Celestia was in her throne room looking over the court papers from the proceedings on Scootaloo's legal status following the death of her parents. She shook her head a little, it was like Seraphim had gone out of her way to erase any trace of Scootaloo's ties to her family from existence, she was going to have to have a word with the judge that presided over the case at some point, she suspected they had taken a bribe.
Most of the proceedings were fairly standard, a lawyer had been brought in to represent Scootaloo and her parents' estate but the arguments had been shot down and the judge had agreed with Seraphim, which was how Scootaloo had wound up in the orphanage and foster system.
Something still bugged her however, what had happened to her father's side of the family? She seemed to remember that Cruising had an older sister who could've easily taken care of the filly, why hadn't she been put in their care?
That's when she found a reference in the files that made her frown:
"The foal's aunts Holiday and Lofty have been determined to be incapable of caring for her and not be allowed to take custody of Scootaloo or to maintain contact with her.
That didn't sound right, she went through the files again and found the report from Foal Protective Services on the trip to the aunt's home. She frowned a little as she read it, it looked like it had been heavily altered and an attempt had been made to match the original hoofwriting.
"Well, we'll see about that," she said and her horn glowed as she cast a spell that would return it to its original form as the writing on it changed and she started to read once more.
Subjects: Holiday and Lofty.
Relation to the Foal: Paternal Aunt and her Wife.The home is kept clean, there are no problems between the two mares and they pass a full background check. They expressed interest in taking the foal in and seemed to be generally interested in her well being. Given they are the foal's most immediate family, they seem to be the most qualified to take care of her.
Recommendation: Approval For Guardianship of Scootaloo.
When she was done, she had the answers she needed. The question now became how she was going to proceed with this information.
She called her aide and told them to get a message sent to Foal Protective Services and then to the two mares in question. She just had to hope she was doing the right thing.
00000
The next day Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were waiting for Silver Lining to arrive so they could finalize the adoption process. Scootaloo looked a little nervous but smiled a little as Rainbow Dash put her wing around the younger filly.
"Don't worry, it'll be okay squirt, there's nothing to worry about," Rainbow said reassuringly as she nuzzled the filly gently.
"Are you sure? What if there's a problem with the papers, what if they lost them on the way here... what if..." Scootaloo said, she was trying not to be nervous but it wasn't helping matters.
"Don't worry, everything will be just fine," Rainbow said as she held Scootaloo close. "We'll be just fine, don't you worry, its practically a formality at this point."
The door opened and Silver Lining came in followed by Celestia and Twilight. "I apologize for the delay but I had to look into some things on request from Princess Celestia, is everything ready here?"
"Yeah, we're all set," Rainbow said as Silver Lining looked around in her bags and took out a stack of papers.
"Good, at this point there is no real reason to delay, but the Princess wanted you two to be informed of a recent, development involving Scootaloo's family," Silver Lining said with a sigh. "It seems that when the matter of Scootaloo's guardianship was being settled there was a bit of a, legal snafu."
"If you can call a gross miscarriage of justice that," Twilight muttered.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Scootaloo asked with a tilt of her head. "What happened exactly?"
"Your father had an older sister named Holiday, Scootaloo," Celestia said with a sigh. "It seems that while the whole thing was being worked out, they were considered for your guardians however due to some doctored reports..."
"Which Foal Protective Services apologizes for," Silver Lining added.
"They were deemed incapable of being your guardians by the court," Celestia said as she looked at Scootaloo. "I suspect foul play is at work here, and I apologize that the Equestria court system has failed you. A full investigation will be launched into this matter."
"Well, that's great," Rainbow said with a smile, then she frowned a little. "What does this mean for the adoption though?"
"Oh, don't worry, we have had a word with both your aunts and they don't want to interfere with the process any more than has already been done," Celestia said with a nod. "But they are interested in being part of your life again, if you'll have them of course."
"Can I meet them?" Scootaloo asked softly.
"Of course, they really want to meet you, I have already sent a carriage to collect them and they will be here soon," Celestia said with a smile. "While they do wish that they could have gotten to know you before now, they are good ponies and do not want you to give up what you already have."
Scootaloo smiled a little at that, she had never thought very much about the possibility that she might have aunts or uncles, and now she knew that she had two aunts who cared enough to want to put her needs and wants ahead of their own. Maybe in another life they could've taken care of her, but for now she was just happy with getting to know them.
Family was the most important thing in the world right now and the fact that she had a chance to not only have Rainbow Dash as her adopted mom but to get to know her real family was even better.
"I'd love to meet them," she finally said and looked up at Rainbow Dash. "I want you to be there with me, okay?"
"Of course, we're all family," Rainbow said with a smile as she hugged Scootaloo. "So, lets get these papers signed and go meet your aunts, okay?"
