14. Scootaloo
Self-defence is Nature's eldest law.
John Dryden
The birds were chirping loudly when Scootaloo woke up. The sleeping bag was warm and cozy and she didn’t want to get up yet, so she closed her eyes, turning over and burying her face in a mass of red, curly hair. Twist muttered something in her sleep and smacked her with her hoof, finally awakening her. Scootaloo crawled out of her sleeping bag and saw that Silver Spoon wasn’t there. She went out of the tent, stretching her wings, and looked around, but saw no trace of her.
“Silver? Where are you?” she called, but nopony replied; all she heard was singing of the birds and a gentle breeze flowing through the tops of the trees. “Silver!”
“I’m here.” Silver Spoon emerged from between the trees. The whites of her eyes were bloodshot and her mane was hanging freely, instead of being braided as usual.
“You shouldn’t go into the woods alone,” said Scootaloo. “Who knows what’s there.”
“I’m sorry, but there are some things I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing with you around,” Silver Spoon replied, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I know how to defend myself.” She shown Scootaloo a scabbard with a griffonian Kampfmesser, almost as long as her foreleg, put behind a scrunchie she was wearing on her leg.
“You’d better put it back in the saddlebag, before you cut yourself. I don’t plan to fight anypony in the nearby future and we’ll need it to open the cans with food,” Scootaloo said.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll lend it to you.” Silver Spoon moved the knife so it was hidden behind her foreleg and went into the tent, coming back with a saddlebag full of food. “I woke Freak up, she’ll soon join us,” she said.
“Don’t call her that! We need to leave as soon as possible if we want to get to Canterlot quickly,” Scootaloo said, taking a can of baked beans and a primus to heat them. She felt the breeze getting colder and started to regret that she didn’t take a blanket to wrap herself in – most of the clothes they’d found in a wreck of an airship were too big for them, and the best idea she could think of was making a provisional cloak.
“Hi girlth,” said Twist, crawling out of the tent. Her mane was messy but she looked relaxed and fresh. She stretched herself and started to search through the saddlebag with food. Silver Spoon gave her a disapproving look. Scootaloo said nothing, her thoughts focused on the baked beans in front of her. Twist also took a can of some vegetables and for a moment they all were eating in silence.
“Tho, what are we going to do?” Twist asked when she finished eating. She looked at the Moon – it hadn’t moved since yesterday, still showing them the direction.
“I want to go to the refugee camp and find my mother,” said Silver Spoon. “She’s probably worried sick…”
“My parenth wanted to flee to Prance.” Twist suddenly shuddered. “But now they probably went without me…”
“Why? I think they’d wait for you…” Scootaloo’s eyes widened in horror, when she understood what Twist meant.
“Yes, blank flank.” Silver Spoon smirked, but her eyes remained ice cold. “We weren’t found on the place where bomb exploded. Technically, we’re dead. No one, not even your sister, cares about us. Well, if she ever cared for you.”
Scootaloo said nothing, staring at the ground under her hooves. Although she knew that something like this should have happened, it struck her only when Silver Spoon said that aloud. Next to her, Twist was sitting in a similar position, lost in her thoughts. Scootaloo understood her well. Even if they got to Canterlot in a few days, her parents probably wouldn’t be there.
Just yesterday, as Scootaloo recalled, Twist was the one to cope with the death of their classmates the best. She didn’t even pay much attention to it – everypony in their class knew that Twist was that weird filly with lisp who had no friends, except maybe miss Cheerilee. Why would she care about them? With parents, however it was different matter.
Scootaloo knew exactly what Twist felt now. She’d never met her own parents, and although the foster home wasn’t a bad place, she always felt abandoned, till Rainbow Dash took her under her wing.
And now, Rainbow Dash had also left her.
“Can you stop sitting here like two crybabies and help me with the tent?” Silver Spoon asked. Scootaloo rushed to pick up the primus and the saddlebags, while Twist rose mechanically and started taking the pegs off the ground. Soon the tent was folded and put in a bag, and they started to walk through the forest.
The wind intensified, and soon Scootaloo took a blanket from her saddlebag, wrapping herself in it. Silver Spoon followed her, only Twist didn’t seem to care. They were wandering through the thick layer of leaves, tripping over branches and roots protruding from the ground. Scootaloo let Silver choose the way, stopping her only when she saw Twist slowing down, lost in her thoughts.
They were walking for about two hours, when Silver Spoon suddenly stopped.
“What’s going on?” Scootaloo asked, nearly bumping into her.
“Look by yourself,” Silver Spoon muttered. Scootaloo stood by her side and saw a gorge in front of them. It was about fifty feet deep and thirty feet wide. Scootaloo looked into it and saw a small creek flowing on the bottom.
“So, since the only pegasus here can’t fly, we can either climb or try to find the road. There should be some kind of a bridge there.”
We can also push you down, Scootaloo thought, but she shook it off. She knew that they could survive only by sticking together. There was also a simpler reason – it was Silver Spoon’s turn to carry the tent.
“Yeah…” Scootaloo muttered, still looking at the bottom of the gorge. “We should look for a bridge. How do you think, Twist?”
Twist, who just joined them, said nothing.
“Twist?”
“Do what you want,” Twist murmured. Silver Spoon looked around.
“So, where the road should be?” she asked.
“Dunno, somewhere on the left?” Scootaloo dropped her saddlebags on the ground and searched through them, finding a map of the Canterlot and its surroundings that used to belong to the airship’s crew.
