//------------------------------//
// Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home 
// Story: Just Winging It 
// by arcum42 
//------------------------------//

After what seemed like forever, Scootaloo's convulsions ceased. She felt sore, and she was shaking involuntarily all over, but she finally felt back in control of herself. She cracked her eyes back open to see Twilight pacing back and forth while frantically flipping through a large book.

Scootaloo was drenched from head to tail, with that nasty gel from the electrodes combining with her own sweat to make her feel thoroughly horrid. A whiff from the puddle below her told her it wasn't just sweat, either. She'd be embarrassed if she weren't so angry.

After a few minutes, she thought she had enough control of her mouth to try speaking. When she did, her voice came out raspy, and parts of what she said got cut off, but it was the best she could manage.

"Tw'l't," she attempted, through the trembling of her jaw. "St'aps. 'Move."

Hearing her speak, Twilight rushed over to her side, looking paler than Scootaloo had ever seen her before. "I swear that shouldn't have happened-"

"T-Twili't! R'move the str'ps!" Scootaloo tried again, upset. "Now!"

"Right, your muscles have stopped spasming," Twilight said. She laughed, a short, desperate laugh. "I suppose I should remove the straps."

She started in on it as best she could, her job made more difficult by sweat accumulating under them. Turning her head, she called out. "Spike?"

His voice, sounding out of breath, came from just inside the basement entrance. "Twilight! What happened?"

From the way he sounded, Scootaloo figured he must have already been on the way here. She supposed hearing screaming coming from the basement would've attracted attention.

"Spike, I'll need you to start a bath running in the decontamination chamber for Scootaloo," Twilight instructed him. "And we'll need things cleaned up over here afterwards."

"A bath? Alright. Are you sure you don't need any help over there?"

"No, I've got things under control." Twilight continued working on releasing the straps that held Scootaloo down, her hooves shaking as she did so. From another area of the basement, Scootaloo could hear the sound of running water. 

"Now why did the spasms go out of control like that? They should have been mild, barely noticeable," Twilight muttered, half to herself, as she finished with the straps, and started ripping off electrodes. "I set everything up with the normal values the manual provided for this type of reading-"

Scootaloo winced as some of her fur came out as Twilight yanked an electrode free. Something wasn't sitting right with what Twilight had just said.

"N-Norm'l v-values?" Scootaloo inquired. She might not be an egghead like Twilight, but she wasn't exactly dumb. "N'mal f-for a adult p-peg'sus, or a f'lly half your s-size?"

Twilight paused for a minute while she processed what Scootaloo had said. Then her eyes widened and she summoned a thick book. She skimmed rapidly through one section, then paused when she got to the spot she needed. Reading through it carefully, she slumped down. "Half the intensity, and twice the period of time. How could I have missed that?"

Scootaloo didn't comment, though there were some choice things she could have said. She didn't really have the energy right now. She just lay there limply, aching all over, as Twilight removed the last of the electrodes. 

Once all of them were gone, Scootaloo found herself enveloped in a lavender glow. She let Twilight levitate her over to another area of the basement without protest. She might have even enjoyed the sensation of floating in the air if she hadn't hurt so much.

Entering this area of the basement seemed to require going through flaps in large transparent sheets of plastic. Behind this lay a shower, and a large bathtub which was built on some sort of heating coils. Spike was already there, adjusting the temperature on a bathtub mostly filled with steaming water.

As they approached, Spike looked up, and saw the state Scootaloo was in.

"Geez, Twilight, what did you do to her?" he asked. "I swear I heard her shrieking all through the library! Good thing nopony else in this town reads."

Sounds like he might be worried about me, at least. It occurred to Scootaloo that maybe she ought to get to know Spike a bit better. A flightless dragon was as much of a rarity as a flightless pegasus, wasn't it?

Twilight flinched.

"I, um... miscalculated," she said, and quickly changed the subject. "Is the bathwater about ready?"

