The Final Days of Scootaloo
Today is the day I finally get to impress her! When she sees this, she will definitely take me in as her sister! At least, that's how it works, right?
"Scootaloo! Don't be stupid! Get down from there!"
I don't care what they say, I know Rainbow Dash is here at the fair, and soon, enough ponies will be here to see me! Then, she'll come to see what all the commotion is about... that's when she'll see me!
Many ponies surrounded the ramp, stretching high into the air, looking up to Scootaloo, who was going to ride on her scooter down the ramp in an attempt to force herself to fly. Half of this was to fly, the other half was to impress Rainbow Dash. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were trying to convince Scootaloo to climb down from there as to not get herself killed. "Scootaloo! Please don't do this!" Sweetie Belle cried.
"Yeah! We've done some bucked up hay before, but this is plain crazy!" Applebloom shouted, she tried to climb up the ladder of the ramp, but Scootaloo threw down a chicken egg at her. "You're going to get yourself killed!" The broken egg on her face slowed her down, but she would still speak her mind. Applebloom stepped up to the ladder once again.
I only have three eggs left...but I have to stall until Rainbow Dash sees me! I can't go until then!
Applebloom was getting closer, still getting the cracked egg pieces off of her head along with the yolk of the egg. Scootaloo threw down another, but Applebloom dodged it, and it landed on Sweetie Belle instead.
"Hey! Be careful up there!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "I won't come up there, but what I'll do to you once you come down!... You're lucky that Applebloom's coming up there instead of me!"
"Can it, Sweetie Belle! You're gonna make me fall!" Applebloom yelled down at Sweetie Belle, who shrugged. She groaned and continued to go up.
Scootaloo scanned the ground, and saw Rainbow Dash flying towards the base of the ramp as fast as she could. She was filled with adrenaline and laughed. She looked back down to Applebloom, who had already gotten to the highest point of the ramp.
"Scootaloo! Stop! I won't let you do this!" Applebloom cried, with tears in her eyes. She reached out for Scootaloo, who laughed at her.
I want to say something witty... something to let her know I'll be alright. We do this all the time...
Scootaloo saw that Rainbow Dash had looked up the ramp, she gave herself that push needed to kick-start her descent down the slope of the ramp. She had it figured out, that she would use her wings to add accelerate to her slide, and she would jump off of the scooter right at the edge of the ramp, and then she would continue flapping her wings to help herself to fly. She had the physics figured out, so now all she had to do was see if they worked, but there was no time to test it. The experiment was not redo-able, this was final. Scootaloo felt the wind blowing through her mane, and she kept her path straight, unwavering, as to not fall and wipe out immediately. She cleared her mind, closing her eyes, and then jumped off of her scooter. Now zipping through mid-air, Scootaloo began to flap her wings frantically to keep herself up in the air, and she found that it worked! She looked back to see that she was already out of the fair grounds, and flying above a forest... and that Rainbow Dash was following after her at top speed.
This is so cool! She's even following me! This is going exactly how I planned it!
"NOOOO! DAMMIT!"
Scootaloo wondered why Rainbow Dash would be saying such a thing, she knew only older ponies could say that, and they usually did when they were mad. What is Rainbow Dash mad about? Surely, she isn't jealous... I may be flying, but not good enough to get her jealous... or maybe!--
Her mind flooded with voices, they sounded far away, and strangely familiar. She could only see black, but realized that her eyes were forcing themselves closed, and when they opened, she saw white walls and a wide, open window showing off the blue sky. She noticed she was in a hospital bed, and that her friends and Rainbow Dash were there, watching her. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom ran to her side, but did not even attempt to hug her, as her body was hooked up to a heart moniter. The two were crying in relief to know that Scootaloo was alive, but Rainbow Dash was not in joy. She looked away from Scootaloo and gritted her teeth.
"Hey..." Scootaloo winced from a pain in her chest, noticing that a massive stitched gash was there, right over her heart and lung area. She lay down on her back and stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling that the wound was deeper, and stretched down to her back. She was impaled by something. Examining her head with one of her hooves (thank Celestia they both weren't broken), she felt a soft, plush covering on the right side of her forehead that covered her right eye as well. Then it hit her, she had also lost an eye. "Dammit..." she groaned, saying the word she had heard Rainbow say a while ago. "How long was I out?"
