Intermission: The Beginning (of the End)
/x/x/x/
As Scootaloo awakens, she finds that all of her senses are being completely overloaded. The car horn blaring stabs into her ears. The dry frigid air on her face contrasts heavily with the wet heat of the seat warmer on her back and thighs. The throbbing headache pulsing through her right temple is trickling down the side of her head, threatening to spill into her eye. The seatbelt digging into her pelvis and shoulder restricts all freedom of movement, holding her upper body in place, and her legs are pinned together by the car door. At least, she thinks so. She can’t really feel them. Her heavy pulse pounds in her throat as the white-hot beads of adrenaline shoot through her fingers. Or at least through the fingers of her left hand. She can’t feel her right hand. She can’t feel most of her right arm, in fact. She tries to pivot slightly, sending an electric jolt down the entire limb. She winces, before trying to open her eyes. She forces them back closed before reaching to wipe the offending red liquid out of them. However, she instead seems to press it even further in.
As a sharp tapping noise bangs on the window, she groans and tries to open her eyes regardless of what must be blood. All of her vision is stained, a veneer filter of scarlet. The windshield is blood red. The dashboard is blood red. She looks down and her shirt is blood red. She looks back up and her eye wanders further and further to the left. The stereo is blood red. The center console is blood red. The pile of twisted metal, broken glass, torn fabric, and some unidentifiable material in the driver’s seat is blood red. The only thing she can see that is not blood red is where the window should have been. Instead she can see the gleaming chrome grill of a big truck. She can’t move her neck. As the agonizingly eternal seconds slowly tick on, she struggles to make sense of what on earth she was looking at.
She tries to consider what lead her to wind up in this situation. The last memory she can conjure up comes in pieces. Fuzzy static, the frantic tapping, the blaring horn, the dull aching pains, and the sputtering rumble of the truck engine occupying the driver’s seat all serve to inhibit the process. But eventually she remembers.
Some idiot on a motorcycle cut them off, almost getting creamed in the process. She glanced over at the driver and watched them remove their helmet. Her helmet. Crimson and deep yellow. And one extended middle finger. She had rolled her eyes and turned back to see the oncoming truck.
And finally she can tell what it is she’s looking at.
The unidentifiable material was pulverized meat.
Don’t think about it.
The next few minutes go by in a blur, and when next she has her focus back she finds herself laying in a very uncomfortable bed. The noises have all gone away, and all that is left is a slow steady beeping. She feels no physical pain anymore: just an endless numb fog. She can’t move her left arm very much, as something holds her wrist in place. She can barely move her left leg. She tries to sit up, but her chest is also strapped down. She tries to speak but her throat is completely raw, and making any noise is much too painful.
“You’re awake,” a voice murmurs from just out of her vision. “How about that…” The voice’s owner steps into view. She was a short redhead with pale blue skin, and wore what looked to be a military style jacket, black t-shirt, and sweatpants. “Didn’t think you’d be up so soon through all that sedation,” she says, glancing through a clipboard.
Scootaloo quietly whines.
“Sorry about the straps,” she says, reaching a hand over to undo them. “They were on you already before they called me in. I swear the braindead idiots they got working in this place have the bedside manner of R Lee fucking Ermey.” She pauses and covers her mouth. “Eh. Sorry. Slipped right outta me.”
“M?”
“They told me you screamed so loud and for so long that your body forgot to breathe. Can’t imagine your throat’s in good enough shape to talk yet. So I’m gonna do the talking here…” she sits on the side of the bed. “Your mother did not survive the collision.”
Silence.
“But I think you already figured that one out on your own.”
“M.”
“I know what you saw, honey, and I am so sorry that you had to experience this, especially young as you are. And I know that the thought running through your head is something along the lines of, how could I possibly know what you saw. And you’re right. I don’t know. Not really. I saw photos but that doesn’t represent reality. But trust me when I say that I am probably one of the closest people who can come close. And I know you’re thinking, you know, how?”
She turns to face the wall, and crosses her arms. “I spent a tour in active duty. Only one tour, before I pursued the medical side of things. There was a boy. He was the sweetest little thing I’d ever met. One day we were just patrolling, shooting the shit, he told me about a girl he had waiting for him at home, and how he was going to propose to her at Hearth’s Warming. And then the next, he-“ she shook her head. “He stepped on a fucking land mine. It could have just as easily been me. But it was him. And he honestly looked about the same as… I know what you saw. Because I’ve seen it too. And I was a grown ass woman at the time. And you? You’re… you’re just a child.”
She grabs the clipboard in both of her hands, staring through it.
“I can’t operate on the patients here. I don’t work in this place as a surgeon. I’m just a consultant. I’m not talking to you because of the money they’ll give me, because there is no money. The coroner, the chief medical officer, the district attorney, they had the good sense to take a look past the bullshit the rest of these morons put you through, all these brainless cops, and these heartless nurses, and these soulless insurance companies. They had the good sense to call me and ask me to rush out in the freezing cold and try to be there for you if you needed it. And I had the good sense to tell them yes. I will do whatever I can to help you get what you need. I’ll work with your father, okay?”
