Mother's Day · 2:51am May 9th, 2022
Mother's Day is a day to honor not only the person who brought you into the world, but those who nurtured you after your birth.
Scootaloo's lesbian "aunts" raised her, and took care of her for her whole life while her biological "parents" went galavanting all across Equestria on myriad adventures.
Scootaloo's biological "parents" don't know her at all. They don't give a hoof about what Scootaloo wants or what she needs. Yet they waltz into Ponyville and pretend to be authorities in her life - pretend to know what's best for her.
They are, at best, side characters in Scootaloo's life, not real parents. The awful tragedy of this situation is that Scootaloo still idolizes them - still yearns to impress them and win their favor.
It explains a lot about her. Her daredevil attitude with her scooter. Her turning to Rainbow Dash as a mentor and surrogate sister. Her feeling that, no matter how hard she pushes herself, deep down inside, she'll never be *enough.*
Real parents are those doing the real work of parenting. Real parents put the children first.
So this Mother's Day, here's a shout out to Moms everywhere who do the real work of motherhood, whether they be biological parents or circumstantial ones.
Discuss.
-Sprocket
If you enjoy essays like these, please consider supporting my work on Patreon. You can also follow Heart Full of Pony on Tumblr
You’re very much right, Sprocket. There is a big difference in being a parent and being a Mom. And those are the people that make the biggest difference in some ones life.
Well said!
"pretend to know what's best for her"
And this is after she, without their help, found fast friends and her cutie mark, started, with said friends, a successful and popular charity/business (not sure what it'd be classed as), and, oh yeah, established close personal relationships with multiple national heroes and celebrities, including an alicorn gaining increasing prominence and power in the world with the blessing and support of the Princesses. Oh, and speaking of Princesses, they may justifiably not know that Princess Twilight is on her way to becoming sole ruler of Equestria, but Cadance? Ruler of the Crystal Empire? Yeah, their daughter was one of the flower fillies at her wedding. In Canterlot. Where Princess Celestia was personally officiating. And, sure, this sort of thing could go to a kid's head. Did, in fact, IIRC! And led to some problems. Which she worked through, with the help of people who were there at the time.
So... Yeah. Exactly how is it best for Scootaloo to not do what she wants to do, which is helping others, while she's surrounded by her friends, when said friends include some of the most powerful and influential people in the known world? Sounds like she's actually doing quite well for herself.
(...If the above is a bit long, well, I do still somewhat, despite the intervening time, recall being frustrated with them during the episode too.
Like, it's not that Scootaloo is, say, a starving artist, and there could be an argument about them wanting financial security and social stability for her vs. her wanting to do her own thing and follow her passion even if it has major drawbacks. Instead, it's Scootaloo -- well, see above. And they just walked into her life and were treating her as if that life couldn't possibly have anything in it more important than what they wanted for the young mare they'd barely interacted with.)
...In any case, a good sentiment overall you have there, I think, not just in Scootaloo's case. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)