"Miscalculated? I should say so!" he said. "When you mess up, you don't do it halfway, do you?"

"Spike-"

"Besides the bath, does she need any medical help? Should we get Nurse Redheart over here?"

"She'll be fine. She just needs a chance to soak in hot water to relax her muscles."

"I think I can handle that." He turned off the running bathwater. "If she doesn't need any other medical attention, why don't you go look over your results, and see if you can figure out where you went wrong?"

"Oh, I don't know," Twilight said. "This is all my fault. I should probably take care of-"

"Twilight-" Spike shot her a meaningful look. Scootaloo had to agree. She'd much rather be well away from Twilight right now.

"Alright, I suppose I should do that." She lowered Scootaloo to the ground. "We'll go over the results later."

Twilight walked off slowly, ears flattened, looking at the floor below her. Scootaloo was still feeling way too shaky to be able to enter the bathtub herself, and gratefully accepted Spike's help getting in.

As the hot water hit her aching muscles, she sighed, and finally started to relax, letting most of her body sink under the warm, inviting water. Spike produced a scrub brush and antibacterial soap seemingly from thin air.

"How are you feeling, Scootaloo?" Spike asked. "You look horrible."

She'd normally protest about somepony else washing her, rather than doing it herself, but it wasn't just somepony else, it was Spike. And she was really tired, and probably wouldn't do a good job anyways.

"L-Like I've b'n run over by a t-train," Scootaloo said. "After being d-dropped from the mid'le of the air." 

"Man," Spike said, as he scrubbed her down. "Never heard of the thau- tha- that measurement thingy doing that before. Wonder what went wrong?"

Scootaloo frowned. "I tho't it hadn't been tested b'fore?"

"Maybe not with anypony else, but Twilight's had me strap her down on it several times in the past and activate it," Spike said. "I'd have said something if I thought it was dangerous."

So she hadn't been the first pony it had been used on after all? That actually made Scootaloo feel a little better, if it was something Twilight had already tried herself. The hot water was really helping her muscles, too, and she was shaking a lot less, which was a relief.

Then Spike handed her a glass of orange juice that she wasn't about to question the origins of. She gulped it down, and the back of her throat started feeling much better. 

"Thanks," she said gratefully. Spike nodded in reply, took the empty glass back, and went back to washing her.

This relaxed her still farther, as his flexible fingers allowed him to reach spots she'd always had trouble getting to with her hooves. She did feel a bit guilty about taking him away from his duties for this, though.

"S-Spike, I'm sure you've probably got a l-lot of other things you need to do. I should be able to finish getting c-cleaned up from here."

"Nonsense," Spike said, crossing his arms. "My job as Twilight's assistant is to take care of things for her, and she asked me to get you cleaned up, so that's what I'm gonna do. It's not like it's anything I haven't done in the past."

"You've had to scrub other ponies down before?" Scootaloo asked, intrigued.

"I've had to give Twilight a bath several times, actually," Spike said while soaping up her mane and tail. "She's had a few lab accidents that have left her in no state to clean herself up."

"Really?" Scootaloo had wondered why there was a bathtub and shower down here.

"Yeah. I'm good at it anyways. My fingers let me get to areas that are hard to reach properly with hooves. Like this." He started scratching behind both of her ears. Scootaloo's ears flopped down, and she felt like melting with how good it felt. She let out a happy rumbling sound despite herself.

"Yeah, Twilight likes it if I scratch behind there too." Spike kept scratching for a while, then eased off, and rinsed out her mane and tail. "Alright, out of the tub, and I'll dry you off."

Scootaloo scrambled out of the tub, accepting a helping hand once again from Spike. He then patted her off with a large towel, and led her over to yet another contraption. As Scootaloo stood under it, hot air started blowing from all directions, rapidly drying her off.

It was pretty cool, actually. They needed one of those for the clubhouse. 

