//------------------------------// // Second and Third Opinions // Story: The Stub and the Snub // by Wise Cracker //------------------------------// Scootaloo looked anxiously at her friends. Neither of them got the message. “W-whaddaya mean, you can’t lift?” Apple Bloom asked. Haily sighed and squinted. Her horn glowed in a perfectly standard blue light, a pebble near her started quaking, her whole body tensed, but the thing wouldn’t get off the ground. She gave up after three seconds. “Exactly that. I can’t lift. I can’t levitate things. I can’t do any magic. My horn is too small.” “But we just saw you cannon-blast a target with a hailstone shot,” Sweetie Belle argued. “Sure, I can do ice magic, obviously,” Haily replied. “That’s my talent. It’s every other kind of magic I suck at.” She closed her eyes and whimpered. “I’m… I’m a one-trick pony.” “What she’s trying to say, girls, is that she has a handicap and she has come to terms with it,” Miss Mooncalf said. “But that’s not going to stop her from finding happiness, is it?” Haily’s jaw clenched, Mooncalf didn’t notice. “No, Miss Mooncalf. I can still do great things… working in an ice cream parlour. That sounds like a perfect use of my abilities,” she droned. “That actually does sound like a good idea,” Sweetie Belle said. “No need to let yourself get brought down just because you can’t do one silly thing. Right, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo gritted her teeth. Her wings bunched up against her sides. “Yeah. Right. That’s exactly what I was thinking,” she lied. “So, if you’ve made peace with it, why are you avoidin’ Live Wire, then?” Apple Bloom asked. “He’s a bad influence,” Mooncalf said before Haily could. “Always going on and on about the Royal Guard, showing off his completely unearned abilities knowing full well poor Haily can’t keep up with him. He’s almost as bad as that Dunderhead.” “Basically that, yeah.” Haily rubbed an arm, looking away. “It’s because of the test, really. The Fitness Test isn’t official anymore, but a lot of ponies treat it like it is. You get scored for all the magic you can do, if you’re a Unicorn, and your score can help get you into, you know, high places. Live Wire’s gonna ace it, I already know that.” She smiled sadly. “He’s got real talent. I don’t. I mean, he’s the one who always drags me to those things, he’s the one who’s always trying something new. But I’m not like him, and I can’t pretend anymore. I need to find something that’s more me, even if I really wanted to be a Royal Guard, too. And… even if I did have fun… for a while.” She shook her head. “There’s no point in hanging out with him anymore. Nothing we do together is fun now. Ogres and Oubliettes, story time, it just reminds me of all the tests I’m going to fail, of everything I can’t have. So I stop doing it.” “No sense in getting attached to an impossible dream, Haily,” Mooncalf insisted. “It will only lead to pain.” “No, Ma’am. No more stupid kid stuff.” Haily nodded morosely, before forcing out another, wider smile. “I just need something more, um, grown up, you know? And that means staying as far away from him as possible.” “Oh. So it’s not that you don’t you wanna be friends anymore, you just wanna find somethin’ else to do. Find your place and all that? Your own thing?” Apple Bloom asked. Haily nodded. “Well, then, you’re in luck, Haily.” Apple Bloom swung her arms up in a welcoming gesture, dragging her friends along. “Helpin’ ponies with cutie mark problems is our speciality. We can help you figure out what to do with your talent, what you can do and what you’ll enjoy most.” “Really?” Haily perked up. “Totally,” Scootaloo added. “If you want us to, of course. You don’t have to, if you’d rather do it alone.” “I’ve heard of you,” Mooncalf said. “You have quite the reputation. Good and bad, I might add. I’m not sure if I approve, to be honest.” “It’s your call, Haily,” Scootaloo added, unabashed. “You’ve got grownups trying to help you already. Do you want our help or not?” Haily shivered. Her eyes never went towards Miss Mooncalf, but her ears twitched every which way as the mare stared down at her. “Yes. Yes, please. I could really use a fresh opinion on this.” The stone pieces were at the ready, Starlight had done her warming-up stretches, and both Unicorns had done a quick count of the different sigils that would need to be extracted before any work on the