Scootaloo continued to run through the thick underbrush long after the shouts for her to stop had faded away. I can’t believe they ratted me out! I trusted them! the filly thought angrily, finally coming to a stop to let her heaving lungs have a break before they ended up exploding. “G-great, now I have s-something in my eye. Just perfect,” she mumbled, wiping away the moisture that had gathered on her cheeks.
Looking up, Scootaloo took stock of her surroundings, only to be greeted by dark, twisted trees all around her casting even darker shadows. With a loud, wet, snorting breath to clear her dripping sinuses, the little filly tried to squash the rising panic with more anger. “Well, it’s still better than back there. At least here I won’t have to deal with stupid Foal Service ponies who don’t understand…” Her shoulders slumped and she rubbed at her eyes frustratingly, annoyed that whatever had gotten caught in there still hadn’t been flushed out. “Nopony understands me… Not even my so-called best friends.”
She tensed as a howl rang through the rapidly cooling air, but she was far too upset to fully realize the implications. Stupid Apple Bloom! Stupid Sweetie Belle! Why couldn’t they just listen to me when I told them I was fine on my own!? Standing up, Scootaloo kicked at a rock, sending it flying out of sight to audibly bounce off of some gnarled wood. I had the clubhouse and it’s not like anypony was missing the few apples I took. I even grazed lots so I wouldn’t be stealing as much from Apple Bloom’s family for crying out loud!
The filly went to kick what she thought was another pebble, only to instead crack her hoof against an exposed root. “Argh! Of course that would happen! The world hates me!” She screamed as she fell onto her rump and began to nurse her throbbing hoof. A growl rumbled from deeper within the forest and Scootaloo froze, her ears swiveled to pin-point the direction.
Leaping into a defensive stance, she pawed at the dirt with her sore hoof a few times before holding it up, hiding the weakness within the threatening posture. “W-who’s there!” she yelled, eyes darting back and forth. “I’m warning you! I’ve been taking karate lessons from Rainbow Dash and I’m not afraid to kick flank!”
Her challenge was answered by a pair of glowing yellow eyes appearing in the woods directly in front of her, followed by another four to each side of the original. At the sight, what little bravado the little filly had been able to muster drained out of her small body and she quickly turned tail and ran.
As soon as she started sprinting, the predators tore after her, the sound driving Scootaloo’s wings abuzz. Though they were not big enough to lift her off of the ground, they did at least lighten the weight on her hooves and allowed her legs to carry her more easily, adding another boost of speed to her escape.
Unfortunately, the added effort was a drain on her already exhausted stamina, and the filly soon found herself slowing down. She regretted glancing over her shoulder to see that three Timberwolves were her hot on her tail, one snapping its wooden jaws at the purple hairs. Though the sight was terrifying, the feel of rancid breath wafting over her flank gave her body a much needed surge of energy as her veins were flooded with even more adrenaline.
As she pulled ahead, her tail moved out of reach of the frustrated monster’s teeth, motivating it to run even faster. Even though she had managed to put a little distance between herself and death, Scootaloo knew it wouldn’t matter unless something happened to get her out of this mess very soon. Please, Rainbow Dash, somepony, anypony… With one last burning breath, she screamed, “HELP ME!”
The little filly hardly knew what happened next as a blue blur burst from the foliage and drove the Timberwolf closest to reaching her into the dirt with a vicious growl. Her back leg had just barely been caught up in the sudden violence, but at a full-on gallop, it was more than enough to send Scootaloo head over hoof. Ending the roll with her rear end pointing to the sky, her back against a tree, and her tail tickling her chin, the filly watched in a daze at what was happening before her.
From her inverted perspective, she saw a blue mare standing protectively in front of her, front hooves spread apart and head held low, staring down the three Timberwolves as one slowly pulled itself up off of the ground. The other two looked as if they didn’t quite know how to react to the sudden interruption of their hunt, but a fierce growl from the apparent leader seemed to do the trick.
As all three wooden beasts glared down their adversary, Scootaloo tried to identify her savior, and for just a moment, her heart soared. “Rainbow Dash!” the filly exclaimed as she struggled awkwardly to right herself. “I knew you’d come and save me!”
Once she was on her hooves, Scootaloo made to rush to her hero’s side, but was stopped when the mare turned dark, violet eyes on her and unleashed a growl not unlike those from the wolves. It was then that Scootaloo got a proper look at the one who had come to her rescue.
