Creating A Hive

by Authora97

Pass With Flying Colors

Author's Note:

I published this a while ago, but then FimFiction didn't listen to me. Whoops!
Also: They missed a perfect opportunity with this episode’s title, and I fixed it for them. It was RIGHT THERE. How did they MISS IT?!

Morgan moved the book back. “And that, kids, is how you do algebra.”

Dynamite groaned. She flopped on her math homework, papers and pencils flopping about. “Mom it’s too hard!”

“I know it is, but you need to get this stuff down.” Morgan reminded her. “It’ll help with your chemistry homework.”

“How?! Math and science are different things!” Dynamite groaned.

Morgan opened her mouth. VC pushed another book towards her.

“Hey Mom, this part isn’t making sense. Do those wires really help?” VC asked.

“Well they keep the computer from overheating and then exploding, so yes.” Morgan replied.

VC groaned. “But-”

“MOMMY! HOW DO YOU WRITE ‘SAID’?!”

All four at the table winced. Morgan stood, headed to the living room. Cookie sat at the coffee table, pencil in claw. She impatiently tapped the eraser on the paper.

“It’s really hard!” Cookie whined.

Morgan glanced at Thorax. The changeling shrugged helplessly, colored note cards placed all around him. “What does it start with?”

“I don’t knlw! Tell me!” Cookie ordered, whining again.

“No. How does ‘sss-said’, start?” Cookie groaned. Morgan shook her head. “Come on, you got it!”

“...a s?”

“Good job!” Morgan clapped her hands. At a look, Thorax did the same. “Next in sAid?”

“...a...a...aid..” Cookie rubbed the eraser on her head, scratching in thought. “...A?”

Morgan clapped again, joined by Thorax and Dynamite. “Next letter?” Cookie squinted at her paper. “It would be ‘id’.”

“...id? That’s...that is...i-i-i-i...e?”

“Close, not quite. Remember this one sounds like e but isn’t e.”

“Oh! Oh! It is ‘I’!” Cookie realized. “Then it is d. D-d-d. Thank you Mommy!”

Morgan took in the praise, bolstering up the confidence. She walked over to Thorax. The Changeling kissed her cheek. “How’s it going here?”

“I still don’t know his name.” Thorax pointed at a notecard. “Or what he does.”

Morgan leaned forward. “That’s Erksine. He invented Steve’s super soldier serum, with the Tesseract.”

“Okay but how do I remember that?” Thorax asked.

“You...Erksed...me a question.” Morgan stated.

Thorax blinked. He looked at the card before smiling. “That was so bad.”

“Hey I was pressed for time.” Morgan teased. She flicked his ear. Thorax giggled, whacking her with his wing.

There was a knock at the door.

Morgan walked up to it. “I got it! I got it. You kids keep working!”

All four of her children groaned. Still, they worked. Thorax cheered a little before going back to the notecards.

Morgan opened the door. She expected Darcy on the other side, asking a question about the security inside the PEGASUS project. Instead she saw a panicked Rainbow Dash. “Dash? What are you doing here?”

“I need help!” She pleaded.

“So you came to me?” Morgan asked, pointing to herself. Her eyes widened, a smiling gracing her face. “Rainbow, I’m touched.”

“Mom! We still need help!” Dynamite shouted from the dining room.

Morgan laughed. “Come on in. I think you all got the same problem.”

The pegasus walked into the house. Morgan went back to the table. The kids were still gathered around it. Dynamite Berry sat with a notebook covered in equations, and a math book. VC sat with another notebook, and a book on coding. Justice just read a textbook, colored highlighters in front of him. Occasionally he grabbed one, marking something down, before continuing to read.

Rainbow Dash looked over at the living room. Morgan did too. Cookie was on the next of her sentences, thoughtfully spelling out the words on paper. She muttered letters under her breath over and over. Thorax still sat with a bunch of colored notecards, moving them around as he put information together.

Morgan sat at the table. She waved her hand to the seat.

VC showed her the coding book. “But how am I gonna get that right?”

“Oh shoot, yeah. There was a bit in chapter two that helped here.” Morgan explained. “Sorry, I don’t remember the specific- wait, yes I do. It’s on page 15.”

The earth pony turned to the page, searching it.

The blue pegasus sighed as she took the offered chair.

“So. What’s got y’all down today?” Morgan asked.

Dash swallowed. “I have a really big test tomorrow, and I don’t know what to do! Twilight and everypony already tried showing me how they study, but I didn’t learn anything and if I fail the test tomorrow I’ll never be a Wonderbolt!”

Morgan hummed, nodding. Dash looked at her. The human usually kept her face so in check, every expression just too neat and orderly to be real. Now though, Dash could see Morgan thinking.

