Scootaloo looked at the stack of tattered books, eyes wide. They practically had to have come from some private collection in Canterlot castle or something. Old as they were, they were probably pretty valuable.
"Princess Luna sent all of those?" she asked.
"All of these and the ones I'm looking at right now," she confirmed. "And, well, for one of the princesses to ask me to work on something, it would typically either be something related to my studies, or some threat to Equestria. This doesn't seem to be either, though."
Oh, this should be fun. She knew something Twilight didn't and it looked like it was bugging the hay out of her.
"Well, it seems to me like you should be able to work it out," she said smugly. "If she mentioned me by name, she must know me, right?"
"I don't see how," Twilight said, frustrated. "Luna's only been to town twice. The first time was mostly when she was Nightmare Moon, and she left shortly afterwards. And on Nightmare Night, I was with her most of the night."
"Right," Scootaloo replied. "So she must have met me somewhere else, then."
"I don't think you've spent much time in Canterlot, though." Her eyes narrowed as a sudden suspicion came to her. "You didn't sneak into her tower and spend a bunch of time with her at my brothers wedding, did you?"
"Of course I didn't sneak in to see Luna!"
She wouldn't have had to, since Luna would have let her in. Too bad she'd been so busy practicing for the wedding. She'd had to wear a dress, too. But scattering petals down the aisle had been kinda fun. And nopony had noticed her sampling a few.
And as it turned out, the bride had actually been a really big bug. That'd been awesome! But the real wedding hadn't been bad either.
Twilight sighed, breaking Scootaloo's chain of thought. "Then I have no idea."
Scootaloo frowned as she realized the downside of teasing Twilight like this. To really explain why Luna wanted to help her, her parents were almost sure to come up, and she didn't really like talking about them. It was probably too late now, though.
"Well, what exactly does Princess Luna do? What's she responsible for?" she asked Twilight.
"Princess Luna is in charge of the moon and all things related to the night. She hasn't gone back to being co-ruler of Equestria yet, to my knowledge."
"So what are her duties during the night, then?" she asked Twilight, as if she didn't already know the answer.
"You know, I'm not sure," Twilight answered pensively. She obviously didn't like admitting her ignorance of something.
"Well, what happens during the night?"
"Not much. Most ponies are asleep–" Her eyes widened. "She governs dreams, doesn't she?"
"Exactly," Scootaloo said. "And she's able to walk into other ponies dreams."
"That still doesn't make much sense, though. I can understand that she could walk into your dreams, but why would she? There are a lot of ponies in Equestria."
Scootaloo's ears drooped. "Twilight, what she does is she looks for ponies having bad dreams, and tries to help them. Most times ponies don't even remember her helping them out."
"But you did? Why would she remember you from one bad dream, though?"
This was the part Scootaloo really didn't want to get into.
"She didn't remember me from one dream. But when she has to stop by one or more times a week, you get to know each other."
"Alright, that makes a lot more sense now," Twilight said, more at ease. Then Twilight realised what had just been said. "Wait, you were having nightmares several times a week? For how long?"
"Years." Scootaloo sighed. "Long enough to wish she'd never gone away in the first place. I don't have them too often any more, though."
Twilight's ears drooped, as well. Sweetie Belle, who already knew about Scootaloo's parents, squeezed her reassuringly.
"Years." Twilight paced, books forgotten. "That's terrible. What happened?"
"Um, I don't really like to talk about it," she said, but with the look on Twilight's face, she didn't think she'd leave it at that.
"What could be so bad as to cause years' worth of nightmares, though?" Twilight asked persistently.
"Here." Scootaloo grabbed Twilight's quill for a moment, jotted down a date on the paper in front of her, then gave it back. "Take a look at the newspapers around that day. It should have been on the front page. We were going to try to find stuff about flying though, right?"
"Right." Twilight nodded distractedly. "I'll divide the books into three piles, one for each of us. We'll look at each book in our pile. If it has anything to do with flying, pegasus anatomy, endurance, building your magic core, or looks potentially useful, set it in one pile, and set it in another if it doesn't. We'll go through the first pile together afterwards."
She separated the books into three stacks, and floated one over to Scootaloo, and another to Sweetie Belle. As they started flipping through books, Twilight kept glancing at the date scratched on her notes, and eventually she got up and walked away, leaving her books behind her.
Scootaloo hit her forehead with her hoof. "She's gone to grab some newspapers, hasn't she?"
"Yeah, once you brought it up, there's no way she'd let it go." Sweetie Belle grabbed another book, and her eyes brightened. "Rigis Filia Basileum: The training of a princess?"
"I'm no princess."
"Yeah, but listen to this. For a proper princess, use of–" She puzzled over the next word. "sea-gull magic is recommended to get the most out of her training."
