RATED S FOR SCOOTALOO

Day 6: Wednesday

Ruby Pinch was a happy filly. A simple filly, with simple interests and simple desires. She had a mommy that loved her. She had a fillyfriend that loved her. And a pretty darn awesome one at that, she could say with complete honesty!

Unfortunately, said fillyfriend was ‘incapacimitated’, as her marshmallowy dictionary-like friend had put it, for the next few days due to a severely mutual beatdown with the local trust fund filly, Diamond Tiara.

Not that Ruby had anything against good old Diamond. In fact, they were once lovers! True love had never been so... er, true. Diamond and Ruby, yes, the perfect gems made a perfect match at one point. Even after their surely dramatic and awesome breakup which isn’t important at the moment and both fillies will absolutely destroy anypony who tries to tell the tale, they remained good friends.

The morale of the story is Ruby was ‘clevererer’ than other ponies gave her credit for, and upper-class ponies give really awesome smooches.

But that’s besides the point. Today was another day. An odd day. In the distant future, Ruby would rank this in... her top 50 of most eventful days as a filly. Or... well, it gets an honorable mention.

Ruby Pinch had woken up early, as per usual, to bond with her dear sweet mother, Berry Punch, before school.

“Remember, dear. You gotta practice if you ever want to make a living out of that!” Berry Punch called to her beloved daughter. Ruby nodded, grasping her personalized sword in her mouth, leaping forward and cleanly slicing the empty barrels her mom had set up for her. “Oh goodness, you’re improving so fast!” Ruby could hear her mommy cry out whimsically.

Pinchy giggled and tossed the sword up, catching it in its sheath. She skipped over to her mom and gave her a hug, grabbing her saddlebag and stuffing her sword, along with a boxed lunch (mommy said she made cookies, yay!), into it. Pinchy never questioned why nopony asked her about the sword. Heck, it never even came to mind that maybe a small filly should not be carrying around a very poorly concealed dangerous weapon.

Ponyville was a weird place.

Nevertheless, Pinchy arrived to school. Carrot Top, the current substitute teacher due to unforeseen circumstances and Cheerilee totally not being in therapy, welcomed her in. She waved to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, the latter currently sitting next to Silver Spoon and the former awkwardly sitting a few spaces away. Pinchy glanced around and confirmed that, indeed, neither Diamond Tiara nor Scootaloo were there today.

“Okay class, I have good news! It looks like Cheerilee has recovered from her sudden illness!” Carrot noticed that half the class rolled their eyes in response to her lie, “...a-and will return to teaching you all tomorrow... so... um...” She glanced nervously at the clock. Yep. Still 2 minutes into class. Just have the whole day to go...

“J-just make some cards for your teacher today! You know where the arts and crafts supplies are!” the fillies and colts cheered, hopping out of their seats and getting to work.

___________<3_________<3______________________

“Ah put glitter an’ a heart with flowers on mine. Think Miss Cheerilee’ll like it?” Applebloom asked awkwardly to her make shift ‘group’. She looked at the fillies she had sat with. Ruby and Silver stood out, and Sweetie didn’t make it any easier by consistently gaga-ing over the latter.

Scootaloo had better come back soon. Thankfully she was an insanely quick healer. Honestly, Applebloom is firmly in the belief that Scootaloo had pretty much built up an immunity to physical trauma with how much she’s been in intensive care.

“Mm, definitely.” Silver Spoon commented. Clearly she was far more comfortable with this ‘casual conversation with your once bitter enemy’ thing than Applebloom was. A fact that only helped said bowed-filly even more uncomfortable. “Sweetie and I worked together to make a pop-up card.”

“What? Ya shared cards an’ didn’t even invite us? We’re supposed ta be a group!” Applebloom pouted.

“You can sign your name on ours if you want, Applebloom!” Sweetie blushed, trying to cool down her friend.

The rest of the conversation kinda faded out as Ruby stepped away. School had ended and she had sat with the other fillies outside to share their desky adventures, but other than that, it was sort of boring.

Ruby yawned and looked into the sky. Amongst the growing amount of clouds, a rainbow trail belonging to a certain pegasus zipped across for all of a second, and she was reminded of Scootaloo.

Her Scootaloo.

Not here.

Alone.

She huffed and began trotting, leaving her friends behind.
__________<3_________<3___________________

Ponyville Hospital was a generally nice place. It also doubled as an asylum. Arguably not the best design choice in the town, both for practicality and morale. However, that had nothing to do with what was going on there.

