//------------------------------// // A Costing Mistake // Story: Strangers In the Night // by Joshwolf999 //------------------------------// Mezzanotte yawned as he woke up, stretching out his wings. He looked to the clock next to his bed and read it saying 1:15, another two hours before Scootaloo got home. Smiling he trotted to his piano, he felt the need, the urge to play something, breathing deeply he began to play a somber tune. He had no idea why he wanted to play it, actually it felt more like a need, as he quickly pressed on the higher keys his smile grew. The mood of the song quickly changed as he placed more force on the keys, picking up the speed of the melody, a stray tear falling from his face as the climax of the song began to fade, the song slowing to it's end. He let out a breath he had no meaning to hold as he let out the last cord, pleased with the song as he wiped away more tears. He closed the lid of the keys then walked over to the workbench to work on the latest instrument he found, a broken electric guitar. The guitar's headstock was broken clean off the nut. Seven of the twenty frets were missing as were it's strings, the guitars binding were in desperate need of repair and a little paint to hid the little nicks and scratches plus to replace a missing the plastic piece "Well, with some good glue this will be fixed easily." He sighed as he grabbed a measuring tape. Writing down the measurements of the remaining sound nob Mezz walked away from the bench and stood before his backdoor, gulping he struggled to grasp the door's handle. "Come on, it's just to the back. If you're fast enough, nopony will even hear you." Taking a deep sigh the thestral opened the door to the backyard. To compare the two is quite simple, the back looks like an unexplored jungle from the Daring Doo series, an ancient wood shed stood tall around the enormous grass. Mezzanotte crept carefully to the open shed and picked through the spare wood planks. "I'm telling ya Bonnie, this is the house that music just came from!" A voice said from behind the obscured fence. Mezzanotte quickening his search of the somewhat rotted wood pieces for the right one. "But Lyra, this place looks like it hasn't housed somepony in years. Are you sure you didn't just imagine it came from here?" another mare's voice asked in wonder. Of course she didn't, I played my heart ou- Wait, why am I getting mad? I need them to look somewhere else. So why am I getting mad? A wide smirk graced his lips as he placed it on his back. "HEY!" The high pitched voice called. "Whoever you are, thank you for the music! It's beautiful." "Your welcome." Mezzanotte called back absentmindedly. The second he realized what came out of his mouth he covered his muzzle and ran inside, the last thing he heard made him feel more confused. "I TOLD YOU BON BON!" Mezz slid down the door, what the hay did just do? Mezzanotte carried the wood to his bench and applied the measurements to cut off a piece for the replacement nob. As he finished cutting off the small notch he heard a sound which froze his blood. *Knock* *Knock* *Knock* The bat pony gulped as he walked toward the door, a third knock caused him to sit down as he was paralyzed with fear. He then watched as the mail slot lifted up with. "Lyra, move over! I wanna-" A blue eye looked at him from the other side of the door in shock, fear engulfed him as he felt his lower body become wet. A scream from the other side rung out loudly before fading, signaling the pony had just ran away. The mail slot opened again as another eye looked through, this one a golden sympathetic orb. It lingered on the now crying pony then changed to a green muzzle. "I'm really sorry about that." The mail slot fell closed as Mezz began taking shallow breaths as he kept his eyes on the door. ten or twenty minutes passed before he could even move from the spot, the first thing he did was clean the mess he made, he then jumped into the shower and curled into a ball. He was seen by two other ponies, and one of them, Bonbon he think her name was, screamed in terror at the sight of him. It was then the memory of after meeting Pinkie Pie came to mind, His mother was so scared, so angry, his tears joined the shower water as he sobbed, thinking of what his mother said to him. "Always be careful around other ponies. They can do horrible things just because of things they fear or have no understanding of." Mezz turned off the shower and shakily flew down to his workbench, Mezzanotte barley flew from fear of being seen by somepony as well as the pain of when he broke it. His hooves were steady as he began to cut off the excess wood. Would it be alright? More ponies finding out about him, especially