//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Scootaloo's Guardian 
// by Dirty Bit 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 3


Waking the Demon


Celestia's sun shined brightly in the sky as it was past noon. Everypony was either busy with their work or enjoying time to themselves on the weekend. At Sweet Apple Acres, Applebloom was helping out her older siblings in harvesting some apples before enjoying a good lunch. The yellow filly bucked her hardest and only succeeded in bringing down one apple, but was happy to know she was getting stronger each day. Soon she would help her older sister buck more apples and keep the family tradition moving.

After she and her older siblings took care of most of the trees, they gathered inside to give themselves some lunch courtesy of Apple Family matron Granny Smith. Almost every dish they had was apple-themed to their liking: Apple pies, apple strudels, apple salad, and even apple sandwiches. It wasn't a problem to them, knowing it was good that they had a piece of their well-harvested livestock to themselves.

Applebloom dug into some of her lunch, and then began thinking about what she and her friends had dug up yesterday. She grinned at the thought and was even happier that she hadn't told her family yet. With what she had found, she wanted it to be a surprise to them and her other friends. The yellow filly quickly finished her meal and gave off a small, but loud burp as she turned to her grandmother with a smile "Granny Smith! Is it okay if Ah wanna go out and play with mah friends today? We're gonna be goin' crusadin' and there's somethin' awesome we wanna show later!"

The decrepid green mare smiled back at her grandchild and patted her head "Aw, of course ya can, young'un! Ya only live once after all, an' Ah don' wancha wastin' yer childhood 'round here too much! Go have fun with yer friends!" Applebloom smiled and hopped from her seat, galloping cheerfully into town in search of her friends.

Meanwhile, at Carousel Boutique, Sweetie Belle was pushed out of the front door by her older sister Rarity, who had a look of irritation on her face. The unicorn filly turned to her sister, looking sad "I said I was sorry, Rarity! I just wanted to try and help you with your dresses for today! Maybe I could try and help you on the dress you'll make for me on Monday!"

Rarity sighed "I told you, Sweetie Belle, I can take care of it just fine! It was a good thing I had stopped you before things got out of hoof. You almost harmed poor Opal!" A low and angry meow could be heard inside as Rarity peered behind her with a wince. Trying not to think of her cat, she looked down at her little sister "The bottom line is, I am going to be very busy today, and it would help me if you took this time to play with your friends! Can you do that for me, please?"

Sweetie Belle pouted a little, but then remembered what she and her friends had done yesterday and broke into a massive grin "Okay! See ya later, sis!" She galloped into town, giggling cheerfully. Rarity, confused at the sudden change of attitude, shook her head at her sister and trotted back into her home, shutting the door.

Applebloom was breezing through town on her hooves, looking around for her friends. She skidded to a halt when Sweetie Belle came into view, and the unicorn filly stopped herself in her tracks as well. The two gave a good hoof bump as they greeted themselves "Hey, Sweetie Belle! How's it goin' with yer sister? Did ya help with her dresses at all?"

Sweetie Belle smiled awkwardly "Well, I TRIED to help, if that's what you're saying. Things really didn't work out so well..." she looked down, but then looked back up with a grin "But, hey! Remember that large thing we dug up outside of Ponyville? We should find Scootaloo and go get it!"

The yellow filly nodded with a grin of her own "Ah know! Ah can't wait t' show it to everypony in town! But we should probably keep it a secret first..." She lowered her voice a little, then a new voice was heard "Like, keep what a secret?" The two fillies turned to where the new voice came from and noticed two other fillies that they did not want to see today.

Staring at them with wicked smiles on their faces were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, two students that constantly pick on Applebloom and her friends in school. It burned her on how they usually get away with it in class, but it did not matter now as the snide pink filly trotted up and repeated herself "Well? Keep what a secret? Is it something involving you blank-flanks causing more damage to town?" she spoke in a antagonizing tone as her grey counterpart giggled at the insulting question.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle glared at Tiara, not wanting to deal with another session of insults from her and her friends and the yellow filly took a step forward, replying to her question "It doesn't involve ya at all, Diamond Tiara. Th' better question is, why do y'all even care since all ya ever do is make fun o' us every day?"

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes with a sigh as she peered back to the two crusaders with another wicked smile "We're not really making fun of you, you know. Think of it as a reminder of where you are in life, and how hard it is for you to achieve your little goals! Now, why don't you be good little fillies and tell us your little secret?"

Sweetie Belle let off a sigh, not wanting to deal with her and her friends' day of fun being robbed by their little enemies, and trotted over to Applebloom's side "C'mon, Applebloom, forget these girls. They're not worth our time and we got things to do. Let's just go find Scootaloo and we'll take care of stuff from there."

Diamond Tiara scoffed "Like, it's not that hard! I'll bet it has something to do with Show and Tell day on Monday! You don't have anything big planned, do you?" She raised an eyebrow, to which Applebloom looked away with a smile that betrayed innocence "Maybe...maybe not. We'd love t' tell ya, but this is a secretive issue that is for crusaders only. Y'all shouldn't concern yerself with what we have in mind. It'll probably bore ya t' death!"

