Scootaloo Origins

The impact was horrible. Scootaloo yelped as her small body hit the cold water, it froze her at the same time as it stung with blinding pain. She tried desperately to swim to the surface, she wasn’t about to die here.

She hadn’t ever needed to swim before which just made things all the more harder but instinct and determination drove her on. Kicking furiously she pushed herself towards the surface, pushing with both her hooves and wings to help drive her towards the air and her survival. Her vision began to blacken slightly and she panicked causing her to take a small breath bringing water into her lungs. Just when she thought she wouldn’t make it, air flooded in through her mouth as she gasped for breath. She coughed up some of the water she swallowed and tried to get her bearings.

She looked around and saw that she was only ten or so meters from the bank on the east side of the lake. She pushed herself towards the edge of the water, if she made it there then she would be able to run into the woods and then she would be safe. Risking a glance back she noticed that three guards were heading down straight towards her in arrowhead formation. She sprinted as fast as she could towards the forest, everything hurt but she wouldn’t let that slow her down, if she stopped even for a moment then she would never be free. Just in time she dived forwards and rolled down a slope into the darkness of the dense forest.

Now that she realized she was safe she also realized that this was the first time she had ever set hoof on solid ground, if felt so, firm. She had heard some things of the world below the clouds from other ponies and there was also the maps that she had been shown. There were tales of the unicorns, powerful magic wielding ponies that could do almost anything they wish as long as they had the knowledge. She had also heard of the earth ponies who were master farmers and workers, some could plant whole fields and harvest whole orchards in a matter of days. She knew where some of the nearby settlements were such as Canterlot and Ponyville, she still had to work out where she was, it seemed that there was forest almost surrounding Cloudsdale in every direction but the south.  She assumed that she had gone east but the pipes had been rather disorientating. To the west there was the mountains and she didn’t remember seeing any while she ran towards the tree-line but then she wasn't really focusing on the horizon at that point. If she was able to climb a tree then she would know if she was going north or east when she saw the cold tundra in the top of Equestria or Canterlot. Scootaloo thought that it would be best to live in solitary in the woods and live in a tree-house but she didn’t think that she would ever be able to build one or even survive a week out here so she decided to head to a settlement. The only ones she knew the vague location of was Canterlot, Ponyville and of course, Cloudsdale. She couldn’t go back to Cloudsdale as they would arrest her so it was either Canterlot or Ponyville.

Scootaloo though about these options for a moment, Canterlot was the royal city, full of posh ponies and others of high class, it seemed this may be the best option until she thought about what they may think of a homeless filly like herself, they may just ignore her or worse yet even throw insults at her, it wasn’t the nicest place to go from what she had heard. She then turned her attention to Ponyville. She didn’t know much about it as it didn’t seem to be that important compared to the big cities but it right in the middle of Equestria so it seemed the best place to use as a centre point. She knew it was much smaller than most other places in Equestria but apart from that there wasn’t much else that she had learnt. She decided that she was to try and reach Ponyville as this felt safer than going somewhere where ponies would only look down at her.

The best way to travel there, she thought, was to go east until she found the main road between both Canterlot and Ponyville then follow the signs south until she made it there. The problem wasn’t the route, it was her survival.