Chapter 4
[[ A Scootaloo Perspective ]]
So it turned out that helping a magician was hard work. After my morning run and stretches, we spent four hours getting the stage set up and ready, as well as positioning all the special things for the show. Trap doors, special props, and even a bunch of chemicals that Trixie had to mix were all meticulously put together and placed.
Finally, as everypony was having lunch in and around the town square, did Trixie turn to me. "You ready?"
Almost bouncing in my excitement, I nodded at her.
Reaching magically to the lever that operated the stage, Trixie pulled it down. "Come one! Come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She jumped out onto the stage. "And her assistant!"
That was my cue! I jumped out to stand beside her, then reared up into the air beside her as the crowd gasped. And so we started the routine. It was going great, but there were some ponies a little back from the front of the crowd that were talking loudly, and their talk ended with a voice I recognized booing us. I froze at the sound of Rainbow Dash's voice.
"Well-well-well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience!" Trixie had moved smoothly from the actual act to the accusation, and when the crowd parted to reveal Rainbow and her friends, my heart nearly stopped.
I took a few steps back, hating the pain Rainbow's sneer hit me with. Looking around, I spotted an equally surprised Lyra.
While I'd stood there in shock, Rainbow actually flew up onto the stage and was challenging Trixie. I barely registered Trixie's deflection with what was actual magic—and telling a tale about defeating an ursa major.
From the back of the stage I could hear as Applejack, Rainbow, and then Rarity challenge Trixie, and each of them doing it was like a knife stabbing me in the chest. What were they thinking? It was just a show!
"Hey Scoots. You okay?"
At the sound of Lyra's voice, I practically jumped at her and wrapped my forelegs around her neck. "What are they doing?"
"Some ponies just don't get shows. I'll find Twilight and talk to her in a bit, but I just wanted to make sure you're okay." She wrapped a foreleg around my back and squeezed, and that was the trigger.
My eyes filled with tears and I started to sob. I couldn't help myself and kept trying to ask why Rainbow had done what she'd done. It was all stupid. All we wanted to do was help some ponies have fun.
And all through it, while I struggled to put two words together without sobbing, Lyra held me and. She didn't try to tell me everything would be better or that she could fix it all. But I wanted to know one thing. "Why?"
"This is a case of smart ponies being stupid when in a group." She loosened her grip a little, so I did too. Lyra held me up in her magic now and used her fetlock to wipe away my tears. "Rainbow just got—she got carried away."
But Rainbow wasn't just anypony. She was—was—the most awesome pony I knew. "C-Can we just go home?"
"You don't want to watch the rest of the show? I think things have calmed down out there now." Lifting me up to her back, Lyra turned and started walking out of the wagon.
"B-But—"
"Trixie has been on the road for years, Scoots. If anypony can chase off a few hecklers, it's her." She kept walking and circled around the stage to sneak back into the crowd. Winding her way through the other ponies of town, I noticed Trixie look at us for a moment, and Lyra nodded. "See?"
"Now the Great and Powerful Trixie needs an assistant from the audience!" Trixie looked our way, but this time Lyra shook her head. She kept scanning ponies until she spotted one who had her hoof in the air. "Ah! This pony whom the Great and Powerful Trixie has never met before will do. What's your name, Pinkie Pie?"
I couldn't help it, I giggled at the question so much, then even more when Pinkie shouted out her name. "Trixie knows Pinkie?" I asked softly.
Lyra snorted. "You'd be surprised who Trixie knows—though, after last night, maybe not. She was a popular pony a few classes ahead of me in school and I don't think she's been wasting her time. This should be funny."
Taking off her hat, Trixie bowed to Pinkie. "Now, if you could—Hey! Give that back!" The motion had been so quick I would have sworn the hat teleported with magic onto Pinkie's head. "Trixie demands her hat back from the—"
"The Great and Powerful Pinkie!" Pinkie Pie seemed just as fast as Trixie, taking Trixie's cape and posing dramatically. "… will now do a trick with her fantastic assistant, Trixie!"
My giggles turned into laughter, as did everyone. This was what Trixie's show should have been!
We watched as Pinkie sawed Trixie in half, pausing to ask her if the saw was fake (and proving that it wasn't). Then they did the making a pony disappear trick. Which is how Pinkie got off stage leaving just the hat and cape behind—which Trixie quickly gathered up and put back on.
"Hi, guys," Pinkie said from beside us. "Who was that amazing pink pony before?"
