Greenwood couldn't help but give the little Pegasus an incredulous look.  Had she already forgotten about that heartfelt chat they'd had in the cafe?  She had a hard time believing that Scootaloo had tried all that much to find a home for herself either -- if nopony in town knew she was an orphan, how could she have really approached any of them to try and gain a family?  Of course nopony was going to be into the idea of caring for her in the long term if they thought she was just a house guest who'd overstayed her welcome...

"Oh, yeah, my life's just peach schnapps and rainbow glitter." she replied with a bit more sourness in her tone than she really meant to use.  All the talk of her past had brought up more memories than she liked having at one time.  A little private club house in the middle of an apple orchard, a cozy town, lots of Ponies one could call on for help, close friends... Greenwood would have killed to have any one of such things growing up.  While she wouldn't fault Scootaloo her emotional pain, the kid didn't know just how good she had it...

Scootaloo cocked her head to the side, her ears perking up and twisting towards Greenwood as she noticed her tone. "Um, yeah I guess so?" She wasn't really sure how to respond to something like that. She anxiously rubbed her nose, worried that she had somehow upset Greenwood. "So...um......you want to see about getting clean? There uh, there's a stream not far from here you can use."

"Yeah, I can smell it from here." she said as she turned and headed on out of the club house, hopping down from the platform directly rather than walking the little catwalk steps.

Normally Greenwood wasn't the sort of Pony to let herself dwell on old thoughts and memories.  She had enough to worry about in the present without fretting over things that had already happened.  Nothing could be done about those.  But despite that, she found herself quietly stewing as she made her way through the orchards, no doubt with Scootaloo nipping at her fetlocks.  Did the little brat even have a clue how fortunate she was, even in her situation?

Upon approaching the stream, Greenwood wasted no time in shrugging out of her tattered saddle bags to leave them on the grass in her wake.  Without even breaking stride she simply walked right into the water until it was about her chest and tipped forward, dunking herself headlong in with an underwhelming splash and a grumble.

Scoots was now quite sure that she had somehow managed to upset Greenwood though she couldn't imagine what she might have done. She hopped up and followed the elder mare, though she had to take the ramp instead of jumping straight to the ground. She stayed quiet as she walked behind Greenwood, her head down and ears flat against her head. When they reached the stream and Greenwood walked in and plopped down she curled herself up against a tree and waited for her to get done. She ran through the conversation in her mind, trying to find where she had misspoke but kept coming up with nothing.

One might almost fear that Greenwood was trying to drown herself with how long she stayed under the water, but after some time she did emerge for air.  The Unicorn lashed her head back to send her long mane slick down over her back and settled down to recline against the bank of the stream lazily.  For a while she merely sat there in the flow of the cool water, staring up at the sky while her ears flicked in a gesture of annoyance.

"Hey, kid..." she finally called after giving a low sigh.  "You have friends in this town, right?  Good ones?"

Scoots lifted her head up when she heard Greenwood calling out to her. She only had to think a few seconds before responding. "Yeah. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are my best friends." She kept her answer short, rambling was the only thing she could think of that she might have done to annoy the unicorn. "Why?"

"Don't you think you're being cruel to them?"

That sort of question came right out of left field all a sudden.  There wasn't any sort of anger or upset in Greenwood's tone -- just a straight query without any sort of sugar coating.  She'd let all her annoyance bleed out into the running water.  The Unicorn kept her gaze up on the skies as she watched the clouds slowly drift by on the high breezes.

"I don't have any friends.  Or family.  Nopony in the world cares about me or even knows I exist half the time... that's why I can do as I please.  Nopony tells me what to do, or when to go to bed, or what to eat... because there isn't anyone to do so." she stated flatly.  "If I had somepony who cared about me, I couldn't do whatever I pleased, because I would worry them.  They'd want to make sure I was alright.  And in return, I wouldn't want to do reckless things because I'd care about them as well."

The Unicorn tilted her head aside to cast her gaze back over her shoulder at Scootaloo, though her expression remained stoic even with all she was saying.  "I was lost in the woods for a week, and there are some Ponies here in town who know I was there.  That savage was one of them.  But there was no search party, right?  Nopony was coming to find me... you only happened upon me by accident.  If I'd starved in there, or been snatched by a monster, or fallen down a ravine, do you think anypony would have known?  Or cared?" she continued.  "But that's not the case with you, is it?  If you went missing for a week, don't you think Applebloom and Sweetie Belle would be worried sick about you?  Or those six Ponies?  Or even that cafe lady?  Why is it okay for you to make them worry about you?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:56, Wed 10 Oct 2012.

