CMC: Training is Magic

by Cold Spike

Chapter Thirteen: Out with It!

“Scoots, what’s this about? And you’re not leaving until I get the truth, the real truth!” she exclaimed and stomped her hooves defiantly. The ground shook with every stomp; which, for such a light filly, scared Scootaloo to the bone.

“Uh, well--”

“And don’t try weasel out of this! I’ve got you just where I want you!” she practically screamed, then began to laugh maniacally. Thunder crashed and lightning flashed as she laughed.

Scootaloo shook her head and realized that the last bit had all been in her head; Sweetie Belle was, in fact, sitting quite normally, head cocked slightly, waiting quite patiently for her to reply.

“What’s wrong?” Sweetie Belle tried again.

Scootaloo sighed and thought back to how Bubbles had taken it, which gave her a nasty feeling in the pt of her stomach. “You wouldn’t believe me,” she finally said, sounding almost bitter.

“Try me.”

“I already tried somepony and I ended up yelling at her. I dunno if she even believes me, honestly.”

Sweetie Belle took a seat and studied her friend for several moments. The pegasus kept idly rubbing her hooves in concentration and avoiding eye contact with her. Suddenly Sweetie Belle clapped her hooves and smiled wickedly. “I’ve got it!”

“What?”

“I’ll use a truth spell on you!”

Sweetie continued to smile while Scootaloo could only stare at her in bewilderment while they blinked in unison. The blinking lasted several long minutes before, finally, Scootaloo spoke. “...What?”

“Yeah! That way I’ll have to believe you because you’d need to tell the truth!”

“...What?”

“You just have to give me a few minutes to prepare my--”

“Sweetie Belle! You’re not gonna use some crazy magic to mess with my head! Don’t you remember the last time we did that? With Cheerilee?” she asked, her voice squeaking like Sweetie’s voice often would.

“You’ll be fine! Don’t you trust me?” she asked while giving her a puppy dog eyed look.

“I hate that face! When did you even learn that spell?!”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “I’ve been practicing privately with Twilight. Now, are you gonna let me use it or not?”

“Oh, so I’m such a big liar that you don’t trust me to tell you the truth without some stupid spell?” Scootaloo asked indignantly while giving her a menacing glare.

Sweetie chuckled. “I thought you said ‘I wouldn't believe you’.”

“You wouldn’t! And how do you know I’m not crazy? I could be not telling the truth and, um, believe I’m telling it because I’m so insane!”

“The spell takes care of that, actually. It weeds out the truth on both ends; so you can’t lie because the, erm, Ebb thingy can find out what’s the truth and what’s not! Or something like that, it’s what Twilight basically told me. So, ready?”

“I…” Scootaloo sighed and nodded, figuring there was no use in lying. “Fine, just do it already!”

“Sure! Here it goes!” she yelled while her horn had already started to glow a dim green. Scootaloo closed her eyes and tried to calm her nerves, though it was difficult as she imagined everything horrible going wrong. Sweetie’s magic could burn out, or she could cast it too well, leaving her permanently stuck with the truth!

Oh, Luna! What if I can’t lie for the rest of my life!

“Sweetie, wait!”

“Too late, it’s already done,” Sweetie said and her horn was swiftly snuffed out. “Now tell me, Scoots, tell me the truth!”

The pegasus filly bit her lip while mulling it all over. She wanted to tell her, desperately; but she kept her mouth shut tightly. I don’t feel any different… I wonder if she even cast it right? she thought.

“Well? Let’s go!”

“Uh, I don’t think-”

“Just tell me! You know I could ask you any question right now and you’d have to tell me the truth because that’s how the spell works,” Sweetie explained with her hooves crossed. “But I’m letting you make the decision!”

“How gracious of you,” Scootaloo said with a forced smile.

“Look, the spell’s just to make sure you do tell the truth, okay?”

“Yeah…” Scootaloo said, still mulling it all over. Hmm, you know this could be a nice opportunity to get a few other things off my chest. It would be the spell’s fault, anyway! she thought, smiling slightly.

“I’m waitin-” Sweetie started but didn’t have a chance to finish.