"Seagull magic? Training with a bunch of birds? Let me see that."
Scootaloo peered over the old, half translated book. "Sig-ill? I think that's sigil. I'm pretty sure there was a book in my pile about that."
Rummaging through her pile, she pulled out a thin worn book. "Here we are. 'A Beginners Guide to Sigil and Other Chaos-Related Magics'?"
Sweetie Belle frowned. "Is this a good idea? You remember how much trouble Discord caused –"
"Discord and chaos aren't exactly the same thing, girls." Twilight announced as she walked back in, small stack of newspapers behind her. "And chaos isn't necessarily bad, it's just a matter of how it's used. Why don't you put both those books in the pile, and we'll look them over later?"
Scootaloo shrugged, and put both of them down. They continued searching.
"Romance Reports? Why would Luna send that?" Sweetie Belle said, holding a much newer-looking book up in confusion.
"Oh, that must have gotten mixed in accidentally." Twilight accepted it from her, and set it in a separate pile, though whether that was for putting back on the shelves or later reading, Scootaloo couldn't say.
"Mood Wings: Observations on Pegasus Body Language. Well, that's a possible." Scootaloo threw it in a pile, along with one or two others on the same subject.
Meanwhile, Twilight had one of the newspapers open, and was skimming through the front page. Her ears folded back as she read. "They were survived by their daughter Scootaloo, who watched this tragic series of events unfold from on top of a stairwell. Oh, Scootaloo..."
Scootaloo frowned, annoyed at all the attention. "I told you it's been years, and I don't even get- *gack*"
She was interrupted as Twilight wrapped her in a hug. Octavia, seeing this from across the room, hid a smile behind one hoof. Scootaloo made a face.
"Why does everypony always try to hug me?" she grumbled.
"But you're so huggable, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said.
"I am not huggable," Scootaloo replied, making an unsuccessful attempt to free herself from Twilight's clutches.
"Really? I thought you were earlier." Sweetie Belle cocked her head. "I suppose I'd better doublecheck."
She ran over and joined the hug, barely avoiding impaling Scootaloo on her horn.
With a bit of effort, Scootaloo managed to duck under the two of them and get out, leaving Sweetie Belle and Twilight locked in a hug together, much to their surprise.
"Hey!" Sweetie Belle said. "No fair!"
Scootaloo stuck out her tongue in reply.
"Well, if you don't want a hug..." Twilight said.
"I don't need a hug." Scootaloo crossed her forelegs. "I'm not a touchy-feely pegasus, and I've been been hugged at least four times in the last day. I'm all hugged out. I'm at my quota for the week. At least. Maybe even longer."
"Well, if you need somepony–"
"I needed somepony several years ago. And they were there for me. I'm fine now."
This was completely true. In fact, Vinyl had been just about as devastated about Ruby's death as Scootaloo herself had been, as they'd been very close. There had been a long period of them both crying and hugging each other while Octavia took care of them. Then they'd mutually agreed not to talk about it, as Vinyl wasn't exactly a touchy-feely pony either.
"If you're sure."
"I'm positive."
"Um, Sweetie Belle, you can let go of me now," Twilight told her.
"Are you sure? You sound like you might need a hug right now."
Twilight rolled her eyes, and gently detached herself from Sweetie Belle's grip. Disappointed, Sweetie Belle glanced briefly back at her own flank before walking back to where she'd been sitting.
"You know, maybe we should keep going through these books," Scootaloo said. You could always distract Twilight by mentioning books, as far as Scootaloo could tell.
"Right," Twilight turned her attention back to her neglected stack of books. Pulling a large magical tome out, she started skimming through it. Then she paused on a page, and started studying it intently.
"Find something?" Scootaloo asked.
"Well, if this works the way I think it does, it'd be perfect," Twilight told her. "I always thought there had to be an equivalent to the wing creation spell somewhere."
"Wing creation? Why not just use that to give me better wings?"
"Well, it doesn't work on pegasi, for one. Also, it's only temporary. This spell should work out perfectly for magic core exercises, though. Hold still for a moment and I'll cast it on you."
"Um, Twilight?"
"Yes?" She stopped preparing the spell for a moment.
"Maybe we should run it by them first?" Scootaloo gestured to where Spike was helping Octavia find some songbooks. She already had a thick stack. Maybe she really had just wanted to go to the library today.
"Oh, I did promise supervision by Spike, didn't I? But both of them? Who is that, anyway?"
Twilight looked a little closer. "Actually, isn't that Octavia Philharmonica? She's supposed to be a pretty good cellist. I think she's in a relationship with a distant cousin of mine, actually."
"You read that article, didn't you?" Scootaloo said. "She's been living with Vinyl for years."
