And Now For Something Exactly the Same

by Damaged

Chapter 13

"Are you ready?"

Scootaloo had never been more ready in her life. She'd been gliding for weeks now, and though it was great fun, the urge to flap her wings had been almost unbearable. She nodded. "Of course I am."

Listening to her feathers and hair, Surprise could feel what the wind was doing. A good strong breeze here would mean a fine headwind to help with takeoffs and landings. "Okay then, let's fly. You can feel where that wind is coming from?"

"Yeah." Turning toward the breeze, Scootaloo took deep breaths of air. She was filled with both nerves and calm. It had been so long since she'd started building her wings up, she could barely even comprehend a day without her stretching exercises, and yet this was a huge step.

"Let's see those wings." Surprise didn't need to wait long as the moment she said it, Scootaloo spread her wings out to each side. She went over each feather and tested the tendons and muscles just how Cloud Bank had told her.

When Surprise swapped sides—without a word of complaint—Scootaloo felt her heart beating faster. She'd spent nearly three times her normal ritual duration of preening her feathers. They were oiled to within an hair's breadth of being perfect, and each vane was perfectly straight.

"Looking good. Okay, cadet, give them a flap to see how they feel." Standing back and giving Scootaloo some room, Surprise watched with her eyes, listened with her ears, and listened with her feathers for the filly's movements.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Scootaloo pumped her wings against the air under them. She shuddered after the first, the feeling of air moving as it should putting her into a state of heightened awareness. Another pump, then another, and she started to flap in earnest.

"That's it. You're all good. Just keep going and jump into the air when you feel ready." Surprise waited for Scootaloo to do just that. There was no amount of lift the filly could manage that Surprise couldn't catch up to before saying Scootaloo's name out loud.

Flying was more than just pumping your wings, Scootaloo knew, but the moment she felt light enough to, she jumped upward and pumped down hard—purely on instinct. Everything narrowed down to a pinprick moment and she gasped in pure joy. Thankfully, her instinct kept her wings moving. "I'm flying!"

"Keep going! The higher you are, the safer you are!" Waiting until Scootaloo was several ponylengths off the ground, Surprise shot skyward with the speed and practice her profession and training afforded her. "Come on, cadet, get those wings working!"

Scootaloo had expected Surprise to make her take it easy, but being called to fly higher and use her wings more just stoked her joy higher. She was flying—really flying. "Higher?" A glance down revealed that Ponyville was barely a hoofwidth from one edge to the other now.

Flying slightly ahead of Scootaloo—having slipped into the wing-leader position with practiced ease—Surprise nodded. "High as you can go. Then we can see how well you can swoop and zoom around. How do your lungs feel? Not fighting for breath?"

Shaking her head, Scootaloo started pumping her wings when Surprise began doing so. The ground became further and further away, and without being able to hold it back, she shouted for joy.

After she judged them at a good height, Surprise leveled out and waited for Scootaloo to join her in gliding. "Okay, this is your default, got it? If things go bad, stick your wings out like this and just let your body catch the air."

"Okay, got it." It wasn't hard to get. There was nothing more natural-feeling for Scootaloo than flying. Even her time as a bat pony hadn't felt this right. The feel of air over all her feathers and coat made her feel alive. "Wow."

"You'll never stop thinking that for the rest of your life. Now, let's try a dive!" Surprise didn't often get foals having their first flight, but the raw enthusiasm Scootaloo showed made up for any inexperience she had shown so far.

Watching from the ground below, Lyra and Sweetie leaned against each other. Both had their heads tilted up to observe Scootaloo's first flight as a pegasus. For the first time she could recall in her whole life, words failed Lyra—all she could do was sigh.

"Anypony would think you needed this as much as she did." Sweetie, like Lyra, didn't take her eyes off the pegasi above.

Shrugging her shoulders a little, Lyra said, "I don't want to feel like she's been a project, but I really love watching her succeed. Seeing her enjoy doing some of the stuff I do has been—I don't even know how to explain it."

