Post by Solar Solstice on Jan 10, 2013 17:40:03 GMT -5
OOC Date: January 1 & 4 & 7, 2013
Characters: Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Dynamite Rave
Setting: Rainbow and Scoots work on their growing 'sisterly' relationship at RD's home. Near the end, they get an unexpected visitor.
Up here, the weather is always nice and sunny, a perfectly suitable place for Rainbow Dash to have a home. Despite the cool air, the sun persists in its heat, light shining through the rainbow fountains and glinting upon the smooth-hewn marble pillars, and a gentle breeze contributes by causing the cloud awnings to waft ever so slightly. Today, Rainbow Dash is bringing a special visitor along, riding on her back as she gently glides to her front door. "Here we are, Scoots, home sweet home," she says, always happy to be within her domain.
Scootaloo hops off the older pegasus' back and looks up at the architecture with a growing smile. "Sweet," she says with a nod, impressed. "You've got one hay of a pad here, Dash. And this is just the outside!" The filly revels in the sensation of being up so high and she decides to race around the perimeters of the house, exploring every inch of the exterior. Scootaloo has always admired Cloudsdale homes for their stunning design and opalescent, cloudy structures. She had hoped, at one point, to own a house like that of her own - and she keeps that hope in her heart, although a little dampened by the future's apparently lost opportunities.
Rainbow_Dash grins proudly. "Yeah, I helped design it myself! I wanted it to be totally awesome." She trots to the door and opens it. "Hey, the best part's inside!" she shouts to Scootaloo. Indeed, there's quite a bit going on in Rainbow's house. The bottom floor appears to be a drawing room of some kind, the edge of the room (which is completely circular) decorate with statues of pegasi soldiers and the occasional gryphon. A bright red carpet lies eagerly on the ground, supporting a set of sofas and coffee tables. The whole room seems very tidy and well-kept, which probably means that Rainbow doesn't use it much. "C'mon, the best stuff is upstairs!" she declares, confirming this notion.
Scootaloo wanders in behind Dash, taking a good look around and appreciating the sheer enormity of the place. She strolls through the drawing room, but not without taking a long look at that cabinet. Famous Pegasi all the way back to Commander Hurricane. Idols and heroes Dash and Scoots have in common, it seems! She follows Dash to the stairs and looks up.
<OOC> You say, "I didn't write about that, but nice touch!
"
<OOC> Scootaloo can't read, it seems. XD
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Sorry. o.o I saw soldier and literally just assumed Hurricane. XD"
<OOC> You say, "It was a good one though X3 RD would definitely have a sculpture of Hurricane somewhere"
Rainbow_Dash trots up the stairs towards a much more interesting (and therefore somewhat messier) room that seems to function as a combined kitchen/dining room/arcade. Yes, arcade, because as it turns out Rainbow has a limited edition Space Conquerors arcade cabinet sitting in a marked off section, the whole wall painted neon blue (next to it is a sign marked 'Meteoroids goes here!'). The kitchen is clean, for the most part, though the pantry door is open revealing Rainbow's stash of dried spinach, gyro wraps, and tubs full of tzatziki sauce. The dining table seems to have been converted into a temporary magazine stash, with piles of 'Extreme Flyers' and 'Pegasus Heritage' lying about haphazardly next to a used plate with bits of olive on it. "Ah...heh, I gotta clean that part up," Rainbow says bashfully.
Scootaloo is fine with the mess! In fact, this room is in relatively good shape compared to her own room at home. She glees at the arcade system and runs over to inspect it carefully. "Can I have a go, Dash?" she asks.
"Whoa, slow down! Even I'm having trouble keeping up!" Rainbow Dash says playfully, amused but not too surprised that Scoots is taking a liking to her home. Wait till she sees the bedroom, though! "Sure! Hang on, I gotta set it up..." She walks over and flicks a switch in the back, and the machine whirrs to life, flickering on in a blaze of technicolor. The title screen slides on, and then, on the menu, the words '2 Player Mode'. "So...you wanna play a game together?" she winks.
<OOC> You say, "Hopefully Dash and Scoots have a meaningful conversation soon X3"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Yup. XD"
Scootaloo positively *squeees*, looking up at Dash with veritable delight. "Of COURSE I wanna play a game!" she says, moving aside a little to give her friend room. "I'm so gonna bust your plot, Rainbow Dash," the orange filly threatens playfully, nudging the cyan pegasus and smirking.
Rainbow_Dash smirks back. "You're on, Scoots!" She sits down at the 'Player 2' and starts the game. Just as the title says, there are 'Space Conquerors' slowly crawling towards the two crystal ships at the bottom, the ships, of course, being controlled by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash. As the game progresses, its apparent that Rainbow has been playing this game far more often than Scoots, judging from her sunbstantial higher score.
Scootaloo tries her hardest, really she does! But she lags behind Dash quite evidently for the majority of the game, and once it's over she huffs, defeated. "So much for kicking your plot," she smirks, relenting with a hoofbump for her friend. "I'll beat you some other time."
Rainbow_Dash pats Scootaloo on the withers. "Hey, you did pretty good for a beginner! Me? I've been played this since it came out back when I was a filly. I /think/ there's a cabinet down in the Ponyville Leisure Center." She flicks off the game and walks over to the stairs. "Hey, the best part is up here!"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Question."
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "How old do you consider Dash to be? ^^"
<OOC> You say, "Barely an adult, like the other Mane Six"
<OOC> You say, "I mean, old enough to drink at least"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "So about.. 22-23?"
<OOC> You say, "Thereabouts yeah"
<OOC> You say, "In pony years or whatever X3".
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "That works. My Scoots is the equivalent of 12-13, and I envision that she's about ten years below Dash."
<OOC> You say, "Makes sense n.n"
Scootaloo grins. "Well thanks," she says politely, before trotting over to join Dash by the stairs. "Your bedroom? Oh, oh! Is that where you store all your Daring Do books?" the filly asks eagerly. She knows that they both enjoy the popular adventure novels, and she likes to think that Dash owns more Daring Do-related things than anypony.
Rainbow_Dash smiles mischievously. "Why don't you come see?" Unlike the other rooms, Rainbow's bedroom is seperated from the dining room by a fancy trapdoor which she shoves open. Beyond is a completely unexpected scene. Apart from the magnificent bed, a lush (and expensive!) thing with finely cut pillars supporting the bed corners, the entire room is a splash of opulent finery. All of this is defaced, though, by the many posters, some of the Wonderbolts, some of Daring Do, and even some travel posters showing the pegasus colonies (Skyrocuse, Noniopolis, Palomerno, etc). A large chest at the foot of the bed is open, showing Rainbow's entire Daring Do book collection (including the rare foreign language editions /and/ all the sourcebooks). One part of the room is more business like, being Rainbow's personal office, with a large weather map of Ponyville and several forms and papers scattered across the desk (they all seem to be about administration or requests and other boring adult things). The other side of the room, though, is replete with paraphernalia. Shelves of Daring Do merchandise (including a large dress-up Daring, complete with Arabian gown), magazines, Wonderbolt fan kits, and even a few actual books about flying and history (!). There's a large closet here, too, but it's firmly shut. A balcony opens out near where Rainbow's bed is, affording a fine view of Cloudsdale and Canterlot in the distance.
Scootaloo stops for a moment at the door of the bedroom, taking in the sights. It's even more awesome than she ever imagined it would be! After those few seconds of just drinking it in, she feels obliged to step forward inside the room; and she moves around it slowly, eyes wide with delight, too nervous to touch anything but aching to get as much of the place as she can. After a while she just stops and looks at Dash. "Gee, can I live here?"
Rainbow Dash smirks. "Nice try, but I think you should be able to make your own lair of cool with your stuff...like all those Rainbow Dash posters you made, heh." She winks slyly at the filly. "So, what do you wanna see first? I gotta all the Daring Do merch you could possibly need, but I also got all this cool surplus equipment off my buddies in the Met."
"Well, obviously," brags Scoots, tossing her mane. "You should see my room back home. It's a total lair of cool." The filly thinks for a moment, before deciding on the most predictable answer. "Daring Do stuff!"
