The Last Gift
By: Old Toby
The familiar buzz of a tiny engine served as an early warning system for the quadestrians of Ponyville to clear the a path down the main thoroughfare. Bursting from the alley behind Sugarcube Corner, Scootaloo exploded onto the street like an orange and purple streak of reckless bravado. Those who were quick enough to make way for the tiny speedster smiled as she sped by. The slower ponies became obstacles for the young filly's latest speed run.
This time is was Mr. Greenhooves who found himself an unwitting feature in Scoot's latest aerial display. He looked up just in time to see the blur of orange and purple dart beneath his legs and toss her scooter high in the air. Just as she came out from under him she threw her tiny wings to full extension and glided for an instant. Just as the street rose up to meet her, she threw her hoof up and caught the scooter that had been tossed into the air just a second ago. With a quick spin, the sky blue scooter was back under her hooves and she sped towards the edge of town.
Pulling the crumpled hat from his head, Mr. Greenhooves wiped the sweat from his brow and gave the filly a weak smile. While he didn't quite abide in such recklessness, he had been young once and fillies will be fillies.
Scootaloo sped on towards Sweet Apple Acres, bringing her scooter to a quick stop just before the entrance to the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse. She hopped off the scooter and gave it a loving look, running a hoof along the handlebars. A touch of sadness fell across her face before she turned her attention to the tree house.
“Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle!” She made her way up the gangplank and looked curiously around the empty clubhouse. “Now where are they? We were supposed to be getting our cutie marks in fire-eating today!”
She called out a few more times before dejectedly turning and heading back to her scooter. As she looked over the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres she saw one of the trees suddenly shake from root to tip. Hopping on her scooter, she zipped over to find Applejack bucking away.
At the sound of her approach, Applejack stopped working and gave the filly a smile. “Howdy Scootaloo. Now I reckon you're lookin' for Apple Bloom, if I'm not mistaken.”
“Uh-huh,” Scoot replied with a smile and nod.
Applejack's face turned apologetic. “I'm sorry, but Grannie Smith fell down with a mite of a summer cold and couldn't help Big Macintosh with the south field harvest. Apple Bloom took up the reigns. We had to have it done by the morning, or else she'd have been able to tell you herself.”
Scootaloo's head hung low at the news. “It's alright, I guess.”
Before Applejack could offer consolation, Scootaloo was already making her way back to town. A few minutes she came to a stop in front of Carousel Boutique. Scootaloo took one last look at her scooter before turning to the shop. The violet door to Rarity's shop was thrown wide to let the summer breeze inside. From within she heard the refined, familiar voice of Rarity.
“Oh darling, this is going to be divine! It's sure to be a smash at the Fall Fashion Festival. Absolutely charming!”
The interior of the shop was a myriad of fabric, needles, glitter and sequins. At the center of it all was Sweetie Belle, draped in a half-finished outfit of golden and amber silk. Her older sister was circling the filly with an appraising eye while Opal Essence regarded the whole affair with disdain from her bed in the corner.
As Scootaloo stepped across the threshold she opened her mouth to greet the sisters, but stopped herself. She remembered all the times Rarity and Sweetie Belle had argued and fought and she didn't want to interrupt their spontaneous sister time. Without a word, she turned and left the boutique. It looked like she was scooting solo today.
She puttered around Ponyville with less enthusiasm than earlier this afternoon until she found herself on the outskirts of town without realizing how she'd got there. Collapsing onto the halted scooter and tucking her helmet under her forehoof, she cast an absent glance towards the horizon. She caught sight of the few summer clouds that peppered the sky. Rainbow Dash had done a great job clearing the sky today and Scootaloo found herself wondering what it was like to be up there making sure the sun shined down on Ponyville each morning. Scootaloo had never been that high before and the more she thought about the further away the sky seemed.
Reaching up to the handlebars of her scooter, she pulled herself to a standing position and looked at the little vehicle that had served her so well. Her parents had given it to her. It was the last Heart's Warming present she'd ever received from them. They knew how much she wanted to fly and they gave it to her as a sign of their faith. They had always admired her fearlessness and now that they were gone, whenever she put on a brave face she thought of them. This scooter had become her wings.
