How Long Until it Starts Working?
“So, Apple Bloom earned— discovered her cutie mark today.”
Scootaloo sat atop a newly-fueled raincloud. She watched the world scroll by as Rainbow Dash pushed it through the sky. She looked at Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark: A thundercloud with a tri-color lightning bolt.
Rainbow Dash spared her a glance and a grin, though she kept her attention on where the cloud was going. “That’s awesome, Squirt! Tell me about it.”
“Well…” Scootaloo lay down and stared at the ground. She rubbed a little furrow in the cloud to rest her chin. “She asked Sweetie and me to stick around while she tried to learn how to applebuck from Applejack. We’re not all that well built for bucking, so we really just watched.”
Scootaloo blew the tip of her mane up. “She kept messing up. Only a couple apples were dropping.”
“It was her first time working in the orchard, right?” Rainbow Dash asked. She eased the cloud into place, fitting it like a puzzle piece into the giant cumulous cloud above Ponyville. “Nopony’s gonna be that great the first time they try something.”
“That’s what I thought, but Apple Bloom took it pretty hard.” Scootaloo blinked. “She started crying.”
Rainbow Dash’s head popped up over the edge of the cloud. “I guess that would be pretty—”
“She said she’d been practicing for months, but it’s never gotten better.” Scootaloo sniffed. “She ran off and left us.”
Rainbow Dash’s mouth pressed together, with the edges dipping down. She opened her wings wide and gestured to her back. Scootaloo hopped on.
“What’d you do?” Rainbow Dash asked. She scanned the skies for another cloud to fill and move.
“Sweetie and I ran after her, while Applejack just sorta…” Scootaloo shrugged. “I dunno. I guess she wanted to give Apple Bloom space or something. I thought it was… dumb.”
Rainbow Dash found a cloud. She let Scootaloo jump to it, and then started to draw moisture from the atmosphere. Little droplets of dew collected on her wings, which she rubbed into the cloud. “Applejack knows that sometimes you gotta let the waterworks run before you can make somepony feel better.”
“Fine, but I knew Apple Bloom needed us.” Scootaloo puffed her chest out. “I ain’t ever gonna leave her.”
She could feel the cloud getting wet and squishy under her hooves. Before long, the dampness faded as the water fell to the lower part of the cloud. Rainbow Dash grabbed a hold and dragged it through the air.
“So what happened, Squirt?”
“We found her in the back of the barn, with the little chemistry set she got from Princess Twilight.” Scootaloo smiled. “She was mixing up a special brew. She had this little apple seed in a flower pot.” Scootaloo rolled onto her back and stared into the blue. “She’s been working on that new potion forever.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “I think I know where this is going. The potion made the plant grow, right?”
“Nah.” Scootaloo turned to Dash. “She poured a whole beaker on the thing and nothing happened.”
“Huh.” Rainbow Dash flew towards the cumulus. “That sucks.”
“Yeah. She started crying again and saying how she’d never be as good a farmer as Applejack. She said she’d never get potions right, and she’d just be a blank flank her whole life.” Scootaloo stood up as the two clouds connected. “So we hugged her.”
“Sounds like a good time for a hug,” Dash said.
“Yeah.” Scootaloo went back on Rainbow Dash’s back. She wrapped her forelegs around her neck and put her cheek against her mane. “So I told her… maybe she doesn’t have to be a farmer like Applejack. Maybe she should be a farmer like Apple Bloom.”
Rainbow Dash’s head swiveled around. She stared at Scootaloo with wide eyes.
“Yeah, kinda the same thing you told me.” Scootaloo tapped her teeth together. “She stared at the pot for a while. When she finally got up, she walked up to the pot and sighed. She said she’d keep working on the formula.”
Scootaloo grinned. “Then she squeezed a couple tears out of her eyes, and they fell into the pot. Then the whole thing exploded into an apple tree!”
“Holy cow!” Rainbow Dash laughed. “Then did it happen?”
“Totally! She was jumping and gasping and all of a sudden there was a flash!” Scootaloo’s wings buzzed. “Her cutie mark is a white flower with pink buds next to it. I don’t really get it, but she says it’s something about how the whole world just opened up. Or something. I dunno.”
She rested her head against Rainbow Dash’s neck. “So it made me wonder something.”
“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash spotted a cloud and angled her wings to head towards it. “Whazzat?”
“What if my cutie mark isn’t about flying?”
Rainbow Dash slowed down. She stared at the cloud with a furrowed brow. She set Scootaloo on top and then sat across from her. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I just…” Scootaloo rubbed her foreleg. “I want so bad to have a flying cutie mark. I know it in my feathers that if I could just get off the ground, I’d get my mark.” Scootaloo looked off into the distance, where the cumulus was beginning to take the form of a cumulonimbus. “But what if I’m wrong?”
