Of Innocence Lost

by Lunafan1k


Chapter 4 Revised

The rain fell slowly at first, drop by drop. Soon enough individual droplets of water merged into a torrential downpour. Water ran off the thatched roofs of every building in Ponyville like a cascading waterfall. The residents of the town had quickly taken refuge, those still out in the rain became instantly soaked, and hurried along their path towards shelter. One of these unlucky individuals was a small pegasus filly blazing through quickly forming puddles of both mud and water on her trusty scooter.

Scootaloo was quickly approaching the boutique currently providing shelter to her friends, seeing the quickly closing distance she put on a burst of speed. Had she kept going slightly slower she would have noticed the rather deep mud hole in the center of the road. Because of her carelessness and urgency to get someplace dry, she ran right into the center of the mud. The mud was like a living trap as it grabbed and pulled at the wheels of the scooter, causing it to lose balance and throw Scootaloo into the sticky puddle, the red wagon not far behind.

Scootaloo warily picked herself up and cast her eyes about to survey the damage. Her scooter was sticking up out of the mud at an odd angle while the wagon had completely flipped over, dumping the contents into the mud. With a sigh she set about removing the scooter and wagon from the mud and set them up on a relativity firm part of the road. With the wagon set upright and reconnected to the scooter she returned to the mud puddle and attempted to gather the spilled contents.

The crayons were beginning to melt and mix with the mud. The stack of paper she brought had not only been strewn about, but the water had turned every sheet into a sloppy paste. Not wanting to leave a mess for somepony to blame on her, even if it was her fault, she gathered up the destroyed materials and loaded them back into the wagon. After a bit of searching she found Sweetie’s spell book and tossed it into the wagon with the rest of the destroyed items. With a heavy heart Scootaloo continued on her way to the Boutique.

After a five minute walk of shame that seemed to last several eternities she finally stumbled onto the welcome mat before the door of the boutique. With a final sigh she opened the door and let herself inside.

“I’m back, everypony.” She called as she made her way to the center of the front room.

“Oh good, for a moment I thought you-” Rarity cut herself off with a piercing scream and lost consciousness shortly afterward. She had heard Scootaloo announce her return and left the kitchen to greet her, as is proper of a lady. However, once she witnessed the thick trail of mud leading from her beautiful, custom designed door, across her immaculate, sparkly floor that had been polished to a mirror-like shine to a Scootaloo covered in thick globs of mud, her brain was unable to handle the trauma and had shut down.

“Rarity, are you alright? I heard you scream.” Cheerilee said as she left the kitchen to investigate the disturbance. Her eyes quickly settled upon her friend, sprawled out on the floor and a single hoof twitching.

“I-is she alright?” Scootaloo asked fearfully as Cheerilee checked on Rarity.

“She’s fine, just fainted is all, for real this time.” She said with a small chuckle. “I wonder what…oh.” Cheerilee regarded Scootaloo’s mess and put two and two together. “You should probably clean yourself and this room before Rarity wakes up. She’s upset enough as it is and I don’t think you want to see her truly furious.”

Scootaloo hung her head and made for the nearest bathroom, tracking mud the entire way. Cheerilee hoisted Rarity over her back and went to a side room that housed a large red velvet sofa and laid Rarity upon it, propping her head on a pillow.

Scootaloo was able to shower the mud off her coat and out of her mane with relative ease. After toweling herself dry in an effort to not destroy the bathroom as well, she cleaned up what mess she tracked into the bathroom and slowly made her way to the main room. The further she cleaned the thicker the mud became as she closed in on the front door.

“Maybe I should get Applebloom to help me,” she said to herself, “no, I don’t want to force my mistake onto them.” She heaved another sigh and continued to wipe away the mud with a few rags.

After twenty minutes of hard labor she turned to examine the nearly spotless room. The wagon had been an issue, so instead of cleaning it and her scooter she simply set them outside for the rain to clean. Her ears perked at the sudden sound of an angry voice coming from the adjacent room.

“No Cheerilee! I need to see the damage to my immaculate house!” Rarity cried out as she kicked the door open with enough force to scare Scootaloo half to death. “You! What have you… done?” She trailed off as she looked about the room and noticed the much less muddy floor. “Oh, you cleaned. Well I guess I don’t get to stay mad at you as long as I was hoping… wait. What’s that pile of muddy rags in the bucket?” she motioned toward Scootaloo’s cleaning bucket by the front door.

“Oh, those are the rags I used to clean up my mess.” Scootaloo proclaimed proudly, pleased of her job well done.

