The girls marched up the stairs and stopped in the doorway. Octavia stood on her hind legs, towering over them and glaring down. She didn’t shake with anger, she didn’t tremble with outrage, she just looked at them with disappointment in her eyes.
Scootaloo cowered under the look. She was half-wishing Octavia just started shouting already. Instead, the mare pointed to what remained of her cello and posed a simple question. “Care to explain what happened?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth. Sweetie Belle stopped her and stepped in through the door. “It was my fault. I was on the chair, I fell down and knocked that crystal ball off its stand. I’m the one who broke your cello.”
Apple Bloom nudged her friend and stepped in after her. “No, it’s not. I knocked the chair when I tripped on the rug. I’m the reason you fell, I broke it.”
Scootaloo sighed and walked in to stand in between the two. “No, it’s my fault. I didn’t pay attention for a second, and I didn’t notice you two went to Octavia’s room instead of aunt Vinyl’s. I should have stopped you. I’m really sorry, Octavia, it was an accident.”
Octavia nodded solemnly. “So you all take responsibility for smashing my cello to pieces, then? That’s why you were so quiet tonight, that’s why you sounded so interested in what I had to say?”
Sweetie Belle took another step forward. “We’re really sorry, we just didn’t want you to get mad. We know we get in trouble sometimes, big trouble, but we just wanted you to like us the way other grownups like us. We didn’t want you to hate us just because of one accident. We’ll pay to get it fixed, we’ll do anything.”
Octavia stared at them more. “Careful what you say, Sweetie Belle. Do you speak for Scootaloo and Apple Bloom as well? The three of you will do anything to get it fixed? You’ll do whatever I say for as long as it takes to get my instrument repaired?”
Scootaloo gulped. There was a tightness building around her neck along with a chill on her back. “Y-yes, ma’am.”
The other two nodded in agreement. Octavia cocked her head towards the crystal ball still embedded in the thing. “Sweetie Belle, please pick up my crystal ball, then.”
Sweetie Belle slowly went forward and picked up the crystal ball.
Octavia arched an eyebrow up as the ball began to glow. The girls gasped.
The ball glowed more brightly, then hovered. Strands of light flowed forth from its core, tickling along the strings and the wood, moving the pieces closer together.
The wood fibres reached out and intertwined, the strings fused back into place, and before the girls could even blink the cello had been restored to its pristine state. Octavia picked it up and deposited it against a far wall, before taking the still floating crystal ball and putting it back on its stand. The girls’ jaws, though, she let lie on the ground. “All right, girls. I hereby consider your debt to me paid. My cello is fixed, you can stop worrying about it.”
Scootaloo blinked and rubbed her eyes to check if she wasn’t seeing things. “Did we do just do that? Do we – quick, check it!”
The girls all turned to display their rear ends, but to their dismay and confusion found no cutie marks of any description.
Octavia groaned and pressed a front hoof to her forehead. “Unh, no, Scootaloo, you did not do that. The spell on the crystal ball did that.”
Sweetie Belle’s ears perked. “Wait, that ball has a restoration spell on it?”
Octavia smiled petulantly. “Ah, I take it your sister uses that, too?”
Sweetie Belle looked on in confusion. “Umm, no. Restoration spells are really, really hard to do. Only a few unicorns can do it, and even then most of those have a talent for it.”
Scootaloo snapped out of her reverie. “Aunt Vinyl can do a restoration spell?”
Octavia nodded. “A delayed one, yes. And one that requires the broken object to be away from anything keeping its pieces apart, like that ball did.”
Apple Bloom nodded in kind. “My sister told me about that spell once. It’s like a seal you put on something before it gets broken, and then when it breaks the seal fixes it. But it really puts a drain on any magic you try afterwards, it’s kinda risky.”
Scootaloo frowned, confused. “Really?”
“Yeah, she said Twilight tried it once to stop from getting hurt when she was researching Pinkie Pie. Applejack told me it made Twilight just jump out of her bandages after she got injured, but she couldn’t so much as lift a quill for days after that. Vinyl Scratch can do that?”
Octavia nodded solemnly. “She can and she does. Her father is a true master of the spell, and he insisted Vinyl learn how to cast it as something to fall back on. Keep the family business going, so to speak. Mister Pieces taught his daughters well. One knows restoration spells, the other’s a safety expert in Cloudsdale.”
