~***~
“The crusade never ends!”
Scootaloo stood with her foreleg held to the sky and her tail waving in the wind. She was surrounded by a halo of dancing snowflakes that touched down lightly on her wingtips. She turned and brushed new-fallen snow off of her blank flank.
Four years had passed since Rainbow Dash had taken her on as an honorary younger sister. Two years since her two best friends had discovered their cutie marks. Five years since being a blank flank had gotten old.
Sweetie Belle looked up, a pencil in her mouth. She spoke around the eraser. “Shut the door before you turn the custard-filled donuts into frozen custard.”
Scootaloo kicked the door to Sugarcube Corner shut and pulled off her knit cap. “Hay guys. ’Sup?”
Apple Bloom bit into her cherry pie. With her mouth still full, she took a few licks of the ice cream scoop placed next to it. “Sweetie’s tryin’ tah write a new song.”
“It isn’t coming easy,” Sweetie said. “You can only rhyme ‘magic’ with so many words.”
Scootaloo pulled up a chair and looked over the display case from across the room. “Want me to help?”
Sweetie cringed. “No offense, Scootaloo, but the last song you wrote won an award for ‘best comedy performance.’”
“Sweet. I can be the next Cheese Sandwich.” Scootaloo brought a hoof to her mouth and belted out in her scratchy singing voice, “Yeah, I’ve stepped inside just once or twice, living in a Mustang paradise!”
“This is for an audition, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle spat the pencil out. “This is for real! It has to be perfect!”
Scootaloo leaned back as her wings flapped out. “Sorry. Sorry.”
Sweetie Belle squinted. Her shoulders drooped as she sat back in her chair. She munched her cinnamon roll. “Sorry I snapped.”
Scootaloo shrugged and walked over to the counter to order blackberry pie. She returned to the table and dug in with a smile.
“Magic… magic…” Sweetie Belle rubbed her forehead. “What else rhymes with magic?”
“Tragic?” Apple Bloom said.
“Blackjack?” Scootaloo said.
“Blackjack does not rhyme with magic.” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “And why would I write about tragedy in a song about magic?”
“Go fer the hypotheticals.” Apple Bloom waved a hoof. “Mah life would be so tragic, if not fer friendship’s magic, la la la, doo wop doo.”
“Many thanks to Ponyville’s resident lyricist, Apple Bloom Apple.” Sweetie Belle clapped her hooves slowly. She narrowed her eyes as she looked across the room. “Hay, Apple Bloom, can you see what that sign says?”
Apple Bloom glanced over her shoulder. “Two fer one muffin special. Why?”
Sweetie gripped the table and rocked it back and forth. “Oh, for the love—! Ugh.”
“Whoa, you’re gonna upset the pie,” Scootaloo said. “What’s the matter?”
“I’m officially nearsighted, now.” Sweetie Belle slapped a hoof on the table. “Nearsighted. On top of everything else. Do you know how annoying that is?”
Apple Bloom rubbed her chin. “Is that the one where you can’t see things up close or far a—?”
“I just asked you to read me a sign!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “Obviously it’s the one where I can’t see the color purple!”
Apple Bloom lowered her eyebrows. She rolled up her paper plate, tossed it in the garbage, and began pulling on her winter gear. Her wooly coat covered up her apple blossom cutie mark. “Ah’ll see y’all later. Gonna head back to the farm.”
“You just got into town,” Scootaloo said. “You gonna crusade with us or not?”
“Not… today.” Apple Bloom synched up her trapper hat. “Granny ain’t been feelin’ too good. Ah’m gonna help Applejack take care of her.”
Sweetie Belle sucked her cheek in. “Give her our best wishes.”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo finished off her pie. “And tell her Scootaloo said ‘Get well soon.’”
“Sure thing, guys.” Apple Bloom stepped into the wintery air. “Good luck on the song, Sweetie. And on your cutie mark, too, Scoots.”
Sweetie Belle blew a breath through her lips before turning to Scootaloo. “What’s on the agenda for today? You wanna try for a snowplow cutie mark?”
“You’re hilarious.” Scootaloo leaned on her elbows. “I dunno. The older we get the more I think a cutie mark isn’t something I can get help with.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “We helped Apple Bloom out quite a bit, I think. It’s been a couple years. Maybe you need a different approach?”
“With what?” Scootaloo slumped in her chair. “I can dance until my hooves fall off, I can do a bajillion tricks on the scooter, I’ve done a quadrillion stunts… and nothing’s worked.”
Sweetie Belle looked down at her flank, where her bell-and-music-notes cutie mark sat. “Maybe you need to do it like I did. Perform in front of a crowd. Let the cheers lift your heart.”
“Maybe, but I’ve never made my talents a secret.” Scootaloo chewed on her pie and her thoughts. “I gotta fly. That’s gotta be it.”
“You’ve been chomping at the same bit for five years,” Sweetie Belle said. “You’re twelve now. Maybe that’s what’s holding you back. You’ve got to acc—”
Scootaloo jumped up. “If you dare say I need to accept horseapples I’m stuffing gum in your mane. I don’t need to accept a cuss-darn thing except that I’m a pegasus.”
A cleared throat from across the room caught their attention. Mrs. Cake gestured to the small filly resting on her back, Pumpkin Cake. “Keep the swearing down, please. Little pitchers and big ears and all that.”
“Sorry,” Scootaloo said as she sat down. “Sorry.”
“Oh, don’t be too sorry, dear.” Cup Cake trotted up behind Scootaloo and rested her hooves on her shoulders. “We all say the wrong thing a time or two. Creator could tell all the times I’ve said something colorful after burning my hoof on the oven.”
