//------------------------------//
// The key for happiness. 
// Story: A Game of Homes. 
// by Lethrael 
//------------------------------//

The key for happiness.

Sunny Rays finished the hug after she had calm down and caressed Scootaloo meditative with one wing. She turned over to her seat and put a pancake on her own plate. Finally she sat down and look down to the round sweet cake on it. Scootaloo pulled a jar of dark red jelly closer and put a knife into her mouth. She put it into the jelly and stopped. She drooped her shoulders and stared into the red jelly. Her sigh helped Sunny to get out of her thoughts and she smiled to Scootaloo.
“You know, your granny had done pancakes for me every time when I was sad.
I thought it would help you too.”
The filly raised her head and sighed again. She looked over the small amount of pancakes on the platter and her eyes finally stayed on Sunny Rays. Her voice sounded low, as she turned over and looked down on her plate again.
“Mum had made them every time, we have something to celebrate.
Every birthday she had made a bunch of them.”
Her aunt nodded and her smile shrank a little bit. But her voice sounded encouraging for the filly.
“We should eat, as long as they're warm, shouldn't we?”
Her answer avoided every mention of Curryfeather and Scootaloo nodded relieved. Sunny smiled and took a jar of honey with her wing. She gathered some of the viscous golden honey around a knife in her mouth and dripped it on the baked delightfulness in front of her. Scootaloo put the jelly on her own pancake and coiled it up. The mare and the filly picked the pancakes with both front hooves and were taking a bite shortly after one other. A little bit of the filling dropped from both of the rolled pancakes onto the plate while some smeared around their faces.

The sweet taste on her tongue was just perfect, like it had to be. Sunny had made the pancakes like Mum. She had found something she could do quite as good as her Mum. Her expression changed into her first real smile today, as she took another bite and chewed very pleased.

Sunny Rays watched the filly over her own pancake roll and saw the smile on her face. She herself hid her emotions behind her roll full of honey and both holding hooves. She shut her eyes closed, sighed silently at the pancake and took her next bite. Only now were all the joy and happy memories released while she enjoyed the warm pancake and golden sweet inside.

“Aunt, Sunny, you know. Thanks.”
Scootaloo wasn't able to say more, her lips smeared and glued with the sweet jelly. She licked away the jelly from her mouth and wiped the rest out of her face with one hoof. She reached out for a new pancake and started to put more jelly on it.	This time she smiled and her tail waved excited. Sunny watched the filly and nodded. The breakfast lifted Scootaloo's spirits, in which she didn't know exactly how. It could be the pancakes had helped her, or aunt Sunny's apology, or the fact, that she wanted to spend time with her, or he present. The filly shook the head and cleared her thoughts for a moment. She wiped away the rest of jelly out of her face and pushed away the plate.
“I really loved it, Sunny.”
The smile widened and she grabbed the first letter. First Sunny Rays wanted to say something about her gluey hooves, but she stopped and shrugged it off. She couldn't say anything, the filly was in a way too good mood. Scootaloo noticed the sticking jelly on her own, as she leaved red sticky spots on the cover, so she tried to put it down again. But it stuck and she had to use her nose to put it away from her sticky hooves. She stood up, tölted, a kind of move Sunny hadn't seen from her for a long time and went into the bathroom. She washed her hooves very neatly and cleaned away every spot of red jelly on her coat. Then she took a look in the mirror though and quite different form tomorrow her smile stayed on the face. She left her reflection and bounced back to the living room. There she watched over her present and the two letters and grinned excited. What should she open first?” She thought for a few moments and decided to keep up the suspense as long as possible. Scootaloo took the first letter and opened it.

Dear Scootaloo,

I really want to apologise.
It's true, I've thought about the things I've done in the library.
I'd thought, that a good day would help you with your home sickness 
and maybe you'd even able to forget it.
But as I woke up this morning, I...
I have to admit, I'd a nightmare tonight.
I was alone, tried to run cross Ponyville and was searching for Mum and Dad.
But they weren't around and I felt so lonely and scared and...
I'm sorry, this isn't helping, right?
I am really sorry for what happened and want to ask,
if you have any idea what I can do to help you?
I would do anything to make you happy again.
Please, would you like to go with me and see Princess Celestia together 
and maybe we could have a sleepover 
Mum would allow it.
I hope you can forgive me and still be my friend.

Love Sweetie Belle.

Her smile faded away of her face and Scootaloo started to chew on her lips again. She drooped the letter very slowly and pulled it away, like it was stinky. She closed her eyes shut and breathed deeply out. Her wings trembled slightly, but she took the second letter into her hooves, before her thoughts became much bluer.

Dear Scootaloo,

I haven't heard  from Fluttershy right now, so I really hope you're feeling better. 
If you need to talk, stop by the library at any time and I'll do what I can to help. 
Princess Celestia is visiting later today as you already know, 
so I hope I will see you there. 
By the way, I'd like to thank you for helping in the last few days. 
It was a blast to have you around.
After the celebration, please stop by the library.
I've prepared a little thank you present, and I'm sure you'll love it. 
Rainbow Dash wanted to give you back your scooter, and asked how we can do this. 
If you want to, we could say her, that she can meet you in the library and I oversee your meeting.

