Part 1
Author’s Note: An idea I couldn’t get out of my head. Screw canon. And pony ages.
“That’s it! Just keep your wings moving!”
The rainbow-maned mare called advice down to the grounded pegasus filly, who was flapping her wings as fast as she could. Her purple mane was flipping all over the place, her face was scrunched up in concentration, and her hooves were still firmly on the ground. She grimaced, willing her small fifth and sixth limbs to buzz at an even greater speed. She opened her eyes in shock as she felt gravity lessen its embrace.
Rainbow Dash, however, had been waiting for this. Quickly, she shouted to the orange foal.
“Now! Don’t lose it! GO!”
Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed as she focused. She tensed her hind legs, wings still buzzing, and leapt forward. Not attempting to get airborne, not on the first try; just getting her body used to the idea of having no ground beneath it. Having her wings support everything. She tensed up as she landed and launched again. And again. And again. Each time she felt her hooves hit the ground in a lesser impact. Each time she felt her wings pull her a small bit closer to the endless blue canopy of the sky. She launched once more.
And she didn’t land.
She opened her eyes again and stared at the ground rolling beneath her, easily two feet from her lowest hoof. A cheer from above drew her attention from herself to her hero, the mare who had been her inspiration, her idol, and finally (after many-repeated requests) her flight teacher. The mare who had feigned a cool indifference to the filly for months before finally acknowledging her, the mare that had kept her going even through the many tough times in her life, the mare who was one of the five ponies in Scootaloo’s life that truly cared for the orange filly.
The mare who was yelling at her to pull up. Scootaloo turned her head just in time to smack snout first into a tree.
“That was awesome! I actually flew for a whole twenty seconds!”
“It was pretty cool. Y’know, except for the whole tree part.” Rainbow Dash grinned at the slightly-injured young pony, who was bouncing in a very similar manner to a certain pink mare Rainbow had the pleasure of knowing. Scootaloo didn’t seem to notice the hurt snout until Rainbow Dash had stuffed a small cloudpuff in to stop the bleeding. It certainly did nothing to dampen her excitement.
“You said every pegasus crashes on their first try.” She looked at Rainbow, who nodded. “And besides, I flew! Mom and Dad are gonna be so excited!” Scootaloo bounded towards the tree under which her scooter lay, and Rainbow sucked on her tongue as the filly strapped her helmet on, contemplating those two titles. Mom and Dad. She took a breath and asked.
“About them… where were they?”
Scootaloo, with helmet secured and dragging the scooter up to the road, stopped and stared at the rainbow-maned mare. She coughed before answering.
“Dad was busy. Mom was there, she just didn’t come out.”
“I meant through the whole thing. Even if your dad’s an earth pony, your mom’s still a pegasus. Why didn’t she teach you?” Scootaloo hopped on her scooter, flexing her wings and pulling down the goggles she’d developed a need for while riding. She turned away from Rainbow and Ponyville before answering.
“Mom’s terrified of flying. And she doesn’t want anypony to know who her or Dad are.”
“But why?” Rainbow asked. Scootaloo shrugged.
“They said that if ponies knew who they were, I could get taken away. And they could get in trouble, though they don’t seem to care about that part. I think they’re just shy or something.” She looked back at Rainbow. “Thanks for teaching me, RD. Mom and Dad really appreciate it.” With that, her wings started up, and she sped off in a cloud of dust before Rainbow could ask anything else. The mare looked down the road at the rapidly receding dust cloud, then up at the open sky. She looked down again.
Many ponies assumed from Rainbow’s demeanour that she was exclusively a crass, excitable, none-too-bright pegasus. Underlying this attitude, however, was a mostly fully-functional mind, in no way developmentally disabled nor of anywhere near less-than-average intelligence. The brazen pony was quite smart, in fact, when loyalty or some other factor didn’t blind her to what was going on.
At this point, however, Rainbow Dash felt that even Snails could have seen the problem with what Scootaloo had just said.
