//------------------------------// // Fights // Story: Flying High // by arglefumph //------------------------------// Rainbow stared at the library book. The cover looked interesting enough, but that didn't change the fact that reading was for eggheads. "I really don't want to read you," Rainbow Dash said. To her great surprised, Daring Do turned around and looked at her. "Why not, Rainbow?" she asked. Rainbow Dash dropped the book. "Whoa! You...you can talk?" "Of course not," Daring Do said. "This is just a day dream you're having. So, what's up, pegasister?" Rainbow nodded. A dream. That made sense. "Well, I have to write a book report about you, but I don't like reading." "Lie about it," Daring advised. "What?" "Just take the book description from the back cover, and send it to Twilight. She'll never tell the difference." "But I'm...the Element of Honesty..." "So? I'm a fictional book. Are you going to let some stuffy librarian boss you around?" "No!" "That's my girl!" Daring Do said, winking at Rainbow. "You're pretty cool, you know that? I had rainbow hair like you, before it turned gray." "Thanks!" Discord whistled as he strolled down the street. The whistle started off happy, then it turned into a train whistle. He pulled the train out of his ear, pushed it together like an accordion, and when he separated his hands, a paper appeared. Elements of Harmony TO DESTROY UTTERLY 1. Trixie, Element of Being Self-Centered and Useless 2. Fluttershy, Element of Pretending to be Nice, then Turning into a Total PSYCHO! 3. Rainbow Dash, Element of Self-Deluded Grandeur 4. Applejack, Element of Never Getting a Coltfriend, Ever 5. Pinkie Pie, Element of Weirdness 6. Rarity, Element of Fake Accents and Hair Spray "Slam bam, thank you, ma'am!" Discord said, as he made a little checkmark next to Rainbow Dash's name. "The Element of Honesty is now a bold-faced liar. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the cruelest of them all?" The paper turned into a small hand-mirror. Discord's reflection scowled and said, "You're only halfway done with the job." "Who asked your opinion, Mirror?!" Discord shouted. He turned the mirror into a pomegranate and ate it. Then he reached into his mouth and pulled a gold-colored apple. "I haven't tried this trick in a few thousand years, but it should work fine," he said. Dear Apple Family, I greatly admire all the hard work you do in providing food for the ponies in Ponyville. I wanted to thank you, with this rare Golden Apple that I found. Please give it to the hardest-working member of your family. —Sidcord. Applejack put down the letter that came with the apple. "Who the hay is Sidcord?" she wondered. "I ain't never heard of—Big Mac! What do you think you're doing?" Big Mac had his hoof stretched out towards the golden apple. "Eating," he said. "That apple ain't yours!" Granny Smith said. "It's for the hardest-working member of our family, and that's me!" "What? I work harder than anypony else!" Applejack said. "Eeeenope," Big Macintosh said. "I think I work pretty hard," Applebloom said. "And the apple's kinda big, so nopony should care if I just take a li'l bite..." Applejack knocked aside Applebloom's hand. "No taking my property!" "You just want it 'cause you love to eat!" Granny Smith said. "You don't deserve that apple!" Discord smiled, as he listened to the wonderful, wonderful chaos coming from the Apple household. "Element of Generosity no more!" he said. Twilight Sparkle had thought about it long enough, and she finally decided to write a letter. Dear Princess Luna, My name is Twilight Sparkle. You probably don't remember my name, but I was the pony who came to visit you on the moon. Kind of. I mean, I don't remember it because I was an evil alicorn at the time, but you were an evil alicorn, too, so you probably don't remember either. I'm writing because I don't know who else I can talk to. Ever since I got back from outer space, the ponies in my town have been treating me differently. Sometimes, even my friends seem a little bit worried about me. I was wondering if you've been having the same problem. If so, can you please give me some advice to convince everypony that I'm not crazy or evil? —Twilight PS. Please don't tell your sister about this. I don't want to worry Celestia with my problems. Although I wouldn't mind it if she gave me an assignment or something! "...Wow," Twilight said, crossing out the first paragraph of the letter. "That is a terrible first draft." She pulled out a new paper and tried again. Dear Princess Luna, My name is "Hey, hey, Twilight!" a voice called. Twilight looked up to see Rainbow Dash, hovering near the window she had just flown through. "Hi, Rainbow. What's up?" "I finished your book!" Rainbow said. "I also wrote that book report." "Oh, great!" Twilight said. She flew up to her friend and took the piece of paper that Rainbow pulled from her saddlebag. "So, what'd you think of the book? Did you like it?" "Oh, yeah, it was great! Daring Do is a pretty cool, you know? Plus, she kinda looks like me." "...Your book report is one paragraph long." "Well, yeah, but it's a quality paragraph!" "Really," Twilight said, unconvinced. "What was your favorite part of the book?" "I liked how she flew away from the bad guys at the end! It was a daring escape!" Twilight winced at the bad pun. "You didn't read the book at all, did