Warm, appetising smells were the typical order of the day at Sugarcube Corner, but it was always extra special on this particular day. Scootaloo was glad of the hustle and bustle of the bakers going busily about their tasks because it meant none of them could hear her stomach rumbling loudly as her nostrils took in the myriad exotic scents wafting out of the kitchen: rising dough, spices, fruit, sugar, chocolate, all sorts of ingredients harvested across the length and breath of Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and lands far beyond.
She couldn’t fight the grin breaking out across her muzzle and her pupils widened as she took in the plethora of Hearth’s Warming decorations strung prettily hither and thither; confetti, bunting, balloons and streamers all fought it out for her attention – their colours overlapping until the whole place resembled an explosion in a rainbow factory – strung as they were almost haphazardly across the fixtures and fittings of the store. There was method, but there was also that patented brand of Pinkie Pie Madness, too. With the tables and chairs moved out of the way to provide extra room for guests, the interior of Sugarcube Corner managed to somehow look larger than it normally did.
Heedless of the fact that the large table erected in the middle of the room was already heaving with more treats than could be comfortably counted, a hyperactive rose tornado that could only be Pinkie Pie appeared, added yet another plate of cupcakes, then disappeared back into the kitchen, confidently stating to the others that one or two more batches ought to do it. Scootaloo had only just managed to open and close her mouth in the time it had taken Pinkie to come and go.
She uttered a defeated sigh. She’d got here extra early, long before all the other guests were due to arrive, specifically in the hopes of asking Pinkie if she knew whether or not Rainbow Dash was going to be here. Pinkie, being Pinkie, usually knew these things before anypony else did. It helped that, in this case, she was also Rainbow Dash’s best friend, too.
The Wonderbolts were currently travelling back from the far side of Equestria after a hectic touringschedule that had them performing right up to the holiday season; due to demand for tickets going through the proverbial roof, they’d even added extra days just so everypony had a fair chance of seeing them in the busiest period leading up to Hearth’s Warming. Scootaloo understood how much this meant to Rainbow Dash, and how much she didn’t want to let Spitfire or the audience down, but – guilty though it made her feel on the inside – she couldn’t help wishing that Rainbow Dash had pulled a sickie and come home early. She wouldn’t have been the first, by any means: the Reserves had almost emptied themselves out as sporadic cases of pony pox and feather flu broke out amongst the first team.
Deciding to eat away her sorrows, and with nopony around to stop her from doing so, Scootaloo hopped over to the table, scanned the confectionery quickly, then grabbed at a cookie studded with chocolate pieces and stuffed it into her mouth. It was fresh out of the oven and hadn’t fully set yet, and the warm, sticky semi-liquid mass of sugar and frosting clung to her tongue and the roof of her mouth. “Hot! Too hot!” Spying a sink behind the counter, Scootaloo ran to it and poured herself a nice, cool glass of water. Drinking deeply from it, she said with a sigh, “Ah, that’s better.”
Finishing her drink, Scootaloo reflected, That’s probably why they tell you to keep your hooves off the snacks until everypony’s arrived. Ever since she’d gotten her cutie mark a few months earlier, she’d realised that a lot of what adults had been saying to her over the years actually made sense. She’d just been too young to really listen to them before now. Sometimes, they told you that they’d do their best to do something and they’d let you down. It didn’t mean that they were bad or untrustworthy, it just meant that, every now and then, even your best efforts weren’t good enough.
Scootaloo sighed again. She didn’t enjoy being a killjoy in the slighest, especially on what was meant to be the happiest day of the year, but she just knew that she’d be miserable if she didn’t get to see Rainbow Dash at least once. She knew that her friends made fun of her devotion, but it was different for them: they had siblings of their own. Scootaloo did not.
Sitting on a stool in the corner, she swung her hindlegs to no real purpose. Her forlorn purple eyes drifted in the direction of the clock that sat above the doors; the first guests were due to arrive any minute now, and with the decorations and food in place everything was just about ready for them. Having got here so early, Scootaloo had discovered that Pinkie Pie’s first task was to make sure that the party files she kept on everypony were up-to-date so that they would have their favourite treats ready and waiting. Plus, it also indicated whether they had any allergies or intolerances. There wasn’t much else for her to do but sit and wait.