“…doesn’t want anypony to know who her and Dad are… I could get taken away… they could get in trouble…”
Ignoring the less probable possibilities
(ChangelingsVampiresWerewolvesZombiesPodponiesChickens)
and focussing on the more probable ones, Rainbow Dash had within seconds designated three possibilities for Scootaloo’s evasiveness. (Raising yourself nearly alone had certain advantages; namely, being able to quickly discern reasons for somepony’s actions, like if they were giving you food to get you into their closed carriage.)
A) Scoot’s parents were criminals, hiding from the law and possibly training their daughter in their illegal trades. It would explain why they were so recluse. Flying was what got them (nearly) caught, so they were reluctant to do it.
B) Scoot’s parents abused her, probably mentally, physically and (Rainbow shuddered) sexually, though if they did the last two they were damn good at covering it up, or had a unicorn that healed the filly. They had gotten Scootaloo into a “guilty victim” mindset, so she was reluctant to speak about them for fear of doing something “wrong”. Not teaching her to fly was a part of the abuse, possibly to shame her into being more pliable.
C) Scoot was an orphan. No parents, no home, allowing her licence to make up stories in order to get ponies to help her in situations where parents would usually be present, such as learning to fly. Explained their lack of presence, Scootaloo’s apparent total freedom from home authority, and why she had to rely on Rainbow for flight training.
Though Rainbow considered all three options, she leaned towards C. B was just terrible to even think about, and A, while better, was still not good. She recognized a lot of her young self in the filly, which only served to support C even more.
Well, there’s only one way to find out. Follow Scootaloo to investigate her home life, without informing her or anypony else of what I’m about to do, possibly destroying my biggest fan’s trust in me eternally for going behind her back. Perfect plan, Rainbow Dash.
The only sound she made was from her wings as she launched into the sky.
It had only taken a minute for Rainbow Dash to locate the orange scooter-riding pegasus up the road. Thanking the weather schedule and its call for partial-cloudiness, Rainbow skilfully and silently rocketed from cloud to cloud, keeping Scootaloo in her sight and Rainbow out of Scootaloo’s. The filly shot up the road for a time, every moment picking up distance from Ponyville and getting closer to the one place Rainbow was willing to admit she was scared of.
The Everfree Forest.
Well, A is becoming more likely. Really, no better place for a criminal to live than one that doesn’t follow natural laws anyways. Rainbow ducked behind a nearby cloud as Scootaloo came to a fork in the road. The sign with the left arrow read EVERFREE FOREST: BEWARE; the right arrow read ANIMAL CARE SHELTER, with Fluttershy’s Cottage scratched in under it. Scootaloo looked up at the sign, down all three roads, then at the skies above her. Rainbow could feel her gaze as she looked directly at the cloud the rainbow-maned mare was hiding behind, but soon heard the sound of small wings and a dirt road being rode upon. She hastily shot out from cover, seeing Scootaloo travelling down the left path. Rainbow Dash, surprising herself, felt her blood go cold.
Oh Celestia please don’t let her be raised by criminals or live in the bucking Everfree by herself I promise I’ll take care of her more often please please please!
To Rainbow’s immense relief, Scootaloo stopped barely a half-kilometre from the fork, still well away from the Everfree’s “entrance”, such as it was. She did another cursory lookaround before wheeling her scooter to the side of the path, right up against the bush border. Then she seemed to meld into the growth, and suddenly there wasn’t mane or coat of the filly to be seen.
Rainbow swooped down to where Scootaloo had entered the bush, keeping her eyes focussed on exactly where she had gone. Poking it experimentally with a hoof, she found it gave way much more easily than the surroundings. One well-placed kick later, and Rainbow Dash found herself looking at a beaten, overgrown path in the undergrowth, completely hidden by the canopy above.
Okay… Hidden path leading Celestia-knows-where? Option A is definitely looking promising. Unfortunately.
Rainbow crept slowly along the path, though she couldn’t even hear Scootaloo ahead. It wound and twisted, and Rainbow could have sworn she had seen a bear or cockatrice in the wall of trees that bordered the path. The path itself was not precisely safe, either; Rainbow KNEW she had stepped on a snake, or a creeper, or some kind of creepy crawly thingy that had hid in the trampled leaves. She could still feel it slithering under her hoof for the millisecond before she had leapt off of it with a strangled shriek.
For Scootaloo. For Scootaloo. For Scootaloo.