In response to Scoots' request, Rainbow Dash practically drags the filly over to her large collection of Daring Do products. "Sweet! Let's see...I got all the action figures here, including the 18+1 point posable Daring, the Castle of Conundrums playset, the talking Huitzotl..." And on and on she goes, listing off her entire collection. She does, however, conveniently elide over the Dress-Up Daring, shoving it to the back when she talks about the upcoming comic series. "...and they're getting Pasta Havarti from Bitaly to do the illustrations! It's gonna be radical!"
Scootaloo giggles as Dash goes through her extensive list of merch, every so often pointing at one and exclaiming that she has one identical to it of her own or that she saw that one in a toystore and is desperate for it. Listening about the comic, she beams. "He did the Batmare comics, right? I swear he did. He's really famous."
"I don't actually read Batmare," Rainbow Dash admits. "It's a bit...dark for my taste, but I did read that comic about the airships he helped with! I think it's hidden in the bottom of my chest there." She points at the container at the foot of her bed with all the Daring Do books. "That chest...was actually a present from a cousin, about a few years ago. Didn't think I'd be filling it up with books, heh."
"I read that too!" says Scootaloo with a nod, and she peers over at the chest containing all those books. "Nice," she comments, grinning. "Have you finished the entire DD series? I'm on the... twelfth book, I think. 'Daring Do and the Race to Timbucktu.'"
"Long time ago, Scoots," Rainbow Dash replies. "I think I'm in the middle of my second run through the series now, around Sapphire Goblet. I'm getting a lot of details I missed during the first reading." Rainbow Dash, talking about reading? Preposterous! But here she is. "I've been trying to get some other reading done, but about cool stuff like wars and fighting." She moves over to her bed and sits on it, looking out the balcony. "Rainbow Dash, the reading pegasus. Who would have thought, eh?"
"Wow," muses Scoots. Rainbow is a fast reader! Though she probably started the series a while before Scootaloo did. A thought comes to the filly's mind, and she voices it to the older pegasus. "Hey, have you tried the Marelin series? It's fantasy, about a sorcerer, but it's great. Loads of action, and wars too. Magic wars *and* pegasus wars. One of my favourite book sagas." she says proudly.
Rainbow Dash's ears perk up. "Marelin...I think I might've heard of it, yeah. I think I'll look into that next, actually!" She smiles as she imagines the new adventures this would open up. "You know, I didn't think you'd be a bit of a reader, too, Scoots."
Scootaloo shrugs a little. "Gives me somethin' to do when it's raining out, I guess," she says, taking another glance at all that wonderful Daring memorabilia her friend has scattered around the room. "Especially if I'm not feeling too great. It's like... stepping into a different world. Becoming somepony else. Someday, I'd like to be an adventurer like Daring. Scoota-Do." the filly giggles a little. "I guess it goes to show we shouldn't always run on stereotypes, huh? Never judge a book by its cover, pardon the pun."
Rainbow Dash smirks, remembering all the times that she herself imagined being in Daring Do's place. She did have one thing on Daring, though: Daring couldn't do a Sonic Rainboom. "That's...just about right, actually," Rainbow says reflectively. "I mean...you and I have a lot more in common than I thought."
"Yeah," says Scoots with a satisfied nod. "'n'hey, uh... I heard about Diamond Dancer and such. I'm plannin' on meeting up with her, to see if I can turn somethin' round. I had no idea... Again, I judged her." The orange filly looks thoughtful, and she sighs a little. "Don'cha wish ponies didn't do that?" Laughing a little to brighten the mood, she offers Rainbow her hoof.
Rainbow Dash blinks. "How'd you hear about that? Oh...wait." That filly was infamous enough to grind the rumor mill all by herself, it seems. "Ahh...I dunno, Scoots. It's a bit of a heavy topic, really. Just...just watch out, OK?" She exhales audibly and tries to relax, joining in Scootaloo's little laughter. "I guess...I guess that's why you're hanging out with Gilda now, huh?" she broaches. Well, now's as good a time as any to bring /that/ up.
"I'll be careful," says Scoots, fixing Dash with an honest gaze. "Promise." Trotting over to Rainbow's bed, she sits gingerly on it and invites its owner to join her. Scootaloo bites down on her lip anxiously when Dash mentions Gilda. "Uh..." she murmurs, trying to think of something reasonably polite to say. "Well, I guess so. Gilda's had a rough time, and... Well. I met her at the winter play in Ponyville. We sat together - I only spotted her as she was with Twilight Sparkle and Spike - we got talkin'... Honest to the Princesses, Dash, I don't mean it offensively towards you. Not one bit. You're my sister from another mister." Catching her own vernacular, she laughs lightly again. "I sound like such a loser. What I'm trying to say is... Being friends with Gilda isn't gonna stop *our* friendship. Nor is me growing up. Nor is me not being able to fly. Got it?"
"Hey, you gotta give me more credit than that!" Rainbow Dash declares, mussing up Scoots' mane playfully. "All that stuff about friendship; I'm kinda familiar with that. It's just..." Rainbow's expression grows more somber in the face of recollection. "I've known Gilda for way longer than you, so I know all her little quirks, all the things that she does - that she /is/ - that turn off other ponies, and its not just her being a gryphon, either. I'm just...I'm afraid you'll learn something about her, and be disappointed."
"Fine, fine," compromises Scootaloo, giggling as the older mare messes with her mane. "You're the most superultraextrawesomazing pony in all Equestria." The little pony smirks, before the conversation becomes serious again. "I... I think I understand," she says slowly in reply. "I mean, I understand that she did a lot of cruel stuff way back when. S'just..." The young pegasus gives an experimental flap of her poor little wings. "A lot of ponies give me a lot of horseapples for not being able to fly, and I kinda latch onto those who don't. I imagined Gilda - from what others told me, y'know - was gonna be *horrible* about it, call me a total dweeb. But she didn't. She was really cool about it. And... I believe her when she says she kinda has the same problem."
Rainbow Dash blinks at this unexpected development. Or was it really so unexpected? Gilda had been very circumspect about the details of her earlier life, even with Rainbow Dash, but what Scoots is telling her now makes sense given what she's seen of the gryphoness before. "Same kind of problem?"
"Yeah," continues Scoots, almost looking at Dash for permission to explain it. "Like... she gets judged a lot from what she did before, and she's finding it really hard to fit in. It's not about being a griffon, you're right." The filly heaves an unsatisfied sigh. "Ponies judge for all kinds of reasons. And I kinda wanted to give her a chance, y'know? She gave me a chance. S'the least I could do to return it." Scootaloo ends this with a little shrug, as if her thought processes are a jump ahead of her actual understanding of the situation. Still, she's trying to be fair.
Rainbow Dash is silent for a while. So, Gilda really did change, or wanted to, anyway. She's still not ready to face her again, though, but maybe someday... "She has a lot of baggage, to put it mildly," she says. "Kinda makes me...feel like I've been too lucky. I don't have any big tragic stories in my life, so sometimes I don't know if I can really relate to ponies who do. But...I guess all that really means is that I gotta be the one to step up and make friends, or something..." She shifts uncomfortably.
Scootaloo nods at Dash, listening to her carefully. She drapes a hoof (halfway) around the mare's shoulders. "Hey, I think you're lucky for that," she says with a grin. "I *hate* bein' some kinda sob story for people to go 'aww' at all the time. It's not what I want to be remembered for." She keeps the smile this time. "I think... I think you should do what *you* wanna do. I don't wanna be treated like a medical case, so I suck it up and go with it. Act like I was born an earth pony, or somethin'. Make a name for myself *scootin'*, not sittin' in the corner crying about how much I suck."
Rainbow Dash smiles as Scoots makes the best of it. She likes it when ponies overcome their circumstances and be happy anyway; it shows true strength. Rainbow is not quite able to articulate this notion to herself, though, so she has to settle for a general feeling of satisfaction in Scootaloo's upbeat personality. "Yeah, that's the spirit!" she says, patting Scoots on the shoulders in return. "Scootin'...heh, I've seen your moves. It's almost like you've got a special talent for it!"
