"So what did you have to do back in Magmoor?" Rarity asked curiously. "Other than let Spike have a lava bath, I mean?"
Samus chuckled. "Well, we-"
At that moment, the door crashed open and three bundles of chaotic energy and the best of intentions burst through, nearly knocking over the Map Table in their exuberance.
"We heard Spike's back!" Apple Bloom said eagerly.
"Where is he?" Sweetie Belle demanded. "We want to take him Crusading again!"
"Have you seen Spike, Mister Dragon?" Scootaloo asked Spike. "He looks a lot like you, but a lot smaller, and he doesn't wear armor." She blinked for a bit. "Are you his long lost big brother or something?"
Spike couldn't help but chuckle as the others giggled. "Yes, I have seen Spike," he said innocently. "Quite recently, in fact."
"Really?" all three Crusaders demanded eagerly, rushing up to him. "Where?"
Laughing, Spike replied, "When I looked in the mirror this morning."
While Apple Bloom's eyes widened in realization, Sweetie gasped in horror. "What's Spike doing in the mirror?" she demanded in fear. "Did he get trapped in there when a Kyoma got out, and is now running around free while Spike is unable to escape? We need to catch that demon and force it back in the mirror to set him free before it's too late!"
Scootaloo, who had looked confused before Sweetie started talking, started shaking in terror. W-w-w-w-we're going d-d-demon hunting?" she stammered.
"Girls?" Apple Bloom interrupted. "I'm pretty sure he meant his own reflection."
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both stared at her in shock, Sweetie with surprise and Scootaloo in relief. "T-this is Spike?" Sweetie asked in shock.
"So...no demons?" Scootaloo asked worriedly.
Spike turned to Luna. "Do demons taste good?" he asked.
"If you encounter one, feel free to take a bite and find out," Luna offered.
"If they try to hurt anyone I care about, I'll do just that," Spike replied firmly. He then glanced down at the young fillies. "Sorry about teasing you like that, girls."
They all stared up at him in awe. "Is...is that really you, Spike?" Apple Bloom asked.
Spike nodded. "It is. I just...grew up a bit."
"How'd you get so big?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"By eating healthy," he replied. At a judgmental cough from Twilight, he bristled. "What? You've been listening! Phazon is healthy for dragons!"
"How'd you get those wings?" Scootaloo breathed in amazement...and a dash of envy as her own small wings buzzed.
Spike smiled as he stretched them. "They came in as I grew," he replied. Seeing the way Scootaloo's eyes locked onto them, he grinned. "Would you three like a ride?"
All three fillies gasped happily. They then leapt into the air, high hoofing and shouting, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DRAGON RIDERS, WOOF!"
"Excuse me?" Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all demanded as Pinkie giggled loudly.
"I mean, Yay?" all three Crusaders corrected simultaneously.
Spike shook his head ruefully. "Come on you three," he said, turning his back and spreading his wings. "Hop on."
Grinning widely, all three fillies clambered onto him, each of them grabbing a back spine.
"But...story!" Pinkie whined.
"I can tell you more while they're flying," Samus explained. "Nothing really big happened for a while. Just a few more power ups..."
As Samus continued to speak, Spike raced outside and leapt into the air, flapping strongly past the clouds.
"Yah-hooooooo!" Scootaloo shouted eagerly, buzzing her wings as she stretched to catch as much air as she could.
"This is amazing!" Apple Bloom cried out, glancing all around at how the land looked from so high up.
"Stop the ride! I wanna get off!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out as she hid behind the ridge she'd grabbed hold of.
Chuckling, Spike leveled out to a gentler flight. "Better, Sweetie?" he asked.
Sweetie slowly uncurled herself. "Well...I suppose..." She began to relax. Then she made the mistake of looking down. She promptly hid underneath Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo glanced down eagerly. "Wish I could fly this high..." she breathed enviously.
"We could try," Spike offered.
"What do you mean?" Scootaloo demanded, both other fillies turning to look at him.
