he nighttime quiet broke. “Wake up!”
I rolled away from the whispered voice, trying to ignore it – and the poke that followed it – and get back to sleep.
“Come on, Thcootaloo, get up!”
I groaned and flopped my pillow over my head. It was much too early to be getting up, especially after being kept up all night by River's incessant snoring.
“Thcootaloo! Until the Headmathter fixeth everything, we thtill have to get River'th thtuff ready.”
I sighed and tossed the pillow off of my head. Night Whisper was right, of course, even if she was living up to her name annoyingly well. Soon, River wouldn't be a problem anymore, but for now, it would be best not to make a scene. “Okay. I'm up.” With a moan, I rolled over and flopped out of the bunk. “Let's get this over with.”
“Hmph. Well, the hoofwriting on my paper is sloppy, and if you ever make a big ink splash on it like that again, you'll wish you never came here!”
I just shook my head at River's tirade. I already wished I had never come here. Soon, though, I knew this would all be over.
“And the sash on my favorite sundress has a wrinkle right through the middle of it!”
Whisper and me shared a look and a tiny invisible smile.
“But you know what? It doesn't matter.”
That focused my attention back on River in a hurry. How could these little faults possibly be unimportant to her?
“Because, you see, she is improving.” She turned to look at Whisper. “See, I told you, Worm. Even a chicken can be trained if you put enough work into it.”
My lips curled into an ugly snarl. “Don't get used to it, River! That's the last thing I'll ever do for you!”
As River's eyes bored into me, Whisper turned to me and said, “What? You can't thay that! The'll punith uth both!”
“The worm's right.” River's eyes cut into me. “So her punishment will be light... relatively speaking. Yours though... I'll have to make something extra special for you.”
Before I could say anything, the piercing ring of the school's bell echoed through the hall. That was the signal for breakfast. My inclination to argue with River dissipated, and I rushed out the door.
I worked my way through the crush of ponies in the hallway and down the stairs. They seemed to be moving slower and closer together than usual today, like something was holding them up.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I found out what that was.
Missus Primrose stood at the bottom of the steps, stiffly repeating, “All students to the courtyard. There will be a special announcement before breakfast.” Perhaps it was just my imagination, but her gaze seemed to take an especially waspish glare as she spotted me.
Despite the low-level growling in my belly, my heart leapt at the announcement. The Headmaster must want to clear up the bullying issue as soon as possible, even before breakfast! Sure, the meal would be delayed a bit, but at least I would be able to eat it in peace. Eager to find out what would be done, I followed the herd of students out into the courtyard.
Outside, a crowd of little unicorns already sprawled across the stone yard, and the Headmaster stood facing them all, patiently waiting for the last of them to gather.
I trotted up to the group, full of happy anticipation. I couldn't wait to see my fortunes turn around.
As I settled into a vacant spot at the front left side of the group, the Headmaster cleared his throat loudly. His horn began to glow, and his voice boomed out, “Good morning, students.” He must have been using some kind of voice amplification spell to have spoken so loud.
“Good morning, Headmaster,” the students replied in something almost resembling unison.
“Now, some of you may think that you can abuse your position, that your friends in high places will protect you from the consequences of your actions.”
I smirked. Good, that would show River that she couldn't rely on her daddy's help.
“Some of you may think that you can get away with lying and blaming your misdeeds on others.”
Good! He must have learned the truth about the window incident.
“Well, I'm standing here in front of you today to tell all of you that this kind of thinking is wrong!”
My heart soared. This was all the vindication I could have asked for and more! Sending that letter to Twilight was the best idea I'd had yet. Her influence had just solved my biggest problem here.
“Not even a royal decree will make me tolerate such injustices! Especially not from a new upstart. I take my orders from Princess Celestia herself!”
Wait. What?
“Within these walls is my domain, and nopony, unicorn or other–” he glared straight at me before continuing “–is beyond the reach of my discipline! Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes sir!” came the shout from the crowd.
I stood frozen still, not even able to take the stupid smile off my face. I could barely breathe. The letter had only made him more hostile! How could it have backfired so badly? What had Twilight written to him? As I came down from the shock, I realized I had been a fool to think one little letter would change an old pony as stuck in his ways as the Headmaster was. My hopes crashed, falling even lower for having been so high just a moment ago. What would I do now? Now I had no escape, no plan, and the whole school was coming down on me.
