“Can ya see her?” Applebloom asked anxiously as Sweetie Belle peeked over the top of the stall they were hiding behind. All around them ponies were hailing shoppers in an attempt to get business and the general hustle and bustle of the daily market filled the town square.
“Kinda, I think she’s hiding her scooter somewhere,” Sweetie Belle replied as she ducked her head back behind the makeshift cover. The stall owner, a pale yellow colt with a lemon cutie mark glared down at them for a moment before rolling his eyes in exasperation and turning back to the crowds.
"But she never leaves her scooter alone!" Applebloom cried out in shock. Her head shot out from behind the stall, much to the annoyance of an older blue colt that had trotted up to buy some lemons. She let out an embarrassed giggle before offering a hasty apology. Politeness out of the way she turned back to see Scootaloo shoving her prized scooter in a wooden locker.
She continued to watch in confusion as Scootaloo produced a key and locked her possession away firmly with a furtive glance around her. Applebloom hastily withdrew her head with a squeak and turned to her partner in crime. "She was lockin' away her scooter! I've never seen her without it! Ya don't think somethin's wrong with where she's livin' do ya?"
Sweetie Belle scuffed the ground with a hoof hesitantly. "Hey Applebloom, do you really think we should be following her like this? I mean she did promise after all..."
<=[XXXXX]=>
The crash sounded throughout the orchard, sending a flock of startled birds rocketing into the sky. At the source of the crash three small fillies dejectedly untangled themselves from the twisted heap they and their latest attempt at acquiring cutie marks had landed them in.
“Darn it! I thought we would get our cutie marks for sure!” Applebloom complained loudly as she extricated herself from the pile of twisted metal. She winced as she gingerly stepped out of the wreckage and turned to her companions. “I guess flyin’ machines ain’t as sturdy as apple trees,” she observed as she looked over the shattered remains of the once proud machine.
“Yeah, Pinkie’ll be pretty mad when she finds out we wrecked it,” Scootaloo said as she rubbed her aching wings. She had taken the brunt of the crash, when they had slammed into the tree and had somehow managed to find herself near the bottom of the pile. With a disgruntled sigh she hopped off a bent propeller before turning to help Sweetie Belle out from under the now detached seat.
“Well she did say we could borrow it this time though…” Sweetie Belle said with a wince as she felt the bruises rising all across her body. She may have gotten tougher because of her antics with the other crusaders but her friends were still a good deal more durable than she was.
The three fillies stared morosely at the smashed machine for several more moments in silence. It had sacrificed much in their quests for cutie marks and would be remembered. Eventually they all looked back up and once again raised the question that had plagued them since they had first met.
“What do ya think we should try to do next?” Applebloom asked hesitantly. She wanted to get her cutie mark but was still a little shaken from the crash landing.
“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle admitted. “Maybe we could go ask our sisters for an idea.”
“Applejack’s busy buckin’ today and I don’t think Rarity’ll be willin’ to help after last time,” Applebloom said with a sour grimace. Her friend’s expressions soon mirrored her own as they too remembered their last stay at Carousel Boutique. They never had managed to get that mannequin put back together properly.
Sweetie Belle’s face suddenly lit up in inspiration. “Hey Scootaloo, do you have an older brother or sister?”
Scootaloo head shot up in shock at this, a look of slight panic flashing across her face for the briefest of moments. “Nope! Don’t have any brothers or sisters!” she exclaimed loudly.
“Oh really?” Sweetie belle asked slyly. “Then maybe we could go to your house to plan our next cutie mark crusade since we won’t be bothering anyone that way!”
“Yeah! That’s a great idea. We’ve never gone to your house before!” Applebloom added eagerly, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Scootaloo squirmed under her friend’s insistent gazes for several moments before backing away slightly. “Uhhh, not right now. My…. My mom is having the house… fumigated!” she cried out desperately. She winced slightly and looked into her friends eyes in faint hopes that they had bought her desperate story.
The two fillies stared her down for several seconds before Applebloom spoke up, “well shucks. I guess we’ll just have to see your house later.”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo almost shouted, relieved they had fallen for her lie. A quick burst of guilt quickly followed her relief as she mentally cursed herself for lying to her friends again.
