Scootaloo woke up the next morning in a good mood. She got out of bed, turned her head left and then to the right to try to get the kinks out of her neck, and opened and closed her wings a few times. Her wings felt a little tingly again, but that soon faded.
Everything seemed just the same as yesterday, but she remembered that sigils took a while to take effect, anyways. She skimmed through her notes. Yeah, here it was. They "affect probability to influence events in accord with the statement of intent". Whatever that meant.
She thought it was something like if she kept working on increasing her magic, the sigil would kinda nudge things to make sure it actually worked. Somepony really liked big words when they were writing this book.
It actually kind of seemed like it'd be a good idea to do a cutie mark sigil, if that's how it worked. She had two more flying sigils to do, though, and as horrible as it might seem to her friends, being able to fly was actually more important to her than getting a cutie mark.
Besides, her cutie mark probably had something to do with flying, anyway. Rainbow Dash's had, and so had Fluttershy's. It almost seemed like it had to be something involving her wings.
It hardly seemed fair how easy it was for everypony else to get a cutie mark, though, not to mention how easily flying came. She'd heard about how Pound Cake could already fly. And how many of the cutie mark stories she'd heard were just that somepony had been doing something fun and it appeared?
Whatever. She was feeling good this morning. No reason to ruin it by being all gloomy and letting little things bother her. Time to go downstairs, get some food, then it was down to the library to meet with- Oh. Rainbow Dash. Right.
Well, why let little things bother her when she had really, really big things to bother her, right?
She supposed she'd have had to have this talk with Rainbow sometime, though. Scootaloo grabbed her saddlebags and slung them on, good mood a bit dampened. A quick stop in the bathroom, and her mane and tail were no longer sticking in all directions.
Nopony seemed to be around in the kitchen. A mostly empty bowl of cereal was sitting on the table, and she could hear Vinyl in the downstairs bathroom futzing with her hair while singing along in high falsetto to one of those old disco records of hers. Scootaloo knew from experience that she'd be a while.
"Well, you can tell by the way I use my trot…"
Definitely a while.
Scootaloo pulled a purple plastic bowl out of the cupboard, filled it with cereal, and poured in the rest of the carton of milk. As she poured the milk, the cereal caused rainbow colored swirls to run all through it. Of course, there hadn't been a Wonderbolts figurine in this box. She'd already checked.
Once she finished, she absent-mindedly put the carton back in the refrigerator, and stuck the bowl in the sink after rinsing it off. Stopping by Octy's room, Scootaloo let her know where she was going, then headed out.
It didn't really seem to take that long to get to the library, and without anypony there to give her grief about it, Scootaloo went right in without hesitation. Of course, nopony seemed to be around when she went in, either, making her wonder if she'd stopped by too early.
After a few minutes, she heard a few steps, and Spike wandered in with a big yawn.
"Hey, Scoots. It's already that late? I just finished putting away the dishes from breakfast. Lemme go and get Twilight for you."
Scootaloo wondered if she should mention the fragment of amethyst he had stuck in his teeth, but decided against it.
"Thanks, Spike."
As Spike ran off, Scootaloo started browsing through the book shelves. She wasn't really that much for reading, but she had time to kill, and maybe they'd missed a book earlier that'd be useful, or at least entertaining.
The first book that caught her eye, a treatise on crystal magic and the crystal empire, didn't seem that interesting. She didn't think there even were crystal unicorns. Next to it, though, was 'Exotic Magic: a Comparison of Magics From Farr Off Partes'.
It didn't seem like the guy who wrote it was a good speller, but maybe it had more on sigil magic. Scootaloo wouldn't mind finding out more about sigils, since she still wasn't totally sure she was doing it right. She pulled the aging book off the shelf, and started skimming through it.
Unfortunately, she opened it to a long, in-depth discussion about the casting techniques of unicorns in Manehattan and how they differed from those used in Fillydelphia, apparently written with whatever the longest words author could think of were. It might be interesting to the right pony, but it caused Scootaloo to yawn, loud and long.
Just then, she heard hoofsteps.
"Good morning, Scootaloo. Looking for something to read? What did you find there?"
Suddenly Twilight Sparkle was right in front of Scootaloo, craning her neck to look at the spine of the book Scootaloo had open, and then waving a foreleg dismissively.