actual stone could commence. “Ready?” Master Horizon asked. “Ready,” Starlight replied. “Okay, go.” Starlight closed her eyes and concentrated. Channelling magic that could hit sigils was about as difficult as ripping off a cutie mark, and either of those magics was close enough to chaos magic that no normal pony wanted any part in it. The incident where she’d banished Discord from Twilight’s school flashed before her eyes. That spell had been fuelled by nerves, anger, outrage. She’d surprised even Discord, not by the scale of her power, but the notion that she could even operate at that level of existence. She pushed that thought aside, aiming to deepen her magical trance. This spell would require a similar mindset, but more precise control, no crude ripping of cutie marks this time but slow and surgical peeling. That brought to mind all the times she’d done this to a pony. Double Diamond, Night Glider, Sugar Belle, those little runaways… I did this to children. As the magic flowed into her horn, she felt it tug at her thoughts, an insistent nagging of energy right where her spine met her skull. If she wasn’t careful, she’d short-circuit herself. Focus, Starlight, just picture kicking a puppy! She let out an evil growl, and the spell launched itself from her horn. Her mind shifted to a more primal mode of thinking, of feeling, and a scowl formed on her lips. She was amoral, uncaring, all-powerful, or she thought she was, at least. She felt the magic stabilize as her thoughts cleared. The bad memories were flushed out, and replaced by the words of her master. Power such as this does not corrupt: it requires corruption to work. The world is not kind-hearted, and you cannot be kind-hearted in breaking its rules. Harden your heart, steel your resolve, or the magic will fail. “Perfect form, as always, Starlight,” Horizon said. “Take your time, don’t rush it. Remember, we can take a break and try again if we have to, no one will know.” She would know, and that’s all that mattered. She reached out to the stone, grabbing hold of one wandering sigil, then another, and another. Little flashes of knowledge hit her when she made contact, of a basic fireball spell every second-year student in the Royal Guard knew, then a very surprising blast of inspiration involving muffins and mangos. Apparently Lord Rousettus wanted to preserve some culinary knowledge, as well. This was not important. Her magic wrapped around the stone, covering and grabbing all the magic-laden symbols within. Then all she had to do was pull. Channelling the spell required her to enter a state of amoral power. The peeling part required her to feel cruel and angry, to become, for an instant, beyond good and evil. She managed it, but only barely, remembering her crimes while blocking out the crippling shame she felt regarding them. The sigils pierced the glass-like surface and flowed out of the menhir, at which point Master Horizon could go to work. One by one, little fragments of black shiny stone were fitted back like puzzle pieces and melded together with magic, making it a seamless repair job. Then he floated up in a cloud of magic to tend to the smaller cracks, filling and smoothing them out with more careful applications of his horn. Starlight stood, holding the mass of magic and her frame of mind. A cutie mark could be stored in a bottle, as it had a pony’s life force keeping it intact, even away from the body. There was no way to destroy a cutie mark without destroying the pony, she’d learned long ago. She’d never tested that theory, thankfully, but others had, long before she’d even been born. These sigils, however, could fade and be erased with the correct magic. Few ponies knew how to do the correct magic, or even which magic was the correct one in the first place, but there she was, with a piece of ancient history in her grasp, and trying desperately to sustain it. It struck her as strange, how much effort she’d put into destroying the past once. If she wanted to do so now, all she had to do was squint. Part of her wanted to, and it was the same part she had to tap into to even be able to do it. She’d never forgive herself, though. Magic had a way of making one’s own mind become strange like that, conflicted between the evils needed to assume power and the good to put the power towards. She could scarcely imagine what the likes of Discord might have gone through to become what he