Silver Spoon tilted her head, and then poked her pink friend "Maybe they're right, Tiara. I mean, don't we have better stuff to do today? We got to get our stuff ready for Monday anyways. I'm sure we'll blow the students away with what we have in store for them!" She smiles, to which her superior returns in kind as she turns to the crusaders "You're right, maybe your little secret won't bother us any. Just TRY not to start a fire near town square. Can you do that for us?" She gave a wicked giggle as she and her friend depart from their sight.

Applebloom growls as they left "That there filly is really startin' t' get on mah nerves! It's a good thing mah brother taught us how t' be th' bigger pony in a situation." She turns to her unicorn friend "Well, now that that's over, let's go find Scootaloo an' go pull out our li'l surprise!"

Sweetie Belle smiled, but then frowned at the thought "But wait...do we even know where Scootaloo lives? I mean, we've been friends for a while, but she hasn't really told us much about her life. She didn't even offer for us to visit her place!"

The yellow filly looked down and thought about this "Hey, yeah...There's a thought to be a ponderin'. Why hasn't she told us much about her life OR let us go to her place? Maybe if we find her, we'll get our answers. C'mon, Sweetie Belle!" The two crusaders galloped in pursuit of their friend.

Meanwhile, at the abandoned household, Scootaloo was still asleep through the day because her little episode with the Diamond Dogs tired her out completely. She stirred, and woke from her slumber as she gave a yawn and stretched each of her legs, then looked up at the body laying next to her like a horizontally-placed statue. The orange filly got up on her legs and trotted over to the body, hopped onto its neck and made her way towards its face, smiling at it as she poked its nose. The face looked gruff and slightly threatening, but she found good company in it nonetheless "Morning, sleepyhead~!" She said cheerfully, happy with what she reclaimed the other night. She then took its mouth and flapped its lips up and down as she tried sounding low and masculine "Good morning!" She left the mouth open as she giggled. Though the body was practically lifeless at the moment, Scootaloo couldn't help but feel fond of having someone around her in the broken home she resides in.

She hopped down from the large body and looked down as she then began to think about her home. The orange filly never really shared her personal life with how long she has met her friends, let aloen everypony in Ponyville, and she wonders if it could possibly backfire on her in the near future. While she wanted to think about it more, she focused her attention to the jar of purple water and trotted over to it. The ominous water continued moving around inside of the glass by itself, as if it were constantly being shaken by somepony.

Scootaloo poked at it and watched the water inside move faster with each touch, then picked it up as she trotted over to the large body. Hopping on its chest, she sat down on her haunches and peering into the jar's content once more "This stuff's so wierd...I wonder why it glows so much. Maybe it's full of mushroom spores or something. Does Zecora know about it perhaps?" She continued talking to herself, not even regarding the body she sat on. When she looked deeper, she stared at the water's tantalizing glow and wondered if there was a sort of magic involved in it, then turned over to the body's face "Hey...I wonder if you're somehow connected to this! Maybe if I feed some of this to you, you could possibly come to life!" The orange filly's thought sounded crazy even to her, but what did she have to lose other than her little discovery?

Scootaloo picked up the jar and went to trot over to the body's face so she could pour some of the strange water in its mouth, but then she tripped over the stub of one of the nails inside of his chest, stumbling on her hooves with the jar in her forelegs "Wh-Whoooaaaa!" She fell forward as the jar was lifted into the air, and Scootaloo looked up as it landed on the hammer-like steel on the body's head. The strong metal cracked the jar as the purple water seeped out of it and got all over the body's face and the floor, making the orange filly gasp and panic "Oh no! Nononono!!"

She picked herself up and tried to go gather the water, hoping that there could at lease be a small bit left to take to school. She went for the first puddle and, to her surprise, it started to move on its own and streamed itself inside of the body's open maw, along with every other scattered puddle out of the jar. Every. Last. Drop.

This was wierd, and she wondered if her theory proved true as she hopped onto the body once again and trotted up to its face. She leaned her head more towards its shut eyes, watching in anticipation to see what happens. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of the strange body waking up and scaring her out of her wits, but she would welcome it with open hooves if she were right. After more minutes of waiting, she got bored and looked angry, coming to the conclusion that her theory was an abject failure.

Hopping off of the body, Scootaloo trotted away as she kicked a small pebble that came into view and watched it roll further into the house, sighing at its departure. She leans on the doorframe to her room and pouts "I can't believe I actually thought that the purple stuff could bring that thing back to life! Stupid, Scootaloo! Stupid!" She gently jabbed at her forehead with a hoof, beating herself up over coming up with the crazy thought.

While the orange filly was pouting, there was a faint groan that was heard inside the house, prompting her to look around for a moment. She sighed "Must've been my imagination...There's nothing here but that body over there..." Scootaloo looked at it, then went back to looking down at the floor, inwardly cursing herself as she brooded.

The body laid there, and a few seconds after Scootaloo went back to brooding, its fingers began twitching, along with its arms. It wasn't long until its feet shook and the rest of the body stopped shaking as its eyes shot open and revealed white, pupiless eyes. It gave off another groan as it slowly began to rise, starting with its arms.

