Stretching and rolling out of bed, I couldn't hold back a long yawn as I dropped down to my hooves. Reaching back up, I quickly made my bed and got to the door before the yawn was done with me.
In the bathroom, a quick splash of water on my face was enough to wake me up fully and get my brain working properly. Sweetie Drops was back, which made me happy, and she'd gotten a promotion. There was something about it that seemed to have her worried, though, and it annoyed me that I couldn't work out what it was.
Then there was the situation with having another pony living here. I perked my ears, trying to hear anything, but the house was quiet. Too quiet. Quickly going over my mane and tail with a brush, I walked downstairs only to encounter a strong, sugary smell halfway to the bottom.
When I peeked around the corner into the kitchen, I saw Sweetie fanning a tray of something on the bench.
"Good morning, Scoots. Sleep well?" Sweetie asked me.
"Yeah! What'cha makin'?" Walking up to the table where the smell was concentrated, I reared up to plant my hooves on the edge.
I realized, then, that apart from her talking, Sweetie was making not a single sound as she worked—it was kinda freaky. "Hard candy. I thought you could take some to school with you. Don't touch them yet, though, they're really hot."
"Will there be enough for everypony, or just me and my friends?" The temptation to reach out and grab one was strong, but before my right forehoof could quite reach the tray, a metal spatula blocked me. I looked up at Sweetie, feeling a little embarrassed.
"I wasn't joking about them being hot. They're on a cooling tray for a reason. Let's wake Lyra and go for our morning run while they do. Our guest didn't wake you up did she?" Sweetie walked around the table and was on her way to the armory.
Following, I rolled my shoulders and loosened up my hips and wings. "Nah. Took me a bit to remember she was even here when I woke up. Heavy armor?" I liked the heavy armor because it had so many more straps and they needed to be tighter than normal. It let me really get a good workout going when I pulled on them.
"Of course. I need to take my light plate in to get new insignia on it, but I'm so used to the heavy gear now it'd be a shame not to keep using it. Besides, it makes me look badass." She giggled after that and walked up beside the armor, then lifted it over to her own back.
I rushed up before she had to ask and started tugging on straps and getting everything lined up. "You already are awesome, though. You could beat up those recruits even without your armor."
"Hrmm. Probably, but I'd have to use a lot more effort to defend myself. Armor just makes it easier for me to focus on dealing with their defenses and tactics. Hey, babe, ready for a run?" As Sweetie turned her head, I realized Lyra had walked into the room with us. How both of them could move so quietly I had no idea, but I wish they'd tie bells to their hooves or something.
"Heck yeah. How'd you sleep?" Lyra walked up beside Sweetie and they both kissed.
At first, it had felt awkward when they got like that, but I guess I sorta got used to them. I focused on getting the straps of Sweetie's armor tight. It took all my strength on some of the straps, which was a good way to stretch my muscles in the morning. Grabbing onto one here or there, leaning back, and pulling so hard I had to brace with my back legs to get it done.
Lyra startled me by asking, "Hey, Scoots, wanna give me a hoof with mine, too?"
"Of course. Gimme a sec to get this last—Okay." Rolling my shoulders a bit, I was itching to get my run done and do my stretches for the morning. As I helped Lyra get her straps done up on her armor, I thought back to what it had been like to fly as a bat pony.
Even just the dream where Tufts had made be into a bat pony for a few days had been the most amazing time of my life up until then, but going to Batstralia and becoming one for real still left my wings tingling. When the doctor had spelled out that it was because of that transformation that my wings would—eventually—work… I wanted to go back, when I had my cutie mark and could fly, so I could thank every bat pony I could find.
"Hey, uh, Scoots? You've been on that strap a while and I don't think it's going to get any tighter," Lyra said.
"Huh? Oh!" I finished buckling that strap and started trotting in place. "Got a bit distracted."
She stopped checking her straps and looked down at me. "Any problems?" How in Equestria was I meant to tell her about any problem when she jumps in and fixes all of them? Well, not exactly fixes them, but makes it so that I can fix them—like my wings, living here…
"Nah. I'm fine. Just thinking about flying." I spread my little wings and gave them a few flaps—actual flaps. Always before my wings had buzzed (because, the doctor had said, I was missing some key tendons), but now there was more pull and push to them. "Did you know going to Batstralia and coming back would heal them?"
Lyra lifted me up with her magic and sat me on Sweetie's spare suit of armor that was sitting on a stand. "The most important thing Princess Celestia ever taught me was to do what felt right and let destiny find a way. Back on Earth, before all the magic made Australia into Batstralia, that would be a sure sign of being crazy and poor." She ruffled my mane with her hoof. "But here, Scoots, that is how you do things. It's the best way! Do what you feel is right and trust in magic."
The idea was insane, but it had worked. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's crazy here, too. How often has this actually worked?"
"Lots!"
How could I argue with something that worked so much? "It's just hard to wait for it to work."
"There's a trick to that, Scoots. What you do is keep doing whatever you can to do the right thing. Don't wait for destiny to catch up."
It took me far too long to realize what she was saying and how she was explaining it. "So you're saying I should just be nice and always do good things?"
"Nope. Being nice and good things isn't always what's right, Scoots. What's good to one pony might not be good for all ponies, and being nice to a timberwolf isn't going to help at all. You need to look deeper and work out what's right. That's the hard bit." She lifted me down from the armor and set me on the floor.
"Are you two done yapping and ready for our run?" Sweetie Drops asked. "Don't make me break out my sergeant's voice."
The run, after the talk Lyra had given, left me with time to think. Good, nice, right. They were hard to tell apart sometimes. We got a full lap done before Rainbow practically slammed into the ground nearby and took up the pace with us. "Rainbow!"
"Hey, Scoots. How're your wings doing? Also, what's with being up this early? You don't normally start running for a bit yet." Rainbow had started running the same distance Lyra and Sweetie did, though she did it without armor. I guess she was trying to build up her leg muscles like I was doing my wings.
"Well, I can flap them now and feel what the doctor was talking about. They don't buzz like they used to, either, which he said will be my tendons strengthening. I'm going to be flying again in no time!" I didn't duck in time and got my mane messed up by Rainbow's wing this time. "And we started early because I woke up a bit early, and Sweetie was cooking!'
"Cooking? But aren't you in the Guard?" Rainbow looked over my head toward Sweetie.
Snorting at that, Sweetie lifted her chin a little. "Protecting ponies is what I like to do, but cooking is my special talent. Hey, Scoots, shouldn't you have been done a lap ago?"
"Uh." I thought it over, trying to remember how many I'd done. "I got a bit distracted. How many have we done?"
"Four," Lyra said. "This is the fifth."
"Guess I'll finish this one and start my wing exercises." We were halfway around the town anyway. The only way I could shorten my last lap would be to run through town—and I wasn't going to do that with Rainbow watching me.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Scoots," Lyra said.
"Pfft! Push myself too hard? I'm just trying to be the best I can be. They don't let weaklings into the E.U.P. Guard and Wonderbolts." I was surprised when Rainbow held her wing out to me, but I didn't hesitate to reach up and smack it with my own—something I couldn't have done until after that trip to Batstralia.
"So you're going to join the Guard first, huh?" Rainbow asked. "I know they do some military stuff with that side of the Wonderbolts, but I really want to just fly."
I snorted. "I want to be the best, Rainbow. That means proving it to everypony." With my legs occupied keeping up a fast gallop, I poked Rainbow in the ribs with a wingtip. "That means you, too."