“Studying is a personalized thing. What works for one person- or pony- might not work for another.” Morgan began. “Dynamite is a kinetic learner, likes working with her hooves to get it, so math is giving her trouble. VC is a visual and mathematical learner, she prefers seeing a thing as well as figuring it out herself. Justice here? He’s a note taker- and very solitary about it.”

“How does any of that help me? We already tried it!” Dash complained. She threw her hooves up, burying her face on Morgan’s table.

“Thorax over there learns from jokes.” Morgan explained. “The worse the joke, the better he retains it. It’s a wonder he learned anything. Cookie likes talking through it. It’s honestly adorable.”

“But what about me?” Dash groaned.

“What did you notice as you came over?” Morgan asked.

“Nothing! I didn’t notice anything!” Dash replied, grunting in frustration. “I was too busy-”

“Flying?” Morgan prompted.

“Yeah!”

“And what did you see as you came over?” Morgan asked.

“Nothing!” Dash repeated. “Nothing useful. All I saw was Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo come out of Sugarcube Corner, and from the looks of it, they had carrot cupcakes with sprinkles.”

“What! Mom I wanna get cupcakes!”

“Show me you can solve a quadratic equation, and you can go.” Morgan reminded her. Dynamite groaned. “Dash, what else did you see!”

“I'm thinking Big Mac sold a huge order of apples to Filthy Rich, 'cause I heard him give a very hearty-”

“Eeyup.” Everypony at the table stated.

“I always make note of everything when I fly. No biggie.” Dash dismissed. “I bet you have the Wonderbolts history memorized.”

Morgan just stared at Dash. The look was more familiar this time. A knowing smile that annoyed Dash like little else.

“Hey Dash, mind helping me with something?” Morgan asked.

“What? But I came here for you to help me-”

“Cookie! Impromptu flying lesson!” Morgan called out. She stood up. “Kids, brain break! Come watch with us.”

The kids quickly abandoned their books. They ran outside, leaving a confused Dash behind.

Thorax left with a quick pat on the back.

“Come on, Rainbow Dash! Time to work for a living!” Morgan called out.

==CAH==

Morgan was back in her Raspberry form when Dash came out of the house. She had Cookie on her back, the two hovering in air. The kids had gone away too. Thorax wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Dash tried to spot them. Where had they gone so quickly?

Raspberry floated in air. Cookie cheered, throwing her hands up. “It means a lot that you’ll help.”

Confused, Dash flew up to her. “I still don’t know what-”

“We’re going to fly over Ponyville.” Raspberry nodded back at Cookie. “Teaching Cookie here to fly.”

“Hi!” Cookie waved.

“Yes, fly high.” Raspberry nodded.

“But I’m already a great flyer! I don’t need to fly, I need to study!” Dash reminded her.

Raspberry smiled. “I didn’t forget.” She held out her hoof. “Taking a break from studying to relax and fly helps too. Your head is a bit...scattered...from the afternoon. A break is needed.”

Dash sighed. “It won’t help.”

“Just try it?” Raspberry asked.

Dash groaned. She flew up to Raspberry’s level. “Sure. Got nothing better to do.”

“Thank you.” Raspberry picked up Cookie with her magic. “Okay, Cook, time to start flapping.”

“Yeah. Pretty soon she’ll be an even better flyer than me. With you helping her.” Dash frowned. “You’ve just good at everything.”

“I had 200 years to practice.” Raspberry reminded her.

It took a few minutes to get Cookie started flying. Dash gave helpful pointers as they started flying. The little griffin was soon hovering alongside Dash and Raspberry. They flew out towards Ponyville.

Once they were sure the griffin wouldn’t crash on purpose, the two adults relaxed.

“So. How’s it going?” Raspberry asked her.

Dash sighed. “Awful. All my dreams are being crushed.”

“Yeah that is pretty awful.” Raspberry carefully judged the griffin. Cookie straightened out her wings, giggling as they flew with a breeze.

Dash looked down. She saw they were flying by Sugarcube Corner now.

“Hey I never got to ask. How was the new Daring Do book?” Raspberry asked.

Dash shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

“Come on! You must’ve read it a thousand times by now.” Raspberry asked. “I do that with my favorite books.”

“Yeah that’s because you’re an egghead.” Dash rolled her eyes. Something caught her attention down below. She scanned it before moving on. “Probably could’ve studied with Twilight no problem!”

“Cookie, don’t go upside down.” Raspberry warned. The griffin righted herself with a giggle. “Oh no I could never study with Twilight. She’s mess up my notecards.”

“You use notecards?” Dash asked.

“Yeah. It’s how I Plan stuff.” Raspberry replied. “Colored notecards. Red for canon events, green for familiar faces, blue for things I’ve done.”

