So pretty and, oh, so bold
Got a heart full of gold on a lonely road
She said, "I don't even think that God can save me" (save me)
(Am I) gaining ground
(Am I) losing face
(Am I) lost & found by Saving Grace
Thankful for the gift my angels gave me
Theme from Saving Grace: Everlast: 2007
Thunder rumbled and rolled in the late night sky as Scootaloo trembled under her bed in fear, shaking and quivering as she heard what was going on in the next room over. The sounds of crashing and punches flying came from behind her bedroom door, and the sound of a body hitting it created a loud thud.
“That’s what you get, ya bitch!” Last Drop’s voice shouted. “Pouring all my beer bottles down the drain!”
“Well, ya deserve it! You focus more on yer booze than ya do me!” Icy Winds shouted back and then was the sound a loud slap smacking across fur.
“How do you like that huh?” Last Drop shouted as lightning flashed and lit up Scootaloo’s room illuminating just how badly kept it and Scootaloo herself were. The paint was peeling, a picture of Rainbow Dash and her had been knocked to the floor by one of the two parents in a fit of drunken rage.
“P-Please, don’t fight…” Scootaloo whispered but her pleas were ignored. “W-Why can’t you just love each other like real parents do? W-Why can’t you just love me?”
Her body begin to quiver as she sobbed softly to herself, tears rolling down her face and onto the wooden floor.
‘Why…? Why?” Scootaloo sobbed, her entire body shaking as the argument continued.
“I pay the damn bills around here, and yet all you do is spend the money on booze!” Icy Winds shouted as she punched her husband in the face, sending him staggering back. He hit a wall, and a picture behind him crashed to the floor and its glass frame broke sending pieces everywhere as it shattered.
“Look what happened today! I come home from the Cloudsdale Weather Factory with my check, and what do you do?” Icy Winds accused. “Oh, that’s right! You snatch it straight from my hooves like the Mister Grabby Hooves you are and spend it on booze! Then, next week, look what happens again! More booze! Beer, beer, beer! That’s all you ever care about, and not me!”
Her voice had turned into a bellow by this point, and now Last Drop was truly furious.
“You’re hardly innocent yourself, bitch! Look at you, offering yourself out to any stallion who’ll have your worthless body!” He roared.
“Well, it’s hardly like I have much choice in the matter, do I? It pays the bills, and besides, I get more love from them than I do from YOU!” Icy Winds snarled out. Meanwhile, Scootaloo had finally decided she’d had enough. Anywhere was better than this, surely. With a crashing sound, she threw her lamp through the window and smashed the glass before clambering out of the open window and into the grass below.
Scootaloo broke into a sprint and ran as fast and far as she could, ignoring the pounding rain soaking her fur and the howling winds.
“T-The Clubhouse!” Scootaloo whispered to herself as she ran. “T-That’s got to be a good place for me to wait out the storm and then I’ll just live out on the streets! It’s a Tartarus of a lot better place than my parents’ house!”
Sure, it wasn’t a good nor smart plan Scootaloo knew, but right now it was the only one she had. Suddenly, from behind her, she heard what sounded like the roar of a freight train thundering down the tracks and out of control and heading right off the rails. She turned and her eyes widened in fear as she saw a swirling mass of cloud heading right for her. She let out a scream of terror and tried to outpace the whirlwind, but she was soundly picked up and funneled into the cyclone…
Fluttershy’s Cottage: 3:00 AM In the morning
Scootaloo woke up with a start, clutching her Spitfire plushie to her chest and throwing light blue covers decorated with puffy white clouds off her body. She shook with sobs, panting and sweating from the nightmare/memory. Almost at once, hearing Scootaloo’s sobbing Fluttershy rushed in and pulled her into a comforting hug. At once, the younger pegasus felt her warmth and soft beating heart and snuggled into her fur and cried.
“Shh, shh… It’s okay, I’m here sweetie,” Fluttershy whispered as she let Scootaloo sob into her butter yellow fur. With a hoof, Fluttershy rubbed her back and held her wife’s daughter tightly as she continued to whisper soft comforting words to Scootaloo. “Let it all out, that’s right. Let it all out.”
Scootaloo continued to sob until it became just sniffles and looked up at the older pegasus, her eyes still glistening with tears.
“What was it about, sweetheart?” Fluttershy asked as she dabbed away at Scootaloo’s eyes with a tissue and wiped her nose.
