> Just Winging It
>  by arcum42
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A Wish For Wings That Work
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 1 - A Wish For Wings That Work


"Don't worry, you'll still be awesome, Scoots, even if you are never able to fly," Vinyl told her, for what must have been the dozenth time since her recent doctor's visit.  Scootaloo wasn't buying any of it.

Gee thanks, Auntie Vinyl, but I'm hardly ready to give up on flying yet. And you don't have wings, so you'd hardly understand.

"I don't want to be 'awesome'. I want to be able to fly," she said firmly. "I want to go soaring above the trees, through the clouds. I'm a pegasus. Pegasuses fly."

Scootaloo looked down gloomily before continuing. "Without flight, I'm just a earth pony with stubby little wings."

"Yeah, I hear ya, Scoots," Vinyl Scratch stopped glancing through her record collection, and looked up at her niece behind purple-tinted glasses. "You remember what the doctor told us, though? There's an eighty percent chance you won't be able to fly. Eighty! You have to be realistic."

"Maybe I'll get wing extensions," Scootaloo said in desperation. "If Fluttershy can have tail extensions, can't I get wing extensions?"

Vinyl shook her head. "I don't think it works that way, Scoots."

"What about that one big muscly pegasus I saw the other day?" Scootaloo jumped down from the couch. "His wings are even smaller then mine, and he can fly."

"Well, the doctor said it was your wings plus your magical core." Vinyl pushed up her glasses. "I'd assume he has a whole lotta magic that makes up for his tiny wings."

"That makes sense." Scootaloo thought for a moment. "Why don't I go over to the library and find out how to make my magic core bigger, than?"

"I don't think-" Vinyl said, but Scootaloo was already on her way out the door. Magical powerups, here I come!

Vinyl stared at the door in front of her for a moment, shrugged, and started her newest album playing, volume cranked up as high as her speakers would go. 





"You want to know what?" Twilight asked disbelievingly.

Twilight was actually being surprisingly nice about Scootaloo barging in, aside from pointing out a 'Quiet, Ponies Are Reading' sign when she entered. Living in a library, she must be used to ponies bothering her all the time, anyways.

"I'd like to know how to boost my magic." Scootaloo repeated. "You're Princess Celestia's personal student, and supposed to be one of the most powerful unicorns around. You've got to have read something on it."

Wasn't that what Twilight did all day anyways, read about magical stuff?

"Well, yes," Twilight said, looking puzzled, "but why would you even be interested?" 

"Yeah, you're a pegasus," Spike commented. "It's not like you have any magic, anyways."

Spike had been hovering around ever since Scootaloo had come in, probably waiting to see if Twilight needed anything. At least he didn't seem to hold anything against her after the 'Cutie Mark Crusader Librarian' incident.

"Now, Spike, that's not quite true," Twilight lectured. "While unicorns have the most visible manifestations of magic through their horns, earth ponies use magic to enhance their strength, and pegasi rely on it to fly..."

"Oh," She stopped, suddenly seeming to come to a realization, "is that what this is all about?"

"Kinda." Scootaloo hung her head. "My wings aren't likely to grow any further, and with the amount of magic I have available, I won't be able to fly if they don't. I need bigger wings or more magic, and magic seemed the more likely way to go."

Twilight seemed contemplative. "Have you seen a doctor about this?"

Why else would I know all of that? Not that Doctor Stable was any use.

"Yeah," Scootaloo shuffled around nervously. "He's the one that told me why I wasn't likely to fly. He didn't tell me anything I could do to try and fix it, though."

"That doesn't sound too helpful," Twilight muttered. She started levitating books towards her desk and scanning the titles. "The trouble is that while I know a few exercises for building up your magical strength, they are all intended for use by a unicorn, and assume that you have a horn."

"Oh," Scootaloo said, crestfallen. "So there's nothing you can do?"

"I didn't say that," Twilight sighed. "I've got a large selection of books here. There has to be something on the subject."

Well, at least Twilight seemed interested in helping. More than Rainbow Dash ever had. She must have asked a million times about flying lessons, and she was always too busy. She was still awesome and all, but, well, not that helpful. Saving panicked ponies from imminent peril aside.

"I think I remember seeing advertisements for products to increase your wing size by a few inches in the back of some comic books once." Spike volunteered, as Twilight flipped through a hefty-looking book's table of contents.

"Oh, Spike." Twilight shook her head. "Those products are all fake."

"Are you sure?" Scootaloo said hopefully. "That sounds like just what I need!"

"I asked Rainbow about it once," Twilight said. "At best, nothing will happen. At worst, you'll end up sick to your stomach, or even get a tapeworm."

"Wait, where did you even see that?" Scootaloo asked. "I didn't know you liked comic books!"

What type of comics would she even like? Were there egghead comics, with bold scholars who saved the day with an obscure use of Boyle's Third Law, or something? What even was Boyle's Third Law?

"Well, maybe not normally, but when it's a comic book adaptation of the first Daring Do book, I couldn't quite resist," Twilight said defensively. "Besides, graphic novels are a valid form of literature, and can have just as complex themes, and be just as thought provoking as a regular novel."

Spike picked up a nearby comic and thumbed through it. "Pow Biff Bam. 'I'll get you, Daring Do, if it's the last thing I do! Bwa ha ha ha!'. Very literary, I see."

Twilight groaned. "Well, maybe not those particular ones. The Sandmare series, though..."

"Sure, Twi." Spike chuckled. "Whatever you say."

"Um," Scootaloo interjected. "magic enhancing exercises for pegasi?"

"Right." Twilight floated books towards her, one by one, looked at the title, then shook her head. Finally, she looked up. "You know, it's going to take a while to find anything on this. Maybe we should go ahead and check what your current magical level is before looking to bring it up."

"You'll want to do that tingly scanning spell the doctor used, then?" Scootaloo shuddered, then resigned herself. "I suppose."

If it'll help get me flying, anyways.

"What?" Twilight thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, that wouldn't be nearly accurate enough. We need precise measurements for this. Fortunately, I've got just the equipment we need. Come on."

Twilight walked over to the entrance to the library's basement, and waved Scootaloo over. She hesitated for a moment.

I've heard stories about ponies getting lured into another ponies basement, and all sorts of horrible things happening to them. Should I really go with her?

Scootaloo shook her head. This was Twilight. What was the worst that could happen? 

> Measure Of a Mare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo had an awful itch near the end of her muzzle. She reached to scratch it, but the straps holding her legs in place wouldn't let her move more than an inch. Ponyfeathers. Agreeing to this had been a really bad idea. 

She'd gone down the stairs to the basement, following Twilight. As it turned out, her basement was huge, and filled with all sorts of weird gadgets. Twilight had headed straight for one of the biggest and most impressive of them all.

It towered over both of them, every inch of it covered in lights and switches of various sizes, levers, meters, and all sorts of otherwise incomprehensible doodads. Scootaloo's eye had been drawn to two metal balls that a spark periodically leapt between, and a few quartz crystals sitting in special metal brackets, wires wrapped around them. She had to wonder how Twilight kept Spike from eating them.

Twilight had then asked her to lie on a metal table that was hooked by several big bulky cables to the humming device. Scootaloo still wasn't totally sure why she had gone along with it, especially when Twilight immediately started strapping her limbs down to the table.

"Twilight, I can't move," Scootaloo said, pointing out the obvious. "I thought we were just going to take some sort of reading of my magic levels."

She seemed oblivious for a moment as she adjusted the straps carefully. Then she replied.

"We are. The thaumapotentiametronometer is delicate, though." Twilight gestured at the device next to the table. "Any movement could throw off the readings."

Twilight turned away from Scootaloo to a nearby workbench, and when she turned back, Scootaloo saw that she had a container filled with some sort of gel in her hooves. Her auntie had warned her about getting in situations like this. She shivered.

"Is the temperature too cold down here, Scootaloo?" Twilight asked. "I can turn up the heat if you'd like."

"Twilight, what are you planning on doing with that?" Scootaloo said. Something in her tone of voice must have conveyed itself to Twilight. She looked at the container, as if suddenly realizing how this could be construed.

"Oh, I just need this gel to attach the electrodes so they'll hold in place firmly," she explained. "If one of them slips off, the circuit won't be completed properly, and we won't get any results."

Alright, that almost made sense. And it would ultimately help her reach her goal of flying. And she kept telling herself that as Twilight attached electrode after electrode to her. Electrodes at the base of her wings, behind her ears, under her forelegs, right by her dock (and that one had made her squirm uncomfortably), and what seemed like all over her.

She felt like her fur was coated with that gel at this point. When I get out of this, I'm really going to need to wash up properly. She frowned. Assuming I get out of this.

"Are you absolutely sure this is necessary, Twilight?" That big machine seemed to loom ominously over her.

"Any scientific project needs as accurate of a base value as possible," she lectured, "and if you really want to increase the amount of magical power you have, we really need to know the number of EMU's we are starting with."

"What's an EMU?" Scootaloo asked, confused. Wait, isn't it a large, flightless bird? Is Twilight making fun of me?

"An EMU would be an Equestrian Magical Unit," Twilight recited, to her relief. "It was set forth as the standard unit for measuring magic by the Royal Thaumaturgical Council of Mareheim in 143 Anno Caelestis, replacing the older use of the thaum..."

"Right. Unit for measuring magic. Ok."

"And that should be all the electrodes attached." Twilight walked over to the machine and started flipping switches and adjusting dials.

"Um, how long is this going to take, anyways?" Scootaloo asked. She did trust Twilight, didn't she? She even seemed to remember that they were vaguely related somewhere down the line. "Auntie Vinyl and Octy are going to get worried if I'm out too long."

"Oh, not long," Twilight said absently, her mind clearly elsewhere. "I just need to do some calibration."

She flipped a few more switches, looking at the levels on various meters. Then she stopped for a moment. "Right! The helmet!"

Walking back over by Scootaloo's side, she lowered a metal helmet covered with lights onto her head. Twilight then started to do adjustments to make it stay properly in place. Given that one of these was tightening a buckle on a strap to the very last hole, then making a new hole to get a good fit, Scootaloo started to wonder if this equipment was even designed for somepony her age.

"And it takes all this just to get a reading of my magical strength?"

"Well, actually most of this equipment is multipurpose." Twilight flipped a few more switches, and put on some goggles. "Reading the precise level of magic in a pony or object is one of its functions, though."

"And it's safe?" Scootaloo asked, fishing for reassurance.

"Of course. Everything I've read about it says it should be perfectly safe." Twilight lowered some metal globes directly over her, then put another set of goggles on Scootaloo, which, admittedly, probably looked pretty cool. "Of course, I've never actually tested it on another pony before, but plenty of respectable scientists use the same equipment all the time."

What type of respectable scientists, Dr. Frankenstein? It's never been tested? "Twilight, I really don't know-"

"And that was everything!" Twilight bounced in place and clapped her hooves in glee, scary-looking grin on her face. "Let's crank up the power!"

She pushed a lever up a notch on the control panel. An ominous hum started building, coming from the equipment. Electricity began to arc between the two metal spheres above Scootaloo. She yelped as a spark passed within inches of her. "Twilight!"

"It's perfectly safe. Watch!" She put two of her hooves on two other metal globes attached to the main machine, letting raw power flow through her. Her mane stood on end, as did her fur, but she seemed otherwise unharmed. Though with the maniacal gleam in her eye, it was a bit hard to tell. "Millions of volts, but practically no amperage. Harmless."

Scootaloo looked at the electricity arcing over her skeptically as her fur started to stand on end. It had just run through Twilight without incident, but this was still pretty unnerving. And she could feel something running through her body, especially around the electrodes. 

Twilight slid the level up another notch. The humming increased, and the quartz crystals seemed to be glowing. She felt a tingling, itchy feeling all over her body.

"Oh, don't worry if you have a few involuntary muscle spasms," Twilight suddenly said. "The straps will keep you safe, and they should go away as the readings finish."

She then pushed the lever up another notch.

Muscle spasms? This wasn't sounding safe at all! "Twilight! I don't-"

Then it felt like every single muscle in her body contracted and expanded at once. And again, and again, sending Scootaloo into spasms of agonizing pain. She let out an unholy shriek that seemed to last for an eternity and the world turned red as she heard Twilight scrambling for the controls.
> Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After what seemed like forever, Scootaloo's convulsions ceased. She felt sore, and she was shaking involuntarily all over, but she finally felt back in control of herself. She cracked her eyes back open to see Twilight pacing back and forth while frantically flipping through a large book.

Scootaloo was drenched from head to tail, with that nasty gel from the electrodes combining with her own sweat to make her feel thoroughly horrid. A whiff from the puddle below her told her it wasn't just sweat, either. She'd be embarrassed if she weren't so angry.

After a few minutes, she thought she had enough control of her mouth to try speaking. When she did, her voice came out raspy, and parts of what she said got cut off, but it was the best she could manage.

"Tw'l't," she attempted, through the trembling of her jaw. "St'aps. 'Move."

Hearing her speak, Twilight rushed over to her side, looking paler than Scootaloo had ever seen her before. "I swear that shouldn't have happened-"

"T-Twili't! R'move the str'ps!" Scootaloo tried again, upset. "Now!"

"Right, your muscles have stopped spasming," Twilight said. She laughed, a short, desperate laugh. "I suppose I should remove the straps."

She started in on it as best she could, her job made more difficult by sweat accumulating under them. Turning her head, she called out. "Spike?"

His voice, sounding out of breath, came from just inside the basement entrance. "Twilight! What happened?"

From the way he sounded, Scootaloo figured he must have already been on the way here. She supposed hearing screaming coming from the basement would've attracted attention.

"Spike, I'll need you to start a bath running in the decontamination chamber for Scootaloo," Twilight instructed him. "And we'll need things cleaned up over here afterwards."

"A bath? Alright. Are you sure you don't need any help over there?"

"No, I've got things under control." Twilight continued working on releasing the straps that held Scootaloo down, her hooves shaking as she did so. From another area of the basement, Scootaloo could hear the sound of running water. 

"Now why did the spasms go out of control like that? They should have been mild, barely noticeable," Twilight muttered, half to herself, as she finished with the straps, and started ripping off electrodes. "I set everything up with the normal values the manual provided for this type of reading-"

Scootaloo winced as some of her fur came out as Twilight yanked an electrode free. Something wasn't sitting right with what Twilight had just said.

"N-Norm'l v-values?" Scootaloo inquired. She might not be an egghead like Twilight, but she wasn't exactly dumb. "N'mal f-for a adult p-peg'sus, or a f'lly half your s-size?"

Twilight paused for a minute while she processed what Scootaloo had said. Then her eyes widened and she summoned a thick book. She skimmed rapidly through one section, then paused when she got to the spot she needed. Reading through it carefully, she slumped down. "Half the intensity, and twice the period of time. How could I have missed that?"

Scootaloo didn't comment, though there were some choice things she could have said. She didn't really have the energy right now. She just lay there limply, aching all over, as Twilight removed the last of the electrodes. 

Once all of them were gone, Scootaloo found herself enveloped in a lavender glow. She let Twilight levitate her over to another area of the basement without protest. She might have even enjoyed the sensation of floating in the air if she hadn't hurt so much.

Entering this area of the basement seemed to require going through flaps in large transparent sheets of plastic. Behind this lay a shower, and a large bathtub which was built on some sort of heating coils. Spike was already there, adjusting the temperature on a bathtub mostly filled with steaming water.

As they approached, Spike looked up, and saw the state Scootaloo was in.

"Geez, Twilight, what did you do to her?" he asked. "I swear I heard her shrieking all through the library! Good thing nopony else in this town reads."

Sounds like he might be worried about me, at least. It occurred to Scootaloo that maybe she ought to get to know Spike a bit better. A flightless dragon was as much of a rarity as a flightless pegasus, wasn't it?

Twilight flinched.

"I, um... miscalculated," she said, and quickly changed the subject. "Is the bathwater about ready?"

"Miscalculated? I should say so!" he said. "When you mess up, you don't do it halfway, do you?"

"Spike-"

"Besides the bath, does she need any medical help? Should we get Nurse Redheart over here?"

"She'll be fine. She just needs a chance to soak in hot water to relax her muscles."

"I think I can handle that." He turned off the running bathwater. "If she doesn't need any other medical attention, why don't you go look over your results, and see if you can figure out where you went wrong?"

"Oh, I don't know," Twilight said. "This is all my fault. I should probably take care of-"

"Twilight-" Spike shot her a meaningful look. Scootaloo had to agree. She'd much rather be well away from Twilight right now.

"Alright, I suppose I should do that." She lowered Scootaloo to the ground. "We'll go over the results later."

Twilight walked off slowly, ears flattened, looking at the floor below her. Scootaloo was still feeling way too shaky to be able to enter the bathtub herself, and gratefully accepted Spike's help getting in.

As the hot water hit her aching muscles, she sighed, and finally started to relax, letting most of her body sink under the warm, inviting water. Spike produced a scrub brush and antibacterial soap seemingly from thin air.

"How are you feeling, Scootaloo?" Spike asked. "You look horrible."

She'd normally protest about somepony else washing her, rather than doing it herself, but it wasn't just somepony else, it was Spike. And she was really tired, and probably wouldn't do a good job anyways.

"L-Like I've b'n run over by a t-train," Scootaloo said. "After being d-dropped from the mid'le of the air." 

"Man," Spike said, as he scrubbed her down. "Never heard of the thau- tha- that measurement thingy doing that before. Wonder what went wrong?"

Scootaloo frowned. "I tho't it hadn't been tested b'fore?"

"Maybe not with anypony else, but Twilight's had me strap her down on it several times in the past and activate it," Spike said. "I'd have said something if I thought it was dangerous."

So she hadn't been the first pony it had been used on after all? That actually made Scootaloo feel a little better, if it was something Twilight had already tried herself. The hot water was really helping her muscles, too, and she was shaking a lot less, which was a relief.

Then Spike handed her a glass of orange juice that she wasn't about to question the origins of. She gulped it down, and the back of her throat started feeling much better. 

"Thanks," she said gratefully. Spike nodded in reply, took the empty glass back, and went back to washing her.

This relaxed her still farther, as his flexible fingers allowed him to reach spots she'd always had trouble getting to with her hooves. She did feel a bit guilty about taking him away from his duties for this, though.

"S-Spike, I'm sure you've probably got a l-lot of other things you need to do. I should be able to finish getting c-cleaned up from here."

"Nonsense," Spike said, crossing his arms. "My job as Twilight's assistant is to take care of things for her, and she asked me to get you cleaned up, so that's what I'm gonna do. It's not like it's anything I haven't done in the past."

"You've had to scrub other ponies down before?" Scootaloo asked, intrigued.

"I've had to give Twilight a bath several times, actually," Spike said while soaping up her mane and tail. "She's had a few lab accidents that have left her in no state to clean herself up."

"Really?" Scootaloo had wondered why there was a bathtub and shower down here.

"Yeah. I'm good at it anyways. My fingers let me get to areas that are hard to reach properly with hooves. Like this." He started scratching behind both of her ears. Scootaloo's ears flopped down, and she felt like melting with how good it felt. She let out a happy rumbling sound despite herself.