Scootaloo beams, giving Dash a little hug of gratitude. "Well, thanks," she says, feeling proud that her idol thinks highly of her. "I hope scooting is my special talent! Or fighting, or running, or soccer. I'm good at heaps of sports. Though scooting is definitely my favourite."
"You're definitely a sportspony, I can tell!" says Rainbow Dash, smiling and hugging Scoots back. "Fighting...you ever try jousting? There's a jousting club in Ponyville that just got started!"
"Really?" blinks Scoots, surprised. "Gee, I thought jousting was ancient! That sounds like fun. I might try it out sometime... so long as you came with me," she says, her smile turning into one of innocent pleading. "I don't think I'd wanna go alone. Might look a bit loserly."
"It's making a comeback, actually," says Rainbow Dash. "I, uh, might have something to do with that." She grins slyly. "Sure thing! I'll show you all the ropes. I've even got this book about it!" She jumps to her feet and walks over to her book chest, rummaging about inside to produce a thick book entitled 'Jousting: A History and Guide to the Sport'. "Check this out. It's starting to become a trend again now that the Crystal Empire is back." She flips the book open on the floor to reveal intricate illustrations of ponies jousting, complete with explanations.
Scootaloo giggles, getting off the bed and kneeling down by the book. She traces along one of the pictures with a hoof, wowed by its detail and colour. She reads a few paragraphs off the page before grinning up at Dash. "It sounds super awesome. Did you set the club up yourself?"
"Me? Nah, there were already a bunch of ponies that were interested," Rainbow Dash explains. "I just go a ball rolling here and there." She watches as Scoots eagerly reads the book. "Hey, you wanna borrow that book for a while? I think I must've looked at it a hundred times by now."
"Aw, really?" says Scoots, eyes wide as she closes the book and picks it up gratefully. "That'd be so awesome, thanks!" She grins and sits back down with her friend. "I really love your home."
Rainbow Dash leans on the foot on her bed and makes a little dismissive wave with her hoof. "It works for me, I guess," she says, as if the coolness of her home was just an everyday fact. "My old house was a lot bigger, but it wasn't quite...me, you know? Plus, the family and all."
"I got it," says Scootaloo, leaning back to copy Dash's position a little. "I live with just my dad. It's cool, and I'm glad it's just us. I'd hate to live with loads of ponies."
Rainbow Dash chuckles, wondering what Scoots will think of /her/ family, then. "I can understand that. I mean, even if you have fewer ponies in your life, that means you get to spend more time with each of them." She glances around her room, at the ladder leading down that seperates her Daring Do figures from her weather patrol desk, work from play. "Hey, school's gonna start again pretty soon for you, right?"
Scootaloo rolls her eyes. "I guess so," she says glumly. Though what child would be looking forward to going back to school after the wonderful winter vacation? "I can't stand school, most of the time. Full of ponies who think they're better than everyone else." She shrugs. "But oh well. A few more years and I can be done with school, focusing on my scooting. Like I'm supposed to."
Rainbow Dash can understand bullies well enough! She never let them get to her, though; she had Gilda, for one thing, and she also knew that she was so much better than any of them. "Hey, don't be too hard on school; I learned a few really neat things there!" OK, so much of that was outside of the classroom, but still. "Reason I ask is...well, I'm thinking you might appreciate an after-school buddy, when your other friends are busy at least."
Scootaloo blinks. After-school buddy? At first, it sounds a little lame, like what somepony would have if they needed constant guidance with their homework. But Scootaloo thinks on it. "You mean, you? So... we could hang out, and you could teach me stuff and we could play games? Things like that?"
"That's just what I'm talking about, Scoots!" Rainbow Dash declares, reaching for Scootaloo's mane and mussing it up. "We're gonna rock your afternoons! Well, when I'm not working, anyway."
Scootaloo beams super wide, not even bothering to flip her straggly mane back into place this time. "Seriously? You'd really do that for me?" Scootaloo feels *honoured*, and totally respected by Dash. A couple years ago, she could only ever *dream* of spending this much time with her idol.
Rainbow_Dash beams, glad to see that Scootaloo likes the idea so much (just as expected, of course!). "Sure thing! Like I said, it all depends on work and my time with my other friends, but in between I'll definitely make some time for you." She rearranges Scoots' mane to something resembling her original style, in the meantime glancing at the clock on the wall above her desk. "We should probably get you home soon," she observes.
Scootaloo laughs a little as Rainbow rearranges her mane, reaching up with a hoof to gently mess up the older pony's own multicoloured mane. "Well, you know where I am on the nights you are around!" She then looks up a little nonchalantly. "Of course, *I'll* have to make time to fit it all in, what with all those super important CMC meetings, and homework, and all that scooter training..." she recites her schedule somewhat proudly, before bursting into laughter.
"Twi was working on a flight spell with him last time. She gave him wings for a bit. Now that'd be a funny scene to do, to have Dynamite try and grow wings and end up flying out of control and crashes through Dash's wall.
<OOC> Scootaloo flicks her mane at Dynamite. "Sup."
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave falls in love.
<OOC> Rainbow_Dash peers :v
<OOC> Scootaloo pfft.
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "XD How old is Scoot again? 12?"
Rainbow_Dash giggles as Scoots takes her revenge on her mane, merging them into the general glee in the room. It's times like this that she truly enjoys, just hanging out together with her closest friends, not a care in the world.
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Just *how* many mares you got on the go right now?"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Scoots is about 12-14."
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "Just.. sorta one.. who treats me like crap. XD"
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "So yay, Scoot and Dyna are in the same age range. XD"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "I like to have her very close to my RL age. Makes me feel better about playing her"
<OOC> Scootaloo is 14 IRL, so yeah. ^^
<OOC> Rainbow_Dash kinda has RD in her early twenties or thereabouts X3
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Lauren Faust actually views the mane 6 in the 12-18 age bracket, she said in an interview. XD I thought that was pretty interesting."
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "Which was about 3 years ago, so I always assumed at least maybe 3 years have been fast forwarded. Ponies are in legal drinking age now!"
Scootaloo laughs, still clutching the jousting book in one hoof, the other draped around Dash. Grinning up at the older pegasus, she rests her head on her shoulder. "I kinda feel like a VIP, being allowed in your house and stuff like this." she admits with a smirk.
<OOC> Scootaloo views Scootaloo as 13/14ish, Vinyl as about 25 and Comet as about 21.
<OOC> Scootaloo sees Vinyl as a couple years older than the mane 6. Not sure why. XD
<OOC> You say, "Rainbow would be around Comet's age, I think. Trying to account for her not having been in school long enough to have been given leadership responsibilities even before she met Twilight."
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Yeah. Though Comet and Marble *did* grow up together... I think that's the nice thing about having no specific age. You can just put a pony in a rough age bracket and it still makes sense: for instance, Comet's young but she went to school with Marble, who is roughly the same age as Vinyl, and that's complicated so lets just put them all in the neat little age bracket of 22-26. X3"
"Woah! Woooooaaaaah! Wooo-ohmyGodde--" POOF! Dynamite flies through the living room wall as the cloud explodes about him and he bounces a few times before sliding to a stop. The young goth-punk looks dazed and confused as he shakes his head. Two large bat wings are sprouted from his back, looking as if they are going in awkward directions, up and down.
Rainbow_Dash smirks. "Oh, you know, I guess its normal for ponies to feel like way," she states, as if feeling important is the most natural thing in the world. "It's really not th-" Suddenly, a large crash rocks the floor below! "What the hay!?" Rainbow exclaims, leaping to her feet and cantering down the stairs and to the bottom floor. Bits of destroyed cloud wisp about as Rainbow wends her way through the muck of loose moisture, peering at the fallen figure in the middle of her house. "Whoa...what the..." Is that /Dynamite/? With /wings/?
Scootaloo jumps and yells, reeling back on the bed and clutching Dash a little as the unexpected visitor makes his brash arrival. She peers at him for a long time, before bursting out in laughter. "Oh my *gosh*, Dynamite! You have wings?! Hahahahaha, wow," sniggers the orange filly, trotting over to the colt and staring at him intently.
