Wings, a Horn and Hooves

by Autum Breeze

Chapter 1 - Filly by the Farm

Lyra breathed in the scent of the Sweet Apple Acres orchard as she walked passed.

The scent was wonderful, something she’d missed in Manehatten.

Her latest performance had gone for a few more days than she’d expected and hoped Bon-Bon wasn’t too angry at her for it.

As she passed by several trees, a quick flicker of movement was caught in her peripheral vision and she turned her head.

It looked like a young foal was running through the trees.

Lyra looked up at the sky.

Celestia was lowering the sun and Luna would be raising the moon soon.

The mint-green unicorn frowned.

Why would a foal be out this late? Why weren’t they at home?

Lyra wanted to follow and knew she’d have to run to catch up to the young pony, but didn’t want to scare them with the sound of her galloping.

Her horn glowed with its golden aura and her hooves glowed with the same.

A second later, Lyra ran off in the direction she’d seen the shadow of the foal run off, her hooves making no noise due to the spell she’d cast on them.

She normally used the spell whenever she had to sneak out of the apartment and didn’t want to wake Bon-Bon.

She caught sight of the foal within minutes. It was a Pegasus filly with an orange coat and purple mane and tail.

Lyra raised an eyebrow. Why would a Pegasus filly be out so late and why was she running when she could simply fly?

She followed the filly, keeping far enough back so the filly wouldn’t notice her, having to hide behind a tree one or two times when the filly stopped to look around.

As she followed, Lyra noticed the filly had two saddlebags on, both filled with a few things you wouldn’t anticipate a filly to have.

There were several tomatoes, a loaf of bread, some sticks of celery and even half a bottle of milk.

Lyra felt a small piece of logic fit in here. Maybe she was returning home with groceries because her parents hadn’t had the time to go themselves.

Though those mustn’t be too worried parents, allowing their little filly to go out this late to get groceries all on her own.

Ponyville was a great place and not dangerous... unless the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony or Princess Twilight were somehow involved, but sending a filly out this late was a very irresponsible thing for parents to do.

Lyra was shaken from her inner thoughts when the filly suddenly left the trees and headed towards what looked like a small house.

Upon a closer look, however, Lyra realized it was a clubhouse.

This only confused her. Was the filly’s family living in a clubhouse? That didn’t seem right.

The filly walked up a plank leading to the clubhouse door, quickly glanced around, then walked in, closing the door behind her.

Lyra stood within the trees for several minutes, her mind soaking in what she’d just seen.

It... didn’t seem possible, but, it looked like that filly was living in that clubhouse.

She couldn’t hear the sound of voices, meaning there were no other ponies inside the clubhouse, which also meant the filly was alone in there.

Lyra’s heart suddenly felt heavy and ached as she realized what was going on.

That filly must be homeless and was using that clubhouse as a place to stay.

And if the filly was living on her own, that meant she was an orphan. No way would parents let a filly live on their own.

Lyra decided she wouldn’t let this go on.

She walked up to the clubhouse, climbed the plank and knocked a hoof on the door.

Scootaloo plopped her saddlebags to floor and stretched.

It had been a rough day.

Once school was over, she’d had to go straight to her job and had been there for two hours. Weekends she worked longer, but school days she could only fit a few hours of work in before she needed to head home.

Her employer never bothered to ask Scootaloo why she worked so hard to earn what she could. He probably just thought she needed the extra pocket money.

If only he knew it was her way of earning a living.

She sighed, reaching into her saddlebag, ready to prepare dinner, thanking Celestia she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders had thought to install a wood oven for making snacks.

While she wasn’t the best cook, she was pretty good and she’d be able to make something with what she’d managed to buy at the market shortly after she left work.

Scootaloo was about to light the wood to start a fire when a knocking came from the door.

She froze. Nopony came out to the clubhouse this late.

She waited. After a few seconds, she decided she’d imagined it and returned to lighting the fire.

Another knocking came from the door.

