The Rebellionby DerangedMeeperChaptersPrologueChapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 1Chapter 10PrologueA large black Pegasus stallion stood in a shadowy forest. He had a muscular build and had grey markings over his body, including his muzzle. His mane was red and swept back with a long black streak through the top, the same with his tail which had a black streak though the middle. The moon was high in the sky, and the howls of a timberwolf could be heard throughout the forest. The trees swayed in the soft breeze blowing through the forest itself, and small dark leaves fell onto the dry floor. The Pegasus was speaking with another stallion that was slightly smaller than him, and held no muscular features. He was a light brown pony with a long horn protruding from his head. He held a watch over his hoof and wore a suit with a bow tie, and held a monocle over his left eye. His mane and tail were a slightly darker brown, and black stubble grew around his face. “We have to wait another year?!” He angrily shouted “I thought you said it would be finished by now?” He scraped his hoof in the dirt, which caused a small amount of dust to settle on his legs. “I apologise, sir.” The unicorn looked scared “but we can’t rush these things! But when we’re done it’ll be perfect,” he promised. The Pegasus took a step forwards and towered over the unicorn threateningly “if this experiment isn’t finished by next year then you’ll have a lot of explaining to do” The unicorn nodded his head “I promise that they’ll be perfect for The Rebellion!” he took a step backwards, causing the Pegasus to stop his threatening pose over the pony. He grunted “one year,” he decided “and no more!” He began his walk away from the unicorn, and took one final glance his way. If he messes up again… he won’t have time to run One year later… “I trust our experiment was a success?” The Pegasus returned with a smile upon his face. “Ah, yes!” The unicorn answered “would you like to see before we take them out?” He asked. The black Pegasus nodded, and followed the pony into a small room with a metal floor with small lights hanging from the ceiling. The room was dimly lit, as the lights were small and cheap. The Pegasus looked around the room and spotted a large tube filled with a glowing green liquid. Bubbles rose to the top every minute or so, and would eventually pop leaving the cycle to start again. But the most interesting thing inside of the tube was the body of two identical little orange Pegasi, which were the size of a six year old foal. “So they’ll act like a six year old?” He asked curiously. “No teaching those things you would teach younger foals?” The unicorn nodded. “These Pegasi are perfect in every way! And with them growing in a tube I’ve already managed to teach them skills as they grew.” The brown pony smiled “and it’s all thanks to you letting them grow for another year.” The Pegasus looked back over at the fillies inside of the tube “the one on the right looks smaller than the other.” He pointed out. “Is she defective?” The unicorns eyes widened. “No, of course not, sir!” He waved his hooves, “they can’t be exactly the same; that’s virtually impossible!” He explained. “So there’ll be no difference in performance?” He took a step forwards, towering over the unicorn. “I am absolutely certain they’ll match each other’s performance!” He promised, a small bead of sweat dripping from his face in panic. The Pegasus nodded and took a step back. “Take them out then.” He waved his hoof in signal. The unicorn nodded and pressed a single button, causing a large amount of smoke to appear around the tube. The green liquid began to empty from the tube, and the two filly bodies slowly floated to the bottom. “So, do they just wake up?” The black pony asked. The unicorn shook his head, and a small needle appeared in front of his face. Inside was a purple liquid, much like the one inside the tube. “No, we need to inject them with this.” He took a few steps forwards and then slowly placed the edge of needle in the left pony’s foreleg, and then repeated it with the smaller pony. The unicorn came to stand beside the Pegasus. “They’re your recruits, tell them to rise” he whispered in the black ponies ear. He nodded in response and stepped closer to the little fillies that had just awoken “rise” he commanded in a booming voice. The largest filly stood up straight away, and saluted. However, the much smaller filly weakly got to her legs and gave a much smaller salute. The black pony looked back at the unicorn “I thought you said she would match her performance!” He accused. “Sir, the smaller filly is weaker now, but she’ll match her larger counterpart in a few more hours”. The black Pegasus sighed and nodded. “Fine, we’ll wait for her to improve” Author's Note Right, so sorry the prologue is shorter than 1,000 words. I always have trouble making the prologues long for whatever reason. So please bear in mind this writing was from 1 month ago and my newer stuff might have improved. I'll upload two chapters per day until I've gotten up to my newest chapter to post, then it'll be at completely random times like my other story. Chapter 2Right, when I wrote the two of these chapters I'm going to upload I felt they were a little bit rushed but me being me I'm not going to fix them. That also means that I'm going to upload an extra chapter because of how bad both of them are. “So, what was she like?” Was the first question Blazingstorm asked as they headed back towards the campsite. “Like any other normal pony,” she explained with some disbelief in her own voice “it was so weird though; her voice didn’t sound like ours. It had some weird twang to it!” Blazingstorm let out a snort “that’s probably how all of them act.” It sounded as though she was trying to find a reasonable explanation as well “but then as soon as your guards down they’ll stab you right in the back… Literally.” Violet Fire shuddered; the way her sister talked about death was like it was nothing. But of course death was something; a pony could lose somepony close to them in death, or somepony murdered another pony. Yet Blazingstorm seemed to think murder and all of those things were a perfectly fine thing to joke about. Violet saw it often. Whenever her sister would speak of something like that there would be a crazed look in her eyes, and it truly scared Violet Fire – even if she didn’t want to admit it. She felt like she was the complete opposite of her sister sometimes; she seemed so numb about feelings, and almost tried to hide them back. It was almost like somepony had deliberately removed those feelings from her! “Well maybe we should ask Dark Spirit when we get back,” Violet Fire decided. Violet Fire’s eyes widened in realisation, and she ended up dropping her bag of apples on the floor “now that we’ve done with this task we have a final assessment! Do you have any idea what it could be?!” She started skipping around like a little baby filly. Blazingstorm picked up the apples and handed them towards her excited sister “I swear Violet, sometimes you be so…” she sighed in annoyance “it’s like being sisters with a four year old. Can’t you try to act cool about anything?” Violet Fire immediately lost her enthusiasm. “Sorry, Blazing.” She hung her head low “but I can’t help being excited about this.” Her sister rolled her eyes “You’re a member of The Rebellion, you shouldn’t get over excited about these things! The soldiers here are serious and not childish, and we should be carrying on that example. Not being complete idiots all because we’re having our final assessment!” She started speeding up her pace, and behind followed Violet Fire holding the apples in her mouth. She sighed outwardly. Like she knew before… Both were completely different. They carried on towards the campsite, and finally arrived there as the sun was setting. Violet noticed how all the soldiers looked really tired, and she guessed Dark Spirit and Cold Ice had worked them to the bone while they had been out. But when they spotted both Violet Fire and Blazingstorm they immediately sat up and saluted them. Violet Fire enjoyed the attention, but sometimes it could get a bit too much for her. Especially when she was only nine and being treated like some kind of royalty. But Blazingstorm was a different story. Violet could see it in her eyes as she walked that she liked to get all the attention possible. She would act so embarrassed about it, and then the soldiers would give her small smiles, as if trying to comfort her about it, but Violet could see it in her eyes that she was milking it. “Blazingstorm, Violet Fire, where are the apples?” Violet Fire smiled as she noticed the voice of Merryweather. “They’re right here, Merry.” She smiled and threw the apples in front of the scientist and Dark Spirit. “So all went to plan?” Dark Spirit spoke up “no problems?” He looked directly at Blazingstorm, as if expecting her to know the most. Blazingstorm shook her head “no problems at all.” She looked behind to see Violet Fire angrily staring at Dark Spirit “but you should really be asking Violet about this; she was the one who bought the apples” “So, Violet?” Dark Spirit acknowledged her. “Everything went fine,” she promised “I had a conversation, bought some apples and left.” She shrugged “all seemed fine to me.” Dark Spirit nodded “then we’ll begin your final assessment… You two should have no difficulty completing it.” Both Blazingstorm and Violet Fire followed Dark Spirit and Cold Ice towards a smaller clearing. She noticed straight away that the soldiers had followed them there, and had crowded around the clearing as if not to stop anypony from running away. This made Violet nervous. “So the task is simple,” Dark Spirit announced loudly “all you have to do is-” he pointed towards a small bunny being held down by Cold Ice “-kill the bunny.” Violet Fire’s eyes widened in shock, but she immediately noticed a small smile appear on Blazingstorm’s face. That’s sick! Does she actually want to kill a helpless bunny?! She looked at her sister in utter shock. “Of course it’s a bunny each.” Dark Spirit pointed towards a soldier Violet believed to be called Skyclaw. He was a griffin, and a large one at that. “I expect this to be done quickly,” his voice boomed throughout the clearing “it shouldn’t be hard for you at all” Blazingstorm easily took a step forwards and wacked her hoof around the bunnies face. Violet Fire closed her eyes, unable to look at the scene about to unfold. She heard a few more hits and then a loud clapping of hooves. Violet Fire opened her eyes to see they had already moved the bunny, and she sighed with relief. But the relief didn’t last as Blazingstorm pushed her out into the crowd of ponies (and griffins) watching. She looked down at the poor bunny helplessly flailing in Skyclaw’s bird-like arms; she couldn’t live with herself if she hurt this bunny in any way. She lifted a hoof but didn’t hit down on the bunny; instead she hesitated as she watched the bunny’s eyes begging for freedom. She couldn’t do it, and Dark Spirit noticed this. “Violet, what are you waiting for?! Hit the bunny!” Dark Spirit screamed down at her. She hit down alright… Hit down the side of the griffins face. She pulled the bunny from the griffins grasp and set it free, and it quickly ran across the clearing towards the forest. Violet watched in happiness, completely forgetting she had just hit one of the soldiers around the face. She felt a force on her body, and she instantly fell to the ground. She tried to scramble free, but the weight was too heavy. She looked up to see it was Dark Spirit who was holding her down. “What the hell is wrong with her Merryweather?!” Dark Spirit angrily shouted at his scientist “you said she’d match her sister’s abilities exactly! But here she is unable to kill a puny little bunny! She’s defective!” Merryweather stood in front of Dark Spirit, dazed. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it. “I-I don’t understand, either,” he admitted sorrowfully “when we ran tests on her she matched her sisters ability all the way!” Dark Spirit hit the ground hard with his two grey hooves. “You were too soft on her!” Dark Spirit accused “I told you she should’ve been training the same way Blazingstorm had been! But you didn’t listen, and now we’ve got a coward of an experiment!” His voice was hoarse with rage. Violet Fire could only lie limply underneath Dark Spirit’s hooves as he screamed and shouted at Merryweather, constantly being insulted in every possible way. She took a quick glance over by her sister, who looked at Violet angrily. Violet didn’t understand why her sister was angry at her. All she had done was not kill a bunny, and all of a sudden everypony in the clearing seemed to hate her. “We can’t have her here,” Dark Spirit’s voice was cold as ice “she’ll only be a disappointment to our cause!” “I say we kill her!” She heard the voice of Skyclaw, who held his cheek where Violet had hit down hard. “You’re right, Skyclaw!” Dark Spirit roared “Death is the only option.” Violet looked around the clearing to see everypony nodding in agreement. Even Blazingstorm! Merryweather’s eyes widened “I have a solution,” Merryweather spoke up “I’ll take her up towards the mountains and throw her off myself!” He exclaimed. Violet’s heart sunk as Merryweather agreed with everypony “no failure of a project deserves to live.” The crowd smiled. “Merryweather, to redeem yourself you must kill Violet, or you will die” Dark Spirit threatened. “Oh don’t worry, Dark Spirit” Merryweather smiled “I won’t have a problem killing something so worthless.” Violet Fire felt chains wrap around her legs, tying them together to stop her from running away. She felt a bag slowly crawl up her body, and soon she felt ropes wrapping her inside of it. “Good, now go, Merryweather” Dark Spirit stepped out of the way to let Merryweather pass through with the body of Violet Fire held over his back. The two stopped somewhere close to Ponyville, which confused Violet. “Why am I being killed so close to other ponies?” She looked at Merryweather in confusion. Merryweather pulled Violet Fire from the bag “you’re not going to die,” he answered. She felt the chains and the ropes slowly being pulled from her body, which made her sigh in relief. But why did Merryweather want her to live; surely something like she would be a disgrace in what they had planned for. Well, at least that’s how those ponies felt. “Why are you helping me?” She asked her question. Merryweather looked around “because I need your help,” he simply answered “at first I really wanted to help The Rebellion, but now it seems like Dark Spirit isn’t going to help Equestria at all. I mean, he was killing bunnies for petes sake!” Violet Fire nodded “so what am I going to do to help you then?” “The Rebellion wants nothing more than to lead Equestria, and do whatever they want. If they do take over, the whole of this country will be in chaos. We can’t allow that to happen” Violet raised an eyebrow “but you always told us Princess Celestia and Luna were the ones causing problems,” she pointed out “are you telling me that everything I have learnt about Equestria is a lie?!” Merryweather nodded sadly “the ponies here are good guys,” he promised “and you need to help them when the time comes. Even if it might take years for Dark Spirit to finally show his face to the world, he’ll be coming at some point and you need to be ready.” “And now you need a new alias,” Merryweather explained to her “have you got any ideas?” Violet Fire smirked “you shall refer to me as Scootaloo from now on. This is my new name, and I am now a citizen of Ponyville.” Merryweather smiled “alright, Scootaloo. Let’s get going.” Chapter 3“Wait, so what are we doing here again?” The newly named Scootaloo looked up at Merryweather in confusion. The two were standing outside of the mayor’s town hall with the sun only just becoming visible. Merryweather didn’t reply and just kept taking steps forwards. He shared a small glance with Scootaloo before carrying on into the town hall building. “Seriously, Merryweather,” Scootaloo grumbled “what are we doing here?” She let out an overdramatic sigh. “Can you please just be patient?” Merryweather entered the building, and sat himself down on a chair closely followed by an annoyed Scootaloo. Scootaloo sat down on the chair next to him and sulked. She noticed Merryweather would send a few small glances her way, and then she’d hear an annoyed sigh. “Scoot.” He turned to face the little Pegasus “stop sulking, please! I think you’re forgetting you would probably be dead by now if I hadn’t have spoken up! So quit being angry with me just because I’m not telling you what we’re doing here” “But you’re being so ignorant!” She exclaimed Merryweather openly cringed, why does nopony know what ignorant really means? He thought in frustration. “Look, we’re here to see the mayor about making you a citizen of Ponyville,” he decided to answer “and I need you to act like a filly your age” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow in confusion “but I do act my age.” She scratched her head in confusion. Merryweather shook his head and began to explain to the orange Pegasus “no, you act much older than your real age. You know since you were grown, not born, and that fact that you’ve gone through training a soldier would go through… Trust me, you act way too old for your age.” “I don’t even know how to act my age in the first place,” she argued “how do you expect me to?” The brown unicorn smiled “I know a pony in this town,” he answered “he’s in his twenties, and he can defiantly help you act your age.” Scootaloo looked around the room “umm, how do you know him in the first place?” She asked in confusion. “Well it’s a long story, but I guess we have time,” he decided, and slowly started off the story. “Professor Merryweather,” a female voice spoke up “please, come in.” She gestured with her hoof for both Merryweather and Scootaloo to follow her. The two stood up from their seats and walked through a thin corridor leading towards a door. It was slightly worn down and had a few cracks, and a small window was in front of it, reading ‘Mayor Mare’ on the glass. Merryweather took the first step in, and Scootaloo ran in afterwards. Mayor Mare was already sat at her desk waiting for the discussion to being. “Scootaloo here-” he pointed at Scootaloo, “is going to be moving into Ponyville with a friend of mine called Nightsky.” Mayor Mare skimmed through the books in front of her until she pressed down on the paper. “Would this be him?” She pushed the paper towards Merryweather, who gave her a quick nod, “a twenty-three year old Pegasus stallion working in the weather team?” “That is most defiantly him,” Merryweather answered confidently. Mayor Mare smiled, “good. Can you bring him in to meet me? I can’t really let Scootaloo move in with a pony she potentially doesn’t know” “Of course, Mayor Mare,” Merryweather promised, “Scootaloo and I will be back in a while, can you give us a certain time to meet?” “How about 3:00pm?” Mayor Mare asked. “That’s perfect,” Merryweather grinned happily. Scootaloo followed Merryweather into the streets or Ponyville once again. It was 1:30pm, so Scootaloo had some time to meet the pony who was apparently teaching her to act her age. They headed through the less pretty areas of Ponyville until they stopped outside a crummy house with a brown garden. All of the plants that had once grown there were now brown and shrivelled making the house seem unpleasant. “Are you sure he’s a nice pony?” Scootaloo asked glancing around the garden. Merryweather nodded. “Nightsky’s too nice for his own good,” Merryweather joked. “He’s always helping the ponies less fortunate than himself” “So he’s going to be really nice to me?” She asked curiously. “Yes.” The two came to the front door. It had scratches all the way up front of it, and the handle was hanging off slightly. Scootaloo had never lived in a house before, but even she knew this was not what a house was supposed to look like. She let out a heavy sigh. Merryweather ignored her sigh and gently knocked on the door. A few moments later a dark blue pony with yellow eyes and a black mane appeared at the door. He was much bigger than Scootaloo, and he had small bits of black stubble on his chin. “Nightsky, this is the pony I was telling you about.” Merryweather placed his hooves on Scootaloo’s shoulders. “Umm… Which one?” Nightsky asked. It was strange to Scootaloo how they didn’t give any introductions; she was always expected to be formal whenever she spoke to someone higher than herself. So surely Nightsky would have had to be like that with Merryweather. Scootaloo sighed once again… She had a lot to learn about ponies around here. “Violet Fire,” he answered, “but now she goes by the name Scootaloo… So Dark Spirit won’t find her.” Nightsky nodded and led both Merryweather and Scootaloo into his house. Scootaloo was genuinely surprised. The house on the inside was actually pretty nice and clean. “So Scootaloo, my name is Nightsky as you probably know,” he smiled at her. “I’ve already discussed this with Merryweather, and we decided you’ll be my little sister coming to live with me in Ponyville.” “Got it, I can easily pull that off,” Scootaloo boasted slightly. “But you need to learn to be like the other fillies and colts around here,” Nightsky explained. “Trust me, you don’t want to confuse them by acting like a teenager.” Scootaloo nodded, “trust me, I can act like a nine year old.” “Good,” Nightsky smiled. “I think we’ll be getting along just fine.” Chapter 4It had been a week since Scootaloo had been signed as a citizen of Ponyville, and she had already learnt a lot about fitting in with other ponies. Of course she hadn’t really had the chance to try them out, but she knew she could do it when she had the chance. Scootaloo had often seen a cyan blue mare flying around Ponyville and had immediately become obsessed with her. It wasn’t weird; it wasn’t like she was stalking the pony everywhere she went. She just saw her flying and loved how fast the mare could go when she flew. Scootaloo really wanted to be like that when she was older. Merryweather hadn’t visited since he had left, but that was to be expected. With him working for Dark Spirit is wasn’t really a great idea for him to be sneaking around all the time. Scootaloo knew full well what Dark Spirit was capable of since she had trained with him since she was first really grown. She had been ordered to salute when she first came out of that tube, and she remembered it like it was only yesterday. She had of course been the weakest due to her size and had trouble keeping up with Blazingstorm for a couple of those first weeks. But Merryweather always lifted her spirits whenever she had a problem like that and soon she had matched her sister step for step. But now was a matter of fitting in. It was almost like Nightsky was telling her to forget all the training she had ever endured! He kept telling her to stop her salutes, and to never fight other ponies even if they start fighting with her. But what was the point of never defending yourself if you were fully capable of doing it? Scootaloo still didn’t understand why, but she knew she had to blend in so she did it. Today was the first day of school for Scootaloo, and it was finally time for her to put her knowledge to the test. She just had to blend in with everypony and hope to make some friends. She didn’t really care about having friends, but Nightsky had said it was always nice to have a friend to help you along. “Scootaloo, you have to be at school in twenty minutes,” Nightsky called into the room. “I’ll be taking you there on your first day so I can introduce you to your teacher.” Scootaloo nodded and got up from the bed. Nightsky had given her, her own room for her to sleep in and she still wasn’t quite used to sleeping on something so comfortable. In fact, the first few days of living there she had slept on the floor; she felt too uncomfortable. Somehow Nightsky had managed to get her to try the bed out one night, and so she continued to use it. “Coming, Night,” she answered. She took a step towards her desk in front of her bed and picked up her saddlebags. She noticed they barely weighed anything even though there were loads of things inside of it. Scootaloo had often had to carry many heavy rocks as part of her training when she lived with The Rebellion group. Dark Spirit had said it would help her if she had to carry anything else because it would feel like nothing. Well, he had certainly been right on that. She headed into the living room where Nightsky was waiting patiently on the sofa. She came to stand in front of him and smiled. “I’m ready to leave,” she said nervously. “You really shouldn’t be nervous about school,” he assured her. “I’m not-” He shushed her. “Scootaloo, there will be a few foals out there that might be mean, but most of them will probably be really nice to you,” he promised. Scootaloo nodded and followed Nightsky into the dark streets. Unlike most ponies, Scootaloo found comfort in the shade, and she suspected it was from all the time under the trees. But she did enjoy the open world around her, and wished she had experienced it sooner. “Right then, it looks like you’re going to school.” Nightsky looked down at her warmly. The two Pegasi took a small trot towards the school building. Scootaloo still felt very nervous despite Nightsky easing her worries with talk. She decided it was best to just take deep breaths and hopefully it would go away. They finally reached the building a few minutes later. Scootaloo walked in first to see the class had already settled and put their eyes straight on Scootaloo and Nightsky. She decided to look them in the eyes to show how confident she could be, and did just that. But it looked like it was making the other ponies nervous and she quickly stopped. “Who is this?” The teacher asked Nightsky who came to stand beside Scootaloo. “This is Scootaloo.” He walked towards her, “she’s my sister coming to stay in Ponyville with me.” Her eyes widened, “so this is Scootaloo?” She came to stand in front of the orange Pegasus. “Hello, my name is Miss Cheerilee and I’m going to be your new teacher.” Scootaloo nodded and looked to see where there were spare seats. She noticed one near the back of the class and started walking towards it. The class still kept their eyes on the new student which made her quite nervous, but she kept her cool as she placed her saddlebag on the ground and sat herself on the chair. “So class, Scootaloo is new to Ponyville so you should all treat her with as much kindness as possible,” Miss Cheerilee told the class. Scootaloo was getting slightly annoyed at how nice her voice always sounded. It was like she trying her hardest to sound pleasant and nice, but Scootaloo could see right through it. She wasn’t as well-spoken as she made herself out to be. Being in The Rebellion made it easy to understand; Scootaloo had often come across many ponies that had just joined making their voice too nice whenever they spoke to Dark Spirit like they were trying to please him. But as soon as they got settled in their voice would change completely, it was something she saw every day. Nightsky left the classroom and waved a final goodbye to Scootaloo. The class turned back to normal and the teacher began to talk about random things, but Scootaloo didn’t really pay that much attention because she basically knew everything the teacher was talking about. Being grown meant she had a lot of the information was sent to her brain when she was growing in that tube. She knew everything there was about magic, Maths, English and Science so she really had no need to listen. Of course Scootaloo was well educated in things like fighting and other martial arts. The only thing she hadn’t mastered yet was the ability to fly, but even growing in a tube couldn’t change when she would fly. Even Blazingstorm hadn’t learnt how to do it as of the last time she was there. “Scootaloo, are you listening?” A voice entered her thoughts. Scootaloo looked up to see Miss Cheerilee looking at her with an annoyed expression. “Sorry, Miss,” Scootaloo answered the teacher, “it’s just that in my old school I was taught a lot of this stuff already…” Miss Cheerilee raised an eyebrow, “but every school teaches these things at the same time in Equestria. How could you have possibly learnt it already?” Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “Scratch that,” she laughed nervously; “my mum taught me it early,” she lied. “That doesn’t mean you can’t listen to that lesson,” Miss Cheerilee said sternly, and then quickly went back to her teaching. Scootaloo sighed and went back into zoning out. The lesson ended and break came. Scootaloo went to sit outside and sat by herself at one of the tables. She watched the other ponies go off and play with their friends and immediately noticed something strange. It seemed like everypony had a different group, and that was certainly strange to Scootaloo. When she was in The Rebellion everypony seemed to be completely different, but they all worked for the same cause so it was fine. But now it looked as though each pony was split up into their own decided groups. So I just have to find a pony with similar interests to mine? She thought to herself, shouldn’t be too hard. She picked up her saddlebag and grabbed an apple. She smiled and brought it up to her mouth when she heard a bunch of ponies laughing loudly. Scootaloo placed the apple back in her bag and started walking forwards to see what all the commotion was. She looked around the corner to see two earth ponies standing over a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane. It looked to Scootaloo like they were laughing at her for whatever reason, but it looked like whatever they were laughing about was hurting the unicorn’s feelings. Placing the bag on her back she went to go look what they were laughing about. “Just shut up blank flank,” the pink earth pony snapped. “Do you really expect us to be nice to a pony who doesn’t even know her own special talent?” The unicorn shook her head sadly, and hung her head low. “Wow, I thought you were too stupid to understand such complicated rules,” the silver one laughed, causing the pink one to laugh as well. Scootaloo’s eyes widened at how harsh they were being. She took a step forwards to stand in front of the unicorn and looked defiantly at the two ponies. “What’s wrong with you?!” She practically screamed. “She hasn’t done anything to you, so why don’t you just go and do whatever it is prissy little ponies like you do?” “And who are you?” The pink one gave her a disgusted look. “My name’s Scootaloo, now how about you get the hay out of here?!” She took a step forwards until she was a centimetre away from both ponies. The pink one pushed Scootaloo backwards, causing her to stagger. “That’s how you want to play it, then?” She ran forwards and pushed the pony to the floor. She lifted up her hooves and hit her in the face causing a small bit of blood to trickle from her left cheek. “Get off me!” She screamed. Scootaloo moved from on top of her and both the ponies ran off. Scootaloo brought her attention back to the unicorn that was now looking at her happily. “Thank you so much, Scootaloo!” She wrapped her forelegs around Scootaloo in a hug. “You’re the new filly, right?” Scootaloo nodded. “Great, we should be friends!” She exclaimed happily, “I don’t really have any friends,” she admitted. “Thanks, I don’t really have many friends either,” Scootaloo confessed. The two took a seat where Scootaloo had previously been sitting earlier and enjoyed their lunches. Scootaloo learnt that the unicorns name was Sweetie Belle and that her sister owned a boutique in Ponyville. They spent the rest of the day together until school had finally ended. “Hey wait a minute, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle called after her new friend. Scootaloo turned around and waited for her friend to speak. “We should go to Diamond Tiara’s cuteceanera in a few days,” she told Scootaloo, who gave her a raised eyebrow. Realising Scootaloo’s look Sweetie Belle finally explained why, “I don’t like her, but maybe we could make some more friends there. After all, everypony in town will be there!” “True on that,” Scootaloo agreed, “yeah, it might be pretty fun!” Sweetie Belle smiled excitedly. The two finally left and Scootaloo headed towards Nightsky’s house. She got home happily and told Nightsky exactly what had happened that day, leaving out the part where she had beat up Diamond Tiara. Chapter 5Scootaloo awoke the next morning to the sound of shuffling hooves. She opened one eye slowly and was immediately hit in the face with a strong ray of sunlight causing her to quickly shut her tired eye once again. She sighed tiredly and turned to face away from the sunlight. She opened an eye again and noticed the sunlight no longer shone in her face. She smiled and lifted herself from the bed, hoping to find out what Nightsky was doing. Yawning immediately, she fell back down onto her bed. She was absolutely exhausted from the day before! Using all the strength she could she managed to stand on the cold floor. She openly shivered and quickly grabbed a blanket to cover herself downstairs. She wrapped it around her body and smiled in satisfaction as she began to start a slow, steady trot downstairs. She immediately noticed how much warmer it was downstairs than it was upstairs which really confused her. I thought heat rose… She shrugged it off and found herself standing aimlessly at the bottom of the stairs. Walking forwards she noticed most of the heat was coming from the living room, and quickly she rushed there with the blanket still wrapped around her body. “Scootaloo, you’re awake.” She turned to see Nightsky sitting on the sofa with a warm expression. “I have something really cool to show you!” This caused Scootaloo to smile happily. She wondered just what Nightsky had in store for her, and she quickly thought of all the possibilities. Maybe he’s going to teach me to fly?! Or maybe he’s going to train me some more?! Things like this were the things that really got Scootaloo excited. Unlike most foals her age, she actually found enjoyment in working out and training, but it made perfect sense since she had grown up in that type of environment. “What is it?!” She asked wonderingly. Nightsky gave a happy smile, “something that you’ll love to use.” It was now clear to Scootaloo that whatever Scootaloo was going to have as a surprise was most defiantly an object. But what could that object possibly be? There was only one way to find out. She followed Nightsky into the back garden. Scootaloo took the time to look around; she had never actually seen the garden as of yet because she spent most of her time out of the house, or learning how to act like a foal her age. The grass was pretty long, and showed he hadn’t cut it in a while, but Scootaloo didn’t mind; it reminded her of the forest. The garden was bordered by a worn out fence with faded wood colours, and some pieces of the fence had broken leaving small gaps between them. In the corner of the garden was a small shed which looked pretty worn down. There were pieces of nail hanging from the joints and small bits of splintering wood stuck out from it. Nightsky was heading into the shed, and he carefully opened it, causing it to squeak a little. His body was soon covered by a shadow causing Scootaloo to lose sight of him. She waited patiently for Nightsky to return from the shed, and he finally did. He had a big grin on his face and one of his dark blue hoofs were kept in front of a small object, keeping it away from Scootaloo’s sight. “Right, I want you to close your eyes and open them when I tell you to,” Nightsky ordered. Scootaloo nodded in agreement and closed her eyes, causing her vision to darken. She heard a few movements from Nightsky and felt his body and whatever he was holding slowly getting closer to body. “Alright, now open them,” Nightsky instructed. She slowly opened her eyes to see a small wooden scooter. It was coloured day blue and had metal handlebars coming from the front, and on the top it changed to an orange-red wood for her to place her small hooves on. The wheels were also coloured the same and had the same sky blue in the middle. Beside it was a purple helmet with a long and thick white stripe coming down from the middle. The straps were a dark grey and slightly worn out, but Scootaloo could easily find a way to fix it up. “So, what do you think?” Nightsky asked. Scootaloo sensed a sense of nervousness from his voice as he stared down at her. She looked it over a final time and finally let out a happy smile. “This is great!” She exclaimed. “I can train my wings and legs with this scooter!” She saw Nightsky let out a huge sigh of relief, “for a second there I thought you might not have liked it.” “Why would you think that?” She smiled and stood on the scooter. “Now I can train and ponies won’t suspect a thing!” Nightsky smiled and took a step backwards, “why don’t you try it out?” He asked. Scootaloo grinned happily and placed the helmet on her head. She gave a final wave before pushing forwards with her hoof, and then propelling herself across the garden with her wings. She was surprised how much speed she could get by using her wings, but she was defiantly enjoying it. Scootaloo waved another goodbye before racing into the streets of Ponyville, and making her way towards Sweetie Belle’s house before school. It would start an hour from then so she had plenty of time to train. Scootaloo didn’t really get tired from training; she had done a lot of it back in the forest so doing this didn’t strain her wings. Back there she had literally lifted big, heavy rocks with her small stubby wings! She saw a small wooden piece being held up by another wooden box in the middle of the road, and an idea came to mind. She began to concentrate on the small plank of wood and put all her attention onto that small area, and she began to get more and more speed. Quickly dodging each citizen of Ponyville she found her face had scrunched up with excitement. Her wings were buzzing faster as she began to get even more excited, and finally she was just inches away from the plank of wood. She smiled in excitement and prepared for lift-off. She shut her eyes and tensed her body, but suddenly felt her whole scooter and body lift from the ground, she opened one of her eyes and looked below to see everypony staring up at her as she got some major air. Letting out a squeal of excitement she slowly began to loosen up. She saw the floor coming closer, and she prepared to land her scooter. She released a heavy breath and began to angle her scooter so that it wouldn’t topple over. The wheels touched the ground and Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief. She began to slow her pace and stopped herself in front of the boutique where Sweetie Belle was living. She smiled happily. No way have I just done that! Scootaloo turned to see everypony in the area still looking at her in complete shock. She looked back at her scooter which appeared to still be in one piece after the landing, and smiled warmly. She looked up to see a familiar cyan mare staring down at her from an idle floating cloud in the sky. Turning to look properly at her Scootaloo remembered her, and realised it was the Pegasus she had been watching from the ground when she had first arrived in Ponyville. The Pegasus gave her a quick wink before turning back to lying on the cloud. Scootaloo’s eyes shone with admiration for the mare, but she finally turned back around towards the boutique. She parked her blue scooter beside it and placed her helmet on one of the handlebars. She knocked on the door and waited patiently for whatever pony to answer. The door opened a few moments later to reveal a white unicorn with blue eyes and extremely long eyelashes. Her mane was a purple colour and was styled in a pretty weird fashion. “May I help you?” The mare asked with a smile on her face. Scootaloo smiled back, “hey, my name’s Scootaloo and I was wondering if Sweetie Belle was in.” “Well, my name’s Rarity and I’m Sweetie’s sister. Just hold on a moment.” She turned around and called up the stairs, “Sweetie, Scootaloo your friends here to see you!” Scootaloo heard a few small hoofsteps coming from the upstairs of the boutique, and before long she saw the purple-blue mane of Sweetie Belle who had a small smile plastered across her face. “Hey, Scootaloo!” She called over to the orange Pegasus. “Hey, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo called back, “I was wondering if you might want to go out for a while. I also have something pretty awesome to tell you!” Sweetie Belle looked at her sister expectantly, and both ponies waited for whatever Rarity would say. “You can go out, Sweetie,” she decided, “but no later than 8:00pm.” Sweetie Belle nodded in excitement and rushed out the door, leaving behind a small trail of dust. A small sneeze was emitted from Rarity as she closed the door of the boutique. Scootaloo ran towards her new scooter and put it in front of Sweetie Belle eagerly. “Cool! I didn’t know you had a scooter, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. “I just got it today, but the most awesome thing happened!” Scootaloo went on to tell Sweetie Belle about her insane stunt across the market and when the cyan Pegasus had given her a wink. “I know that Pegasus,” Sweetie Belle had told her friend, “she’s friends with my sister, she’s called Rainbow Dash. Apparently they went on this gigantic adventure together and now they’re the new elements of harmony!” Scootaloo gave her friend a quizzical look, “elements of harmony?” She asked. “Rarity told me they’re like the elements of friendship!” A small squeak was emitted from the unicorn. “I think Rainbow Dash was the element of loyalty or something…” She trailed off, “oh, and Rarity is the element of generosity.” The two friends were sat smiling at each other. Scootaloo hopped on her scooter, “come on, and follow me!” She began to buzz her wings slowly, “I want to try out some more tricks!” She raced off and was followed by a very enthusiastic unicorn. Turning her head, Scootaloo saw Sweetie Belle was only just keeping up with her, and slowly she began to slow down her speed for her friend. Sweetie Belle gave her friend a grateful nod before going into a fast trot rather than a full blown sprint. The two ended up beside a small oak tree, and Sweetie Belle watched her friend perform the trick, and even make up some new ones. Things were going good for Scootaloo despite being in hiding. Everything was going just fine. Chapter 6Years. It had been years since Scootaloo had left The Rebellion to live with Nightsky. She had grown accustomed living in a house, and was truly acting like a pony her age. There was a happy and cheerful skip in her step whenever she hung out with her friends, and she had become a great rider of the scooter. But of course things had changed quite a bit within those months. Scootaloo had made another great friend. Actually, it was the small yellow cowpony she had met the first day she had come to Ponyville. The filly they called Apple Bloom. The three had become great friends, and had even started up their own club! They called themselves ‘The Cutie Mark Crusaders and their goal in the club were to earn their cutie marks. They got into strange and funny antics all over Ponyville, and were known as the troublemakers of Ponyville; it seemed everywhere they went there was a disaster afterwards. But other great things had stemmed up too. Scootaloo was now the little sister of her idol Rainbow Dash! Scootaloo had finally got the attention of Rainbow Dash one day. She had been performing one of her tricks when Rainbow Dash had flown up to her and said… “Nice moves kid.” That moment had defiantly excited Scootaloo the most out of all the things she had gotten up to in Ponyville. Scootaloo had known she had grasped the attention of the cyan mare on the first day she got her scooter, but now that the Pegasus had commented on her awesomeness? Now that was a whole new level! Of course the trick had ended with Scootaloo falling into a pile of hay… But that wasn’t the point… Then Scootaloo had been told that Applejack and a few other ponies were going camping! Scootaloo wanted to be in on that action immediately! And which pony had actually come to the camping trip with Scootaloo? Rainbow Danger Dash! She even got to share a tent with her idol! Scootaloo was so excited to learn more about her idol and maybe even be taken under her wing. There were endless possibilities of how the camping trip could have gone. But the trip hadn’t really started out the best. However it certainly ended in the most amazing way possible for the orange filly. Rainbow Dash had decided to tell the campers scary stories on their first night there. These stories had sadly scared the living daylights out of Scootaloo, but she tried to keep her cool throughout. This led to a few problems… The first problem was the nightmares Scootaloo repeatedly got every time she fell asleep. And the second problem was the fact that Scootaloo got barely any sleep for the next day! They finally reached another camping site later on, but Scootaloo was still extremely scared from the story. Of course Rainbow Dash decided to tell another scary story… Like that didn’t scare the little filly enough! Eventually Scootaloo went back to sleep inside an extremely scary cave with the rest of her friends. She once again suffered another nightmare, which promptly ended when Princess Luna showed up in her dream. The princess told Scootaloo she needed to face her real fear, which was of course being rejected by her idol. After waking from the dream Scootaloo ran thinking that the “headless horse” was chasing after her when she heard his whiny (which was actually just Rainbow Dash snoring). She raced through the forest on her scooter until she ended up flying off the edge of a ravine, where she managed to hold onto a tree root from the floor. Her scooter went over the edge and into the ravine, probably to be never seen again. Scootaloo fell off of the edge with the scooter, but was quickly saved by Rainbow Dash who had followed the missing camper when she had disappeared. There at that moment Scootaloo had to face her fear. Rainbow Dash was expecting answers for why Scootaloo had raced out of the cave in the middle of the night, and Scootaloo had no good lies to cover her tracks. She finally revealed how scared she was when Rainbow Dash told her stories and how she was desperate for Rainbow to take her under her wing. Scootaloo expected her idol to leave right at that moment, but the cyan mare actually stayed. She even told Scootaloo she was scared of those stories at one point, but quickly realised that the creepy monsters in them were nothing to be afraid of. Finally, Rainbow Dash happily agreed to take Scootaloo under her wing and be her big sister! There, that was the best moment in Scootaloo’s life. Since those few happy months a few other things had changed. Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the elements of harmony had since become an alicorn. She was now a princess in her own right. After Scootaloo had lost her scooter, Rainbow Dash had searched for it in the churning waters of the ravine and soon came back a few days later with it cleaned up and ready for some more tricks to try out. Despite all these happy things and the great life she was having there was still something in the back of her mind. Always there. Always reminding her not everything is perfect. A battle loomed over the horizon, and when it happened Scootaloo was sure she was one of the only ponies capable of stopping it. Endless training lay before her. Nightsky had started the training when he had received a letter from Merryweather. They hadn’t seen him since the day Scootaloo was dropped off from the camp site, and finally they had received contact with him. The note had stated Dark Spirit was becoming increasingly stronger with the help of Blazingstorm. Scootaloo’s sister had done nothing but train since she had left and was now Dark Spirit’s main commander, which meant demoting Cold Ice. It was also known that Blazingstorm had mastered flying a few months afterwards, and was now learning new tricks for when they reached Canterlot. None of the other ponies suspected Scootaloo of still being alive, and they had moved their campsite into some woods beside Trottingham and had been staying there for a number of months. Nightsky realised that now was the time for Scootaloo to be remembering all the things she had learnt in the forest. That meant going back into her old routines and spending less time with her friends. She was re-disciplined and was becoming a soldier in her own right. But there was still the art of flying to be mastered. Nightsky had tried to teach Scootaloo everything he knew about flying, but he simply wasn’t a good instructor on those types of things. When he was a young colt he had picked up flying very quick and didn’t know any methods for Pegasi with difficulty learning. And there was only one pony that could help Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash had been a late bloomer when it came to flying, and even when she learnt she was still pretty bad at it. By this, Nightsky was sure she could teach Scootaloo everything she needed to know. “Come on Scootaloo!” Nightsky ordered the orange Pegasus, “just a few more wing push-ups!” Scootaloo grunted as she carried on using her wings. “Nightsky, I don’t even know why I have to do this! I can’t even fly yet!” She complained. “Well, if your wings are strong enough before then you won’t have any trouble getting off of the ground,” Nightsky retorted. Scootaloo let out a heavy sigh and fell to the floor, making a small mark in the long grass. “Scoot, you know Blazing has already learnt to fly, right?” He asked the Pegasus, who briefly nodded. “And you don’t want to be behind her. You have to match your sister step for step or you’ll stand no chance against her,” he tried to reason with her. “Why can’t I just be a normal pony?!” Scootaloo cried out in anger, “I just want one day where I don’t have to worry about the stupid rebellion and stupid Blazingstorm and Dark Spirit!” “Who?” A voice interrupted the two arguing ponies. Scootaloo turned to see Rainbow Dash looking down at them in confusion while she flapped her wings in a rhythmic fashion. Both Nightsky and the filly’s eyes widened as they looked up at her. “Uh, nothing,” Scootaloo spoke up first, a clear lie written all over her face. She let out a nervous chuckle, briefly followed by Nightsky. Slowly the two began to back away towards the back door. Rainbow Dash landed in the garden and just stared at them with the most confused expression known to ponies. “Seriously, who the hay are Blazingstorm and Dark Spirit?” She asked curiously. “Noponies important,” Nightsky spoke up, “just some of Scootaloo’s relatives,” he lied. “And what was the whole thing about a rebellion?