Rainbow Dash let out a loud laugh. "Ha! Well, I guess I'll need to keep an eye out after I join."
With that, and with home in sight, the moon faded from the sky and the sun practically jumped onto the horizon. "Not for long," I said, "because I'll pass you soon enough."
I broke off from the group of ponies with Lyra and Sweetie's laughter chasing me. They weren't laughing at me because I knew neither of them would do that. I almost wished I could look back to see what expression was on Rainbow's face—but cool ponies don't look back. Rainbow had taught me that.
When I got inside, I found a strange unicorn looking around in a bit of a daze. "Hiya, Miss Trixie. Lyra, Sweetie, and Rainbow are out having their morning run. They'll be back in about half an hour."
She looked startled to see me, and even more so when I started doing my wing-stretches. "You're in school, yes?" Her confusion had turned into something else. When I nodded, midway between shifting positions and making the muscles tug at the weak tendons in my wing, she beamed. "Could you put some things up at your school?"
"Posters? Sure. Gimme a few minutes to finish up here first." My next exercise was long, rowing motions with both wings. Each of the moves was designed to stretch and work my wings, and while I knew they were getting better, I wanted to be able to fly now!
"What are you doing?"
"Stretching my wings. I had a problem with them when I was born, and until recently nopony thought it could be fixed." Lowering myself to the floor, I braced a wing down on each side of me and started doing wing-ups. "Then Lyra happened, and now I'll be able to fly when I get them strong enough."
Trixie snorted and shook her head in what seemed to be a total lack of surprise. "She's still doing that?"
"Apparently. She's been working for Princess Celestia doing things. Others call her Celestia's Problem-Solver. She told me how she does it, but I don't know if it would work for anypony but Lyra." I closed my eyes and started counting my lifts—my target was fifty.
"She's quite a pony. Do you want to know a great and powerful secret? She's responsible not only for me getting into Princess Celestia's school, but she also gave me the idea for my stage show—the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Her shout made me open my eyes and look up to see her posing dramatically. "I've been performing all over Equestria."
"Really?" I paused a moment to look at her. "That's cool. When are you doing your show here?"
"Tomorrow. It's not good to have a show on a day when there aren't any foals around. Err, today is Friday, right?"
I snorted and got back to my exercise. "Yeah. Last day of the week. What kind of show do you do?"
"Stage magic! Tricks! Sleight-of-hoof!" She sounded excited about it.
"But, uh, don't you have actual magic?"
She snorted and waved off my question with a hoof. "While it's true that all of the Great and Powerful Trixie's magic tricks could be done with overwhelming amounts of magic—that would be cheating. The art to Tri—to my tricks is that they use no magic at all for the actual trick. Though, I sometimes use it as a distraction."
"Huh. Well, I guess that makes it kinda special then. I hope I get a chance to see it!"
It almost looked like I'd zapped her with a thundercloud. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you come to my show?"
I managed to stop myself from blurting about Screech. She wasn't exactly a secret, but she'd asked us not to talk about her needing magic lessons too much. "Well, on weekends we normally visit Batstralia. Lyra has a thing she does for Princess Celestia, and I spend the day with Miss Candela."
"Oh. Uh…"
"It might be different tomorrow, though. With you here and with Lyra's new job, she might be staying in Equestria for the day—which means I could come for your show." Done with my wings-ups, I rolled over to my back and pushed the other way. It was a lot harder than wing-ups, but the doctor said I needed to do all the exercises.
"That… makes sense. Maybe the Great and Powerful Trixie could put on a special show!" She looked around the room quickly and then scrunched her snout a little. "Do you happen to have three cups?"
Looking at her upside down, I wasn't sure what she meant, but I could definitely find three cups. "Sure, gimme a second to finish these crunches. 97… 98… 99… 100!" My wings felt great, stretched and used, but great. I rolled to my hooves and shook as I stood up. "Maybe you could come to my school and do some tricks?"
Trixie followed me into the kitchen and tapped her chin with a hoof. "That's not a bad idea. A few things to warm up the fillies and colts so they'll bring their parents to my show tomorrow." As she spoke, Trixie took the cups from me and set them on the table. "You need to watch where I put this ball."
I stared at the ball that she'd produced from thin air. "I thought you said you didn't use magic?"
"I didn't. Here—" She turned to the side and revealed that the ball was under her hat, and with a twitch of one ear it dropped down her back, was caught in her left, which passed it to the right and eventually put it under the center cup. "Now, where is the ball?"
I looked at her in confusion. "Under that cup?" I gestured at the one I'd just seen her put the ball under.
Trixie tilted that cup up to reveal no ball. "No, but I always keep a spare ball in the left cup, see?" She tilted the left cup to reveal the ball under it.
"Trixie, if you're teaching Scoots how to hustle at three-card-monty, I'll be upset," Lyra said from the doorway. "C'mon, kiddo, you need to get ready for school."
I jumped down from my seat and walked over to her. "Lyra, can I stay in Ponyville tomorrow to watch Trixie's show?"
She grabbed me with her foreleg and hugged me. Despite how much I told myself she wasn't like Mom, she made sure I didn't feel alone. "Normally I'd have to go teach—Right. Yeah. That's not going to be happening tomorrow. I thought you might want to come to Canterlot for the day and try out with some of the recruits, but if Trixie wants an assistant for the day…?"
I turned my head to look at Trixie.
"This could be acceptable. The Great and Powerful Trixie's personal assistant has already arranged for a show at her school." She winked as she picked up the three cups to reveal hundreds of balls spilling out from under each.
"I owe you one, Trixie. If you want, you should come up to Canterlot in the evening and we could all have dinner with Shiny and Cadance too. It'd be just like—Oh! You remember Pinkie Pie, right?" Lyra was bouncing in place in excitement.
I left them chatting and headed upstairs to get my books and saddlebag for the day. Compared to armor, they weighed nothing and had barely any straps, but they were mine—Dad had gotten them for me. "Ugh. Darn. Don't cry now."
"I don't know if my hugs are as good as Lyra's, but you're welcome to try them out."
My head snapped around to see Sweetie Drops standing in the doorway. "Sometimes things just remind me of them. Still. I'll get over it in a minute."
I don't think I'll ever get used to how quiet she moves in her armor. She stepped into my room and over to where I stood and picked me up into a firm hug with her right foreleg. "You don't have to get over it, Scoots. They will always be important to you."
I hugged her and hoped I wasn't going to rust her armor with my tears. "Thanks." She didn't reply, but her continued hug was exactly what I needed. I squeezed as tight as I could for a few minutes before finally feeling okay enough to start letting go.
"If you ever need a hug, just find me. I don't care where you are or what either of us are doing, I'll be there for you."
Her words made letting go harder. "Thanks."
"You want a ride to school?"
The question made me blink in surprise a few times. "A ride would be…?"
"I think you know. Grab your books and get on, you'll be running a little late if we don't hustle."
It was impossible not to smile like crazy when you're riding on the back of a thundering earth pony wearing a ton of armor and literally making room wherever she goes. She galloped all the way through, only stopping when we reached the school—only to find Lyra and Trixie already there.
"Whoa. Slowpokes. You need to take the unicorn-express next time." Lyra walked up to Sweetie and kissed her cheek. Them kissing and being all lovey-lovey was something I'd kinda gotten used to. It reminded me a little of Mom and Dad, but only the best parts of them.
