Star-crossed

by WhovianPony

Chapter 10

A couple of weeks later...

"Discord, you're going to be late! Remember, you told me not to let you forget."

Discord was dozing on a puff of cloud that had been creatively shaped into a sofa. Katrina walked over and tapped her foot impatiently. He's going to make me do it, isn't he? She rolled her eyes and bent over him, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Hey! Only on the cheek?" He said. He looked at her and scowled. "I feel cheated!"

"You can have the rest of that kiss as soon as you get back. Celestia and mom needed you to go over today. You're a third of what makes Equestria go 'round, so they have to consult you about major decisions."

"But it's so boring! I can't believe I ever wanted to rule Equestria! All they ever talk about at these meetings is budget cuts and the economy and the price of tea in Trottingham. These meetings never involve anything even remotely interesting." Discord grumbled getting up from his nap.

"Which is exactly why they need you there to liven things up!" Katie smiled.

Discord summoned a cup of hot chocolate and sipped it thoughtfully.

"Well?" Katie said.

"Needs more marshmallows." Discord said seriously. Katie tried, she really did, but she failed miserably. She laughed at his randomness, despite knowing that he was going to get in trouble if he stayed too much longer.

"Come on, Discord. I would go in your stead but we both know how much Celestia hates my guts. She would probably fry half of Equestria if I so much as dared to show up."

Discord sighed and got up, "Fine, but I expect you to make good on that promise," He said. "The other half of that kiss when I get back."

"Of course." Katie replied.

Discord squeezed her hand and disintegrated into a cloud of purple smoke which flew out the window.

"Now let's see. What to do today. I don't feel like baking at the moment, I guess I could read a book. Hmm.....I know! I'll go down to Ponyville today, it would be nice to spend today visiting my friends."

Katrina flashed and a second later she was a pegasus. She trotted merrily down the rainbow bridge into the Everfree forest and from there into the small town of Ponyville. She decided Sugarcube Corner would be a good place to start, Pinkie always loved it when she visited. She knew almost everyone in Ponyville by name, they were all very friendly, although very few knew that she lived in the huge mulit-colored castle above the Everfree. She trotted up to the door of the bakery and took in the smell of freshly baked cookies that wafted through the cracks in the door. It was a perfect aroma of freshly baked dough, chocolate, and vanilla. As she passed through the door she was instantly in a better mood when she was loudly greeted by Pinkie Pie.

"Good morning, Katrina! What brings you to Sugarcube Corner today?" The mare said happily.

"I just came to pay you a visit, but now that I'm here, i'm afraid i'll have to sample some of those wonderfully smelling cookies of yours."

Pinkie smiled and disappeared into the kitchen reappearing a moment later with a bag of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Katie handed over the appropriate amount of bits and dug on of the cookies out of the bag. She loved when they were this fresh, still piping hot and oh so gooey.

"Mmm...Pinke, they're fantastic as always!"

"Heehee! Thanks!" she smiled. A tall yellow stallion raised a hoof to get her attention. "Sorry, Katrina. I really wish I could talk now, but the Cakes took the twins to go see a play in Canterlot, so I'm running Sugarcube Corner on my own. Would it be okay if we talked later? How about for lunch?"

"Sounds great! I'll meet you at the Cafe!" Katrina said. She walked over to the park to enjoy the rest of her cookies. As she sat down in the cool grass, a gentle breeze whipped around in her hair. It was a beautiful day out. It was so relaxing she thought she might accidentally doze off; but just when she thought that, she heard something coming from a nearby bush. It sounded like crying. She turned an ear towards the bush and heard the sound again.

Katie carefully set the bag of cookies into her saddle bag and went to check on whoever was hiding in the bush. She moved with practiced grace over the grass. Her hooves didn't make a single sound. She gently moved one of the branches aside to reveal an orange pegasus filly with purple hair.

"Are you okay, kiddo?", she asked

The filly jumped in surprise and looked at her. "Uh...of...of course I'm fine." She wiped her nose with a hoof but her eyes were still puffy and red. Katie sat down next to the bush so she was at eye level with the filly.

"You want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about...I'm not crying." The filly sniffled.

"Alright," Katie said, gently. She helped Fluttershy a lot, many methods used to calm scared animals seemed to work on foals too. "But if you had been crying, what would you have been crying about?"

"Well it wouldn't have been because of that stupid Diamond Tiara, if that's what you were thinking."

