//------------------------------//
// Scootaloo's Wings 
// Story: Shards of Nightmare 
// by Stonedpony 
//------------------------------//

Scootaloo's Wings

Winchester laid under his favorite tree with his legs neatly tucked underneath him. His quill danced across the page painting pictures with words, a note pad floated near by suspended in a blue glow. every so often he would stop to read aloud what he just wrought to test the wording or to speck a line of dialog. After shooing away a very confused local who thought Winchester was recruiting him for a battle to save Equestria and some looks and comments from the less confused, the writer was starting to think writing the final draft of his book in the park was not a good idea. 
The feeling of being watched wasn’t helping him ether. Finally Winchester lowered his book to see who it was and froze upon seeing Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, Applebloom and Spike standing in front of him. The three fillies wore their crusaders capes and had a toy sword strapped to their hips. Spike stood behind them holding the lid of a pot like a shield in one claw and a toy sword in the other, he wore a helmet with curled horns on his head too. Before the stallion could ask 'can I help you.' the crusaders yelled “CUTIE MARK CURSADER SQUIRES are go!”
Winchester peeled his book from his face as the three fillies took turns to explain they were now his squires. They got the idea from a book Spike found that explained what a squire dose. They of course thought it would help them get their cutie marks. Spike wasn’t fast enough to help with any of the explaining so he finally just gave up and nodded.
“Yeah we can help ya like... save Equsrtia.” Applebloom said as she and the other fillies skip around 'their' knight.
“or save damsels.” Sweetie Bell added with a high pitch squeal.
“and slay monsters.” Scootaloo yelled as she buzzed her wings trying to hoover in front of him. 
“Yeah.” Spike agreed. The four started to list the beast they could help Winchester kill. Ranging from the common timber wolf to the fierce manticore, and comically a field mouse. Everypony stared at Applebloom, the filly simply shrugged and explained Applejack hates them.
Winchester rubbed his eyes with a hoof as the crusaders talked, he mumbled “dragon” under his breath after they finished. The stallion's eyes fell on the fillies' reptilian friend, he sighed and quickly forgot his idea of attempting to turn the fillies against the baby dragon in favor of simple distraction. “hey girls I really don’t need any squires right now so-”
“but but how we going to crusade for our cutie marks?” Sweetie Bell pleaded with him tears in her eyes. She looked so cute that Winchester's hart almost melted. Only his years of training and hardship kept him on course, but this was one of his hardest challengeschanlges.
“yeah if your going to go on a crusade its best to go with a knight.” Scootaloo said. Winchester couldn’t deny that logic.
“well in that case as my squires I would like you to help that guy.” Winchester said pointing to a tan stallion with a short brown mane and tail, a hourglass cutie mark on his flank and a blissful smirk on his face.
“who is he?” Applebloom asked.
“just a doctor.” Winchester said thinking on his hooves.
“oooohhhh a doctor a could defiantly help us get our cutie mark.” Sweetie Bell said jumping up and down with a smile.
“dang it?” Scootaloo swore hanging her head.
“What?” her three friends asked.
“i just remembered I have a doctors appointment.” Scootaloo replied, she groaned and turned to leave “i hate going to the doctor.”
“your not sick are you?” Sweetie Bell asked, Applebloom covered her mouth.
“no its just a check up.” Scootaloo waved her goodbyes as she yelled “I'll meet you all at the club house later.”
Sweetie Bell, Spike and Applebloom sighed as they turned back to Winchester only to find him gone. “now where did he go.” Spike said.
“oh no the doctor guy is getting away too.” Sweetie Bell yelled pointing to the brown stallion as he trotted away, The crusaders gave chase. Upon realizing that the crusaders were after him the brown stallion ran for all he was worth. He like all the citizens of Ponyville knew what kind of trouble those three little fillies could cause, and now they had the baby dragon who new what kind of trouble they could cause now.
The brown stallion lead the crusaders on a rather long and comical chase. None of the stallion's tricks caught the crusaders off guard, disguises, hiding places and diversion none of them worked on his three relentless pursuers. He finally escaped by barricading himself in a small blue shed. The crusaders gave up after besieging the shed for a few minutes, they had only limited access to siege weapons and even less knowledge on how to make or use them. 
Sweetie Belle, Spike and Applebloom returned to the club house to wait for Scootaloo. They occupied their time with games and brain storming ideas for cutie marks. Slowly the Celestia's sun moved toward the horizon and Scootaloo never showed up. It was getting late and Sweetie Belle had to be home for dinner, Spike decided to walk her home. Applebloom said her goodbyes to the two and walked to her own home for dinner.
*          *         *
The next morning Applebloom happily skipped down the street on her way to school, she got to have her favorite breakfast this morning Granny Smith's Apple Cinnamon pancakes. Her skipping soon brought her by Sweetie Belle's home. The white filly trotted out to join her happy friend. Sweetie Belle was equally as happy because she got to help her mother cook breakfast, and she didn’t set anything on fire.
The pair only had one more stop to make before they got to school, Scootaloo's street. The pair stopped at the their normal meeting spot but the pegasus wasn’t there. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were starting to worry as they waited for a few minutes and there was no sign of the Scootaloo. They discussed going to see if she was okay but the sound of the first school bell signaled they only had a few minutes left to get to school before it started. They had to gallop to be on time.
Miss Cheerilee sat at her desk happily finished her days perpetration. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle hurried inside and tossed their saddle bags in their respective cubby holes. The pair took their seats and just as the last bell rang. Sweetie Bell looked around for Scootaloo but again she was nowhere to be found. 
“Where could she be?” Applebloom said as Ms Cheerilee began roll call. The teacher called Applebloom's names first, the filly quickly responded. Before Cheerilee could continue with roll call a mare with an orange coat and red mane poked her head in the door way, She asked to speck to Cheerilee. The sad eyes of the mare made the teacher worried.
Cheerilee left the class to speck to the mare. Many whispered conversions began through out the room. Sweetie Belle leaned over to Applebloom too ask “hey wasn’t that Scootaloo's mother?” 
“ah think so, hope its nothing bad.” Applebloom whispered back.
While Cheerilee was talking to the mare Scootaloo slowly walked in with her head and tail low. She didn’t even look up as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom greeted her. Soon Cheerilee returned to her desk and wiped her eyes with her hoof before continuing with the roll call.
Scootaloo plopped down in her seat and just stared at her desk. Her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying for a long time.
Sweetie leaned over to Scootaloo and ask “are you okay Scootaloo?”
“I’m fine.” the pegasus filly replied looking away.
“ya sure nothings wrong ya look sad.” Applebloom asked.
“i don’t want to talk about.” 
“you sure, it could-”
“just leave me alone!” Scootaloo cut Sweetie Bell off with a harsh whisper. The pegasus looked away and sniffled. Sweetie Bell and Applebloom looked at each other worried.
Cheerilee stood before the class and cleared her throat. She had shaken away her sadness as she addressed the class and began the morning lesson. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom couldn’t help but notice how Scootaloo wasn’t paying attention to Ms Cheerilee.
As usual it felt like an eternity before recess started. As the bell rang the foals scrambled out the door. Scootaloo slid from her seat and she slowly walked toward the door. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom joined her. The pegasus growled under her breath as her friends commented on the day so far, her only response was “leave me alone.” before she ran away.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were startled by Scootaloo's out burst. They were about to follow when Miss Cheerilee called the pair over.
“girls.” the concerned teacher said “i think you maybe should leave Scootaloo alone for a little while.”
“why?” Applebloom asked worry dripping from her drawl.
