Rainbow Dash here, sometimes known as… Momma Dash… yea my friends are twerps. How did this all happen? Let me think....
So I hear that some of you aren’t sure how seriously I took my sisterhood with Scootaloo after it started after an awesome camping trip. I tell you I- kinda regret- a lot of how I handled things.
I should have known something was wrong with her home life from day one, before I even became her sister. But even after that I wasn’t paying enough attention. I only ever flew with her on my back once or twice a week. Scoots thought I was gonna teach her everything I knew about flying, and honestly, that kinda broke my heart. I knew she was disabled from birth so there was nothing I could do in that department. However I had taken up a sisterhood so… I figured enough rough housing and free rides through the clouds would satisfy her for at least a little while. I couldn’t just forget about her after pledging to be her sister after all.
I started to notice something was wrong when she approached me one day wanting to hang out. Well that’s about when I should have noticed but, anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit naive.
(***)
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Scoots shouted as I walked by her and her two friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. I shook my head.
“Ya know squirt, you need to stop referring to me by full name, you’re making me feel like an old mare.”
She ran over to me and got in front of me, making sure she was square in the middle of my vision and thus fully blocking the path I was currently walking on. “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash-“
“Sis.”
“Yea, I’m your sister now so-“
“No, just call me sis. I’m your sis, call me sis.”
“Okay… So Rainbow Dash sis, anyway” I groaned inwardly, doing my best not to upset a fan, “I was wondering if maybe, well ya know, you being my sister and all, if maybe I could-“
“Get on with it squirt.”
“Could I spend the day at your house?” She said the words with a face that lit up with enthusiasm, and then suddenly her ears stuck down and to the back of her head, like she just realized she had said something wrong and was afraid of the consequences.
I looked up and to the right. “Well I gotta work for a few hours tonight, but after that, why not? You already talked to your folks about this right?” Scootaloo didn’t nod, she seemed to think.
“Um… yes!”
“Did you or didn’t you?” I looked at her with a kind of half glare. “Hey, I don’t care how much you like me, you’re not getting me charged with foal napping.”
“No, no, no, don’t worry. My mom and dad just totally won’t care. They’ll be out all night anyway. They kinda expect me to be crusading, but everyone knows you and really if I’m in one place I’ll be easier to find anyway, right?”
I thought for a moment. Sure that wasn’t a “don’t worry, I’ve got permission”, but it was sound enough reasoning. Besides, my sisterhood deal with Scoots was well known in Ponyville, did I really think the police were going to arrest me for hanging out with my own sis for one night?
“Ya know, ah’ve never asked, but just who are yer parents anyway?” asked Apple Bloom. “Ah don’t recall ever seeing them.”
“I haven’t seen yours either,” said Scootaloo.
“Uh… yea… thanks and all for the painful memory,” said Apple Bloom, looking suddenly dejected. “Coulda done without that ta’day.”
Scootaloo seemed to suddenly realize what she had just done and started stuttering. “Oh- right- dead um…” Apple Bloom’s eyes doubled in size. My brain started going into over drive, Scoots was digging a hole and fast! There had to be a way to throw her a line or something.
“Which is really sad and we’re all so proud of how well you’re dealing with it, they were great ponies from what your sister says and any time you want to talk, AJ would love to I’m sure um… “ I began, Scootaloo getting the hint and just shutting up for a minute.
“It’s okay, ah get that ya’ll slipped. Ah… Ah’m gonna go home now.” Apple Bloom walked away, obviously trying to avoid hanging her head.
“Good going Scoots,” said Sweetie following their mutual friend.
I gave Scootaloo a lowered eyebrow look. She looked quietly off to the right. “Oops… heh, my bad.”
I sighed. “Everyone slips up. Why don’t you just head home, do your homework and then meet back up with me here at about eight?”
“Great, dinner too? In fact I’m pretty sure my folks won’t mind if I sleep over… please?” asked Scoots.
I rolled my eyes, but then had to think for a few seconds. “Dinner? Isn’t eight a little late for dinner?”
“No, not really. I usually eat just whenever.” Scootaloo replied.
