Letters From a Little Princess Monster
Lessons in Flight - Part Eight
Recoil
Neighton said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, with certain exceptions for spells and other magical effects. Unicorns tend to believe that the exceptions come first, and that any opposite reaction is a sign of poor spellcraft, while pegasi simply continue to pull clouds around the sky and bring the rain despite the protestation of any irrelevant rules made by unwinged ponies. Neighton was, of course, an earth pony with a large apple orchard, who was well regarded by all of his neighbors of all types due to his fame and his generous nature, particularly noted due to his research into loopholes in the powerful physical laws of nature such as gravity, inertia, and compound interest.
With social laws, all ponies believed in a much more respectful relationship. After all, anypony who fails to obey social laws and customs is a disruption to the natural order of things, which results in consequences for acting in a way that would endanger other ponies. It was generally accepted that a society is best represented by a herd, all working together for the betterment of all regardless of the differences within that herd. Each type of pony has areas in which they are naturally skilled and other areas in which they probably should not tamper, and it is these differences which fit together like notes in a song to make pony society into a powerful cohesive force, working in harmony regardless of the occasional sour note in their metaphorical concert.
The noon sun revealed one such sour note tramping down the dirt roads of Ponyville today, her head held low and her tiny hooves stabbing down at the ground with unusual force. Rage of such magnitude roiled off her soft coat that even Nightmare Moon would have given the little pony a wide berth, or at least so she thought. The objects of her ire were concealed well on this hot day, most probably hiding from her deserved vengeance for their terrible lies. Certainly they would cringe before her righteous indignation and beg forgiveness when confronted. Then they would cower at her hooves to confess their deceit to Daddy, and he would…
She swallowed away some of the road dust and tromped even harder down the path. It was a plan, and that was the important part. Daddy always said it was important to have a plan to make things predictable. Whenever they took a trip to Manehattan over Hearth’s Warming vacation, he had a strict timetable for their walk through the city and gazing at the lights, with specific stops at jewelry stores and restaurants where he allowed her to browse through their wares while he spoke with the employees quietly away from her. She would never evesdrop, but on occasion she heard the word ‘filigree’ over the quiet clink of bits and figured it was just for some project at work wedged into a few convenient moments during the whole carefully-planned week spent with his favorite filly.
It was those three blank-flanked menaces and their little friends who were at fault. They had turned Daddy against her and cooked up a whole pile of lies. They wanted to ruin her special relationship with Daddy that they never could have on their own. They were jealous of her beauty, sophistication, education, and grace. She had thought for certain they would be in the dusty old library working on another stupid scheme to get their hopelessly blank flanks adorned before school started, or maybe lurking around one of the sweets stores and sucking down sugar, but after investigating tirelessly across the town and actually spending ten bits of her own money on bribes, she had tracked them down to the shabby gym and weight room run by that oversized musclebound pegasus.
“Ah, HA!” she shouted as she kicked open the door to Snowflake’s Weights and Garden Rakes and pointed an accusing hoof. “There you are!”
Six sets of curious eyes looked up from a collection of ropes and items in the center of the room where the exercise equipment had been cleared away, paused for a moment as they stared at Diamond Tiara, then looked back down at something on the floor.
“So we can tie the ropes to the turnbuckle by Mister Biceps,” said Scootaloo, pointing at the muscular pegasus lifting weights at the other end of the room, “since it’s all braced up nice and strong against the wall timbers instead of those flimsy bookshelves at the library.”
“Are you thure Mith Trixie wathen’t hurt,” said Twist with a guilty glance back in the direction of the library.
“She told us to get out,” said Apple Bloom. “She was pretty forceful about it too.”
“Well, Scootaloo had just pulled a bookshelf onto her head,” said Sweetie Belle.
“It was a little bookshelf,” protested Scootaloo. “It didn’t even have too many books on it.”
“I hate you!” snarled Diamond Tiara, stomping forward with an acid glare.
Scootaloo returned the glare with one lifted eyebrow. “Really? We never would have guessed.”
“You made my Daddy mad!” Diamond snapped.
This time Scootaloo rolled her eyes before turning back to the diagram on the floor. “Anyway, we should probably pile some cushions against the wall there just in case something pulls loose.”
“Don’t ignore me, you flightless dodo!” shouted Diamond Tiara, stomping right up to Scootaloo and sticking her face right into her opponent’s as the rest of the little ponies scattered. Grinding one perfect pink hoof into the dirty piece of paper, she shoved her nose up against Scootaloo’s and snorted. “Well? Say something!”
The little pegasus bit her bottom lip and turned away. “Twilight says I shouldn’t be angry at you, no matter how much you deserve it.”