Scoots listened to Greenwood, her ears falling back with every word until they were pinned flat against her head. A clear sign of her distress. Her mouth opened and closed several times without a sound emerging as she tried to think of something to say. Of course she didn't think it was okay to make them worry about her but what choice did she have? If they found out she was an orphan they would ship her off and from what Greenwood said she'd be even worse off there. Her eyes frantically searched the unicorns for any sign of a hint of what she was feeling or why she was asking these things of her.

She couldn't see anything except herself, her distressed and glistening eyes staring back at her. She didn't like how Greenwood was making her feel. In the end, she turned her head away. She spread out one of her wings and hid her face in it, hoping the elder mare would leave and not bother her any more.

"Yeah, that's what I thought.  But running and hiding isn't going to solve anything, kid."  All things considered, Greenwood didn't consider herself a nice person.  She didn't think she was really a bad person, especially in the big picture, but she knew for a fact that she wasn't exactly made of sugar and spice.  Over the years she had done a lot of lousy things for various reasons... hurting the feelings of a little filly certainly wasn't high up on her naughty list, that was for sure.  But she wasn't being so blunt with Scootaloo because she wanted to see the kid suffer -- she didn't like children, but that was more to a live-and-let-live degree.  No, she had a point to make and she could tell that the way Scootaloo was going so far that she needed to hear it too.

"Do you know how you come to understand something?  You either experience it yourself, or you live with a distinct lack of it.  I know how real friends act because I've known lots of Ponies who proved themselves false friends, and I've seen plenty of other folk who were a lot more lucky." she continued with a sigh.  "Something friends have is trust in each other.  If those Ponies you mentioned are really your friends, and care for you, then you should trust them.  Think about it -- do you honestly believe that Ponies who care for you would let you get shipped off to some orphanage and forgotten about?  That they wouldn't do everything in their power to help you if you just gave them the chance?  If you were in their horseshoes, wouldn't you want to help?  Is it really fair of you to have so little faith in them?"

Greenwood cast her eyes back to the clouds once more and relaxed back in the water, resting her head in the soft grass on the bank of the stream.  "That's the lesson I learned way too late in life.  I spent so long thinking that I had to keep running, and that I could only rely on myself, that I didn't trust anyone... even the people I should have.  Because, to start with, I didn't have anypony I could trust or call a friend.  But you?  You've got everything I never had and you're squandering it because you're scared."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:58, Fri 12 Oct 2012.

NO! NO! Scoots did not want to hear this! She curled up into as tight of a ball as she could, wrapping her small wings around her body and head as though they could block out the words Greenwood was speaking. She shoved her hooves against her ears. _{"Stop. Please stop."} She whispered, a sob catching in her throat as she spoke. She didn't want to hear what the red and green unicorn was saying because if what she was saying was true? If what she was saying was true...but it couldn't be true, it just couldn't. Because if it was true, then it meant that she had made terrible, tragic mistakes.

She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, trying to block everything out. The world, the crushing weight on her heart, Greenwood's words, everything. But it was useless. She'd heard the words, heard the truth in them. She froze, as she acknowledged that fact to herself. It was true.

Oh sweet merciful Luna help her it was true. There was no lie in Greenwoods voice, no malice or intent to harm. Just pure simple truth.

The sob from earlier made its return at that thought, bursting out before she could stop it as her shoulders started to shake with more sobs. Tears began falling from her eyes as she realized how badly she had messed up. _{"Please h-h-help me M-m-mommy."}

While Scootaloo curled and cowered in her own circumstance, Greenwood just rolled her eyes and rose up from the stream.  She took a few moments to shake herself out to rid her coat of the excess water, then lit her horn to gently stroke down her form with a haze of red energy.  The crackling heat was enough to dry her completely and put her mane in some semblance of order until she could find a brush.

"Your mom's not here, kid." Greenwood said as she stepped along toward the shaking filly.  Despite her own feelings and habits, the mare sighed and sat herself down beside Scootaloo, reclining to curl about her in some semblance of comfort.  Even if the girl tried to shy away the Unicorn wouldn't let her and drew Scootaloo against herself in a hug of sorts.  When she spoke again, she tried to put a more gentle tone to her words.  "But you are.  And so are your friends, and lots of Ponies who will be your friends in the future.  And probably even family, if you give them the chance.  It's okay to make mistakes so long as you pony up to it, and work to fix it.  Or you can do what I did, and keep on running forever, until you turn into a bad Pony who makes little kids cry." she added with some effort at levity.

Scoots felt her world crumbling away, her safe and comfortable life once more shattering before her eyes. So she did the only thing she could think of. She stopped hiding it and openly cried. When Greenwood laid down next to her instead of shying away she threw herself against her, shoving her face against the unicorns chest and sobbing. She wanted to believe that it would be that simple, she truly did. Just admit to everypony and then somepony would take her in out of the kindness of their hearts but she just couldn't believe it. She had already made that mistake, placed her trust in a caring pony only for him to turn his back on her once her mother died and have him try to ship her off to an orphanage.

