How to Fly

Chapter 2

Scootaloo sat petrified at her desk in Ponyville elementary, counting away the heavy seconds one by one. Miss Cheerilee was lecturing about some old story about a stallion that loved a mare, whose love got them both killed. Scootaloo could not begin to describe the depths of passionate loathing she felt for these two saps. If they had the wits to stop yammering on and on about their love for a few seconds, they could maybe try running away from the ponies who were trying to kill them. But no, it was just talking, and more talking, and Scootaloo had to listen to every boring word of it!

"And in this next passage, Poneo reiterates his avowal of love," Cheerilee said. "Now I know that this sounds similar to his monologue a few pages back, but his vow holds a different significance here because…" Scootaloo kept counting the seconds, if only to keep herself from dozing off. Fifteen minutes, only fifteen minutes until freedom.

It didn't help that she had plans with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom at Sugarcube Corner later. The trio would discuss their next batch of hijinks to try and earn their cutie marks over chocolate fudge sundaes. Scootaloo had some awesome ideas she was dying to share. She had hoped to wait until after school, but she couldn't resist any longer. She HAD to tell somepony.

"Psst, hey Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo leaned her head back and whispered when Cheerilee's back was turned. The unicorn filly looked up (or down as it were, from Scootaloo's perspective) from her fastidious note taking. "What do you think about CMC sword jugglers?"

"Huh?" Sweetie Belle asked, her voice muffled by the pencil held aloft in her mouth. She stared at Scootaloo blankly for a few seconds before her ears pricked up at something Cheerilee said. "Not right now Scootaloo, I'm trying to pay attention."

Scootaloo sighed and returned to sitting straight. Leave it to Sweetie Belle to actually like this namby pamby stuff. Scootaloo tried to return to counting down the time until class let out, but it felt like the seconds were getting longer. A gentle breeze kept wafting in through the open window, carrying with it smells of young grass and rich mud, smells that are synonymous with sport and play in the mind of any young filly. Outside was a sunlit world, bright and vibrant and full of color, all of it just waiting for her.

She surveyed the classroom and spotted Apple Bloom out from her other classmates, red bow drooping and head cradled on her hooves. Apple Bloom caught Scootaloo staring at her and looked over with bored lidded eyes. Scootaloo hung her head to one side, crisscrossed her eyes, and stuck her tongue out. Apple Bloom giggled, and in response clenched her teeth ghoulishly and rolled her eyes up until only the whites showed.

Cheerilee turned in time to catch her students' various impressions of death by literature. She looked angry for just a moment, but then chuckled herself. "It looks like you girls have read ahead to the death scenes. I suppose that means we can let out a little earlier today. Class dismissed!" sweeter words have never passed from a teacher's lips. The young ponies of Cheerilee's class exploded from their desks in a flurry of motion, gathering their things and chattering with their friends.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders quickly gathered around Sweetie Belle's desk. Scootaloo bounced from hoof to hoof as Sweetie Belle finished packing up her things, and Apple Bloom walked over. "You guys won't believe all the cool ideas I have for today," Scootaloo said. "Apple Bloom, what do you think about a cannon on your flank?"

Apple Bloom looked at her cockeyed.

Scootaloo continued on regardless. "And Sweetie Belle, I bet some green crocodiles would show up really nice against your white coat!"

Sweetie Belle sighed as she clicked shut the snaps of her saddlebags and strapped them to her back. "I really hope the prince will show mercy on poor Poneo."

Scootaloo gagged in disgust. "Class is out and you're still thinking about that junk? What's wrong with you Sweetie Belle?"

"Nothing's wrong with me! It's a beautiful love story," Sweetie Belle voiced in protest. The three began to walk together towards the door. "You're just a…a…what's that word Rarity uses?"

"Hold on," Cheerilee called while Sweetie Belle pondered. The three stopped. "Scootaloo, could I please have a word with you?"

"Am I in trouble?" Scootaloo asked.

"Oh, nothing like that," Cheerilee said. "We just need to talk about next family appreciation day."