“Deserve it? What did I do to deserve having my daddy turned against me! You lied to him!”
“I didn’t lie to your father, that’s your job!” snapped Scootaloo with her head hunched down and her tiny wings outspread. “Every time somepony tells him what a mean bitch you are—”
“Scoots!” said Sweetie Belle with a little squeak.
“—how mean you are,” continued Scootaloo without a pause, “you’re always right there lying to him about how you’re so misunderstood and it’s not your fault.”
“It’s not my fault!” shouted Diamond Tiara right in Scootaloo’s face. “You little creeps lied to my father somehow and now he blames me for your stupid stunt!”
“Well, it is your fault!” shouted Scootaloo right back at her. “Even Princess Luna couldn't get that through your thick skull, so how am I supposed—”
“That was a nightmare!” snapped Diamond Tiara, taking a step back.
“That was real,” snarled Scootaloo with a matching step forward. “Twilight is right! You may be afraid of being just so hollow on the inside that nopony cares about you, but that doesn’t mean you can take it out on us!”
“I do not!” shouted Diamond Tiara. “You pathetic blank-flanks think you’re so special, flaunting your bare rumps all over town. Somepony has to stand up to you.”
“Stand up to us? Is that what you call it? All we want to do is earn our cutie marks, and you’re always there making fun of us when we fail.”
“That’s because you’re failures,” shouted Diamond Tiara, stepping forward to push Scootaloo back with her tiny pegasus hooves skidding along the floor. “The only thing you’ve succeeded at is making my daddy hate me with your lies!”
“We didn’t lie to your father,” snapped Scootaloo, shoving Diamond Tiara back a few steps.
“You did too!” snapped Diamond Tiara right back at her. “I tried to explain, but he ignored me! He always believes me when I tell him the truth!”
“What, that you didn’t have anything to do with making me go jump off Ghastly Gorge?” Scootaloo glared at Diamond Tiara with her ears tucked back and her little wings extended as far as they would go. “You lied to me! You lied to him! You lie to everypony!”
“I do not lie!” protested Diamond Tiara while stepping forward with a deliberate jab of her forehead into Scootaloo’s nose. “I always tell the truth!”
“I told the real truth to Princess Luna,” snapped Scootaloo with a vicious glare. “And Twilight wrote your father a letter so he’d know what you did to me, didn’t you, Twilight? Twilight?”
* * *
The town streets flowed past as Monster ran, just as hard and as fast as she possibly could through the tree-lined paths and through the occasional flowerbed that did not get out of the way fast enough for a straight-line trip to the library. Her heart was hammering away in her chest far too quickly to even think of a teleport spell, and flying was completely out of the question, but when she burst through the front door of the library and darted to Trixie’s side, her tension eased ever so slightly.
“What?! Trixie was just resting her eyes!” The ice pack on her head and the comic book that her teacher had been reading fluttered to the ground as Trixie bolted upright on the couch, propelled in part by the way Monster had jumped up on the unstable surface and accidently planted a hoof in a sensitive area.
The story of Diamond Tiara’s arrival in the gym and Scootaloo’s confrontation flowed out in a burst of words, making Monster’s tense muscles relax and the crushing sensation in her chest ease slightly. Trixie followed along with a series of sincere nods and the occasional encouraging word of her own, and ending on a thoughtful shake of her head when Monster finished with “So I ran over here to see what I need to do!”
“Really?” Trixie blinked a few times in the shadowed library and ran a hoof over her eyes. “Are you sure they’re not just blowing off steam? Because it sounds to Trixie as if the spoiled little b—” Trixie coughed into a hoof “—little pony got grounded by her father and she’s trying to take it out on anypony she sees. And Scoots has more steam than an overstuffed boiler about ready to pop. Maybe they just need to yell at each other for a while.”
“Well…” Monster cringed and stepped down off the couch. “If you think so.”
Trixie shrugged and patted Monster on the head with a yawn. “It’s my best guess. I can’t get inside their heads to see what’s going on, but I’ll bet it’s a lot like what you’re going through. Once ponies get all aggravated, they can only see themselves. After all, I’ve told you a couple dozen times that your parents love the feathers off you and that the only danger you face from them is excessive squeezing, but you can’t see that because you’re too worked up.”