She turns and drops the clipboard.
“I know,” she says, wiping a tear from the young girl’s face. “I know that this sucks. But I’ll pull some strings and try to set you up with some affordable grief counseling first, and then we can figure out what else we can do to help you through this. I promise that you will not suffer alone, okay?”
The door opens, and a police officer pokes his head in.
“Hey, Sarge,” he quietly asks, rubbing a thumb on his mustache. “Is this a bad time?”
“It’s certainly not a good time, Corporal.”
“Ah, I ain’t a Corporal anymore, Sarge. On my way to lieutenant, hopefully.”
“No time for small talk here, Sentry.”
“Firm. Heard you was in here so thought I’d tell ya straight. My boys downtown just busted your kid for some o’ the ol’ green stuff.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” she groans, rolling her eyes. “Shimmer’s planting drugs now? I swear I really hate that little shit.”
“Shimmer’s got an alibi this time, pretty rock solid, so it ain’t her.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Well the alibi IS your kid. Hence my sayin’, it’s pretty rock solid.”
“Ah, God! Dammit… Then she got someone else to do it for her. Wonderful. Thank you for letting me know.”
“Yes’m,” he says, tipping his hat to her before leaving the room.
As he goes, the woman just puts her face in her hands.
“Why today…?” She throws her hands down in frustration before standing up from the bed, then takes a deep breath. “Kiddo,” she says, picking up the clipboard again. “I’m gonna keep in touch with you and your father. But I gotta go right now. Personal matters.”
The rest of the memory began to fade as she left and was replaced by a hundred voices and faces Scootaloo didn’t care to remember.
Apologies for your loss. You’re so brave. My condolences. You’re so strong. There’s one more Angel in Heaven. It’s okay to cry. It wasn’t your fault. A parade of faceless doctors and lawyers and behavioral psychologists and insurance representatives with the empty platitudes all day long filled the next day, the next week, the next month. All save for one. Whistles. She was there for her in the hospital. She was there for her at the viewing. She was there for her at the funeral. Scootaloo did appreciate it, but she didn’t feel it. She didn’t feel anything. This made total sense given she lost her mother, but that was just it. There was no sadness. No grief. No sense of loss. Just an infinite eternal numbness. Like her torso was frozen in time.
Stop making me think about it.
Her father changed. At first, imperceptibly so. He didn’t laugh as hard or smile as wide. He drank his beer more deeply, sometimes having a second one during dinner. Then a third. He didn’t look her in the eyes when he spoke to her. All things that made sense at the time. But they got worse. His emotions went from muted to dead. He drank a six pack every day, a twelve pack, an eighteen pack, eventually he was drinking twenty four cans a day. And he didn’t speak to her at all. She ceased to exist as the kitchen table slowly filled with medical bills, funeral bills, legal bills, credit card bills, and he spent all their days talking on the phone. Until one day he would literally just drink, stare at the paper, and hang up the phone every single time it would ring. All day from dawn to dusk. Dust collected. The color even faded from the walls, the paper slowly peeling.
There was no new food in the house. The fridge was full of beer cans. The freezer was full of beer bottles. The pantry eventually ran out of boxed macaroni, ramen, and soup cans. Scootaloo didn’t ask her dad to go buy food because she didn’t get out of bed. She just laid down, listened to her music, and stared up at the ceiling. I don’t want to think about it again. She would go to the bathroom of course, and menstruation waits for nobody. But by the time it came time to start at her new school, all she was looking forward to was a hot meal and a chance to breathe in air that didn’t stink of beer.
Walking into CHS for the first time she realized quickly that Sunset Shimmer thought she was the queen bitch of the universe.
“Who are you supposed to be,” the bully taunted, assessing the new kid with the ragged dirty clothes, the unwashed unkempt hair, the sunken eyes, and the skin hanging off her bones. “An anorexic sewer rat?”
Scootaloo clenched her fists but said nothing.
“Ooo, you’re just too easy to rile up,” she teased, leering. “Too bad you’re too much of a coward to do anything about it. Heh. You’re not a sewer rat. You’re a sewer… chicken. Ba-gawk! Buk buk, ba-“
The punch was not as effective as it was intended to be, in fact completely missing its target, and sending Scootaloo herself sprawling to the ground. The fatigue and dizziness of hunger were just doing too much damage to her equilibrium, and to her sense.
“Aww, that’s adorable,” Sunset murmured, crouching down. “What’s the matter, sewer chicken, can’t throw a punch?”
“Fuck you!” Scootaloo spit, causing everyone to gasp and fall silent. Even Sunset herself took a step back.
“Well dang, you got no bite, but you sure got bark.” She leaned in to whisper. “Go on and bark all you want, sewer chicken. All you’ll ever sound like to me is cluck cluck cluck. Now go cry home to your mommy.”
The next thing Scootaloo remembered was being torn away from Sunset.
“-ttacking me for no reason, you little psycho!”