"Yeah, Twilight likes it if I scratch behind there too." Spike kept scratching for a while, then eased off, and rinsed out her mane and tail. "Alright, out of the tub, and I'll dry you off."

Scootaloo scrambled out of the tub, accepting a helping hand once again from Spike. He then patted her off with a large towel, and led her over to yet another contraption. As Scootaloo stood under it, hot air started blowing from all directions, rapidly drying her off.

It was pretty cool, actually. They needed one of those for the clubhouse. 

Of course, her fur and mane were left puffed up and sticking in all directions, but Spike quickly brushed them out. She felt just about ready to deal with the world again. Then she noticed a couple of bare patches in her fur. Almost ready, anyways.

The two of them walked back over to Twilight's maniacal measuring machine, as Scootaloo decided to mentally dub the thing. Twilight was there, going rapidly between five books and a printout and taking notes. 

Embarrassingly, the metal table was still in the same state it had been left. Damp, occasional strands of fur, and with a cooling puddle on the ground below it.

Scootaloo cringed a little, looking at the place she'd been lying. Spike just walked in front of her, grabbed a sponge and mop, and started wiping it up nonchalantly. Scootaloo turned to him.

"Er..." She shuffled around a bit, heat rising to her cheeks. "Sorry."

"This isn't exactly the first time I've had to clean up this sort of mess after an experiment went wrong. It's all part of the job." He prodded Twilight with one claw, making her look up, startled. "I think somepony else does owe you something, though."

"Yes, Spike?" She looked at the two of them, then glanced down, not making eye contact with Scootaloo.

"Have you figured out what you did wrong yet, Twilight?"

"The settings were all set for an adult pegasus in my weight range. There was a footnote that specified lowering them, and running the machine longer for somepony younger or weighing less that I missed."

"And this means you need to?" Spike pressed Twilight.

She cocked her head slightly, considering. "Recalibrate for her weight and height in the future?"

Spike walked by her side, putting down the mop and sponge. Seeing a checklist next to Twilight she was going over, he quickly jotted down another item in the list. "And what else?"

Reading what he'd written, she closed her eyes for a moment. Turning to Scootaloo after a moment, she opened them back up and looked right at her. "Scootaloo, I'm really sorry about what happened. I thought it was safe."

"The arcing electricity wasn't enough of a hint?" Scootaloo asked, still upset. That had really hurt!

"The arcing electricity was fine, actually," Twilight clarified. "It was too much power to the electrodes, and too much magical buildup that was the problem."

"It was rushing into it and not checking the manual properly that was the issue," Scootaloo retorted. "And not really giving me a chance to protest if something was wrong!"

"It's not like I forced you down onto the thaumapotentiametronometer and strapped you down against your will," Twilight said, nettled.

"Well, no," Scootaloo said, hurt, "but you didn't even give me time to finish my last sentence before you turned it on! And it wouldn't take a genius to notice how uncomfortable I was!"

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike said. "Is this how an apology usually goes? Because this sounds more like an argument."

Twilight sighed and looked down, ears drooping. "Was I really that bad? I was so excited to have a good use for it, and to be able to help you out-"

"You were kinda scary, actually." Scootaloo admitted.

"I'm so so sorry! I'll do whatever I can to help you with your flying problem," Twilight said, sweeping Scootaloo into a hug. "Can you forgive me?"

Bemused at Twilight's sudden mood swings, and rather embarrassed at the affection she was showing, Scootaloo thought. Can I trust her? She seems sincere enough. And having Celestia's personal student help me might make the difference. Maybe.

"You won't do anything without explaining what you're doing first?" she asked. "And you'll do whatever you can to help me? Pinkie Promise?"

"Pinkie Promise," Twilight repeated, putting Scootaloo down to make the requisite gestures. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Scootaloo did her best not to wince. She hated that feathering oath, with the way it reminded her of her inadequacies, but it also seemed very difficult to break. Twilight honestly seemed to want to help her out. She still worried about if Twilight's more deranged side came out again, though.

"Spike?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you suppose you could stay nearby and help both of us out while Twilight is researching my flying problem?" And keep her in check?

"Sure thing!" Spike said, seeming to understand what she really meant. "I'll stay right by your side."

"Thanks!" Scootaloo turned her attention back to Twilight.

"So, did you get any readings from all that, or was it all a loss?" Scootaloo asked. That better not have been for nothing.

"No, the readings all came through, both magical and otherwise," Twilight assured her. "With what I got, I could tell you what toothpaste you brushed your teeth with this morning."

"Everypony in town uses Colgate's toothpaste anyways," Scootaloo grumbled. "That wouldn't be a big feat."

"Well, yes." Twilight blushed. "But even if that wasn't the case, I could tell you."

"Great. What are you planning on doing with that information, anyways?" Scootaloo asked. She wasn't sure she liked having everything about her on file.

"I'll tuck it away where nopony besides the two of us can see it," Twilight tossed her mane back. "I will need a few more measurements, though."

Scootaloo glanced back to Twilights lab, horrified. Twilight followed her glance and laughed.

"Not those type of measurements, silly." She floated a tape measure over, and started measuring both her dimensions and her wing size. She even had Scootaloo extend them out fully, and measured their full spread. Which wasn't very far.

Eventually, she lay down her tape measure and notepad on her desk. "That should be all the measurements I'm going to need for tonight. I'm going to have to do a bunch of reading, and find out what they normally would be for a filly of your age, and what the minimum necessary for you to fly would be."

"That sounds like it's going to take a while," Scootaloo said. "I suppose I should get back home."

"Why don't you stop back by tomorrow afternoon, and I'll let you know what I've found out?"

"Ok." Scootaloo backed towards the door. "Thanks Twilight! Thanks Spike!"

Opening the door behind her, she quickly left the library before anything else could happen. As it swung shut behind her, she could faintly hear Spike lecturing Twilight.

"You can't just use anypony that walks in the library as an experimental subject, Twilight! What if somepony gets-"

She still wasn't entirely sure accepting Twilight's help was a good idea. It still felt like her best shot, though. At some point, it seemed to have gotten late, too. She'd best start thinking about how to respond to the lecture she was about to get.

She hopped on her scooter, and started pushing, buzzing her wings to propel her forward. At least her wings were good for that. The wind swept through her mane and she smiled.

Then she followed it with a wince as one of her wing muscles cramped up. The muscle spasms she'd had earlier had put them through quite a workout, and now they were feeling fairly sore. It looked like she'd be walking the scooter home.

Now there was a thought. Besides her wingspan, and the amount of power in her magic core, wouldn't how powerful her wing muscles were affect her flying? Maybe Rainbow Dash knew some wing exercises that would help her. If she could get her attention for long enough, anyways.

If it hadn't been late enough already, walking her scooter home was delaying her even further. Still, if her wing muscles were cramping and she tried to push it, she'd feel it in the morning, and she'd also be risking the scooter careening wildly out of control.

Which, admittedly, sounded like fun, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to pull out of it properly, and she'd probably get hurt.

It wasn't that far to Auntie Vinyl and Octy's, anyways. She'd been living with them for a few years, ever since- 

She gulped, memories coming back. Ever since her parents had... died.  She'd had a lot of trouble coping with that at the time, but she was over it by now.

She wiped some moisture off her face. I am over it, she thought. I miss them, but they are gone. And it wasn't like there was anything she could do to bring them back.

She liked her Auntie, anyways.Though she tried to keep it in check for Scootaloo's sake, she had a lot of attitude, and could be pretty wild and crazy at times. The trouble was that she tended to go too far the other way sometimes, just because she felt she had to has Scootaloo's guardian.

Octavia, on another hoof, tended to spend all her time playing the sane one. Of course, in her own way, she could be just as crazy as the rest of the household sometimes. She did tend to end up as the one holding everything together, though.

She was also the one Scootaloo was probably in the most trouble with right now. Vinyl'd remember her mood earlier and declaration about going to the library and let it go, but Octavia was probably fuming about her being out after dark.

Sure enough, when she entered, Octavia was sitting there, savagely dragging her bow against the strings of her cello, glaring at the door. When she entered, Octy's gaze shifted darkly to her.

Scootaloo grinned a sick grin and waved. "Um, hi?"
> In the Dead of Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo quelled under Octavia's ice cold gaze as she entered. Octavia immediately got up and began delivering a rant she seemed to have been saving up for her entrance.

"And where exactly have you been?" she started, frowning and crossing her forelegs. "What do you have to say for yourself, staying out until after dark, not letting us know where you were? The two of us have been worried sick!"

At the living room table, Vinyl Scratch glanced up. She took a large bite of the submarine sandwich she had been eating. A pickle plopped out, and runny mustard dripped down to the plate below. Vinyl shrugged casually.

Octavia steamed on ahead, not letting Scootaloo get a word in. "Let's have a look at you. Undoubtedly you've been out crusading all over town, and have a new collection of burrs, brambles, cuts and scrapes. You look-"

She faltered as she finally really looked in Scootaloo's direction and took her appearance in.

"-immaculate?" she finished weakly.

Scootaloo grinned at seeing her rant derailed. This, however, may have been a mistake, as Octavia began looking her over more closely.

"I swear you are cleaner than you usually are when you leave the house. And I see a few patches of fur missing," Octavia mused. "From the past, that usually means you got covered in tree sap. Usually cleaning that up removes some of your fur in the process. Where exactly were you?"

"The library. I told Auntie Vinyl I was going to the library!" Scootaloo protested.

"You did, did you?" Octavia looked over at her partner sternly. Vinyl shrank a bit under her gaze.

"Er, maybe?" she answered weakly.

Octavia sighed, some of the tension leaving her. "Honestly. Why do I even put up with you two?"

She turned back to Scootaloo.

"All right, Scoots," she asked. "how, exactly, did you manage to get covered, head to tail from appearances, in tree sap while at the library?"

It was testimony to her previous escapades that Octavia didn't question whether it was possible, but rather how. Scootaloo had proven capable of getting covered in tree sap anywhere.

This, however, was a tricky question for her to answer. She didn't really want to tell Octy the full story. It would get her out of trouble, but she could scratch all chances of going back to the library tomorrow as well. This might honestly not be a bad idea, but she still felt she needed Twilight's help. Time to try to talk her way out of it.

"Er, the library is a tree?" Not that that was relevant, but it was true, anyways. "Spike got me all cleaned up, and Twilight said she'd research my problems with flying. She asked me to meet her back at the library tomorrow, after she's had a chance to check things out properly."

All of that was completely true, and it completely derailed Octavia's train of thought, as intended. At the mention of her flightlessness, the rest of Octavia's stern demeanor melted, and she engulfed Scootaloo in a big hug.

"Hey!" Scootaloo protested, squirming. "Gerroff!"

Actually, she kinda liked Octy's hugs, but she wasn't about to be seen as a softy.

"Scoots, I didn't realize you were still upset about that," Octavia said. "I know it's hard, but no point in moping around about it. We'll still love you just as much, even if you can't fly-"

At the last part, Scootaloo's demeanor changed, and she suddenly pulled out of Octavia's grasp. She'd had about enough of that earlier.

"It doesn't matter. Because I will be able to fly," Scootaloo said angrily. "And at least Twilight's willing to support me in trying, rather than constantly telling me I can't do it!"

She headed past Octavia, and stormed up the stairs. "It's been a long day. I'm going to bed."

As she disappeared into her room, Octavia started to follow. Getting up, Vinyl caught her partway. 

"No point in heading up there now," she told her. "Let her chill for a while. You can always talk about it later, when you're both calmer."

Octavia paused for a moment, then kissed Vinyl on the muzzle. "Now I remember why I put up with you. Come on."

She drew Vinyl into the bedroom with her and closed the door, leaving a half-eaten sandwich on the table behind them.





Scootaloo stood in her room and slammed the door behind her angrily. They just don't understand. Why can't they at least give some thought to the idea that I might become a good flier. Even a great flier!

 Her room did nothing to help calm her down. Everything in it reminded her of flying. The Wonderbolts posters on the wall. The blue and white cloud-patterned comforter on her bed. The picture of Rainbow Dash on the dresser. 

The last actually made her cross for a different reason. You'll take me under your wing, huh? And then you're always missing or busy any time I look for you. 

Maybe Rainbow Dash was having second thoughts about the whole thing. Maybe she realized she doesn't need a silly orange pegasus with stubby little wings that can't fly tagging around behind her all the time.

You know, I don't really want to think about it any more. Why don't I get some sleep? She tipped the picture over, so she wasn't reminded of Rainbow any more, turned out the lights, and climbed in bed.

Sleep didn't come easily for her tonight. She tossed and turned restlessly, seemingly unable to get comfortable.  A few years ago, she might have snuggled up to a stuffed animal and gone to sleep that way, but she didn't keep stuffed animals. Not since- well, she didn't keep stuffed animals.

All around her, the Wonderbolts posters on the wall seemed to be mocking her, telling her she'd never be worthy to join their ranks. Finally, she got up and savagely tore them from the walls, and piled them face down in one of the corners of the room. Only then was she able to get some rest.





Scootaloo found herself in the living room of a very different house. Concert posters for the Flaming Tulips adorned the walls, signed 'Ruby Sunshine' at the bottom, and a guitar lay flung in the corner. She recognized the room immediately, as she'd lived there for many years. 

As if to confirm her first impressions, a young orange pegasus ran into the room, giggling, followed by a white unicorn with magenta hair that matched her own. Mom.

Calm down. It's just a dream. As if to confirm this, the younger version of herself ran right through her, wings extended, with her mother running afterwards.

"Caught you!" she said, throwing her forelegs around her daughter.

"You can't catch me, mommy!" The young filly said excitedly. "I'm zooming off into the sky!"

"A sufficiently determined mare can do anything she puts her mind to, dear," she told her daughter. "Always remember that."

"Will I be able to fly real high and fast when I grow up, mommy?" 

"I'm sure you'll be able to put all the other pegasuses to shame," she replied. "In the meantime, though, it's time to go to bed."

"Awww..." The young filly pouted. "Do I have to?"

"I'm afraid so." She levitated her daughter onto her back, not noticing a stuffed frog fall to the floor. "Come on."

Scootaloo felt herself drawn along with them, though she'd rather not have followed. She knew all too well how this was going to end. 

They headed up a flight of stairs, walking next to a sturdy railing. At the end of the stairs was a nook overlooking the living room. Just there, they headed into a doorway to Scootaloo's old room. Weaving past a chest full of toys, Scootaloo's mother deposited her in the bed in the center.

She neatly tucked her daughter in under the covers. "Alright, time to get some sleep, Scoots."

"But I'm not at all..." She stifled a yawn. "tired. Can't you tell me a story?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear," she said. "I don't really have time tonight, I'm afraid."

"Sing me a song, then?"

"That, I could do," she said. "What would you like to hear, Scoots?"

"A rock ballad!"

She shook her head. "I'd give you something off my last album, but the point is to get you to go to sleep, not wake you up."

"A sleepy rock ballad?"

"No rock tonight, Scoots." She looked thoughtful. "Here's a song I always liked, though. Not one of mine, but still a good one. Get yourself all properly tucked in, and I'll sing it."

Young Scootaloo snuggled into her covers, as her mother started to sing.


Blackbird singing in the dead of night


Take these broken wings and learn to fly


All your life


You were only waiting for this moment to arise.



Blackbird singing in the dead of night


Take these sunken eyes and learn to see


All your life


You were only waiting for this moment to be free.



Blackbird fly Blackbird fly


Into the light of the dark black night.



Blackbird fly Blackbird fly


Into the light of the dark black night.



Blackbird singing in the dead of night


Take these broken wings and learn to fly


All your life


You were only waiting for this moment to arise


You were only waiting for this moment to arise


You were only waiting for this moment to arise.


As she finished, she kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Good night, Scoots. See you in the morning."

She crept out of the room. It was peaceful for a while, as Scootaloo watched her younger self sleep, feeling more and more agitated. Then there was a thumping noise from downstairs, and the young filly stirred. She smacked her lips, then went to grab something next to her, and clutched thin air.

"Mister Hippity-Hop?" she said questioningly. She looked around, but there was no sign of the stuffed animal. She hopped out of bed, and headed to the door in pursuit of the missing toy.

"No! Don't go down there!" Scootaloo yelled, remembering what happened next, and blocked the door. To no avail, of course, as her younger self just walked right through her, to the nook right outside her room.

Scootaloo followed despite herself. In the living room, her stuffed frog lay on the floor, but something - or somepony - was moving in the shadows, grabbing things and stuffing them in a bag.

Her father's voice came from below. "Stop! What are you doing in my home?"

A crash followed, and Scootaloo fixed her eyes on the stuffed toy, and pinned her ears to the side, refusing to see or hear what was happening below. A keening noise came from her younger self, watching everything wide eyed.

And Scootaloo sat there through the yelling and screaming, not moving her eyes from the toy, wincing as a splatter of blood landed on it. She didn't have to look down there to know what was going on. The images had been seared into her brain the first time.

Her father was lying there, head bashed in with a lamp. Her mother had been flung against a wall. She wasn't even sure why she'd survived, other than that her parents' attackers had been eager to leave, and the nook she was in wasn't easy to see from down below.

She'd had nightmares for a long time after that. They'd stopped for a while, but everything that happened today must have been enough to bring them back. She kept staring fixedly at the frog lying on the ground, trying to keep her emotions under control, and barely noticed as a purplish-blue wing wrapped itself around her.

"It's all over and done, Scootaloo," a voice said from by her side. "This all happened a long time ago. And there is nothing you can do to change it. All you can do is move on."

"I k-know, Princess Luna." She sniffed. "But it's so hard."

"Many things in life are," she said. "But they still must be done. It hath - ahem - has been several months since you last had this dream. Was there something wrong that has triggered it tonight?"

"I don't know. Everything," Scootaloo said. "Nothing's going right right now."

"You must tell me all about it. But first, let us go somewhere less stressful. And do not worry about them. They-" She pointed down below. "are in maximum security cells in Canterlot for the rest of their lives."

She smiled, showing all her teeth, a vindictive gleam in her eyes. "And they are having very bad dreams right now."

She guided Scootaloo back into the bedroom and closed the door. Sitting on the bed, Princess Luna held Scootaloo close to her to comfort. As if this released something inside her, Scootaloo started sobbing into her fur for what seemed like forever. Once she regained control of herself, they settled down to talk.

"So, what has been troubling you, child?"

"It's been taking a long time for me to start flying, so Vinyl and Octy took me to a doctor to have me checked out," Scootaloo said. "He said that I only have a twenty percent chance of ever being able to fly."

"Statistics!" Princess Luna spat, as if the word offended her. "Naught but educated guesses. Hardly worth even giving credence. Any fool could offer a one in five chance of your flying. Backing it up is something else entirely."

"Yeah," Scootaloo said, ears beginning to perk back up.

"And even if the figure is correct, it is hardly insurmountable. I have overcome worse odds myself. When I first showed signs of becoming Nightmare Moon, the wisest ponies in the land were sent for, and gave a five percent chance of my ever returning to normal."

"Really?" Scootaloo asked.

"Really," she confirmed. "A thousand years later, I am here, and those who made that assessment are long gone."

