Watching him get ready to go, only a few milliseconds went by I’m sure, but I just couldn’t take it. “Stop!” I shouted. He stopped and looked back at me. “You self-reported, went to jail, got a restraining order against yourself and even went through rehab and- all for what? I mean, why bother if you just planned on leaving her life when it was all over?”
Purple Cloud shrugged. “Right thing to do right?”
“Um… I guess? I mean if you were just gonna walk out of her life what’s the use in rehab? You wouldn’t have a child to abuse anymore anyway.” I stomped my front hooves. “Admit it, you want to be back in her life.”
“Um duh. I mean I don’t deserve it, but of course I want it. Pretty sure I was clear on that point at least.”
“So why not try again?”
“I told you, some sins can’t be forgiven.”
I shook my head. “Well not entirely forgiven maybe but… I know she wants you back. You should see her with that scooter you gave her, it’s practically attached to her. The girl was apparently sacrificing her food to keep it repaired. You mean the world to her.” I looked down. “Look, you can just fly away if you want, I can’t force you to be with your daughter again. I won’t stand out here forever with you either, Scootaloo needs me. But just for the record, I think if you try, you could work this out.” I put up my hooves. “On the one hoof, if you come back with me now, I know you’ll make that little filly extremely happy, and I SOOO want that. I will fight to get you and her back into some kind of a relationship again, I promise.” The stallion gave me a half smile. “On the other hoof, while under these circumstances I will forgive what you did, if you think you’re going to hurt her again,” I put both hooves back on the ground. “Then fly. Fly away fast and don’t let me catch you. I don’t want to have to explain to the squirt why I killed her father.”
“And how do we explain what I did to her? What’s she supposed to do with it?”
I paused. I had no idea. What he did was wrong- beyond wrong. Ordinarily I would have beat the crap out of him, but now I just wanted some good news for Scootaloo. “I don’t know. Maybe just that, ya know… some stories have happy endings, even if there’s no right ending.”
Purple Cloud closed his eyes. “I’m gonna hate myself for this… I’ll give it a shot.”
(***)
I decided to screw slowly walking back in. I ran back, leaving Purple Cloud to follow at whatever pace he wanted. A little filly needed me and the running helped me forget all the lingering questions I had about what I was doing with her father, chief among them: exactly WHAT was I doing with him anyway?
However a dark blue blur shot past me. As I got back to Scootaloo’s room, I got there just in time to see Purple Cloud re-enter the room. Scootaloo was staring down at her bed, but the second she caught a glimpse of her father she shrieked. “DAD!” She jumped from the bed to his neck in a single bound and wrapped her forelegs around him, hugging him tight. “Daddy,” she said with slight sobs. Purple Cloud sat down. She pulled away a few inches and shouted at him. “Never, never, never, never, NEVER! NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN!” she hugged him again. “Please.”
I smiled and then nervously scanned the room. I noticed Apple Bloom standing in the room now, but didn’t think much of her being there. Finally my eyes rested on Twilight. “Um Twi… we need to talk,” I finally said. A huge smile was on Twilight’s face, a small tear even coming out of one of her eyes. She shrugged, apparently not even noticing my nervousness. “Let’s go outside okay?”
“Well dears this has been… interesting,” said Rarity. “I must admit I never counted on seeing all this transpire in just a few hours, even so I suppose I’m glad it did. We now know where we all stand as to Violet and Scootaloo has her father back.” She flourished her hair. “Even so, I have orders to tend to and I simply cannot make them wait a second later-“
“Twilight and I have to discuss something in private,” I interrupted. “And… I refuse to leave Purple Cloud alone with his daughter. Either you stay, or he leaves.” Hearing this, Scootaloo hugged her father even tighter.
Rarity’s eyes went wide. “Well... I really am behind. I’ve been watching this filly for several hours already,” she winced at the glare her own sister gave her. “Fine, don’t look at me like that. I’ll stick around.” I nodded, Twilight and I starting to leave the room to go outside. I paused as Rarity called me. “Oh Rainbow, don’t think this is all coming for free. I’m generous, but this is costing me. Somepony will need to help me in the shop once this is done… perhaps a few more dress modelings, you really are one of the best models there is.”
I shivered. I hated modeling, but somehow Rarity always talked me into it. I nodded. “This will be quick.” I also reassured.
