Just a Normal Pony
Plans had been made for Scootaloo to get together with her friends the day after her date, mostly to keep Sweetie Belle’s head from exploding. So the next Saturday she landed in the farm yard of Sweet Apple Acres to find Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom already waiting.
Sweetie nearly pounced on her. “How did the date go? Are you going out again?”
“I don’t know...” Scoot said with a sigh. “It was okay, I guess. I told her I’d talk to her Monday at school.”
“‘Okay’ doesn’t sound good,” Sweetie Belle said suspiciously.
“Scoot don’t sound good,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “You okay?”
“I guess,” Scoot grumbled. “Just kind of... I had a fight with Rainbow Dash. When I told her about Skylark.”
Sweetie rolled her eyes. “Gee, who could’ve seen that one coming?”
Scoot shot Sweetie a glare. “It was because she told me she loves me.”
“What!? Rainbow Dash said that she loves you?” Sweetie asked, her mouth hanging open.
“Yeah. And she’s been in love with me for a month now, and she wasn’t going to tell me.”
Apple Bloom looked confused. “Why would she do a thing like that?”
“Yeah,” Sweetie agreed. “I mean, if she really loved you why didn’t she tell you?”
“If she really loved me, she would have told me!” Scoot snapped. “Not waited ‘til the last minute! Rainbow Dash is a lying, self centered, selfish –” She felt a hoof clap over her mouth. Sweetie was smiling nervously, and the reason why became clear when Apple Bloom spoke up.
“Heya, Sis! How’s it goin’?”
“Good,” Applejack said, walking by with a bushel of apples on her back. She stopped and smiled at the three friends. “Scootaloo can go on. I’m pretty sure she don’t know any words for Dash that I ain’t called that mare myself at one time or another.”
“I won’t say it,” Scoot said with a sigh. “You’re Dash’s friend.”
“I’m also her ex-marefriend. Welcome to the club, ya paid your dues already.” Applejack chuckled.
Scoot just let out a little snort. “I never got to be her marefriend. I just skipped to the ex part.”
Applejack’s expression changed to a look of sympathy. “I’m sorry, sugarcube.” Then she turned to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “Y’all mind if me and Scoot have a word?”
The two shook their heads, and Applejack motioned for Scoot to follow her into the barn. Scoot went in behind her.
Inside, Applejack slid the bushel off her back and turned to Scoot with a sad smile. “Now you let me say my piece, then you can go right back to tellin’ me just what Dash is, where she can go, and what she can do to herself when she gets there.”
Scoot almost laughed. “Okay.”
“I know you’re pretty mad at Dash right now. And you got every right to be,” Applejack said with a firm nod. “But I know you’re pretty hurt, too.”
Scoot didn’t say anything, and AJ went on softly.
“Scootaloo, either way you gotta realize somethin’. Rainbow Dash is a pony. Just a pony, like you. Not quite as bright as you, now that I think ‘bout it.”
“I don’t care what she is. She lied to me. She broke our agreement.”
“That she did. Cause she’s just a pony. And sometimes a pony forgets things, or doesn’t realize somethin’s important ‘til it’s too late. But I can tell ya she never meant to hurt ya. She really cares about ya, Scoot.”
Scoot looked down. Finally, she whispered. “Applejack, I – I wanted it. The whole time. And she just kept it from me, and she would have gone on keeping it from me... She ruined it all.”
“That she did. And when she’s pulled herself together, everypony is gonna have a heapin’ helpin’ of I-told-ya-so for her. But you gotta understand that what she ruined wasn’t some dream where ya fly off into the sunset. She was probably gonna do somethin’ like this someday anyhow, cause that’s what she does.”
Scootaloo looked up and blinked.
Applejack raised her eyebrows. “She’s just a pony, Scoot. She messes up just like alla us.”
“I can’t forgive her for this,” Scoot said, cautiously. She knew she couldn’t. Or, she thought she knew she couldn’t.
“I ain’t sayin’ you oughta. Trust me, I understand, I got tired of it ages ago. I always kinda hoped she’d find somepony to help her out some, to tell her when she’s done wrong and show her how to act right. She needs all the help she can get, but Celestia knows I ain’t as patient as all that.”
