Don't Bet On Sinking Ships

The School of Friendship, a melting pot of all creatures of Equis. It had been the site of yet another near miss of an apocalypse when Cozy Glow tried sapping all the magic from the world. The crowning achievement of our sovereign Princess Twilight Sparkle, and the part time work place of an orange pegasus filly along with her closest friends, and big sister.

“Hi Rainbow Dash! Need any help teaching class today?” Scootaloo asked with a bit more enthusiasm than she meant to show. The cyan pegasus didn’t seem to notice as she flew around to land in front of her.

“Hiya squirt. Sure, come on! I was actually hoping to run into you today, I’ve got something awesome planned today,” said Rainbow, smirking down at Scootaloo. “Get your scooter and meet me at the sports field ASAP!” With that, Rainbow took to the air once again and dashed off, presumably to gather her students at the designated meeting space.

By the time Scootaloo retrieved her scooter and made her way to the field, she could see what looked like a series of ramps and obstacles set up specifically for a scooter. Nearby, she could see her idol hovering above various other winged creatures, including a few pegasi. However, other than Rainbow, Scootaloo didn’t recognize any faces.

As she got closer, she made eye contact with Rainbow, who was giving her an excited smile. That smile… she’d seen that smile many times before, but lately, Scootaloo couldn't help being mesmerized by it. She lived to see that Luna damned smile. That smile which melted Scootaloo’s heart and made her feel like she could actually fly. That smile, perfectly framing those deep rose pools, perfectly complimenting her cyan fur, covering her perfect athletic body along with her powerful yet downy soft wings. Not to mention her toned flanks that just won’t quit and- holly Celestia snap out of it!

Before any pony or creature could notice her mental lapse, Scootaloo made a sharp turn kicking up a cloud of dust as she came to a stop just in front of the students. “Sup,” Scootaloo said as nonchalantly as she could manage. “I heard your professor needed help teaching today's lesson.” Almost every creature looked impressed, if not a little confused by her sudden appearance.

“Awesome entrance as always Scoots, and thanks for helping out,” Rainbow beamed at her as she landed and turned to face her students while she tried to put on a more stern face. “Alright so, I hope by now you’ve all noticed something about your fellow students. Every one of you has wings,” she paused to let that sink in before continuing. “You may think that this means your lesson has to do with flying. In a way, that is right. However, for this lesson, you will be prohibited from flying!”

At that announcement, all the students went wide eyed. From hippogriffs, dragons, changelings, pegasi, and griffons one of them decided to speak up. “Uh, so what are we doing then Professor Dash?”

“I’m glad you asked! You’ll be going through this obstacle course! Now you can still use your wings for propulsion like Scootaloo here does, but you aren’t allowed to fly. Any creature who does will have to start from the beginning. Now before you say it’s impossible, or unfair, I’ll be having my awesome assistant Scootaloo here demonstrate how it’s done.” With that, Rainbow turned towards Scootaloo and nodded.

Not needing any further instruction, Scootaloo took off, gathering speed before making her way to the first ramp. She jumped it with ease before following the orange safety cones outlining the track. After a few sharp turns she was coming up on a loop. With an extra burst of speed she cleared it before jumping another ramp. Wanting to show off a little, she did a midair turn before touching down once again.

After a few more twists and turns, she noticed the last obstacle, a massive ramp leading to a mid air hoop above a kiddie pool. On the other side was a mirrored ramp right before the finish line. Standing next to said line was Rainbow Dash, occasionally glancing at her stop watch in her hoof. Scootaloo felt a rush of pride. Rainbow Dash thought of Scootaloo as being awesome enough to show off to her class.

Not wanting to disappoint the most important pony in her life, Scootaloo put on an extra burst of speed. She narrowed her eyes and pushed her wings to their limits. Hitting the ramp, her senses heightened, her thoughts sped up, and the world around her seemed to slow down momentarily. As she jumped into the air, she caught a glimpse of Rainbow Dash smiling.

