"Sweetie Belle, wait!"
POOF!
Twilight had seen the signs too late. The crooked leylines, the misshapen ectoplasmic glow. She had seen them before, and had experienced it herself when she was young.
What was once a bowl of oatmeal, preparing innocently to be stirred, was now a small scattered pile of confetti.
"Awww..." The forlorn filly hung her head. "I'll never get it right."
Twilight chuckled, nuzzling Sweetie's cheek. "Of course you will. You've only tried it once, after all. Who's to say you won't get it the second time?"
The tiny unicorn smiled a little, looking up at her, receiving a warm smile in return.
"Right, then. Let's get you another spoon to practice with," Twilight said as she made her way over to the silverware drawer.
Just as she was about to lift out a small silver eating utensil, there was a loud crashing sound in the other room.
"Aww, fiddlesticks! Ah just wanted a book!"
Twilight rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Apple Bloom? Are you alright?"
Rustling could be heard in the other room, a sound that Twilight also swiftly recognized. The sound of a ladder and books sliding across each other. "Well, at least ah think ah am..."
Twilight chuckled, "Alright, I'll be right there. Just give me a second." She quickly grabbed a spoon from the drawer and set it on the table in front of Sweetie Belle. "I'll be right back. Keep practicing," she said with a smile before trotting into the other room.
Just around the corner, Twilight found the expected pile of books, and sure as the sun rises, the ladder and a small yellow filly were sticking out of it. The yellow filly, along with her bow, was sporting a rather complimentary red leather cap. On the cover it read A Study On Wild Fruit.
Twilight put a hoof over her mouth to keep from giggling. "Do you need any help?"
"Uh..." Apple Bloom looked around her, her ears slowly drooping. "Will I hafta clean this up?"
"No, it's fine. This happens all the time. Spike and I will take care of it." She reached a hoof out towards Apple Bloom and helped her out. "Now what were you looking for?"
"Well, ah was tryin' ta find a book about that plant over there," she said pointing a hoof towards a brown-green stick in a pot of dirt.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at it. "Wasn't that the flower that I gave you to practice with?"
"It was," Apple Bloom moaned, "until I accidentally pruned it a little too much."
"Aww. Well, that's okay. I have plenty of other plants you can-"
POOF!
"Oh come on!"
Twilight turned to Apple Bloom. "One moment. You can, uh..." She quickly looked around, found a plant on one of the window sills and floated it down, "... you can use this one for now," before swiftly making her way to the kitchen.
On top of the table was a bowl of oatmeal surrounded by confetti. Sweetie Belle was slumped in front of it.
"What happened?"
"I tried to lift the spoon and it turned into this!" She exclaimed, holding her hoofs out towards the steaming food before her.
"It turned into oatmeal?"
"Yeah..." her face fell onto the table with a whump!
"But, that's..." Twilight was stunned. "Wow. That's actually really impressive!"
"It is?"
"It is!" Twilight smiled, trotting over and wrapping her forehoof around Sweetie Belle. "See what your magic can do? All you need to learn to do now is control it!"
"But I wanted the spoon to float!"
"I know, but the fact that it turned into oatmeal means that you have a lot of magical potential! You'll get a hang of it! Don't worry." She nuzzled Sweetie's cheek again, but Sweetie only continued to mope. Twilight thought for a moment. "How about you go help Apple Bloom with her project? I'm sure she'd appreciate it."
Sweetie Belle sighed. "Fine." She hopped down from the stool and into the library where Apple Bloom was mixing two glowing liquids into a bottle. Twilight followed closely behind.
Apple Bloom closed one eye, stuck her tongue out, and slowly tipped the vial in her hooves, leaning back slightly as if it might attack. A single drop fell from the vial into the other, mixing quietly into the liquid below.
Apple Bloom waited, and when nothing happened, wiped invisible sweat off her brow. "Phew!" Looking up and spotting Sweetie Belle, she waved her over. "Hey! Come look what I made!" Sweetie Belle happily made her way over.
Twilight looked around with concern. "Girls. Where's Scootaloo?"
"I'm up here!" A voice squeaked from Twilight's room.
"Alright, I'm coming up!" Checking to make sure there weren't any potential disasters with Applebloom's botany experiment before leaving, Twilight headed up the stairs.
When she entered, she saw a neat arrangement of objects, lined up on the floor, that she quickly identified as a disassembled scooter. Just behind it, Scootaloo was holding up a small metallic ring and brushing it with Twilight's hair brush. Swinging her purplish-pink hair out of her light violet eyes, she continued to work.
Twilight's gaze was locked on the very organized parts. All of them lined up perfectly, the smaller ones fitting together with the larger ones like the pieces of a puzzle. "Scootaloo, you did this?"
