A short gasp escaped from the orange foal as she lay on the barren floor of the clubhouse, she noticed the night was getting colder. “I’m gonna freeze to death in here.” Scoot sighed through clenched teeth. Once again she brought herself back to the past recalling every detail. Hoping to find some closure from the incident.

~

9:30a.m.

Cloudsdale Elementary, Principal Ashard’s office.

The mustached stallion glared down at his frequent visitor. “What’d you do this time Scootaloo?”

“Tack on the teachers chair…” Scootaloo decided to skip any formalities or try to play it off.

“When are you going to learn? You can’t keep this up and expect to stay in school.” His cobalt eyes showed compassion as well as discipline.

“I don’t know… I just like making everybody happy, her class is SOOOOO boring it drives me nuts!” Scootaloo was obviously over-exaggerating.

“So you take it upon yourself to cause your teacher pain and stress?”

“I don’t care, she’s mean.” Scootaloo remembered what her teacher had shouted at the class. “She called us little… ‘shits’.”

“Excuse me?” Ashard was now surprised at what he heard spouting from the filly’s mouth.

“She called us ‘little shits’. Isn’t that a bad word?”

“Yes, yes it is…” Ashard tapped his chin contemplating a course of action. “3 days detention for you, as for Ms. Wormapple, I’ll be having a word with her after school. Now back to class.”

Scootaloo smirked, she had gotten off easy today, and to boot got her teacher in some hot water. “Have a good day Mr. Ashard.” With that she galloped out of his office and down the hall to her class. Opening the door slowly she feigned a state of sadness. Glancing up at Mustang she winked which came as a surprise.

“What’s the damage?” He whispered as she sat down.

“3 days of detention, easy stuff. But I got Ms. Wormapple in trouble.” Scootaloo couldn’t help but giggle at her accomplishment causing Ms. Wormapple to glare at Scoot.

“What are you giggling about?”

“Nothing.” Ms. Wormapple’s eyes narrowed at the orange filly, staring her down almost peering into her soul. Giving up she turned away and began lecturing the ponies, which of course didn’t interest Scootaloo. Her ‘accomplishment’ made her confident that she would no longer have to deal with her teacher.

As the school day dragged on Mustang and Scoot joked around making comments about the teachers many lectures. When the bell rang for school to be released the two foals bolted out of the schoolhouse giggling and playing as they always did, up until Mustangs father Bull had shown up reeking of hard apple cider. The large stallion with a drum of a chest and burly muscles to match glared down at his son and Scootaloo.

“Whas thish? Yer lil’ fillyfren’?” His words slurred together making his speech almost incomprehensible. “Ya got nah time fer fillyfren’s Mushtang, ya gossa ge’ home an do stuff.” He swayed from side to side glaring at the now frightened colt. Scootaloo looked over at her cowering friend confused.

“Scoot, go home.” Mustang tried his best to act brave in front of the drunkard and his best friend. “I’ll be alright, just get going quickly.”

“But Mustang, I thought…” Scootaloo tried to debate the issue but was quickly cut off.

“Just go, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Mustang hung his head knowing what to expect when he got home.

“Ok… I’ll see you tomorrow.” Scootaloo turned and began trotting away toward her home. She hadn’t gone far when her ears caught shouting and crying from behind her. Turning her head around she saw the whole event. A large dark grey stallion towering hoof raised. It was obvious what was coming next. Not a second after the shouting was the tiny foal struck by the massive hoof of his father, the blow nearly knocking him out. Tears began streaming down Scootaloo’s face, she knew she had to do something but there was nothing she could do.

“Nopony hurts my friend.” Scootaloo shouted through tears, a number of Pegasus turned to see what all the commotion was. What they saw reflected that of David and Goliath, a small brave creature taking down a massive antagonist. Scootaloo galloped at the unwary stallion, wings flapping she leaped into the air plowing head first into the stallions side. Being hindered of balance from his drunken stupor the slight shift in weight toppled him over. “YOU BIG BULLY!” Scootaloo shouted at the beastly Pegasus as she rapped at his face one hoof after the other.

“Scootaloo NO!” Mustang shouted at her, she hadn’t heard him through her sobbing what came next struck an immense amount of fear into her, Mustang and all the pegasi witnessing the debacle.

Reaching both hooves up the stallion grabbed her mane wrenching her from his face kicking and screaming. The noise only angered him more, making his next decision one out of pure rage. He stood up still grasping the filly. Looking for the hardest surface he could find he hurled the orange filly through the air at a wall hoping to incapacitate and possibly maim the foal.

“C’mere ya little shit!” turning his concentration back at Mustang the stallion began making his way back over to his son.

“NO!”

“What?” It was obvious now that if Bull got a hold of Mustang nothing good would come of it. Two pegasi that had been observing the issue stepped forward in front of the foal.

“Take one step closer to this young stallion and you’ll be living the rest of your days on the ground, capische?” A cyan Pegasus eyed the drunkard angrily.