“I think your sister’s often full of herself and talks in a fake accent,” Scootaloo blurted out.

Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes but chuckled a bit. “Okay, but how about--”

“I think Apple Bloom’s too obsessed with apples and that your singing was way, way better than all of ours. Also, Rainbow Dash smells funny, though not you for some reason,” at that Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but blush like a ripe tomato. “I used to think Luna was the fat one, but I know better now.”

“...What?”

“Applejack’s got crooked teeth but I think she doesn’t care. People keep thinking my parents died in a horrible fire in another town and I secretly let them think that so I can sometimes get free treats and one time a free toy!”

“...What?!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “That’s horrible! Scootaloo, you--”

“Other ponies think you’re a robot; oh, and I once saw a changeling enter Sugarcube Corner but never leave...”

Sweetie Belle sighed and shook her head. She was tempted to ask about the changeling, but quickly reminded herself to stay on task. “Listen-”

"I think my scooter's haunted because, first off, I dunno where it came from and, second off, the handlebars aren't connected to the front wheel. How does it turn, Sweetie Belle?" she asked and grabbed her before shaking her about. "How?"

“Uh… um?”

“One time I tried visiting Rainbow Dash with Pinkie Pie’s balloon and got stuck up there for a day.”

“...”

“I once tried to dye my hair like Rainbow’s but it turned out all green so I pretended to be sick to wash it out… plus we had a test that week.”

“Scoots! Stop!” Sweetie said and jammed her hoof into Scootaloo’s mouth. “I- Wait, what was that part about me being a robot?” she asked but then shook her head to focus. “Look, I just wanna know the truth about what you’ve been hiding. Tell me, now! Out with it!”

“I can’t stop now! This feels so good! What about the--”

“Now! I command you!” Sweetie exclaimed in a creepily ominous tone.

“Aww, fine. Stupid spell… I used to be a breezie. There? Happy?”

Sweetie Belle took a seat and blinked for a solid minute. The silence actually started to become quite awkward, to the point of Scootaloo wishing to burst, just to have something happen.

“Sweetie?”

“Yes?”

“I said I--”

“I heard you, I did,” she clarified with a nod. “Um… that doesn’t… uh… maybe you should start from the beginning?”

“Do I have to?” she asked.

Sweetie Belle gestured over to her spell book, its pages open to the truth spell.

Scootaloo sighed and nodded. “Fine. Living like a breezie is horrible! It stinks so bad, Sweetie Belle. You do what they say when they say it for the good of the colony.”

“That’s how ponies work. Adults tell us what to do and we do it because it betters our community,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

Scootaloo glared at her but kept talking. “I would get up every day and it would just be so tedious,” Scootaloo continued while laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling. “I could fly, sure, but it was more like floating than anything. Every time I went to do more work, I just…. shut out the world. Get up, collect pollen, work on our homes, repair any damage. Gather food, sleep, repeat. But then one day we went to this world…” she trailed off and smiled slightly.

Sweetie Belle studied her face, feeling slightly weirded out.

“Well, I guess it’s all our world,” Scootaloo amended, “but they called it another realm. It’s part of a journey we all do, and I didn’t want to leave,” she said, then finally broke her gaze to look back at Sweetie Belle. “Why would anypony wanna leave this place? It’s awesome, and I just hated being a breezie so much!”

“So what’d you do?”

“The elder was pretty much the only one of us that knew how to do any sort of… well, good magic. She was sort of like Zecora in how deep or creepy she could get--”

“She’s not creepy! She’s always been nice to us!”

“You know what I mean! She knew a lot, but nopony knows why. That’s all I meant,” she said defensively, and Sweetie nodded. “I wondered if she knew of a way to turn yourself into a pony. I’d heard of unicorn spells doing that, so why couldn’t breezies do it? Seemed like a stretch, but…”

“Here you are,” Sweetie finished. “So she had a book to help you or something, or...?”

“No, she had squat and she found me breaking into her home. I explained why and she got really angry. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone more angry in my whole life! The next thing I knew, she was lecturing me and telling me how wrong I was, but I kept pushing and yelling back. She sort of stared at me for a while and, before I knew what was happening, she threw some strange powder at me and I woke up near Ponyville like this,” she said while motioning toward her body.

