Authors Note: This is it! The last frakking part of this arc!

Also I now have 69 followers… hehe. ^u^ I've been waiting for this achievement specifically to type the cute innocent little emoticon (the blushy one didn't show).

Amellia Rose- Thanks for reading again, my friend.

Jagdpanther- That scene was so hard to write. As a budding psychologist myself I had to get all the parts right while remembering that Applejack is not a psychologist. By now I don't think there's any harm in saying this (because it's obvious) - yes, Spitfire does have feelings for Braeburn, and she's coming to terms with them now.

Luna'snight625- That was the entire point of the scene; it was to show that despite all their differences, Misty has her 'Surprise moments' and Surprise has her 'Misty moments'. They're not all that different after all, but they don't really want to realise that. And my version of Soarin is the most awkward and doofiest goofball in Equestria and since this kind of topic may never be tackled in MLP, I don't know how the Crusaders would behave in that kind of situation. They are kids and kids don't really like having secrets, so I can sort of imagine that this would be Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's responses to seeing Dash and Soarin in the same general vicinity. At least it would be Sweetie Belle's, I think. And yes, I headcanon that the Elements of Harmony do in fact have some kind of magical pheromone that impact those around them; if you watch the show with this in mind it can make you realise things you missed in the past. Right since the beginning of the show the Mane Six have done pretty insane things with their respective elements; and I do wonder if it would work with any other pony in the world. Fluttershy took on a full grown dragon and used her kindness to send him away, Rainbow's loyalty to Rarity got her to get over her stage fright to save her, and the same can be said for nearly any season one episode if you think about it hard enough. The same thing applies for Applebutt and Fireflanks in their scene.

Litestardt- I'm so pleased! I'm not sure what possessed me to write a SpitBurn story, but I'm pleased I did, because I like the ship a lot for some reason and I'm glad I earned it a little bit of appreciation. (I am the Empress of the Weird Ships). And I'm one of your inspirations?! Whoa… that makes me so happy to hear! ^^ And the next chapter is a SpitBurn chapter (God there hasn't been one of those in forever. They haven't interacted since… before Amending Fences aired. HOLY CRAP! (0.0)

YoungBlood23- That's why I put it in- because it's so annoying; people telling you to find something out for yourself is so freakin' exasperating, and I think the same applies for our fiery friend here. Considering what she's already been through today, her annoyance might be just the thing she needs to make her talk to him. They have not spoken since fricking July! And it's only been about two weeks in story-time! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mind Screw!

MidnightBlaze16- Thanks! I think that's one of my favourite parts of the entire story now. It only took me one sitting to write that so ya know I loved it. And please keep on shipping it! :D

Snow Hurricane Blue- Haha! I'm so pleased that you like this ship so much. I wrote this with the intention to make people like it, but I think… I may have done it too well. I have good news for you though; the next chapter is a SpitBurn chapter. Nothing but SpitBurn, and I CAN'T WAIT! And it'll be out soon because I was so impatient it's practically done already. ^u^

Oh my God?! WHAT IS THIS?!

(MY REVIEW FOR NEWBIE DASH)

!SPOILERS AHEAD!

Wow, it's been forever since I've made of one these! I'm going to cut straight to the chase though, because I want to get this up fast.

So, is it a surprise to anyone that I don't like this episode? I knew that I wouldn't like it before I watched it for its synopsis alone. Looking at the pattern of my enjoyment for Wonderbolt episodes, this wasn't a shock to me. Wonderbolts Academy inspired me to write this story, Rainbow Falls is my least favourite episode in the entire show, Rarity Investigates was good and mostly made up for the last Wonderbolt episode, but this one takes a big step back. But at least I wasn't surprised- I was on FIMFiction when I first heard of the episode, and my initial reaction was "Holy Nope, they're actually doing another 'Wonderbolts Are Assholes' episode!" and I freaked the hell out! My buddy Captain Alaska knows how anxious I was; I even feared that the episode would make me lose some of my readers (I hope to God that's not the case. You guys are still there, right?) But enough about my insecurities and fears, let's get on with this review.

So the episode begins with Rainbow Dash doing what she does best- flying. And then cuteness happens! Yeah, I love it when Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash do stuff together. They could be causing explosions or discussing sock patterns (I know that's more of a Rarity thing but I'm pulling this out the top of my head, okay) and I'd still be into it! Also, the Rainbow Dash fan club still exists. Wait a minute, the last time that was mentioned was in… The Mysterious Mare-do-Well…

Oh no…

So Scoots and Dash talk about how Rainbow's gonna be helping out at a Wonderbolts' air show, and Rainbow Pony tells her sister that she won't actually be flying with them. And then the Heavens of Convenient Timing open up and Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot enter the scene (with Spitz making a pretty awesome Iron Man-esque landing). And they tell her that she's finally a Wonderbolt

Finally! After almost six years of waiting, Dashie has finally done it! I was so happy right then that I squealed (weakly because I knew it would suck after that). This is just awesome! Dash becoming a Wonderbolt, Rarity running her own business, who's going to achieve their lifetime goal next.

After some fandom-induced innuendo and Spike torture (woohoo) Rainbow explains that Fire Streak has retired from the 'Bolts to teach other pegasi full time (that's definitely something he'd do). Another thing I feel compelled to mention is that I love how all the pegasi use their wings for hands in this episode. I think the only time that's happened is one time with Fluttershy when she opened her saddlebags with one wing, so it's good to bring that back. It will definitely be fun coming up with ways to use this with the pegasi. I'm just going to address the elephant in the room briefly because nobody needs to hear this again (people all over the fandom have been complaining and I don't wanna bitch for too long) where the heck was Starlight Glimmer? Oh well, I'll just be over here happily imagining that she's hanging out with Trixie. ^u^

So in the next scene we're at the Wonderbolts Academy. Pfft! I love the way Spitfire delivers her line at the start of the scene. It just cracks me up for some reason; it's like she's channeling Maud Pie. The way she looks so bored as well just makes it so much better. She also does a good job reminding the kids of road safety… which may or may not be important in a couple minutes. And… yes you're probably wondering what I think about the new additions to the Academy. I've always imagined the Wonderbolts having their own houses, so finding out that they literally live in the Academy… I haven't warmed up to it. And they have a different creed from mine… God, so many of my ideas are being kicked in the ass. Just keep in mind that this story is an AU.

After Dash has changed into her new uniform (which she looks awesome in, by the way) she crosses the runway and, predictably, she almost gets hit by Soarin and Fleetfoot. Then she leaps into some garbage. This gets Fleetfoot to call her 'Rainbow Crash', which as we all know, was what her bullies back in flight school called her. Dash tries to blame Soarin and Fleet, but Spitz reminds her that she forgot rule number one: don't talk about Fight Club- I mean- look both ways before crossing the runway. At least they got one lesson right for the kids. I don't like their portrayal of Misty Fly here either. Misty, as you might know, is my favourite Wonderbolt, so why the heck are they characterizing her so differently from before? She wouldn't even act like that towards Surprise! Okay, calm down Sass. It's just a headcanon. Just move on… breathe…

After that, the episode goes downhill faster than Sonic the Hedgehog on steroids, on cocaine, on meth. The Wonderbolts keep on calling her 'Crash', and she only gives them more reasons to do so. Also, Surprise is an asshole as well. Wow, she and Misty would be good together in another universe. One thing I can say is that despite their characterization differing from mine, Surprise and Misty's voices are pretty close to what I imagine for them. We also discover that… the Wonderbolts have a co-ed locker room? Wha…? Also, the only ones being nice to Dashie are Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot… wow, Dave Polsky and Dave Rapp- the writers of the episode- really are trying to annoy me. This scene, by the way… this stupid scene! The 'Bolts tell Dash that she has to clean the whole compound because she was the worst flier of the day, which for the record is exactly what a flight school would do. That is a pretty fair rule, and here is no exception. Apart from the fact that the writers do this to put the Wonderbolts in the wrong, and to get us to feel sympathy towards Rainbow; we already had some for her anyway! But the Wonderbolts aren't in the wrong here! Not at all! Allow me to educate you guys a little if you don't know this already.

The nickname that Rainbow Dash receives is essentially her call sign. A call sign is something that a pilot gets when they either accomplish a cool feat or simply do something stupid or silly. It can also describe their personality. For example, in the movie Top Gun the main character, named Pete Mitchell, has the call sign 'Maverick' and he is referred to as such throughout the film. The word 'maverick' describes this character to a tee, hence the reason he has it. His best friend Nick Bradshaw's call sign is 'Goose'. Not the coolest of names, but he's still my favourite character. See how different call signs can be? Some can be flattering and some can be utterly ridiculous, but that's just how things are. Also, if a pilot complains about their call sign, they are given a worse one as punishment. Most people lack this knowledge, however, and that can make them think of the Wonderbolts as douche bags in this episode.

And… RAINBOW DASH CAN FLY TO AND FROM CLOUDSDALE THAT FAST?! I thought it was further away than that! What the?! Why the?! Who the?! I… I dread to think what newcomers to this story will think after watching this episode. I just dread it so much. Anyway, Rainbow's friends have thrown her a party and the CMC have drawn a pretty adorable banner (I love the way they draw legs) and she's less than enthusiastic about it all. I do like that Rainbow actually told her friends about her problem, because in most of these things the typical way to go would be to make the character keep their problem hidden to make sure their friends don't worry about them. That's something I can praise… and then Pinkie gets the best line in the episode!

"At least they didn't call you Rainbow Trash." – Pinkie Pie.

OH MY GOD! I was so happy then! Everybody, you heard it here first! I called it! Rainbow Trash is canon(ish)! Rainbow then gets the amazing idea to stand out in a more positive light, just like her friends. She takes this literally… way too freaking literally. She imitates all five of her friends in the most obnoxious and annoying way possible. Seriously, who thought that this was a good idea?! And the Wonderbolts also have… a co-ed bedroom?! Okay that does it! Are all the stallions gelded or something?! That's the only way that this arrangement could work out! On a more positive note, that new white Wonderbolt with the blue mane might be Rapidfire? Yes! Finally I can describe him. Notice how I've never described Rapid's physical appearance? That's because he's never had one until this point.

