Chapters Prologue: Welcome to Ponyville
Welcome to Ponyville.
The sign that seemed to welcome everyone. If you would walk down this path, you would immediately feel greeted by the warm colors in this town. If you'd continue your walk through the town, you would be surprised by the friendly way of everypony there. You'd immediately be greeted by complete strangers as if you were a good friend, you'd have a Pinkie-party, you'd be asked if you need something. You wouldn't want to leave this town ever again.
Who would have thought that Ponyville has it's dark sides, too?
Bullying in the school, a homeless filly that ran away from her friends and hometown, only to return little later, run-down storehouses with nopony to take care of, that where home to oh so many homeless people.
What if you could hear somepony shouting "Hey, fillyfooler! Yes, you! Freak. You should've stayed in Manehatten. Nopony wants you here. "? What if you could hear hooves crashing down on a body at the same time? Does Ponyville still look that nice to you?
To me it doesn't.
My name is Scootaloo, and I am an outcast. I'm a fillyfooler, I'm a freak, I'm a runaway. Form your own opinion. Listen to my story.
Chapter 1: Welcome home, Sis
"Scoots! Hey, Scoots!"
No. I don't want to talk to you right now. Scootaloo kept walking, seemingly ignoring the usual beautiful, now annoying voice of Sweetie Belle.
"Scoots, come on! Scootaloo! Talk to me-?" Sweetie continued nonetheless, only to be interrupted by an annoyed sigh.
Fine. Here we go. "What is it, Sweetie?"
Smiling about finally have her attention, the white-coated filly started talking. "I'm so happy you finally made it back! I missed you so much! And after you were gone, Applebloom changed more and more.. I don't know, it was so strange. She suddenly started to hang out with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and-"
Cutting her off again, Scootaloo raised her voice. "I'm glad to be back, too. I've missed you."
Suddenly Sweetie was serious. "Listen, I'm not sure how this has been in Manehatten, but you can't just kiss anypony here in Ponyville! Also, I- Listen, Scoots, I don't know if I am a fillyfooler. The only reason I kissed you back was because I was- I was confused, I didn't know what to feel or do. I need some time to think about that. Until then though, I'd like you to just be my friend , not my fillyfriend. Okay?"
Scootaloo felt like something thick was stuck in her throat. "'kay," she whispered. "Was that everything?"
Too cold. It isn't her fault. She just needs some time. Don't be so rude.
"Well, when do you think we get time to hang out again?" Sweetie seemed to be just like the old Sweetie Belle again.
Scoots decided to play along. "Not now, gotta catch up with Rainbow Dash, I've got my first flight session today!" She actually was able to let her voice sound excited.
"Oh. Alright, cool. Well, you know where you can find me. Good luck!" Without any more words, Sweetie turned and left.
"...Thanks..." Scoots whispered.
---
"Are you even trying, Scoots?" Rainbow laughed. "Just kidding, I know how hard it is. But once you got it, you'll be as awesome as I am. Well, probably not as awesome, but- oh, listen to me trailing off again. Alright, one more time!"
Scoots sighed and went back to the line Dash had marked her to start from. I need to concentrate. Dash is trying so hard to teach me how to fly, but I just can't think about anything else than Bash or Sweetie Belle. "Focus!" Dash's voice ripped her out of her thoughts. She started running. Up the hill, jump and spread your wings. Flap as soon as you notice you're going down. You can do it, Scoots.
She ran, she jumped, she spread her wings, and she fell like a stone.
Her eyes closed, she waited for her fall to finally end with her crashing on the ground. Surprisingly though she stayed in the air. She dared to open her left eye. She was held by a cyan pegasus.
"Careful, filly. You're gonna get yourself hurt." The familiar voice filled her with embarrassment.
"I'm so sorry Rainbow Dash!"
"Nothing happened, Scoots. Just.. just flap your wings next time, okay? You think you're up to another try today?"
---
Scootaloo found herself stuck with her face in the mud, created by the heavy rain, again. She had been training quite a while after Rainbow Dash had left, and by now every bone in her body seemed to ache. But she had to do it. She couldn't let Dash down like this.
She had to try harder.
She ran, she jumped, she fell. She ran again, she jumped, and... she fell. It seemed impossible. She didn't even know why she didn't spread her wings. It just seemed like her whole body clenched, as soon as her legs left the ground. She just didn't understand. At least, that was what she kept telling herself. But what shot through her body when she jumped was not mistakable.