Around us (and including us), everypony cracked up into more laughter. I took a moment to look on stage, and Trixie was looking at me—then winked.
"And now, without any further interruptions from the—the Great and Powerful Pinkie," Trixie said, her voice raised above the crowd, "Trixie will perform one last—" Before she could get out another word, Trixie exploded.
A series of fireworks went off and smoke billowed from the stage, and everypony stomped their hooves in excitement. As the smoke cleared to reveal a burnt black patch on the stage, everypony gasped in shock, only to fall into more cheers as Trixie poked her head out from between the curtains and winked.
"Hey, Pinkie, you're friends with Twilight and all them, right?" Lyra asked.
"Not today I'm not. What was with all that?" Pinkie sat down and pointed toward the stage with both forelegs. "Trixie was just getting warmed up and then Spike starts going on and on about how much Twilight was better than her at magic, and then Applejack and Rainbow start arguing about it, then—Well, you saw how it turned out."
"Do you want to have a word with Twilight, or should I?" Lyra asked.
"I'll do it. I think she'll take it more seriously if I deliver the scalding. What is it with ponies when they get into a group and go bonkers?" Standing up again, Pinkie gave her opinion on bonkers by twirling her hoof at the side of her head. "Maybe I'll talk Fluttershy into coming too. Nopony confronts you on how terrible you've been like she does.
"Hey." Pinkie stepped closer and stuck her snout under mine, looking up into my eyes. "Weren't you on stage with Trixie?"
"Y-Yeah." It was all I could get out, but Pinkie's gaze was like some kind of drill boring into my head to turn my mouth on. "We were supposed to do a bunch of tricks together. We even rehearsed last night and earlier today. But then—then Rainbow Dash started—and I couldn't—"
"Whoah. Okay, now they're all going to get their plots kicked, but first there's something I need to show you." Somehow, Pinkie grabbed Lyra and me and she rushed us to Sugarcube Corner and into a booth. My mind spun at how she'd done it so fast that we hadn't been able to say anything let alone stop her, but here we were and she was setting a slice of cake in front of each of us and a shake too. "This should be a good start. Is there anything else I can get you? I am great and powerful, you know."
Lyra leaned over to me and asked, "Did she just—?"
I nodded.
"Right. Probably something to do with her special talent. Thanks, Pinkie, I think we can take it from here. Could you tell Trixie we're going home after this?" Lyra asked.
"Sure!" Pinkie bounced on all four legs toward the door. "Bye bye!"
"She's like a tornado," I said.
"Yeah, you get used to her—though that thing she did just now was new. Maybe all that stuff with the Elements of Harmony did something to her?" Taking a deep breath, Lyra shook her head. "That's for another time. Right now we need to eat and enjoy this cake and drink our 'shakes. She'll know if we don't."
"Do you think Rainbow meant all that?" I asked.
"The heckling? Maybe a little, but I wonder if what Pinkie said about Spike was right. He's a young dragon, which might be significant or not, but young—" Lyra paused and looked at me, blushing. "I kinda forget you're a filly sometimes. You always act so grown-up around me."
"You make me want to act more responsible. How am I meant to be awesome if you're already too awesome to beat?" I poked Lyra with a wing.
"Me?! What about Bon Bon? I have to deal with this awesome, amazing mare who just won't quit being both those things 24/7. I'm just glad nopony in town has made the connection between Twilight and me going to the same school. She's saved Equestria. It's going to be hard to catch up to that!"
"You've saved Equestria." I fished around for the exact circumstances. "Well, kinda. You do a lot of things that add up to at least one saving. There was that monster that got loose in town, teaching ponies in the Guard, teaching an alicorn, teaching all the unicorn foals, doing…" I waved a wing in a circle. "… stuff."
"And who remembers that stuff when Twilight swooped in and literally defeated Nightmare Moon and freed Princess Celestia's little sister at the same time?" She took a long sip of her drink.
There had to be something that she was doing that compared to what Twilight had done. Not being able to come up with something made me feel bad.
"What's the matter?" Lyra asked. "You don't look like a filly eating one of the best cakes of her life."
"I just—" Clamping my jaw shut so I didn't say something stupid, I thought about what I actually wanted to say. "You might not have saved Equestria yet, but you saved me."
It felt like forever since my mom and dad had died—since somepony told me—but I have learned enough to know that another year living like I was wouldn't have worked. I would have been slipping behind on my studies, I wouldn't have ever gotten my wings fixed, and my house would have rotted around me.
