Finding Answers
Scootaloo scampered into her room and dropped the bag onto her bed.
“Okay, let’s find out what’s in here…” she said to herself as she reached for the bag.
“Scootaloo! Time for dinner!” her Aunt Cup’s voice called from downstairs.
Oh no not now! Scootaloo groaned to herself. She eyed the bag and hesitated. Maybe I can just give it a quick look before …
“Scootaloo! Dinner!” Her aunt called out again, sounding a tad bit more demanding then before.
Scootaloo facepalmed and called out towards her aunt. “Coming Aunt Cup!” and with that she quickly stuffed the bag under her bed and darted down the stairs.
////////////////////////
Scootaloo now sat at the dinner table, not really focusing on her food. Her eyes kept darting to the stairs and the possibilities of what exactly the folders inside the bag contained. Her aunt and uncle where discussing…something, but honestly Scootaloo couldn’t care less. Her mind was totally absorbed with what secrets the bag held. She barely noticed her aunt talking to her.
“Scootaloo?” Aunt Cup asked once more, snapping Scootaloo back into the real world.
“Sorry Auntie, what did you say?” she asked, whipping her head around to face Aunt Cup.
“I was asking you if you could pick up the twins from school Friday? You’re uncle and I are going to be in the city running some errands,” Aunt Cup explained.
“Oh. Uh… Sure, I can do that,” Scootaloo nodded still somewhat distracted by what might be in the bag.
“You okay, you seem distracted?” Uncle Carrot asked, looking at her with concern.
Scootaloo thought for a moment. They never mentioned anything about that bag…why should I tell them that I found it?
“I just didn’t get to my homework yet,” she finally said, lying. She felt a little guilty about lying, but pushed the thought out of her mind. After all, it’s my dad’s bag. What’s the worst that could happen?
“Well, okay then,” her uncle replied, “Just finish eating first.”
Scootaloo nodded and set about quickly finishing the last of her meal. “Good night everypony,” she said as she stood up from the table.
“Good night Scootaloo,” her aunt replied as Scootaloo gave her and Uncle Carrot a quick hug and each of the twins a quick peck on the cheek, before rushing up the stairs to her room.
////////////////////////
Once Scootaloo was sure she was alone in her room she quietly closed the door and locked it nice and tight in case anyone tried to walk in without her permission. The lock was mostly there to keep the twins out, mainly because they almost NEVER knocked on the door.
“Okay…” she poured the contents of the bag onto her desk. “Let’s see what’s in here.”
The bags contents consisted of some newspaper clippings and articles that focus almost entirely on her father. She skimmed through the articles for anything that seemed important. Most of the articles went on and on about her father’s research, pertaining mostly to spiders. In one of the pictures in the article, color slightly faded because of time, stood a smiling purple mare next to her father. Scootaloo had no idea who this mare was; since there was no mention of her anywhere else in the article, and the picture was simply labeled “Professor Gene Splice and a colleague”
“Who are you?” she thought aloud, staring at the picture. Deciding to check the other trinkets in the bag, she set the clippings aside and continued to rummage through the bag.
She found a security badge for BlueCorp, she checked the expiration date. It had long ago expired, making it useless. She set the security badge aside and moved on. Next, she picked up a folder, opening it to reveal incredibly detailed color diagrams of several species of spiders.
Alongside the diagrams where labels that showed which species of spider they were. Some names she recognized from school, and others she only had a vague notion as to their identity.
She flipped through the folder, eager to find something besides just spiders. Landing on the last page, Scootaloo’s attention was piqued. On the page was a dark blue and with red highlights. The diagram had no species name; instead, it was simply labeled “Experiment A113”.
Apparently, if Scootaloo was reading the notes surrounding the diagram correctly, the specimen had been put together using the best traits of the various other arachnids in the folder.
“Okay that’s just weird,” she muttered, setting the folder aside and reaching into the bag for whatever else might be inside. Her eyes widened when her hand made contact with the leather interior of the bag. “That’s it?” she thought aloud, as she peered into the bag. No way there’s gotta be more, this can’t be it!
