High atop the northwest cliff, overlooking Ponyville proper, sat the airport. It consisted of a single paved runway, half a dozen metal airship docks, a terminal building, and twenty or so hangers.
In one of those hangers Scootaloo sat hunched over a small wooden crate that she used as a table, looking at a map of the area. Tracing her hoof across the map for the fourth time, she once again found the numbers she’d been given pointing her hoof at the same place. There was no mistake. The coordinates she’d been given were for the southeast ridge, basically the fields on the opposite side of the valley.
In hindsight that made sense as the only structures near Ponyville that weren’t in the valley were the airport on this side and a few mansions where the rich ponies lived overlooking the valley on the southeast side.
Seeing as the aviation map didn’t show individual buildings, she looked to other clues to try to figure out exactly where she was going. Looking at the features that the map did show, she found the point her hoof was resting at was due east of the south edge of Sweet Apple Acres’ plateau and due south of Canterlot’s dot on the map.
She folded up the map and tucked it under her wing. Getting up she gave the small room she called home one last look. In one corner was a potbelly stove that both allowed her to cook and served to heat the rectangular room. In the corner closest to the stove was a hammock. Near those was her crate/table where she currently was. Halfway between those and the door, were a couch against one wall and a desk against the other.
On the desk were a tool belt, a pair of goggles and a small intercom that could allow her to talk to the airport’s main office.
Scootaloo walked over to the desk, took the goggles and put them on so that the lenses were on her forehead. With that she left the room she lived in.
Stepping out the door brought her into the main part of the hanger. The suspended room that was her home was bolted to the walls just before the roof started to curve. A few steel beams served as support pillars, and marked off the area below it as a storage area.
Of course there were only two things on the floor of the hanger. Three, if you counted the base of the stairs to her room. The other two being a blue scooter with red wheels, that was by the base of the stairs, and the silver airplane sitting in the middle of the hanger.
The air in the main hanger had a notable chill to it. But even that couldn’t dampen the warmth of the pride Scootaloo felt whenever she looked on that plane, that Lightning Bolt Mark 1, her Lightning Bolt Mark 1.
It’s triangle shaped wings set it apart from any other civilian airplane. Not to mention gave the wings a shape oddly like those of a paper airplane. In fact, as far as she knew, only the Lightning Bolt Mark 1’s and 2’s used that wing shape.
After descending the stairs she made her way over to the main hanger door. Flipping a toggle switch, she watched as a motor hummed to life and the hanger door began to rise.
The morning air was calm and about as cold as the air inside the hanger. It turned out that metal walls might keep the wind and rain out, but they’re really lousy at keeping the cold out.
Yet standing in the doorway allowed the sunlight to soak into her coat, taking the bite out of the cool morning air.
Scootaloo didn’t have to wait long before Cloud Chaser, a light purple pegasus with a white mane, landed on the tarmac in front of Scootaloo’s hanger.
The mare hit the ground galloping and slowed herself gradually, allowing the pegasus cart she was pulling to come to a halt gently. In the cart were several one-gallon jars of liquid rainbow.
Finally totting over to the filly, Cloud Chaser said, “Heh, it’s been awhile since you called me out here. I almost forgot that if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even carry this kind of fuel. So, how much did you want?”
“Top off the tanks. I’m not sure how far I’m going today, so I want to be ready for anything.”
With a nod, Cloud set about her task.
Scootaloo started walking around her plane, stopping every few feet to look more closely at all of the moving parts and control surfaces of her plane. The Lightning Bolt Mark 1 wasn’t just her pride, it was the pride of pegasus engineering as the first airplane ever completely designed and built by pegasi. Which was one reason that it was also the only airplane based at this airport that used liquid rainbow as fuel, instead of the enchanted steam water of earth pony or unicorn made planes.
Once she was done looking at the landing gear and the under side of the plane, she hopped up onto one of the wings and made her way to the cockpit. The first thing she did when she got there was to toss her map onto the back seat. Taking her place in the pilot’s seat she watched as Cloud Chaser finished topping off the fuel tanks.
Once she was done, Cloud Chaser tapped on the cockpit glass. Scootaloo paid the mare. And once the airport employee had left, she got out and gave the top of her plane a good look.
Between it’s cylindrical fuselage and triangular wings, it really did look like this was the type of plane that paper airplanes were trying to mimic. It only differed in that the the wings came out of the middle of the body of the plane rather than the top. That and paper airplanes didn’t usually have a tail fin, or the part where the fuselage got a little wider halfway back.
