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Sunbeam

by Palm Palette

Chapter 13: Epilogue: Fossilized Rainbow

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Epilogue: Fossilized Rainbow

The next afternoon, Scootaloo glumly stared at splintered and broken piles of scooter parts. The clubhouse was still decorated with streamers and confetti, but she hadn't the heart to clean it up. Her friends probably would have, but they were busy at school. Scootaloo, however, had spent most of the day at the hospital. She frowned at the fresh set of casts on her wings. The door creaked open, and her ears perked up.

“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, boy am I glad to see you!”

“Scootaloo! You have to tell us all about—, uh, is that you scooter?” Sweetie Belle pointed at the piles of scrap on the table.

Apple Bloom ran over and stuck her face close to the remains. Her eyes watered and and she frowned deeply. “Aw, ya broke it.”

“Sorry, Apple Bloom. I was going to see if I could put it back together, but most of the pieces are so badly smashed up that I'd have to replace them altogether.”

Sweetie Belle levitated a warped axle and the bent handlebars. “Is there anything that's still usable?”

“Uh, it's not a complete loss...” Scootaloo shuffled through the pile and held up a loose wheel. It was only mildly dented. “While I was picking up the pieces, I did find a yummy sunflower.”

“How'd you smash it up so badly? It looks like ya dropped it off a cliff.”

Scootaloo blinked. “Well... that's basically what happened. I used it launch myself when I went flying and, uh, I kinda dropped it.”

“Flying!? Are the rumors really true? Did ya soar to top of Deadpony Peak and fight off hordes of sky pirates for the lost treasure buried at the top?” Wagging her tail, Apple Bloom reared up and put her hooves on the table, knocking some of the scrap metal off. Sweetie Belle dropped the stuff she was holding and scootched closer too.

“Pah! The sky pirates were nothing compared to the windigoes, and that wasn't even the hardest part. At the very peak, guarding the treasure, a yeti wanted me answer a riddle or he'd gobble me up!”

“Yeti? Don't you mean sphinx? Those are the ones who do the question thing. Yetis just leave big footprints or something,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Uh, right, it was a sphinx wearing a big coat that made it look like a yeti.”

“What was the riddle?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It... well...” Scootaloo made a swishing motion through the air with a hoof, as if she were punching a ghost. “The answer was a well placed snowball that knocked it off the edge. If I hadn't sprained my wings trying to haul the treasure away before it climbed back up, I could have gotten away with it too!”

Both of her friends giggled at the tall tale. Scootaloo grinned and a sparkle lit her eyes. It felt so good to be able to sit down, relax, and have fun with her friends. In a way, nothing had happened. She was still the same, excitable filly she'd always been. Yet... just lurking under her surface was a huge can of worms that could soil any amount of baked goods. Celestia insisted that she get things out in the open, but looking into the bright and cheery faces of her closest friends, she knew she couldn't risk losing them. She'd tell them someday, but not anytime soon. Those worms would stay bottled inside of her as long as possible.

A rap on the clubhouse door snapped Scootaloo back to the present. “Who is it?”

“It's me, Spike.”

“Spike!” Scootaloo's ears perked up. “Come on in!”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stepped aside to make way for the little dragon. “Hey, Scootaloo, do you think you could help me with...” His voice trailed off and stared at the casts on her sides.

“Is something wrong?” Scootaloo asked.

“Sorry, I didn't know you'd hurt your wings. Are you all right?”

“My wings? Yeah, they'll be fine. I really sprained them hard with all that flying I did yesterday.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “At first I was scared because I woke up last night and they felt like they were on fire, but Pipe Down took me to the hospital and they put some kind of ointment on them that felt like liquid ice. That stopped the swelling, and after some examinations they put the casts on. Thankfully, wings heal quickly so I can take them off tomorrow. Still, I'll want to ease off using my wings for a few more days. Rainbow Dash is going to be disappointed that we can't start flying lessons right away, but after yesterday, I think I've earned a few days rest.”

“Flying?” Spike blinked. “Oh right, you can do that now.”

“Yep! I flew all on my own for the very first time yesterday!”

“Wow, congratulations.” Spike turned his head and glanced out the door. “But I guess if your wings are injured, I'll have to find somepony else to help.”

“Wait. What do you want help with?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Well...” Spike leaned up to Apple Bloom and whispered, “I think Twilight's castle is haunted.”

“Haunted?”