“Oh, no.” Scootaloo planted a hoof on her face and groaned, plopping her rump down at the sheer obviousness of it. “Of course, grandpa Zee knows how to do that kind of spell. I just didn’t think aunt Vinyl would know it, too.”
Sweetie Belle shook her head, still confused. “Wait, what? Your family business needs restoration spells to work? Then what is your family's business, what does your grandpa do?”
Scootaloo threw her head back in defeat. She sighed. “Grandpa Zilean sells insurance.”
Scootaloo yawned. Sweetie Belle, then Apple Bloom, followed suit. Octavia plopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote. “Think you have another movie in you, girls?”
Though their eyes were bleary and the drink had taken a lot of their usual energy out of them, they all nodded. Scootaloo stopped Octavia from hitting the ‘play’ button, though. “Are you really not mad at us?”
Octavia ruffled the girl’s mane. “I’m really not mad at you, Scootaloo. You’re only a child, after all. You can’t be expected to get through life without accidents.”
Scootaloo’s ears drooped. “Oh.” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom pouted sadly.
Octavia spread her arms to embrace them all. “Listen, girls. You’re still little. You don’t know how everything works yet, and you can’t know if no one explains it to you. You’re not supposed to be perfect little angels, you’re supposed to be learning. And it’s my job as a responsible adult to make sure you can do that without hurting yourself.”
Sweetie Belle shuffled closer to the mare. “Would you mind telling my sister that sometime?”
Octavia smirked and nodded. “That’s different, Sweetie Belle. Adults have schedules, they have things to do, things to take care of. The only difference between me and your sister is that I had time this weekend, and I made an effort to spend it with you. Sometimes grownups just can’t find the time, that’s nothing to do with you.”
Apple Bloom yawned again. “But what if you couldn’t fix your cello? What would have happened if you didn’t have that restoration thingamajigger?”
Octavia sighed. “Girls, try to understand. You’re used to growing up in Ponyville. Things might break, accidents can happen, but ponies have gotten used to it. They accept that sort of thing. I, however, was born and raised in Canterlot, where everything is both fragile and expensive. If it were up to the Canterlot nobles, ‘childproofing a house’ would be considered Equestria’s national sport. I know you girls can cause accidents, and I know you can’t always help it. So… if you must know, if I hadn’t had that restoration spell handy, I’d have had the foresight to lock my bloody door.”
Silence fell. Octavia smiled and nodded to Scootaloo, who hit the button. “Really, girls. You might think the adults in town get angry with you sometimes because of what you do, but if you ask me I think you should consider how angry they are at themselves for letting you.”
The mood lightened, the movie started. The Cutie Mark Crusaders felt a load fall off their hearts, and Octavia smiled to herself for a night well spent.
Now all she had to do was wait for the ninjas to burn down the palace, wait for the vengeance story to be resolved, and then put the girls to bed.
She looked at Scootaloo and rubbed her back while the opening credits rolled. A feather got stuck on her hoof. Scootaloo looked up and winced. Octavia just kept up the charade without a word.
They don’t know. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle don’t know. Right then, guess I’ll just have to jump a few hoops to keep it hidden.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom slipped into Scootaloo’s bed, Scootaloo following suit. Octavia tucked them in with a smile. They were exhausted, the lot of them. They hadn’t gotten a baking cutie mark or a movie critic cutie mark, but the attempts had been better thought out than usual, at least. They had that look of satisfaction on their faces, like it didn’t matter if they’d failed.
Just as planned. Octavia walked out and bade them good night before switching the light off. She stopped in the light of the doorway. “Oh, bother. Scootaloo, darling? I almost forgot that thing your mother wanted you to do. Just hop out for a moment, and I’ll put it on.”
Apple Bloom frowned. “What is it?”
Octavia waved away the girl’s concern. “Just a beauty cream, nothing more.”
Scootaloo slowly clambered out of bed and walked out. She rounded the corner to find Octavia standing ready with the cream and a fresh T-shirt in hoof. She sat down and presented her back, twitching already at the spreading itch. “Thanks for… you know…”
“That’s quite all right, dear. If you don’t feel your friends need to know something that personal, I’m not about to ruin it for you.” Octavia rubbed the girl’s back in, then dropped the oversized T-shirt neatly over her front legs. Then she nudged Scootaloo forward. “On you go.”
