Welcome to Parenthood
Feeling at least a little better after leaving the library, Rainbow had a flight training session and returned home. It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of a familiar orange filly bursting through the door.
“I love my new scooter!” Scootaloo practically shrieked, clutching her toy to her chest. “We rode down a hill and it was all *whoosh* and the brakes are way better than my old one and I can stop on a bit and I think I can go faster too.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but smile seeing Scootaloo so happy. “So you had a good day then?”
Scootaloo nodded happily, before frowning slightly. “Still no cutie mark though,” she said, a tad dissapointed.
“I keep telling you, you’ll get one when it’s time,” Rainbow said, shaking her head, amused.
For once, Scootaloo’s lack of a cutie mark didn’t seem to bother her. She set her scooter down and stared at it for a moment. “It was really nice of AB and Sweetie to get it for me,” she said, still staring fondly at the blue scooter in front of her.
“Ya got yourself a couple of great friends there, Scoots,”
Scootaloo beamed and smiled as she reflected on the trio’s past misadventures; for all that had gone wrong already in her young life, her relationship with Sweetie and Applebloom was definitely not one of them. Scootaloo ran upstairs and very carefully set her scooter in the corner, resting her helmet on the handle bars, double checking the wheels and bearings to make sure that everything was still perfect.
The two pegasi ate dinner and settled in for a quiet evening which included their new favorite show to binge watch, The Trotting Dead. Scootaloo still prefered to watch perched on Rainbow’s head, occasionally hiding her face in the prismatic mane during the scary parts, not that she would ever admit to being scared of a TV show. For her part, Rainbow again didn’t bother questioning why she allowed Scootaloo to watch another show that was clearly not meant for children; it was a good show and Scootaloo seemed to enjoy it. Rainbow had only been a parental figure for a few months now, but if she had a parental philosophy it could be summed up as ‘as long as Scootaloo is happy’.
A few episodes later, both ponies agreed that it was time for bed. Bedtime at the Rainbow Dash household had become more ritual than method over the course of their time together, one by which Rainbow could convince Scootaloo to go to sleep. Scootaloo didn’t really need a bedtime story, and Rainbow didn’t really need to kiss her little sister goodnight to know she was safe and happy, but ever since that first bedtime story, both pegasi took their own measure of comfort in their little ceremony, and to forgo the ritual would have been unthinkable to either of them.
A partial retelling of Daring Do and the Isle of Beguile later, Rainbow was putting the finishing touches on tucking Scoots in when she noticed the filly’s ears had flattened against her head.
“I want to go talk to my Mom tomorrow. Do you think you could take me?” Scootaloo said, her head barely visible from behind the bed sheet.
“I could,” Rainbow replied hesitantly. A day of crusading had seemed to restore Scootaloo to her exuberant self, and Rainbow was loathe to risk that by letting Scootaloo confront her past. But then she remembered her promise to Scootaloo. She couldn’t adopt Scoots without talking to Misty, and Scootaloo was the best, or rather only, way to avoid an ugly custody fight that she would probably lose. “If that’s what you want, I’ll take you tomorrow,” she said, making sure to keep her voice level.
“I want to stay here,” Scootaloo said delicately, repeating what had almost become a mantra.
Rainbow leaned in and gently wedged a foreleg under Scootaloo, almost lifting her up into a hug, but bending down more than pulling the filly upwards. She felt Scootaloo let out a small neigh of contentment, and held the hug for another long moment before speaking. “You can always stay here, Scoots,” she half whispered before setting her gently back down on the bed.
Scootaloo returned the hug, and asked, “So, we can go tomorrow?” her ears perking up just the tiniest bit.
“If that’s what you want, then yes, we can go tomorrow.”
The next day, after a quick breakfast and a flight, Rainbow and Scootaloo were at the familiar door to Scootaloo’s house. Rainbow took a step back, letting Scootaloo be the one to knock. The filly stood there for a moment, hoofs shuffling as she looked down at the ground before glancing over her shoulder at Rainbow.
“It’s okay, Scoots, I’ll be right here,” Rainbow offered, unable to think of anything else to say.
Misty opened the door with a pleasant look of surprise. “H-hi,” she stammered, and for a moment Rainbow felt bad about springing what could be considered an ambush.
“Can we talk, Mom?” Scootaloo asked, clearly trying to sound confident.
