14. What Dreams are Made of
"Now that you know the elements of a good cheer," Cyborg said as he settled down on four hooves, "let's hear one." He turned to look at Melvin.
Pulling her head back a bit, Melvin extended herself and said, "Yay!" very quietly.
Cyborg could not prevent himself from facehoofing. "You're going to cheer for me like that?" He had to admit to himself that Melvin was at least spot on with character acting. He had to keep reminding himself not to scoop her up and squeeze her while squealing. One, Raven would likely eviscerate him if he marehandled Melvin. Two, it would give the wrong impression. He had to keep reminding himself that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were NOT an item...no matter how much he liked that particular ship. "Louder!" he commanded.
"Yay!"
"Louder!"
"Yay!"
"LOUDER!" he shouted at the top of his voice.
Melvin took in a huge breath...and let out a quiet, "Yay!"
It was all Cyborg could do not to fall on his back, half from in-character disgust and half from cuteness induced cardiac arrest. "Shy, you have a lot to learn about cheering." He couldn't help but grin as he turned to the little filly next to Fluttershy. "Thankfully, we have an expert to demonstrate. Scootaloo?"
Getting up on her hind hooves, Scootaloo took a deep breath. "OHMYGOSH RAINBOW YOU'RE SO AWESOME! THAT'S THE BEST TRICKS I'VE EVER SEEN! WOOHOO! WAY TO GO, SIS!"
As Cyborg carefully shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears, he grinned. 'Kids got some set of lungs on her,' he thought to himself. 'Last time my ears rang this much, we were fighting Johnny Rocket for the first time. Wonder if Celestia taught her the Royal Canterlot Voice or something.' Reaching out, he bumped hooves with the little filly. "Now THAT'S what I call a cheer. Fluttershy, you should be taking notes."
"I don't know," Gilda said from nearby, rubbing her ears as her still unnamed cub bounced and frolicked around her, currently chasing a butterfly in wide eyed fascination. "From the sound of it, fun size there is loud enough for the both of them."
Cyborg smiled. "Good point. Still wish you could join us up there, Gilda."
Gilda smiled. "Hate to miss your show, Dash, but the kid's too energetic to stay still that long, and he won't be able to cloud walk until his first flight. Till then, I guess I'm as ground bound as he is."
Cyborg shook his head. "No problem. Besides, I'm sure Twilight will lend you her telescope. Then you could watch from the ground. Won't be the same, but it'll be something. In the meantime..." Spreading his wings, he took to the air. "...time to practice."
Getting into the air, he began the routine that he knew by heart by now. First, the speed run around the trees, while idly wondering which pony had the consideration to plant trees like this in a straight line so many years ago and why. Next, spinning the clouds at high speeds to create a dizzying visual effect. Finally, he shot up into the air for the last part...the Sonic Rainboom.
As he saw the Mach cone begin to form, a strange sense of dislocation came over him. He had felt this every time he'd attempted the Sonic Rainboom, and it always threw off his sense of balance and a few other things. If he were to describe the sensation, it was something akin to having an out of body experience inside your body. It was accompanied by a strange sense of disassociation, as he felt like he was Cyborg, or Rainbow Dash, or both, or neither. As the magic of the Rainboom started to gather, he could have sworn he picked up a whiff of sulfur and copper.
And then, as the disassociation took its toll on his senses, he ground to a midair halt and was repelled through the air at high speeds. As he allowed himself to scream while reorienting himself, he thought to himself, 'Hope Raven doesn't mind me dropping in like this.'
As he flew through the open library window out of control, a purple net of magic caught him and arrested his movement before the carefully stacked books could come crashing down from a forceful impact.
"Right on schedule," Raven commented acerbically from the center of a still clean library.
"Right," Cyborg commented drily. "I hope you have a good explanation for Scoot and Gilda."
Right on cue, Melvin, Scootaloo, and Gilda arrived, the cub clinging to Gilda's back as he swung his head around to gaze at everything. "Way to go Rainbow Dash!" Melvin began. "You rock! Woohoo!" She paused. "Rainbow Dash, why are you in a magic net?"
Raven smiled. "Statistically, the most likely time for something to come crashing through a window and make a mess is just after several hours of painstaking organization. Since we were going to reorganize the library today, I set an inertial dampening net over the entire library, designed to focus on the point of potential impact."
Gilda nodded. "That makes sense."
