well. It still surprised Scootaloo how tidy and regal Rainbow Dash’s house was despite the abundance of tat, especially considering the mess that Rarity’s can be in at times.

Scootaloo was exploring her room a bit, looking at all of the random trinkets that were strewn about the place. She noticed that there were also Wonderbolts action figures on some of the tables, but they looked to be just faceless generic pegasi and not of anypony in specific. She didn’t want to touch them; just in-case Rainbow Dash had specifically arranged them that way. Even though she knew it was rude to snoop around someone’s room, she went over to Dash’s closet and looked inside of it. To her surprise, it was full of outfits and clothes, stuff ranging from Halloween costumes to pyjamas to just general clothing. It was amusing seeing that she still had everything she wore from the previous Halloweens, with the most recent outfit looking something akin to an astronaut costume.

With a bit more digging inside of the closet, she managed to find what looked to be a home-made Wonderbolts outfit. It looked pretty old and would nowhere near fit Rainbow Dash now, in-fact, it looked more like it was made for a filly. She knew she had a Shadowbolts outfit from one of the previous Halloweens, but it at least looked official if you didn’t look at it for too long. The filly sized Wonderbolts outfit had some old looking designs compared to the current in-use outfit, not to mention it was quite dirty and tattered as well.

Before she was unable to put it away, Rainbow Dash had trotted up behind her and startled her when she spoke. “You shouldn’t be snooping around ponies’ stuff, Squirt,” she said as Scootaloo jumped where she sat.

She smiled nervously to her, putting down the outfit and giving a small, uncomfortable chuckle. “I know, Dash. I just came in to have a look at all the cool things you had in your room… aaand I got a little carried away with my curiosity. Whoops,” she said, standing up and turning towards her.

Rainbow Dash glanced down to the outfit before leaning over and picking it. She spread it apart as best she could with her front hooves, examining its tattered fabric. “Oh hey, I remember this! It was made for me back when I was a filly, back when I was really, really into the Wonderbolts,” she said, putting it down on the ground and speaking again. “Actually, I guess I still am really into the Wonderbolts, but it’s nice to know I still have that old costume.”

She kicked the outfit back into the closet and looked over to Scootaloo with a bit of an annoyed look. “But don’t be snooping around my stuff, Scoots. Even I don’t know what I have stored sometimes,” she said, trotting over to the closet and closing it.

Scootaloo nodded, trotting backwards and out of her way. “Sorry, I just got a bit too curious… and I’m pretty bored. It’s no fun having just learnt to fly then not being allowed to do it for a whole week…” she said, her head dipping down.

Rainbow Dash leaned over to her and pulled her head up with her hoof. “Chin up, Squirt. You’ve done a lot of flying in the past three weeks, so I think your wings deserve a rest. And even though you’re not supposed to, you can hang out with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle tomorrow, as long as you don’t fly around and stuff.” She said, smiling down to her.

Scootaloo nodded to her, her wings fluttering a bit. “Sure! I don’t think I’d have much of a reason to fly around them anyway, unless I wanted to show off. I won’t do it either way,” she said as she smiled back to Rainbow Dash, who was trotting around her room and looking at all of the random merchandise she owned.

For the rest of the day, Rainbow Dash showed Scootaloo a lot of the trinkets and junk she had in her room, explaining where and when she got them. She seemed to have a lot of stories to tell, despite never really telling them. Some of the stories were more recent than others, stuff like meeting the true author of the Daring Doo books and meeting Gilda again in Griffonstone; and while Scootaloo had already heard a lot of these recent stories, she never heard them in detail before. She felt like they were bonding more, which was always a nice feeling.

On the next day, just like Rainbow Dash had said, Scootaloo was allowed to go and hang out with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom as long as she didn’t fly. Meaning Rainbow Dash had to carry her down from the house when she wanted to leave.

Just like the last time she went to go hang out with them, she decided to visit Applebloom’s place first, except this time she had quite a lot of stories to tell to them both.

Scootaloo trotted into the Apple farm then over to the main building where the apple family stayed. She knocked on the front door, which was quickly answered by Big Mac who stepped out of the way to let her in. “Heya Big Mac! Is Applebloom here?” Scootaloo said, trotting inside and away from the door.

Big Mac closed the door and pointed up stairs. “Eeeeuuup,” he said enthusiastically to her.

She started trotting up the stairs, looking back for a second to thank Big Mac before she reached the second floor. The first place she went to was Applebloom’s room, probably the most obvious place to go first. But when she opened the door, she managed to see that she wasn’t in her room, making her close the door again and wander around the second floor to find her.

