"Come on, Scoots, tell us what's wrong," Sweetie Belle plied.
"... I can't fly." Scootaloo finally said, her eyes shut tight in shame.
Apple Bloom grinned. "Is that all? Well, shoot, I can't fly either."
Scootaloo looked up at her friend from her spot on the grass. "Apple Bloom, I'm a pegasus. I'm supposed to fly."
"Is it really that bad?"
"Sweetie Belle, how would you feel if you couldn't do magic?" The unicorn filly's gaze fell to the ground. Maybe Scootaloo hadn't realized that Sweetie had yet to do any functional magic. "And Apple Bloom, how would you feel if you couldn't... uh..." Scootaloo tried, but she was having trouble thinking of something to compare her problem to that Apple Bloom could relate to. "If you couldn't... have a big sister?"
Apple Bloom gasped. "Gosh, that would be just awful! I see what ya mean."
"You do?" Sweetie couldn't see the connection.
"Well yeah. I mean, it's like... uh... it's not important! What's important is that we help our fellow Cutie Mark Crusader learn to fly so she can get her cutie mark for bein' Rainbow Dash's wingpony."
"Omigosh! That would be the second-best cutie mark ever!"
* * * *
"I'm not sure that this is a good idea."
"Don't sweat it, Sweetie Belle. Rainbow Dash taught me all about kite flyin'."
"Scootaloo isn't a kite."
"Not yet," Scootaloo cut in, "but I will be soon." Apple Bloom finished tying up the twine around Scootaloo's body and the pegasus stood up to admire her new fabric wings. "Cool! So what now?"
"You run along behind me until the wind catches you. I'll stay down here with the string to guide you." Scootaloo nodded, and the two got into position on the grass. Sweetie Belle just watched, still unsure that this was a good idea.
"Ready? Go!" Apple Bloom shouted. The two fillies set off running. To Sweetie's surprise, Scootaloo actually managed to get off the ground and into the air. Apple Bloom must be stronger than she thought.
"It's working!" Scootaloo shouted, holding her hooves out as the wind held her aloft. "Higher!" Apple Bloom reeled the string out a little. "Higher!!" Apple Bloom reeled it out some more. "Higher!!!"
"I can't, the string ain't long—uh oh." As soon as she'd opened her mouth, the string flew out and up into the sky. Scootaloo hadn't noticed yet, being too pleased with her increasing height. She wanted to fly as high as Rainbow Dash did... although, the ground was getting a little too far away for her first flight. The winds were also pretty strong up there, too, and she didn't like not being able to direct the kite herself.
Scootaloo called down to Apple Bloom to stop reeling out the string when she noticed the red-maned pony running along below her and Sweetie Belle galloping back toward Ponyville. She also took note that the end of the string wasn't in Apple Bloom's mouth. It took a few seconds for what this meant to sink in.
Scootaloo did the only reasonable thing she could think of: she screamed like the little filly she was, flailing her legs out and buzzing her wings in panic.
It was lucky that Merry May was bucking some clouds close by, otherwise Scootaloo might have ended up flying off into Everfree or even right out of Equestria. Merry muttered something about stupid foals as she deposited Scootaloo back on the ground and flew away. "Well, that didn't go so well."
"Yeah, I think you're right," said Apple Bloom as she untied the kite. "The problem is that the kite isn't controllable enough. Ya gotta use your own wings, Scoots."
"Yeah, I didn't like that the kite was flying me and not the other way around. But I can barely get off the ground by myself." She demonstrated, buzzing her wings like a fly and only managing to hover for a few seconds before crashing to the dirt. "How can I fly with my own wings?"
"Hmm.... Maybe what you need is some more speed."
* * * *
"I don't think that this is a good idea."
"Stop worryin' so much, Sweetie Belle. Pinkie Pie said it was okay to borrow it as long as we bring it back before sundown."
"That's not the part I'm worried about," said Sweetie as she eyed the Party Cannon with concern.
Apple Bloom loaded her pegasus friend into the muzzle of the cannon. Scootaloo looked back at the weapon as it was raised to point up into the sky, commenting, "Awesome! So what do I do?"
"Just spread yer wings, Scoots. I'm sure you'll get enough speed to fly with this. Ready?"
Scootaloo nodded and turned to face the sky, holding her forehooves out in front of her. Just like Rainbow did.
"Three, two, one, fire!" Apple Bloom punched in the button atop the cannon and sent her friend on her way with a blast of confetti, streamers, glitter, balloons, party hats, birthday cake with lit candles, cookies, muffins, party invitations, Gummy, a bowl of punch, forks and drinking straws, a boombox blasting out music, and a pony named Pinkie Pie.
Scootaloo turned her head inside the cloud of party supplies, staring in confusion at the squealing pink mare. "Pinkie Pie?! What're you doing here?"
"Well, you borrowed my party cannon, so obviously you're throwing a party. And no party is complete without Pinkie!" She looked around at the mass of stuff and at the ground below. "What kind of party is this? There's no place to put the cake." She grabbed Gummy and held him to her chest.
Scootaloo began to tumble, wrapping herself up in streamers and accidentally kicking the cake away. She was losing control. "Pinkie! Help!"
"Don't worry, Scootaloo, I got your back!" Pinkie reached out, using Gummy as an extension of her leg, and brought the cake back over to Scootaloo. "Now make a wish!"
