Chapter 2: My Fluttershy
“Okay, you all know the rules: no biting, no kicking, just pushing and pulling. New players, don’t make the mistake of flying around, it just makes you easier to push. You hit a wall or fall off the edge, you’re out. It’s three tries per round. Have fun, everypony!” Derpy called out as the final preparations were made.
Whimper, meanwhile, was pacing nervously along the arena he thought would be just for him and Scootaloo. He called Derpy over for a question. “W-Wait, did you just say this is a competition?”
Derpy turned to him, landing on a stepping stone cloud as the arenas were lifted a little more for better vision. Some of the other coaches gave the walls some taps, and the woven mist gave nicely. The walls were just like a wire fence, only more cotton-like.
“Sure it is, silly! You’re Doldrum Whimper, right? You’re paired with Rumble for the first round. Good luck!”
Whimper shook his head as the grey pegasus made to leave and the crowds of older kids -- presumably more contestants for different weight classes -- swarmed around the arenas like adolescent hornets while the seats on a higher vantage point filled with the standard spectating crowd of disaster tourists.
“But I didn’t sign up for any… Scootaloo?”
A squee and a very unsettling smile answered him, and next thing he knew she was standing right in his personal space. “Told you I’d get even. Look on the bright side, I’m paired with Zephyr. I’ll give him a little humble pie for ya.”
Whimper whimpered, the bruiser’s wings locked in abject fear. “I-I don’t suppose I could just forfeit?”
To that, Scootaloo shook her head and tapped his chest in reply, her own little flappers spread to make her look bigger than the colt. “Oh, no. You’re gonna wrestle whoever steps into the arena with you, and you’re gonna do whatever you can to win. ‘Coz if you don’t, I’m gonna have to keep finding ways to get even for making me look bad.” She leaned in close for effect. “You seem like a nice guy, Wimpie, but if you wanna hang out with me, you need to learn to stand up for yourself.”
Whimper grimaced as Rumble entered the arena. He gave the filly a glare of attempted defiance. “My mom warned me about girls like you.”
“Sirens who lure you into exciting adventures?”
“Harpies that drag you to certain death.” He groaned.
She chuckled, happy to at least get some response out of him. “Well, you just try your best.” Scootaloo hopped off along the clouds to face Zephyr.
Whimper, resigning to his fate, groaned as he approached Scoot’s classmate and squared off right in front of him. He shook his head at Rumble. “I’m really sorry about this.”
This got a confused look from his opponent.
Scootaloo grinned and pressed her head against the jock’s, determined to put him in his place. The two were already pushing back and forth, and the crowd they’d drawn seemed to disapprove of their early aggression.
“Begin!” their judge called out.
Zephyr swiped at the filly’s front hooves, making her lose her footing for just a moment as she jumped up. With that slight moment of weakness, the youth pushed forward and knocked her over and back. She tried to correct herself by flapping her wings, but one powerful flap of his own wings and a thrust of his hind legs gave the lavender colt the momentum to tackle and toss her into the makeshift cloud cage.
“Nice moves, chicken-wing. In case nopony told you, beating losers like you is what I do all day,” the bolt-tailed colt boasted.
Scootaloo gritted her teeth and stepped back to the centre. Without a word, she waited for the signal.
The attack came in fast, simply trying to careen over her in one swift motion. Instead of backing down, though, she bent low and made a full-body swoop to get the angle on Zephyr’s exposed underbelly. With a calculated step back, a tap to his hind legs and one little shove to get him off his hooves, she got the drop on him. The motion got him off the ground and his full, clumsy weight on her. Rushing forward before he could correct, she flipped him off her neck and into the walls.
The boy grunted as he got up. “Okay, no more Mister Nice Guy.” He bumped into her head rather harshly before squaring off for the last round.
“You wanna play rough? Fine.” Scootaloo smirked mirthlessly. She still had one secret weapon the bad apple star didn’t know about.
Their third round started with both of them going straight for the shoulders, neither wanting to give the other an inch as they turned the wrestling into a shoving contest.
Naturally, Zephyr had the advantage in brute power, pushing the filly back and out of balance.
Until Scootaloo started flapping her wings, that is.
Once the tell-tale hum of her wings filled the air, even Zephyr’s own powerful flaps did nothing to halt the filly’s advance. More disconcerting was his inability to dislodge his arms. She’d pinned his hooves under her shoulders to keep him steady in her grip. His hind hooves dragged uselessly over the cloud as Scootaloo managed to push him back. To his shock, he couldn’t even try to lift her or push her sideways. It was like she was glued to the ground, only it didn’t slow her down. Her grin was what really scared him, though.
Scootaloo got a little more friction on her hooves than what she got moving on her scooter, but it was close enough. Pulling carts wasn’t exactly what wings were supposed to be used for, but having done a lot of it she knew exactly what she could do with the buzzing things. They were useless for getting lift, but when it came to trucking forward, she had a downright unfair advantage, and she was determined to make the most of it.
