Supermare or how Scootaloo did her math homework

by TwiwnB

Supermare is coming

Author's Note:

"It is said that if you look at a square for long enough, you will see a fifth side appear..."
Quote from an unknown bearded pony.

Let me ask you a simple question. How much makes seven plus five? If you reply that you don’t have all the necessary information to answer that question, my deepest felicitations, you are a mathematician and you should know that I hate mathematics. If you said that seven plus five makes thirteen, there is a very high probability that you are feeling as frustrated about that question as Scootaloo was at that very moment.

The piece of paper was on her desk, covered with all those mysterious signs that ponies had to invent in order to torture the fillies minds. It was taunting Scootaloo by making fun of her lack of mathematical skills.

She wrote thirteen on the sheet, thought about it very hard, made the whole reasoning all over again and, having found no flaw whatsoever, sighed deeply as she could remember having answered the same thing in an old homework for the exact same calculation and having been proven wrong.

“I don’t get it!” shouted the filly with anger, throwing the piece of paper away and sulking for a bit, as there was not much more she could do.

Then, as she was about to give up, write random numbers on the answer sheet and call it a night, Scootaloo heard the sound of a hoof on her window. She looked and saw a unicorn mare wearing a mask that was knocking, clearly asking her to open so that she might enter.

“Supermare?” asked out loud Scootaloo with hope, realizing the tale she had been told was maybe more than just a filly tale.

She decided to go open the window, as would have any other pony, big or small, of any age, because Equestria was still the safest land one could imagine and the fear of a stranger was almost unknown to all.

“Good evening to you, young learner.” pompously said the masked mare on the top of her ladder. “Do not worry anymore about your homework as I, Supermare, have arrived to help you overcome it!”

“Really?” asked Scootaloo with joy.

“Yes.” gently replied Supermare with a kind smile. “Really.”

At that moment, Scootaloo knew all her problems would disappear, as she could see in the eyes of the mare the deep will to help and the upmost competence to do so. But a new voice suddenly rang out:

“Watch out everypony!”

The masked mare looked behind her, a little bit too late as Rainbow Dash crashed through the open window, making Supermare lose her balance and fall with her ladder on the bushes below in a loud scream of distress.

“Rainbow Dash?” said Scootaloo, both surprised and overjoyed to see her most favorite big sister in the whole universe. “What are you doing here?”

The multicolor pegasus shook her wings to make sure she hadn’t hut herself and then answered:

“Well, I came across Sweetie Belle on her way home and she told me you needed help with something, and I had some free time, so I came to help you.”

She consciously decided to hide the fact that she was supposed to meet Soarin for some more training he had accepted to supervise in prevision of a future race. She didn’t want Scootaloo to realize how much she counted for her.

“Really?” said Scootaloo, who couldn’t have been happier with the turn of the events. “That’s great!”

And she immediately took back the piece of paper with all the arithmetic problems she had to solve and showed it to Rainbow Dash, certain that the mare would know how to explain it to her.

“You are doing additions?” observed the new teacher with some apprehension.

Scootaloo realized that asking Rainbow Dash of all ponies to help her with school stuff wasn’t probably the best idea ever. But to her surprise, the pegasus told her that she actually was pretty good with math:

“I was top of my class!” Dash bragged. “It’s actually very easy.”

“Yeah? So how do you do it?” eagerly asked Scootaloo, more ready to learn than ever if it was to be from the teaching of the one she had put above everypony else.

“All you have to do is count in Wonderbolts.” Dash said.

…

A silence ensued.

“Seriously?” asked Scootaloo, not sure if she was being ironic or really ready to believe it.

“Of course I’m serious.” replied Rainbow Dash with a smile. “For example, five plus seven makes twelve, because Spitfire has won the annual Canterlot Derby seven times and Wingflare has won it five times and together they have the most outdoor victories of Cloudsdale in Canterlot, which is twelve total, making them the overall best there is!”

Believe me or not, but Scootaloo was kind of lost.

“Huh…” the filly said for all response.

“It’s easy I tell you” continued Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm. “I even won an arithmetic competition with that system. I remember I was asked to divide seven by two, and I knew that Firefly was number three on the top ten best flyers list that year and because Soarin was half as good as Firefly, he was number four, so Firefly could count for a good zero point three and Soarin for zero point four and the mean between them would therefore had been zero point thirty five. Of course it was all calculated from the top ten best flyers list, so the answer was three point five.”

“Who is Firefly?” asked Scootaloo, who was too young to have known that particular flyer and didn’t really understand what it all had to do with adding up numbers.

“Oh she was one of the best! You should have seen her fly through the sky! It was magical.” Rainbow Dash remembered with passion. “Hey, I know!” she suddenly added. “I’ll bring you some of the old stuff I’ve got about her to show you who she was. During that time, you practice counting in Wonderbolts, okay?”

Caught up in her “brilliant” idea, Rainbow Dash didn’t notice that Scootaloo would have needed some more explanation about the whole counting system and took off through the window she had use to come in order to get the souvenirs she knew she had stashed somewhere in her house.

Left alone, Scootaloo looked at the window and then at the homework sheet, unable to even remember how much points Spitfire was worth and how she should use it to make Rainbow Dash happy.

By chance, a knocking on the room’s door interrupted her.