Closing my eyes, I didn't so much cry as ran through all the things Lyra and Sweetie had done to change my life. "You saved me."
Lyra reached out to me with her hoof and brushed my cheek. It was nice to be appreciated, to be welcome. If I hadn't just cried until I was out of tears, I might have started right then. "There's a lot of sappy stuff I could say, but I won't. I'd get the words all wrong and stumble over half of them. Let's finish this cake and get some more."
"More?"
"Yeah. Today is definitely a cake day." Using her magic to pick up her fork, Lyra took a huge piece of her own cake slice and put it in her mouth.
"Pfft. Why would we buy more cake? We can go home and make a cake. Then Sweetie can have some too."
"You have the best ideas," Lyra said. Or, at least, I think that's what she said—her mouth was still full of cake and it was hard to understand her.
We spent the whole afternoon baking. First it was a huge cake, then so many cookies we had to empty out a cookie jar ourselves just to fill it with cookies, and finally we made the wonder that Lyra called Pavlova. It was literally the best way to ignore the feelings from early in the show with Trixie.
"Come on, let's get a run in while that's chilling and the last cake is cooling down," Lyra said. She wasn't wearing her armor, having taken it off to bake, and just walked for the front door. "Come on, we can get a few laps in before Trixie arrives."
We didn't bother with starting stretches, we just headed outside and started galloping. It was a great way to clear my mind and just worry about putting each hoof down in the right place to keep up with Lyra.
It was our third lap—with my legs starting to feel a little like jello—that we heard the roar from across town. Lyra didn't even hesitate. She turned on a die and aimed directly for the sound and sped her pace up.
If I spoke up, she'd probably stop to make sure I was somewhere safe, which would mean whichever ponies are in trouble wouldn't have the most capable unicorn in Equestria between them and the monster.
Well, it was time for me to prove I wasn't just a scared filly who always needed protecting! Keeping my mouth closed, I stretched my gait as far as I could to keep up with Lyra.
"Scoots, I want you to keep back. If there's anypony in the way of whatever this thing is, try to get them out of the way, got it?" She didn't look at me, but her words shocked me to my core. She wasn't going to tell me to run and leave her to deal with whatever it was.
She trusted me!
That's when I realized she wasn't running at her full speed—she was only going as fast as I could run at my maximum. "Yeah! I mean, got it!"
Together we galloped around the corner of a house and almost got stampeded by ponies coming the other way. There was so many around that I couldn't see what made Lyra gasp in shock, but I heard two voices ahead say—at the same time—"Made it up?!"
Snips and Snails. I'd only been in Cheerilee's class for a year now, but at least three minor disasters had been caused by one or the other—or both. When the crowd blew by us, I saw what made Lyra gasp—it made me gasp too.
It was a bear that was as big as a house and it looked angry. Trixie was standing there staring at it with Snips and Snails behind her. Twilight Sparkle stood with a bunch of other ponies that all looked frozen with fear.
As the bear advanced, so did Twilight.
"Is she—?" I asked, not able to finish asking the question as Twilight's horn turned into a giant flare of power.
"Saving the town? Yeah." Lyra watched with me while Twilight soothed the giant bear with music and then fed it milk. "How am I meant to compete with this? I couldn't even start to feed these spells the energy they need to—Now she's picking it up just with her telekinesis?"
With everypony rushing back and cheering for Twilight, it was impossible to make out what was going on in the center of the group. Pushing in behind Lyra, I followed her through the crowd and to inner edge just as the sound of a smoke bomb going off got my attention. "Was that Trixie?"
"Oh Tartarus. Scoots, hold on tight and keep your wings tucked." When Lyra crouched low, I jumped onto her back and held on around her neck. No sooner did I have a good grip than her horn glowed and we teleported.
Knowing the destination was impossible, though with my experience of Lyra's tactics, "in the sky" and "falling" were the only logical solutions. I looked over her shoulder and spotted Trixie before Lyra did. "Over there!" I said, only pointing with a hoof.
The result was Another two teleports in quick succession—the first sent us back up again and the seconds (when we reached the top of our arc) was to the ground right in front of Trixie.
"Trixie, stop!" Lyra had accounted for a lot of things, but when Trixie opened her eyes wide to reveal she was crying (and couldn't see well), she couldn't actually move quickly enough to avoid Trixie running right into her.
