Scootaloo had been stuck in the hospital for a few more weeks until she was finally given the all clear. Her wings were fully healed meaning she didn’t need a bandage, but she was ordered not to go riding her scooter for a few more weeks just for health and safety reasons. But if she couldn’t ride her scooter, then what excuse would she have for the next time her dad got angry? She just had to hope for the best.
Luckily, Scootaloo had managed to stay as far away from her dad’s house as possible once she had left. She had basically been living at Apple Bloom’s house for a week afterwards, and she thanked Celestia nopony had been suspicious on the reasons why she stayed there for so long.
But all good things must come to an end, and Apple Bloom had finally told Scootaloo she couldn’t sleep at her house that night.
It was an awful feeling for Scootaloo after not seeing her dad for so long. Just knowing that as soon as she got in there she would probably be called all sorts of things from her dad when he got into his drunken state, and then possibly being hurt once again and ending up in the hospital only being able to tell the hospital staff, “I had a scooter accident again.” Then getting a lecture from them about how she shouldn’t have been on her scooter in the first place.
Scootaloo was standing in front of her house, contemplating whether or not she should just find herself an alleyway to sleep in; for some reason that seemed like a better option. She had actually done that before, but it had been a long night and when she woke up the next morning she felt awful and smelt awful. Of course both Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara had taken advantage of that and had constantly teased her about how much she smelt the entire day.
Maybe going inside was a better idea.
Taking a big sigh, Scootaloo took a few steps towards the door. She tried keep her hoofsteps as quiet as possible just in case her dad had amazing hearing and could hear her all the way outside. Now standing outside the door she slowly and quietly pushed the door open, hoping she could just sneak past her dad and hide away in her bedroom until the next day.
Her luck was out when she heard her father begin to speak.
“Scootaloo, come over here,” his voice was much clearer than it had been in years, and his voice sort of rang through the entire house.
The orange filly didn’t know whether she should run, or go over to her dad. There was always the possibility of running away now and staying the night in the alleyway, or hopefully get a few insults off of her dad and head to bed.
“Scootaloo,” his voice started to sound impatient.
Realising there was no way she was going to escape her dad she began to nervous trot towards the sofa where he was sitting. She looked on the table in front of him, and saw most of his alcohol was sitting there, untouched.
“Y-yes Dad?” Scootaloo stuttered.
His blue eyes turned to lock with Scootaloo’s. They still held the same coldness in them, which made Scootaloo shiver.
“Where have you been all week?” He questioned angrily. “Have you been avoiding your father?” He began to stand up from the sofa.
He was much taller than Scootaloo, her height only reached up to the top half of his legs (no idea what to call them.)
“I’ve j-just been s-staying at Apple B-bloom’s house,” her attempts at speaking clearly were weak, and she could only manage to mutter the few words.
She immediately felt one of her father’s hooves knock her to the floor, taking all the wind right out of her. His hoof pressed down onto her orange skin, and his piercing blue gaze held only pure anger.
“You stupid little kid,” he snarled. “Did you really think you could stay away for a week and I would let it slide?” He spat venomously.
Scootaloo’s heart was beating hard as she tried to struggle free of her dad’s grip. She only heard a small chuckle from her father, and he slowly moved his head closer to hers trying to intimidate her. It was working.
In the heat of the moment, Scootaloo’s managed to spit a load of spit into her dad’s eye, causing him to move out of the way. She felt the weight of the hooves slowly lower, and she saw her chance to escape.
She jumped back onto her hooves and raced out of the house and onto the dark street, hoping she had enough time to run out of his sight and find a good place to sleep for the night.
Scootaloo noticed it was raining as she got out of sight of the house and made her way down a shadowy alleyway, taking the same route she had taken to the hospital a week ago. It caused Scootaloo to shake in fear whenever she remembered what had happened the night before she ran, and how her dad seemed to show absolutely no remorse for what he had done.
Her mane and fur was now soaking wet, and she soon realised her dad hadn’t gone after her and she was safe, but that didn’t stop her from running. There was still that fear he was still coming after her, and he was just hiding away until she let her guard down.
She barely noticed the grey body of a colt as she continued to run into the open streets of Ponyville, but the colt certainly noticed her and knocked straight into her side, causing her to fall to the floor.
Scootaloo was so sure it was her dad who had knocked her to the ground, and she began to thrash on the floor trying to attack the colt.
“Scootaloo, what the hay happened?!” She instantly recognised the voice as Rumble’s.
She stood back up and her head hung low, a small tear trickled from her eye followed by another, and another until she was crying and sobbing loudly.
Why is my life so hard? Why do I have to live like this? Why me? The thoughts swirled through her head as she continued to cry in front of Rumble.
The grey Pegasus cautiously moved forwards, stepping closer and closer to the crying Scootaloo, trying to figure out what he could possibly do to comfort her. She realised he was slowly moving forwards with his wing outstretched, and she gladly accepted the comfort.
She felt his wing wrap over her back, and she instantly began to warm up.
“Scootaloo, what did your dad do?” Rumble asked.
The orange filly stiffened. “How did you know my dad did it?”
She heard a small sigh come from Rumble before he began to speak, “I heard what your dad said in the hospital,” he admitted. “I was actually coming over to see if you were okay; Apple Bloom told me you were going back to your dad’s house today.”
“Y-you heard?” Scootaloo stuttered.
Rumble turned to look in the orange filly’s eyes, and gave her the most serious look he could muster. “Scootaloo, I want you to tell me everything.”
Scootaloo gulped and looked away nervously. It felt like a lifetime until she turned to look his way again and give him a nod. “Fine,” she sighed.
“Everything.”

Author's Note

This chapter was originally going to be longer but I decided against it; I realised it was going to take me a while if I continued to write the chapter and I felt bad for keeping everyone waiting for so long.