“No reason, Sunset?” The voice of the one pulling Scootaloo back challenged. “You’re a snake. Every single word that comes out of your mouth is poison, and you’re surprised that one day it came back to bite you?”
“Technically, Rainbow Dash,” she said in a mockingly ostentatious melodrama. “It would actually be venom, but such eruditic linguistic differences far exceed your vocabularic tendencies, and would of course surely elude one such as you who is not as well versed in sesquipedalian loquaciousness as I?”
“Oh, shut the hell up, man,” Rainbow scoffed. “I don’t even know what half of those words mean.”
“Yeah. Exac-” Sunset coughed and placed her fingers on her throat. “Faust alive, I think you broke the skin!”
“You know, princess,” Rainbow spit. “I don’t think you realize that every single person who goes to this school wants to strangle you too. Only difference is this kid’s the first one to actually do it.”
“Fine. You wanna keep that rabid dog… rat… chicken… THING on your leash, Rainbow, that’s fine with me. Just keep it as far away from me as possible.”
“Ohhhh, you are such a CUNT!” She groaned. “You don’t even know who the fuck this kid is and you’re already branding her as your next public victim. What, you needed to find fresh meat because trying to wreck my fucking career for a month just got boring?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who smuggled narcotics into our school.”
“You literally! Fucking! Are! You bought them from Gilda, I know, I talked to her!”
“I was in my apartment, Rainbow-“
“Yeah, crying to me because your life is sooo sad because you’re sooo lonely and everyone hates your guts, and that your parents were sooo abusive and that’s why you don’t know how to be nice to anyone, and all this fake... I, the sad part is that I actually for a few moments believed you, but only because I forgot that you’re the greatest actress who ever lived. You’re just a selfish voice, a pretty face, and a black heart.”
Once a few moments of silence rang out, Sunset cleared her throat.
“We done now?” She asked, utterly disinterested. “Yeah? Cool. Thank you for the praise, but I’m sorry to say that the flattery will get you nowhere. And I’m sorry you have to make shit up just to draw attention to yourself. And I’m sorry that you’ve had a naught three GPA your entire secondary school career. And I’m sorry that you haven’t won a single tennis match all season. And I’m sorry that your mom had to sift through hamburger meat to find a dead woman and hasn’t been home lately and you’re upset because you miss when you and mommy used to spend more time together back when you were a little girl. And I’m sorry that all of your oldest friends are literally convicted felons, and that all of your current friends are spineless crybaby cowards, and that all of the people who used to be your friend hate you m-“
“You need to shut the fuck up,” Scootaloo growled, pushing forward against the arms securing her. “Before I shut you the fuck up myself.”
“My my, the language is blue today,” Sunset snapped. “Do you have anything else in your arsenal besides weak punches and F bombs? Am I supposed to be impressed, or intimidated?”
“Chill squirt,” Rainbow whispered, stepping up to the plate and putting her hand in front of Scootaloo. “I got this.” She looked back forward and spoke normally. “At least I have my integrity. I won’t deny anything you said about me. Sometimes I like to be the center of attention. Sometimes I’ll, ya know, embellish a little on the details. I struggle sometimes both on and off the field. I sometimes wish things were the way they were when I was little because the world didn’t feel so big and scary back then as it does now. I feel bad for the kid whose mother that hamburger meat was. I have a lot of friends who made bad decisions, or aren’t as proud as I am, or who aren’t friends with me right now. But they’re still my friends. They just don’t agree with that right now. I can study harder, train harder, work on myself. Because I know who I am. I can say I have flaws and not feel bad about it. Can you do that, Sunset? Can you be honest about your faults? No? No. The answer is no. You can’t. And that’s why you’re never gonna sink your claws in me.”
“Yeah, okay, you bore me,” Sunset sneered. “I’m going to class.”
As the students slowly filed out, Scootaloo reached out a hand.
“Hey squirt,” the older girl greets, putting her fist out. “Good to meet ya. I’m Rainbow Dash. And you are?”
She bumped it. “Scootaloo.”
“Eh, bit long, but that’s cool. So, squirt, what exactly did the bitch queen say to ya that made you try to rip her head off?”
“She…” slow groan.
“Yeah?”
Scootaloo looked down to the ground. “Cry home to mommy.”
Rainbow slowly blinked a few times in confusion. “That’s tame.”
“My mom is dead.”
“Oh. Yeah. Uh. Well, that checks out.”
“She died last month,” and it’s that evil bitch’s fault. “And I haven’t even cried about it since the day after it happened, so.”
“Oh shit, you were in the car? Damn, I’m sorry to hear that, kid.”
“Yeah, well, you and everyone else in the hospital.” I swear I’ll get revenge on her if it’s the last thing I do. “Is Sunset that… that BITCH’s name?”
“Ah,” Rainbow waved her off. “She’s just a mean girl. Just another fake-ass plastic peaked-in-high-school loser. Just stay away from her, okay? Don’t even think about her. You stick with me, and things will be great. Well. Maybe not me personally, we probably don’t have any classes together. But… I do know someone I can hook you up with. Meet up with me tomorrow morning in the gym, okay?
