This Will Be the Day

by Story blossom

Why Not Today?

The cutiemark crusaders couldn’t have been more excited to receive their cutie marks if they had planned it. They were all extremely proud and ecstatic at their arrival. They had waited years for them to appear, and were caught off guard when they finally did.

However, after all the exhilaration, Scootaloo found herself at an obstacle. One that would not be easily overcome.

She had examined her cutie mark countless times, and at every one of which she found herself in a state of mixed emotions.

A red, pink, and purple patch with a wing over it, a rather simple cutie mark, yet it held a much deeper, complicated meaning for Scootaloo.

Though she was relieved and overjoyed at it’s arrival, she still felt a nagging pang of sadness along with each glance.

She had been eyeing the mark in the mirror for quite some time now. Glancing back and forth between it and the small wings she held tight against her sides.

“Some wings these are,” she sighed, letting her head hang low.

She walked dejectedly to her bed, flopping down on the pillows that sat on it.

She knew her inability to fly didn’t take away from her usefulness, and that she was still a Pegasus regardless, but it mattered to her. She wanted so badly to fly. The thought that maybe, one day she could fly with her sister, Rainbow Dash, gave her a warm feeling inside, but one question held fast in her mind.

Why can’t that day be today?

She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the dull pain of a headache approaching. Pulling the bedcovers down, she slipped in between the mattress and the sheets, allowing sleep to overcome her mind.

She awoke, hours later. The splitting headache remained the same, if not worse than before.

“Ugh,” she moaned, dragging herself out of the bed.

She made her way downstairs, finding some medicine to help with the pain, and gulping it down with apple juice. In a few moments, the pain subsided to a more bearable state. She examined the kitchen, which to her new discovery, was very dim.

“How long was I asleep?” Scootaloo thought to herself.

She searched the wall for the clock that remained hidden in the darkness.

“Eight o’clock?” she whispered aloud. “Jeez, I fell asleep right after lunch. Did I sleep that long?”

She approached a window, opening it’s curtains, and peeking her head in time to witness the sun as it set.

“I guess so,” she shrugged.

Her eyes scanned the room over, dirty dishes formed a small pile in the sink, and fruit beginning to spoil laid on the counter.

She dreaded washing dishes, but with no one else to do so, Scootaloo cleaned the mound, and returned them to their rightful places.

She then advanced hesitantly toward the rotting fruits. Bananas and apples with bruises and moldy skins filled her nose with their stench.

“Yuck,” Scootaloo proclaimed with her face contorted.

She quickly retrieved the trash can and swiped the soiled fruits into it.

Satisfied with her work, she then returned to her bedroom, only to find herself once again examining her cutie mark.

While it gave her a sense of pride, Scootaloo couldn’t help but to feel as if it were mocking her as well. It reminded her of her best friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who each had a cutiemark to match, though the symbol on the patch differed.

“Those two are lucky,” she thought aloud, “at least their symbols are a perfect fit.”

Not wishing to feel sad any longer, she searched her bedroom for something to get her mind off her cutie mark and it’s significance, or lack thereof.

She finally settled on a Wonderbolts comic book, she lay on her bed, eyes scanning the pages’ contents diligently. A few issues later and Scootaloo grew bored.

It was getting late, but her previous sleep left her wide awake. She searched the room yet again only to find nothing to keep her interest.

She fell back onto the bed sighing, when a certain object caught her eye. Her scooter leaned against the wall in the far corner of her bedroom. She trotted over to her window, sneaking glance outside.

Luna’s moon shined bright outside, lighting up the small streets of Ponyville. She noticed no movement.

“I guess everypony’s in for the night,” she thought. “I don’t think anypony would mind if I strolled around for a bit.”

She grabbed her scooter and made her way down the stairs and out of the door into the moonlit streets.

She rode around town for a bit, her small wings propelling her at a fast rate. Eventually, her wings grew tired.

Scootaloo looked around at her location. A fountain and bench stood a few feet from her. She walked over to the bench, leaning her scooter upon it. Taking off her helmet, she sat down.