“It… It was about…” Scootaloo whispered, almost too afraid to continue. Fluttershy gave her a warm smile.
“It’s okay, take as long as you need.” She said comfortingly.
“It was about the night I escaped from my parent's house. Those… Those bastards,” Scootaloo sniffled and Fluttershy didn’t even bother to admonish her for her choice of language. Inwardly, although she would never admit it aloud Fluttershy actually agreed with her. “T-They were arguing about drinks and all sorts of stuff, yelling at each other, and finally I had enough and ran for the Clubhouse at Sweet Apple Acres. T-That was when the tornado came and swept m-me up!”
Fluttershy pulled Scootaloo in for another hug and whispered: “It’s okay, that’s not going to happen, it never will happen, not as long as me and Rainbow are around.”
Scootaloo once again looked up at Fluttershy with tear stained eyes and asked a simple question that made Fluttershy’s heart break.
“Is… Is this what family is supposed to be like?”
Even though she was crying herself, Fluttershy managed to answer “Yes Scoots, this is what family is supposed to be like.”
After tucking Scootaloo back into bed Fluttershy trotted out of her adoptive daughter’s bedroom and shut the door as quietly as she could. She was met with Rainbow, looking incredibly tired and wearing a bathrobe and tortoise themed slippers. She bore a worried look on her face.
“What’s going on? I heard Scootaloo crying and came running as fast as I could.” Rainbow asked.
“She had a nightmare, about when she fled from those parents of hers that might I remind you, you placed her with!” Fluttershy hissed out. Rainbow looked as if she’d been punched in the gut.
“Celestia above, I know. This is all my fault. Everything that’s happened to Scootaloo, it’s on me,” Rainbow whispered, trying to look anywhere but at her wife an expression of shame upon her face. “I should have taken her in when I first gave birth to her, but I was a coward and now look what’s happened!”
“She… She asked me…” Fluttershy whispered, tears dripping down onto her cottage floor.
“Asked you about what?” Rainbow inquired, not sure if she really wanted to know.
“If this was what family was supposed to be like. You and I.” Fluttershy sobbed and Rainbow pulled her in for a hug even as she mentally snarled. “I oughta go find those two and give them another solid ass kicking.”
“Celestia above…” Rainbow whispered. “She needs help, needs to see what a real mom and dad act like.”
“I know,” Fluttershy answered. “That’s why tomorrow I’m going to take her to my parent’s house in Cloudsdale and show her how I grew up.”
“Better hope Zephyr isn’t there.” Rainbow deadpanned before shuddering and Fluttershy giggled and smiled.
“Don’t worry, if he is, I know how to deal with him.”
The Very Next Morning:
Scootaloo yawned as she awoke and smiled as she smelled the distinct whiff of pancakes being made in Fluttershy’s kitchen. With a speed like lightning, she dashed out of bed, quickly adjusting her mane to a style that was messy but not too messy and ran into the kitchen.
“Morning Scoots!” Rainbow greeted as she poured a frankly rather more than necessary amount of syrup on some pancakes and slid them across to Scootaloo as she sat down at the table, much to her surprise.
“T-This is really all for me?” Scootaloo asked in surprise.
“What?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Can’t a big sis spoil her little sister a bit? Kinda part of the job description.”
In truth, Rainbow felt her daughter deserved an extra special treat after that horrible nightmare last night. As Scootaloo practically devoured the pancakes, both Rainbow and Fluttershy smiled. As Fluttershy gave all of her animals their daily breakfasts, she turned to Scootaloo.
“Guess what?” Fluttershy asked in a tone of excitement clapping her hooves together in glee. “I sorta had this thought a few days back, and I think you’ll like it as well.”
“What? What is it?” Scootaloo asked giddily, practically bouncing in her chair with her tiny wings buzzing in excitement. Fluttershy stifled a giggle at the young pegasus' excitement.
“Well, I thought you’d like to meet my parents up in Cloudsdale. I was planning to give them a visit anyways as I haven’t seen them in a while.” Fluttershy said. “So, I thought I’d take care of two things at once and let them see their new granddaughter.”
Scootaloo’s eyes teared up in an instant as soon as Fluttershy mentioned thinking of her as a daughter.
“Y-You really see me that way?” She whispered, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing and Fluttershy nodded. As soon as she did that, Scootaloo ran over to her and embraced the older pegasus in a hug saying “Thank you, thank you!” over and over again. She then felt another scent, one which she recognized at once.