"We're high enough up," Spike explained. "If I were to throw you forward to give you enough impetus for flight, I could easily get under you if you started to drop without even straining. Want to give it a try?"
Grinning eagerly, Scootaloo scrambled into Spike's clawed hand, despite Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's worried looks. "Let's go for it!" she shouted eagerly.
Grinning, Spike pulled back his hand and threw her forward, going into a slight dive to build up enough speed to keep up with her, staying just a little below and behind her.
Scootaloo buzzed her wings as fast as she could, but despite her best efforts she started to drop. She struggled, angling herself just as Rainbow had showed her, keeping her body as horizontal as possible for best aerodynamics, her forelegs stretched out before her with her hind legs pointing straight out behind. Regardless, she began losing altitude rapidly.
Spike activated the scan function of his visor, locking onto Scootaloo as rapid streams of data raced across the screen. A few images of vectors appeared. "Scoot!" Spike called out. "Pull your forelegs to your chest! Lift your head up, and swing your hind legs forward into a landing position. Now!"
While the words of advice seemed counter intuitive to everything she'd been taught, the tone brooked no opposition. Scootaloo immediately altered her position until she was nearly vertical, just about in the position she stood on her scooter at rest in. Much to her surprise, her descent slowed rapidly until her flight leveled out. Her forward momentum also decreased rapidly, but she was maintaining altitude.
She stared as a cloud nearby passed to one side of her, her altitude remaining constant without straining against her body as she flew past it. "I...I'm flying?" she squeaked out, shocked. "H-how?"
Spike flew up besides her as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started cheering. Holding up his armored claw, he activated a holo-projector in his gauntlet. It showed a pegasus flapping her wings normally, lines of force coming back and downward from her wings. "When a pegasus flaps their wings normally, the force generated goes down and behind them, providing lift." Another image appeared, this time of Scootaloo flapping her wings while horizontal. However, the line of fore from her wings went back and up. "This is where the force of your wing flaps was going, which is why flapping your wings gives you so much thrust on your scooter.
"Now, the options there for you and flying were either retraining you to angle the force differently, meaning you wouldn't be able to ride your scooter anymore...or..." The holographic image of Scootaloo rotated until it was in the same position Scootaloo was in now. The line of force rotated with the image until it was pointed back and down. "Reorient," Spike finished simply.
Scootaloo gasped. "You mean...all I needed to fly was...point my wings differently?"
Spike nodded. "Your wing thrust is about 75 degrees off from where it's supposed to be, due to you flapping your wings differently than most pegasi. It's just how your wings are built." He grinned widely. "Reorienting, however, your wings are already more than powerful enough for you to fly. You just need to learn the right angles. Once they know the right question to answer there, Twilight and Rainbow should easily be able to figure it all out. You won't be as fast in the air as you are on the ground, but you'll be more than powerful enough to do all sorts of stunts if you're careful."
As Scootaloo began squealing happily, Sweetie Belle turned to Spike. "How'd you figure it out so quickly?" she asked.
Grinning, he tapped his visor. "The scanners here were able to analyze the directions of force that were operating regarding Scootaloo's flight," he explained. "After that, it was just basic visualization and simple mathematics."
"I gotta go show Rainbow!" Scootaloo shouted eagerly, lowering her head to reangle herself for a dive.
"Hang on there!" Spike shouted out, diving after her.
As she approached the ground, however, Scootaloo easily swung back to the right angle for level flight as she buzzed forward. "Rainbow!" she called as she buzzed through the Crystal Tree Library Castle, nearly clipping Rainbow on the head with her hind hooves. "Rainbow, look! I'm flying! I'm flying!"
6101000 Indeed!
If that was the case, then all Scoots had to do was reorient the angle of her wings!
6101027
Yes.
And the muscles that make them flap.
And how she focuses on making them flap.
And the inherent muscle memory from years of buzzing her wings like that.