So Rainbow impersonates Pinkie first, and we learn that according to Fleetfoot, Wonderbolts don't get excited. What? One of your members is literally called Surprise! How did she- oh I give up! This episode is at its most irritating during this montage. Good God this montage. Then she mimics Applejack. I wanna know how that conversation went- when someone went up to Ashleigh Ball and said "So we want you to talk like Rainbow Dash pretending to be Applejack." She did it pretty well though. If only it wasn't completely unnecessary! Seriously, Spitfire's face when Rainbow (now mimicking Twilight) gives her a bunch of papers is exactly how mine is right now! I also wish I had her megaphone so I could yell at Dash and tell her not to be such a fricking idiot! We then return to the locker room, where we see Blaze massaging Fleetfoot (she's a perv and High Winds knows it so she doesn't mind). And then Rainbow pretends to be Rarity (she has magic shape-shifting hair. New headcanon) and heads on over to Soarin.

We need to talk about something, guys. Remember back in Rainbow Falls (if your psyche can stand it) when Derpy made a comeback? There was a reason for that. The writers probably knew that the episode was shit… I really hope they did anyway, So they brought back a fan-favourite pony to pander to the viewers. And unfortunately, the fandom fell for it! They brought Derpy back purely to give the viewers something "good" to overshadow the rest of the episode, kind of like what happened in The Last Roundup. They are doing the exact same thing here, I'm sure of it. They are shoehorning in some SoarinDash specifically to give the viewers something "good" about this cringe worthy scene. The writers are aware of how much people like SoarinDash- it's the number one MLP ship on TopTens and Nicole Oliver (the voice actress of Princess Celestia herself) ships it. Well how do you guys like knowing that something you ship is being used as a ploy to get more viewers?

Okay before we get too off-track let's get back to the review. So after that last agonizing impression, Rainbow finally stops when Spit tells her she's being ridiculous (thank you!). We then learn that Soarin's nickname is 'Clipper'. I would have thought that Rainbow would be smart enough to figure out that Soarin got his nickname by clipping his wing, but no… she's not. And then it ends. Thank God! That montage went on for three minutes and sixteen seconds. Now, let's think about that. The episode is twenty-two minutes long and that aforementioned length of that scene takes up about 16% of the episode (I failed math so if I'm wrong please excuse me). So we spend a pretty long amount of time watching that cringy montage. Ugh, my brain!

But wait! It gets worse! On the day of the airshow, when a bunch of spectators are present, Rainbow swoops on down to her friends and takes Scootaloo away, saying that she had to help her with something. You can just tell this is going to be painful. Dash's plan is for Scootaloo to ride down a conveniently placed ramp and knock a storm cloud into Rainbow's path. Dash will then kick it and make a lightning trail as she flies. Okay, for some reason the first thing that I realized was wrong with Dash's plan was that if Scootaloo did that, she would go through the cloud! And Rainbow seems to forget that she's pulled off a Sonic Rainboom many times before. Somehow, Scootaloo doesn't go through the storm cloud and Rainbow goes in to kick it… and she chickens out. She flies into a tree, gets attacked by birds, gets shot slingshot-style into another tree, where she is then tossed into a cloud and then finally she flies through the fricking cloud! Did you people writing this thing not see this problem?! HELLOOOO!? After that, she crashes. Predictably.

Speaking of predictability, after Rainbow's been patched up, she apologizes for what she did and the Wonderbolts all comfort her by telling her how awesome she is and revealing their own nicknames. Also, of all the things Rainbow would think Soarin's nickname 'Clipper' meant, she thought that it meant a 19th century sailing ship?! WHAT?! Someone help me make some sense out of this! Please! Also, I have an idea for what Spitfire's nickname is, and yes, I will reveal it in this story. And I love how happy she is at the end of this, joking around with the others. I need more Happy Spitty in my life. Rainbow then gets appropriately punished for her actions, and she accepts it like a mature pony. The first (and only) time she's acted like one in this whole episode.

So, as was expected, I don't like the episode. I don't hate it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. I'd still like to hear your thoughts on the episode and see if our opinions differ. Any criticism is welcome and if you wanna make fun of my little issues feel free. ^u^

!SPOILERS END HERE!

Now let's dash and soar to the end of this arc!

---

"…and that's why you should never create a sandstorm near the Gates of Tartarus," Feather Duster finished her story as she and Scootaloo walked past the cleaning closet. She smirked a little, imagining the hilarious rage the captain would go into once she found out that she hadn't done any work that day.

"I can't believe that you really met the soul of a dead pony," Scootaloo breathed, looking stunned at the story Feather Duster had weaved. She had just pulled a tale off the top of her head and wound up telling Scootaloo of a time where her imaginary awesome alternate self opened the doors to Tartarus by mistake and although she closed it in time she had accidentally released the soul of a dead stallion who had once been manipulated into killing his parents, earning him a place in Tartarus for his sins. He had told Alternate Feather Duster that he had been waiting for somepony to open the gates for a long time because he missed the mortal realm and she had become his first friend in years. Feather Duster's story evolved into the tale of how her alternate self wooed the handsome soul with her incredible charm and how they had become an item. However their love ended in tragedy when the soul began to feel uncomfortable living amongst the living and how he felt like he didn't belong in the mortal realm any more. Feather Duster had tried to change his mind but the wise and amazing and beautiful hero knew what she had to do and she had reluctantly bid farewell to her ghostly lover, returning him to Tartarus and to an unknown eternity of horrors.

She had in no way stolen that story from one of her gothic fiction novels. Pfft, why would she own such things anyway? It's not like she started reading them for strictly ironic purposes and grew attached to the genre. No, not at all!

"Is that the coolest thing you've ever done? Communicating with the dead must be it, right?" Scootaloo seemed completely blown away by Feather's story. The janitor (I mean The Tiny-Winged Desperado?) honestly felt better about herself than she had in years. A little filly looked up to her of all the ponies in the world. Sure, she could never mean as much to her as her sister Rainbow Dash did but the sole fact that somepony viewed her as a hero for her disability was incredible. Feather Duster wasn't exactly proud of herself and the decisions she had made in her life, but for the while, as she was living in this fantasy she had invented for the filly, she actually liked being her. Sure she was lying to this filly's face so that she wouldn't topple off the high pedestal the orange pegasus had placed her on, but… okay. It was inexcusable, she knew that, and she would likely feel guilty about it later when Scootaloo had gone back to Ponyville and she'd be forced to give up the charade; but she was kind of addicted to being this hero that Scootaloo had built her up in her head to be. There were some stages during her storytelling that the tales came so easily to her that she wondered if they were just growing from some kind of hidden desire.

Yes, there had been a point in her life where she wanted to be a Wonderbolt. But her disability had prevented her from being accepted into the Academy due to her lack of stamina and ability and because there was a high risk of her being injured because of her small wings delaying her reactions during flight. And when she crashed through the window into the Wonderbolt's Academy that day (she'd pay it off when she was done enjoying her workplace) it was the perfect opportunity to (sort of) accomplish that old dream of hers. Sure, she couldn't fly with them, but being around them felt like a small success in itself. And since she was totally evil she loved screwing around with them as well. She had made some friends in Surprise, Misty Fly and the Streak twins (and she would turn them over to the dark side in time) and of course one of her most favourite pastimes in the world now was pissing Spitfire off with her laziness. She knew that the captain was way too stubborn to fire her before she paid for the window so in a sense she was immortal around here!

And now in the eyes of this adorable filly, she was someone. She wasn't Feather Duster the janitor who sleeps on the job; she was Feather Duster, the mare who ignored her disability and did something great. Of course, she was not the latter at all, but at least until the end of the day she could pretend that was the case. She would have one day to be a hero. One day to be somepony.

She then remembered that she needed to answer the kid's question. The right thing to do would have been to say yes, and that interacting with the dead was her greatest feat. But Feather Duster was so drunk on the praise and admiration that was oozing from this filly like pheromones that she just couldn't leave things there. She needed more.

"Nope, there's… something else," Feather Duster tried to summon another goof idea from her brilliant mind. The same mind that had come up with the dog/dragon hybrid… oh, and that epic story from earlier, of course. Scootaloo gasped and hopped up and down.

"What is it? What is it? What else have you done?!" she gleefully chirped. Feathers felt herself blush. The fact that lying was part of a villain's job made this all the more enjoyable for her as well. She was on some kind of evil high and she never wanted to come back down!

"I have…" Feather Duster made it look like she was pausing for dramatic effect when in actuality she was just trying to figure out some way to finish that sentence. "Well, you've heard all about Captain Nighthawk, right kid?" Feathers asked, and Scootaloo nodded.

"Yeah, Rainbow Dash tells me stories of how cool he was. She says that he's the greatest Wonderbolt of all time!" she gushed.

"Well… one time I used my expert medical know-how-"

"Like how you performed a heart transplant on a griffin while falling through the air?" Scootaloo butted it.

"Yes, that same know-how," Feathers was still pleased that she'd made that story believable. She should be a writer or something, and then she could write her own gothic novels! I mean not really because there's no way in hell that she liked that kind of stuff. "Anyway, there was one time that Nighthawk busted his wing while training for an important show in Las Pegasus. Those medical ponies know nothing compared to me so it was lucky that I swooped on in and bandaged him up pronto so he'd heal up as quick as possible."

"Wow…" Scootaloo breathed, and the two of them walked out of the entrance doors and past the little flower garden that Feather Duster was secretly a little fond of. She didn't mind planting the seeds and watering the plants to watch them grow. When they finally bloomed she would feel a little proud of herself too (and when some tailhole trampled on the flowerbeds there would be hell to pay). "I can't believe you really did all of this stuff."

