Lightning Strikes Arc Part 1: Off to see the Wizard!
It was not a well-known place, but it was there, Ponyville’s local orphanage, the place known as “Wayward House”. It received ample funding from City Hall despite its outwardly homey look. It blended well into the rest of Ponyville that anypony passing by thought it was just a daycare or a normal house. But that was the point; the ponies who made the place figured that the foals who come to places like this were probably sick and tired of being in a facility like in the bigger cities and towns. So this was a happy change of pace, although these foals were brought in from off the streets, broken homes, and troubled pasts, that didn’t mean they had to be denied the comfort of a home.
That was probably one of many things that Scootaloo liked about it. When Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ran out to get her after she quit the Flag Team, she was worried what they would say, or how’d they look at her from then on. Thankfully, they were too focused on helping her to notice, and thankfully most of the staff and foals in the house were at the Crystal Empire to watch the tryouts. But I digress.
Today could have been better for Scootaloo, sure it started off alright. Waking up early in the morning (okay she didn’t like waking up early, but it was part of the daily routine), getting washed up and making her way to the breakfast table.
Scootaloo had found her usual spot at the table, sitting beside one her orphanage friends, Alula. Alula was a vanilla colored filly, with a purple mane and tail, and teal eyes; it was often hard to determine what she was from time to time. Sometimes Scootaloo would see her and she’d be a pegasus, other times she’d see her with a unicorn horn, and, for one brief occasion, both at once, or she wouldn’t have either. There were days when she thought about asking Alula why that was, but it didn’t matter to her, many of the foals here had secrets, and Scootaloo was no exception, if Alula wanted to tell her she’d listen, but neither would she pry into her personal business.
After eating, she broke out her scooter and hurried outside, after saying goodbye to the matron of the house, Scootaloo took off down the street, waving a goodbye to her orphanage friends with promises of seeing them at school.
When she did arrive at school it was business as usual. She met up with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle; they’d catch up on what happened yesterday, and start to formulate new plans for getting their cutie marks. But those plans were mostly in the planning stages, since today was scheduled Twilight Time. You’d think after spending most of the day being taught at school by Miss Cheerilee that the three fillies wouldn’t be interested in even more lessons. And, not to say that they didn’t like Miss Cheerilee’s lessons, but Princess Twilight helped them master different skills, whether or not it was their special talent was another story, but they did enjoy the lessons and seeing how far they could advance in their special skills.
But as it was said in the beginning, the day started out normally for Scootaloo, but that’s when things went bad. So bad, that Scootaloo was standing outside the school building close to the door. A…incident occurred, involving Diamond Tiara meeting Scootaloo’s hoof. Diamond Tiara’s father, Filthy Rich, had come down to the school with a look of outrage on his face and sneered at the pegasus filly before entering. All she could do for the time being was stand out there and listen to the stallion yell as Miss Cheerilee tried to get through to him.
“Miss Cheerilee, I will not allow that ruffian filly to continue to harm my Diamond Tiara in such a manner!” Filthy Rich yelled.
“Please Mr. Rich, calm down, there’s more to this than you are aware of –”
“No, there isn’t! What I am aware of is that this isn’t the first time that my daughter has been assaulted by that tomcolt of a filly! Last year she and her friend, Silver Spoon, were pushed in the mud!”
“To be fair, that didn’t happen at school, and neither was that done by Scootaloo either. From what I understand, it was somepony else from out of town. A cousin of one of my students, Apple Bloom, the other filly’s name is Babs Seed if I remember correctly. Although Scootaloo and her friends were present at the time, they weren’t directly involved, and I don’t believe they were ‘pushed’ from what I understand they backed up too far to the edge of the train platform and fell.”
Filthy Rich scoffed. “Oh please, are you saying my daughter is lying about that?!”
“Are you calling Applejack a liar? Because it was her who recounted the events to me, should it become an issue, you could always ask her. ”
Scootaloo heard silence for a moment and chuckled inwardly, even Filthy Rich wasn’t stupid enough to call Applejack – the Element of Honesty – a liar. Even with that FlimFlam fiasco, she still told the truth in the end.
“Fine, but there were others after that!” The stallion countered.
“And at every instance your daughter, Mr. Rich, has been the instigator. I don’t condone Scootaloo striking your daughter, I’m not saying she deserved it, but there is only so far you can poke a stick at a sleeping dragon before it decides to bite back. And, not to mention, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have more complaints against them than any other pony in my class you might consider a ‘trouble student’.”
