A Brush of Her Mane
Chapter 11: A Brush of Her Mane
The voices were right after all. I knew if I did nothing and just stood there, Scootaloo would remain sad and I clueless. I started my way towards the slow stepping filly.
Catching up I said “Scoots, where are you off to?”
Scootaloo’s ears perked up, my voice catching her off guard. She turned around quickly to make sure she hadn’t misheard or imagined me.
“I, uh, no. Nowhere special.” She stuttered.
With a cracked grin I said, “You know Ponyville’s the other way right?”
She scuffed the ground with her little hoof, “Yeah. I know.”
She began walking down the same path again, not offering anymore to be said. I wondered why the young filly could’ve been so sad. Could all of those disheartening and tearful fanfics be true? Was she really alone out here, in this gorgeous place known as Equestria? I refused to believe it. I trotted up to her again, this time not stopping, but just walking with her.
“Well, it doesn’t have to be special,” I said “but you’ve still gotta be going somewhere, right?”
She sighed, “Yeah.”
She didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, but I prodded anyways “So where then?”
Pouting she said “I’m just going to the clubhouse, ok?”
She started running off in a huff. I didn’t run after her, but continued walking at the same pace. I saw her climb up into the brightly colored tree house and shut the door. Something must have really been eating her. I know I didn’t say anything to bad, and I couldn’t have imagined any of the others being rude; at least not without my knowing.
A long, thought filled minute later, I too reached the entrance of the fort. Knocking on the door three times with my hoof, I called out to Scootaloo in a light and caring tone, “Can I come in?”
I was met with a muffled response of grumbles and mumbles form inside. Although I suspected them to mean ‘no’ I went in anyways. Slowly creaking the door open, I peered inside. On the floor near the window was a small sleeping bag. Curled up inside of it was a cute orange and purple blob, nestled between the sides of the warm, poofy bed.
She looked so peaceful, just lying there on the floor. It made me smile. Usually I tried not to smile at cute things, but ponies had definitely shifted my opinion. My new smile quickly reversed itself as I heard a light whimpering. The reason she had been curled up so tightly was because she was crying, crying to herself. Oh Scootaloo…
Slowly and quietly I walked over to the no longer peppy filly. I laid down beside her, moving a snail’s pace to not disturb her in any way. Her sleeping bag was opened enough that her head stuck out, revealing her spiky bright purple mane.
I didn’t say anything while I was next to her, I simply let her cry. I hoped she would be able to let all of her hidden emotions out now, release everything that was making her sad. I did, however, try to calm her, ease her tension and fears. With the lightness of a feather and the speed of sloth, I began slowly stroking her mane with my hoof.
It was disheveled and messy from playing all day, and strands of hair shot out every which way. As I brushed forward, it began to reform its shape, although not nearly as perfectly as usual. All the while she would sob, tears rolling down her eyes; eyes that were shut tightly from the world around them. Her mane was soft and smooth. Petting her was like having my hoof glide across the surface of a flowing river. There were no rapids to push me asunder, nor was it too calm to let me sink. Just smooth enough that my hooves would continue gliding until they reached the endless sea.
It was a perplexing take on purple, her mane. It was a light purple, more fitting to her orange coat that always seemed vivid and vibrant. Well, it was usually a light purple. With the now almost completely set sun before us, and the gleaming stars to take its place, it appeared dark. Not so dark that it would become black, but a darker shade of purple, like Twilight’s mane. But unlike Twilight’s mane, I found no comfort in this shade. The darkness surrounding this brilliant youth did not sit well with me. I had a feeling it did not sit well with her either.
As my slow but careful brushing of her mane continued, her sobs became fewer and lighter. As I sensed her calming down, I thought to remove my hoof. Almost immediately, the girl’s hoofs shot up and latched onto my arm, eh, foreleg. Hastily she pulled it over her and gripped it tighter to herself. I was astonished by the unexpected actions she took, but allowed her control of my foreleg. Holding me as close to her as she could, she began crying once more, her tears now streaming down my entrapped foreleg. I was lost for words, but Scootaloo seemed to have something she wanted to say.
“It wasn’t always like this.” She began, still crying. “Things used to be better. They did, they really did.”
She tried her best to speak, but the loud gasps for breath between sobbing made it hard for her.
“It’s all THEIR fault, they did it!” she screamed angrily.
“Whose fault, Scoots?” I asked her calmingly.
She winced, gripping my arm tighter when I addressed her, “My parent’s.”
Her parents? Wow. “What did they do?”
“They killed him! It’s all their fault!”
They, they killed someone? Dear Celestia, what was I getting into? Before I could delve any further into this murder idea, the depressed pegasus continued speaking.
“They sent us here. It’s all their stupid fault.” She cried.