“Okay, but you need to promise we’ll be able to see your house sometime okay?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Sure thing!”
“Pinkie Pie Promise?” she asked seriously.
“R-Right!” Scootaloo responded nervously before going through the requisite motions and swearing the oath.
Sweetie Belle’s face brightened as soon as Scootaloo finished the last line. “So what’s next?” she asked as she looked around for more crusade ideas.
<=[XXXXX]=>
“Come on! We’re gonna lose her!” Applebloom cried out she saw Scootaloo head off into the crowd. She nudged her friend roughly and quickly dropped her out of the memory that had claimed her. "We need ta hurry if we're gonna keep up!" she said urgently as she darted out from behind the cart.
Sweetie Belle sighed and took up the chase with her orange friend. She had already come this far so she might as well see it through. That and she really really really wanted to see what Scootaloo was hiding. "Wait for me!" she cried out as she tried to dash after her friend.
"No time!" Applebloom panted as she shot down the street, only to stop dead in her tracks as she rounded a corner.
Before Sweetie Belle had a chance to figure out what was going on Applebloom dove back around the corner. She was so intent on her escape she didn't even notice Sweetie Belle's approach and they quickly fell into a tangled mess of limbs.
"What was that for?" Sweetie Belle grumbled accuisitorily.
"Scootalooo stopped!" Applebloom whisper-shouted quickly, holding a hoof up to her friend's mouth.
Sweetie Belle immediately silenced herself and joined Applebloom in creeping over to the corner of the building they were hiding behind. Their small heads slowly poked out into the adjoining street in time to see Scootaloo speaking with a cream colored mare running a baked goods stand. They were too far away to hear what was being said but they saw a look of sadness in the mare's brilliant blue eyes as she handed a small loaf of bread to Scootaloo and said something. Scootaloo's eyes brightened as she listened to the mare's words and quickly took a large bite of the bread.
"What do ya suppose that was all about?" Applebloom asked as the pair returned to their position behind the wall. When she was greeted with silence she turned to see that Sweetie Belle's white coat had somehow managed to pale. "Somthin' wrong?"
"Scootaloo's an orphan!" Sweetie Belle cried out suddenly.
Applebloom's eyes shot open in shock. "What are ya talkin' about?"
"She was so happy to get that bread! And the mare looked so sad! And she said she didn't have any siblings!" Sweetie Belle moaned.
"Well... maybe she as jus' hungry... and she's an only child..." Applebloom tried to explain slowly, not quite believing her own words. Her eyes shrank to points as Sweetie Belle's words sank further in, despite her best efforts a scene began to play out in her mind...
<=[XXXXX]=>
Scootloo sat shivering under a windowsill in a thunderstorm, only an old newspaper and the tiny sill keeping the torrential downpour from washing the shivering filly away. A bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, illuminating the dark alleyway and bringing a short-lived flash of terror into the pegasus's eyes. As the thunder rolled down the street a second, thin and weak rumble answered from deep within Scootaloo's stomach. She winced and curled up into a ball, holding her stomach in a vain hope that it might help assuage her hunger.
Her eyes scanned the dark alley in hopes of finding some sort of comfort to take her mind off the storm. Her wan face lit up with hope as she saw an old discarded pack of hay fries lying on the ground. They didn't look very fresh but it was still food! She slowly scooted towards the wondrous bounty, her eyes fixated on the prize, so fixated in fact that she didn't even notice the large rat shoot out from a hole in the wall until it grabbed the hay fries and snarled at her.
She sprang backwards in shock, her mind momentarily taken from the pain in her stomach as she glared at the rat that had dared to claim her bounty. Steeling herself and putting on a determined face she slowly resumed her approach to the rat, an approach that was halted when dozens of eyes began to shine out from the dark. Scootaloo suppressed a shiver as the first rat grinned evilly and was joined by the rest of his family. As one they all hissed at the cowed filly and began their own advance. Scootaloo spun around and ran down the street, her fear giving her speed that would have done Rainbow Dash proud.
"<=[XXXXX]=>
"And then she gets chased by rats all night LOHOHOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG!" Applebloom wailed as Sweetie Belle looked on in confusion.