“And I also have one other matter to discuss while you are all here.” The Headmaster seemed more composed now, looking back to the main body of students and stroking his mustache. “During the weekend interlude, there will be a carnival in Canterlot – the Hundred Moon Festival.”
I didn't know what he was talking about, and I was in no state to care, but the excited murmur rising from the crowd said it all.
“I trust you will all enjoy yourselves there. Your teachers and myself will be chaperoning you while you are there to ensure your safety.” He glared directly at me again. “That is, of course, assuming you behave yourselves and don't get grounded to the school's premises for misbehavior.” He turned back to the others, adjusted his glasses, and smiled. “Now, please go on with your day as planned. Good luck, my little unicorns.”
I stumbled along with the crowd toward the dining hall, barely noticing what went on around me. Everything seemed somehow distant and removed from the reality I now faced. There would be no way out for me now. I was stuck in this place, and stuck in the grasp of ponies like River. I barely kept up with the crowd. What was the point, anyway?
As I made my way to exercise class, I realized that my morose thoughts during breakfast had probably been unfounded. Things might still be bad, but they weren't going to get any worse either... probably. I could handle this for just a week, and then I could get out and never come back.
I walked in through the classroom door, almost bumping into River and her friends, Pearl and Ruby. They had all been talking about something, but as soon as they saw me, they hushed up. I stepped past them as gingerly as I could, eying them the whole time.
As soon as I passed them by, they all broke out giggling behind my back.
I dreaded to think what that might mean for my near future, but there was no point in dwelling on it now. I spotted Whisper already sitting next to my usual spot, so I made my way over.
“Wath that your letter that the Headmaster wath talking about?” she asked, before I could even sit down.
“I think so, or at least it was Twilight's letter that he got because of me.”
“But it didn't theem to work.” She looked over at me with her eyes full of concern.
No, it didn't. “I can't believe he's just going to ignore a royal decree. Just who does he think he is?”
“Let's settle down, please!” Miss Honeydown sang out, “We have a very special lesson to get to today.”
Everypony hushed and scrambled off to their seats. As the noise quieted down, I noticed Ruby Shine sitting down next to me on the other side, where River would normally have gone. I didn't worry about it though. All those bully ponies were the same. What did it matter which one sat next to me?
“Today, class, we'll be working on the most special kind of magic – the kind that relates to your cutie mark and your special talent.”
I braced for the angst those words would call up, but instead, I felt uplifted. Of course! I had a cutie mark now, and I knew my special talent. The very idea of that warmed me inside and reminded me that whatever troubles this school might throw at me, I still had that going for me, and it was more than I ever had before.
Miss Honeydown strolled around the ring of chairs. “Now, I want you all to think back to how you first got your cutie marks. What happened?” She turned and started pacing along the other direction. “Most unicorns have magic closely tied to their special talent – you were probably using it when you got your cutie mark.”
So, was mine teleporting?
“Okay. Once you have the special spell you can perform in mind, I want each of you to execute it in the smallest, most controlled manner you can.” She slowly turned around, smiling reassuringly at the students around her. “And don't worry. I'll have shields ready to go, just in case anything gets a little out of control. That's my special talent, after all.”
All around me, little unicorns strained themselves and made their horns glow. More than a few of them were already performing their spells, causing a kaleidoscope of magic to whiz around the room, each spell caught and nullified by one of Miss Honeydown's shields.
Whatever might happen, I supposed there was no point living in fear of my own special talent. I thought back to the first couple times I had done magic, what that felt like. Closing my eyes against the distracting cacophony of unicorn magic around me, I focused on repeating that teleportation spell.
After a minute or two of trying harder and harder, I realized I was butting up against some kind of wall. For some reason, I just couldn't do it. No! After trying for so long to find my special talent, I was not going to let it just slip away. I redoubled my efforts, flapping my wings so fast I almost lifted off the ground, and making them glow so brightly I could see the glare even through my tightly closed eyes.
“Scootaloo, dear? Are you having some trouble?”