“Hmm, there’s no gorge here,” she muttered, her hoof wandering through the map. “It’s just forest, that’s all.”
“Crap… You said it should be somewhere on the left?” Silver Spoon asked.
“Dunno, just guessing. But we can’t be far from the road I think. We can go left and, if we don’t find anything, go back.”
Silver Spoon nodded her head. They turned left and started to walk, but then Scootaloo noticed something.
“Twist! Come on!” she shouted to the filly who was still sitting on the edge of the gorge, staring into the depth. Twist raised her head, as if she just woke up and trotted behind them.
***
“Does this gorge ever end?” Silver Spoon muttered angrily. They were walking for almost an hour, but they still couldn’t see the end of the obstacle. There was, however, a bright side – it got a bit shallower, and it seemed that soon they’d be able to cross it. There was also a small clearing there, and Scootaloo sat on the ground on its edge.
“How about a small break?” she asked. “I think it’s time for a dinner.”
They sat on the clearing, taking food out of the saddlebags.
“I think we’re only losing time trying to get to the road,” said Scootaloo, munching a hard tack. “We can go to the bottom of the gorge and climb up on the other side here.”
“What if one of us breaks a leg?” Silver Spoon asked. “We’d have to leave–”
“I wouldn’t leave anypony,” Scootaloo interrupted her. “Even you.”
“Really? Am I your friend now, or what? It may be very chivalrous, but then we’d all die.”
“Listen, Silver...” Scootaloo sighed. “I’m saving your sorry flank since yesterday and all I’m getting is you picking on me…”
“Thcootaloo, thtop. Don’t thtart it again,” said Twist suddenly.
“Oh!” Silver Spoon exclaimed. “You’re talking again. What will you say about my new best friend’s idea?”
“You should thtop too, Thilver. It’th about Diamond, right? We all lotht friendth yethterday, but we should get out alive firtht…”
“What do you know about friends? You don’t even have friends!” Silver Spoon shouted, “I’ve never asked you to save me. Diamond… she...” She paused, took her glasses off and wiped her eyes.
“Twist is right,” said Scootaloo. “We have to get out alive…”
Silver Spoon was still sobbing, so Scootaloo sat by her side, embracing her with her wing. The grey filly glared at her angrily and shook it off of her back.
“Let’s go,” she said finally and trotted to the edge of the gorge. “What’s up?” she asked, turning back to Scootaloo. “It was your idea.”
Carefully, they went down the sheer wall of the gorge. It was only twenty feet tall in that place, but it still was a scary trip. Scootaloo, being a pegasus, wasn’t scared of heights, but seeing Silver Spoon and Twist stepping cautiously, catching the small bushes and grass growing between the rocks made her heart skip a beat several times. Finally, they stood on the bottom of the gorge, cooling their hooves in the creek.
“So, now we only have to go up,” Scootaloo muttered. Luckily, the opposite wall wasn’t as sheer as the other one, and soon they climbed on it. For a moment, they were just lying on their backs, panting heavily.
“Let’s go,” Scootaloo said, standing up and wiping sweat from her forehead.
“Can’t we call it a day?” Silver Spoon asked. “I’m tired.”
“Already? It’s not even–” Scootaloo looked at the sky, but its orange colour and the celestial bodies hanging low above the horizon on the opposite sides of it made her unable to guess the time of day.
“3 PM,” said Twist, taking a watch from her saddlebags – it was a small masterpiece, showing not only the time and date, but also lunar phases – though now they were a bit off. It came to Scootaloo as no surprise that Twist took it when they were searching through the remains of the airship.
“November 9th, 1005 yearth after Dithcord.”
“Too bad it doesn’t show where we are,” Scootaloo concluded. “I’ve heard that they’re trying to make something like that in the Crystal Empire.”
Silver Spoon muttered something under her breath and got on her hooves, trying to wipe the dust off her back.
“Enough of a rest?” Scootaloo asked her. “Because I want to walk for a few more miles before we hit the hay.”
“Right…” Silver Spoon groaned and followed Scootaloo.
They didn’t even walk a mile from the gorge, when they heard a sound of wings flapping somewhere above them. Scootaloo looked up and saw four ponies flying above them. Being a fan of the Wonderbolts and their magazine where they often described various tricks and tactics, she immediately recognised the “claw-four” formation – two pairs, covering each other’s backs, that could easily split and fight independently.
“Let’s hide,” she said, crawling under a large bush near them.
“Are they our pegasi?” Silver Spoon asked. Scootaloo looked at the formation more carefully.
“Their armours are a bit different,” she concluded.
“Great. First we get bombed, and now we have to hide from bat ponies…”
“Girlth, look!” Twist shouted, pointing at the sky.
Two silhouettes in blue armours flew from behind a large cloud, charging at the formation. The wingpony of the lead pair saw them, and turned at them, followed by the rest of the bat ponies. The pair of pegasi fired a short burst at them and dodged the bullets, reuniting after passing the formation of their enemies. Bat ponies turned to face them, but the Wonderbolts – even from the distance, Scootaloo was sure that they were them – were too fast. One of the bat ponies got hit during the turn and was now gliding to the ground.
The fight continued, Luna’s soldiers trying to take advantage from the fact that they were more agile than the pegasi, but Scootaloo didn’t watch – a wounded pony was flying towards them, scratching the branches of the trees. Now she could see exactly his bleeding wing and frightened expression as he was trying to slow down. His armour was in fact just a regular flying suit, designed to help its owner in carrying small items and protect them from cold rather than the bullets. Just when Scootaloo thought that he was going to crash into the bush they were hiding under, he hit the trunk of a nearby tree and hit the ground with a loud thud.
