//------------------------------//
// Find that filly! 
// Story: The Technician 
// by Pyrus_uk 
//------------------------------//

Charlie awoke to the sound of loud banging on metal. Groggily, he sat up in bed before rubbing his eyes. The banging continued as he noticed it was coming from the front door. Someone was knocking on the front door and they seemed impatient. As fast as he could in his sleepy state, he put on a t-shirt and began shuffling to the front door.

“Why do they always knock? I have a doorbell.” 

He opened the door which revealed a rather flustered Rainbow Dash.

“Dash? Why are you here so early?” Charlie asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.

“Is she here!?” she asked hastily.

“Huh? Who?” 

“Scootaloo. Has she been here? Is she here now!?” she asked, speaking a mile a minute.

Charlie's nose twitched at the name. He remembered her from his hospital visit a few days ago. He hasn’t seen her since.

“No, she’s not here. She’s never been here.” Charlie leant on the door frame. “How did you even think I knew her?”

Rainbow started to take off. “She told me she’s met you. But she’s not here. Gotta go.” She began to try and fly off, but Charlie grabbed her tail, stopping her.

“Wait a sec! What’s going on? Why are you looking for her?” he asked.

“SHE’S MISSING!” Rainbow yelled in his face.

Charlie took a step back, quickly noticing the look of worry on Rainbow’s face.

“I spoke to her two days ago, but that was the last day anyone’s seen her. Everypony is worried sick!” she continued.

Charlie was getting the picture now. “Where was she last seen?”

“Walking down the eastern road out of Ponyville. It leads right round edge of the Everfree Forest and branches off to the only entrance to it. Me and the girls have formed a search party. We’re going to the Everfree to look for her. I thought I’d quickly come here to see if she was around here before we went, since she mentioned you before.” Rainbow replied quickly.

“I’ll come with you.” Charlie said without hesitation.

“No way!” Rainbow immediately replied. “You’re still new round here. It’s dangerous in the Everfree. Besides, you’ll just slow us down.”

“No, I won’t!” Charlie defended.

“I don’t have time to argue!” Rainbow said, now nose to nose with Charlie. “Now let go of my tail!”

Charlie let go as Rainbow prepared to fly away.

“Dash, wait!” he called.

“Oh for- WHAT IS IT NOW!?” she said angrily.

“Just hold on, lemme give you something. It’ll help.” he said before rushing inside. He came back out shortly after. He threw two small black objects to her.

“What’s this?” She asked.

“A portable radio and a beacon. Don’t worry about it, just give them to Twilight to put in her bag.” he replied.

“Alright, whatever!” At that, Rainbow flew off down the mountain.

Charlie made his way over to the storage unit.

“Man, she was really upset. Although, from what I’ve heard, it IS very dangerous in that forest.”

He slid open the door and made his way over to a white box.

“Thank you, Peter. This thing’s gonna get a test of a lifetime.”





~The edge of the Everfree Forest~

“Where in the tarnation is Rainbow? It don’t take that long to fly up the mountain and back” Applejack said with a huff.

“Oh, an expert on flying are we?” Rarity said sarcastically.

Applejack shot her a stern look. “Not the time, Rares. It shouldn’t take her this long and you know it.”

“Don’t worry!” Pinkie said, looking up to the sky. “Rainbow’s the fastest, zoomiest, flashiest flyer in Equestria!”

“Just make sure you’re all ready, girls.” Twilight said, not looking up from the map she was studying. “We’re moving out as soon as she gets back”

As if on cue, Rainbow Dash zoomed over to the group. She landed next to Twilight, who quickly put away her map.

“Was she there?” Twilight asked.

“No. Charlie said he hadn’t seen her. He also wanted to come but I told him ‘no’ just like you wanted.” Rainbow replied.

“I didn’t think she would be up there. Thanks for that, Rainbow. I knew he would want to help, but it’s better for everyone if he stays there.” Twilight said.

“Oh! But he wanted to give you these, Twi. Said to just put ‘em in your bag.” Rainbow said, bringing out the radio and beacon from her small bag.

