Scootaloo tore through the alleyways and streets of Ponyville. Just into the town she had broken into a run, she didn’t know why. Maybe she just wanted to blow off some steam. If her stupid wings would work she could have followed Rainbow Dash! But no! The dumb limbs still clung to her sides and barely moved at all! Her inner voice screamed at herself. “You’re so stupid! Rainbow’s the fastest pony ever! And you can’t even flap your wings properly! What hope did you ever have?!”
She shook her head and clenched her eyes shut, fighting back the stinging sensation in the corners of her vision. NO! Rainbow didn’t love her, the fact was simple, but she still loved Rainbow and she knew Rainbow would have never cried! Rainbow never cried at anything!
Her hoof snagged on something on the ground, and she stumbled. She opened her eyes to see she was headed straight for a large stallion, she only had time to register the red coat and the orange mane before he took up her entire view. “Scootaloo?” He asked in a deep and astonished voice. Scoot ignored him, she ducked her head and skimmed under the stallions belly.
Ow her hoof hurt! She looked for a place to hide, where nopony would bother her. She knew the town better than anyone, when you live on the streets you need to know the warm and dry spots. An alleyway! Just behind Sugar Cube Corner, the ovens belted out so much heat that the whole area around the shop was warm and toasty. Scoot angled for the beckoning alley, she closed her eyes as she reached the layer of shadows behind the building. ‘Jeez this really is starting to hurt now!’
Once sure she was out of sight she dug her hooves into the ground and tried to grind herself to a halt. She regretted the decsision immediatly! What felt like fire sprung through her right foreleg, the pain was so sudden that she winced and pulled her legs back. This ultimately resulted in the orange pony skidding on her side a good two feet and crashing into the rubbish bins behind the shop with an almighty crash!
Scootaloo whimpered as she pulled herself from the black bags of refuse, her right hoof felt as though it were being held in boiling water. She tossed her head around trying to dislodge a banana peel from within her mane with great difficulty. Eventually she left it there, it didn’t matter anyway, it wasn’t like she had anywhere to wash up anyway!
She fell to her haunches, the distance she had run finally caught up with her and her breath became deep and fast as she tried to recover. Her gaze wandered to the right hoof that she now gingerly held above the ground out of pain. Her hoof had cracked! Straight up the front of the shoe all the way up to where her fur began on her leg. She tried to lay it on the ground but upon contact with the ground, the injury screamed in protest. Scootaloo couldn’t help but scream with pain. She seemed to look through a filter of red for many moments, and finally after many excruciating moments of pain the haze cleared again.
“Oww... ooowwww....M-my hoof! Oooowwwwww! Tears began to brim in her eyes from the pain. ‘So much for no crying!’ She thought to herself angrily as she cradled her broken limb. As the tears began to fall, the images of the past day flowed through her mind, using the shadowy walls of the alley as a canvas as it painted the whole image. She saw Rainbow Dash’s face as she looked over the side of the basket, she had seemed kind of sad. Had she wanted to take Scootaloo with her? Then why hadn’t she? “Touring isn’t a life for a filly.” Scootaloo could handle it! She was sure she could.
The orange filly’s wings twitched sadly at her sides. She now looked to her sides, looking at the feathered limbs. STUPID WINGS! If they had worked, Scootaloo would be in the balloon with Dash right now! If they could work properly, Scootaloo could have flown away and not broken her hoof! She was such a failure of a Pegasus, maybe her parents hadn’t died, maybe they just threw her away when they realised she was no good like the rest of the garbage from Cloudsdale, thrown to the ground far below leaving to be somepony else’s problem.
The tears began to flow more freely now, and it wasn’t just from the pain in her hoof. It was from the pain of losing her parents so long ago, being unable to act like a normal Pegasy, and most of all it was because of the loss of Rainbow Dash. She wouldn’t come back again, or at least not for months and months! She’d be a wonderbolt then anyway! Why would she ever consider even talking to homeless, hopeless filly when she could be surrounded by the highest members of Equestria’s society.
She buried her muzzle into her forelegs, wincing from the increased pain it brought to her hoof. Then Scootaloo did something she hadn’t truly done in a long time. She cried. Her stomach convulsed uncontrollably, her voice came out in a distraught moan and refused to be silenced again. She felt cold, her skin was covered in Goosebumps and her fur stood on end with the shivers that ran through her body.
She wept for what felt like hours, simply releasing all her anguish, her pain, every fear for her now bleak future. She became the epitome of sorrow itself, as she simply let the shadows of sadness in the corners of her mind slowly submerge every inch of her mind in grief.