A series of short stories about Rainbow Dash and her number one fan, Scootaloo!
A series of short friendshipping stories and cute scenes centred around Rainbow Dash and her number one fan, Scootaloo!
Each 'chapter' is a standalone story (unless marked otherwise), so feel free to skip ahead if you don't like how one is written or if you find a title that takes your fancy.
“Scoots, are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Sweetie Belle doubtfully.
Scootaloo flexed her legs to make sure that the hang glider’s wings moved properly. “Of course I am! I mean, what could possibly go wrong?” There was a ripping noise as the glider’s left wing fell to the ground. Scootaloo sighed. “Applebloom…”
“Ah’m on it!” Applebloom bit off another piece of sticky tape and reattached the wing, good as new. As she stood back to check her work, she frowned at Scootaloo in thought. “Y’know, Ah don’t think this thing is safe.”
Scootaloo waved her fears off casually and approached the edge of the hill to look down over it. “You guys worry too much. We’re not even that high up.”
Sweetie Belle stepped forwards. “Well yeah, but--”
“I’ve got this, guys!” Scootaloo assured them. She backpedalled to stand at the opposite end of the hilltop as her friends watched hopelessly. “Alright, here goes…” Narrowing her eyes and crouching low, Scootaloo started a silent countdown. Ten. Nine… Three-two-one! She pushed off with her back legs and broke into a gallop. She steeled herself as she neared the edge. She jumped.
“Wow, no way!”
“Ah don’t believe it!”
Scootaloo craned open an eye. There was something wrong with this picture. There were no blood-curdling ripping noises from the glider, the wind was strangely gentle and the ground wasn’t approaching at an alarming rate. Which meant…
“Ohmygosh – I’m flying!” Scootaloo yelled. “I’m actually flying! Woohoo!” She tilted her body sideways, turning the glider’s wings so that she could pass over her gawping friends.
“Way to go, Scoots!” cried Applebloom.
“How does it feel?” yelled Sweetie Belle.
Beaming, Scootaloo turned again in midair and felt the wind against her face. “It feels totally, absolutely, super a--” Rip. “Uh oh.”
Scootaloo’s eyes went wide as she heard the dreaded sound of the sticky tape tearing off. Looking up, she saw that the glider’s left wing was missing. Looking down, she saw that she was plummeting towards the ground. “Curse you, sticky ta---ape!”
“…aloo-- Scootaloo--”
Scootaloo groaned tiredly and forced her eyes open, expecting to find her mom standing over her, telling her that it was time for school. Instead, she saw a mess of leaves and branches, along with some mangled contraption that looked strangely familiar. “…Oh,” she muttered.
“Scootaloo-- Scootaloo--”
“Up here, Applebloom,” sighed Scootaloo, not bothering to turn over. There was a sound of hooves crunching against grass, then a pair of gasps.
“Scootaloo!”
“Scoots, how’d you get up there?” asked Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo furrowed her brow and rolled her head out of the tree to stare at Sweetie Belle. Applebloom did the same. Sweetie Belle glanced between them a couple of times before working it out. “Oh, right!”
Applebloom shook her head and looked up at Scootaloo. “Are ya okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Scootaloo sighed again. “Except that my hang glider broke and now I’m stuck in a tree…”
“Yeah, but look on the bright side,” said Sweetie Belle cheerily. “It’s an apple tree – you can have lunch up there!”
“Sweetie Belle…”
“What? I’m just saying!”
“Scoots, ya want me to get Applejack to come help ya down?”
Scootaloo rolled over and planted her hooves on some solid branches. “No, I've got it.” Screwing up her face in concentration, she beat her wings as hard as she could and leapt out of the tree. It slowed her fall so that she could touch down on the grass softly. She brushed a few leaves out of her mane before turning to frown at her friends.
“Aw, come on, Scoots.” Applebloom put a hoof on her back. “At least ya flew for a little while!”
Scootaloo shook her head and then let it hang. “Yeah – like, ten seconds…” she grumbled. “What’s the use? I’ll never be able to fly.”
“Sure you will!” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “We just need to build a better hang glider.”
“A better hang glider…” repeated Scootaloo slowly. After a moment, she looked up with an excited smile. “Yeah! A better hang gilder! This time with lots more sticky tape!”
Sweetie Belle beamed at her. “Yeah, and--” She paused mid-sentence to watch a pair of pegasi zoom overhead, towards town. When she looked down again, she was frowning. “Oh, I’ve got to go,” she said with a sigh.
“Huh? Why?” asked Scootaloo, furrowing her brow.
“Mom said I had to come home and do chores at noon – when the weather patrol starts clearing the clouds.” She pointed towards the pegasi.
“Oh…”
“But we can work on it tomorrow, right Applebloom?” said Sweetie Belle desperately.
“Right!”
“Yeah, okay,” grumbled Scootaloo. “I guess you’re going too then?”
Applebloom nodded. “Sorry, Scoots. I’ve got to help Granny with lunch.” She gave Scootaloo another pat on the back. “Don’t worry – we’ll get ya flyin’ soon enough!”
Scootaloo looked between the blueprint on the park bench and her new glider. So far, she’d managed to craft a leg band and half of a wing. She groaned – this took so much longer without her friends.
“Hey, squirt!” came Rainbow Dash’s voice. “Flying solo today?” Scootaloo looked up to see the most awesome pegasus in Equestria hovering above her with a smile. She put on her best pouty voice.
“No. That’s the problem,” she said shortly.
Rainbow Dash blinked. “Huh?”
Scootaloo sighed. “Nothing. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had to go, so I’m working on my hang glider.”
“Oh, yeah? How’s it going?” asked Rainbow, alighting next to the bench.
Scootaloo hung her head. “Not so good. The old one broke and got tangled in a tree so I have to start from scratch.”
“Oh, tough break,” said Rainbow Dash, rubbing the back of her head. “Hey, wait a minute. What do you need a glider for anyway?”
“Um…” Scootaloo gave her wings a few flaps and looked at her meaningfully.
Rainbow furrowed her brow. “They still don’t work?” she said, not even trying to hide her surprise. Scootaloo shook her head and looked away. “Uh, I mean, that’s totally normal – nothing to worry about!” Rainbow Dash added desperately.
“Yeah, sure,” mumbled Scootaloo.
They were both silent for a long moment. Rainbow Dash put her hoof on Scootaloo’s back. “Hey, don’t let it get you down. Y’know what – why don’t I help you with your glider? I’ll bet, between us, we’ll get it done in no time!”
Scootaloo’s face brightened. “Really?! You mean it?” she gasped.
“Sure,” said Rainbow coolly. “Just finished weather patrol so I’ve got a bunch of spare time. Let’s see what you’ve got!”
Worries completely forgotten, Scootaloo beamed and moved to show Rainbow her progress. “Well, this is the blueprint that Sweetie Belle made. I’ve been trying to figure out how to change the wings so they don’t, you know – fall off.” She looked over at the mess of tape, wood and cloth that was her experimental new glider wing. “It’s not going so well…”
Rainbow glanced at the blueprint, then leaned in to scrutinize Scootaloo’s creation. Scootaloo watched in eager anticipation as Rainbow paced around it, looking at it from every angle and grunting on occasion. Finally, she looked up and smirked. “Okay, squirt – I’m no expert on hang gliders, but I think I see your problem.”
“You do?! What is it?” Scootaloo prompted excitedly.
“Wait here, I’ll be back in a flash.” With that, Rainbow kicked off from the ground and dashed off into the distance, returning one flash later with a strange object in her mouth. “Thish should do the trick,” she slurred, spitting the object onto the bench.
Scootaloo squinted at it. “What is it?”
“You see, your problem was that you were using regular old sticky tape,” said Rainbow sagely. “This…” She put a hoof on top of the object and smiled confidently. “Is duct tape.”
“…Duct tape?” repeated Scootaloo in wonderment.
“Duct tape,” Rainbow confirmed. “I use it all the time. It’s way cooler than sticky tape. If we slap some of this on our glider, it’ll hold it together, no problem!”
Scootaloo beheld the roll of duct tape with a slack jaw. Could it really be that simple? She was brought back to her senses when Rainbow patted her on the head. “C’mon, squirt – let’s get this thing built!”
Rainbow tugged on the belt and then stood back. “Tight enough, squirt?”
“Yep!” said Scootaloo, bouncing in place to check the weight of the glider. Rainbow Dash hovered up and put a hoof on one of the wings. She shook it a little to make sure it was secure, then nodded and touched back down.
“Great! I think we’re all set!” said Rainbow.
Scootaloo could barely contain her excitement. She had a great feeling about this. This duct tape-reinforced glider couldn’t possibly fail – especially since Rainbow Dash had helped her make it! Sure, the wings looked kind of funny compared to the last glider, but that just added to the style.
“Alright, you remember what I told ya?” asked Rainbow.
“The wings are an extension of my body!” Scootaloo recited. “Don’t think of it as a glider – just control it in the same way as I would my arms or legs!”
“Aaaand?” Rainbow prompted.
“And don’t forget to look cool!” finished Scootaloo proudly.
“Right on, squirt!” cheered Rainbow, patting her on the back. “Okay, let’s do this! I’ll give you a countdown.”
Scootaloo nodded and turned to face the edge of the hilltop, just as she had done before. She lowered herself close to the ground and shut her eyes. Look cool, she reminded herself. Look cool for Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow started her countdown. “Three…”
Scootaloo opened her eyes and put on her most-practiced Rainbow Dash smirk.
“Two…”
She rolled her neck and licked her lips.
“One…”
She bent her back legs in readiness.
“Go!” yelled Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo surged forwards, her hooves pounding hard against the grass in rhythm. Her heart beat faster and faster as she neared the edge. She felt herself getting lighter. This was it! She kicked off from the ground and threw out her hooves like Rainbow Dash always did.
The glider dipped downwards and went careening towards the ground. Scootaloo’s confident smirk disappeared. “No! Nonononono!” she squealed, desperately trying to pull herself out of the dive. As she was about to hit the ground, she closed her eyes and braced herself.
But the impact never came. Scootaloo forced herself to open an eye and looked around – finding, to her surprise, that the ground was a safe distance below her and she was soaring low through the sky. Her glider was intact, the wind was wafting through her mane and she was feeling the strangest sense of déjà vu. That quickly vanished to the back of her mind as she focussed on the important – she was flying!
She glanced back to the hilltop to see Rainbow Dash cheering at her emphatically. Scootaloo gave her a wave and an excited grin before remembering her lesson. She narrowed her eyes and resumed her cocky smirk as she twisted midair and looped around.
She was having the time of her life – twirling and diving and totally not almost crashing a bunch of times. And then she saw it…
The duct tape on one of her leg bands had come loose – which might not have been too bad on its own – but when she saw what laid beneath it, her eyes went wide. Sticky tape… A single strip had survived – and that meant…
Rip.
Scootaloo grabbed desperately for the tape as it flew past her ear, but it was too late. The band detached from her leg and started flapping in the wind. Her flailing attempts to reattach it were useless – the sticky tape had struck a mortal blow.
The glider spun out of control – its wings catching the wind at all the wrong angles without her guidance. Her head went foggy with all the random looping and twisting – she felt like she was going to throw up. Through the haze, she could just about figure out that she was falling – and that the landing was probably going to hurt – so she screwed up her eyes again.
It wasn’t half as bad as she thought. In fact, the impact was downright comfortable. Whatever firm but gentle pillow-thing she’d landed on was warm and smelled faintly of bubblegum. On instinct, she found herself hugging it tightly – still panicked from the fall.
When her stomach had finally settled down a little, she opened her eyes to behold a flowing, multi-coloured mane, in which her nose was nestled. “…Rainbow Dash?” she muttered.
“Who else could pull off a save that awesome?” came Rainbow’s scratchy voice. Feeling a sudden rush, Scootaloo lifted her head up a little and took in the rest of her surroundings. She was gliding quietly through the empty cloud layer atop Rainbow Dash’s back – the hang glider still mostly fastened to her back. She could feel Rainbow’s powerful wings underneath her, shifting slightly in the wind.
“You looked pretty good up there, squirt,” said Rainbow Dash kindly. “So, how did you like flying? What’d it feel like?”
Scootaloo swept her eyes over the ground far below one last time before pulling herself back down into Rainbow’s mane and shutting her eyes to enjoy the feeling while she could.
Episode Two: Up There With The Stars - [Friendshipping]
Scootaloo grunted as she pulled herself over another rocky outcropping on the mountainside. Finding her balance, she wiped the sweat from her brow and turned to smirk back at her friends – who were still way behind. “C’mon, you guys!” she panted. “We’re almost there!”
“Wait up, Scoots!” Applebloom pleaded as she and Sweetie Belle dashed uphill after her. “Our legs ain’t as strong as yours!”
Scootaloo laughed and turned on the spot, not wanting to lose her lead. “Slowpokes!” she taunted before hurrying on, bounding over rocks and up ledges as she steadily made her way towards the summit. It wasn’t long before she came up on – and promptly galloped past – the group’s vanguard, consisting of Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, all of whom had saddlebags strapped across their backs.
Twilight looked up from the map in which her nose was buried. “Don’t go too far, Scootaloo!” she warned. Scootaloo grunted in vague response and continued her rush to the peak.
“Ah swear that filly’s got more energy than Pinkie Pie with a sugar rush!” Applejack commented with a smile. She raised her voice to call out. “Hey, maybe ya want to come help us out on the farm sometime, eh, Scootaloo?”
“AJ, nopony wants to work except you-- and maybe Twilight if books are involved,” Rainbow added with a chuckle.
“Did somepony say books?” said Twilight, suddenly sounding very alert.
“Speaking of work, didn’t ya say ya were going to help me clear out the barn yesterday?” said Applejack dangerously.
“Oh yeah, uh, about that…” Rainbow began slowly. “Uh, what’s that, Scootaloo? Right, coming!”
Scootaloo turned her head at the sound of her name and saw Rainbow dashing towards her whilst Applejack rolled her eyes and Twilight glanced around, apparently searching for something. Rainbow Dash alighted beside Scootaloo and quickly gestured for her to keep moving. Not wanting to let her idol down, Scootaloo fell into step.
Rainbow chuckled and gave her a sideways glance. “I was napping,” she admitted with a smirk. “Don’t tell AJ.” Scootaloo nodded emphatically and smiled – proud that Rainbow Dash would put such trust in her. Clearly satisfied, Rainbow looked back to the path ahead and the two of them walked in silence for a while.
It was a comfortable sort of silence, even though Scootaloo was still a little tired from her rush to get this far. The other Crusaders seemed to have stopped their chase, probably giving up once they reached the grown-ups. Scootaloo couldn’t really blame them – the climb had been hard enough thus far with wings to help her with little jumps, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had to manage with just their legs.
For a fleeting moment, Scootaloo imagined herself soaring through the sky, carrying her friends atop her back. She frowned and gave her wings a longing flap.
“Excited for tonight, squirt?” asked Rainbow Dash, pulling Scootaloo away from her thoughts.
“You bet I am! It’s going to be so awesome!” said Scootaloo with a smile.
“Yeah, apparently this star thing only happens every fifty years or something,” Rainbow commented with an idle shrug. “But you’d probably have to ask Twilight about that.”
Scootaloo just kept smiling in silence. She was of course looking forward to watching the stars that night, but not as much as she was looking forward to spending time with Rainbow Dash. It wasn’t every day that she got a chance to hang out with Equestria’s fastest flier after all.
“Hey, looks like we’re there!” said Rainbow, peeking up over the next ridge, which was a little too high for Scootaloo to reach. Brimming with excitement, she hopped up and grabbed on to the ledge, struggling to pull herself over it. She ground her back hooves against the rock wall for a moment, trying to find a decent grip.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Let me help you with that, squirt,” she said brightly. Scootaloo gave a start as she felt Rainbow’s mane against her rump – pushing her up over the ledge and onto the flat ground above. Rainbow joined her a second later, clearing the height with an effortless, wing-assisted jump.
Pushing herself to her feet, Scootaloo blinked and looked out over her new surroundings. Contrary to the steep mountain path, she found herself atop a wide, flat-ish summit with a perfect view of the twilit sky above. The light of the setting Sun gave Rainbow Dash an awesome, clementine glow as she stepped forwards and dropped her saddlebags. She rolled her neck and stretched out her limbs, one-by-one.
A yawn escaped Scootaloo, but she quickly shook her head to remind herself that she was staying up all night – this was no time to be tired! A sudden flash of white caught her off guard. As she blinked the haze from her eyes, she beheld Twilight Sparkle looking up from her map, flanked by a dizzy-looking Applejack, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.
Rainbow turned to Twilight with a furrowed brow. “If you could teleport up here, why did we just climb all the way up on hoof?”
Twilight smiled as she set down her map and saddlebags and trotted past Rainbow. “Oh, I have to be able to see where I’m going and it’s quite difficult to teleport long distances,” she said factually. “Besides, the exercise will do us good!”
“Uh huh,” Rainbow grunted, raising an eyebrow at Applejack, who responded with a silent chuckle. Scootaloo didn’t quite understand the joke, but she smiled all the same as she rejoined her friends, who were still gawping at the view.
It wasn’t long before the rest of the group arrived – Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy each came bearing their own saddlebags full of supplies. Together, they went about setting up camp – erecting three tents around the summit and laying a blanket out along the eastern edge, ready for the night.
The Sun soon fell completely – its orange glow replaced by a chill darkness. The grown-ups talked about lighting a fire to ward off the cold, but eventually decided against it because Twilight warned that the light would make it harder to see the event. Instead, the group draped blankets over themselves as they sat out under the stars, chatting idly and playing games whilst they waited.
The Crusaders were just starting their third round of I-spy when Twilight Sparkle raised a hoof to interrupt. “Look, girls – it’s starting!” she said excitedly.
All eyes turned upwards. Scootaloo cast her gaze about rapidly to try and catch a glimpse of whatever it was they were supposed to be looking for. The starlit sky looked no different than it had a moment ago. Scootaloo waited a good minute or so before starting to worry that she had missed it. Turning her head, she saw that Rainbow Dash too was squinting upwards in vain.
“You sure, Twilight?” asked Rainbow. “I don’t see anything.”
“Just wait for it,” said Twilight calmly, not taking her eyes off of the horizon.
Scootaloo looked up again and waited as patiently as she was able. She shuffled around under her blanket, eager with anticipation. It occurred to her that she had no idea what she was waiting for. All she knew was that it was something to do with the stars and that it was a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ – at least, that’s what Twilight had said to Scootaloo’s parents.
She was just opening her mouth to ask when the first glimmer of blue appeared on the horizon. It started as little more than a faint glow, but within seconds a star-like entity had formed in its centre. Scootaloo watched in awe as the brilliant blue light rocketed silently across the sky and vanished into the distance, leaving a beautiful trail of sparkles in its wake.
And then it was gone.
“Wow, that was awesome!” Pinkie Pie commented loudly, her voice echoing over the summit.
“Wait, what?” said Scootaloo after a moment, looking to Twilight for confirmation. “Was that all of it? I mean, it was pretty, but…” She trailed off.
Twilight turned to her with a smile. “Of course not, we could’ve seen that from anywhere.” She nodded gently up to the sky. “Watch the stars,” she whispered.
Scootaloo did as she said, and once again saw that the stars hadn’t changed in the slightest. She frowned impatiently, wondering why this had to take so long. But it proved to be worth the wait…
Starting with the closest to the horizon, the stars began to fade, drawing a round of gasps from the group. One-by-one, they winked out of existence, as if a giant, black curtain was being drawn across the sky. After the last star had vanished, they were left in darkness for the briefest of moments before the true marvel began.
With some difficulty, Scootaloo could just about make out a fleck of light steadily growing in the distance. It was one of the stars returning, except it was the wrong colour. It was red. A second star faded back into view, this one purple. Another came back blue, another green – Scootaloo watched with wide eyes as every colour imaginable appeared, dotted seemingly at random across the night sky.
“Whoa, what is it?” she muttered breathlessly, unable to tear her eyes from the spectacle.
“Nopony knows,” whispered Twilight. “Once every fifty years, that comet passes over Equestria. They call it the ‘Celestial Prism’, because in its wake, all the stars shine brighter and change colour. It’s rumoured to be one of the most magical events in Equestrian history.”
Scootaloo let out an awed breath. She briefly tried to count how many stars there were, but it made her dizzy just thinking about it. They were so small, yet so beautiful. She wished she could fly up there and get a closer look, maybe even soar high enough to touch one of them. What did stars feel like?
On instinct, she glanced over at Rainbow Dash, whose wide eyes were still fixed on the sky – twinkling with mottled flecks of light. Rainbow Dash would know, Scootaloo was sure of it, but Rainbow looked so perfectly awesome right then, she couldn’t bring herself to break the silence and ask. Instead, Scootaloo turned her eyes back to the sky to enjoy the display while it lasted.
When, after hours that felt still not long enough, the stars finally began returning to their normal hue, Twilight Sparkle got to her hooves. Everypony else followed suit, except for Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, who were fast asleep atop the blanket. Scootaloo wondered how they could possibly sleep through something so amazing – the climb must have tired them out more than she thought.
In smiling silence, their respective sisters lifted them up and carried them into one of the tents, whilst Twilight Sparkle gave Scootaloo a look that wordlessly said ‘bed time’. With a conceding yawn, Scootaloo nodded and followed her sleeping friends into their tent.
Scootaloo rolled over in her sleeping bag. It was comfy enough, but she just wasn’t tired. Glancing over at her fellow Crusaders, she found that, sure enough, they were still sound asleep. She sighed and stared up at the canvas of the tent.
Her mind swam with questions that wouldn’t keep quiet – what was that mysterious comet? Why did it only come around every fifty years? What did stars feel like?
She shook her head and slithered out of her sleeping bag, feeling strangely determined to have one last look at the starry sky before bed. Her hooves felt a little wobbly and it was really dark inside the tent, but she eventually managed to find her way to the exit and poke her muzzle out into the night air. The coast was clear, so she pushed out under the flap.
A refreshing breeze blew past her, bringing an instinctive smile to her face. She was glancing around in search of the ledge on which they’d sat earlier when she caught sight of something in the corner of her eye. She did a double-take and stared at the shadowy figure at the edge of the summit.
As she took a few nervous steps closer, she began to make out various familiar features of the pony laying there. When it stretched out its wings, there was no doubt about it – it was Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo wasn’t quite sure whether she should head back inside the tent and pretend she was asleep. But when Rainbow re-folded her wings, Scootaloo felt her curiosity drawing her forwards.
“R-Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo called out quietly as she approached. Rainbow turned her head, but the darkness hid her expression. Scootaloo paused, half-expecting to be scolded and sent back to bed.
Rainbow Dash gave a short chuckle. “You come out to look at the stars too, huh squirt?” she asked gently. Scootaloo opened and closed her mouth a couple of times uncertainly before simply nodding. “Cool. I won’t tell Twilight,” said Rainbow, her voice smiling.
Scootaloo smiled back nervously and finished her approach as Rainbow watched her. Not wanting to invade Rainbow’s personal space, Scootaloo laid down on her front about a pony’s distance away and turned her head to the sky. It was a lovely view – typical of Rainbow Dash to find the most awesome seat in the house…
Scootaloo gave a start as something brushed up against her side. Turning quickly, she saw that Rainbow had sidled closer and bumped into her. Scootaloo opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out as she watched Rainbow look towards the horizon with her mouth tilted up in thought.
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Rainbow after a moment. “This spot’s better.”
Managing only a proud smile in response, Scootaloo followed Rainbow’s eyes to the stars. Though they were back to their usual colour, they still looked a little different than they did when beheld from ground level. They were brighter somehow – that was probably why Twilight Sparkle chose to bring them to the summit in the first place.
The questions came back to the forefront of Scootaloo’s mind but, again, she didn’t want to break the perfect silence by voicing them. Besides, who needed questions when you were watching the stars with Equestria’s most awesome pegasus?
Scootaloo wasn’t sure how long they lay there, gazing up at the twinkling lights in the sky. The ground got steadily comfier as time went on, and Scootaloo found herself resting her muzzle atop her hooves as she enjoyed the warmth against her one side and the relaxing rhythm of Rainbow’s breathing.
Her eyes were already half-lidded when she finally found herself speaking up. “Rainbow Dash?” she muttered quietly. “What do stars feel like?” Rainbow stayed quiet. Maybe she was thinking about it, or maybe she just didn’t hear, but Scootaloo couldn’t find the energy to ask again.
“I don’t know,” Rainbow admitted after what felt like forever. “I’ve… never actually flown high enough to touch one.”
“…But you could, right? If-If you wanted to?” asked Scootaloo, letting out a loud yawn.
Rainbow chuckled. “Why don’t we find out?”
“Huh?” grunted Scootaloo slowly. “Right now?”
“Nah, it’s your question, so we’ll have to wait until we can fly up there together,” said Rainbow matter-of-factly. “Tell you what, why don’t we make a promise?”
“A promise?” Scootaloo repeated.
“Yeah. How about, as soon as your wings are strong enough to fly, the two of us promise to go flying together – up there, with the stars?”
Scootaloo smiled contently and let her eyes fall shut. “That’d be awesome,” she muttered. “I promise, Rainbow Dash.”