“Well sure, come in,” Misty said, gesturing toward both ponies and putting on a more polite face than the look of shock she wore previously.
“I’m gonna stay out here,” Rainbow said, not wanting to make this anymore awkward than it had to be.
Watching the pair go inside, Rainbow again found herself waiting outside the door of Scootaloo’s house while a large part of her life was being decided within. This time, there was no bit to flip, no debate to have in her head, and Misty could say yes and Scoots would be, by some measure, her responsibility and what not, but she could also say no and force Rainbow to find a lawyer. Either way, she couldn’t do anything to influence the outcome. Rainbow had decided against talking to Scoots about what she was going to say in there. These had to be Scootaloo’s words if Misty was going to listen. So she waited, with no idea what was being said aside from the vague outline of, ‘I want to stay with Rainbow.’
Sometime later, the door opened and Rainbow’s eyes instinctively darted toward Scootaloo before she noticed anything else. To her great relief, Scootaloo seemed to be okay: her eyes weren’t red, her breathing wasn’t ragged, and overall, it didn’t look as though she had been crying. But she didn’t look happy either; if Rainbow had to guess, she would have said that Scootaloo was a bit nervous.
“Scootaloo, I need to talk to Rainbow Dash for a few minutes, so why don’t you get some bits out of my purse and go get a treat from Sugarcube Corner?” Misty asked, clearly directing her comments toward the young filly.
Scootaloo looked up questioningly at Rainbow Dash, who gave her a reassuring nod. She grabbed a few bits and quickly scurried out the door, giving both ponies a wordless wave goodbye.
“Did you really think that would work?” Misty asked pointedly as soon as Scootaloo was out of earshot.
“I’m sorry, what?” Rainbow had mentally prepared for a number of responses; this was not one of them.
“Sending my daughter over here to manipulate me,” Misty shot back, her tone undeniably accusatory.
“I wasn’t trying to manipulate you. I just thought if you saw that this is what she wanted-”
“She’s a child! If she wanted to watch Baking Bad, would you let her do that, too?”
“You might want to pick a different example.” Rainbow winced.
“You- really?” Misty said letting out an exasperated sigh.
Rainbow nodded apologetically. “It’s a good show,” she said weakly.
Misty shook her head in an effort to regain her composure. When she looked up she was noticeably calmer, but still angry. “I’m not going to just give you custody of my daughter because you’ve decided you like having her around.”
Tired of being berated by everypony for how she chose to take care of Scootaloo, Rainbow decided to fight back in her typical abrasive way. “You could have gotten her back at any time and you know it, so how about you stop criticizing me for doing your job!” Rainbow snapped, immediately regretting both her choice of words and the tone she used to deliver them.
Misty glared daggers at Rainbow Dash for a moment, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath; when she opened them, her glare had subsided somewhat, but the anger still lurked plainly beneath the surface. “We both know that if I force Scootaloo to move back here before she’s ready, she’ll run away the instant my back turns,” Misty explained as though she was speaking to a child who got her hand caught in the cookie jar and then denied having eaten any cookies. “And if I’m very lucky, she’ll run to your house, but it’s far more likely that she knows I would look there and so she’d head to the Everfree Forest, or even a train to Celestia knows where.”
“Misty, I’m-”
“I’m not finished yet.” Misty wielded the words so sharply that Rainbow promptly closed her mouth. “Even if I do keep an eye on her 24 hours a day, and put bars on her windows, she’ll still run away the first chance she gets, and if I do somehow manage to prevent that, she will still hate me for taking you away from her. You may have noticed that with the way Scootaloo feels things very strongly, there isn’t much of a grey area with her.”
Rainbow was forced to nod in agreement. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen; she just needed my help, and ever since then I’ve been flying blind, hoping to Celestia that I don’t screw up,” Rainbow said, the pain and worry in her voice clearly evident.
Misty let out a wistful chuckle. “Welcome to parenthood.”
“Huh? I’m not a parent.”