She was afraid of heights. She grinned. Funny, eh? A pegasus that is afraid of height. She sat down, ignoring the water dripping off of her. She would have cried, if it wasn't for the voice bringing her back to reality. Rainbow Dash had returned to bring her back home.
Home, to spend the whole night near Bash, who was completely angry at her for what she did. And she couldn't even take it amiss. It was all her fault...
Scootaloo jumped out of her bed. Today was the first day for her to finally return to school. Obviously, liking school was for geeks only, so that wasn't the thing she was excited about.
But today she could finally enjoy a normal life. It would be the first time in school she wouldn't be dirty, and that was something to be excited about if you never experienced something like that. Usually, everyone would avoid her because of her stench, but today she would smell neutral, or even good. Rainbow Dash had got her a shampoo that smelled so amazing that Scootaloo had spent an hour opening and closing the bottle, pressing the air out of it in her face to enjoy the smell.
And today everyone would smell it. That's what she was excited about. She almost ran to the bathroom and slammed the door open to see-
Bash in the shower. Using her shampoo. Obviously, Scoots didn't not like Bash or anything, but still... She could've asked her, at least.
Standing there silent in the doorway with Bash showering, she felt weird. She never saw somepony showering, and she never saw Bash in such an- an intimate situation. She looked so vulnerable with her back turned to the door, not noticing anything behind her or simply ignoring it.
Bash turned the shower off. "You gonna say hi or what?" she whispered. "You know, it ain't nice watching somepony showering and not even greeting her." She turned around, having this weird kind of look on her face. One of the I-really-don't-mind-you-standing-there-I-just-dislike-your-existence kind.
"Uh- erh, good morning, sister. Sorry, I didn't want to-" Scootaloo responded, only to be interrupted.
"I don't care. I was done anyways," the filly responded, cold eyes on Scootaloo. Without looking away she grabbed a towel and wrapped it light-hoofed around her body. She then left the room, not without bumping her shoulder in Scoots' without saying anything else.
In total, it didn't look like the best start for her first school week.
A short look to the clock told her her miscalculation of the time she had until school began. She had only 20 minutes left to get ready. The rest of her morning was spent in a hurry, she rushed under the shower, almost forgot to use the shampoo and nearly destroyed a glass bottle filled with whatever grown-ups use when they go out.
When she finally dried her coat and entered the kitchen, she realized her mistake: Either the clock in the bathroom didn't work properly, or the kitchen clock was broken. Bash's question solved the mystery. "Why are you in such a hurry? You should really chill out, we've got half an hour left." Shaking her head, Bash left the room, again, bumping her shoulder against Scootaloo.
Does she really hate me that much that she can't even bear me to be in the same room as she is in? What have I done...
She quickly ate her breakfast, alone, since Bash avoided her and Rainbow Dash was already out working or training or probably just napping on some cloud in the sun. Then she proceeded to pack her pens and her books in a bag and headed towards school.
The first lesson today would be with Miss Cheerilee, they'd probably talk about cutie marks again. Surprisingly, as she entered the classroom, she didn't see Sweetie Belle anywhere, though she usually was the first pony every day. In fact, nopony was in the room. Scootaloo double-checked the clock - it was 5 minutes before the lesson began. Everypony should be here by now.
What she did see though, was a note lying on her table. She picked it up and opened it.
Hey, freak! I hope you know what you're doing, because I know what will happen if you stay.
That was all. No names, just this - apparently a threat. But why? What did she do?
In that minute, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon entered the room. "Can you believe this girl? She really returned and - do you know what ponies say? They say she kissed- Oh, Scootaloo! We were just talking about you. Please, tell us, how did you gather the courage to actually return?"
"Just leave me alone, Tiara. I know you don't like me, so don't even try to pretend you would."
"Actually, I wasn't even trying to pretend. I really am interested. You shouldn't have, you know? Come back, I mean. Because nopony likes you. You freak ," she whispered sharp.
There it was, again. Freak . Why did she call her that?
She was just about to ask her when Cheerilee entered the room, the rest of the class following her.
"Good morning, children. Please, sit down. Today, we will be talking about sexuality ."
Author's Note
Yaaaay, finally got it done. Sorry for my epic delays in updating my stories, I've just been pretty busy lately. Not promising that it'll get better, but fall holidays are coming up, so hopefully I'll get one or two chapters done during those... Anyways, have fun reading!