The orange pegasus looked left, then right, as if searching for another pony in the room. "Uh, yeah. Who else?" She shrugged, returning to the task at hoof. Small tufts of the brush stuck through the center of the reflective doughnut-shaped part as she pressed the bristles hard into the surface.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing now?"
"Cleaning the bearings," she stated simply. With her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, she aimed the end of the brush directly at the inside edge of the bearing and pressed down. "They get dirt in them a lot, and I don't have any money to buy a new set, so I gotta clean them so they don't break or lock up."
Twilight approached Scootaloo, sat down next to her and watched. "Um, do you need any help?"
"Nah, I just finished," she replied, putting down the freshly cleaned bearing at the end a small row of others of it's kind.
"One, two-... there are eight? Doesn't your scooter only have four wheels?"
"Yeah. You put two bearings in each wheel." Scootaloo raised a hoof to her chin. "The only problem is choosing which bearings to put in which wheels. Like, this one is really sticky." She picked up a bearing from the middle of the row and, holding it between two hoofs, pushed it across the floor. Lifting it still between her hooves, it spun for a few seconds, giving off a small rumbling, before finally stopping. She set it down and picked up another. "And this one spins real well." Doing the same as she did with the first, this bearing hardly made a sound and spun for quite some time before Scootaloo finally put it down mid spin.
Twilight was beginning to regret not studying up on sports equipment. She knew a lot when it came to arcane spells, Equestrian history, neightonian physics, and really everything academic. On this particular subject, though, she was lost. "Uhm... Maybe you can start by putting them in order of the amount of friction?"
"Frikshun?" Scootaloo contorted her face around the word.
"It means 'stickiness'." Twilight almost did the same.
"Oh, okay." The small pegasus returned her attention to the bearings. After a moment, Scootaloo began to shuffle them around.
Pretty soon, all of the bearings were back in their row, only this time in a different order. Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin as she studied them.
Twilight glanced between Scootaloo and the wheels. She had already conceived a simple solution to evenly distribute the friction of the bearings across the four wheels, but instead of speaking up, she simply watched Scootaloo work.
Scootaloo didn't move much beyond a small scratching of her fuzzy chin. Every once in a while she would hum and haw, all the while staring at the small row of circular scooter parts.
"Come on, Scootaloo. You can do it! I know you can." Twilight cheered quietly in her mind. She was practically on the tip of her hooves as she waited eagerly for a solution or idea to come. She had to resist the urge to give any more hints than she already had.
No more than a few seconds later, Scootaloo spoke up. "Okay, I think I know what to do."
Twilight raised an eyebrow, watching as Scootaloo pulled the two outside bearings, the smoothest and the roughest, and placed them next to each other. She then proceeded to do the same with the second smoothest and second roughest, and the third smoothest and third roughest, leaving the middle two bearings right next to each other.
Scootaloo then proceeded to explain her plan. "I wanted to put them in order so that the stickier ones and the smoother ones would be together and sort of even each other out in stickiness. And the ones that are stickier I wanna place on the back wheels because if the front wheels lock up, then that would be bad. So... yeah... That!... I think." And with that, she turned and smiled brightly at Twilight for her approval.
Silence.
Scootaloo's smile turned to confusion. "Uh... Twilight? Are you okay?" She waved a hoof in front of her face to try and get her attention.
"Huh... wah?" Twilight snapped out of her daze. In the middle of Scootaloo's explanation, she had been overcome by an immense feeling of pride and had the sudden urge to hug Scootaloo tightly and tell her how great she was. It was this day-dream that had stunned her that she had to be snapped out of. "Oh! Yeah, that's a great idea Scootaloo! Why don't you go try it out?" She pushed out her best smile.
"Alright!" The orange filly cheered as she ran to put the scooter back together.
Twilight just sat there marveling at her, watching her smile and giggle and stick her tongue out in concentration as she assembled the parts. It was as if some instinct inside her wanted to snuggle the small pegasus with all its might, but Twilight couldn't decide if it was right, or proper for a princess, and so she hesitated... held back.
She hadn't raised Scootaloo, and yet she was so proud of her and who she was growing up to be. Organized, intelligent, eager to solve problems, and excited to put them into practice. Just to see her as happy as she herself was with her own discoveries...
Twilight sighed contently.
"Huh?" Scootaloo looked up from her scooter at Twilight.
Again Twilight had to refocus. "Wha- oh, nothing. I'm just watching." She couldn't hold her smile back.
Scootaloo shrugged and proceeded to finish her work. "Okay then."
Twilight tried to relax and just watch the magical moment in front of her.
"...and that," Twilight said as she closed the book, "is how time travel works."
She glanced up at the clock. "Looks like that's it for tonight, girls."
All three moaned a unison, "Awww..."
"Now now, there will be plenty more time to talk about things tomorrow," Twilight reassured them. "Now, Applejack and Rarity will arrive shortly to take you home. Except for you Scootaloo..." Twilight knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help herself. "I will escort you home personally."