“What are they?” Twilight asked, taking them from Rainbow.

“Uhh......shoot, he told me but I kinda.....forgot” Rainbow said, sheepishly.

“Well, nevermind. I’ll just put them away for now, like he said. We can worry about it later” Twilight said, putting the items into her saddlebag.

“How did he know I would be taking a bag with me? Am I really that predictable?”

With everything packed away, Twilight led her five friends to the path which entered the forest. 

“Alright, girls! Since we’re the only ones who have been in the deep parts of the forest before, we’re the only search party. The rest of the townsfolk are going to keep searching the town, in case she comes back. I’ve already been to see Zecora and asked her to keep an eye out for Scootaloo. If she’s in here, I don’t have to tell you that we need to find her quickly. Stick together at all times. Got it?” Twilight said, receiving silent nods from her friends. 

“Alright, let’s go!”

With that, the six ponies entered the forest.





~Outside Charlie’s Facility~

Charlie stood up, looking down at the drone which he had just finished setting up. It stood on its now extended support legs, ready to go. With a nod, Charlie flipped the power switch on the drone and made his way back inside. He sat down at his workstation and plugged in the drone controller. 

*INSTALLING DRIVERS AND OPERATION SOFTWARE – PLEASE WAIT*

“Some things never change.” He thought to himself as he waited for everything to install.

Shortly after, the screen lit up with the Research Division’s logo before showing the interface. Charlie could see that three quarters of the left side of the screen displayed the camera feed. The rest of the screen contained some touch controls. The camera feed showed the dusty ground and the bottom of one of the drone’s legs.

“All looks alright. Let’s get this show on the road.”

He slowly pushed the elevation stick up. He saw the dust pick up around the camera before the ground slowly fell away from it. Charlie smiled with the result. It was airborne.

“Alright.” he said to himself. “Rainbow said she was by the eastern road out of Ponyville.”

He twisted the joystick and pointed the camera towards the Everfree. He saw the road he was looking for. Tilting to joystick forward, he began moving to drone towards the Everfree. It slowly moved away from the mountain, holding its altitude. As the Everfree got slowly closer, Charlie gave the touch controls another check. He could see a number of buttons followed by a small top-down diagram of the drone, indicating its condition. He made a mental note of what modes the buttons offered him:

-DAY-
-NV-
-FLIR-
-GPS-

He pressed the GPS button. A small screen appeared with a message in red: 

*MAP DATA UNAVAILABLE – NO SATELLITE SIGNAL*

“Didn’t think so.”

He closed the screen down and returned his focus to the camera feed. He could see that the Everfree was practically under the drone. Tilting the camera down forty-five degrees, he pressed the FLIR button. The entire feed switch to black and white thermal vision. Two extra buttons appeared next to the ‘FLIR’ button: ‘WHT-HOT’ and ‘BLK-HOT’. The first was highlighted in green, indicating that it was the currently selected mode. Looking back at the feed, Charlie could see a small blue diamond about 300 feet into the forest. A small white flash appeared periodically within the diamond.

“There’s Twilight and the others. The beacon’s working” he said with a smile.

Pushing the stick forward, he began moving the drone towards the search party.





~Search Party~

“SCOOTALOO!” Rainbow called.

“SCOOOOOOOTALOOO!!”

Applejack trotted up to Twilight. “I’m all fer findin’ Scootaloo. But do ya think it’s a good idea for Rainbow to be yellin’ so loud, Twi? We can’t forget where we are.” she whispered.

“It’s a risk, yes. But it’s one we must take. The quicker we find her, the better.” Twilight whispered back. Rarity caught up to the both of them.

“Why doesn’t Rainbow fly up above the trees? Won’t she get a better view from up there?” Rarity asked.
“Not here.” Twilight replied. “It’s difficult to see the forest floor from above the tree canopy. The Everfree’s magic is particularly resistant to natural light. It’s not impossible, but we can see better down here.”