She sniffled softly as old memories came flooding into her mind and she quickly wiped away the earliest tear drops before they formed. There was no way anyone was going to see her cry. After all, what would Rainbow Dash think, especially after their ill-fated camping trip. She put her helmet on and decided to head home for the evening.
“Why so blue, kid?” From behind a cloud came Rainbow Dash. A friendly smile was on her muzzle. She drew close to the ground, but never quite landed. Instead she came to a hover and rustled Scootaloo's hair.
Rainbow Dash's familiar voice terrified her. Had she seen the tears in her eyes? Had she known she was crying? She quickly stood up straight and looked to the sky. “I'm not blue, Rainbow Dash! I was, uhh, just thinking about...” She stammered for a moment, “...about how to get my Cutie Mark!”
Rainbow came down to an easy landing beside Scootaloo and offered a brazen grin. “I'm sure you'll find an awesome way to get it, just like I did.” She looked around for a moment. “Where are Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle?”
Letting out a huff of disappointment, Scootaloo began to grumble. “Apple Bloom's helping her brother with the harvest and Sweetie Belle is doing some frilly thing with Rarity over at the Carousel Boutique. I guess that means that trying to find our cutie marks will have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Says who?” Dash replied. “I didn't wait for my friends to get their cutie marks. I mean if I hadn't gotten mine when I did, they might have had to wait years before theirs appeared. Or they might never have appeared at all! Good thing I pulled off that amazing sonic rainboom.”
Scootaloo smiled a bit, remembering the day she'd learned how Rainbow Dash and her friends had gotten their cutie marks. Her smile crumbled a bit as she thought about all the things Rainbow did on that day that she still couldn't do. Fluttering her wings nervously, she nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.” Her voice trailed off into an indistinguishable mumble.
Dash cocked an ear, “What was that last part?”
Scoot turned away , muttering into her helmet.
“Something about pie?”
The filly shook her head but still kept her eyes down. Again her voice trailed into obscurity. Scootaloo's shoulders slumped and she buried her face in her little purple helmet. To her horror, the helmet echoed the sobs that she was so desperate to hide from her hero.
Rainbow took to the ground and wrapped a foreleg around Scootaloo's shoulders as the young filly looked up in shame. “C'mon squirt. You know you can talk to me. Why the waterworks?”
Scootaloo let out a sniffle and wiped her face. “You got your cutie mark when you made that sonic rainboom, and I can't even fly. All the other pegasi in my class are already in the air and all I have is my scooter.”
“No, kid – all you have is a one way trip to Awesome Town!” Dash put a hoof on the handlebars and grinned widely. “I've seen you on this thing, blazing down the streets of Ponyville and showing off with those daring displays of amazing aerial awesomeness! It's pretty impressive, kid. It reminds me of me when I was younger.”
The young filly's face brightened as she beamed with pride. “You really think so?”
“Sure! I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure when I was your age I could have done it too – but still we've all got our talents.” Dash shot a hoof in the air, “I've got it! It's so obvious!”
Dash put her forehooves on Scootaloo's shoulders and bounced up and down. “We're going to get you a cutie mark in sweet scooter moves and I'm going to help you! It'll be awesome!”
Scootaloo's face brightened and her wings fluttered with excitement. “Really?”
“Straight from the horse's mouth!”
Bouncing up and down, the orange filly could barely contain her excitement. “When do we start? When do we start?”
Placing a hoof on the scooter, Rainbow Dash leaned across the handlebars to look Scootaloo right in the eyes. “Right now. By the time I'm done with you you're going to have the most awesome cutie mark in Ponyville. Next to mine, of course.”
Rainbow Dash backed away from the tiny scooter. She gave the filly some clearance in the open field and motioned for Scootaloo to hop on. “Alright kid, show me your best moves.”
With her mentor's eyes on her, Scootaloo felt a nervous weight in her chest as she took her position behind the handlebars. She looked to Rainbow Dash and back to the empty field before her. “Like what?”
