Scootaloo the Pegasus?

by Brass Polish

2 Bump in the Road

The sky was turning yellow when Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo reached Loch Azure. Scootaloo could see four foals about her age playing hacky sack close by one of the cottages.
“Alright. Lightning Dust lives in #1933,” said Rainbow Dash. “So if you want to introduce yourself, knock yourself out. Just make sure you let her know you’re with me.”
“OK, Rainbow,” smiled Scootaloo.
After Scootaloo left, Rainbow Dash began to walk to Prof Lactic’s place. As she passed the four foals, their hacky sack whizzed past her face and towards the lake.
“I got it,” she said before turning towards the shore where the hacky sack landed.
Two of the foals screamed. Rainbow turned back around. Three of them looked horror struck.
“What?”
“Don’t go near there! The monster will get you!” cried a young unicorn.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but snort her doubt.
“Hey, relax guys,” said the pegasus colt, who hadn’t been frightened by Rainbow Dash’s boldness. “She’s on Ponyville’s Royal Taskforce, remember? And she can make sonic rainbooms. She could take on old Azurey.”
Rainbow Dash grinned and walked to the bank to fetch the hacky sack.
“Wow,” said an earth filly. “You sure are brave.”
“Yeah,” agreed the unicorn colt. “Nopony here would dare go that close to the lake. Most of our pegasi needed a lot of convincing to fly over there when our town was chosen to send water to Cloudsdale.”
“This bogus monster really scares ponies, doesn’t it?” asked Rainbow Dash, before tossing the hacky sack back to the foals and going about her business.

Prof Lactic’s cottage wasn’t hard to spot. There was a huge telescope coming from the peephole in the front door. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure whether she should knock on the door or the telescope. She resorted to knocking on the door and flying to the end of the telescope. Quite soon, the door opened and the telescope fell to the ground.
“Uh, oh! I forgot about the water transfer, haven’t I?!” fretted the professor when he saw Rainbow Dash.
“No! That was yesterday!”
“Oh, right. Well, what do you want?”
“I want to know if you did something to the lake before sending some of its water to Cloudsdale,” said Rainbow Dash.
“What like?”
“Like spells or something.”

“Well,” said Prof Lactic, “I put a basiliscus spell on it years ago.”
“What does that do?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“It prevents ponies from penetrating the surface of the lake,” Prof Lactic explained. “That way, nopony would try and go into the water in some foolish attempt to find the Loch Azure Monster.”
Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Well, that doesn’t add up. If you made it so ponies could walk on the water, then that would mean anypony would be able to walk on those clouds.”
“Huh?”
“All the clouds the factory’s made since last night won’t support pegasi foals,” Rainbow Dash told him.
“Oh, I know why that is,” said Prof Lactic, walking out of his cottage and up to Rainbow Dash. “Earlier this week, I found out that some of the local foals were walking across the lake to the haunted Sepia Forest.”
“Haunted?” asked Rainbow Dash. She knew about the Sepia Forest on the other side of Loch Azure, but no one ever told her it was said to be haunted.
“I had an awful ordeal going to the forest and making sure there were no foals there,” the professor shuddered. “But luckily, there weren’t any there. So I cast a different spell that would cancel out the basiliscus spell for foals. That way they couldn’t walk across the lake, but not go in deep enough for Azurey to get to them.”
“OK, that explains it,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’m gonna need you to come with me to Cloudsdale and take the spell off their water supply.”

Prof Lactic didn’t seem as nervous about being flown to Cloudsdale as Rainbow Dash expected. He was actually happy for an excuse to be as far away from the lake as possible. But there was a complication.
“I need to find the counter spell,” said Prof Lactic. “I got the basiliscus spells from one of my books. Just give me second to find it.”
He went back into his cottage. Rainbow Dash waited. After a few minutes, she glanced at the lake.
“I’ve never walked on water before,” she said, her curiosity building.
Prof Lactic poked his head out of his door.
“I think somepony stole my book,” he said.
“You lost it?” moaned Rainbow Dash. “Ugh! What did you do with it after you put that spell on the lake?”
“Um, the last place I remember having it was…” Prof Lactic strained his memory. “It was when I was taking anemometer readings after I cast that spell. I might have left it by the lake. The monster might have come out of the water and grabbed it!”
Rainbow Dash ignored that last remark and set off with Prof Lactic to look for the book.

Scootaloo had introduced herself to Lightning Dust, but she failed to mention that Rainbow Dash had brought her there.
“So what brings you here?” asked Lightning Dust.
“I hear you’re the fastest pegasus after Rainbow Dash,” said Scootaloo.
“Oh, well, I guess I am,” said Lightning Dust, going a bit red.
“Yeah, so I just wanted to meet you,” said Scootaloo. “Like, learn about you and stuff.”
Lightning Dust smiled. “Sure, I could tell you about myself.”
So Lightning Dust and Scootaloo seated themselves on the front porch.

