Chapter 18 Part 3
[[ A Scootaloo Perspective ]]
Sweetie Belle found me first. It was way too early for school yet, but she always came to visit first thing in the morning. "Hey," I said.
"Do you still need to do wing-ups now you can fly?" She walked up beside me and started stretching her shoulders. "I mean, I wouldn't need to do all these little foal exercises once I can do real magic."
Pushing myself up from my belly with just two primaries on each side, I turned my head to look up at her. While she was doing her stretches, Sweetie was also working on channeling magic. "Lyra does that every day, you know? I figure it's just like cooking. You don't just stop cutting up vegetables because you can cook a big meal."
Sweetie froze and stared at me. "Wait, Lyra does basic exercises like this? Why?"
"You'd have to ask her. I've got a hunch it's a kind of stretching exercise for magic, but I'm not a unicorn." I settled back into my routine.
A bout of Sweetie-giggles let me know she was going to say something that would probably have me blushing. "You're not a unicorn—you just date one." Yup, she knew how to push that button.
"Firelance is—!" Ugh! Why did I always have to fall for that? Her giggles only increased as I fumbled for words.
Her laughter broke into a sigh. "I hope I find a gallant, handsome colt one day. Rarity keeps telling me I'm too young, and Mom says I shouldn't be distracted by a cute colt when I should be studying."
Finishing my wing-ups, I jumped to my hooves and started running in place to warm up. Sweetie followed along in silence. Eventually I had to ask, "So, any colts you do get distracted by?"
"A few." Without warning, Sweetie started her run.
I caught up quickly, cantering beside her gallop. She wasn't the fastest pony in Equestria, nor was she the slimmest, but I had to admire her determination to keep up her exercise. Apple Bloom had bailed on our early-morning runs because she helped out on the farm—exercise enough, I figured—but Sweetie had fought against the lazy path her life could take, and I'd be a poor friend if I didn't stand by her side.
We got halfway around town before I asked, "Well?"
"Well what?" Sweetie asked right back.
"Who are a few?"
She waited nearly a full lap before answering. "Not telling. Where are your parents today?"
"Working in Canterlot. They were up way earlier and left before sunrise." Sweetie wouldn't tell me, not now. I had to put up with her knowing about Firelance, but Celestia forbid she tell me who she liked. "One more lap?"
I could see the raw relief in her eyes for a second before she shouted, "Yeah!"
After our run we simply angled off toward Sweet Apple Acres. The sun was up and warming our coats, but we both needed to cool off before the hot sun made our sweating coats stink. Thankfully, Apple Bloom's big brother had showed us the bath he used—which was a huge barrel cut in half and filled with rainwater.
Our giggling and splashing must have made enough noise to get attention, because Apple Bloom walked around the side of the barn and spotted us. "How's your running going?"
Mid flap in the tub, I folded my soaking wet wings at my side and jumped out of the bath. "Great! Even better is getting to wash off quickly."
Instinct was crazy. It let me dodge attacks before the attacker even started them or, in some cases, before I could see them. Instinct made me duck to the side as fast as I could. A green-wrapped ball of water flew by my ear and right into Apple Bloom's face.
Blinking in surprise at the splash of water, Apple Bloom stared past me at Sweetie. "Now why'd you go and do that?"
"Scootaloo dodged!"
I turned to look at Sweetie, but she had that smile that made it practically impossible to get any meaningful revenge. Her coat was also soaking wet and her mane was hanging almost to her hooves. "You were aiming at me?"
"Yeah!" Sweetie still wore that grin.
My wings were useless for flying, but I didn't need them to jump up into the air and come crashing down in the water again, sending a wave over Sweetie.
"Hey!" Apple Bloom shouted from behind me.
Turning, I looked at her and realized that my splash had gotten Apple Bloom too. I couldn't help it—I started giggling.
Sweetie joined me, and soon Apple Bloom did too. Taking the few steps forward to join us, Apple Bloom jumped into the water too. "There!" she said. "Now we're all soaking wet!"
The water was half empty by the time we'd all splashed around and soaked each other repeatedly. Climbing out, I shook myself as dry as I could and then gave my wings a few good shakes to get as much water from my feathers as possible. "I can't believe we have school again tomorrow," I said.
