The school bell rang to signal the end of the day and streams of teenagers flooded through the tiny school gates. Most of the teens were walking in groups of two or three but one particular young girl walked quite slowly, not particularly caring where she was going or where she would end up. Her violet eyes were partially closed and her short, bright purple hair covered her face ever so slightly. She was new to this particular school, she had enrolled herself wanting a half-decent education and had not yet made any friends, but she had made quite a few enemies.
The young Pegasus girl was unsure of where she belonged in the world, or the school for that matter. There were few groups, many of them only consisted of one kind of ponysona, varying between unicorns, which unlike the mythical unicorns, the ponysonan breed had no horns, but used magic from their hands, there were plain earth-bound ponysona and of course, pegasi.
The thirteen year old schoolgirl had only started at Equestria High only the day before and it was already like hell. She was often picked on because of her tiny wing size compared to other pegasi her age and frankly, she was sick of it already. All she ever heard was ‘Scootaloo’s this’ and ‘Scootaloo’s that’ and it hurt. Not just physically, but emotionally too.
Her classes hadn’t been any better, and her teacher, Ms. Cherilee, had to go and embarrass her in front of the whole class.
‘We have a new student to the class,’ Scootaloo could remember her saying. ‘And judging by your record, you are an orphan, yes? Don’t worry, we’ll be like the family you never had.’
That had made her angry. She had a family, once. Not that she could remember, but she knew they would’ve treated her better than this lousy school had.
Scootaloo sat down just outside the school gates and sighed to herself. The sunset was pretty. Not that she’d admit that to anyone. She leaned back against the fence and admired the swirls of pink merging into blue.
“It’s so beautiful… more beautiful than my pathetic life will ever be.” She mumbled to herself quietly.
“Hehe… yeah, your life is pathetic!”
Scootaloo stood up quickly and her gaze met that of a girl not much older that her. She recognised her from her science class. Her hair was purple with white streaks and was all tied together with a tiara-shaped hairclip. Her sidekick, who Scootaloo didn’t know, whose hair was a plain greyish colour tied up in a plait, smiled devishly. .
“W-what do you guys want?”
“Oh nothing Scoota-dearie, just to make sure you weren’t flying away.”
Scootaloo clenched her fist and gave a small growl, all the while eyeing off the two ponysona before her.
“What’s the matter? Want to be alone? You’ve always been alone haven’t you? No mother… no father…”
“WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY FAMILY?!” The purple haired girl snapped, her knuckles turning white under the force of the pressure she was containing in her fist.
“Just that they most likely threw you in the orphanage in the first place because you were too much of a disappointment to them.”
That’s when Scootaloo broke down. Tears forming in the corners of her eyes, she lunged at the purple haired girl, fist narrowly missing her arm. Scootaloo toppled forward, tripping over her untied shoelace and hit the concrete, face first, the two bullies giggling all the while. She groaned and sat up slowly, nursing the bloody bruise that had formed at the base of her chin.
“Oh look at this Silver Spoon, the little squirt wants to fight. Well,” The head bully stood in a fighting stance and smiled. “Bring it!”
Scootaloo lunged again, making contact with Silver’s face. The Earth girl’s expensive glasses shattered and fell to the ground, landing with a soft ‘thud’.
“What the hell is your problem?!” the girl shouted, anger seeping through her words as she jumped onto the smaller girl, knocking her to the ground, hard.
Scootaloo winced as she fell. Silver Spoon had her hands gripped tightly around her arm and it made a satisfying ‘crack’ as she hit the pavement. She knew her arm was broken, she could feel it too, and all the will to fight left her body as her vision became blurred. Silver Spoon had herself positioned on her chest and she threw blow after blow at Scootaloo’s face. The Schoolgirl readied another punch before getting called back.
“Okay Silver Spoon, that’s enough.”
“But Diamond Tiara….”
“No, she has learnt her lesson now. She won’t mess with us again.”
Scootaloo gave a sigh of relief as the pressure on her chest was lifted. She could not see as well as earlier as one eye was swollen shut and the other, bruised. The two bullies that had just confronted her, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon was it? Walked off giggling to themselves after their victory, leaving Scootaloo curled up on the ground in agony.
