Frightened Fillies & Rushing Rainbows
Lightning illuminated the night sky in quick, powerful flashes. Each bolt brought down a resounding explosion of thunder, shattering the night’s peace and threatening it with a potential downpour. Any pony in their right mind was inside, either enjoying a book by the warm fire with their dragon friend, or spending time with their younger sister in a farmhouse, or at the very least, staying home for the night with their pet alligator. The outside world was a less than desirable place during a scheduled thunderstorm, especially at night.
Unfortunately, not all ponies had a home or a family to take refuge with during such times.
Another crack of lightning severed the sky. Amidst the deserted farmland of Sweet Apple Acres, inside a rickety clubhouse planted between a tree’s branches, a single filly huddled herself against the storm, swallowing her pride as she gripped her aged blanket tightly in her hooves. Nopony would ever have imagined that the brave and adventure-seeking Scootaloo was petrified of being outside during storms.
Scootaloo pressed her back against a cold, wooden corner. Her hooves were sweaty, having clung to her blanket for over fifteen minutes now. Her ears were flattened against her head, her wings did the same against her body, and her terrified gaze zipped from window to window, awaiting each flash of light with dread. She ought to have been used to these silly storms by now, but they freaked her out just as they always had. And things were about to become even worse. A single drop of water struck the slanted roof; a drop that would certainly crescendo into an unbearable assault of pounding rain.
“I…hate this.” Only silence was there to listen to her whispers. Sure enough, that one drop turned into a pleasant tapping. Ten seconds later, it morphed into a loud, monotonous drone. Thirty seconds later, it was as if half the ponies in Cloudsdale had all flown down and were stomping their hooves on the roof.
With every passing minute, the storm seemed to press down against Scootaloo; lightning, thunder and rain all converging on the land with unbelievable force. Scootaloo could feel her heartbeat pounding against her chest.
“C-Come on, Scoots. This is no time for cowering!” The orange filly, in an effort to bring her confidence back, bucked off her blanket and got to her hooves. She couldn’t quite stop herself from shaking, however.
“…We really need to install those new windows…” She walked slowly towards the center of the room. She gulped and put on the calmest, most serious face she could muster, thinking of the one thing that could always make her smile.
What would Rainbow Dash do? Would she curl up in a corner and whimper? No. Rainbow Dash wasn’t afraid of anything. She was the coolest, awesomest, radical-est pony in all of Equestria. If Scootaloo was to overcome her fear, she’d need to face it head-on. That was the sort of thing she knew Rainbow Dash would tell her to do, if she was here.
Patter. Crash. Bang. Another flash of light.
Standing as still as a statue, Scootaloo looked around at the windows again. The raindrops were easily visible in their torrential volume, even at night. She took a deep breath and held her ground, resisting the urge to close her eyes. The storm continued to attack her senses and prod at her mind.
Any moment now. Any moment now and she’d succumb. She could feel it. She bit her lip just thinking about it.
But then, something bizarre happened. The rainfall and thunderclaps were interrupted. Another noise hit Scootaloo’s ears, and they perked up as the noise grew louder and louder. It sounded like something was approaching the clubhouse.
But what was it? She backed up into her corner again and stared at the closed front door. There was a wrenching splash just outside, as if a hoof had stomped down in a puddle.
Somepony, or something was here. In the dead of night.
“W—who's there?” Scootaloo asked trepidly. She kept quiet and listened. At first, there was nothing but the rain. Then, the sound of somepony trotting up the wooden ramp leading to the front door became loud and obvious. Scootaloo’s purple eyes widened.
“Who's there!?” She crouched to the ground. Her heartbeat counted off the seconds that passed until there was a knock on the door, immediately followed by the door opening. Her flank pressed right up against the wooden planks as she stared at the dark figure across from her.
“Geez, squirt, jumpy much?”
Just like that, the fear and anxiety plaguing Scootaloo’s mind melted into oblivion. She blinked in surprise several times, and then let loose a wild grin as the bright blue body and multicolored mane of Rainbow Dash walked into the clubhouse. To the orange filly, it was as if the sun had come out and banished the storm to the moon.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo exclaimed happily, resisting the urge to run up and hug the older pony. She would, if she didn’t already know that Rainbow wasn’t the sentimental type.
“The one and only,” Dash said with a wink and a pose, using one of her back hooves to close the door behind her. She trotted closer and shook her wet mane with a casual smile. “Looks like I got here before you had a total meltdown, huh? Better late than never, at least.”
