Scootaloo had absolutely no idea how her day had gone so badly wrong.
It had started with her mom dropping her into school before heading to her office. Scootaloo had chatted with her friends, then headed off to lessons; English first (scary, as they looked at an old horror story, never Scootaloo’s favourite genre), then Science (boring), and finally music (hooray! This was partly due to the fact that Cheerilee, her mom, was the teacher). As part of it, they had gone to the school’s rehearsal space. They being herself, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, alongside their boyfriends. Once there, they had practiced an arrangement of a song Rainbow Dash had written, which the Crusaders planned to perform at the Apple Christmas Party:
Then break had arrived. Scootaloo had packed up her guitar, and put it in the storage bin in the room, where it would be safe until the end of the day. She had then headed off to the cafeteria.
Or rather, had intended to.
No sooner had she left the room, then suddenly a pair of yellow hands had grabbed her hoodie and hurled her against a pair of lockers.
Just as she tried to get up, this person stomped over. It was Misty Fly, one of Rainbow’s fellow players in the school soccer team, and boy did she look angry.
“You’re not going anywhere, you piece of shit!” she snarled. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do!” At which point, she grabbed Scootaloo’s wrist, and dragged her off down the hallway.
Scootaloo screamed for help as she was dragged off, desperately locking her feet into the ground to try and stop her assailant. It was no use.
“Shut it!” Misty snarled. “Nobody cares, and when Celestia learns of this, everybody here will want to reduce you to a bloody pulp!”
“Learns of what?” Scootaloo protested.
Misty dragged her through the door of the girl's WCs, and lobbed Scootaloo against the wall. Given how much lighter the 7th grader was, she flew through the air like a dart, which would have been pretty were it not for the crash afterwards.
Misty wheeled a chair and some other objects over to the door, jamming it. She then walked back. “No interruptions,” she smiled. “I can take my time.” She then grabbed the younger girl by the jacket and lifted her up. “So,” she asked. “Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
Misty smashed Scootaloo against the back wall. The impact was very painful. “You know exactly what, Anon-a-Miss. Now then, tell me the truth, and I’ll let you go. Lie, and I’ll punish you. So, why did you do it?"
“I’m not Anon-a-Miss!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
Misty paused. She then brought her fist back and punched Scootaloo in the gut. “You filthy liar!” she roared. “It all points to you! You chose to wreck their lives for no reason! Why the fuck would you do that?” She then grabbed onto the back of Scootaloo’s head, gripped her hair, and pulled so hard some of it was torn out. Scootaloo yelled in agony.
“It still wasn’t me!” the girl gasped, through the pain.
Misty ran her hand over Scootaloo’s pockets, trying to find a phone. It was then her hand felt something. She pulled it out, aggressively.
It was a miniature of Thomas the Tank Engine.
Misty grinned. “You lie to me again, and I’ll break it.”
“I’m telling the truth!” Scootaloo protested again, hoping Misty would listen. It didn’t work. At all.
Misty put the model down, and punched the girl in the face. Hard enough to knock her down onto the floor. “Looks like I’ll need to work harder to get the truth out of you. I honestly wonder why your friends with Dash, you don’t deserve her loyalty.”
Suddenly, a muffled voice could be heard outside the door. “It’s blocked!” It was a voice Scootaloo knew very well.
With all her remaining strength, Scootaloo breathed in, and yelled, "RAINBOW DASH!”
Rainbow Dash sprinted down the corridor as fast as she could. The sound had come in the direction of the music department, and she skidded past the girl's WCs when she heard loud, angry voices. It was Misty Fly, one of her teammates.
Rainbow pushed the door. It was jammed by something. “It’s blocked!” she shouted.
Then what happened next confirmed her suspicions. She heard Scootaloo, screaming for her life, calling out her name.
Applejack had arrived by this time, as well as Sunset. “What’s happenin’?” Applejack asked.
“I need help!” Rainbow commanded. “AJ, help me break this door down. Sunset, get Vice-Principal Luna!”
Sunset sprinted off in the direction of the office. Rainbow and Applejack lined up in front of the door, backed up, and shoulder charged. The door didn’t open at first. They backed up and tried again.
In the next moment, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
The door gave way, flying open as a chair and other objects went flying through the room. Rainbow turned right, and saw Misty readying to punch Scootaloo again.
She lunged, grabbed Misty, and spun her round, slamming her into the wash basins, and delivered a blow of incredible force. “Have you lost your fucking mind?” she shouted.
“It’s her, it’s the little bitch, she did it!” Misty retorted.
Rainbow’s face changed from red to violet. “You. Do. Not. Call. My. Little. Sister. A. Bitch!” she roared. “This is not acceptable behaviour for a Wonderbolt!” She paused. “Applejack! Take her to Principal Celestia. If she gives you any trouble, you know what to do.”