With the bulk of the dizziness clearing from her head and being right-side up the filly could see that whoever this mare was, she was most definitely not her idol. Though both ponies were blue, that was where the similarities ended as this mare didn’t have Rainbow Dash’s awesome, wind-blown, Technicolor mane and tail. Instead, she had wavy, somewhat matted messes of pale silver in their place.
The Timberwolves, evidently done trying to intimidate the interloper, lunged forward. They had not expected, however, for said interloper to fight back so fearlessly as she pounced at the same time, colliding with one midair and bringing them both to the ground. Too stunned to immediately fight back, the wolf failed to stop its opponent from getting her mouth around the bridge of its muzzle. In the next instant, the forest was filled with the sound of crunching bark and a howl of pain as the pony’s flat teeth proved more than enough to crack wood.
Even with the wolf below her flailing wildly, its splinter-like claws creating red furrows along her chest and belly, the mare continued to clamp down on its face. Scootaloo thought the mare was going to rip the wolf’s head off with how violently she was shaking her own, but another wolf tackled her side, sending her sprawling away from its pack mate. The mare didn’t hesitate a moment as she immediately rolled to her hooves, barking at the wolf as it continued its charge.
Rearing up, the mare kicked her front hooves out, landing a solid blow right between the glowing yellow eyes of the wooden beast, collapsing the bark inwards and dropping it in an instant. This left only one foe remaining as the first to be injured shakily rose, the upper part of its muzzle all but gone. The leader, furious with the humiliating defeat its pack was receiving at the hooves of a mere pony, had no plans of making the same mistake as its underlings.
The wolf began to circle its prey, who in turn did the same, turning their fight for survival into a dangerous dance as both emanated low, angry growls. This dance however, soon showed itself to be a dance of death as, if by some invisible signal, pony and wolf tore towards each other with twin cries of battle.
Scootaloo flinched as flesh met wood in a fight to determine her fate. Though she didn’t know who the strange, wild mare was, she was inclined to trust in her intent over what the Timberwolves had planned for a filly lost in the forest. Unfortunately, it looked like she would be finding out what the wolves wanted with her as the mare soon ended up underneath her opponent, holding snapping jaws away with an outstretched forehoof.
Bringing her other hoof around in a devastating haymaker to the temple, the mare sent tinder flying as she destroyed a large chunk of the magical creature’s head. Unlike the others though, this wolf did not crumple under the damaging attack as it sunk its fangs deep into the leg that had just injured it.
The mare howled in pain as a sickening glint of glee entered the hunter's one remaining eye. Scootaloo watched as her savior ineffectively tried to pry the jaws apart with her other forehoof before quickly resorting to raining wild blows upon the beast. Said beast would have none of this however, as he quickly began to wrench at the limb, shaking his head wildly back and forth and preventing the mare from landing a clean blow.
In that instant, it wasn’t a mare and wolf that lay before Scootaloo; it was herself, cowering under the glare of the pony tasked with her well-being, awaiting both verbal and physical strikes as the other foals watched on, afraid to incur the wrath of their supposed caretaker. The little filly grit her teeth and dug her hooves into the soil before tearing towards the two combatants. “Leave her alone!” she screamed as she tackled the Timberwolf’s side with all her might.
Caught by surprise, the wolf beast found itself knocked off balance as its little attacker bounced off of its heavy, wooden frame, but that was all the advantage the mare needed. Rolling herself over, the mare brought the mutt to the ground and ended up on top of it, foreleg still clamped in its unnatural jaws, before bringing her free hoof down in an attack that disintegrated another portion of the wolf’s face.
With so little left to hold them together, the jaws of the beast unhinged, creating quite the disturbing sight as the lower half remained attached by the merit of single twig, and even that did not last as the mare dealt another blow. With its head all but gone, the wolf went limp and the mare began to tiredly struggle to her hooves, panting heavily the whole way.
Scootaloo did the same as she tried to rub away her newly bloomed headache, her hard hoof doing a poor job of it. “Ow, that was like the catapult crusade all over again… Except hitting a tree instead of a hay bale,” she grumbled as she looked to her savior. Upon seeing the mare victorious, she couldn’t resist proclaiming, “That. Was. Awsome! I can’t believe we took on three Timberwolves! That was, like, Rainbow Dash levels awesomeness!”
As she ran over to the blue mare, stumbling only on the first few steps, her exuberance was cut short by a menacing growl. Skidding to a halt, Scootaloo’s eyes whipped around to see one of the wolf’s standing shakily, its head slowly repairing itself as branches and bark snapped back into place. Another growl returned the filly’s attention to the mare where she saw that she too was staring at the freshly arisen adversary, her teeth bared.