was. Still, she had a job to do, and she was strong enough to do it without incident. Within minutes, Master Horizon’s work was done. The Rousettus Stone was restored to its former shape, with no seams or cracks to indicate anything had happened. “Okay, you can put them back now.” With a deep breath out, Starlight returned the sigils to the stone, where they went back to floating around in the blackness like inky eldritch goldfish. “There. That was… not that hard.” She rubbed her head and tried to banish the thoughts that were popping up. Happy thoughts, Starlight. Happy thoughts. You get power from the dark place, you don’t need to stay there. “So, how’s my sister doing?” Horizon asked. A distraction. Perfect. “Gosh, it’s been a while already, actually.” She chuckled. “Last time I saw her, she was trying to make Sire’s Hollow into a modern tourist attraction. And, err, she gave Sunburst a hard time about his plans, or him not planning.” “That sounds like my little Stellar,” he replied with a solemn nod. “She didn’t go too far, did she ? Haven’t been home in years, myself.” “She did put up this annoying welcoming announcement on the town gates.” Few things could make a master wizard groan. Family embarrassment was one of them, right alongside spelling errors in scrolls. “So she did install those gates she wanted. I told her not to.” Starlight chuckled. “And a perfume shop and a slushy shop got put up to replace the fruit market.” “Oh, dear.” He rubbed his forehead. “You did fix that, didn’t you? And she squared things with your father, at least? I love her to pieces, but she has a tendency of sugar-coating things every time she comes by.” “No, you heard right, they ended up compromising, we got both of them to tone it down a little. It was a pretty simple problem. Me and Sunburst had more trouble working things out with our parents than they did with each other,” Starlight admitted. “Hmm.” Horizon nodded. “Which reminds me, your mother sent me another letter last week. She wanted you to know things are going well in the Southern Marshes, her bee research is going swimmingly, and she still wants to know what your actual address is now.” She grunted. “Oh, really, again? Don’t they get newspapers there? She knows I live in Twilight’s castle now, doesn’t she?” “Perhaps, but I think she’d rather not get her letters lost in all of Princess Twilight’s fan mail.” Horizon winked. “Or maybe she thinks I’ll disappear again,” Starlight blurted out. Silence fell between them. Eventually, the stallion sighed. “I would have helped, you know. If I’d known.” “I know,” Starlight replied. “But you didn’t, because I didn’t let you.” “Still.” His ears flicked in annoyance. “If any of us had realized how strongly you felt about losing Sunburst, we would have taken you to see him. For pity’s sake, he was only ever a train ride away.” Starlight waved the remark away. “I know, trust me, I know. But I’m okay with it. It happened, I dealt with it, I own up to it. I don’t like it, but… it was my fault, not yours.” “You were a student, Starlight, under my tutelage,” Horizon insisted. “And I failed you.” Starlight forced herself to look him in the eyes. “No, you didn’t. You did everything you could to teach me responsibility. I decided to go down the path I did. That was me, all me. My fault, not yours. And if you hadn’t taught me everything you had, I might have stayed on that path until it destroyed me.” He snorted. “I suppose you’re right. Doesn’t change the mess it made, though. We never should have sent Sunburst to Canterlot. He was always too bookish, he never would have accomplished his full potential there. He could have been so much more.” “But if he’d gone here, then no one would have even recognised his full potential in the first place,” Starlight argued. “They’d just assume you were playing favourites for your nephew.” “You know the worst part? I probably would have,” he joked. “I doubt that. And it’s not like he’s a nobody now. The Crystal Empire trusts him with some very important things, you know.” “That they do. More than I’d trust myself with, to tell you the truth.” He turned to face the Stone, back to its full glory. “Thank you, Starlight.” “It was a simple spell for me to do.” “No, it wasn’t. I know the toll that kind of magic takes on a pony, and for you especially, it’s a lot to ask, so I did not ask lightly. But that’s not the only thing I’m thankful