"Come on Scoots! You're not gonna win a race like that!"
The orange pegasus filly breathed in and out puffing breaths illuminated by excitement. Her wings make incredible makeshift propellers, her face painted with a smirk of determination. Her hooves rested on the handlebars, her hindlegs poised perfectly for an upcoming ramp. A sky blue and rainbow blur struck past her like lightning, causing her to strain even harder in her efforts. Her eyes locked on the stunt ramp only a couple hundred yards in front of her, and the pony running with wings tied firmly to back approaching it fast. Scootaloo ducked down slowly, feeling the wind ride over her and the combined mass of her and the scooter start to go faster. She made herself forget about the wind nipping at her eyes and jerking the tears from them.
All she was focused on was that ramp, that huge, looming ramp and the challenge it presented.
That and the Rainbow blur cascading up it.
She gave it all she had and felt a small bump as her Scooter transferred from the dirt to its plastic, colorful surface. She smiled in a thrill. She was actually gaining on rainbow dash! This was so incredible! She narrowed her eyes in determination and felt the jar as she tilted her wheels slightly to the left in an attempt to gain slight edge. She felt an adrenaline rush as she neared the top of the ramp, gaining on the mare who had just jumped right from the obstical. She took a deep breath as she saw the gorgeous everfree over the edge, gazing over ponyville, the mountains, and the other features that made Equestria magnificent. The moment this gorgeous spectical ended was the moment her scooter cascaded over the edge, giving her a few precious seconds of the thing she longed for-
Flight. She soon felt the impact of her scooter hitting the dirt and sped onward, her momentary dizziness vanished. The dirt flew up at the edges of the newly cleaned wheels, causing a massive dust fog behind her as she glided away. Her keen purple eyes caught a flash of color in the distance, and with some extra speed, she could in fact infer that this was her competitor. She kicked into full action and felt herself gaining on the mare.
The finish line was in the eyes of both now, sweat clotted in their fur and the wind effortlessly caressing them. Scootaloo could only focus on that one strip of a red line brushed across the dirt. Her wings strained and flapped as hard as they could, burning with fury as she felt the dirt loosening under her wheels.
Almost...
She saw that blue mare and the red line at the same time, and by those measures had no clue who won. But she felt the slight bump as she sped over the finish, and inhaled a deep sigh. The kind of happy sigh that you would expect after a challenge had been conquered. The little filly skidded to a stop, tilting her wheels slightly so as to cause a faster break. She loved everything about her Friday races with Rainbow Dash. The challenge they brought, the exercise, the fun. But just spending time with her honorary big sister was something she considered a treasure. She bowed her head and chewed a bit at the buckle, finally hearing the pop of the two connecters dis-conjoining and reaching her hooves to the violet brushed helmet to lift it off her head.
As she took the safety feature off, she felt a cool sweep of breeze over her now exposed forelock, which had gotten awful hot and damp from being in the helmet. Scootaloo only looked up from this routine as she saw her competitor approaching her.
"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo squeaked, dropping her helmet on the dusty ground with a thud almost followed by her scooter. Despite all the time they had spent together, Scootaloo was still just as amazed at the blue furred pegasus who called herself the best flyer in Equestria. Dash herself responded with a brief chuckle.
"Hey kid. Some nice moves on that scooter today! I found it hard to beat ya, especially with my trusty ol' wings tied to my back." Scootaloo practically beamed with pride. Her idol had trouble beating her! Sure, she didn't have her greatest asset, but STILL!
"Gee, thanks Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow raised an eyebrow, allowing her lip to curl into a smile and stretching a now freed wing out, letting her feathers ruffle the younger pegasi's still damp pixie cut hair.
"Well, you are pretty cool. I mean, not a cool as me, but still pretty cool." Taking this as a compliment, Scootaloo beamed even brighter. "Now lets get to the library. Twilight promised she was going to help you fix up your scooter a bit, remember?" Indeed, the filly did remember Twilight's promise to "Spiff up" her scooter a bit. So both pegasi set off, towards the setting sun. Which also happened to be the direction of the treehouse.
As they walked along the path out of the Everfree, kicking up the stones at their hooves, taking turns wheeling the scooter, and glancing around at the surrounding forest, Scootaloo became curious. So curiously evil it made her smirk. She almost didn't dare ask...