She started to desperately dig around in the bag, desperately hoping that there was still something inside. Her search proved fruitless and she threw the bag against the wall above her desk in frustration. Groaning in frustration, she dropped her head down on the desk. The bag, meanwhile, landed in front of her, its opening facing her. Begrudgingly, she peeked towards the bag, her forehead still on the wooden surface.
“Stupid bag…” she grumbled.
A small glimmer on the front of the bag caught her attention however. “What is that?” she wondered, as she pulled the bag closer for a better look. The glint of light had come from a small clasp hidden behind the name plate on the front of the bag. Curious, Scootaloo opened the hidden compartment and pulled out a small slip of paper, only a few inches long. Scribbled on the paper was a complex equation. The young Pegasus smiled slightly at this hopeful development. Something about the equation was strangely familiar to her, but she couldn’t place where she had seen it before at all. Her eyes drifted from the equation to the photo of her father with the strange purple mare.
“What were two you up to?” she wondered aloud.
The orange mare took a deep breath, a sudden feeling of tiredness washing over her.
Jeez, what time is it? She thought as she glanced at the alarm clock on her dresser. It read 11:30 PM. “Ugh, it’s late…I’ll do some more digging in the morning.” She got up from her desk and flopped into bed, drifting off to sleep.
//////////////////
The next day Scootaloo went to school with a pit in her stomach. Her dreams all night long had been oriented towards the mysterious identity of that mare, but every dream ended with her unable to discover the mysterious mare’s identity.
She knew that the mare was more than just “a colleague”. She could feel it. Something about the mare told Scootaloo that she might have some answers. She pulled the picture out of her pocket. Her basic plan was simple: Go to one of the science teachers, and ask if they knew the mare in the picture. If they did, then Scootaloo would be one step closer to finding out what happened to her father. If they didn’t know…well then Scootaloo had no idea what to do next.
She arrived at home room and sat at her usual seat near the back of the room. She set the picture on the desk and just sat there staring at it. She felt a little better having found the picture, however. It didn’t exactly answer all her questions, but having something that had belonged to her father gave her the feeling that not everything in the world was bad. Also, it was a lead, something to go on. Unfortunately, the universe decided that now was the perfect moment to totally ruin her day.
A dark orange hand shot out of nowhere and snatched the picture off of Scootaloo’s desk. “What is this, an invitation to a nerd convention,” sneered an all too familiar voice. Scootaloo followed the hand and saw that it was attached to Babs, who looked at the picture as though it were poisonous or something. “This is just an old news clipping. Didn’t your aunt and uncle ever tell you where trash goes?” Babs asked as she started walking towards the trash can.
“Give it back!” Scootaloo shouted as she got up to stop Babs. She didn’t even notice Diamond Tiara stick a foot in front of her. She felt the distinct feeling of falling and was greeted by the ground, directly into her face. She looked up just in time to see Babs drop the piece of paper in the trash. Everything seemed to shift into slow motion for just a few seconds before a gray hand unexpectedly caught the picture before it hit the rest of the garbage.
Everyone turned in unison and looked at Dinky, who was holding the picture close to her chest. The look of shook on Babs’ face subsided quickly, replaced by rage at the tiny unicorn’s interruption. Just as Babs was about to lay into the smaller mare, the teacher walked in and blinked at the scene before her, before slowly shaking her head in frustration.
“All of you to your seats now,” the teacher ordered, obviously trying to keep her anger in check.
Dinky seized the chance to dart past Babs and made her way to Scootaloo, helping her off the ground. “Here you go,” Dinky said offering the picture to Scootaloo.
“Um… Thank you,” Scootaloo said, accepting the picture. She felt a little awkward, having twice now been saved from Babs by somebody else. She wondered if she was being nice enough, having not exactly been kind to Featherweight when he had offered his help.
Scootaloo trotted back to her desk and sat down. Her eyebrows rose when she saw Dinky take the seat next to her. “I didn’t know we had the same homeroom,” She said, keeping her voice low as not to attract the attention of the teacher.
“Well, I usually try to stay inconspicuous, because well,” Dinky trailed off, her eyes wandering to the far side of the room. Scootaloo followed her gaze. Babs was staring at the pair from a seat near the door, glaring at them as if she had heat vision or something.
“I know how you feel.” Scootaloo nodded. “She’s been tormenting me since fifth grade.”