She trotted over to some of the other doors, listening in to try and hear where Applebloom was. At one of the doors she could hear two ponies talking, so she knocked on the door to gain their attention. The door was answered by Applebloom, who was wearing quite the frilly looking dress. “Oh thank the stars! Granny Smith is making me try on all of these old and cutesy dresses, and they keep gettin’ more and more complex to put on!”

Scootaloo let out a chuckle when she saw her friend in such an unfitting dress, making Applebloom pout to her in embarrassment as she blushed. “This is serious! I smell so old and pretty I feel like I belong in a Friday night bingo event!”

Their conversation was cut short by Granny Smith, who was taking out dress after dress from a cardboard box in the middle of the room. “Oooh, look at this here dress Applebloom! Isn’t it just the cutest thing?” She asked, holding it up in the light.

Applebloom smiled nervously as she trotted back over to her. “It sure is, Granny Smith,” she said with a nervous giggle. “Listen, I’d love to stay here and try on dresses. But Scootaloo is at the door waitin’ for me, so I think I better go and hang out with her for a while,” she said, continuing to smile nervously to her.

After a small pause, Granny Smith started putting the dresses back into the cardboard box. “Sure thing, Applebloom! I wouldn’t want your friend to sit and wait for you, so we could do this again when you get back!” She said enthusiastically.

Applebloom began trotting away as she yanked off the frilly dress she was wearing. It took quite a bit of pulling, almost to the point of her falling. “Thank you Granny Smith! I guess I’ll see you later!” she said as she quickened her pace out the door with Scootaloo by her side. When they were both far enough away from the room, Applebloom wiped her forehead with her arm. “Phew! That was a close one. You showed up at just the right time, Scootaloo! I might have been tryin’ on dresses all day if you didn’t come and save me!”

Scootaloo smiled and lifted her leg up. “You’re welcome I suppose. But those dresses did not suit you at all; I wouldn’t be surprised if Rarity was rolling around in her sleep from how much of a fashion disaster you looked!” Scootaloo said as they both began to trot down the stairs together.

Applebloom giggled and rolled her eyes. “You know, if I was saved by Sweetie Belle instead of you, I could have said I was saved by the Belle. Not that I’m complainin’ or anythin’, but it’d have still been a funny joke to make,” she said with another small giggle.

Once they got to the bottom of the stairs, they both went out the front door and towards the entrance to the apple farm. “I’m guessin’ we’re going for Sweetie Belle now?” Applebloom asked, looking over to Scootaloo.

She nodded, raising a hoof. “That’s the plan I think. Hopefully she isn’t busy or anything since I have a lot of cool things to tell you two about! Well, some of it’s cool. Some of it is kinda bad,” she said, rubbing her cheek as they trotted along.

Applebloom tilted her head in concern. “I hope it’s not that bad! You could tell me before we get over to Sweetie Belle’s if you’d like, unless it’s something you want us to hear together,” she said as they had fully left the apple farm and were on their way to Ponyville.

Scootaloo shrugged to her. “I guess I could tell you right now then,” she said, lowering her hoof on her cheek to the ground. “I entered the filly league and managed to get all the way to the third course, but a colt there thought I was cheating and kicked me in the back of my head. Now I have quite a sore spot back there, not to mention I was disqualified for not finishing the course. My head was too sore for me to continue flying when I was kicked, so my wings just gave up on the spot,” she said, seeming a little sad before she remembered that she was allowed a second chance. “…Oh but I was allowed to have another chance at the league! So it’s all good now. They found out who the colt was that hit me and they disqualified him, allowing me to take his place in the fourth course in three days.”

Applebloom’s mood shifted quite heavily as Scootaloo spoke, eventually ending on being happy. “That’s great! I mean it kinda is yet it kinda isn’t. Wait, isn’t the league like a day to day thing with one course happening each day? How come the fourth course takes place in three days then?” She said, tilting her head again as she raised an eyebrow.

Scootaloo smiled to her. “Well, Spitfire decided to delay the rest of the course while I recovered. She figured it was only fair to allow me to have a second chance at it,” she said, touching the back of her head to see if touching it still hurt, which it did so she lowered her hoof back down.

Applebloom grinned back to her as she spoke. “Well that’s awfully nice of her to do that just for you! I’m positive you’ll do amazing when you get onto the fourth course!”

“I’d like to hope so,” Scootaloo said, smiling softly as she continued to trot alongside Applebloom.