Chapter 3: Red Mane, Yellow Coat
The room was completely silent.
You could've heard a pin drop as Scootaloo slowly packed up her things.
Unbelievable.
She felt the eyes of the whole class on her back. Cheerilee was watching her, but kept quiet, even as she left the room. Scootaloo could hear Diamond Tiara laugh her evil laughter and was about to return to-
No, hitting her would just cause her trouble and give them more reasons to hate her.
More reasons? They didn't even have reasons! What was wrong with love, even if it was between members of the same gender? Why did everypony react so negative?
But she remembered herself feeling the same way before she met Bash. She had felt so wrong when she had lain on her, as if it just wasn't meant for fillies to be that close on both an emotional and physical level to another filly. But that changed when they kissed. From that moment on, she had become more and more used to it, didn't feel like it was wrong anymore. It felt like the most common thing ever. As if she was a colt...
But Cheerilee reminded her that not everypony thought this way. In the mid of her lesson about sexuality, she began talking about lesbians. She had looked straight in her face, with eyes so cold they seemed to pierce right through her soul and seemingly additionally mentioned that it wasn't meant for fillies to fall in love with another filly just as it was wrong for colts to be with colts. Her point was that neither gay nor lesbian couples could raise young ponies nor even get one.
That was when the room fell silent. Not even her own sister, Bash, said anything. Until Tiara laughed.
She kept control over her mind as she left the school building. She knew the place she would go. The place that had been her home before she left Ponyville.
---
The first thing Scootaloo noticed when she walked up to the wooden hut was the missing cape.
She tried not to think about how fast they - or at least Applebloom - got rid of it. She probably threw it into a bin as soon as she left them. It seemed so long since they went on their last crusade for their cutie marks.
Making her way to the doorway she noticed how much the building had changed. The windows had boards nailed over them, the wood seemed to be darker then she remembered. She reached the top and leaned against the door with the weak hope that the shed was unlocked. To her surprise it was. But what she saw when she entered surprised her even more.
A yellow coated pony with a red mane sat on a chair, her back to the door, staring at something at the wall. No, not something. The cape that Scootaloo had left behind. Did she... miss her? Scootaloo was irritated as Applebloom was the one asking her to leave.
The pony in front of her slowly turned around, giving her an irritated look. "You?" it asked.
"Applebloom," was all the surprised filly could respond.
A few awkward seconds of the ponies just looking in each others eyes passed silently. After what felt like hours Applebloom suddenly bolted up and jumped towards the now receding pony. Scootaloo feared her former friend would try to beat her and closed her eyes in advance, but instead of a hard hoof in her face she found herself being pulled closely to 'Bloom. She felt something wet run down her back barely moments later.
"A-are you crying, Applebloom?" Wow. That was the worst question ever and possibly the worst thing she could've said in this situation.
"Ah missed ya so much, Scoots!" the earth pony said. "Ah thought ya would never return an' that Ah'd never see ya again! Ah regretted what Ah said ta ye the last time we spoke. Ah- Ah'm so sorry!"
Scootaloo froze in shock. This was the last thing she would have expected. Applebloom missed her? Sure, she missed the yellow filly, too, but after what had happened everything she thought about her was that she probably hated her and never wanted to see her again. But the reality was so far away from her imaginations.
The fillies just stood like this for a couple of minutes, until Scootaloo came up with a question. "Why didn't you go to school today?"
The question halled through the empty room and remained without an answer for a few more minutes. "School wasn't the same without ya, Scootaloo. A lot of things changed, and no day passed without Diamond Tiara making fun of yer absence. Sweets and Ah couldn't stand it anymore, so we agreed on not going to school ever again until ya returned. She missed ya so much, Scoots. And Ah did, too."
"I missed you gals, too. But wasn't Applejack mad when you just didn't go to school anymore?"
"She didn't notice. Everypony was just so busy with searching for you," she answered. "But now that ye're back we can all go back to school and don't have to worry about it anymore."
Scootaloo fell quiet. She thought about what had happened today. Now that she had her friends back she would probably need to ask them about what to do. But first they'd have to wait for Sweetie to join them...
Uaah, the mare next to Rusty yawned. The absence of her the smell that usually surrounded her made the grey stallion open his eyes up. The stench of alcohol, cheap cigarettes and depression: Sharon had recovered quickly after the return of her 'missing child', Rainbow Dash.
