[Yomega]
"Okay, this one goes between the big grey book, and the slim yellow one on that shelf." Spike gestured to the appropriate shelf. I carefully carried the book across the room. Spike and I were just finishing up with re-shelving the books Rainbow Dash knocked off the day before. Twilight had already repaired the hole she made. "Alright, those last ones are going on higher shelves. You can go play now."
I left the room. As soon as Spike was out of sight, I let my ears and tail droop. I tried to keep up a chipper facade around the others, but with Twilight in her torture- I mean, laboratory- and the others either moved out or asleep, I could let my inner feelings show. All I've been able to think about these last few days is the part I had played in Villhiem's evolution. I made my way to the main room. What other books does Twilight have that shouldn't get into younger hooves?
"If only you could know."
I snapped my ears up, turning to the basement door. As Twilight exited, I began wagging my tail.
"Sorry, little guy, dinner's not for another hour." She used her magic to scratch behind my ears as she made her way upstairs. As soon as her magic dissipated, I turned and shuffled my way to the nearest shelf.
If only I could read these, I could actually learn about Equestria.
"Yeah, but ya don't even know what kinds of books to start with...."
I would if I could read... But I'd need the right books, but I can't read. I paused. God damn circular logic... I turned away from the shelf I had stopped in front of, bounding over to the stairs Spike was coming down.
As he made his way to the kitchen, I began to hound his heels. "Hey, hey. Calm down. You don't want me to trip over you as I make dinner, do you?" I playfully bumped into him. "Of course you'd want me to drop food. If I didn't know Villhiem, I'd say you were the glutton." He chuckled.
I had taken to following Spike around the library since the others had moved out. I always tried to be there if he ever needed a hand, or paw in my case. This included the kitchen and helping to make dinner. He never really needed a hand, but I did keep him from snacking on his gems instead of actually cooking with them.
"Ya know," he began, tossing a piece of carrot over his shoulder, "I kinda thought you Eevee's would all stay together." He stepped over me as I crunched away on the carrot. "But you guys've scattered around Ponyville. I guess I can't really complain. I mean, with only the two of you here, I don't have to worry about stepping on any of ya." I caught the next carrot piece out of the air. "And I only have to prepare two food bowls, instead of nine." The drake lapsed into silence as he continued to make dinner.
This left me alone with my depressive thoughts. But I kept a cheerful face on. By the time dinner rolled around, I had a plan.
I waited until Spike and Twilight went to bed. I carefully made my way downstairs, struggling to hold onto the candle Spike accidentally had left lit. "So, how are you going to learn to read? How can you even hope to find an Equestrian for Dummies?"
By following my gut. I meandered around the room, before settling down by a shelf with thin books. Pulling one out, I began to try and figure out what the squiggles meant.
The candle I had brought with me was starting to run low. Between its soft glow, my tired eyes, and how focused I was, I missed the soft footfalls coming up behind me.
"Trying to read by pictures, I see."
I jumped, twisting to stare at the cause of my near heart attack. "Abes! Oh, fuck man. You're even uglier in the dark!"
He snorted, rolling his crimson eyes. "Oh, ha ha. It is to laugh. Seriously though, shouldn't you be in bed? What are you doing with a book you can't read?"
I sighed. "This stays between us: I can't stop worrying about what happened with Villhiem." I sat down, and moved my candle around so it was between us. "I mean, yeah, it's great he evolved, but I can't help but wonder what would've happened if he didn't. There could be three fillies and an Eevee being buried over these past few days, and it would've been my fault."
"Hey, man, you couldn't have known what would've happened," he placed a paw on my shoulder, "and let's not forget Leo's part in this. If he didn't cause it to rain, they wouldn't have been as bad a situation."
My shoulders slumped. "That just makes it worse. Leo's Rain Dance wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't given the Crusaders that damned book." I got up and began to pace. "I should've been trying to learn how to read Equish our first night here, but the novelty of walking around in magic pony land hadn't worn off yet! I could've stopped this If I could just read the fucking titles of the books I help put away!"
"Yomega, calm down." Abes barked. "You and Leo couldn't predict what the Crusaders would do."
"BUT I SHOULD HAVE!" I panted, meeting Abes's stare. There was a slight rustling from up stairs as somepony rolled over. "I should have. I've seen the show, I know what mayhem follows those three fillies around. If I knew what kind of book I was giving them, I wouldn't've! And Leo! One brief check over to make sure everyone involved was okay, and off on his marry way he goes! That lack-a-daisy attitude's going to get someone killed!"
