Ponibooru Salvage in the key of Scootaling · 3:00am Jun 20th, 2012
Tumblr image by Balooga: Here!
Mini story by Spindizzy:
Applejack wiped a bead of sweat from her brow before removing her hat, fanning herself as she gave her work a visual once-over. The fence she'd just finished mending looked... off, somehow. Not that any one post or board was particularly unlevel. The orange mare was hoofdy enough to fix a fence properly, by Celestia! Still...
"Apple Bloom woulda done a better job."
She realized, with an equal mix of sisterly pride and consternation. Heaving a sigh and shrugging her shoulders, AJ bent low and began stowing her tools and the exra nails away in her saddlebags when she heard it, two highpitched, girlish screams and what sounded like cross between a filly's shriek and a buzzsaw carrying over the apple trees. The hammer fell from the earthpony's mouth as she realized the sound had come from the direction of the Crusaders' clubhouse. Bolting off at a full gallop, Applejack wove her way between the trees till she reached the small house in the trees, dozens of fears flashing through her mind, greatest of which were memories of the Changeling invasion, mere weeks ago.
Those changelings had gotten the orange mare's ire up more than any of the others she had faced. They were liars and frauds, every single one of them. Creatures so deceitful, so good at deception that she, Jacqueline Samantha Apple, the Element of Honesty, hadn't been able to tell she was being lied to. Thundering up the ramp and into the clubhouse, AJ's worst fears seemed to be realized: Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood aghast, shaking and with tears streaming down their faces. Head whipping around, the earthpony saw the source of their fear, a Changeling.
It was a small one, that was true, and it's coleration was more of a muddy orange and oily purple than the reflective blues and greens she'd seen in Canterlot, but it was a Changeling. The thing stumbled about on its hooves, falling to the wooden floor as its pained shriek rung in AJ's ears as her own rage flaring up. Rearing up on her hind legs, Applejack gave a shout, meaning to bring her forehooves down on the creature, to end it and save the two fillies, before she felt herself tackled from the side and thrown to the floor, te sound of sobbing overpowering the Changeling's dying shrieks.
Throwing her head around wildly, looking for the source of this new attack, Applejack saw her own little sister has thrown herself over her, tears streaming down her cheeks as Sweetie Belle stood in front of the prone Changeling as if to protect her, sporting huge watery eyes and a very unglamourously drippy nose. Applejack tried to stand, to shout to the two fillies, but her sister ended up speaking first, her voice thick with tears and anguish.
"It's Scootaloo Applejack! It's Scootaloo! Please don't!"
Dammit, don't tell me this is going to be a trend...I should've posted Quorum Sensing up when I had the idea, not when I had the time. Oh well...nice oneshot, but it makes me wonder what Scootaloo is dying of, exactly.
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Really, really late on this comment, but if I had to guess (I am not the author of this thing after all), I would say that she isn't dying. More likely, she is pulling a body horror metamorphosis from Pony to Changeling. Your story's Scootaloo got off easy.
...that, or she was always a Changeling, never realized it, and then her disguise finally slipped, she went mad from the realization. It could go either way, I guess.