Midnight Shopping
"Look at her! She can't fly, and she's afraid of that little drop!", sneered a black coated filly.
"Ya! She's a chicken!", another cried, followed by the jeers and other such forms of dissent voiced by the numerous fillies of Happy Smiles.
"No I'm not!", protested the subject of the ridicule, a small filly pegasus with a small orange body and unruly purple hair. She eyed the table before her carefully. She was balanced precariously atop a bookshelf on the far side of the playroom from the others. Her goal was the large flat table centered on the rug in the middle of the room, the result of a foolish bet.
She took a deep breath, and declared with as much determination as was possible, "I'll show you I'm no chicken!" and thus proceeded to leap off into the still air. She realized too late that her trajectory was not long enough to land her hooves on the table, and plummeted flailing every appendage she had at her disposal to no avail to fall heavily upon the floor and was quickly met by the jeers and catcalls from the others.
"Chicken!"
"No wonder she has no parents! She can't even jump that little gap!"
The insults came to an abrupt end when the pace of one of the staff could be heard approaching the room.
Daisy Petal, the chief caretaker at Happy Smiles walked into the room, "Well my little ponies! Before we dismiss you, we have a little surprise planned for you all, and I'm sure you'll like it. We have gotten tickets for a round trip to...Manehatten!"
This pronouncement was met with much interest, many eagerly planning what they were going to do in the city.
"Now, remember like every other field trip, you'll need your parents' consent before going."
Several present groaned knowing full well that their parents would never let them go on a trip into the city. This did not phase the rest who were confident in their guaranteed spot on the trip, and proceeded to further their petty plots that were already growing more extravagant as the minutes passed.
"Miss Daisy? Does this mean I can't go?, said the last filly in the room.
"Scootaloo, as your caretaker, I can approve you myself don't worry.", she said kindly.
"Thank you miss, none of the other places I've been to have ever done that before.", Scootaloo said before trotting off to her bedroom with a new spring in her step.
• • •
On the day of the trip, Scootaloo accompanied the others on the train where they proceeded to loudly make themselves comfortable, much to the dismay of the conductor. The trip passed uneventfully for her, she spent most of the time asleep, free from torment due to her proximity to the monitor.
Manehatten soon came into view, bedecked in lights and filled with the bustle of ponies. They left the train station and started on the day's many activities planned by the well meaning Daisy Petal. They were captivated by the tall buildings reaching up above them, some as high as ten stories or more.
One of the colts eased up next to Scootaloo and whispered in her ear, "Hey chicken."
"I'm not a chicken!", cried Scootaloo.
"Then prove it."
"How?"
"See that big store two blocks down the street?", he said with a wicked smile "Stay there the whole night."
"The whole night?", Scootaloo said worriedly.
"What are you, chicken?", the colt said menacingly.
"No, I'll do it!", she said.
"Alright, we'll make a distraction then you can make your way over there.", the colt said walking of to pass word to his partners in crime. The three of them began jumping and yelling about something or the other drawing the monitor's attention. Scootaloo started backing up then turned and bolted for the store.
It was a large department store made of brick with a large sign labeling it the Fine Goods Place. She had no idea how she was going to stay the night inside, but like most small fillies of her age, she never backed off from a dare lest she be ridiculed and laughed at. The large doors opened before her to reveal the grand front lobby. It was very spacious, with a large grandfather clock on a pedestal in the center, department after department stretched away from the lobby, each holding a different kind of product. There was a clerk at the desk halfheartedly poking a hoof into a stale salad on his desk, and as such didn't notice the young filly scamper off in search of a hiding place.
She first entered the extravagant clothing department packed with vests and dresses of every possible description, some of which were placed on mannequins to show off their bright colors, the faceless mannequins gave her the chills, and as such she made her departure for the next department swift and hurried. She passed through an electronics area filled with radios and other such devices advertising their 'high quality wiring to make the most out of your magic'.
What caught her eye was the bedding area, which was dimly lit and provided perfect hiding places under the beds on display. She hid under one that said it was stuffed with real clouds and had a good view of the small clock on the wall on the far side of the room. She watched as the seconds slowly ticked by, soon turning into minutes and hours until the voice of the attendant at the front desk could be heard ringing out around the store.
"The store will be closing in five minutes, please proceed to the nearest check out aisle immediately, we thank you for shopping here at Fine Goods Place.", the voice of the terminally depressed pony ended there, eliciting a sigh of relief from the filly who was glad that the store would soon be empty of ponies that might catch her in the act of loitering on the property for the night.
Soon enough the distant locking of the front door could be heard, and the lights slowly clicked off one by one. Silence prevailed over the store, not a single thing was stirring. Scootaloo lay terrified in the darkness, taking shallow breaths in, and out. What had she gotten herself in to?
Still silently panicking, her eyes slowly closed, her mind shutting down by increments to the ticking of the clock above her.
• • •
She awoke with a start. She could have sworn she had seen something move. Quickly deciding it was nothing, she tried to get back to sleep, and found she couldn't. Restless, she climbed down carefully from her position on top of a large shelf filled with beauty products. The store was filled with a murky darkness, the only lights were the few dim red bulbs visible in the ceiling, and light oozing in from the windows. She walked slowly around looking about warily for anything that might come out of the darkness.
She started to hear the faint drone of static almost at the back of her mind, and as she kept walking it slowly grew louder to the point that she could tell it was coming from the electronics department. Deciding that a few fancy music players couldn't hurt her, she walked forwards the noise.