“Cool… thanks.”
As Rainbow wordlessly walked off, Scootaloo just walked the halls randomly. Black thoughts boiled in her head as she thought of all the ways she wished to make Sunset suffer. She clearly saw the accident, she clearly knew her mom was dead, she clearly knew who she was, and yet still had the audacity, the nerve, the GALL to tell her to cry home to her? To take her mother away, don’t think about it, and plunge her home life into the miserable solitude and then make fun of her day one of school? She even brought it up in casual conversation with someone else! That heartless soulless evil whore should fucking BURN for what she did. The meat in the driver’s seat flashed in her mind again, steeling her resolve.
“I will avenge you, mom.”
By the time she collected her thoughts, she spotted a tall navy-blue figure quickly approaching her.
“Hello,” she greeted, voice low and mysterious. “I trust you are that new student, Scootaloo, yes?”
“Uh… yeah.”
She nodded. “Very good. Please come with me.
Shrug. “Okay.”
As it turned out this was the vice-principal Luna, who had some questions to ask about the security camera footage from earlier.
I don’t know what sort of behavior was acceptable in your home town, but we will not tolerate this behavior here in Canterlot. This is your first offense to I’ll let you go with a warning but I’m keeping my eye on you. Go to your classes and do this and do that and when I say jump you say how high and blah blah blah who gives a shit. The words blended together and Scootaloo could not find the energy to care to sort them out.
The rest of the day passed in a blur until lunch when she finally ate something besides plain boiled white rice for the first time in weeks, and she absolutely wolfed it down. She had no idea what it actually was, nor could she have described what it tasted like. But it was delicious.
She’d decided to spend the rest of her lunch break in the bathroom to catch some quiet time, but found some unpleasant company.
“Hello, sewer chicken.”
Scootaloo didn’t even stop walking on her path to the stall, quietly closing it and sitting.
“Okay, first of all,” Sunset spat. “Don’t ignore me. That’s just rude.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Scootaloo replied. “Or I’ll-“
She was cut off by a loud slam against the stall door.
“Listen here, you little brat. You may have been hot stuff where you came from,” Sunset growled through grit teeth, now standing immediately outside the door. “But trust me when I say that I was way hotter where I came from. But I can respect your… let’s call it bravery. So I’m willing to make a compromise. I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine. I’ll leave you and yours alone. But this school belongs to me, and as long as you respect that hierarchy, we can learn to tolerate each other’s presence. Fair deal?”
“Sure, fine, whatever, can I pinch a loaf in peace now?”
“Ew… yeah, fine. Ugh.”
As her footsteps receded, Scootaloo couldn’t help but grin as she tried to imagine Sunset’s body as mangled as her mom,
As…
pleasegodnodontmakemeseeitagain-
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, continuing to spit the rest of the vomit into the toilet.
“God…” she moaned, wiping off with toilet paper. “Why couldn’t it be both of us…?”
The rest of the day was a blur again, and after the final bell rang and she walked back home, she stopped in front of the front door. She would claim afterwards it was because she wanted to hear the rest of the song in her earbuds, but she really genuinely just didn’t want to walk in the door. There was no specific reason. Definitely not the safe in the closet that she didn’t want to open whose code was her birthday.
She didn’t want to wipe her shoes off on the welcome mat. She didn’t want to tuck six bottles of beer from the fridge under her arm. She didn’t want to tiptoe past her snoring father. She didn’t want to carefully set the bottles on her nightstand. She didn’t want to type her date of birth into the safe. She didn’t want to take the revolver and one bullet up to her room. She didn’t want to change into the black suit she’d worn to the funeral. She didn’t want to spit out the first sip of the beer all over herself because it was absolutely disgusting and how the fuck can dad drink this so much. She didn’t wanna clean it up. So she didn’t clean it up, and instead just held her nose as she chugged the rest of it.
She hissed and dropped the bottle onto the floor, loaded the bullet, spun the chamber, and put the barrel to her temple.
She pulled the trigger.
Click.
She sighed, whether out of disappointment or relief she couldn’t tell. She contemplated trying again, and looking up how guns work online, but the warmth welling up in her chest gave her a different idea. After returning the gun to its resting place she went back up to her room and proceeded to drink the rest of the beer. She didn’t remember doing it. But she remembered that it felt good.
She must have passed out at some point because she awoke to two fists tearing her off the bed and violently shaking her.
“You little thief!” He growled, flecks of spit flying all over her face. “After everything I do for you,” he pushed her back onto the bed. “You pay me back with THIS,” he threw one of the empty bottles at the wall. Glass flew everywhere.
Between the sudden panic, the pounding headache, and the vestiges of intoxication, Scootaloo had no choice but to surrender, sit in silence, and let him scream. Individual words blended together in a sea of white noise as he yelled and carried on.
Eventually he stopped and took a few deep breaths before shaking his head. “You don’t even care.”
She did not reply.
He shook his head. “I thought that your mother and I raised you better than that.”
“I guess you thought wrong.”