Scootaloo scratched her head. "I hope it doesn't take that long for me to fly."

"Well, Rainbow Dash has taken you under her wing, has she not? Has she made any suggestions?"

Scootaloo's ears sagged back down at this. "I haven't told her. She's either been gone, or hasn't been able to make time for me since the camping trip. I think she may be having second thoughts."

Princess Luna frowned at this. "Having a sister is not always easy. Have you told Rainbow Dash how you are feeling?"

"Well, no..."

"Then by all means do so!" she exclaimed, then caught hold of herself. "Keeping things that are bothering you from your sister never leads to good things. Though I suppose attempting to bring about night eternal is unlikely to result from your present situation."

"Um, no," Scootaloo said, puzzled. "Not really."

"Nonetheless, she is likely to know a good deal about the mechanics of flying, and would be a good pony to talk to about your situation. As would Twilight Sparkle."

"I've already talked to her!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Things started off on the wrong hoof, but she's doing some research, and I'll be checking in with her tomorrow."

"Good! Now, I apologize, but my control of this dream is weakening, so I will have to end our conversation here. I will be keeping an eye on your dreams to see how you are doing."

'Does that mean I'll be going back to the dream I was having?" Scootaloo said, worried.

"Actually, I shall use what's left of my control to wake you up to prevent that." she said gently. "You should have already gotten enough sleep tonight in any case."

"Oh. Thanks."

"My pleasure. I look forward to an account of your attempts at flight with interest. Farewell, Scootaloo!"

With that, she walked through a wall and departed. Scootaloo felt an urge to walk back out to the hall again, but almost immediately, everything started going transparent and fading out. In a moment, she found herself laying in a tangle of covers in her room, sunlight streaming in through a window.

Feathering nightmares again. She'd had these nightmares every night after it had happened, but they'd gradually occurred less and less. She'd hoped she'd seen the last of them, but what happened yesterday must have retriggered them.

Not that I really mind seeing more of Princess Luna. Celestia may raise the sun, but Luna had helped her through the tail end of these nightmares, and was certainly her favorite princess. She'd just like to see her when she wasn't reliving her worst moments.

Oh well, there were more immediate matters at hand. It was breakfast time, and she'd never even had anything for dinner last night. She slipped through the door to her room, and trotted downstairs in search of something to eat.
> Sun Is Shining In the Sky
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo closed the door behind her and walked downstairs, a chill running through her. The staircase she was walking down right now was actually the same one as had been in her dream. When her parents died, Vinyl had been living in a small apartment, and had decided to move in with her, rather than vice-versa.

This meant she hadn't had to adjust to living in a new house, but it did mean it was full of memories for her. She gave the air a good sniff as she walked, and the smell of something delicious wafted up. Octavia must be making breakfast. It smelled wonderful.

That, of course, was one way she knew Octy was making it. She would have been smelling smoke if Vinyl had been cooking.

As she entered the living room, Vinyl was sitting by the turntable, sorting through records. She looked up as Scootaloo came down the stairs. "Morning Scoots! Feeling better?"

You know, she actually was a bit. The nightmare had been painful for her, but her talk with Princess Luna had really helped. 

Her muscles still were aching a little, but were a lot better than yesterday, too. She flexed a wing experimentally. Of course, the base of her wings felt kind of tingly for some reason. "Sorta."

Vinyl kept looking through the pile of records in front of her. She paused at one of them.

"You know, I haven't played this in a long time," she said, pulling it out of the stack. "I think it's time to bring it back out."

Her horn glowed electric blue, and the record came out of its sleeve, floating over to the record player. As the record began to play, Scootaloo immediately recognised the song. It was a cover of "Mister Blue Sky", and had only been on the Flaming Tulips' final album.

The band had actually disbanded after her mother's death. Ruby Sunshine had been their lead vocalist and written most of their hits, and they just couldn't replace her. This was an album they'd thrown together while disbanding, all of alternate tracks, and unreleased recordings that they had sitting around. 

There wasn't a real theme or much coherence to the album, and it had a lot more covers than was typical of their others, but it was fun anyways. Especially when it switched over to a cover of "Ballroom Blitz".

Scootaloo just couldn't help herself. She started in on her best air guitar routine, and began rocking out. She even started singing along, though she knew she wasn't exactly the best singer. 

"And the mare in the back said 'Everypone attack!' and it turned into a ballroom blitz." she sang, loudly, though not as offkey as she would have once. "And the filly in the corner said, 'Girl, I'm gonna warn ya, it's going to turn into a ballroom blitz'.'"

Just as she was starting to get really into it, Octavia walked in, shaking her head. "Alright, Vinyl, loud rock music again first thing in the morning? Really?"

Then she noticed Scootaloo doing her best grimace with an air guitar solo. "Oh. Never mind then. Scootaloo, once this song is done, would you mind setting the table? Breakfast is just about ready."


Scootaloo thought to herself, Breakfast. Rock and Roll.

"I made pancakes," Octavia announced. Mmmm, pancakes. Lets see. Pancakes, lovely pancakes. The Ballroom Blitz.

Her thought process was interrupted by a loud rumbling from her stomach. Breakfast it was.

She reluctantly ended her air guitar routine, and followed Octavia over to the kitchen. There she tossed a tray on her back, and Octy started loading it down with plates, silverware, and glasses. Scootaloo spread out her wings a bit, and used them to keep the tray balanced.

She slowly walked back to the living room, stopping any time that the weight on her back shifted. Once there, she started setting places at the table. There was a plate left over when she was done, so she took it back to the kitchen. 

Seeing the extra plate, Octavia started piling pancakes on it, and set down a container of butter and maple syrup on the tray as well. Scoots shrugged mentally, headed back, and put everything in the middle of the table.

Octavia came in, and placed a pitcher of orange juice on the table, then sat down. Scootaloo took this as her cue, and settled down at the table as well. Eying the huge stack of pancakes, she shrugged and started heaping them on her plate.

Vinyl came over and joined them. Scootaloo liberally slathered her pancakes with butter and maple syrup, and started munching on one of them enthusiastically. Octavia made the best pancakes, at least, in her opinion.

After messily devouring one stack, she started in on another. Octy seemed to have made lots of them today, possibly because she knew Scootaloo hadn't gotten dinner.

Once she started slowing down, Octavia spoke up.

"Scootaloo, I seem to recall you were planning on stopping over by the library today to talk with Twilight?"

"Mmmph," Scootaloo quickly swallowed the rest of the pancake in her mouth and tried again. "Yeah, she's been researching my problem, and I was going to see what she's come up with."

"Alright, dear. In that case, why don't I take you over to the library after breakfast? I wanted to talk with her briefly anyways."

Uh oh. Scootaloo could easily imagine what Octavia wanted to talk about. Maybe she hadn't dodged her questions from yesterday that well after all.

"You don't need to do that," she said nervously. "I'll be fine."

"It'll be no trouble at all. I insist."

Oh, hoofclippings, Scootaloo thought, then reminded herself for the millionth time that it wasn't a real swearword. It seemed to fit so well sometimes, though.

"Um, are you sure you don't have any concerts lined up for today?" she asked hopefully.

"No, that concert was next week, dear."

"I've got a late night gig lined up myself, though." Vinyl chipped in.

Nothing new there. A lot of Vinyl's gigs were late night, leaving her with Octy. Unless she also had something lined up. Scootaloo had been able to get away with an awful lot in the past just due to neither of them having been available at the time.

She supposed if Octavia was set on interrogating Twilight, there wasn't much she could do about it. Besides, she hadn't done anything wrong. She actually felt Twilight should get some grief over what had happened. She just wanted to make sure she still had her help afterwards.

"Well, all right. I'm not sure if she'll be ready yet, though," Scootaloo said. "I think she'd said to come over this afternoon."

"I'm sure she won't mind you coming over earlier and helping you with her research," Octavia responded. "It is for your benefit, after all."

"Do you think I should stop by and see if Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom want to help as well?" she asked. "Maybe we could get our cutie marks as research assistants."

The expression on Octavia's face at this was all Scootaloo could have asked for. Actually, she knew Apple Bloom was busy at the farm all day, though Sweetie Belle might have been free, but Octavia didn't need to know that.

"I'm not sure that is the best idea, dear," she said mildly. "Twilight wasn't expecting the others over, after all."

Well, she didn't really want to have to walk all the way over to Sweet Apple Acres, knowing that Apple Bloom wasn't available. She let it go.

"Yeah, I suppose not."

She noticed she was the only one still eating, and quickly finished up the pancakes on her plate. She'd been pretty hungry.

"Could you clear the table for me, Scootaloo?" Octavia asked. "You don't actually need to wash the plates, just put them in the sink and rinse them off. Then we'll get going."

Scootaloo sighed, and hauled away all the dirty dishes while Vinyl went back to the living room and changed records. 

"It's astounding. Time is fleeting..."

Oh, that's what Vinyl's gig tonight was. She'd actually heard Sweetie Belle singing this song once. When she'd asked, it had turned out that her sister and Fluttershy had gone to see the show recently. From her description of their costumes, Scootaloo had thought it'd be cool to check out some time.

Octavia had sort of nipped that idea in the bud, though, telling her it wasn't for young fillies. And since Vinyl usually ended up running the music, if she went, she'd almost certainly get caught. Which was a shame, as it would have been a perfect Cutie Mark Crusaders outing. And what if one of their special talents was related to the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Moot point, though. 

She finished with the dishes, and put what was left of the pancakes into the fridge.Then she ducked into her room for her saddlebags, and headed to the living room, where Octavia was waiting. They let Vinyl know they were leaving, and then headed off for the library.

Scootaloo took her scooter along, walking it over, and parked it outside. Reaching the library, Octavia raised a hoof to knock at the door, but Scootaloo stopped her.

"Octy, you realise this is a library? Within business hours? You don't need to knock. If it was closed, there'd be a sign."

Octavia paused. "It is a home, too. I would think it would be polite, at the very least, to knock before entering."

"There are signs all over the place inside asking ponies to be quiet. I think it'd be all right."

A voice came from behind the door. "The door's unlocked, you two. Are you going to come on in, or do I need to wait for a knock first?"

"We'll be right in, Spike," Scootaloo called out. Octy finally went ahead and opened the door and they walked in. Spike was on the other side, waiting for them.

"About time. I saw both of you approaching from a window, but you never came in."

"Octy's not used to libraries," Scootaloo said, grinning.

"Scoots!"

"No sweat. Twilight's still in full research mode, but I'm sure she'd welcome a helping hoof. In the meantime, um," He looked over at Octavia, "maybe I should get you a library card?"

As Spike pulled out a bunch of paperwork for her to sign, Scootaloo started over to where Twilight was, but stopped about halfway. "Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle looked up from a book she had been studying. 

"Hi Scoots!" she said happily.

"Hi. Um, what are you doing here?"

"It's a library, what do you think I'm doing here?" she said, and gestured to the book. 

Scootaloo groaned. She supposed after the scene with Octavia, she had that one coming. She looked closer at the book Sweetie Belle was reading.

"A Beginners Guide To Magic?"

"Yeah," she said. "I've just gotten really aggravated recently with not even being able to levitate anything, so I thought I'd read up on it. Twilight seemed really busy, but Spike thought I could start with this book."

Scootaloo's wings flared up for a moment. "I know just what you mean."

"What brings you to the library, though?" she asked. "I don't really see you with books often."
 
Scootaloo lowered her voice and got closer to Sweetie Belle. "You remember that doctors appointment I had a few days ago?"

"Yeah." She frowned. "It seemed like you'd been kinda depressed and avoiding us since then, actually."

Scootaloo gave an embarrassed shrug. "I might have been. The doctor told me that I had a pretty good chance of never being able to fly."

"Wow. Scoots, I'm sorry." She put down the book and wrapped herself around Scootaloo in a hug. She flushed, but endured it. From long experience, she knew there was no getting out of one of Sweetie Belle's hugs.

"Anyway, I'm not giving up that easily, and Twilight said she'd help research anything that could help my flying."

"Well, count me in. Maybe I can get some help with my magic along the way," she said, tucking the book in her saddlebag. "I'm not sure this was helping anyways."

The two of them wandered on over to Twilight. She was at a desk, three books floating in midair. First she looked at one, then another, and jotted down notes with a quill and parchment. As Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle entered her field of vision, the books set themselves down on the desk below.

"Scootaloo! I wasn't expecting you here so early!" She looked over at her friend. "And you brought Sweetie Belle along as well?"

"Actually, she was already here, reading up on learning magic."

"Oh?" Twilight looked embarrassed for a moment. "I must not have seen her come in."

She glanced in Sweetie Belle's direction. "Did you need any help?"

"Well, Spike found a book for me, but I wasn't getting anywhere with it," she said dejectedly. "But when I saw Scoots come in, I figured I could help her out instead."

"Oh," she said, then brightened. "No matter. I could use some help from both of you."

She looked at Scootaloo. "I do have one question, though."

"Shoot."

She gestured towards a small stack of really old-looking books, all tattered and worn. 

"These arrived this morning with a note from Princess Luna. Any idea why she wants me to devote my full attention to your problems with flying?"

> Hitting the Books
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo looked at the stack of tattered books, eyes wide. They practically had to have come from some private collection in Canterlot castle or something. Old as they were, they were probably pretty valuable.

"Princess Luna sent all of those?" she asked.

"All of these and the ones I'm looking at right now," she confirmed. "And, well, for one of the princesses to ask me to work on something, it would typically either be something related to my studies, or some threat to Equestria. This doesn't seem to be either, though."

Oh, this should be fun. She knew something Twilight didn't and it looked like it was bugging the hay out of her.

"Well, it seems to me like you should be able to work it out," she said smugly. "If she mentioned me by name, she must know me, right?"

"I don't see how," Twilight said, frustrated. "Luna's only been to town twice. The first time was mostly when she was Nightmare Moon, and she left shortly afterwards. And on Nightmare Night, I was with her most of the night."

"Right," Scootaloo replied. "So she must have met me somewhere else, then."

"I don't think you've spent much time in Canterlot, though." Her eyes narrowed as a sudden suspicion came to her. "You didn't sneak into her tower and spend a bunch of time with her at my brothers wedding, did you?"

"Of course I didn't sneak in to see Luna!"

She wouldn't have had to, since Luna would have let her in. Too bad she'd been so busy practicing for the wedding. She'd had to wear a dress, too. But scattering petals down the aisle had been kinda fun. And nopony had noticed her sampling a few.

And as it turned out, the bride had actually been a really big bug. That'd been awesome! But the real wedding hadn't been bad either.

Twilight sighed, breaking Scootaloo's chain of thought. "Then I have no idea."

Scootaloo frowned as she realized the downside of teasing Twilight like this. To really explain why Luna wanted to help her, her parents were almost sure to come up, and she didn't really like talking about them. It was probably too late now, though.

"Well, what exactly does Princess Luna do? What's she responsible for?" she asked Twilight.

"Princess Luna is in charge of the moon and all things related to the night. She hasn't gone back to being co-ruler of Equestria yet, to my knowledge."

"So what are her duties during the night, then?" she asked Twilight, as if she didn't already know the answer.

"You know, I'm not sure," Twilight answered pensively. She obviously didn't like admitting her ignorance of something.

"Well, what happens during the night?"

"Not much. Most ponies are asleep–" Her eyes widened. "She governs dreams, doesn't she?"

"Exactly," Scootaloo said. "And she's able to walk into other ponies dreams."

"That still doesn't make much sense, though. I can understand that she could walk into your dreams, but why would she? There are a lot of ponies in Equestria."

Scootaloo's ears drooped. "Twilight, what she does is she looks for ponies having bad dreams, and tries to help them. Most times ponies don't even remember her helping them out."

"But you did? Why would she remember you from one bad dream, though?"

This was the part Scootaloo really didn't want to get into.

"She didn't remember me from one dream. But when she has to stop by one or more times a week, you get to know each other."

"Alright, that makes a lot more sense now," Twilight said, more at ease. Then Twilight realised what had just been said. "Wait, you were having nightmares several times a week? For how long?"

"Years." Scootaloo sighed. "Long enough to wish she'd never gone away in the first place. I don't have them too often any more, though."

Twilight's ears drooped, as well. Sweetie Belle, who already knew about Scootaloo's parents, squeezed her reassuringly.

"Years." Twilight paced, books forgotten. "That's terrible. What happened?"

"Um, I don't really like to talk about it," she said, but with the look on Twilight's face, she didn't think she'd leave it at that.

"What could be so bad as to cause years' worth of nightmares, though?" Twilight asked persistently.

"Here." Scootaloo grabbed Twilight's quill for a moment, jotted down a date on the paper in front of her, then gave it back. "Take a look at the newspapers around that day. It should have been on the front page. We were going to try to find stuff about flying though, right?"

"Right." Twilight nodded distractedly. "I'll divide the books into three piles, one for each of us. We'll look at each book in our pile. If it has anything to do with flying, pegasus anatomy, endurance, building your magic core, or looks potentially useful, set it in one pile, and set it in another if it doesn't. We'll go through the first pile together afterwards."

She separated the books into three stacks, and floated one over to Scootaloo, and another to Sweetie Belle. As they started flipping through books, Twilight kept glancing at the date scratched on her notes, and eventually she got up and walked away, leaving her books behind her.

Scootaloo hit her forehead with her hoof. "She's gone to grab some newspapers, hasn't she?"

"Yeah, once you brought it up, there's no way she'd let it go." Sweetie Belle grabbed another book, and her eyes brightened. "Rigis Filia Basileum: The training of a princess?"

"I'm no princess."

"Yeah, but listen to this. For a proper princess, use of–" She puzzled over the next word. "sea-gull magic is recommended to get the most out of her training."

"Seagull magic? Training with a bunch of birds? Let me see that."

Scootaloo peered over the old, half translated book. "Sig-ill? I think that's sigil. I'm pretty sure there was a book in my pile about that."

Rummaging through her pile, she pulled out a thin worn book. "Here we are. 'A Beginners Guide to Sigil and Other Chaos-Related Magics'?"

Sweetie Belle frowned. "Is this a good idea? You remember how much trouble Discord caused –"

"Discord and chaos aren't exactly the same thing, girls." Twilight announced as she walked back in, small stack of newspapers behind her. "And chaos isn't necessarily bad, it's just a matter of how it's used. Why don't you put both those books in the pile, and we'll look them over later?"

Scootaloo shrugged, and put both of them down. They continued searching.

"Romance Reports? Why would Luna send that?" Sweetie Belle said, holding a much newer-looking book up in confusion.

"Oh, that must have gotten mixed in accidentally." Twilight accepted it from her, and set it in a separate pile, though whether that was for putting back on the shelves or later reading, Scootaloo couldn't say.

"Mood Wings: Observations on Pegasus Body Language. Well, that's a possible." Scootaloo threw it in a pile, along with one or two others on the same subject.

Meanwhile, Twilight had one of the newspapers open, and was skimming through the front page. Her ears folded back as she read. "They were survived by their daughter Scootaloo, who watched this tragic series of events unfold from on top of a stairwell. Oh, Scootaloo..."

