Spellbound Fireflies (10 page)

The image of Twilight and Rainbow Dash sharing a kiss in the park leapt to her thoughts.  Inspiration struck; both of them were not only ponies she could confide in, but they were both
together
.  It hadn’t really connected with her what that meant until she saw that kiss, but Scootaloo knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her coach and her tutor knew what it meant to like another filly.  They knew what it meant to be in love.

Cheerilee called the class to attention and gathered up their finished work.  A collective murmur filled the room as the foals all switched over to the next activity.  Scootaloo grinned in contentment, and she started planning just how to talk to Rainbow and Twilight about all this when she next saw them for flight training.

“Okay class, that’s it for today, have a wonderful afternoon!”  Cheerilee began packing away her desk to the scuffing of chairs.  Scootaloo left in a haze of determination, cutting resolutely through the crowd towards her scooter.  She crouched low at the front wheel, checking the axle that had given her a little trouble in the morning.  The soft sound of someone clearing their throat drew her attention.

Sweetie Belle pawed her hooves at the ground, a hopeful smile colored with apprehension on her lips.  Scootaloo stood up a little too fast and knocked her scooter over.  “Hi Sweetie Belle!  What’s up?”  Was her voice always that high-pitched?

“Can I talk to you for a minute, Scoots?”  Scootaloo willed the heat rushing to her face away and nodded.  Sweetie stepped closer, her mouth falling to a frown.  “…I’m kinda worried about things…”

She quirked an eyebrow.  “What things?”

The unicorn sighed and looked out over the playground.  Apple Bloom and Rumble trotted slowly through the yard together, oblivious to those around them as they left towards Sweet Apple Acres.  “We’re drifting, Scoots.  The three of us.”

Scootaloo silently regarded their third, slowly trotting away with her coltfriend, and felt a wave of melancholy nostalgia.  She sighed sadly, turning back to Sweetie Belle, listening closely.

“Apple Bloom’s off with Rumble all the time and you’re so busy…The last time I got to see ya was when we took that ride and talked…”  Sweetie looked down, her eyes remote and mouth quivering.  “I know it’s just that you’ve been really busy training with Rainbow and getting tutoring from Twilight, but I miss you, Scoots.  I miss hangin’ out with you and Apple Bloom and going crusading…”  She looked to her own bare flank and back to Scootaloo.  “Is this what’s gonna happen?  Are we just gonna drift apart and stop being friends?”

Scootaloo’s throat bobbed as she tried to piece the words together in her mind.  “…No.  No, ‘cause I don’t wanna stop being friends with you girls, either.”  She wrapped her hooves around Sweetie Belle’s neck, pulling her into a hug.  She felt her cheeks burn under her coat, but pushed it away, needing to convey how much she wanted, how much she
needed
to be there for the other filly.  “I’m sorry I haven’t really been around.  If I’m not runnin’ myself ragged with Rainbow Dash, I’m at the library with Twilight, or at home doin’ all the chores I’m s’posed to do.  I’m tired and lonely, and I miss you, too.  I wish there was somethin’ I could do to have more time, but…”

Scootaloo’s ability to form cognizant sentences, or even whole syllables, took a nose-dive when Sweetie Belle returned the hug, delicate hooves circling her middle and resting gently on her back just above her wings.  A toneless buzzing entered her thoughts, warm and comforting, threatening to reduce her to stammering sputters.  She shut her eyes tight, wishing desperately to have an answer, something to make Sweetie Belle smile at her.

Her eyes snapped open and she grinned broadly, pulling away from the hug to catch Sweetie’s gaze.  A flash of a frown creased the unicorn’s muzzle before her expression evened out into curious neutrality.  Scootaloo’s grin widened.  “What if I ask Twilight if she can tutor you in magic?  You said Rarity and your parents don’t really have time, right?”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened.  “Y-yeah, I mean, they’ve all shown me a little, but…”

“A lot of my tutoring is just reading practice and fillin’ out homework stuff; Twilight could totally tutor both of us at the same time!  We’d get to hang out way more often that way!”  Sweetie Belle’s face brightened.  “I’ll ask her today, alright?  I’m sure she’ll say yes; Twilight’s totally awesome.”

“Th-That’d be great, Scoots,” Sweetie stammered, a blossom of pink on her cheeks.  “I-I’d love it if you did that.”  The pegasus scratched the back of her neck, sure her face was matching her friend’s in rosiness.  “…I do miss Apple Bloom, too.”

