The school bell rang, signaling the start of lunch. The filles quickly filed out of the room to play and enjoy their snacks.
Cheerilee opened up a letter, sighing before tossing it in the trash. Sweetie was naturally curious, and decided to approach her. "What was that Miss Cheerilee?"
"Oh nothing, just an invitation to a funeral." Cheerilee smiled.
"Oh that's horrible, are you okay?" Sweetie walked around the wastebasket.
"I'm fine, it was just a. . . distant relative."
Something in her tone of voice made Sweetie more curious. She was using that condescending tone adults take when they want to make it clear to a kid something is none of their business. That was unlike Miss Cheerilee. The letter lay half open in the waste basket, so she grabbed it with her telekinesis.
"Sweetie, put that down. Now." Cheerilee rose from the desk as the filly quickly scanned the letter.
Sweetie's mouth fell open as she began to mutter. "You're. . . Gerda's funeral? She's your mother?" Sweetie back up, shocked at the revelation.
The two ponies heard a gasp from behind them, and turned just in time to see a horrified orange pegasus bolt out of the doorway. "Scootaloo!" Sweetie took off after her friend, but she had already flown off towards the Everfree.
"Sweetie, what's goin' on?" Applebloom walked over as several other confused students looked on.
"Sweetie Belle!" Cheerilee marched out of the classroom. The furled brow and red cheeks broadcast her anger for all the children to see. The students all fell silent as if in a library. Cheerilee never got mad.
"Me? This is your fault! You're Gerda's daughter!" Gasps echoed across the playground, and students began to murmur.
"Sweetie Blossom Belle! You're coming with me right now to talk to your parents!" Cheerilee marched over and herded her towards town.
"No but Scootaloo—" Sweetie was cut off.
"She'll be fine, but I'm very disappointed in you. Snooping through another pony's trash to steal a letter? Really?"
"Applebloom, find Scootaloo!" Cheerilee and Sweetie vanished over a hill towards the town.
"Great, she could be anywhere from the farm, to the clubhouse, to the Everfree. And she can fly." Applebloom sighed, then sprinted off to find her big sister.
Scootaloo sat alone in a barn in the middle of the Everfree. She was amazed it hadn't been torn down after what happened here. Some blood was still splattered on the walls, crusted and black, from the fight between Dash and Gerda. A couple muddy feathers, once orange, lay half buried in the ground.
A rumbling noise from the bushes outside perked up her ears. Something was approaching the barn. The door slowly creaked open a bit as a timberwolf walked in.
"And here I thought this day couldn't get any worse. Go ahead, try to eat me and I'll fly off and you'll go hungry." Scootaloo flared her wings and stood, facing a window overhead.
The timberwolf twisted her head and made a soft moaning sound, as if considering the validity of the statement. After a tense moment, the timberwolf sat down by the door and made a soft grunt.
"What, you want to be friends now? Or maybe you want to hear about my day?" Scootaloo relaxed her muscles but kept her wings ready.
The timberwolf shrugged her shoulders and a breath of foul odor wafted from her mouth towards Scootaloo.
"For once, I'm not gonna complain about the whole 'stalker thing' you've got going on for me. It's getting kinda ridiculous after all. So did you ever run into a grey old hag named Gerda out in the Everfree? Cutie mark was a law scale—a bucking law scale, as if she ever cared about justice."
The timberwolf perked up and barked.
"Well I don't suppose you ate her for me, did you? Was about this tall" Scootaloo raised a hoof up high. "Was missing a leg."
The wolf seemed to smile. Scootaloo assumed this meant she ate her, or at least knew her fate.
"Well, that's awful nice of you. In fact, I think you've just earned a name. . . I'll call you Nymeria. So, Nymeria, you remember when I started sleeping in the barn?" Scootaloo gestured up but didn't wait for it to nod in acknowledgement. "I had just run away from Gerda, figuring I'd be safe in a new town.
"Come to find out, my school teacher is Gerda's daughter. All this time I wondered how she found me, how she kept lingering around town undetected. The whole time one of the ponies I thought was my friend must have been helping her catch me.
"At least you I understand, you're a carnivore. You don't have a say in the matter, you eat meat, or branches or something, or you die. I still don't know why Gerda did what she did, or why Cheerilee would hide the fact she was her daughter. She must have known sooner or later I'd find out, and expose her to the town."
Nymeria whimpered, surprising Scootaloo.
"I suppose that's as close to sympathy as I'm likely to get from you. So what do you think I should do?"
Nymeria picked up a two by four in her mouth and bit it clean in half.
"Well I can't do that, and I don't want to hurt anypony. I guess I should head home and talk to Dash. She always knows what to do."
If the whimpering surprised Scootaloo, the sight of Nymeria sobbing made her wonder if Discord was hanging around outside, toying with her.
"What in Equestria? Are you sad for Dash?"
Nymeria looked up and nodded.