“Me too,” said Rainbow softly.
Scootaloo felt something warm drape over her like a blanket. She didn’t bother opening her eyes to see what it was, she just turned her head to nestle her nose in it as she drifted off into the bliss of sleep.
The storm had really been something. Scootaloo’s mom had told her that clouds which blew over from the Everfree always were dangerous – that’s why they had to stay inside while the older pegasi like Rainbow Dash fought to keep the storm in check. It was over now, but the damage left in the storm’s wake was… something.
Scootaloo trotted down the still-damp street towards the schoolhouse, which was among the casualties of the last night’s violent weather. Like a dozen other buildings throughout town, it was in terrible shape – the windows were shattered, the roof had a gaping hole in it and the doors were sprawled on the ground before the entrance.
School would be cancelled until it was fixed – but somehow Scootaloo couldn’t bring herself to see that as ‘the bright side’. Normally she would be overjoyed to have an extra long weekend to play with her friends and crusade for her cutie mark. But today, with all the damage throughout town and all the grown-ups working to get it fixed, she just didn’t feel like it.
“Look out below!” came a voice from overhead as Scootaloo neared the schoolhouse. She looked up just in time to see a piano careening towards the ground just ahead. She jumped backwards and covered her head with her hooves for good measure as the piano smashed into the ground with a terrible, drawn-out screech of musical notes.
Peeking out from under her hooves, Scootaloo found herself unscathed, with the splintered piano strewn across the ground a few ponies’ distance ahead. She quickly straightened up and looked about for her attacker. A familiar voice drew her gaze upwards.
“Derpy, seriously, we don’t even need a piano!” said Rainbow Dash, throwing her hooves out in anger as she hovered above, staring down a grey-coated pegasus who simply shrugged and smiled in response.
“My bad!” said Derpy cheerily.
Rainbow Dash huffed and massaged her head with a hoof. “Look, I know you’re just trying to help,” she said levelly. “Why don’t you clean up your piano and then go help Applejack on the farm? She needs another old shed knocked down.”
Derpy beamed and saluted. “That is my speciality!” she said before clumsily looping around in midair and diving towards the ground. Scootaloo cringed as Derpy collapsed in a heap atop the wreckage of the piano. “I’m okay!” she reported after a moment.
Looking back up, Scootaloo saw Rainbow Dash shaking her head with a smile. When their eyes met, Rainbow raised her eyebrows and glided down to meet her. “You okay, squirt? I didn’t see you there,” she said as she touched down.
Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She paused for a moment to give the schoolhouse another look over. There were a few other ponies milling in and out of the building, some carrying out broken desks and floorboards whilst others brought new materials in to replace them. “That storm was pretty bad, huh?” Scootaloo said with a frown.
“Yeah, it was,” said Rainbow, following Scootaloo’s gaze. “But hey, Ponyville’s been through a lot worse. Trust me – we’ll have everything back to normal in no time.” She turned to smirk at Scootaloo. “Better make the most of your extra holiday, huh?”
Scootaloo stared at the schoolhouse for a moment longer. “Well, actually, I was kind of hoping I could help.” She looked up to meet Rainbow’s eyes. “You know – fixing the damage.”
Rainbow cocked her head to the side. “Help?” she repeated uncertainly. “Wouldn’t you rather go play with your friends or something?” Scootaloo shook her head and smiled expectantly. Rainbow blinked, then broke into a grin. “Well, it’s pretty awesome of you to offer, but this is kind of--” She cast a glance towards Derpy, who was tossing pieces of piano into an even more untidy pile than the one they were in already. “Dangerous,” she finished. “Leave this to the grown-ups, okay, squirt?”
Scootaloo’s smile fell into a frown. “But I--”
“Rainbow Dash, we can’t fit it all in!” came a shout from the schoolhouse.
Rainbow’s hoof met her face. “Do I have to do everything myself?” she muttered with a sigh. Flashing Scootaloo a smile, she unfolded her wings and prepared to take off. “Looks like duty calls, squirt. Go have fun, okay?” With that, she kicked off from the ground and soared over to rejoin those working on the repairs. “The entrance is the size of a barn door – how can you not fit one desk inside?!”
Scootaloo stared longingly after Rainbow as she went back to work. After a moment, she let out a conceding sigh and set off down the street.
A grumpy frown adorned Scootaloo’s face as she stared blankly at the cards in her hooves. The clubhouse in which she was sat was no worse for wear after the storm – Applebloom had built it to last. Or, more likely, the storm just hadn’t come this far afield.
“Scoots?”
Scootaloo blinked and looked up at her fellow Crusaders with a distinct feeling that she’d just missed something. “Huh?” grunted Scootaloo.
“Ya got any threes?” Applebloom repeated helpfully, her brow furrowed.
It took Scootaloo a moment longer to remember what they were actually doing. She glanced down at her cards and shook her head. “No, go fish,” she said tiredly.
Applebloom frowned at her. “You okay, Scoots? Do ya want to play something else?”
Scootaloo huffed and laid her cards down on the floor. “No, not really…” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged a questioning glance as Scootaloo got to her hooves and slowly strode over to the window. She rested her muzzle on the frame and gazed idly out over Sweet Apple Acres. Somewhere in the distance, Rainbow Dash was darting about – doing everything she could to fix up town…
“What’s got you all downy-dumps?” asked Sweetie Belle, coming up alongside her.
“Oh, nothing,” sighed Scootaloo. “It’s just… everypony else is back in town, helping put it back together.”
“…Yeah?” said Sweetie Belle slowly, prompting Scootaloo to continue.
Scootaloo turned to look at her. “Doesn’t it feel a little strange to be sitting here playing when everypony else is working so hard? I mean, wouldn’t you rather be out there – helping your sister?”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened briefly in comprehension, then she glanced away. “Well, I wanted to help Rarity clean up around town, but she said--”
“Let me guess,” Scootaloo broke in. “… ‘Leave it to the grown-ups?’”
“Pretty much,” said Sweetie Belle with a slow nod.
Applebloom stepped forwards. “Ah asked Applejack if she wanted any help fixin’ up the barn, but she said Ah shouldn’t worry about it.”
Scootaloo turned to her with a frown. “But don’t you want to help her?”
“Well, sure!” said Applebloom firmly. “But we ain’t grown-ups… what can we do?”
Scootaloo struggled to form an answer. “I-I don’t know… something!” she said with a shrug. Huffing again, she turned to look out of the window. “All I know is that I want to help and Rainbow Dash doesn’t think I can because I’m a ‘squirt’.”
“Aw, Scoots…” Applebloom sighed in sympathy. For a moment, the three of them were silent, before Applebloom laid a hoof on Scootaloo’s back. “Hey, come on – Ah bet, between us, we can help out at least as much as one grown-up.”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle chimed in, bouncing forwards and leaning in front of Scootaloo with a smile. “Maybe we’ll even get our cutie marks if we try out a bunch of different jobs!”
Scootaloo felt her frown shifting up into a smile in the face of her friends’ enthusiasm. They always knew how to cheer her up… She turned to beam at each of them in turn. “Thanks guys – you’re the best.”
“You bet we are!” said Applebloom cheerily. Turning on the spot to face the door, she stood suddenly upright and adopted a serious expression. “Alright, Crusaders – that’s enough mopin’ around!” she said, using her best military voice. “The mission is to clean up Ponyville and get our cutie marks. Everypony got that? Good – Move out!”
Scootaloo giggled and saluted playfully. “Yes, ma’am, Commander!”
“You know, suddenly I’m having second thoughts about this…” said Sweetie Belle as the Crusaders stood before the rickety old shed, flanked on all sides by the fruit-filled trees of Sweet Apple Acres orchard.
“Aw, come on, Sweetie Belle,” said Scootaloo, trotting up to the shed and poking it with a hoof. “Rainbow Dash said that Applejack wants this knocked down, right Applebloom?”
“Uh huh!” Applebloom grunted with a firm nod.
Satisfied, Scootaloo strode over to peek through one of the dusty windows. “And I don’t think it’s going to be very hard – this thing looks like it was falling down a long time before the storm hit. It’s a good start.”
“Yeah, but--”
“We could get our cutie marks in demolitions,” sang Scootaloo charmingly. Sweetie Belle closed her mouth and frowned in thought for a moment.
“I… guess that could be kind of fun,” she said slowly. “We are pretty good at destroying stuff…”
Scootaloo smiled and nodded. “Exactly – we do this kind of thing every day! What could possibly go wrong?”
Sweetie Belle seemed to consider it for a moment longer, then she looked up at Scootaloo and smiled. “Okay, where do we start?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, only to close it again a moment later. She hadn’t really thought about that yet – she assumed it would just come naturally to them when they arrived. Biting her lip in thought, she turned to regard the shed again. The whole thing looked pretty flimsy, but there weren’t any obvious weak points.
“Uh,” Scootaloo began slowly. She looked to Applebloom for help, but received only a shrug in response “Maybe we should take a look inside first?” she guessed. “There might be some tools or… instructions or something.”
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, then nodded in unison. Content with the start of her ‘plan’, Scootaloo trotted up to the ragged, wooden door and nudged it open with her muzzle. She cringed at the creaking of the ancient hinges as the door swung slowly inwards, letting the sunlight creep its way inside.
She took a few steps into the shed and glanced about. Even though it looked smaller from the inside, it was still a pretty big shed. It was empty except for the flat, dusty workbenches built into the walls and a single, tall stack of ply wood propped up against one of said workbenches.
As she made her way further inside, she heard the other Crusaders’ hoofsteps behind her. They looked around the place together – down the sides of benches, inside drawers, even under loose floorboards.
“We ain’t really lookin’ for a ‘How to demolish your shed’ manual, are we?” asked Applebloom after a while.
Scootaloo pulled her nose out from under a floorboard and brushed the dust off it. “I don’t know… anything that could help us out.” She glanced around and started towards a workbench she hadn’t looked under yet. “Maybe a hammer or—whoa!” Her hoof got caught in the loose floorboard and she tripped – rolling across the floor and hitting into something hard with an “Oof!”
She shook her head to clear it and blinked a few times before figuring out that she was on her back. A pair of loud gasps told her that something was wrong and – looking up at the stack of ply wood towering over her – her fears were confirmed. Having been knocked off balance when Scootaloo struck it, the heavy stack was tipping slowly towards her.
Scootaloo rolled out of its path just as it collapsed – its top end striking one wall of the shed, accompanied by a terrible cracking sound. As her surroundings started to sway eerily, Scootaloo suddenly felt a little light-headed. “Uh oh,” was hardly an appropriate exclamation for the situation at hoof, but that was all she could manage as she saw the walls tipping towards her.
“Scoots!” yelled Applebloom in alarm. Turning, Scootaloo saw her two friends dashing towards her from near the door. A moment later, she dropped to the floor and covered her head with her hooves as wood started crashing down around her.
For a long moment, Scootaloo couldn’t bear to open her eyes. When at last she did, she was greeted by nothing but darkness. She tried to get up, but found that she was trapped – boxed in on all sides by what had to be the masses of wood that made up the shed. The air was thick with dust, prompting a few involuntary coughs.
“A-Applebloom?” she choked. “Sweetie Belle? Are you two o-okay?”
“Scootaloo!” came Sweetie Belle’s desperate voice in response. “Scootaloo, are you alright?!”
Scootaloo moved each of her limbs in turn to make sure, then sighed in relief and called back. “Yeah, I’m fine!” she shouted. “What about you two?”
“We’re outside!” said Applebloom. “Where are you? Can ya see a way out?”
“I c-can’t see anything… I’m stuck!” Scootaloo coughed again.
“Don’t worry, Scoots! We’ll get ya out of there!” called Applebloom. “Sweetie Belle, you stay here an’ start digging her out, Ah’m going to go get Applejack!”
Scootaloo wasn’t sure how long she lay there, under the dusty wreckage – in the dark with only Sweetie Belle’s awesome voice and the sound of shifting wood to keep her company. She had a lot of time to think about how much trouble she was going to get into for this – but even if it meant getting grounded for the rest of her life, she still wanted her mom to show up and dig her out.
The scraping of wood stopped for a moment and Scootaloo heard voices above her. “Mommy?” she called out hopefully, lifting up her head and banging it on the low roof.
A pair of quiet hoofsteps resounded through the wood. “Scootaloo?” came the familiar voice of Rainbow Dash, making Scootaloo’s eyes go wide. “Don’t worry, squirt. AJ and I are going to get you out of there, just don’t move!”
Scootaloo closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. The wood above her started shifting again, and she did as she was told – laying as still as she could.
“So what happened, squirt?” came Rainbow’s voice during a short break in the noise. “You should know better than to play in broken down old sheds.”
“Rainbow Dash!” began Applejack in a scolding voice. “This ain’t the time for--” She quickly went silent, as if hushed.
Scootaloo bit her lip as the silence dragged on. “We weren’t playing, we-- I mean, I heard you telling Derpy that Applejack needed the shed taken down and…” She paused and gulped. “And I thought that we could get our cutie marks in…” She broke off and shook her head. “I just wanted to help,” she huffed finally.
No reply other than the continued scraping of wood came back to her. It wasn’t all that long before the first fleck of sunlight crept in through a gap as one of the wooden planks were pulled out from overhead – and soon, enough of the wreckage had been moved for Scootaloo to look up and see Rainbow Dash hovering overhead, smiling with a hoof extended towards her.
Scootaloo gulped again and took it, too ashamed to meet Rainbow’s eyes. She was lifted up into the sunlight and managed to set her back hooves down on top of the wood pile that had once been Applejack’s shed. It might have looked a state before, but now the mess was something else entirely.
As soon as her hooves had guided her down onto the grass, she felt a pair of hooves pull her into a hug.
“S-Sweetie Belle, I’m fine!” she said, flushing and trying to pull herself free as she heard Rainbow giggling behind her. Sweetie Belle didn’t let go, so Scootaloo rolled her eyes in a vain attempt to look cool and patted her on the back. When Sweetie Belle finally stepped back, Scootaloo saw that there was a tear rolling down her cheek.
“I’m so sorry, Scoots – we tried to get to you but--”
Sweetie Belle was silenced by Applejack’s hoof on her withers. “Now don’t you fret none, young filly – none of this was your fault,” she said comfortingly. “Now, come on, let’s get you back to your parents. You too, Scootaloo,” she added with a smile.
The two fillies nodded and followed Applejack as she set off back towards Ponyville. They hadn’t gone far when Rainbow Dash called over to them. “Hey, squirt – come talk to me a sec?”
Applejack stopped in her tracks and furrowed a brow at Rainbow, who was standing at the edge of the wrecked wood pile with a casual smile on her face. Scootaloo glanced quickly between the three of them and, receiving only a shrug from Sweetie Belle in response, turned to trot over to Rainbow – still unable to look her in the eye…
“Go on, say it,” Scootaloo muttered sadly.
“Say what, squirt?” asked Rainbow.
“Say ‘I told you so’ – you did tell me to ‘leave it to the grown-ups’, after all…”
“Hey!” said Rainbow, as if offended. She put a hoof on Scootaloo’s chin and lifted it up until she was forced to look her in the eye. “Would I do a thing like that?” she asked, her half-frown twisting into a smile as she did. Scootaloo paused a moment, then shook her head lightly. Satisfied, Rainbow continued. “I just wanted to ask – what’s with the whole ‘knocking down a shed’ thing?”
Scootaloo frowned and turned her eyes downwards, though she kept her face towards Rainbow. “I know it was a silly idea, but I just wanted to help out and…” She paused and took a few breaths, then finally managed to meet Rainbow’s eye. “And I wanted you to see that I’m big enough to help – I’m not just a squirt.”
Rainbow opened her mouth, but only a huff came out. She lifted a hoof to massage her forehead. “Hey, I was kind of rushed off my hooves this morning – maybe I said something stupid, I don’t know…” She met Scootaloo’s gaze again, but this time it was with a sad frown. “You don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“That’s not true!” Scootaloo retorted before she could stop herself. “You think I’m just a kid – that I can’t take care of myself--”
“Okay, now I know I never said that,” said Rainbow, looking uncharacteristically serious. It was kind of unnerving for Scootaloo to see her like that, and once again she found herself breaking eye contact.
“But you always call me squirt…” she muttered simply. Rainbow went silent. When Scootaloo finally looked up again, she saw Rainbow staring sideways at the ground, a thoughtful frown adorning her face. After a while, Scootaloo started to wonder whether she’d hurt Rainbow’s feelings. “I’m--”
“Hold on a sec,” interrupted Rainbow Dash quietly. She looked over at Applejack and smiled faintly. “Uh, AJ – you mind giving us a minute?”
Applejack furrowed her brow again, but she was smirking as well this time. “Sure thing, RD. C’mon, Sweetie Belle, we’ll go wait over there.”
Rainbow Dash waited until Applejack and Sweetie Belle had disappeared into the orchard before turning back to Scootaloo with a frown. “Look, Scootaloo,” she began slowly. “I’m really sorry. If I’d known you felt that way, I’d never have kept calling you ‘squirt’. It’s just… it’s always been kind of special to me, y’know? I never thought that it could mean something bad to someone else…”
Scootaloo furrowed her brow. “Special?” she repeated in question.
After pausing to make sure that Applejack was definitely out of earshot, Rainbow nodded and a small smile crept onto her lips. Leaning down, she lowered her voice. “Yeah – when I was a filly back in Cloudsdale, ‘squirt’ is what the coolest pegasus in Equestria always used to call me. Well, ‘coolest next to me’, at least,” she added with a smirk.
Scootaloo’s eyes went wide. Who could possibly be as cool as Rainbow Dash? Was that even possible? Apparently, her face gave away her thoughts, because Rainbow smiled and leant a little closer to answer her unspoken questions.
“It was my mom,” Rainbow said simply.
“Your--” began Scootaloo breathlessly, the weight of the words taking a moment to sink in.
“Yeah,” said Rainbow, standing upright again. “And I just-- y’know, I thought-- Uh…” She broke off and looked up towards the sky. Maybe it was just the light, but Scootaloo could swear that she saw a hint of red creeping onto Rainbow’s cheeks. After a few moments of silence, Rainbow cleared her throat and met Scootaloo’s eyes with a smile and a shrug. “Yeah, you know.”
Scootaloo suddenly felt both warm and a little queasy at the same time. She was sure that her own face must have been glowing red right then. “I… didn’t know,” she muttered lamely.
“Yeah, well, there’s my excuse,” said Rainbow, glancing to the side. “So, uh, I guess that’s all I wanted to say. I’ve got to get back to the schoolhouse, Applejack will take you home, okay?”
Scootaloo nodded and summoned a weak smile to her lips before turning on the spot and walking slowly off after Applejack, silently pondering the conversation she’d just had.
The following morning, Scootaloo trotted through the town square with a pair of saddlebags across her back and an honest smile on her face. She came to a stop at the base of the Town Hall’s stage and turned her head upwards to wave at the pegasi hovering overhead.
A white coated mare – whose name escaped Scootaloo – glided down and offered a smile of her own. “Thanks, Scootaloo!” she chirped before grasping the saddlebags in her mouth and taking to the air again – carrying them up to the top of a scaffold attached to the Hall’s roof.
“Hey, Scoots! Working hard?” came Rainbow’s voice. Spinning excitedly in place, Scootaloo saw Equestria’s joint-coolest pegasus smiling right back at her.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” she greeted cheerily. “I sure am! That makes seven bags of nails, two sets of hammers and one basket of muffins.” A proud grin broke out on her face. “Thanks for letting me help.”
“No worries, squ-- Ahem, Scootaloo,” she said, cringing as she almost slipped up. She quickly composed herself and went on. “Sorry to hear you got grounded…”
Scootaloo nodded slowly and frowned a little. “Yeah,” she muttered. “I guess I had it coming though.”
Rainbow smiled again. “But hey, pretty cool of your mom to still let you come out and help, right?”
Scootaloo looked up and smiled back. “Yeah – moms are cool,” she said wisely.
Rainbow chuckled in response. “I hear that!” she agreed. The two of them turned their heads towards the sound of wood clattering to their sides – a couple of earth ponies had just dropped a delivery of planks and were struggling to pick it back up. Rainbow gave a smiling sigh. “Guess I’d better get back to it. Catch you later, Scoots!”
As Rainbow turned on the spot and started trotting away, the smile fell from Scootaloo’s face. There was something she still needed to say. “Wait, Rainbow Dash?” she said, hopping forwards abruptly.
“Yeah?” said Rainbow, looking back.
“…You can still call me ‘squirt’,” she said with a nervous half-smile. “I-If you want, that is. I guess it’s a pretty cool nickname after all.”
Rainbow’s lips broke into a wide smile and she flapped her wings happily. “You got it, squirt.”
The Ponyville Ball – the biggest, most awesome party of the year. The town hall was going to be practically packed with ponies, all hanging out with friends or dancing and helping themselves to all the wonderful treats cooked up specially for the event. Everypony who was anypony was going to be there.
And Scootaloo couldn’t go.
She stared out of her bedroom window and across the snow-laden streets of Ponyville with a longing frown. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were probably out there somewhere, in their winter gear, playing and laughing as they made their way to the party. What Scootaloo wouldn’t have given to join them…
She caught herself scratching at the spots on her foreleg again and stomped the floor with a huff. “Dumb pony pox,” she pouted sadly. Turning away from the window, she slouched over to her bed, flopped down upon it and breathed a heavy sigh. She buried her muzzle in her pillow and shut her eyes tight, but it did no good – it seemed that the harder she tried not to think about how much fun the Ball would be, the harder it was to not think about it.
Hearing the door click open behind her, she lifted her head up off the pillow and stared idly at the headboard. “Mom,” she began thoughtfully. “You remember that one time when I was little, and you said--”
“Let me stop you there, squirt,” came the familiar voice of Rainbow Dash. Caught off guard, Scootaloo rolled over and looked towards the door, where Rainbow Dash stood smirking back at her with a pair of saddlebags strapped across her back.
“Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed Scootaloo joyfully, surging forwards to lean over the edge of her bed. “What are you doing here? I thought everypony was at the Ball!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “The Ponyville Ball? As in dancing, flowers and all other kinds of mushy stuff? Yeah, that’s not really my style,” she said with a slight chuckle. “Besides, I couldn’t have fun knowing that my top filly’s stuck in bed with nothing to do!”
Scootaloo smiled a little at that, then her eyes went wide as something sprang to mind. “Oh, you can’t come in!” she said suddenly, sliding backwards on the bed. “Mom said that Pony Pox are contah—contan—uh…” She struggled to remember the exact word, but she knew that it was bad.
“Don’t worry, squirt,” chuckled Rainbow, confidently striding across the room towards her. “I’ve already had Pony Pox – can’t get it twice.”
“Oh,” said Scootaloo, relaxing as Rainbow came to a stop at her bedside. “Really? When did you have Pony Pox?”
“When I was about your age,” said Rainbow casually, giving a little smile at the memory. “I got to bunk off a whole week of flight school and hang around in bed. Kind of unlucky for you to get it on a holiday…”
“Yeah, unlucky,” Scootaloo agreed with a solemn nod. “So, what did you do?”
“Hmm?” grunted Rainbow in question.
“Well you must have been bored, right?” said Scootaloo. “I mean, since you couldn’t go outside or hang out with your friends or… fly…” She trailed off.
“Oh yeah!” said Rainbow, her face lighting up in understanding. “That’s actually why I’m here.” She shrugged her saddlebags onto the bed and turned to open one side with her teeth. Scootaloo watched in interest as Rainbow pulled a small board game box from her bag and placed it on the bed.
“Cloud battle?” Scootaloo read aloud.
“My mom bought me this to help pass the time when I was stuck in bed,” said Rainbow helpfully. “Since then, it’s been my favourite board game. C’mon, I’ll show you how to play.”
Scootaloo’s face lit up. Maybe this day wasn’t going to be so boring after all…
About half an hour later, Rainbow Dash threw up her hooves in triumph. “Aw yeah! I win again!”
Scootaloo beat her hoof against the pillow. “Oh come on! That’s four games in a row!” she pouted. In retrospect, she should have known better than to think she would have a chance of beating Rainbow Dash at her favourite board game. Still, she didn’t expect to be beaten quite this badly.
Rainbow Dash, obviously noticing the look on Scootaloo’s face, frowned at her. “Huh, that’s weird,” she said thoughtfully. “You’re not smiling? I must be doing this wrong… Hold on, let me check the instructions.”
As Rainbow flipped open the book, Scootaloo quickly corrected herself and forced a smile. “No, no – it’s okay. I’m having fun, really!” she tried desperately, not wanting to hurt Rainbow’s feelings. “Um, how about best of nine?”
Rainbow scanned the contents page for a few seconds before looking back up at Scootaloo with a thoughtful half-smile. “Y’know, why don’t we do something else instead?”
“Well--” Rainbow leant over to rifle around in her saddlebags again. “I did have a backup plan, in case you weren’t into board games. Where is it?” she muttered, her voice muffled. A moment later, she gave a triumphant “Aha!” and pulled her nose out of the bag, revealing a green, hardback book that she held in her teeth. As she set it down on the bed, Scootaloo leaned forwards to get a better look.
“Daring Do and The Frozen Temple,” Scootaloo read aloud. “A storybook?”
