//-------------------------------------------------------// The Best Gift Ever (Volume 1) -by RainbowDashieLoyally- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter One: A Long Way Out //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter One: A Long Way Out It was dark but the moon and stars still shun from above and onto the tents of a quiet camping area, Scootaloo was under her sleeping bag, she just can't sleep. She starts to wonder how totally awesome it would be if Rainbow was her big sister. Scoot starts to sweat from being in the bag to long, she slowley lifts her head and carefully places it on the pillow without waking up Dash. She breaths softly as she turns her head to the direction to the top of the tent. Scootaloo could hear nothing but the snoring coming out of the pony next to her, and dewdrops falling to the ground in a slow beat, she thought again. Nothing would make her more happy than Rainbow Dash teaching her every single thing she knows, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to know some of her secrets, right? But maybe a cutie mark could possibly be a little better, Scoot made up her mind and decieded that if she was sisters with Rainbow, that would be so awesome, it would be like family. Scootaloo thinks about Dash's personality, tomboy, loyal, and brave. Then an idea hits her, if she could find some way to prove her tomboyish, loyal, and bravery in front of Rainbow Dash, then her dream would come true, and maybe she would even get her cutie mark. But practice makes perfect so she draws a plan in her head to sneak out of the campsite and back in without no pony noticing, if any pony does, there's gonna be a long time of explaining. She moves her body slowly out of the sleeping bag and stands up, Scootaloo tip-toes to the exit of the tent and lifts the cover. Suddenly the snoring stopped and Scoot stood as still as a rock, holding her breath, she had a weird guilty-worried feeling for one second, then it stopped. A minute passed and the snoring continued, Scootaloo smiled, she steps out and starts to continue her way through the other tents. She feels the tiny rocks in her hooves making it louder everytime she takes a step, she hopes the rocks won't wake any pony up, finally Scootaloo starts to walk and then run. She's far away from the camp site, Scoot keeps running and running. She feels the breeze fly through her face as she shuts her eyes and lets out a bright simle that lights up the night, even though it's still dark. Scootaloo squinted her eyes, as she passed through a cave. Its only a matter of time till she dash's through a graveyard, like the cave, she ran around it. After, Scoot went right between a canyon. The sound of her hooves make the rocks slowly moved to the edge, luckily they didn't fall. Scootaloo bumps into something and she quickly opens her eyes in shock, Scoot stares at the creature before her with an opened mouth, looking at the manticore face to face. She wants to scream but stops herself, every pony back at camp will hear her and it's a fast way to the road of embarrassment. Scootaloo gets in ready position, this is a good practice for when the real time comes. She charges but the manticore blocks it and used it's sharp claws to finish this battle in one hit. Scootaloo dodges the attack but gets hit hard on the ground, "Ouch!" she whispered. Even though she knew she was quiet so no pony could hear her, it wouldn't make any difference considering the noise they were making. The manticore lifted its other paw and swiped it again. Scootaloo dodged it but got a slight cut, then with a blink of an eye, Scoot saw two large paws about to make a direct hit. She squinted her eyes and fell to the ground, the sharp claws were only inches away. But right before it could happen, Scootaloo got pushed out of the way, she opened her eyes and watched the manticore disappear into the bushes. Then she turned over to the pony who saved her life, "Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said relieved as she runs up to her. Scoot notices that both of Rainbow's wings were injured and that she couldn't fly. "Whats up...?" Scootaloo said nervously, Dash looked  a bit annoyed and angered. "Definitely not me, now we're stranded! What were you even thinking?" "I was trying to be like you!" "I don't go in the middle of no where and almost kill myself." "Are you mad?" "A little, lets just find our way back to the campsite." Rainbow Dash climbs a tree while Scootaloo watches her, she feels ashamed and embarrassed that she got caught. The tree wasn't so high but it was taller than the other trees around them. "I can't see anything from up here!" Rainbow Dash yelled down to Scootaloo as she climbs back down the tree. "I guess the only thing we can do is walk straight." Scoot said just before Dash touched the ground. 'I feel so embaresssed' Scootaloo thought to herself, she looked back up at Rainbow and noticed she already started walking, she ran a little to catch up. 