for. You’ve come a long way.” He looked in her eyes and smiled. “You look much better, now that you’ve found your own path. Strange how I never noticed it when you were studying here.” “I guess that’s what happens when you spend so much time brooding on bad things: no one knows what you really look like when you’re happy.” Starlight looked behind her, her ears twitching at the sound of her own voice. “Hmm? Are you okay?” She shook her head. “I’m fine, I just… I just had the strangest sense of déjà vu.” “When in doubt, chart it out,” Scootaloo said, putting the scroll on the ground. They’d found a nice spot at the back end of the castle meadows, where there would be no grownups to comment on Haily’s life choices. Sweetie Belle nodded. “Okay, all we need to do is figure out the limits of your ice magic, and try everything you can until you find something you’re happy with. Better to focus on what you can do than what you can’t do, right, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo cringed. “Sure. That’s exactly what I’d say, Sweetie Belle,” she lied. “I don’t know,” Apple Bloom started. “Are ya sure you’re handicapped at all, and not just a late bloomer? Like, how can you tell the difference?” “Well, I can’t lift now,” Haily said. “And really, I don’t care either way.” Apple Bloom pouted. “But don’t you want to pass the Fitness Test?” “I’m not worried about the Fitness Test. I’m worried about everything after. I just want this horrible feeling to go away already. I don’t want to feel tired of everything anymore. So, if you think you can find something better, or if you can fix me, either one is fine by me.” The little Unicorn winced. Scootaloo felt her wings bunch up against her sides. “Okay. Sweetie Belle, you’re the expert on all the pretty stuff. What are we doing?” Sweetie Belle raised a hoof in the air and cried out, “Ice sculpting, go!” The girls all exchanged a confused glance. “Umm, maybe be a little more specific?” Scootaloo said. “Huh. That’s odd,” Sweetie Belle said. “This always works when Rainbow Dash does it. Anyway, Haily, first let’s try some nice artistic stuff. Can you conjure ice sculptures?” Haily nodded. “Pretty easily.” Sweetie Belle grabbed a quill in her magic and started writing down some things. Haily glared at the floating pen. “Sorry,” Sweetie Belle said. “Try something easy first. How about a solid block of ice?” Haily shrugged, squinted, and one cold sparkle and poof later there was a block of ice on the grass. Scootaloo kept her eyes on the girl as she did it. That tiny nub of a horn glowed the same way Sweetie Belle’s did, a vague blue rather than green, but it looked like regular Unicorn magic. It didn’t feel like it, though, not by a long shot. Scootaloo could sense the cold contained inside that girl, like a blizzard in a bottle. Strange how neither Apple Bloom nor Sweetie Belle noticed. “Okay, good.” Sweetie Belle made the quill move again. “You should always start slow when you’re testing the limits of what you can do. Right, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo stifled a growl. “Right. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself.” “So next up: a pony-shaped block. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect: we’re just testing.” Haily rolled her eyes, swung her horn again, and blasted the ground right in front of Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo’s jaw dropped. There was an ice clone standing in front of Sweetie Belle. Perfectly carved, every detail, even an engraved cutie mark. The likeness was perfect. “Star apples,” Apple Bloom said with a gasp. “That’s amazing.” “What else have you got?” Haily asked. Scootaloo grimaced. Haily sounded annoyed, and given how things were going, she was going to get more annoyed if Sweetie Belle kept this up. But still, this was a job for the Unicorn expert, it wasn’t Scootaloo’s place to say anything. Her wings clenched again at the thought. Sweetie Belle checked her paper. “Try a swan, maybe?” With a groan of defeat, Haily nodded towards an open spot on her left, let a little sparkle escape from her horn, and shaped it into a swan sculpture, complete with detailed wings, a solid block to sit on, even tail-feathers. Sweetie Belle gasped. “Cool.” “Yes,” Haily replied, glaring daggers again. “Freezingly so.” “Oh, sorry. I guess you get that a lot, huh?” “Every... single… day.” Scootaloo walked over to the