Celestial's Half-hours

by Celestial

Career Jumpstart [Slice of Life] [Comedy]

"Are you sure this is gonna work, Apple Bloom?" asked Sweetie Belle, looking upwards, sitting in the middle of an Apple field.

"Of course it is, Sweetie! It's all made of the best wood and nails we could find around!" replied Apple Bloom, who was busy triple-checking a blueprint.

"That's not saying much...."

"Plus I managed to implement my design on it!" joined in Scootaloo from the top of a rickety wooden platform, pointing right below to an oversized, unbalanced see-saw, proudly donning flame-coloured streamers. "Now I- er, we can look cool while doing awesome things! Rainbow dash will be so proud to see that we improved his design so much!"

"Yeah, Ah'm sure..." deadpanned Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo donned the goggles. And spent several seconds checking her wings.

"Is this really necessary?" said Sweetie belle, innocently.

"A prepared flier is a successful flier! Rainbow Dash said it, so it must be true!"

"That doesn't sound like her," said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo did a double-take at that. "Oh yeah! Must have been Twilight Sparkle while she was being taught by Rainbow Dash! Can you even imagine? Teaching a princess of Equestria how to fly! How radical is that?!"

"Yeah yeah, jus' jump down and let's see if this works will ya?" Applebloom cut in.

"But you said it will-" said Sweetie Belle.

"It's jus' to cut her blabberin' short, Sweetie."

"Oh."

Taking an appropriately epic run-up (as much as the platform would allow anyway) Scootaloo galloped, jumped and fell towards the board at the end of the long lever, speeding down with her buzzing wings, and pushing on the wood as hard as she could...

So much that the boulder on the other side lifted a good two meters in the air.

Sweetie clapped her hooves. "Wow, congratulation Sco-"

The boulder fell back down on a vertical, hitting the board once again and propelling Scootaloo at speeds never before experienced into the open air space of Ponyville.

"-ots.... Hey! You said it would work!"

Apple Bloom took on the defensive. "Hey, it did work Sweetie! Only, Ah guess it worked a little too well this time..."

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Scoots meanwhile was doing the only reasonable thing: enjoying the side effect fully.

"I'M FLYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGAAAAAAAAAA-Ooof!" Her mid-air parabola was cut short by a collision with a cloud wall of Rainbow Dash's house.

"Hey squirt! What are you doing up here?" Asked Rainbow dash, leaning from an upper window.

"Mmmmph! Mmmmmph! MMMMMMrgph!" Answered Scootalooo from partly inside the wall, flailing her back legs.

"Oh yeah," Rainbow Dash chuckled as she flew down and pulled Scootaloo out of the wall.

"*cough* RAINBOW DASH!! Did you see it? Did I get my leverage cutiemark yet?" exploded Scootaloo, as she checked her flanks, in vain.

"Leverage? What do you mean kid? How did this happen anyway?"

Scootaloo cleared her throat. "Well, we wanted to try a new thing for crusading and so we asked Big Mac for wood and nails but he said 'Nnnnope.' so we told him that if he didn't we'd publish the photos about the time when he-"

Rainbow Dash flailed a hoof to interrupt her. "Whoa whoa whoa there kid. Am I hearing this right? Why would you possibly want a cutie mark for THAT?"

Scootaloo pondered. "Er... well, to move big things? To build bigger things than we are capable of alone?"

Rainbow Dash wrapped a hoof around Scootaloo to bring her closer. "Squirt, listen to me. That way lies only the career of a politician, or a bureaucrat, and you don't really want neither. Besides, there's Princess Celestia and Luna for the big things anyway. Don't sweat this, kiddo."

Scootaloo was growing increasingly confused. "But Princess Celestia can't just come for any big rock that needs to be moved out of the orchard!"

"Well, yeah, there's subordinates for that. You know? Administrators, mayors, lawyers, all those kind of ponies that do nothing but spend all day in an office, never feeling the sweet sun and the fresh air on their faces. Trust me, kiddo, you rrreally don't wanna glide down that path." A large sweep of her hoof sealed that.

Scootaloo wasn't exactly sure of how to take this, but if Rainbow Dash said that, who was her to contradict her hero? "Well, thanks a lot Rainbow Dash! I'll go tell the rest of the Crusaders right away!" She galloped towards the farm, only to stop short of the cloud border in alarm. "Hehehe... Could I get a ride down?" She asked, embarassed.

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She reached the other two fillies at a gallop. "Crusaders, stop this immediately! We're dismantling the project and thinking of something else, stat!"

Apple Bloom lifted her head from her hammering spot in disbelief. "But why Scoots? Ah'm sure Ah fixed the schematics for good! Next time the boulder will just roll off the platform!"

"Yeah! We even kept the flame patterns!" offered Sweetie Belle, pointing at said streamers.

Scootaloo shook her head. "That's not the problem girls. If we keep doing that, we may get a cutiemark for staying all day in a cold office moving heavy rocks and not seeing the Sun ever, and I most definitely do NOT want that to happen!"

The other two Crusaders shared a look of hopeless confusion.

Author's Note:

Prompt #529: Leverage.