“I don't know. Something amazing! Something spectacular! Something super fantastically awesome! Just go!”
At a loss for how to delay even further, Scootaloo just put the scooter in gear. The noise of the evening crickets were drowned out by the rising buzz of a tiny engine. Gritting her teeth, Scootaloo strapped on her helmet and pushed off. As she circled to build up speed, she couldn't help but constantly look back at Rainbow Dash. The elder pegasus was watching her intently with an eager grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye. Scootaloo knew she was just waiting to see something amazing, and there was no room to disappoint.
Faster and faster she pushed the scooter to speeds she'd never before dared. Turning in one final loop she shot over a nearby hill and threw her back hooves into the air, balancing on her handlebars as she shot across the sky. Daring a glance at Rainbow Dash, she felt her heart drop as the pony yawned. Clearly she was not impressed.
The scooter came down and Scootaloo brought into a hard turn and a sudden stop just in front of Rainbow Dash. The cyan colored pony flipped her multicolored mane in casual disinterest. “That wasn't too boring, squirt. But let me show you how it's done.”
Defeated, Scootaloo stepped off the scooter and let Rainbow Dash climb on. The tiny scooter sagged under the weight of the full-grown pony, but Dash didn't seem to notice. Giving Scootaloo a wink, she fired it up. An instant later, she was airborne. She danced and twirled across the sky, tossing the scooter under and over her flying form, only to catch it at the last possible instant before it fell from hoof's reach and tumbled to the ground. As Rainbow Dash's acrobatic dance came to its finale she was inverted with the scooter resting precariously on her hooves as she shot like a multicolored streak across the sky.
Scootaloo watched in awe at her mentor's death defying displays. She was so enraptured by the magnificent maneuvers that she didn't notice the massive oak springing from the field. Neither, unfortunately, did Rainbow Dash. There was a sudden, horrible crash as Rainbow smashed into the thick foliage at the peak of the oak. Scootaloo darted over just in time to be covered by a rain of leaves. Shaking her self free of the falling leaves, she saw Dash tangled in the unforgiving branches. The only injury sustained appeared to be her pride.
Dash untangled herself from the tree and floated to the ground with as much dignity as she could manage. “I, uhh, think a wheel is loose your scooter, kid. Clearly I had it under control.”
“My scooter!” Scootaloo pointed up at the tree and her chin began to quiver. Rainbow Dash followed her eyes to see the tiny blue scoot snapped in half, caught between several branches of the massive tree. The board was completely snapped in two while the handlebars had been twisted and bent into a pretzel-like ruin. It was beyond repair. It was broken.
Dash's face darkened for a minute and then she smiled down at Scootaloo, barely a hint of apology on her face. “Aww, no big deal Scoots! You didn't need that silly little toy anymore! With my help, you won't need it! You'll be flying between clouds like a Junior Wonderbolt in no time!”
Scootaloo burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don't want to be a Wonderbolt! I don't want to fly! I want my scooter!”
Dash awkwardly put a hoof on her shoulder. “C'mon, who doesn't want to be a Wonderbolt?”
Unable to speak, Scootaloo ran away as fast as her little legs would carry her. Rainbow Dash heard her sobbing echo into the distance as she flew up to the tree and tried to pry the wrecked remains of the scooter from the tree.
* * * *
“What do you say we try to get our cutie marks in pole vaulting?” Apple Bloom's eyes sparkled with excitement as smiled at Scootaloo. Her fellow Crusader said nothing, still sitting in the corner of the clubhouse absently fiddling with leaf that had blown in on the wind.
“Oh! I've got it! We can get our cutie marks in spelunking!” Sweetie Belle popped up beside Apple Bloom and offered a second smile at her despondent friend.
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow, “Spe-whating?”
“Spelunking! It's how you find gems!”
Scootaloo let out a sigh, “No thanks. You guys go on.” Her words were devoid of feeling. She never even looked up at the other two and simply let out a heavy sigh.”Go without me.”