“she seems really sad and its really worrying me.” Sweetie Belle added.
Cheerilee debated with her self on whether or not to tell the pair “i really shouldn’t tell you but you are her best friends.” she looked at the pair and sighed, the tears in their eyes and their adorable pouts were too much. They had to know, they would help. “girls Scootaloo is sick but not like a cold or other sickness.” the fillies went from frightened to terrified for their friend. “its not something you can catch from her and shes not going die from it.” the teacher regretted her choice of words. 
“whats wrong with her.” Sweetie Belle asked on the verged of panic. Cheerilee quickly calmed the pair down and explained what Scootaloo's mother had told her, Scootaloo had wing dwarfism and she would probably never beadle to fly.
“but she's able to hover a little bit.” Sweetie said tears in her eyes.
“lately she can’t even get off the ground.” Applebloom comment 
Cheerilee nodded and added “don’t tell anypony else but as her best friends I expect you to help her through this hard time.”
“OFCORSE.” the two fillies said together before running off. Cheerilee hoped it was the right thing to do to tell the two.
On the farthest side of the play ground from the other foals Scootaloo sat under a tree, tears streaming down her cheeks. She mumbled “its all his fault.”
“Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle's voice startled the pegasus filly. She jumped before looking over to her friend anger in her sad eyes. “its okay Scootaloo we know you cant fly.”
“what.” Scootaloo shrieked “not so loud.”
“sorry.” Sweetie Belle said lowering her head. “but we just wanted to tell you its okay.”
“how is it okay!?” Scootaloo growled.
“well we cant fly ether.” Applebloom said.
“SO!” Scootaloo yelled “you two aren’t suppose to fly.” the orange filly jumped to her hooves her tiny wings held out wide. “its more like what if you couldn’t do what ever it is you earth ponies do.” she stepped closer to Applebloom then turned to Sweetie Belle “or what if Sweetie couldn’t do magic.”
“i cant do magic.” Sweetie Belle lowered her head. “at least not vary well.”
“yeah you can already levitate stuff and make pretty lights and sparks.” Scootaloo said tears again rolling down her cheeks. “and you can get better by practicing but no matter how hard I practice I’ll never be able to fly.” 
“grow stuff.” Applebloom blurted out. Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at their friend. “earth ponies grow stuff and build things really well.”
“oh.” Scootaloo said while Sweetie nodded.
“but you gave me an idea.” Applebloom said with a grin, Scootaloo glared at her. “magic is the answer. Why don’t we ask Twilight to use some sort of spell on you to fix it.”
Scootaloo sighed “my dad already asked the doctor that and he said that he didn’t know of any spells to fix my problem.”
Sweetie jumped up and said “but was your doctor a unicorn.”
“no.”
“and is he as smart as Twilight.”
“i don’t know.”
“well Twilight knows A LOT of spells.” Sweetie Belle said with a gleeful squeak “she'll definitely know one that can help. She gave my sister wings once.”
“didn’t they burn up.” Applebloom commented with a dead pan grin.
“yeah.” Scootaloo said with a growing smile “and Rainbow Dash saved her.” her wings twitched excitedly “and if she can give a unicorn wings she can defiantly fix my real wings.” 
“YEAH!” Sweetie Belle and Applebloom yelled together.
“what are you blank flanks yelling about over here.” Sliver Spoon said looking over her fancy glasses.
“probably some silly and dangerous idea for some lame cutie mark.” Diamond Tiara said with a sinister giggle. “I’m surprised you three haven’t been run out of town by now.”
The crusaders glared at their tormentors. “we don’t have time for you two right now.” Applebloom said with a stomp “we have ta-”
“we're the ones wasting our time with you.” Diamond Tiara replied stepping closer to the country filly. Scootaloo was not in the mood to deal with the snobby bully and was about to whip around and buck her for all shes worth when the bell rang signifying the end of recess and it was time to return to class.
The three fillies could barely sit in their seats as class continued. They even tried to answer their teachers questions hopping that she would just tell them the right answers, in a strange turn of events in their attempts to speed class along they were actually paying attention more then they normally did. Cheerilee was delighted, not only had Scootaloo's mood done a complete turn around but all three fillies were participating more then ever.
Soon lunch came and went and school would end soon, but not soon enough for Sweetie belle, Applebloom and especial for Scootaloo. Finally the last bell rang and Cheerilee told her students goodbye, after giving them home work of course. The crusaders burst from their seats tossed their saddle bags on their backs and were out the door before most of the foals were out of their seats.
The crusaders hurried out of the school and right past Thunderlane and Rarity, the couple was there to walk their respective siblings home. Knowing the trio's track record for causing chaos the couple quickly collected Rumble and gave chase. By the time they caught up with fillies they already had cornered Twilight in the library. The three fillies talked over each other so fast no pony knew what they were  trying to say.
As Twilight Sparkle attempted stop the three rambling fillies Rumble asked “big bro do you know whats going on?” Thunderlane shook his head.
Twilight greeted Rarity and Thunderlane before she looked to the fillies again “okay girls I didn’t get much of that but I think it was about Scootaloo.” she looked at the little pegasus filly. “sweetie could you tell me whats wrong.”
Scootaloo suddenly felt self-consignus her tiny wings slapped to her side. She lowered head “i-i uh don’t want Rumble to hear.”
“what why?” the colt said “maybe I can help.” Scootaloo gave Twilight a look that almost brought tears to her eyes. She looked at Thunderlane and silently ask him to take his brother some where.
“come on buddy lets go to the arcade I’ll pay.” Thunderlane said much to the delight of the colt. Thunderlane gave Rarity a quick kiss and asked if she would be joining him and rumble. 
Rarity looked over at Scootaloo and asked “would you like me to leave too darling?”
Scootaloo shook her head “your Sweetie Belle's sister so its okay, I guess.”
Rarity shook her head before giving Thunderlane a goodbye kiss and discussed having dinner with Thunderlane's family that night. Rumble pretended to gag as the adults kissed above him then he looked over at Scootaloo and wished her well before pulling his brother out of the library by his hoof.
Rarity sat beside Twilight as the little pegasus told them all what happen at the doctor yesterday, about her wing dwarfism. Tears formed in everyponies eyes as Scootaloo said “all I've ever wanted to do is fly.” she looked up at Twilight.
Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hoof and said “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry Scootaloo.”
Tears ran down Rarity cheeks leaving dark streaks of make up. She pulled Scootaloo to her chest saying “i can not fathom how it must feel to be told that something so natural to so many is impossible for you.” she sniffed as she hugged the little pegasus tighter.
Scootaloo sniffed before she wiggled away and said “but Twilight can can fix me.”
“Maybe”
“you gave Rarity wings once, so why can’t you fix wings somepony already has.” Scootaloo said stepping closer to Twilight, the other crusaders agreed whole hartly.
Rarity blushed as she said “the experience was not enjoyable on my part.”
“that’s not what I heard.” Applebloom said with a smile.
“i prefer not to talk about it.” Rarity said looking away.
“Any way, can you do it Twilight can you do it?” Scootaloo asked.
Twilight Sparkle thought about it for a short time. “well maybe.” she looked at the pleading eyes of the crusaders. “SPIKE!.” Twilight called. The Baby dragon wiped his eyes as he responded. “I need Pony anatomy number three. The one on pegasi as will as The Things That Make Us Be, a study on pony genes.” Twilight stood and continued to rattled off the titles of more books all of them having to do with genetics or anatomy. Spike gathered a stack of books and set them on the table. “oh did the police ever bring back my notes and equipment for breaking down the structure of a muffin?”
