Stepping out of her peaceful home and into the wide and wondrous world of Equestria, Rainbow was shocked to see the sombre sight of the small town in ruins. The almost apocalyptic area appalling her to an astonishing degree, she held her little filly close to her, wanting to save her from the lethally loathsome landscape Ponyville had become.
“Bye girls!” Windy shouted from the doorway.
“An’ stay safe!” Bow added.
“Will do dad!”
“An’ thanks again for everything guys. It was an awesome sleepover!”
Windy then blew Scootaloo a kiss, a gesture at which the filly lightly giggled at, before slowly closing the door, separating the two the loving parents from the fillies they honourably had sheltered from the horrendous happenings of the horrific night. For a time, they had done everything they could. Leaving only Rainbow to follow through with her plan.
Upon the door closing, Scootaloo confidently opened her wings, ready to forget about how vulnerable she has been the night prior. A slight chill, alien to that which came from the corrupt, course cold breeze, shocking down her spine as the adrenaline started to boil within her.
“Hey Scoots… What cha doin’.”
“Getting ready to glide to the ground of course. How else are we gonna…”
“NO! No, no… e hem. I mean, you probably should probably stay off your wings… just for today though.”
“Wait, what’s wrong with my wings Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo asked with a panicked tone.
“Oh, nothing! Absolutely nothing… It’s just. After yesterday. Your little body’s still gonna be getting its energy back. An’ so even though nothing feels wrong now, if ya push yourself too hard, you’re gonna end up hurting yourself. Trust me, I’D KNOW! So, just take it easy for a little while and you’ll be right as rain in no time!”
“Alright, that’s fair enough. I thought that maybe you’d lost faith in me for a second there.”
“WHAT!? You kidding me? Scoot, how many times I gotta tell ya this? You’re awesome, an’ that’s never gonna change, ya here! No matter what, I’m always gonna have faith in you.”
“Thanks Rainbow. It’s… It’s nice to have somepony believe in me for a change.”
“Oh, Squirt. You’re loved more than ya know… But, hey! Wanna se somethin’ cool?”
“Of course, I do!”
“Here check this out.”
Rainbow then lead Scootaloo to the back of her home, showing her a bright red button on top of a tall post, which Rainbow had to lift Scootaloo up with her hoofs, in order for the filly to see properly.
“What’s this do?”
“Ha, you’ll see, go ahead and press it.”
Curiously, Scootaloo leaned forward, though being certain not to fall out of Rainbows forelegs, before pressing both of her own hoofs down onto the button. She watched, as the edge of the cloud seemed to evaporate away. However, as Rainbow moved her closer to the edge, Scootaloo was confounded as the colonies of white clouds seemed to clone each other, quickly separating and forming a swirling, spiral footpath down the ground.
“Celestia, is that a cloud staircase?”
“Yeah, I haven’t used it in a while, but I thought it come in handy if I ever invited non-Pegasus friends over. So, I paid a little extra to get it installed when I bought the house. Totally worth it, right?”
“You bet! But, how do you get the clouds t’ go back?”
“Oh, there’s another switch on the bottom that resets it. But it just happens naturally after half an hour.”
“Wait, then can’t anypony come to your home, even if they don’t want to?”
“You gotta remember Scoots, the ladder only leads up to the cloud, it doesn’t just let any old stallion into my home, I still got complete control on who comes in. An’ besides earth ponies and Unicorns need a special spell to walk on clouds, so I still get less visitors than most ponies.”
“Fair enough, I bet all the free time must be nice.”
“Yeah… All alone, always… Is nice. Anyway, lets get you home, we don’t wanna worry your parents.”
“Yeah… Parents!” Scootaloo said with an angry growl.
Rainbow thought about asking Scootaloo about her sudden angry tone, but quickly remembered how hesitant Scootaloo had been to talk about her parents for so long. It was only logical to assume that she did not think fondly of them. Thus, she prepared herself for the worst, ready to act as a mediator if the situation were to get out of hand. Though she covered up these thoughts with a smile, gesturing for Scootaloo to walk down the staircase.
“If you would be so kind, my DARLING Scootaloo.” Rainbow said in a hyperbolic, formal manner.
“Why of course my DEAREST Sister… Ha, ha. Thanks Rainbow.”
Scootaloo innocently trotted down the staircase. Rainbow watched for a moment before slowly following.
“Yeah… Sister.”
The two quickly got to the bottom of the staircase, Scootaloo still awe struck from having walked on a cloud. Unlike most pegesi, it was a rare occurrence for her. Rainbow lowered herself, signalling for Scootaloo to jump onto her back. With a smile, Scootaloo jumped onto her idol, holding onto her neck with a tight grasp, the anticipation almost bursting from her little body. Rainbow blasted off, going from her still, stationary position, to a one hundred mile an hour rush in less than a second. Wind raced past the two ponies, the momentum almost forcing Scootaloo from idol’s back. Though her sheer tenacity allowed her to cling on. She couldn’t have been in a greater state of pure adrenaline and happiness. However, this fantasy was quickly broken for the young filly. As Rainbow grinded to a sudden halt. Her haunting, hollow home now hovering over her, making her feel harrowed and hazed. She jumped off of Rainbow, the excitement that she had once felt now vanished, being replaced with an angry, spiteful void from which no joy could escape.
