//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Retrieval // Story: The Ghost of Chicken Scootaloo // by Betty_Starlight //------------------------------// The yellow earth mare investigates her hotel room from the outside, after unlocking the door using the key in her mouth. She had a high-up red mane, done into a ponytail on her back and a matching tail behind her flanks as she stared at the peculiar apparition before her, after opening the door to her left… It was obviously a brown pegasus pony, but her outfit was very peculiar. She has on a strap-on beak around her face and her head is adorned with a chicken comb, while the rest of her body is covered in the white feathers of her strange outfit with her forelegs free… But this wasn’t nearly as disconcerting to Rainy as how she could see right through this pegasus! She immediately screams, dropping the key from her mouth! “AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” Scootaloo cringes and holds her right forehoof to her ear as she lowers her head and says, “Oh geez, lady! I swear, I’m not gonna hurt you!” The yellow earth mare stares at the pegasus with wide dark blue eyes, “Who are you? Why are you in my room? Why can I see right through you? And why are you wearing a chicken costume?” Scootaloo lowers her hoof and shakes her head before raising her neck and affixing her gaze to the other pony, “Oh, well my name is Scootaloo and I’m a ghost!” Rainy screams again, “AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” Scootaloo flinches before staring back at the panic-stricken mare with wide violet eyes and shouting, “I’m not gonna hurt you! I’m a friendly ghost!” Rainy breaths heavily in and out through her mouth while staring at the ghost with wide eyes, “Uh, okay… Okay… Uh, why are you in my room?” Scootaloo smiles, “Oh, that! Stormy sent me!” Rainy widens her eyes all the way with her mouth agape, “Stormy? How the hay did she manage to summon a ghost?” Scootaloo normalizes her mouth, “Actually, I kinda just found her?” she shakes her head, “It’s a long story! Look, Rainy! You need to reconcile with your three sisters! They need you to build the barn with them!” Rainy smirks, “Oh yeah! Somehow, I just knew this would happen!” she shakes her head and stares at the chicken-pony, “Because I was the only one of us four with the knowledge and skill necessary to build a barn!” she stares intently as she raises her neck, “Which step did they stop at anyway?” Scootaloo widens her eyes as she frowns, “I’m actually not sure? Uh, suppose I should start from the beginning?” she shakes her head and adjusts her mouth, “You see, me and my two friends Izzy and Sunny were traveling west when we came across your sisters and they really need your help! Sunny and Izzy both stayed behind to work with them and do what they can, but uh, I’m a ghost and so I can’t really pick up and move things…” she widens her eyes, “So, it kinda makes sense that I be the pony to come get you!” Rainy frowns, “So, I’m guessing Sunny and Izzy aren’t ghosts?” she shakes her head, “Also, it’s typical that Stormy would send the scariest pony she could find!” Scootaloo nods, “No, they’re not! I’m the only one of us three who’s actually dead!” she frowns, “Uh, scary?” Rainy nods, “Well, you’re not alive, are you?” Scootaloo sighs off to her left, “Well, technically no, but I don’t see how I’m scary?” Rainy leans forward as she stares on in contemplation, before finally asking, “How did you die, anyway?” Scootaloo widens her eyes to the other mare, “What?” Rainy frowns and blinks, “How did you die? I mean, you’re a ghost, which means that you were living at some point, right? How did you die?” Scootaloo starts and stares back at the live pony, “Uh, do we have to talk about this?” Rainy blinks and raises her head, “Well, not if you don’t want to, no? I mean, the only thing that is important right now is that you’re dead, right?” Scootaloo stares blankly at the earth mare as she says mechanically, “Yes! I’m dead now and we don’t need to talk about how I got that way!” Rainy raises her head and widens her eyes, “Uh, how are we gonna get you out of town, anyway? I mean, I can see right through you! Don’t you think that’ll freak some ponies out?” Scootaloo smiles, “I’ll just go invisible! They’ll never know I’m there!” “You can do that?” Scootaloo lowers her gaze, “Well, I did just meet you! It’s not like I’ve had the opportunity to tell you that. I’ll just re-materialize once you're outside of town and