This time Scootaloo knew she’d not misheard. Somepony was at the door.

Her body started shaking.

Nopony should even know anypony was in here, so they wouldn’t bother knocking. That meant, whoever was knocking, knew she was in here.

She tried going through her mind who it could be. The most likely pony was Apple Bloom or her older siblings, but why would they have come here this late in the first place and how would they know she was here?

Had one of them spotted her heading into the clubhouse? How? She’d learned how to sneak back to it without being noticed months ago. How had they seen her when she was always so careful that nopony saw her?

“Hello?” an unfamiliar female voice called from the other side.

Now Scootaloo started to panic.

Whoever that was outside, she didn’t know them, and that was even worse.

If it had been Applejack or another member of the Apple family, she could’ve lied, saying she decided to have a sleepover in the clubhouse and was going to ask Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle if they wanted to join her.

But this was a pony she didn’t know. For all she knew it could be a bad pony, come to foalnap her. Or worse. Some scary pony who wanted to kill her.

She felt herself shaking. The window was too far away for her to run and the pony outside would see her easily and give chase, no doubt catching her since her scooter was still broken right now.

If only she could fly, this wouldn't be problem. She could just fly away, circle back and go to Rainbow Dash's house and wait the night out.

But she didn't have that option. Curse these stupid currently flightless wings! She had nowhere to go, no way out. She was trapped.

“I’m coming in,” the voice said, before a golden magical aura engulfed the door.

For a split second, Scootaloo thought it was Princess Celestia, she had a golden magical aura, but those thoughts died when she remembered she knew Celestia’s voice and that wasn’t it.

The door opened to reveal a mint-green unicorn mare with a white and mint-green mane with golden eyes and a lyre for a Cutie Mark, wearing several saddlebags.

Her worst fears confirmed, this was not somepony she knew, Scootaloo curled into a ball, waiting for the inevitable.

The other pony was a unicorn. She wouldn't have been able to fight against her magic, so she just waited for the end.

Hoofsteps told her the unicorn was walking into the clubhouse.

Scootaloo was so scared; she started peeing, her fear making her lose her grip on her bladder, the warmth from her pee giving her small comforts of warmth for her last moments.

This was it. This was her end. After all the struggles she’d gone through, all her hardships—

She felt a hoof on her mane and stiffened, bracing for the worst.

“You poor thing.”

The unicorn’s voice was soft and gentle and... sad?

Scootaloo risked a glance up and saw the unicorn was looking down at her with concerned eyes.

Okay. That she did not expect.

It took her so off-guard she lifted her head up to the mare, blinking.

The unicorn slowly sat down on her haunches and gave a warm smile.

She held a hoof up to her chest. “My name is Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings. What’s yours?”

Scootaloo slowly sat up, still keeping her guard up. This mare might be acting nice now, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t turn nasty any second.

Lyra seemed to be waiting for something and Scootaloo decided she’d introduce herself.

“Sc-Scootaloo,” she said, trying to ignore the puddle of pee around her. “Just Scootaloo.”

Lyra’s smile seemed to grow a little. “Well, Just Scootaloo, it’s nice to meet you.”

“No, my name’s not—” Scootaloo began, but stopped when she saw the small smirk on Lyra’s muzzle. She giggled. “Good one.”

Lyra looked around the clubhouse, taking in the wooden stove, the blankets and pillows (Scootaloo had gotten Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to bring those from home under the guise of using them whenever they were tired and wanted a small rest), Scootaloo’s scooter in the corner, a wheel missing from the front and her saddlebags.

“Scootaloo,” she said, retuning her gaze to the filly, “why’re you here?”

Scootaloo cocked a head. “Well, cos I wanted to go to sleep and I didn’t want to sleep outside.”

Lyra gave a tiny frown, then shook her head. “Let me rephrase that: Why’re you here and not at home? Won’t your parents be worried if you don’t come home tonight?”

Scootaloo felt her heart sink and tears came to her eyes.