Scootaloo frowned as Cloudkicker set a bit of cloud in place. “What if I can’t fly?”
Rainbow Dash shuffled her hooves. There was a deep rumble through the sky as Thunderlane gave the cumulonimbus a kick and started the storm. The weather team scrambled for the upper reaches of the cloud cover, where they could watch the rain fall and the lightning sizzle. Rainbow Dash felt a drop hit her in the nose and looked up. “Let’s get you a little higher, huh?”
She dove beneath the cloud and pushed from the bottom. They rose up until they were level with the top of the tallest storm cloud. Rainbow Dash sat beside Scootaloo and wrapped a wing around her.
“A lot of your cutie mark comes from what talents you have. Some of it comes from how much you like doing them. Some of it’s because you can’t imagine doing anything else. Some of it’s because you know that it’s what you were meant to do.”
Scootaloo rubbed her nose and stared at the cloud. She tried to not look at the two wet spots collecting at her hooves.
“But like I said earlier, there’s a point where you choose your cutie mark They’re not just floating through the air, waiting for a pony that looks like fun. There’s a point where it’s not just talent, it’s choice.” Rainbow Dash squeezed. “That part where you say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’”
Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. The cloud they were on trembled.
“I believe that you’re gonna fly, Scootaloo. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for years…” Rainbow Dash glared into the storm. “But don’t you ever, ever give up. When life tells you it ain’t happening, just say ‘To heck with you, life! I’m gonna fly!’”
Rainbow Dash’s ears folded back. “Maybe your cutie mark won’t be about flying. That’s okay. That doesn’t mean you’re not gonna fly, because your cutie mark will be you own chosen mark. It’s gonna show who you are, and there ain’t nopony and nothing that can take that from you.”
Scootaloo bit back a yawn as she pulled her belt tight. Her purple dress needed another refitting from Sweetie Belle. She might have been short for a pegasus, but she was still growing. A little. Enough that her sleeves were just that much too tight, and her skirt that much too short. She supposed it wouldn’t make much of a difference if she sat the whole time, which she planned to do.
Her mom appeared behind her and tapped her shoulder. “Wake up, Honey.”
“I am awake,” Scootaloo said.
“You were standing still with your eyes closed.”
“I was”—Scootaloo yawned—“thinking.”
“Thinking.” Roseluck moved in front of Scootaloo. Her dress was a mix of several different shades of red, folded across each other to imitate rose petals. “Probably about all the sleep you didn’t get last night.”
“Hay, I knew what I was getting into.” Scootaloo rolled her shoulders. Her sleeves creaked as the seams strained. “I’ll get some catch-up beauty sleep tonight.”
Roseluck slipped a rose into Scootaloo’s mane and smoothed back her curl. Scootaloo crossed her eyes and tried to look at her mane. She turned to a mirror and grimaced at the brushed-back look it had. “What’s wrong with how I normally wear my mane?”
“You mane is nice,” Roseluck said. “It needs to be nicer on Sunday.”
“Fine.” Scootaloo flapped her wings and winced as she heard a thread snap.
“So you’ll be going back to work on Monday?” Roseluck walked out of Scootaloo’s room and down the hall. Scootaloo followed.
“Aw, dang, that’s right.” Scootaloo’s jaw tightened to prevent another yawn from escaping. “I’ll have to go to bed earlier.” She clapped a hoof over her face. “No, that’s not gonna work, either.”
“Why not?” Roseluck turned right from the steps into the kitchen. “You could just come right home after supper with Apple Bloom and Sweetie.”
“I… have an appointment.” Scootaloo stopped at the door to the kitchen and walked backwards. “Real important. Can’t miss it.”
“With who?” Roseluck looked to the door. Scootaloo wasn’t there anymore. She rolled her eyes and poured oats into a bowl.
Scootaloo sat down on one of the sofas in the lobby. The sky outside was dark, but she could see lights in the windows of the house across the street. The second story, anyway, since the lower level was a store, just like Sofas and Quills. Most of the places downtown were like that.
Davenport poked his head into the lobby. “You’d better grab something to eat, Kid. We’re gonna head to the meeting pretty quick.”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo sucked on the inside of her cheek. “Dad, can I talk to you about something after the meeting? In private?”
Davenport frowned. He tightened his bolo tie. “You mom and I are here whenever you—”
“Private, just for a minute,” Scootaloo said. “Like, I don’t care who you tell after I tell you. Just… private for a sec.”
Davenport blinked. He bit his lower lip and smiled. “I think I got you covered.”
“Both of you’d better get your oats before I use up all the milk!” Roseluck called from the kitchen.
Davenport gave Scootaloo his best carefree smile. “Eat up, Kid.”
Scootaloo matched his smile.
Nearly all of Ponyville turned out for the weekly meeting. The first sunrise of the week, Sunday, was a time to be thankful. To remember. To pay homage. To sleep through Father Fabio’s opening word.
