This is gonna hurt! Rainbow Dash braced for impact as the swirling ground charged at her. With a mighty crash she hit the ground, but, perhaps due to her sheer awesomeness, the ground gave way and somehow she splashed into a pool of water.
Pulling herself out of the water, she found herself in some sort of underground cavern. A few falling rocks and bits of dirt from a gaping hole above her indicated that it had just recently fallen in. Looking around, she didn't find anything interesting. Just rocks and mushrooms. With a grunt, she gave her wings a flap and quickly left through the hole.
Rising up and up she found herself dazzled by the view. She was somewhere above a magnificent forest and below a cloudless, azure sky. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see in one direction. In the other the trees quickly gave way to a cozy little town.
She was about to head towards the town when a piercing scream pulled her attention to the forest below her. Scanning the treetops she listened for anything out of the ordinary. Sure enough, another scream led her attention to an orange blob running down below the trees. Zooming down, she found the screaming to be coming from an orange filly that was being chased by a timber wolf.
Her first instinct wasn't to extract the filly from the danger. It was to kick the timber wolf in the face—and that's exactly what she did. The conglomeration of branches and brush fell into countless pieces, giving off a plume of dust.
"Hey! You're safe now!" she yelled to the still-fleeing filly before swooping down in front of her.
The filly slid to a stop and looked back at the remains of the timber wolf before returning her gaze to the pegasus that had just saved her with big, starry eyes. "Rainbow Dash! You really are the best pony ever!" she exclaimed as she hugged the cyan pony.
"Rainbow Dash?" she repeated the filly's words as her brow furrowed in confusion. "Is that...my name?"
The filly let go as she looked up to Rainbow Dash with a confused expression of her own. "Of course it is."
Dash rubbed her head as she tried to make sense of it. "Rainbow... Dash."
"Yeah," the purple-maned filly insisted. "You're acting funny. Are you okay?"
She nodded after a second's contemplation. "Yeah, I just...didn't remember my name."
"You...you know me, right?"
Rainbow looked down at the filly giving her a pathetic expression. As much as she hated to admit it, she shook her head, "Am I supposed to?"
"I-I'm Scootaloo!" she urged. "You have to remember!"
Again rubbing her head, she found it surprisingly empty. "I-I don't remember. All I remember is I woke up in this cavern and then...then I heard you screaming. That's it. That's...all I can remember."
"You don't remember anything?" Scootaloo fretted. "Your Ponyville friends? Your awesome aerial stunts? Anything?"
Rainbow just started dumbfounded at the filly as she shook her head a bit.
"You're Rainbow Dash! The most awesome pony ever!" Scootaloo buzzed with excitement. "You're the best flier in all of Ponyville! Your stunts are legendary! You...you don't remember anything?" she trailed off.
Dash was about to repeat her ignorance, but motion from behind Scootaloo stole her attention away. "Look out!" she scooped up the filly as the timber wolf reformed—bigger and badder than before. Flying straight up with the filly in her forelegs, she was relieved to be free from the danger. But there was something more. The wind rushing through her mane, the adrenaline pumping through her veins... It. Was. Awesome!
She had already forgotten entirely about the danger below. She did backflips, barrel rolls, and nose dives for the sheer joy of it. "This is awesome!" she cried out as she buzzed by the ground at a dizzying speed. The wind she created pulled the grass over and sent flower petals scattering in the breeze before she shot back into the sky.
Scootaloo was having just as much fun. "Yeah! Do another backflip!" she giggled.
In her ecstasy, Rainbow Dash had nearly forgotten about the filly in her hooves. She laughed at her co-pilot as she soared straight up. At the top of her run, she let the filly go.
I'm falling! Scootaloo immediately realized as she tried to fly, but her wings just buzzed uselessly. The ground was still really far below her, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. She closed her eyes as she screamed. The next thing she knew, two strong forelegs stopped her descent. Peeking an eye open, she saw Rainbow Dash smirking back at her.
"How was that for a backflip?" Dash smirked.
Now that the danger had passed, Scootaloo smiled back. Her heart was pounding and her blood was rushing faster than the wind that swept through her mane. It was nothing short of a dream come true. "That was awesome!"
Again Rainbow Dash ushered Scootaloo high into the sky before letting her go. This time, instead of panicking, she buzzed her wings and watched as a grinning Rainbow Dash completed the backflip without her. The pegasus deftly soared by her before circling around and doing another pass so close that Dash's feathers tickled against her hide. Scootaloo may have been falling, but with Rainbow Dash up in the sky with her it felt much more like...flying. Finally, as the ground neared, Rainbow Dash caught her again.