Outside Twilight started. “Rarity and Fluttershy were both in there consoling Scootaloo for a while. Don’t think less of her for asking-“
“I don’t think less of her. I think she’s awesome for helping so much at all. Anyway that’s not what I came out here to talk about.”
“Ya know, this whole interrupting thing, you’ve been talking about adopting Scootaloo so much, but you really need to work on being an example of respect-“
“Not what I wanted to talk about either.” Twilight sighed, obviously seeing I was right not to be wasting time. She also rolled her eyes, but I’m not sure what that was targeted at. “Purple Cloud- you’re not gonna like this- Violet Blaze didn’t drive Purple Cloud away. He left willingly.”
“Hm?”
“It was for a good reason. He… he didn’t want to beat his daughter anymore,” I continued. Twilight’s head jolted back and her eyes grew wide. “Yea, kinda my reaction, followed by a swift hoof to the face. But listen to me okay?”
Twilight’s face looked like she was listening, but trying pretty hard to hold back. “Rainbow… I’m not gonna pretend this is any harder for me than you. I mean you had to spend a night with her. Thus, I will listen. But just understand, I have had it up to here,” she held up her hoof to her head, “With how much crap that poor filly is having to endure. If you’re about to make things worse-“
“I’m not. I think I’m making things better really.”
“I’m never gonna be able to finish a thought with you tonight am I?”
“That one. You finished that one.” I said pointing at her. She almost chuckled. Good to see a smile tonight. “Anyway, listen, Purple Cloud got drunk a few times… four or five times, and beat his daughter a little… till she was bleeding and stumbling...” Oh I was not getting a positive look at this point, not at all. I seriously thought about how Twilight couldn’t catch me, but course there was that whole teleporting thing. “But he turned himself in, went to jail and got rehab. He’s been sober for three years. So… ya know. Maybe we could give this a chance. Scootaloo obviously wants it.”
“She wants her family back together.” Twilight said, looking back at the clinic over her shoulder. “We both know that is NOT going to happen.” I started to speak but- “How would you like to spend the day with your mouth as an orange?! Stop interrupting.” I stopped. “Do you know how much I’ve been chewed out for not noticing something like this in my own town?” I shook my head. “NOT AT ALL! Nothing! Everypony just says how bad Scootaloo’s parents are and pretends I’m some sort of saint for noticing what was happening with her and doing something about it. I knew her for two years and in all that time, I did nothing to even ask how her life was going. I knew her for that long, but I knew jack about her life.”
“Twi it’s not your fault.”
“Not entirely mine, I’m not the only one this goes for am I?” she said, looking back at me. I gulped. Not like I hadn’t thought about this before. “We’ve been over this, I know. It’s just… thing is… we screwed up Rainbow. For two years we screwed up. We do it again and she’s gonna suffer again. It’s like I’m walking a tight rope and if I fall I traumatize a dear young friend. I took away her house, I’m putting her mom behind bars and now I’m thinking about ripping away her dad, and I’m the good guy, does that sound good to you?”
“So… what? What on this?”
“There will have to be another hearing on this matter. A judge will probably award Purple Cloud supervised visitation on a trial basis and go from there, but I can’t make any guarantees. If what you say is true and he did already take the punishment for what he did, he won’t be punished again. However he may still be forbidden to be part of her life until she’s a mare. I really wish you hadn’t just brought him back in Rainbow. We’re going to break her heart putting him on trial. Had we just kept it from her until we were certain what would happen it could have been so much better.”
“I didn’t know that-“
“You and Applejack want to talk adoption and you can’t even think a few simple steps ahead? You want to adopt a traumatized foal and you’re still making decisions on the fly?”
“Well somepony will have to, she has no family,” I pointed out. “Purple Cloud hit me with that too.”
“Rainbow… at this point, I’m still prepared to support you as a friend. If you try to adopt that filly I won’t stand in the way, in fact I’ll help. However, please, please, think about this hard before you do. Scootaloo is going to need time, attention and support, more than your average child I guarantee it. Your dreams of being a Wonder Bolt, if you take her as a child, they might just go away.” I stood still. “She’s going to need you for the next ten years in a way like you’ve never been needed before. By the time that’s over, you’ll be thirty and the wonderbolts don’t recruit ponies that old.” I bit my lip. “It doesn’t end there. I won’t tolerate you living in a cloud house with a filly who can’t fly. All it’s gonna take is one miss placed hoof when she’s playing outside and she’ll fall to her death. You’re going to have to change the very way you think as she will have to come first in everything.”