'Neither can I', Feather Duster admitted to herself. She knew all about getting injuries (since she had blown up a number of inventions while working on her evil schemes and fried herself to a crisp on more than one occasion) but when it came to actually healing ponies injuries, you were better off asking Lightning Streak for help for Celestia's sake.

"Well I did," Feather Duster figured that here would be a good place to try and teach this kid a thing or two about flying. Sure it wasn't the training grounds, but nopony really came out the front of the Academy until the end of the day and they still had a little while left. Feather Duster wanted the two of them to be out of sight because she knew that if any of the Wonderbolts or staff caught her around here teaching a kid to fly they would suspect that something weird was going on. During her short time at the Academy, Feathers had made quite the name for herself. She was the small mare who had fallen from the sky like a falling star (or a destructive meteorite) and brought lasers to work, and napped in the bathroom sinks and threw parties with her pay check instead of the damage she had caused. Ponies knew that she was a rebel… well maybe not a rebel, but there was no way that Normal Feather Duster would help a kid learn how to use her deformed wings. She wasn't a Saint for crying out loud!

"Hey, I have a question," Scootaloo stopped just as Feather Duster was about to halt. Feathers nodded for the kid to speak. "If you did all of this then why are you just a janitor?"

Feather Duster internally flinched at the words 'just a janitor' but made sure not to let it show. The janitor (I mean the Messy-Maned Musketeer?) had a pretty simple response to that. Sure, it was probably the most cliché thing she could have said in this situation (and Feather's hated clichés) but right now she was only fixated on impressing this kid and seeming like the biggest hero she could. She wasn't in this for money or fame, she just wanted to be a hero… and that was kinda true. After all, she didn't need to be paid to live out something like this. Just the feeling of being admired like this felt so good that it was, in a way, better than cash and being famous. Why did pop stars do drugs when this felt so good?

"I just do it 'cause I care," Feather shrugged as if it were nothing. "My job doesn't keep me from being great," she wished so much that it was true. She couldn't do many heroic deeds with a mop after all. Okay, there was this one funny time where Feathers was mopping the floor and forgot to put up the 'Caution: Wet Floor' signs. Wave Chill had slipped on the floor and wound up with his head stuck in the bucket of water. When he'd lifted his head water had poured all over him and he'd had to go to the hospital to have the bucket removed. Feathers had almost killed herself laughing at that… funnily enough Spitfire hadn't found it very amusing, though at least Lightning Streak had the decency to cackle at Feather Duster's dirty deed… even if that dirty deed had been done with cleaning supplies. The only downside was that she had needed to buy a new bucket, but it was so worth it!

"That's a pretty cool outlook," Scootaloo nodded in approval. "It's the same with Rainbow Dash. She's a weather pony but she's still the coolest pony in the world."

"Well, technically she's also an Element of Harmony and a member of the Counsel of Friendship and a Wonderbolt's Academy cadet, and she's been in the Equestria Games-" Feathers decided to stop. She wasn't heartless enough to ruin a kid's views on things. However, Scootaloo didn't seem bothered at all.

"And she does it all while still having a weather job. She's just so cool!" Scootaloo squealed, flapping her wins in excitement. Ah, that reminded Feather Duster of the reason she was here in the first place.

"So anyway," she gestured at the space around them, "this is where I shall teach you how to fly, my student," Feather Duster bowed just like the sensei's did in those karate movies she enjoyed watching in her down time. Scootaloo didn't seem to know what to do, so she decided a little running commentary wouldn't hurt. "Now you're meant to bow back," she commanded, and Scootaloo easily did as she was told, her nose twitching a little as it brushed against the clouds below her hooves. It was so cute. Feather Duster hated the word cute, but there was really no other way of describing it.

"I will do everything you say, my liege," Scootaloo giggled. Feather Duster decided not to tell Scootaloo that a 'liege' wasn't someone who trained you to fly because she seemed all up in this thing right now and she saw no real reason to interrupt the magic. Feather stood beside Scootaloo and unfolded her wings for her.

"Okay, listen to how I fly, okay," Feathers put a hoof on the orange kid's shoulder, and Scootaloo nodded, poking her tongue out the side of her mouth for extra focus.

"I've got this."

---

While trying to fly, Scootaloo falls and jars her wing. Feather Duster uses her knowledge of cleaning supplies to fix her up. However, this causes Feather Duster to reveal that she's not as awesome as she made herself out to be. She then reveals a little more about her lack of self-worth and how she has to hide behind an asshole persona in order to feel a little better. However, Scootaloo gives her a hug and tells her that she still thinks she's great, and Feather Duster has a non-asshole moment with her.

Soarin, Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had ended up right back where they started- the entrance hall!

Well, not everything had been for naught. When they had returned to Rainbow and Lullaby's room, Fluttershy and Lullaby had returned, so that just left Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Scootaloo.

"Can we go ahead and look outside?" Sweetie Belle called over her shoulder at the two adult ponies. The two Crusaders had trotted ahead of the pegasi, who had been exchanging small talk at the back of the group. Soarin had not taken into account how awkward Rainbow Dash would make this. Yes, he knew that she wanted to hide the fact that they were dating but if he'd known that conversing in monosyllabic sentences was a package deal then he probably would have thought twice about agreeing to all of this. It was hard enough without the uncomfortable silence that wafted between the two of them.

"Sure, go ahead," Rainbow agreed, and the two fillies scampered off. Soarin was about to pick up speed to catch up with them since he didn't really like the idea of them being on their own, when Rainbow Dash caught him by the shoulder.

"Hey, can we talk for a second?" she asked. Soarin didn't need to be asked twice.

"Gladly," he sighed with relief, smiling down at his marefriend and eager to have an actual conversation with her for the first time today. Rainbow's ears flopped and she briefly grimaced to herself.

"Look, I know that this is bothering you," she started, shifting her eyes in the direction of the door where the Crusaders had left, "and I'm really sorry about that. But I just wanted to remind you that I will make it up to you after my friends go home, okay?"

Soarin took one of her front hooves in his and squeezed it, getting the faintest hint of a blush to bloom on his marefriend's cheeks. "I know, Dashie. And I'm happy to go along with this if It will make you happy, so stop worrying about me and let's focus on finding your sister, okay?" he grinned in that usual dorky way of his. Rainbow felt a twinge in her chest for the stallion- if he had asked her to lie about their relationship to his friends… yeah she probably would have done it… but Soarin clearly didn't want this to stay a secret. He was being such a cool friend (oops, coltfriend) for doing this for her.

"Again, thank you for putting up with me," she said, booping him playfully on the nose. The act make Soarin cross his eyes, which in turn made Rainbow Dash laugh. She didn't understand how Soarin could make any simple thing he did funny, and in the past when Rainbow Dash found herself strangely imagining herself in a relationship, a dork like Soarin was not the first image that came to mind. In fact, the image that Rainbow imagined was not all that clear, because she didn't usually think about this stuff in too much detail. In all honesty, she'd had no idea what kind of pony she'd end up in a relationship with, but she was glad it was Soarin because he was probably the best she would ever get.

"Yeah, it's hard," Soarin smirked, clearly trying to push her buttons, but unfortunately for him Rainbow Dash saw right through him and knew instantly that he was teasing.

"Nice try dummy," Dash rolled her magenta eyes, "you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to get a reaction out of me, sir."

Soarin sighed and pouted. "Fine, I'll get you to react to my genius sarcasm somehow," Soarin narrowed his eyes evilly. Rainbow Dash's expression said it all.

"Right, good luck with that," she took the time to roll her eyes again just to hammer it in how useless Soarin was at this kind of thing. "But again, thanks."

"No problem," Soarin was about to keep walking when suddenly Rainbow Dash leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. Soarin hadn't seen that coming so he was initially surprised, but once the shock had died down it started to feel incredible. And she wasn't pulling away… they had been doing this for about three Mississippi's now. Oh boy, there went the sparks in his brain.

Soarin shut his eyes and focused on nothing but the sensation of his lips touching Rainbow Dash's, and the heat in his face only rose. The feeling of being this innocently intimate with Rainbow was enough to make fireworks go off in his head. It wouldn't hurt to maybe go a little further with this would it?

Praying that Rainbow Dash wouldn't pull away, Soarin ever so slightly rubbed Rainbow Dash's mouth with his, lips massaging lips, and he felt her shudder a little. She actually seemed to be enjoying this a lot, maybe even as much as he was. Soarin didn't know how long they had been kissing now; it could have been moments or hours for all he knew.

He then felt Rainbow's hoof on his shoulder again and she began stroking Soarin's bottom lip with her tongue. Oh boy, the blushes were getting even warmer and brighter now, and Soarin's mind was going on a crazy roller coaster ride. The Wonderbolt knew that there was a lot more that he and Rainbow Dash could do, and their kisses had not even progressed to open mouthed yet, but this was honestly the hottest thing that had ever happened to Soarin. Maybe they should keep going… the thought was pretty exciting to Soarin.

Soarin opened up his mouth ever so slightly and slid his tongue forward until he felt it brush against Rainbow Dash's, and the two of them shuddered in sync, sending electric flickers through their veins, and Soarin allowed Rainbow to slip her tongue in further and-

"RAINBOW DASH!"

Rainbow shoved Soarin away and looked left and right, eyes wide with terror as she looked for the source of the yelling. It had sounded like Apple Bloom, which meant that the sound had come from outside and nopony had seen what was happening. Thank Celestia for that. Rainbow Dash felt the panic melt away and she started galloping towards the door, Soarin (still a little dazed and disappointed by the loss of contact…) following not far behind.

"Rainbow! Soarin! Run! Hurry!" Sweetie Belle called.

"No, don't hurry!" another voice yelled, sounding even more strained and panicked.

"Feather Duster?" Soarin raised a brow. Rainbow Dash was pretty darn worried now.

"Don't listen to her, she- wait, GET BACK HERE!"