Scootaloo frowned, annoyed at all the attention. "I told you it's been years, and I don't even get- *gack*"

She was interrupted as Twilight wrapped her in a hug. Octavia, seeing this from across the room, hid a smile behind one hoof. Scootaloo made a face.

"Why does everypony always try to hug me?" she grumbled.

"But you're so huggable, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said.

"I am not huggable," Scootaloo replied, making an unsuccessful attempt to free herself from Twilight's clutches.

"Really? I thought you were earlier." Sweetie Belle cocked her head. "I suppose I'd better doublecheck."

She ran over and joined the hug, barely avoiding impaling Scootaloo on her horn.

With a bit of effort, Scootaloo managed to duck under the two of them and get out, leaving Sweetie Belle and Twilight locked in a hug together, much to their surprise.

"Hey!" Sweetie Belle said. "No fair!"

Scootaloo stuck out her tongue in reply.

"Well, if you don't want a hug..." Twilight said.

"I don't need a hug." Scootaloo crossed her forelegs. "I'm not a touchy-feely pegasus, and I've been been hugged at least four times in the last day. I'm all hugged out. I'm at my quota for the week. At least. Maybe even longer."

"Well, if you need somepony–"

"I needed somepony several years ago. And they were there for me. I'm fine now."

This was completely true. In fact, Vinyl had been just about as devastated about Ruby's death as Scootaloo herself had been, as they'd been very close. There had been a long period of them both crying and hugging each other while Octavia took care of them. Then they'd mutually agreed not to talk about it, as Vinyl wasn't exactly a touchy-feely pony either.

"If you're sure."

"I'm positive."

"Um, Sweetie Belle, you can let go of me now," Twilight told her.

"Are you sure? You sound like you might need a hug right now."

Twilight rolled her eyes, and gently detached herself from Sweetie Belle's grip. Disappointed, Sweetie Belle glanced briefly back at her own flank before walking back to where she'd been sitting.

"You know, maybe we should keep going through these books," Scootaloo said. You could always distract Twilight by mentioning books, as far as Scootaloo could tell.

"Right," Twilight turned her attention back to her neglected stack of books. Pulling a large magical tome out, she started skimming through it. Then she paused on a page, and started studying it intently.

"Find something?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, if this works the way I think it does, it'd be perfect," Twilight told her. "I always thought there had to be an equivalent to the wing creation spell somewhere."

"Wing creation? Why not just use that to give me better wings?"

"Well, it doesn't work on pegasi, for one. Also, it's only temporary. This spell should work out perfectly for magic core exercises, though. Hold still for a moment and I'll cast it on you."

"Um, Twilight?"

"Yes?" She stopped preparing the spell for a moment.

"Maybe we should run it by them first?" Scootaloo gestured to where Spike was helping Octavia find some songbooks. She already had a thick stack. Maybe she really had just wanted to go to the library today.

"Oh, I did promise supervision by Spike, didn't I? But both of them? Who is that, anyway?"

Twilight looked a little closer. "Actually, isn't that Octavia Philharmonica? She's supposed to be a pretty good cellist. I think she's in a relationship with a distant cousin of mine, actually."

"You read that article, didn't you?" Scootaloo said. "She's been living with Vinyl for years."

"I thought that was right." She looked at Scootaloo's expression. "What am I missing?"

"You know, my aunt Vinyl Scratch, who took me in after-" She pointed at the newspaper. "that happened."

"Oh," she said, looking at Octavia with new comprehension. "Yes, that would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"

She trotted over, and showed the book to Spike. The three of them talked for a few minutes, just low enough that Scootaloo couldn't make out what they were saying, then they all came trotting over.

"I think you're fine with this one, Scootaloo," Spike told her. "It'll only last for a few hours, and if it's miscast, it just fizzles. It takes a good deal of power, but Twilight can handle it."

"And I'd love to see the results," said Octavia, grinning. "I just wish Vinyl was here to see it. Go ahead with the spell, Twilight."

Twilight closed her eyes, and lowered her now glowing horn at Scootaloo, an expression of extreme concentration on her face. Just then, Scootaloo realised that Twilight had never finished her explanation.

"Um, exactly what was this spell supposed to do?" she asked. How do I keep getting myself in these situations?

Before she could get an answer, a lavender glow completely enveloped her. She could feel herself float up in the air and rotate all the way around, and it felt like something was happening. Both her wings and head felt rather funny. 

Then she gradually lowered back to where she had been standing, and the glow faded. Twilight inspected her carefully.

"Well, I believe we can say that was a complete success," she remarked.

"Wasn't that all a little showy?" Spike asked.

"Showy isn't always bad," Twilight said. "It would have actually been easier without the whole three hundred sixty degree rotation, but since this was an untested spell, I wasn't about to modify it from the way it was written."

"Can we get a few pictures?" Octavia asked.

"No problem," Spike said, pulling a camera off one of the shelves. Donning a suede hat with a piece of paper stuck to one side, camera hung around his neck, he started snapping pictures of Scootaloo.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle seemed to be snickering and trying not to look in her direction, which wasn't a good sign.

"What exactly did this spell do to me?" Scootaloo asked. 

Her head felt really heavy. Instinctively, she looked behind her to see if she'd at least gotten an 'experimental test subject' cutie mark, but there was nothing on her flank. And that wasn't the only thing that was missing.

"Hey! Where did my wings go?"

> Practice Makes Perfect
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Scootaloo's heart began to race, looking at her wingless back, Twilight cleared her throat. Turning in her direction, Scootaloo found a large mirror floating directly in front of her. Scootaloo looked at her reflection in wonder. 

It was clearly her. But it clearly wasn't. Seeing an orange unicorn filly in her place was perhaps one of the oddest things she'd ever had happen to her. Besides being strapped to a metal table in Twilight's basement, that was. This was high up on the list, though. 

Scootaloo moved her head experimentally, and the head in the mirror mimicked her motion. No wonder her head felt heavy. If she wasn't careful, she could poke somepony's eye out with this thing.

"Huh," she finally said. "So that spell took away my wings and made me all horny?"

At this, Octavia looked over at her and started snickering.

Twilight turned to look at her, setting down the mirror. "I believe you mean 'the spell gave you a horn'. 'The spell made me horny' means something quite different. Also, that isn't exactly right."

She brought back over the spellbook she had found earlier. "As you can see here, with this spell nothing actually gets created or destroyed. Technically, your wings were absorbed into your body, then reformed on your head as your horn."

"So my wings are actually my horn?" She touched her horn in wonder. "That's weird. Can I do magic with it now?"

Twilight shook her head. "Not yet. But once you learn how, you can. I'll teach you a few simple magic exercises for beginners. You can practice them for the duration of this spell, and you should be on your way to building up your magic core."

At this, Sweetie Belle bit her lip, and looked at Twilight with big eyes. "Um, Twilight? Can you teach me those exercises too?"

Twilight looked back at her in surprise. "These are going to be pretty basic. Hasn't anypony taught you anything about magic yet? Maybe Rarity?"

"I'm so sorry, Sweetie Belle. I just can't tonight," Sweetie Belle said, mimicking Rarity's voice. "I absolutely must finish these dresses by Saturday. Maybe some other time?"

Sweetie Belle dropped her imitation. "My sister never has enough time for me. And my parents barely ever know I'm there."

"Well, I have time right now, and having two students may actually be easier than one, since you can help each other out," Twilight told her. "If both of you and, um, Spike will come down to the basement with me, we'll get started."

"Well, with that, I should get going," Octavia said, finishing checking out her rather large stack of books. "Scootaloo, I'll leave you in Spike's hands from here. Just make sure you aren't out too late."

"Sure," Scootaloo said. "Later, Octy."

Octavia opened the door, then looked back at her. "Oh, and Scoots, try not to let Twilight strap you to anything this time, alright?"

She closed the door without waiting for a reply.

Wait, what? When did Octy find out about that?

Scootaloo stood there for a moment, then got moving when she realised everypony else (and one dragon) was already headed downstairs.

By the time she caught up with the others, she was out of breath. Maybe she did need some sort of endurance training. This time they seemed to be headed in a different direction than her last trip, thankfully. 

Pretty soon they got to a wide open area with a bunch of bullseye targets and various different sizes of rocks and pebbles in a pile. Spike dragged out a bunch of cushions and arranged them in a circle facing a blackboard and raised desk.

Twilight grabbed a cushion and placed it in front of the desk, prompting a raised eyebrow from Spike. She climbed on it, and sat down with her hind legs crossed. She waved at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to do the same. Trying to imitate Twilight, Scootaloo couldn't help but feel her hindquarters were going to fall asleep.

"First we need to clear our minds, and then locate our magical cores," Twilight began in a practiced cadance. Sweetie Belle waved around one foreleg. "Yes, Sweetie?"

"How do we clear our minds?" she asked.

"That is actually the first thing I plan to cover," Twilight answered. "Normally your mind is full of thoughts and distractions. Deadlines, paperwork, whether the books on the shelf behind you are organised properly..."

Scootaloo tapped one hoof impatiently, and Twilight moved on. "Magic takes form based on whatever you may be focused on at the time you use it. As such, a clear mind is vital. One idle thought in your mind or distraction at a critical moment, and your father's a cactus."

As both fillies turned to look at her, Twilight backtracked. "Or something of the sort, anyways. There are a number of ways to clear your mind, but today we'll just do a simple breathing exercise. Once you have that down, we'll go over and practice casting magic."

"So how do we practice breathing?" Scootaloo scratched her head. "Breathe in and out a whole bunch?"

"Well, maybe not a whole bunch. I wouldn't want you to hyperventilate." Twilight smiled. "Just breathe the way you normally do, but concentrate all of your attention on it. You will start to breathe deeper after a while, but don't try to take deep breaths. Just let anything else in your mind drift out and focus as you inhale and exhale. Once you've been able to keep your mind clear for a few minutes, raise one hoof, and we'll continue."


Well, this should be easy enough, Scootaloo thought. Just don't think of Rainbow Dash or flying or anything besides breathing in and out. Easy peasy. She closed her eyes.

Breathe in. Breathe out. 

Breathe in. This is boring. Breathe out.

The mare in the back said everypone attack and- No. No music. Breathe.

Air going in. Air coming out, racing past me as I soar through the sky. No, focus, Scootaloo. Don't think of anything but breathing in and out. 

Breathe in. Don't think of anything but breathing. Breathing out, and no other thoughts.

Oh, ponyfeathers, now I'm thinking about not thinking about things. Stop it, Scootaloo. No thinking about thinking. Or thinking about thinking about thinking. Breathe.

A loud snore interrupted her thoughts. Scootaloo opened her eyes a crack to see Spike lightly shaking Sweetie Belle to wake her up. She closed them again.

Well, I suppose I could be doing worse. Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out.

A little while later, she raised one foreleg, and was soon joined by a sleepy Sweetie Belle.

Twilight resumed her lecture. "Alright, now that both of you know how to clear your mind, I should tell you that it's mostly vital at your stage of magical ability. Once you've had some practice, you'll find your focus narrowing automatically when you start casting, and while you may want to clear your mind before a difficult spell, you won't need to. Early on, you can mess up badly without it."

"So, later on, we can skip it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Twilight sighed. "Eventually you can. I'll still want you both to practice clearing your mind on your own. It can also help you with relaxing, meditating, if you need a good nights sleep, or when you really need to focus on something, such as studying, so it's a good skill to have."

Figures. It's just like Twilight to teach us something school-related. Still, maybe I'll try that next time a test comes around.

Twilight got up from her cushion, and waved them over to where the targets were. Scootaloo unfolded her hind legs awkwardly, nearly toppling over. Sure enough, her legs were all pins and needles, making getting up and walking difficult, but she managed to head over to where Twilight had indicated.

She joined Sweetie Belle a short distance from the targets. As Twilight headed over herself, Scootaloo shook her back legs and hindquarters, trying to get them to wake up. Sweetie Belle had no such problem, though she seemed barely awake herself.

"First, let me give a quick demonstration." Walking next to them, Twilight's horn glowed briefly and a lavender beam shot out, hitting one of the targets right in the center. The number ninety-five floated briefly over the target, then vanished. 

She walked in front of them, between targets. "That is what you are going to be doing next. Don't worry about the number, as yours will be much smaller initially. The first step is to clear your mind again, then find your magical core."

"Your magical core should be found near the center of your body." She pointed towards the middle of her barrel. "Just close your eyes and picture a glowing warm reservoir of energy, then draw magic from it up to your horn. It may tingle as energy flows through your body."

Twilight paced back and forth. "Once your magic is in your horn, open your eyes, keep your mind clear, and release it from your horn at one of the targets. Right now we're just worried about being able to access your magic, and then your aim."

Scootaloo closed her eyes, and sort of mentally concentrated, looking for anything like what Twilight had described. She was able to find a warm tingly orange glow inside her fairly easily, to her surprise. It did feel all prickly and tingly, much like her hind legs still did, but it somehow felt vibrant, powerful, and full of life. It was hard to describe, really. 

She pulled some of it up into her horn, or wings, or whatever they were, then opened her eyes. Her horn was glowing orange, with a few sparks coming out of it, as was Sweetie Belle's, though hers appeared to be light green.

"Good," Twilight said approvingly. "Now, release your magic, concentrating on a stream of magic flowing out in a line in front of you. It may take some effort at first, but keep trying."

Sure enough, it felt like there was some sort of barrier or something keeping her magic where it was. She kept pushing until it finally gave way, and a pulse of magic zapped out of her horn. Sweetie Belle shot a green magical bolt out of her horn at about the same time. Twilight yelped, and quickly threw herself to the floor as they both went right where she had been standing a moment ago, and then fizzled out on a wall.

"Good. A little more effort in aiming at the target and not me, but good," Twilight said weakly. "Why don't I move out of the way so you can keep practicing?"

She scrambled well out of range, and they continued. Eventually they even hit the targets, and it got easier and easier to cast. She wasn't sure a three was a great number to get, especially since Sweetie Belle was getting higher numbers, but then she wasn't really a unicorn. And that was her first hit on a target anyways.

Of course, Scootaloo did manage to paint the walls rainbow colored on one of her attempts when she got distracted. Fortunately, there really wasn't that much to damage in this area. It really looked like this area was intended for what they were doing, practicing spells.

After they'd both gotten the hang of aiming and zapping targets with their magic, Twilight looked up from skimming through a book, and called a halt to the exercise.

"We'll resume that exercise another time, as it helps gauge accuracy and how much magic you can use. Keep in mind that how much you can use at once and how much you have are completely separate things. For now, let's try something more practical."

Twilight tossed a handful of pebbles by each of them.

"This is a bit more difficult, but is really one of the quintessential unicorn skills to learn," Twilight said.

"Um, quintess-" Sweetie Belle attempted.

"Basic," Twilight said. "The thing to keep in mind is that magic doesn't have to travel in straight lines. This time, what you'll do is once your magic is concentrated in your horn, imagine it wrapping around the pebble without traveling there from your horn. Then visualise the pebble rising into the air. It may be difficult at first, but eventually, you'll be able to do it without thinking about it."

Hmmm... Sounds tricky.

Scootaloo tentatively nudged one of the pebbles in front of her with a hoof. She sighed, and began clearing her mind yet again. That was starting to get pretty easy. She drew her magic back into her horn, and pushed through the barrier. And then accidentally let her magic blast out unto a wall and fizzle out.

Hoofclippings. Let's try that again.

Clear her mind. Draw up her magic. Get through the barrier, which wasn't taking as long as it used to. And she sort of flicked her magic at the pebble, which went up, all right. Straight up into the ceiling, where it stuck.

"That was a good first effort, Scootaloo," Twilight said, coming around. "Next time, make sure to keep hold of the pebble, though, rather than just sending it in a direction. Though there are times that's all you'll need to do."

"Um, Twilight? Any idea why the pebble isn't moving?" Sweetie Belle's voice drifted over to them.

Scootaloo looked over at her, and had to fight not to laugh. Her mane was standing up on end.

"Was your mane getting in the way of your eyes earlier?" Scootaloo asked innocently.

"Yeah, kinda," she answered. "Why?"

"I think you levitated it instead of the pebble," Scootaloo said.

Sweetie Belle's mane suddenly dropped right in front of her eyes. Spike quickly came over with a brush. She gratefully accepted it, and brushed her mane back where it wouldn't interfere with her spellcasting..

Scootaloo grabbed another pebble, and started trying moving it with her magic again. After a bit of practice, she was able to hold one up for a few minutes before dropping it.

"Here, why don't you try with a heavier pebble?" Twilight asked. "Part of why I'm using pebbles is so that you can change out the weight as you get better at it. Otherwise, we'd traditionally use feathers."

"Feathers," Scootaloo said contemplatively. "Would I be able to levitate my wings?"

"Well, there'd be two issues with that, actually," Twilight replied. "First, one of the limitations of levitation is that you can't move parts of your own body, though you can levitate other ponies."

"Oh." Scootaloo looked down.

"Second, you don't have wings at the moment," Twilight said.

"Right." How could she have forgotten that? "What if I made some fake wings and levitated those?"

"The trouble there would be moving several objects up and down fast enough," Twilight said thoughtfully. "I could probably manage it, but it'll be awhile before you'd be able to. And you are only a unicorn for a few hours, so it'd be dangerous. It is an interesting idea."

"Yeah, guess it wouldn't work," Scootaloo shook her head. "Where are the heavier pebbles, anyways?"

Twilight sent over a few more pebbles from another one of the piles. She started rapidly making some notes, while muttering something about Pinkie Pie, for whatever reason. Whatever.

She practiced with the heavier pebbles for a while. Sweetie Belle seemed to be on even heavier ones then she was at this point, but she was getting the hang of this.

Then Scootaloo felt an odd sensation. Her horn shivered, and then sunk right back into her head. She felt something flowing to her sides that almost felt the way her magic had, and then her wings suddenly sprouted out on either side.

Scootaloo spread her wings out for a minute, admiring them, and even kissed them before she caught herself. She gave them a few experimental flaps. They still worked as good as ever. Which could be better, of course.

Beside her, Twilight jotted down the time, and pulled a few pieces of chocolate out of her saddle bag.

"Well, this seems like a good time to wrap things up," she said. "Both of you are actually doing really well. Most beginners take far longer to get the hang of using their magic."

She gave one piece of chocolate to Sweetie Belle, who started munching on it happily. "Sweetie Belle, you are making great progress. I'd like you to avoid using your magic without supervision from me or another unicorn for now, though."

Then she passed another piece to Scootaloo, who just looked at it. "I'm actually fairly impressed with how well you are doing, especially with you not being a unicorn. Your power levels could be better, but you seem to have the idea down well, and the exercises should help."

"Thanks," she said. "Um, what's with the chocolate?"

"You've both just used a lot of magic, and your magical cores are likely to be slightly low. Chocolate helps recover from magical depletion. Now, how do Mondays and Fridays sound for practice? You both still have a few things to learn and a lot of practice ahead."

Scootaloo frowned. "I can do that, but what about the rest of my week?"

"Don't worry, I've got some ideas for that," she said, making Scootaloo wonder how much of her schedule was going to be taken up by Twilight. "First, though, how about you, Sweetie Belle?"

