//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 — The First Member // Story: Dictators Of Ponyville // by Dragon-In-Black //------------------------------// Kludgetown, Badlands, 8 months later. Scootaloo was sitting in her room with her journal wide open. She’d been writing a few sentences that she needed to get off her chest. It was therapeutic. But she had stopped as she had no idea what to write. Irritated, she put the quill down and placed the journal on her desk and walked to the window. ‘Eight months... eight months since the ponies of Ponyville shunned us. Eight months since we were forced to leave our home.’ Scootaloo felt her face darkening. It was getting increasingly hard to control her emotions. Sure, she had a temper, every pony and her friends, knew this more than any creature else. But this wasn’t common anger that any regular pony had. No. This was dangerous. This was anger that made ponies do things that they felt satisfied with at the moment. But after the fact, they’d realise what they’d done. But Scootaloo wouldn’t go that far. No. She’d never seriously hurt the ponies be it physically or mentally. She would never go that far. She felt heartache when she thought about to things she had wanted to do to them. There had been a point in time when she had wanted to do those things, but as she matured, she realised that it would be taking things too far. The orange filly noticed the airships flying overhead and briefly wondered how she would take down the Storm King. As she calmed down, she realised that she wouldn’t be able to face him head-on, but she knew that the arrogant buffoon was a threat to her plans. She needed him out of the picture so she could commit the coup against Ponyville. ‘I need to tread carefully. He might be on to me.’ Scootaloo thought with furrowing brows. While she doubted the Storm King knew of her entire existence, she had a feeling that her selling highly illegal weapons—In Storm King’s eyes—had brought attention to her indirectly. There had been an increase in Storm soldiers roaming around day and night patrolling every possible market area, alleyway, restaurant, bar, pub, you name it. This increase created a downside; selling the weapons was a lot more dangerous and could mean prison time if she wasn’t careful. Not just for her, but for the blacksmith shop, clients, and potential future clients. However, the upside was that the Storm King wouldn’t rule for long. Soon, he would fall. He would fall for all of Equestria to see. They would see their King be thrown out with humiliation on his face. They would realise what a buffoon he was, and they would ask themselves; “why did we ever allow him to rule?” causing the ego that the former King at that point, to falter further. Yes. That would be good. Getting humiliated by a filly that knew what she was doing. She would be the greatest ruler there ever was in history! There would be books about her, there would be creatures who would worship her, there would be— “Scoots?” Scootaloo turned to see Sweetie Belle standing in the doorway with a look of confusion on her face. “Oh, hello there Sweetie, sorry that I didn’t notice you. Did ya wait long?” The filly asked the becoming model. “Oh, not at all. I just wanted to make sure everything was alright with you. You know, it’s been a while since we did anything together. Would you like to do something soon?” Scootaloo internally sighed. It had become a regular theme from Sweetie Belle that she’d ask if they wanted to do anything. Most of the time, Scootaloo would say she was busy, but there had been times she had accepted. Today would be one of those times. It had been too long. “You know what? It’s been too long. What did you plan?” She smiled when she saw Sweetie Belle’s eyes widen in shock and happiness before letting out a squeal. “Oh, I found this awesome golf place we could go to! They serve cold drinks with delicious food and they have a VIP hotel that we can stay in for a week. It’ll be like a vacation!” Scootaloo had to admit, it sounded lovely. While she may not be a huge golf fan, she wouldn’t mind if it meant catching up to the girls a bit. Staying away from the house for a week would do her some good. It would certainly help her deteriorating mental health. “I may not be good at golf, but it sounds fun.” Scootaloo smiled. “Have you asked Applebloom?” “Yes I have, it seems like she got time off from work as she’s been looking forward to it.” Sweetie Belle Smiled with stars in her eyes. “What about you, gotten any time off?” “Well, my job is stable in the sense that I can work whenever I want to but because I have been working for months on end, my boss has asked me if I wanted to take a break for the last few weeks. Now I have a good reason to rest.” It wasn’t a lie, her boss had grown fond of her and had voiced his worry over her working too much. Both making the weapons, and selling them late at night