Step after confident step, that ominous buzzing spelled certain doom for the cocky jock, slowly edging him forward with nothing he could do about it. She allowed herself one moment of triumph before giving him the final shove. “In case nopony told you, trucking on these chicken-wings is what I do all day.”
The older kids gave her a light clopping of the hooves, the pony equivalent of applause. Zephyr grunted and flew off with Skyron in tow, no doubt back to their ballgames.
“Ah, cloudwrestling.” Rainbow Dash flew up to the stage clouds of Doldrum’s arena, her unicorn friends using the cottony stairs to keep up. ”Best game ever.”
“Looks like Whimper won the first round,” Twilight remarked as Rumble was being peeled off the safety walls, with the spikey-maned colt looking a little shocked at his own strength and apologising profusely. The older fillies and colts nodded with a look of respect, and some of the coaches were giving Dash a look that asked ‘One of yours?’
“Yep. Shame he’s going to have to lose, though,” Dash replied.
Twilight frowned at that. Lyra grinned as inappropriately as always. “You’ll see, Twilight, just wait.”
Whimper was pacing around nervously, really not liking the attention he was getting.
Okay, so I beat the first one fair and square. There can’t be that many ponies in my weight class, right? A few more rounds, and I’m home free.
As it turned out, there really weren’t that many ponies signed up in his weight class. He glanced towards Scootaloo’s arena, who was now facing a lanky teen at least half a head taller than she was and definitely heavier. Her opponent was about two years her senior, with a little growth spurt thrown in for extra kicks.
“Huh?” Whimper raised an eyebrow as, with a turn of the head, he noticed that Scootaloo wasn’t the only one who’d gotten punched up a weight class.
Right in front of him stood an ocean blue-green colt with a white and cyan mane, about three years older. He was bigger, heavier, and without a shadow of a doubt a lot better at this game than Whimper was. As the smaller foal looked up in fear, his opponent just gave a gentle smile to comfort the little guy.
The smile did not help.
Twilight frowned. “Wait, they have to fight older ponies now?”
“Yup.” Lyra rubbed her hooves together in a manner that was normally reserved for spectators of gladiatorial fights.
“But isn’t that unfair?”
“Yup.” Rainbow Dash smirked.
“I don’t get it.”
“Well, you wanted to see how we learn to fly, right? This is how we learn to be a good sport.” Rainbow Dash made a point of facing her friend as the sound of little kids smashing into the cloud walls served as background music. She wanted this to be clear and sink in.
Twilight, unlike Rainbow, kept her eye on the fights themselves.
“These aren’t just mock fights or games, they’re a test and a lesson. The little ones have potential, but they have nothing to compare against except each other. So in the first round, you see who’s best of the litter.” Another crash into the clouds came, this time from Scootaloo’s arena, signalling her loss of a best of three. There was no way she could beat someone that much bigger than her.
“But the older ones don’t enter the competition from the first round. They start off against the smaller, younger ones who won their first round.” Rainbow Dash kept her gaze on Twilight to make sure she was still listening.
”Seeing what the big ones can do, first-hoof, gives the little ones someone to look up to. It gives them something to look forward to when they grow. And it gives the older ponies something even more important, a reminder of what it means to be bigger and better. See, these are kids who’ve been getting growth spurts. They wake up one day, bigger and stronger, maybe even cockier. But when your opponent is that much weaker, and when the rules don't let you fight for real, you have to be careful. You learn to use your strength the right way,” the mare narrated as if she’d had the exact same lecture when she was a filly, which was more than likely the case.
“Not if you’re a bully. This is a perfect feeding ground for complete jerks, isn’t it?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “You would think that, but there’s always the next round. The older ponies are all watching you, checking what you can take, what you can’t. And they see how you treat your opponent. If you deliberately hurt your opponent, if you abuse the loser, whoever you face next gets even. That’s the rule: someone gets hurt, someone else gets even. Doesn’t matter who, doesn’t matter how many rounds it takes. The bullies always get a taste of their own medicine.”
“But you’re still putting little foals in a match they can’t possibly win.”
“Exactly. They learn, right when they’re little, that there’s always someone better. And with the example their opponents set they learn that being better doesn’t give you an excuse to be mean. No matter how good you are, you always lose at some point. At least, that's idea. Not everypony gets that right away.”
"But that doesn't go for whoever actually wins, right? Eventually you run out of opponents who can get even.” Twilight rubbed her head as she tried to picture it.
“Kinda, but not really. Every round the opponents get stronger, and whoever beats the strongest camp members has to face a grownup. They face the best fighter on the staff.” Lyra grinned at the thought. ”It's sudden death, too, one shot, you're out. I hear this year we’ve got a black belt on our crew, so that should be fun to watch. No kid can beat a grownup, certainly not the best fighter on staff. In this game, loss is inevitable.”
“So yeah, anyway, even that big kid isn’t going to get past this round.” Rainbow Dash lazily settled on her cloud, not even watching the proceedings.
“He just did, actually,” Twilight remarked.
Rainbow Dash barely had time to gasp as Whimper squared off against yet another, slightly bigger colt. His previous opponent got back on his hooves and gave some helpful advice. “Be careful around that one. He’s not... normal.”