“The first in the series,” Rainbow confirmed with a smile and a nod. “It’s still one of my favourites.”
Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow in fascination. “I didn’t know you liked reading!”
Rainbow gave a short chuckle. “Yeah, it’s a long story. But hey, do you want to hear that boring stuff, or do you want to read some Daring Do with me?”
Honestly, Scootaloo would have taken a story about Rainbow Dash over a normal storybook any day of the week. She guessed that Rainbow hadn’t expected an answer though, because she had already shifted over to sit at the head of the bed, beside Scootaloo, and opened the book in front of them.
Rainbow flashed Scootaloo a smile, which she happily returned. Together, they looked down at the first page and, after clearing her throat, Rainbow started to read. “The world seemed to swim in front of Daring’s eyes as she lifted her head out of the snow. The icy wind bit at her face, sending shivers all through her body. Never before had she awoken in so cold a place as this…”
Before they had even finished the first few pages, Scootaloo was hooked. Whether it was the book or Rainbow’s awesome reading voice, she didn’t know, but something told her that she had to find out what happened next – a feeling that showed no signs of diminishing as time went on.
Soon, she had forgotten all about the Ball and the Pony Pox – finding herself completely absorbed in Rainbow’s storytelling. They followed Daring Do as she and her guide ascended the treacherous slopes of the Crystal Mountains – pursued by her cruel nemesis, Ahuizotl and his vicious predators. When, at last, Daring arrived at the so-called ‘Frozen Temple’, carrying her injured guide atop her back, she hurried inside to get out of the icy wind…
“Daring’s legs felt like lead beneath her – every step got that much harder than the last. Though she would never admit it, she knew she couldn’t keep it up for much longer.
“Hearing Snowy Peak give a muffled groan from atop her back, Daring bit her lip and came to a stop. It was no use – Daring couldn’t carry her any further. But she couldn’t just go on without her either – Ahuizotl would find Snowy if Daring left her there. When she stopped to think about it, there was really only one choice…
“She set Snowy down gently against the closest wall of white stone. Snowy looked up at her with questioning, half-lidded eyes. ‘Daring?’ she mumbled tiredly, her voice shivering as much as her body.
“…‘Don’t worry Snowy,’ said Daring, looking firmly into her eyes. ‘I promised that we’d see the inside of this temple together, remember? I’m going to keep that promise.’ She turned her gaze to towards the archway marking the exit, beyond which the blizzard still blew as fiercely as ever. ‘…I’m just going to need a little help.’
“With that, Daring turned away from Snowy and strode across the corridor, towards the great snowstorm outside. Her hoofsteps against the stone seemed to echo around her, as if trying to warn her that this was a bad idea, but she knew that she didn’t really have a choice. Soon, said hoofsteps were muffled by the snow as Daring stepped out into the biting cold again.
“She trudged through the snow to the top of a small hill and turned her head to the wind. ‘Ahuizotl!’ she yelled, her voice resounding what felt like a dozen times. She reared up and threw out her hooves. ‘I’m here!’ she cried. ‘It’s time we talked…’”
“What?!” exclaimed Scootaloo, gawping at Rainbow. “The chapter can’t end there – it was just getting to the good part!”
“Take it easy, squirt,” Rainbow chuckled, flipping to the next page. “The next chapter isn’t going anywhere.” Scootaloo flushed a little and offered a sheepish smile – she was getting a little more absorbed into the story than she thought.
Just as Rainbow opened her mouth to continue reading, the door burst open and a pair of fillies fell over the threshold in a heap. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, both looking equally dazed, turned slowly to look up at Scootaloo.
“Uh, evenin’!” said Applebloom with an awkward grin on her face.
“We weren’t listening!” Sweetie Belle added helpfully. Applebloom shot her a scolding glare.
“Guys!” exclaimed Scootaloo, her eyes wide. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were at the party.”
Applebloom disentangled herself from Sweetie Belle and stepped forwards. “We were,” she confirmed. “And it was kind of fun, but…”
Sweetie Belle, still on the floor, rolled onto her front and looked up at Scootaloo with a frown. “It wasn’t a whole lot of fun without you, Scoots,” she finished. “So we asked if we could come see you instead.”
“Really?” said Scootaloo, her face lighting up. “But… you guys know you could get sick too, right?”
“Aw, shucks, Scoots – we don’t care ‘bout that,” Applebloom reported with a smile. “Just like Sweetie Belle said – it ain’t a whole lot of fun playin’ without ya.”
Scootaloo gave Applebloom and Sweetie Belle a warm smile – they really were the most awesome friends ever. She saw that Rainbow was doing the same, even as she closed the storybook and shoved it into her saddlebags.
“Well, looks like the cavalry’s arrived,” said Rainbow, sliding off of the bed to land on her hooves.
“Wait, where you are you going?” asked Scootaloo, turning to frown at her in question. “We didn’t finish the story!”
Rainbow threw her a smile. “It’ll still be here tomorrow, squirt,” she said casually. “But for now you’ve got friends to hang with. Aaand, four’s a crowd, so I’m going to split.”
“Oh…” said Scootaloo, pouting. After a moment, she looked up hopefully. “But, you’ll be back tomorrow?”
“Of course!” said Rainbow, tossing the saddlebags into the air and catching them across her back. “I would never miss a reading date – just ask Twilight.”
Scootaloo felt herself smiling again. “Oh, okay!” she said, the cheer returning to her voice. “Tomorrow then!”
Rainbow simply nodded and started towards the open door. “Catch you later, girls,” she called back as she crossed the threshold, receiving a chorus of goodbyes in response. As the door clicked shut, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle approached the bed.
“So, what d’you want to do?” asked Applebloom, looking between her two fellow Crusaders.
“Hey, what’s that?” said Sweetie Belle, thrusting a hoof towards the foot of the bed. Turning to look, Scootaloo saw that Rainbow Dash had left her board game there. She had just opened her mouth to call Rainbow back when an idea struck her.
“That,” she said. “Is ‘Cloud Battle’.”
“Cloud Battle?” Applebloom repeated.
“Sounds scary,” commented Sweetie Belle, regarding the game board uncertainly.
“Nah, it’s just a board game. Here, let me show you how to play. I’ll go easy on you…”
Half an hour and three consecutive wins later, Scootaloo was fast beginning to see why Rainbow Dash liked this game so much.
Episode Five: What We Leave Behind - [Slice Of Life]
Scootaloo trotted down the dimly lit street as quietly as she could. The Sun hadn't come up enough for her to see properly yet, so she found herself tripping over her hooves more than once. Casting a glance back to the saddlebags swinging at her sides, she idly hoped that she'd packed enough for the trip.
The daunting stature of the train station came into view and Scootaloo narrowed her eyes in determination. Determination which took her all the way up to the double-doors before it decided to up and leave her. She held her hoof just a few inches away from the door as butterflies began to flutter around inside her stomach. But she knew that she couldn't stop now – she'd already come this far, hadn't she?
Gulping down her fears, Scootaloo pushed into the building. The glare of the light made her cover her eyes for a moment, but when she looked up she found the lobby mostly deserted. Other than the unicorn couple cuddled up on a bench at the opposite end of the room, there was only Scootaloo and the earth pony stallion behind the ticket booth, who was idly fiddling with some papers.
She started slowly towards him. Her every hoofstep seemed to echo around the deserted room. Mercifully, nopony looked up to watch Scootaloo – which was just as well because she didn't think she could handle even one set of eyes watching her. Her heart beat ever faster against her chest as she drew up to the ticket booth.
“E-Excuse me,” she muttered. The stallion didn't seem to notice her, which she'd been half-hoping that he wouldn't. She found herself thinking that it wasn't too late to turn around and go home – if she went back to bed now, nopony would ever know she sneaked out in the first place.
With a shake of her head to dismiss the thought, she looked up at the ticket stallion and cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she said a little more loudly. The stallion turned away from his papers to meet Scootaloo's gaze with a look of surprise.
“Oh, pardon me young filly! I didn't see you there,” he said with a gentle smile. “Are you lost?”
“N-no,” said Scootaloo, shaking her head definitively. “I, um... One ticket to Manehattan please.”
The stallion furrowed his brow. “Manehattan?” he repeated quizzically. “You want to board the train?” Scootaloo gulped and nodded a couple of times.
“Yeah. H-How much is a ticket?” she asked, feeling her voice starting to quiver in her throat.
“Um, it's one bit for children, but... you're not travelling alone, are you?” he asked, sounding a little worried.
With a quick nod, Scootaloo shrugged off her saddlebags and turned to rifle around in one of them for her pouch of bits. It was a small comfort that the ride was so cheap – as long as the second part of her journey was the same, she wouldn't find herself stranded in Manehattan.
When she found her pouch, she pulled out a bit and stretched up to put it on the counter. The stallion eyed it uncertainly, biting his lip as he did. “Um, I'm not sure I should take this...”
“I-It's okay,” said Scootaloo with a very forced smile. “I've got lots left.”
The stallion shook his head. “No, no, I mean... Does your mommy know you're here? I'm not sure I should be letting a filly on the train to Manehattan all by herself...”
Scootaloo's heart sank. If she told the truth, there was no way he'd let her on board. But it wasn't right to lie, was it? She might get the ticket stallion in trouble... or she might get herself in trouble. She just stood there, frowning to one side and trying to come up with an answer.
The echoing of hoofsteps came from behind her and she turned her head slowly, expecting to see her mom stomping towards her with a disappointed look on her face. The last thing she thought she'd see was Rainbow Dash, striding across the room with a totally unreadable expression. Scootaloo gawped in fear and awe, even though Rainbow wouldn't meet her eyes. What would Rainbow think if she saw Scootaloo here? Would she repeat the ticket master's question? If she did, then it was over – Scootaloo knew she could never lie to Rainbow Dash...
As Rainbow drew up to the booth, she met the eyes of the ticket stallion. “Me too,” she said simply, unfurling a wing and dropping two bits onto the counter.
“Oh!” cried the ticket stallion, eyes widening in surprise and understanding. “O-Of course, Miss Rainbow Dash! Right away!” He scooped the bits over the counter and into a pot before reaching down to retrieve a pair of tickets. “H-Here you go! Is there anything else I can get you?”
“Nah, we're good. Right, squirt?” said Rainbow, turning to smile confidently at Scootaloo, as she always did. Scootaloo wasn't quite sure how to respond, so she just gave an uncertain nod.
“O-Okay, enjoy the ride!” said the stallion with a nervous grin. “The Manehattan train boards in a few minutes.”
Rainbow Dash gave him a quick smile before grabbing her ticket and turning to head across the lobby, towards the arched door leading to the platform. Scootaloo stood in silence for a moment, still trying to process what had just happened. She only came back to her senses when Rainbow looked back at her from the doorway, at which point Scootaloo shoved the ticket inside her saddlebags, slung them over her back and quickly cantered after Rainbow.
She wanted to say something – to ask Rainbow why she was helping, or if that was even what she was doing – but she couldn't bring herself to do it. When she caught up with Rainbow, she fell into step and together they walked out onto the platform.
A long, businesslike passenger train was just pulling into the station, rattling the wooden platform beneath Scootaloo's hooves. A pair of engineers dashed over as the train came to a halt and climbed into the car at the back, presumably checking to see that the train was in fit shape for its next trip.
Rainbow trotted over to a bench beside the lobby wall and hopped up onto it, crouching down to settle in and rest her eyes while she waited. Scootaloo followed her up to the bench but didn't climb up next to her, she just stared in question.
“So, Manehattan huh, squirt?” said Rainbow, eyes still closed. Scootaloo's gaze fell to the floor nervously. When she didn't answer, Rainbow went on. “You hoping to make it big in the big city or somethin'?”
“...No,” said Scootaloo after a moment. “I'm just stopping there before I go to--” She broke off. “--Where I'm going,” she finished lamely. Rainbow grunted and gave a vague nod in confirmation, though Scootaloo suspected that she wouldn't be content to settle for that answer.
They waited in silence for a while, as a small group of passengers departed the train and made their way into Ponyville with lazy, early morning smiles on their faces. They didn't pay any mind to Scootaloo as they passed, though she watched them idly – wondering if any of them were in similar situations to herself. But she doubted it...
“Does your mom know where you're going?” asked Rainbow.
Scootaloo hesitated before hanging her head shamefully. “No.”
“Does she even know you've left?”
Scootaloo shook her head. Of course, she would've liked to say goodbye to her mom, but she knew that, if she had, her mom would never have let her go. She hoped that the note she'd left would be enough for her mom to know that she was safe...
Rainbow said nothing else, so the two of them fell into silence again. Soon, there came a whistle from the head of the train. “Now boarding for Manehattan!” yelled a stallion outside the door from which the other passengers had left.
Rainbow cracked an eye open, looking first to the stallion, and then to Scootaloo in a silent question. Scootaloo gave a slow nod before starting towards the train, hearing Rainbow's hooves clop down onto the platform behind her. Together, they made their way past the smiling stallion and into one of the train's passenger cars.
The car was empty except for the two of them – so Scootaloo settled herself onto a firm couch inside one of the compartments and Rainbow took the seat opposite her. Scootaloo eyed her curiously. Rainbow looked back with a nonchalant smile.
“...Aren't you here to take me back home?” Scootaloo found herself asking.
“Who, me?” said Rainbow, as if Scootaloo could have meant anypony else. “Nah, I've got some stuff to take care of in Manehattan too. Just thought we could go together.”
The lie was obvious, even to Scootaloo, though Rainbow clearly didn't put much effort into it. Lying wasn't exactly a very nice skill to practice anyway...
“So, you're not going to tell me how dangerous it is to go alone? You're just going to go with me to Manehattan?” said Scootaloo sceptically.
“Why not?” said Rainbow with a shrug as she turned to look idly out of the window. “Besides, it's not like I'm the one to tell you not to do something because it's dangerous,” she added with a little smirk.
Scootaloo wanted to chuckle at the joke, but it didn't really feel right. She looked down at the table and sat quietly while she waited. It seemed like forever before the train finally whistled again and jerked forwards, signalling the start of their journey. She looked to the window, outside of which the platform was slowly sliding away... being left behind – Ponyville along with it.
Ponyville... Scootaloo knew that she would leave someday, but she never thought that it would be like this. On the other hoof, she never thought that it would be with Rainbow Dash either. Though they wouldn't be staying together for very long, it was still a little comforting to know that she wasn't alone yet.
“You going to tell me where you're headed?” said Rainbow Dash, snapping Scootaloo back to reality.
“...Cloudsdale,” said Scootaloo reluctantly. “To join flight camp.”
“Huh,” grunted Rainbow, sounding mildly surprised. She opened her eyes and cocked her head at Scootaloo. “Does that mean your wings are working? How'd I miss that?”
Scootaloo hung her head. “No,” she admitted. “But there has to be somepony there who can teach me!”
Rainbow gave a little chuckle. “Uh, and how're you planning on getting up there without your wings?” She paused for a moment in thought, then nodded. “Ah, I get it – you're going to Manehattan so you can catch a balloon, right?”
Scootaloo gave a grunt and a nod. It had seemed like a good plan at the time – leave before dawn, arrive in Manehattan for midday, then catch a balloon and get a room in Cloudsdale before it got dark. Nopony was supposed to be the wiser to her plan – not even Applebloom and Sweetie Belle – but she saw little point in keeping the whole thing from Rainbow Dash now.
“I just want to learn to fly,” she said, looking up at Rainbow pleadingly. “Then I can come straight back to Ponyville!”
Rainbow frowned and turned to look out of the window. “You know it can take a long time to learn, don't you, squirt?” she said solemnly. “Even if there's somepony up there who knows what's up with your wings – if there even is anything up with them – it could be years before you finally nail it.”
Scootaloo said nothing. She'd been telling herself that it would be a quick fix – weeks or months at the most – but she knew that that was just a fleeting hope. Years before she saw Ponyville again. Before she saw her friends again. Before she saw her mom again...
“You know,” said Rainbow, turning to her with a smile. “I totally respect that.”
“W-What?” Scootaloo stammered in surprise.
Rainbow nodded reassuringly. “Yeah – chasing your dreams and all that. It's cool – I did the same thing when I was your age.”
“Really?” said Scootaloo, leaning forwards all of a sudden. “But... I thought you grew up in Cloudsdale...”
“Uh huh,” said Rainbow with another nod. “And I was in flight camp since I was pretty young – top of my class!” she added with a proud smirk that quickly wavered. “Well, sort of.”
“But then where did you run away to?” Scootaloo asked. As the words left her lips, she felt a little lurch in her stomach, but she managed to shake it off quickly enough.
“The Skyhaven Academy for Gifted Fliers,” Rainbow recited with a little smile. “AKA – fast track to joining the Wonderbolts.”
“Wow,” breathed Scootaloo in awe. “Skyhaven, really?”
Rainbow chuckled. “Of course! This is me we're talking about, remember?” she said confidently. “My Sonic Rainboom caught the eye of one of the Academy's scouts. She said that, if I wanted a place in Skyhaven, all I had to do was ask. Ah, man – back then it felt like the most awesome day of my life.” Her smile began to grow as she continued her recount. “I flew straight back home and told my mom. We stayed up all night talking about it – what Skyhaven would be like, how I could join the Wonderbolts when I was finished there, all that stuff...”
As Rainbow paused and turned to look out of the window, Scootaloo could swear that she saw her smile falter a little. “But, uh, I didn't want to wait,” Rainbow continued. “I figured 'what's the point in trudging through flight camp when I can just go straight to Skyhaven?' I knew I was good enough so, a couple of days later, I dropped out.”
“You dropped out of school?” said Scootaloo, eyes wide.
“Yeah,” Rainbow confirmed, looking back at her with a smirk. “And I don't regret it for a second – that place was holding me back, leaving was the best decision I ever made. Even if my mom said it was a dumb idea at the time...”
“Was she mad at you?” Scootaloo found herself asking.
“Nah, just disappointed,” said Rainbow indifferently. “But she got over it soon enough – once she figured out that I wasn't going to change my mind. She actually backed me up after that, and she even helped me pack for Skyhaven. It was... pretty awesome of her,” she added with a smile. Scootaloo returned it faintly. She wondered if her mom would've helped her out if she'd let her in on the plan...
“Anyway,” Rainbow went on. “Skyhaven was so cool – even better than the stories everypony used to tell about it. In just the first few days, I learned so much about flying and performing... The Wonderbolts even came in to hang with us sometimes – I'm telling you, it was like a dream come true.”
“It sounds awesome!” said Scootaloo with a grin. “I bet the Wonderbolts thought you were great, right?”
Rainbow opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her smile faded a little and she turned her head. “Yeah, I bet they would have,” she said quietly.
“Would have?” Scootaloo repeated in question. “What happened?”
“I left,” said Rainbow abruptly.
When she didn't elaborate, Scootaloo felt herself growing more curious by the second. “Why?” she asked before she could stop herself.
Rainbow stayed quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful as she stared out of the window. “As awesome as Skyhaven was, there was always going to be one thing wrong with it, y'know?”
Scootaloo racked her brain for what Rainbow could be talking about, but came up with a blank. “No?” she tried uncertainly, though she knew that Rainbow hadn't really meant it as a question.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “It wasn't home,” she said, a little smile forming on her lips. “Sure, there were a lot of jerks in Cloudsdale, and I sure as hay didn't go back to flight camp – like I said, dropping out was the right thing to do. But there were some things back there that were special – that I wasn't ready to leave behind.” She turned to smile at Scootaloo. “Like my mom.”
Scootaloo felt another, more powerful lurch in her stomach. She tried to pass it off as motion sickness, but lying to herself was just as pointless as lying to Rainbow Dash. She turned to look idly out of the window – over the rolling, grassy hills outside. The Sun was just starting to lift up over the horizon, teasing the whole scene with a gentle, orange glow.
“But what about your... dream?” said Scootaloo thoughtfully. “Did you just give up on it?”
Rainbow scoffed. “Give up? C'mon, squirt – when have I ever given up?” She met Scootaloo's eye with a smile again. “Sure, I might've lost the chance of joining the Wonderbolts when I was a kid, but that doesn't mean I'll never join them. Back then, there were just... more important things to worry about than dreams, right?”
Scootaloo gave a thoughtful grunt. 'More important things.' Like friends, like family... was learning to fly really more important than spending more time with them? Earlier that morning, she would've said 'yes' for sure – after all, she could always come back and see them later, right? But Rainbow's recount had gotten her thinking...
She had to gulp down a nagging worry inside of her before she could make herself ask the next question – knowing full well that the answer might not be what she wanted to hear. “Do you regret it?” she asked shortly. Rainbow furrowed her brow and gave her a questioning grin. “I-I mean, if you could go back and do it again, would you?”
Rainbow gave an “Ah,” of understanding and looked up in thought. “You know what? I think there is one thing I'd do differently.”
“W-What?” asked Scootaloo.
“I wouldn't go to Skyhaven,” Rainbow replied simply. “When I think back on it, I guess I'd just want to spend more time hanging with the ponies that mattered. That's way more important than learning a couple of tricks that I would've picked up on my own anyway – it just took me a while to figure that out, y'know?” She offered Scootaloo a meaningful smile. “Dreams can wait – it's more fun if you have to work for them anyway.”
“More fun,” Scootaloo repeated with a humourless chuckle. This was decidedly not fun – the thought of leaving Ponyville, her friends and her mom behind... was it really worth it to risk that, just so she could learn to fly a few years earlier? When she really thought about it, it was an easy question to answer – it probably would've been so even before she'd heard Rainbow's story, but that just helped to hammer it home.
Rainbow Dash extended a kind hoof to Scootaloo, holding it just out of reach. Scootaloo eyed it thoughtfully. It was obvious now that Rainbow had followed her just to share that story, and the decision before Scootaloo was now plain – Take the hoof and go back home without another word, or simply shake her head and leave Ponyville behind.
She took the hoof.
With a wordless smile, Rainbow helped Scootaloo out of the compartment. She crouched down so that Scootaloo could clamber up onto her back, ready for the journey home. Once Scootaloo had locked her hooves around Rainbow's neck, Rainbow trotted over to the window and slid it open with a hoof.
The wind boomed past Scootaloo's ears and the sound of the rattling train wheels against the track was suddenly overwhelming. She shut her eyes and pulled herself closer to Rainbow Dash as they took to the air, and soon the sound and the rushing of the wind both began to settle into a gentle silence.
When Scootaloo opened her eyes again, she and Rainbow were soaring through the morning sky, back towards Ponyville – where Scootaloo's mom was no doubt waiting eagerly... probably to ground her for running off in the middle of the night without a word. But that wasn't so bad, was it? After all, dreams could wait...
A thought suddenly crossed Scootaloo's mind as the two of them drew close to home. “Hey, Rainbow Dash?” she called out.
“What's up, squirt?” came Rainbow's voice from beneath her.
“What was the other thing?” Scootaloo asked curiously.
“Other thing?” Rainbow repeated.
“You said there were things that were special to you back in Cloudsdale. One was your mom, but what was the other thing? Or things?”
“Oh, right,” grunted Rainbow in understanding. “Yeah, there was another thing,” she admitted. “A really, really special thing...”
“What was it?” Scootaloo asked impatiently.
Rainbow just chuckled. “That's a story for another time, squirt. If you stick around long enough, you'll hear it.”
Scootaloo and her fellow Crusaders exchanged seriously questioning glances as Pinkie Pie finished her tale. Judging by the looks on the grown-ups' faces, they were just as confused, if not more.
“Wait, wait, wait,” said Rainbow Dash around the marshmallow roasting stick she held in her mouth. She laid it down on the log beside her and furrowed her brow at Pinkie. “How did you even get to Cloudsdale? And how come you didn't fall through the clouds?”
Pinkie Pie shrugged. “I don't know. Unicorn magic?”
“Unicorn-- But what-- Ugh, forget it,” said Rainbow, shaking her head and grabbing her stick again. She held it over the campfire as Pinkie gave her a cheery smile.
“Well, thank you for sharing that, Pinkie,” said Twilight uncertainly. Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack offered vague nods of approval. “So, firelight storytelling – check!” Twilight magically ticked off another box on the checklist beside her. Idly wondering how much more of this she could endure, Scootaloo tried to get a look at how many items were left on the list – but it was far too dark for her to read.
“What's next, Twilight?” asked Sweetie Belle excitedly.
“Let's see here...” Twilight held the list close to her nose and lit it up with her horn. “Roasting marshmallows, storytelling... aha! Campfire songs!”
Rainbow's eyes bugged out at the same time as Scootaloo's. “Uh, y'know, Twilight – It's getting kind of late,” said Rainbow, dropping her stick again. With an obviously pretended yawn, she looked over at the Crusaders. “I bet the kids are about ready to fall asleep, right?”
“I am!” said Scootaloo loudly.
“Aw, no way!” Sweetie Belle pouted. “I wanted to hear Twilight sing!”
“Me too!” said Applebloom, frowning at Applejack in a pleading sort of way.
“You're welcome to stay up with us if you want, girls,” said Twilight with a reassuring smile. “But if you two are tired,” she added, glancing between Rainbow and Scootaloo. “Then we won't keep you up.”
“Thanks, Twilight,” said Rainbow, getting to her hooves. “You girls have fun with your singing and stuff – we're going to go hit the hay. C'mon, squirt!”