“And you haven’t seen her since?”

She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t see how. I think I’d have to be a breezie to go back. Nuts to that!”

“Heh, yeah. Nuts,” Sweetie said, but Scootaloo simply narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“You think I’m crazy.”

“No! I never said that! It just… sounds crazy,” she clarified. “I mean, you have to think about all of this and it sounds really, really nuts.”

“Well, you used that truth spell, so…”

“Uh, heh,” Sweetie said and began blushing. “No I didn’t,” she confessed, and let out a nervous chuckle. “I read up on something called ‘The Placebo Effect’ and I knew if I made it seem like I was using that spell on ya, you’d believe it. I can’t do a truth spell! I can barely do magic beyond a light spell, Scoots!”

“...What?!”

“Yeah the spell I opened the book to is something else, I can’t read it yet…” she said while Scootaloo continued to glare at her in a massive burst of anger.

Sweetie ignored the sudden outburst and kept talking. “It’s kind of interesting what you said about the robot and how Rainbow smells. I wonder if she knows…?” she said rather slyly, but gulped once she noticed just how menacing Scoots suddenly looked.

Several minutes later, Sweetie Belle burst from her spot as Scootaloo attempted to pounce on her. “You come back here right now!” she demanded.

“Not until you calm down!” Sweetie yelled.

“Oh, I’ll show you calm!”

---

Apple Bloom took a slow sniff of her garden and sighed. “Finally, that’s done,” she said and dusted off all of the icky dirt from her coat. It had been an exceptionally long day, and using her newly found magic had easily taken quite a bit of strength from her. But as she surveyed what would hopefully be an entire patch of carrots, she couldn’t help but smile and feel mighty impressed with herself. “Yep, nopony grows ‘em like Apple Bloom!” she declared with a proud smile.

“Except me!” Applejack called out, then swiftly shut the front door to their home before the filly could respond.

Rolling her eyes, she took a seat to relax; but perked her ears upon hearing some shouting off in the distance. Squinting her eyes, she saw Sweetie Belle running as fast as her little legs would carry her, being chased by Scootaloo.

“Hey girls!” she said and waved, but quickly frowned once she realized that their speed wasn’t slowing down at all. “Girls? Girls! Hey! Watch out for my--”

Whatever the farm filly had said was drowned out by the distinct sound of mud flinging around, two fillies crashing into one another, tumbling into a ball, and rolling all the way into a nearby tree. Apple Bloom cringed and, despite being angry over her ruined crops, she ran over to help them. “Yuck, this isn’t mud… it’s- it’s-”

“Tree sap,” they all declared in unison. Both fillies had run straight into the side of a severely damaged tree with its sap practically oozing out of every hole. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo glanced at each other gloomily while trying in vain to wipe off all of the icky mud and sticky sap from their fur. Apple Bloom glanced at them then began wiping her hoof into the dirt. She snorted and began to break out into a complete giggle fit.

“Apple Bloom, what’s so funny?” Scootaloo asked while narrowing her eyes.

“This-” she said between a few more giggles. “This is, ah, ah missed this…” she said as she wiped an imaginary tear from her eye.

Nothing else had to be said. Sweetie Belle smiled over at her friend who began giggling along with Apple Bloom. “Girls, let’s never do this again,” Scootaloo said, her face suddenly turning serious.

“Agreed,” they replied in unison with a rather somber nod.

“All though it’s only been, like, maybe a month? It wasn’t that bad,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “Still, we kept the promise! Uh, ah think so, right?”

“I can sort of fly now!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Yeah, and I can finally do more than just sparks! Hopefully, I’ll be learning tons of spells soon…” Sweetie said, smiling at the thought of what she could do to Diamond Tiara.

“Yeah! And I, uh… well, ah had a nice little patch of carrots before you both ruined it…” she said with a slight glare. Both girls chuckled nervously before proceeding to help Apple Bloom clean things up. “That’s better!” the farm filly said, pointing and directing both girls on exactly how to fix up the damaged crops.

