Scootaloo ran around a corner into an alley. She climbed over a trash can and a pile of garbage, and saw the alley had no exit. The filly yanked the lid off the overfilled trash can, and tried to hide herself using the lid and a few trash bags.
On the other side of the trash, she heard ponies talking.
"Oh, this is simply disgusting," Rarity said. "Let's turn around and go do something clean."
"But Rarity! My awesomeness tells me we've gotta help Scootaloo. Cause helping Scoots is the awesome thing to do."
Twilight said, "Rarity, you stay here at this end of the alley, and Dashie and I can fly over it." From under her can lid, Scootaloo could see the shadows of two airborne ponies on the alley's mud and gravel.
"Hey Scoots! Why'dya run off like that? We just want to be your friends!" Rainbow called out.
"Scootaloo?" Twilight said. "I wonder what's holding up that lid. Can you tell us, Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo threw the trash can lid up into the air. "Why don't you ponies just leave me alone! Stop trying to marether me!"
Twilight said in a gentle voice, "Why don't you want us to be your friends, Scootaloo?"
"I can do just fine on my own and I don't need nopony! I'm a free filly! I've been living on my own on the streets ever since before I was born, and I'm okay with that!"
Twilight's ears swiveled independently. "Did I hear that right? Since BEFORE you were born?"
"Yeah! Somepony like you wouldn't understand!"
Twilight said, "Won't you please at least give us a chance? Please tell us about it. Help us try to understand."
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash said. "I know you're awesome like me, so if you tell us about it, your explanation has to be super awesome! Just believe in yourself, and tell us!"
Scootaloo took a deep breath. "Well, okay. But if you don't get it, it's not my fault, it's yours. Because I warned you that I'm different. But would you at least come down here?"
Twilight and Rainbow landed on some muddy gravel near Scootaloo.
"To start with," Scootaloo said, "You know where foals come from, right?"
"Yes!" Twilight said. "When a mare and a stallion love each other very much--"
"You just keep tellin' yourself that, sister. But in the real world, sometimes a mare has a little foal-to-be growing in her tummy, and she don't really got a place in her life for that foal."
"Oh!" Twilight said, "Equestria has special orphanages where a pregnant mare can go, and--"
"Yeah, yeah. Some mares don't got the time to go to one of the towns where a special orphanage is. Some can't even afford to buy a train ticket to go halfway across Equestria and hope the orphanage ain't been closed down by the time they get there. And sometimes, way before it's time for the foal to be born, when a mare's tummy starts gettin' real big, some of the ponies around her start treatin' her different, and not in a good way. Some mares get told they're big fat scandals, and they can lose their jobs, or their families throw them out."
Twilight seemed to be listening with such rapt horror that she was forgetting to breathe.
Scootaloo walked around, reached up, and slapped Twilight on the back. Twilight squeaked and started breathing again.
Scootaloo scolded the alicorn, "Gotta take proper care of yourself, Twilight. Not breathin' ain't healthy for you."
"So like I was sayin'...Sometimes there's ponies who're pregnant and they need not to be, like right away. So there's places where a pregnant mare goes in, and when she comes out, she ain't pregnant."
Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked too shocked to speak. Rarity, peeking over the pile of trash, just looked sad.
"So one day, some street ponies were hiding behind one of those places, and the back door opens, and a little not-yet-a-foal gets thrown out into the alley, and the door closes.
"Two of the ponies had heard that if you take the stuff connected to the not-yet-a-foal, things the doctors call the placenta and the afterbirth, you can get somethin' called stem cells, which if you inject them, you can cure wrinkles and some other diseases.
"I think they call 'em stem cells 'cause the placenta is like a stem that the foal is growin' on. Like an apple grows on a stem hangin' off the apple tree."
Scootaloo looked at her rapt audience. "You sure are good listeners. The two ponies each grabbed the not-yet-a-foal at the same time, and they started fightin' over it. Each one was a-pullin' and a-pushin' on the little throwaway, and maybe slappin' the other pony a little. The way I've heard the story changes a bit from one tellin' to the next. So maybe all the pullin' and the pushin' and the slappin' was kind a like some accidental artificial resuscitation. Anyway, the little not-yet-a-foal started cryin'. And the street ponies was so shocked they stopped fightin', cause the little not-yet-a-foal was now a foal. They wrapped the foal in some old rags to keep her warm, and then they took her to one of the places where the runaway cows hide out."
Twilight said, "Runaway cows."
"Yeah! You think all cows are on farms? Sometimes a cow doesn't want to be on the farm, and she runs away."
"O...kay," Rainbow said. "Why does a cow run away?"
"A lot of reasons. Some farmers just ain't nice to the cows on their farms. Some cows just believe in freedom. And some cows like the excitement and fast livin' they can find if they run away. Ain't you ever heard of...chocolate milk?"