"His attitude comes from the knowledge that everyone's okay. You were there, he was devastated when he heard what his rainstorm had caused. Knowing that everything's fine now, and what he could do going forward to prevent this from happening again, he could finally calm down. It doesn't mean that he didn't learn anything from this. Come on, I know yer better then this Yomega."
I let the silence grow between us, mulling over everything my evolved companion had said. I couldn't find any fault to his words. Finally, I lowered my gaze to stare at the candle. "So what would you have me do?" I whispered.
A book slid off a nearby shelf, and landed near me. "Start with that. It's meant for little foals to learn how to read."
I glanced at Abes with an eyebrow raised. "How can you possibly know that?"
He smiled. "Where do you think I started from?"
[Villhiem]
I lay in the sunbeams coming in through the clubhouse windows. Meanwhile, the Crusaders were holding a meeting now that school was out.
"What're yer plans fer the weekend?" Applebloom asked her friends.
"Not much." Scootaloo shrugged. "I'm thinking of using the long weekend to practice my tricks an' show 'em off to Rainbow Dash!"
Applebloom chuckled. "Yeah, ya don' wanna be upstaged by Leo, do ya? What about you, Sweetie?"
"Well, my Mom and Dad are going on their vacation this weekend, so I'm going to be staying with my sister." I could see a sparkle growing in her eyes. "We don't do much together, so I'm going to try and help her around her shop. I even want to surprise her with breakfast!"
Scootaloo winced. "I don't think that'll go over to well. Remember when we tried for our Line Chef Cutiemarks?"
"Well, yeah." Sweetie grinned. "Villhiem still ate it though, so it couldn't be that bad. Besides, I've been learning from my Mom!"
<<I'll have you know, I regret eating that.>> I rubbed my stomach. I still remember that stomach ache I got from that debacle. I hadn't even evolved yet, so the tree sap that got mixed in did a number on my gut.
I wonder what would happen now that I've evolved... No. Don't want to risk it.
"How long until yer folks get back?" Applebloom drawled.
"We~ell," the white filly brought a hoof to her chin, "They said that it was something the doctor said they should do. Something to do with that mismatched monster a few moons back. Soo, a week, maybe?"
Sweetie shrugged. "What are your plans, Appleboom?"
"Not much. Gotta help get th' Social set up. Still got a lot o' farm work ta do too."
<<Which you're shirking from right now.>> I mumbled.
"Speakin' of, I should probably get back to it." the farmfilly smiled. "I guess tha's the end o' the meetin' fer today."
The Crusader's delayed the goodbyes in the way only kids could. Eventually, I had to nudge them towards the door. I hopped into the cart, and rode into town; soon Sweetie's house came up. Normally, I'd get out with the marshmallow filly, but I didn't want to get in the way of any packing she needed to do. So I stayed with the orange filly.
It wasn't long before we came to Scootaloo's favourite stunt spot. It was a clearing filled with homemade ramps and rails. From what I've heard, they were a lot shoddier before she met Applebloom...
Unhitching the cart in an out of the way spot in the sunlight, Scootaloo began to run through her warm-up routine. I stayed in the cart, watching. I have to say, her tricks are impressive. It's obvious she's put the time into them, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was her talent. Every time she fell, she would just get right back up, and try to figure out what went wrong. For the afternoon, I only had to intervene once, and even then it was only because I had over reacted. She had landed badly, tumbled, rolled onto her back, and then didn't move.
When I got over to her, I could see that she was only resting as she figured out her mistake.
Soon, though, the sun began to set. Scootaloo hitched the cart back up to her scooter. "I guess you're staying with me tonight, huh?"
I lay my head on the side of the cart. It wasn't until we were back in Ponyville that I realized that I had no clue as to where she actually lived. I lifted my head, watching the buildings pass. I couldn't help but notice the state many of the houses were in. Some were even boarded up. Her parents must be pretty poor i pondered.
Soon, we came to a small, one room shack at the end of its street. It was obvious that no one had lived in this for a long time.
"Well," Scootaloo sighed as she pushed the scoot/cart/Leafeon combo through the over grown grass, "here we are." I hopped out and helped her get everything inside. The inside was worse of then the outside. "Home sweet home."