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. Scootaloo looked at Nightsky for answers, but the dark blue pony could only stand and stare. “It’s umm… just a game me and Nightsky play. I’m always the soldier fighting against the rebellion and he is the rebellions leader… and it’s up to me to stop him.” Scootaloo had to admit that it was a pretty good lie on the spot. Rainbow Dash still looked skeptical but didn’t say anything else about it, causing Scootaloo to breathe normally again. I think I might just pat myself on the back for that, she thought joyfully. “Anywho, Rainbow Dash do you think I could speak with you?” Nightsky looked at the Pegasus with a bright smile on his face once his nervousness had cleared. “Uh, sure,” Rainbow Dash flew to the other side of the garden with Nightsky. Scootaloo watched them curiously, unsure of what they were talking about. She sat herself down on the grass and sighed impatiently. She needed to train more, and having small little breaks like this wasn’t going to help her in the future. Looking up she see Rainbow Dash walking back across the garden with Nightsky with a smile plastered on her face. She bent down to get closer to the filly. “Nightsky suggested I take you flight training.” Chapter 7Scootaloo sat patiently in front of Rainbow Dash, who was showing her a few tricks to flying beforehand. It was a spectacular sight for Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash was teaching her how to fly and actually seemed happy about it. She had suspected Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have been so keen on training a young filly like her, but here she was performing a few basic wing techniques for the filly to go by every day. Rainbow Dash had said the exercises would help strengthen her wings, but the Pegasus had been surprised to find Scootaloo’s wings already pretty strong. Scootaloo knew who to thank for that. The cyan mare had said that because of it flying wouldn’t take as long for her to learn with the correct training. All she needed to do was practice the movements her wings would make rather than buzzing them around, and just get her wings stronger with regular exercise. She had told Scootaloo she should try wing push-ups and lift some items with her wings, obviously not knowing Scootaloo had done this when she was so young. It was a breeze. She easily lifted a few large rocks much to Rainbow Dash’s surprise, and would even keep them held there for a few minutes. It was good to see Rainbow Dash’s look of awe as she surprised her mentor. “Just carry on strengthening those wings and you’ll be there in no time,” Rainbow Dash promised. “Thanks for helping me, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo replied gratefully, “you’re a great teacher.” “Eh, being totally awesome has its perks,” Rainbow Dash boasted to the small filly. Scootaloo smiled up at the Pegasus standing before her. It always made her happy when she saw the grin on her face as she would boast about her latest accomplishments, and how awesome she was at flying. The grin never held a look of snobbishness to it; she didn’t look down on other ponies even though she had the ability to just because of her sheer awesomeness. “Squirt, why don’t we go to Sugarcube Corner for some milkshakes?” Her grin was still held on her face. Scootaloo nodded eagerly, “I could really use a chocolate milkshake right now!” The two bounded off towards the small bakery, and finally reached it a few minutes later. The two walked into the store when Pinkie popped up out of nowhere. “Heya, Dashie!” She bounced up and down excitedly. “Hey, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash replied, “me and Scootaloo here were just going to order two chocolate milkshakes.” “Coming right up!” Pinkie Pie hopped away. Rainbow Dash led the orange Pegasus towards one of the booths and sat down on the other side. As soon as Scootaloo sat down Pinkie Pie came out of nowhere once again and placed the drinks on the table, and then crawled underneath ultimately disappearing. “I will never understand that mare,” Rainbow Dash murmured so only Scootaloo could hear. Scootaloo stole a quick glance at the counter to find Pinkie Pie standing there placing some cupcakes on the counter. The pink earth pony waved at Scootaloo with a wide smile on her face. Scootaloo was dumbfounded as she stared at the pony that had literally crawled under her table not even a minute ago. “What just happened?” Scootaloo looked back at Rainbow Dash, who held the same quizzical look. “If I knew, I’d tell you.” She took a sip from her milkshake, but still kept a confused gaze on Pinkie Pie. “So how has the whole training to be a Wonderbolt thing been going?” Scootaloo broke the silence. “Amazingly!” Rainbow Dash smiled at the prospect of telling Scootaloo about all the awesome stunts she had done. “There was this one-” Scootaloo listened to every word that mare said, and sat there with an amazed gaze as Rainbow Dash started talking about nearly breaking the sound barrier once again, and how she was training in Ghastly Gorge and pushing herself to the limits. Scootaloo loved hearing about Rainbow Dash and her tricks; it always gave her hope that one day she could be just as amazing as Rainbow Dash. Then a thought struck her mind. If I was born practically perfect in things like these… Wouldn’t that mean I will be better than Rainbow Dash? For most Pegasi that would be the best day of their lives, but not for Scootaloo. What was the point of being amazing at the things she enjoyed if she didn’t even need to try hard? She could probably easily copy most of Rainbow Dash’s tricks once she learnt to fly because she was born with the gift of being an amazing flyer. Professor Merryweather had been ordered by Dark Spirit to put very specific skills in her brain. These were all the skills a royal guard or a Wonderbolt would already have. There were hundreds of skills she could name, but only a selective few could really stay in her mind. The first skill was the art of knowing how to survive. Scootaloo hadn’t been taught this information; she knew it since she first came out of the tube. She knew everything about surviving in the Everfree Forest, and journeying in difficult terrain, and she was very skilful at it. She could conjure up a tent made out of twigs in less than ten minutes if she set her mind to it. She even knew where to find the cleanest water, and where the best places for finding food was. She knew everything about it. The second skill was the ability to be amazing at flying. When Scootaloo finally lifts herself off of the ground the natural flying ability would just come to her. She would know how to perform stunts only the Wonderbolt’s know, and how to create the best storms for weather ponies. Not only that, but she would even be able to create her own version of the sonic Rainboom! By figuring out herself just how Rainbow Dash did it she would be able to conjure up one made of a violet flame, or a blazing fire through the sky. Or maybe even a mix of the two! The possibilities were endless of Scootaloo. But it would all be effortless… “- tricks even Spitfire would be jealous of.” Rainbow Dash finally finished. “Why are you so amazing at flying, Rainbow Dash?!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders, but then the same grin came upon her face. “Because I’m awesome like that.” “But didn’t you ever train to be so good at it? I heard that when you did your first sonic Rainboom that you weren’t that good at flying… So how did you manage to do it?” “If we’re being serious here then… I honestly don’t know. It was just something that felt natural to me.” Rainbow Dash stood up and grabbed her now completely empty milkshake. “How about we get you home, Scoot?” Rainbow Dash decided, “I need to get home so I can do some more Wonderbolt training.” Scootaloo nodded and followed Rainbow Dash home. She was still confused about just how easily flying had come to Rainbow Dash. She hadn’t even trained, and for whatever reason Scootaloo had the feeling there was more to Rainbow Dash than what most ponies knew. She even believed Rainbow Dash didn’t know what it was. When she had told Scootaloo about it the look in her eyes had defiantly looked truthful. There was no way she could doubt it. The two got back to Nightsky’s house by the time Luna’s moon was only just starting to rise. “We’ll have some more flight training tomorrow at four,” Rainbow Dash announced and flew off. Scootaloo took one final glance into the sky in the direction Rainbow Dash had flown off towards, and then headed inside to get some well-deserved rest. Chapter 8“She even said I’d be flying in no time!” Scootaloo boasted in front of her two friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. It had been a week since Scootaloo’s first training session with Rainbow Dash and the strength in her wings had heightened dramatically. Her wings were as strong as Rainbow Dash’s now! All she needed to do was get her wing movements right and she would be off the ground no time. They were both smiling happily at their friend as she performed a few wing-ups for them to see. All three of them were discussing ways to get their cutie marks in their clubhouse, but so far nothing had really come up; instead, Scootaloo decided to show her friends just how awesome she could get. “You guys got any ideas on how to earn our cutie marks?” Scootaloo stopped her exercising and looked at her friends, who both shook their heads. “Sometimes I think we’ve done everything possible,” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “We never have any ideas!” One of her famous squeaks ended her sentences. “Why don’t we try apple buckin’?” Apple Bloom added in. “You guys ain’t ever tried that.” “I doubt apple bucking would be something in our area,” Scootaloo decided. “Me and Sweetie Belle will probably have something completely different to you.” “Ahem, it’s Sweetie Belle and I,” Apple Bloom corrected. “Whatever.” Scootaloo carried on working out as she rolled her eyes. There was a long silence between the three until Sweetie Belle spoke up, “why don’t we just go to the park?” She asked. “We haven’t been there in a while?” Scootaloo stopped and nodded, “why not?” She looked over at Apple Bloom who nodded in agreement. The three left the clubhouse. Scootaloo ran forwards to hop on her scooter and attached it to the little truck her friends sat in. This helped them get around Ponyville quicker instead of them taking ages to walk somewhere, and it also meant Scootaloo didn’t have to slow down on her scooter for her friends who took forever to walk. Apple Bloom jumped in first, and was then followed by Sweetie Belle. The two friends gave Scootaloo a quick nod and then they were off. Scootaloo’s wings began to buzz faster and faster until they were speeding closer and closer into Ponyville. She smiled outwardly and carried on at her fast pace and began dodging everypony in the way. They all sent her angry glances as she sped through, but she didn’t care what they thought. She loved the adrenaline and the wind as it blew through her violet mane. It made her feel free which was something she never got to experience in the forest; the trees stopped most of the wind from getting through which made it stuffy and harder to breathe. But out here was the best place for her. She found it hard to believe that when she first came to Ponyville that she never even dreamt of flying up onto the clouds above. But now that was her only dream, and a dream that would come when she was ready for her first flight. “We’re here.” Scootaloo slowed her speed down and parked herself beside a small tree. She looked across the park to see lots of other ponies playing with their friends while being watched over by their parents. They were watching their children from some wooden benches while reading books and newspapers. “Hey Scoot.” Scootaloo turned her head to see Rainbow Dash hovering above her. The filly smiled at her mentor and big sister with a wide grin spread across her face. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground softly. “You guys out here trying to earn your cutie marks?” She asked. “Actually no, we’re ‘ere to just ‘ang out; we never do that nah,” Apple Bloom piped up. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you at training tomorrow, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash flew up into the air and landed on a tree branch. The cyan mare closed her eyes and before long had fallen asleep. The cutie mark crusaders played a small game for a while, kicking a ball around and laughing loudly whenever Sweetie Belle would fall over. They were all having a lot of fun when they were so rudely interrupted. “Hey dorks,” the voice of a colt called over, a sneer was clearly present. Scootaloo looked up to see a group of colts walking towards them. The leader was eyeing the ball they had closely. “What do you want idiots?” Scootaloo angrily replied, knowing full well they were here to be mean to them for whatever reason. “Just that ball.” The leader lifted his hoof. He was a green unicorn with deep blue eyes. His mane was yellow and covered his left eye as it went from his right side. He had a cutie mark of a baseball bat on his side. “Well you can’t have it.” Scootaloo picked up the ball and looked back at her friends, who looked slightly scared of the colt and his three friends standing behind him. “Just give us the dumb ball and we won’t hurt you,” the colt growled. “Are you trying to scare me?” Scootaloo took a step forwards and was now nose to nose with the colt, “because it’s not working.” The green colt pushed Scootaloo backwards, with his three friends advancing forwards towards Scootaloo. He let out a snort and aimed his hoof at Scootaloo’s face. Behind Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash had just woken up and was now watching the fight with great interest. She was about to intercept when the strangest thing happened. Scootaloo smiled and blocked the blow that was coming straight towards her face. She pulled the colts hoof down onto the ground and pressed down hard, causing a few small droplets of blood to stain the ground. He yowled in pain but then tried to pull on Scootaloo’s mane. She swiftly dodged it by only an inch and jumped the colt, pushing his face into the ground. Behind her another colt was about to jump on her back, but she quickly kicked him with her back hoof which disorientated him for a moment. Scootaloo laughed at how weak these colts were and got from on top of the other colt. She ran forwards and hit the other one to the floor. The other two were sneakily walking forwards trying to hit her from the back, but she quickly turned around and hit another one in the chest which pushed him to the floor. The one next to him began to run towards Scootaloo with his left leg high in the air. Scootaloo grabbed his hoof and twisted it which caused him to scream. This caught the attention of everypony in the park, but nopony did anything to stop the fight. Scootaloo was really scaring them with her skills in fighting. The green colt was now standing up on his hooves and tried to grab hold of Scootaloo’s wings. But Scootaloo sensed him running and kicked her back hoof straight into his muzzle, and she felt a few teeth come loose from his mouth. Scootaloo let out a satisfactory grin when she heard him drop to the ground. By now the other three colts were running away in panic, all looking back at Scootaloo who had blood smeared on her hooves. She looked behind to see the green colt was now unconscious and lying on the ground. Blood was trailing down from his mouth and a few of his teeth were on the ground beside him. His muzzle was also bleeding and both his eyes were already swollen from those kicks to the face. She looked back at her two friends who were staring at her in awe. Apple Bloom looked like she was about to say something, but she could only stare at her friend who was completely unscathed from the fight. She wiped some of the blood from her hooves onto the grass below her. All around everypony was staring at her in complete silence. Finally, a green mare ran from the crowd towards the unicorn colt she had just defended herself from. The mare gave Scootaloo the angriest look possible and picked up her son, and ran straight towards the direction of the hospital. Scootaloo saw Rainbow Dash land in front of her. The cyan Pegasus just stared at the little filly with the look of shock printed on her face. It was clear she had no idea what she could possibly tell the filly after what she had just seen, and what she was capable of. Realising what she had just done her eyes widened. She had just beaten up a colt near to death because he was trying to steal her ball… And now she was standing in front of everypony covered in blood and looked completely fine. Great, like I’m not suspicious enough, she mentally face-hoofed “I think I’ll just be heading home.” Scootaloo awkwardly walked away and before everypony knew it she was speeding home on her scooter. Rainbow Dash sat staring off in the direction Scootaloo had disappeared to. All the ponies who had witnessed the fight had now gone off back into their usual business. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had gone home with their sisters, and had told them everything that had happened afterwards. Rainbow Dash could see a hint of fear on their faces as they retold the events of Scootaloo’s fighting. Rainbow Dash was confused. Ever since the filly had moved to Ponyville she seemed to be different in some way. Rainbow Dash always thought something was off about the filly, but she could never place what she thought was wrong. She needed some answers and decided it was best to go see Twilight in the library. She probably had some kind of information about everypony in Equestria, or she could ask Princess Celestia through letters. She flew up into the air and soon found herself at the door of the library. She walked inside and called out to her friend, “Twilight!” “Rainbow Dash, is that you?” Twilight called back. She was up the stairs probably studying on her bed. Rainbow Dash flew up to see she had her head in her books. “I need some information,” she told her friend. “Do you think you can find out where Scootaloo came from?” “Why?” Twilight looked up from the books at stared at her friend. “There’s something not right about her,” she told her friend. “In the park this morning she beat up four colts all at once… and she came out of it free of injury. I need to know who she is and where she came from.” Twilight’s eyes widened, “I’ll send a letter to the princess right away!” After Twilight had sent the letter the two waited patiently in the library for a while, and Rainbow Dash decided to read on of the Daring Do books in the time spared. The reply came a few hours later when it had turned ten at night. “So, what did she say?” Rainbow Dash asked her friend expectantly. Twilight handed Rainbow Dash the letter. To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle I have researched this filly by the name of “Scootaloo” and have found nothing. It appears she isn’t even a citizen of Equestria itself so we have no information on who she is and where she came from. I suggest you ask the filly yourself and hope she tells you something. She may even be a threat to Equestria if what you’re describing what she did right, and we must find out quickly. Princess Celestia. Rainbow Dash stared down at the letter, and uttered a single sentence. “Who the hay is she then?” Author's Note Now that I look back at this chapter I really don't like what I did with it. But I've already got further into the story now and there's no changing what I did to it back then. I hate what I did with the next chapter as well, but the other ones after that I feel like I've gotten the story on the right track. Chapter 9Blazingstorm was sat beside Dark Spirit in front of a large crowd of ponies, plus the odd griffin. She looked over to see Professor Merryweather and Cold Ice standing at his other side, all looking down at the crowd with blank gazes. The crowd held a deadly silence, and kept themselves as still as possible as they gazed up at their leader. The odd few would break the silence with a few coughs which caused Blazingstorm to send them a death glare. Despite her only being thirteen years old she had power, a lot of it. If she asked Dark Spirit she could have a single pony executed on the spot for acting rudely towards her, and ponies began to respect that. Her battle skills were phenomenal for a filly her age, but of course it was being born more advanced than anypony around her. “Training will become harder for all of you now,” Dark Spirit told the crowd in front of him. “Cold Ice will be supervising the training instead of Blazingstorm this time… We have matters to attend to.” The crowd brightened up a bit; Cold Ice now seemed so much kinder compared to Blazingstorm. Blazingstorm couldn’t help but smirk at this. She and Dark Spirit were basically running the group now, and that meant Cold Ice had been downgraded to a high ranking soldier. That meant Blazingstorm was now second-in-command, and it was very enjoyable deciding the groups motives. “The meeting is now dismissed.” He wafted the crowd away with his foreleg. Blazingstorm and Professor Merryweather followed Dark Spirit into his large tent. Dark Spirit sat himself down on a large blanket, leaving the other two to stand in front of him on the hard grassy ground. The tent was rather raggedy. It had been used so much the fabric had begun to rip in certain areas, and that left small holes for the sun to shine through. It could get very annoying for Blazingstorm when the sun was high and it beamed straight into her eyes. “So you’re all wondering what I’ve called you for, I presume,” Dark Spirit spoke up with a clear and confident voice. “Yes, sir.” Both Blazingstorm and Professor replied with a respectable nod. Their leaders eyes darkened slightly and his gaze stared off outside the tent where Cold Ice was ordering the troops around. Blazingstorm could hear his threatening attempts to keep the soldiers in line, but she could hear small sniggers coming from the crowd. Blazingstorm smiled inwardly; Cold Ice had lost all of his respect when she came to power, and she loved every minute of it. “It seems some ponies have reported us,” Dark Spirit told the ponies. This caused both Professor Merryweather and Blazingstorm to gasp in shock. They hadn’t seen or heard anypony near their camp, so how could they have possibly been reported. “But that’s impossible,” Professor Merryweather exclaimed, slightly losing his cool for a moment. “Exactly.” Dark Spirit’s eyes wandered towards the training soldiers again, and Blazingstorm followed it. Then it became clear to what Dark Spirit was saying. “Are you suggesting we have a traitor here, sir?” She asked disbelievingly. “It appears so,” Dark Spirit let a small angry growl escape. “And I want you to find out who the traitor is; I have complete faith in your judgement.” He gave Blazingstorm a proud nod, “much better than your sister.” Blazingstorm stiffened. Just the mention of her sister’s name angered her. She was always to annoying whenever Blazingstorm would hang out with her, which was always most of the time since they had to train together and even share the same tent. Not to mention how pathetic she thought her sister was! She still didn’t understand how her sister was too wimpy to kill a tiny rabbit. For starters, the rabbit wasn’t even capable to thinking like themselves, and losing one to existence wasn’t going to suddenly destroy the world. Then, instead of not doing it she ended up attacking Skyclaw and making a complete idiot out of herself. Blazingstorm was glad her sister was dead. She was so happy when Professor Merryweather came back without her, and told them how he threw her off a cliff and into a high gorge. When she heard it she smiled. She could just imagine the crack as her body hit the ground below, and then as it was slowly devoured by any creature nearby. Then she hoped her sister had survived that fall, and slowly died of starvation in the blazing heat. Blazingstorm was a sick pony, but she loved it. “Violet Fire was pitiful, and a waste to the cause.” Dark Spirit’s eye twitched, but then a smile came upon his face as he looked at Professor Merryweather, “I wish I could’ve been there to witness her death.” Professor Merryweather just smiled at his leaders praise. “Let’s back on topic.” He looked back at Blazingstorm, “I’d like you to find out who has betrayed us by taking any means necessary. We’ll also need to move our camp once again since we’ve been reported… I’m thinking Canterlot this time.” “Actually, I really enjoyed living in the Everfree Forest…” Blazingstorm looked back at her leader, “do you think we can go back there for old times’ sake?” Dark Spirit looked thoughtful, “the Everfree Forest it is.” Blazingstorm headed out of the tent, but not before ending the meeting with a salute to her leader. She walked towards where the ponies (plus the griffin) were working out doing wing-ups or normal push-ups for the earth ponies and unicorns. She saw a few of the ponies laughing loudly. She recognised the ponies as Haystrand and Green Leaf. Of course she would never forget Haystrand and his perverted nature, and Green Leaf was one of the newer soldiers. She was a light green earth pony with slightly darker green spots and splotches all over her body. She sported a yellow mane and tail and had bright pink eyes. Blazingstorm took a few steps towards them. “I expect you to be training,” she boomed behind them. Green Leaf jumped into the air in fear, causing Blazingstorm to smirk. “I could easily kill you like that,” she growled threateningly, “so I suggest you get to training right away.” Green Leaf was visibly shaking after her jump, and nervously walked back in line with the other soldiers. Blazingstorm turned to Haystrand, “I see you’re trying to get the rookie in your bed.” She had surprisingly come to like Haystrand despite him hitting on her constantly when she was younger, which still slightly grossed her out. He was a really good friend once ponies got to know him. To Blazingstorm, all he had become was a unicorn stallion with certain needs. “How do you know I haven’t got her in my bed?” He asked. “Because she’d probably be hiding from you like the other soldiers,” Blazingstorm retorted with a smirk across her face. “What do you actually do in bed that scares the mares so much?” “Care to find out?” He joked. “I’d rather not.” Blazingstorm got back into her normal stance. “Anyway, I need your help,” she told Haystrand with a serious edge to her tone. “What do you need help with?” He asked. “Dark Spirit thinks there’s a traitor