//------------------------------// // Princess Celestia // Story: The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo // by defender2222 //------------------------------// "What is this place?" Twilight asked, looking around the dark wing of the library. Twilight had always prided herself on knowing every inch of the library (having studied it thoroughly while other unicorns were doing silly things like developing social skills) and she swore she had never seen this room before. Yet everything within fit perfectly with the architecture. The only main difference was the great door that sealed the wing off from the rest of the royal library and the fact that not a single window dotted the wall. "This wing holds many banned texts," Celestia said softly, the glow of her horn guiding the way through the darkened shelves. "Within this room are works that have inspired great crimes and tell of dark spells. Only a few eyes have gazed on these lost works and it is sad that some ponies have gone mad reading the words written on the many pages that fill these shelves." "...eeeeeeeeeee!" Twilight squealed like a filly as a Joustin' Beaver concert. "Yes," Celestia said dryly. "Now then, I have brought you here because of your search for the origins of Scootaloo." "You aren't going to tell me she is a toy, are you? Because Tydal and that crazy human already tried that." Celestia blinked. "Crazy human? Which one?" "The blonde one with the beard… he kept complaining about something called TVTropes?” "Ah, Discord’s father. I hadn’t realized he was around… I would have invited him for brunch.” Twilight didn’t have time to ask Celestia what THAT meant. “Well, don't worry my faithful student, I am not going to tell you Scootaloo is a toy." Celestia paused, lighting a candle and pulling out a large tome from a shelf. "I am afraid her origin is much darker than that." Celestia flipped through the pages of the book. "You know much about the war with Discord and how Luna and I used the Elements of Harmony to defeat him because he refused to pay Luna back child support. What you do not know is that there were ponies that sided with him… the reasons why are lost to history and even I do not know their thought process, but the fact remains that there were ponies that stood against us and with Discord." "Wait, what do you mean, child support?" "After Discord was imprisoned these ponies were sent to live in towns or 'districts' where they could be observed carefully." Celestia lowered her head. "I wish I could allow them into Equestria but they cannot be trusted, even now that many years have gone by and many generations have been born. It is safer to keep them isolated in crummy houses where their hate can fester instead of bringing them here and treating them nicely." Twilight frowned. "Can we go back to the child support thing? Because I've been hearing rumors-" "I am ashamed to admit this next part, Twilight... but you deserve to hear the truth." Celestia cleared her throat. "The noble houses of all three tribes of ponies demanded that the traitors be punished for siding against us. Thus, every 10 years, we hold the Starving Games." "The what now?" Twilight said (she had been looking to see if there was a book on alicorn genealogy). "The Starving Games. 2 tributes from each district are gathered and all of them are pitted against each other in an arena. The winner is allowed to move to Equestria, for they have shown they are strong and noble." "And what happens to the others? Do they go back to their districts?" "Well... parts of them do." "...EWWWWW!" She scrambled back from her mentor/potential aunt in horror. "You have mares and stallions fight to the death for sport?" Celestia laughed. "Of course not! Twilight don’t be absurd!" "Whew!" "We use children." ~4 Years Ago...~ "Welcome, my fellow Equestrians! I'm Fancy Pants." "And I am Prince Blueblood!" "And welcome to the 99th annual Starving Games!" The two ponies were seated above a cheering crowd that had lined the streets of Canterlot in order to watch the festivities. Many of them were waving banners or holding up foam hooves that listed the district they were cheering for. It was a festive atmosphere and all the ponies were cheering and waving their arms and generally acting like morons. "Yes, it is hard to believe but 10 years had come and gone and it is time to watch children brutally murder each other! I know I’m excited and I am sure all of you watching are too! And, it goes without saying, we are horrible, horrible ponies!" Blueblood nodded. "Indeed, but hey, at least we are jolly about it!" "That is true.” Fancy Pants turned to watch the parade of tributes as they rode down the street in parade floats (followed by giant balloons shaped like Celestia and several marching bands… oh, and the Shriners were there too!). “We can now see all the fillies and colts that will be fighting each other coming down the street, leading this horrible Parade of Death. Now, the talk of the Games is a young filly named Scootaloo. She ruffled some feathers-" "No pun intended!" Blueblood laughed. "-when she bailed on her district and joined District 13. Many feel that she only did that to better her chances of surviving, since District 13 already is overloaded with superstars." "That's right, Fancy Pants. Of course, it didn't help that she announced her choice via the controversial 'The Decision' program." Fancy Pants nodded. "That is right. Oh, there is Scootaloo now!" The orange filly in question was riding in a chariot being pulled by castrated royal guards (but hey, at least they weren't fighting other ponies for the pleasure of others). She was dressed in a brilliant black dress with peacock feathers and sequins lining the edges. "Wait a minute... the royal guards are castrated?" "Yes. Time honored tradition. Cadence was quite upset when she found out." "Why would she... oh." "There you have it, folks," Fancy Pants said as the last float turned towards the stadium that would be holding the contest. "Those are your tributes for the 99th edition of the Starving Games. They may be wearing the finest garments-" "Supplied by Rarity's Boutique in Ponyville.” Blueblood said. “Rarity's: If you could only pick one dress to wear before you went off to brutally murder colts and fillies, make it a Rarity!" Fancy Pants nodded. "Yes indeed and I cannot stress enough... we are all horrible, horrible ponies." "Truly horrible," Blueblood