"Are you sure it's going to work?" The question was reverberated by the hard wooden boards of the clubhouse, midday light falling on the three fillies crowded together on the floor, one of each race. The one who had spoken, Sweetie Belle, had a concerned look on her face as she let her eyes drift over the faces of her two friends, Applebloom and Scootaloo. Out of the three, only she was truly nervous. Applebloom was simply skeptical, nodding at Sweetie Belle's complaint, her bow bobbing slightly as she turned her head to listen to Scootaloo's response. The pegasus, on the other hoof, had a wide grin on her face, her small wings held outwards in her excitement.
"Well, duh! Isn't it obvious? I'm a pegasus, so I'm supposed to be high. Applebloom, you help out on the farm with your sister and brother, right?" The pegasus had turned her large eyes from the unicorn to the earth pony, who gave a small nod, her head tilted slightly in confusion as to where her friend's reasoning was going. "Then you've had to have helped to fix stuff! A roof can't be all that different. And Sweetie, you're a unicorn! I'm sure you could fix anything as easy as easy is!" Scootaloo beamed at the other two, her seemingly impeccable logic slowly convincing the others to agree with her, with Applebloom being the first to speak up.
"Well... Ah am kinda good at fixin' things... Maybe we should give it a go!" She grinned, Sweetie Belle giving a slightly worried nod in response. "But... where are we gonna get the stuff? Ah mean, not many ponies sell roof supplies, do they?"
Scootaloo waved a hoof in response. "Nah, don't worry about that! I got us covered." Nopony in the room bothered to ask how, knowing that she would somehow manage to scrape together the supplies they needed for their project. "Now... give me about three days, and I'll have everything for us." The pegasus fluttered her wings, emphasizing her confidence for the upcoming try for their cutie marks. "Meet here tomorrow at the usual time to discuss it further, girls?"
"Yep!" The response was simultaneous, although Sweetie Belle did blink as she remembered something.
"Oh! We were going to try for the painting cutie marks again! I got us the paints, but I couldn't find the blue... or the yellow... or the green..." Her ears fell slightly as she shifted, the other two noticing the paint cans in the corner of the room for the first time that day. "I managed to get a yellow-green, though, and a violet... will that do?"
"It'll do great! Thanks for the reminder, Sweetie." Scootaloo rushed over to the paint cans, poking at it with a hoof before turning to the other two fillies, the smile on her muzzle reflecting her confidence not for the roofing job, but now for their attempt at redecoration. "You two ready?"
"Well that was a total and absolute failure." Scootaloo complained as they returned to the clubhouse. All three were covered in a mismatch of their two paints, reflecting their performance at the task itself. Sweetie Belle trotted in first, the filly opening the door with a garish, yellowish-green hoof, and soon she came back out with a large bucket, leading the way to the nearest water source: the farm.
"Well, Ah'm glad we didn't make it too bad. Ah reckon that it'll be cleaned up by the end of the week." Applebloom had managed to remain somewhat optimistic, mostly due to the fact she had hardly done any of the painting, helping only by holding up the ladders the other two were using.
Scootaloo simply groaned in response, shooting a glare at her friend. "Why did we try this again, exactly? It didn't work the first time, you know."
"'Cuz we were asked, Scootaloo. Well, not asked, but you know what Ah mean." The earth pony shifted uneasily, knowing how much she had pleaded Carrot Top to repaint her house, and only succeeded on the account of a few exaggerations. "Besides, at least we know that these colors don't go together, right?"
"Well... all right, then." Scootaloo mumbled, conceding defeat. After that came a long silence, none of the ponies wanting to speak up after their latest failed attempt, and even after the farm had come into view, the three remained pensive, wanting to get washed up and go their separate ways. Applebloom took the lead, trotting past Sweetie Belle as they reached the farmhouse, moving to the side of the building while the other two waited for her to bring back the hose.
When she had come back, and all had rid themselves of the clashing colors, they laid down in the grass, letting the sun dry them off and return them to their normal, hyperactive state. This state would come soon, Scootaloo finally groaning and rolling onto her back, bored. "This is taking too long. Where can we go to get this finished up?"
