Just outside the quiet town of Ponyville lay Ponyville Lake. During the day, the lake was usually brimming with Ponyvillians enjoying the natural source of water. Older stallions and mares would take a stroll around it’s perimeter, while keeping a keen eye on their colts and fillies who were splashing through it’s clear, warm water. The more adventurous ponies would go in search of long forgotten paths hidden in the luscious, green brush of the surrounding woods. At night, after all the ponies returned home, the surface of the lake became so flat and clear, anypony could have a difficult time telling the sky from the water.
Tonight, like most nights, the stars and the moon Luna had arranged in the sky were casting their mysterious beauty over the sleepy land of Equestria. Silver rays glistened on the leaves of the trees, the midnight dew reflecting its clarity in every direction lighting up the air. The weather pegasi had done an exceptional job clearing the sky, and the brilliant display shone brightly down on the earth below. Bright enough that anypony, if they wanted to, could go for a nighttime stroll and not worry about what creature could be hiding in the shadows. Only Luna had the touch to create such a serene and wondrous night.
On this particular night, however, there was one distressed pegasus who was using this light to find her way between the trees. With each step she took her orange hooves impacted the soft earth with a dull thud, interrupting the near silence of the night. The gentle breeze caressed her wings, its fluid like touch massaging each individual feather, cooling her off, slowly relieving her from the stress and wear from the day. Her wings hung on either side of her body as though the weight from the stress was tied to their tips. The only movement was the occasional twitch when the breeze crossed the line from massaging to tickling.
Her head hung limply as she walked down the path. Her purple mane, nearly dragging on the ground, obscured the view of her face from the world around her. A small tear left a trail of wetness from her eye down to her muzzle as it lost its battle with gravity. It slipped off her muzzle and plummeted to the the earth below, dying in a splash among the innocent blades of grass, flattened into the dirt from the stamps of so many hooves. She didn’t bother to look up; the path was well-worn into the earth, and she had come this way enough times before to know where she was going.
A sigh escaped her mouth as she stopped to wipe the wetness off of her face.
“Seventeen years and I still don’t know what my special talent is!” Scootaloo gurgled, holding back her misery as she slowly made her way to Ponyville Lake. This wasn’t the first time she had gone there in the middle of the night. The path around the lake had been a sanctuary for her over the years. Any time her emotions became too overwhelming to control in the face of her parents or friends, she found rejuvenation by taking midnight walks around the lake, surrounding herself with the area’s natural beauty. The pure stillness of the forest tamed the discordant thoughts in her mind.
The trees on either side of her slowly became less dense and finally parted as she reached Ponyville Lake. A gentle breeze rippled the surface of the water causing the reflected moonlight to scatter in every-which direction. She stopped at the shoreline and gazed over the open water, taking in the beauty of the scene. The lake was only a couple hundred hooves across from where she was standing, but twice as long the other way. Normally, the time spent walking around the lake would allow her thoughts to erode into peace, but on this particular night, she knew the same ritual wouldn’t help calm her turbulent mind. Instead, she stood at the edge of the water staring at the surface, her reflection eyeing her right back.
“You’d think out of all things I tried, I’d find my special talent, but no. What were all those years of crusading about?” she asked her reflection. She waited for a response only for her reflection to dissolve as the surface of the water rippled. Only in the worst of times would her reflection fail to quell her internal torment.
“It figures. How am I supposed to tell myself who I am if I don’t know what makes me special?” She said as she flung herself on her back to gaze up at the night sky.
She stared out into the great vastness of the nighttime sky. In the 1000 years of Luna’s absence Celestia did a fine job taking her place, but Luna had a certain touch to it. Each star had an extra little twinkle that made them so crisp and clear; it was like you could reach up and grab one right out of the sky.
She reached up with a hoof in a vain attempt grab a hold of the answers to her questions from the dark abyss.
“Maybe I’m just meant to be a wanderer. No purpose in life, just going from town to town aimlessly whenever I feel like it. Or maybe I’m just supposed to stay locked up inside all the time. Who wants to be around someone as unspecial as me?” she asked softly. The only response she got was the flicker of the starlight and the rush of the leaves as the breeze blew across them.
Raising her voice she yelled, “I’ve tried inside myself, I’ve tried in town, I’ve even tried you, but nothing!”
Venting her frustration out into the emptiness was her last ditch effort. Rarely had she come across problems that couldn't be solved by letting the sadness out. She hoped that somewhere, somehow, some greater power would hear her pain and soothe it.
The light from the moon reflected off of her eyes.
“That’s it!” she proclaimed. “I’m just a nopony. I don’t mean anything. I may as well be a pile of rocks!”
Again, she was met with the silence. The silence quickly turned into sniffles.
“Why is there no purpose for me here? What did I ever do to deserve this fate?”
The sniffles turned into sobs.
“It’s just not fair! Why do I have to go through my miserable life feeling unfulfilled?!”
The sobs turned into gasps.
“It’s like I’m locked to a fate of nothingness!” she cried out. “Like I’m locked inside a damn box.”