The sound of running water danced around in her ears. Looking down again, she studied her cutie mark, tears brimmed her eyes.

She spread her small wings out at her sides, though they ached from the effort, she wanted to compare them to the symbol over the patch.

She let them fall limp beside her, in defeat. She sank down onto the cold bench. Beams of moonlight reflected off of the pool of water in the fountain and danced on the ground in front of her.

Suddenly, her eyelids grew heavy. She yawned and curled into a ball on the seat of the bench. With that she drifted into a sound slumber.

. . .

Orange light glowed on the young Pegasus’s eyelids. Warm rays of Celestia’s sun fell over her back, causing her ears to tingle.

Though the wood beneath her was stiff, she still didn’t want to arise. And it seemed that she would receive her wish, until she was shaken profusely.

“Scoots!” a figure standing above her exclaimed, “Wake up!”

“Huh?” she responded drowsily, wiping the sleep from beneath her eyes.

“What are you doing sleeping out here!?” the pony scolded.

Scootaloo pried her tired eyes open to see a cyan Pegasus with definitive rainbow hair looking quite displeased.

“Oh, what are you doing here, Rainbow Dash?” she said, a sleepy grin spreading across her face.

“What am I doing here!? What are you doing here!?” her honorary older sister questioned at full volume.

“I must’ve fallen asleep here when I was out last night,” Scootaloo shrugged.

“Why were you out here last night? No, scratch that, why are you here now?” Rainbow said beginning to sound exasperated.

“Well ya see, I couldn’t sleep so I kinda just got on my scooter and rode around for a while. I stopped to rest and I guess I fell asleep,” she said sheepishly.

“Ugh,” Dash groaned face-hoofing, “Scootaloo, do you realize how dangerous that is? Come on, let’s go to my house. You can get cleaned up and we’ll finish talking about this.”

“Okay,” she replied, jumping off the seat and grabbing her scooter.

Even though she knew Rainbow Dash was upset with her, Scootaloo was excited to be going to her older sister’s house. She followed the taller Pegasus to her grand, cloud home.

Rainbow Dash then showed Scootaloo to the shower and waited on her to finish in her kitchen.

“Wonder what’s gotten into that filly,” Dash thought.

She wracked her brain for anything that might cause Scootaloo’s recent behavior.

“She seemed really happy lately with her cutie mark showing up and everything, so what’s changed?” she questioned herself.

The silence in the room was interrupted as the filly who filled Rainbow’s thoughts entered the room, mane still damp from the shower.

“So,” Scootaloo started, “what did you want to talk about?”

“You said you were out there because you couldn’t sleep, why is that?” she interrogated.

“Well, I took a nap earlier that day so I just wasn’t that tired,” she said lacking interest.

“Is something wrong, Scoots? You haven’t been acting like yourself lately,” Dash replied worriedly.

Scootaloo’s ears drooped downwards. What had been bothering her was the last thing she felt like talking about, but she knew Rainbow Dash, and that she wouldn’t give up until she found out.

“It’s just, my cutie mark,” she admitted.

“What!? But you love your cutie mark!” Rainbow said in shock.

“Yeah, it’s great and all but,” she turned to look at her mark, “how can I be happy with it when I can’t even fly?”

“Scootaloo we’ve been over this, you might not be able to fly yet, but you will!”

“Why not!?” her voice grew loud, “Why not today!?”

Her chest rose and fell quickly as she took off out the door of the cloud home. She hastily strapped her helmet on and rode off on her scooter.

Her wings buzzed behind her while rushing wind blew in her face. She wanted to get as far away as possible.

It took Rainbow Dash all of a few seconds to catch up with the small filly.

“Scootaloo!” she yelled after her sister.

However, Scootaloo refused to respond. She sped over hills, Dash trailing above her. Scootaloo pushed herself to the limit, going faster than she had ever gone before.

Through squinted watery eyes, she failed to see the rock that laid in the path of her wheels.