Twilight perked up. "I read a book about that! Some cows really like chocolate, but it makes their milk taste weird, so farmers won't let them have any. Some cows like chocolate so much, they run away to live in places where they can get chocolate, but cows are discriminated against for most jobs and sometimes they become criminals. The book was called, How Now, Brown Cow?"
Scootaloo said, "You know a little more about social problems than I thought you might, bein' a sheltered princess and all. There's a lot of ponies and cows that are chocolate addicts, and for other plant alkaloids too. Chocolate, coffee, tea...some ponies would do almost anythin' to keep from havin' to quit."
Twilight silently contemplated her and her mentor's tea habit. Was she somepony who, without really thinking about it, supports drug dealers?
"Another reason some cows run away," Scootaloo said, "you ever heard of the veal business?"
Rainbow jumped up. "You take that back! Applejack would never do that to any of her herd!"
"Applejack wouldn't," Scootaloo agreed. "You ever wonder why when Applejack's family grows the best apples in Equestria, and makes the best cider, and they can even grow zap apples, it still seems like they have to work harder than anypony else to make ends meet? That's because, unlike some other farmers, they say buck no to the veal business. If they were willin' to sell some calves to the Dragonlands or the Griffon Empire or even the Diamond Dogs, they wouldn't have to work nearly as hard. Be harder to keep their cows around, though."
Twilight said under her breath, "I am going to write SUCH A LETTER to Celestia."
"Scootaloo, dear," Rarity interjected, "were you going to tell us about how you lived on the street, right after you were born?"
"WEREN'T exactly born," Scootaloo said. "I was never born. I was just taken out."
"Wow!" Rainbow Dash said. "You were never exactly born. Kind of like you were hatched! How cool is that!"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "I am so tired of being teased about having been hatched instead of born. Half the ponies on this town's streets say that, but mostly they don't even know where it comes from."
"Sorry," Dash said. "I'll try to remember to never bring it up again."
"I wish all ponies cared about my feelings like you, Dashie. I was sayin', the street ponies that were fightin' over my placenta and stuff took me to a place where runaway cows hide. Excuse me if I don't tell you where it is, but I support cow liberation and I won't rat them out EVER. Snitches can get...very thirsty."
"Is that a euphemism?" Twilight asked.
"Do you want it to be?" Scootaloo asked. "Because if somepony squeals on a cow and she loses her calf, I can make that pony's life just FULL of euphemism. Euphemism is somethin' like, the shipment was spoiled by accident, or he fell off a bridge and I'm sure nopony pushed him. That's what a euphemism is, right?"
Twilight agreed, "Close enough. You were telling us about your life, Scootaloo?"
"When somecow's calf is taken for the veal trade and she runs away in anguish, her udders can get really full and uncomfortable. Cause nocalf's drinkin' from her anymore, and the farmer can't get to milk her, which if he sold her calf he don't deserve to get to milk her anyway. So almost anyplace where there's enough runaway cows, there's somecow who'll suckle a poor little abandoned creature instead of lettin' it starve. Some cows feel it's like a revenge on the farmer, when she lets anycreature have the milk who deserves it more than the farmer does.
"So that's how I was able to live on the streets without parents, since before it was time for me to be born," Scootaloo explained. "But some things I can't tell you, cause I gotta protect my friends."
"Wow," Rainbow said, her eyes enormous. "I knew you were cool, Scootaloo, but I didn't know just HOW cool you really are."
"Please don't tell anypony else," Scootaloo said. "There's a couple mares livin' together on the other side of town who tell the town I'm their niece, so I can go to school like a regular pony. Don't tell anypony anything that might make trouble for them."
"If anypony keeps you from being able to go to school," Twilight assured the filly, "YOU won't even have to punish that pony. Because I'll come down on them like a cake-eating alicorn matriarch."
"Me too!" Rainbow said. "Wherever that pony goes, they won't be able to have one sunny day. Just lightning zapping them where the sun doesn't shine."
Rarity said, "I do have certain...connections. Their underwear might ride up on them at the worst possible times. And their dry cleaning? Mysteriously late or altogether lost, again and again."
"Thanks!" Scootaloo said. "I was right to think I could count on you. Now that we got that out of the way, what do you think about getting some ice cream? I know a joint on Rose Street that uses only black market Free Cow milk. Free the cows!" Scootaloo held one hoof up at cow-horn height beside her head, making the Cow Power sign.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Maybe you should follow this story, in case I ever get around to explaining about Scootaloo's wings.
I kind of wanted to write another Pride and Positivity Month story. But instead I ended up with a Bovine Lives Matter fic.
Bovine Lives Matter owes at least a little something to GapJaxie's Deep Cover. And to a vegan friend.