//------------------------------//
// And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind 
// Story: Just Winging It 
// by arcum42 
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Getting up late in the morning, Scootaloo went straight to breakfast, and was already out the door and scooting over to Twilight's before it occurred to her that she never did the sigil from last night. For that matter, she was supposed to be avoiding using her scooter due to how it was messing up her wing movements.

Oh well, she could start on that later, she supposed.

This time, when she got to the library, Twilight seemed to already be prepared for her.

"Hello, Scootaloo," Twilight said as she walked in. "I've got a few things to take care of today, but I've already told Applejack to expect you over at Sweet Apple Acres, so just go on over, and she'll be able to take care of your training."

"I could always go along and help you," Spike offered.

Twilight glanced over at him. "Nice try, Spike, but you still have a bunch of reshelving to do here today."

Spike looked down and his spines drooped. "Aww…"

"You can have some rock candy I got from Pinkie afterwards."

"Really?" Spike perked up. "Well, okay."

"Rock candy?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah," Spike said. "She makes it from real rocks!"

"Right," Scootaloo said. "I think I'd better go see Applejack and Apple Bloom. See you later."

So she went back to her scooter and started speeding along to the orchard. She might as well enjoy the speed and exhilaration that went with riding that fast before she had to give it up for her training. She laughed as she cruised through the streets, wind blowing through her mane.

She always felt like she could go anywhere, at times like this. Maybe not as far as the Crystal Empire or anything, but while she was on her scooter, she had freedom. Freedom to go wherever she wanted. And who knows, maybe she could make it that far.

Right now she was headed to somewhere a bit more local than that, though. As she saw Sweet Apple Acres in the distance, Winona ran up to her scooter, yipping excitedly. Scootaloo slowed down a bit and continued to the farmhouse, Winona running right by her side.

At least, Winona was right by her side until they got there. Then she ran over and leapt on Apple Bloom, licking her and wagging her tail as Apple Bloom made futile attempts to restrain her.

"Come on, Winona, stop it! Get off of me!" Apple Bloom said, laughing as Winona's whiskers tickled her face.

"Mornin', Scootaloo. Twilight tells me you wanted some help on building your endurance." Applejack frowned. "That she was trainin' you on the unicorn side of things with magic, Rainbow was doin' the pegasus side, and she wanted me to do the earth pony side?"

"Right!"

Applejack sighed. "Seems to me neither of you know much 'bout bein' an earth pony, then. I've got a few ideas, though."

"You're gonna help us carryin' apples!" Apple Bloom said cheerily, having finally managed to free herself from Winona's enthusiastic greeting.

"That's one of the things I figured we could do," Applejack corrected. "First, though, maybe you could do a couple laps around the orchard. You want endurance, you'll get endurance."

This was going to be a long day.

"Fine. Where do you want me to run to?"

Applejack pointed in the distance. "Just go over to the other side of those trees and go around them and back here without the scooter. Apple Bloom, why don't you keep Scootaloo company on the way?"

"Got it! Race you there, Scoots!" She took off, Winona bounding after her. 

"Hey, wait for me!" Leaving her scooter at the side of the farmhouse, Scootaloo chased after Apple Bloom.

She actually did catch up with Apple Bloom after a few minutes, but with the way she was running, Scootaloo was pretty sure Apple Bloom let her. As Scootaloo pulled up to her, Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue, and pulled ahead again.

Well, this wouldn't do. Huffing with the effort, Scootaloo pushed forward and caught back up with Apple Bloom, avoiding Winona, who was still running between the two of them, panting.

"Come on, wait a minute!" Scootaloo protested, laughing.

"Nuh-uh," Apple Bloom replied. "You're supposed to be trainin', right? Try an' keep up!"

Then Apple Bloom pulled ahead again. On her scooter, Scootaloo could have caught up easily, but she wasn't on her scooter, and it wasn't like her wings could provide her with the boost they did there.

Winona seemed to be keeping pace better than her, too, which was irritating. Up ahead, Apple Bloom looped around a tree and started heading back, so at least they must have at least gotten to the halfway point.

Soon enough, Applejack was back in sight. She was almost there! Pretty soon she could stop running!

"Hello there again, Scootaloo," Applejack said. "Seems like you're doin' pretty good. Why don't you go around a few more times until you've got the hang of it?"

Scootaloo groaned.





Scootaloo walked slowly back towards the farm, having given up on running near the start of this loop. Apple Bloom trotted next to her, not seeming nearly as tired, and Winona seemed up for more, panting alongside them.

"How can you just keep going like that?" Scootaloo asked, glancing over at Apple Bloom.

