//------------------------------// // The Town // Story: My Little Pony: Origins // by Hazzel Nut //------------------------------// Scootaloo awoke in the alley, confused and scared until the previous day's events came crashing back to her. Her eyes began to water as she covered her mouth with her hooves, preventing a sob from escaping into the midmorning air. She lost her father, was turned into a pony, chased by a wolf made of wood, and she had no idea if she was even still on Earth. The young filly blinked the tears from her eyes and set her sight forward. "There will be no crying today Scootaloo," she whispered to herself. "You did enough of that yesterday. You are not a cry baby, big girls don't cry. You can figure this out." She took a deep breath and stood up. Leaving her scooter hidden behind the box, Scootaloo slowly walked to the edge of the alley and peered out from around the corner. What she saw took her breath away. Ponies of every imaginable color were milling around the town. A mint green unicorn was relaxing on a bench. A yellow pegasus with a pink mane was pushing a cloud across the sky as a flying gray mare with blonde hair spun past her. An orange pony in a cowboy hat, who didn't have wings or a horn, was selling some apples to a beige pony with pink and blue hair. There were even a few donkeys, mules and cows scattered about. Most of the buildings were plan looking with thatched roofs, but some of them stood out. One resembled a giant jester hat and another seemed to be made out entirely of gingerbread and frosting. 'Well, this is different,' Scootaloo thought to herself. 'I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.' Scootaloo ventured out of the alleyway and walked down the street, scanning the town like a wide eyed tourist. As she looked closer she realized that the ponies all had different pictures on their bottoms. Looking back at her own rump, she wondered why she didn't have a symbol. Her stomach began growling in response. Walking over to a bench Scootaloo sat down and rubbed her belly. 'I would feed you belly, but my beef jerky turned into a bag of hay... And eating hay doesn't sound very good to me.' Her stomach rumbled again. Frowning, Scootaloo took the hay bag out of her saddle bag and examined it. The bag itself looked very similar to what it had been, red and black with a beige strip in the middle. But the words on it were different: APPLE FIELD'S Premium cuts Original HAY STRIPS 'How am I supposed to open this without hands?' Scootaloo held the hay in between her hoofs and- after a moments hesitation- bit down on the part that read "peel here to open." She twisted her head but the bag would not open. She tried chewing of the corner, but the lining was to thick. Flinging the bag around in her mouth was another fail. Finally she tried laying the bag beside her on the bench and and ripping the top off with her hoof, but that only caused the package to fly off the end of the bench. "Ugg! Why won't you open!" Scootaloo yelled at the bag in impatience. "Do you need some help?" asked the mint green unicorn sitting on the bench beside Scootaloo's. Scootaloo nodded as the mare picked up the bag of hay and using her hoofs, ripped off the top and pulled the sides apart, undoing the inner seal. "This would be sooo much easier if I had hands," she said, hoofing the open bag to Scootaloo. "Wha...?" Scootaloo stared back in wide eyed shock. "I know, almost nopony knows what they are. They're kind of like dragon claws, but rounder and not as sharp. There's these mythical creatures called humans that have hands and walk on two legs, and they don't have cutie marks or magic or wings or fur, and they only grow hair on the tops of their heads," She paused to take a breath. "I know, it's weird," she said after seeing Scoot's slack jawed expression. "But I've always found them fascinating, you know what I mean?" "Uhh..." "I mean wouldn't it be so awesome if we could be humans!? Hay, I would even settle for just having humans living in Equestria, you know?" "Uhhmmm..." Scootaloo's stomach began growling again. "Oh, here I am rambling on about mythical creatures, and your sitting there starving. Here, I'll get out of your mane and let you eat. My name is Lyra, by the way." "Uhh, I'm Su- er... Uh, Scootaloo." "Well it was nice meeting you, Scootaloo," Lyra said as she walked away. "You too." Scootaloo replied, still slightly confused over what had just happened. 'Well that was weird. And yet strangely informative.' Scootaloo thought. Turning her attention back to her snack, Scootaloo tentatively stuck her muzzle into the bag and pulled out a piece of hay. She chewed slowly and then swallowed. It was a bit strange eating with a larger mouth, but the hay was surprisingly good. It tasted like a weird mixture of french fries and lettuce, and soon the bag was halfway gone. "It's over, I've caught you." Said a white stallion with a blue mane, walking up to Scootaloo's bench. "Who me?" She questioned, gesturing to herself. "It couldn't be more clear that you don't belong here," the stallion said. 'They know I'm actually a human!' Scootaloo thought to herself. 'That crazy pony, Lyra, must have found out and told on me! I wonder what they're going to do to me. I hope there won't be any experiments.' Scootaloo looked up at the stallion with large, sad eyes. "Next time you play hooky, you might not want to hangout in the middle of town" he said. "Oh, hehe"