"Wait." I jumped down from Sweetie's back. "Did you two go to the same school?" I looked between Lyra and Trixie.
"Yeah," Lyra said.
"Sort of," Trixie said. "There's different study paths and"—she sighed and hung her head—"I didn't want to learn all that fancy stuff. I wanted to learn practical magic and illusions."
"Which I'll point out are exact opposites," Lyra said.
"Well, yeah. That's why I wanted to learn them. I can use the practical stuff to help with distractions, and the illusions to help with big distractions." Trixie's horn lit and, when she flicked her hoof up, she was holding a deck of cards. She levitated them up without using telekinesis (somehow) and then flicked through them to reveal they were all aces. "When I said I don't use magic to make my tricks work, that didn't mean I can't use magic to make them work."
Lyra was grinning like a fool—which I knew she wasn't. That meant that she knew more and was about to tell it. "Trixie is being a bit sneaky, Scoots. She's probably one of the best illusionists to come out of—"
"Scootaloo." Miss Cheerilee stepped out of the schoolhouse and blinked in surprise. "Oh, I didn't realize we had company today. Is everything alright?" She looked between Lyra and Sweetie, then to Trixie.
"Sorry. We were just making sure Scoots got to school on time." Lyra took a few steps toward Sweetie and I could already sense what she was about to do. "And we wanted to introduce an old friend who might be able to help you with a little entertainment for the foals. Cheerilee, this is Trixie Lulamoon—stage magician extraordinaire!" And, with that, she teleported away with Sweetie.
"You're a magician?" Miss Cheerilee sounded excited. "Please, please, come inside. You too, Scootloo. We normally have a show and tell first thing in the morning. You can be Scootaloo's. Do you need to get anything prepared?"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie is always prepared!" She started walking alongside Cheerilee to the schoolhouse door, then stopped. "And her amazing assistant, of course." The look she shot me reminded me of Lyra about to do something crazy-awesome.
Trotting after her, we both followed Miss Cheerilee into our classroom.
"Good morning, everypony, now that we're all here, I'd like to introduce you to a very special pony who's here to show you all some magic!"
Miss Cheerilee didn't seem inclined to tell me to take a seat, and when I started to go anyway, Trixie reached a hoof out to block my path.
"Thank you, Miss Cheerilee." Trixie took a step forward and tilted her hat down a little at the front. "I can imagine you all wondering which amazing magician stands before you. The great Hoofdini? Quill and/or Ledger? No." Two explosions went off on each side of the classroom, shooting confetti into the air. Trixie tilted her hat up just as her horn started to dim (which I could only see by being so close, I realized). "You are in the presence of the Great and Powerful Trixie! And assistant!"
Everypony in the room cheered and clapped their hooves. While they were distracted, I noticed that the confetti from the "magic, hidden cannons" slowly disappeared from where it had landed on the floor. That made it actually magic confetti, I guess.
"For my first trick, I'll need somepony from the audience." She made a point of looking around the sea of hooves raised before selecting Snails. "You! Trixie senses great psychic power emanating from you. Please come up here."
Trixie reached behind her and pulled a card table seemingly from thin air. I'd seen a line of pink magic appear where it had actually appeared from. That's when I realized that Lyra hadn't been joking about Trixie being really good with specific kinds of magic. When three cups appeared as well, accompanied by similar barely-seen lines of magic that produced them, I knew for sure that she was very good at what she does.
"Now, the trick here is to keep your eye on where the ball goes." Trixie made a show of putting the ball under the middle cup. "Which cup is it under?"
Snails looked at the three cups and eventually pointed at the middle one. "That one!"
"Nice guess, but it's not there." Trixie tilted the cup over to reveal nothing under it. "See, it's in the right one." She tilted the right cup, and as she did I noticed her slip a ball under it that was revealed. "See?" When the applause died down, Trixie prodded me between my shoulders. "But I always keep a spare ball, don't I, assistant?"
It took me a moment to remember her trick from earlier. "Of course. You always keep a spare ball under the left cup."
Again Trixie revealed the contents of the third cup while slipping a ball under it. She made a point of removing it, but I saw her put the ball under it again just before she put the cup back down. It was all so smooth and natural looking that—being beside her—I was the only one who noticed.
"Now, let's move onto something a little harder." Trixie removed the ball from the right cup, then lifted the middle one to show it was empty—but I saw her slide two balls under it. Then she made a show of holding up a ball and putting it under the right cup before slipping it away again as she lowered it. "Which cup do you think has the—wait! I feel something under the cup on my left."
As Trixie started to lift the cup, it flew toward the middle one and they clanged together. She dragged it back to the left as if it took a lot of work. "They've never done this befo—" Now she lunged to the right one and repeated the same thing with that. "Well, that's messed the trick up. The ball was going to be under the right one, but I think…" She lifted the middle cup to reveal two balls under it. "They must have migrated!" She tapped me on the shoulders again.
"What about the left cup?" I asked.
"Good question." Trixie reached for the left cup and tilted it up to reveal the ball under. "It's where I keep my spare ball." With that she made a show of taking the ball away and, as she lowered the cup again, slipped a huge ball under it. The soft, squishy thing was tiny at first, but even as she let it go under the cup it swelled up. "Now we know there is two under the middle one"—she again lifted the middle cup, but now there was three under it—"and… oh, they seem to be multiplying."
This time I did see what she did with the middle cup. She removed the three balls and left nothing under it. It was all so smooth and steady that I realized how much she had to be practicing this to get it so good that I missed one of her setups.
"But there's nothing under this one, right?" She lifted the right cup to reveal it empty, then looked at me. "Phew. I was starting to worry they were ganging up on us." When she put the cup back down, I spotted another large ball go under it. "Perhaps we should check on the spare one again?"
I knew what was coming. The ball she'd put under the left cup was huge. When she lifted it up and the huge ball was sitting there, I let out an appropriate gasp of surprise.
"Oh no, they're growing now! Quick, assistant, check the right one."
I reached up to the table and lifted the right cup to reveal the huge ball she'd put under it.
Everypony in the room was now fixated on that middle cup. While they were, I noticed Trixie hold an apple just under the card table, which seemed to have some kind of flap under it that concealed the apple from everypony watching.
"Do you want to guess what's under the last cup?" Trixie looked around the audience and got tons of shouted-back replies. When she lifted the cup up completely, I'd expected the same three balls—instead there were dozens. Balls spilled all over the card table and threatened to fall of the table in all directions. She slammed the cup back down, but was too late to contain any of them.
That's when it hit me that she'd completely missed all the balls with the cup, and she wasn't holding the apple anymore. When she picked the cup back up to reveal the apple under it, everypony in the room started cheering.
Taking her hat off, Trixie levitated the apple up and over to set it on Cheerilee's desk. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will be performing tomorrow in the town square!" Showing none of the sleight of hoof she'd used earlier, Trixie pulled out a small round thing and threw it to the floor.
A puff of smoke completely failed to obscure her grabbing the table, the balls, and her cups and running out the door with them—but it didn't stop everypony in the room laughing at the silliness of what she'd done.
When the laughter started to die down, Miss Cheerilee gestured toward the desks with her hoof. "Snails, Scootaloo, please take your seats."
And, of course, that's the start of class. I don't know why I disliked class so much, but it probably had to do with how much we had to sit still. I liked doing stuff. Exercising. Running around. Flying.
As soon as Miss Cheerilee announced lunch break, I was out the door with my packed lunch before any other foal could get out of their desks. Being inside so much was the worst.