“What happened? I whispered.
“I just wasn’t good enough,” she sniffed, hugging my arm tightly again. “I wasn’t good enough for them.”
“Aw Scoots, I’m sure that’s not true.”
“NO!” she screamed back, “It is true! They told me myself. They’re the ones who sent me here!”
My eyes shot open wide with surprised, “They sent you to Ponyville? By yourself?!”
“Mhhm.” She whimpered. “They told me I was useless. I couldn’t fly, so what good of a pegasus was I? May as well be a talentless Earth Pony they said. Then they kicked me out.”
“You couldn’t just be living here all by yourself Scoots.” I said to her, almost questioning the possibility.
At this, she started up with another stream of tears. Why was I doing this to her, making her cry so much? Or was this even my doing? You know what, it didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to let this little filly spend her night’s crying alone in a tree house.
“I wasn’t.” she cried. “I lived here with my brother.”
“Your brother?” I wondered.
“They killed him!” she screamed again, her wails filled with a blackness that could only be the result of such a devastating loss.
Reaching my other hoof over her, hugging her tight, I asked “What happened?”
Trying to find the words beneath her sobs, she worked up the courage to answer my question.
“When, when they yelled at me. He, he stood up, he was there for me. He was really big, he stood up for me. I just, just, I just couldn’t do anything. They scared me. He said, he said they weren’t. He said they were the ones who weren’t good enough. And, and, and we left. He got our stuff. And he flew me here.”
Her speech was wrecked with the continuous uproar of howls and cries, but I could still make out the bulk of it. Slowly she started to calm down, regaining her composure.
“He bought a house.” She sniffled along. “He used up all his money, and bought a house, just for us. He, he was really nice to me. He brought me to school every day, and played with me on weekends. It was so much better with him than with them. They were awful. And they killed him!”
Before she could go hysterical again, I wrapped her close to me. I needed to find out what happened before I could help. And unfortunately, the only way to do that was press further.
“Scoots, you have to tell me what happened.”
Sucking up the remaining droplets of sadness in her eyes she explained, “During the storm of Discord’s rule, a lot of ponies were sent out to stop the madness. My brother was one of them. His whole team, the whole team…they all died.”
“How?”
“They were sucked up into a giant vortex. It appeared in the middle of town and sucked ponies up. He tried to save somepony who got caught in the vortex, but it just got him too. It went away almost as soon as it appeared. And now…now…”
“Your brother sounds like a really brave and loving pony.” I told her, breaking her cycle of tears.
“Wh-what’d you say?”
“I said he was brave and loving. After all, not only did he stand up for you against your parents, but also went out of her way to try and save somepony he didn’t even know from a danger far stronger than himself. I think your brother was a great stallion.”
I told her how I felt about her brother and meant every word of it. I had never heard of him before, but if he did everything she said he had, then he was an alright guy in my book. Besides, he was Scoot’s brother after all. But it still bothered me about her parents. How could they treat their daughter so harshly? Their son too. I couldn’t imagine that any of these ponies would be so heartless. But I guess that just goes to show that the show couldn’t teach me everything about this equally imperfect world.
Scootaloo released my arm and crawled out from beneath her sleeping bag. Sitting up, she was still only as tall as I was lying down with my head up. Her wide purpley eyes stared into my own reddish orange one and it almost looked as if she was going to smile finally.
Trying her hardest through her wet eyes, she said “You remind me of my brother.”
Jaw dropped and face askew I sit there stunned. How in the world did I-
“I mean, when I first saw you, I thought you were him. I got really happy, but then…you weren’t him. And then you played with me all day and it felt like…but you still weren’t him. And you kept calling me ‘Scoots’ and he used to…but you’re not him.”
She was scuffing the floor again with her hoof. I felt flattered. I reminded one of my favorite characters, no, one of my Friends, of somepony they really cared about. Especially somepony as grand as Scootaloo’s brother. The smile returned to my face, as I smiled, so did Scootaloo.
“I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble, Scootaloo. I didn’t mean to stir up so many feelings.”
Scootaloo blushed for a second, and then she stiffened up. She marched up to me and went onto her…tippy-hooves I suppose, to look down on me.
“Don’t tell ANYPONY that I was being sappy and all sad, got that?” she demanded.
I chuckled but inevitably agreed.
Her full, childish smile enveloped her face with my agreement. That smile however soon evolved into a wide yawn, followed by a multitude of blinks. Poor filly tired herself out with all of her crying. Celestia why’d she have to be so cute?
I nudged her to sit back down and she gladly accepted, sitting atop her comfy sleeping bag. I too returned back to my original lying down position beside her. This time though, we both looked outwards and out the window at the fully shining stars in the blue night sky; their glistening forms tinting the illustrious blueness of the world above.