to creatures who would do Celestia knows what. Because of this, her boss offered to give her a few days of rest but she refused. Because of this, she’s stacked up a few weeks' worths of rest. Sweetie Belle smiled. “Well, that does it, whenever you tell your boss you want a day off is the day we will leave.” The orange filly smiled at her friend and glanced at the calendar. It was Tuesday. She could leave and tell her boss that she wouldn’t be available for a week which no doubt would relieve him. “We’ll leave tomorrow then. I have no problems informing him today as he is expecting me about some affairs he wants me to do. I’ll leave now as it's getting late.” Scootaloo said, grabbing the knife that she kept with her at all times these days. She’d gotten quite paranoid. Sweetie Belle noticed Scootaloo grabbing the knife from the desk but didn’t say anything. “Great! Well, then I’ll inform Applebloom to pack the bags and prepare for tomorrow.” She left the room with a wave and the orange-coated filly waved back while she felt slight panic. Her friend saw the knife. It looked like it at least. No. Her friend did see it. Would she inform Applebloom? No matter. If she left quickly, she wouldn’t have to worry about it. She did just that and didn’t look back as she partially jogged away from the house and moved further into the town, noticing the Storm soldiers marching around while questioning anyone who looked even remotely suspicious. ...by their standards. However, as she continued to make her way inside the dark alleys of Kludgetown, she realised how quiet it started to become. Kludgetown was known for being loud and boisterous. This was a fact every creature accepted when coming here. Scootaloo certainly accepted it, Applebloom was used to it because she had lived and worked on the farm. Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, had a harder time accepting it as she wasn’t used to the loud noises. Sure, she could be loud, but that was because she dictated her voice to be that way. The creatures here... they weren’t aware, or had no control over their voices the same way the unicorn filly did. Nonetheless, Sweetie Belle adapted. However, the quietness was enough to set Scootaloo on edge. Too quiet. When she got into a large opening, revealing four walls around her with two places to leave; the one behind her and the one in front of her, close to a large container filled with trash. This felt wrong. Slowly, she grabbed the knife and glanced carefully around, expecting an enemy to jump out and attack her. It was late at night as well. Meaning that the crime rate would be exceedingly high at this point. “I know you are out there,” Scootaloo calmly said, with her posture stiff. She didn’t know what made her say it, and she certainly didn’t expect a reply back. “You do, do you?” Came a voice she recognised. She turned in the direction of the voice and felt complete and utter confusion when she saw that it was the cat of all creatures. More specifically, the cat that had sold them the house; their neighbour. What was he doing here? “Capper... what are you doing here?” At first, he didn’t respond. The silence felt deafening, but he did speak up but avoided the question. “I have heard rumours of a resistance against the Storm King has been in the works for a while now,” Capper claimed with a grin on his face. “What do you know about it?” Scootaloo raised a brow. She knew what he was talking about. There was a group called Sombra’s Hoof that wanted to dethrone Storm King, but to her knowledge, they weren’t successful and needed a new leader after one of them had disappeared under mysterious... circumstances. She had planned on recruiting them for her cause. If they were as good as she’s heard from others, then they were worth gaining the trust of. “Just that they haven’t been successful in dethroning Storm King,” The cat whistled. “You know your stuff, but I believe you want them to have a different goal.” She felt her irritation come back to her tenfold but she didn’t lash out. she controlled her emotions. He had hit the nail in the coffin. “Maybe it is true, why would you insinuate this?” The filly asked. To her surprise; he got down on one knee and spoke; “If that is the truth, then I would be more than willing to join you in any way shape or form. You see, I’m tired of living under the Storm King’s rule. His tyranny has driven a wedge between us and him and the rule is on the brink of collapse. I want to be one of the contributing creatures that make him fall to the ground. To achieve this I realise I need a leader who is strong and unafraid. That Is where You fit the category—” “Okay, I get it!” The filly cried out frustratedly. “You want to join, your in. Welcome to the Crusaders Democratic Party!” Capper smiled and bowed to his newfound leader. Unaware to the filly, however, there was an alicorn on top of a roof overlooking the lot they were in.