“Yes, why?” the baby dragon asked as he carried another stack of books to the table.
“i think I can use it to help.”
“is there anything we can do to help Darling?” Rarity asked with the crusaders beside her.
“no no I got this.” Twilight replied as books floated around her. “magic is my special talent after all, and no offense but I’m pretty sure this will be over your heads.”
“oh of course darling we wanted to know if you like some tea or something to snack on?” Rarity replied with a smile the crusades all nodded
“oh.” Twilight said blushing “yes some tea would be nice.”
“coming right up.” Rarity replied “come on girls I’ll show you how to make the perfect cup of tea.” Sweetie Belle was delighted to learn form her sister while Applebloom and Scootaloo simply wanted to help Twilight.
The lavender mare had a dozen books floating around her bouncing slightly, as she read one then moved on to another. Sweetie Belle must have noticed a rhythm to the book's movements because she started to hum in time with them. Twilight wrought down notes and compared her new ideas to her old notes on how breakdown the structure of an organism. Hypothesis formed in the mare's head, but she needed test subjects or something experiment on. Luckily Rainbow Dash decided to drop by.
As night started to fall Applejack came by to collect Applebloom. Sweetie Belle left with Rarity, with Spike's help Rarity scent a letter to her parents telling them that Sweetie was going to dinner with her at Thunderlane's home. The white mare just hoped that Thunderlane's mother wasn't mad about her bringing her sister. Scootaloo was still at the library as dinner time grew close, she laid on the couch reading a book about scooters, skateboards ramps and stunts. a knock at the door drew the fillies attention. “why would somepony knock on the door its a public library right?” Scootaloo asked as she hoped up.
“well the library’s closed so now its just my home.” Twilight Sparkle replied never looking up from her notes other then to check on her newest preliminary test on Rainbow Dash's blood sample. So far so good.
“oh makes sense.” Scootaloo giggled as she opened the door. Her smile vanished as she saw the stallion at the door and she quickly closed it. “gash why did he have to come get me.” the Pegasus filly walked back to the couch and angrily started to read her book again.
Twilight blinked confused and got up to answer the door again “why would she do that” the lavender mare thought. Behind the door was a pegasus stallion about her size. He was maroon with a dark brown mane and tail. Twilight had seen him working in the mayors office. He looked sad as he said “hello, my name is Scribe, Scootaloo's father. I should have known it was you helping my daughter.” Twilight gasped she should have asked the fillies parents if it was okay to use possible dangerous magic on her. “Please.” the Stallion pleaded “help my daughter, I’ll do what ever I can to help you.”
Twilight stepped back “um okay.”
“and I mean anything.” Scribe said almost frantic. “i have to help fix this.”
Twilight blinked as the pieces fell into place “oh.” she glanced at the stallion's wings they were small for his size. Flight was passable with them but probably hard. The unicorn was sure this was the reason for Scootaloo's family living in Ponyville. 
“i can pay you.”
“oh that’s okay I’m-”
“pull with the mayor?”
“no no that's all right, I've got plenty of pull with the government.” Twilight replied. “but if you want to help I could use a few samples.” the stallion nodded and she brought the stallion to the table in the center of the room. Scootaloo never looked up from her book.
“do you need a temporary medical license?” Scribe asked.
“no,” Twilight answered as she levitated an assortment of medical devices and beakers over to her. “as Celestia's personnel student I have all the licenses I need to practice any science I choose.”
the Stallion blinked “thought you were a magic student?”
“Magic is a science.” Twilight said as she selected the corrected feather from his wing.
“umm.”  
“oh sorry I never asked if it was okay to use you from my samples. I already got my control sample from Rainbow Dash so I um need a sample of.” Twilight Sparkle said lowering her ears.
“oh okay, go right ahead anything to help.” Scribe answered.
“good, I hope your better then Rainbow was.” Twilight giggled “we had to make Scootaloo and the other fillies leave the room.” she plucked a feather from his wing  he winced from the pain, Twilight had pull the feather out by the root. Scribe's wing twitched as he felt a trickle of blood roll down his remaining feathers till Twilight stopped it with a cotton swob.
“Why?” the stallion asked worried his daughter may have heard something she shouldn't have.
“because she didn’t want the fillies to see her crying like a foal.” Twilight replied as she began cleaning a spot on Scribes foreleg. “she hates needles and I mean hates them.”
“so dose Scootaloo.” Scribe replied as he felt the pinch of the needle.
Twilight called for Spike to bring her some more of the magical orange juice she made earlier. “yeah I know.” she checked the blood flow, it was going as expected. “she started to shake when I got this equipment out for Rainbow Dash.” Scribe looked over at his daughter sadly, she hid behind her book.
Soon the vial was full and the stallion wobbled a little as Twilight removed the needle. “okay that’s all I need.” the mare said with a gentle smile.
“that’s good.” the stallion said wobbling back and forth. “i don’t think I can give much more.”
Twilight giggled and levitated the orange juice over to him “drink this it will make you feel better.” the stallion took the cup and started to drink his eyes opened wide at the copper taste of the the juice. “i know it taste funny but its just the spells I cast on it, it works too.”
“i hope it dose that stuff taste terrible.” Scribe said with full body shake. He was still woozy.
“give it a few seconds.” Twilight said as she continued her work. Scribe's wing twitched and he noticed strange sensation in it. He inspected his wing and watched in amazement as a feather slowly grew in place of the one that Twilight had plucked. He also felt much steadier now.
“so is that everything you need?” Scribe asked, as he stood up.
“yep.” Twilight answered with a warm smile.
“well Scootaloo its time to head home for dinner.” Scribe said, the only response she gave him was a grunt as she dropped the book and hoped up.
Scootaloo said goodbye to Twilight and Spike then fallowed her father out the door. The filly slowly walked behind her father as they walked down the street in silents. About a block form their home Scribe stopped and turned around to look at his daughter. “Scootaloo?” the filly stopped but didn’t looked up at him “Scootaloo look at me please.” he said Scootaloo looked up at him angry “honey I just wanted you to know that I didn’t want anything like this to happen, and I’m so sorry you got my bad genes.”
“i know.” Scootaloo said sadly looking away. “i don’t know why I was so mad at you I I-”
“you just needed someone to blame.” he smiled and nuzzled his daughter “i was just the unlucky one.” the filly looked away “but its okay sometimes you just have to let out the anger or it will eat you up inside.” he nuzzled her again to reassure her “any who hopeful Ms Twilight will be able to fix us both.” 
Scootaloo looked up at him with a smile “yeah then Rainbow Dash could teach us both how to really fly.”
“yeah.” Scribe said with a smile “lets get home I’m hungry.” Scootaloo agreed with a flutter of her wings. 
The pair soon returned home, Scootaloo's mother was happy to see her daughter smiling. However she did have a discussion with her husband that it was bad enough that Scootaloo idealized that crazy blue mare but now he was letting that Twilight Sparkle from Canterlot experiment on their daughter. Luckily the argument didn’t last long enough to effect dinner. Which was a nice helping of candied carrots and sweet potatoes. 
After dinner Scootaloo finished the home work she and her friends hadn’t finished in the library and burnt off her remaining energy attempting to beat Rainbow Dash's ball bouncing record, she never got close. Finally she slipped into bed with a yawn, she looked at her Wonderbolt poster on her wall next to the news paper clippings of Rainbow Dash wining the best young flier competition. She smiled before drifting off to dreams about racing around a track on a jet powered scooter.