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom bounced out of the water herself and shook dry even better than I had. I wonder if she learned from Winona? "Hey, what's up with the clouds?" She craned her head up.
Following her example, I looked up too and was stunned to silence.
"Are clouds meant to be able to be like that?" Sweetie asked.
"You mean like a checkerboard?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Yeah."
"No," I said. It was all wrong and felt wrong. I hadn't done much beyond poking at clouds, but the weather felt broken and bad. "That feels all wrong."
"Ya got that right." McIntosh's voice came closer. "I don't suppose you three had anything to do with this?"
Tilting my head a little, I noticed the clouds were turning dark, so that the sky's pattern was matched on the ground by squares of snow and bright sunshine. In one of the warm bits, I spread my wings and felt them dry quickly. "W-Want me to try taking care of it?"
"Have you done any cloud-bucking before?" Sweetie asked.
"I poked one a few times. I'll figure it—" A crack of thunder cut me short as lightning lanced down and hit an apple tree not twenty pony lengths away.
"My apple trees!" McIntosh's shout became less distinct as I pumped my wings for altitude. The clouds were, thankfully, low. Building speed as quick as I could, I aimed myself at the cloud that had struck the tree below and turned at the last moment so my rear hooves were stretched out toward it.
The collision with the cloud sent a hard thud through me from the tips of my hooves to the end of my snout—but the cloud was gone! Looking around, I realized they were all starting to turn dark and angry.
I had new appreciation for Rainbow Dash. Flying up to get some more height, I aimed an arc that would let me hit three clouds in a row by using a diagonal. Building speed, I slammed into the first, second, and the third hit I finally realized I should bend my legs a little.
The shock of impact was much easier now, and I set about working on more clouds.
While I was setting up for yet more clouds, I spotted Pinkie Pie below. It was tempting to zoom down and ask her what was going on, because she usually knew, but I had to stop the clouds from advancing on the apple trees.
I was sore and felt like I'd been flying for days. Just as I would buck one lot of clouds, more would come in and try to take their place. I fought as hard as I could but they were inexhaustible.
When another pony flew up beside me, I barely even noticed. "Hey, you're Scootaloo, right? You're at school with my bro, Rumble. I'll take over here, you get some rest!" The stallion looked half-beat himself, but I recognized him as one of Rainbow's weather ponies.
Just giving him a hoof-gesture of acknowledgment (a Guard gesture) and hoping he'd recognize it, I spiraled down to the ground just as Twilight and Spike were approaching the farm—along with them was Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack.
As I got nearer to them, I realized they were singing. The song wasn't the just-happy kind of singing, either. Lyra had explained to me the differences between music in Equestria, and this was magic singing.
It was a catchy song about Pinkie needing help, but I got a feeling that it wasn't a song for me to sing. Despite how much my wings ached, I hovered above them to avoid being dragged into the musical magic.
"Scootaloo! Over here!" Apple Bloom was standing well-clear of Twilight and her friends too, with Sweetie beside her.
Seeing my chance, I flew down and landed with them. "What's going on?"
Sweetie pointed toward the five friends as they reached Pinkie. "Applejack has Rarity's cutie mark and Pinkie has Applejack's. Some really odd magic, I bet."
Lifting a hoof up to rub her chin, Apple Bloom nodded. "If it messed with their cutie marks, maybe it was like the Cutie Pox?"
"These are all in the right place, though. And after what happened to you, I don't think anypony would go eating magical plants." Sweetie Belle gave a firm nod.
"Hold on." I put a foreleg around each of my friends to pull them closer and make them look at what I was looking at. "What if they were all like that? All their cutie marks passed on to somepony else in a big circle."
"And now they only have Applejack and Pinkie Pie left to fix?" Apple Bloom asked.
"But why are they here? Shouldn't they be helping Applejack and then Pinkie pie?" I asked.
"Watch, sillies. Twilight has everything figured out. She's the cleverest!" Sweetie, again, nodded.