“She didn’t do this to hurt me, right?” Scoot asked, almost hopefully.
“Course she didn’t, Dash would never hurt a pony on purpose. She does it enough on accident, but she’d die to keep a pony she loves from gettin’ hurt, and you know that’s the truth,” Applejack said with a firm nod.
Scoot tilted her head to the side. “Then why did she do it?”
“She was scared of losin’ you,” Applejack said plainly. “Thought if she never had ya, she’d never get hurt. It never crossed her mind how you might be feelin’, she just figured she could make ya happy enough to stick around. It was darn selfish, and dumb to boot.”
“It was,” Scoot said, deep in thought. The story of what had happened was rewriting itself in her mind, with a lot less drama than she’d been remembering the past week.
“Well, I said my piece, sugarcube.” Applejack patted her on the shoulder. “You seem to be feelin’ a little better. Or at least not as likely to be sendin’ Dash to Tartarus for actin’ foolish.”
“You gave me some stuff to think about, Applejack.” Scootaloo gave a small smile. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” Applejack said cheerfully. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I got work to do.”
Scoot walked back out of the barn and found her friends waiting just outside. She still felt kind of dazed.
“What did Applejack say?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“She said that Dash is just a pony,” Scoot said, slowly.
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Well I coulda told ya that.”
Scoot tried to think of how to explain it. “It helped. I mean, I knew she was a pony, but I never thought about that in terms of... stuff.”
Sweetie rolled her eyes. “I am so getting you a dictionary for Hearth’s Warming.”
Scoot went on. “Like, I know that sometimes things go wrong when she’s flying, or she gets frosting on her nose when she eats a cupcake, or she gets her head stuck in the wall when things get wild in bed –”
Apple Bloom’s head tilted to the side in confusion. “Gets her head stuck in the wall?”
Scoot shrugged. “It’s a cloud house thing.”
“Pegasi are weird,” Apple Bloom said to Sweetie Belle, who nodded in response.
“That’s not the point. Anyway, I know that stuff, and it’s always been like, ‘isn’t that funny? Rainbow Dash does those things like a normal pony.’ But she’s not doing those things like a normal pony. She is a normal pony.
Sweetie Belle wasn’t surprised by this revelation. “Rainbow Dash is a pony. We’ve established this. So?”
“So... she messed up,” Scoot said with a sad shrug. “She just messed up, is all. It stinks, because things could have been really cool, but... I shouldn’t be so angry at her.”
“So are you going back to her?” Sweetie asked.
“No. I – I don’t really know what I think of her now. I mean, I knew I wanted to be with Rainbow Dash the awesome, the amazing, the spectacular, the –”
“So now you have a vocabulary.” Sweetie smiled. “We get it.”
Scoot stuck her tongue out, then finished. “I never really thought about Dash, the normal pony.”
“Are you going out with Skylark again?” Sweetie asked.
“I don’t know. I’m really confused right now, guys.”
Apple Bloom nuzzled Scoot. “How ‘bout if we just give Scoot some time to think it over, and we have some fun ‘round Ponyville?”
“I like that idea.” Scoot got a big teasing grin on her face. “Let’s try to get another cutie mark, I’m tired of this one.”
Sweetie Belle laughed. “Sure, it’s been ages since I had to wash tree sap out of my mane.”
“Ya know I always had a good feeling ‘bout firework designin’, but I went and got my cutie mark before we could try it out.” Apple Bloom started to giggle.
“YES!” Scoot said, stomping her hoof on the ground. “I’m sure that’s what my cutie mark was supposed to be in. We should’ve tried, there’s no way that could’ve possibly gone wrong.”
“You’re right, and Rarity had plenty of room in the boutique to try it out! She wouldn’t have minded three fillies playing with explosives in a room full of flammable cloth.”
“How ‘xactly are we still alive, y’all?”
Sweetie shook her head. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
“We’re too awesome to die,” Scoot pointed out.
The three ponies took off towards town, laughing and joking and having fun. Scoot was still feeling a little like her world was flipped upside-down, but it was nice to know that something like time with her friends would never change.
