Be the Change the World Needs

by StoryWeaverKP

Chapter 7 - The Places where Monsters Live

Chapter 7 – The Place Where Monsters Live

The whiteness faded, and Scootaloo found herself in a wide, metal circular room with large circular panels positioned at various places in the chamber. The light coming from the ceilings didn’t look natural, and every now and then, one of the light sources flickered.

A dozen Bronies stood in the room along with her, four of which were the monsters that had come to collect her. Most of the new ones weren’t wearing helmets.

Their weird faces looked wrong. Rather than have a snout, these creatures had stubby little noses that sat beneath sunken, slanted or rounded eyes. Their faces were either oval or rectangular, not like a pony’s. The Bronies’ manes were dark colored and very short, and they didn’t have a coat of fur either. They looked…. Like shaved monkeys.

The Brony who had her by the tail pulled its helmet off, and stared at her with malice-filled eyes. His mouth formed a wretched sneer.

“You stupid little bitch,” the Brony said. “It’s all your fault that we’ve been having temporal issues, isn’t it?”
Scootaloo just stared at the monster.

Based on the depth of the voice, she guessed it might have been a boy monster. The Brony’s face grew darker.
He said, “Well, as soon as the Temporal Location Transporter is operational again, we’re going back and snatch you before you can do anything to stop us.”

Scootaloo sniffled. “I already warned the Elements of Harmony and the Princesses. They’re going to be ready.”

The Brony threw her against the wall, and anguish crawled up every one of Scootaloo’s senses. She crumpled into a little ball.

“You don’t get it, you stupid animal!” The Brony came over and kicked her hard in the stomach.

All of Scootaloo’s air rushed out of her, and she gagged.

“Now that we know you’re the one that’s been affecting our temporal existence, we can go back and stop you before you can do anything else.” The Brony laughed. “We won’t be erased by the likes of you.” The Brony kicked her again. “We’ve made to much money on merchandise to stop now.”

Scootaloo wept hard, and she whispered, “Mom.” It was the only thing her dull mind could conjure up, for the pain was too great.

The other Bronies in the room started laughing.

One of them, perhaps a female, cackled. “She’s calling for her Mom! How pathetic. Can you believe that this little squirt is Rainbow Dash’s daughter? She can’t fly, she can’t fight back, she’s worthless.”

Scootaloo tried to push herself up. “I am not.”

The Brony who had beaten on her before kicked her again. “You are worthless. You failed! Did you not think we wouldn’t see you tell the Royal Sisters about us? We’ve been watching your world for years! We know everything about you!” He shook his head though. “I never would have guessed this would have been your actual origin story.” He chuckled. “It’s actually kind of impressive. No matter. We’re going to steal you before you have the chance to ruin our plans, and then the real fun can begin.”

Scootaloo struggled to get up, but she could only manage to raise her head. “Why did you do this? What do you want from us?”

“What do we want?” The male Brony asked. “Merchandise, plushies, and more importantly…” A sick grin covered his face. “Intimate petting.”

The other Bronies laughed.

The male turned to one of the other Bronies. “How long before we can make another Temporal Leap?”

A female Brony responded. “It will take another twelve hours to recalibrate the Temporal Location Transporter. We were lucky to be able to charge it up to snatch that little vermin.”

The male Brony picked Scootaloo up by the hair, and tossed her to another one of the helmet-wearing Bronies. The second one caught her quite roughly.

“Put her in the Brig,” The first male Brony said. “And throw in an RD plushie in there so she won’t be lonely.”

The other Bronies cackled again, and Scootaloo was carried out of the room. Scootaloo kept closing her eyes in hopes to alleviate the pain. Every now and then, other Bronies of different shapes and sizes walked past the Brony taking her to the brig. What was a brig? Was it like a doctor’s office? Were they at least going to give her medicine to take away the pain? Probably not. The Bronies had ruined her world, why would they be nice to her now?

Eventually, they came to a room with large cages and cells in it. The Brony opened one of the cell doors and tossed Scootaloo inside, as if she were a bag of apples. She hit the floor with a loud thud, and she whimpered for her mother again.

A few seconds later, another Brony entered the brig, and she carried a strange stuffed animal of some kind. They tossed it beside Scootaloo.

“Here’s your mom,” the Brony said.

Both monsters’ laughed, closed the cell door, and then left the brig altogether.

Scootaloo eased herself to a stand, which was super difficult to do, and she peered at the stuffed animal. It had cyan-colored velvet for skin, rainbow colored strings for hair, a pair of rosy colored buttons for eyes, and an unmistakable cutie mark in the flanks. The stuffed animal was a little bigger than she was.