I wished I could argue about that, but even Lyra said that Twilight was a smart cookie. Twilight and her friends pushed Applejack through doing a whole bunch of farming things—carrying baskets of fruit, bucking a tree, even pulling a wagon—and when Twilight put Applejack's element of harmony on her, her cutie mark changed!
"Looks like they only have Pinkie Pie to go." Apple Bloom jumped up from where we'd been hiding as the six friends started trotting back toward town. "C'mon, girls, this is going to be big!"
She was right about that. There was a feeling like magic was swirling around, and the closer we got to town, the stronger it was. And I had to say it was nice to have it. My flying had left my wings and my magic reserves weakened, and having my magic start bubbling over was great.
"What are they doing?" Sweetie Belle asked.
I paid extra attention to Twilight and her friend now, no longer lingering on my own recovery. They were singing again and shoving Pinkie into the middle of a huge, mopey crowd. We were too short to see exactly what happened—and I didn't want to ignore my friends and take off—but there was an explosion of blue light and everypony cheered. "Pinkie!"
Well, that was it. The whole town was in the song now, us included. It was all singing and dancing and having a great time. The song finally wound down with Twilight and her friends hugging. I let out a sigh and looked to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. "Well I—"
"There you are, Scoots." Lyra's voice cut through the happy talking ponies all around. Town life seemed to just slip back to normal—even if there was way more magic buzzing around. "We're on duty this afternoon."
That was a surprise to hear. Lyra and Sweetie Drops were kinda always on duty, but her saying it like that meant something special, I think. I nodded to her. "Need help with anything?"
She looked about to dismiss my question, but paused. "Actually, I need you to take a message to Canterlot. It needs to go to Princess Celestia as fast as—Wait, where'd they go?"
"Where'd who go?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Twilight and her friends ran back to the library." Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof off in the distance where we all saw the door closing.
The feel of magic in the air stepped up a notch. Huge waves of magic seemed to thunder out of the library before the windows themselves erupted with beams of white light that sprayed out everywhere. It was a struggle to look away from, but I glanced at Lyra and saw her looking just as shocked.
"D-Do you need me to go to Canterlot still? They would have felt that, right?" I asked.
Shaking her head, I saw tears running down Lyra's cheeks—but she didn't seem sad. She was smiling! "No, I'm pretty sure everypony in Equestria felt that. It's—It's entirely new magic. There are—Ugh, too much stuff to do, not enough time. Come on, girls, we have five friends and a dragon to reassure."
"Cutie Mark Crusaders—reassuring squad!" Sweetie Belle shouted. Of course, Apple Bloom and me managed to join in with the battle cry. We trotted beside Lyra to the library and inside to find five arguing ponies and one shocked Spike.
"Calm down!" Lyra stomped her hoof to get everyone's attention. "Girls, can you go help reassure Spike?"
I managed to snap a salute and walked over to where Spike was crying tears that seemed to be burning holes in the floor. "Spike?" He just looked up at me. "What happened?"
Snorting up some kind of gunk from his nose that, like his tears, seemed to sear the wood of the floor on contact, Spike shook his head. "We were rushing here because T-Twilight said she'd figured something out."
The rest of the room was silent—everypony was focused on listening to Spike. The only reason I noticed was the training in the Royal Guards.
"She finished the spell and—and it triggered all the elements." Spike looked around the five of Twilight's friends. "What happened with them? Why did the elements hurt her?"
"They wouldn't!" Rainbow looked so sure and proud as she stepped up. "The elements of harmony—mine at least—wouldn't hurt her."
"Mine neither!" Applejack stood beside Rainbow.
"M-Mine wouldn't hurt her." Fluttershy was hiding behind her mane, like normal, but she still stood forward.
"Generosity has never let me down," Rarity said.
Giggling, Pinkie pronked over and hugged all four of them. "Sillies, of course our elements wouldn't hurt Twilight. We have to figure out what they did do." She turned to look at Lyra. "Right?"
"That magic was something different." Lyra gestured a hoof toward the ground where I just realized Twilight's cutie mark was burned. "You guys know about—Okay, you might not. I think we have some time so let's go with why I think this was a test that Twilight passed.
"Magic comes in elements—not the elements you're carrying—light, dark, change, motion, emotive, chaos, and harmony. All magic spells involve one or more of those magics woven together. This was something very different.