sculptures to investigate them. “She’s right, you know. This is a really awesome talent. I’ll bet lots of ponies would love it if you did this for them.” “Oh, I know, they do,” Haily replied, stifling a growl. “See, every time someone wants to throw a party, they ask for an ice sculpture. Every time, it takes a couple of seconds. Every time, they gasp and ooh and aah or whatever, and every time they ask for the same thing: a swan, or a pony.” She let out a deep sigh and sat down. “And you don’t even like doing this sort of thing?” Apple Bloom asked. “At all?” “Not really. It gets kinda bleh after a while.” Haily rubbed her chest. “It’s so boring, I get sleepy just thinking about it. And my chest feels funny, my head starts to get heavy…” “Whoa, maybe you’re overdoin’ it, then,” Apple Bloom started. “No, I’m not.” The little Unicorn chuckled mirthlessly. “I get the same thing when I keep failing at magic, or when I don’t do anything, or when my teachers nag at me again. It’s not my magic, it’s just me being bored.” Scootaloo could relate. When her scooter needed repairing, when she messed up a stunt, or even all the times she’d tried and failed to get her cutie mark, the same feeling would creep up on her. Feeling tired all the time, weird ache in her heart, heaviness in her head, this was all familiar, and it only took a glance towards Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to confirm that, yes, this sounded familiar to them, too. Apple Bloom tilted her head, thinking out loud. “So is it that you don’t like makin’ ice sculptures, then, or that you don’t like doin’ those ice sculptures, specifically?” “I don’t know, it’s never come up. Nopony ever asks for a dragon made out of ice, or a manticore.” “Oh, that’s easy to fix, then,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile. “You need to challenge yourself. Make a dragon out of ice. Do something hard, something that’ll take you time to master.” “Okay.” Haily twirled her horn and started projecting her blue magic again. “Solid block for the belly, sculpt out some arms and legs, wings, snout… And I’m done.” “And you’re done,” Sweetie Belle repeated, before shaking her head. “Wait, what? Already? You can’t be!” “Just look. This is a dragon, isn’t it?” Scootaloo had to agree. It stood a good three ponies high, on its hind legs, it had all the back spines in the right place, the snout was open to show off a tongue, teeth, and a throat flappy thing Scootaloo never got the name of, it was a complete dragon. And Haily had not even broken a sweat. Scootaloo could relate to that, too, somewhat. After a while of scootering through Ponyville, she’d run out of challenges herself. The fun had gone out of her scooter practice, so she’d just stopped, mostly. She got her fun with her friends now, or the many other things she could do around Ponyville. “Oh. And this doesn’t motivate you at all, either?” Sweetie Belle asked. Haily gagged. “Ugh, no. Why would I care about stupid sculptures? They’re just decorations, pretty things to look at. It doesn’t mean anything to anypony, not really.” “Hmm… okay. So you need something meaningful and hard, huh? I think we can do that.” Sweetie Belle got out an apple she’d brought along. “This will be a real challenge to your skills, and it’ll help you feel better. Freezing food is very important for preservation, but it’s also very tricky. Freeze fruit the wrong way, and it’ll burst.” “Done.” Sweetie Belle blinked, and tapped the now frozen solid apple. She hadn’t even heard the crackle of that magic frost covering it. “Again? No way.” “Yes way,” Haily said. “Freezing food is not that tricky. I’ve gone over every fruit there is in this town, it’s pretty easy when you take the water contents into account and adjust for volumes.” Scootaloo nodded. She didn’t understand what Haily was saying, but she recognised the tone and confidence of an expert. Scootaloo sounded just like that when she had to explain stunts to her fellow students, her teachers, and her insurance agents. “And that’s still not a good thing?” Sweetie Belle asked. “No,” Haily said. “It’s the same boring thing over and over and over again. Why would you think I’d enjoy this?” “Maybe because you’re making something other ponies like?” Haily grunted. “Is that really all you can think of? No offence, but this is boring.” “Really? Umm, sorry. But why do you hate all this? I mean, look at all the