Cyborg resisted the urge to bang his head against a wall...relatively easily, as he was still suspended by magic in midair, well away from any wall. 'Only in Equestria do statistics follow the laws of literary convention,' he thought quietly. '...then again, it seemed to work that way back in Jump City, too.' As the magic released him, he landed lightly on his hooves. "Well, that was certainly a softer landing than I expected," he said calmly. "Thanks for that, Twi."
Raven tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. "And what, exactly, led you to come crashing through the window like that...for the tenth time this week?"
Cyborg smiled nervously. "Just practicing for the Best Young Flier's Competition."
Raven smiled. "I heard that was coming up soon. Wish I could see it again."
"Yeah, it's great- Wait, what do you mean again?" Cyborg asked incisively.
Raven smiled. "Oh, during my second year under Celestia's teaching, she took me with to watch it with her. I had the best seat in the house, in my opinion: on Celestia's back." In character as Twilight, Raven let out a nostalgic sigh.
Starfire began to bounce excitedly. "Ooh! Ooh! Are you going to do a Sonic Rainboom for your performance?"
Cyborg smiled. "Well, that's the plan, Pinkie. I AM the only one to have ever pulled one off before, after all."
"...please don't."
Cyborg froze as he heard that small voice. Everyone turned to the source. "Scoot?" Cyborg asked in shock.
"Rainbow..." Scootaloo swallowed nervously, then continued. "Rainbow, you've tried to do that trick 100 times already...and every time, the magic rebounds on you and you crash horribly. You've been lucky so far to land safely, but what if next time you don't?" There were tears in her eyes. "What if you crashed into a cliffside...or Ghastly Gorge...or Bullfrog Bog...or the Everfree Forest? You could end up crushed, or broken, or impaled, or, or-"
"Scootaloo," Cyborg managed to interrupt. "Look, I'm a great flier, the best in Equestria. You know that. The odds of something like that happening are one in a million."
"That's just it!" Scootaloo cried, pressing her forehooves against Cyborg's chest. "Everypony knows 1 in a million chances crop up nine times out of ten!"
Despite the apparent seriousness of the situation, Cyborg found himself suppressing a grin as he heard Robin and Beast Boy's whispered interchange.
"When did Terry Pratchett join the MLP writing staff?"
"So does that make Canterlot Ahnk-Morpork or Dunmanifestin?"
"Celestinari for Princesstrician seems to fit."
"Please Rainbow!" Scootaloo's continued appeals dragged Cyborg back to the moment. "Please...don't try the Sonic Rainboom again. I...I don't want to lose you..."
Seeing the tears in the filly's eyes, Cyborg closed his own. 'We've already changed so much,' he thought to himself. 'I guess this is the consequence I should have expected.' Opening his eyes, he ruffled Scootaloo's mane. "Alright, Scootaloo, I promise. I won't try to do the Sonic Rainboom again." Shrugging his shoulders, he walked out with Scootaloo, Melvin, and Gilda, idly wondering why Raven was rubbing the base of her horn as though in pain. "Maybe I should go with the Buccaneer Blitz, instead..."
--------------
As Cyborg - with Scootaloo clinging to his back - flew alongside Fluttershy into Cloudsdale, it was all he could do not to gasp in awe. Beast Boy had once compared the city of Cloudsdale to the mythological Olympus when speaking poetically. On sight, however, he felt that was an insult to Cloudsdale. After all, Olympus may have been the city of the Greek Gods, but it was still bound by the laws of physics, gravity, and basic structural engineering. A city built entirely of solid cloud had no such limitations.
As they came in for a landing - or was it a clouding? - Cyborg saw the three bully stallions he had been expecting, and listened to their taunts.
"Well, well, well...what do we have here?"
"It's our old friend Rainbow Crash!"
"Get kicked out of any flight schools lately?"
Although Cyborg had intended to just ignore their taunting, three things stopped him. First, he knew he couldn't disappoint or confuse the filly who'd just hopped off his back. Second, the three stallions stank in more than just character, making him need a breath of fresh air. Third...a memory of Rainbow Dash's sprung into his mind that made him suppress a grin. "I didn't get kicked out," he said firmly. Deciding he didn't want to sit through their taunts, he started walking forward. "Now if you'll excuse us, we actually have reason to be here." Blinking, he noticed that they were wearing weather factory badges. "And aren't you on the clock?"
Shrieking in surprise, the three stallions went racing back to the weather factory. Cyborg chuckled to himself. 'That felt good,' he thought to himself.