Regardless, once she was content that everything was as it should be, Scootaloo returned to the pilot’s seat. As one might have guessed the seats were built for adult ponies, not a filly half the size of an adult. But with a few minor modifications Scootaloo solved that problem long ago.
The first modification was as simple as a large pillow tied to the back of her seat, allowing her to sit at the front edge of the seat and while still having her back against something.
Once she was in place she reached back, pulled out the seat’s harness and strapped herself in.
The second modification was a metal extension rig she’d attached to the hoof pedals that her shorter legs could actually reach.
Reaching up with a forehoof, she then pulled down her goggles. The enchantment within the goggles kicked in and suddenly her plane seemed mostly transparent. More than making up for the fact that she wasn’t quite big enough to see over the instrument panel yet. Maybe if she’d stretched her neck she might have been able to see the horizon over the tip of the plane’s nose. But with the goggles letting her see through her plane the limitations of her size were moot.
Pushing on the hoof pedals, she looked over her shoulder and watched the mostly transparent flap on the tail go left and right. Wrapping her front hooves around the stick, she pushed it forward, back and side to side, watching the ailerons on the wings respond accordingly.
Content that everything was in order, she reached up to the panel and flipped the first switch.
The sound of a slight hum was heard for a moment. The instrument panel lit up, causing the information on all the dials to glow and become clearly visible while still being mostly transparent. Flipping another switch, a soft roar was heard as the main engine came to life and started pushing air around.
Finally Scootaloo pushed the throttle in slightly and her Lightning Bolt started to roll forward.
Quickly twisting both of her hind hooves forward she came to a halt and proved that the brakes were still working. Returning the hoof pedals to their normal positions released the brakes, and she started rolling again. Adding a little bit to the throttle she headed for the taxiways, turning by pushing only the left or right brake instead of both.
Looking back to her own hanger, Scootaloo smiled as she spotted Cloud Chaser closing her hanger door for her. She even mouthed the words ‘Thank you.’ even though she knew the airport pony couldn’t see her from that angle.
As she neared the end of the taxiway, the filly pilot scanned the skies at either end of the runway. Seeing nothing, she reached up, put on her headset, pushed a button on her radio and said, “Ponyville area traffic, this is Lightning Bolt, Charley-Mother-Charley-Zero-Three, taking the active runway.”
Easing off the throttle she pushed on the brakes and stopped short of the runway. A few seconds of radio silence proved that no pony objected to her getting on said runway. So she pushed the throttle in and rolled out onto the runway.
A smile spread across the young pilot’s face as she lined up her plane down the runway. A tingle built in her spine as she touched her hoof to the throttle. Then she shoved the throttle all the way in and reveled in the feeling of acceleration that pushed her into her chair.
She watched as the airspeed indicator climbed. After three seconds she felt the wheels leave the ground. She held the plane level, flying mere feet above the ground for a few seconds more. Once the air speed indicator hit the desired number, she pulled back on the stick and stared to climb into the sky.
An excited ‘WHOO-HOO’ filled the cockpit as the joy of flying her plane made her forget that the wings she’d been born with should’ve given her the gift of flight years ago, but had yet to do so.
Now that she’d reached a respectable altitude, Scootaloo leveled out and pulled the throttle back to that of a slow cruising speed. Circling around she pointed herself toward her hometown, approaching from the west and lining herself up with the south edge of the apple orchard’s plateau.
In the past she hadn’t paid much attention to the mansions on the other ridge overlooking the valley. But now that one of them was her destination, it dawned on her just how big the estates over there really were. From the looks of the hedges that seemed to mark the yards, each must have been at least a mile in any given direction.
In fact, now that she thought about it, she realized that the paved pathway leading from the actual road, to any of the mansions would make a decent makeshift runway.
Also of note was that three of the mansions had red ceramic tile for their roof, while on one the ceramic roof tiles were purple. Also the one with the purple roof seemed to shimmer in the sunlight more than the others.
And given the sheer distance between the rich ponies’ homes, Scootaloo was already fairly sure the one with the purple roof was her destination. Despite that, she kept her east heading and an eye to the north anyway. And sure enough, once the distant spires of Canterlot were due north she was over the mansion with the purple roof.
Looping back around she lined up to land on the marble walkway in the front yard. Pulling back on the throttle, and slowly increasing her flaps until they were maxed, she slowed her plane down. One last check reminded her that she still had the landing gear down. Pulling the throttle the rest of the way out, the engine went to idle and she shifted all of her focus to the stick and guiding the aircraft.
