Day 4:
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom followed me home today. That wasn't such a good idea.
I don't feel like writing a bunch of sappy stuff, so I'll just leave it here for now.
"Just one day left of detention!" Scootaloo cheered as school was out for yet another day. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom smiled just as wide as the pegasus as they followed closely behind her. No matter how annoyed Scootaloo could be about her punishment, it seemed that everything was just better with her two best friends. The sun was shining, birds were chirping and the soft smell of flowers in bloom filled all the fillies with joy.
"Yeh'! I tell ya' Scoots, crusadin' sure ain't the same without ya'," Applebloom said, and gave a glance to Sweetie Belle, "not that ye' ain't good enough or somethin' of the like Sweetie.".
The unicorn merely shook her head.
"Not a problem Applebloom. You're absolutely right. It's not quite the same without our daredevil!"
Scootaloo smiled cheesily at the praise she so lovingly received.
"Do you want us to follow you home?"
The question made Scootaloo stop dead in her tracks, and as a result, both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom crashed into the filly in front of them. They all ended laying belly up on the soft path, before bursting into laughter. Scootaloo's laughter concealed her unease about the question that Sweetie Belle so innocently asked, and stiffened when she repeated it.
"Scoots, don't you want us to follow you home?"
"Um, err, sure, but, you see, hmm, I can't bring anypony home because of my detention." she quickly lied, her unease obvious to the two fillies. The unicorn and earth pony remained silent, and inside her quiet mind, Scootaloo let out a sigh. She almost thought of it too easy, and she realized it was.
"Sure ye still got detention, but why can't we follow ye' to ye' home anyway? I'm sure the headmistress won't mind!" Applebloom said, and gave Scootaloo a curious glance.
Oh buck, Scootaloo thought, and let out an awkward smile.
"Ah, sure, why not then. C'mon girls!" she replied, and tried to muster her previous attitude of cheerfullness. The two other fillies were suddenly full of the cheer that Scootaloo had lost, and skipped happily through the streets of Ponyville. No matter how much Scootaloo wanted to delay their arrival at the orphanage, by walking slower than Granny Smith herself, the two crusaders kept cheering her on, as if it was a marathon they were doing. It didn't take them long before they stood before the orphanage.
Scootaloo let out a weak smile, and turned around to face Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.
"Alright girls, thanks for walking me home. I'll see you after the field trip tomorrow, I hope."
Without further goodbyes, Scootaloo turned and with heavy steps, walked into the orphanage.
"Scootaloo, can we come inside?"
Scootaloo froze, and slowly turned her head again. As if time stood still, she saw the faces of some of the ponies who mattered the most to her. Deep down, she wanted to let them in. She wanted to let them know how she felt. How she felt useless, abandoned and alone, but she couldn't. Letting them into the orphanage meant to let them see everything that Scootaloo hadn't, but longed for more than the ability to fly. Scootaloo knew she'd learn to fly eventually, but there was no chance of her ever getting the family that she once belonged to. The pegasus put her hoof down.
"No! I won't let you in! I can't let you in, it's too personal! I don't want you to know what it's like to be me!" Scootaloo shouted, her cries causing Sweetie Belle and Applebloom to take a few steps back. The pegasus' chest rose and fell rapidly, alongside the tears on her face, as Applebloom took a step forward towards the filly.
"Scoots, we just want to come inside. We want t' help ya." she said, and began to walk closer to Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle nodded and followed shortly after.
"Yeah. It must be horrible, to not have a family, and we wi-"
"You don't know anything! Nothing at all!" Scootaloo retorted, and with a weak whimper of defeat, she stormed inside the orphanage.
"Scootaloo!" Applebloom cried, and went forward to catch up with her friend. A tiny white foreleg blocked her, and she gave Sweetie Belle a glare that could kill.
"Applebloom, we can't do anything until she comes to us. You have to be patient." the unicorn quietly said, knowing that her friend would stay behind, but kept her frontleg up nonetheless. It wasn't until Applebloom stomped with her hoof and turned around with a huff.
"I HATE being patient." she grumbled.
Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement.
"Me too. But Scootaloo won't accept her help, you know how she is. Maybe we should tell Rainbow Dash? She could cheer her up!"
Applebloom shook her head.
"I don't think so, Sweetie. I bet'cha Scootaloo would be mighty upset if we tol' Rainbow 'bout her troubles."
"But Applebloom, we can't just do nothing! If we don't do anything about this, Scootaloo will be down in the dumps forever!"
The realisation of such a thing caused both of the filly's to gasp loudly as they walked through the streets of Ponyville. They couldn't let it happen, but what would they do to prevent it?
Both of the fillies pondered about the situation until they made it to the Carousel Boutique and Sweetie Belle left Applebloom to think about it on her own, as she made her way home to Sweet Apple Acres.
The tears in Scootaloo's eyes made it difficult for her to see as she galloped into the orphanage. She knew the headmistress forbid running in the halls, but she didn't care. The second she entered the common room, she wiped away the tears in a frenzy, before making her way to the gymnasium.