"Ugh, what'd you eat her or something? Where's Fluttershy when you need her?"
The timberwolf nodded again and headed towards the door, pointing with her head.
"Applebloom fell in the well? Quick Lassie, let's go!" Scootaloo chuckled, while a very confused timberwolf tried and failed to understand the reference. "I mean, lead the way. You seem to know where Dash and Fluttershy are, you show me they're safe and I'll find some way to make it up to you. Maybe ask Fluttershy's bears to stop mauling you."
Nymeria lead the way out of the barn as a very skeptical Scootaloo flew ten feet above her, just below the tree line. Just as they were getting further away from the barn, they heard a voice behind them. "Scootaloo? Are you there?"
Applebloom was sprinting down the road followed closely by Big Mac. Nymeria turned and growled at them as they got closer. Applebloom stopped, however Macintosh just sped up towards the timberwolf.
Scootaloo landed in front of the wolf. "Stop! She's with me." Scootaloo turned around. "And you stop to, they're my friends."
Big Mac slowed down but continued to advance. "Nope."
"Brother! We don't have time. We've got to find Applejack, her and Dash were supposed to be seeing who could buck the most apple trees but neither showed up today."
"Eeyup."
"Dash is missing?" A realization dawned on Scootaloo. " What about Fluttershy?"
The apple siblings looked at each other and shrugged.
"This is bad, but I think somehow Nymeria. . . the timberwolf, knows where they are."
"Scootaloo, is that the wolf tried to eat ya like ten times?" Applebloom walked up towards them but stayed behind her brother.
"Yeah, but now that Mac's here it's even safer for us to see what it wants. Plus, you want to find the girls right Mac?"
"Eeyup."
The three ponies followed the wolf down winding trails into the heart of the Everfree. "Run away to Ponyville, she said. I hear nothing strange happens there, she said. You can live a normal life, she said."
Scootaloo continued to mumble until Applebloom interrupted her. "Uh who said?"
"Oh, one of the orphans. When I was planning my escape, she recommended Ponyville. Short train ride, friendly ponies, normal life." Scootaloo laughed loudly. "She got adopted the next day, looks like she was the lucky one. I'm stuck hiding from super villains, burning down day spas, and now following a predator deep into the heart of the Everfree because it nodded at me."
Big Mac and his little sister just looked at her confused. "Don't ask," Scootaloo added.
They remained on guard as they got deeper into the forest. At this point, Scootaloo was the only one with a snowball's chance in Tartarus of finding her way back out of the forest without help. That was only because she could fly. Where ever Nymeria was leading them, it had to be close.
"Hey Applebloom, this reminds me of one of Featherweight's riddles. How far can you walk into the Everfree?"
Applebloom pondered it for a while as they walked along. "I give up, how far?"
Before Scootaloo could reply, Big Mac answered. "Halfway. After that you're walkin' outta it." He put a smug grin on his face as Scootaloo looked back in amazement.
Nymeria barked softly to get their attention. In front of them was a cave leading underground.
"Alright I appreciate you not eating me, but no way I'm letting you lead me deep into a dark cave."
Nymeria placed a paw against her forehead, and then walked over to a bush. She rummaged around in it for a second before dragging out the corpse of a changeling.
The large muscles on Mac's shoulders visibly tensed at the sight of the changeling. Applejack had told him all about what happened in Canterlot. "Applejack's in there?" He reached back into his large saddlebag and pulled out a torch, and some flint and steel.
"Wow brother, ya sure do think of everything!" Applebloom smiled as he lit the torch.
"Yeah that's oddly convenient. 'Quick we gotta save Scootaloo Mac'y! Let's pack some torches and go buck some wolves' brother!' " Scootaloo pantomimed as she re-enacted the odd thought process that must have led the pair to pack survival supplies before rushing to save her.
"Well, ah reckon if you're too chicken to go in the cave, you can stay out here and I'll save sis." Applebloom smiled widely revealing her teeth. She already knew Scootaloo could not back down from that.
"Ugh, you're as bad as Diamond. You keep calling me chicken and one day I'm going to try knocking you over the head for a change." Scootaloo headed towards the cave. "Come on, let's get this over with."
Big Mac lead the way with the torch in his mouth, with Scootaloo and Applebloom behind him. In the rear Nymeria followed at a respectful distance.
"Hey Applebloom, do you know how fast you have to run to escape a timberwolf?" Scootaloo glanced back at her to watch her reaction. "Faster than an earth filly." Scootaloo stuck her tongue out.
"That ain't funny!" Applebloom glanced back to see Nymeria chuckling. Her green glowing eyes cast odd shadows about the walls.
As they got nearer the central chamber, it began to light up. At this point the torch wasn't even necessary. The walls were covered in a green goop. A black material formed anchor points for the goo, and there was bioluminescent goo on the ceiling.