Mean while Twilight was finishing her own dinner, a toasted pastry filled with cheese and broccoli. Twilight had moved her experiments to her underground lab, all the equipment she needed was down there. Dozens of different mechanics sparked and bubbled around her as they went through there processes. Every so often Twilight would re-energizes one of the devices so that it would continue. Spike had already gone to bed, but Owlowiscious was happily helping the mare with her work.
Twilight didn’t sleep all night, she learned things about Rainbow Dash and Scribe that they probably didn't knew about themselves. But as she discovered things such as the Scribe was allergic to pistachios or that Rainbow Dash had an unnatural affinity for fudge, but she never learned how to effect anything about them. She had extensive text on genes, anatomy, and healing spells but nothing on effecting change on the body adding to the body yes, but that was with external soruses and metreails. But She noticed that many of her older books referenced ones that the Ponyville library didn’t have.
As night turned to dawn Twilight went up stairs for some hot tea, she was getting frustrated by all the dead ends. As she filled the tea pot Winchester opened the front door, he blinked confused she was never up when he made his early morning stop at the library “oh your up.” the knight could easily see the younger mare's frustration “something wrong?”
Twilight sighed and said “no.... well sort of.” she levitated the tea pot over to the fire. Twilight Sparkle explained what she was attempting to do and the problems she was having. 
Winchester nodded “I’m not as adept at magic as you so I wont be a help there. But maybe I have a book or two in my collection that will help. I have a bunch of weird stuff.”
“really? cool but where would you get a spell book on bio magic?” Twilight asked.
“um most actually come from evil spell slingers I defeated in the name of our holy princess.” Winchester said in his normal “epic” manner. The mare just rolled her eyes. After the tea was brewed they hurried off to Winchester's home. 
Twilight had never perused Winchester's collection she knew he had a lot of books but she never knew he had so many rare spell books. “wow Winchester.” Twilight said looking through a book that was probably older then she was. “if I need to really learn to fight I'll come to you first.”
“yeah.” Winchester said with his nose in a book “I’ve never read half of these things let alone cast any of these spells.”
“really why?”
“didn’t like being on the receiving end of them.”
“oh.”
After about an hour or so of searching both the ponies soon noticed the same thing  and upon returning to the library they confirmed it. Many of the books that touched on the subject they were looking for referenced books in series that the library or  Winchester didn’t have. Luckily they were in the Liberian’s Book order index, strangely they were only in the oldest one. So Twilight did something she loved to do, order new books. She didn’t want to wait for Spike to wake up, so she used her own magic to send probably her smallest book order every to Canterlot. A mere five books. 
Twilight went down to her lab to finish the experiments that had to be done that night, and cast a few stasis spells on the long term test. Twilight made her way to her bedroom she yawned and stumbled from fatigue. At the base of the stairs the mare heard a knock at the door. She looked over at Winchester to see if he was going to get it, the stallion was completely engrossed in writing.
Twilight sighed and trotted over to the door, she opened the door with a load yawn. The lavender mare blushed deep red as she looked to see who was at the door. Scootaloo stood in the door way, an excited smile graced her face. Her eyes sparkled as she asked “did you find a way to fix my wings?”
Twilight and shook her head but gave the disappointed filly a warm smile “I've learned a lot and I think I know how to help you.” Scootaloo's wings buzzed till she realized there was a but coming “but I don’t have the right books here so I order them from Canterlot. So they should be here by tomorrow night.”
“you mean tonight.” Winchester said with out looking up. “you still think its Tuesday don’t you?”
“i thought you were too busy to be paying attention?”
“nope.” Winchester smirked.
Twilight rolled her eyes and said “I guess he's right.”
“Then you can fix me?!” Scootaloo asked excitedly her wings buzzing.
“yep.” Twilight said with a big smile her coat shimmered excitedly. “oh hey you forgot something yesterday.” the mare added as she turned around with a yawn. She levitated a book over to Scootaloo. It was the book about skateboards scooters and ramps the filly had been reading yesterday. “i hope this will keep you occupied while I finish my work.” 
Scootaloo looked at the book “Thanks i cant wait.” she placed it in her saddle bag and said her goodbyes too Twilight and hurried on her way to join her friends before school. It was still almost an hour before school started. The filly was pretty sure that her friends were still eating breakfast so she decided not to bug them. Sooctaloo sat on a bench on Mane Street, she knew Applebloom passed by here on her way to school so she wouldn’t miss school even if she dosed off while reading her book.
Scootaloo's mind quickly turned to thoughts of how cool it would be to use some of the ramps in the book or do just about any of the stunts. By the time Applebloom was trotting down the street Scootaloo had used scraps of paper to mark over a dozen pages in the book.
“Hey Scootaloo what you doing here so early?” the farm filly asked when she saw her friend.
“oh I couldn’t wait to see if Twilight had a way to fix my wings, so I woke up early and stopped by the library.” Scootaloo replied a little sadly. 
“And?”
“not yet.” the Pegasus answered with a sigh “but she got some books in the mail to help so soon.”
“I’m sorry.”
“yeah.” the filly said sadly “but hey after school why don’t you me and Sweetie Belle try out some of the stuff in here.” she held up her book.
“uhh.” Applebloom hesitated as she looked at some of the stunt diagrams. “uhh Scoots these all look pretty dangerous.” 
“ahh come on Applebloom it'll be fun.” Scootaloo whined “plus it will make me feel better.” she smiled slightly.
Applebloom sighed “okay if it makes you feel better.” the pair continued to discus their after school plans as they made their way to Sweetie Belle's home and then to school.
School was as boring as it always was. Although thoughts of never being able to fly crept into Scootaloo's mind, She tried to ignore them just like she did when Diamond Tiara and Sliver Spoon bullied her. Just like with them it only worked for so long. However when Sweetie Belle reminder her of the scooter stunt book and their plans for after school the pegasus filly forgot all about flying.
Scootaloo couldn’t wait for school to end, and when it finally did she was the first one out. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were almost as excited as their Pegasus friend. Thankfully Cheerilee didn't give them much home work so they had all after noon to play. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom hurried to Sweet Apple Acres with the book to try and set up a ramp or two while Scootaloo ran home to get her scooter.
Scootaloo's mind was filled with thoughts of the kinds of stunts she wanted to try as she ran home. It was right where she left it. With her scooter the filly speed down the street. She let nothing slow her, she dodged around ponies walking down the street, jumped over tables and slide under stalls. She laughed at the adults warnings and scoffed at their threats of punishment. She covered the distance from her home to her friends farm in a time that she was sure Rainbow Dash would be impressed with. For a land locked filly it was rather impressive.
Even with the time Scootaloo made Applebloom had still set up too sturdy ramps and a gently sloped wall by the time Scootaloo had arrived. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were dragging a metal railing over to the wall. “wow girls you two work fast.” Scootaloo said barely winded from her ride across Ponyville.
“yeah.” Applebloom said setting down the bar “we would have had this here 'grinding bar' up if Sweetie Belle didn’t drop it every ten hooves.” she was a little frustrated with Sweetie Belle but not really mad.
“its heavy.” Sweetie Belle Whined.
“its not that heavy.” Applebloom said.
“but's too heavy for a couple of fillies.” Big Mac said trotting by the group. He stopped to look at what hes baby sister had built “this here is mighty impressive.” he gave the construction a testing kick, the ramp set up shook a little but was very sturdy and flexed appropriately. “you built this Applebloom.” the filly beamed with pride. “but whats the railing for?” Applebloom jumped into the explaining what she had learned in the books about ramp building. The massive stallion nodded he had no idea what grinding was or why somepony would do it, but he knew that if his sister wanted to built something he would help.
