Some Things Are Better Than Flying
By: The_Incredible_Blunderbolt
“A-Are you s-sure th-this is a g-good idea, Scootaloo?” a white filly with a purple and pink mane stuttered. She looked fearfully down at the ground, it seemed like it was miles below her.
Scootaloo groaned while she secured her rope around the chimney of the town hall. “It is if you wanna get your cutie mark for window washing!” She glanced over to her friend by the ledge. “I know I’m tired of being a blank flank. Aren’t you?”
The unicorn’s teeth chattered as she clung to the board she was on for dear life. “Muh-maybe not having a cutie mark isn’t so bad? I mean, Rarity says I should just be patient and wait for it...”
“But everypony else already has theirs!” Scootaloo cried. “We’re the only two in the whole school who don’t! You can’t back out now!”
Sweetie Belle looked over the edge of her platform again, she was awfully high up. This felt dangerous. Really dangerous. The only ponies she’d ever seen as high up as this were pegasus ponies like Rainbow Dash or Cloud Kicker. The sky was no place for unicorns! Especially filly unicorns who could barely even lift a quill with their magic! What would happen if she fell down? Images of Rarity ranting about proper safety to her tombstone filled her mind.
Looking back over to her orange friend, Sweetie Belle gulped. “You’ll catch me if I fall, right?”
“Of course I will!” she said. She gestured to the assortment of knots around her body. “That’s what the rope’s for!”
Which one? Sweetie wanted to ask. She didn’t exactly have full faith in Scootaloo’s knot tying skills. The entire roof of the building was littered with lines of all shapes and sizes. Some were secured to the small wooden platform she stood upon, a few were tied to each other, and a couple looped the chimney. Most of the ropes ended at Scootaloo herself, making her look like some kind of walking rope monster.
“Ready?” the pegasus filly asked.
Against her better judgement, Sweetie nodded yes. Scootaloo picked up one of the numerous lengths of cord with a big smile on her face. Slowly, she walked away from her friend while the reels on the ledge of the roof hoisted Sweetie Belle into the air and over the side of the building.
Aside from the initial panic Sweetie was sure anypony would get from being swung wildly about so high in the air, she found that hanging over the side of the town hall wasn’t so bad. In fact, she had a great view of Ponyville from up here. Off in the distance, she could see the purple roof of her sister’s store, the Carousel Boutique, and over there was the school, and there was Sugarcube Corner! She even thought that if she squinted real hard, she could make out the sign for Sweet Apple Acres! But that was enough sight seeing for now, Sweetie Belle had a job to do. She was supposed to be getting her Cutie Mark!
Having a special talent in window washing didn’t sound all that exciting to Sweetie Belle, but at this point, she’d take what she could get. Scootaloo was right; they were the only two blank flanks in town. This was her chance to rectify that situation, and she would not let it go! Even if her special talent was wiping windows hundreds of feet in the air...
The platform jerked and Sweetie felt herself drop a couple feet before her fall was suddenly cut short. She screamed and once more found her forelegs wrapped around the wooden planks of the platform. The scenery that had seemed so beautiful to her just moments ago was now dark and sinister. The ground beckoned softly to her, like that strange stallion that Rarity wouldn’t let Sweetie Belle talk to anymore after he gave her that candy bar.
“Sorry!” A muffled cry came from above. “You’re heavier than I thought!”
“Pull me back up!” Sweetie Belle shrieked back. Forget the view, forget the adrenaline, forget her cutie mark! She just wanted to live to see tomorrow! “I don’t wanna do this anymore!”
Above her, Sweetie saw Scootaloo peer down from the roof, an assortment of ropes gripped in her mouth. “Aw, c’mon fraidy-filly!” she protested. “The hard part’s over! Now you just halfta get washin’!”
“No!” Sweetie cried back, her forelegs still firmly gripped around the plank- or, at least, as firm as her quaking body would allow her to. “Just pull me up!”
With a loud groan of exasperation, Scootaloo disappeared behind the ledge of the building. A few moments later, the platform jerked violently. Sweetie Belle shrieked and hugged the boards even tighter, “Stop!”
“Argh! What now?”
“Don’t move me!”
“What? I thought you wanted me to pull you back up!”
“Just don’t!” Sweetie bell hollered, the last thing she wanted was for the platform to move again. “Go get help!”
Scootaloo sighed as she peered over the ledge once more. She opened her mouth wide to shout down to her friend. “How’m I gonna do that when I’m holding the rope that’s keeping you-”
“AAAHHHHH!!!”
“AAAHHHHH!!!”
Sweetie Belle was now officially panicking. The platform was in full free-fall, speeding to the ground faster than her brain could process the images of the world flying passed her. Scootaloo trailed behind her, pulled along by the ropes like a puppy on a leash, both of them were screaming at the top of their lungs.
“Scoots!” Sweetie Belle screamed. “You gotta fly!” The only answer she received was in the form of a fearful howl.
There was a loud crunching noise, followed by the sound of wooden planks snapping like twigs as Sweetie and the platform hit the ground. Momentum carried her forward and she rolled over a patch of slimy red and white goop and into a deep mud puddle. Scootaloo landed next to her with a loud splash!
The two fillies looked up, dazed. The world seemed to have liked spinning around Sweetie Belle, because it was still going full tilt. As the dizziness faded and the realization that she was still alive hit her, she threw herself back into the mud with a weary huff. At least that’s over! she thought.
“Uh-oh...” The sound of Scootaloo’s voice encouraged Sweetie to sit back up and examine her surroundings. Her friend sat next to her, completely covered in sticky, brown mud, but it was what she was staring at that scared Sweetie the most. The platform was completely destroyed, as was the apple cart it had landed on. Just down the road, two indignant earth ponies shook their hooves furiously at the them. One was a full grown orange mare with a blonde mane and a cowpony hat. The other was a filly like them, she was yellow with a red mane that had a large bow tied up it.
“I think it’s time to go!” Scootaloo said hurriedly, standing up and shaking some of the looser bits of mud off her coat. She pulled at the ropes that were still wrapped around her body, simply slipping them off instead of untying them.
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle agreed, running down the street with her friend. “Rarity would be fur-fur, um... really mad if she found out we broke somepony’s apple cart!”
“Again...” Scootaloo added a bit ashamedly.
Once they were sure that the two earth ponies from town square weren’t chasing them, the duo slowed to a steady trot through the streets. They observed the ponies that walked around town, from Lyra and Bon-Bon sitting at the park bench, to that weird pegasus pony that always led a long trail of ducks through town at noon every day.
“Hey, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo said excitedly. “My mom gave me some Bits for lunch, wanna go to Sugarcube Corner?”
Sweetie Belle looked over to her friend, who was caked entirely in mud. Scootaloo was a pegasus pony, right? So why hadn’t she just flown up into the sky and stopped them from falling? Rarity was going to give her the lecture of a lifetime when she got home covered in mud, and Sweetie certainly wasn’t looking forward to that! Sweetie sniffed at her friend’s suggestion and looked away grumpily.
“What?”
“You lied to me!” Sweetie Belle grumbled.
Scootaloo’s face contorted into a mixture of confusion and frustration. “Huh?” she said. “When?”
“On the roof!” Sweetie exclaimed. Was her friend really that dense? How could she have forgotten already? “You said you’d catch me!”
“With the rope that pulled me off the building?”
Seriously? Sweetie thought angrily. I’m going to get grounded for life because she doesn’t know how to think on her hooves? “You have wings!” she cried. “You could have at least lowered us down safely!”