The victorious Doldrum Whimper, meanwhile, was clicking his teeth in absolute terror. He did show the courtesy of checking if his opponent was okay, but his primary concern was his own physical integrity. After having stretched his previous fight to see if he couldn’t lose fairly -- which had failed, miserably -- said integrity was beginning to face a very real risk in his mind.
His matchups just kept getting bigger and they were probably starting to realise that they shouldn’t hold back against him. Truth be told, he was beginning to wonder what would be worse. Should he fight to the best of his abilities and risk injuring or getting injured by the bigger kids, or endure more of Scootaloo’s ideas? A brief thought of what else the filly might have in mind was the only motivation he had for not throwing the fight or just assuming the fetal position right then and there.
“How did he do that?” Rainbow Dash wondered aloud.
As his opponent swiped for his front hooves, Whimper pushed himself forward and sideways to push the bigger colt to his right. Caught off balance, the bigger pegasus flapped his wings in a reflex to back away, but Whimper just stuck to him and got on his hind hooves. Even as his foe took a wobbly step back, he positioned his front hooves against chest and belly, and one hind leg in position to trip him on the way back. It didn’t even look like he was doing that much, it was one swift motion. It was the perfect set-up for a fatal counter, and he did in it one move.
Just like that, he gave a good push, sending all of his weight into it to send his opponent flying.
And still he didn’t look happy about it. Scootaloo watched him from her own spot nearby, sipping apple juice at the entertainment after her graceful loss in round two. She briefly considered walking up to him, but she didn’t want to resort to using the stepping stone clouds in front of a crowd. Those things were for babies and unicorns, and she didn’t have a horn. She also lacked a wrestling cutie mark, but having seen sumo ponies she figured that cutie mark would probably have looked like a diaper of sorts, so it wasn’t that big a loss.
Whimper was, at least, impressive. It was one thing to be as strong as he apparently was, but he didn’t just rely on brute strength. Even as his opponent moved to unbalance him, he corrected and countered without so much as dropping a beat. He flipped the older colt with his neck under the belly as a coup de grace, almost juggling with what would have to be a superior adversary.
“I think I’m starting to like this kid,” Rainbow admitted with a wicked grin. Another flip, a roll and firm push of the back hooves, and the third kid fell to the Whimper once more.
“It doesn’t look like he’s doing that much. He just moves sideways and forward when his opponent moves forward, instead of moving back to defend. He defends and attacks at the same time, using circular motion instead of straight lines of offensive power. He’s good, but it’s just basic physics.” Twilight smiled in admiration, though. Her brother would have loved to see this to appreciate the aesthetics a young combatant could deliver.
“Yeah, I know that and you know that, but how does a little kid know that?” Rainbow half-laughed. Everypony seemed to want to cheer for the little guy, but it was considered bad form to do so for cloudwrestling. You just don’t cheer in a game that’s designed to have the crowd favourite lose, not before the game is over.
“Maybe it’s his special talent. He’s a blank flank, still. His talent could involve feeling out an opponent's moves.” Lyra had broken out a camera to tape the whole thing. Twilight’s brother would no doubt love to have this on film to scare the new recruits.
Everyone swarmed around Whimper’s arena now. He was literally shaking in his hooves, even though he hadn’t been brutal or disrespectful to any of his opponents. None of them had so much as a bruise, but nopony could figure out how he was doing it. His previous opponents were as confused as the rest of the crowds, and as impressed. His last opponent was the only sixteen-year-old who’d signed up, Twilight guessed it was the staff member. It might have been some kid on a summer job, and he wore a black belt, but even he soon looked shocked as his sense of balance just seemed to head off on a lunch break or something.
Twilight sighed. “But Whimper doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself. I’m pretty sure someone tricked him into signing up.”
“No kidding. Scootaloo’s grinning like crazy. I’d say she did it to toughen him up a little.” Rainbow smirked, carefully examining the colt’s moves. They looked oddly familiar, maybe the Cilindricus style of fighting. But it was definitely improvised, not learned behaviour. His moves were way too erratic for any sort of teacher to have instilled them, going from herky-jerky panic to smooth combat in the heat of the moment. She wasn't even sure if the kid really knew what he was doing. He looked too scared to be a seasoned fighter, but apparently it was close enough for this sort of competition.
Twilight turned to her friend, her tone sharpening with her gaze. “That’s not funny, Rainbow. If she did, I’m going to want a word with her.”
Rainbow Dash frowned in confusion. She felt she was missing something here, and it wasn’t the usual sort of missing. “Okay. If you think that’s best, you do what you need to do.”
Meanwhile, the panting Doldrum Whimper was receiving a mild applause from beating yet another bigger colt. Someone with a black belt, no less. Twilight squinted and noticed the belt wasn’t the usual sort used in martial arts, but looked more like a utility belt with the items taken off. Someone handed the kid his little pouches to clip back on, which confirmed the unicorn’s suspicions. It also brought to mind another important detail.
