The sun had broken over the tops off the trees just a moment before and most of the birds were barely waking from their sleep and beginning to sing their morning Hymns. The morning had been cool and still and with the appearance of the sun, soft warming breezes began to slowly weave themselves through the trees and around the quaint homes of the little pony village. With its soft caress the wind shifted the wind vein on top of the Ponyville Library, creaking just slightly as if in protest to being roused from its own sleep.
The roads were empty aside from a seldom few ponies like Daisy and Rose, who always rose early to water their flowers before the heat of the day could rob their precious plants of a single drop of their morning drink. Along with them, in the town square was Applejack, getting her apple cart ready and stocked for the day to come. All of them enjoying the pleasant scents wafting from the open windows of Sugar Cube Corner as the Cakes finished up their early morning baking of assorted doughnuts and sweetbreads for the ponies soon to wake and arrive for a morning treat.
High above them the slow softness of the morning was pierced with the sound of flapping wings and the sudden appearance of a rainbow streak zooming through the sky above them. Turning and twisting and twirling the streak raced in jagged patterns above them, drawing the other ponies’ gauzes as it slammed into cloud after cloud, forcing the little white puffs to disappear in a powdery plume. With the last little cloud struck the streak slowed and turned into a Pegasi Pony, her coat blue and her mane and tail a mess of rainbow colors in very bad need of an introduction to a comb. Rainbow Dash panted from her exertions as she flew down and set down softly near Applejack’s stand, drawing a few giggles from the other ponies around the square.
“Well Howdy doin’ Dash, shouldn’t you be sleeping right about now?” Applejack teased with a grin, giving her good friend a playful nudge with a hoof and receiving an indignant huff from the Dash in response.
Dash shook her head, but a smile still crossed her lips and with her normal loud and rambunctious demeanor she shouted, just to be sure every pony would know, “Are you kidding?! Spitfire will be here today to talk about me getting into the WONDERBOLTS!” Dash couldn’t help herself but squeal just a bit before she continued, “I mean, I know I’ll get in once she sees my sweet moves, but I need the sky to be clear so she doesn’t miss a moment of my awesomeness!”
Applejack giggled at her friend’s exuberant display and with her normal almost-motherly concern she warned the blue pegasi, who had begun hovering above the stand, “Well that sounds mighty fine Dash. Just be careful that ya’ don’t overdo it, Im sure you’re good enough tha’ way ya’ are.” She assured her friend with a smile before reaching into her cart and pulling out one of the biggest, reddest apples in the bunch, tossing it up to Rainbow Dash with a little flare, “An’ don’ forget to eat beforehand. Can’t fly like that all day on an empty stomach.”
Dash smiled widely as she took the apple and quickly gobbled it down, licking the flavorful juice from her lips before drifting down just enough to use a hoof to noggie her friend fondly, “Thanks Applejack, I’m sure to blow her mind now!”
Rainbow Dash quickly performed two loops over her friend’s head before flying off quickly to whatever task had grabbed her mind next with a flourish and a rainbow colored blur. From the other end of the town another early riser saw the rainbow blur suddenly leave the town square and the sight spurred her to push her scooter faster towards town in the hopes of catching up with the exuberant pegasi. “Rainbow Dash! Wait!” Scootaloo called out, but her voice only fell on the ears of the other ponies, Dash was already too far off.
The young Pegasus filly pushed her little wings to the limit all the way into the town square, but stopped as Dash’s rainbow blur disappeared in the distance behind some of the rooftops. “Aw, man…” she lamented, pulling off her helmet and throwing it aside with a stomp, “Still too slow, comeon wings!”
Applejack watched the filly with the slightest looks of amusement. They were so alike, the three fillies that called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she thought, able to swap in her mind, Scootaloo for her own little sister, Applebloom and being able to see the same reaction. “Ah, dun worry yourself none Scootaloo, Dash is always flying off.” She tried to assure the little filly with the smallest of hip nudges before trotting off to the other side of the stall to retrieve the signs to stand up nearby while asking, “Besides, I dun think you’ll get much otta her today, what with Spitfire comin’ into town and everything.”
The information Applejack divulged got her a reaction she did not expect, however, when, with a look of dejection and surprise Scootaloo cried out in protest, “What?! But she was supposed to teach me to fly today!” With an angry growl Scootaloo kicked her discarded helmet, launching it underneath the apple cart where it rattled the produce as it bounced against the bottom and came to rest.