Scootaloo could hear the stallion splutter and huff at the accusation, which in fact was a true statement as she remembered Ms. Cheerilee writing down some of what she had told her during previous incidents.
“Tell me, Mr. Rich, what is it that you expected me to do when you came barging in here?”
“I expected you to do something! Expel her, or put her in a detention center! And if you won’t I’ll find somepony who will!”
Scootaloo’s stomach sank as a feeling of dread washed over her. Sure she was a little quick to fight sometimes, and sure, she often did reckless things, but it was thanks to her friends that most of her old tendencies and habits had been suppressed or even forgotten. But, in cases like this, Scootaloo’s old fight or flight instincts took over, and since she couldn’t fly, not currently anyway, she often had to resort to the former rather than the latter. That was, of course, before she was brought to Ponyville from another orphanage.
But now she was going to be punished, punished for fighting back against a bully, and defending the honor of her friends and herself. Scootaloo briefly contemplated running away into the forest, but stopped when she heard Ms. Cheerilee talk.
“If I did Mr. Rich, I’d have to expel Diamond Tiara as well. I’ve documented many of her discretions, and I have enough, if I so wished, to go to the Ponyville School Board to do the same to your daughter and make her actions public.”
“Y-You wouldn’t dare, or have you forgotten how much money I contribute to the School Board?!”
“Let me be clear that I don’t care. If I had to, I could petition Princess Twilight for aid in the School Board’s finances, and being the scholarly mare I know she is, the Princess would gladly do so to see that the education of the foals comes first, and would absolutely discourage the actions your daughter has taken.”
Scootaloo then heard a single hoof smack against wood, making the young filly jump. Something told her, judging from the edge in the school teacher’s voice, that it was Miss Cheerilee who did it.
“Mr. Rich I will see that punishment is dealt out equally to both students. But never – and I mean never – come storming into my classroom and demand that I expel or incarcerate a student of mine! Threaten my little ponies like that again, sir, and I will see to it that not only is Diamond Tiara expelled and her permanent record plastered with everything I have, I will make sure to report you to the Dusk Guard!”
“U-UNDER WHAT CHARGE?!”
“For threatening a foal, not something you want your business, Barnyard Bargains, labeled with do you?”
Scootaloo heard a few grunts and huffs, along with a growl of frustration. She then heard stamping hoofsteps approach the door and immediately jumped away from the door. Filthy Rich, the tan colored, black maned stallion, looked down at the filly with contempt as he opened the door. He said not a word as she continued storming down the road, not even sparing a second glance as his form vanished in the distance. Scootaloo sighed in relief, not sure how she would’ve reacted if the Diamond Tiara’s father said something to her. But her sigh was cut short when she heard Miss Cheerilee clear her throat.
“Are you okay Scootaloo?” She asked.
“Oh…um, yeah, I’m alright.”
Cheerilee sighed heavily. “I’m sorry Scootaloo; if I knew he was going to blow up like that I would’ve sent you off and talked to you after the weekend.”
“It’s alright, really…” Scootaloo’s wings fluttered nervously as she looked up at her teacher. “You’re not really going to expel me or…or put me in a detention center…are you?”
“Never.” It was only one word, but that one word held all of Cheerilee’s conviction, strength, and belief. “But, as I also said, I don’t like that you struck Diamond Tiara, you could’ve just walked away.”
Scootaloo lowered her gaze as her face scrunched in anger. “We always walk away, and it never makes her stop! If anything she just takes it as a challenge to try harder to make us feel bad! ‘Blank flank, flightless pegasus,’ I’m just sick of hearing it all! And that’s not including the things she says to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom too! Sweetie’s not a fighter, tough though, but she can be sensitive sometimes and get her feelings hurt easily.
Apple Bloom’s confident and strong, but even Diamond and Silver still manage to chip away at that, sometimes more! Apple Bloom won’t fight because of how she was raised by her family, and that’s cool, and Sweetie won’t fight because, well, she’s not much for it, she can get angry but as far as what I did, no. I’m the only one with nothing to lose! So why shouldn’t I use that to my advantage and fight back?!”