Rainbow Dash looked down in guilt, she wanted so desperately to take the little filly straight back to her sky castle, where she could giver her everything she needed. As opposed to leaving her in the small house that loomed stood before them, which seemed to make to make Scootaloo so unhappy.
“Hey Squirt… I’m just gonna speak with your parents for a little bit, alright?”
“Yeah sure, whatever.”
“Hey, don’t feel down Scoots, we’’ see each other again soon.”
Scootaloo suddenly perked up, her ears rising and her eyes staring deeply into Rainbow’s.
“You mean it?”
“Sure do, Squirt.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed Scootaloo’s mane as she spoke, an act at which Scootaloo smiled at. However, Scootaloo’s happiness once again faded, as Rainbow Dash knocked on the door of the home. The inevitable had come. A few seconds past, before Rainbow was greeted by the rough, purple mane of Electric Breeze.
“Hello… Oh hey Rainbow Dash. Did you…”
“Yeah, I did. She’s right here.”
Rainbow pointed her at Scootaloo, who was nervously looking away from her mother. Upon seeing her daughter, Electric’s tired eyes burst open with energy. She rushed over to Scootaloo, quickly hugging her and kissing her on the forehead.
“Oh, thank Celestia, you’re alright? You have no idea how worried we were!”
Scootaloo faced her mother with a soul-destroying glare, the mental scars of the prior night still fresh in her mind.
“Oh yeah! Well whose fault was it that all that happened, hu? Where was all this compassion then!? You and dad just wouldn’t stop shouting at each other. It was HORRIBLE! Why didn’t you care then!?”
With tears welling in her eyes, Scootaloo broke free from her mother’s grasp and attempted to blindly run into the house. However, she was stopped by Rainbow, reaching out her wing and pulling her into a tight hug. She tried to fight for a moment, but ultimately gave in, resting her head in the soft fur of Rainbow’s stomach, letting the torrent of traumatic tears, tremble from her eyes.
“There, there Squirt… It’s alright.” Rainbow said awkwardly, unaware of how to properly handle the situation.
The three were silent, allowing Scootaloo a moment of vulnerability, before Rainbow brought herself to speak up again.
“I know they hurt you, an’ you’ve got every right to be mad. But I need you to be strong right now. Okay Scoots?”
Scootaloo looked up at her idol, the tears already beginning to subside.
“O, Okay Rainbow Dash.”
“Ha, ha. That ‘a girl”
Scootaloo smiled at Rainbow Dash, whipping the remaining tears away with her hoof before nodding confidently. Though she still shivered slightly and took heavy, painful breaths, she was slowly recovering. Rainbow put her back on the ground, leaving her with new confidence as she faced her mother.
“Sorry mom, I didn’t mean that. I…”
“It’s okay Scootaloo. You were angry, an’ had every right to be! We all get angry sometimes, there ain’t no shame in showin’ it.”
“Yeah… Sure.”
“We cool?”
“We’re fine! Mom! Just… don’t do that again.”
“Alright then, we won’t. Now come on in, if we don’t keep you warm then you’re going to get sick.”
“Sure.”
“Okay. Thanks for dropping her off Rainbow Dash, but we’ll take her from here. Thank you for your help through all this.”
Rainbow was silent for a moment
“… Actually, I kinda wanna talk with you an’ your husband for ab bit. There are just some things I wanna get straightened out is all.”
“Oh, of course! We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. After everything that’s happened, all that you’ve done for us, you deserve to know whatever it is you need.”
“Good, I won’t take much ‘a your time, don’t worry.”
Electric singled for Rainbow to enter her home, relieved to have the mare’s compliance in the situation, she followed. Her thoughts remained distant, until she felt the light touch of Scootaloo, remaining loyal by her side, pushing against her fur. The young filly did not want her time with her idol to end. Thus, Rainbow smiled down at her number one fan, not wanting her to lament over having to leave her the pony she had come to respect as a role model. Though she couldn’t help but fell a chill of sadness creep down her, as she saw Scootaloo run from her side, back to her parents. She smiled at Rainbow, though the mare couldn’t decipher weather the smile was genuine, or just fabricated so that her idol wouldn’t worry over her wellbeing. Thus, Rainbow just watched as her little filly charged up the stairs, becoming a smaller and smaller speck, before finally vanishing. Her mind suddenly snapping back to the issue as hand, she turned to face Electric.
“So, em… yeah. There’re some things I wanna ask you.”
“Sure, fire a…”
“BOTH of you.”
“Oh… obviously. I’ll get Wild now.”
“… No need.”