“Did he die?” Twist asked in the silence.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Silver Spoon. “It seems that we’re winning!”
“We?” Scootaloo grunted, but Silver Spoon didn’t listen.
“You know?” she said, looking at the body of the bat pony. “I’d feel much safer if I could put my hooves on his rifle…”
“I wouldn’t. You already have a knife…”
Silver Spoon trotted towards the bat pony slowly, hiding behind the trees. Just when she was only few yards from him, he suddenly groaned and opened his eyes.
“Donnerwetter…” he muttered, getting on his hooves and examining his wing – luckily for him, the bullet didn’t tear any of the main veins of it; it also missed the fragile bones. Silver Spoon, upon hearing him, backpedalled automatically, snapping a twig with her hoof.
“Wer da?” the flier shouted, rising his gun and aiming it at the trees, “Who’s zere?”
Scootaloo gulped, when the barrel moved to the bush Twist and her were hiding behind. After an agonizingly long few seconds the bat pony hissed and winced, lowering the rifle and looking at his injured wing. He searched through the pockets of his flying suit and took a small bottle from it. He opened it, took a sip, wincing at the taste, and poured some of the liquid on his wound. Then he looked at the sky and, seeing no trace of his companions, opened his mouth to shout. Or at least Scootaloo thought so, because her ears didn’t register his voice – maybe some additional wave in the air, but nothing more.
Soon, a black silhouette appeared on the sky, and another bat pony landed next to his companion. He was shorter than the injured pony, but a bit bulkier and with smaller fangs. Scootaloo thought that he was probably a member of another bat pony tribe.
“Are ya ok, Flugschreiber?” he asked, looking at his companion with care.
“More or less,” Flugschreiber replied. “How’s ze rest?”
“Those guys ran away, Tyluan and Strahltriebwerk are going back home. Can ya fly?”
“Nein.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll carry ya.”
Just when they were going to fly away, Twist, who was trying to hold her breath for all this time, suddenly sneezed. Flugschreiber rose his gun again, aiming at the bushes. Scootaloo uttered several curses and saw Silver Spoon doing the same behind her tree.
“Zere’s somepony zere!” the injured bat pony shouted. His companion looked at the bushes, as if he was trying to pierce the leaves with his gaze. Scootaloo held her breath. For a moment her and bat pony’s eyes locked and she could swear that he winked at her.
“There’s no one there, Flugsie,” he finally said. Flugschreiber, although still looking at the bushes askew, lowered his gun. The other bat pony took him on his back and they both flew away. Scootaloo waited for a few minutes before they finally disappeared behind the horizon, and sighed with relief.
“That was close,” said Silver Spoon, approaching them. “Twist, couldn’t you hold on? They could kill us all…”
“It was your idea to steal his gun,” Scootaloo opposed, standing between her and Twist.
“I’m not talking to you.”
“But it wasn’t Twist’s fault!”
“It’th okay, Thcootaloo,” said Twist, seeing that Silver Spoon suddenly shifted her position, hiding her right foreleg behind the left one, playing with the scrunchie on it.
“It’s not okay! She has to understand that she can’t put us at risk–“
“Stop whining, blank flank!” Silver Spoon shouted, stepping closer to her, “You said yourself that the most important thing is to survive. We survived!”
Scootaloo sighed. “But we won’t survive for long if you keep on pulling stunts like that! If you want to join Diamond, I won’t object, but stop risking Twist’s and my life!”
“Don’t you dare talking about Diamond!” Silver Spoon shouted, suddenly rising her right foreleg. The steel clattered.
“No!” Twist cried, catching her hoof and tackling her. Scootaloo jumped backwards, her wings spread, ready to jump back into the fight, to contain the fillies. Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror.
The brawl died down. Twist was cowering on the ground, wailing in pain, while Silver Spoon was pacing around her nervously.
“I’m sorry, Twist… I’m so sorry…” she was muttering constantly.
The griffonian Kampfmesser was lying on the ground next to Twist, its blade red.
“What have I done…” Silver Spoon fell on her haunches. Scootaloo galloped to Twist, trying to examine the thrashing filly.
The cut on her foreleg was long, but fortunately not very deep, though blood staining her coat made it look far worse. Twist looked at it and stopped crying, gritting her teeth. Scootaloo took her saddlebags, searching for the bandages and water.
“I’m okay,” said Twist. “You don’t have to…”
“Listen, I crashed my scooter too many times to not know about cuts and how they can get infected.” Scootaloo sighed, pouring water all over the wound. “If we had something to disinfect it…”
“There’s some alcohol in that primus,” said Silver Spoon, her voice empty, pointing at the portable stove protruding from one of their saddlebags.
“But we won’t be able to cook anything...” Twist protested.
“Don’t worry, we’ll light a bonfire.” Scootaloo opened the stove’s tank and poured it on the cut. Twist hissed, but when Scootaloo wrapped her foreleg in bandages, she smiled and tried to get up.
“I guess we’ll have to stay here for a night,” Scootaloo said, watching her companions. Silver Spoon was still sitting on the ground, watching the knife in front of her. Twist was walking around wincing while supporting her weight on injured foreleg. “Silver, can you help me with the tent? Silver?”
“Yes?” Silver Spoon slowly raised her head.
“I asked if you could help me with the tent. No, Twist, you should rest.”