Racing toward my favorite tree, I put my lunch down carefully and started to do my exercises.
"What'cha doing?"
I Turned my head to see it was an earth pony with glasses on asking me. "Hey, Peppermint, just doing my stretches."
She sat down at my tree and leaned against it. "Oh, right, so you can use your wings, right?" She pulled out a sandwich and started munching on it.
"Yeah. I wanna fly, and that means I need to get my wings in shape." Bracing my wings on the ground, I started doing wing-ups. "Do you have anything planned for the weekend?"
"Going and seeing that show, for one. What about you?" she asked between mouthfuls.
"Yeah, but I probably won't be around all day. Lyra wants to have dinner with friends in Canterlot, and that means my usual train ride." It had been a little scary at first, but once I figured out how to know when the right stop was, and how to ask the conductor to tell me when I should be getting off, it was really easy.
I kept at my exercises, barely noticing how long it was taking as I counted out the repetitions. When I swapped onto my back, my belly let out a grumble.
"Aren't you going to have lunch?"
"When I'm done with this, I will. If you look in my lunch bag, there're some sweets Sweetie packed for me. You can have one if you want." My wings strained against my weight, but this was what I had to do.
I watched her dig into my lunch bag and lift out a smaller bag. "Sweetie Belle made these? You might not want to—"
"No"—I huffed as I lifted myself back up—"Sweetie Drops. She and Lyra look after me, remember?"
"Ohhhh." She opened the bag up and took one out. "These smell really good." When she put it in her mouth, I watched as her eyes dilated wide and a huge smile covered her snout. "If weawy goodf!"
I finished my stretches and stood up. "I'll be flying in no time!"
"Y-You said your foster Mom made these?" Peppermint Twist asked. "D-Do you think I could meet her? I really like them and I'd love to try making them too!"
"She's probably going to be around a lot more now. She works in Canterlot." I looked inside my lunch bag and found an apple and a sandwich. When I lifted the latter from the bag, I knew it was Lyra who made it.
Not all ponies liked to eat fish. In fact, it was mostly only pegasi who did so, but I'd grown to enjoy the taste and the doctor had said that I should be eating protein-rich food. I took a bite of it and tasted the usual mayonnaise and cheese as well.
"What's that smell?" Peppermint turned to look at me, screwing her snout up.
Shoving the mouthful to one side of my mouth, I asked, "Do you really want me to tell you?" I finished that mouthful and swallowed it before she even worked out I'd asked her a question.
"It's not tomato and lettuce, is it…?"
I just snorted at that. "Poached trout, mayonnaise, and cheese. Lyra makes them specially for me. You're lucky she didn't make me lunch from her homeland." I took another bite of my sandwich, relishing the rich flavors.
"W-W-What—No! I don't want to know." She shrank back for a moment, but by the time I finished my first half a sandwich, she was looking curious. "Okay, tell me."
"Well, you have to imagine that she's from a whole different world. Cows and sheep aren't smart there—can't even talk." I nibbled on a corner of the next half. "She's eaten all kinds of animals."
"C-Cows?"
"Yup."
"S-Sheep?"
"Of course."
"What about…"
I waited a few moments for her to finish, but Peppermint seemed unable to come up with something suitable. "Like I said, a whole other world. I went there on the school holidays." I turned to look at her and flashed my biggest smile. On second thought, given my fish-breath and the likelihood there was bits of fish in my teeth, I probably shouldn't have done that.
Peppermint Twist screamed and had to quickly cover her mouth with her hooves.
"What's going on here, girls?" Miss Cheerilee asked as she approached.
Peppermint uncovered her mouth. "Scootaloo was going to eat me!"
I couldn't help myself and fell over sideways giggling. Okay, so I might have set that up, but she didn't have to actually think that.
Or say it.
"Peppermint Twist, Scootaloo isn't going to eat you. Are you, Scootaloo?" Miss Cheerilee looked at me, and I could swear she was struggling not to laugh.
"I mean, I was pretty hungry, but I have an apple to eat after my sandwich. I should be okay today."
Now Miss Cheerilee was almost losing it. When she turned back to look at Peppermint, however, her face was back to normal. "Peppermint, she won't eat you."
"B-But she said she went to another world where they eat meat all the time." Pointing at my sandwich, Peppermint's hoof wavered a little. "A-And she's eating fish! She never ate fish before!"
"Scootaloo is on a high-protein diet to help her wing muscles and tendons strengthen. She won't be eating anything more exciting than that—which I'll remind you that a lot of ponies eat." Now with a warm smile in place of her earlier smirk, Miss Cheerilee turned back to me. "And it'd be wonderful if you'd tell the whole class about your holiday on Monday, Scootaloo. I know Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's holiday report took up all the day we had planned for them, but I'm quite sure she didn't go to another world."
Homework! Ack! The surefire way to ruin a great weekend! Okay, I could put off writing it up until Sunday, that way I could enjoy Trixie's show tomorrow and still go up to the Guard HQ and talk to Sharp Horn. "Okay!" Despite having to do extra work, I was excited to talk about my holidays. There was so much awesome stuff I did, and it was the reason I'll be able to fly!
When Miss Cheerilee walked off to do something else, Peppermint let out a sigh. "S-Sorry. Sometimes I just blurt things out without thinking about it first."
"I mean, I was poking fun, so I guess we're even. Batstralia's a strange place, but they don't eat meat there anymore." Which was ironic because I was. "You see, all the people there got turned into bat ponies. All they want to eat now is fruit."
I gulped down the last bite of my sandwich but, instead of going for my apple, I grabbed the bag of sweets and opened it. The smell of sugar hit me like a hammer, and before I realized it I had one in my mouth.
Sweetie Drops' candies were, without a doubt, the best thing in the world—at least for the seconds they lasted. Everything else faded into background noise as the taste and intensity of the treats stole everything but my ability to eat them.
"Can I have another one?" Peppermint asked.
I looked into the paper bag and saw two left. Holding it out, I offered her her pick of them. "Sure. Just enough for one more each."
When we each finished the last of the candy, I picked up my apple and brushed it against my coat. "The bell will be ringing soon. Want to see how many laps we can run of the school before it does?"
I could see Peppermint Twist thought I was a crazy, but a moment later she shrugged her shoulders and laughed. "You'll win, but okay!"
Our afternoon was spent studying geography. It wasn't as terrible as math or comprehension, but it still wasn't the same as going out and experiencing those places. I guess I should thank Lyra and Sweetie for that—they'd shown me how great it can be to find new and interesting places.
As Miss Cheerilee explained about the island-city of Trottingham, I remembered that Sweetie Drops had been there with her squad, defending them from bugbears. I wondered what it would be like having to deal with monsters like that on the regular. Apart from Nightmare Moon and that nasty thing from Batstralia, Ponyville was fairly quiet.
"Oh, and before you go today, please take a permission slip home for your parents to sign. At the end of the school year, this year, we're going to be visiting Princess Celestia's own private garden—and you'll all need to get the paperwork filled out." Miss Cheerilee passed a stack of papers to each foal in the first row of desks, who took one and passed them back.
The bell, which was on a timer, sounded and everypony jumped to their hooves and stampeded for the doorway. I took my time getting up and walked up to Miss Cheerilee's desk. "Excuse me, Miss Cheerilee?"
"Ah, I had wanted to speak to you about the form, Scootaloo. Either of your guardians' signatures will be fine." If there was one thing about Miss Cheerilee that was reliable, it was her knowing everything about classes and stuff in advance.