As Sweetie Belle yelled, Feather Duster burst through the door and galloped as if her life depended on it, sweating bullets and flapping her wings to give herself an extra burst of speed.

"What the…" Soarin rubbed the side of his head with a hoof. Rainbow got to the door and pulled it open, running past Sweetie Belle, who was at the bottom of the steps, and racing around the corner (where somepony else was yelling) before skidding to a halt when she saw what had happened.

"Scootaloo, what happened to you?"

---

"Okay Scootaloo," Feather Duster started, her wings making their usual buzzing noise as she flapped them and took off into the air, "notice just how I position myself when I fly," she spun in a circle so Scootaloo could examine every side of her body. Scootaloo tapped her chin and looked closely at how Feathers flew. The answer was obvious, but she wanted to see if there were any other miniscule things that may assist Feathers in her flight.

"Most pegasi fly with all four legs dangling towards the ground," Scootaloo answered, "but you fly with only your back legs dangling."

"That's correct!" Feathers gave Scootaloo a wink, which got her to smile widely with glee. "Now, notice how I'm holding my forehooves up like this," she flicked her front legs, with were held high and near her chest, "I do this because I want to keep more weight in my top half than my lower half. Watch what happens when I try to fly the way a pegasus with regular sized wings would."

Feather Duster touched down on the clouds and spread her wings. She then buzzed them as hard as she could while keeping all four of her legs dangling towards the ground. Even at maximum flapping power, Feather Duster could not stay off the ground for more than a few seconds before her wings got tired and she was forced to settle on the clouds below once again.

"See? That's not gonna do me any good," she shook her head and let her wings hang limp at her side for a little while so they could recover from the invigorating flapping she had just done. Scootaloo recalled the time when she was trying her hardest to fly back when she and the other Crusaders were practising their flag carrying routine for the Equestria Games. She had pushed herself to her limits and had (she hated to admit) become physically exhausted by keeping that up for so long. At least now she was learning a way to avoid making that mistake again in the future.

"I think I got it," Scootaloo said, feeling pretty confident that she could do this now. "Can I give it a shot now?" her heart thudded with anticipation as she imagined herself and Feather Duster flying side by side, soaring over Cloudsdale as the world below became an insignificant backdrop to their adventures. Yes, she did indeed plan to help this cool little pony out on her quests once she had mastered the art of flight.

Feathers knew that the answer was a resounding no! There was so much more that Scootaloo needed to know before she was ready to fly; flying wasn't just flapping your wings and hovering above the ground… and come to think of it, she probably could have made that a little clearer in her explanation rather just taking off as if that was all there was to it. Before she could reply, Scootaloo reared onto her hind legs and buzzed her wings. With a gasp, she began to rise up, and she clenched her teeth as she focused on nothing but her flapping. Feathers was a little dumbstruck- what about the exercises she was supposed to do every morning? She hadn't even explained those yet.

"Oh my gosh…" Scootaloo kept buzzing her wings, trying not to completely flip out in her joy. Feathers hadn't expected her to pick this first part up so quickly (it had taken her much longer, but she supposed that some ponies learned at different paces than others) but she went along with it, trying not to look surprised and pretending that she had known this would work the first time. "Feather Duster, I'm flying!" Scootaloo began to breathe faster, on the brink of completely losing control and just trying to go all out with the flying. But that's when she realised that she had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to move.

"Hey, I get that you're pretty… high on this whole experience, but would you mind landing for a second so I can explain a crucial step you may need to know in order to proceed," she tried to sound as professional as she could with this, attempting to convince herself as well as Scootaloo that she could handle this and knew where she was going with this. Maybe the pun she threw in there didn't help…

"Sure…" Scootaloo reluctantly landed and tried not to completely fangirl over what just happened. "…so what do I do next?"

"Well if you want to fly you're going to have to learn how to turn right and left, and how to propel yourself forwards and backwards. Flying is all about direction after all; if there's no direction to fly in then you're just staying in one place, and that's stupid." She was leading up to some kind of inspirational monologue… but she couldn't think of that so she decided to just stop there before she made a fool out of herself. "Just watch me again." Feather Duster fluttered into the air again and began spinning, first turning to the left, and then turning to the right.

"Ooh! Ooh! I can see how you're angling your wings differently to change direction," Scootaloo raised her hoof in the air just like she did in class whenever she tried to answer a question for Miss Cheerilee. Feather Duster swooped down and patted Scootaloo on the back for that one.

"Excellent answer there, punk," she praised the filly before flying back up into the air again. "It's a pretty simple thing: If you want to turn to the right you need to twist your right wing forward a little, and you do the same thing with your left wing if you want to turn to the left. Got it?"

"Affirmative!" Scootaloo saluted, and judging by how tense her legs were she was struggling not to jump for joy. Feather folded her arms and figured that there was so reason to keep the kid waiting any longer.

"Well, are you gonna try it out or not?" she asked. Scootaloo gasped with glee and leapt into the air. However, because she completely forgot that she was supposed to rear onto her hind legs first she just fell on her face. Once she'd scolded herself for forgetting she tried again, and this time she managed to get airborne without making any mistakes. She did as Feather Duster had commanded her to and decided to turn to the left. Ever so carefully, she tilted her left wing forward and she began unsteadily rocking to the left. She gasped and tried to straighten herself out again, a little terrified of how she felt like she was going to spin out of control and fall when she tried to turn.

"Careful," Feathers warned her pupil, "I probably should have told you that you only need to turn them a teeny smidge in order to move. Even a little more can send you spiralling out of control."

Scootaloo nodded and tried again, a little frightened of the 'spiralling out of control' part. A couple more times she oclvertwisted and lurched startlingly to the side, but before long she had gotten the hang of rotating in mid-air. "Am I doing it right?" Scootaloo checked with her teacher. Feathers scanned the filly's wing movement and once she had confirmed with herself that Scootaloo had gotten the flaps and buzzes to be just right she gave the mid a nod.

"You got it," she replied, and Scootaloo threw her hooves into the air, cheering at her accomplishment. However this causes her to tumble backwards out of the sky and onto her rump on the ground. Feathers cringed and landed beside her. "Are you okay there?" She asked. Scootaloo sat up and shook the stray pieces of cloud from between her feathers. She gave the older pegasus a cute little smile.

"I'm fine," she giggled, "ya know, I'm used to the ground being really hard when I land, but these clouds are so soft." She bounced up and down on the fluffy surface.

"That's why this is the ideal place for pegasi to live," Feathers turned into a biology teacher for a moment, "the clouds are the perfect surface to have if you're teaching foals how to fly. Some parents still throw their foals from higher clouds onto a lower one in hopes that they'll learn to fly on the way down."

Scootaloo made it pretty clear that she didn't come to have a lesson on pegasus flying rituals (the exception being the one that she was currently partaking in herself) by ignoring that last part and changing the subject back to the training. "So how do I push myself forward?" She asked. "What's the point in flying if you can only stay in one place and spin in a circle?"

"An excellent question, my small and adorable friend," Feathers patted Scootaloo on the head. "And I shall now answer that for you." With a jump, she took off into the air again; ready to move onto the next lesson. Without waiting a second more, Scootaloo buzzed her wings and ascended higher into the air. Since she had not had as much experience as Feather Duster in this field, her flying was not as quick as her teacher's and it took her a little while to fly to her level. She actually felt a little tired by the time she made it there as well, but she supposed that since Feathers had been doing this for years it took a lot longer for her wings to get tired. In time she would get used to buzzing her wings a dozen times per second; after all, she was looking at living evidence that this method worked.

"So…" Scootaloo paused to catch her breath, "tell me how." She smiled, trying not to waver as her wings almost cramped up. Feather Duster simply leant backwards a little and fluttered back, then she leaned forwards a bit and fluttered towards Scootaloo. She did the same and buzzed to the left and then the right.

"Are you getting it?" Feather Duster asked, and Scootaloo nodded quickly, bobbing around the air as she did so.

"You lean in the direction you want to fly," Scootaloo answered. Feather Duster flew in circle.

"Ding ding! On the nose! You got it right, kid!" she applauded, and Scootaloo almost threw her arms up again before remembering what happened the last time she did that.

"Okay, I'm gonna try it out," Scootaloo forgot about the aching in her wings since it was pretty much numbed by her excitement. Feathers backed up a little bit to give the kid some more room to fly around and then Scootaloo started to fly in a circle. She wobbled and plummeted to the ground several times, but after a while she'd gotten the hang of it.

"This is so fun!" Scootaloo yelled ecstatically. Feather Duster flew beside her for a little while to balance her out whenever she tilted too far to the side, however once Scootaloo had gone a while without almost falling out of the sky, she stopped to let Scootaloo fly on her own for a little while.

The events that followed made Feather Duster believe that that wasn't the best of ideas.

Scootaloo kept on flying, grunting as she tried not to fly out of control, and after a while she began to speed up, getting a little more comfortable now. She giggled and looked over her shoulder at Feather Duster, leaning forward a little more to speed up. "I'm gonna go find Rainbow Dash and show her what I can do now!" she called. Feathers couldn't see any harm in that, so she started following after Scootaloo as she headed to the doors, still shaking in the air and sometimes dropping a couple of feet with a yelp. Though this wasn't entirely a bad thing because she was at just the right height to be able to pull the doors open.

"Um… don't you wanna walk to save energy?" Feathers yelled after the kid, but Scootaloo twisted round and shook her head at her older friend, leaning backwards to keep up the pace.

"That's not happening! Once Rainbow Dash sees me in the air like this she's gonna be totally blown away. She'll be so proud of me!" Scootaloo gushed, speeding up even more. Feathers then realised just what was about to happen.

"Scootaloo you might wanna turn around!" Feather Duster sped up to try and catch the kid. Scootaloo twisted round to the right just in time to see the door just a couple of feet in front of her. With a gasp she tried to turn around to avoid slamming into it, but of course because life loved to kick ponies in the butt, she ended up crashing into it.

