The Pursuit of Pride

by The Real Steel

Chapter 4

The sun soon rose over the land of Equestria once more and cast it's intrusive light upon the eyelids of the two ponies who were still sleeping their stress and sorrow away for the moment. When they felt the light intrude upon their sleep two sets of voices rang out, one was scratchy and brash and the other was young and hoarse from crying and both were groaning.

Rainbow Dash was the first to actually stir from her slumber instead of groan about it being interrupted. She decided to groan about it as she sat up instead of sitting down and groaning about it. Her memories of last night were, thankfully, dulled from the sleep. Though when she looked over to see the orange filly who was very like a little sister to her with dried tears on her face, clinging to Dash like a lifeboat amidst a stormy sea, it all came back to her.

Scootaloo for her part had been too worn out from crying and grieving to verbally argue about waking up though her eyelids and eyeballs had a different story to tell. She woke with a headache, the memory of her parents death fresh in her mind still and no more tears left to give.

Dash looked over and saw the normally upbeat and unconquerable spirit that Scootaloo had basically inherited from her seem to have flown completely away from the teen. She seemed like a broken shell and somehow the day had become more gray and Dash felt like she had lost some of her own color.

Now it doesn't need to be said as any who know her will tell you but Dash is not an overly affectionate pony by nature. A rare moment of affection that seemed to become increasingly common now that Scootaloo was in the same boat she was with no family left occurred as she offered something for them to do to get her teenage friend's mind off of the events.

“Come on squirt. We can't sit here all day. What do you say to some breakfast? Can be a world class flier on an empty stomach haha.”

The sky blue pegasus nervously laughed after she said that. She was terrible at this whole 'Cheering up ponies' thing, that was usually Pinkie's job. She shook that thought out of her head, she was Loyalty incarnate! Her friend who was almost like her little sister needed help and she was going to help her somehow.

Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash, in the literal sense now though she had looked up to Dash for all her life that she could remember, this time was different. In Dash right now she saw more than her idol, more than her mentor, more than her best friend, she was a big sister. She was the only family the lost teen pony had left and so with this in mind she nodded her head with a light sniffle, clearing away any sadness as she refused to appear weak in front of Dash anymore.

The older pegasus nodded at her orange coated young friend and picked her up gently, setting her on her back. Dash then proceeded to trot through the living room that they had decided to crash in and headed towards the alabaster tiled floor of her kitchen. Dash was by her very nature very lazy so there were no five star meals and nothing fancy. Mostly just cereal and more cereal. Grabbing some Zap Apple Loops from the top shelf she set the half empty box down on her dirty and worn out wooden table and proceeded to rummage around the fridge for some milk.

When the milk was finally located after sifting through all the junk food, expired food that she was too lazy to throw out, the protein shakes and energy bars that Dash ate and drank a lot she proceeded to head over to the table and pour them both some bowls of cereal. She went over to grab some spoons for them and a few swears came from Dash as she couldn't find any. She turned to the one thing she hated doing more than being slow, doing the dishes and let out a sigh of her own. She rolled her eyes and decided to do it since she had to.

Scootaloo for her part had lifelessly taken her place at the table and proceeded to wait for Dash to hurry up. Her stomach was growling from neglect but she was too out of it to care. She didn't want to do anything, she didn't want to eat, go to school, train, speak or move. She just wanted to lay there and wallow but one of many things she inherited from Dash was a never die attitude. As a result of this, even though she wanted to curl up and cry again, she stood straight and proud as she could manage at the breakfast table. Her stomach was fast winning the war against depression and she looked at Dash eagerly as her mentor proceeded to attack the dishes as if her life depended on it.

A little laugh, hollow but a laugh nonetheless, left Scootaloo as she watched this. Dash may not have been the most polite, well mannered, neatest or well groomed of ponies but to Scootaloo there was nopony better, not even the Wonderbolts and to see her idol go through all this for her caused her broken heart to lift a little and a half smile to find her young maw.

Dash finally managed to get two spoons clean after digging through the massive amounts of dirty dishes and finding two matching spoons. She had then proceeded to attack them with dish soap and her hooves until they were sparkling clean. Proud of herself as usual the smirking pony brought the spoons over and put them in the bowls, noticing her young protege's smile she decided to comment. She pointed a mock accusatory hoof at her and laughed as she spoke.