Applejack gave the young filly a pity-filled look while reaching a leg under her cart to fish out the helmet, “Look here sugar-cube, Ah’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose. She gets right well excited sometimes and things slip her mind, why ah’d bet ya if ya ask her tomorrow she’d be more than happy to teach ya!”
“I know… I just really wanted to learn today!” Scootaloo admitted with a frown across her face, taking her helmet back from Applejack’s outstretched hoof. Slapping it back on her head and strapping it into place she looked up to the older Pony and asked, “Maybe I should just find Sweetie Belle and Applebloom… Do you know where they are?”
With a smile and nod of approval Applejack responded, “That there is the right way to look at it, a full day with your friends. Ah left Applebloom with Sweetie Belle and Rarity last night, she’s still with ‘em last ah heard, over at tha’ library, Rarity was gunna help Twilight with some sorta prettifin’ or somin’…”
“Thanks Applejack!” was all the earth pony heard as her voice died with the little filly jumping on the scooter and flapped her wings fast as she could manage, zooming out of the town square with a loud buzzing sound, dodging deftly around other ponies that wandered the square, more and more filling the street.
“Yer welcome!” she called after the disappearing scooter before, with a chuckle, she put up her signs and then turned to greet Daisy, her first customer of the morning.
Scootaloo pushed her scooter faster and faster down the street like she had done on her way into town just moments earlier, but this time she was forced to do much maneuvering and even a few impromptu jumps to avoid hitting any pony. She could already see the tree that made up the library that Twilight had been occupying since her arrival in Ponyville over a year ago. Turning a hard left at the end of the street she rocketed her tiny scooter over the wooden boards of a bridge to get to the road that led to the front stop of the tree-building and as the tree got larger she could see through the window what appeared to be Twilight and Rarity which brought a grin to the filly’s lips. If those two were there, it was a good chance that her friends were within as well and she couldn’t wait to see them and get her mind off her disappointment with Rainbow Dash.
Softly Twilight closed the book she had been skimming and turned her head to the back of Rarity’s with a wicked grin. The two were lying on the rug in the center of the room and Twilight was lying with her front legs draped over Rarity’s back while Rarity levitated a pen to continue work on a new dress design on the parchment that lay open in front of her. Rarity had just about finished sketching the hemline of the dress when suddenly her left ear was wet, warm and a soft suction was being put on it which caused her concentration to fall apart and with an ugly squiggle across the whole parchment the pen fell and rolled off across the floor.
A shiver ran up Rarity’s spine faster than one of Dash’s sonic rainbooms and her lips parted to let a pathetic little squeak escape while her head leaned to the side and back slightly, giving Twilight even more access to the ear she suckled on while Rarity murmured in a happily melting voice, “Oh Darling, if you keep doing that I’ll go crazy.” To which she received the feeling of Twilight’s tongue sliding along the edge of her ear slowly and sensually. Rarity closed her eyes and bit her lip as she felt her body melt at the attentions Twilight was giving her.
Twilight giggled as she let Rarity’s ear free and whispered, “I love your kind of crazy though,” before moving to Rarity’s other ear and was just about to bite down on it the way she knew Rarity liked it, especially since Rarity had sifted her head to make Twilight’s job easier, when the front door of the library swung open with a bang.
Both ponies on the rug jumped up in embarrassed surprise, looking in the doorway at the little pegasus Scootaloo standing there staring at them with a smile on her lips. “Scootaloo!” Twilight began more loudly and forcefully than she had intended, but Rarity quickly picked up.
“Scootaloo, you know better than to just barge into somepony’s home when the sign says ‘closed’.” Rarity sternly said to the little filly as her horn began to glow with magic and her ruined sketch levitated and rolled itself neatly while the discarded pen flew back over from the far corner where it had been discarded.
Scootaloo’s smile disappeared for a moment at the sudden chastising, “Sorry, but I saw you two from the window and Applejack said Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were with you two so….”
Twilight and Rarity shared a look of embarrassment and something else more subtle and Twilight addressed Scootaloo, “I’m sorry Scootaloo, they left with Spike this morning, a chariot from Canterlot came to get spike so he could go see the Princess and they went with him, they’ll be back later tonight.”