"Magic spells are classified on how hard the magic is to form into a weave and how many types of magic are used. Basic spells are limited complexity and just one type of magic, any unicorn can be taught these. Intermediate spells involve no more than two types of magic and support more complex weaves." Lyra nodded to Rarity. "I've seen you perform those, don't try to hide it."
"Rarity? You know these special spells?" Applejack asked.
"Applejack, really, I spend all day making dresses and my work is literally patterns. I'd be a poor seamstress if I couldn't make intermediate spells." Rarity tried to wave off the nervous laugh from her apple-farming friend. "I've seen Lyra perform far more complex magic."
"Advanced spells," Lyra said, "are when you can weave up to four types of magic together with complex weaves. Most unicorns will never be able to memorize these, though working together intermediate level casters could manage it.
"There is another classification of spells, and that is simply called alicorn. Nopony without horn and wings has ever woven more than four kinds of magic together, though Star Swirl the bearded worked with teams of unicorns to build alicorn-class spells in his day, that was out of desperation, and left all the ponies helping exhausted to the point of taking long-term harm." Lyra looked around, locking eyes with everyone—even Spike—at least once. "Care to guess how many types of magic Twilight wove just before?"
The room was quiet. Nopony spoke.
"I'll give you a hint," Lyra cleared her throat. "Twilight Sparkle just wove all seven types of magic at once. Crazier, the magic energy this created is—it's in the air. It's like it now exists as an eighth type of magic and I'm scared senseless because I think I can use it. Does that help?"
"Is—" Sweetie Belle's voice stumbled a little. I put a foreleg around her from one side and Spike hugged her from the other. "Is this new kind of magic nice?"
Closing her eyes, Lyra seemed to be doing her magic training exercises for a few moments before she smiled. "I'll need to talk to Twilight about it, and maybe Princess Celestia too, but I think it is. It's strong here and is radiating from everyone in this room."
"Everyone?" Spike asked.
Lyra gave one of her best semi-serious grins. "Well, I can't check myself out, but all of you are burning with it."
"Okay, so all the egg-head stuff aside," Rainbow pointed at the burn mark on the floor. "What has happened to Twilight and what do we do now?"
Applejack glanced at Apple Bloom a moment before turning to Rainbow. "I'm no more up with all this stuff than you are, Rainbow, but if we all trust our elements—"
"We do," the other four of Twilight's close friends said.
"… right, so we do, and we trust Twilight—"
"We do!" the reply was so firm that I even saw Fluttershy stomp a hoof.
"… right, so we have to wait for her to be done doin' whatever she done gone to do."
Pinkie laughed, falling over with a fit of the giggles. Rarity managed to remain standing despite a wide smile on her face. "That is certainly one way of putting it. I don't plan to leave before she returns."
I looked at Lyra and it was amazing how happy she looked. Using my best sneakiness, I managed to edge around the group to her. "What's going on?"
Lyra leaned toward me and down a little. "What makes you think I know what's going on?"
"Lyra?"
"Yeah?"
I rolled my eyes so much I'm surprised I didn't end up looking at Spike again. "You always know what's going on. So, what's going on?"
"I'm not allowed to say."
"I knew you knew."
"And you're not going to bug me about it?"
"I know like three ponies who you'd keep a secret this big for, and all three would have a good reason for you not telling anypony. Also, you're smiling like you just ate Sweetie's cooking. Uh"—I glanced back at Sweetie Belle—"Sweetie Drops, Mom, I mean."
Lyra's smile didn't change one bit. "Yeah, yeah. You told me about your friend's cooking. You should bring her around and we can work on teaching her the basics. Actually, do you and your friends want to help me?"
The question had me alert and ready, just like when a sergeant would bark something in the Royal Guard. "What with?"
"Well, everyone here is running on fumes right now—emotionally and physically. We need to get some food into them so they can be ready when Twilight comes back. So, want to come with me and help cook a pile of food to keep Equestria's heroes from falling over?" She gestured up the stairs toward the living area of the tree house.
Turning, I managed to catch Sweetie Belle and Spike's attention, but Apple Bloom was focused on her big sister. "Sweetie, Spike, we need to go upstairs and make some lunch for a bunch of hungry ponies."