• • •
Dash watched Scootaloo practice her Best Young Flyer routine from a safe distance away. The fact that Scoot was practicing was a good sign, she thought. Scoot hadn’t decided to trash any connection they had, and this gave Dash a reason to go over and apologize.
Dash made it a point to stay friends with ponies she broke up with. First, because she must have liked those ponies for some reason. And second, because it was proof that she wasn’t usually a jerk, she was just really bad at love. Soarin’ and AJ would both agree that Dash was pretty awesome, just not cut out for a relationship. And she hoped that maybe Scoot would too.
She flew closer, landing on a cloud below Scoot’s practice area. Dash laid back and watched, letting her mind wander. Scoot was still beautiful, but Dash really didn’t want to think about that now so she gave her thoughts a shove in a different direction. Scoot was an amazing flyer.
Who would’ve thought it, all those years ago. Dash had wondered sometimes if there was something wrong with the kid, a lot of ponies had, but nopony would ever say it to her face. Good thing they didn’t, because they’d be eating their words right now if they could see Scoot weaving through the clouds, then going into her tight corkscrew dive.
That kid never gave up. When every other pegasus in town had learned to fly already, she was still working. She did the same thing with her cutie mark. Dash had to admire it, the ability to keep working at something everypony else could do, while they all looked at her and wondered why she couldn’t get something so simple. Thinking back to what Fluttershy pointed out the other day, Dash was a little bit jealous of it.
Dash watched closely as Scoot went into the star trick that had been giving her so much trouble. She was going perfectly with no clouds for guidance anymore, but she came in a little low on the left point. There was no question in Dash’s mind that by the competition next weekend, Scoot would have it. She would be the Best Young Flyer.
If Dash couldn’t give Scoot anything else, at least she convinced her to do this.
Scoot landed on the cloud and looked at Dash. She didn’t seem angry, that was good, but she seemed a little wary. “Hey.”
“Heya. You look – I mean, the routine looks good,” Dash said with the best grin she could muster, being so close to Scoot and knowing that Scoot didn’t love her.
“I’m still off on the star,” Scoot said with a slight frown.
“Only a little,” Dash said, giving a shrug. “I spotted it because I know the trick, but anypony else would never know.
“The judges know the trick,” Scoot pointed out.
“Yeah, but you’ve still got a week...” Dash trailed off. Then she bit her lip. “Scoot, I came here to say I’m sorry. And I want to still be friends.”
Scoot looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Apology accepted.”
“And we’re still friends?” Dash asked hopefully.
“Yeah. We’re still friends.” Scoot hesitated, then offered her hoof for a bump.
Dash smiled and relaxed a little, bumping hooves. “Awesome. So, am I still your trainer, too?”
Scoot actually smiled at that. “Sure. How could I turn down a Wonderbolt offering to train me for the Best Young Flyer competition?”
“Great. Let’s see that star again.”
Scoot took off into the sky, and Dash tried to focus on the trick rather than Scoot’s amazing body in flight. Scoot went through the trick over and over. Twice she had it, absolutely nailed it. The rest of the times there was just a little thing off here and there, a corner that wasn’t tight enough, a line where she wobbled.
But she was totally close enough that when she landed, Dash was grinning. “You’re almost there. Just try to remember –”
Scoot shook her head. “I can’t do it.”
“Huh?” Dash blinked.
“I can’t do the star, Dash,” Scoot said simply.
“You totally can. I know you can, you’re so close! You had it perfect twice there, and just a little more –”
“Two out of ten,” Scoot pointed out. “I can’t go into the competition with odds like that.”
Dash rolled her eyes. “Scoot, do you know how many times I’d managed to do a sonic rainboom before –”
“I’m not you,” Scoot said with a shrug. “I can’t do a sonic rainboom, and I can’t do the star.”
“Scootaloo, there’s nothing you can’t get when you try. I’ve seen you. I know you. You can do it.”
“I’m not doing the star,” Scoot said firmly, leveling a stare at Dash. “You said you’d give me another trick if I couldn’t do it. Give me another trick to do, or I’ll pick one out myself.”
Dash was stunned for a second. Scoot was just staring at her, calm and completely serious. Dash was suddenly overcome with the urge to start apologizing again, but she pushed that back and rubbed the back of her neck nervously.