Scootaloo’s jaw almost hit the floor, her eyes filling with a look of hurt combined from Rainbow’s thoughtlessness and, “You mean they went to Cantelot and didn’t even invite me?”
The little filly’s reaction caused Twilight and Rarity to become even more uncomfortable than they already were, thankfully though, Rarity made a case with her usual elegance, “Oh Scootaloo, they didn’t mean to leave you behind! They didn’t know Spike was leaving this morning and when he invited them to go with him it was heat of the moment. You know they would never leave you behind like that on purpose!” as she talked Rarity made her way to the doorway and placed a hoof on the young filly’s shoulder, trying to pull her inside as she suggested with a warm smile, “I know! How about you spend the day with us, Twilight and I were going to go to the spa this morning, and you can come too and get pampered! I’m sure a pony petty would make you feel just like a princess!”
Scootaloo ducked from under Rarity’s hoof, shaking her head vigorously with a loud, “EW! No!” which brought an amused smile to both Twilight and Rarity’s lips.
Twilight chimed in, “Are you sure Scootaloo? You never know, you might like it, and there are a lot of benefits, I have a few books on the subject if you want to read…” but her voice died on her lips as Scootaloo turned and with a loud buzz made a hasty retreat from the doorway. Looking a bit crestfallen Twilight let her raised hoof fall back to the floor.
Rarity laughed at the look on Twilight’s face as she pushed the door closed and this time made sure the bolt was pulled locked, “Oh, don’t worry darling, Scootaloo is just like Rainbow Dash; convinced her coat will fall out if she ever introduces it to a brush.” She assured her purple-coated companion. Walking back to the center of the room where Twilight still stood she pressed their noses together and with a smile murmured, “Now why don’t you finish what you started?”
When she first turned and zoomed off from Twilight’s door Scootaloo was only worried in avoiding a whole afternoon of girly stuff like pony petties and whatever else a pony like Rarity would do to her once she got her to a spa. Sweetie Belle was already borderline on how much girly she could take and she knew Sweetie’s older sister was much worse about it. Now that she was safely on the other side of the creek and rolling off towards the edge of town all the events of the morning came flooding back. With nothing else to occupy her morning except knowing she’d have to crusade for her cutie mark on her own she started to feel down.
Scootaloo’s feelings weren’t so much that she didn’t have faith that she could occupy herself more than feelings of rejection regarding Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. Spur of the moment or not she couldn’t believe that those two would go on such an awesome adventure and leave her behind. Scootaloo let out a heavy sigh as she turned her scooter around a bend and looked up to the sky.
Up in the cloud Scootaloo could see Dash flying around between them and finally settling on one. “Dash! Hey Dash!” Scootaloo cried, coming to a stop under the cloud that Rainbow Dash sat upon. For the first few cries there was no answer, but soon enough rainbow’s head popped through the bottom of the cloud and with a giddy smile on her face she called back, “Oh! Hey kid, what’s up?”
Forgetting about her missing friends Scootaloo smiled back up at Rainbow Dash, “Hey Rainbow Dash, you ready for those flight lessons?”
Dash thought for a moment, biting her lip, “Oh, yeah that was supposed to be today wasn’t it…” she murmured before sliding out of the cloud and hovering down just over Scootaloo. “Sorry little one,” Dash began with a pat on Scootaloo’s helmet, “But I gotta impress Spitfire, so I won’t have time to help you today.”
In surprise, even to herself, Scootaloo got mad, “Dash, you promised you’d help me before Spitfire was coming!” she yelled, stamping her hoof on the ground.
“Hey!” Dash yelled back indignantly, shifting her hovering to bring her head closer to the little filly, “I’m doing you a favor by giving you lessons, but I’m busy today! Don’t get angry at me that you can’t fly. When I was your age I already had a sonic rainboom under my belt!”
Small tears slowly began to appear at the corner of Scoot’s eyes as she stamped her hooves, unable to come up with a good angry retort. She looked down at the ground by her hooves and mumbled in a tone she thought would be low enough to not be heard, “But I thought you could be my sister… not a mean bitch…”
Dash’s eyes flared as she heard scoot’s words loud and clear from her spot hovering only inches away. Dash was trying to be nice, but she didn’t take name-calling lying down, and her impatience and short fuse weren’t helping the situation. “Hey! You know what? If you’re gunna be that way than you can forget about any lessons ever!” Dash yelled, her anger bubbling over, and with a swift kick of her hind leg as she turned about that connected with scoot’s helmet and sent it flying she added, “Maybe we can hang out when some pony else teaches you how to fly and grow up! Till then, enjoy being useless!” and with only a moment more to spur herself dash vanished through the cloud is a steak of rainbow colors, causing the rain in the cloud to fall as dash punched through it and vanished into the sky.