That was why she couldn't tell anypony. If the pony that had been with them all the way until the end had tried to ship her off the day her mother had died how could she expect anypony else to take her in? If he had done that then what kind of chance did she have with these ponies, kind as they were? No. No she would continue to live alone, she would not make the same mistake again. She curled up tighter against Greenwood, lowering her face and pushing it into where the unicorns foreleg met her body.

For once, Greenwood shut her trap and just stayed there with Scootaloo, letting the kid bawl it all out until she was tired of weeping.  Sometimes a Pony just needed to let loose.  Besides, she had just laid a lot of heavy stuff onto the poor kid's world view... she knew she sure as all else felt like crying with all that too.  The Unicorn held Scootaloo close and offered what comfort she could even though she felt terribly uncomfortable herself.  This sort of thing was not her forte... but she'd stay there for as long as the kid needed her to.

It took awhile, probably longer than Greenwood would have liked before Scoots started to calm down. Eventually though her sobs tapered off and only the occasional hiccup escaped her. She stayed where she was for a bit longer before pulling her face out of where she had hidden it under the elder mares body, wiping at her eyes and giving Greenwood a watery smile. "Sorry. I uh, I haven't done that in a very long time." She said, sniffling and turning to look around and make sure nopony else had witnessed her breakdown. "Thanks." She whispered, pushing herself onto her hooves and giving a shake. "Okay, what do you want to do now?" She asked, trying to move onto to happier things.

"Yeah, I could tell." Greenwood remarked as she ran a hoof over her wetted chest -- Scootaloo's tears had left quite a soggy spot in her coat, though she was quick to dry it with magic.  "No worries though.  Everypony needs a good cry now and then.  Clears your head."

In all honesty, the Unicorn was up for a nap at that point.  She was fed, bathed, and had medicine working on getting her running at full capacity again.  A lazy roll in the afternoon sun and a long snooze sounded like a great idea to her.  Yet... after all that she'd laid on the kid's plate, she didn't feel right asking her to just sit still and stew on everything.  Best she have something to distract her for a while as everything processed in the background.

...gah, since when did she start caring about the brat's feelings?  Stupid overly-friendly little towns and their sappy, heart warming atmospheres...

"Well, what's there to do for fun around here that doesn't cost any Bits?" she asked as she looked about.  She was still a little peckish and lit her horn, giving a gentle toss of her head as a thin lash of red energy swirled out.  The Unicorn smartly cleaved a few apples from a nearby tree and caught them in the same lash, turning it to a lasso mid-swing to bring the fruits back to her.  One immediately went to her mouth and she offered the other over to Scootaloo.

Scoots took the apple, taking a bite before transferring it to her wing to hold. "Well, there's parks and a lake and there's our zip line that we built." She said, trying to think of things they could do for free. "Or we can just stay here, I like hanging out in the orchard and I don't really feel like going back into town." Truth be told, as strange as it was for a filly her age to want, all she really wanted to do right now was sleep. She hadn't been getting a lot the past week and with everything Greenwood had dumped on her she was feeling drained and not very energetic. Plus, if they did take a nap she could curl up against Greenwood. Curling up against a pony to sleep was something she hadn't done in a very long time and very much missed.

That was all Greenwood needed to hear.  "Sold." she replied before flumping over onto her side in the grass, lazily sprawled out with obviously no intent on going anywhere if she didn't absolutely need to.  "Frankly, I need a nap.  You can't get any good sleep in the Everfree Forest.  Too many critters around, so you either sleep light or not at all."

Scootaloo smiled when Greenwood flopped onto the grass, she laid down as well and proceeded to eat her apple. Every time Greenwood looked away she inched herself a bit closer. Her goal was to be snuggled up against her side when she finally fell asleep, she just had to take it slowly. "Yeah, there's lots of bad monsters in there that come out at night." She said, scooting a little bit closer as she watched the unicorn carefully.

The pilfered apple was crunched down to nothing in a few quick bites as Greenwood relaxed back, letting her eyes once more return to the sky.  When she was younger, she'd spent a lot of time cloud or star gazing... it was a habit that stuck with her through her entire life.  Somehow looking up at the vast, open skies just soothed her.

"The ones at night are bad, but the ones that come out in the day are worse.  They don't need to use the cover of darkness to slink around, so they're much better hunters.  Timberwolves, for instance.  I hate Timberwolves." she rolled her eyes and yawned all the same.  She didn't seem to notice Scootaloo... scooting... closer to her side every few moments.  The Unicorn went on about the sort of pack hunting tactics such creatures used to fully explain just how dangerous they could be, but her own weariness got the better of her.  She ended up nodding out halfway through her explanation, gradually trailing off with a yawn until she was left quietly snoozing away in the warm afternoon sun.