When the mare snapped her head towards Scootaloo, the pegasus gulped as she locked her eyes with wild ones. In the next instant, the mare began sprinting towards her and Scootaloo screamed. The terror-filled scream was abruptly changed to a pained yelp, however, as the mare grabbed hold of the filly by the scruff of her neck in one fluid motion, not stopping a moment as she tore into the thicket.
“Ow! Hey, that hurts! Let go!” protested Scootaloo as she felt a twinge of pain with every step her unwanted transporter galloped. Alas, her pleas fell on deaf ears and her mane was repeatedly pulled as the mare continued to run, fleeing from the rapidly recovering Timberwolves behind them.
After nearly a full minute of this, Scootaloo gave up on struggling and simply went limp, doing her best to ignore the pain as she waited for the psycho to get tired and let her free. How did I even get into this mess, anyway? the filly found herself thinking. After the whole near-death experience thing, most of her other worries had been placed on the backburner. I usually don’t get into this kind of trouble unless I’m on a crusade with the girls. Expression souring as soon as the thought registered, the filly actually crossed her front hooves, all but forgetting her current situation. Oh yeah, my so-called friends went and told on me… Why do I even bother trusting ponies anymore? All they ever do is go behind my back.
The rhythm of her bounces shifted and Scootaloo looked around to see the mare’s pace slowing. “Are you finally done? I’d like to get down sometime tonight,” she spat upwards. Before she could say anything else, the mare came to a stop and finally dropped her, much to Scootaloo’s chagrin. “Oof! Hey! How ‘bout a little warning next time before just dropping a pony!” the filly shouted as she rubbed her rump. “Seriously, I landed right on a root.”
She spun around with the intent of continuing her rant, but stopped when she bumped noses with the mare. “Uh, do you mind backing up a bit?” Scootaloo asked as she herself retreated. The mare followed, however, and started nudging her all over, rapidly sniffing through the whole process. “W-what are you doing!? Th-haha-that tickles!”
The mare whimpered, her muzzle pointed at Scootaloo’s shoulder. Following the concerned gaze, the filly found herself looking at a long scratch with a small dribble of blood trailing down her leg. “Huh, that must have happened when I tripped,” she mumbled to herself, bringing a hoof up to touch the minor injury, but was barely able to brush against the wound before another hoof pushed hers away. “Wha-huh?”
A whimpering had Scootaloo returning her eyes to the blue mare who yelped and shook her head. “Wow, calm down there, lady, it’s barely more than a boo-boo, I’ve gotten worse from crusading.” The mare didn’t seem reassured as her head came closer and she brought her tongue out to gently loll against the red line. “Wow-hey! What’re you doing!?” shouted Scootaloo as she jumped back.
When the mare followed, Scootaloo had to bring her hoof up to push the blue face away. “No… whatever it is you’re doing!” she commanded, giving her strange companion a stern glare. “Seriously, you just… just stay there.” The mare tilted her head with a slight frown, but dropped to her hunches anyway. “Yeah, that’s good, don’t get any closer… you weirdo.”
Not paying any mind to the drooping ears and shoulders of the mare, Scootaloo began examining her cut again. Now that she was actually focusing on it, her shoulder began to sting slightly and she hissed. With another glare at the rising mare, causing her to droop again in resignation, Scootaloo began inspecting herself more closely, quickly discovering a small shard of wood a fair bit bigger than a run-of-the-mill splinter wedged beneath her hide. “Great, how am I going to get that out?”
In truth, the little filly had become fairly good at treating her own injuries after watching closely whenever she was patched up with the other crusaders by their sisters, but in both the case of Rarity and Applejack, they made use of things she simply didn’t have access to at the moment. Rarity’s method of magically levitated tweezers for splinter removal was right out for obvious reasons and Scootaloo wasn’t flexible enough to use her mouth like Applejack would.
She was so engrossed in her own conundrum that Scootaloo didn’t even notice the mare edge towards her until a blue muzzle entered her line of sight. “I thought I told you to stay!” she snapped, causing the mare to wilt. Even so, she continued to gesture her head at the cut, whimpering the entire time.