That's the 'retraining' Spike was talking about. Much easier to just fly by angling her whole body differently. Only one variable needs changing there.
Woof?
I can fly!
Woof Woof I want his kibbles and bits!
More woofs than a puppy mill!
WooF !
.....Wow SPike. THat sounds like it's an actual plausible reason for Scoots being Flightless.
Wow. She flies like a changeling does. That or a humming bird.
6101095 lets go with humming bird. we don't need ponies thinking of scootling in this story
Another good read. I was actually wondering when they might be taking an intermission. I mean, if you were to add up all the stories and their estimated time of being told they would add up to roughly one, maybe two hours and sitting down for long time doesn't get more comfortable.
Also - still funny!
question...how does one go from horizontal flight to horizontal flight by changing angles? because thats a neat trick...
WHY YOU LITTLE.
Okay find the Scoots part makes up for it.
6101256
When her body was horizontal, the wing thrust went back and up.
In order to maintain horizontal flight, wing thrust must go back and down, to counteract gravity while giving forward momentum.
At Spike's advice, she changed her orientation so her wing thrust went down and back at the proper angle.
Heartwarming and adorable seeing Scootaloo fly in stories Also, that simultaneous woof
6101264 but her body went from horizontal to horizontal orientation...according to what u have written...sure her flight path didnt change, but somehow she changed orientation without changing orientation...thats the neat trick!
6101296
...at what point did she change orientation without changing orientation? I don't understand your meaning.
OH fuck
6101392
...why that reaction?
6101394 She going to be all over the place. Do you know what will happen now that the CMC can to put it mildly Pierce the heavens? Yeah not as awesome as you would think.
6101405
Only from the adult's perspective.
From theirs? It's awesome!
Flying Scootaloo!
YAY!
Adding CMC to the list... who's next, Candace?
...scootaloo, and thus the crusaders, can fly now?
reactiongifs.com/r/oh-shi.gif
Hmm, I always attributed to she was born with stunted wings. She can hover and whatnot, but she can't fly. Though, given how good she is with a scooter, I don't think she really needs to. She'd be a speed daemon if she wanted and professional skater/acrobat/whatever. I mean, her wings are smaller than an average pegasi and this was Lauren's original intent with the character.
Still, cute chapter.
6101526
In regards to 'stunted wings'...
Bulk Biceps.
6101759
The only explanation for how that pony can fly is magic... I just don't see those tiny wings being able to actually propel him normally.
6101828
Magic is the reason why any pegasus can fly. Their wingspan isn't enough to provide the necessary lift otherwise.
I just raised Bulk Biceps as a counter point to Scootaloo having stunted wings, since his wings are the exact same size, and look how big he is.
6101484 That will be a little weird when she says " Woof".
Shinning: What the buck bro!?
Spike: Sorry, Uncle Shinning but I just can't turn off my swag.
6101491 Get the anti-air missile ready, lets hope their less dense than a gargoyle.
6101912
Nah. Like this.
Cadence: ...woof.
Shining: Cadence!
Cadence: What? I'm allowed to window shop! You don't hear me complaining about you staring at the maids.
Shining: Uh...er...
6101062 They could get a good "breeding" program started. Hybrids are some of the most wanted breeds right now.
A fantastic chapter. Great job.
"Spike turned to Luna. "Do demons taste good?" he asked."
I hear they taste better than mother's milk.
6101912
[youtube=youtube.com/watch?v=SWezZd1i05c]
What he said, can't you take a joke, I just hope the result won't be the same... It was suppose to be something else but I couldn't find the video.
But that would be pretty funny for us and onward for them.
6101953 I know it was a joke. I was making a joke a long the lines of Spike saying I forgot to turn my swag off and woke up covered in bitches.
Also I could be cool for Shinning to say: " Bro you are jacked, what's your work-out and what's your lift weight and rep?"