"I thought that was right." She looked at Scootaloo's expression. "What am I missing?"
"You know, my aunt Vinyl Scratch, who took me in after-" She pointed at the newspaper. "that happened."
"Oh," she said, looking at Octavia with new comprehension. "Yes, that would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"
She trotted over, and showed the book to Spike. The three of them talked for a few minutes, just low enough that Scootaloo couldn't make out what they were saying, then they all came trotting over.
"I think you're fine with this one, Scootaloo," Spike told her. "It'll only last for a few hours, and if it's miscast, it just fizzles. It takes a good deal of power, but Twilight can handle it."
"And I'd love to see the results," said Octavia, grinning. "I just wish Vinyl was here to see it. Go ahead with the spell, Twilight."
Twilight closed her eyes, and lowered her now glowing horn at Scootaloo, an expression of extreme concentration on her face. Just then, Scootaloo realised that Twilight had never finished her explanation.
"Um, exactly what was this spell supposed to do?" she asked. How do I keep getting myself in these situations?
Before she could get an answer, a lavender glow completely enveloped her. She could feel herself float up in the air and rotate all the way around, and it felt like something was happening. Both her wings and head felt rather funny.
Then she gradually lowered back to where she had been standing, and the glow faded. Twilight inspected her carefully.
"Well, I believe we can say that was a complete success," she remarked.
"Wasn't that all a little showy?" Spike asked.
"Showy isn't always bad," Twilight said. "It would have actually been easier without the whole three hundred sixty degree rotation, but since this was an untested spell, I wasn't about to modify it from the way it was written."
"Can we get a few pictures?" Octavia asked.
"No problem," Spike said, pulling a camera off one of the shelves. Donning a suede hat with a piece of paper stuck to one side, camera hung around his neck, he started snapping pictures of Scootaloo.
Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle seemed to be snickering and trying not to look in her direction, which wasn't a good sign.
"What exactly did this spell do to me?" Scootaloo asked.
Her head felt really heavy. Instinctively, she looked behind her to see if she'd at least gotten an 'experimental test subject' cutie mark, but there was nothing on her flank. And that wasn't the only thing that was missing.
"Hey! Where did my wings go?"
Well this is entertaining. Have a follow.
Oh, this is simply glorious.
Some minor tweaks on Scootaloo's dialogue might be in order, though. There's still that issue of her talking with bigger words than she should. Ditto on Sweetie Belle. Here, for example:
"Years." Scootaloo sighed. "Long enough that they predate her resuming her duties."
Would it maybe sound more natural if instead she said:
"Years." Scootaloo sighed. "Long enough to wish she'd never gone away in the first place."
I think the "You, know," thing might be an error, unless it's a really hesitant bit of dialogue. Also, you missed a quotation mark when she says she promised supervision. Other than that, I look forward to more.
And just to get this out of my system:
CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CHAOS MAGES! YAY!
"Twilight looked a little closer. "Actually, isn't that Octavia Philharmonica? She's supposed to be a pretty good cellist. I think she's in a relationship with a distant cousin of mine, actually."
If Twilight is distans cousin with Vinyl, she could be a distans reletive to Scootaloo right?
Anyway really like this <3
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Thanks!
And yeah, that whole area of dialogue used to be much worse, too. I went over it, revising it heavily, but I must have missed a few spots. It's one of these cases where I was probably too conscious of how long it had been since I updated.
I've gone ahead and made the changes you suggested, and changed a few other word choices in their dialogue. I'm actually pretty amused at Scootaloo's take on the season two finale, though. I think I got that one spot on.
The "seagull" magic should be interesting. Though one of my other thoughts on that looks like it'll need to wait at least till the next chapter.
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Indeed she is. Vinyl is Scootaloo's aunt on Ruby's side of the family (both white unicorns, similar personalities, musically inclined), and Shining Armor takes more after Vinyl's side of the family. (both white unicorns with similar shades of blue in their mane.)
As it happens, Scootaloo's father was an orange pegasus, and she takes after him in appearance. And her mane color isn't really enough to make the family relation obvious...
Glad you like this, in any case.
Aww, no hugging cutie mark for Sweetie Belle. Not sure why Scoots would want an "experimental test subject" mark, though. I guess they'll take what they can get. But yes, Scoot is quite huggable, miffed though she may be about it.
So I'm guessing Scootaloo (almost didn't notice freakin' auto-correct changed "Scootaloo" to "Capitalism") is temporarily a unicorn now. Makes sense, I can imagine how playing around with some new types of magic would work for a general sort of magic training. But alright! Sounds like things are about to get pretty interesting. Well, more interesting, since this story is already pretty intriguing.
