//------------------------------// // A Few Heads are Better than None // Story: The Fighter Filly Girls! // by Mod On Death //------------------------------// Chapter 2: A Few Heads are Better than None Apple Bloom woke up, tired from the late night work they put into that poster describing how bears hibernate. It was pretty odd how specific their project was. Then again, Miss Cheerilee recently had a nervous breakdown because of students constantly asking her questions about how to do projects. She seemed to be as specific as possible so nopony could ask her any questions. The one time somepony did ask something she ended up going on a rant that had so many bad words that some started to cry. She then left the class for the rest of the day. Also, they somehow were having class on Saturday, so that might’ve been a good tip something was off about her. She rose from her bed slowly, trying to get her hind hooves onto the floor, but somehow she just couldn’t. Still tired, she scratched her eyes and noticed that she was floating a full foot above her bed! Amazed by this, she thought that she must be in a dream and started flying around her room with ease, wooing as she did so. She was only stopped when she attempted to fly through the door, only to come in full contact with it. She realized that this wasn’t actually a dream but real life, or at least she assumed that to be the case as she noticed that she barely felt any pain from crashing into the door that seemed to be obliterated by her contact. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “I gotta tell the others. But first…” she sped superfast, putting the door back together, piece by piece, making it look as if it had never been annihilated. She immediately went over to Sweetie Belle’s house, galloping to the point that she was invisible to everypony else. She soon arrived at the window of Sweetie Belle’s room. “Psst. Hey. Sweetie Belle. Hey. Wake up. Check this out.” Apple Bloom tried to silently knock on her window, accidentally cracking it in the process. This was enough to rustle Sweetie Belle and look in the direction of the window where her friend was floating. Applebloom smiled when Sweetie Belle could clearly see her. Sweetie Belle’s reaction was less enthusiastic however. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” She screeched at the top of her lungs at the site of one of her friends strangely floating right outside her window. Her mouth was aimed at the ceiling of her room when she screeched, causing the entire roof to fly off of the house. Her parents, hearing the ear-shattering scream and sudden disappearance of their rood, came into their daughter’s bedroom. Apple Bloom hid out of sight of the parents as they burst in. “What the hay is going on in here!?” the father yelled at the sight of his roof suddenly disappearing and his youngest daughter screaming. “I was screaming because,” she was about to say that she saw her friend floating right outside her window, but then she realized that wouldn’t explain how the roof vanished. She quickly came up with a clever lie. “I was screaming because the roof disappeared,” she told them convincingly. “Oh. Yeah,” he replied. “That’d be something to be shocked about. Huh. Wonder why I’m handling it so well.” “I’m guessing that travelling salespony was right all along. You CAN lose your roof at any moment. Good thing I bought the insurance, right darling?” the mother said to her husband. “Heh, I guess you’re the winner in this situation. Looks like we’ll have a new house courtesy of Snakeoil Inc, the company that sounds like a bad investment until you really need odd services,” he finished saying, the two of them leaving the room. Apple Bloom flew into the room through where the roof used to be, hoping that Sweetie Belle would be calmer now. Actually, she was kinda freaked out by what her friend could do, destroying a roof with simply a scream. “What was that?” Apple Bloom had to ask. “I think it was some kinda super scream. I guess that’s one of my powers,” she responded. “Say, did you notice any other powers you might have?” Apple Bloom thought back to when she hit her bedroom door, noting how easily it broke and how little pain she felt. “I think I have super strength as well. Also, I’m really tough when it comes to taking hits. I wonder if I’ll find any other powers,” Apple Bloom told her friend. “Say, see if you can also fly.” “Okay,” Sweetie Belle came out of her sheets and with almost no effort started flying. “Oh wow!” she responded, zooming around the room quickly, almost making a tornado. She stopped as soon as she saw that, knowing that destroying the roof was enough damage for one day. “So, I guess we can each do that I guess. Imagine how Scoots will be when she-“ As if she were listening in on them, Scootaloo arrived in an orange flash, zooming around the two of them. When she finally stopped flying around them, they saw the smile on her face that just wouldn’t stop. “OH MY GOODNESS GUYS! I CAN FLY I CAN FLY I CAN FLY!” she yelled as she started doing cartwheels in the air. This had been Scootaloo’s dream for as long as she could