//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Immortality and Change 
// by mines5 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 4

Scootaloo scrambled to pack her saddlebags. She paused momentarily when she picked up her diary.
“Mom, dad...,” she started to cry. “I wish you were here.”
As much as she'd have liked to stay there she knew that she had to finish and leave. Her life, or at least whatever was left of it was something she did not want to lose, she still had to get revenge on the sick pony that had ruined her only true safe haven for her. But  when she finally finished packing there was a knock at the door.
“Scootaloo,” came Sweetie Belle’s voice through the door. “Do- do you want to talk about what happened? We know that you didn’t mean to attack Diamond Tiara.”
“How do you know that, what if it had been you?”
“Do you want to hurt us?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Scootaloo sighed, preparing to slip out of the window. 
“Not right now. But I know I will.”
“I’m sure we could find some help for ya!”
“I’m sorry, I truly am, but I have to go before I hurt you guys.” She leaped from the window and silently disappeared into the orchard.
She ran for what seemed like hours before she became remotely tired. By then she was miles into the everfree forest. She would have continued running if the emotions and realizations of what had happened suddenly washed over her like a cold wave. She fell to the ground and wept.
When the tears stopped coming she looked up and was surprised to see the sun rising. She had been so absorbed in her emotions that the night had passed without her noticing. She laid there for a few minutes before retriever her diary from the saddlebag.

Dear Diary

Yesterday my life ended again. For the second time after my parents died I’m without a home. But this time I’m sure that I will never find a new one.

She hastily closed the book as the painful emotions started to well up again. She didn’t bother holding back the tears she knew would come, no one was around to see her. She stumbled forward, no idea where to go. Only that she couldn’t go back. She walked for several days, her body not becoming tired in the slightest. Eventually she stumbled across a thin and overgrown road, she decided to follow wherever it led her.
It wasn’t until a couple days later that she could see lights off in the distance. She hesitated, leary about entering a populated area. But her hunger had yet to return and she decided that it wouldn't hurt to find out where she was. the path soon became a paved road. The sun was starting to peek over the horizon when she passed the first house. A large mansion surrounded by iron gates loomed on a hilltop. On a wall sat a plaque that said.
Madam Pufeltop’s Orphanage
Scootaloo backed away and continued down the road. The orphanage brought back painful memories from when she was littler. She could smell salt water in the air and tall buildings loomed out of the fog. She passed a sign that said, ‘now entering Manehattan’. The city was quite possibly the brightest thing she had ever seen. As she approached the city she could hear everything quite well, and from what she could see, blending in wouldn’t be a problem. As she made her way through the crowd she stumbled into another pony carrying a bag of groceries. 
“Watch where you're going!” exclaimed the grocery pony.
Scootaloo’s mind momentarily switched to a more feral and defensive mode. She crouched down taking a predatory stance but quickly composed herself again.
“Oh, uh,” Scootaloo stuttered, “I’m sorry.”
“Stupid parents letting their fillies roam around the city without supervision.” The pony huffed, “Get home and watch where you’re going!”
As the pony trotted away Scootaloo felt a strange hateful sensation in her gut. The same one that compelled her to attack Elderfree. She forced herself to ignore the dark urges and she focused her attention on finding a suitable location to settle down for the day. Though she was not physically tired her mind seemed to be running slowly. She headed towards the center of the city and reached the quietest place she could find. The city park was mostly empty and in the middle stood a small bridge. Scootaloo decided to rest under it, away from the prying eyes of other ponies. Getting down to the spot was going to be a problem from what she could tell. She placed her saddleback behind a bush. Instead of trying to find a way down she jumped from the bridge. She ended up in the river instead of the outcropping. She took a deep breath in fear and her lungs filled with water. She quickly sank to the bottom and expected to drown. She opened her eyes and looked around at the dark underwater view, and shook her head in disappointment, she had actually hoped to die.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the relaxing silence of the water and the sounds the fish made as they passed her by.
‘Maybe I should stay down here forever,’ she thought to herself, falling into what could be considered an alertful sleep.


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the sound of a boat passing over pulled Scootaloo out of her rest. She opened her eyes just as an oar passed inches in front of her face. She kicked off of the riverbed and up to the surface. Once surfaced she expelled the water from her lungs and looked around. A stallion and a mare looked at her in confusion from the boat.
“How long have you been down there?” the stallion asked. “We have been on this stream all morning, and we never once saw you go into the water.”
“A few hours give or take,” Scootaloo laughed.
“What?!” the couple said, jaws dropping to floor of the boat.
The filly didn’t answer as she made her way onto the shore. She retrieved her saddlebag and headed back through the city. She was just exiting the Manehattan limits when the hunger started to edge back into her psyche, so she decided to walk faster from the inhabited areas.
It was after reentering the forest that she could really feel it, she could hear every little heartbeat within a thousand hoof-lengths of her ears. The loudest she noted was the size of a deer, and it was that sound that drew her closer to her target. She wasn't that hungry yet but anything to postpone the urge when she was around other ponies. Not really bothering to keep quiet in her pursuit of the deer, she lunged at it once in range sinking her teeth in and beginning the gruesome process of draining the blood from its body.
Once the deed had been done Scootaloo looked at what she had done with a slight bit of revulsion, she didn’t like what she had to keep doing just to prevent herself from going insane. With that done Scootaloo returned to the road and began her journey to nowhere.