Dash huffed. “You’re sure Twilight would mess it up? It’s so simple even j could do it, and I’m dumb as rocks.”

“Rocks!” Cookie cheered. “Hey Dad, rocks!”

Dash glanced down. Sure enough, Thorax was down there. He walked with Twilight.

“Well it’s way more complicated than that. I also use colored strings all connected together on a corkboard. Twilight would insist on using her color coding, or her own organizational system. It would clash.” Raspberry explained. “And you aren’t dumb as a rock.”

“Yes I am! Maybe I’ll learn to shine shoes, sell hats, dig ditches-” Dash listed.

“I think you’ll be a Wonderbolt.” Raspberry stated.

“Raspberry, give it up! I have.” Dash argued. “You didn’t even help me study! You gave up on me too!”

Raspberry just smiled again. “Hey Cook. Do you think that’s enough flying for today!”

“Yes!” Cookie instantly sagged.

“Don’t forget to land, sweetie.” Raspberry reminded.

The three flyers went to the ground, landing with perfect grace. Well the two adults did. Cookie tripped near the end. She didn’t mind, now she could play with bugs.

Raspberry watched her daughter play. She turned to a frowning Rainbow Dash. “So. What happened during our flight?”

“Nothing important.” Dash sighed. She rolled her eyes, recalling details from the flight. “Except after Luna was banished to the moon, Celestia needed protective forces, so Earth, unicorn, and Pegasi formed the E.U.P. Guard of the Protective Pony Platoons.”

“Ooh, sounds fancy. What happened next?” Raspberry asked.

Dash squinted at the pink alicorn. Dash thought about what she’d just said, slowly smiling. Wait...had she gotten it right? “And, at the celebration of the first Celestial year of peace, an elite flying squadron performed, headed by General Firefly, who later named the group the Wonderbolts!”

“Good job! What else?” Raspberry asked.

Dash flew up, grinning wide. She could remember it now. All of it! Everything Twilight tried drilling into her head, Dash remembered! “Commander Easyglider established flight choreography that is still used by the Wonderbolts today!”

“Woohoo!” Raspberry applauded with her hooves. “Congrats! You aced your test.”

Dash beamed. She looked at Raspberry. “I... I know the history! I know it all! But how in Equestria did that happen?”

“Obviously you studied.” Raspberry replied.

“Yeah, I got that! But how?” Dash asked.

“Well way back when, I watched the episode. I learned from the very first minute how you took in information. That, and I’ve known you for years by that point.” Raspberry explained. “You absorb information while in flight, even without fully paying attention to it. Then it just became a matter of having supplies ready for when you needed it. When you came by to study, we knew it was time to use them. As we got Cookie ready to fly, Thorax and the kids rushed ahead to town to hand everything out. The whole town came together to help you learn.”

Dash could remember it more clearly now. Fluttershy and Rarity had dressed as the Princesses, reenacting the banishment. The CMC announced the creation of the EUP. Pinkie dressed as General Firefly, with so many others calling out as the other generals over the years. Including Thorax and Twilight!

Knowing this, Dash flew off into town.

Raspberry lifted Cookie on her back. She followed after the future Wonderbolt.

“Mommy! Mommy, I get a treat?” Cookie asked.

“Yes you do.” Raspberry praised. “A great big cookie for the cookie.”

Cookie giggled.

They reached the Mane 6, and back with Raspberry’s family.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Thank you! Thank you all so much!” Dash cheered.

“You’re welcome, but it all came from you.” Twilight praised. “Thorax explained it to me. You learned without knowing you’re learning. Your main focus is flying, but then your brain is also absorbing lots of other information! It’s actually really brilliant!”

“Ha, I always knew I was brilliant!” Dash boasted.

Her friends laughed with her, the kids did too. Raspberry bought them cupcakes for their hard work, and for doing well on their own homework. She did promise treats, after all.

==CAH==

That night as Morgan tucked all the kids into bed, something knocked on her door. Morgan answered it. She walked Thorax, who still had colored notecards splayed out in front of him.

Morgan opened the door to her sister’s face. The red pegasus held up a red notecard.

“Okay, this is too fucking weird. Why can’t I just teleport inside the building?” Darcy asked. “I can teleport in that reality, we checked. Let me teleport inside.”

Morgan opened the door wider for her sister. “Hey what do you need before you can teleport somewhere?”

“A visualization of where I’m landing.” Darcy replied. “I saw it in the movie! People even died there, so I remember it better.”

“But you aren’t landing in the middle of everything. You need to hide.” Morgan reminded her. “Come inside, we’ll go over it.”

Darcy groaned. “If you make me play in another jungle gym made out like a building-” Darcy walked inside.

“It worked when you were eight.” Morgan closed the door. “It hasn’t stopped working yet.”

“You suck so much ass.”