“And where, exactly, did you get them?” Rarity asked slowly as she carefully approached the bucket.

Scootaloo’s good feelings were quickly being replaced with doubt and anxiety, “Umm, the bathroom?”

Rarity picked up a single rag in her magic and glared at it for a moment. She let it drop back into the bucket and continued boring into the wall with a glare that would give Fluttershy’s stare a run for its bits.

“You mean to tell me, that you used my highest quality SILK hoof towels to clean up MUD?” Rarity said as calmly as she could, a few words screamed out in rage, but calm none the less.

“Umm, yes?” Scootaloo risked in response. She watched as Rarity began to shudder violently, fear gripping Scootaloo’s heart. Then just as suddenly as it started, the shuddering stopped. Rarity heaved a huge sigh and spun around with a pleasant smile.

“Well, in that case I should get these cleaned, hm?” Rarity said cheerfully with a small twitch in her eye. She levitated the bucket of once pristine hoof towels behind her and went straight toward the laundry room. She closed the door softly behind her.

“What was that?” Scootaloo asked Cheerilee. Before she got a response a blood curdling battle cry rocked the foundation of the boutique.

“Scootaloo, I think it’s best if you go upstairs with your friends. Don’t worry about me, I know how to handle Rarity.” Cheerilee said softly. Scootaloo watched as she calmly walked to the door Rarity went through and closed it softly behind her. A second later another feral battle cry shook the building, this one from Cheerilee.

Not wanting to test the Fates, Scootaloo quickly dashed outside and retrieved the spell book from the wagon. The rain had done a fine job removing the mud from the book as well as the wagon and scooter. She wiped her hooves off as she stepped back inside. She didn’t dare dirty Rarity’s floor again, especially after she had spent so much time cleaning it.

She hastily made her way across the front room toward the staircase, the spell book held firmly in her teeth. She was certain that the book, after being doused in rain and dumped in mud, would be completely useless. She didn’t want to tell Sweetie that she had inadvertently destroyed something that made her so happy, but keeping it a secret would only make it worse. If somepony accidently destroyed her scooter she would be mad for sure, but she would be even madder so if they lied to her about it.

At the top of the stairs she took a left and followed the sound of giggling to Sweetie’s room. She nudged the door open and quietly stepped inside.

“So then what happened?” Sweetie Belle asked Applebloom with a giggle.

“She was really mad, ah aint never seen Miss Cheerilee so angry. After she threw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to the dirt, she-”

“She banished them from school! It was so great!” Scootaloo interrupted, announcing her presence to her friends.

“They weren’t banished! They were suspended!” Applebloom said hotly.

“Which basically means they were banished.” Scootaloo concluded. Applebloom huffed in annoyance.

“Anyway, what kept ya? Sweetie thinks you tracked in mud and used the fancy rags to clean it.” Scootaloo was shocked at the accuracy of the statement. She could only stand there slack jawed staring at Applebloom.

Sweetie burst into a fit of giggles, obviously feeling better, “I only know because I did the same thing last week, she went into the basement and yelled for hours.” The girls shared another laugh.

“Oh yea, did you get the stuff?” Applebloom asked Scootaloo once they all calmed down.

“Well, sort of,” She said rubbing the back of her head with a fore hoof, “I crashed in a mud puddle and ruined everything.” She reached behind her and pulled out Sweetie’s spell book. “I’m sorry, I thought you might want to look at it some more so I brought it. I didn’t think it would rain that hard, I’m sorry.” She set it on the bed next to Sweetie.

Her eyes were beginning to tear up, this book has caused her some pain, but more importantly, it taught her the first spell she could ever cast. She opened the surprisingly dry cover, expecting the pages within to be stuck together and the ink running all over. What happened instead was that she was greeted with crisp, clean, dry pages in the same condition as the day before. It looked like the book was nowhere near a rain storm, let alone a puddle of mud.

She glanced at Scootaloo, “You sure you dropped this in mud?” She presented the crisp pages to Scootaloo, her jaw falling open with an audible pop. Sweetie enjoyed another laugh at Scootaloo before turning the book back towards her. She flipped through to a random page then gasped in excitement.

“What is it Sweetie?” Applebloom asked.

“The book, It’s letting me learn another spell!” she frantically flipped through the book, seemingly marking random pages. “No, not one, two!” she squee’d in excitement.

“Awesome!” Scootaloo said, shaking herself out of her stupor. “Are they even cooler that the ball of light?”