Scootaloo cocked an eyebrow and walked a little closer.
“What are you talking about? What are you doing here? It’s late—you’re usually asleep or helping the other weather pegasi, right?”
Dash eyed her surroundings for a moment before sharpening a brow.
“What am I doing here? I think the bigger question is what are you doing here?” she asked matter-of-factly. “I had no idea you slept out here by yourself every night, squirt. It was only thanks to Fluttershy noticing you last night when she was out taking care of her animals that I did find out. I mean, what’s up with that? Don’t you have a family that you can—”
Rainbow stopped herself mid-sentence. A grim, wounded look had taken over Scootaloo’s face. She looked down at her hooves and seemed to fall into a trance, her eyes on the brink of shedding tears. Rainbow bit her lip in reproach.
“W-well, the bottom line is, kid, you can’t sleep out here by yourself every night, ya know? You shouldn’t have to—plus, it’s not safe.”
Scoot’s eyes slowly lifted back up, and Dash smiled warmly again. Her minimal effort was more than enough for her number one admirer.
“Alright, but why are you here, then? Just to tell me that?” Scoot asked, sniffling a little, but recovering swiftly. “I wish I had somewhere else to go Rainbow Dash, but I don't—”
“Well, I can fix that,” Dash interrupted, her wings outstretching. She winked and made a gesture towards the door. “It’s not something I’d normally offer, but Fluttershy was a bit more than persuasive in convincing me…”
Scootaloo stood rooted at the spot. All the outside world was lost to her senses as she stared at the blue pegasus. Her big, adorable eyes were full of fragile and innocent hopefulness. Rainbow Dash kept going.
“You can uh, you know, for the time being…”
“…”
“Until we find you another place you can stay…”
“…”
“Come and…stay with me up at my place. Sound good to you?”
Rainbow ruffled her feathers, rubbed her mane and looked around aimlessly. This was so not her thing. Taking in a rambunctious filly so that she had a place to sleep at night for a little while was great and all, but…it just had to be Scootaloo, didn’t it? It had to be the squirt, Dash thought to herself. But even so, she couldn’t help but warm up at the sight of that dream-come-true look on the filly’s face. Maybe she was kinda cute. Just a little bit.
“R-Really? Are you serious!?” Scootaloo asked dumbfoundedly.
“Squirt, this pegasus never lies,” Dash said firmly. She turned around and walked to the door, looking over her shoulder. “Now come on, already. I’m starting to feel gloomy out here. We both need some sleep if I’m gonna be doing weather patrolling tomorrow, and if you’re gonna be doing any Cutie Mark Adventuring—”
“Cutie Mark Crusader-ing.”
“Yeah, yeah, that's what I said. Just get on!”
The orange filly grabbed her strewn blanket in her mouth, her only real possession, and jumped up onto Dash’s back.
“Heh. Hold on tight, kid.” Rainbow Dash smirked and scuffed her hoof against the wood. As if crouched at the starting line for a race, the element of loyalty looked out into the stormy apple orchard with excitement in her eyes.
“You’re about to feel speeds that you’ve never even come close to on that scooter of yours!”
If it wasn’t so dark, Scootaloo could’ve looked back to check just how quickly they flew from the clubhouse. She definitely heard the door hinges break loose from the wind.
But that sound went quickly behind her, along with everything else. Even as the raindrops came down and danced between the two of them, Scootaloo couldn’t help but laugh in delight. She cheered Dash on with rain drenching her face and the wind whipping her mane.
The initial burst of speed soon came to an end, and the blue pegasus took on a horizontal flight path. She stuck her hooves out in front of her, and squinted ahead past her mane to seek out her cloudy home.
“You holding up alright back there, squirt!?” Dash yelled, feeling Scootaloo clinging around her neck, her face pressed to her mane.
“Y-yeah! Rainbow Dash, this is so amazing! Haha! You’re so awesome!”
“I know, I know.” Dash smirked. “Please hold all applause till the end of the flight. Thank you for taking Dash Airways. We ask you to keep a firm grip of the pegasus at all times. Have an awesome day, err, night, that is!”
Scootaloo couldn’t remember the last time she laughed so much.
Princess Luna’s glorious night was approaching its peak. The rainfall had begun to die down, but the thunderstorm still loomed over Ponyville. Only two minutes after having taken off from Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash descended in front of her own personal cloud home. With a slide, Scootaloo plopped down onto the plush white cloud.