The eyes of the young stallion roll about in different directions for a few moments before shaking his head. "Uhhh.. where am I?" He asks, then glances upwards at the two sheepishly. "Oh, yeah.. hey.. I'm totally an alicorn now. Ya'll can call me Prince Dynamite Rave." He pushes himself off and gives his leathery wings a few flaps. "Nah, kiddin'. Uh - Twilight and I was practicing this spell a few weeks ago and I thought I'd you know.. do it.. without her being around cuz' I figured what kinda trouble can I really get into if I got wings and as you see.. plenty of it." He flaps them a few more times. "Am I dope or what?"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Oh my gosh he used the word 'dope' in an actual sentence, HE MUST DIE. XD"
Rainbow_Dash stares at Dynamite like he's some dumb colt. "Dynamite...ponies stopped using the word 'dope' when my /dad/ was my age," she says churlishly, walking up to him and dragging him up onto his feet. "You're gonna have to help me clean this up, bat-boy!" Despite her hard tone, her face shows a good-natured smirk. Cloud-homes are much easier to repair than earth pony homes, of course. "So, Twi's got some new wing spells, huh? hopefully those won't melt in the sun like her glimmer wings."
Scootaloo peers at Dynamite, her giggles subsiding for a bit as Dash speaks. She snerks at the way she puts down his vernacular, nodding in agreement. "You look cool, I guess," she says mildly with a toss of her mane. Gee, now even ponies *without* wings can fly... this irks her just a bit. "So why'd you choose to destroy Dash's home, huh? Too lazy for the front door?"
"Actually I just wanted to fly a few feet off the ground, but then I got carried away and my wings were all whoosh! And I started heading straight up and I couldn't get control and so I sorta.. crashed through the wall." Dynamite pushes himself up, then takes a few steps forward. "Man, I'm walking on clouds! This is /awesome/." With a playful grin to Scootaloo, he says, "So I look pretty cool, huh?" He winks to her. "Ya'wanna touch 'em?"
Rainbow_Dash playfully taps Dynamite's temporary wings. "They /feel/ real enough...which means you can help me put the wall back together. Ante up!" She lifts her wings and begins to flap them furiously, creating a mini-cyclone that gathers all the stray bits of cloud and piles it onto the big hole in the wall. "Start packing it in!" Rainbow Dash herself zips out the front door and starts doing the outside, the clouds compressing steady as she works on it.
Scootaloo is not impressed by that wink, but she plays along with Dash and gives Dynamite's new gear a feel. "Not bad," she says with a laugh, before jumping to help Dash put the wall back up, compressing the cloud on the inside wall with all her strength, in the same way one might compress snow. "So how'd you get Twilight to put that spell on you?" she asks the colt.
Somewhere on the muck, Screenplay connected.
Heading over to start stuffing the cloud back into the hole, Dynamite gives a grin as he flexes his wings a bit more. "Clouds feel /weird/." Leaning over, he bumps his hip against Scoot's a bit playfully as he is standing next to her. "So, whatcha two doing up here?"
It takes several minutes for Rainbow Dash to finish compacting the outside, flapping her wings to generate cloud-buildup (it helped that she had a faucet on the outside to nab etra moisture from) and tamping it down with her hooves, even getting some basic patterning done to make the repaired wall look like the rest of the house. It's a rough job, but it'll have to do until she can get some professional builders to take a look. She also eavesdrops on Dynamite and Scoots through the window she conveniently opened to equalize the air pressure some more.
Scootaloo hip bumps the colt back, and continues packing in that cloud. "Namuch. I came up to visit Dash, to hang out. Dash is my after school buddy now. We hang out all the time," the filly says proudly, puffing up her chest. "So how're things with you and Twi?"
"Things are alright I guess. She's always real busy so I kinda gotta train on my own for the most part. Which obviously as you can see creates some pretty legit chaos." Dynamite shoves another thick glob of cloud into the wall. "That's awesome you get to hang out with Dash all day. I bet you all have a lot of fun. Twi just lectures at me." His grin turns slightly crooked.
<OOC> You say, "Is Dyn an RD fancolt too? X3"
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "Maybe a little bit."
Rainbow_Dash leans more towards the window as she listens, making a weird face as she recognizes the mild jealousy in Dynamite's voice. It's like everypony is competing for her attention, or something! Well, Dynamite will have to wait his turn. She busies herself sculpting the wall in the meantime, almost done now.
Scootaloo looks at Dynamite, perplexed. "You *let* her lecture you all the time? Wow. I didn't think you had it in ya to do that," she says, with a light chuckle. "And yeah, me and Dash have a blast. But it doesn't mean she doesn't teach me anythin' - we practice stunts together. Her in the air, me on my scooter."
"Well, magic has a lot of lectures to it. It's not like flapping wings and flying 'bout you know. You guys have it easy. With magic I gotta understand all the concepts and technicalities and the history of it, blah blah blah." Dynamite says with a wave of a hoof in the air, followed by a grin. "But we have fun also. Really, we do.. but.. I dunno."
"That's not totally true!" blurts Rainbow Dash, blushing immedietely when she realizes that she's just blown her cover. "Uh...heheh..." She carefully hovers over to her open window and leans her head through it to look at the youngsters. "...Yeah, we actually have to learn weather science when we get to high school, all about wind and clouds and that thing that happens because the earth rotates (can't remember the name...). If you're /really/ keen you can take higher-level courses and join the Met, but that's for the keeners and eggheads." She feels a bit defensive about this matter, actually; it's not just unicorns who have to study!
Scootaloo nods in agreement with Dash. "Yeah, I mean, Pegasi learn some pretty important stuff in..." she then catches herself. She just referred to pegasi as a group of ponies she's not a part of. "I mean, uh..." Well, it's obvious, isn't it? If Scoots will never fly, she'll never get to Cloudsdale, she'll never get in at a flight school. In fact, she'd have to go to Ponyville High. But... she's got plans away from that. "I-I'm gonna be home schooled when I get to ninth grade, heh... My dad's gonna teach me all the stuff about weather, and Dash." And save her from the humiliation of being the only pegasus not in flight school.
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "I imagine the three races get kinda divided when it gets to high school level, according to their different attributes/cities."
<OOC> You say, "That sounds reasonable yeah"
Giving a few more flaps of his wings, Dynamite Rave looks over at them with a grin. "I would love to be a pegasus and fly all around. I'd drop bombs on dudes from up above. Light up some m80's, swoop over, BOOM. I'd be a holy terror." With a snicker, he sprawls out on the cloud beneath him, wiggling about side to side a few times. "So, Scoots, when ya' finally get back on the ground, ya'wanna hit up a sundae? Eclipse can't eat sugar so pretty much I gotta do ice cream solo."
Rainbow_Dash heads back inside and closes the door behind her, moving over to the fixed wall which, as she expects, looks like a bunch of foals tried to fix it. She busies herself with refining the job while keeping track of the conversation. "How long have you two known each other? I didn't think you were the kind of filly that likes to visit the palace."
Scootaloo grins at Dyna. "That'd be awesome! You got a deal," she says, hoofing the colt with a laugh. Turning to Dash, she replies, "Oh, me n'Dynamite go way back. Back when he was livin' with his sister in Ponyville. Sometimes we'd go to the foal parties and stuff that were set up, and Mixtape sometimes even let Dynamite play. He was awesomeness on hooves!" She says, nudging one of the colt's shoulders.
Dynamite_Rave puffs out his chest a bit proudly at the praise. "Even farther back, when I was in the orphanage, before Scope sprung me out so I can live with my sister. Scoots and I are like two peas in a pods. Besties for life I hope." He hooks a hoof about her, pulling her in for a quick sideway squeeze. "I had a total cru--waaaaah!" Poof! The wings disappear and there goes the pegasus magic! Dynamite falls right through the floor.
Rainbow_Dash blinks. "/Mixtape/ has a little brother? Who would've thought? Mixtape was notorious enough to be the subject of locker room talk at the local Weather Patrol HQ, and let's just say that Rainbow is not impressed with her antics, either. "Looks like you turned out all right desp- WHOA!" Without thinking she zips right through the floor - /more/ damage to her house - and grabs Dynamite before he can fall too far.
