"You gave such a good report, Scootaloo!" Windy Whistles squealed. "I was moved to tears." To emphasize her point, Windy wiped away a tear from her eye.
"You killed it, Scoots!" Rainbow Dash held out her hoof to her young fan.
"Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" A beaming Scootaloo hoof-bumped Rainbow.
"I swear, Scootaloo, I'm as proud of you as I am of Rainbow Dash!" Bow Hothoof chimed in, winking at Scootaloo from across the table.
The four pegasi sat around a table in an ice cream parlor of Rainbow Dash's choosing. Rainbow Dash's parents, Windy and Bow, sat on one side of the table, while the younger two ponies were seated across from them. Rainbow and her family had insisted on taking Scootaloo out to eat after her school report. Scootaloo had known Windy and Bow for a short time, but she had already formed a strong bond with them.
"I hope you don't mind if we come see future reports," Windy said. Her light scarlet bob bounced as she spoke. "Now that Rainbow Dash is always training and such-" Windy cast an apologetic smile in her daughter's direction "-we'd love to cheer another young pony on."
"Come as often as you want!" Scootaloo flushed happily. "You guys are so cool!"
"Glad you think so, little lady," Bow chuckled.
"Aw, stop, you'll embarrass her!" Rainbow Dash said, slinging a hoof around Scootaloo's shoulders. At that moment, the waitress arrived with their ice cream. "Yes, I am starving!" Rainbow immediately killed the sentimental mood by digging into the rainbow sherbet that had just been placed in front of her.
Scootaloo took her ice cream sundae, as did Windy and Bow.
"To Rainbow Dash and her amazing career as a Wonderbolt!" Bow cheered, raising his spoon in the air.
"And to Scootaloo, and her blossoming school career!" Windy exclaimed with enough enthusiasm to rival Pinkie Pie. "Cheers!"
"Cheers!" everyone chorused, bringing their spoons together. Clink! Clink!
"I hope you had a fun time, Scoots," Rainbow Dash remarked as she escorted Scootaloo home. Dash's parents had returned to their cloud house with the promise that Scootaloo could visit anytime. The orange glow of dusk blanketed the Ponyville streets.
"I did!" Scootaloo replied eagerly. "I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again: your parents are the coolest!"
"You guys really hit it off," Rainbow commented, smiling at her faux sister. Her smiled faltered a little. "Scootaloo, can I ask... how's your relationship with you own parents?"
"Huh?" Scootaloo turned towards Rainbow, curiosity in her lilac eyes.
"You told me that your parents didn't give as much supported as mine did," Rainbow said quickly. "Was that it? Did they discourage you at all? Did they, er... hit you?"
"What?! No!" Scootaloo exclaimed in alarm. "No, they weren't abusive or anything. It's just..." Scootaloo sighed. "They didn't really do much. It's kinda complicated. Did you know we used to live in Cloudsdale?"
Scootaloo hobbled through the halls of her house. She was five years old and hungry. Her parents were around here somewhere, she knew.
Scootaloo stumbled. It was hard for her to get a grip on the cloud foundation. Sometimes, Scootaloo felt that if she wasn't careful, she'd slip right through the clouds. None of the other pegasi had this problem.
Scootaloo stopped outside the kitchen. Within, she heard voices. She recognized two as her parents', but there was a third she couldn't identify.
"Let me get this straight, doctor. You're saying our daughter has a defect?" said a feminine voice. Scootaloo's mother. The tiny filly's ears pricked. Was her mother talking about her?
"To put it frankly, yes," responded another voice, a deep masculine one. "If you say she has difficulty walking on clouds- well, that in itself will clear up with time, but it's often an indicator of an underlying issue. Weak Pegasus magic in the bloodstream. Your daughter might not even be able to fly as capably as other Pegasi do."
Scootaloo didn't understand even half of those words. Even though she was hungry, she sensed that this wasn't a conversation to be interrupted. She sat on her rump and waited for the grownups.
"So what do we do?" asked the gruff voice of Scootaloo's father. "Some physical therapy aught to fix her right up."
"I can recommend you to a specialist, if you'd like to get a more in depth diagnosis. I don't specialize in magical deficiencies." The doctor paused. "Your daughter will be fine, though."
"How will she be fine if she's defective?" Scootaloo's mother asked indignantly. Scootaloo flinched at the malice in her mom's voice.
"We're speaking about a foal, not a machine," the doctor answered cooly. "Even if she's a Pegasus who can't fly, that doesn't diminish her worth."