"No way am I missing out on this!" she said. "I'll be there!"

"Perfect. Of course, make sure to check with your parents first." Sweetie Belle frowned at this.

"So what else did you have in mind for my week?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, we need to work on your wing muscles, so for that, I thought we could get Rainbow's help, and Applejack might have some ideas for your endurance and stamina." Twilight said.

"And then maybe Discord for the sigil magic?" Sweetie Belle asked, seemingly having forgotten her earlier concerns about Discord and chaos magic. 

"I'd rather not have him turn you into some scion of chaos or something," Twilight answered. "I've been looking through the book on sigil magic, and it looks like you should be able to handle it yourselves, actually. Why don't you read it over, and ask me if you have any questions?"

"Um, well, one question first," Scootaloo said. "Would I even be able to do sigil magic right now?"

"Actually, it doesn't require you to be a unicorn, though with your reserves low, I wouldn't try more than one or two today." She floated the book over to Scootaloo, who stuck it in her bag. "I'll go over the other books in the meantime, and see if I come across anything."

"Alright, we'll, um, study this, and let you know how we do, Twilight. Thanks for all your help today!" Scootaloo said. 

"No, problem, Scootaloo," she said. "You are going to eat that chocolate, right?"

Under Twilight's watchful eye, she ate the whole piece. It was really good quality dark chocolate, too. Then they walked back up from Twilight's basement, which Scootaloo was starting to suspect had been magically enlarged. 

Once they got back in the main section of the library, Twilight turned to them. "Well, I'll look over the other books you found. There's still a bit of time left in the day. Why don't you spend a bit of it outside, playing, while you have the chance?"

Well, I don't have to be told that twice. I'm kinda studied out, anyways.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle headed to the door. 

"Later Spike!" Scootaloo called out. "Later, Twilight!"

As they left the library, Sweetie Belle turned to Scootaloo. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Lets go see if Apple Bloom's available, head to the clubhouse, and read up on sigils. Maybe we can get sigil cutie marks."

"Cutie Mark Crusader Chaos Magicians, yay!" they said together excitedly.

Elsewhere, in Fluttershy's cottage, Discord sneezed. Idly turning Angel into a handkerchief and blowing his nose, he went back to sipping a cup of tea, ignoring the rabbit's disgruntled glares.

> Do You Believe In Magic?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it turned out, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had no problems at all finding Apple Bloom. After wandering around Sweet Apple Acres for a while, they came across Applejack working away bucking apples like there was no tomorrow, and Apple Bloom was fervently trying to keep up at her side. It may have taken her two or three bucks to shake the apples down, rather than one, but she seemed, all in all, to be getting pretty good at it.

Applejack stopped bucking apples as they approached, and gently stopped Apple Bloom when she just kept going.

"We'd best call it a day, lil' sis," Applejack told her sister, as Apple Bloom wiped sweat off her brow. "Looks like your friends are here to play."

"Are you sure you don't need my help any more, Applejack?" Apple Bloom said, looking between her sister and her friends hopefully.

"Sure as sugar," Applejack told her. "I've been doing this since I was your age. A few hours alone won't hurt me none."

Apple Bloom looked back at her for a moment, then scampered over to where Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were standing.

"Later, sis!" she called out, and joined them.

"Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle!" she said. "I didn't figure we'd be crusadin' today!"

"We were done at the library early and found this book and got this sweet idea for a crusade and we had to try it, so we thought we'd all try doing this together!"

"What were y'all doing at the library?" Apple Bloom glanced at Scootaloo. "You ain't exactly the library type, after all."

"Scoots has been holding out on us," Sweetie Belle informed  her.

"I wasn't holding out on you!" Scootaloo said irritatedly. "It'd only been a few days, and I just hadn't gotten around to telling you about it yet. Besides, it's kinda personal."

"Well, let's head on down to the clubhouse, and we can talk about it there, then."

They all took a few minute walk down to their treehouse, and climbed up the ramp. Once they were securely inside and the door was closed, Apple Bloom turned back to Scootaloo.

"Ok, there ain't nopony here but us. What's got your hooves all out of line, Scoot?"

"Well, I saw a doctor a few days ago, because I still can't fly. They said I only have a twenty percent chance of ever being able to fly."

"Twenty percent? We can beat those odds," Apple Bloom said. "So what are we gonna do to get you flying? Maybe there's some special equipment you can use to get your wings stronger? Wing braces or something?"

"Twilight's already kinda on it," Scootaloo said. "She's coming up with this whole list of things for me to do. I'm starting to think her training's gonna take up my whole summer."

"There's gotta be something more we can do, though. What's Twilight got planned? Maybe we can help her."

"Well, what me and Sweetie Belle were doing today was some stuff to improve my magic, 'cause flying needs magic. Tomorrow she's gonna bring Rainbow Dash in for wing exercises and things, and then she's gonna ask Applejack about my endurance and stamina the next day."

"Bet she'll have ya buckin' apples with me, then," Apple Bloom give a big grin. "I could use some help, anyway."

Scootaloo groaned at the thought of spending all day apple-bucking, with Apple Bloom or not. She was probably right, too.

"That's not what we're gonna try today, though," she said, hoping to get away from the subject of apple-bucking till her muscles ached. "We found this book on sigil magic, and Twilight said we could try practicing it, so we thought maybe we could get sigil magic cutie marks!"

"Wait. Sweetie Belle's the only one of us that can do magic, ain't she? How could we all possibly get cutie marks in it? How could you work on magic with Twilight, even?"

"Twilight turned Scootaloo into a unicorn!" Sweetie Belle blurted out. 

Apple Bloom turned and stared at Scootaloo.

"I got better," Scootaloo offered. Apple Bloom just kept staring at her. Scootaloo decided to change the subject.

"Look, according to Twilight, sigil magic can be done by anypony anyways. We found a book suggesting I use it in my training, and Twilight looked it over and said it'd be fine." Then a thought occurred to her. "Shoot, we grabbed the magic book, but not the other one, didn't we? Reggae Filly Basilum or whatever it was?"

"Wait a sec." Sweetie Belle started rooting through her saddlebags, then pulled out a worn volume and waved it triumphantly. "Got it! I pulled it back out of the stack, 'cause I was curious, and stuck it back in my bag without even thinking about it."

Apple Bloom looked at the book title curiously. "The training of a princess? Where did that come from?"

"Princess Luna sent Twilight some books to help me out, and this was one of them," Scootaloo said.

"So this was a book she used to train, then? What sort of training is it for, anyways? How to act like a princess?"

Scootaloo glanced at it thoughtfully. "I dunno, really. I just figured Luna thought it was important."

Sweetie Belle flipped open the book. "Trouble is that it's written in some other language. Some of it's got translations next to it, but I still can't read half of it."

Being written more than a thousand years ago in the High Unicorn tongue, it wasn't particularly strange that she couldn't read the text. Luna, and Celestia would have had no trouble with it, as would Starswirl the Bearded, and Twilight could read it slowly with the occasional use of a reference guide.

For three school fillies with only Equestrian Common and a smattering of Fancy between them, it was nigh impenetrable, though. Fortunately, the hoof-written translations covered most of the important parts.

"Besides eddy, er, etiquette, a proper princess needs to train in three fields. She needs to understand and be one with the magic within her, have the strength and endurance to face any task ahead of her, and have the ability to fly around all obstacles that challenge her. When practicing in these three areas, the use of custom sigils for each area is recommended to make the most of her training."

"Well, you know," Apple Bloom said, stroking her chin with one hoof, "that sounds a mite like the training Twilight's planning for you."

"Huh. It does, doesn't it? Maybe Luna figured the training a princess gets would work for me as well, or something."

"Listen to this." Sweetie had moved on to another section of the book. "...for every filly can be a princess, or has the potential to be one, and every colt a prince."

Apple Bloom snorted. "You wouldn't catch me being a princess. All those frou-frou outfits, holding court, and hanging out with all those snooty nobles. Fine for some, I suppose, but I'd rather be out on Sweet Apple Acres doing real work."

"Well, it's not like every girl wants to be a princess, anyways," Scootaloo said. "That'd be silly."

"Um, I don't think the princesses usually wear clothes," Sweetie Belle said softly. "Besides, I think it's just saying everypony can be better than they are."

"As long as that leads to me flying better than I am. Or at all, really."

"I suppose we should take a look-see at that sigil book, then," Apple Bloom said. "See if we can figure out how to do custom ones."

Scootaloo pulled the sigil book out and gave it to Apple Bloom, who started going through the pages.

"Lets see what we got here. Some beginning exercises to do, with stuff about clearing your mind and memory exercises."

"Got the first down," Scootaloo said, and Sweetie Belle nodded absently, attention on her own book.

"Really? Okay. We've gotta bunch of stuff on creating your own custom sigils here, which seems to be the main theme of this book, then some talk about symbol-based magic. Says it isn't true sigil magic, but gets lumped with it, and is from the same school, whatever that means."

"I'd think the part about custom sigils is what we want," Scootaloo remarked.

"Wait, it's got a bit on summoning things here," Apple Bloom said, turning a few pages. "Summoning a Cutie Mark?! Let's do the custom sigil stuff later. We gotta try this!"

Scootaloo peered at the page Apple Bloom was looking at, but all she could make out was "Cu-", a smudge, and then "rk". It could say "Cutie Mark", she supposed.

"Are you sure that's what it says?" she asked.

"I think so," Apple Bloom said abstractly. "Here, draw this squiggly thing over on the floor on the other side of the clubhouse."

"If it's summoning a cutie mark, shouldn't we draw it on our flanks?" Scootaloo asked.

"Nah, it says you need a large open area," Apple Bloom said, not looking up. "Once you've done that, Sweetie Belle, you can clear your mind and channel energy through the drawing, since I'm not sure how that works, and I'll say these weird words in foreign it has here."

So Scootaloo started sketching out the weird squiggly diagram out in broad strokes with chalk, then added all the little details it showed afterwards. Finally, she drew a big circle around it and stood back, comparing it to the page. "That look good?"

"Yeah, perfect." 

Scootaloo stepped back, and Sweetie Belle walked over to the diagram. She looked over Apple Bloom's shoulder at the page involving channeling power through the symbol, and her horn started glowing green. 

A minute later, the whole thing started glowing. Scootaloo could see that a small section of the circle had smudged, and wasn't glowing, but it was tiny, so she figured it wouldn't be a big deal.

"Lucky thing they wrote out how to say this," Apple Bloom muttered. "What's with all these y's and w's?"

Then she began chanting, her words somehow echoing in all three of their minds as she said them.


"Dewch i lawr i ni, Culhwch Marik,


Dewch i lawr gyda ni, oh un mawr,


Dewch i lawr, Culhwch Marik, a gwledd yn ein plith.


Dewch i lawr, oh un mawr,


Ac yn ei alw yma nawr!"


The diagram suddenly flared, and it's glow became almost painful to look at. Started by the flare, the glow around Sweetie Belle's horn vanished, but the light from the diagram remained, growing even brighter, so that the clubhouse seemed almost dim and grey in comparison.

Then Scootaloo felt an almost overpowering presence nearby. Frightened, she backed up to the other end of the clubhouse, closely followed by the others. A smell of smoke and rotting eggs came drifting over where they were hiding, causing Sweetie Belle to cough.

As the glow began to dim, Scootaloo could make out a figure standing, for lack of a better word, in the center of the diagram. She looked on in wonder, her mind trying desperately to process what she was seeing.

Sitting on the diagram was a thing. 

She hadn't seen many things in her day, but if anything qualified as a thing, this did. It wasn't the tentacles, the suckers covering them, the excess of eyes and mouths on stalks, the green slime oozing, or the other details individually that convinced her, or even the alien buzzing and chittering sounds it was making, but the sum total all in one place.

It was a thing that should not be. She couldn't recall where she had heard the phrase, but it fit. Oh Celestia, it fit. She wanted Twilight here, or Luna, or somepony that could protect her right now. 

An eyestalk swiveled around the thing in a full circle, then stopped at one point. Then the creature started moving forward with a squelching sound, leaving a trail of slime behind it, going right through the smudge in the chalk.

The three of them cowered against one wall as it approached, buzzing, clicking, and whirring in what Scootaloo assumed was a menacing manner. It moved towards them until they were trapped in one corner, shivering. A strange smell, like cardamom, cinnamon, and cleaning fluid mixed together emanated from its direction.

Well, this is it, Scootaloo thought. I'm sorry to have let you down Vinyl, Octy, Luna, Twilight. Guess I'll be seeing you sooner than I thought, mom, dad. I wish I could have at least flown once in my life.

Then the creature stopped, and a few eyestalks swivelled over to an empty spot on the wall. It chittered in a questioning tone, mandibles clicking together in confusion. 

Looking at the same spot, Scootaloo saw a chalk line had appeared down at the bottom of the wall. As she watched, it formed into a chalk outline of a rectangle, and then a circle was drawn on one side, making it for all the world look like a crude picture of a door.

A knock came from the other side, and then another.

"It's open! Come on in!" Apple Bloom called out, a sort of crazed hysterical tone in her voice, as if she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

The circle seemed to shimmer and turn into a full, three-dimensional doorknob, and turned on its own. The door thickened, and became real, and one claw opened it from the other side. Standing on the other side was another strange creature, but this one, at least, was one they recognised. Discord.

The draconequus strolled in, teacup in one hand, and surveyed the situation. He glanced over the three crusaders, where they stood shivering, then he saw the thing in front of them, and his eyes lit up.

"Culhwch!" he exclaimed happily. "I thought that was your signature I felt! It's been forever! How has the Nithon underworld been treating you?"

A few clicks, whistles and buzzes came from the creature, which Discord somehow seemed to follow with ease.

"Oh, shame, shame," he said. "But you're still here, still oozing, still eldritch as ever. Things will pick up, eventually. So, what brings you here?"

It made a few more noises, gnashed its mandibles, and waved a few tentacles in their direction.

"A snack?" Discord exclaimed, and looked over the fillies. "Oh dear, no, Fluttershy would have a fit. I believe she's rather fond of them. And I'd hate to damp down such promising chaos magicians right at their start. Besides, I believe I owe them a favor or two."

A muted whirring sound came from the creature, and it backed off a bit.

"Yes, I'm sure you're hungry, after a summoning like that. I've got just the thing for just this sort of occasion."

He placed down his teacup on a table that appeared out of nowhere, snapped his fingers, and a milkshake appeared. It looked like it was strawberry, but it seemed entirely the wrong shade of red. He handed it to one outstretched tentacle, and the creature began sucking it down greedily through a straw.

He walked over to the crusaders, who seemed on the verge of gibbering.

"An excellent bit of summoning, if I do say so. Bra-vo. Job well done, girls. I can see you'll be wonderful chaos magicians - if you survive, that is."

Apple Bloom was the first to recover enough to speak. "H-How did you-"

"How did I know to come here? Why, you left a chaos magic signature that could be detected for miles. Hardly a difficult feat when you are as attuned to chaos as I am, now. Good thing I did, too. Culhwch Marik and I haven't had a chance to catch up in simply ages."

"You're friends?" Apple Bloom asked. "But it was going to eat us!"

"Shame, shame. It's not like he has any control over what he lives on. Besides, he wasn't going to eat you."

"He wasn't?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"No, no, he was simply going to suck out all your creativity, imagination, and inspiration. You would have recovered in a few years. It would have been such a waste, though."

"Wait, is that what was in that milkshake you gave him?" Scootaloo asked. "Imagination?"

"Creativity and imagination. Oh, and a touch of raspberries."

"Did you just feed him another ponies creativity?" Apple Bloom said, frowning.

"Don't worry, it's not like they were actually using it, anyways. Whereas you girls, well, do you know how much chaos you've stirred up in Ponyville? It's extraordinary."

"We've just been tryin' to find our cutie marks. We haven't been tryin' to stir up any trouble."

"Not trouble, my dears, chaos. And trying to find your 'cutie marks'?" Discord rolled his eyes. "Ponies. Classifying everything in neat little boxes. You'd like to find your 'one special talent' and then spend the rest of your humdrum little pony life breaking apples or something, I suppose."

"That's apple-buckin' and that'd suit me just fine," Apple Bloom said indignantly. "It's what my family's always done."

"Oh, and that makes it what you should do, too, then, hmm? Pity, you three show real potential. This the book you're using?"

Discord reached out and snagged the book from Apple Bloom's unresisting hooves, and started thumbing through it.

"Looks pretty straightforward. A bit dull, but you should be safe enough working with this. Oh, what's this here? Summons: This section is provided for informational purposes only and should not be attempted unless an experienced chaos magician. These spells may result in accidental death, dismemberment, or loss of one's limbs. And you were were casting from here? I'm impressed."

"It said what?" Sweetie Belle shrieked.

"Oh, you didn't notice that? Well, it's still impressive you cast it flawlessly first time. I suppose I'd better ensure you survive as chaos magicians, though."

He grabbed the problematic section and pulled. Rather than ripping, the pages came seamlessly came out. The book then reformed itself to become smaller, and the separated pages became a separate pamphlet. 

"I'll just keep this part safe for you, I think. Once you start to get the rest of the book down, come see me, and perhaps you can try some summons with a bit of guidance."

He handed the book back, and tucked the pamphlet into the air, where it vanished. 

"Well, I'd best be on my way. Ta ta for now, girls! Don't be strangers!"

He waved, and gestured to the thing waiting patiently for him through the door, then went through himself, after picking back up his teacup. As he closed the door, it vanished behind him, leaving three stunned fillies standing alone in a treehouse.

Apple Bloom gave the book on sigil magic back to Scootaloo. "You know, I reckon that's enough chaos magic for one day, you think?"

Scootaloo couldn't help but agree.



Omake: 
Back at Fluttershy's cottage, a table was laid out with tea at four places. On one side of the table, Discord sat sipping a cup of tea, as Angel sat with his arms crossed.

On the other side sat the thing, chittering with irritation. Around each of its eyestalks, a ribbon had been tied in a bow. It whirred and squealed, waving an eyestalk with a pink ribbon tied to it.

"Oh, I quite agree," Fluttershy said next to it. "That won't do at all. Here, let me get that."

She gently untied the ribbon from the eyestalk, rubbing the tentacle.

"Pink is entirely the wrong color for you. Here, how about this?"

She pulled out a light blue ribbon and tied it on the eyestalk in the pink ones place. The creature emitted a low purring noise. Discord sighed.



> Reflections
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the clubhouse, the three crusaders looked at each other uneasily. In theory there were all sorts of things they could do. Dinner may be coming up, but they still had enough time that they could do something. But somehow their hearts weren't in it.

After a moment silence, all three of them spoke up.

"Do you think we should-" 

"I reckon it's time-" 

"Maybe we should call it a night?"

They glanced back and forth at each other, somewhat relieved it was out in the open. The fact was, what had just happened to them was disturbing and kind of scary. Scootaloo just wanted to put it out of her mind and go home, and looking at the others, she was pretty sure they felt the same way.

"We'll get together again soon, though, right?" Sweetie Belle asked. 

That was pretty much par for the course, Scootaloo reflected. All three of them were good friends, but Sweetie Belle always seemed to need their support a little more than her or Apple Bloom. 