Jumping clear before the collided, I rolled away and got back on my hooves. "What the heck happened?"
That's when Trixie lifted her head from the tangle of limbs she and Lyra were in, and I saw tears in her eyes. Adults weren't meant to cry except when they were really sad. Trixie looked sad, but there was more emotions there than just sadness. I couldn't figure it out, so I did the only thing I could think of—what Lyra had done for me.
Walking back to them, I hugged Trixie with my forelegs.
"Those—those foals brought that ursa to town and it—it crush my wagon! Everything I owned was in that wagon and they—" She hugged me tight and I felt her wet cheek on my neck. "They thought I did the wrong thing!"
I had to reach a wing around to pat her on the back. Lyra was getting up as well now, but she left me to hug Trixie. "It will be okay, Trixie."
She jerked her head back, which had slightly stuck to my mane because I could feel the wetness of her tears there. "How can you say that? It had all my stuff!"
"Simple, because we're here. If you think for a second that you'll be stuck without all your things, you're wrong, Trixie. Where's your wagon? We need to get whatever's still okay out of it," I said.
Trixie just stared at me. Almost a minute passed before she finally shook her head and reached up with a hoof to wipe her tears away. "It's back in town. The ursa crushed it with one paw." She looked like she might cry at any moment.
"Well, there has to be something still in there. Come on." I stood up and prodded her with a wing.
"You're right." turning back toward Ponyville, Trixie let out a sigh. "I guess I will be needing those bits from the Guard after all."
I had to think. There was a pile of bits I had building up from Lyra and Sweetie's rent, but if she didn't need bits then there was only one other thing I could offer apart from friendship. "If you need somewhere to stay, Trixie, I have a spare room in my house."
"Oh, yeah." Lyra moved with us, taking up my other flank.
"I might take you up on that, at least until I get a new wagon. Nice as it would be to settle into one place, my hooves itch if I don't move around." She went quiet as we got closer to town, but it was surprising to see the crowd had dispersed and left… "My poor wagon."
It was crushed, just like she'd said. All four wheels were broken. The roof was kindling, the walls were splintered, and the bottom seemed caved-in by the volume of everything inside being compacted. Walking around it, I spotted a few things I knew were hers. "There's one of your decks of cards."
I walked around the wagon and picked up things I could see where still whole while Trixie and Lyra took the top off it and looked inside. We spent ages going over the wagon and getting everything that might be salvageable out.
I noticed Lyra's ears twitch. She looked around, then sighed. "You might as well help us carry all this."
Slinking out of the shadows, Rainbow Dash was hanging her head. "I didn't mean for—"
Anger boiled up inside and I couldn't stop myself. "You! We were trying to put on a magic show and you did this?!" Stomping up to her, I wanted to—to do something to show how angry I was. Instead I just huffed out a breath that turned into a whinny.
"Wait. I had nothing to do with this mess. I just wanted to—to apologize for earlier. I got—" Rainbow's wings were dangling at her side almost as much as she was hanging her head. "When Spike started saying you were here to show up Twilight, it just hit a nerve." She lifted her head and looked at me. "Wait, 'we'?"
Lyra facehoofed dramatically. "Scootaloo was going to be Trixie's assistant for the show, Rainbow. She was just coming out on stage when you started heckling. Now, give us a hoof and carry some of this back to our house so we can see what can be recovered."
"You were? How do you even know her?" Rainbow walked over to the pile of salvaged stuff and started picking things up with her wings.
I followed Rainbow and got my own load, though just because I wanted to help more. "She's Lyra's friend. They met at school."
"Actually," Trixie said, "we met before school. Lyra is the reason I got into Princess Celestia's school."
Rainbow stopped so suddenly I almost walked into her. She stared at Trixie. "Hold up, you mean that wasn't all boasting? You went to the same school Twilight did?"
Using her magic to pick up a huge pile of Trixie's belongings, Lyra looked at Rainbow with a raised eyebrow. "We both did. There's like ten ponies a year graduate from Celestia's class alone." She sighed. "But Twilight is amazing. She tutored me in school, and I can't help but admire how she just gets magic. What she did tonight was amazing."
Trixie kept oddly silent, picking up her own load with her magic.
"She's—I don't know what it is, but when we used the Elements together it really brought us together. Mine's the Element of Loyalty, but I guess I need to be careful I don't go too far with it."
Shrugging, Lyra walked along with us—aimed toward home. "Spike's just a baby dragon still. I mean, he's around fifteen, I think, but to dragons that's barely hatched. Pinkie said she'd talk to Twilight about what happened."
