NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales

by Fluttercheer

Day 2: Tears and Apologies

It was early evening and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sat around a table in Sugarcube Corner. They just finished cleaning up the library together with Twilight after the incident with the big apple that Apple Bloom created and were now exhausted, so they retreated into their favourite bakery to relax with some milkshakes.

Sweetie Belle sank hooves first down onto the table, resting her head on them. She yawned.

“I'm so tired!”, she exclaimed.

“Me too!”, Apple Bloom replied.

“No surprise after it took us two hours to clean up the library. That apple sauce was everywhere! It was even in some of the books, have you seen that? I'm glad Twilight hasn't recognized that after she was so mad at us”, Scootaloo added.

The three Crusaders nodded in unison. They knew how Twilight reacted when something happened to one of her books.

“But it was nice from her to forgive us”, Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah, I thought she would never invite us again after we abused her like that.....” Scootaloo leaned back in her seat.

“We somehow have to thank her for it that she's still teaching us!”, Apple Bloom declared.

“We just have to learn harder and show her that we appreciate what she's doing for us. You know how much she likes it to educate other ponies, that's for sure the best thank you we can give her!”, Scootaloo explained.

Another group nod followed.

Sweetie Belle rose from her sleep-like position and put a hoof in the middle of the table. “Let's swear that we will never disappoint Twilight again and that we will learn even harder now!”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom followed her example and put their hooves in the middle of the table too, right next to hers. “We swear!”, they called out in chorus. Then they threw their hooves into the air simultaneously to seal the pact. They looked at each other and shared a hearty laugh; feeling how the stress of the day slowly wore off and made room for relaxation. Only their tiredness still remained to it's full extent.

They sank back into their chairs and some minutes of silence followed. The three fillies were quietly finishing their milkshakes, barely able to keep their eyes open.

As Apple Bloom has drunk up the content of her glass, she yawned again. Then she left her seat and got up. “Ahm goin' home now. Ahm too tired to stay awake”, she said in a low voice.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just nodded. They took a last sip from their milkshakes and then got up too. “Yeah, it's the best when we go to sleep early today”, Scootaloo gave her a late reply.

Apple Bloom stretched herself a little to avoid sleeping in at the spot and then they walked up to the counter. Each of them placed some bits on the top of it to pay for the milkshakes. They said goodbye to Mrs. Cake and then headed for the door and went outside. The sun was already deep down, almost touching the horizon. Apple Bloom slowly turned round to face Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “Good night y'all!”, she said taut and then immediately went away, heading into the direction of Sweet Apple Acres while already dreaming of her warm, comfy bed. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle answered the good night wish and waved after her. They shared a quick “Good Night!” too and then separated. Sweetie Belle was heading to her house, while Scootaloo stayed alone at Sugarcube Corner. She looked after Sweetie Belle for some seconds and then turned around; gazing at the entrance. She couldn't leave.

Scootaloo approached the entrance, sat down on the stairs and propped her head on her hooves. Something was nagging at her mind. But what?

Was it because of Twilight? They already said sorry for what they did and Twilight forgave them. Everything was fine between them again. This couldn't be it. But what then?

Scootaloo pondered about the reason but no matter how much she taxed her brain she couldn't come up with an answer. After a few minutes, she gave up. Getting up again, she decided to just get her scooter and to drive home. Maybe it was just because she was so tired. A good night's rest and everything would be fine again tomorrow, she thought. Her scooter was parked in a back alley at the right side of the building. Yawning, she trotted over to the place where she left it.

It was hard to see something in the dark alley, now that the sun had almost set, and so she needed a few seconds to spot the scooter in the dim light. She pulled it away from the wall and climbed on it. As she pulled her helmet from the steering rod to put it on, she heard a sobbing sound coming from behind her. She paused surprised. Was that just the imagination of her tired brain or did she really hear that? Scootaloo waited some seconds and as the sound didn't return she proceeded again to put the helmet on her head. There it was again! Scootaloo stopped in her movement and listened. It was louder this time. “Is this really just my imagination? It sounds so real.” The pegasus got down from her scooter and turned towards the other side of the alley, into the direction where the noise came from. She listened carefully. As she was about to get on her scooter again, because the sound didn't return after some seconds waiting, she heard it again. It was loud and clear. Somepony was crying there. The sound came from behind a big box that was carelessly left behind there in the alley.

The filly motioned towards the box and moved around it to the other side, while the sobbing became more frequent.

“Who is crying there?”, she asked into the darkness behind the box. It was so dark behind the box that her eyes needed a few moments to get accustomed to the lesser amount of light. The only thing she could see right now was that it was definitely a pony that was behind it.