((Cliffhanger ending! Don't worry, I think Dynamite made it <.< >.> ))
Characters: Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Dynamite Rave
Setting: Rainbow and Scoots work on their growing 'sisterly' relationship at RD's home. Near the end, they get an unexpected visitor.
Up here, the weather is always nice and sunny, a perfectly suitable place for Rainbow Dash to have a home. Despite the cool air, the sun persists in its heat, light shining through the rainbow fountains and glinting upon the smooth-hewn marble pillars, and a gentle breeze contributes by causing the cloud awnings to waft ever so slightly. Today, Rainbow Dash is bringing a special visitor along, riding on her back as she gently glides to her front door. "Here we are, Scoots, home sweet home," she says, always happy to be within her domain.
Scootaloo hops off the older pegasus' back and looks up at the architecture with a growing smile. "Sweet," she says with a nod, impressed. "You've got one hay of a pad here, Dash. And this is just the outside!" The filly revels in the sensation of being up so high and she decides to race around the perimeters of the house, exploring every inch of the exterior. Scootaloo has always admired Cloudsdale homes for their stunning design and opalescent, cloudy structures. She had hoped, at one point, to own a house like that of her own - and she keeps that hope in her heart, although a little dampened by the future's apparently lost opportunities.
Rainbow_Dash grins proudly. "Yeah, I helped design it myself! I wanted it to be totally awesome." She trots to the door and opens it. "Hey, the best part's inside!" she shouts to Scootaloo. Indeed, there's quite a bit going on in Rainbow's house. The bottom floor appears to be a drawing room of some kind, the edge of the room (which is completely circular) decorate with statues of pegasi soldiers and the occasional gryphon. A bright red carpet lies eagerly on the ground, supporting a set of sofas and coffee tables. The whole room seems very tidy and well-kept, which probably means that Rainbow doesn't use it much. "C'mon, the best stuff is upstairs!" she declares, confirming this notion.
Scootaloo wanders in behind Dash, taking a good look around and appreciating the sheer enormity of the place. She strolls through the drawing room, but not without taking a long look at that cabinet. Famous Pegasi all the way back to Commander Hurricane. Idols and heroes Dash and Scoots have in common, it seems! She follows Dash to the stairs and looks up.
<OOC> You say, "I didn't write about that, but nice touch!
"<OOC> Scootaloo can't read, it seems. XD
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Sorry. o.o I saw soldier and literally just assumed Hurricane. XD"
<OOC> You say, "It was a good one though X3 RD would definitely have a sculpture of Hurricane somewhere"
Rainbow_Dash trots up the stairs towards a much more interesting (and therefore somewhat messier) room that seems to function as a combined kitchen/dining room/arcade. Yes, arcade, because as it turns out Rainbow has a limited edition Space Conquerors arcade cabinet sitting in a marked off section, the whole wall painted neon blue (next to it is a sign marked 'Meteoroids goes here!'). The kitchen is clean, for the most part, though the pantry door is open revealing Rainbow's stash of dried spinach, gyro wraps, and tubs full of tzatziki sauce. The dining table seems to have been converted into a temporary magazine stash, with piles of 'Extreme Flyers' and 'Pegasus Heritage' lying about haphazardly next to a used plate with bits of olive on it. "Ah...heh, I gotta clean that part up," Rainbow says bashfully.
Scootaloo is fine with the mess! In fact, this room is in relatively good shape compared to her own room at home. She glees at the arcade system and runs over to inspect it carefully. "Can I have a go, Dash?" she asks.
"Whoa, slow down! Even I'm having trouble keeping up!" Rainbow Dash says playfully, amused but not too surprised that Scoots is taking a liking to her home. Wait till she sees the bedroom, though! "Sure! Hang on, I gotta set it up..." She walks over and flicks a switch in the back, and the machine whirrs to life, flickering on in a blaze of technicolor. The title screen slides on, and then, on the menu, the words '2 Player Mode'. "So...you wanna play a game together?" she winks.
<OOC> You say, "Hopefully Dash and Scoots have a meaningful conversation soon X3"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Yup. XD"
Scootaloo positively *squeees*, looking up at Dash with veritable delight. "Of COURSE I wanna play a game!" she says, moving aside a little to give her friend room. "I'm so gonna bust your plot, Rainbow Dash," the orange filly threatens playfully, nudging the cyan pegasus and smirking.
Rainbow_Dash smirks back. "You're on, Scoots!" She sits down at the 'Player 2' and starts the game. Just as the title says, there are 'Space Conquerors' slowly crawling towards the two crystal ships at the bottom, the ships, of course, being controlled by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash. As the game progresses, its apparent that Rainbow has been playing this game far more often than Scoots, judging from her sunbstantial higher score.
Scootaloo tries her hardest, really she does! But she lags behind Dash quite evidently for the majority of the game, and once it's over she huffs, defeated. "So much for kicking your plot," she smirks, relenting with a hoofbump for her friend. "I'll beat you some other time."
Rainbow_Dash pats Scootaloo on the withers. "Hey, you did pretty good for a beginner! Me? I've been played this since it came out back when I was a filly. I /think/ there's a cabinet down in the Ponyville Leisure Center." She flicks off the game and walks over to the stairs. "Hey, the best part is up here!"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Question."
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "How old do you consider Dash to be? ^^"
<OOC> You say, "Barely an adult, like the other Mane Six"
<OOC> You say, "I mean, old enough to drink at least"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "So about.. 22-23?"
<OOC> You say, "Thereabouts yeah"
<OOC> You say, "In pony years or whatever X3".
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "That works. My Scoots is the equivalent of 12-13, and I envision that she's about ten years below Dash."
<OOC> You say, "Makes sense n.n"
Scootaloo grins. "Well thanks," she says politely, before trotting over to join Dash by the stairs. "Your bedroom? Oh, oh! Is that where you store all your Daring Do books?" the filly asks eagerly. She knows that they both enjoy the popular adventure novels, and she likes to think that Dash owns more Daring Do-related things than anypony.
Rainbow_Dash smiles mischievously. "Why don't you come see?" Unlike the other rooms, Rainbow's bedroom is seperated from the dining room by a fancy trapdoor which she shoves open. Beyond is a completely unexpected scene. Apart from the magnificent bed, a lush (and expensive!) thing with finely cut pillars supporting the bed corners, the entire room is a splash of opulent finery. All of this is defaced, though, by the many posters, some of the Wonderbolts, some of Daring Do, and even some travel posters showing the pegasus colonies (Skyrocuse, Noniopolis, Palomerno, etc). A large chest at the foot of the bed is open, showing Rainbow's entire Daring Do book collection (including the rare foreign language editions /and/ all the sourcebooks). One part of the room is more business like, being Rainbow's personal office, with a large weather map of Ponyville and several forms and papers scattered across the desk (they all seem to be about administration or requests and other boring adult things). The other side of the room, though, is replete with paraphernalia. Shelves of Daring Do merchandise (including a large dress-up Daring, complete with Arabian gown), magazines, Wonderbolt fan kits, and even a few actual books about flying and history (!). There's a large closet here, too, but it's firmly shut. A balcony opens out near where Rainbow's bed is, affording a fine view of Cloudsdale and Canterlot in the distance.
Scootaloo stops for a moment at the door of the bedroom, taking in the sights. It's even more awesome than she ever imagined it would be! After those few seconds of just drinking it in, she feels obliged to step forward inside the room; and she moves around it slowly, eyes wide with delight, too nervous to touch anything but aching to get as much of the place as she can. After a while she just stops and looks at Dash. "Gee, can I live here?"
Rainbow Dash smirks. "Nice try, but I think you should be able to make your own lair of cool with your stuff...like all those Rainbow Dash posters you made, heh." She winks slyly at the filly. "So, what do you wanna see first? I gotta all the Daring Do merch you could possibly need, but I also got all this cool surplus equipment off my buddies in the Met."
"Well, obviously," brags Scoots, tossing her mane. "You should see my room back home. It's a total lair of cool." The filly thinks for a moment, before deciding on the most predictable answer. "Daring Do stuff!"