"A week," Rainbow said, "I brought your friends out here to see you everyday after school, y'know, cuz you guys are friends..." She looked and sounded as if she were trying to avoid Scootaloo, and tears. "They can't come up here alone so late in the day, y'know? So, I came with..."
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle smiled brightly and presented to Scootaloo a get well poster, decorated with macaroni, jewels, and glitter. It had a hoof-drawn picture of the Cutie Mark Crusaders with their older sisters, but Scootaloo was alone. She was still in the picture, but still alone. In the background was the sun in the middle of the sky, surrounded by two clouds and crowned by a beautifully drawn rainbow. In the corner of the picture was everypony in Ms. Cheerilee's class's signatures, even Ms. Cheerilee's. "We worked really hard on it!" Applebloom exclaimed, while Sweetie Belle nodded her head and wiped her tears away.
"Yeah! Everypony in class worked on it with us! We all hope you get better soon, then we can all go on adventures to find our cutie marks again!" Sweetie Belle added. "What's our team without our Scootaloo?"
The picture was really good actually, and Scootaloo was surprised that they finished it in just a week. But she could not shake off the fact that Rainbow Dash was not in the picture. She wanted to bring it up, but did not want to disappoint the others, and she did not want to seem any more desperate for Rainbow's attention than she did a week ago. That was enough.
Scootaloo looked to Rainbow Dash and asked her, "So, what exactly happened?" She wanted to know, if she lost an eye and got impaled, her wipe out must have been legendary. She felt she would upgrade from chicken to cockatrice.
"You crashed into a tree on a cliff, and fell down into a running river..." Rainbow Dash said lowly, she almost gagged. She could remember it so clearly, it scared her. It was already hard enough to know that Scootaloo had done this, but the fact she had done it for her made Rainbow feel much worse. The overbearing guilt was like a chained weight around her neck with a dragon pulling her back as she tried to fly. She could barely even stand up straight.
Rainbow Dash could not go on with the explanation, but she remembered seeing Scootaloo run face first into a pine tree, and the impact must have knocked her out then and there, because she did not scream or yell or make any kind of noise. Rainbow thought she was dead, but had to make sure.
A massive splatter of blood dripped down from the tree, and a chunk of Scootaloo's flesh stuck to it like glue, it had to be her eye. She followed Scootaloo down the cliff as fast as she could, but not fast enough to save her from falling into the running stream. The water was not deep enough to carry her, but Scootaloo did land back first onto a rock with a sharp edge, cultered by years of water erosion. The thin, skinny rock blade ran straight through Scootaloo's back through her chest. Rainbow spared no time, and rushed the filly to a hospital at the speed of sound. She would not let her die, not on her watch, it would not bother her conscience.
The doctor, Dr. Chase Michael, complimented Rainbow on her speed, saying if she were not a pegasus who could fly so fast and so far to save the filly's life, that death was inevitable for her. But time was not the decider here, Rainbow made sure she fought time to save the life of her number one fan. But looking at how Scootaloo was now, all stitched up and patched together like a zombie, she felt as though she had only made her incoming death more painful. Rainbow knew what would happen, Dr. Chase Michael had told her already, not in the presence of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, since they were so young, that Scootaloo's injuries were too severe for even the most trained medical minds to treat. Even magic enhanced medics could not steer the boat away from the waterfall of life. She only had two more days to live. With or without life support, Scootaloo would die, and there was nothing Rainbow could do about it.
The fillies talked until sunset, while Rainbow sat at the window, staring at the setting sun. The fillies' sisters had come to visit and pick uo their younger siblings, leaving Rainbow with Scootaloo, who was still giggling from all the funny stories that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were telling her. They still had their adventures during the week, just so they could come to Scootaloo with happy news and awesome stories. But now it was just Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo in the room, turned golden by the sunset. Rainbow began crying softly, and she walked up to Scootaloo, looking her straight in the eyes. The young filly blushed at the suddenness of the older pony's actions. Rainbow took the wires and hospital aides from Scootaloo's body, then allowing the filly to get on her back.
