//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - A Shocking Realization // Story: Tale of a Lost Scoots // by RDfan27 //------------------------------// Scootaloo sat alone crying on the outskirts of Ponyville, on the bank of a small stream she had stumbled across years ago in Whitetail Woods. This river was her thinking spot. She came here many times when the weight of everything in her life was too heavy, and she just needed to think, and to sometimes cry. There were never any ponies around her, at least that is, until today. Unbeknownst to the orange filly, she was being watched. Crouched behind a bush a little ways behind the pegasus filly, were two more young fillies. One was a unicorn with a white coat, and the other was an earth pony with a buttermilk yellow coat, not unlike that of Fluttershy. *** 30 minutes earlier "Ugh. I'm bored" Sweetie Belle whined. "When is Scoots going to be here?" The two fillies had been waiting in their clubhouse for their friend and fellow crusader for over an hour. "She was supposed to be her like an hour ago. I'm getting tired of waiting." Applebloom sighed, she knew that at this point, Scoots probably wasn't coming. She had ignored Sweetie's previous complaints because she had faith that Scootaloo would show up eventually. The three had agreed to have a CMC meeting in their clubhouse that day, and they had all agreed on the time. "I hate to admit it Sweetie, but I don't think Scoots is coming. I can understand if she was a little late, but this is just getting excessive. Do you think she ditched us?" "What?!" Sweetie Belle squeaked, "Of Course not! Scootaloo is our friend, she would never ditch us." Sweetie Belle was starting to get worried now. "It's not like Scootaloo to be this late though, she's always on time for our meetings. What if something terrible happened to her!?" Sweetie Belle was practically shouting now. The true fear that something terrible might have happened to their friend was hitting her. "Sweetie calm down!" Apple Bloom said, in a futile event to calm her friend down. "I'm sure she just forgot or something." Apple Bloom couldn't even convince herself of this. She knew that it was not like Scootaloo to be this late and that she wouldn't just forget one of their important CMC meetings. She was starting to worry too. "Hey, I've got an idea! Why don't we head over to her house to figure out what's taking her so long?" "Sure!" Sweetie Belle said, instantly perking up at this idea. Then she lost her smile and she gained more of a confused expression. "Just one question. Do you actually know where she lives?" Sweetie Belle asked, with the same confused expression on her face. "Sure she lives—" she paused, dawning the same confused expression that Sweetie Belle had. "Huh. You know, I could have sworn I knew where she lives. Haven't we ever been to a sleepover at her house or something?" "Nope, not that I can remember anyway." Then an idea hit her. "Hey! I bet you I know who would know where she lives. If anypony would know, it would be Rainbow Dash!" "Of course! How did I not think of that!" It was true, the little pegasus filly and Rainbow Dash were as close as sisters, if not closer. If anypony in Ponyville knows where she lives, it would be Rainbow Dash. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" The two fillies ran out of their clubhouse on their way into town. A little while later they burst through the front doors of Twilight's castle. Rainbow could normally be found here with her other friends when they were not teaching in Twilight's new School of Friendship, and it was way too late in the day for school to be in session. School had let out hours ago. "Hey, Sweetie Belle! Hey Apple Bloom!" Spike called to the two fillies who had just raced through the door. "Where are you two going in such a hurry?" "We need to find Rainbow Dash right away!" Apple Bloom called the sense of urgency in her voice causing a look of worry to spread across Spike's face. "Do you know where she is?" she asked frantically. "Yeah, she's in the throne room with the others," Spike said worriedly. "what do you need—" "Thanks!" They both called in union, interrupting the baby dragon as they sped off towards the throne room. Spike shrugged it off. It was probably just the Crusaders being the Crusaders again. "So Fluttershy, how did your new lesson on kindness go today? Did your students learn a lot?" Twilight inquired. They were all sitting in the throne room talking about how their lessons went, and what the plans were for school tomorrow. "Oh, it was wonderful!" Fluttershy said enthusiastically. "I even got Angel Bunny to help do a demonstration for the class. They learned so—EEP!" Flutter shy squealed and jumped behind her chair as the doors to the throne room burst open, and two frantic