“W-Whoa…I’ve never actually been on a cloud like this before!” she said, excitedly poking her hoof against the puffy material.
“The inside is made of clouds too, ya know,” Dash chuckled, opening the front door and ushering the filly inside. She was soaked, mane to tail, but didn’t seem bothered by it. “You know, out of the storm and rain?”
Scootaloo scampered inside, immediately overwhelmed by the sight before her. Everything from the walls to the furniture was constructed out of clouds (a few exceptions, aside). Scootaloo giggled madly as she looked around with the largest possible grin on her face, and the most shimmery of twinkles in her eyes. Upon spotting Dash's comfy looking bed in the corner, the orange pegasus leapt over to it, and assaulted it with a pounce.
“Hey, mess up my bed and you’ll be in for a world of hurt, kid,” Dash warned playfully, her mane dripping beads of water. In a fury of shakes not unlike a dog, the rain flew from her in a misty spray and scattered about the floor. Rarity would have an absolute fit, followed by a faint on her drama couch if she’d been there. Dash chortled at the thought.
"Rainbow Dash! Thanks again. I…I can't believe I'm actually here with you, right now!" Scootaloo exclaimed happily, jumping on the bed.
Dash watched the orange filly bounce up and down as if she were a trampoline, and gave a less than enthusiastic raise of her eyebrow. She trotted over to her bedside table and began placing the miscellaneous items atop it into the lower drawers, filly-proofing the general area.
“And again, no problem, squirt. Though, thank Fluttershy more than me. She’s the one that convinced me to do this in the first place.”
Once she was done putting her things away, she turned to face the lively filly and gave her a confused look. Scootaloo immediately met her gaze, and fell with a thud on her side.
“But, you know, even though I already agreed to do this, there’s one thing that’s been bugging me, kid. If you’ve been sleeping in the clubhouse every night for who knows how long…why did you never ask AJ if you could sleep at her place?”
Scootaloo’s little ears fell down, and so did her eyes. Rainbow went on.
“I me, AJ ruffles my feathers sometimes, but her, Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Granny Smith are all really nice ponies. I’m sure if you just asked them if they could spare some room, they wouldn’t mind at all—”
“I can’t,” Scoot said suddenly. Rainbow’s look immediately soured into a ‘why not?’ face. “I…don’t want to burden them, it’s not their problem. I can manage just fine in our Clubhouse. Plus…”
The orange filly fought back the urge to look Rainbow in the eye. Not one for patience, she looked intimidating when she was confused.
“…It’s not what you would do. You’d make do with what you had, right? You’d build your own home or find some way to brave it out. So, I gotta do the same. I don’t have a home, so I make do.”
Rainbow gave a great big roll of her violet eyes. She could feel a lecture coming on about how accepting when you’re cornered and need help from friends was a good thing. But before she could open her mouth, she noticed the solid look of determination on Scootaloo’s face. She wasn’t going to budge.
Rainbow smiled. Now that was something she admired.
“Alright, fine. I guess the point is moot anyway, since I’m stuck with you now.” Rainbow winked. Scootaloo’s happy exterior came back with a vengeance and burned like a fire. She sprang up again and then crouched, grinning with exhilaration.
“Hah, I guess you are! And you better look out, Rainbow Dash, cause the Scoot-tornado is gonna run a muck around this place if you’re not careful!”
Dash’s ego was being provoked with a sharp stick. She furrowed her brow and put on a glaring smirk. Flexing her wings, she chuckled and challenged the younger pegasus head-on.
“Is that so? Well, the ‘Scoot-tornado’ is gonna be in for a big surprise when Rainbow Dash, Greatest Flyer in the Sky, catches it with her bare hooves!”
“Hah, you couldn’t catch me if you tried, Rainbow Dash! You’re really fast, but I bet I’m too agile for you!” Scootaloo bounced up and out of reach of the blue pony. She ran across the room and blew a raspberry at Dash from the living room. Dash snorted and narrowed her eyes on the little filly before jumping after her.
“Oh yeah, squirt? Well let’s just see about that!”
Scootaloo sprinted from her pursuer as fast as she could, giggling all the while. Rainbow, flying after her at a matching speed, was forced to halt and move around the furniture which the small filly could slide underneath with no effort at all.
“Where’d you—” Dash began, lifting up a chair only to find the floor. Her gaze shifted when a blur of orange ran by her from behind.
