2.4
Scootaloo trotted on the rolling surface with all of the tediousness the act deserved. her hooves 'thop-thop-thop'd upon the mat of the treadmill in a rapid, but stead stattico beat. Like suction cups. Maybe suction cups on jello. Jello would be nice. Anything would be nicer than what she was doing. Hay, her breathing hadn't even deviated from normal as she concentrated on continuing on. She would have thought an hour of galloping would have gotten her a little out of breath. "Is this it?"
Sunbeam sighed in defeat. "Yes." Seriously, what did it take to wear that filly out?
"Well, that's dumb. Just running around for an hour?" Scootaloo let the treadmill roll her right off of the back and hopped off at the edge.
"Just, she says. Short of a few Earth Pony athletes, do you know how many ponies can run an all-out gallop for an hour and not show any sign at all?" Sunbeam grumbled to the filly, shooting her a stink-eye that would make most flinch. Scootaloo just cocked an ear in curiosity as she tilted her head a little to the left. Of course she didn't know, why should she care? She was the one who could probably run faster than a speeding baker being chased by an alicorn.
"Wait. You want me to actually answer you?"
Sunbeam sighed once more, groaning in frustration. She could see what was really going on after extending her magic senses during Scootaloo's exercises. Her head felt the wrath of her hoof as she tried to keep from slumping in frustration at how... NORMAL Scootaloo found her feat. "No. Not really. The other ones beside those few athletes are a few high priority couriers in the pegasus air services like Mrs. Hooves, and the Princess-"
Scootaloo fell over laughing, gasping for air as her legs kicked above her as she rocked on her back. Sunbeam trotted over as the first few laughs died away, only to find herself growing ever more irritated as Scootaloo took one look at her grumpy scowl and burst into renewed laughter. The little pegasus wriggled back and forth and her wings buzzed wildly as she started hiccuping amidst her laughs. Sunbeam could wait. She had the time, and she spent it looking over Twilight's new laboratory and storage area until Scootaloo's giggles died down. "Are you done yet? I meant it- oh, stop that!"
Scootaloo started laughing again, snorting as she started turning purple from a lack of air. Her laughter finally cut short as Sunbeam carefully but firmly planted her hoof on the filly's soft, squishy, and ticklishly tender belly.
"Stop that. It's silly. I am being entirely serious." Sunbeam continued as she let up on Scootaloo. Her hoof hovered near the filly, letting her grab it to pull herself upright once more. "Not even Princess Celestia would be able to run for an hour as you did. I know, she tried after the Wedding Crash." Boy, that had been a stupid idea. She did need to exercise some more, come to think of it...
"She ended up stopping while foaming at the mouth from exhaustion. Princess Luna or Princess Cadance could, but they are silly ponies who do this sort of thing for fun. Your pegasus magic is just fine, and stronger than nearly any I've ever seen."
Scootaloo had enough of that sort of talk. She knew better than to think she was somehow better than a princess at anything. 500 times in the past year trying to take off had more than shown her that she was just a stupid, magic-less foal. The only pony who had ever been better at something than a Princess was Twilight, and she turned INTO one because of it. "So why can't I FLY?" Scootaloo wailed questioningly.
"You will, in time. But it will take a great deal more effort on your part, and you will never be as good as anypony who can fly instinctively." Sunbeam brushed Scootaloo's bangs back behind her ears as she reassured the filly. "How often does Rainbow Dash think while she's flying?"
"Think? Rainbow Dash? She kind of... uh, doesn't."
"Exactly."
"Um, you kinda lost me."
"I've done a bit of talking with your friends, Scootaloo." Sunbeam winced as Scootaloo's ears splayed back in worry at her statement. She was supposed to reassure, not worry her further! She picked up Scootaloo by the scruff of her neck and placed her up on one of the black granite lab table countertops and stooped so she could look the filly in the eyes. "They didn't say bad things, Scootaloo. In fact, they gave me an important clue which when added to your tests so far confirms what I've suspected all along."
"That wasn't needed." Scootaloo pouted as she sat back and crossed her hooves grumpily.
"I'm not going to talk down to you, especially not for this." Sunbeam said as she playfully beeped the filly on the nose with her hoof. Reaching back a bit further, she carefully spread one of Scootaloo's wings all the way to the fullest extent of it's span, letting Scootaloo see its structure. "You're not damaged physically, Scootaloo. Your wings, while small are still within standard pegasi sizes for your age. I know from accounts related to me that you are strong enough to hover on brute force alone for short periods." She moved Scootaloo's wing up and down, poking it with her free hoof as the movements flexed the terrifyingly strong muscle structure. "And I suspect that I know exactly what happened."