“Why do you put up with her? Couldn’t you have just gone for help?” Dinky asked turning to look at Scootaloo.
“Well sure I could, but that wouldn’t stop Babs, it’d just make her want to get back at me,” Scootaloo said bitterly. She set the picture back on her desk, letting that soothing feeling from before wash over her again.
Dinky leaned over to get a better look at the photo. “Who’s the stallion? I’ve never seen him with Dr. Cheerilee before.”
“Huh? Oh, that’s my dad Gene Splice,” Scootaloo replied. Her brain took a moment to register what Dinky had said. “Wait, you know who this is?” she asked eagerly, picking the picture up and nearly shoving it Dinky’s face.
Dinky flinched at the sudden burst of movement. “Y-Yeah,” she stuttered. “I’m an intern at the company she works at. BlueCorp,” Dinky said, eyebrow slightly raised. “I’m actually her assistant.”
Scootaloo stared at Dinky in disbelief. She could swear an angelic choir was now singing Dinky’s praises for giving Scootaloo a solution to her problem.
“Can I meet her?” Scootaloo asked her voice thick with excitement.
Dinky blinked. “What do you mean meet her? She’s almost always too busy. She only ever really meets with strangers when she’s interviewing new interns,” she shrugged.
“Oh…” Scootaloo calmed down and sat in thought for a moment. “Is she looking for any new interns now? I really need to meet her,” Scootaloo said, turning towards Dinky with a hopeful look in her eyes.
“I-I don’t know. She’s not really supposed to talk to me about that sort of thing,” Dinky said, shrugging slightly.
Scootaloo’s face fell. “Okay then…I tried…” she muttered aloud.
There was an awkward pause between the two before Dinky spoke up, “But I think there’s going to be a tour for anyone who’s thinking of interning,”
Scootaloo instantly cheered up. “Seriously?!” she nearly shouted, nearly forgetting she was in homeroom. “When?” she whispered, lowering her voice.
“Today, actually. After school,” Dinky said a funny look on her face. “It’d be kind of short notice, but I think I can get you in. Meet me after school at the front entrance,” The bell then rung, announcing the beginning of the school day.
Before Scootaloo got the chance to reply Dinky had gotten up and left, making her way towards her respective classes.
Scootaloo smiled brightly, her day restored. She picked up the photo and gave it one last look. “Soon…” she whispered, looking directly at the purple mare.
The rest of the day was pretty hectic, as usual. Scootaloo took the long way to most of her classes in an attempt to avoid Babs and her cronies, whom she was sure was on the hunt for her. The day might have started rough at first, but now things were looking up. She finally had a name for the mare in the picture, and, not only that, but a chance to actually meet the mysterious Dr. Cheerilee. I might finally get some answers! she giggled to herself. She was so excited she couldn’t even pay attention in English.
The teacher rambled on and on about pronouns and sentence structure, but Scootaloo couldn’t care less. She was still too excited over all this new information she had.
“You look happy,” a voice whispered from behind her, causing her to jump. Scootaloo turned around to be greeted by the big brown eyes of Featherweight. “What’s got you in such a good mood?” he asked, smiling at her.
Scootaloo paused. A part of her wanted to thank him for yesterday and standing up for her, but the other part was wary. She barely knew him after all. “Oh just gonna be spending some mare time with Dinky after school,” she replied, turning back to the book she was supposed to be reading, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.
“Oh? You two got pretty close,” he commented, curiosity in his voice.
“We have a lot in common,” Scootaloo replied, hoping that would end the sudden out of the blue interrogation.
“Like what?” Featherweight asked smirking.
Scootaloo froze for a second. What did she have in common with Dinky?
“We’ve both been bullied by Babs, I guess” she finally answered. “By the way, how did you get her to back down yesterday?” she asked, deciding to change the subject.
“Oh, I’m her tutor. She isn’t exactly proud of the fact that she needs somepony else’s help understanding math she should’ve learned last year,” he said, looking back to his own work. “You know I still feel like I should take you out to eat. Dinky seemed to enjoyed my company. If you two have so much in common, maybe you will too,” he pressed, smiling warmly.
