Your Shadow

by destinedjagold

Your Shadow...

The door creaked open inwardly, the setting sun's glow entered the gloomy, quiet and relatively empty house. Stepping onto the wooden floor, Scootaloo entered the wooden structure. She looked left, and saw her father seated on their newly-bought sofa as he read the morning newspaper. His gray coat shined in the early morning rays of the sun.

“I'm home,” Scootaloo smiled as she trotted towards him.

The pegasus stallion brought the paper down and glanced at his daughter. He smiled as he noticed how much she has grown.

Scootaloo had a small smile on her face as she placed her school saddlebag beside the sofa. She stretched her small wings and let out a satisfied sigh. She then climbed up on the old and worn sofa, and sat beside the spot where her father usually sat.

She smiled as she patted the spot gently and carefully.

“D-dad? Oh, school?” she whispered, and weakly blew a raspberry. “Same old...same old... Nothing new, except for another math homework...” She glanced up, and saw nothing but cobwebs on the ceiling on the corner. “Can you help me with that?”

After a while, Scootaloo smiled brightly as she leaned down, and pulled her saddlebag up to her side on the sofa. She opened it, and pulled out a brown notebook. She opened the notebook to where she wrote the questions of her homework, and placed it to the spot.

As she let go of the notebook, she gasped when a thought struck her.

“Oh, right,” she looked behind the old sofa, and eyed the thick and worn curtains.

She stood on her hind hooves, and pulled the curtains to the side, the rusty metal pole noised out. Immediately, the morning glow was replaced by a deep orange glow from the setting sun.

“Better?” she asked as she sat back down with a smile.

She closed her eyes with appreciation as a small gust of air entered the opened door and brushed against her head. She opened them again and looked ahead, and saw her father's hoof patting her head. He then grabbed the notebook and looked at the questions. Scootaloo chuckled when her father scratched his head.

“You don't know, huh?” Scootaloo asked as she looked at the spot, where she placed the opened notebook, unmoved.

Suddenly, her ears turned to the kitchen. She looked, and saw her mother approached them with a smile.

“Oh, I'm fine, mom,” Scootaloo said in the wind as she pushed her bag to the hoofrest to give her mother some space to sit on.

With a smile, Scootaloo looked ahead, and saw her shadow leaned against her mother's embrace. Suddenly, the young pegasus gasped.

“W-what? O-oh, this?” she looked at her hoof.

She got a small cut there. But she swore that her mother would never notice it. Her coat could even cover it, and looked as if nothing happened.

“Really mom,” she looked away, teary eyed, “it's nothing. J-just a small scratch...”

She sighed quietly and took a glance ahead, and saw her mother shook her head in disapproval, while her dad was saying something. She couldn't hear him: she was busy of thinking for an excuse for why she got wounded. Suddenly, she cringed when she saw her mother stare at her.

With a defeated sigh, she slowly looked back at her. “W-well, Bloom and I were...y'know...we were...trying to get our cutie marks...at...sword fighting and...”

She wasn't able to finish her lie when her mother gasped.

“With wooden swords!” she shouted.

She heard a familiar voice from outside calling her name, making the pegasus gasp.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in, opening the door further.

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo exclaimed happily, her wings buzzing as she jumped out from the sofa and ran towards the door.

She leaped to give her idol a tackle-hug, and saw her idol stretched her limbs to hug her back. She hit the door's surface, and groaned in pain as she pulled herself into a sitting position.

She winced, and from the corner of her eyes, she saw her idol's shadow patting her shoulder in concern, and her parents ran to her side.

“I'm fine, I'm...” her voice went lower and lower as tears began to roll down from her eyes, further blurring her vision. “...fine...” she sobbed, and brought both her front hooves to her eyes as she wept on the old wooden floor.

She sobbed, as the memories of what happened at school flooded back into her.

Their teacher just finished giving them their homework when a royal guard came to the school's door. He called her two friends' names, and asked them to follow him. She wondered why and what was going on, and those questions lingered in her head even after school was over. Her two best friends still didn't come back. Something was wrong, she thought.

After she packed her things inside her bag, she went to Sugarcube Corner with her scooter. That was usually where they hang out if they were waiting for the other to show up for their crusading. She instead found Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The two earth ponies looked at her when she entered, and she immediately noticed the two's crestfallen looks.

Her eyes must have shouted the question on her head. Diamond Tiara hung her head low, and lipped two words. Two words that used to bring smiles to everypony.

She looked to Silver Spoon, and heard the earth pony quietly spoke a word of three syllables.

She walked back. Quickly, she rode with her scooter, her heart raced against her, and up ahead was a large crowd of ponies in front of the white establishment. As she got near, she saw a makeshift ramp. Immediately, she turned, and used the ramp to fly above the crowd, and crashed inside the hospital, her scooter turned into many pieces, and she elicited surprised gasps from ponies, royal guards and even from the princess of the sun. She winced when she felt pain on her hoof, but disregarded it for a while.

“Why?” she sobbed as she pounded the wooden floor with a hoof, her tears rolled down on her face.

Royal guards immediately recovered, and tried to grab her to send her outside, but she didn't let them. She won't let them. She ducked, rolled, jumped, and fled from the royal guards as she followed the faint scent of candy in the air. She panted as she saw her two friends stood inside an opened room up ahead. As she galloped closer, her two friends heard her. They turned, and their crying features made her lost her ability to run, and her breath left her when a rainbow-streaked tail hung limply on the hospital bed.

A hoof was on her shoulder, as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle quietly sobbed with her. The two sat beside the crying pegasus, and hugged her, as the three sobbed.

“Why...?” she sobbed, choked, and cried, as three adult pegasi shadows comforted her own...

Author's Note:

Boredom and suddenly hearing the song made me come up with this. I just wanted it to be out of my head.

Comments

[sidewayz2013]

It's a bit confusing as a whole. Certain parts were pretty heartwrenching, but I couldn't tell if her parents were dead or not. It makes me have to think.
Actually, now that I think about it, her parents could've already been dead but dash could've died very recently. This story is definitely a thinker. I liked it after I interpreted what happened. Well done.

[Elric of Melnipony]

As previously noted, it was confusing. Also, it seemed to be nothing more than schmaltz for the sake of schmaltz.