Trixie snorted. "Now there's a mare who appreciates a good act." She turned to look at me. "Did you see how we worked together on stage? It was like we were back in Canterlot together."
"You know Pinkie, too? Ugh. Now I feel terrible about what I did. I'm so sorry. Can I do anything else to help?"
"You only feel terrible now?" I asked, still not over being angry at her.
Lyra shot me a neutral look that I couldn't interpret. "Scoots, she came here to help without knowing any of that. Together we'll get Trixie a new wagon and help her replace all her broken things, won't we?" Okay, so the look was probably trying to tell me that I wasn't helping the situation, but I didn't care. I wanted Rainbow to know how angry she'd made me!
"I just got caught up in what my friends were saying. Spike said that Trixie couldn't be the best because Twilight was, then Applejack started talking about how much of a show-off Trixie was, then Rarity said something like somepony needs to go up there and show her who's boss." Rainbow followed Lyra inside our house and set her load of stuff down beside the pile Lyra made.
Trixie set her own load down as well and heaved a sigh. "The heckling, honestly, didn't affect me, Rainbow Dash. I deal with it in every fifth town or so—and dealt with it here today. There's someone you should be apologizing to about it, however. Now, you'll excuse me but I'm going to take a shower, go to bed, and leave all the thinking until tomorrow." With that, Trixie walked off to the stairs.
"You're home?" Sweetie asked from the kitchen and poked her head in. "What's with all the stuff?"
Walking over to Sweetie, Lyra kissed her and murmured something I didn't catch—then they both went into the kitchen together.
I looked at Rainbow and then walked over to an empty bit of living room. Having missed the chance to do my stretches before the run, I decided now was as good a moment as any.
"Guess I wasn't so awesome today. I'm sorry, Scootaloo. You know how it is, though. Sometimes your friends egg you on to do something and you can't stop until you've done it?" She dropped to her belly beside me and started doing wing-ups.
"I kinda lost track of everypony at school with all the stuff I'm doing lately. It just seemed more important to get my own life straight again." Stretching the base joints of my wings, I stopped and held when I felt the tendons tighten up. That's it, focus on what you're doing and not being angry. "It really hurt to hear you saying all those things."
We kept working out together. Rainbow was building up a sweat doing wing-ups while I got through all my stretches. When I was done (having worked through a few wing-ups myself), I straightened out and folded back my wings.
"Do you do your stretches before or after your morning run?" Rainbow asked.
"Before."
"I'll be here early then." The look in Rainbow's eyes held pain I could recognize as easy as day.
Angry as I was, I had to forgive her. She was a friend. Walking over, I reached out and hugged Rainbow. "You're a smart pony, Rainbow Dash. You should do your own thinking instead of letting others do it for you."
The look of shock on her face when I pulled back was a sight to behold. "Y-Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow."
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
657 users online
765,019 hits today, 2,591,549 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
You know, I can't wait to see what Lyra makes of the Flimflam brothers. That magipunk thingamajig could be exactly the thing that Thestralia needs right now, that "tech" would go a long way towards patching some of the holes magic has left in their industrial base.
Intresting to see Lyra glitch on seeing and understanding the sheer power levels associated with the Elements? I wonder what kind of thoughts thats going to lead her to, analysis and projections etc?
In combat terms, I wonder what the effect is of being hit with a fresh out of the oven hotter than boiling water stuffed apple pie is, on heat conducting metal armor or in the unprotected face.
...
Oh, you cheeky mare.
This is certainly an interesting variation on the actual episode. I don't see why Twilight would need a scalding since she didn't do anything wrong at all.
I'm honestly surprised that Dash still went forward with her part of the heckling with Scootaloo on stage. Yes, they're not at the closest part of their relationship, but still, I'd expect the presence of a familiar filly at Trixie's side to have some kind of impact. Especially when said filly vanished from the stage.
Twilight did nothing wrong. She actively avoided getting called on stage.
Much like her mother, Lyra saves the world through little actions that add up in big ways.
Let's double check that.
Yeah, that's a bit more time than "just coming out on stage." Dash definitely booed her biggest fan in the middle of a trick.
I know, I know, it says we're going by canon right there in the title, but I still expected an earlier ripple effect from this one. Still, with Trixie staying in Ponyville as she gets back on her hooves, it's sure to shift from here. Don't get me wrong, this was great stuff for the most part, especially Lyra being a great friend and mother figure. But I can't say I enjoyed the hecklers missing the eager young assistant in their misguided effort to cut down the tall poppy.