"Well you certainly told them off," Jinx said from behind him.
Cyborg spun, staring up in shock at the butterfly wings. "Rarity? You're...flying!"
She chuckled. "Oh of course. Like my wings? Twilight made them for me. We couldn't leave you without an awesome cheering section."
As the hot air balloon rose up from beneath the clouds before settling, Cyborg managed a smile despite his inner feelings of dread. "How come you didn't just use that magic converting spell you found, Twi?" he asked as Star floated into the air again while Robin and Raven hopped out onto the clouds.
Raven rolled her eyes. "Rainbow, do you have any idea how hard that is to maintain for one pony, let alone four? After making Rarity's wings, I just found a walk on clouds spell for AJ and I." Glancing towards Starfire, she sighed. "Pinkie preferred pixie dust."
"Faerie dust, Twilight," Starfire corrected her. "Pixie Dust causes curses."
Raven blinked. "Of course."
Cyborg smiled. "Well, since none of you have been in Cloudsdale before, how about a tour?" As he turned to lead them into town, however, the dissociative sensation stole over him for a moment, and he felt Rainbow's body shiver. 'What was that?' he wondered, as he guided them through town, and then to the Weather Factory.
Watching the snowflakes being made was wondrous, although cut short due to the wind from Jinx' wings. When they reached the Rainbow section, however, everyone was hesitant. "So...what are rainbows made from, anyway?" Raven finally asked.
Cyborg smirked as memory rose in his mind from Rainbow's past, despite the shakes that had stolen over her body. "Distilling liquid sunlight in water, actually. There's this place between Cloudsdale and Canterlot called Sunpeak Heights. It's a straight up and down pillar that rises thousands of feet into the air, honeycombed with crazy cave arrangements. For some reason, sunlight pools in liquid form all throughout the caves every sunrise and sunset, and special containers have been made to gather it. The Wonderbolt Academy is actually situated on the flat peak."
Satisfied with this answer, Starfire dunked a hoof into the liquid rainbow and licked. "Mmm!" she said happily. "Spicy!" Pulling a mug out of her mane, she filled it from the pool and began to drink, much to the shock of the watching weather ponies.
Cyborg could only roll his eyes at Starfire being Pinkie Pie...or perhaps Pinkie being Star, he wasn't quite sure at this point. He struggled to keep from snarling when he saw the three stallions from earlier fawning over Jinx and her new wings. Maybe it was just his last vestige of brony masculinity, but he didn't see the appeal of flutterponies. Even so, he didn't like the stallions trying to make time with Jinx.
Although he struggled to ignore their continued teasing, for some reason Rainbow's body wouldn't stop shaking and shivering. A brief scent of sulfur and copper hit his nostrils again, making him quiver briefly. Managing to get past it, he guided the others on the rest of the tour to where clouds were made.
-------------
As Cyborg waited for his turn in the competition, he walked over to where Jinx had gone to 'prepare her costume'. "Rarity?" he asked calmly. "You...are going to be careful out there, right? I mean, you've only been flying for one day, after all."
"Don't worry, Rainbow Dash, I know exactly what I'm doing."
"O...okay, Rarity." Cyborg walked back and returned to pacing. He couldn't figure out how he had wound up second to last in the line up from the start, any more than he knew why Jinx wound up last. He just hoped she would remember what they had learned from the show and not fly too close to the sun. In the meantime, he was still struggling to figure out why he couldn't stop shaking, and where those strange scents were coming from.
After a time, he and Jinx went out to do their routines at the same time. The physical shakes caused him to flub both starting parts of his planned routine, and it was all he could do to shake himself off as he flew up into the air to clear his head.
'Okay,' he thought to himself. 'Time to see if I can pull off...the Buccaneer Blitz? What was that trick? Come on, I went over Rainbow's trick log just last night and practiced. Why can't I remember? Why can't I think?' He banged his hooves against his head, struggling to make sense of what was happening, to break through the smell of sulfur and copper, to think. Suddenly, a scream echoed from beneath him.
Glancing down, he saw Jinx falling, her wings ashes.
He didn't think. He dove.
He was too far up. He couldn't reach her. As the Mach Cone formed, the disassociation and dislocation struck him, more intensely than before. The smell of sulfur and copper, the feeling of agony, the found of fire and...
...Twilight reciting Daring Do?