"Hey! Get back here, you little…”
The chase continued upstairs, and though Scoot had absolutely no idea where she was going, she continued to slip through Dash’s hooves at every turn. Dash only grew more and more determined to catch her, flying faster and turning corners more sharply than before. Her aggravation was rising, but so was the fun.
“When I get a hold of you squirt, you are so toast!” Dash fluttered in place above the stairwell and peered down the hallway, listening and watching for anything that might give the filly’s location away. At the end of the hall, there was a flickering shadow that dodged out of sight. Rainbow smiled, already formulating a punishment for taunting her.
“There!” she yelled, cracking her tail and flashing down the hall in a flash. She rounded the corner, ready to grab the orange filly, but gasped when she found empty air. Crashing into the adjacent wall with a smack, Dash growled and pushed her snout out of the cloud. The shadow had been from a stray window curtain, catching the wind.
Why the heck was that open during a thunderstorm, anyway? She closed it, and silently made her way back downstairs.
“Alright, you win. I’m all done now Scoot, so come on down. It’s time for fillies to go to bed…”
As Rainbow called out, she hid herself behind her sofa. Like a predator stalking a prey, the blue pegasus waited and watched for the filly to reveal herself.
After half a minute, there was a slow trotting down the stairs. Scootaloo emerged from the bottom of the staircase. She looked around the room, and found no sight of Dash. Cautiously, she made her way towards Dash’s bed, never keeping her sight on one spot.
Dash dug her hooves into the ground and wiggled her flank. That opportune moment was within her grasp. With nothing but the sound of her wings flapping softly, the mare bounded out of her hiding spot. Scootaloo turned around just in time to yell in surprise and shock before she was tackled onto the bed.
“H-hey! T-That’s not fair! You cheated!” Scootaloo shouted. Dash smiled deviously.
“Huh? What’s that? ‘Cheated’? I didn’t cheat, squirt, cause there weren’t any rules.” She dug one of her front hooves into the filly’s soft tummy, tickling her. Scootaloo’s purple eyes widened, and she burst into a fit of giggling and squirming. “And so, as the winner, I take my prize.”
“Aaaahahahaha!-Q-Quit it! R-Rainbow Dash s-stoooopp I’m t-ticklish!” Scootaloo did her best to protest and push the blue hoof away, but it was no use. Dash was more than twice her size and far stronger.
“You want it to stop? Then, tell me, who’s the coolest, awesomest, most radical-est pegasus in all of Ponyville?”
“Y-You are!”
“And who’s the pony who caught you fair and square?” Rainbow stuck her tongue between her teeth and rubbed her hoof even faster. Scootalooo was on the verge of tears.
“Y-You are! You are Rainbow Dash!”
At last, Dash retracted her hoof and let the filly breathe. Now content with herself, the blue pegasus sat down in front of her, waiting patiently. As Scootaloo caught her breath, she noticed this and smiled sheepishly.
“Alright. Playtime's over, kid. Time for bed,” Dash said parentally, lowering her head and nudging the little pony towards the other end of the bed, where all the pillows were. “You can sleep on my bed with me, since there’s more than enough room.”
“Sleep? Why do we need to go to sleep so early? I just got here,” Scootaloo began, flopping over onto her side after Rainbow continued nudging her.
“Kid, it’s past midnight. I gotta be up in six hours to help the other pegasi with the morning weather. I don’t have time to play around with you all night. Plus, the reason you’re up here with me is to have a proper place to sleep at night, not to keep me up till dawn. I mean, no offense kiddo, but I got stuff to do.”
A disappointed look came over Scootaloo, and Dash sighed. Win against the filly in one way, open up a whole new problem in another. She just couldn’t stay one step ahead, could she?
“Look. Tomorrow after work, maybe you and I can hang out for a little while. But that’s all I can promise, okay. That work for you?”
“Sure thing, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo cried, bouncing up and down again. “Oh! Oh! Oh! You gotta come to my school tomorrow as my guest speaker for show and tell!”
“Whatever you say, squirt,” Dash said, only half-listening. She grabbed the filly by the scruff of her neck and dropped her amidst the fluffy pillows at the head of the bed.
“And then you could personally teach me how to fly! I bet I’d learn how to for sure if you were my teacher!”
“Heh, I’ll see what I can do.” Dash walked around to the other side of the bed, grabbing a pillow with her mouth, and dropping it a yard or so away. She kneaded it a few times and then curled up, laying her head against it. She closed her eyes, but the zestful filly was still going.