“Okay. Okay, replace it with a figure eight clover. You can do that, right?”
Scoot nodded.
Dash sighed. “It’s not a winning routine, I can tell you that. But if you do the whole thing perfectly, and some of the hot shots mess up, you might make third place.”
“Okay.” Scoot’s expression softened. “Thanks, Dash.”
“No problem,” Dash said. “Do you want me to stick around? I can make sure you’re getting the loops even and stuff.”
Scoot smiled a little. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
Dash settled in on the cloud again to watch Scoot practice, then she gave Scoot some pointers and went home alone. But all evening she couldn’t get that stare out of her mind. Scoot had never looked at her like that before.
It made her think of the other night, of that fight and the way Scoot yelled at her. But Scoot had been mad then, today she was just... in charge.
The only problem was that when Scoot was in charge, she played it safe. Too many years of worrying about what she couldn’t do, from what Dash could tell. She’d rather be a flight instructor than try to be a Wonderbolt, she’d rather fly a safe, clean routine than really go for Best Young Flyer. She’d rather have that Skylark pony than a pony who would give her the world and probably break her heart. Dash wanted to give Scoot one of those big dreams, to show her that she could have it if she wanted, that it didn’t have to end badly.
But apparently Scoot was in charge now. She wasn’t going to listen to Dash, she’d have to decide to go for it on her own. All Dash could do was hope she’d see what was in front of her.
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New chapter yay
Took you long enough
1031406
Oh, can it, you.
And to everyone else, sorry about the delay!
Haven't read it yet, wanted to make an obvious comment.
RAINBOW DASH IS BEST LESBIAN COUGAR.
Actually, maybe that's a little creepy. Dash knew her when she was little.
I'm really looking forward to more. This is a great story. A few spelling mistakes towards the beginning, but they all cleared up. Congrats on the short feature, keep writing, and stop making me fall in love with ScootaDash. I like TwiDash too, and this is confusing my OTP.
1031949
Thank you! I try to keep an eye on my spelling, but sometimes things slip by. Sorry about that.
I know exactly how you feel. I primarily ship AppleDash, ScootaDash was just a side thing, but when I looked I could only find one aged up ScootaDash romance. So I had to go and write it, and it's definitely my second favorite ship now.
1031564
Dash is best everything! (Just ask her.)
Dash wasn't attracted to Scoot when she was little, obviously. (Scoot had a crush the whole time.) But foals grow up, and sometimes they really grow up.
I put the age difference as about 10 years or so. (With them being about 8 and 18 in the show, and 18 and 28 here.)
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The sad thing is that you know that Spike is exactly the kind of guy who would do that. He has it written all over him.
And I agree, the tag system is flawed that way. On one of my other stories, To Tell the Truth, I had the opposite problem, I had to tag it Sad and Dark because of the subject matter, but warn people that the tags were for the subject and not the story progression so that people wouldn't be turned off.
And a multi-chapter Scootaloo fic without a Sad or Tragedy tag! I know it's hard to believe, I'm sure people keep expecting Scoot to catch a rare disease, forget how to fly, and find out her parents were killed tragically. I'm saving that for the last chapter. Or not.
nothing too spectacular with this chapter but im liking where its taking the fic.
i dont know if its intentional but even though everything is so serious it all still feels kinda fluffy. 
im starting to think by the end of this im gonna be rolling in never-ending fluff. XD great chapter btw. 
It would be really bad if it turned out that her parents were killed (indirectly) due to Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom.
Say they happen to be in an alleyway at gunpoint by some robber and the shockwave startled him and his gun discharged from it.
Now that I think about it, it is chronologically feasible that Scootaloo was alive for the first rainboom. Although I wouldn't imagine her being much more then a newborn.
Ha! I spent about 30 minutes thinking of the different facets of this idea without realizing it. I must thank you for bringing up Scootaloo's parents death. I think it would add a delightfully dark twist to that particular event ( the rainboom i mean.) That is to say, it being the harbinger of cutie marks to the main six at the cost/sacrifice of Scoots parents.
What the actual shit...
Why doesn't this have any more views, this right here is amazing.