among us, and he’s already found out somepony has told the mayor of Trottingham about us being stationed here,” she took a deep breath, “I need you to help me find out anything. Start questioning ponies or something.” Haystrand nodded. “Sure, I’ll go help you with your search. But now I’ll just get back to training.” Haystrand walked away and joined the other ponies in laughing at Cold Ice’s feeble attempts at ordering them around. Some training, she chuckled. Author's Note I had to put this in the viewpoint of Blazingstorm at some point! I like writing from an evil characters perspective. Chapter 1“Front and centre!” A large, light blue earth pony commanded, causing a number of ponies to salute in return. The most noticeable were the two smaller orange Pegasi twins. One was slightly larger than the other, and held a serious expression upon her face, while the smaller one tried to stop herself from smiling. The blue earth pony took a step forwards, looked at all the ponies straight in the eyes. He was a threatening pony and scared a lot of the recruits, mainly a pink Pegasus named Midnight Gaze. She was especially afraid of him. But she was new to the cause, and it was expected. “Blazingstorm, Violet Fire.” He pointed at the two fillies “Dark Spirit would like to see you. Go now!” He ordered “Yes, Cold Ice!” The fillies replied. Blazingstorm took off straight away, followed by her smaller sister. Dark Spirit was the leader of the whole rebellion they planned against Equestria, and everypony listened to his orders, even if they were stupid and ridiculous. The twins hadn’t actually seen what the open world of Equestria was like, but Dark Spirit and the scientist, Professor Merryweather had told them that this place they lived in wasn’t safe, and that the princesses didn’t care for their subjects. Dark Spirit had created this rebellion and would become the leader of Equestria by the end of it, along with Cold Ice, and soon making Equestria a much better place for them. Violet Fire soon reached Dark Spirit’s small tent, which was set beside a large tree. The group didn’t stay in the same place for too long, in fear of being found by any passer-by’s, and had moveable tents for them to travel. The group preferred to stay in the comfort of the forests of Equestria, due to the fact not many ponies went in them, as they weren’t armed with the skills to defend themselves against timberwolves and manticores. Of course both Violet Fire and Blazingstorm already had those survival skills embedded in their genes when they were created, and knew just how to survive in environments just like these. They were very knowledgeable about a lot of things. “Dark Spirit, we’re here,” Blazingstorm saluted in front of the open tent, briefly followed by Violet Fire. “Come in.” He commanded. The two took a step forwards into the tent, he was sat down studying a large sword, Violet Fire and Blazingstorm saluted with hardened expressions. “Very good!” He praised “you’re learning to respect your leader well” a small smile briefly appeared on his face, which disappeared instantly “today you’ll take your final training test, and once it’s done you’ll be up front with me and Cold Ice.” It was hard for Violet Fire not to smile; she was pleased at the news and was excited to get started with whatever Dark Spirit threw at her. “What did you have in mind, sir?” Violet Fire spoke up, still holding her expression. Dark Spirit stood up from a sitting position and began a small walk out into the open forest floor “it’s good you show interest in the task ahead.” He signalled the ponies to follow him out “and I will gladly share what you are doing tonight.” Blazingstorm shared an excited glance with her sister, but quickly turned back into her normal walk, and carried on listening to Dark Spirit. “But I would first like you to perform a job for me,” he explained “I need you to go into a town not too far from here and buy us some materials” Both the fillies eyes widened in shock “but sir, didn’t you say it was unsafe for us to go there?” Blazingstorm spoke up “Well,” he sighed “Merryweather said it would be a good experience for you to get to know how that life works. Plus, my other soldiers need to practice training, and sadly you’re the only ponies free.” Violet Fire nodded in understanding “we can get the job done, sir,” she promised, a gleam of happiness in her eyes “as Merryweather said: it’ll be a fun experience.” Blazingstorm cringed at her sister’s mistake. Dark Spirit’s eyes darkened “we’re not doing this for fun, Violet,” he growled slightly “this is a serious task! I want you on your guard at all times; you never know what those ponies will do.” “I’m sorry, sir.” She hung her head low “I was too excited for my own good. But if you let us go then I promise to be mature and on my guard at all times” Dark Spirit gave her a suspicious glance, and looked away thoughtfully. And finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, he gave her a firm nod. “You’ll be going to a small town named Ponyville,” he explained “Haystrand will escort you to the edge of the Everfree” Violet Fire groaned outwardly. Dark Spirit glared her, and then her eyes widened in realisation of what she had just done. “Sorry, sir.” She blushed slightly. But she was right to groan. Haystrand was the most annoying and hot-headed pony of the group, always bragging about his magical talent as a unicorn. He was also pretty perverted, and practically flirted with every mare in the group. What made him a pervert was the fact he flirted with the twins who were only nine years old… That was just plain sickening. Violet and her sister had learnt to stay away from him as much as possible, and making him escort them to Ponyville was the worst idea Dark Spirit could ever have. “We have told Haystrand that this is a serious mission,” Dark Spirit explained, obviously understanding why they didn’t want him to come with them “so if he bothers you there’ll be some serious consequences” “Wait, why can’t Haystrand just buy the things we need if he’s free?” Blazingstorm spoke up. “Haystrand used to live in Ponyville,” Dark Spirit answered “he left them saying he was moving to Manehattan, and with him suddenly coming back to Ponyville would raise suspicions” Violet Fire spoke up this time “but wouldn’t Ponyville also be suspicious of two identical, nine year old ponies they had never seen before wandering through town?” Dark Spirit let out a heavy sigh “it won’t be as suspicious of him coming back to buy some random items, and then just never returning. You could easily say you’re visiting with your parents for the day, and that you were just buying a few things for the journey back.” Violet Fire nodded at his reasoning, knowing it made sense. “Right, so what are we even buying?” Blazingstorm asked. “You need to buy us some apples… and lots of them.” The two fillies raised an eyebrow “you’ll need the apples because we can literally find no food in the Everfree, so we won’t be staying here very long.” He placed a large bag of bits in front of them. The two fillies carried on standing there, waiting for their next orders. “Well go then!” He raised his voice in annoyance. The two scrambled after Haystrand who was waiting by the exit, a smile on his face as he saw the two fillies racing towards him. “Well, it’s nice to know you’re so excited to go with me,” he let out an obnoxious laugh, and continued to bite down on a piece of hay. It was strange how he acted like farmers, which were usually the jobs of earth ponies. If nopony saw his horn they would probably suspect he was an earth pony, but it did make sense as he had grown up with the whole country thing surrounding him. “This is a serious mission, Haystrand,” Blazingstorm angrily sighed “and Dark Spirit said that if you don’t treat it seriously then you’ll be punished.” Haystrand rolled his eyes and escorted the fillies towards an open path, which was probably used by the townsponies of Ponyville. The ground was slightly wet, which was caused by the small amount of rain they had, had the night before. Dark trees hung over them as they took a small trot closer towards Ponyville. It was like a long, dark tunnel with a light at the end of it. Violet Fire was excited about actually meeting other ponies for the first time, however, Blazingstorm looked slightly uneasy. They carried on for a few more minutes until Haystrand finally stopped walking “this is as close as I’m going to go.” He took a step backwards; looking slightly nervous “you two just carry on walking, and head towards the area filled with buildings. You’ll find the apple store there.” Blazingstorm nodded to him and lead her sister further towards the open sky. Once finally reaching it they took a quick look around; it was beautiful. The two had never truly seen open sky before, as Dark Spirit would never even travel through open land, and always kept his journeying through forests. “This is amazing,” Violet Fire spoke up in awe. Blazingstorm grunted “we aren’t here for sightseeing, Violet!” She exclaimed annoyingly “this is a very serious mission and we have to keep our cool!” Violet Fire rolled her eyes “you shouting at me won’t to help. It’ll just draw attention to us. But we have to look like tourists anyway, so why don’t we enjoy the scenery as well; we’re not being followed by anypony.” “Fine,” Blazingstorm sighed “let’s get going.” The two took a small trot into the open field. “This feels so weird,” Violet Fire murmured to no one in particular “but I like it” she smiled openly, and didn’t notice the scowl Blazingstorm sent her way. The two ended up in front of a load of buildings “I didn’t realise the houses were so… tall,” Blazingstorm spoke aloud, a tinge of nervousness in her voice. “Oh come on, Blaze!” Violet Fire looked around happily “it’s only like being underneath trees!” They carried on forwards until finally reaching a large open place filled with ponies talking to each other “I’ve never seen so many ponies at once,” Violet Fire whispered into her sister’s ear. It seemed the ponies didn’t pay too much attention towards the newcomers, which was good on their part. But that meant they had to approach somepony on their own; they had no idea where to buy some apples. Their gazes finally rested on a yellow earth pony around their size, with a strawberry mane and a large bow on her hair. “I think it’d be better if only one of us go,” Violet Fire explained “don’t want to draw attention to ourselves as we look exactly the same.” There was a long silence “I’ll go!” Violet Fire took the bad of bits and started a walk towards the filly. “Excuse me,” she called over. It was a strange experience for Violet; when she was in her group she never needed to introduce herself to her fellow soldiers as they were required to get to know them. After all, they would be following her orders one day, and they needed to show some sort of respect. “Can ah help yah?” The pony turned to look at her. What’s with her voice? Do all ponies here sound like that? Then she remembered Haystrand, maybe there’s something wrong with her. Well, I better not pry… Don’t want to draw any attention to me. “Yes please.” Violet Fire could feel the gaze of her sister watching her every move, and she didn’t like it; it felt like she was being judged in a way “I was wondering where I could buy some apples?” At the mention of apples the fillies ears perked up high “well, me and mi’ sister ‘ere sell all the apples in Ponyville.” She gave a smile “say, I ain’t ever seen you ‘round ‘ere” “Well, my family and I are coming here on a trip for the day, and we just wanted to buy some apples for the way home.” She mentally facehoofed. As per usual she over explained things, and now this filly would know she was lying. “Well, come ‘ere.” She started walking down the open place and took her in the direction of a stall. “So what’s your name?” The pony asked. Violet Fire looked around, and immediately spotted a scooter “my name’s… Scoot… aloo?” She didn’t look so sure herself. “Yes, my name is Scootaloo!” She smiled proudly at her quick thinking. “Well it’s sure nice to meet yah, Scoot!” She held out a hoof, which Violet accepted by holding out her hoof “mah name’s Apple Bloom” Violet Fire smiled and carried on after Apple Bloom. They finally reached an apple stall with an orange earth pony standing behind it. She wore a Stetson hat and had a cutie mark with three red apples. “Hey, sis!” Apple Bloom smiled at her sister, and came to stand beside her “this ponies travelling through with her family, and she wants to buy some apples!” The orange pony looked at Violet Fire with a strange look. Violet looked away awkwardly, and started to feel slightly sweaty. “Just looking to buy some apples,” she laughed nervously. She put the bits on the table. “Give me all the apples these bits can buy,” she ordered. The orange earth pony shared a puzzled glance with her sister. “Please?” Violet Fire added. The orange pony then counted the bits and the passed Violet Fire the apples. She gave her a small bag to carry them in. “Thanks for the apples,” she called before heading after her sister. Author's Note As stated before this is my older writing and I was still practicing a lot with my punctuation and stuff so it might not be right. I'm too lazy to re-check my old work, heh. Chapter 10Scootaloo awoke the next morning. The first thought that came to mind was the attack she had done on the four colts, she instantly winced. When she had got back home she had no choice but to tell Nightsky what had happened; her friends and the rest of Ponyville would’ve ended up telling him at some point, and it was much better coming from Scootaloo. Realising what Scootaloo was capable of; Nightsky decided it was only best for her to let off some steam by training her every morning and night. It seemed to help loosen her out whenever she got mad. After all, she was basically grown for the sole purpose to fight. She quickly got up from her bed and headed down the stairs which let out small creaks with each hoof-step she took. When she finally reached the bottom she went straight into the garden where Nightsky had already set up a few objects for her to kick and hit. This helped her with her training as well as letting all the steam out of her, and it proved much easier for Nightsky to train her rather than being punched in the face numerous times. Scootaloo ran forwards and without thinking extended a foreleg to hit a large plank of wood. Her hoof pressed down hard on it, and she felt it snap beneath the power of her hoof. She began to hit all the snapped parts until they were basically dust, but was quickly interrupted by a familiar face. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?” She asked nervously, and then smacked her hoof down on another plank of wood. “Just came to see what my number one fan was up to,” she replied while sneaking a small glance at the wood Scootaloo had destroyed. “So is this what you’re up to all the time?” She asked. “Do you train to fight every day or something?” Scootaloo nodded, “I train, and doing this helps me blow of some steam.” “What ‘steam’ do you need to blow off?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. The filly’s eyes widened, “it’s something you wouldn’t understand,” she paused, “I have… issues.” She didn’t really know how to word it without revealing her true identity to Rainbow Dash. It was either, tell her the whole truth and probably have her idol think she was lying to her, or come up with the most convincing lie possible. Scootaloo settled for the second option. “Sometimes I can get really angry about stupid things,” she lied, “and this is a way for me to deal with it.” By the look on Rainbow Dash’s face, her idol didn’t believe a single word of it. “Scoot, I know you too well,” she said. “I know for a fact that you’re lying about this.” The orange filly let out a sigh, “fine, I don’t have anger management issues,” she admitted. “But you still wouldn’t understand what goes through my brain.” She carried on snapping pieces of wood, and felt Rainbow Dash’s gaze follow her every fluid movement or motion. It was kind of annoying. “Can I ask you a question?” Rainbow Dash spoke up after a period of time. Scootaloo looked up. “Is your name really Scootaloo?” She asked the filly, causing her eyes to widen. “Uh, yeah,” she said slightly too fast. “Really?” Rainbow Dash replied. “It just seems too much like a nickname to me,” she paused. “I also asked Twilight Sparkle to find out where you used to live, but when she got a letter back from Princess Celestia it said there was no such a name of Scootaloo in Equestria,” her voice sounded almost accusing. A bead of sweat appeared on Scootaloo’s face. “Maybe she didn’t write my name right?” She tried to come up with a quick response, “after all, Scootaloo is a hard name for some ponies to spell.” Rainbow Dash let out a heavy sigh, “just tell me your name, Scoot.” “N-no, Scootaloo is my real name!” She exclaimed, “it’s always been my name!” Scootaloo was doing horribly at lying, and she could see she wasn’t convincing Rainbow Dash in her petty attempts of covering her tracks. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. Scootaloo was supposed to remain anonymous, and she couldn’t let anypony find out who she truly was and where she came from. The media would be all over that, and then everypony in The Rebellion would know she was still alive. “Please, Scoot,” Rainbow Dash pleaded. “After that fight yesterday you’ve made the town suspicious. We only want what’s best for you.” Scootaloo’s eyes began to form small tears as she stared up at her idol. The pony she had admired, and was now her big sister. She couldn’t help but feel betrayed that Rainbow Dash had tried to find out about her without her knowing. “Even when you do find out my real name it won’t show up anywhere,” Scootaloo told Rainbow Dash. “What do you mean?” “My real name is Violet Fire,” she told Rainbow Dash in a strange tone the pony had never heard before. There was a strange air of strength around her, and her voice seemed to become so much more commanding. “Go on, search up my name.” She stood up and glared at her mentor, “I was never born in a hospital, and I practically wasn’t even born at all.” “Wha-” Rainbow Dash looked at the Pegasus in complete confusion. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?!” Scootaloo turned around to see Nightsky running towards them. He stood in front of Scootaloo in a defensive position. “Violet Fire here just told me she isn’t a member of Equestria,” she replied calmly. “You have a lot of explaining to do!” “Scootaloo was only joking,” he nervously replied. “It’s a game we pla-” “It’s always ‘just a game we play’!” She exclaimed. “Tell me really! What is going on here; it’s clear something weird is going on in this house, and if nopony is going to explain it to me then I’ll be forced to find answers myself!” Scootaloo shared a glance with Nightsky, “just tell her the truth,” she sighed. Nightsky sighed as well and then nodded. “When we tell you this Miss Dash, you have to Pinkie Promise to keep this secret!” Rainbow Dash nodded and smiled. “Come along, we’ll tell you inside.” Rainbow Dash followed them inside the house to find out the truth of Scootaloo. “Wait, so you’re telling me you were trying to fool me from the beginning?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Scootaloo let out a silent sigh of relief. The mare had believed them. When the three had sat down to talk they had told Rainbow Dash that this was all a prank to fool her, and that nothing serious was really going on. However, they did tell her Scootaloo was her real name, but she hadn’t been born in a hospital meaning nopony was there to record her date of birth. Rainbow Dash had believed the lie so easily, and Scootaloo thanked Celestia for her skills in acting. Although it had started out to a rocky start, she had managed to keep her true identity a secret. “I can’t believe you actually believed us,” Scootaloo laughed. “I never knew you could be so gullible!” “So fighting is a hobby you take on?” Rainbow Dash asked the orange filly. “Yes, my dad used to train me in fighting all the time so I could defend myself. But he never expected me to be so good at it. So when I found the basics easy he decided to show me the more complicated moves and then I just practiced even more from there.” A pretty good lie on my part, Scootaloo smirked when Rainbow Dash looked away. “Aren’t you supposed to be heading off to school?” Nightsky spoke up, looking down at the orange filly. “Oh yeah, it’s 8:15 now isn’t it.” She got up from the table and placed her saddlebag over her back, and finally headed out the door with Rainbow Dash following behind. “You want me to walk you there?” The cyan mare asked, “I don’t have any duties today.” “Sure, you can come with me.” Author's Note Eh, I really don't like this chapter too much. Ah well, too lazy to fix that old crap :D
PrologueA large black Pegasus stallion stood in a shadowy forest. He had a muscular build and had grey markings over his body, including his muzzle. His mane was red and swept back with a long black streak through the top, the same with his tail which had a black streak though the middle. The moon was high in the sky, and the howls of a timberwolf could be heard throughout the forest. The trees swayed in the soft breeze blowing through the forest itself, and small dark leaves fell onto the dry floor. The Pegasus was speaking with another stallion that was slightly smaller than him, and held no muscular features. He was a light brown pony with a long horn protruding from his head. He held a watch over his hoof and wore a suit with a bow tie, and held a monocle over his left eye. His mane and tail were a slightly darker brown, and black stubble grew around his face. “We have to wait another year?!” He angrily shouted “I thought you said it would be finished by now?” He scraped his hoof in the dirt, which caused a small amount of dust to settle on his legs. “I apologise, sir.” The unicorn looked scared “but we can’t rush these things! But when we’re done it’ll be perfect,” he promised. The Pegasus took a step forwards and towered over the unicorn threateningly “if this experiment isn’t finished by next year then you’ll have a lot of explaining to do” The unicorn nodded his head “I promise that they’ll be perfect for The Rebellion!” he took a step backwards, causing the Pegasus to stop his threatening pose over the pony. He grunted “one year,” he decided “and no more!” He began his walk away from the unicorn, and took one final glance his way. If he messes up again… he won’t have time to run One year later… “I trust our experiment was a success?” The Pegasus returned with a smile upon his face. “Ah, yes!” The unicorn answered “would you like to see before we take them out?” He asked. The black Pegasus nodded, and followed the pony into a small room with a metal floor with small lights hanging from the ceiling. The room was dimly lit, as the lights were small and cheap. The Pegasus looked around the room and spotted a large tube filled with a glowing green liquid. Bubbles rose to the top every minute or so, and would eventually pop leaving the cycle to start again. But the most interesting thing inside of the tube was the body of two identical little orange Pegasi, which were the size of a six year old foal. “So they’ll act like a six year old?” He asked curiously. “No teaching those things you would teach younger foals?” The unicorn nodded. “These Pegasi are perfect in every way! And with them growing in a tube I’ve already managed to teach them skills as they grew.” The brown pony smiled “and it’s all thanks to you letting them grow for another year.” The Pegasus looked back over at the fillies inside of the tube “the one on the right looks smaller than the other.” He pointed out. “Is she defective?” The unicorns eyes widened. “No, of course not, sir!” He waved his hooves, “they can’t be exactly the same; that’s virtually impossible!” He explained. “So there’ll be no difference in performance?” He took a step forwards, towering over the unicorn. “I am absolutely certain they’ll match each other’s performance!” He promised, a small bead of sweat dripping from his face in panic. The Pegasus nodded and took a step back. “Take them out then.” He waved his hoof in signal. The unicorn nodded and pressed a single button, causing a large amount of smoke to appear around the tube. The green liquid began to empty from the tube, and the two filly bodies slowly floated to the bottom. “So, do they just wake up?” The black pony asked. The unicorn shook his head, and a small needle appeared in front of his face. Inside was a purple liquid, much like the one inside the tube. “No, we need to inject them with this.” He took a few steps forwards and then slowly placed the edge of needle in the left pony’s foreleg, and then repeated it with the smaller pony. The unicorn came to stand beside the Pegasus. “They’re your recruits, tell them to rise” he whispered in the black ponies ear. He nodded in response and stepped closer to the little fillies that had just awoken “rise” he commanded in a booming voice. The largest filly stood up straight away, and saluted. However, the much smaller filly weakly got to her legs and gave a much smaller salute. The black pony looked back at the unicorn “I thought you said she would match her performance!” He accused. “Sir, the smaller filly is weaker now, but she’ll match her larger counterpart in a few more hours”. The black Pegasus sighed and nodded. “Fine, we’ll wait for her to improve” Author's Note Right, so sorry the prologue is shorter than 1,000 words. I always have trouble making the prologues long for whatever reason. So please bear in mind this writing was from 1 month ago and my newer stuff might have improved. I'll upload two chapters per day until I've gotten up to my newest chapter to post, then it'll be at completely random times like my other story.