"Whoa! We can't leave yet, can I, I mean?" Scootaloo questioned her, but Rainbow wiped her tears flew out of the window. She said nothing but, "Hold on tight."
Scootaloo did what Rainbow said, holding onto her mane. She giggled lightly, full of zeal to be in this position. She had never thought she would take Rainbow for a ride, well, not like this, that is... she hoped she would grow up and get a job, making enough money to take Rainbow Dash out to eat, so they could learn more about eachother. When she was older, she felt, she could have more things to talk about to her, since they would have experienced their years until then... but she wondered if Rainbow ever left, how could she do so? If she joined the Wonderbolts, she may have never seen her again, she knew she would never be able to catch up to Rainbow fast enough to be drafted in... but anything could happen.
"Where do you want to go? With me, that is," Rainbow questioned the filly as they flew high in the sky over Ponyville.
Scootaloo's daydream had been cut short, and she noticed how high they were already, she panicked and grabbed onto Rainbow's mane harder, leaning down to hide her sight from what would be a long fall down. "Um... I don't know..." she whispered.
"C'mon kid! You do all this fantasizing and you don't even have a place figured out?"
"Okay, okay! I... I wanna go to Cloudsdale!"
"That's it?" Something so simple kind of annoyed her. "What are we gonna do there?"
Scootaloo began to think. Then she came up with the perfect idea. "I wanna learn how to fly!"
Three days surely would not be enough, especially for a filly who was injured so badly. Rainbow already regretted "stealing" her from the hospital, but felt if she did not show Scootaloo the attention she'd always wanted from her before she died, it would weigh on her conscience until she died, this was no better, but it didn't feel as bad. Scootaloo seemed to not have a problem with it either, and if she knew what would happen to her soon, she would have welcomed it with no hesitation, even less hesitation than she had with this.
"Are you sure?" Rainbow Dash asked in a worried tone.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't strain myself to fly just yet," Scootaloo said with a boyish chuckle. "I am still all stitched up like a zombie... I think we should go to a hotel for the night."
Upon arriving in Cloudsdale at late sunset, the two pegasi stepped hoof in the bustling downtown area, where the streetlights were coming on, one by one. Down the rows, the lights illuminated the streets, and the final row shut on, and in its spotlight was Scootaloo. The filly's eyes were as wide as space, and shined like stars in the night sky. She was too amazed to speak, upon seeing the pegasi flying with their fillies to go home, go shopping, or to just go. Scootaloo had never taken witness to such a metropolis before, and she was frozen in her hooves, standing on the clouds. She was standing on clouds! After such a long time of dreaming of this moment, she finally was standing on the clouds! She turned to Rainbow and ran to her, hugging her as she cried her eye out. "I can't thank you enough!" she cried, getting on Rainbow's back again. "Now, to get a hotel!"
Luckily for them, Rainbow had enough money to cater to all the needs Scootaloo may have wanted, and more. She felt quite confident she would make the filly pegasus' last moments her best. They stayed at a decent hotel that night, eating Chinese styled noodles and telling stories about their adventures and experiences. Scootaloo was surprised that she shared so much in common as Rainbow, and that they could talk to one another so easily, despite being from different generations. She was starting to see Rainbow as a real elder sister now, she could finally say that this pegasus was truly worthy to be her sister... Or could she? It had only been one afternoon, and maybe that was more of Scootaloo's idolizing of her to make such a judgment so quickly, it was not true sisterly love yet, just a fan-to-superior kind of infatuation, like she had always felt for Rainbow. It was confusing, because she did not know what to think anymore, now that she had her wish granted, she did not know what else to do. Rainbow was clearly enjoying her company and treating Scootaloo like a little sister, so maybe she could rest assured that once the time was right, she would know. She knew that Rainbow Dash figured it out already.