Sweetie Belle picked her pencil up in her mouth and wrote down a line or two. She quickly crossed them off with a sigh.
Cup tilted her head. “How’s about a nice cup of hot cocoa, on the house. You two look like you could use some cheering up.”
“Thank you,” Scootaloo said.
While Mrs. Cake busied herself with a kettle, Sweetie Belle scribbled on her notepad.
Scootaloo rocked on her seat. “What’s your song about?”
“How magic feels.” Sweetie chewed on her eraser. “That feeling you get when your heart beats a little faster, and you can feel the life flowing through you. The tingle in your fairy strings. The warm glow from your horn.” She tapped her pencil against the table. “Well, I guess that last one is just for unicorns.”
“So what’s the holdup?”
“I know what I want to say, I know how I want the song to sound, it’s just”—Sweetie stuck her tongue out and brushed off bits of eraser—“getting this stuff on paper is hard. How are you supposed to describe feelings like that in a way everybody will understand?”
Scootaloo tapped her hooves together. “I got no idea.”
“Me either.” Sweetie crumpled up a page and tossed it into the trash can. “‘You’re gonna shine.’ Of course we shine, we’re stinking unicorns. We’ve got a built-in glow stick.”
Scootaloo pressed her lips together. “Could the song be about other kinds of ponies, too? Unicorns aren’t the only ones who know what magic feels like.”
“Yeah…” Sweetie Belle’s ears drooped. “Maybe that’s my problem. A song about how magic feels is dumb because everypony knows how it feels.”
“You gotta find a way to make it exciting.” Scootaloo leaned back to let Cup Cake set a mug of cocoa before her. “Thanks, Mrs. Cake!”
“Thank you,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Be careful, girls,” Mrs. Cake said. “It’s hot.”
“We will.” Sweetie blew the steam coming from her mug, then stirred it up to cool it down.
Scootaloo hovered her hoof over the mug and swept it from side to side. As she went, the steam swirled and danced after her foreleg, creating feathery curlicues and spirals. She paused when she saw Sweetie staring at her. “What?”
“How are you doing that?”
“Doing what?” Scootaloo shrugged. “Playing with the steam?”
“Yes.” Sweetie Belle rubbed her eyes. “Yes, that exactly. How are you making designs with steam?”
“Um.” Scootaloo waved her hoof over her mug a couple more times. “Can’t everypony?”
Sweetie stuck her hoof into her own little steam cloud and wiggled it. The steam continued up to the ceiling.
“Huh.” Scootaloo made a halo above her head and grinned. “Maybe steam design is my special talent.”
“I guess it makes sense, since that’s basically a really small, really thin cloud.” Sweetie Belle leaned on the back of her chair. “Maybe your talent is in weather management?”
“That’s kinda boring.” Scootaloo made a butterfly appear out of her mug. It flapped around and dissipated. “Maybe my talent is in extreme weather management. Like Equestria Games weather management. Is weather management an event?”
“Kinda?” Sweetie sipped her cocoa. “I think you paid more attention to those parts than I did.”
Scootaloo took a giant gulp of her cocoa. She licked her lips and blew steam out her mouth. “Whoo! That hit the spot.”
“Yeah, a little bit.” Sweetie pouted at her notepad. “Maybe a song about cocoa will inspire me.”
“You know what needs more songs written about it?” Scootaloo said. “Flying.”
“I have no personal experience with flying,” Sweetie said.
“Neither do I.” Scootaloo flapped her wings. “Directly, anyway. But that doesn’t stop songs about flying from being really awesome.”
“I’ll consider it,” Sweetie said with a small smile. “Now how about we go and you can practice getting that new weather management cutie mark of yours.”
“It isn’t gonna be weather management.” Scootaloo guzzled the rest of her mug. “I swear on my pinions.”
“Please, Scootaloo.” Sweetie set a cloche hat on her head. “You don’t get to choose what talents you’re given.”
“No, maybe not.” Scootaloo pulled her coat on. “But that’s not all a cutie mark’s about, is it?”
Sweetie Belle paused at the door. “I guess not.”
Scootaloo drew up beside her. “What promise did you make to yourself when you got your mark?”
Sweetie bit her boot’s pull-string to tighten it. “Promise?”
“Yeah, you know. When’d you finally say to yourself, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna do.’”
Sweetie shuffled her hooves. Her brow furrowed. “Well… I guess it was when others started joining in the song.”
New-fallen snow crunched under their feet. They made their way down the street towards Quills and Sofas. “I just saw, like, a light in their eyes. A sparking something that just grabbed me. It was…” Sweetie’s head dipped low. “You’re gonna call it girly.”
“No, I’m not gonna make fun of you. Fillyscout’s honor.” Scootaloo held a hoof against her chest.
“You’re not a Fillyscout.”
“Fine. Pinkie Pie Promise.” Scootaloo crossed her heart, fluttered her wings, and stuck her hoof in her eye. “Just an honest answer to an honest question.”
Sweetie smiled. “The sparkle was so beautiful. It was like for just a moment, everypony’s hearts were all connected, and I was the connection. Well, my song was. But I was the one singing it, and I felt just as connected. I want to connect people through song. I want people to feel that same heartbeat. I want people to feel that sparkle that I felt and saw.” She licked a snowflake that had stuck to her lips. “I want to shine, and I want to help others shine. I guess that’s the promise I made.”
Scootaloo nodded. “That’s why the new song has to be perfect?”
“I wanna capture that moment again.” Sweetie lifted her head high. “I wanna feel that connection again.”
She giggled and waved a hoof. “That’s deep enough for today. What’s next for us?”
“We’ll head to the big sledding hill first,” Scootaloo said. “Rumble told me it’s got a wicked hairpin turn that we might make if I practice a couple times.”
