Mark of the Grail

by DJ TR33

Dancing

In a clearing, far away from the sights and sounds of Ponyville, a filly danced with abandon. Her purple mane trailed behind her as she effortlessly spun on her back hooves. She dropped down to four hooves, executing a graceful turn as she moved into her next leap. Her tale whipped around as she lifted her front legs and pushed up with all her might, launching herself up towards the sky.

As she jumped, a feeling of weightlessness came to her orange rudimentary wings fluttered instinctually. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine that she was flying, soaring in the sky. Then, as always, gravity exerted its harsh pull, and she fell down to the earth. As she landed, she spread out her front legs and bowed her head, though whether it was due to her now flightless state or just as an acknowledgement of the end of her dance it was difficult to tell. A single perfect tear trickled down from her eyes, tracing a silver line down her cheek.

Beside her, a scratchy record sounding out of a turntable slowly came to a halt, playing the last notes of Neightoven’s famous Für Elise. The record had been given to her by her mother, a few months ago, and could always make her feel calmer, more in control, despite the inevitable sadness the song always brought for her. She sighed as she thought about why she needed the calming feeling of her mother’s favorite song.
Behind her she heard a voice say, “Not bad, squirt.”

The orange pegasus whipped around in shock, quickly wiping off the tear with her hoof. Behind her stood her idol, Rainbow Dash, who was watching the little filly with a look of slight amusement on her face. A bright red blush rose up on her orange cheeks as she realized that her hero had probably seen the whole show. She looked down in embarrassment.

“Hey squirt, is something wrong? Your eyes look a little puffy,” the cyan mare said, this time without a trace of laughter in her voice. The filly continued to look down, refusing to meet Rainbow Dash’s eyes, desperately afraid of rejection.

“Scootaloo, if something happened, I’m here. You know that, right?” Scootaloo looked up, surprised by the mare’s unusually sympathetic voice. Normally, Equestria’s fastest flyer only spoke in loud confident tones. This was an altogether different side of her, one Scootaloo had never seen. “Right?” she asked again, holding out a hoof.

“Yeah,” the orange pony replied, although inside she was feeling conflicted. On one hoof, she didn’t want to seem weak in the eyes of her idol. On the other hoof, she really needed a shoulder to cry on. Finally, her need to release her feelings won, and she bumped her hoof against the proffered one.

“So what’s bothering you?” Rainbow Dash asked the filly in front of her. She walked over and sat down beside Scootaloo, pulling her down into a place where she could lay her head on the rainbow maned mare’s shoulder. Almost subconsciously, Scootaloo leaned into her hero, letting herself be held in a way that she hadn’t been held in almost six months, a way that she wouldn’t have let anyone else beside Rainbow Dash, her long time idol, hold her.

The pegasus filly, listening to the heartbeat of the mare that was holding her, began to speak. “I had a fight with Sweetie Bell today. She said that everything I wanted to do to try to get our cutie marks was dangerous, that she didn’t want to risk our lives anymore with all of my hare brained schemes. And she’s probably right, you know. My ideas can be kind of crazy at times. I mean, look what happened when we went zip lining! We ended up covered in tree sap and mud, but it could have been a lot worse. If those trees hadn’t caught us, we could’ve been seriously hurt. And who wants a talent in zip lining anyways? She’s right. I just mess everything up.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.” Rainbow Dash hugged Scootaloo closer to her chest. “You had a bad idea or two, but you don’t mess everything up. And sure, you’ve gotten yourself in trouble a few times, but don’t stress it. Everyone makes stupid moves sometimes. Let me tell you, I’ve gotten in my fair share of trouble too, but do you see me calling myself a screw up? Do you?”

The orange filly gave her a shaky grin as she shook her head. Rainbow Dash tussled the filly’s purple mane. After a time, the mare asked, “So what happened next?”

Scootaloo’s grin abruptly faded. “Well, uh… then I told her that everything she wanted to do was useless and boring. I, uh, told her that cutiemarks in things like cleaning houses would be kind of lame.” The filly looked down again, ashamed of her actions. What would Rainbow Dash think of her, knowing she had said that to her best friend?

The sound of Rainbow Dash gently chuckling under her breath made Scootaloo’s head come up again. “You’re right, that would be a kind of lame cutiemark. Hey, don’t worry about the fight. The important thing is that you know you made a mistake, and that you apologize later. I’m willing to bet Sweetie Bell is feeling just as bad as you are.”

“Really?” The filly said, looking up with surprise in her eyes.

“Really. Trust me, I’ve been in enough fights with my friends to know. So let me guess, what happened next was that the fight escalated, with Applebloom trying to moderate, and the next thing you knew you were both storming out of the clubhouse in tears?”