"No?" Katie asked.

"No. And it wouldn't have been because of school either."

"You're too cool to be upset about school." Katie agreed.

"Exactly." The orange filly, she sniffled again but she looked better than before.

"Even so, You look like you could use a pick-me-up anyway. I just so happen to have some fresh cookies with me. Do you want to come out of that bush and share them?"

The filly nodded and climbed out of the bush, gratefully accepting the cookie that Katie offered her. Together they finished off the rest of the bag.

"There, you feel better?" Katie asked kindly.

"Yeah, thanks for the cookies. I'm Scootaloo!"

"Nice to meet you, Scootaloo. I'm Katrina, but most ponies call me Katie."

"Cool." Scootaloo looked down at her hooves. "Actually, Katie, I was crying in the bush, just a little bit. but I'm not a baby or anything."

"You feel like talking about it now that you're feeling better?"

"Well, at school we do this thing called family appreciation day. Through the year, each foal takes a turn bringing in a family member to talk to the class about themselves. Well, I had managed to not get picked all year and this mean filly called Diamond Tiara tipped miss Cheerilee off that I hadn't done it yet. Now I have to find a family member to bring in to school today."

"Do you not like your family?" Katie asked. It was easy to see that the poor filly was about to cry again.

"I...I...Katie can you keep a secret?"

"If you need me too."

"You promise?"

"Pinkie promise." Katie used a hoof to cross her heart and then she put it over her eye, the traditional gestures that accompanied a Pinkie promise in Ponyville.

The orange filly took a deep breath. "I don't have any family to bring."

"What do you mean?"

"I live here in Ponyville. On my own."

"All on your own....I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Nopony does, I really want it to stay a secret but if I show up when school starts without anypony with me, everypony will find out for sure!"

Katie thought for a moment. It wasn't right that nobody had noticed that this filly was all on her own yet. Katie had a full wolfpack that she lived with, but this filly was all alone. She understood why she didn't want anybody to know though. If everybody knew she was an orphan, than it would be one big pity party all over the place, and probably bullying from other fillies and colts. For a filly trying to pull the toughgirl act, that was the last thing that she needed. If only there was some way she could help.

"I have an idea." Katie said.

"You do?"

"How about a substitute mom?"

"You mean, I would bring you, and you would pretend you were my mom for a day?"

"If it would help, Scootaloo. I know how hard it is to live with a secret like that. I did for most of my life."

"That would be perfect!" Scootaloo exclaimed, a schoolbell could be heard in the distance."That's the bell for school, we'd better hurry if we're gonna show up on time!"

The two of them raced as fast as they could, Scootaloo was on her scooter, to the schoolhouse. Katie was impressed at how well Scootaloo knew how to use her scooter, that very well could be her special talent. Scootaloo pulled up to a beautiful red painted schoolhouse. A herd of young foals were still filtering into the building from the adjacent playground. A pink pony with three smiling flowers as a cutie mark saw Katie come up with Scootaloo and came over to greet them.

"Good morning miss Cheerilee!" The pegasus said happily.

"Good morning to you too, Scootaloo. Who is this you brought with you, your guest for family appreciation day?"

"I'm her mother, Katrina. I'm sure you've seen me around town before but I don't believe we've formally met."

"Nice to meet you!" Cheerilee smiled. "You're just in time, I was about start class."

Scootaloo and Katie followed Cheerilee into the schoolhouse into a single room filled with young fillies and colts sitting at desks. Scootaloo sat at an empty desk and Katie followed Cheerilee up to the front of the class.

"Good Morning class! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! I would like all of you to give a warm welcome to this week's guest Ms. Katrina!" The children clapped their hooves half-heartedly. Scootaloo clapped too, but really she was trying to hide how nervous she was. It had only just occurred to her how many ways thing could go horribly wrong.

"So Ms. Katrina, Tell us a bit about yourself!" Cheerilee said happily.

"Well, I work with Fluttershy taking care of animals. She works out of her cottage, but my job is to go deep into the Everfree and make sure that the animals there are getting along okay and not in danger of becoming upset and wandering into Ponyville."

"You mean you job is to spend all day in the Everfree Forest?" a violet unicorn in the back asked.

"Yep!" Katie smiled proudly.

"Don't you get scared?" The same filly asked.

"Sometimes, but I have a lot of friends there, so I'm not all that worried about it anymore." Katie scratched her chin thoughtfully, "And besides, I have a special gift with animals."