"Wanna go again?" Rainbow Dash exuberantly asked.
"Yeah!"
The better part of the afternoon was spent soaring in the sky with her idol. By the time the sun started flirting with the horizon, Scootaloo wasn't falling whenever Rainbow Dash let her go. She never even realized it, but her own wings were keeping her aloft.
It wasn't until Rainbow Dash landed in a meadow and waved up at her did she realize that she was, indeed, flying. The ground below wasn't coming up at her. Her wings were keeping her at the same altitude! "I-I'm flying!" she excitedly squealed as she tried to flit about. Her wings might've been able to keep her aloft, but they couldn't really get her very far very well. That didn't matter to Scootaloo at all. She was flying!
Her strength gave out after only a few seconds as she set herself down on the ground next to her idol. "I flew! I flew!" she excitedly bounced around. "Did you see me? I flew!"
"I saw you," she laughed. "You did great, Scootaloo."
"I never flew before!" Scootaloo buzzed into the air. This time, she didn't come crashing back down. She stayed aloft until she chose to ease her hooves back down onto the ground.
Rainbow Dash chuckled at the filly. "Well, today you did," she ruffled the youngster's mane.
"This was the best day ever!" Scootaloo hugged Dash.
Dash returned the hug before pulling the filly away. "Yeah, but I'm starving! Where can we go to eat?" she asked as she looked around.
Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. She had gotten so very distracted by her good time with her idol that she had totally forgotten that Rainbow Dash had apparently lost her memories. "You...you still don't have any memories?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Nope."
"You don't...even remember me?" Scootaloo tentatively asked, to which Rainbow Dash shook her head with a dumbfounded look. It hurt to know that her idol didn't remember her at all, but at least she had this wonderful, magnificent afternoon with her.
"Well...I'm..." Scootaloo trailed off as her mind shifted gears. She was about to tell Rainbow Dash that she was her biggest fan and that she had agreed to take her under her wing, but...but where had that gotten her? Sure she got to hang out with Rainbow every once in a while, but it was never like this. And she did not want this to end...ever.
Suddenly, Scootaloo gasped. She could make it last forever! "I'm your little sister!" she lied.
Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. "Really?" she scrutinized the little runt in front of her. "I'm sorry. I guess I really should remember. I just...I don't"
"That's okay! We can make new memories!" Scootaloo insisted before pointing a hoof at a cloud structure in the distance. "That's your-I mean, our house! We can eat there!"
Rainbow Dash grinned. "All right," she scooped up her little sister before zooming to the cloud house in no time whatsoever.
Meanwhile, on the edge of the Everfree in a small cottage, Fluttershy was tending to yet another poor, injured critter. Though it was bigger and more...complainy than most. "I really think you should let me take you to a doctor," Fluttershy gingerly urged as she cut the medical tape and secured a bandage in place on her patient's head.
"I'll be fine!" a rainbow-maned pegasus groused as she rubbed her throbbing head. "By the time morning comes around I'll be good as new," she claimed as she looked to her taped wing. "Oh, and thanks for letting me crash here tonight, Fluttershy."
Fluttershy nodded. "Just promise me that you'll see a doctor if you're not feeling better by tomorrow."
She sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Fine, I promise."
"Good," Fluttershy smiled. "And next time you do something so dangerous you should at least have somepony go with you, Rainbow Dash. You're lucky that you didn't run into any scary creatures in the Everfree Forest."
"If I was lucky I wouldn't have messed up and crashed in the first place," Dash complained as she rubbed her injured wing. "That spinout was pretty bad...but, yeah, walking through the Everfree Forest was probably worse. Can't believe I crashed there of all places. At least I hit water, somehow."
Fluttershy sighed as she put the first-aid kit away. "You really should be more careful."
"Thanks again for letting me stay," Rainbow sprawled out on Fluttershy's couch. "You're gonna have to let me make it up to you."
"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Fluttershy dismissed as she turned to her stairs. "You just focus on getting all better."
"Good night, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash flopped over and squirmed to get comfy.
"Good night, Rainbow Dash."
It was soft, and warm, and...loud? Rubbing her eyes open from her long night's slumber, Scootaloo found herself in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar bed. Next to her was a cyan mare snoring louder than most stallions. It was Rainbow Dash. She was in Rainbow Dash's house—in her bed!
With a newfound energy she bolted straight up out of bed into the air. She looked to her wings in rapture. It wasn't just a dream! She could fly! In her excitement she tried to do a backflip. It didn't end well. After barely tilting at all she lost control and plummeted straight down onto Rainbow's belly.