She crawled over to it, and she nestled between its two upper hoofs. The stuffed Rainbow Dash was made from something soft, so it easily conformed to Scootaloo’s desires. However, the embrace was cold, loveless, and sterile.

Nevertheless, Scootaloo bawled into the fabric skin.

“Oh Mom,” she said. “I’m so sorry I failed. I did my best.”

A sudden voice made her stop. “D-did they say that’s your mom?”

Scootaloo regarded the speaker, and her heart wiggled in terror.

A Brony was in the cell next to her, and its horrid face was pressed against the bars.

Scootaloo whimpered and pressed herself into the effigy of her mother. She knew it couldn’t protect her, but she could at the very least pretend it could.

The Brony reached its arm into Scootaloo’s cell, which only drove the horror festering inside her body thrash all the harder.

“Don’t be afraid,” The Brony said. “I’m not one of the bad ones. I’m a good Brony. In fact, most Bronies are.”

Scootaloo shook her head. She spoke through sniffles and tears. “Y-you’re a liar. I witnessed the evils of your race first hand. You’re all bad.”

“No, we aren’t,” The Brony said. “You have to believe me. This group of Bronies is evil, but the rest of Brony kind has been trying to stop them for a long, long time. I’m not your enemy.” The creature paused for a second. “My name is Derek.”

Scootaloo checked the other cell before she placed her back against it. It had been empty, thank Celestia. She cradled the larger stuffed version of her mother next to her, and she glared at the Brony Derek. She remained silent.
Was this a trick? Surely it had to be. In all her life, she had never met a nice Brony.

Derek pulled his hand back and he gave Scootaloo a smile. “I can’t believe you’re Rainbow Dash’s daughter. There have been so many fan theories over the centuries. This is so cool.”

Scootaloo winced. “Centuries? How old are you?” Dread pooled at the back of her throat. “Are Bronies immortal like the princesses?”

Derek replied, “Oh no. We’re not as cool as they are. How do I explain this?” He stopped for a moment. “Have you ever been to a play?”

For a long moment, Scootaloo just glared at him. She nodded.

“Well,” Derek said. “We have this magical device that allows us to watch TV shows, and they are a lot like plays. These shows have great characters, plots, and imagery that is so amazing.”

Scootaloo just stared at him. Bewilderment swirled around her.

Derek said, “One of the TV shows is called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. That TV show is based on your world and your timelines. Your timelines are considered 4th generation, and it had eighteen seasons. After that came generations five through seventeen, but arguably the best generation was the fourth. The reruns of G4 MLP has been airing over the last a two hundred and fifteen years.” He chuckled. “And to answer your question, I’m twenty-eight.”

Scootaloo sniffled. “I don’t understand. There was a really mean Brony who said your kind wanted us ponies for Merchandise, plushies, and intimate petting. What did he mean?”

Derek averted his eyes for a moment. “Regarding the merchandise and plushies, these evil Bronies started a company called HasBren, and they have been making millions and millions of dollars on making toys, clothing, stuffed animals, and other such things.” He winced. “As for the petting... its too dark to really go into.”

Scootaloo inched a little closer to the captive Brony. “I-is there a chance that my mother is alive?”

Derek peered at her with the same sort of sympathy that Rainbow Dash and the others gave her back in Pinkie Pie’s room. “Oh yeah, they would never kill off Rainbow Dash. They need her for the… cloning.”

“Cloning?” Scootaloo asked.

“Uh… it’s like making copies of the ponies,” Derek said. He stopped and then looked toward the direction of the door.

Then he glanced at this weird black circle that was nestled in the corner of room. He gestured for Scootaloo to come closer.

For a long time, Scootaloo just glared at him. Her heart tugged inside her, and curiosity wrestled with caution.

“Why are you in here?” Scootaloo asked. “Why are you not free like them?”

“That’s a part of the reason I want you to come closer,” Derek said. “I have to whisper this.”

Scootaloo winced again, but she crept up closer to the other end of the cell.

Derek’s eyes opened wider, and his voice came out in a barely audible murmur.

“Can you hear me okay?” He whispered.

Scootaloo nodded.

Derek said, “I’m a spy, but they caught me. They are probably going to kill me before the day is over. However, I do have some good news.”

It got a little harder to breath. Good news would be a welcome delight, but Scootaloo doubted that anything good would come from a Brony.

“The good guys are coming,” Derek whispered. “The operation is going to start soon, so just hold on a little more, Okay?”

He smiled at her. “Don’t give up.”

Scootaloo let her attention drift elsewhere for a moment. “The evil Bronies said something about them getting erased.

What did they mean?”

