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1. New in town4,382 words
2. Leap of faith4,192 words
3. Best Friend4,121 words
4. Marks for Life4,648 words
5. Nightmare Week4,802 words
6. Nightmare Night (Rewritten)2,586 words
7. Milshakes and Mistakes2,357 words
8. Truth (or dare)2,788 words
9. Can't stand the heat? For Celestia's sake put out the fire!2,617 words
10. A Day at the Day Spa2,193 words
11. Corner Cowering 1011,726 words
12. Weather2,439 words
13. Bad Timing2,804 words
14. An Unbearable Truth1,440 words
15. In the Blink of an Eye5,437 words
16. Winter's Dawn4,089 words
17. Reminiscent2,442 words

12. Weather

12. Weather

The fields were a soft gold. The early sunlight caressed the tops of the hills. A little filly trotted up the hill. The now leafless tree cast a long shadow across the golden curves in the landscape. Scootaloo lifted her head and enjoyed the strong wind of late fall stroking through her mane. The wind was strong and even dangerous. Even though she knew Rainbow wouldn't let her practice flying in this weather, she was still happy with the autumn breeze. It felt good. No, it felt great.

Her eyes slid across the landscape in search of her favourite hero and mentor.
She didn't see the blue blur anywhere yet. She figured it was probably the wind stalling Rainbow.

The weather ponies had been working off schedule since Ti'rek destroyed half of Cloudsdale with a magic beam. The pegasi were devastated. Three months of hard work down the drain and a lot of property damage to repair. Then again, Equestria had had its fair amount of destruction. Even though the weather ponies had a disaster plan for this kind of event, they still wouldn't be able to reach all deadlines without accidently setting off an ice age. Miss Cheerilee had announced in class how winter was going to be postponed a few weeks, thus autumn was going to be long this year. It had really upset some of the animals. Most of the inhabitants of Ponyville chose to stay indoors. Despite the weather, the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't cancelling their meeting in the afternoon.

A smile crossed Scootaloo's face whilst she leapt through the tall grass. She didn't mind having grass for a bit longer instead of covering it in snow. She recalled romping through the fields of Sweet Apple Acres with Stride. They hadn't done that ever since his breakdown. She still wasn't sure what had happened back then, when Stride had curled up in a ball in the CMC clubhouse after Apple Bloom had simply asked a question.

He seemed to have cooled down a bit since then, but he still wasn't really the same. Despite his everlasting dreamy demeanour still being there, she'd noticed he would be down more often. It was like something made him sad, but she couldn't pinpoint what. She didn't have the nerve to ask about it. He had such a fragile air to him she feared breaking him.

Her pondering was interrupted by the gasping of one particular Rainbow Dash.
The high flier leaned against the naked tree. She was sweaty.
"W... Wind," she panted.
Scootaloo walked over towards her.
"Got caught in the wind," Rainbow repeated. She sat down and wiped the sweat off her brow. She didn't look too well.

"The weather ponies really outdid themselves, didn't they?" Scootaloo remarked.
Rainbow sighed, "And they better keep outdoing themselves. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get the team to work?"
Her eye twitched. Scootaloo had never considered how hard it must be to keep Equestria's climate in order. Rainbow Dash spent the larger part of her time managing the weather team's schedule. She even cut her Wonderbolts training for it multiple times.

"I kept on urging them to get on the job! It's like they never want winter to come at all!" the mare continued in the most agitated voice.
Scootaloo scratched her neck, "Well, I guess part of them just lost their homes..."
Rainbow softened and nodded, "I know kid. I let them go home. It's the other ones that are slacking off."
She rubbed through Scootaloo's mane.
"I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think we'll be doing a lot of flight training today."

Scootaloo nodded, "It's okay." Her eyes shot down to the ground.
"Do you ever think it's all, you know, useless?"
Rainbow frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"It's just that... I've been practicing so hard and I still can't fly. Even Pound Cake can fly and he's just an infant."
The look on Rainbow's face switched from confused to somewhat angry.
"Scootaloo, you are not giving up!"
Her wings stretched stiff as she gave her a firm right eye.
"I am going to get you to fly if it's the last thing I do, have you got that?"

