No One Cares for You a Smidge
A green glow surrounded the glass of water as it started to slowly lift off the table. Before it sat Sweetie Belle, her eyes closed in concentration, horn covered in the same glow at the glass, as she focused on levitation it. It was about three feet above the table when the door to the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse slammed open, Apple Bloom rushed in and calling out Sweetie Belle’s name.
Sweetie Belle let out a squeak of shock at the bang, the glass slipped out of her grip as she lost control of her magic. It tumbled to the table and splashed water all over the white unicorn. Apple Bloom winced at the sight before she spoke. “Sorry ‘bout that Sweetie Belle, but I just had to tell you what I overheard leaving school today. Scootaloo’s an orphan!”
With a sigh, Sweetie Belle turned to face Apple Bloom and grabbed a nearby towel with her hoof to dry herself off. “Really, Apple Bloom? Are we going to do this again? Ever few months you come up with these wild theories…”
“This ain’t no wild theory!” Apple Bloom replied, cutting Sweetie Belle off. “I heard what I heard. I was passing by our classroom and I heard Miss Cheerilee tell Scootaloo that she knew how hard it was being an orphan. It makes sense. We’ve never been to her house, never even met her parents.”
“Scootaloo’s a pegasus,” Sweetie Belle pointed out, “She probably lives in a cloud house.”
“So… Twilight’s got that fancy cloud walkin’ spell we could use to go visit her.”
“True. Still doesn’t mean anything. She’s our friend. Why wouldn’t she tell us?”
“Maybe she doesn’t want anyone to know. Maybe...” Apple Bloom opened her mouth to continue but fell silent as the pegasus in question entered the club house.
“Hey girls, what’s up?” Scootaloo asked. She pulled off the helmet she always wore while on her scooter and tossed it to the side.
“We were just…” Apple Bloom looked around quickly, spying the overturned glass. “Sweetie Belle was showing me how her magic’s coming.”
“Yeah, it still needs some work,” Sweetie Belle said, just about having finished drying herself off.
“Cool. Too bad I wasn’t here to see it, but I had to talk to Miss Cheerilee after class.”
“Yeah I heard,” Apple Bloom replied. “Um, that is I didn’t actually hear you two talking. I just heard that you were going to be talking to Miss Cheerilee. That’s why we didn’t wait for you after class.”
“I know. I told you.” Scootaloo looked at the earth pony suspiciously while Apple Bloom tried to avoid her gaze. Finally Scootaloo gave up and changed the subject. “So, what are we going to do to try and earn our cutie marks today?”
Two hours, and five failures later, Scootaloo, fur a little singed here and there, retrieved her helmet from the corner. “Well so much for that. Maybe we’ll do better tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?” Apple Bloom asked. “It’s still early.”
“Yeah but I’ve got something I have to do. I’ll see you two tomorrow at school.” With that, Scootaloo exited the club house and headed down to her scooter.
Apple Bloom watched her go before she turned to Sweetie Belle and nodded her head in the direction Scootaloo had gone. In return Sweetie Belle just gazed back, confused. Apple Bloom glared at Sweetie Belle, jerking her head twice more towards the door. Sweetie Belle responded with a shrug, still not understanding.
With a small growl of frustration, Apple Bloom pointed a hoof at Sweetie Belle, then at her herself and finally violently jerked her head towards the door once more, mouthing the words ‘you,’ ‘me’ and ‘follow’ in the process.
“Oh.” Sweetie Belle eyes widened as the finally understood. “You want us to follow Scootaloo. Wait? You want us to follow Scootaloo?”
“Just to see where she’s going. Maybe I can prove to you she’s an orphan.”
Sweetie Belle shook her head but followed after Apple Bloom. The two ponies followed Scootaloo as she left Sweet Apple Acres and headed into Ponyville proper. Thankfully the pegasus wasn’t moving at her usual breakneck speed, allowing the other two to keep up.
The trail led into a part of the town that had seen better days, a handful of buildings standing empty and boarded up. They watched as Scootaloo parked her scooter outside an old building and headed inside. Sweetie Belle gasped in shock.
“That’s the soup kitchen!”
“The soup kitchen?” Apple Bloom repeated slowly, now it was her turn to be confused.