Needless to say, the next ten minutes to both fillies felt like nothing short of slavery.

“Well done, girls!” Apple Bloom declared just before both collapsed into an exhausted pile of fillies. “Whelp, we learned magic so… do you wanna hunt for our cutie marks?”

Scootaloo was about to shake her head when Sweetie Belle suddenly blurted out, “Oh! We can become Cutie Mark Cupcake Knights! We can get our marks playing that game!”

Despite the silly idea, both fillies eagerly nodded then high hoofed one another. “Cutie Mark Crusaders--”

Pinkie Pie suddenly popped out of a hole in a nearby tree and screamed out, “Forever!” while pointing her hoof accusingly at the group.

Tilting their heads in confusion, then shrugged. “Pinkie Pie, we kept our promise. We learned how to use our magic and now we’re gonna go crusadin’,” Apple Bloom said, Sweetie Belle also nodded.

“Oh my gosh, you kept a promise! You know what that means?”

“A party?” Sweetie Belle guessed, but to their shock and horror, Pinkie Pie shook her head.

“Nope!” she said and out of seemingly nowhere an entire playing table of figures, dice, chairs, costumes, cards and a massive rule book was pulled from near non-existence only to be placed directly in the middle of the fillies. “You girls will enter a dark, mysterious… mega party dungeon!”

Two fillies smacked their heads in bewilderment while Sweetie Belle grinned up at Pinkie before declaring, “Bring it on!”

---

“Well, that was fun,” Sweetie Belle said as she gathered up all of the loot she’d acquired through their adventures. She’d won Apple Bloom’s bow, Scootaloo’s helmet and, perhaps most egregious of all, Pinkie Pie’s most prized possession. With a smug smile, the filly began to hastily gather her treasure into a burlap sack before tying it up.

Pinkie Pie’s head was resting on the table as she looked on at the sack longingly. “My party cannon… just gone, in an instant!”

“Eh, Sweetie was on a hot streak. You remember the deal, right? You get my bow for one week, a week!”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Of course. Same with your cannon and this nice helmet.”

“You don’t even own a scooter,” the pegasus pointed out sourly.

“Hmm, good point. I’ll just have to take that next game. But now… let me just check my flank her- and nothing,” she said while pouting. She kicked over her treasures and let her friends get back their possessions with a firm nod.

“You know girls, it’s weird but even after learning how to do magic… we’re still doing the same thing we’ve always done,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

“Yeah… but it was fun,” Apple Bloom said as they packed away the game.

“Yeah, but, I mean… I just thought our magic would help us become more like our sisters; they’re always going on adventures! It’s not fair, you know? Even Scoots went on one before since she used to be a breezie!”

“Eh, it was sort of like an adventure, but nothing like Daring Do or anything.”

“Huh, wait, what was that last part? ‘Bout Scoots being a breezie?” Apple Bloom asked while scratching her now bow-less mane.

“Long story,” Scootaloo replied quickly with a casual wave of her hoof.

“Uh, kind of sounds like a story worth tellin’,” the farm filly replied with a nervous chuckle, her eye twitching a bit.

“Oh it was, but I already heard it so… hey, how about we go see Twilight! I bet she’ll have an idea for us to go adventuring on!”

Scootaloo thought about it and figured she still had time before Bubbles wanted her home. “Sure, sounds like fun, Sweetie!”

“But you used to be a breezie?!”

“Apple Bloom, we’re way beyond that, come on already!” Sweetie said rather impatiently. “Let’s get a move on, girl!”

Apple Bloom sighed and tried to study the back end of Scootaloo’s body before giving up. “Ah don’t even know what to say.”

As they were walking off, Pinkie Pie stayed behind with her cannon, looking on in utter confusion. “Uh… so can I take my party cannon back?” she called out, but the fillies were too far to hear her. “I’m still gonna,” Pinkie replied with an eerie, stoic expression. Her mane was suddenly straighter than it normally would be.

---

“Your move, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said after messing about with her cards and sighing in assumed defeat.

Apple Bloom occasionally would give her a long glance before shrugging and going back to focusing on their game. “How’d we end up playing this again?” she asked and then began messing with her bow which Sweetie Belle had politely returned.