"You're just too out of shape," she teased. "Too much time on that scooter, and not enough on all four hooves. What 'bout all that fancy footwork of yours?"

"That's hardly the same thing! Hope we don't have to go around again, though," Scootaloo said as they got to where Applejack was standing.

"I think y'all can take a break for a few minutes," Applejack said, and held out two glasses. "Want something to drink?"

"Lemonade?" Scootaloo asked, in a surprised tone.

"Somethin' wrong with lemonade?" Applejack replied.

"I just expected something with apples in it, that's all."

"Who said it doesn't have apples in it?"

"You put apples in- no, never mind, I don't want to know."

Scootaloo grabbed one of the glasses and gulped it down. At least it was refreshing, even if it was some sort of weird lemon-apple-ade.

"So, Scoots, feeling all warmed up and ready to get movin'?"

"That was a warm-up?"

"I would've thought with all your scooting 'round, you'd have more stamina than that. We'll give it some time. Now, I been thinkin' 'bout what we can do to improve your wing strength. Stretch out your wings for me."

Scootaloo obligingly stretched out her wings, and was startled a minute later to find an empty bucket on either side.

"Now, follow me 'round, an' keep those there while we fill 'em up with apples. Usually me an' Apple Bloom'd do this, but today she'll be tossing 'em in as well," Apple Bloom looked particularly cheerful about this. "Let me know any time you think your gonna drop 'em, so we can give your wings a break for a minute."

Oh joy. 'Everypony hurls apples at Scootaloo' did not strike her as a particularly fun activity. Well, we'll see how it goes.

The three of them walked further into the orchard. Scootaloo was taking things slowly, trying to make sure she didn't get unbalanced or drop the buckets sitting on her wings.

Applejack placed a few buckets at the base of the nearest tree, backed up to it, and with barely a glance behind her, her hind legs connected with the trunk, showering apples down into the buckets below.

Apple Bloom ran over to the buckets, started hunting through one, and turned to Scootaloo. "Hey, Scoots! Think fast!"

An apple thunked into Scootaloo's side. Losing her concentration, the buckets fell to the ground. She sighed, tossed the apple into a bucket, and put them back in place.

Apple Bloom, kept going through the apples Applejack had bucked, looking them over, and every so often, tossing one in Scootaloo's general direction. Unfortunately, in her general direction still meant Scootaloo had to get to where she was tossing it in time, as well as make sure it hit the bucket and not her. Missing several apples in a row did nothing to improve her confidence.

The next few hours went by in a flurry of apples. Soon she was actually getting most of them, but had to frequently rest her wings, and she just knew they were going to ache from this. Eventually Applejack walked over to them.

"All right, I hardly want you strainin' your wings too much, so lets call it a day here. Seemed like you're startin' to havta rest pretty often anyway. Put down those buckets, and we'll get 'em back."

Scootaloo gratefully took the buckets off her wings. Apple Bloom grabbed one of them, Applejack took the other, and they walked back together. After detouring to put them away, they headed inside the house, and Scootaloo collapsed on their couch.

"You really need to work out more, Scoots, if you're that tired," Apple Bloom said, settling down on the end of the couch as Applejack left the room. "Thought with all those moves on your scooter, you'd be in better shape."

"The big thing there is that they were on my scooter. And it's not like I'm really in that bad of shape. Sweetie Belle is probably in worse, since I never see her doing too much exercise."

"You reckon we should get her to join us? Maybe we could do Cutie Mark Crusader Exercisers!"

Applejack slipped back in the room with more lemonade. Scootaloo sipped a glass before continuing.

"I dunno. Think that it could be an earth pony thing, being stronger and tougher and stuff, you know, like unicorns have magic an' pegasi have wings?"

"Fiddlesticks!"

That hadn't been Apple Bloom! Scootaloo looked up to see Granny Smith hobbling towards them.

"Earth ponies may be able to work harder, but that's hardly what makes earth ponies different. Some folks think 'cause we ain't got wings or a horn, we ain't as good as ponies that do. You wouldn't be one of those, now would you?"

Scootaloo flapped one of her wings limply. "I can't even fly. Why would I be looking down on other ponies for that?"

"S'pose not. You might be surprised how many ponies look down on us, though. 'Course, they still all come here to buy all their apples."

"I'm just not really sure what makes earth ponies special. Big Mac's real strong, and Apple Bloom was running circles around me earlier…"

A smug smile appeared on Apple Bloom's face. Granny Smith sat down to the other side of Scootaloo.