Chapter 2Right, when I wrote the two of these chapters I'm going to upload I felt they were a little bit rushed but me being me I'm not going to fix them. That also means that I'm going to upload an extra chapter because of how bad both of them are. “So, what was she like?” Was the first question Blazingstorm asked as they headed back towards the campsite. “Like any other normal pony,” she explained with some disbelief in her own voice “it was so weird though; her voice didn’t sound like ours. It had some weird twang to it!” Blazingstorm let out a snort “that’s probably how all of them act.” It sounded as though she was trying to find a reasonable explanation as well “but then as soon as your guards down they’ll stab you right in the back… Literally.” Violet Fire shuddered; the way her sister talked about death was like it was nothing. But of course death was something; a pony could lose somepony close to them in death, or somepony murdered another pony. Yet Blazingstorm seemed to think murder and all of those things were a perfectly fine thing to joke about. Violet saw it often. Whenever her sister would speak of something like that there would be a crazed look in her eyes, and it truly scared Violet Fire – even if she didn’t want to admit it. She felt like she was the complete opposite of her sister sometimes; she seemed so numb about feelings, and almost tried to hide them back. It was almost like somepony had deliberately removed those feelings from her! “Well maybe we should ask Dark Spirit when we get back,” Violet Fire decided. Violet Fire’s eyes widened in realisation, and she ended up dropping her bag of apples on the floor “now that we’ve done with this task we have a final assessment! Do you have any idea what it could be?!” She started skipping around like a little baby filly. Blazingstorm picked up the apples and handed them towards her excited sister “I swear Violet, sometimes you be so…” she sighed in annoyance “it’s like being sisters with a four year old. Can’t you try to act cool about anything?” Violet Fire immediately lost her enthusiasm. “Sorry, Blazing.” She hung her head low “but I can’t help being excited about this.” Her sister rolled her eyes “You’re a member of The Rebellion, you shouldn’t get over excited about these things! The soldiers here are serious and not childish, and we should be carrying on that example. Not being complete idiots all because we’re having our final assessment!” She started speeding up her pace, and behind followed Violet Fire holding the apples in her mouth. She sighed outwardly. Like she knew before… Both were completely different. They carried on towards the campsite, and finally arrived there as the sun was setting. Violet noticed how all the soldiers looked really tired, and she guessed Dark Spirit and Cold Ice had worked them to the bone while they had been out. But when they spotted both Violet Fire and Blazingstorm they immediately sat up and saluted them. Violet Fire enjoyed the attention, but sometimes it could get a bit too much for her. Especially when she was only nine and being treated like some kind of royalty. But Blazingstorm was a different story. Violet could see it in her eyes as she walked that she liked to get all the attention possible. She would act so embarrassed about it, and then the soldiers would give her small smiles, as if trying to comfort her about it, but Violet could see it in her eyes that she was milking it. “Blazingstorm, Violet Fire, where are the apples?” Violet Fire smiled as she noticed the voice of Merryweather. “They’re right here, Merry.” She smiled and threw the apples in front of the scientist and Dark Spirit. “So all went to plan?” Dark Spirit spoke up “no problems?” He looked directly at Blazingstorm, as if expecting her to know the most. Blazingstorm shook her head “no problems at all.” She looked behind to see Violet Fire angrily staring at Dark Spirit “but you should really be asking Violet about this; she was the one who bought the apples” “So, Violet?” Dark Spirit acknowledged her. “Everything went fine,” she promised “I had a conversation, bought some apples and left.” She shrugged “all seemed fine to me.” Dark Spirit nodded “then we’ll begin your final assessment… You two should have no difficulty completing it.” Both Blazingstorm and Violet Fire followed Dark Spirit and Cold Ice towards a smaller clearing. She noticed straight away that the soldiers had followed them there, and had crowded around the clearing as if not to stop anypony from running away. This made Violet nervous. “So the task is simple,” Dark Spirit announced loudly “all you have to do is-” he pointed towards a small bunny being held down by Cold Ice “-kill the bunny.” Violet Fire’s eyes widened in shock, but she immediately noticed a small smile appear on Blazingstorm’s face. That’s sick! Does she actually want to kill a helpless bunny?! She looked at her sister in utter shock. “Of course it’s a bunny each.” Dark Spirit pointed towards a soldier Violet believed to be called Skyclaw. He was a griffin, and a large one at that. “I expect this to be done quickly,” his voice boomed throughout the clearing “it shouldn’t be hard for you at all” Blazingstorm easily took a step forwards and wacked her hoof around the bunnies face. Violet Fire closed her eyes, unable to look at the scene about to unfold. She heard a few more hits and then a loud clapping of hooves. Violet Fire opened her eyes to see they had already moved the bunny, and she sighed with relief. But the relief didn’t last as Blazingstorm pushed her out into the crowd of ponies (and griffins) watching. She looked down at the poor bunny helplessly flailing in Skyclaw’s bird-like arms; she couldn’t live with herself if she hurt this bunny in any way. She lifted a hoof but didn’t hit down on the bunny; instead she hesitated as she watched the bunny’s eyes begging for freedom. She couldn’t do it, and Dark Spirit noticed this. “Violet, what are you waiting for?! Hit the bunny!” Dark Spirit screamed down at her. She hit down alright… Hit down the side of the griffins face. She pulled the bunny from the griffins grasp and set it free, and it quickly ran across the clearing towards the forest. Violet watched in happiness, completely forgetting she had just hit one of the soldiers around the face. She felt a force on her body, and she instantly fell to the ground. She tried to scramble free, but the weight was too heavy. She looked up to see it was Dark Spirit who was holding her down. “What the hell is wrong with her Merryweather?!” Dark Spirit angrily shouted at his scientist “you said she’d match her sister’s abilities exactly! But here she is unable to kill a puny little bunny! She’s defective!” Merryweather stood in front of Dark Spirit, dazed. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it. “I-I don’t understand, either,” he admitted sorrowfully “when we ran tests on her she matched her sisters ability all the way!” Dark Spirit hit the ground hard with his two grey hooves. “You were too soft on her!” Dark Spirit accused “I told you she should’ve been training the same way Blazingstorm had been! But you didn’t listen, and now we’ve got a coward of an experiment!” His voice was hoarse with rage. Violet Fire could only lie limply underneath Dark Spirit’s hooves as he screamed and shouted at Merryweather, constantly being insulted in every possible way. She took a quick glance over by her sister, who looked at Violet angrily. Violet didn’t understand why her sister was angry at her. All she had done was not kill a bunny, and all of a sudden everypony in the clearing seemed to hate her. “We can’t have her here,” Dark Spirit’s voice was cold as ice “she’ll only be a disappointment to our cause!” “I say we kill her!” She heard the voice of Skyclaw, who held his cheek where Violet had hit down hard. “You’re right, Skyclaw!” Dark Spirit roared “Death is the only option.” Violet looked around the clearing to see everypony nodding in agreement. Even Blazingstorm! Merryweather’s eyes widened “I have a solution,” Merryweather spoke up “I’ll take her up towards the mountains and throw her off myself!” He exclaimed. Violet’s heart sunk as Merryweather agreed with everypony “no failure of a project deserves to live.” The crowd smiled. “Merryweather, to redeem yourself you must kill Violet, or you will die” Dark Spirit threatened. “Oh don’t worry, Dark Spirit” Merryweather smiled “I won’t have a problem killing something so worthless.” Violet Fire felt chains wrap around her legs, tying them together to stop her from running away. She felt a bag slowly crawl up her body, and soon she felt ropes wrapping her inside of it. “Good, now go, Merryweather” Dark Spirit stepped out of the way to let Merryweather pass through with the body of Violet Fire held over his back. The two stopped somewhere close to Ponyville, which confused Violet. “Why am I being killed so close to other ponies?” She looked at Merryweather in confusion. Merryweather pulled Violet Fire from the bag “you’re not going to die,” he answered. She felt the chains and the ropes slowly being pulled from her body, which made her sigh in relief. But why did Merryweather want her to live; surely something like she would be a disgrace in what they had planned for. Well, at least that’s how those ponies felt. “Why are you helping me?” She asked her question. Merryweather looked around “because I need your help,” he simply answered “at first I really wanted to help The Rebellion, but now it seems like Dark Spirit isn’t going to help Equestria at all. I mean, he was killing bunnies for petes sake!” Violet Fire nodded “so what am I going to do to help you then?” “The Rebellion wants nothing more than to lead Equestria, and do whatever they want. If they do take over, the whole of this country will be in chaos. We can’t allow that to happen” Violet raised an eyebrow “but you always told us Princess Celestia and Luna were the ones causing problems,” she pointed out “are you telling me that everything I have learnt about Equestria is a lie?!” Merryweather nodded sadly “the ponies here are good guys,” he promised “and you need to help them when the time comes. Even if it might take years for Dark Spirit to finally show his face to the world, he’ll be coming at some point and you need to be ready.” “And now you need a new alias,” Merryweather explained to her “have you got any ideas?” Violet Fire smirked “you shall refer to me as Scootaloo from now on. This is my new name, and I am now a citizen of Ponyville.” Merryweather smiled “alright, Scootaloo. Let’s get going.”
Chapter 3“Wait, so what are we doing here again?” The newly named Scootaloo looked up at Merryweather in confusion. The two were standing outside of the mayor’s town hall with the sun only just becoming visible. Merryweather didn’t reply and just kept taking steps forwards. He shared a small glance with Scootaloo before carrying on into the town hall building. “Seriously, Merryweather,” Scootaloo grumbled “what are we doing here?” She let out an overdramatic sigh. “Can you please just be patient?” Merryweather entered the building, and sat himself down on a chair closely followed by an annoyed Scootaloo. Scootaloo sat down on the chair next to him and sulked. She noticed Merryweather would send a few small glances her way, and then she’d hear an annoyed sigh. “Scoot.” He turned to face the little Pegasus “stop sulking, please! I think you’re forgetting you would probably be dead by now if I hadn’t have spoken up! So quit being angry with me just because I’m not telling you what we’re doing here” “But you’re being so ignorant!” She exclaimed Merryweather openly cringed, why does nopony know what ignorant really means? He thought in frustration. “Look, we’re here to see the mayor about making you a citizen of Ponyville,” he decided to answer “and I need you to act like a filly your age” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow in confusion “but I do act my age.” She scratched her head in confusion. Merryweather shook his head and began to explain to the orange Pegasus “no, you act much older than your real age. You know since you were grown, not born, and that fact that you’ve gone through training a soldier would go through… Trust me, you act way too old for your age.” “I don’t even know how to act my age in the first place,” she argued “how do you expect me to?” The brown unicorn smiled “I know a pony in this town,” he answered “he’s in his twenties, and he can defiantly help you act your age.” Scootaloo looked around the room “umm, how do you know him in the first place?” She asked in confusion. “Well it’s a long story, but I guess we have time,” he decided, and slowly started off the story. “Professor Merryweather,” a female voice spoke up “please, come in.” She gestured with her hoof for both Merryweather and Scootaloo to follow her. The two stood up from their seats and walked through a thin corridor leading towards a door. It was slightly worn down and had a few cracks, and a small window was in front of it, reading ‘Mayor Mare’ on the glass. Merryweather took the first step in, and Scootaloo ran in afterwards. Mayor Mare was already sat at her desk waiting for the discussion to being. “Scootaloo here-” he pointed at Scootaloo, “is going to be moving into Ponyville with a friend of mine called Nightsky.” Mayor Mare skimmed through the books in front of her until she pressed down on the paper. “Would this be him?” She pushed the paper towards Merryweather, who gave her a quick nod, “a twenty-three year old Pegasus stallion working in the weather team?” “That is most defiantly him,” Merryweather answered confidently. Mayor Mare smiled, “good. Can you bring him in to meet me? I can’t really let Scootaloo move in with a pony she potentially doesn’t know” “Of course, Mayor Mare,” Merryweather promised, “Scootaloo and I will be back in a while, can you give us a certain time to meet?” “How about 3:00pm?” Mayor Mare asked. “That’s perfect,” Merryweather grinned happily. Scootaloo followed Merryweather into the streets or Ponyville once again. It was 1:30pm, so Scootaloo had some time to meet the pony who was apparently teaching her to act her age. They headed through the less pretty areas of Ponyville until they stopped outside a crummy house with a brown garden. All of the plants that had once grown there were now brown and shrivelled making the house seem unpleasant. “Are you sure he’s a nice pony?” Scootaloo asked glancing around the garden. Merryweather nodded. “Nightsky’s too nice for his own good,” Merryweather joked. “He’s always helping the ponies less fortunate than himself” “So he’s going to be really nice to me?” She asked curiously. “Yes.” The two came to the front door. It had scratches all the way up front of it, and the handle was hanging off slightly. Scootaloo had never lived in a house before, but even she knew this was not what a house was supposed to look like. She let out a heavy sigh. Merryweather ignored her sigh and gently knocked on the door. A few moments later a dark blue pony with yellow eyes and a black mane appeared at the door. He was much bigger than Scootaloo, and he had small bits of black stubble on his chin. “Nightsky, this is the pony I was telling you about.” Merryweather placed his hooves on Scootaloo’s shoulders. “Umm… Which one?” Nightsky asked. It was strange to Scootaloo how they didn’t give any introductions; she was always expected to be formal whenever she spoke to someone higher than herself. So surely Nightsky would have had to be like that with Merryweather. Scootaloo sighed once again… She had a lot to learn about ponies around here. “Violet Fire,” he answered, “but now she goes by the name Scootaloo… So Dark Spirit won’t find her.” Nightsky nodded and led both Merryweather and Scootaloo into his house. Scootaloo was genuinely surprised. The house on the inside was actually pretty nice and clean. “So Scootaloo, my name is Nightsky as you probably know,” he smiled at her. “I’ve already discussed this with Merryweather, and we decided you’ll be my little sister coming to live with me in Ponyville.” “Got it, I can easily pull that off,” Scootaloo boasted slightly. “But you need to learn to be like the other fillies and colts around here,” Nightsky explained. “Trust me, you don’t want to confuse them by acting like a teenager.” Scootaloo nodded, “trust me, I can act like a nine year old.” “Good,” Nightsky smiled. “I think we’ll be getting along just fine.”
