Search for the Truth

A hum, a gurgle, and then the blood began pouring out.

She'd killed him, killed him in cold blood, finished Starlight's job for her.

She was probably gonna kill the others now, too, like the monster she was.

She was welcome to them.

Tears and blood trickled off of her as she ran heedlessly back into the forest, uncaring of direction so long as it was away from the monsters back at camp.

She'd known Diamond Tiara was cruel back in their elementary school days, and cold when she threatened their sisters, but she hadn't known she was as monstrous as the Sirens until she'd been willing to negotiate with Aria over Guilden's corpse.

A hum, a gurgle, and then the blood...

She shook her head; she needed to focus. She'd bandaged the wound the dagger had given her, but she knew she'd still lost blood, and it was still near the end of a long day; as soon as she stopped, the adrenaline would stop, and she wouldn't be able to start again until the next morning. She had to keep going, had to get away from the monsters, had to go... go...

Where could she go?

The home that would only serve as a rest stop before she was dragged off to Griffonstone?

After Starlight to help the monster who'd murdered Guilden?

To Shining Armor, to get the worst of both worlds?

Back to the camp to go monster-hunting?

She looked, mesmerized, at the dagger in her good hand, the other shredded from catching it. A long, bronze blade on black, polished wood, it seemed to whisper to her, begging for more blood to join her's in dripping off its edge.

It would be so easy; find the camp again, make a disturbance to lure someone out of camp, hide, then when they came by jump out and-

A hum, a gurgle, and then the blood began pouring out.

First would probably be Aria, dying like the poor boy she'd murdered. Then Diamond Tiara, her lack of fear of getting her hands dirty staining them with her blood. Then... then...

She tried to strengthen her weakening resolve. Silver was, if not a monster, then at least a willing friend of one, an enabler, almost as bad as a monster. And Zephyr, Zephyr had tried to stop her from standing up to Diamond Tiara, standing up to the monster throwing off her disguise. Neither of them might've been as monstrous as Diamond Tiara and Guilden's murderer, but neither of them had tried to stop them, either, and if you didn't try to stop a monster, then you were as good as one. Resolve returned, she smiled at the dagger-

-and bit back a scream as she saw a leering Siren face sneering back at her. Whipping around, she pointed the dagger threateningly at...

... nothing.

She was still alone.

Confused, she turned back to the dagger, and felt her heart fall into her stomach; it hadn't been a Siren's face that she'd seen in it, it had been her own, twisted into a mask of sneering hatred by the blade.

Her hand fell under its sudden weight. She hated Diamond Tiara for thinking that fighting a monster justified being one, and now here she was preparing to do the same. Could she really win justice for Guilden by sending Silver and Zephyr to join him? Could she really avenge his murder by becoming his murderer? What possessed her to think that?

A hum, a gurgle, then the blood-

Frantically, she tossed the dagger away, clutching the hand it had tried to infect with its evil. She backed away from where it had fallen; however useful it might be to have, it was clearly cursed, infested with the evil of its previous wielder.

Sighing in relief, she winced in pain as her earlier prediction came true; out of adrenaline, the pain in her wounded hand returned with a vengeance, and her exhaustion came back with it. It was all she could do not to fall over at the first rush, and even then she still swayed, ready to collapse at even a breath of wind.

Grumbling, she leaned on a tree, trying to catch her breath. Even if she couldn't hunt the monsters back at camp anymore, at least not without risking the lives of those she was willing to concede weren't monsters, she still needed to put as much distance between those she knew were monsters and her as quickly as she could; just because she wasn't willing to kill Silver and Zephyr didn't mean that Guilden's murderer wouldn't be willing to kill her on sight, or wasn't hunting her in return.

But that still left the question, where could she go? She couldn't go back, going forward would mean abandoning her life in Crystal City, there were no good roads sideways...

Maybe I should just stay here, she snorted, wiping angry tears from her eyes as she did so. The Nocturnes can live out in the forest, so can I. I wouldn't be able to see Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle again, but at least this way it would be on my terms, not those of someone I haven't seen for three-quarters of my life.

But she'd promised her aunts that she wouldn't run away without at least talking to her parents...

She growled in anger as she dragged her hands down her face. "C'mon, Scootaloo," she snarled. "Think. There's gotta be a way out of this, there always is, you just have to find it. Think. What would Rainbow Dash do?"

And then she saw the answer.

She'd been looking at Silver and Zephyr the wrong way; they weren't accomplices to monsters, they were innocents that the monsters had captured, that they were trying to corrupt, like Sun-like Sunset had tried to at the Fall Formal. And what did Rainbow Dash do with innocents who monsters had captured? She rescued them, got them to safety, then-

A hum, a gurgle, then the blood began pouring out.

Putting a finger to her lip, she turned thoughtfully back to where the knife had fallen, where it still lay, glinting in the dirt. She could still hear its bloody whispers in her mind, even from a few good steps away. Those cursed whispers had caused her to view Silver and Zephyr as monsters once already; who was to say they couldn't do so again? Using it, letting it tempt her again, was a huge risk.

"Like Rainbow Dash says," she murmured as she cut another strip of cloth off her jacket, wrapping it around her good hand as a makeshift glove. "no risk, no reward."