Scootaloo sighed again. “We asked Twilight to take us on an adventure, and this was her idea,” she said, glancing back at the box of strange playing cards. “We weren’t counting on Sweetie Belle getting so into it…”

“I sacrifice more of my life!” Sweetie suddenly announced while pretending to stick a knife in her hoof so she could drip out imaginary blood for her apparent sacrifice. “To summon my Vampire Lord!”

“Uh, aren’t you down to one life now?”

Smiling smugly, she nodded and then glanced back to her new played card. “And I attack you directly!”

“Uh…. uh….” Scootaloo muttered intelligently. “I summon Discord and attack you directly!”

Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes, glaring at her seriously. “That’s not real… that’s not a move you can make.”

“Okay… uh… hmm…” Scootaloo muttered and began carefully picking up each card in her hand so she could read each line bit by bit. Pretty sure I lost… she thought, but felt like stalling for as long as possible; it may not be a Rainbow Dash-tier game of awesome, but she didn’t want to lose if she could help it!

Sweating bullets, she eyed each of Sweetie’s cards which had been pointed in her direction and narrowed her eyes. Sweetie began doing the same, eyeing Scootaloo’s hand like it was a hidden knife, ready to strike at any moment. After two of the longest minutes of their life, Scootaloo shrugged and revealed her hand. “Game over…” she said with a sigh.

Sweetie Belle started dancing on the table, cheering at her victory, seemingly having the time of her life.

“Okay… that was sort of fun. I guess,” Scootaloo said. “Apple Bloom?”

“Yeah Scoots?”

“Could you stop staring at me, please?” she asked with a nervous smile.

Apple Bloom nodded before speaking, “You used to be a breezie?!”

“Anyway,” Scootaloo said, ignoring her sudden outburst, “now what do we do?”

Sweetie Belle, too enthralled in her victory dance took a few moments to reply. “Uh… another game?” she asked with a cheeky grin and both girls shook their heads. “Aww, c’mon girls! We’ve gotta make the most of our time together!”

Both fillies glanced at one another with a raised brow before turning back to face Sweetie Belle. “Huh?” they said in unison.

Sweetie sighed to herself with a shake of her head. “Don’t you girls get it?”

“Get what?” they both asked in unison.

“Ahem,” all three suddenly heard a young mare say as she cleared her throat. The three fillies jumped in their hooves before turning their heads over to the abandoned party cannon. Pinkie Pie was casually stroking the side of the metal thing, looking at it as though it were a long-lost friend.

“Um, can we help you, Pinkie?” Sweetie asked and that’s when the mare smiled down at them.

“No, but I think you three need help…”

“Huh?”

Pinkie took in a long breath as all three sets of eyes widened in surprise. “It’s simple, feeling overly secluded from your sudden Pinkie Promise ™, Sweetie Belle just came to the sudden realization that spending time with her friends is the most precious thing in the whole world… even more than magic! Oh! Like that one time, I learned that being away from my friends for too long can turn me into a strange kind of mare and my mane gets all straight and not poofy looking! Back to my explanation, Sweetie Belle believes playing games with you two, like Cupcake Knights, might be silly but it’s the one surefire way to stay connected since you three all study different schools of magic. Like me and Twilight, I love baking and helping others and making sure they have fun times at parties, but Twilight loves reading books…” Pinkie then leaned in suddenly. “Um, maybe a little too much, if you know what I’m saying… but she studies unicorn magic which I can’t do and sometimes that makes me really sad, but it’s okay because we’re both really good friends! Does it make you sad that you can’t study flight or crop growing magic like your friends, Sweetie Belle?” Before she could even blink, she kept going. “So I was just wondering if I could please get my Party Cannon back? I need it for a few parties I sort of promised would go on this week and I gotta prepare for the one later this evening- it’s a marriage! Heh, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when my cannon surprises them, except I can’t if Sweetie Belle is using it and I really need it…”

As she kept talking, the unicorn filly slowly wheeled the cannon out as the mare clutched the base of it, happy to be pushed along. The door was slowly closed but not before the party pony could eek out a few more words.

