//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 - Punch your Problems! 
// Story: Roads of Life 
// by PonyWrites 
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        Scootaloo looked up at the sky. The sun was close to setting. It would be another hour or so, but the sky had already turned purple and orange. The moon hung in the sky, as though both were watching her. In truth, the celestial orbs may have well have been her parents. The ball of gas and the other of rock certainly cared more about her. The moon kept her company on many sleepless nights. The sun shone without fail, rising and setting each day. So must she. 
        A whistle blew and Coach Steel shouted. Scootaloo barely processed it, but knew it was the order to start warming up. She cracked her knuckles and began working out her arms and shoulders. Scootaloo had only been on the team a week, but noticed that she was more limber already. Sweetie also appreciated it. Thinking of her, the athlete looked over to her cheerleader. Hers. The girl in that delicious short skirt was doing the splits as part of her own warm up. Scootaloo bit her lip without realizing it, and the cool spring air suddenly felt like summer. She blushed and hoped nobody saw. Everyone on the team knew. Coming out had been Sweetie’s idea. It went well; Scootaloo didn’t have a heart attack, though she thought she was. One girl, a sophomore Scootaloo didn’t know, was afraid the younger would hit on her. Scootaloo told her off, calling her a vain bitch. This girl was an odd one, and actually took it as a complement, laughing. She and Scootaloo were even joking in the locker room before they took the field. If there were any opposed, they kept quiet. Scootaloo already had a reputation for using Rainbow  “Queen of Awesome, Captain of All Sports” Dash, as a punching bag. Her team was probably worried they’d share the same fate. 
        Scootaloo wasn’t a starter yet, so with her warm up complete she took the bench. Her foot twitched with anticipation. She wanted to take the field and get in there and win. I’ll have my chance, she tried to remind herself. Sweetie had a small break and walked up in front of her, snapping her out of her game-trance. “You forgot something,” Her Radiant Beauty said. Scootaloo couldn’t think of what until Sweetie’s lips met hers. In that moment there wasn’t anyone else in the universe, just her, her lover, and her tongue. Her reverie broke when a familiar voice from the stands shouted “HA! GAAAAAYYYYYY!” Scootaloo turned, looking exaggeratedly angry. “Yeah, you’re one to talk, you fucking dyke!” She shouted, shaking a fist.
        “Scootaloo, no trash talking the stands! Even if it is your sister!” Steel shouted, but Scootaloo noted she was trying not to bust out in a full laugh. Scootaloo still tensed up out of instinct when a female voice was shouting. She sat up straighter and her heart pounded in her ears.
        “Sorry ma’am!”
        “I’ll let you off with a warning… because otherwise I’d lose one of my best players…”
        Her teammates giggled around her. “You two are so cute together.” Um… Colgate said.
        “God, I wish my boyfriend and I had what you do.” Scootaloo scrambled for this one’s name as well. Fizzy.
        Scootaloo blushed and murmured “thanks.”
        Sweetie giggled. Scootaloo doubted how much she could focus on the game. “Aw man, I’d love to sit and chat, but looks like I gotta go.” Sweetie waved. Scootaloo was called on the the field away from Her Radiant Beauty. Her teammate, Cinnamon, twisted her ankle. The girl felt bad, but was excited she got to play.

        Scootaloo was just about to make her second goal when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It worried her, but even more worrying was the scream she heard as she was turning to look. Had anything else happened she would have berated herself for such a sloppy play, this was a special case. She abandoned the ball, running to the sidelines where her girlfriend was holding her leg and crying.
        Finally, after passing through infinity, she was next to her. “Are you OK?”
        “Pretty sure it’s broken,” Sweetie wiped her eyes, “but I’ll be fine. You have a game to win.” She tried to smile, like everything was fine.
        Something clicked inside Scootaloo, something dislodged, and gears turned. This usually ended poorly. She turned to Diamond Tiara, the captain, who was standing a few paces away. “What happened?” She demanded.