“Sledding?” Sweetie shook her head. “Oh no. No, no, no. We’re gonna crash and it’s gonna completely ruin my hat!”
“You can borrow one of mine.” Scootaloo grinned. “Or is your mane allergic to hats that cost less than a hundred bits?”
“Pfft. This hat didn’t cost that much. Rarity made it herself.” Sweetie prodded her friend in the side. “You don’t want to get a hatter mad.”
“I thought they already were.” Scootaloo ducked under a clump of snow as it zinged at her. “Whoa! Is that how we’re playing?”
“Call it righteous retribution for your heinous personal slight.” Sweetie rolled up another gob of snow. “The honor of my sister has been besmirched.”
“Oh yeah?” Scootaloo chuckled. She jumped behind a snow bank and scooped up a snowball. “I’m gonna besmirch your face!”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Sweetie Belle’s snowball arced over the bank and clocked Scootaloo in the back of the head. “You’re begging for powdered donuts, girl!”
“Alley goop!” Scootaloo threw a snowball far over Sweetie.
“That’s ‘Allez hop!’” Sweetie said, sticking her head above her own protective bank. A snowball smacked her right in the nose. “That does it!”
Scootaloo ran as a dozen snowballs assailed her all at once, gripped in a shaky blue glow. She was backed against a wall with nowhere else to go. She held out her hooves, spread her wings, and braced for impact.
The impact didn’t come.
She opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by a small cloud of snowflakes. She waved her hooves, and they moved in time. Her jaw dropped.
“Scootaloo? Are you okay?” Sweetie Belle ran up, her horn sparking. She rubbed her forehead and groaned. “Feels like my head exploded.”
“Mine too,” Scootaloo said. She made the snowflakes bounce as her grin widened. “But in a good way.”
Sweetie’s mouth hung slack. She looked the snow cloud up and down. “Are you doing that?”
“Eeyup.”
“All by yourself. With just your magic.”
“Oh yes.”
Sweetie Belle frowned as the snow drifted over to her. “You’re gonna dump a whole snow bank on my head, aren’t you?”
“Quick, take your hat off.”
“You’re a monster.”
~***~
Rainbow Dash pushed open the door and nearly walked right into a cloud. Inside Quills and Sofas. Indoors.
Scootaloo bounced on another cloud that floated nearby. “Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Look what I can do!”
Davenport walked through the cloud like it wasn’t even there. “Anything you can do to keep my little girl from raising our water bill to ‘national mint’ proportions will be greatly appreciated.” He pulled a plastic cover over one couch before hurrying to do it again with the others.
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Good job, Squirt, but I think you should’ve practiced cloudmaking outside.”
“It’s not just cloudmaking!” Scootaloo bounded down and gripped Rainbow Dash’s hoof. “Come on! Come see!”
Davenport sighed. “At least the pipes won’t freeze. Maybe.”
Rainbow Dash pulled off a purple scarf and laid it on a passing loveseat. “You’ve got some kinda new trick or something?”
“Better!” Scootaloo entered the kitchen. She held up a pitcher of water and turned it upside down. “Check it!’”
Rainbow Dash flinched back from the expected splash, but when it didn’t come, she took a second look. “Is that water… suspended?”
“Heck yeah! And that’s not all!” Scootaloo reached in and pulled out a round drop of water. She set the pitcher down and kicked the drop like a ball. “I can do all sorts of stuff! Bounce it, make it fly, turn it into a cloud—”
She tried to bounce it on her head, but the drop splashed against her nose. She blinked water out of her eyes and chuckled. “Maybe I need a little more practice.”
Rainbow Dash’s mouth twitched. “H—how are you doing this?”
“Just extending the good old magic of the pegasi.” Scootaloo stretched her forelegs behind her head. She reached into the pitcher and pushed the water around like it was a semisolid. “You try it.”
Rainbow Dash looked at her hooves. “I won’t deny the awesome, but—”
“Try it!” Scootaloo’s wings buzzed. “Let’s see what you can do!”
Rainbow Dash stared at the pitcher for a long moment. She shook her head with a smile, dipped her hoof into the water, and splashed around. “Sorry, Squirt. Looks like this is a ‘Scootaloos only’ event and I ain’t no Scootaloo.”
“But…” Scootaloo’s face scrunched up. “But you’re a pegasus, too. You’ve got the same magic.”
“Oh heck no I don’t!” Rainbow Dash ruffled Scootaloo’s damp mane. “Every pony has their own special magic. It’s as unique to you as a voice. You’ve got ponies with a loud voice and ponies with a quiet voice, but they’re never exactly the same.”
“Inspirational speech number three-thousand seventy-five,” Scootaloo said. “Check.”
“Yeah, yeah, but I mean it.” Rainbow Dash shook her tail. “You don’t know anypony else who can do the sonic rainboom, do you?”
“No.”
“And I don’t know anypony else who can… can…” Rainbow Dash brushed back her mane. “Holy cow, what is it you do? You just sort of…”
Scootaloo trailed a snake of water out of the pitcher. It grew to leg’s length before it fell back in. “I bring it to life.”
Rainbow Dash’s wide eyes finally blinked. She laughed softly and shook her head. “Yeah. Yeah, you do.”
Scootaloo shifted her weight between her front legs and her back legs. Her ears perked up. “Hay. Hay, hay, hay.”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?”
“Only I can do this.” Scootaloo brought her hoof up to her chest. “Only I’ve done this. It’s what makes me special.”
“One of the things that—”
“Oh my gosh, it’s my super-special talent!” Scootaloo jumped into the air and hovered. “I’ve found my super-special talent! I’m a water-er-er!” She landed and looked at her blank rump. “And I’m gonna be the best at water-er-er-ing!”