Pulling up as she neared the ground, the nose lifted and the main wheels touched down first. Then as her speed bled off, the nose came down, allowing the third wheel to touch down as well. Once all three wheels were on the ground she started pumping the brakes, a second on, a second off, to kill even more speed.
Much to her surprise, she’d only made it halfway down the pathway before she felt that she could stop on a moment’s notice. She even had to push the throttle back in a little and continued rolling down the path like it was a taxiway, until she neared the fountain that was at the end of the straight part of the path.
Finally coming to a stop near the fountain, and thus a reasonable walking distance to the actual mansion, Scootaloo returned the flaps to neutral, shut down the engine, and double checked that everything was in the off position. Then she popped open the cockpit canopy and climbed out.
Even still standing on the wing of her plane her mouth fell open when she finally got a good look at the mansion before her. It turned out that the reason this mansion sparkled was because it’s white plaster walls also had gemstones embedded in them, mostly in heart and diamond shapes. Even the fountain had sapphires decorating it.
The front porch was framed with Victorian columns, and standing on that porch were two ponies. One was the butler stallion she’d met yesterday. The other was a pink mare with a light and dark purple mane. She also wore an elegant red dress that used rubies instead of sequins to shimmer in the light.
Having never been surrounded by such opulence before, the little pilot filly had to take a moment to recompose herself. Once she was sure she wasn’t staring awestruck at the splendor of this place like the child she was, she jumped down from her plane, fluttering her wings to slow her fall.
As the filly neared the marble porch, the mare gave an amused chuckle at the young pilot’s still wonder-struck expression. “Impressed?” she asked. “Odd, I’d heard you were the pilot with the fastest plane bits could hire. I’d have thought you’d have worked for high-paying clients before.”
“Oh I have,” Scootaloo answered, still taking in the scenery. “But they’ve always met me at the airport. So I’ve never seen a mansion up close before.”
“I see,” the unicorn mare answered in a friendly tone. “And speaking of the fastest plane money can hire, is that a Wonderbolt aircraft?”
“Naw. That’s an old Lightning Bolt Mark 1. The Wonderbolts finished switching over to the new Mark 2s a year or so ago.”
“Interesting,” the mare said politely, but with that look on her face that said this wasn’t a topic she cared about. At the same time she turned, and her butler took that as the sign to get the door.
Following the mare in, Scootaloo once more found herself overwhelmed by her own wonderment as she looked over the mansion’s entry room. Polished marble floors and walls, silk curtains on the windows, soft carpets down the middle of every hallway, pictures with gold and silver frames, and gemstone chandeliers decorating the walls and ceilings. Everything had a stylistic flare that showed the wealth of those who lived here.
As she was lead down one of the side hallways the mare spoke.
“I do have one more question before we discuss business. Just how did such a young filly as yourself come into possession of a military-grade aircraft?”
“Well, my dad was a Wonderbolt. When he died in a crash, I think the Wonderbolts felt bad for me, so they let me inherit his plane. Of course since dad died crashing it, I think they expected me to sell that wreck for scrap and use the money to ease my transition into becoming an orphan. Needless to say I don’t think anypony thought I’d actually be able to fix it and get it flying again. And by the time they realized I had, they’d already phased the Mark 1s out of use, so they couldn’t even claim that I couldn’t have it to make sure that only the military had the best planes around.”
“I see,” the mare said with a simple, yet satisfied smile.
As they walked on, Scootaloo couldn’t help but wonder why anypony would want a house so big that they could walk for over a minute before reaching their destination. Amidst her idle pondering, she also realized that this mare had never bothered to introduce herself, as if she just assumed that everypony knew who she was already.
Speaking up, the filly said, “I get the impression that if I was an adult I would already know who you are. But I’m not, so who are you?”
“Oh? Ah yes! That’s right, I had already been told your name, Scootaloo. That’s why I skipped the introductions. How rude of me! My name is Rare Pearl. My family owns the gemstone mines here on the southeast cliffs. And I dare say, half of Ponyville works for me as a result.”
“Here we are,” the butler announced as he walked ahead to one door and opened it.
Inside, one wall was covered with a world map. On two other walls were a bunch of racks with diamond shaped slots, most of which held rolled up maps. In the middle of the room was a large table with ornate etchings along the sides and legs.
The butler quickly took one of the maps from the rack and unrolled it on the table. The map in question proved to be one of the continent where Equestria was.