“You deserve it kid.” Rainbow smiled. “Celestia knows you deserve it, now if only I could work up the courage to say I’m her real mom…”
Cloudsdale: The Shy Home
“Wow... “ Scootaloo whispered in awe, hanging onto her adoptive mom’s back as Fluttershy flew through the clouds towards the Shy Family residence, wind brushing through their manes. “I didn’t even know you could fly this fast!”
“Well… I…” Fluttershy admitted with a tinge of embarrassment. “I usually don’t, but I’m so excited for my parents to meet you!”
Then, they both touched down. The Shy family home was smack dab in the middle of Cloudsdale suburbia, nothing really fancy about it. It was just like every other home, perfectly average and that was just the way the Shy family liked it. Its only distinguishing features were a rainbow waterfall that fell down the ground below and collected in a pool and a small building off to the side where Mr. Shy held his beloved cloud collection from the Weather Factory.
“Well, here we are,” Fluttershy smiled as Scootaloo climbed off her back. “I know it’s nothing particularly fancy, but-”
“Are you kidding?” Scootaloo asked as she looked around excitedly at everything, from the little plastic flamingos in the yard to the cloud constructed rooftop. “This is awesome!”
With a seemingly unremovable smile on her face, Scootaloo followed Fluttershy inside the house. The entire home had various rainbow themed objects, and Scootaloo raised an eyebrow towards Fluttershy who was blushing in embarrassment.
“Yes… Well… Um, my parents caught on to the fact that I liked Rainbow from a pretty young age fairly quickly and thought this would be a good way to encourage me to admit my feelings.” Fluttershy stated.
“Did it work?”
“In a way,” Fluttershy mused before she sighed. “However, my brother took it as a sign that Rainbow liked him instead of me. He’s… a character to put it lightly.”
“Fluttershy, dear!” A butter yellow pegasus with a cherry red mane, blue beads around her neck and blue glasses greeted cheerfully as she entered the room. “You should have told us you were coming!”
“And who’s this little one? Did you and Rainbow finally… Uh, have any success so to speak?” Another voice asked in a delicate tone as the mare who could only be Fluttershy’s mother began kissing Scootaloo all over. A male stallion entered the room, wearing a turtleneck sweater over his sea green coat and had a gray mane that resembled an ice cream cone.
“Actually, it’s a bit of a long story,” Fluttershy admitted. “And to be honest, it’s not something I want to bring up in front of Scootaloo.”
“Wait a minute…” Mr. Shy said in a tone of dawning realization. “Scootaloo, as in that little filly your wife talks so much about? Her little sister?”
Scootaloo nodded and was swept up in a hug by Mrs. Shy who cried “Oh, aren’t you the most adorable thing!”
“Can’t… breathe.” Scootaloo wheezed out due to Mrs. Shy’s crushing grip. At once, the elder Shy released her at once and blushed in embarrassment in the exact same way her daughter often did.
“Sit down dear, I’m interested in hearing about what’s been going on in your life.” Mr. Shy said as he sat down upon one of the cloud constructed couches. His wife looked at Scootaloo kindly. “Now, if this makes you uncomfortable, you can leave the room at once. You can go play outside if you want, or check out my husband’s cloud collection!”
Scootaloo nodded before walking out the front door, not wanting to be reminded of her upbringing any more than she had to be. After Fluttershy had finished explaining her story, both of her parents shared a look of anger.
“Why… Why those… those…” Mrs. Shy said, unable to come up with any words to describe Last Drop or Icy Winds. “If I ever got my hooves on them, I don’t know what the fudge I’d do to them.”
Even Mrs. Shy had a breaking point, and hurting little fillies, especially ones that were close to any family members of hers, was one way to trigger it.
“Trust me,” Fluttershy smiled. “Rainbow Dash and the Night Guard already have things well in hoof. All we need to do now is put them on trial and get them locked up. With the outstanding evidence against them, I’m pretty sure that won’t be very difficult.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” Mr. Shy remarked. Just about then, there was a knock on the door. With an “Excuse me.” and a polite shout of “I’m coming!” Mrs. Shy got up off the couch and opened the door. At the doorstep was a mare all pegasi knew, right down to her various medals up to her amber coated mane.
“Excuse me, do you know where I can find your daughter-in-law?” Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts, asked.