The next morning dawned brilliantly, complete with singing birds and sun streaming in through windows much like it had the previous day. Unlike the previous day, there was panic in the Apple family home as Apple Bloom's voice screeched out through the otherwise cheerful morning.
"WHAT!? They moved it to TODAY? Why would they DO that!?" she yelped, aghast, at the mare who had come bearing the news. Rainbow Dash reared back a bit in surprise, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof uncomfortably.
"Well, that's why I'm here! Pinkie Pie came by and told me. Scoot's parents decided to surprise her with VIP passes to the Wonderbolts performance in Cloudsdale, but they'll have to leave tomorrow and will be gone all weekend," Dash replied, forelegs spread helplessly. She followed Apple Bloom with her eyes as the yellow filly began scrambling around the house, grabbing a set of saddlebags before stuffing them full of random things. Dash twisted in the air to follow the filly's mad progress around the house.
"Wonderbolts VIP passes are crazy expensive and almost impossible to get, so they can't miss this chance," Dash continued explaining. "They can't have the party ON her birthday, so they moved it to today. We- I mean YOU couldn't make the potion last night so…"
"What're ya waitin’ for?!" Apple Bloom demanded desperately as she zipped past Rainbow Dash going from one room to another, "Go get Sweetie and bring her to Zecora's! I'll meet y'all there!"
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth for a moment to take offense at Apple Bloom's brusque tone but the filly was gone up the stairs to the second floor. Then again, time was of the essence and speed was what she was good at, so Rainbow spun around and flew out the front door, slamming it closed in her wake as she zipped off towards Ponyville. A moment later, Apple Bloom came pounding down the stairs again, her momentum carrying her into the wall opposite the landing just as Applejack poked her head in from the kitchen to yell about slamming the front door.
"Applejack! Ah'm goin' to Zecora's! Bye!" Apple Bloom called out as she tossed her full saddlebags onto her back and careened past her sister and through the back door of the farmhouse. She ignored whatever it was Applejack called out to her and left the house behind, running headlong through the orchard of Sweet Apple Acres. With the single-minded focus of a young filly who absolutely had to be someplace, she expertly dodged around trees, leaped over bushes and scrambled over the odd fence that got in her way as she rushed towards the Everfree Forest.
The path that lead to Zecora's home was clearly marked to anypony who knew what to look for, kept clear of debris despite its winding nature. Apple Bloom had traveled this way so often she didn't think twice about plunging into the forest's borders, scampering along the twisting trail. Her hooves didn't stop pounding the dirt of the path until she planted all four of them to skid to a stop before Zecora's door. The packed dirt almost provided enough stopping power, but she still managed to collide with the door and bounce off, landing back on her rump. She scrambled up to her hooves but before she could even finish standing up again the door swung open and Rainbow Dash poked her head out.
"What kept ya, slowpoke? C'mon in. Zecora's got Sweetie working already," Rainbow Dash quipped, stepping out of the way and ushering Apple Bloom in.
The inside of Zecora's tree, even rearranged to accommodate visitors, was still somewhat crowded with three ponies and a zebra. Rainbow Dash was left perched up and out of the way atop a large chest while Zecora moved quickly around the large, bubbling cauldron in the center of her home to extend a hoof and keep Sweetie Belle from absent-mindedly mixing up some ingredients. Apple Bloom noted with some surprise that Sweetie wasn't actually doing anything with the ingredients for the potion they were making, until she saw the real ingredients organized carefully in bowls at the end of the worktable. They'd agreed that Apple Bloom would do the mixing part of the potion, and that meant that Sweetie was now just doing busy work for Zecora. Apple Bloom felt bad that Sweetie's part was over already, but her friend seemed perfectly happy to continue following Zecora's directions, so she pushed the feeling away. How fast had Rainbow flown if Sweetie had time to do all of the prep work already? Apple Bloom felt quite certain she wasn’t the only one excited about getting this potion done.
"Hi Apple Bloom! We've been waiting for you!" she called out as she finished pulling the petals off a flower and dropped the stem onto a pile and turned to wave.