"You won't want to bother with that one. Old Bertand thought that any sort of unicorn magic outside of Canterlot was strange and somehow exotic. Most of the really different forms of magic didn't even get a mention, like zebra magic and alchemy."
"Oh." Scootaloo put the book back on the shelf, disappointed.
"Well, at least you're expressing an interest in reading. So many ponies never find the time or even bother. I'd expect you're here to work on flying again, though?"
"Yeah." Scootaloo nodded. "We were going from magic to trying to see if I can build up my wing muscles or something, right?"
"Right.," Twilight responded. "We'll return to magic, but you're still going to need your wings strengthened. Of course, since I don't have wings, I wouldn't be much help on that. And even if I had them, I wouldn't have the experience you'd need."
"Not that that stopped you from studying every book you could find on it," Spike commented, coming back in the room himself.
"Yes, well, we'll obviously need some help from a pegasus, and since I'm friends with the best flier in all of Ponyville…"
"In all of Equestria!" Scootaloo said.
"I'm sure she is." Twilight smiled. "In any event, come on, Scootaloo, Spike, let's go find Rainbow Dash."
That, of course, was easier said than done. When she wasn't in any of her usual hangouts, it was pretty easy to figure out where Rainbow was, as she could be a bit predictable. That still meant the three of them had to wander all over Sweet Apple Acres before Spike pointed out the rainbow-colored tail dangling down from a tree.
"Sleeping," Scootaloo said, looking down at the ground. "it figures."
While Rainbow Dash could probably train her in her sleep, Rainbow being literally asleep would be a problem. Maybe this'd have to wait.
"Hmmph," Spike said. "When isn't she? You could've just checked here first and saved all the hassle."
"Now Spike," Twilight said in her best lecturing voice. "Flying requires a high metabolism and quite a bit of energy. Add in all the tricks she's constantly working to perfect, and it's a wonder she doesn't sleep more, really."
"Excuses, excuses." Spike waved one hand dismissively.
"That kinda rules out doing any training, though," Scootaloo said, ears drooping.
"Nonsense. I'm sure she won't mind being woken up, given the situation."
A purple glow appeared around Rainbow's tail, it lifted up, and then was abruptly yanked downwards. Rainbow Dash came crashing down to the ground, and picked herself up, rubbing her head.
"Ow, Applejack, that hurt! Why'd ya always gotta-" She blinked and took in the scene. "Oh. Hi Scoot. Hi Twi. You know, I was just in the middle of a perfectly good nap. What'dja wake me up for?"
Spike shot her an irritated glance.
Twilight spoke up with a precise, clipped tone of voice.
"Scootaloo came to me with a rather large problem and I've been doing my best to help her with it. For this, though, I really need the help of the best flier-" She shot a look at Scootaloo. "in Equestria."
"I know, I know, I am good, aren't I?"
"Good at sleeping," Spike groused.
"Eh, what'd you know 'bout it?" Rainbow looked at Twilight. "What sorta problem you got, anyway?"
Twilight glanced at Scootaloo, who shrugged. May as well have Twilight explain it. Telling everypony about it herself was starting to kinda suck.
"Scootaloo had a doctor's appointment recently." Twilight took a deep breath. "She was told that she only has a twenty percent chance of ever flying."
Rainbow Dash looked over at Scootaloo, a shocked expression on her face.
"You're probably never gonna fly? Oh, Scoot..." Rainbow walked over and wrapped her wing around Scootaloo. "Why didn't you come to me about this? I told you I'd take you under my wing…"
Spike prodded Twilight a couple times as she stood watching. She cleared her throat.
“I think I just spotted a good specimen of Betula nigra. It's right over there." She pointed to a tree in the distance. "I’ll just take a look, shall I?”
As she trotted off, Spike muttered from her back, "That tree looks interesting? Real smooth, Twi."
Feeling Rainbow Dash's wing wrapped around her made Scootaloo feel safe, and all her doubts about Rainbow seemed to fade away. She almost wanted to just brush them off. She'd promised Luna she'd talk about it, though, and she would.
Nerving herself, Scootaloo spoke up. "One of the things the doctor said was that my magic core was too low to fly, and I figured Twilight would know 'bout magic."
"Well, yeah, Twi' can help with that, but what would she know about flying?" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof dismissively. "Come on, what's the real reason you didn't come to me? Don'cha trust me?"