“Me too,” I said, noticing how similar we were, instead of having the alarm bells go off in my head that should have. I wouldn’t realize the importance of that line until much later. “Well if you’ll be waiting to eat… how about we hit up the diner and get some Daisy Sandwiches at about seven? That’s where I was gonna head after work anyway. Trust me, you won’t wanna taste my cooking. Probably worse than yours, hehe…” I chuckled.
“How would you know?” Scootaloo asked, cocking her head to the side. “I don’t share my food often…. In fact I don’t remember ever doing so-”
“It’s a joke. Don’t worry. Meet me back here at seven.” I flew away, not giving anything about the matter a further thought.
Truth is, at work, as work is boring, all I could think about was hanging out with my fan filly and sister. I actually kinda wished I could have met with her earlier in the day, as I was going to go to bed not long after eight.
Still, I was pretty sure we would be able to catch a movie after dinner, and then maybe fly a few times around the town. Really there was a difficulty to determining just how fast I could go with a filly on my back. I wanted to impress her, but I didn’t want to make her fall off. It actually made me look forward to flying with her just as much if not more than flying alone. What can I say, I love a challenge.
(***)
Seven o’clock came. Clocking out I shot away from the weather factory, not caring for small talk. I was already looking at being late as it was. Course as I flew over the town, I realized who it was waiting for me with some relief. Scootaloo would have waited for a visit with me all day if necessary.
I flew over the area a few meters away from the school house where we agreed to meet. There she was, staring at the sky and carrying saddle bags. Not sure what the bags were for. I had my own but they were for carrying money and stuff from work. I touched down next to her. “Didn’t quite get everything done from school yet? That’s okay, you’ll have time while we eat.”
Scoots looked at me curiously. “No, I finished.”
“Then what’s with the saddlebags? You don’t wear those everywhere, I know that.”
“No I don’t. I just needed something to carry my money in.”
“Scoots… I’m paying. You’re my guest.”
“I’m the one who asked to spend time with you.”
“Yea but you’re eight, how much money do you have?”
“Enough.” I raised an eyebrow to her. “Okay so this cuts a little into my food budget but that’s okay. I’ll just eat a little more at the Apple house. It’s not hard to convince them to let me eat there.”
I nodded. “Still kiddo, are you’re folks poor? Shoot I didn’t know that. Look I’ll just take care of the food it’s no problem. I mean especially if you’ll have to ask for charity as a result.” Scootaloo started to look uncomfortable. “Look, just don’t worry about money tonight. I planned on treating you anyway.” Scootaloo shrugged.
“Still I-“ having enough of debating this, I snatched her up and just shot over to the small diner in town. Hey, sometimes you just gotta take charge with kids right? Once we landed, she looked around, but shrugged and smiled.
We waited in line to be seated, something I kinda despise doing as it’s just a diner, but they are pretty much the only place in town and I wasn’t flying all the way to Manehatten for the closest fast food joint. After being seated, and waiting the requisite number of tedious minute for a waiter to show up, finally I got to order. Scootaloo was just happy to be spending time with me, I could tell, but me, I wanted to be watching movies and shooting around the clouds with her, not sitting on our rumps doing nothing. “I’ll take a daisy sandwich with hay fries,” I said quickly.
“And your daughter?” asked the waiter.
I chuckled. “Oh she wishes. Scoots here is my biggest fan… though she’s kinda my sister.” The waiter raised an eyebrow. “Roll with it. Anyway, what do you want kid?”
“Um- extra-large hay fries, three daisy sandwiches… no, can you get six?” she asked me. My eyes must have doubled in size. “Too much?”
“Too much, are you kidding?! Six sandwiches? Kid you’re throwing my money-” I snapped. Her shoulders went down quickly and she shirked back. Suddenly I remembered her comment that this meal was cutting into her family’s food budget. I looked at the waiter. “Can you take a hike for a minute? We’ll order in a little bit.” He nodded and walked away. I looked back at the now nervous filly. “Kid, are you in trouble? You were ordering for later meals there weren’t you?”
“Look I’m just sick of cold soup every day okay?” she asked back. “I thought you were loaded.”
“Well,” I thought for a minute. I was starting to get the feeling Scoots’ family was in a bit of a rough patch. Snapping at her or making her feel guilty just didn’t feel right. From the sounds of it, compared to her, “I kinda am.” I said, not sure how the words tasted after I said them. “But really, you should ask for that kind of thing first.”
“Oh.”
