//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Her Own Magic // by TheCaptinLove //------------------------------// Chapter 1 School was over for the day. Scootaloo rode around Ponyville on her scooter trying to amuse herself by performing various stunts but to little avail. It was one of the few times that the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren’t together planning their next scheme to get a cutie mark. It was zap apple harvest time so Applebloom was always helping her family whenever she wasn’t at school. Coincidentally Rarity had begun to design a line of clothing for young fillies and Sweetie Belle, who decided to try and get her cutie mark in modeling, eagerly committed herself to helping her sister. Scootaloo decided to pass on that. As much as she liked Sweetie Belle she just could not stand to involve herself in something so frilly. If there’s anything she knew it’s that her special talent was not it was trying on sissy outfits. She eventually went to an open field just outside of town. She came here often so she could practice flying in peace. In the field stood a tree which she was able to climb and then jump on off a low branch. She would then flap her wings with all her might only to hit the ground like a rock. She once tried to get Rainbow Dash to teach her how to fly but, as cool as was, she was not a good teacher. Her lessons pretty much always ended up with her showing off some new moves she was working on. It was fun to watch but not very helpful. Other Pegesi she talked to weren’t much help either. None of their advice ever seemed to help. So she kept up wing exercises and jumping out of tree in the hope that she would eventually just get it. Scootaloo hit the ground with a great thud. “Ow” she moaned as she picked herself up. “Are you ok Scooty”. Scootaloo turned to see that Derpy suddenly next to her, an expression of worry on her face. “Yeah I’m alright, but what are you doing here?” “I was flying towards Fluttershy’s house to deliver her mail when I saw you, I just thought I’d say hello but then I saw you fall out of the tree and wa-wa-wa….”her voice suddenly gave out as it always did when she was upset. “I’m fine, I was just practicing my flying is all; I fall out of that tree all the time.” After taking a couple of deep breaths she recovered. “Alright….okay thank goodness you weren’t hurt.” “You worry too much Derpy.” “Say, why don’t you ever call me Mommy anymore?” “Aw I too old for that stuff now.” “But there are a lot of fillies your age that still call their mothers mommy, or mom, or WOW LOOK AT THAT BUTTERFLY, IT’S SO BLUE!! Derpy completely forgot about her conversation with Scootaloo and became occupied with hovering around in the air and looking at a butterfly that was fluttering about. Scootaloo groaned in embarrassment but was grateful that Derpy was no longer questioning her. Scootaloo had stopped referring to her as Mommy a while ago and in fact made a point of not talking about her home life at all. As a matter of fact almost none of the foals in Ponyville knew that Scootaloo lived with Derpy and she was happy to keep it that way. It wasn’t that Scootaloo didn’t like her, but Derpy was odd to say the least and the other ponies at school, particularly Dimond Tiara and Silver Spoon gave her no end of trouble already without having this additional ammunition. “It’s so…incredible” Derpy said in her state of awe “it’s like a little, flying blueberry. If only it was in a flying muffin”. She became lost in her fantasy of flying muffins until she crashed into the tree and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Scootaloo winced. “Are you okay?" Derpy stood gingerly, eyes rolling all about, and with that goofy smile of hers said “Uh-huh, I’m okay. Now about that flying muffin” she began to scan the air all around the tree. “Um, don’t you still have mail to deliver?” Derpy, suddenly remembering her job, gives her head a shake. Her eyes become straight and focused. “That right, I as Ponyville’s mailmare has a duty to see that the mail is delivered; I have no time to waste on avian pastries”. She began to walk in the direction of Fluttershy’s house when suddenly she jumped into the air and gasped loudly “OH NO! I forgot that I have to deliver that package to Cloudsdale today; I have no time to lose! Scooty please go home and tell Dinky and the Doctor that I’ll be home late. She darted off before Scootaloo could say anything. “Argh, I hate it when she calls me that!” She sighed and went to retrieve her scooter that was lying beside a nearby bush. It was still pretty early so she didn’t have to go home immediately, but now that Derpy knew that she was practicing here it ruined her motivation to practice. This was supposed to be her secret place for learning to fly, sure an open