In an instant he smacked her face with enough force to knock her backwards. As her head landed on her pillow, mental clarity sliced through the alcohol like a freshly sharpened scythe through wheat. She looked back at him, furious, daring him to touch her again, but the look of sheer terror and regret on his face gave her pause.
“I’m sorry-“
“You pathetic sack of shit,” she growled, pulling herself up. “There isn’t a fucking ounce of food in this house because you won’t go to the fucking store and buy a goddamn thing besides beer, so what the fuck did you expect me to do?”
He just shook his head as he wrung his hands together, looking everywhere in the room except for his daughter.
“If you ever put your hands on me again, I will kill you,” she warned, gathering her things. “I will wait for you to fall asleep, and then I will get the gun, and then I will shoot you in the head. Going to prison would be better than staying here.”
“Loo, please,”
“I’m going to school. And when I come home, there had better be something edible in the fridge. Because if there isn’t, then I’ll know that you’re the one who doesn’t care. And I’ll call the cops and I’ll tell them to send CPS and you’ll go to prison. I will ruin your entire,” she grabbed a second bottle. “Fucking,” she threw it at the window, where it bounced before landing in the floor. “Life!”
With that she left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
As the adrenaline pumped through her, she couldn’t help but grin at the shift in power dynamics bending to her favor. And then the headache kicked back in.
By the time she made it to Canterlot High, she made good on her promise to Rainbow to meet her in the gym. However, when she arrived, it seemed to be completely empty. She glanced at her phone and saw that she was early by a significant margin. She sat in the corner, put her earbuds in, and waited out the clock.
Eventually someone arrived, a tall blonde girl with a Stetson hat on. She was carrying several crates full of apples. Following her in was a younger girl, a redhead with a pink ribbon in her hair, who carried a folding table. The two seemed preoccupied with themselves, and Scootaloo was happy to let them do their own thing. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the music.
A few songs later, someone tapped her on the shoulder. As she opened her eyes to see that this someone was in fact Rainbow, she pulled her earbuds out.
“What’s up squirt?”
“Hi Rainbow,” she greeted, standing up. “I was a bit early today.”
Rainbow narrowed her eyebrows as she leaned in close. “Why are you wearing a… Dude, did someone punch you in the face?”
“I tripped.”
“Okay… anyway, so, one of my friends- or, well, we’re not friends right now because of stupid shit that you don’t need to worry about, but you know what I mean. She’s got a younger sister who’s in your class, and, um.” She sucked some air in through her teeth before blowing it back out. “Her parents are dead too. So, like, she can probably understand you a little. So if it’s fine with you then I was gonna hand you off to her?”
“I guess so.”
“Alright, cool. I gotta take care of some stuff at the soccer field real quick, but I’ll at least putcha in the right direction, introduce you.”
Rainbow lead her towards the two girls from earlier, who were peeling apples on a table. Scootaloo fought the bile rising in her throat as they walked. Surely there was a better, more tactful way to have said that, right?
As they approached, the blonde took her hat off and the smile fell from her face.
“Howdy, Captain Flake,” she greeted, voice curt. “You need something from me? I know you ain’t here to do nothin for me. Except maybe to make some more empty promises and then never show up?
“AJ, you’re the one who…” Rainbow groaned. “I don’t wanna argue about this again, I actually do have a good reason for talking with you right now.”
“Then I’d love to hear it fast, so I can get back to work.”
Rainbow motioned for Scootaloo to step forward.
“This is Scootaloo. She’s new. And she’s already Sunset’s target. She, uh… has similar life experiences to you two. So I would hope that maybe…?”
“Similar life experiences?”
Scootaloo whispered. “My mom died recently.”
Applejack gave her a once-over, then her expression softened as she turned back to Rainbow. “Is she…?”
Rainbow nodded.
“I’m Apple Bloom,” the redhead greeted, sticking her hand out. “I saw you in biology. And algebra.”
“Hey,” Scootaloo responded, shaking her hand. “I. Didn’t notice. I haven’t been noticing much of anything lately, since…”
“That’s okay. Life is gonna be hard. School too. But trust me, me and Sweetie Belle are thick as thieves and we got plenty of room in our little posse. Once I’m done with my chores here maybe we can both go over and get to know her a little before school starts?”
“You can go now,” Applejack said, nudging her. “I got the rest of this.”
“Really sis? Awesome! Thanks!”
“Yeah, I gotta talk to Rainbow in private about somethin’ else anyway, and I don’t need no nosy eavesdroppers listenin’ in.”
“I don’t drop no eaves on boring conversations.”
“Oh- get on outta here, will ya?”
“Can do. See you at home!”
Bloom grabbed Scootaloo’s hand and yanked her off her feet and tore off before she even had a chance to wave goodbye to Rainbow. The last thing she saw before they disappeared into the locker rooms was the somber expression on Rainbow’s face as she whispered something to Applejack.
“She’s probably done in the showers by now,” Bloom murmured as they finally slowed down in the girls lockers. “She does cross country right now and they run in the mornings. We actually get up at around the same time cuz I got morning chores at home.” She turned as she spoke. “I gotta milk the cow and get the eggs cuz- are you okay?”
