//------------------------------//
// Congratulations, You're a Dad 
// Story: Scooters 
// by goddamnAnimal 
//------------------------------//

          A pegasus was working on the assembly line. His job? Putting wheels on scooters. Although, The act would barely register through the pounding headache. He wiped sweat off his brow and scratched an itch in his deep red mane, goggles covering his slightly bloodshot eyes. He sluggishly finished attaching another set of wheels to another scooter, just one more vehicle he has given the gift of movement in the several long hours he  has been at the factory. The bell for the end shift rang, causing a sigh of relief from the stallion. He pulled his goggles off his head and set them around his neck. 
        “Hey Wheelie!” said somepony behind him.
Wheelie let out an aggravated sigh and turned around. Most don’t approach the dirty grey pegasus for various reasons, and thats the way he liked it.
        Behind him was one of the the new workers, a young stallion with a big dumb grin on his face. “Me and the guys are heading down to the pub, would you like to join us?”   The young idiot beamed with unnecessary enthusiasm, Many of the nearby workers who saw what's happened shook their heads and gave the fellow a sympathetic eye.
The grey pegasus known by the name Wheelie barely raised an eyebrow at him. The young scrub looked around nervously. “So... umm what do ya say, pal? You wanna come?”  His forehoof slowly rose up for a hoof bump.
The offending appendage was swiftly slapped away.
The scar on Wheelie’s muzzle twisted as his frown turned into a fierce scowl.  “Get the fuck out of my face.”  He shoved the hapless pony out of his way and made a beeline for the lockers.
“What’s his problem?” the young stallion stared off after him with a confused expression.
“Ah, don’t worry about it, kid, some ponies are just assholes. The world  wouldn’t spin without them, ya know?” said one of the nearby workers who saw  what happened.  
“Yeah I guess you’re right…. Hey, how about you? Would you like to go grab a few drinks with us?”  said the young stallion, the smile returning to his face.
The worker gave a small grin in return “Sure, I need something to relax me anyway.” 
With that the two headed toward the young stallions friends, weaving through the multitude of working ponies and machinery.



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Wheelie stood in front of his locker for a long time.
  Waves of negative emotion thrashed within Wheelie as he tried to calm them.  His paranoia, hate, and rage drowned any normal thought he had at one point.  His head throbbed with an unrelenting hangover as panic began to  quiet. He  wished everypony would leave him alone. He never got that wish of course as his boss came  slowly trotting behind him
        “Hey Wheels, Could you come to my office for a sec?”  wheelie looked over to see an aging blurple unicorn, standing there looking at him expectantly.
        Wheelie sighed. “Fine.”
        They both sauntered across the factory, His boss trotting with a smug air about him. The sounds of machinery clanking stabbed at Wheelie’s head.  The large factory seemed almost claustrophobic with all the  ponies moving about brushing up against him. It took everything that Wheelie got to stop from letting his anxiety from taking root and getting himself in trouble again. 
        They came to a plain  office with a few chairs and a desk with minor clutter on it . Wheelie immediately took a seat and waited for his boss to start yapping at him.
        “You were late again today, Wheelie. Thats the fourth time this week,” his boss sat down in his chair and folded his forehooves together, a stern expression across face        Wheelie just sat there and stared at him, refusing to say anything.
        “Look Wheelie, You can’t keep doing this,  If you keep this up ,you do know what’s  going to happen, right?” His boss paused to wait for an answer that would never come. “I’d rather not fire you, Its hard enough to find ponies  who have talents for assembly but if this happens again I’m going to be forced to let you go.”  His boss fixed a hard stare on him.
        Wheelie continued to frown, “Can I go now?” he grumbled  irritably. His boss sighed,         “Yes, you may go.” Wheelie silently got out of his seat and walked out the door.  



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Wheelie slid on his coat and wrapped a scarf around his neck . He closed the door of his locker and walked to the exit. He stood there in the frigid winter air of the city. A layer of snow caking the ground. contrasted with the darkening sky. The streets were empty save for a few loiterers here and there. He was glad to be out of that Celestia damned place and away from the boss he despised.  Yet his head still ached… He trotted slowly down the dimly lit street and snow began to fall. He needed to drink himself into a coma.