"Gwoof!" Rainbow sat up as Scootaloo bounced off of her.
"Sorry about that, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo shook off the mist from impacting the cloud floor. "I, uh...lost control," she buzzed into the air.
Rainbow was struggling to suck in air. She didn't have a clue what just happened, but it felt like she just got socked in the gut.
"Are you okay?" Scootaloo asked as she floated down to the floor.
"I-I'm fine," she grimaced.
"Do you...remember anything?" Scootaloo tentatively prodded.
Rainbow Dash pondered a it minute. There was something. Water...and splashing, but it didn't seem to make sense. She shook her head as she dismissed it as a dream. "I remember yesterday, but that's it."
Scootaloo hung her head. She should have been ecstatic. Rainbow Dash still thought she was her little sister. But...Rainbow Dash still didn't remember. Maybe there was something really wrong with her. Worse still, when she did get her memory back, Rainbow would know that she had been lied to.
Scootaloo, you big dummy, she kicked herself.
"Um, hey, it'll be okay!" Dash scrambled to comfort to rather forlorn-looking filly. "I'm sure I'll remember all about us in no time!" she smiled as she took to the air. "Maybe I just need something to spark my memories. What do I usually do?"
Looking up at her idol, Scootaloo only felt worse. Without her memories, Rainbow Dash was relying entirely on her. Dash would almost certainly swallow any lie she told. After all, she didn't have any past experiences to tell her not to trust a little, lying filly.
"Hey, d-don't be so down," Rainbow Dash landed in front of Scootaloo and reached a hoof out to caress her cheek.
Scootaloo drew a foreleg across her face to wipe away her emotions and the tears that threatened to fall. "I-I'm fine, really."
"I'm sorry I don't remember," Rainbow hugged the smaller pegasus.
Scootaloo recoiled against the earnest affection. "It's not your fault! I-it's, I-I-I just," she stopped and sighed as she tried to reign in her emotions. "You're Ponyville's weatherpony. M-maybe you can get your memories back if you try."
"Weatherpony?"
Scootaloo hung her head. Despite being a huge fan of Rainbow Dash's, she had little idea of what she did on a day-to-day basis. "Um...well you handle the weather and stuff. Bust clouds and...uh, I guess make rain, and...stuff."
"Huh? Well, I'm sure it'll come to me if I just try," Dash smiled confidently. She turned and zoomed out the window. A moment later she stuck her head back in, "Oh! Do I take you with me?"
"I can go!?" Scootaloo beamed, momentarily forgetting her woes as well as her lies.
Placing an x-ray on a backlit display, a unicorn doctor scrutinized the image of a pegasus wing. "Hmmm, there doesn't appear to be anything broken, so it's likely just a sprain," he said as he turned back to his patient: a rainbow-maned blue pegasus.
"So what's the damage?" Rainbow Dash urged. "How long until I can fly again?"
The doctor sighed at his patient's...impatience. "Keep that wing immobilized. If it's not feeling better in a day come back and see me. Either way, you should take it easy for at least seventy-two hours."
"Wha-three days!?" Dash exclaimed.
The doctor rolled his eyes. "Have the nurses help you with your discharge papers. Go on now," he ushered Rainbow Dash out.
As soon as Rainbow Dash walked back to the waiting room, Fluttershy shot out of a chair and to Dash's side. "How was it? Are you going to be okay?"
Dash sighed as she accepted a small stack of forms. "He said it's probably just a sprain," she muttered as she absentmindedly marked the papers with a provided quill. "I have to stay grounded for three days," she groused.
"Oh, well that's a relief," Fluttershy sighed her worries away, earning a glare from Dash. "I mean...I'm glad it isn't anything serious."
"I'm gonna have to get Thunderlane or Cloudkicker to pick up my weather patrol duties," Dash slid the papers back to the nurse. "And now I'm not gonna be able to work on my new stunt, either."
Fluttershy smiled at her friend. Given her energy, Dash had to be just fine. "I'm sure you will do great with a little rest. Do you need me to help you back to your house?"
Rainbow Dash sighed again as she looked to her bandaged wing. "The doc' said I needed to stay off of it all day, so yeah," she hung her head a bit as she walked out beside Fluttershy. "Thanks Fluttershy. But first we need to find somepony to take care of the weather."
"We do?" Fluttershy asked as the duo walked out under the pure azure sky. When they had arrived, stray clouds had accumulated in Ponyville's skies leaving it dull and grey. Somepony had to have cleared them all. But for somepony to do it in the short time the two mares were in the hospital...they would have to be on par with Rainbow Dash's skills.
"What the...hay?" Rainbow Dash just stared up into the sky.