you?" she asked. "Huh? I totally—" "Where'd you get this report from? Did you ask one of the—you took it from the book cover!" Rainbow Dash drew her wings in and landed on the ground. "You're right. I didn't read the book. Sorry." Twilight landed next to her. "Rainbow, we had a deal! I already signed up to join the Young Fliers Competition, so you have to read this book!" "But I don't like reading!" "And I don't like flying around in front of a huge crowd," Twilight said. "But I'm doing it anyway because I'm your friend." "Oh, yeah? What kind of friend bosses somepony around and forces her to do boring egghead stuff?" "Gee, I don't know! What kind of friend promises to read a children's book, and then lies about it to her face?!" The two pegasi were standing face to face, snarling. They spread out their wings and began slowly circling around each other. "Face it, Twi. Nopony wants to read any of your stupid books! You should close the library!" "It's more important than what you do! You spend half a minute kicking clouds, then spend the rest of the day sleeping on them!" "If I wanted to sleep, I'd read your boring book! That's all it's good for!" "And all you're good for is bragging about how great you are! I can't wait to see you finally get put in your place when you lose the flying competition!" "Ha! As if! I'm going to win with my Sonic Rainboom!" "You can't do a Sonic Rainboom!" Twilight shouted. "You're lying again! If you did a Sonic Rainboom any time in the past ten years, everypony from here to Canterlot would have seen it!" "Yeah, well...at least I never tried to take over the world! I know you're not good enough to be a pegasus, but that—" Twilight quickly spun around, smacking Rainbow Dash in the face with her wing. She immediately shifted her balance to her front hooves as she bucked Rainbow Dash in the face. Rainbow fell over backwards. "Don't ever talk to me about that again!" Twilight shouted. "Now get out of my library, or I'll have you arrested for trespassing on government property!" "FINE! I'm leaving!" Rainbow Dash said. She took to the air, then reached into her saddlebag and pulled out Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. Throwing it at Twilight's head, Rainbow said, "Here's your dumb book!" "Ow!" Twilight cried. She charged at Rainbow Dash, but the cyan pegasus quickly flew out the window after throwing the book. Twilight flew up to the window but didn't leave the library. "Yeah, that's right! Run away, you big loser! I hate you! Nopony cares what you...think..." A tear ran down Twilight's cheek as she punched the wall in fury. Not long afterwards, Rainbow Dash knocked repeatedly on the door of the Carousel Boutique. "Rarity! Open up!" "Coming! I'm coming!" Rarity called. She opened up the door eight seconds later. "Rainbow Dash? What are you—aaaaaa!" "Is it that bad?" Rainbow asked, unconsciously rubbing one of her black eyes. "Come in, come in!" Rarity said, stepping aside so Rainbow could enter. "What happened to your face? It looks like somepony kicked you!" "Somepony did kick me," Rainbow Dash said. "Twilight." "Twilight? No, you must be mistaken. Twilight would never—" "Do something like that? Ha! I said I didn't want to read one of her books, and she threw a fit!" "Oh dear," Rarity said. She was rummaging through a makeup counter, trying to find something which could help cover up Rainbow's bruises. "What happened exactly?" "We, uh...we made a deal about book reading, and I backed out. Now she's mad because I told her that reading is boring." "Well...she does have a book for a cutie mark," Rarity said. "I can see how she wouldn't appreciate hearing you say something like that. Still, I don't see why that would be enough to make her resort to physical violence." "I...also kinda...told her off for becoming Nightmare Moon Junior..." Rainbow Dash said. She frowned. Now that she thought about it, that was a little harsh. Rarity paused. "I thought we all agreed we weren't going to mention that to Twilight, unless she brought it up." "Yeah, but...I can't just forget that she tried to kill us! If it wasn't for the Elements of Harmony, we'd all be dead right now!" "Well, true, but Twilight's our friend, and if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have had the Elements of Harmony to begin with." "I guess, but...how do we know she's not going to turn evil again? I mean, she bucked me in the face!" Rarity was hesitant to agree, as she liked Twilight, and she knew firsthoof how infuriating Rainbow Dash could be sometimes. "I'm sure she's just having a bad day," Rarity said. "She'll probably come by later to apologize for what happened. ...But maybe we should contact Princess Celestia, just in case." Twilight and Rainbow Dash weren't the only ponies with friendship problems. At Ponyville Elementary, Scootaloo was once again feeling lonely. Deciding to make new friends, she approached a filly named Twist, who had glasses and a curly red mane. "Hey, you wanna play tag or something?" "Printheth Thootaloo? You want to play with me?" "Sure." "That'th tho thweet!" Twist said. "I get to be with a printheth! Scootaloo winced a bit, having a hard time understanding Twist's words. "I can start, unless you want to, Twith." "Twith." "What?" "My name ith Twith." "...That's what I said. Twith." "Twith! Twi-thhhh!" "Scootaloo!" Applebloom called from