Somehow, the words steadied him, as memories of flight formulae, aeromechanics, and magical equations that allowed for pegasus flight filled his mind. Staring down, the world vanished from his vision. There was only Jinx - in his mind not even in Rarity's body anymore - and him.
Magic surged, and the Mach cone shattered explosively.
Shooting forward, Cyborg felt the presence of other forms around him, and seized them without thinking. Catching up to Jinx, he seized her. The ground rose up before him. There was no time to pull up, so he turned.
Shooting along the ground, Cyborg dodged between a few trees, holding tight to those he carried, then turned, shooting upward into the air. As his focus returned, the first thing he saw was Jinx smiling at him as she clung to him. The second thing he saw was the rainbow contrail stretching out behind him as he began to arc over Cloudsdale. As awareness of what had happened returned to him...he couldn't help but wonder where the surge of magic from the Rainboom had gone to.
As he came up into the Cloudsdale amphitheater, he handed the unconscious Wonderbolts and Jinx off to other pegasi to be tended to. Settling onto the clouds, he felt his energy leave him as the exertion of the Rainboom caught up to him. Looking up, he heard the cheering.
"RAINBOW!"
Something small and fast cannoned into Cyborg's chest, knocking him backwards. Looking down, he saw Scootaloo smiling up at him, her eyes shining in joy and admiration. Cyborg looked at her sadly. "...sorry I broke my promise..."
Scootaloo shook her head. "You didn't!"
"...huh?"
"You promised not to try. You didn't try, you did!" Cyborg could only chuckle resignedly in response to that assessment.
"And an excellent showing it was," Celestia said, walking up behind her.
Cyborg turned. "T-thanks," he managed to gasp out, wrapping a wing around Scootaloo and holding her close.
"I have watched the entire competition, and I can honestly say that only one flier of this year’s competition has demonstrated unparalleled skill, determination...and loyalty." Celestia smiled widely. "That is why the winner of this year's Best Young Flier's competition...is Miss Rainbow Dash." Leaning forward, she set the crown upon Rainbow's brow.
Cyborg found himself squealing. "OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh!" Squealing in excitement, he and Scootaloo rushed over to the others for a celebratory group hug.
After a time, Cyborg managed to get control of himself in time for the Wonderbolts to approach, no longer unconscious. "You're Rainbow Dash, right?" Spitfire asked as she approached. "You're the one who saved us. We just wanted to say...thanks."
Cyborg smiled. "No problem."
Spitfire smirked. "So...ready to hang with the Wonderbolts, winner?"
As Cyborg started to grin, he paused. "Say..." He put his wing over Scootaloo once more. "Can my little sis come with? I'm responsible for her, so I can't really just leave her to her own devices, you know?"
Spitfire smiled. "Sure thing, bring the kid." As Scootaloo squealed in excitement, Spitfire chuckled. "Might keep the rest of the team in line."
Pulling Scootaloo onto his back, all signs of his shakes gone, Cyborg took to the air alongside the Wonderbolts.
-------------
As they flew towards where the rest of the team waited, Scootaloo leaned forward on Rainbow's back. "So...how come those stallions called you a drop out, Rainbow?"
Spitfire suddenly cracked up. "Is the Flight School STILL spreading that story?"
"Story?" Scootaloo asked in shock.
Spitfire kept chuckling. "Why don't you tell her, Rainbow. I want to see her face when she hears."
Cyborg smiled, sinking into Rainbow's memories as he found the ones in question. "See, my Dad is ex-military, and is rather strict when it comes to discipline. When I was younger, I was super eager for flight...and more than a little bit naturally talented." He chuckled. "Most embarrassing moment of my life was when I first started attending elementary school and had to admit to the teacher that I spent all my time in the air because I hadn't learned to walk."
"Huh?" Scootaloo asked in shock. Spitfire was smirking.
Cyborg chuckled. "You know how for most pegasi there's a stage between the natural flight magic that allows flight shortly after birth and when they learn to fly normally, during which they have to grow into their wings?" As Scootaloo nodded sadly, he smirked. "I never hit that stage. Jumped straight from one to the other. I've been in the air practically since birth." As Scootaloo's mouth opened in shock and awe, Cyborg continued the tale the memories told. "Anyway, since I was so eager for the air, Dad said he'd give me an early start on teaching me flight. However, he drilled me on the theory before he'd teach me the practical. Drilled it into me unrelentingly until I could recite every equation and theory off the top of my head. When I had fully mastered some aspect of the theory, he'd teach me the practical."