"It is good to see you, Apple Bloom. I'm told Scootaloo's birthday is unexpectedly soon," Zecora spoke up while scooping the large pile of flower petals into a jar, "Your part is ready for you to begin. Don't forget my book and the recipe within."
"Good!" Apple Bloom replied, hopping up onto a stool and reaching for a roughly-bound notebook Zecora had pointed out. She tugged it close with her hooves, grabbed it lightly in her mouth, then pulled it off the table. She hopped off the stool and opened it up on the floor where Sweetie could also see it. "Ah want this to go perfectly, so we'll do it by the book!"
"Page forty-two has the recipe for you," Zecora advised with a smile, walking away from them and over to where Rainbow was impatiently fidgeting with her hooves.
"Okay! Says here we need to take the four ingredients: prickleberry seeds, bloomberries, heart's desire an' amethyst, then put 'em in a bowl and grind 'em up," Apple Bloom read off, her hoof sliding along the page she was reading to help her keep her place.
"Got them right here!" Sweetie Belle crowed, then scrunched her face up in concentration and levitated four bowls over to Apple Bloom, three small ones and one large one while adding, "Zecora helped me get the amounts right and I already mushed up the seeds and berries."
"Ah, good!” Apple Bloom said as she grabbed each of the bowls in turn, dumping the one with all of the ground ingredients into the large stone bowl, a large and rough-bottomed mortar for just this purpose, before adding the heart's desire and amethyst. She glanced over at the notebook, then back at Sweetie saying, "We need to boil some water."
Sweetie Belle nodded and spun around, twice, looking for a kettle to heat water in. She dashed off a moment later after a helpful pointed hoof from Zecora and set about filling it from a rain barrel outside. Apple Bloom picked up the pestle in her mouth and pushed it down into the mortar that contained all of the other ingredients and began to grind it all into a paste. By the time Sweetie had returned from outside and set the kettle over the cooking fire in the middle of the hut, Apple Bloom had ground all of the ingredients into a pulp.
"Okay! Once the water boils we just need to…" she trailed off as her eyes scanned over the page once. Then twice. Then she looked over her shoulder at Zecora.
"This says we gotta boil it for a candlemark, about half an hour Ah reckon, then let it sit for three more hours?!" she exclaimed unhappily.
"Three hours?! But Scootaloo's party is gonna start in TWO!" Sweetie echoed Apple Bloom's dismay, the unicorn's voice cracking at the end of her exclamation.
"The potency must be carefully balanced or the potion will go bad even with MY talents," Zecora warned from off to the side. Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to try to bargain with the zebra but Apple Bloom stopped her.
"Zecora's right. We're gonna do this by the book, even if we end up late. The last time Ah was impatient everything blew up, and the time before that Ah gave mahself Cutie Pox. Rainbow Dash? Could you, y'know, distract Scootaloo as long as you can? We need time ta let this brew," she cut in, turning at the end to look pleadingly at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus looked surprised at first, then straightened up and saluted.
"You got it, Bloom! I'll give you two all the time you need!" Rainbow Dash replied proudly, though almost immediately after she started chewing on her lip and looking up at the ceiling. She shook her head vigorously to clear it and nodded at Apple Bloom again. “Yeah, I got ideas already.”
"Thanks so much, Rainbow Dash!" Sweetie Belle said, running over to hug the pegasus while Apple Bloom checked the water, "We're counting on you!"
"No sweat, kids. I got this one in the bag. See you two later, and you, Zecora! I got a filly to keep busy!" Rainbow gave them all a grin and a wink, then flew out an open window to head back to Ponyville. Sweetie Belle looked after her with a beaming smile, while Apple Bloom scratched her head.
"Ah hope she doesn't start too soon, 'cuz we got a couple hours before the party still," she said, then shrugged and picked up the mortar and its contents, the water in their kettle finally beginning to boil.