After hearing everything Applebloom had to say Big Mac nodded and said his trademark eeyep before agreeing to help finish the ramps. With her big brothers help Applebloom quickly attached the bar to the top corner of the too ramps, to both suspended the railing above the ground and to hold the ramps together. Big Mac headed back to work while Scootaloo tried the ramps for the first time. 
Simple jumps soon bored Scootaloo and she started to do more complicated tricks. Kick flips, 360's, fancy spins and hoof stands. She wanted to try and do a back flip but as she discussed it with her friends Applejack happened to be passing by and over heard them. The adult mare forbid them form trying such a dangerous trick. So of course they obeyed, her while she was still in sight. Scootaloo's first attempt wasn’t very successful and nether was her second or third, each came with a wipe out. The last crash looked fairly painful. Thankfully her safety equipment did its job and she was learning.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom ran over to her worried. Scootaloo stumbled a little as she stood up, despite the best efforts of her helmet and knee pads the filly was still scraped up. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle asked if the pegasus was okay. Scootaloo grinned through her tears. 
“I’m fine I’m fine.” Scootaloo said as she shook her self “if you fall you got to get back, and if it hurts its just natures way of telling you your doing it wrong.” both the others fillies wondered where she learned that but their questions were soon answered.
“you learned that from me huh squirt?” Rainbow Dash said as she floated down to join them. The crusaders tensed up thinking they may be in trouble “hey don’t stop you got to keep trying while its fresh.” the blue mare urged nudging Scootaloo with her nose.
“but Applejack told her not to do such a dangerous trick!” Applebloom exclaimed.
“that didn’t seem to stop you before.” 
“well we uh.” Applebloom lowered her head she had hoped to some how avoid punishment but it didn’t seem necessary now.
“now go for Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash ordered with a grin.
“On it.” Scootaloo replied as her wings buzzed. The filly reversed to get same more room to build up speed for her next attempt. Rainbow Dash and the other two fillies gathered to the side to watch.
A single drop of sweat rolled down Scootaloo's forehead and between her eyes, what if she messed up so bad that Rainbow Dash didn’t want to help her, or she wreaked so bad that she really hurt herself or broke her scooter. The filly shook her head to clear her mind. She kicked the ground and flapped her little wings as hard as she could. The wind stung the fillies scraps, her wheels kicked up dirt and grass as she rocketed toward the ramp. Scootaloo crouched as she hit the ramp, she gulped this was it she had to do it. At the end of the ramp Scootaloo jumped and leaned back pulling her scooter over top her. The upside down world seem to be in slow motion out of the corner of her eye she saw Sweetie Belle cheering for her, Applebloom looked on in aw and Rainbow Dash nodded in approval with her normal smirk. 
A moment later Scootaloo's wheels slammed into the other ramp, the filly wobble but didn’t topple over. She threw herself into a skid and stopped to the cheers of her best friends and the praise of her hero. 
Rainbow Dash was was so proud of Scootaloo she could burst but she had to stay cool and clam. She had an image to keep up after all. The blue mare trotted over to the orange filly and said “hey kid that was pretty good.” she bit her tongue on saying something about flying, she like many others had their suspensions on what Scootaloo's special talent was, and this was the first step on the filly realizing it.
The ponies calibrated for a few minutes before Scootaloo decided to try again. She accomplish the trick several more times before taking a short break. giving her friends a chance try to do some jumps. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had a little trouble getting up speed they only had their hooves to propel them, but they succeeded in clearing the jump. On Applebloom's second jump she threw her for hooves over her head and yelled “ye haw.” before landing and nearly toppling over. Sweetie Belle didn’t have the courage to do anything more then just do the jump.
Rainbow Dash even tried her hoof at doing a scooter jump. She barely fit on the scooter, but her wings propelled far faster then any of the fillies. The stunt flying was launched high far over the second ramp, so not to damage Scootaloo's precious scooter when she landed Rainbow Dash simply opened her wings and took flight. Scootaloo cheered seeing her mentor take off so fast and looped around. Rainbow Dash landed with the scooter and her normal grin. “okay squirt this thing is pretty cool.” she offered it back to the orange filly.
“yeah, it is I cant wait to do stuff like that.” Scootaloo replied taking the offered scooter.
“yeah and I’ll teach you most of what I know.” Rainbow Dash said with a grin, Scootaloo's face lite up and she dropped her scooter. “if you show me how to do some tricks with a scooter.”
“really?” Scootaloo gasped. Rainbow Dash nodded the filly exploded with excitement. She jumped around her hero promising that she would show Rainbow Dash everything she knew. The stunt flier smiled but the orange filly was starting to make her dizzy. The group continued to do jumps and other tricks on the ramps for a few more hours till dinner time rolled around. Applebloom headed for her home first, Rainbow Dash realized that she had to get back to work for some paper work she had neglected earlier that day. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo headed home together.
As they walked down Mane Street Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo split up. Sweetie Belle said good bye and walked off toward her home. Scootaloo turned toward the library. 
The little orange filly slid her scooter to a stop and excitedly ran to the entrance. She slammed her hooves on the door. A moment later Spike answered the door saying “sorry but the libar-oh hey Scootaloo.”
“Did she get them?” 
“oh umm.” Spike was lost for a moment “I'll get Twilight.” the baby dragon hurried inside, he hadn’t paid attention to Twilight when she was talking about the situation.
Scootaloo nodded and waited at the door her little wings buzzing as she danced in place. Twilight soon came to the door “hello Scootaloo. I think I know why your here.” she smiled as Scootaloo nodded, then the mare continued “And the answer is no. I got some weird letter from the Canterlot library about how the books I asked for don’t exist but that cant be right.”
“you got t-” Scootaloo began but Twilight cleared her throat. The filly stopped and lowered her ears.
“Scootaloo I'm not giving up, I made a promise to you and your father to fix your wings and the wings off all ponies in your predicament.” Twilight said lowering herself to look the filly in the face “I’m going to try Princess Celestia next.”
“y-you can do that?” Scootaloo asked with eyes as wides as dinner plates. She knew that Twilight was close to the princess but she didn’t think they where that close. 
“well of course. I am Princess Celestia's student and a good friend of princess Luna as well.” Twilight answered trying not to sound smug.
“wow your really special.” Scootaloo said astonished.
“no no I’m just a normal pony like you.” Twilight said blushing, the mare could tell that Scootaloo still thought she was something more and nothing she said would change that. The librarian sent the filly on her way with more promises of fixing her wings. The mare turned back to the letter she was writing. 
Twilight had gone as far as she could with the information she had. All the spells she had used in her many attempts to effect the destinies held with in Scribes DNA had failed, a few were impressive and messy displays of biological magic gone wrong. On one scarey accusation she was glad she had brushed up on her arcane destruction magic the week before.
Twilight quickly went about wrighting a letter to Princess Celestia about how she was helping Scootaloo with her wing dwarfism, what she intended to do. She finished by informing the princess what the library of Canterlot had told her. With that done she had Spike send the letter to Princess Celestia.
Finally Twilight Sparkle and her Baby dragon assistant sat down for a pasta dinner, Spike had recently become interested in cooking and this pasta with tomato sauce was the latest thing he attempted to learn too cook. Twilight thought he had done a good job but the look on the little dragon's face made it seem like he couldn’t keep it down. Before the mare could ask if Spike was okay he burped fire and a letter sealed with Celestia's mark fell next to Twilight’s plate. 
The mare was concerned that Celestia would reply’s so quickly. Spike wished aloud that the princess wouldn’t send letters at dinner time. Twilight dropped her fork and opened the letter. It was simple and short and made the mare's hart skip a beat.

