Scootaloo felt the hard hoof smack her face once again, bruising her delicate foal flesh, bloodying whatever fur wasn't already covered in her bodily fluids.
No matter how many times her father, if he could be called that, that sick, fat, ciderholic monster, beat her, the sting never left. This time it was because Scootaloo spilled the her pitiful glass of sour milk.
"Do you know how much that cost me?" The brown slob of a pegasus snarled. "That cost me five bits, you fucking dipshit. FIVE BITS!!"
Thud.
Scootaloo's head smacked the floor as she slipped out of his grasp. She had long since learned to go limp, it made beating her harder. The pitiful orange filly always wanted to fight back, to show him she wasn't worthless, or a dipshit, or even just the worst thing of all... his daughter.
No, Scootaloo wanted to desperately believe this beast wasn't her father. She almost hoped she was an illegetimate foal, that her REAL father was a kind, good-hearted stallion. Maybe he was a respectable worker at the weather factory, or maybe a merchant. Possibly a one of Princess Celestia's royal guards!
Scootaloo's lavender eyes glazed over as she thought of the day her true dad would find her. See, someday soon, he'll walk right into the schoolhouse.
"Scootaloo, where is my Scootaloo?" He will say in his proud voice. He'll take off his helmet, and his mane will look just like her's.
"Daddy! Daddy!" She'll cry, and run into his loving embrace.
"We can go now, Scootaloo. We can go wherever you want." He'll stroke her mane, hold her close as they cried into each other's shoulders...
"Are you even listening to me?" A strike made her see stars as Scootaloo was snapped out of her fantasy. "You fucking deaf? Damn retarded kid. Wish your fucking mother hadn't died and left your worthless ass with me."
The beaten foal laid on the ground, blood in a small puddle around her. She didn't look at her abuser, not wanting to have a second more of him in her memory than she wanted.
"Well, get to fucking bed, you little cunt!" He smacked her flank hard enough to make even Discord wail. But Scootaloo didn't, she ran as fast as she could to her room, her escape.
"Blood everywhere, again..." The devil looked at the splatter of his daughter's life-fluid everywhere.
...
"She can clean it tomorrow." He said, walking off to nurse a bottle of hard cider.
***
Scootaloo sobbed as she gathered her few precious items, stuffing them into her saddlebags. She didn't even care to clean the blood off, she wouldn't need to anyways. Not for what she was going to do.
"Are you even listening to me?" Scootaloo mocked her father, alcohol and glass powder falling out of her ears as they pinned back against her head. "You fucking deaf?"
She threw in an old baby blanket she had, not even caring she was staining new blood over the old ones.
"Damn retarded kid." She sniffed, wiping her nose, replacing one body fluid with another. "Wish your fucking mother hadn't died and left your worthless ass with me."
"Your fucking mother hadn't died..." Tears fell down her cheeks as Scootaloo stared admiringly at a picture of her beautiful late mother with a butterfly on her hoof. "And... left your w... worthless ass with me..."
Scootaloo kissed the glass gently, laying with on the blanket with extreme care.
"You know what, you don't have to be stuck with me anymore," The little filly muttered to herself, holding up a stuffed pegasus as beaten as her. The pegasus resembled Scootaloo's idol, Rainbow Dash, somewhat, but was different in some ways. The toy wore a short dress Scoots had made as a younger filly, something Dash wouldn't be caught dead wearing, unless it was the outfit she wore at the gala, and her colors were more pastel. Scootaloo looked at the button eyes, black and empty by other foals standards, but to Scootaloo they held the most sympathetic look ever, the very defination of safety.
Scootaloo put on her Cutie Mark Crusaders cape, tucking her toy under it, resting on her neck.
Every picture of Rainbow Dash, and her best friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, went in, too. The last thing to go in was something she had to consider a moment, a shining, razor-sharp knife. She rapped it a couple times against her wrist, chewing the inside of her mouth. She merely threw it in, tossing the bag onto her back. She just left her helmet, as it held down a note Scootaloo quickly wrote, before jumping down out of her window, speeding off into the night.
