Home Sweet Home

by Wheller

Chapter 1

Chronology notes:
Stop! You are reading the Ninth story in the series started by The Kindness of Strangers!

Please read The Kindness of Strangers first!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/389/

The second part of the story is Putting the Pieces Back Together found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/407/

The third part of the story is Midnight in the Heart of Equestria found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/419/

The fourth part of the story is Tomorrow is Always a New Day found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/433/

The fifth part of the story is To Each Their Own found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/526/

The sixith part of the story is Imperfect found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/600/

The seventh part of the story to Paradiso found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/687/

This story is the direct sequel to Broken Record found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/732/

Home Sweet Home
Chapter 1

Scootaloo had not always been homeless. No actually this had just been a more recent development. As she lie on her back, staring up at the ceiling of the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, which was empty save for her.

She’d been homeless for only a month and a half at this point, which was likely why nopony had noticed yet. She’d been good at hiding it for the most part, taking careful steps to not be seen when she needed basic amenities. Scootaloo’s natural grace and agility served her well, it translated into making the small, unassuming Pegasus filly into a thief. Usually late at night, the young filly would raid an unlocked cellar for food, or dig through some random pony’s garbage, looking for anything useful. Unlike most thieves, she only took what she needed to survive, which was very little, small things like a can of peas, or a single potato. Small things that an average towns-pony wouldn’t notice were missing.

Digging through garbage almost always revealed something useful to the filly, she looked over at her bulging saddlebag, which contained her Crusader Machine Carbine. She’d thought she’d been clever upon naming it. Scootaloo was a CMC with a CMC. Most of the things she’d gotten to make it useable by her she’d dug out of the garbage.

She was always sure to take a bath in the river outside town before dawn. She didn’t want anypony to know what she’d been doing. She knew it wasn’t going to last. Her friends and their older sisters were perceptive; they’d notice something off about her sooner or later. Until then, Scootaloo was going to have to be more careful, lest she end up in a foster home.

Scootaloo felt her heart pang at the thought of her friend’s older sisters. Apple Bloom had Applejack, and Sweetie Bell had Rarity. Both her friends had family that loved them. It wasn’t fair! Why not her? Why couldn’t Scootaloo have a mother and father, or even an older sister or brother that loved her? It just wasn’t fair.

Scootaloo idolised Rainbow Dash because she was everything that the young filly wanted in a parent. Rainbow Dash was cool, loyal, and dependable, she cared about her friends. Where Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo sisters, Rainbow would love her and take care of her. Scootaloo would have a proper home, with food to eat. She wouldn’t have to steal and salvage, she wouldn’t have to bathe in the river before the sun came up so that nopony would notice.

It was three in the morning. Scootaloo wouldn’t be sleeping tonight; her mind was in twenty different places. She got up out of her bed roll and dumped out the contents of her Saddlebag.

She’d recently snagged a few items to improve the Crusader Machine Carbine. She wrenched out the metal stock and replaced it with a bent up wire coat hanger using a bottle of superglue, now she could stick her foreleg through the coat hanger and it would rest upon her shoulder for better control. She’d cut the frame in two and attached them to a hinge she’d taken off an old door. The wire frame stock folded in so that she could better hide it in her saddlebag.

She looked at the Crusader Machine Carbine. It didn’t look pretty; Apple Bloom could have done a better job at that. But Scootaloo didn’t care how it looked, she only cared that it worked.

...

Scootaloo quickly and quietly snuck out of Sweet Apple Acres. The Apple family got up well before dawn to get started on farm work. While Sweet Apple Acres was large, she couldn’t take the chance that the day’s work would take them close to the Cutie Mark Crusader’s clubhouse, where they would almost certainly notice Scootaloo. It was four in the morning; she had time to raid for food. She’d decided not to dig through garbage this night, no need to, since the entire town was going to be cleaning up the aftermath of the gryphon attack today. Scootaloo was certain to find useful bits on the burnt out tanks.

She’d been walking through town, lost in thoughts that she didn’t notice that she’d bumped into somepony. She jumped and let out a scream in surprise. After which she considered herself lucky that she wasn’t Sweetie Bell, or the entire town would have woken up.

“Aw, come on! I’m not that scary!” said the pony she’d walked into.