“I’d say, listen! ‘Alteration Spell: Oakhide. Increases the caster’s natural resistance to all physical damage by forty percent.’ And this one,” she flipped several pages to another part she marked, “it’s another type of magic. ‘Conjuration. The spells listed in this section allows the caster to raise the dead, summon multi-dimensional creatures from the Void, summon weapons of pure energy, and trap souls of thy enemies in gems to draw power from.’”

Scootaloo and Applebloom shared a glance. “Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, “don’t those spells seem kind of…”

“Evil?” Applebloom finished.

“Well, the raising the dead and the weapons part does sound bad, but I am curious about the summoning though.” She glanced at the page as she read something to herself. “Actually, the summoning is the only one it’s letting me read. It says ‘Summon Imp Guide: Imp will protect the caster as well as provide additional guidance on the path of the Necromancer.’ Huh.”

“Sweetie, I really don’t think we should summon monsters, they could be dangerous. Not that I’m scared or anything.”

“For once I agree with Scootaloo.” Applebloom said, “ah really don’t think summoning things from inter-di-what’s-its is a good idea.”

“Alright fine, I won’t summon any inter-dimensional beings.” At least not now, but I really want to see what they are. Sweetie thought before continuing, “Can I try the Oakhide spell?”

“That one sounds fine to me.” Scootaloo said.

“Okay, Scoot, since the spell says it reduced damage, can you punch me on my hoof? Not too hard though.”

“What, now?” she asked.

“Please, I want to do a before and after thing to see if it works.” Sweetie Belle begged as she held out a hoof and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

“Well, if you want me too…” Scootaloo smacked the extended hoof with a moderate amount of force, causing her to recoil with a small whimper. “Sorry, did I get you too hard?”

Sweetie shook her head, “No, I’m alright. Let me cast the spell really quick.” She looked over the details of the spell one last time before she closed her eyes. Once again she imagined herself out in the middle of a beautiful field. In a matter of moments she felt the magic’s energy course though her body, from there she focused it into her horn and molded it into the spell matrix. Her horn flashed brilliantly, the light seeming to completely engulf her body before being absorbed into her hide.

“Ok, let’s try that.” Sweetie said, holding her hoof out to Scootaloo once more. “Try and hit it as hard as you did last time.” Once more Scootaloo smacked her hoof, this time barely earning a reaction. “Neat! I barely felt that!”

“No way, that’s totally awesome!” Scootaloo exclaimed, overflowing with excitement. Without thinking she reared back and punched Sweetie Belle on the shoulder as hard as she could and knocked her to the ground. “Oh no!” She began to panic, thinking she seriously injured her friend. “Are you okay? Please be okay!”

Sweetie moaned as she got back on her hooves, seemingly no worse for wear. “Okay, that one I felt. It was about as hard as you hit my hoof before the spell actually.” Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief.

“Huh. Ya think ah should buck ya?” Applebloom suggested. Sweetie’s eyes widened in horror, she had seen firsthoof just how hard that filly could buck.

“Um, let’s not and say we did, agreed?” Sweetie pleaded.

“Okay, ah was jus messen anyway.” Applebloom replied with a giggle.

Sweetie sighed in relief, “It’s getting late, if I got permission from Rarity, do you think you guys will be able to sleep over?” she asked as she let the spell fade.

“Not to mention it’s still raining pretty bad, I don’t think we have a choice but to stay over.” Scootaloo observed.

“Ahm sure Applejack will be alright with it, she knows whenever ahm not at the farm ahm with you gals.”

“Okay, I’ll head down and ask her. Hopefully she’s calmed down a bit.”

Sweetie Belle trotted out of her room and into the hall, where she struggled to navigate with her one good eye. She made her way to the stairs and did not hesitate to walk down them as she did that morning. At the main floor she followed the sounds of a pair of ponies talking and giggling. She followed the sound into the washroom in the basement, where she found Rarity and Cheerilee reminiscing about school days of long past.

“Oh, remember that goofy tie Big Mac wore to prom?” Rarity giggled at the memory, the blush on her face a clear indication of a few too many drinks, if the empty wine bottle between the two mares was any indication. “He looked absolutely ridiculous!” Sweetie paused at the door, listening in.

“I know!” Cheerilee agreed, also having downed several glasses herself. “He was so skinny and lanky back then. If ponies knew he would eventually grow into his frame, he no doubt would have been one of the more popular students.”

Rarity let out a small sigh, “I don’t know. I might have asked him out if he wore a decent tie, but back in those days I was foolishly waiting for my prince charming. Uhg, if I only knew about his attitude before the Gala I might have actually had a good time there.”