My eyes widened as her words sunk in. <<You live here? What happened to your family...?>>
She moved over to a straw mat in the far corner. "I wound't blame you if you wanna take off, if you wanna sleep somewhere better." She saw me looking around the small shack, and with a sigh she rolled over to face away from me.
When I saw her silently crying, I made my decision. Laying down beside her, I lay my tail over her. Both of us missed the small green motes fall from the large leaf. As her tears began to trail off, and her mind began to slip off into Luna's realm, I heard her murmur something.
I didn't fall asleep until the moon had fully risen. <<Sleep well, little one. Know that I will never abandon you. No matter what. Just look over your shoulder, and I'll be there. I promise.>>
Hm, I wonder, how difficult is learning to read when one already speaks the language. Probably depends on the system used. Easier when it's just exchanged symbols and increasingly difficult if you get to syllable symbols and word symbols.
Also that Scoots thing was bound to happen eventually it was just the question what you chose to be in this canon. Still though ouch, in the feels.
Love it, keep it up.
Was that sleep powder?
8183289 Since there are only 4 powder attacks, we can try to figure this out.
I think both Poison Powder and Stun Spore are unlikely.
So it was either Sleep Powder or Spore. Since both can put someone to sleep and Leafeon can't learn neither in the games, both are equally likely. To confirm this, we have to wait and see if it ever fails. (Sleep Powder has accuracy of 75% and Spore has 100%, if it fails we could assume it's the former. In the end the accuracy is "plot dependend" anyways, so take that as you will.)
Personally I think it was Sleep Powder, because that's what most people think of when they think of a powder attack putting someone to sleep.
8183335 Actually I think it was spore because of the green colour, since as far as I remember sleep powder is blueish, but I could be wrong.
And this just entered into scootadopt territory...
Nice chapter, good work.
8183441 I think it was Sleep Power but it might be spore... I sure have to check that.
This chapter was really sweet and having Orphan Scoots was awesome choice!
damn it i was hoping for more thats one thing about binge reading theres never enough chapters to satisfie my mind
8183335
Gotta consider color too. The motes were green.
8183367
I beg to differ. Their personalities always change, even if it's only a small change.
8184077 I briefly considered continuing the discussion but then decided to just wait till either Symphonicdysonince tells us in the comments or Villhiem figures it out in the story.
8184109
:ok_hand:
I wasn't going to say anything, but in previous chapter you asked for reviews, so...
I started reading this today, and I'm already giving up on this fic. I have a feeling that you're not thinking this whole thing through.
If Scootaloo doesn't have family, then why isn't she in a orphanage? Is Celestia too stingy with money to build one? Or was it Scootaloo's secret and LITERALLY no pony noticed anything weird? Wouldn't Cheerilee be interested in meeting her parents sometimes (for example when Scootaloo was enrolled into her class)? And how does she pay for her food without a job (since she have enough free time to play around with her scooter and CMC and go to school)? That doesn't make any sense.
Why didn't main characters realize earlier, that knowing how to read and write would be useful? How could that slip their mind if they were staying in a LIBRARY? If they were so amazed by living in a new world, then why didn't they try to learn more about it?
And why did those eevees care about helping ponies in the first place? Do you think that a normal person likes working for others for free? Besides, they agreed on the beginning (chapter "Sleep and Planing"), that they shouldn't interfere with the storyline. By helping out they're interfering.
Finally, why nobody cares about going back to their home world? Are they a group of orphans without any families or other friends? Are they really completely fine with becoming pets and loosing their dignity, their independence and freedom?
I'm sorry if it sounds like whining - I'm just trying to point out examples of where and why I felt that your story could be improved. Maybe it will help you in the future.
8184499
Just imagine they were Eevees to begin with makes things easier in my mind :/
Reminder to all: I'm compiling info on this fiction at a google document found here.
It contains basic bio information on all the Eevees, their movesets and theories and guesses on future eevolutions.
8183289 8183335 8183441 8183453 8184077 Spore can only be learned by mushroom pokemon (Paris, Shroomish, Foongus, etc.) and though the Eevee have been learning moves they normally are unable to, given the choice between the two it's most likely sleep powder. I'd say the color indicates sleep powder more than spore as well. Over the games the appearances of the moves have changed, but sleep powder has mostly been green while spore changes color during the move itself. You can't even use the anime as a reference for color because each pokemon's spore attack and sleep powder is a different color linked to the pokemon using it.