field wasn’t an ideal location for a secret place, and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom already knew about it but that was different. Her friends respected the concept of alone time, like when she practiced flying, or when Sweetie Belle practiced her magic, or Apple bloom her karate. Derpy on the other hoof would always be ‘checking up’ on her now that she knew about her place. “This blows big time” exclaimed Scootaloo “now I’ll have to find another place to practice”. She really didn’t feel like just riding her scooter around Ponyville for the next couple of hours. “Maybe Sweetie Belle is finished with that modeling stuff” she thought at last “then we can go help Alpplebloom, which ought to at least be a little fun.” “I should have just gone to Sweet Apple Acres by myself” said Scootaloo with a scowl. She was now wearing a ridiculously frilly outfit and was none too pleased about it. “It’s not so bad” offered Sweetie Belle who was sitting next to her wearing a pale blue dress complimented by a silver tiara. “It makes you look really…” she hesitated a moment “that is to say I…really like your mane” she offered. “Now now Scootaloo” said Rarity who was looking the two fillies over and making the occasional modification “it looks very charming on you”. “Charming my hoof” Scootaloo muttered under her breath. “Besides I’m very happy you showed up. I ever so needed sompony to model my colt clothes and you have that boyish charm about you that is just perfect for this.” “These are supposed to be guy clothes” Scootaloo said in disbelief. “I don’t think I’ve seen even the prissiest mares in Canterlot wear something as frilly as this.” Sweetie Belle giggled and Rarity huffed “I’ll have you know that this is based off a design I did for a wealthy Manehatten family’s young colt who was attending a new year’s party and he was a hit. His mother wrote me a letter of appreciation in which she informed me of how much the other ponies there commented on it”. “I can certainly see how a boy wearing something like this might draw some comments.” Sweetie Belle laughed again and Rarity just rolled her eyes and continued her inspection. “Anyway why do have me wearing colt clothes anyway?” “Like I said you have a certain boyish charm that makes you a perfect male model” Scootaloo shot her a murderous glance “hehe, if you were male that is” she quickly threw in. Scootaloo now became more angry than annoyed. She found the idea of wearing boys clothes to be humiliating. Rarity suddenly noticed that Scootaloo seemed upset “but as I was saying I’m very fortunate that you came by, I tried to get some colt to do this for me but you how boys are, so stubborn and uncooperative, that’s why we girls have to stick together right” Rarity said with a forced smile. “Whatever, how much more of this do we have to do?” “Erm, well actually, thanks to your help, I’ve spotted some mistakes I’ve made that I need to fix right away so you girls can go now.” Scootaloo threw off the cloths and marched straight for the door. Sweetie Belle, a bit less roughly, took off her dress and inspected her flank. She sighed disappointedly upon finding no cutie mark, she then noticed Scootaloo leaving and went after her. “Hey Scoots wait up” she called as she ran out the door. “Oh dear” Rarity muttered as she gathered up the clothes with her magic “I didn’t take Scootaloo to be the sensitive type”. She recalled a story Fluttershy told her while they were on one of their spa dates about when she and Rainbow Dash were in school together. She was shocked then as well to learn how much Rainbow Dash had cried after being rejected by a colt she had a crush on. “Well, I guess it’s those ponies that feel they have to act tough are the ones who have the most to cry about, and anyway I should have asked if it was alright to have her model colt clothes to begin with. I’ll have to apologize later.” “Scootaloo wait for me” cried Sweetie Belle as she ran up beside the orange pegasus. “Is something wrong?” “No” Scootaloo snapped “everything’s fine”. Sweetie Belle jumped in front of her “I’m really sorry about Rarity, I make sure she never pushes you into dressing up again” she took a quick look at her friends flank “besides now we know that modeling is not your special talent so there’s no need for you to do it anymore.” “I wouldn’t want to have my cutie mark in stupid modeling” she immediately regretted her words upon seeing the hurt look on Sweetie Belle’s face, she was really trying to get her cutie mark with it after all. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that having Rarity put in boy’s clothes just really touched a nerve you know.” “Yeah, I get it” said Sweetie Belle perking up “and I agree, putting you in colt clothes was going too far, but I promise I won’t tell anypony about it, not even Applebloom, and I’ll make Rarity promise not to tell anypony either”. “Thanks, I’d appreciate it.” “No problem, though to be honest I’m kind of surprised something like that would upset you so much.” "Well if it was just that maybe it wouldn’t, but I’ve been kind of having a bad day today.” “What happened” Sweetie Belle asked. “I don’t want to talk about it. I need to go home anyway and tell Dinky and the Doctor that Derpy’s going to be coming home late tonight anyway.” “Okay” Sweetie Belle said giving her a quick hug. “Remember, Apple Bloom will be finished with her work by Friday and we’ve got a lot of crusading to catch up on.” “Now you’re talking” said Scootaloo now all fired up “we’ll get our cutie marks for sure this weekend I just know it”. “And Applebloom and I came up with the perfect idea; Saturday night they’re having an open mic night at Sugar Cube Corner. We should try a comedy routine. We did win best comedy routine at that talent show.” “Cutie Mark Crusader Comedians, I love it! But didn’t we already try comedy?” “Yeah but we did skits then, this time we’re doing standup. I already thought up some good jokes, listen to this one. Why did Scootaloo cross the road?” “Hey, shut up” Scootaloo said giving Sweetie Belle a shove. They both laughed for a while before Scootaloo finally said “Thanks, I needed that.” The two fillies said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Scootaloo felt a little better now, time spent with her friends always made things seem less bad. Although all the friends in the world couldn’t save her from the Doctor’s attempt at cooking, the last time he did her and Dinky both became so sick that they couldn’t even get out of bed for two days. As she rode home she decided right then and there that she was going to learn how to cook so as to spare them from such misery again, and who knows she may even get her cutie mark in cooking. Scootaloo walked into the front door of her home “I’m home” she called out. “Ah hullo Scootaloo” said the Doctor. He was standing in front of the computer and chuckling “Dinky was just showing me this list of all these Buck Norris jokes. Have you seen these, they’re simply hysterical, I mean a fifth hoof hidden in his beard hahahahe”. Dinky, who was sitting in the floor playing with her ragdoll, looked at him with a bit of concern. “Right, well Derpy asked me to tell you that she won’t be home until late. She had a package she had to deliver to Cloudsdale.” Dinky was suddenly in front of Scootaloo, she looked scared. She whispered “you don’t mean….he’s goning to…” she looks toward the kitchen “do it again.” Scootaloo gave her a hug and tried to be as reassuring as possible but fact was that she was scared to. “Really” the Doctor said “well I’d best prepare supper then shouldn’t I, tell me what would you girls like to have tonight?” “Grass” called out Dinky “I don’t know about you Scootaloo but I’m in the mood for some nice, RAW grass”. “Oh, come now” said the Doctor “While I’ve come to realize that grass can be nice for an occasional snack one can hardly make a proper meal out of it. Say, when’s the last time we all had a nice pasta dinner? I for one have been having a craving for some chicken alfre…er I mean alfredo pasta” he laughed nervously and walked off while muttering something about ponies being herbivores. Scootaloo, knowing it futile to try to persuade the Doctor once he had made his mind up about something, sighed and went to her room. “I just hope I’ll be well enough to go crusading by Friday.” She walked into her upstairs bedroom and went to the window by which he bed was situated. Her room was rather simple, just a bed, a small table next to the wall with a stereo system, and a toy box filled with toys she used to play with when she was younger, although Dinky was the one who usually played with them now. There was also a closet which contained the few clothes she had. Her walls had so many pictures on them that one could hardly see them. Many of these pictures were of her and her friends but the overwhelming majority of them were of Rainbow Dash. She turned on the stereo for some background noise. She always had it set to play at random some of her favorite songs, the first song to play was ‘I Want To Hold Your Hoof’ by the Bridles. She then laid down on her bed and gazed out the window. It was the time of day when from her window it looked as if Rainbow Dash's cloud house was passing just over the setting sun. Scootaloo sighed, she wished so badly that she could at least visit Rainbow’s house and see what it’s like on the inside. Of course getting there in the first place was a problem. The fact that she couldn’t fly bothered her a great deal. Most pegasi her age were at least capable of fluttering short distances but she couldn’t even get off