Scootaloo, who was not okay, was trying very hard not to look at anyone or anything, just frozen in place. “Yeah. Fine.”
“We didn’t run too fast did we?”
“No, it’s…” a trio of high schoolers were getting undressed nearby. “I’ve just never been in a girls locker room before.”
“It’s ok, you don’t gotta get naked or nothin like that.”
“I know, it’s just… that…” she crossed her arms. “I like girls, is all.”
Bloom shrugged. “Okay? What’s that got to do with-“ her face blanched as she noticed the older girls. “Ooooohhh…”
“Yeah.”
“Do you wanna wait outside?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. You can go hang out outside the locker room and I’ll bring her to you when she’s done, alright?”
“Alright.”
As Scootaloo did so, she pondered on just how cavalier Bloom was with the information that essentially caused her to switch schools. She’d professed her feelings to her now ex best friend, who had then told the whole school about it. Things weren’t easy after that.
But here, it was almost as if Bloom couldn’t even conceive that there would be a problem. The tightness in her chest eased up as she realized that not only did Rainbow hook her up with such a kind and welcoming friend, she was also totally chill with what used to be her deepest and darkest secret. She leaned against the wall and, for the first time in a while, she allowed herself to relax.
Maybe… maybe things don’t have to be so bad before she gets her revenge.
“Good morning, sewer chicken.”
Scratch that.
“What do you want now?” Scootaloo murmured, begrudgingly opening her eyes and looking up at the bitch.
“A peace offering,” she replied, tossing a small package into Scoot’s lap.
“What’s this?”
“Charm bracelet kit.” Sunset crossed her arms and looked off to the side. “I made some custom golden strings and put them in there. You make some of those and give them to whatever friends you make, and as long as you respect our little agreement, they’ll be safe…” she bit her lip before continuing. “What’s your name?”
“I thought it was sewer chicken.”
“Your real name.”
“S… Scootaloo.”
“Alright. Scootaloo. From here on, we’re not enemies. Stay in line and respect my rule, and you won’t be messed with. Deviate, and impact my life in any way, there will be consequences. But until then, like I said, I’ll leave you and yours alone.”
“Why are you doing this? I thought you hated me.”
“I-!” Sunset seemed taken aback at this. “Hated?” She asked, bewildered. “I mean. I hate being challenged by po- er, by people who don’t know their place. But I don’t hate anypony. I’m not…”
“I walked in the door and the first thing you did was insult me,” Scootaloo sniped, rolling her eyes. Technically it was the second thing. The first thing was killing her mom. But that’s beside the point. “Where I come from you don’t exactly insult people you like.”
“I just met you, how could I hate you? All I was doing was asserting dominance, you’re the one who started choking me for nothing.”
“You!” Scootaloo grunted angrily. “You fucking started it!”
“And now I’m finishing it.” Sunset crouched down. “Contrary to popular belief, I don’t care what anybody does in their home lives. I know, of course, I do background checks on everyone the day they come here for the first time, just in case I need to. But not to pass judgment on anyone. I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care that you’re literally dressed for a funeral for some reason. I don’t care that you’re a booze hound-“
“What?”
“Don’t interrupt me. You smell like beer. I don’t care that you’re in the good graces of a junkie burnout loser and a braindead redneck. I don’t care about any of that. All I care about is power, because it’s the only thing more important than any of you. I have nothing that I can blackmail you for. So take the bribery instead. Most people here aren’t so lucky as you to have that opportunity.”
“Am I supposed to thank you?”
“Thanks are not required payment for an exchange of goods and services. It’s just good manners.” She stood back up again. “This is hopefully the last conversation the two of us ever have. Stay out of my way, sewer ch- sorry. Scootaloo.”
As she turned and walked away, she hesitated for just a moment before quietly whispering “And… I’m sorry about your mother.”
You better fucking apologize you stupid cunt.
The cracking of plastic alerted Scootaloo to the fact that she was clenching the package so hard she literally almost broke it. She pulled her hands off and let the pain fade, joints unlocking and muscles uncramping. She sighed as she realized that it was gonna take a little while before her hands stopped hurting. And then it hit her.
She admitted it. So at least she wears her evil on her sleeve. At least she’s a respectable adversary. Scootaloo glanced down at the box in her lap as an idea came to her. They would be going to school here for years. There would be plenty of time to devise a strategy. All Scootaloo would need to do was quietly pay attention to Sunset from the sidelines. If Sunset thought they were neutral, that was an extra card that could be played against her. If little miss wannabe princess wants to live in a fantasy world that she can live without consequences, then may it bite her in the ass. The revenge doesn’t need to happen right now. It can sit in the oven for a little bit and be all the sweeter when it finally hits.
“Just you wait, Sunset,” Scootaloo quietly mused. “I’ll let you build your castle. Brick by brick. And when you think everything is good for you and you’re set for life, that’s when I’ll strike. I’ll destroy you. So go ahead and be happy with our civil neutrality. It’ll just make it easier to stab you in the back later.”
