"But come on," Apple Bloom loudly protests, holding open the door. "I don't think that we'll get a mark for checking empty basements," The CMCs are checking the basement under Pinkie's shop, on Scootaloo's insistence.

"I told you, it's treasure hunting!" Scootaloo's eyes gleam with excitement. She shuts the door behind the trio, continuing with "We could find… uh… a seventh element of harmony!"

"Ya huh…" Bloom looks at Scootaloo with an eyebrow raised. "How can ah be sure ya ain't just lookin for somethin?" With a nudge to her friend, she mutters "Wastin' mah time,"

"Hey, what's the worst that can happen?" Sweetie Belle asks. Charging her horn, the projected ball of white light lights up the basement. It has nothing in it, completely devoid of anything.

Scootaloo mumbles something quickly, under her breath. "Wha's tha? Didn't quite catcha there," Hmm…

"Oh, uh… I said 'Damn it!'" Scootaloo lets out a nervous laugh. "Yep, that's what I said!" Sweat droplets start to form at her forehead.

"Ok…" Sweetie puts a leg around the other CMCs. "I think we need to talk about your… choices, Scoots,"

Scootaloo starts to panic, on edge. "Uh… whaddayoumeanididntdosomethingwrongright?!"

"Scoot, ya tried foragin, stealin, scavengin, sneakin, n now this. They seem sorta… connected, if ah say so mahself," Apple Bloom frowns. "Is somethin' goin on?"

"I…" Scootaloo's eyes start jumping. "Uh… Want to know how to survive in the wilderness!"

"What's stealing have to do with that?" Sweetie's words are laced with concern. Something's wrong here…

"Uh…" Scootaloo breaks their hug and bursts through the door, heading for her house. The other CMCs call out, but she ignores them, running as fast as her legs let her. I can't let them know, I promised Mommy!

After a few minutes, Scootaloo hits the edge of town. The wind blows through the trees, cooling her down. Calmed, she starts walking the rest of the way. I wonder what I'm doing for dinner now… The filly spends a good ten minutes contemplating her choices.

Eventually, she finds her house. Two stories and run down, Scootaloo is glad that the other crusaders never see it. The windows are covered in filth, showing signs of neglect. The creaky door sits slightly ajar, open a crack. The latch had broken a few weeks ago. Oh boy, did she get a beating then.

Opening the door, Scootaloo calls out "Ma? Pa? I'm home!" Her wings fidget as she stands still and waits for a reply; she has to be polite, of course.

Her father answers her with a shout. "Shut up, I'm working!" Failing to avoid his fury, Scootaloo gets hit in the leg by a flying plate. Better than some days, at least…

"Sorry," she whispers. Limping, she heads up to her room. With a sigh, she shuts the door and sets her pack down. She picks up her water bottle, and takes a long drink. Damn, I need to fill this soon. Groaning, the filly pulls out her homework folder, packed to the brim with paper. Deciding to start on math, she takes out the proper paper for today's lesson.

Now, let's see… 2 x 3! That makes a funny shape! Answering the question by drawing the two where the bottom leads into the three, Scootaloo adds another mark and sighs contently. I'm so awesome! With a giggle, she continues with her work. 6 - 7…

In thirty minutes, she had a shape for each of the twenty four questions. "There!" Her whisper is quiet, but full of energy. She pulls out her Ponish work, ready to write about some person named 'Shakesapple'. Shakesapple is a happy little colt who loves to si-

A knock sounds at the door downstairs. Excited, Scootaloo limps to the top of the stairs. Usually knocks mean pizza! Mm, pizza sounds great! She looks down, hungrily awaiting the pizza stallion's treasures.

Her father answers the door. However, there are two angry normal stallions and no pizza stallion. Aren't those the ones that Dash likes?

"So… what the bloody hell happened here?" Tommy lays his eyes on what remains of the plate, or just glass shards. Bloody hazard, innit!

