The path from Ponyville to the Red Cliffs was a long one. Plenty of time to reflect on the day's events. How could her so called 'friends' do this to her? First, Apple Bloom rejected Scootaloo like last week's apple, and then Sweetie, paying no mind to her friend, decides to up and get a Cute Mark! She knew it wasn't her fault, but it still was a rude way to break the news.
And Scootaloo was also mostly to blame. It wasn't right to just walk out, but she had had a pretty bad day. It all started with that talk with Applejack.
That was why her wings were bruised.
It all started when Scootaloo left the Ponyville Industrial Factory after turning in her latest blueprints (written on real bluprint paper this time!). She passed through the trees over to Sweet Apple Acres. It was a routine route to the clubhouse, but still one she hadn't made since the Apple Bloom incident. She passed the orchard and barn without problem, but when she got to the farmhouse, that's where the trouble started.
Applejack was bucking a tree-rather angrily-when Scootaloo passed. When AJ caught sight of the filly, she stopped what she was doing, grabbed the smaller one aorund the neck, and dragged her over to the house. She threw her against the wall, picked her up again, and pinned her to the wood by the shrimpy wing. She was pressing hard.
Scootaloo winced and rubbed her wing at the thought.
The Applejack leaned in close, with rage in her eyes, and said directly into Scootaloo's face: "How dare you!" She increased her grip, squeezing the tiny limb against the wall. Scootaloo could almost feel the bones aching. Applejack continued, "Why would ya do that to my Apple Bloom? Huh?" Scootaloo didn't think it was possible, but AJ pressed against her wing even harder.
"W-what?" Scootaloo managed to wheeze out through the pain, "W-what did I-i d-do?"
"What did you do? What did you DO?" She punched the wall with her free hoof, only inces away from Scootaloo's (so far) unharmed wing. "You embarresed my little sister, you sent her home in tears, and you made Zecora distraught. What else was there? Oh, yeah, you kept Apple Bloom out of school for days, you made her sad as ever, and you made family productivity fall 80%!"
"W-why are y-you d-doing this?" She again narrowly managed to say. She saw Applejack's eyes glance at her other wing once or twice, and she didn't like that idea.
"Why? Why?"
Scootaloo regreted asking
"I'm doing this because you, you little devil, need to be taught a lesson in friendship. Now, usually, Twilight would be doin' this, but I don't care much for her roundabout way of solving things. I like my way: the painful way. Now, you need to learn that just because somepony else is better than you, that's no reason to be jealous." She sounded a little kinder, but Scootaloo could tell she wasn't out of the woods yet.
"J-jealous?" Scootaloo said, "I w-wasn't j-jealous."
Applejack sighed, and lessened her grip. It was still unbearably painful, but it wasn't as worse as before. "All I'm sayin' is..." She continued, all malice removed from her voice, "Ya shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. So what if she has a Cutie Mark and you don't? What's the difference?"
Scootaloo didn't want to remember what happened next. But her mind forced the memories back.
She was an idiot. She was stubborn. She was too thick-headed to accept that Applejack was right and she was wrong. There was no excuse for what happened next.
AJ let go, dropping Scootaloo to the ground. She was the same old pony again. She turned around and went back to work. That is, until Scootaloo opened her big mouth again. "What's the difference?" She said, with an offended tone in her voice.
Applejack turned around. "Now, Scootaloo, I thought we were done with thi-"
"What's the difference?" Scootaloo was walking towards Applejack now, "The difference is that Apple Bloom is a lying..."
"Now, Scootaloo," Applejack tried to calm her down.
"...Good for nothing..."
"Scootaloo!" She said again, raising the authority levels of her voice.
"...Piece of-"
Applejack turned around and bucked. She threw Scootaloo against the wall. The filly got up again and went dashing for the treeline. She was crying. AJ came up behind her and pushed her into the ground, and put her into a headlock. "You take that back!" she shouted.
She didn't know why she did, but the next thing Scootaloo said was: "Never!"
Applejack repositioned herself so that her elbow rested on Scootaloo's wing. She pushed it into the ground. Scootaloo felt like the bones were ready to snap, but before they could, Big Macintosh saved the day.
"AJ!" he shouted from a few hundred meters away. Applejack turned her head, to see Big Macintosh motioning a hoof towards his direction.
"You're lucky." She said as she got off Scootaloo. She spat on the ground next to her as she walked off. Scootaloo got up and ran.
She still wasn't to the cliffs yet. She had to go up the path still. After that confrontation, Scootaloo was left with two bruised, almost broken, wings. She stepped over a root as she began her ascension using a worn path up the bluff.
She looked to the skies, hoping to see something. She did. There were about five Pegasi flying in circles over Whitetail Woods. Oh, how she wished she could join them.
*****
There she was, sitting on the top of the Red Cliffs Bluff, watching the Pegasi (Cover image). Tears began to trickle down her cheecks as she began to think. What has her life become? One week, the had two friends goofing off trying to find Cutie Marks, the next she was all alone. She didn't even have Rainbow Dash anymore. She overheard the Pegasus chatting with some friends about how annoying Scootaloo was.
Now she was friendless, left alone to look into the skies, hoping to see some sort of hope. But there was nothing. Nothing at all. For hours. But then, Scootaloo looked to the ground, more tears falling from her face. She looked up to see the Pegasi again, still swirling around the air. She admitted it, then and forever: "I have no friends." She said. "Why do you do this to me?" She shouted, looking to the skies, "Why do you curse me as you do?" She was sobbing and crying now. "Why?" she said one last time before giving up. She lay down on the red rocks and cryed silently.
Whoosh!
Scootaloo was curious. She looked behind her, hoping to find the noise. What she did find were two huge white tendrils coming off of her back! They crackled and sizzled and banged and whooped and whized and whooshed, and almost every noise you could think off. Scootaloo was afraid now.
After a few minutes of sizzling and popping, the white began to fade. Scootaloo was amazed! There, on her back, lay two huge wings!
She got up, stretched them, and thought: There's only one way to find out if these are real. She took in a deep breath. What do I have to lose, anyway?
And with that, Scootaloo charged, and vaulted over the edge of the Red Cliffs Bluff.