Kludgetown, Badlands, 6 months later.
Scootaloo glared at the airships that hovered over the town. It was taunting her; daring her to commit a coup. But it would have to wait. She knew that. She was willing to wait for the takeover.
Planning for half a year had made her realise she had far more patience than she knew. It had never once occurred to her that she might have better tolerance than when she lived in Ponyville. Till now that is. The orange-coated filly couldn’t help but chuckle. The ponies of Ponyville were pathetic weaklings that could never understand her pain. Her friends’ pain. Or even pain at all.
Speaking of her friend’s pain, it was no surprise that her friends were starting to grow homesick. She could see the look in their eyes, wondering if they could ever return.
But they couldn’t.
They were banished from Ponyville so they could never return without being shunned by the ponies of the small town.
Or that is the illusion Scootaloo had come to understand it. She couldn’t understand why they would love them for spreading gossip and then the next second hate them when they found out who it was.
Clenching her hoof, she felt the anger spike inside of her like a boiling point. How dare they betray her. How dare they shun them for giving them what they wanted. How. Dare. They. Go. Unpunished!
She slammed her hoof into the wall next to her so hard that there was a hole big enough to look through with her eyes.
Scootaloo couldn’t feel the pain in her hoof. It was non-existent.
Her sister... former sister... Rainbow Dash dumped rainwater on her.
Suddenly, all the rage within Scootaloo washed away like the water over the stone and felt tears well up in her eyes and she allowed them to fall. She started to sob and smashed her face against the pillow in her bed when she had made her way over. She couldn’t face anyone now. She could not allow herself to show weakness to her friends or her enemies. She needed to look strong for the future of Badlands and potentially... Ponyville.
She cried for hours into her pillow, allowing all her emotions to run wild, tiring herself out. When she finished, she felt better. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her back and could breathe properly.
She liked that feeling.
Scootaloo got off the bed and looked into her mirror and saw her red eyes from all the crying she had done. She gave a small smile to herself before she walked up to her desk and glanced at the mark she had been designing for the last couple of weeks.
The mark was two swords clashing, forming an X with words at the bottom; Crusaders Democratic Party. That is what she decided to name her party.
She was by no means a politician, but it must be easy, right? You tell ponies what to do that tell other ponies what to do and the jobs get done, don’t they? Easiest job in the world.
Scootaloo had yet to tell her friends her plan. Their laughter still was ingrained in her mind. Well, she did tell them technically, they just didn’t care to listen. They believed it to be a joke.
Was it cowardice or was it depression?
She shook her head. It wasn’t their fault. After everything that happened, they probably want nothing to do with their family. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that they believed she was joking. The coup would have only made things worse in the long run as everypony already hates them, let’s not give them more wood for the fire was probably their line of thinking.
‘Don’t worry girls, I will make it right. I will commit the coup and make sure they are punished for their crimes.’ Scootaloo thought with an angry look on her face.
Her friends were out working. Sweetie Belle was the sole filly between the three that was making five figures in terms of bits. Scootaloo hadn’t been surprised, to say the least. Modelling was a line of work that could make you gain notability, and if you gained notability, you got more work which equals more bits.
Scootaloo was curious if Rarity had heard of Sweetie Belle being in the Badlands. Modelling was the fashionistas' thing anyways, the white-coated mare was bound to know just about anypony or creature's name in terms of fashion.
If she had found out her little sister was in the Badlands, then Scootaloo would have to make plans to not run into the main six.
She would have to commit some... well there are no laws in the Badlands so she couldn’t be committing any crimes but in Equestria, she’d be breaking the law.
Walking up to the window, she could see the airships flying away, signalling that they were done with the citizens here for this week or month.
‘I will take those ships down, and I will end Storm King,’ Scootaloo thought with a smirk.
She had been researching the Storm King and learned that he had come to Badlands a few decades ago. Scootaloo suspected that he had ruled for much longer than that. Storm King treats every creature equally, allowing them to do whatever they want whenever they want as long as they remain loyal to him.
