//------------------------------// // Rising Rocks // Story: Flightless // by Pinkish Posh //------------------------------// It's been a month since Scootaloo had the nightmare of falling off a mountain. She and her friends had already completely forgotten about it. Over that month she's had a couple flying lessons with Rainbow Dash and had a lot of fun Cutie Mark Crusading with her friends. Scootaloo had almost managed to fly, but could still barely lift herself above the ground. Apple Bloom had come up with many ideas for finding their special talent. They tried and tried but to no avail, the CMC's flanks remained blank. However, every idea Apple Bloom came up with was slightly more treacherous than the last. She appeared to try and push their boundaries as far as possible. "So, ah was thinkin' maybe we could try an' do some rock climbin'!" "Sounds like fun, I'm in!" The orange filly had a huge, excited smile on her face. "I'll go, but I just don't' want to get hurt." Sweetie Belle gently bit her lower lip and lowered her head a little as she looked at her friends, showing a little bit of fear but was still willing to go because she didn't want to disappoint her friends. When the CMC arrived at the recreation center, they quickly dashed over to the rock climbing area. They looked up at the different sets of rock walls. "Whoa..." Every different rock wall looked amazing and fun to climb. But only one of them caught Scootaloo's eye. "Hey, how about that one?" She pointed to the tallest one in the room. It went all the way to the ceiling, which was about 50 feet tall. "Sure, that looks fun! Sweetie you in?" Apple Bloom's smile lowered a bit when she noticed Sweetie Belle trembling in fear. Scootaloo also turned around and felt her hopes crumble a tad. Sweetie noticed that she was going to disappoint her friends if she declined, so she reluctantly agreed to go. "Alright, I'll go, but can I be in the middle?" "Sweet!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's smiles returned to full size as they went to go grab their gear. The CMC were around one-fourth of their way up the rock wall. Scootaloo was at the back and Apple Bloom at the front. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were having a great time while Sweetie Belle on the other hoof, was terrified to death. She was slow and tried to carefully take each step, but her two friends were advancing faster and barely took a look at where they were stepping. Due to being in the middle and with her friends faster than her, she had a difficult time climbing. "Can you slow down a bit, please? I'm having a hard time here." The next rock was about an inch out of Sweetie's reach due to her friends' quick advancing. She tried to grab it but slipped and fell. "Whoa!" This yanked Scootaloo off of her hooves and forced Apple Bloom hold both of their weight, which made her fall back a bit and stopped her advancing. Apple Bloom held onto her rocks for dear life, even though there was a rope hanging from the ceiling attached to them preventing them from falling. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, dangling below Apple Bloom, tried to grab onto the rocks in front of them, but due to the constant swaying and Apple Bloom having trouble holding on, it was difficult for them to grab onto the rocks. Scootaloo swayed back and forth in an attempt to get back to the rocks. This helped Sweetie grab back onto hers and after a few moments Scootaloo managed to grab back on, relieving Apple Bloom of holding both their weights. "Now, can you PLEASE go a little slower?" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo look at a displeased Sweetie Belle and were a bit disappointed, but due to what had just happened, they both nodded and agreed to climb slower. "Sorry Sweetie, ah I guess ah didn't realise how fast we were going." Sweetie Belle gave her friends an unpleasant look before they resumed climbing, at a slower speed. Halfway up the rock wall, Sweetie Belle looked down and to her horror, they were at least 50 feet above the ground. In order to prevent herself from passing out from fear in the middle of climbing, she told her friends, "Wait, wait, one moment. I just looked down and I feel uneasy. Give me one moment to recover." Both of her friends stopped and waited until Sweetie was ready to get back on track. Apple Bloom looked down at her in concern as Scootaloo rolled her eyes in mild annoyance. After about a minute or two of waiting, the CMC were back on track and climbing up the rock wall at a slow but steady pace. Scootaloo wasn't paying much attention to how close they were to the top due to how much fun she was having. Suddenly, she bumped into Sweetie's rump, which caused her to bump into Apple Bloom like a chain reaction. Her face became lightly flushed, which was clearly visible on her white fur. Scootaloo looked up and realised they had already reached the very top of the rock wall. "Uh, oops. Sorry about that" Visibly embarrassed, Sweetie lashed out at Scootaloo without knowing. "Pay attention to where you're going before you bump into somepony's rump next time!" "Okay, sheesh, I didn't mean to." "Break it up girls. We don't want to have a fight dangling on a rope a hundred feet above the ground." "Speaking of 'above the ground', how in Equestria are we going to get down?" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo gave her a blunt look before pointing at a zip line leading to the floor right next to the side of the rock wall. "Oh." "Weeeeee!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were quickly zooming down the zipline with their hooves extended out in all directions. "Aaaagggghhhh!" Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, was screaming out of fear, tightly hugging the rope and her eyes closed with a small bead of a tear in each eye as she zoomed behind her friends. Sweetie's high-pitch scream continued all the way until she reached the bottom. When she looked around her two friends were standing there with sly smirks on their faces and a lot of ponies around were staring at her. Supremely embarrassed, she jumped off the zip line and pushed down her helmet to cover her eyes with her entire face a bright pink color as the trio walked over to take off their gear and put it away. As the three walked out of the recreation center they looked at their flanks. There wasn't a rock climbing cutie mark. In fact, there was no cutie mark at all. They sighed in disappointment but quickly perked back up after a moment or two. "So, what should we do tomorrow?" "I don't know, maybe croquet?" "How about skydiving?" "Or we could try being a chicken!" "Hey!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle giggled. "Ah'm just joking with ya Scootaloo." Scootaloo rolled her eyes before she got an idea. "I know, I know!" "Okay, spill it, 'Chicken Feathers'." "It's Scootaloo to you, 'Big Bow'. Anyway, since we just went rock climbing, How about we take it to the next level?" "How do you plan on doing that?" "Let's go hike up a mountain!"