It was lucky that Scootaloo's "flight" path lead her directly into a lake, as Sweetie Belle had suggested before they'd begun the experiment. Scootaloo hugged the towel around herself as Sweetie helped Pinkie fish the party supplies out of the water. "Well, that didn't work."
"Yeah, the angle was all wrong. I don't think a cannon is the way to go. The problem is that it's too chaotic. Ya gotta have better form on yer takeoff."
"But how?" Scootaloo asked.
"Hmm.... Maybe what you need is somepony with some real experience with this sorta thang."
* * * *
"I know that this isn't a good idea."
"Your friend Sweetie Belle is right, fillies."
"Come on, Shining, can't you help us out?" Apple Bloom pleaded.
"Yeah, c'mon. You were great at throwing Cadance and she's way heavier than I am."
"Scootaloo! Rarity says it's impolite to say things like that!"
"Why? It's true. Cadance is, like, huge."
Shining Armor glanced around the room and into the hallway beyond to make sure his wife wasn't around to hear that. "I'm sorry, girls, but I can't help you."
"Ya did it before!" And Celestia knows he heard something snarky about it every week from his princess.
"Cadance is an adult," Shining reasoned, partly to himself. "She's already a good flyer. I'm not going to chuck your friend off the Crystal Palace when she can't even get off the ground. Just... no."
"But we came all the way from Ponyville for this. Can't you just give us a hoof, Shining?" Apple Bloom gave him her best pout.
Cadance was sure she heard voices as she passed an intersection. One sounded like Shining, but the others she wasn't familiar with. Did they have guests? She stepped closer quietly.
Shining sighed, placing a hoof against his face. "Alright, we'll do it. But you can't tell anypony about it. And not here, there are too many ponies around to see it. I know of a secluded place nearby, though. I'll meet you at the train station in an hour, okay?" The three fillies nodded excitedly and ran off down the stairs.
Cadance held a hoof to her mouth. Was Shining... no, it couldn't be. He would never...
"By Celestia, why am I doing this? What would Cadance say if she found out? She'd be so dissapointed." He winced as he recalled the verbal storm that had occurred once the Crystal Empire was safe. She'd really let him have it over the whole "you threw me off a tower" thing. He shook his head. "I really am a terrible husband, aren't I?"
She saves his sorry rump from Queen Chrysalis and this is what he does to repay her? Why that miserable little....
Cadance wasn't about to let Shining get away with anything, though. She was the Crystal Princess, dang it, and nopony made a foal out of her. She waited an hour and then followed Shining when he left the palace. She had to stay hidden behind a decorative crystal as they approached the train station. She couldn't hear what was going on and only managed to catch a glimpse of the four ponies as they made their way over a hill and out of sight.
She crept closer, peeking over the hill. There wasn't much around but a few rocks and some crystals sprouting from the ground. She slipped down the slope and behind a stone large enough to hide her, still unable to get a good look at them without being seen. Were those little fillies gathered around him? What was he doing? Did she misjudge him? She could hear Shining start to speak.
"Okay, now spread your wings. Little further. Good. Okay, legs out. Yeah, just like that. Now, don't be scared, but Cadance tells me I'm a little rough. Just try to keep your form and not squirm around too much and you won't get hurt. Probably. Ready?"
Cadance leapt out from behind the rock. "Shining Armor, you sick—"
She stopped dead upon getting a closer look at the group. Shining was up on his back legs and holding an orange pegasus filly above his head, looking terrified at the sight of his wife. The filly in his hooves was wearing a helmet and looked beyond excited. There was a yellowish filly with a big bow in her mane, and she had binoculars even though she was only a few feet away from the others. Then there was this little white unicorn, like a marshmallow topped with purple frosting, sitting on the grass and writing something on parchment.
"Wha... what the heck is going on here?"
"Cadance, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to see this!"
"I still don't know what it is that I'm seeing, Shining."
"Shining Armor said he's gonna help me learn to fly!"
"Yeah! We figured that since he was so good at throwing you, he might be able to throw Scootaloo and help her fly."
"Speak for yourself, Apple Bloom," Sweetie said as the looked over the piece of parchment.
"What're you writin' anyway?" Apple Bloom snatched away the paper, prompting Sweetie Belle to struggle against the Earth pony's hoof to get it back. "... I don't get it. Scootaloo's the one tryin' to fly, not me. So why're you writin' to Applejack sayin' Ah should be wearin' a helmet?"
"C'mon, Shining, throw me! I'm ready!" Scootaloo turned back around to face forward in Shining's hooves. "Radical!" she said, as if it were some code word that would make anything she did better.
"Cadance, please don't be mad at me! They came all the.... Cadance?" The Crystal Princess was nowhere in sight.
Back at the palace, Princess Cadance sat down on her bed and popped open a bottle of cider. This day was going to take some effort to forget about, and she wasn't looking forward to the apology she was going to have to make to Shining.
Author's Note
This began as a ridiculous idea for an ultra-short story for a collection, but it snowballed so much I decided to just make it a whole new story.
Oh, and thanks goes out to Shrinky Frod for pointing out that this story lacked an apology to Shining for the misunderstanding, leading to a little edit to the last line of the story.