“Yeah. It’s where all the ponies that don’t have homes or jobs go to get something to eat. My family helped out there a couple Hearth Warming Eves ago. You don’t think…”
“That Scootaloo’s there because she’s got nowhere else to go? I sure do.” Apple Bloom started walking towards the entrance when Sweetie Belle placed a hoof on her shoulder, stopping her.
“We can’t go in there. How do you think she’s going to feel if we confront her in a place like this?”
“You’re right. We’ll have to figure out some other way to let her know we know.”
The next day the three were eating lunch at school, Scootaloo stuffing her face with the school’s lasagna. Vegetarian lasagna, of course. “Parent’s night is coming up next week,” Sweetie Belle commented idly. “I guess Applejack will be showing up to see how you’re doing, right Apple Bloom.” She gave Apple Bloom a nod and a very obvious wink.
“You know she always does. What… oh…” Apple Bloom paused, catching on. “Yes. Because I don’t have any parents but thankfully I have family and friends there to support me,” she said slowly, her voice monotone. “What about you, Scootaloo?”
“Mmm?” Scootaloo looked up from her meal, mouth full of food.
“What do you think about parent’s night?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Scootaloo replied, her mouth still half full. Sweetie Belle turned her head in disgust at the sight. “Hopefully it will go better than last year.”
“Well if you ever do have anything you want to talk about you know you can talk to us.”
“Yeah, after all what are friends for?” Sweetie Belle agreed.
“Um… sure.” Scootaloo finished off her meal, practically licking her plate clean before carrying it back up to the front. She placed it on the counter in front of the lunch pony and looked up at him, giving him her best puppy dog eyes. “Please sir, can I have some more?”
“Poor Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle said, looking on from her seat, “filling up on school food so she won’t go hungry.”
After school found Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in Sugar Cube Corner, each of them nursing a milkshake, frowns on their faces. They had parted ways with Scootaloo after classes, the pegasus having told them she had something to do.
“Hey, why the sad faces?” Rainbow Dash asked, joining the pair at the counter.
“No Dashie, it’s why the long faces,” Pinkie Pie commented from where she was working on decorating a cake. “I tried that joked on them when they first got here too. But it didn’t work at all.”
“Scootaloo’s an orphan,” Apple Bloom explained.
“Scootaloo’s an orphan?”
“Oh… she told you too?” Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing up to the others. “That’s great! I found out the other day, but she told me not to tell anyone so I Pinkie Pie promised not to say anything, but now that you three know I don’t have to keep the secret to myself and it can be our secret! Like we’re spies or something!”
Rainbow Dash just looked at her friend. “Pinkie, you do know what an orphan is, right?”
“Of course I do silly. It’s a pony who doesn’t have any parents. I think Scootaloo will be great at it. I mean sure there’s a lot she’s got to do but she’s already impressed me with what she’s done so far.”
Mouth hanging open, Rainbow Dash and the others looked at Pinkie Pie, unsure what to say. Fortunately they were distracted by a very familiar voice. “Thanks for the box, Mister Cake.”
They looked behind Pinkie Pie, into the kitchen and through the open back door to outside, where a very familiar pegasus filly was tying down a cardboard box onto an equally familiar red wagon.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay with that?”
“Don’t worry, Mister Cake. I’ve got it strapped down good and tight and I’ll go slow so that I don’t lose it.” Scootaloo placed on her helmet, hopped on her scooter and was off. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle heard the bell on the front door of Sugar Cube Corner ring and turned just in time to see Rainbow Dash disappear into the sky.
Zipping from cloud to cloud, Rainbow Dash followed after Scootaloo, trying to sneak after the filly. Although anypony that bothered to glance up would see her unique tail peeking out of the clouds she tried to hide in. However Scootaloo was not one of those ponies.
Scootaloo headed downtown. Finally she turned down an alley and stopped behind an old theatre. There she unstrapped the box from her wagon, carefully placed it down in the alley and walked around it a bit before heading inside. From Rainbow Dash’s point of view high in the sky it looked as if the filly was making a home out of it.
Her heart breaking from the sight Rainbow Dash flew off towards Golden Oak Library. She knew what she had to do.