"Fulfilling?" Sweetie asked.

"Yeah. I guess?" Several loops caught Lyra's attention as Scootaloo seemed to be pushing her wings. "Is she meant to be doing so much?"

"Remember how much you know about unicorns, and I do about earth ponies?"

"Yeah. I get that. Surprise is literally us but for pegasi." Lyra rolled a hoof in the air before her. "But—"

"But she's not you. You can't help her with everything, Lyra."

"And that's why I'm down here and why I'll pull every string I have access to, to get the best pony up there to teach her."

"I mean, you did that."

"We both did that, Bonny." Tilting her head so she could keep watching with one eye, Lyra kissed Sweetie's cheek.

For over an hour they watched. Several times Scootaloo lost her momentum or missed a beat and started to fall—every time she recovered into a glide and then beat her wings to regain altitude. Each time it happened, Lyra found herself drawing up the required teleport to shove the filly back into a higher altitude—but she never got so far as to actually start casting.

Landing on the ground was its own problem, though with her gliding practice Scootaloo at least wasn't a complete newbie at it. Instinctively back-winging, she dropped to her hooves only a few ponylengths from Lyra and Sweetie. Ruffling her wings to get her feathers settled, she managed to hold off racing over to the couple for nearly ten whole seconds.

Trotting over to Lyra and Sweetie, Scootaloo bounced up and down on her hooves. "Did you see me fly?!"

"Gonna have to give you a warning, kiddo, I'm going to hug you a lot in a moment and I don't know if I'll ever be able to let go." Lyra raised her eyebrow, waiting to see how Scootaloo would take the warning. When she didn't try to run, Lyra rushed forward and pulled her into a hug. "I am so proud of you. When you set your mind to doing something, it gets done."

"That makes two of us." Sweetie crowded the other side of Scootaloo and hugged her too. "How did it feel to fly?"

With no option than to stretch her wings out to hug properly, Scootaloo couldn't stop words from bubbling up. "It was amazing! I could feel everything with my feathers and ears and even my coat picked up how the air moved. I mean, I felt that before while gliding, but it's so much different when it's me making the air move. And then all the ways moving my wings changes things! There's so much I need to learn and practice and—and do!"

"Just saying that puts you ahead of basically every other pegasus I've ever trained. That was some good flying, cadet. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon." Surprise was nonplussed when Scootaloo pulled out of the hug and turned to her to snap off a perfect salute. She was shocked when both Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops did the same. Lifting her wing, she gave them a sharp return and then—performing one of her favored vertical takeoffs—shot straight up with a combination of prowess and pegasi magic.

"Okay," Lyra said, "we gotta go test some things out now. We need a nice little place in Canterlot where we can hold the various parties."

Scootaloo tried to follow the reasoning. "So we're going to an ice cream parlor?"

"No." Sweetie reached out and ruffled Scootaloo's mane. "We're going to two ice cream parlors, three donut shops, and as many coffee shops as we can find."

"If I eat all that, I won't be able to get off the ground tomorrow!" Twitching her right wing, Scootaloo opened it up and noticed a feather had some vanes out of place. A few quick nips and some work with her tongue got them straight again.

---

The train ride to Canterlot had been a relaxed one. Lyra and Sweetie had worked a roster for trainers at the school so they would have the time off they needed to prepare for the wedding. When they reached the platform in Canterlot, however, they both knew their charge was going to be distracted.

Firelance had gotten off another train in the station, walked off the train with his father and was following him down the stairs when he heard his name shouted from behind him. Turning, he spotted Scootaloo trotting over. "Hey!"

"This your special friend from the camp?"

"Yeah, Dad. This is Scootaloo. Scootaloo, this is Skip Move, my dad." Firelance felt as, beside him, his father stiffened. When his father saluted, he tried to follow his line of sight—Sweetie Drops.

"Corporal Skip Move"—Sweetie quickly performed her own salute—"at ease."