Bring Scootaloo to the library,
I shall arrive there within the hour.
We have something to discus.

“oh no.” Twilight exclaimed worried she my have done something wrong. she bolted from the table and out the door. 
Spike blinked and shrugged “i used too much garlic, but don’t think its that bad.”
*              *                *
Scootaloo sat at her kitchen table eating a bowl of ice cream. Her mother and Father were humming together as they cleaned up after the family meal. Everything was perfect till there was a frantic knocking at the door. Scribe trotted to the door a little worried as the knocking continued. Scootaloo leaned around the corner to watch as her father opened the door revealing a flustered Twilight. Scootaloo had a flash back to the time Twilight had some sort of the mental break down.
“oh hi miss Sparkle is there some progress in curing my daughter.” Scribe asked.
“um sort of but um I need Scootaloo to come to the library?” Twilight said unsure how to say what she needed to say. She didn’t want to admit that she may have done something wrong in the eyes of their princess, specially with the way Scootaloo's mother was looking at her.
“your going to fix my wings aren’t you.” Scootaloo said jumping all the way to the door. Her wings buzzed and she hoped in front of Twilight. “i knew it.”
“umm.” Twilight could foresee the hart break in Scootaloo's if she said other wise. So Twilight said “well the Princess would like to see you at the library.”
“Really?” 
“yes.”
“Can I go dad?” Scootaloo asked hoping around both the adult ponies. 
“umm.” he looked back at his wife who wasn’t happy but when he looked at Twilight he could tell that he didn’t actually have a choice. the princess wanted to see his daughter how could he deny the wish of his holy monarch. “yes you can go.” he hoped it was good news for his daughter.
*           *          *
the walk from Scootaloo's home was awkward. The filly's mood had deflated by the time they had made it to the library. Twilight didn’t say much as she opened the door. Spike was in the kitchen cleaning up. He looked up from the dishes but didn’t say anything. Not a good sign
The two ponies looked around but the princess wasn’t there. But before Twilight could even ask the door to her underground lab opened and the princess emerged. Her massive frame barely fit through the hidden door way.
She approached Twilight and Scootaloo. The princess didn’t look upset or happy or even disappointed she just seemed sad. Twilight bowed to her holy mentor while Scootaloo was aw struck, the filly had been close to the princess at that wedding last year but this was much different. The Princess was here for her.
The princess sighed and looked at the two ponies before her, they were dwarfed by her holy size. Her mane gently blew in the solar winds that only she could feel. Finally she spoke to them “what I am about to say is going to be hard for the two of you to hear but you must listen.” she paused to allow her subjects to nod. Twilight had a bad feeling while Scootaloo didn’t know what to think. After a heavy sigh Celestia continued “You must stop this research Twilight.”
“WHAT!?” Scootaloo exclaimed “but but but hows s-she going fix my wings.” Twilight remained silent.
Celestia's eyes fell on the distraught filly as she began to plead for Celestia to change her mind. The large alicorn slowly lowered herself to the ground in an attempt to look the filly eye to eye, it didn’t work out too well she was still eye level with Twilight “i wish I could but the study of biological magic is outlawed for a reason.” tears started to stream down Scootaloo's cheeks as she begged the princess to reconsider. A tear rolled down Celestia's own cheek as she gently nuzzled the crying filly. 
“Princess Celestia may I ask why?” Twilight asked, she could feel her hart breaking.
The sun princess sighed sadly as Scootaloo's tears soak into her white coat “the possibility for miss use is very high but the number of ponies it would help my self included far out way that danger.” she looked to the little filly crying into her chest “but every attempt has ended in failure. The greatest minds of the past two thousands years have tried to unlock the secrets of DNA with magic.” she looked over at Twilight “none of them even with my help could do it.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked in disbelief “they had to have some sort of success, its impossible to not have any even the smallest amount.”
Scootaloo's crying had subsided to soft whimpers as she listened to why she would never fly. Celestia looked up at Twilight before answering “there are over two hundred factors that directly effect the out come of a biological spell. Right down to split second of your breathing and the cadence of your words. You have seen what happens if you make a mistake with just a drop of blood, just imagine what could happen to Scootaloo if you made the same mistake.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded she saw the abomination she had made, its remains still stained the wall of her lab. “yes princess but you could heal her right? Your magic is greater then that of a hundred unicorns.”
“yes Twilight, but this subject is one of the few that escapes even my vast knowledge.” Celestia said if a sigh “even if I could heal Scootaloo after a failed attempt she would have gone through such a horrible experience that flying wouldn’t be worth it. I have brought back the freshly slain before the strain it puts on the ponies mind and soul is so great that the lucky prey for the hellish nightmares of veterans.” she gently shook her head and looked away “it is always so hard to tell somepony that I can not allow this kind of life changing magic to be researched but I have seen too many hopeful pony die in the most horrible ways that I cant stand it any more.” tears rolled down her cheeks and her voice cracked slightly as she spoke “and knowing that I’m in a similar situation makes it all the harder but how can I sacrifice their lives so that I may bare life, is that fare?”
Now both Scootaloo and Twilight were confused “what do you mean princess?” Twilight asked.
The princess of the sun looked to her most faithful student and began to explain “back in the days of Discord's rule over the world I was ravaged with disease. I am completely healthy now but some of them still haunt me even to these days.” she paused. Scootaloo mean while watched as the pony that was revered as a god, bared her darkest secret to her and Twilight “because of it I take a student and treat them like a son or daughter.” she looked at Twilight tears running down her cheeks. “because I can never have one of my own.” 
“I’m so sorry princess I I didn’t know I.” Twilight words were forgotten when Celestia used her magic to pull her into a hug with Scootaloo in the middle.
“its okay dear.” Celestia whispered before releasing her “Equestria has been saved dozens of time because of my many students.” Twilight nodded knowing this to be true. “so maybe fate has something great in store for you Scootaloo.” she said looking down at the filly with a small smile.
The orange filly wiped her nose with the back of her hoof and answered “maybe.”
Celestia smiled as she brought a tissue over and wiped the filly’s nose clean, “i know it hurts, trust me I do. I still have tears over my affliction two thousand years later. However you must focus on the good, what makes you special that thing you do better then any pony else. Scoot-aloo.” 
“I’ll try.” Scootaloo replied, 'why'd she say my name like that.' she thought as the princess stood up again. The filly shivered suddenly feeling cold with the warmth of the sun princess gone.
“now Twilight.” Celestia said looking at her Serengetiaughter “lets get this young filly home.” Twilight nodded.
The walk to Scootaloo's home was short Celestia explained to Twilight that she had disposed of all of the mare's notes along the way. The lavender mare was disappointed but the princess said it had to be done. Scribe answered the door when Twilight knocked, he almost jumped out of his skin when he saw the princess and bowed to her so fast her smacked his chin on the ground. His wife did just about the same when the holy monarch enter their home to explain the situation. It was hard for all three of the pegasus to take, the fillies tears returned again and her parents quickly decided to take her up stares for bed. She slept in her parents bed for the night, their loving embrace held the tears back. For the most part.
Twilight and Celestia took their leave and said their own good byes. Celestia crouched and unfolded her wings before having second thoughts. The princess of the sun began walking to the train station in a sort of penitence of the bad news she gave Scootaloo. Twilight herself returned home to cold pasta and a fitful sleep.
*       *       *
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle happily trotted down the street together. Soon they would join up with Scootaloo and head to school. They half expected to see Scootaloo flying around looking for them but as they got to their winged friends street they realized that wasn’t going to happen. Scootaloo slowly walked down the street dragging her hooves through the hard packed dirt with her head hanging low, her nose almost in the dust.
