//------------------------------// // Stage Fright (♫) // Story: The Autobiography of Scootaloo - A Diary Collection // by Tails_155 //------------------------------// -------------------- Featherweight and I hung out in the tree, today. Rumble was flying around and almost knocked me out of the tree! That colt is pretty reckless, sometimes. I was talking to Featherweight about how we were going to do these scenes from the show. We're going to take pictures (well, he is. I may, too, but that's specifically his part, so I'll let him do that. He'll probably have better shots, anyway.) Once we get the scenery, Featherweight is going to make a print of the scene, so I know the size, then I'm going to draw the characters, and we're going to take a Precizo knife and cut around the characters, and I'll color them into the scene. We stopped by Sugarcube Corner, and found Shutter Speed talking with Pinkie Pie and Applejack. When he turned around and saw us, he seemed really nervous. He said hello, then ran (kind of strangely) out of the place with a bag. Featherweight seemed distracted and upset when his dad left. I asked Applejack and Pinkie Pie what was going on, and Pinkie Pie poked her forehead and walked off. She's so weird. Applejack said it was nothing to worry about, and left before I could ask her anything else. Something weird is going on here. I asked Featherweight what was the deal, he said he didn't know, so I told him I meant he seemed more upset than he had been. He said he saw a plastic band on his dad's hoof. He said that, combined with the way he's been acting, he's really worried about his dad. He had to spell it out for me that he thought his dad was really sick, and hiding it. I told him he was overthinking this and he flew off toward his house. I followed behind. I've never seen him fly so quickly. His dad wasn't there when we got there, though. We went inside and looked around just to make sure, and Featherweight gasped in the most frightening way I've ever heard. He found a hard to read yellow sheet from Ponyville Hospital with a note saying "Total time: 2 wk. Return immediately if situation worsens." Featherweight was so freaked out it took me a half hour just to calm him down enough to even talk with him. He said that if the note was right, and accurate, that he had until the day before Hearth's Warming Eve. I told him he really needed to relax, that he didn't know what the note meant, because the rest of the mulemark was impossible to read (doctors, you know.) I hope for Featherweight's sake I'm right. Featherweight sat at his house, worried for his dad, and I sat beside him, cuddled up, worried for him. We waited for his dad to come home. It got darker, and he finally walked in. He turned to look at us and seemed terrified. He asked Featherweight what was wrong, and Featherweight said he found the note. Shutter Speed listened to his idea of what was going on, and began to break into a strange laughter. He told Featherweight the note was a prescription for pain medicine. He said he fell down a steep hill and hurt his leg. He said it hurt enough he thought he might have broke it, so he went to the hospital. The hospital did an x-ray and said it was fine, but gave him two weeks of pain medicine just in case he needed it. It still took a long time to calm Featherweight down to his normal self. I told Featherweight I was right, that he was just overthinking everything. Featherweight told his dad that he wanted to know what was going on. Shutter Speed told him that nothing was wrong, and that he just needed to relax. Featherweight still seems unconvinced. I think he needs to just let it be. If something is up, Shutter Speed would tell him. Shutter Speed is a pretty honest guy, especially to Featherweight. On the way back to my house, Featherweight used his wing to keep me warm. He didn't seem to want to let me go, and, honestly I would have been fine staying right there, but we couldn't sit out in this weather all night. He gave me a kiss on the cheek, and I nuzzled his forehead. I told him to just relax, and think about Sweetie Belle's show, and our gift. I just hope I can keep him together until Hearth's Warming Eve, that way if he really is still worried about this, I can show him when his dad is still here. I just have to get through another fifteen days, and I get to one of my favorite holidays. -------------------- Featherweight was still acting strange at school, today. I told him he really needs to chill. If something serious was wrong, I know his dad would tell him. He wouldn't hide anything serious, so it may be any number of things. I told him he may be worried about money. He hasn't had a gallery in a while, and he doesn't have money for a tent at the moment to sell pictures on weekends. Featherweight told me that he usually worries about money around Hearth's Warming Day, because he always wants to buy Featherweight more than he can afford, even though Featherweight hates that he spends as much as he does. He said that Shutter Speed never gets as weird as he has been this year. I told Featherweight that his dad might have a special plan this year for him. We went to the market with Twist, to help her carry sugar home. Usually her dad helps her, but he was busy helping sell holiday stuff. He took a seasonal job to make a bit of extra money for Twist. Twist loves to make holiday treats, she usually gives everypony a bag of them on the last day of school. I wonder what she'll have planned this year. Once we got to Twist's house, she gave us each a gingerbread cookie. They were really good! One day Twist is probably going to be a famous baker and candy maker. From there, I went with Featherweight to take pictures. This weekend, we're going to take a picture of the cave below Canterlot for the big scene at the end. Dad is going with us so we have somepony in case the weather gets bad. -------------------- Tucked into the page are two cutouts from a newspaper. "Rising Starlet? By Featherweight, Editor In Chief of the Foal Free Press Ponyville Elementary's very own Sweetie Belle has been hard at work on the lines as the esteemed narrator of the Hearth's Warming Eve play this year at the Ponyville Community Center. 'I am pretty nervous, but I'm feeling a lot better, now that I've had more time with the actors and reading my lines.' Continued on 2B" "Starlet, Continued from Page 1A 'The experience has been interesting. I wish I could spend more time with my friends, but I want everything to be perfect, so I have had to give up time with them to practice. They seem supportive, though.' And supportive they are. Fellow classmate Pipsqueak said 'She'll do right well; I imagine. She's good with speaking. I can't wait to see her at the show!' Numerous interviews yielded positive hopes and expectations. Apple Bloom (another fellow classmate) said 'She's the best speaker of my friends.... She knows her way around words like an ant around an anthill.' Be sure to show your support on the evening of Hearth's Warming Eve at 5:00 at the Ponyville Community Center in the Rich Community Theater." Featherweight put a little story in the paper about Sweetie Belle. She seems to feel a lot better about herself, now. She's still nervous. I can tell in how she acts, but she's doing a lot better. She can say a lot of lines without looking at the paper, and it's only been a couple of days. She'll do great! Featherweight and I went to take pictures, again. I wish we had known about her doing this before it got snowy. We can't find any places to do Equestria on Hearth's Warming Day. I mean, it was probably still snowy on Hearth's Warming Day, like it is nowadays. Maybe we'll just have to go with it. Pipsqueak caught up to us when we were headed through town to Featherweight's house. I chatted with Pipsqueak while Featherweight developed the film. Pipsqueak said his mom was staying late in Port Mane, again. She may not even be home tonight. She's trying to do a double shift to get money for the holidays. She has told him many times that it's tougher to get money with one pony as opposed to two. He seems happy, still. It's really strange how well he takes talking about his parents' split. I think I would have trouble for years. He told me that he doesn't think about it in terms of himself. He said that if they're happy, he's happy. He feels like they would have been unhappy if they stayed together just for the sake of staying together. I guess that makes sense, but I still would have a lot of trouble with it. Shutter Speed came home while we were waiting on Featherweight. He went to develop film, as well. Both of them came out after a little while, laughing about something. Featherweight put down two pictures on the table. He asked me to look at them. I asked him why he gave me two of the same picture, and he told me one was his dad's photo. His dad took a picture of the same icicles on a tree south of town. Great minds, I guess. It's pretty weird, though. After he told me they were different pictures, I could see small differences, but it was practically the same angle, same spot, same light, everything.