“Right! G'night Crusaders, g'night everypony!” said Scootaloo as she hurried to her own hooves to follow Rainbow away from the campfire.
“G'night, Scoots!” the Crusaders called after her, amidst similar wishes from the grown-ups. Scootaloo quickly caught up with Rainbow Dash, who was holding open the flap of one of the tents.
“Thanks,” Scootaloo whispered as she ducked inside, soon followed by Rainbow.
“Don't mention it, squirt,” said Rainbow. “I don't really feel up to singing tonight either.” Scootaloo nodded and clambered inside her sleeping bag with a smile. Rainbow settled atop her own before casting a smirk over to Scootaloo. “But hey, it was a pretty cool trip, right? Who knew plants and animals could be so awesome!”
Scootaloo turned in her sleeping bag so that the sides fell over her ears and smiled back at Rainbow. “Yeah, Whitetail Wood is awesome. Can we come here again some time?”
“Sure, I don't see why not,” said Rainbow with a shrug. “It's big enough, so I bet there's enough to see that we won't get bored.”
“Thanks for hanging out with me today,” said Scootaloo. “This trip wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you.”
“Aw, c'mon, squirt,” said Rainbow, scratching at the back of her head. “Don't get all sappy on me – you know I love hanging out with you.”
“Right, sorry,” said Scootaloo with a grateful smile that said she wasn't sorry in the slightest. The two of them fell into a sort of companionable silence and before long they heard the beginnings of campfire songs from outside. Scootaloo could make out Sweetie Belle's voice at the head of the chorus. As decided as Scootaloo was that she didn't want to be out there singing herself, she couldn't help but smile at the lullaby sound of her friend’s singing...
When Scootaloo next opened her eyes, she found herself in silence. Her fellow Crusaders were sleeping soundly beside her, each curled up in a sleeping bag. It was still very dark, but she could see well enough to tell that Rainbow Dash was still laid atop her own sleeping bag, staring up at the roof of the tent with her hooves behind her head. She glanced over at Scootaloo.
“Thought you were asleep,” said Rainbow quietly.
“Just resting my eyes,” said Scootaloo with a content smile as she shuffled around in her sleeping bag. Rainbow gave a quiet chuckle and went back to staring upwards. Scootaloo frowned at her thoughtfully. “Is something up, Rainbow Dash?”
“Huh? Oh, nah – it's nothin',” said Rainbow. “Just can't get comfy, I guess.”
“Oh. Okay,” grunted Scootaloo. Unable to think of any other comment, she simply shut her eyes and tried to get back to sleep.
“...D'you ever find it weird, trying to sleep on the ground?”
Scootaloo craned her eyes open at the sudden question. She wasn't even sure if it was meant for her until she met Rainbow's eyes. “Huh?” she grunted intelligently. “You mean... when we're camping out, like now?”
“Just generally,” said Rainbow. “Like, it just feels... 'weird'?”
Scootaloo furrowed her brow. “...I don't get it,” she admitted.
Rainbow rolled over to look at her properly. “I don't know, maybe it's just because I grew up in Cloudsdale,” she said. “But I just can't get comfortable when I'm not... you know, on a cloud.”
“Oh,” said Scootaloo. “Well, I grew up in Ponyville, so...”
Rainbow nodded. “So it's just natural for you?”
“So I've never slept on a cloud,” Scootaloo corrected with a frown. “I don't really know the difference.”
“Ah,” said Rainbow with another nod as she turned to look up again. A moment later, she did a double-take. “Wait, what? You've never slept on a cloud?”
Scootaloo shook her head and retreated into her sleeping bag a little. “No,” she muttered.
“Like, 'never' never?” said Rainbow, as if there was any doubt.
Scootaloo huffed and shook her head again, prompting a little laugh from Rainbow Dash. She wouldn't hold it against her though – she had to admit that it was pretty funny to be a pegasus and never have slept on a cloud... just like it was funny to be a pegasus who couldn't fly...
“Aw, man – this is going to be huge!” said Rainbow, clambering out of her sleeping bag and hurrying towards the tent flap. Scootaloo gave her a questioning look as she held it open. “C'mon, squirt! Try not to wake anyone.”
“What? Where are we going?” said Scootaloo, making to follow Rainbow.
“You'll see, just come on!” Rainbow whispered urgently. Curious, Scootaloo crept around her fellow Crusaders and stepped outside with Rainbow Dash. The fire in the middle of the camp had long since been extinguished, so the only light was that given by the crescent moon above.
Scootaloo glanced over at Rainbow Dash to find her looking up at the sky, apparently scanning it for something. “What--”
“There!” Rainbow muttered, thrusting a hoof upwards. Scootaloo followed it as closely as she could, but she couldn't make out what Rainbow was pointing at.
“What are we looking at?” asked Scootaloo, squinting to try and get a better look.
“That!” said Rainbow, pointing again. “Right there, can't you see it?”
“I don't-- You mean the cloud?” said Scootaloo doubtfully.
“That's not just any old cloud, squirt,” said Rainbow taking a few strides forward. “C'mon, let's get up there!”
Scootaloo opened her mouth to remind Rainbow that she couldn't fly, but Rainbow pre-empted her by kneeling down and cocking her head upwards. Scootaloo hesitated for a moment, then quickly trotted over and clambered up onto Rainbow's back. Wrapping her hooves tightly around Rainbow's neck, she braced herself for take off.
The blast of wind forced her ears back and her eyes closed as the two of them rocketed into the sky. Past the pounding of the wind against her, she could just about make out the rhythmic flutter of Rainbow's wing beats as they rose higher and higher. It didn't seem like that long at all before they slowed enough for Scootaloo to open her eyes and get a look at where they were.
A small cloud – about two ponies wide either way – hovered in front of them. “Perfect,” Rainbow muttered as she brought them slowly closer and alighted soundlessly on the cloud. Not daring to let go of Rainbow's neck, Scootaloo chanced a look down at the cloud. It certainly looked comfy, and it was obviously solid enough if Rainbow could stand on it, but...
“You okay, squirt?” said Rainbow, turning to look over her shoulder as best she could.
“Uh, y-yeah!” said Scootaloo, though she made no attempt to loosen her grip.
“Well, are you going to climb down or what?” Rainbow chuckled, taking a couple of steps towards the middle of the cloud.
“O-oh, right!” said Scootaloo. She began to slide over to one side, steadily lowering a hoof down to test the cloud. It felt... spongy... sort of like the marshmallows they'd cooked earlier that evening. She shifted more of her weight onto it, a little at a time, and soon she had both back hooves embedded in the fluffy cloud.
“You stuck again?” Rainbow asked jokingly. Scootaloo felt her face grow red.
“That was one time!” Scootaloo groaned. She released her grip on Rainbow's neck and brought her front hooves down so that she could support herself. Rainbow chuckled again, but Scootaloo hardly noticed – she was far too fascinated by the cloud that seemed to mold itself around her.
She poked the fluffy thing and watched it spring back into shape before her. She poked it again for good measure before stomping it harder. It was like beating her hooves against a giant pillow – except way more comfortable...
“It's cool, right?” said Rainbow with a smirk.
Scootaloo snapped away from her experiment and looked up to meet Rainbow's eyes. “Yeah!” she said excitedly.
Rainbow chuckled. “Well, that's not the half of it,” she said, slowly kneeling down in the cloud stuff. A content sigh escaped her as she laid down on her belly, after which she looked up at Scootaloo with a smile. “C'mon, try it!”
Scootaloo followed her lead and lowered herself into the cloud, letting it embrace her in a soft, warm cuddliness that could only be described as...
“Awesome!” she breathed. “Are all clouds like this?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Nah, this one's special – it's what I call a 'napping cloud' – I've got an eye for 'em,” she said proudly. “I mean, all clouds are pretty comfy, but these ones are the best for sleeping on.”
“Wow,” Scootaloo muttered, lowering her muzzle and rubbing it around in the cloud stuff. “I guess this is why you find it weird to sleep on the ground, huh?”
“...I don't know,” said Rainbow, resting her own chin on the cloud and frowning in thought. “There are some really comfy beds on the ground too – like those ones in Canterlot castle. But they all just feel weird after laying in them for a while, you know what I mean?”
Scootaloo shook her head, smiling as she felt her chin rub against the cloud. “Nuh uh,” she said dreamily. “Can you try explaining it differently?”
Rainbow gave a chuckle, though it seemed distant somehow. “That's okay, squirt – I'd probably be better off asking Fluttershy,” she said lightly. “But hey, thanks for trying.”
Scootaloo smiled wider and settled her chin into a spot beside Rainbow's foreleg. “Don't mention it,” she muttered. A gentle breeze started up – brushing through her mane and down her back – slowly and softly lulling her into sleep.
Scootaloo gasped as she saw movement in the corner of her eye – a shadow shooting past. She spun around to see what it was, only to find that it was just another trick of the light. In the Everfree forest, those were aplenty... But they weren't all just tricks – you never knew when a monster was going to jump out and eat you!
Of course, Scootaloo had never actually seen that happen, but she'd heard stories about it plenty of times... Still feeling very uneasy, she turned to Rainbow Dash. “Are you sure we're going the right way?” she asked. “I feel like we've been through here before...”
“…‘course I'm sure! I wouldn't bring you in here if I wasn’t!” said Rainbow proudly.
“Okay, sorry...” Scootaloo muttered. “Can you tell me where we're going yet?”
Rainbow shook her head and smirked. “Nope, it's a surprise. But it's awesome – totally worth the wait, I promise.”
Bemused by Rainbow's strange secrecy this morning, Scootaloo frowned. She didn't bother asking again – Rainbow looked determined not to give anything up. With a huff, she went back to scanning their surroundings for any creepy things preparing to ambush them.
They walked in silence through the ominous darkness for minutes longer before Rainbow finally came to an abrupt halt and Scootaloo almost bumped into her. “Aha! This is it!” said Rainbow, poking her nose through the bush just ahead. Scootaloo made to do the same, but a hoof held her back. “Wait a sec...”
“What?” said Scootaloo, cocking her head as Rainbow turned to meet her eyes.
“Alright, before we go down there, you've got to make me a promise,” Rainbow said, looking oddly serious. “You can only ever come here with me or Fluttershy. Nopony else unless I say so. And definitely never on your own.”
Scootaloo wasn't quite sure how to answer that. “Uh... okay?” she tried. “Why not?”
“First, because it's dangerous in here and you need somepony to watch your back. And second, because you need another pegasus with you for it to work.”
“For what to work?” said Scootaloo, utterly lost.
“You'll see, just hold on a sec,” said Rainbow. “Now, do you promise or not?”
Scootaloo's eyes went wide and she nodded emphatically. “O-Of course, I promise! I won't come here without you or Fluttershy.”
Rainbow's serious frown twisted into a much more familiar smile. “Great! Now let's stop wastin' time and get in there!”
With that, Rainbow pushed aside the foliage and let Scootaloo climb through into some kind of huge, bowl-shaped clearing. She was stood on the outer edge, looking down into a swirling mist which obscured the base. “Whoa... what is this place?”
“I don't know,” said Rainbow, coming up beside her and giving a nonchalant shrug. “The place isn't the important thing. That is.” She thrust a hoof towards the middle of the clearing. Scootaloo squinted, but whatever Rainbow was pointing at must have been hidden by the mist.
“...Something in there?” Scootaloo guessed.
Rainbow shook her head and pointed again. “That stuff down there, that's not pony-made mist like the stuff they have up in Cloudsdale. It's called fog. And nopony knows what makes it, but it only happens in the Everfree.”
“Okay... so what's special about it?” asked Scootaloo.
Rainbow smirked. “That is the awesome part. Follow me!”
Before Scootaloo even had time to speak, Rainbow had turned and starting trotting down the steady slope into the fog. Scootaloo wasted no time in giving chase as quickly as she could...
She followed Rainbow further and further down into the basin. With every step, more of the forest seemed to fade into an all-consuming grey. It was a little unnerving at first, but as the fog got thicker, it started to seem less like an obstacle and more like a giant, fuzzy… ‘blanket-thing’…
A faint, but constant tingling sensation spread throughout Scootaloo's body, just as Rainbow – and she in turn – began to slow down. When Rainbow had stopped completely, she turned to smile at Scootaloo. “Alright, this should be far enough.”
Scootaloo looked around the area. Everything beyond a few big strides' distance away was totally obscured by the fog, so all she could see was the dark, damp grass around them. “Far enough for what?” she asked.
Rainbow met Scootaloo's eye again. “You remember what you said to me the other week? That, for your birthday, you wanted to be able to fly, on your own, just for the day...”
Scootaloo's mouth curled into a sheepish sort of smile. “Yeah... but I know it was silly. Your present was awesome anyway--”
“I know,” Rainbow interrupted, waving a hoof in front of her. “But hearing you say that got me thinkin'. There's no unicorn magic that can make you fly – well, not that Twilight knows about anyway, and she knows about pretty much everything, right? But then I thought 'what about pegasus magic?'.”
Scootaloo furrowed her brow. “Pegasus magic?”
“Yeah, you know – the same stuff that lets us walk on clouds,” said Rainbow. “It works in more ways than that, though – like my Sonic Rainboom, remember?” Scootaloo nodded emphatically, grinning wide at the prospect of seeing another sonic rainboom....
Rainbow just chuckled and waved a hoof around in an arc. “Check it out – the fog is like cloud-stuff, only thinner... sort of--” She broke off and turned her lip up in thought. “Uh, y'know, I'm not so good at the sciencey stuff. Why don't I just show you?”
“Okay,” said Scootaloo with another nod.
Trotting over to Scootaloo's side, Rainbow unfurled her wings and flapped them experimentally. “Okay, it's pretty simple – just unfold your wings like this...”
Scootaloo did so, stretching her wings out to the side, as Rainbow was.
“Good,” said Rainbow. “Now, jump.”
“...Jump?” Scootaloo repeated.
Rainbow gave a curt nod. “Yup, that's it.”
Scootaloo cocked her head in question, but eventually shrugged it off and did as she was told. She bent her legs, licked her lips and pounced forwards, landing soundlessly a second later. She looked back at Rainbow for approval, but only received an eye roll in return. “My bad,” said Rainbow. “I meant 'jump up'.”
“What--”
“Come on, jump! You'll see!” Rainbow urged, the grin on her face telling of her excitement.
Gulping down her reservations, Scootaloo turned her gaze upwards. She bent her legs again, shifted her flank a little, then finally kicked off from the ground, throwing her forelegs out in front of her to try and get as much height as possible.
A strange, stomach churning feeling came over her as something seemed to go terribly wrong – nothing was pulling her back down. Glancing around, she found herself floating about a pony's height off the ground, and she was actually rising higher, albeit very, very slowly.
Panic taking hold, she started flailing her hooves about in vain. “Wh-What's going on?!”
“Cool, right?” said Rainbow, smiling proudly up at her again.
“What do I do?!” said Scootaloo hurriedly. “How do I get back down?!”
Rainbow chuckled. “Hold on, I'll show you...” She adjusted her own wings and then kicked off from the ground, floating slowly upwards until she reached eye level with Scootaloo. “Alright, I'm here – try to stay cool and watch me, okay?”
As difficult as it was to 'stay cool' when you were randomly floating away, Scootaloo tried her best to do as she was instructed. It took some doing, but she eventually managed to get her hooves under control – bringing them to rest beside her chest.
Rainbow smiled at her. “There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Now, watch this...” She angled her wings ever so slightly and started kicking out, as if she was walking. It looked incredibly weird, but it seemed to be working – Rainbow was changing direction in midair, beginning a large circle around Scootaloo. “See? It's like walking. Only, you don't step on anything... Go for it!”
As the ground itself started to fade into grey beneath her, Scootaloo felt a fresh wave of panic setting in. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath...
'Rainbow Dash is here, she'll look after me,' she told herself. 'Rainbow Dash is here...'
Opening her eyes, Scootaloo set them firmly on what little she could see of the ground and made to walk towards it. As she kicked out her first hoof, she lurched backwards and gasped as she backflipped in midair. “Gah! Rainbow Dash!” she squealed.
A pair of firm hooves grabbed her around the middle, stopping her mid-flip. “I got you, squirt,” she chuckled. “And that's why you need another pegasus. Can't have you floating off in here.”
“This stuff is weird,” said Scootaloo, frowning at her. She wasn't even sure whether they were the right way up anymore...
Rainbow smiled knowingly. “Yeah, it is. It'll take some getting used to, but it's worth it...” Her smile twisted into a smirk. “I mean, you're flying, right?”
Scootaloo's eyes went wide as she processed the information. She was off the ground, weightless... and when Rainbow Dash let go of her, the two of them still floated there, side-by-side. She grinned. “Oh wow! You're right!” she said. “I'm flying, I'm flying!”
In her excitement, she kicked out, sending her floating backwards. Rainbow made to grab her again, but stopped when she noticed that Scootaloo was giggling.
“Woohoo! This is so awesome, Rainbow Dash!” she cheered, bouncing all over the place as she kicked out her hooves in a vain attempt to regain some sense of direction.
“I know, right?” came Rainbow's smiling voice from just behind her. “It took some time to find a place like this that wasn't too deep in the forest, so this is kind of a 'late' birthday present, I guess.”
Scootaloo would've offered a grateful smile, if she could've figured out how to turn around... She dodged and weaved about the air, at first just enjoying the feeling, then trying to learn how it all worked.
Hours might have passed in there, with Scootaloo floating about and Rainbow following close behind to catch her if she slipped up. Eventually, she started coming to terms with how to angle her wings to change direction. Other than that though, it was all still a mystery, but she was having the time of her life trying to figure it all out...
“Hey, squirt,” said Rainbow, interrupting the silence that had fallen between them for the longest time. Scootaloo twisted her body around to smile expectantly at Rainbow, kicking her hooves a little to keep herself roughly in place. Rainbow was smiling at her hopefully. “...You like it, right?” she asked.
Scootaloo opened her mouth to cheer 'yeah!', only to close it a moment later, in favour of offering Rainbow an honest smile and a nod. “Best birthday present ever.”
Scootaloo cast her eyes over all the shining bracelets and necklaces on the stall, each encrusted with gems that glittered in the afternoon sunlight. Everything was so pretty and awesome... and, normally, completely out of her price range.
Today though, a jingling pouch of bits hung from her saddlebag – the product of several months' saved allowance – and she wasn't going to let some dumb price tag get in the way of her finding the perfect gift for Rainbow Dash. Well, not so much the perfect gift, but it had to be awesome enough to finally let Rainbow know how Scootaloo really felt about her.
But there were so many different pieces of jewellery, each with their own sentiments... how could she possibly choose?
Naturally, her eyes had first been drawn to the ridiculously glossy, heart-shaped lockets in the front. They were kind of cool-looking, but also kind of sappy. And, if Scootaloo thought it was sappy, she knew that Rainbow would think so too. Besides, the words engraved upon them weren't exactly what she was looking for. 'I love you' and 'Forever yours' were pretty straightforward, and they sure got the point across, but they were way too forward for Scootaloo's liking – she didn't want to creep Rainbow Dash out, after all.
Next, she'd found the paired bracelets – which were lame – and the paired necklaces – which were even more lame. There had to be something that would make a good gift for Dash. There had to be, because Scootaloo had already been around every other jewellery stall in the Ponyville Market and found nothing!
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of silver. A single necklace sat about an inch away from the others at the far end of the stall. She hurried over to it and craned her neck to get a better look...
The design was simple – two silhouetted mares, cuddling, made from some kind of pretty, silver metal. The words on the front were written using really tiny gems of all colours, and their hues seemed to shift as Scootaloo looked at it from different angles. The thing that made it perfect, though, was the sentiment that the words formed...
“This one!” cried Scootaloo, hopping up in excitement. “This is it! This one, this one!”
The stall's purveyor, who had taken to grooming her hooves whilst she was waiting, smiled up at Scootaloo and trotted over to meet her. “...This one?” she asked, lifting up the necklace in question with her magic.
Scootaloo nodded emphatically, then bit down on her money pouch and held it up in offering. “Ish thish enough?”
Setting down the necklace, the unicorn magically took the pouch and peeked inside. A moment passed before a wider smile made its way onto her face – a smile that said 'D'awwww...' Which could also be taken as saying 'Sorry, but this couldn't even buy half of that necklace.'
Scootaloo bit her lip, trying to think of something else she could give in trade. “I-I can get more!” she tried desperately. “I think there's some more bits under my cupboard from last week! I'll go check--”
“Nonsense, darling,” said the unicorn warmly, pulling six bits from the pouch and depositing them in a metal box behind the stall. “This is more than enough. Here.” She levitated the pouch over to Scootaloo and reattached it to the filly's saddlebags. It was only about half as heavy as it had been before...
Then, the kind unicorn lifted the chosen necklace into an elegant, red pouch of its own and offered it with an honest smile.
“Wow! Really?” Scootaloo breathed. The unicorn nodded. Joyfully, Scootaloo shrugged off her saddlebags, took the pouch and gently lowered it inside. “Thanks so much, Rarity! Just... thank you!”
“Oh, think nothing of it, darling,” said the unicorn, bending down to give her a quick nuzzle on the cheek. “Any friend of Sweetie Belle's is a friend of mine. And, if I may say so, I think it's an excellent choice.”
As Rarity pulled back, Scootaloo threw her a worried look. “Y-You won't tell Rainbow Dash, right?”
Rarity shook her head. “Not a word shall leave these lips, darling,” she promised. “Now, is there anything else I can get you?”
Scootaloo jumped forwards to give Rarity's leg an affectionate nuzzle before grabbing her saddlebags and dashing off towards her next stop – Fluttershy's place...
Fluttershy needed only very little convincing before agreeing to help out. Scootaloo had been prepared to tell the whole story if she had to – even the kind of embarrassing parts – but the demure pegasus was ready and waiting almost as soon as Scootaloo finished saying “Can you fly me to Rainbow Dash's house?”
It was almost as if everypony was in on the plan before Scootaloo even mentioned it. She guessed that it was just the spirit of the Hearth's Warming season that was getting to them. Not that she was complaining, of course.
Flying with Fluttershy was way different than flying with Rainbow Dash. For one thing, Scootaloo wasn't sure whether she would scare the timid pegasus if she held on too tight. For another, Fluttershy's wing muscles weren't nearly as strong and practised as Rainbow's. In fact, her movements were so subtle and quiet that Scootaloo actually had to look sideways to make sure that Fluttershy's wings were still moving.
When they alighted on the cloud-stuff that made up Rainbow Dash's porch, Scootaloo was all too happy to hop down and find her own hooves again as she bid Fluttershy a speedy “Thank you.” What came next wasn't quite so easy though...
She managed only a few shaky steps towards the door before her nerves got the better of her. What if Rainbow didn't like it? What if she didn't feel the same way? Of course, she'd had the same worries a hundred times before, but now that she was here, seconds away from finally coming out and speaking her heart, they seemed... well, about a hundred times worse.
Just as she started backpedalling towards the edge of the cloud, she felt a soft something brush against her withers. Looking sideways, she saw that Fluttershy was still there – a soothing smile on her face as she nudged Scootaloo forwards with her wing.
“Um, I think she wants to see you too,” said Fluttershy warmly. “I mean, probably... seeing as it's almost Hearth's Warming and all. You should, um, go ahead, if you want to...”
Scootaloo blinked. Of all the ponies to tell her 'Don't be shy'...
But she was right – there was no point in turning back after coming this far. And Rarity had said that it was an excellent choice...
“Yeah,” Scootaloo muttered, taking her first step forwards. “You're right.”
Each step measured, she made her way across the clouds and all the way up to Rainbow Dash's door before she stopped again. As impossible as it sounded, the door actually seemed bigger than usual... She cast a worried look back at Fluttershy.
The yellow pegasus offered one last, reassuring smile, then flapped her wings and took off to leave Scootaloo alone with the obstacle before her. Turning back to the door with another nervous gulp, she knew she didn't really have much choice anymore.
Scootaloo lifted a hoof, took a deep breath, and rapped on the door. “Rainbow Dash?” she called out. “Are you home? It's Scootaloo!”
A long moment passed in silence before there came the sounds of movement from inside. Scootaloo took a few steps back and ran a hoof through her mane nervously. The door slowly opened outwards to reveal a very sleepy-looking Rainbow Dash, who was shielding her eyes with a hoof in the face of the sunlight.
“Mornin', squirt,” she muttered, throwing her a forced smile.
Scootaloo frowned at her. “It's afternoon...”
Rainbow lowered her hoof and blinked painfully. “...Oh.”
A smile found its way onto Scootaloo's face as she took a step forwards. “Um, sorry if I woke you. Fluttershy flew me up here so I could give you your Hearth's Warming present.”
Suddenly, Rainbow looked wide awake – literally... Her eyes went huge and shocked as if she'd just remembered something very important. “Uh... did you say Hearth's Warming?”
“Yeah...” Scootaloo's smile fell. “Did you forget?”
“No!” said Rainbow hurriedly, backing away into her house. “Just, uh, wait there! Or... come inside! I'll be right back!”
With that, Rainbow spun in place and darted up the stairs at the end of the entrance corridor. Scootaloo nervously glanced around for nothing in particular before trotting over the threshold and shutting the door behind her.