Derek said, “Time is rewriting itself, and so all of this is going to disappear. Up till I was caught, I was working in the Temporal Projections department. We had been experiencing a slow, but steady degradation of our resources and personnel. The growing fear is that this entire place will disappear from time if something isn’t done.”

Scootaloo frowned. “How is that possible? Why would it disappear?”

Derek replied, “This place exists in a pocket dimension outside of time and space. As Time rewrites itself, this facility runs the risk of being erased from time completely because it’s outside its boundary.”

Scootaloo stared at him for a moment longer before she said, “Yeah, none of that makes sense to me.”

Before Derek could respond, several evil Bronies dressed in armor came into the room. They had rod like weapons, but they looked different than the ones that were used in her capture.

They went to Derek’s cell and opened it.

“So it’s time?” Derek asked.

The evil Bronies went in, grabbed Derek and dragged him out. They didn’t even close the door to his cell, and they took him out of the brig.

Scootaloo crawled back over to the Rainbow Dash stuffed animal. She rested her head on its arm, and she cuddled within the confines of its legs. Her eyes were heavy, and great sorrow had sucked all of her energy away.

At least she could pretend this stuffed animal loved her.

***

KABOOM!

The entire room shook violently, and Scootaloo perked up from the stuffed animal. Muffled screams and thunder echoed out. This thunder sounded rapid in its occurrence though.

All of the lights flickered briefly.

Scootaloo nestled back into the stuffed animal.

How could this get any worse?

Another explosion rocked the building.

The door to the brig opened up, and the same violent, mean Brony who had kicked her so many times stormed in with three other armored Bronies.

“I don’t believe this is happening!” The evil Brony stared at her. “This is all your fault.”

They opened the door to her cell, and the evil Brony grabbed Scootaloo by the tail.

He carried her out of the brig as he said, “We’ll use you as a hostage. Those bastards will never do anything to us if we have you.”

They carried Scootaloo into a corridor, as more loud noises resounded. Could it have been the good Bronies? Dare she hope that there really could be such a thing?

Sudden heat billowed in Scootaloo’s chest. Ever since she had been caught, she had only cried and lamented. Granted, it was a sorrowful situation, but was there anything else she could have done?

What would her mother have done? Would Rainbow Dash have cried endlessly?

The heat formed into rage, and Scootaloo’s body flowed with a renewed sense of vigor. Scootaloo was the daughter of the best pony in all of Equestria, and so that meant she had awesome genes in her too.

Scootaloo started swinging her body back and forth.

The evil Brony stopped and gaped down at her. “What are you doing, you li-”

Her momentum had built up, and her body obeyed her commands. Perhaps it was because of the fact that Scootaloo strove to be as athletic as her mother, or perhaps it was the influx of adrenaline. Scootaloo swung up close to the evil Brony’s face, and she bit his nose.

He screamed, and he tried to pull her off, but Scootaloo clenched her jaw as hard as she could. If there was nothing else she could do to avenge the torment these monsters inflicted on her mom or those she loved most of all, then let this be her finest moment.

Her mouth filled with a hot, metallic liquid, but Scootaloo held on with all of her will. The evil Brony managed to pull her off, and he raised Scootaloo above his head.

An instant later, she collided against the wall. Her little bones cracked, and she screamed out.

The evil Brony started stomping on her, and she felt her limbs and ribs break.

Once more, her mind became a hazy, dull thing with only one pony on her mind.

“Mom!!!!!!!” Scootaloo screamed out.

The evil Brony broke her jaw, and her head slumped on the cold metal floor. Everything started to get darker.

Some pony screamed her name, and it almost sounded like Apple bloom’s. Not the one she had spent the last couple of years with, but the one who used to cradle her asleep in a cozy little alcove. Surely her brain was dying, and in its broken state, it started replaying old sounds from memories long forgotten.

Another voice screamed out. “DON’T LAY ANOTHER HOOF ON MY DAUGHTER!!!”

Some pony grunted over her. Weird magical sounds resounded out. Bronies screamed over her. Yeah, it was definitely Brony screams.

Her vision started to tunnel, and her body became colder. A great weariness fell over her. Her vision blacked out completely.

Voices became muffled, but they still carried some meaning.

“Twilight, please do something! SAVE HER!”

“Alright, give me a second.”

It was getting colder, and sounds disappeared altogether.

And then an ocean of warmth filled her insides. The furnace of her soul exploded with fiery life, and the pain that had started to become the extent of her existence faded away. Her hearing returned, and then her vision did too.

Scootaloo stirred and glanced in front of her.

Adult Sweetie Belle and Adult Apple bloom stood above her. Tears streamed down their cheeks, and their faces were locked in aghast-like expressions. As soon as she stirred, they smiled and they cried all the harder.
There were more ponies around her too, ponies she recognized. Twilight was there, Apple Jack was there, and right above her…

Scootaloo’s eyes widened.