"Dash, whats your favorite color?" Rainbow glanced at Scootaloo, her magenta eyes widening. She then laughed merrily.
"Oh please! Choosing a favorite color is like choosing a favorite friend. You can never do it, especially for a pony like me. You can't be yourself when any of them are away, so how could I choose a favorite?" Scootaloo blinked and tilted her head innocently, beginning to feel the tug of the crisp autumn wind at her hair.
"I think I get it."
"Bye Scoots!" Rainbow dash said with a smile on her face, waving a sky blue hoof to the orange filly. She returned this gesture, raising her own smaller orange foreleg and repeating Dash's wave.
"Bye Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo began down the dirt path that would lead to the clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She didn't mind staying there. It was fun. More fun than sleeping in the dark alleyways of Ponyville, which she had been doing for a good number of four years. So she felt her hooves lift the ground and brush warmed steel as she hopped on her scooter, preparing to propel herself towards the clubhouse.
"Well if it isn't the flightless bird." The laughing mock carried its way to Scootaloo's ears, making them twitch. Another call, in a slightly less whiny tone that was annoying as hell all the same, was thrown towards her.
"Yeah! The pathetic little dodo." Scootaloo sighed openly, turning her head to the source of these taunts and flattening her ears straight to her head. Just another day of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's relentless mocking. She opened her mouth to send back a casual insult, but somepony else beat her to it. This pony was not in the mood to be casual.
"WHY YOU LITTLE B*TCHES!!!" Rainbow Dash's hooves pummeled the ground, sending small puffs of dirt flurrying into the air. She gritted her teeth, grinding them like a cow with its cud. Her ears lay flat back against her head, like a bull ready to charge. Her "Prey" didn't seem to like this game.
"Hey Scootaloo, old pal!" Diamond tiara chanted nervously, her eyes darting back and forth in attempts to find a quick escape route. Scootaloo only shook her head dismissively. They were about to get what they deserved. The proverbial bull stomped towards them, growing ever nearer and seemingly increasingly angrier...
Her teeth were poised to bite if necessary.
Tail lashing back and forth in a whirl of colors...
One more step to be right in front of those brats...
When suddenly, she stopped. Halted to a standstill, seemingly frozen in position. A foreleg was extended for a slap, but none was delivered. Her hooves planted firmly in the ground, with no movement. Her expression taught and emotionless, snapped out of its previous rage.
Diamond Tiara quivered in fright as she looked up at the frozen mare, seeing this as an opportunity to climb from her sitting position and get on her hooves, shakily kicking up a shower of stones as she skidded away from Dash. Silver Spoon was not quite so fortunate, and as the mare "Unfroze" from this odd position, still found herself cowering under her hoof of wrath. Silver Spoon winced and chomped down on her lip, ready for the pegasus to resume her slap, but indeed no slap came. She found Rainbow Dash instead looking at her in concern.
"You should really be nicer to Scootaloo." After a brief pause and a quick look around, she added, "You should be home. It's getting dark." The cowering grey filly did not hesitate to "Be getting home." Silver Spoon got to her own hooves and began to run in a terrified manner after her comrade, the wind messing with her hair as she went.
"Rainbow Dash...?" Scootaloo said, glancing at her big sisters hair. "What happened to your mane?"
"What do you mean?" Rainbow dash replied, raising an eyebrow. Scootaloo appeared to be panicking.
"Look at it!" The nearby park mirror with the surrounding frame of pearly white iron stood, inviting the mare to take a peek at what the younger filly was noticing. Rainbow shrugged in a confused manner and stalked towards the mirror, hearing her hoofs softly pummel the ground as she approached the reflective surface...
And apon looking into that surface, seeing the vibrant red missing from her Rainbow, replaced with a dull grey.
Author's Note
Red
Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter: Orange
Next chapter publish date: Approximately Nov. 20.
"I've never seen anything like it!"
A single, maroon red, hardback book with fancy golden lettering in italics became encased in dark magenta light, lifting from its position on the table and moving swiftly to the eyesight of a purple unicorn. Her sparkling eyes read over each page extremely quickly, flipping page to page at a remarkable speed until she inferred that this book would be of no assistance. She then lowered it onto another tottering pile of reading material, loosening her magical grip on it and looking to the next book, a small green paperback with bold print and odd pictures and recipes. She flipped through this one, shaking her head and mumbling a low and angered no, no, no!