This was one of the reasons she put up with Sweetie Belle hugging her a bit more then she would anypony else, in fact. It was as much for Sweetie Belles' sake as hers.

"Of course we will," Scootaloo reassured her. "At the very least, there's magic practice next week."

Sweetie Belle brightened at the reminder.

"That trainin' Twilight's doing will leave you free weekends, too, won't it?" Apple Bloom asked.
"We could do somethin' then."

"I hope it does," Scootaloo groused. "I need to have some time off."

Scootaloo gathered up her books. Some part of her was disturbed at how much time she was going to be spending with them. She'd never been that into reading or academics, and would much rather be practicing on her scooter. But flying was on the line here.

Apple Bloom pulled a piece of canvas that was left over from one of their previous excursions out of a corner, and draped it over the chalk marks left over from their summoning. Scootaloo supposed that they ought to clean it up, but none of them really felt like going near it at this point.

Leaving the clubhouse, the three walked together in silence for a while, none of them particularly wanting to talk about the summoning, but not really able to think about much else. Eventually, they went their separate ways.

Once Scootaloo got home, she immediately headed straight for her room. She took her saddlebags off, and set the book on sigils down in the middle of her desk.

By rights, she really ought to start reading up on creating her own sigils now. She still needed to create the first one to go with her magic exercises, according to that other book. After everything that happened earlier, she really didn't feel like having anything to do with sigils, though.

Taking a piece of paper out, she started doodling idly. As always seemed to be the case, the doodles soon formed into a sketch of Rainbow Dash. She frowned at it. That was another thing bothering her.

Twilight seemed intent on bringing Rainbow into help her train. That was exciting, but it made her nervous, and she honestly wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Having Rainbow Dash teach her how to fly had been one of her oldest dreams, ever since she first saw her doing some of her awesome tricks, but this was different. She'd always pictured Rainbow coming to her and offering to help her learn to fly. Or sometimes it had been Scootaloo going to her, asking, and Rainbow Dash being cool with it.

Not like this, though. This would be Rainbow helping her out because her friend Twilight asked her to. Not because she liked Scootaloo, but as a favor. Not even because of them being 'sisters'.

Sisters. She was actually really nervous about that, too. She wasn't sure, but it felt like Rainbow didn't really want to be sisters. She hadn't said anything since her promise, and Scootaloo was starting to think maybe she was regretting it.

She'd promised Luna the other night she'd talk to her about it, though. She didn't really want to, any more than she wanted to talk to Octy about-

Her pencil clattered to the desk. That's right. Octy already knew. When she'd left, she'd mentioned what had happened in the basement. Scootaloo was suddenly certain that she was going to want to talk about it, probably soon.

And she didn't want to. She really didn't want to talk about it with Octy, for a bunch of reasons. She might be willing to let it go, but it was hardly a coincidence that it had triggered her nightmares last night.

Of course, the fact that it had all happened here didn't really help. The decorations may be different now, but this was still the same room as all those years ago. She walked to the middle of the room. It didn't take much imagination at all to place her back all those years ago.

Suddenly, it seemed colder. The hallway loomed at her from her bedroom doorway. The back of her mind screamed at her in terror. It was stupid, but she felt paralysed. She took one slow step toward the door, then another.

There was nothing down there. She knew it. There wasn't screaming coming from the hallway, and her parents weren't down there dying. They were dead, and had been for years. So why was her heart racing?

She stepped out into the hall. See, nothing there, sil- She heard a loud chopping sound, breaking her chain of thought.

What was that?

It came again. A lump formed in her throat. She kept walking.

"Scoots?" Octavia's voice called out to her from downstairs.

Ok, Octy's here. It must be nothing. She started to relax. This wasn't like her, anyways. She was supposed to be brave. Brave and bold and daring facing-

"Scoots?" Octavia called out again. "Why don't you get yourself washed up and come on down. Dinner's about ready."

Well, she could bravely face dinner, she supposed. Then she smacked herself in the forehead with one hoof. Dinner. The sound had been Octy chopping up vegetables for dinner. Stupid, Scootaloo, stupid.

"I'll be down in a minute!" 

Heading over to the bathroom at a considerably faster pace, she splashed some water on her face to try to get herself back in a more normal state of mind. Then, a quick scrubdown of her hooves and a pass of a comb through her mane, and she was ready.

Well, ready in her eyes. She knew some mares could take hours getting ready in the bathroom. She'd never seen the point. Why take great pains with your appearance? It wasn't like she wasn't going to just get all messed up again right afterwards.

Trotting downstairs, Octavia intercepted her, and sent her over to the kitchen for plates. Tonight it was just the two of them, which was a shame. She was still pretty sure she'd get ambushed about last night, and having Vinyl there to run interference would have been really nice.

A couple plates, glasses, and sets of silverware and the table was ready. She sat down to dinner and started eating, not paying very much attention to the meal in front of her. She felt totally drained from the events of the day, and really didn't want to talk about last night.

Of course, Octy might not even notice that she was avoiding the subject.

"Is something on your mind tonight, Scoots?" Octavia said, delicately biting into a green bean.

Or maybe she was bloody psychic.

"No," she said, toying with a carrot on her plate.

"You've gone all monosyllabic," Octavia said. "What's wrong?"

Why were parents always so irritatingly perceptive?

"Nothing's wrong," she insisted. "I'm fine."

Scootaloo half-heartedly took a bite out of a radish, really wishing this meal was over.

"You know you can always talk to me, right?" Octavia said..

"Right," Scootaloo echoed.

"I'd rather not have to find out about what's going on in your life from elsewhere," Octy said, setting her fork down. "Like what happened in Twilight's basement last night."

"I don't want to talk about that." So much for keeping off the subject.

"I gathered," she replied. "It really hurts when I have to find out about important things in your life myself."

"How did you?" Scootaloo asked, curiosity overriding her urge not to talk about it.

"I asked Spike, of course," Octavia said matter-of-factly.

And Spike told her everything she wanted to know. See if I trust him again.

"Of course, he seemed to be under the impression you would have already told me about it."

Well, ok, maybe that was understandable, then.

"So why didn't you tell me, Scoots?" Octavia's voice had a slightly hurt tone to it.

Scootaloo sighed.

"Octy, think back to last night. What exactly happened when I walked in?"

"Well, I'd been waiting for you for hours, worried sick," she recollected. "Then you came in, and I asked you what had happened."

Sure, Octy. In what world was that how things went?

"As I remember, you immediately jumped on me about where I'd been, started lecturing me, then started coming to all sorts of conclusions about what happened without any help from me," Scootaloo said, exasperated.

"I couldn't have been that bad," Octavia said, sipping a glass of  wine. "and regardless, if something happens to you, I need to know."

"Maybe." Scootaloo took a big bite of salad, and chewed on it for a minute before continuing. "I was worried, okay?"

"That's a little better," Octavia said. "What had you so worried?"

"Look, Twilight's the only one that was willing to take me seriously and help me with my flying at the time. I wasn't about to mess that up. She's smart, got lots of ideas about it, and is putting bunches of schedules and lists together for me. I didn't want to be told she couldn't help."

"Scoots, I'd discuss anything like that with you before making that big of a decision," Octy reassured her. "It seemed to me that Spike was going to prevent anything like that from happening again, anyway. He mentioned it to me several times."

Thank you, Spike.

"Alright," Scootaloo said slowly. "I suppose should have discussed it with you."

"Was there any other reason you didn't feel comfortable talking about it?"

Of course there was, Octy.

"Maybe."

"Maybe," she repeated.

Scootaloo squirmed around. "It was embarrassing."

"You don't have to hide things from me because of them being embarrassing, Scoots. Parents specialize in embarrassing things. I've bathed you, and even changed out your sheets when-" She stopped and looked down at the swirls in her half-full glass of wine. "Oh."

Scootaloo looked down at her salad. "Yeah."

"I suppose… that makes sense if you lost control of all your muscles," she said reflectively. "Spike didn't go into that."

"It's embarrassing," Scootaloo repeated. "It's not like I'm a little kid any more."

"You weren't when I changed your sheets, either."

Thanks ever so much for reminding me.

"Octy!"

"It's not your fault. It was those horrible nightmares fault," Octavia told her. "You couldn't have helped this either."

"It doesn't feel like it, though," Scootaloo said.

"Anypony would have had that happen if they were in your place last night, Scoots. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Actually, Spike had said something similar, hadn't he?

"I suppose."

"So, did you do anything interesting with your friends this afternoon?"

She might as well break it to Octy when she's trying to be all accepting and understanding.

"Well…"





Octavia let out a low moan, her head resting on the dining room table. All in all, Scootaloo thought she was taking it rather well.

"Scootaloo," she said faintly, "do you ever think before doing these things?"

Well, maybe that reaction could have been better, Scootaloo admitted to herself, but it could have been much worse.

"Things might have gotten a little out of hoof."

"A little?" Octavia sighed. "I never thought I'd have Discord to thank for anything. Everything else in the book is safe?"

"Yeah." Scootaloo sighed.

"And the creature is gone now, right?" Octavia said, in a tone of voice that made it clear that an answer of no was not a possibility.

"Yes, Octavia."

"You do realise that trying a spell without reading about it was incredibly foolish, don't you?"She lectured.

"A hungry tentacled thing coming after me made me think that, yeah."

Octavia picked her head off the table. "Scootaloo, whatever will I do with you?"

Karaoke? Scootaloo figured she probably shouldn't reply to that one. After a minute, Octavia continued.

"Well, you know, you did just tell me one other important thing," Octavia said.

"What's that?" Scootaloo asked, curious.

"You have homework tonight."

Scootaloo suddenly sat upright at that.

"I've... got homework?" she repeated slowly. "School's out for summer!"

"School isn't the only place you can get homework, Scoots," she said patiently. "You were supposed to create sigils for each of the types of training you were doing, weren't you?"

Scootaloo groaned, having totally forgotten mentioning that. "Aww."

"I expect you to work on at least one of them tonight. Why don't I get you a glass of chocolate milk, and then you can get started?"

At least there was chocolate involved.

Scootaloo washed down the rest of her dinner with a nice tall glass of chocolate milk. After helping Octavia clear the table, she trudged on up to her room.

Homework. Bleah.





Pretty soon, she was back at her desk, book in front of her. Having just read through the section of the book on custom sigils for what must have been the third time, her head was still spinning. Summoning weird creatures from somewhere beyond Equestria was seeming more and more appealing in comparison.

She had taken a bunch of notes as she was going, though. Where was she supposed to begin on this? She flipped through them, trying to ignore the various doodles she'd made whenever the book got boring. There were a lot of them.

Still, it looked like her first step was writing something called a statement of intent. She grabbed a blank sheet of paper, wrote Statement of Intent on the top, and underlined it a few time for good measure.

So she was supposed to write down what she wanted to happen. The examples were all along the line of "By my will, I shall something", or "This is my will to something.". 

She scribbled down "This is my will to learn how to fly.". Easy. She could do the rest later, right?

She glanced back through her notes and frowned. That wasn't nearly specific enough. Also, Twilight was already working on lesson plans and things, so technically that was already true.

She crossed that off, and wrote "This is my will, to be able to fly as well as Rainbow Dash.". 

That was better, wasn't it?

She looked through her notes again. "Think about the different ways your statement could be interpreted."

No, that was no good. What if Rainbow Dash broke her wings or something? Then she would technically be able to fly as well as Rainbow Dash. She crossed the statement out, shivering.

Being able to fly as well as Rainbow Dash was a little ambitious, anyways. Being able to fly as well as Fluttershy, even, would be an improvement from what she could do now.

She sighed. Alright, next attempt. "By my will, I shall be able to fly from one side of Ponyville to the other."

There we are. Much less ambitious. Most pegasuses could do that, anyways. Or was that pegasi?

She was about ready to move on when it occurred to her. Wasn't she supposed to be doing sigils for each exercise, not flying as a whole?

Ponyfeathers. She scratched that off, too.

She had just done her magic exercises, so she might as well start there. She needed something specific. "My will is to have enough magic in me to be able to fly."

Scootaloo thought for a minute. No. She started writing again. "My will is to have enough magic in me to fly across Ponyville, and be able to use it."

Her head was swimming a bit from all this. That was probably good enough, anyways. Lets move on.

The next step struck her as a bit silly, but she pulled out another sheet of paper for it anyways. She wrote down her statement without any spaces, and then started crossing out any duplicates, her tongue unconsciously creeping out of the side of her mouth while she did so.

She looked down at what she had. "MYWILSTOHAPVENUGCFRDB"

Well, alright, though she wondered if maybe she should have left the whole "My will is to" bit off the front. Still, the next part should be fun.

She took all the letters, and tried to make a design out of them. After a few tries, she realised that there was absolutely no way she could turn the letters into a picture of Rainbow Dash. Not that she was really that enthusiastic about her at the moment anyways.

Time passed, and her trash can accumulated crumpled balls of paper, but eventually she had something that looked cool and vaguely magicky, to her, at least.

So, time for the next step. She took out yet another blank sheet of paper. Now, according to what this said, she was supposed to picture a ball of energy inside her, and pull it up through her into the pencil or pen she was writing with.

She wouldn't have questioned that yesterday, but after Twilight's magic lessons, that didn't seem quite right. I mean, she couldn't channel magic through her mouth or hooves, could she?

Twilight had said something about her horn acting as an antenna. Of course she was a pegasus now, and just had wings… Wait a minute.

Rummaging under her bed turned up one or two of her old molted feathers. A little sharpening, and one was easily usable as a quill. She dipped it in ink and awkwardly tried to draw the symbol a few times, using one of her wings.

Once she had it down, she cleared her mind, channelled magic through her wings, and sketched the symbol out on a fresh piece of paper, her magic fully behind it.

After the sketch was finished, she looked at it proudly for a few minutes, focussing on her intent, and the sentence she had written earlier.

Next, she was supposed to get rid of it, which seemed like a shame after so much work. She shoved it behind one of her posters, and yawned.

It's been a long day, she thought, and got into bed, turning out the lights. Within a few minutes, any questions in her mind about the way she'd made the sigil were completely gone, and she was fast asleep.

Behind her, an orange glow came from behind one of her posters, and gradually faded away to nothing.

> Three Little Birds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo woke up the next morning in a good mood. She got out of bed, turned her head left and then to the right to try to get the kinks out of her neck, and opened and closed her wings a few times. Her wings felt a little tingly again, but that soon faded.
 
Everything seemed just the same as yesterday, but she remembered that sigils took a while to take effect, anyways. She skimmed through her notes. Yeah, here it was. They "affect probability to influence events in accord with the statement of intent". Whatever that meant.

She thought it was something like if she kept working on increasing her magic, the sigil would kinda nudge things to make sure it actually worked. Somepony really liked big words when they were writing this book.

It actually kind of seemed like it'd be a good idea to do a cutie mark sigil, if that's how it worked. She had two more flying sigils to do, though, and as horrible as it might seem to her friends, being able to fly was actually more important to her than getting a cutie mark.

Besides, her cutie mark probably had something to do with flying, anyway. Rainbow Dash's had, and so had Fluttershy's. It almost seemed like it had to be something involving her wings.

It hardly seemed fair how easy it was for everypony else to get a cutie mark, though, not to mention how easily flying came. She'd heard about how Pound Cake could already fly. And how many of the cutie mark stories she'd heard were just that somepony had been doing something fun and it appeared?

Whatever. She was feeling good this morning. No reason to ruin it by being all gloomy and letting little things bother her. Time to go downstairs, get some food, then it was down to the library to meet with- Oh. Rainbow Dash. Right.

Well, why let little things bother her when she had really, really big things to bother her, right?

She supposed she'd have had to have this talk with Rainbow sometime, though. Scootaloo grabbed her saddlebags and slung them on, good mood a bit dampened. A quick stop in the bathroom, and her mane and tail were no longer sticking in all directions.

Nopony seemed to be around in the kitchen. A mostly empty bowl of cereal was sitting on the table, and she could hear Vinyl in the downstairs bathroom futzing with her hair while singing along in high falsetto to one of those old disco records of hers. Scootaloo knew from experience that she'd be a while.

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my trot…"

Definitely a while.

Scootaloo pulled a purple plastic bowl out of the cupboard, filled it with cereal, and poured in the rest of the carton of milk. As she poured the milk, the cereal caused rainbow colored swirls to run all through it. Of course, there hadn't been a Wonderbolts figurine in this box. She'd already checked.

Once she finished, she absent-mindedly put the carton back in the refrigerator, and stuck the bowl in the sink after rinsing it off. Stopping by Octy's room, Scootaloo let her know where she was going, then headed out.

It didn't really seem to take that long to get to the library, and without anypony there to give her grief about it, Scootaloo went right in without hesitation. Of course, nopony seemed to be around when she went in, either, making her wonder if she'd stopped by too early.

After a few minutes, she heard a few steps, and Spike wandered in with a big yawn.

"Hey, Scoots. It's already that late? I just finished putting away the dishes from breakfast. Lemme go and get Twilight for you."

Scootaloo wondered if she should mention the fragment of amethyst he had stuck in his teeth, but decided against it.

"Thanks, Spike."

As Spike ran off, Scootaloo started browsing through the book shelves. She wasn't really that much for reading, but she had time to kill, and maybe they'd missed a book earlier that'd be useful, or at least entertaining.

The first book that caught her eye, a treatise on crystal magic and the crystal empire, didn't seem that interesting. She didn't think there even were crystal unicorns. Next to it, though, was 'Exotic Magic: a Comparison of Magics From Farr Off Partes'.

It didn't seem like the guy who wrote it was a good speller, but maybe it had more on sigil magic. Scootaloo wouldn't mind finding out more about sigils, since she still wasn't totally sure she was doing it right. She pulled the aging book off the shelf, and started skimming through it.

Unfortunately, she opened it to a long, in-depth discussion about the casting techniques of unicorns in Manehattan and how they differed from those used in Fillydelphia, apparently written with whatever the longest words author could think of were. It might be interesting to the right pony, but it caused Scootaloo to yawn, loud and long.

Just then, she heard hoofsteps.

"Good morning, Scootaloo. Looking for something to read? What did you find there?"

Suddenly Twilight Sparkle was right in front of Scootaloo, craning her neck to look at the spine of the book Scootaloo had open, and then waving a foreleg dismissively.

"You won't want to bother with that one. Old Bertand thought that any sort of unicorn magic outside of Canterlot was strange and somehow exotic. Most of the really different forms of magic didn't even get a mention, like zebra magic and alchemy."

"Oh." Scootaloo put the book back on the shelf, disappointed.

"Well, at least you're expressing an interest in reading. So many ponies never find the time or even bother. I'd expect you're here to work on flying again, though?"

"Yeah." Scootaloo nodded. "We were going from magic to trying to see if I can build up my wing muscles or something, right?"

"Right.," Twilight responded. "We'll return to magic, but you're still going to need your wings strengthened. Of course, since I don't have wings, I wouldn't be much help on that. And even if I had them, I wouldn't have the experience you'd need."

"Not that that stopped you from studying every book you could find on it," Spike commented, coming back in the room himself.