While I was staring up at the sky, Scoots nuzzled her face into my side, settling into a comfortable sleeping position. Her tiny wings feathered out as she relaxed, revealing that they weren’t so small after all. Unlike when I first entered the tree house, I now had a happy blob of orange instead of a sad one. That, was an accomplishment.
Slight muffled with her head in my side, the cute little filly said “Thank you. Thank you for listening. I know you probably didn’t want to hear all that, but it helped.”
“On the contrary,” I grinned, nuzzling her head with my own “I’m glad you shared all of that with me. In fact, is there anything else you wanted to say?”
A light seemed to go off inside her mind. She tilted her head so she was looking up at me and pointed her hoof out to the stars.
“He wanted to go out there. It was his dream to be a spacepony. He wanted to fly so high that no other pony could ever match him.”
“What was his name?”
“Rocketeer. My brother’s name was Rocketeer.” She smiled, a tear now forming in her left eye.
More tears? Surely she couldn’t be sad again. Ha, Pinkie would’ve made some comment about her not being ‘Shirley’ or something now. Ah, but I digress I guess. If anything, that tear was a happy one for the memory of her brother.
Returning her head into my chest, messing up her mane again, she asked me a certain question that I was unsure if I should answer.
“Drumroll?” she asked.
“Yeah, Scoots?”
“Will you be my brother?”
After a long and intensive silence, I told the little filly “Scoots, I don’t want to replace your brother. In fact, I don’t think anypony ever could. But if you really wanted to, I’d say you can call me your step brother.”
The tiny orange pegasus yawned aloud and sleepily responded with “You’re the best big step brother ever.”
With that, my little pony drifted away to a sweet sleep, smiling into my coat. I remained awake for a little while longer, watching the stars through the large tree house window. I saw one shooting star fly across the way, dashing over the round form of the moon as well. As it passed by, Scootaloo shivered, her vibrating body causing mine to move as well.
I then realized she wasn’t in her sleeping bag, but on top. Not wanting to disturb her, I raised my wing and lowered it over her body. She still shivered for a moment, but soon adjusted to her new blanket. She even grabbed some of my feathers and pulled my wing in tight. It hurt when she tugged on it, but the pain eased quick enough.
“Even with my broken wing, I’ll keep you warm Scoots.” I told her, or rather the silence.
Further breaking the silence, although not too much, speaking at a mere whisper so as not to wake her, “I’ll find your brother Scootaloo. I don’t think he’s dead. I’ll do my best, I promise…sis.”
Satisfied with my own resolution, I too put my head down to enjoy a nice night’s sleep. Sadly, those two voices just had to get in their last words.
To the right, “You did the right thing, Drumroll.”
To the left, “Just don’t forget this promise like you did Applejack’s.”
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Hnnng
If I didn't waste all my tears reading sad fanfics earlier, I would be crying right now. This chapter was beautiful. Scootaloo has such a sad life.
598423 yeah, shes had a rough time of it, but things get better for her. they always do. (at least in my universes, and those are the only ones that count) i love my little scoots
598657 I still can't really describe this chapter the way I want but it is just so good. Scootaloo was described in such a cute way and I love it. Aghhhh having hard time conveying my feelings!! I love when the pegasi wrap their wings around somepony for comfort. It is such a great way to show protection and comfort hnnnnng.
598731 much appreciation
scoots is just so cute to me, although i try to avoid being taken in by the cute, it doesnt always work. haha, but yeah, i getcha bro. you liked it, thats all i really want anyways 
and i agree, i think that its a brilliant way of showing care and love.
598781 Oh god. Scootaloo IS sooooo cute! She is probably one of the first ponies I would love to meet if my life turned into an HiE fic. lol
598891 agreed, although i didnt meet her till now, id still LIKE to meet her first. well...after rainbow dash
598935 Hmmm... First three ponies I would have to meet:
Applejack
Rainbowdash/Fluttershy
Scootaloo
Pinkie Pie. Ohhhh there would be soooo much hugging.
Rest of mane 6 and cmc.
You know... this would be a very hard decision to make if it were proposed to me. Many factors would change the outcome so yah...
598984 hmm, id have to say the same. honestly, if it was up to me id say dashie, scoots, flutters, aj, trixie, mac, bloom, luna, spike, twilie, tia, rarity, sweetie, and finally pinkie p so that she can throw a huge ass party with everypony. including all the chillest background ponies.
599118 Oh wait. I'd actually wanna meet Celestia and Luna first. But I wuv Celestia. She is awesome! I would def hug them both. lol.
Also, I really like her mane.
599134 i say we just meet all the ponies. that should settle it. damn i love these ponies
599218 Yep. Line 'em all up for hugs!