A Filly's Wings

A Filly's Wings is a short story by Lunar Shadow (formerly known as Jmozziel).

Summary
When the Cutie Mark Crusaders meet Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake for the first time, Scootaloo is surprised to find out that Pound can already fly, whereas she cannot. After a play-session turns into humiliation for her, she speeds off on her scooter, leaving her friends to play with the babies on their own.

Her sulking in the clubhouse is interrupted by Rainbow Dash, who is showing Spitfire around Ponyville, also making a stop at Sweet Apple Acres. Realizing something is depressing Scootaloo, Spitfire takes her aside and asks what's wrong. In an attempt to cheer her up, she mentions that it took Soarin' a long time to learn flying as well, and now he's he second-in-command of the Wonderbolts; "wings are only as useful as you make them to be". Instead of taking in the lesson that she needs to wait for her wings to develop on their own time, however, Scootaloo interprets Spitire's advice as meaning that maybe she was born in the wrong body.

So she runs off to the Ponyville library to ask Twilight for a spell that will turn her into an Earth pony (or, more accurately, remove her wings). Twilight very reluctantly agrees, but limits the spell's duration to one day, in the hope that one day will be enough for Scootaloo to realize that her wings do have a purpose.

Excited to tell her friends she's an Earth pony now, Scootaloo gets on her scooter and tries to propel it forward the normal way. Naturally, her newfound lack of wings makes that impossible. She has to use her hooves like every other pony and is quite exhausted after a trip of only ten minutes. Her friends are not impressed by her "revelation"; Sweetie Belle in particular even seems angry with her. Nevertheless, they decide to try their hooves at earning tree-pruning cutie marks by helping Applejack on the farm.

Once again the trip to Sweet Apple Acres is quite exhausting, not just for Scootaloo this time. Her friends are used to being carried around on the wagon, propelled by the Pegasus' wings, after all. The first branches they try to mark for pruning turns out to be too tall to reach, though Scootaloo might have been able to had she had her wings to give her a lift. They try a second tree, and while Scootaloo can reach the branches there, she loses her balance and falls off, not being able to stabilize herself by flapping her wings.

Sweetie Belle sees this even though Scootaloo won't, and launches into a lecture. She explains that Pound Cake is not going to be able to fly like that forever; when he grows older, he'll lose the ability and have to re-learn flying like every other Pegasus. Scootaloo, in her opinion, has just used the incident as an opportunity to feel bad for herself, and it needs to stop. So she starts dragging her friend by her tail in the direction of the library, and Scootaloo agrees to let Twilight reverse her spell many hours earlier than planned.