The farther I flew the worse the weather got. The clouds became darker, lightning cracked all around me and the thunder that followed burst from all sides; I was forced to cover my ears. But it was nothing compared to what was happening in my mind. With every wing flap I took, I could see Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow, every pony. They were betrayed, abandoned, by me. But I had no choice: no matter how good my Ponyville life was I needed to know what happened, why, and what my life would have been like had things been different.
Still....I hope they can forgive me.
After an hour of dodging, swooping, and rolling to avoid the weather, I began to see Cloudsdale more clearly. Unfortunately as my destination got nearer my strength began to disappear. When I finally exited the storm I felt cold, tired, and miserable; but I had to find my father's address no matter what. I let out a sigh of relief when I heard the thunder start to quiet down behind me. Gliding through clear skies allowed me to focus on my objective for the rest of the way. Another twenty minutes or so passed before I finally reached the front gates. When I landed I quickly shook the rain off my coat an mane but I was still freezing and tired; I had to find some place warm to sleep.
I walked onward through the large city. I had only been in Cloudsdale a few times and never had the chance to really experience city life. Everything was...different; it seemed like the whole place was divided into different classes. I looked in one direction and could see giant skyscrapers, business buildings, and the weather manufacturing factory; all of which reached high above the horizon. But to the opposite direction, there were no such sights: the buildings were small, dirty, and in decay. It was hard to imagine the illustrious Cloudsdale as having a bad part of town, Rainbow always spoke so highly about the place, but then again she was very young.
I continued until I reached an intersection. I looked all around at the glimmering lights in windows all over, and at the faces of the few ponies who were still out at this hour; they looked tired and roughed up after a hard day's work. As you could guess, I was about to turn in the direction of the nice part of town when I heard a commotion break out. I don't know why, maybe Rainbow's adventurous spirit rubbed off on me, but I found myself walking towards the sound, which inevitably came from the slums.
This part of town was a scary place, however it did succeed in distracting me from Ponyville and my friends; in fact I was so focused on not being robbed or murdered that my mind went blank. Then I heard the struggle once more, just around the corner of the rancid condemned house in front of me. I creeped along the sidewalk and peaked my head out when I reached the turn. There was a bar, I could see through the windows; several tables were turned over and broken glass was everywhere. I flinched in disgust, but suddenly two stallions came busting through the door. One of them (the one being carried) had his head down and was dripping blood. The other one appeared to be completely unharmed.
I watched as the defeated stallion was thrown onto the street like a piece of trash. The whole seen was hard to watch, I felt sorry for the poor fellow and I couldn't let him (or any pony for that matter) be treated that way. I spread my wings and flew over. The stallion still able to walk stood his ground and looked upon the other with hate in his eyes. I quickly landed and confronted him, "Hey leave him alone!"
He turned his attention to me and i'm embarrassed to say that I was scared, he was twice my size and had a huge scar on his left foreleg. "Just get out'a here. This ain't your business."
My gut told me to do what he said, but I couldn't and let him hurt some pony who can't even defend himself. "No! Leave him alone, he's had enough."
"This asshole wrecked my bar! Look at the place!"
"He's obviously drunk. If you didn't want this to happen you should of just cut him off."
"Ah," he waved me away with his hoof, "You're just some stupid kid, what the hell do you know about it?"
What did he just call me? At that moment I became enraged, I didn't care how big he was. "I know you better get back inside before I give you an even bigger scar accross your face!" The stallion looked into my eyes and saw that I was serious. He huffed and made his way back inside. I will admit that now I realize that burst of anger wasn't entirely because of what he was saying; I was still hurting. But nonetheless it worked, I won; I couldn't believe it!
Once he closed the doors behind him I let a huge sigh of relief at the fact that I was still alive. Then I turned to the poor sap on the ground. He was yellow with a rough red mane; his snout was bleeding, his cheek was bruised, and his purple eyes were bloodshot. But above all, I noticed the look on his face; it was a deep look that said he didn't care. What happened to him I wondered, why was he so....droopy. "Hey, you alright?"
He attempted to stand up. He was half way there when his legs began to wobble, so I quickly put his hoof around my shoulder and helped him up. "Thanks," he whispered.
I began walking him to the good side of town; for some reason I felt responsible for him and wanted him to have a place to sleep. "What happened?" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath but said nothing; I could tell that he didn't want to talk about it so I didn't ask again. We walked in silence until we reached a humble hotel.
I ordered a large room with two beds so I could keep an eye on this stranger; if he was wiling to start bar fights because of his sorrow, he might have been willing to take other extreme measures to end his pain. We entered the room and I helped him to the bathroom so he could clean himself up. Once he was in there I tried to listen for any dangerous sounds (glass breaking for example) but there was nothing but running water.
After some time he came back out, looking more sober. He took a quick glance around: the room was decently sized with two queen sized beds, a small kitchen, tv, and a large window with tacky curtains. I had lit up the room with the two small lamps next to the beds. I had no idea what he was thinking, but by the look on his face I think he was feeling a little better. He turned to me and nodded, "Thanks but why are you doing all this?"
To be honest I didn't really know; at first I felt sorry for him but now- I guess I just didn't want to be alone and this guy didn't seem to be the kill you in your sleep type. In fact he was kinda scrawny for a stalion twice my age; at least that was my guess. "You're acting like you didn't want my help."
"It's not that, it's just," he paused.
"Look, you can stand there in disbelief that a random pony would have the decency to help a bleeding stranger, or you can sit down and tell me why you were getting beat up in the first place." He smiled for the first time and chuckled. "What?" I asked.
"You remind me of my wife when we were young."
I won't lie, that was a little creepy, "Uh....okay."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound weird. It's just...." He walked over to one of the beds and sat down.
I could tell something was very wrong and my curiosity got the better of me as I followed him and sat down on the adjacent bed. "Where is your wife?" He didn't answer me, instead he just lowered his head and shut his eyes. There was no need to ask again, it was obvious. I tried to cheer him up by talking about something else. "So what's your name?"
To my surprise he actually answered me and tried his best to seem as though nothing was wrong, "Most ponies call me Sunny."
"Sunny? What's it short for?"
I could here a hint of hesitation in his voice, "Uh..Sunbeam Speeder."
I now realize that it was inappropriate, but after I heard that I couldn't help but laugh for a good two minutes. I tried to hold it in but oh well. He didn't seem to mind, in fact I thought he was about to join me. "Sunny it is then," I eventually said, "I'm Scootaloo."
He smiled and stared at me for about a minute, "Scootaloo huh?"
"Yeah." His tone was strange. "So?"
"I thought you looked familiar."
My heart began to pound hard against my chest because I knew I had never seen this stallion ever before, and yet he knew me. What did that mean, who was he, what did know! "You know me?"
"I was there when you were born, and I was good friends with your parents."
My mind exploded, I couldn't think let alone speak. What were the odds that the stranger I chose to help would just so happen to be the very pony who could help me the most! It wasn't possible, and yet it was, it happened. I would finally get some answers. My mission was about to get a lot shorter.