"Ummm, I don't think things are that bad," Sweetie Belle assured the wailing pony. "I just thought she might live in the clubhouse and eat apples from your orchard or something."
Applebloom paused for a moment to ponder this new information. "I guess I kinda overreacted huh?" she said sheepishly with an embarrassed blush.
Sweetie Belle nodded quickly before peeking out of their hiding place again. "She's leaving!" she relayed suddenly. "We need to hurry!"
"I thought you didn't want to follow her?" Applebloom asked suddenly, a smirk playing along her muzzle.
Sweetie Belle huffed in annoyance. "Just hurry up okay?" she grumbled as she took off around the corner.
<=[XXXXX]=>
They stealthily followed Scootaloo through the streets of Ponyville, shadowing her every step and remaining completely undetected as the trailed their quarry. Or rather that's what they thought they were doing. Even though Scootaloo continued in her ignorance of her friend's location nearly every other pony they passed took a moment to stop and stare as the two fillies shot from hiding place to hiding place in pursuit of their quarry.
After twenty minutes of trailing their friend they came to a halt as she once again stopped. They paused a moment to stare at the massive building she had stopped in front of. It was a massive affair, the front boasting elaborate columns and blindingly white. Each window was as large as the doors on Applebloom's barn, and each door was easily twice that size. Sprawling in front of the house was a massive lawn, full of carefully manicured and watered hedge sculptures. Getting a hold of themselves they shot behind a nearby tree in case Scootaloo turned around. Once more they poked their eager faces out of hiding to see what Scootaloo was up to only to have their jaws drop in shock.
Scootaloo had pulled out a mirror and a brush and was in the process of taming her unruly mane, slowly managing to brush it back so it would lay flat against her neck. She grimaced at her reflection and propped the mirror up against a large stone column of the massive fence that encircled the estate and turned herself around several times. Careful inspections showed that she was clean and her coat was smooth. Her feathers were all in place and nothing was sticking up.
Satisfied that she was presentable she carefully dug out a small bag hidden in the roots of one of the many bushes growing along the wall. With a grimace of disgust she pulled a small sapphire bow tie out of the bag and fastened it around her neck. With a wince she checked herself in the mirror to make sure that it was sitting properly.
Several tense moments passed as she gathered up deep breaths and let them go in order to prepare herself for what was to come. Her eyes snapped open as the final deep breath left her small frame. With a practiced kick she stowed the bag back under the bush and quickly stowed the brush and mirror back in their hiding places. With the same air one might expect from a man walking to his death sentence she stepped through the gates and headed up to the house.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both continued to stare in shock as they watched a filly that seemed to bear only passing resemblance to their fellow crusader Scootaloo pass from sight.
"You think she lives here?" Sweetie Belle finally asked, breaking the brittle silence that had hung in the air since Scootaloo's departure.
"Maybe. Reckon we oughta go check?" Applebloom asked in turn.
"Yeah," Sweetie Belle replied as she looked up at the massive house.
<=[XXXXX]=>
The two crusaders entered the grounds easily enough, like most houses in Ponyville there was no gate, locked or otherwise, to deny them entry. Unfortunately they quickly lost sight of Scootaloo among the various shrubs and statues that were scattered throughout the lawn. Noticing they had lost their quarry they sped up and began to weave through the obstacles in their path haphazardly, paying little attention to what was ahead of them in their search for their orange friend. This lack of attention soon cost them as they plowed into an earth pony mare, causing both fillies to be knocked back as they collided with the solid pony. They quickly untangled themselves and looked up at the pony they had unceremoniously slammed into. She was grey with a black mane sitting above her violet eyes. At her neck was fastened a pink bow tie much like the blue one Scootaloo had been wearing and her cutie mark was that of a treble clef.
"What are you doing here?" the mare asked coldly as soon as the shock of having been run into faded away.
Sweetie Belle was the first to respond. "We're looking for Scootaloo!" she squeaked out under the grey mare's imperious gaze.
The mare's eyes narrowed in thought for a moment before shining with recognition. "So that's what she goes with," she chuckled before looking down at the crusaders. "Are you Applebloom and Sweetie Belle?"