As Cyborg returned to the memory of the flight school, he laughed. "Now, I admit I've always been a bit small for my age - which for a pegasus is actually a good thing. Anyway, Dad told me that if I ever felt out of place amongst the bigger ponies, I should just pretend like I knew what I was doing. Anyway, first day, I didn't know where I was supposed to go, so I followed a group of pegasi into a classroom where a test was passed out. Figured it was an entrance exam."
Spitfire cracked up. "It was actually the secondary Final Exam, given after the summer break to all potential graduates to test if they remember enough after the break. If they get more than 20% lower than their original final grade, they repeat the year. If they fail, they repeat all the years."
"What happened?" Scootaloo asked, curiously.
Cyborg smirked. "Believe it or not, I aced it. Got every question right, even the ones the entire rest of the class got wrong. It was all covered under what Dad had taught me! Anyway, when I got to the class I was actually supposed to be in, I was just so bored. The stuff was just so simple." He chuckled. "Anyway, later I got called into the Principal's office where Dad had already been called in. The Principal thought I'd cheated somehow, so he quizzed me on the test, the questions out of order. As we went, my Dad's face went from a scowl to a proud smirk, while the Principal's face practically fell off that a first year had aced the graduation exam on her first day!"
Scootaloo gasped in awe. "But...then why did they think you got kicked out?"
Cyborg chuckled. "After that, I was completely excused from all theory classes...and not long after that, I performed my first Sonic Rainboom and got my Cutie Mark at the same time. After that, it was only a matter of time before they just handed me my diploma and sent me on my way. They spread the story of me being kicked out to save face."
Spitfire laughed. "When that turned up in the background check we ran on you before the Competition, I couldn't wait to meet you. And what do you know, you end up saving my life."
"Yeah, guess so." Cyborg chuckled nervously as Scootaloo continued to stare at him in awe. As they reached where the rest of the Wonderbolts were waiting, he continued, "So...what are we doing for the day?"
Spitfire smiled. "Well, because of the delay in the Competition, daily training and maneuvers are already completed. So we'll be going straight to hanging in off duty hours."
Soarin, glancing towards Scootaloo, smiled. "Guess we'll be going with Plan B, right Captain?"
Spitfire smirked. "Yep." She turned to the rest of the squad. "Get ready, everypony! Time to hit the theme parks!"
As the squad gave a cheer, Cyborg blinked. "What?"
-----------
Reaching the theme park, Cyborg glanced towards Spitfire, who was now out of uniform. "Really? When the Wonderbolts are off duty...they go to a theme park?"
Spitfire shrugged. "That was Plan B, yeah. When they're off duty, it sometimes seems like being Wonderbolt Captain is little more than being a glorified foal sitter. I swear, half the time it's like they never aged past six." Blinking, she glared towards where one of the stallions was being rather...friendly with a fan. "Hey! Watch your wings! Keep that stuff in private!" she shouted at him. Sighing, she turned back to Rainbow. "And the other half of the time, it's like they're still 16."
"H-uh..." Rainbow watched as Soarin guided Scootaloo towards some of the carnival games. "Do I want to know what Plan A was?"
"Nothing big," Spitfire said with a shrug. "Just a drunken orgy, the usual. Can't do that with a filly along, though." Smiling, she headed into the park. "Come on. It's been years since I went on the teacups."
Cyborg stared after Spitfire as she walked off. "H-uh..." He struggled to not stare at Spitfire's flank as he went to go keep an eye on Scootaloo.
---------------
Flying back in to Ponyville, Cyborg glided into Rainbow's cloudhouse. Going into Scootaloo's room, he tucked her in...along with the plush bear she was clinging to, which was bigger than her body. Cyborg had won it for her at the carnival games. Going to the window, he noticed a light on at the library. That made things easier, since he had something to...talk with Raven about. A couple of things, actually.
Gliding downward, he decided to just go in through the window. Settling down on the floor, he saw Raven sitting on a pile of cushions, waiting for him. "I've got a couple questions for you, since you seem to know the most about what's going on."
"Shoot," Raven replied.
"Why would the Wonderbolts so calmly suggest a drunken orgy?"
Raven snorted. "That's interesting." She thought for a time. "There's a few things contributing for that. First off, the prevalence of powerful healing magic - and the fact that pony magic takes the place of most agricultural microorganisms - means a much lower population of viruses and bacteria, and those few that exist can be easily purged with strong healing magic. So no STDs or anything like that to worry about. Also, since every mare can easily tell when they are fertile, no accidental pregnancy. As such, there's never been any taboos against casual sex, just that it was kept private. Even so, nopony - not even the news media - makes a fuss about it, because nopony really cares." She smirked. "Unlike on Earth, no religion here ever named sex as sinful."