"Twilight? Did you find anything yet?" A shakey, clearly scared voice asked. Twilight turned her undivided attention from the book for a brief moment, looking to Scootaloo and seeing fear shimmering in her usually defiant eyes. A shake of the head signified that the books had not yet held an answer. Scootaloo sighed, feeling her chest knotting up like shoelaces tied a little too tight. The pegasus filly her own head and looked to the heavy, wooden door of the library, where Rainbow sat gloomily, her frame drooping slightly as she leaned against it. Twilight's barely spared a moment to blink as she flipped through book after book. That tiny, pocketsized blue book with the purple text didn't give any clues... neither did the brown one with the bright green patterns.
"AHA!" The sudden, triumphant yell jarred Scootaloo awake from her state of worry, as well as creeping its way over to Rainbow dash and succeeding in startling her as well. Rainbow, who previously remained with head tilted downward, staring at the dust particles scattered on the floor, raised her head slowly.
"Whats going on?" She asked, her voice dull as an unsharpened pencil. It was a weird sight for Scootaloo. If something like this happened on any other day, Dash would most likely blow up from anger. But... without that vibrant, defining red in her hair, it seemed like she had lost the very capability to be angry.
"Here it is!" Twilight announced loud and clear, her eyes sparkling. She lifted the book, an orange, dusty spellbook with crinkled old pages and hoofwritten words, to her eye level, scanning it and reading aloud- "A pony's personality is defined in part by their color. The color of both fur and hair account for this. Different colors evoke different emotions, such as Red evoking anger, Orange adventurousness, Yellow happiness, Green envy, Blue sadness, Purple smarts, Pink energy, and white grace. A pony should have no more than four colors, with the exception of the princesses. If a pony has more than four colors, than they have too many personalities that will eventually clash and start disappearing one by one..." At this Twilight lowered the book slowly, her eyes widening in realization.
You could have heard Fluttershy sneeze it was so quiet. Everyone had the same, matching look of incoming dread painted to their faces. Twilight returned the book to her eyes and continued to read.
"The only known cure lays deep into the everfree, in the castle of the sisters! It can be found in their ancient spellroom." Twilight took a deep breath and gulped. Scootaloo's throat was too dry for her to even try gulping.
"So... Will Dash be OK?" The filly's eyes quivered and she flattened her ears to her head, evoking a slight swish in the air. Twilight sighed.
"I don't know Scootaloo. The sisters castle is so broken down... I don't know if there even is a spellroom anymore! But we have to try and find one, and fast." Twilight nodded her head surely, trying to calm herself and act brave for both pegasi. "Spike! Get me my saddlebags." The only sign that Spike had heard her call was a yell of,
"Sure thing!" Small clawsteps could be heard as Spike walked quickly down the wooden stairs, in the way that made you think he would fall over. As he neared the bottom step, he glanced to his right and saw Dash. "What happened?" Spike inquired slightly nervously, walking a little more urgently now and trotting over to Twilight to fulfill her request. Twilight only shook her head quickly and used her sparkling magic to grab the saddlebags (distinctly hers from the cutie mark sown on the side) and place them on her back with a soft thud.
"No time to explain Spike. We have to get Rainbow to the Everfree, and fast." She leaned her head to the other side, grabbing the book which had revealed the information in magenta and placing it in the saddlebag. "Scootaloo, Rainbow! Lets go. We gotta hurry!" Scootaloo jumped from her sitting position, flapping her wings a couple times and feeling the dusty library air under them before dropping to the ground with a clunk and walking towards Twilight. Twilight smiled, grabbing the door handle and thrusting the door open with a jerk of her head. "Rainbow?" Twilight asked questioningly, turning her head for a second. She barely believed what she saw.
Rainbow dash sat exactly where she had been, with the exception of scooting back a little. Her facial expression was a tight frown, revealing her teeth. Her eyes were wide open, and her frame had become so frozen it was hard to tell if she was even alive, and not a statue or doll. She parted her lips, stuttering a little.
"T-The Everfree!? Are you c-crazy!?!?"
"Rainbow!" Both Scootaloo and Twilight gasped in shock at the same time. And time was running out.
The bright orange that had defined Rainbow's adventure and spunk was... Gone.
Author's Note
Orange
Hope that you enjoyed!
Next chapter: Yellow
Next chapter publish date: Approx. Nov 22