In response to Scoots' request, Rainbow Dash practically drags the filly over to her large collection of Daring Do products. "Sweet! Let's see...I got all the action figures here, including the 18+1 point posable Daring, the Castle of Conundrums playset, the talking Huitzotl..." And on and on she goes, listing off her entire collection. She does, however, conveniently elide over the Dress-Up Daring, shoving it to the back when she talks about the upcoming comic series. "...and they're getting Pasta Havarti from Bitaly to do the illustrations! It's gonna be radical!"
Scootaloo giggles as Dash goes through her extensive list of merch, every so often pointing at one and exclaiming that she has one identical to it of her own or that she saw that one in a toystore and is desperate for it. Listening about the comic, she beams. "He did the Batmare comics, right? I swear he did. He's really famous."
"I don't actually read Batmare," Rainbow Dash admits. "It's a bit...dark for my taste, but I did read that comic about the airships he helped with! I think it's hidden in the bottom of my chest there." She points at the container at the foot of her bed with all the Daring Do books. "That chest...was actually a present from a cousin, about a few years ago. Didn't think I'd be filling it up with books, heh."
"I read that too!" says Scootaloo with a nod, and she peers over at the chest containing all those books. "Nice," she comments, grinning. "Have you finished the entire DD series? I'm on the... twelfth book, I think. 'Daring Do and the Race to Timbucktu.'"
"Long time ago, Scoots," Rainbow Dash replies. "I think I'm in the middle of my second run through the series now, around Sapphire Goblet. I'm getting a lot of details I missed during the first reading." Rainbow Dash, talking about reading? Preposterous! But here she is. "I've been trying to get some other reading done, but about cool stuff like wars and fighting." She moves over to her bed and sits on it, looking out the balcony. "Rainbow Dash, the reading pegasus. Who would have thought, eh?"
"Wow," muses Scoots. Rainbow is a fast reader! Though she probably started the series a while before Scootaloo did. A thought comes to the filly's mind, and she voices it to the older pegasus. "Hey, have you tried the Marelin series? It's fantasy, about a sorcerer, but it's great. Loads of action, and wars too. Magic wars *and* pegasus wars. One of my favourite book sagas." she says proudly.
Rainbow Dash's ears perk up. "Marelin...I think I might've heard of it, yeah. I think I'll look into that next, actually!" She smiles as she imagines the new adventures this would open up. "You know, I didn't think you'd be a bit of a reader, too, Scoots."
Scootaloo shrugs a little. "Gives me somethin' to do when it's raining out, I guess," she says, taking another glance at all that wonderful Daring memorabilia her friend has scattered around the room. "Especially if I'm not feeling too great. It's like... stepping into a different world. Becoming somepony else. Someday, I'd like to be an adventurer like Daring. Scoota-Do." the filly giggles a little. "I guess it goes to show we shouldn't always run on stereotypes, huh? Never judge a book by its cover, pardon the pun."
Rainbow Dash smirks, remembering all the times that she herself imagined being in Daring Do's place. She did have one thing on Daring, though: Daring couldn't do a Sonic Rainboom. "That's...just about right, actually," Rainbow says reflectively. "I mean...you and I have a lot more in common than I thought."
"Yeah," says Scoots with a satisfied nod. "'n'hey, uh... I heard about Diamond Dancer and such. I'm plannin' on meeting up with her, to see if I can turn somethin' round. I had no idea... Again, I judged her." The orange filly looks thoughtful, and she sighs a little. "Don'cha wish ponies didn't do that?" Laughing a little to brighten the mood, she offers Rainbow her hoof.
Rainbow Dash blinks. "How'd you hear about that? Oh...wait." That filly was infamous enough to grind the rumor mill all by herself, it seems. "Ahh...I dunno, Scoots. It's a bit of a heavy topic, really. Just...just watch out, OK?" She exhales audibly and tries to relax, joining in Scootaloo's little laughter. "I guess...I guess that's why you're hanging out with Gilda now, huh?" she broaches. Well, now's as good a time as any to bring /that/ up.
"I'll be careful," says Scoots, fixing Dash with an honest gaze. "Promise." Trotting over to Rainbow's bed, she sits gingerly on it and invites its owner to join her. Scootaloo bites down on her lip anxiously when Dash mentions Gilda. "Uh..." she murmurs, trying to think of something reasonably polite to say. "Well, I guess so. Gilda's had a rough time, and... Well. I met her at the winter play in Ponyville. We sat together - I only spotted her as she was with Twilight Sparkle and Spike - we got talkin'... Honest to the Princesses, Dash, I don't mean it offensively towards you. Not one bit. You're my sister from another mister." Catching her own vernacular, she laughs lightly again. "I sound like such a loser. What I'm trying to say is... Being friends with Gilda isn't gonna stop *our* friendship. Nor is me growing up. Nor is me not being able to fly. Got it?"
"Hey, you gotta give me more credit than that!" Rainbow Dash declares, mussing up Scoots' mane playfully. "All that stuff about friendship; I'm kinda familiar with that. It's just..." Rainbow's expression grows more somber in the face of recollection. "I've known Gilda for way longer than you, so I know all her little quirks, all the things that she does - that she /is/ - that turn off other ponies, and its not just her being a gryphon, either. I'm just...I'm afraid you'll learn something about her, and be disappointed."
"Fine, fine," compromises Scootaloo, giggling as the older mare messes with her mane. "You're the most superultraextrawesomazing pony in all Equestria." The little pony smirks, before the conversation becomes serious again. "I... I think I understand," she says slowly in reply. "I mean, I understand that she did a lot of cruel stuff way back when. S'just..." The young pegasus gives an experimental flap of her poor little wings. "A lot of ponies give me a lot of horseapples for not being able to fly, and I kinda latch onto those who don't. I imagined Gilda - from what others told me, y'know - was gonna be *horrible* about it, call me a total dweeb. But she didn't. She was really cool about it. And... I believe her when she says she kinda has the same problem."
Rainbow Dash blinks at this unexpected development. Or was it really so unexpected? Gilda had been very circumspect about the details of her earlier life, even with Rainbow Dash, but what Scoots is telling her now makes sense given what she's seen of the gryphoness before. "Same kind of problem?"
"Yeah," continues Scoots, almost looking at Dash for permission to explain it. "Like... she gets judged a lot from what she did before, and she's finding it really hard to fit in. It's not about being a griffon, you're right." The filly heaves an unsatisfied sigh. "Ponies judge for all kinds of reasons. And I kinda wanted to give her a chance, y'know? She gave me a chance. S'the least I could do to return it." Scootaloo ends this with a little shrug, as if her thought processes are a jump ahead of her actual understanding of the situation. Still, she's trying to be fair.
Rainbow Dash is silent for a while. So, Gilda really did change, or wanted to, anyway. She's still not ready to face her again, though, but maybe someday... "She has a lot of baggage, to put it mildly," she says. "Kinda makes me...feel like I've been too lucky. I don't have any big tragic stories in my life, so sometimes I don't know if I can really relate to ponies who do. But...I guess all that really means is that I gotta be the one to step up and make friends, or something..." She shifts uncomfortably.
Scootaloo nods at Dash, listening to her carefully. She drapes a hoof (halfway) around the mare's shoulders. "Hey, I think you're lucky for that," she says with a grin. "I *hate* bein' some kinda sob story for people to go 'aww' at all the time. It's not what I want to be remembered for." She keeps the smile this time. "I think... I think you should do what *you* wanna do. I don't wanna be treated like a medical case, so I suck it up and go with it. Act like I was born an earth pony, or somethin'. Make a name for myself *scootin'*, not sittin' in the corner crying about how much I suck."
Rainbow Dash smiles as Scoots makes the best of it. She likes it when ponies overcome their circumstances and be happy anyway; it shows true strength. Rainbow is not quite able to articulate this notion to herself, though, so she has to settle for a general feeling of satisfaction in Scootaloo's upbeat personality. "Yeah, that's the spirit!" she says, patting Scoots on the shoulders in return. "Scootin'...heh, I've seen your moves. It's almost like you've got a special talent for it!"
Scootaloo beams, giving Dash a little hug of gratitude. "Well, thanks," she says, feeling proud that her idol thinks highly of her. "I hope scooting is my special talent! Or fighting, or running, or soccer. I'm good at heaps of sports. Though scooting is definitely my favourite."