---
The happy chattering of foals filled Sugarcube Corner as it did many a day, with the pink-on-pink form of the inimitable Pinkie Pie bouncing around to and fro distributing pastries, directing games, starting new ones or encouraging impromptu songs. While Scootaloo was the birthday filly of the day, by this point in a Pinkie Party the revelry became more general. Everypony still enjoying the festivities broke off into their usual social groups or formed new ones, chatting and playing games. This left Scootaloo, after two long hours of almost non-stop party, on her own and gazing out a window, brooding.
"Hey, Thcootaloo," a familiar lisping voice chimed up just behind her as she watched the path leading to Sugarcube Corner's front door, "Why are you looking tho thad?"
Scootaloo glanced over her shoulder reflexively. The voice's owner, a filly about her own age with a light cream coat and distractingly bright strawberry mane and tail, was smiling broadly at her from behind a pair of purple-rimmed glasses almost too big for her face. Twist's pale lavender irises nevertheless gleamed brightly, lit by both the light from the window and the grin that showed nearly every tooth in her mouth. Scootaloo's mind automatically filled in the one detail she couldn't see: Twist's cutie mark of two purple-and-white candy canes forming a heart.
"Oh, hey Twist," Scootaloo replied half-heartedly, returning her gaze to the scenery outside, "I'm fine. You should go back and enjoy the rest of the party."
"Nah, itth YOUR party," Twist said, coming up beside her and pushed a small box into Scootaloo's field of vision, "tho I brought you a prethent to help make you thmile!"
The box was wrapped with a purple ribbon the color of her mane and tail, and the box was an orange matching her coat perfectly. It had a loose-fitting top, and thusly did nothing to hide the smell of the box's contents, a distinct chocolate scent that was unmistakable to the young pegasus. She glanced up at Twist in surprise, who nodded encouragingly to her.
"You didn't look very happy, tho I figured I'd keep it thecret tho you could have them all to yourthelf," Twist added with another smile, nudging her glasses back up her muzzle a little with a hoof.
Scootaloo tugged at the ribbon, pulling at the visible end of it until it unraveled and came loose, dropping off around the box on its own. She hesitated a moment, then nudged the tip of a hoof under the lid of the box and lifted it up slowly, just until light shined in on the chocolaty treasure within. Her nose hadn’t lied, for within were small spheres of chocolate studded with crushed nuts.
"Ch-chocolate-covered caramel nut balls?" Scootaloo asked breathlessly, tearing her eyes from the box of treats to look at Twist for confirmation.
"Yup! Your favorite!" Twist chirped brightly, eyes squinting as her smile deepened when Scootaloo's mouth drew up into a smile of her own.
"Wow, these are… I haven't had these in ages. You made all of these just for me?" Scootaloo snuck one of the chocolates out of the box and quickly stuffed it into her mouth, then snugly replaced the cover while chewing happily, eyes starting to glaze over.
"Thee? I knew thothe would cheer you up!"
"Mm, thanks, Twist. Look, I'm sorry I'm feeling down I-" Scootaloo stopped as Twist's hoof touched her nose.
"It'th okay, I know. You want your friendth here. I don't know where they are, but you three are inthep, inth… you're together all the time. I just know they'll get here with thomething REALLY thpethal," Twist replied firmly, still smiling but with an intensity to her eyes that bespoke unusual seriousness.
"It's not the gifts, those are great, I just miss THEM," Scootaloo said, then looked down at the box of chocolates for a moment before meeting Twist's eyes again. "But you're right. Rainbow Dash says they didn't forget, and I trust her - and them. Thanks."
"It'th my pleathure!" Twist grinned, then hopped up and turned to head back to the party.
"Hey," Scootaloo put a hoof on Twist's withers briefly to stop her, "did you come up with all that yourself?"
Twist looked back at Scootaloo and shook her head a little.
"Pinkie Pie thuggested a lot of it, but I thought up a few thingth on my own," Twist answered honestly. Scootaloo smiled anyway, and Twist's expression grew to match.