Scootaloo looked up to see a off-white, goggle clad, unicorn pony with a blue mane looking down at her and grinning insanely. Scootaloo had only met Vinyl Scratch once before in Whitetail Wood. Scootaloo had found Vinyl’s goggles lying around on the ground, and had picked them up and worn them for a time before returning them to her.

“It’s a little early for somepony as young as you to be out isn’t it?” Vinyl asked with a grin.

Scootaloo gulped, afraid that the unicorn had her made. Vinyl Scratch was a madmare, that grin of hers made it impossible for Scootaloo to tell what she was really thinking.

“It’s a little early for somepony as old as you to be out isn’t it?” Scootaloo said, grinning back.

Vinyl Scratch chuckled. “You know something kid? You remind me of me when I was your age... and I like me. I like me a lot. So that means I like you too! Come on! Walk with me.”

Scootaloo nodded and followed.

Vinyl turned to her and grinned widely. “Tell me kid, how long have you been living on your own?”

Scootaloo froze, she’d been made. “You... you can’t tell! If they find out they’ll take me away! Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell are the only friends I’ve ever had! They’ll take me away from them.”

Vinyl Scratch sat down on the ground in front of the flustered filly, and put her hoof on her shoulder. “Take it easy Scootaloo! I’m not going to tell. I was homeless too when I was your age, I know what it’s like, I never went into foster care, but I know ponies who did. Sometimes you get lucky and get a good family that’ll love you... other times, they’re worse than your original family.”

Scootaloo nodded, that’s exactly what she was afraid of.

“How about you tell me what you were running away from?” Vinyl asked with a smile.

...

Scootaloo hadn’t always been homeless, it was a recent event that she’d run away from home. Away from parents who didn’t love her.

Scootaloo was born to two pegasi that were both about the age of Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo had been an accident, her birth the culmination of bad choices made by zap addicts. When her mother discovered she was pregnant with her, she’d quit her habits, apart from that, and giving her the name of Scootaloo. It was all her mother had ever done for her.

After she was born, Scootaloo became a nuisance to her parents. They viewed her as a bottomless pit, sapping away all their money that they would rather be spending on alcohol or drugs.

In truth, Scootaloo was lucky to have survived as a baby at all. She’d been a heavy crier, and her father had a nasty temper, as she would discover.

By the time Scootaloo was five, abuse was a fact of life. Every day when she came home from school, she hoped and prayed that her father would leave her alone.

A few days, he did. Most however, he did not. It was almost as if he waited by the door to hit her as soon as she came in. Scootaloo was his punching bag to take his frustrations out upon.

She’d gone to the hospital plenty of times. Attributing most of the injuries to sports, of which Scootaloo heavily participated in. Doctors had occasionally wondered if abuse was possible, but Scootaloo insisted that her injuries came from being an overenthusiastic tackler on the football pitch.

She’d hoped that keeping quiet would make her home life easier. It did not; her parents discovered crash and became more aggressive towards her. Her beatings became more frequent, which was really saying something. It became difficult for Scootaloo to hide the injuries from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell.

And then, a month and a half ago, she’d decided that enough was enough. She couldn’t stay at home any longer. She packed a saddlebag full of a bedroll and some food and departed from her home forever.

It was the first night that she’d spent in the CMC clubhouse alone. She didn’t sleep a wink, afraid that her parents would come after her and beat her within a millimetre of her life for running away.

They never came, they were either too strung out on crash to have noticed, or maybe they just didn’t care. Scootaloo intended never to return, and she made steps to insure that she wouldn’t get caught. She couldn’t think of anything worse than being caught and forced to return to her life at home... or worse, being put into foster care with a family that made hers look like saints.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Well, I'd wondered about her home life and I got what I asked for; I have no idea what you intend for the rest of this but it does seem as if the common life experiences of the two principal characters might build into something approaching, if not a family, at least something better than what she's facing now.

[Fallen Knight]

Another interesting one, this time child abuse huh, well hope all of it has a happy ending.

Btw remember your comment about this being bigger then Fallout Equestria.

Chapter wise yes,but word wise no way, Fallout is the biggest thing i know lol, when done it will be bigger then your average book.

[Starcat5]

This would be the second "Scoots is Homeless" story I have ever read. Considering that the FIRST one started with her FREEZING TO DEATH, things aren't looking too bad just yet. Keep on truckin', little prince(ss), keep on truckin'.