The Name Game
Scootaloo fidgeted in her chair. She looked at the clock on the wall, which had barely moved since she last looked, and sighed. She was sitting in front of the Principal's office in Canterlot High. Just a week in to her first semester there and she'd already landed in trouble. She leaned back and bumped her head on the wall behind her a few times.
Everything had started up so amazing! After finishing the local elementary school in Ponyville, because she couldn't attend Cloudsdale High because of the no-flying thing, her Crusader friends and her had decided to all enrol at Canterlot High. Sweetie Belle's big sister had set up a little apartment for them to share, and everything had worked out great. Turned out Sweetie really liked cleaning stuff and Apple Bloom was a fantastic cook. They just had to make sure those roles weren't reversed and everything would go fine. The first weeks had been the best in her life, just school, her best friends, and a big city to explore.
Until today, that is. Sweetie had left the school with a note for a guardian to come pick up Scootaloo after the 'incident'. Just to make sure that they wouldn't be connected to the actual Guardians of Equestria and have a normal High School life, they'd convinced Rarity's right hoof mare, Sassy Saddles, to take care of anything that would come up during the week and they could figure things out during the weekend in Ponyville. It was basically meant for Sassy to sign papers that needed a guardian's signature and that was supposed to be it. Nopony had expected anything major to happen, like today.
"Hello? Ms. Scootaloo?" a voice said.
Scootaloo turned towards the voice. At the door to the room stood a demure pale amber Earth Pony with a light blue mane. She had a little sailor collar with a red tie around her neck.
"Yeah?" Scootaloo said.
"Oh, good. I found you then." The mare walked closer to Scootaloo. "I'm Coco Pommel. Sassy Saddles had a business meeting, so she sent me to pick you up. You can call me Coco."
Scootaloo shrugged. At this point she didn't really care who was there to pick her up, as long as she could finally get out. It had been almost two hours of just waiting outside the office. She pointed at the door to the Principal's Office without saying a word.
Coco Pommel nodded and entered. Scootaloo could her the two adults talking on the other side of the door, but couldn't make out what they were saying.
After maybe ten minutes, Coco Pommel came out and closed the door. Her expression was that of worry. She sat on the floor in front of Scootaloo. "I heard you got into a fight. Are you alright?"
Scootaloo did her best nonchalant expression. "Just a few bumps. Nothing major."
"The two colts weren't that lucky. One of them has a black eye and the other one lost a tooth."
Scootaloo suddenly felt a huge lump in her throat.
"I'm sorry to tell you that you're suspended for the rest of the week," Coco Pommel said.
Scootaloo felt her eyes burning. The stipulation for her and her friends to live away from home was that there couldn't be any trouble, and now she'd gone and messed it all up. She'd have to move back to Ponyville and never go to High School and get thrown out of her Aunts' house and live under a bridge with rats. "It's not fair," she muttered.
"I heard what happened from the Principal, but would you like to tell me your side?"
"What do you care," Scootaloo huffed. "You're just here to pick a friend's friend's friend's friend's dumb kid from school."
She immediately felt bad for saying that, but everything was doomed and over, so she didn't really care.
"I'm sorry," Coco Pommel said meekly. "I just thought you might want to vent a bit."
Scootaloo grumbled something under her breath as she jumped down from the chair. "Can we go now?"
They walked out of the school and onto the cobblestone streets of Canterlot. The beautiful white spires and stone buildings rose around them with busy ponies going about their business everywhere. Scootaloo hadn't felt so alone in a long time. When they were passing a small park, it reminded her so much of her home in Ponyville that her dam finally burst. She felt the hot tears roll down her cheeks and her hooves felt like they were glued to the street. "It just isn't fair," she said.
A comforting hoof guided her a few steps forward and onto a little bench in the park, away from the busy street. Scootaloo sat down and let her head droop. "I know I was dumb and I shouldn't have kicked them but they were just being super douchy."