At the sound of my teacher's voice, my eyes popped open in surprise. She was calling for me? As soon as I spotted her, I felt the wall preventing my spell dissipate. A bright purple flash filled my vision. As soon as I could see again, I found myself in the air just above Miss Honeydown. I crashed down on top of her, and both of us crumpled to the floor.
Perhaps because I was more used to crashing, I was the first to recover. “Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean–”
“It's okay, Scootaloo. I've had worse.” The teacher picked herself up off of the dusty wooden floor and rubbed at her shoulder. “But now that I know your special talent is teleporting, I bet I know what your trouble was.” She patted me on the head. Somehow, it felt as if she was patting me like a well-behaved dog. “A teleport spell needs to have a destination before it can work. When you saw me, it took me for the destination.”
I looked away, my cheeks burning. I stood in the middle of the ring, of course, so all the other students had a front-row view of my stupid mistake.
“You just head back to your seat, dear, and keep practicing. I know it's especially hard for you, but on the bright side, you're doing very well at magic by pegasus standards.”
The smattering of laughter that followed me to my seat didn't do a thing to soften the blow of the teacher's double-edged compliment. She probably meant well, but it stung nonetheless.
My wings ached, my stomach growled, and my legs trembled. I had practiced teleportation for hours, but I never made any progress at all. I wasn't more accurate, I couldn't do it quicker or easier, and there was no way I could practice going further within the confines of the room. Why did magic have to be so hard? After a whole day of practice, I'd hardly even–
The peal of the school bell topped my thoughts in their tracks. For a moment, I looked forward to lunchtime, but then I remembered my punishment from the Headmaster. I wouldn't be eating; I'd be helping the kitchen staff.
With a resigned, plodding step, I headed off toward the cafeteria.
I caught Missus Primrose staring at me as I walked into the lunchroom. I was one of the last ponies to arrive.
Her usual look of superiority and slight disgust was nowhere to be seen today though. Now she just gave me a slight smug smile. “Run along now,” she chided, nodding toward the kitchen doors. “You know where you belong.”
I scowled back at her as I made my way to the door at the back of the room. I'd seen a lot here, but for it to be as blatant as that was just ridiculous. I continued on through the doors, shaking my head at the teacher's obvious prejudices.
Inside, gleaming metal appliances and countertops surrounded me. My hooves echoed against the shiny stone floor.
As soon as the sound of my steps died off, a chubby chocolate brown earth pony hurried around the corner from behind what looked like a big refrigerator. His mane was creamy white, and a spatula cutie mark adorned his – rather ample – flank. I recognized him as the same one who gave me double helpings after my place had been taken on the first day.
“Ho dere, you be my new liddle helpa?” Despite his thick accent, his deep voice put me at ease. Somehow, he seemed familiar to me, even though I was sure I'd never seen him before.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, I could sho as da sun use some help scrubbin' dem pans. Dey's right back in da back o' da kichin.” He disappeared from view again, and I heard the clatter of more dishes. “Help yaself to some soap an' a scrubby. I be servin' trays fo a few mo minutes,” he called back as he disappeared toward the front of the kitchen.
What else was there to do? I wandered back toward the back of the kitchen in search of the sink, taking in the sights as I went along. I passed the big humming refrigerators on my left, and I could hear the muffled din of the students behind them. On the right, I passed a bank of enormous ovens, still going strong, with a couple pegasi busy taking huge pans out of them. As I continued on, I passed a big table with a cutting board countertop, shelves full of the biggest cans I had ever seen, and a can opener that looked like it belonged in a factory instead of a kitchen. It was manned by a huge earth pony mare who scowled at me as I slunk past.
Finally, at the very back of the kitchen, I found the sink. It, too, shone with the dull gleam of polished steel. Three huge basins, each big enough for me to use as a bathtub, shared a single faucet, and a soap dispenser hung on the wall above one of them. I looked in dismay at the huge pile of pots and pans already stacked up next to it, but at least there was a step stool there so I could reach.
I knew what to do, more or less. I had helped Cheerilee clean dishes plenty of times, and this would probably be the same, just bigger. With a sigh, I grabbed the step stool and got to work.
“Ey, good work dere! Ya figgered out da tree sink method, good. One ta soak, one ta wash, an' one ta sanitize.”