Yours faithful friend Twilight Sparkle.
P.S. 
Spike also invites you over for a cup of cocoa, if you want too. 
I'm really happy he's making new friends here, and I think he'd make a great friend in you. 

This letter lifted Scootaloos mood a little bit and a smile returned to her face. She put back the letter over Sweetie Belles and hide it totally under it. She pulled the gift from Sunny closer to herself. First she loosened the ribbon slowly ,but the excitement overtook her easily and she ripped the present open in a matter of seconds. Finally she held a colourful box in her hooves and saw a letter on the top.	First she just wanted to open it, to calm down her curiosity, but Sunny would surely be disappointed, if she did so. So she opened the letter first.

Dear Scootaloo,

I'm really glad, you're here. I'm sorry, that I didn't express it clearly:
I love you truly.
Though I know, that I can't replace your mother.
I want to help you, but can't be there for you when you need me most.
I'm so sorry for that.
I should do it better, you know?
This present is my first step for an apology and a change. 
It's something that everpony needed sometimes.
It's somepony who could protect you in your dreams.
I know you had get something similar from your Mum,
but I believe he is much stronger then yours.
You have to look out for him very carefully.
It's your Mumys own after all, and I'm sure she would be very sad, if you loose him.
I hope you like your Mum's teddy bear.

Love 
Sunny.

Scootaloo opened the box and faced a pale blue stuffed animal, a bear with white paws and dark eyes and nose, who smiled at her gently. 	She lifted the bear out of the box and put it carefully on the table. Under him laid a folded painting besides a small photo. The monochrome photo was yellowed and she saw four pegasi on it. Despite the lack of colour, Scootaloo was able to spot her Mum in an instant. She assumed, that her Cutie Mark had appeared shortly before the photo was shot, because she stood in the centre, stretched her neck and showed the mortar and the pestle right into the camera. On her right side stood another filly with an almost bugged expression on her face, barely kept in line by an tempered smile. Scootaloo remembered her Cutie Mark vaguely, but she couldn't say her name from it. Three raindrops on a very bright coat and a dark mane with one lighter streak in both tail and mane just showed how little shared a similar shape like her siblings. She stood out so much, that it would be easy to say, that she hadn't anything in common with her siblings. And her expression on the photo showed this perfectly. 
On the left side stood a colt with a scrubby dark mane and a Wonderbolt cadet cap. The colt smiled widely and had laid a hoof around the neg of Mum. He even nuzzled her face and didn't tried to stay in the spotlight on his own. Aside him stood a way younger filly, just barely able to fly, her little wings froze in a flutter, as she had hopped into the air to be on the same high like the other three. The smile on the small light face was the widest and her hooves were lifted, as like as she wanted to jump into a hug with her Mum.
“Uh, those're we. Her four little pegasi, as Mum always said.
You've spot your own Mum right from the start, don't you?”
Scootaloo looked up and nodded to Sunny Rays. The mare had come closer and smiled at her. The filly took the picture out of the box very carefully. Sunny came a little bit closer again and pointed on the elder filly on the picture.
“This is your aunt Sunshower. Have you seen her in Cloudsdale once?”
Scootaloo shook her head. Sunny stopped, took a deep breath and shook her head almost pejorative. She stomped her hoof on the ground once and her tail even snapped. Scootaloo tried to understand why she was so angry and drew a circle on the ground. But Sunny ignored her and pointed on the colt.
“Alright I think you will see her some day.
This one is your uncle Blaze and I'm sure he wouldn't mind, when you ask him for the cadet cap. 
If we were able to find it in his mess of an attic.”
Scootaloos eyes started to beam and she smiled as wide as the smallest filly on the picture. Sunnys smile widened too and she pointed on her younger self on the picture.
“And of course, this is me. Your grandmare had taken this picture, as your Mum had earned her Cutie Mark.”
Scootaloo nodded and put down the picture on the table slowly. Finally she opened the last piece of her present. A painting of five hearts on a pink ground, a big one centred and two  hearts above and two beneath it. She turned it in her hooves, tried to understand what she just saw and gave up with a puzzled expression on her face.	Sunny smiled gently and nudged her nose with one hoof gently.
“This is truly special, Scootaloo.
Your Mum had painted it shortly after you was born.
Every heart symbolised somepony.
The small one on the upper right is your aunt Sunshower.”
Sunny pointed at it and smiled. Her voice sounded a little bit embittered and her tail snapped again.
“The slightly bigger one left beneath is your uncle Blaze.”
As she pointed at this, her voice become just a little bit warmer, still she managed to drew shyly an apologetic circle on the ground. Then she turned to the bigger hearts.
“And this are you and me?”
Scootaloo pointed at the hearts on both sides, but Sunny shook her head and smiled gently. She took the last step and placed herself beside Scootaloos chair. She leaned reserved against the smaller body, but Scootaloo cuddled up against her.
“No Scootaloo, these are your Mum...”
She pointed on the heart above and than on the one underneath the big one.
“And I. 
You're the big heart in the middle, you know.”
The filly stared at the big heart, opened her mouth to say something, anything, but she just couldn't. A smile stayed on her face.