It had been years since Skip Move had been in the Monster Hunters, but he'd kept up with their work. The young sergeant Sweetie Drops' rise in the ranks hadn't been as much of a surprise as her suddenly being transferred to a training position. "And this is sergeant Lyra Heartstrings, the training sergeant who has been producing the best-trained unicorns the Guard has ever seen."

Changing the topic, Lyra nodded to Firelance. "I guess I just have a knack for finding a unicorn's talent and teaching them how to exploit it. At least one of my students has been pushing himself hard to master his talents."

"But not hard enough to earn that armor." Firelance was annoyed at himself for that. He'd tried, but the speed Copper Fluff had set was amazing.

"That's why we're here, actually." Reaching his hoof out, Skip ruffled Firelance's mane. "I heard that there's a unicorn we can talk to about having cadet armor made."

Sweetie couldn't help but notice the look of excitement on Firelance's face. "We can make a detour if you'd like us to show you to her. She's the armorer for the Guard, sergeant Sharp Horn."

"You're getting your own armor?" Scootaloo asked Firelance, moving up to walk beside him while Lyra, Sweetie, and Skip started moving.

"Yeah! Dad and Mom found out that Copper won the sponsored armor through the school. I don't really hold it against her. She started off as probably the weakest unicorn there and now look at her!" Firelance blushed at speaking so well of Copper. "Wait, didn't you have your flight test soon?"

"Earlier today. Surprise sounded pretty happy with things and wants to do more tomorrow." Scootaloo couldn't help the little bit of a prance she got in her step. "We were going somewhere to celebrate."

"That's so cool. I'm glad you finally made it. I don't think I've seen anypony work so hard to get something before—the way you did all those exercises…" Firelance grinned, remembering all the times she'd been late into mess because she'd been doing her stretches.

Scootaloo felt obliged to defend Firelance's own efforts. "Pfft. I saw you doing those unicorn exercises before bed each night. You might not have grown as fast as Copper Fluff, but you're definitely stronger than her."

"But I can't do all that dream magic stuff."

"Not everypony is cut out for dream magic. You've seen Lyra in any of Princess Luna's dream lessons?"

Firelance took a moment to try to remember, but he couldn't recall one. "Uh, no?"

"Exactly! Tufts said Lyra has something weird going on in her head. He can pull her into a dream, but it takes crazy-amounts of effort, and he gets a bad headache after it."

"Tufts? What, is he better at it than Princess Luna?" Having not spent a lot of time in Canterlot, Firelance was unsure where they were going—until he saw the familiar sight of the Guard training grounds. He might not know the city streets, but he knew the Guard.

Scootaloo didn't want to lie. She knew her grandfather had secrets that she shouldn't spill. "Uh, kinda? I don't know how it works. He uses Batstralian dream magic, anyway. It's probably way different. Oh, he's my grandfather. He married Lyra's mum."

"Your family is kinda weird, but it's awesome you're all, I mean, together."

"You haven't seen anything yet. I have a new aunt. Tufts and Joyce—that's Lyra's mum—had a new foal together. Her name's Gara, and she's still really small."

Preempting the gate guards, Lyra and Sweetie gave them both a firm nod. The guards still saluted, but it was less sharply formal and left room for a casual salute back from Lyra and Sweetie. Inside, they made their way to the mess hall.

"Wait, this isn't the armory." Skip knew exactly where the big forge was in the Guard training grounds, he even cast a glance in its direction.

"Yeah, but we have to report-in whenever we arrive. Lieutenant Stiff Peaks would tan our hides if we didn't say hello at least." Sweetie made no effort to divert their direction away from the kitchen entrance to the mess hall.

"Knock knock!" Lyra rapped on the door as she stepped inside. "Sir, are you in your office?"

"Lyra Heartstrings? Brought a friend today, did we?" It might be known as his office, but the kitchen didn't have any paperwork—which was exactly how Stiff Peaks liked it.

Skip recognized the easy way Stiff handled two sergeants and stiffened. He remembered Lyra had also called him sir—which meant he was very sir above a retired corporal. "Sir! Corporal Skip Move, retired!" It was the beauty of such a command structure that such logic could be deployed so easily.

