‘FOOM!’

Scootaloo jumped up in her bed, startled by the sudden noise that had awoken her from the only safe place she knew – the land of sleep.

Looking out of her window, she watched as the rainbow arced through the sky with surprising grace, considering what it was made of; the mangled bodies of her friends. Her stomach churned almost audibly and she clamped the two halves of her jaw down out of habit, forcing anything coming up to stay in her mouth. With the agility of a Wonderbolt she sped into the bathroom and vomited into the toilet.

In the opposite room, Dash was hearing everything. Stretching, she picked herself up from her comfortable position and flew, body sagging, to the bathroom, where Scootaloo sat shivering. It was cold and damp, but the pair of them ignored the temperature as they went up to the kitchen to find some medicine.

“Silly filly,” Rainbow yawned as she poured some Coco Ponies into a bowl. “You need to keep hold of yourself, squirt, or you’ll find a fate worse than rainbows. They put the ill pegasi into an interrogation room, to find out where they got the illness from. In case you’ve been outside, see.”

“Yeah, I see.”

Scootaloo could still taste the rancid bile in her mouth as she gulped down glass after glass of milk. It just wasn’t going away.

“Why are you feeling ill anyway?”

Thinking, Scootaloo frowned.

“I think it’s the rainbows. Every time I think about it, I just wanna go hide away from everything. From the stupid people I call my relatives and ancestors. Those stuck up Cloudsdalians waking up beneath us right now.”

“I know the feeling.”

As Rainbow got her morning shot of Espresso ready, Scootaloo decided to take a proper look around the house. It was all blue and white, needless to say, and didn’t contain exactly the finest in furniture design, but it was nice enough and much nicer than anything Scoots had ever lived in before. Wandering into the front room, she gasped.

Every reachable surface (of which there was many) was covered in Wonderbolt merchandise and posters. The walls were adorned with Spitfire’s face many times over. Soarin’ stood tall on every mug. There were flags and streamers and balloons. There were plushies and working models and limited edition group photos. There were even photoshopped pictures of Dash flying alongside her heroes. And do you know what?

It was really, really sad.

“Stupid, aren’t I?”

Scootaloo felt a hoof press lightly on her head, which she pulled down and hugged.

“No. You’ve just got yourself stuck in a bad place. That’s all.”

“Scoots, I’ve got your scooter out here if you want to use it.”

“Blue Devil!”

A blur of orange streaked out of the doorway to reunite itself with the blue and red scooter outside, shouting a constant undecipherable stream of ‘OMYGOSHTHANKYOU!’s and ‘ILOVEYOUDASH!’s. Dash’s cyan hoof shut the door as she smiled to herself.
***
Scootaloo had an awful, nerve-racking morning. Firstly Dash sent her out on some errands around the top floor. Mainly sending messages in a funny code the workers used. She shot around at top speed on her scooter to her first destination; the spectra colour sorting room. There were a lot of dull stallions working together to split apart the differently coloured strands of spectra. One stallion, a pony known as Midnight Loom, came forward to receive his message. His hooves were covered in yellow and blue.

“That’s for me – hand over.”

Sure enough it was indeed for him, and Scootaloo ‘handed it over’ with no reluctance.

“Runt,” he grunted as he moved back to his seat, causing a couple of workers to chuckle cruelly. “Go on then, runt; shove off, before I MAKE YA, you worthless piece of rainbow-to-be.”

The room exploded with laughter and the sound of hoofbumps. Sniffing quietly, Scootaloo pushed off with her hind leg and rushed down the corridor, checking where she was going next. To her terror, it was the machine room. Thank goodness she was wearing her uniform. Otherwise one of the workers might turn her into rainbows, mistaking her for one of the foals condemned. The snide voice of Cold Stone came from round the corner, along with the sound of many ponies travelling at once. Slowing, she snuck a peek at the area where the voice was coming from. In a large group stood many colourful foals, listening as Cold Stone spoke about spectra. Then they went into the room; the room where they would die.

For a little while Scootaloo stood, frozen in horror as screams and whinnies filled her ears. But she gradually moved towards the door. A red pony stepped out, dripping wet. How could he possibly get wet, in a room with no water? Then it became apparent. He wasn’t red. He was green. And he was dripping with blood.

One of his colleagues came out from the room behind and handed the sodden stallion a towel. She was a pretty pink colour, not at all the type to work in such a place, but her eyes were filled with malice.

“Stupid foals,” she seethed as her friend dried off. “They’re foolish little children who can’t understand the basic principles of life. Yes, that is a knife dear. Yes, they are about to kill you.”

Frowning, the mare wandered down the corridor. The green stallion saw Scootaloo and smiled.
“Hello darling. Is there a message for me in there? I’m Organic Leaf.”