“Well, I first found out how fast I could fly when I chased a frisbee to the bank of the lake,” said Lightning Dust. “I used to be really afraid of getting eaten by Azurey. I flew away from that lake so fast, all my friends saw was a green blur.”
“Cool,” said Scootaloo.
“After that, I used to make myself go closer and closer to the water so I could scare myself into going faster and faster,” Lightning Dust went on. “My parents weren’t too happy when they found out about that. They tried to discourage me from risking my life by sending me to flight camp. And I guess it kind of work-”
Lightning Dust stopped for a second. Scootaloo’s expression turned melancholy.
“You OK?”
“Oh, sorry,” said Scootaloo. “It’s just… I never got to go to flight camp. My parents can’t afford it. I’ve heard such wonderful things about it. So, how was it for you?”
Lightning Dust didn’t answer. She was looking thoughtful.
“Um, Scootaloo,” she eventually said, “just out of curiosity, do you want to be a Wonderbolt someday?”
“Well, that’d be pretty cool, but it’s not my big thing,” answered Scootaloo. “My big goal in life is to earn my cutie mark.”
Her face fell again.
“I bet if I’d been able to go to flight camp, I’d have found out what my special talent is by now.”
Lightning Dust was looking almost as dismayed as Scootaloo.
“I… I have to go,” she said, taking off quite suddenly.
“Huh? Where are you going?” asked Scootaloo.
Lightning Dust didn’t answer. She just flew away towards the lake.

Rainbow Dash and Prof Lactic were strolling along the Loch Azure bank looking for the spell book.
“If somepony knocked it into the lake, it’ll be useless,” said Rainbow Dash.
“No, it won’t,” said Prof Lactic. “It’s laminated.”
“Laminated?”
“I laminated the pages on all my books to protect them. Too bad it didn’t stop me from losing-”
“Oh!” came a voice.
Lactic jumped. Rainbow Dash looked around.
“I didn’t know you were here,” said Lightning Dust, shuffling her hooves.
Rainbow Dash spotted Scootaloo running towards them from the town.
“Do you need something?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Um… are you back here to…?” Lightning Dust started to ask.
“I’m here because Lactic’s magic messed up the water and all the new clouds won’t support foals,” said Rainbow Dash.
Lightning Dust took a deep breath. “I have a confession to make. I’m… I’m the one who told Lactic that foals were crossing the lake.”
“You?”

“I sent him an anonymous letter.” Lightning Dust was staring at her hooves. “I wanted to discourage young pegasi from going to Junior Speedster Flight Camp.”
“You what?! Why?!” demanded Rainbow Dash.
Scootaloo had caught up to Lightning Dust and had heard her confession.
“Because I wanted to save them from the disappointment I went through,” Lightning Dust said croakily. “After I left camp, I felt like I could become the fastest flyer in Equestria. The academy stomped that dream right out of me.”
Rainbow Dash groaned loudly. “That’s your fault, Dust! You were reckless!”
“My coaches encouraged me to push my boundaries!” insisted Lightning Dust. “They told me I had an amazing drive and made me feel like I could become the best if I kept going one step further in my training.”
“But you always went like ten steps further,” snorted Rainbow Dash.
“So, you fooled me, did you?” said Prof Lactic. “Why’d you own up?”
“Well, Scootaloo here reminded me that flight camp can be enough to make a young flyer happy,” Lightning Dust looked at Scootaloo with appreciation. “I never really thought of it as fun. To me it was just a bump in the road on my way to greatness. I didn’t realise I’d be causing worse disappointment than setting them up for rejection by the Wonderbolts.”
“I see,” said Prof Lactic. “Wait a minute. Did you steal my spell book?”
Lightning Dust gulped, then nodded. “I took it while you were measuring Updraft’s wing power, and I dropped it into the water.”

Rainbow Dash groaned.
“What now? We can’t go in and get it. Even if we could breathe underwater, none of us can get into the water with that basiliscus spell on it.”
“Scootaloo could go in,” said Prof Lactic before going rigid with shock. “Did I really just say that?”
Scootaloo’s experience from that camping trip to Winsome Falls taught her not to be scared by spooky stories, so she wasn’t opposed to going into Loch Azure.
“Well, I guess,” said Rainbow Dash. “But still, she couldn’t breathe.”
Prof Lactic cleared his throat.
“I have something that would… help.”
It sounded like he was going against his better judgement.
“What is it?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“A drinking straw I put an oxygen spell on,” answered the professor. “I thought it’d come in handy in case there’s a flood.”
“Did you make enough for the rest of us?” asked Lightning Dust.
“If Equestria floods, it’s every pony for himself,” said Lactic.
“Alright, go get your straw,” said Rainbow Dash. “And Lightning Dust, you’ll take us to where you dropped that book.”
“Wait! You just threw it in from the bank, didn’t you?” asked Prof Lactic.
“Uh, no,” replied Lightning Dust. “I kinda flew over the lake and dropped it in.”
Prof Lactic shook with fright.
“Go on. Go get the straw,” ordered Rainbow Dash.