Waking up proved difficult to the filly, as she found herself barely able to move. She was shivering, even though she must have taken the entire cover from Rainbow Dash that night, but the elder pony did not look to be chilled in the least. Scootaloo tried sitting up, but a terrible pain in her chest forced her to her back, as if it were a bully pushing a victim back down when they tried to stand again. The place where she had been impaled had healed mostly on the outside, but it was the inside that was still shredded. She could barely keep her eyes open, and saw that the sun was barely getting up. Maybe she woke up from the pain...
"You up, Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo rolled over to see Rainbow, who got out of bed and stretched. She slightly cracked her back. "Not the same as my bed back in Ponyville, but still, I gotta good night's rest out of it. How 'bout you?" Rainbow asked her, with a fake, but reassuring smile and a nervous chuckle.
"Y-Y...You have blood on your wings..." Scootaloo wheezed, struggling to sit up and turn around, spotting a deep, red splash of blood upon the white covers. The filly really appreciated Rainbow doing all of this after the accident, but it began to feel like way too much. She wanted to go back to the hospital now, and she felt as though something terrible would happen to her. "Rainbow Dash.... I really appreciate your help, and I know you feel bad about me being hurt so badly, but I don't think I should be out like this... Can't we just wait until I heal up? If we just wait, then...--"
Rainbow punched the wall at the side of her, putting a huge crack in it. It was too late to go back now, she would be arrested for fillynapping for sure, and her friends would never look at her the same again. She felt as though she had betrayed everypony, but there was truly nothing else for her to do. She did not think it was right to do this, but deep down in her heart it was really the very least she could do, for Scootaloo at least. She was not doing this for her, for her friends, or any higher powers, this was completely for Scootaloo. The one thing she could have done a long time ago was being done now, it's now or never, better late than never, right here right now. She could not afford to have any regrets, but Scootaloo's comment about them meeting up later had struck her heart like a bolt of lightning, having her heart burn with anger like a star. She could see the tears of confusion and fear in Scootaloo's eyes, her innocence close to being shattered. It was too late to tell her? Or was it too early? Her eyes reflected pure uneasiness, and Rainbow only had one chance to make it up to her. And the rest of today, with whatever many hours along with that. What would her friends do? Rainbow began to think of their respective Elements of Harmony. She had loyalty, well, she was doing that pretty well already, right? Twilight had magic, but Rainbow could not do magic, and she did not think anypony else in Cloudsdale could do magic, but maybe she could show her magic through other means... like cloud jumping.
"Rainbow Dash? Are you...okay?" Scootaloo asked, trying her best to get out of the bed. She hopped down and walked over to Rainbow Dash, bumping rumps with her to try to cheer her up. She smiled to her, and Rainbow Dash saw this, smiling back and patting Scootaloo on her head. "It doesn't really matter, does it? I'm happy no matter what! I shouldn't have doubted your choices, since you're older than me and all." She stood on her hind legs and kicked the air as Rainbow would. "No little wound like this can scare me! I'll be fine!"
Rainbow laughed, pulling back the tears she nearly cried, hugging Scootaloo, who began laughing in joy. "You must really look up to me, like, really!" she exclaimed, now thinking that she should do things relating to each of her friends' Elements. There was the cloud jumping idea for magic, then something relating to laughter or generosity to get her spirits up. Her answer was on the wall, a small reminder of a race taking place at a given address. Maybe Rainbow could cheer up Scootaloo by showing her again who she was, the blue, rainbow-maned pegasus who wanted to be the best of the best and join the Wonderbolts.
"How about I join a race so you can see me fly, up close? Then it'll give you some pointers on flight," Rainbow suggested, "no better place to learn than Cloudsdale! The home of the Pegasi!"
Scootaloo's eyes lit up with stars. "Yes! A thousand times, yes!" she yelled in pure joy, hopping up. "I would love to see you race! Then I can learn even faster!"
"That's the spirit!" Rainbow exclaimed, looking to the blood on Scootaloo's back, then on her wings. The young filly's joy seemed misplaced with all of the blood on her. It kind of made her sick, but what was the point of feeling sad and overly guilty when Scootaloo, of whom she was the host of her last day on the planet, was happy and overjoyed just to spend this one day with Rainbow Dash.