(1): He was a notoriously poor navigator under the ground. It was he who caused the Great Diamond Dog Stock Market Collapse. Meaning he collapsed the cave that contained the stock market. He found a nice vein of diamonds, however, which he used to fund his rapid transportation to the furthest town.
Fabio the Diamond Dog had come to Ponyville after exile from his pack (1). The first few years had been rough, between the dug-out flower gardens and the constant chasing of cats (and the occasional griffon). Sooner, rather than later, Fabio had found his true calling in legend and tradition. Soon, he rivaled even Twilight Sparkle for sheer depth of knowledge of what had come before. So, when Father Waddle had fallen ill and could no longer perform the Sunday Sunrise Service, he was asked to stand in.
It stuck. “Welcome, little ponies, to Sunday Sunrise.”
It wasn’t that the diamond dog’s voice was soothing, or droning, or even ignorable. It was scratchy and grating, and he wasn’t that great a public speaker in the first place. But for peat’s sake, it was before sunrise. It was time for sleep, and nopony seemed to understand that.
Even so, Scootaloo snorted awake.
“Today is day to remember friendship and how it save Equestria in days before unification.”
Scootaloo had heard those exact words a bajillion times before, from several different voices, week after week. Maybe not those exact words, since Fabio seemed unable to comprehend the use of the word “the,” but pretty close.
“Today is day to be thankful to princesses for raising sun and moon.”
A glimmer of light appeared over the horizon, bathing one corner of Ponyville’s town square with orange. Scootaloo could see Diamond Tiara sitting next to Silver Spoon. Both were shielding their eyes from the sudden glare.
Scootaloo smiled a pleasantly wicked, if petty, smile.
“Today is to remember Creator’s gifts! Teach unicorns to harness sun and moon. Teach pegasi to fly and mold weather. Teach earth ponies to grow food and shape world.”
Scootaloo leaned back and yawned mightily. She opened her eyes when she realized that she was yawning right in another pony’s face. Apple Bloom looked down with a grin. “Waitin’ for a treat or somethin’?”
Scootaloo’s mouth snapped shut. “Woof.”
Apple Bloom chuckled until Applejack elbowed her in the ribs. The mayor glared daggers at the two crusaders until they both turned back to Fabio on the stage.
“Give to zebras dominion over secrets. Give to griffons charge to protect. Give to diamond dogs urge to explore.”
He went over every sapient species. Every single species in the book, except for the draconequus. Discord was lobbying to have the service changed to read ‘Given to the draconequuses was the love of the unexpected.’ Most ponies failed to see how that had a positive impact.
Scootaloo felt eyes on the back of her neck. She looked over her shoulder and spied Discord sitting next to Fluttershy. He waved his fingers at her, like he knew she’d been thinking about him. She ignored him and adjusted a feather as though it was the real reason she’d looked back.
“Give to breezies knowledge to heal. Give to changelings thirst for companionship.”
“Talk about a sucky gift,” Scootaloo heard her dad murmur. Roseluck stifled a snigger.
The sun appeared over the horizon, a few minutes after dawn’s first light. The entire square brightened, revealing the families who had before been silhouettes against the black. Scootaloo spied the Cup and Carrot Cake with their kids, Thunderlane and Cloudkicker with Rumble, Dinky with her mother…
And Filthy Rich, sitting on the exact opposite side of the square from his daughter.
Scootaloo stared at him for a second, eyebrow raised, and then figured she didn’t blame him.
She decided to do something productive while her mind wandered and looked at Rumble. The young stallion was as dressed up as he ever was, with a black bowtie around his neck and a slicked-down mane. He looked uncomfortable in even that. His wings fidgeted and he kept rocking from side to side, his strong legs flexing and unflexing.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes with a grin. Her ears perked up as Sweetie Belle and Spike took their places beside Fabio.
“Now rise,” the diamond dog said, “for singing of holy anthem.”
Spike sat down in front of a keyboard and cracked his knuckles. He and Sweetie Belle shared a glance, and he set to playing the intro.
Sweetie bowed her head, closed her eyes, and sang softly. Soon, the rest of the gathering joined in.
“The fire of friendship lives in our hearts…”
With the sun in the sky and ponies talking all around, Scootaloo was finally able to shake that last feeling of drowsiness. Rumble bolted right after the service ended, on his way to complete whatever chores he’d agreed to. Apple Bloom punched Scootaloo in the shoulder and said they’d meet Sweetie at Sweet Apple Acres. Discord was up on the stage playing the piano and making it sound suspiciously like an army of kazoos.
That left Scootaloo to drag Davenport to the side while Roseluck spoke with Fluttershy and Lyra Heartstrings.
Her father put a foreleg around her shoulders and pulled her close. “So what’s bugging you?”