"Oh! Thanks! Goodbye, Miss Cheerilee!" I didn't wait to hear her reply, instead pounding my hooves to get outside. I'd barely gotten out the door when an explosion startled me to a stop.
A huge, billowing cloud of smoke brought me up short, only to blow away and reveal Trixie standing there with a big grin on her snout. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to escort her number-one apprentice!"
Okay, that smoke cloud showed up the one in class for the gag it was. This was so awesome that I couldn't help but cheer. "Where are we going? Canterlot? I normally do some homework and then take the train there."
"Do you have any homework?" Trixie asked. When I shook my head, she struck another pose. "Then let's go and I'll show you some of the tricks we can do together tomorrow. It's not often Trixie has an assistant, but I can work something out."
We trotted together through town and toward her wagon. Ponies glanced at us—well, they glanced at Trixie—and there was an air of excitement building. "Your hooves are really quick. How did you do that thing with the cup and all the balls at the end?"
"You were watching me, how do you think I did it?" she asked.
"You said you don't use magic for the tricks, which means you did something to get all those balls under there, but how—" I stopped talking when she produced one of the tiny balls and floated it over to me. Used to grasping things out of Lyra's magic aura, I took the ball in my wing and it all came together. "They're soft!"
"Now do you understand how I did it?"
"You put a whole bunch under there and they expand as they come out. I still didn't see you put them in, though." I followed her up to the back door of her wagon and, when she threw the door wide, I froze. There was a bed in there—a hammock—but it was boxed in on all sides by stuff. "Whoa…"
"Now, we can do the classic Sawing a Pony in Half bit, though you'll be a little short to make the box believable. I guess you can saw me in half for that. We can do a bit where you struggle with the saw and have to get another pony to help. We don't even need to instant-stooge for that." She was rummaging around in a pile of stuff and pulling things out at random and passing them to me.
"What's the 'instant-stooge'?" I asked, taking a puppet of a giant tarantula in my wings and carefully setting it to the side.
"Instant-stooging is when we get an audience member on stage and show them—and only them—how we are doing a trick. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred they will be more than happy to go along to be part of the show." She grimaced, and I could practically see her memory of something like that going wrong. "Never instant-stooge a foal. Your chances of having the trick ruined go up to about a hundred percent then."
It clicked what Trixie was doing, and it was the same thing Lyra and Sweetie did—she was treating me as an adult. My adoptive mums had their reasons to, I guess, but why was Trixie doing it? "Trixie, can I ask something?"
"Scootaloo, you can always ask me anything."
I liked that answer. "You don't treat me like a foal. I mean, you do a little, but only in fun ways. If I asked another adult that, they would try to make it simpler or something, or not include the foal bit."
"Several reasons, the first is easily shown by how good that question was. You're a filly, I know that, but you think a little beyond what a filly your age would. I just figured I'd speak to you like you were an adult and let you ask questions to fill in any blanks you didn't understand.
"The second reason is my experience. The Great and Powerful Trixie has toured over much of Equestria and even beyond in some cases—I have met a lot of very smart foals who can see past my tricks, and even a few who were smart enough not to blurt that out to everypony present.
"The last is that Lyra Heartstrings, somepony who I trust a great deal, told me you were a smart filly."
Her reply was amazing. It wasn't just talking to an adult, it was talking to a smart adult. While I got most of what she was saying, there was something that didn't click. "What do you mean 'smart enough not to say that'?"
"My little show at the school. You saw how I was doing the tricks—at least some of them. A lot of foals would have tried to show they were smart by showing that to everypony else. You didn't." She passed me four different decks of cards that were still wrapped in brand-new packaging.
"I—I didn't want to ruin the show. They were all enjoying it. If I'd opened my mouth and told them, they might have liked to know how you did it, but not as much as seeing you do all of it." When she passed me what seemed like a rubber snake—but turned out to be a real snake—I froze. "W-W-What is this?"
"The best work I've managed yet. Hold still and let me drive it." Trixie's horn started to glow the softest shade of blue I'd ever seen while the snake started slithering up my wing and onto my back. It didn't seem to be aggressive. "It's a puppet that can naturally move and slither on its own. My final year at Princess Celestia's school was spent working on it."
"S-So it's not a real snake?" I asked.
"No. I wouldn't pass you a real snake without warning you. This was just for fun. Now, have you had any training using pegasi magic?"
"N-No. I can't exactly fly yet." I flicked both my wings out and immediately knocked myself over and fell into the hammock—which spun around a few times.
Trixie used her magic to untangle me from her hammock and lift me out of the wagon safely. "My wagon is not the place to practice, either. I know most pegasus magic requires you to fly, but if you could at least change the flow of magic around your body you could have controlled that snake." She lifted a hoof to rub at her chin. "We should probably be going—don't want to miss the train. Bring the snake."
When she floated the snake over to me, I took hold of it with a little more confidence and set it on my back again. "Why?"
"Because I think we'll be able to find a pony there who can show you a trick or two. A non-unicorn, that is. The snake is controlled by the flow of magic. It doesn't have to be unicorn magic. Unicorn magic just lets me control it at a distance."
We reached the train station and boarded the train. It was all pretty normal stuff, and Trixie paid for her ticket and mine.
"Would you like to learn a little?"
Her question caught me by surprise. I looked up at Trixie and thought about it. "How can a unicorn teach a pegasus about magic?"
"Well, I won't be teaching you about pegasus magic, just the magic flow everypony has inside them. Close your eyes and focus on your chest." Apparently she'd made my decision for me, but what else were we going to do?
Closing my eyes, I readied to do what she said. Each breath I took made my chest puff out a little before deflating again. After a little longer, I started to feel the thudding in there too. "Yeah."
"You can feel your chest move with your lungs and with your heart, but can you feel deeper? There is another flow in there that will twitch with your heart and stretch with your lungs. Try to look for echoes of them."
This wasn't easy. I could feel my body breathing and beating, but the echo wasn't there. My breathing was the biggest of the feelings, so I focused on that. In. Out. In. Out. It took a little while, but eventually I felt something not as an echo, but triggering just before my breathing. "It's not an echo. My breathing is the echo!"
"Understanding that means you're doing a lot better than most foals when they first try this." Trixie even sounded impressed. "Now I want you to focus on feeling that pre-echo. Feel where it comes from and goes to. Trace it out."
Breathing slowly, I tried to feel it out. The pre-echo started somewhere in my neck and rushed down to my lungs, but there was more. My heart beats were another easy one to spot—then I realized why it had been so hard to see them. "There's so many!"
"Bingo. Now you're seeing it. Follow each one. Try to find the one that's making your tail flick. The one that makes your wings twitch. Can you guess what this is?"
It was interesting to see all the twitches. I flicked various feathers and got the most reaction, though. It was like my wings were a huge switch and whatever these pre-echoes were, they had a lot to do with my wings. "They're like nerves, but not. We learned about nerves in school—they're what make our body react and what makes us feel things, but this is all coming from my head, not going to it."
"Which means it's not nerves. Have you tried feeling how your brain sends it?"
That would be tricky. I tried to focus up higher, but there was a lot of noise in my neck. Still, I felt for that pre-echo when I was about to move my whole wing, and when it was starting I tried to mentally push at it. It worked! My wing got a huge kick of pre-echo, and to my surprise the snake slithered along my back and to that wing. "What is it?"