Spike blinked a few times before nodding. "I can cook everypony something."
"No, Spike. We can work together on this." Lyra walked over to the stairs while we advanced on them too. "You can make food so much better when you work together."
First she surveyed Twilight's pantry and fridge. "Spike, you order this, don't you?" Lyra asked.
"You remember Twilight in school, right? If I didn't cook her meals, she would have just teleported between school and the Neighponese noodle place every day or so to reload on carbs." Spike peeked beside Lyra and pointed. "We could make something hearty with those fresh eggs."
"Seems like a good idea. What about a frittata? You have all these nice vegetables in here too an—And I lost you. Frittata is like a big savory omelette. Let me show you how to make it." Lyra levitated the little tray of eggs out and floated more things besides—cabbage, cheese, tomato, and some zucchini.
"What's the recipe for this?" Spike had to push a step-ladder over to the bench so he could climb up and see what Lyra was doing.
Me and Sweetie Belle just reared up and looked at Lyra preparing vegetables. "What can we do?" I asked.
"Try to find me a carbon steel pan, cast iron would do but it needs to be well seasoned. I need all those eggs broken into a bowl without any shells." Lyra was cheating and just using her magic itself to cut things up. "Oh, make it a big pan, and get the oven hot."
"They're in the cupboard over there. I don't have any of the first kind, but there are some big cast iron pans that I can barely lift." Spike was pointing across the kitchen to a cupboard.
We all got to work, though I know for a fact that Lyra could have done everything in half the time. She was probably just trying to keep us all distracted—well, Spike mainly. It couldn't be easy losing someone you've known for most of your life like…
I don't know how long I was just staring blankly at the cheese I was meant to be grating. Spike climbed up beside me and took over at some point.
"You okay, Scootaloo?" Spike asked.
It was the first time I'd really thought about my birth parents in a while. Despite everything Lyra and Sweetie Drops had done for me, I still missed them. "Y-Yeah. Just remembering some old stuff."
"Your parents?"
His question stung, but it made me focus more on how I felt now. "N-No. I mean, yes, but Lyra and Sweetie—Sweetie Drops—they're my parents now. My old parents—I still miss them, but it comes and goes."
"I'm scared that Twilight won't come back." When I turned to look at him, Spike was actually shaking.
Reaching my foreleg around him, I pulled him to my side. "I think she will. Lyra is trying to distract you, you know? Keeping you busy until Twilight comes back from—wherever she is. She beat Discord, remember? And she helped Luna get back to normal. I don't think whatever this is will stop her from coming home." He looked so small, even though he walked upright, but when I hugged him he felt as solid as a rock.
"I did it!" Sweetie Belle bounced from one back hoof to the other. "I didn't mess anything up!"
"Thanks," Spike said. "Lyra's good at this, huh?"
"Cooking? Yeah. She and Sweetie Drops are kinda big on making good food. Half the Guard seem to be. It's like part of being fit and healthy is eating good food." I tried to make it sound a little like a joke.
Giggling, Spike rubbed his chin. "Maybe I need to branch out and try to cook more for Twilight than pancakes, noodles, and soup."
Grabbing me from the opposite side, Sweetie seemed about ready to explode. "Did you see, Scootaloo? I didn't ruin the eggs! I used my magic to pull the shell bits out, and then I mixed them around really good!"
"I told you," Lyra said. "Cooking is just getting everything square in your head. How's that cheese coming, Scoots, Spike?"
Passing over the plate with my free wing, I offered it to Lyra and let go when her magic gripped it. "Do you need more?"
"You know, since we don't have any soft cheese, could you chop up some into smaller squares? About this big." Lyra demonstrated with her magic, easily creating a golden cube floating just above the knife.
"Got it," Spike said, and picked up a knife to start cutting perfect sized cubes.
Lyra started to cook the vegetables in the pan, frying them to get some color on them all. She was so at home in a kitchen—any kitchen—that it still amazed me it wasn't her cutie mark. Now it was mostly down to just her to finish cooking. She poured the eggs into the pan, added the hunks of cheese Spike cut inside, and then put the pan in the oven.
