A Cog in the Machine

by Zoom zoom

Repairs and Scares (Part 2)

By the time you had arrived at where you had agreed to meet Scootaloo you were already five minutes late. Pinkie had the wonderful idea to make this morning’s breakfast far more interesting for everyone. And it was fun for all of you, the only problem was the Pinkie had forgotten her friend Twilight Sparkle had gone away for Canterlot business and thus the two of you had made a far bigger mess than you should have. You were cleaning bubblegum for hours afterword and you could swear there was still some in your nose that would take a week or so to get all out but it was still worth it. It was days like today that you figured would keep Pinkie from getting too depressed with the fact she didn’t have as much free time anymore since she had to both take care and support you. Plus it helped that it was the most fun you had since Applebloom leaving for her cousin’s house.

“What kept you?” Scootaloo did not look amused at you being late but she tossed you a helmet and you hopped into the wagon she had attached to her scooter. Before long she had taken you to a giant hillside in Ponyville where not too many ponies would show up due to how hard it was to walk and the steep drop should you not know what you’re doing or be able to fly and hover on the steeper half like Scootaloo could. The girl still couldn’t and by your guess never fly because of what you noted as some off breeding that kept her from being light enough and her wings strong enough, but she was still able to hover and that was fine in a emergency so you didn’t argue about the location.

What did catch you was how alone the two of you were. “What happened to everypony? I figured you’d invite someone else along.” Scootaloo couldn’t possibly want to be alone with you even if she was giving you a second chance right now right? That was what confused you about all this, and it had been why you didn’t invite Truffle over since the fewer ponies the better but this was too much.

“I tried but everyone I called was busy,” answered the orange Pegasus. “Applebloom still didn’t come back from Manehattan yet, not that I think it would be a good idea to invite her, and Sweetie Belle is still all over Featherweight for some reason. Everyone else is just busy. I don’t get it, is having a boyfriend really so hot that it had to go and mess up my friendships?” She suddenly realized what she had said and blushed looking at you. “Sorry, I know it isn’t exactly your fault but it is getting to me. I mean we haven’t even had a proper club meeting for the Cutie Mark Crusaders since you arrived. It’s sort of depressing. Especially since it looks like Sweetie Belle is going to be leaving the club now.”

You winced. You hadn’t thought of that when you decided to help Featherweight via a admitedly convoluted plan to get Sweetie Belle her cutie mark using a series of speakers and a spring board trap door, and four dozen mice. The entire point of the club was so that the girls would find their special talents sure, and that was another reason you never just flat out told them what it was. But in return they also didn’t have a plan for what happened when even one of them did get their marks and the others didn’t at the same time. It somehow didn’t even cross any of their minds and as a result had completely eluded you own considerations as well.

That got you thinking. Was it really right to also help Scootaloo now to realize her own calling? Even if this didn’t end up separating the three, which nothing should since they were still friends and schooling would keep them from full pursuit of their arts anyway, it would also be harder to show Applebloom her own talent. You were not even a hundred percent sure what that talent was yet either so it would be pretty bad if you had left her alone to be a blank flank.

Still the focus you had was Scootaloo, and to both recover your friendship and be a good friend it would be right to at least help her along this road. And at this stage of the plan even if she found out her talent it would be mostly by her own power and natural anyway right? So you were worrying for nothing. All you had to do was chop off the parts of the plan that would make the talent even more blatant and just trust it what will be will be.

“I don’t think that Sweetie Belle is going to just stop coming to your club meetings just because she has her mark. Just invite her.” Scootaloo didn’t raise her head. “Well then,” you said in a slow tone trying to think of what to say. “How about when Applebloom comes back you bring me into the club then? I guess that would make me the first male member of the team.”

At this the filly brightened and smiled, “really? You’ll join?” You did the Pinkie promise that you were forced to memorize out of family tradition that Pinkie wanted to start and nodded. “That’s awesome. I can’t wait to tell Applebloom and Sweetie Belle then. Oh but you won’t be the first male member, just the first of the main Ponyville branch.”

“Branch?” you asked confused.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo nodded happily, “That cousin Applebloom went to visit, Babs Seed, is another member and the runner of the Manehatten branch of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Last I heard she got four boys and two girls to join since there are so many more ponies in the city than over here.”