"Yes, well, we'll obviously need some help from a pegasus, and since I'm friends with the best flier in all of Ponyville…"

"In all of Equestria!" Scootaloo said.

"I'm sure she is." Twilight smiled. "In any event, come on, Scootaloo, Spike, let's go find Rainbow Dash."





That, of course, was easier said than done. When she wasn't in any of her usual hangouts, it was pretty easy to figure out where Rainbow was, as she could be a bit predictable. That still meant the three of them had to wander all over Sweet Apple Acres before Spike pointed out the rainbow-colored tail dangling down from a tree.

"Sleeping," Scootaloo said, looking down at the ground. "it figures." 

While Rainbow Dash could probably train her in her sleep, Rainbow being literally asleep would be a problem. Maybe this'd have to wait.

"Hmmph," Spike said. "When isn't she? You could've just checked here first and saved all the hassle."

"Now Spike," Twilight said in her best lecturing voice. "Flying requires a high metabolism and quite a bit of energy. Add in all the tricks she's constantly working to perfect, and it's a wonder she doesn't sleep more, really."

"Excuses, excuses." Spike waved one hand dismissively.

"That kinda rules out doing any training, though," Scootaloo said, ears drooping.

"Nonsense. I'm sure she won't mind being woken up, given the situation."

A purple glow appeared around Rainbow's tail, it lifted up, and then was abruptly yanked downwards. Rainbow Dash came crashing down to the ground, and picked herself up, rubbing her head.

"Ow, Applejack, that hurt! Why'd ya always gotta-" She blinked and took in the scene. "Oh. Hi Scoot. Hi Twi. You know, I was just in the middle of a perfectly good nap. What'dja wake me up for?"

Spike shot her an irritated glance.

Twilight spoke up with a precise, clipped tone of voice. 

"Scootaloo came to me with a rather large problem and I've been doing my best to help her with it. For this, though, I really need the help of the best flier-" She shot a look at Scootaloo. "in Equestria."

"I know, I know, I am good, aren't I?"

"Good at sleeping," Spike groused.

"Eh, what'd you know 'bout it?" Rainbow looked at Twilight. "What sorta problem you got, anyway?"

Twilight glanced at Scootaloo, who shrugged. May as well have Twilight explain it. Telling everypony about it herself was starting to kinda suck.

"Scootaloo had a doctor's appointment recently." Twilight took a deep breath. "She was told that she only has a twenty percent chance of ever flying."

Rainbow Dash looked over at Scootaloo, a shocked expression on her face.

"You're probably never gonna fly? Oh, Scoot..." Rainbow walked over and wrapped her wing around Scootaloo. "Why didn't you come to me about this? I told you I'd take you under my wing…"

Spike prodded Twilight a couple times as she stood watching. She cleared her throat. 

“I think I just spotted a good specimen of Betula nigra. It's right over there." She pointed to a tree in the distance. "I’ll just take a look, shall I?” 

As she trotted off, Spike muttered from her back, "That tree looks interesting? Real smooth, Twi."

Feeling Rainbow Dash's wing wrapped around her made Scootaloo feel safe, and all her doubts about Rainbow seemed to fade away. She almost wanted to just brush them off. She'd promised Luna she'd talk about it, though, and she would.

Nerving herself, Scootaloo spoke up. "One of the things the doctor said was that my magic core was too low to fly, and I figured Twilight would know 'bout magic."

"Well, yeah, Twi' can help with that, but what would she know about flying?" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof dismissively. "Come on, what's the real reason you didn't come to me? Don'cha trust me?"

“Um,” Scootaloo’s ears flattened against her head, and her voice wavered as she spoke, “I kinda thought you might have changed your mind.”

"Changed my mind? What'dya mean?"

"I thought- I thought you might not want to take me under your wing any more." Despite the warmth of Rainbow's wing, Scootaloo found herself trembling. "Especially after what happened. I wasn't sure you'd want a pegasus pony hanging around that can't even fly."

"Scoots, my taking you under my wing has nothing to do with whether you can fly." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I mean, maybe you'll fly, maybe you won't. You'll still be awesome-"

She cut off as Scootaloo shot her a glare, and laughed weakly. "Heard that one already, huh?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Only a dozen times or so."

"Well, look. I'm always seeing you zooming 'round town with that scooter of yours, right? You keep doing all these daring tricks and seem to have a real need for speed on it. You're a lot like me, even without flying. Even if you never fly, you'll always be an awesome little sis. Don't you doubt that. Now, why'd you think I didn't want you 'round?"

"Weeeell…" Scootaloo fidgeted around, her face getting hot. "Right after the camping trip, you vanished, and I didn't find out where you'd gone 'til later. And you kinda never wrote me from the Wonderbolts school when you were gone or anything."

It was Rainbow's turn to flush. "Heh, er, yeah, I didn't, did I? I never told you I was going training in that camp?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "And when you came back, you were never around and it seemed like you might be avoiding me."

"I wasn't trying exactly to-" Rainbow sighed. "Well, maybe I was a little."

"You were?" Scootaloo said, a bit hurt. "Why?"

"Look, I'm kinda new to this whole big sister thing, okay?" Rainbow Dash lowered her voice. "Look, don't tell anypony, and I mean anypony else this, but I was kinda scared."

"What?" That didn't sound like Rainbow Dash.

"I was scared, alright? I've never been a big sister before. I was afraid I'd mess it all up. Guess I did anyway."

On impulse, Scootaloo reached around Rainbow Dash's neck and squeezed her. They sat like that, together, for a few minutes, not saying anything, until Rainbow Dash finally broke the silence.

"So, you've only got a twenty percent chance of flying?" She whistled. "I've always liked trying to beat the odds. So, what've you already done? With Twilight, or your parents, I guess."

"My parents?" If Scootaloo could have facehooved right now, she would have. "Rainbow…"

"What? I'd assume that they got some sorta suggestions from the doctor, at least."

Scootaloo sighed. "Maybe if you're gonna act like my big sis, you should learn a bit more about me, too."

"Why? What did I miss?"

"Rainbow, I don't have any parents. I live with my aunt."

"Oh." Rainbow paused for a moment. "I really do need to learn more about you, don't I? Who's your aunt?"

"My aunt's Vinyl Scratch, though Octy lives there and kinda keeps both of us in check."

"DJ P0n3? She's awesome!" A grin crossed her face. "Of course, it probably runs in the family."

There was a muffled sound from off in the direction Twilight had gone, but Scootaloo ignored it.

"You could say that. Mom was kinda well known as a singer."

"See? So, about your flying problem, have you just worked on magic, or was there anything else you've done?"

"I think Twilight took some wing measurements, but mainly just my magic core."

Rainbow Dash removed her wing from around Scootaloo, much to both their regret.

"Why don't you go 'head and spread your wings out as far as you can, and lemme take a look at your wing span."

Obediently, Scootaloo unfolded her wings, stretched them out, and spread them in a V-shape. Then she struck a pose, with her head up and one foreleg in the air. Rainbow walked around her slowly in a circle, looking closely at them from all angles, and occasionally making measuring motions with her forelegs.

"Now give me a few slow flaps of your wings. Keep your hooves on the ground. This isn't for takeoff, it's just so I can see your form."

Scootaloo put down her hoof. She slowly started flapping, having to fight the urge to just buzz them the way she did on her scooter. Rainbow continued to walk around as she flapped, occasionally telling her to speed up or slow down. Scootaloo tried to tell herself that Rainbow knew what she was doing, but she couldn't help worrying about hitting her on the head or worse.

Rainbow walked around for a few minutes, then stood behind her, directly in the path of the airflow from her wings. Then she came back around. "Tell you what, Scoots. Go ahead and just buzz your wings fast, the way I usually see you doing on your scooter."

That'd be easy enough, at least. Scootaloo tried to just pull her wings in and go straight to buzzing them, but she managed to totally botch it and hit herself with her wings in the process. She winced, knowing Rainbow had been watching. 

She stopped moving her wings, pulled them in properly, and then started buzzing away. At least she could do this.

The next few minutes were pretty much a repeat of what Rainbow had just done. It wasn't long before she was back in front of Scootaloo.

"Okay, you can stop now. I can already see one thing you're gonna need to work on."

Scootaloo flushed, having a good idea what that was. "I didn't really mean to hit myself like that, honest."

"I didn't say you did, Scoots. Thing is, I think you've mostly been doing that buzzing with your wings, and that uses different muscles and movements than normal flight. Your wings are kinda used to it. You need to practice normal flapping for a while and not buzz, to build up the right muscles, then you can practice switching between the two."

That did make sense, but…

"You want me to stop using my scooter?!"

"I know not using your scooter sucks, but I just need you not to use it much for a little while. A couple weeks maybe? Once your wing movements are up to speed, you can go back to it. You're awesome on your scooter. I wouldn't take that away from you."

Scootaloo weighed this in her mind. She really didn't like it, but she would do pretty much anything to fly. This was pretty much the anything in anything, though.

"Making any progress?"

Scootaloo turned, and realised Twilight had come back, with Spike on her back.

"Done looking at, um, whatever it was?" Scootaloo asked.

"I've taken leaf, bark, soil, and ash samples for later analysis," she said, holding up a bag. 

Ash samples?

Scootaloo looked back where Twilight had been, and one side of the tree she'd been looking at was black. She glanced back at Spike.

He crossed his arms. "I sneezed, okay?"

Ouch. Flaming sneezes were a rather scary thought. She could just imagine if Spike sneezed when talking to her and caught her on fire. And he lived in a library. If he had a cold, the whole place could burn down.

Twilight's voice broke her chain of thought. "So, do you have any ideas about building up her wingpower? We've got a few things we were trying on the magic side, and I was thinking we could have Applejack help her with endurance."

It took a moment for Scootaloo to realise that Twilight was talking to Rainbow and not her.

"I got a couple ideas. Flapping exercises and wing pushups, stuff like that. I might not be the best pony for this, though, you know?"

Scootaloo's heart sunk. If Rainbow Dash couldn't help, who could?

"You are the best flier around, though, right?" Twilight asked. "Why wouldn't you be able to help?"

"It's because I'm the best flier in town. I've been flying for a long time, and it was always easy for me. It's harder for me to spot problems I never had to deal with myself, you know?"

Twilight groaned. "Can you think of anypony else that would be able to help, then?"

"Yeah, I know exactly who we can help, actually."

"You're not gonna be able to help me?" Scootaloo blurted, all her doubts from earlier coming back.

"Course I'll help ya, squirt. I just won't be the only one."

"Um, if we're going to meet with someone else, shouldn't we get going?" Spike asked.

"On it!"

Rainbow Dash started to speed up into the sky, and then came back to the ground, as if suddenly remembering the rest of them couldn't fly. Scootaloo, Twilight, and Spike followed behind her.

Scootaloo didn't really think about where they were going, until they arrived at a small, rather familiar cottage. 

"Fluttershy?" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Um, yeah, who'dja think I had in mind?" Rainbow asked, scratching her head.

"Isn't she, well, not a very good flier?"

"Flutters has pretty small wings and a bit of a low magic core," Rainbow Dash said. "Kinda like somepony else I know. More importantly, when she set herself to improve her flying, she increased her wingpower by something like five times. Admittedly, her wingpower was still pretty low, but that's kinda impressive."

With that, Rainbow Dash knocked on the door.

A high voice called out "Coming!"

Scootaloo could hear some footsteps, and then the door opened to reveal Discord wearing a pair of bunny slippers with a big smile on his face, which faded a moment later. "Oh, it's just you lot."

"Who'dja expect, the mail mare?" Rainbow said. "Is Fluttershy in? We need her help."

"Wait a moment," Twilight said. "Discord! Why didn't I think about that earlier? You are supposed to be reformed? Why not prove it and help Scootaloo with her flying problem?"

"Ah, young, naive Twilight. Ever the innocent. Reformed does not equal helpful. No."

As Twilight sputtered, Scootaloo pursued the subject.

"Why not? You seemed like you liked me yesterday."

"Ah, Scootaloo." He reached out and tousled her mane with his claw. "A brash, daring young pegasus, spreading chaos everywhere she goes in pursuit of her cutie mark, and now flying, and a promising young chaos mage. I do like you."

"Then why-"

"Tell me, are you willing to do anything to fly? Overcome any obstacle, fight any foe, beat any odds?"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo said, getting a bit excited despite herself.

"Well, there you are. That makes you an adventurer, specifically, a hero. A hero beats great odds and strives towards her goal, and learns a lot about herself in the process. Now where would we be if I were to shortcut things? As I said, I do like you. Your first two endeavors into chaos magic were superb. So, no. I'm sure Fluttershy will be willing to help, though."

He gestured to Fluttershy standing behind him, where for some reason, she was glaring at his slippers.

"Discord…" she said, a dangerous note in her voice. He sighed.

"Oh, very well."

Discord snapped his fingers, and one of the slippers turned back into Angel, who kicked him in the shin and stamped off. Holding one foot, he hopped over to a couch and lay down.

"Now then, um, was there something I could help you girls with?"

 Spike scowled and tapped his chest a few times.

"And Spike, of course."

"Yeah, Fluttershy, I need your help with Scootaloo," Rainbow Dash said.

"Oh, well, I suppose if you need somepony to watch her, I suppose I could take her for the night…"

Rainbow laughed. "I sorta need you to help teach her to fly, actually."

"Oh, I'm not a very good flier." Fluttershy seemed to shrink a bit behind her mane.

"What about all that training you did to boost your wingpower?" Rainbow asked. "And you've got mosta the same problems Scootaloo has flying, really. You could help her more than I could."

"Well, maybe…"

"Besides, I'll do most of the training." Rainbow Dash tapped herself on the chest for emphasis. "I just need you to help me with ideas, point out what she's doing wrong, and help set up exercises for her."

"All right, I'll do it."

She walked over to Scootaloo, and looked at her with a rather different expression then Scootaloo was used to seeing aimed at her. It was more the expression she'd had that time Scootaloo had found a bird with a broken wing and brought it to her. 

For a split second she almost felt like she was one of the animals under Fluttershy's care, and could see why they stayed and protected her. It was a very strange feeling, and ended when Fluttershy opened her mouth.

"Scootaloo, when's the last time you preened your feathers? Um, if you don't mind me asking?"

That got Rainbow going over and looking at her wings again. She almost wanted to hide behind them with how much attention they were getting, not that they were big enough for that.

"Good catch, Fluttershy. I should have noticed that."

"Um, preening?" Scootaloo said, flushing. She felt like she should know what they were talking about.

"Yeah, didn't your par- sorry, your aunts ever teach you about preening?"

"They don't exactly know that much about pegasi, really," Scootaloo admitted.

"I suppose that leaves it up to your big sis, then. Look, preening is basically cleaning off your feathers, adjusting them, and oiling them with your mouth to keep them in good condition. All pegasi do it, though not usually in public. Nopony can fly as well without doing it occasionally. It's basic wing maintenance."

"Oiling your feathers?" Scootaloo felt a little dumb for not knowing all this already.

"Yeah, look, there's a gland right about here-" Rainbow tapped the back of her mouth. "that you can make it with."

"Um, Rainbow, Scootaloo, why don't we go into my bedroom, and the two of us can show you in private."

"Actually, I think me and Twilight had some things we needed to do in the library," Spike said.

"We did?" Twilight then winced. "Oh, right. Scootaloo, I'll leave you with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and you can stop back by tomorrow and we'll continue."

They said their goodbyes, and then Scootaloo went into Fluttershy's bedroom for what proved to be one of the more awkward and embarrassing lessons she'd had. Preening, as it turned out, was something usually only done for you by family members, very close friends,or your fillyfriend or coltfriend. 

That made demonstrations rather awkward, especially since it was kinda obvious Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had preened each other before. Having lunch in the middle of the preening session didn't help things at all, either.

All in all, when Scootaloo left, she was rather glad of the wing pushups and flapping exercises she'd been asked to do, as they helped give her time for her flushing to subside. Of course, she had to preen her feathers again afterwards.

By the time she left and went back home, she was exhausted. Scootaloo powered through her dinner, and then went straight to bed. She'd leave the next sigil for the morning.
> And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting up late in the morning, Scootaloo went straight to breakfast, and was already out the door and scooting over to Twilight's before it occurred to her that she never did the sigil from last night. For that matter, she was supposed to be avoiding using her scooter due to how it was messing up her wing movements.

Oh well, she could start on that later, she supposed.

This time, when she got to the library, Twilight seemed to already be prepared for her.

"Hello, Scootaloo," Twilight said as she walked in. "I've got a few things to take care of today, but I've already told Applejack to expect you over at Sweet Apple Acres, so just go on over, and she'll be able to take care of your training."

"I could always go along and help you," Spike offered.

Twilight glanced over at him. "Nice try, Spike, but you still have a bunch of reshelving to do here today."

Spike looked down and his spines drooped. "Aww…"

"You can have some rock candy I got from Pinkie afterwards."

"Really?" Spike perked up. "Well, okay."

"Rock candy?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah," Spike said. "She makes it from real rocks!"

"Right," Scootaloo said. "I think I'd better go see Applejack and Apple Bloom. See you later."

So she went back to her scooter and started speeding along to the orchard. She might as well enjoy the speed and exhilaration that went with riding that fast before she had to give it up for her training. She laughed as she cruised through the streets, wind blowing through her mane.

She always felt like she could go anywhere, at times like this. Maybe not as far as the Crystal Empire or anything, but while she was on her scooter, she had freedom. Freedom to go wherever she wanted. And who knows, maybe she could make it that far.

Right now she was headed to somewhere a bit more local than that, though. As she saw Sweet Apple Acres in the distance, Winona ran up to her scooter, yipping excitedly. Scootaloo slowed down a bit and continued to the farmhouse, Winona running right by her side.

At least, Winona was right by her side until they got there. Then she ran over and leapt on Apple Bloom, licking her and wagging her tail as Apple Bloom made futile attempts to restrain her.

"Come on, Winona, stop it! Get off of me!" Apple Bloom said, laughing as Winona's whiskers tickled her face.

"Mornin', Scootaloo. Twilight tells me you wanted some help on building your endurance." Applejack frowned. "That she was trainin' you on the unicorn side of things with magic, Rainbow was doin' the pegasus side, and she wanted me to do the earth pony side?"

"Right!"

Applejack sighed. "Seems to me neither of you know much 'bout bein' an earth pony, then. I've got a few ideas, though."

"You're gonna help us carryin' apples!" Apple Bloom said cheerily, having finally managed to free herself from Winona's enthusiastic greeting.

"That's one of the things I figured we could do," Applejack corrected. "First, though, maybe you could do a couple laps around the orchard. You want endurance, you'll get endurance."

This was going to be a long day.

"Fine. Where do you want me to run to?"

Applejack pointed in the distance. "Just go over to the other side of those trees and go around them and back here without the scooter. Apple Bloom, why don't you keep Scootaloo company on the way?"

"Got it! Race you there, Scoots!" She took off, Winona bounding after her. 

"Hey, wait for me!" Leaving her scooter at the side of the farmhouse, Scootaloo chased after Apple Bloom.