Stuttering slightly, Scootaloo pulled out a heavily scented letter in a shade of green. She held it out for him to take, which he did, and he read it straightaway. His expression softened with every word. It must have been a love letter from his girlfriend or something.
“You’re a good filly,” he said, bringing Scoots closer and ruffling her mane. “You understand what it means to be a Pegasus. That’s why you work here. I hope you send me another letter soon, darling.”

A loud ‘FOOM’ sang out as another rainbow burst from the side of the factory. There were so many it was actually nauseating to think about it. As the orange foal sped away from the stallion she remembered just how close she had come to actually being one herself.

***
Lunch was a loud and unhappy affair. As Dash was out in the world playing with her friends as she did most days, Scootaloo was forced to eat in the canteen. No table would take her; the stallions kicked her and the mares made snide remarks. So she was shunted perpetually around the room until she found herself on the floor. Crawling, she found a corner, and ate there. The shouts of the angry caterers and the flirting workers were deafening. The food was terrible. Usually it was better, Organic Leaf had told her in passing, but today just happened to be the day no new food came in.

The intermittent blasts of the rainbow cannons had slowed to a near halt. It was no surprise as nearly everyone was too busy eating to be bothered working them. Yet one would go off occasionally, making everyone jump and swear loudly. That was the only thing Scootaloo delighted in. She learned a lot of new words that day.

After poking at her food for an hour she decided to get up and about. Leaving her tray in the middle of the floor for workers to stand on, she trotted to Blue Devil and mounted her scooter. Checking her errand list, she found one errand that she most definitely would enjoy…

Heading downwards to the lower levels, Scoots smiled to herself for the first time all day. Her mouth found it hard to take on this unfamiliar shape after hours of indifferent frowning. However she smiled as hard as she could and chuckled as the left the lift to see a blushing mare and stallion enter. There was an evident kiss mark on the stallion’s cheek, in a shade of crimson that could only come from that mare’s lipstick.

One short ride, and then Scoots was there.

The skate park. Her home from home.

Her note from Dash told her to give yet another message out, but also to enjoy herself and spend some time using that scooter of hers. So she gave the letter to the intended recipient and enjoyed herself.

There were three smaller ramps of varying sizes. They stood in a row, grinding bars separating them from one another. Two medium ramps lived behind. These were brightly painted in a sort of Pinkie Pie style colour mix. Only four ponies dared to use them. Scootaloo only had eyes for the biggest ramp of them all. She flipped upwards and back-flipped and grinded and flew. The whole room stood and watched as she owned the stage for the second time in her life. She loved it more than anything. Her smile grew until it could become no wider.

As she landed neatly on the floor after performing the latest Wonderbolt trick, with the scooter added into it, a huge round of applause went up. So many ponies had been watching! It felt like she’d been made to do this all her life. Her whole body blazed with heat for a moment, and pride surged through her, making her feel like she was flying through the sun itself and somehow living.

“Hey, look at her flank!”

Sadly Scootaloo looked at her back. Trust somepony to mention her blank flank. But to her surprise an amazing picture of a scooter, helmet and star adorned her sides. She grinned as people came up to admire her talent. Never in a million years would she have thought that her scooter would be what made her special. Yet now it all seemed rather obvious.

“Silly me,” she muttered.

***
“Dash!”

The door slammed.

“DASH!”

A cyan head poked round the door, looking at the excited filly.

“Hey squirt. What’s up?”

“Look, I got my cutie mark, LOOK LOOK LOOK!”

Dash admired Scootaloo’s new cutie mark. It was just as cool as she hoped it’d be.

“I knew that you’d get it, buster,” she said, smiling. “Why do you think I told you to stay and have fun?”

Scootaloo sat at her chair in the kitchen and rolled off the events of the day. When she spoke about the stallions in the spectra colour sorting room, Dash swore and muttered about beating somepony with a hammer. It seemed that she knew Organic Leaf, for she commented on his good nature and kind heart.

“He’s the nicest pony around here. I mean, he’s totally mental, bloodthirsty even, but very, very nice.”

This made them both chuckle.

When the subject of lunch came around, Dash shuddered and held her hoof to Scoot’s muzzle.

“Don’t talk about lunch. I had an awful one today. I went out to a restaurant with Rarity, and she talked about fashion for so long I fell asleep in my coffee! It wasn’t nice coffee, but still, what a waste of energy drink. And AJ laughed at me for it too. If there’s anypony I hate getting laughed at by, it’s AJ. Twilight found it funny in a different way. I think she found it hilarious that Rarity didn’t notice I was asleep for about an hour.”

Scootaloo’s face fell. She wished she could see her friends, and feel the wind on her face. It was claustrophobic in the factory corridors and rooms. It was like you were getting compressed by an invisible force.

“Come on, I’m shattered,” Dash yawned widely. “And if I’m shattered, you must be half asleep Scoots. To bed with you!”

That night sleep fell on the foal a little easier, as she revelled in the coolness of her new cutie mark. It comforted her to know that her friends might be feeling the same.

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