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// Letter 6 - Doing a good deed can be it's own reward. 
// Story: Letters To Celestia 
// by silverthorn 
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Dear Princess Celestia
I guess it's time that I explained exactly why I am writing these letters to you. It started about a week ago. Since my first meeting with the Cutie Mark Crusaders I had heard some of their arguments (I think they call them planning sessions) in the yard outside the barn. There were several occasions where Applebloom or Sweetie Belle would suggest having a sleep-over at Scootaloo's house and she would make an excuse like her parents were away. By the fourth time that set me on edge. I've known a lot of homeless fillies and colts in my time and there was something about Scootaloo which worried me.

One night when the Crusaders had spectacularly failed to get their cutie marks in sword dancing (where those crazy fillies get their ideas escapes me) they split up so that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle could go home. Depspite the fact that Applejack would probably have had a fit if she knew what I was doing I pulled on the saddlebags I had been using for deliveries and started following Scootaloo from a distance. I'm not proud of the fact now but if I put my mind to it I'm like a ghost, or like the wind. Anyway, I followed her as fast as I could, I don't think she even had a clue that she was being followed.

I followed her to the small treehouse that the Crusaders used as a base of operations and watched as she hid her scooter in a bush next to it. I hid behind a tree I was wishing my wing had healed so I could follow from the air as she walked up the steps and into the hut. I waited a few minutes for her to relax (since she was probably faster than I am on the ground, for a filly with such small wings she can certainly move when she wants to). I sneaked up to the door before pushing it open and trying not to look as disappointed as I felt.

Jusdging by the blanket she was sitting under, Scootaloo was at least temporarily sleeping in the clubhouse. I sat down next to her and tried to look less wretched than I felt. “Hey, kid. Scootaloo”.

Scootaloo kept quiet as she nodded. She looked to either side of me before turning to run. I grabbed her by the shoulder. “Listen to me kid, don't run. Nothing good ever comes from doing that”. I sat down, using enough force to make her sit down as well and dug into my saddlebags for two apples. “What are you doing here, doing this?”.

Scootaloo looked down. “I don't have anywhere else to go. My parents kicked me out after a row. They worked out that their marriage was a wreck and they might have a better chance of it working out if I was not there”.

I managed to bite back the urge to use some inappropriate language to use in front of a filly then handed her one of the apples. “Eat that while I think of what to do”. A thought occurred to me. “Does Rainbow Dash know?”. I knew she was a massive egomaniac but Scootaloo worshipped the ground she rarely walked on.

Scootaloo shouted “NO!” before pausing. “I couldn't tell her, she'd be disappointed. I couldn't have that.

I took the hoof which wasn't holding an apple in mine and smiled. “Kid, you're an idiot. Why didn't you tell anyone. The other Cutie Mark thingumees, for Celestia's sake”.

Sorry..

“For Celestia's sake, I'm pretty darn sure that the Apple clan would have taken you in. I'm a reprobate with no redeeming features”. Rarity called me that three times when I arrived in Ponyville. “And Applejack took me in until I paid up for my sins”. I mushed up her mane as I decided what needed to be done. “I'm going to have to talk to Applejack about this. I'm not letting another filly sleep in a dump like this if I can do anything about it”.

I should have expected it when Scootaloo stood up. “I'm not going to Applejack's. If you want me to go back there I'll head out of here, Applebloom explained about the spell Twilight cast on you, Sweet Apple Acres is pretty much the outskirts of Ponyville. I'll just keep running and you'll never be able to catch me”.

She had me there. I could feel a weird pulling sensation already and I guessed I was as far away as I was going to get from home. I guess I may have frowned as I considered the fact I had just called Ponyville home. After four months of wanting to get out of town, why would I call Ponyville home now. Scootaloo looked at me and I took a moment to ponder what to do. “Okay kid. You're not staying here. I'll take you back to the barn and if the Apples notice we say that you were locked out of your house because your parents are working late. You can sleep in the barn tonight and I'll figure something out tomorrow”.

Scootaloo nodded, obviously pondering the fact that sleeping in a barn was better than sleeping in the clubhouse. “Okay, you have to promise you won't tell anypony about what I've been doing. Pinkie Promise?”.

In case you didn't know, a Pinkie Promise is serious mojo. I've seen that pink party animal do things that just don't make sense but I agreed. “I promise I won't tell anypony in Ponyville about this”. Scootaloo agreeing to that left me with a nifty loop-hole but it was going to take a lot more than that to help her out.