She walked for what seemed like forever before the forest seemed to thin, the path becoming less dark as the leaves cleared above. Rainbow found herself walking along an actual path again, one that became more and more maintained as she walked out of the forest and into a clearing.
A clearing that held a number of animal houses, as well as a cottage in the centre. One that she had seen numerous times before. It belonged to her oldest friend, an extremely shy pegasus that was terrified of flying.
Rainbow Dash felt the click inside her brain as she realized just who Scootaloo’s mother was.
“Scootaloo was raised by chickens.” The weathermare muttered to herself. “I’d better tell Fluttershy so she doesn’t freak out at seeing Scootaloo in the chicken coop.” The words were empty, hollow, and the only thing that made sense to Rainbow Dash at the time. She felt her legs pull her towards the cottage, hearing muffled voices that became clearer as she got closer. One was undoubtedly Scootaloo. The other was too low for Rainbow to really tell.
“Ow, Mom, I’m fine, really!”
“But you hit a tree and you might have a concussion and please stop squirming…”
Only one pony talks that quiet. Shut up.
Rainbow had meant to go to the door and make her presence known. Instead, she stopped at the window and looked inside. Barely a glance, really. Just trying to see who that not-Scootaloo-totally-unknown-Mom-pony was inside.
“See, I told you. Fine. Really, Mom, you need to stop worrying so much.”
“Oh, I know, but I saw you hit the tree and I almost shot out of the woods, but then Rainbow flew down and I realized I didn’t have any healing supplies so I came back here and then you walked in with the cloud in your nose and I was so worried and eeeee…”
What Rainbow Dash saw was Scootaloo hugging a familiar pale-yellow pegasus with a pink mane, rubbing her back and saying “Its okay Mom, just calm down, I’m fine…” in a comforting tone she had only heard Fluttershy use before.
Fluttershy was the pony Scootaloo was hugging and calling Mom.
Fluttershy.
Celestia’s bucking horseapples.
Applejack sighed happily as she watched the apples fall in an organized whump into the baskets below. Applebucking was easy, it was calming, it was familiar. It helped her wind down and take her mind off of other things. Like whether Rainbow Dash was doing some stupid trick that might end up destroying a corner of the orchard. Again.
“APPLEJAAAAAAAAAACK!”
Well, when ya speak of Tartarus…
A familiar cyan pegasus came shrieking out of the sky. Applejack simply braced herself as the pony came ever closer to realizing that she was going far too fast to stop and-
“AAAAAAAA-“ WHAMPH WHOOSH “…Ow.”
“What do you want, Rainbow? Besides destroying more of the apple trees?”
“Hey, I totally apologized for that!” The now-dirt-covered pony, jumping out of the crater she had created, said indignantly. Then she seemed to remember her reason for visiting. “I need to ask you something!” She grabbed Applejack and pulled her so they were staring each other in the eyes. The earth pony gulped as she recognized the other mare’s crazed look. Aw, horseapples, she looks like Twilight did with that whole “Friendship Letter” thing a while back.
“Eerm, well, alright, sugarcube. What’cha wanna ask about?”
“You can tell when somepony’s lying, right?”
The orange mare snorted. “Darn straight Ah can. It’s part of my Element of Harmony, ain’t it?”
“Right! Good! Now, can you tell when somepony’s lying even if they don’t think they’re lying, or when they’re telling the truth even if they don’t think it’s the truth?”
“The first one, Ah dunno. The second one Ah can, though.” Rainbow let go, nodding and muttering to herself. “Are you alright, sugarcube? Is somepony botherin’ you?” Rainbow looked up at her and shook her head. “Then what’s got you so riled up?”
“…Okay, you’ll tell me if this isn’t the truth, right?” Applejack nodded. Rainbow took a breath. “Fluttershy is Scootaloo’s mother.”
What.
Applejack stared at Rainbow Dash, confusion clear on her face. She waited for the little brain-twinge that signaled an untruth.
This has to be a joke. Fluttershy, a mother? She’s kind enough, Ah guess, but one look from a stallion in the necessary way and she’d probably be out cold from embarrassment. Besides, she’s much too young. Nineteen years old with a seven-year-old daughter? Come on, that just ain’t realistic.