fillies ran into the room. "Rainbow Dash!" The two fillies called out. "We need your help right now!" Everyone in the room was still recovering from the massive shock of the two fillies busting into the room so suddenly. After a few seconds, Rainbow Dash collected herself and responded, "What do you need girls? Hey, where's Scoots, she's always with you two. I never see just two of you together." Rainbow Dash said with a look of concern on her face. "That's what we came to talk to you about. We've been waiting at our clubhouse for her for an hour. We all agreed to meet there after school, but she never showed up." Apple Bloom started. "Do you know where she lives?" Sweetie Belle cut in. "We were hoping to go see what was taking her so long, but then we realized that we had no idea where she lives. I thought we must have been to a sleepover at her house or something over the years we've known her, but I can't remember ever going to her house." "Sorry girls, I don't know where she lives, but I'm sure she's fine. She probably just got distracted and lost track of time or something." Rainbow Dash said. "Twilight, do you know where she lives?" "No, I can't say that I do. I have never seen where she lives either." Twilight said worriedly. "Does anyone else know?" she asked the rest of her friends. They all shook their heads. "That's like, super weird!" Pinkie Pie blurted out "I know where everypony in Ponyville lives, Mayor Mare, Bon Bon, Lyra, Vinyl, Octavia, Derpy, Dr. Whoo—" Pinkie was cut off by a cyan hoof being shoved into her mouth. "Thank you Pinkie, but we don't need a list of everypony in Ponyville" Rainbow said sarcastically, but it confused her too. Of course, she had to know where Scoots lived. Dash was her big sister. How in Equestria could she not know where the filly lived. "Hmm," Twilight hummed. "That is interesting. I can't believe none of us knows where she lives. I'll look into this some more. You fillies just let us know if you find her, and I'll try to figure out why none of us knows where she lives. "Okay," Applebloom sighed, "we will. Come on Sweetie, let's go look for her. Maybe we can find her and talk to her about this." With that, the two fillies walked out of the room, leaving a concerned Rainbow Dash, and her five confused friends. Once outside, the Crusaders walked over towards the schoolhouse that the CMC and their friends went to. "Maybe we can follow her scooter tracks from school and see where they lead." Sweetie Belle suggested. "That's a good idea." Apple Bloom responded. "I think I see some up ahead, look!" Sure enough, right in front of the two fillies were a pair of narrow tracks leading away from the entrance to the school. They led straight into the town of Ponyville. "Let's follow 'em," Apple Bloom said, excited to finally have a clue as to where Scootaloo went. The two fillies ran off following the tracks. They followed them into Ponyville, all the way through the town, and out the other side of town, and into Whitetail Woods. "Whitetail woods?" Apple Bloom asked no one in particular. "What would Scootaloo be doing in Whitetail Woods. They slowed down to a walk and followed the tracks deep into the woods. The tracks eventually led them to Scootaloo's scooter, propped up against a tree with some bushes behind it. "Well here's her scooter," Sweetie Belle said, puzzled," but where is Scootalloo?" As if to answer her question, they heard soft sobs coming from behind the bushes. They snuck quietly over to the bushes and peeked out from behind them. To their surprise, they saw Scootalloo, sitting down on the edge of a small stream, crying. Sweetie gasped, of all the things she expected to find, this was not one of them. Apple Bloom was shocked as well, it would be weird enough to see just anypony out here on their own crying, but Scootalloo!? No, it just didn't make any sense. The pony was just like Rainbow Dash. You never saw her cry, or get emotional, or anything like that. She wanted to run out to her and see what was wrong but stopped herself. If Scootalloo had gone this far out of town just to be alone, then there had to be a good reason, but she had no idea what that reason was. As if to answer her question, the orange pegasus began to talk between sniffles and sobs. "I-I can't take it anymore. I just... can't." Can't take what, AppleBloom wondered. "It's too much. I miss you Mom and Dad, and I can't keep missing you, especially knowing that I fail you every day, by not being able to fly..." AppleBloom then noticed a rope hanging from a tree branch nearby, with a loop tied in the end, and a rock placed underneath. Was Scootalloo thinking what Applebloom thought she was thinking? No, of course not, she couldn't be, right? "I can't go on anymore. I can't live knowing that every day of my life, I am nothing but a failure to you, that you never wanted in the first place!" AppleBloom nearly choked when Scootalloo said this. She turned to Sweetie Belle, who was now crying heavily, while she started to shed some tears herself. She whispered to Sweetie Belle, so as not to be heard by their crying friend, who was about to do the unthinkable. "Stay here, and keep her from doing... you know what. I-I'll be back as soon as I can." All Sweetie Belle could do was nod, with her hoof in her mouth, trying to keep herself quiet as she fought back tears. Apple Bloom sped off, running faster than she had ever run before., tears streaming down her face as she ran. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. Her best friend, who seemed perfectly fine when she was around other ponies, was about to end her own life. She couldn't let it happen, so she sped up her run, ignoring the burning of her legs, and the stinging of tears in her eyes. She ran straight into town, and towards Twilight's castle, not even looking where she was going, and running straight into a Rainbow Maned pegasus who had just walked out the front door of Twilight's castle. "Apple Bloom!" Rainbow yelled, "What the hay!" Apple Bloom looked up at her with tears streaming down her face, breathing heavily from running. Rainbow's face instantly changed from an expression of anger to one of extreme worry and concern. "Oh my gosh, what happened to you. Are you okay, she said while looking over AppleBloom for injuries. "I-It's S-Scootaloo." She said, trying to hold back her tears. "S-she's going to k-k—" AppleBloom broke down into tears, unable to hold it back any longer. By this point, Twilight had noticed the commotion and rushed outside to help. "What's wrong?!" she practically yelled at Rainbow "What happened?!" Twilight was very concerned and had a look of horror on her face. "I don't know!" Rainbow replied in an equally concerned and frantic voice. "She just ran straight into me, and I noticed she was crying and out of breath." "Apple Bloom," Twilight said much softer, trying to get the filly to calm down. "It's gonna be okay, just tell us what happened." "No, it's NOT!" Apple Bloom shouted back at her, making Twilight jump. "R-Rainbow, you... you have to go, now," Apple Bloom said through her tears. "Whitetail Woods, Scootaloo, she, she... she's not good Rainbow, you have to save her." Apple Bloom said in the saddest voice the two mares had ever heard from her. "She's going to kill herself..." At this, it was like time froze. Rainbow's face dropped, and she held her breath. Twilight began to panic. Rainbow's face changed from a look of shock and complete sadness to a look of sheer determination. She was not going to let her little sister do this. Not on her watch she wasn't. "Get on my back!" Rainbow said to the yellow filly, bending down to allow her to climb onto her back. "Where is she!" Rainbow barked. Twilight yelled after them, but they were already gone. Rainbow was flying as fast as she could towards the area of woods that AppleBloom was guiding her towards. Meanwhile, back at the creek, Sweetie Belle was barely able to fight back her tears. She knew she was going to have teeth marks on her hoof for a while from biting down on it to keep herself quiet. She looked back up at Scootaloo and nearly started full on bawling. She was standing up and facing the rock and the rope, with a look of determination on her face. Sweetie Belle jumped up and shouted out to her friend "NO! Scootalloo! Don't do it!" Scootalloo looked back for a moment, frozen in shock, before she quickly jumped up onto the boulder, slid the loop around her neck, and let her legs go limp. "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" Rainbow dash heard Sweetie Belle scream from up ahead in the woods. She made a beeline for the source of the sound. She burst through the tops of the trees, to see Sweetie Belle frantically trying to lift Scootalloo back up so that she would stop choking. "NO! I won't let you die! I won't! I won't! I won't!" She screamed frantically, tears flowing down her face. Apple Bloom jumped down from Rainbow's back and ran over frantically to help her panicking friend. Rainbow Dash flew forward and instantly lifted the now unconscious pegasus filly back into the air, and slipped the rope off from around her neck. Rainbow was crying heavily now too. She instantly flew off, towards Ponyville hospital, with the unconscious, but still breathing filly cradled in her arms, and completely forgetting about the two crying fillies she had left in the clearing. She was not letting her little sister die. She loved her more than anything else in the world. The reasons for Scootalloo's action would be discussed later. Right now, the only thing that mattered was making sure her little buddy was okay.