"I can't believe I didn't make anything catch fire."
We all turned to look at Sweetie Belle. Her honest surprise was too much and we all started giggling, even her.
One by one Twilight's friends came upstairs and each started the same conversation—how good the food smelled, how it was getting dark outside, and not a single one mentioned Twilight Sparkle.
The last to come up, Rarity froze when Sweetie Belle ran up to her and started bouncing. "Sweetie Belle, whatever is the matter?"
"I helped cook dinner!" Sweetie Belle did a legitimately cute spinning dance. "And nothing caught fire!"
Of course, right at that moment, the oven timer decided to go off. Rarity jumped so high I wondered if her horn would stick into the ceiling and leave her hanging there. "What was that?!"
Lyra, who walked over to the oven and turned the timer off, spared a giggle. "It's just the frittata finishing. I hope you all like the most delicious thing to do with vegetables and eggs since—well, since shire pie."
She always cheated in the kitchen, but it was the good kind of cheating. No oven mitts, no knives… I even caught her with a spell to automatically cut an onion into a fine mince once! Well, she just lifted the hot pan out with her magic and set a plate upside down on it. Then she carefully tipped it upside down and removed the pan. If the rich smell hadn't gotten everyone's attention already, it now did.
"Just a little cheese on top…" She was being fancy, but I'm glad she didn't make me grate the cheese for nothing. "Spike, can you get some plates out? I'll need something for everypony."
It was obvious Spike would have to go up and down the step ladder to pass the plates to Lyra, so I rushed over and took each plate from him and passed it to Lyra instead. She cut the frittata up and dished out each plate and put a fork on it.
"Sweetie, would you like to carry these to everypony?" Lyra asked.
We worked together to get everyone something to eat, and Lyra herself picked up the last four plates, giving one to Sweetie Belle, Spike, and me, before we all walked over to the kitchen table.
Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack all stared at Rarity while Rarity stared at her plate in what looked a little like terror. It was a bit stupid, and I made a point of digging my fork into my piece and started to eat. It was good—really good. The eggs were rich and held everything together, while the cheese carried the rest of the flavors—until I hit one of the little blocks inside. The pocket of cheese drooled out and I quickly mopped it up and put another forkful in my mouth.
"This is great!" Spike said, and it was then I heard a few crunching sounds coming from his mouth. "When'd you put rubies in there?" At least he kinda meant to ask that, it seemed more like Mmm foo woob dar? when it left his mouth.
"I saw them in the jar on the bench and figured you could do with a treat." Lyra looked like she was happy as could be, though I know she's always got something to focus on.
Even Rarity started to eat, and soon everyone was quiet while they ate. The food was good, and the company was too. Everyone seemed to just keep going, devouring their frittata slices in record time and leaving us all quieter and a little more relaxed.
"That was truly superb," Rarity said. "I—I must apologize to you, Sweetie dear, for assuming that would be bad because of—" She cut short her apology on account of the bright purple light now streaming in the windows.
It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and come up with a missing purple unicorn. In a rush Twilight's friends raced downstairs and outside, with Spike close on their tail. I barely even noticed that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had charged down too.
"Hey, Scoots, we should head down too." Lyra led the way and I followed down the stairs and out the front of the library.
Looking up into the sky, the purple light was coming from a huge purple star with five smaller stars around it. The star began drifting down toward us—well, toward Twilight's friends. When it touched the ground, the purple turned bright white for a moment, then faded.
"Twilight? Is that you?" Applejack asked, her night vision probably not completely ruined like mine was.
I was just able to look again when Twilight stood up—and spread her wings. With her friends crowding around her, I turned and looked up to Lyra. "Was this the secret?" I asked.
Grinning like a maniac, Lyra nodded.
"That's because she is a princess." Celestia had landed just behind the group, though even as short as I was, I could see her horn and wings above their heads. They went on talking, and when Twilight's friends bowed, I could see Celestia was bowed to Twilight too.
It seemed important, and with Lyra doing it beside me, I bowed as well—it just felt right.
"But, what do I do now? Is there a book I should read?" Twilight asked, looking around at us all as we started straightening back up.
