• Published 13th Apr 2018
  • 3,188 Views, 55 Comments

Mystery Scootaloo - thedarktome



After years of living in Ponyville, it took one mother's day for it to arise and be noticed...by her idol. Of course it confused her as to why it took this long. Where are your parents? She was not going to believe the story of the filly's origin.

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Chapter 16 - Sunset's Tragic Tale

The lights, the dreams, the colors, the cutouts. The dark cell. Everything that Sunset Shimmer woke up screaming as loud as she could from. She sat straight up the next morning and threw the covers off of her, looking around in distress. The sunlight was coming through the windows and lighting the hospital room she was in, calming her down. She took a few deep breaths and looked at herself. There was an IV in her right hoof above the metal cuff that she poked at before a nurse burst into the room, obviously anxious at her loud scream. "What's wrong, dear? Are you okay?" She asked. Sunset looked around and then focused back on the nurse, confused. The nurse took a deep breath then walked over and patted her hoof. It seemed Sunset was alright in that regard. "You're in the hospital back in Equestria."

Sunset looked around. Then focused back on the nurse. "Anything for Equestria?" She asked in curiosity. Where was she?

"Yes, you're back in Equestria," the nurse repeated. She looked at her chart and notes to see the things she could say. "With your friends and family. Do you remember your name?"

Sunset Shimmer nodded and said in a determined voice, "I can't wait to learn more about Friendship."

The nurse grinned and nodded her head. "Okay. Well the doctor wants to try a few things with you. Okay?"

"Yes."

"Great. I'll go grab him. Be back in a minute with food and beverages." She turned and made her way out the door, to the lobby where everyone else was waiting. Princess Celestia, Twilight, Starlight, Scootaloo, and Sunset Shimmer's parents and sister were already there, discussing a few things with the doctor once again. Luna and Cadance were on Earth, waiting for the prisoners to arrive so they can bring them to Equestria. Everyone else was doing their own thing. After hearing about the situation, Sunset Shimmer's family quickly took to the air to see her, staying at the castle overnight with Celestia and quickly leaving in the morning to see her first thing.

Hot Blaze, Sunset Shimmer's sister was a light blue unicorn with an orange and red mane, much like Sunset's, along with dark blue eyes. They look really similar to each other and would be twins if it weren't for the fact that Hot Blaze was five years younger than Sunset. Sunset's mother, Cool Oceans, was a light blue unicorn mare with a gray and white mane in a bun and tail. She had light blue eyes that had a few tears leaking down from it. And her father, Mighty Fire was an orange unicorn with a short red and orange mane that resembled fire, much like his daughters. He had a rocky build to him that let ponies know that he was a tough one to take down. He also had hard dark brown eyes that made Scootaloo shiver a little. She had her disintegration weapon on her back once more that Twilight was glancing at in curiosity. Trying to figure it out.

The doctor stood in front of all of them, pointing to a notepad that had the alphabet, numbers, and special characters on it. "We're going to try and get her to communicate with us through spelling," he said. "Words, numbers, this board is hers. Hopefully we can get some answers."

Cool Oceans sniffed and asked worriedly, "What exactly is going on?"

"Someone was... Experimenting on Sunset Shimmer through force," Scootaloo answered. "They're coming here so I can get a good lashing at them. A-And you too, let's not forget that," she quickly added, pointing to Mighty Fire. The father looked over at the young alicorn then raised an eyebrow at Celestia.

"This is Princess Scootaloo," she explained. Scootaloo smiled and waved at them. "She hasn't been coronated yet and will take a while to do so. But her parents, Frozen Fire and Bright Magnus—"

"Wait, the legends?" Sunset's sister asked. She looked at Scootaloo in disbelief. "I thought they went missing." Scootaloo took note of her knowledge. May come in handy for a friendship.

"They did," Celestia responded. "And they couldn't return with her. But Scootaloo is the only pony, only creature, to ever complete and master the Fluid Matter Conversion spell." They gawked and then turned to Scootaloo with shock and awe. Scootaloo was looking at her hooves, trying to avoid their gazes.

"She destroyed Ponyville and then rebuilt it within ten and fifteen minutes," Twilight added. "And also has a few more tricks up her sleeve."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Scootaloo waved off. "I get it, I'm more awesome than Rainbow Dash. Can we get back to Sunset Shimmer?"

"Ah, right," the doctor agreed. "We were hoping you could use the Fluid Matter Conversion to remove the impossibly hard metal around her neck and hooves. They are extremely hard and we're hoping you can make it much softer."

"Does it have a lot of contact with her body?" Scootaloo asked.

"Ehhh...so so," he responded, rotating his hoof around. "It's just enough to grip her and not let go, but loose enough that you can rotate it."