Still no twinge. She still stared at Rainbow, but with a look of dawning horror.
“…Well?” Rainbow asked, tensing in anticipation. Applejack fell back on her haunches.
“Aw, horseapples.”
“But it don’t make a lick’a sense!” The confused earth pony said to her equally-confused pegasus companion as they walked into the farmhouse. “How in Tartarus can they be… can Fluttershy… just how?!” She stomped her hoof, wincing as she heard the floorboards underneath give a small crack.
“I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash answered, no longer crazy-eyed but still significantly out of sorts. She looked like she had just seen the Wonderbolts fall to their deaths, her eyes unwilling to focus on anything, leaving her staring into space.
“Ah mean, she’d’a had’a been twelve for the ages ta work out! An’ the needed manouverin’ and such things… well, I just don’t think Fluttershy has it in ‘er!”
“So are you saying you could be wrong?” Rainbow asked, her gaze finally focusing on Applejack, a mad kind of hope behind her eyes. Applejack took several slow steps away from Rainbow, only to have the pegasus follow her. “You, you could have gotten it wrong, right? Fluttershy might not be Scootaloo’s mom, right? It might have just been a mistake, right? Or a prank. Yeah, a prank! It’s just a prank, just a joke they’re playing on me! Ha ha ha!” Rainbow Dash began to laugh, an empty, tinny laugh. It set Applejack’s neck hair bristling.
“No, sugarcube. You told me what you saw, an’ you weren’t tellin’ no lies through it. Unless my Element has been seriously bucked up, we need to work with the idea that Fluttershy is Scoot’s ma.” Rainbow Dash stared at her for a few more seconds, then… crumpled. There was really no other word for it. She fell onto the couch (Applejack hadn’t even noticed that they’d come into the living room) and before Applejack could say anything she could hear a kind of keening sob come from in between the cushions. Applejack sat beside her friend, unsure how to proceed.
Finally, she worked up the nerve to place a hoof on Rainbow’s back and rub comfortingly. Slowly but surely, the pegasus’ keens became moans, her sobs became mild cries, and she eventually grew completely silent. She lifted her head from the couch and gave a puffy, red-eyed glance at Applejack before putting her face in her hooves.
“You alright, sugarcube? Got that all outta yer system?” Rainbow nodded, sniffling. “Well… I don’t mean to pry, but do ya have any idea what brought that on?” Rainbow shook her head.
“I dunno.” She said, sniffling again. “I just… with Scootaloo and… she’s Fluttershy’s… why am I so worked up about this?!” She yelled, starting to cry again. Applejack quickly put a foreleg around her distressed friend, trying to stop another bout of sadness before it could start.
“Ah think Ah might know why, sugarcube.” Rainbow peeked out from her hooves. “Ah might be wrong, but it seems yer
probably feelin’ a bit betrayed by Scootaloo and Fluttershy for not tellin’ ya, right? Feelin’ offended that they didn’t trust ya enough ta let ya in on the secret?” Rainbow thought for a few seconds before nodding. “Fluttershy’s been yer best friend since Flight Camp, so Ah’m bettin’ she shares just about everythin’ with ya, am Ah right?” Rainbow nodded again, quicker this time. Applejack heard the front door open, the unmistakable thump-thump of Big Macintosh’s hooffalls sounding through the house.
A lightbulb went off in Rainbow’s head.
“Hold on to that thought, AJ. Hey, Big Mac!” She called. The hooffalls stopped. “Get in here; I need to ask you something!”
A few seconds passed before the steps started again, then Big Mac’s head swung into view. “Howdy, Miss Dash. What did ya wanna ask about?”
“You’ve been dating Fluttershy since she was legal, right?” Big Mac’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and Rainbow Dash facehoofed, rephrasing her question. “You’ve been dating Fluttershy since her eighteenth birthday, right?” At this, Big Mac nodded.
“Eeyup. Comin’ up on our one-and-a-half year anniversary, now. Was that yer question?”
“Part of it. Given how quickly you hooked up, is it safe to assume that there was some kind of… relationship between you two before then?”
