//------------------------------// // Phobias and Dances // Story: The Adventures of Scootaloo and the Cutie Mark Crusaders // by SciWriter //------------------------------// “Rrrrr’ you sure we can’t fly a little lower?” Apple Bloom yelled. Honestly by this point I figured the speed would have finally made her forget how high we were, but no such luck. “She’s still watching the ground, we must need to go faster!” Sweetie Belle yelled. I shook my head, knowing exactly how to word what I said next. “I don’t know girls, I don’t think Rainbow Dash CAN go any faster.” BOOM! I felt my hooves ripped from the rope I was holding, and the one around my shoulders yanked me forwards. The wind slammed into my face and I felt it contort into different shapes as we went faster and faster. I tried to breathe but was having a serious problem pushing air back out of my lungs. Faster, faster and faster we went. I’m pretty sure if I could have spoken, I would have asked to slow down a bit, but well, like I said, I could barely breath. Finally I started to feel myself blacking out. However that was about the time we started slowing down. I think Rainbow Dash looked at us behind her and decided the ride needed to end. Course I don’t know, because my eyes were shut tight and I wasn’t able to pry them back open until I felt my hooves on land again. On the grass just outside Ponyville, I felt myself stumbling to my feet. My eyes wandered left and right of their own accord and I heard Rainbow Dash’s voice say something, but it was pretty muffled. Finally I had to lay down and wait for my brain to reset. “What was that about me not being able to go faster?” I finally heard. “So how was that Squirt?” “That was awesome!” Sweetie Belle yelled. Not wanting Rainbow Dash to think I was out of it after a single flight, I responded, “It was… okay.” However next to me I finally heard Apple Bloom’s response. “LAND, SWEET LAND! Ground, dirt! AH’M ALIVE!” I turned to look at her, kissing the dirt. “Ah’m never leaving you again ah swear!” “So, I’m guessing that did NOT cure AB of her fear of heights,” Sweetie commented, rolling her eyes. “Well I could just try going straight up,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile. “Get me outta dis thing!” Apple Bloom yelled, struggling to get the rope off of her. Rainbow Dash chuckled, walking over to help her out. “You guys wanted to do this,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Ya ah know, let me out!” “We still good?” “Yea, we’re good.” “Hold on!” I shouted. “I said today we would cure you and that’s what we’re going to do!” Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie looked at me cross eyed. “Rainbow Dash can you-“ “MOM! MOM! I’m your mom! I adopted you like three months ago, when are you gonna finally call me mom?” Rainbow Dash shouted. I just grinned. “Look it’s been fun squirt, but I gotta jet and clear the clouds before Twi gets on my case again.” “That’s it. That’ll work for sure!” I shouted. “Twilight! Rainbow Da- MMMom… mom… I’ll get it eventually. Can you drop us off on the top tower of Twilight’s house? We can have Apple Bloom stare and the ground from up there. That should cure her fear of heights. What do you think girls?” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “What do ya’ll think bout bein’ strangled?” Apple Bloom asked. “Guys, if she’s not up for it I’m gonna have to say no. I don’t want to have Apple Jack trying to kill me again.” Rainbow Dash said with a smile. I sighed, deprived of an opportunity to help a friend. Unable be helpful, I naturally felt the urge to be awnry. I grinned. “See ya later… momma Dash…” I said, reciting Rainbow Dash’s nick name from her friends. About to take off, Rainbow Dash stopped. She turned around a slight tick in her eye. “I’m sorry, what was that squirt?” “See ya Momma Da-“ I repeated… or tried to. However- WHAM! The adult cyan pegasus had me pinned before I could blink. I then started involuntarily laughing and struggling as she started poking my stomach with her hooves. “What’s my name?” she demanded. “Ha ha… crap… ha ha Momma Dash….” “Oh you think so? What’s my name squirt?” Finally the tickling was getting to be too much. “Mommyyyyy!” Mom stopped. With a smirk, the larger pegasus, drew back and shot into the air. “See ya kiddo.” I breathed in and out, laying on the ground, a little wiped out by that attack and the previous ride. After a few seconds, I finally rolled over and got up. “Scootaloo!” came a yell. I turned my head and saw one of our two new recruits to the CMC, the six year old colt Dusk. Normally the three of us didn’t choose to play with younger foals, outside of just being nice in general, however Dusk had won us over with two things. One, he could tap dance, something I WOULD figure out how to do. If a six year old can do it, surely an eight year old can, I would not be outdone! Second he had an older sister the same age as the rest of us. Lightning Strike was a pegasus who actually could fly and had a unique control over electricity. The colt ran up to me and skidded to a stop. “So what are you doing Scootaloo?” I smiled at him. I always tried to keep in mind the colt was waaay younger than me and tried to be friendly. He was kind of a cute