“I’m not sure about your prince, but I do know a secret about Big Mac…” Cheerilee trailed off, earning the immediate curiosity of Rarity.

“Oh this has to be good, is it about his doll collection? Is he really a colt-cuddler like the rumors say?” Rarity asked, leaning forward in earnest.

“No, nothing like that.” Cheerilee waved a hoof dismissively, “and he is straight. Do you remember when Sweetie and her friends drugged Mac and I with a love poison?” Sweetie folded her ears bac in embarrassment.

“How could I forget? You two were simply ridiculous with your silly pet names and constantly reminding everypony that you two were special some-ponies.”

“Yes, well, after the incident I was walking back to town with Big Mac. At first he was apologizing for Applebloom’s antics. Eventually he somehow got the idea that not wanting to be my special some-pony would hurt my feelings. That’s when he told me about his blossoming relationship with the mail mare.”

“Really? Mac and Derpy? I never would have guessed.” Rarity said in complete shock. “Oh, how did they meet, I simply must know!”

“Actually she prefers the name Ditzy. Apparently Big Mac is usually out in the fields as the sun rises, right around when Ditzy is making her morning rounds. Anyway, one morning he heard one of his trees crying. When he went to look he found her up there just wallowing in misery. He asked her what was wrong but she just flew off in a hurry.

“A few days later she came back and apologized for running off on him like that. Apparently a few years ago she grabbed Dinky and left her husband in the middle of the night and came to Ponyville. Mac said she did it for Dinky, her husband’s a CEO of some company and he started drinking when the business started taking a turn for the worst. But after she got pregnant began to drink more and more, and was turning more violent each night.

“One day he went as far as to beat her so bad she was hospitalized for a few days, the result of the abuse is her miss-aligned eyes. Her friend, Carrot Top, got wind of what happened and convinced her to come to Ponyville. Now, after five years, her ex-husband found out where she was living and began harassing her to go back to him, practically begging and sending expensive gifts.

“When she refused he turned violent and threatened to beat her and Dinky for abandoning him, even going as far as to get the courts to give him custody of Dinky. He’s got money so that can’t be too far from the truth. She confided all of this in Big Mac as a way to vent her frustrations and anger. Since then he made his presence known to her ex-husband and scared him pretty good, hasn’t harassed her since. As for why he was doing nothing for Hearts and Hooves day, Ditzy had a full schedule with the influx in mail, so they were planning a picnic later in the week.”

Rarity was silent for a few moments as she processed all the information. At the same time, Sweetie was mulling over what she heard on the other side of the door. She had no idea that Dinky had such a hard time. She was about two years younger than Sweetie, but she was considering inviting her into the Crusaders, not only to help find her a cutie mark, but to be there for her as friends in case things went bad again.

“I… I never knew Derp- I mean, Ditzy had it so rough. It’s a real eye opener.” Rarity remarked sadly, no longer tipsy due to the sobering story.

“It is. You wouldn’t think it, but there are a lot of ponies in situations like that all over.”

Sensing a break in the conversation, Sweetie opened the door and greeted them with a beaming smile in an effort to appear as though she wasn’t standing outside listening for the last five minutes. It was super effective.

“Hey Rarity, I was wondering if Scootaloo and Applebloom could stay over tonight because of the storm?” she asked.

“Oh of course it’s fine Sweetie. Just make sure Scootaloo is properly cleaned of mud before hoof, okay?” Rarity cringed at the thought of having her sheets and blankets coated in mud.

Sweetie rolled her eyes, “She was clean when she came up to my room a bit ago.” She turned to head back upstairs, “Thanks Rarity, we’ll see you in the morning!” she called out as the door shut behind her.

Once back in her room she found Scootaloo and Applebloom setting up the board game Monopoly. As usual Scootaloo had chosen the scooter and Applebloom was arguing that it was her turn with the scooter.

“Yer always the scooter, ah think ah should have it as my piece every now an then!”

“I’m always the scooter because I have a scooter, and it’s my lucky piece.”

“It’s alright Applebloom, at least you’re not always the thimble or the iron.” Sweetie jumped in, startling the two out of their heated argument.

“Yea, but still. A wheel barrel? Seriously?” Sweetie and Scootaloo laughed at their friend’s distaste in her usual game piece.

They quickly set up the game and passed out the play bits. As they played into the late hours of the night, the book with the mysterious ability to escape all damage seemed to watch Sweetie from afar, as though deep in thought.