Scootaloo could only stand there stunned as the rain knocked loose from the cloud by Dash’s departure fell upon her, soaking scoot thoroughly as she stared at the spot that dash had been just a moment before. Emotions bubbled in her as she replayed the incident in her mind over and over, tears freely flowing from her eyes, but disguised by the rain that fell.
Now with her aggravation turned into regret and a feeling of betrayal it hurt even worse. As far as Scootaloo was concerned, this day was already the worst of her short life, and she what hurt worse was that she couldn’t stop herself but agree with Dash’s angry words; A Pegasus that can’t fly is about as useless as a fish that can’t swim. Scoot looked back at her helmet, lying in the road a good few meters away. “Rainbow Dash flies without gear and here I can’t even use a scooter on the ground without a helmet,” she mumbled to herself, turning her head away from the discarded protective gear with an air of disgust and climbed fully back on her scooter before deciding, “Dash doesn’t have time. My best friends leave without me. Now I know why… No, I always knew why.”
Scoot bit her lip at the end of her words, trying to hold in her sobs, and just barely succeeding as, with only a moment’s hesitation, her little wings began to move back and forth, flapping faster and faster until her scooter began to move forward. With a sudden burst of force she sent her scooter zooming once more along the road, tears slipping with more and more force from her eyes, half from the emotions bubbling within her and half from the wind blowing over her eyes, held fully wide as she attempted to keep her emotions in check.
Though Scottaloo’s eyes were held open wide, the little pegasus filly didn’t see the road, she didn’t see the houses passing by or the line of trees approaching. She didn’t notice the yellow pegasus tending her chickens outside her cottage nor did she notice as the road became a trail and the trees closed in around her. In her mind Scoot could only see dash’s face and single word repeating over and over “Useless”.
The light dimmed around the little filly even as the sun rose higher in the sky, bathing equestrian in the light of another beautiful day, a day that could not reach scoot through the thick branches of the trees of Everfree, not that if they had been able to hack their way through the foliage would she have noticed through her emotional fog. As she rode over the bumpy path, even jumping over a few gnarled roots in her way she mumbed to herself, “Why can’t I do anything right? I can’t get a cutie mark, I can’t fly, I can’t get Rainbow Dash’s approval,” as she spoke Scootaloo’s thoughts turned back to her two best friends and the wonderful time they must be having in canterlot without her, “Sweetie Belle has Rarity and Applebloom has Applejack…”
Scoot’s thoughts were stopped dead as she heard a voice that she didn’t recognize, one that was so vivid that she almost wasn’t sure if it was in her head or not, “But you have no one”. Flapping her little wigs frantically the other way she brought her scooter to a stop just inches from plunging into the river that cut through the forest, that in her moping she had failed to notice was in her way. The river held her amazed attention for a moment before she heard the voice again, “You just wanted a sister, with a goal to be as cool as Rainbow Dash and call her ‘sister’, not much to ask for…”
Scootaloo let out a scared squeak and jumped off her scooter, leaving it lying on its side in the dirt as she looked all around trying to find the new voice. She knew it wasn’t in her head, the tone was all wrong and sounded much older than any little filly Scoot’s age, “Who’s out there!” she cried into the trees which stood still and silent at her demand.
Though Scootaloo could not see anypony nearby, she heard the voice again, like its owner was right next to her, speaking softly and calmly, “Tell me Scootaloo, why do you cry?” the voice almost cooed like Scoot’s mother did when she was in a mood, but unlike when her mother did it, this voice made Scootaloo uneasy.
“I’m not crying, I don’t do that kinda girly sissy stuff!” She yelled into the trees even as the small drops drifted down her cheeks and fell to the dirt, as they had been doing unnoticed since Dash flew off.
“Pain is not ‘girly sissy stuff’ Scootaloo, why do you cry?” The voice answered and though Scootaloo didn’t see it her coat began to shimmer like it had just been sprinkled with glitter and Scootaloo felt a warmth like some pony had wrapped her up in a warm hug, it brought her a bit of peace as she let out a shuddering sigh.