***
Scootaloo's wings buzzed like mad. She couldn't ever truly fly because her father got mad with a kitchen knife once when Scootaloo came home late.
Oh, boy, Scootaloo was coming home later than she did then, even later than ever before.
She wasn't ever going home.
And they would never make her, she made sure of that.
Scootaloo turned her scooter quickly towards the Apple family farm. She didn't need to see to know where she was going, she had went down this path every night of her life since moving to Ponyville. It, like her plush, meant safety.
The bloody filly jumped off her scooter as it hit the base of the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse. She entered, fearful, but of what she was going to do, not her surroundings. She struck a match against a wall, then lit a candle with it. The dim light was enough, barely. She took off her saddlebags, carefully emptying the contents. She laid them in front of her. Scootaloo grabbed a red crayon to write her final words.
Dear friends,
I am really sorry, but this is the only escape
I have. You see, my mom died when I was just born. My dad always blamed me. He's been abusing me all my life. Until I came to Ponyville, I had no escape. And I still don't. He's always there, and he won't ever stop. I'm sick and tired of it. That's why I have to go. Forever. My dad's name is Rotten Core. Our His house is on the west border of Ponyville, in an old shack. You'll smell the cider from a mile away. I'm really sorry, and I love you all a lot.
Scootaloo
She looked over her message with tear-filled eyes. She moved her plush into the front of her cape, hugged against her throat. Scootaloo picked up the knife, choking back sobs.
"I'm going to see you really soon now, mom." She said, her eyes locked on the beautiful mare in the picture.
Blood spattered on the glass as Scootaloo bled out.
***
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Applejack and Big Macintosh sped into the CMC's clubhouse. What they saw was not what they expected to find.
Sweetie Belle was crying so hard she had to gasp for breath, Apple Bloom was on her haunches, a soul-piercing scream coming from her throat. Then they saw it...
Scootaloo.
In a puddle of dried blood.
Her hooves slit open.
Dead.
Applejack pulled her sister and friend close to her, shielding their eyes from the horror they already saw.
"Girls, let's go back to the house." She said in the calmest voice possible, but horror leaked through.
"B-but we gotta help Scoots!" Apple Bloom cried. "We gotta help her."
"We can't help her, Apple Bloom." Applejack said solemnly, gently urging the terrified foals out the door.
"We gotta help her, Applejack." The small yellow filly's voice was cracking. "We just gotta."
"Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, back to the house." The elder kept them from looking behind them. "Now."
Applejack herself, however, glanced. Even Big Macintosh was crying over the lost life.
Why Scootaloo killed herself, Applejack didn't know, but she was mad. Mad at Scootaloo for not thinking of her friends.
***
The Elements of Harmony and Spike were gathered around the Apple family table. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were being snuggled by their sisters, who insisted they had some tea to calm down. They only agreed so they had something to do with their hooves.
"Why would she do such a thing?" Fluttershy whispered. Normally, she'd be unhearable, but the eerie silence made her the loudest thing in the room.
"Many reasons," Twilight answered, almost a bit too mechanically. "Bullying, terminal disease, abuse or bad conditions at home."
"Bu' if she had a problem, she'd tell us! Right, Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom threw off the blanket Applejack had wrapped around her. Sweetie Belle merely whimpered, staring into her cup of chamomile. She had spoken since seeing Scootaloo that morning.
"Ah don't think bullyin' was it, Twilight." Applejack stated as she held her sister tighter. "I know that lil' brat Diamond Tiara was always mean ta her, bu' I don't think it was ever bad enough ta make her wanna kill herself."
"Applejack! There are children here!" Rarity scowled at the other big sister.
"So what, they already saw her body! They know she's dead!" The orange mare snapped back. Her words made the surviving Crusaders cry again. All Applejack earned from her honesty was a deathglare from all involved.
