Chicken Sees, Chicken Does
Scootaloo was still feeling tired as she drove though the streets of Ponyville. She was not used to getting up so early, especially not on a Saturday, but the Ponyville Express was due to be delivered before sunrise and delivering papers was the easiest way to earn some extra bits. Her last bits were spent to pay for the damages after that scooter accident three days ago (which totally wasn’t her fault, everypony should know this was her racetrack and that they should not park a cart with valuable items next to it right where she wanted to cut a corner) and she could not wait for new pocket money next month. She needed to buy something now, something important not only for her, but also for somepony close to her. Next month might be to late. At last the paper delivering didn’t take to long. She was fast on her scooter and Ponyville quite small, she could still get a few hours of sleep before meeting the rest of the Crusaders.
As it was a warm day in early fall, none of here friends were inside the club house when Scootaloo arrived. Sweetie Belle was swinging on a rope swing under it and Apple Bloom was leaning against a tree, a half eaten apple in her mouth. “Hi, Scoots,” she mumbled, the apple still between her teeth. “You’re late.”
“Sorry girls,” Scootaloo replied. “Had to take a little detour on the way here for some shopping.” She leaned her scooter against the tree, took of her helmet and sat down next to Apple Bloom. Then she reached into the little basked she had fixed at the handlebars of her scooter.
“What you got there?” asked Sweetie Belle, slowing down her swing.
“A pack of cigarettes,” replied Scootaloo. “Lucky Strike Red, to be exact.”
“What?!” gasped Apple Bloom, spitting out her apple. “Since when do you smoke?”
“Since just about soon.” Scootaloo opened the pack slowly.
“Don’t you remember what Miss Cheerilee said about them? How dangerous they are?” asked Sweetie Bell.
“Sure,” answered Scootaloo. “But Rainbow Dash smokes them, too. So she thinks they are cool. And you know, I want to be as cool as her.” Scootaloo took one of the cigarettes in her mouth and a match in her right wing.
“Rainbow Dash smokes?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah,” confirmed Scootaloo. “She tries to hide it from me, but she’s not very good at that.” She lit up her match, held the flame against the tip of her cigarette and dragged at it. “Cough, cough, cough! Erg! Well, good thing I tried this before showing it off to Rainbow. Seems like I still have to get used to it.”
“You better not get used to it at all,” complained Apple Bloom. “There’s nothing cool about those things, they are smelly, they are expensive, they slow you down and then kill you! And without those stupid cigarettes, I would still have parents!”
Scootaloo took another drag from her cigarette and coughed again, but not as bad as the first time. “I’m not your parents. I’m strong. I’m tough. I can take that. And I’ll quit before they’ll do to much damage.”
“Don’t be stupid, Scoots,” said Sweetie Belle “You think Apple Blooms parents weren’t strong and tough? And once you do this regularly, you’ll get addicted and have a hard time quitting again.”
As Scootaloo drew at her cigarette again she was finally able to keep the smoke in her lungs and not cough it out again immediately. “Pah, I can do that. And as long as I won’t smoke indoors with you, why do you complain? So let me just finish this cig, then I’ll go over to Dashie. She always has a smoke before her morning exercises and today I’ll join her.” She took another draw from her cigarette and blew the smoke away from Apple Bloom.
“Well, if we can’t stop you, it’s just, I don’t think RD will be to impressed from that,” warned Sweetie Bell.
As expected, Rainbow Dash was sitting in front of the entrance of her could house, a cigarette in her right wing. When she saw Scootaloo approaching, she quickly tried to hide it behind her back. “Hi, Squirt, not with your Crusader friends today?”
“No,” replied Scootaloo. “I wanted to show you something.” She quickly lit up a cigarette and took a deep drag from it.
“Scootaloo! What in Tartarus are you doing there?” screamed Rainbow Dash, as she took off from her could home and flew down towards to her protégé.
“Smoking, just like you,” answered Scootaloo, pointing at Rainbow’s cigarette, as she took another drag from hers. “Being as cool as you.”
.
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “You think this is cool? Let me tell you one thing, it is not.”
“But you do it, too. If it’s not cool, why did you start?” asked Scootaloo.
“Well,” Rainbow tried to explain, “I thought it would be cool. And actually, not even that. I thought other ponies would think it was cool if I did it. I was young, like you, maybe even little bit younger, and I was stupid, not like you. Doing this was the stupidest idea I ever had in my life, and I’d like to go back in time and kick myself in the face for that, or kick Gilda in the face for peer-pressuring me to do that, but Twilight won’t cast that time spell on me. Says it could cause paradoxes.
“Anyhow, I was stupid back then. I even tried to make Fluttershy pick it up, but fortunately she almost coughed out her lungs and never touched a cigarette again. And I had a best friend that was a very bad influence. But you are a clever young pony, and your friends are the nicest fillies I’ve ever met. And it’s not that you of all ponies would need this to relax, so you really have no reason to pick up that bad habit. Expect you think it is cool because I am addicted to it, do you?”
Scootaloo lowered her head. “That might just be the case,” she confessed.
“So, do you want to be a tough, cool pony, or do you want to die from something stupid, just because I was so stupid to do it?” Rainbow asked. “Looks like you didn’t smoke very much before, you probably still could quit it easily.”
Scootaloo dropped her cigarette and hugged Rainbow Dash. “It was just my second one. And I don’t wanna die. And I don’t want you to die, either. Please don’t die from that shit, Rainbow Dash. I need you.”
Rainbow sighed. “You are right. I once promised you I would take you under my wing and always be there for you. But if I keep smoking a pack of those per day, who knows how long ‘always’ will be. How about a deal? I promise you never to smoke a cigarette again, and you do the same for me.”
Scootaloo smiled. “You would do that for me?”
“Sure,” answered Rainbow Dash. “Won’t be easy for me, but I always wanted to quit smoking. Maybe this is my best opportunity.” She flew up to her cloud house and came back with a pack of cigarettes. Then she took Scootaloo’s cigarettes from her scooter basket and crushed both packs between her hooves. “No more cigarettes, neither for me nor for you. Promised?”
“Promised,” replied Scootaloo, hugging her idol again.
“I told you she wouldn’t think it made you cool,” commented Sweetie Bell, who had followed Scootaloo together with Apple Bloom and had heard everything.
“What do you mean?” asked Scootaloo. “Everything worked just liked planed.”
Sweetie Bell looked at her confused. “Just like… you planed that all along?”
“Yes, of course,” answered Scootaloo. “Did you really think I was so stupid to start smoking for real. I just thought Rainbow would never stop smoking just for herself, so I had to trick her into believing she was such a bad role model for me that I picked it up, too. Just stupid that they don’t sell smaller packs. Had to buy twenty cigs, and only needed two. What a wast of hard earned money…”
“Truly impressive, Scoots,” commented Apple Bloom. “Maybe stopping other ponies from smoking might be your special talent.”
Scootaloo looked at her flak, hoping to see a broken cigarette as her cutie mark, or maybe a no smoking sign, but it was still empty.
“Well, day’s still young,” said Sweetie Bell. “Let’s go to the Everfree Forest and get our cutie marks in setting off every single trap in the castle of the Two Sisters.”
“Or,” suggested Apple Bloom, “we could tune up the telescope at our clubhouse and see if we can set something on fire with concentrated sunlight. A telescope shooting a laser beam would be a great cutie mark. Sweetie Bell, you pile up some wood, and Scoots, you help me with the lenses.”
Scootaloo sighed, thinking about those ridicules ideas. “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.”