Scoots watched as Greenwoods eyes slowly opened and closed, each time opening less and less until with a yawn the unicorn drifted off to sleep. She waited a few minutes, watching to see if she would stir or wake up. When she didn't Scoots grinned and scooted the rest of the way to the red and green pony. Curling up against her chest she rested her chin on the elder mares leg and with a contented sigh drifted off to sleep.

Scootaloo was resting peacefully, her sleep untroubled for the first time in a long time. However, as the day wore on she kept hearing something just at the edge of her hearing. It was coming in and out and was just invasive enough that she couldn't dismiss it. Then, there was a tremendous shout and raucous noise that popped the sleep bubble around her and caused her to lift her head up. Blinking blearily she opened her mouth and let out a yawn. Glancing around she briefly wondered why she was so warm when she saw that she was still curled up next to Greenwood. Smiling, she couldn't help but feel content at the comfort the elder mare was unwittingly giving.

However, she soon heard the noise again and it sounded like it was coming from town. Turning her head she looked in the direction Ponyville was in, as though she could see that far and figure out what the noise was. Scooting a bit away she stood up, she didn't know how Greenwood would react if she woke up to find her curled up against her chest. Another loud burst of noise drew her attention back to town. What was going on? She looked back and forth between Greenwood and town, pondering if she should wake the unicorn up to come with her or not.

After several seconds she decided that she would let her sleep, she seemed like she needed it. Running back up to her treehouse she grabbed a piece of paper and pencil, scrawled out a quick message telling Greenwood what she was doing and that she was welcome to share the treehouse with her this evening if she wanted she tucked it under the mare's hoof before heading back to collect her helmet and scooter.

Donning latter and hopping on the former she fired up her wings and headed off to town to discover the source of the noise.

To Rainbow Dash Competition--->

Greenwood did not last so long in her chosen career as she had by being unobservant.  As Scootaloo was off on her ride for her own curiosity, the Unicorn slowly peeked open one eye to watch her go.  She'd actually woken up from the noise too but hadn't the desire to actually move about, so she'd been awake long enough to realize that the little runt had cozied up to her while she napped.  Ah well... she couldn't fault the kid for looking for some simple comforts.  Once the sound of the filly's buzzing wings faded off Greenwood rose up and stretched out to work the kinks out of her back and neck, then mulled for a moment on what to do.  If ever she was going to make a break for it, now was the time.  The sun was still high and she could easily make it to the next route town before nightfall if she hoofed it.  Nopony would even notice she'd slipped away.

...and yet...

"Gah... come now, Greenwood.  You're not a silly Pony..." she cursed her own hesitation as she rubbed at her forehead.  All in all, she was squared away with Scootaloo.  The kid had gotten her out of a jam and, in return, she'd bought lunch and given some sound life advice.  They were even.

...and yet...

The Unicorn rocked back on her hooves and gave a low groan of frustration.  She was going soft.  The longer she stayed in Ponyville where that blasted savage was, the more dangerous it was for her.  But part of her just couldn't leave so easily.  With a sigh she turned and trotted off toward town, following the noise coming from the crowded plaza with ease.  Whatever was going on was bound to be a good distraction, if nothing else.

--> Greenwood exits to Special Event in Town Square

"As Compass Rose was taken by the friendly natives to their secret hideout, her heart began to pound like the drum beats of their tiny hooves. She could feel it, the anticipation, the glories- the thrum of <i>adventure!

"At last!" Compass Rose thought, "The natives are accepting me as one my their own" She narrated as she went along, though it was hard to keep up with the caffeinated fillies clopping along to the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse, "but as her anticipation grew and her excitement became close to overwhelming, her nerves started to creep up on her, doubt set in- would Compass Rose be up to their initiation rituals? Their requests? Only time would teeeeeelll!"

This message was last edited by the GM at 02:59, Tue 23 June 2015.

Scootaloo sat in the club house, staring out the window as she watched a cloud lazily drift by. Her thoughts were going a million miles an hour and she could barely focus on one before the next came along and knocked the previous one right out of the way. Things had certainly gotten very complicated very quickly and now she found herself with no idea of what to do or how to do it or even if she should do whatever it was that she decided to do! "ARGH!" She let out a cry as she flopped over onto her back, sprawled out and looking up at the clubhouse roof. "Well Scoots, isn't this a fine mess you've landed yourself in. What are you gonna do about it?" She asked the roof, letting out a heavy sigh as she did so. "Horseapples."