"Okay. The reason I ask is because the physical contact can counteract with the spell, changing whatever the spell's target is to what I want it to be along with what it's connected to. So if I wanted to change the metal bands to, say, a band of roses, then Sunset Shimmer would be turned to roses too if it were touching her. Which of course we don't want."

"Oh yeah, no. No, we don't want that," Cool Oceans responded.

"I could change the bands and try to avoid changing Sunset Shimmer. But it requires a lot of focus. More focus than Twilight when she reads and other egghead stuff." Twilight bumped her with her wing. "If Sunset Shimmer began to change, I would have to start changing her back at the same time I'm changing the bands. I can try to cut through the bands too. But that'd still be a big effort."

"We'll figure something out," The doctor sighed. "Because those bands have a reason for being on her neck. And I don't want to see them in action."


Sunset Shimmer picked at her food as she laid across the bed with her magic, still in her black leather outfit. The room was silent, mainly because the door was closed and she had privacy so Sunset could eat her meal in peace. She had gotten used to the rings wrapped around different parts of her body, lightly choking her. The one on her neck was anyway. It had two pin pricks on the inside sticking into her flesh. What they were for, she had absolutely no idea. She glanced up and froze when she looked inside the bathroom. It was dark, it was alone. It was compressed. Just like that box. How did she not notice that before?!

Sunset dropped her spoon noisily inside her bowl and slowly backed away, much further on her bed. She was not fond of that box. It had electric walls, a super tight space, and barely any elbow room. So Sunset only stared at the bathroom fiercely in fear. She didn't even hear her room door open when the nurse walked in with the Princesses, her family, and Starlight. Her sister walked up to the bed and whispered, "Hey, Sunset." Sunset yelped and looked over at her in surprise. Her sister was about to give her a tight hug, but realized she was really tense. So instead, she reached up and tapped her hoof. "Are you okay?" She asked tenderly.

Sunset blinked at her then looked back at the door to the bathroom in fear. They followed her sights and then turned back to Sunset. "Do you have to use the bathroom?" Starlight asked.

Sunset looked at her then backed away a few more inches away from the bathroom door. "No," she replied. The Princesses shared a look before Scootaloo walked towards the bathroom door and closed it. Sunset relaxed and laid back down to nuzzle her little sister lovingly. Then giggled and said, "Yes."

The doctor walked towards the bed and started speaking while taking notes on the instruments attached to her. "Good morning," he greeted. "We're going to try and get a few things started with you today while this issue involving 'humans' and such is solved." He set down his clipboard and smiled at her. "First off, we're going to try and get you to speak. Do you remember any other words instead of the ones you have been saying yesterday?"

"Yes," Sunset responded.

"Can you speak them?"

Sunset closed her eyes and shook her head. "No," she whimpered.

"It's okay," he appeased while her sister got on the bed and pulled her into a hug. "We're going to try and fix that, okay?" Sunset nodded in her little sister's hair. "Alright. First off, we're going to see what you know." He placed the clipboard with the text on it on the bed in front of her. "We're going to use this to help you communicate whenever you need to use big words for longer sentences. It was Princess Scootaloo's idea." Sunset removed herself from her sister's hair and looked down at the clipboard. "Can you remember your name?"

Sunset nodded and said, "Yes."

"Alright, can you point out the letters and spell it for me?" Sunset lifted her hoof and pointed it at the letters E and X. Then the numbers zero twice and six once. "Umm...."

"Sis, your name is Sunset Shimmer," Hot Blaze corrected. Then added slowly, "Sunset. Shimmer."

"Yes?" Sunset replied before looking back at the board in confusion. She pointed at the letters for her name, successfully spelling it out while the doctor walked over to the group on the other side of the room.

"What did she say?" Cool Oceans asked worriedly.

"She said EX006," he responded. "The same number that's on the back of the outfit she's wearing that we can't get off either."

Scootaloo nudged Mighty Fire, getting his attention. Then took the weapon off her back and presented it, whispering, "If you want to get a good shot at those guys when they walk through that portal, I have just the tool that they are absolutely terrified of."

"What's it do?" He asked, looking at the weapon oddly.

Scootaloo sighed in reminiscence and rubbed the barrel like a newborn foal. "It rips, breaks, compresses, then disappears. I haven't tested it on a living thing though. So it could be very messy."

He nodded slowly and whispered, "I'll keep it in mind, Princess."

Cool Oceans walked up to the bed and stroked Sunset's mane. "Oh my little filly!" she cried, pulling her into a hug. "Everything's gonna be okay, you hear me? Everything is going to be a-okay!"

Sunset breathed in her mother's familiar shampoo and nodded into her mane. Her sister joined in the hug, followed by Mighty Fire, creating a family moment. The Princesses smiled, save for Scootaloo who was just plain furious. Their daughter and sister shouldn't even be in this situation. None of this should be happening!