'She's mad at me, I just know it!' They came across the same canyon Scoot crossed, the rocks looked like it was about to tumble down. Together, they slowly tip-toed, Scootaloo was eyeing Rainbow's hoove movements to match them perfectly. Dash wouldn't do anything to make the rocks tumble down, if Scootaloo was in synch with her, she wouldn't tumble down the rocks, right? To both the pegasusi shock, Scoot tripped on a pebble making the rocks to fall of the edge's. When she got up, she ran forward screaming. "Wait up!" Rainbow Dash called out to her then she started to run too. It was her job to protect Scootaloo, if she got hurt, ponies are gonna blame Rainbow for not looking after her that well. Then a big bang came from behind Scoot, she turned around to see if her friend was okay. Dash was lying on the ground with her tail stuck on a rock, when she gets up, she noticed she's trapped. Scootaloo runs up to Rainbow and tries to help her out, 'There's gotta be something, there's always something!' She looked around and saw a boulder that was about to directly hit above the both of them. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Two: Face Your Fears //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Two: Face Your Fears Scootaloo looked aroud and started to see if anything can help her before they get crushed. When something caught her eye, a rose, she can use it to cut some of Rainbow's tail so she can escape. Scootaloo grabbed it with her hooves and uses the thorns to cut half her tail, the two jumped out of the way right before the boulder hit them and landed right out of the canyon. They stood up and wiped the mud of their coat, and started to walk and talk. "Thanks squirt." Rainbow Dash said smiling, "No prob." Scootaloo responded, smiling back. 'I just saved her life... awesome!' She thought happily as she fluttered off the ground but crashes. Rainbow giggled a little and helped her up, "Close enough." She said, "How did it go again?" Scootaloo asks. "Just jump, and flap hard." Dash explained, Scoot tries again and stayed in the air for a few seconds. "I actually flew by myself, I never did that before!" "Never? That must be tough considering you came from Cloudstale." "How did you know that?" "Lucky guess." "Oh." "But didn't your family tried to help you or something?" Scootaloo stared at the ground with dead silence, she started to frown. "Don't wanna talk about it?" Rainbow asked, "No... not really." Scoot responded. "I understand." Dash said. They walked through the entrance of a graveyard and noticed it got foggier. "Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo asked, there was no response, "Are you still there?". Still nothing, she started to worry and was a little scared. Scootaloo walked slowly around the grave yard looking for Dash, it was quiet until there was a howl echoing in the distance, it made her jump a little. She walked around trying to look Rainbow, but there was no sight of her. Scootaloo heard something coming up from behind her, she didn't want to turn around. Scoot could hear moaning coming out of the creature, it was probably a ghost, "R.D? Is that you?" the sound of hooves or paws was getting closer. She finally turned around to see a Timberwolve standing before her, "AHH!" Scootaloo started running, but to her shock, she was at the exit of the grave yard. "Awesome! Hey Rainbow Dash, I made I-" Rainbow was still in the grave yard, Scoot had a choice, to abandon her role model, or to go back for her. "She could die in there..." Scootaloo took a deep breath, gulped, and walked back in. It was still foggy, but that didin't stop the little filly from rescuing Rainbow and proving to her she's worth something, other than messing things up. Her mind was completely blank while walking through the grave, she could hear the timber wolf approaching her again. "Alright, fine! Come at me, I'm not scared of you anymore!" Scoot yelled while looking around herself, something jumped directly in front of her, "AHHHH!" She screamed. Scootaloo closed her eyes and fell to the ground, she could hear laughing, she opened her eyes and saw Rainbow Dash smiling at her. Scootaloo started to laugh along with her and they continued their journey back home. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Three: The Meaning Of Adventure //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Three: The Meaning Of Adventure The sky was dark, as before, with the sound of hoofs tapping the ground every step the two ponies take. It was complete silence, and a little awkward, Rainbow and Scootaloo don't usually hang out with each other, but Scoot thought that it's time to learn more about each other. "So Rainbow Dash, umm..." Scootaloo is thinking of a topic to start off with to brighten things up and get a few giggles. "How's your family?" Rainbow stopped dead in her tracks. The little orange filly looked behind her to see Dash freaking out a little, and looks a bit sad. Silence surrounded the area, again. Rainbow continued to walk while holding back forceful tears, "Isn't your birthday in a few days?" Rainbow completely changed the topic. Scoot had a surprised face, "Oh, I forgot." She said with a dumb look on her face. She didint mean to say it out load, but the rainbow pony giggled anyways. "What do you want for your birthday?" Rainbow asked looking at Scootaloo for a second then continued to look at the trees nearby. "A family..." She mumbled, Dash looked a bit shocked then looked at the ground sadly, so did Scoot. Now it really was an awkward moment. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth as she was about to say something to change the topic again, but stopped herself. She wanted to avoid anymore things that would lead to the word "Family", then Rainbow heard a burp. She turned to Scootaloo who is smiling embarrassely, but proudly as well. "No squirt, it's like this." Rainbow Dash burped even louder, so did Scoot. They continued to burp as the road ahed of them lead on and on for about half an hour, until they finally reached the cave. "This is it..." Scootaloo thought, the cave looked dark and damp, bats flew out of it making it look even scarier. Scoot gulped, "Can't we just go around it?" And it started to rain, "Fail." Rainbow thought, "We have no choice." She said in a serious voice. A sudden light shun on their hoofs as they could feel the ray of sunshine on them going up, up, and up, till it reached to the top of their heads, they looked up to see that the sun is rising. Knowing their friends back at camp, Rarity dosen't wake up that early cause of beauty sleep or something, but Apple Jack is a totally different story. She usually wakes up extra early to do chores back in Ponyville, but since this is kinda like a vacation, she might not wake up so early, hopefully. The two ponies knew that they need to hurry. They entered the cave with determination and belief, they could hear water drip on the hard concrete ground, somehow, they feel like their being watched. Rainbow and Scoot looked up, down, left, and right to see if any monsters would pop out of somewhere and scare them to death, that happened to many times. The two continued to walk inside the cave as it was a haunted mansion, then Rainbow felt something hit her head. "Ow, what was that for?" Dash says, "I didn't do anything." Scootaloo told her, she felt something hit her head too, "Ow, I said it wasn't me!" Scoot exclaimed. They both wondered what hit their heads like that. They were more scared than before, step by step even slower, but on the next step, there was no ground to continue walking on. The two ponies blinked twice and looked up to see a big gap in their path, scary as it was, an earthquake hit below Scootaloo and she fell down into the gigantic hole, an earthquake started to come upon them, rocks started to fall. "AHHHH!!!" She screamed very loudly while she falls, "SCOOTALOO!!!" Rainbow called out. Scoots eyes widened and smiled. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Four: Loving Family //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Four: Loving Family "She... she said my name!" Scoot thought happily, then a bunch of boulder was about to drop on her, the cave was still trembeling but the little orange filly found her determination and flew away right before the rocks hit her hard. She made it across the gap and cheered, "I did it! I flew! I did it!!!" She looked across and saw Rainbow smiling at her looking proud, she used her mouth to pull the bandages off of her wing and flew beside her friend, "But, you, what, huh?" Scootaloo asks. "Flying now, questions later!" Dash told her, they both smiled and started to fly out of the cave avoiding all the rocks that could fall on them. The two of them easily flew out and hight-hoffed eachother but crash landed by the campsite, they both layed there while watching the sun rise, they laughed and got up. "What's going on out here?" Rarity asked, her and her sister walked out of their tent, Sweetie Belle yawned and smiled at them, "Sweetie Belle, exuse yourself!" Rarity told her,"But all I did was-""Sweetie Belle!" Rarity inturupted, "Is every pony alright?" Apple Jack asked, her and Apple Bloom came outside. "Oh, everything is fine." Scootaloo said, she smiled at Rainbow Dash and winked, Dash winked too. "By the way, isin't your birthday in a few days, Scoot?" Apple Bloom asks, "Yeah, four days.""Awwww, why can't it be sooner?" Sweetie Belle asked her. "That's the way it is." Scootaloo smiled. Four Days Later... Sugar Cube Corner is filled with a bunch of ponies all there for Scootaloo's birthday, there is streamers everywhere with balloons by them. The food is deliciious, standing beside it is a large cake with a face of Scootaloo on it. "Time for presents!" Sweetie Belle yelled, "Where's Rainbow Dash?" Scoot asked, "She coulden't make it." Apple Bloom says, Scootaloo looked sad, "But she left a gift." She finished. Apple Bloom shoved a present to her friend, it was small though. Scootaloo opened the present, and squealed, "It's a birth certificate! I'm Rainbow's sister now!" Everypony crowded around her asking questions. "Why'd you do it Rainbow?" Twilight asked her, Dash was sitting by the window smiling, she laughed a bit and said, "Cause all that little filly ever needed was a family..."