//------------------------------//
// 20 - Vengence 
// Story: A Third Chance to Find a Family 
// by kitkataddel 
//------------------------------//

The human behind Anon-a-mous sat at his desk, thinking about what had happened on his way home earlier today. This woman, she didn't know who she was, ran up to her, and, simply put, took a selfie with him. It was strange, but not something to be concerned of. That would be, if he hadn't been checking his latest project at that exact moment. However, there was nothing he could do about it, and he believed that waiting until the storm passed was a fairly good strategy, one that had worked out well so far.

Still, the recent announcement was either really good or really, really bad for him. Regardless of what will heppen, Anon-a-mous was still going to update. He had come so far, he was not going to stop now, or ever. 

He was sitting in relative darkness, only his face illuminated by the computer screen in front of him, proudly displaying the latest post on his new MyStable account. It was also fairly silent in his appartment, so when two quiet thuds sounded, he instantly picked up on it. Sighing, he stood up, striding to his door, and opened it, only to be met with nothing but an empty corridor. Looking around, he found no one there, so he shrugged off the sounds as him imagining things, and went back to his computer. He could hear more footsteps, however, and the moment he was about to stand up again, he paused, feeling a tremendous heat on his back. Turning, the tempreture dropped back to normal levels, causing him to shiver at the difference.

Cautiously, and in a shaky voice, he spoke up. "W-who's there?"

Silence reigned, until he turned back around, and gasped at what found. The email for the account was open, containing a message, telling them who he was, along with some evidence. He moved his mouse to close it, when a eerily familiar voice whispered in his ear.

"You know what to do."

"WAH!"

"No, not scream. You know who I am. I just want this to be over." The heat moved locations, becoming fainter, before appearing on his other side. "Don't you? All this pointless suffering. You're the only one, now. You're trying to slander and slaughter, but it's being drowned in the sea of guilt that's now going on. It's a flood, and you're a tiny, hateful droplet in it all. Frankly, it's rather pathetic."

The voice grew slightly kinder, even a little understanding. "Now. I know this might be a big descision in your mind, the entire world rests on what you do next! Newsflash: it doesn't. Still, I shall show you a little bit of leeway. You have until the end of school the next day to confess. I'll say this now: I won'tbe as merciful as the others. But enough of that!"

They moved away again, always staying out of his line of sight. "I have someone who would like to speak to you. Debatably, they have a far, far, bigger grudge against you than I do."

His wheelless chair rotated on its own, and he came to face the doorway. He glanced at the mirror, hoping to confirm the intruder's identity, but only found his own, frightened, sweaty face. "Any moment now..."

The doorway remained remarkably empty.

"Give me a moment." He felt the burning presence leave, and, taking the initiative he span around, flinging the chair away in the process. He eargerly hit away at his keyboard, deleted all that he could. In fact, he was so determined, he barely looked up from his keyboard. "Ooohhh, what a shame I unplugged the keyboard. Ah well, things happen."

He stared at the screen - it was exactly the same as before. Not even the cursor had moved. He would've growled in frustration, had the intruder not returned. Instead, he felt hands - no, claws, grasped at his sides, rotating him back around. Instead of merely seeing an empty doorway, however, a short girl instead stood there. She had a mop of fuschia hair, and light orange skin, with violet eyes that stared with a maelstrom of emotions. Her right shoulder supported her as she leaned on the door frame, her expression completely neutral.

"You do recognise who this is, right?" He nodded in response the the disembodied voice. "Say her name. Don't just nod because you believe you do."

"Sc- Scoot- Scootaloo."

"Take one of the Scoots off and we're there. Anyway, I'll let her take it from here."

Silence reigned for a good minute. His face never changed from the terror filled expression, while Scootaloo's face went through the sublest of changes, as if it was still deciding how to react. Finally, the girl's face twisted into a sort of disappointed expression.

"I'm going to be honest with you here - I dunno what's meant to come out of this for me. Not my idea in the slightest, as much as I agree with it." She shrugged, a slightly more positive voice momentarily surfacing before being crushed. "I suppose I should ask if you have any idea why I'm here?"

He didn't respond, other than shaking a little more than before, earning a sigh from Scootaloo. "I'm gonna take that as a 'no'. You mighta noticed that I have a limp in my right leg. I got crippled a couple of years back. I say 'crippled', it's really just that I can't run. 's why I go around on my scooter so much. Now, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not sure if you're involved in this, but..."

She trailed off, eyes flicking to look at something behind the boy, before sighing. "Right. Long story short, my leg got run over. Just before that, my and my... friends were talking about some embrassing stuff. Now, that exact same stuff - which we never told anyone else, mind you - has recently appeared on that profile. Now, just after we were talking about that, we heard a loud laugh from one of the nearby bushes. We were gonna go have a look about what it was, when a motorcycle - a moped, now that I think about it -  came from around the bushes. The driver ran me over. Better yet, no one else was around..."

"Do you see where she's going with this?" A shaky, almost unnoticable nod. "Good. Look, we both want some closure, and perhaps some reasoning. But, we'll give you time. I imagine you might want to explain some stuff to some people. Family members, perhaps."

Scootalo started to shuffle out, a sad look adorning her face, and the door closed. He sat there in silence, waiting for the other being to speak, but it was not so. Instead, he sat there, thinking, as a tsunami of emotions rushed in and out of his mind.

More over, he thought of his sister, Fluttershy.





"Well, what do you think?" Sunset asked as they exited the building, her pendant still lightly glowing.

"Still think it was a little much..."

"I want to make sure this is over with already. I've had it up to the friggin' sun with this whole mess. Still not the worst Christmas I've had, however." The older girl shrugged as they made their way down the street, descending into silence, before Scootaloo spoke up again.

"Why do you think he did it?"

"No idea. Fluttershy completely shoved him out of her life before I even came here. The rest of his family, while pitying him, also won't take direct care of him." She put a hand to her chin, as if she was thinking something over. "Did, er, you post anything about it."

"Nothing that's common knowledge. Which is basically him being a complete... yeah. Y'know. Creep."

Sunset nodded in approval at Scootaloo. "Mmm, nice censorship."

"Err, thanks?"

"You're welcome."

Silence reigned once more as they walked, remaining without words until Scootaloo's snow covered house came into view, where the younger girl finally talked once more.

"...D'you think Breeze'll actually do it?"

"Hope so. If not, I'm forcing this upon him. Already got enough evidence to put him behind bars. If he straight up admits it now, he'll get off light. If he doesn't... he'll see why I ruled CHS." Scootaloo only nodded at Sunset's firm statement. They entered the driveway, and the redhead declared, "This is where we part. You have my number, call me if you need anything."

She wandered over to her bike, grabbing the helmet that was resting on it before donning it. She climbed onto the vehicle, looking to Scootaloo, who had already opened her mouth to ask something. "No, you can't have a go on my bike, Scoots. Not until you actually get your mother's permission."

"Aww, man."

With a short chuckle, Sunset flipped her visor down and sped off back home, leaving Scootaloo to enter her house with a relieved sigh.

Meanwhile, in a small flat, its occupant panted uncontrollably, clutching his head until his hands turned red.