The wind blew her mane upwards. She looked at how the leaves that had fallen from the big tree were now again flying through the air, now carried by a heavy breeze rather than the force of gravity. Rainbow sighed, "But I guess we better wait till next week for that."

Scootaloo nodded. She turned her head to follow the leaves as they were blown so high they left view before coming back down. It became unbearably silent, apart from the violent wind of course.

Rainbow was the one to break the silence, "So, have you conquered your colt yet?"
Scootaloo lifted a brow, pondering on what Rainbow meant. She agreed with her brain on an answer.
"What?"
"You know, stunned the stallion, bedazzled the boy?"
"Do you mean telling Stride?"
Rainbow nodded, "Yeah, that!"
"No..."
Rainbow lay her forehooves on her hips as she flew up in a straight position, but the wind caught her and threw her back down.
"Then you shouldn't waste another second! Life's too short to spend waiting," the Dash exclaimed as she picked some grass tufts from her mane.

Scootaloo was certain her plan was flawless. Go to Stride and tell him you like him. Simple as can be.
Simple, until it got complicated.

She was on her way to the CMC clubhouse as usual. The wind was still grasping anything light enough to lift. A pony with a monocle frantically chased his bowler hat. He was wearing some sort of fancypants suit. Probably the kind of wear Rarity would recommend. He groaned something about terrible holidays as he ran past Scootaloo over the sidewalk.

She lost balance and was about to tumble over, when she was caught by a colt. The grey pony helped her stand up and gave her a roguish smile. His mane was equally grey. His eyes weren't. They were some sort of purple with a strong grey tint. He flapped his wings and nodded to the pony who'd pushed her over.

"Rude fellow, ain't he?" he said. Scootaloo tried to hide her blush. She'd told Rainbow Dash she was completely past Rumble, but that was not entirely true. The colt still had a strange effect on her. His roguish behaviour, his natural looks. She knew however they weren't meant to be.

He hadn't given her any look other than a straight one for years now and had never defended her when she had been called blankflank, chicken or groundhog. He had never stood up for her. He'd refused to be a crusader because he found it 'childish'. No, Scootaloo knew he wasn't for her.

"Bad idea being out in this wind, if you ask me," Rumble said, "But then again, you really know how to make a bad idea sound good."
He grinned wide. Was that a complement or an insult? Scootaloo wasn't sure.
"I uh," She started, "I was just on my way to the clubhouse. Besides, if you think it's so stupid then why are you out here?"
"Let's just say I'm always up for a bad idea," he smiled with his white teeth. Scootaloo fought hard not to swoon.

Relax. It's just Rumble. The moron probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a cupcake and a muffin. Wait a sec, what IS the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?

"Really, Rumble, what are you doing out here?" Scootaloo asked resuming her way. Greatly to her surprise, Rumble followed.
"Well, uhm, I just thought I'd find you out here somewhere with you liking wind so much and everything."
He knows I like wind? Wait, did he just say uhm?
The wind was playing roughly with his gelled up mane.
She shook off the idea. Rumble was a ladies stallion. He had seduced so many fillies in the last years... He had even managed to keep Diamond Tiara from mocking his blank flank by grinning at her every so often. Rumble could have any girl he wanted. He would never go for chicken filly. Besides, she was not interested.

She was just about to curse herself for such thoughts even popping up in her head, when he caught her completely off guard.
"I just wanted to uh, I just thought you might want to uhm... Would you like to go for a drink tomorrow afternoon, after school?"
Scootaloo's face turned red. Was he really asking this? She shook it off. She already had her mind set. She liked Stride. She like liked Stride. She was not going to let Rumble interfere with that. He was a tramp anyway.