A random thing that amuses me: a month or two ago I made a comment on a different story about how seagulls could be one of those literally-named creatures, like timber wolves and fruit bats. I now think of Equestrian seagulls as being water elementals that spray jets of water at anyone who bothers them, so seeing "seagull magic" mentioned here actually made perfect sense to me.
Okay, that was a much better way to make external references. Those are titles I can totally believe could exist in Equestria. Now as for whether they're related to the stories as we know them, well, that's just a mystery, I suppose.
Only noticed a few typos this time. There was one spot where an 's was missing, in "Scootaloo ears drooped" and another spot said "but with from the look". And then "years worth of nightmares" should be "years' worth".
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I was actually wondering if Sweetie Belle's glance back at her flank was too subtle or not on that one, but I didn't feel like being too blatant about it. The sad thing is that I imagine her line of thought as being that her not getting a hugging cutie mark just means she hasn't hugged enough ponies yet.
She might be right, too.
And yeah, Scoots is huggable, though she sees herself as being tough. The hugging scene almost didn't happen, actually, because I felt like too much hugging was getting into the story, but the characters insisted.
If you recall, Twilight knows training exercises for magic, but only for unicorns, so logically that'd make sense. And things should be getting interesting, since I've been doing some thinking about where things are heading after a suggestion Wise Cracker made.
I'm sure there is "seagull magic" in Equestria, too, and Twilight probably would have given a lecture on that being a valid but underutilized field of study if she'd come in earlier. Seagulls as water elementals isn't a bad idea, actually.
As far as titles go, well, the Mood Wings title was the exact title of the book in the fanfic I listed in references, I felt like giving a nod there, since it was a great fanfic. I was going to add a third fanfic reference in, but it got shoved off till next chapter. (But I think it'll be amusing.)
"A Beginners Guide to Sigil and Other Chaos-Related Magics" and "Rigis Filia Basileum: The training of a princess" are both original titles to me, though, and I'm sure the second is horrid Latin, since I don't actually know latin, and just looked a few words up.
Regarding typos, Wise Cracker already let me know of a few others, which I've taken care of. And I took care of the ones you pointed out. I suspect I should just go looking for a proofreader for this and Cubic Zirconia one of these days...
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I almost edited my comment to add that same thought that Sweetie just needs to keep hugging more ponies, actually. Don't give up, Sweetie!
And a horn equivalent of the wing spell makes a lot of sense. I'm surprised I've never seen anyone do that before, and hadn't ever thought of it myself. Although I'm a bit puzzled why her wings vanished, but I guess that just means the spell works a little differently than the butterfly wings.
I did read Mood Wings a while back, so I was pretty sure that was the name of the in-universe book, yeah. Haven't read Romance Reports, though, but based on what I do know or guess about it, I think Twilight would've been freaking out if it had been the same one.
And I don't think you should be too worried about the typos. A handful each chapter isn't bad at all.
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Heh, looks like our thoughts were in sync there, then.
And, yes, the spell does work rather differently. I'll go into this in the next chapter, but the reason her wings vanished is because her horn actually is her wings in a different form. So she actually will technically be exercising her wings when doing magic.
I'm thinking that in this universe, Romance Reports is an erotica novel, and yeah, Twilight put it aside because she didn't want Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle getting at it. And I have read Romance Reports, incidentally.
And that's a point. I'm pretty consistent about what I miss, too. Otherwise, my grammars good enough that I could proofread. (And did on two fics, actually...)
What was interesting is that when I went to correct "Scootaloo ears drooped", it refused to type the 's' initially. That gives me an idea how I missed it...
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So now the question is, what is Luna going to do when she notices her book is missing realizes where she sent it?
But for the actual fic, I've been aware of it pretty much ever since it started, but it ended up as one of those that got away from me because there are just so many things to read here. And now it's close to 200k words, and I always seem to read the shorter fics first, to try to knock the number down. So at this point, I'm probably never going to read it, since I've got like 950 fics in my Read Later list and I don't even keep up with my tracking list.
Lolz.
Um, Scootaloo: you're wrong. You are TOTALLY huggable.
Dohohoho.
Lots of cuteness in this chapter! Scootaloo munching on flower petals before (or maybe even during) the wedding! Multiple Sweetie Belle hugs! A couple of moments where it's easy to imagine Sweetie Belle's squeaky voice! Sweetie Belle in general!
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Oh yes, I enjoyed writing that one. Don't forget:
And I like writing Sweetie Belle. I had fun writing her here and the next chapter. Not to mention her subtly checking to see if she got a cutie mark in hugging...
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I saw her cutie mark check in the story and liked it, then forgot it by the time I was writing the comment. Then I saw that someone else had written about it, so I worried that it would have been redundant for me to say anything anyway...