Scootaloo’s smile fell a little as she turned to survey the empty schoolyard.  “…Yeah, I do, too.  It
has
only been two weeks since she an’ Rumble started going on dates, though.”  She flashed a confident smirk at Sweetie Belle.  “Give her a little time.  She’ll come around again; things are probably just new and exciting for her.”

Sweetie nodded gently, looking at the ground.  “I hope you’re right.  Thanks, Scoots.”  She pulled her friend into another hug, whispering, “Thanks for listening to me.”

“N-no sweat,” she muttered, trying to hide the waver in her voice, “You’ve been there to listen to me; least I could do is be there for you.”

The pleased smile on Sweetie’s face drove warmth to the tips of Scootaloo’s hooves.  Sweetie Belle chimed, “I’ll see ya tomorrow then, Scoots,” and trotted out of the yard.  Scootaloo watched her go, swallowing to clear the dryness from her throat.  She shook her head, double-checked the front wheel on her scooter, and headed out towards the park.  Her thoughts, filled with images of her crush, drifted towards the conversation she was about to have.  Her smile gradually fell, replaced by a wobbly frown, as she entered the park’s path and spotted Rainbow and Twilight talking together.  Scootaloo stopped in front of the pair, a nervousness keeping her eyes from meeting either of them.  She propped her scooter next to the bench and smiled tentatively.

Rainbow winked at her marefriend before grinning at the filly.  “Alright, Squirt, today’s the big day.”

“Huh?”  Scootaloo’s wings fidgeted; did Rainbow Dash somehow know she needed to talk to them?

“Time for a speed test!”  She flipped her mane out of her eyes with a hoof, smirking at Scootaloo.  “Dependin’ on how ya do, we might be ready for long distance hovering.  Ready?”

“Heck yeah!”  Apprehension shoved to the back of her mind, Scootaloo leapt towards their patch of grass, but skidded to a stop.  She turned back to Twilight, a sheepish grin on her muzzle.  “Almost forgot, can I ask a favor, Twilight?”

Quirking a brow, Twilight said, “Sure, Scootaloo.  What is it?”

“See, Sweetie Belle’s been telling me that she’s not getting a lot of magic training, ‘cause her parents and her sister are always so busy.  I was thinkin’ that maybe while you’re tutoring me you could tutor her in magic?”

Twilight rubbed her chin as she sat at the bench and took off her saddlebag.  “…Hmm…It shouldn’t be too difficult to make time for that during your lessons.  I’d hate to think Sweetie Belle is missing out on developing her magic.  I’ll need to ask permission first, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Scootaloo fought to keep the squeal of excitement out of her voice.  “Thanks, Twilight!”  She turned and hurried to the training grounds and started running through a set of wing-jacks to warm up her muscles.  Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a lingering nuzzle in passing, dropping her face into the mare’s saddlebag and removing the stop-watch.  She smirked at Twilight around the watch before turning and trotting up to the filly.

“Alright, we’re aiming for eighty or more wing-ups in a minute.”  Scootaloo dropped to the sod and spread her wings, taking a deep breath.  “Ready?  Set?”  Rainbow’s hoof snapped down on the timer’s button.  “Go!”

Scootaloo thundered through the exercises.  Wings pumping, dropping and lifting her small frame from the ground at a fevered pitch, she pushed herself to her comfortable limits and past them.  Rainbow Dash grinned at her with glowing pride, her eyes jumping back and forth from the timer to her bobbing form.  “That was fifty, Scoots!  Twenty-five more seconds, keep goin’!”

Twilight’s voice, much closer than she was expecting, chimed in alongside Rainbow’s.  “You can do it, Scootaloo!  Twenty-five more!”

Scootaloo grinned through the sweat pouring off her face, pushing through the tremors in her wings, willing herself to not falter.

“Ten seconds!” Rainbow cheered.

“Only a few more to eighty!  You can make it!”

Wings and sides burning, the filly grit her teeth and grunted to pull herself up.  Tremors raced down her wings and across her back.  With each successful rep being completed slower than the one before, her nerve began to waver, sure that with the next descent her weary limbs would give out and she’d thump to the grass.  Holding herself up on wavering wings with only seconds remaining, she groaned out, “Can’t…”

Rainbow and Twilight’s voices melded together, a bright battle cry of, “Yes you can!” echoing through the park.  Scootaloo closed her eyes, letting the words bounce through her head, and conjured the dark yellow gaze of the colt to her mind.  She dropped low and pushed up again.