beautiful things you can make.” “Yeah, it’s beautiful. Until it melts. Or something hits it.” With a firm shot of hail, she crushed the swan she’d made. “I mean, what’s your next idea? Igloo making? My third grade teacher thought that was a neat idea that’d keep me busy. It did; look how long it takes me to do it.” The little ice mage squinted, the magic crackled and erupted from her horn, and the girls found themselves in a crystal clear dome. Individual bricks could be seen in the walls, there was an ice chair by an ice table, even a giant snowflake on the floor to serve as a rug. “Okay, I have to admit, I did not think you could do that that quickly,” Sweetie Belle said, marking that off her list. “You’re sure none of this is fun to you?” Haily cantered out of the igloo, the girls in tow. “No. This is all the same stuff Miss Mooncalf wants me to do.” She let her head hang. “I mean, I’m good at it, but it… I can’t explain it.” “It’s so boring you feel like your soul can’t breathe?” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, that. That’s exactly what it feels like.” Haily nodded and smiled. “This is boring to you? That’d take me hours to do, days. In winter,” Sweetie Belle argued. “Yeah, but she’s not you,” Apple Bloom said. “You don’t have a talent for ice magic.” “I don’t get it.” Apple Bloom chuckled at the obvious. “Of course none of this ice stuff is interesting or fun: it doesn’t take any effort. She doesn’t have to work for it, so it all feels meaningless. I mean, face it, Haily, when it comes to ice, you’re about as strong as, as...” “Discord?” “I was gonna say somepony nicer, but yeah, I guess that works, too. Honestly, I think we just need to get you lifting things, or usin’ other kinds of magic. Nothin’ can hold you back from your dreams if you work hard enough. You just gotta push past this handicap and then you’re fine. Right, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo’s jaw clenched. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s totally true.” “But Coach Dunderhead’s tried training me,” came the reply. “I’ve tried every training he knows. It doesn’t work. And no offence, but you’re an Earth pony. What do you know about magic?” Apple Bloom proudly put a hoof to her chest. “I ain’t got no fancy horn magic, no, but I got Earth pony magic all the same, and Earth pony magic is all about hard work. Plus, my family deals with magical critters all the time, and I’ve learned potion making from my zebra friend. I think I’m qualified to make one or two suggestions.” The blue filly nodded. “Okay, if you say so. How am I going to get anything to lift up?” “How about you start by doing what you do when you shoot your hailstones? Can you lift up that igloo over there?” “No, I can’t move ice once it finishes forming. All I can do is break it.” “Okay.” Apple Bloom sat down to think it over. “Then how about we move this to someplace more suited to your kinda trainin’, huh?” “Like where?” “Yeah,” Scootaloo asked. “What do you have in mind? And where would you even get the idea?” “From Twilight Sparkle herself, of course. My big sister’s told me all the stories. Plus, I paid real good attention when she was coachin’ Sweetie Belle.” “That doesn’t mean it’ll help Haily,” Sweetie Belle argued. “Don’t you think I’d know better?” “Oh, so just because you’re a Unicorn, you’re the only one who can fix this? Why don’t you show Haily how Twilight trained you, huh?” Sweetie Belle huffed, puffed, and pouted, but eventually relented. “Fine, you’re right. You don’t need to be the same kind of pony to help somepony else with their problems. Right, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo was, at this point, fuming. Fortunately, she managed to fume on the inside only. “Yeah. Totally true.” Apple Bloom took them to a nearby pond. “How about we start basic: water walking. Have you done that before?” “Plenty of times,” Haily said. She looked into the water, as if she were looking for something. “Perfect. Go right ahead, we’ll build up your magical power in no time.” Apple Bloom turned around to write down some things on Sweetie Belle’s paper while Haily casually walked up to the pond and started walking across the surface. Scootaloo, however, saw the immediate problem with this exercise, and quickly realised Haily had been looking for fish and found none. “Umm, Apple Bloom?” “Yeah?” “I think maybe you should have been a