"Hey, did anypony even check the area for a suicide note or anything?" Rainbow Dash spat, her tongue like a whip. She hadn't spoken, like Sweetie Belle, since hearing the news.
"Rainbow Dash! You're brilliant!" Twilight gasped, standing up quickly. "Who wants to come with me and search for evidence?"
Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and the foals shook their heads. Spike and Rainbow Dash, however walked right up.
"Spike, are you sure you wanna come?" She asked, "It's going to be rather gruesome."
"I'm sure, Twilight." He said, confidence in his voice.
"And you, Dash," Twilight looked at the rainbow mare.
"Hay yeah!" She said, her wings flared. "I wanna find whatever fucker made her die, and I'm going to punch his shit in so bad!"
"RAINBOW!"
"Oh, nopony cares!"
***
Rainbow Dash froze as the stench of old blood and dead flesh reached her nostrils. The sight of Scootaloo, her... her little sister... dead. Not of old age, not of disease, not even murder. She took her own life. Willingly. Nothing else ripped it away, just herself. No, somepony did, and Rainbow Dash vowed that whoever made Scootaloo drop to nothing, would die at her hooves.
She ran foreward, scooping Scootaloo's ice cold body up into her arms.
"C'mon Scoots, you aren't dead, right?" She pleaded, hoping, wishing, praying, everypony was wrong.
No reply. No breath. No pulse.
Scootaloo's corpse in her hooves wasn't enough evidence, the lack of her determined spirit, warm cheer, and everything else was.
Rainbow brushed her eyelids open, only for a second. No life, no light, no daring pony lay inside. She thought seeing Scootaloo's beautiful purple eyes just once again would calm her, but their dead glare only haunted her, leaving a huge scar that would never fade.
She kissed Scootaloo's forehead when she heard Spike cry out.
"Over here! I found her note!" He said, waving around the piece of paper with Scootaloo's last words on it. Rainbow laid the foal's body down gently before rushing beside the drake. Twilight read it aloud, making tears in Rainbow's eyes.
Rainbow Dash merely primed her wings to fly, but Twilight caught her quickly.
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked, concern in her eyes.
"To find this 'Rotten Core' and kill him." The cyan mare snarled.
"Rainbow, no! We can't go causing more deaths!" Twilight pleaded, pulling her grief-stricken friend back down towards her.
"Why not? If it wasn't for this bastard, Scootaloo would be fucking dead!"
"RAINBOW! Murder won't bring her back!"
"But if I avenge her, I'll feel better." Rainbow Dash kicked Twilight's horn, causing her magic to fizzle, then flew off, to the west border of Ponyville.
***
At the Ponyville schoolhouse...
"Ugh, where is miss Cheerilee. Class is, like, an hour late. I'm getting so-o-o-o bored." Diamond Tiara groaned in her over-dramatic fashion. "She better get here soon."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Cheerilee strode in, sadness practically radiating off of her. Every foal instantly frowned, and one filly even cried.
"Class, I have a very important announcement." The magenta mare said in a somber voice. "One your classmates, Scootaloo, died today."
Nopony made a single sound, except for the crying filly, who was sobbing even harder now. Even Diamond Tiara was taken aback.
"Class is dismissed for the rest of the day." She sighed, her green eyes to the brim with tears. "Your parents have been notified, and will be here to pick you up soon.
"Y-you're lying, right?" Diamond Tiara finally said, realization hitting her.
"Miss Tiara, I only wish I am." Cheerilee said. Her colors seemed dulled, gray.
Diamond Tiara bit her lower lip, holding back the tears. She thought, no, she knew, she had caused Scootaloo's death. She had started on the pegasus for being a cripple, and even though Cheerilee had not mentioned how she died, Diamond knew it was suicide.
The pink filly bolted outside, making sure she was far enough away that nopony could see her tears. She sobbed and sobbed, the tears staining her fur. When she could cry no more, she walked back to the schoolhouse to meet her father.