"That's your magic. Pony bodies are full of it. Everything we do uses a little, but we can use more. Do you have somepony teaching you about your wings work?" Trixie reached out her hoof and booped the snake on the nose.
"Well, kinda. Miss Derpy was trying to teach me how, but what with all the problems with my tendons and seeing the Wonderbolts' doctor, my time with her was kinda shortened. Should I ask her if I can have lessons again?" I changed my focus and pushed more magic to my other wing, which encouraged the snake to go that way instead. "This is kinda cool."
"If she can teach you about using your pegasus magic in your wings, I think it would be a good thing. Magic does more than just help you push clouds, it will encourage your wings to grow stronger."
I kept playing with the snake until we reached the station in Canterlot. Eventually, when I worked out how to get it to coil around my neck, I left it there while we climbed off and headed into the city. "They'll be almost ready for their nightly run. I normally get there in time to see them finishing their training."
Lyra and Sweetie had, through the bits and pieces of conversations and training I'd overheard, taught me how to watch a pony to gauge physical ability, and it surprised me when I paid attention to Trixie's movements that she had muscle. It wasn't the kind gained by running, though, which made me more curious. "How'd you get so strong?"
Trixie paused and looked at me for a second before she started walking again. "My magic? I'm not strong with that."
"No, I mean your muscles," I asked.
"You're a very observant filly. You saw my wagon, imagine if the only way to get around Equestria was to pull that behind you?" Her answer made a lot of sense. The wagon had been fairly large, even if it was packed full of stuff so much it was tiny inside. "Or the Great and Powerful Trixie got strong wrestling ursa-majors."
The idea of anypony physically fighting an ursa-major was absurd—I couldn't help but to giggle as we reached the gates of the E.U.P. Guard grounds.
"Miss Scootaloo?" one of the gate guards asked. "Lieutenant Stiff Peaks asked for you to meet him as soon as you arrive!"
This was different. Normally I just asked to go through to see Lyra. "Okay. Where is he?"
The guard looked at Trixie with a raised eyebrow.
"Trixie is looking after me today. She's one of Lyra—Sergeant Lyra's—friends."
That got a slight nod from the guard. "I will escort you to see the lieutenant." He turned and started doing just that.
I noticed Trixie was smiling, but she seemed comfortable enough following along with me. We weren't going to Stiff Peaks' "office", we were going to his actual office. "He's in his office today? Is that natural?"
"We're sure the lieutenant visits his office at least once a day, though most of us never manage to catch him doing it." The guard sounded more relaxed. I had to wonder if he'd have led me in with Trixie if I hadn't mentioned she was Lyra's friend.
"Thank you," Trixie said when the guard at last stopped at the door to the offices building.
"No problems, ma'am. Just head inside, Miss Scootaloo knows the way." The guard turned and started marching back to the front gate.
"I got the impression he wasn't going to let me in. At least until you spoke up for me. Do they know you that well here?" Trixie used her magic to grasp the door handle and open it.
"Well, I don't know everypony here, but all of them know Lyra and Sweetie. Mentioning either of them will get you some extra attention until they can find one of them. It's kinda their thing, you know?" I stepped through the door ahead of Trixie to see Stiff Peaks talking to somepony else.
"And speak of the filly. Come on through, Scootaloo—Who's this?" Stiff looked up from me to Trixie.
"That's Trixie. Lyra asked her to take care of me today." I didn't bother complaining about needing to be looked after. The change between me living alone and living with Lyra and Sweetie was enough to make me value having somepony around to watch my back.
Also, Trixie was an interesting pony to talk to. She didn't just know the in-school kinda stuff, but she knew what it was like out in the world too.
"Well, we can't get into the details until Lyra and Sweetie get in, but we can chat about your recovery." Stiff gestured back to his office and started to walk toward it. "I understand you're doing all your exercises? Has Cloud Bank given you a time-frame on when you'll be able to start flying?"
"She said it might be a year or two, sir." It was easy to call him sir when everypony else I knew called him that. "Can't you ask her yourself?"
"I could, but you're a foal and a civilian, which means your doctor can give me a smack around the ears for asking such a thing. Two years… This could still work out well." His eyes drifted to my neck as I sat up on the chair at his desk. "Interesting pet you have there."
I looked down and remembered the snake I'd coiled around my neck. "It's—"
"This was my final project at school," Trixie said. "It's a toy that encourages ponies to use their magic-field to manipulate the snake and make it chase around their body. I was surprised to find Scootaloo hadn't had any training in using hers, and thought she might be able to put it to good use."
Stiff's attention turned to Trixie and I caught an evaluating look from him. He knew more about working out what a pony does that Lyra and Sweetie—for all I knew he'd taught them how to do it—so I had to wonder what he figured out. "I shouldn't be surprised, given the company you keep, Miss…?"
"Trixie Lulamoon."
"Miss Trixie. This is a very good idea but how does it work?"
"It follows magic fields. The stronger the field, the faster it moves. I had hoped they would catch on, but as it turned out most ponies are scared of snakes." Trixie's voice was really expressive sometimes, and right now I got the idea that she thought such fears were really stupid.
I limbered up a little and focused on my wings again. I sent a little jolt of magic down and to my right wing, which the snake twitched at. Right, I needed to lead it properly. The path from my neck to my wing was short, but I still had to trace it with magic to get the snake to unwind and slither across my back. "Like that."
"Can I have a try?" Stiff asked.
I shrugged my shoulders, to which Trixie lifted the snake off my back with her magic and transferred it to Stiff Peaks' back.
The little snake started racing around his back, darting around like it was a little rocket on a scooter. Even with his armor between him and the snake, it seemed to never slow down. "Very interesting. How much do you sell them for?"
Trixie coughed. "That one is not for sale. Perhaps I could make some more for you, though. How many do you need?"
"I'd like to start with about twenty. We often have trainees who can't manipulate their magic due to never having learned, and it would be a great boon to give them a way to see when they're doing it right." Stiff made the snake slither down his outstretched leg and set it on the edge of the desk nearest me. "If you could teach us how to make them, we could just pay you invention rights?"
"That would suit me better. My life is on the road, and I hadn't planned to chan—"
There was a double knock on the door from somepony, to whom Stiff called out permission to enter. Lyra and Sweetie, both looking huge in their armor, walked in and snapped off salutes—though both their eyes were on me.
"At ease, sergeants. Lyra, what do you make of this?"
"Trixie, is that your final-year project from Princess Celestia's school? Oh heck, I remember this. It was so awesome." Lyra's horn lit up and the snake started doing a wiggling dance before jumping onto my head.
I caught the snake by directing a pulse of magic to the back of my head and then down, coiling it up around my neck again.
"Huh, when'd you learn to do that?" Lyra asked.
"The question, Lyra, is why you didn't have somepony teaching her how to use her pegasi magic?" Trixie's eyes narrowed. "You know healing will go faster with her magic flowing."
"Uh, I figured Doctor Cloud Bank would be handling all that. I mean she—Oh ponyfeathers, she's used to treating adults, isn't she?" Panic seemed to slam into Lyra and she stared at me as if she'd just done something really bad. "I'm so sorry, Scoots!"
"This"—Trixie gestured to the snake around my neck with a hoof—"is something I've already started helping with. Firstly, you're welcome. Secondly, find a pegasus to teach her properly."
Lyra's eyes locked on the snake again and her eyes widened. "Oh! Your snake! That's why you have it here?"