"Corporal Skip Move? I recognize that name. Get your hoof down, heroes don't have to salute nopony. Do you cook?" Stiff Stepped to the side to make more room at the baking station. "I was just preparing a tray of brownies."

It was a surprise offer for Skip, but despite how surreal it felt, he stepped forward and spotted all the things he needed. "I cook at home. Even spent a little time in the mess when I was training." Old memories of scaling recipes came back. He reached with a hoof for the flour.

Stiff's mind raced, recalling all the information he remembered on the corporal. A memory for ingredient lists and recipes had served him well in the Guard—he'd just had to memorize squads by their makeup and their orders as a recipe to obtain their goal. With the mnemonic tricks kicking over, he remembered why Skip wasn't using his magic. "What can the Guard do for you, corporal?"

Hearing his rank caused Skip to jerk a little out of the numbers zone he'd slipped into scaling the recipe up. He measured out the flour and cocoa before remembering Stiff had spoken. "My son. He joined Princess Luna's School, and I think it's about time he got himself some armor."

"Ah, I see. I believe we'd just gotten an order from the school itself. I'm sure Sharp will be happy to make a second suit. Your lad's a unicorn?" Stiff slipped into the role of commis to Skip, passing him the sugar he needed along with some salt.

Lyra slipped back from the kitchen doorway and back outside. One thing she'd learned to rely on, since coming to Equestria, was that ponies would be ponies. "Come on, Firelance, let's head over to Sharp Horn and get you measured up."

With a glance back at the mess, Firelance realized that his dad was probably going to need to catch up with them. "That was the stallion at the first day, right? One of the commanders?"

"Bingo. Lieutenant Stiff Peaks is the commander of the E.U.P. Training Regiment. Most of this place comes under his supervision. There's a few others that are technically above him, but they're more the leaders of the whole Guard." Making a note to discuss adding information about the Guard to the school's syllabus.

Firelance was about to ask about who those others were when he realized they were about to enter the forge. It was obvious what the building's function was just by the steady heat radiating from it. When he stepped inside, however, the heat became oppressive.

"Lyra! I heard you have some more work for me. A unicorn foal armor—is this the unicorn?" Looking at Firelance, Sharp Horn knew her guess was wrong. Her hunch was mostly because she'd been told it was a unicorn filly.

"Yes and no. The order has changed to two suits. This is one of the foals. I'm sure the other will be coming up here any day now." Looking at Firelance, Lyra felt a hit of pride by extension. His magic capacity had expanded dramatically with the exercises she'd given him, as well as his regeneration had swelled. "What do you say, Firelance, do you think it's time to let sergeant Sharp Horn fit you up for some armor?"

Scootaloo had waited with Sweetie in the mess. She watched as Skip and Stiff worked making the brownies. "Can I help?"

Stiff wasn't surprised in the least and nodded to a spare workstation beside him. "Why don't you and Sweetie make another tray here? If there's one thing that won't go uneaten in the Guard, it's brownies."

Author's Note:

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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Comments

[redmar]

This was a nice chapter and I like the fact that Scootaloo managed to fly.

[katarjin]

Scoot flying on her own always gives me the feels

[FanOfMostEverything]

Seeing Scootaloo flying under her own power is always heartwarming. And she is adorable with Firelance. Lyra is a tremendous force of beneficial change... which makes me wonder how Discord will react to her. She's chaotic, yes, but constructively so.

[Booster Spice]

I wonder if one of Suprises other unique tricks, is being able to hang absolutely motionless in mid air, exactly like a brick doesnt, while the other Wonderbolts carry out an entire 2 minute display segment around her.

[tsaukpaetra]

Harmony magic doing its thing, did you catch it?
Checking out all the possible spaces may be an excuse to celebrate Scoots' accomplishment, but there's no reason it can't run double-duty for the wedding pre-parties.
It's nice when plans laid down execute flawlessly, even if all expectations were met.