The monsters behind us
Chapter 1
“Ok squirt, lets try it again, on 3! Ready?”
Scootaloo adjusted herself in an upright position, and took aim off the ledge. She gathered her thoughts together, pushed away her fears, and prepared for the drop. She stared straight ahead, and focused on the sky in front of her as she stood at the edge of the cliff.
“I’m ready Rainbow dash! waiting on your go!”
Rainbow dash dropped down next to her apprentice with a smile. She liked having scootaloo wait for her, waiting to hear what she said next, to hear more of her ‘awesome wisdom’. Ever since the camping trip, Rainbow Dash kept had promised to take scootaloo under her wing, and to everyone’s surprise, it worked out really well actually. Nobody ever thought rainbow dash could be considered a mentor, so seeing her teach someone something and actually have dedication for it was surprising to everyone.
At the moment, Rainbow Dash is trying to teach Scootaloo how to fly, which so far has proven very difficult. No matter what they said or did, the best she could stay airborne for was only several seconds. She didn't know if she had a problem, if her wings were too weak, if she wasn't trying hard enough, but something was wrong, and rainbow dash knew it.
“Alright, lets do this. 1.....2.....”
Scootaloo took in a deep breath.
Here we go again!
“3!”
Scootaloo jumped off the ledge, and flapped her wings feebly. She flew for only a short period of time, and then started to plummet down to the ground after nearly 5 seconds of airtime.
“RAINBOWDASHHELPMEPLEASEFORTHELOVEOFCELESTIAIMGO-”
Scootaloo stopped screaming when she realized that she had already hit the ground. they were practicing on a ledge 5 feet high from the dirt.
Scootaloo got up from the dirt, and sat down in front of the ledge facing away from Rainbow Dash.
“Ugh... Not again.” Scootaloo said in defeat.
“Well, you got a little farther the last time at least! that's somethi-”
Rainbow dash stopped when she heard Scootaloo sniff a little. She stopped flying and sat down next to scootaloo, to the realizing that her new trainee was in tears.
“What’s wrong squirt? Your improving you know, you got 2 extra seconds this time! that's an improvement in my book! lets-”
“Oh come on Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said, who was now suddenly angry at her mentor. “ We've been at this for 2 months now and i haven’t improved at all! I’m never gonna be able to fly! How will I go on my life as Pegasus who can’t fly! What will I-”
“Hey, Hold on a second squirt!” Rainbow Dash said back at Scootaloo. “Who said it was only gonna take 2 months? I didn't start flying right away either, and look at me now! you can be awesome too one day, just like me! got it?”
Scootaloo wiped the tears away from her eyes and got her up, feeling a lot better after what the older pegasus had said.
“Yeah, got it!” she said with a sniff. “Your right! i CAN be as awesome as you one day! I will! just wait and see, i won’t let you down Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow dash smiled at her students eagerness to learn from her. “Great!” Rainbow dash said with eagerness, “However, i have to say, and no offense when saying this, but it is weird that you can’t fly yet. Your like, what, 10? and you still can’t fly? what gives? is there something wrong with you?”
Scootaloo jumped up when Rainbow dash asked her question; “No! Of course Not! Why would you say that!? I’m completely fine. How about you?” she said in a rather nervous tone.
Rainbow Dash gazed the filly with a confused look. “You okay squirt? You can tell me if somethings wrong you know, thats what big si- i mean, what teachers are for right?”
Rainbow dash didn't want to refer to herself as her sister because she did not want to get too close to the filly. it was nothing personal, it was just the way rainbow Dash was. she was a loner, with the exception being tank, on the grounds that he usually just stayed at her home and flew around with her occasionally. Although she felt very close to scootaloo, she didn’t want to get that close.
In short, She wants to be her friend and teacher. Not her family.
Scootaloo, however, seemed a bit upset when she slipped away from calling herself her big sister. She had always looked up to Rainbow dash, and now even more so. she wanted her to be her big sister. wanted her to be her family. her ONLY family.
Rather her instead of HIM Scootaloo thought with disgust.
“Uh, right. Well i better be getting home now so see ya later Rainbow Dash!”
As Scootaloo was walking away from their flight training, Rainbow Dash stopped her.
“Hang on a second squirt. who says we have to stop now? we’ll just continue at your place, sound go-”
“NO!” Scootaloo yelled back immediately, frightening Rainbow dash. “I Mean, Uh, You can’t! Cause, uh.... I have stuff to do! Yeah that's it, i have to uh... Polish stuff!”
Rainbow Dash, for nearly the third time that day, looked at the filly in confusion. “Is there something wrong at home squirt? like i said, you can tell me anything.”
“No Rainbow dash. absolutely nothing i’m not telling you about.” Scootaloo said, starting to shake from nervousness and worry.
“Are you sure? It’s okay to tell me! Really!”
Despite every morsel of her being telling her to spit out everything at Rainbow Dash. she kept her mouth shut. she didn't ant to drag someone else down with her.
“NOPE. Absolutely nothing. Bye!”
With that, Scootaloo grabbed her scooter, put on her helmet, and raced away at lightning speed.
But she was not alone. behind her up, in the air, her mentor was flying behind her, waiting to see where she was going.
“lets just see what exactly you’re hiding from me...” Rainbow Dash said to herself, following the filly to Celestia-knows-where.