         "We were doing a lift and someone's grip was bad. It was an accident." Her voice was calmer and less grating than before. Almost empty.
"Like hell! you did this on purpose, you petty whore!" Scootaloo jabbed a finger at the captain.
"I might be a petty bitch, but I would never do that!"
"Scootaloo, she's right, accidents happen."
"I don't know why you're defending her, when all she's ever caused is hurt!" she shouted. Sweetie Belle renewed her crying, though silently. "I know exactly what she's like, the scum of the earth that get some sadistic boner for hurting other people! The only way to deal with them is to teach them a lesson!" Scootaloo cracked her knuckles. Diamond Tiara's pupils shrunk to atoms.
"Scoots..." Sweetie pleaded.
"No, I'm done. This ends NOW." She punctuated that sentence with a punch. Diamond attacked back with her false nails.
        Eventually Coach Steel broke them up with the help of Luna. The vice-principal was stronger than she looked. Scootaloo looked to the stands, pleading to be saved. She knew salvation wouldn’t come. Nobody would ever save her. She was many things, but one was constant. Alone.
        She saw Rainbow Dash shaking her head, disappointed. 
        Scootaloo wept silently.



        Luna dragged Scootaloo into her office and shoved the girl into a chair. She was being too rough. She always was when her temper got flaring. It had once landed her a thousand hours in community service after she told off the judge… for a parking ticket. In all fairness, it had been a bad day, but marching straight up to the courthouse and barging in while it was in session wasn’t a good idea either. Luna tensed her hands, channeling her anger like her (court ordered) therapist taught her. Then she relaxed and she was calm. Diamond and Silver Spoon were ushered in rather gruffly by Coach Steel. Now there was a fine female specimen. Two Hundred pounds of pure muscle and rage. She even had five o’clock shadow. Steel and Luna’s relationship was complicated, but completely professional. Which is to say, they hated each other, but Steel respected Luna’s authority. It was undoubtedly something about being the alpha-female. The vice-principal gave a curt nod and Steel left.
        “Sit,” she said, trying to be gentle.
        Scootaloo looked like she was about to have her head cut off while the others were mostly confused. They shouldn’t be, strictly speaking. You can only push people so far before they push back. Luna counted backwards from ten, like her therapist told her. It also heightened dramatic tension. 
        “Obviously we have a school policy for fighting. Zero Tolerance. Meaning, while I would almost view this as justified, I have no choice.” Scootaloo crumpled further under the weight of realizing not only had she messed up, but had no way of getting out of it. The other two shrank under the weight of guilt. She was still being too hard. “You will all be suspended for nine days, save Ms. Spoon, who is here for an alternative motive.” Now they looked even more confused.
        “You see, it’s not effective to punish you, unless you learn why this happened. I, myself, am curious. The obvious answer is you bullied Scootaloo and she beat you up, but there must be something before that. What happened in the past… Diamond?”
        The “princess” looked startled. “I… I…” She tried to think. Luna lost twenty dollars she had riding on her incapacity. Not with her sister, mind. “Middle School. I went to a different district, um. Griffon academy. They were all… They all made fun of me. Called me fat, whore, princess… Pretty much anything they said was dripping with hate. Then my mom passed. And I guess nothing was sacred. They called me an orphan. A motherless… bi…”
        “Say it, and remove its power.” Luna instructed.
        “Motherless bitch. Said I would end up on the street. I made daddy move here. And I thought I could get a fresh start… be on top for once.”
        “And so you just fucking pick three random girls to make fun of and call names?” Scootaloo near-yelled. Luna knew that anger. Realizing she said a “bad” word in front of an adult, Scootaloo backed into her seat, wishing to become the upholstery.
        “I am not my sister, the prude. She hasn’t so much said the word ‘crap’ in her forty-some years. I however do not care. We have a policy that says you can’t use such language, but you might as well let it out.”
        There was a long pause in the conversation. The kind of pause that makes a person realize just how important the conversation was.