"There will be time for that later," Celestia said. "For now, I believe we might need a little celebration?" She turned to look at Lyra, the one visible eyebrow raising.
"I think we can arrange something. Pinkie, how many marshmallows do you ha—" Lyra froze as Pinkie seemed to shimmer in the air before appearing beside us with a bag bigger than she was. "Perfect! Now, let's see what we can do with a little magic and a fire."
It wasn't the perfect dessert, but most of the town was sitting around a series of magical cooking fires in the town square, each and everypony holding a partially consumed marshmallow alicorn. Every time I glanced Twilight's way, I was reminded how special this night was. New princesses happened from time to time, but new alicorns were something amazing.
I had to choke back a yawn just as Twilight came over to where Lyra and me were sitting. She looked nervous as she sat down on the other side of Lyra from me. "Don't bow, please. I am so sick of bowing, and nopony I know as well as you should bow to me."
"Wasn't going to, not until your coronation." Lyra bit the head off her marshmallow alicorn and chewed it quickly before swallowing. "Did Princess Celestia tell you when that would be?"
"Five days. Now give me a hug without calling me your highness and I will promise I won't use my alicorn powers to—to turn you into an alicorn too."
They hugged without another word. It was funny to think that they'd been in school together. Lyra was the best magic-caster I knew—excluding Celestia and Luna, and now I had to add Twilight to that list. That's when something else hit me. "Uh, you're going to need flying lessons, right?"
"Rainbow Dash wouldn't leave me alone until I agreed to let her teach me flying. I'll see if she gets bored of it, though, and come around and ask for some lessons." Twilight looked at me as if that was a joke, and it took me a moment to realize that she meant she'd ask me for lessons. "If there's anypony I know who'd be perfect for teaching flying, it would probably be a filly who fought so hard to be able to fly even gravity gave up."
I couldn't help but giggle at that. "I meant you should ask the Wonderbolts if they could spare somepony to help."
"Maybe later, once I'm not tripping over my wings. I don't even know how to fold them properly without getting feathers bent and out of shape." Twilight froze for a moment and looked at Lyra. "You knew! I don't know how you knew, but you knew!"
Lyra bit off more of her marshmallow alicorn and said, "Can't talk with my mouth full." Only, she spoke perfectly fine with her mouth full.
"Did you know?" Twilight asked, looking at me.
"Nope. I knew Lyra knew something, though, but not until after you were gone. I was a little busy trying to stop the thick clouds somepony was making from burying the Apples' trees." I figured Lyra's method was best, though I only had a little alicorn butt left on mine to eat.
"I asked Princess Celestia again about a book on all this. She keeps putting it off like there isn't one." She bit her own likeness' wings off to munch on, which gave us all a chance to be quiet.
When I was living alone, I hated how quiet I had to be. If I made too much noise in the house, somepony would come and find me. I leaned against Lyra and put a foreleg around her.
"You getting tired?" Lyra asked me. I nodded my head a little. "Well, let's get you home then. I'll just check with Pinkie about cleaning up."
"I might try to escape too." Twilight stood up again, her wings nearly knocking Lyra and me over. "Sorry."
Standing up and shaking my head a little to clear it, I walked around Lyra and examined Twilight's wings. They. Were. Huge. "Mum, can you help me out? I just need you to hold this side down while I swap." Reaching up with my own wings, I took hold of Twilight's main and second joint and carefully folded her wing down. Even her feathers twitched-in snug when I finally got it down. "Okay, hold that and I'll get the other side."
Lyra's golden glow grabbed Twilight's wing and kept it pinned while I worked my way around and started on the other side. Soon I had that wing folded too. "Now you need something to go around them and keep them folded."
With the smallest blink of Twilight's magic a large scarf appeared. Lyra was quick to work it around Twilight's midsection to keep her wings pinned. "Thanks, Scootaloo," Twilight said.
Fighting a yawn, I managed a good salute. "'s my duty, Your Highness."
She stared at me a moment and then looked at Lyra.
"Scootaloo spent her school holidays apprenticed to the Royal Guard. She probably knows court protocols better than I do now. In fact, she'd certainly know them better than me." Standing up, Lyra started walking toward the middle of the party—invariably where Pinkie would be—which left me and Twilight together.