Nopony had declared Whimper the victor of the competition yet.
“Wait. That wasn’t --” Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash had taken off. She also noticed Lyra was grinning, which in her experience meant something dramatic was about to happen.
The gears in Twilight’s head turned. Little clicks were made as all the connections fell into place. The last opponent was a staff member. The previous opponent had apparently not been a staff member. The last one would be the best fighter on the staff. This year the last fighter was a black belt, a fact which had been emphasised such to suggest that previous years they did not have this black belt available. So whoever was the last fighter was someone who was coaching here for the first time.
Like clockwork, the facts twisted and turned in Twilight’s head. And like the hammer hitting the bell to sound the passing of time, Twilight’s hoof struck her forehead to sound the painfully obvious. “Of course.”
Doldrum Whimper was looking around nervously. He watched the walls of the cage and anxiously waited for his next and hopefully last opponent. A big, hulking white bodybuilder pegasus with red eyes stared intently at him. Snow Flake read the colt’s mind and shook his head, then pointed a hoof past him.
The shadow appeared behind Whimper. Rainbow Dash gave him the last words he wanted to hear. “Your last opponent… is me.”
As he turned around, what courage he had left sank into the tips of his hooves, his ears dropping to match. “I think I want my mommy now.”
Rainbow Dash leaned in to nudge his head. She whispered to him just to make things clear.
“Hey, don’t feel bad about having to fight me, or losing. It’s part of the game. See all those kids watching you? They think you’re awesome for getting this far. And they want to see you do your best. So you put up a good fight, okay? I promise I’ll go easy on you, but only if you do your best. Make it look good.”
Twilight Sparkle’s hoof hadn’t left her forehead. She couldn’t bear to watch, even though averting her eyes wasn’t an option. Lyra was floating half a dozen cameras around by now, determined to get this fight recorded from every conceivable angle for posterity’s sake, for Royal Guard training purposes, and of course for her own guilty pleasure.
As the last match started, the unicorns could hear the poor boy’s whimpers and little shrieks as Rainbow swiped at his front hooves, then shoved him from one end of the battlefield to the other. He put up a good fight, alright, showing perfect form at every roll and sidestep. His hoofwork was fast and balanced, not one counter-push he made didn’t have his full body weight behind it, but to no avail. Whatever advantage he’d had over his other opponents was all but absent in his last matchup.
Rainbow Dash was having a good time, obviously. She felt like a little filly again, playing the game that taught pegasi their most important lesson, yet ironically was the most awkward game for them to play. Having to stick to the ground wasn’t natural for them, doubly so in a combat situation where they’d have to fly backwards to correct their balance. However, Dash had the dexterity, coordination and reflexes of a professional, and pretty much danced around the hapless kid.
He didn’t give up. He took every opportunity to try and unbalance her after her own attacks fizzled, which Twilight could only assume was because Rainbow Dash wanted the fight to last nice and long. Rainbow’s catcalls of “Nice one!” and “You almost got me that time!” only served to put more of a show as the two gracefully yet swiftly exchanged pushes, shoves and trips.
Doldrum Whimper failed to appreciate the aesthetics of it. The blue bruiser yelped at every speedy attack, despite correcting and countering perfectly every single time, if only in the nick of time. Twilight felt sorry for him, especially when he started getting tired. After a few minutes his positioning was slowing down, his legs were looking wobbly and his head was beginning to hang limply from the exertion, that one spike of hair falling in front of his face again. Eventually he just stood still, panting.
The little guy was spent.
Rainbow Dash smiled down at him, regardless. He’d lasted more rounds than normal, and stood up to a grownup who knew what she was doing. With her opponent too tired to protest, she slowly trotted over to his side and nuzzled his belly. He giggled at the unexpected affection.
Then she flipped him.
After all, it was tradition.
The crowds erupted into cheers and applause. Rainbow Dash spun around to face everyone, one hoof extended to accept and channel the praise, then brought down to direct it at the one who deserved it.
“Your cloudwrestling champion: Doldrum Whimper!”
The net-like cloud where he’d landed was empty. Whimper was gone, slipped away when nopony was looking. Scootaloo had run off as well, no doubt in hot pursuit, and Twilight was most likely on the hunt for a potential lecturing victim. Dash gave it some thought before addressing the crowds.
"Huh. Okay, Whimper’s not a crowd pony, I guess. I’m gonna go see where he is. The rest of you, as you were, we’ll just have to save the applause for dinner.”
Whimper trotted towards the nearest building as quick as he could to hide in the shadow of the walls. He sighed and panted, trying to catch his breath and slow down his heartbeat to get it out of his personal danger zone. He sat himself down, alone with his thoughts.
A swish stopped his thoughts from getting too far. He groaned and looked up sadly. “You know what I hate about being up in the clouds?”
Rainbow Dash leaned over the edge of his sheltering cabin, looking down in a mix of sympathy and pure giddiness. “Zero privacy? Yeah, I’m kind of a bigshot like that. I can clear a city’s sky in ten seconds, flat. Checking the entire camp site doesn’t take me that long.” She came down to face him, then sat next to him in the shade. ”So why’d you run off like that? You’re not hurt, are you?”