"Oh," Scootaloo mumbled. She spoke to her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders. "You guys go ahead without me, I'll catch up."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nodded and headed out the door. "See you at Sugarcube Corner!" Apple Bloom called.

After the girls had left, Cheerilee took to her hind legs and began erasing the day's lessons from the blackboard. She attacked with a big black eraser to each hoof and sent up big clouds of fine dust particles dancing through the air on skewers of light. "Well Scootaloo, it looks like you're the last student in class to present for family appreciation day. I know your parents have had scheduling problems making it in on Monday, so I was thinking we could try next Wednesday instead, would that be convenient?"

"Oh, uh…" Scootaloo mumbled, pawing at the ground. "I don't think so Miss Cheerilee. You know how busy my parents are, important Canterlot weather ponies and all. And right now, they're working really hard to make the transition from spring to summer. Wednesday won't work, and honestly, I don't think they'll find any time to come in before school lets out."

Cheerilee just continued to work at the cleaning the white scribbles from the board, her purple mane and coat turning progressively lighter from the accruement of chalk dust. It was beginning to make Scootaloo's nose itch. "Well I'm sorry to hear that Scootaloo, I guess we'll just have to hope they can find a spare hour in their busy schedules."

"Ya," Scootaloo said, beginning to trot towards the open door. "Hopefully."

"Are you sure they won't be able to present on Wednesday? I mean, I know they'll have to be in Ponyville anyway that day."

Scootaloo stopped dead in her tracks. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, haven't they told you dear? I'm sure they got the letter in the mail. Next Wednesday, the flight examiners from Cloudsdale come to town. You and a parent are required to meet them by law."

The clouds of chalk dust in the air combined with the afternoon heat started to irritate Scootaloo. Her throat began to tighten and make her wheeze, and chalk infused sweat began to sting her eyes. She could feel her stomach beginning to nervously toss. She had to get out.

"I guess they just forgot to mention it,"

With the blackboard now clean, the whitened Cheerilee set down the erasers and walked over. "You aren't worried are you dear?" she asked. "They aren't going to grade you or anything, they're just there to make sure you're getting proper flight training."

Scootaloo shook her head no and began to back towards the door. Her vision was beginning to swim on the edges, and her muscles were growing tight. "I'm fine," she coughed. "I guess I'll ask if they'll be able to make family appreciation day while they're in town on Wednesday, but I wouldn't count on it. Bye Ms. Cheerilee."

…

The chirping ring of the bell announcing Scootaloo's entrance into Sugarcube corner was immediately followed by a sound of even higher pitch.

"Philistine!" Sweetie Belle squealed, pointing an accusing hoof in Scootaloo's direction.

"Uh, what?" Scootaloo grinned confusedly as she came over to the table where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were sitting. She plopped down her bags and took a seat.

"Philistine, that's what you are," Sweetie Belle said, smiling contentedly. "Someone who doesn't appreciate art or beauty. It's what my sister calls people who criticize her dresses."

"She's been shouting that at everypony who has walked in since we got here expecting it to be you," Apple Bloom said.

"I told you third time was the charm Apple Bloom, and it was so worth it," Sweetie Belle beamed.

"That story is still stupid Sweetie Belle."

"Philistine!"

The three laughed. The sweet smells of Sugarcube Corner and the company of her friends helped relieve Scootaloo of the last of that nervous sick feeling she had gotten while talking to Cheerilee.

"Three chocolate fudge sundaes!" Mrs. Cake said as she came out of the kitchen, a tray with their ice cream balanced on her back. The sundaes looked delicious, big vanilla scoops getting all melty on the edges from contact with the hot fudge and topped with a fat dollop of cream and a crimson cherry. Mrs. Cake walked over and offered a sundae to each of the crusaders. Scootaloo got to pick first, so she chose the one with the most hot fudge; she loved hot fudge.

"So what do you girls have planned for today?" Mrs. Cake asked once each crusader had her treat.

