Author's Note
This is my first story so constructive criticism is appreciated. Will probably be updated slowly due to uni. Any advice on cover images will be useful
Hi I'm Scootaloo
Scootaloo was not a happy mare, as she wondered listlessly among the backstreets of her hometown Ponyville, a chilly breeze stirring up behind her and rattling the loose dustbin lids as it did so. She idly listened to the winds’ folly, surely so, as the muted cacophony of rattling and rustling rubbish discarded in neat piles by the backs of buildings did nought but mildly frustrate her.
Discarded; that was what she was, wasn’t she. It was no secret, at least, not to her; that she had been left out here and forgotten, forsaken. There was always the orphanage; yet, the place only had ever really felt like a prison. It had caged her along with so few other discarded colts and fillies, and so she had left one night; out the window and far away “to lands anew and a life that was all the better for it.”, she echoed sarcastically, snorting a little in distain afterward; which was shortly followed by a series of sharp coughs.
She had read that on a poster at school once, promising to her that good grades would lead to such in the future. It was so cliché. It had mocked her up until miss Cherilee had taken it down after some colt spilt paint on it during arts and craft. It was hard though, to actually achieve what that poster had advertised, not when on top of homework and school you had to go out looking for food and shelter whilst not coming to school smelling like the trash she walked past. She was failing; both at her grades and at staying self-sufficient. She couldn’t do the latter without bits and thus she also struggled to do the former.
It had not gone unnoticed either. She glanced down at the letter in her grasp. A letter to her parents detailing her academic inaptitude as well as her horrid stench; not in those words, but she could see past the hedge terms. The words disciplinary action stung most of all, surprisingly; that she would spend her recess alone inside the schoolhouse until her grades picked up and she became more presentable terrified her. She would be away from her friends and Diamond and Silver would surely use this as yet another reason to pick on her. She didn’t know if she could deal with that on top of everything else. What to do what to do.
First and foremost, she had crusading to do. She could probably get Sweetie or Applebloom to let her use their shower afterwards. So, after a quick visit to her alley to drop off her bags, off she went.
“Ah’m tellin ya Sweetie, we’ve tried that already.”, came an exasperated voice from a small little treehouse nestled deep within the confines of a large apple orchard, perched upon an old and hardy apple tree that once bore some of the first apples to ever be grown by the Apple family some one hundred years ago. They should know, they had already tried to get their cutie marks as historians once.
“Yeah, and it ended in nearly the same way our crusading always does,”, added Scootaloo’s raspy voice, “with us meddling with something we shouldn’t and NO CUTIE MARKS. I’m telling you, I really think we should change the way we go about looking for them. I mean, I don’t know, maybe there is a way that doesn’t involve us rushing headfirst into something without thinking.”. Scootaloo was an active and adventurous filly, but even she was sick of the many minor cuts and bruises that usually accompanied their failures; and the tree sap, oh Celestia the tree sap.
“Like what Scootaloo?”, retorted Applebloom, “What on earth did you have in mind cos to me it feels like we’ve tried everything.”
“I have an idea,”, chirped Sweetie, an adorable squeak in her voice emanating her excitement, “why don’t we stop by at your place Scoots? We’ve never been so maybe we might get some more ideas if we go there.”.
The silence that followed was filled with youthful excitement, the promise of a visit to their friends as of yet unexplored abode gave two of the present fillies hope that their current boredom might soon be at an end. It edged towards awkwardness as the third girls face remained blank. Emotion returned to Scootaloo’s features as horror and sadness washed over her. These were quickly muted however, as an overall feeling of glumness settled in her mind. She would have to choose her next words carefully.
A false smile hurriedly plastered across her face; Scootaloo weakly voiced her opinion, “m My house? Why do we have to go there. You guys know that I don’t like having anypony over cos it well out of the way and it’s kinda really small, all three of us there would be cramped.”. Please drop it, please drop it, please drop it; chorused her inner voice. She looked at her friends for a response, her psyche quivering in anticipation and fear of them pushing the matter any further and potentially discovering one of her deepest and darkest secrets. It had always been hard for her to hide things from Applebloom and Sweetiebelle. As an afterthought she gave them her potent blend of concentrated cuteness in the form of a pair of puppy dog eyes.
This seemed to do the trick for while their eyes sparkled with a mix of concern and disappointment, they relented. “Aww shucks Scoots, what else are we supposed to do then?”
Sweetie decided then to change the subject, noticing Scootaloo’s discomfort and answering Applebloom’s question in the process, “Hey why don’t we go to my place and think of something there? Rarity shouldn’t mind, and we can get Scootaloo cleaned up there too.”
“What?”
“Well no offence but you kind of stink…just a bit.”. Her face behind her pink locks, Sweetie’s more timid side shone through.
“Ya know, she is right Scoots, ya do smell pretty bad today. Didn’t miss Cheerilee mention it as well?”
Scootaloo looked down at the worn floor boards of the club house, abashed. “You girls know that I’m not into that froufrou stuff; and what’s wrong with a little bit of dirt anyways?”