Furious with herself, Scootaloo took all of the feelings within her, rage, sadness and more, and used them to focus on her wing-training. As if in a blind rage, Scootaloo continously changed between muscle training of her wings, to endurance training of her legs. She sprinted around the gymnasium, barely taking notice of the other orphans who watched her in awe.
Scootaloo were so full of emotions that she didn't even care about her audience when she noticed them, and instead continued to train. The orphans gathered amongst themselves and began to whisper, whispering about me, Scootaloo instantly thought. It seemed the everything around the filly fueled the hurricane of feelings within her, and she found it impossible to stop training.
She couldn't stop. It was her only way of getting rid of the feelings that haunted her so, and thus, Scootaloo continued to sprint around the gymnasium and do various exercised. She hadn't noticed that when her body began to say no, her heart just screamed yes. The filly's body couldn't handle such a long time of exercising, and just when she had begun on her 4th lap around the gymnasium, the world started to fade around her. Scootaloo felt her vision blur, her legs moving out of synch, causing her to trip over her own hooves, and the latest thing she saw, was the headmistress and schoolnurse storming away from the crowd of orphans towards her.
Day 5:
"I'm sorry for scaring you, headmistress. I was just so obsessed about training my wings and my stamina, that I couldn't stop. It's just so important to me."
It's my last day of detention, and I'm bedridden.
Bedridden because the schoolnurse said that after yesterday, my body needs a full day's rest. Rest is for losers, but both the mares are watching me like hawks. I can't even get a single leg out of bed, before some inner alarm sound in their head, and they're right by my bed before I can even go to the bathroom.
"You should be, Scootaloo. You've pushed yourself far beyond the limits of any other filly your age. Now, you stay in bed all day, or you will only receive more detention."
I gulped, and let out a nod. The headmistress gave me a stern look, before she left the common room, and left me to myself. As the massive doors shut, I let out a heavy sigh.
I always have to get myself into trouble, and now, I was stuck in this stupid bed. I grunted loudly, and glanced towards the doors.
No reaction.
I groaned a little louder, and hoped that the sounds would make the headmistress of nurse come running to help me.
No one came. Fine, I'll just lay here instead.
I don't know what went wrong yesterday. It was just like, I had to get all of my feelings out somehow. I can't tell Applebloom or Sweetie Belle, and definitely not any grown-ups, especially not Rainbow Dash. She'd probably think I was a weirdo. No, definitely not telling Rainbow Dash. This'll just be a secret between Teddy and me.
I leaned over to reach Teddy in his usual hiding spot in my bedside table. Not a lot of ponies knows about him, but I don't want them to either. I don't want them to see that Scootaloo, the toughest filly in Ponyville, still sleeps with a stuffed animal. I grabbed Teddy and hugged him tightly.
"What are we gonna do all day, Teddy? We can't leave the bed." I asked out loud, but not before I took an extra glance around the common room, to make sure that nobody heard me. The coast was clear.
I grabbed his two moldy arms, and moved him around as if he was real.
"Gee, I don't know Scootaloo! Maybe we should go out of bed anyway?" he said, my own voice turning darker and more stallion like, to match with Teddy being a colt-bear.
I laughed at his suggestion, waving my hoof in front of him as a dismissal.
"You know we can't do that, Teddy! I don't wanna be in more trouble than I already am," I said, before I gasped loudly and made my eyes go wide, "Teddy! I never thought I'd say such things."
I held my head high, and made me sound like some fancy pony from Canterlot, parodizing myself in front of Teddy.
"I don't wanna be in more trouble than I already am!" I cooed, bursting into laughter, varying between my own, and the darker one of Teddy's.
"Scootaloo, you're so funny!"
I bowed slightly towards the stuffed animal in thanks, before slowly coming to the realisation of how lame this really was. I was sitting here, having a conversation with Teddy, as if he was real.
Letting out a sigh, I laid back on the extra big pillow that the headmistress had given me. That was only because the nurse had said that I needed it for potential back support. I didn't mind the pillow, it was awesome, but c'mon, I was just running around as if I was Rainbow Dash in search for cider. I glanced at Teddy as he sat on my stomach, waiting for some sort of confirmation that he was as alive as I had just thought of him to be, with those dark buttons as eyes. Nothing came, and I knew that it was all an illusion. His voice, his ability to move around, was all because of me.
Am I so stupid that I can't even tell the bucking difference between what's real and what's not? Suddenly angry with myself, I violently threw Teddy back into the bedside table, and turned my back away from him. Since I loved sleep so much, I figured I could catch up on that.
Ofcourse, I couldn't. For some reason, my heart was pounding as if a manticore was right on my tail. I tossed and turned a few times, before letting out a groan. I sat up in bed, and glared evilly towards the bedside table, more exactly on the drawer, and the thing within. Rolling my eyes, I opened the drawer and grabbed Teddy again, before shutting the drawer and getting comfortable in bed.
"Is this what it's gotten to Teddy? I can't even sleep without you now." I mumbled, and even though I knew my hoof was behind his neck, I pretended that he could nod himself. I let out a dim smile, before I realized how exhausted I really was.
All of this training was hard as hay! I wonder how Rainbow Dash can train as much as she can, 'cause I'm sure she does more than me. I closed my eyes, and sighed in content as I knew that many hours of wonderful sleep awaited me.