"Thanks again. I'll let Pinkie know that it was a great party, say 'good-bye' to everypony else and then Rainbow Dash and I will go find the girls," the pegasus promised, then let Twist prance back into the party proper, where Scootaloo saw her circle around widely before approaching Pinkie Pie. Smiling despite herself, Scootaloo took her chocolates over to the small pile of presents she'd accumulated and hid the box where, hopefully, nopony would find it. Then she took a deep breath, pushed her melancholy to the back of her mind and started towards Pinkie herself to request a wrap-up of the celebration.
The front door to Sugarcube Corner chose that moment to burst inwards, admitting a pair of yellow and white blurs that tumbled to a stop a pony-length or so inside, nearly flattening a filly who was balancing a huge slice of cake atop her head. As if the dramatic, nigh-catastrophic entrance alone wasn't enough, the squeaky voice of the unicorn that ended up on the bottom and the apologetic drawl from the earth pony scrambling to get up off of her was a dead give-away. Somehow, a small box remained undamaged atop the latter's head.
"You girls made it!" Scootaloo exclaimed, rushing over to help Sweetie Belle up as Apple Bloom dusted herself off and checked on the package still atop her head. Sweetie was barely to her hooves when she was drawn into a brief but energetic hug alongside Apple Bloom.
"Y-yeah," Sweetie managed to squeak out, "sorry it took so long."
"We wanted to make sure it was just right," Apple Bloom added, reaching up and taking the box off of her head with her hooves so she could hold it out to Scootaloo. "Here, we made ya something."
Scootaloo took the box in her hooves but instead of opening it right away she paused to savor the situation. Her friends HAD come, and were delayed because they were trying their hardest to make something special for her! Of course Twist and Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were right. For a moment, Scootaloo almost set the package aside to tell her friends that they were more important, not some silly gift. Then that small voice inside every foal spoke up and reminded her that she was holding an unopened gift and had no idea what was in it.
"What is it?" she asked reflexively, holding the box up giving it a little shake to hear the subtle thumping of some solid object within.
"Just open it already!" Sweetie chirped, bouncing once in place, clearly impatient. Scootaloo almost delayed further just to tease her friend, then gave in and grabbed the ribbon in her mouth and tugged. It failed to come loose, and a quick look explained why: Sweetie Belle had been the one to tie the ribbon, and it was a knotted mess. Sweetie was blushing a little and looking apologetic, but Scootaloo just gave her a sympathetic smile and started pulling the ribbon off sideways, nipping at it until the thin material snapped and slid off completely.
Once the ribbon was clear of the box Scootaloo flipped the lid of the box off with her nose. She carefully tilted the small container to slide the contents out onto one of her hooves, then immediately dropped the box and brought her other hoof up to help hold it. The gift was a glass bottle no bigger than one hoof, containing a curious lavender liquid. Obviously, she was supposed to drink it, but it didn't look like juice or cider of any type she'd seen before. She swirled the liquid in the bottle and noticed little sparkles of color glittering in the light.
"What IS it?" she asked again, this time lifting her eyes to look curiously at her friends, who glanced at each other before looking excitedly back at her.
"It's a Heart's Desire potion," Apple Bloom said proudly, holding her head up high. "We made it ourselves!"
"Zecora helped us the whole way," Sweetie Belle added quickly, noticing Scootaloo's suddenly dubious expression. "We did it by the book and everything. No shortcuts, and everything was double-checked!"
Scootaloo relaxed a bit at that, and held the potion up to the light. The sparkles within glittered a bit, winking in and out like fireflies at sunset. After a moment of admiring it she glanced back at her friends, or more specifically Apple Bloom.
"So, how does it work? Do I just drink it?" she asked curiously, excitement and anxiety welling up within her at the thought of getting her heart's desire! What would it be? Did she even know?
"Yup! It's s'pposed to help if you think of what you want, sorta like wishin' when you blow out birthday candles, but it mostly works on what's in your heart," Apple Bloom explained, lifting a hoof to tap Scootaloo on the chest lightly.