Scootaloo thought about for a second. Why was this colt suddenly so interested in her? Was he some kind of creepy weirdo stalker? “Maybe some other time,” she said rather flatly. She glanced back over her shoulder to see him looking a little disappointed. “Sorry but I’m pretty booked this week. I’ll definitely take a rain check though,” Scootaloo said, hoping he’d stop pouting.
He smiled at her. “I’ll be holding you to that.”
//////////////////
Scootaloo waited out by the front entrance of the school after the last class. She’d been fortunate enough to avoid Babs all day. Along with that, the sun was out and the sky was clear. Things were starting to look up.
Scootaloo tapped her foot impatiently, hoping that Dinky didn’t forget or get into any kind of trouble. Her fears were calmed once she caught sight of the grey mare sprinting out of the school. Scootaloo waved her over and Dinky trotted up, smiling.
“You ready?” Scootaloo asked, secretly wondering if what she had asked of Dinky might get Dinky into some sort of trouble.
“Yeah.” Dinky nodded. “We’ll need to take the train into the city. Its going to take a while though, BlueCorp tower is across town after all. I hope you didn’t have anything else planned.”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Good, then let’s get going. The tour starts in about an hour and Cheerilee is only going to be there for the beginning before she has to get back to work.”
//////////////////
The two mares didn’t talk much on the way downtown, instead spending most of their time looking out the window as the city whizzed by. Every so often either Scootaloo or Dinky would point out any particular buildings of note, but for the most part, the trip was quiet.
The silence was broken however when the bell rung and the conductor’s voice came over the PA system. “BlueCorp Tower ahead.”
“Oh here’s our stop.” Dinky said, getting up and beckoning for Scootaloo to follow. They got off the train and walked towards a tall building that Scootaloo guessed was at least sixty stories. “This is it,” Dinky said, “BlueCorp tower.”
Saying the tower was tall was an understatement. It climbed higher then Scootaloo could see its top seemingly miles away.
Scootaloo whistled. “You work here?” she asked Dinky, her voice filled with wonder as she took in the full scope of the massive building.
“Yup,” Dinky replied, a hint of pride in her voice. “This building is the center of some of the most advanced scientific and medical research around” Dinky continued as they passed through the front doors.
“Really? What does Dr. Cheerilee do here?” Scootaloo asked curiously as her eyes roamed the inside of the building. It was full of ponies walking around each other to get to unknown destinations. From the ceiling hung half a dozen screens. Each one was transparent and seemed to be advertising some new gadget or gizmo that the company was producing.
“Oh you probably couldn’t see it in your picture, but she lost an arm in an accident a long time ago, and she’s…” Dinky’s voice faded as Scootaloo’s attention was diverted towards a large screen displaying what looked like a flying skateboard. “Scootaloo! Over here!” Dinky’s voice suddenly snapped Scootaloo back into reality.
“Wha? Oh, sorry Dinky got distracted.” Scootaloo replied, galloping up along side Dinky.
“That’s okay…just stay close, it’s easy to get lost in here.” Dinky said, as they walked towards the receptionist’s desk.
“I’m sorry, but the dead line was yesterday. We aren’t accepting any more applicants,” the receptionist said as the two fillies walked up.
“Hi Keypad.” Dinky said, seemingly unfazed. “And I know, but I wouldn’t be asking if it weren’t absolutely important,” she continued. “My friend here is a huge fan of Dr. Cheerilee.” She motioned towards Scootaloo, who stood the side. “All she wants is the chance to meet her idol. It would crush her to have come this far just to be sent home empty handed,” Dinky shifted into puppy dog eyes and stared at the receptionist.
The receptionist sized up Scootaloo for a moment, as Scootaloo attempted to look as pitiful as possible. Dinky continued her assault of puppy dog eyes as well. The receptionist let out a bedraggled sigh.
“Name?” she asked.
“Scootaloo,” Dinky said, smiling broadly. Scootaloo felt a surge of excitement go through her. She almost leapt and shouted for joy before a quick nudge from Dinky brought her back down to reality.
“Thank you so much,” Scootaloo said to the mare behind the desk, a grin spread across her face.
“Just stay out of trouble kid,” the mare grumbled in response.
Scootaloo felt like making a witty retort, but was pulled towards an escalator by Dinky.