Loyalty, done, laughter, done (due to last night's storytelling), now was generosity. She would show her the Element of Generosity by taking her to see the one thing she had always wanted to see. Rainbow would have to win using the Sonic Rainboom, it was the only way to be sure of Scootaloo's happiness of the event. But first, she had to clean her up, and herself.
Today is the day that I finally get to spend time with Rainbow Dash! Or should I get used to calling her "sister" now? She's doing so much to make me happy just because I got hurt... that means she actually cares about me, right? Then we're getting there, to that sisterly step! I can't wait to have more days like this, even though this day isn't over yet... it's okay. I'm sure there will be thousands of these days in the future! Maybe not thousands, because a thousand days is like three years... that's a lot of time. Oh well, I'll see in the future!
The racing ground was especially set up at a place where it would be highly difficult to fly without having to maneuver around obstacles. Many cloud hills with cloud pillars, rings looping up into the sky and drops that would rip the skin off of anypony to try to attempt it, one would be forced to slow down to dodge the spinning clouds rotating at the bottom of the drop, then tubes curling around one another downwards, leading to the final stretch to the finish line. No obstacles, just a test to determine who has the fastest speed.
Rainbow Dash chuckled, "Doesn't look so complicated. This'll be a piece of cake!"
Scootaloo was in awe of the race course, and imagined how one pony could be so talented as to get around to successfully completing a race like this. She began to worry if Rainbow could even handle something like this. "Rainbow Dash, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'll understand if you want to do something else..." she said, sounding awfully worrisome.
"Don't worry, Scootaloo! I'll be fine, I've had years of training to accomplish something as easy as this!" Rainbow reassured her, taking the filly to the closest seat to the track in the front and giving her a camera to film her and the race. She went to go apply for the race and was accepted and given a number (42) and placement.
Soon, fifty other pegasi were around her, and she noticed that they all were stallions, she was the only mare racing. She knew it should bother her, but she thought only of Scootaloo and how to make her happy. She looked to the filly and waved, the filly waved back and cheered Rainbow Dash's name over and over, bringing attention to herself and the rainbow-maned mare. The announcer began the countdown from ten, giving the competitors time to stretch and get into position. Rainbow stood on her front legs and revved up her wings to take off, seeing the other pegasi around her laughing as if they were mocking her.
"What? Can't wait till the race starts so you can lose?" one of the stallions asked her. "Looks like Ms. Rainbow here needs a head start so she can win, why don't we all give her some space?"
The stallions continued laughing at her, obviously they had never heard of her. They all got ready to fly, and Rainbow was the only pony there revving up, and once the countdown came to zero to go, Rainbow Dash was immediately gone, blowing away her competition like wind to the leaves, leaving her signature rainbow trail behind her. She accelerated, continually gaining speed, and the pegasi following her struggled to keep up. If this was a challenge for them, then the obstacles would be a living hell for them. Rainbow zipped up and down the hills, flying around and above the pillars, watching as the others got stuck and crashed into the obstacles before them, but five managed to get ahead of them. The rings were no joke, as they blew with the wind and moved, but the rainbow pegasus got through it easily and zipped downwards, nearly crashing into a tube, but going through it and gaining even more speed. She could not look back now, mainly because doing so would be impossible as she was reaching the speed necessary to complete another Sonic Rainboom. Her body began to go through the track by itself, dodging everything from pure instinct, and she felt as her body was approaching the completion of the Sonic Rainboom.
Scootaloo was watching and still filming, watching in awe as Rainbow cleared the track and made it to the final stretch with no pony behind her, as they all had either crashed or given up because of the unrivaled prowess of their feminine competition. The wind blew out, then everything was pulled into the force, and exploding out again was the ring of the Rainboom. With that, Rainbow seemingly teleported through the finish line and out of sight. She slowed herself down to a halt and flew back to the race course, where everypony who was watching the race was blown away, and part of the track itself was scattered throughout the sky. She grew worried, and began to call out Scootaloo's name, looking all over for her, until the filly dropped down onto Rainbow's back from a cloud she managed to grab ahold of.