Whimper shook his head. “I just don’t like ponies looking at me like that, is all.”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Like what? Like you just did something you should be proud of? That’s kind of funny, ‘coz I never get tired of that.”
The blue colt, just a shade darker than the mare, chuckled softly. He made himself small, as if cowering in fear of her. “I guess. But that’s just it. I’m… really not that good. I don’t want ponies to start expecting me to be, because, well...”
She shuffled closer and spread a wing over his back. He felt chilly to the touch, no doubt from the sweat he’d spent. “Hey, you’re under my wing now. You're supposed to get better, just give it some time. And let me tell you something, what I've seen from you so far is pretty impressive. You've got good reflexes, and you've got guts. Don’t worry about what you can’t do, what you can do now is way above the curve.”
The little colt cringed, though he did seem to relax under the stretched wing. “Really?”
She nodded. “Really. A Peregrine Dive is a tricky thing to do, and catching somepony in mid-air without getting them hurt is tricky, too. Plus, you’re a good wrestler, even if you don’t really know what you’re doing.”
He blushed and made himself smaller again. “Umm… that was just luck. I-I’m not that good at fighting, not really. The other ponies just let me win.”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. There was something about him that seemed familiar, and it wasn't just him looking or sounding like Fluttershy with his whisper-like voice and his mane. She'd seen him somewhere before, but she couldn't quite remember where.
“You’re kinda weird, aren’t you? You don’t do sports, you don’t like crowds, and you still look like a bruiser. And anypony who’s that good at something would know better than to say they let you win. What do you do all day, anyway?”
Whimper looked away from her. “I just help out on the rock farm near my house or my town’s cherry orchard when school is out. That’s pretty much what I do every day until dinner comes around, and after that I just do… stuff. Nothing important.”
Rainbow Dash leered at him. “Kid, don’t try that talk on me. I know an athlete when I see one. You don’t just hang out on farms and lug stuff around, you’ve got a dedicated program that just happens to go unnoticed, I can tell. You don’t get to look the way you do without pushing your limits. Now that I think about it, you probably shouldn’t be doing that to begin with. I mean, look at you, that kind of build takes time, especially at your age. Doesn’t anypony keep an eye on you?”
He shrugged. “Sure they do. I usually hang out with my friend Peachy on the rock farm, and my aunt Blossom never lets me near the cherry sorting machines without her being there. Peachy’s pretty much always around me, she’s nice, and a good laugh. But we don’t talk much, well… she does most of the talking, I guess. We help out with each other’s chores, that’s all, and her parents think she’s safer around me. I’m not too sure if I’m safe around her sometimes, though."
That got a chuckle out of the mare. "So you do train to get stronger, right? Ever try any competition?"
"Once, but that didn't really count. I just try to do something to get my mind off things, that’s all. So I did some exercises for a while to get bigger, and now I help out on some farms to stay big. It makes me feel like I can do something. Plus, all the grownups like me, and I get pie. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to, if that’s what you mean. And I’m happy, sort of,” he clearly lied, at least part of it.
A few gears turned in Rainbow Dash’s head, or rather tried to turn, since a spanner had gotten stuck in the works. “Your friend Peachy lives on a rock farm? I’m guessing she’s an Earth pony with a peach colour, little yellow in the mane, maybe?”
Doldrum Whimper nodded.
Judging from what she knew and past experiences, Dash could guess the implications for the young colt. She'd seen a Peachy at a talent show once, but she hadn't connected the dots then. “Is she really lively, does her tail twitch whenever there’s trouble, and is her last name 'Pie'?” That last word she added with a sense of dread.
“Oh, you know her?”
For the briefest moment, Rainbow Dash had vision, or a daydream. It involved Doldrum Whimper trying to shove a massive boulder up a hill with a filly Pinkie Pie expy jumping up and down on it in encouragement. It also involved the filly driving everyone in her class up the walls, except for the one shy colt who just thought she was weird. Said shy colt would more than likely tag along with her and provide zero counterweight to any crazy ideas she had, leaving them both headed into trouble.
An impressionable bullhead and a younger version of Pinkie Pie? Whoever’s teaching that class is either highly trained or highly medicated.
Get it together, Rainbow, you don’t even know that girl. They’re probably just perfectly normal kids… the same way Scootaloo and her friends are perfectly normal. And you know how well that turns out most of the time.
She shook those thoughts away for a later nightmare, right now she had more urgent concerns. “Never mind that. I just need to know, have you ever gotten hurt from trying to carry anything too heavy? Have you ever -- I dunno -- crashed under the weight? Any injuries that might pop up in practice?” She moved her wings back and forth a bit, just to get him to unwind.