"What? What? WHAT!?"
"Do you know anything about your mother, Scootaloo?"
"No, nopony does. They just found me at one of the abandoned foal shelters with a partial birth certificate."
Sunbeam winced. That wasn't exactly the kind of news she wanted to hear. She had worked so hard to try and make them unnecessary. "Oh. Well, sometimes, when a pegasus foal is born with unicorn blood, or a unicorn parent directly, something goes wrong. Not down here." Sunbeam tapped the thick flight keel of Scootaloo's breastbone, right over her heart. "But up here where the brain controls the magic." Sunbeam noogied poor Scootaloo lightly. "Instead of instinctively controlling their magic and putting it through their wings properly, the foal instead develops the bit at the front that lets a unicorn consciously control their magic instead." Sunbeam let the faintest bit of the golden glow of her magic escape from the tips of her hooves and wings.
If one was feeling particularly poetic, one might say that Scootaloo's eyes grew three sizes plus one that day. The faintest keen of awed filly squealing escaped her as she clapped her hooves over her mouth and tiny sparkles of wonder glistened in the depths of her eyes. "REALLY!?!" Squeaked out of her like the peeps of a mouse.
Sunbeam heartily laughed, her voice growing a little deeper and developing the same royal undertones as most of the alicorns as she watched Scootaloo celebrating. "Yes, really. I could feel you consciously using it without you knowing what it was. You used the same effect that most pegasi use to keep their wings from growing tired to keep yourself running long after you should have given out. You'll never be a truly great flier, but with training I can teach you to use your magic properly just as Celestia taught me. Now, I-heeuuurk!"
Sunbeam's eyes bulged as Scootaloo bodily jumped from the counter and grabbed her around the neck. Scootaloo's wings buzzed in a craze as she hugged tightly enough with all four legs to bruise and cried unabashedly into the downy soft orange fur. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"
They collapsed to the floor as Sunbeam gasped for breath through the crushing hug. She knew she would never live it down in the Summer Glens if she died from being hugged to death by a 12 year old. Hooves desperately reached up and pried Scootaloo's limbs back just enough for her to breathe, and Sunbeam gasped deeply as soon as she could. "You know, the last pony who nearly killed me to death by hugs was named Twilight Sparkle." She wheezed as she kept the grip from growing back to full strength.
Scootaloo bounded off of Sunbeam, prancing about in circles with her head held as high as the skies as she lazily danced. Her gaze was slightly crazed as she went about with a smile wider than Canterlot on her face. Sunbeam coughed slightly to herself, rubbing her sore throat as the filly continued to celebrate, letting her have her fun. Of course, if Scootaloo's magic was more unicorn-style as she thought, there was one last thing to do.
"Before you get carried away, there is still a bit more testing left for you to do." Sunbeam smiled a little more and put a hoof to her mouth to hide her giggle as Scootaloo came crashing to a halt in a heap on the floor.
"Do I have to?" The filly whined.
"Oh, yes. Aww, now don't be like that." Sunbeam replied as Scootaloo's smiles and prances turned to pouts and glumly crouching on the floor.
Sunbeam trotted over to the tall shelves on one side of the room, gathering up mechanical components from the deep shelves. Some springs, the foam darts oddly placed within a magihazard box, and other such odds and ends. The old mare dropped the miscellaneous pile of... stuff on the nearest workbench before pulling over a work light and magnifier to shine on the space. If she was right... well... he-he...
"Let's see what you can make."
----------------------------------------
"Got any Discords?"
"Naw. Go Bucking."
"Gosh- uh, err, flarn it?" Sweetie Uncursed as she felt the gaze of Twilight shift onto her. Stupid cards. Stupid luck. Stupid Applebloom beating the nonexistent cutie marks off of her. Again.
Twilight's frown brightened back up into a smile as she examined her own set of cards. She had been getting beaten even harder than Sweetie Belle every game. Even in games of mathematical chance like Go Applebuck. It wasn't like Applebloom had any feathers to hide spare aces in, or anything. She had one of every single card, and she was mathematically certain she could get something out of Applebloom. "Got any twos?"