TL;DR It's probably Sleep Powder
8184499 I'm going to in advance just say that I know you're giving your opinion on this, and you are absolutely entitled to do so. I also know that my response to your concerns isn't canon to the story. I didn't write the characters and I can only give my opinion to their motivations. That said:
There's a lot of Scootorphan fics out there where no one realizes that she's an orphan. For example: Home is for the Weak, Our True Colors, Apple Family Values, A Taste of the Good Life, Adaptation - A Changeling's Story, Small Wings and a Kind Heart, No Longer Lost, and Life in a Slower Lane just to name a few. I have more where she's in a home, has foster parents, etc. but that's not what you're asking. Equestrian Eeveelution is the ninth one I can name just with a casual glance at my have-reads where Scootaloo is homeless and no one knows in the beginning. The fandom has largely made Scootaloo an orphan from the moment we knew who Applebloom and Sweetie Belle's families were, since we have never learned who her family is. The first canon indicator we have that Scootaloo lives somewhere is in Flight to the Finish in season 4. Even then we never see a family/caretakers.
Outside of people who read a lot, i.e. probably majority of FimFiction, people who go to libraries, etc. How many people do you know are dedicated readers? I graduated from high school with people who still had to sound out multi-syllabic words. Most people I know read the paper or a magazine, but don't have the patience to sit down to actually read a book. Of my extended family, only two of us are really readers out of a group of two/three dozen. Now if we assume that most given groups are like that, having only one (Abes) take the time before it was necessary and only one other (Yomega) when it was necessary, it's not that big a stretch to think that the others aren't too worried about learning a new written language when they don't think they need to.
I think Symphonic said that some of them started because they were bored. Even ignoring that, they've been taken in by the ponies they work for, so I suppose they're working for room and board. And how are they interfering by helping out? Considering where they came in (pre Lesson Zero), episodes they have gone through (Lesson Zero and Luna Eclipsed) and what they're coming up to (Sisterhooves Social), what have they done that's interfered with the story, development and outcomes of those episodes? They all hid from Twilight in Lesson Zero, Abes just tagged along with Luna but didn't change the events of the episode (i.e. she still had her lessons from Fluttershy, Twilight and AJ, still cancelled the night and re-instated it), and all Vince and Cy are doing so far is helping set up for the social by learning Dig to help make the mud pit. None of them have tried to change the outcome of the events. Abes didn't try to help Luna other than by being a silent supporter. Villhiem and Lulu (so far) aren't trying to have Sweetie Belle make nice with Rarity beforehand. And even with finding out about Scootaloo Villhiem hasn't done anything to change that she's homeless yet. In fact, since we see that Scootaloo has some sort of home by Flight to the Finish (S4E5) it's arguable that if he helps her find somewhere to leave he won't even be interfering then!
Yea I got nothing but guesses for this. They've been so focused on living their new lives because they just randomly appeared in this world and freaked out about Twilight experimenting on them? They're enjoying themselves without the responsibilities of their old lives? They like being Eevees? They don't know how they got there so how could they get back? They're worried because Twilight went nuts over them being an unknown species to Equestrians, so they don't want to tell her (through Fluttershy) that they're actually from a different dimension? Maybe now that you've raised the issue Symphonic will talk about it in a future chapter. Maybe he meant to all along?
Poor scoots.....
Heh, popcorning.
scoots has no family
Dont you mean her?
Well ... there we go ...
Punctuation error: "If only you could know
Grammar / Punctuation Error: as I make dinner, do you?
How can you
Word Choice Error: its
Punctuation Error: Ellipsis with too many dots
Typo: tears
Very harsh chapter So good so sad... Got to love all the heart strings you can play! Well played
8928169
Yep it seems to be one of this storys...
I think you meant can't instead of can.
This story's so addicting, i can't stop reading it
10055208
Thanks for the catch, and I hope you enjoy the story!
What is to laugh? :P
End of this sentence sounds real weird. Like it needs to be split into two sentences or reworded or something.
10127957
Second's dialogue.
Aww pur Scoots I hope her ant's show up . or mom and dad or something.
Pulling a Meowth, huh? Careful, you might not be able to learn moves after that anymore.