As Rainbow Dash followed Scootaloo to her home, she noticed how far away from town Scootaloo was going.The farther they went out, the more empty the area around them seemed to be. Rainbow Dash wondered why she lived so far away from Ponyville.
"What gives? Scootaloo goes to school in Ponyville, why don't her folks just move closer to town? Somethings up." Rainbow Dash said to herself, keeping an eye on the filly below her. After about several minutes, they had finally reached what Rainbow Dash expected was Scootaloos home. It was a rather small house, with no upstairs, very few windows, and an odd looking hook at the end. It also didn't seem to be in the best condition either. White paint was chipping down the sides, and one of the windows was rather cracked. When Rainbow Dash saw it, she wondered if anyone else even lived there.
Rainbow Dash watched as Scootaloo walked over to the door of the house and ringed the bell. After a few seconds, the door opened. Rainbow Dash couldn't really get a good look at who opened the door, but she did see its shadow on the ground overlooking Scootaloo. it was a rather big figure, probably a colt. She thought she saw a bit of orange on the figure, but it was just a hint of it, and she didn't really have a better look.
When the figure opened the door, Scootaloo started to talk with the mysterious pony. Rainbow Dash could of sworn that the filly was getting angrier as she continued to talkto the bigger pony. After she had exchanged words with the mysterious pony, Scootaloo grabbed her scooter, took off her helmet, and walked into the small building. The door quickly closing behind her.
"Who was that? Her father maybe? it looked like a colt." Rainbow Dash said to herself, Flying slowly down to the house. When she reached the ground, she realized that there was no grass around the house. She also realized that the place had wheels.
Wait a minute... Rainbow Dash thought, realizing what she was looking at.
this isn't a house. It's a trailer!
Rainbow Dash started to inspect the trailer, eyeing the rusty wheels of the mobile home, which looked like they were about to collapse. As she walked around the trailer, the Pegasus stared to wonder the reason behind Scootaloos living arrangements. She suspected that they were probably very poor, and that whoever owned the home on wheels probably didn't have a job. This was odd, because most of the jobs in Ponyville were very easy to get, and usually gave out good pay, so a poor family was very surprising to Rainbow Dash.
At the very corner of the trailer home, Dash found a rather rusty trash can. Although she didn't feel that it was too polite to rummage through other peoples trash, she felt that she had to.
As soon as Rainbow Dash opened the can, she nearly vomited from the smell. when She looked in the garbage, she found a scene of disgust. It was filled with empty glass bottles, cigarette butts, and odd looking food scraps.
One item in the mess of garbage though, was different. it was a piece of paper with some drawing on the front. Rainbow Dash picked it up, and gasped. it was a poster of her, with a few words written at the bottom-
"To my biggest fan, Scootaloo!"
It was the poster she had signed for the filly when they first met.
Rainbow dash dropped the picture, and flew away as fast as she could towards Ponyville. There were two certain fillies she had to talk to about her new apprentices living conditions.
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"Sorry Rainbow Dash, we don't know anything about Scootaloos family." Apple Bloom said to the Pegasus pony. "If we did though, we sue would tell ya, right Sweetie Belle?"
"Yup!" The other cutie mark crusader said to her friend.
"Are you sure?" Rainbow dash asked in a little desperation. "It's important that you tell me anything, so are you sure, you know nothing about her? Her family, her past, anything?"
"Nope! Sorry Dash."
"Well..." Sweetie Belle started to say. "You know, what never mind."
"What is it kid? it's okay to tell me!" Rainbow dash said back at the white filly.
"I DO remember seeing a filly that looked like Scootaloo walk into a department store at the other end of town with a bigger pony a few weeks back. I couldn't really tell if it was Scootaloo though, but she was orange just like her, and she looked pretty depressed when going into the store."
"Really? What did they get while they were there?"
"Nothing really," the filly said back at Rainbow Dash. "I didn't really stay long enough to see. I did, however, them twice after that go to the same store, at the same time!"
Rainbow Dash smiled with satisfaction at the useful information given to her. "Thanks kid! What time do they go there?"
"Hmm.... I think it's every Friday night, at around 8:00."
Rainbow Dash was now even more satisfied, as the day just happened to be Friday, and she didn't have to do anything tonight, so she could be able to scope out the situation. She planned to wait near the shop that night, and when Scootaloo and the other pony arrived, she would spy on what they were doing to see if she could find out anything about the fillies family. Although she didn't like the idea of spying on her new trainee, Rainbow dash felt like she had to after she had just discovered what her apprentice was living with.
No one throws away an awesome picture of me with an autograph on it and gets away with it! she thought, eager to find out what was going on at the trailer home.
"Thanks for the help kids. Got to go, so see ya!"
Within a few seconds of her speaking, Rainbow Dash had flown away from the cutie mark crusaders, and towards her home.
"Hey Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom said to her friend shortly after the Pegasus had left. "Do you think we should of asked why Rainbow Dash wanted to know about Scootaloos family?"
"Nah, it's okay. We can trust Rainbow Dash right?"
"Yeah, your right. We can trust her. I'm sure it'll be alright."
After the short conversation, the two fillies said their goodbyes, then walked away from each other, heading towards each of their older sisters to bring them back home.