“Yeah, remember when we gathered together yesterday, and I felt that cold chill on my shoulder, and the chalk moved by itself—”

“That sounds like magic,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Oh! That does make more sense. I wonder who...? Anyway, I spent a lot of time building a giant kite. Since you don't need it, I wanted to try taking it for a spin myself. I asked Blossomforth for whip up a breeze for me, but she refused, stating that it was far too big and I'd get carried off. Celestia had said that you were good at whipping up winds too, Scootloo, but since you're injured I'll just ask Rainbow Dash.” He turned to leave.

Scootaloo blinked. Of all the things that had happened yesterday, that bit with the giant kite had made the least sense. Celestia never did things without reason, but sometimes her motives never became clear. Still, Scootaloo felt as if it was important, so she opted to delay Spike and give herself some more time to think. “Wait a minute, Spike. I have something for you.”

“You do?”

In the corner of the room, Scootaloo opened her drawer and picked out three of her glassy, blue rocks. “Yep. Actually, it's for all of you.” Stones in hoof, she passed them out.

Sweetie Belle held her piece up to the light. “What is this? Some kind of weird gemstone?”

“Actually, It's fossilized rainbow.”

“Rainbow? But it's blue. Where are the other colors?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Uh, this is just the blue part of the rainbow. They come in all colors.”

Spike licked his lips. “It looks tasty to me.”

“Are you sure about that, Spike, because rainbow—”

Not listening, Spike tossed the glassy blue shard in his mouth and chomped it down. “Hmm, not ba—aaaah!” As if he'd been dipped in a vat of ink, blue color washed out his green scales and purple spines. He grabbed his throat and let out a huge plume of azure flame. The Cutie Mark Crusaders hit the deck, sliding up against the walls and scrambling to get out of the way. “S-s-spicy!” Spike jumped out the door and made a mad dash towards the creek.

“Is he all right?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo shrugged. “He's a dragon; I'm sure he'll be fine.”

Sweetie Belle stuck her head out the window.  “I hope so. That looked pretty strong, even for him.”

“Should we follow him?” Apple Bloom asked. She glanced between Sweetie Belle and the open door.

Scootaloo walked past and stepped outside. She was going to shimmy down the rope ladder, but paused at the threshold. There, on the ground, was the giant kite. It was of simple construction, but had orange canvas and was decorated around the edges with the cutie marks of Twilight and her friends. In the center was a black silhouette of a filly wearing a cape, the symbol of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It really did look large enough to carry off several ponies. Lying next to that was the wagon they used when she wanted to haul her friends around with her scooter.

Something clicked, and Scootaloo gasped. Back in the starry realm, Celestia had specifically shown her an image where she was hauling her friends. When she did the math, she carried the two.

“Is something wrong, Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked.

“No way! Things are more right than they've ever been in my whole life! I figured out what the kite is for. Apple Bloom, do you think you could find a way to hook the kite up to the wagon so that I could carry you two when I go flying?”

“What?” Apple Bloom scrunched up her fuzzy face and tapped on her chin. “Well, Ah guess. We could sit in the wagon and hold the rope—no, it'd just fall out from under us.” She walked over to the table and cleared a corner off to make room for her notebook. “Let's see... Ah could tie the kite to the wagon, but we'd have to hold it up to get started, and if yer in front and the kite's way behind us...” She crossed out the scribbles she'd been making and wrote in a new set of numbers. “Maybe if Ah put the wagon on top the kite? But we'd need some wheels to hold it up until it got off the ground.”

Scootaloo stared over Apple Bloom's shoulder while she worked the numbers and wrote out a list of the supplies that they'd need. “Apple Bloom, are you sure you're bad a math?”

“What! Of course Ah am! It's math! Nopony uses that stuff!” Apple Bloom tapped on the table a few times. “Hmm... According to my calculations, Ah'll need more nails. We almost used them up in that birdhouse project.”

Scootaloo locked eyes with Sweetie Belle, who shrugged.

The pile of busted scooter parts on the table made her feel empty inside. She hadn't really thought about it before, but if she managed to get this flying thing down pat, she wouldn't even need her scooter anymore. That was a scary thought. Scootaloo without her scooter? She'd always known that she'd outgrow it someday, but had no idea that such a day was going to come so soon. She was really going to miss that thing.

“Scootaloo, may I ask why you want to use the kite? What's wrong with a regular sky chariot?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“It's, well...” That was a good question, but Scootaloo had her answer as soon as she tried to envision herself pulling one. “Uh, my wings, they have ooni—loony—” she blinked “—one-directional wingpower. I'd have to pull one of those straight up and you'd fall out. With a kite, that'll provide it's own lift from my breeze and we could fly at a much more level angle.”