little more specific.” “About what?” “About Hailey having to walk on water that isn’t frozen.” Apple Bloom turned to look at the girl, who was now skipping merrily along a frozen surface. “Oh. Right, Ogres and Oubliettes player, of course. I don’t suppose you can do it on regular liquid water?” Hailey skated towards them and shook her head. “No, sorry. I’m a pretty good swimmer, though, even if I do have to take private lessons. What else did you have in mind?” Apple Bloom grumbled and tapped her chin as Haily jumped back on land. “If you can’t do longer magic, maybe you should try quick bursts. Here, a stick toss. Try catching this in your magic.” She picked up a branch from one of the trees around and tossed it. Haily ran after it, charging her horn. “Don’t think about it too hard, just follow your instinct!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Bad advice,” Sweetie Belle said. “Why’s that?” “Unicorn magic is usually pretty close to their talent. So if you tell us to use our magic on instinct, well...” Haily came trotting back to them with a block of ice in her mouth. The stick was inside. “Shorry,” she said through her teeth. “Okay.” Apple Bloom pressed a hoof to her forehead. “This might be a little more complicated than I thought.” Haily spat out the block. “You don’t know how to help either, huh?” “No, no, I got this, I got this. It’s my fault, I should’ve realized. We need to start at the bare bone basics. Can’t run before you learn how to crawl, right, Scootaloo?” “Sure,” Scootaloo half-growled. “Whatever you say.” “So how about we take the easiest magic exercise of all?” Sweetie Belle cringed. “You can’t be serious, Apple Bloom.” “Oh, I’m dead serious.” “But...” she leaned in to whisper in Apple Bloom’s ear. “That’s for toddlers.” Haily flinched. “What are you talking about?” “Look, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Haily, but it sounds to me like you need to start on the fundamentals,” Apple Bloom explained. “And Twilight said this one’s the fundamental one.” “Okay. What’s it called?” Apple Bloom grabbed the quill Sweetie Belle had been using to write with. “The Feather Fall. I’m gonna hold this here quill up, you’re gonna focus on not freezing it, but keeping it up in the air instead. Once you can slow it down, you can work up to holding it, and you’ll be movin’ houses in no time,” she said bright-eyed. “Without conjurin’ up a glacier in the process.” “I got that far in the first fifteen minutes of Twilight Time,” Sweetie Belle remarked. “I think Haily’s teachers would have tried this already.” “Oh, they didn’t, actually,” Haily said. “Really? Why not?” Scootaloo asked. Hailey chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “You know, it’s the weirdest thing. I think because I’m so good at this ice magic, everypony just assumes I’m good at magic, period, so I don’t need the basic exercises. Then when they find out I’m not, they assume I’m handicapped anyway, so why bother with the basics at all?” Scootaloo winced. “Yeah, that sounds like something grownups would do, alright.” “Anyway, just try to focus on lifting, not freezing, and you’ll do fine. Ready?” Apple Bloom held the quill up. “Ready.” Apple Bloom dropped the quill. Haily squinted and grimaced, covering it in a blue glow, but the feather fell, regardless. “Again.” Apple Bloom picked it up and dropped it. This time, it dropped faster. “Again,” Apple Bloom said. How many times Apple Bloom had dropped the feather, everypony had lost count. Haily panted and rubbed her horn. Her eyes were starting to water up with tears, her head hung low, her limbs were starting to buckle, even her breath came in ragged, little puffs of vapour forming from the cold she tried so desperately to keep in. “Apple Bloom, stop. My head hurts, I’m exhausted. I can’t do this. Please don’t make me try again, it’s not working!” Apple Bloom picked up the feather and sighed as she wiped some ice crystals off it. “I can see that. I thought you were trying to not freeze this thing?” “I was. I mean, I wasn’t.” Haily let herself collapse on the ground. “What was the question again?” “So even when you try not to, you freeze everything? Is all your magic frosty?” “Yes,” Hailey whined through gritted teeth. “I thought we’d established this is the basic problem I have to deal with every single day. This is what you said you’d be fixing.” Apple Bloom thought it over again. “So what happens if you try heating something up?” “It freezes,” the girl droned, getting back on her hooves. “Or it gets a layer of very wet and slick ice.” “See?” Sweetie Belle said. “I knew this was a waste of time. Look, you just have to accept that she can’t lift. But she can still be a great wizard and do something she loves. Right, Scootaloo?” “But that’s givin’ up! You shouldn’t let a handicap dictate your whole life. Right, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo tried to block them out, tried to think of something to say, but it was too late. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom argued, loudly. She couldn’t hear herself think, she couldn’t even hear what they were saying, not really. The filly snorted, wings tightening against her sides. All the echoing cries of ‘Right, Scootaloo? Right, Scootaloo?’ drilled into her skull. Finally, she cracked. “Wrong! This whole thing is wrong!” The Pegasus shouted, lifting off into the air with angry buzzing before dropping back down. “What do you mean?” Apple Bloom asked. “You can’t just wish or force something that you have to grow into. That’s what we got wrong trying to get our cutie marks for so long.” “But she can’t lift, and she really wants to,” Apple Bloom argued. “You want to be a big pony really badly, but you wouldn’t try to grow up faster by running twenty laps around the farm every day!” Scootaloo retorted. “Not everything can be fixed just by working harder. Sometimes all that does is hurt yourself and make it worse, and then you end up blaming yourself for something that’s not your fault!” “I guess that’s true.” “Thank you,” Sweetie Belle said. “So let’s get back to the ice sculptures.” “You’re just as bad, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said. “You’re trying to push Haily into a box, because you think that’ll make her happy. Boxes don’t make you happy, you know that. What if this was Rumble we were dealing with? You’d never try to do this kind of thing with him.” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Well, no, obviously, but Rumble can… oh. Right.” Scootaloo’s jaw clenched. Her wings flared up as she lowered her head, ready to pounce. “Rumble can... what, Sweetie Belle?” “Umm, you know...” Scootaloo got so close to Sweetie Belle she could hear the scared little filly’s breath quicken. “He can what?” Sweetie Belle gulped and took a step back. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t wanna say it, Scootaloo. I know you’ll get upset if I say it. Please calm down? I-I didn’t mean to.” Haily moaned and stroked her temples. “Well, this has been nice and enlightening. So what do you suggest I do, Scootaloo? Any advice that doesn’t end with a magic migraine?” Scootaloo blinked, and suddenly found her rage nipped in the bud by doubt. “I… I don’t know.” “Oh, you don’t know? I’m sorry, but I thought you girls were supposed to be good at this? I can’t believe you. Do you have any idea how badly you’ve wasted my time?” Haily turned her back on them and hissed, keeping one hoof on her head. “Now I’ve got a headache, and I can’t even put ice on it to make it feel better. Fix your own issues before you try to solve someone else’s. You’ll be a lot happier that way, and everyone will be better off!” With that, the Unicorn was off, eyes clenched shut. Once she was out of earshot, Apple Bloom sighed. “Gosh, Scootaloo, I’m real sorry. I didn’t mean to.” “Me neither,” Sweetie Belle added. “We should have asked you what to do first. And I’m really sorry I made you feel bad about the, you know…” “Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “I know. I’m not mad at you, girls, it’s not your fault. I’m just frustrated, I guess.” “We should have noticed. You know this kind of thing better than we do,” Sweetie Belle said. “You’ve dealt with this already.” “No, I haven’t.” Scootaloo sat down dejectedly and let her head hang. “That’s just it: if I knew how to deal with it, I’d have done it already.” Apple Bloom sat down next to her. “We messed up again, huh?” Scootaloo shook her head. “No, I messed up. I knew this was going to happen, I should have said something sooner. I should go find her and talk to her.” Her stomach groaned. “We will. After we get something to eat,” Apple Bloom said, looking at the shadows of the trees around as they shrank. In the distance, they could hear bells ringing. “Come on, Starlight’ll be lookin’ for us.”