The kitchen grew quiet. The sound of a magic-powered fan blowing away clouds in the showroom reached their ears. Scootaloo held her breath, her eyes never leaving that special spot where a cutie mark was sure to appear.
Nothing happened.
Scootaloo licked her lips and exhaled. “Maybe I need to think up a design in my head.”
“Squirt—” Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof, but stopped short of putting it on her shoulder. “Scootaloo, I don’t think—”
“What?” Scootaloo pulled back with a frown. “What? You don’t think this is my super-special talent? You don’t think this is what I was meant to do? You got a better idea, sister?”
“Well, no,” Rainbow Dash said. “I just thought that maybe…”
“Maybe what?” Scootaloo said. She stomped a hoof on the floor. “Maybe what?”
“Maybe I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes went to the water pitcher. “It’s totally awesome what you can do. But I don’t know why it’s not appearing.”
“It should appear!” Scootaloo’s wings shivered at her sides. “It should have appeared already! I’m good at a million different things! I could get a mark for any one of them! Why hasn’t it appeared yet?”
Rainbow Dash took a small step back. “If I knew why, I’d tell you.”
Scootaloo’s face turned purple. “What’s wrong with me?” she shouted.
She ran past Rainbow and bolted up the staircase.
Rainbow Dash sat at the foot of the stairs. She looked up, her wings opening and closing. She met Davenport’s eyes with a silent plea.
“We should probably give her time to cool down,” he said. When Scootaloo’s door slammed, he added, “Yup. Time to cool down.”
Rainbow Dash gave him a single nod.
~***~
Scootaloo buried her face in a pillow. A normal pillow, unlike the soft, cloudy pillows Rainbow Dash used. An earth pony pillow filled with chicken feathers.
Scootaloo chucked it across the room.
She stood up on her bed and flapped her wings. “Just gotta fly… just gotta fly… just gotta fly…”
She jumped, spread her legs out, and creaked the bedsprings upon landing. “I just gotta fly!”
She lay her head on its side and wiped her eyes. “Then everything’ll make sense.”
There was a soft knock at the door. Scootaloo turned toward the wall. “Unless you got a bucket of ice cream, I ain’t interested!”
The door inched open. Roseluck poked her head in. “Just a bowl or two, actually, but does it count?”
Scootaloo covered her head with her wings. “Come in.”
Roseluck walked in, shut the door, and placed a bowl of strawberry ice cream, topped with chocolate syrup and cookie crumbs, on Scootaloo’s nightstand. She sat next to the bed and licked at her own bowlful.
Scootaloo peered through her feathers. “You’re an awfully persuasive person.”
“A finely honed tal—” Roseluck cleared her throat. “Skill.”
Scootaloo took a bite of ice cream. “Nice catch.” She licked syrup off her chin. “Did Rainbow Dash go home?”
“She has to pack.” Roseluck ran a hoof down Scootaloo’s foreleg. “She said she hopes to see you at the train station tomorrow.”
“She will.” Scootaloo set her bowl on the bed and sniffed. “I screwed up so bad, Mom. I just wanted to show Dash what I could do, and then I was so sure I was gonna… and I just…”
“Hay, come here.” Roseluck held her forelegs out. Scootaloo climbed off the bed and into her embrace. “You’re okay. There’s nothing that happened today that won’t be okay later.”
“But it isn’t okay now.” Scootaloo pulled against her mother’s hug. “I should go to Rainbow and—”
“You can do it tomorrow. It’s too cold to go out tonight.” Roseluck sighed. “Besides, it isn’t okay with you, yet.”
“No.” Scootaloo coughed up some phlegm. “But the only thing that’ll make it okay is if—”
“If you got your cutie mark?”
“Yeah. Kinda stupid.”
“It’s not stupid, Honey. It’s something you’ve wanted for a long time. Something you’ve been looking forward to, and—” Roseluck looked at the Wonderbolts poster on the wall. “And if I could just give it to you, I would.”
“But you can’t,” Scootaloo said.
“No.”
“Because it’s something I have to decide for myself.”
“Yes.”
Scootaloo stood up. She walked around the room, looking at the various posters and pictures of cool locations around Equestria that she was for sure going to visit someday. “And it’s got to be a promise. A promise to myself. About who I want to be. Of who I’m going to be.”
Scootaloo stopped at the mirror on the back of her door. She stared at her damp, matted mane, her tired eyes, and her chocolate-stained chin. “And here I’ve just been worried about what I’m gonna do.”
Roseluck sat her ice cream to the side. “So who do you wanna be?”
“I dunno.” Scootaloo tilted her head as she searched her own violet eyes for an answer. “I’ve just been… bouncing from talent to talent and back again. Like, I don’t know, some kind of crazy butterfly jumping between flowers. Grabbing the nectar, finding another flower to see if it has better nectar, going back to the first because the second one wasn’t good enough…”
She lifted a hoof and waved it in a swirly pattern. “And nopony can keep up ’cause they can’t even tell where I’m going, and I barely even know where I am, and it’s all just crazy.
“So maybe that’s all I am,” Scootaloo said. “A crazy butterfly who can’t decide to do anything because everything is awesome. And I wanna do it all. And I can do it all.”
“That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me,” Roseluck said.
“Naw.” Scootaloo shook her head. She turned away from her reflection and back to her mom. “But it ain’t enough. It’ll never be enough.”
She walked up to the wall and looked out the window. Ponyville lay buried under a layer of snow that grew as the clouds overhead rolled. “There’s still one thing, Mom. I gotta fly.”
