An orange pegasus sped through the streets of Ponyville on a blue scooter. "Coming through!" She used her wings rather than her hind legs to propel herself. She was pursued by a little white unicorn with a long pink and lilac mane that curled up at the ends, and a yellow earth pony who wore her floppy red mane tied back with a bow.
The fillies had been best friends for several years. Of course, they would no longer describe themselves as fillies any more, being of that slightly awkward age where a young pony starts to desire treatment as an adult, yet not so old that society would accede to that desire, except perhaps, from time to time, to placate them.
Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom no longer referred to themselves as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, partly out of a desire to not exclude Apple Bloom, and partly because they considered themselves too old to be in a foalish little gang with a uniform, and a pledge, and an initiation ceremony, and whatever else it was that they'd had back then. Of course they still hung out together all the time, often in the tree house which had once been their clubhouse, and from time to time Sweetie Belle would catch herself singing or humming the tune which had served as their theme song. But the three ponies were best friends, and no longer needed the excuse of the Crusaders to justify hanging around each other and trying lots of new things.
Scootaloo was incredibly fast on her scooter these days, and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were having difficulty keeping up, even galloping — as they were — at full pelt. She rounded a corner just as two ponies were emerging from a doorway and swerved to avoid them, only to go careening into a market stand, flinging its produce everywhere, and coming off her scooter. By the time Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom could catch up with her, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were standing over Scootaloo.
Diamond Tiara helped Scootaloo to her hooves. "Are you OK, Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo stood a little shakily. "Yes, I think so."
The market stall that she'd crashed into had been a cake stand. Pinkie Pie, seeing that the filly was unharmed, busied herself by clearing up the cakes which had fallen onto the floor.
Scootaloo was covered in cake too. She shook herself, and cake crumbs, icing, and sprinkles flew everywhere. "Hey!" called Silver Spoon, who had been pelted with cake, not just from the initial impact, but also this second shower of confectionary.
Diamond Tiara took her eyes off Scootaloo and saw her best friend covered in bits of cake. She tried to suppress a giggle, but it proved too difficult. Silver Spoon looked at her disapprovingly. "Sorry," said Diamond Tiara, "but you do look kind of funny."
Silver Spoon frowned. "Not Cool, Tiara!" She walked off with a huff.
Diamond Tiara turned back to Scootaloo. "You're alright, yes?" Scootaloo nodded. Diamond Tiara saw Silver Spoon disappearing in the distance. "I'd better go after her and apologise; otherwise she'll be in a mood with me all day." She trotted off after her friend.
Once upon a time, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had been mortal enemies of Scootaloo and her friends, but their growing maturity had mellowed them, and although the two groups were never likely to be best friends with each other, they'd at least developed a level of tolerance and respect towards each other.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom finally arrived at the scene of the crash. "What happened?!" Sweetie Belle squealed.
"Oh, it was my own fault, as usual," explained Scootaloo. "I was going too fast, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came out of the shop, and I nearly crashed straight into them." She turned to Pinkie Pie, who had finished clearing up. "Sorry about the mess, Pinkie."
"Oh, it's OK," came the reply.
"Why have you even set up a stand here anyway?" asked Apple Bloom.
"There are so many ponies that come to the market every day. Mr and Mrs Cake thought it might be a good idea to try setting up a stand so that ponies can eat cupcakes while they shop, without them having to go all the way to Sugarcube Corner!"
Apple Bloom was confused. "Sugarcube Corner?"
Pinkie smiled and started setting up the stand. "You know Sugarcube Corner, silly!"
Apple Bloom pointed. "Yes, it's the building right behind you. It's literally two pony lengths away from where you set up your stand. Why didn't you set up the stand further away, like, in the middle of the market?"
Pinkie shrugged and laid out a fresh batch of cupcakes at the stand. "Because then I'd need to carry the cupcakes all the way over there!"
Apple Bloom sighed.
Pinkie finished setting up the stand and hung up the "Open" sign. Apple Bloom's eyes shot open to see the stand immediately swamped with customers. She shook her head and walked back to see her friends, who were in the middle of a conversation.
Sweetie Belle picked bits of cake out of Scootaloo's mane. "You know, Scoots, you're really looking a mess." She looked her friend up and down. "And your wings are even worse."
"Well, I can shower and preen myself tonight," she said, "but I don't have time for that right now. I'm supposed to be meeting Rainbow Dash in just over thirty minutes."
"A shower would take, what, ten minutes?" asked Sweetie.
Scootaloo shook her head. "Sure, but it would take twenty just to get to my house. Then I'd have to dry myself, preen, get back… I'm sure Rainbow won't mind me being a little messy."
Apple Bloom interrupted. "Twenty minutes to your house? With your scooter skills, I reckon you could make it in five!"
Scootaloo held her scooter up for Apple Bloom to see. "With this scooter?" She held up another part of the scooter. And another.
Apple Bloom hung her head. "I see."
"You can't go see Rainbow Dash like this," Sweetie Belle asserted. "She's supposed to be giving you a flying lesson. How are you going to fly with all that gunk in your wings?"
Scootaloo was about to answer, but Sweetie had made a good point. "Oh!" she sighed.
"Look," said Sweetie Belle, "Rarity's house is just over there. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you borrowed the shower. Then you could preen yourself in the spare bedroom."
Scootaloo shook her head. "I don't have my preening tools though, and I'd be surprised if Rarity kept a set. Being a unicorn."
Apple Bloom was pretty sure she'd seen pegasus ponies preening each other before, but couldn't remember them using any tools. "Don't you just use your mouth?"
Scootaloo could tell she had some explaining to do. "Sure, if you're preening another pony, then you can just use your mouth and hooves to straighten out the feathers; it's easy and it's quick. But if you're preening yourself, then there are parts you can't reach. You need to use feather straightening tools."