Doldrum tilted his head, still nervous and pensive but a little more comfy under the light blue wing. “No injuries, no. I just push rocks around once the moss and herbs are harvested, and load up cherry baskets ‘till I can’t take any more. I get to the point where it burns, but never more, so I can keep going the next day. My mom’s a dietetic nurse, she knows what I’m supposed to do and when I’m supposed to stop. I do push-ups, too, and ab crunches. I got a program from a magazine to get to a hundred crunches, but I’ve only gotten to 75 so far. Peachy and my mom check the schedules, I don’t really do that much. I just follow their advice.”
“You don’t do that much? So your friend is even bigger than you, then?”
He raised his eyebrow, surprised at the question. “Umm… no? She doesn’t do that kind of thing, she just got me into it because she thought I’d like it. And I do.”
“Then I’d say you still managed to do a lot, kid. Even if you had help, you still had to do the work on your own, don’t forget that.”
He smiled weakly, staring at his tree trunk arms. “I know. Not that it matters. It doesn’t help my flying at all. I’m just slow, always have been, so I’m always left behind. I can’t speed up, and nothing works.”
There was what she needed to hear. “So you bulked up instead, and kids still pick on you, huh?”
“Uhuh. But at least I don’t get beaten up that often. It could be worse.”
“Have you tried standing up to them? You know kids only pick on you because you let them, right? No matter how strong you are, they’ll keep going if you don’t fight back.”
Whimper tensed up again. “I know. But if I fight, then ponies get hurt, and I get in trouble. I’ve tried fighting back, but grownups keep telling me fighting’s bad, that I shouldn’t. So I don’t. It’s not like I won’t fight back if I really have to. I just don’t like doing it.”
Dash nodded. At least he realised what he was in for. She tried to get the facts straight so she knew what she would be in for. The little tension he got at the thought of violence confirmed another suspicion, but one that required a little more subtlety.
“So you just lug stuff around on your own, and you’ve been lugging heavier stuff to get stronger. And that’s all you’ve been doing for a while, with a filly who talks to you but you don’t talk back to keeping you company. And when things get too much for you, your first instinct is to find a little corner to be alone, is that right?”
A solemn nod answered her.
“Well, I guess you can finally say your hard work’s paid off. You won the cloudwrestling fair and square, and all the older kids will respect you for that, even if your classmates don’t. Nopony’s gonna give you a hard time here, not if you don’t let them. And just so you don’t run off in a sad little corner like some emu kid, I’ll ask Twilight if she can’t set up a little book corner. I noticed you brought a book along, you can read in quiet there if things really get to you. Does that sound all right?” She leaned in with a friendly look.
Whimper smiled up at her. His back had warmed up again, it seemed. “I think I can handle that. But mine’s not really a book you read. It’s more a book you read to other ponies.”
“Oh. I’m sure Scootaloo would love to hear you read it, then. And I’m pretty sure she’ll stick up for you if Zephyr and Skyron ever get out of hand, too.” She winked.
“Are you kidding? That Scootaloo hates me! She’s not gonna be satisfied ‘till I’m going home in pieces!” Right on cue, he went rigid under her wing again.
Rainbow Dash laughed as she got up. “Don’t worry, I know Scootaloo. She doesn’t hate you, she’s not like that. If anything, she’ll like you even more for what you did, and she’ll give those jocks a run for their money if they try to prank you. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff she’s pulled back in Ponyville. Trust me, she’s your friend.”
The colt got to his hooves. “Okay. If you say so.”
Rainbow Dash smiled down at the little guy. She’d get him to open up soon enough. She led the way as they headed back. “You know, you look kinda familiar. Ever been to Canterlot? Like, I dunno, field trips?”
He looked away. “A couple.”
“Let me give you a little tip, then. Next time you go there, you should get your class to go to the Phoenix Garden. That’s where the Royal Guard’s flyers train, and the Wonderbolts. They’ve got this Wall of Fame corridor with pictures from any pegasus who’s made the news. You know: breaking speed records, heroic saves or fighting monsters.” Rainbow Dash checked his reaction to that last one.
He was blushing furiously. She was sure of it now. “I-I’m pretty sure it’d be off limits for me, and my class. Thanks anyway. ”
“Give up already, Whimper, I know your little secret.” Dash patted him gently with her wing.
His eyes went wide, his body froze. “What do you know? And how?”
To that, Dash chuckled. “Last time I was in Canterlot, your name and picture were hanging right next to mine.”
“Scootaloo, can we talk?” Twilight came up behind the filly.
“Urgh, you’re not gonna tell me to be nice to Wimpie, are you?” She saw it coming a mile away, and wasn’t about to roll over to a lecture if she could help it.
“No, I was going to tell you to be careful with him.”
“Huh? Come on, you saw him, he’s strong as an ox. He can take it. I just want him to start acting like it. I can’t wait to see what else he can do.” She giggled as she jumped up excitedly. Seeing him throw those bigger colts around was definitely something she’d never forget, but she suspected she could get him to do more. Scootaloo only regretted not having her friends around to see it too. They’d never believe her.
Twilight shot her a disapproving look. “That’s not what I meant at all. He’s not the one I’m worried about.”
“What? You think he might beat up those bullies? That’d be so cool.” Scootaloo rubbed her hooves together. She knew he’d win soundly, too.