A white filly with purple and pink hair waved her hoof in the air excitedly. "You have a question ms..."

"Sweetie Belle! I was just wondering, Is that how you got your cutie mark?"

"Yes it is, Sweetie Belle." Katie turned to show the class her wolf print cutie mark. "I guess you could say that I got it because I have a special relationship with animals. I'm able to put myself in the animal's shoes, so to speak."

A pink earth pony snickered under her breath and whispered to the gray earth pony beside her. Katie raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Is there something wrong with having that as a special talent, young lady?"

The pink pony rolled her eyes. "My name is Diamond Tiara, and she's Silver Spoon. And yeah, I think that talent is like totally lame. Relating to animals? That's lamer than your special talent being blowing bubbles."

"You leave my mom out of this!" the purple unicorn from before squeaked loudly.

"Calm down please girls." Ms Cheerilee said. Katie kept a calm composure but her eyes gave away how angry she was at Diamond Tiara's hurtful comment. "Please continue Ms. Katrina."

"Thank you Cheerilee. As I was saying, my special talent is putting myself in animals shoes, being able to see things from their point of view."

"I guess it's better than being a stupid blank-flank." The Silver Spoon whispered to Diamond Tiara.

"Would you shut up!" Scootaloo hissed at them.

"Scootaloo, be nice."

"Sorry, Ms Cheerilee."

"How would you darling young fillies and colts like to hear about the time I first met the alpha of the timberwolves?" Katie spent to rest of the time she was given to tell her story. She worded it carefully so as not the reveal that she had magic powers or that she actually lived in the Everfree. When she finished the children clapped their hooves happily and Katie sat down next to Scootaloo.

"I should go now, but would you like me to come and pick you up after school?" She whispered to the filly. Scootaloo nodded and Katie left, making a mental note of where the schoolhouse was. When she walked by the clock tower she could see that it was time to meet Pinkie at the Cafe. She galloped back into town and met up with Pinkie just as she was closing for lunch.

"Hiya, Katie! You ready for some lunch?"

"You bet, I just ran here from the school house and that really worked up an appetite."

They chatted all the way to the Cafe where they each sat down and looked at the menu. A tall stallion with a mustache came over to talk to them. "May I please take your orders ladies?"

"Can I have the daisy sandwich please? With hay fries on the side?"

"I'll have the same!" Pinke said.

Katie had become accustomed to the strictly vegetarian diets of the ponies, and had even developed a taste for things that humans never usually ate, like daisies and hay. The waiter came back with their food and they spent the rest of the meal eating their sandwiches and chatting. They had only known each other for a short while, and while becoming friends with Pinkie was inevitable, she and Pinkie were as close and any of the elements were with each other. The only one that still avoided her was Twilight. Just as they were finishing, Katie heard a distant bell ring, signifying that school had ended.

"This has been a wonderful lunch, Pinkie. I have to go though, sorry."

"Okey-Dokey-Lokey!"

Katie put her share of the bits on the table and walked to the schoolhouse. When she got there she was met with a sight that she didn't expect. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and a filly that Katie recognized as Applebloom were about to get into a fight with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Instinctively, without meaning to, Katie's guardian instinct from her time on Earth kicked in. She crouched and waited behind a bush, mentally planning her next move.

"Where'd you get the money, blank-flank?" Diamond Tiara asked, she made no attempt at all to hide her accusing tone, in fact, she emphasized it.

"What money?" Applebloom asked.

"The money Scootaloser used to hire a mom, we all know she doesn't have one." Silver Spoon answered, "Do you like that, Diamond Tiara? I just made that up."

"I'm not a loser!" Scootaloo said.

"Yeah! You take that back!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

"Why don't you make me?" Silver Spoon sneered.

"I'll tell Rarity on you!"

Silver Spoon turned around a bucked Sweetie Belle in the face, knocking the unicorn on her back. Katie was filled with rage and a quick flash later a timberwolf charged out from behind the bush, teeth bared and wooden body plates flaring out.

Author's Note:

You can probably tell I like cliffhangers.....

The next chapter is coming out really soon.

Comments

[Chaotic Discord]

DAMN YOU CLIFFHANGER.
Eh, I can take it.

[Ulti Shadow Lord]

Wait a second...I'm surprised Diamond Tiara didn't mention the Katrina/Discord relationship.