"Um, excuse me," Fluttershy stopped a passing mare. "Who cleared the sky?"
The mare chuckled a bit at Fluttershy before pointing a hoof at Rainbow Dash. "She did, of course."
"No I didn't," Dash turned to emphasize her bandaged wing. "I busted my wing yesterday."
The mare gave Rainbow Dash a strange look. "I saw you clearing the sky," she said before shaking her head a bit and moving on.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stared at each other a minute before Dash spoke, "What?"
On a lone cloud, two pegasi were curled up together. Rainbow Dash was dozing light enough not to snore too loudly while Scootaloo tried to get comfortable. It wasn't easy. Sure she had a warm, fuzzy pegasus curled up against her and soft, fluffy cloud below her, but her mind was gnawing at her.
Playing with Rainbow Dash, learning to fly, clearing the sky with her—it was all a dream come true. But whenever she had a chance to stop and think about it, her conscience haunted her. She wasn't stupid. It wasn't normal for a pegasus to just lose all of her memories. There was something wrong with her idol, and she was exploiting it instead of trying to help.
When she wakes up, Scootaloo resolved, I'll take her to Twilight Sparkle. She'll know what to do.
"It's weird," Rainbow Dash groused from one end of the small table outside the cafe. "Everypony says they saw me clear the sky. You know I didn't.
Fluttershy nodded as she sipped from her iced tea on the other side of the table. "Maybe there is a similar pony around here?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "You have got to be joking. Everypony knows me! There is no way anypony in Ponyville could mistake my awesomeness for some other pegasus."
Fluttershy sighed. "I know...but what other explanation is there?"
"Time travel!" Rainbow Dash clopped her hoof on the table. "Clearly in the near future I do something so awesome that I accidentally went back in time. I just haven't realized it yet."
A raucous laughter drew their attention to a nearby table where Derpy seemed to be having lunch with a brown stallion. "Ah, no, sorry. It was something else" the earth pony chuckled in an accent in response to Rainbow Dash's glare.
"What other explanation is there?" Rainbow Dash turned back to Fluttershy.
"Maybe we should ask Twilight Sparkle?" Fluttershy responded as a server brought out two plates and set them in front of the two pegasi. "Surely she might know what's going on."
Rainbow Dash let out a frustrated grunt. "If my wing wasn't banged up I'd just track down that imposter," she confidently claimed.
"We can worry about it after we eat," Fluttershy said as she demurely placed a napkin in her lap.
"This is where Twilight Sparkle lives," Scootaloo informed Rainbow Dash as they approached the mighty oak. "She's a Princess now, but she's still the smartest pony around. You're one of her closest friends."
"Really?" Rainbow Dash puzzled as Scootaloo knocked on the library's door.
After a few seconds, a purple alicorn opened the door, "Yes?"
"Twilight! We need your help!" Scootaloo urged as she pointed to Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow Dash's lost her memory!"
"Hmm?" Twilight looked up from Scootaloo to see Rainbow shrug at her. "You...lost your memory?"
Dash nodded. "I can only remember what happened today and about half of yesterday," she admitted as she rubbed her head. "Scootaloo says you're the pony to talk to."
Twilight's jaw fell open before she adopted a puzzled expression. "You don't...remember me?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Not at all."
Frowning, Twilight lowered her head so that her horn was pointed at Dash's forehead. "Hold still," she urged as a magenta aura encompassed her horn. "A memory spell should have you good as new."
Scootaloo flinched as the magenta aura hit Dash. She expected Rainbow Dash to yell at her, or at least scold her as her memory returned. That didn't happen. Instead Rainbow and Twilight just exchanged confused glances for a moment before Twilight ushered them in.
"Spike!" Twilight yelled as she dashed over to her bookshelves.
"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"My spell didn't work! It should have restored your memories, or at least shown you your memories. But it didn't!" Twilight panicked. "It just showed the memories that were already there. It's as if...as if your memories before yesterday really are just...gone!"
Spike stopped dead in his tracks about halfway down the stairs. "Uh...Twilight, why are there two Rainbow Dashes?"
"What?" Twilight looked up to Spike before sweeping her gaze behind her. Sure enough, there was Rainbow Dash standing next to Scootaloo in the library, as well as Rainbow Dash standing next to Fluttershy in her doorway. "What!?"
"Two Rainbow Dashes!?" Scootaloo excitedly buzzed into the air a moment before going back down to the ground.
The Rainbow Dash next to Fluttershy leapt into the library as she adopted a confrontational stance. "It's the imposter!"