"Unless ya'll want to get cleaned up by mah sister, right here's the perfect spot." Applebloom giggled, smirking at her friend's inability to remain still. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, mulled that over in her mind, working through the idea before finally deciding that being outside on the grass was a much better, if much slower, way to dry herself off. She managed to lay there for an entire minute before finally rolling over once more and standing up, frowning at the other two.
"Sorry girls, I'm going to have to go. I can't lay here all day, after all. Don't forget tomorrow!" She stayed to share a wave with the other two, before leaving them and disappearing from view. The other two stayed where they were a while longer, before Sweetie Belle found a reason to leave herself, the yellow filly remaining outside for a few hours. Afterwards, she entered her house for the rest of her day, her mind filled with thoughts of getting her cutie mark.
"That'll never work!" Scootaloo was scrunched up in between Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, her face contorted into an expression of irritated concentration. Her hoof was pointed directly at the crudely done plans that lay before the three. She finally brought her head back up to face the other two. "How're we supposed to fix the roof on a tree? It's all leaves!"
"No, not the library! Ah'm talkin' about that one." Applebloom shoved Scootaloo's hoof aside, pointing at a house a few streets away from the center of their map, where they had decided to put down the library as a point of reference. "Somepony did somethin' to it and now's our chance to prove our stuff and get our cutie marks!" That seemed to appease Scootaloo, who nodded at Applebloom's reasoning, a thoughtful look on the pegasus' face.
"Okay, I get it now... It'll work! I'll check it out after we all head out, so I know what we need. Sweetie Belle?" The unicorn nodded. "I need you to find a way up there."
"Me?!" Sweetie Belle nearly jumped back. "B-but I can hardly even climb! How am I supposed to find a way to a roof?" Her voice had begun to crack, her unease showing quite clearly in both her speech and her eyes.
"Oh, come on, Sweetie Belle! It isn't that hard to get up to a roof. Just find a place that looks like steps." Scootaloo rolled her eyes as she spoke, annoyed at her friend's inexperience. "Tell you what. I'll be with you to check out the damage. I'll help you find the way up, got it?" Sweetie Belle nodded, her eyes still worried, but at least she wasn't vocally complaining. "Applebloom? I need you to find excuses. We won't get our cutie marks if somepony decides to stop us before we start." Applebloom nodded, the information locking itself in her mind. "We all know what we'll be doing?" The other two gave a nod, and Scootaloo smirked. "Then come on, laying around in here won't help us with anything!"
They packed up their stuff, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle parting with Applebloom as they went their separate ways. The trip to their destination would only take a few minutes, the streets clear as usual, with the ponies around sticking to the sides. Every so often one would wave to the fillies, and Sweetie Belle would give an enthusiastic wave in return, the pegasus controlling their transport too concentrated on not crashing to notice.
As they reached the building, both fillies winced. The damage was quite apparent, the thatched roof having crumpled, almost to the point of vanishing from sight completely. After a few moments, however, Scootaloo smirked. "This'll be easy! We just need to push some stuff around, cut off a few things, and put things back on!" The unicorn that had ridden with her, however, was not so certain.
"But... it'd take a whole bunch of ponies to push that back up! How are three fillies gonna fix this?" As they exited, Scootaloo gave a snort in response.
"Leave that to me, Sweetie. You have to take care of getting us up there, is all." With that, the pegasus turned her attention away from Sweetie Belle's concern, focusing instead on the building itself. She moved around considerably, trying to act professionally, and managing to do a halfway convincing job of it. Soon, she had pulled out spare paper and a quill, and had begun taking short notes on it.
Sweetie Belle gulped, turning away from Scootaloo to work on her own task, her mind flitting from concern to concern as she searched. She trotted to the other side of the building to inspect a wall she thought would work, only to find that there was no way up the wall at all. A thorough check revealed the same case on the opposite side of the structure, causing the unicorn sigh, half out of irritation and half out of relief. When she returned and reported to Scootaloo her findings, however, the pegasus had a very different opinion on the matter.
"Awesome! We can use one wall to get up ourselves and the other to get stuff from the roof up and down!" Scootaloo looked up from her notes, grinning at Sweetie Belle. "Great find! Good thing we have you in this group, huh?"