“Er…Eeyup…” Big Mac said, more caution in his voice now. Applejack tried to figure out Rainbow’s train of thought.
“So you’ve been over to her house a lot, right? For… dates and stuff? Even before you started ‘dating’?” Applejack’s eyes
widened as her thoughts clicked and she saw the narrow, angered look Rainbow Dash was aiming at her older brother.
“Rainbow, what in the hay are-“ Applejack began. The pegasus cut her off.
“You’re Scootaloo’s father, aren’t you?”
Time seemed to stop. Big Mac jolted and froze, confusion and fear in his eyes meeting with Rainbow’s burning gaze. Applejack watched both of them, eyes flickering between the two, as the rest of the muscles in her body refused to move an inch.
“Um…” he began. That seemed to be enough for Rainbow.
“You fucking bastard!” Applejack was shocked out of her paralysis at Rainbow’s language, and quickly moved to grab her tail as the pegasus tensed up to launch at her startled brother. Rainbow shrieked as her jump was cut off by Applejack’s stalwart hold on her tail. “What the fuck are you doing?! Are you gonna take his side on this?! He took advantage of Fluttershy!”
“You don’t know that!” Applejack said through Rainbow Dash’s tail. She shot a look at her brother. “Eshplain what’sh going on, Mac!” The stallion gulped.
“Erm… well…” He sighed. “Aw, feathers. Ah can’t do this.” He looked up at the two mares, one trying to get to him for undoubtedly violent reasons and the other desperately holding her back. “Ah’m Scootaloo’s father.” Applejack’s jaw dropped, and Rainbow Dash hit the floor as her wings stopped working.
Rainbow recovered faster. She again gave a wordless roar and shot at the earth pony stallion, intending to bowl him over
so that she could geld him with her teeth.
Instead, she found herself knocking him back an inch as her speed met his solid grip on the floorboards. She futilely pushed and shoved, the only result being a mildly annoyed snort from the stallion. He grunted, thrusting his chest out, and suddenly she was stumbling backwards, falling over Applejack and doing a reverse somersault onto the couch. Her head hit the wall with a thunk, and she saw stars as a blurry red shape tied her down.
“Wha…artar…’ya mean…Scoota…appy?!” The orange blur behind the red one made sounds that sounded like words that were being fed through a funnel cloud. Rainbow Dash felt herself giggling. Silly blur, those aren’t words. Hehehe.
“…uttershy wan…let her…Ah thin…nbow Dash…be hurt…” The red blur said back. Rainbow frowned. That sounds like Big Mac. Didn’t I want to hurt him for something? Her eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated on remembering, the act of which worsened her headache. Just a couple minutes ago… he said… what? “…she looks rea…go get Flutter…” Rainbow stopped trying to think. It hurt too much. She opened her eyes (Why’d I close them?), wincing and closing them again at the light from the window. (Right. Light hurts.)
Seemingly moments later, an extremely cold sensation washed over Rainbow, like she had just flown through a snow cloud. She gasped in shock as her mind cleared, memories flooding back in a jumbled heap. Trying to sort through them, she noticed two things: there were five other ponies in the room in her sight range, comprising of four of her friends (who seemed glued to the wall) and a familiar nurse pony who managed to watch her with a perfect mix of concern and exasperation. And she was tied to the couch.
“Wha…whoza…What the hay happened?” she asked nopony in particular. The nurse pony (Redheart, Rainbow remembered) moved in with a flashlight between her teeth, pulling Rainbow Dash’s eyelids apart and staring into her pupil as the light shone in.
“Wha’ happened is that you tried t’attack mah brother, and he sent ya fer a tumble.” Applejack answered. “Yer tied up to pr’vent ya from doin’ it again.”
“Buh…Scootaloo…Fluttershy…”
“Um, I’m right here, Rainbow Dash.” A familiar, soft-spoken voice from beyond Rainbow’s sight range said. Nurse Redheart tsked as Rainbow tried to turn to see her pegasus friend, pulling her head back into place.
“Rainbow, I need to make sure you don’t have permanent damage from the collision. Would you please not move your head?” The nurse asked. Rainbow nodded before freezing her head in place at Redheart’s look.
