Finding A Home

by DerpyDaringDitzyDoo

Chapter 1 A New Filly In Town

“So what, you’re just gonna leave me like you left mom huh?” Her words cut through the dark silence of the street with the sharpness of a doctor’s scalpel, causing a startled stallion to jump in surprise.

“Look Scootaloo it’s not that I don’t love you, I really do. I just… can’t do this anymore. You understand right?” Wind Chaser said with an infuriating grin, draining any sympathy she had.

“Understand? Oh I understand alright, you’ve never thought about anypony but yourself! Did you even stop to think about how I’m supposed to deal with this? You know what never mind, just go. I’ll be better off without you.” She said in a solemn tone, turning her back on her less than supportive father.
Scootaloo never really knew the details of her parent’s parting, or her mother for that matter. And despite living a highly solitary life with her father for so long, she knew almost nothing about him either. She didn’t even know what he did for living, provided he actually had a job.

Slowly turning she realized he had done just as she asked, and was gone without a sound. A part of her felt relieved that she didn’t have to deal with his antics anymore, but the rest of her wanted nothing more than for him to apologize and promise to never leave her. She stood for a moment staring at the empty space that was previously occupied by the only pony she really knew with his coy smile. This was the first time she felt truly lost: having nowhere to go and no one to turn to. (As most likely her carefree father likely already sold the deed to their home)

So Scootaloo walked all night, hours of aimless wandering: leaving the small country town behind her, she tried to run away from all the problems of the world In hopes of finding a better place. Eventually a new day’s dawn made its appearance, bringing with it a harsh reality. Scootaloo was not only homeless, starving, and helpless, but she was also completely lost.

“Maybe leaving town wasn’t such a good idea.” She moaned, her stomach’s growls fearsome enough to match an Ursa Major missing her cub.

Eventually and against all odds, Scootaloo arrived in what she accurately guessed was Manehatten. But what she couldn’t have guessed was that Manehatten was the worst possible place for a hungry Pegasus filly to be.

Aside from it being the cosmopolitan capital of the Equestria, Manehatten seemed like a normal place to live. However there are many substantial attributes that make it unique: one chiefly being that the weather in Manehatten is controlled by magic, not teams of weather Pegasus. The mail services and factories are also operated by unicorn magic; and whatever manual labor and desk jobs there are, earth ponies can usually fulfill better due their natural larger size and often smarter intellect.

Because of this, pegasi are usually seen as inferior, and to most they were nothing but street rats. Getting a decent job was nearly impossible by itself, but getting food was equally as challenging. Almost every restaurant and marketplace have banned and out casted pegasi, refusing to have any dealings with them. The local government despite the pleas of the helpless pegasi, aptly refuse to provide any assistance due to the infamous reputation of the pegasi mostly caused by false rumors of crimes and plans of rebellion. Truly the hatred running rampant in Manehattan would be enough to wake Discord if Celestia was constantly strengthening his imprisonment.

So Scootaloo, barely eleven years old at the time, began wandering the streets asking ponies for food or at least directions to somewhere she could stay. But being too young to even comprehend the prejudice surrounding her, she didn’t understand why nopony would even give her the time of day to even answer any of her questions. Finally, seeing a group of pegasi clearly waiting for something on a street corner, she built up her courage and trotted to them for one more chance at much needed food.

“Umm, excuse me,” she began, pulling off her best puppy-dog face, “I’m sorry to bother you all, but I’m new here and I don’t exactly have a place to stay. If any of you could give me some food, or…”

“Get lost kid.” a dark gray stallion shouted in an aggravated tone, “I can barely feed my own family, much less every freeloader who begs me for help.” Scootaloo startled by the sudden outburst, could barely let out an audible whisper.

“I’m sorry, but couldn’t you please just spare…”

“I SAID GET LOST KID!” he yelled while taking an aggressive stance. Too scared to stay but too scared to run, Scootaloo could do nothing but close her eyes and shiver, trying to become as small as she could.

“Hey! Leave her alone you creep!” A sky blue mare interjected, stepping between Scootaloo and the raging stallion. “There’s no excuse to scare the child like that, you should be ashamed of yourself!” she said in a degrading tone, giving him a death stare. She turned and helped Scootaloo back to her still trembling hooves, while giving her a reassuring hug before introducing herself. “Are you alright dear? My name is Soaring Sky, what’s yours?”

“Umm… My name is… Scootaloo. Thanks for helping me…” she trailed off, still in shock from the whole ordeal.

“Scootaloo, that’s a nice name! Listen sweetheart I overheard you asking for help, so I’m not even going to bother asking about your parents.” Sky knew she hit a nerve there as Scootaloo once again sank to the cold pavement, which she decided was most stare-worthy.