It took a while for them to move what they had to Ponyville, but it was worth it already. After they had finally transported everything worth taking with the help of Rainbow Dash and her friends yesterday, Sharon seemed to feel better each inch they moved away from the bad memories.
But for today Rusty had planned to work on the house they had gotten from Twilight Sparkle. Rusty had been speechless. He never had experienced such kindness in Manehatten. But first he'd have to get the bar up and running. Of course, there were other possibilities for ponies to get drunk in Ponyville, but this wasn't going to be a club like Vinyl Scratches', which was especially attractive for young ponies. It'd be more like a classy bar, at least that's what he'd imagined.
The old stallion noticed a warm hoof on his shoulder. Turning his head he saw the pony he had always loved, the pony that finally found her true self back. Apparently she fell asleep again. He kissed Sharon on the forehead and carefully crawled out of the bed.
Yawning, Rusty left the room and headed for the bath. It was a nice house. The walls were made of the bright colored wood almost everything in Ponyville was built of. It was so different from Manehatten, where his house had been pretty wrecked and made from nothing but dark wood, old stones and concrete. Also, this was his house. When the bar keeper remembered again how he got 'The Final Sprint', chills ran down his spine.
The dark brown coated pony ran down the streets of Manehatten, repeatedly looking back toward the pony following him. Scared as he was, already losing the track of where he was going and only deciding where to run in a split second each turn, he was chased deeper to more and more run-down houses.
Just when he was about to run into a small alley to his left, a black pegasus jumped from a pretty tall building straight ahead and raced at him. Rusty jumped on the spot and rose his back hooves. Unable to stop due to the high speed, the dark pony crashed right into them. Something wet ran down his legs, but Rusty had no time to lose.
Barely seeing through his now tearing eyes, the young earth pony continued. When his follower stopped, gasping at the sight of the lifeless body of his former friend the colt was far away.
About half an hour later Rusty eventually noticed the absence of his follower. Slowly reducing his speed he examined the buildings around him. Street lamps that had burned out marked the end of the path, shabby buildings blocked the space behind them. Not a single thing he'd be able to recognize.
His careless escape had lead him in more trouble than he thought. He'd have to find a way -
Did he kill that pegasus back there? He could still hear his bones crushing on the impact, feel the power of it in his hooves. His eyes followed the blood on them. About where his knee was, the blood stains stopped. Panicking he searched his body for wounds that could give another explanation than the obvious. Even though he knew he was unharmed he kept searching, sensing every inch of his body, until he finally gave up his hope.
No. He wouldn't return home, even if he'd somehow find the way. He killed a pony. He couldn't return to his old life now.
On this day he made a promise to himself. He would never hurt anypony again - Instead he'd do everything to help to make up for his mistakes.
He didn't have to walk further. Before he even got to a working street lamp, he decided to enter a small, pretty run-down house where he'd build up his new existence. He had luck, the original owners had left a lot of useful items, like multiple candles and even a box with matches.
Rusty tried not to think about what might have happened to the ponies who had lived here before him that they left such useful things behind. Sure enough the thoughts came anyways. And even though he tried to comfort himself that they just moved out like anypony else would, he imagined the worst scenarios in the back of his head.
Plagued by those notions and the chase he had just behind himself, Rusty searched for the bedroom and lay himself to sleep.
In the middle of the night Rusty got up to get a drink. He walked down the stairs, continued his way until he reached the kitchen. Taking a glass from a nearby shelf, he made his way to the sink. Yawning he let the water flow, but instead of it pouring in his glass, the water floated upwards and created what seemed like a pony's head. The head of the pony he had killed. Slowly, his surroundings crumbled. The ceiling came partly down until he found himself at the exact same building he had first met this pony. He was running. Automatically, he jumped on the spot and rose his hooves. Slow-motional the pegasus came closer. When he crushed into Rusty's hooves, everything went black.
Shaking and sweating Rusty awoke on the floor next to the bed he had slept in. It was just a nightmare.
Days, weeks, even years passed and Rusty grew to be a strong pony. But the dark brown coat he had slowly turned grey from his nightmares and his self-accusations.