I managed to get us back to Sweet Apple Acres unnoticed and Scootaloo upstairs when I smiled. “Kid, I'm leaving you here for now. If I'm not back by day-break cover for me”.

Scootaloo looked at me like she wanted to run there and then. I smiled before speaking. “I promised I wouldn't tell anypony in Ponyville, I just need to get you some more suitable bedding. There's plenty of room to hide a better blanket than that old thing. I said I wouldn't have you sleeping in the clubhouse and I mean it”.

I left her upstairs in the sure and certain knowledge that I was pushing my luck to a prodigeous extent and ran as fast as my hooves could carry me to the Library in Ponyville. I knew the only way to help her really was to trust the one person in Ponyville who might be able to help without violating the promise I made to Scootaloo.

By the time I got to the Library it was getting really late. There was a light downstairs so I hammered on the door as best I could while I tried to stop myself from being sick from the exercion from running full-pelt from Sweet Apple Acres to the centre of town. “The library is closed, and you still haven't returned the book Spike let you borrow”.

Speaking between trying to get more air into my lungs, I managed to say “I... need... to... speak.. to... Spike, in private. It's more important than you can imagine” I guess the look on my face must have convinced her that I was serious, that or the fact that I was moments away from being sick all over her hooves. “Sit down, I'll get Spike”.

In about a minute the small, yet perfectly formed dragon walked downstairs. Obviously he had been asleep but what I told him woke him up. “Spike, I need your help”. I glanced around but it looked like Twilight had gone into the kitchen. “Scootaloo is living rough. I followed her to the Crusaders clubhouse and she was planning to sleep their for the night. I want to help her so I got her to sleep in the barn but you're the only person I can tell in town. She made me promise I wouldn't tell anypony in town about it but, way I see it, you're not a pony so I can tell you”.

He looked at me then asked the question I didn't expect him to ask. “Did you make a Pinkie Promise?”.

“Yes, why?”.Spike was looking behind me.

I turned around, Pinkie had somehow got into the library and didn't look happy. I smiled. “I said nopony in town would hear about if, Spike's not a pony”.

I could see Pinkie trying to work out if I had broken the promise before she smiled. “Okie, Dokie. Lokie. You get away with it this time”. She pointed her hoof at me with a look of pure murder on her face. “This time” She turned around and bounced off whistling happily. I turned back to Spike as he stood, deep in thought. “What do I do?”.

“There's only one thing you can do Spike, tell Twilight what I just told you”.

Spike walked into the kitchen, there was a moments silence then the noise of crockery breaking before Twilight came running out of the kitchen and over to where I was sitting. “Is this true”.

“I can't say, I made a promise to somepony”.

I could see that she was deep in thought about what I had said. She then hugged me. “Thank you. I have to go and tell Applejack. Do you want to come with me, you're a long way past your curfew”.

I shook my head, I suspected that the last pony Scootaloo would want to see would be me when she found out I had betrayed her.
Suffice it to say that all Tartarus broke loose at that point. Twilight dictated a letter to, well, you and Spike sent it before she teleported out of the library. As I later found out Applejack offered Scootaloo the chance to stay with them for good. Apparently so did Rainbow Dash and, of all ponies, Rarity. She's living with the Apple's now. That makes things complicated since she still won't speak to me. What does she want, I got her off the streets. I wish I had a pony willing to do that for me when I was her age.

When Twilight came back from Sweet Apple Acres she pointed out the fact that I was out a long way past curfew and that Applejack should have called the guard on me. Instead she said that I had to start writing these letters, she says it's because I can explain how I've gone from a pony who trusted nopony other than herself to someone who would do that for a little filly she barely knew. Personally, I think she just likes to see me try to write fancy.

Besides all that, Scootaloo's life is on the up and I'm due to leave Ponyville in a week. The problem is that I really don't want to go. I promised Applejack that I would leave as soon as my wing was healed. She doesn't know that I made Spike keep one more secret when Twilight and the other elements had gone to help Scootaloo. I can fly, my wing is well enough that I could take off. It wasn't pretty and I had to stop after a couple of laps of the main room but I can fly. The Apples are going to expect me to leave before the rest of their family arrive for some reunion and I don't have a clue what to do.

Your loyal subject
Wandering Star