Chapter 4It had been a week since Scootaloo had been signed as a citizen of Ponyville, and she had already learnt a lot about fitting in with other ponies. Of course she hadn’t really had the chance to try them out, but she knew she could do it when she had the chance. Scootaloo had often seen a cyan blue mare flying around Ponyville and had immediately become obsessed with her. It wasn’t weird; it wasn’t like she was stalking the pony everywhere she went. She just saw her flying and loved how fast the mare could go when she flew. Scootaloo really wanted to be like that when she was older. Merryweather hadn’t visited since he had left, but that was to be expected. With him working for Dark Spirit is wasn’t really a great idea for him to be sneaking around all the time. Scootaloo knew full well what Dark Spirit was capable of since she had trained with him since she was first really grown. She had been ordered to salute when she first came out of that tube, and she remembered it like it was only yesterday. She had of course been the weakest due to her size and had trouble keeping up with Blazingstorm for a couple of those first weeks. But Merryweather always lifted her spirits whenever she had a problem like that and soon she had matched her sister step for step. But now was a matter of fitting in. It was almost like Nightsky was telling her to forget all the training she had ever endured! He kept telling her to stop her salutes, and to never fight other ponies even if they start fighting with her. But what was the point of never defending yourself if you were fully capable of doing it? Scootaloo still didn’t understand why, but she knew she had to blend in so she did it. Today was the first day of school for Scootaloo, and it was finally time for her to put her knowledge to the test. She just had to blend in with everypony and hope to make some friends. She didn’t really care about having friends, but Nightsky had said it was always nice to have a friend to help you along. “Scootaloo, you have to be at school in twenty minutes,” Nightsky called into the room. “I’ll be taking you there on your first day so I can introduce you to your teacher.” Scootaloo nodded and got up from the bed. Nightsky had given her, her own room for her to sleep in and she still wasn’t quite used to sleeping on something so comfortable. In fact, the first few days of living there she had slept on the floor; she felt too uncomfortable. Somehow Nightsky had managed to get her to try the bed out one night, and so she continued to use it. “Coming, Night,” she answered. She took a step towards her desk in front of her bed and picked up her saddlebags. She noticed they barely weighed anything even though there were loads of things inside of it. Scootaloo had often had to carry many heavy rocks as part of her training when she lived with The Rebellion group. Dark Spirit had said it would help her if she had to carry anything else because it would feel like nothing. Well, he had certainly been right on that. She headed into the living room where Nightsky was waiting patiently on the sofa. She came to stand in front of him and smiled. “I’m ready to leave,” she said nervously. “You really shouldn’t be nervous about school,” he assured her. “I’m not-” He shushed her. “Scootaloo, there will be a few foals out there that might be mean, but most of them will probably be really nice to you,” he promised. Scootaloo nodded and followed Nightsky into the dark streets. Unlike most ponies, Scootaloo found comfort in the shade, and she suspected it was from all the time under the trees. But she did enjoy the open world around her, and wished she had experienced it sooner. “Right then, it looks like you’re going to school.” Nightsky looked down at her warmly. The two Pegasi took a small trot towards the school building. Scootaloo still felt very nervous despite Nightsky easing her worries with talk. She decided it was best to just take deep breaths and hopefully it would go away. They finally reached the building a few minutes later. Scootaloo walked in first to see the class had already settled and put their eyes straight on Scootaloo and Nightsky. She decided to look them in the eyes to show how confident she could be, and did just that. But it looked like it was making the other ponies nervous and she quickly stopped. “Who is this?” The teacher asked Nightsky who came to stand beside Scootaloo. “This is Scootaloo.” He walked towards her, “she’s my sister coming to stay in Ponyville with me.” Her eyes widened, “so this is Scootaloo?” She came to stand in front of the orange Pegasus. “Hello, my name is Miss Cheerilee and I’m going to be your new teacher.” Scootaloo nodded and looked to see where there were spare seats. She noticed one near the back of the class and started walking towards it. The class still kept their eyes on the new student which made her quite nervous, but she kept her cool as she placed her saddlebag on the ground and sat herself on the chair. “So class, Scootaloo is new to Ponyville so you should all treat her with as much kindness as possible,” Miss Cheerilee told the class. Scootaloo was getting slightly annoyed at how nice her voice always sounded. It was like she trying her hardest to sound pleasant and nice, but Scootaloo could see right through it. She wasn’t as well-spoken as she made herself out to be. Being in The Rebellion made it easy to understand; Scootaloo had often come across many ponies that had just joined making their voice too nice whenever they spoke to Dark Spirit like they were trying to please him. But as soon as they got settled in their voice would change completely, it was something she saw every day. Nightsky left the classroom and waved a final goodbye to Scootaloo. The class turned back to normal and the teacher began to talk about random things, but Scootaloo didn’t really pay that much attention because she basically knew everything the teacher was talking about. Being grown meant she had a lot of the information was sent to her brain when she was growing in that tube. She knew everything there was about magic, Maths, English and Science so she really had no need to listen. Of course Scootaloo was well educated in things like fighting and other martial arts. The only thing she hadn’t mastered yet was the ability to fly, but even growing in a tube couldn’t change when she would fly. Even Blazingstorm hadn’t learnt how to do it as of the last time she was there. “Scootaloo, are you listening?” A voice entered her thoughts. Scootaloo looked up to see Miss Cheerilee looking at her with an annoyed expression. “Sorry, Miss,” Scootaloo answered the teacher, “it’s just that in my old school I was taught a lot of this stuff already…” Miss Cheerilee raised an eyebrow, “but every school teaches these things at the same time in Equestria. How could you have possibly learnt it already?” Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “Scratch that,” she laughed nervously; “my mum taught me it early,” she lied. “That doesn’t mean you can’t listen to that lesson,” Miss Cheerilee said sternly, and then quickly went back to her teaching. Scootaloo sighed and went back into zoning out. The lesson ended and break came. Scootaloo went to sit outside and sat by herself at one of the tables. She watched the other ponies go off and play with their friends and immediately noticed something strange. It seemed like everypony had a different group, and that was certainly strange to Scootaloo. When she was in The Rebellion everypony seemed to be completely different, but they all worked for the same cause so it was fine. But now it looked as though each pony was split up into their own decided groups. So I just have to find a pony with similar interests to mine? She thought to herself, shouldn’t be too hard. She picked up her saddlebag and grabbed an apple. She smiled and brought it up to her mouth when she heard a bunch of ponies laughing loudly. Scootaloo placed the apple back in her bag and started walking forwards to see what all the commotion was. She looked around the corner to see two earth ponies standing over a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane. It looked to Scootaloo like they were laughing at her for whatever reason, but it looked like whatever they were laughing about was hurting the unicorn’s feelings. Placing the bag on her back she went to go look what they were laughing about. “Just shut up blank flank,” the pink earth pony snapped. “Do you really expect us to be nice to a pony who doesn’t even know her own special talent?” The unicorn shook her head sadly, and hung her head low. “Wow, I thought you were too stupid to understand such complicated rules,” the silver one laughed, causing the pink one to laugh as well. Scootaloo’s eyes widened at how harsh they were being. She took a step forwards to stand in front of the unicorn and looked defiantly at the two ponies. “What’s wrong with you?!” She practically screamed. “She hasn’t done anything to you, so why don’t you just go and do whatever it is prissy little ponies like you do?” “And who are you?” The pink one gave her a disgusted look. “My name’s Scootaloo, now how about you get the hay out of here?!” She took a step forwards until she was a centimetre away from both ponies. The pink one pushed Scootaloo backwards, causing her to stagger. “That’s how you want to play it, then?” She ran forwards and pushed the pony to the floor. She lifted up her hooves and hit her in the face causing a small bit of blood to trickle from her left cheek. “Get off me!” She screamed. Scootaloo moved from on top of her and both the ponies ran off. Scootaloo brought her attention back to the unicorn that was now looking at her happily. “Thank you so much, Scootaloo!” She wrapped her forelegs around Scootaloo in a hug. “You’re the new filly, right?” Scootaloo nodded. “Great, we should be friends!” She exclaimed happily, “I don’t really have any friends,” she admitted. “Thanks, I don’t really have many friends either,” Scootaloo confessed. The two took a seat where Scootaloo had previously been sitting earlier and enjoyed their lunches. Scootaloo learnt that the unicorns name was Sweetie Belle and that her sister owned a boutique in Ponyville. They spent the rest of the day together until school had finally ended. “Hey wait a minute, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle called after her new friend. Scootaloo turned around and waited for her friend to speak. “We should go to Diamond Tiara’s cuteceanera in a few days,” she told Scootaloo, who gave her a raised eyebrow. Realising Scootaloo’s look Sweetie Belle finally explained why, “I don’t like her, but maybe we could make some more friends there. After all, everypony in town will be there!” “True on that,” Scootaloo agreed, “yeah, it might be pretty fun!” Sweetie Belle smiled excitedly. The two finally left and Scootaloo headed towards Nightsky’s house. She got home happily and told Nightsky exactly what had happened that day, leaving out the part where she had beat up Diamond Tiara.
Chapter 5Scootaloo awoke the next morning to the sound of shuffling hooves. She opened one eye slowly and was immediately hit in the face with a strong ray of sunlight causing her to quickly shut her tired eye once again. She sighed tiredly and turned to face away from the sunlight. She opened an eye again and noticed the sunlight no longer shone in her face. She smiled and lifted herself from the bed, hoping to find out what Nightsky was doing. Yawning immediately, she fell back down onto her bed. She was absolutely exhausted from the day before! Using all the strength she could she managed to stand on the cold floor. She openly shivered and quickly grabbed a blanket to cover herself downstairs. She wrapped it around her body and smiled in satisfaction as she began to start a slow, steady trot downstairs. She immediately noticed how much warmer it was downstairs than it was upstairs which really confused her. I thought heat rose… She shrugged it off and found herself standing aimlessly at the bottom of the stairs. Walking forwards she noticed most of the heat was coming from the living room, and quickly she rushed there with the blanket still wrapped around her body. “Scootaloo, you’re awake.” She turned to see Nightsky sitting on the sofa with a warm expression. “I have something really cool to show you!” This caused Scootaloo to smile happily. She wondered just what Nightsky had in store for her, and she quickly thought of all the possibilities. Maybe he’s going to teach me to fly?! Or maybe he’s going to train me some more?! Things like this were the things that really got Scootaloo excited. Unlike most foals her age, she actually found enjoyment in working out and training, but it made perfect sense since she had grown up in that type of environment. “What is it?!” She asked wonderingly. Nightsky gave a happy smile, “something that you’ll love to use.” It was now clear to Scootaloo that whatever Scootaloo was going to have as a surprise was most defiantly an object. But what could that object possibly be? There was only one way to find out. She followed Nightsky into the back garden. Scootaloo took the time to look around; she had never actually seen the garden as of yet because she spent most of her time out of the house, or learning how to act like a foal her age. The grass was pretty long, and showed he hadn’t cut it in a while, but Scootaloo didn’t mind; it reminded her of the forest. The garden was bordered by a worn out fence with faded wood colours, and some pieces of the fence had broken leaving small gaps between them. In the corner of the garden was a small shed which looked pretty worn down. There were pieces of nail hanging from the joints and small bits of splintering wood stuck out from it. Nightsky was heading into the shed, and he carefully opened it, causing it to squeak a little. His body was soon covered by a shadow causing Scootaloo to lose sight of him. She waited patiently for Nightsky to return from the shed, and he finally did. He had a big grin on his face and one of his dark blue hoofs were kept in front of a small object, keeping it away from Scootaloo’s sight. “Right, I want you to close your eyes and open them when I tell you to,” Nightsky ordered. Scootaloo nodded in agreement and closed her eyes, causing her vision to darken. She heard a few movements from Nightsky and felt his body and whatever he was holding slowly getting closer to body. “Alright, now open them,” Nightsky instructed. She slowly opened her eyes to see a small wooden scooter. It was coloured day blue and had metal handlebars coming from the front, and on the top it changed to an orange-red wood for her to place her small hooves on. The wheels were also coloured the same and had the same sky blue in the middle. Beside it was a purple helmet with a long and thick white stripe coming down from the middle. The straps were a dark grey and slightly worn out, but Scootaloo could easily find a way to fix it up. “So, what do you think?” Nightsky asked. Scootaloo sensed a sense of nervousness from his voice as he stared down at her. She looked it over a final time and finally let out a happy smile. “This is great!” She exclaimed. “I can train my wings and legs with this scooter!” She saw Nightsky let out a huge sigh of relief, “for a second there I thought you might not have liked it.” “Why would you think that?” She smiled and stood on the scooter. “Now I can train and ponies won’t suspect a thing!” Nightsky smiled and took a step backwards, “why don’t you try it out?” He asked. Scootaloo grinned happily and placed the helmet on her head. She gave a final wave before pushing forwards with her hoof, and then propelling herself across the garden with her wings. She was surprised how much speed she could get by using her wings, but she was defiantly enjoying it. Scootaloo waved another goodbye before racing into the streets of Ponyville, and making her way towards Sweetie Belle’s house before school. It would start an hour from then so she had plenty of time to train. Scootaloo didn’t really get tired from training; she had done a lot of it back in the forest so doing this didn’t strain her wings. Back there she had literally lifted big, heavy rocks with her small stubby wings! She saw a small wooden piece being held up by another wooden box in the middle of the road, and an idea came to mind. She began to concentrate on the small plank of wood and put all her attention onto that small area, and she began to get more and more speed. Quickly dodging each citizen of Ponyville she found her face had scrunched up with excitement. Her wings were buzzing faster as she began to get even more excited, and finally she was just inches away from the plank of wood. She smiled in excitement and prepared for lift-off. She shut her eyes and tensed her body, but suddenly felt her whole scooter and body lift from the ground, she opened one of her eyes and looked below to see everypony staring up at her as she got some major air. Letting out a squeal of excitement she slowly began to loosen up. She saw the floor coming closer, and she prepared to land her scooter. She released a heavy breath and began to angle her scooter so that it wouldn’t topple over. The wheels touched the ground and Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief. She began to slow her pace and stopped herself in front of the boutique where Sweetie Belle was living. She smiled happily. No way have I just done that! Scootaloo turned to see everypony in the area still looking at her in complete shock. She looked back at her scooter which appeared to still be in one piece after the landing, and smiled warmly. She looked up to see a familiar cyan mare staring down at her from an idle floating cloud in the sky. Turning to look properly at her Scootaloo remembered her, and realised it was the Pegasus she had been watching from the ground when she had first arrived in Ponyville. The Pegasus gave her a quick wink before turning back to lying on the cloud. Scootaloo’s eyes shone with admiration for the mare, but she finally turned back around towards the boutique. She parked her blue scooter beside it and placed her helmet on one of the handlebars. She knocked on the door and waited patiently for whatever pony to answer. The door opened a few moments later to reveal a white unicorn with blue eyes and extremely long eyelashes. Her mane was a purple colour and was styled in a pretty weird fashion. “May I help you?” The mare asked with a smile on her face. Scootaloo smiled back, “hey, my name’s Scootaloo and I was wondering if Sweetie Belle was in.” “Well, my name’s Rarity and I’m Sweetie’s sister. Just hold on a moment.” She turned around and called up the stairs, “Sweetie, Scootaloo your friends here to see you!” Scootaloo heard a few small hoofsteps coming from the upstairs of the boutique, and before long she saw the purple-blue mane of Sweetie Belle who had a small smile plastered across her face. “Hey, Scootaloo!” She called over to the orange Pegasus. “Hey, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo called back, “I was wondering if you might want to go out for a while. I also have something pretty awesome to tell you!” Sweetie Belle looked at her sister expectantly, and both ponies waited for whatever Rarity would say. “You can go out, Sweetie,” she decided, “but no later than 8:00pm.” Sweetie Belle nodded in excitement and rushed out the door, leaving behind a small trail of dust. A small sneeze was emitted from Rarity as she closed the door of the boutique. Scootaloo ran towards her new scooter and put it in front of Sweetie Belle eagerly. “Cool! I didn’t know you had a scooter, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. “I just got it today, but the most awesome thing happened!” Scootaloo went on to tell Sweetie Belle about her insane stunt across the market and when the cyan Pegasus had given her a wink. “I know that Pegasus,” Sweetie Belle had told her friend, “she’s friends with my sister, she’s called Rainbow Dash. Apparently they went on this gigantic adventure together and now they’re the new elements of harmony!” Scootaloo gave her friend a quizzical look, “elements of harmony?” She asked. “Rarity told me they’re like the elements of friendship!” A small squeak was emitted from the unicorn. “I think Rainbow Dash was the element of loyalty or something…” She trailed off, “oh, and Rarity is the element of generosity.” The two friends were sat smiling at each other. Scootaloo hopped on her scooter, “come on, and follow me!” She began to buzz her wings slowly, “I want to try out some more tricks!” She raced off and was followed by a very enthusiastic unicorn. Turning her head, Scootaloo saw Sweetie Belle was only just keeping up with her, and slowly she began to slow down her speed for her friend. Sweetie Belle gave her friend a grateful nod before going into a fast trot rather than a full blown sprint. The two ended up beside a small oak tree, and Sweetie Belle watched her friend perform the trick, and even make up some new ones. Things were going good for Scootaloo despite being in hiding. Everything was going just fine.
Chapter 6Years. It had been years since Scootaloo had left The Rebellion to live with Nightsky. She had grown accustomed living in a house, and was truly acting like a pony her age. There was a happy and cheerful skip in her step whenever she hung out with her friends, and she had become a great rider of the scooter. But of course things had changed quite a bit within those months. Scootaloo had made another great friend. Actually, it was the small yellow cowpony she had met the first day she had come to Ponyville. The filly they called Apple Bloom. The three had become great friends, and had even started up their own club! They called themselves ‘The Cutie Mark Crusaders and their goal in the club were to earn their cutie marks. They got into strange and funny antics all over Ponyville, and were known as the troublemakers of Ponyville; it seemed everywhere they went there was a disaster afterwards. But other great things had stemmed up too. Scootaloo was now the little sister of her idol Rainbow Dash! Scootaloo had finally got the attention of Rainbow Dash one day. She had been performing one of her tricks when Rainbow Dash had flown up to her and said… “Nice moves kid.” That moment had defiantly excited Scootaloo the most out of all the things she had gotten up to in Ponyville. Scootaloo had known she had grasped the attention of the cyan mare on the first day she got her scooter, but now that the Pegasus had commented on her awesomeness? Now that was a whole new level! Of course the trick had ended with Scootaloo falling into a pile of hay… But that wasn’t the point… Then Scootaloo had been told that Applejack and a few other ponies were going camping! Scootaloo wanted to be in on that action immediately! And which pony had actually come to the camping trip with Scootaloo? Rainbow Danger Dash! She even got to share a tent with her idol! Scootaloo was so excited to learn more about her idol and maybe even be taken under her wing. There were endless possibilities of how the camping trip could have gone. But the trip hadn’t really started out the best. However it certainly ended in the most amazing way possible for the orange filly. Rainbow Dash had decided to tell the campers scary stories on their first night there. These stories had sadly scared the living daylights out of Scootaloo, but she tried to keep her cool throughout. This led to a few problems… The first problem was the nightmares Scootaloo repeatedly got every time she fell asleep. And the second problem was the fact that Scootaloo got barely any sleep for the next day! They finally reached another camping site later on, but Scootaloo was still extremely scared from the story. Of course Rainbow Dash decided to tell another scary story… Like that didn’t scare the little filly enough! Eventually Scootaloo went back to sleep inside an extremely scary cave with the rest of her friends. She once again suffered another nightmare, which promptly ended when Princess Luna showed up in her dream. The princess told Scootaloo she needed to face her real fear, which was of course being rejected by her idol. After waking from the dream Scootaloo ran thinking that the “headless horse” was chasing after her when she heard his whiny (which was actually just Rainbow Dash snoring). She raced through the forest on her scooter until she ended up flying off the edge of a ravine, where she managed to hold onto a tree root from the floor. Her scooter went over the edge and into the ravine, probably to be never seen again. Scootaloo fell off of the edge with the scooter, but was quickly saved by Rainbow Dash who had followed the missing camper when she had disappeared. There at that moment Scootaloo had to face her fear. Rainbow Dash was expecting answers for why Scootaloo had raced out of the cave in the middle of the night, and Scootaloo had no good lies to cover her tracks. She finally revealed how scared she was when Rainbow Dash told her stories and how she was desperate for Rainbow to take her under her wing. Scootaloo expected her idol to leave right at that moment, but the cyan mare actually stayed. She even told Scootaloo she was scared of those stories at one point, but quickly realised that the creepy monsters in them were nothing to be afraid of. Finally, Rainbow Dash happily agreed to take Scootaloo under her wing and be her big sister! There, that was the best moment in Scootaloo’s life. Since those few happy months a few other things had changed. Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the elements of harmony had since become an alicorn. She was now a princess in her own right. After Scootaloo had lost her scooter, Rainbow Dash had searched for it in the churning waters of the ravine and soon came back a few days later with it cleaned up and ready for some more tricks to try out. Despite all these happy things and the great life she was having there was still something in the back of her mind. Always there. Always reminding her not everything is perfect. A battle loomed over the horizon, and when it happened Scootaloo was sure she was one of the only ponies capable of stopping it. Endless training lay before her. Nightsky had started the training when he had received a letter from Merryweather. They hadn’t seen him since the day Scootaloo was dropped off from the camp site, and finally they had received contact with him. The note had stated Dark Spirit was becoming increasingly stronger with the help of Blazingstorm. Scootaloo’s sister had done nothing but train since she had left and was now Dark Spirit’s main commander, which meant demoting Cold Ice. It was also known that Blazingstorm had mastered flying a few months afterwards, and was now learning new tricks for when they reached Canterlot. None of the other ponies suspected Scootaloo of still being alive, and they had moved their campsite into some woods beside Trottingham and had been staying there for a number of months. Nightsky realised that now was the time for Scootaloo to be remembering all the things she had learnt in the forest. That meant going back into her old routines and spending less time with her friends. She was re-disciplined and was becoming a soldier in her own right. But there was still the art of flying to be mastered. Nightsky had tried to teach Scootaloo everything he knew about flying, but he simply wasn’t a good instructor on those types of things. When he was a young colt he had picked up flying very quick and didn’t know any methods for Pegasi with difficulty learning. And there was only one pony that could help Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash had been a late bloomer when it came to flying, and even when she learnt she was still pretty bad at it. By this, Nightsky was sure she could teach Scootaloo everything she needed to know. “Come on Scootaloo!” Nightsky ordered the orange Pegasus, “just a few more wing push-ups!” Scootaloo grunted as she carried on using her wings. “Nightsky, I don’t even know why I have to do this! I can’t even fly yet!” She complained. “Well, if your wings are strong enough before then you won’t have any trouble getting off of the ground,” Nightsky retorted. Scootaloo let out a heavy sigh and fell to the floor, making a small mark in the long grass. “Scoot, you know Blazing has already learnt to fly, right?” He asked the Pegasus, who briefly nodded. “And you don’t want to be behind her. You have to match your sister step for step or you’ll stand no chance against her,” he tried to reason with her. “Why can’t I just be a normal pony?!” Scootaloo cried out in anger, “I just want one day where I don’t have to worry about the stupid rebellion and stupid Blazingstorm and Dark Spirit!” “Who?” A voice interrupted the two arguing ponies. Scootaloo turned to see Rainbow Dash looking down at them in confusion while she flapped her wings in a rhythmic fashion. Both Nightsky and the filly’s eyes widened as they looked up at her. “Uh, nothing,” Scootaloo spoke up first, a clear lie written all over her face. She let out a nervous chuckle, briefly followed by Nightsky. Slowly the two began to back away towards the back door. Rainbow Dash landed in the garden and just stared at them with the most confused expression known to ponies. “Seriously, who the hay are Blazingstorm and Dark Spirit?” She asked curiously. “Noponies important,” Nightsky spoke up, “just some of Scootaloo’s relatives,” he lied. “And what was the whole thing about a rebellion?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. Scootaloo looked at Nightsky for answers, but the dark blue pony could only stand and stare. “It’s umm… just a game me and Nightsky play. I’m always the soldier fighting against the rebellion and he is the rebellions leader… and it’s up to me to stop him.” Scootaloo had to admit that it was a pretty good lie on the spot. Rainbow Dash still looked skeptical but didn’t say anything else about it, causing Scootaloo to breathe normally again. I think I might just pat myself on the back for that, she thought joyfully. “Anywho, Rainbow Dash do you think I could speak with you?” Nightsky looked at the Pegasus with a bright smile on his face once his nervousness had cleared. “Uh, sure,” Rainbow Dash flew to the other side of the garden with Nightsky. Scootaloo watched them curiously, unsure of what they were talking about. She sat herself down on the grass and sighed impatiently. She needed to train more, and having small little breaks like this wasn’t going to help her in the future. Looking up she see Rainbow Dash walking back across the garden with Nightsky with a smile plastered on her face. She bent down to get closer to the filly. “Nightsky suggested I take you flight training.”