“Come on Scootaloo tours this way,” Dinky said as they jumped on the moving stairs.
They stepped aboard the escalator which was headed towards the next floor up.
“Dinky you were saying about Dr. Cheerilee?” Scootaloo asked, returning to the subject they were on.
“Oh yeah, where was I?” Dinky asked.
“She lost an arm in an accident.” Scootaloo said.
Dinky nodded. “Right, so since she lost her leg, she does research in ways to help amputees.”
Scootaloo nodded. “That sounds pretty cool.”
Dinky smiled. “Yeah it is. Well, here we are.” They stepped off the escalator and made their way to large group of ponies, most of them were around their age, but there were a few older ones.
“I’m going to have to leave you here Scootaloo. I have to lead the tour,” Dinky said. “You going to be fine?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Scootaloo nodded, reassuring her. Dinky smiled and nodded and started towards the group. “Oh, and Dinky,” Scootaloo called out before Dinky got too far away. “Thank you. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”
“No problem. What are friends for?” Dinky asked rhetorically as she walked to the front of the group.
“Friends,” Scootaloo repeated, Dinky’s answer ringing in her ears. A smile played on Scootaloo’s lips. Meanwhile, Dinky started giving an opening speech to the crowd of ponies that probably had everyone else riveted about what they would be shown today, whether they got the internship or not. Scootaloo’s mind was elsewhere though, more concerned with what Dr. Cheerilee might know about her father.
“Now if you’ll all follow me we can begin the tour in the genetics lab,” Dinky instructed, leading the group down the hall. Scootaloo took the sight of everyone else moving as a sign that the tour had begun. She scampered up behind the crowd, keeping an eye out for Dr. Cheerilee.
“In this department brilliant minds work every day trying to find cures for many ailments that have hindered pony kind for generations.” Dinky continued, obviously having rehearsed this speech many times before. Scootaloo scanned the labs surrounding them. Various ponies dressed in white lab coats scampered about, some gazing into microscopes and others helping move various vials filled with liquids around the labs. “Some such as Dr. Cheerilee have even been working on a way to re grow lost limbs,” That caught Scootaloo’s attention.
She caught sight of a purple mare walking out of an office to the left. “Speak of the devil and she shall appear,” the mare spoke in a bright voice. It was Cheerilee. The first thing Scootaloo noticed about the older mare was her missing left arm. It seemed the others in the group had noticed as well. Some of the students looked at it blatantly, whispering amongst themselves. Others tried their best to avoid looking at Cheerilee altogether, looking away awkwardly at random things.
“For those of you wondering, I am Dr. Cheerilee,” the mare introduced herself. “And yes I am right handed,” she said gesturing at the missing limb with the hand she still had. “Because of this, I’ve been trying to find a way to bring back lost limbs. With that information, a soldier who lost a leg in battle could live normally. A mare, paralyzed by a car crash could walk again.” Scootaloo noticed that Cheerilee was swiftly becoming emotional at her own words. “And,” she visibly straightened out and regained her composer. “It is my belief that the key to this cure lies in the DNA of lizards,” Cheerilee informed the group, most of whom had set about taking notes. Scootaloo, however thought back to the notes on the spiders in her dad’s bag.
“But what does that have to do with dad’s spiders?” she said softly, slightly confused.
A young colt suddenly appeared and whispered into Cheerilee’s ear. Cheerilee paused and listened closely to whatever the colt was saying. She then nodded and the colt walked off. She turned back towards the group. “Well as much as I’d love to explain further, duty calls. I must return to my office. I’ll leave you with my assistant Dinky,” Cheerilee said as she turned to leave, returning to her office.
Dinky began to explain what the next department did, leading the group in that direction. Scootaloo meanwhile, decided to use this chance to sneak away and talk to Cheerilee, her curiosity piqued. She walked up to the door the older mare had gone through and poked her head in.
Cheerilee, who had been looking at a file on her desk, looked at the door to see Scootaloo. “Can I help you?” she asked, eyebrow raised, looking a little miffed at being interrupted.
Scootaloo bit her lip and rubbed the back of her neck. “I… I came with the tour group…” she began, but was cut off.
“Well you’d better catch up to them,” Cheerilee said, pointing in the direction Dinky had gone and turning back to her work, muttering something under her breath.