Sweetie Bell and Applebloom looked at each other worried before they hurried too their friend's side, hopefully to find out why she was so sad. Scootaloo heard her friend's hooves and stopped but barely lifted her head to look at them. Her face showed little emotion she looked like she had just giving up on everything. another night of tears and shattered dreams had taken its toll on the little filly’s emotions.
“Scootaloo is everything okay?” Applebloom asked.
“no.”
“why, what happened when you went to see Twilight last night.” Sweetie belle asked her voice cracking with worry
“nothing.” Scootaloo answered and looked away “nothing ever will happen.”
“what you on about Scootaloo.” Applebloom asked confused.
“i don’t want to talk about it.” the filly replied with a sniffle.
“if you don’t talk to us we cant help you.” Applebloom said repeating something she heard her sister say once. 
“lets just get to school I really don’t want to talk about it right now.” Scootaloo said pushing past her friends, she bit her lip as her tears attempted to return. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle fallowed her unsure if they should push the issue.
The three fillies made their way to school. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were fairly distracted for most of the morning but Scootaloo just didn’t seem to even care. The Pegasus barely even reacted when she was scolded by Miss Cheerilee.
Recess rolled around for Cheerilee's class. Scootaloo walked out side and made her way to the far side of the play ground like she did a few days before. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom joined her, no pony really said anything. They just weren’t sure what to say.
The sound of jingling of jewelry drew the attention of the three fillies. They turned to see Diamond Tiara and Sliver Spoon approaching them, both wore some new fancy jewelry. “well what do we have here.” Sliver Spoon said with a malicious smile.
Diamond Tiara grin was down right evil as she said “looks like a blank flank pity party to me.” the pair laughed. Scootaloo and Applebloom jumped to their hooves ready to attack but a soft thud behind the bullies halted the coming fight. “finally give up trying to get a cutie mark and.” 
“i think it's time for you two to shut up.” Rainbow Dash said from behind Diamond Tiara and Sliver Spoon.
The two bullies turned around astonished that someone would talk to them like that. “you cant talk to us like that.” they looked up at the angry mare.
“what ever, buzz off you two I didn’t come here to talk to you little brats.” Rainbow Dash said, she wanted to smack both the fillies for what she over heard but she didn’t have time to deal with these two. 
“I’m going to tell my Daddy you talked to me like that.” Diamond Tiara replied.
“do it and see if I care.” the pegasus stepped closer and in the most adult manor possible Rainbow Dash continued “now leave us alone.” the two bullies turned and hurried away. Rainbow Dash glared at them as they left. “you just got to show the bullies you aren’t scared of them.”
“that really works?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Rainbow Dash nodded before saying “anyway, Scootaloo. Me, you, your friends Twilight and Pinkie are going to be going out for a party picnic after school.”
“I’m not really in the mood for a party.” Scootaloo said siting back down.
“pinkie's idea.” Rainbow Dash said “you don’t really have a choice you don’t come, the party will find you. See you later Squirt.”
“true.” Scootaloo said watching her idle crouch down ready to fly away. “wait you told PINKIE!”
“well not really.” Rainbow Dash said now hoovering above the fillies. “i checked in with Twilight and well Pinkie came by to get something and when she walked in she looked at us and started crying.” the fillies looked at the mare confused “when we finally got her to stop bawling she declared she was throwing you a party.”
“but how did she know?” Scootaloo asked.
“its Pinkie.” the three fillies nodded. “any way I'll see you all later.” in a flash the blue Pegasus was gone.
Scootaloo watched her leave then looked at her friends and said “i guess you cant really stay sad in a town with Pinkie in it huh.” her friends nodded. The school bell rang with another sigh Scootaloo and her friends trotted back inside. 
Miss Cheerilee was busy going over a letter, with an odd stack of books on her desk with a ribbon around it with a C seal on it. After her students had taken their seats Cheerilee cleared her throat and said “well everypony we've had a little change in lesson plans but I think it will be fun.” she smiled that strained smile a teacher gets when plans get changed.
The new lesson was about a pegasus named Snowdrop who lived in the time of Formation, when the Princesses and the royal guard were in consent battle to bring all the ponies under their rule. Scootaloo wasn’t really in the mood to pay attention to a history lesson till she heard that Snowdrop was blind. However despite this she still had a great impact on the world by teaching everypony the blessings of winter and calming the snows to the state they are today. After lessining to the lesson Scootaloo thought she knew where the change in Cheerilee's plan came from and that it was just for her.
School ended without incident. Scootaloo felt a little better but she still wasn’t in a good mood as they walked down the street. Sweetie Belle skipped along leading the way to Sugar Cube Corner. Applebloom wasn’t sure how to feel, parties with her friends were fun but was there really something to celebrated. The three filly trotted into the treat shop and looked around. Pinkie was easy to find, specially when she bounced right over to the filly’s with a massive smile. Twilight Stood by the counter lifting a saddle bag over her back. Rainbow Dash was getting a drink from a small glass, for some reason Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.
After a quick hyper active greeting from Pinkie Pie and a normal greeting from Twilight and Rainbow Dash the small group trotted out the door talking about where to have a nice picnic. Rainbow Dash suggested they should head over to Sweet Apple Acres so they could use those ramps from yesterday. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle agreed almost too quickly. 
The fillies fallowed the mares over to the farm. The group easily found their way to the ramps. Pinkie Pie quickly set out the picnic blanket and a recorded player while Twilight inspected the ramps with Rainbow Dash and the fillies. Twilight nodded and said “wow these are really well built.” she was genially impressed.
“Sturdy too.” Rainbow Dash said with a grin “i used them my self. hit'em pretty hard too, didn’t move an inch.” Twilight whistled and nodded.
“aww shucks girls the books did the hard work, I just followed their instructions.” Applebloom said blushing. “Sweetie Belle helped.”
“still, a really good job.” Twilight said looking from the blushing filly to Rainbow Dash. The mares nodded at each other. 
Rainbow Dash grinned and looked at Scootaloo “why don’t you show us some of those sweet moves you were pulling off yesterday.” 
the pegasus filly look sadly at her hero and said “I..uhh. don’t have my scooter here so uh I cant really do any tricks on it.”
“no problem.” Pinkie Pie said with a laugh as she bounced over to the group, the record player playing a happy tune behind her. With out another word the pink pony reached into a curl in her tail and retrieved Scootaloo's scooter. Nopony questioned it, they knew they wouldn’t get an answer.
Scootaloo sighed and let her head hang low. “sorry I’m just not in the mood right now.”
“okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie said in time with the music. “lets have a little fun to lift that sprite of yours.”
the six ponies sat around the blanket and enjoyed some of the treats they had brought with them. The fillies told the older mares what they learned in school that day, Twilight faked surprise about the lesson change. Pinkie Pie put on a few records of Equestria’s favorite music style, sing-a-longs. They all happily along they even got Sweetie Bell to sing solo once. Despite her normal squeaky voice that creak every so often, her singing voice was still as beautiful as ever.
Scootaloo laughed and was enjoying herself but she still didn’t feel up to riding her scooter till Rainbow Dash proposed her a deal. “I'll take you flying then you show us your moves.” 
Scootaloo's eyes lite up, a chance to fly with Rainbow Dash. “okay.” Scootaloo said thinking that the next best thing to flying her self was letting her hero do it for her.