...............................................................


“Do you have an ID, Sir?”
It was a small liquor store filled with what liquor stores are usually filled with. A stallion waited patiently behind Wheelie who had placed a bag of alcoholic substances on the counter moments before. The mare behind the cash register was staring at him expectantly, somehow managing to look bored and serious at the same time. 
Wheelie on the other hoof was managing to not look completely dumbfounded and instead had same hard glare and frown he always had.
“Are you fucking serious?” Wheelie knew he didn’t look ancient but he might actually worry if there ever was a youngster walking around looking like him.
“Sorry sir, store policy.” said the clerk in a rehearsed fashion. Wheelie eyes narrowed on the uncaring clerk. He was certain this mare was fucking with him, probably going to go see her friends after work and tell  them how she ruffled his feathers.
 “ Can we cut the shit so I can go?” Said Wheelie his blood beginning to boil.
The mare tapped her hoof impatiently looking unamused as ever.
Wheelie finally reached his breaking point “FINE!” he snarled. He  began digging through his pockets looking for his wallet. After a minute of frantic searching he spat the wallet at the mare.  “THERE! YOU FUCKING HAPPY NOW!?” he screamed at her.
To her credit she didn’t even flinch when the billfold hit her in the face and landed on the counter. she simply pulled it to her, flipped it  open and  scrutinized the piece of  plastic.
“ That will be 15 bits please” 
Wheelie tossed the money at her and left in a huff.
The stallion behind him saw that he had left his wallet behind and in an act of goodwill decided to return it to him. He grabbed the wallet in his magic and  quickly  trotted to Wheelie who was about to make his exit. 
“ Hey pal you left your-” He never finished that sentence, as soon he placed a hoof on Wheelie to stop him from leaving through the push door he promptly received a  buck to the face.
        
        Wheelie’s heart was pounding, threatening to come bursting out of his chest. His eyes darted around frantically as he spun around to face some imaginary threat.  He found a neon green unicorn stallion laying unconscious with half his teeth knocked out. Next to him was Wheelie’s wallet. 
        Wheelie’s eyebrows slowly began to descend and furrow. In his minds eye somepony tried to rob him, hurt him and his reflexes had kicked in.  
Wheelie picked up his wallet, mumbling a “Serves you right,” to the hapless stallion and quickly sped out the push door and frantically galloped down the street with his goods
The cashier sighed. It looks like she’ll need to contact a hospital. Again.






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Wheelie looked up at the dirty building where his home was. It was  a tall ugly reddish brown building In a severe state of decay. It was the beginning of similar structures all running down the street. 
Wheelie was still panting from galloping all the way from the liquor store. He tried taking a step to the door but ended up on the floor hacking up a lung. His
the world spun around a few times before Wheelie decided enough was  enough and slowly got up. He grabbed  the bag of booze in his teeth and went through the door.
The inside was much like the outside, dirty and smelling of moldy cheese. The place was falling apart but Wheelie was not one to care.  After a swift trot up the stairs Wheelie came to an unwanted sight. The old landmare standing there next to her room  with a scowl.
“Where’s the rent!?”
“Leave me alone.” he seethed trotting past her.
“ You’re two months overdue if ya don’t give me anythin’ by the end of the month yer kicked out, ya hear!”
Wheelie stopped before right before he got to the second flight of stairs,  The last bit of duct tape holding the floodgates together finally tore apart.
And so something was unleashed. Wheelie spun around unable to take the situation, the ponies, the world any longer.
“LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE, YOU STUPID CELESTIA DAMNED CUNT, FUCK YOU!” He roared, he hurriedly ran up the next flight of stairs before the old pony could recover from his tirade.  He came to another row of doors, his sat squarely in the middle. There was a small filly sitting in front of it.
“ OUT OF THE WAY, RUNT!” he screamed galloping to his door. The foal was knocked out of her stupor and quickly scrambled away from his path. He flung his door opened and quickly shut it with a loud slam.