remember, and now she didn’t even need her wings to help her. “Can you guys do that also? I remember Discord said we’d each get powers, so hopefully you did as well.” “Yeah! We can both fly!” Sweetie Belle answered, the two of them hovering at the same level Scoots was at. “Awesome! Now we can all be flying buddies!” Scootaloo declared. “Also, I just totally noticed that Sweetie Bell’s house doesn’t have a roof anymore. What gives?” “That was my Sonic Scream! I’m calling it that now, by the way. I’m guessing it’s one of my own personal abilities, seeing as you girls haven’t had anything like that happen with all the screeching you’ve also done,” Sweetie Belle guessed. “Yeah. I reckon we should try out other things to see what unique skills we have. Let’s do it in the Everfree Forest, that way nopony can get hurt or learn we got super powers,” Apple Bloom informed the group. “Smart plan! Let me tell my parents that we’re heading out right now. They’re probably freaked out by the fact that our roof suddenly disappeared, so me going out without letting anypony know could be an issue,” Sweetie Belle left her room, leaving a happy Apple Bloom left to contemplate Sweetie Belle’s remark. “Smart, huh? I guess I have been feeling a bit thinkier this morning,” she told Scootaloo. “Hold on while I get something to write on.” Apple Bloom was gone for about 3 seconds returning with a quill and piece of paper. She started writing down something quickly, the facts and numbers just flowing naturally to her. She then read off what she had written down and was impressed with the results: The length of any right triangle’s hypotenuse can be found by adding the squared lengths of the two sides together and then factoring the sum. “Wow! This is big kid stuff! I bet I can even help Big Mac when it comes to taxes now,” she boasted. Getting smarter wasn’t the sort of thing she expected to get when it came to super powers, but she was glad nonetheless. “I just let my mom and dad know we’re going out now,” reported Sweetie Belle. “You guys ready?” “I’ve been ready for this since I was born! Let’s do this!” roared Scootaloo, leading the way to the Everfree Forest. At the Everfree Forest the girls were free to fly around and try out their abilities. After accidentally flying into several trees and turning them into toothpicks, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle learnt they also had super strength and resistance. The girls were now trying to figure out what unique things they could do as well, seeing that Sweetie Belle could apparently do what called a ‘Sonic Scream’. “I hope my thing’s really cool! Maybe I can fly so fast that I go through time and end up going into the future! Wouldn’t that be awesome?” Scootaloo told her friends. “Yeah, but how’d you get back in time? Could you even control how far into the future you went? We’d miss you,” Sweetie Belle said with a sad face. “Aww, don’t worry. I promise I won’t TRY to fly faster than all you girls, even though I bet I totally could though,” Scootaloo boasted. “Ya sure you wanna try that out, sugar cube?” Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo, as if she were challenging her. “Hay yeah. You think you can handle this? First one to go around the top of the mountain over there and back again wins,” she pointed to the nearby mountain, a grin forming at the thought of her victory. “Ready?” “Ready,” Apple Bloom answered. At that very second the two of them lifted up and shot into the sky like a bullet, creating a gust of wind with their launch. The two were tied at first, each trying to gain an advantage. Scoots was the first to gain a lead, her determination well beyond anything the other two had ever experienced. Apple Bloom saw this and tried to gain a boost by travelling along the wind current, something she just realized that she knew. With correct angling, Apple Bloom started inching ahead of her slowly, soon speeding up at a steady rate. Apple Bloom reached the mountain top just before Scoots could, gaining the upper hoof in this race. Scootaloo wouldn’t let this stay though. Too long had she wanted to fly, and she wasn’t gonna let some Earth pony, even her friend, be a faster flyer than her. Pushing herself to the limit, she moved faster and faster. Eventually she realized that, even though they were small, she had the added benefit of wings. Soon Scootaloo was speeding buy, gaining at least a foot per second on Apple Bloom. “Sorry Apple Bloom, but flying is sorta my thing!” Scootaloo yelled behind her. “You’ll have to eat my gust!” “Aww nuts!” Apple Bloom yelled to herself, trying to find a way to speed up. She started moving a bit faster, her eyes getting drier the more she flew. Focusing on finding a way to get speed, she started squinting her eyes and focused even more and more the closer Scootaloo got to the finished line. Soon however, Apple Bloom started feeling odd in her eyes, specifically they were feeling warm. She thought that this must have been normal for fliers. What she knew was not normal of flyers were the beams of lights that suddenly beamed out, hitting Scootaloo’s tail and lighting it on