Stormy Forecast

by urthdigger

Chapter 2: Scootaloo

As they day wore on, supplies came in from all over Ponyville. The prevention team was doing a good job at trimming tree limbs and harvesting any ripe fruit from the farms. The support from the community was overwhelming... even if they didn't know what to do with some of the volunteers.

“Come on, let me help. This might be how I finally get my cutie mark!”

Spike sighed at the orange pegasus “Scootaloo, I'm not sure we have something that you can do. Besides, all the children and elders are supposed to already be inside. Speaking of which, where’s Apple Bloom?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were the only crusaders at the town hall. “She’s helping her brother at the farm,” said the latter “We tried to help there, but we’re not much good at apple harvesting.”

“Thank you for proving my point” thought Spike, though he refrained from saying it out loud. “We're planning on calling the volunteers in soon anyway, it's starting to get unsafe out there,” he said. As if to prove his point, something crashed off in the distance.

Mayor Mare hmmed " Actually, about that... Scootaloo, how fast can you go on that scooter of yours?"

Scootaloo had never felt more proud in her whole life as she zipped away from the town hall, her little wings beating as fast as they could. The mayor had given her a special task, to make sure all the volunteers got back to the shelter, safe and sound. Well, not ALL the volunteers, the ones fetching supplies would be heading to the town hall anyway, and could just be told not to go back out again. Scootaloo was in charge of bringing back the Prevention team, the ones working to keep damage to a minimum.

First on the list were the ones taking care of the trees around town. There were five spots around town being worked on, the closest one being just a little north of the town hall. She brought out her list of names, which was promptly soaked, and began to mark ponies off as she told them to get back to shelter, though the soggy paper meant she wound up making a tear through the name rather than drawing a line. She told herself so long as everypony was accounted for, she'd done her job. The other four spots were roughly in circle around town, with the last being near her final destination: The Apple family over at Sweet Apple Acres. She skidded to a stop just outside the farmhouse, where Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh had just finished taking a few baskets to the cellar. The heavy winds were already plucking apples off the trees and hurtling them through the air.

"Hey Scootaloo, what brings you out here?" asked Applebloom.

"Oh, official business for the mayor," said Scootaloo, trying to act cool about it but unable to avoid a hint of pride. "I'm here to tell everyone to get back to the town hall for shelter, the storm's getting worse and she doesn't want anypony getting hurt."

Apple Bloom frowned "But we still haven't gotten everything off the trees yet..."

"I think it may be a little late for that," said Scootaloo, as an unripened apple bounced off her helmet.

Apple Bloom sighed "Oh alright. If they're attacking poor fillies they must be bad apples anyway."

"Eeyup," agreed Big Macintosh

"Thanks. Stay safe, I'll see you back at the shelter."

Scootaloo raced on ahead as the Apple family started walking. She had plenty of time to get there before them, so she started taking a scenic route. She reasoned she could find anyone else who was still outside this way, but mostly she wanted to enjoy herself. It wasn't often she got a chance to zoom down an empty street with nopony to get in the way, the wind in her face and the rain playing a cadence on her helmet. All good things do come to an end however, and soon Scootaloo found herself tiring and needing a break. As she stopped for a breather, she was startled by a loud crack that rang through the air, and the groaning of bending wood. Her wings locked up in fright as a large tree near her starting to fall in her direction. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she tried to jump out of the way. Her legs felt like rubber as she tried to will herself to move faster, confident that any second now she’d be flattened against the cobblestones, just an orange and purple smear for some unfortunate pony to stumble upon. Her rear leg caught on her scooter, dragging it with her as she hit the ground hard and slid across the slick stone. She didn't dare look up as the sound drew closer.

---

Back at the town hall, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were waiting in the lobby. Apple Bloom had told the others that Scootaloo had gone on ahead of her, and when she heard Scootaloo hadn't arrived yet, she began to worry.

"I hope she didn't run into any trouble..." sighed Apple Bloom.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine." said Sweetie Belle, always the optimist "Maybe she just decided to take her time?"

"I sure hope so..."

Spike paced around, feeling guilty. He felt he should have been honest when assigning the teams, saying that if the storm did turn into a tornado the prevention teams would be of little help. Instead, he assigned them anyway, and sent a little filly to see them back. And now she was out there as the storm was getting progressively worse.

---

A loud crash sounded as the tree smashed into the street. Scootaloo could barely believe she wasn't hurt, any closer and it would have crushed her legs. As the realization that she was still alive began to sink in, she noticed someone was screaming. There was someone else out here after all. Scootaloo followed the source of the scream to a nearby house. A pink and lavender filly sat just outside, and Scootaloo realized she recognized her. It was Diamond Tiara, a kid from her class who’d always treated her like trash. There were a million things she wanted to say to her. Mean things, spiteful things. And yet only one thing demanded to be said.

“What are you doing out here?”

Diamond Tiara glared up at Scootaloo “I’m waiting for my dad, why do you care?”

“It's dangerous out here, why not wait at the town hall with the other ponies?”