Silver Spoon trotted to the tent and together with Scootaloo they set it up. Just after that, she crawled inside.
“I think I’ll hit the hay,” she muttered. “I’m really sorry, Twist…”
“What’s wrong with her?” Scootaloo whispered to Twist when Silver fell asleep. She was now gathering branches to light a bonfire.
“I gueth she’th a bit lotht…”
“A bit lost? Nightmare Moon was ‘a bit lost’ thousand years ago! She could have killed you…”
“I’m worried about her…” Twist continued, trying to use the lenses of her glasses to focus the sunrays on a pile of dry leaves which Scootaloo had put under the wood. “She getth crazy, she can try to hurt herthelf...”
“Herself? She can kill us both in our sleep.”
“Shh…” Twist raised her hoof. “Can you hear?”
“Hear what again?” Scootaloo’s ears twitched. The leaves lit on fire which started to slowly spread on the twigs.
“She’s crying. Just like the latht night.”
“Fine…” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You can go there and console her; maybe she’ll even shed a tear while slicing our throats.”
“Really, Thcooth… You should at leatht try to be nithe for her…”
“I’ll start to be nice for her when she’ll start to be nice for me, instead of waving a knife before my face. Really, Twist, she cut your leg with a knife and you don’t give a shit?”
“Of courthe I give! But we’re in thith foretht together and we have to take care of her inthtead of pushing her further…”
Scootaloo only rolled her eyes.
“I’m going to thleep,” said Twist, opening the tent. “Goodnight, Thcooth…”
For a moment Scootaloo was staring into the flames, listening to the muted sound of Twist and Silver Spoon talking inside of the tent. She took a twig, snapped it in half and tossed it into the bonfire.
“Oh, Apple Bloom…” she muttered, “I wish Sweetie and you were here…”
***
The next day wasn’t any better. It was even colder, wind ruffling Scootaloo’s feathers in both literal and metaphorical meaning. What was more, she and Silver Spoon had to carry most of their stuff, since Twist, with her wounded foreleg, barely could keep up with them.
For the whole day, Silver Spoon didn’t tell a word to her. When they were walking, she was simply staring at the path in front of them with blank expression, occasionally playing with the scrunchie on her foreleg. Scootaloo tried not to look at that, but chill went down her spine when she saw that the knife was still there.
During the stops, Scootaloo noticed that Silver Spoon was talking with Twist quietly, frequently pointing at her foreleg. Even though she almost let her dinner go cold trying to figure what they were chatting about, she heard nothing.
After the noon, their stops became more frequent. Few times, the formations of pegasi flew through the sky, causing them to hide. Although Scootaloo was looking at them with hope, she couldn’t recognise any of them as Rainbow Dash.
The sky grew darker, for a moment they thought that the war ended and, after a very long day, the night finally fell. Soon, however, first raindrops started to fall on them.
“Just great,” Scootaloo muttered, feeling the blanket on her back soaking almost immediately.
“I think the forest gets thinner there,” said Silver Spoon. “Maybe we reached its end.”
“I think it’th the road.” Twist wiped her glasses and was trying to pierce the torrents of rain with her gaze.
“I see a light there,” Scootaloo pointed forward.
“A house?” Silver Spoon perked up.
“No,” Scootaloo suddenly shivered. “More like ponies with torches.”
“Maybe it’s our army.”
“We’re not going there,” Scootaloo said quickly.
“Oh, come on! Maybe they’ll save us!”
Before Scootaloo could reply, Silver Spoon was creeping to the road. At least she doesn’t run there like an idiot, the pegasus filly thought, following her.
In the middle of the road stood, sunk in the swamp to the axes, a large platform with a cannon on its top. Two ponies were pacing nervously around it, kicking the wheels from time to time and trying to dig in the mud with the shovels, without much enthusiasm.
They both were quite muscular, even for the earth ponies, their coats were dust grey, except of legs which were almost black. They had submachine guns hanging from their necks – a model commonly used by Equestrian Army before the war – and were wearing navy blue uniforms of Moon Army, with a badge depicting the Moon and two golden hammers on it.
“Combat engineers,” Scootaloo muttered. “Are they going to attack Canterlot?”
“It seems that the weather doesn’t help them.” Silver Spoon grinned.
“Pierdolę, nie robię…” one of the engineers grunted, dropping the shovel on the ground, and switched something on his submachine gun. Scootaloo furrowed her brow, trying to comprehend his words, but nothing came to her mind. It wasn’t Equine, Pferdisch or any language she’d ever heard. The engineer continued, “Chuj, jak tu przylezie ten debil, to mu powiem, żeby sobie wsadził to działo, jak ma taki kaprys…”
“What did you say?”
The two earth ponies silenced immediately when a bat pony landed behind them. Unlike the one Scootaloo had seen the previous day, he had an actual armour – a bit older type than the one used by Princess Celestia’s pegasi, but still it looked impressive, with a battle saddle (though without a cannon) and an assault rifle.
“He said that, if you like, you can put yourself that cannon where the Sun doesn’t shine.” The second engineer snickered.
“What?” the bat pony’s face became red. He stood on his hind legs, grabbing his gun and aiming it at the engineers. “You’re going to pull that cannon to Canterlot, no matter if you like it or not!”
“Make us,” said the first engineer, rising his gun and firing few bullets at him. Scootaloo jumped back, deafened by a sudden roar. She started to run back to Twist, hoping that Silver Spoon followed her and that the fighting ponies wouldn’t hear her hoofsteps. She jumped behind the trees, skidding to a halt on wet leaves, when Silver Spoon bumped into her. They turned around to see the bat pony sitting in the middle of the road and firing behind the fleeing engineers; his armour stopped most of the bullets, but they probably gave it to him anyway – he was panting heavily, holding the hoof on his chest.