fire. “WHAT THE…?!” was the reaction of the three fillies as the tail suddenly lit. Scootaloo somehow managed to speed up even faster with the sudden fire appearing near her. Somehow she managed to not put it out with the speed of her flight, landing at the impromptu finish line, panicking at the fire getting closer. “Put it out! Put it out!” she yelled, chasing her tail in circles. Sweetie Belle had no idea what to do and started screaming, blowing the leaves off the nearby trees. “Hold on!” Apple Bloom yelled out as she finally landed to where Scootaloo was. “I’ll try to blow it out. Maybe we have some super breath or something.” Apple Bloom took a deep breath and breathed out, noticing that her breath suddenly became icy chill. The fire was soon put out by the chill, a frost forming around where her breath landed. “Woah!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle, seeing not only one new power, but two out of Apple Bloom. “You’ve got Laser Vision AND Ice Breath! I hope we’ve got that as well!” “Yeah, well I hope that next time SOMEPONY can manage their eyes of death,” Scootaloo said, directing her eyes at an embarrassed Apple Bloom. The three of them started practicing their possible Laser Vision, focusing their eyes on nearby rocks. Soon, with enough practice and focus, the three found that they all had that same ability. The Ice Breath power seemed unique to Apple Bloom though, seeing as each time either they blew all the leaves off of the trees they were aiming at, or ended up fainting from lack of air. One case had Scootaloo blowing so hard in the attempt to breathe ice that she actually blew the tree down. “Wow. I guess I’m both smart AND have Ice Breath. Awesome!” Apple Bloom yelled out in excitement, feeling awkward as she looked at her friends who looked annoyed at that. “I mean, Scoots, you’re definitely the fastest flier here, so that’s probably a personal ability of yours. You probably have some other abilities. Same with you, Sweetie Belle,” she told them in the attempt to lessen the awkwardness. It did not. “Yeah, well, I’m still trying to figure out what other abilities I could have. Think, Scoots, think,” she chanted to herself, rubbing her front hooves while trying to find out what she could do. She kept on rubbing harder and harder the more she thought, sparks starting to emanate from them. “COME ON! There’s gotta be some other cool thing I can do!” she yelled before throwing her hooves out in front of her, launching a ball of lighting that narrowly avoided her two friends. I landed on a nearby rock, turning the center of impact and a diameter of five feet into a crater. Apple Bloom whistled as she got a closer look at the impact. Immediately she and Sweetie Belle started rubbing their own front hooves together, only to find them getting hot and rough. “Well, I guess that’s your second ability,” Sweetie Belle commented. “Wonder if I really do have any others.” “Guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” replied Apple Bloom. “Right now we should head back home. We’ll have school in,” Apple Bloom looked at the sun and determined the time based on its position. “Five minutes! We gotta hurry girls!” The three of them lifted off and sped through the air, heading to their schoolhouse. While flying the woods, the three of them spotted something large moving, apparently knocking over trees in the process. “Uh, girls?” called out Sweetie Belle, the first of them to notice the phenomenon. “Is it just me, or is that large thing moving towards Ponyville?” The two of them stopped and looked at the mass of trees collapsing and noticed that the path was heading towards Ponyville. “You’re right!” Scoots exclaimed. Both she and Sweetie Belle suddenly turned to Apple Bloom, as if expecting something. “What?” she asked them. “Well, right now you seem to be the brains of the group, so we were wondering what you think we should do,” Sweetie Belle explained. Scootaloo gave the same expression, leaving Apple Bloom to accept the fact that they considered her the leader now. “Alright! Let’s check out that disturbance!” she declared. The three zoomed over to where the trees were being knocked down and were surprised not to find anything. “Huh. Must be hiding nearby. Girls, check the swamp and see if there looks like anything is in there.” Sweetie Belle started by checking around the perimeter of the swamp while Scootaloo took the more direct approach and dove into the murky water, seeing if she could see the creature. They both came back a couple minutes later, Scoots drenched in gunk that she quickly dispersed by spinning quickly. “Checked the perimeter. Saw some giant footprints that went into the water, but that’s it,” reported Sweetie Belle. “Yeah, and the water was too murky to really see anything,” Scootaloo reported. “Well there’s gotta be somethin’! Giant footprints and falling trees don’t just happen!” an annoyed Apple Bloom told her friends before remembering that they were in a hurry. “Well, I guess there’s no worrying if we can’t find it now. Let’s hurry to school before-“ Her words were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a