Speaking of which, what was going on there?

Ruby stepped forward, eyes wide in shock. She highly doubted the hospital decided to redecorate overnight. Let alone with sickly green goo. She grimaced at the thought. Changelings have invaded! Again! And Scootaloo is in there! She charged! I’m coming, Scooty!

...

Drone # 23-42-B (or as his friends liked to call him, Steve), was having the time of his life. He loved invasions! And he loved Ponyville, everypony there was so loving and polite! Well, when he wasn’t attacking them, wrapping them in goop, and holding them hostage, anyway. He adjusted the uniform of his disguise, keeping an eye on the door to ward off ‘visitors’.

Steve hummed. He couldn’t get this tune out of his head, but other than that, his day was actually going quite swell.

At least until the hospital door flew out of its hinges. Steve stood up in shock. He watched as the small filly stormed in, a sword twice her length in her maw. “H-heyo...?”

The filly turned. “Oh! Hi Doc! I’m just here to see Scootaloo. You don’t mind, right?” Ruby grinned widely, blade shining underneath the hospital lights.

Steve ducked under the counter, pointing down a hall. “Heyooo...!” at that, Ruby nodded and skipped down the hallway. Steve let out a breath he was holding... and promptly fainted.

...

Ruby snuck along the green-coated hallways of Ponyville hospital, trying to remember which room was Scootaloo’s. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember. She shrugged and opened the closest door. Empty. She moved on to the next door. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty. Ruby spit out her sword and sighed wearily, stretching her legs and picking her weapon back up, moving on.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. A bandage-wrapped pony, who glanced over at Ruby and began speaking incoherently in a panic under his wraps. Ruby smiled and went over, pushing the snack cart closer to the patient. The pony gave a muffled thanks before Ruby continued on her way, feeling all sorts of better about herself.

Moving on...

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Emp-

...

“Got any fives?”

“For the last time, 23-10-A! We’re playing Oneigha!” The frazzled changeling guard exclaimed. The other changelings around the table had mixed reactions. Next to a rather confused looking scout, one changeling couldn’t help but giggle at the first two, while the fourth seemed to be dozing off on top of his chips.

“Oh, well... um... all-in then?”

The distraught guard proceeded to slam his head into the table. Ruby shut the door. Just in time to block out the obscenities and an exclamation of “ROYAL FLUSH? I’LL FLUSH YOU YOU-”

And the next door. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And the next. Empty.

And... well, you get it. Ruby’s legs were starting to get tired. And let’s face it, the same patterned walls with green-tinted ambient lighting gets pretty boring after a while. Sure it was creepy and unsettling at first but there’s a point where experiencing the same thing over and over again in dead silence crosses anticipation

So here’s a dramatization.

___________________________________x____________________________________

The love-samurai ran down the hall, skidding to a halt at the sight of the bug-ninja forces that would dare to obscure her path. She unsheathed her blade and prepared herself. “Who’s first?” She asked the crowd.

A swarm came at her with all sorts of weapons that could tear apart a lesser filly.

But she wasn’t just a filly.

She swung her blade, parrying the first drone, and with his cry of ‘Heyo!!’ she thrust her sword into him, causing him to explode in a shower of fluffy pink hearts and bunnies. She then ran into the thick of the attackers, slicing and dicing these bugs with the cleanest, most expertly aimed cuts. She felt a sting on her cheek, and she knew that one of these pests had gotten a hit on her.

They wouldn’t be so lucky again.

She tossed her sword into the air and grabbed the nearest bug, tossing it into another one just before it could take a swing at the filly. They and a few changelings behind them fell into a pile, just before the samurai’s sword landed, blade down, piercing them all in an impressive shower of muffins and kittens.

She grinned and jumped, landing on another changeling and using them as a stepping stone to hop back to her blade, grabbing it and tugging it out of its indent in the ground. She took a deep breath and looked around. It looked as if the crowd got BIGGER, if anything. She took a step forward, and suddenly found at least two and a half dozens of sharp objects pointed her way.

She smirked. It was going to be a long day.
_______________________________________________________

And it was. The only real injury sustained by the filly was her attention span and interest. Ruby sighed for what felt like the tenth time as she opened yet another door. Emp-

Oh, wait, there’s Scootaloo! Gasp! And she’s in a cocoon! Double gasp! And what looks like the commander of this operation is standing guard! Triple gasp!

...

Oh, hey, Diamond’s there too! Still kind of weird they were put in the same room considering they injured each other...

Oh well.

