Bad News
The parkland outside Ponyville was great this time of year. Sunny, bright and filled with the fluttering of birds and butterflies.
Derpy almost forgot about her injured hoof as she joined them in their fluttering. She never liked to take days off, but her boss had pretty much forced her too, arguing that in this state she’d probably crash into every mailbox in Ponyville.
“Hey Derpy!” a scarily positive voice called out, causing the mailmare to crash face-first into a tree.
“Are you alright?” the voice persisted.
“Yeah”, Derpy replied unenthusiastically, before finally managing to pull her head out of the tree trunk.
Suddenly, Derpy realised who it was, and her voice audibly brightened up.
“Hi Pinkie Pie!”
“Hellooooooooo!” Pinkie replied as she leaned towards Derpy for no good reason, before suddenly jolting back.
Like everyone in Ponyville, Derpy knew not to question it.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I just came to check on my muffintastical friend! How’s your hoof?”
“It was getting better until I crashed into that tree”, Derpy chuckled.
“Oh yeah,” Pinkie replied, “sorry about that.”
“It’s alright, I do it all the time.”
“OH OH! Now I remember why I was here!”
“But I thought you - ”
Don’t question it¸ Derpy subconsciously told herself.
“I came to bring you some free and delicious muffins!”
Pinkie handed Derpy a huge box full of the baked treats, which she seemed to pull out of thin air, and Derpy’s face lit up with joy.
“THANKYOU!” Derpy squeaked as she tackle-hugged Pinkie, still holding the muffins. “Ow!” she added as the two of them landed on her hoof.
“Anything for such a loyal and well mannered customer!” Pinkie smiled, before turning to the 4th wall and saying “Muffins! Get your Muffins! Buy a million and get ten free!”
Derpy was too busy gulping down her muffins to notice reality being distorted behind her.
-☁-
A few minutes later, Derpy decided to lie down. She wasn’t feeling too good. Perhaps she ate the muffins a tad too quickly.
“I can bring you some mint-tastic treats to help?” Pinkie Pie offered. Although she was acting bright and happy on the outside, she was a little guilty about bringing such discomfort to a friend.
“No - I’ll be fine” Derpy replied, before covering her mouth with one of her front hooves, her face turning green for a split second.
“Well, um, I might stay here, just in case” Pinkie told her friend.
“Alright.”
Suddenly, Derpy’s ears perked up - she thought she heard something in the distance.
“Oh hey butterfly, I’m Pinkie Pie, would you like to - mmm!”
Derpy quickly covered Pinkie’s mouth.
“Shh, did you hear that?”
“I heard a very lonely butterfly!” Pinkie objected.
“No, that!” Derpy whispered.
The sound repeated itself right on cue, it was a bit like another pony.
“OHHH, that’s just a filly crying with despair,” Pinkie casually explained, before gasping, “A FILLY CRYING WITH DESPAIR! TO THE PINK-MOBILE!”
Derpy rolled her eyes, out of sync with each other, and chased after Pinkie Pie, who was making engine noises as she charged onto the scene.
-☁-
Pinkie skidded to a halt, Derpy just managing to skid to a halt before ploughing into the pink pony’s flank. That would’ve been bad.
“Scootaloo?” Pinkie asked as she saw the young Pegasus sitting by a park bench, with her head buried in her hooves.
“Go away.” Scootaloo whimpered quietly. “I didn’t want anypony to see me like this!”
“We won’t tell anypony else, Pinkie promise”, Pinkie Pie assured her.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a muffin in my eye”, Derpy added.
“Now, what happened?”
Scootaloo sighed, she guessed things couldn’t get any worse.
“Well,” she began, “I found out today that I won’t be able to fly. Ever.”
“And?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“And what? Isn’t that bad enough! I’ll never be able to live my dreams, I’ll never be able to be cool - and Rainbow Dash will never want me a sister.”
Scootaloo stamped one of her hooves into the dirt to emphasise the point.
“Don’t say that,” Derpy said gently, “Rainbow Dash admires you, there’s no way she’d leave you, especially not over something you can’t help.”
“But she’s so cool, and I’m so - not cool.”
“There’s plenty of ways to be cool without flying” assured Derpy.
“Yeah, like opening the fridge door for too long, turning the air conditioner on, climbing the Crystal Mountains -” Pinkie began.