large creature emerging from the water. The two friends turned around to witness the beast’s impressive appearance just in time to see is block out the sun. It was a massive lizard head, scaly with sharp teeth. “Well, I guess that’s what was causing commotion,” Apple Bloom pointed out, her two friends rolling their eyes. The creature roared into the sky, licking its mouth just as it descended quickly on the three girls. They dodged it just in time, thanks to their quick speed. “I’m guessing it’s not friendly,” Sweetie Belle pointed out, giggling when her friends gave her a contemptuous look. “I know how to handle this!” Scootaloo flew up to eye level of the lizard and starting rubbing her hooves together, forming a ball of pure lightning energy. She quickly through it straight at the creature’s face, a bright explosion coming from the blast. She flew back down to her friends, grinning at her quick victory. “Looks like you’ve been THUNDERTSTRUCK!” she declared. “Actually, thunder is the term used for the noise. It’d be more accurate if you called it Lightning Strike,” Apple Bloom told her, horrified at how nerdy she was starting to sound. “I actually knew that, but my thing sounded cooler, so Rule of Cool and all,” Scootaloo declared. “Um, girls? I don’t think this is over.” Sweetie Belle pointed up to the creature’s head, seeing that it suddenly shook its head and looked like it was angry to ready to fight. Once again it darted its head at them, attempting to get the girls in one big gulp. Sweetie Belle stood her ground against the creature and started her Sonic Scream. The creature, whose head just a moment ago was hurtling towards them like a rocket was now stuck in place, jittering at the intense sonic vibrations of the scream. She stopped screaming, leaving the creature’s head stunned and unable to move. “Hold on! I’ve got a plan!” Apple Bloom told her two friends. She began to inhale all the air she could, letting it all out and freezing the target’s head, along with a part of the swamp. “Scootaloo, use your speed and bash right into it!” she yelled out. “My pleasure,” was Scoot’s response. She flew up into the air, gaining distance before doing her boost, aimed straight at the top of the monster’s head. She came down quickly, screaming through the air before crashing down on top of the beast’s head, shattering it into pieces. Her landing was a pose with one hoof raised in the air, the other three planted into the ground, right in the center of the crater. It took her all of her strength to contain the amount of joy she was feeling at the moment from how awesome this all was. “That was totally awesome!” declared Sweetie Belle. “Yeah, it was,” Scootaloo responded coolly. “Alright then! Let’s head off to school now!” said Apple Bloom. She was glad that they were able to use their newfound abilities for good almost as soon as they had discovered them. Today was going to be a good day. At least that’s what she thought before she turned around to see the remains of the creature. “What the-!” was her response at the impossible thing happening right before her. Right where the neck stump was appeared two new heads that took the place of the original. “What!? Come on! My attack was super awesome! That should’ve killed it immediately!” Scootaloo was outraged that her awesome pose had been rendered pointless by the creature suddenly returning. “Come on girls! We need to…um, whoa,” was all Apple Bloom could say when she saw the creature producing several heads that came out of the water. It totaled five heads, each of them as vicious as the one they had just fought. The creature’s heads started to move as the body they were all connected to came lumbering out of the water, avoiding the ponies that had been able to cause it harm and going straight to Ponyville. “How can we stop something that grows back heads!?” Sweetie Belle asked, growing more and more worried and the beast lumbered forward. “We hit it with everything we’ve got! Cutie Mark Crusaders, go!” Apple Bloom’s orders were heard and in a flash of yellow, orange, and white, they flew straight at the threat. The beast, later identified as a Hydra, had just reached the town’s border. Everypony could see the multi-headed creature coming straight at them and started panicking. “The horror! The horror!” one of them started yelling, trying to gather her potted plants and get out as quickly as possible. Another pony, a strange looking pegasus, started burrowing itself underground. Mayor Mare tried to yell directions to everypony and keep things organized. That is until the creature used one of its heads to fling a fruit stand just one centimeter in front of her face, leading her to change her orders from, “Locate the nearest shelter and quickly file in safely,” to, “EVERYPONY FOR THEMSELVES!” Scootaloo was the first to enter the brawl, using her speed boost to perform a kick on the back on one of its heads, forcing it to backlash and fall flat onto the ground. She then grabbed the head and pulled it as far back as she could, trying to create a headlock of some sort. What ended up happening however was that the creature’s head suddenly got ripped off instead, purple gunk coming out of it. “Eww!” everypony yelled out as it sprayed the buildings on the street. Scootaloo was covered in the stuff as well. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gave her a look of disapproval when they saw that the creature had now gained an additional two heads, making the total six to deal with. “Guess I don’t know my own strength,” she chuckled. Suddenly she noticed a light burning sensation on her where the purple gunk had landed. She looked at the streets and noticed that all the buildings that were sprayed with the stuff had started burning up a little, flames appearing with the flammable hay. “Girls!” Scoots yelled out. “The purple stuff is acid! We can’t remove the heads without setting the town on fire!” “Aww nuts!” responded Sweetie Belle. “We can’t stop it by attacking the heads then! Hey, maybe we should aim straight for the belly area, what do you say, Apple Bloom?” Apple Bloom thought the plan over before doing a nod. The three of them immediately went and started trying to punch its gut. “What’s going on? Are we doing anything?” Apple Bloom asked. The three of them looked up to see the heads of the beast laughing with each other, as if amused by the girls’ attempt to hurt them through the belly. “LASER VISION!” she yelled, the three of them firing at the same spot, only leaving a scorch mark in its place. The heads, emboldened by their seeming invulnerability to the attacks being made against it, began swooping after each of them. “Maybe we can cause their heads to form a knot if we fly in just the right way, then it won’t be able to attack!” she yelled out to her teammates. Each of them went in a unique flying pattern, each luring several heads to start following them, with several loops, the beasts had its heads in a giant knot. “Woohoo!” they cheered, high fiving each other as they saw the beast could not move. “Looks like we’ve won this fight, girls. Now, let’s find a way to get it out of here and get to school before…OH COME ON!” Apple Bloom’s delight soon turned to anger as the three noticed that the beast was slowly untying the knot that was its heads. Apparently nature doesn’t just give you multiple heads and leave you without knowing how to get out of situations just like this. “How can we fight this?” Sweetie Belle asked, feeling more and more desperate. “It looks like the only things we can actually do damage to are the heads, and when we get rid of them two more come out of the stumps AND release acid! I wish we could find some way to block both from coming out.” “Like what, a giant band aid?” Scootaloo jeered, getting more and more frustrated as well. “Wait a sec,” Apple Bloom said, an idea coming to her head. “I’ve got it! Cauterize!” she yelled out in success. “What?” her two friends asked. “Cauterizing is this old medical technique used to close big wounds fast. What would happen is that a doctor would use a burning metal rod and put it on the skin.” “Eww, and ouch!” the two responded. “Yeah, but the thing is that it shut the wound quickly AND kept bleeding from occurring. We need to use our Laser Vision to close the wounds so that no new heads grow back AND stop the town from burning down!” “But we already saw that Laser Vision can’t pierce its hide, not even its belly,” Scootaloo remarked. “Exactly, which is why I’m gonna need you to do what you did before, Scoots. When you get the head off, me and Sweetie Belle will zoom in with me blasting the neck stump while she does the bottom of the detached head, that way acid doesn’t spill everywhere. But first, I’m gonna use my Ice Breath to put out the fires while Sweetie Belle uses her Sonic Scream to stun the monster whenever possible, allowing Scoots to do her thing. Everypony understand?” The two friends nodded in agreement, hoping that their plan would work. “Alrighty! That monster’s about to finish untangling its heads. Let’s do this!” and they all went flying off. Apple Bloom used her Ice Breath to cool down the acid to the point where it was just annoying gunk and put out the nearby fires. Scootaloo got into position for what she decided she would call the “Doom Dash”, seeing as it could almost K.O. an enemy in a single shot and with her speed it felt like a short dash. Sweetie Belle got into position just in time as the beast had finished untangling its heads, and let out a Sonic Scream that forced the creature to shudder and be immobilized. “Now!” ordered Apple Bloom, causing Scootaloo to move through the air like lightning, hitting one of the middle heads. She grabbed the head and quickly yanked it off, noticing that it popped off almost too easy compared to the rest of the body, wondering if the creature hoped that some poor hunter would remove the head only to find two more take its place. The two others flew into position, using Laser Vision to cauterize the creature’s decapitated head and neck. The smell was awful, but the noticed that no knew heads had grown back. The creature’s other heads looked at the stump, as if waiting for something to happen, only to realize that they were in trouble. Several of the