because of the fact they didn't even speak to him. Well, the second mare spoke at him but what about the first one, the one that ran screaming. The batpony ground his teeth as he stabbed the table three times, he sat motionless for a good long while before continuing to cut the block to that of the nob, the tricky part of course was cutting a square for the metal rod of the tone tuner to slide into so the nob worked just as well as the other. Not wanting to play another song he trotted over to the bookcase to read one of the thrown out books he's made a collection out of. The book was one of a clown pony who hid his face behind a mask so no pony would see just how sad he was, until he ran into a mare from his past. He hadn't even read two pages before a familiar voice caught his ear. "Why are you two following me?" That was peculiar, why would she say that to A.B. and Sweetie? And what about Dinky? "I just wanted to see if you were lying or not, though if your living in this dump, I'd have chosen the streets." A new voice spoke in a condescending tone. "Like totally Dia, this place looks like it's been condemned." A nasally voice added. Both voices then laughed at the stupid comment, the stallion on the other side of the door becoming more and more angry. "It's the inside that counts, Diamond Tiara. Not that you would ever know anything like that." The two voices gasped at Scootaloo's comment. "Like, I'm so sure it's any better inside. Is that so called brother of yours inside?" "Yeah, maybe he's hiding from how lame Scootaloo is." This elected a laugh from the two as they said an annoying rhyme. Scootaloo rebutted. "My brother is awesome, and he thinks I'm awesome. But you two would never know anything like that cause you don't have any older brothers to watch your backs!" Mezz smiled, happy at what she said, but it didn't last long. "He's probably a retard, like Derpy, huh DT." The nasally voice asked. "Yeah Silver Spoon, he's probably so dumb he can't even fly. Just like you Scootaloo." The second those words were said blind fury took over as Mezzanotte ripped open the door... *** Rainbow Dash rested on the cloud thinking about when she would be called by the Wonderbolts to enact her reserve status. She did it, she finally got her hoof in the door, now it was time to act on it. She turned over to look at her home town and found Scootaloo walking with those two fillies; Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Knowing those two would most likely cause trouble she floated down to Scootaloo's house. She was sad at the fact she wasn't really able to hang out with her adoptive sister, maybe this weekend she'd try to get the Applejack and Rarity to take the girl out again for another sister outing. She then remembered something she heard from Rarity, Sweetie mentioned she had an older brother, thinking about it, she's never met him. Pinkie probably has, she'll just ask her later to make sure she has met him. "...he's probably so dumb he can't even fly. Just like you Scootaloo." The two bullies laughed at Diamond Tiara's words Rainbow flew over to cut in when the door opened. Rainbow hung hung in the air as she examined the pony in the doorway, His golden eyes glared at the three fillies before him, bearing his fanged teeth as he yelled. "RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!" The two ran away with their tails tucked between their legs crying as they ran away from the batpony. Scootaloo stayed where she was looking up, The stallion looked up to see Rainbow then... Then he scooped up Scootaloo! He looked back up to Dash then slammed the door shut, freeing herself from her stunned feeling she charged at the door, pounding as hard as she could. "Hey! Let her GO! HEY!" Rainbow Dash gave up then shouted. "DON'T WORRY SCOOTS! I'LL BE BACK!" She then flew off to Twilight's Castle. *** Pinke sat with the others when her knee started feeling odd. "Ow, pinchy knee?" She then shuddered. "Shudder?! Oh no! something scary I never thought would happen is gonna happen!" Pinkie thought on it for a moment and gasped. "Oh no! Something's gonna happen to Waddie!" Pinkie Pie ran to the girls. "Girls I gotta go, I got a pinchy knee and a shudder, I think my friend Deadpool's in trouble!" Before the others could speak Pinkie Pie raced down the stairs, throwing the door open in time for Rainbow Dash to zoom flawlessly up to the others. "Girls! GIRLS! I saw it! I saw it!" Rainbow declared as she tried to catch her breath. "What are ya on about now Dash?" Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow. "I saw the bat pony. The one snatching up foals! It fillynapped Scoot's!" She shouted flying across the room to Twilight. "Twi, you need to have Celestia call the royal guard or something!" Twilight finished writing on a piece of paper then handed it to Spike. "There." She said to her friend. "I just asked the Princess if she's heard anything about this foalnapping bat pony. I don't want this to be like when Zecora cam-" "This is totally different! Rainbow shouted, cutting off her friend. "I saw it grab her after it roared at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon!" "Exactly Dash, why would it scare them away if it is snatching up foals. Plus who has it already snatched up, I haven't heard anypony say who was taken. Applejack you're with me right?" "Twi I agree with Dash. Ya' can trust one of em' varmints father then ya' can throw em'." Applejack stated, walking next to Dash. "Girls, please. I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding." Rarity said, walking next to Twilight. "If there's truly no evidence of wrongdoing then we would be starting a witch hunt against an innocent pony." "I agree with Twilight and Rarity." Fluttershy whispered as she stood behind the two ponies. Rainbow Dash looked betrayed at the three before her then yelled as she flew outside of the castle, "FINE! If you won't help, we'll find somepony who WILL!" Applejack looked at the others with a glare. "If ya'll won't help her, I will." She then ran after Rainbow Dash, not acknowledging the two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, looking at the two sadly they ran up to the other three. "Hey Rarity, have you seen Scootaloo? We were suppose to walk home together but she left early, we saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon leave after her and were hoping she came over here like we planned." Sweetie Belle looked worried about her friend. "Well Sweetie, Dash says she saw a bat pony grab Scootaloo." Rarity informed. The two fillies eyes grew as they looked to each other then back to the three. "Oh..." Sweetie said, looking guilty to Applebloom "Ah bat pony..." Applebloom repeated, sharing her friend's stare. Fluttershy walked forward, looking at the two fillies. "Girls, do you have something you want to tell us?" She asked with authority. *** Filthy Rich marched before the group of ponies. He had told many ponies what had happened to his daughter and her friend and lead the mob to where the monster tried to hurt his daughter. Overtime he told this story to many other ponies he came across until he lead a mob in the streets. He then came across two elements of harmony talking to Derpy Hooves, one of the local mail ponies. "Come on Derpy! It got Scootaloo, what if this monster tries to snatch Dinky?" Dash said, trying to recruit the clumsy pegasus. "He will NEVER hurt Dinky!" The normally bubbly pony growled with a rage comparable to a Ursa Major. Dash and Applejack backed away from Derpy, fearing anything else said would set her off. Filthy Rich lead the mob to the three ponies, Derpy looked furious at the mob then flew away toward her home. "Miss Dash, Miss Applejack, we require the help of the elements of harmony. There's-" "We already know... I saw it take Scoots." Rainbow Dash said bitterly, cutting the rich pony off. "The others won't help so it looks like it's just the two of us" The stallion grimaced and sighed. "Then it's up to us to put an end to this monster." The two mare's shook their heads. "Alright, Let's go. I know where it is." The mob yelled as Dash jumped into the air, leading the group through the small town. *** Mezzanotte hid under his worktable, he rushed under it the second the cyan pegasus; Scootaloo's idol and 'Big Sister' Rainbow Dash told Scootaloo she'd return. His eyes ached for the prolonged force keeping them shut, faces haunting his mind with fear and hate. He opened his eyes to relieve the pain, finding Scootaloo sitting before him with a baseball bat in her teeth. "Scootaloo?" He asked, crawling out from his hiding spot. "Don't worry Mezz; No pony's gonna hurt you." She said, her eyes glaring at the door. The bat clutched tighter in her mouth. He looked surprised at the little filly ready to take on the whole world if needed, just to protect him. "Scootaloo... I..." He was at a lost for words, wondering why when a thought caught him. Why am I surprised, she's my family. When that thought crossed his mind, he smiled and laughed; tears falling down his eyes. "I'm an idiot. But you: you are the best sister anypony could want or have." He laughed, ruffling her mane. She returned the laugh looking up. "Thanks Mezz, I'm lucky to have a big brother like you." She said, puwtting the bat down to hug his foreleg. The batpony returned the hug, the two stayed like that until a loud banging at the door brought them back to reality.