It sat there in an upright position, back pressed against the stone wall behind it, and the hind legs stretched out towards the middle of the narrow alley. The arms were loosely placed on the hind legs. As her eyes got used to the black around her she felt able to identify the pony in front of her. “Pipsqueak? Is that you?” Scootaloo wasn't sure and so she moved closer to the sobbing pony in front of her to see it better.

It was Pipsqueak.

“What is wrong? Why are you crying?”, she asked.

Pipsqueak didn't answer.

“Have you hurt yourself?”

Pipsqueak still didn't say anything. The only answer was his continued sobbing.

Scootaloo examined his body with her eyes. It was still a little too dark in the alley for her eyes and she couldn't see any injury. “Has Diamond Tiara picked on you? Or Silver Spoon?”

Pip still didn't answer.

Scootaloo motioned towards him to put a hoof on his shoulder in hope she could calm him down as something unexpected happened:

Pipsqueak lashed out on her.

Almost having reached his shoulder, he suddenly lifted his arms; shoving her hoof away from him with one arm and hitting her on the chest with the other one. Scootaloo stumbled back quite a bit from the unexpected blow. It wasn't a very hard blow, but the surprise caught her unprepared and so it hit her harder than it should.

“Hey, why have you done this?”, she asked angrily as she had found her balance again. “I just want to help you!”

“I don't need any help!”, he spoke up for the first time since Scootaloo found him.

“Sure you need help! You're crying all the time, I can see that something is wrong!” Scootaloo motioned towards him again, more careful this time, just to having to dodge another harsh blow at her. “Hey!”, she called out again. “Why you're not letting me help you?”

“I don't need help!”, the upset colt said again.

“What? Bu–“

“I don't need help! Not from you!”, he interrupted her.

Scootaloo was fully confused. Pipsqueak was obviously angry at her, but she didn't have a clue why. What was wrong? Pipsqueak proceeded with crying after he had made clear that he didn't want help from her. Scootaloo wanted to find out why he was so angry at her, so she sat down in front of him; in proper distance to avoid getting hit again. There had to be some sort of misunderstanding. Scootaloo thought back a few hours.

The last time she saw Pipsqueak was after the apple that Apple Bloom let grow exploded. He left the library together with the other foals after Twilight called them out for only wanting to meet her because she was a princess, instead of getting to learn something from her. They all left the library very quickly and Pipsqueak didn't even take his scooter wi–“

Scootaloo looked up. His scooter! She used it to proof Twilight that she had learned how to built a scooter! Pipsqueak complained about it, but she took it apart anyway; angry at him because he blabbered out everything about how she and her friends got favors by the other foals for knowing Twilight so good. This had to be the reason why he was so upset and why he was angry at her! But was this really a reason to get so churned up? Scootaloo couldn't believe it.

She looked at Pipsqueak who was still crying and observed his behavior for a moment.

His eyes were shut, thick streams of tears emerged from them, flowing down his face, he was constantly sobbing, only interrupted by a sniff here and there, and his whole body was shaking. The tears dropped down his chin as they reached it, soaking the fur of his chest. It was completely drenched by his tears. He must have been crying there for a long time already before she had found him. But why? Scootaloo still didn't get it. Sure, she took apart his scooter and did that against his will and she could understood that he was a bit angry at her for doing this, but a reaction as extreme as this? She didn't destroy his scooter, after all. That she took it apart didn't mean that it couldn't be put back together again! In fact, she already did.

After their first demonstration had failed, they had such a strong desire to show Twilight how grateful they were for her lessons, that they could somehow perform the things they learned and this was when Scootaloo managed to put Pip's scooter back together again. But, she had to admit, he didn't knew about it that his scooter was already in good condition again, because she hadn't told him. She still didn't understand completely why he was distressed so much, but she felt responsible for telling him that his scooter was all fine. She was sure this information would be enough to stop his crying and make him happy again.

“Hey”, she began.

Pipsqueak opened his eyes for a moment, giving her a scornful look.

“It's because of your scooter, right? That's because you're crying. But you don't need to. It's okay! I haven't destroyed your scooter, I just took it apart. And I put it back together again! It's as good as new and if you like we can go to Twilight and get it. It's late, but I'm sure she won't mind!”

Scootaloo smiled kindly at him, waiting for the reaction she hoped for. But it failed to appear.

Pipsqueak just continued to cry instead. Scootaloo felt helpless. His scooter was apparently not the reason why he cried, or at least not the only one. It was obvious that he felt hurt by her in some way, but she just couldn't think of any other reason besides what she did to his scooter.