"Well, listen an' learn, youngin'. When you talk 'bout earth ponies, the key word to keep in mind is earth. What do you think of when I say 'earth', Sootaloo?"

"Scootaloo. And I guess dirt, plants and things. Farming?"

"That's part of it. There's the ground, an' everything in the ground. Roots, rocks, and things that burrow in the ground. Then there's everything that lives on the ground, all the animals and plants and such. Earth covers a lot, and we're all a part of it, earth ponies more than most."

"Okay, I guess. How?"

Granny Smith cackled. "You just feel it. You know the connections are there. Sometimes non-earth ponies can do it, too. Not often, but sometimes. It's usually ones like you, that have trouble flying or doing magic, too."

Huh. "How would I know if I could?'

Granny Smith got down from the couch. "Reckon we could go ouside an' see, Scooterloo."

Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up with you later."

Scootaloo reluctantly stood up, stretching out her legs and wings, not even protesting the latest mispronunciation of her name. "Okay. Catch you soon."

Granny Smith walked out the door, and Scootaloo followed her. Once the two of them reached a patch of grass below an apple tree, she came to a stop.

"All right, you're lookin' tired, so this is probably far enough. Just lay down by that tree there. It's easier if you ain't gotta worry 'bout lil' things, like standin' up."

Scootaloo certainly wasn't going to object to that. The grass looked soft and inviting, almost like a bed. She could easily lay back on it beneath the warm sun and drift off and daydream. Not that she should at the moment, but still, she settled down there snugly beneath the apple tree.

"Now, no sleepin', but close your eyes."

Scootaloo closed them and waited, trying to resist the temptation to just go to sleep.

"Now you just want to sort of feel outside of you with your mind. Focus on life, things around you, an' the earth an' what it means to you. Don' worry if you lose it right after you get it. Ponies usually do the first time."

Okay, feel outside of her… wait a minute. Wasn't this a lot like unicorn magic? And she knew how to do that.

She started casting around outside her the same way she had before for her magic core.

Nothing yet. Or, wait, there was that stuff about thinking about earth and life and such. She shifted focus, thinking about the earth and trees and rocks and living things and looked outside mentally.

Suddenly she was almost blinded. Maybe not really, since her eyes were closed, but that's what it felt like. It was like looking straight into the sun. She yelped and abruptly opened her eyes.

"Unless a bug just bit ya, I think you just got it. When I say everything's connected, I mean everything. Takes some gettin' used to. Try it 'gain, but just focus on that tree in front of you."

Scootaloo closed her eyes again, and cast out again, focusing in front of her where the tree was… and a thousand blades of grass, glowing like the sun! She dropped the connection and whimpered.

"Keep tryin'. You'll get it. Most non-earth ponies couldn't even get this far, so you already got somethin' to be proud of."

Well, that was something, anyways. She kept trying, and eventually was able to get a good look at the tree. She could sort of see a glowing outline of all the branches of the trees, with green patches that she thought might be leaves, globes that were probably apples, and the starts of roots that she didn't dare look down at, least she be blinded by the grass again.

"I see it," she said, keeping a fixed view of the tree.

"Good. Now this one has a nice healthy glow to it, but you can tell when a tree's doin' poorly or is sick. You get really good, you can kinda change the glow a bit, but that takes a long time. For now, see if you can stand up and keep seein' it with your eyes open."

She stumbled to her feet, eyes still closed. Then she opened them, and the weird juxtaposition of the world and the glow caused her to stumble back down to the ground again. Granny Smith helped her back up.

"Reckon you should open your eyes first, than worry 'bout where your hooves are at. Now, what you want to look at on the tree's the apples. If you look carefully, you should see lines going from them through the tree, an' they kinda tie together at one spot. Can you see it?"

Standing up looking at it, she could see that. It was almost like they were tied together in a knot somewhere on the trunk of the tree. She nodded.

"Now, back up to the tree, and give that spot a nice powerful kick with your back legs."

Trying to keep track of so many things at once, on her first try, she missed the trunk completely. Frowning, she adjusted her position, and kicked at it again, this time hitting the spot indicated. Scootaloo heard thunks all around her before something slammed into her head. Her double vision dropped, and she rubbed her head as she looked down at the apple that had fallen onto it.

"An' there you are, your first proper apple buckin'. Though when you get really good, you don't put yourself right below an apple when you do it. Why don't you have that one as a snack, then we'll gather up the others? No point in letting them go to waste."

Scootaloo vindictively crunched down on the apple. "So that's how you buck apples? And Applejack does this with hundreds of trees a day?"

"After enough practice, you can hold it without too much effort. And you don't actually have to keep it up, as long as you remember where the buckin' point was."