"What do you mean?" Strob was a tough father, but he was meaner to other ponies. He snarls, eyes full of anger. "Who the hell are you?"

Hans nods to his chest, showing the Equestrian royalty symbol. "We are here on orders from Princess… the purple one," He shoves his way inside. "We are here to search your property on charges o-"

"Well, royalty have no damn effect in my house!" Strob pulls a hoof back, ready to punch, but finds himself pinned on the ground. Struggling, he moves his legs around, only to find them stuck in place. "Hey, what the-"

"Got the bugger!" Tommy pulls out two pairs of hoofcuffs and a gag, quickly applying them to the knocked down stallion. "There, that'll do! Imma check, this floor, ey?" Tommy moves into Strob's workplace, shuffling papers about.

"Copy. I'll take upstairs," Hans moves to head up the stairs, but pauses when he sees Scootaloo standing at the top. "Why, hello, little one,"

Scootaloo bounces down a step, then winces. My leg! "Hey, you're friends with Dash, right?"

"The rainbow one? Yes," Hans quickly approaches the filly and guides her down. "We have some questions for you, miss…?"

"Scootaloo!"

"Ok. First off, where is your mom?" Hans starts to write things in his mental notebook.

"At work!"

"Where does she work?"

"Something called a… whorsehouse, I think!" Although Hans does not know exactly what that is, he can guess.

Frowning, Hans continues the interview. "I see. Is this," He indicates to Strob. "Your dad?"

"Yeah! He does some writing stuff!"

"Interesting. Now, why are you limping?"

Scootaloo freezes. "Daddy said I shouldn't talk about that…"

"Scootaloo, you have to answer truthfully!"

"Ok…" Scootallo, hangs her head, uncomfortable. "Daddy threw a plate at me,"

"Well… that explains the glass,"

Tommy walks in, stuffing paperwork in his bag. "Fucker must run a mafia. Oh, hey kid,"

"Who're you?" Scootaloo's eyes fill with suspicion.

"I'm here to help,"

Scootaloo's eyes narrow down to slits. "Help like Daddy's friends?"

"Help like this fine stallion," Tommy points a hoof at Hans, who leaves to clear the upstairs of any evidence. Drawing closer, Tommy asks "So, how did his friends help you?"

"They… didn't help, not really," Scootaloo remembers the many long and painful nights she had with them.

"Well, what'd they do?" Tommy starts to feel pissed at the stallion on the floor. Almost worse than back home!

"I… don't wanna talk about it…"

"Hey, don't be scared, I'm here to help," Tommy illustrates the point by hugging the filly. "Now, what did they do?"

"They… touched me where it felt uncomfortable," Scootaloo shifts her stance. "It hurt a lot…"

"Do you mind showing me where?" As Tommy fears, Scootaloo indicates to her private parts. With a shout of fury, Tommy releases the hug and kicks Strob, getting a grunt of pain in response.

"Hey, don't kick Daddy!" Scootaloo runs at Tommy and holds onto his rear left leg. "I won't let you!"

"Scootaloo…" Tommy looks up as Hans comes down the stairs. Holding up her homework, he asks "What's this?"

"My homework! I can do it by myself!" Scootaloo forgets about her father for the moment and walks over to Hans. "See? This is the two, the x, and the three! This one's the-"

"Hans…" Hans and Tommy share a glance. Seeing Tommy poke the stallion's pride is all Hans needed to know to understand what was happening.

"Well Scootaloo, we'll…" Hans considers his options. "We'll take you to the library, ok?" Seems like the best deal.

"But I wanna-"

"Scootaloo, I will drag you kicking and screaming if need be. It is not safe here," Hans puts in the filly's pack and guides her out of the house.

"But Daddy-"

"Won't hurt you again," Tommy sneers, picking up the gagged stallion with a grunt. "I'll make bloody sure of that,"

With a slam of the door, the trio leave the house, heavy hearted and bearing bad news.

Author's Note

Yo les go.

Only one more very controversial chapter, and then I put an interlude and do some re-writing.