It turned out the deal struck between Diamond Tiara and the Wonderbolts involved allowing them to join the town as a secondary defense force. Between that and the addition of Light Seeker’s automated tranquilizer turrets to the wall they were building, Ponyville quickly became a well-fortified walled town.
In related news Rumble was promoted from Security Chief, to Police Chief to remove any confusion as who was the town’s law enforcement now that the Wonderbolts were providing a military presence. And since they both used the same E.U.P. armor, Rumble and his team pained police colors and badges on theirs.
Spitfire especially welcomed the fact that for the first time since the war the Wonderbolts were protecting a town without being expected to run it. Although Diamond did make sure that the Wonderbolts were invited to town meeting, if for no other reason than to be kept in the loop and coordinate with Rumble and Scootaloo on security maters.
Yet such thoughts evaporated when Sweetie Belle approached her winged friend and said, “Scootaloo, it’s time.”
For her part, all Scoots could do was raise and eyebrow and ponder whatever the missing context was that Sweetie thought applied to those words. Whatever it was, it was lost on her.
“Time for what?” she finally asked when it became clear the unicorn wasn’t going to volunteer the information on her own.
“We just finished the Flutterhy memorial yesterday. There’s only one left, and we’ve all noticed that you avoid that place.” Sweetie’s words were met with silence, even if she could see some form of recognition in her friend’s eyes. “We’ve all stayed off of that property up till now. And we all agree that she’d have wanted you to be the first, but we can’t keep leaving it for you to be the first to return forever… and, well it’s the only debris field left in town.”
The orange pegasus blinked a couple of times as if to say ‘Is that all, why didn’t you say so?’ Yet those words didn’t escape her mind, instead the only words to come from her lips as she got up to follow her friend were, “I see.”
Soon Scootaloo found herself standing on an old dirt road. Beside her, was a weathered mailbox that wore the name, “Rainbow Dash.” Before her a grassy field and the scattered remnants of the fallen pegasus’ belongings. The cloud house that had once hovered overhead was long gone, completely destroyed ten years ago when the demons had overrun the town. Behind her, two life-long friends waiting patently and silently.
It didn’t take long before the gaze of her friends was felt on the back of her head, and so the orange pegasus stood and walked into the field. Unfortunately, Sweetie Belle was wrong. She hadn’t been avoiding this place to avoid facing any lingering scars, she hadn’t come here because she already knew there was nothing worth caring about here. Scootaloo’s eyes passed over the scattered derbies, searching for something that her friends might think had meaning, something that would satisfy the show they expected to see even if it really didn’t mean anything to herself, but what?
The glass of the picture frames had all shattered when they’d fallen into the field, and as fate would have it ten years in the wind, rain and sun was enough to destroy every last one of them.
In a way she was surprised to see gold medals and cups still among the shattered remains of the cabinets that used to house them. Ten years was a long time for no one to have taken them, but that only spoke to the power of the taint that must have been around before Sweetie cleared it if no pony had survived the attempt to take the gold just sitting in plain sight.
But no, they wouldn’t do, even when her hero had been alive she’d gotten the impression that Rainbow Dash didn’t really care about the trophies, she was enthralled by the achievements they served as reminders of, not the trinkets themselves. If her friend had made a similar observation back then they’d see through gathering them up now as just the act that it would be.
Then her eyes found something that made something in her heart stir, although too dulled by the distance of time to be called an actual emotion, more like the memory of one.
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow when she saw her pegasus friend pick up an old trophy, then she tilted her head when her friend started thrusting it into the ground. A moment of confusion passed as Bloom and Belle looked to one another trying to figure out what Scoots was up to. At a loss they finally abandon their posts on the road and ventured out into the field.
As they neared they realized that Scootaloo was using the old trophy cup as a makeshift shovel, a moment more and they noticed the tortoise shell completed with skull, bones, and broken propeller artifact beside the hole she was digging.