“Hey cheer up, I may not be able to fix all the problems of the world, but one problem I can fix seems to be getting louder by the minute.” Sky said with a smile while waving a hoof at Scootaloo’s still empty stomach. “Tell you what dear, I work at a restaurant a few blocks down this street. If you’ll meet me there around… six o'clock, I’ll treat you to dinner!”

Sky was overjoyed to help the little filly, but she had no idea just how much this meant to Scootaloo.

“Wow really? Thank you so much! Though I guess it was pretty dumb of me to walk here from Ponyville without eating something first.” Scootaloo said with a short laugh while rubbing a hoof through her mane.

“All the way from- my goodness dear this is worse than I thought! Here,” she paused, reaching into her plain but orderly saddlebag and pulled out six bits, “this should be plenty enough for you to go and get some ice cream while you wait. There’s a nice pony down the street who owns a sweet shop, he’ll help you find me when it’s time for dinner. Now listen sweetheart, I need to go now so just try to stay out of trouble, and please be careful.” Sky looked at Scootaloo with a motherly concern.

“I will, and thanks so much for your help. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along!” Scootaloo chimed while hugging Sky one more time.
“Not at all dear, I only did what any decent pony would do…” She trailed off, glaring at the agitated stallion still standing behind her with a disgusted look on his face. “Now run along, six o'clock will be here before you know it.” She gave Scootaloo one last tight hug before gingerly pushing her away.
So with a wave over her shoulder and a smile as wide as a mile, Scootaloo trotted off feeling like the happiest filly ever to walk the streets of Manehatten. But she couldn’t believe it when her luck turned from good to absolutely incredible as she was saved a second time in the same day!

Scootaloo barely made it a block before being abruptly shoved into an alley. She quickly found herself surrounded by three earth pony colts not much older than her.

“Hey leave me alone I don’t want any trouble!” She yelled hoping to get the attention of anypony walking by.

“Me either!” The obvious ringleader of the motley group said with a bit too much enthusiasm. “Right guys, we don’t want any trouble and since I’m in such a good mood I’m gonna let you off easy. So why don’t you hoof those bits over that you begged off that-“

“No way! And I didn’t beg her for anything, she was just being nice!” Scootaloo yelled far louder than before. Why won’t anypony help me? Geez it’s like they don’t even- Her train of thought derailed as the colt’s tone suddenly grew cold.

“Even among dumb pegasi you have to be the stupidest filly I’ve ever met! What part of trouble don’t you understand? Oh well looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way…” he trailed off with all three colts slowly closing in on her.

“Lay of it will ya Mint? Geez you and your goons can be a real nuisance.” Scootaloo’s head turned even faster than the colts, looking for the source of the voice and who she hoped would be her second savior that day. All four looked deeper into the alley to see the young, pearl-white unicorn with a frazzled mint colored mane leaning against a wall with a disinterested look on her muzzle.

“Well if it isn’t Bright Dawn. Tell me to what do we owe the honor that you should grace us with your presence?” Mint said in mock flattery.

“Oh can it will ya, I swear something about your face just makes me want to punch it. Listen just leave her alone and I’ll leave you alone. I’ve had to use magic to persuade you once, and I’ll do it again if I need to.” Dawn said with a still surprisingly calm voice.

“Not that again! It took me a week to get all the glue out of my coat.” He grumbled while Dawn let out a quiet giggle.

“Besides we don’t want any trouble, she took something of ours and we just want it back.” “Yeah we just want our money back!” Said the two colts behind Mint. She wasn’t entirely sure why, but Dawn could swear she could feel her intelligence being sucked from her just by hearing them talk.

“Wow first stealing, now lying, you three dopes are getting dumber every day aren’t you. Look I’d like to stay and chat, but I actually have a life to live. Come on lets go.” She motioned for Scootaloo to follow her, to which she replied with a nervous and barely audible “okay”.

They quickly reached the busy street, glad to feel the warmth of sunlight on their faces again. Scootaloo barely made it a few hoof-lengths before bearing the biggest grin a filly could manage.

“That was awesome! The way you stood up to those guys, you were fearless!” Scootaloo shouted while bouncing around Dawn.

“It was nothing, besides somepony has to keep those numbskulls in check!” Dawn said sharing Scootaloo’s excitement. “My name’s Bright Dawn. “ She said with a voice teeming with anticipation.

“My name’s Scootaloo, pleasure to meet you!” her voice cracking due to excitement while they bumped hooves. Scootaloo hadn’t known her for more than five minutes, but she knew Dawn was the kind of pony she could count on, and she knew they would become best friends.

Author's Note:

First Fic I've written and I also didn't have any proof readers, so any criticism is very welcome :D

Comments

[Cold Spike]

Not bad, at least you did not rush the actual writing part. SO keep going

[DerpyDaringDitzyDoo]

2064291 Thanks! And yeah I'm a pretty slow paced writer so I hope it turns out at least readable lol

[Ellington]

If Manehatten is that hateful, then why aren't there wendigoes attacking?