across the playground. Oh, thank Celestia... Scootaloo thought. "Sorry, somepony's calling for me!" Scootaloo bounded across the playground, stopping when she reached Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. Scootaloo was happy to see that the two of them were by themselves and needed a third pony. "Hey!" she said. "Hi, Scootaloo. We were—" Sweetie Belle began to say. "What happened to that new girl? Scubaloo?" "She got her cutie mark in scuba diving yesterday," Applebloom said. "Nopony's been able to get her out of the town river since then." "Hey, hey, hey..." a colt with a deep voice and a leather jacket said. "What's up?" "Who are you?" Scootaloo asked. "I'm Scooterloo," the colt said, pointing to his Vespa, which was propped up near the side of the school building. "I'm the newest member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders." You have got to be kidding me. They were calling Scooterloo, not me? "Mechanical scooters are all the rage nowdays," Scooterloo said. "They're so much better than the ones that you push with your legs." "...If you say so," Scootaloo said. "If you like scooters so much, maybe you could get a scooter cutie mark." "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SCOOTER RIDERS!" the children shouted. "That sounds like fun!" Sweetie Belle said. "We'd invite you to come along, Scootaloo, but—" "Yeah, yeah...I know," Scootaloo said, walking away. "Sorry for bugging you..." "—there's only enough room for three ponies on the scooter," Sweetie Belle finished. She scratched her head. "Why does Scootaloo look so sad?" "I dunno," Applebloom said. "She probably wanted to ride on my awesome scooter," Scooterloo said. Pinkie Pie walked into the library. "Twilight! Twiiiiiiilight!" she called. "Oh, there you are! My Pinkie Sense told me that there was a doozy here two hours ago! What happened?" "...Pinkie Sense?" Twilight asked. "Uh huh, it's one of my special abilities!" Pinkie Pie said enthusiastically. "Sometimes, I get feelings which tell the future! Like my tail gets twitchy whenever something's going to fall! Or my back gets itchy when something lucky is going to happen!" "That's not—I think those are just coincidences." "No, it's real!" Pinkie Pie said. "And my Pinkie Sense tells me that something really bad happened here! I think somepony even used the h-word!" "Hackensack?" "Hate!" Pinkie Pie said. "Whenever somepony says that word, my eyes twitch and a huge shiver runs up my spine! It's the meanest word anypony could ever say!" Twilight's face fell. "But how did you know that somepony said that here?" "I told you! Pinkie Sense!" "But—but that's impossible!" Twilight said. "Your body can't react, every time a pony says a certain word! That's unscientific!" "Yeah, but unicorn magic is unscientific, and they do it all the time!" "True, but I think unicorn magic follows certain rules," Twilight said. "You think? Don't you remember when you had a horn?" "No, I don't! I don't remember a single thing that happened two weeks ago, and I wish everypony would stop bringing it up! They all treat me like some sort of monster!" "Was that the doozy?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Rainbow Dash and I had a doozy of a fight, if that's what you mean," Twilight said. "She practically accused me of turning evil again!" "That doesn't sound like her!" "She was mad because I caught her lying, and she was bragging like usual, and RRRRGH! She's too much sometimes!" "Not to mention she used the h-word!" "No, that...that was me." Pinkie gasped. "Twilight! You know you should never ever use that word!" "I know that, but..." Twilight sniffed. "I got mad when she lied to me, okay? She said I was a boring loser, so I called her a lazy bragger, and...I kicked her." "Sounds like you need a hug from your Auntie Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie said. She grabbed Twilight and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry you two got in a fight." "I'm sorry, too," Twilight said. "It's just...so hard to deal with things right now." "But you can't let yourself get angry! The only way to make things better is to apologize." "I know that, I just...maybe I can't do it. I said some pretty horrible things." "There, there," Pinkie said, patting Twilight's back. "Rainbow Dash is your friend, and I'm sure she'll accept your apology." "Thanks, Pinkie." "You're welcome, Twilight." "..." "..." "Um...Pinkie? You can stop hugging me now." "...You smell nice." "Seriously, let go! You're cramping my wings!" "Oops, sorry!" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing backwards. Twilight couldn't help but smile at Pinkie's antics. "I guess I should close the library to go see Rainbow and—huh?" A scroll materialized in midair, in front of Twilight Sparkle. She immediately recognized the royal seal on it. "It's from the princess!" Twilight said, picking up the scroll and reading it. "But I didn't finish writing my letter to Luna yet! Maybe Celestia...?" Dear Twilight Sparkle, I apologize for sending you this letter unexpectedly, but it has just now come to my attention that you attacked another pony today. This is not the first complaint I have received about your behavior in the past week, and I cannot— "AAAARGH!" Twilight shouted. Pinkie Pie was taken aback by the ferocity of Twilight's scream. "Holy Hackensack!" she commented.