Scootaloo looked between the mare’s pleading eyes to the cut several times before she raised an eyebrow. “Do you… want to help get this splinter out?” she tentatively asked. At this, the mare noticeably brightened and barked happily. Scootaloo was hesitant to accept medical treatment from a stranger, let alone an obviously crazy pony in the woods, but she didn’t have many options while being lost and unable to return to Ponyville without being abducted by Foal Services. Also, now that the adrenaline was losing affect, the shard of wood was becoming increasingly irritating as it shifted under her skin with each movement.
Slowly, Scootaloo angled herself to give the mare better access to her shoulder and mumbled, “Fine, but you better not try any funny business, you hear me?” Yipping in response, the mare sidled up to the smaller pony and brought her muzzle close, exhaling warm air over the wound before licking it several times. The strange feeling and twinge of pain caused Scootaloo go rigid, but she fought the urge to pull away as the mare went to work.
Oddly enough, the sensation of a smooth, leathery tongue rolling over her injury eventually seemed to numb the pain and even started to feel kind of good as it loosened muscles she hadn’t even realized were knotted. Scootaloo hardly flinched when the mare pushed deeper and started gently gnawing at the cut, her teeth trying to get a hold of the foreign body stuck in her hide. It didn’t take long before she succeeded and began to give soft tugs at the wood until it was out far enough for her lips lend aid in the task.
After that, it took only a moment for the offending piece of tinder to be removed and spat out by the mare, resulting in an increased flow of blood from the wound, but Scootaloo hardly noticed. As the mare went back to work, lapping up the precious, red liquid in an attempt to remove any and all leftover debris, her patient’s eyes began to droop, remembering long-forgotten comforts from her distant youth, far before her time in Ponyville. The little pegasus could only faintly recall memories of being treated so tenderly by another, memories of gentle preenings and laying against the warm side of another, and in those recollections she found a sense of peace and security she had thought she’d never feel again.
The sudden lick across her cheek snapped Scootaloo from her thoughts as she looked over at the happily panting mare. Blushing deeply, she checked her shoulder to see that the bleeding had slowed significantly and the deep scratch was perfectly clean. With a few embarrassed glances flicked towards the mare, Scootaloo eventually worked up the courage to say, “Thank you.”
Barking twice, the pony’s tail began to wag energetically behind her. Now that her life wasn’t in danger and she found herself calmer than she had been all night, Scootaloo was able to study her strange savior more closely. As the blue mare stood and trotted in a tight circle, Scootaloo took note that she was an earth pony with a simple, grey screw for a cutie mark. She also saw that blood would periodically drip to the ground below her.
“H-hey, are those going to be alright? Scootaloo asked, gesturing a hoof towards the pony’s underside. Looking down, the mare sat and leaned back as far as she could manage, revealing dozens of crisscrossing lines along her barrel and belly. Though none of them were life-threatening, some were bleeding somewhat badly and Scootaloo found herself wincing when her own cut gave a throb in sympathy.
The mare bent forward with a grunt and began trying to lick at the wounds, only managing to reach a few. Scootaloo was stuck between offering help and not knowing how she would as the mare lost her balance and tipped over. The thought of licking the wounds clean like the mare had done for her had briefly crossed her mind before being quickly dismissed. As much as she wanted to return the favor for earlier, Scootaloo’s cut hadn’t been in nearly as an embarrassing a spot, and she highly doubted her own clumsy tongue could work the same miracles as the mare’s, so any attempt would only add unneeded awkwardness to an already difficult situation. Maybe I can find some leaves that can help; Zecora makes all sorts of healing stuff with the plants around here. How hard could it be?
Luckily for the blue earth pony, Scootaloo’s plan of rubbing random, potentially poisonous plants over her open wounds was halted when a howl rang out in the distance. With a growl, the mare forgot about her bleeding cuts and made her way for Scootaloo, jaws reaching down to clamp onto the scruff of her neck again. “Oh no you don’t, I can walk just fine.” Scootaloo said with a defiant look.
Another howl had both ponies standing straighter as the mare quickly moved behind her ward and nudged her in the flank. “H-hey! Watch where you’re sticking that thing!” Scootaloo told her, only to receive another push in response. “Okay! Okay! I’m going, sheesh!” Moving into a fast trot, Scootaloo maneuvered around trees and bushes with the blue more a step behind her and the only knowledge of their direction being away from the Timberwolves.
I have a feeling this is going to be the strangest night of my life… All I need is a giant princess head to appear on the moon again and it’ll be a sure thing. With a shake of her head, the filly focused on the non-existent path ahead and hoped she would live long enough to tell somepony about all this. It was going to be one helluva weird story to be sure.