Chapter 7Scootaloo sat patiently in front of Rainbow Dash, who was showing her a few tricks to flying beforehand. It was a spectacular sight for Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash was teaching her how to fly and actually seemed happy about it. She had suspected Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have been so keen on training a young filly like her, but here she was performing a few basic wing techniques for the filly to go by every day. Rainbow Dash had said the exercises would help strengthen her wings, but the Pegasus had been surprised to find Scootaloo’s wings already pretty strong. Scootaloo knew who to thank for that. The cyan mare had said that because of it flying wouldn’t take as long for her to learn with the correct training. All she needed to do was practice the movements her wings would make rather than buzzing them around, and just get her wings stronger with regular exercise. She had told Scootaloo she should try wing push-ups and lift some items with her wings, obviously not knowing Scootaloo had done this when she was so young. It was a breeze. She easily lifted a few large rocks much to Rainbow Dash’s surprise, and would even keep them held there for a few minutes. It was good to see Rainbow Dash’s look of awe as she surprised her mentor. “Just carry on strengthening those wings and you’ll be there in no time,” Rainbow Dash promised. “Thanks for helping me, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo replied gratefully, “you’re a great teacher.” “Eh, being totally awesome has its perks,” Rainbow Dash boasted to the small filly. Scootaloo smiled up at the Pegasus standing before her. It always made her happy when she saw the grin on her face as she would boast about her latest accomplishments, and how awesome she was at flying. The grin never held a look of snobbishness to it; she didn’t look down on other ponies even though she had the ability to just because of her sheer awesomeness. “Squirt, why don’t we go to Sugarcube Corner for some milkshakes?” Her grin was still held on her face. Scootaloo nodded eagerly, “I could really use a chocolate milkshake right now!” The two bounded off towards the small bakery, and finally reached it a few minutes later. The two walked into the store when Pinkie popped up out of nowhere. “Heya, Dashie!” She bounced up and down excitedly. “Hey, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash replied, “me and Scootaloo here were just going to order two chocolate milkshakes.” “Coming right up!” Pinkie Pie hopped away. Rainbow Dash led the orange Pegasus towards one of the booths and sat down on the other side. As soon as Scootaloo sat down Pinkie Pie came out of nowhere once again and placed the drinks on the table, and then crawled underneath ultimately disappearing. “I will never understand that mare,” Rainbow Dash murmured so only Scootaloo could hear. Scootaloo stole a quick glance at the counter to find Pinkie Pie standing there placing some cupcakes on the counter. The pink earth pony waved at Scootaloo with a wide smile on her face. Scootaloo was dumbfounded as she stared at the pony that had literally crawled under her table not even a minute ago. “What just happened?” Scootaloo looked back at Rainbow Dash, who held the same quizzical look. “If I knew, I’d tell you.” She took a sip from her milkshake, but still kept a confused gaze on Pinkie Pie. “So how has the whole training to be a Wonderbolt thing been going?” Scootaloo broke the silence. “Amazingly!” Rainbow Dash smiled at the prospect of telling Scootaloo about all the awesome stunts she had done. “There was this one-” Scootaloo listened to every word that mare said, and sat there with an amazed gaze as Rainbow Dash started talking about nearly breaking the sound barrier once again, and how she was training in Ghastly Gorge and pushing herself to the limits. Scootaloo loved hearing about Rainbow Dash and her tricks; it always gave her hope that one day she could be just as amazing as Rainbow Dash. Then a thought struck her mind. If I was born practically perfect in things like these… Wouldn’t that mean I will be better than Rainbow Dash? For most Pegasi that would be the best day of their lives, but not for Scootaloo. What was the point of being amazing at the things she enjoyed if she didn’t even need to try hard? She could probably easily copy most of Rainbow Dash’s tricks once she learnt to fly because she was born with the gift of being an amazing flyer. Professor Merryweather had been ordered by Dark Spirit to put very specific skills in her brain. These were all the skills a royal guard or a Wonderbolt would already have. There were hundreds of skills she could name, but only a selective few could really stay in her mind. The first skill was the art of knowing how to survive. Scootaloo hadn’t been taught this information; she knew it since she first came out of the tube. She knew everything about surviving in the Everfree Forest, and journeying in difficult terrain, and she was very skilful at it. She could conjure up a tent made out of twigs in less than ten minutes if she set her mind to it. She even knew where to find the cleanest water, and where the best places for finding food was. She knew everything about it. The second skill was the ability to be amazing at flying. When Scootaloo finally lifts herself off of the ground the natural flying ability would just come to her. She would know how to perform stunts only the Wonderbolt’s know, and how to create the best storms for weather ponies. Not only that, but she would even be able to create her own version of the sonic Rainboom! By figuring out herself just how Rainbow Dash did it she would be able to conjure up one made of a violet flame, or a blazing fire through the sky. Or maybe even a mix of the two! The possibilities were endless of Scootaloo. But it would all be effortless… “- tricks even Spitfire would be jealous of.” Rainbow Dash finally finished. “Why are you so amazing at flying, Rainbow Dash?!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders, but then the same grin came upon her face. “Because I’m awesome like that.” “But didn’t you ever train to be so good at it? I heard that when you did your first sonic Rainboom that you weren’t that good at flying… So how did you manage to do it?” “If we’re being serious here then… I honestly don’t know. It was just something that felt natural to me.” Rainbow Dash stood up and grabbed her now completely empty milkshake. “How about we get you home, Scoot?” Rainbow Dash decided, “I need to get home so I can do some more Wonderbolt training.” Scootaloo nodded and followed Rainbow Dash home. She was still confused about just how easily flying had come to Rainbow Dash. She hadn’t even trained, and for whatever reason Scootaloo had the feeling there was more to Rainbow Dash than what most ponies knew. She even believed Rainbow Dash didn’t know what it was. When she had told Scootaloo about it the look in her eyes had defiantly looked truthful. There was no way she could doubt it. The two got back to Nightsky’s house by the time Luna’s moon was only just starting to rise. “We’ll have some more flight training tomorrow at four,” Rainbow Dash announced and flew off. Scootaloo took one final glance into the sky in the direction Rainbow Dash had flown off towards, and then headed inside to get some well-deserved rest.
Chapter 8“She even said I’d be flying in no time!” Scootaloo boasted in front of her two friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. It had been a week since Scootaloo’s first training session with Rainbow Dash and the strength in her wings had heightened dramatically. Her wings were as strong as Rainbow Dash’s now! All she needed to do was get her wing movements right and she would be off the ground no time. They were both smiling happily at their friend as she performed a few wing-ups for them to see. All three of them were discussing ways to get their cutie marks in their clubhouse, but so far nothing had really come up; instead, Scootaloo decided to show her friends just how awesome she could get. “You guys got any ideas on how to earn our cutie marks?” Scootaloo stopped her exercising and looked at her friends, who both shook their heads. “Sometimes I think we’ve done everything possible,” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “We never have any ideas!” One of her famous squeaks ended her sentences. “Why don’t we try apple buckin’?” Apple Bloom added in. “You guys ain’t ever tried that.” “I doubt apple bucking would be something in our area,” Scootaloo decided. “Me and Sweetie Belle will probably have something completely different to you.” “Ahem, it’s Sweetie Belle and I,” Apple Bloom corrected. “Whatever.” Scootaloo carried on working out as she rolled her eyes. There was a long silence between the three until Sweetie Belle spoke up, “why don’t we just go to the park?” She asked. “We haven’t been there in a while?” Scootaloo stopped and nodded, “why not?” She looked over at Apple Bloom who nodded in agreement. The three left the clubhouse. Scootaloo ran forwards to hop on her scooter and attached it to the little truck her friends sat in. This helped them get around Ponyville quicker instead of them taking ages to walk somewhere, and it also meant Scootaloo didn’t have to slow down on her scooter for her friends who took forever to walk. Apple Bloom jumped in first, and was then followed by Sweetie Belle. The two friends gave Scootaloo a quick nod and then they were off. Scootaloo’s wings began to buzz faster and faster until they were speeding closer and closer into Ponyville. She smiled outwardly and carried on at her fast pace and began dodging everypony in the way. They all sent her angry glances as she sped through, but she didn’t care what they thought. She loved the adrenaline and the wind as it blew through her violet mane. It made her feel free which was something she never got to experience in the forest; the trees stopped most of the wind from getting through which made it stuffy and harder to breathe. But out here was the best place for her. She found it hard to believe that when she first came to Ponyville that she never even dreamt of flying up onto the clouds above. But now that was her only dream, and a dream that would come when she was ready for her first flight. “We’re here.” Scootaloo slowed her speed down and parked herself beside a small tree. She looked across the park to see lots of other ponies playing with their friends while being watched over by their parents. They were watching their children from some wooden benches while reading books and newspapers. “Hey Scoot.” Scootaloo turned her head to see Rainbow Dash hovering above her. The filly smiled at her mentor and big sister with a wide grin spread across her face. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground softly. “You guys out here trying to earn your cutie marks?” She asked. “Actually no, we’re ‘ere to just ‘ang out; we never do that nah,” Apple Bloom piped up. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you at training tomorrow, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash flew up into the air and landed on a tree branch. The cyan mare closed her eyes and before long had fallen asleep. The cutie mark crusaders played a small game for a while, kicking a ball around and laughing loudly whenever Sweetie Belle would fall over. They were all having a lot of fun when they were so rudely interrupted. “Hey dorks,” the voice of a colt called over, a sneer was clearly present. Scootaloo looked up to see a group of colts walking towards them. The leader was eyeing the ball they had closely. “What do you want idiots?” Scootaloo angrily replied, knowing full well they were here to be mean to them for whatever reason. “Just that ball.” The leader lifted his hoof. He was a green unicorn with deep blue eyes. His mane was yellow and covered his left eye as it went from his right side. He had a cutie mark of a baseball bat on his side. “Well you can’t have it.” Scootaloo picked up the ball and looked back at her friends, who looked slightly scared of the colt and his three friends standing behind him. “Just give us the dumb ball and we won’t hurt you,” the colt growled. “Are you trying to scare me?” Scootaloo took a step forwards and was now nose to nose with the colt, “because it’s not working.” The green colt pushed Scootaloo backwards, with his three friends advancing forwards towards Scootaloo. He let out a snort and aimed his hoof at Scootaloo’s face. Behind Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash had just woken up and was now watching the fight with great interest. She was about to intercept when the strangest thing happened. Scootaloo smiled and blocked the blow that was coming straight towards her face. She pulled the colts hoof down onto the ground and pressed down hard, causing a few small droplets of blood to stain the ground. He yowled in pain but then tried to pull on Scootaloo’s mane. She swiftly dodged it by only an inch and jumped the colt, pushing his face into the ground. Behind her another colt was about to jump on her back, but she quickly kicked him with her back hoof which disorientated him for a moment. Scootaloo laughed at how weak these colts were and got from on top of the other colt. She ran forwards and hit the other one to the floor. The other two were sneakily walking forwards trying to hit her from the back, but she quickly turned around and hit another one in the chest which pushed him to the floor. The one next to him began to run towards Scootaloo with his left leg high in the air. Scootaloo grabbed his hoof and twisted it which caused him to scream. This caught the attention of everypony in the park, but nopony did anything to stop the fight. Scootaloo was really scaring them with her skills in fighting. The green colt was now standing up on his hooves and tried to grab hold of Scootaloo’s wings. But Scootaloo sensed him running and kicked her back hoof straight into his muzzle, and she felt a few teeth come loose from his mouth. Scootaloo let out a satisfactory grin when she heard him drop to the ground. By now the other three colts were running away in panic, all looking back at Scootaloo who had blood smeared on her hooves. She looked behind to see the green colt was now unconscious and lying on the ground. Blood was trailing down from his mouth and a few of his teeth were on the ground beside him. His muzzle was also bleeding and both his eyes were already swollen from those kicks to the face. She looked back at her two friends who were staring at her in awe. Apple Bloom looked like she was about to say something, but she could only stare at her friend who was completely unscathed from the fight. She wiped some of the blood from her hooves onto the grass below her. All around everypony was staring at her in complete silence. Finally, a green mare ran from the crowd towards the unicorn colt she had just defended herself from. The mare gave Scootaloo the angriest look possible and picked up her son, and ran straight towards the direction of the hospital. Scootaloo saw Rainbow Dash land in front of her. The cyan Pegasus just stared at the little filly with the look of shock printed on her face. It was clear she had no idea what she could possibly tell the filly after what she had just seen, and what she was capable of. Realising what she had just done her eyes widened. She had just beaten up a colt near to death because he was trying to steal her ball… And now she was standing in front of everypony covered in blood and looked completely fine. Great, like I’m not suspicious enough, she mentally face-hoofed “I think I’ll just be heading home.” Scootaloo awkwardly walked away and before everypony knew it she was speeding home on her scooter. Rainbow Dash sat staring off in the direction Scootaloo had disappeared to. All the ponies who had witnessed the fight had now gone off back into their usual business. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had gone home with their sisters, and had told them everything that had happened afterwards. Rainbow Dash could see a hint of fear on their faces as they retold the events of Scootaloo’s fighting. Rainbow Dash was confused. Ever since the filly had moved to Ponyville she seemed to be different in some way. Rainbow Dash always thought something was off about the filly, but she could never place what she thought was wrong. She needed some answers and decided it was best to go see Twilight in the library. She probably had some kind of information about everypony in Equestria, or she could ask Princess Celestia through letters. She flew up into the air and soon found herself at the door of the library. She walked inside and called out to her friend, “Twilight!” “Rainbow Dash, is that you?” Twilight called back. She was up the stairs probably studying on her bed. Rainbow Dash flew up to see she had her head in her books. “I need some information,” she told her friend. “Do you think you can find out where Scootaloo came from?” “Why?” Twilight looked up from the books at stared at her friend. “There’s something not right about her,” she told her friend. “In the park this morning she beat up four colts all at once… and she came out of it free of injury. I need to know who she is and where she came from.” Twilight’s eyes widened, “I’ll send a letter to the princess right away!” After Twilight had sent the letter the two waited patiently in the library for a while, and Rainbow Dash decided to read on of the Daring Do books in the time spared. The reply came a few hours later when it had turned ten at night. “So, what did she say?” Rainbow Dash asked her friend expectantly. Twilight handed Rainbow Dash the letter. To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle I have researched this filly by the name of “Scootaloo” and have found nothing. It appears she isn’t even a citizen of Equestria itself so we have no information on who she is and where she came from. I suggest you ask the filly yourself and hope she tells you something. She may even be a threat to Equestria if what you’re describing what she did right, and we must find out quickly. Princess Celestia. Rainbow Dash stared down at the letter, and uttered a single sentence. “Who the hay is she then?” Author's Note Now that I look back at this chapter I really don't like what I did with it. But I've already got further into the story now and there's no changing what I did to it back then. I hate what I did with the next chapter as well, but the other ones after that I feel like I've gotten the story on the right track.