The scooter flew out from beneath her legs. Her front hooves shot out instinctively to protect her face. She waited for the hard impact, but never experienced it.

“I guess Rainbow Dash snagged me before I could hit the ground,” she thought grimly.

She turned to face her rescuer, but did not find her. She looked around to see Rainbow Dash face down in the dirt, and her scooter strewn to the side.

“What happened?” Scootaloo asked.

“Uh, I dove to catch you, and . . .” her voice trailed off and her face turned into one of shock.

“What!? What is it, Rainbow Dash!?” She demanded.

“Flying, Scootaloo, you’re flying!” Dash exclaimed.

“What are you talking about!?” Scootaloo argued.

She knew there was no way her sister was telling the truth. She had to be pulling her wing. Or was she?

Scootaloo looked around especially below her. The ground stood a solid two feet below her hooves. Her wings continued their usual buzzing sound as they held her position above the terrain.

Her eyes grew wide in astonishment, and her mouth dropped.

“F-flying,” she struggled to form words, “I-I’m actually flying.”

Rainbow Dash quickly joined the airborne filly wrapping her into a hug.

“You did it, squirt! Today was the day!” Dash shouted.

Scootaloo felt as if she were going to split her cheeks from smiling so hard. She finally completed her lifelong dream. She was now flying with her role model and older sister.

“I’m so proud of you Scootaloo!” she exclaimed earnestly.

Four words rang out in her mind, “Now it fits perfectly!”

Comments

[Jlargent]

Obligatory musical reference GO!

[Story blossom]

6786131
I absolutely love RWBY. I wrote this and the song title just flowed. I'm so glad someone else got it.

[Fluttercheer]

This is a very sad fic.
I know that the end is meant positive and uplifting by you, but reading this while knowing that she will never be able to fly is really hard and makes it really heart-wrenching.

Other than that, I like the atmosphere you build up at the beginning. Waking up, with headaches, while something heavy is on your mind, your room dark because you slept for the whole afternoon, everything feeling dark and surreal around you.....
I know this feeling very well and had it a few times, so I can confirm that your portrayal here is accurate.
What I don't understand is Rainbow Dash's behavior. It might have been night, but Ponyville is a quaint little town, with a very friendly population and the Everfree Forest is kept at bay by the Tree of Harmony, so there's not really anything that could happen to her.
Granted, a monster could attack or Chrysalis could return or something of the sort, but then again, all of these things possible to happen don't make the day safer either.

[Story blossom]

6999884 First of all, thank you for your comment. I really appreciate your response. Though, I didn't intend for it to be a sad fic, I'm glad you did enjoy it. Regarding the atmospheric build up, I tried my very best to use my past experiences in order to relay a realistic set up for the situation Scootaloo was in.
Also, I understand completely about your confusion with Rainbow Dash's behavior. Trust me, I had to think very long and hard before publishing this story. I was conflicted on her reaction during my brainstorming period as well. While I do understand that Ponyville is, for the most part, safe, you also have to keep in mind the dangers of a young person (or in this case pony) being alone at night. You are right, in the part with RD not having to worry about anypony messing with her, and now with the presence of Twilight's castle a lesser chance of any monsters. However, being an older sister to a younger one myself, I would be very concerned if I were to find my little sister asleep on a park bench early in the morning if it were to happen to me. Especially if she were to tell me that she had been there all night by herself. I felt that any older sister, very much so with Rainbow Dash's personality, would feel upset upon finding all of this out. I decided to have RD react this way because of her protective nature. I also wanted to portray the fact that RD could tell that something was bothering Scootaloo and be a bit overwhelmed by her younger sister's actions at the time.
Overall, I thought that Rainbow Dash's behavior was predictable in that situation. However, I appreciate you relaying your feelings about this story. If you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear them! Please, let me know any other ways I can better my technique that you can think of!

[Fluttercheer]

7004386

Regarding the atmospheric build up, I tried my very best to use my past experiences in order to relay a realistic set up for the situation Scootaloo was in.