She landed at the top of the steps with a thud and Feather Duster dropped down from the air to run the rest of the way to her, her heart racing in her chest as a fog of dread seemed to spread around her. She jumped up the steps and looked Scootaloo over.

"Scootaloo, are you hurt?" she placed a hoof on the filly's shoulder. The orange pegasus whimpered and sat up, lifting her front hoof off the ground and looking down at her right wing, which was hanging limply at her side.

"I think so…" Scootaloo knew that there was no point in saying 'think' at all because her hoof and wing were throbbing like crazy. "…I hit the door wing-first."

Feathers cringed at that, since wings were very sensitive. Heck, the easiest way to get a pegasus to fall out of the sky was by hitting the base of their wings. It wasn't surprising at all that the crash had made Scootaloo fall if it was her wing that had been hurt.

"Um… can you walk?" Feathers bent down to lend Scootaloo her shoulder to lean against. Scootaloo did need to lean against Feather Duster to stand up, but once that was done she seemed to be able to stand alone. She experimentally put her front hoof on the ground, and aside from a little shoot of pain it felt alright. Feather looked down at the kid's wing and tried to figure out what was wrong. As stated before, Feather Duster knew less than nothing about medicine and how to heal injuries.

"I'll be fine; I think I've just jarred my wing," she smiled weakly at Feather Duster. Great, even this kid knew more about medical shtick than she did! She'd been around when Fire Streak had jarred his wing, however, and he'd had to lie down for a few hours before it stopped hurting. By the expression of agony Scootaloo was trying to hide, that's exactly what she needed to do.

"Quick, I know what to do," Feather needed to keep up her heroic act, "let's get you to the medical room." She moved to hold open the door for Scootaloo to walk through, but as soon as she cracked it open and peered through, poop hit the fan.

Rainbow Dash and Soarin were coming around the corner, with two other fillies.

"Great googly moogly, it's all gone to crap." Feather whispered to herself, quickly shutting the door. She turned around and tried to pretend that nothing was wrong. "Actually, let's go through a different door; I don't wanna worry anypony by taking you through these hallways." The back door would probably work fine since it was near the medical room. She had to hurry before Rainbow Dash and the others came through the door and found out about just how much she had screwed up.

"Feather Duster, I'm gonna be okay aren't I?" she asked, looking down at the ground. "You're not disappointed in me, are you?" she rested her head against the side of Feathers'. The janitor (Fearless Flank Hole) couldn't believe the kid would say anything like that. That mixed with the fear of being caught and skinned alive by the punk's older sister made her head completely spin.

"Scootaloo, you have no idea how proud I am of you," she felt kinda weird saying that, since villains were only supposed to be proud of themselves when they succeeded, "you did so well for your first try. I'm mad at myself right now, not you. Never you."

"Why? It's not your fault I was a big dumb-dumb and crashed into the door." she didn't notice Feather Duster trying to walk a little faster. They'd made it around the corner and were walking past the window of Silver Lining's office. Thankfully due to the pair's height they could pass by without bending down. She'd just have to keep it down.

"It kinda is…" Feathers tried to put the guilt she was feeling into a deep dark hole and bury it, but before she could even begin to metaphorically dig, voices rang out from behind them.

"Hey Scootaloo, we've been- what's up with your leg?" Feathers turned around so fast that the loss of something to lean against made Scootaloo fall over, and Feather found herself cringing for what felt like the dozenth time that day. Scootaloo mumbled a little before answering them.

"I was learning how to fly guys… and I did it. I really did it." She got stars in her eyes despite the pain in her wing and leg. "I just got hurt a little in the process." Feathers knew that Rainbow Dash and Soarin were right behind these kids, so she'd better-

"What the hay is goin' on?"

Feather Duster turned around again to see Applejack. Okay, why the heck was she here now?

"Scootaloo hurt her wing," Apple Bloom sat next to her orange friend. Applejack whistled and peered at the filly's injured wing.

"How'd ya do that?" the earth pony bit her lip to try and keep from making any disturbed facial expressions. Scootaloo's wing wasn't bent out of shape or anything, but it looked swollen and dishevelled, and it was twitching a little too. It kinda grossed her out, though she dared not say that out loud. She then noticed Feather Duster. "Were you there, Ms. Duster?" she asked. Feathers grimaced and tried not to panic. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know her?" she asked the older pony, and Applejack had to wonder why the kid cared.

"Ah met her earlier. Ah asked her somethin' and she was no help at all," Applejack pointedly glared at the brown pegasus. Scootaloo absentmindedly rubbed her hurt foreleg comfortingly with her other front hoof.

"Maybe your problem just wasn't important enough, 'cause Feather Duster always helps out ponies in need," the kid told Applejack, "were you just looking for the bathroom or something? Rainbow Dash showed it to us on her tour, but you weren't there."

The fan had officially been hit.

Applejack chuckled. "Since when're you so benevolent? Don't ya have some sarcastic comments to make somewhere?" she teased. Feathers couldn't speak if she tried; Scootaloo looked a little confused.

"Did you annoy her or something, Applejack?" the orange filly asked. "Did you call her short, because that may be why she didn't help you- she's a little sensitive." Scootaloo smiled over at the brown pegasus. Feathers wished that she hadn't told the kid about her issues with her height. Applejack snorted.

"Who cares, let's just get you t' the medical room." She helped the filly to her hooves again. Scootaloo still looked a little disappointed.

"Show her some respect Applejack…" she muttered. Applejack chuckled again.

"What have you n' Ms. Duster been up to?" she asked. Feather was constantly looking behind her to see if Rainbow Dash and Soarin were coming. Why wouldn't Applejack just move her rump? She was tempted to kick her to get her started… kick-starting her, if you will?

"She was teaching me how to fly." Scootaloo replied. Applejack glanced back at Feather Duster.

"Wait… did you get her hurt?" Applejack asked. Feathers frantically shook her head. Scootaloo shook her head as well.

"No, that was all me." She rolled her eyes, still a little embarrassed about getting so carried away with her flying. "Feathers doesn't hurt ponies." She limped over to Feather Duster and nuzzled her shoulder affectionately. Applejack looked pretty darn confused.

"Well Miss Surprise did say that she was some kinda bad supervillain," Applejack recalled, "and by bad Ah mean 'not good at it' and not actually a bad guy."

Scootaloo peered up at the janitor (Screwed-as-Heck Superhero) with baffled purple eyes. "Supervillain?" she echoed. Feather Duster, who still hadn't said a word in the past few minutes, carried on this pattern of silence. She had a feeling that if she said anything her voice would go high and her head would explode.

"Well apparently Surprise was wrong if she's suddenly some kinda hero," Applejack shook her head. "Sure took a 180 degree turn from earlier when ya told me that you were imaginin' cleaning mah dead corpse off a rug."

Scootaloo was a little unnerved by that, and she took a cautious step away from Feathers. "Whaaaaa…?" she let out a long exclamation. Feathers decided that she needed to clear things up a little (no Celestia damned pun intended there, baka!)

"I didn't mean that I was gonna kill Applejack, if that's what you kids are thinking," she said to the three fillies, "I meant that someone else would kill Applejack and then I'd just clean up her corpse and hide it from you."

Scootaloo backed up a little more, Apple Bloom sidled towards Applejack for comfort and Sweetie Belle just stood there looking from side to side, wondering whether she should find some help. If her friends were going to be cowards then she needed to step up and be the hero. She should come up with a scheme to rid the world of this villain, just like the amazing heroines in those weird gothic fiction novels that Rarity stashed under her bed out of embarrassment, and naively went about her life believing that nopony else knew of their existence. She must commence this plan immediately!

But maybe later, because right now she was focusing on not wetting herself out of anxiety and fear.

"Why would ya hide mah sister's dead body from us?" Apple Bloom asked, narrowing her eyes in an attempt to look tougher. Feathers slowly side-stepped away, trying not to freak out and just gallop for the hills before things got too out of hoof.

"Because I don't wanna raise any alarms…" judging by the dumbstruck stares she was getting from the kids, that was not the best choice of words. "I mean, I don't want anyone catching on- I MEAN!" Feathers knew that she was just going to screw this up no matter what she did. Then she made the mistake of looking at Scootaloo, who seemed a little nervous… maybe even a little bit frightened.

And then the fan spun out of control and exploded.

There was only one thing she could do to fix this.

"Gotta go!" Feathers darted away like she was being chased by a herd of rampaging buffalo.

"Is…" Sweetie Belle pressed close to Apple Bloom for comfort. "Is she gonna go and kill somepony?" she asked, worriedly. Apple Bloom shrugged.

"Beats me, but we'd better do somethin' about her." She plotted. Sweetie Belle gasped.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Criminal Catchers!" she rubbed her hooves together cunningly. "I like the sound of that."

"Um, you kids aren't goin' anywhere," Applejack sighed, knowing that all of this was ridiculous. Then it was Apple Bloom's turn to gasp.

"Isn't that pony headed right for-" her eyes went wide at the thought. "RAINBOW DASH!" she yelled, pretty much completely convinced that if Rainbow Dash didn't hear her cries, she and Soarin were doomed. Sweetie Belle galloped after Feathers without another pause, forgetting about her terror for the sake of her friend. She came round the corner to see Feather Duster ascending the steps to the entrance doors.

"Rainbow! Soarin! Run! Hurry!" the little unicorn called out and Feather Duster looked over her shoulder, freezing for a moment. A little kid should not have scared her, and in actuality, she didn't. It was the thought that this kid could probably pin her down and beat the poop out of her if she wanted to… it's not like that hadn't happened before, as much as she hated to admit it.

"No, don't hurry!" the brown pegasus kept climbing the steps. Sweetie Belle kept chasing after her prey.

"Don't listen to her, she- wait, GET BACK HERE!" she shouted as Feather Duster pushed the doors open and raced down them, thanking her legendary procrastination that she hadn't cleaned the floors like she was supposed to have that day.