"Changeling goop?" Scootaloo approached to touch it. There appeared to be a baby changeling inside it. Nymeria barked at her. "Huh?" Scootaloo retracted her hoof, instead grabbing a stick and poking the goo.
"Why do ya got to poke everything with a stick Scootaloo?" Applebloom rolled her eyes
"Well, look at him. I mean, look at him!" Scootaloo poked the baby a couple times with the stick, only then did she notice how sticky the goop was. Had she touched it, she would not have gotten her hoof back.
The fairly odd party continued towards the source of the light. To this day, Scootaloo's classmates do not believe her version of events when she tells them what happened next.
In the middle of the central chamber were several sacs, almost like eggs, with ponies inside them. The rainbow mane made it clear that Dash was in the near egg. Applejack had been looking their way, and began to push against her prison with renewed force. Soon Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie had all wiggled around to face their saviors.
So had a couple dozen changelings.
"Well look at this, appears we got here just in time." Scootaloo turned to face Applebloom. "What does that make us?"
"Big damn heroes," Applebloom responded.
"Ain't we just." By now a semi-circle of changelings had formed around the three ponies and a wolf at the entrance of the cave. The changelings had begun buzzing and chittering amongst themselves.
"Sorry to interrupt, changelings, you've got something that belongs to us, and we'd like it back." Scootaloo stepped into the space between the two opposing forces.
A changeling stepped forward, taking on the form of Scootaloo. Behind it, the elements struggled with renewed vigor to break out and help the fillies. "This isssss the Queen'sss will. You cannot hope to thwart Queen Chrysssalissss."
"You see the pony with a torch and the really big muscles? Now I'm not saying you weren't easy to find, but it was kind of out of his way and he didn't want to come. Big Mac's looking to kill some changelings. So really, it's his will you should be worried about." Scootaloo looked past the changeling to Twilight. "I've got to say, Twilight, your talent for getting into trouble is near miraculous."
"I've heard enough. Changelingssss, attack!"
The wave of changelings began transforming to match their opponents. A dozen big macs, and half a dozen Scootaloo's and Applebloom's surged forward. In the confusion, everypony was soon not sure if they were attacking the right ponies.
Scootaloo took to the air, maneuvering her smaller form with ease around the confines of the cave. Her time training with Dash made her more agile then the changelings that took flight after her. She carefully maneuvered to kick them and knock them down within reach of Big Mac, who was pulling no punches. She wasn't sure if changelings had ribs, or an exoskeleton, but from the cracking sound below she could only hope Chrysalis provided excellent medical coverage.
Applebloom stayed near her brother, or at least she thought it was until he kicked her across the cave. Rising back to her feet, she ran into a crowd of Applebloom's and began fighting them, getting lost in the confusion. She had never been a fighter, nor did she have much talent, but she would not fail her Big Sis.
Big Mac stuck to only attacking the other Big Mac's. One of the real fillies might mistake him for a changeling and attack him, and if he bucked one of the kids. . . Putting his head back in the fight, he continued to smack away the stallions and clear a path towards Twilight. He could really use some magic right about now.
Nymeria wove through the changelings. They smelt wrong to her canine senses. It was easy for her to tell the ponies from the changelings. She viciously attacked them, not even pretending to care for their safety like Big Mac was. While the other ponies struggled to pick out targets, and incapacitate without killing, Nymeria was on a rampage. In only a couple minutes there were only three ponies left. The real Big Mac, Applebloom, and Scootaloo. The rest of the changelings were defeated, fleeing if they were still able.
As Big Mac and Applebloom worked on freeing the elements of harmony, Scootaloo followed Nymeria towards the back wall of the cave. She began digging into the wall, moving some rocks and dirt aside, until a small alcove was revealed. Out of the hole in the wall walked five timberwolf pups.
Fluttershy landed over next to Scootaloo. "Fluttershy, she lead us here to save her pups."
Fluttershy walked over to Nymeria and held a conversation only she could understand. "That's right Scootaloo. The changelings scared off the rest of her pack. She saw them bring us in here, and when she smelt you in the forest she figured you were her last hope."
"Heh, well tell her thanks. I'm just glad she's done trying to eat me." Scootaloo grinned sheepishly.
"Oh Scootaloo, she says her family will stay away from ponies from now on. In fact, she said to tell you that you're part of her pack now." Fluttershy smiled at the mother and her pups rested in the corner of the cave.
"I guess stranger things have happened." Scootaloo turned to see Twilight. "And I hope these 'strange things' stop before they give me an aneurysm."
"Scootaloo, that was very brave of you. I'll be sure to include this in my next friendship report. . . wait, what day is it? Oh no, I'm late! I'm late!" Twilight started hyperventilating at a crisis only she was aware of, until Fluttershy went to calm her down.
"Good work Squirt, I guess I owe you one now. I totally could have handled it, if I hadn't been napping. Those cheaters. . ." Dash scooped up Scootaloo and hugged her.
"Best. Sister. Ever!" the two pegasi cheered.