With a sigh, Twilight lay down to get to Scootaloo’s eye level. “You really don’t know anything about boys, do you?”
“No offense, but do you?” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, knowing full well that was a fair point as far as Twilight was concerned.
Twilight smiled sheepishly, but didn’t let the remark break her resolve. “Not all boys, I’ll admit, but I know Whimper’s type well enough. I grew up with a colt just like him, my best friend, even. He was friendly, a little shy. But then, well, something happened, and he shut himself off. He decided he wasn’t strong enough, so he started working on that.”
Scootaloo wasn’t buying any of it, but Twilight’s reputation as a lecturer was enough warning not to argue at this point. Better to get it over with now than to have to endure it in front of everypony else. “So what happened?”
“Me and him got picked on by... some pony, I can’t even remember who it was exactly. We told the grownups about it, they said we had to learn to stand up for ourselves and for others. He didn’t take that very well. He started locking himself away, got angry at every little thing. All the fun just went out of him, just like that.” Twilight looked almost sad, but it still smelled like an act to the filly.
“Okay, stop right there. I understand what you’re trying to say, but really? Am I supposed to believe you, of all ponies, had a best friend who was just like Wimpie? Come on, I was on the school newspaper, remember? Everypony knows you hardly knew anyone in Canterlot. What’s next, you gave him a card on Hearts and Hooves Day, he was finally happy, and now he’s your special somepony?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Actually, he’s my brother.”
The image of Shining Armour smiling at his wedding flashed through the filly’s head. “Wait, your brother? From the Royal Guard? How… what--”
“He didn’t get any help from our parents, or from any teachers. They said it was his fight. They all told him he had to face up to his responsibilities as a colt, as a stallion. So he bulked himself up as much as he could and started trying attack spells he had no business even knowing existed. He got pretty close to getting his hooves on some weapons, too. Shiny wouldn’t let me out of his sight for protection and he barely talked. He toughened himself up, just like you want Whimper to toughen up. Take my word for it, when they get to the point that the pain of failing is worse than the pain needed to grow, you do not want to push them further.”
“So what happened? Did the bully back off?” Scootaloo asked worriedly.
“Kind of. One night, we were eating dinner, and my brother walked in. He finally had his cutie mark, that sparkling shield.”
Scootaloo smiled at that. Cutie marks were good.
“And a dislocated shoulder, a black eye, bite marks on his neck, claw marks on his back and lightning burns on his belly.” The unicorn winced as that one image was firmly implanted on her mind, even if she couldn’t remember the exact circumstances.
Scootaloo mimicked the wince. “Wow. That sounds rough.”
“Oh, that’s nothing. You should have seen the other six, they were just mangled,” Twilight replied casually. She almost sounded proud of it in retrospect.
That finally broke Scootaloo’s composure. Six on one, presumably with one of the six being a griffon, and one being a unicorn, mangled? This did not compute.
“See what I’m trying to say? Whimper’s type isn’t one you want to push any farther. You know how hard it is to get stronger or faster, and I think you can guess how much effort he put into getting as strong as he is now. If you start mocking him or get it into his head he should start getting violent, he’s going to think violence was what he should have started with in the first place. You saw what he can do with kids bigger than him, and he was holding back. What do you suppose will happen when he snaps on you?” She leaned in at that question.
The filly shook her head slowly. “He wouldn’t. He’s a pushover, I’ll bet he even brought a stuffed animal along to sleep with.”
Twilight tilted her head with a look as if Scootaloo had just announced bananas were red. “You do realise the flaw in that logic, don’t you?”
“What flaw?”
“You think it’s safe because he’s a pushover, yet you’re trying to get him to stop being a pushover.” Twilight looked Scootaloo in the eye for added effect.
At the thought of what else she had planned for Whimper, and the intended results, combined with this new data, the filly’s face turned pale. She just wanted him to feel better, not make a bully out of him. But then, she’d have bully him into it, too. “But I just want to do him a favour. He might even get his cutie mark if he just got over his nerves.”
Twilight raised herself back up with a smile. “Good. I’m glad you feel that way, because I’ve spoken to Lyra about your punishment and we agreed that you should do a dance for the cloud fire tonight, in front of the whole camp. Signing someone up for a fight against their will isn’t something we tolerate here in Flight Camp. And since you’re a good dancer, we figured we might as well get creative.”
Scootaloo shook her head furiously. “Wait, what? No, please, not that! I can’t dance in front of a crowd!”
“But you’re good at it. Very good, even.” Twilight kept up her innocent look.
“Doesn’t mean I wanna do it in front of everyone! Suppose I mess up? Then everypony will laugh at me.” Scootaloo pondered faking an injury at this point.
“But you’re not going to mess up because you’re good at it. In fact, you might even get your cutie mark that way.” The unicorn gave her the usual grin, knowing full well that was a fair point in Scootaloo’s case.