After Misty was removed, Rainbow went over to the younger girl. She looked a mess. There were bruises on her face, her breathing was ragged, like she’d been winded, and she was bleeding as well. “Squirt, can you hear me?” asked Rainbow.
Scootaloo nodded, and looked up into Rainbow’s eyes. “She thought I was-I was-Anon-a-Miss,” she gasped.
“She’ll get what’s coming to her,” Rainbow replied. “Take it easy now, I’m gonna take you to the nurse.” Helping her up, she put Scootaloo’s arm around her shoulder, and set off.
Nurse Redheard checked over Scootaloo, and looked at Rainbow. “Thanks for bringing her in,” she said. “The bruising should go away in a few days, and her injuries have clotted. Just what could have possessed Misty Fly to do something like this?”
Rainbow looked down. “Scoots, have you seen Anon-a-Miss's latest post?”
Scootaloo shook her head.
Rainbow unlocked her phone, and showed it to Scootaloo. The reaction from the younger girl was telling. A look of absolute horror.
“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked.
Scootaloo stood up, tears in her eyes, and ran over to Rainbow, hugging her. “I’m so sorry! I’m so, so sorry!” she cried, bawling her eyes out into Rainbow’s jacket.
“That picture came from you?” Rainbow was concerned.
“They blackmailed me,” Scootaloo whimpered. “They said they had dirt on me, and would upload it if I didn’t do as they say! I’m such an idiot!”
“Who blackmailed you?”
“I don’t know,” Scootaloo replied. “They were all wearing hoods. I’m sorry, I panicked! I didn’t know what to do!”
“Nobody’s blaming you,” Rainbow said to her.
At that moment, Cheerilee arrived, with Celestia in tow. “Scootaloo, thank God you’re safe!” she exclaimed.
“Mom!” Scootaloo called, and ran into her mother’s arms.
Celestia spoke up. “This incident is disturbing to say the least. I have already dealt with Misty Fly. She’s being suspended for 6 months. She has also been stripped of her position in the Wonderbolts.”
“That doesn’t get us any closer to figuring out who is behind this, though,” Rainbow observed. “Scootaloo has some information-” suddenly, there were two more beeps, to indicate two sets of posts. Rainbow took a look at them, no longer surprised by how unpleasant this was all getting.
The first post was a picture of Misty attacking Scootaloo, with the caption; “What a monster; sports star attacks disabled girl.”
The second was more worrying. It was an image of Scootaloo and Rumble kissing, with the caption; “Guess she’s not as tough as we thought.”
Rainbow looked over. “That’s conclusive proof that Scootaloo is not Anon-a-Miss. She mentioned something about figures with hoods.”
“What?” Cheerilee asked.
“Yeah...about that,” Scootaloo said sheepishly. “I got blackmailed.”
Cheerilee looked even more worried. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
“I didn’t know what to do!” Scootaloo replied. “They said they had dirt on me, and they threatened to kill you!” Her eyes stung with tears once again. “I couldn’t cope without you Mom, I love you!” she begged. “I’m in trouble now, aren’t I?”
Cheerilee smiled. “No, dear,” she replied. “You were clearly just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Her face then grew serious. “But you need to tell me if something like this happens. How can we go about our lives if we just keep secrets from each other?”
Scootaloo sighed. “Sorry Mom,” she mumbled. They embraced once again.
Rainbow and Scootaloo walked down the corridor, encountering Applejack and the others along the way. “How’d it go?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“We have a new lead,” Rainbow said. “Meet you all at Sugarcube Corner. Bring Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle with you.”
A few minutes later, having escaped from the biting cold, the 5 friends, as well as the Crusaders, looked at the task at hand.
“We’ve ruled these three out,” Applejack observed. “Ah mean, they wouldn’t post mean stuff about themselves?”
“But that leaves most of the student faculty,” Rarity said.
“I did see some strange individuals with hoods earlier today, taking pictures of stuff,” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
“Ah also saw 3 people strugglin’ with the streetcar just outside school,” Apple Bloom added. “They didn’t seem ta understand how coins work!”
Sunset looked over. “Scootaloo, what was that lead you had?”
Scootaloo gulped. “3 people in hoods threatened me with blackmail unless I took a picture of Rainbow’s embarrasing science paper.” When she got shocked looks, she answered, “They threatened to kill Mo-Miss Cheerilee!”
Pinkie looked over. “Weren’t those wierdos in the canteen also in hoods?”
The cogs in Rainbow Dash’s head started turning. She had a good idea of what this was leading to. The hoods, the canteen-it was adding up.
Apple Bloom interrupted her train of thought. “Ah also heard one of them complainin’ about somethin’. Somethin’ red. Didn’t catch much of it.”
Rainbow looked over. “What did you say?” she asked.
“They were complainin’ about somethin’ red,” she repeated.
Rainbow rose to her feet. “I know who Anon-a-Miss is!” she cried.