Flapping her little wings to give her a burst of speed, the janitor (Legendary Loser) skidded past Rainbow Dash and Soarin, down the hall, round the bend, and out of sight.

---

"C'mon Scootaloo, you've gotta admit, even though ya had to go to the medical room and get your wing bandaged up, the food makes up for it, right?" Apple Bloom asked after swallowing a mouthful of hayburger.

Scootaloo just grunted and shrugged her shoulders, giving her hurt foreleg another shake to make sure that it wasn't sore anymore before placing her chin on the countertop a few inches of her plate of horseshoe fries. Sighing, she stuck her tongue out and, in a seriously horse-like fashion, stretched it out and wrapped it around one of her fries, pulling in into her mouth and slowly chewing, despising the feel of her jarred wing blinded to her side.

Sweetie Belle sighed, wishing that Scootaloo would cheer up. She wasn't even entirely sure why she was so upset; she had guessed it was because she couldn't show them the progress she had made in learning to fly. The little unicorn even wondered if she had taken off at all, and she felt bad about that because she was pretty much giving Scootaloo a reason to be upset for the reason she had theorized.

Braeburn and Soarin were sitting at the table on the other side of the room, Braeburn eating some fries from the tray that Soarin had placed between them while Soarin stared at him with a smug little smile on his face. It was a little unnerving to say the least. Braeburn slanted his eyes up to look at his friend several times, and every time he could only maintain eye contact for a split moment before awkwardly shifting in his seat and averting his gaze to the tray of fries again.

Soarin's staring carried on for about another minute or so before Braeburn finally had enough. "Okay, so is there a reason yer givin' me a slasher smile?" he asked. Soarin snorted with laughter and folded his arms on the table.

"That was not a slasher smile, my friend. This is a slasher smile." Soarin then bared his teeth in a huge grin and widened his eyes as wide as they would go. This made Braeburn visibly shudder and shield his eyes.

"Holy Betty that's horrible! Please stop n' never do that again!" he pleaded. Soarin ceased his smiling and chuckled.

"Fine… I can't believe that you're this much of a horror prude." The pegasus teased his earth pony friend. Braeburn groaned and sneered across the table at his dinner companion.

"Ah'm not a horror prude! Just last month Ah watched The Children with the Horns with you-"

"-and you had like eight bathroom breaks… in the first half." Soarin teased him. Braeburn huffed and pulled his hat a little lower.

"So what; horror isn't muh genre. Ah don't make fun o' you 'cause ya don't like Western stuff. Ah'm actually a l'il confused about that 'cause you spend most of yer time with a cowpony-esque stallion. It's just occurred t' me how much ya hang out with me nowadays when ya don't even like Western stuff."

"Funny how things work out, isn't it?" Soarin smirked. "Anyway Braeburn, I had a point. Before when I smirked at you and preceding this crazy tangent we just went on I was gonna say something."

"Well go ahead then," Braeburn leaned back in his seat, relieved to be moving on from this embarrassing conversation. It astounded Braeburn that he had these kinds of talks with Soarin so much… why did that happen? Why?

"I talked to Applejack, and you'll never guess what she said." Soarin leaned forward a little, grabbing another fry and putting it in his mouth. Braeburn shrugged.

"Enlighten me," he invited, pushing Soarin away so he could grab another fry.

"She said that I did a great job looking after Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle today, and if I lived in Ponyville she would make me their permanent babysitter." He explained. Braeburn was not expecting that. His initial response was to freak the heck out and trot angrily around the room whilst blethering furiously about how stupid that was, but then he decided it would just be a lot easier to just try and make Soarin feel just the teensiest bit guilty for what he had just said.

"So lemme get this straight; ya gave me a slasher smile, made me recall traumatic memories of that terrible movie, and kept me from eating in comfort, just so you could insult me?" he asked. Soarin raised an eyebrow.

"I wasn't trying to insult you, I was just telling you what Applejack said to me. I thought it was a nice conversation starter." He said. Braeburn placed his hooves together and tried to explain this as calmly as he could.

"So in order t' start a conversation with me, which we've already established you could do just as well with probably every subject that exists in the world, ya decided to bring up a topic that you are completely aware upsets me a little. Did ya think this through at all?" he asked, raising his voice just a little bit.

"Oh… are you still sore about that? So what, you fell asleep; it's in the past so why should you worry about it?"

"Because Applejack keeps holdin' it over my head like a Celestia damned raincloud. And every time somepony reminds me of it, it's like the cloud gets bigger n' bigger!" he explained, throwing his hooves in the air.

"Oooh… that makes sense," Soarin bit his lip, "sorry bro, I don't think things through very much." He waited a long moment before looking back up at Braeburn, who was just staring at him. Oh boy, was this payback for his staring earlier on? He was beginning to understand how uncomfortable it was to be in this position. But what was bothering him more was how Braeburn hadn't objected to the thing that he had said about himself.

"Um… Brae?" he caught the attention of his friend.

"What?"

"This is the part where you tell me I'm wrong about not thinking things through," he tried to get Braeburn to catch up on what was going on.

"Why? You're right." Braeburn returned to munching on the fries. Soarin pushed himself up on the table with his front legs, but before he could yell or complain, the door opened and Applejack came through.

"So, did you guys wanna do this now?" the orange mare asked, looking at Soarin about to lecture Braeburn about how wrong he was about him being right. "Or do ya want me t' come back later once you've finished doin'… whatever this is?"

Soarin shook his head and moved away from the table, moving over to stand behind the Crusaders, who were still sitting in a line having finished their food (with the exception of Scootaloo, who was still picking off her fries). Sweetie Belle had eaten hers rather quickly because Rarity never let her rush her food at home and she liked to take the opportunity to pig out whenever the opportunity arose. Apple Bloom was pretty impressed with the unicorn filly's speed, but she had just eaten at a normal pace because she liked to savour her meals. The Crusaders were like the traffic lights of eating.

"Nope, you're right on time Applejack," Soarin replied.

"You didn't give me a time t' show up."

"Well if I had, you would be on time," Soarin said without missing a beat, "so shall we get this show on the road?" he looked at the Crusaders, who all eagerly nodded (yes, even Scootaloo now). Soarin, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had all told Applejack and Scootaloo about their plan to apologize to Braeburn, and they had thought that it was a good idea.

"What show?" Braeburn asked, looking a little worried now. The five ponies all walked around to the table to stand opposite the earth pony stallion, lining up in order from darkest coat to lightest coat (Sweetie Belle's suggestion since Rarity always said that it made things look better no matter what the occasion).

"Cuz, we wanted to apologize t' you," Applejack began. Nopony had been specifically told to begin anything since there had not been any rehearsals for this, and even if they'd had the time Soarin was too lazy to write scripts and arrange that kind of thing. But at least Applejack had gotten the ball rolling, so now all that was left was to move it along.

"Apologize fer what?" Braeburn asked, still looking perplexed about this. He then sat up in his seat, looking a little worried. "Wait, you guys are all in a line… are you gonna sing?"

Soarin's shoulders sagged. "No! Aw, damn it Braeburn, we were just gonna talk but now I wish we could go back in time and do that instead." He rested his chin on the table top and pouted. Sweetie Belle stood on her back legs in order to get into the same position as him.

"Yeah, I wanna sing too," she frowned, sad to have missed out on an opportunity. Scootaloo slowly raised her hoof.

"If it makes the mood a little less… depressing, I don't wanna sing." She admitted. Sweetie Belle sighed and stood up, shooting Scootaloo a look before resuming her position at the end of the line. Soarin took his place between her and Apple Bloom as well, clearing his throat.

"Anyhoo, the five of us wanted to take this opportunity to say some words about how we feel about our actions towards you." Soarin said in the most professional voice he could muster. "Crusaders, would you like to begin?" he looked at each of the three fillies in turn. The trio nodded and hopped up onto the table; Braeburn flinched and judging by the way he opened his mouth before hesitantly closing it again, he was going to tell them to get their muddy little hooves of the surface. But when these ponies were about to apologize to you the last thing you wanted to do was tell them off for making a table a little messy.

"So yeah, we wanted to tell ya how sorry we were about what happened at the rodeo in Appleoosa a few months back," Apple Bloom started them off, tracing circles in the wood of the table with one front hoof.

"It was our fault, and you still got the blame for our behaviour," Scootaloo continued.

"And we feel really bad because of that," Sweetie Belle carried on. Applejack stepped up to stand behind the Crusaders as well, reaching forward to tug her cousin's hat down over his eyes.

"Ah admit right now that my reaction to you losin' the kids wasn't justi- okay, maybe it was justified 'cause ya still lost my sister an' her friends in a new place at night with a supposed criminal on the loose. But maybe Ah've been too harsh on you." She placed a hoof on Apple Bloom's head and ruffled her mane, messing up her bow a little in the process.

"Ya know how much Ah care about Apple Bloom, Braeburn. She n' her friends are really important t' me and… Apple Bloom can tell you, Ah can be just a mite overprotective."

Apple Bloom groaned and flattened her ears against her skull. "Ah didn't think we were gonna mention that."

Applejack kept on talking. "Because o' that, Ah tend to make a mountain out of a molehill and go a l'il overboard when it comes to ensurin' that the problem is solved-"

"Overboard?" Apple Bloom inquired, lips quirking as if she were about to burst into a fit of laughter, "more like 'off a cliff and into a river where ya crash into a bunch o' rocks and fall off another cliff'." The filly tried to make it clear to her sister how much of a pain in the flank she could be in these kinds of situations. Applejack glared at the yellow filly and grunted.

"Thank you, Apple Bloom," she said harshly before resuming her explanation to Braeburn, hopefully without being interrupted this time, because she wasn't sure how much more of that she could take before she snapped. "Now, as Ah was sayin', my refusal t' let ya babysit these three was just me doin' what Ah thought was best t' keep the girls out of trouble… but Ah didn't take how you'd feel into account." She admitted her mistake.

"It doesn't matter Applejack, really." Braeburn insisted. Soarin scoffed and interrupted.