“I see...” Sweetie Belle whispered in Apple Bloom's ear, who scribbled the words 'seatbelts' and 'steering' in the margin of her notebook.

Sitting next to Apple Bloom, her chunk of fossilized rainbow cast a watery shadow on the wooden table. Staring at the rock brought to mind the place that it had been taken from. “Sweetie Belle, do you think that you could manage a shield spell?” Scootaloo asked.

“A shield spell? Me?” Sweetie looked incredulous. “That's pretty advanced magic. I can barely lift a broom.”

“Well, not now, but eventually. Apple Bloom's got to get that wagon-kite thing working, and I've got a lot of flying practice to do before I'll be ready to start taking passengers.”

“What's all this about, anyway?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yeah, it sounds like you have something in mind,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I—” Scootaloo blinked “—um, found a super-awesome place hidden behind a rainbow, but the only way to get there is if we all work together. It's well worth the effort! After all, you won't find rainbows frozen in stone anyplace else.” For emphasis, she pointed at the glassy shard on the table.

“Huh.” Apple Bloom cocked her head.

“That does sound exciting!” Sweetie Belle clapped her hooves. “It may take some extra studying, but I'd love to see a place like that! Oh! Speaking of crystals, Cheerilee's arranging a field trip to the Crystal Empire in three weeks.”

“She is?” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, yeah.” Apple Bloom rummaged in her mane and pulled out a piece of paper. “That reminds me, I have to get Granny Smith to sign my permission slip. We'll be going on a full tour of the palace including the barracks with all the guards, and after that we can use the stadium for our own, junior version of the Equestrian games. It sounds pretty excitin'.”

Scootaloo's heart lurched and she turned away to hide her face against the wall. Dad... after all this time, I'll finally get to see him. She struggled to hold back her emotions, but they simply poured out, running down her cheeks. It was one thing to think of him as an abstract concept, but he was going to appear in the flesh, in front of her. Dare she tell him the truth? How would he react? Would he want her? Could he be trusted to keep her secret?

Her heart pounded with anticipation and dread. Thoughts flooded her mind. She really knew nothing about him, but he was her father. They were so close, yet divided by a chasm of secrecy and time. That chasm might never be mended, but this was an opportunity to build a bridge. Whoever her father was, he was bound to be awesome. Mom, thank you.

“Scootaloo, are you crying?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“What!? No! Uh, I mean, I bumped my wing aaaand it hurt a lot more than I thought it would.” Scootaloo grinned.

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment further, for which Scootaloo was grateful. With all of the excitement, she didn't think she could hold it all in if she was pressured further.

“Shouldn't Spike have been back by now?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sweetie Belle ran over to a window. “Uh... Wait, I see him. He's still blue.” She winced. “And he just walked into a tree.”

“Ouch. We'd better go see if we can help him.” Apple Bloom perked up. “Hey! That's an idea: we can be Cutie Mark Crusader Dragon Caretakers!” She ran out the door and slid down the ladder.

Scootaloo smiled. This was a great day. Stepping back out into the air, she looked up at the vast expanse of blue sky. Sure, her wings were hurt now, but once they healed—

Her chest tightened up and she drew short breaths. Sweat beaded and rolled down her paling hide. With the force of an iron cage slamming shut, visions of her flight wrapped around her mind. Sharp rocks awaited beneath her, as she hung far up in the air with nothing to grip, nothing to stop her from falling. Her ears rang with splintering of her scooter. It sounded like the crunch of bone. And the pain... Her whole world was pain.

“Scootaloo!” Jarring motion snapped her back into the present, and she found herself staring into Sweetie Belle's big, green eyes. “Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost.”

“Uh, yeah.” Scootaloo gulped. “I'll just... be flying low for a while.”

“Well, that does sound sensible. Now come on! We have to help Spike.” Sweetie Belle climbed down the ladder.

Scootaloo lingered a while longer. Looking down, it was only yesterday morning that the biggest fall she faced was off off this very platform. She never thought she'd be reminiscent about that. Clenching her eyes shut, she climbed down the ladder without looking at the ground or the sky.

What just happened? She'd felt fear before, but never something so visceral and raw. That was going to be a serious problem. If that kept happening, she might never fly again and all her plans would be for naught.

No. Scootaloo grit her teeth. It's just fear. It's not real. I refuse to let it control me.

She needed a goal to distract herself, and she had one. There was one thing that she hadn't told her friends about the rainbow cavern, and that was the fact that it's the best place to divulge secrets. Her mother had wanted her to get things out in the open, but she needed to work herself up for that first. And she would. She'd work herself harder than she ever had in her entire life.

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