When Only the Heart Can Soar
Scootaloo slammed the bedroom door behind her. Tears stung her eyes as she feverishly reached up to her chin to undo her helmet's clasp. Her fumbling forehooves barely managed it, and once they did she tore the thing off her head and threw it at the wall. Hard. So hard in fact, that the wall mirror that hung there fell from its hook. Scootaloo gasped and dove to it as quickly as she could, catching it just before its face could slam into the floor and shatter to pieces.
Breathing a sigh of relief under the weight of the mirror, she sniffled and pushed it back up to lean against the wall. Stepping back, she found herself face to face with her reflection. She looked a fright with her messy mane and puffy eyes, but her gaze soon gravitated to a different part of her body. Turning herself sideways to get a better vantage point, she saw her wings reflected in the glass - they were so small, messy from her practice, and they almost looked as sore as they felt.
Scootaloo tore her gaze away from her reflection, new tears brimming in her eyes as she felt her heart break all over again. She screwed her eyes shut and galloped to her bed, throwing herself onto it and releasing muffled sobs into her pillow. It wasn't fair. It wasn't true! She knew those words shouldn't still hurt this much, but...
"A Pegasus pony... who can't even fly!"
"I mean, a Pegasus pony at your age! You should've been flying long ago."
"Have fun practicing anyway. Even if your routine will never... How shall I say...? Take off!"
"S-Stupid Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara!" Scootaloo spat. She rubbed at her nose with a foreleg. "What do they know anyway!? They don't even have wings!"
Scootaloo sniffled once more, lifting herself up to a sit on the edge of the bed. She blinked a few times, trying to banish the blurring from her vision, her eyes coming to focus on one of her posters that hung on the wall across from her. It was a Wonderbolt one, with uniformed figures heroically posed as they soared through the air against a background of blue and yellow stripes. Usually looking at it made her smile, but today it just made her feel worse. And glancing around, she saw that the rest of her room wasn't much better.
Pegasus action figures peeked out from her overflowing toy chest, flight-related cutie mark stickers decorated her dresser, other colorful Wonderbolt posters lined her walls... even her bedspread was likewise themed. And there on her side-table sat a framed picture of her and Rainbow Dash, both grinning widely with Scootaloo beaming so brightly she looked like she could burst from happiness. Quite the opposite of the young filly who now sat so despondently on her mattress.
Scootaloo sighed weakly, sluggishly taking to her hooves and walking a few steps closer to the center of the room. She scanned the brilliantly hued depictions that hung across from her before lowering her eyes to the wood floor - the only part of her room that wasn't a painful reminder of her unreachable aspirations.
She stayed like that for a while, just staring off into space and trying not to think of anything, those venomous thoughts whispering treacherous echoes from the outermost depths of her mind, no matter how hard she tried to block them out. Taking a deep breath, Scootaloo lifted her head, staring down the posters with all the courage she could muster. They stared back at her she thought. Those were Pegasi who risked everything, who beat the odds no matter how difficult it was, or how many neighsayers they had. They persevered and they proved themselves. Just like Scootaloo wanted to. Just like she was going to.
Slowly, something began to rise up in Scootaloo. It started in her chest and began to spread out to every part of her body. From the top of her head to her legs and her hooves. From her withers and down her back and to the tippiest tips of her wings. And somehow, without even thinking, she opened her mouth and begin to sing. The sound of her voice started out as a warble, but it grew stronger with each line that courageously pierced the air.
♪ In the silence, in the stillness
In the middle of this room
The words that were so vicious
Like a ghost in my heart loom ♪
♪ They said I'd never make it
They said I was too weak
A dreamer and a misfit
And my odds are looking bleak ♪
♪ But the only thing I cannot to do
Is everything I want
I may fight back tears, say it's not true
Try to rise above their taunts ♪
♪ But no matter right or wrong
The words that sting and burn ring out
I put up a front, but I'm not that strong
The truth is that I've many douuuuuuubts ♪
♫ But I wanna fly
I wanna soar
Touch the blue sky
Show them what these wings were made for ♫
♫ I wanna live out my own destiny
Whatever it may be
But I can't seem to dream more sensibly
When there's just so much more in me! ♫
♫ Yeah, I'm a Pegasus pony who can't seem to rise
But I wanna feel the wind in my feathers
Wanna look down from way up high!