On one side of the table was a silver-framed chair, which didn’t match the heavy oak designs of the rest of the room. Yet it’s purpose was clear. It had been brought in from another room to accommodate a filly at the map table. And sure enough the butler motioned for Scootaloo to use said chair. Yet, even from the chair the young pilot had to put her front hooves on the table to look over the map properly.
Now standing on the other side of the table, Pearl’s horn lit up. The glow of her magic levitated out a small slip of paper, and sent it over to the filly across from her.
“These are the coordinates for the rendezvous point.”
Both numbers were smaller than the ones for Ponyville, so that meant somewhere northwest. Using the numbers on the map, she traced a hoof to an area in the northern part of the Unicorn Mountains.
Tilting her head to the side, Scootaloo said, “That’s the middle of nowhere. Are you sure there’s even a place to land out there?”
“Don’t worry, my colleagues there are also heavy airplane users, so I can assure you that anywhere they want to meet can accommodate the landing needs of aircraft like yours. Also, I need to tell you, when approaching the rendezvous point you are to use the call sign ‘Courier Seven’ to identify that you are the one I sent. Understood?”
“Courier Seven, got it,” Scootaloo said. After a quick look around failed to find a box about as big as she was, she asked the only remaining question. “So… where’s the package I’m delivering?”
Rare Pearl clapped her hooves once and looked to the doorway.
Turning to look, Scootaloo saw a white unicorn filly about her own age enter the room.
“Hello, my name is Sweetie Belle,” said the filly with the curly pink and purple mane.
“Uh… hi?” the young pegasus answered with clear confusion in her voice. For a moment she sat there looking to Sweetie Belle’s saddlebags. Then she remembered what she’d been told. Those were too small, but Sweetie wasn’t pulling or carrying anything else in her magic.
The moment lasted a bit longer until Scootaloo finally gave an understanding ‘Oh!’
“Wait a second, this whole time you’ve been calling her a package?”
“There is a need for discretion in this matter,” Rare Pearl said flatly.
“She’s got a point, mom,” Sweetie said with a hint of sarcasm. “It’s not like saying she’d be taking a ‘passenger’ somewhere is any more informative, and you wouldn’t have to talk about me like I was an inanimate object.”
A stare off between mother and daughter followed the filly’s word. Sweetie wore a devious grin, as if daring the parent to respond. Pearl wore a glare that seemed torn between trying to remain graceful and wanting to ground the filly but knowing she couldn’t.
Scootaloo couldn’t help but look back and forth between the two unicorns. They couldn’t be more different. On one hoof the mother had an air of nobility and elegance about her. And on the other, the filly seemed like any other school age kid.
Ultimately the young pilot broke the stare off by saying, “So… Can we go now? Or was there something else you needed to tell me?”
With a dismissive wave the mare sent the two fillies on their way.
Although they only made it to the entrance room before they found their path barred. This time by a white unicorn mare, with a long, purple mane and an elegant, sapphire studded, blue dress.
“Excuse me darling, Scootaloo was it?”
The orange pegasus nodded.
“I’m aware that mother is paying you rather well to deliver my sister one-way to… help somepony, but I’d like to make a better offer. I will double your money, if you stay by Sweetie Belle’s side until she has completed her task, and you then bring her safely home as well.”
A slightly embarrassed blush appeared on Sweetie’s face and she said, “Rarity, you don’t have to do that! I’m sure the… er… mom’s friends would have given me a ride home too.”
“Oh Sweetie, is it really so wrong for me to worry about my little sister?”
Unlike the cloak and dagger attitude of their mother, Rarity’s voice carried a genuine concern for Sweetie Belle. Between that and the fact that she was going to have to come back to Ponyville anyway, Scootaloo didn’t hesitate to agree to the elder sister’s offer.
Not long after that, the two fillies found themselves outside. They’d hardly made it past the fountain when Sweetie’s eyes lit up on seeing Scootaloo’s airplane.
Using her own wings, Scootaloo easily hopped up onto a wing of her plane. Then she offered her passenger a bit of help climbing up to join her there.
However, Sweetie had other plans. She crouched down and shifted her weight like a cat ready to pounce. Then she jumped with all her might, and while it was well short of the pegasus’ jump, it was just enough to get on the wing.
When Scootaloo popped open the cockpit she frowned.
“Sorry about the lack of leg room. If I thought I’d be flying a passenger today I’d have put my junk somewhere out of sight.”