Roseluck’s head tilted down. Her shoulders slumped. “Honey, I know you want to—”
“No. You didn’t hear me. I gotta fly. I have to fly. I need it.” Scootaloo gave Roseluck a pointed glare. “I’m gonna fly. I will fly.”
She squared her hooves and spread her wings. “I’m gonna fly. I don’t care what ponies say.”
Her heart beat faster as she glared out the window. “I don’t care what they think they know about me. I don’t care if my wings are small. I don’t care if I’m the encyclopedia entry for ‘late bloomer.’ I don’t care if I’ve barely gotten off the ground. I don’t care what they think I can’t do!”
A lump appeared in her throat that demanded to be let out. “I’m gonna fly! Do you hear me? I’m going to fly!”
Her legs tingled. She rushed up to the window and threw it open. She propped herself up on her forelegs and leaned out. “Did you hear me that time, Ponyville? I’m gonna fly! I’m gonna fly!”
Her body felt lighter than air. Her mouth spoke almost without her permission. Her heart soared as it raced faster and faster. “I’m gonna fly, Ponyville! My name is Scootaloo, and I will fly!”
The room flashed. Scootaloo didn’t look at her flank, because she already knew what was there. A crazy butterfly, flapping along on a path nopony could follow, bouncing from flower to flower because there was always something better. A crazy butterfly who never stopped bouncing, because she knew that there was one thing still missing.
“I’m gonna fly,” Scootaloo said, “and there’s nothing that can stand in my way.”
~***~
“How long’s it been since I cleaned this thing?”
Davenport brushed various bills and tax forms off his desk in a last-ditch attempt to look professional. He pulled his collar as sweat collected underneath it. “Miss Rich. Or Miss Tiara? I’m happy you decided to patronize Quills and Sofas.”
“Everypony in this dumb town has some sort of monopoly,” Diamond Tiara said. “What’s your deal on fully furnishing?”
Davenport did his best to give a warm smile. It was more like a worn simile. “Does Mr. Filthy Rich want to redecorate? It seems a bit late in the year for—”
“She’s moving in with me,” Silver Spoon said. She chuckled. “Ponyville’s rising star is finally stepping out on her own. With me, of course. Our apartment is gonna need furnishing. Maybe a little stationary to go with it…”
“I happen to have both of those things,” Davenport said. “In bulk.”
“Yeah, yeah, congratulations.” Diamond Tiara jutted out her lower lip and looked at the bare white walls of Davenport’s office. “Just tell me how much this is gonna cost.”
“Depends on the furniture you wanna get.” Davenport shrugged. “I can let you two look over the stuff in the catalogue if you don’t like what you see in the showroom.”
“Oh that would be nice, sir,” Silver Spoon said. “May we see the catalogue?”
“Of course, just—” Davenport dug through the pile of paper on his desk. “Huh. I’ve been looking for that book. Bill, bill…” His hoof touched a love letter from Roseluck and slid it out of view. “Another bill. Ahem.”
He paused a moment. He found a folder of information about flight camps around Ponyville. Unused. His eyes flicked to the picture of Scootaloo on his desk, smiling at the camera with a giant pink cotton candy cloud stuck in her mane. “Sorry, Kid.”
“Beg pardon?” Silver Spoon said.
“I think I left my latest catalogue upstairs,” he replied. “I’ll be right back. Please make yourself comfortable. I think there’s still coffee in the pot.”
Silver Spoon gave him her sweetest smile. “Thank you very much.”
He hurried out the door, leaving the two to plot in private.
“Don’t worry about the price, Diamond,” Silver Spoon said. “I’ll cover the cost…” Her smile turned a shade darker. “While you job-hunt. You can pay me back later.”
Diamond’s face turned red. “You’d be in the same boat as me if your dad had kicked you out when you turned eighteen.”
“Instead of giving me a job? I know.” Silver Spoon shut her eyes and shrugged. “But then you wouldn’t have had your best friend to help you out.”
“You smug…” Diamond Tiara gritted her teeth. “Thanks a million, BFF.”
“A million would be a start…” Silver Spoon leaned over Davenport’s desk and shuffled through the files. “What sort of issues do the common people deal with these days? Huh, water bill isn’t bad nowadays.”
Diamond Tiara snickered. “Remember when Scootalooser almost drowned the audience with her ‘super-special talent’ at the talent show?”
“One of many fantastic fiascos. I remember.” Silver Spoon pulled up a folder with “Flight Camp” typed onto the front. “Like the fiasco that is her life.”
“Oh that’s priceless. Let me see.” Diamond grabbed the folder and shuffled through it. “‘Learn beginning skills of thermal riding, cloudjumping, and gliding.’ The dumb cripple can’t even do the basics.”
Silver Spoon looked at the back of the folder. “You really think she’s a cripple?”
“What other explanation is there?” Diamond snickered at another pamphlet. “This one’s from Scenic Meadows Cloud Ranch. I think somepony has their wires crossed.”
Silver Spoon snatched the folder. “Hay!” Diamond Tiara said. “I was mocking that!”
“Shut up.” Silver Spoon dumped the contents of the folder onto the desk. She picked up a page printed on glistening, enchanted paper. She read over it with a smile. “Isn’t that odd?”
Diamond Tiara adjusted the crown on her head. “What? What is it?”
“Does Davenport strike you as a particularly organized individual?” Silver Spoon asked.
Diamond gave the desk a single glance. “No.”
“At some point this folder became the ‘Scootaloo’ folder.” Silver handed the page to Diamond. “Take a close look.”
Diamond studied the page as Silver Spoon put the papers back in order. “It’s her birth certificate?”
“Look closer.”
“At what?”
“Closer. Think.”
Diamond Tiara squinted at the page. She drew back with a start. “There’re overlapping spells on this thing. Some of these names have been changed. The parents—”
Davenport’s heavy footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. Diamond Tiara stuck the birth certificate in the folder.