echoed. "Some of us more horrible than others." "I know what you are referring to and I will remind you that they never proved that hooker wasn't already dead before she got in my bathtub." "...that really doesn't make things any better, Prince Blueblood. In fact it makes it a lot worse." "Princes Celestia, I'm confused." ~MC~MC~MC~ "Why, whatever about, Twilight?" Celestia said softly, flipping to the next page of the book, which depicted Scootaloo riding through the streets of Canterlot. "You make it sound like these Starving Games are well known... but why have I never heard of them? I mean, I've lived in Canterlot my entire life!" "Oh, there is a perfectly reasonable answer to that..." ~MC~MC~MC~ Spike slowly walked up to his friend, nudging her gently. They were in Twilight’s bedroom, a mountain of books surrounding them. "Twilight, don't you want to go outside and watch the parade? Moondancer said there would be tributes... I assume she meant tribute bands. You think they'll have a Crazy Moonwalker tribute?" Twilight shook her head in annoyance. "Spike, I don't have time to worry about tribute bands or parades! I found this spell that turns blue sweaters red and I need to master it!" "But... but you don't even wear sweaters!" "I don't right now, but you never know!" ~MC~MC~MC~ Twilight huffed. "That spell was an important one, no matter what Spike says." Celestia merely smiled. "So, you are telling me that Scootaloo was a tribute in a 'game' where fillies and colts killed each other for sport?" "Indeed. I am not proud of it and I hope by the time the next set of games are scheduled to begin Luna and I can get them outlawed." "So I am assuming Scootaloo won the game, since she isn't, you know, dead." "Well..." Twilight's eyes widened. "You don't mean she's a zombie, do you? Because Spike will never let me live it down if she is." Celestia laughed. "No, no... it's just that Scootaloo won in a... clever way..." ~MC~MC~MC~ Scootaloo panted hard. It had been a grueling 5 days and every muscle in her body had protested at some point. Her stomach felt like it was going to collapse upon itself and her flank was covered in cuts and burns. She could feel the blood and mud drying on her hooves and her rattled, sleep deprived mind churned with memories of all the fillies and colts that had died playing the Starving Games. The battles had been brutal (especially after District 9 got those mech walkers) and Scootaloo wondered if she would be able to survive her wounds even if she did win. Only she and another pony, a buff, rude pegasus filly named Ann Tagonist, remained. The two were staring each other down, waiting for the other to make a move. Scootaloo wore a set of wing blades while Ann was sporting a nasty looking mask that had a buzz saw attached to it. "You can't win," Ann said with a laugh. "I am going to kill you. Then I am going to skin you. Then I am going to use that skin to make cheap imitation wallets." "No chance. If I’m made into a wallet it is going to be a classy one," Scootaloo said sternly, never letting her eyes leave her opponent. "I've already won." "And how do you figure that?" "Because before we entered the arena, I bribed the refs." Ann only had a second to blink in confusion before a ref appeared from behind a bush and shot her in the head. "There you have it!" Fancy Pant called out. "Using a little known move known as 'cheating' Scootaloo has managed to win the 99th annual Starving Games." "Well... that was anticlimactic." "Sorry, but that is how it went." "So then Scootaloo came to Ponyville?" "Of course! As her prize for being the best serial killer, Scootaloo was allowed to leave her distract and live with civilized ponies!" “Civilized… sure…” It had been two days since Scootaloo had won the Starving Games and now she was in her new home town of Ponyville, meeting many of the fillies and colts that would be her classmates. "Hi, I'm Sweetie Belle!" the white unicorn said happily, running over to great the new arrival. "My mommy and daddy were cheering for you when you were slitting all those little ponies' throats. You want to be friends?" Scootaloo grinned just a bit too widely. "Of course! I would love nothing more than to be friends with one of the ponies who supported the brutal competition that forced me to murder innocent fillies and colts, all of which has left me scarred for life." "....cool!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed in glee. ~MC~MC~MC~ "And that, Twilight Sparkle, is the secret origin of Scootaloo." The unicorn scratched her head. "I... I don't know what to believe. I mean, you have this book that supports everything you said..." Twilight looked down at the tome, flipping through several pages. Before Scootaloo’s section there were entrees all the other 98 winners of the Starving Games, each one regressing in detail till the first entry was little more than a stick drawing. "Twilight, I have never lied to you," Celestia said. "You just withheld information and told me to go make friends when Nightmare Moon was coming." Celestia grimaced. "Yeah. But listen to me, my faithful student... you are like family to me... I would never lie to you." "When you say family..." "Now I will send you back to Ponyville, secure in the knowledge of Scootaloo's origins." "Do you think of me like daughter or a cousin... or as your niece because I'm really Luna's daughter?" "Goodbye Twilight," Celestia said, her horn glowing as she sent the unicorn warping back to the Ponyville library. She managed to last 10 seconds before she burst into laughter. "I take it the prank was a success?" Luna asked, trotting into the wing with Tydal and Cadence close behind. "It better, with how much I spent!" Celestia said. She closed the book she had commissioned to have created and made a mental note to have it moved to her private study as a souvenir of her best prank yet. "I can't believe you had them build a whole new wing to the royal library just for your gag," Cadence said. Luna nodded. "And only in 7 hours... that is quite a feat." "Indeed," Celestia said. "It cost quite a bit to get this all built in such a short amount of time. Equestria is bankrupt now but at least I managed to pull a prank on Twilight." "It is a family tradition," Cadence said. Celestia turned to Tydal. "By the way, I'm going to need to borrow about 10,000,000 bits to cover our nation debt for the year..." "Of course you do," Tydal grumbled.