little guy really. He was an earth pony, Cyan in color like Rainbow Dash with a dark blue mane with yellow highlights. I looked side to side. With Apple Bloom being a stick in the mud, half the afternoon was blown. We were supposed to cure her of her fear of heights today, hence the flying. However, as she kept looking to be hugging the ground, I supposed that adventure was over. I shrugged. “Not sure right now…. hey where’s Vinyl? She’s teaching your sister, maybe she can play a little music and you can show us more tap dancing moves?” Dusk looked at a house behind him. “I can’t talk to Vinyl right now. When she’s teaching Lightning I’m supposed to stay away. You see this head doctor guy-“ “Therapist?” asked Sweetie. “Yea that,” Dusk said, turning back to us. “Anyway the doctor guy says Lightning is really really overprotective of me so he’s trying to get her to spend time away from me. I could run and get Octavia. She likes to help me with my dancing. Besides, she’s really cool and I can’t tap dance on the grass anyway. C’mon follow me, there’s a sidewalk not far from Octavia’s house.” Dusk ran to Vinyl Scratch’s house… which I suppose she shared with Octavia, so he wasn’t wrong in calling it Octavia’s. Eager to get to it, I ran over to the sidewalk, Sweetie and AB following at their own pace. I watched the house of the two music sisters, Octavia and Vinyl for a few minutes. Finally I watched as Dusk practically dragged Octavia out saying “please” over and over. Octavia looked at little annoyed, however, seeing the four of us she sighed, put on a smile and set up her cello. She looked at Dusk as he joined us three fillies. “So do you want to show them what we practiced?” Octavia asked. Dusk nodded happily. “Well, at least some young ponies appreciate me over my sister.” “Well Vinyl isn’t available so-“ I started, but noticed I was getting a glare from the other two fillies. “You know Octavia is way cooler!” Dusk shouted back at me. No she wasn’t but I figured it best not to argue. Dusk was little so he didn’t know any better. Octavia reach down and patted him on the head, which he seemed to like. Octavia spun her bow like a baton and placed it against her cello. “From the top?” she asked. Dusk nodded and then spun around to face us instead of his teacher. Octavia’s song started off slow with frequent stops. During this stops Dusk would tap out a few notes. I started to give copying him my best shot. Next to me, Sweetie Belle wasn’t really trying to keep up at all, she was just listening to the music while Apple Bloom concentrated on watching Octavia’s playing. Suddenly the music sped up and Dusk stopped waiting for pauses, dancing right along with it. I was doing my best but as his hooves clicked in a great rhythm, mine only managed to keep in time with every fourth or so hit of the pavement. As he kept going I started getting frustrated. I figured I would try harder and started hitting the pavement harder and harder. “Ya know, River Dance is a lot easier,” Dusk said. “I’ve started picking it up in only a year. I’ve been doing tap dancing since I was four.” “I’ll get it!” I shouted. The music stopped, Octavia giving me a lowered eye brow stare. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be mean.” “Dusk can help you more directly with river dance,” Octavia said. “Why not give it a shot?” I sighed. I nodded my head to Dusk. The colt got on his hind legs, myself copying. We put our hooves together and as Octavia played slowly on her cello I let the younger colt lead me a little. The pace of the dance was pretty slow and easy at first, but as the music suddenly sped up, so did Dusk. “Keep one hoof on mine, but try to mirror me.” This worked somewhat for a few seconds until he pushed away from me and started tap dancing again. “I thought you wanted to river dance not tap dance,” I said. “I said I can help more with river dancing, I didn’t say there was no tapping,” Dusk answered back. I watched his feet go faster and faster on the floor. I started doing my best to keep up, but I swear it was way harder than tap dancing. Finally Dusk took my hooves in his again and started to guide me as the music changed. The song finally ended, me noticing Dusk was holding me. He didn’t appear to be trying anything, just smiling at me, but nonetheless that’s when Sweetie Belle finally spoke up again. “Isn’t this part where the dancers kiss?” she asked. “EWWWW!” Dusk shouted. However my reaction was quite different and involuntary. I went to shove Dusk off of me but instead slipped and struck him in the face. I fell on my back, the six year old colt stumbling back. I jumped back up, looking at him as he staggered. Dusk was smaller than me and I knew it was wrong to hit somepony younger than me, especially if he was only being nice. I felt so guilty. “I’m sorry Dusk, I slipped. Please forgive-“ But he started crying, the sound of it making a lump form in my stomach. I felt like such a meanie. As this continued I looked up to see Vinyl had apparently finished giving Lightning her music lesson. It was in that moment that I started to understand Apple Bloom’s phobia regarding heights. As I looked back ahead into Lightning Strike’s glaring brown eyes, I discovered I had a phobia of my own.