“Not really bugging me.” Scootaloo extended a wing and placed it on her father’s back. “Um. Rumble wants to take me to a movie.”
Davenport nodded. “That’s nice of him.”
“I mean… Rumble wants to take me out. To a movie.” Scootaloo grinned, through her mouth tilted down on the left side. “And, um, what do you think?”
Davenport’s eyes widened. One eye twitched before he could get his face under control. “And what’d you tell him?”
“I said ‘maybe,’” Scootaloo said. “I said we’d have to meet and compare schedules.”
“Uhuh.” Davenport rubbed his chin. “And why do you suppose he didn’t ask me for my permission?”
Scootaloo’s ears lowered. “I guess you can ask him when you’ve managed to hunt him down with your posse.”
“I’m not gonna hunt him down.” Davenport snorted. “He’s a good guy. I wouldn’t have any problems, as long as I get an opportunity to lay down the law. I’ll talk with him today.”
He tilted his head. “You didn’t want Mom to know.”
Scootaloo glared at the ground. “If I told her a colt was interested in me, she would freak out.”
“She kinda has a right to know, Kid.”
“I want you to tell her.” Scootaloo lifted her head. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you first. You can tell her, right?”
“I… yeah…” Davenport narrowed an eye. “I’m not gonna turn into your messenger boy, am I?”
“If the horseshoe fits,” Scootaloo said. She giggled as her dad shook his head. “Thanks, Dad.”
“You’re still gonna have to talk to Mom about it,” Davenport said. “You know that, right?”
“Well”—Scootaloo folded her wings tight—“well, we’ll both know what we’re gonna say, then. Won’t we? We’ll both have time to think.”
Davenport’s face drooped. “Go on, Scootaloo. Your friends are gonna be waiting.”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo trotted off in the direction of the farm, undoing her belt as she went. She looked over her shoulder. “Thanks again, Dad.”
Davenport blew a breath through closed lips. He looked over at Roseluck and swallowed.
Scootaloo wriggled around inside her too-tight dress as she struggled to remove it. She got her head stuck in the neck hole, leaving her purple mane to dangle out the front.
“Oh look, Silver, it’s the Charity Case Crusader.”
Scootaloo pulled the last of her dress over her head. She flopped it across her back and continued past Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Diamond did a passable jackal impression with her grin.
“Everybody throw bits! Otherwise, how is the pegasus who can’t get off the ground going to make a living?”
Silver Spoon flipped her braid over her shoulder. “Knock it off, Diamond.”
Diamond Tiara ignored her and walked alongside Scootaloo. “I heard all about you exploits in the park the other day. It sounds like you and the ground are very well-acquainted. Tell me, do you moonlight as a lawn dart?”
“Give it a rest, Tiara.” Silver Spoon drew up along Scootaloo’s other side. “I think you’re boring her.”
Diamond Tiara’s lower lip jutted out. She stuck her nose in the air, turned around, and marched away.
Scootaloo looked up and over at Silver Spoon. The taller mare was watching Diamond walk off. There was a frown on her face, but Scootaloo could see something else in her eyes. Something that sparkled.
“So, what was that all about?” Scootaloo asked. She studied Silver’s eyes, and the sparkle faded as she turned her head. “Don’t tell me you grew a conscience.”
“I am a respectable business mare,” Silver Spoon said. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Or a reputation to change?” Scootaloo scrunched her muzzle up. “Or hide?”
“What Diamond Tiara doesn’t quite understand is that customers are more likely to return if they enjoy the service and your company.” Silver lifted a polished hoof. It gleamed in the sunlight. “These are especially important for a restaurant.”
“Yeah, call it a hunch, but I’m probably not gonna go to the Silver Spoon Restaurant anytime soon.” Scootaloo increased her speed and outpaced Silver Spoon. “I’d have to work for a week to afford, like, a breadstick. Thanks, though.”
Silver Spoon stood in the road, a small, quirked smile on her face as Scootaloo rounded a corner. “No problem, Crusader.”
Scootaloo approached Sweet Apple Acres’ barn. The large, red building had been rebuilt at least twenty times over the past five years. That was nothing compared to the year where it had been renovated, destroyed, painted, raised, popcorned, and Discorded, but it was still one of the most temporary buildings in Ponyville. Scootaloo took a cautious look around the base of the barn, checking for any weaknesses in the structure. Finding none, she entered.
Sweetie Belle sat among thousands of test tubes and beakers. A strange green liquid bubbled from one glass jar, while purple liquid dripped into a large vial. The unicorn cleaned her glasses with a damp cloth. “Scootaloo. Welcome to the madhouse.”
Scootaloo laughed as she walked between two overhead pipes that were connected by a glass orb. An apple seed resided inside. “Mad science house, you mean! Apple Bloom, when’d you add this doohickey?”