She shook the box a little. There were definitely beads in there.
“Might as well use this if I got it. But… on who…?
As she pondered the kind of person she was about to meet, she couldn’t help but sigh as her logic center kicked in. So the only friends she’ll start with are a simple farmer girl and some sporty chick. Great. Girls who wake up at 5am. If Scootaloo had her way she’d go to bed at 5am. At least Bloom didn’t seem like she was a raging lesbophobe. But then again, neither did Coconut, until…
She shook her head. Coco is gone. Out of her life forever. For better or for worse. We’re moving on to greener pastures now. Hopefully.
A few more minutes passed. The older girls from earlier walked by, as Scoot buried her face and prayed that they weren’t telepaths.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up to see that one of them was looking down at her with soft, concerned aquamarine eyes.
“Y- yeah.”
“Does it hurt?” She asked, reaching into her purse. Her long pink bangs slid over her eyes as she did so, but she flipped them back. “Your eye?”
She put a hand up to her temple, having completely forgotten her injury.
“I’m fine. I fell.”
The older girl pulled out a small packet, bent down, and handed it over.
“Here, this should help with the inflammation and pain.”
“Thanks…” Ibuprofen. Sounds like a good idea, actually. Might help with the headache too.
It was then that she became fully aware of the headache. She’d wonder why it wasn’t more apparent earlier if she weren’t a little distracted by glancing up and accidentally catching a glimpse of white lace. She snapped her vision back down as she tore the packet open.
“Here’s something to take it with,” she said, also handing over a small water bottle. “I’m sorry but they’re not coated so it wouldn’t be comfortable to dry swallow them.”
“It’s cool.”
“And… if you need any resources for anything. Mental health, domestic abuse, eating disorders, whatever, and you need someone to come with you, feel free to ask me. If you want to do it outside the eyes of Sunset or the rest of the school, you can come find me at the Meadowbrook animal shelter. I’m there to volunteer every day except Sunday, because they’re closed.”
“I’m good… thanks.”
The girl stood back up, biting her lip. Scoot regretted being curt, but she really didn’t appreciate the insinuations that came with the offer. It was incredibly rude and invasive.
“Well, I hope that your pain gets better soon. I have to go now, the bell’s going to ring soon and I need to be in the soccer field by then or-“
She was interrupted by the aforementioned bell, before ‘eep’ing and sprinting off, leaving Scootaloo alone.
She slipped the flip phone out of her pocket to check the time. She sighed as she realized that she would rather sit here all day in case Bloom had lied to and abandoned her, than go to class. Nothing seemed more annoying than to give any attention to academia. Why bother? She wasn’t gonna go to college. She wasn’t gonna have a career as an adult. She wasn’t even gonna graduate. She just wanted to ruin Sunset, and anything after that, she was just gonna wing it. Either things would naturally turn out better on their own, or if they didn’t, she could always just kill herself. Because without mom… what’s even the point in sticking around?
Before she had any longer to continue contemplating the futility of defying mortality, Bloom finally showed back up again.
“Hey Scoots, sorry it took a minute,” she said, rubbing the back of her head. “Lost track o’ time. We’re probably gonna be a little bit late to our first class.”
Shrug. “I wasn’t exactly on time yesterday. No point trying to make a good second impression, right?”
“Eh, I guess so. Usually I get a little wiggle room cuz I gotta do my chores in the mornings, and Belle has track. You… well.”
“I’ll just pull the dead mom card if they have a problem. That’s been shutting people up pretty quick when I bring it up.” Beat. “See?”
“Oh, right…” she cocked her head and looked back into the lockers. “There ya are, slowpoke.”
“Don’t tease me,” a musical voice whined. “My thighs hurt.”
Scoot craned her neck to glance behind her, and she felt all of the air leave her lungs as she beheld the most beautiful girl she had ever seen in her entire life.
Her pale lavender hair clung wet to her neck and forehead. Her emerald eyes pierced the soul, and her bright- though mildly pained- smile sliced through the shadows of the mind despite the braces. Her skin, white as snow, was perfectly clear. She had on short shorts, and her shirt was a bit cropped, showing off her belly ring. The tourmaline gem sparkled in the fluorescent lights. A pair of pants were haphazardly hanging out the sides of the backpack she wore, its straps pulled as tight as they could go. She walked with a slight limp, favoring her right leg.
“You didn’t stretch?” Bloom teased.
“I’ve never done a sport before,” she moaned, leaning on the wall. “I wasn’t born with eighty pounds of muscle like you were.”
“I was born eight pounds and one ounce.”
“Whatever,” she said as she finally took notice of the other girl sitting on the floor and staring at her. “Hiya.”
“Hi… hi.” she mirrored, tripping over her own tongue.
“Your eye okay?”
“Y… yeah.”
“This is Scootaloo,” Bloom greeted. “She’s the new kid.”
“I heard you tried to strangle Sunset Shimmer,” Belle said, sounding impressed more so than anything else. “Makes you kind of a hero here.”
“I’m not a hero…”
“Maybe not,” she said with a shrug. “But you’re clearly not a villain.”