It hadn't been hard to figure out, of course. The sinks were already set up that way, complete with dishes already in each phase. I ate up the praise anyway, though. I'd gotten precious few genuine compliments since coming here.
“Da name's Cookie, by da way. Sugar Cookie.” The big stallion slid up next to me and started patiently scrubbing one of the larger pots. He stared at me over the pile of dishes.
I glanced back, but went back to rinsing off plates. I wasn't sure if I wanted a conversation.
“Dey ever done gave you a name, filly?”
Well, it looked like a conversation was going to happen whether I liked it or not. “Scootaloo,” I replied simply.
“Dat's a good name. I like it, but dey done told me dat already. What dey don' tell me is how a nice lil' filly end up workin' in da kichen.”
I shook my head. “It's a long story.”
“Don't ya worry none 'bout dat. We got a whole lotta dishes here, so we got lotsa time.” The warm smile on his face disarmed me. He wasn't making it easy to sulk.
“Well–” I paused. Should I tell him the real story, or what anypony else would tell him? One look at him, still patiently scrubbing his pot, decided it “–I was out in the playground when some bullies came up to me.”
Cookie nodded sagely at the mention of bullies.
“One of 'em kicked a ball through the Headmaster's window and blamed it on me. Of course everypony went along with it, even my best friend here, so the Headmaster believed her.” I tossed my sponge into the dishwater, making a little splash. “And this is my punishment for what I didn't do.”
He just kept staring at me, his hoof making lazy circles around the inside of the pot. His only response was a slightly raised eyebrow.
I knew it might be hard to believe, but it was the truth for pony's sake. Somepony had to believe me! “That's really what happened! I'm not making it up.”
His smile returned. “I believes ya, filly. But why ain't ya gone an' done somehtin' 'bout it yet?”
I groaned and went back to scrubbing, putting all my pent up frustrations into cleaning the limitless pile of dishes. “Like what? Nopony here believes me.” I glanced over at him again. “Well, except for you.”
“Cain't you write somethin' to ya parents?” He finally finished the big pot he had been workng on, only to drop it in the middle sink and pick up another just like it. “Dey could sho do somethin' 'bout it.”
I gave him a sharp glare he couldn't have known he deserved. “My parents died a long time ago.”
“Oh. Ah sorry lil' filly.” That had been enough to break the smile off his face. “If'n it make you feel any better, I knows how ya feel. My ol' ma done passed just last summer, bless 'er.”
I hadn't meant to bring down the mood so badly. Cookie wasn't a bad guy. “It's okay. I don't let it get to me.”
“Well, still, you gotta have somepony back home can help you. Somepony musta sent you here.” He paused for a moment, scrubbing fiercely at some stubborn spot. “Why don' you write to dem?”
“I did!” Stopping my scrubbing for a moment, I threw my head back and growled. “But did you see that assembly they had this morning? That was the Headmaster's way of telling everypony that he's not going to listen to the pony who sent me here!”
“But wait...” He squinted at me. “Ol' Dusty done said somethin' 'bout a royal decree. You got sent here by some royalty?”
“Ol' Dusty?”
Cookie chuckled. “I like to call 'im dat. Still gotta call 'im 'Heral' Dust' to 'is face tho', naturally.”
I chuckled back. “Of course. And yeah, Princess Twilight sent me here. Who else could get a pegasus into magic kindergarten? They only want ponies with magic horns. What am I doing here?”
“It all be da same to me.” He shrugged. “Dere ain't nopony else you could write to?”
I shook my head and ended up staring at the sudsy water below me. “Twilight's the only one with a dragon. Everypony else would take too long to write to. Their responses probably wouldn't even get here before I leave.”
“Well, ain't no harm in tryin'.”
“I guess so,” I conceded with a sigh.
His big smile returned, brighter than ever. “Dat's da spirit. What about ya friends here tho'? Dey can help, cain't dey?”
A derisive little laugh shot out of me before I could even think about it. “I've only got one friend here. She's nice and all, but she's never gonna stand up for me, or even for herself.”