Scootaloo casually strode towards a drawer on the side and pulled it open, apparently looking for something. Unsatisfied, she moved on to the next one. The doctor glanced at the Princesses who were just as clueless. Then back to Scootaloo and asked, "What are you looking for Princess?"

Scootaloo closed the drawer she was peering into then turned back to the doctor. "Anything. Give me something. Any something."

The doctor looked around and grabbed a random object in his magic. A mirror. Scootaloo gripped it in her magic and prepared the spell. But stopped after witnessing her reflection. Scootaloo smiled and dimmed her eyes. Then lifted a hoof and ran it through her green mane. Twilight blanched and scratched her head while Starlight and Celestia shared a look. Since when did Scootaloo care about her feminine beauty? "I need eyeshadow," she muttered to herself. "Some lipstick and—wait, h-huh?! What am I doing?!" She turned around and saw everyone looking at her. Raising a hoof, Scootaloo yelled, "Nopony tell anypony about this!" Twilight chuckled behind her hoof and waved at her.

"You got it," she cackled. "Nopony will ever know."

Scootaloo nodded then levitated the mirror, activating the spell. The mirror began to break down into black dust, taking on a fluid like state. Sunset's family and the doctor watched in awe. It began to reshape and take form of something similar to a very very very thin stick. Then the last particle went into the object which turned out to be... an insanely thin silver knife. She levitated it around and listened to the high-pitched whistle it made when it sliced through the air. "Alright!" She cheered. "We're in business. I know you're all wondering, what is she doing with a knife? Well I'm going to focus my magic into the blade and try to weaken the bonds around Sunset's restraints. Then the doc can take them off with something else that probably won't cut off a hoof. Secondly, I'm going to use this for my own personal uses at.... the Castle of Friendship. Now hold still Sunset. I'm gonna get those off of ya'." Scootaloo trotted up to Sunset, who backed away instinctively, nearly falling off the bed before her sister caught her. Scootaloo froze and turned to the doctor. "Actually, why don't you do it? I have a feeling Sunset responds better to you than myself."

Scootaloo held the knife out to him in her magic. The Doctor eyed it cautiously, then grabbed it in his own. He looked at Sunset and smiled. "Alright. So I'm—"

"EEEEEEE!" Sunset shrieked before scrambling back and diving underneath the covers. Starlight, Twilight, and Celestia jumped out of reflex while Sunset's sister flailed her hooves and fell off the bed.

The doctor yelped and then held a hoof over his heart. He took a few deep breaths and sighed, "Yeah, I was expecting something like that." Sunset peeked out from underneath the covers while Scootaloo dematerialized the knife, changing it back into the harmless mirror.

"What was that?" Cool Oceans asked in concern. She looked into the blanket, meeting her daughter's fearful gaze and asked, "Why did my daughter react like that?" She calmly lifted the blanket and cooed Sunset out.

"Well apart from it being a normal reaction when witnessing a pony walk towards you with a large and extremely sharp knife, my team and I theorized that these marks on Sunset's skin..." He walked forward and calmly pointed to one of the large black spots on Sunset's skin. "Are actually lacerations."

"Lacerations?!" Starlight and Twilight yelled.

Starlight glanced at Sunset and asked, "She was cut? Er....poked?"

"No—well... in a way. She wasn't exactly cut, more like.... You know what, yes. She was cut into. But what troubles me the most is that these marks were in patterns. And were in a fixed size. They were using a tool to get into her skin. Which means..."

"They were taking samples of Sunset Shimmer's skin," Celestia finished. She walked forward and lightly grabbed Sunset Shimmer's hoof, looking at the dark and ugly mark. "But why is it dark like this?"

"Something's wrong with the cells in her flesh," the doctor explained. "Too much stimulation. The cells underneath her coat were....fried to say the least. Burned out. Some of the cells in her body had died during....a possible event that could have also hurt her mental state."

"That box." They all turned to Scootaloo. She raised her hoof slightly and clarified further. "That extremely small room she was in when we found her. The one filled with electricity."

"What is electricity?" Mighty Fire asked.

"Electricity is too humans how magic is to ponies. They use it to make everything they use, create lights, machines, moving doors, engines, microphones, phones, televisions, refrigerators, and so much more. It's easy to create under the right conditions and tools. However, it's also extremely dangerous in large amounts. Do you have a rug or something? I can show you an example. Actually never mind. Celestia, I'll use your coat as an example." Scootaloo walked over to the taller alicorn and placed her hoof on her coat. Then quickly moved it up and down. "This may take a second or....ninety." Celestia giggled at the sensation. "Now electricity is sometimes stable. Sometimes unstable. When that happens, humans use something called transformers. They attach them to the cables that carry all of the electricity. The large amount of electricity will then go through the transformer which takes some out and makes it stable again so it continues along harmlessly. However, some things rely on large amounts of electricity. Such as cars, homes, and definitely hospitals. The electricity is measured in Amps. Short for Amperes. A safe amount but still slightly harmful is zero point zero zero one amps. A noticeable effect is zero point zero one and zero point one. Which is what this feels like."