Diamond Tiara shook her head “We went there already, but he said he had to get something from home, something important. When he didn’t come back, I came here myself. I looked all over the house, but I couldn’t find him.”

“Maybe we should go look for him? I can cover a lot of ground on my scooter, maybe he got stuck somewhere?” offered Scootaloo

Diamond Tiara was not convinced “And why would you help me?”

“Just because I hate you doesn’t mean I’m going to just leave you here when you need help. If you want to find him, hop on."

Diamond Tiara looked doubtfully at Scootaloo, then sighed and approached. Scootaloo showed her how to stand up on the board and hang on to the handlebars then got on behind her. It occurred to Scootaloo that standing this close to Diamond Tiara, and almost embracing her in reaching for the handlebars, their position was almost intimate. She tried to get that thought out of her head as she started up her wings and took off along the streets.

“Dad! Dad!” called out Diamond Tiara as they weaved their way across town.

“Mr. Filthy!” called out Scootaloo

“Not funny,” remarked Diamond Tiara.

The streets were now cluttered with the detritus of shoddier housing: Roof tiles, siding, and on a few occasions bricks and planks of wood formed an obstacle course that Scootaloo weaved in and out of. On more than a few occasions Scootaloo made use of makeshift ramps to jump over trees and obstacles, much to her passenger’s distress; Diamond Tiara let out a frightened scream each time they were launched airborne.

“Diamond Tiara, is that you?”

After one such leap, they heard someone. Scootaloo slowed down, and turned down the side street the voice came from. There was Filthy Rich, pinned beneath the remains of what used to be a house, before a tree demolished it, catching the stallion in a landslide of debris. The two fillies hopped off the scooter and began digging through the pile to free him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have you out of there soon,” said Scootaloo

“And who might you be?” asked Filthy Rich

“She’s Scootaloo, a classmate of mine,” responded Diamond Tiara “She saw me waiting at home and decided to help me look for you.”

“That’s a very kind thing of you to do, Scootaloo,” said Filthy Rich.

They soon got enough of the weight off him to pull him out. He'd been cut pretty badly along the flank when he was crushed, blood mingling down his legs with the rain. “Can you walk, Mr. Rich?” asked Scootaloo

“Yes, I'll be fine. It looks worse than it is, but,” he paused and looked back “I dropped my briefcase when the wall came down, there’s a lot of sensitive information and—“

“Leave it,” said Diamond Tiara. “Let’s get you to the nurse.” It was hard to tell if it was just the rain, but she looked like she was crying.

Filthy Rich hesitated for a bit before finally giving in “Ok. I suppose I’ll just have to find it when the storm passes.”

The three of them walked back to town hall. Mr Rich's injury made him wince in pain with each step, but he didn't want to frighten his daughter further. The two fillies were silent the whole way as well. What was there to say? Diamond Tiara knew she was in the pegasus' debt, but she couldn't bring herself to admit as much. After the way she'd treated her, they couldn't just go to being friends. Not without doing something to make it up to her first. As for Scootaloo, the slow pace made her finally realize how exhausted she was. She'd been racing around for hours now, and ever since the tree fell she'd been running on adrenaline. Now that she had time to rest, the town hall never looked further away. She just focused on putting one hoof in front of the other: She could rest once she got inside.

When Scootaloo, Filthy Rich, and Diamond Tiara stumbled into the town hall, they found a group of ponies waiting for them.

"Can we get a nurse over here?" pleaded Diamond Tiara

"We're safe and sound, I'll be fine." said Filthy Rich "You just relax."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle rushed over to Scootaloo, who was lying on the ground exhausted.

"I'm so glad to see you made it back," said Apple Bloom "But couldn't you have just left Diamond Tiara out there?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." panted Scootaloo

Sweetie Belle was speechless, simply staring at Scootaloo with wide open eyes and a grin plastered to her face

“What? What is it?” asked Scootaloo.

“Your flank! You got your cutie mark!” cried out Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo stretched and got a good look at her flank. Sure enough, there was a mark of a silver scooter sitting there for all to see. “Hah... I told Spike I'd earn it out there didn't I?” she panted weakly. At the other two crusaders' insistence, she followed them downstairs to the shelter, where the Cakes had cookies and punch by the door, and Spike was handing out blankets.
"Hope you got what you wanted out there." said Spike
"I did." said Scootaloo, as she and Diamond Tiara joined the other crusaders with the Apple family.

The storm grew ever more furious as the night wore on. Friends and family huddled close together, hoping they’d have a place to go back to. Every so often, the crunching of wood and stone meant another homeless pony, and the shuddering of the town hall around them was worrying. Everypony was tense, and silent, until a song pierced through the room. Sweetie Belle was singing a Hearth’s Warming Eve carol to herself to calm down and Scootaloo soon joined in, charmingly off-key. Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich began as well, then Spike and the Mayor, and soon the whole room was singing. When they finished one song, some pony would start up another. As the wind and rain raged above, down below the ponies of Ponyville were enjoying the company of neighbors and friends, and discovering new acquaintances they never would have met before, turning a time of fear into a time of laughter.