"Seriously? You were angry about the whole thing three minutes ago? What happened to 'Soarin, please don't talk about it! I feel so insulted by the fact that my cousin likes you better than me!'"

"WHAT?!" Braeburn sat upright. "Ah never said that!" he looked over at Applejack, desperation flashing in his bright green eyes. "Ah never said that!" he repeated, his voice growing shrill from the annoyance he was feeling towards his pegasus friend. Applejack giggled; but not before giving Soarin a glower).

"Ah believe ya, Braeburn," she could sense that her cousin was being honest with her, "but Ah still know that an apology is required fer how Ah made ya feel. Ah know that you weren't really in any sorta state to foalsit these three in Appleoosa anyway and Ah should've stepped in t' make that clear t' you."

"Well…" Braeburn was unsure of how to respond since all of this was pretty much over now because Rainbow Dash's friends would be leaving soon, but he needed to show his cousin that he appreciated her apology. "thanks fer sayin' that, AJ. Ah do actually feel a l'il better about the whole thing now."

"Thanks fer that, cuz." Applejack walked around the table and gave Braeburn a hug. The Crusaders decided to give Braeburn some sugar as well, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo kissing his cheeks and Apple Bloom smooching him on the end of his nose.

"We're sorry too," they chorused. Chuckling, Braeburn smiled at each of the fillies.

"Ah forgive ya, kids." He felt a lot happier as the three girls cheered and leapt off the table with a spring in their steps. Soarin then jumped on the table in their place and sat on his haunches, grinning down at Braeburn, who smacked himself in the face with one hoof in exasperation.

"Oh come on, it's acceptable when the kids do it 'cause they don't know any better, but you can't just jump up on here! Someday this table will break!" he lectured his friend. Soarin stuck his tongue out at his earth pony friend and snorted with laughter.

"Oh please, this table can stand a lot more than me. And really? Was that a burn, Brae?"

"I think you just got burned," Apple Bloom confirmed.

"I think you got Braeburned!" Sweetie Belle giggled at the pun she had made. Braeburn raised a brow.

"No, Ah was just sayin' that with all the stuff this table's been through, it might not be long before it finally snaps… story o' my life." He added that last part to himself. Soarin sighed and put a deadpan expression on his face.

"Great, just play it off as good nature. Now I'm gonna stay awake all night wondering what it says about me that the first thing I assumed was that you were making a fat joke." The Wonderbolt co-captain looked down at his tummy self-consciously.

"Ah think it says that ya think yer overweight." Braeburn replied honestly, trying to count all the pies Soarin had eaten since he had started working here. You would need a team of accountants to be able to figure it out.

"And… now I'm not wondering anymore." Soarin grumbled. He didn't really care about his weight- some ponies thought that chubby stallions were adorable. And he made up for it by working hard to practise for the air shows, so what did Braeburn know? Oh yeah, that reminded him. "So, I wanted to apologize to you too, bro. I think this is way overdue."

Braeburn actually seemed a little bit astounded by that. "Yer really gonna apologize? Sincerely?" he was taking precautions to make sure that this wasn't just Soarin trolling him like he'd done in the past… many, many times.

"Of course; how else would I apologize?" Thankfully, before Braeburn could start listing the many other ways Soarin could 'apologize' the pegasus continued speaking, saving everyone from having this draw out even longer. "So yeah, I know that I haven't exactly been all that nice to you, especially since… ya know," he looked at the three fillies (almost forgetting that two of them knew about him and Rainbow Dash anyway).

Braeburn sighed. "Mind tellin' me somethin' Ah don't already know?" he asked. Applejack shot a look at him to try and get him to be patient while his friend was trying to apologize to him.

"Let me continue and I'll get to that," Soarin booped his friend on the nose and slid backwards off the table, "I am genuinely sorry that I sometimes get carried away with my teasing… to be honest I'm pretty surprised that you've put up with me for as long as you have."

"Ah'm a patient guy," Braeburn shrugged, "Ah have four brothers, Soarin. Hangin' out with you every day is like a vacation compared to spendin' time with them." He recalled those traumatic times he had spent cleaning up his rowdier brothers' messes. Maybe he should thank them though, because if it weren't for them he wouldn't be as good at repairing things as he was today.

"Aw, thanks for that buddy," Soarin playfully tugged Braeburn's hat over his eyes (the earth pony stallion was beginning to get a little tired of ponies doing that to him today), "anyway, I wanna get serious for a moment so… can we just make the mood a little less light-hearted and happy?"

"Okay, just give me a moment to think about the wedding episode in Sherclop…" Braeburn paused for a few seconds and sure enough a frown began to form on his face. "…alright I'm ready."

"Wow, did you really cry that much at the wedding episode?" asked Soarin.

"No, I just thought it sucked." Braeburn answered, shaking his head as he remembered the end of the episode. He could never get used to some characters…

"Save it for your fan club, I wanna talk," Soarin shushed his friend again, "I just wanted to let you know that I'm perfectly aware of how difficult I can be."

"No kidding," Braeburn grinned, "ya do inconvenience mah life just a l'il bit on occasion."

"I know that," Soarin wanted to get this apology out faster. "But you can be a jerk to me a lot too, Braeburn. Do you really think that I don't notice when you're groaning and rolling your eyes at me? I'm a pegasus, dude; I'm supposed to have insane perception."

"Well…" Braeburn had been pretty convinced that Soarin was blissfully unaware of his exasperation towards the blue stallion's exhausting antics. But apparently he was wrong? "…Ah'm sorry if yer feelings got hurt because o' me."

"No! I'm meant to be the one apologizing, not you!" Soarin face-hoofed, not being able to believe that his friend could screw up his plan to be nice by being nice. Was he even meant to be mad at him for that? "Okay, before anything else happens I'm gonna get it out." He leaned forward and pressed his nose to Braeburn's. "I. Am. Sorry! I am a huge dumbass a lot of the time! And yes, sometimes I fear that one day you'll get fed up with me and leave. There, is that enough for you?"

Braeburn had to pause for a few seconds to let that run its course through his brain. Had he heard that right? "Er… Soarin, are you hearin' yourself?" the earth pony stallion pushed his friend away a little bit so he had room to breathe. "Soarin, you don't really think that stuff do ya?"

"Well… sometimes I really do. I'm an annoying guy- everyone says that- and I've lost friends before because of that. I can't change who I am though, buddy, and I like my sense of humor. That's just a package deal when it comes to me- you want me, you need to have my retarded BS as well." Soarin explained. He wasn't sure why he had this odd sense of humor but there was no way he was ever losing it.

Braeburn sighed. "Soarin, as irritatin' as you are, ya sure do give mah life a l'il bit o' excitement. Ah may get tired of yer stupid pranks and stuff, but Ah'll never get tired o' you." Braeburn explained. Soarin was silent for a bit before guffawing.

"Psh, I knew that," he insisted. "How could you ever get sick of me? Look at my adorable face!" Soarin made puppy dog eyes. Braeburn grunted and smirked.

"Shut up and stop making that face. And thanks fer apologizin' Soarin… thanks to you four as well," he added to the CMC and Applejack, "just don't worry about all that stuff ya mentioned before; friendship is all about lookin' over the eccentricity and mistakes o' yer pals. Ya need t' forgive 'em fer their screw-ups because ya care about them." Brae raised his hoof for Soarin to bump, and he happily did so. Applejack smiled and walked around to stand next to Braeburn.

"That's a pretty good lesson t' teach Soarin, cuz." she nudged him in the shoulder with her muzzle. "Maybe he's not the only one who needs to learn it."

Braeburn was a little confused as to what Applejack was implying by that. And then all of a sudden… Applejack started wiggling her eyebrows. It was weird. And that was saying the least. The eyebrows sort of burned their way into his very soul, and for weeks afterwards he would live in fear that the eyebrows would come for him. Whereas children all over Equestria would be shaking beneath their sheets at the thought of the monster under the bed, Braeburn himself would fear only the eyebrows in the darkness.

Then he finally caught up to what Applejack was talking about.

"Oh!" Braeburn exclaimed, looking up at Applejack, who had put her eyebrows down. "Oh…" he repeated, a little afraid now. Why did he have to be right about all that stuff he had said before? But then again… "Ya know Applejack, that's a good point. If she wants to be friends with me then she'd just forgive me fer my mistake. It's been so long since we've even seen each other for pony's sake. It's time somepony did somethin'."

Applejack chuckled and slung a hoof over her cousin's shoulder. "There's the right attitude! So are ya gonna go n' fix this situation?"

"What's going on?" Scootaloo asked only to be ignored.

"Yeah…" Braeburn admitted, "Ah'm not nervous anymore."

"Hey kids, can you go back over there so the adults can talk?" Soarin asked the fillies, who rather hesitantly did as they were told. Scootaloo still had food to eat, and she would happily share what she had left with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to speed things up before it all got cold. Soarin and the two earth ponies made their way to the opposite side of the kitchen to talk.

"Okay, what I'm getting here is that you're gonna… I don't know… corner Spitfire in her office and get her to make amends, assuming she doesn't bash your head in before you get to your second sentence?" the co-captain asked. Braeburn rolled his eyes and groaned.

"No, Ah'm not crazy!" he sighed. "Ah know what Ah said earlier, Applejack… and Ah know that what's about t' happen could hurt a lot, but this is somethin' that needs to be done before it gets out o' hoof. Really, Ah should have realised this a long time ago. If Miss Spitfire doesn't want t' forgive me then that's her problem and there's nothin' Ah can do to change her opinion o' me. But there's no chance of things getting' better unless Ah get off my rump n' give it a shot."

"Wow… that's really mature," Soarin confessed, feeling pretty proud of his best friend, "I'm pleased that you're doing this buddy. Just remember what you said about it being her problem, 'cause if she can't see that you care about her then she's either blind or drunk."

"There was a lot o' alcohol…" Applejack muttered.

"What?" Braeburn and Soarin asked simultaneously.

