FUTURE EQUESTRIA

Scootaloo paused, her ears straining to catch any sound. There was nothing to hear except the hum and rumble of electronic motors and machinery both under and above her. The young Pegasus breathed quietly out with relief as she looked around the dimly lit garage she was standing in. Good...no Trap Ponies here. She shuddered, a brief image of the horrifying cyborgs flashing across her mind.

“Don’t think about them,” she told herself. “And they won’t come.”

She continued her way towards the end of the garage. She knew that once she stepped outside, she would be in constant danger of getting caught or killed. She was a rebel, rebelling against the unseen power that ruled over that part of Equestria now. The power known as the Hypershade.

Scootaloo reached the metal door at last. Had it always been metal? No. It was once wooden. This garage never used to exist. The word “garage” still felt new to Scoots. Everything that was wood had been converted to metal or fiberglass. The ground that had once been grass and dirt and rocks was now pavement and concrete. The young pony’s entire world...and life...had changed, and not for the better.

Scootaloo took a deep breath and slowly opened the door a crack. The noises of the world outside filled her ears as she peeked out. Subway trains, automatic cars, lights, machines, drones, tall glass buildings that looked like their tops touched heaven. It was all part of Scootaloo’s world now. It was everypony’s world, now.

She looked left and right, making sure no cyborgs were around. She quickly glanced at her watch...it read 12:00 PM. The Trap Ponies wouldn’t be making their rounds on this road until at least 2:00 PM. She was in the clear for now.

She stepped outside and breathed in the once – fresh air. She smelled gasoline, oil, smoke and other unpleasant things, but she had gotten used to those smells. Cars, drones and electric wagons streaked back and forth on the road. Crowds of ponies walked up and down the sidewalk, chattering either to each other or on their phones. Perfect...all Scoots had to do was hide in the crowds and get to her destination.

Scootaloo stepped into a passing crowd of ponies and mingled in with them, trying to look the part. She resisted the automatic urge to duck or hide whenever a drone whizzed by.

After a while of walking from crowd to crowd, Scootaloo finally reached her destination; an abandoned apartment. All the windows were shut tightly and locked, and shades obscured the view inside and outside. The fence around the front and back of the apartment was metal and had barbed wire woven into it. The door was also locked tightly. Scootaloo walked up to it after glancing around and reached up her hoof to knock. She knocked three times quickly, one time slowly, and two more times quickly in a sort of rhythm.

After a moment, the door opened a crack and the wide, frightened eyes of a pony stared out at Scootaloo. “Password,” the pony inside said, almost in a whisper.

Scootaloo cleared her throat and quietly sang a verse from a song she once heard a pony sing.

“Don’t you worry,

Don’t you cry,

We will all be fine.

Don’t you shout,

Don’t you fret,

We haven’t been caught yet.”

The pony inside the apartment nodded approvingly, and then stepped away to let Scootaloo inside.