“Maybe you can be an antihero,” Bloom added. “Like Deadpool. Or Kylo Ren.”
“Nobody knows your video game people,” Belle deadpanned. “You nerd.”
“I’m not a nerd, you’re just outta touch!”
“Movies aren’t worth watching unless they’re ten years old, at least.”
“You’re such a hipster.”
“I am not a hipster! I’m just not into things that are popular.”
“That’s a hipster.”
“Hipsters are specifically a counterculture devoted to following fashion and music interests that fall outside of the mainstream media. I listen to the radio and wear normal clothes. I’m not a hipster, by its definition!”
Scootaloo had half a mind to ask, “What are you, a dictionary?” But figured it would have been a rude comment to make to someone she had just met. Especially someone she thought was cute.
“Eh, potato potahto.” Bloom reached a hand down to Scoot. “Come on, we gotta get goin’.”
“Yeah,” Belle said as she also extended a hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
Scoot shoved her items into her bag before accepting their hands and allowing them to pull her up. Once standing, neither of the girls pulled their hands away, but nothing seemed significant about it to either. But to Scootaloo, this was the first time anyone had touched her skin in weeks, aside from getting the shit smacked out of her. And it was the first time a girl she thought was pretty had touched her in months.
“You okay?” Bloom asked.
“Yeah… I’m just…” she sighed and squeezed their hands back. “I’ve just not been looking forward to anything since it happened. And now, for the first time in a long time, I’m actually kind of really looking forward to getting to know you two. And… I’m scared.”
“What are you scared of?”
“Fucking it up.”
“You ain’t gonna mess nothin up. You’re here now.”
“And we’re gonna be BFFs forever!”
Scootaloo felt a smile touch her face for the first time since the accident.
“I think I’d like that.”
It’ll be nice to have resources to help her get revenge.
And now, all she had to do was be patient.
/x/x/x/
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Sorry to hear about the accident. Irl stuff takes priority.
you do you we can wait
Welcome back, and this gives me the impression that our Sunset is clearly not the same Sunset that ditch the scene of an accident. It's clear the true culprit the human Sunset ditch town already
Wow I guess this poof “forgive not forget”
Keep up the great work👍👍 at your own pace.
Welcome back. Sorry to hear about the accident. Hope you're feeling better now. I know what may cheer you up, this story just got featured.
The last thing my old man said to me before he died was that he hated me.
Sorry about what happened, but it sounds like your dad loved you. Take solace in that.
Sorry to hear all of this....
Sorry for your loss. I hope you're doing better.
Shit, so sorry for your loss.
11881107
"Why didn't they listen? We tried to warn them!"
"I never though I'd see a Resonance Cascade, let alone create one."
Can actually see the tiny kernels of good in Sunset in this chapter that would become her main personality later, had Scootaloo been willing to move on with her life, not forget or even forgive, but move on, then everything would have been fine for her.
Really sorry about what you've been through. Take your time, I'll wait.
You've been through a lot. Take you time, mourn, get better and if you still want to continue writing this we'll be here for it and if you don't feel like continuing it, well, that's life. We'll deal. I hope things get better for you; story or no story.
That said, I really enjoyed this update. I hope you continue this, but your health and well-being come first.
Sorry you went through what you went through.
I lost my father last year, he was very ill, and bed ridden.
He passed away when I was at work and coming home.
I'm sorry for your lost.
Figured was better to leave my comments on the story separate.
I get a lot on what Scoota went though, and what she lost, doesn't excuse her for what she did.
But get it, her father let her down big time, wouldn't be surprised he blamed her a little.
He needs to get some therapy and fix his life up big time.
Sunset screwed up but didn't know, hope it cleared up, it will break her badly when she learns the full story. Yes I know it was the human Sunset who caused the death of Scoota mom, I meant what Pony Sunset said and such, it break her heart when she finds out.
Luna....is a holier then thou $%$#%$, hope she called out on it, and learns to be a real vice principal rather then some social justice warrior.
Bet the reason nobody goes to her or Celestia for help as they resent her and think Celestia may be the same.
Last Scoota needs some serious therapy and recovery, maybe also reveal to the law enforcement on the human Sunset's actions increase her sentence.
Or have a confrontation with her for closure or both.
Thanks to everyone for being so understanding. I genuinely do appreciate it.
11880769
I feel really bad about this because I know you’ve been dead set on this being a plot twist for a while now, but the human Sunset was already in Federal Custody before the fateful car accident happened, and our Sunset has already said that she saw the accident (though she didn’t know who it was). And the reason she is in Federal Custody is because she’s part of a different series that I’m probably not going to write any time soon but have in the backlogs. In any case she is not a part of this particular story.
11881248
I’m genuinely glad to hear someone point that out because I did want to establish that Sunset was not ever Pure Evil. She just wanted to be on top of the system rather than under it.
11884847
It’s probably clear that I am not the biggest fan of the canonical presentation of Celestia and Luna as far as the films have shown them, so I suppose my representation of them has somewhat carried this dissatisfaction 😅