Wanna touch the clouds and make weather!
Wanna taste the great and wide unknown! ♫
♫ Sure they may think that I'll reach my dream never!
But hey, what do they know? ♫
♫ I wanna fly
I wanna soar
Touch the blue sky
And show them what these wings were made for! ♫
♫ It doesn't matter just how long it takes!
It doesn't matter how it's done!
I'm going to make the heavens above me quake!
Thunder will clap as I reach the sun! ♫
♫ And no one
Who ever said that I would fall
Will be able to stand up tall
'Cause they'll be stunned ♫
♪ In the silence, in the stillness
In the middle of this room
The words that were so vicious
Like a ghost in my heart... loooooooooooom ♪
The last of the melody sung, Scootaloo felt the tension in her chest ease a bit... like having the words out there had taken just a bit of those bullies' power over her away. She didn't feel all the way better, but she felt like she had hope again, and that in itself was a tremendous thing.
Abruptly Scootaloo's ears perked up at the sound of a rapping at her bedroom door.
"Scootaloo?" a voice came from the hall outside, one she easily recognized as Apple Bloom's. "Can Sweetie and Ah come in?"
The orange Pegasus wordlessly walked to the door. She reached for the knob with a hoof and turned it, pulling the door awide to reveal her two friends wearing uneasy expressions.
"Hi, girls," Scootaloo said with a weak smile. "Whatcha doin' here?"
"Well," Apple Bloom began nervously, taking a few steps inside, "we saw ya run off after yer uh... flyin' trick and... we just wanted to made sure you were alright."
Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement, taking her place next to the red-haired earth pony. "Yeah, we know you've been practicing really hard lately to make you wings stronger, but we're starting to worry that you're overdoing it."
"Yeah, I know it's been a bit much," Scootaloo admitted, but then after a short silence she looked to her friends with moistening eyes. "But I just... really want to fly, girls!" Scootaloo sniffled. "I'm a Pegasus for crying out loud!" she confessed pitchily. Seeing the sympathetic looks on her friends' faces just made her want to hide from this decidedly uncool and mushy outpour of her feelings, but some dam inside had just burst, and there was no going back. "It's who I am!" she cried desperately. "It's what I'm s-sup-posed to be!" Scootaloo suddenly broke down into sobs, collapsing onto the ground and hiding her face in her hooves.
She heard the sound of the door shutting and hooves shuffling closer to her, then she felt the gentle touch of a hoof on her withers. Scootaloo looked up through her tears to see Apple Bloom smiling down warmly at her.
"These things take time, Scootaloo," the yellow filly told her. "Ah can't say I really understand just how hard what yer goin' through is... but I guess I could liken it to if'n Ah couldn't ever get an apple tree to grow, and it just withered every time Ah tried."
"Or if I could never use my magic," Sweetie Belle put in, glancing up at the horn on her head.
Scootaloo wiped at her tears, though new ones still brimmed in her eyes when she was done. "Th-Thanks, girls. I... I don't know what I'd do without you both." She sniffled. "You're the best."
Her friends smiled and each offered Scootaloo a hoof. At first the Pegasus was a bit surprised by that, but soon Scootaloo smiled back at the two fillies and accepted the proffered appendages, letting her friends help lift her up 'til she stood on her own four hooves again.
It was then that the three young ponies exchanged happy looks, and in the silence of that room wherein they stood... more was said and understood than could ever be spoken with words.
Author's Note
Please direct your grammar and spelling corrections to PM. Thank you. 
