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// Chapter 8: Repayment 
// Story: The Defective Warp Pipe 
// by Level Dasher 
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    	I had only seen the Crusaders a few times since Scootaloo had loaned me her wagon. They always seemed to be off on one of their missions when I rolled into town with Spike or Fluttershy, so I didn’t get to speak with them much. After three weeks of using her wagon, I was determined to thank Scootaloo somehow.

I had my own spark of inspiration when Rainbow Dash told me about Scootaloo’s problem with flying. The first thing I did was bring her back her wagon, clean as a whistle, of course. Fluttershy had helped me fix it up just like it was when Scootaloo gave it to me the first day. I met her, along with the rest of the Crusaders, after school one day. I said hello to Miss Cheerilee and the other students, then walked with the Crusaders for a bit, with Spike taking the opportunity to roll in the wagon behind us.
When we got to a certain point along the path, I asked them, “Hey, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, would you mind if I had a quick little chat just with Scootaloo? It’ll only be a few minutes.” They looked at me suspiciously for a moment, but agreed. 

I started walking with Scootaloo back to where she stored her wagon when she looked up at me with her own suspicious look. “What’s this about? Did you do something to my wagon?”
I chuckled for moment, then replied, “Haha, nice vote of confidence. However, this does kind of involve your wagon— it’s how I’m going to pay you back for letting me use it.”
Scootaloo gave a sigh of relief. “Phew, I was afraid something happened to it. I thought you were hiding something under that nice-looking cleanup. You know, I told you not to worry about paying me back. But out of curiosity, what did you have in mind?”
“Well, I heard about your little flight problem.” She groaned and looked at the ground as she continued walking. “I thought you might feel that way, but what would you think if I told you I could give you a pretty good flight experience before you get that under control?”

Scootaloo stopped short. She turned around and looked at me, first with the dilated eyes I had seen on other ponies’ faces before (for many different reasons), with a great big smile. Then she looked a bit confused. “Wait, you don’t have wings…”
I was ready for this response. “Does that stop Pinkie Pie?” I had seen her flying antics a few times since I had arrived in Ponyville.
First Scootaloo laughed, then the big smile returned. “That’s true. So… how do YOU do it?”
“Well, I came up with an interesting idea. I’ll need to talk to a few ponies first, but I don’t think they’ll mind. I’ll let you know when I get the green light. It’ll only take a day or so to prepare. Come talk to me after school on Friday, alright? I’ll meet you at the library. If all goes well, you’ll be having the experience of a lifetime.”

The end of the conversation had good timing. We had just gotten to Scootaloo’s storage space and she put her wagon away. Her mood had completely changed at this point. “OKAY!” After storing her wagon, she galloped off in the other direction back to the other Crusaders.





The next day, I went into town with Fluttershy and Spike. I thought it would be a good idea to have Fluttershy with me just in case I gave the wrong impression with what I was going to ask. I didn’t tell either of them my plan, I just asked them to come with me. I found just the right street in town that, luckily for me, some ponies I already knew lived on. The first pony I got to talk to at the end of the block was Ditzy Doo Whooves.

“Hi Mrs. Whooves! How are you?”
With her usual perky attitude, she replied, “Oh, very good! Is there something I can help you with? Are you looking for the Doctor? Would you like a muffin?”
“Oh no, you would do just fine! I was wondering if I could ask your permission to do something? And actually, a muffin would be great! Thank you!”
“Not at all! Did you want to take a trip in the TARDIS?”
“Oh no, nothing like that, although that is quite tempting. I was actually wondering if I could go up on your roof on Friday.” At this, Spike flinched, and Fluttershy’s eyes bulged.