“We’d better keep as far away from the road as possible,” Scootaloo said, her voice trembling. Her heart was pounding in her chest as if it wanted to get outside. “Twist, can you walk?”
Twist nodded. Not caring about the rain, they went further into the forest, until they found a small clearing. Quickly, they set up the tent and crawled inside, trying to warm themselves up despite the wet blankets.
“You know,” Silver Spoon said when they finally were in their sleeping bags. “If the whole Luna’s army looks like that, we’re gonna win that war easily.”
“I gueth Celethtia’th army ithn’t any better,” Twist replied. “Ponieth hadn’t been at war for ageth…”
“And how do you think, Scootaloo?” Silver Spoon asked.
“Frankly, I don’t care,” Scootaloo muttered. The echo of the shots was still ringing in her ears. She closed her eyes and turned back from Silver Spoon.
“I wonder what Princess Celestia will do to her sister,” Silver said. She lifted her head in excitement. “Maybe she’ll banish her to the Moon again…”
“No, she wouldn’t do that.” Twist yawned. She took her glasses off and rested her head on a pillow. “I think they’ll thomehow make it up…”
“After everything that happened? Don’t be naïve. Too many ponies have died; someone has to be punished for that.”
Twist only shook her head. Scootaloo fell into a shallow slumber, hearing their voices as if they were far away from her. Her mind started to wander off; she was barely realising Twist and Silver Spoon’s presence.
The sound of a thunder filled her ears. She saw a large pile of the dark clouds and the blurred silhouettes of several pegasi dragging them forward through the sky. She looked around, confused. Some of the ponies were wearing the blue and yellow armours of the Wonderbolts, while another group’s suits were of a plain, black colour.
“Come on!” she heard a raspy voice. “We need to get with this to Ponyville before morning!”
“Rainbow Dash?” she turned her head, looking for the source of the voice.
Rainbow Dash was hovering in front of the clouds. Although most of her face was obscured by goggles and helmet, Scootaloo noticed that she had bags under her eyes and she was constantly sniffing. She was also wearing a black armour and carried a rifle in her hooves, ready to fire at any moment. Scootaloo looked behind her and saw another pony, fast approaching the group.
“Rainbow Dash, watch out!” she shouted and heard, that someone else was also shouting with her. Rainbow Dash spun quickly, barely avoiding the stream of bullets. A pegasus clad in blue and yellow armour dove forward, shooting the bat pony off her tail.
“Thanks, Spitfire!” she shouted.
More ponies crowded around Scootaloo, trying to protect the clouds from the attackers. One of them, a violet mare whose white mane was flowing, protruding from under the helmet, flew directly through her, not changing her cold, indifferent expression for a single moment.
“What the–“
“It’s the future, Scootaloo,” an ethereal voice filled her ears. Scootaloo’s gaze drifted away from the dogfight, to see Princess Luna sitting on the cloud.
“What? When?”
“I don’t know, but I think it’s not very distant.”
Behind them, the ponies were fighting, slowly dragging their opponents away, shots echoing through the sky. Some of them went back to the clouds, pushing them towards the town in the distance.
“Why am I seeing this?” Scootaloo asked. Before Luna could answer, she glared at the Princess angrily.
“You’re showing me this! You want me to join you? Or make Rainbow Dash join you?”
For a moment, Luna looked at her, startled. Scootaloo sat back, intimidated.
“We are not the cause of this vision,” the Princess finally spoke. “We are here only because it’s your dream. I know nothing about why you and Apple Bloom can see the future.”
“What? Apple Bloom is alive? How about Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo, for the first time since she left Ponyville, felt a spark of happiness.
“Indeed. I saw her in her dreams last night. She wasn’t pleased to see me. And I couldn’t find a trace of Sweetie Belle’s dreams.”
“Well, I’m not pleased either!” Scootaloo stood up, her wings spread. “Half of my class got killed because of you! And, judging by this vision, it won’t stop!”
“I can’t deny that it’s my fault.” There was a deep sadness in Luna’s voice. “But I can’t stop this. There is some kind of magic surrounding my sister, and I can’t overcome it. I guess she just doesn’t want to talk with me…”
As she was speaking, the vision around them disappeared. Now they were in some dark void, filled by distant echo of somepony’s cries.
“Interesting,” Luna said.
“Is- is that another vision?”
“No, it’s a normal dream. But it’s not yours,” Luna pointed her hoof at something on Scootaloo’s left. The filly looked there and saw Silver Spoon sitting in front of something that looked like an enormous pane of thick glass. Tears were running down her face as she was trying to smash the window with her hoof.
“You know what it’s all about, don’t you?” Luna asked.
“I think so.” Scootaloo looked at the scene in front of her and felt tears flowing to her eyes.
On the other side of the pane Diamond Tiara was sitting, watching Silver Spoon with an absent expression, not even acknowledging that her friend was there.
“Can’t you help her somehow?” Scootaloo asked.
“I can’t, unless you will help me.” Princess Luna smiled half-heartedly.
“I’ll try...” Scootaloo’s voice quivered. She was still looking at Silver Spoon.
“I am sure you will, Scootaloo. There’s one more thing I want to ask you, but… After everything I did, I am not sure if I can ask you for a favour anymore…”
“If it means ending a war…” Scootaloo muttered unsurely.