the ground. And she was just plain pissed off when she heard that little Pound Cake was flying around at only a couple of months old. She had asked Twilight about how that was possible and she explained that because his twin sister is a unicorn he has more magic that most pegasi which was why he was able to fly so young. Scootaloo didn’t understand what magic had to do with flying and Twilight went off on some boring lecture about how the wings on a pegasus weren’t big enough to support their weight in flight and that a certain amount of magic was necessary for them to become airborne. Suddenly there came a knock on her door, interrupting her train of thought. “Ah, Scootaloo” the Doctor said poking his head through the door “I hope you’ll pardon the intrusion but I don’t believe I got your opinion on supper tonight, pasta is okay with you isn’t it?” “Whatever is fine with me Doc” murmured Scootaloo. “Scootaloo, is something the matter? ” “No, I’m fine just a little tired is all” The Doctor sat down on the bed next to her “now now, I have a knack for detecting problems and you missy have a problem. Why not tell me about it, maybe I can help.” “You couldn’t help with this.” “You could tell me all the same, I also have a knack for listening.” Scootaloo supposed that there was no harm in telling him, though he may come off as dimwitted sometimes he knew how to keep a secret and he also could give some good advice most of the time. “Derpy found out where I practice flying.” “Oh, that’s a bad thing I take it.” “Yes, that was supposed to be my own place to practice and be by myself, you know.” “Quite, I understand the need for privacy, but why should her knowing about it change anything?” “Because now she’s always going to be watching me and I won’t be able to focus on flying.” “Well, always is a bit of an exaggeration. She does have her job and other responsibilities. Surely just having somebody…er…somepony watching you on occasion isn’t all that bad.” “But, I can’t fly at all yet. It’s humiliating to be scene constantly failing when every other pegasi my age can fly at least a little bit.” “Scootaloo you’re just a late bloomer is all. You’ll learn to fly when it’s time." “That’s what I’m always told but the time never comes.” That’s all the more reason why it might be a good idea for your mum to watch you practice. If you’re really bothered about being unable to fly you should get help, and who better to get help from than her eh? Besides it would provide the perfect opportunity for the two of you to spend some quality time together. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you’ve become quite distant lately.” Scootaloo looked down at her bedcovers ashamed “I haven’t meant to be” she said apologetically. “I know you haven’t, but these things happen if we’re not cautious.” “I guess you’re right, but…” “But” said the Doctor picking up on her hesitation “there’s something holding you back isn’t there?” Scootaloo again looked away ashamed. “Bullies” he guesses, Scootaloo nodes. “Oh now Scoot, it’s not your mum’s fault that that Diamond Tiara is a little bitch.” Scootaloo looked at the Doctor in stunned amazement. His eyes suddenly went wide and his hoof slapped over his mouth. “You didn’t hear that” he said. “Not a word” replied Scootaloo chuckling. “What I should have said was that you shouldn’t worry about her, she’s cruel because she can’t stand to worry about her own self for whatever reason. The sooner she can’t get a reaction out of you the sooner she’ll try to move on to a new victim, until there’s nobo…pony left to torture but herself.” “I think you’re over thinking it. She’s just mean.” “And I think one day you’ll realize that nothing’s ever that simple. But we’re getting off topic. If you’ll take my advice I believe you’ll find that having your mum being more involved with your flying practice would be good for you both.” Scootaloo paused for a few moments before saying “I’ll think about it”. She went back to gazing listlessly out the window. The Doctor didn’t like seeing her so forlorn. “Say I’ve been thinking and it occurs to me that my cooking is absolutely rubbish isn’t it?” Scootaloo looked back up at him and nodded apologetically. “I thought so, so how about we order take out from The Café Pastoral” he knew that that was her favorite restaurant. “Thanks Doc” Scootaloo said with a broad smile. He gave her a gentle nuzzle before leaving the room. She now felt a little better about herself, as goofy as he was at times the Doctor had a way of solving problems or at least making them seem more bearable, as did the anticipation of good food. Her stereo continued to play on, it was now playing ‘A Horse with no Name’ by Amareica, as she resumed watching Rainbow Dash’s house precede across the sky she. “Maybe tomorrow will be better.”