Dreaming to be Free

by Ractrin

Rating: teen
Tags: Scootaloo, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Sad, Original Character, Tragedy
Length: 1284

Scootaloo is told she can't fly so she throws herself off a cliff to try and prove them all wrong. (Short Story)

Rainbow Dash takes Scootaloo to the doctor to see why she is having trouble flying, and the doctor gives her troubling news. Angered, Scootaloo sets out to prove him wrong. Inspirational short story.

Published 2014-06-10 04:40:06 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-10 04:40:06 UTC

Chapter 1

Will I only beable to fly in my dreams?
Are my dreams the only place where I can be me?
The only place where I can be free?

Are my Dreams the only place where I won’t be a disappointment to her?
Am I only capable of dreaming about flying next to her?
Rainbow Dash, I dream to fly with you!

The door to the doctors office opened with ominous creek causing Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to look up from their idle conversation. Dr. Clean Bandage walked in with a clipboard in his mouth. With an uneasy look on his face he meandered over to the chair that sat across the room from the two pegasi. He pulled the stool to him when he got to it and sat up on it. While holding the clipboard in one hoof he skimmed over the paper’s contents momentarily and then looked at the orange mare.

“Ms. Scootaloo, I regret to inform you, you will never beable to fly.” he said as sympathetically as he could.
“What!?” Scootaloo shouted.
“Doc, are you sure?” Rainbow Dash questioned.
“Scootaloo.” he stated, pulling his glasses off of his face and looking at them solemnly. “Your wings will never grow large enough to support your weight. Their growth has been stunted by an unknown growth defect. I’m sorry, but you will never beable to fly.”

“NO!” Scootaloo shouted.

“Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash said trying to comfort her.
“You’re wrong!” Scootaloo continued to yell, tears welling up in her eyes. “I WILL beable to fly one day!”
“Ms. Scootaloo, please try to understand…” the doctor tried to calm down the belligerent orange mare.
“NO!” She jumped off of the bed she had been sitting on and looked back at Rainbow Dash and Dr. Clean Bandage.
“Scoots…” Rainbow said climbing off of her chair and walking up to the young pegasus.
“I WILL beable to fly! I’ll show you!” Scootaloo shouted as she turned and ran out of the room. Rainbow Dash, surprised, took off after her.

“Scootaloo! Wait!” Rainbow called after her adopted sister trying to stop her from leaving the doctor’s office. Without stopping Scootaloo burst through the exit doors and ran away from town. As soon as she was outside, Rainbow took flight and tried to catch her, but Scootaloo managed to duck into the Everfree Forest. Rainbow stopped and watched the orange and purple pony disappear into the brush. “Dammit kid…” Rainbow muttered.

Scootaloo ran. She ran as fast as her hooves would carry her. Tears streamed down her face as she felt her dreams crumbling. “Why am I running?” she thought to herself. She opened her wings and began to flap as hard as she could. A branch clipped one of her feathers and she tucked her wings back in. “I guess the forest isn’t the best place to try and take off from. I need a clearing.” she looked around, shaking tears from her face as she was now propelled by determination. “I AM going to fly, I don’t give a damn about what that doctor says!” she yelled out loud, her voice resounding off of the trees she was darting between.

No pony could stop her. She hopped over logs, ducked under branches, stepped on snakes in the brush; nothing would stop her pursuit of a clearing to take off from. Every direction she looked was nothing but forest, and her breathing was beginning to burden. She had been running for so long she was growing tiered. “My legs can get tiered, I won’t need them when I’m flying!” she shouted at herself.

Finally, a clearing began to show itself. She smiled and pushed even harder, her legs’ protests going unnoticed. The trees opened up to a small clearing that lead to… “Ghastly Gorge?” Scootaloo said without stopping, the cliff’s edge getting closer with each gallop. “Perfect. I will either fly, or die trying.” She opened her wings and began to flap as hard as she could.

Her breathing became clear as her adrenalin pumped through her body, empowering her to gallop even faster. Her legs pushed harder, their strain ignored as Scootaloo’s goal laid just meters ahead of her. As her wings flapped, she could have sworn she was becoming lighter, as if they were actually picking her up off the ground. She smiled as the cliff’s edge was only within a few steps.

The air flowed through purple hair, waving it around as if it were a rag doll. Orange fur rippled as wind blew it around violently. Feathers bounced as the current passed around them. She was free.

“Is this what it’s like to fly?” Scootaloo asked, her wings flapping as quick as she could make them. She opened her eyes and noticed that the ground was getting closer. “I’m falling?” she looked at the gorge’s cliff walls and saw that no matter how hard she flapped, she still could not make them go down. “I guess I really can’t fly…” Tears escaped her eyes as she stopped flapping. She became limp as she let gravity perform its natural duty. “At least, this way, I’ll never disappoint Rainbow Dash ever again. She’ll never have to be embarrassed by me anymore.”

She rolled to where her back was heading downward, her arms limp and her wings folded around her. She stared at the moon’s light, glad that Luna’s blessed moon would be her last sight in this life.

The falling, it slowed. Scootaloo could feel something wrapping itself around her. It was warm, and fuzzy. A flash of rainbow mixed with cyan danced across her vision. Scootaloo looked up and saw that Rainbow Dash was holding her in her arms. She looked at the canyon wall and saw that it was stationary, no longer going up.

“R-Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo stuttered.
“Scootaloo? What were you thinking?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a quivering tone, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I was going to fly, Rainbow, or die. I don’t want to be a disappointment… or an embarrassment... to you anymore.”
“Scootaloo…you’re my sister. You could never disappoint me, or embarrass me. You don’t need to beable to fly for me to love you. I love you because… because…oh dammit I love you because you’re my sister!” She turned Scootaloo and hugged her, whimpering simultaneously.

Water passed from rose to cyan, from cyan to orange, and fell to the dirt many meters below. Scootaloo looked up at the rainbow mane’d mare and saw that she was crying profusely. “Rainbow Dash, are you okay?” Scootaloo asked.
“I thought I was going to lose you, kid.” She said looking up at the young mare. “What’d I tell you about jumping off cliffs?”
“I’m sorry Dash…I just…” Scootaloo looked out over the gorge, twisting in Rainbow’s fore arms to see better. “I just wish I could fly.”

“I just said, kiddo, you don’t need to fly. You are who you are and you should be proud of it…least that’s what an egg-head would say.” they both giggled. “Hey uh, you wanna sleep at my house tonight? No stepping outside though.” Rainbow pointed a hoof at Scootaloo in a disciplinary way. With a smile Scootaloo hugged Rainbow again.
“Of Course I would.” Rainbow Dash turned and put Scootaloo on her back. With one big push, Rainbow Dash took off, flying as fast as she could back to her house.

I am free, no matter who I am, or what my disabilities are.
I am what I make myself be, no one can stop that but me.
I may dream of being able to fly, but that’s all I need,
because I have a sister that flies with me anyway.