Skyscraper

Chapter 2: Anchorage

Scootaloo was standing at her front door, trying to think of a reason not to enter. She’d considered wandering around town for a bit, or maybe sneaking in around back, but knew it would only be delaying the inevitable. Her aches and pains had dulled during the walk home, but still dampened her mood. The last thing she wanted was Butterscotch worrying over her. It was when she noticed she was counting the threads in the welcome mat that she decided to stop stalling. Resigning to her fate, she pushed the door open.

Maybe she isn't home...

“Scootaloo, that you?” Butterscotch called, poking her head into the living room. “I was just about to put on some tea, would you like so-My goodness!”

In an instant the mare was at her side. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Nothing. I, uh, slipped, out of a tree…yeah.” Wow, real smooth. “I-I’m okay, though. Totally fine” The filly made a bee-line for the stairs before being intercepted.

“What? No, you’re not; you’re limping.”

Scootaloo lifted the offending foreleg, “Oh, yeah. I guess I must have, um, hit it on one of the branches. Nothing to worry about”

Despite her expert attempt at deception, Scootaloo was quickly swept into the washroom. Butterscotch inspected her foreleg and wings with a practiced eye. Once she was satisfied they were uninjured, she calmed a bit. Grabbing a washcloth, she scrubbed at the filly’s face.

Butterscotch flicked away a pebble that was embedded in the fur between her eyes. “You fall out of this tree headfirst?”

“What? Oh! Yeah.”

There were a few moments of silence as Butterscotch wrung out the washcloth. Pausing, the mare gave a tired huff.

“Look, if you don’t want to talk about whatever happened right now, that’s OK. I promise, you’re not in any trouble. I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

“You’re not going to take me to Nurse Redheart, are you?”

Butterscotch placed a bandage on a nick on Scootaloo’s forehead. “Well, apart from a few scratches, you seem fine. So, no. Besides, we’ll be seeing her this weekend, anyways.”

The little pegasus gave a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed at this. “Good, ‘cause this time, I’ll be ready.”

Butterscotch cocked an eyebrow at this. “What do yo-“

“I flew!” Scootaloo blurted, a grin appearing on her face.

Butterscotch was momentarily taken aback. “Wow, that’s great! Wait…you said you fell.”

“Yeah, I did that, too” Scootaloo replied excitably. “I fell, but I got kinda scared for a moment and started flying, really actually flying. Then my wings got tired and I started to fall again but before that Iwasflyinganditwassoawesomitwasthemostamazingthingever!”

The mare took a few seconds to process this. She placed a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “That, is amazing news.”

Scootaloo started to squirm away.  “I’m gonna go practice.”

Butterscotch kept the hoof, and Scootaloo, in place. “No, you’re taking it easy the rest of the day.”

“Awwww, c’mon” Her head drooped.

“We don’t want to make that leg any worse.” She moved her hoof from her shoulder to under the filly’s chin. “Tell you what, how about you come help me make supper? We can make whatever you want today.”

The offer felt more like being given a chore, but she knew it would be easier to go along than argue, especially when Butterscotch was acting so mother-ish. “Sure, that sounds… good.”

I guess it can wait ‘til tomorrow.

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“Finally! I was starting to think class would never end.” Scootaloo felt like it was the longest day of school she’d ever had to sit through.

She’d arrived late after sleeping in, and hadn't had much chance to talk with either of her friends all day. Now, she excitably rushed out, followed closely by Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. The latter two were discussing ideas on how to spend the day when the conversation almost inevitably turned to cutie mark ideas.

“And I’m tellin’ you, there’s no way mah sister’s lettin’ us make another catapult.” Applebloom turned to Scootaloo. “What about you? You got any ideas that don’t involve siege engines?”

“We wouldn't need a big one.” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“Actually, there’s something else I need to do.” Scootaloo interposed herself between the two. “But you can come along if you want.”

“What’re we doing?” Applebloom asked, already interested.

“Yes, please tell us what you’ll manage to screw up today.” The three turned to the source of the voice to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon exiting the schoolhouse.

Applebloom let out a sigh, “What do you two want?”

“Just checking to see what’s in store for today.” Diamond Tiara smirked. “I was wondering how big of a mess to expect.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”

Tiara chuckled. “Yes, quite, but really, did I hear correctly? Your plans today are for something other than chasing your cutie marks? Finally run out of ideas?”

“You know we do stuff besides Crusader stuff, right? We’re not nearly as one dimensional as some ponies here.”

All three fillies turned in unison towards Diamond Tiara, who shifted uncomfortably.

“In fact,” Scootaloo continued, “before you interrupted us, I was about to tell my friends that I was going to spend the day flying.”

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon shared a smug chuckle at this. The latter of which spoke first, “Good luck with that.”

“I am a pegasus, you know.”

Tiara made a surprised face, “Oh really? I hadn't noticed.” She leaned in for a moment. “Are you sure?”

Silver Spoon frowned and nudged her friend, “C’mon, let’s go DT. We've wasted enough time.”

“I suppose you’re right.” The two started walking off. “Later losers.”

Scootaloo glared at the receding pair, “You think they ever get tired of being such jerks?”