        “Sitting here, I finally realize how my actions were wrong. For what it’s worth, Scootaloo, I’m sorry.”
        Scootaloo’s face twisted into a frown. Luna could guess what she was thinking: that she had just heard the biggest piece of bullshit in her life. She couldn’t blame her. 
        “Scootaloo,” Luna began. “What was your homelife like, before you moved in with the Dashes?”
        Scootaloo cringed, took a deep breath and gathered her strength. She rolled up her sleeve like it was made of ulta-dense dark matter. But finally she showed her pale forearm, crisscrossed with scars. Diamond covered her mouth and Silver gasped. 
        “Do I really have to say anything?” she muttered, “Happy faggots don’t cut themselves.”
        “Why did you feel that way?” Luna asked. She had an idea of the answer.
        “Because my parents hated me once I turned fifteen. I told them I thought I was gay and I got a fucking sermon about how I was going to hell.” Scootaloo tightened her grip into a fist and tried to pinch back tears as her voice wavered. “Twenty minutes. I counted. The first thing they said after I told them was ‘Did you tell anyone else.’ Not, ‘we always love you,’ or ‘we’re proud of you.’ They can’t speak those words. They never had. If they did it was a lie. Or punctuation. ‘Take out the garbage, love you.” or ‘Do the dishes, love you.’” Scootaloo’s voice rose to fiery anger, “It has no meaning to her… just… something to say.”
        “And… and then what?” Diamond asked. Good, she was curious.
        “Isn’t it fucking obvious! I put myself so deep in the closet my friends had to get a bulldozer to dig me out! Beefcake posters, I dated Rumble for two months. And each and every one of these scars is when I thought of a girl. Any girl, take your pick. About half of them were Sweetie. And I fucking hated myself. I hated God, I hated everything. I couldn’t see my friends that I’ve had since fourth grade. I had nobody. I had nothing. But both of you. You’ve always had everything.”
        “How… could you go on like that…” Silver asked, almost to herself.
        Scootaloo calmed down with an exhale. “I… don’t know.”
        Silver wiped her eyes. “I… I’m so sorry. Our actions were just making an awful situation worse… We’re completely unforgivable. But I want you to know I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry you had to go through that. I went to the same School Diamond did. She was my only friend, we were both outsiders to the neighborhood click they had going. They were all rich, and… oh God we’re hypocrites, but. They were all mean. Diamond befriended me. But my classmates… thought were were going out. I got called a fag, dyke, whore, all the fun stuff.” Silver removed her wristband, and turned her wrist to show four little scars. “We… when we moved, we promised each other we wouldn’t hurt like that again. But we were fools and thought the only way to do that was to be like they were, before somebody else could do it to us.” 
        Scootaloo seemed to think long and hard before she spoke. She shifted around in her chair and chewed on her nail. 
        “So you didn’t drop Sweetie?”
        “I never wanted to physically hurt you… I just… wanted to… I don’t know.”
        “I forgive you.”
        “What?” Diamond gasped. 
        “I said I forgive you. I still hate you. But you’re just like me. You were just trying to defend yourself. I really only beat you up because I was angry at my parents. I see it now. So I forgive you, because you still have time. I’m not sure they do.”
        “So, are we like… friends now?”
        “Fuck no.” Scootaloo said. “But possibly, we might be later.” Scootaloo smiled softly, nervously. 
        “Well honestly, this is more than I ever hoped to accomplish. You all are free to go.”



        The silence made the car ride home torturous. Rainbow’s expression was blank. She kept her eyes on the road and met the speed limit. She never did that. Ever. The radio was silent too.
        Scootaloo knew this was it. She’d be kicked out of this home too. If it wasn’t one thing wrong with her it was another. She should just end it all, do the entire world a favor. Stop being a burden to anybody.
        The thought of Sweetie’s smiling face talked her out of it. To see that face again made it worth it. And that giggle. Maybe, since this wasn’t working out either, she could live with her and Rarity. They seemed nice enough. But this would happen again. And again. Forever.