Even with there already being enough food to comfortably feed Ponyville and the neighbouring villages several times over for the next few weeks, Pinkie Pie appeared once more balancing several plates on her forelegs and on top of her bouffant mane. “Uh, Pinkie, don’t you think there’s more than enough now?” Scootaloo asked, worried about the structural integrity of the table.
“For a Hearth’s Warming party this big? No way!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly, the manic grin on her muzzle seemingly growing disturbingly beyond the confines of her face until she resembled nothing more than a head full of teeth. She placed the plates down on the last of the open space on the table and frowned. “It’s a lot, isn’t it?”
“You think?”
Creak, creaked the table creakingly.
“Yeah, that should probably do it now,” said Pinkie Pie, though she still looked unsatisfied with the amount of stuff on offer. Only three plates of apple fritters? What was this, Equestria’s Dark Ages? “Should I get a second table from storage?”
“No!”
“Huh. I always thought there was no such thing as too much,” Pinkie Pie said sadly. “Unless, you know, you’re having stomach spasms or something. You should probably stop eating, then.”
“If you say so.” Scootaloo looked worried. “The table’s not gonna collapse, is it?”
“It’ll be fine.” With that, Pinkie disappeared once more. Presumably to tell the kitchen staff to put a moratorium on any more cakes.
Seconds after she’d left, Scootaloo belatedly realised that she hadn’t had the chance to ask her about Rainbow Dash again.
Applejack and Rarity soon entered the shop, the little bell above the door tinkling by way of an announcement of their arrival, startling her out of her stupor. Their sisters, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, were with them. They all wore saddle-bags filled with presents for their various friends. Scootaloo’s own bags, she remembered, had been stashed in a corner somewhere out of the way.
“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo called out excitedly to her closest friends, the other two-thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Good to see you guys,” she added, dashing over to them and hugging them both tightly.
“Wouldn’t have missed it,” said Apple Bloom in her distinctive twanging accent. Spying the overflowing table, she said to Applejack, “Aren’t you glad I talked you out of bringing an apple pie now?”
Applejack merely smiled wryly. “Pinkie Pie does have a tendency to go a little overboard sometimes, doesn’t she?”
“A little?” said Sweetie Belle. She was pretty sure that the wedding feast of Princess Cadance and Shining Armour hadn’t even been half as much.
In short order, the rest of the guests arrived, milling around and searching out faces that they knew; Rainbow Dash’s other friends, ponies from in and around the village, some beings from further afield who’d been specially invited due to Pinkie Pie’s connections such as the yaks. Though she gamely tried to avoid affecting the others with her mood, Scootaloo couldn’t help noticing that the one face who seemed to be missing was that of Rainbow Dash herself. She saw Apple Bloom approaching and did her best to smile warmly at her, though it clearly didn’t reach her eyes.
“Scoots, are you okay?” asked Apple Bloom, sounding concerned.
Scootaloo pretended to study an art-deco print of a sundae that somepony had hung up years ago and nopony had ever bothered to take back down. “Of course I’m okay,” she replied, forcing herself to sound nonchalant. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Encouragingly, Apple Bloom said, “She could still make it before the party’s over.”
Even if she did manage to arrive back in Ponyville before the party was over, the first thing Rainbow Dash was going to do was hit the hay after all the travelling she’d done, Scootaloo knew. “It’s really fine. I kinda knew in my heart that she wasn’t gonna be here, anyway.” She forced a brittle smile.
“It’s okay to be disappointed,” said Apple Bloom gently, placing a reassuring hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, “but just remember that the rest of us-” she indicated Sweetie Belle, awkwardly – loudly – singing along to the Hearth’s Warming song playing over the radio “-are here for you, okay?”
That got Scootaloo smiling genuinely. “I know, I know. I’m sorry for being such a downer.”
Waving her apology aside, Apple Bloom pushed her friend eagerly in the direction of the snack table. “Come on, let’s get those salted caramel cookies before they’re gone.”
“Fat chance of that happening,” said Scootaloo sardonically, “Pinkie Pie’ll just go and make some more of them.”
Scootaloo’s hoof had only just made contact with the plate of cookies when she felt herself being enveloped in what felt to her like a swirling tornado. “What the-?” was all she managed to say before she found herself being spun around in the air until she was certain that she was going to throw up. Every couple of seconds as she rotated, she caught sight of Apple Bloom, her expression one of puzzlement.
Presently, the impromptu hurricane came to a halt and when her eyes had finally stopped spinning in their sockets, Scootaloo was startled to discover herself standing before a tall blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail favouring her with a grin that some might have called confident and others might have called cocky. “Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo jumped up and down, wings flittering excitedly. “You made it!”
