It was a bright, sunny Saturday. The sky was clear, the air was warm, the clouds were floating lazily by.
It was perfect weather for sticking a flag on the roof and acting like pirates.
"Ahoy, Obsidian. We've got a landlubber off the stern port bow!"
"The what?" Obsidian stepped up to the crest of the roof where Captain Feldspar was standing and looked around. "We're on the roof. How do you tell which side's port and which side's starboard?"
"Easy! That side's port." Feldspar pointed to the back of the house.
Looking in the indicated direction, he saw their dad visiting with some neighbors.
"Quickly!" Feldspar drew her cardboard sword and pointed at the unaware stallion. "Prepare the cannons!"
"What cannons?"
"Zap him with your horn."
"I can't do that to Dad."
"Why not?"
"He's outta range."
That was when they heard a thump behind them. Captain Feldspar turned around and pointed with her sword.
"We're being boarded!"
They were expecting the thump to have come from Derpy, who regularly used their roof as a landing pad for delivering the mail, but instead, they saw one of their classmates.
The orange filly was wearing a helmet and goggles, and she stood with one rear hoof atop a scooter and the other on the roof itself, braced to keep the scooter from rolling back down.
"Scootaloo? How'd you get up here?"
"A 360 and a couple tailwhips," she said while pointing down the street to a couple boards propped up against a crate like a ramp. "Too bad you were looking the wrong way."
"Yeah. Sounds like a nice one." They had seen her perform stunts around the town a couple times before, so to call missing how she got onto the roof disappointing was a rather large understatement.
"So, what are you doing here anyway?"
"I was wondering. Could, you help me with flying?"
Obsidian and Feldspar looked at each other, then back at her.
"Flying? How do you think we can help with that?"
Scootaloo looked around, then back at them. "You won't tell anypony else, will you?"
They both shook their heads.
"Not even if somepony asks? Not even the other Crusaders?"
"Why?"
"I... I just don't want them to find out. Okay?"
The two siblings looked at each other, slightly confused, then looked back and nodded.
"Okay. We won't tell anypony."
"Promise?"
They nodded.
"Pinkie promise?"
Obsidian and Feldspar looked at each other again, then turned to Scootaloo and recited the incantation.
"Ow!"
Feldspar giggled at her brother. "You're supposed to close your eyes when you do that."
Obsidian just rubbed his aching eye. "Duly noted." He turned back to Scootaloo. "So, what's going on?"
Scootaloo looked down slightly. "Remember when Twilight visited the class and showed us that gauge for measuring magic?"
They nodded again.
"Well, I didn't go at the time 'cause I figured Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would just make fun of me, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's been bugging me for weeks now, so... so I went to see Twilight and ask if she could use the gauge on me."
Her ears drooped.
"I... I don't have any magic. I can't fly because I don't have enough magic."
Obsidian and Feldspar arrived at the field, panting.
"How'd you do that?"
Sccotaloo gave a confused glance. "Do what?"
"You took off at something like a hundred miles an hour on that thing. We had to gallop the whole way here just to keep up."
Scootaloo just took off her helmet and shrugged. "I always ride like that."
"Well, you've certainly got wingpower. Have you tried just pointing yourself straight up while doing that?"
"What? Like this?"
She stood up on her hind legs, put her helmet back on, and started buzzing her wings. The downwash blew back Obsidian's and Feldspar's manes and flattened a circle of grass under her.
She lifted off the ground.
Then, she didn't.
Without her rear hooves keeping her anchored in an upright position, she flipped over into a prone position and found all of her thrust directed backwards instead of downwards. She arced through the air like a ballistic missile, just barely landing on her front hooves, then tucked into a roll and tumbled across the ground.
The others bolted over as she stood back up.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, that one wasn't nearly as bad as when I was learning some of my scooter tricks."
She dusted herself off and straightened her helmet.
"Could you please try shooting me with your magic? Please? That's why I brought you out here."
Obsidian nodded. "Okay. I'll try."
He charged up his horn and shot her, encasing her body in a green glow. She buzzed her wings again like a hummingbird and slowly lifted off the ground. She looked up, straining to make it just a bit higher than that two-foot floating she could usually just barely manage.
She then looked down and saw tree branches.
"Woohoo!"
She spent several minutes buzzing around, looping and rolling and hooting and hollering the whole time. It was a blast, like nothing she had experienced before.
She was free.
Free from being the flightless loser, from being a dodo, free from gravity itself.
She was finally free.
Unfortunately, it seemed only a moment before Obsidian spoke up again.
"Please. Would you mind coming down?"
She stopped mid-loop and hovered.
"What? Why?"
"My horn's starting to hurt."
She lowered herself to the ground, and Obsidian allowed his horn to flicker out.
"Thanks." He lowered himself down to the grass and lay down on his stomach, closing his eyes.
Scootaloo looked over at him. "What's he doing?"
Feldspar was confused. "You didn't hear what happened during the break?"
Scoot shook her head.
"He runs outta magic real easily. Last time he shared with somepony for a really long time, he knocked himself out."
"So when I tried to fly just now... it wasn't just a jump start? I was actually taking his magic the whole time?"
Feldspar only nodded.
She looked over at Obsidian.
"Is he alright?"
Feldspar looked at him. "Yeah, he'll probably wake up in a couple minutes."
Scootaloo took off her helmet and grumped down to the ground.
"Well now what am I gonna do?"
"About what?"
"About this." She buzzed her wings and pointed towards the prone pony. "Turns out the only way I can fly is by stealing somepony else's magic. What good is that? I might as well not even have wings in the first place!"
She turned her head away and mumbled to herself. "Now everypony'll think I'm a loser."
Feldspar tilted her head to the side.
"Even your friends?"
Scootaloo looked up.
"Your friends know you can't fly, right?"
"Yeah."
"And they still like you, right?"
"Yeah."
Feldspar lay down right in front of her and looked her straight in the eye.
"So, what does it matter what anypony else thinks?"
"It... it's complicated."
"Why?"
"Because I can't even learn to fly! All this time I thought I was just having trouble with finding the right technique or something, but now I found out I couldn't fly even with that!
Feldspar tilted her head again.
"And that means ponies won't like you anymore?"
Scootaloo looked up again.
"I like you. All your friends in that club you've got like you. The only ponies I can think of that don't like you are those two jerks from school, but they don't like anything. So, why are you listening to them instead of everypony who knows you?"
The Crusaders all met together in their clubhouse. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were already curious as to why Scootaloo had called for an official Crusader meeting, but they were especially concerned with why she seemed deflated this time.
"Thanks for coming out here," she started.
"There's something I've gotta tell you..."
Author's Note
Based on a comment by NicLove on the first story.