Scootaloo’s shoulders sank and started towards the door, before stopping. Was she just going to give up when she was so close to finding a solution? No. She decided to take a chance. She turned back towards Cheerilee, taking a deep breath. “Ten years ago, you worked with a stallion named Gene Splice,” she began.
Cheerilee’s head shot up at the mention of her old colleague, her previous miffed expression changing into one of curiosity. “Yes…what of it?”
Scootaloo once more rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly feeling very awkward. “I’m his daughter.”
“Scootaloo?” Cheerilee asked looking at the younger mare with more interest. “By Celestia. It is you.” She sat up, seemingly very interested for some reason. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.
“Um, yeah…how’d you know?” Scootaloo asked.
“Your father never stopped showing off pictures of you,” Cheerilee replied, beckoning towards Scootaloo. “Please come in,” she continued, realizing Scootaloo hadn’t fully entered the room yet.
Scootaloo smiled and darted in, closing the door behind her. “I’m really sorry to bother you, but I was wondering what you knew about my father?” Scootaloo inquired, sitting on the opposite side of the desk from the purple mare.
Cheerilee leaned back, a smile on her face. “Your father was a very eccentric stallion. He was constantly questioning the boundaries that previous generations of researchers had laid down. He was actually helping me with my research in Cross species genetics before he died.” She paused, seemingly running through the memories in her mind. “His area of expertise was with spiders, he mixed and matched various different species until he was able to breed something new.” A big smile spread across Cheerilee’s face, as if the very memory of their work made her excited. “It was a huge breakthrough and would have secured any future projects we wanted to explore.” The smile on her face unexpectedly faded. There was a long pause.
“And then what happened?” Scootaloo asked.
Cheerilee sighed. “Fate decided to step in. Almost as though telling us we weren’t meant to discover what we did,” Cheerilee looked past Scootaloo, a sad, distant look in her eyes. “He was gone, taking all of his research with him.” She looked down at her desk. “Along the algorithm I would need to continue our experiments,” she concluded.
Scootaloo’s eyes widened. She grabbed a blank piece of paper and a pen from the scientist’s desk and started scribbling out the equation she had found in the hidden compartment on the bag. Cheerilee raised an eyebrow at the young mare’s urgency. “Do you mean this?” Scootaloo asked sliding the finished product across the desk. Cheerilee pulled the paper closer and began looking it over, her eyes slowly widening.
“Where did you get this?” she asked, her voice filled with wonder.
“I read some of your books. It just sort of came to me,” Scootaloo said, mentally wincing at the lie. Not that she didn’t trust Cheerilee, but she didn’t want to risk revealing too much. Just in case.
“Remarkable. Simply remarkable,” Cheerilee whispered, staring at the equation as if it were written in pure gold. “Do you mind if I take this?” Cheerilee asked. “I won’t use it without your permission, but I’d like to go over it. See if there are any flaws before it’s put to use,” Cheerilee said, her voice sounding urgent. Scootaloo paused and looked the mare in the eye, searching for some sign that she might be untrustworthy. The mare’s eyes seemed pleading and desperate, as if her life were on the line.
“Um…sure,” Scootaloo answered.
“Thank you so much!” Cheerilee said, reaching out her hoof as if she wanted to shake Scootaloo’s hoof. “And if you’d like, you can come by sometime and help me test it,” she offered.
“That’d be awesome,” Scootaloo beamed, shaking Cheerilee’s hoof adamantly.
“Alright then. Just leave me your number and I’ll let you know when I’m ready. In the mean time you should probably catch up with the rest of the tour.” Cheerilee said, motioning towards the door.
“Yeah, okay,” Scootaloo said excitedly, jotting down her cell phone number on the piece of paper with the equation. “It was great to meet you,” She said as she walked over to the door.
“Likewise,” Cheerilee said as the Pegasus left.
//////////////////
Scootaloo was having trouble containing herself, she was so ecstatic. She finally had a connection that could help her find out what happened to her parents. Sure she still needed to find all the information, but at least she was heading in the right direction.
She suddenly bumped into a random stallion, which was carrying several files. “Hey watch it!” he shouted as the files spilled across the floor.