Sweetie Belle shook her head, feeling far from proud of her findings. "But we can't even get up the walls! They're way to high even for one of the adults to get up." Scootaloo chuckled at her complaint, scribbling something down before spitting out the writing instrument and turning once more to Sweetie.
"Just stack some stuff up. There's a wagon attached to my scooter, after all." With that problem solved, Sweetie Belle sighed, and nodded.
"All right then... um, with my part done, can I go now?" She turned her head back to the building. She did not want to be here any longer than she had to. Something felt off about what they were going to do, and she didn't like the feeling. Fortunately for her, the pegasus gave a grunt in return and waved a hoof. With that, Sweetie Belle was off, trotting with a frown back to the Carousel Boutique and leaving Scootaloo to her work.
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Author's Notes
Well, here it is. My first multi-chapter story! With an actual story line! I had quite a bit of fun writing it, aside from a period where I simply could not pick back up on continuing it. However, it's finished, and has been edited by someone besides myself this time. And so, I give a huge thanks to Kuviare, a great friend of mine, for helping to edit this thing.
Scootaloo turned the corner with only slight hesitation, paying hardly any heed to the cargo she was carrying along with her. Behind her, attached to her scooter as always, was the wagon, not filled with her friends as it normally was, but instead with planks of wood and nails, along with other supplies. Most of it was obtained by pleading with her parents, but the rest was gotten on her own accord, the filly digging through the supplies of her home for some of the nails. She had followed her crude diagrams well, and had found pretty much all of what she thought she would need.
None of that was on her mind, however, as she sped towards the Carousel Boutique in order to pick up Sweetie Belle. Hopefully the unicorn's excuse would work this time around, otherwise she wouldn't be able to come and the plan would be ruined. Fortunately, the filly Scootaloo was looking for was just leaving the Boutique, turning and catching sight of her friend. With that, Sweetie waved, beginning to trot towards the scooter, a slightly worried smile plastered on her face.
Scootaloo slid to stop near the filly, grinning over at her. "You ready for this? This'll be the one where we get our cutie marks, I can feel it!" Sweetie gave a weak chuckle with that, nodding.
"Yeah... I guess. Do we really have to go through with this?" Her smile fell, the unicorn scraping a hoof against the ground, emphasizing her lack of enthusiasm.
Scootaloo put a hoof to her face, groaning. She sighed, and looked back to Sweetie Belle. "We've been over this already, Sweetie! Just come on. Everything'll be fine, I promise." The other filly stared at her for a moment before gulping and nodding, moving to the wagon and worming her way into it among the materials.
"Let's go then..." At Sweetie's statement, the pegasus nodded, kicking off and making her way to Sweet Apple Acres for their next pick-up, Applebloom. The ride was a short one, nothing stopping them or slowing them down aside from the turns, with Sweetie grimacing at each one due to the amount of wood that pressed into her side every time. Soon enough, they were past the gate to the farm, zooming past row after row of apple trees, before Scootaloo finally came to a halt at the farmhouse.
After a moment of waiting, Scootaloo sighed, moving off of her scooter and trotting up to the door. The filly rapped on it a few times, waiting rather impatiently for somepony to answer. Finally, Applebloom opened the door, shutting it behind her, an apologetic grin on her face. "Sorry. Applejack wasn't the easiest to get away from."
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "You can say that again. Come on, we should hurry. I wanted to start quite a bit earlier than now." Applebloom nodded, her grin going from apologetic to enthusiastic as she watched the pegasus move back to the scooter, soon following and hopping into the wagon with Sweetie Belle, taking some time to find the room to get in.
"We're ready, Scoots!" Applebloom was grinning quite eagerly, Scootaloo nodding in response as she went over the route to the house they would be fixing. Soon, she had started the scooter's movement once more, and the three were on their way towards their destination and- in their minds, at least- their cutie marks. It took them only a few minutes of travel time to get to the house, Scootaloo stopping and jumping to the side with a flutter of her wings, soon turning around and trotting over to the wagon where the other two fillies were getting out.