One of Scootaloo's parents snorted, as if the doctor had declared something absurd. "Thank you for your consultation, doctor."
"Anytime." There was rumbling in the other room. Scootaloo backed away from the doorway as the doctor emerged from the kitchen.
"Oh, hello!" He was flustered.
"Hi," Scootaloo answered. "Were you talking about me?"
"Er..." The doctor's eyes darted from side to side. "Yes. It's my job to make sure little fillies like you are healthy."
Scootaloo giggled as he ruffled her close-cropped mane.
The doctor left and Scootaloo made her way into the kitchen. Her parents were talking in low, hushed voices.
"Hi!" Scootaloo said cheerfully. "Mommy, can I have some macaroni?"
Her mother looked up, startled. "Oh, uh, of course, sweetie."
"None of that," Scootaloo's father scoffed. "We should start her on a nutritious diet, after what the doctor said."
"What's nutritious?" Scootaloo asked.
"Be quiet, honey," Scootaloo's mother ordered her in a clipped voice. She resumed talking with her husband in low tones.
Scootaloo sat and waited for another half hour before her mother finally got up and begrudgingly prepared Scootaloo's meal.
"Scoots, wow..." Rainbow Dash stared into the sunset. They were almost at Scootaloo's house.
"I didn't figure out what they were talking about," Scootaloo admitted, "until the Equestrian Games a few years ago. Diamond Tiara brought that memory back... and I understood."
"So, what happened?" Rainbow asked. "Have they been ignoring you because you have difficulty flying?"
"Who knows if that's the only reason," Scootaloo said, shrugging helplessly. "We moved to Ponyville soon after that. I think it's because my parents wanted me on safer ground. But my dad still worked in Cloudsdale. He was a corporate boss, actually. He runs a plumbing company. I don't see him often. But my mother was a different story."
"Mommy!" Scootaloo trotted into her new house. It had been just over year since they had moved in, but the rustic Ponyville cottage still maintained a new-house smell. "Mommy, guess what!"
"What is it, Scootaloo?" Scootaloo's mother asked, poking her head around the corner. "What has you so excited?"
"My friend Toola Roola is doing a dance competition, and she said I can be her partner!" Scootaloo clapped her hooves excitedly. "So can I? Can I?"
"Are you sure you can dance?" Scootaloo's mother raised an eyebrow. "You, well, you're not good at flying, and flying and dancing are awfully similar."
Scootaloo's smile wobbled, but she picked herself back up. "Not really! Earth ponies like Toola Roola can dance too. It's on Friday. You gotta come!"
"You can dance if you want to." Scootaloo's mother smiled thinly. "I'll try to come."
"She didn't come, did she?" Rainbow guessed.
"Nope." Scootaloo shook her head. "At the time I was disappointed, but when I got home she told me she had too much work. I believed her, but I'm not sure what 'work' she was doing. And if you want another example, there's the time I built my scooter. I made it a few months before Twilight came to Ponyville, actually."
"Moom! Daaaad!" Scootaloo called from the front yard. She lugged a crate of old wooden planks across the yard. "Come see what I'm doing!"
Scootaloo's father, on one of his rare off days, poked his head out the window. "What are you doing with those boards, Scootaloo?"
"Making a scooter!" Scootaloo said, her wings fluttering excitedly. "Miss Cheerilee said I could take these home and try to build something with them! Aaand if I do make something cool, she'll give me extra credit!"
"I'll have a word with your teacher about giving you false ideas," Scootaloo's father said to himself. Scootaloo was close enough to overhear, and her face fell at the comment.
"You don't think I can do it?" Scootaloo's ears flattened.
Scootaloo's father shrugged. "Have a go, kid. Don't come crying to me when you can't finish your stupid little project." He retreated inside the house.
Scootaloo's stare fixated on the wood in front of her. She could do it... couldn't she?
With less enthusiasm than before, Scootaloo set to work on her new project. Cheerilee's extra credit was her only motivation, now.
A few hours later, Scootaloo had hammered the last nail in place. She allowed a grin to slip onto her face.
"Dad! I did it!" she called. "Mom! Dad! Come look at my scooter!"
It wasn't perfect. Several nails were bent, the wheels were crooked, and the base was in dire need of a sanding. But that was nothing that couldn't be fixed. Maybe Rumble or Sweetie Belle would help when she brought her new scooter into school tomorrow.
"Mother? Father?" Scootaloo shouted again.