Scootaloo nodded and the two of them looked at the papers over and signed them. They hugged each other again, it was official, Rainbow Dash was now Scootaloo's adopted mother.
And they couldn't be happier about it.
00000
Rainbow and Scootaloo waited in the castle's courtyard in anticipation for what was to come. Scootaloo was more nervous than she had ever felt about anything, while she had met members of her mother's side of the family, okay just Glider really, this was her first chance to meet a member of her father's side of the family.
What would they be like? Would they be as happy to see her as Celestia had said? Would they be nice? Cool? Boring? Weird? What? It was driving her crazy just trying to think about it, and the more she thought about it, the more it drove her crazy!
"Scootaloo?" A mare's voice asked and she looked up to see two ponies approaching. One of them was a peach colored
Earth Pony mare with an orange mane and the other was a stocky light blue Pegasus mare with a light purple mane, they both gave her a smile.
"Yes?"
"I'm your Aunt Holiday, this is my wife Lofty," the Earth Pony mare said with a smile as she offered Scootaloo a hoof. "You probably don't remember us, you were still just a little filly when we saw you last."
"You've really grown a lot," Lofty said as she picked Scootaloo up and hugged her. "And you're an Alicorn, when did this happen?"
"That's, kind of a long story," Scootaloo said sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head and told her aunts what had happened.
"You can't tell anypony, at least until its time to go public with it, okay?" Rainbow asked.
"Okay," Holiday said with a nod of understanding. "You must be Rainbow Dash, Princess Celestia told us you were adopting Scootaloo and I must say I didn't expect her to be taken in by one of the Element Bearers."
"Yeah, Scootaloo's become like my little sister," Rainbow said with a smile as she ruffled the filly's mane. "When I found out that she was living on her own I took her in and we just signed the adoption papers a little while ago."
"Well that's wonderful!" Lofty said as she hugged Rainbow Dash tightly, catching the rainbow maned mare off guard. "When the courts told us we were ineligible to be her guardians it broke our hearts. Its even kept us from adopting other foals, but Princess Celestia said it would be dealt with quickly."
"I don't know why anypony would do that kind of thing," Rainbow said with a shake of her head.
"Its that Countess Seraphim, she never liked Cruising," Holiday said with a shake of her head. "We can't prove it of course, but I think she had a hoof in that."
"Who's Countess Seraphim?" Scootaloo asked.
"Oh, you don't know," Lofty said as she facehooved a little. "She's your grandmother and the head of House Cirrus, she's basically the reason you were stuck in foster homes. I'm sorry..."
Scootaloo paused for a moment, she honestly wasn't sure what to think of that. Her grandmother had clearly done this for some reason, but why would you do that to family? Was it possible this was all connected to what was going on earlier? She didn't like the implications, but she didn't have any other options at the moment.
"Well Rainbow Dash, I'm glad we got to meet you," Lofty said as she shook hooves with Rainbow. "You're doing a great job, I can tell."
"And if you ever need anything we won't be too far away," Lofty added as she gave Scootaloo a smile. "You're a better family to her than her mom's side would be at least. I'm glad she found a family that loves her, and I know her parents would be too."
"I certainly do," Rainbow said as she wrapped her wing around Scootaloo gently. "So, you pretty much know all about us, why don't you tell us about yourselves?"
"Yeah, like how long have you two been together?" Scootaloo asked curiously, she hadn't expected to find out she had two aunts like this and she was excited to learn more about them.
Holiday just laughed at the filly's enthusiasm. "We've been married for about 9 years now, your mom was actually my best mare at the wedding," Holiday said with a smile as she wrapped her foreleg around Lofty. "It was love at first sight when I met this wonderful mare, I knew she was the pony I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
"Well, once she managed to actually get a coherent sentence out and talk to me at least," Lofty said with a chuckle as she nuzzled Holiday. "Other than that there's not a lot to tell, we live in Fillydelphia right now and have been working together to run a travel agency for awhile."
They talked awhile longer, Scootaloo was excited to learn as much as she could about her aunts. They were kind and exciting, talking about the things they often did. Inevitably the conversation went back to her parents though.
"Do you, think they would be proud of me?" Scootaloo finally asked.
"Scootaloo, you're a brave, strong, and kind filly, you have a lot of both your parents in you, I know they'd be proud of you," Holiday said as the three older mares hugged her gently. "I mean I think they'd be a bit surprised about the whole Alicorn thing, but that's understandable."
Scootaloo just laughed at that, yeah that would surprise about anypony wouldn't it? She just smiled and let the hug continue, this was her family, her adopted mother and her two aunts, even without her birth parents she still had a family that loved her and cared for her.
And ultimately that's what really mattered, she couldn't imagine it any other way.