“Scoots, there aint nothing froufrou to being clean, and there’s a difference between being dirty and being smelly.”
“Okay okay, if I go with you guys to Sweetie’s and get clean up will ya quit mentioning it?”, rushed Scootaloo in both the verbal and literal sense as by this point she was already heading to the door. She was sick of this conversation.
And so off went the trio, Sweetie and Applebloom up front talking animatedly about random stuff that came to mind; unknowingly leaving their now rather quiet friend to her own comparatively darker musings for despite her earlier enthusiasm to get going Scootaloo had quickly fallen behind to sulk out of her friend’s view. Scootaloo watched, as they walked passed the park, as children happily played about with not a care in the world. Some running up to their parents with epic tales of adventure to tell when in reality it hadn’t been much more than energetic meanderings around some tree over yonder with their friends. Scootaloo was not like those children. Her outlook on things usually tended towards the pessimistic side of the spectrum. She couldn’t really help it, with her luck in the past few years the ensuing bunkum that her life had become had tempered her views of her environment somewhat. With her fear of anypony discovering her secret and her dislike towards returning to the orphanage her life had been on a steadily descending spiral and it showed no signs of petering out anytime soon. And she knew it. And yet she could do nothing due to her stubbornness and fear of change, irrationally; change to her had always led to something worse than before. All this played its tune in Scootaloo’s subconscious and led her conscious mind to watch helplessly as the hapless filly tried to keep her meager life together. Little by little she lost control, week by week, month by month. It had started with her parent’s death. Then at the orphanage; she had lost so much of her freedom there. It was so strict. Not in the ‘its for your own safety’ way that was used by parents; no, it was, in much the same way that a diet cola never quite tasted the same as a regular cola, more clinical. She had regained some of that freedom when she had left; it was a false promise. She had quickly discovered that she would now have to deal with the same kind of money and food problems that the adults had to deal with, all without proper housing and still with the burden of school and the resulting homework. She was most definitely not an adult, moreover, she needed an adult; she had cried herself to sleep for a while after her parents had passed and then had come bitter anger. The anger had never really gone away. And yet Scootaloo concurrently failed to speak out to anypony despite the hardships she faced. Why? It was doubtful that even Scootaloo knew the answer to that question.
Another series of coughs racked the filly’s body.
The trio arrived at Rarity’s boutique with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle still non the wiser to their friends’ condition and a bell jingled merrily as they entered the building.
“Hiya Rarity!”, exclaimed Sweetie happily as she led the other two to the living room. No answer. That was okay, “She must just be out doing something.”, said Sweetie matter-of-factly.
“Okay, now that we’re here, ya gotta go an take a shower Scoots.”
“Fiiiine.”, groaned Scootaloo. She was actually looking forward to getting clean under warm water for once, however, she wouldn’t let them know that; dirt loving tomboy that she made herself out to be.
With Scootaloo off to go get cleaned up the remaining fillies settled in on the living room couch. “Are you ready for the maths test on Thursday?”, inquired Sweetie.
“Am I ever.”, replied Applebloom confidently. She loved maths. “Ya reckon Scoots will have done any prep for it?”.
“Haha nope. I doubt she even remembered. We should remind her when she comes back just in case.”.
“Ah noticed that she was startin to struggle more and more recently with her grades. When she got called into the teachers’ office I know that there was more to it than her just smellin bad one day. Scoots aint the smartest of the class but she always managed to get decent grades, but, all this year she seems to have been struggling more than usual. Heck…”.
“Applebloom!”, Sweetie gasped.
“Sorry, sorry. Anyway, as ah was sayin. She even skipped class a couple times this month. And even when she’s in class she always seems distracted. Ah just don’t want to see Scoots fail just cos she’s going through one of them ‘phases’ as Applejack calls em.”.
“Should we talk to her about it?”, asked Sweetie, concerned.
“Ah think we should, but, ya remember back at the clubhouse when we mentioned going over to her house?”
“Yep.”
“Well she got real awkward and uncomfortable about it. The moment we asked her something she didn’t like she acted weird.”
“Maybe she really doesn’t like ponies coming to her house.”, Sweetie squeaked thoughtfully.
“Yeah maybe… We should still talk to her about it… and probably that too, but we should be careful about how we say it so she don’t start acting weird again.”
With their new objective set, the two sat on the couch passing idle unrelated chit chat back and forth but for the most part sitting in silence in anticipation for their friends return.
“Whew! That was one goood shower.”, exclaimed a happy Scootaloo, the airy utterance of her words reminiscent of the steam that wafted lazily off her body. “Hey girls, watcha been up to?”
A pause followed her statement and then Applebloom replied hesitantly, “Hey Scoots; I think we all need to have a talk.”
“Wow that looks like one hot shower.”, stated Sweetie quietly and offhandedly, commenting on the slightly reddened appearance of her friend’s body from the evidently piping hot shower. It was a valiant attempt to ease the ensuing tension in the room; unfortunately, neither of her friends appeared to have heard her.
Scootaloo’s smile faltered slightly, “What do you want to talk about Applebloom?”. She had a feeling that she knew what her friend wanted to talk to her about, if her tone of voice was anything to go by, and she didn’t like it.