“How come we’re going to the library?” Scootaloo asked, the Cutie Mark Crusaders walking up to the front door of the Golden Oak Library, home of Twilight Sparkle, Equestria’s newest princess and friend of the Crusaders.
“Um… Twilight time?” Apple Bloom replied.
“Twilight time’s on Tuesdays,” Scootaloo pointed out.
“Right… well this one here’s a special one,” she replied, practically pushing Scootaloo inside. The library itself was pitch black, lights off and curtains drawn to hide the sun.
“I don’t think anyone’s here.” As Scootaloo turned to leave the lights came on. Twilight, Rainbow and their friends popped out from various hiding places and shouted surprise.
Scootaloo looked around in shock and confusion, streamers and balloons hung around the room, along with a huge banner saying ‘Congratulations Scootaloo’. On a table in the center of the room were a number of snacks and drinks, including a large cake with the same inscription as the banner.
“You girls know it’s not my birthday for another three months right?”
“We know, Squirt,” Rainbow said, walking up to her. “I talked things over with Twilight and given your situation we think we can arrange it for you to come live with me.”
“Really? That’s so cool!” Scootaloo paused, her smile turned to an expression of though. “Although I’m not sure my parents would let me.”
“Now dear,” Rarity, Sweetie Belle’s older sister said as she joined them, “I’m sure wherever your parents are they’d be proud to have you adopted by Rainbow Dash.”
“They’re just in Los Pegasus for the week on business and what do you mean adopted?” Scootaloo looked at the faces around her as realization dawned on her own face. She suddenly collapsed to the ground laughing. “You think… you all think I’m an orphan?”
“But… I overheard you talking to Miss Cheerilee about it,” Apple Bloom said. “And we’ve never been to your house, or seen your parents or…”
Scootaloo got back to her feet, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. “That’s because they’re both busy with jobs in Cloudsdale and often don’t get home until late and they don’t like me having anyone over when they’re not there. As for Miss Cheerilee we were talking about a play. I’m the lead in Little Orphan Nook Cranny,” she explained.
“But Pinkie Pie said…”
“That’s because the theatre group asked Mister and Misses Cake to bring treats over for the cast to eat while they were rehearsing. They asked me to take them and that’s when I found Scootaloo was in the cast,” Pinkie Pie pause. “Didn’t you know it was just a play?” Her expression drooped. “Oh no… I wasn’t suppose to tell you if you didn’t know. I broke a Pinkie Pie Promise! I BROKE A PINKIE PIE PROMISE!” She dropped to her knees and started to wail.
“Pinkie. Pinkie!” Scootaloo shouted, working to try and calm the other pony. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You didn’t break your promise.”
“I didn’t?” Pinkie asked, immediately perking back up. With a nod from Scootaloo she smiled. “Okay then. Anypony want some ice-cream!” she called out, bouncing off into the kitchen.
“What about the cardboard box you got from Mister Cake the other day?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I saw you outside making a home out of it. You know behind the… theatre.” Her voice slowed in understanding.
“That’s a prop for the play. I was working on it outside because of the paint fumes. Didn’t you see me get the paint?”
“I must have left before that.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
“But what about the soap kitchen?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Soup kitchen,” Sweetie Belle corrected.
“Yeah, that.”
“Well. There’s this super cool new scooter coming out, so I made a deal with my dad that if I helped out around town volunteering for stuff he’d buy it for me. Something about learning responsibility.”
“And all the food you eat at the cafeteria?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“That’s because the cafeteria food is awesome!” Scootaloo smiled at just the thought of it. “You two should really try it one day instead of always bringing your lunches from home. Besides, my brother’s not a very good cook.”
“You have a brother?” Sweetie Belle squeaked in shock.
“Three actually,” Scootaloo replied.
“Okay, okay,” Apple Bloom said, waving her hoofs to calm the others. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand.”
“One thing?”
Apple Bloom ignored Sweetie Belle’s interruption and continued. “Why didn’t you just tell us you got a part in this play to begin with?”
“Well… I kind of wanted to surprise you all.”
The other ponies looked at each other in silence for a moment. Then as one they all opened their mouths. “Oh.”