“Huh.” He shook his head. “I'ssa sad, sad thing not havin' any good friends.” His second pot splashed into the water, and he leaned towards me with his eyes full of earnest concern. “You keep an eye out, ya hear? You don' never know when an' where ya might find a new friend who help you out and get you through all dis mess.”
He was right, of course. I couldn't just assume I'd never have any friends here. That would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Yeah. I'll keep looking.”
“Dere ya go, lil' filly. You jus' keep dat good attitude up, an' things is gonna be all right.” He glanced off to the side. “Now, thank ya fo ya help, lil' Scootaloo, but I think e'en my ol' bones can handle the res'.” Nodding towards the other side of the kitchen, he grinned widely. “Now I think ya should up an' get a lil' somethin' fo yaself. I done saved ya some on the cuttin' table. Ya run along now and you gonna have jus' 'nuff time to fill yaself up an' still get outside fo' some play.”
I beamed my brightest smile. Despite all this supposedly being punishment, Cookie's affectionate help had made my heart soar. It was the highlight of my day, for sure. “Thank you, Cookie! I'm so glad I got to talk to you.”
“Don' mention it.” He laughed. “Now run along lil' filly, an' don' be wastin' no mo' time with me.” He leaned back and started slowly scrubbing another pot while I hurried off to find my meal.
All the while, I could barely hold back my excitement. I finally found a true friend here, and I had been given some good advice. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Goddamn Herald Dust. I want him fired so badly... At least Scootaloo has a friend now.
Aw, Cookie is a fun character. I like him.
Pease don't ruin it.
Just write another letter to Twilight, Scootaloo, and she will pursue it further once she finds out that the headmaster is planning on straight up ignoring her.
3621860
I agree. Even though it's "Celestia's" school. Twilight is part of the ruling triumvirate. I really hope River and old Dusty get's what's coming to them. 3 days in and I really hope they get kicked in their baby makers by a Minotaur.
It reminds me of that film Harold.
Oh for fuck's sake. Seriously? I'm not even American, and I recognize the Magical Negro stereotype already. The only thing that would've made it even more bloody obvious would be to have him start telling a parable starring Br'er Rabbit.
I can only think of one other time I have desired violent retribution on fictional ponies. And that was only because it was the most atrocious piece of grimdark summutorother that ever existed. Well done sir, You've gotten me genuine sympathy for the character.
You know what would be REALLY out there? If it turned out Night Whisper was actually one of the Diarchs in disguise, keeping an eye on Scootaloo, waiting for the perfect opportunity to put River, Herald, and every other bigoted unicorn there in their place.
Highly unlikely, but hey, I can dream, can't I?
Yeah. Didn't think Herald Dust would take any notice His obvious disdain for Twilight in the beginning made me doubt he would take action ... Eh. Just write to Twilight again and tell her what happened, she'd pursue it with Celestia then.
I am so gods damned sick of the Headmaster and his little whoredaughter offspring. Celestia needs to clamp down on this horse shit, and soon.
Yeah the Headmasters day's are numbered. Because he appears to have forgotten exactly who Twilight's second mother might as well be for all intents and purposes. And if he seriously thinks that Twilight, (or hell, given how mindbogglingly rare she is, SCOOTALOO) couldn't get him fired with cause in the course of a five minute conversation with Celestia, he's beyond delusional.
@ocalhoun...
3621834...
I have to agree with Jphyper, the Scootaloo-abuse is carrying on far over the reader-tolerant line here. You are 5 of 10 chapters through and there has not been anything but shoving Scootaloo down into the mud.
With Harry Potter's time at Hogwarts, he did endure a lot of suffering from his fellow students and teachers (Professor Severus Snape, Dolores Umbrige, etc.), alongside his struggle against Voldemort & the Death Eaters. But it was paced and counter-balanced by his loyal friends and teachers who inspired him to keep going (Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Professor Remus Lupin, etc.), and that kept the story going and interesting. With your fan-fiction so far, there is nothing but crushing spirit and hope. At this point (chapter 5), seeing that not even Princess Twilight can help, and it is unlikely Princess Celestia will intervene, then Scootaloo may as well leave and go back to Ponyville to await Princess Twilight's return and tutelage (assuming Scootaloo could even forgive Twilight for putting her through such suffering, intentional or not).