“SCOOTALOO!” The severity in Cheerilee’s voice made the filly jump with fright for a moment. “Don’t you ever think of yourself like that! Of course you have much to lose! Are you really saying you don’t care if you get put into a detention center, possibly never seeing your friends again?! That you won’t get to attend school with your friends and graduate? Or get to learn from Princess Twilight and Rainbow Dash, your idol?!
“………No, I would care.”
Cheerilee leaned down and nuzzled the young pegasus filly. “Please Scootaloo; don’t ever say things like that about yourself. You matter to a lot of ponies, me included. So don’t think that you’re not important or that you have nothing to lose, alright?”
Scootaloo nodded affirmatively. “Miss Cheerilee, I kinda need to get going. I need to go to the castle for Twilight Time and I don’t want to be late…”
The maroon earth mare smiled and nudged the filly with her hoof to go. Scootaloo ran down the steps and to her awaiting scooter. She then strapped on her helmet and buzzed away down the dirt road. Cheerilee smiled and waved goodbye, but once Scootaloo was out of eyesight, her smile turned into a frown of concern.
“I’ll have to talk to Twilight about this…”
Scootaloo found herself in a strange dream, not to say she hadn’t had a bad dream before, but she really didn’t know how to classify this one. She found herself before six large stone thrones. Each one carved with weird magicy symbols that would probably make sense to Princess Twilight. But that’s not the weirdest thing, no; the weirdest thing was who, or more accurately, what was sitting in them.
To Scootaloo’s far left she saw, what appeared to be a unicorn, with a body made up of shimmering stars and swirling galaxies. The second looked as if he were made of stone, or that a mountain was given pony form. It had no wings or horn so she assumed it was an earth pony. The third was a pegasus like herself, except his body radiated a shimmery aura of white, along with strands of other vibrant colors. The fourth was another unicorn, but this one’s body was clearly made of pure lightning. The fifth was another earth pony, but his body was made of a shimmering golden aura that radiated an unbreakable will. The sixth, and last, was a pegasus, his body was elemental like the unicorn and earth pony, being completely made of silver wind.
Scootaloo knew she had a good imagination, but she never thought she could think of ponies who looked like this. The scenery shifted slightly, and now she was in a room made of stone and lit by torches. Before the six otherworldly ponies were two pony foals, one was a unicorn colt, with a black mane and mauve coat, and the other was an earth pony filly, with a grass green coat and a sky blue mane. The unicorn colt was on the floor, his body battered, bruised, and littered with bleeding gashes all over. The earth pony filly next to him had some gashes too, but not as severe. Her eyes were watering as she held onto the colt, watching as his breathing became erratic.
“Please, help us!” she cried out.
“The power we offer can save him, but he is near death’s door. If you wish to save him, then you must share the power equally between you,” spoke the starry unicorn.
“But the one you wish to save must also agree. For in taking on this power, you take on all the hopes and dreams, the very safety of the world upon your shoulders. Now, do you accept this?” asked the lightning unicorn.
The filly nodded vigorously and waited for her friend to respond. The colt weakly looked to her and nodded a yes, smiling as he did so.
“It is decided,” said the golden earth pony.
The six ponies rose from their thrones and raised one hoof above them. Their power gathered at the tips of their hooves and shot out into the air above. The six powers became one, transforming into lightning that struck both the filly and colt at the same time…
~~~
“AAAAAAHHHH!!!” Scootaloo screamed as she awoke with a start.
The orange pegasus filly was sitting up in her bed, covers thrown off her and half slumping to the floor. Her body was drenched in sweat as she felt her heart pound at her ribcage rapidly; Scootaloo quickly looked around, but noticed that she was in her room and not in the stony room with the strange six. From the bed across from her, a filly looked at her with concern. She was an earth pony, with a mulberry colored coat, aquamarine mane, and turquoise eyes that carried an odd shimmer in the night. Scootaloo’s roommate, and often time’s secret keeper, Aura.
“Scootaloo, you alright?!”
The pegasus filly took a moment to calm herself down, implementing the calming technique that Princess Twilight had taught her and her friends a while back. After going through the technique a couple of times, Scootaloo was finally able to get her breathing under control and slow her heart rate.
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine Aura, thanks.”
“Really? ‘Cause you don’t look fine to me.”
The earth pony then plopped head first out of the bed and onto the floor. Scootaloo winced at the thud of the impact, but just as always, Aura sprang up and sat at Scootaloo’s bedside. She can be as random as Pinkie Pie sometimes, but at least she knows when to be serious.