Scootaloo giggled as Derpy placed a hoof over Pinkie’s face again, before quickly switching back to a frown.
“What about Rainbow Dash though? She’s tried so hard to teach me how to fly, and now it’s all for nothing.”
“She only did that to make you happy,” Derpy assured the young filly, “she cares about you because you’re kind and smart and friendly, not because of how well you can fly.”
“You’re just saying that!” Scootaloo accused, before staring at the ground again.
“Actually, it’s true,” Derpy giggled, “Rainbow Dash spends about twenty percent more time talking about you each weather meeting than, well, the weather! Every time you and your friends help somepony out or learn something new, Rainbow Dash makes sure every Pegasus in town knows about it!”
“R - really?” Scootaloo asked, her expression changing from a miserable frown to a surprised squint.
“Yeah! We would get tired of it but anything’s better than hearing about the weather!”
“Pfft, yeah, weather is booooring!” Pinkie Pie added. “Except for chocolate rain!”
“That’s - really cool!” Scootaloo exclaimed, expression changing again from a squint to a beaming smile!
“But… I’m still not cool” she sulked, staring at the ground once more.
“Think about it this way,” Derpy said. “It’s pretty cool staring menacingly isn’t it?”
“Well yeah, but I don’t get what that has to -”
“SHH!” Pinkie demanded, “she’s expositioning!”
Derpy continued. “My eyes though, they never stare in the same direction when I want them to. So I can never stare menacingly at a bad guy. Am I still cool?”
“Well duh, of course you’re cool!” Scootaloo replied, “everypony in town loves you! You’re so fun and silly!”
“Exactly! And just like I don’t have to give menacing stares to be cool - you don’t have to fly to be cool. You’re cool just the way you are, by being Scootaloo!”
“I… guess that makes sense” Scootaloo thought out loud.
“Plus you do those super-duper scooter flips outside Sugarcube corner, I think that’s pretty awesome”, Pinkie Pie added.
“Yeah, that is pretty cool!” Scootaloo said proudly.
“Cool!” Derpy replied with a giggle. “So, are you going to be alright now?”
“I think so” Scootaloo answered, with a slight smile. “Thanks”, she added.
“Alright then - you’d better get home before Rainbow Dash starts worrying.”
Scootaloo didn’t think twice before jumping on her scooter and zooming off into the distance, leaving a trail of dust and dazed butterflies behind her.
“She goes pretty fast, huh?” Pinkie Pie commented.
Derpy just held her stomach and groaned. Emotional conversations were not good for sore tummies.
-☁-
Scootaloo hopped off her scooter and looked up at the cloudy house above her, completely bright and fluffy, not at all reflective of her day thus far. She gulped nervously and called out.
“RAINBOW DASH? ARE YOU HOME?”
“SCOOTALOO!” came the overjoyed reply, as Rainbow jumped through one of her house’s walls and soared down to pick up Scootaloo in a massive bear hug. “I was so worried! Are you alright little buddy?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just, uh…”
“Just what?” Rainbow asked, placing her adopted sister gently on the grassy ground.
“I - found something out today. And I was scared that you’d think I - I wasn’t cool anymore.”
“Why would I ever think that?”
“Well… uh…”
Scootaloo sighed. She thought she was ready for this now, apparently not.
“A doctor visited the school, for a check-up with all the students, and, well… they found out I can’t fly. Like… ever.”
Scootaloo stared at the ground beneath her and tried her absolute hardest not to cry as she waited for a response. What she got was another hug.
“Is that all?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Y-you’re not disappointed? You don’t think I’m not cool anymore?”
“Are you crazy?” she laughed, giving the filly an affectionate noogie. “You are the coolest, most awesome, most radical pony I know! Whether you can fly or not!”
“Thanks awesome sister!” Scootaloo squeaked, ducking out of the hug.
“You’re still in trouble for running off though,” Rainbow added, half-jokingly, “you’re gonna be eating every piece of broccoli on your plate tonight.”
“Every piece?” Scootaloo gasped in shock.
“Every… single… one!” Rainbow threatened, waving her hooves in a ‘spooky’ pose.
The two ponies giggled hysterically, too busy laughing to notice a pink Earth Pony and a grey Pegasus trotting past behind them.