She'd been in Rainbow's house a couple of times before, so it wasn't exactly a new and scary place. It still had the same, awesome atmosphere that it had the first time, though – there was something about a house made purely of concentrated cloud-stuff that was just... cool.
She glanced about the corridor, taking in the various Wonderbolt posters and photographs that adorned the walls. It wasn't hard to resist the urge to go peeking around the rest of the house – her worries about whether Rainbow would like her present were more than enough to keep her occupied.
“Aha!” came a cry from above. A moment later, Rainbow glided down the stairwell and alighted in front of Scootaloo with a proud smile on her face and a pair of golden tickets held between her teeth. She bent down and laid them on the floor, where Scootaloo could get a better look at them.
“I haven't wrapped them yet,” Rainbow admitted. “But how do you gift-wrap a ticket anyway?”
Scootaloo was only half listening. Her eyes went wide as she stared down at the slips of paper on the floor...
“...Tickets to a Wonderbolts air show?” she breathed, looking up at Rainbow for confirmation. “In Cloudsdale?!”
Rainbow scratched the back of her neck and gave a sheepish chuckle. “Heh, yeah... I mean, I know it's not until the Summer, but it's, like, the biggest Wonderbolts show of the year – you have no idea how far in advance I had to book these--”
In a flash, Scootaloo shrugged off her saddlebags and bounced forwards to hug Rainbow's leg excitedly. “I get to go to Cloudsdale! With Rainbow Dash!” she cheered. “This is so awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Sheesh, don't hurt yourself, squirt,” chuckled Rainbow, patting her on the back. “Like I said, it's not for a while, so don't get all excited just yet.”
Scootaloo pulled back with a wide grin on her face and looked into Rainbow's smiling eyes. All the worries in her mind started to fade away. Now was the perfect time...
Spinning in place, Scootaloo hurried back over to her saddlebags and unclipped them. As Rainbow watched over her shoulder, Scootaloo removed the small, red pouch and shook it a little to make sure that the gift was still inside.
Satisfied, she set it down on the ground between herself and Rainbow, then stepped back and watched expectantly. Rainbow Dash cocked her head at the pouch and gave it a curious, lop-sided smile. She bent down and pulled the string to open it, then nosed inside.
When she pulled her nose back out, it was with the chain of the necklace in her teeth. Scootaloo watched eagerly as the older pegasus laid her gift on the floor and leant in to get a better look.
“Wow...” Rainbow muttered, a definite hint of surprise in her voice. “Didn't see that one coming...”
The anxiety started to return. Scootaloo tried to gulp it down. “Uh, t-there's, um...” She stammered for a moment longer before simply leaning in and turning the pendant over so that Rainbow could see the jewel-engraving on the other side.
Rainbow drew back with wide eyes as she saw the words and her mouth fell open a little. She stared at the pendant for the longest time. “I... oh, man,” she choked, scratchier than usual. She glanced up at Scootaloo, her eyes wavering. “...You're serious?”
Scootaloo bit her lip and nodded twice.
For a long, agonizing few seconds, Rainbow stared down at the pendant. Scootaloo, worried that she might've gone too far after all, opened her mouth to apologise. She didn't get a word out before a flash of rainbow-colour tackled her.
When she came back to her senses, she found herself held against Rainbow's chest by a pair of warm, powerful wings. Rainbow Dash rested her chin atop Scootaloo's head and her chest rattled with a silent chuckle. “You could've just said something,” Rainbow muttered quietly.
“...I did,” Scootaloo countered, closing her eyes and nuzzling into the embrace. “But you never got it. I just wanted to... 'let you know', y'know? Even if you probably don't feel the same way--”
“Actually,” Rainbow broke in. “I do...” She squeezed her wings a little tighter around Scootaloo, whose heart suddenly felt a hundred times floatier. “I guess I just... didn't know how to say it...”
Biting her lip again, this time to keep from squealing with joy, Scootaloo nodded in understanding. “Well, now you don't have to,” she said, her voice coming out as a sort of half-giggle.
Rainbow gave a little chuckle of her own before the two of them fell into silence. Nothing else really needed to be said.
Opening her eyes, Scootaloo caught a glimpse of the necklace through a gap in Rainbow's feathers. She smiled at the glittering, multi-hued engraving...
The wind boomed past Scootaloo's ears as she sprinted across the field, her hooves pounding against the grass and her breath growing more ragged by the second. Far ahead was her target – a group of six ponies hanging around beside a picnic blanket. Specifically, the rainbow-maned pegasus who stood out brightest among them.
Each breath was like an icy dagger in her chest, but Scootaloo dared not slow down. Already, her target was had broken the hug with Pinkie Pie and shot into the air – saying her last goodbyes to her closest friends. A tear of equal parts exhaustion and fear streaked down Scootaloo's cheek – she wasn't going to make it.
“Rainbow Dash!” she yelled. “Rainbow Dash, wait!”
Her words didn't reach them – they were still too far away! Scootaloo's hoof caught on something, throwing her off balance. Determined to go on though, she growled and broke out of the stumble, back into a vicious run.
She could almost make out their voices now, but it was too late. Diving down, Rainbow Dash grabbed her saddlebags, then kicked off from the ground again and darted towards the sky. “No!” Scootaloo cried, begging her legs to move faster.
The ground itself shook with a yell of “Don't forget to write!” as Pinkie Pie screamed into some kind of loudspeaker. As Scootaloo was coming up on the group, Pinkie mumbled something else to her friends, before her eyes settled on Scootaloo at last. “Oh, hey, Scootaloo!” she called with her usual grin. “What're--”
Scootaloo shoved past, breathing heavier than ever. Her eyes were starting to get foggy – as were her legs and pretty much everything else – but she could just about make out a fast-disappearing rainbow blur in the sky up ahead. She took a breath. “Rainbow Dash!” she choked. “Please stop, Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!”
Her eyes went wide and her limbs locked up as her last yell came out as a deafening roar that hurt even her own ears. Striking the ground face-first, she lost touch with reality for the briefest of moments. When she opened her eyes and dragged herself up into a sitting position, she saw that the speck-that-was-Rainbow Dash had stopped, and was – presumably – looking back towards Scootaloo.
For her part hopelessly confused, the filly glanced over her shoulder towards the other ponies. Most of them looked just as shocked as Scootaloo herself, but when her eyes met with Twilight Sparkle's, the lavender unicorn offered her a meaningful wink.
“Yo, squirt!” came Rainbow's voice from behind. With a sharp gasp, Scootaloo turned again to see the awesome, multi-hued pegasus coming in for a landing. Rainbow buffeted her wings to slow herself before touching gracefully down on the grass in front of Scootaloo with a concerned half-smile on her face. “Where's the fire?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth to speak, but only a choke came out. Her throat had gone incredibly dry. She held up a hoof as a signal to wait whilst she steadied her breathing and gulped on nothing a couple of times. Rainbow simply gave Scootaloo a funny look – but at least she showed no signs of trying to run off again.
“R-Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo managed at last, still panting a little as she looked up into the older pegasus' eyes. “I... You... Where are you going?”
Rainbow blinked, then smirked and rubbed her hoof on her chest proudly. “Oh, nowhere special, just the Wonderbolts Academy...”
Scootaloo's heart sank. “...So it's true? That you're leaving?” she panted, though she already knew the answer.
“Uh, yeah,” said Rainbow. “The Academy isn't here in Ponyville, so... yeah – I've got to leave to go there. You feeling okay, squirt? You're looking a little 'out of it'.”
“But... But...” Scootaloo's breathlessness got the better of her for a moment, and Rainbow furrowed her brow in confusion. “W-Why didn't you... say goodbye?” Scootaloo asked. “Were you just... going to leave... without telling me?”
Rainbow blinked, clearly taken aback. “Huh? I... uh, no! I mean, yeah, I was, but now you're here so I don't have to.” She offered her warmest smirk, but it didn't work for Scootaloo that afternoon.
The filly shook her head sadly. “...Don't go, Rainbow Dash. You can't... you can't go...”
“Geez, squirt, it's only for a week,” said Rainbow, cocking her head to the side. “I'm pretty sure that Ponyville can manage without me for just seven days... probably.”
Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow again with a furrowed brow. “...Just a week?” she repeated. “But then... you're not going forever?”
At that, Rainbow drew back and gave a short chuckle. “Ha! Forever? Who gave you that idea?”
“I-I don't know,” Scootaloo admitted. “Around town, everypony's saying that Rainbow Dash is... finally going to go join the Wonderbolts and... and move to their Academy in the sky. And some of the guys from the fanclub said... that when you get in, you'll have to stay there all the time, for training and stuff... That's not true?”
“What? No, of course not!” said Rainbow, taking a step closer. “You don't just 'join the Wonderbolts' after one week at the Academy. This is, like, a trial type thing – when I come out top of the class this week, they'll know to invite me back for the next stage, whenever that is...”
Scootaloo blinked at her in wonderment. “S-So you're just staying for a week? That's it?”
Rainbow nodded.
A sudden, grave feeling of embarrassment built up in Scootaloo's stomach. Or maybe that was just her body telling her off for pointlessly running so far. Whatever the reason, she felt her cheeks turning red as she averted her eyes from Rainbow's. “O-Oh... Well, uh, sorry. My bad. I'll just go now...”
Feeling incredibly stupid, she spun in place and started back towards Ponyville. Rainbow Dash zipped around to block her path. “Hold on a sec, squirt. What's the hurry?”
“Nothing,” said Scootaloo, hiding her eyes again. “There's no hurry.”
Rainbow blinked. “Uh, are you going to tell me what this is about or what? I mean, you don't really expect me to believe that you thought I was going to leave forever without telling you, do you? Heh heh.” She chuckled, as if expecting Scootaloo to smile or join her. The filly just felt her cheeks burning hotter. “...Uh, right, squirt?”
Scootaloo shook her head and sighed. “I just thought you might've... forgotten about me.”
“Okay, now I know you're messing with me,” said Rainbow, with more seriousness than her words implied. “When have I ever forgotten about you?”
The frown deepened on Scootaloo's face. “Well, there was that time when we played hide-and-seek on that camping trip--”
“Oh, c'mon, that doesn't count!” said Rainbow defensively. “I didn't forget you – I just fell asleep! And I felt way guilty about it anyway...”
“Yeah, I guess,” Scootaloo muttered.
“Is everything alright over here, darlings?” came Rarity's voice. Looking up, Scootaloo saw Rainbow's group of friends trotting over towards them, with Sweetie Belle's sister at the head of the group and Twilight Sparkle hanging behind to clear the picnic blanket alongside an uncharacteristically dejected-looking Pinkie Pie.
“Yeah, we're cool,” said Rainbow automatically, waving a hoof. When her eyes met Scootaloo's again though, she hesitated. “...I think?”
“Y'all want us to take the young 'un off your hooves?” Applejack muttered to Rainbow. “I mean, ain't you got somewhere you need to be?”
Fluttershy took a timid step around the farmpony and smiled at Scootaloo. “Um, Scootaloo, I think Rainbow Dash needs to go now. But don't be sad – I have some cookies over here, if you want, I mean. They're lots more interesting than Rainbow Dash anyway--” Rainbow shot her a half-shocked, half-appalled look. When she realised what she'd said, the demure pegasus' eyes went wide and she retreated behind her mane. “T-That came out wrong...”
Rainbow glared at her for a moment longer before turning back to the group as a whole. “Seriously guys, Scoots is cool. Thanks anyway. I mean, if it was Sweetie Belle--” She broke off when Rarity threw her a dangerous look. “--Uh, yeah, forget that. Anyway, I've still got time before I need to be there. Catch you later, okay?”
Her friends watched her for a moment longer, before each nodding or shrugging. “If you say so,” said Applejack, turning back towards Twilight and Pinkie. “C'mon girls, let's leave these two to their little 'heart-to-heart'...” She winked at Rainbow Dash, who snarled in response.
When they were all confidently out of earshot, Rainbow met Scootaloo's eyes again. For the longest, awkwardest moment, she just stared in silence, with a thoughtful frown on her face. Scootaloo scraped a hoof along the ground meekly, trying to think of something else to say. Nothing availed her.
After another long moment, Rainbow sighed and trotted forward to stand right in front of Scootaloo. Then she sat down on her haunches, bringing their eye levels a lot closer and thus making it a lot harder for Scootaloo to avoid contact.
“...I'm not so good at this,” Rainbow muttered, scratching at the back of her head. “Look, uh... you need to understand-- I mean, I just want to tell you, uh... Ah, hay!” Rainbow shot to her hooves suddenly and took off, performing a random, impromptu loop-the-loop in midair. Scootaloo looked on in surprise and curiosity.
When Rainbow came to a stop, hovering before Scootaloo with her fetlocks crossed across her chest, she looked a lot more confident. “Alright, listen up!” she said clearly. “The two of us are friends, right?”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo immediately.
“Right! And, being the awesome, loyalful pony that I am, I would never abandon my friends, right?”
Scootaloo blinked. “...Right.”
Rainbow smirked proudly. “Exactly! Look, squirt, even if I did leave to join the Wonderbolts or live at the Academy or whatever, I'd never really be there forever. I mean, if I got so much as a letter from Applejack asking for--” She shuddered a little. “--help on the farm, I'd be there in a second. Same if you just needed somepony to hang with. You guys will always be first in my book.”
Watching the multi-chrome pegasus just hovering there, saying that with a such casual awesomeness, was refreshing. It actually brought the beginnings of a smile to Scootaloo's face.
Rainbow folded her wings and landed with a quiet thud, before taking another step forwards, so that she and Scootaloo were barely a hoof apart. The older pegasus glanced around, then leant in and whispered. “And, between you and me, if joining the Wonderbolts really meant leaving Ponyville, there wouldn't be a snowball's chance in Tartarus that I'd go for it.”
Scootaloo drew back in surprise. “What? But... it's your dream, isn't it?”
“Well, yeah,” said Rainbow, with what Scootaloo thought was rather inappropriate nonchalance. “But this is home now. And sure, I've left home before, but that was only because what was keeping me there left first.”
Scootaloo cocked her head. “Didn't you say something like that before, too?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Probably. And I'm still not telling you what it is – doesn't really matter anyway. The point is that I've got stuff keeping me here now too--” With a smile, Rainbow pointed a hoof at Scootaloo's chest. “And you're one of those... stuff... Yeah, I could've worded that better...” She scratched her head and frowned.
That brought a giggle to Scootaloo's lips. She looked up into Rainbow's eyes and offered a smile, which was returned just as warmly. “I get it, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “...Sorry for being silly...”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Whatever. No big deal. So, are we cool?”
Getting to her hooves and taking a step back, Scootaloo gave a firm nod. “We're cool.”
“Good,” said Rainbow, unfurling her wings. “'cause now I really am late. I've got to get going.”
Scootaloo's eyes went wide. “Ohmygosh! Right! Sorry! I--”
“Going now!” Rainbow reported, not waiting for an answer before she spun in place and took off to hover just above the ground. “I'll catch you in a week, okay, squirt?”
“O-Okay!” said Scootaloo, nodding more to herself than anypony else. Just as Rainbow lowered her head and prepared to launch herself upwards, a strange urge gripped Scootaloo. “Wait!”
Rainbow stopped in her tracks, almost falling out of the sky. She threw a questioning look back over her shoulder. Scootaloo bit her lip for a moment, before offering a weak smile.
“...You're one of my stuff too.”
Rainbow blinked. Then again. And then a smile melted onto her face. She dropped down again next to Scootaloo and pulled the filly into a wing hug. Feeling very proud of herself, Scootaloo smirked and nuzzled into Rainbow's warm, fluffy chest.
“Are you sure you want to run this year, Rarity?” said Sweetie Belle. “You don't have to if you don't want to – I won't be mad.”
Rarity stopped in the middle of the trail. “I don't? Ha! Well, in that case, let's go back to the boutique and--”
“Rare,” came Applejack's warning voice as she trotted past the fashionista.
“Oh, you're no fun,” Rarity harrumphed. “I was only joking.”
Applejack rolled her eyes obviously. “Uh huh, I'll bet – right, Applebloom?”
With a quick giggle, Applebloom trotted up beside her sister and nodded emphatically.
Scootaloo lagged behind a little, smiling as she watched the sisterly scene unfold before her. She was glad that she'd agreed to come along to this year's Sisterhooves Social – even though she wasn't going to compete, it still promised to be a lot of fun if those four were involved.
“Scoots, are ya stuck back there or somethin'?” said Applebloom lightly. “C'mon, or you're going to be late!”
Scootaloo jokingly rolled her eyes as she caught up to the group. “Excited, much?”
“'course I'm excited! This is the one time of year when I get to spend the whole day with my big sister!” Applebloom grinned and bumped into Applejack playfully.
“Uh, don't you two spend days together, like, all the time?” Scootaloo countered with a furrowed brow.
Applebloom thought on it for a second, then chuckled. “You're right! I guess I'm pretty lucky to have you as my big sister, huh, Applejack?”
Applejack paused to tussle her sister's mane with a smile. “You got that right. And I'm real lucky to have you as my little sister.”
“D'awww!” came a scratchy voice from overhead.
All eyes turned up to see a rainbow-maned head poking out over the edge of a cloud, smirking at them. Scootaloo's heart jumped.
“Well, look who it is!” said Applejack, pushing back her hat to get a better look. “Y'all decided to come after all?”
Rainbow stood up on her cloud awesomely. “Sure did. I'm not one to miss a race, am I?”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. Rarity took a step forwards. “Forgive me for saying so, darling, but I thought you only liked races if you were the one competing...”
“That's right,” Rainbow confirmed with a nod. Leaving the group in suspense, she leapt from her cloud and glided down to alight beside Scootaloo, to whom she offered a quick smile before turning back to the others. “That's why I'm entering the race this year!”
“You are?” Applejack deadpanned.
“Darling, I hate to break it to you, but you need a sister to enter the Sisterhooves Social,” said Rarity with an apologetic half-smile. “And... how do I put this gently? You don't have a sister.”
Rainbow gave a short chuckle. “Sure I do! She's right here...”
Scootaloo yelped as Rainbow wrapped a wing around her and pulled her close. The others all raised their eyebrows at this, except for Sweetie Belle – who bounced in place and grinned excitedly. “Yay! Now we all get to race!”
“H-Hold on,” Scootaloo managed. She chanced an awkward look up at Rainbow. “Can we do that?”
“Sure, why not?” said Rainbow with a shrug. “Nothing in the rules that says we have to be actual, related sisters, right, AJ?”
Applejack gave a granting nod. “I guess not. Don't see why the two of you couldn't enter, if Scoots is okay with it, that is.”
“Of course I'm okay with it!” said Scootaloo quickly, brightening up. “Oh man, this going to be so cool! C'mon, c'mon, let's hurry up and get there!”
She shot forwards, pulling a surprised Rainbow Dash along with her as the others giggled at the sight.
By the time they reached the egg-balancing part of the race, Scootaloo's legs were already kind of tired and the ropes binding her wings to her sides were getting annoying. Nonetheless, she forced herself to focus all her energy on balancing that egg between her own nose and Rainbow's.
Together, ignoring the cheers and yells of the crowd, they lowered the egg carefully into the basket, before drawing back with smiles.
Rainbow gave a proud hoot. “Nice one, squirt! Now c'mon – last leg! We're going to win this!”
Scootaloo couldn't help but giggle as she hurried after her energetic 'big sister'.
The final stretch of the race stood before them – an expanse of the track that was dotted with hurdles and potholes to catch the racers off guard. Rainbow Dash was already galloping forwards, though she slowed down enough to let Scootaloo catch up.
Side-by-side, they took the first hurdle, with their eyes trained on the finish line not thirty seconds ahead. They passed a very bedraggled and dazed-looking Applejack, who looked as if she'd just ran into one of the hurdles. Applebloom was trying in vain to snap her out of it. “Come on, Applejack! We're almost there!”
“Oh, what happened, AJ?” Rainbow called back tauntingly. “Giving up already?”
Scootaloo chanced a look back to see Applejack shaking her head as she scrambled to her hooves. “Oho, laugh it up, missy – race ain't over yet!”
“Heads up!”
At the sound of Rainbow's voice, Scootaloo stopped chuckling and turned back to the track ahead, just in time to see the hurdle that she was about to crash into. Reflexes kicking in, she dropped onto her belly and slid underneath it. It would've been a truly awesome stunt if she'd managed to regain her balance afterwards, which she hadn't...
Scootaloo's chin hit the ground as she collapsed with an “Oof!” The track ahead swam in front of her for a moment, until a sky blue wall suddenly obstructed her view.
“You okay, squirt?” came Rainbow's voice.
Blinking the haze from her head, Scootaloo recognized the hoof that was extended towards her. After a few more seconds, she reached out and grasped it. “Yeah, I'm good. Let's go!”
Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!” She lifted Scootaloo to her hooves and gave her an encouraging pat on the back.
“Ha, ha! We're winning!” sang Sweetie Belle as she and Rarity bounced past, both utterly covered in muck but grinning brightly all the same.
“Not for long!” Rainbow threw back. With that, she shot forwards, and Scootaloo gave chase.
They were neck and neck with Rarity and Sweetie Belle for the next few hurdles, before the pegasi finally started to pull ahead. Scootaloo could hear Rainbow giggling beside her as Rarity cried something like “Oh no you don't!” and lowered her head to sprint faster.
Scootaloo found it extremely hard to concentrate, what with trying to fight back Rainbow's infectious giggles. How the older pegasus was able to run and laugh at the same time, Scootaloo had no idea. It just added to her awesomeness.
The final hurdle drew near. Rainbow smirked sidelong at Scootaloo. Scootaloo smirked back. They bent their knees together and launched themselves into the air.
For the briefest moment, Scootaloo felt completely weightless. It was almost as if she and Rainbow were flying alongside one another – even if their wings were tied behind their backs. It was awesome. Until Scootaloo's hoof caught against the top of the hurdle.
She yelped as she performed a clumsy somersault and flailed her hooves about hopelessly. In her panic, she caught Rainbow's own hoof, throwing her off balance too. They both cried out in surprise as the ground shot towards them at a terrifying pace.
Scootaloo shut her eyes just before the impact, but she didn't feel a painful thud. Instead she landed on something quite fluffy – though it still took the wind out of her. She dared not open her eyes. Had they won? Had she messed it up?
And then whatever she'd landed on started to shake. The sound of laughter filled her ears, and she couldn't help but chance an eye open to see what was going on. She found herself sprawled sideways across Rainbow's stomach, with the older pegasus stuck in a veritable giggle fit.
Scootaloo didn't see the funny side, but she didn't really have to – the giggles infected her in an instant. She thought that they must have looked crazy, lying there, laughing at nothing after such a messed up jump stunt. But she didn't care either.
“G-Get off me, squirt!” Rainbow cried between giggles. “That tickles!”
Hurriedly, Scootaloo rolled forwards and landed on her back, winding her again. Somehow, it just made everything seem that much more funny... “S-Sorry!” she laughed. “Don't... don't know what... happened!”
Rainbow rolled onto her side and beat a hoof against the ground. “We bailed is what! G-Get these ropes off – I can't breathe!”
Scootaloo forced herself to stop laughing for the few seconds it took to bite down on the knot binding Rainbow's wings to her sides. The rope was cast to the side as Rainbow's wings unfurled and she took a deep breath. “Better?” Scootaloo managed, snickering again.
“N-Not much!”
“You two okay down there?” chuckled Applejack as she appeared overhead.
Rainbow bit her lip to restrain her giggling. “Y-Yeah, I guess so. We won, right? Tell me that was a win!”
“Actually, you did!” chirped Applebloom, appearing at her sister's side with a grin.
Scootaloo choked. “W-What? Really?”
“Yup!” Applejack confirmed. “And I don't think I've ever seen anyone take 'cross the finish line together' so seriously! Y'all were practically curled up in a cannonball!”
“Aw yeah!” Rainbow awkwardly extended a hoof to Scootaloo. “Sisterly hoofbump!”
With another snicker, Scootaloo reached out and bumped the hoof. Everything seemed awesome in the world until she saw the predatory look on Applebloom's face. She couldn't make sense of it until Sweetie Belle came to stand overhead as well, with the very same look.
Scootaloo's eyes went wide as the two of them exchanged a quick nod, and then proceeded to launch themselves into the air with a yell of “Cutie Mark Crusaders Cannonballs!”
“Guys, wai--”
They landed on Scootaloo, winding her again and bringing on another round of giggles. Rainbow Dash burst out into laughter again.
By the time that the Social had ended and the mirth had finally died down, it was already getting dark out. Everypony said their goodnights and set off for bed, except for Rainbow Dash – who'd offered to walk Scootaloo home. And of course, Scootaloo wasn't about to refuse.
As they trotted, side-by-side, down the trail towards home, Scootaloo chanced a look up at her adoptive big sister. She was still smiling that same, infectious smile from ear to ear, which Scootaloo gladly mimicked.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash – thanks for being my sister today,” she chirped happily, turning back to the trail ahead. “It was awesome.”
Rainbow giggled. “No worries, squirt. Y'know, I should probably be thanking you – I had way too much fun today.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Me too.”