“The question is,” Silver Spoon said, “does he keep the adoption papers in the bathroom or the broom closet?”
I don't get what you are doing with the formatting other than hurting my eyes.
So... Scootaloo's magic, which is of the nature/element of Pegasi... only really works with her hooves.
Sweetie Belle had something... problematic happen to her about music...
And Diamond Tiara only grew up in the most superficial way. Wait, did we already know this?
5021884
How does one depict a flashback so that it is:
1. Obviously separate from the rest of the story
2. Related to the other flashbacks at a glance
3. Easy on the eyes?
I guess I recommend sans serif typeface?
I'll think about how to fix it. At least in the history of bad ideas I've had, this isn't the worst.
5021932
She could balance on her wingtip for a couple seconds, actually. That's from chapter three.
Chances are...
Yeah, but this scene was just as much for Silver Spoon's attitude. She's been acting perfectly businesslike until now.
5021967
Flashbacks? My suggestion. separate them from the normal narrative by the horizontal rules... and make it clear in the establishing paragraph it's not in the present. Describe Scootaloo as younger, have explicit narration... something like that.
Personally, though, I don't mind the italics for a different sort of scene. It is a tad difficult to read though.
5021884
5021994
Much obliged for the suggestions, RadicalDishonesty. And much obliged for calling me out, Seether00. It's quite possibly not as eye-straining now.
If you try and pass off that Sweetie gave up singing and became a seamstress because singing was "only symbolic for her desire to spread beauty" or some other crap, I will never. EVER. Forgive you.
Turning her into a cheap knockoff of Rarity is the WORST.
5023177
Heck no. That would be kinda dumb. Bordering on super-dumb. You aren't gonna get that connection she craves while you're sewing dresses.
It would most certainly be a lame way to end the character arc I'm setting up for her. The story wouldn't feel like it meant anything if we didn't see growth in at least a couple characters, and Sweetie Belle is gonna be second behind Scootaloo in terms of that. There's drama incoming, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Hold onto your butt.
Scoot's Birth Certificate:
And it just had to be found by THOSE TWO LITTLE I hope this doesn't' end badly for her.\
Her cutie Mark being a Hyperactive Butterfly... well, they do say a flap of a butterfly's wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.
5023308
Pfft. Nah. I'm sure Diamond will forget all about it by Thursday.
Except the hurricane follows this butterfly.
Try more steam working, Scoots, do more stuff with the steam.
Try the steam!
Or the snow, try the snow!
There we go.
Well, kinda, still takes a little more yelling and whatnot, but she gets there.
*record scratch*
5023325 DT forget a possible way to make a CMC feel awful???? PFFFTTT, yeah right, that's as likely as Twilight getting over her OCD about Celestia.
You know he was inspired to make that song after he met Pinkie's family.
5023273
Earlier Sweetie Bell seemed a bit grouchy designing clothes, but now she seems super grouchy making music. Maybe she's just one of those sweet kids who become all moody when they become teenagers, and never really grow out of it.
Or maybe she needs to pick a 3rd option?
I gotta be honest, this makes me worry for poor Scoots. It sounds like her special talent is constantly trying new things, but it's tied into flying somehow. It makes me think her special talent is actually preventing her from flying, since then she might stop doing random things all the time. Scoots really should go into weather management, since apparently she's a full blown waterbender.
Oh man, I've figured it all out! Why she can't fly, her talent with water, she's adopted... Scootaloo is a SECRET SEAPONY!
You know, this really makes me wonder what promises DT and SS made to themselves when they got their cutie marks...
Interesting; I'm genuinely surprised that Scoot didn't get her Cutie Mark there. However, I suppose, she still has to emotionally move out of Rainbow's shadow first.
So, Diamond and Spoony have found a mystery in Scootaloo's origins?
5023686
Scootaloo! Listen to the readers! They know things!
That right there is pretty much the story of Scootaloo's life.
Somebody's been trying to play a 33 1/3 record on 78 rpms.
5023764
Twilight is neither obsessive nor compulsive about Celestia. She is merely very fond of the ground upon which she walks.
5024313
Actually, Mustang culture mostly revolves around freeing themselves from the restraining confines of four walls and a roof. They live free in the wide pastures of southern Equestria, running and grazing and generally getting back to Equestria's roots (as in, the pre-three tribes era). Peachbottom is 100% a stereotypical Mustang, while the Pies are very much stereotypical rock farmers.
If you're not careful, a long, hard series of disappointments can get to you.
She got her cutie mark when she decided, above all else, that she was gonna fly. She made that promise to herself. A cutie mark isn't gonna activly oppose itself, especially since they're mostly manifestation's of a pony's will.
Does somebody's talent with computers prevent them from having good handwriting? Nah. They may not have a talent for handwriting, or they may not practice it, but a talent can't cause you to not be talented in another area all by itself. There's got to be a number of causes.
Um, uh... THAT'S SILLY. WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT.
*re-write* *re-write* *re-write*
SHE'S NOT A SEA PONY, THAT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS.
*re-write* *re-write* *re-write*
That, like asking if Andean is immortal or not, is an excellent question.
5024852
She did actually get it at the very end: "The room flashed. Scootaloo didn’t look at her flank, because she already knew what was there. A crazy butterfly..."
And yeah, some ponies get into a loop where they're trying so hard to emulate others that they forget their own worth.
Mm'yep. Silver Spoon found a clue, but she's not aware of the significance of it, yet.
5028317
Well, she did take that vacation to the Crystal Empire where she rode inside a train and went inside buildings, but she was probably on... rumpspringa.
