Chapter 2
Vinyl Scratch had listened intently to Scootaloo’s story; she smiled at the filly and gave her a hug. Scootaloo had broken down into tears at this point. Vinyl let her cry on her shoulder, the filly needed to.
After a few minutes, Scootaloo stopped crying, wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked up at Vinyl and smiled.
“Fell better?” Vinyl asked. Scootaloo nodded in affirmation, causing Vinyl to smile brightly. “You hungry kid? Let’s get you a good meal!”
The unicorn and Pegasus rose from their spot and walked towards the Ponyvile Library, where Vinyl lived alongside Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. They talked about things as random from weather to music. Halfway there, Scootaloo stopped in her tracks, her eyes darting to an object lying on the ground.
It was a kangaroo Emerald Rifle, the standard bolt action rifle of the South Island Army. This one was special, because it had a scope attached to it.
Scootaloo wanted that scope, and there it was, just sitting there, without an owner. Scootaloo couldn’t help but think about how badly she wanted that scope for her Crusader Machine Carbine.
“You want it, don’t you?” Vinyl asked.
“I don’t care about the gun, I just want that telescope!” Scootaloo said. She looked at Vinyl, waiting for the unicorn to scold her that stealing was wrong, but surprised when she did not. “Aren’t you going to tell me that stealing is wrong?”
“Well, first off, you haven’t stolen it yet,” Vinyl said. This was actually a good point. “Second off? Is it wrong?”
Scootaloo looked at Vinyl in surprise; she had never expected anyone older to even suggest that stealing might be okay.
“Let me explain,” Vinyl said. “Sometimes, ponies in our position don’t have the luxury of right and wrong, you steal food because you need to in order to survive, but you never take more than you need, because you know that while what your doing is wrong, taking more than you need is even worse. The kangaroos aren’t going to miss that scope, nobody is using it, but I know that if you take it you’re going to put it to a good use. It’s what Equestria needs right now.”
Scootaloo wasn’t sure she understood, but she had decided that she was taking the scope anyway. She went over and unscrewed it from the rifle, and dropping it in her saddlebag. She left the rifle there; a kangaroo would likely be picking it up later the morning during the clean up. It was still usable, that was what was important.
“Listen kid,” Vinyl said. Her face had formed from her playful smile to one of deadly seriousness. “Don’t let my smiling fool you, I am not a good role model. Twilight in particular would hate me for telling you what I did... but she doesn’t understand. She didn’t grow up like we did. Twilight and her friends are good ponies, but they don’t know that we don’t always have the luxury of right and wrong.”
“So, you don’t want me to tell her?” Scootaloo asked. “Isn’t that lying?”
Vinyl shook her head at the young filly. “It’s not lying... but it’s not telling the truth either. Twilight wouldn’t understand. I don’t want her scolding you for something I did. If she’s going to get mad at somepony, it should be me and not you. Understand?”
Scootaloo really didn’t, but she nodded anyway. She’d discovered that she really liked Vinyl. Vinyl treated her like she was an adult, unlike Twilight and the rest of her friends that treated her and her friends like they were kids. Never mind the fact that Scootaloo was a kid.
They had entered the library and Vinyl had begun to work her magic in the kitchen, within moments, the entire library began to smell of pure deliciousness. Clearly the smell had awoken Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they trotted down the stairs a few minutes later.
“Hi Rainbow Dash! Hi Twilight!” Scootaloo said cheerfully greeting the two older ponies.
Twilight and Rainbow jumped slightly in surprise, not expecting the filly to be sitting at the table.
“Scootaloo?” Twilight asked in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Vinyl Scratch is making me breakfast!” Scootaloo said excitedly.
“Technically, I’m making breakfast for everypony... it’ll be ready in a minute!” Vinyl said, poking her head out of the kitchen and then withdrawing it just as quickly.
Scootaloo sat up quickly in anticipation, causing her saddlebags to slip, dumping their contents onto the floor.
The Crusader Machine Carbine clattered onto the floor, catching the eye of Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
“Scootaloo...” Twilight began, but was quickly interrupted by Vinyl poking her head out.