nopony is around! No problem! You just trot out and I’ll keep close until that point!” Rainy blinks, “Seems simple enough?” <*****> Rainy trots through the dirt path of Maretime Bay towards the West exit as she thinks to herself, There’s a ghost following me! She trots past the market to get to the other side. She sees stalls on her right and several shops to her left as she walks through. As she nears the other residential district and contemplates, There’s probably still a ghost following me! She continues trotting and stops abruptly to avoid hitting a two-pony driven wagon as it moves from her right to left on the cross-street. Whoa! I still can’t believe Stormy actually sent a ghost to get me! How cool is that! Oh no! Better not let them know that’s neat! Uh, Her eyes widen as she sees the street is clear, and so she begins trotting forward towards the gate again and thinks, Okay, almost there! Then, I’ll see Scootaloo again! Um, probably? Well, she doesn’t make herself known, but I’m sure she’s still there! Uh, right? She starts trotting again and quickens her pace to a slow gallop as she passes by the row houses of her village on either side and nears the front gate. She looks up at the metal enclosure, with a concave aluminum top and rusted iron side poles and as she slows down a bit and exits town in silence, with her eyes glued forward and her mind still racing with questions about this strange ghost she met earlier. She quickens her pace to a slow gallop once again as she approaches a grove at the edge of town. Rainy looks around and doesn’t see anypony there, but she also doesn’t see the pegasus ghost. She stops trotting at the other end as an expanse of grassy plains opens before her and she sees the dirt path leading west towards Bridlewood forest. She raises her chin and says loudly, “Scootaloo! Are you still there? I don’t see anypony around, and so it’s probably safe to come out now!” Suddenly, a brown pegasus in a chicken costume appears from the ether on Rainy’s right. She looks at her and says, “So uh, I guess we’re going back to my old house, then?” “Mhm!” Scootaloo says as she nods affirmatively, and then adjusts the rubber comb on her head with her right forehoof… Rainy starts to trot down the dirt road, leading through the open fields and pastures and the pegasus hurriedly trots over to her right side to walk alongside her. She finally looks at Scootaloo and asks her, “So uh, why are you in a chicken suit, anyway? I mean, can you take it off?” Scootaloo looks over and sighs, “No, not really!” Rainy blinks and smiles dimly, “Well, for what it’s worth, it looks good on you!” She’s not the only pony to say that! Makes me think I should’ve let the living know about me sooner. Scootaloo thinks to herself before saying, “Well, thanks Rainy! So uh, they don’t know about algebra and geometry and stuff?” Rainy sighs, “No, I was the only one of us sisters who learned anything about barns and barn design! Stormy and Cloudy were too busy goofing off and Snow, well, she’s just Snow!” “Wow! So, you were the only one to learn?” Rainy blinks as they continue trotting past a grove where apples are growing. Rainy stops at a tree, turns, bucks it with her hind legs and several apples fall to the ground. She trots over to one, moves her neck down to eat it with her snout as it goes snap and crunch inside her mouth. Then looks to her left and collects two more, one at a time with her mouth and stuffs them in her left saddlebag. She looks at Scootaloo, “Well, I still need to eat sometimes!” Scootaloo grins and nods, “Right!” Rainy trots back to the road on her left and continues to go down it, with Scootaloo quickly catching up on her right. Scootaloo looks over and asks, “So, why don’t you like Stormy?” Rainy starts and frowns, “She’s just so stubborn! I tried to tell her last year that we really needed a new barn with the farm expanding the way it was and she didn’t listen to me!” she smiles dimly, “And now that they need me, they send somepony out to get me! Because that’s the way ponies are…” Scootaloo frowns, “What do you mean?” Rainy adjusts her mouth while continuing to trot and stare forward, “Think about it! I was living in a hotel room in Maretime Bay, and I got a job at the local cheesery. And I’d still be in that room, living my life, if they didn’t suddenly need me!” she sighs, “That’s the way ponies are… They never care about you, unless they want something…” Both ponies begin to trot up a shallow hill with colorful