Sweetie Bell is probably going to start smoking any day now. A bubble pipe, but still...
Wait a minute. Didn't Scootaloo get her cutie mark several years before the start of this story? But she just started actively trying to fly again. What happened in the mean time?
You know, I wonder if her parents ever tried to get her into the family business. Flower-growing without being an earth pony would be tough to compete in, but nothing's stopping her from selling sofas, and she'd probably have an edge with quills! "Buy one Chesterfield, get our 'Scootaloo Special' Quills! (They're a little short)."
"Simply call out SOS!"
You know, I think any landpony who fell in a rushing river in the dead of night would pass out and drown, long before they were rescued, unless they unknowingly had gills...
I just noticed in this chapter, how it looks like Silver Spoon is finally in charge, now that she's supporting Diamon Tiara. I like that interesting new dynamic they have. You mentioned character growth for many ponies. Honestly, if at the end of this story Silver Spoon taught Diamond Tiara enough common sense to be moderately civil to others in public when they or their relatives may be a future customer, that would still count as major character growth on DT's part. "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all...until you're behind closed doors."
5028317 THIS
begs to differ.
I'll admit, it took me a while to realize that most of this chapter was a flashback. I was pretty dang confused when Scootaloo mentioned getting her cutie mark. I honestly can't think of a better way to format it though (italics throughout just sounds painful).
The chapter was great tho and that at the end has me pumped for more!
5028433
I forgot to mention, Trixie's mistrust of wheels was not part of her corruption, it was a resurfacing of a belief held in her early years before she set off into the world to become a magician. Her Mustang parents are proud of her success in finding her own path, though sad that she decided not to continue their tradition. She hasn't told them about the Ursa Minor. Or the Amulet. Or her fling with Flash Sentry.
They are very proud parents.
\
It's called soaping, and it's very bad for your stomach. Many ponies suffer from chronic diarrhea because of it. Soaping isn't cool, kids.
So, Rainbow Dash performed the sonic rainboom when she was like, eight. She didn't do it again until several years later, in adulthood. Does that mean she didn't practice in the years between? Nope! Did she start practicing again in earnest after deciding to enter the Best Young Flyer competition? Yup!
You ever start something and have to walk away for some reason or another? Have you ever gone back to it years later to finally see it through? It's a bit like that.
I'm pretty sure she ticked "flowers" off the list on day one, and her dad ticked "Sofas and/or Quills" after she set up a quill stand selling her own feathers at a bit a piece. Nopony bought much after they noticed where she got her stock, but she'd already plucked a few... It took a couple months to grow them back.
That's terrifyingly acute. And cute.
I MEAN SEA PONY, THAT'S INSANE. WHY IT'S THE DUMBEST THING I EVER HEARD.
We may see something from Diamond by the end of the story, one way or the other.
5028627
Um. She may occasionally build shrines and kiss the ground her feet have touched, but that doesn't mean Sparkle's obsessed, per se.
I swear, it doesn't.
5030023
It was pretty painful. Sometimes I do things because "Duh, that's how its supposed to be" before thinking "Hey, is this a good idea?"
As far as the flashback, at least you understood what it was after a while. It's a risk I need to take, I guess, if I wanna have an entire chapter be a flashback all at once.
Me, too! I always like to take things people find cliche and twist them a bit, and I think this'll be one of the more interesting twists.
5031800
I bet part of why she went progressively more insane with the amulet is that, in order to keep Twilight out of Ponyville, Trixie had to keep herself in. Staying in place for weeks has got to be tough for a proper Mustangian.
I bet she uses a stage name too, so her parents don't figure things out. "When you're traveling on the road with your magic act to entertain sick foals, don't you go near Ponyville Beatrice Lunamoon! They just had trouble with some 'Dark Overlord Trixie' or some such rubbish, and you know we've always raised you to avoid confrontations."
Now be fair to Trixie, she only dated Flash Sentry because she couldn't date Shining Armor. Seems like that's how he gets all his girlfriends.
Fair enough, I guess I was just wondering what else those 3 were working on in between when Scoots got her cutie mark and present day, but then I realized you're still doing flashbacks, so I guess patience would be in order.
Someday Patty Cake will buy one of the ones out there as a collector's item. Wait, did she ever try selling sofas? Tell me this face doesn't have "Sales" written right over it.
You call that cute? THIS is cute: derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/2/23/3407__safe_solo_scootaloo_seapony_artist-colon-tygerbug_shoo+be+doo.png
5031951
It's part of why she lives out of a cart and never stays in one place. According to this series, anyhow. She's gonna be fun once I plot out a story with her as a character.
It's not so much "avoid" as it is "stampede the heck away from."
Ahuh. Don't think I didn't see what you did there. Tsk. Such crudeness. I think it's only fair to base all stallions against Shining Armor as an example of "Strong, Noble, Steadfast, and True."
"Sorry, but you only come up to about a Trenderhoof on the Flim Flimflam<<<>>>Shining Armor scale. No dice."
"Aawww..."
Actually, I pretty much went all out with this one because it's the Granddaddy of All Flashbacks. The rest of their history is gonna be inferred through dialogue. And boy, oh, boy, is there gonna be infernal inference.
All the Cake kids are gonna be fighting over that little bit of history! Centuries from now, the Cake descendants will write epic dessert ballads about the orange angel whose feather granted flight to anypony who would hold it, as long as they were pegasi. It's an oddly-specific artifact of phenomenal power.
I... I cannot compete with that. I cannot. It's time to throw in the towel, folks, the perfect art has been created already. We can go home. We can say we lived fulfilled lives because this, this fantastic thing, is in our lives now. This beautiful, glorious thing.