Scootaloo continued pouting, unaware of the sounds as she repeated herself "Yep, that's just it...Nothing here but the-" She turned her head towards the body, and her apathetic expression turned into one of shock and awe "...body?" she squeaked her last word as she watched the large body rise and give off a low groan, stretching its arms and giving its neck a few cracks left and right. The orange filly couldn't believe her eyes as she gazed upon the sight in front of her "Oh...Sweet...Celestia..." She quickly galloped over after the body stopped stretching.

The large being gave off a satisfied sigh after gaining its leggings, then looked around at its surroundings. It gave off a low grunt and sneered at the sight, not comprehending the situation in front of him, nor liking it one bit. Before it could check out the window, the being heard a small voice at its feet "Hey! Hey! Down here!" It sounded like a invigorated child, and it caught the being's attention to hear someone's voice after waking up from what seemed to be a long nap.

It looked down to see a small orange pony with wings sporting a wide grin. This made the being wonder why she was so happy. She then began to speak with a tone of joy in her voice "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, it WORKED! I don't believe it! You're actually alive, and I brought you to life! Oh, this is so awesome!" The pony was annoying the being as she spoke, and beared its teeth as it began to glare its soulless eyes down at the pony and growl menacingly.

Scootaloo was lost in her words, and stopped when she heard growling "Huh?" She looked back up at the large being in front of her and noticed he looked like a provoked manticore. The sight made her ears droop a little "Uh...What's wrong?" The being growled, then brought up a foot over the orange filly and roared as he brought it down fast. Scootaloo yelled in fright as she quickly scurried away, the foot making contact with the floor and making a hole in it. She noticed the being's might, and looked back up at it as it turned to the frightened filly and uttered its first words ever since it woke.

"I'll strangle the life out of you!!!"

The being sounded masculine alright, but he didn't sound friendly as he brought his foot out of the hole he made and ran towards Scootaloo with vengeance in his eyes. Scootaloo yelped again and quickly galloped away from the being, avoiding him throwing a massive arm at the doorframe and causing more damage to the old home. While she ran towards the entrance, the murderous being gave chase and leaped over her, landing in front of the entrance with a loud thud and causing poor Scootaloo to skid to a halt and stare up at her attacker with eyes wide as dinner plates "W-W-Wait!!"

He drew another fist and brought it down fast, yet was unsuccessful in smiting the orange filly as she turned around and made her way back further inside the house. He growled in fury and chased down Scootaloo "Stop moving around! It's irritating!!" The large being yelled as he pursued her.

Scootaloo just didn't know what went wrong, and she was more scared than confused while she was running for her life from what she thought was an amazing discovery. Making her way to the kitchen, she looked around at its bleary and torn features and hyperventilated as she searched for a place to hide 'C'mon! C'mon! There HAS to be some place I can avoid that thing! Why is he attacking me? Is he some kind of monster?'

Before she could think of a place to hide, the large monster roared behind her as he ran through the doorframe, his large and muscular build destroying some of the walls around it. Scootaloo saw this and screamed as she began to dodge a series of punches and kicks that the monster was giving without hesitation. She was lucky to be a pegasus with how she could dodge some of the more harsher blows by flapping her wings fast enough, but they began to get tired as she ran away from another punch. Looking back at her attacker, she didn't notice that she bumped into a wall. The orange filly gasped as she realized she was cornered, the large monster growling as it slowly advanced towards her while cracking its knuckles.

The monster picked up the poor filly by her neck and slammed her into a wall, holding her there despite her body being tucked into it and leered his soulless eyes at her "Where am I!?" He commanded in a tone that confirmed that he had a history of taking lives.

Scootaloo coughed a little while she was stuck inside the wall and the monster's grip. This monster was way stronger than the Diamond Dogs with how he held her. Finding her voice in the pain and fear she was facing, she spoke in a feeble and scratchy tone "Y-You're in Equestria! Me and my friends found you underground! I brought you back here and woke you up from your sleep!"

The monster narrowed his eyes to slits upon hearing this "You!? And I suppose you think I should owe you my life for restoring it!? Bah! I don't have time for worms like you! Hell awaits, peon!!" He drew up a fist towards the cowering filly as she cringed, but stopped when he looked down. Scootaloo wonder why exactly he would hesitate from a killing blow, but then knew more pain as she was slammed into the wall once again in his grip "Where is it!?"

The orange filly was teary-eyed with how the monster was handling her "What?" He repeated himself in a low and dangerous tone "Where...is it...?" Scootaloo was confused as she sniffled "Wh-What are you talking about??" He spat out his reply furiously "Kulutues!! My ax! Where is it!?" The monstrous being was losing his patience with each word.

Scootaloo couldn't dry her tears, but at least she could answer her question "We didn't find an ax! We just found you! Wh-Who are you, by the way-" She then choked as the monster tightened his grip and slowly drew his fist to take care of business. The orange filly shut her eyes, thinking that this was the end, until a faint voice passed her's and the monster's ears. "Didya hear that, Sweetie Belle??" The two turned their heads towards the entrance as they heard another sound "Yeah, I think it came from over there..."


End of Chapter 3