Fluttershy yelled at me, “Are you NUTS? After you just healed? Do you want to break your leg this time?”
I turned around and said, “Please, calm down, Fluttershy! I know what I’m doing!” I lowered my voice as I spoke to her. “This is for Scootaloo! I have no intention of hurting myself again, and besides, if I DO hurt myself again, it just means that I have to stay in Ponyville longer.” I raised my eyebrows at her.
“I CAN’T believe you want to try a stunt like this, what are you—” She cut herself off, looked at me, then smiled, realizing what I was implying with what I had just said. “Carry on.”
I sighed and turned back around. “So, Mrs. Whooves, would you mind if I went on your roof for a minute or so on Friday?”
“I don’t see why not, as long as you don’t break through the ceiling. I did that once…”
“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that.”
“Then sure! Can I ask why?”
“Well, let’s say it’s going to be a big surprise for one little filly, and anyone else who wants to see.”
Ditzy let out a big smile. “Okay! I love surprises!”
“Great! Thanks a lot! Then I’ll see you Friday, if not sooner! I have a few other stops to make, so have a good day! And thank you very much for the muffin!” I took the muffin she offered and downed it in one gulp.
“You’re very welcome! So long!”

As the three of us walked away from the Whooves’ front door, I said, “Great! Okay, I have to do this down the whole block, so this may take a while.”
Fluttershy looked at me suspiciously. “What exactly ARE you planning?”
“That… you will see on Friday.” She looked at me worriedly. “Oh, come on. Remember what I just told you?”
“I understand that, but I still don’t want to see you get hurt again!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt myself, I promise.” Fluttershy sighed. She clearly wasn’t convinced.

We made our way down the whole block, speaking to Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, Roseluck, Lyra, Bon-Bon and her family, and a few others. I got permission from them all, and thanked them profusely. I told everyone I spoke to that they were welcome to see my “performance” on Friday, considering I was going to potentially be on top of their roofs. Despite the possible damage to their homes, they all seemed very eager to see what I was going to do. The farther down the block we went, the more concerned Fluttershy became, and I had to reassure her more than once that I would be fine.
By the time I finished talking to all the ponies on the block, it was past lunchtime, so we had to hurry back to Fluttershy’s house to feed the animals. We didn’t want to make another emergency meal. On the way back to Fluttershy’s, we dropped Spike off at the library. He told us, “I have no idea what you’re planning, but it sounds like it’s going to be awesome! I can’t wait! See ya!” With this, Fluttershy became even more concerned, so I had to comfort her again. I decided to try and make her laugh.

“So, how was it hearing the same thing twice the whole day?”
Fluttershy frowned. “Well, to be honest, it made me even more worried than I would be right now anyway. At every house, I had to hear Spike repeat that you might be going on top of everypony’s roofs. What in Celestia’s name are you planning?”
“Ah ah ah, you aren’t going to get it out of me that easy.”
“I’m worried about you! I don’t want you hurting yourself again! Even if it does mean you’ll stay here longer… with me, I hope…”
I smiled at her. “Hey, if I was staying anywhere in Ponyville, I would much rather it be with you. You are the most incredible being I’ve ever met, and Mario wouldn’t be very happy if he heard me say that.”
“Who?”
“My friend in the Mushroom Kingdom?”
“Oh! Right… sorry.”
“Haha, it’s okay.”

We made it back to her house right on time to start lunch so that the animals weren’t tapping their feet. I helped Fluttershy with lunch for the animals, and it took half the time. I had seen her make all their lunches enough times that I figured it out. As soon as all the animals were eating, she turned to me.
“What about you? Are you going to cook for yourself? You can stand up now, you know, and that better not change.”
“I know. There’s actually something else I haven’t gotten to do since my leg’s been all better.”
“What’s that?”
I raised an eyebrow and smirked at her, and that was all I had to do.

She smiled that smile at me. I let out my tongue and tickled her chin. She stared at me dramatically for a few moments before she said, “You… are SO bad.” Fluttershy galloped at me as I jumped up the stairs in one jump to prove that I was okay. We got up in her room and she said what I was hoping I would hear. “I’m not holding back now, got it?”
“Well, there’s no need to anymore.” I smirked at her.
“Do what you want on Friday, but if you hurt yourself, this isn’t happening again!”
“Well, not for a while at least.”
“No, not at all. That’ll be your punishment if you hurt yourself, so you better be careful! But for now… NO HOLDING BACK!”