With half (or more than half, I expect) of your story doing nothing but shoving Scootaloo down into the mud and crushing her spirit, I would suggest adding either the Sad or Dark tags (or both).
Also, I am not seeing anything built-up towards a Romance tag, not there is anyone to romance among the current cast. I am hoping you are not going to just shove it in last-minute &/or cram it in with just one chapter or less.
My own initial high-interest in your fan-fiction has severely withered from all this. I will give it another chapter or two before I stop following this.
3621901
That's on you then, because I read that voice in a heavy Swedish accent, much like Don Karnage's henchmen voice. Set the TV tropes down and back away, you'll enjoy more stories.
Also, to the Author, I'm enjoying this and looking forward to see where your story goes.
I dunno what else to say about this chapter except for, "Yay." I mean, yeah, the headmaster didn't listen, of course, but maybe another letter or two might start getting things done. And she met a cool kitchen pony, which may mean she has a new friend (unless he stabs her in the back). Things might just be looking up for poor little Scoots.
Which means a bomb is probably about to drop very soon.
3621934
Indeed, I'd liked to have seen at least ONE sympathetic teacher here, but apparently Celestia is either a secret racist herself, or a terrible people person. Because these are NOT the kind of ponies you want to be teaching young, impressionable minds, no matter how skilled they may be in their field of expertise.
3621891
or fired.
that would be best
3621961
Well Dusty could be fired, but I doubt that River is all that flammable.
3621914
That would be AWESOME!
Read the first couple chapters, and while it is a very interesting idea, I just don't handle this kind of stuff anymore (Unless it's in a black humor kind of way). Someone please tell me when Twilight starts busting heads (Figuratively).
3621901
Yeah.... or in this case would he be less obviously magical?
3621965
She can still be expelled. You can bet your shirt that any school that remotely pretends to be a prestigious learning institute has a solid anti-bullying policy. And I very much doubt that many other prestigious magic schools will accept a student who was expelled from Princess Celestia's personal school for severe violations of the code of conduct.
3621936
Oh, do me a favour. I don't need to be a TVTropes addict to recognize the stereotype; a lifetime of exposure to American TV and movies is more than enough for that. Chubby, chocolate-brown with a white mane... and since when do Swedes use idioms like "sho' as da sun"? He's a ponified version of Uncle Remus.
(And I actually like Song of the South, so it's not that I mind the trope as such, just that I think it's being laid on a bit thick here. It's yet another example, IMO, of the author resorting to cardboard stereotypes instead of characters with subtlety and depth.)
3621978
...I see what you did there.
3621934
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarknessInducedAudienceApathy
Poison joke.
Poison joke all of them. They can't blame you if they don't know you did it.
Also, what happened to the 'failing' homework Scootaloo wrote for River? I assume we'll be seeing some of that next chapter.
3621998
I grew up in the South and defaulted to imagining him speak like Uncle Remus myself...
3621860 Wouldn't straight up ignoring a royal decree be a act of treason? Herald Dust would be in a wold of trouble right now in a more realistic setting, the staff know and at lest one of them would know if they don't turn him in they would go down with him.
3621965
too wet pussy
I'm watching this suspense... you're delivering... resumes watching... (actually reading but hey its so good!)
Scoot is at least known by princess Celestia and Luna . She was a flower filly at Cadences wedding for Fausts sake! She could write them.
Please put a GRAMMAR-NAZI-SEIZURE warning in the description.
GrammarNaziseizuresmightbecausedbyvariousreasonsbutforsomeunknowntothehumanracereasontypo'saretheworst
So me happily reading through the chapter when suddenly a wild typo appears!
"I walked in through the classroom door, almost bumping into River and her friends, Pearl and Ruby. They had all been talking about something, but a s soon as they saw me, they hushed up. I stepped past them as gingerly as I could, eying them the whole time."
OH DEAR LORD, RECALLING THE MEMORY OF EVER LETTING MY EYES WANDER UPON SUCH ABOMINATION!
Love it , but everyday is not nearly frequent enough
3621954 OR Canterlot ponies are racist, and this issue has never come up before so there'd be no way for Celestia to know.
3621988
True, and all that prestige as well as ego goes down the drain for both of them. I so hope that happens. Btw you have an awesome avatar.