“Never mind them,” Applebloom said, grabbing her attention.  “You said something about flying?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Scootaloo flared her wings out. “I’m gonna fly today.”

Sweetie Belle pawed the ground awkwardly. “But I thought you weren’t, you know, able to-“

“I flew yesterday, and I’m gonna fly today.” Scootaloo interrupted. “Just gotta figure out what I did right yesterday.”

The trio soon arrived at their club house. It was isolated enough that Scootaloo didn't feel self conscious about trying to fly in front of other ponies, or risk the embarrassment that failure might bring. Scootaloo was stretching her wings like she’d seen Rainbow Dash do before doing her more impressive stunts. After a few minutes of this, she looked to her friends; they had stopped watching after a while and were talking about something she couldn't hear.

OK, now’s as good a time as any.

Without further ado, she flared her wings and started flapping. Nothing happened. She kept flapping, pushing herself to flap faster. She grunted with the effort, but still couldn't lift herself.  She stopped after a moment, panting.

“You say somethin’ Scootaloo?”

She looked to her friends; they hadn't even noticed. “No, just…trying to figure this out.”

“What’s to figure out?” Sweetie Belle cocked her head. “Is there a certain way you gotta flap, or something?”

Scootaloo hadn't thought of that. She just thought she was supposed to flap her wings, and then she would go up, simple as that. What if there was? She was musing on this when Applebloom spoke up.

“Just think about what you did different yesterday.”

She thought for a moment. “I flapped my wings really hard…and then I went up.”

“And I’m assumin’ you've tried that.”

Scootaloo frowned “Yes.”

“Have you tried doing that, but more harder?” Sweetie Belle asked.

She decided that this conversation was quickly becoming annoying, and opened her wings to try again. Both of her friends sat down, watching. She jerked her wings down in the hardest flap she could, and started flapping in earnest. She gave up after a couple minutes, with the same result. So far, all she’d accomplish was building up a sweat.

“Maybe I am doing something wrong.” She muttered, more to herself than to her friends.

“Well, it’s not like it’s something we can teach you.” Applebloom pointed out.

“Haven't your parents taught you anything?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Scootaloo scowled. ”No.”

“Uh, maybe we should call it a day. I got chores to do.” Applebloom said suddenly.

Scootaloo was about to object, but relented. After saying her goodbyes, she exited the club house and headed home. Applebloom waited until she knew Scootaloo was out of earshot, and softly batted Sweetie Belle in the back of the head.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Why’d you have to bring up her folks? You know how touchy she is about that.”

Sweetie Belle rubbed her head. “Well, excuse me for asking the obvious question. You’d think her parent’s would teach her to fly, not leave her to figure it out with her, in case you didn't notice it, non-flying friends.”

Applebloom did have to admit that was odd, but she knew better than to ask about it. In all the time they’d known her, they’d still never met Scootaloo’s family, or visited her house. She never even spoke about them. She’d been really sensitive about it when they’d first met her, getting upset whenever they asked about it. Applebloom had gotten curious and tried tailing her home one day, but she caught on and led her on a false trail before losing her. That had been an interesting conversation the next day; Applebloom curious about Scootaloo evading her, and Scootaloo evading being asked about it. Eventually they just figured it was better not to ask, and leave it be.

Scootaloo spent the walk home pondering Sweetie Belle’s words. She briefly tried reading about flying before, but couldn't find anything helpful. There were the simple books in school, which at most had a two picture diagram of a wing opened and closed, and the books from Twilight that were full of words she couldn't pronounce, let alone understand. When she’d had to start reading books to understand the books needed to understand the books about pegasi, she’d given up. She was walking up the steps to her front porch when her train of thought was broken by someone calling her name. Scootaloo looked around, seeing Butterscotch come trotting over from her flower garden off to the side of house.

I don’t suppose you could teach me how to fly?

Of course, it would be silly for Scootaloo to ask such a question; Butterscotch wasn't a pegasus. She wasn't a unicorn either, for that matter. No, of the three non-deity varieties, Butterscotch was very much an earth pony. A purple pony a few shades lighter than Twilight, with a deep violet mane. With just the two of them here, Scootaloo was the only pegasus in the house.

“I said, “How was your day?”” she  asked, again catching her attention.

“Hmm? It was fine, I guess” Scootaloo started heading for the front door. “I've got a lot of homework, so I’ll be in my room for a while.”

She heard Butterscotch say something in acknowledgment, and trudged up the stairs to her room. Opening her books, she started to work.

There’s always tomorrow.

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The next day turned out to be a complete bust, as around noon it started raining hard, and proceeded to do so all day. Scootaloo had spent about the same amount of time staring out the school window, feeling like she’d jinxed herself. Class has just been dismissed, and everypony was getting ready to head home. Applebloom had just left, when she was approached by Sweetie Belle.

“Hey, I did a little thinking about yesterday, and I found this on the bookshelf.” She grabbed a book from her saddle bag and presented it to Scootaloo. “Maybe it can help. Anyways, see you tomorrow.”