“That scared, helpless feeling, the one you just described, is how every parent feels.” Rainbow continued to stare at Misty with a blank expression, which she took as her cue to continue. “The first night I took her home, after all the visits in the hospital, and all the congratulations, it was just me and this tiny orange foal. She was so small and helpless… Clear Skies had run out to make sure we had enough supplies, and I looked down at this sleeping foal in my arms. Ever since then, I’ve second guessed every decision I’ve made. It comes with the territory.” Misty let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead with a hoof as Rainbow stood there, unmoving, across from her. “I’m not unsympathetic to your position,” she said with a weary resignation.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I know you love Scootaloo, and that I know she’s happy with you, and that matters. I told her, and I’m telling you, that I promised she could come back home when she’s ready and I mean that.” Misty took another deep breath. “If you would feel better with some kind of paperwork to that effect, I’ll look into what the options are.”
“You’d do that?”
“If Scootaloo were your daughter, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess I would,” Rainbow replied thoughtfully.
“I’ll go talk to a lawyer and I’ll write you when I have a more definitive answer. Does that sound fair to you?”
Rainbow could only nod wordlessly before she flew off to Sugarcube Corner to find Scoots.
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That went well, all things considered.
Guh, and once again Misty thinks Rainbow is trying to take her daughter away from her, and not because she was a poor mother.
Great chapter, need more!
4900510
I dunno, i think misty kinda has a point, and she is being awfully generous over this
Im not sure how to feel about the chapter. It was goodthough.
I pooped 10 minutes ago and it felt great
Good Chapter
Um... Feedback?
Okay, it's good chapter.
Meh, it kind of feels like we keep having the same conversation here without much of anything actually happening. Quite honestly, it's getting repetitive and I motion for some development of some kind instead of letting the situation percolate.
-The requested feedback
4900923 That's good.
4902049 Fair point, and I was worried about that when typing these last few chapters. My goal was to fight against my pacing problem by trying to move slowly, it seems like it would be unrealistic if all of the sudden everything was fine and Scootaloo was perfectly happy, the good news is (I think) I'm done letting the situation percolate
At least Misty seems to see that going with Rainbow is what will make Scootaloo happy, so hopefully things will work out.
A bit of a short chapter, but I do enjoy fairly regular updates! Keep it up!
As far as feedback, I thought the tension you built up here was pretty good. It's a big, scary deal to re-consider yourself as a new parent, and I'm sure it'll take some getting used to for Rainbow Dash to settle in her new role as "Mom."
A short chapter, but not the horrible explosion from Misty I was expecting.
4902407 There's a fine line between letting things develop and needing to move on, and it can be hard to find the correct balance
4905763 the ladder was meant to have seven steps, so I guess the cloud is 21 feet off the ground, cue Scootaloo's fifteen to her underestamating how high the cloud is.
4905907
Cheerilee needs to teach her foals better math before trying to teach them astrophysics [on the blackboard in her class on one of the episodes. The formula on there was astrophysics. And to think she'd teach them that before proper multiplication.]. Still, good story. I can't wait for the next chapter, and you might want to do a quick comb through to make sure you spelled Apple Bloom rather than Applebloom in the early mid - later chapters. Definitely going to follow this fic.
Also I can't wait to see if Silver Sponge now that she feels Deets is going to far leaves DT, and grows a back bone. Or if DT decides to be more cunning and malicious in her bullying now that an adult that isn't Filthy Rich has gotten dragged into it.
Well, that wasn't quite the talk I expected them to have (clear and dash) but I think I went okay?
4906056 Buf.... It's spelt Applebloom
Like Applejack
4909813
Nope Two words. and the show says so.
4909903 Welp, i'm storing that for later reference!
4909933
XD. Still even with the few kerfluffles in the fic, I have to admit that this story is pretty well put together, and I'm loving what the author is doing with this fic.
Ok chapter. Not great, but definitely not bad. I just reread the entire fic and I love it.
still a good chapter not a lot needs to happen every chapter some just need very little to happen sometimes
....wow. Misty really needs something positive to happen to her; I mean, Heavens Above! That Pegasus is one argument away from a total break.
How much of Misty's behavior do people (including the author!) think is realistic versus "this is Equestria, the statistical distribution of people is skewed towards 'nice' relative to real life"?
5958009 The problem with your question is that it is about the behavior of an individual, Charles Manson was real, so was Mother Teresa, even though both of their behaviors were not "realistic". Is there a real life person who would act the way Misty does? Sure. Would that person be skewed toward the nice and understanding end of the personality spectrum? Absolutely. But I didn't want to write a story were Scootaloo's mom was the antagonist.
Move down a line.
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hoof
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5131329
I thought she was an Earth Pony, and her husband was the Pegi.