3622106
Nope, more like Rivers don't burn.
I'm declaring idiot ball on the Headmaster. He has basically admitted that he is above the law (Princess Twilight in this case) and has basically said, "screw Luna, by saying ONLY Celestia, and Twilight." Are there not some royal guards nearby since this is an important place and a likely target of attacks, like changelings? One guard basically reports to Celestia over. Also, Scootaloo is also carrying the idiot ball when she doesn't sent a letter to Twilight to send a letter to Celestia or even update her on the situation. Twilight sent letters to Celestia the entire time she was in Ponyville, so it should be common knowledge for those folks that Spike can send her letters. Hell, Twilight can send another royal decree to the bureaucracy or Luna even and have her deal with it. Not reporting back to Twilight is stupid. I'm still reading and hoping that somehow these choices will make some sense but it's starting to feel like the idiot ball (warning tvtropes link)
Well I hit the nail on the head.
Of course Scoots isn't quite worldly enough to realize she just got excellent advice; Report to Twilight, specifically requesting to have Twilight report to Celestia.
Her only other chance is that she manages to get to not get sequestered away from this festival and in some way communicates with the other princess she knows; Luna. who ought to be there. (Nightmare night in Ponyville, the wedding (again), her dreams)
Of course if we want a massive catastrophe for our headmaster here, you bring Luna into the equation, the headmaster blows her off or insults her in person, (after all she's a traitor and enemy of the state... or some such BS) and we wrap up with a very disappointed Celestia.
However, there's a better way for this to end up.
We get 4 more chapters of Scoota-carpet. She gets banned from the festival, she gets walked on, she gets degraded, and she even gets what little support she has jerked out from under her. (Sugar Cookie gets found out and fired for treating her too nice and feeding her, and Night Whisper either becomes too terrified to give her any more support or something happens to remove her from the chessboard.)
The endgame however is simple... Scootaloo goes Sonic-Twilight-Boom, either due to being pushed to far or thrown into a final test without proper preparation by her extremely biased teachers or due to attempting some form of self defense. The 'Event' brings the attention of Celestia and that's when the whole structure falls down around the headmaster and bullies' heads.
3622103
Pretty much, yeah. Unfortunately, it's becoming increasingly clear that the author hasn't really thought these things through as far as he should have (and neither, apparently, did any of his army of pre-readers and editors), and the plot is getting increasingly less credible because of it.
You mean, that so-called "upstart" who's had Princess Celestia's ear ever since she was a filly, and whom Celestia is probably closer to, personally, than anyone short of her own sister?
Seriously, how the hell did this guy ever rise to this position of authority within the Canterlot power structure (and yes, being the headmaster of a private boarding school established by and operating under the direct commission of the Crown itself, and which regularly takes in students who are from the Canterlot nobility, is a position with comes with a fair number of political strings attached) without having even the slightest inkling of who the power players are in the Royal Court?
As I said before, he doesn't have to like Twilight, or even respect her personally, but it's an almost absurd level of blind bullheaded stupidity for him to act as though she can be openly defied and blown off without consequence. Because clearly, an alicorn Princess whom Celestia has personally mentored and groomed for this position has no ability to cause him any difficulty whatsoever when she finds out he's basically saying "up yours, Sparkle, you're not the boss of me" and continuing to abuse a filly she has a personal interest in, right?
“Now run along lil' filly, an' don' be wastin' no mo' time with me.”
Gaelic Accent perhaps?
*summons Diablo to hunt down Scootaloos enemies*
*sits back with a slurpee and watches the fireworks!*
What if Scootaloo was the one that got top marks in the class? 100% on the final, the homework, everything. All because she had to do River's homework for her, resulting in more study time and sabotaging of River's own work/River's lack of study.
Of course, being the sort of fic that this is so far, Dusty will probably ignore it and just give the top marks to his daughter instead. Then Twilight comes home, finds out everything and goes through the tests herself, and sees the abominable bigotry coating the institution's walls that resulted in Scoots' "failing" grade.
Then shit hits the fan.