The other Rainbow Dash made sure to put herself between Scootaloo and the other cyan pegasus. "Is she...me?"
"Two Rainbow Dashes?" Twilight pondered. "H-how did that happen?"
"Didn't this happen before? With Pinkie Pie?" Spike asked.
Twilight pondered it a moment before nodding. "Did you go to the magic mirror pond?" Twilight turned to the Rainbow Dash nearest Fluttershy.
"Rainbow Dash mentioned crashing into an underground pond in the Everfree Forest," Fluttershy insisted.
The Dash near her nodded as she relaxed her aggressive stance. "Yeah. I mean...it might have been the mirror pond. Explains where that came from."
The Rainbow Dash near Scootaloo sat down as her face scrunched up in concentration. "I-I remember...I came out of the water of a little underground pond. That's...as far back as I can remember."
"All right, well, I just need to make sure," Twilight looked between the two Rainbow Dashes.
"I know this is the real Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy assured as she pointed to the bandaged Rainbow.
Twilight nodded before turning towards Scootaloo's Rainbow Dash. "That's what I suspected, too," she said as she lowered her horn towards the doppelgänger, "She doesn't have any memories from before yesterday because she didn't exist until yesterday." Firing a magical blast, the Rainbow Dash next to Scootaloo swelled up before bursting. As the wisp of magic flew away towards the pond, Twilight saw Scootaloo's horrified face.
"Wh-what did you do her!?" Scootaloo screeched as she looked around desperately. "Where did Rainbow Dash go!?"
"Oh, that wasn't Rainbow Dash," Twilight said matter-of-factly. "It was just a copy from the magic mirror pond. I sent it back to the pond where it belonged."
That look of pride and accomplishment on Twilight's face was nearly enough to make Scootaloo try to assault her. "Bring her back!" she shouted. "Bring her back right now!"
"Scootaloo, she was just a copy," Rainbow Dash assured as she proudly pointed a hoof at herself. "I'm the real one."
"I don't care!" Scootaloo snapped. "Bring her back, Twilight!"
Twilight shook her head a bit. "I-I can't. The spell only works one-way. I can't bring her back." Seeing the look of devastation on the filly's face at those words made Twilight's stomach turn. "It-it wasn't really Rainbow Dash."
"E-even if it wasn't Rainbow Dash...she saved my life!" Scootaloo aggressively stared Twilight down as angry tears flowed down her cheeks. "She taught me how to fly! She spent all her time with me! She...she was my big sister! Bring her back!"
Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves. Rainbow Dash hung her head. Spike just looked away as he rubbed his neck. And Twilight Sparkle was doing everything she could not to break down and cry.
What have I done? she stared regretfully at the sobbing filly. "S-Scootaloo, I...I can't bring her back," she shook her head as a tear spilled over her eyelid and her voice cracked. "I'm sorry."
"I hate you!" Scootaloo decried as she buzzed over and started pounding her hooves against the older pony. "You killed her! I hate you!" Her blows might have been filled with rancor, but given her smaller stature and the fact that she had to constantly swipe at her tears, she just wasn't able to do any actual physical harm to Twilight.
Fluttershy managed to coax the filly away from Twilight Sparkle, drawing her into a comforting hug. "Shhh," she drew a hoof through Scootaloo's purple mane.
Scootaloo only allowed the comforting embrace a few moments before she shoved Fluttershy away. "N-None of-of you even cared at all!" she choked out through her sobs as her fire started to die, ushering in the cold, empty sadness. Buzzing her wings, she flew out the nearest window and away from the heartless ponies that just banished her big sister from existence.
A chilly night breeze swept through a shadowy meadow. It wouldn't have been noticed by anything other than the grass it teased if not for the lone filly shivering under the moonlight. Alone with her thoughts and the stars, she was just curled up there, having long since run out of tears.
This meadow was special to her. Scootaloo hadn't noticed it until she found herself sobbing here untold hours ago. This is where Rainbow Dash... No. This is where her big sister took her and played with her all day until she learned to fly on her own.
Now that sister was gone forever. She had only known her for a day, but that day was her sister's entire life. And she was the only pony that would ever care that she was gone. She was the only pony that cared about her existence at all. She would be the only pony to remember her big sister and just how wonderful she really was.
It didn't matter to Scootaloo that she was magical clone created from the mirror pond. That pegasus that was so much like Rainbow Dash and so much unlike Rainbow meant so much more to her than she even knew—until she was gone. She never even got to say goodbye.
Even though it was utterly futile, Scootaloo craned her neck up to stare at the twinkling stars. "Goodbye, big sister," she whispered as a lonely tear spilled down her cheek.