Monster trembled, feeling the little knots in the back of her neck return until Trixie began to slowly work a hoof across her back, pressing against tense flight muscles until they yielded with a burst of pleasure. It was hard trying to figure out what her family thought of their daughter. No matter how much she concentrated, Monster was trapped in her own body and unable to see in from outside. Then again, Scoots and all of her other friends had done dangerous things that terrified Monster, and she still loved them despite and because of it. Even Trixie had good reason to be terrified of Monster, but had repeatedly risked everything for her instead. Perhaps it was a little like looking into a mirror and seeing yourself the way you were, instead of the way you thought you looked. After all, scales lied, particularly the one in the library bathroom that Trixie had ‘fixed,’ but mirrors only reflected what was actually there, sometimes a little twisted in the process, but still only a reflection of reality.
“Thanks.” Monster leaned her head against Trixie with a gentle nuzzle as she floated the comic book back onto the couch and placed the ice pack on the lump on Trixie’s head. “How do I fix it?”
“Age, I suppose. And not an age spell,” added Trixie with a sleepy return nuzzle. “Someday they’ll find a little colt or filly who is terrified of the world and all the words that they’ve heard over the years will come cascading back. I think it’s called empathy.”
“Pathos,” said Monster. “Feeling.”
“Yep.” Trixie yawned. “Learning how to see somepony from their point of view is a critical part of being Great and Powerful. Since you want to teach them, you’ll need this.” Trixie lifted her purple hat off the couch and dropped it over Monster’s head.
“Really?” Monster peeked out from under the edge of the hat at where Trixie was pulling some cushions together on the couch to reassemble her sleeping nest. “I can be a teacher?”
“Sure,” said Trixie with a wave of one hoof as she settled back down to rest her aching head. “You’re the responsible one in that mobile disaster zone. Go be responsible.”
With hesitant steps, Monster turned to leave, slowly at first, and then picking up speed as she passed through the door. Trixie settled down in the warm depression on the couch and rearranged the cushions for maximum comfort, floating the comic book over once she was properly situated.
“Kids,” she scoffed, trying to find her place. “Always making a big deal out of little things.”
Trixie would have been less nonchalant with her comment if she had noticed the dusty old spellbook from the Restricted section that Twilight had taken with her.
~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~
The confined space of Snowflake’s Gym echoed to the sounds of gladiatorial combat, with two little ponies rolling around on the gymnastics mat and flailing away at each other. Signs that the combat had been going on for a while were obvious. Diamond Tiara’s namesake tiara had been ripped off and lay to one side in a pile of bent wires and loose diamonds, while several feathers from Scootaloo’s little wings drifted around on the breeze. Even Bulk Biceps wore the sign of having attempted to separate the two fighting fillies, with the crimson stain of a bloody nose being tended to by Twist and a rather relieved look at Monster when she darted in the doorway.
“Do something, Twilight,” shouted Sweetie Belle. “Scootaloo will listen to you!”
“Apologize, you stuck-up snob!” screamed the pegasus in question, putting one little hoof squarely into her opponent’s face.
“Up yours!” shouted Diamond Tiara with a jab to Scootaloo’s unprotected stomach.
Even Featherweight seemed unwilling to descend into the melee for fear of becoming a mutual target, and Apple Bloom made a brief attempt at darting into reach in order to grab onto a tail only to collect a hoof to the eye, although it was impossible to tell which flailing pony had kicked her.
Instead of lunging forward to get her own face kicked, Monster flopped down the spell book and began frantically paging through it. Trixie had said the key to fixing this friendship problem was in getting each of them to be able to see the other from a different point of view, and there had to be a spell somewhere in—
She jammed the book open and read down the page while cries of “Leggo! Stop biting me!” echoed around the room and drove her heart into a panicked hammering. It was the best solution to the problem she could find, and Monster poured her energy into the spell just as hard as she could.
The resulting bolt of magic streaked across the room, smashing into the two fighting ponies and knocking them into a tumble across the mat and into the wall. It ended the fight, although from the groaning and moaning, it had not been a pleasant experience. Both Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo staggered to their hooves while shaking their heads, regarding each other with an angry glare that quickly turned into matching looks of panic.
“My wings!” screeched Diamond Tiara, groping around on her bare pink back with one hoof. “Twilight, where are my wings? And why am I pink!”
“Your freaky little friend shot me!” shouted Scootaloo. “Daddy is going to sue for every bit you own, you weird…” She trailed off, looking around the room at the six astonished little faces and Bulk Biceps, who seemed as if he were looking for the closed captions, or possibly cue cards.
“Scootaloo?” asked Apple Bloom, looking between the two battered little ponies.
“Yes?” It was not Scootaloo who answered, but Diamond Tiara, or at least the little pony who looked like Diamond Tiara.
“Oh, pickles,” said Sweetie Belle as realization began to dawn. “Scootaloo got her cutie mark first.”
“Does it count if it’s borrowed?” asked Apple Bloom.