She actually did catch up with Apple Bloom after a few minutes, but with the way she was running, Scootaloo was pretty sure Apple Bloom let her. As Scootaloo pulled up to her, Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue, and pulled ahead again.

Well, this wouldn't do. Huffing with the effort, Scootaloo pushed forward and caught back up with Apple Bloom, avoiding Winona, who was still running between the two of them, panting.

"Come on, wait a minute!" Scootaloo protested, laughing.

"Nuh-uh," Apple Bloom replied. "You're supposed to be trainin', right? Try an' keep up!"

Then Apple Bloom pulled ahead again. On her scooter, Scootaloo could have caught up easily, but she wasn't on her scooter, and it wasn't like her wings could provide her with the boost they did there.

Winona seemed to be keeping pace better than her, too, which was irritating. Up ahead, Apple Bloom looped around a tree and started heading back, so at least they must have at least gotten to the halfway point.

Soon enough, Applejack was back in sight. She was almost there! Pretty soon she could stop running!

"Hello there again, Scootaloo," Applejack said. "Seems like you're doin' pretty good. Why don't you go around a few more times until you've got the hang of it?"

Scootaloo groaned.





Scootaloo walked slowly back towards the farm, having given up on running near the start of this loop. Apple Bloom trotted next to her, not seeming nearly as tired, and Winona seemed up for more, panting alongside them.

"How can you just keep going like that?" Scootaloo asked, glancing over at Apple Bloom.

"You're just too out of shape," she teased. "Too much time on that scooter, and not enough on all four hooves. What 'bout all that fancy footwork of yours?"

"That's hardly the same thing! Hope we don't have to go around again, though," Scootaloo said as they got to where Applejack was standing.

"I think y'all can take a break for a few minutes," Applejack said, and held out two glasses. "Want something to drink?"

"Lemonade?" Scootaloo asked, in a surprised tone.

"Somethin' wrong with lemonade?" Applejack replied.

"I just expected something with apples in it, that's all."

"Who said it doesn't have apples in it?"

"You put apples in- no, never mind, I don't want to know."

Scootaloo grabbed one of the glasses and gulped it down. At least it was refreshing, even if it was some sort of weird lemon-apple-ade.

"So, Scoots, feeling all warmed up and ready to get movin'?"

"That was a warm-up?"

"I would've thought with all your scooting 'round, you'd have more stamina than that. We'll give it some time. Now, I been thinkin' 'bout what we can do to improve your wing strength. Stretch out your wings for me."

Scootaloo obligingly stretched out her wings, and was startled a minute later to find an empty bucket on either side.

"Now, follow me 'round, an' keep those there while we fill 'em up with apples. Usually me an' Apple Bloom'd do this, but today she'll be tossing 'em in as well," Apple Bloom looked particularly cheerful about this. "Let me know any time you think your gonna drop 'em, so we can give your wings a break for a minute."

Oh joy. 'Everypony hurls apples at Scootaloo' did not strike her as a particularly fun activity. Well, we'll see how it goes.

The three of them walked further into the orchard. Scootaloo was taking things slowly, trying to make sure she didn't get unbalanced or drop the buckets sitting on her wings.

Applejack placed a few buckets at the base of the nearest tree, backed up to it, and with barely a glance behind her, her hind legs connected with the trunk, showering apples down into the buckets below.

Apple Bloom ran over to the buckets, started hunting through one, and turned to Scootaloo. "Hey, Scoots! Think fast!"

An apple thunked into Scootaloo's side. Losing her concentration, the buckets fell to the ground. She sighed, tossed the apple into a bucket, and put them back in place.

Apple Bloom, kept going through the apples Applejack had bucked, looking them over, and every so often, tossing one in Scootaloo's general direction. Unfortunately, in her general direction still meant Scootaloo had to get to where she was tossing it in time, as well as make sure it hit the bucket and not her. Missing several apples in a row did nothing to improve her confidence.

The next few hours went by in a flurry of apples. Soon she was actually getting most of them, but had to frequently rest her wings, and she just knew they were going to ache from this. Eventually Applejack walked over to them.

"All right, I hardly want you strainin' your wings too much, so lets call it a day here. Seemed like you're startin' to havta rest pretty often anyway. Put down those buckets, and we'll get 'em back."

Scootaloo gratefully took the buckets off her wings. Apple Bloom grabbed one of them, Applejack took the other, and they walked back together. After detouring to put them away, they headed inside the house, and Scootaloo collapsed on their couch.

"You really need to work out more, Scoots, if you're that tired," Apple Bloom said, settling down on the end of the couch as Applejack left the room. "Thought with all those moves on your scooter, you'd be in better shape."

"The big thing there is that they were on my scooter. And it's not like I'm really in that bad of shape. Sweetie Belle is probably in worse, since I never see her doing too much exercise."

"You reckon we should get her to join us? Maybe we could do Cutie Mark Crusader Exercisers!"

Applejack slipped back in the room with more lemonade. Scootaloo sipped a glass before continuing.

"I dunno. Think that it could be an earth pony thing, being stronger and tougher and stuff, you know, like unicorns have magic an' pegasi have wings?"

"Fiddlesticks!"

That hadn't been Apple Bloom! Scootaloo looked up to see Granny Smith hobbling towards them.

"Earth ponies may be able to work harder, but that's hardly what makes earth ponies different. Some folks think 'cause we ain't got wings or a horn, we ain't as good as ponies that do. You wouldn't be one of those, now would you?"

Scootaloo flapped one of her wings limply. "I can't even fly. Why would I be looking down on other ponies for that?"

"S'pose not. You might be surprised how many ponies look down on us, though. 'Course, they still all come here to buy all their apples."

"I'm just not really sure what makes earth ponies special. Big Mac's real strong, and Apple Bloom was running circles around me earlier…"

A smug smile appeared on Apple Bloom's face. Granny Smith sat down to the other side of Scootaloo.

"Well, listen an' learn, youngin'. When you talk 'bout earth ponies, the key word to keep in mind is earth. What do you think of when I say 'earth', Sootaloo?"

"Scootaloo. And I guess dirt, plants and things. Farming?"

"That's part of it. There's the ground, an' everything in the ground. Roots, rocks, and things that burrow in the ground. Then there's everything that lives on the ground, all the animals and plants and such. Earth covers a lot, and we're all a part of it, earth ponies more than most."

"Okay, I guess. How?"

Granny Smith cackled. "You just feel it. You know the connections are there. Sometimes non-earth ponies can do it, too. Not often, but sometimes. It's usually ones like you, that have trouble flying or doing magic, too."

Huh. "How would I know if I could?'

Granny Smith got down from the couch. "Reckon we could go ouside an' see, Scooterloo."

Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up with you later."

Scootaloo reluctantly stood up, stretching out her legs and wings, not even protesting the latest mispronunciation of her name. "Okay. Catch you soon."

Granny Smith walked out the door, and Scootaloo followed her. Once the two of them reached a patch of grass below an apple tree, she came to a stop.

"All right, you're lookin' tired, so this is probably far enough. Just lay down by that tree there. It's easier if you ain't gotta worry 'bout lil' things, like standin' up."

Scootaloo certainly wasn't going to object to that. The grass looked soft and inviting, almost like a bed. She could easily lay back on it beneath the warm sun and drift off and daydream. Not that she should at the moment, but still, she settled down there snugly beneath the apple tree.

"Now, no sleepin', but close your eyes."

Scootaloo closed them and waited, trying to resist the temptation to just go to sleep.

"Now you just want to sort of feel outside of you with your mind. Focus on life, things around you, an' the earth an' what it means to you. Don' worry if you lose it right after you get it. Ponies usually do the first time."

Okay, feel outside of her… wait a minute. Wasn't this a lot like unicorn magic? And she knew how to do that.

She started casting around outside her the same way she had before for her magic core.

Nothing yet. Or, wait, there was that stuff about thinking about earth and life and such. She shifted focus, thinking about the earth and trees and rocks and living things and looked outside mentally.

Suddenly she was almost blinded. Maybe not really, since her eyes were closed, but that's what it felt like. It was like looking straight into the sun. She yelped and abruptly opened her eyes.

"Unless a bug just bit ya, I think you just got it. When I say everything's connected, I mean everything. Takes some gettin' used to. Try it 'gain, but just focus on that tree in front of you."

Scootaloo closed her eyes again, and cast out again, focusing in front of her where the tree was… and a thousand blades of grass, glowing like the sun! She dropped the connection and whimpered.

"Keep tryin'. You'll get it. Most non-earth ponies couldn't even get this far, so you already got somethin' to be proud of."

Well, that was something, anyways. She kept trying, and eventually was able to get a good look at the tree. She could sort of see a glowing outline of all the branches of the trees, with green patches that she thought might be leaves, globes that were probably apples, and the starts of roots that she didn't dare look down at, least she be blinded by the grass again.

"I see it," she said, keeping a fixed view of the tree.

"Good. Now this one has a nice healthy glow to it, but you can tell when a tree's doin' poorly or is sick. You get really good, you can kinda change the glow a bit, but that takes a long time. For now, see if you can stand up and keep seein' it with your eyes open."

She stumbled to her feet, eyes still closed. Then she opened them, and the weird juxtaposition of the world and the glow caused her to stumble back down to the ground again. Granny Smith helped her back up.

"Reckon you should open your eyes first, than worry 'bout where your hooves are at. Now, what you want to look at on the tree's the apples. If you look carefully, you should see lines going from them through the tree, an' they kinda tie together at one spot. Can you see it?"

Standing up looking at it, she could see that. It was almost like they were tied together in a knot somewhere on the trunk of the tree. She nodded.

"Now, back up to the tree, and give that spot a nice powerful kick with your back legs."

Trying to keep track of so many things at once, on her first try, she missed the trunk completely. Frowning, she adjusted her position, and kicked at it again, this time hitting the spot indicated. Scootaloo heard thunks all around her before something slammed into her head. Her double vision dropped, and she rubbed her head as she looked down at the apple that had fallen onto it.

"An' there you are, your first proper apple buckin'. Though when you get really good, you don't put yourself right below an apple when you do it. Why don't you have that one as a snack, then we'll gather up the others? No point in letting them go to waste."

Scootaloo vindictively crunched down on the apple. "So that's how you buck apples? And Applejack does this with hundreds of trees a day?"

"After enough practice, you can hold it without too much effort. And you don't actually have to keep it up, as long as you remember where the buckin' point was."

"Oh, okay."

"Thing is, as Apples, we're focused on farmin', so that's how we use it. Some ponies use it more for rocks an' things, and I think Filthy uses it for other ponies. Tellin' if other ponies are bein' honest with him an' how happy they are with a deal an' such?"

"And all earth ponies can do this?"

Granny Smith laughed. "No, dear. Some can't or never even try, an' a lot have it weaker than we do. But it's always been really strong with the Apple family. With the rate you picked it up, you might as well be an Apple, though. If you ever need a few extra bits when we're harvestin', we could always use a couple extra hooves."

Scootaloo looked down, flushing slightly. "I'd already been able to do magic when Twilight turned me into a unicorn, and this was kinda close to that, so I guess I wasn't really that new to it."

"Well, ain't that somethin'? You can do that fancy unicorn magic and you can see like an earth pony? No wonder you can't fly! Your magic's probably too busy goin' all over the place, tryin' to do everythin' else."

Could that be it? She'd really have to ask Twilight if that could be it. "I hope not."

Granny Smith grinned and slapped her on the back surprisingly hard for an old lady. "Don't fret your mind about it, Scooteroll. I'm sure you'll sort it out. Now let’s get these apples in and get you home, unless you were plannin' on stayin' for dinner."

The sun was getting a little low in the sky, wasn't it? How long had she been out here, anyways? Scootaloo started gathering up the apples and brought them into the barn, storing them with the others before heading back in.

Inside, she could hear a clamor from the kitchen, and peeping inside, she could see Applejack and Apple Bloom hard at work chopping vegetables. 

"Thanks for helping me train earlier," she said, feeling a bit awkward. "I'd better get home for dinner."

"Night, Scootaloo. I'll see you next week for more training, alright? Maybe by then I'll have come up with other exercises for you," Applejack called back.

"Night, Scoots! Maybe we can go crusading again soon!" she heard Apple Bloom say.

She glanced over at when Granny Smith was standing placidly. "Thanks for the lesson. I'll see you next time."

"It's my pleasure, young filly. You'll let me know if you need any more help, right?"

Scootaloo agreed, and quickly left. Grabbing her scooter, she scooted home at full speed. Vinyl greeted her as she came in. "Cutting it a little close, aintcha?" 

"Sorry," Scootaloo apologised. "Dinner hasn't started yet, has it?"

"Think you've got just about enough time to clean up and get to the table. Octy was getting worried you wouldn't make it, though."

She certainly didn't need more trouble on that front. "Thanks, Vinyl."

Detouring close to the kitchen, she called out. "I'm just gonna get cleaned up and get ready for dinner, 'kay Octy?"

"Finally," Octavia growled from in the kitchen. "Just be at the table in a few minutes, all right? And please get here in a more timely manner in the future, or at least try? I'd prefer to know if I'm making two meals or three."

"Sorry, Octy!" Speeding into the bathroom, Scootaloo quickly started cleaning up, washing her hooves and getting grass out of her fur and apple out of her mane. The grass stains would probably need a bath after dinner, unfortunately.

Dinner went uneventfully, though she got some glances due to how fast she scarfed everything down. Between the bucket exercise and her new pony-o-vision superpower, she was pretty hungry.

Honestly, she thought, as she polished off her food, between the vision thing, unicorn magic, and the whole sigil thing, maybe I should just don a mask and cape and become some sort of superhero.

She pictured herself scooting around town, cape blowing behind her, helping rescue ponies in trouble and kicking villains right in the bucking point. 

Would that even work? Do things other than trees have bucking points?

"Bathtime, Scootaloo!" Octavia called out as she cleared the table, breaking Scootaloo's chain of thought. "Don't think I didn't notice all those grass stains in your fur. Honestly…"

Grumbling, Scootaloo walked back to the bathroom and started filling the tub. I bet superheroes don't have to take baths.

Scrubbing herself down vigorously in the bathtub, she eventually managed to get the grass stains out, though it took some doing, and her favorite rubber duck didn't do much to help. Rinsing out her mane, she drained the bathwater and toweled herself down, resulting in her looking like a large ball of orange and magenta fluff.

She fanned her wings out a few times, shook some of the remaining water off herself, then ran a comb through her mane to stop it from sticking in all directions. She damped down her fur as best as possible, and headed upstairs to her room to do a little private preening and get her feathers back in shape. Baths were such a pain.

Afterwards she fell asleep on her bed, a small pile of feathers next to her.





Scootaloo found herself standing near a curtain. Having been backstage several times in the past for her mother's concerts, her surroundings were immediately recognizable to her, though she couldn't quite pinpoint where she was backstage. 

Looking in a conveniently placed mirror, she almost laughed, seeing the ridiculous-looking orange handlebar mustache she was sporting, as well as the tweed jacket and thin white hat.

Well, this is silly.

Scootaloo could hear something coming from behind the curtain, too. She listened closer, only to hear Pinkie Pie singing. "So let me introduce to you, the one and only Scootaloo…"

At the very least, she knew a cue when she heard it. Opening the curtains, she found herself standing behind a drum set with a microphone in front of her. Shrugging, she decided to go with it.

"What would you do if I sang out of tune - " She looked towards the audience. "Princess Luna?"

Princess Luna ascended to the stage sheepishly from where she'd been in the crowd. "Can you blame me for wanting to hear you sing?"

The crowd froze in place and dimmed out, as did most of the rest of the stage. "You wouldn't if you heard me sing. You didn't set up this whole dream for that, did you?"

"Of course not, my dear Scootaloo. I wanted to check up on you and see how you were. This whole dreamscape is your doing."

"Oh." She stepped around the drum set and walked over to Luna. "You wanted to know how I'm doing?"

"Yes. Your mood seems much improved since the last time we talked. I take it your training is going well?"

"I think so, though I won't know for a while. Thanks for all those books."

"It was nothing. My bookshelf was due for reorganizing anyways, and I'm glad to see them go to someone who has more need of them than me. What sort of training are you doing?"

"Well, Twilight turned me into a unicorn for a while so I could practice magic with her and build up how much magic I have, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are training me on the actual flying parts, and Applejack was working on endurance with me. And Granny Smith taught me this earth pony seeing thing that's pretty cool."

"You have been taught magic and how to tap into your earth bond?" Judging from her smile and the tone of her voice, Luna seemed genuinely pleased. "This is wonderful! You are making much progress indeed."

"Yeah but -" Granny Smith’s words came back to her. "Is doing all these different forms of magic helping? If I only have a little magic, should I be spreading it out like this?"

"Do not worry, dear Scootaloo, that is not how how magic works. Besides -" She coughed politely. "Forgive me for prying, but I've run what tests I can at a distance, and I think I know more advanced spells than that doctor or even Twilight Sparkle, given her limited years of study. You are not anywhere near low on magic."

"But -" Scootaloo sputtered. "Twilight! The doctors! The tests!"

"The tests showed that you can only access a small amount of magic, not how much you actually have. Look."

She turned to a table that wasn't there a moment ago, and placed an average drinking glass full of water on it.

"This represents your average pegasus. The water is her magic, and the rim of the glass-" She ran her hoof around the edge. "represents how much you can use at once. Now this-"

She set down a giant cup holding at least twice as much water on the table. On top of the cup was a lid with a tiny hole in it.

"- is you. You actually have more magic than normal, but you can only access a fraction of it at once."

Scootaloo frowned. "So I have a whole lotta magic, but can only use a little at a time?"

"It's rather more complicated than that, naturally. There are multiple channels, for example. But in general terms that is accurate. By using multiple channels to their limit, they all gradually expand, or at least, that's the theory."

"So I should keep with all the training and the sigil magic, then?"

"Sigils? What have you done with them so far?"

"Er, I created a sigil to help with my magic training and -" She glanced around furtively. "- Isummonedaneldritchcreaturefrombeyond."

Princess Luna arched an eyebrow at her. "What was that last bit?"

Scootaloo supposed she wasn't going to get away without telling her. She sighed. "I summoned an eldritch creature from beyond. I didn't mean to!"

"I can certainly understand your desire to summon things from beyond the void. I've certainly done more than my share of it in my time, though it's been a bit more than a thousand years since my last summoning," Luna said, taking a deep breath. "It's very dangerous, though. You can summon things that want to eat you or just parts of you you may want to keep, that go rampaging around town, or that can even become part of you or take you over. Be very careful."

Scootaloo gulped, hearing some of the things that could happen. "I'm not planning on doing it again, at least for quite a while."

"Good. You said you did a sigil ritual for your magic training. Have you done it for the others?"

Great, now two ponies were on her about that. "Not yet."

"Do so." The table and its contents vanished. "I'm afraid I must take my leave. Keep up the training, and I will be watching you. You will fly, Scootaloo, one way or another."

"Thanks, Luna! See you soon!"

With that, Luna was gone.

I suppose I should do the other sigils and such, I guess.

As the crowd came back to life, Scootaloo stepped behind the drums and adjusted the microphone. 

Tomorrow.