flowers on either side of the road as Scootaloo starts and says, “Well, that’s not true! I’m sure they still cared about you!” Rainy widens her blue eyes, “Oh? Then why didn’t they ever come to visit me?” she moves her head slightly to the left as she says, “Although it is kinda strange that they’d know exactly which room I was in?” Scootaloo widens her eyes as her incorporeal body begins to move through a tree on Rainy’s right as she continues to trot forward and materialize on the other side, “Well, see! They knew where you were! They were watching you!” Rainy lowers her gaze, “Okay, but… I really wish they would’ve chosen to just talk to me, and not only pay attention to me when they need something…” “Maybe they didn’t know how?” Rainy turns her neck to the pegasus ghost, “Oh, that’s just a cop-out and you know it! There’s no reason they couldn’t have just taken the time to come see me!” “And say what, Rainy?” Rainy slows her trotting and stops a moment later, “I uh, well maybe, ‘I’m sorry! You were totally right, Rainy! We should’ve listened to you!’ would be a good start?” Scootaloo stops trotting and starts snickering at the yellow earth mare. Rainy stops trotting and turns her body to the hysterical pegasus. Scootaloo stops laughing and shakes her head, “You don’t really know how this works, do you?” Rainy widens her eyes and frowns, “W-what?” Scootaloo grins as she turns her body to the earth mare and lowers her gaze at the other pony, when she wryly says, “You have to be the bigger pony…” Rainy blinks and repeats herself, “What?” Scootaloo nods her head, “You have to say that you’re sorry for trotting away before they’ll say they’re sorry for not listening to you…” Rainy narrows her mouth, “What? That’s ridiculous! I did nothing wrong!” Scootaloo raises her neck, “Okay Rainy! Let’s just say that hypothetically, we were two yam farmers, working on the same farm!” “Huh?” Scootaloo smiles, “Let’s just say, you and I were farmers, both working on the same farm! Like you and your sisters, except it’s us now, okay?” Rainy takes a long slow breath through her nose, “Um, okay?” Scootaloo nods, “Right! We’re both farmers on this plot of land, right?” she widens her eyes, “And let’s just say that we had a disagreement and rather than stay and work through it with me, you just cut and ran…” she widens her eyes, “Now, keep in mind that I’m still there, working on the farm, right? But now I have to work even harder, because you’re not around! Because you left earlier!” she lowers her gaze, “Now, how do you think that’s gonna make me feel?” Rainy’s gaze grows to piercing while her head visibly shakes with irritation, before she finally sighs and stares at the pegasus, “Uh, you’d probably feel abandoned, lost, or possibly confused?” Scootaloo lowers her smile, “Our actions always have consequences, Rainy… It’s up to everypony to make sure those consequences are good!” Rainy narrows her eyes, “Okay, but what about the way they didn’t listen to me? Don’t we need to talk about that, too?” Scootaloo smiles wide again, “And you will, once you explain to them why you left… It’s called communication and you need it to make any sort of relationship work!” Rainy widens her eyes and leans towards the pegasus slightly, “Wait! Don’t they also need to admit that they’re sorry?” Scootaloo nods and opens her mouth, “And they will! If they truly care about you, which I suspect that they must, considering they knew so much about your new life in town! I’m sure if you just explain why you left…” she raises her neck, “Trust me! That’s how friendship works!” she nods, “So please, just take my advice, and be the bigger pony here!” At this point, Rainy can only let out an exasperated sigh and look off longingly to the right as she says, “I’ll admit that I did miss them…” she looks back at Scootaloo, “So uh, I guess I’m going back home?” Scootaloo grins and says, “Well, if you wanna meet your sisters again, you’re kinda gonna have to!” Rainy gives a wide-eyed start, “Jerk!” “Idiot!” Scootaloo says before smiling and giggling. “Hey!” Rainy says while leaning at the pegasus with open eyes and mouth. “What? I’m dead!” Scootaloo shrugs, “What are you gonna do to me?” she flaps her white wings before lowering them back to her sides. Rainy corrects herself while trying to suppress a smile before sighing and staring pensively to the right again. She moves her gaze back to the pegasus, “Ugh! Let’s just get this over with!” she blinks, “Let’s go home!” (To be continued…)