“What is so funny Scoots? I hate doing dishes, don't judge me.”

Despite the nature of her words the laugh made it obvious Dash was not mad at all, truth be told she was overjoyed to see Scootaloo smiling again. The older pony didn't handle depression well, being one of her many dislikes.

“Nothing Dash, nopony makes doing the dishes look as cool as you do. I was just smiling because of how lucky I am to have such an awesome mentor.”

The teenage pony resisted the totally uncool urge to hop across the table and hug Dash, extending a hoof for a hoofbump instead.

“Keep up the training squirt and one day you might just be as awesome as I am.”

Dash happily reached her hoof out and bumped the younger ponies hoof, after which she proceeded to dig into her cereal which was fast approaching the soggy point of zero edibility. She was not exactly a picky eater, soggy cereal was just a bad deal to her and she didn't have enough money to afford wasting food.

Scootaloo followed suit with a smile that had widened considerably being near Dash and soon the two ponies had finished their meals. When they were done the older mare spoke to the teenager she had basically taken under her wing almost like a daughter.

“Scoots, do you have anywhere to stay after what happened? I know you had only your parents for family but is there anypony who'd help you out?”

The sky blue pegasus asked with honest concern on her face. She knew what it was like to have nopony to help you, to have to make it on your own, her own parents having not been a big part of Dash's life for as long as she could remember.

At the question the smile left Scootaloo's face, her mood growing much more grim and a sad sigh leaving her. She didn't want to appear weak in front of her idol but she couldn't suppress the fresh wave of tears that threatened to break free of their confines in her eyes.

“No, I have nopony. Mom and Dad were the only ones who took care of me, I have family in Las Pegasus but that would mean abandoning everypony here in Ponyville and I don't want to leave my friends here behind.”

Silence descended for a few seconds, no sound coming from the two mares and no sounds coming from nature. Scootaloo was waiting for a response and Dash was thinking. After a while the silence was broken, Dash raising her head from looking down at the table in thought.

“Hey squirt, how would you like to live with me? My place isn't as nice as Rarity's and there's just me and Tank here but it's home to me and it can be home to you as well, if ya want.”

A hoof was brought up to the back of the older mare's neck, this whole sentimentality and maturity thing was really not her cup of tea and it actually embarrassed her to act this way.

If Scootaloo was embarrassed though she certainly didn't show it, her face lighting up like she had just won a million bits. She couldn't help but jump out of her seat, smiling brightly at the other pony.

“REALLY?!” She cleared her throat after that and tried to put on a cool front, adjusting her shoulders and smirking. “I mean, yeah. That would be pretty cool Dash.”

Rainbow Dash got up out of her chair and trotted over to Scootaloo, wrapping her right front hoof around the younger ponies neck and giving her a noogie with a happy smirk and a little chuckle.

“That's the spirit squirt. Now, you should get yourself used to your new home. I need to go out for weather duty today and I will stop by the school and tell Cheerilee why you won't be coming to school for a little bit.”

She released her grip after she finished speaking and began heading towards the front door of her house, Scoots right on her trail. As they made their was through the living room, the cupboards filled with trophies the younger pony stopped Dash by calling her name.

“Wait Dash! Before you go.......I just wanted say..thanks. Thanks for being such an awesome friend.”

She felt a little sappy after saying it and scuffed at the cloud floor of the home a little, not looking at Dash who had turned around as she shifted her gaze to the floor.

“No need to thank me Scoots. You're the only pony cool enough to spend time with me all the time.”

The sky blue pony made her way over to her apprentice and gave her mane a little ruffle, running her hoof all through it and messing it up. She couldn't suppress a little laugh as she did so though she spoke as comfortingly as she could.

The orange coated teenager's head rose at the playful ruffling and she combed her back with a hoof when Dash backed away towards the door again. By this point she was almost mirroring her mentor, smirking like she had just struck gold and waving a hoof at Dash.

“Yeah yeah Dash, just get out there and show everypony how awesome you are. Don't worry about me, I will find out where everything is here.”

Scootaloo gave her a playful smack on the shoulder though it wasn't a hard punch, intended as a friendly gesture and nothing more.