6101918
This will have to do
READY UP MEN
i.imgur.com/sEsyOkC.gif
6101980 I want possible deniability, after the missile is shot am blowing the machine to kingdom come.
All this time and I thought "woof" was just a sound they were making, like the sound someone makes when you punch them in the chest and all the air goes out of their lungs.
So, you've been essentially saying that every pony finds Spike sexually attractive? (I understand that it's a running joke at this point, but a significant number of "woofs" had been made before it became a joke.) I find that highly unlikely, as interspecies attraction is not terribly common. Plus, it's in terrible taste.
quickmeme.com/img/84/84a77f3e731e0487d460534fb81ab9006c9d80dfbae97b5746d3c5d63a4cf889.jpg
6102133
It was meant as a quasi running gag - with the exception of Rarity's - since the beginning, complete with Pinkie lampshading it by treating it as a joke by asking, "Are we being doggies now?"
Edit: Besides, there are mules in Equestria (canon), which means - at the very least - that pony x donkey relationships happen. That's interspecies attraction, too. And once any one interspecies attraction is made canon, any interspecies attraction becomes viable.
Besides, Spike's been physically attracted to Rarity since episode one.
I had a really bad day at work and then I read this chapter on the train home.... bad feelings gone in an instant when I saw Spike get Scootaloo flying and I could practically feel her joy. Chapters like this were why I started reading MLP fanfics, warm fuzzy feels and happiness. I bet any nearby Changelings suddenly felt like they'd just gotten a big meal of happiness.
6101171 Even if she was a changeling I doubt Sweetie and Apple Bloom would care.
6101407 And ours. I can't wait to see Diamond Tiara's stupid face when Scootaloo flies in front of her!
6101921 ROTFLMAO!!!!
6102138
Alright, sorry about that. I was under the impression that a good number of them were serious.
With that said, I never said that interspecies relationships didn't happen, only that they were uncommon. We have seen a mule, which means that we know that a single donkey and a single horse or pony were attracted to each other. That doesn't mean that every pony looks at donkeys and other ponies on equal footing and vice versa. Similarly, it would be statistically unreasonable if the entire main cast were attracted to Spike (which, thankfully, is not the case).
6102187
I didn't say they weren't attracted to him.
Just that, other than Rarity, none of them intend to pursue it seriously.
And is it really so unbelievable to find yourself attracted to a close friend you've known for a long time who suddenly becomes physically impressive (by whatever their gender's definition of that is) and displays qualities you've long found emotionally attractive?
You seem to be basing your interpretation on the assumption that, by and large, each race only marries amongst its own.
I'm basing mine on the assumption that, by and large, Equestria works on Xanth physics and anything can mate with anything to produce viable offspring, as long as they have reason to be attracted in the first place - or drink from the wrong spring - and that when it comes to romance, species difference by and large has ceased to be a concern.
In a magic rich world like Equestria, which interpretation seems more logical?
So is Scootaloo a bit like hummingbird with her wings?
Also, YAY SHE CAN FLY!
Okay that was pretty good.
I can't help but suspect the appropriate parent or guardian figures wouldn't have approved of this plan. Then again, pegasi do descend from some sort of Spartan-esque culture, so maybe Dash would have been all over it.
6101759 i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad90/dlgcp/malgif_zps079bc4bb.gif
Umm....Well....You see....The biological makeup....A wizard did it? Gah! You win this round!
pinkie.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/134711938753.gif
Great chapter. I guess the Cutiemark Crusaders have grown up. Much to their older "Sisters" chargin. Great job. I guess only Twilight has the decency to to "woof" at Spike.
You just keep topping yourself. Excellent job!
Now we have, "woofing" fillies, and a flying Scootaloo. Awesome!
6102203
Xanth physics.
I got the grins from that one.
I always figured that Scootaloo's problem was that her wings provide all thrust and no lift. Thanks for backing me up!
NOOOOOOOO PLEASE DON'T WOOF THEM!!!! THEY ARE FILLIES!!!!!!!!!