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// Hearts and Hooves Day (Part 3) 
// Story: A Cog in the Machine 
// by Zoom zoom 
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	And thus we are now back to where you are now.  Stuck to a filly who made your body feel weird now that she was standing on it with her hooves on your shoulders and hips.

“Oh isn’t that cute,” said Cup Cake as she took in the sight of you.  “How long are they going to be like that?”

“About four hours,” Pinkie answered.  “Scootaloo really got a lot under her hooves before trying to stand.”

By this point even Rainbow Dash had arrived and was busy rolling on the floor laughing at the two of you.  As it turned out, she did in fact have a date.  It was just not too serious and she didn’t want her protégé to get the wrong idea so she didn’t tell her.  This factor only seemed to make things funnier to everyone but you and the filly stuck to your back though.

Scootaloo kept her face in your mane to try and hide from her mentor, being unable to use her hooves and having small wings likely was the reason.  Though you were not sure how you felt about the half nuzzling she was doing with it.  It was obvious she was trying to hide completely to no avail, but besides Rainbow Dash it was obvious from a look around everypony else was getting the wrong idea.

“Is there any way we can get loose sooner?” You asked.  The feel of the filly’s nose against your neck acknowledging to you her agreement.

“Well maybe if you ask Zecora,” Pinkie admitted, “but I’m too busy to escort you and I’m not sure you can run very well like that.”  You could feel your legs buckle a bit as that became aware to you.  It really was odd how a pegasus could fly if she was this heavy.  Then again it wasn’t like you were about to admit it when Scootaloo could just head butt you from behind for saying that.  “Could you take them Dashie?”

“Are you kidding?” Rainbow was gasping as she laughed.  “This is just too good.  I need to get my camera or something.  You two stay right there.”  And with that she was off.  It was about then you felt a sting of pain in the back of your head.  Scootaloo must really be trying to drill her head in back there.

“Somepony please dig a hole to bury me in,” you heard Scoots whisper through your hair.

There really had to be some way you could get Scootaloo’s mind off all this and enjoy herself.  Celestia knows you do not want to be doing this for the next four hours.  You puzzled this for some time until Rainbow had returned with her camera.

“Come on,” she insisted, “it may be funny, but you both are gonna laugh looking back at this.  At least try to smile and look goofy or something.”

Looking goofy…that was it!  “Can you hold off on that for a moment Rainbow?  I got something I wanna try out.  And I guarantee a great picture either way.  Deal?

“You got it,” Rainbow nodded.  Maybe she was seeing what you were getting at.

“Come on Scoots,” you said rubbing your head against hers, “I’m going to need your help with this if it’s gonna make us look cool.”

Scootaloo didn’t know what you were thinking as you slowly started trotting outside.  Sure enough there was her scooter.  “You better start flapping or I’m gonna fall on you and bruise one of your wings,” you slightly threatened.  You really wouldn’t, you had been practicing a little bit and at least knew the max angle you could be to still land on your forehooves as you attempted this.

In a panic, Scoots did finally start buzzing her wings frantically and you were able to put a little more balance into it.  Finally you were on your hind legs for longer than ten seconds.  Meaning this was the perfect time to ride her scooter and get her to come off as a good teacher.

“You up for this?” you asked pitching Scootaloo her helmet and putting on the spare to your own head.

Finally noticing what this was, Scootaloo seems to lighten up and all the worry and panic that was in her face melts.  This was the face you wanted, one that had been hard to see lately.  What was odd was that it seemed like something you missed dearly.  You had only really seen her like this a few times and only when she didn’t notice you watching her, on the way to school, randomly during your two weeks in hiding till Featherweight got you back out.

Did you actually like this filly for this?  Whatever that thought was however soon took a backseat as you felt the wind hit your face as Scootaloo pushed you down the road with her wing power.  It was all you could do to stay balanced as the scooter started gathering speed.

“Keep your arms still,” called Scootaloo over the rushing wind.  Not like you were not anyway but that ensured you were going to keep your arm stiff as a board.  Scootaloo started steering with your arms since she couldn’t touch the handles herself.  Soon enough everything was blurry and all you could make out was some G-forces.

This, this was how Scootaloo must see things all the time, at least when she was doing what she was meant to.

You could tell her now, even a little hint couldn’t hurt right?  But then you remembered when Sweetie Belle got her own cutie mark.  That look from figuring it out on her own was magical, you couldn’t take that away from Scootaloo.  You could only hope this would be how she found out.

And then you hit a rock.  Well to be more accurate you hit some purple and green rock for all you could see.  And the result sent you flying.

You couldn’t duck and roll, not with the orange filly on your back.  This really was a bad idea.  What exactly were you thinking?  That was it wasn’t it, you were not thinking with your brain.  All you wanted was to help cheer up Scootaloo, and now you’d be paying the price since you were going to keep yourself still.

But something else happened.  You didn’t feel the ground.  It should have hit you by now.  You looked around.  You were not moving, but you had stopped in midair.  Scootaloo was able to support you along with her in the air.

“Oh yeah,” called Rainbow from even higher.  “Now that is something for my scrapbook.”

“Ooo, you have a scrapbook?” asked Pinkie.  You gotta show me!