And you succeeded. Reading that part immediately reminded on one of those moments as a child/teenager when the bullying at school lasted heavily on my soul, when I was in a bad mood and annoyed about everything and had my head hurting on top, and then went to sleep because of all of that, woke up at evening when it began to become dark, my mother still not at home, my head still hurting and when I walked around completely dazed, everything around me feeling completely strange, and then went into the kitchen to get me something against the headaches.
You've done a good job here.
Also, what I forgot to mention, I like it how subtly you portray it that Scootaloo lives alone in a house because she is an orphan.
That also reflects my theory about her, that she is cared for by the whole town and communally raised by everypony in Ponyville, living in a house that the town donated to her.
I think fics that show her real situation with living alone in a house and having to take care of everything herself are not very common and that most fics portray her with some guardian or try to bring up an explanation (that is unfortunately always very contrived from what I've seen) for where her parents are and why they are never around.
You rarely see a fic whose author faces the fact of her not having parents head-on, without trying to scramble around it, in fact, your fic is the first one where I've seen that. For that, you have my respect.

you also have to keep in mind the dangers of a young person (or in this case pony) being alone at night.

What dangers? As I said, Ponyville is mostly safe and at night, it isn't really more dangerous than during the day.
Heck, it might even be more safe at night, cause whatever monster might sneak into the town to feast on some ponies, might not notice her on the dark bench.

I felt that any older sister, very much so with Rainbow Dash's personality, would feel upset upon finding all of this out.

So the logic of emotions then. Still, I have problems buying that, even though Rainbow Dash loves Scootaloo a lot, this would switch out her logical thinking so much.
I can still understand that she gets worried at first, because of Scootaloo not sleeping in her house and what reasons that might have, but not because of any actual dangers.
Then again, if a monster attacks at day and a pony sleeps outside, it could be woken up and alarmed by the other, awake ponies, which isn't possible at night, especially if the monster is sneaky and if Scootaloo would be the first victim.
Now I feel confused myself.....

Please, let me know any other ways I can better my technique that you can think of!

Hmm, the only other thing I can think of right now is dragging out the events longer. The end comes a bit fast.

[Story blossom]

7004642 I'd really like to thank you for your comments. Though I'm not brand new on this site, I still feel as if I have only just logged on for the first time, and having people like you who take the time to voice their concerns with my stories help me tremendously with becoming more comfortable here and becoming a better writer. I'm grateful for your interest in my writing.
I'm glad that you found it to be relatable, as much of my work is based upon my own experiences throughout my lifetime and it's great to know that it can be related to others lives as well.
Now that you have me thinking about it, I'm a bit confused myself. I guess the only thing I can say for certain, is that during my time of writing this I was trying to, based upon Rainbow Dash's characteristics and my own beliefs, portray her reaction to the knowledge recently delivered to her. I imagine that even though she would know that Ponyville is relatively safe, there is always the off chance that something bad could happen to someone that she cares deeply about. I also wasn't thinking solely about the monsters and things like that, but there are also other concerns such as injuring herself due to the low visibility or something to that effect. I believe at the time I was thinking that because Scootaloo is not aided by parents, and that Rainbow Dash is about the closest thing to a mother that she has, Rainbow Dash would let her emotions overpower her logic just as mothers do from time to time out of concern.
I will definitely take your suggestion into consideration as I continue on with other works. Looking back, I agree with you. I only hope that as I author new fics that my technique will grow better.

[Fluttercheer]

7005349

I also wasn't thinking solely about the monsters and things like that, but there are also other concerns such as injuring herself due to the low visibility or something to that effect.

It just dawned upon me now that Ponyville doesn't have any street lamps. Not even torches on the buildings.
Riding around with a scooter at night in a pitchblack town can't be without danger.
I concede your point.

I only hope that as I author new fics that my technique will grow better.

Come to think of it, another advice I can give you is simply to write a lot. The best thing to do, is to write daily.
I made the experience during NaPoWriMo 2014 that daily writing improves you a lot as an author. I could see the improvement with every day that had passed. My best works came out of this month.....