One Small Secret

by MyLittleChangeling

Chapter 1

Scootaloo crawled off the hard stone floor she'd somehow rolled onto during her slumber and slumped on top of her soft mattress. Except it wasn't her mattress. And her bedroom floor wasn't stone.
The orange filly peered blearily at the not-her-mattress object she had collapsed onto - namely, her mother's prized petunias in the front garden, not that she was ever home to see them.

"Ahh, horsefeathers."

***

"SCOOTALOO!"
A small white projectile whizzed towards the startled filly, flung two arms around her, and squeezed.
"Let ... me ... gargh!" Scootaloo managed to choke out the bulk of her sentence before her lungs failed her and she was left gasping and spluttering as the white monster continued its attack.
"Ah'd let her go now, Sweetie, or y'all'll kill Scoots before Ah even get to say hi." Applebloom's dry remark came just in time, and the panting filly was released from her death grip.
"Um ... sorry about that ..." Sweetie Bell looked sheepish. "But I heard your mum and dad left again and I thought ... you know, you might need some cheering up."
"Nah, don't worry about it. 'Sides, they're never home anyway." It was true. Scootaloo's parents had an unnatural ability for scheduling year-long adventure treks and 'forgetting' they had a daughter back here in Ponyville. She doubted they even thought of here as home.
Sweetie looked ready to continue her pity party, but the deafening jangle of the old school bell stopped her before she could open her mouth. Saved by the bell, and not the first time either, thought Scootaloo.

***

Several thousand miles away, a yellow pegasus mare leaned on her husband's shoulder and sighed. "Did we do the right thing? We should be there for her when it happens. She'll be scared and confused! I know I was, and I had my family there and-"
"Shh, calm down. The process would slow if we stayed, you know that. We have to do this - for her sake." Her husband slowed the worried torrent of words belting from her mouth.
"That won't stop me feeling like a terrible mother."
"I wouldn't change you for the world." The crimson stallion wrapped his wing around his wife, and the motion of the boat they sat on gently soothed her. They sat like that for a long time.

***

Scootaloo had long since given up on completing any of the homework Miss Cheerilee had set them and instead strolled deep in the small woodland copse her house had been built around. The copse was a small part of the Everfree Forest that had, over the years, become tamer and quite friendly, which is why Scootaloo often wondered deep into the heart of it without fear.
Her house, a pretty thatched cottage with a well tended front garden, backed onto it and Scootaloo easily slipped between the trees to her secret hiding place. This was the empty hull of a fallen tree her mother used to take her to, when she was little more than a baby and barely crawling, before the long trips began. At first it had just been a few days here and there, but gradually they grew until her parents were more familiar with the trusty little motor boat they explored Equestria's oceans with than their own daughter.
Scootaloo had a reputation around Ponyville for never crying, no matter what happened, but unbeknownst to her friends, every now and then she would secretly sneak out to the hollow and cry bitterly for hours.
Today, however, was different. The orange filly huddled in the broken corpse of a tree was not there to cry, but to think. She had been feeling jittery all day, and an overwhelming headache had followed her since lunch. Her teeth refused to stop itching no matter how much toothpaste she smothered them in, and for some reason her fur tingled all over.
She tried looking up her symptoms in a dusty copy of 'Diseases, Infections and Common Colds: what have you got?' she found in her parent's bookcase, but it left her more confused than before.
And then there was the weird moment in the morning when she woke up in a pile of flowers instead of her bed.
Yes, something strange was going on, yet Scootaloo couldn't quite put her hoof on it.

***

The sky was a misty canvas of deep blues and charcoal blacks, the night the moon appeared.
Ponyville slumbered, blissfully unaware of one citizen's screams, the night the moon appeared.
Luna looked on proudly at her masterpiece and smiled, the night the moon appeared.
The pretty thatched cottage was quiet, the night the moon appeared, until a piercing scream tore through the silence.

***

The creature rose from Scootaloo's bed and yawned, a volley of barks that echoed across the valley. It prowled through the cottage and towards the door, sniffing the air apprehensively before instinct took over.
The perfect white orb hung among the navy blue of the sky and watched, as below a wolf howled.

Comments

[TwilightPoopSparkle]

Scootaloo is werewolf!

[Wasko736]

3252963
Awersomeness just doubled.