Scootaloo began rooting through the wagon, shoving various supplies out of the way until she found what she wanted. She grabbed it in her mouth, and pulled it out to reveal a few sheets of paper, and she plopped them down on the ground, beckoning to her friends to get them sit down with her around it. "All right, here's what I've got. I did some looking at the roof, and I'm pretty sure we can tear out this bit here-" She poked her hoof at one a part of one of the sheets, which showed a small portion of the roof, part of which was circled in red. "- and we should be able to move the other parts of the roof around. Sweetie, you'll be stacking some stuff together against those walls you found so we can get up. Applebloom, I need you to ferry the wood and stuff while I put them where they need to go."
Sweetie gave a sigh of relief, and nodded as she got up. She wouldn't have to climb up there, at least. After shooting the building a worried glance, she turned away to search for what she needed as Scootaloo outlined the reconstruction plans to Applebloom. The unicorn soon passed out of earshot, leaving her with the sound of her own hooves to accompany her. They were lucky, she would notice, as there were no adults in this area of town at the moment. Sweetie gave it a moment's thought before shrugging it off as she found a cardboard box in a nearby alley. She grabbed the object with her hooves and dragged it back to the closest wall, resting it as best she could against it before hopping on top of it, testing to be sure it held her weight. Once she had determined it was safe enough for the others, she got off in search of more items to make steps with.
It took her nearly an hour to get everything where it needed to be, but she had done it. Sweetie sat down, looking with a proud grin at the make-shift staircase she had made for the other two to use to reach the roof. She had even been able to find enough for the other wall, in case something happened and they couldn't reach one of the pathways down. She shoved her worry down, turning away from her achievement to report to Scootaloo that she was done.
"Hey Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle was still grinning as she rushed to her friends, the pegasus she had called perking her ears and moving away from the wagon where she had been pulling out supplies for Applebloom to organize. "I have the steps done for you two. Wanna take a look?"
Scootaloo smiled broadly, her eyes quickly turning towards the building. "Great! Course I wanna check them out. I'm going to be walking on the things, after all." Sweetie nodded, leading the way for the two. After a close inspection, along with a few trips back to the wagon to test the steps in case the added weight of the supplies would be too much. Eventually, the young pegasus nodded. "This'll be great! We'll be able to use these steps for years if we need to!"
Sweetie gave a soft giggle, a grin plastered on her face. "Thanks! So, you and Applebloom will be bringing the stuff over now?" Scootaloo gave a nod in response, having already turned to the wagon. "Should I help with that too?"
"The more of us helping the better. We have the steps set up on both sides, too, so we won't be slowed down by each other." Sweetie gave a nod, moving to follow Scootaloo to the wagon. After a brief chat with Applebloom, Scootaloo moved away and began making the climb to the roof. She disappeared from view for a few moments, before her head popped up from the top of the roof, the small filly surveying the damage from her new vantage point. "Applebloom! You and Sweetie should start bringing stuff up now."
Applebloom nodded. "Sure! Which side?" Scootaloo looked around the roof for a moment, before shrugging with indifference. Applebloom sighed, and began tugging up what supplies she could. Sweetie held her breath for a moment as her steps creaked under the added weight, and released a breath as they held. She then turned back to the wagon, grabbing some of her own to carry over, and laid them down on the ground next to the staircase for Applebloom to get.
After fifteen minutes or so, all the supplies were up, and Applebloom and Scootaloo were awkwardly attempting to use a saw, the snap and crash of some wood, along with the cheer from the two, testified to their success. Eventually, as it was with small fillies, they fell to bickering, with Sweetie watching from below.
"Ah'm tellin' ya, that sides too weak for us to put the wood on." Applebloom brought her hoof down, the wooden framing beneath her bobbing as she did so. Scootaloo snorted, and began bouncing on the portion of the framing, smirking at Applebloom all the while.
"See? It's perfectly safe! Besides, I did all of the looking into this, so I get to be the one who decides where things go." She trotted past Applebloom, who rolled her eyes and moved to another section of the roof which still had the thatching on top, tearing it away to get to the structure beneath. Scootaloo soon came past her, pushing a large stack of wood to the corner of the roof.
The pegasus bit her lip for a moment as the framing groaned, bowing beneath the weight of both filly and wood. This was one of the sections that had collapsed slightly, and it definitely showed it. After a few moments, the wood seemed to stabilize, a faint creaking sound coming from it as Scootaloo turned, and smirked at at Applebloom. "Hah! See? Safe!"