Scootaloo shook her head as she stared at the dirt and spoke to the forest and the strange voice, “I don’t know… I just want….” Scoot had to stop for a moment as a sob almost managed to wrestle its way out of her chest and with a shuddering breath to steady herself, “I don’t want to be useless. I want to be appreciated like evey pony else… Even Applebloom and Sweete Belle have sisters that care, what do I have? I can’t even fly! What use is a pegasus that can’t fly?!”
The warm hug feeling lightened and the shimmering dimmed as the voice turned a bit ruffled at the filly’s words, “No pony can fly before they are taught, that is not your fault. Even so, is there no other manner in which you can be appreiciated.”
“Rainbow Dash won’t even give me the time of day because of it!” Scootaloo lamented and kicked a rock into the river, “I just want to be appreciated!”
The voice responded with a warm comforting tone, “If that is all you want I can help you. Every pony deserves to be appreciated.”
Scootaloo’ head rose up with a look of surprise and for the first time that day, hope, “Really? How?”
The voice chuckled and whispered in the filly’s ear, “Did you know that before the royal sisters presided over Equestria, Cloudsdale was a proud independent city-state?” Scootaloo shook her head, her eyes wide to this revelation, “The Pegasus race was a proud culture of the best fliers and the strongest warriors. Do you think that Rainbow Dash and the other ponies would appreciate you if you brought that old glory to Cloudsdale once more?”
“Yeah! Rainbow Dash would be proud to call me sister then!” Scootaloo yelled excitedly into the trees but then was overcome with a crestfallen expression, “But how can I do that? I can’t even fly.”
“I can help you with that.” The voice said as the sparkles left Scoot’s coat and coalesced into a floating, speckled purple cloud with two flat grey eyes, slitted like a dragon with no whites looking back at the astonished filly.
Scootaloo’s astonishment turned to horror as she began to connect the dots and realized where she had seen a cloud like this before. It was a year ago, during the summer sun celebration, she had cowered in fear of, “You- You’re Nightmare Moon!” She yelled and took fast steps back, that is until the eyes converged and looked down, an expression of sadness she would not have recognized from that frightening alicorn.
“That… is one of the names I have carried. One of many.” The cloud spoke without any discernable mouth. “I once attempted to help Princess Luna gain the appreciation she so desperately sought. The plan went awry and I became the convenient scapegoat for the princess. I was almost killed thanks to the elements of harmony and my crime was lending Luna my power so she could be happy.”
Scoot’s brow raised in skepticism and with a tone of confusion and disbelief she asked, “You mean you were just trying to make Luna happy? But what about all the bad stuff you did, what about the eternal night thing?”
“As you know Scootaloo, no pony is perfect. I gave Luna my power to gain the appreciation of the ponies of Equestria, but I can only lend my power, what it does is up to the heart of that pony. I wanted to make her happy, the bitterness in her own heart twisted that into revenge.”
“If that’s true how can you help me?” Scootaloo asked, stepping a bit closer to the cloud that had drifted close to the ground and looked almost ashamed of the events they were discussing.
The cloud turned it’s eyes up to the filly and spoke, “I can give you my power, it will let you fly, give you the power to help the pegasus race reclaim its honor with you as its leader, if that is what you desire, or just make you Rainbow Dash’s hero if that is the limit of your ambition.” As it spoke the cloud drew closer to Scootaloo and began to wrap itself around her as it added, “I just want to exist, I don’t have a physical body and if you share yours with me I will do everything in my power to make you happy. The way I see it I deserve to live and you deserve to be happy and appreciated. What do you say Scootaloo, can we help each other. Do you want to be a Wonderbolt with Rainbow Dash?”
Scootaloo looked at the cloud moving around her and with a smile forming on her lips at the prospect of being a Wonderbolt with dash she giggled, “That sounds fair! Let’s do it!” and with her words the cloud swirled around her rapidly, blocking the forest from her view before with a flash the filly and the cloud disappeared from the forest trail.
Scootaloo’s scooter lay forgotten in the dirt just feet from where the filly disappeared and only inches from the water’s edge. And only moments after she disappeared the group of Twilght, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire rounded the corner of the trail at full gallop, following the tread marks of the scooter with frantic looks on their faces.