        Wheelie stood there taking deep, deliberate breaths with his back pressed against the door.  His apartment was small, consisting of a kitchen a table, a chair and a dirty mattress. Well, if you’re not counting the bits of filth and refuse at least.  
        Wheelie began to calm himself some and began to slump down. Something caught his eye though, a piece of paper partially stuffed under the door. Finding trash on Wheelie’s floor is like looking for water in an ocean, its a given. The strange thing  was that it was neatly folded in a perfect little square instead of Wheelie’s usual modus operandi of a crumpled paper ball.  
He swiftly unfolded it revealing a note addressed to him and after several minutes  of painstaking scrutinization he finally finished deciphering it.

        Dear Wheelie,
The little brat in front of your door is your daughter. 
She’s your problem now. 
                                        -Leeway

Wheelie managed to blink a few times before he lost control of his faculties and his mind went haywire.
Leeway!?
Brat in front of the door!?
DAUGHTER!?
        Wheelie lost track of time for how long he stared at the note before he got his thoughts straight and came to the obvious conclusion. Somepony is fucking with him. His eyes narrowed as he thought, of course that what this all was, that little twerp outside probably set this up with her friends; learned of his old Flame from somepony or simply made a lucky guess. Yeah, that’s it, it has to be. The rage within Wheelie began to build,  they’re probably outside his door right now waiting for him to poke his head out so they could throw eggs at him or harass him in some other way.
The spark once again ignited within him, he turned around and flung  open the door. 
“Listen you little fucking twerps! You think you can fuck with  me just because……….because…….” 
Outside his door wasn’t a group smirking foals ready to pelt him with rocks or gang up on him. In fact, the only thing in front of him was a small orange filly laying near a paint peeled wall sobbing uncontrollably into her little hooves.
No other sounds permeated the corridor except the distant noise of winter winds smashing against buildings. 
Wheelie stood there silently, mouth agape, his anger diminishing as he stared at the quivering orange lump on the floor. Something within Wheelie stirred in that moment,  something foreign and alien yet familiar at the same time.  
“Hey, kid” He said finally.  She continued bawling on the floor. “Hey! Quit the waterworks and listen to me!” The little filly quieted and uncovered a single, bloodshot purple eye. 
Purple eyes. 
Wheelie avoided the little filly’s gaze.
“Your Mother. What does she look like?” The orange filly blinked a few times.
“Um, sh-she’s a pegasus with a p-purple coat, orange m-mane and golden eyes,” stuttered the small foal in a barely audible whisper.
“And her cutie mark?”
“An Arrow spiraling downward…”
There was no doubt about, The filly’s description matched up with the mare Wheelie knew long ago, Leeway. His mood darkened considerably just thinking about that particular mare.  
Wheelie stood there with an unreadable expression before turning around and heading back into his small apartment leaving the filly confused.
“Close the door when you come in,” said the gruff voice of the large stallion inside.
The filly gave the entrance a blank stare unsure what to do. She realized she probably didn’t have too many options. Its not like that she had anything to lose anyway. So after much internal debate, she slowly got up and walked to the door.

Wheelie had taken a seat on his mattress with a bottle cradled in his hooves when the filly cautiously crept into his home and sat in the middle of his apartment.  Wheelie didn’t know what he was possibly thinking letting the girl in.  He couldn’t think of anypony less suited for the task than him.
“Hey, Don’t get get too comfy, kid. As soon I get up tomorrow and gonna go find your mom and talk some sense into that stupid broad. Then you’re outta here, got it?” said Wheelie in his usual harsh tone.
The forlorn filly responded only by slumping further to the floor. When the filly didn’t reply, Wheelie let out a sigh and returned to his own thoughts. It had been a very, very long time since Wheelie actually gave a shit about something and he was unsure why he was  feeling this way right now.  Maybe it was because he knew what it felt like to be alone in the cold with nopony to turn to... or maybe it was simply because she looked like her.
And If it was one thing Wheelie could not stand it was to see her cry.
“Whats your name anyway?” He decided to ask her.
“Scootaloo,” She replied turning towards the window.
“ Huh….thats a funny name” He replied and promptly tilted his head back to empty his bottle.