Friday came around pretty quickly. Even after our conversation a few days before, Fluttershy got more and more worried. She wasn’t keen about my potentially hurting myself again after my leg had just healed. However, what I had planned would amaze even her, as long as I didn’t screw it up…

That morning I woke up bright and early, and had a good breakfast. I did this so I could have a timely lunch before the Crusaders’ school let out at three. At 2:30, I walked over to the library. I told Fluttershy not to come with me right away, but to come closer to ten minutes of three. She wouldn’t be missing anything unless she got there late (or didn’t show up, which I doubted she would do).
I wanted to talk to Twilight for a few minutes first. Now that I was ready to search for the Augmentation Stones, I wanted to get a few details from her. I had a feeling Fluttershy might get a little upset with the prospect of me leaving (I actually was as well, but I HAD to go back), so I didn’t want her to hear this conversation.

When I got to the library, Twilight was looking through a book as usual, and Spike was upstairs. He seemed to have some kind of mental tracker on me, though, because as soon as I entered, Spike came bounding down the stairs.
“Hi, Yoshi! Are you here early to get ready for Scootaloo’s surprise? Oh, I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do! I—”
I cut him off. “Hold on there, buddy. I’m glad you’re excited, but I’d like to speak to Twilight for a minute first, so I need your help.”
“OH! Right! Sure!”

I turned to face Twilight. “Hey Twilight, do you have all the details on those Augmentation Stones? You said you knew the spell to enhance Rarity’s ability, and that you knew there would be a few in the mines around here, but is there anything else we need to do to prepare? Should we go in with more ponies, or only as many as we need? I’m obviously going to go, I know we need Rarity, and I had assumed you were going to come as well. Am I correct?”
She jumped into the conversation pretty quickly, and seemed to have the answers all prepared. “Yep! You hit that on the head. We should only go with as many ponies, and dinosaurs in this case, as we need. However, along with the three of us, I think it would be smart to have Applejack with us, too. She’s really strong, as I’m sure you’ve seen over the past few weeks, and we could use her help with defenses if the need arises. And we’ll also need Spike to translate for us.” At this, I heard Spike say ‘yes’ as Twilight and I resumed our conversation. “As long as the Augmentation Stones aren’t in the Diamond Dogs’ territory of the mines, then we should be alright, but that’s why I think we should bring AJ. Besides, even if the stones are in the Diamond Dogs’ territory, I think they’re pretty scared of you after what you did to them last time.”
I grinned. “True, very true.”

Twilight showed me a map of the mines that she found, and the routes she suggested that we take. By the time she was finished, I barely had enough time to get in another breath when there was a knock at the door. Twilight trotted over and opened it, and there stood Scootaloo, wearing a nervous smile, with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle standing behind her.
Trying to make it a bit cooler by Rainbow Dash’s standards, I slowly walked up to the door, crossed my arms, and looked down at Scootaloo. I took a dramatic pause, told Spike to help me with the effect, and said, “Ready, Kiddo?”
I saw a bit of Fluttershy appear in her as she asked, “Um, can Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle watch?”
“I’d be insulted if they didn’t.”
“Um, what about them?” She pointed behind her, and across the street I saw most, if not all, of her school classmates standing dead silent, save for two obnoxious-sounding fillies in the back, one of which looked like she had a silver spoon up her behind. I decided to ignore these two.

Trying to keep up the show, I took a long look at her class, raised my brow at them (a few of them flinched at this), looked back at Scootaloo, and said, “What did I just say?”
Her wide grin returned. Scootaloo turned her head and nodded, and the class erupted. I tapped her on the shoulder and she whipped back around, scared, as if she did something wrong. I simply asked her, “Any more questions?”
Scootaloo gave a sigh of relief, then asked, “Um, yeah. Where are we going?”
I gave a small chuckle, waved to Spike and Twilight, and said, “Follow me.” I then led them to Ditzy Doo and Doctor Whooves’ home.