Groaning, the schoolgirl sat up and held her arm limply. She stared off towards the bullies with hatred and nursed her bruises. Her arm gave her no pain as it was totally numb so while she could, she stood slowly and limped back into the schoolgrounds. The principal would be expecting her, as she had mentioned to the navy-blue haired Alicorn that she would work there after school, cleaning, to earn extra bits.
Scootaloo dragged herself to the school’s office and fell against the wall, exhausted. She knew the principal, Miss Luna, would help her. She was the only teacher Scootaloo actually liked.
Pain shot up her arm as the realisation of what had actually happened to her kicked in. her violet eyes welled up with tears and she grimaced. She wouldn’t cry. But it hurt, a lot.
“Miss Luna!” She choked, a single tear escaping as she collapsed on the ground. The pain was taking hold of her tiny body and she began to drift out of consciousness. She shook her head in defiance. She couldn’t go just yet… she just had to deal with the pain until help came.
“Miss LUNA!” she wailed helplessly.
The office door creaked open and Scootaloo looked up, hopeful, but the sparkles in her eyes quickly disappeared as she realised it was not a teacher of any kind, but a student, one that looked grade 12, in her last year of high school, around seventeen years of age. She looked somewhat rebellious, bag slung over one shoulder and her phone in hand. Her hair was six different colours; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Scootaloo wasn’t sure whether it was natural or dyed but she knew Ponysona could be born with wild varies of colours in their hair. The girl, who had a skateboard under her feet, wore a black jacket over her uniform which enabled her large blue wings to sprout out. Scootaloo didn’t trust any students, particularly the older ones, but she was desperate. She needed help.
“H-Help me p-please…” the tiny voice droned out quietly and the blue-winged Pegasus girl turned to inspect the voice’s position. Her rosy pink eyes widened as she saw the disgruntled mound that sat at the office door. The purple-haired thirteen year old girl looked terrible. Her face was bruised, her chin bloody, knees scabby, a large cut was bleeding heavily from her black eye to the bottom of her chin and her arm bent at an odd angle.
“Oh jeez, Kid, what the hay happened to you?”
“I-I Got into a fight w-with two girls….”
The older girl knew she wasn’t going to get much more out of her than that. She proceeded to lift the young Pegasus ponysona up onto her feet. She wrapped her arms around the girl, flapped her wings twice and began to fly clumsily around to the back of the schoolgrounds towards what looked like an old, unused garden shed. She carefully flew to the ground, placing Scootaloo onto a soft patch of grass just outside the door.
“I’ll be back, ‘kay?” the older girl said, brushing her rainbow hair out of her eyes and with that, she walked inside. Scootaloo closed her eyes and rested against the wall. She listened as voices came out from inside.
“Rainbow Dash? Now where yah been? Ah’ve been worried ‘bout yah!”
“Yeah, Sorry AJ. There was this girl who had been in what looks like a pretty big punch-up.”
“Don’t worry! Nothing a PARTY can’t fix!”
“not now, Pinkie, if what Rainbow is saying is true, then we have to heal her. Tell us, what is her name?"
“I dunno Twi, I didn’t ask. She’s outside on the grass.”
The voices faded and the Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, and three other girls walked out. One, Scootaloo could tell was a unicorn due to the large magical force she was giving off. Scootaloo opened her eyes and noticed the unicorn had navy hair with pink streaks and she was standing next to two earth-bound ponysona, one with a yellow ponytail and a large fringe that nearly fully covered her eyes and the other, had bright pink hair that looked as though it hadn’t been brushed for about three weeks.
Scootaloo didn’t pay much attention though, as she sat back and quietly noted that they were there, looking at her.
“Wow, what happened to her face? She looks funny!”
“Shut UP Pinkie Pie!”
“Aw, c’mon Dashie, it’s just a joke!” the poofy haired girl said with glee. The other earth-bound ponysona took off her brown hat and knelt down beside Scootaloo.
“Is there anything yah can do Twilight?”
“I believe so. But there is a ‘no magic or flying in the schoolgrounds’ rule!”
“Ugh. Seriously. You are SUCH an egghead. I flew to bring her here! Use you tacky magic to heal her already!” Rainbow cut in.
“Yes I know but—“
Twilight was interrupted by a quiet groan of pain that erupted from the younger girl. The unicorn instantly nodded, eyes turning a fluorescent shade of blue. A velvety kind of wavy magic lifted from her hands and twisted around Scootaloo before disappearing into a thin cloud of sparkles. The flightless Pegasus opened her eyes slowly and stood up, experimenting with her arm. It looked fairly normal, besides the abnormally large bruise that had formed from the original break. Her cut had sealed but had left a scar and most of her bruises had cleared fairly well.