"Look squirt if you need some well… charity, maybe you’d like to talk to Twi? We all like ya and if you and your folks need help well- c’mon, give me some credit. I can’t be sitting pretty while my sister starves, how does that make me look?” Scootaloo looked off into the distance. “Look I guess I understand if you don’t want to talk to Twi tonight. However, maybe I can just come over and talk to your folks about what’s going on?”
"Well… they’re not gonna be home tonight.”
“Not at all?” she shook her head.
“Can we please just go on like this didn’t happen? I’ll just order one sandwich.”
The gears were turning in my head. I didn’t just leave friends in a lurch, it just didn’t work that way. However, if she wanted me to ignore everything… maybe it would be better to try a different tact to find out what was up with her and her folks. Kinda the way I often operate. If someone pushes me away from the direct approach, I often force my way in when I want to help. However I couldn’t just announce that so, “Sure thing!” I said smiling.
Well, the meal went by without many other events. Scoots always has questions for me, tonight they were all about Wonder Bolt training camp. I tried to skip the parts about me being reckless and almost getting my friends killed… I’m proud of standing up for my values in the end when I realized just how out of whack things were, but, Scoots was a little young to get the whole picture there.
The movie we watched was Iron Pony about a flying unicorn who used magic armor to fight an evil Pegasi warlord with supernatural powers. The effects were great. Heck the timber wolves in the final fight looked so real! Scoots looked a little nervous during that battle scene, so I gave her shoulder a quick squeeze saying “Hey don’t worry squirt. Those things ever attack, you know who will take care of it.”
Unfortunately that was all we had time for that night. Well it was a Friday, so I could have stayed up late, but like I said, the gears in my head were turning. I was gonna need time to bring my plans to fruition tomorrow, which meant waking up early.
(***)
The next day came and I rose with the sun for the first time in weeks. A quick glass of orange juice and a pear (AJ would so bite my head off for having those in my house) and I headed for the first pony I knew could help.
I flew over Sweet Apple Acres for a few minutes, hoping the CMC weren’t out yet. I heard a southern accented yell as I passed over for a third time.
“Ah hey Dash, what’re you doin’ up?” I quickly flew down to Applejack and her big brother. “Hey there sugar cube,” AJ said as I landed. “I was trying to get done so I could hang out wit you an’ the girls later on. Can whatever wait?”
“Well… pretty sure I’m not gonna be there later.”
"Awww…” she said, looking disappointed. “The other girls don’t like gettin’ physical, all they wanna do half the time is talk.”
“Yea, still, something came up.”
“Well, ya wouldn’t a’ flown all the way out here fer no reason. What’s goin’ on?” She took a seat as her brother kept checking the corn field.
“It’s about Scootaloo. Yesterday she was acting weird. Ya see, she asked to hang out with me, so after work I went ahead and took her out to eat.”
“Well that sure was nice o’ ya. That filly looks up ta ya somethin’ fierce.”
“I know she does. And that’s why this is bugging me so much. First she tried to pay for her own meal, which I made sure to tell her everything was my treat and all, but then she said something about being relieved because that might have cut into her “food budget”.” I used air quotes on that last line. “Then at the meal, she actually tried to order six sandwiches on my tab!”
“Honey that sounds… peculiar.”
“Yea I know. At first I was angry, but then things kinda clicked ya know? I think she’s poor. She was ordering left overs.” I thought for a second, holding up a hoof to keep AJ from interrupting. “Ya know what, how much does she eat over here?”
“All the time, but so does Sweetie Belle and ah’m pretty sure her family is fine. Then again though,” she looked up for a few seconds. “Yea Scoots does tend to take seconds quite often. Ah always thought she was just active an’ got an appetite. She even asks for leftovers all the time. Ah’ve asked why before but she just says she and her family really likes ma’ cookin’ and ah take the compliment.” She nodded her head. “”Food budget” is a pretty meaningful phrase. Ah’ve had to use it ma’self when times get rough, but most folks like to isolate their kids from knowin’ they got problems. For her to be worrying about getting’ food herself during social calls like that, her family must be havin’ some real problems. Tell ya what, Scootaloo is a good friend to ma sis an’ ah’d hate ta think o’ her goin’ hungry. Later today I’ll ride on over an talk ta her folks directly an’ see if we can work out sharing some of our surplus apples.”