"Oh, okay."

"Thing is, as Apples, we're focused on farmin', so that's how we use it. Some ponies use it more for rocks an' things, and I think Filthy uses it for other ponies. Tellin' if other ponies are bein' honest with him an' how happy they are with a deal an' such?"

"And all earth ponies can do this?"

Granny Smith laughed. "No, dear. Some can't or never even try, an' a lot have it weaker than we do. But it's always been really strong with the Apple family. With the rate you picked it up, you might as well be an Apple, though. If you ever need a few extra bits when we're harvestin', we could always use a couple extra hooves."

Scootaloo looked down, flushing slightly. "I'd already been able to do magic when Twilight turned me into a unicorn, and this was kinda close to that, so I guess I wasn't really that new to it."

"Well, ain't that somethin'? You can do that fancy unicorn magic and you can see like an earth pony? No wonder you can't fly! Your magic's probably too busy goin' all over the place, tryin' to do everythin' else."

Could that be it? She'd really have to ask Twilight if that could be it. "I hope not."

Granny Smith grinned and slapped her on the back surprisingly hard for an old lady. "Don't fret your mind about it, Scooteroll. I'm sure you'll sort it out. Now let’s get these apples in and get you home, unless you were plannin' on stayin' for dinner."

The sun was getting a little low in the sky, wasn't it? How long had she been out here, anyways? Scootaloo started gathering up the apples and brought them into the barn, storing them with the others before heading back in.

Inside, she could hear a clamor from the kitchen, and peeping inside, she could see Applejack and Apple Bloom hard at work chopping vegetables. 

"Thanks for helping me train earlier," she said, feeling a bit awkward. "I'd better get home for dinner."

"Night, Scootaloo. I'll see you next week for more training, alright? Maybe by then I'll have come up with other exercises for you," Applejack called back.

"Night, Scoots! Maybe we can go crusading again soon!" she heard Apple Bloom say.

She glanced over at when Granny Smith was standing placidly. "Thanks for the lesson. I'll see you next time."

"It's my pleasure, young filly. You'll let me know if you need any more help, right?"

Scootaloo agreed, and quickly left. Grabbing her scooter, she scooted home at full speed. Vinyl greeted her as she came in. "Cutting it a little close, aintcha?" 

"Sorry," Scootaloo apologised. "Dinner hasn't started yet, has it?"

"Think you've got just about enough time to clean up and get to the table. Octy was getting worried you wouldn't make it, though."

She certainly didn't need more trouble on that front. "Thanks, Vinyl."

Detouring close to the kitchen, she called out. "I'm just gonna get cleaned up and get ready for dinner, 'kay Octy?"

"Finally," Octavia growled from in the kitchen. "Just be at the table in a few minutes, all right? And please get here in a more timely manner in the future, or at least try? I'd prefer to know if I'm making two meals or three."

"Sorry, Octy!" Speeding into the bathroom, Scootaloo quickly started cleaning up, washing her hooves and getting grass out of her fur and apple out of her mane. The grass stains would probably need a bath after dinner, unfortunately.

Dinner went uneventfully, though she got some glances due to how fast she scarfed everything down. Between the bucket exercise and her new pony-o-vision superpower, she was pretty hungry.

Honestly, she thought, as she polished off her food, between the vision thing, unicorn magic, and the whole sigil thing, maybe I should just don a mask and cape and become some sort of superhero.

She pictured herself scooting around town, cape blowing behind her, helping rescue ponies in trouble and kicking villains right in the bucking point. 

Would that even work? Do things other than trees have bucking points?

"Bathtime, Scootaloo!" Octavia called out as she cleared the table, breaking Scootaloo's chain of thought. "Don't think I didn't notice all those grass stains in your fur. Honestly…"

Grumbling, Scootaloo walked back to the bathroom and started filling the tub. I bet superheroes don't have to take baths.

Scrubbing herself down vigorously in the bathtub, she eventually managed to get the grass stains out, though it took some doing, and her favorite rubber duck didn't do much to help. Rinsing out her mane, she drained the bathwater and toweled herself down, resulting in her looking like a large ball of orange and magenta fluff.

She fanned her wings out a few times, shook some of the remaining water off herself, then ran a comb through her mane to stop it from sticking in all directions. She damped down her fur as best as possible, and headed upstairs to her room to do a little private preening and get her feathers back in shape. Baths were such a pain.

Afterwards she fell asleep on her bed, a small pile of feathers next to her.