Coming to her destination, she could see that the radio on the far end was on, its little lights blinking faintly in the gloom. Then as if an invisible hoof was busy on the dials, the static coalesced into a robotic voice, "Hello and welcome to the Aper-" the voice dissolved back into static, but now it didn't soon like feedback. The white noise made her feel as if there was whispering all around her. Deciding enough was enough, she went up and turned the dial to the off position, leaving the radio once more a dark black box like all the rest.
Suddenly, three more radios turned on, their speakers also dispensing whisper filled static, Scootaloo backed away from the sight of these radios seemingly going off all by themselves. She needed a light, after all it would comfort her and help her see. She looked around and found a rack filled with lanterns lit by the red light of one of the emergency lights. She picked one up and looked for a way to turn it on. She found a switch that started the flow of magic to illuminate her surroundings. She sighed with relief for the added reassurance of the light and picked it up and turned to find a mannequin at the edge of the lamp's limited glow. She glanced around and made sure she was still in the electronics department. She was, so what was a mannequin doing here?
She poked it, and found hard plastic. The only noticeable thing was a large black smudge on the tip of the nose. Nothing seemed out of place, except the mannequin was in the electronics section instead of the clothing department. She glanced around nervously and backed slowly away from the foreboding plastic model. She was almost at the point that Scootaloo assumed for herself to be a safe distance when her hindquarters bumped into the warm coat of a pony.
She jumped and whirled around to find another mannequin right behind her. She poked this one to find it made of hard plastic as well. She could have sworn she bumped into the coat of a living breathing pony, but the mannequin was made of cream colored plastic illuminated by the dim glow of the lantern.
Suddenly, the clatter of pots and pans rang out in the heavy silence. Scootaloo let out a scream and turned to face the noise. A rack of kitchen ware had fallen of the shelf for no apparent reason, except right beside the pile was a mannequin with a black smudge on its nose. She backed away, terror written like a book across her face.
Whispers filled the air, giggling and the soft patter of hooves hitting carpet soon joined in. Scootaloo's eyes widened even more past her terrified expression and she turned tail and ran for the exit. She bumped into shelves and knocked over racks desperately making her way forwards the exit and freedom.
When she arrived at the door, she found it locked, with an extra grate pulled over it. She beat at the door to no avail and only stopped when the clock in the center of the lobby chimed. She turned and found a mannequin not one foot away from her, hooves raised as if to grab her, and as the clock chimed again she saw another right behind the first frozen in a position that could be only described as laughing maniacally. With the third, fourth, and fifth chimes, her lamp passed over three more mannequins that seemed to be in various positions that she instantly associated with running in her direction. Thus with each chime she noticed out of the corners of her eyes mannequins in the lobby, until she felt cool breath on the back of her neck and whirled to find on the twelfth and final chime a mannequin less than an inch away, the black smudge on its nose clearly defined against the pale plastic.
She ran for all she was worth all the while hearing twelve voices each laughing, filling the silence with their good humor. It echoed over the walls and drove Scootaloo to run ever faster into department after department, until she found herself trapped inside the filly toys aisle. She turned to find the twelve mannequins silently standing, simply pieces of plastic. Glancing around, she found a small scooter complete with a helmet and pads lying on the ground obviously left by some filly whose mother wouldn't buy it. Lacking any better options, she strapped on the safety gear and jumped on the scooter. She found that she only needed to flap her small wings and she began to move rapidly towards the still mannequins. The feeling of the air moving past her face was exhilarating, but she had to snap out of her revelry and swerved past three mannequins but still collided with one, its nose perfect but for one black smudge on the tip of its nose, squishing the neck and sending Scootlaloo flying off the scooter and onto the hard floor of the store, the lamp which had been held in her teeth spiraled away illuminating for a split second the form of the mannequin she had hit frozen in a position halfway between lying down and standing before the lamp hit the far wall and broke in a shower of sparks.
She lay there knowing this was surely the end and could hear twelve sets of hooves making their way forwards her. In the dim red glow of the emergency light, she saw the outline of a head twisted on its side loom over her and then she heard it speak.
"What are you doing under there?"
• • •
She looked up groggily to see peering under the bed with an inquisitive face, a pony looking at her, "My, have you lost your parents?"
The pony was white with flowing purple curls with a cutie mark in the shape of several diamonds clearly on her flank.
"No, I don't really have any.", mumbled Scootaloo.
"Oh my! Well let's see...", said the pony getting up and looking around. "Manehatten is no place for an orphan, I'll tell you what, why don't you come with me to Ponyville, I'm sure there's a family willing to take you in there! What do you say?"
"You'd really do that for me?", cried Scootaloo, a grin slowly growing on her face.
"Why yes! Manehatten is a terrible place for someone of...your social position."
"I would love to go with you!", said Scootaloo already getting out from under the bed.
"That's the spirit!", the pony said and together they walked to the exit.
On the way Scootaloo saw lying on the ground, a certain scooter with a helmet and pads neatly placed on top of it. She glanced at it wistfully, remembering the thrill of riding it in her dream.
Seeing this, the pony who as I'm sure you've already guessed is Rarity, wordlessly magicked the scooter to a check out counter and paid for it, much to the delight of Scootaloo.
She felt her new opportunity in this Ponyville was sure to be a good one as she listened to her companion's long winded description of Ponyville and all its intricacies, a smile on her face.
Author's Note
Well then, wasn't that a one-shot? I hope you can forgive me for the long exposition, but hey backstory does what backstory does. Also, little kids are very dare heavy, that's how they evolve into teenagers.
If you don't like any of the character's descriptions,we'll let it be known that this is my head canon and not yours. I'm sorry, but write a story for your imagination.