Applebloom turned, about to reply before blinking, her mouth closing for a moment, soon reopening so she could say something else. "Um... Scootaloo? Why are you getting shorter?" That caused the pegasus to look down, both being silent for a moment, before a sharp crack filled the air. Their eyes widened, Applebloom hesitating for a moment before calling out. "Scootaloo!"
She leapt forward to push the pegasus filly away, but was too far away to do any good. The framing beneath the pegasus continued to crack, the split in the wood now obvious. Scootaloo took a single step back before it snapped apart completely, and she fell along with the wood she had along with her.
The filly screamed, her wings flaring out, but due to her young age, she wasn't able to get any lift, She slammed into the ground on her side, pain lancing through her wing and she stared up through the hole that was left. Applebloom's head came into view, frozen in an expression of worry and shock, just as the sharp pain caused the world to go black.
Hey all! Second chapter is finally finished. Sadly, my editor is going through some things, so if it isn't great, blame my inability to self-edit.
Oh, and don't worry! Things aren't all that bad. It'll be explained in the next chapter, but I thought this would be a good cliffhanger for everypony. Besides, something similar happened to Dash (Well, the crash, anyways) in one of the episodes, so I'm still calling Slice of Life on this one.
This has been quite enjoyable to write, despite it's lateness. I hope all of those who said you'd be following it will enjoy this chapter as much as the first.
A subtle beeping came to her ears first, causing the pegasus to groan and shift onto her side. That was a mistake, as a spike of pain forced itself through her body, and she squeaked, turning over onto her back once more. Her eyes finally opened, and she took a moment to take in her surroundings. She was in a hospital room, nestled underneath the white sheets of the bed that was pushed up against one wall. A small IV cable was attached to her hoof, and a nearby machine continued its beeping as she continued to examine the room.
After learning what her surroundings were like, Scootaloo pushed off the sheets from over her, letting her wings unfold, discovering quickly that only one of them would do so, the other refusing with a stab of pain. She winced, turning her head to look at it, her ears drooping at what she saw. Her wing was bundled up in a cast, twitching slightly as she tried once more to move it.
Even more so than before, she was bound to the ground. She groaned, pushing her face into her hooves. That roof thing was a stupid idea. She shook her head, bringing it back up and laying it on the pillow, her mouth turned down in thought. Stupid fall. Bet I didn't even get a cutie mark from all of that. Even if I did, it'd probably be something stupid, like being stuck to the ground for life.
She sighed, curiosity getting the better of her as she lifted her head and shifted to look at her flank. It was still as bare as ever. "Course not." She groaned again, flopping back into her previous position. She laid like that for quite a while, before vocally summing up her thoughts. "This really sucks."
Time passed, as it always did, and the pegasus found herself bored, with absolutely nothing to do, until at last a nurse came in to check up on her. Scootaloo gave a sigh of relief, looking at the nurse with a somewhat concerned look. "Um... hey there. Will my wing be all right?" The nurse gave her a glance, before looking down at the clipboard held aloft in one of her hooves.
"It'll be fine. You dislocated it when you fell. You'll be back up on your hooves in a few days or so." Scootaloo groaned at that, the nurse ignoring the filly and continuing on her check-up on the machines.
"A few days? It might as well be forever!" She stared up at the ceiling, noting absently that there was a fan up there. "Isn't there anything to do in here?"
"Rest, and there's some books that come around." Scootaloo shot a glare at the nurse, before sighing.
Better than nothing, I guess. "Sure, I guess. Go ahead and bring me one." She waved a hoof at the nurse, who in return rolled her eyes and trotted out of the room, her check-up done. A few minutes later, she re-entered with a trolley in tow, two rows of books stacked neatly on both of its shelves.
"Here, pick one," the nurse called, prompting Scootaloo to point at one at random, which the nurse pulled out for her. She placed it on the bed, before turning and leaving. "Enjoy." Scootaloo watched the nurse leave, before turning to the book at her hooves. She had nothing better to do, so with a sigh, she opened it and began to read.
Several hours passed, Scootaloo staring into space with the book laid to one side. A chapter into the book, and it was already some stupid, gushy love novel, the mere remembrance of which caused the filly to gag and shiver before pushing the book away. As an added measure of caution she turned onto her side, thankfully the one with the good wing. She didn't need pain to go along with a bad book.