Chapter 9Blazingstorm was sat beside Dark Spirit in front of a large crowd of ponies, plus the odd griffin. She looked over to see Professor Merryweather and Cold Ice standing at his other side, all looking down at the crowd with blank gazes. The crowd held a deadly silence, and kept themselves as still as possible as they gazed up at their leader. The odd few would break the silence with a few coughs which caused Blazingstorm to send them a death glare. Despite her only being thirteen years old she had power, a lot of it. If she asked Dark Spirit she could have a single pony executed on the spot for acting rudely towards her, and ponies began to respect that. Her battle skills were phenomenal for a filly her age, but of course it was being born more advanced than anypony around her. “Training will become harder for all of you now,” Dark Spirit told the crowd in front of him. “Cold Ice will be supervising the training instead of Blazingstorm this time… We have matters to attend to.” The crowd brightened up a bit; Cold Ice now seemed so much kinder compared to Blazingstorm. Blazingstorm couldn’t help but smirk at this. She and Dark Spirit were basically running the group now, and that meant Cold Ice had been downgraded to a high ranking soldier. That meant Blazingstorm was now second-in-command, and it was very enjoyable deciding the groups motives. “The meeting is now dismissed.” He wafted the crowd away with his foreleg. Blazingstorm and Professor Merryweather followed Dark Spirit into his large tent. Dark Spirit sat himself down on a large blanket, leaving the other two to stand in front of him on the hard grassy ground. The tent was rather raggedy. It had been used so much the fabric had begun to rip in certain areas, and that left small holes for the sun to shine through. It could get very annoying for Blazingstorm when the sun was high and it beamed straight into her eyes. “So you’re all wondering what I’ve called you for, I presume,” Dark Spirit spoke up with a clear and confident voice. “Yes, sir.” Both Blazingstorm and Professor replied with a respectable nod. Their leaders eyes darkened slightly and his gaze stared off outside the tent where Cold Ice was ordering the troops around. Blazingstorm could hear his threatening attempts to keep the soldiers in line, but she could hear small sniggers coming from the crowd. Blazingstorm smiled inwardly; Cold Ice had lost all of his respect when she came to power, and she loved every minute of it. “It seems some ponies have reported us,” Dark Spirit told the ponies. This caused both Professor Merryweather and Blazingstorm to gasp in shock. They hadn’t seen or heard anypony near their camp, so how could they have possibly been reported. “But that’s impossible,” Professor Merryweather exclaimed, slightly losing his cool for a moment. “Exactly.” Dark Spirit’s eyes wandered towards the training soldiers again, and Blazingstorm followed it. Then it became clear to what Dark Spirit was saying. “Are you suggesting we have a traitor here, sir?” She asked disbelievingly. “It appears so,” Dark Spirit let a small angry growl escape. “And I want you to find out who the traitor is; I have complete faith in your judgement.” He gave Blazingstorm a proud nod, “much better than your sister.” Blazingstorm stiffened. Just the mention of her sister’s name angered her. She was always to annoying whenever Blazingstorm would hang out with her, which was always most of the time since they had to train together and even share the same tent. Not to mention how pathetic she thought her sister was! She still didn’t understand how her sister was too wimpy to kill a tiny rabbit. For starters, the rabbit wasn’t even capable to thinking like themselves, and losing one to existence wasn’t going to suddenly destroy the world. Then, instead of not doing it she ended up attacking Skyclaw and making a complete idiot out of herself. Blazingstorm was glad her sister was dead. She was so happy when Professor Merryweather came back without her, and told them how he threw her off a cliff and into a high gorge. When she heard it she smiled. She could just imagine the crack as her body hit the ground below, and then as it was slowly devoured by any creature nearby. Then she hoped her sister had survived that fall, and slowly died of starvation in the blazing heat. Blazingstorm was a sick pony, but she loved it. “Violet Fire was pitiful, and a waste to the cause.” Dark Spirit’s eye twitched, but then a smile came upon his face as he looked at Professor Merryweather, “I wish I could’ve been there to witness her death.” Professor Merryweather just smiled at his leaders praise. “Let’s back on topic.” He looked back at Blazingstorm, “I’d like you to find out who has betrayed us by taking any means necessary. We’ll also need to move our camp once again since we’ve been reported… I’m thinking Canterlot this time.” “Actually, I really enjoyed living in the Everfree Forest…” Blazingstorm looked back at her leader, “do you think we can go back there for old times’ sake?” Dark Spirit looked thoughtful, “the Everfree Forest it is.” Blazingstorm headed out of the tent, but not before ending the meeting with a salute to her leader. She walked towards where the ponies (plus the griffin) were working out doing wing-ups or normal push-ups for the earth ponies and unicorns. She saw a few of the ponies laughing loudly. She recognised the ponies as Haystrand and Green Leaf. Of course she would never forget Haystrand and his perverted nature, and Green Leaf was one of the newer soldiers. She was a light green earth pony with slightly darker green spots and splotches all over her body. She sported a yellow mane and tail and had bright pink eyes. Blazingstorm took a few steps towards them. “I expect you to be training,” she boomed behind them. Green Leaf jumped into the air in fear, causing Blazingstorm to smirk. “I could easily kill you like that,” she growled threateningly, “so I suggest you get to training right away.” Green Leaf was visibly shaking after her jump, and nervously walked back in line with the other soldiers. Blazingstorm turned to Haystrand, “I see you’re trying to get the rookie in your bed.” She had surprisingly come to like Haystrand despite him hitting on her constantly when she was younger, which still slightly grossed her out. He was a really good friend once ponies got to know him. To Blazingstorm, all he had become was a unicorn stallion with certain needs. “How do you know I haven’t got her in my bed?” He asked. “Because she’d probably be hiding from you like the other soldiers,” Blazingstorm retorted with a smirk across her face. “What do you actually do in bed that scares the mares so much?” “Care to find out?” He joked. “I’d rather not.” Blazingstorm got back into her normal stance. “Anyway, I need your help,” she told Haystrand with a serious edge to her tone. “What do you need help with?” He asked. “Dark Spirit thinks there’s a traitor among us, and he’s already found out somepony has told the mayor of Trottingham about us being stationed here,” she took a deep breath, “I need you to help me find out anything. Start questioning ponies or something.” Haystrand nodded. “Sure, I’ll go help you with your search. But now I’ll just get back to training.” Haystrand walked away and joined the other ponies in laughing at Cold Ice’s feeble attempts at ordering them around. Some training, she chuckled. Author's Note I had to put this in the viewpoint of Blazingstorm at some point! I like writing from an evil characters perspective.
Chapter 1“Front and centre!” A large, light blue earth pony commanded, causing a number of ponies to salute in return. The most noticeable were the two smaller orange Pegasi twins. One was slightly larger than the other, and held a serious expression upon her face, while the smaller one tried to stop herself from smiling. The blue earth pony took a step forwards, looked at all the ponies straight in the eyes. He was a threatening pony and scared a lot of the recruits, mainly a pink Pegasus named Midnight Gaze. She was especially afraid of him. But she was new to the cause, and it was expected. “Blazingstorm, Violet Fire.” He pointed at the two fillies “Dark Spirit would like to see you. Go now!” He ordered “Yes, Cold Ice!” The fillies replied. Blazingstorm took off straight away, followed by her smaller sister. Dark Spirit was the leader of the whole rebellion they planned against Equestria, and everypony listened to his orders, even if they were stupid and ridiculous. The twins hadn’t actually seen what the open world of Equestria was like, but Dark Spirit and the scientist, Professor Merryweather had told them that this place they lived in wasn’t safe, and that the princesses didn’t care for their subjects. Dark Spirit had created this rebellion and would become the leader of Equestria by the end of it, along with Cold Ice, and soon making Equestria a much better place for them. Violet Fire soon reached Dark Spirit’s small tent, which was set beside a large tree. The group didn’t stay in the same place for too long, in fear of being found by any passer-by’s, and had moveable tents for them to travel. The group preferred to stay in the comfort of the forests of Equestria, due to the fact not many ponies went in them, as they weren’t armed with the skills to defend themselves against timberwolves and manticores. Of course both Violet Fire and Blazingstorm already had those survival skills embedded in their genes when they were created, and knew just how to survive in environments just like these. They were very knowledgeable about a lot of things. “Dark Spirit, we’re here,” Blazingstorm saluted in front of the open tent, briefly followed by Violet Fire. “Come in.” He commanded. The two took a step forwards into the tent, he was sat down studying a large sword, Violet Fire and Blazingstorm saluted with hardened expressions. “Very good!” He praised “you’re learning to respect your leader well” a small smile briefly appeared on his face, which disappeared instantly “today you’ll take your final training test, and once it’s done you’ll be up front with me and Cold Ice.” It was hard for Violet Fire not to smile; she was pleased at the news and was excited to get started with whatever Dark Spirit threw at her. “What did you have in mind, sir?” Violet Fire spoke up, still holding her expression. Dark Spirit stood up from a sitting position and began a small walk out into the open forest floor “it’s good you show interest in the task ahead.” He signalled the ponies to follow him out “and I will gladly share what you are doing tonight.” Blazingstorm shared an excited glance with her sister, but quickly turned back into her normal walk, and carried on listening to Dark Spirit. “But I would first like you to perform a job for me,” he explained “I need you to go into a town not too far from here and buy us some materials” Both the fillies eyes widened in shock “but sir, didn’t you say it was unsafe for us to go there?” Blazingstorm spoke up “Well,” he sighed “Merryweather said it would be a good experience for you to get to know how that life works. Plus, my other soldiers need to practice training, and sadly you’re the only ponies free.” Violet Fire nodded in understanding “we can get the job done, sir,” she promised, a gleam of happiness in her eyes “as Merryweather said: it’ll be a fun experience.” Blazingstorm cringed at her sister’s mistake. Dark Spirit’s eyes darkened “we’re not doing this for fun, Violet,” he growled slightly “this is a serious task! I want you on your guard at all times; you never know what those ponies will do.” “I’m sorry, sir.” She hung her head low “I was too excited for my own good. But if you let us go then I promise to be mature and on my guard at all times” Dark Spirit gave her a suspicious glance, and looked away thoughtfully. And finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, he gave her a firm nod. “You’ll be going to a small town named Ponyville,” he explained “Haystrand will escort you to the edge of the Everfree” Violet Fire groaned outwardly. Dark Spirit glared her, and then her eyes widened in realisation of what she had just done. “Sorry, sir.” She blushed slightly. But she was right to groan. Haystrand was the most annoying and hot-headed pony of the group, always bragging about his magical talent as a unicorn. He was also pretty perverted, and practically flirted with every mare in the group. What made him a pervert was the fact he flirted with the twins who were only nine years old… That was just plain sickening. Violet and her sister had learnt to stay away from him as much as possible, and making him escort them to Ponyville was the worst idea Dark Spirit could ever have. “We have told Haystrand that this is a serious mission,” Dark Spirit explained, obviously understanding why they didn’t want him to come with them “so if he bothers you there’ll be some serious consequences” “Wait, why can’t Haystrand just buy the things we need if he’s free?” Blazingstorm spoke up. “Haystrand used to live in Ponyville,” Dark Spirit answered “he left them saying he was moving to Manehattan, and with him suddenly coming back to Ponyville would raise suspicions” Violet Fire spoke up this time “but wouldn’t Ponyville also be suspicious of two identical, nine year old ponies they had never seen before wandering through town?” Dark Spirit let out a heavy sigh “it won’t be as suspicious of him coming back to buy some random items, and then just never returning. You could easily say you’re visiting with your parents for the day, and that you were just buying a few things for the journey back.” Violet Fire nodded at his reasoning, knowing it made sense. “Right, so what are we even buying?” Blazingstorm asked. “You need to buy us some apples… and lots of them.” The two fillies raised an eyebrow “you’ll need the apples because we can literally find no food in the Everfree, so we won’t be staying here very long.” He placed a large bag of bits in front of them. The two fillies carried on standing there, waiting for their next orders. “Well go then!” He raised his voice in annoyance. The two scrambled after Haystrand who was waiting by the exit, a smile on his face as he saw the two fillies racing towards him. “Well, it’s nice to know you’re so excited to go with me,” he let out an obnoxious laugh, and continued to bite down on a piece of hay. It was strange how he acted like farmers, which were usually the jobs of earth ponies. If nopony saw his horn they would probably suspect he was an earth pony, but it did make sense as he had grown up with the whole country thing surrounding him. “This is a serious mission, Haystrand,” Blazingstorm angrily sighed “and Dark Spirit said that if you don’t treat it seriously then you’ll be punished.” Haystrand rolled his eyes and escorted the fillies towards an open path, which was probably used by the townsponies of Ponyville. The ground was slightly wet, which was caused by the small amount of rain they had, had the night before. Dark trees hung over them as they took a small trot closer towards Ponyville. It was like a long, dark tunnel with a light at the end of it. Violet Fire was excited about actually meeting other ponies for the first time, however, Blazingstorm looked slightly uneasy. They carried on for a few more minutes until Haystrand finally stopped walking “this is as close as I’m going to go.” He took a step backwards; looking slightly nervous “you two just carry on walking, and head towards the area filled with buildings. You’ll find the apple store there.” Blazingstorm nodded to him and lead her sister further towards the open sky. Once finally reaching it they took a quick look around; it was beautiful. The two had never truly seen open sky before, as Dark Spirit would never even travel through open land, and always kept his journeying through forests. “This is amazing,” Violet Fire spoke up in awe. Blazingstorm grunted “we aren’t here for sightseeing, Violet!” She exclaimed annoyingly “this is a very serious mission and we have to keep our cool!” Violet Fire rolled her eyes “you shouting at me won’t to help. It’ll just draw attention to us. But we have to look like tourists anyway, so why don’t we enjoy the scenery as well; we’re not being followed by anypony.” “Fine,” Blazingstorm sighed “let’s get going.” The two took a small trot into the open field. “This feels so weird,” Violet Fire murmured to no one in particular “but I like it” she smiled openly, and didn’t notice the scowl Blazingstorm sent her way. The two ended up in front of a load of buildings “I didn’t realise the houses were so… tall,” Blazingstorm spoke aloud, a tinge of nervousness in her voice. “Oh come on, Blaze!” Violet Fire looked around happily “it’s only like being underneath trees!” They carried on forwards until finally reaching a large open place filled with ponies talking to each other “I’ve never seen so many ponies at once,” Violet Fire whispered into her sister’s ear. It seemed the ponies didn’t pay too much attention towards the newcomers, which was good on their part. But that meant they had to approach somepony on their own; they had no idea where to buy some apples. Their gazes finally rested on a yellow earth pony around their size, with a strawberry mane and a large bow on her hair. “I think it’d be better if only one of us go,” Violet Fire explained “don’t want to draw attention to ourselves as we look exactly the same.” There was a long silence “I’ll go!” Violet Fire took the bad of bits and started a walk towards the filly. “Excuse me,” she called over. It was a strange experience for Violet; when she was in her group she never needed to introduce herself to her fellow soldiers as they were required to get to know them. After all, they would be following her orders one day, and they needed to show some sort of respect. “Can ah help yah?” The pony turned to look at her. What’s with her voice? Do all ponies here sound like that? Then she remembered Haystrand, maybe there’s something wrong with her. Well, I better not pry… Don’t want to draw any attention to me. “Yes please.” Violet Fire could feel the gaze of her sister watching her every move, and she didn’t like it; it felt like she was being judged in a way “I was wondering where I could buy some apples?” At the mention of apples the fillies ears perked up high “well, me and mi’ sister ‘ere sell all the apples in Ponyville.” She gave a smile “say, I ain’t ever seen you ‘round ‘ere” “Well, my family and I are coming here on a trip for the day, and we just wanted to buy some apples for the way home.” She mentally facehoofed. As per usual she over explained things, and now this filly would know she was lying. “Well, come ‘ere.” She started walking down the open place and took her in the direction of a stall. “So what’s your name?” The pony asked. Violet Fire looked around, and immediately spotted a scooter “my name’s… Scoot… aloo?” She didn’t look so sure herself. “Yes, my name is Scootaloo!” She smiled proudly at her quick thinking. “Well it’s sure nice to meet yah, Scoot!” She held out a hoof, which Violet accepted by holding out her hoof “mah name’s Apple Bloom” Violet Fire smiled and carried on after Apple Bloom. They finally reached an apple stall with an orange earth pony standing behind it. She wore a Stetson hat and had a cutie mark with three red apples. “Hey, sis!” Apple Bloom smiled at her sister, and came to stand beside her “this ponies travelling through with her family, and she wants to buy some apples!” The orange pony looked at Violet Fire with a strange look. Violet looked away awkwardly, and started to feel slightly sweaty. “Just looking to buy some apples,” she laughed nervously. She put the bits on the table. “Give me all the apples these bits can buy,” she ordered. The orange earth pony shared a puzzled glance with her sister. “Please?” Violet Fire added. The orange pony then counted the bits and the passed Violet Fire the apples. She gave her a small bag to carry them in. “Thanks for the apples,” she called before heading after her sister. Author's Note As stated before this is my older writing and I was still practicing a lot with my punctuation and stuff so it might not be right. I'm too lazy to re-check my old work, heh.
Chapter 10Scootaloo awoke the next morning. The first thought that came to mind was the attack she had done on the four colts, she instantly winced. When she had got back home she had no choice but to tell Nightsky what had happened; her friends and the rest of Ponyville would’ve ended up telling him at some point, and it was much better coming from Scootaloo. Realising what Scootaloo was capable of; Nightsky decided it was only best for her to let off some steam by training her every morning and night. It seemed to help loosen her out whenever she got mad. After all, she was basically grown for the sole purpose to fight. She quickly got up from her bed and headed down the stairs which let out small creaks with each hoof-step she took. When she finally reached the bottom she went straight into the garden where Nightsky had already set up a few objects for her to kick and hit. This helped her with her training as well as letting all the steam out of her, and it proved much easier for Nightsky to train her rather than being punched in the face numerous times. Scootaloo ran forwards and without thinking extended a foreleg to hit a large plank of wood. Her hoof pressed down hard on it, and she felt it snap beneath the power of her hoof. She began to hit all the snapped parts until they were basically dust, but was quickly interrupted by a familiar face. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?” She asked nervously, and then smacked her hoof down on another plank of wood. “Just came to see what my number one fan was up to,” she replied while sneaking a small glance at the wood Scootaloo had destroyed. “So is this what you’re up to all the time?” She asked. “Do you train to fight every day or something?” Scootaloo nodded, “I train, and doing this helps me blow of some steam.” “What ‘steam’ do you need to blow off?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. The filly’s eyes widened, “it’s something you wouldn’t understand,” she paused, “I have… issues.” She didn’t really know how to word it without revealing her true identity to Rainbow Dash. It was either, tell her the whole truth and probably have her idol think she was lying to her, or come up with the most convincing lie possible. Scootaloo settled for the second option. “Sometimes I can get really angry about stupid things,” she lied, “and this is a way for me to deal with it.” By the look on Rainbow Dash’s face, her idol didn’t believe a single word of it. “Scoot, I know you too well,” she said. “I know for a fact that you’re lying about this.” The orange filly let out a sigh, “fine, I don’t have anger management issues,” she admitted. “But you still wouldn’t understand what goes through my brain.” She carried on snapping pieces of wood, and felt Rainbow Dash’s gaze follow her every fluid movement or motion. It was kind of annoying. “Can I ask you a question?” Rainbow Dash spoke up after a period of time. Scootaloo looked up. “Is your name really Scootaloo?” She asked the filly, causing her eyes to widen. “Uh, yeah,” she said slightly too fast. “Really?” Rainbow Dash replied. “It just seems too much like a nickname to me,” she paused. “I also asked Twilight Sparkle to find out where you used to live, but when she got a letter back from Princess Celestia it said there was no such a name of Scootaloo in Equestria,” her voice sounded almost accusing. A bead of sweat appeared on Scootaloo’s face. “Maybe she didn’t write my name right?” She tried to come up with a quick response, “after all, Scootaloo is a hard name for some ponies to spell.” Rainbow Dash let out a heavy sigh, “just tell me your name, Scoot.” “N-no, Scootaloo is my real name!” She exclaimed, “it’s always been my name!” Scootaloo was doing horribly at lying, and she could see she wasn’t convincing Rainbow Dash in her petty attempts of covering her tracks. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. Scootaloo was supposed to remain anonymous, and she couldn’t let anypony find out who she truly was and where she came from. The media would be all over that, and then everypony in The Rebellion would know she was still alive. “Please, Scoot,” Rainbow Dash pleaded. “After that fight yesterday you’ve made the town suspicious. We only want what’s best for you.” Scootaloo’s eyes began to form small tears as she stared up at her idol. The pony she had admired, and was now her big sister. She couldn’t help but feel betrayed that Rainbow Dash had tried to find out about her without her knowing. “Even when you do find out my real name it won’t show up anywhere,” Scootaloo told Rainbow Dash. “What do you mean?” “My real name is Violet Fire,” she told Rainbow Dash in a strange tone the pony had never heard before. There was a strange air of strength around her, and her voice seemed to become so much more commanding. “Go on, search up my name.” She stood up and glared at her mentor, “I was never born in a hospital, and I practically wasn’t even born at all.” “Wha-” Rainbow Dash looked at the Pegasus in complete confusion. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?!” Scootaloo turned around to see Nightsky running towards them. He stood in front of Scootaloo in a defensive position. “Violet Fire here just told me she isn’t a member of Equestria,” she replied calmly. “You have a lot of explaining to do!” “Scootaloo was only joking,” he nervously replied. “It’s a game we pla-” “It’s always ‘just a game we play’!” She exclaimed. “Tell me really! What is going on here; it’s clear something weird is going on in this house, and if nopony is going to explain it to me then I’ll be forced to find answers myself!” Scootaloo shared a glance with Nightsky, “just tell her the truth,” she sighed. Nightsky sighed as well and then nodded. “When we tell you this Miss Dash, you have to Pinkie Promise to keep this secret!” Rainbow Dash nodded and smiled. “Come along, we’ll tell you inside.” Rainbow Dash followed them inside the house to find out the truth of Scootaloo. “Wait, so you’re telling me you were trying to fool me from the beginning?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Scootaloo let out a silent sigh of relief. The mare had believed them. When the three had sat down to talk they had told Rainbow Dash that this was all a prank to fool her, and that nothing serious was really going on. However, they did tell her Scootaloo was her real name, but she hadn’t been born in a hospital meaning nopony was there to record her date of birth. Rainbow Dash had believed the lie so easily, and Scootaloo thanked Celestia for her skills in acting. Although it had started out to a rocky start, she had managed to keep her true identity a secret. “I can’t believe you actually believed us,” Scootaloo laughed. “I never knew you could be so gullible!” “So fighting is a hobby you take on?” Rainbow Dash asked the orange filly. “Yes, my dad used to train me in fighting all the time so I could defend myself. But he never expected me to be so good at it. So when I found the basics easy he decided to show me the more complicated moves and then I just practiced even more from there.” A pretty good lie on my part, Scootaloo smirked when Rainbow Dash looked away. “Aren’t you supposed to be heading off to school?” Nightsky spoke up, looking down at the orange filly. “Oh yeah, it’s 8:15 now isn’t it.” She got up from the table and placed her saddlebag over her back, and finally headed out the door with Rainbow Dash following behind. “You want me to walk you there?” The cyan mare asked, “I don’t have any duties today.” “Sure, you can come with me.” Author's Note Eh, I really don't like this chapter too much. Ah well, too lazy to fix that old crap :D