“Um,” Scootaloo’s ears flattened against her head, and her voice wavered as she spoke, “I kinda thought you might have changed your mind.”
"Changed my mind? What'dya mean?"
"I thought- I thought you might not want to take me under your wing any more." Despite the warmth of Rainbow's wing, Scootaloo found herself trembling. "Especially after what happened. I wasn't sure you'd want a pegasus pony hanging around that can't even fly."
"Scoots, my taking you under my wing has nothing to do with whether you can fly." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I mean, maybe you'll fly, maybe you won't. You'll still be awesome-"
She cut off as Scootaloo shot her a glare, and laughed weakly. "Heard that one already, huh?"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Only a dozen times or so."
"Well, look. I'm always seeing you zooming 'round town with that scooter of yours, right? You keep doing all these daring tricks and seem to have a real need for speed on it. You're a lot like me, even without flying. Even if you never fly, you'll always be an awesome little sis. Don't you doubt that. Now, why'd you think I didn't want you 'round?"
"Weeeell…" Scootaloo fidgeted around, her face getting hot. "Right after the camping trip, you vanished, and I didn't find out where you'd gone 'til later. And you kinda never wrote me from the Wonderbolts school when you were gone or anything."
It was Rainbow's turn to flush. "Heh, er, yeah, I didn't, did I? I never told you I was going training in that camp?"
Scootaloo shook her head. "And when you came back, you were never around and it seemed like you might be avoiding me."
"I wasn't trying exactly to-" Rainbow sighed. "Well, maybe I was a little."
"You were?" Scootaloo said, a bit hurt. "Why?"
"Look, I'm kinda new to this whole big sister thing, okay?" Rainbow Dash lowered her voice. "Look, don't tell anypony, and I mean anypony else this, but I was kinda scared."
"What?" That didn't sound like Rainbow Dash.
"I was scared, alright? I've never been a big sister before. I was afraid I'd mess it all up. Guess I did anyway."
On impulse, Scootaloo reached around Rainbow Dash's neck and squeezed her. They sat like that, together, for a few minutes, not saying anything, until Rainbow Dash finally broke the silence.
"So, you've only got a twenty percent chance of flying?" She whistled. "I've always liked trying to beat the odds. So, what've you already done? With Twilight, or your parents, I guess."
"My parents?" If Scootaloo could have facehooved right now, she would have. "Rainbow…"
"What? I'd assume that they got some sorta suggestions from the doctor, at least."
Scootaloo sighed. "Maybe if you're gonna act like my big sis, you should learn a bit more about me, too."
"Why? What did I miss?"
"Rainbow, I don't have any parents. I live with my aunt."
"Oh." Rainbow paused for a moment. "I really do need to learn more about you, don't I? Who's your aunt?"
"My aunt's Vinyl Scratch, though Octy lives there and kinda keeps both of us in check."
"DJ P0n3? She's awesome!" A grin crossed her face. "Of course, it probably runs in the family."
There was a muffled sound from off in the direction Twilight had gone, but Scootaloo ignored it.
"You could say that. Mom was kinda well known as a singer."
"See? So, about your flying problem, have you just worked on magic, or was there anything else you've done?"
"I think Twilight took some wing measurements, but mainly just my magic core."
Rainbow Dash removed her wing from around Scootaloo, much to both their regret.
"Why don't you go 'head and spread your wings out as far as you can, and lemme take a look at your wing span."
Obediently, Scootaloo unfolded her wings, stretched them out, and spread them in a V-shape. Then she struck a pose, with her head up and one foreleg in the air. Rainbow walked around her slowly in a circle, looking closely at them from all angles, and occasionally making measuring motions with her forelegs.
"Now give me a few slow flaps of your wings. Keep your hooves on the ground. This isn't for takeoff, it's just so I can see your form."
Scootaloo put down her hoof. She slowly started flapping, having to fight the urge to just buzz them the way she did on her scooter. Rainbow continued to walk around as she flapped, occasionally telling her to speed up or slow down. Scootaloo tried to tell herself that Rainbow knew what she was doing, but she couldn't help worrying about hitting her on the head or worse.
Rainbow walked around for a few minutes, then stood behind her, directly in the path of the airflow from her wings. Then she came back around. "Tell you what, Scoots. Go ahead and just buzz your wings fast, the way I usually see you doing on your scooter."