That damn smile again. She didn’t noticed the top edge of the hoop as she slammed into it. As time seemed to speed up, Dash’s face fell, and so did Scootaloo. Hitting the hoop knocked the air out of her lungs before she fell down to hit her back on the bottom edge of the loop. She heard a small pop before she slid off and fell face first into the pool. She couldn't tell much of what happened after that. She heard Rainbow yelling, then a sudden jerking motion before she blacked out.

“Scoots? Scootaloo, can you hear me?”

That voice… it sounds like rainbow dash…

“Slow your roll now sugar-cube, Nurse Red Heart and Fluttershy got this covered. Just calm down and give ‘em space.”

Who’s that? Not Apple Bloom… Applejack?

Scootaloo managed to open one of her eyes. Looking around, she saw three familiar ponies and one not so familiar. “Wha…? What happened?”

“Scootaloo! Thank Celestia you’re awake! I was so worried!” Rainbow frantically shouted before Applejack bit her tail and forced her back down and away from Scootaloo.

“You’re going to be okay Scootaloo. You just got a dislocated wing a few bruised ribs. You’ll need about a week of bed rest. Then you’ll just need to take it easy for about a month before you’ll be fully healed,” said nurse Red Heart. “I would have taken you directly to the hospital but,” she gave an annoyed glance at Rainbow Dash, “miss Dash here insisted on keeping you here, and she is your closest familial relation...”

Red Heart sighed as she trailed off and Rainbow gave her trademark smug grin. “Yeah, don’t you worry Scoots. If it was really that bad, they would have taken you in regardless, but I convinced them to let me take care of you.” Then in a more subdued tone, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s gonna hurt, and being stuck in bed for a week is gonna be... kinda lame,” she then viably perked up, “but you’ll have me there the whole time! It’ll be like a week long sleepover!” Dash finished, beaming at her young charge.

After a few moments to let the words sink in, Scootaloo brightened at the news. A whole week alone with rainbow dash? This is gonna be the best week ever!

“We will be sending word to your aunts and parents, but seeing as they all have shown approval of miss Dash in the past, I’m sure there won’t be any issues. We just need to make sure they know where you’ll be staying,” Red Heart informed her before making her way back to her desk. “I trust you three can handle this matter from here.”

About an hour of Rainbow and Twilight signing paper work later, and Scootaloo was gently carried in her big sister’s hooves to Dash’s personal quarters in the Castle of Friendship. All of the elements had their own living spaces in the castle, along with Starlight Glimmer, her filly friend Trixie, and a dozen or so other guest quarters.

A lot of the castle has become more of a public space, especially the library, but there are still private quarters blocked off from the public. There weren’t really any guards, but Twilight and Starlight managed to enchant various sections of the castle to ward off unauthorized guests.

It wasn’t long before Scootaloo was situated in bed, laying on her stomach to avoid putting pressure on her insured wing. “Anything I can get you squirt? Water, snacks, more pillows, blankets?” Rainbow was trying to act nonchalant, but her little sister could see right through her act.

“Rainbow, I don’t blame you for what happened. I got sloppy trying to show off my speed when I should have taken that last jump slower,” said Scootaloo, trying to give a confident smile while hiding her own self deprecation. I got distracted by your beautiful, Luna damned smile, because I’m anidiot!

“Still, if there’s anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m at your beck and call for the week. I’ve got plenty of emergency leave saved up from the Wonderbolts. I just gotta fill out some paper work back at base, but I’ll be right back.”

“Well, you should probably go do that. I’m just gonna try to take a nap. But, can you wake me when you get back?” she asked, eyes half lidded from exhaustion.

“Sure Scoots, be right back!” With that, the rainbow maned pegasus bolted out of the castle via the balcony outside her room.

A week where Rainbow will do anything I want huh? Scootaloo thought to herself with a grin on her face. I could think of a few things she could do for me… or to me. At that, she drifted off to sleep, the adrenaline from the crash having worn off.

Scootaloo woke to the sound of Rainbow’s perfect raspy voice. Some ponies said it was grating or annoying, but they didn’t know what they were talking about, she could listen to that voice all day. Speaking of that voice, she was saying something, so Scootaloo tried to use a few more than two brain cells to pay attention.