Of course, her fur and mane were left puffed up and sticking in all directions, but Spike quickly brushed them out. She felt just about ready to deal with the world again. Then she noticed a couple of bare patches in her fur. Almost ready, anyways.

The two of them walked back over to Twilight's maniacal measuring machine, as Scootaloo decided to mentally dub the thing. Twilight was there, going rapidly between five books and a printout and taking notes. 

Embarrassingly, the metal table was still in the same state it had been left. Damp, occasional strands of fur, and with a cooling puddle on the ground below it.

Scootaloo cringed a little, looking at the place she'd been lying. Spike just walked in front of her, grabbed a sponge and mop, and started wiping it up nonchalantly. Scootaloo turned to him.

"Er..." She shuffled around a bit, heat rising to her cheeks. "Sorry."

"This isn't exactly the first time I've had to clean up this sort of mess after an experiment went wrong. It's all part of the job." He prodded Twilight with one claw, making her look up, startled. "I think somepony else does owe you something, though."

"Yes, Spike?" She looked at the two of them, then glanced down, not making eye contact with Scootaloo.

"Have you figured out what you did wrong yet, Twilight?"

"The settings were all set for an adult pegasus in my weight range. There was a footnote that specified lowering them, and running the machine longer for somepony younger or weighing less that I missed."

"And this means you need to?" Spike pressed Twilight.

She cocked her head slightly, considering. "Recalibrate for her weight and height in the future?"

Spike walked by her side, putting down the mop and sponge. Seeing a checklist next to Twilight she was going over, he quickly jotted down another item in the list. "And what else?"

Reading what he'd written, she closed her eyes for a moment. Turning to Scootaloo after a moment, she opened them back up and looked right at her. "Scootaloo, I'm really sorry about what happened. I thought it was safe."

"The arcing electricity wasn't enough of a hint?" Scootaloo asked, still upset. That had really hurt!

"The arcing electricity was fine, actually," Twilight clarified. "It was too much power to the electrodes, and too much magical buildup that was the problem."

"It was rushing into it and not checking the manual properly that was the issue," Scootaloo retorted. "And not really giving me a chance to protest if something was wrong!"

"It's not like I forced you down onto the thaumapotentiametronometer and strapped you down against your will," Twilight said, nettled.

"Well, no," Scootaloo said, hurt, "but you didn't even give me time to finish my last sentence before you turned it on! And it wouldn't take a genius to notice how uncomfortable I was!"

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike said. "Is this how an apology usually goes? Because this sounds more like an argument."

Twilight sighed and looked down, ears drooping. "Was I really that bad? I was so excited to have a good use for it, and to be able to help you out-"

"You were kinda scary, actually." Scootaloo admitted.

"I'm so so sorry! I'll do whatever I can to help you with your flying problem," Twilight said, sweeping Scootaloo into a hug. "Can you forgive me?"

Bemused at Twilight's sudden mood swings, and rather embarrassed at the affection she was showing, Scootaloo thought. Can I trust her? She seems sincere enough. And having Celestia's personal student help me might make the difference. Maybe.

"You won't do anything without explaining what you're doing first?" she asked. "And you'll do whatever you can to help me? Pinkie Promise?"

"Pinkie Promise," Twilight repeated, putting Scootaloo down to make the requisite gestures. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Scootaloo did her best not to wince. She hated that feathering oath, with the way it reminded her of her inadequacies, but it also seemed very difficult to break. Twilight honestly seemed to want to help her out. She still worried about if Twilight's more deranged side came out again, though.

"Spike?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you suppose you could stay nearby and help both of us out while Twilight is researching my flying problem?" And keep her in check?

"Sure thing!" Spike said, seeming to understand what she really meant. "I'll stay right by your side."

"Thanks!" Scootaloo turned her attention back to Twilight.

"So, did you get any readings from all that, or was it all a loss?" Scootaloo asked. That better not have been for nothing.