“Buck you! Ee’s my kid an I’m takin’ ‘im ‘ome”

“Not gonna happen, now back away before I get to beating you into a pulp.” The stranger snorted and pawed at the cloud floor.

“You just be glad Red ain’t here,” the other Pegasus gestured his head over toward Scootaloo, another bystander was now attending her making sure she would be alright.  “if he saw this there wouldn’t be a trace of you left.”

“Ah could take the two a ya on…” Bull was itching to fight something now.

“Go NOW! Leave this colt alone and you can avoid the closest thing to hell that Equestria has seen in a thousand years.” The two Pegasus had stepped forward more and were now face to face with the crazed drunk. A yellow Pegasus was now behind them holding Mustang trying to console him.

“Ya don’t scur me. C’mon Mustang we’re goin’ hum.” Bull began to walk away, but stopped when he noticed hi son wasn’t following. “Git over ‘ere ya little runt!”

Deciding enough had been enough the two pegasi jumped Bull, the following brawl resulted in a beaten and broken Bull and two minorly bruised Pegasus ponies.

~

The yellow Pegasus that had been comforting Mustang earlier was now walking with him and straddling an unconscious Scootaloo on her back. “Where does she live?” The Pegasus inquired.

Mustang had been crying softly the whole way and pointed down the street toward her house. Sniffling he looked up at the kind mare and asked “Is she gonna be alright?”

“She’ll be hurting for a while, nothings broken though so she’ll be fine.” The yellow Pegasus tried her best to reassure the young colt, with little success.

The two approached the entryway to Scoots abode, knocking on the door they patiently awaited an answer. A mere couple seconds later a worried Clear Skies opened the door immediately breaking down in tears. Red approached from behind to witness the commotion. “What the hay is goin’ on over here?” When his eyes caught Scootaloo battered and bruised, his jaw dropped eyes ablaze with anger. “Who the buck did this to Scootaloo? I want names now! Was it you?” Red thrust a hoof toward the small grey Pegasus at the door.

Mustang cowered back in fear. “No sir… It… It was my dad.” His head hung in shame.

“M-may I bring her inside?” The yellow Pegasus inquired.

“Yeah, bring her in here and set her down on the couch.” Red was fuming, ready to kill whoever hurt his one and only Scootaloo.

“I’m so sorry about all this, Mustang tried to make her leave so she wouldn’t get hurt. Apparently it didn’t work out so well. The stallion that did this was also significantly drunk.”

“Well where is the wretched puke? I got half the mind to rip his wings from his back and beat him within an inch of his life.”

“I-Im afraid I don’t know sir… B-but I fear Mustang here will receive a beating far worse than what your daughter received if he goes back to his father.”

“Then he’s staying here until I hunt that mule down.” He looked down at Mustang. “You’re nothing like him are you?”

“N-no, not at all.” Mustang trembled at Red’s presence, yet somehow felt safe and secure for the time being. “Me an Scoot are friends.”

“Tell me what happened than.”

“Well… We were playing around… and my pa showed up… I told… I told Scoot to go home… He hit me and started yelling at me.” He cringed at the thought of being struck by his father again. “Scootaloo saw it happen and she attacked him… I don’t know why… So he threw her at a wall… I’M SO SORRY!” The foal broke down in tears. He couldn’t bare the thought his father had hurt his best friend.

“And then?” Red was thoroughly pissed .

“Well… Fluttershy made sure she’d be alright. A couple stallions came up and beat him up and sent him home.”

“Shouldn’t have let him leave.” Red muttered to himself. “Tomorrow, take me to your house and I’ll sort his sorry flank out.”

“Yes sir… Do you think she’ll be alright?”

“If she ain’t then there’ll be hell to pay.” Red looked over at Clear Skies as she stroked her daughters mane sobbing.

~

Back inside the clubhouse Scootaloo lay shivering. “Maybe I can stay at Apple Bloom’s place tonight…” Scootaloo stood up and wrapped the blankets around her, stepping out into the frigid night she looked around. “I sure hope some pony is awake.”

As she made her way through the snow Scootaloo noticed an unfamiliar numbness in her hooves. Trying to shrug it off she kept forward, cresting a hill over looking the farmhouse. All the lights were out, not a single noise came from inside. “Maybe I should go back.”

As she turned to leave a series of barks erupted behind her. A light from the house flickered on and out stepped Applejack. “Winona what has gotten into ya?” The dog resumed it’s verbal assault on the strange pony up on the hill. Applejack looked up and saw her, through the moonlight she noticed it was Scootaloo. “Scootaloo? What in tarnation are ya doin’ out here? Git over here right now.”

Scoot hesitantly stepped forward, only to slip on a tiny patch of ice that had formed. She rocked forward and tumbled down the hill. When she reached the bottom she looked up to find AJ galloping toward her. “You alright there sugar cube? Come on inside, it’sa freezin’ out here.” She scooped Scootaloo up out of the snow and carried the trembling filly inside.

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