“Time!” Rainbow cheered, snapping the stopwatch off.

Scootaloo fell muzzle-first to the grass and released a slow whine.  “…How many was that?”

Smirking at Twilight, Rainbow dropped her tone to reserved.  “Well, it wasn’t eighty.”

Scootaloo weakly struck the ground with a hoof.  “Dang it…”  She released a breathless whinny in frustration.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash grinned at each other, exclaiming in unison, “It was eighty-four!”

Snapping her eyes open wide and leaping to her hooves, Scootaloo flashed them both a huge smile.  “I did it?  I did it!”  The mares both smiled fondly, watching the filly prance in place.  “This is awesome!  So I get to do hovering stuff now?”

“Yep!”  Rainbow Dash grinned at the filly, handing the timer over to Twilight.  “Eighty-four in a minute should be strong enough to get ya hovering a bit.  You’re not gonna be able to get any lift, but you’ll be up off the ground for a good amount of time.”

Scootaloo squeaked with joy, bouncing on her hooves.  “Can we do it now?!  How do we do it now?!”

Chuckling, Rainbow Dash nodded gently.  “I think we can manage a quick one now, but we’re gonna need to start goin’ through wing motions before we do a real one.”

“Alright!  So whadda we do?”  She grinned brightly, leaning towards Rainbow with her wings splayed and fidgeting.

Rainbow leaned back and shared a conspiratorial glance with Twilight.  “Well, Scoots…Flap!” she shouted, lunging forward and sweeping her forelegs under Scootaloo’s belly.  Scooping the filly up in her grip, she swung around in a circle and tossed her high into the air.  Scootaloo yelped, rapidly beating her wings as her legs kicked haphazardly to find purchase.  She slowly opened her tightly-scrunched eyes and looked down.  The park darted left and right, back and forth, and spun underneath her as she inexpertly jerked through the air, but she wasn’t falling.  Rainbow Dash, hovering a foot off the ground, stayed directly beneath her with hooves outstretched to catch her.

A gigantic, foolish grin on her face, Scootaloo worked her wings with all she had and watched herself slowly sink back towards the ground inch by inch.  No idea what to do with her wings exactly, she sputtered violently side to side, but Rainbow’s careful adjustments and smiling face put her entirely at ease.  A few minutes into her giggling descent, she veered too sharply to remain upright and spun out, tumbling downwards.  In a flash, Rainbow caught her and set her back on her hooves next to Twilight.

“Oh my gosh,” Scootaloo panted, “That was
so awesome!
”  Rainbow and Twilight exchanged happy smiles, beaming with pride at the filly.  “Can I do that again?”

“Let’s get ya started on wing positions first, that way ya don’t go spinnin’ out next time.”

Twilight turned and trotted back towards the bench.  On her way, she said, “You looked great up there, Scootaloo.”  The filly grinned at her before shifting her attention to Rainbow Dash.

“Alright, so ya got a couple of wing positions that are really important…”  Scootaloo followed along with Rainbow, matching her wings to the daredevil’s examples and cycling through them to get used to how they felt.  Rainbow corrected her at times with a gentle hoof, guiding her little limbs into the proper placement.

For half of an hour, they ran through wing placement, going for accuracy and then speed.  After a short break, the mare led Scootaloo through a strength training regimen.  At random points during reps, she’d call out a specific placement for controlling direction, catching updrafts, changing speed, and altering pitch.  Scootaloo leapt up mid-rep and snapped her wings into position.  Rainbow corrected any mistakes before they resumed muscle-building, burning through their workout time.

“Alright, time for stretches.  You did really awesome today, Scoots.  We’ll get you
really
hovering soon and then we’re in the home stretch.”  Twilight cantered up to meet them as Scootaloo started stretching.  “Hey Twi’.  Good show as always?”

“Obviously.”

As the mares chuckled, nervousness stole back over the filly.  Scootaloo hesitated, going over this plan she’d made in her head.  She realized all she had actually decided on was talking to them.  Feeling wholly unprepared, she decided it was probably best to back out and ask another time.  She finished her stretches and glanced up with words of parting on her lips until she caught the look the two were exchanging.  Warm and gentle affection radiated from both ponies, an all-encompassing contentment filling their eyes and brightening their smiles.  Scootaloo changed her mind and decided to dive in.

“Hey…Rainbow?  Twilight?”

Turning, Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.  “Yeah, squirt?”

Picking over her words fumblingly, Scootaloo struggled out, “I was wondering…if I could talk to you about something.  Both of you.”