“Anyway, friendship is kind of like a box of onions, though when I was filly we used to wear them- could only get the yellow kind because of the war and-”

The door to Sweetie Belle’s room was finally slammed shut as an eerie silence overcame them. After a few solid moments, she spoke up, “Um, what she said about friends and studying and stuff…”

Apple Bloom shook her head and shrugged. “Ah thought we all agreed that we can stay friends, what’s the issue?”

“It’s just, uh, well how long before we all get too busy studying magic to even have time to hang out--”

“Not gonna happen,” Scootaloo interrupted with a fierce shake of her head.

Sweetie Belle gave her a dubious stare so she countered, “Friends can get busy, it doesn’t mean we’ll stop being friends. Besides, it’s not like you both can just sprout wings and a horn and uh… big hooves?” Scootaloo jested over toward Apple Bloom, who rolled her eyes but half-heartedly seemed to agree with a nod.

“I… I guess not, just bothers me.”

Both fillies glanced at one another then shrugged. “Well, how about we play one more game of Cupcake Knights, okay?” Scootaloo asked and Apple Bloom slowly agreed with a nod.

“You’re on!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

Sweetie Belle mulled it over then finally agreed with a small smile. “Yeah okay, let’s do it!”

Author's Note:

I debated, for the longest time, if I should keep Pinkie Pie's little speech at the end, but I feel like it's fine. So long as I don't make a habit of it and, considering this is basically the end of the story, almost, I figured it was quite appropriate.

If you're all expecting a sudden ending with a nothing ending, though, then hopefully some of you will be... well, I've said too much.

Comments

[Inferno demon Dash]

Very impressive, hope the story is not over, this one seemed more to comedy while the others seemed more serious, still enjoyed this chapter.

[Cold Spike]

8073055 Other chapters in this story or other stories I've written?

But if you mean chapters, I can see that but hopefully the serious tones in the story aren't lost in the translation.

[Inferno demon Dash]

8073072 In this story and no you're doing great my friend, would love to read more about the game they played.

[Cold Spike]

8073078 I've been considering making their game into something more, which is why it was included. Though I mean the card game thing and not so much Cupcake Knights, lol.

[Inferno demon Dash]

8073112 Interesting idea on both fronts, you have my attention.

[Kenshinryuu]

Finally all caught up, chapters with lots of sad are hard to read. At least all the Crusaders have gotten a good start on learning their magic. I can't wait to see what kind of antics they get up to now.

But Ditzy and Dinky have really taken to Scootaloo, I can totally see her dive bombing some bully picking on Dinky.

[Cold Spike]

8073742 Not if Rainbow dives first.

[ferret]

Well this story is adorable. I usually get bored of CMC drama stories too, but this one was just off the wall enough to keep my attention. I liked how they didn't have it easy, but they weren't set up for failure either, and even insurmountable obstacles ended up being overcome with some help from the right ponies. Kind of odd how Diamond Tiara ended up getting Scootaloo adopted. One thing I missed in this story was them using their magic to help each other. Like if Apple Bloom could pop the bubble that Sweetie couldn't get past, or Sweetie Belle could do some sort of magic massage to Scootaloo's wings, or something. That's one thing I really loved about the Hearth's Warming episode, is the idea of the three tribes working together to be something greater than the sum of all three of them alone. Good story, worth faving. Not too serious, but still very engaging even for light hearted fluff.

[Cold Spike]

8196077 Listen carefully: No.

[Cold Spike]

8196114 Did you feel it was too much fluff? I tried to keep the conflict going throughout. I honestly really wanted it to have a sequel, too, but it may not happen... though I wouldn't write the ending in such a way as to dismiss the possibility of one...

[ferret]

8196779

8196783
I did not feel it was too much fluff. I found it very engaging. But really it depends on how much of a mood I am in, for fluff, or for more gritty stuff.

[Cold Spike]

8198468 I see, well, thanks for the read and comments!

[Emperor]

So Scootaloo finally outs her story to Sweetie Belle, and then promptly decides to just ignore Apple Bloom's requests for the same. Sounds about right for the Apple Blob