Cyborg nodded. "Okay, I can see that. But..."
"And then there was Ponystock."
Cyborg blinked. "What?"
"After Nightmare Moon's banishment, Celestia struggled to keep herself from sinking into depression. Generally, she'd take on a personal student, follow their career, and involve herself in their life so as to fill her own. On occasion, the relationship has become more...intimate, not that anypony cared as long as she kept it private like everypony else." She blushed slightly. Cyborg assumed she was trying not to think about the implications this had for the Twilestia ship. "Anyway, in the tail end of her eighth century of her solo rule, her latest student/lover died. He was a military general and tactician, so in order to keep his memory close, she threw herself into military expansion of Equestria's territory. While the nobles and military were happy with this, quite a large portion of the citizenry weren't.
"In the 800th year of her reign, a large group of anti-war protesters gathered in the military compound of Canterlot and held a pony equivalent of Woodstock. Peace music, free love, drugs, and overall refusing to move. Celestia went out personally to find out what was going on. When she told them they had to disperse, one of the ponies was so high he told her - his words were recorded - to 'shove it up her sun-rear along with the royal scepter'."
Cyborg choked out a laugh. "He didn't! What happened?"
Raven smirked. "Celestia was actually happy to find ponies who would tell her what they really thought without fear of retribution...so she joined in. That's what began the '10 year trip' as it's been called, since the entirety of Equestria looked like it was on an acid trip due to what Celestia's drugged state did to the light the sun gave off. When Ponystock concluded, the stallion who insulted her like that spent the rest of his days as the Royal Consort. Amongst his duties were to tell Celestia when she was behaving like an ass."
Cyborg fell on his back, laughing uproariously. "Oh my Luna, that's hilarious!" When he finally calmed down, he got back to his hooves. "What does that have to do with how the Wonderbolts behaved?"
Raven smirked. "The relaxed attitude to sex - of any sort - percolated down to every level of society except the nobles. The nobles - and those who imitate them - still keep sex within married families in order to prevent splinter bloodlines, as those sometimes cause civil wars." Raven then frowned. "But that's not what you really came here to ask about, is it?"
Cyborg's smile faded. "Why did you give Jinx the butterfly wings? You knew what would happen! Why would you put her in danger like that?"
Raven sighed. "...you watch Doctor Who, right?"
Cyborg blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Remember when he talked about fixed points in time?"
Blinking, Cyborg nodded. "What about them?"
"Equestria has them, too. Certain things have to happen in certain ways. If they don't, things go terribly wrong, and there are horrible consequences. We've faced quite a few of those consequences already. The tarrasque was one of them."
Cyborg shuddered. "I don't want to think about what others could be."
"That's why you HAD to perform the Sonic Rainboom at the Competition. It was one of the fixed points in time we had to get past."
Cyborg blinked. "Then why put Jinx in danger?"
"Because if it had been anyone else, you would have taken the time to think and realized I would never put any of my friends in actual danger for part of a mission if I could avoid it."
Cyborg froze. "Huh?"
Raven sighed. "Think about it, Cyborg. How easily could I have snagged Jinx in my magic...or even just in Twilight's? And why didn't I bring Beast Boy along to Cloudsdale?" She looked up at him. "He was directly below, having gathered a large cloud of butterflies to catch Rarity if necessary, along with a large bear as an end cushion. If it hadn't worked, my magic would have kicked in as well, casting an anti-inertia net over the entire area. Jinx was never in any actual danger. ...and if you'd stopped to think things through - which you would have done if it were anyone else - you would have known that."
Cyborg stared at her. "You...you used me, and how I feel about Jinx..."
"I had to," Raven said, her voice somewhat broken. "It was the only thing that would make you even think about breaking your promise to Scootaloo."
Cyborg glared at her for a time, then looked away. "I...guess I see your point. I need to think about this." He turned. "You shouldn't have done that, though."
"I know," Raven said quietly. "And if I'd had any other option, I wouldn't have. I've...already written Celestia about it, actually, in my hidden reports. Who knew I'd be the one learning things about friendship here?"
Chuckling softly, Cyborg flew back to look after Scootaloo before turning in for the night.