“Thanks I knew I could count on you.”
“Ah don’t mention it, Scoots is over here so often ah forget she don’t live here.”
I nodded. “Thanks again. I’m going to go talk to Twi, maybe she can organize a food drive.”
“Now hold on there Nelly!” AJ said putting up a hoof as I was about to take off again. “You don’t actually know what’s happenin’, yer just making assumptions. Ah don’t mind helpin’ ya look inta things and all, but a lot a’ folks don’t like their problems becomin’ public.” I looked at her with lowered eyebrows. I was NOT going to let a filly starve for her parent’s pride. “Ah’m not suggestin’ ya do nothin’. But why don’tcha go talk ta Mr. and Mrs. Purple themselves first? Ifn’ ya don’t wanna embarrass her, Scoots’ll be here in about thirty minutes ta go crusadin’. You can go to her house then.” I sighed. I was on a roll, but what AJ said made sense. So I nodded and flew back for my house to wait until Scootaloo left her home so I could go talk to her folks.
(***)
About forty five minutes later, I stood outside Scoots home. I’d been in and out of that house a few times, the door almost always unlocked. However today I felt like it would be appropriate to knock so I did. After getting no answer for a few minutes, I decided to screw the whole courtesy thing however and just opened the door and walked in.
“Mr and Mrs. Purple?” I called as I walked in. “Purple Cloud? Violet Blaze?” Really I had only met those two ponies once a long time ago, but I had a lock jaw memory for names. No answers.
I looked around the home. The home of the Purples was always a mess. Nothing too bad mind you, mud here and there, magazines tossed about, but no horrible smell or anything, just untidy. I sighed. It was becoming pretty clear I was the only one here.
Despite my rough tough image, I don’t like being seen as a crook. A super star yes, a crook no. I knew looking through ponies’ stuff for evidence of just how bad off they were would probably look wrong. Still… this was about Scootaloo. She was a good friend and I would do anything for a friend. So I started looking around.
First the cupboards. Empty. Just a few cans of soup. The fridge… wasn’t even on. Actually I turned around and checked the lights. I had thought nothing of it before, but none of them were on. I flipped a few switches, but no light. This was terrible!
Back in the living room of the house I sat down for a minute just taking it all in. Scoots looked to be… well… starving. How could I have not noticed something like that? Maybe Apple Jack’s food kept her going most of the time? Pinkie’s muffins? Snacks from Twilight after studying? Actually how she could almost never eat at home and survive pretty well started to strike me. We lived in a pretty generous town I myself didn’t eat at home half of any given week.
Something on a table in the middle of the room caught my eye. A small envelop with bits spilling out of it. I turned the envelope over. “From mom for Scootaloo” it said. Why they heck would she leave money on the table? Besides… hang on a sec…
I looked at the magazines. A good number of them were about scooters and maintaining them. A few were about flight and a few had interviews with me but… nothing to indicate interests I didn’t know from Scootaloo. No electricity… I rushed back to the kitchen and turned on the sink. No water… money on the table from mom. She orders left over food when going out on someone else’s tab, she takes leftovers from Apple Jack, she rarely talks about her folks… she eats whenever she wants… oh sweet Celestia like that one line shouldn’t have told me everything! Fillies don’t determine their own meal times, Rainbow you stupid-CRAP! Scootaloo wasn’t poor, her parents just didn’t give a flying buck about her! All the evidence said only one pony even lived here, one who didn’t know how to pay bills or cook and only had a moderate budget anyway.
Scoots was living as an abandoned foal pretty much, from the looks of things and here I was her big sister, just giving her a few rides a week or something. I got non-stop worship from a fan for pretty much living life, meanwhile that fan was probably one unattended sickness from… really… was that… could she really die from this?...
A voice broke my little moment of dark thoughts. “Mr. and Mrs. Purple? A little bird told me ya’ll might be needin’ some help with somethin’. No trouble really, just thought ah might help out.” I snatched the envelope on the table scooping the bits into it with my hoof and carrying it to AJ in my mouth. “Oh hey there RD.” I spat the envelop at her feet. “Um what’s thi-“
“I’m gonna kill them,” I said, unable to stop myself. “I’m gonna kill them both.”
To be continued…