“Go to Canterlot and tell my sister that I want to talk with her.” A single tear ran down Luna’s face.
“I’ll do that, Princess,” Scootaloo said. Luna smiled and suddenly disappeared, leaving Scootaloo with Silver Spoon still trying to destroy the barrier between Diamond Tiara and her.
Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes. The vision faded, but she still heard Silver Spoon’s sobbing. Sealed in her sleeping bag, she crawled closer to her, calling her name quietly.
“Yes?” Silver Spoon whispered, wiping her eyes quickly.
“Umm… I only wanted to say that… I-I know what you’re through and… I’m really sorry for… for everything,” Scootaloo said, avoiding her gaze.
“What?” Silver Spoon looked at her unsurely, her eyes red from crying and sleep deprivation. “Thanks… I think.”
“Do you want to talk?”
Silence. Silver Spoon stared at the corner of the tent, her face hidden in the shadows. The raindrops were still banging against the fabric, making Scootaloo wonder about its waterproofness. After a long pause, Silver Spoon sighed.
“Maybe later,” she said, her tone flat. Scootaloo tried to say something more, but the grey filly wrapped herself in the blanket and turned back from her. Scootaloo groaned.
“This is gonna be a long way…”
***
They didn’t walk for long the next day. It was still raining in torrents, changing the ground into a knee-deep mud. The old river beds across the way, which Twist described as formed by the glaciers long time ago, were now filled with water, making it almost impossible to cross them. After two hours spent on trying to get through a particularly wide one, when first Scootaloo and then Twist almost drowned, they decided to find some drier spot and set up their tent, waiting for the weather to improve.
Scootaloo looked at the sky, thinking what Luna had told her and what she had seen in her dreams. “Hmm, I think someone controls that rain,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Twist asked. Silver Spoon just finished changing the bandages on her foreleg and sat down next to her, wrapping her hoof around her to keep warm.
“You saw these guys yesterday… Don’t you think that the rain came in handy to stop them?”
“You may be right… I’ve heard that during the war between Northern and Thouthern Zebrica they uthed the weather control ath a weapon quite often,” Twist said. “They even invented the acid cloud, but it wath too impractical.”
“’Too impractical’? Not ‘drowning ponies in acid is too cruel, let’s not do that’?” Scootaloo asked.
“It thimply taketh too much acid to burn through the buildingth.”
“How can zebras even control the weather?” Silver Spoon asked. “They can’t fly!”
“They didn’t have to, our pegathi were thent to Thouthern Zebrica to help them.”
“Oh, I remember that history lesson,” said Scootaloo. “Princess Celestia send them to free them from that evil guy who ruled on the North, whatshisname…”
“Daddy loves to talk about this war,” Silver Spoon interrupted her. “He made his fortune on importing a cheap silver from United Republic of Zebrica after it ended.”
Scootaloo groaned. She, as every citizen of Ponyville, heard the story of Silver Chain, a pony from Manehattan who first earned a large sum of money as a tradespony, and later got married with a humble waitress called Greasy Spoon. She heard about fifty versions of it, including the particularly nasty and not exactly romantic one, told by Rarity when she thought that Sweetie was asleep.
All of them were making her feel like throwing up.
They continued to talk about various things, like what could the presence of the Moon Army so close to Canterlot mean and what else the Celestia’s pegasi had in stock. Scootaloo felt that she knew the answer exactly and shuddered, looking at the fabric of their tent. It wasn’t in the perfect shape when they’d found it, and now it was even more damaged after all the rain that had poured on it. Hoping that it wouldn’t suddenly collapse on their heads, she fell asleep.
***
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Scootaloo muttered, when she opened her eyes. The tent was a bit smaller than she remembered from the previous day, as if something heavy stomped on it while they were asleep. She unzipped it and found that the entrance is blocked by snow.
“Well, at least it doesn’t rain anymore,” Silver Spoon deadpanned. They slowly crawled out of the tent to find out that the layer of snow is at least three feet thick and reliable enough for them to walk without caving in it.
“What will we do with the tent?” Twist asked. She took one of the sweaters they were carrying in the saddlebags and put it on, despite it being way too big for her.
“We have to take it or we’ll freeze,” Scootaloo replied.
It took them an hour to fish all the parts of the tent out of the snow. Scootaloo and Silver Spoon followed Twist’s example and put on all the clothes they had. However, as they walked, they were gradually taking them off – the weather was now warmer, and the layer of the snow was getting thinner, but also more difficult to walk. Especially Twist had difficulties breaking through the melting swamp.
There was also the bright side – somewhere around noon, they finally stood at the edge of the forest. Few miles in front of them, on the other side of a large plateau, they could see Canterlot and the refugee camp, a small city of tents, located on the foothills below the capital.
“Not bad.” Scootaloo smiled weakly. “Maybe we’ll get there by the evening. There’s almost no snow behind that hill there.”
“Yeah, but I don’t like that fog,” Twist said, pointing to the left. She hissed, when her injured hind leg had to support her whole weight. “We’d better go.”
“Are you sure you’re gonna make it?” Silver Spoon asked. Scootaloo was surprised, hearing a small trace of care in her voice. Twist only shrugged. They started to trot through the plateau. The straps of the saddlebags fretted Scootaloo’s back, but she didn’t slow down. The fog soon overwhelmed them, obscuring both the Sun and the Moon.
“I think we lost the way…” Silver Spoon panted.