"Nothin'," Applejack looked away. Braeburn made his way to the door.

"Wish me luck, okay?" he said anxiously before heading out. Soarin nodded at Applejack in satisfaction and sat back down at the table while Applejack trotted over to the serving counter to watch him leave.

"Good way to wrap up a day, right Applejack?" Soarin asked, leaning back in his seat. Applejack glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Yer right. Maybe it was a l'il more chaotic that Ah'd have liked, but at least we got a happy endin' out of it." She turned around and leaned against the counter, shamelessly stealing an apple from a bowl. Soarin raised a hoof.

"Possibly," he corrected her, "we can't rule out the chance of Braeburn completely botching things up."

Applejack, of course, knew that Spitfire cared more about Braeburn than Soarin knew, so she didn't have many concerns at all. It was all up to Spitfire now, really.

"Speakin' of the end o' the day, Ah'd better go find Twilight and the others. Celestia should start lowerin' the sun soon and we don't wanna fly the balloon back in the dark." She looked over at the three kids, who had finished eating and were making a tower out of all the ketchup packets Soarin had taken from the Hayburger.

"Girls, we've gotta get goin'," Applejack informed them. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom made disappointed sounds of protest as they made their way to the door while Scootaloo plodded along from behind without any hesitation at all, holding the remainder of her burger in her mouth.

"I hope I'll see you girls again, soon," Soarin ruffled each of their manes in turn as they headed out the door. He decided that he would come along to say goodbye to them, wanting to spend a little more time with these adorable kids, even if it wasn't for that long.

As they walked through the mess hall, the doors to the training grounds swung open and a couple of Wonderbolts (Blaze and High Winds) came in. They headed to the table closest to the door and started to sit down, when Blaze's eyes practically popped out of her skull and she leapt away, looking pretty disgusted.

"WHO IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA HERSELF DREW ALL OF THESE PRIC-"

"Okay, let's go!" Applejack joined Soarin at the back of the group and hurriedly budged the fillies towards the door.

---

Scootaloo trotted with her head hung low, not really wanting to finish eating the burger between her teeth- not that she could while walking anyway. Her slowness in comparison to the others meant that she had soon dropped behind Applejack and Soarin. A couple of times she noticed Applejack glancing at her in concern, but she gave the filly space, which Scootaloo was pretty grateful for.

She was pretty bummed out about what had happened earlier. As if it wasn't enough that her wing and leg were still sore (which she was still rather embarrassed about) but she felt so disappointed that Feather Duster wasn't who she thought she was. She was a villain? Albeit a bad one but still, a villain? And all of those stories had been lies. She felt like such an idiot- she should have known better. As if anyone could release a soul from Tartarus or fly away from a sandstorm… maybe she had just been too caught up in learning how to fly to care about how realistic Feathers' tales had sounded.

Oh well. It was over now anyway… and it hadn't been all bad. She'd gotten airborne after all, and she could only get better from here, correct? Still feeling more crestfallen than pleased right now, she walked past a trash can, tossing the last part of her burger into it.

"Gah! Hey!" somepony sputtered from within the trash can. Scootaloo jumped away in shock, looking to the left to see if anypony else had heard that. They hadn't and were still walking on, so Scootaloo cautiously knocked on the trash can.

"Hello?" she felt a little weird talking to a large metal cylinder, but the thing had just spoke to her and there was no way she wasn't going to investigate that a little more.

"Oh, hey," the trash can said back. Scootaloo tilted her head to the side.

"Feather Duster? Why are you in there?" the orange pegasus asked. With a few grunting noises, the lid of the trash can popped off and clattered onto the floor. Soarin, who was about to turn the corner to go down the hallway to Rainbow Dash's dorm, looked over his shoulder and looked worriedly at Scootaloo. Feather Duster was still hiding in the trash can so Scootaloo took that as a sign to cover for her.

"Um… oops," she shrugged her shoulders, "I'll just, uh… put that back on," she moved over to the lid and started pushing it back towards the trash can. Soarin chuckled and smiled.

"Okay then, you know where Dash's room is, don't you?" he asked. Scootaloo nodded and Soarin began moving off again. "Okay, we'll meet you there," he called back to her. Scootaloo waited a few more seconds before addressing Feather Duster again.

"So, why are you in the garbage?" she asked again. Feathers fluttered out of the trash, looking suspiciously clean. She landed in front of Scootaloo and sat on her haunches.

"Because that's where trash like me belongs!" she replied. "I even took out the trash that was already there to make room for even more trash!" she gestured to herself. "Why are you even talking to me Scootaloo, I'm a fraud and you know it!" she snapped. Scootaloo stared down at her hooves and shuffled them back and forth on the floor.

"You could always explain to me why you did it," she suggested, "you could have told me it was all a misunderstanding and you weren't a hero, but you didn't… so why?" Scootaloo stared up at Feathers with those same big purple eyes that had practically stolen her heart earlier today. Feathers groaned and rubbed her forehead with one hoof.

"You don't wanna hear some crappy sob story, punk." She told the filly. Scootaloo just sat down and scooched forward a little, looking up at Feather Duster and fluttering her eyelashes. After this carried on for about a minute, Feathers finally groaned and gave in.

"Fine, you asked for it! Prepare to be bored, kid!" Feathers clapped her hooves as if she were gathering some children around for story time. "So, let's start with a game. How many ponies do you think appreciate what I do?" Scootaloo was about to open her mouth to reply when Feathers interrupted her. "Too slow, but if you were gonna say 'nopony' then you were correctamundo!"

Scootaloo found it hard to believe that nopony appreciated Feather Duster. Sure, she was evil, but didn't that mean she would have a few followers?

"So you tell me, punk. If nopony appreciated you and then some cute little orange kid shows up and starts gushing about how awesome you were; you would take advantage of that to experience a little bit of joy. Come on, you would! Don't lie to me, Scootaloo!" Feathers folded her arms and stared the filly down. Scootaloo supposed that she could sympathize with that… and she had to admit that she probably would.

"Yeah… maybe," Scootaloo admitted. Feathers nodded, getting her bangs to flop in her eyes in the process.

"Exactly! Do you really think I enjoy this crap- I mean- crumby job?" she asked rhetorically while remembering not to let her mouth run so harshly around a child. "No! I don't wanna polish the floors or remove strains from the carpet or put my hooves down the same hole that Fleetfoot's pee has gone in? Double no! It sucks! So why in the name of Luna's mooncheeks would I pass up the opportunity to be a frigging hero?!" she stood up on her hind legs and thrust her arms in the air.

"Whoa… I guess it's pretty obvious why…" Scootaloo ran a hoof through her mane and chuckled, "I guess I shouldn't have assumed that you had bad intentions."

Feathers sighed and blew her bangs out of her eyes again. "Well I wouldn't call lying to a child 'good intentions'," Feathers felt a familiar tugging sensation in her head. That was her moral side trying to assault her evil side, which frankly was too frickin' badass to get harmed. It didn't stop her from feeling a little less devious though.

"Ya know…" Feathers rubbed her forehead, "there's a little demon and angel on my shoulders right now, punk," she couldn't see them either but she could feel their presence. "The demon's cheering me on for that and telling me that it's what I was supposed to do. But my little angel buddy here won't let me stop seeing how Celestia damn moronic I am."

"You aren't a moron-"

"YES! I am!" Feathers cut Scootaloo off. "Stop saying otherwise, kid. I am! I am the biggest moron in this Academy. And that's saying something because I think about 62% of the ponies in this place is a moron in one way or another."

Scootaloo was beginning to feel like there was no way to convince Feathers otherwise on this matter. "I don't believe that…" she said quietly. The janitor (Trash Can Crook) sighed in disbelief and distractedly pushed the trash can lid back and forth along the floor. "At least I can say that I wasn't being entirely selfish… I mean, I didn't wanna let you down, punk. Most of my motives were just to live out my cruddy fantasies, but I also wanted to make you happy."

She managed to give Scootaloo a small smile. "You came to me looking for some cool pegasus who could go against all odds to achieve flight, and that's what you were going to get." She started frowning again, and pushed the lid away so it clanged against the trash can. She looked sadly at Scootaloo, mainly at the injured wing that was bandaged to her side. "Too bad I even screwed that up…"

Scootaloo looked up at Feather Duster with sad eyes and contemplated what she should do. The brown mare was neither in the wrong nor the right… so how was she supposed to respond to that. This was the kind of solution an adult pony would have with their foal if they had done something naughty or if they were feeling upset. Well the latter of those examples counted for this situation, but Scootaloo was neither an adult nor a parent. So what was she supposed to do?

Oh well. There was one thing Scootaloo knew that could heal a lot of wounds, both physical and mental.

Feathers lifted her head up in surprise as she felt something wrap around her middle. She slanted her eyes down to see Scootaloo giving her a tight hug, tucking her head beneath her chin. The filly muttered into the fur on the dusty brown mare's shoulder.

"Well… I appreciate you."

Feathers took a moment to let those words echo in her mind and just stared down at the kid embracing her. At last, she put her arms around the filly's back and pulled her in closer, blinking back tears of happiness and gaining a tiny, but genuine, smile.

The mare's heart grew three sizes that day.

---

Endnote: And that's over! This arc is over! So yeah, I'm not gonna lie to you guys, that last scene did make me a little emotional. I just love Feather Duster and Scootaloo's friendship so much. I wanna find a way to get them to hang out again later in the story, but I'm having a little bit of trouble figuring out how I'm gonna go about doing that. God I need to stop talking about them!

Okay, so the next chapter is a SpitBurn chapter, and the first one in (get this) ten months! I kid you not. Ten Celestiadamn months! Maybe that's the reason I've been so inspiration-deprived. There's been no SpitBurn for almost a year! I feel sick just looking at that last sentence! I must fix this wrongdoing! So you guys can reflect on the weirdness you have just read (I do get that this was a boring chapter and I apologize) while I get my SpitBurn on!