I placed the handlebars into the slot on my new scooter and let out a yawn, then I cast my eyes about the room.
Sweetie Belle was in a state of extreme concentration. Three stones were clutched in the green glow of her magic, moving through the air in an intricate dance of Twilight's design.
Apple Bloom was equally enthralled in her most recent alchemy project, a monstrosity of beakers and tubes that gurgled and spit, but if it worked would provide an elixir that could heal small wounds and abrasions. Twilight was watching her experiment attentively.
I looked back at the pile of scooter parts that I was assembling. Attaching a few more parts effortlessly from the pile, I judged it complete. If only it were so easy to do the same with wings.
I turned back to Apple Bloom who was just collecting the final product. Under Twilight's guidance, she placed a few drops on an abrasion she had acquired during their earlier crusading. The substance hissed and the wound vanished.
Twilight beamed and congratulated Apple Bloom, then turned to Sweetie Belle, giving her a few words of encouragement.
She cast her eyes to me and crossed the room to look at the results of my newest project. She examined the modified scooter and made some comments about the improvements that I already knew. I nodded as she moved back to Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle pulled the stones into a pile and passed them over to Twilight's magic. The aura around them turned from green to violet as Twilight placed them into a drawer.
Twilight then told us how pleased she was with our improvements and apologized for having to rush out so quickly after our Twilight time. With that she exited the library.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom soon followed, but I decided to stay a while, giving them an excuse about wanting to look up a new blueprint for my next project.
After the door closed behind them, I was left alone in the library with Spike, just as I had planned.
I cautiously approached Spike and engaged him in some small talk. He seemed a bit suspicious at first, but eventually opened up somewhat. I made up a story about finding a gem on my way to school and asked him if he would like it. The gem vanished down his gullet with a deft swipe of his tongue.
Then I went into stage two. I asked him if he would do me a favor.
He looked right through me with those slitted eyes of his, and sighed. You could almost feel his heart wrench when he thought I was just buttering him up. I mean I was buttering him up, but I do have a lot of respect for Spike and I rapidly tried to explain this to him, but he put up a claw and I went quiet.
He nodded and I took a long breath. I asked if he had a book on wing ailments in the library.
He gazed at me again and his eyes took on a sad cast. He paused for a long moment before retreating into the stacks.
He returned with a large book on pegasus anatomy which he laid out before me. It was opened to a specific page that was bookmarked long ago.
Splayed across those pages was the information that the adults had denied me — the complete description of why I couldn't fly. My eyes focused on one specific line, "Cure: None*."
My heart sank with the knowledge, and I thought of all the time I had tried to fly while they knew it was never going to be. I suddenly noticed something about that line, and my teary eyes leapt to the asterisk.
I turned back to the bibliography. It referred to a book published 700 years ago. I called out to Spike and asked him about it.
He expressed that he didn't think the library would have such an obscure title, but that stranger things could be found at the Books and Branches.
I fiddled with my scooter as the minutes passed. I thought about my future. I saw a dragon return with an old book. He reverently placed it before me and told me to be careful with it.
The book opened to a page tagged with the same bookmark I had seen in the other volume. The illness was described in a similar way, but an involved cure was provided. It also stated that the procedure was ill-advised as it had a 20% fatality rate.
So there was a way to cure my condition. My mind wandered for a while before returning to the bookmark. I flipped it over. On the back side was a lightning bolt. It was the same style of bookmark that I had seen in one of Dash's Daring Do books.
She knew. She knew everything — not just the part where I had a disease with no cure, but also the desperate cure that could give me the sky. She never told me. Tears yielded to anger, and after a single moment of clarity, I galloped out of the library.
I charged through Ponyville. I scanned every cloud I passed as I dodged the ponies on the streets. It was at Sweet Apple Acres that I found her.
She was sleeping serenely on a cloud hovering over one of Applejack's smaller groves of apples.
I glared at her form as I covered the distance between us.
"You knew!" I screamed at her. "You knew and you never told me."
Rainbow Dash launched straight up in a puff of disintegrating cloud then came in for a landing right in front of me.
She looked into my angry eyes and shivered.
"Y-Yes, I knew you were never going to fly," Dash replied. "I thought it best not to crush your hopes."
My anger doubled at the "confession." I couldn't even make a coherent reply. I just glared. After a long thirty seconds my flames went cold and I seethed, "You knew about the cure."
Dash visibly shrank before me. I almost thought she was going to fly away, but she swallowed and returned my gaze. "I never meant for..."
"It is my choice," I interrupted, "and you should have trusted me enough to tell me."
"Yes, but I had good reasons," Dash replied.
I looked into my hero's sad eyes and the dam burst. "You should have told me," I bawled.
Dash placed her wings around me and quietly said, "I just didn't want to lose you."
An eternity passed in her embrace. I calmed down. "You knew what I would decide," I said.
Dash tucked her wings back in and said, "Living is more important than flying, squirt."
I shook my head and she sighed.
We took a slow, silent walk to Carousel Boutique where Twilight and Rarity joined Dash in providing a myriad of reasons why the procedure fell out of practice, and about how a pegasus can live without flying just fine. I listened calmly, but after it all replied that my decision had been made and I was going to do it.
I put down my quill and closed the journal. It is odd the things that are important in what could be your last moments. I looked at the cup of bitter potion with equal portions of longing and loathing. After taking that draught, there would be no going back. My stomach grumbled from the poisonous substances I had already ingested from the earlier doses.
Twilight herself was going to be overseeing the procedure and Dash would be providing the energy template. Every pony but Spike tried to dissuade me over the past two weeks, but I was resolute. I had faith in those ponies. I was going to fly. I drank the potion. Tomorrow I would know.