“Been workin’ on it for a while.” Apple Bloom walked around Sweetie Belle and pulled on a white lab coat. She passed another coat to Sweetie, and a third to Scootaloo. “Put these on. Ah ain’t gonna be blamed when one o’ these potions dies yer coat brown. And don’t forget the goggles.”
Apple Bloom placed a potted daisy on a desk poured a drip of yellow potion on it. The daisy’s petals shifted from white to green. “Just a little too much salt.”
Sweetie Belle stared at a glass case that was half-full of water. Instead of soil, a plant’s roots grew through the liquid. The plant had a single bulb exposed to the air. “What a peculiar plant.”
The bulb opened up, revealing two rows of carnivorous teeth. The roots wriggled beneath the water. Sweetie screamed as she retreated backwards.
Apple Bloom caught her in her strong forelegs. “Settle down, it only eats bugs!”
“Why,” Sweetie gasped, “do you have that thing in your workshop!?”
“Workin’ on somethin’ special for Thunderlane.” Apple Bloom set Sweetie down and turned back to the daisy. “His cloudhouse is infested with anansi, so ah’ve been tryin’ to get a breed of those things that can grow in clouds. They’ll eat those flyin’ spiders sure ’nuff.”
Scootaloo tapped the tank. The plant closed its bud and retreated to the far side. “Cool. What’s it called?”
“Serramuscipula,” Apple Bloom said. “Commonly known as the piranha plant.”
Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes. “Do you have anything else carnivorous living in your barn, Apple Bloom dear?”
“There’s Walter and Wilbur.” Apple Bloom grinned. “But they’re just puppies.”
She trotted up to a chalkboard and flipped it over. It had a crude drawing of a pegasus. “Here’s our issue,” Apple Bloom said. “Scootaloo here wants to fly.” She drew an arrow pointing up. “But she can’t.” She crossed out the arrow. “So our task here is tah make her fly.”
She turned towards Sweetie and Scootaloo. “Any ideas?”
Sweetie rolled her eyes and snatched Apple Bloom’s chalk in her telekinesis. “Very nice visual aid, Apple Bloom. Very detailed.”
Apple Bloom shut her eyes and smiled. “Ah’m gonna go ahead an’ pretend that compliment was sincere.”
“Let’s see what we know,” Sweetie Belle said. “We know Scootaloo can jump.” She wrote the note down. “We know she can hover about a meter or so above the ground.”
Apple Bloom yanked the chalk out of Sweetie’s grip. “Let’s see what we know ain’t true. It ain’t true that Scootaloo’s wings are weak.”
Scootaloo did a few wing-ups on two wings, and then did a couple on just one. “Check.”
Sweetie pulled the chalk back to her, glared at it, and snapped it in half. She handed the smaller half to Apple Bloom. “We know that she is not lacking in magic ability.”
Scootaloo stuck her hoof in the tank. She avoided the piranha plant and scooped out a hoof-full of water. The surface tension held as she raised the blob. “Double check.”
“Okay, quit showin’ off.” Apple Bloom scribbled on the chalkboard. “Ah guess that leaves technique, which you ought to know a thing or two about, and gravity.” She turned around and pointed the chalk at Scootaloo. “Ah think yah might be too heavy to fly.”
Scootaloo tilted her head. She blinked. She tilted her head the other way. “What.”
“Now hear me out.” Apple Bloom licked her lips as she tried to form words. “What if you’re half-earth pony?”
“When has that ever—ever—mattered?” Sweetie Belle shook her head. She shook her head again. “Have you seen the Cakes? Have you seen Dinky and Derpy? I’m almost sure I’m one-tenth pegasus. That doesn’t have anything to do with my magic ability.”
“Okay! Okay, don’t go bitin’ mah head off.” Apple Bloom turned to Scootaloo, who was still staring with disbelief. “Ah just wondered if maybe yer earth pony heritage had something to do with bein’ too heavy to fly. It might explain how you can only fly a meter up.”
“But that’s the thing, it doesn’t strain my wings.” Scootaloo shrugged. “My body feels tired, but my wings could go forever.”
“Shut up an’ let me help you.” Apple Bloom walked back to the daisy. The green color had faded from its petals. She brought out a new potion, one slightly less yellow, and placed a drop on the flower.
The flower rose into the air, taking the pot with it.
“What.” Sweetie Belle ran to the floating flower and waved a hoof underneath it. “What?” She waved a hoof over it. “What!”
“It’s part of mah work on the piranha plant,” Apple Bloom said. “Makin’ plants float. Almost fly.” She winked at Scootaloo. “An’ it works on chickens.”
Scootaloo leaned back. She scrunched her muzzle up with a grimace. “You went there.”
“Huh? What?” Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “No! No! Ah just mean that ah’d tested the formula on animals an’ it works! Ah used chickens ’cause they’re gonna be sold tah Fabio anyhow, and nopony cares if’n they’re poisoned to death!”