Fluttershy looked to Rainbow sympathetically. She knew how close she was to this filly. Scootlaloo certainly meant a lot to Rainbow. 

Rainbow continued to call as the others searched for the filly. They knew she couldn’t have made it too far into the forest. What they didn’t know, however, is that they weren’t the only ones searching.





Charlie slowed the drone down to a walking pace as it flew above the six ponies below. It was high enough to be out of earshot. The blue diamond moved slowly as the ponies continued further into the forest. The tree canopy was too dense to see the ponies. Every now and then, Charlie could see a bit of white thermal from one of the ponies he could see through a break in the trees, but it soon disappeared just as quickly.

“Curse these trees. If I can barely see the search party, I wonder how I’m gonna find Scootaloo.” Charlie thought to himself.

Charlie swiveled the camera around, scanning the area. Charlie just saw gray and black on the camera feed from the mass of trees. He switched off thermal mode and returned to the normal day mode. Swiveling the camera once more, he could see the various colours of tree tops. He noticed, however, that there were a few openings in the tree tops a few hundred yards away. 

“Better than nothing.”

Twisting the joystick, he turned the drone towards the area of openings. As the drone slowly made its way over, Charlie increased its altitude gradually. It wasn’t long before he could see the ground at the bottom of the break in the trees. Charlie could see a series of clearings, each roughly thirty meters wide. He brought the drone to a steady hover and switched back to thermal mode. A couple of white specks appeared in and around the clearings. Zooming in, he could see that there were a couple of small animals scurrying about. A few rabbits, squirrels and shrews were darting around. Swiveling the camera to each clearing, he saw the same thing each time.

“Crap, that was probably my best shot. I don’t see any more openings around.” he thought.

With the camera tracked to the last clearing he searched, he turned the drone to return to the search party. 
He let out a long sigh.

“Wait!” he said out loud as he leant in closer to the screen.

As the drone moved, the camera angle slowly revealed a new heat signature from behind a tree trunk at the edge of the opening. The more the drone moved, the more of the signature could be seen. Suddenly, the tree tops of the edge of the opening blocked the view. Charlie quickly brought the drone to a stop. With the camera still tracked to the same point, he tilted back on the stick to bring the drone slowly backwards. As the tree tops moved out of view, Charlie positioned the drone at a point where he could see the signature the most clearly. He maximized the zoom and switched off thermal. Charlie could see the tree trunk, but could only see a gray mass behind it in the shadows.

“Damn, it’s too dark. I can’t see enough of it.”

He switched to night vision. The screen turned bright green, but slowly faded into focus. Charlie could see the partial outline of the small mass, but nothing else. It was all green due to the night vision. Charlie leant back in his chair.

“No good. Need a better angle or some colour.”

Just at that moment, he noticed movement. The mass shifted and turned. Charlie turned off night vision and peered closer to the screen. He saw orange fur emerge out of the shadow. A face crept around the tree trunk as it emerged into the light. Purple hair and two large eyes entered the sunlight. Charlie saw it clear as day.

“IT’S HER!”

Charlie practically fell out of his chair. He quickly zoomed out and took a few mental notes of the area around Scootaloo. Swiveling the camera, he looked for the search party. The small blue diamond appeared on screen as he scanned the distance. Looking at the small digital compass on screen, he determined his relative position. Grabbing the radio, he pressed the transmit button.





Twilight brought out her map again. She looked at her compass and marked down another ‘X’ on the map where she thought they were.

“SCOOOTALOOO!”

Rainbow hadn’t lost any breath as she continued to call out. She was looking more and more upset by the minute. The other ponies in the group frantically kept up their search.

“I hope we find her soon. Not just for Scootaloo’s sake, but also for Rainbow’s.” Twilight thought.

Just at that moment, a loud crackling sound came out of Twilight’s bag. Twilight visibly jumped.

“Ah! What’s that?” Rarity shrieked.

Pinkie zoomed over and grabbed the crackling radio out of Twilight’s bag.

“Isn’t this what Charlie gave you, Twilight?” Pinkie asked.