The world around the lamenting pegasus started to dissolving into a blurred mess as more and more tears escaped her tear ducts.
“I’M supposed to be the one who says what I’m going to do with my life. I’M supposed to be the one in control. What the hell ever happened to free will? What’s with this stupid town and keeping people cooped up in it their whole lives! Why do we have to be forced into lives we don’t want? Doesn’t anybody realize how much that happens?”
Finally the amount of tears flowing from her eyes blocked the outside world from her. Her sadness consumed her whole life force, physical and mental. Her wailing muted any surrounding sounds. Everything around her seemed to just stop. The rustling of the trees ceased, the rippling of the surface of the water, even the twinkling of the stars. It was as if the only things that existed at that moment were her and her sadness.
**********
“Good news, honey, I got you a job at the cloud factory for when you graduate high school.”
“What?”
“That’s right! Your old dad got you a job at the cloud factory! Once you’re finished in school you can go straight to working right alongside me.”
“Wait. So... I’m going straight to work after I graduate?”
“Exactly. Isn’t that exciting?”
“I HAVE to go to work?”
“Honey, you should feel lucky that you’re able to go straight to work after school. Not many ponies can say that they have that opportunity.”
“Well what if I don’t want to do it?”
“I’ll have no such thing. I got you this job to try and help you have a set future. Nopony in their right mind would turn down a sure job.”
“But Dad, I don’t want to work there.”
“Why not?”
“I just... I just don’t want to do it!”
“Scootaloo, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I had to bust my flank to get you this job, and you’re going to take it!”
“NO!”
“I said you’re going to take the job, AND THAT IS FINAL.”
“No, Dad, I’m not going to take it. I don’t want to work at the damn cloud factory! All they do is build stupid clouds day in and day out!”
“You watch your mouth young lady. That job has given you a pretty damn fine life! It’s a perfectly respectable living.”
“All they do is sit and do the same thing over and over again! EVERY DAY!!! I can’t do that! I’ll go crazy!”
“So that’s it, isn’t it. You don’t respect your old man. I go out and GET YOU a job, and THIS is how you repay ME. When I was your age, I was lucky to get shit from my father. He always told me, if I ever wanted something, I’d have to go be a stallion, and get it myself. Do you think he would have ever gotten a job FOR me? Hell no he wouldn’t!”
“I don’t care! I’m not taking you’re stupid job and getting stuck in this damn town! They start working and never leave. They become boring, mindless, and all the same! I NEVER WANT THAT TO HAPPEN TO ME!”
“Well it’s not like you can do anything else with your life. You don’t even know what your special talent is.”
“WHAT did you say to me?”
“How the hell can you know what you’re going to do with your future if you have none.”
“I-I-I. I can’t believe you... Y-you monster.”
“How’s it feel? Please tell me. How does it feel to have your life insulted, your hard work spat upon by a member of your own family?”
“I...”
“THAT’S what I thought.”
“BUCK YOU!!!”
**********
After lying in her semi-conscious state for several minutes, time snapped back to it’s regular flow again. Whatever she did, the universe heard her cries of agony and felt her pain. Reality smacked her in the face causing her to come to a realization. Her eyelids fluttered open revealing her lavender eyes. Her ears rose from the sides of her head, and the sobs piercing through the quiet of night immediately ceased. She was lying on her back with the salty remains of tears on her face, facing the great black unknown. The once agonizing frown on her face changed direction. Who or whatever heard her pleas made the answer to her problems crystal clear. Why had the answer never been so clear to her before? Why did it take this long for her to figure it out? Her eyes lit up. In that single moment, she knew what had to be done. She had to run away from it all. Everything holding her back. The town, her “job”, her parents. She knew she had to do whatever it took to get away. Freedom was now the most important thing in her life. How dare somepony hold her down from doing what she wanted to do? It was her life and she should be the one calling the shots. She was her own mare.
Suddenly the sparkle in her eyes disappeared and the empty stare into the night sky returned. She realized, suddenly, that she would have to leave her friends, who she loved dearly, behind. From the time they met at age seven, they were practically inseparable. The many crusades that ended with the three of them covered in tree sap without cutie marks were some of her favorite memories from her fillyhood.
“I can’t just let down Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. They’ve stuck with me through thick and thin. The longer I stay here, the worse my parents will get and the more trapped I’ll be.” She tried to rationalize leaving her friends again, turning to the stars for answers. Like the stars, she couldn’t come up with any reasons to ease her sorrow.
She sighed, looking away from the twinkling celestial bodies. “They know I don’t get along with them very well. I know they’ll understand. I just hope they don’t get angry at me.”
Scootaloo grimaced at the the possible reactions of her friends.
“OH MY GOSH!!!” she exclaimed, suddenly realizing a major hole in her plan. “How am I going to tell them?”
She pondered her way through the possible scenarios.
“If I wait to tell them in the morning, I’d have to stay in town, and I’m sure my dad will come looking for me. I can’t wake them up; Celestia knows how Apple Bloom gets when she’s woken up.”
Then it came to her. “I’ll leave them goodbye letters!”