“Hey.....”, she began again. “I don't want that you cry. Can you please tell me what's wrong?”, she asked him carefully. “We can talk about it.” Scootaloo didn't really reckon with an answer anymore, but to her surprise, Pipsqueak finally gave her one.

“You were mean to me. You yelled at me”, he said quietly between two sobs.

“Yelled at you?” Scootaloo gave him a puzzled look. When was she yelling at him?

Sure, she told him that he was the one that got them into this mess and that he should comply to what she wanted, but this could hardly be called yelling. She didn't even raise her voice when she said that. But this was the only thing she said to him that at least came close to yelling, so she decided to ask him about it.

“Was it when I said that you got us into this mess and that you should roll with us?”

Instead of saying something, he just nodded slowly, while the tears continued to flow down his face in thick streams.

So she was right. Scootaloo couldn't understand how saying something like this could be considered yelling and also not how somepony could get hurt so much over such a statement, but apparently this was the case for Pipsqueak.

Scootaloo started to feel guilty. She looked sad to the ground, almost tearing up by herself now. It was the first time she saw a pony reacting so sensitive. Well, except herself. But that was different, Diamond Tiara picked on her for being flightless and attacked her weak spot. And Sweetie Belle, of course. But that was different too, they were bullied by Babs and it became too much for Sweetie. She never saw a pony crying so much over such a simple and small statement. She had never thought it would be possible that a pony could be that sensitive. She looked up to Pip, the same sad expression still adorning her face.

“Hey, I..... I'm sorry. I-I haven't thought that you would take it so hard”, she slowly began an attempt to make up for making him so distressed.

Scootaloo stood up and slowly moved towards Pipsqueak again, very carefully.

“Please don't hit me again, ok?” Scootaloo was ready to receive another blow, but nothing happened this time. She sat down beside the crying colt and put an arm around his shoulders. Surprisingly, he let her do as she wished. As another angry reaction didn't happen, she put the other arm around his chest, embracing him from both sides. She slid a little closer to him and rested her chin on his head. It was not hard, because he was quite a bit smaller than her. Scootaloo didn't have an idea what else she could say to comfort him and to calm him down, so she settled with saying “Sssssh” in small intervals and just letting him cry, in hope that would be enough in combination with the comforting hug.

While holding him she could feel the tears, who were still endlessly flowing out of his eyes, dropping on her arm and drenching the fur on it, in the same way as they drenched his chest before she covered it with her arm.

For some minutes, nothing did happen and Pipsqueak just continued the crying she was familiar with by now. The more she thought about the situation while holding him in her arms, listening to his crying, the more it dawned on her how terrible he must feel right now. She knew that Pipsqueak was a few years younger than her. The way she was talking with him and what she did with his scooter after that probably felt to him like she was bullying him. She knew this feeling, but Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were at least at the same age as her. Getting bullied by somepony who was years older must feel even more terrible.

This was of course never her intention and she was aware of it that it wasn't her fault that Pipsqueak was a very sensitive foal, but she still felt bad for giving another pony the feeling of getting bullied. She just wanted to make up for that and making him happy again.

While pondering about what else she could do to put him at ease, his sobs became quieter and happened in bigger intervals. The shaking of his body became less intense and suddenly he stopped with his sobbing. He sniffed a few times and then he spoke up to Scootaloo again.

“Promise me that you'll never do this again. I like you, but not if you treat me like that.”

Scootaloo nodded slowly. “I promise!”, she said. “It's a Pinkie Promise!” She released her hug, knowing that he wouldn't need it anymore now, and slowly moved away from him. She looked at him and gave him a smile and finally, she received a smile back from him. “Are you sure you're okay now?”, she asked him.

“Yeah!”, he answered. “I'm fine again. Can we go and get my scooter now?”

“Mhm.” Scootaloo nodded eagerly. There was nothing she wanted to do more now. She never ever wanted to see him so sad again after she caused all this to him.

Scootaloo and Pipsqueak got up and walked up to Scootaloo's scooter. Scootaloo took her helmet and put it on her head and then climbed onto it. She waved at Pipsqueak. “Come up here! We're faster like this. I give you a free ride until we have your own scooter back!” She giggled.

“Thanks!” Pipsqueak exclaimed enthusiastically. He jumped behind Scootaloo and put his hooves around her.

“Hold on tight, I'm fast!”, she advised him.

Pipsqueak clutched his hooves tighter around her body. Scootaloo flapped her wings and before Pip knew what was happening, they already raced out of the alley, towards Twilight's library where his scooter was waiting for him.

Comments

[TheDepravedEntity]

I've always appreciated any depiction of Scootaloo sharing her more caring, sensitive side.