“Sorry for getting here so late, Scoots,” said Rainbow Dash, tousling the already frizzy mane of the filly that she’d come to think of as a little sister, “but uh, I needed some time to set your Hearth’s Warming present up.”
“You being here is all the present I need!” Even as the words left her mouth, she regretted them for their palpable uncoolness.
Rainbow Dash’s face crinkled in an expression of mock-disgust. “Oh, Celestia, you’re not getting sappy on me now, are you, kid?”
Deciding that fronting it out was better than acting sheepish, Scootaloo said smugly, “And don’t pretend you don’t love it.”
Scootaloo marvelled at the fact that, despite how tired she was, despite how hoarse her voice sounded, Rainbow Dash still had the energy to yell, “All right, everypony, outside! Now!” All conversation, save a few grumbles of discontent, ceased as her words registered with them.
In about as orderly a fashion as could be managed under the circumstances, the guests obeyed Rainbow Dash’s shouted instructions; a few stragglers stayed behind to grab a cake or two, clearly afraid that they’d be gone by the time they got back, but a look of ferocious impatience from Rainbow Dash soon got them moving again. Once outside, a collective gasp went up from the crowd – though none were more impassioned than the one from Scootaloo herself – as Rainbow Dash’s gift was revealed.
The Wonderbolts!
Like Rainbow Dash, they were weary, but they were dressed in their flight suits and were going through their usual pre-flight limbering up routine.
Scootaloo felt something nudging her in Spitfire’s direction. It was Rainbow Dash’s hoof. Cautiously, she approached the Captain of the Wonderbolts. Swallowing down her nervousness, she said, “Thank you so much for being here, Miss, er, Captain Spitfire. I know how busy you all must be.”
“You must be Scootaloo,” Spitfire said, smiling broadly. “You know, Rainbow Dash has told me so much about you. In fact-” she made sure that she was making eye-contact with Rainbow Dash when she continued “-she never, ever shuts up about you.”
“She’s exaggerating,” said Rainbow Dash quietly, blushing slightly as she got into her own flight-suit.
“If you’re half as fearless as she says you are,” Spitfire went on in a conspiratorial whisper, “I hope you’ll join the Wonderbolts when you’re older.” Resuming her normal tone, she said, “Oh, by the way, you’ll need these.” She held up a pair of orange-and-purple trimmed goggles.
Scootaloo accepted the goggles with a confused look. All she could ask was, “What for?”
“You’ll see.” Spitfire grinned broadly.
The next thing Scootaloo saw was Rainbow Dash walking up to her and sinking toward the ground, clearly inviting her to jump on her back. For once, her usual cocky bravado was absent as she said in a dead serious voice, “Scootaloo, you’d better hold on tight. This is gonna be rather intense.”
Doing as she was bade, Scootaloo wrapped her forelegs as tightly as she could around Rainbow Dash’s neck. As tightly as she could without causing her any discomfort, that was. “How’s that?” she asked.
“Perfect,” said Rainbow Dash, confident demeanour now back in full force. She tilted her head back to grin at Scootaloo. “Ready?”
Scootaloo nodded.
She couldn’t quite believe how the day had gone. From moping around because of the possibility of Rainbow Dash not appearing at the Hearth’s Warming party to now flying with her. Her and the Wonderbolts! Could life get any better than this?
Following Spitfire’s lead, the Wonderbolts took off into the air. Any notion that this was going to be a gentle little coast through the sky was shattered immediately as they whirled, dived and zoomed; Scootaloo let out little delighted yelps, though a tiny part of her couldn’t help but feel bad for them. They were exhausted after their tour, but Rainbow Dash had somehow convinced them to put on this special performance mostly for her benefit. Idly, she couldn’t help wondering just what her big sister had said or done to make this happen, but she was incredibly grateful for it.
Doubtless, a true connoisseur of the aerial arts would be a little disappointed by their lack of flourish, but the assembled guests – including the guest of honour riding on Rainbow Dash’s back – had absolutely no complaints whatsoever about the impromptu routine.
Just as she thought it was coming to an end, Scootaloo felt Rainbow Dash pick up speed and climb even higher in the air than before; out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the other Wonderbolts moving off to give them a sphere of clear air. “Rainbow Dash-” she swallowed nervously “-what’s happening right now? And should I be scared?”