They went on in companionable silence for a while, but Scootaloo noticed a couple of sideways glances from Rainbow. She didn't call her out on it though – not wanting to ruin the pleasant walk.
“I've wanted to compete before, y'know...” Rainbow commented idly. “In the Social, I mean. Just haven't had anyone to go with.”
Scootaloo grunted thoughtfully and looked across at her. “No sisters?”
“Nope,” Rainbow confirmed with a shake of the head.
“Me neither,” said Scootaloo. It was kind of a pointless thing to say – Rainbow already knew that Scootaloo had no siblings. Even so, she felt the need to empathise.
“...Have you ever wanted one?” Rainbow asked. “You know, a sister?”
Scootaloo gave it a moment's thought. “...Not really. Until I met you, I mean.” A tinge of red crept into her cheeks as the words left her mouth. She tried to shake it off.
Rainbow nodded slowly. “Well, I have. When I was growing up, I always kind of wanted someone there to hang with. Not all the time, just sometimes, y'know?”
Scootaloo glanced up at her. “What about Fluttershy? I thought you two used to hang out?”
“Yeah, I guess we did,” Rainbow mused, looking up towards the darkened sky. “But I could never really think of her like a sister... We're not even alike. She was always more of the 'stay indoors and read' kind of girl, when all I wanted to do was go out and race. I mean, she'd always come out to watch if I asked her, but... it's not really the same...
“I guess I wanted an older sister – someone who could keep up with me, maybe even be a little bit faster than me, y'know? I think that'd be cool – to have someone to try and be 'better than'.”
A frown made its way onto Scootaloo's face. “Oh...” she muttered. She knew that she'd never be able to keep up with Rainbow Dash, and she'd definitely never be better than Equestria's faster flier. And, short of through use of an age spell, she could never be an older sister...
Rainbow bumped into her gently. “Then today happened,” she said.
Scootaloo creased her brow. “Huh?”
“I mean, I know I'm never going to have a big sister myself, right? But ever since you told me that that's how you thought about me, I've been thinking about that stuff a lot too.” Rainbow smiled and looked ahead. “And today really hammered it home, I guess...”
Feeling hopelessly confused, Scootaloo offered a questioning smile. “Um, okay?” she guessed.
Rainbow chuckled. “Sorry, not making much sense, am I? What I mean is – maybe being a big sister is as good as having a big sister...” She paused for a moment, then scoffed and shook her head. “Ah, whatever. I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. But today was awesome, right?”
Finally latching on to something that made sense, Scootaloo nodded. “Right!”
That seemed like the end of that conversation, even if Scootaloo hardly understood any of it. 'It doesn't really matter,' Scootaloo found herself thinking, for the third or fourth time that day. Maybe that was part of what being sisters was about? Sometimes you didn't understand each other, but it didn't matter – you didn't need to.
As they neared Scootaloo's home, the two of them slowed down, wanting to enjoy their last few moments together. “Guess we're here,” Rainbow muttered with a half-smile.
Scootaloo nodded. “Guess so...” She paused for a moment, then turned to smile up at Rainbow. “Thanks, sis.”
“Don't push it, squirt,” said Rainbow shortly.
“Right! Sorry...”
An 'awkward' silence fell between them as they trotted onwards. Rainbow glanced at her sidelong. She glanced back. Together, they started snickering again.
Episode Eleven: Another Kind Of Story – [Slice Of Life]
The crackling warmth of the campfire brought a smile to Scootaloo's lips as she snuggled further into her blanket beside it. The sleeping forms of her camping buddies – Applebloom, Applejack, Sweetie Belle, Rarity and Rainbow Dash – all laid close to the fire as well. None of them had expected it to be quite this cold. For once, it was lucky that Rarity had over-packed with, like, twenty extra blankets.
It was a mystery to Scootaloo as to why she was the only one who hadn't yet fallen asleep. She'd been exhausted when she'd first laid down, but now she was wide awake again, staring into the comfy flames without the slightest urge to close her eyes and try to sleep.
For lack of anything better to do, Scootaloo rifled around in the paper bag beside her, looking for a midnight snack. A lone marshmallow sat at the very bottom. With a mental shrug, she grabbed her toasting stick in her teeth and poked the squishy sweet thing onto the end, before holding it up to the fire.
Getting closer to the fire kept her from feeling the cold bite of the wind across her ears as she watched her snack turn from it's trademark white to a delicious, golden brown – and kind of black around the edges. Satisfied, she pulled back into her blanket, set the stick down on her paper bag and took a bite of the marshmallow. She couldn't help but smile at the gooey deliciousness.
She was just leaning down to finish the treat when she heard a grumbling from the other side of the fire...
“Rarity, are you awake?” came Sweetie Belle's quiet voice. The firelight revealed the shaky frown on her face. “Rarity?”
Since Rarity was quite clearly not awake, Scootaloo poked her head up and threw her friend a curious look. “What's up, Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie Belle glanced nervously around for a moment, before her eyes met with Scootaloo's. The unicorn's face twinged red and she looked down at the ground. “I had a bad dream...”
Scootaloo blinked, unsure as to what to say to that. “Uh, what about?” she managed.
“Rainbow Dash's story.”
“Ah.” Somehow, Scootaloo wasn't too surprised, having just gotten over her own nightmares towards the end of their last camping trip. But she had to admit that she'd thought Sweetie Belle and Applebloom found the stories more 'funny' than 'scary'...
“It's okay, I'll just... try and go back to sleep,” said Sweetie Belle, retreating further into her blanket.
“No, wait,” Scootaloo found herself saying. “...C'mere.”
Sweetie Belle threw her a questioning look, in response to which Scootaloo beckoned her over with a hoof. Obviously quite unsure, the unicorn filly put a hoof out of her blanket and pushed herself up. Scootaloo offered a reassuring smile as she started creeping around the fire.
When Sweetie Belle reached her, still frowning and with a brow creased in question, Scootaloo stood – holding up the entrance to her blanket. “C'mon,” she said simply.
Sweetie glanced between Scootaloo and the blanket for a moment, before her frown melted into a smile. Gratefully, she slid under the blanket and laid down, followed quickly by Scootaloo, who had just realised how much of the cold air she was letting in. The blanket was plenty big enough for both of them, but Sweetie shifted across all the same, so that their sides were pressed up against each other.
“Thanks.”
“Don't worry about it,” said Scootaloo with a smile. She leant forwards and dragged the toasting stick towards them, holding the marshmallow end up to her friend and offering it by way of a grunt.
Sweetie Belle, obviously still too tired to think of refusing, slowly leant forwards and bit down on the remaining half of the marshmallow. She closed her eyes, pulled back and chewed with a smile as Scootaloo tossed the stick aside and looked back at the fire, feeling proud to have done her part.
Then, rather unexpectedly, she felt something try to shove its way under her chin. Drawing up in surprise, she made way for Sweetie Belle to slide her head underneath, where she laid – quiet, smiling and thoroughly comfy-looking. Scootaloo blinked and stared down at her for a moment with a blank mind and reddening cheeks. No-one was awake, she reasoned, so she allowed herself a little smile as she rested her chin atop her friend's mane, as if it were a silky pillow.
It was a nice feeling, laying there, together like that – kind of warm and relaxing, especially with the crackling of the fire to keep them company. Of course, she'd never be caught dead doing it if anypony was watching. Well... probably not, anyway...
Before long, Sweetie Belle's breathing had slowed to a gentle, sleepy rhythm. For the first time that night, Scootaloo actually began to think that she might be able to fall asleep. She closed her eyes and let out a content sigh through her nose.
A familiar, scratchy chuckle pierced the silence. Scootaloo drew a sharp breath and her eyes darted towards where Rainbow was supposedly sleeping, about half way around the fire to her left. Her eyes were half-open and a warm smile adorned her face, lit up by the firelight.
“Th-Thought you were asleep,” Scootaloo managed quietly, trying to mask the embarrassment in her voice.
“Nah, can't tonight,” said Rainbow coolly. “Not sure why... it's weird.” She paused, then glanced towards Sweetie Belle and nodded, her smile widening a little as she did. “That was pretty cool of you, squirt.”
Scootaloo's cheeks reddened when she realised that Rainbow must've been watching the exchange. “Oh... yeah. Well, I was just doing what I thought you'd do,” she muttered.
Rainbow chuckled again. “Like I said, it was pretty cool.”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, then closed it again and gave a sheepish smile. “...Thanks.”
“...I guess I should stop telling all those stories, huh?” said Rainbow. “Giving everypony nightmares and all...”
“It's okay,” said Scootaloo. “You're really good at it, and sometimes it's fun to be scared--” She paused. “But...”
“But what?” Rainbow prompted with an encouraging smile.
Scootaloo looked towards the fire again. “It's kind of dumb, but... Do you do other kinds of stories? Not scary ones, more like... I don't know--” She retreated behind Sweetie Belle's mane a little. “--Bedtime stories?”
“Huh?” grunted Rainbow. “Bedtime stories...”
“I want a bedtime story...” Sweetie Belle chimed in, half-asleep.
Rainbow seemed to go a little red in the face. “S-Sorry, guys – I don't really do bedtime stories... not my style, you know?”
Sweetie Belle offered a vague groan.
“Yeah, I guess not,” said Scootaloo. Part of her was glad that Rainbow hadn't said yes. Bedtime stories, what was she thinking? She must've been more tired than she'd thought...
“But... I guess I could tell you another kind of story,” Rainbow said thoughtfully.
Scootaloo gave her a half-nervous, half-curious sort of smile. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“You ever hear about the time Fluttershy took on a full-grown dragon?” said Rainbow with a smirk. “I guess that sounds kind of scary but it's really not.”
Scootaloo furrowed her brow. “...Fluttershy did? I thought she was scared of dragons?”
“Heh. Tell me about it,” chuckled Rainbow. She glanced down at the ground in thought for a moment, then got her hooves and started dragging her blanket around towards the two fillies. She came to a stop beside them, laid down and covered herself before looking into the fire. “So, you want to hear it?”
Scootaloo didn't give it much thought, she was too curious to say no, even if it weren't for the prospect of hearing Rainbow's awesome storytelling. For her part, Sweetie Belle grunted a vague “Mhm” in approval.
Rainbow gave it another moment before clearing her throat. “Alright, so it all started when I was napping on this really awesome cloud over Twilight's place...”
Scootaloo settled herself in again and followed Rainbow's eyes to the fire as she listened to the tale...
“...and the Princess came to me last and put my own medal around my neck. And she said 'Rainbow Dash, the way you swooped in there and took on that dragon to buy time for your friends was truly brave and awesome. You're going to make a great leader of the Wonderbolts some day...' And then we all turned around to a massive wave of applause from everypony in the throne room, as extra thanks for saving all of Equestria from eternal smokiness. The end.”
Scootaloo stirred. She was sure that she was supposed to do something here... Oh, right. She craned her eyes open and threw Rainbow Dash a clumsy smile. “Cool story, Rainbow Dash," she managed. "...The Princess really said you were awesome?”
“Well, not in so many words,” said Rainbow off-hoofedly. “But she basically said it. And I know everypony else was thinking it too. Oh, and there was one time where Princess Luna said I was awesome, when I was in--”
Scootaloo let out an accidental yawn. “S-Sorry,” she mumbled, letting her eyes fall shut again. “Carry on.”
Rainbow stayed quiet for a long moment. “...Y'know, I think I'll save that story for tomorrow. Unless you'd rather I tell one of my scary ones, that is.”
Though she was still fast asleep, Sweetie Belle shuffled at the mere mention of scary stories. Scootaloo gave a very faint chuckle. “I think we like the other kind of story better.”
“Yeah, I figured you did,” said Rainbow softly. “It's a deal then – from tomorrow on, it's awesome, exciting adventure stories all the way. Cool?”
Scootaloo smiled and nodded, even as gentle waves of warmth began to lull her into sleep. “Cool...”
The wooden door yielded to an excited push, opening into a small, tan-coloured room, with little decoration other than the bed in the far corner and the dresser at its side. The firefly lamp atop the dresser was dormant, so the room was lit only by the dimming light from the small window in the wall. It wasn't a whole lot to look at, but nonetheless, Scootaloo could hardly contain herself as she skipped over the threshold.
“Awesome!” she cried, looking around to take the place in. “This is gonna be so great!”
“It's just a stable, y'know,” said Rainbow Dash, following her inside. “Nothing compared to the place we've got in Manehattan. This is just a rest stop before we get there.”
Scootaloo ran over to the window and hopped up to look out onto the quiet, darkening street outside. “Yeah, but I've never stayed in a stable before. It's exciting!”
Rainbow gave a short chuckle and closed the door behind her. “If you say so.”
Scootaloo flashed a smile over her shoulder as Rainbow let out a yawn and shrugged off her saddlebags beside the bed. It was going to be awesome – sharing a room with Rainbow Dash, all by herself. The thought was almost enough to make her squeal with excitement again. There was just one issue that sprung to her mind as she watched Rainbow rifling through her saddlebags...
She hopped down from the windowsill and walked to the middle of the room, casting a curious look around. “So, uh, where do I sleep?”
“In the bed, duh,” said Rainbow, wiggling her flank a little as she dug deeper into the saddlebags. She rifled around for a moment more – during which Scootaloo was hard-pressed to keep her eyes from the dancing, multichrome tail – until she found what she was looking for and pulled it out with a grunt. “There. I've got the sleeping bag, see?”
“...Oh,” said Scootaloo. “How come we didn't just get a room with two beds?”
Rainbow shrugged. “It's a small-change stable, squirt – they don't have twin rooms, only single or double bed.”
“Oh,” said Scootaloo again. She was grateful that Rainbow had turned away to position her sleeping bag, because her cheeks suddenly felt quite warm as a thought crossed her mind. Deciding to play it cool, she cleared her throat and ran a casual hoof through her mane. “Well, y'know, I wouldn't have minded sharing a double bed with you...”
Rainbow chuckled as she started unrolling her sleeping bag. “I wouldn't mind sharing a double bed with me either,” she said. “But Applejack's paying for this trip and she wants to save some cash for when we get to the rodeo. So, single it is...” She cast a teasing smirk over her shoulder at Scootaloo. “Maybe next time, huh, squirt?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, closed it again and cracked a smile.
“A-nd... there we go!” Rainbow finished setting up her sleeping bag, and promptly flopped down onto it. Closing her eyes, she let out a loud, relaxed sigh. “Oh yeah. This'll do.”
When, after a good ten seconds, Rainbow still made no sign of movement other than the rising and falling of her chest, Scootaloo cocked her head in question. “Uh... are you going to sleep?”
“Mhm,” Rainbow grunted.
“Oh,” said Scootaloo. “Well, that's cool... I guess.”
Rainbow quirked an eye open. “You guess? It's a stable, squirt – what'd you think we were gonna do?”
“Nothing!” said Scootaloo quickly.
Rainbow gave her a doubtful look. “Scoots...”
Scootaloo hung her head and frowned. “Okay... I was just... kinda hoping we were gonna stay up late, y'know? Play some games and tell stories and stuff...” She kicked the ground embarrassedly. “...I mean, we've never had a proper sleepover before,” she muttered.
Rainbow groaned and rolled her head. “Squirt, I am really tired. I don't--” She broke off as her gaze met the pouty frown on Scootaloo's face. A long moment passed, during which the two just stared at one another in silence.
And then Rainbow huffed. “What'd you wanna play?”
Scootaloo's face lit up in an instant.
“...and then she says 'Maybe the apple peel and the wannabe dress maker can join you, working on the chicken ranch,'” said Scootaloo, parodying Diamond Tiara's voice. “I mean, what a jerk! What even is a chicken ranch?”
“Hmm,” Rainbow grunted, eyes on the cards she held in her hooves. “So, what happened then?”
“Well, then Miss Cheerilee rang the bell for everypony to come back inside, so we didn't really get a chance to think of a comeback,” said Scootaloo, frowning at her own cards. “Um... where were we again?”
“Go fish,” said Rainbow helpfully.
“Oh.” Scootaloo leant forwards and drew another card from the deck with her teeth, laying it behind her hooves.
“Y'know, it's always better to have friends than enemies,” said Rainbow idly. “But it sounds to me like this filly isn't worth your time. If I were you, next time I saw her, I'd just tell her to get lost.”
“Yeah...” Scootaloo adopted a more thoughtful frown.
“Got any sevens?” asked Rainbow.
Scootaloo dropped the seven card from her grasp and slid it over to Rainbow. “She is nice sometimes though,” she reasoned. “But only ever when we're both on our own, and only sometimes. Whenever she's with her friend, Silver Spoon, or whenever I'm with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, she always goes out of her way to make fun of us.”
“So, you're saying she's not a jerk all the time?” said Rainbow, shooting her a glance. “You think she's just jealous or something?”
“Pssh. Of what – not having a cutie mark?” said Scootaloo.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, totally. I actually meant of you hanging out with your other friends instead of her.”
“But Diamond Tiara isn't my friend. She never was.”
“Oh, she's got a name now?” said Rainbow with a smirk. “Well, you think maybe this 'Diamond Tiara' wants to be your friend? I mean, you are pretty awesome sometimes.”
Scootaloo managed a little smile at that. “I guess that could be it,” she mused. “But then why does she act like a jerk instead of just asking to play?”
Rainbow's smirk widened, as if she knew something she wasn't letting on. “Yeah, I couldn't possibly guess. But hey, if you're interested, maybe you should catch this girl next time she's being nice and ask her if she wants to hang out – somewhere away from everypony else.”
Scootaloo quirked a brow. “How come?”
“It's what I would do,” said Rainbow with a shrug. “I mean, if nopony's around, she'll have no excuse not to answer when you ask why she's always making fun of you, right? Then you can find out whether she's worth your time or not. Simple.”
Scootaloo thought on it for a moment, then nodded to herself. “You know, I think I'll actually do that. You're so wise, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow just smiled, shook her head and turned her attention back to the card game.
Scootaloo stared at her. “...Hey, um, Rainbow Dash?” she said. “Thanks for staying up with me.”
“You got it, squirt.”
It had to be gone midnight, Rainbow Dash thought, as she lay, looking up at the ceiling in silence with Scootaloo beside her. The card games had lasted for a good long while, but eventually they'd taken to the more relaxed activity of just talking. Rainbow couldn't remember how long it'd been since either of them said anything though, and she was beginning to feel drowsy again.
Scootaloo made a funny sort of snorting noise.
Rolling her head to investigate, Rainbow found herself met with the adorable sight of Scootaloo lying on her back, fast asleep on the wooden floor. Rainbow let out a huff of surprise and amusement. She'd thought the filly would never fall asleep.
She let out a yawn of her own before getting to her hooves. Her perfectly comfy sleeping bag was just a few strides away. But first...
Lowering her head, Rainbow gently nuzzled under Scootaloo and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. She lifted the sleeping filly without a sound, carrying her over to the bed and laying her down.
The mattress clearly wasn't the softest in the world, but Scootaloo was too far gone to notice. Rainbow couldn't help but smile beside herself as she watched Scootaloo's chest slowly rise and fall with her breathing – through her mouth, which was part open. It really was an adorable sight.
Rainbow watched her for a long moment more, before shaking her head to regain herself. “Tch,” she scoffed, amused by her own, soft thoughts. She reached down and tussled Scootaloo's mane. “G'night, squirt.”
It was way too hot. Too hot to play, too hot to be outside, almost too hot to do as little as move or talk.
Of the three fillies currently collapsed in the Cutie Mark Crusaders' Clubhouse, Scootaloo was lucky to be the coolest – thanks to her pegasus blood giving her a little more protection from the Sun's wrath. Unfortunately, in this case, being 'the coolest' simply meant that the pool of sweat in which she lay was slightly smaller than those of her peers.
“Guys,” she groaned. “...Guys.”
“What?” said Applebloom.
“...I'm melting.”
This elicited a lazy groan of acknowledgement from the other two.
“Guys,” said Scootaloo again. “I think Twilight's invention is broke.”
A moment passed, before all eyes turned to the little, spinning metal fan on the floor beside them.
“...Turn up the power,” Applebloom suggested.
“You're closer,” said Scootaloo, wiping her nose on her hoof. “Besides, I don't know how.”
“It's magic-powered,” said Applebloom. “Sweetie Belle has to do it.”
Sweetie Belle let out a loud moan. She stared at the contraption for a while, before closing her eyes and screwing up her face. Her horn sparked with a vague, half-hashed sort of pink.
There was another moment of silence.
The fan tipped over backwards.
Scootaloo blinked sleepily at it. “...Well, horseapples.”
“Now what do we do?” asked Applebloom.
Sweetie Belle shuffled limply. “You're the leader – you think of something.”
The only sound that followed was that of the ticking cuckoo clock on the wall. It struck the hour. The cuckoo emerged and began to chirp its annoying tune.
Applebloom twisted her head to grab the paper aeroplane behind her hoof and tossed it towards the offending avian. Said aeroplane got half-way to its mark before being caught in the updraft from the fan and being blown towards the open window.
“Hey, guys!” came a voice from outside. “You in here? I-- Ow! What the...?”
Recognising the voice, Scootaloo summoned the energy to twist her body and roll over onto her back, staring over at the window. A sweaty-looking Rainbow Dash hovered outside, rubbing her nose, and the aeroplane lay, with its own nose crumpled, on the Clubhouse floor.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash,” said Scootaloo. “Enjoying the weather?”
Rainbow Dash quirked a brow and hovered inside. “Uh, yeah... You guys don't look so good...”
“Twilight's fan blows,” Sweetie Belle explained. “...But not very effectively.”
“Uh... huh,” said Rainbow, looking between them and the fan for a moment, before shaking her head. “Yeah, so... I came to let you guys know that AJ, Rarity and I are going down the lake this afternoon. Figured you might want to come with.”
“The lake?” Scootaloo repeated.
“You know, to swim?” said Rainbow archly.
Scootaloo's eyes widened a little.
“Hey, that's actually a good idea,” said Sweetie Belle, pushing herself up a little.
“Why didn't I think of that?” said Applebloom.
There was a pregnant pause, before their faces both went a little blank.
“Oh, right,” said Sweetie Belle. “You did, but--”
“Good idea!” said Scootaloo hurriedly, cutting her off. “Yeah, c'mon – let's go with Rainbow Dash!”
She was quick to push herself up to her hooves and flap the dampness from her wings, only to receive a pair of questioning looks from her friends.
“Um, Scoots, you can't--”
“Can't go out without sunscreen!” Scootaloo interrupted. “Good thinking, Applebloom!”
Scootaloo felt everypony's eyes on her as she hurried over to the corner to fish the sunscreen out of her school bag. She was determined not to look around and let her friends see the redness of her face.
“Uh, so, I'll tell the guys to wait for you?” said Rainbow Dash.
“I... guess so,” said Applebloom, and Scootaloo didn't have to be looking to notice the sidelong look she was being given.
“Great! Hurry down once you've got your sunscreen or whatever!”
The lake, and the area surrounding it, was awash with Ponyville citizens. Younger children were paddling in the shallows, whilst older ponies either relaxed atop towels on the lakeside or played loud, splashing games in the centre of the lake itself.
It was a big lake, of course, so it had been easy enough for Scootaloo's party of six to find a quiet-ish bank. Said bank naturally dropped off into one of the deepest parts of the lake, just a few strides in. And, for the other five, this wasn't a problem at all...
Scootaloo sat on the water's very edge, with her hooves all soaking in the gently lapping ripples. She watched with a solemn frown as her friends laughed and splashed each other with water, swimming circles around one another as they did.
The grown-ups seemed to be a little more relaxed, though they were still clearly enjoying themselves – because the smiles never left their faces. Rarity was floating on her back, some distance away from the others, whilst Rainbow and Applejack had just finished swimming another length of the lake, and were about to start a fourth.
“H-hey, Applejack!” chuckled Rainbow Dash, with a mischievous grin on her face. “Check this out...”
With all the speed of pouncing tiger, Rainbow snapped her wings out of the water and beat them downwards, launching herself up and gaining some impressive air. Applejack, having only just rubbed the water from her eyes, gasped as she saw Rainbow angle herself for a dive.
The farmpony ducked under the water just in time, and Rainbow crashed down a split-second later, kicking up a huge splash that even reached Scootaloo.
They both resurfaced, and Applejack spat out a mouthful of water. “You varmint!” she cried, voice shaking with laughter. “C'mere!”
Rainbow Dash laughed as Applejack jumped forwards and tackled her under the water again, and the two of them began struggling and splashing with one another, hooves flailing every which way.
Rarity shook her head in their direction, though she was still smiling. “Honestly...” She cast a look over at Scootaloo. “Scootaloo, aren't you getting in, darling?”
“Pfft!” Rainbow spat water as she resurfaced, holding Applejack at fetlock's length. “Yeah, c'mon, squirt! Give Applejack a hoof!”
“I don't need an extra hoof to take you down, 'Waterbolt'!” said Applejack, surging forwards and grabbing her again, drawing a round of uncontrollable laughter from Rainbow.
“I-I'm fine,” said Scootaloo, flashing Rarity a smile.
In truth, she was anything but fine. The Sun was blazing down against her back, and the little water she'd had splashed on her thus far was only a reminder of how good a dip in the lake would feel. She hung her head and sighed.