5032331
"Pound cake? Why did I find this glycerin under your bed? Have you been soaping? Riding the Ivory tiger? 'Cleaning out curse words'? Where did you learn such behavior?"
"I learned it from watching you, ok?! I learned it from watching you!"
iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/37064__%20(1).gif
derpicdn.net/img/2013/11/11/469707/large.jpeg
Hey! It's not creepy! . I like your
scale armorArmor scale. Seems a little worrisome, however, when I realized that King Sombra must have scored really high on at least the first 3 parts.Do you you mean infernal implication? If you promise to infernally imply things, I promise to angelically infer them. Of course, I kind of already broke that promise with the Flash Sentry thing so...
Not sure what exactly an epic dessert ballad is, but I know Pinkie invented it while the Cakes were on vacation, and I also know she lost a months wages paying them back for used-up inventory.
And yes, that was indeed quite the cutealoo seapony.
5032460
Would that make it a Pony Service Announcement?
Also, please tell me somebody wrote a story for that TrixieXDeadpool image. Please, please, please.
"Sombra? Hmm. Okay, it looks like you trumped the Strong and Steadfast categories. A thousand years of waiting shows true dedication."
"Cryssssttttaaaallllssss!"
"But it looks like you missed out on the Nobility category. Frankly, slavery is just plain bad mojo on the dating scene."
"Crystals?"
"And the True category? Sorry, dude. It was a pretty bad lie to make ponies think their darkest dreams had become real."
"Crystals!"
"So it looks like on the Flam Flimflam<<<>>>Shining Armor scale, you scored..."
"Stairs?"
"A Lickety Split. Sorry, Sombra, you're a certified wuss."
"NOOOOO!!!"
I mean the implications themselves are, in part and whole, infernal in such a way as to pose bitter challenges to the characters in this story, that is, the former Cutie Mark Crusaders and their associates, that is, everypony ever.
It's like a rock ballad but with, you know, more cakes. And donuts. Oh, oh, and pudding! It's like one of those hillbilly bands, with the musical saws and washboards, only with cooking utensils! When Mrs. Cake starts playing the whisk, ain't nopony can keep still!
I have "Call Upon the Seaponies" playing on loop because of you. And I'm singing along. Loudly. With the wrong lyrics. All your fault.
As a fun side note, Applejack's expression during that song ranges from the usual "Dull Surprise" of that era's Hasbro shows, and "What the hay kinda mushrooms did ah eat?"
5032600
Unfortunately, I just found that picture online, it's not attached to any story I know. It does explain why Ponyville now bans "Taco tuesdays" though.
I object! Don't Kings get an automatic pass on the nobility measure? Wait, did you mean like noble qualities? Oh, that makes it a lot tougher.
So.... sh@t's about to get real.
See, now THIS there's an example of:
There really should be an Apple Family washboard band.
At last my revenge is complete! After you mentioned the Smooze in Lord Mayor Applejack, I must have listened to "Nothing Can Stop the Smooze" ten times. I really hope we see seaponies in the show, and not just the comics. Twilight's supposed to be some kind of friendship ambassador at large, she should be meeting strange and exotic races now!
I just realized I'm over half-way through reviewing this story. Huh. Also, I've read the comments here, and they will probably affect certain portions of my review. Let us begin.
First off, most of this chapter was flashback. I personally think you did a good job of establishing this with your first line, and supported by the next ones. In fact, I'm more confused about the timing of the end scene. When we last saw Scoots she had gone to bed; in fact, the whole flashback could be considered a dream memory. So obviously DT and SS's visit was the next morning at least, but there's no indication of how much time has actually passed.
While I think that given current medical and mechanical technologies it is certainly easier than ever for disabled people to say "bug off" to their disabilities, and thanks to Equestrian magic which we have seen (Tank, various spells that grant wings) they would also probably be able to overcome such problems, I can still see why people would say that someone who, for whatever reason, can't use these options can't let it consume their life in bitterness (like Sweetie Belle). That said, you do a good job of pointing out something that these people often overlook: Scootaloo isn't a quitter. Even if she's learned to not push her flying practice to the point of pushing her friends away, she at least would continue trying, no matter how hopeless it seemed.
If they consider that foul language, I have to wonder what they'd think about the nasty stuff we've come up with?
Discovers hydrokinesis. Immediately uses it to crush her friend in a snowball fight. Nice to know Scootaloo has her priorities straight.
For the record, I would love to see the rest of the flashback animated, or at least read dramatically aloud. It's one of the strongest points in the story, with Scootaloo being awesome, RD being a good big sister and not being bothered by little sis outdoing her, Scoot's totally believable outburst (and calling herself a water-er-er ), a touching moment with mother (totally saw where it was going when she described herself as a butterfly), finally culminating in her shouting out her promise to all of Ponyville. It was quite beautiful.
That said, if her promise is to fly, what happens when she succeeds? It almost sounds like she's ignoring that whole "good at everything and will do everything" aspect, so what will her promise mean to her afterwards? Unless it's about her continuing to do things everypony says she can't do, which would be pretty cool.
I would've asked why she waited several years to continue her flight program, but you already answered that in the comments.
I do have to ask though, what exactly was on the birth certificate before? Since she was abandoned and no one knew who her parents were, it can't say their names, otherwise they could have found out just by reading it rather than casting a new spell on it, and if there wasn't anything there before why should there be multiple spells? I should also mention that I fully expected a scene where DT reveals to Scoots that she's adopted, followed by cliche angst on her part before accepting her adoptive parents, which set things up nicely for your subversion later.
Like I said, great chapter, even if most of it could've been used as a prologue. Till next chapter, shalom!
Yeah you tell them Scootaloo you will fly! And DT stop mocking Scootaloo, it's not healthy for you.