"Scootaloo's snake now, but yes." Trixie rolled her eyes at Sweetie. "Now, I believe there was something your boss wanted to talk to you about Scootaloo. I can leave if you'd rather?"
Quiet up until now, Sweetie shook her head. "Trixie, you don't need to go unless the lieutenant needs you to."
I nodded my head. Since Trixie seemed so smart, I wanted her around in case I could find out any more fun things.
"Well, I'll get down to it. I know that the Wonderbolts have been scouting the various young flier events in Cloudsdale for a long time, but there's noting particularly special like that for either earth ponies or unicorns, or pegasi who aren't flight-crazy. Which is why I wanted to see about organizing something." He looked at Sweetie and Lyra significantly.
"By that, sir, you mean you want us to organize something?" Sweetie asked.
Stiff laughed. "This is why I like having you both here. You understand me so well. So, can you do it?"
I looked at Lyra, though she was looking at Sweetie. They both looked serious and nodded at each other after a few moments. "So why am I here?" I asked Stiff.
"That's partly related to this. As well as these contests, I'd like to start a junior guard. There would be no requirements to sign up or perform active duties at all, but there would be training. Like how to use your magic properly, how to defend yourself in a situation, and how to think enough to keep situations from happening." While he spoke, his eyes were locked on mine.
"Hold up." My brain was running overtime. I leaned forward and planted a hoof on his desk. "You are going to start a junior guard, and that has to do with me?" Excitement started to bubble up inside. "W-What would we be doing? Running, because everypony does that, but will I learn to use my pegasi magic and fly?"
"No." Stiff looked at Lyra. "I think I have the right pony to organize this right here. It needs somepony known to those in the school system here in Canterlot, it needs a pony who knows the workings of the Guard and how training works, and it needs somepony who can understand what parents will want."
Lyra paused a moment and then her eyes widened. "Wait. Me?!"
"There's not a lot of ponies I'd trust with this role. You have proved you can handle training, and you've had experience training foals, and all the things I just mentioned. There wouldn't be a promotion immediately, but there may be in future—though I understand you aren't concerned about promotion-hopping."
"I need to think about this. Why do you keep dropping these bombshells on me?"
Sweetie cleared her throat. "Because you're you, Lyra. Every time somepony throws a huge problem your way, you solve it." She reached a foreleg out and bumped Lyra on her armored shoulder. "And because you care. There's a lot of ponies in the Guard that would be terrible at this, but you're not one of them."
Lyra's shoulders slumped and she hunched over a little. "I just don't want to screw this up."
"Sergeant Lyra Heartstrings, I have never seen you screw up a single thing. I don't think you'll start now. Now, Sergeant Sweetie Drops, I have a proposal for you, too." Stiff looked at Sweetie like he'd cornered a very dangerous animal, given how much I'd seen Sweetie spar with the recruits, I could believe it. "I don't intend for you to remain idle here either, as well as assisting Lyra with her project, I'd like you to build me outlines for what it would take to get a pony from no aptitude to fully combat ready. Please take into account any pre-training like what Lyra will be doing, as well as pushing gifted recruits to overperform and less-capable recruits to reach that minimum level required.
"Naturally, neither of you need to dive into this until after your recruits have graduated. Dismissed."
Lyra and Sweetie started to turn, but waited for me to jump down from the chair and follow them. When we were outside the room, I looked between the two of them—they looked surprised. "So what does all this mean?"
"That we're going to be busy as of Monday. On the plus side, we don't need to be at the training grounds to plan this. We might even want to get our own offices somewhere to give us some space where the work stays." Lyra looked at Sweetie with an expression that I'd learned meant she had a plan for something. "And I need to see Princess Celestia about it. I have some ideas, but I want her advice."
We walked to the castle while Lyra, Sweetie, and Trixie talked. The Royal Guard just saluted when we arrived, at which point a pink blur galloped toward us and caught Trixie in a hug. "Trixie! When did you get back into Canterlot?" Cadance asked.
"Oh, you know how it is traveling the roads of Equestria, one moment you're leaving Manehatten and next you wander into a town and find two of your besties rushing to give you a hoof with your wagon." Hugging back, Trixie had a big smile on her snout. "What about you? Still with—"
"Yeah she is." Shining walked more sedately than Cadance, but he still went right up to Trixie and hugged her. He was big—as big as Cadance—and with his Royal Guard armor he looked extra imposing. "It's good to see you again."
"You all know each other?" The words tumbled from my mouth before I realized it.
Shining looked down at me and turned a little, keeping one foreleg around Trixie's neck. "Trixie helped Cadie show me how much she cared for me."
"We're still having dinner in two hours, right?" Cadance asked.
Sweetie nodded. "Yup. We have some things to discuss with Princess Celestia. Our Lieutenant has us organizing a school to teach foals how to use their innate abilities as well as to defend themselves."
"Lieutenant Stiff Peaks, right?" Shining asked. When he got a nod from both Lyra and Sweetie, he smirked. "He's always been a forward thinker. Does he smell trouble coming?"
"He said something about how the Wonderbolts were doing something similar with their young flier program. Of course, we need to cater for all three—" Lyra paused and looked surprised. "Uh, well, we should probably make up something for alicorns too. After all, they can come into their power at any age."
"You know, I wouldn't mind helping you out with that side of things. Celestia gave me some time in her school to learn magic, but I've never really explored my earth pony side, and as far as my pegasus training goes—" She was looking right at me. "Is that a snake around your neck?"
Wanting to show off, I pushed my magic in a wave down from my neck and then up the back (through my mane) so the snake was on top of my head. "Sure is! Trixie made it to help teach ponies to use their magic."
"Stiff Peaks asked me to supply him with more to use them as teaching aids. I don't know if I'll have the time to, what with my traveling show." Trixie tapped her chin with a hoof. "I'll figure something out. The Great and Powerful Trixie will not be detained!"
"Hey, Scoots, do you want to come with us or wait out here?" As Lyra asked, she looked at Cadance.
By the time I turned to look at Cadance, I missed whatever expression she'd made back. "Uh, I might stay out here."
Sweetie and Lyra both gave me encouraging smiles and turned to head into the castle.
"Hey." Shining's voice surprised me, mostly because I could hear Cadance and Trixie walking away. "You wanna go look around the armory?"
Not just "the armory" but the Royal Guard Armory?! There was only one answer to that. "Yes please!"
"Alrighty then, come on and we can poke around at what goodies Sharp Horn has made. Do you know her?" As we walked around to the guardhouse, I noticed that Shining's armor looked different to the rest. There was something else—all the other Royal Guard saluted him.
"Uh, yeah! I've met Sharp Horn. She's nice."
"She makes all the metal equipment for the Guard, no matter the detachment." At the doors to the Royal Guard guardhouse, the two ponies there snapped a salute to Shining, and he returned it. "At ease. Just taking a future recruit to see the good toys."
"You got a promotion?" I asked as we walked into the guardhouse.
"Yeah. Captain. It was all kinda rushed, though. I think she—Princess Celestia—is planning something. Not that I haven't worked my flank off." When we reached a heavy door, Shining leaned forward and pressed the tip of his horn to the middle of it. A flicker of pink magic was all it took and the door started to open. "Here we go. Best gear in Equestria."
"Whoa. Those are enchanted Royal Guard spears, right?" I knew better than to reach out and touch them. The fabled spears of the Royal Guard would pierce anything—literally anything. Each was enchanted by Princess Celestia herself.