“Uh, yeah, how’d you know?” The orange pegasus looked up at the pony holding her with a mixture of confusion and wonderment in her eyes.

“Like I said, I’ve been through a lot of fights with my best friends. You can’t be close to somepony without having a few big fights. It’s just something that happens. Like I said, the really important thing is to apologize for what happened, and recognize you’re part in the fight, which you already seem to have done.” She grinned down at the filly in her arms, who looked up with another shaky smile.

“That still doesn’t explain this,” Rainbow Dash said, gesturing with her hoof at the turntable, and the layer of grass beside it that had been scratched by her leaps and twirls. Scootaloo could feel another blush rising in her cheeks, but decided to forge ahead nonetheless.

“Um, it calms me down. I don’t know why, but there’s something that’s really soothing about it.” By this time, her cheeks were on fire. She’d never really told anyone else about how much she enjoyed dancing, and it had always been a private thing, something to share between her and her mother.

“I can understand that. My parents actually made me take dance classes, back before I discovered my love of flying. It’s nice, in a slow way.” Rainbow Dash paused, looking in the distance with a faint smile on her face. She could remember what it’d been like, how the dancing had been soothing, relaxing, almost as relaxing as flying. As she thought of how nice it had been, her expression turned contemplative. Maybe she should try dancing again. She had really enjoyed it, after all.

“You- you don’t think it’s silly?” Scootaloo said, not processing the mare’s words. She’d been afraid of rejection, too afraid to tell anyone. After all, what would they think if they knew that the tomboyish filly liked something as girly as ballet dancing? But maybe, if Rainbow Dash liked it, it couldn’t be so bad, right?

“Silly? Of course not. Maybe a bit girly,” she said. At this, Scootaloo’s spirits fell. “But hey, you are a girl. We’ve got a right to like things like that. Plenty of colts do it too, you know.” The filly’s eyes opened wide. She hadn’t known.
The two sat in companionable silence for a while, Rainbow Dash reflecting on her fillyhood, Scootaloo trying to process the dramatic shift in her world view. The idea that her dancing wasn’t something to be ashamed of, and was actually something to be celebrated was a novel idea to her, and she was trying to fit it in her mind.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash looked up, as if sensing something was wrong. Seeing the location of the sun, her eyes widened. She started to stand up, turning to the filly beside her.

“Hey, Scoots, I’ve gotta fly. There’s a major storm scheduled for Ponyville and I need to go and organize its formation. Hey, if you’re open later today, and your parents are okay with it, I could take you back to my place, maybe teach you a few dance moves?” The leader of Ponyville’s weather squad turned to look at her companion. Scootaloo started in surprise, then looked at the mare with a mixture of shock and awe.

“Really? You’d let me come into your house?” she asked incredulously.

“Sure. Why don’t you come over around seven or so? My shift should be done by then.” The pegasus stood up in earnest, stretching herself out in preparation for flight.

“Yeah! I’ll be there. Definitely,” Scootaloo said, her face unusually solemn.

“Well, see you then. Bye!” With this the rainbow maned pegasus shot up into the sky, leaving a faint rainbow colored trail behind her. Scootaloo watched until the mare was nothing but a speck in the sky, and then until she was gone from view entirely. The filly continued to stare at the spot in the sky where she had last seen the mare for a few minutes, before shaking off her reverie and walking over to the place she had left her turntable and saddlebags. Pulling a record sleeve from her right saddlebag, she carefully slid the vinyl record into the sleeve and delicately replaced it, putting it back among the other records she kept in the bag. Turning to the turntable, she slid a glass cover over it and delicately placed it in her right bag, pulling the straps shut on the two bags and cinching them shut to protect them from the elements.

The orange pegasus turned, pausing for a moment to look up one last time to where she had last seen Rainbow Dash, then began the long trek home, thinking of ways to pass the time before she could go over to the cyan mare’s house.

Comments

[jakcspellgud]

scootaballet ftw

[Tom Brady]

Meh. That was cute, at least.

[DJ TR33]

Hey everypony, this is my first fanfic. I know it's not very original, but I've had this idea in my head ever since I watched The Show Stoppers, and I haven't seen any other stories with this exact storyline. As always, I hope you enjoy!

[fallen starr]

Aww, it seems pretty cute so far! Show Stoppers came to mind while I was reading this, actually. Everyone thought the trio would be doing things in a different way, possibly even hinting at what their talent is. But yeah, I'm off to read chapter 2.

[PatRoison]

Go go ScootaDance! Really cute start. Look forward to the next.