“But-” Apple Bloom piped, but Sweetie Belle raised a hoof to quiet her. The two crusaders made their way outside, reluctantly leaving their friend alone inside. After Scootaloo sat in silence for a few minutes she heard the shrill cry of her the earth pony Crusader call out. “Scootaloo! C'mon out side, I think you'll wanna to see this!”
Slowly, Scootaloo stood and made her way to the doorway of the clubhouse. Looking down at the clearing below she saw the last pony she wanted to see. Rainbow Dash was standing there with her typical smug grin. It broadened into a smile as the pegasus pony called out. “Hey Scoot! C'mon down here, I've got rad something to show you!”
Scootaloo scowled, “You've already shown me enough, Rainbow Dash! Leave me alone!”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell seemed shocked to hear Scootaloo speak so harshly to her mentor. They knew she'd been upset since she lost her scooter last week, but the pegasus filly hadn't gone into detail about the accident. As a matter of fact, she'd been downright silent ever since that day. This was the first time she'd said more than a few words to anypony in a while.
Amazingly, Rainbow Dash didn't seem to get uspet. Instead her smile turned to an impish smirk. “Well that's fine by me, Scootaloo. I just wanted to show you this.” Stepping aside, Rainbow Dash revealed the surprise she was hiding. Behind her was a brand new scooter, bright and shining. The central board of the scooter was painted the sky blue color of Rainbow Dash's coat and the handlebars had been candy-striped in rainbows. It even had a pair of perfectly crafted fins on the back end, carved to look like the wings of a pegasus. “I just thought you might want something to replace that beaten up old scooter. This baby's brand new! It's got twice the horse power of that puttering skate board you used to have! I even had a custom paint job done along with hoof-crafted fins for perfect aerodynamics! Way cooler than that dinged coat you had, huh?”
“Beat up? Puttering? Dinged?” Scootaloo was so furious that her wings were beating a mile a minute. Her face reddened and she felt tears filling her eyes. “Just go away, Rainbow Dash! I never want to see you again!” She turned on her hoof and ran back into the clubhouse. Rainbow and the crusaders could hear her crying inside.
“I should go talk to her.” Rainbow said without missing a beat.
“Uhh, I don't think that's such a good idea, Rainbow Dash.” Apple Bloom said awkwardly.
A long silence passed before Sweetie Belle spoke up. “You broke her scooter, didn't you Rainbow Dash?”
Dash shifted nervously. “Well, err... umm... I was trying to help her get her cutie mark and...” Finally she let out a sigh of defeat. “Yeah, but I didn't mean to! It was an accident! It wasn't even my fault! Well, not really.”
Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stared at Rainbow Dash, unconvinced.
“OK! OK! I may have pushed things a little, tiny bit too far and kinda not noticed a giant oak tree in the middle of the field and then totally unintentionally smashed her scooter into it, shattering it into a million pieces. But it's totally not my fault. I'd never ridden a scooter before!”
“So let me get this straight,” Apple Bloom began, “You tried to help Scootaloo get a cutie mark in scooter riding when you'd never actually been on a scooter before? Not ever?”
Dash grinned sheepishly. “Kinda like that, yeah.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Sweetie Belle admonished. “That scooter was a gift!”
“Yeah, duh.” Dash replied with an indignant shrug. “So was the awesome one I gave her.”
Sweetie Belle looked down, scratching her hoof on the ground. “No, Rainbow Dash. It was a gift from her parents.”
Apple Bloom picked up, knowing this was a tough thing to talk about. “It was the last present they ever gave her.” The young earth pony's thoughts drifted to her own parents and in spite of the sadness she smiled. She thought of Applejack, Granny Smith and the rest of the Apple family and how grateful she was that they were still in her life.
“Oh,” was all Rainbow Dash could say when the truth dawned on her. “I... I get it.
Rainbow Dash smiled at the two young fillies. “I know just what to do! I need you two to do me a favor!”
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “I don't know...”
“Just bring Scootaloo to the Ponyville library tomorrow morning!” Rainbow Dash's smile broadened and she shot into the sky without waiting for a reply.