On instinct, Apple Bloom started to move forward to offer help, but a white hoof barred her path.
“Let her do this,” Sweetie whispered.
Nothing more was said, while the lone pegasus dug the hole. Even once the remains were buried Scootaloo didn’t need to say a word. She snapped off the trophy cup and presented the base to Sweetie Belle. And that was all that was needed to get her to use her magic to unscrew the base plate proclaiming Rainbow Dash as the winner of some Cloudsdale circuit race, flip the plate over and re attach it while adding a new inscription.
R.I.P.
Tank the tortoise.
With that, Scootaloo pounded the trophy base turned headstone into the mound until she was sure it was secure.
After a moment of silence, the pegasus mare rose and gave the field one last look. Then she gave her honest answer, “I see nothing else that needs my attention. See you at the town hall meeting.” And with that she left.
* * * * * * *
Diamond Tiara frowned as she looked down at the table. On the table was an old pre-war map of Equestria, with hoof drawn additions to update it. Oddly enough the mayor had been in good spirits of late. Although when her poker-face faltered, she’d glance to the right side of the table, and that was enough to guess what had her concerned. Unsurprisingly that was where the security team composed of Scootaloo, Rumble, and Spitfire sat.
“As you know,” the Mayor said. “Between the completion of the wall, the automated defenses and the arrival of the Wonderbolts offering their services for safe haven and supplies, the raiders haven’t attacked in over a month. Not only that, but there’s been some good news from the west. It seems that Las Pegasus has finally followed our example and restored order enough to elect a mayor. And with the Wonderbolts effectively controlling the coastline, they’ve managed to restore the train line from Las Pegasus all the way up to Vanhoover.”
A round of smiles greeted the news, although Scootaloo remained quiet, as she could feel there was more to what Diamond wanted to say. Apparently Spitfire felt the same, as she also remained quiet.
Once the smiles and ‘good for thems!’ died down, Tiara continued.
“As you might guess, a merchant at heart like me looked into the possibility of restoring the train line between Ponyville and the coast. And while Vanhoover was certainly interested in the idea, there’s a rather obvious problem that needs to be dealt with first. Ponyville and the towns of the coast may be safe enough for normalcy to return, but a thousand miles of train lines between here and there are impossible for any of us to secure and… well…”
The mayor let her words trail off. But she didn’t need to finish for everypony in the room to understand. Spitfire remained stoic, although the keen of eye would have noticed an increased effort to show no response.
“Canterlot,” Apple Bloom said, breaking the silence.
“Exactly,” Diamond Tiara said with a nod. “Even now, we’ve had an increase in attacks on our trade caravans away from town. Needless to say if we tried to get the trains up and running again, there’s no way the raiders wouldn’t notice. And unlike dirt roads, railway tracks can’t afford to be tampered with. Hence why no pony is willing to even try getting the line to Ponyville back up while we’re sitting on the doorstep of the most notorious raider stronghold in Equestria. Spitfire? I know the Wonderbolts have been trying to retake Canterlot this whole time we’ve been rebuilding Ponyville. Is there anything we can do to achieve that?”
The captain of the Wonderbolts finally let a smirk appear on her face. “So the goals of Ponyville are finally the same as the goals of the Wonderbolts. I was wondering how long you’d tolerate living next to such a den of evil. Well if you’ve bothered to observe any of our failed attacks, you’ve probably noticed that the raiders have found the city shield.”
“City shield?” Diamond Tiara asked.
“Yes, once Captain Shining Armor married, some time after he moved to the Crystal Empire he and Twilight Sparkle built a magic array to duplicate his city wide shield spell. While it requires a group of ten average unicorns to activate it, clearly the raiders have that many and figured out how to activate it. Every time we try to attack the shield goes up and we can’t even enter the city. On top of that, we’ve tried sneaking agents in to disable the shield array but they never report back and our attack is met with the shield so they clearly failed to reach it.”