A few minutes later, the nurse pony finally ceased her examination of Rainbow, and reported that she couldn’t see any unfixable damage. She left, but not before confirming with Big Mac and Fluttershy that Scootaloo had a checkup scheduled. Her head finally free, Rainbow Dash turned to stare at the couple. Fluttershy meeped and nuzzled in closer to Big Mac. Rainbow sighed.
“Listen, Fluttershy… I’m not mad at you.” She looked at the stallion. “Him, however, I want to tie up, emasculate, and drop
from the air while doing a downward corkscrew Sonic Rainboom.” Big Mac visibly swallowed.
“I dunno what ‘emasculate’ means, but that doesn’t sound like it’d be much fun, Dashie.” Pinkie said. Rainbow turned to face her, looking at each of the four ponies on her left in succession. Applejack, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie. All
of whom were displaying unreasonably low levels of righteous fury at the situation, in Rainbow Dash’s opinion.
“Do none of you care about this?!” she yelled, wincing as a mild ache returned to her head. “Fluttershy is Scootaloo’s mother. Do any of you see the implications there?”
“Rainbow, dear, of course we care.” Rarity said, stepping further into the room. This seemed to break the tension, as the other three soon followed. “We just don’t wish to take… unnecessary action with a lack of information.”
“What lack of info?! Scootaloo is Big Mac and Fluttershy’s foal! She’s seven, Fluttershy’s nineteen, and Big Mac is twenty three! I can do enough math to figure out that he did things to her that she wasn’t ready for!” She glared at the stallion, who met her look evenly. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack all looked at the pair in the corner as well. Pinkie Pie simply draped herself over the couch (and Rainbow Dash).
“Actually, I was hoping for an explanation for that.”
“Me too, darlings.”
“Ah kinda wanted ta figure that out myself. What in tarnation went on there?”
“I knew about it already!”
Every eye turned to Pinkie Pie, who was busy trying to get Rainbow’s jaw to reattach to her head.
“You did?!” Four voices asked at once. Pinkie Pie gave them an incredulous stare, and Big Mac sighed.
“She came outta nowhere a couple months after she moved ta Ponyville an’ asked when Scootaloo’s birthday was.” Big Mac answered. “We don’t know how she knew. And Ah didn’t do nothin’ with Fluttershy back then!”
“Then how the hay do you explain Scootaloo?! Did she just magically poof up out of thin air?” Rainbow looked around. “Where is she, anyways?”
“Well, um, after I made sure she was alright, she said she wanted to go show off her flying to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.” Fluttershy said. “And, um, well, she kind of did just poof up, um, out of nowhere…” Big Mac nodded at this whispered statement, while the other ponies looked at the demure pegasus in a mix of shock and disbelief.
“You can’t be serious.” Rainbow finally said.
“Well we are!” Big Mac responded.
“Um…” Fluttershy squeaked.
“No. No, that’s not how you make foals. You can’t be serious.”
“Ah said Ah was. An’ Ah don’t lie.”
“Please don’t fight…”
“That doesn’t make sense! How in Tartarus is she your daughter if you didn’t have sex? You’re lying, one way or
the other!”
“Ah know it don’t make sense, but that’s how it is! An’ you ain’t welcome here if you can’t accept it!”
“HEY!”
Silence. Everypony stared at the sudden outburst from the quiet pegasus, who shrunk back a little, trying to think of a way
to calm everypony down. She got an idea, a small light flickering in her head. She turned up to her stallion and whispered in his ear. He turned to her in surprise.
“…Y’sure ‘bout that, sugarcube?” he asked Fluttershy. She nodded. Big Mac sighed, then turned to address the other ponies. “Fluttershy wants t’explain what happened. We ain’t done this for nopony before. Ah don’t want her interrupted, understand?” He directed this last remark at Rainbow Dash, who responded with a raspberry. “Ah still have some rope. Enough for a really tight bridle…”
“It’s okay. She can interrupt if she wants, I mean.” Fluttershy spoke up. He nodded, then backed up, allowing her to take the group’s focus. She looked around at the faces of her friends, bracing herself. “Okay. Okay.” She took in a breath.
“It was a month after I left Cloudsdale…”