That'd be easy enough, at least. Scootaloo tried to just pull her wings in and go straight to buzzing them, but she managed to totally botch it and hit herself with her wings in the process. She winced, knowing Rainbow had been watching.
She stopped moving her wings, pulled them in properly, and then started buzzing away. At least she could do this.
The next few minutes were pretty much a repeat of what Rainbow had just done. It wasn't long before she was back in front of Scootaloo.
"Okay, you can stop now. I can already see one thing you're gonna need to work on."
Scootaloo flushed, having a good idea what that was. "I didn't really mean to hit myself like that, honest."
"I didn't say you did, Scoots. Thing is, I think you've mostly been doing that buzzing with your wings, and that uses different muscles and movements than normal flight. Your wings are kinda used to it. You need to practice normal flapping for a while and not buzz, to build up the right muscles, then you can practice switching between the two."
That did make sense, but…
"You want me to stop using my scooter?!"
"I know not using your scooter sucks, but I just need you not to use it much for a little while. A couple weeks maybe? Once your wing movements are up to speed, you can go back to it. You're awesome on your scooter. I wouldn't take that away from you."
Scootaloo weighed this in her mind. She really didn't like it, but she would do pretty much anything to fly. This was pretty much the anything in anything, though.
"Making any progress?"
Scootaloo turned, and realised Twilight had come back, with Spike on her back.
"Done looking at, um, whatever it was?" Scootaloo asked.
"I've taken leaf, bark, soil, and ash samples for later analysis," she said, holding up a bag.
Ash samples?
Scootaloo looked back where Twilight had been, and one side of the tree she'd been looking at was black. She glanced back at Spike.
He crossed his arms. "I sneezed, okay?"
Ouch. Flaming sneezes were a rather scary thought. She could just imagine if Spike sneezed when talking to her and caught her on fire. And he lived in a library. If he had a cold, the whole place could burn down.
Twilight's voice broke her chain of thought. "So, do you have any ideas about building up her wingpower? We've got a few things we were trying on the magic side, and I was thinking we could have Applejack help her with endurance."
It took a moment for Scootaloo to realise that Twilight was talking to Rainbow and not her.
"I got a couple ideas. Flapping exercises and wing pushups, stuff like that. I might not be the best pony for this, though, you know?"
Scootaloo's heart sunk. If Rainbow Dash couldn't help, who could?
"You are the best flier around, though, right?" Twilight asked. "Why wouldn't you be able to help?"
"It's because I'm the best flier in town. I've been flying for a long time, and it was always easy for me. It's harder for me to spot problems I never had to deal with myself, you know?"
Twilight groaned. "Can you think of anypony else that would be able to help, then?"
"Yeah, I know exactly who we can help, actually."
"You're not gonna be able to help me?" Scootaloo blurted, all her doubts from earlier coming back.
"Course I'll help ya, squirt. I just won't be the only one."
"Um, if we're going to meet with someone else, shouldn't we get going?" Spike asked.
"On it!"
Rainbow Dash started to speed up into the sky, and then came back to the ground, as if suddenly remembering the rest of them couldn't fly. Scootaloo, Twilight, and Spike followed behind her.
Scootaloo didn't really think about where they were going, until they arrived at a small, rather familiar cottage.
"Fluttershy?" Scootaloo exclaimed.
"Um, yeah, who'dja think I had in mind?" Rainbow asked, scratching her head.
"Isn't she, well, not a very good flier?"
"Flutters has pretty small wings and a bit of a low magic core," Rainbow Dash said. "Kinda like somepony else I know. More importantly, when she set herself to improve her flying, she increased her wingpower by something like five times. Admittedly, her wingpower was still pretty low, but that's kinda impressive."
With that, Rainbow Dash knocked on the door.
A high voice called out "Coming!"
Scootaloo could hear some footsteps, and then the door opened to reveal Discord wearing a pair of bunny slippers with a big smile on his face, which faded a moment later. "Oh, it's just you lot."
"Who'dja expect, the mail mare?" Rainbow said. "Is Fluttershy in? We need her help."
"Wait a moment," Twilight said. "Discord! Why didn't I think about that earlier? You are supposed to be reformed? Why not prove it and help Scootaloo with her flying problem?"
"Ah, young, naive Twilight. Ever the innocent. Reformed does not equal helpful. No."
As Twilight sputtered, Scootaloo pursued the subject.