"Should I drink it now?" was the next question on Scootaloo's mind, and she voiced it immediately.
"Ah don't see why not!" Apple Bloom answered readily, "Unless ya wanna go outside in case your heart's desire is to turn into a dragon or something."
"That would be AWESOME!" Scootaloo crowed, then looked down at the bottle thoughtfully. This was an incredible gift that her friends had given her, with so much potential. She could have a cutie mark, maybe! Though she dismissed that idea with a readiness that surprised even herself. It wouldn't be fair for her friends to give her a cutie mark and not get one for themselves. She actually had a lot of things already, when she thought about it. Not that she didn't want more things, but there wasn't much that her heart desired. Except maybe…
"I think I know," Scootaloo whispered, her eyes drifting over to Rainbow Dash, who was watching the three of them from over by the punch bowl, poorly pretending to be focused on a game of Pin the Tail on the Pony. Scootaloo’s gaze drifted back to her two best friends in the whole world, who were both beaming at her encouragingly, as if they already knew what she wanted. Sitting back on her haunches for stability, she held the bottle snugly in both fore-hooves and pulled the stopper off with her teeth, spitting it out onto the ground. She set the neck of the bottle to her lips, then tilted her head back and drank the potion in several gulps. She set the now-empty bottle back in the box it came from, and looked up at her friends again.
"What happens now? I don't--whoa," Scootaloo stood up straight and felt her wings tingling suddenly, and she reflexively spread them out and gave them a flutter to try to dispel the sensation, but it persisted. She looked back, the tingling spreading first through her bones and then down through her feathers, making them itch as the sensation spread from her coverts down through her primaries and secondaries. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, fighting the urge to start preening at her feathers, doing her best to just let the potion work. The itching grew to be unbearable very quickly, but in just a few heartbeats more it was over and she opened her eyes again.
"Did it work?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously, walking around to look at Scootaloo's wings closely, which caused the pegasus to fold them back to her sides again self-consciously.
"I dunno, but it sure did SOMETHING. Umm, how about we go outside, where there aren't so many others, and see?" she asked nervously, smiling at the other two fillies. Apple Bloom nodded first and Sweetie Belle agreed quickly afterwards. All three of them slipped out the front door quietly to avoid drawing attention, though Rainbow Dash noticed and followed quickly after.
Two quick corners and they were back behind Sugarcube Corner. The afternoon sun still shone brightly down on Ponyville, especially the three fillies, but their peers were all inside the building and the hoof traffic stayed out front, giving them a measure of privacy. Scootaloo stood apart from her friends, spread her wings and gave them a brief, experimental buzz, then took a deep breath. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gave her encouraging nods, and with only a moment's hesitation more the orange pegasus filly closed her eyes and wrinkled her muzzle in concentration then flapped her wings as hard as she could.
She shot straight up into the air.
"Whoa!" she cried out and flailed her legs a moment, bobbing up and down a bit before settling into a comfortable hover. She stared down at the other two girls, who were beaming up at her. Then, they were jumping around each other in excitement.
"Yer flying, Scootaloo! Yer flying!" Apple Bloom cried out, while Sweetie Belle echoed her with a less articulate "Yaaay!"
"I am! I really am!" Scootaloo cheered, flying in a quick circle, then doing two backflips in a row before diving straight for Apple Bloom, tackling her into Sweetie and rolling with them into a tight hug against the wall of the bakery.
"You two did it! You fixed my wings!" Scootaloo cried, actual tears leaking out of her eyes. She sat up then and scrubbed at her eyes with a fore-leg a bit, "Heh, got something in my eyes."
"Well, they ain't FIXED," Apple Bloom warned, though it didn't seem to dampen the mood much, "because the potion will only last a couple days for things like… well, like this. Zecora says it's meant to fix temporary problems, but we tried real hard to give ya a day or two in the air. Now that we know how to do it, though, maybe we can make it again sometime."
