December 27th
"You're going home already?"
"Yeah. Sorry, Scootaloo," Sweetie Belle smiled weakly through her winter gear, trying to look as apologetic as she could. "We've had...An emergency come up, me and Rarity need to get to Manehatten post-haste."
"Okay, well it was good to see you again. Cutie Mark Crusaders for life." Scootaloo smiled and put her hoof out, Sweetie Belle grinned and returned the hoofbump, giving her friend a quick hug before heading for the station. Scootaloo sighed to herself as she looked round, Apple Bloom had slipped town again yesterday and she was at a loss for which of her friends were left. That left an opening of another kind though. Quick Fix didn't have any jobs booked for today, now was as good a time as any to ask her questions.
As she headed back into Ponyville, Scootaloo let her mind wander to how she'd spent the last few months. Sure, she'd been focused on her training but it didn't feel right just letting her other focus go unheeded, this town had done so much for her over the years, it only felt right to give as much back. Most ponies assumed that she was one of the richest ponies in town with all her stunt work. In truth, she often negotiated to lower her pay and frequently donated a significant portion to charity.
"Hopefully I can make it up after the anniversary, a good show there would be worth thousands of bits." Scootaloo mused to herself, letting the thought slide as she reached Quick's house. To her surprise, it looked like he was out, a note left on the front door. She read through it quickly and looked back in thought, sure it was an emergency job but it also sounded like he'd been asked for a rush job. Scootaloo was no repairpony, but if nothing else, having somepony to help might let him work better. With that settled, she headed off, having a good idea just what she'd be seeing.
"So, how exactly do you manage blow out a wall section?" Quick Fix asked as he laid out lumber for the task at hand. Watching him and looking over the damage was a grey earth pony with darker grey mane, purple eyes and a treble clef cutie mark.
"You would be surprised just how much power I can place into music, Quick." Octavia replied, prompting a knowing nod from Quick. He'd been to a few concerts in his youth and from all the previous times he'd been called out to deal with what Vinyl Scratch was capable of, this much damage for her being in the zone seemed to be getting off lightly.
"I can only imagine. Luckily, most of this looks like it'll be easy to replace, I'll do my best to have a functional wall up again by nightfall."
"Thank you, sir. I'll leave you to your work," She nodded and headed off toward town. "Good morning, miss Scootaloo."
"Morning, Tavi." Scootaloo nodded to her neighbour in return as she trotted up and took in the sight. Privately, she wasn't sure if she was worried about the kind of damage Octavia could do, or surprised this was only the third time this year. At least she wasn't here when it happened this time, last time she'd had to scramble for cover from the wreckage and not having to do that again was a plus.
"Scootaloo?" Quick looked up at her, fighting back the instinct to ask what she was doing here. She only lived two houses down the street after all.
"Yeah, I didn't have anything to do today. Do you want some help?"
"I...Actually, yeah. Could you help keep these balanced?" Quick asked as he hoisted the new support beams into place. Scootaloo nodded and trotted over, helping him lift the wood up into place.
"So, I got some good news. The training's really working. I was doing the flag raising for Hearth's Warming and, well, I was able to control my altitude while hovering for longer than I ever could before."
"For real? Woah, that's better than I thought you'd be doing. I'm really proud of you, Scootaloo." Quick beamed down at her, waiting until he'd hammered the wood into place before stepping down and giving her a congratulatory hug. Scootaloo smiled and hugged him in return.
"Thanks, I definitely couldn't have managed it without you and your knowledge though," She smiled softly and started on the next beam, figuring now was as good a time as any to lead into her main point. "You learned a lot about pony biology for a repairpony."
"Yeah, I guess I did..."
"I, saw your other papers before. Learning about horn injuries, a piece on common afflictions. Why would you want to know more than what makes you special?" Scootaloo bit her lip as she stopped speaking, realising just how bad that sounded out loud. Quick looked down at her silently for a moment, Scootaloo met his gaze, her eyes silently apologizing for her words. He nodded and resumed working, the two of them getting the basic structure back up before Quick sighed quietly as he went to get more tools.
"I didn't always want to be a repairpony."
"I...Quick?" Scootaloo looked over at him with a touch of concern as he stood back up and resumed working.
"A name like Quick Fix, you'd think it's pretty set in stone, especially when you see me now. The thing is, there are a lot of things you can fix." He looked back at his cutie mark. "Before this showed up, I wanted to be somepony who helped others in a hooves on way. I kept running through all the paths I could take, a policepony, a social worker, a medic, something that could make a difference. Then one day I was helping my dad with the garden fence and I was enjoying myself, of course I was, I was a colt spending time with my family. It was enough for me to earn my mark. That was that as far as my parents were concerned, they put my focus onto household repairs and I was left confused as to if I'd been put on the path I belonged in."
"Oh...Wow, I..." Scootaloo had no words, she'd never considered the idea that a pony's special talent could be useful in more than one path. It made sense though, her own special talent was her stunt skill, which even at it's most basic could apply to either her scooter tricks or aerial displays...Just like her mother had been trying to explain. She nodded slowly, letting Quick continue.
"I've been questioning it for years, I mean, yeah I'm good at this but what if my talent is more than just fixing buildings. Like, fixing ponies...Truth be told, that's part of why I made the offer in the first place. Selfish as it sounds, I wanted to see if I had what it took just as much as I was aiming to help you. All those notes you saw in my house were from further studying I did at Princess Twilight's castle. My success here motivated me to keep going, to see if I could learn a new way to help ponies that stayed within my talent for fixing."
"That's...Well, admittedly, that's a noble idea," Scootaloo managed to comment, passing some tools up to Quick. "Though it's not like you don't help ponies with what you do here. Are you saying you want to turn your back on what you're good at for the chance you'll be good at something else?"
"I...err," Quick paused and looked down in thought, that was actually a good point. He'd never given the plan of what he'd do if he managed to learn new skills any thought. "I, never thought I'd actually stop doing this. Just that I feel like there's a lot more I can do."
"So, are you referring to the repairs, or to my training?" Scootaloo cracked a grin as Quick looked back at her, letting him know she wasn't being so serious this time.
"Hey, Quick Fix does not leave a job half done. This wall isn't going to be that hard to patch up and you, you're in the final leg as it is. You already have the instincts to fly, your body is capable of making it happen again and you're already making headway towards controlling it."
Scootaloo's smile widened and she spread her wings, looking back at them with what seemed to be pride before folding them back in. Together, they were going to make this happen, they were going to lift each other up, take what felt like the impossible just four months ago, reach up for their goals and show the world that even the mundane could feel like the incredible in the right hooves.