“If you weren’t a little bit scared,” Rainbow Dash replied through gritted teeth, “I wouldn’t be doing my job properly, would I? Whatever you do, just hang on. And don’t close your eyes, okay? This is gonna be awesome and you are not gonna want to miss it.”
Scootaloo felt her heart beat in sync with Rainbow Dash’s. She pushed her nervousness aside by taking a series of deep breaths. She could only guess what was coming, but she trusted Rainbow Dash utterly and would not let her down by closing her eyes.
At the apex of her climb, Rainbow Dash sharply banked and with barely time to catch a breath in-between she was now dive-bombing toward the ground, picking up tremendous speed at a rate that both alarmed and thrilled Scootaloo. The wind whipped furiously at them both and she tightened her grip on Rainbow Dash’s neck. If she minded, she wasn’t saying so. She probably couldn’t right now.
The air around Scootaloo made a noise that almost caused her to jump out of her skin; it was as if she were hearing a popping noise, only … reversed? It sounded like an explosion being pulled inside out. Just as she was puzzling over this, she heard it all again, only this time in the right order. She didn’t know it, but Rainbow Dash had just left the sound barrier trailing in her dust.
“Don’t close your eyes, Scootaloo!” she heard Rainbow Dash shouting over the furore that raged all around them. Scootaloo had just been about to do so as the ground lurched sickeningly toward them, but Rainbow Dash’s words, her unbreachable confidence, renewed her vigour.
In what could only have been the last split-second before the last possible moment, Rainbow Dash pulled out of her death-dive and the entire world seemed to slow down. Scootaloo could see every bead of sweat pouring from Rainbow Dash’s brow, could see every face in the crowd below looking up in a mixture of delight and alarm; violently, shockingly, the world in front of her exploded.
A thunderous burst of kaleidoscopic fury drowned everything else out. The explosion was so loud that it was silent.
Around them, a tunnelling column of polychromatic intensity looped and arced. Scootaloo tried and failed to take it all in at once; she could see every colour of the rainbow – and more besides, with hues belonging to spectra that went beyond normal pony sight temporarily joining the melee – melding, bleeding into each other, creating something entirely new. They all seemed to be bleeding toward a single point. A single point that then burst outwards. A shockwave of colour and noise that blanketed the landscape in every direction for miles before burning itself out.
Scootaloo had just been inside the epicentre of a sonic rainboom.
“Oh, Celestia,” was all she could say after a long moment of not being able to say anything at all.
“Cool, huh?” said Rainbow Dash casually, a smile splitting her muzzle in two.
“Wow.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
A raucous cheer from the assembled guests greeted them upon their landing; Scootaloo, still a little wobbly from her experiences, made sure to thank each of the Wonderbolts in turn for the show. No longer able to contain herself, she leapt into the air, wings fluttering every bit as passionately as Rainbow Dash’s had moments earlier, and yelled, “BEST! HEARTH’S WARMING! EVER!” Tears of joy in her eyes, she raced over to Rainbow Dash and embraced her tightly. “Thank you so much for doing this. I don’t how I can possibly repay you.”
“What’s the point of having a little sister if you can’t spoil ‘em every now and then, right?” said Rainbow Dash, returning the hug affectionately. “Thanks for all your help, Scootaloo.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” said Scootaloo quizzically, her eyes narrowing.
“You inspire me,” Rainbow Dash said. She looked at her fellow Wonderbolts, taking the adulation of the crowd still. “You make me want to be a better flier, a better pony, and a better sister to you.”
Scootaloo smiled through the tears that pricked behind her eyelids. Rainbow Dash was always surprising her. Not just with her acrobatic skills, but with how much she loved and cared about her. “You’re not getting sappy on me, are you?”
“Oh, shush, you love it.”
She did. And she loved Rainbow Dash. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.”
“Happy Hearth’s Warming, Scoots.” They hugged again.
Soon, the guests – Wonderbolts amongst them – headed back inside Sugarcube Corner to continue the party and demolish the mountain of treats laid on by Pinkie Pie. Tomorrow morning, they’d all have stomach aches, but they knew it was worth it. As they celebrated, Scootaloo, however, found that she’d lost her appetite somewhat. She’d known there was a possibility that she might never fly under her own power, but she’d been on the inside of a sonic rainboom as it had formed around her. A sonic rainboom created by her own big sister. That was a feeling she’d happily have traded her wings for.