“You had a nightmare didn’t you?” Aura asked.
“Well, tell me. It’s not like I haven’t heard a weird dream before…unless it’s one of those dreams that’s better kept private, in which case I totally understand if you don’t want to tell me! But, maybe it’s better if you do, talking about it might help! That doesn’t mean I’m trying be nosey or anything I just want to make sure you’re alright! Because, well, obviously you’re not and –!”
“AURA!” Scootaloo interrupted. She liked Aura, really she did, but sometimes the filly tended to ramble on and sometimes it ended up making things awkward, which is why she derailed it then and there.
“I did it again…Didn’t I?” Aura asked with a sheepish smile and a blush.
“Yep.”
“Sorry…”
“It’s okay, and the dream wasn’t weird that way it was just…weird and a little scary…”
Scootaloo began to tell Aura what she saw, the six ponies made of different things, the strange thrones they sat on, and the two foals who were in front of them.
“That’s when the six of them raised their hooves and shot these beams into the air. They combined together and became lightning that struck the colt and filly! I mean, how messed up is that?! They were bleeding and beaten and asking for help, and what do they do?! They zap them with a lightning bolt!” Scootaloo noticed Aura’s eyes were wide as saucer plates and her jaw hanging open slightly. “…Um, Aura, you alright?”
The earth pony filly quickly shook her head and put on her usual smile. “Oh yeah, just fine! But that dream, while intense, was something else! But I don’t think you should read too much into it.”
“Really…it felt real…like it happened, maybe not to me, but somepony…I don’t know.”
“Well, if nothing else, it makes for a good story – Oooh! Maybe you can try and get your cutie mark in story writing! ‘Cause that sounds like something I’d see in Power Ponies!”
Scootaloo thought about that for a moment, she never saw herself as the story writing type, she mostly enjoyed reading a comic then writing it. Then again, who knew what her special talent was, and if all else failed; maybe it would help her friends to discover their talents.
“Yeah, that sounds great! I’ll run it by the girls tomorrow and see what they think!”
“Cool, well, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.”
As Aura made her way back to her bed, Scootaloo glanced at her blank flank. “Aura, y’know, we always have room for another Crusader. I mean I like what the girls and I have, but they definitely wouldn’t mind having another join. Apple Bloom’s cousin is part of the Crusaders and is starting our Manehattan branch, and with you we could probably come up with more ideas!”
Aura stopped mid climb and turned to glance at Scootaloo. “No, that’s alright. I know getting your cutie mark and discovering your special talent is something you three are doing together. It’s good that you want others to join, but at the same time, you might want to enjoy how close you guys are, every try brings you closer together, success or fail.” Aura flashed Scootaloo a cheery smile before getting back fully under the blankets.
Scootaloo, once again was thrown for a loop with Aura, as silly as she could be, ramble on and on, she could be oddly mature. The pegasus filly yawned and laid back down, hoping she could back to sleep after that dream she had.
That morning Scootaloo headed towards Sweet Apple Acres, the girls having promised to meet up at their HQ as soon as possible for crusading. No sooner did she arrive at the treehouse did she notice the lack of any sound coming from up top.
Guess AB is busy with chores or something. I’ll just –
At that moment a flash went off inside the treehouse. Scootaloo looked up curiously, wondering if she was mistaken about her friends not being there. Another flash of light went off, and again, and again. Scootaloo, now curious, walked up the ramp that led to the front door of the treehouse. The flickering light inside went off more rapidly, almost as if it were reacting to Scootaloo’s presence. When she finally reached the door, Scootaloo swallowed nervously as she tapped the door open. The result of which was a giant blinding light that bathed over her and turned her world into nothing but white.
When the light dimmed down Scootaloo ventured to open her eyes, and what she saw nearly made her want to swear.
Gone were the treehouse and the vast orchards that made up Sweet Apple Acres. What had been left in its stead was a room filled with ancient artifacts, some weird, some scary, and one that appeared to be a golden helmet on a stand that was placed away from the other items. Scootaloo meandered through till she spotted a hallway. She looked back to see if there was maybe a doorway she missed that would take her back home, there wasn’t one.
So, with a reluctant sigh, Scootaloo walked down the hall. She didn’t know where she was, but from what she could tell, it had to be a castle. The texture of the stones though made her think that it might’ve been an old castle, like the Castle of the Two Sisters. Granted she had never been there before, only going off of what Rainbow Dash and the others told them about it. But she imagined it would look like what she was seeing. Along the way, there were tapestries hanging from the walls, some depicting great battles and terrifying monsters.