The splashing and laughing of her friends continued for a few minutes more. Scootaloo tried to brush off the feelings of discomfort and enjoy the little relief she had from the heat, paddling her hooves on the edge of the water. It felt nice enough, she reasoned, as always.
She hardly noticed when the noise died down after a while, though she did hear Rainbow Dash muttering to Applejack.
“Hey, give me a minute. I've got to go--”
“Yeah, go on, ya softie.”
“Am not... Hey, Scootaloo!”
Scootaloo raised her head and smiled, to see Rainbow Dash paddling towards her. She couldn't help thinking that her idol looked even more awesome than usual, with her mane all wet and stuck to her face like that.
“What's up, squirt?” said Rainbow, as she drew up to the bank. “Water's great! You must be frying up there.”
“Oh, well, yeah,” said Scootaloo, rubbing her burning neck. “I don't mind, really. I think I'll get a tan or something.”
Rainbow blinked at her. Scootaloo countered with a cheesy smile.
“...You can't swim, can you?” said Rainbow shortly.
Scootaloo's face fell. “...No.”
Rainbow's hoof met her face. “Well, now I feel kinda stupid,” she muttered. After a moment, she shook her head and extended a hoof to Scootaloo. “...C'mon then.”
“Huh?”
“Come on in!” said Rainbow, beckoning her forward. “I'll hold you like a float 'til you get the hang of it.”
Scootaloo mouthed at her, and glanced out towards the deeper parts of the lake, in which everypony was dipping and diving in the water. “But... what if I sink?” she said.
Rainbow let out a chuckle. “Pegasi don't sink, squirt – we float.”
“We do?”
“Yeah, didn't--” Rainbow broke off and adopted a lop-sided smile. “Well, I guess your mom doesn't know a whole lot about this pegasus stuff, huh? That's cool though – you've got me to teach you. Now, you coming, or what?”
Scootaloo eyed the proffered hoof. A glance at Sweetie Belle and Applebloom later, the smile returned to her face, albeit nervously. “O-okay.”
Carefully, Scootaloo rose to her hooves and stepped forwards, lowering herself into the water as she would a bath. Rainbow Dash brought the hoof to Scootaloo's chest, holding it there as a firm support to guide her down.
There was a brief shock at the sudden change in temperature, but before long, Scootaloo was resting on her front on the water, with all but her head submerged just below the surface. The heat of the Sun's glare had disappeared almost entirely, and it felt like a massive weight was lifted from her shoulders.
“Alright, first things first,” said Rainbow Dash, still holding her up with a hoof. “Unfurl your wings and lay 'em at your sides.”
Scootaloo did as she was told. Her wings were kind of heavy from being soaked in water, but somehow they still listened to her. “At my sides... Like this?”
Rainbow nodded. “That's it. Simple, right?”
“Okay, now what?” said Scootaloo.
“Now just chill out,” said Rainbow. “That's all there is to it. You ready?”
“W-wait!” said Scootaloo. “I don't have to... paddle my hooves or anything?”
“Nope. Just breathe slow and stay cool. If you panic, your wings'll lock up and somepony'll have to come get you. And that's... kind of embarrassing, so let's try to not panic, okay?”
“But--” Scootaloo hesitated. “I mean, okay, I'll try. But, if I did... you'd come help me, right?”
Rainbow flashed her a sidelong smile. “'Course I would, squirt! Now, c'mon, you ready?”
Scootaloo bit her lip. Nopony else seemed to be having trouble staying afloat – even Rarity, who wasn't even moving at all, just bobbing along on her back.
“Okay, I guess so.”
Scootaloo steadied her breath as Rainbow told her. Slowly, Rainbow traced her hoof across her chest before letting go completely. Scootaloo had a moment of worry, in which she closed her eyes part-way, but she didn't sink. In fact, it felt very much like Rainbow was still holding her. Sure enough, she was floating.
“This feels weird,” she commented, eyeing the water's surface suspiciously.
“But cool, right?” said Rainbow. “It sure takes the edge off of that Sun.”
Scootaloo wiggled her hooves a little beneath the water, and turned herself slightly. She felt a smile creeping onto her face. “Yeah, it does...”
The sound of familiar laughter drew her attention to the side, where Sweetie Belle and Applebloom had their eyes closed as they splashed each other.
Scootaloo's smile widened. “Hey, guys!” She instinctively made to walk towards them. And, to her surprise, it actually seemed to be working. She grunted in amusement, before remembering what she was doing. She turned to cast a hopeful look over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash. “Um, can I?”
Rainbow smiled and nodded grantingly, at which Scootaloo gave a wide grin. She turned again and made her steady way over to her friends.
It was a long, relaxing afternoon. The three fillies spent hours playing in the lake, then what must've been hours more relaxing on the lakeside with Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity. The Sun had gradually begun to set, and its oppressive glare was hardly even noticeable after their swim.
Now, Scootaloo walked home alongside Rainbow Dash, enjoying the cool breeze that blew through the streets in the light of the sunset. They'd already parted with the others at the lake – the grown-ups having agreed that it was a school night and they needed to get home.
As they came up to Scootaloo's place, Rainbow rolled her neck by way of easing the break of the silence in which they'd been walking 'til now. “Well, this is your stop, squirt.”
“Yup,” said Scootaloo idly, staring at her door. She was kind of tired and hungry, but it really had been too short a walk for such a cool evening. Then again, it was always a shame when she had to say goodbye to Rainbow Dash.
She turned to give the older pegasus a wide smile. And then, gripped by a random urge, she jumped forwards and wrapped her forehooves around Rainbow's fetlock. It was something she'd seen Applebloom and Sweetie Belle do when they were happy to see their sisters, and so it just felt like the right thing to do.
Rainbow let out a quiet chuckle at the gesture, and then unfurled a wing to wrap it around Scootaloo's side, hugging her back.
After far too short a time to be cuddled up against the awesome pegasus, Scootaloo felt Rainbow pull back. “Go on, squirt. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Scootaloo drew back and started towards the door, smiling back over her shoulder.
“...And tell your mom I said 'Hi'!” Rainbow added, returning the smile.
“Okay!” said Scootaloo. “Bye, Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow unfurled her wings and beat them, kicking off from the ground as she did. “Later, squirt!”
Reaching the doorway, Scootaloo found herself stopping to turn and watch Rainbow Dash. The awesome pegasus flipped over, midair, and started off towards the sunset, and her cloud home in the distance.
It was a more pensive smile that crossed Scootaloo's face then. Rainbow Dash taught her all kinds of things about being a pegasus, and for that, she was incredibly grateful. But the one thing that continued to elude her was the one thing she wanted most – to be able to fly alongside Rainbow Dash.
Someday, perhaps, Rainbow would find a way to teach her to do that. But until then, she reasoned, there were still plenty of other things to learn. One day at a time.
“...Yeah,” she muttered, finally turning to make her way inside. “See ya later.”
The midnight blue roof of the train car was wholly uninteresting, just as it had been the past five times that Scootaloo had opened her eyes that night. As worn out as she knew she was from the wedding, she just couldn't get to sleep. It wasn't because of the clattering of the train's wheels against the track – that was actually kind of a relaxing sound. And it wasn't because of the dreamy, accented mutterings of her fellow crusader – even if that wasn't such a relaxing sound...
Normally, falling to sleep beside her two best friends wasn't something she had to think about, it just happened. Not tonight, it seemed...
Scootaloo lazily rolled her head out of the bed compartment and let her eyes roam about the rest of the cabin, not really looking for anything in particular... maybe something to drink. Her gaze was naturally drawn towards the compartment opposite, wherein she expected to see the same multi-hued mane that had helped her close her eyes again the past few times. This time though, it was missing.
Squinting and leaning closer, Scootaloo saw that the sheets were thrown back and the compartment was otherwise empty. The bunk below – in which Fluttershy had been sleeping – was also empty, but a quick glance revealed that all the other grown-ups were still sleeping soundly in their own compartments. All except for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy...
Scootaloo turned her head to look up and down the corridor, but there was no sign of either of them.
Curiosity getting the better of her, as it tended to do, she shifted towards the edge of the bunk and disentangled herself from Sweetie Belle's cuddling hooves. Scootaloo clambered over the side and dropped down to the floor with a quiet thud as her friend grunted out a muffled, sleepy pout.
Scootaloo's right ear perked up as it caught a faint breeze, and drew her attention to the door at one end of the cabin. She started hesitantly towards it and, as she drew nearer, the sound of whistling wind became clear. Somepony had left the door open a crack...
As she drew nearer still, another sound reached her ears, though this one was so quiet that it was almost lost amidst the wind. It was a slow, gentle voice – like someone was singing to themselves in a whisper, and didn't want anypony else to hear.
“Fluttershy?” Scootaloo whispered.
Her nose twitched as she poked it through the door's gap and out into the chill, night air. There was no doubt that whoever was singing was just outside. So, after a moment's hesitation, she slid the door open just another inch, and peered outside.
The door led onto a small, rounded platform at the very back of the train, out under the starry night sky. The pale moonlight lit up the figure of Rainbow Dash, sitting upright and staring out at the sky. She had her wing draped over another figure – Fluttershy, who was slumped with her head against Rainbow's chest.
Clearly, neither of them had noticed Scootaloo, so she was careful to not make a sound as she lowered her head and listened.
“...Lay still now, and rest your weary eyes--”
Scootaloo's jaw inched open. It wasn't Fluttershy who was singing...
“The day has passed – it's time for dreams, Reach out and touch the land of butterflies.
They'll carry you through memories, and stars and things you've never seen, and I will be right there with you, to watch that smile unfold upon your face...
You're drifting now, but sweetheart, there's no need for you to fear. 'Cause come the morning, when you wake, I'll still be lying here...
'Cause come the morning, when you wake, I'll still be lying here.”
Rainbow Dash drew out the last soothing note for barely more than a second before falling into silence. In the wake of the song, the world seemed strangely quiet. The only sounds were that of the train's clattering wheels, the gently whistling wind and Scootaloo's own breathing.
She wasn't quite sure what to do. She had her answer as to where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had gone, but after seeing that...
Rainbow's ear perked up, as if she'd just heard something. “...Been there long?” she said suddenly. “You know, it's not cool to spy on your friends.”
Caught off guard, Scootaloo stammered. “Uh... I... wasn't spying, I was just, um--”
“...Scoot?” said Rainbow. “Is that you?”
“Uh, no, it's Sweetie Belle,” she lied. “Just... looking for the bathroom.”
Rainbow scoffed. “Yeah, give me some credit, squirt. Besides, that was a lousy impression. Let me guess – you can't sleep either?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, closed it, then huffed through her nose. “Right.”
Rainbow sighed and nodded. “Well, come join the club. And shut that door behind you. You don't want Rarity waking up in the cold, trust me.”
“O-okay,” said Scootaloo. Rainbow obviously wasn't mad, and Scootaloo would never say no to a chance to hang out with her, so she was all too happy to do as she was asked. She made sure that the door clicked shut completely before turning to stride up beside Rainbow and Fluttershy.
As she looked across at them, she saw that Fluttershy's eyes were closed, and her mouth was part open as she breathed, quietly, into Rainbow's coat. She was fast asleep.
“Did you hear all of that?” said Rainbow, noticing the look on Scootaloo's face.
“I heard you singing,” said Scootaloo with a nod. “...I didn't know you did lullabies.”
“I don't,” said Rainbow. “So don't get any ideas about telling everypony 'bout this. It was just a... a one-off – since Fluttershy couldn't sleep, and I owed her one.”
“I won't say anything,” Scootaloo assured her. “I promise.”
Rainbow smiled at that, and turned to look out at the sky again. “...Thanks.”
Scootaloo shuffled her hooves around on the hard metal beneath her, then sat back on her haunches like Rainbow. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was a relaxing sort of atmosphere. It made sense that Rainbow and Fluttershy chose to come out here.
“Why did you owe her one?” Scootaloo found herself asking, not that it was any of her business.
Rainbow rolled her head. “Ah, it's from a long time ago, back when we first came to live down here on the ground.”
“On the ground?” said Scootaloo.
“You know, when we moved out of Cloudsdale,” Rainbow clarified. “I couldn't get used to sleeping on a bed that didn't... you know, float. So, she... sang that song to me.”
Rainbow shrugged dismissively, as to make it seem unimportant. All the same, Scootaloo couldn't help but smile.
“I was a kid,” said Rainbow, catching her look. “I don't need it anymore. And neither does she, really. I just thought she'd like it if I... paid her back.” She paused to look down at Fluttershy's sleeping face. “And, obviously, she did...”
“That makes sense,” said Scootaloo.
Rainbow cleared her throat and looked up again. “Yeah, so, that totally doesn't make me a softie or anything... Right?”
Scootaloo pursed her lips.
There was a long pause, before Rainbow let out another sigh. “Great. There goes my image again.”
“...I won't tell anypony,” Scootaloo repeated. She frowned for a moment, then added “But, being soft isn't really a bad thing anyway.”
Rainbow cast her a sidelong look.
“I-I mean, my mom used to sing me lullabies too,” Scootaloo went on. “And she's still really cool.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Yeah, but that's different. Moms are cool by definition – that's basically their job.”
“But you're kinda like that too,” said Scootaloo, looking down at her hooves. “When nopony's around.”
Rainbow blinked. “I'm like a mom?”
Scootaloo traced her hoof in a slow circle. “Not really... but you are like a big sister,” she said. “And not just to me.” She looked meaningfully up at Fluttershy, sleeping there under the blanket of Rainbow's wing.
Rainbow followed her eyes, and a pensive frown crossed her face. “I am, huh?”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo. “And big sisters are awesome too--” She stifled a yawn. “--even if they are kind of soft sometimes.” She leant her head up against Rainbow's fetlock for comfort, and smiled as her eyes drooped half-way.
Another long moment of silence followed.
“...Yeah,” said Rainbow finally. “Yeah, I guess they are. Thanks, squirt.”
Scootaloo shrugged, though inside she was filled with pride. “Just doing what you'd do.”
“Good policy,” said Rainbow. “Sure fire way to be awesome, right?”
Scootaloo gave a little chuckle at that, and looked out over the tracks with Rainbow.
“...It's a really nice song,” Scootaloo muttered.
“Yeah, it is.”
She shuffled her haunches a little. “You know, I can't sleep either... Do you think, maybe--”
“I meant it when I said it was a one-off, squirt,” said Rainbow, with finality.
“Oh...” Scootaloo frowned. “Okay.”
There was a long, slightly awkward pause. And then Scootaloo felt a warmth on her back as a blue wing was draped around her, squeezing gently.
“This oughta help though,” Rainbow said smoothly.
Scootaloo glanced up at her in surprise. Rainbow just winked and flashed a warm smile.
After a moment spent blinking up at her, Scootaloo returned the smile. She pressed herself closer and nestled her snout into Rainbow's fluffy chest, careful not to jostle Fluttershy. She closed her eyes as the chill of the wind and the rattling of the train tracks seemed to melt away.
“Yeah,” she muttered. “That'll do it.”
The sound of Rainbow's scratchy chuckle was the last thing she heard before drifting off into sleep.
Scootaloo dived into a mound of snow behind the nearest tree, just as a pair of snowballs whistled past her ears. She kept low and peered around her cover, looking for her attackers. Having obviously lost sight of Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle – both clad in thick scarves and winter boots – had turned on each other and begun racing to pile up huge snowballs.
Seeing a perfect opportunity present itself, Scootaloo scooped up a hoof-full of snow, pressed it together and took careful aim. After judging the distance, she threw the snowball with all her might, watching it arc through the air and strike Sweetie Belle square on the flank.
Sweetie squealed loudly and jumped into the air. “Cold! Cold!” she squeaked, as Applebloom and Scootaloo both burst into giggles at the sight.
Winter hadn't been due for another few days yet, and nopony was really ready for its early arrival. Including the school, which meant that the remainder of the week's lessons had been cancelled. And thanks to that, the Crusaders had a few extra days of winter before their cutie mark crusading plans began.
Which, of course, meant that they had time to play around in the snow with everypony else.
“Hey, I've got an idea!” said Applebloom, abandoning her snowball pile to trot over to Scootaloo. “Let's slide down the hill and surprise Applejack and Rarity!”
Sweetie Belle, once she'd managed to shake the rest of the snow from her coat, brightened with a mischievous grin. “Excellent idea! Rarity loves surprises!”
“You in, Scoots?” said Applebloom.
Scootaloo bounced in place. “You bet I am!”
The three of them – giggling to themselves – trotted through the trees and up to the edge of the hill that led down towards the frozen lake. They crouched at the very edge and peered down the steep slope. Applejack and Rarity were holed up in a little snow-fort, using the hill as the back wall, while the rest of their friends pummelled it with snowballs. Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie and--
Rainbow Dash wasn't there.
Frowning in confusion, Scootaloo glanced around, whilst Applebloom and Sweetie talked ambush tactics. It wasn't like Rainbow Dash to miss out on any kind of fight, much less one that involved snow.
Scootaloo scanned the whole treeline – or at least the parts she could make out from here – for any sign of her. Her frown grew more and more concerned, until finally she caught sight of a blue blob sitting against a tree not too far away.
“--and then we roll it down the hill and slide down after it--”
“Hey, look over there,” Scootaloo interrupted, pointing. “Is that Rainbow Dash?”
Applebloom broke off and squinted. “I think so. Why?”
Scootaloo had already stood up and started walking that way. “I'm just gonna go see what she's doing. Be right back.”
“But we've got the perfect ambush, here!” Applebloom pleaded.
“Forget it, Applebloom,” said Sweetie Belle. “When it comes to Rainbow Dash, her attention span is--”
Scootaloo stopped paying attention and picked up the pace, trotting through the sparse woods until she came into the small clearing where she'd seen Rainbow. Sure enough, Rainbow Dash was sat – all wrapped up in winter gear – against a tree. There was a Daring Do book in her lap. It was closed, and her head was leant back, resting against the tree. She looked like she might've been napping.
A twig cracked beneath Scootaloo's hoof, and Rainbow's eyes opened. “Oh,” she said. “Hey, squirt.”
“Hi,” said Scootaloo, with a toothy grin. “Whatcha doing? Everyone's having a snowball fight just over that ridge.”
Rainbow smiled back briefly, then leant back against the bark. “I know. I'm just... hanging out with Tank.” She patted the ground beside her.
“Uh...” said Scootaloo intelligently.
“He's... hibernating,” Rainbow explained, with some effort. “Just under the snow, there.”
“Ohhh.” Scootaloo smiled and approached. “Cool. Reading a bedtime story, huh?”
Rainbow's cheeks flushed a little, but she didn't flinch. “Yeah, kinda.”
Finding a reasonably snowless patch of dirt, Scootaloo sat down by the tree, opposite the mound which was apparently Tank the Tortoise's bed. She noticed the solemn look on Rainbow's face right away. “Um, are you alright? You look sad.”
Rainbow closed her eyes and shook her head slowly, mouth part open. “Just wasn't expecting him to... you know. Hibernate.” She grit her teeth at the word.
“Oh, right,” said Scootaloo, nodding to herself. “I know the feeling. It was really weird the first time my snake hibernated.”
“You've got a snake?” said Rainbow, glancing sidelong at her.
“Yeah, Fluttershy gave him to me a couple of years ago.” Scootaloo looked up at the barren branches of the tree as she thought back. “I was really worried about him, 'cause he stopped eating all of a sudden. And he got really slow. I thought he was sick.”
Rainbow's interest seemed to be perked. She shifted in place, turning more towards Scootaloo. “What's his name?” she asked.
“Snake.”
“...Just 'Snake'?”
Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah.”
Rainbow blinked. “Cool.”
With a smile, Scootaloo continued. “He was like that for months, but when Winter Wrap Up came around, he was suddenly back to normal. Just like Fluttershy said he would be.”
“Huh,” said Rainbow. “So, I guess he's hibernating again now, huh?”
“Yeah, he started slowing down a few days ago.” Scootaloo shrugged. “I guess he'll probably be like that all winter again. Kinda boring, I don't think I could do that.”
Rainbow turned fully towards Scootaloo now. “Aren't you kinda sad that he won't be around? You know, to talk to?”
Scootaloo blinked at that, and tilted her head in question.
“Uh, you know,” said Rainbow, shrugging a hoof 'casually'. “I mean, I wouldn't know, but I hear that ponies like to... talk to their pets sometimes. About stuff they don't talk to other ponies about, and--” She paused and glanced away. “--and stuff,” she finished lamely. “I mean, not that I do that.”
After a short silence, Scootaloo frowned. “No, I know what you mean. It's easier to talk to Snake about stuff, 'cause he doesn't interrupt or ask questions or make fun of me.”
Seeming to relax a little bit, Rainbow sighed and nodded. “...Or think you're uncool.”
Scootaloo gave a lop-sided smile. “Yeah.”
Somehow, that seemed to cheer Rainbow up a little – prompting a little smile. “Yeah, Tank's kind of the same. Now that he's... you know... I guess I'm just kinda bummed that he won't be there to talk to.”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo again. Then she registered the statement and blinked in confusion. “Wait, why won't he be there?”
“Well, he's hibernating,” said Rainbow with a shrug, as if the answer was obvious. “I don't even know if he can hear me.”
“Oh,” said Scootaloo. She frowned at the book in Rainbow's lap. “But you still read him a bedtime story?”
Something changed in Rainbow all of a sudden, as she licked her lips and looked to one side. She must've started feeling the cold, because – after a long pause – she let her breath out in a shivering sigh. “Yeah.”
A silence fell over the clearing. The sounds of ponies playing in the distance were faint and muffled. It was odd for Rainbow Dash to suddenly go so quiet. And as Scootaloo stared at her, slowly trying to figure out how she was feeling, she thought she saw moisture forming in Rainbow's eyes.
Scootaloo bit her lip and glanced around, as if she would find something to say on the ground beside her. A moment later, her eyes settled on the mound that held Tank, and something clicked.
Pursing her lips, she leant in experimentally towards the mound. She turned her head so that her ear was towards it, as if listening.
“...What's that, Tank?”
Rainbow's ear twitched. She half-turned towards Scootaloo.
Finding her nerve, Scootaloo nodded to herself a couple of times. “Uh huh. Yup... Okay.” She looked up at Rainbow again. “Tank says to tell you 'Thanks for the story'. And that he'd like another one tomorrow, if you're not busy.”
Rainbow's mouth inched open a little. “What?” she breathed.
Scootaloo gulped and leaned in again. “He's saying something else. Hold on, he's a little slow...” She waited for a good five count, then nodded again. “He wants you to know that he hasn't gone anywhere. He's still listening, and--” She paused again. “--and so you're not alone.”
Rainbow was staring at her now, completely silent. Though her expression was nearly unreadable, Scootaloo managed to meet her eyes with a smile.
And slowly, Rainbow began to smile too. “When did you learn to speak tortoise?”
Scootaloo shrugged. “I have a snake. They're basically the same family.”
“...He really say all that?”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo. She mimed hearing something else from the mound, and leaned down one last time. Rainbow watched as Scootaloo nodded a couple more times. “He also says that he's gonna take a nap now, so you can go and play with your friends if you want.”
Rainbow looked down and bit her bottom lip. For a moment, she looked as if she was going to get sad again. But then a wider smile spread across her face.
“That does sound like something he'd say.”
A moment later, Rainbow was on her hooves, standing tall. She slung the book into her saddlebag, shook the snow from her coat and smiled at Scootaloo. “Alright, go find the others and call sister teams. I'll be right there.”
Scootaloo's face brightened with a toothy grin. “Haha! Yeah!” Sudden excitement taking over, she darted off towards the ridge and jumped over it, sliding down on her belly.
...Leaving Rainbow to pat the ground at the base of the tree stump.
Once she was sure that Scootaloo was out of earshot, Rainbow leant down and listened at the mound experimentally. “What's that, buddy?” she said. She listened, then smiled. “Yeah, she is kinda smart, isn't she?”
She rose up once more and started after Scootaloo, sparing one last look for Tank. “You're the best, pal. I'll see you soon.”
The Grand Galloping Gala proved to be a heck of a lot more fun for Rainbow this time around. What, with not spending the whole thing trying to get in with the Wonderbolts, she actually had a chance to spend the night having fun with her friends.
“Thanks for the dance, partner,” said Applejack, as she and Rainbow left the dance floor. The party music had finally come to an end, and the band had started up a calmer, more 'ballroom' tune.
Rainbow flashed her a smirk. “Anytime, 'partner'. Sure you don't wanna stick around for the slow dance?”
“A slow dance, with you?” Applejack snorted. “As if you could stand still long enough.”
Rainbow shrugged and smiled. They reached the refreshments table, and Rainbow scooped herself a glass of punch. She licked her lips as she did - feeling absolutely parched after all the dancing. She stopped before raising the glass to her lips though. If she went straight ahead and guzzled it, she'd give away that she'd gotten tired out - when Applejack clearly hadn't. Rainbow blamed it on Earth Pony stamina. She had an image to maintain, after all.
“Want some punch?” she said, instead of drinking it. She picked up the glass with a wing - a trick she'd learned last cider season - and offered it to Applejack. AJ didn't seem to hear though. She was staring off towards the opposite end of the room, the carefree smile gone from her face.