Scootaloo heard giggling, and saw Diamond Tiara was still there. “Thanks.” Scootaloo looked down at the book cover, a colourful picture with a smiling filly titled Pegasi: Ponies of the Flight. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

Once her friend was gone, Scootaloo turned to her old dog-eared bookmark, with the two picture diagram of a wing opened and closed. She sighed, putting the book back on the shelf. Scootaloo felt like she was being watched, and looked over her shoulder to see Diamond Tiara.

“Yeah, that one seemed a bit above your level. Maybe you’ll have better luck with this one.” She smirked and grabbed another book from the shelf; Fly High, Pegasi. “One of Doctor Moose’s better works. Down to earth enough for you?”

Scootaloo wasn't about to admit she’d already tried that book, and tried not to let that get to her. “I didn't know you could read.”

Diamond Tiara’s smirk vanished, “Very funny.”

“Quite.”

With a huff, Diamond Tiara grabbed her bags and left.

Huh, would have thought a pony like her would have a thicker skin. She mused to herself. Without further ado, she exited the schoolhouse. Once outside, under the awning, she looked at the sky. It’s really coming down. I thought it was only supposed to rain a little in the morning.

Scootaloo reached into her saddlebag, and quickly noticed something was missing. “Aw c’mon.”

Taking another look at the sky, she gave a sigh and started her trek home, sans umbrella. She passed Diamond Tiara, who gave an amused “Ha!” By the time Scootaloo got home, her coat was soaking wet. She made her way inside, when she entered the living room and saw Butterscotch reading on the sofa.

“Where’s your umbrella? You’re absolutely drenched.” She said, putting her book down.

Scootaloo looked to the vase next to the door, pointing to her umbrella.”There.”

“Well, stay right there, I’ll grab a towel.”

Resisting the urge to shake off, she waited for Butterscotch to return. Scootaloo smelled something sweet, and looked around the living room. It had a simple, but comfortable setup. There was a chair in the corner nearest the front door, and another in the opposite corner by the kitchen, though only one looked like it was ever used. Between the two was a sofa facing the fireplace, whose mantel had a few pictures on it; a couple with her, and a few with Butterscotch and her relatives.  A squat bookshelf/end table separated the used chair and the sofa, and the entire room was wrapped in earthy green walls, and set with a tan carpet. In the center of the room was a short coffee table with a vase of fresh flowers; they looked like gardenias from Butterscotch’s garden. The sweet smelling flowers had always been Butterscotch’s favourite, apparently enough so that her cutie mark was a single white gardenia.

“Y’know, I thought for sure it was only supposed to rain a little today.” Butterscotch said, re-entering the room. She handed Scootaloo the towel. “I guess the weather team decided to surprise us.”

“Great surprise.” Scootaloo replied, deadpan.

“Yeah, I was hoping for a bit more sun, too.”

Once she was dry enough to stop dripping on the carpet, Scootaloo excused herself and headed upstairs to her room. She sat on her bed and unpacked her saddlebags ,relieved to see that at least her books had remained dry. Her room wasn't particularly big, but didn't feel too small. Her bed was against the wall to the left of the door, with a bedside table. On the wall across from her bed was her dresser and desk, which was short enough to need no chair. The walls were a soft sky blue, with a large poster of Rainbow Dash on the wall next to the bed. The floor was a deep brown hardwood.

There was a tapping on the door frame, “Knock knock” Butterscotch said, sitting on the bed next to Scootaloo. “So, how was your day?”

Scootaloo finished packing away her books. “Fine, I guess.”

“And how was school?”

“It was okay.” Scootaloo turned to Butterscotch. “Mostly math today; fractions and stuff.”

“That’s good.” There was a long pause. Butterscotch glanced out the window. “At least all this rain is good for the garden.”

“I guess.”

Another pause. “Not the best flying weather.  How’s practice coming?”

“I’ll be ready.”  Scootaloo flared her wings. “I flew before; I just gotta make sure I can do it again. I just feel like I’m doing something wrong.”

“Can you ask somepony to teach you?”

The filly gave a sigh, “Rainbow Dash said she would, but she hasn't said anything about it since she got back from the Wonderbolts academy.  She probably forgot all about me.”

Butterscotch put her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, “Maybe she’s been busy. It may have slipped her mind when she was away. Why don’t you ask her after school tomorrow? She is the element of loyalty, after all. She might just need you to remind her.”

Scootaloo’s mood brightened a little, “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Butterscotch.”

Butterscotch gave her a one armed hug. “Happy I could help in some way. I mean, it’s not like I can teach you.”

The mare fidgeted for a moment, weighing her next words. “You know, Saturday’s not far away. I mean, I’m glad you feel ready, but you know you can stay here as long as you need. There doesn't have to be any rush.”

“I-…thanks.”

With that, Butterscotch returned downstairs. Once she was gone Scootaloo edged off her bed. Looking underneath, she pulled out and opened a lunch pail sized box. Amongst a few trinkets was a photo, with a trio of smiling pegasi standing on a cloud. Side by side was a yellow mare with a long orange mane, and a brown stallion with a short cut fuchsia mane. Between them was a young filly with a saffron yellow coat, and her father’s mane.

“See you soon”