From a Painful Past to Solace in Ponyville

After leaving Crimson at his home, Scootaloo gingerly walks down the path to Ponyville. She was lost in her thoughts until a searing pain in her ribs reminded her of the timberwolf attack from earlier. She decides that before she goes to her friends, she is going to go see Nurse Redheart to get her ribs checked out. A few minutes later she arrives at Ponyville General.

Nurse Redheart sees her enter the door and asks, “Hello Scootaloo, its nice to see you. What can I do for you today?”

“I need my ribs checked please.”, she says while lifting her shirt.

“Come to the back sweetie.” Nurse Redheart says while leading to the back. “How did this happen and who dressed the wound? They did a great job making sure it wouldn’t be infected.”

Scootaloo thought for a second on what to say then responded with, “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I ended up accidently walking into everfree and was attacked by a timberwolf.” Nurse Redheart stopped what she was doing for a second wide eyed. “You need to watch where you are going sweetie. You could’ve died you know.”

“Yeah, I know, I will be more careful.” Scoots said while her ears dropped with guilt. “I don’t know who found me and patched but I’m glad they did.”

“Well, I redressed the wounds and as long as you take things easy you won’t reopen them. Please stay away from the forest from now on Scootaloo.” Redheart says with a smile. “Have a nice day sweetie.”

“Thank you, I will be careful Nurse Redheart.” Scoots says and heads off to her friends.

Scootaloo goes to Sugarcube corner so she can have a cupcake to snack on. The moment she enters the bakery she sees Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. “Hey Sweetie! Hey Applebloom!” she yells out getting their attention. “How are you guys doing?”

Applebloom looks up and says, “We are good. We were wondering where you were. You missed class today. Sweetie took notes for you, but Ms. Cherilee wants to see you tomorrow after school.”

“I’m not surprised. I’ve never missed a day of school. Anyways I’m gonna go get a cupcake.”

Before she can get out the booth to get her cupcake of choice. “Heyascootshereisthestrawberrycupcakewithchoocolateicingandrainbowspinklesyouwanteddontworryaboutpayingforititsonthehousetoday!” Pinkie said while handing the cupcake over within one second and disappearing back to the kitchen.

“Uuh thanks Pinkie. So what’s the plan for this afternoon girls.”

Sweetie shook her head after Pinkie’s randomness and states, “I have to go help Rarity with some orders sadly even though I know I will just be in the way of her work, but she insisted.”

Applebloom says, “Granny Smith wants me to help with some chores and making dinner tonight so I can’t play today either. Sorry Scoots.”

“No worries girls I can figure out something to do. I will see you 2 tomorrow at school.” Scootaloo finishes her cupcake and heads out to the park. When she gets to the park, she finds a lone tree to sit under and starts to think about the day before seeing the girls. Before her mind starts to wonder she hears someone call to her.

“Hey squirt! What are you doing all by yourself over here kiddo?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“I’m a lil bit tired and felt like resting up against this tree for a bit. How are you Rainbow?” Scootaloo replies.

“I’m awesome like usual. I’ve been practicing my stunts for the Wonderbolts. I was about to go take a nap on a cloud before I saw you down here.” Rainbow said patting Scootaloo on the head.

“Well, I think I’m going to head home and sleep Rainbow. I will see you tomorrow.” Rainbow Dash flew off to find a cloud and Scootaloo headed back to the bunker to see what Crimson was up to.

When she got back to the bunker, she heard what sounded like a target dummy being hit. Her curiosity got the better of her, so she went downstairs to see what was going on. When she got to the room downstairs, she was very interested in what she saw. Crimson was practicing multipony combat. He had one dummy set in front of him, one behind him, 2 at a distance to his left and 2 to his right. The test dummies in front and behind him were mechanical ones that engaged in hand-to-hand combat with him. While simultaneously blocking and striking at a rapid pace, he threw 2 daggers and fired 2 arrows at the dummies to the left and right of him. Then he suplexed the dummy in front of him, swiftly dodged the attack from behind and put the dummy in a sleeper-like hold and tossed it to the ground.

Once he felt satisfied with his training for the day, Crimson put the mechanical dummies next to a table by the wall so he could tune them up. He removed the daggers and arrows from the other dummies and laid them on a separate smaller table for him to analyze for any unusual striations on his blades and arrow tips. He sensed a presence behind him and knew who it was due to only knowing 1 pony so he didn’t spring into a fighting stance.

“Hey Scoot, how was your day? Did you enjoy watching me train?” Crimson said smiling without turning around.

“I didn’t really do anything today. Talked with my friends, sat under a tree at the park in the middle of town, then came back here to see what you were up to. Where did you learn to fight like that? Where did those arrows and daggers come from? You had nothing on you when you started.” Scootaloo asked.