Rarity was normally the one who took Scootaloo home, but tonight, for some reason, Twilight couldn't resist.
"Are you sure, darling?" Rarity and Twilight, with Sweetie and Scootaloo, stood outside the library door in the dark. Applejack had already picked up Apple Bloom and headed home.
"Of course. I just want to spend a bit more time with Scootaloo, if that's okay."
"Oh no, that's fine! It's just," Rarity looked around to see if anypony was listening in before leaning towards Twilight and whispering, "I don't know if you are aware of her family situation."
Twilight glanced at Scootaloo, who was chatting with Sweetie Belle, before turning back to respond. "I am."
"Well, okay then," Rarity smiled and pulled away, "In that case, hope you two make it home safely. Sweetie Belle, we're going now! Say goodnight to Scootaloo!"
"Goodnight, Scootaloo! Goodnight, Twilight!" Sweetie belle said as she trotted off to Rarity's side.
"Night Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo waved.
"Goodnight, Sweetie Belle!" Twilight followed suit.
Twilight and Scootaloo sat and watched the two unicorns trot away for a short moment.
"Are you ready to head home?" Twilight asked.
Scootaloo nodded, "Yeah."
The walk back was silent for the most part. Twilight really wanted to have better questions for Scootaloo, but she already knew most of what Scootaloo had done that day. Rarity would normally have taken the opportunity to ask how things went with Twilight, but with Twilight actually having been there, asking felt awkward.
That did, however, give Twilight a reason to ask the questions she's always wanted to.
"So, Scootaloo, what are your favorite things to do?"
Scootaloo was slowly rolling along on her scooter, obviously not going as fast as she wanted to. "Uh, playing with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, I guess. Oh, and riding my scooter too!"
"What do you like about riding your scooter so much?" Just questions.
"I dunno. It's like, going fast, the wind in my wings. It feels like I'm flying even though I'm not. I can go places, be free, y'know? There was this one time..."
Twilight did her best to listen intently, but she was too distracted by the filly's excitement, her little gestures, the way she would flutter her wings before the suspenseful parts. Everything about Scootaloo was wonderful to Twilight. And so, she walked along, listening, watching, asking questions, and smiling through all of it.
Unfortunately for Twilight, it didn't last very long. They had arrived at a side door on a small two story building. From the design, Twilight guessed it opened to a set of stairs leading to an apartment on the second floor.
"Well, goodnight, Twilight! Thanks for walking me home!" Scootaloo made to open the door and head up.
"Wait!" Twilight bit her tongue, but it was too late. She didn't want their time together to end.
Scootaloo turned around with a worried look. "Did I forget something?"
"You uh... forgot your hug!" Twilight held out a forehoof.
"Okay!" Scootaloo ran back and gave Twilight a quick embrace. Twilight wanted to hold on longer, but she had broken too many rules already.
She let Scootaloo trot back to the door.
"Thanks for everything, Twilight!" Scootaloo called back.
"You're very welcome, Scootaloo. Goodnight!"
And with that, the door shut, and Scootaloo was on her way up to the apartment.
Twilight stood just outside the building, looking up at the windows of the second story. The lights were on, and soon, mumbled voices could be heard from the outside.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. Her breath could be seen in the moonlight. It was getting chilly. Turning around, she began the lonely trot home.
When she arrived, she could hear Spike in the kitchen. Being careful not to make too much noise, she made her way up to her bedroom.
Once inside, she made her way over to her dresser, and opened the top drawer. Moving some clothes and other items out of the way, she pulled out a small browned envelope from the bottom and headed for her bed.
Laying down, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pulling out the letter inside. She unfolded it slowly and carefully, and then began reading.
Ms. Twilight Sparkle,
We are writing to give you some good news. After a short period of searching, we have managed to find a nice home for your daughter, Scootaloo, in the small town of Ponyville. We have spoken with the couple and made sure that they understand the implications of Scootaloo's disability. They appear happy to help her in that regard. If you would like to meet the couple, or wish to know more details regarding them, just contact us and we will arrange things right away. We, however, also understand if you wish not to, and this is fine with us.
We again want to commend you for your bravery during this time. We know that this has been hard for you and understand that, given your circumstance, you made the right choice.
We will be following up on the couple and on Scootaloo on a consistent and continual basis just to ensure that everything is going well. We will inform you of any and all developments that we become aware of.
We wish you well, and hope the best for you in the future.
Sincerely,
Melody Petals
Canterlot Adoption Services
Twilight lay there, staring at the piece of paper floating above her. She didn't put it away. She didn't wipe the tears from her cheeks or ears.
She simply lay there.
"I'm so sorry, Scootaloo," Twilight whimpered. "I'm so sorry..."