“That’s right. What’s it doing?” Twilight replied as she grabbed it in her magic.

*SCRRRRRRRRRRR-READ?-SCRRRRRRRR-HEAD NORTH!-SCRRRRRRRRR-YOU NEED TO-SCRRRRRRRR*

“I can hear Charlie’s voice in that there mess, Twi.” Apple said as she came over.

“Yeah, me too. Something about north?” Twilight replied.

*SCRRRRRRRRR-CLEARING TO-SCRRRRRRRRRR-READ?-SCRRRRRRRRRR-YOU NEED-SCRRRRRRR-NORTH!*

The radio cut out.

“I think he wants us to head north.” Fluttershy said quietly.

“How does he know where we are?” Pinkie asked, looking around.

“I have no idea. But he wouldn’t have given us this thing unless he had a plan, I’m sure.” Twilight replied.

“Absolutely. This is the best lead we have.” Rarity said.

“Agreed.” Twilight said before looking over to Rainbow Dash. “What do you think, Rainbow?”

“Let’s go north.” She said.

After looking at her compass, Twilight pointed the way.





Charlie watched as the blue diamond changed direction and began moving north. He swiveled the camera back to Scootaloo. She was still looking around her tree, her ears turning this way and that. Her expression held a hint of sadness. Charlie wondered how things had gotten to this point.

“Did she run away? Nah, she probably got lost. But why would she go into this forest in the first place? She must know of the dangers.” 

Charlie held the camera on thermal mode with no zoom. He could still barely see Scootaloo’s heat signature. It wasn’t long before the blue diamond appeared at the bottom of the screen. The search party were closing in. Charlie was in luck, given their current bearing, they would hit the clearing. Charlie kept his eyes fixed on Scootaloo, until the search party finally entered the clearing.





“He did mention a clearing. Anypony see her?” Twilight asked.

“SCOOOOOTALOOO!!” Rainbow called.

Faint sniffling could be heard to their left. Everyone looked over to see a glimpse of orange fur slumped against the bottom of a tree trunk.

“Scootaloo? Is that you?” Twilight asked softly.

Scootaloo peered around the corner of her tree, tears streaming down her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t get a word out before a cyan Pegasus appeared in front of her. She was instantly pulled into a tight hug.

“WE FOUND YOU!” Rainbow cried.

Scootaloo didn’t say a word as Rainbow hugged her tightly. After a few moments, she returned the hug. Everyone else let out a sigh of relief before making their way over to them both.

Rainbow pulled away from Scootaloo. “What on earth were you thinking, coming in here like that? You know how dangerous it is. You could have been killed!” Rainbow lectured. 

“You don’t understand.” Scootaloo said with a quiet and croaky voice.

“What happened, darlin’?” Applejack asked softly.

Scootaloo held quiet for a few moments and wiped away her tears before looking around the group. She let out a sigh. “I can’t take it anymore. Day after day of the same thing.”

The rest of the group remained silent. Rainbow watched her intently as she waited for the filly to explain.

“It never ends. The pain. I get it from everyone. Most of my classmates and even some of the adults, they all treat me differently. As if I’m less of a pony.” Scootaloo said with a depressed tone.

“Whatever for, darling?” Rarity asked.

“Being an orphan.” Scootaloo replied without hesitation.

Everyone gasped. Scootaloo’s expression shifted to one of slight confusion.

“You didn’t know?” she asked the group.

Nobody said anything but slowly shook their heads.

“I thought Sweetie Belle or Applebloom would have told at least one of you.” she said, before looking at the ground. “I get teased about it by my classmates. Other ponies just ignore me as if they think I'd be some kind of bad influence. Every day after school, I see other colts and fillies rushing off to meet their parents. They all look so happy.”

Scootaloo gritted her teeth and looked up to the group in front of her.

“Why can’t I have that happiness, huh!? WHY NOT ME!?” she yelled, tears streaming down her face again. “Day after day I go back to the orphanage! No-one ever comes for me!” 