“Oops. Sorry,” Scootaloo said sheepishly as she tried to help him pick up the scattered papers. She glanced down at the files and froze. On one of them was a name. Gene Splice. Before she had a chance to properly inquire as to why her father’s name was on this seemingly random file, the stallion snatched it away from her and stuffed it back into the folder.
“Bug off kid.” The stallion grumbled, turning away and trotting off down a random hall. Scootaloo instantly started after him. Whatever reason that file had her father’s name on it, it could hold some answers.
Scootaloo followed the stallion through the facility, dodging and weaving through the various other scientists, making sure to stay out of the stallion’s sight. The mystery stallion suddenly stopped in front of a door. Before Scootaloo could react the door opened from the other side, revealing several ponies in lab coats that walked out. Scootaloo dodged behind a corner. She heard them greet the mysterious stallion, who chatted with them for a moment before they all started down the hall. Scootaloo darted around the corner.
She quietly slipped across the hallway and into the room, narrowly missing getting squished between the door and the door jam. She held the door open long enough to slip a coin into the space between the door and the door jam, so that it wouldn’t lock her in. She then turned to investigate the room.
“Sweet Celestia,” Scootaloo said quietly. The room was full of complex machines all working busily as Scootaloo wandered through the room. Each one seemed to be packing large amounts of thin, clear fibers into tiny pellets. The pellets were being placed in small containers, which were in turn packed into large crates by the dozens. Scootaloo picked up one of the containers that was about to be packed. Each one looked to hold about twenty pellets.
“I wonder what this stuff is?” she asked herself as she trotted over to a door on the far side of the room. She tinkered with the knob.
“Maybe it’s a closet…” she muttered, when the door unexpectedly opened and Scootaloo fell forward, her eyes widening at the sight before her. Inside was one of the largest and most complex spider webs Scootaloo had ever seen. Possibly the largest in the world. Standing up and taking a closer look at the walls of the room, she could see that the web was being maintained by hundreds, if not thousands, of spiders. And these weren’t your ordinary, every day spiders. They were a very familiar shade of blue and red. They were the spiders from the files Scootaloo had found the night before.
Being in this room almost brought tears to Scootaloo’s eyes. Being so close to what just might be her father’s magnum opus. It was positively poetic.
However, that’s when the universe saw fit to once more to try and ruin her life. Unbeknownst to Scootaloo, a particularly large spider silently clambered down its silk line and ever so gently, landed on the pegasus’ neck.
Scootaloo felt a tickling sensation on her neck before it suddenly erupted into a searing pain. “OW!” Scootaloo shouted swiping a hoof at the back of her neck. She looked at her hand to see the crushed remains of one of the spiders. “Oh no…” she whispered, quickly beginning to panic. Were the spiders poisonous? She didn’t remember seeing anything about venom in her father’s notes, but they were genetically altered. The mental image of her suddenly sprouting four extra legs flashed through her mind.
Scootaloo started towards the doorway and stumbled out of the room, grabbing the coin out from the door jam, slamming the door behind her, and bolted down the halls.
//////////////////
Dinky was growing worried. She scanned the halls, searching for Scootaloo. It had been almost an hour since she had last seen her. Dinky was sure her friend would have rejoined the group by now.
“Where are you?” she muttered under her breath, before continuing to address the departing group of students. “Well that’s all we have for today. I encourage all of you to consider a career here, in order to help our society better itself,” she said, trying to sound as happy and upbeat as she could. She continued to scan the crowd, hoping that Scootaloo would appear. Her prayers were answered when Scootaloo reappeared at the back of the group, acting as if she had been there the whole time. The group dispersed, everyone talking excitedly as they made their way to the exit.
Dinky trotted up to Scootaloo, instantly noticing the pegasus’ oddly worried expression. “Are you okay? Did you get to talk to Cheerilee?”
“What?” Scootaloo said, jumping at Dinky’s appearance. “Um yeah, yeah, it went great. She actually wants to meet again soon,” Scootaloo replied, her voice sounding strangely panicked.
“That’s great,” Dinky smiled, but noticed that Scootaloo had a funny look on her face. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked. Scootaloo nodded rapidly. “Come on we better hurry or we’ll miss our train.” She said, heading towards the exit. Dinky shrugged and followed after her.