Scootaloo sighed. She walked into the dark room and joined her friends in bed. Octavia closed the door behind her, sending the room into full darkness.
Sweetie Belle, lying in the middle, sniffed the air around Scootaloo. “Your mom wants you to put on beauty cream?”
Scootaloo shuffled nervously under the sheets. “Um, yeah. It’s just something she does.”
Apple Bloom smelled the odour of the salve as well. “And where did Octavia put that cream?”
Scootaloo bit her lip and turned her back to her friends. “She put it on my back and my wings.”
Sweetie Belle prodded said back with a hoof. Apple Bloom did the same. “So your mom wants you to pretty up your back? Is that a pegasus thing?”
Scootaloo heaved a deep sigh. “No. Shedding your feathers is a pegasus thing. So is getting an itchy back if you don’t put cream on it.”
Sweetie Belle moved closer, close enough for Scootaloo to feel her warmth. “So that cream is to stop you from turning ugly when you shed, then?”
The pegasus filly clenched her eyes shut. I can’t keep doing this. They ought to know. “Promise you won’t tell anypony? Especially Diamond Tiara?”
Even in the dark, Scootaloo could tell they both nodded. “We promise.”
“Okay. The truth is that I don’t have to put on a beauty cream just because my mom doesn’t want me to get ugly. I have to put a medicinal cream on because every once in a while, I shed my feathers and it can turn my skin red overnight. I get the worst rash you’ve ever seen, it really hurts. That’s why Octavia waited ‘till the lights went out. I just didn't want you to see it.”
Apple Bloom leaned over Sweetie Belle to reach. “So that cream is for your wings? That’ll help you fly?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Nothing will help me fly. The doctor said my wings should grow really big one day, but not anytime soon. The cream just makes it so it doesn’t hurt as much growing up. It's part of what I am, part of my breed of pegasus pony.”
Apple Bloom rubbed over that covered back. “But… Applejack told me pegasus ponies can’t sleep when their backs are wet. It’s an instinct, makes their bodies think they’re bleeding out, or somethin'. How do you sleep, then?”
Scootaloo shrugged. “I don’t. I get nightmares, okay? And really bad ones if my muscles are tense, which is most of the time. I’ll probably get them tonight, too.”
Sweetie Belle got even closer, pressing her chest against that chilled back. “Is that why you fall asleep in class? Is that why you never try to fly? Because you have to wait anyway?”
Scootaloo grunted. “Yeah. I didn’t want to tell you guys because… I just didn’t want to you to think –“
“I wanna be on the side.” Sweetie Belle crawled over Scootaloo and pushed her into the middle of the filly sandwich.
Scootaloo perked up, surprised at the interruption. “What are you doing?”
Apple Bloom wriggled into position. “Keepin’ you warm so you sleep well tonight. Unless you feel like trying to get a cutie mark again.”
Scootaloo relaxed and let the warmth spread over her body. “I don’t think that’d be such a good idea. I’m pretty sure Octavia’s standing right out the door, waiting for us to go to sleep.”
“Your aunt would do that, I guess.” Apple Bloom looked at the crack of light coming from underneath the door.
Scootaloo wriggled in between her friends, smiling contently. “She’s not my aunt. But she’s something, all right, and she’s mine. That’s all that counts.”
Right outside the door, Octavia suppressed a chuckle.
“So you don’t mind keeping me warm tonight? You don’t think I’m, you know… handi—“
“No.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “If your doctor says you just need time, then you just need time.”
Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement, stifling a yawn. “Exactly. And if you need us to keep the nightmares away, we will. We know you’d do the same thing for us.”
Scootaloo smiled and finally let her eyes drift shut. She went silent, wriggled her wings for just a moment, then nodded off. When no sound came from the room, Octavia got up from her sitting position and headed to bed herself.
The girls are asleep, Scootaloo’s worked things out about her condition, and everything in the house is still in one piece. That could have gone a lot worse.
Octavia slipped into bed and closed her eyes.
I suppose those girls do take quite a bit of time and energy to manage. Can't get them tipsy all the time, after all.
Oh well, suppose we can loosen things up some more in the morning.
The End.