"I'm so getting you a dictionary for Hearth's Warming"
I see what you did there...
another great chapter! still hoping tht they will get together afterall...
keep up the awesome work!
It's a cloud house thing.
" flight instructor then try to be a Wonderbolt" => than (2 instances in that paragraph)
Interesting psychology in this chapter, with Scoot thinking about Dash-the-pony for the first time, and us learning that Scoot's unrealistic idolization of Dash was what made her own coolness possible. Although I think this conflicts with canon Scoot. "when Scoot was in charge, she played it safe." - That's not the Scoot we know from the show.
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My worst habit as a writer is that even though I know the difference between "than" and "then", I always write "then". I usually go back and find/replace (because I really do know the difference!) but sometimes I forget. My bad.
And the Scoot playing-it-safe thing is something I tried to make a part of the aging up. It came from having to give up her dreams of being just like Dash due to just not having the physical ability to fly that way. Since she figured out that was never going to happen she sort of keeps big dreams at an arms length because she doesn't want to be disappointed. Better to have a safe job than waste her life trying to be a Wonderbolt when it couldn't happen. But that kind of infected her whole life.
Is that not coming across well?
Earlier today I told a friend that scootadash was an awful ship. Then I found and read this. You've singlehandedly Taken it from awful to amazing in my eyes. Well written story, characters feel right and seeing Dash ruin the relationship physically hurt. Keep up the good work, can't wait for more.
There better be a happy ending. OR else
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Or else the author will end up like the poor sap in the story I haven't posted yet:cdn.broni.es/images/emotes/mlp-pr.png Or worse, you'll be thrown into the Pinkamena-Pit of no-return
Great story so far though. I loved the part where the CMC's were back together
Vastly improved over last chapter. I could still do with a little more emotional vulnerability from Scoot, especially in the scene with Applejack. There are hints of it, but whether it's through word choice or something else, I don't feel like it's being sold quite as efficiently as it should be. Case in point:
That's got a great core of emotional vulnerability to it, but tagging it with "almost hopefully" really blunts the impact for me. 'Timidly', 'quietly', even 'skittishly' all work a bit better for me there. I understand that she's hoping Applejack will tell her what she wants to hear, but the words themselves already communicate that sentiment. And the 'almost' is just a general impact-blunter, as always.
Still, like I was saying, I think the emotion gets sold a lot better in this chapter. It's presented in a much more active context. And everything after the Applejack conversation I think is just plain solid. The CMC bit is especially good. I'm really enjoying how you write those three together. And the bit at the end with Rainbow is also good. I have some sympathy with Bad Horse's criticism, but I like how you answered it. I think the story could probably use a little bit more of Scoot's changes in personality being placed front and center ("When she was a filly, she would have [X], but life had taught her [Y]", except less cliche), but you've certainly seeded plenty of that characterization through the story so far, so I feel more like it'd be a welcome addition and not something the story really needs.
Anyway, on we go!
As I continue to say I love this fic. You've characterized everypony so well. I'm really glad that Scootaloo got over her anger at Dash and desperately hoping that Scoots and Dash will get back together. I love how vulnerable Scootaloo was in her conversation with Applejack about Rainbow. It was great how Applejack was able to help Scootaloo get over her emotions and show her how Rainbow really was thus allowing Scoot to forgive Dash. What I really love is how Scootaloo seems to get over Dash so quickly it almost makes it worse for Rainbow Dash and I really feel the pain and emotion that Dash is hiding deep inside. The CMC bit was just d'aw and hilarious. You are getting scary food at getting your intent emotions in the readers mind (for me at least) and I was sad when Scoot told Dash she wasn't doing the Star Trick it was almost as if she was severing a connection between the two. Like now that they are just friends Scootaloo just didn't want something as personal as the star trick in her routine since it was really what had them spending son much time together practicing when they were still "together," a great chapter an one of my favorites so far.
Not gonna lie, I don't want Scoot to wind up with Dash. I know she does and I'm still gonna love this fic all the way to it's mushy happy ending, but I don't think they should end up together.
Okay, now with that out of the way. How the heck do you get your characterizations so solid? They feel completely spot on, from the CMC or Fluttershy, you are totally blowing my damn mind.
friendly neighborhood?