//////////////////
Scootaloo kept rubbing her neck during the entire train ride. Dinky couldn’t help but notice. “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem nervous,” she asked, eyebrow raised.
Scootaloo gave her a funny look. “Oh, I’m just a little jittery is all,” Scootaloo replied absent mindedly, turning to look out the window as the city flew by.
Dinky decided not to pursue the question any further and joined Scootaloo in watching the city fly by the windows of the train. Neither them noticed the looks a group of shady looking older stallions were giving them from the other end of the car. One of them whispered to another. The one who been whispering then stood up and walked over to the pair of mares smiling. “You ladies lost?” he asked, flashing them a big grin. “I could show you around if you want.”
Scootaloo jumped at the intrusion. “Uh…no thanks. We’re almost home,” she replied, turning away again to look out the window, hoping weird stallion would go away.
The stallion persisted. “Oh don’t be that way. I just wanna show ya a good time, that’s all…” he said, making to put his hand on Scootaloo’s shoulder.
Before anyone could react Scootaloo grabbed the hand and shoved it away, causing the stallion to land on his back. The stallion’s friends all looked at him in shock. They then looked towards Scootaloo, joined by Dinky.
“How did you do that?” Dinky asked, utterly shocked.
Scootaloo simply stuttered, not quite sure what happened either, when the stallion jumped back up and ran at her. “You are gonna pay for that bitch!” he snarled. He lunged towards Scootaloo.
Suddenly, everything shifted into slow motion for Scootaloo. She deftly hopped out of her seat and landed on the other side of the stallion. The train car grew deathly quiet as everyone looked at Scootaloo, mouths agape in shock.
“Well don’t just stand there catch her!” the stallion barked towards his friends. One of them moved behind the Pegasus, and tried to tackle her like a football linebacker. Scootaloo flipped herself forward, the larger stallion still holding her arms down. In mid flip she saw another one moving at her and kicked her legs out, catching him in the chest and knocking him into two more of the gang. She wound up landing on top of the one who grabbed her the first time, knocking the wind out of him, causing his grip to go slack and let go.
Scootaloo jumped to her hooves and looked the first stallion in the eyes. He looked at his buddies fearfully. The train slowed and stopped at a station and the doors slid open. The colts all shot each other panicked glances and scurried out of the car.
Scootaloo simply watched them leave, completely baffled as to what had just happened. One minute she was sitting in the chair, the next, she had somehow fought off three colts twice her size.
“What just happened?” Dinky asked an expression of complete and utter bewilderment on her face.
Scootaloo simply shook her head, her expression mirroring Dinky. “I have no bucking clue.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
1,081 users online
1,883,836 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Wow. 6,000 words. That was exhausting.
2297349 Right
2297164 The joke there is that in the comics Peter Parker actually got cloned at one point.
Are you going to make any changes to the movie plot at all?
2302704 Yes. We'll be doing something more original next chapter
Sorry I've been silent for the so many days. But anyways, really like how you choose Cherilee to be Doctor Connors, I thought that was clever, though she doesn't sound like Cherilee to be honest. I don't know, I could be just nitpicking or being unsensible. Whatever the case I thought it was an excellent choice.
Anyways there are just a few issues I have with your writing here that I want to bring up.
Scootaloo followed the hoof and saw that it was attached to Bab Attached is not a very good word choice as it makes it sound it can be detached as well. I know your trying to create a very slow paced action here, but attached just isn't a good word here.
before a gray hoof unexpectedly caught the picture Ah! A '-ly' word! A '-ly' word in a fast paced sentence, ah!
The look of shook on Babs’ face subsided quickly Typo! I feel smarter now. Yes, pointing out typos is a big thing for me.
the teacher walked in and blinked at the scene before her, before slowly shaking her head in frustration. Use before twice, how repetitive I know they have separate meanings, but it's no excuse, it's still being repetitive.
Again hope this helps in any way.
im getting tired of you switching from hand to hoof and back again
oh shock this
Dam that venom works fast
4567483
I agree
Thank us for reading?!?
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS SO BUCKING AWESOME SO FAR!!!
I have to ask though, why make Cheerilee the villain?
5482918
4567483
I second that.