Also, Luna's response to the chapter question was a delight. Celestia really has no idea how to run a military unit, does she?
10471608 From the episode itself, Spike first goaded Rarity into being anti-Trixie, then Twilight sheepishly tried to butt in, and Rainbow joined in their conversation. While they were chatting, their attention was on each other (this is in the episode itself). Rainbow even began her jeering without actually looking at the stage—her attention was still on Rarity and Twilight.
Scootaloo didn't see that conversation happen, she was too focused on doing her act, but Trixie did. Perhaps this section might have been better from Trixie's PoV so I could have explained that a bit better.
As for why talking to Twilight was in order—she's looking after Spike, after all. She's effectively the adult responsible for him. And I really have to say he was the most annoying little brat in that episode (barely ahead of Snips and Snails—whose parents probably deserve a clip around the ears).
Overall, we had an episode with a complete lack of adults being adults, and kids being the worst kids can be without any supervision.
PS: I particularly loved the horrified expression on Pinkie (and most of the ponies). They'd come to see a magic show and be wowed—what they got to see was their heroes be arseholes.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/554923710470160398/763758487703781406/unknown.png
10471631
Having just rewatchted the scene in question I can say that Rarity started with the heckling before Spike made any comments and he quickly agreed with Rarity, after that Applejack and Rainbow Dash start heckling too. Twilight does not understand her friends' reaction and possibly could have done more to keep Spike from making those comments but really she's the least at fault of everypony in the crowd. Pinkie's reaction in that screenshot is more one of confusion about Trixie than a reaction to her friends' behaviour and has that expression the whole time she's in the crowd.
10471673 They weren't exactly calling out, though. Rarity didn't start being loud and obnoxious until Rainbow did her jeering, though I'm sure Trixie would have noticed the chatter.
Twilight, as the guardian figure to Spike, still should have reined him in. Hell, she could have explained to him that "this is not how ponies treat each other" if she wanted to go the whole 9 yards.
Why is it called the "whole 9 yards" when you have to get 10 yards for a new down?
10471608 Sorry if my initial reply came off a little rude, but I had—in the making of this chapter—watched that episode from start to finish six times, then rewatched that scene several more to fix in my head what the various perspectives would have seen/heard.
Trixie (on stage) introduced Scootaloo only as her "assistant", saw and heard the hecklers early but gave them a few moments to calm down on their own—hearing an actual "boo" from them was enough to send her into defense mode.
Scootaloo (on stage) was focused on helping with the first trick of a long set she'd been practicing hours to do, she noticed a few ponies talking, but didn't connect the dots until Rainbow booed. She then ran off stage and listened to the rest of the Boast Busters act unfold until Lyra came and got her.
Rainbow was focused on Applejack at the start of things. She heard Spike and Rarity discussing the act loudly, had her little rant, then called out her boo before even paying much attention to the stage.
Lyra (in the crowd) was not close enough to hear how things started, but she did hear Rarity and Spike egging each other on. (This is why she blamed Twilight for not parenting.)
Twilight (in the crowd) was freaking out over possibly losing her friends and lost track of Spike while he and Rarity stirred up Rainbow and Applejack.
Pinkie Pie (in the crowd), having known what it was like to perform (at least a little) was about to get cranky at them but figured it was a good prank and lesson both when Trixie showed up her friends. She too didn't really follow the start of the Spike/Rarity discussion, only noticing when her friends started doing the worst possible thing to an entertainer trying to perform.
10472937
Got it. Sorry, sometimes it can be hard to tell what the characters can't tell at all.
10473108 It's partly my fault as the storyteller. I probably should have dropped to 3rd person for this chapter to show the full absurdity of events.
10472800
It's not a football term, it's an ammo term. Deals with the length of .50-cal ammo-belt fed gun mounts in WW2 fighter craft (not sure it it's per gun mount or total for one of the fighter planes) ...
10506787 Huh. Well, there you go.
so...
raimbow is still the coolest pony on the scoots list or has she already lost the rank?
11536027 She's still pretty cool, but Scoots has a little more perspective now.
It really was an absurd sequence of events, silly show writers always gotta be batting hard to make some semblance of a lesson, eh?
Getting Rainbow to practice situational awareness would be great, since her otherwise distracted nature begs for it.