“-oots, hey! You up yet?” Rainbow Dash asked, gently nudging the orange pegasus filly. “It took a bit longer than I thought to get all the paper work done, but now I’m all yours!” Dash beamed down at her groggy little sister.

At those last words, Scootaloo’s non injured wing started to unfurl before she forced it back down. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice. “Uh, you got any games we could play?” Scoots asked, slowly looking around her temporary home for the next week. She’d been in here a few times, even had a few sleepovers with Rainbow. The decorations were pretty spartan, other than a few signed wonder bolts posters and trophies, it was otherwise identical to one of the many standard guest rooms at the castle.

“Well, Twi has basically every board game you can think of, and a few you probably couldn’t think of courtesy of discord,” Dash rolled her eyes at the mention of the Draconequus before she brightened up again. “We also got the full collection of Daring Do, and some other cool books that Twi showed me recently…” Rainbow trailed off with a mild red glow on her cheeks before quickly recovering her cool persona. “So… what should we do first?”

Scootaloo took a moment to think, while trying not to blurt out the first thing that came to mind. “Uh, how about battle clouds?” she finally managed to say while giving her most confident smile she could manage. It came across as more of a grimace, but the important part is that she tried.

Rainbow seemingly continued her oblivious streak as she quickly retrieved the aforementioned board game. After a few rounds of Dash winning and Scootaloo zoning out every few seconds, Rainbow finally spoke up. “Hey squirt, what’s up? You’ve been acting kinda weird recently,” Dash said giving the orange filly a worried look.

Scootaloo seemed to be snapped out of her daze as her eyes finally focused on the mare in front of her. “Oh, uh… it’s nothing Rainbow Dash, I’m just kinda out of it, ya know, since the accident?” Scootaloo only hoped Rainbow wouldn’t ask any further questions. Under too much scrutiny she was sure her secret would come out.

Rainbow Dash looked skeptical but accepted it in the end. She didn’t want to make Scoots uncomfortable, but she wanted to get to the bottom of her sister’s distress. “If you say so squirt. Just know you can always tell me anything. Seriously, if you need help hiding a body, I’m your mare!” Rainbow chuckled and Scootaloo cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

“Wait, really? You’d really help me hide a bod-not that I need help with that! I mean, I haven’t done anything illegal, at least that I know of! Heh heh…” she trailed off while looking a bit nervous.

Dash just looked into her eyes with the most serious expression Scootaloo had ever seen before saying, “Scootaloo, I’m being one hundred and twenty percent serious right now. I’ve got your back. No. Matter. What. You got that?”

Scootaloo was taken aback for a moment before taking in what she just heard. “Wait, so… even if I did something really bad, or maybe thought of doing something bad, you wouldn’t hate me?” she asked. What are you doing Scootaloo? Just stop talking! Scootaloo’s mind was screaming at her.

At this point Rainbow quickly put the game away and sat on the bed with Scootaloo. “Scootaloo, I can’t ever hate you. I’m physically incapable of hating you. I love ya squirt!” Scootaloo’s heart fluttered at those words, “You’re the best sister a pony could ask for!” and with that, the butterflies died, violently, in a fire, and a dog pissed on their ashes.

Scootaloo managed to hide her disappointment, “thanks Rainbow Dash… I love you too.” Even if Rainbow didn’t know it, Scootaloo felt good confessing her feelings. “Ya think we could go to bed now? I’m pretty tired.” That wasn’t a lie, Scootaloo was physically and emotionally exhausted.

“Sure squirt, just lemme get a futon set up and we ca-”

“Actually Rainbow… do you think you could sleep in the bed with me?” Scootaloo’s eyes were shut, not wanting to see her hero and crush deny her.

“Sure Scoots, that sounds good to me, defiantly more comfortable than the futon.” At that Rainbow tucked herself into the blankets before stretching out one of her wings to gently wrap around Scootaloo. The orange filly momentarily tensed at the contact before melting into the cyan wing. As they both relaxed in the shared embrace sleep soon overtook them both.