Scootaloo couldn’t help but scoff at that. If any creature should get that kind of respect; it should be her.
The orange-coated filly couldn’t help but feel her rage come back. The fact that Storm King had everything she needed was infuriating, to say the least. She would need to dispose of him. It will be difficult. She needs a weapon that can shoot long-range and hit the airships somehow.
The filly knew where to get such weapons, but she didn’t know how to build them. She’d heard rumours that there was a weapons dealer that sold explosives that could be attached to any kind of weapon.
‘Soon,’ She thought. ‘Soon,’
Kludgetown, Badlands, 6 months and 2 weeks later.
Applebloom was inside her room reading a novel she had bought from a bookstore. There wasn’t much for her to do in her spare time, so she had picked up a new hobby which was reading. In fact, she realised how fun it was when she’d read a book about a boy who found the perfect soil to grow cucumber.
After that, she had focused on farming books which had gradually expanded into many different genres to which she had no preference in reading material, as long as it was readable.
The other reason she was reading today though, was that Scootaloo was acting a bit strange and tried to get her mind of it. Her mind, though, seemed to have other ideas.
She gave up and placed the book on the bookshelf where it was filled with books.
The former Apple walked up to her window and glanced out to the airships that made sure they were following the Storm King’s laws. She didn’t mind. They allowed her and her friends to live and work there, so she had no problems living under the king that was known for being cruel.
Was she afraid? Yes.
That was something Applebloom couldn’t deny. She was afraid of the Storm King, but not as much when time had started to slowly pass. By each day, she realised that there wasn’t really anything to be afraid of. Storm King was... a buffon to put it simply.
He wasn’t as good of a ruler as the princesses from Equestria, but he was royalty nonetheless.
Speaking of Storm King, Applebloom couldn’t help but notice that Scootaloo had spent an awful lot of time researching about the King. At first, she shrugged it off believing it was just a fascination of the kingdom they now lived in.
Lawless Kingdom?
She didn’t know what to say when it came to the “laws” of this place.
But when she saw her friend starting to isolate herself, work more, research more, that is when Applebloom realised that something was wrong with her pegasus friend. But she didn’t know what to do to help.
Scootaloo was her own filly and could take care of herself. She found work, she helps pay the bills, she helps with dinner, and she interacts with them, albeit, not as much. But there was something... off about her. The young Apple couldn’t find the words to describe it, but something was amiss.
‘Maybe I’m overthinkin’ it, perhaps she just have been busy.’ Applebloom thought with a hopeful expression on her face. ‘Maybe If I go talk tha’ her, she’ll let me now everythin’s alright.’
With that, she left her room and walked down the hallway to her pegasus’ friends room and knocked on the door and waited.
After half a minute, she knocked again, this time, a bit louder in case Scootaloo hadn’t heard her. No answer.
Applebloom tried the door and found it to be unlocked.
Peering her head inside, she saw the books, journals, and drawings that mounted the desk. She glanced over to the bed but didn’t find her friend there. Looking around the room, she realised that it had been months since she’s been inside and decided to take a look around.
It was beautiful. Beautiful by Badlands standards. It was livable though, the Apple had to give them that.
She was just about to leave when something caught her eye.
Turning her head to face the desk, she noticed that there were drawings of a mark. Getting closer, she noticed that it was a drawing of two swords forming an X. It looked like a noble family crest if she would be honest. That’s when she noticed it. The text.
Crusaders Democratic Party.
She felt her brows furrow in confusion.
Since when did her friend read? Read anything relating to politics of any kind? Did Scootaloo also get bored and decided to try a new hobby?
The drawing seemed to have a purpose, not just some kids fantasy.
That’s when she felt uneasy.
Slowly, she backed out of the room. She swore that there was something inside that room that felt angry and wanted to lash out, but nothing happened. She closed the door to Scootaloo’s room and went back to her room, wondering what the mark was about.