"Why not? You seemed like you liked me yesterday."
"Ah, Scootaloo." He reached out and tousled her mane with his claw. "A brash, daring young pegasus, spreading chaos everywhere she goes in pursuit of her cutie mark, and now flying, and a promising young chaos mage. I do like you."
"Then why-"
"Tell me, are you willing to do anything to fly? Overcome any obstacle, fight any foe, beat any odds?"
"Yeah!" Scootaloo said, getting a bit excited despite herself.
"Well, there you are. That makes you an adventurer, specifically, a hero. A hero beats great odds and strives towards her goal, and learns a lot about herself in the process. Now where would we be if I were to shortcut things? As I said, I do like you. Your first two endeavors into chaos magic were superb. So, no. I'm sure Fluttershy will be willing to help, though."
He gestured to Fluttershy standing behind him, where for some reason, she was glaring at his slippers.
"Discord…" she said, a dangerous note in her voice. He sighed.
"Oh, very well."
Discord snapped his fingers, and one of the slippers turned back into Angel, who kicked him in the shin and stamped off. Holding one foot, he hopped over to a couch and lay down.
"Now then, um, was there something I could help you girls with?"
Spike scowled and tapped his chest a few times.
"And Spike, of course."
"Yeah, Fluttershy, I need your help with Scootaloo," Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh, well, I suppose if you need somepony to watch her, I suppose I could take her for the night…"
Rainbow laughed. "I sorta need you to help teach her to fly, actually."
"Oh, I'm not a very good flier." Fluttershy seemed to shrink a bit behind her mane.
"What about all that training you did to boost your wingpower?" Rainbow asked. "And you've got mosta the same problems Scootaloo has flying, really. You could help her more than I could."
"Well, maybe…"
"Besides, I'll do most of the training." Rainbow Dash tapped herself on the chest for emphasis. "I just need you to help me with ideas, point out what she's doing wrong, and help set up exercises for her."
"All right, I'll do it."
She walked over to Scootaloo, and looked at her with a rather different expression then Scootaloo was used to seeing aimed at her. It was more the expression she'd had that time Scootaloo had found a bird with a broken wing and brought it to her.
For a split second she almost felt like she was one of the animals under Fluttershy's care, and could see why they stayed and protected her. It was a very strange feeling, and ended when Fluttershy opened her mouth.
"Scootaloo, when's the last time you preened your feathers? Um, if you don't mind me asking?"
That got Rainbow going over and looking at her wings again. She almost wanted to hide behind them with how much attention they were getting, not that they were big enough for that.
"Good catch, Fluttershy. I should have noticed that."
"Um, preening?" Scootaloo said, flushing. She felt like she should know what they were talking about.
"Yeah, didn't your par- sorry, your aunts ever teach you about preening?"
"They don't exactly know that much about pegasi, really," Scootaloo admitted.
"I suppose that leaves it up to your big sis, then. Look, preening is basically cleaning off your feathers, adjusting them, and oiling them with your mouth to keep them in good condition. All pegasi do it, though not usually in public. Nopony can fly as well without doing it occasionally. It's basic wing maintenance."
"Oiling your feathers?" Scootaloo felt a little dumb for not knowing all this already.
"Yeah, look, there's a gland right about here-" Rainbow tapped the back of her mouth. "that you can make it with."
"Um, Rainbow, Scootaloo, why don't we go into my bedroom, and the two of us can show you in private."
"Actually, I think me and Twilight had some things we needed to do in the library," Spike said.
"We did?" Twilight then winced. "Oh, right. Scootaloo, I'll leave you with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and you can stop back by tomorrow and we'll continue."
They said their goodbyes, and then Scootaloo went into Fluttershy's bedroom for what proved to be one of the more awkward and embarrassing lessons she'd had. Preening, as it turned out, was something usually only done for you by family members, very close friends,or your fillyfriend or coltfriend.
That made demonstrations rather awkward, especially since it was kinda obvious Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had preened each other before. Having lunch in the middle of the preening session didn't help things at all, either.
All in all, when Scootaloo left, she was rather glad of the wing pushups and flapping exercises she'd been asked to do, as they helped give her time for her flushing to subside. Of course, she had to preen her feathers again afterwards.
By the time she left and went back home, she was exhausted. Scootaloo powered through her dinner, and then went straight to bed. She'd leave the next sigil for the morning.