About that time, the door to the room opened, revealing another nurse's head. "Scootaloo, right? Some of your friends are here to visit." Scootaloo smiled for perhaps the first time since waking up in the hospital, pushing herself up with her hooves somewhat to get a better angle of the door.
"It's about time they showed up!" She kept her grin as she looked to the doorway, and after a moment two other fillies entered, the familiar pair giving slightly nervous smiles back at Scootaloo. "Hey! With you two here, maybe I can finally not be bored! All I've had for company is this lame book." She didn't turn to look at the dreadful thing, sticking a hoof over her back instead to show its placement.
That got a giggle from Sweetie Belle, who trotted quickly to the bedside, Scootaloo following her with her gaze. Applebloom, however, took on a more nervous cast. "Ah'm uh... how are ya feelin', Scootaloo?" She scraped her hoof on the ground, worried thoughts going through her head. "Ah mean... after Ah made ya do what you did..."
Scootaloo sighed, glancing at Applebloom. "Don't worry about it. It just means I'll be bored for a few days." She shivered, not looking forward to the long days ahead of her. "Besides, you didn't do anything. I was the stupid one. Didn't even get a cutie mark after all of that."
"Neither did we. Not that I wanted a cutie mark that was about watching ponies fall off of roofs." Sweetie Belle looked to the book, her eyes going wide as she took it in her hooves. "Why were you reading this, Scootaloo?"
"Something I picked out at random. I don't care if you read it or not. Just not in front of me." She made a gagging face at the two of them, getting another giggle from Sweetie and a smirk from Applebloom.
"Ya'll seem to be in good spirits, what with hurtin' your wing and all." Applebloom had lost the look of nervousness from her face, and moved over to join Sweetie Belle at the edge of the bed, who had already begun reading the novel their pegasus friend had cast aside.
"I'm bored. What do you want me to do, lay here and say nothing?" She rolled her eyes at Applebloom. "I'm gonna be bored enough as it is without something to do while you two are here."
"What if ya did somethin' while we're gone?" Applebloom scrunched up her muzzle in thought, before Sweetie Belle began to speak up.
"Oh! Oh! You could try to get your planning cutie mark! Me and Bloom could bring you paper, and you put down plans on how to get our cutie marks!" Scootaloo stared at the unicorn for a moment, processing that, before brightening considerably and grinning.
"Why didn't I think of that? Sweetie, you're a genius! Quick, get me some paper so I can do stuff while I'm here!" Applebloom gave a nod, before rushing out of the room. Sweetie had a smug look on her face, hopping around in excitement about the fact her idea had been accepted. After about fifteen minutes, Applebloom came back with a stack of paper on her back, along with a small pack of pencils.
"Here ya are, Scoots! The perfect supplies for a plannin' cutie mark!" She grinned as she trotted up to Scootaloo, leaning her head back to grab the supplies and place them on the bed. "Ah bet next time we see ya, you'll have a brand new cutie mark on your flank!"
"Of course! And with all the ideas I'll come up with, you two will get yours in no time at all afterwards!" The others laughed, clinking their hooves together as Scootaloo smirked down at them. They left soon afterwards, but not before nearly breaking the machines near Scootaloo's bed in curiosity. Scootaloo was once again alone, but far less bored than before.
Even though the days passed, and none of them had their cutie marks to prove their ordeal, the three continued on with the plans Scootaloo drew up, persevering even through the worst of their adventures together.
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Author's Notes
Finally, it is finished! This chapter took far too long to write, and probably isn't the best of the three. Partially that's due to me simply being terrible at hospital scenes, and another part is that I've been distracted by a new game that I got and am currently enjoying to death.
But thank you, to all of those that read this! This is by far not going to be my last fic, and definitely wasn't meant to be the feature presentation. But after this, along with A Day on the Farm and my other, less successful fic, I've come to really enjoy writing these kinds of simple, SoL stories. Expect more in the future, hopefully!
As for my next fic, it'll be quite a bit larger than this short little thing, and while keeping in line with the whole Slice of Life thing, it'll also contain another element, somewhat larger than my experiments with writing down thought in this chapter. Hope to have you all reading then!