“I’d run risks like that with any foal wouldn’t I?” I asked, trying to hide how much losing my place with the bolts really was making me think.
“Rainbow, I’ve been told time and again that having children can be one of the most fulfilling things a pony can do. I wouldn’t dream of robbing you of a chance at it. But ya know what? If that’s what you want, date, get married, have unprotected sex and have a kid or adopt. Don’t make yourself the single parent of a traumatized foal.”
“But she needs someone.”
“Rainbow, you’re the element of loyalty, you’re one of the kindest ponies I know, in your heart anyway, and I know that filly means a lot to you. I know when you’re determined to do something, you do it, no matter what stands in your way. I also know you’ll have trouble if you take this on and you don’t have too. I’m aware you have no moral or legal obligations to Scootaloo and I think that you helping her at all is a blessing. So… I won’t tell you what to do. I’m just asking you to think hard about what you want.”
“And what she wants? I can’t leave her with nothing.”
“Some pony will adopt her. If it has be me it will happen, I promise. The question isn’t, will she be taken care of. The question is, do you really want to be the pony to do that?”
“Applejack could-“
“Let her worry about herself. What do you want?”
“Well I-“
“One thing I won’t do, is let you answer now. Take your time.” She turned and walked back to the clinic.
(***)
Back in the clinic I found Scootaloo just talking with her father. He had a red mark on his leg.
“So I see you told Rarity what you did?” I asked.
I looked over at Rarity, who was gritting her teeth. “I’m going to need therapy after this, let alone poor Scoot-“ but she stopped, looking at Scootaloo. She then quietly said, “Probably not a good thing to fully state with her in the room.” She cleared her throat. “If that’s all, I would like to take my leave.” I nodded, as did Twilight. “Very well… good luck. Oh and the welt, that wasn’t me. I’m not a violent pony. However Apple Bloom is apparently another story.”
I looked back over at AB, who was glaring at Purple Cloud, Sweetie holding up a hoof to block her path. Apple Bloom was fuming mad. In that moment, I remembered all those times I wanted to be a filly again. I chuckled at the naivety of such a thought. I could actually help, all Apple Bloom could really do was watch, or at least that’s how she had to feel.
I felt compelled to say something. “Um… Sweetie, AB… um. Thanks for being her friends.” Scootaloo looked over and smiled at them. “It means more than you know.” Apple Bloom looked up at me nervously for a few seconds, then immediately went back to glaring at Purple Cloud.
(***)
I took Scootaloo back home. The filly seemed to have mixed emotions about what happened, but on the whole she seemed to be doing better after seeing her father. Twilight thankfully did not have to explain why her father couldn’t stay the night. Scoots pretty much just accepted that.
Scootaloo hopped off my back when we were back home. “Scoots,” I said. I paused. Twilight told me not to talk about adoption with her but… but I just couldn’t think about what I wanted to do without her input. “I need to talk to you about something.” She smiled at me. She actually smiled. “Let’s go up to your room first okay?” She nodded and headed up the stairs. She didn’t move very fast, probably just digesting the day herself. As she moved along, I thought.
I was guessing Twilight thought I was seriously considering adopting Scootaloo, when really I had only brought up the subject once with her. I had been thinking AJ was the best choice there. But after that talk, I was actually considering adopting Scoots myself more seriously. I guess she’d had the opposite effect from what she wanted in that case.
Scootaloo walked into her room and gasped. “You… you really… you really didn’t have to do this!” she exclaimed. I walked past the stunned filly, not sure what that reaction meant. “All my stuff, it’s all here. My magazines, my toys, my posters.”
“Well some stuff is still being held in evidence, but this is most of it.”
“My clothes are in the dresser?”
“What ones you have.”
With big eyes she looked up at me. “Thankyou.”
“It’s just a room kid.”
“I wasn’t sure if I was getting any of this stuff back.”
“Twilight said you were.”
“Life has been kind of messed up recently okay? I’m having a hard time trusting. She took my house away.”
“You understand why right?” I asked.
“I guess.” She nodded. “I know Twilight is just trying to help but- I can’t help wishing none of this happened and we could just go back to the way things were.”