Crimson knew she was going to ask about the weapons. He knew he was going to have to tell someone his story. He felt like he could trust enough her for him to share what has plagued his mind for the past 10 years. He needed to get this weight off his back. He needed to figure out how to word things for her. He sighed and said, “For me to tell you where I learned to fight and about the weapons, I need to tell you about my past. It’s a sad story that I’ve kept too myself for years, but I’m ready to tell if you want to know.” Scootaloo nodded. “Okay lets go the foyer and sit on the couch. I will make us some tea to drink this is going to take a while for me to explain.”

About 10 minutes later they were in the foyer on the couch with lemon jasmine tea on the homemade coffee table next to them. “I was born in Manehatten. My parents, I don’t remember much about them. One night when I was 2 years old, I was playing with building blocks when I heard my mother screaming. I scurried to where she was to a group of masked men stabbing my father while mother watched screaming and crying for help before they gagged her. I was shocked in place trying to process what I just saw. Before my brain could catch up with the scene in front of me, they turned mother in my direction and slit her throat slowly making me watch. After they threw her body to the side, they all tried to kill me as well. I learned to fight that night to survive. I also learned that I can somehow summon weapons out of thin air as you saw earlier. Not only can I summon weapons, but I also learned I can summon water, fire, lightning and other elements as well. That is unsafe for me to show you, so I won’t do that. It was also that night that I got my cutie marks. During my fight to survive that night, one of the intruders set fire to my home. I was barely able to survive the fire. Once I got out of the house I ran as far as I could from my home. I passed out a few miles away. When I woke up, I was outside of Manehatten and I decided that day I would never go back. No one there knows I’m still alive. In all records I’m presumed dead by being burned alive. With that knowledge, I’ve started a new life for myself. I taught myself how to fly a few days after leaving Manehatten. It took me about a week to find this spot where my bunker is today. When I got here, I was starving to death wearing just the diaper I was in the night before. I found some wild berries for me to eat then I dug a small hole in the ground to protect me while I slept. Since that night I’ve built this bunker, taught myself how to cook and I’ve made all the clothing I own. I also taught myself first aid. I got this scar over my left eye I needed to clean and dress it up so it didn’t get infected. I usually where and eyepatch over that eye when I’m not home.” He cried while he was telling his story. He was grateful for Scootaloo being there for him to tell his life story. While she was listening to everything he said, Scootaloo cried to herself and slowly scooted over to Crimson giving him the biggest hug she could muster up. She couldn’t fathom that someone could go through such tragedy at such a young age.

Scootaloo’s mind was going wild at what she heard. This colt was the strongest willed pony she had ever met. He could’ve easily let himself die after what he went through, but he persevered. He didn’t have to tell her any of this, but he felt he could trust her. Just from what she heard she had now got a lot of respect for what he had been able to build for himself. All this started from a small hole he dug in the ground at the age of 2, and now he has turned into an underground house that a family could live in comfortably. “You’ve done so much for yourself as a young colt and all of it is self-taught. I’m glad you have been able to make a life for yourself. I have a question for you Crimson.”

“Yes?”

“Can I see your cutie marks, please?” Crimson was shocked by the question. No one has ever seen his marks before and he was curious of the reaction to them. “Sure why not.” When Scootaloo saws his marks, she was confused and asked, “Why are your cutie marks different I’ve never seen that before?”

Crimson shrugged and said, “I don’t know it confuses me as well. I’ve always wondered how that happened, but my research into it went nowhere. I gave up on finding out, but I still I want to know.”

Crimson’ stomach growled making him realize he hasn’t been eating most of the day, “Imma make dinner if you’re hungry.”, he says and walks to the kitchen to cook spaghetti and a small salad for both. He set the table and yelled, “Dinner is ready Scoots.” “Coming!” She was excited to see what he made tonight. In the time she has been with him, she has had two of the best meals she’s ever eaten in her life.

Scootaloo looks at Crimson in awe of how content he is with his life despite the turmoil and tragedy he went through. She has never met somepony who could build a life without a good foundation set for them. Crimson has managed to build a quite simple life for himself from one of the worst possible events she could think of. She smiled at the fact that he was willing to have her be a part of his life even though they had just met not too long ago.

“I should be done with your room by the end of the week Scoots. I’ve been working hard on it when I’m not training.” That comment broke Scootaloo out of her thoughts enough for her to process what he said. “Thanks. I’m going to go to bed see you in the morning, good night.” With a gentle smile Crimson responded, “Good night Scoots, sleep well.”

Crimson went to the training room to make sure he was able to fix and correct any problems with his mechanical dummies, worked on some more advanced dummies for challenging training regimen he was planning on doing soon, and finally he worked on a section of the training room that was specifically for his elemental training. He knew Scootaloo would want to watch him do his elemental training at some point, so he was making an area she could safely watch from when the time came for her to spectate.