Lyra regretted asking as soon as the words had left her lips.

She didn’t want to ask, for she’d been able to figure out the answer already, but had felt it was polite to ask, though now she wished she hadn’t.

The small Pegasus’ ears drooped, she shoulders slumped and tears quickly welled in her eyes.

Before Lyra could do more than register this and the mistake she’d made, Scootaloo started crying, looking away to no doubt try as little as possible to hide that fact.

Lyra quickly pulled the clearly distraught filly into a hug.

Scootaloo didn’t reject her hold, in fact, she returned the embraced and bawled into the mint unicorn’s fur; more tears flowing from her than Lyra thought a filly should be able to shed.

She held Scootaloo, stroking her mane and rubbing her back as the poor child cried all her sadness into the older mare.

After several minutes, Scootaloo’s sobbing her come down to sniffles as Lyra held the fragile filly in her forelimbs.

“I’m guessing... you don’t have parents, do you, Scootaloo?” she asked softly and felt the filly nod into her fur.

“When did you lose them?” she felt she didn’t have the right to ask such a question, but something told her to ask, so she did.

“Four years ago,” Scootaloo’s voice answered, muffled by Lyra’s fur.

Lyra gasped. “You’ve been living on your own for four years?”

She couldn’t believe it. How could a filly have survived on her own, with no adult care for four years?

Scootaloo shook her head. “I’ve been living with my Aunt Caring Heart til three months ago. She’s the only family I have left. Dad’s family moved far away years before they... left, and Mom was all that was left of her family, aside from my aunt.”

This brought one question Lyra felt perfectly normal asking. “So, why’re you staying in this clubhouse instead of with her?”

Scootaloo stiffened and tighten her grip.

Lyra was worried now. Was her aunt not caring for her and she wanted to go on her own? No, it had to be something else. Maybe her aunt was poor?

“She’s in the hospital.”

Lyra’s stomach dropped. The way Scootaloo had said those words... they had a finality to them, as if she was saying her aunt wasn’t coming out of the hospital.

“Is... Is it bad?” Lyra asked, knowing full well Scootaloo wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t.

The Pegasus nodded. “She has cancer. They— they say she doesn’t have long!”

Scootaloo stared sobbing again.

Lyra just held her; it was all she could do. Her mind was racing with this information too fast for her to say anything.

Scootaloo had lost her parents four years ago, hadn’t been able to make contact with the rest of her family and now she was going to lose the one pony of her family left in her life? How could life be so cruel to one so young?

After several minutes Scootaloo’s breathing returned to normal and Lyra looked at the filly’s tear-stained face.

A quick glance outside showed Luna had raised the moon. It was getting late.

“Would you like to come stay at my place tonight, Scootaloo?” she asked softly, wiping a few stray tears from the filly’s eyes. “It’d be much nicer than sleeping out here tonight, don’t you think?”

Scootaloo gave a shaky smile. “Re-really? I-I won’t have to sleep outside?”

Lyra gave a soft smile. “If it’s alright with you. You didn’t have any plans, did you? I wouldn’t want to disrupt them.”

Scootaloo giggled, then yawned, snuggling into Lyra’s fur.

Lyra felt a warm flow through her, something she hadn’t felt since she’d first fallen in love with Bon-Bon.

Bon-Bon. Lyra hadn’t thought about what Bon-Bon would think about her bringing a filly home with her, but she shook it off. Her wife would understand.

Careful not to wake the now sleeping Pegasus, Lyra levitated her onto her back, where Scootaloo instinctively snuggled closer for warmth, making Lyra smile even more warmly.

Using her magic, she gathered all of Scootaloo’s things, her saddlebags, the produce she’d seen before and the scooter with its missing wheel, levitated them around her and left the clubhouse, heading off towards Ponyville, the filly sound asleep on her back.

Scootaloo deserved a nice place to sleep. After what she'd been through, it was the least Lyra could do for the poor filly.