"You're definitely a sportspony, I can tell!" says Rainbow Dash, smiling and hugging Scoots back. "Fighting...you ever try jousting? There's a jousting club in Ponyville that just got started!"
"Really?" blinks Scoots, surprised. "Gee, I thought jousting was ancient! That sounds like fun. I might try it out sometime... so long as you came with me," she says, her smile turning into one of innocent pleading. "I don't think I'd wanna go alone. Might look a bit loserly."
"It's making a comeback, actually," says Rainbow Dash. "I, uh, might have something to do with that." She grins slyly. "Sure thing! I'll show you all the ropes. I've even got this book about it!" She jumps to her feet and walks over to her book chest, rummaging about inside to produce a thick book entitled 'Jousting: A History and Guide to the Sport'. "Check this out. It's starting to become a trend again now that the Crystal Empire is back." She flips the book open on the floor to reveal intricate illustrations of ponies jousting, complete with explanations.
Scootaloo giggles, getting off the bed and kneeling down by the book. She traces along one of the pictures with a hoof, wowed by its detail and colour. She reads a few paragraphs off the page before grinning up at Dash. "It sounds super awesome. Did you set the club up yourself?"
"Me? Nah, there were already a bunch of ponies that were interested," Rainbow Dash explains. "I just go a ball rolling here and there." She watches as Scoots eagerly reads the book. "Hey, you wanna borrow that book for a while? I think I must've looked at it a hundred times by now."
"Aw, really?" says Scoots, eyes wide as she closes the book and picks it up gratefully. "That'd be so awesome, thanks!" She grins and sits back down with her friend. "I really love your home."
Rainbow Dash leans on the foot on her bed and makes a little dismissive wave with her hoof. "It works for me, I guess," she says, as if the coolness of her home was just an everyday fact. "My old house was a lot bigger, but it wasn't quite...me, you know? Plus, the family and all."
"I got it," says Scootaloo, leaning back to copy Dash's position a little. "I live with just my dad. It's cool, and I'm glad it's just us. I'd hate to live with loads of ponies."
Rainbow Dash chuckles, wondering what Scoots will think of /her/ family, then. "I can understand that. I mean, even if you have fewer ponies in your life, that means you get to spend more time with each of them." She glances around her room, at the ladder leading down that seperates her Daring Do figures from her weather patrol desk, work from play. "Hey, school's gonna start again pretty soon for you, right?"
Scootaloo rolls her eyes. "I guess so," she says glumly. Though what child would be looking forward to going back to school after the wonderful winter vacation? "I can't stand school, most of the time. Full of ponies who think they're better than everyone else." She shrugs. "But oh well. A few more years and I can be done with school, focusing on my scooting. Like I'm supposed to."
Rainbow Dash can understand bullies well enough! She never let them get to her, though; she had Gilda, for one thing, and she also knew that she was so much better than any of them. "Hey, don't be too hard on school; I learned a few really neat things there!" OK, so much of that was outside of the classroom, but still. "Reason I ask is...well, I'm thinking you might appreciate an after-school buddy, when your other friends are busy at least."
Scootaloo blinks. After-school buddy? At first, it sounds a little lame, like what somepony would have if they needed constant guidance with their homework. But Scootaloo thinks on it. "You mean, you? So... we could hang out, and you could teach me stuff and we could play games? Things like that?"
"That's just what I'm talking about, Scoots!" Rainbow Dash declares, reaching for Scootaloo's mane and mussing it up. "We're gonna rock your afternoons! Well, when I'm not working, anyway."
Scootaloo beams super wide, not even bothering to flip her straggly mane back into place this time. "Seriously? You'd really do that for me?" Scootaloo feels *honoured*, and totally respected by Dash. A couple years ago, she could only ever *dream* of spending this much time with her idol.
Rainbow_Dash beams, glad to see that Scootaloo likes the idea so much (just as expected, of course!). "Sure thing! Like I said, it all depends on work and my time with my other friends, but in between I'll definitely make some time for you." She rearranges Scoots' mane to something resembling her original style, in the meantime glancing at the clock on the wall above her desk. "We should probably get you home soon," she observes.
Scootaloo laughs a little as Rainbow rearranges her mane, reaching up with a hoof to gently mess up the older pony's own multicoloured mane. "Well, you know where I am on the nights you are around!" She then looks up a little nonchalantly. "Of course, *I'll* have to make time to fit it all in, what with all those super important CMC meetings, and homework, and all that scooter training..." she recites her schedule somewhat proudly, before bursting into laughter.
"Twi was working on a flight spell with him last time. She gave him wings for a bit. Now that'd be a funny scene to do, to have Dynamite try and grow wings and end up flying out of control and crashes through Dash's wall.
<OOC> Scootaloo flicks her mane at Dynamite. "Sup."
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave falls in love.
<OOC> Rainbow_Dash peers :v
<OOC> Scootaloo pfft.
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "XD How old is Scoot again? 12?"
Rainbow_Dash giggles as Scoots takes her revenge on her mane, merging them into the general glee in the room. It's times like this that she truly enjoys, just hanging out together with her closest friends, not a care in the world.
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Just *how* many mares you got on the go right now?"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Scoots is about 12-14."
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "Just.. sorta one.. who treats me like crap. XD"
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "So yay, Scoot and Dyna are in the same age range. XD"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "I like to have her very close to my RL age. Makes me feel better about playing her
"<OOC> Scootaloo is 14 IRL, so yeah. ^^
<OOC> Rainbow_Dash kinda has RD in her early twenties or thereabouts X3
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Lauren Faust actually views the mane 6 in the 12-18 age bracket, she said in an interview. XD I thought that was pretty interesting."
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "Which was about 3 years ago, so I always assumed at least maybe 3 years have been fast forwarded. Ponies are in legal drinking age now!"
Scootaloo laughs, still clutching the jousting book in one hoof, the other draped around Dash. Grinning up at the older pegasus, she rests her head on her shoulder. "I kinda feel like a VIP, being allowed in your house and stuff like this." she admits with a smirk.
<OOC> Scootaloo views Scootaloo as 13/14ish, Vinyl as about 25 and Comet as about 21.
<OOC> Scootaloo sees Vinyl as a couple years older than the mane 6. Not sure why. XD
<OOC> You say, "Rainbow would be around Comet's age, I think. Trying to account for her not having been in school long enough to have been given leadership responsibilities even before she met Twilight."
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Yeah. Though Comet and Marble *did* grow up together... I think that's the nice thing about having no specific age. You can just put a pony in a rough age bracket and it still makes sense: for instance, Comet's young but she went to school with Marble, who is roughly the same age as Vinyl, and that's complicated so lets just put them all in the neat little age bracket of 22-26. X3"
"Woah! Woooooaaaaah! Wooo-ohmyGodde--" POOF! Dynamite flies through the living room wall as the cloud explodes about him and he bounces a few times before sliding to a stop. The young goth-punk looks dazed and confused as he shakes his head. Two large bat wings are sprouted from his back, looking as if they are going in awkward directions, up and down.
Rainbow_Dash smirks. "Oh, you know, I guess its normal for ponies to feel like way," she states, as if feeling important is the most natural thing in the world. "It's really not th-" Suddenly, a large crash rocks the floor below! "What the hay!?" Rainbow exclaims, leaping to her feet and cantering down the stairs and to the bottom floor. Bits of destroyed cloud wisp about as Rainbow wends her way through the muck of loose moisture, peering at the fallen figure in the middle of her house. "Whoa...what the..." Is that /Dynamite/? With /wings/?
Scootaloo jumps and yells, reeling back on the bed and clutching Dash a little as the unexpected visitor makes his brash arrival. She peers at him for a long time, before bursting out in laughter. "Oh my *gosh*, Dynamite! You have wings?! Hahahahaha, wow," sniggers the orange filly, trotting over to the colt and staring at him intently.