The cyan-coated mare was not the one she had been learning from and treated like a big sister. This rainbow maned pegasus appeared much older and more mature than the soon to be Wonderbolt. A pair of loving, ruby irises stared back at her.

Scootaloo pushed herself up. “M-mom? Is that really you?”

Her mother scooped her close to her wings, and she pressed her body against Scootaloo’s. Scootaloo hugged back.

“I’m so sorry, Mom.” Scootaloo bawled uncontrollably now. “I did my best, I promise.”

“Oh Scootaloo,” her mother replied. “You are so precious to me. You have nothing to be sorry about. You succeeded.” She leaned back and stared into Scootaloo’s eyes. “But even if you did fail, that wouldn’t change the fact that I love you, and I’m proud of you.”

Scootaloo hugged her mother again. When they broke the embrace, her two mentors leapt on her, and they hugged her almost as tightly as what her mother did.

“You got your cutie mark!” Apple bloom said.

Scootaloo replied, “I sure did.”

Her mother grinned from ear to ear. “That’s my girl. You are so awesome.”

Suddenly, something caught Scootaloo’s attention. A Brony stood beside the older, more haggard version of Rarity.

“Is that a good Brony?” Scootaloo asked.

Her mother nodded. “Yeah. They helped us escape, and now we’re helping to end this nightmare, once and for all.”

Suddenly, Scootaloo’s eyes opened wider. “Mom, we have to get out of here before we get erased.”

The smiles on the other ponies’ faces faded.

“We know about that,” her mother said. “And we’re here to make sure that the evil Bronies don’t undue all of your hard work.”

Scootaloo’s heart clenched, and she hugged her mother again. “If I have to get erased, then I’m glad I get to be erased with you, Mom. I’ve missed you so much.”

Rarity started to sniffle, and she dabbed at her tears with her hoof.

Rainbow Dash pushed Scootaloo back a little. “Honey, listen it me. What I’m about to say is going to be hard.”
Scootaloo’s eyes opened a little wider. “What is it, Mom?”

Her mother looked toward the regal Princess Twilight. She was much taller and more elegant than the Princess Twilight that Scootaloo had grown accustomed to.

Princess Twilight nodded, and her horn glowed.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Her mother said. “While the evil ones can’t escape, Twilight can make a portal for you.”
Scootaloo’s eyes streamed more tears. “NO! You all can come with me.”

“We can’t” her mother said. “The Good Bronies who are helping us can’t defeat the evil ones alone. If we don’t help them, then Equestria is finished.”

“Well then I’ll stay with you,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t want to be apart from you again.”

A white portal opened up.

Her mother started counting down. “Five… four… three .. two…”

The young Rainbow Dash burst though the portal, and then screamed out. “SCOOTALOO!”

Rainbow Dash landed beside the more adult Apple Jack, and as she looked around at all the mares, her righteous anger faded. She stared at Scootaloo’s mother before turning her attention to Scootaloo.

“Are you alright, Squirt?” Rainbow Dash asked, her voice carrying a more hallowed tone.

Scootaloo nodded, but before she could speak, her mother stepped forward an approached Rainbow Dash.

“Hi there,” Her mother said.

Rainbow Dash gulped and peered at her older self. “Um… hi.”

“I need a favor, Dashie,” Her mother said with a half-hearted smile. “I have to do something really awesome, but it’s the kind of thing I can’t come back from.”

A brief silence shifted between them.

Her mother said, “I need you to be there for our little Scootaloo, okay?”

Rainbow teared up. “I promise I will raise her as my own. She is mine, after all.”

“NO!” Scootaloo wailed. “Please, Mom… don’t make me go.”

Her mother said, “Please…”

Rainbow Dash nodded, and she moved closer to Scootaloo.

Immense fright took hold of her, but she remained where she stood. Rainbow Dash grabbed Scootaloo by the scruff of the neck, and she picked her up.

Her mother stepped forward, and she gave Scootaloo one last hug.

“Never forget that I love you,” her mother whispered in her ears. “When you feel the breeze caressing your cheek, or you see the perfect cloud for napping on, that will be me, smiling at you and reminding you that you’re never alone.” She kissed Scootaloo on the forehead. “Do a Sonic Scootaloo Boom for me one day, okay Squirt?”

Scootaloo just cried as she nodded.

Rainbow Dash tossed Scootaloo on her back, and then she flew into the portal.

The last thing that Scootaloo saw was her mother’s grin and the proud twinkle in her eyes.

Coming soon… The Epilogue