"This all feels so—so sudden." Twilight started walking toward the library, which was at least far closer than our house. "I thought it was just another little puzzle to figure out. Princess Celestia loved giving me those when I was in school. Then these—I won't pull them out, don't worry."
I was a little torn. As a Royal Guard, I'd learned to just be quiet unless one of the princesses asked me a question directly, but Twilight didn't seem to have that sort of thing worked out herself. "Everything's kinda sudden, though. When Lyra found me, that was sudden; when I finally got told I could fly, that was sudden; and when you're fighting something—everything's sudden." It was easy to fall-in beside Twilight and walk with her to her home. I used my own body to break up Twilight's shape and—combined with everypony expecting to see wings on her back—we made it to the library without anypony rushing up to her.
"You're a lot more mature than I would have thought—Uh, that's meant as a compliment." Twilight was blushing as she walked over to where Spike was asleep and tucked him in with some blankets. "Could you tell Lyra I'd appreciate talking to her first thing in the morning?"
"'First thing'?" My grin made Twilight look a little worried. "After dawn might be a better time."
"Y-Yes. Yes." Her shoulders were slumped as she aimed herself up the stairs to her bedroom. She sounded and looked tired.
Turning, I left the library and closed the door behind me. Eyes closed, I took a deep breath.
"It's not your duty to look after princesses, Scootaloo, but I'm sure she appreciated it." I didn't need to open my eyes and look up to see Celestia standing there. "Is she asleep?"
"I didn't see her head hit the pillow, but it wasn't far off." I struggled to hold back another yawn.
"Follow me."
There wasn't any two words that demanded attention like a princess saying that. I walked beside her, my head filling with the fuzz of sleep despite me still being upright. I barely even realized I'd reached home before Celestia's golden magic opened the door.
"Inside. Lyra, I found her." Celestia was herding me indoors now. I'd have protested, but I don't think it's actually allowed.
"Let me guess, she did go after Twilight and make sure our newest princess was tucked in?" Lyra gave me a stare with a wry grin. "Upstairs and bed—you're wobbling on your hooves, so no argument."
I wanted to say I wasn't wobbling, but that was Lyra's authoritative mum voice—which ranked up there with a princess giving an order in my book. I took the stairs up to my room, walked over to my bed, and collapsed.
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Oh no. There's an update. But I just started rereading Welcome to Thestralia yesterday. It'll be at least a week till I get to this. :(
LARSON.
11053944 It'll still be here in a week.
Well technically Starswirl's mostly-finished spellbook and the Elements just wove seven types of magic, so...
Huh, I wonder if the Elements would work to fuel those old sun/moon raising spells Starswirl used to lead, they did pretty well here.
You should write a letter to Princess Screech, or perhaps even visit her, the Thestralian princess has like ten years experience on you.
I like that Scootaloo successfully flew and that the sepll that changed Twilight into an Alicorn was explained. I'm sure the coronation will give Lyra and Bonbon a lot of headaches given what Discord's vines will do.
And that's how Twilight created a
sixth coloreighth form of magic. Brilliant take on the ascension from an unusual perspective.To Celestia: Is there a book about being a princess that Twilight should read?
Ohhhh! That was so much fun to read! Love seeing how other being reacted to that episode.
i have a feeling things are going to move fast for Scootaloo for a bit and in a good way.
That was definitely worth the reread. I was actually surprised this story didn't end with Twilights ascension and go into a 4th book regarding alicorn shenanigans.
A chance to read this chapter without my head fuzzy from binging 3 books. Really like the setup here with how exactly "she created new magic" from the show. Also, did she just literally create "Friendship" as the eighth form of magic?
11075155 Yeah, and it's freaking Lyra the heck out.
"wait. It says I can use this. I can use this! Oh. Oh no.... I can use this! 😱". -- Lyra. Probably.
It's interesting to lore that interweaving multiple magic types is exponentially difficult. Bet Lyra will cheat that too. 😏
Good attention to detail, most people don't put two and two together from the show showing early afternoon from the explosion to the late-night return. Things still happened in the interim!