"We're going to crusade for our cutie marks!" Apple Bloom announced proudly. She enthusiastically slurped up ice cream through her straw until her eye started to twitch and her teeth clenched shut. "Ah, brain freeze, brain freeze!"

Mrs. Cake chuckled softly. "I should have figured." She began to leave when a clatter of banging pots and pans and the tapping of clambering hooves came from the kitchen.

"We've got a perimeter breach!" shouted the voice of Mr. Cake. "Pound has broken out of the crib again, catch him honeybun!" A white and brown foal came flying out over the double door from the kitchen. The baby pegasus flew crookedly around the Sugarcube Corner front room in the manner of a fly maddened by the flame. Mrs. Cake ran around the room trying to catch him, but he always eluded her grasp by just a fraction of space. Finally, Pound crashed into the Cutie Mark Crusader's table, sliding across its top and sending Scootaloo's sundae hurtling to the floor. Scootaloo's reflexes were too quick however. She caught the baby with one hoof and the falling sundae with the other before either hit the ground. Pound Cake waved his forelegs and gurgled happily in Scootaloo's grasp.

"That was awesome!" Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom said in unison. That made Scootaloo smile a little.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that," Mrs. Cake clucked, using her teeth to take Pound by the scruff of his neck and placing him on her back next to the empty snack tray. "The sundae will be on the house of course." Scootaloo carefully edged the tall sundae glass from where it perched precariously on her hoof back on the table, careful not to spill one drop.

"I still don't understand how he's able to do that," Scootaloo said. She flicked at one of her own wings before taking a sulky drink from her saved ice cream.

"What, fly?" Mrs. Cake asked. "You must not have any younger brothers or sisters dear, or else you'd know that there's a stage in a baby pegasus' life where his wings are more developed than the rest of him and he's able to fly for a while. I'm sure there was a time when you terrorized your parents with your wings when you were a foal, crashing into all their fragile valuables, knocking over their antique furniture. Of course, your parents are pegasi themselves, so they didn't have the added trouble of having to pace in terror around a tree or building where their baby has perched."

"My sister says the same thing happens with a baby unicorn's magic," Sweetie Belle added between sips of sundae.

"Oh yes, I'm well aware of that particular set of challenges as well." Mrs. Cake said. "Still I'd take dealing with a baby unicorn over a pegasus any day. Much less running around." She put on a smile that seemed just a little too tight. "Luckily this stage only lasts a few weeks, not that I'm counting."

Scootaloo stared thoughtfully at her reflection in the bright red cherry perched atop her sundae. "Mrs. Cake, what are you going to do when Pound Cake needs to relearn how to fly?"

The matronly blue earth pony sighed, glancing at the baby pegasus waving happily from atop her back. "Mr. Cake and I have been thinking about that a lot. We can hardly afford to hire somepony to be Pound's personal trainer, and if when he turns ten years old the flight examiners deem him to be unable to receive sufficient training here, they'll take him away to Cloudsdale for the years it takes him to learn. Kind of makes me wish he wouldn't lose the ability at all, no matter how much of the good china he breaks. But at least that's not for a good couple of years yet," Mrs. Cake apologized again before returning to the sweetshop's kitchen.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle began to plan the escapades for the day, but the normally vocal Scootaloo remained quiet. She didn't even eat her sundae, she just kept staring at her reflection in the bright red cherry. The frown she saw reflected back at her grew progressively deeper, and the nervous sick feeling she felt at Ponyville elementary was starting to come back.

"Hey Scootaloo, what happened to all those cool ideas you wanted to tell us? Apple Bloom asked. Scootaloo looked up to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle staring at her. Creases of worry were beginning to form across their young brows.

Scootaloo popped off her seat and slipped on her school saddlebags. "Actually, I just remembered that I'm supposed to go home early today. Parents needed me for something. I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Aren't you going to at least finish your sundae?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Not hungry."

When Scootaloo was outside of Sugarcube Corner and sure her friends couldn't see her anymore, she began to run, her little orange wings catching in the breeze.