" I'm kind of busy," she replied as she picked up her pace. She saw big sport Rumble was starting to have trouble running against the wind. She chuckled. She couldn't fly, but she could run for sure.
"Then maybe later?" he panted. He slowed down and stopped. He quickly shouted, "Let me know if you change your mind," before she was out of range. The wind had won its battle with the gel and his mane now furiously danced back and forth.

Every time. They are always late. Apple Bloom closed the window to keep out the wind. It had completely ruined her bow and puffy mane. She sighed as she tried to straighten it. Sweetie Belle was in the thinking corner. The light bulb showed no light yet.
"So, do you have a plan?" Sweetie Belle asked, fiddling with her horn.
Apple Bloom shrugged, "Well we ain't gonna be doing much crusading with all this wind around."
Sweetie Belle shook her head, swaying her mane in the process, "No, I meant with the ScootaStride issue."
"ScootaStride?" Apple Bloom gave a disgusted expression, "Sweetie Belle, you sound like my sister in her crazy fanfictions."
Sweetie Belle frowned, "Fanfictions?"
"Yeah, she keeps going on about this Broken Mountainback thing or something like that... Anyways, Ah thought we'd dropped that idea?"
Sweetie Belle pouted, "But what if Scootaloo loses her chance of happiness?"
Her friend gave her a strange look, but did not reply.

The unicorn sighed, "There must be something we can do..."
"Ah've got nothing," Apple Bloom admitted, "Maybe we should just get on with our lives and get back to crusading."
Her fellow crusader hopped up and down in delight, an enthusiastic expression on her face, "That's it! All we have to do is crusade!"
Apple Bloom was pretty sure something would follow. She was also pretty sure it would be something really bad. But she was even more sure she would like it.

"We have to convince them to kiss for their cutie marks! Then they'll feel a connection and they'll confess for sure!" Sweetie exclaimed.
Indeed, Apple Bloom was right: she liked the plan.
One problem struck her though, "But we always do everything together! She'll know something's up if we only get the two of them to do something!"
Her friend seemed to have thought of that, "It's plain and simple! We get them to kiss first and then when they admit their limitless love to one another, we reveal our intentions! They'll be grateful for it!"

Outside in the whistling wind between the near bare trees of Sweet Apple Acres, one could surely have heard the faint giggling of the two fillies, thinking up their master plan.

Three warm cups of tea rested on Storm's wing. She gently put them down on the table before Stride and her guest. The mare gave her a thankful nod, before sipping the tea.

"Well thank you, ma'am," the earth pony said.
Storm winked at her son, "No problem, Miss Apple."
"Please ma'am, call me Applejack," the cowpony replied. Her blonde mane was bound together and rested over her shoulder.
"Then call me Storm instead of ma'am," Stride's mother replied.

Her son impatiently rocked back and forth on his stool.
"So, can I go to the meeting now?"
"Just a second now dear," Storm answered, "I'm not letting you walk through this wind alone and believe me when I say I know wind."
Stride sighed, "I know mom. Please don't tell your cutie mark story again."
Applejack chuckled, "Don't you worry Stride, it ain't gonna take much longer."

She turned towards Storm, "So, why haven't you got it yet?"
Storm shook her head, "Burst said it's going to be two weeks late. Some trade routes are blocked off completely with the repairs going on everywhere. Sorry."
Now it was Applejack's turn to sigh, "But it'll be here before winter?"
The pegasus in front of her nodded firmly, "Most definitely."
Applejack smiled, "Good. That's the first good news Ah've had in days."

She turned towards Stride, "So, we going or what?"
Stride jumped up quickly and ran for his saddlebags. He had gotten new ones since the unfortunate rip it had gotten in that faithful fog. Applejack finished her cup of tea and stood up.

"He'll be safe with me, Storm, Ah swear."
Storm nodded, "I have no trouble believing that."
She watched gladly as her chipper son skipped outside followed by the apple farmer straight into one of the biggest windstorms she had ever seen. She liked windstorms.

Author's Note:

I've been having a lot of fun writing this stuff. This chapter was particularly fun to write. I sure hope you all enjoyed the story so far!

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