scootsbd


                                            Guards entered into the building from every angle, pointing their guns down at the pair.

                                            They surrounded the duo, forming three layers. One circle on the ground, one on the rafters and a row of pegasi above that. These ponies were heavily armored too, with body armor and huge guns. There had to be nearly a hundred ponies here!

                                            From the top rafter appeared a single unarmed pony. Silverspoon always told Snails that was the one to watch out for.

                                            But he recognized this one. He’d seen this dude and Diamond Tiara’s father together before.

                                            Snap Allgood, his name was, leader of the Allgood corporation.

                                            “Hold shit dude!” Snails threw his hooves up and sat down, looking around the room in abject terror. “Holy shit! I swear I only got one ounce, guys! Maybe we can dial this down to two or three guns?”

                                            “I think they’re here for me.” Scootaloo kept her head and ears lowered as she scanned the crowds, looking to see who else they brought.

                                            “Dude, level with me.” Snails lowered his head to Scootaloo. “How good is the stuff you got?”

                                            “Subject 3!” Snap Allgood stepped to the edge of the rafter and held his hoof out to her. A bracelet around his hoof glittered in the dim light as he did so. “I’m so glad to have found you before you got hurt. You know it isn’t safe for you to be out here. Let me bring you back to your playroom where you’ll be safe and we can forget this ever happened.”

                                            “I don’t need a playroom! I’m not a foal!” Scootaloo spread her tiny wings defensively.

                                            “Well we can call it a recreation room if you’d like to feel more grown up,” said Snap. “Though really, the desire to be seen as an adult is the most childish emotion. If you want others to respect you as an adult you need to leave such foolishness as that behind you and do what’s best for yourself and others.”

                                            “You mean what’s best for you! You’re not my real dad and you can’t tell me what to do! So buzz off.”

                                            Snails turned to Snap, then back to Scootaloo. He couldn’t leave his little buddy hanging like this.

                                            “Yeah! You know what? I’m in way over my head so might as well go down with this ship. You’re not my dad either, dude!”

                                            Snails pointed at Snap defiantly. He merely raised a brow at him.

                                            “Your step daughter here or whatever doesn’t owe you respect just cause you banged her mom!” Snails stepped between the two. “You can’t be harshing her mellow all the time and expect her to like you! You’re the adult so it’s up to you to earn her respect, bro!”

                                            “Yeah!” Scootaloo added.

                                            Snap listened to all this with an increasingly skeptical look.

                                            “Who the buck is this guy?” Snap asked one of the enforcers standing to his left.

                                            “Should I kill the extra, sir?” One of the enforcers took deadly aim at Snails.

                                            “No, no.” Snap stayed his hoof. “Splattering his imbecilic brains all over Subject 4 may cause her to overact. We can’t overstimulate the subject.”

                                            He put his gun down. Snap cleared his throat to address Snails.

                                            “You do realize that your ‘little buddy’ there is infested with a psyco-demonic brain parasite that makes her an existential threat to this entire plant, I hope!” Snap called down to Snails. “She could snap and kill you at literally any second.”

                                            “Well does that really make her different from the rest of us?” Snails asked. “Who couldn’t snap and kill their coworkers tomorrow? And maybe there’s like a demonic brain parasite infesting all of our hearts or something corny like that.”

                                            “That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid,” said Snap. “The parasite devours your brain, killing the host, 99.99% of the time. Scootaloo is an astonishingly rare exception that needs to be quantined for her own good. If you want to help your friend you need to convince her to come back home with me.”