“Impossible, we have to simply go straight, right, Twist? Twist? Twist!”
“I’m here!” they heard Twist’s voice behind them. Soon, the filly joined them, collapsing in the snow. “I’m okay,” she muttered, getting up slowly and rubbing her wound. “Let’s go…”
“Is it our trail?” Scootaloo asked a minute later, pointing at the path in the snow.
“I told you,” Silver Spoon sighed. “We’re walking in circles.”
“There’s thomepony there!” Twist shouted, looking to the left.
Scootaloo followed her gaze and saw the blurred silhouettes of two ponies trotting towards them. “Shit,” she muttered. “We’d better hide…”
“Where?” Silver Spoon asked. “There’s nothing here!”
“Let’s go up this hill. Maybe we’ll see something from the top.”
They started to climb. Scootaloo saw a small group of bushes on the top, emerging from the fog. They couldn’t provide much cover, but it was better than nothing.
“Come on, Twist!” Silver Spoon shouted, seeing that their companion was staying in the back again.
“I’m… trying…” Twist panted. Just when Scootaloo and Silver Spoon reached the top of the hill, she placed her hoof on the frozen stone, hidden in the snow. She didn’t even have time to scream – she just collapsed and rolled to the bottom, losing her saddlebags and almost bumping into the two unicorn stallions who just stood in the place the fillies were only a minute ago.
“They are our soldiers,” Silver Spoon whispered, seeing the grey uniforms they were wearing – good for fighting in the city, but not very useful in the snow. She stood up, but Scootaloo stopped her.
“Hey, Black Marble, look what we have here!” a taller unicorn, with a short, reddish mane exclaimed. “Hello there, filly!”
“Oh, hi,” Black Marble, slightly shorter and bulkier stallion with black mane smiled at Twist. “Are you lost, kid?”
“A bit…” said Twist unsurely.
“And where are your friends?” the taller unicorn asked.
“What friends? I’m here alone,” Twist replied quickly, shuddering when he placed his hoof on her shoulder.
“Yeah… Do we believe her, Hot Blood?” Black Marble grinned maliciously. “Listen, filly, do you know what happens to kids who lie?”
“I’m telling the truth… I got lotht and I’m thcared and–“
“Shut up!” Hot Blood yelled, “I’m not here to talking to you, my little lotht filly…”
“Yeah,” Black Marble agreed. “I guess no one will cry after her…”
“Shit, we need to help her…” Scootaloo whispered.
“How? We have to run away as fast as possible!” Silver Spoon’s voice was filled with panic. “There’s no chance to save her… And they’ll catch us too!”
“I thought you two were friends! Do you want to leave her with them?”
“Of course not… But… but you said that the most important thing is to survive! We have to go!”
“Survive,” Scootaloo muttered through the gritted teeth. “Yeah, you can go if she means nothing to you! But I’ll at least try to save her!”
Silver Spoon shook her head and turned back. Scootaloo sighed, dropped her saddlebags on the ground, and started to run down the hill, focusing on Twist and two soldiers completely.
It looked that Twist wasn’t as scared as she had told them. She managed to slip from their hooves and temporarily blind Hot Blood by throwing a hoofful of snow in his eyes, but then Black Marble caught her with her magic and levitated her to himself.
“Now, kid…” he muttered, dropping her on the ground and spreading her hind legs with his magic. “We’ll play…”
Scootaloo accelerated, spreading her wings. She knew that she wouldn’t suddenly start flying, but she jumped, gliding just above the ground. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she rammed into Black Marble’s side, throwing him on the ground. Before he understood what was going on, Twist got up on all four and bucked him in the head.
With a loud snap, Black Marble’s horn broke. He screamed like a mortally wounded animal, cowering on the ground in foetal position and rising his hooves to his forehead.
“Run, Twist!” Scootaloo shouted, recovering. She took a step forward, and suddenly the world around her exploded. She fell on the snow, dazed. Her head started to ache, she felt something warm and sticky flowing down her cheek.
“So, she has friends, after all…” Hot Blood muttered, staring at her from the above. He kicked her one more time, sending her flying and caught Twist with his magic, causing her to trip. Scootaloo sat on the snow and spat the crushed remains of her teeth – at least two of them.
“Hmm…” Scootaloo felt a warm wave of magic embracing her. “You know, filly? I’ve never had a blank flank before…”
“Fuck you!” she cried.
“Language, filly, language! Though, I have to say, it’s quite accurate…” He levitated her, playing with her like a toy. “Unfortunately, you, pegasi are all sluts… But don’t worry, I guess there’s a hole in your body that haven’t been used before…”
Scootaloo thrashed against her restraints when he put her on the ground and lifted her tail.
“Don’t worry, if you behave, I’ll make it quick… I think your friend should watch this. After what she did to poor Black Marble… Then, after I’ll be done with you, I’ll take her to the rest of the guys… The cowpony is probably a faggot, but I guess the farmer will be glad… Not to mention that Lyra likes fillies...”
He ran his hoof through Scootaloo’s hindquarters, poking her rump few times.
“No…” she cried, when he placed his hooves on the base of her wings, his hips slowly approaching her exposed parts.
“Oh, yes…” he smiled, poking her buttocks. “Normally I’d say that I’d be gentle, but since you and your friends weren’t gentle for Black Marble…” He licked his hoof and started to rub her anus with it. “Well I guess you won’t be enjoying this for long… You think you’re badass, trying to save your friend… Badass, oh, how ironic… How long can Little Miss Badass survive with torn guts?”