I reached a hoof toward one, then paused and looked at Shining. "Wait, isn't captain higher rank than lieutenant?"
"Kinda. Oh, you can pick one up. The enchantments won't kick-in unless you're wearing Royal Guard armor." Shining used his magic to lift two of the spears from the rack—passing one to me. "Captain is higher than lieutenant, but I only outrank lieutenants in the Royal Guard detachment. Like, lieutenant Stiff Peaks wouldn't be required to salute me or follow my orders, just like I don't have to follow his or salute him. I respect him too much not to at least listen to him, though, and we saluted each other when we met after my promotion."
Holding the spear with my right foreleg and my right wing together, I struggled to hold it. It was heavy, and there was a feeling like it didn't want me holding it. Still, I had permission, and it wasn't like the Royal Guard took mares, so this is probably my only shot of holding one. "These can pierce anything, can't they?"
"When activated, yeah. It's…"
I looked back to see him staring over my head at nothing. "Shining?"
"Lyra keeps telling me how adult you are, but I don't know about this. It's—Oh, horse apples. So I'm holding this spear, right?"
I nodded, bracing the butt of my spear on the ground and holding it upright with my wing.
"Okay, so this could slice through the heaviest armor, through stone, and even through magical enchantments—like my own shield. It doesn't just pierce the enchantment, it rips it apart and destroys it, and yeah, it hurts like hell when someone uses one to do it. So you have all this power that Princess Celestia was put in your own hooves—now what happens if you just need to stop a few creatures?" He looked at me.
"Why don't you get some other weapons? Sweetie seems just fine using her own hooves, armor, and body as a weapon." I was trying to get my head around it, but it was still kinda awe-inspiring just to hold one of the weapons.
Shining twirled his spear and made a thrust away from us with it. As he shoved it forward with his magic, the tip crackled with magic for just a moment. "That'd be great, though with nearly 80% of the Royal Guard being pegasi or unicorns, we kinda lack the earth ponies that would be needed for that. Strong as I am, if it's an earth pony I have to subdue, and they know how to use their innate magic, I am starting on the back-hoof."
Lifting the spear back up, I turned it slowly with my wing and my leg, careful not to drop it even as I had it upside down. "The enchantments are all aimed along the tip, and you said this won't work in my hooves?"
"Yeah, I—"
I turned the butt of the spear toward him and poked him in the shoulder. "Well?"
Staring at the spear where it hit him, Shining's eyes were wide. "How in Celestia's name did you just—Did you come up with that just now?"
I shrugged my shoulders—almost dropping the spear as I did. "Seemed obvious."
"It is. So obvious nopony has ever thought of it before. Scootaloo, that's an amazing idea." Prancing in place, he looked so excited and happy. "I need to contact our training group and have them work to come up with ways to use the butt of the spears.
"Still, it won't stop us from having to put ourselves between any threat and our princesses, but it gives us another tool. Is there anything I—or the Royal Guard—can do to show our thanks?"
Again I was forced to put my brain into gear. I mean, I wasn't an egg-head or anything, but some of this stuff just came naturally. Or, so it seemed. The weight of the spear had become more accustomed in my hooves, though no easier to hold, but it gave me an idea. "Lyra and Sweetie are starting this school to teach young ponies how to use their innate magic and how to fight, but I want—I want more than just that. I can use one of these, but could you teach me how to use a smaller spear? How to use pegasus armor? Use my innate magic?"
"You remind me of Twily," Shining said.
"Huh?"
"Nothing. I can't teach you how to do any of those things"—when I frowned, he held up a hoof to ward off my mood-change—"but I could have one of our company sergeants, a pegasus, come and teach you. Armor might be harder, but Sharp Horn owes me one. I take it you don't want Lyra or Sweetie to know?"
"Well, I mean, I'd like to surprise them, but if they ask I don't want you getting in trouble or anything. So, uh, tell them if they ask. It'd be fun to turn up on the first day of their school and just kick flank." But it filled me with excitement. Would Shining be okay with it? Could he find somepony to help me? What would Sharp Horn say?
"Yeah, I think I can do that. I know Lyra and Sweetie pretty good, so I'm pretty sure they'd be cool with it. Okay, recruit Scootaloo, I'll organize you some pegasus armor, a quarterstaff, and somepony to train you for a few weeks. You need to work out how to keep this hidden from two of the sharpest minds in the E.U.P. Guard." His words made me gulp because he was absolutely right.
"H-How long each day will I need?" I asked.
"Let's go with two hours with two hours of supervised learning, and then you can spend as much time as you want on personal practice?" Shining held up his huge hoof to me.
At first, I thought he wanted the spear back, but then I realized he wanted the age-old way all ponies agreed on things. I lifted my hoof and bumped it against his. "I'll work something out."
"You know, I'm sure you will. Come on, we should go and see what everypony is doing. I'm sure Cadie will have something for me to wear. I don't get it, why can Sweetie and Lyra wear armor to dinner but I have to dress up?" As he spoke, Shining put his spear back on the rack and, when I offered him the one I'd been holding, he put that away too.
"Maybe I could say something?" I followed along at his side as we left the armory.
"Might work, but might seem too much like us conspiring. Can't be helped, I guess. They do work in Canterlot, after all, and don't exactly have their wardrobes here." We walked together out into the grounds again and toward the building that was Shining and Cadance's home.
Trixie and Cadance were both working on their makeup, but the moment Shining opened the door, he was engulfed in a blue glob of telekinesis. "Where have you been?! You need to get changed and have a shower and get ready!"
I did my best to keep out of their manes, but even with Cadance and Shining making a lot of noise about how much work his mane needed Trixie watched me. At last I realized she wasn't going to look away so I could hide. "I need to dress up for this too?"
"No, but you do need to look like you didn't come straight from the Royal Guard armory." At my look of shock, Trixie smiled wider. "Let me see. You went off with Shining Armor, you both came back looking excited about something, and I heard Shining mention it to Cadance when she asked him where you went."
I wasn't sure if I would tell her—or anypony else—about my deal with Shining. "Oh, uh, we just talked about stuff. Since I want to join the Guard when I'm older, I want to find out about all the different parts of it."
Rolling her eyes, Trixie floated a brush over to me and attacked my mane with it. "You're not the right color or sex for that job, kiddo, but if you get those wings working well enough, have you considered the Wonderbolts?"
"That'd be cool, and I kinda told somepony I would, but I'm having second thoughts. The Wonderbolts are amazing, but the more I see of the work the rest of the E.U.P. Guard does, the more I see how important it is to have talented ponies there." As I spoke, I said what was coming from my thoughts on the matter. Was I going to try for Wonderbolts? I think I need to know what they do, first—apart from their shows.
"Well, you have some time to decide on that. Given what Lyra and Sweetie are doing, I think you'll get a first-hoof view of it, too." Trixie moved the brush from my mane to my tail. "Hold still. If you think you'll be on stage with me tomorrow without double this amount of presentation, you have another thing coming."
I groaned and put up with Trixie brushing the knots out of my tail. When Lyra and Sweetie came back, they were both talking excitedly. I turned my attention onto them. "What happened?"
"Princess Celestia loves the idea and she is more than happy with Lyra and myself organizing it. She wants to add an extra bit to it being a Junior Equestrian Games. There's going to be so much to plan, but she has told us we will have a government grant so that we are only partially funded by the Guard." Sweetie nodded to Trixie. "So we're going to have the authority to run this as it should be run, and the budget to make it something special. Thanks, Trixie."