“Wow,” you said impressed, “if that’s the case maybe you guys should spread out more. I’m sure even though my other cousins at the rock farm all have their marks they could pass along the idea and you could get penpals going or something.”

“That could be a nice idea,” Scootaloo laughed now. Friendship reestablished, rang part of your brain. “But first things first. You wanted a lesson, we gotta get the basics covered first.”

The first thing that made your plan actually sell without Scootaloo being able to see it was the fact you honestly had issues standing on just two hooves which made it really hard to use a scooter in the first place. “See if you put all your weight forward,” she explained, “then especially on any slopes you’re going to be more prone to falling forward even without a rock or something to trip over. You gotta get used to holding yourself up for a good minute at least in case you have to pull back or jump off since you don’t have wings.” This seemed like sound advice so you made a good attempt.

After about an hour of trying though it was obvious you needed help to not go immediately back down on your fore hooves. Scootaloo, who was an expert from all her exercise and use of the scooter, did her best to keep you upright this time by holding onto your back while looked weird since you were clearly taller than her because of your slight age difference. This attempt was easier said than done as you felt your legs wobble after about twenty seconds. “Come on,” she encouraged, “focus and put all your strength into it or it won’t work.”

“I’m trying,” you claimed, “but this is a lot harder than it looks.” And with that said you flopped over face first pulling Scootaloo off the ground so that she was sprawled on your back. “I think this is hopeless. Can’t we just ride on a flat surface first or something?”

“Nope,” replied the orange filly getting up like it was nothing. She did however feel like she was shaking a bit and her voice came out like a frog was in it for the first sentence after. “I told you it had to be learned for a reason. If you get used to using a scooter without this fundamental you’ll still put too much weight in the front even if I teach you to stand for three minutes because it will be familiar and far easier.”

“Fine,” you agreed with a grumble, “but I’m only trying one more time today. My legs are killing me.” She nodded and this time held your chest to keep you up longer. To the idea’s credit, that got you past the forty second mark. But eventually you felt your weight bare back down on you.

“Move,” you called trying to push Scootaloo off at the last minute. It was too late though and you tumbled on top of the girl. A sharp pain striking your mouth in the process as you landed. When you were able to get back to your senses your mouth was still hurting a bit and you pushed off to get a good look at Scootaloo, using one hoof to cover your hurt area. “You alright?” you muffled.

Scootaloo looked like something cracked in her somehow. You noticed a bruise forming on her own mouth edge too, which meant the two of you had bumped your lips together and struck the other’s teeth. She seemed ready to twitch one eye and scrambled out from under you red in the face with embarrassment, likely from you being able to overpower her unintentionally.

“I-I gotta go,” she muffled covering her own mouth and scrambling to her scooter and zooming off with wagon in tow. She had just left you there by yourself. You blinked a few times taking in what just happened.

“Well that was weird,” you thought, “didn’t think she’d freak out that much about a little bruise on her lip. Guess all girls care about how they look.” Deciding to apologize tomorrow you sat down resting your hurting legs before beginning your trek back home.

Author's Note:

Yep, I decided to go there. I was originally going to use this idea earlier but then it would drag on too much. I'm going to be working on fixing that gap now though so hopefully you guys can wait till next year to see what happens next. Toodles.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

Derp

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1820784 where did I Derp here? I will eventually go over these chapters again but as my first story proves it works better if people point it out to me like I'm a complete idiot sometimes.

[Drawdex]

I love this story, the main feature of having it in Second person, a colt Intelligent (Because he knows everything that's going on around him and explains it accordingly (hitting each others lips accidently)) and stupid (because he forgets others way of thinking(like accidently kissing scootaloo)) at the same time.

But I got one problem with this story and its author...

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1821736

Cause I have story ADD. seriously I'm like spike where I constantly ask past me why it was a good idea to not only have 5 ongoing stories but have a half finished one-shot posted and 3 other one shots related to Cog. Heck two months ago I canned two other ongoing stories and this week I just used an idea I had in a different story to stop that from becoming another ongoing story. At this point I'm surprised I'm even able to keep my stories straight at all.

[Jagged Fox]

Cog is surprisingly stupid for a smart colt. Duh, scootaloo is totally crushing on him! And you sir/ma'am, are a jerk. Love triangles while daddy is looking for little coggy to rape his little friends is gonna be hard.