"Yeah, that's us," Applebloom responded cautiously. "How'd ya know?"
"My sister talks about you all the time. Although she never seems to be willing to tell us everything you three do together. Not that we don't hear enough around town though." She smiled warmly. "Mother and I have wanted to meet the fillies that made her want to go to that public school so much."
"You're her sister?!" Applebloom blurted out suddenly. "She said she didn't have a sister!"
"Really now?" the mare asked, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "I'm going to have to have some words with her about that." She shook her head with a sigh. "I take it she didn't tell you anything about us?"
"No, she never said anything about her family," Sweetie Belle replied.
"Well then we need to fix that don't we? I think Scootaloo is meeting with mother right now. Would you like to go say hello?"
"Why'd ya say her name like that?"
The mare turned to Applebloom with a small smile. "Scootaloo is just a sort of nickname she chose for herself. She always says her real name sounds weird."
Before either crusader could ask what she meant by that she put a hoof to her mouth and pointed to a large pair of glass doors leading into the conservatory. After making sure that both fillies were staying silent she motioned them to move up the door and looked in.
As they peeked through one of the door's glass panels their jaws once again dropped to the floor. Beyond the door and sitting at a small table in the middle of the conservatory was Scootaloo, a delicate teacup balanced on her hoof and an air of strained calm surrounding her.
It was all the two fillies could do not to burst out laughing as they saw her slowly take a sip from her cup before returning it to the saucer in front of her and address the earth pony mare across the table from her. In lieu of being able to hear what was being said they instead studied the mare Scootaloo was talking to. Her coat was a vibrant yellow, emphasizing the double bar cutie mark on her flank. Her dark orange mane was bound up in a tight bun at the back of her head and peppered with silver hairs. Like Scootaloo she wore a bow tie around her neck, hers a deep violet to contrast her coat.
Seeing the amusement plain on the crusader's faces their guide pushed open the door and loudly announced, "Scatenatia! You have some visitors!"
Scootaloo stiffened in her seat, every limb locked in place as she shook in trepidation of who could be here to see her.
The mare across from her smiled warmly and spoke up, loud enough for her voice to be heard throughout the room, "aren't you going to invite your guests in?"
Scootaloo slowly turned around, a tense smile twitching across her muzzle. "A-applebloom. Sweetie Belle. How nice of you to visit," she laboriously forced out.
A twinkle of mischief flashed in the mare's eyes as she spoke up again, "aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?"
"This is my mom-" she paused slightly at an admonishing look from the mare across from her. "My mother, Arietta. And you have already met my sister, Octavia."
Arietta smiled and nodded in the direction of the crusaders. "Scatenatia did not tell me she was going to have her friends over today. If she had mentioned something I would have gladly moved her etiquette classes to another time," she said, placing a small emphasis on the words 'etiquette classes'. "Although you're welcome to stay until we finish with our current lesson. It should only take a few more moments. We will just have to move the rest of today's lessons to tomorrow."
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both nodded politely and moved to take a seat on one of the benches strew throughout the conservatory, barely suppressed grins shining through their eyes.
Scootaloo, however, looked mortified at her friends’ presence, blushing furiously as she turned back to the table. A few seconds passed as her mother looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to resume the lesson that had been interrupted. With a shaking hoof Scootaloo picked up the teapot and carefully refilled the cups on the table.
"Are you not going to offer our guests some tea?" Arietta admonished gently with a smile.
Scootaloo's body locked up again as she slowly turned towards her friends, giving them a withering scowl as soon as her back was turned to her mother. "Would either of you like anything?" she managed to force out.
"No thanks."
"Nope."
With a thankful sigh Scootaloo turned back to the table and continued with the tea party, trying her very best to ignore the faint snickers of her friends in the background. The minutes slowly ticked by as her mother continued to correct her on the little blunders she occasionally made. Each admonishment elicited a fresh giggle from the audience and another blush from Scootaloo.
After what seemed to be an eternity her mother carefully folded up her napkin and stood up, declaring the tea party to be over with. Scootaloo gratefully closed her eyes and sighed in relief, only to gasp in shock as her mother shot around the table and swept her up in a massive hug.