“I am sorry, but I couldn’t completely fix your fractured arm. The bone I believe may still be chipped, but at least you will be able to move it relatively pain free.” Twilight exclaimed nervously. It wasn’t usual for her spells not to work properly. She had intended on healing the girl fully, but obviously, it hadn’t worked out.
“hey, kiddo. You’re pretty darn tough for a squirt like you,” Rainbow Dash said, “What’s your name pipsqueak?”
The girl ran her hand through her spiky purple hair before replying, “M-my names Scootaloo.”
“Scootaloo?! I’veNeverHeardOfYouBeforeAndIKnowThatBecauseI’mFriendsWithEveryone, AndIMeanEveryoneInThisSchool! HeckinThistown!!” The bouncy pink haired girl said. The others just shook their heads.
“here we go….. Again…..” Applejack muttered under her breath.
“AndIfIv’eNeverHeardOfYouBeforeThatMeansYou’reNewAnd—“
“Pinkie Pie…” Rainbow put her mouth to Pinkie’s ear and yelled, “SLOW DOWN!!”
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie!”
Scootaloo looked at the giggly girl before turning to look at the others, confused. They just shrugged carelessly.
“Look Scootaloo, there’s one thing yah should know. Pinkie Pie = Random.” Applejack explained to the young pegasi. “She is well… ah lil’ crazy.”
“WHAT?! I am not!” Pinkie protested.
Rainbow Dash put a hand on Scootaloo’s shoulder and smiled. “You wanna hang with us?”
Scootaloo looked around at the four smiling faces and shook her head. “I’m too young to hang out with seventeen year olds.”
Applejack lifted her hat to the Pegasus. “Yeah, maybe. But ah’ve got a sister the same age as yah. Applebloom. Yah heard of her?”
“She’s in my maths class I think…”
“And Rarity, who is out shoppin’ with Fluttershy at tah moment, has a lil’ sis too that yah can hang with.” She winked and ran her hand through her yellow fringe. “Ah gotta get goin’. See ya’ll later.”
Scootaloo smiled. “What’s her name?”
“Sweetie Belle.” The cowgirl shouted over her shoulder as she left with Pinkie Pie.
Scootaloo’s grin was as wide as the ocean but she then began to have second thoughts. What if those two rejected her like everyone else had? She had no idea why they wouldn’t. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, Sure they sounded like nice people, but still….
“what’s with your wings?” Rainbow questioned. “They’re tiny!”
Scootaloo crossed her arms and gave the older girl a death-stare. Rainbow Dash stepped back and gave an awkward laugh.
“Sorry kid, I just haven’t seen someone with your wing size since I was in grade three. I mean, no offence or anything!” she added hastily.
“none taken.” The purple-haired girl muttered under her breath. She decided to change the subject as she noticed that these two high schoolers were in the schoolgrounds still and the sun had just disappeared over the hills. “Why are you two still here?” she asked curiously.
“Well,” Twilight said, “We have taken to this shed and we all find that the fierce amount of rust and dust particles so we decided to give it a thorough cleanout so we—“
“What are you? A dictionary?”
Twilight took a deep breath and sighed. “we pay money to use this shed as a hang out place.”
Rainbow Dash laughed and put a hand on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “And we’re gunna hang here tonight. We have six bunks in there so we’ve got plenty of room if you want to hang out.”
Scootaloo thought for a moment, then nodded. She figured since the rainbow-haired girl had helped her, she could trust them.
“Of course! I-I mean, uhh, y-yeah, I’m totally free tonight.” She said, trying to sound cool.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight ushered the girl inside and sat her down on a make-shift bed.
“Yeah, so uhh, would you parents be okay with this?” the unicorn asked.
“I don’t have any. I’m an orphan.” The pegasi said bluntly
“oh… what about the orphanage?”
“I don’t live there.”
Twilight ran her hand through her hair and looked at Scootaloo with great curiosity.
“Then where do you live?”
Scootaloo looked around hastily and smiled. “I-I uhh, you know, hang with my homies.”
Twilight and Rainbow exchanged glances before shrugging it off like nothing. Scootaloo though, laid back on the bed and smiled to herself. She knew finally, things were looking up.