Rainbow Dash laid down flat on the ground grinning, this is going to be fun she thought to herself as the filly climbed on her back. “hold on tight.” the blue mare said as she extended her wings. Twilight sighed and ignited her horn holding down their food and picnic blanket, her coat shimmered as she preyed for their plan to work. 
Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, her wings propelling her and her passenger faster and higher. Scootaloo epped and held on tighter the sudden acceleration threatened to pull her off of the mare's back. Thankfully Rainbow Dash felt the filly slipping and made the correct adjustments. “what you think?” Rainbow Dash Asked over the wosh of air. 
Scootaloo looked down in amazement, in just a few seconds the had flown so high that the ponies below looked like ants. “WOW this is awesome.”
“if you think this is awesome just wait.” Rainbow Dash smirked as she banked into a steep dive, the normal thrill she felt as she did tricks was lost as Scootaloo griped her neck so tight it was hard to breath. The stunt flier spun up into level flight again and the filly relaxed. “did I scare ya.” Rainbow Dash asked with a grin. 
“na I don’t scare that easily.” the filly fibbed. 
“well better hold on again going for a loop.” the mare didn’t give the filly time to respond. With a beat of her wings and a simple adjustment of her tail, the horizon fell away from view leave only sky soon the ground filled their view and finally they were righted again. Again the excitement was lost as the filly almost slipped from the mares back, she stayed attachment only through the tentative grip of her four little hooves. The filly again lied when asked if she was okay, her little hart beat so hard in her chest Rainbow Dash could feel it through her back.
This wasn’t working she was supposed to lift Scootaloo spirit not scare her to death, but how could she when every little trick she tried just left the filly clinging to her for dear life plus this just wasn’t any fun. Then she had an idea. “hey squirt how about I put on a real show just for you. You’ll get your own private cloud and everything.” Rainbow Dash asked looking over her shoulder.
“Sure.” Scootaloo panted, she didn’t want to get off of Rainbow Dash's back but at the same time the thought of staying on terrified the filly. “where you going to get the cloud.” she looked around and saw nothing but a few wisps of fluff.
“hey you doubting me?” 
“no”
“good.” Rainbow Dash grinned as she gathered up some of the wisps and condensed them down into a rather wimpy cloud. “see.” she said as Scootaloo hoped off her back and onto the cloud. Her hooves kicked up puffs of cloud as they sank in deeper then they should have. “now I’m going to show you some moves then your going to do same on the ramps.” Rainbow Dash said hovering above the filly.
“yeah.” Scootaloo said with a smile, one of the few for that day. An awesome stunt show just for her was just what she needed, Right?
“okay watch closely, cause if you loose me then you’ll miss something.” the mare laughed as she slapped her wings close to her side and let gravity do its thing. Scootaloo hurried to the edge of the cloud to watch Rainbow Dash fall a few hundred feet before she snap rolled into level flight, in the blink of an eye the mare was a rainbow streak across the sky. 
This was what Rainbow Dash loved more then anything, flying free with nothing stopping her. She turned hard rolled over and dove toward the ground so hard the blood threaten to rush away from her head, something she was very used too but she was in complete control. As she tied knots in the rainbow streak behind her Rainbow Dash caught sight of Scootaloo cheering for her and jumping up and down in excitement. Good the plan seemed to have worked.
About five minutes past as Rainbow Dash put on a really impressive display of skill, she thought it was time for the finale. She knew just what to do. A fly by rainboom, not close enough to blow the cloud away but close enough Scootaloo would later say she could have reached out and touched the blue mare.
Rainbow Dash turned and hoovered in the air a moment to pick the perfect trajectory. Scootaloo was still cheering and hoping up down on her poor little cloud. Rainbow Dash laughed as she started off accelerating faster and faster, the air pulled at her face as it attempted to hold her back. She refused to let it as the world became a blur. With a sudden creak boom she broke through. Blazing a vivid rainbow streak across the sky.
Scootaloo watched in amazement as Rainbow Dash flew faster then any pony she had ever seen. She cheered as it looked like the mare exploded in a blast of color and rocketed past what felt like feet away, but was in truth about a mile in and a half. The shock wave hit a moment later. Washing over the filly, ruffling her mane and tail and tearing large pieces of the rapidly shrinking cloud away. Scootaloo jumped up in the air buzzing her wings. Her joy disappeared as she landed and her left hind hoof went straight through the cloud. Confused she looked back and tried to pull it out only to push too cloud in half with her front hooves. She clung to the cloud under her belly but it soon slipped away, and she fell towards the ground several hundred feet bellow.
Rainbow was in ecstasy but something nagged at her, some strange need to look back. The mare slowed down enough so that the wind wouldn’t break her neck and looked over her shoulder just in time to see a small orange dot miles away fall from a broken cloud.
“oh shit.” Rainbow said as she whipped her self around and broke the sound barrier again accelerating toward the falling filly. She made small adjustments to stay on target. She would only get one chance she had to make it count. The orange dot turned into a tumbling Scootaloo as she desperately flapped her tiny wings attempting to save herself. A second boom erupted behind Rainbow Dash as she doubled the speed of sound unexpectedly. The mare's hart almost stopped as she over shot her target by inches.
“i missed.” echoed in Rainbow Dash's head. How could she show her face in Ponyville or any where again. A tear for her biggest fan formed in her eye. The depression took only a second to pass and be replaced with determination. Rainbow Dash threw her self into the hardest turn of her life. Feathers and fur tore from her wings and tail, every tendon in her body screamed at her. The mare banished the pain from her mind, she had to make this turn. She only had a mere moment to find her target make the corrections and catch her. Rainbow Dash swore she would ether catch the filly for die trying. 
Scootaloo's world was nothing but blurs and terror as she fell toward the earth below. Her short life flashed before her eyes as the ground rapidly grew closer. Just before she hit a blue shape caught her. Rainbow Dash was upside down inches from the ground when she caught the little filly. The mare wrapped herself around Scootaloo to protect her as the filly's wight drove them both into the ground. Everything went black for both of them.
Scootaloo awoke in a crater laying on Rainbow Dash’s chest. The filly looked around and stood up she was too stunned to say anything. Rainbow Dash groaned and moved her head to the side to coughed. “Scootaloo come here.” the filly looked up to see Twilight standing on the edge of the crater. The mares horn glowed and Scootaloo was lifted out of the hole in the ground and set down next to her friends. “I’ll be right back,” Twilight said looking at the three “stay with Pinkie Right Here.” the lavender mare slide into the crater her coat shimmering and her horn glowing bright.
About a minute later Twilight and Rainbow Dash climbed out of the crater. Rainbow Dash had a red smear on her cheek that Twilight quickly wiped away with a napkin. The stunt flier wanted to stop the other mare but didn’t for some reason the fillies couldn’t figure out. “Scootaloo you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“yeah are you?” the filly asked looking at her dirty hero. Scootaloo was a little dirty but other wise unhurt.
Rainbow Dash grinned and chuckled “I’ve hit the ground twice as hard and walked away from it.” she was lying but the fillies didn't need to know that. “now a promise is a promise. So why don’t you go grab your scooter and do some tricks. I’ll caught up in a second.”
“okay.” Scootaloo said hurrying toward the ramps on the other side of some trees. Pinkie looked back at Rainbow Dash and Twilight worried but both nodded for her to go. The pink mare walked after the fillies.
Once the fillies were on the other side of the trees Rainbow Dash slumped to the ground and groaned tears forming in her eyes “i don’t think I’ve been in more pain in my life.”
“your going to the hospital.” Twilight said glaring at her friend.
Rainbow Dash stood up and said “on second thought I think I'm okay.” like nothing was wrong with her.