Scootaloo moved her hoof away from Celestia's body for a moment. Then turned to Starlight and touched her with the same hoof on the leg. It snapped loudly, taking everyone off guard and making Starlight yell, "OWW, what the buck?!"

"Oh! Sorry, I thought that was around zero point zero one," Scootaloo apologized. "Did you feel your muscles clench up?"

"I can't feel my body," Starlight groaned. She stared straight ahead at the window, unmoving. Everyone looked at her oddly. Then back at Scootaloo, who made her way over to Sunset.

"Now based off of these burns," she wondered aloud. "I'd say she was shocked a few times by the walls of that room. Oh, I forgot to mention. Electricity travels through metal and is highly conductive to water. Like fire is to wood and clothing materials, electricity is to water and metal. That room we found Sunset in was made entirely out of metal, save for the floor that Sunset was sitting on which was concrete. It had no lights, no vents, and was tightly compact. That bathroom across from her right now resembles it well." They all looked towards the bathroom that had a metal door. "That's why she was scared of it. For some reason, Sunset Shimmer was placed in there. But what for?"

Sunset raised her hoof, getting their attention. She grabbed the clipboard and started pointing at the letters. Everyone, including Starlight who had gotten control of her hooves again, walked over and looked at the letters she pointed at. The doctor wrote down every single character she made a gesture to. It took around five minutes to explain. Once Sunset pointed to the final period, the doctor cleared his throat and read off his clipboard. "'Scootaloo's absolutely correct. When I first arrived at the building, I was shocked by a cattle prod repeatedly for obedience. Then they placed me in a cage and shocked me again before they rolled me away to the room you found me at. They made me strip down and took notes on me. Then they told me the rules about the box. Electricity is really strong. But inside of that box was the worst. It had been turned on at full voltage. They had a strike system. I wasn't allowed to say anything else other than yes or no. And answer questions when asked them. If I disobeyed or resisted. I got a strike and a touch with the 'Pony Killer'. The Cattle Prod. Once I hit three, I was touched then forcefully pushed and locked into the box. The darkness and the silence put together made me sleepy. So....I had dozed off, fell over, and you can tell the rest. After that my mind changed and my body's choreographic track with my brain I guess shut down. I can remember words and do this right now. But then I would end up doing something I didn't want to do in the real world. So if I wanted to go outside and want to walk to the door, my body would probably roll over and I'll stay on my back. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted to walk to the door. But the worst part of all of this is that I can only speak the words you know.'"

"Yes," Sunset clarified sadly. "No, Anything for Equestria, I can't wait to learn more about friendship, Dear, Princess Twilight."

Celestia sighed and rubbed her face with a hoof. "This is tragic," she responded. "Sunset Shimmer may never be normal again. Because of those humans' greed for magic. Twilight?" The protege saluted. "I want you to—Scootaloo's gone." Everyone looked around the room and took notice that the orange haired filly had disappeared from their view.

"Uh oh," Starlight groaned. "This is about to get ugly."


Scootaloo flashed into view once again inside Twilight's castle. Then ran for the portal room, anger written all over her face. She had her weapon on her back which clattered as she ran. She couldn't believe this. She knew it was bad. But that was murderous and awful. Sunset did not have to go through all of that. Not at all! She trotted through the doorway and up to the the portal that Luna and Cadance were standing at with twenty more guards. When she walked in, everyone turned to her in surprise. "Oh! Scootaloo, what—" Scootaloo ignored Cadance and jumped straight through the portal, taking them all by surprise. Cadance sighed and followed after her with Luna and the guards.

Once on the other side Scootaloo righted herself and looked around. The area was empty, save for the people walking around, starting their day. It was still morning after all. Luna and Cadance followed out after her with the twenty something guards who created a half open circle around the three. Luna sighed and asked, "Did you give them a timeframe?"

"I didn't," Scootaloo realized. She gasped and grabbed her weapon from her back. "Thay could be trying to escape or something. I think not! These ponies are going to get their just deserts for handicapping Sunset Shimmer! Even if I have to watch and hear them scream in pain after I crush their bones!" Scootaloo teleported away once more before the princesses could gasp.

Cadance glanced at Luna, who glanced back, both thinking the same thing. Scootaloo has ill intentions.

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Twilight Daylight tomorrow!