3621988 yeah but as Twilight said, it would be dangerous to everypony for a unicorn to be untrained, so i think the most they would do is watch her and make her do her own work and kitchen duty like scoots or just send her to a different school somewhere. they would not just leave her untrained....
I thought Scootaloo learned this lesson -- the way to deal with a bully is to set an elaborate deathtrap. Once they realize that you have their life in your hooves, they'll recant and become your minion.
Would love to find it that one of the ponies at the school is actually Luna or Celestia in disguise, or at the very least they have been watching the events taking place.
I at least assume that Celestia is aware of
somemost of the staff's racist tendencies at the very least.Maybe Luna will revisit Scootaloo's dreams at some point....?
I don't know, I'm just looking forward to every single one of the staff along with River getting their just deserts.
Honeydown keeps saying Scootaloo is not so bad at magic for a pegasus... but isn't teleportation supposed to be the most difficult of basic unicorn spells? In the show itself, Twilight who allegedly might be the most skilled and powerful unicorn since Starswirl, is the only unicorn who has used it and during the first episode, it seems even Twilight didn't know how to teleport yet since she had to rely on AJ, RD and Fluttershy to save her from falling off a cliff instead of teleporting to safety.
So Scootaloo's first successful spell being teleportaiton should actually be exceptional even by unicorn standards.
3622157
Cadence fighting the ninja's? IIRC I got that from a daily draw friend post on Equestria Daily, shortly after we got a leaked image of her, but before we actually knew anything about her personality or anything. But yeah, I've been told its awesome about five times.
3622291
Indeed, this is another thing that doesn't ring true about the characters' behavior, and obviously hasn't been thought through very well.
Scootaloo is a pegasus.
A pegasus is not supposed to be able to push tendrils of magic out to grab and levitate objects at all.
A pegasus is not supposed to be able to generate unfocused magic to turn into light at all.
A pegasus is not supposed to be able to freaking teleport. AT ALL.
The first chapter clearly establishes that these things are considered impossible for a pegasus or earth pony to do. And yet... Scoot is doing those things, right in front of them, and they're all acting as though there's nothing even remotely remarkable or notable about it at all. Even if she is just a dumb, crude, featherbrained low-class pegasus who's not nearly as special as our oh-so-refined and obviously-superior Unicorn selves, not one single pony at the school is even slightly curious, surprised, or interested in this seemingly-impossible phenomenon?
3622282
I was thinking alongside Luna dreamwalking into Scootaloo's Magic Kindergarten nightmare too. Since Luna seems to have somewhat of a soft spot for Scootaloo and likely has the ability to tell an imaginary nightmare from a nightmare replaying real events, I would expect her to take it somewhat personally.
3621934 I've really got to agree with this post in its entirety here. The amount of Scootabuse here has been bordering unrealistic, and it doesn't really have a good effect on my interest here. A protagonist should have both ups and downs - so far, this story has been an endless stream of downs, with all ups so far leading to larger downs, and very little respite from said misery. River and Herald are very close to being caricatures by this point, I'm afraid; River is beyond the point of arrogance, she's downright evil, and Herald Dust is, as others have mentioned, being horribly stupid in his quest to pursue Putting Down Scootaloo.
3622317
While Scootaloo is doing stuff that is generally considered impossible for a pegasus, her skill with unicorn magic (except maybe teleportation) is clearly sub-par compared to unicorns so it does not seem that much out-of-character that snobby unicorn brats - most of them get in Celestia's school because their parents have connections with royalty and nobility - would be unimpressed by an under-performing nobody.
The fact that the school's principal happens to be the bully's father and that her father appears heavily biased or prejudiced probably does not help either - the other kids likely do not want to get themselves or their parents in trouble by messing with a filly and her father who may have better connections than their own parents.
It sucks but that's how diplomacy, politics, aristocracy, bureaucracy, etc. tend to work.
3622214
And that's what the public school system is for. Or given how it's likely that the Headmaster of Hogwarts… I mean PCSFGU is a pony of some wealth and influence, more likely a private tutor.
3622282
As much fun as that would be… Why? It would make absolutely no sense for Celestia or Luna to be undercover as one of the students, since I'm pretty sure Twilight never informed them about Scootaloo in the first place. So unless they're doing something absolutely crazy, there really isn't any reason for them to do so.