"Then we can preen you!" shouted Sweetie Belle. "Cutie Mark Crusader pegasus preeners! Yay!"
Scootaloo was pretty sure that if it was her destiny to get a preening cutie mark, she'd already have it, and Apple Bloom had gotten her cutie mark months ago, but they both joined in with mock enthusiasm. And maybe Sweetie Belle would get a preening cutie mark — they seemed to have tried everything else!
* * *
Scootaloo stepped out of the shower and shook the water off. There was still about fifteen minutes until she had to meet Rainbow Dash, and she considered calling off this whole preening thing.
Mutual preening was something that normally only happened between close family and lovers. When your wings are outstretched and somepony has their teeth on them, you're pretty vulnerable, so you'd normally only do it with someone you completely trusted.
You'd occasionally hear about close friends preening one another, but it wasn't common. Pegasus wings are sensitive. It would be like asking a friend for a flank massage. Sometimes when you've been running around so much that your flank hurts, you could really do with a good rub there to loosen up the muscles, but how do you go about asking a friend to do that? You just don't. Still, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had offered, and Scootaloo trusted them more than anypony else she knew, except perhaps Rainbow Dash, so she didn't feel too awkward about letting them preen her.
They'd never preened before, but Scootaloo didn't think that would be a problem. There wasn't an awful lot you needed to know to preen — it just required a bit of patience and care.
Scootaloo walked through to the spare bedroom where her friends were waiting for her. "OK, girls," she said, "shall we get started?" She sat down between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and spread her wings.
Although she still didn't have the wingspan of an adult pegasus, her wings were quite a bit bigger than when she'd been a little filly, especially since her flight feathers had started growing. Apple Bloom sat by her left wing, and Sweetie Belle by her right wing. Scootaloo felt Sweetie's breath on her wing. "Hold on a minute!" She folded her wings and Sweetie recoiled.
"Before you start," explained Scootaloo, "there are some things you need to know about preening." The others listened attentively. "The aim is to get all my feathers clean and tidy. They should already be clean, so you don't need to worry about that. Any feathers that look bent or out of place, just give them a little twist and push them back into place. If a feather won't go back into place, then you need to pull it out. Now--"
"Pull it out?!" asked both girls in unison.
"But doesn't that hurt, Scoots?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Of course it does," answered Scootaloo, "but not much. It's just like pulling out a hair from your mane. And if a feather won't behave itself, then there's no other option."
The girls chimed, "OK".
"Don't bother with the little soft fluffy feathers. They're down. They do need to be preened occasionally, but we don't have time right now. You might see some small, hard feathers in some places. Whatever you do, don't pull them out. They're still growing, so they'll bleed and make a mess everywhere."
"Ewww!" said Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo spread her wings again. "You can begin."
Apple Bloom lowered her mouth towards the base of the left wing. She delicately twisted a crooked feather. She let it go and it snapped into place. She ruffled through the feathers with her hooves, looking for others that weren't straight.
Meanwhile Sweetie Belle found a feather in a sorry state. "This feather's completely bent over. The shaft down the middle has snapped. Doesn't it hurt?"
Scootaloo shook her head. "Of course not. Feathers don't have nerves; they're like hair. It doesn't hurt if you bend your mane hairs, does it?"
Sweetie Belle plucked the feather out and Scootaloo winced. "I thought you said feathers have no nerves."
Scootaloo sucked in breath. "They don't, but my skin does!"
"Sorry," Sweetie apologised and gave Scootaloo a gentle kiss on the part of the wing that she'd taken the feather from.
Apple Bloom was now methodically checking the feathers of Scootaloo's left wing, column by column. As her hooves carefully moved up and down, and her mouth twisted and adjusted feathers, Scootaloo felt a tingling sensation in her wings. It felt different to when she preened herself. When you preen yourself, there's no sense of anticipation — it's like trying to tickle yourself; that never really works.
Now Scootaloo knew why lovers would often preen each other. The tingling in her wings felt really nice, and under different circumstances she could imagine it being quite a sexual sensation. The thought embarrassed her, and she blushed slightly.
To an observer, Sweetie would have been moving her hooves over Scootaloo's right wing completely at random, but she had her own system. Rather than checking the feathers row by row like Apple Bloom, she was dealing with them in priority order. Straightening the most crooked ones first. Rarity's eye for perfection obviously ran in the family, and Sweetie Belle found it easy to spot irregularities in the pattern of the feathers.
Apple Bloom found one feather near the tip of the wing which looked damaged. The shaft was straight, but the soft little barbs were in disarray. It was such a big feather that it seemed like a shame to pluck it out because it was a little messy. She gently licked at the feather, straightening out the barbs.
Scootaloo felt a warm tongue on her left wing and took in a deep breath involuntarily. "Wuuhh-- what are you doing?"
"Calm down," said Apple Bloom, "I'm nearly done here."
Scootaloo noticed that her breathing had become rather heavy. She made an effort to breathe normally so her friends wouldn't think she was weird.
As Sweetie gave Scootaloo's wings a final stroke from her back right to the wing tips, she felt something soft brush against her belly. Scootaloo was flicking her tail from side to side.
"I'm done!" shouted Apple Bloom.
"Me too!" squeaked Sweetie.
Apple Bloom pointed to a clock on the wall. "And not a moment too soon. Scootaloo, you'd better get going. You were supposed to be meeting Rainbow Dash two minutes ago."
"Th-- thanks guys. I better hurry!" said Scootaloo, dashing out of the room. She tried to avoid looking over her shoulder so that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle wouldn't see her bright red cheeks.