The eyes of the young stallion roll about in different directions for a few moments before shaking his head. "Uhhh.. where am I?" He asks, then glances upwards at the two sheepishly. "Oh, yeah.. hey.. I'm totally an alicorn now. Ya'll can call me Prince Dynamite Rave." He pushes himself off and gives his leathery wings a few flaps. "Nah, kiddin'. Uh - Twilight and I was practicing this spell a few weeks ago and I thought I'd you know.. do it.. without her being around cuz' I figured what kinda trouble can I really get into if I got wings and as you see.. plenty of it." He flaps them a few more times. "Am I dope or what?"
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "Oh my gosh he used the word 'dope' in an actual sentence, HE MUST DIE. XD"
Rainbow_Dash stares at Dynamite like he's some dumb colt. "Dynamite...ponies stopped using the word 'dope' when my /dad/ was my age," she says churlishly, walking up to him and dragging him up onto his feet. "You're gonna have to help me clean this up, bat-boy!" Despite her hard tone, her face shows a good-natured smirk. Cloud-homes are much easier to repair than earth pony homes, of course. "So, Twi's got some new wing spells, huh? hopefully those won't melt in the sun like her glimmer wings."
Scootaloo peers at Dynamite, her giggles subsiding for a bit as Dash speaks. She snerks at the way she puts down his vernacular, nodding in agreement. "You look cool, I guess," she says mildly with a toss of her mane. Gee, now even ponies *without* wings can fly... this irks her just a bit. "So why'd you choose to destroy Dash's home, huh? Too lazy for the front door?"
"Actually I just wanted to fly a few feet off the ground, but then I got carried away and my wings were all whoosh! And I started heading straight up and I couldn't get control and so I sorta.. crashed through the wall." Dynamite pushes himself up, then takes a few steps forward. "Man, I'm walking on clouds! This is /awesome/." With a playful grin to Scootaloo, he says, "So I look pretty cool, huh?" He winks to her. "Ya'wanna touch 'em?"
Rainbow_Dash playfully taps Dynamite's temporary wings. "They /feel/ real enough...which means you can help me put the wall back together. Ante up!" She lifts her wings and begins to flap them furiously, creating a mini-cyclone that gathers all the stray bits of cloud and piles it onto the big hole in the wall. "Start packing it in!" Rainbow Dash herself zips out the front door and starts doing the outside, the clouds compressing steady as she works on it.
Scootaloo is not impressed by that wink, but she plays along with Dash and gives Dynamite's new gear a feel. "Not bad," she says with a laugh, before jumping to help Dash put the wall back up, compressing the cloud on the inside wall with all her strength, in the same way one might compress snow. "So how'd you get Twilight to put that spell on you?" she asks the colt.
Somewhere on the muck, Screenplay connected.
Heading over to start stuffing the cloud back into the hole, Dynamite gives a grin as he flexes his wings a bit more. "Clouds feel /weird/." Leaning over, he bumps his hip against Scoot's a bit playfully as he is standing next to her. "So, whatcha two doing up here?"
It takes several minutes for Rainbow Dash to finish compacting the outside, flapping her wings to generate cloud-buildup (it helped that she had a faucet on the outside to nab etra moisture from) and tamping it down with her hooves, even getting some basic patterning done to make the repaired wall look like the rest of the house. It's a rough job, but it'll have to do until she can get some professional builders to take a look. She also eavesdrops on Dynamite and Scoots through the window she conveniently opened to equalize the air pressure some more.
Scootaloo hip bumps the colt back, and continues packing in that cloud. "Namuch. I came up to visit Dash, to hang out. Dash is my after school buddy now. We hang out all the time," the filly says proudly, puffing up her chest. "So how're things with you and Twi?"
"Things are alright I guess. She's always real busy so I kinda gotta train on my own for the most part. Which obviously as you can see creates some pretty legit chaos." Dynamite shoves another thick glob of cloud into the wall. "That's awesome you get to hang out with Dash all day. I bet you all have a lot of fun. Twi just lectures at me." His grin turns slightly crooked.
<OOC> You say, "Is Dyn an RD fancolt too? X3"
<OOC> Dynamite_Rave says, "Maybe a little bit."
Rainbow_Dash leans more towards the window as she listens, making a weird face as she recognizes the mild jealousy in Dynamite's voice. It's like everypony is competing for her attention, or something! Well, Dynamite will have to wait his turn. She busies herself sculpting the wall in the meantime, almost done now.
Scootaloo looks at Dynamite, perplexed. "You *let* her lecture you all the time? Wow. I didn't think you had it in ya to do that," she says, with a light chuckle. "And yeah, me and Dash have a blast. But it doesn't mean she doesn't teach me anythin' - we practice stunts together. Her in the air, me on my scooter."
"Well, magic has a lot of lectures to it. It's not like flapping wings and flying 'bout you know. You guys have it easy. With magic I gotta understand all the concepts and technicalities and the history of it, blah blah blah." Dynamite says with a wave of a hoof in the air, followed by a grin. "But we have fun also. Really, we do.. but.. I dunno."
"That's not totally true!" blurts Rainbow Dash, blushing immedietely when she realizes that she's just blown her cover. "Uh...heheh..." She carefully hovers over to her open window and leans her head through it to look at the youngsters. "...Yeah, we actually have to learn weather science when we get to high school, all about wind and clouds and that thing that happens because the earth rotates (can't remember the name...). If you're /really/ keen you can take higher-level courses and join the Met, but that's for the keeners and eggheads." She feels a bit defensive about this matter, actually; it's not just unicorns who have to study!
Scootaloo nods in agreement with Dash. "Yeah, I mean, Pegasi learn some pretty important stuff in..." she then catches herself. She just referred to pegasi as a group of ponies she's not a part of. "I mean, uh..." Well, it's obvious, isn't it? If Scoots will never fly, she'll never get to Cloudsdale, she'll never get in at a flight school. In fact, she'd have to go to Ponyville High. But... she's got plans away from that. "I-I'm gonna be home schooled when I get to ninth grade, heh... My dad's gonna teach me all the stuff about weather, and Dash." And save her from the humiliation of being the only pegasus not in flight school.
<OOC> Scootaloo says, "I imagine the three races get kinda divided when it gets to high school level, according to their different attributes/cities."
<OOC> You say, "That sounds reasonable yeah"
Giving a few more flaps of his wings, Dynamite Rave looks over at them with a grin. "I would love to be a pegasus and fly all around. I'd drop bombs on dudes from up above. Light up some m80's, swoop over, BOOM. I'd be a holy terror." With a snicker, he sprawls out on the cloud beneath him, wiggling about side to side a few times. "So, Scoots, when ya' finally get back on the ground, ya'wanna hit up a sundae? Eclipse can't eat sugar so pretty much I gotta do ice cream solo."
Rainbow_Dash heads back inside and closes the door behind her, moving over to the fixed wall which, as she expects, looks like a bunch of foals tried to fix it. She busies herself with refining the job while keeping track of the conversation. "How long have you two known each other? I didn't think you were the kind of filly that likes to visit the palace."
Scootaloo grins at Dyna. "That'd be awesome! You got a deal," she says, hoofing the colt with a laugh. Turning to Dash, she replies, "Oh, me n'Dynamite go way back. Back when he was livin' with his sister in Ponyville. Sometimes we'd go to the foal parties and stuff that were set up, and Mixtape sometimes even let Dynamite play. He was awesomeness on hooves!" She says, nudging one of the colt's shoulders.
Dynamite_Rave puffs out his chest a bit proudly at the praise. "Even farther back, when I was in the orphanage, before Scope sprung me out so I can live with my sister. Scoots and I are like two peas in a pods. Besties for life I hope." He hooks a hoof about her, pulling her in for a quick sideway squeeze. "I had a total cru--waaaaah!" Poof! The wings disappear and there goes the pegasus magic! Dynamite falls right through the floor.
Rainbow_Dash blinks. "/Mixtape/ has a little brother? Who would've thought? Mixtape was notorious enough to be the subject of locker room talk at the local Weather Patrol HQ, and let's just say that Rainbow is not impressed with her antics, either. "Looks like you turned out all right desp- WHOA!" Without thinking she zips right through the floor - /more/ damage to her house - and grabs Dynamite before he can fall too far.
((Cliffhanger ending! Don't worry, I think Dynamite made it <.< >.> ))