“You could have died like that kiddo.”
“Really? You sure?”
“Yes.”
She nodded again. “At least I have my daddy back.”
Another thing I wasn’t sure how to address with her. I needed to be keeping a list. I walked over to the bed and patted it. “Can you just hop up? I want to talk face to face for a bit.” Scootaloo hopped up on the bed and looked me in the eyes. “Your dad told me he hurt you. Is that right?”
“Well… it was years ago, but yea, he hit me. He hit me a couple times. It hurt, it was scary, but… does that mean I can’t have him back either?”
Something about the way she said that bothered me. “He told me he’s changed. There will be a trial.” I wanted to follow that up with something, but nothing came to mind.
“Why didn’t you tell me in the hospital?”
“I don’t know why Twilight didn’t, but frankly I didn’t want you to make a scene.” She glared at me and my ears involuntarily drew back. “Honestly, it wouldn’t have helped any of us, you least of all, can you understand why not?”
Scootaloo looked down. “I guess.”
“So, here’s why we’re really in here. And I guess it’s good that you aren’t seeing me the way you normally do when I ask this, because maybe your answer will be more thought out that way.” I paused for her to get ready. She looked back into my eyes. “Again, to be honest, I will kill your mother before I let her have you again.”
Scootaloo grimaced. “Understood.”
“And there’s no way your dad is gonna get custody of you either. At best he’s looking at what Twilight called “supervised visitation”. And he hit me with a doosy, telling me personally you don’t have much family outside of him.”
“I don’t. My grandparents died a while back and I only have one uncle who… I think he’s serving time… wow. My parents, my uncle… what am I gonna be like?”
Okay, another thing I would eventually have to talk about. I thought about taking a pen and paper and asking her to help me make that aforementioned list. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. I mean with the right ponies in your life, ones you can depend on. Which you’ve got ya know?”
“Yea. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are pretty good friends.”
Ouch! I didn’t even warrant an honorary mention there. Still, “you’ve also got me. Me, Applejack, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Mrs. Cheerilee and… and-“
“Yea that’s kind of it.”
“Well it’s a lot.” I continued. She nodded. “Not what I was getting at. How would you like a new mother?”
“Well after what happened at the clinic, I certainly don’t want the old one back!”
“Okay, understood. I mean me. How would you like me to be your new mom?” She just stared at me. Seconds passed by and I was losing it. “Well… yes… no… something?”
Scootaloo looked around the room. She shuffled over to her toys on the dresser. “Um…” she started rearranging her toys. She put Spitfire with Longshot. “Just you watch, they’re gonna get married someday.” She then took her self-made figurine of me and moved it. I half expected her to crush it, but instead she put it at the head of both packs. “It’s where she belongs.” She looked back at me. “I can’t fly. I’m lucky you made me your sister. Do you really want a daughter who can’t fly?”
“I asked you first.”
Scootaloo put her forelegs on the dresser and rested her head on them, looking at her Rainbow Dash figurine. “She’ll have a daughter someday. But she needs one who will fly alongside her. I’ve always wanted to meet that daughter someday, maybe even foalsit her ya know? But to actually BE Rainbow Dash’s daughter? It… it would be a dream come true. A dream I can’t have. I can’t fly, I can’t be your daughter.”
That did it. “Yes you can.” I whispered.
“What was that Rainbow Dash?”
“Stop calling me that,” I replied.
“Calling you what?”
“Rainbow Dash.”
“It’s your name.”
“Not for you it’s not.”
“What?”
“My name for you…” I choked it out. “Is mom.” We both stood there stunned by what I said. “Um… give me a reaction kid. You kinda worry me when you go silent-” WHAM! She slammed into me, wrapping me in a hug.
The best and worst hug ever. I loved the feeling that she was happy, the feeling of being wanted so much by somepony, the feeling of being needed. But my thoughts now started to rush. I had just rushed into things again. Twilight said not to do that. What about the wonderbolts? What about my house? Was I really ready to do this? What about Applejack’s one month trial thing, it had only been a few days and I had just declared myself a mom.
‘Just tell her you made a mistake, that you can’t rush this,’ I thought. ‘She’ll be able to take it.’ She squeezed me harder. ‘No. There’s no going back now. Brace yourself Rainbow Dash. Welcome to motherhood.’ A few seconds went by. ‘Twilight’s gonna kill me.’