“Twilight, Rainbow, could you come here for a minute.” Vinyl said.
Scootaloo listened to Vinyl speak, it sounded odd, those words would ordinarily be formed into a question, but Vinyl’s voice wasn’t asking, she was telling.
The two mares did as they were told and into the kitchen, shutting a door behind them.
Scootaloo quickly pressed her ear up against the door to listen.
“You aren’t taking it from her,” Vinyl said plainly.
“Vinyl Scratch. Do you have any idea how blatantly irresponsible it would be to let her keep that?” Twilight cried out. Scootaloo understood now what Vinyl had been talking about earlier when she said that Twilight was going to have reason to yell at her.
“Scootaloo worked hard to make that, I’m not letting you take it away from her. She knows how dangerous it is, she’s seen guns up close, and she knows what happens if you don’t respect them. She’ll treat it with more respect than we ever will,” Vinyl said. “It’s not like you both don’t have one.”
“We aren’t fillies!” Rainbow Dash cried out.
“Aren’t you?” Vinyl asked. “Rainbow, I’m six years older than you are.”
“Being older doesn’t make you more responsible!” Twilight cried out.
“Ahah! You just made my point for me,” Vinyl Scratch said. Scootaloo might not have been able to see her, but she knew that the unicorn was grinning brightly. “Scootaloo is more responsible than I am, and I carry a gun.”
“Fine,” Twilight said in a huff. “I swear Vinyl, if you do this again...”
Scootaloo heard them approaching the door; she quietly darted back to her seat, picking up her Crusader. The three mares exited the kitchen; Vinyl Scratch was levitating a tray of Blueberry muffins.
“Breakfast is served!” Vinyl said cheerfully. Twilight and Rainbow were faking smiles, pretending that they hadn’t just been arguing. Scootaloo pretended that she hadn’t heard any of it.
...
After breakfast, Scootaloo waved Vinyl, Twilight, and Rainbow goodbye and departed. The sun was up by this point. It was time to go fetch Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom. They were going to help clean up town today.
Scootaloo walked to Carousel Boutique first, and knocked on the door.
Rarity opened the door to find a brightly smiling Scootaloo on her doorstep.
“Ah, hello Scootaloo,” Rarity said. “Sweetie Bell is still asleep, but I’ll wake her and send her out after she has some breakfast.”
“Oh... sorry. I got an early start this morning, and I kind of forgot how early it was,” Scootaloo said.
“Early? Why Scootaloo, it’s not early!” Rarity said. “It’s eight o’clock! Sweetie Bell is just being a... sleepy head. I’ll wake her and have her out in a half hour.”
Scootaloo could tell that Rarity was lying. Obviously, Sweetie Bell was having a “bad” morning, but she pretended to fall for it and thanked Rarity, she departed from the shop and went over to Sweet Apple Acres.
Applejack was busy doing her morning rounds, but she took notice of the young Pegasus filly quickly.
“Well good mornin’ to ya Scootaloo! Apple Bloom’s around here somewheres,” Applejack said.
“Hi Applejack! We’re going to get our Cutie Marks cleaning up the town! I know it!” Scootaloo said, knowing full well that it wasn’t going to happen, but she needed to keep up appearances that it was a legitimate idea, if mostly to fool Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom.
“Are ya now?” Applejack said coldly. “Seems like ev’ry pony wants to shirk their responsibilities on tha farm and clean up fer those kangaroos.”
“Applejack? What do you have against kangaroos?” Scootaloo asked.
“Ah don’t got nothin’ against kangaroos!” Applejack said defensively. “Ah jus’ don’ like wha’ they brought with ‘em. Now go on! Ah actually got real work ta do.”
Apple Bloom came around the corner a few moments later, and the two of them went back into town to find Sweetie Bell, who was standing absentmindedly in the centre of the High Street, looking blankly at the side of a wall.
“Cutie Mark Crusader Street Cleaners! YAY!” Apple Bloom called out.
“Yeah...” Scootaloo said. “Yay.”