        Rainbow Dash parked the car and turned off the lights and engine. She got out, without saying a word or glancing in her… “sister’s” wasn’t the word anymore…. direction. Scootaloo followed like a slug chasing after a bird. At least she left the door open. Scootaloo met Rainbow Dash in the kitchen, chugging a typical glass of milk. She finished the glass and set it down, wiping her lip.
        “Well, you actually look sorry about it. More than I did. So, do you know why what you did was wrong?”
        Scootaloo instantly thought of a bible verse. “I was repaying evil with evil?” Where did that even come from? It’s not like she read the bible. Must have remembered a sermon or something. 
        Rainbow nodded. “I wouldn’t go as far as calling a teenage catfight evil, even if they did bully you. And say what you will, but the bible has its moments. It was a tough lesson for me, to learn the sweetest revenge is to be unlike the one’s who hate you.”
        “How’s Sweetie?”
        “Still waiting, but I’d imagine Rarity would call you before me. She’ll let you know. If you want my opinion, it wasn’t the worst fall in the world. Probably a hairline. Simple, easily fixed.” Scootaloo grinned optimistically.
        “So… you’re not mad, and going to kick me out?”
        “I’ll admit I’m upset but… Scootaloo… Squirt…. Sister.” Rainbow knelt down and put a hand on the younger one’s shoulder. “You have to trust someone. Please. It doesn’t even have to be me. I’d like you to trust me, though. We’d never kick you out. We… we all love you. Just… trust us.”
        “I… I…” Scootaloo couldn’t find the words.
        “I know what it was like. I understand. But not everyone is your parents. Not everyone is against you. I’m with you. A hundred and ten percent. Mom and dad are with you. Even if they are kind of absent parents.”
        Scootaloo sweetly wept into Rainbow's shoulder and took her in a hug. They held each other while Scootaloo cried tears of relief. If any of Rainbow’s friends saw this she would probably deny it. Scootaloo was no stranger to crying around her friends. Sometimes they would ask what’s wrong, and Scootaloo would more than often lie. But in this past near month, she told the truth, and it didn’t hurt. However, Rainbow was egotistical and thought she had an image to maintain. Her friends weren’t likely to ask anyway. And her sister needed her, which trumped any “image.”
        “It’s OK to cry…” she muttered into Scootaloo’s hair. “Even I do it. Just let it all out. Dykes can cry too.”
        Scootaloo abruptly started laughing, which sounded a lot like crying, but the tone was slightly different. 
        “I think you’re talking to yourself at this point.”
        “Alright, fine, I’ll admit it. I have a few things I’m sad about. I just wanted to let you have yours.”
        “What’s wrong?”
        “Nothing.”
        “No, that’s the shit I tried to pull. My friends saw right past it. So what’s up?” Before Rainbow could answer, Scootaloo’s phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number. She answered, it was probably her love’s sister.
        “Hello?” She answered.
        “Hi, it’s Rarity. I assume this is Scootaloo?”
        “Yeah.”
        “You kind of sound like a man on the phone. Forgive me. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know your girlfriend is doing fine. It was only a hairline fracture. She’s a little drugged right now so she can’t talk.”
        “So she’ll be alright?”
        “Of course dear. Absolutely nothing fatal and with a little physical therapy she’ll forget she even fell in a few months.”
        “Oh, OK. Awesome. Thanks. If you get a chance, tell her I’m glad she’s OK, but I’m suspended and probably grounded. But she could figure that out for herself. And… Tell her I’m sorry.”
        “Whatever for dear?”
        “I think she’ll understand.”
        “Well alright.”
        “Oh, and do I have to come in tomorrow?”
        “You’re suspended, not unemployed. You’re out of luck though. Got a whole order of skirts, since the spring fling is coming up and your classmates are”
        “Uuuughhhghghghg.”
        Rarity chuckled, so ladylike it gave Scootaloo hives. She hung up. Rainbow was nowhere in sight, and Scootaloo forgot what they were talking about anyway. She went to her room.