"Nope. Go Bucking."
"Oh, come ON!" She put a hoof over her mouth as the last part of her annoyed yell came out in the 'Royal Canterlot Speaking Voice' through her frustration.
"Aiiiieeeee!" THOCK! THOCK! THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK-THOCK! THOCK!THOCK! Thock.
Twilight scrambled to resort the cards of her hoof back into place as they floating back down out of the air from where she had thrown them in shock. The strange suction-cup sounds had erupted inside the lab, sounding like a flywheel or something else smacking something repeatedly. As everypony's heart rates settled down from chest-bursting to merely 'typical Ponyville hazard event', Twilight scooted back from the table. "Girls, stay here. I'll go and make sure that we don't need the fireponies."
Applebloom let Sweetie Belle crush her in terror as she hugged her back. It was either her or the nice big branch on the ceiling, honestly, and Sweetie Belle wasn't all that bad to be hugged to death by. "'kay. We'll be right out here. Ya know, trying not to wee ourselves in terror or nothing."
Grimacing, Twilight wondered what the cleaning bill for that would be if anything else happened. Ugh.
She cautiously opened the door, mentally checking fire off as the potential hazard as she failed to spot any signs of a great conflagration. Or anything else, for that matter. She fired up her aura around her horn and formed a crackling shield that fluttered with sun-shaded power fluctuations. "Nopony's dead in here, right? Or hurt?" Creeping around the door, she spotted one of Sunbeams wings sprawled over a lab counter next to a half-finished contraption with a barrel on it. "Miss Sunbeam!"
"Ow." The orange pegasus whined as her wing slumped off the counter. "My face hurts." She didn't dare stand up as Scootaloo fretted frantically on her chest while pulling at the things lodged into her fur all over her face and neck.
"I'm so sorry! I should have put something on it to keep it from firing!" Scootaloo babbled as she tugged again.
"Ow! Stop! Ow! Wait! Ow! Not that much harm done..."
Twilight rushed around to render medical aid. She knew this had been a bad idea from the onset! Horrific images of her other teacher dying painful deaths rushed through her head as she pushed back on the worry of a worst case scenarios. She could be getting turned into a parasprite, or have an artificial horn stuck on her that would slowly drive her mad, or one of her wings could be paralyzed- or... Or, Sunbeam could have a beard made of foam darts suction cupped to her chin. AAAAAAHHHH! She was clutching her eye, too! "Oh my gosh!"
Twilight dipped a hoof under a cabinet and pulled out a black eyepatch, roughly placing it on the pegasus's injured eye. The elastic band seemed to get stuck on something for a second before Sunbeam stretched it completely over her head and snapped it tight. "My eye probably doesn't need it, Twilight. But thank you."
"Oh, thank goodness Pinkie stashed eyepatches all over Equestria in case of an eyepatch emergency!"
Scootaloo's jaw dropped as she fell to her rump on Sunbeam's chest. "Did you just pull something out of a Pinkie Stash?"
"Well, that's what- they're there... for? How did I do that? I mean- I-.... snerk. Hehe..." Twilight trailed off as she looked at Sunbeam again. How had she missed that? The way that the foamy projectiles wriggled with each movement, the eyepatch and now thoroughly scruffy mane, the scowl on her face! Yes! It was... why did she find it so hilarious? Wait. "You look like a foamy beard pirate! He-he!"
Sigh. "Yarr."
Twilight just barely kept from falling over laughing while Scootaloo slowly slid off of Sunbeam, giggling all the way until she flopped backwards onto the floor. Sunbeam rolled onto her belly, looking with cross-eyed irritation at the two darts stuck just under her nose as she scrunched it up and wriggled, to the renewed peals of laughter. "Rather unlike you, Twilight."
"I- he-he- know! I don't know why I think it's so funny, but it is!"
Sighing, Sunbeam reached up to her chin to grab one of the foam darts, tugging it gently to see how much give it had.
"No, wait! Don't! I was studying those darts because they were enchanted by Discord! They'll fall off in a day, but if you pull them off yourself they turn you plaid!" Twilight pried Sunbeam's hooves off of the objects of her latest herself into a polychromatic nightmare that would leave Rarity screaming herself awake at night for a month. Heh. Heh heh. A plaid foamy beard pirate pegasus...
"Wonderful. Could you take Scootaloo out and send in Applebloom while I deal with the foamy death machine?"