Word quickly spread that two grown ponies were sending a foal into Loch Azure. Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust and Scootaloo paid no attention to the gathering crowd of protesters as Prof Lactic gave them his enchanted straw.
“Relax, everypony,” said Scootaloo. “I’ll be fine.”
“How do you know?!” demanded several ponies.
“Because I’m the only hope for the cloud factory and all the settlements in the sky,” said Scootaloo. “Unless one of you would like to go in instead.”
All the pegasi foals who had approached them back away at once.

Lightning Dust trotted along the surface of the lake, flanked by Rainbow Dash with Scootaloo on her back.
“OK, I’m pretty sure it was around here,” said Lightning Dust, stopping in the middle of the lake.
“You ready, Scootaloo?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Scootaloo stuck the straw in her mouth. “Ready.”
And she cannonballed into the lake.

It was certainly a new experience for the young pegasus pony. There couldn’t have been many ponies who had gone underwater exploring. The glow of the evening sun from above the water lit the way for her as she paddled down to the bottom of the lake. She had to clamp her mouth shut so the magic straw wouldn’t drift out and float away. Soon, the sandy lakebed came into view as if a blue curtain had been opened in front of Scootaloo. She looked around. There were lots of large rocks and patches of tall seaweed, and absolutely no fish. There was however a large, mustard coloured hardcover book.
Bingo, Scootaloo thought, paddling towards it.
When she picked it up, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to swim back to the surface and hold it at the same time. She tried kicking with her hind legs, but she couldn’t control the direction she went in that way. She tried clinging onto the book with her hind legs, but the laminated pages made it too heavy for her to keep her grip on. Then she remembered what Fluttershy said about flying and swimming being almost the same thing.
Maybe I can FLY to the surface.
She tried flapping her tiny wings. She got some lift. She kicked with her hind legs at the same time. It was a big improvement. She was well on her way to returning the lost book to Prof Lactic.

Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust were very impressed with how quickly Scootaloo had found the book.
“That was fun!” beamed the young pegasus. “Maybe I can get my cutie mark for swimming!”
“Hey, I don’t remember that being on the book,” said Lightning Dust.
She was pointing at the back cover of the book. It looked like it had been scratched in several places.
“Is that a note?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Scootaloo held the book on the surface of the water and the three pegasi read the message that had been engraved in the back over.

“Dear Loch Azure ponies,

I know you’ve all been living in fear of me for years, so I’d like to relieve your anxiety by informing you that I have moved out. I will not send this message to you as I do not wish to cause panic and alarm. It is for this reason that I will be leaving Loch Azure under cover of night. I sincerely hope that one brave pony will venture down here to retrieve this book, which I assume was dropped in accidentally.

Kind regards,
Azurey.”

None of them said a word about the message to Prof Lactic when they returned to land. They just brought him the book and after he found the counter spell they needed, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust flew him and Scootaloo to Cloudsdale.

After hours of inactivity, the equipment at the cloud factory was put to work producing a cloud out of the remedied water supply. Once they’d made one, Rainbow Dash flew Scootaloo to it.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
Scootaloo jumped onto the cloud.
“Success!” cried Hoops. “We’re back in business, guys!”
The factory workers cheered and carried on with their work. Scootaloo savoured the moment of standing on her first cloud. Rainbow Dash turned to Lightning Dust.
“Am I in trouble?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Hmm. You didn’t technically do anything illegal,” said Rainbow Dash, as if looking for a reason to punish her old lead pony. “And you did confess.”
“Can I suggest something?” asked Scootaloo.

At Ponyville Station, Fluttershy was seeing Hydroplane off.
“Goodbye, sir,” she said, handing him his suitcase. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.”
They could hear the next train approaching, but the sound of its whistle was drowned out by a rush of wind. Lightning Dust had swooped down and landed with a thump on the platform.
“Rainbow Dash asked me to fly this little guy to his next port of call,” she said to Fluttershy.
And, not even waiting for a response, she picked up Hydroplane and took off, holding the penguin in one hoof and the little suitcase in the other. Hydroplane’s face brightened. At last, a proper flight. And a fast one, too. He spread his flippers and pretended he was flying on his own. He was having the time of his life.

Rainbow Dash was flying around towing Scootaloo and her cloud behind her with her tail.
“Come on, Rainbow Dash. She’s already paying for what she did.”
“No, way. I let her off too lightly,” insisted Rainbow Dash.
She spotted Lightning Dust and Hydroplane, and sped in their direction.
“Race you to Salt Lick City!” she called.
Lightning Dust grinned. “You’re on!”
Scootaloo’s enthusiasm over her first cloud was put to the test as she was going faster than she’d ever gone before clinging to it for dear life as Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust rocketed across the red evening sky. She had never felt happier to be a pegasus.

Author's Note:

I haven't actually made a design for Prof Lactic yet. I gotta get around to that.

Comments

[Manes]

Damn you pumping stories out like crazy!

[Brass Polish]

5297788 These and the next two are actually a year old. I'm currently in the process of writing this year's batch of ten.