“And then, sometime, you could take me to a Wonderbolts show! Awww man, that’d be sweet!”
“Yeah, yeah, maybe. Listen squirt, it’s really, really time to go to sleep. I mean it. You wouldn’t want this to happen again, would you?” Dash lifted up the hoof she used to tickle the filly with, waving it around threateningly. Scootaloo blushed and chuckled before curling up on her own, and taking in the pillows’ comfort.
“Good night, Rainbow Dash,” she said pleasantly, closing her eyes.
The thunderstorm had mostly dissipated, allowing the stars and moon to shine down on the world below. However, in its place, a powerful, chilling wind from the northwest swept over the valley of Ponyville. For a cloud house up in the air, this meant freezing chills shooting down a pony’s spine while they tried to sleep. Even with closed windows, the house was exceedingly cold.
Scootaloo awoke abruptly. She picked her head up and rubbed her eyes, noticing Dash's still, resting form.
She noticed her hooves were shaking from the cold. Her teeth chattered in a similar fashion. She looked around for any other form of cover she could use, but she had forgotten where she put her blanket, and it didn’t seem Rainbow had anything besides pillows.
“Pillows don’t make very good blankets,” she said to herself. Getting colder by the second, Scootaloo eyed Rainbow Dash again and moved closer to her. How did she sleep through this? Was she used to it?
“Rainbow Dash...?” She said quietly, not sure if she should wake her up or not. The pegasus didn’t move. Scootaloo took another deep breath, and repeated herself, a bit louder. Still no response.
Scootaloo turned around to head back to her spot. Maybe if she simply buried herself in every pillow on the bed, she could survive the night. Maybe Dash could defrost her in the morning, if not. But as soon as she took two steps, a strong, tired voice reached her ears from behind.
“The wind can make things pretty cold, cause clouds are susceptible to temperature.” Rainbow rolled over and shook herself awake with a yawn. “Sorry I didn’t mention that earlier. Most pegasi are used to it, because we live up in the clouds all our lives. Heh, I sorta forgot that you haven’t been up here before.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Scootaloo said with a small smile. “I’m sorry for waking you up. You can go back to sleep now, Rainbow Dash. I was just going to use your pillows to keep warm.”
Rainbow gave the filly a strange look, and then laughed a bit. While Scootaloo looked on in confusion, she trotted over to the head of the bed and shifted around some of the pillows there to make room for herself. Once finished, she curled her body to allow for a pocket of space to exist in the center. She winked.
“Pillows? Pillows don’t make very good blankets, squirt,” she said flatly. Scootaloo blushed. Dash had been awake the entire time. “I’ll go ask Rarity to make you some blankets tomorrow. But for now, I gotta improvise. I can’t let you catch a cold or something, can I?”
Scootaloo stood there and gawked at the blue pony who was now stretching her wing out towards her. After a short bit, Dash’s lip flattened into a fine line.
“Come on, kid, get over here. I’m not stretching my wing out for my health, ya know.”
Scoot felt a heat flow through her as she nodded happily and trotted over. She laid down and gently pressed herself into Dash’s side. As soon as she was still, a wing came down over her, as did a tail curl around her, procuring her in a firm embrace. While Rainbow laid her head down against a pillow, Scootaloo could feel the chills being extracted right out of her body, replaced by a pleasant, comforting warmth. A sincere, content expression came over her, and she dug her nose into her idol’s side affectionately.
And so, there they stayed. Though her pride would never admit it to any of her friends, Rainbow cuddled the young filly tightly, and would continue to throughout the night.
Scootaloo had never felt so comfortable. It was as if the cold wasn’t there to nip at her at all.
“Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah?” Dash responded, opening one eye.
“Thanks for being like a big sister to me, tonight.”
“…Umm…yeah, sure. You’re welcome, kiddo.”
For Scootaloo, the simple acknowledgement was enough. She smiled happily and shut her eyes, quickly falling asleep. But Rainbow Dash sat there, staring down at the snoozing filly with an expression full of sentiment. Those words were more powerful than Scootaloo could know.
"A big sister, am I?” Rainbow repeated to herself. She gazed out the window and at the shimmering stars. “Well, how about that.”
She looked back down at Scootaloo. The only Cutie Mark Crusader without a sister, or a family. The more Dash watched her sleep peacefully, the more she wondered if that was something that could change.
"I dunno how good I'd be at it, kid, but I suppose being the coolest, awesomest, radical-est sister ever wouldn't be too hard."