“No, I won’t. I’ll be too busy stressing out about tripping over my hooves, landing on my head or getting laughed at because of my wings to get anything on my flanks. Look, if you wanna punish me, fine. But please, I’m begging you, don’t make me dance in front of everyone. I’m just not good enough.” Scootaloo let her head hang.
Twilight looked down in sympathy. “Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. But you certainly don’t feel good enough for it, do you? The same way Whimper doesn’t feel good about showing his strength in front of others or about fighting, like you were planning to make him.”
Scootaloo groaned and bumped her head into Twilight’s front legs, given that there were no walls in bumping range. Walked right into that one. “Okay, I get it. No poking the bullhead. I’ll just leave him alone.”
“You don’t have to go that far. I’m sure the two of you will get along fine. Just don’t get into trouble, okay?”
Scootaloo groaned. “Fine.”
“I knew you’d see things my way.” Twilight smiled triumphantly. She glanced back to see Whimper and Rainbow Dash heading back from whatever corner the colt had sought out. He hung his head when he noticed Scootaloo talking to Twilight.
“Um… are you telling her to be friends with me?" Whimper winced.
Twilight was going to say something, but the cloud next to her suddenly poofed up and next thing she knew Scootaloo was already standing next to him.
“Don’t worry about Twilight, she was just warning me not to do that to you again, or you’d break every bone in my body.”
The colt raised an eyebrow, Dash suppressed a giggle. If he had one of Pinkie Pie’s family in his class, chances were the boy had some experience with fillies getting in his face. That thought brought the idea of Doldrum Whimper and Peachy Pie meeting the Cutie Mark Crusaders into her head, and the resulting image of a mushroom cloud made her shudder to her core.
Whimper blinked obliviously as he tried to make sense of what Scootaloo had just said. “Umm... okay?”
“And don’t worry, Wimpie, even if you’re a little soft, you are officially awesome enough to hang out with me. You're pretty tough when you want to be. Hey, you could be my Fluttershy!” Scootaloo exclaimed. The two headed off at their own pace, somewhat preoccupied with each other as the grownups took the front.
“What’s a Fluttershy?” he asked sheepishly.
That got a chuckle from the mares. Twilight Sparkle turned back for just second. “A very good and very strong friend of ours. You sort of talk like her, actually. But it’s a good thing, trust me, and it suits you. Kind of.”
“So if you want me to rough up Zephyr or Skyron, I’ve got your back. And you have got to show me how you threw those kids like you did.” Scootaloo started ranting just a tad. ”Oh, and do you dance?”
He blushed and flattened his ears. “Never. I-I can’t really move all that fast for too long, so I try not to move when I don’t need to.”
Scootaloo let that sink in for a bit. If he didn’t have a lot of stamina, he would have to compensate in strength. It made sense to her. “That’s okay, Wimpy. I’ll show you some of my moves if you show me some of yours.”
Whimper looked her in the eye with an almost sad expression, as if sensing some sort of mockery. She stopped, taken aback by it. “What’s wrong?”
Whimper looked away and kicked at the ground for a moment, or what passed for the ground up in the clouds. “Ssoooo… are we friends now?”
Scootaloo smiled brightly. “Of course we are. We’re both blank flanks, we’ve both got awesome moves. You look out for me, and I’m gonna look out for you. Why wouldn’t we be friends?”
“Well, if we are… could you not call me ‘Wimpie’, please?” He grimaced ever so slightly.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight turned their heads for just a bit as they caught that, not wanting to ruin the moment.
Scootaloo suddenly felt a little pang in her chest. “Oh. I’m sorry, I thought it was just a funny nickname.”
“It’s not. It’s not the worst thing I get called, but it still kinda stings. My friends call me 'Whimper'. Or ‘Bullhead’, but after that one movie it’s got kind of a weird ring to it.” He rolled his eyes at the thought. Thankfully, the movie in question wasn’t very popular. Twilight winced, though, as she had seen it. The titular character had added some very unfortunate associations with the term. Twilight was sure the boy would never be associated with that one, though, it was just too obscure.
“That’s kind of a weird name you’ve got, though. But you can call me ‘Scoot’ if you like,” she offered as Rainbow Dash opened the doors to the cantina.
As soon as they saw him, everyone at their tables started pounding in applause, coaches and kids, with Dash and Twilight heading off to their table to join the fray. The colt couldn’t see his classmates, though. Whimper froze in place and cringed, but Scootaloo pushed him on like he was a stubborn sheep.
“Come on, you. They’ll probably forget about it in a few days, you might as well enjoy the fame while it lasts.”
Whimper looked around, stomach growling with nerves and hunger. Almost everyone was applauding him, yet his heart sank. He nearly let his head hang before Scootaloo nudged him again. He was really hard to get moving if he didn’t want to.
“Come on, don’t just stand there like a dunce. Let’s get something to eat.”
The pair made off to get their meal, and conversation returned to normal. Whimper chanced a glance around the crowds, then looked to Scootaloo as she found them a seat.
New friend on my first day. Wow, maybe things won’t be so bad up here.
Maybe, just once, things will be all right.
Just once, I won’t have to hear the other thing they call me.