Scootaloo found herself standing near a curtain. Having been backstage several times in the past for her mother's concerts, her surroundings were immediately recognizable to her, though she couldn't quite pinpoint where she was backstage. 

Looking in a conveniently placed mirror, she almost laughed, seeing the ridiculous-looking orange handlebar mustache she was sporting, as well as the tweed jacket and thin white hat.

Well, this is silly.

Scootaloo could hear something coming from behind the curtain, too. She listened closer, only to hear Pinkie Pie singing. "So let me introduce to you, the one and only Scootaloo…"

At the very least, she knew a cue when she heard it. Opening the curtains, she found herself standing behind a drum set with a microphone in front of her. Shrugging, she decided to go with it.

"What would you do if I sang out of tune - " She looked towards the audience. "Princess Luna?"

Princess Luna ascended to the stage sheepishly from where she'd been in the crowd. "Can you blame me for wanting to hear you sing?"

The crowd froze in place and dimmed out, as did most of the rest of the stage. "You wouldn't if you heard me sing. You didn't set up this whole dream for that, did you?"

"Of course not, my dear Scootaloo. I wanted to check up on you and see how you were. This whole dreamscape is your doing."

"Oh." She stepped around the drum set and walked over to Luna. "You wanted to know how I'm doing?"

"Yes. Your mood seems much improved since the last time we talked. I take it your training is going well?"

"I think so, though I won't know for a while. Thanks for all those books."

"It was nothing. My bookshelf was due for reorganizing anyways, and I'm glad to see them go to someone who has more need of them than me. What sort of training are you doing?"

"Well, Twilight turned me into a unicorn for a while so I could practice magic with her and build up how much magic I have, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are training me on the actual flying parts, and Applejack was working on endurance with me. And Granny Smith taught me this earth pony seeing thing that's pretty cool."

"You have been taught magic and how to tap into your earth bond?" Judging from her smile and the tone of her voice, Luna seemed genuinely pleased. "This is wonderful! You are making much progress indeed."

"Yeah but -" Granny Smith’s words came back to her. "Is doing all these different forms of magic helping? If I only have a little magic, should I be spreading it out like this?"

"Do not worry, dear Scootaloo, that is not how how magic works. Besides -" She coughed politely. "Forgive me for prying, but I've run what tests I can at a distance, and I think I know more advanced spells than that doctor or even Twilight Sparkle, given her limited years of study. You are not anywhere near low on magic."

"But -" Scootaloo sputtered. "Twilight! The doctors! The tests!"

"The tests showed that you can only access a small amount of magic, not how much you actually have. Look."

She turned to a table that wasn't there a moment ago, and placed an average drinking glass full of water on it.

"This represents your average pegasus. The water is her magic, and the rim of the glass-" She ran her hoof around the edge. "represents how much you can use at once. Now this-"

She set down a giant cup holding at least twice as much water on the table. On top of the cup was a lid with a tiny hole in it.

"- is you. You actually have more magic than normal, but you can only access a fraction of it at once."

Scootaloo frowned. "So I have a whole lotta magic, but can only use a little at a time?"

"It's rather more complicated than that, naturally. There are multiple channels, for example. But in general terms that is accurate. By using multiple channels to their limit, they all gradually expand, or at least, that's the theory."

"So I should keep with all the training and the sigil magic, then?"

"Sigils? What have you done with them so far?"

"Er, I created a sigil to help with my magic training and -" She glanced around furtively. "- Isummonedaneldritchcreaturefrombeyond."

Princess Luna arched an eyebrow at her. "What was that last bit?"

Scootaloo supposed she wasn't going to get away without telling her. She sighed. "I summoned an eldritch creature from beyond. I didn't mean to!"

"I can certainly understand your desire to summon things from beyond the void. I've certainly done more than my share of it in my time, though it's been a bit more than a thousand years since my last summoning," Luna said, taking a deep breath. "It's very dangerous, though. You can summon things that want to eat you or just parts of you you may want to keep, that go rampaging around town, or that can even become part of you or take you over. Be very careful."

Scootaloo gulped, hearing some of the things that could happen. "I'm not planning on doing it again, at least for quite a while."

"Good. You said you did a sigil ritual for your magic training. Have you done it for the others?"

Great, now two ponies were on her about that. "Not yet."

"Do so." The table and its contents vanished. "I'm afraid I must take my leave. Keep up the training, and I will be watching you. You will fly, Scootaloo, one way or another."

"Thanks, Luna! See you soon!"

With that, Luna was gone.

I suppose I should do the other sigils and such, I guess.

As the crowd came back to life, Scootaloo stepped behind the drums and adjusted the microphone. 

Tomorrow.