"That was wonderful dear!"
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle blinked in surprise as they saw the previously stern mare babble excitedly about Scootaloo's performance and who proud she was of her 'little flower'. Their looks of shock turned to amused grins as the torrent of praise continued.
"You've really come a long way dear!" she finished as she capped of her praise with a large kiss on her daughter's forehead.
"Mom! Not in front of my friends!" Scootaloo whimpered as she tried to fight off her mother.
"But why ever not? You aren't ashamed of your dear old mother are you?" she asked suddenly. "That's it isn't it? That's why you never brought them over isn't it?" Scootaloo's eyes widened as she opened her mouth to protest only to have her mother cover it with a hoof. "It's okay, you just didn't want me to embarrass you in front of them right?" she asked with a calm smile.
Scootaloo sagged in relief, nodding vigorously.
"That just means I have to make up for lost time right now!" her mother proclaimed loudly, a mischievous grin on her face as she placed her daughter on the ground. "Now stay right there! I need to go find some of Scatenatia's old photo albums!" she sang as she dashed into the house.
Scootaloo's coat paled as she watched her mother gallop into the house. She turned quickly, intent on fleeing only to find her friends grinning eagerly behind her and her sister cutting off her escape route. Her eyes shot around the conservatory feverishly as she tried to find a way out of the disaster she found herself in.
Her efforts turned out to be in vain as a voice rang out from the house, growing closer with every syllable, "I foooouuuuunnnnnd theeeeem!"
Scootaloo groaned and looked pleadingly at her friends only to see their faces full of glee. This was going to be a long afternoon.
<=[XXXXX]=>
"Why did you have to follow me anyway?" Scootaloo grumped as the three fillies walked through the grounds.
Arietta had finished telling embarrassing stories for the moment and had let them leave to explore the house in peace, but not before eliciting a promise to be careful from each of the crusaders. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were mostly engrossed in trying to see everything in the extensive house that they could and nearly missed that Scootaloo had asked a question.
"We were worried that you might be an orphan or something," Sweetie Belle finally responded.
"Why?" Scootaloo asked in confusion.
"Well we never got to see your family or your house," Applebloom explained.
"And when we were following you a pony gave you some bread and you looked really really happy, like you didn't normally get to eat much," Sweetie Belle piped up.
"You were following me the whole time?" Scootaloo asked, shocked. She shook her head resignedly before explaining, "that was a special griffin bread. It's supposed to make you big and strong and fly really fast. I asked her to make some from me a while ago and he just got the ingredients he needed today."
“But she looked so sad when she gave it to you!”
“She’s been trying to convince me that I need to wait to be ready to fly and that I can’t take shortcuts,” Scootaloo grumbled in annoyance.
"But what about how you ditched your scooter before you got here? We thought you might not have anywhere else safe to put it."
"Mom makes me keep it away from home because it's 'too dangerous to keep around the house' or something." she said, making air quotes with her wings.
At this both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle couldn't help noticing that several of the statues seemed to have dents and cracks in them, some in a strangely scooter-esque shape.
"Well then if yer alright and have a home why didn't you ever let us know about it?" Applebloom asked to break the silence.
Scootaloo looked back and forth as she pawed the ground fitfully. "I didn't want you to think I was a jerk." On seeing her friends confused looks she continued, "I thought that if you found out I had a rich family you'd think I was a jerk or something."
"Why would we think that?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Scootaloo turned and gave her a flat look. "Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon," she deadpanned, earning looks of understanding from her friends. Scootaloo was silent for a moment before speaking up again, "we’re not going to stop being friends right?" Her face was lined with worry as her gaze shifted from one friend to the other.
"Of course we're still friends!" Applebloom cried indignantly. "Jus' 'cause you didn't tell us about your family right away doesn't mean we'll stop being friends right?"
"Right!" Sweetie Belle affirmed as she drew her friends together in a hug. "We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Together forever!"
The three friends drew apart laughing as they walked through the garden, planning their next crusade.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
For the curious among you Scoot's other name comes from the word Scatenato meaning unchained or wildly. Given that I used Arietta for her mother, meaning a short aria and had Octavia as her sister I figured a musical name would be best.