“Not your fucking business…”
“Wrong answer!” he spanked her. “I liked it more when you were crying. Come on, beg for mercy… Or maybe there’s somepony else to help you?”
Scootaloo said nothing, squishing her eyes shut and trying not to cry.
“Just what I thought…” Hot Blood chuckled. “Okay, it was nice to talk to you, but I don’t want to spent the whole day freezing my balls off. Good advice, honey: if you relax, it’ll hurt less.”
“No!” Scootaloo screamed, clenching her muscles, thinking about only one thing: to not give this bastard any satisfaction. She shrieked, feeling the touch of the tip of his penis on her buttocks, when suddenly the magic aura around her loosened, and she fell, face first, on the snow. She gasped and darted forward, deciding that thinking about the cause of Hot Blood’s sudden change of mind would be a bad idea. After few steps she stopped in her tracks and turned back.
The stallion was lying on the ground, panting heavily. To her horror, Scootaloo saw a knife handle protruding from his back, throbbing slightly in the same rhythm as his heartbeat. She immediately recognised the knife.
She immediately recognised the pony standing behind Hot Blood.
“Silver Spoon… why…”
Silver Spoon was panting heavily, her face pale and her eyes cold and lifeless. Twist, released from the magic aura started to gallop blindly, not caring where she was going.
“Leave nopony behind,” she said and turned the knife handle. Hot Blood jerked violently when she pulled it out of the wound. Scootaloo closed her eyes, but still she heard his final scream and felt his blood spraying on her.
“Are you okay?” Silver Spoon asked after a while.
“I… I… Is Twist okay?” Scootaloo panted.
“She seems fine,” said Silver Spoon, seeing that the filly in question stopped running away and sat in the middle of the field, looking at them from the distance. “How are you?”
“F-fine…” suddenly Scootaloo shuddered, inhaled deeply, and threw up on the ground. Silver Spoon wrapped her hoof gently around her. It took some time before Scootaloo vomited all the contents of her stomach, retching and spitting the bile.
“It’s okay…” Silver Spoon cooed. “Are you hurt?”
“N-no, I think,” Scootaloo replied, getting on her hooves. She immediately felt dizzy again. During her struggle with Hot Blood she almost forgot that she had been kicked by him twice, but now the throbbing pain in her head and two broken teeth were reminding her that with every step.
“What will we do with him?” she asked, seeing that Black Marble was still lying on the ground, holding his broken horn with his hooves and moaning in pain.
“Frankly? I don’t give a fuck about him,” Silver Spoon replied. They walked past him in silence and trotted further, Silver Spoon picking their saddlebags.
When they approached Twist, she was cowering on the ground, sobbing. She looked at them and screamed, backpedalling. Scootaloo looked at Silver Spoon and immediately understood why – her companion’s fur and mane were soaked in blood of the dead soldier. Scootaloo thought that she probably didn’t look any better; probably even worse, with two black eyes and lots of bruises and cuts. She started to wonder why she hadn’t noticed that earlier.
“It’s okay, Twist,” Silver Spoon said. “They’re gone.”
She took a hoofful of snow and rubbed it into her fur, trying to clean it. Scootaloo followed her, the coldness soothing the pain.
“Thcootaloo, what’th that?” Twist whispered, pointing at her flank. Scootaloo turned to look, at it, expecting another bloody stain.
“No shit…” she muttered. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’re good at getting into trouble?” Silver Spoon looked confused.
“It looks a bit like Shining Armor’s one…” Scootaloo took a closer look. The shield was a bit different than Twilight brother’s, and it seemed that there was somepony hiding behind it.
“It meanth that your thpecial talent ith protecting other ponies!”
“Yeah...” Scootaloo sighed. “I’m afraid that Silver is right… Getting into trouble is my special talent.”
For a while they were just sitting in silence, another gust of cold wind running through their manes. Silver Spoon helped Twist to get up and they looked around. The fog was still covering everything, they couldn’t even see the bodies of the soldiers who had attacked them.
“Just great…” Scootaloo groaned and lay down on the ground, “I got my cutie mark, I almost got raped; time to fucking freeze to death, few miles from Canterlot…”
“You’re giving up?” Silver Spoon asked. “Come on!”
“I can’t…” Twist panted, collapsing near Scootaloo. “Thorry, Thilver, I’m jutht tired…”
So that’s how it ends… Scootaloo thought. Suddenly, she felt another gust of wind, blowing the mist away and causing the snow to melt. She looked around – the fog was quickly disappearing, swept away by the rainbow-coloured waves. Scootaloo stood up and saw Canterlot in the distance. Above it, there was a rainbow, connecting the Sun and the Moon. Heat was radiating from it, even though it was far away, somewhere above the sea. Scootaloo heard Twist laughing for the first time in days. Even Silver Spoon resigned from her usual smirk and smiled.
“Let’s go!” Scootaloo exclaimed, pointing at the refugee camp that was maybe a mile from them. “Rainbow Dash, here I come…”
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Whelp...that's one helluva way to earn a cutie mark.
War is hell. Especially to little children.
4780480
Oh yeah... Not to mention that Silver Spoon and knives don't go well together...
You sure don't hold back on the details of war do you? I'm glad Black Marble and Hot Blood got their flanks kicked though.
4784712
Yeah, I spare no details... But don't worry, not everyone dies at the end.
4784829 Good, so you won't pull an, as I call it, a Modern Warfare on us?
4784867
Definitely not
4784929 Wunderbar!
Sorry scoots...She is deeeaad.