ponies that weren’t holed up cheered the girls on, even though they couldn’t tell who they were from that distance. “Looks like we’ve got our solution, girls,” Apple Bloom boasted. They did this four more times, each time the monster becoming more worried, until there was only one head left. “Alright, just need to do one more dash and-“ Scootaloo was cut off as the creature’s last head appeared to be the fastest, swallowing the three girls in one gulp as they were grouped together. “RUAHAHAHA!” the beast appeared to laugh. The townsfolk were shocked. Their new saviors had suddenly been defeated and unexpectedly. The creature licked its lips, hungry for more ponies. Just as it was about to crush one of the buildings that several foals had taken shelter in, the beast suddenly stopped. It started belching, then coughing, and grabbing at its throat which had suddenly started aching. Just as the creature realized what was going on, eyes widening, a single, strong ray of red light burst from the creature’s neck, shooting up into the sky. The light rotated around the rest of the neck, opening it up to reveal our heroes covered in spit. The creature’s body started shaking, just before falling down in defeat. The townsfolk cheered as they came out of their hiding. The three girls felt proud of their accomplishment, even if they were really sticky at the moment. “We did awesome!” the three cheered, just before remembering that they totally had school to get to. “Hopefully they can deal with the mess,” Sweetie Belle said, noticing that the creature’s large body was sprawled around town. “Hey, it’s the least they can do. Besides, we’ve got places to be,” Scoots pointed out. The three flew directly to the schoolhouse, touching down right outside the door. Everypony was in the building already, seeing as class had started about an hour ago. Hopefully an excuse about fighting a giant monster to save the town would be enough. “Hello girls! Nice to see you!” Cheerilee greeted, obviously overcoming her nervous breakdown thanks to the pills that were seen on her desk. “Sorry we were late,” Apple Bloom told their teacher, about to explain their awesome day and powers. “There was the big monster and-“ “Oh, yes, we saw. Terrible creature those hydras are. We had actually taken shelter when it entered town,” Cheerilee explained, giving a name to the creature they had fought. “Luckily the beast was defeated by three…something. Nopony could actually get a good look at what was fighting that beast. All we saw were three different flashes of orange, white, and yellow.” “Yeah, and-“ Apple Bloom was cut off by the sudden appearance of Mayor Mare entering the classroom. “Why, Miss Mayor! What an unexpected visit! What brings you to our classroom?” their teacher asked. “I just wanted to let you foals know that everything has been taken care of and that we were all fortunate enough to not have anypony hurt in the attack,” the mayor told the classroom. “We can owe it all to three ponies who we sadly have been able to find.” Apple Bloom was just about to announce to the classroom about their morning exploits just before the mayor finished her thoughts. “Hopefully we could find them and then ask how they get their powers. I know that I’d certainly like to do half of what I saw them doing,” she remarked. Apple Bloom sunk back into her chair when she heard that remark. She realized that if she did reveal the secret of their powers, other ponies might try to learn how they might get them, possibly going to extremes as well with their families. Also, if they did mention that they got their powers through Discord, how would that work out? Most ponies were still suspicious of him, so hearing that they got powers thanks to a master of chaos might make them pariahs in society (also, Apple Bloom totally knew that word at the very moment the idea of being exiled popped into her head). “Well, that’s all for now children. And remember; you are the future!” the mayor ended before heading out. “Alright then. Time for presentations! Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, you’re up.” The three girls totally remembered that they had left their poster in the tree house yesterday. “Um, Miss Cheerilee, it’s not with us at the moment. Could you give us a second?” Scootaloo asked. “Seeing as this morning was as hectic as it was I can allow that. Be back quickly though, or else I’ll have to fail you three.” Scootaloo thanked Cheerilee and dashed out the room. “Now, while we’re waiting for her to return, is there anypony else who’d like to go up?” the teacher asked the classroom, seeing nopony volunteering. “Well, I guess I’ll be the one to choose then. I pi-“ “I’m back!” panted Scootaloo, carrying the poster. “Oh my, you really were back in a sec, weren't you?” Cheerilee said, surprised at how fast Scootaloo had gotten the poster. “This looks great, girls!” she praised. “Except, um, I’m noticing something here. Are these…smashed bugs?” The three totally realized at that moment that whenever you fly or move super-fast, you’re bound to run into bugs flying around. This was going to be an interesting explanation.