It was raining heavily. Rusty tried to ignore the noises the rain made crushing on his windows. Clonk, clonk, clonk, clonk, clonk. Nonstop it hindered him from falling asleep, from resting in his well-known nightmare. Until he heard somepony knock on his door, shouting something he couldn't quite understand. He went downstairs, worried about the pony spending the night out in the rain, but still careful not to let his guard down. It wouldn't be the first time a thug tried to overwhelm him this way.
Author's Note
You wanted to know Rusty's past in more than one chapter with a cliff-hanger ending the first one?
[EDIT:] In retrospect, "on its way" really was a weird thing to say before leaving for over a year, but at least it's here now, if in a different form I ever imagined.clonk s for the perfect rhetorical effect in the comments below if you like!
Chapter 5: Gathering information
It turned out to be several hours later than expected that Sweetie finally appeared, her coat dripping wet from the rain outside. Wind shook the little tree house and the two fillies were just about to leave in fear of being crushed inside it when the door creaked.
"Finally," moaned Apple Bloom, "We've been waitin' for at least a week for all it feel' like!" It had indeed been a long time, seeing as Celestia's sun had already completed its daily routine and was just waiting for Luna's masterpiece to turn up, leaving a red shimmer on the horizon - which, of course, none of the three ponies noticed. In the meantime, Scootaloo had filled her best friend in on the events that took place this morning and worked out a plan on what to do.
They'd have to convince the indecisive ponies regarding the matter of sexuality to understand their point, to think liberal. Why wouldn't you let a pony do what it did if they didn't bother you with it? Surely that wouldn't be so hard, they thought. The tougher part would be convincing the homophobes . Convince them that there is literally nothing wrong with gay love, that it is as natural as hetero love. They didn't hate heterosexuals, so why wouldn't it be the other way around?
Because it was new. This was, what the next day brought them. It was an experimental thing that was going on around some of the bigger cities in Equestria, but that was unheard of in rural regions like Ponyville. Especially elder ponies turned out to be scared of it, not of the thing itself, as it seemed, but of the dramatic change. Before, homosexuality was almost unknown of. It was frowned upon by most grandparents and parents itself, who did not understand how a "choice" like this could be made. Just be straight.
But the fillies didn't give up. They kept talking to ponies, not only adults but ponies their age as well, though that turned out to be...
Let's say unproductive. Most of them followed their parents up on this matter. The few that didn't were too scared to talk to them for long, or even be seen with them. Some of the ponies in town however listened and threw in some more ideas, like opening some sort of local movement for tolerance. Whether they'd join in was a different thing entirely, though.
It happened on the fourth day after the day Scootaloo was publicly chided by Cheerilee, the day they had come to call Day 0 . Apple Bloom came up with the courage to interview Silver Spoon about the matter. She waited just long enough to catch her without Diamond Tiara and came to an interesting conclusion.
"So, gals, what d'ya think about this?" she asked her friends after confronting them with her results. They held daily meetings in the tree house every evening to catch up with whatever new they had found out and create a plan for the next day.
"I don't know, Bloom. It seems quite far-fetched, saying that she was a fillyfooler. You might be jumping to fast conclusions here." Her head was resting on her hoof saying this, her eyes looking through the yellow pony's face.
Apple Bloom didn't hesitate a second before responding. "It seemed so obvious though! The way she blushed when I asked her about Tiara-"
"You did what ?" Scootaloo interrupted shocked. "I can't believe you did that. The poor pony, she must be scared out of her mind, especially now that you know about it, with Diamond Tiara being the bully she is." She spent a moment thinking about it. "Although, that information is useful for sure. But we need to make sure noone is harmed due to this."
"I can't believe hearing you being so adult about this, Scoots. This is so unlike you, not trying to prank her with it." Sweetie Belle interjected.
"That's because I begin to understand how she might've felt all that time. She's always been the smaller bully of the pair, after all. I can see how you could think she fell in love with Diamond Tiara. Though it doesn't seem like it could work out in favor of both of them, sadly."
Silence set in for a while while all of them gathered their thoughts. Well, as much silence as you can have with four ill ponies, three of which sounding like they were dead-sick on a cold. So, a lot of snuffling was going on here, until it was interrupted by Scoots' voice again, saying "Wait a second, Bash, since when are you here?", initiating another awkward minute of sniffing silence, until the others joined in with confused gazes towards the unusual sight of the cyan pony, who had apparently snuck into the tree house with them. "Also, does this mean you can forgive me?"
Author's Note
Finally I shall return after more than a year of rarely being on this site, and spending even less time writing for this story.