Near the end of the hall, Scootaloo noticed the light changing, where it was lit with magical crystals imbedded into the wall, now it was transitioning into torches. They lined the walls, like a beacon leading her to her destination. As she neared, what she believed to be, the end of the hallway. Scootaloo noticed that the hall expanded as she passed through an archway. On either side of Scootaloo stood the statues of creatures that looked like something from a nightmare. Each of the statues had words carved onto them; she read them allowed as she passed each one.
“Pride…Gluttony…Greed…Envy…Sloth…Anger…Lust? What are these things?”
“They are the Seven Deadly Enemies of Mortals.”
Scootaloo jumped at the sound of the echoing voice, her head snapping to and fro as she looked for the source of the voice. “W-W-WHO’S THERE?!”
“Calm yourself young one, this way…”
Scootaloo saw a small orb of light poof into existence before her. The orb then flicked towards the other end of the hall and down another hall. Scootaloo didn’t like this, for all she knew the one who was calling to her had laid out a trap, planning to do unspeakable things to her, or a monster that only sounded normal just to lure you in before it tears you limb from limb. But, the prospect of venturing off into this strange place was equally dangerous, at least this way she knew that there might be someone or something waiting for her. So, reluctantly, she followed the orb.
The orb moved like a firefly, zipping around as it led the filly further into the depths of the mysterious castle. Then that’s when she saw something that nearly made her let out a very uncool girly gasp. The hall opened up into the same room she saw in her dream, albeit with more detail. But something was different, where there should be six thrones there was only one, and there was a pony sitting in it. He was wearing heavy white robe, his coat was grayish silver as his long beard stretched down till it nearly touched the floor, along with his equally long mane.
The old stallion was a unicorn, his single horn was long and sharp, and it almost reminded her of Princess Celestia’s horn. The old pony slowly opened his eyes and revealed them to be to pools of blue, glowing magical light.
“Come closer child…step forth.”
Scootaloo, not knowing why, obeyed the old pony and walked slowly, but cautiously, to him. She stopped about halfway, rooting herself to the spot and telling herself not to get any closer.
“Who are you…? What are you…?”
“I am he who has stood guard over the ancient magic! The last of Council of Magic, you may refer to me as the Wizard!”
At that moment the unicorn’s horn let loose bolts of arcing lightning that shot up and thundered loudly.
“Welcome young maiden, to the Rock of Eternity…”
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Star Swirl the White
CHERILEE IS THE MOST AWESSOME TEACHER EVER!!!!!! I can totally see her adopting Scootaloo at some point if she could, she's looking out for all her students and not afraid to stand up to Filthy when he's putting pressure on her. I can just see Cherilee and Twilight working together on lesson plans or just sitting together chatting over teaching methods.
Was the golden helmet a reference to Doctor Fate??
I haven't read this chapter yet, but this is what the chapter's title made me think:
So, I'm more of a Marvel guy, the most DC I've been exposed to is DCUO and the Batman movies/shows (the older ones), so I know nothing of Shazam.
Why am I reading this, then, you ask? Because I love anything Scootaloo.
My question is, how close is this to how the kid got Shazam powers?
5215371 talk about... The PTA.
she mostly enjoyed reading a comic then writing it
1. Than.
Read this line for yourself and you will find something odd about it
6310859 Umm, I'm guessing Barnyard Bargains is supposed to be between quotations? Or a period after "For threatening a foal"?
Cheerilee's a pretty good, reasonable authority figure. In a world that might've been, she would've been Scootaloo's older sister even.
I see that 'Princess Erroria' aka Alula got a bump from background filly to having some actual lines.
6621908 theirony what you said in the horrer gen 3 she was scoot sister
5469950 it's actually a lot closer than you'd think an MLP version can get.
I mean no offense to anypony but it's true.
Also I am rereading this for the fifth time and I love every bit of it.
BD out
Lovin' the story so far. But abit dissappointed that you didn't go with different enemies of mortals for the story. I admire that you also added in other magical items to the story. Some forshadowung there. :)
Seven deadly sins once touch 👍
I remember reading a Capt. Marvel origin comic when I was a kid. Must have been a left over one as it would have been about 48 or 49 when I saw it.
This telling is very well done