Scootaloo's mother didn't bother to come outside. Instead, she shouted as loud as she could: "Your father went back to work. Be quiet, honey."
Scootaloo frowned. She stared forlornly at her handiwork. "I guess it's just you and me," she said to the scooter. "I don't know why my parents ignore me."
The scooter fell over.
"Wow." Rainbow Dash was angry yet perplexed. "What total jerks."
"Yeah, well..." Scootaloo stood on her porch. "I have the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and you! They don't matter so much when I have other ponies to support you."
"Still, not okay!" Rainbow shook her head firmly. She wrapped Scootaloo in a giant bear hug. "I'll always believe in you, I promise. My parents, too."
"Thanks Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo giggled. "I think I've figured that out."
Good fic, an interesting take on the line, I liked it.
Liek to see a confronation with scoota Dead Beat Parents, too late for them to do anything but still need to be told off.
Love to see them react to Rainbow and her parents offering the support they should given her, and the love she gives in return.
Bet that pop thier little world.
8174131
8174185
Thanks guys.
...this does not feel finished.
This feels like a start.
Please. Continue.
8174185 I agree, this needs to happen.
Scootaloo's parents need a Talk, badly. They can't Let her Daughter down, just because of a Handicap. They should give her any Support they can give, so scootaloo can live a normal as it is possible. Nice to See the Handicap idea, i always Think she just needs more Time to Fly then other Pegasus.
This fic is my old canon. Pegasus magic, NOorphan. It just made my day.
Finally someone made it up and wrote! Sweet Celestia, thank you!
8174886
Could easily be that weak Pegasus magic won't ground her forever. She may never be the best or fastest flyer, but Scoots seems to be getting more flight capable in the show itself. her parents might just find that with proper encouragement their little filly will someday fly
8174886 Sadly, this is a common reaction by parents to kids who were born blind, or deaf, or with other defects.
8176745 Yeah ì'm Sure too she will Fly Someday
8176747 sadly too often we have such Reactions
This's an interesting idea, but like 8174237 says, the story doesn't feel anywhere near finished. You've shown your idea to us, but you haven't done anything with it; there's no full story to it yet.
Hmm..... A nice idea. I can see a few problems with it, though:
You establish here that it is magic that gives pegasi the ability to fly. The show has shown countless times that this is not the case, though, and that it's instead muscle strength, as you would expect it.
The most profound evidence for this can still be found in "Hurricane Fluttershy" to this day, as we saw pegasi training and strengthening the muscles in their wings to make them stronger in order to create more wingpower for creating the tornado that should lift the rainwater up to Cloudsdale.
This doesn't change anything for the fact that Scootaloo can't fly, but you might wanna replace it with muscle weakness to align it with what we've seen in the show.
The current reason feels out of place.
It is an interesting approach, that Scootaloo never knew why she can't fly, and only realized it as Diamond Tiara brought back the memory on this day. But she heard the doctor saying that she might never fly as well as other pegasi, was this really not enough for her to figure out that something is wrong with her wings?
Considering that she stood right in front of the door and heard that sentence, this seems like an awful stretch of logic.
The idea is intriguing, but the second issue is a plothole you should definitely fill somehow. This is a glaring issue that cripples the otherwise promising idea, so you should find a solution for this.
The chapter would also profit from a more thorough proofreading, as there are typos and some mismatched words.
8179429 Alrighty, thanks for the input.
I don't think Rainbow Dash's parents ever had the chance to met her friends and her pet TORTOISE.
I've been waiting anxiously for a fic based off of "Parental Glideance", and you delivered fantastically! The contrasts of parents RD and Scoots have play out fairly well, though for some reason it just felt like I was flung into the information a little too quickly. That's moreso a nitpick if anything. And even though Scootaloo's parents seemed rather cruel, it was a realistic kind of cruelty; not enough to make me feel sympathy, but enough for the whole situation to not feel forced either, which is a great blend.
The theory on how Scootaloo's incapability of flight is also intriguing. Even though there are instances in the show indicating the wing power is based off of muscle rather than magic, I always thought that they went hand in hand (hoof in hoof, in this case, lol...I'll let myself out... ) so it was both interesting and believable to me.
I also like that you left this as "incomplete", indicating that you'll be continuing this...right?
8183066 Yup, I plan on adding onto this story some more, due to other people's encouragement that I should.
8183950
Really scootaloo's parents should've been more supportive, if you catch my drift?
10940967
I don’t?