"That was totally wicked! I can't believe that I got to witness something like that! It was awesome!" Scootaloo exclaimed, hugging Rainbow from behind and laughing loudly. "So, where to next, sis--Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow blushed, as she knew what Scootaloo was going to say, but played it off as if it were nothing, to make herself seem cool. "Wherever you want to go, Scootaloo."
The filly's next choice was a smoothie shop, surprisingly. She asked if Rainbow had enough money to buy whatever she wanted, to which Rainbow replied that she did. "I have a surprise for ya too," Rainbow said, taking Scootaloo to a scooter store after they finished their smoothies. Now it was time for Kindness. The two entered the scooter store and began to look around. All of the scooters were motorized.
"So, see anything you like?" Rainbow asked the filly, who jumped around happily and began flapping her wings in zeal. She pointed to scooter after scooter, exclaiming "That one! No, this one!"
Upon searching for a while, Scootaloo came to the Holy Grail of the shop, the Pegaswan B13a. The white, chrome-lined, winged scooter able to ride on the clouds. With no further words, Rainbow Dash bought the scooter and watched Scootaloo ride out of the store on it, cheering once more in joy. With that, Rainbow showed Scootaloo "magic" as they went flying on the clouds above Cloudsdale, laughing and playing all the way. Scootaloo began to cry tears of joy, and she figured she could try a new trick with her scooter. She spun in mid air and made a dive down, turning on the scooter's "star trail setting", making her own following of magical stars as Rainbow followed her, leaving behind her rainbow colored trail. They twirled around one another, making what seemed to be fireworks in the sky, leaving the other watching pegasi in awe. The feeling was officially settled in her heart, Rainbow Dash was no longer a sisterly figure, but a literal sister to Scootaloo now. When in public, she would not be afraid to say that that pegasus was truly her sister. Flesh and blood meant nothing if the love and connections were not there. She knew for sure that this would be her new life...
Soon, enough time had passed to where it was finally sunset once again, and Scootaloo commented that she began to feel her chest tighten up, making it hard to breathe. Rainbow could only brace herself for what was to come soon, and she brung Scootaloo down to lower ground upon a hill on the earth, endowed with beautiful flowers.
"Rainbow Dash? I mean... sister?" Scootaloo began, looking to the blue pegasus with her begging eyes. "After this and we go back to Ponyville, would it be alright if I could live with you?"
Rainbow Dash was already crying, and Scootaloo's obliviousness pained her deep to the soul. The last thing she had to do was display Honesty. And she knew she could not lie forever. Now was the time. She had to tell her the truth. She turned to Scootaloo, despite the tears in her eyes, and tried to tell her, "But Scootaloo! I--"
"--Can't, can you?" Scootaloo questioned her, as blood dripped down from her mouth and she coughed violently, shivering as the wind blew. Her new scooter fell over onto the soft grass, as the wind was fierce. "I... I understand, you can't support me... since you bought me the scooter and all..."
"No, it's not that!" Rainbow cried, hugging Scootaloo tightly, even though a hug this tight may have killed her immediately. "You're... You're going to die, Scootaloo..."
Scootaloo chuckled, "Nice joke, sister! But it's not really that funny..." She tried to take her words as a joke, but Rainbow's mood said otherwise.
Rainbow shook her head. "No, I'm serious... The doctor told me while you were out, you only had two days left to live, and that was two days ago..."
Scootaloo looked to the ground, at the idly swaying flowers of the field. "So... that explains why you were doing all of this..." She did not cry, as Rainbow expected. She only laughed. "Well, it was worth it..."
Rainbow Dash looked to the ground as well, now holding Scootaloo in her arms, trying to stop herself from crying. "Then, if you won't cry, I won't cry... I wouldn't be your big sister then. Then you'd be the big sister!"
They shared one last laugh together, and the sun had set once again. Scootaloo closed her eyes slowly, with her last words being, "I love you, big sister...."
Rainbow Dash still did not let the tears go, she only lay down on her back, remembering the final days of Scootaloo.
"I love you too, little sis."