Scootaloo crossed her forelegs. “And they just had to be chickens, didn’t they?”
“Oh for pony’s sake, that was almost ten years ago!” Sweetie shouted. “Give. It. Up.”
Scootaloo scrunched her face up. Despite her best efforts, a snort escaped. The snort was followed by more laughter, louder and longer. Apple Bloom joined in soon after, with Sweetie being the last holdout. The unicorn sat back and watched her friends descend into hysterics.
“Are you done yet?” she asked. “We have a harebrained scheme to try out.”
“Yeah…” Scootaloo took a few deep breaths in. “Yeah, I guess, but…” She brushed her mane back and walked over to Apple Bloom. “But it isn’t really flying.”
“No, but it’s a help. Maybe if you can get off the ground…” Apple Bloom sat down with a thump. “It didn’t poison the… birds, so ah thought maybe it’d work for you. Effects wear out quick anyhow, so what would it hurt to try?”
Scootaloo cracked her neck. “Well, anything to give my fairy strings a little boost.”
“That’s the spirit!” Apple Bloom bounced over to her work desk. “Now, let’s see… mass o’ the chickens, multiplied, carry that one… Got ya.” She poured out a specific measurement and handed the glass to Scootaloo. “Go ahead, chug it.”
Scootaloo raised the glass to Sweetie Belle. “To flight.”
Sweetie and Apple Bloom nodded. “To flight!”
Scootaloo chugged the potion and closed her eyes. She felt a slight tingle in her stomach. “Tastes like tea. Green tea. Weird.”
She turned her head and looked Apple Bloom in the eye. “How long until it starts working?”
“Um.” Apple Bloom smirked. “How’s ‘five seconds ago’ grab yah?”
“Huh.” Scootaloo looked down to where her legs were dangling above the dirt floor. “Well.”
“Ah. It does work.” Sweetie Belle smiled. She caught Apple Bloom’s sideways glance. “Not that I thought it wouldn’t.”
“So try it out, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom said. “Flap them wings o’ yours!”
Scootaloo flapped her wings. They flew by in a whir, propelling her around. She grinned maybe the widest smile of her entire life. “I don’t believe it! I’m flying! I’m flying!”
And so, Scootaloo buzzed around the barn at a speed slightly faster than a slug.
Sweetie Belle lifted an eyebrow. “You know, I actually think a tortoise would outpace her at this point.”
“Tank’s got that whirly-copter thingy, so…” Apple Bloom waved up. “Hay, Scoots, what’s with the drag?”
“I dunno.” Scootaloo slowed her flapping. “I’m moving them exactly like Rainbow Dash showed me how…” She looked up at the rapidly-approaching ceiling. “Hay, Bloom, when do I stop going up?”
“Um…” Apple Bloom flipped through a notebook. “Um. Until yer buoyancy matches the gravity pullin’ on yah, ah guess.”
Scootaloo’s back hit the wooden rafters. “Ow!” She floated past the boards and towards the ceiling.
“Way to go, Science Mare,” Sweetie Belle said. “You’ve made the first balloon pony. Pinkie will be thrilled.”
“Hush up or start helpin’.” Apple Bloom looked up at Scootaloo. “You okay, Scoots?”
“Fine.” Scootaloo rested against the ceiling with her wings and legs spread. “Just layin’ here. Passing the time with a song or something. No big, no hurry, no problem.”
Apple Bloom sat back and blew a sigh through her nose. “Toss her a rope so we can pull her down, Sweetie. We don’t want her goin’ ‘splat’ when that stuff wears off.”
Sweetie trotted off with her head high and her tail hiked.
“Hay, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said from the ceiling. “Feels like I was just on your roof.”
“Hah.”
“So, hay, when does this stuff wear off, anyway?”
“With how much you drank…”
“Ahuh?”
“Three hours.”
“Hay, Apple Bloom. Your idea? Sucked.”
“Yeah, thanks. Ah kinda guessed.”
“Both of them did.”
“Look, ah’m sorry—”
“Maybe we can combine them next. I can drink your balloon juice and then grasshopper jump. I’ll probably make it to the stratosphere before I suffocate.”
“Don’t call it balloon juice.”
“I like the name. Just made it up.”
“It sounds nasty.”
“It just means ‘hot air.’” Scootaloo glared down. “Which is all your dumb plans are!”
Sweetie Belle walked slowly into their midst. She saw Apple Bloom hunched over and sitting with her back to the roof as much as possible. Scootaloo, too, had rolled over until her belly was pressed against the ceiling.
Sweetie sighed and floated one end of the rope up to Scootaloo. “This is gonna be a long day, isn’t it?”
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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You'll never fly under your own power, Scoots. Never. MUAHAHAHAHHA!