“About the way you’ve been actin lately.”, answered Applebloom.
“Okaaay…”, feigned Scootaloo. “I didn’t know that id been acting any different than usual.”
Appleboom’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. She wasn’t as good as her sister, but she’d be lying if she said that she couldn’t pick up on the occasional tall tale. And Scootaloo was as bad as her idol when it came to fibs. “Oh, ah think you do Scootaloo. The way ya acted back at the clubhouse for a start. And how come for practically the whole year you’ve been acting strange at school, barely payin attention for the most part. You were almost on par with Snips and Snails for Celestia sake. Me an Sweetie want answers and you aint Levin this here boutique until we get some.”
Scootaloo was at a loss for words. She’d had no idea that her behaviour had changed at all let alone drastically enough for the astute Applebloom to pick up on it. Then came the worry, the fear. Applebloom was questioning about her actions in a way that would risk her secret coming out and that thought terrified the orange filly. So, she responded hotly, “What are you talking about? I haven’t been acting any different than usual. If this is about me getting in trouble for forgetting to take a shower, then you’re being stupid. You’re supposed to support me through that kind of stuff, right? Isn’t that what friends do?”.
Applebloom and Sweetie sat back in shock at the speed at which their friend had become angered. Applebloom however took it upon her self to respond in kind; fight fire with fire and all that…” This is exactly the kind ah thing a’ve been getting at Scootaloo, you’ve been actin strange and when your own friends question you on it then you act even stranger.”.
“And angrier.”.
“I am not getting angry Sweetie.”, cried Scootaloo indignantly. Then she paused and stated more calmly and a bit abashed, “Okay, maybe a bit, but that’s only cause you guys keep prying into my life about things that aren’t really important. So what if I’ve been paying less attention in class than usual, I’m still passing the year.”.
“Oh?”, questioned Applebloom sardonically, “So, tell us what Miss Cherilee really called you in for today.”.
“Cause I was smelly.”
“Aannd.”, added Applebloom.
“And nothing. That was all she called me in for.”, Scootaloo tried once more to act indignant but she couldn’t quite stop the slightest tinge of nervousness from entering her voice. This did not escape Applebloom’s notice.
“No, it wasn’t Scoots,”, stated Applebloom simply, like she’d already figured everything out. Internally Scootaloo was uneasy, “Miss Cherilee wouldn’t just call you in for somthin as simple as that. Ah think you’ve been failing the year.”.
“I hav…”.
Applebloom got closer to Scootaloo and interrupted, “Do you think me and Sweetie like seein ya waste ya life like this? That’s what this is right, some fad or phase yer goin through huh? Its not cool Scootaloo and all you’re doing for yourself is making everything harder than it needs to be. You’re failing in school and you’re makin a fool of yourself with whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve with it and I’m SICK OF IT. I don’t want to lose my friend cause of some stupid fad but Im finding it real hard to keep being your friend when ya keep messing us about like this; especially with what mah sis been sayin about ya.”. Applebloom stopped her tirade rather abruptly. She hadn’t ment to say that. Sweetie’s interest was piqued.
“What has Applejack been saying about me?”. Scootaloo was tentative now. She hadn’t interacted with Apllebloom’s sister in a while now and the look on said friend’s face suggested that the news wouldn’t be positive.
“Don’t make me say it Scootaloo it was nothin.”.
“Doesn’t look like nothing.”, commented Scootaloo, “Did I do something to make her mad?”.
Applebloom took a breath and looked up at Scootaloo, directly into her eyes. “Mah sis caught ya stealing Scootaloo.”. Sweetie gasped as Scootaloo’s little heart plummeted. She tried to respond but the words refused to come.
Scootaloo recalled all the times she had had to resort to stealing for food, especially in winter when it was too cold to go out foraging. She didn’t like doing it because everyone always said that stealing was bad but unfortunately, it was either steal or starve and the little filly’s survival instinct tended to supersede her morals. She had snuck apples from the Apple family’s stall and orchards numerous times among others, yet she had always been cautious so as to not get caught. And she had never been caught, at least she thought she hadn’t.
Sweetie was troubled. On the one hoof she had been taught that stealing was among the long list of things one should never ever partake in. On the other hoof it was Scootaloo who had been caught stealing and she didn’t want to see her friends get in trouble. She honestly didn’t know what to think about Scootaloo right now. Sweetie’s thoughts turned to surprise when her sister chose this moment to enter the abode and worry when she realised that Applejack had probably mentioned the fact to Rarity. “Oh, hi Rarity. Where have you been?”, she chirped lively to her sister nonetheless.
Rarity smiled upon laying eyes on her loving little sister and proceeded to give her a quick nuzzle. Scootaloo’s heart twinged slightly watching the affectionate seen. Rarity then looked around the room and greeted Applenloom happily. Then her eyes fell upon Scootaloo and her kind smile melted into a look of disapproval.
Author's Note
Hey guys I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I will restate that uploads are going to probably be slow due to uni commitments but I will try to update as frequently as I can.
Sorry for any grammatical errors