“Hahaha, alright squirt. I am outta here, see you soon. Bathroom and bedrooms are upstairs and the kitchen and living room are downstairs as you know. You get hungry there's food in the refrigerator and the pantry.”

She gave her one right back and made her way to the front door once again, opening it and spreading her wings when she was outside.

With that Dash bolted out the door, her departure leaving her signature prismatic trail behind as she tore through the sky, heading for the cloudy skies of Ponyville. Scootaloo on the other hoof watched in awe, reminded once again of her dream to one day be able to fly that fast. She shut the door and headed inside her new home, the home of her idol and she couldn't suppress the fangirl fit that overtook her, which she allowed herself since Dash wasn't home.

“Ohmigoshohmigoshohmigosh! This is SO awesome! I am living with Rainbow Dash!”

She jumped and skipped around the living room as she let loose the seemingly endless excitement coursing through her and in her hopping frenzy she came right up to the cupboard that housed many of Rainbow Dash's trophies.

Interested to see what her idol had won and having exhausted a good deal of her excitement, enough at least to calm down, she looked inside the cupboard and what she saw impressed her....a lot.

Inside were many 1st place trophies, ranging from small little tournaments to some major league ones. Dash had won first place in all of them and beside each was a picture of Dash holding the trophy though some were of Dash when she was even younger than Scootaloo. One thing was missing from the pictures though, something most of these should have had.......

“Where are Rainbow Dash's parents?”

She couldn't help but ask out loud and it was then that it dawned on her. Dash didn't have parents, just like her. She had been living and succeeding on her own for years. With nopony there to look uncool in front of and a new found sense of connection with Rainbow Dash as well as a fresh wave of tears for her parents death she put a hoof over her eyes and started crying where she remained for a good twenty minutes.

In Ponyville, a little bit away from the cloud home that Scootaloo currently resided in, near the library which was home to Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash was hard at work darting around the sky and clearing it of any clouds she could find.

It didn't take her more than a half hour to clear all the clouds from the sky though it was rare that she cleared them ALL, normally leaving one to nap on. This day though she had responsibilities to somepony who was fast meaning more to her than any other that she knew. It was with this in mind that she took off, through the, thanks to her, clear blue skies heading from Ponyville Library to the schoolyard where the lunch break was just starting. Counting her lucky stars she landed near the front doors and trotted up to the twin doors, opening the entry door she made her way inside.

Dash had been here a few times since she and Scootaloo had grown close, being called in each time the young pony acted up and the teachers had a problem since Scootaloo's parents were usually busy during the day and Scootaloo only really listened to her anyways. As such, it was a familiar trek for Dash to head through the painted hallways, passing many a schoolroom as she made her way towards the teacher's conference room where they would be during lunch.

When she saw the white painted door to the teachers room she took a deep breath and opened the door. Instantly she got some less than pleasant looks from quite a few teachers including Reform, all of them knew Dash's reputation as a troublemaker and they didn't trust her not to cause trouble. Disregarding the glares she soon found Cheerilee who looked up from her lunch to see probably the last pony she ever expected to see in the school without being called.

“Miss Rainbow Dash, this is a surprise. May I assist you with something?”

Cheerilee's bubbly voice called out the other mare, keeping her eyes on Dash's rose colored orbs when she spoke.

“Yeah Cheerilee. I am sure you know about Scootaloo's parents right?”

She didn't bother hiding the fact that she was in, as usual for Dash when in a schoolhouse, a foul mood. She wasn't one to show much respect with Miss or Sir on the best of occasions but with the glares it definitely wasn't happening.

Cheerilee lost her smile at that much like Scootaloo had earlier in the morning and when she learned of her parents death and her cheery tone changed to one that reflected a much more somber attitude. “Yes Miss Dash, I have indeed heard of that. It's very unfortunate, her parents were adored by many and though young Scootaloo was a bit of a troublemaker she didn't deserve to see that, nopony deserves that.”

“Yeah, I agree but I wanted to tell you that she will not be in school for a few days, maybe even a week or two. She was hit pretty hard by her parents death and she will be staying with me.”

Dash stood resolute as she said this, believing very firmly in her ability to be a good mother type figure to Scootaloo despite her inexperience taking care of anypony but herself.

“That is wonderful news that you will be taking care of her Miss Dash. She has always thought very highly of you, even going so far as to emulate you. As for her staying out of school, that is no surprise. She will need time to recover from this, the poor dear.”