Coco Pommel didn't say anything, she just rubbed Scootaloo's shoulders with a hoof until Scootaloo's tears slowed down a bit. "You don't seem like the violent type. Why would you physically attack the bullies?"
"Rainbow Dash said that I have to protect myself and not to let anyone mess with me. And to always act on what I think is right."
Coco Pommel couldn't help but smile. "And what do you think Rarity and Fluttershy would tell her afterwards?"
Scootaloo turned to look at her in surprise. "Wait, you know them?"
Coco Pommel nodded. "So what do you think they'd say?"
"Probably that..." Scootaloo looked down again as her shoulders slumped. "That I should think before I act and that words aren't worth getting into a fight." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "I really wanted to be friends with them, you know? I thought they were really cool. I've seen them do the sickest stuff at the skate park." She had to swallow the lump in her throat again. "They're a few years older and I was really stressed about talking to them and Sweetie and AB finally convinced me to talk with them and..." She just shook her head. "I tried to introduce myself to them and told them my name, and they were like ´what, you're name is ScootaPOOP? You named after a turd from hicktown Ponyville?´ and they just kept going on and on and pushed me around with their Unicorn magic until I kinda lost it. I've been wrestling with Sweetie for years so I know how to fight a Unicorn, just go for the horn and they just turn out to be pampered little b...abies. I didn't think I was kicking them that hard but the next thing I know, they were rolling on the floor and the teacher was yelling at me. I mean I shouldn't have done it but... umm... Coco?"
Coco Pommel wasn't just angry, she was seething. Her hooves were trembling, and her pupils had shrunk down to tiny dots. "You... they made fun of your name and you... kicked them in the face for that?" she said in an icy cold voice.
Scootaloo gulped and back away a bit. This meek mare was about to explode. "Eeep," was all she could say.
"I take it all back. You. YOU!" Coco Pommel inched closer and closer to Scootaloo... Until she pounced on Scootaloo and grabbed her in a huge hug. "You're my personal little hero!"
Scootaloo could barely breathe. "ACK! What?!"
Coco Pommel pulled back a bit and held Scootaloo around the shoulders while looking her straight in the eyes. "I used to be bullied about my name all throughout High School and I wanted nothing more than to punch their teeth in. I'd dream about it all the time, but I was too shy and weak to do anything about it."
"You were bullied about your name too?"
"Coco Pommel," she said her name out loud. "They turned it into... Caca Poo-Smell."
Scootaloo's eye's grew wide. "Oh, Celestia, that's awful."
"Every day for six years, that's what they called me. And the whole class got into it. And I never did anything about it. I mean I told the teachers, but they just told me it was a joke and just ignore it, but even if I did, it never stopped."
"I'm... I'm so sorry," Scootaloo said.
"No. You shouldn't be," Coco Pommel said. "Messing with someone's name is just disgusting. You didn't get to choose your name, but your parents gave it to you with all their love. And then some idiot throws it at your face? I know violence should never be the answer, but for dumb colts like them, it's the only thing they'll listen to."
Scootaloo could only stare at Coco Pommel slack-jawed.
"Now come on, let's get back to Carousel. I think I have some cake and soda left after yesterday's show there."
"Wait... you want to give me cake for kicking somepony's teeth out?"
Coco Pommel smiled. "I sure do. And I'll also sign any papers you need and won't tell your folks at home about it."
"Seriously?!" Scootaloo jumped up in the air with her wings buzzing. "You telling me I'm off the hook?"
"Just don't make a habit of kicking ponies, okay?"
"Deal!"
They started walking towards the Canterlot Carousel. "You know, you're the second filly I've bailed out from trouble about being bullied about their name."
"Really?"
"Yes. There was this filly in Manehattan called Babs Seed—"
"Hey! I know Babs!"
"Well did she ever tell you what she did to her bullies when they called her ´Babs Peed´?"
Author's Note
Sometimes you just get a silly idea for a fic and have to write it out. I've been struggling to write anything after I finished my thesis, feeling burned out and getting PTSD from just looking at word. Maybe this is a step towards a better tomorrow?