Tears began to well in the eyes of everypony around her. It hurt to see this filly cry her heart out. What hurt more, however, was the feeling of guilt that none of them even knew Scootaloo was suffering so much. Rainbow brought her into a hug again as the filly buried her face in her chest and sobbed. Twilight slowly sat down and thought back to her discussion with Charlie a few days ago. How she asked Charlie to help her get back in touch with her parents. How much she missed them. She realised how much it must have hurt Scootaloo to not even have them in the first place.

“I just want someone to go home to.” The muffled voice of Scootaloo sobbed. “Someone to see and care for me each day.”

Pinkie couldn’t hold back anymore. She rushed over to Rainbow and Scootaloo and joined the hug. It wasn’t long before they were joined by the rest of the group.





Charlie watched the group hug from above. He had no idea what was being said, but he had a fair idea that Scootaloo was upset about something and that she was being comforted by the others. He leant back in his chair as watched the scene develop on the screen.

Something caught his eye. There was movement between the trees about a hundred feet away from the group. Thermal picked up nothing, but he could still see something moving on the black and white screen.

“What on earth is that? It’s got no heat signature.”

He zoomed in the camera to see if he could get a better look, but the trees were blocking most of the movement.  He noticed similar movements near the first one, all moving in a synchronized manner towards the group of ponies. He zoomed in further on one of the moving masses. He switched to night vision, and with a pure stroke of luck, he caught a good glimpse of it through a small break in the trees.

“Wood?” He thought as he watched the camera feed. “The trees are moving?”

He suddenly got a flashback of a conversation he had with Fluttershy and Twilight a few days ago. They had a long discussion about some of the creatures that lived in the Everfree. Panic hit Charlie like a brick when he realized what he had spotted and that they were slowly advancing on the group of ponies below.





Everyone pulled away from the hug, revealing a still sad filly. Twilight lifted her chin with her hoof. Scootloo looked up to see a teary but smiling Twilight. 

“Don’t worry, Scootaloo. We don’t think any less of you. Don’t let anypony else make you feel like you’re less of a Pony, because you’re not. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle don’t think of you like that, right?” Twilight said softly.

Scootaloo sniffed. “No. They’re the only ones who I can really call my friends.”

“See? You haven’t been left alone.” Twilight said with a smile. “But doing what you did was dangerous.”

Scootaloo said nothing. She simply looked away.

“Running away won’t help, darling.” Rarity added. “Especially here.”

Scootaloo looked down, before slowly nodding in agreement.

“We’ll help ya Scoots.” Applejack chimed in. “But we need to get back home first, don’t ya think?”

Scootaloo was about to reply, before she was interrupted.

*SCRRRRRR-HAVE TO-SCRRRRRRRRRR-NOW!”

Twilight jumped again as her bag called out.

“What’s that?” Scootaloo asked.

“Charlie gave us something. He’s been talking to us through it. He helped us find you.” Twilight replied, bringing the radio out of her bag. “I don’t think it’s working properly, though. I wonder what he’s trying to tell us now.”

*SCRRRRRRR-OUTTA THERE-SCRRRRRRRRR-HEAR ME?-SCRRRRR*

“Oh I know! Rainbow, can you fly up with this? Maybe the magic from the Everfree is causing this.” Twilight said.

“Sure!” Rainbow said, grabbing the radio and flying up just above the trees. Everyone could still hear the crackling of the radio as she hovered above.

*BEHIND YOU! LOOK BEHIND YOU! TIMBERWOLVES!*

Everyone’s eyes in the group went wide when they heard what came out the radio. All heads quickly turned to the tree-line behind them. Multiple glowing eyes were watching them from the shadows.

*GET OUTTA THERE NOW!*

The Timbewolves gradually emerged from the shadows, their faces now visible in the dim light. Five wolves crept into the clearing, slowly approaching the group. Their aggressive snarls could be heard over their footsteps.

Everypony held their breath as their faces quickly paled. Twilight was the first to recover. 

“EVERYPONY, ON ME NOW!” she yelled.