“Thanks for understanding Cheer. I am going to head home now, I just thought I would tell you what's up. And with that, I am ditching this snoozefest.....”

She turned from Cheerilee to the other teachers who were still giving her the vile looks they had been since she came into the classroom and Dash didn't waste any time, shouting at them as she glared from one to the other. “YOU GOT A PROBLEM?!” Each one shrunk back individually from her anger and when she saw this she stamped her way out of the room with a snort of anger, slamming the door shut behind her.

The angry sky blue pony quickly made her way out of the schoolhouse and took to her skies, darting to and fro like a rainbow colored missile. She wanted so badly to kick something right now and after a little bit of flying around at her maximum speed, more than a few times having to remind herself that the trees were not the teachers and not plowing through them.

As the sun began to go down she realized just how long she had actually been out of the house, having left before noon and it was now late afternoon, it would seem she spent more time flying around than she thought. She looked up at the setting sun and sighed, another day gone by and one day closer to the Wonderbolt's try outs.

With a lot to think about and a great deal done in one day compared to her usual lack of doing anything during the day but lazing around hanging out with her friends she made her way towards her cloud home located in between Ponyville and Cloudsdale.

Scootaloo was waiting for her when she arrived home, having acquainted herself with the house while Dash was out. Learning where almost everything was. She gave her mentor a happy smile as she came through the door and wasted no time in asking her questions.

“Heya Dash, so how did it go? Am I cleared to be out of school and did you do awesome at your job as always?”

The energetic teenager almost bounced around Dash, eager to hear if she was going to be able to spend as much time as possible with her.

In a moment of maturity and surprising calm Dash gave a warm smile and pat Scootaloo's head though it was obvious she was worn out from the day's activities.

“Yeah Scoots, you are free from school for the moment and I will be getting paid for the job I did today. I am worn out though and I think I am going to call it a night early today.”

With that she walked past the orange coated pony who she would be spending Celestia only knows how long with and headed up the stairs, on the way to her bedroom. Scootaloo was right behind her and Dash assumed she was only following so she could go to her room despite the fact that Scootaloo had thoughts of asking Dash if she could sleep with her again.

No words were exchanged as they both entered their rooms other than a 'Good night.' Dash wasted no time in flopping down on her bed and falling asleep very quickly, Scootaloo however stayed up for about an hour, staring at the ceiling. A wave of conflicting emotions assaulting her mind, she was ecstatic to be living with Dash but still, the death of her parents weighed heavily on her mind. Eventually boredom sent her to sleep though the image of her burning house jolted her awake and like a filly she made her way to Dash's room and curled into bed with her, seeking solace which the half conscious Dash provided with a wing around her.

After this the first day of their new relationship was over and off to a pretty good start. They slept peacefully through the night and one dreamed of being a Wonderbolt while the other dreamed of the new life awaiting her. Both were eager for what the future held and more than ready to go towards the future together.

Comments

[Rarity Belle]

Finally having the time to read this. I will come back to you once I am done with it master Heart.
~Rarity

[Rarity Belle]

*done reading* Despite a couple grammatical errors, it is very, very good!

And to be honest, I don't know why you have it on 'Hiatus' for it is a story that can take many opportunities from the point it is at now. I would love to see another chapter for it.

[The Real Steel]

1755984 Well, it's on hiatus at the moment because I can't bring myself to stay motivated for writing fan fics and when I release something new for it I plan to release EVERY single chapter that is as yet unwritten and redo chapter 4 as well as a new story for my OC AND completion of Blaze of Glory, my other fic so I have a lot to do.

[Rarity Belle]

1784916 I see my dear. I wish you the best of luck with them all.

[The Real Steel]

1786268 Thank you very kindly Rarity. I plan to spend all day tomorrow writing so I will most likely not respond here though I seem to have denied you last time on PS for some reason. Shoot me a friend request there and be sure to watch Pursuit of Pride closely, we should be rolling here soon and be sure to check out Blaze of Glory: Broken Shadows which should be rolling soon as well.

[temerarii pulsat]

this is really good i hope you keep it up and please don't let it end badly.

[The Real Steel]

1800608 I can't promise how it will end. You'll just have to read it as it goes and see how it ends. *Poker face time*