* * * *
Scootaloo shuffled down the streets of Ponyville, head hung low. The other crusaders had insisted that she follow them into town and she had only agreed to go with them if they left her alone after she helped them find a book at the library on the history of cutie marks.
The door of the library opened and the familiar voice of Twilight Sparkle was heard greeting, “Good morning, my little ponies!” Even though she was a princess, Twilight still stuck mostly to the library and always had her muzzle buried in a book. Twilight must have been in the middle of one of her reorganizations. There was a massive pile of books on the far end of the library, taller than any of the fillies.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle greeted her enthusiastically, while Scootaloo cut right to the chase. With her face cast down she let out a murmur. “We're looking for a book on-”
Twilight smiled at the young pegasus. “I know exactly why you're here, Scootaloo, and believe it or not it isn't for a book.”
Scootaloo looked up in confusion then turned suspicious eyes to her fellow crusaders. As the first interrogatory questions crept into her mind she heard another familiar voice. A voice she had hoped to never hear again.
“That's right!” Rainbow Dash shot up from behind the massive pile of books and perched easily on the top. She looked down at Scootaloo, her lavender eyes twinkling as she hopped down and walked towards her. Scootaloo took a step back and looked away.
“That's cool.” Dash said with a shrug, “You don't have to. Just look.”
Twilight smiled as the bright violet light of magic radiated from her horn. Slowly the massive pile of books parted and what Scootaloo couldn't believe what she saw: It was her scooter. The chrome handlebars, the white racing stripe, the faded blue paint job – it was all there!
Her wings begin to flutter and she lept across the library and landed on the board with the kind of easy greeting that reminded her of hugging an old friend. She put her hooves on the handlebars and revved the engine just a bit. The buzz roared through the library like a victory cry.
Scootaloo turned and looked at Rainbow Dash, who was just smiling. Diving from atop the board, the filly landed in Rainbow Dash's forehooves. Burying her muzzle in Rainbow Dash's shoulder she wept with joy and cried out an endless stream of apologies.
After a moment, Rainbow Dash pulled her to a foreleg's length. “Nothin' doing, kid.”
Scootaloo wiped the tears from her eyes and could only stammer out one word: “How?”
“Well,” Rainbow Dash's smile weakened a bit. “When Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle told me how important your old scooter was to you and what a jerk I had been for trying to give you a scooter that I'd want, I gathered up all the broken pieces out of the tree last night.”
Twilight smiled at Scootaloo and motioned for Rainbow to continue. Scootaloo cast a concerned glance to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell, but allowed the explanation to continue.
“Then I took brought them to Twilight and she found a spell to remake it just like before. No better. No worse. Just like it was before. I mean, it's your scooter, not mine.”
Scootaloo hugged Dash a second time and turned to Twilight, “Thank you, Princess Twilight! Thank you both so much!”
“There's one last thing, Scoots.” Rainbow Dash suddenly became serious, the smile fading from her face. “You don't need to apologize to me. I should be the one apologizing. I should have told you that I'd never ridden a scooter before and it was pretty uncool of me to think I could just replace it with something I thought would be cooler. I just wanted you to see how cool I am.”
Scootaloo tried to puzzle exactly what was being said to her and finally it hit her. “Wait. Are you saying you wanted me to think that you were cool, no matter what?”
Rainbow Dash blushed slightly, looking away. “Well, not exactly. Everyone knows I'm cool. I just wanted to hammer the point home. But I could see how you would mistake the two.”
Giving Rainbow Dash one last squeeze, Scootaloo hopped down and ran back over to the scooter. An instant later the buzz of the engine filled the library and she shot like a rocket out of the library and onto the streets of Ponyville.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked to the door of the library and watched the orange filly leaving a trail of dust and nervous citizens in her wake. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom squeezed in on each side of them. There was a long silence, broken only by the cry of victory from a little pegasus somewhere on the streets of Ponyville.
Finally, Rainbow Dash turned to Apple Bloom. “My scooter was still pretty awesome though, right?”
The other ponies moaned in exasperation and went back to watching the tiny pegasus fly.