Spitfire gave a sigh before adding, “So unless you know of someway to disable the shield, we’re still stuck in the same place as without Ponyville’s help.” As she finished speaking her, and everypony else’s for that matter, gaze shifted to Scootaloo.
The orange pegasus set her own gaze on the table in front of her.
After a moment Scoots raised an eyebrow. “Why is everypony looking at me,” she finally asked.
“You’re the hero who freed Las Pegasus AND Ponyville from slavers,” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“So… DO we know a way to deal with the bad guys held up in Canterlot?” Sweetie added.
Scootaloo got up and started to walk away, pausing at the door she said, “I may know of something.” And with that she left.
* * * * * * *
Sweetie Belle may have been wrong about the place, but she hadn’t been wrong about Scootaloo avoiding someplace in Ponyville on purpose.
The once white columns had long since stained to gray continued to stand vigil on either side of the front door, holding up the extended second floor of the seemingly average two story house. The blue paint on the walls and door had held up reactively well over the years, with only a few spots pealing to reveal the wood beneath. The windows on the ground floor had all cracked or outright broken.
The one recent addition to the sight was a small sign hanging from the door’s handle that read, ‘Scootaloo’s Home.’ Judging from the elegant style of the writing, it was a safe bet that Sweetie Belle had left the sign, probably when she cleansed this part of town from the taint.
For her part Scootaloo couldn’t help but give a single scoff at the sign. As nice as her friend’s sentiment was, ‘home’ was the wrong word. This place had never been more than just a ‘house’ to her. The clubhouse, Rainbow Dash’s place at sleepovers, or just anywhere she was hanging out with her friends, those where the places that felt more like ‘home’ than this place had ever been. No, this place was just where her bed was, the place she had to come back to at the end of the day, but it had never felt like ‘home.’
Pushing the door open, she found that thanks to the broken windows the living room had acquired a decade’s worth of dust. But aside from the think layer of dust, it seemed to be just as she’d remembered it the last day she’d been here before being dragged out of town by Spitfire. Coffee table, sofa, even the note pad sitting on the dinner table was still where it always was…
Out of habit she looked at the notepad. So many years she’d communicated with her father more through that thing than actually talking to him on account of the fact that most days the only time the both of them where in the house at the same time was when she was asleep. With a heavy breath she cleared the dust off of the notepad. Unsurprisingly it was blank. It may have taken her over a year to accept that Rainbow Dash was dead, but when she’d been told her father hadn’t survived the day Canterlot fell to the demons she’d believed it inside of a week.
For a moment she glanced at the stairs to the second floor. But she made her way into the hallway on the ground floor. Part of the way down the hall, she opened the door to a closet.
Inside there was the usual suspects for a closet a mop, broom, duster and that sort of thing. But Scootaloo only reached for the back shelf, not anything on it. She gave it a rattle, but nothing happened. In a way she wasn’t surprised that the lock was still intact, the secret door built into the back of the closet was probably the sturdiest part of the entire house. Although if it was still locked that meant the rest of the locking mechanism was still intact too, so she turned away from the closet.
She’d made her way upstairs but then stopped. Her gaze had fallen on the door to her room. Her mind reminded her that the only thing she needed was in the attic, and that nothing of use was in her old bedroom.
The faces if her two best friends appeared in her mind’s eye. A part of her longed to truly feel again, to be okay again, if for no other reason than for their sake. Apart of her wished that Ponyville was on fire right now. But it wasn’t, so she wasn’t pressed for time. Taking the first meaningless, emotional urge she’d remembered feeling in years, she pushed the bedroom door open.
Ten years had meant nothing to this place. A shiver ran down Scootaloo’s spine when she noticed that her window was apparently the only window in the house that hadn’t been punched out by vines over the years. And as a result there wasn’t even much dust in here.