"Yeah! Umm, Zecora said something about not overdoing it, I think, but we'll figure out something. Maybe some real flying will help your wings figure out how to do it on your own," Sweetie Belle added brightly, dusting herself off.
"Yeah, that's fine," Scootaloo said, biting her lip a bit and trying to keep her rebellious eyes under control. There was water in them and no wind to blame that on. Eventually she just hopped up into a hover off the ground to add a little distance to make her tears less obvious. "It's just… I can fly! For now, at least. You girls are the best friends EVER."
Unable to resist, Scootaloo zipped backwards again, flung herself upwards into the air and managed to turn a circle into a tight spiral towards the sky that ended in her stalling out, back-flipping and then diving into a loop that skimmed the ground in front of Apple Bloom and Sweetie. They were simple tricks, things she'd seen Rainbow Dash do for fun. Heck, even Twilight Sparkle could do them, but that didn't matter to Scootaloo. She was in the AIR.
She twisted mid-air and dove straight for her friends. Sweetie Belle yelped and dove behind Apple Bloom, who reared up and waved her hooves at Scootaloo in an attempt to ward off the inevitable. The resulting pony-pile found both earth and unicorn fillies being squeezed by the pegasus, Apple Bloom's eyes rolling around in her head dizzily while Sweetie Belle gaped like a fish and slowly started to turn blue.
"Can't… breathe…" Sweetie wheezed out weakly.
"Sorry, sorry!" Scootaloo relaxed her hold suddenly and hopped back, then with further thought buzzed her wings and lifted up into the air again. "I just can't believe it! Thank you girls SO MUCH!"
Unable to contain another burst of energy, Scootaloo spun another three-loop spiral in the air, then dropped back down to plant all four hooves on the ground and grin broadly at her friends, who were no less enthusiastic in their smiles.
"Heey, nice moves, kid," came a rough, cocky mare's voice from the roof of Sugarcube Corner. All three fillies looked up in surprise to see Rainbow Dash waving a hoof down at them from behind one of the chimneys.
"Rainbowdash!" Scootaloo cried out excitedly, flying directly towards and right into the fore-legs of her adoptive older sister. "Rainbow Dash, I can fly now!"
"Heh, heh," Rainbow Dash patted her awkwardly on the back, looking around a bit to see who else was looking. Only spotting Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Rainbow gave Scootaloo a more genuine hug before letting her go and holding her out at leg's length, "You even managed a few tricks. Took me a week to get Twilight doing those without face-planting! Good job, kid."
"D-do you think…?" Scootaloo asked suddenly, glancing out at one of the open fields of a nearby park.
"Sure! That's what wings are for, after all!" Rainbow winked and lifted into a hover beside Scootaloo with a single flap.
"Go ahead, Scoots!" Apple Bloom called up from below, "We're gonna… tell Pinkie! And get some punch. Yeah. We'll meet you two at the park in a bit!"
"Oh, yeah!" Scootaloo said with a grin, making a little room between herself and Rainbow Dash, "Race ya there!"
Scootaloo spun and zipped off as fast as her wings could carry her, which she noted wasn't as fast as she liked. Still, the laughing call of "Not fair!" from Rainbow Dash made her heart soar higher than the clouds, and soon enough they were neck-and-neck on their way to a day of flying at the park.
---
The last rays of the setting run spilled in through the open window of the Golden Oaks library, sleepy orange and red colors slowly washing over the books filling the shelves of the opposite wall. Two firefly lanterns and a flickering candle provided extra light for Twilight as she continued her reading, books on flight and theoretical studies on pegasus magic piled up around her reading cushion. A quill rested in an ink pot beside a stretched out scroll, but only a few meager lines of writing were visible, and a disappointment wrinkled Twilight's brow.
A soft hum escaped her as the disappointment faded and she opened up a second book to verify an idea she had just had, when the entire world exploded in stars followed by spinning and falling books. Coming to a rest against a wall, Twilight's spinning eyes focused one, then the other on the bright blue nose pressing against her own before flicking up to look into the magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash.