"No, the readings all came through, both magical and otherwise," Twilight assured her. "With what I got, I could tell you what toothpaste you brushed your teeth with this morning."

"Everypony in town uses Colgate's toothpaste anyways," Scootaloo grumbled. "That wouldn't be a big feat."

"Well, yes." Twilight blushed. "But even if that wasn't the case, I could tell you."

"Great. What are you planning on doing with that information, anyways?" Scootaloo asked. She wasn't sure she liked having everything about her on file.

"I'll tuck it away where nopony besides the two of us can see it," Twilight tossed her mane back. "I will need a few more measurements, though."

Scootaloo glanced back to Twilights lab, horrified. Twilight followed her glance and laughed.

"Not those type of measurements, silly." She floated a tape measure over, and started measuring both her dimensions and her wing size. She even had Scootaloo extend them out fully, and measured their full spread. Which wasn't very far.

Eventually, she lay down her tape measure and notepad on her desk. "That should be all the measurements I'm going to need for tonight. I'm going to have to do a bunch of reading, and find out what they normally would be for a filly of your age, and what the minimum necessary for you to fly would be."

"That sounds like it's going to take a while," Scootaloo said. "I suppose I should get back home."

"Why don't you stop back by tomorrow afternoon, and I'll let you know what I've found out?"

"Ok." Scootaloo backed towards the door. "Thanks Twilight! Thanks Spike!"

Opening the door behind her, she quickly left the library before anything else could happen. As it swung shut behind her, she could faintly hear Spike lecturing Twilight.

"You can't just use anypony that walks in the library as an experimental subject, Twilight! What if somepony gets-"

She still wasn't entirely sure accepting Twilight's help was a good idea. It still felt like her best shot, though. At some point, it seemed to have gotten late, too. She'd best start thinking about how to respond to the lecture she was about to get.

She hopped on her scooter, and started pushing, buzzing her wings to propel her forward. At least her wings were good for that. The wind swept through her mane and she smiled.

Then she followed it with a wince as one of her wing muscles cramped up. The muscle spasms she'd had earlier had put them through quite a workout, and now they were feeling fairly sore. It looked like she'd be walking the scooter home.

Now there was a thought. Besides her wingspan, and the amount of power in her magic core, wouldn't how powerful her wing muscles were affect her flying? Maybe Rainbow Dash knew some wing exercises that would help her. If she could get her attention for long enough, anyways.

If it hadn't been late enough already, walking her scooter home was delaying her even further. Still, if her wing muscles were cramping and she tried to push it, she'd feel it in the morning, and she'd also be risking the scooter careening wildly out of control.

Which, admittedly, sounded like fun, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to pull out of it properly, and she'd probably get hurt.

It wasn't that far to Auntie Vinyl and Octy's, anyways. She'd been living with them for a few years, ever since- 

She gulped, memories coming back. Ever since her parents had... died.  She'd had a lot of trouble coping with that at the time, but she was over it by now.

She wiped some moisture off her face. I am over it, she thought. I miss them, but they are gone. And it wasn't like there was anything she could do to bring them back.

She liked her Auntie, anyways.Though she tried to keep it in check for Scootaloo's sake, she had a lot of attitude, and could be pretty wild and crazy at times. The trouble was that she tended to go too far the other way sometimes, just because she felt she had to has Scootaloo's guardian.

Octavia, on another hoof, tended to spend all her time playing the sane one. Of course, in her own way, she could be just as crazy as the rest of the household sometimes. She did tend to end up as the one holding everything together, though.

She was also the one Scootaloo was probably in the most trouble with right now. Vinyl'd remember her mood earlier and declaration about going to the library and let it go, but Octavia was probably fuming about her being out after dark.

Sure enough, when she entered, Octavia was sitting there, savagely dragging her bow against the strings of her cello, glaring at the door. When she entered, Octy's gaze shifted darkly to her.

Scootaloo grinned a sick grin and waved. "Um, hi?"