Arching a brow, Rainbow traced her gaze, trying to figure out what she was looking at. Her eyes wandered over Fluttershy and her new pal on the dance floor, skipped past Twilight and Celestia talking, and ignored Discord, Spike and the Smooze playing some kind of dice game.
Finally, she found what Applejack was looking at – a table in the far corner. Around it sat three surprisingly passive fillies, all chatting quietly with smiles on their faces and milkshakes on the table between them. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom.
“Never thought I'd see the day,” Applejack said, so quietly that Rainbow had to check to be sure she'd spoken. The smile had made its way back onto her face. “Seems like only yesterday she was wearin' my hand-me-down party dresses and thinkin' they were the best things ever. And now--” Applejack shook her head. “--now look at her.”
Rainbow did. She'd never really been one for fancy dresses, but she had to admit that Rarity had outdone herself this year. Applebloom looked awesome in her dress, as did Sweetie Belle in hers. And Scoots--
Rainbow felt an odd sort of tightness in her chest as she watched her self-proclaimed little sister laugh at something Sweetie Belle had said, and then point across the table and make a smiling retort. The others laughed, and Scootaloo's smile turned proud.
Hearing a sniffle from beside her, Rainbow shook herself out of the daze and looked over at Applejack. A single tear was rolling down her smiling cheek. “My Applebloom.”
Rainbow felt herself flush and rolled her suddenly uncomfortable neck. “Get it together, pal,” she said quietly, offering the punch glass again whilst looking in the opposite direction.
Applejack wiped a hoof across her cheek, then shook her head and smiled at Rainbow. “Sorry. Must be this music. Makin' me all sappy.” She took the glass. “Thanks.”
“I didn't see no sappiness,” said Rainbow. “Far as I know, Applejack cries on the inside.” She gave AJ a conspiratorial wink, then scooped herself another glass of punch. Applejack responded with a grateful smile.
They clinked their glasses and took long drinks, and Rainbow savoured the refreshing feeling. She closed her eyes and sighed as she lowered her empty glass, then leant against the table. A moment later though, she found herself cracking an eye open to look across the room again, towards Scootaloo.
“Are you doin' okay?” said Applejack. Rainbow pretended to blink her eyes open, then raised a brow at her friend. Applejack rolled her eyes. “Don't even pretend you don't feel somethin' when you look at Scootaloo right now.”
“Tch!” Rainbow scoffed and pretended to sip from her empty glass. “What're you talkin' about?”
“C'mon, RD. A little honesty wouldn't kill ya.”
“I seriously don't know what you're talking about.”
Applejack shook her head slightly, smiling like she didn't believe it for a second. To be fair, neither did Rainbow – she definitely felt something when she looked at Scoots. She didn't want to think about it though. Not in front of Applejack, anyway.
“Really?” said AJ. “Well then, I guess you also don't know how much time you've been spendin' with her over the past few years?”
“My clock's broken,” said Rainbow.
“A lot,” AJ clarified. “May not seem like long to you – probably not long enough, if you're honest--”
Rainbow opened her mouth to say something – she wasn't sure what – but Applejack kept talking over her.
“--but all those times when you went campin' together, or tried to teach her somethin' 'bout her wings, or read her a bedtime story... It all adds up to a whole lot of together time. Like it or not, RD, she's a big part of your life now.”
“Of course I like it,” Rainbow threw back. “What kind of question is that?”
“Wasn't a question,” said Applejack. “I'm just sayin' that you've been through a lot together. You've gotten close.”
Rainbow shook her head. “I... I don't-- I mean, yeah, we've gotten pretty tight. But...” She trailed off into silence.
Applejack gave her a sympathetic look. “You mean to say you even ain't a little bit proud of that young filly today?” said Applejack. She leant a little closer. “You mean to say you ain't seen a huge change in her since you took her under your wing? Seen her... growin' up?”
Rainbow frowned down at the floor for a moment, then let out a sigh through her nose. She guessed it was pointless to avoid thinking about it, with AJ on her case. So, with deliberate slowness, she raised her head and traced her eyes across the room to Scoots' table again.
And took a genuine look at Scootaloo. The filly she really had been spending a lot of time with recently. The filly she'd caught when she fell, read to when she was sick, shared stories with. The filly who'd asked Rainbow to take her under her wing, and to whom she'd said yes. The filly she'd promised to touch the stars with.
...The filly who'd become a part of her life.
And she shook her head. “No.”
Applejack blinked and opened her mouth a little, but no sound came out.
“I don't see any change in her,” Rainbow explained, still smiling at Scootaloo, who was laughing again. “I mean, she's getting bigger, sure. But she hasn't changed a bit since that night in the forest. She's still as cute, as innocent, as driven... as awesome as she's always been.”
She turned her smile on AJ, who had a different look of a surprise on her face now.
“The only thing that's changed--” Rainbow shrugged. “--is that I've gotten to know her better – seen a side of her that she isn't used to showing.”
Applejack's look of surprise slowly morphed back into a smile. “I reckon that goes both ways.”
Rainbow shrugged again and made no comment on the matter. She didn't need to. She knew the answer, and she suspected that AJ did too. No need to make it easy on her.
“I am proud of her,” said Rainbow. “But not because she's 'all grown up'. Just because she's somepony to be proud of.” She touched her glass down on the table, softly, and smiled down at it. “Always has been.”
She felt like getting another drink, but kept her glass where it was, for dramatic effect. Hey, at the end of the day, she was still Rainbow Dash – appearance was almost everything.
“Looks like I missed a beat,” said Applejack. “I guess the fillies ain't the only ones who're growin' up.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, but failed to hide her blush. “'S the punch,” she lied. “Making me all sappy.”
“Didn't see no sappiness,” said Applejack.
When Rainbow looked up, Applejack was offering her a fresh glass of punch. AJ smirked. Rainbow smirked back. They drank, leant against the table and looked out over the room, and the slow wind-down of one of the Best Nights Ever.
Scootaloo had been high before, but she'd never been this high. It was trippy, to say the least, and she was still getting used to it.
As she stood on the cloud, staring over the edge, she could see the whole of Ponyville stretching out beneath her. She could literally see her house from there, and it was disturbingly tiny from this far away. A gust of wind blew through her mane, making her rock in place and giving her a sense of vertigo that she would supposedly get over with enough practise.
“You ready, squirt?” said Rainbow Dash, stepping up beside her.
Scootaloo frowned and leaned a little further over the edge, looking down at the lake directly beneath them. It looked more like a puddle. She sighed. “I guess so.”
“Come on, where's the confidence?” said Rainbow, bumping her on the shoulder. Scootaloo looked up to see her beaming back at her. It was kind of encouraging, and she managed a smile of her own. “That's more like it,” Rainbow said. “It's cool to be afraid when you're falling, but when you're up here, you've gotta know you can do it.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Scootaloo, without much enthusiasm. “It's just kinda hard to think that, when the last five times I haven't done it. And we're a lot higher up this time.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Being higher up makes it easier, trust me. And you only missed the last times 'cause you didn't believe. C'mon, say it. 'I can do this'.”
Scootaloo huffed. “I can do this.”
“I can do this,” said Rainbow, stomping a hoof for emphasis.
Looking over the edge again, Scootaloo gulped. “I can... do this.” She closed her eyes, and felt her legs shaking again. It was the same every time she got up here. It seemed like such a good idea when she was safely down there on the ground. But when she was this far above that safety, she always suddenly remembered, 'Oh yeah, this is terrifying.'
“Hey.” Scootaloo felt a firm wing on her back. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Rainbow had knelt down to her eye level, and was giving her an encouraging smile. “You can do this,” she said.
Scootaloo stared at her. Those deep magenta eyes, filled with pure awesomeness, stared back into hers with a confidence and honesty that Scootaloo had only ever seen from a handful of ponies. Rainbow believed in her, there was no doubt about it. And if Rainbow Dash believed in her, then she could at least try to believe in herself.
So, finding a smile as her legs stopped shaking – mostly – she gave Rainbow a nod. “I can do this.”
“That-a-girl,” said Rainbow. She patted her on the back with a wing again, then stood up to one side. “Okay, you ready?”
Scootaloo took a steadying breath. “Ready.”
“Then jump!”
Scootaloo jumped off of the cloud, towards the ground that was miles below her, without so much as a parachute or a pair of wings that could carry her. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
She didn't scream this time, though it took no small effort to achieve that as the wind buffeted her face and the lake below started to draw closer. It grew slowly at first, and with the immediate danger relatively far away, the sudden rush was actually pretty awesome. The sense of speed, the blustering wind, the way the tips of her wings tingled with energy. She actually cracked a grin for the first time. And when she saw Rainbow Dash diving beside her, looking as awesome as ever in flight, she decided that it was just about the best feeling in the world.
Until she looked back at the ground and saw how fast it was approaching. The grin vanished. Suddenly, the only thought going through her mind was, 'Oh no, not again.'
The wind was so intense that she had to screw up her eyes to see properly. Her heart hammered in her chest, and in her head. Her whole body burned.
“Ready?” Rainbow Dash screamed from beside her.
Scootaloo cringed. The lake was seconds away now. She was going straight into it.
“Now!”
Scootaloo flared her wings and flapped them furiously. The change in speed and effort hit like a crash in itself, almost hard enough to make her lose focus and slip up, like she had done before. This time though, she managed to hold on and keep working her wings in a vain attempt to stop her fall. It probably wouldn't do much good.
Rainbow Dash shot straight past and broke the surface with a roaring splash, kicking up a massive wave. Scootaloo would hit too, she wasn't slowing down enough. She worked her wings harder, screwing up her eyes and biting her tongue in concentration. Her muscles burned, but the primal fear of falling made that seem dull and far away. All that mattered was stopping before she hit.
And she did.
The rushing wind had suddenly ground to a halt, and she felt a weird sense of weightlessness. Still flapping like crazy, Scootaloo snapped open her eyes. She found herself hovering a foot above the water's surface.
“Ha!” she gasped. She'd done it! Gripped by a sudden urge to take the momentum further, she tried to flap harder and carry herself back up. It actually worked for a few seconds, before her body suddenly remembered that its wings weren't strong enough. They slowed, her concentration slipped, and she tumbled into the water.
Her eyes were closed when she hit, and the muffled sound of the splash gave way to the familiar pressure of water against her ears. When she opened her eyes, she saw the sparkling surface not far above her, and a dark silhouette that was Rainbow Dash. For a long moment, she just floated there, with her mind suddenly blank and a pleasant, relaxed feeling in her wings.
She would've liked to enjoy the feeling for longer, but after a few seconds, she remembered that she needed to breathe. She shook her head and propelled herself upwards with a few practised kicks. When she broke the surface, she took a long gasp of air as she felt the freezing wind on her face.
And then she started laughing. She couldn't help it. It bubbled up in her chest for no apparent reason and just started rolling out, loud and unrestrained. She had to fight with her wings and legs to keep herself afloat, and that just made everything seem all the funnier.
A second laugh joined hers, as Rainbow swam over and grabbed her in a headlock. “You did it, squirt! You did it!”
Scootaloo laughed louder and squirmed in vain as Rainbow tussled her hair. “I-- I can't-- I actually-- Hahaha!”
“You're both insane!” came a yell from the shore.
Forcing her eyes open, Scootaloo saw Twilight Sparkle at the edge of the lake, and even as she shook her head in disbelief, she had a tell tale grin on her face. Behind her, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were screaming and bouncing around hysterically. They looked how Scootaloo felt.
When Rainbow released her from the headlock and held her at hoof's length, Scootaloo finally started to calm down. Mostly because her lungs were burning, if she was honest. She panted a few times to let out the last few laughs, then met Rainbow's proud look with a toothy smile.
“What'd I tell you?” said Rainbow, with one eye hidden behind her soaked mane. “Knew you could do it.”
Scootaloo just stared back at her and revelled in the words. She'd done it. It'd taken her a bunch of tries, but she'd finally done it. The laughter made sense now, because she realised how happy she felt, knowing that she'd beaten the test. Seeing in Rainbow's eyes that she was proud. It was an amazing feeling.
“Scootaloo!”
She looked towards the shore again, and saw Applebloom and Sweetie Belle swimming out towards her.
“You're crazy!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, grinning from ear to ear.
“Crazy awesome!” Applebloom amended.
Scootaloo let out another small laugh and broke free from Rainbow's grip to swim over to them and celebrate. “Guys! You saw that, right? How cool was that?!”
Rainbow let her go and started swimming back to shore. She gave Twilight a wide smile.
For her part, Twilight just kept shaking her head, with a smaller smile now. 'Insane,' she mouthed.
They all went for ice cream to celebrate – courtesy of Rainbow and Twilight – and spent a good half hour talking about how cool it was, what it'd looked like from the ground, and otherwise how much renewed pride and respect everyone had for Scootaloo. Scootaloo herself thoroughly enjoyed it, body and mind still buzzing from the excitement of the fall for a long time.
When they all split to head home for dinner, Rainbow offered to walk Scootaloo home as usual, and Scoots graciously accepted.
They'd been walking for all of twenty seconds since the ice cream parlour before Rainbow flashed Scootaloo a little smile. “You flew,” she said simply, letting the words carry their own weight.
Scootaloo smiled, but shook her head. “I hovered. I could already do that.”
“Are you kidding? You broke out of that fall. You were falling insanely fast, and you still managed to stop yourself before you hit.” Rainbow was grinning now. “You stared gravity in the face and you kicked its butt! Call that what you want, squirt. But I call it flying.”
Hearing Rainbow say it out loud brought on a good feeling, and it made her wonder whether she was right. Had she really flown? When she thought about it, it was definitely a step up from before, since she all she'd been able to do was hover above the ground for a while. She'd never done it over water before, and she'd never actually managed to gain any height. And turning that much momentum around had taken a lot of strength she didn't know she had. Maybe she had flown.
“So, are you gonna tell me why we started with that, uh, 'exercise' now?” she asked, turning to Rainbow. “You said you'd tell me when I nailed it.”
“Oh, sure,” said Rainbow. “It's, uh, kind of an old military training exercise they had up in Cloudsdale, to help fillies like you get started with flying.”
Scootaloo frowned. “An old training exercise?”
Rainbow pursed her lips and went silent for a moment. “They might have discontinued it a while back because it was... crazy.” She cringed, as if expecting Scootaloo to yell at her.
She didn't though. In fact, the news didn't come as a huge surprise to her – she doubted that it was common practise to have fillies jump off of Cloudsdale into a lake.
“But hey, it wasn't really dangerous with me and Twilight there,” said Rainbow. “I would've caught you, and Twilight enchanted the lake and everything around it, in case anything went wrong.”
“You didn't tell me that,” said Scootaloo.
“Well, if you knew it was safe, it wouldn't have worked,” Rainbow countered. Scootaloo tilted her head, and when Rainbow saw she was listening, she went on. “Twilight could probably tell you the science-stuff behind it... But basically, when you're falling like that, and your heart starts hammering because you're scared, your head stops working and your body takes over. Everything starts to slow down, so you get more time to react, and you get stronger. You know what I'm talking about?”
Scootaloo thought about it, and nodded. “Yeah, I felt that.”
“The most important thing is that it makes you stop thinking,” said Rainbow. “Your body won't let you think, 'I can't do this' or, 'My wings aren't strong enough.' Because it knows you have to – you don't have a choice. If you don't, then--” Rainbow broke off. “--Er, well, then you'll bounce harmlessly off the ground, in this case. But you didn't know that, so your instinct to protect yourself took over.”
“Huh,” said Scootaloo. “So, basically, I only can't fly because I think I can't?”
“That's probably got a lot to do with it,” said Rainbow. “It's not everything – you've still gotta build up your wing muscles and keep practising – but the whole point of the jump is to give you an idea of what you actually can do without realising it. You're a lot stronger than you think.”
Scootaloo glanced down at the ground, then gave her an awkward smile. “How did you know I was?”
Rainbow shrugged coolly and looked straight ahead. “I like to think I know you pretty well by now. And I know a natural flier when I see one.”
That made Scootaloo grin. A natural flier? That was saying something, coming from Rainbow. And she'd be the one to know, in any case. “Mean it?”
“Wouldn't say it otherwise,” said Rainbow. “You'll fly high, squirt. Trust me.”
Scoots looked down again, then turned her eyes to the path ahead. If Rainbow Dash believed in her, then she could do it. It might take a while, and she knew it wouldn't be easy, but she'd get there.
Rainbow drifted across and bumped into her gently. Scootaloo smiled and bumped her back. They didn't have to say anything – that'd become something of a sisterly gesture between them. They walked the rest of the way in companionable silence.
There were only so many times you could wake up in the accident and emergency ward before it got old. Rainbow Dash had lost count at eight times, it was probably in the tens now. She'd even been allocated her own regular hospital bed which she could use while the doctor patched her wings up. It felt a lot like going through the motions, and it wasn't even a big deal anymore – Rainbow knew she'd be out of there by tomorrow afternoon.
“Thanks, Doc,” said Rainbow, as the stallion finished her wing cast. “How's your wife?”
“Oh, she's getting along well enough,” said the doctor. “The baby is due next week, so we're both very excited. And a little nervous, if I'm honest.”
Rainbow rolled her neck to test the brace. It moved pretty well, wasn't too much of a pain. “Ah, you'll make a great dad,” she said. “So, can I get out of here, or what?”
The doctor checked something off on a clipboard. “I'd like to keep you in for another few hours, until the last x-rays come back. You know the procedure.”
Rainbow groaned. “Yeah, I know the drill.”
“I wouldn't worry about getting bored though, one of your friends is here.” He checked a name on his clipboard. “The nurse said that a... Scootaloo, is waiting at reception.”
“Scoots?” Rainbow glanced at her cast and frowned. She didn't particularly like the idea of the kid seeing her like this, but she couldn't very well turn her away. Well, she could, but it wouldn't be very cool.
“Shall I send her in?” the doctor asked, already starting for the door.
“Uh, yeah. Sure,” said Rainbow.
At least one of her friends would always come to see her when this kind of thing happened, to make sure she was okay and bring her something to keep her occupied – usually a book. It was a first for Scootaloo to drop in on her though. It was also the first time she saw Rainbow crash during a training session though – which was kind of embarrassing – so it stood to reason that she'd know about it.
After the doctor had left, there were a few short minutes of lonely silence. She knew that'd get boring very quickly, so she was actually grateful when the door opened again and Scootaloo poked her head inside.
Rainbow cracked a toothy smile. “Hey, squirt.”
Scootaloo smiled back and stepped inside. “Hey. Um, is it cool for me to be here? My mom said it was okay as long as you said so.”
“Yeah, it's cool,” said Rainbow. She nodded to the empty chair beside her bed. “Pull up a seat, I could use the company.”
“Thanks.”
Once Scootaloo had sat down and stopped awkwardly shifting, she eyed Rainbow's cast with a frown. Rainbow saw her looking and felt her cheeks heating up a little, but she didn't try to hide it. Looking embarrassed about it would just make it more awkward, so she made a point of shifting to give Scootaloo a better look. “Pretty awesome, huh? Makes me look edgy.”
“I guess,” said Scootaloo, clearly not convinced. “Does it hurt?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Only when I breathe,” she joked. Apparently, Scootaloo didn't get it, because her face blanched and her frown got deeper. Rainbow shook her head and smiled. “I'm kidding, squirt. It doesn't hurt at all, seriously. I'm used to it by now.”
“Oh.” Scootaloo stared for a moment longer, but the words seemed to help her relax a bit. She looked up to meet Rainbow's eyes. “Um, I'm sorry you crashed. I guess that wasn't very fun...” She paused, then facehoofed. “That sounded dumb.”
Rainbow laughed. It made her wing twinge a little, but she played it off. “Don't worry about it. Must've been kind of embarrassing to watch, huh?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “More like scary. That tree fell over after you hit it, you know? It looked really painful.”
“Didn't even feel it,” said Rainbow. Honestly, too, because the impact had knocked her right out. The headache when she woke up was another matter-- She blinked. “Wait, I knocked down a tree?”
“Twilight said it was impressive before she teleported us to the hospital,” Scootaloo confirmed.
Rainbow grunted. “That's kinda awesome.”
Scootaloo didn't say anything. When Rainbow checked, she saw Scoots frowning down at the ground, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't think of anything to say. It made Rainbow frown too.
“...I scared you, huh?” she said, quietly.
“Kind of,” said Scootaloo, blushing a little. “I mean, you didn't scare me – you crashing did. And then seeing you all collapsed and stuff...”
Rainbow felt a lump in her throat. So she really had worried the kid. That wasn't a surprise, really. “Hey.” She waited until Scoots met her eyes, then offered what she hoped was a comforting smile and flexed her good wing. “I'm alright, see? I'm fine. I've done this a million times. My wing'll heal in a few days, just like it always does, and then I'm back to training.”
Scootaloo's eyes flicked down. “I know, that's what Twilight and the doctor said. I just-- I've never seen you get hurt like that before.”
“It--” Rainbow's words caught, and when she stopped for a second, she realised that she didn't know what to say either. Eventually, all she managed was to sigh, “Yeah. I'm sorry.” Unsurprisingly, Scoots didn't reply to that.
They sat there in silence for a long while, with Rainbow just staring down at her hooves and picturing Scootaloo doing the same. She knew how Scoots felt. Rainbow Dash was her hero, her idol, and like a big sister to her. Seeing her knock herself out, and then in a hospital bed, would seriously shake anyone. She had to say something.
“...Look, squirt, I'm gonna tell you a secret,” said Rainbow, not looking up. She knew no-one else was in the room, so she wasn't afraid to speak up. “I may be awesome, and strong, and fast, and all that stuff. But I'm not-- I'm not invincible.”
She closed her eyes and let out a breath through her nose. Saying it out loud brought a nervous, twisting feeling to her gut. Even if it wasn't as difficult as she thought it'd be, it still cost her something. Image was everything, and something like this shook that image more than a little. She wasn't invincible. She wasn't perfect. And it didn't feel good to admit that.
“Everyone gets hurt sometimes. Even me,” she continued. “Like this crash, obviously. And that time when Tank went into hibernation. Remember?”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo. Rainbow couldn't read any emotion in her voice. She tried not to dwell on it. If she did, she wouldn't be able to keep going.
“But that's okay, y'know?” said Rainbow. “Getting hurt is part of being a pony, something we all have to go through. And it sucks, a lot of the time. But it's not something to be afraid of. It makes us stronger, helps us learn. I guess, in a way, it's kind of a good thing.”
“It doesn't feel like a good thing,” said Scootaloo.
Rainbow gave a short chuckle and opened her eyes, leaning back against the headboard and looking up at the ceiling. “No kidding. Like I said, it sucks.” She rolled her head to the side and smiled at Scoots. “You always get over it though, somehow. You get better, you move on, and the next time's not so bad.”
Scootaloo looked like she'd been staring at the floor through the whole monologue, but when Rainbow fell silent, she finally looked up at her. Her eyes were uncertain, and the worry was still clear on her face. Rainbow didn't know whether she got it. She hoped so, because if not, she'd just given a completely sappy monologue for nothing.
“I might not be invincible,” she said, “but I'll always get better. Eventually. Somehow.” She reached out to nudge Scootaloo on the shoulder. “That's how it goes. I'm just that awesome.”
That got her smiling again. It might've just been a humoured smile at first, but as the seconds stretched on, something shifted behind her eyes, and her concern seemed to fade away. Leaving just a smile and an infectious sense of pride on her face, one that said she was admiring a hero. There were times when Rainbow probably wouldn't have let that go to her head, but this wasn't one of them. She suddenly felt pretty good in herself again.
“You are pretty awesome,” said Scootaloo. “And wise.”
“Ah, I don't know about wise,” said Rainbow, scratching her neck. “I'll take awesome, but leave the wiseness to Twilight.”
“Wisdom,” came a voice from the doorway. Rainbow and Scootaloo both turned to look, as Twilight Sparkle pushed the door open and stepped inside. She had a typical smile on her face and a pair of books balanced on her back. “Sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting. I thought you might like something to read while you're in here.”
“Hey, Twilight. Thanks,” said Rainbow. “I'll be outta here in a few hours, but it'd be cool to have something to kill the time.” An idea struck her, and she smiled over at Scoots. “You gotta be home soon?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Not until tonight. Why?”
Rainbow grinned. “Wanna read me something?”
It took a moment for Scootaloo to register that and blink away her surprise. When she did, she beamed too and nodded.
Smiling knowingly between the two of them, Twilight levitated the books over to the table next to Rainbow's bed. “In that case, I think I'll leave you to it.” She turned for the door.
Rainbow smiled at her. “Thanks, Twi'.”
“You're welcome.”
She left, and as the door clicked shut behind her, Rainbow leant back against her pillow. “Okay, what've we got?”
Scootaloo took the top book and looked at it. “Of Mares and Magic,” she read aloud.
Rainbow's eyebrows went up. “Are you kidding me? That's, like, the coolest play ever! I didn't know there was a book for it!”
“So... you wanna read this one?”
“Do it!”
As Scootaloo started reading, Rainbow let her head roll back and smiled at the ceiling. Her wing ached a little, but it was really just a passing thought. She took it easy, listened to the story, and felt strangely good about herself.