The rest of the group snapped out of their fear stricken trances and quickly jumped next to Twilight. Rainbow quickly dove down to join the group. The Timberwolves launched forward in a beeline sprint towards the group. Twilight charged her horn with magic. She could hear the snarls and barks of the Timberwolves as they charged towards her. She closed her eyes and quickly focused on everybody she could sense around her. Suddenly, with a bright lavender flash, the group of ponies vanished.





Charlie had his eyes glued to the screen, radio tightly held in his left hand. He rubbed his eyes from the flash that he had just seen on the camera feed. Searching the screen, he saw no sign of the ponies. He could see that, from the looks of it, the Timberwolves had no clue where they went either. They circled the area where they just were, sniffing the ground, trying to pick up any scent. Charlie let out a sigh of relief.

“Must have teleported.” he thought to himself.

He put down the radio and grabbed the controls. Turning the drone around, he pointed the camera towards the eastern road of Ponyville in the distance. After increasing the altitude slightly, he saw a blue diamond appear in the middle of the screen.

“Phew, there you are.”

Pushing the stick forward, the drone slowly began making its way back to the group.





*POOF*

Everyone in the group fell to the ground, with Twilight panting heavily.

“Is.....everypony.....OK?” she asked between breaths.

“Yeah, I think we’re good.” Rainbow said, checking that everyone was accounted for.

“Y’all seen Timberwolves that big before?” Applejack asked.

“No, and I don’t ever want to again.” Fluttershy said, shaking slightly. Rarity went over and gave her a hug as Twilight got to her hooves.

“Looks like we’re in the clear.” she said, rubbing her head. “We can get back to-“ she trailed off as she heard an unfamiliar sound.

“You hear that?” She asked the group.

Everybody looked up to where the noise was coming from, slowly getting louder. A buzzing sound could be heard as Rainbow spotted a small black object approaching from above.

“Look, there! What’s that?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight squinted her eyes to get a better look at it against the sun. She could make out four circles connected by a small orb. As it got closer, she could see that it looked mechanical. It flew overhead, away from the blinding sun. Everybody in the group got a good look at it as it brought itself to a hover in front of them.

*Hey everyone* Twilight's bag blurted out.

Twilight’s ears flicked back to the radio in her bag, but she held her gaze at the flying machine in front of her. She could see the small orb rotating slightly.

“Charlie? Is that you controlling this thing?” Twilight asked.

*You gotta press the button on the side of the radio, Twilight.* Twilight’s bag said.

Twilight brought the radio out of her bag and looked for the button.

*Press to speak, then let go when you’re finished* The radio said in her hoof. 

She pressed the button and asked again. “Charlie, is this thing yours?”

*That’s right. Thought I could use it to help your search. It’s been flying above you guys for quite some time now* the radio said. The drone did a quick three-sixty spin.

“Whooooa” Rainbow said, before grabbing the radio from Twilight. “How fast can it go?”

*Hold it there, Rainbow. It’s not for racing. It’s for searching. It’s a surveillance drone.* the radio said. 

Rainbow gave a disappointed look, before Twilight snatched the radio back. “Is this how you found Scootaloo?”

*Yep. Saw her on the camera feed. Only by chance, mind you. Quite lucky actually.* 

Small smiles appeared on everybody's face, except for Scootaloo who simply looked at the ground.

*Well done getting away from those Timberwolves, by the way.*

“Couldn’t have done it without your help, Charlie.” Twilight said before having the radio pulled away by Rarity’s magic.

“Yes, darling. We might not have even found her if it wasn’t for you” Rarity said cheerfully.

Rainbow looked at the ground with a slightly guilty expression before taking the radio from Rarity. “Hey, Charlie? About earlier up on the mountain, I just wanna say that-“

The drone suddenly sparked and the rotors came to a stop as it fell the last remaining feet to the ground. It dropped onto its extended landing legs with a crash. Everyone stared at the lifeless drone, now sitting on the floor with a small amount of smoke rising from it.

...

*It broke, didn’t it?*

“Yeah”

*Could one of you bring it back up here? It’s kinda....not mine*