4862114
Ye of little faith!
You defy the very title of the story! 
There are no shortcuts in getting a cutie mark.
Poor Rumble is going to find himself having a very awkward talk with Davenport soon. I suggest the threat: "and if you hurt her I'll start selling genuine Pegasus feather quills, freshly plucked!" Rumble would be a complete gentlecolt after that.
Applebloom made the iconic Mario plant.... FREAKING AWESOME!!! Maybe Applebloom is onto something with the Earth Pony bit affecting Scootaloo's flight, maybe she needs to learn how to push magic out of her hooves to boost her speed???
Oooo, neat cutie mark story for Apple Bloom.
You know, I'm with Discord on that one, it would be a fine change. Might as well be inclusive, especially if it ties Discord to Equestria in the public consciousness ever more strongly over time.
Shesh, especially if even changelings are included.
Hah! "Productive".
Well, the first plan involved throwing Scoots into the dirt like a lawn dart, makes sense that the next plan involves throwing her into the sky like a balloon.
I'm a little thrown on the ages. The CMC are adults now, right? Otherwise Sweetie Belle wouldn't be able to run her own business. But Scootaloo and Davenport are both acting like she's a 14-year-old going on her first date or something.
Also,
derpicdn.net/img/2012/8/19/77697/medium.jpg
Indeed.
So if everyone but Discord is in Faust's book, what about Centaurs? And Dragons, what were they given? Interesting to see that Silver Spoon has grown into a rather rude but normal adult, but Diamond Tiara hasn't changed at all. Wonder if that has to do with her dad preferring a different pew?
4867245 Definitely over protective, between this and Rumble. It's gotta be nice having a clumsy friend.
"Mom, Dad, thank god you're here to pick me up from the hospital, the doctors say my leg will be fine in 3 weeks. Now don't be too mad at Applebloom, even though that clumsy filly didn't lean into the turn fast enough and it is ALL her fault this happened. (Personally Dad, I think Applebloom was just distracted by Rainbow Dash and was trying to show off her scooter-skil-I MEAN LEANING skills!)"
4862677
Unfortunately, yes.
Also, fortunately, yes.
4863890
Davenport will not resort to threats. He will deal in promises.
Well, more like she's genetically engineering one to be able to fly...
Run Mario! Run while you can!
4864185
It's a little different, and it has become a huge influence for Apple Bloom's direction in life.
Totally agree. But you try and argue with the ponies you mind-screwed about a decade ago.
He'll get it sooner or later, don't you worry.
Nowhere to go but up...
4866186
Scootaloo and Sweetie are seventeen. It works a little better if you consider sixteen to be the age of adulthood (where a person is meant to be a productive member of society (r.e. not the same as the age of eligibility)). It gives the world a nice medieval flare. Apple Bloom is eighteen, due to my internal chronology for the "Call of the Cutie" episode. Just a little older than Spike.
Davenport was pretty cool about it in my eyes. He basically just said, "Yeah, it's cool if you wanna go with him. Just let me and you mom know. I'll have a little talk with him."
Scootaloo sharing it with her father seems mature to me. She just wants him in the loop. Plus, she wants to avoid telling her mother directly. That's a bit less mature, but it's Scootaloo. There's a plot point or two somewhere in there.
Faust? I said nothing about Faust. She's working on Wander Over Yonder, or something.
Still, you have a point. What about the centaurs? The dragons? The donkeys? The minotaurs? The river serpents? The buffalo? The chimeras? The cows? The sheep? The goats? The crystal ponies?
The answer is that I wanted to end the scene before the readers became as drowsy as Scootaloo.
But you can expect their gifts to be mentioned over the course of the series.
Of course, you may just be able to guess the gifts based on their behavior in both the show and in Lord Mayor Applejack. Or maybe I'm messing with you.
Before I give you too much to complain about: "Given to the dragons was an age in which to grow. Given to the centaurs was a wellspring of life."
There's something rotten in Ponyville, dear Howard035! Very rotten indeed!
4867277
Hehehehehehehehe...
4867432 Hey, we see in the Iron Man movies that Tony Stark needs the boots for propulsion and the gloves for steering, seems like Scootaloo's wings can handle one or the other but not both at the same time, so her hooves should do one while her wings do the other!
4867449
"You're trying to trick me into giving away something. It won't work." ~The Princess Bride
4867432
Hmm, I thought medieval it was the other way around, you got married while you were still an apprentice or something. I guess when you think about, requiring minors to be financially independent BEFORE they become sexually independent makes a lot more sense than the reverse. So Scootaloo is 17 and this is her very first date? I guess it makes sense the folks want to check him out.