Sweetie Belle just smiled and said, “I don’t mind! Besides it’s not like my legs will reach the edge of an adult seat anyway!”
Sure enough, once Scootaloo had helped her passenger get strapped into the back seat’s harness, the unicorn’s legs didn’t even reach the edge of the seat. With that she closed the canopy and pulled out her own map.
“Is something bothering you?” Sweetie asked when she began to wonder why her pilot was just sitting in the front seat.
“Huh? Oh! No. I’m just planning our rout. If we fly straight we’d clip Crystal Empire airspace. And with all the rumors of war with them floating around I’d rather not get mistaken for an actual Wonderbolt plane near the border. But if we go a little wide and approach from the south that means going right over the Unicorn Mountains, and it’s not too uncommon to run into sky bandits out there.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the Unicorn Mountains.”
Scootaloo just blinked at her map. Did her passenger really just say that? Yet looking back at the map, if she went around the mountains the long way she’d have to overnight and refuel somewhere along the way. And given that she was hired because she had the fastest plane available, she was fairly sure she was expected to arrive at the destination today.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m the one taking you. No bandit can catch me!”
With that she finally put the map away and went through her startup procedures. The engine hummed to life, she slid her goggles into place, and as she was turning the plane around, Scootaloo couldn’t help but notice that only Rarity and the butler had come back out to watch them leave.
Sweetie Belle was doing her best to stand up in her seat and wave goodbye to her big sister, seemingly unfazed by the clear absence of their mother seeing her off.
Once the plane was pointed back down the path, Scootaloo pushed the throttle in.
This time it was her passenger who gave a cheer when they took off.
* * * * * * *
It had taken over an hour before Sweetie Belle finally seemed to tire of watching the world beyond the canopy go by and settled into her seat.
“Hey, Sweetie Belle?” her pilot said, uttering her first words since they’d taken off. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure!” she answered happily.
“Can you tell me what kinda trouble I’m flying myself into?”
“What makes you think there will be trouble?”
“Because no pony pays this much for a charter flight. You don’t have something illegal in those saddlebags of yours do you?”
The unicorn filly chuckled at the question. “No silly, it’s nothing like that. Do you know what a spirit key is?”
Scootaloo shook her head before remembering that her passenger couldn’t see through the back of her chair. “Never heard of it.”
“Do you know what a barrier spell is?”
“Those are the ones like glass that unicorns use to protect a place, right?”
“Yes that’s right. But the thing is, normal barrier spells have limits. They can be broken. They can run out of magic and get dispelled. But there is one way to make a perfect barrier spell. You create a spirit key for it. And well… the spirit key is a pony and only that unicorn can open the barrier. But while the caster can choose who the first sprit key is, if the barrier isn’t dispelled before that pony dies the spirit key moves onto a newborn unicorn. The thing is, most unicorn families don’t know about spirit keys so they don’t check to see if their foals inherited one. So it’s really easy to lose track of a spirit key for hundreds, even thousands of years”
“So you’re saying that you have a spirit key?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yes, my family did know about them.” Suddenly sounding a sarcastic, Sweetie added, “And lucky me, it turns out I can cast the spirit key spell.” With a hint of happiness returning to her voice, she continued, “But now they think they’ve found the barrier that my key belongs to.”
“So what’s behind that barrier?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t care. Once I dispel that barrier, I won’t be special anymore! I won’t have to stay cooped up in that dumb mansion like some secret treasure anymore! I’ll be able to have friends, and go to school, and be a normal filly for once!”
Scootaloo returned her focus to flying the plane. But in the back of her mind she couldn't help but think of her passenger’s lament. She’d never thought of being special as a bad thing before. Being the only pony to own the airplane that she did was the only reason she’d been able to earn enough to not go to the orphanage. But to the young unicorn in the seat behind her, being special had been a prison.
“Umm… Scootaloo?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s the deal with the blanket back here anyway?”
“It just covers some of the stuff I’ve learned to keep in the plane. If you’re hungry feel free to dig through it, there should be some candy bars in there somewhere.”
“Is it supposed to move?”
“What?” Scootaloo asked, suddenly twisting herself to look back.
Sure enough the blanket shuffled slightly. Then it muttered ‘oops.’ Although muffled by the blanket, Scootaloo’s eyes went wide as she thought she knew that voice. Quickly releasing her own harness she jumped up and draped herself over the back of her chair.
Then she reached down and yanked the blanket to the side, revealing a yellow filly among her flying supplies.
“Apple Bloom?”