“Don’t ye think he’s hed enough?”
 
Starshade felt teeth in the back of her neck, pulling her away from Larkspur. Despite being quite a bit smaller than her, the unicorn lifted her with ease. Scraps reared up and dropped her roughly to the ground, digging a sharp hoof into her side to keep her still.
 
Bluejay and Oriole watched in wonder as Starshade stammered, “I-I’m sorry sir! It won’t happen again!” The infamously brutish pegasus was reduced to childish hysteria, the likes of which the twins, nor few others at Twilight’s school, had ever seen before.
 
Scraps knelt down, speaking low and quiet, “Meet me in the kitchen after lunch, an’ so help me if yer not there, I will track ye doon meself, an feed ye to the hounds of Tartarus. Do ye understand?”
 
Starshade nodded quickly, tears welling in her eyes. Scraps let her up. She scrambled to her hooves and ran with tail tucked between her legs. Bluejay and Oriole weren’t sure what to do with themselves until Scraps ordered them to return to their dorms.
 
Niko stepped out from his hiding place, panting. Scraps scowled down at him, “You okey?”
 
Niko nodded, “Yeah. Thanks…that was um…scary…” He smirked nervously, “…what’s her problem?”
 
Scraps sniffed, “Sometimes ponies have wounds that can never heal.” He turned to Larkspur, who still lay unconscious. “Thes one on the other hand is genna be missing a few bren cells ahfter thes. Not like he’ll miss them.” He chuckled, kneeling down to inspect Larkspur’s eyes, smirking when Lark let out a sleepy moan.
 
“Should I get a nurse?” Niko asked awkwardly.
 
“I am the nurse.” Scraps said, summoning a cool, wet cloth to rest on Larkspur’s forehead. “Locky you found me wen you did. Starshayd doesn’t know how to stop herself.”
 
Niko folded his ears back, “Is he…is he gonna be okay?”
 
Scraps glanced up, “Oh cehrtenly! A bit ‘o soffocation won’t hurt a demigod. It was stel stupid of hem. He knows how coo-coo Starshade es.”
 
Niko blinked, tilting his head to the side. He barely even knew Larkspur, and yet the draconequus saved him. “Huh…” He watched Scraps lift the groaning Larkspur onto his back.
 
“Well come with me ked…I’ll ned to check you too.” The old unicorn shuffled along with half of Larkspur’s body dragging behind him, and Niko followed dutifully, rubbing his throat.
 

 
Larkspur awoke with a start, bumping Scraps with a swish of his tail. “Ah…w-what-what happened?”
 
“Ye got yer arse beat, ked.” Scraps floated a glass of water to him, “I was just aboot to domp thes on yer head. Yer stinkin ohp the place.”
 
Larkspur took the glass and glanced around. “Is..is this the pantry?”
 
“Doubles as an operating room. But lohkily fer ye, yer free te go. No lasting damage was done…well, et least physically.” Scraps huffed, sitting down to peel potatoes. Larkspur watched him, slowly remembering the events of the past hours. Head pounding, his thoughts were exceedingly too slow to be of much use. All he wanted to do now was sleep but the sudden burst of adrenaline from waking up in a strange bed in a weird dark room that smelt like dusty oats kept him awake despite the sickly, groggy feeling it gave him.
 
“Dedn’t yer pop ever teach you to pek yer fights wisely?” Scraps said bitingly, grasping the potato-peeler hard in his magic. “Ye could have been seriously hehrt.”
 
Larkspur hung his head, rubbing his talons together. “No. He didn’t teach me anything.”
 
Scraps stared absently at his spice shelf, limply holding the potato in his magical grip. “I see…sohmtimes fahthers don’t make the best choices…”
 
Larkspur looked up at him, frowning. “No shit? I think I could have figured that out on my own.” A potato was thrown at him, striking him in the side. “Hey!”
 
“Lesten to me. Jus because yer father left, it doesn’t mean he dedn’t caer.”
 
The words cut into Larkspur more than he had expected. Although he wanted to know Discord cared about him more than anything else, the possibility of it being true hurt deeply. He didn’t understand why. It was easier just to forget. “How would you know?” He bared his teeth.
 
“He’s noht the first father to make a total wreck of his home life…” Scraps grumbled, deftly slicing a peeled potato into cubes with magic.
 
Larkspur watched him, wondering what he meant by that, before the old stallion quickly changed the subject, “Oh, an’…by the wae…yer friend left thes for you.” He pulled out a small parcel, and floated it to Larkspur without looking at him.
 
Upon opening it, Larkspur was somewhat surprised and embarrassed to find that it contained a small batch of cookies. They were obviously straight from the cafeteria, but Larkspur still felt a tiny spark of joy at seeing them. To see that someone would actually leave a gift for him. But it was quickly followed by grumbling thoughts about fake gestures of kindness. Obviously Niko left them because he felt obligated to. That was, until he spied the corner of a small piece of paper under one of the cookies.
 
“Wanna hang out sometime? You seem like a good person.”
 
“You seem like a good person.”
 
“You seem like a good person.”
 
Larkspur read and reread the little note several times. At first he laughed mirthlessly at this awkward attempt at friendship. “Heh…someone obviously struggles with making friends.” He sneered, but the words “good person” continued to echo in his mind. His cheeks felt warm. He didn’t like this feeling. It was weird. Why would someone he barely knows want to be his friend? It must be a trick. Starshade played tricks like this all the time.
 
Scraps tapped Larkspur on the shoulder, startling him back into the moment. Flustered, he cried, “Of course I’m not going to hang out with him! You’re dumb for even thinking that!”
 
“Ehhr…I was going te sae it’s time fer ye te leave. Starsheyd will be coming soon.” Scraps said before grinning sadistically, “And I look forward to her visit. She’s got a whole bocket of oysters te shuhck.” He knelt in to whisper, “She’s hates the smell of fesh to the point of gawking oll o’er the floor. If she does that, she’ll have te clean that ohp too.” He laughed, almost too delighted by making the pegasus miserable. But Larkspur almost felt relieved that Starshade was getting punished by someone. She hurt Niko. She deserved hell from Twilight’s Kitchen Troll…
 
As he was walking back to his dorm, Larkspur began to feel disappointment with himself, namely because he lost a fight with Starshade, and for two, because some sliver of him wanted to be the hero for once. At least Niko was able to escape. Oh well. He could finally sleep. What time of day was it? It hardly mattered as Larkspur fell sloppily onto his bed, readily falling asleep in moments. According to the rumors, he was asleep for several days.
 
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––  
I was getting progressively more unhappy with the whole Starshade thing. It was just a bit too violent and unearned, so I decided to rewrite the whole event to also add some stuff to Scraps’ arc.