<sigh> Fine, the generic red-maned white-furred alicorn creator of all:
On the species, not surprisingly I can't wait to find out more. I was how in-universe some species got a mention and others didn't. I would guess this is an ancient pony-centric holy text, written when ponies only knew about a few other species, but changlings get a shout-out and you established they were the last new species discovered by humans. Maybe you have to have a certain percentage of the population worship
TwistGod? Also, I gotta say, I do love the idea of pan-species churches, helps explain, along with the common languages and trade, how all these different species can not be constantly fighting. (Although my own theory indicates at least some changlings worship this god, so...?)YOU will direct it!
4867490 Actually, I'm trying to give you inspiration so you write faster
Tell me if it works!
Good quote and reference link, a classic scene. Got to love that Iocane powder!
4867516
The whole "marry young" thing came because the next logical step was "die young." Ponies live a little longer than humans, so that's not a factor. Thus, early responsibility (which is not outside a teen's maturity) and later marriage.
Actually, Scootaloo is seventeen and she's dated before. More on that in the story. Plus, you know, protective.
Who says the Creator's a pony? That's awful speciesist of you.
Short answer: Scootaloo wasn't paying attention during those parts.
Long answer: I haven't quite got it all put together yet. Almost, though.
I love this bit of speculation and I would be happy to answer your questions... in the context of the story.
Well played! I forgot that line, it's been almost a decade since I read that play.
4867532
It works beautifully! Or it would if I actually had time to sit down and write more often. Le sigh. Real life calls!
Proof that some of the best things come from Australia. Also evidence that everything in Australia wants to kill you. Go figure.
4867643 Australia has it's own section in TVtropes EVERYTHING TRYING TO KILL YOU trope
4867643
That's a fair cop, but in my defense, they didn't have an emote of Lord Smooze.
486767
Careful. Linking me to TVTropes will lead to me getting even less writing done.
4867774
Fair enough. Although I'll remind you that the Smooze was delt with in the backstory of Lord Mayor Applejack. "You snooze, you Smooze."
4870455 Oh, God is dead. I guess Equestria's going through the 70s now?
4871495
Naw. Entropic Horror is dead. Well, more like Entropic Horror is imprisoned and banished into Tartarus.
Which means he lies in wait for the perfect moment to escape and lay his unstoppable pseudopods upon the ponies who would dare defy him!
BO, BO BO! BO, BO BO! BO, BO BO!
4872235 Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Smooze Tartarus wgah'nagl fhtagn
This is what you get when you let someone with a runaway talent like AB's mix with a teacher like Twilight who doesn't do 'common sense'.
Davenport.... i know that from something..... davenport... DAVENPORT! LABRATS!! LEO'S DAD!!!!!! ADAM BREE AND CHASE!! !LABRATS!!!
6464332 I love that show! It's nice to know someone else thought of that
Alright, next chapter. From here on out I'm going to ignore how this story contradicts recent canon, and just say that the flash backs are working pretty well.
The "church" scene was the point that I really started to take interest in this story. As a Messianic Jew, I take religion very seriously, but there are so few stories out there that feature organized worship without either mocking it or trying to preach a sermon, and such things are even rarer here on FimFiction. You, my friend, have managed to include a nice (if boring to the audience) worship service in your story, not because you're trying to ram things down the reader's throat, but because that's just what your characters do, and it acts as a setting in which we learn more about both the world and the characters, both major and minor. In fact, the contrast between them dressing up nicely and her boredom do an excellent job of making the whole thing seem important yet normal, as just a fact of life, something that I would like to see more often here and in published stories. Thank you for this.
Remember kids, Equestria is a very literal place. When they tell you that a stock market "collapse" is a problem, believe them.
There's plenty of scenes here that seem innocuous at the moment but take on more significant meaning later, such as Scoot's fear of her mother's reaction, F. Rich's seating, or D. Tiara and S. Spoon. However, there is one moment where this is a bad thing, namely, when Scootaloo picks up a ball of water. When you introduce something unique about your character of this magnitude, you don't show a minor moment, you go big like her water dance scene later. A better example would have been for her to make a cloud out of that water, it would have worked as an example of her magic, yet not anything we would believe to be out of the ordinary, especially since Rainbow was dong that earlier.
In fact, I missed something last chapter, if Scootaloo was able to do wing-ups at Rainbow's house, how come she didn't discover the secret about her wings then? That move shouldn't have worked given what happens later, unless I'm misinterpreting what she was doing.
The Piranha Plants were a funny reference, I think you can make those things shoot out of pipes in Mario Maker.
I liked you deep commentary on the nature of an internet meme living past the point of amusement and it's impact on their subject.
Oh, and you made a joke about the endless Chickenloo references. 
So yes, this was a very good chapter (not that I remember there being any bad ones), and one of the stand out ones for me. Good work, and until next time, shalom.
As someone who was raised as a hardcore Catholic, I TRULY sympathize with Scootaloo being in that 'church'
It always is when friends fight Sweetie it always is.