"It worked!" the pegasus cried out excitedly. Twilight opened her mouth to yell at her friend's rude interruption when the world suddenly lurched and began wobbling and swimming around as Rainbow Dash shook her by the shoulders and continued shouting, "It worked! It worked! It worked!"
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight finally called out, planting her hooves on Rainbow's chest and shoving the pegasus back to stop the wild shaking. She used a little more force than she intended, and Rainbow Dash ended up flopping backwards onto the reading pillow, but the pegasus was undeterred.
"Scoots was FLYING Twilight! Right up into the air as soon as she drank the potion!" Rainbow Dash was back in the air, flapping her wings excitedly. Twilight rolled her eyes and with a gleam of magic around her horn began to retrieve and sort the books that had been knocked around by her friend's explosive entrance.
"Yes, Dash, I know. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stopped by earlier to let me know before joining you and Scootaloo at the park," Twilight huffed, then let her expression relax before putting on a smile. "They were just as excited as you and couldn't stop talking about how happy they were."
Rainbow Dash folded her wings finally and dropped neatly to all fours on the library floor, flicking her tail and twitching her wings a bit. Twilight gave her a good-natured chuckle and returned to her reading pillow, prompting Dash to follow her and look over her shoulder.
"So, whatcha reading?" came the inevitable question. Twilight held up one of the two books that held her focus currently.
"Books on pegasus magic. Literally all of it is theoretical at this point. There hasn't been a single serious study of pegasus magic for centuries, and the few that happened before that were highly unethical attempts by unscrupulous unicorns trying to 'steal' pegasus magic for themselves. There are barely a hoof-full of cases like Scootaloo's that I can find, and all of them just gave up and claimed the subject was 'crippled for life' by the end of the study," Twilight tilted her head and glanced back at Rainbow Dash. Twilight recognized scorn when she saw it, and set the book back down.
"Quitters, all of them!" Dash snapped, somersaulting over Twilight with a twist to land back on her hooves facing the princess. "I won't accept that for Scootaloo. She was flying, and all it took was a little potion!"
"Relax, Rainbow. We're not gonna give up. We've got some advantages this time. First up, I'm a princess now, and have first-hoof experience with pegasus magic while still knowing and being able to use my unicorn magic," Twilight explained. "Princess Celestia never had the time to help with that sort of research during Luna's banishment and prior to that nopony was interested, that I can tell.
"Secondly, all of these studies apparently ignored the fact that there are spells that convert unicorn magic into pegasus magic. Specifically, the wing spell that I used on Rarity, as well as the cloud-walking spell the rest of us used to visit Cloudsdale. Third, we're all interested in this on a personal level, too. I'm sure we can do something for Scootaloo eventually, but it'll take time."
Rainbow Dash nodded slowly the entire time, paying unusual attention to Twilight's words. By then end, she was grinning fiercely again.
"I know you can do it, Twilight!" Rainbow beamed.
"I'm not going to be able to do it alone. I'll need your help, at the very least. But we've got a start," Twilight replied with a smile. She was rewarded with a tight hug from Rainbow, which she returned readily.
"You're the best friend ever, Twilight," Rainbow almost-whispered.
"Hey, I'm not the only one who's a great friend, Rainbow. You make a pretty great big sister too, from what I hear," Twilight patted her friend on the back gently. The hug lasted just long enough, then Rainbow let her go and hopped backwards.
"I'm gonna let you get back to your books, Twi. I need to get to bed anyway. Got another big day of flying with Scoots tomorrow before that potion wears off!"
"Don't let me spend the whole day indoors, in that case, Rainbow. I want to see you two flying as well!"
Rainbow Dash was gone in the next instant, and Twilight closed the window behind her with a brush of her magic. Friendship had once again beaten the odds and chased away sadness with joy. Twilight gave a happy sigh and brought her quill and parchment closer as the last light from the sun faded into night and the moon took its place in the sky. Nothing was solved yet; they all had a lot of work ahead of them, but Twilight knew in her heart they'd find a way. Together.