Ruby stomped into the room, sheathing her sword. “So you’re behind all this!”

Captain Image blinked and looked over to the intrusion. “Oh for the love of the queen, another filly?” She grimaced. “Look kid, it’s been a long day. I’m just here to retrieve the filly that apparently put Piece, the idiot, out of commission.” The threatening, armored changeling swooned. “Oh what I wouldn’t give to go back to that little smoothie place by the corner and just enjoy myself. But nooo.” she frowned. “I’m stuck here leading an impromptu assault over some petty revenge or whatever!”

Ruby rubbed the back of her head. “Um... I don’t think you should be telling me all this.”

Image shrugged, eating some jello from the snack cart. “Eh. Nothing you can do anyway. So how about you just go home or whatever?”

The filly stomped her hoof. “No! I’m here for my Scooty!” She glared as menacingly as she could.

Image blinked her glowing blue eyes, looking at Ruby and then at Scootaloo and then back to Ruby. “...Huh. I know about schoolyard crushes but this is pretty intense.”

Ruby smirked proudly. “Yeah, we ARE kind of, like, a perfect match and stuff. At least, I think so!”

The armored changeling shook her head, “Cute.” she added, reaching behind her and unsheathing a darkened blade. “In any case, I can’t let you take this filly.”

Ruby picked up her blade and grinned. “That’s my line!” she dramatically taunted before charging into her opponent.

The changeling and the filly collided in a clang of metal, bouncing back in a perfect mirror as they charged once again. Ruby narrowly avoided a slap with a hoof, stumbling back.

Changelings play dirty...! Keep calm Ruby... She chided to herself, gripping her sword and swinging her head in a wide angle towards her opponent. Image rolled out of the way in the nick of time, grimacing at how difficult this encounter may actually be. The changeling straightened, taking a deep breath and cracking her neck, before tossing her sword at Ruby.

Ruby gasped and ducked. She could feel the hairs on her cute little head being split as the sword whizzed over her. The filly tried her best to regain her composure, running towards the now unarmed changeling.

Luckily for Ruby, she realized the changeling’s horn was glowing an eerie green just in time to jump out of the way as the now glowing blade tried to slice her in two from behind. Ruby felt a sting on her side and knew that a light grazing wasn’t the worst that could have happened.

The changeling smirked, “Not bad.” she commented, before wrapping her maw around the sword once more. She tapped her hoof against the ground in anticipation, waiting for Ruby to make the first move.

And so Ruby did. She hopped into the air and sliced at the changeling, but was knocked away nearly effortlessly by her parry. Ruby tumbled across the hospital floor, sword sliding out of her grip. She shook her head out of her daze in time to hear the changeling trot over.

She looked up to see Image sheath her blade and smirk down at her. “Too bad, so sad, filly. You were far too confident in your abilities, it seems. Perhaps you should have trained a little more?” Image had a menacing sneer on her muzzle, teasingly ruffling the filly’s mane. “Trust me when I say I wish it didn’t have to come to this. I’ll let you and that other filly live, but orders are orders, no matter how disgustingly petty they are.” And with that, Image zapped Ruby straight between the eyes, harmlessly lulling her into a deep slumber.

...

Image loomed over the unconscious, cocooned form of Scootaloo, giving a melancholy sigh as she prepared her teleportation spell, wrapping Scootaloo in her magic and-

“I AM THE NIIIIGHT!” was the last thing Image heard before the window shattered and The Mysterious Mare-do-Well suddenly kicked her head in with her hoof.

“Nnh... smoothies...” the changeling uttered as Mare-Do-Well surveyed the room. The masked hero looked down at the unconscious villain, before uttering an uncharacteristic squee in delight.

She removed her hat and masked and smiled. “Scootaloo was correct. Hobbies are fun! We are pleased with our work!” Luna cheered, using her magic to tie up the changeling, going over and cutting the cocoons open, releasing Diamond and the orange filly herself. “There... yes, we, The...” She reached into her cape and pulled out the card Rarity had given her “‘Mysterious Mare Do Well’, say this was a triumph!” the night princess celebrated, lifting the unconscious Ruby into Scootaloo’s bed and taking a dramatic perch on the window, starry mane flowing in the night wind. She grinned back at the fillies, “Sleep well, little ponies.” she whispered, slipping her mask and hat back on and taking off into the night.

...

...

End of Day 6?

Author's Note

Next up: THE FINALE

Fun Fact: The first 3/4ths of this chapter were done like 2 months ago and the final portion was made in like the process of an hour. Does it show?