A filly’s saddlebags sat beside her desk, her old schoolbook still waiting inside, a decade’s old set of homework still sat on the desk, patiently awaiting the moment their owner to finish playing and came back to finish them so they could be turned in the next morning. A moment that never came, thanks to said owner being dragged out of town in an evacuation.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if Cheerilee could make use of the books.
A shelf hung on the wall with a few old toys. The one toy that might have meant something to her was notably absent. Not that that was surprising, her scooter had been with her when Spitfire had dove down and grabber her. In all likelihood it was still laying in the north orchard, not far from the clubhouse. Or even more likely it was a pile of metal parts surrounded a wood dust that had succumbed to erosion over the last ten years.
She hadn’t really had a reason to check the last known location of her scooter. Although Apple Bloom should have stumbled across it by now, seeing as the north orchard had been restored.
A bed with green blankets still sat undisturbed, and the dresser just beyond the end of the bed filled the rest of the side cubby part of the somewhat L-shaped room.
Her eyes fell on a picture sitting atop the dresser. A picture of an orange filly with a violet mane sitting by a campfire alongside a sky-blue mare with a rainbow mane, both grinning with joy. And she froze.
Oddly enough it wasn’t the sight of Rainbow Dash the stopped the mare in her tracks. Thanks to living on Storm Breaker Island, she’d had plenty of Wonderbolt posters around before she’d left the Wonderbolt’s stronghold, including the one they’d made just before the war that had the rainbow maned Wonderbolt on them.
It was the echo of her past self that had the mare transfixed. Finally moving from her spot she placed a hoof gently against the glass of photo. She knew why she’d been smiling in the photo, that was the first evening after gaining her hero as an honorary big sister, at the campsite on their way back down the mountains. But staring into the photo couldn’t make her remember what joy felt like.
And for the second time since she’d left Storm Breaker Island, she truly wished she knew how to destroy the emotional wall she’d build around her heart the day she’d accepted Rainbow Dash’s death. For the second time since she’d grown tiered of the pain in her heart, she wished she could feel that pain again if it meant she feel the good times too.
With a sigh she conceded that that wishing it didn’t make it happen. Her mind reminded her that she still had a practical task to complete in this house. She turned and left. And with the flick of a wing she closed the door behind her as she returned to the hallway.
* * * * * * *
After about five minutes, Diamond Tiara and the others concluded that Scootaloo wasn’t coming back, so they resumed the meeting without her. Apple Bloom took the occasion to suggest it was time they build a hospital, if for no other reason but to get the surplus medical equipment out of her barn and the town hall’s storage rooms.
Although she wasn’t sure why, Tiara did pick up on the hints that something more important was going on, given Bloom and Rumble’s insistence on a new site and new floor plan for the hospital. Ultimately it was decided that they would build the new hospital just a block or so to the west of the town hall, to have it more centrally located in town instead of the previous one’s place on a hill on the outskirts of town.
Once the meeting was adjourned the mayor pulled Sweetie Belle aside and asked a whispered question as to what she wasn’t understanding about the hospital.
Sweetie leaned in and whispered back, “Destroying the hospital was the mark of betrayal against Scootaloo. I think Apple Bloom thinks building a new one will undo that.” With a slow nod of her head, she added, “Apple Bloom and the others all want to make up for that.”
“I see,” was all Diamond said in response. In her mind however she added, ‘No wonder all the long time townsponies are so loyal to her. They know they were wrong and want to make it up to her. But does Scootaloo even know they want her forgiveness?’
More allowed the mayor asked, “So… does anypony have any idea if or when Scootaloo will share her plan about Canterlot?”
“I’m curious to know that myself,” Spitfire seconded.
“Hate to break it to you, but there was no plan when I liberated Las Pegasus,” Scootaloo said, startling the rest of the town council before they could exit the town hall. “Liberating the city wasn’t even my goal. So I’ll leave the battle plans to Spitfire. I can, however, say leave the shield to me.”