The attention of both mares was suddenly drawn to the kitchen doorway, where are large orange stallion with a short blue mane, pulled back into spikes with excessive hair gel, emerged into the hallway.
“I overheard everythin’. I’m sorry El, but I don’t have it in me to face our little filly jus’ yet. After everythin’ that’s happened. I just… I can’t. I know this makes me real pathetic. But she needed me last night, an’ I wasn’t there. What good father lets that happen!?”
“Don’t worry dear… I’m the same. We’ll give her some time and then…”
“Wait what!? I know your ashamed, but that’s no reason to run away from your problems. She may be a little mad right now, but when all’s said an’ done, she needs you to be supportive, sorry, comforting, ya know, GOOD PARENTS! More than ever. She needs a good example to follow, an’ to know that her parent’s love her. You need to give her that!”
The two ponies stood in silence for a moment, taken back by the unfortunate, yet necessary truth Rainbow had just unsheathed.
“O, okay Rainbow Dash. We’ll talk to her.”
“Good, but first, you two ’ve got some explaining to do.”
Electric motioned her foreleg, pointing it toward the Living room, signalling for Rainbow and Wild to enter. The couple took their seats on the sofa, watching as Rainbow curled up on the arm chair opposing them.
“So, I uh… Won’t take up much ‘a your time. There’re just a couple things I wanted to sort out.”
“Sure, thing Rainbow, ask away.”
“Okay, so let me get this straight, you two were arguin’ over some paper work last night, an’ that’s what caused Scootaloo to get so scared.”
Electric rubbed her foreleg with her hoof, looking away from Rainbow.
“Pretty much, or rather, that’s how it started. One complaint just seemed lead to another and well, you can how that panned out.”
“Yeah, we may ‘a started heckling each other over the work load, but I think after a while, we may of actually moved on to talkin’ about Scootaloo. Her name bein’ brought up’s probably what scared her so much, if ya think about it.”
“Oh… Well its good to see that you’re concerned about her, can you remember exactly what got brought up?”
Wild tossed for a moment, that answer barely out of his grasp.
“Ah Celestia, what were we on about. We were both so tired that I can hardly… Oh! Oh yeah. That was it. If my memory serves me, then El here got upset about how we leave Scootaloo alone too much.”
“Yeah, that was it. I’m sorry Wild, I’d been feelin’ guilty about it for a while, an’ while we were both so angry, it jus’ kinda came up.”
Rainbow stirred solemnly in her seat, an ugly portrait, so malicious in meaning, suddenly materializing in her mind.
“Wait… Wha’ d’ ya mean you felt guilty over leavin’ her alone too much?”
“Oh, uh… em. Look Rainbow, this ain’t right an’ we know it, it’s jus’ one more thing for us to be ashamed of. But as we said las’ night, we don’t have a lot a spare time to be spendin’ with Scootaloo. So, more often that not, she ends up alone.”
Rainbow Dash froze, the portraits paint having dried, revealing a perilous portrayal of parenthood, un paralleled by any other that Rainbow had ever witnessed. Part of her wanted to be angry, though the frustration she had once felt had now largely withered away into apathy, perhaps even sympathy, towards the couple’s plight. She knew that she couldn’t forgive them. But for a time, their own guilt had brought them enough suffering.
“Oh, okay then. Wait, but couldn’t you just hire a foalsitter. I mean, it’s not ideal, but it’s something.”
“Ah, yes. She used to have two Aunts that lived here, my sister Lofty Wings, and her partner Happy Holiday.”
“Yeah, I think I heard ‘a them.”
“She used to spend most ‘a her time with them… Ha, how she did love El’s big sister, they were practically sister’s themselves! But then, Holiday got some big promotion, I’m not entirely shore what line ‘a work she was in, an’ they had to move to Manehatten. It’s been a while since we heard from ‘em but from what I do know… Never mind, not important. What is important is that we can’t rely on them to care for her anymore, thus she says here, alone, most ‘a the time.”
“Wow, sorry to here that. But can’t you just hire a normal foalsitter? Ya know, for when you know you’re gonna be out late.”
Electric suddenly sprang from her relaxed position to a proper, upright posture, her engagement having been revitalised.
“Don’t cha think we’ve tried!? Scootaloo HATES being foalsat!”
“Yeah, I think most foals do. But she’s only eight! I know this sounds weird commin’ from ME of all mares, but ponies that age still need somepony there to do things they shouldn’t be yet. Ya know… like… cooking, and what not… And what if she gets scared!? I know she acts tough sometimes, an’ don’t get me wrong, she is, but Scootaloo’s still a filly, an’ fillies get scared sometimes.”
There was a long silence for a moment, Rainbow’s love for Scootaloo and her desire for her wellbeing having brought upon an unintended rant from her. Though the awkward freeze was eventually brought to an end by Wild.
“We know Rainbow Dash, we want her to be safe as much as you do… Even if we ain’t showin it… We love her. But… well ya see… You should know better than anypony that Scootaloo can be kinda, well… short sighted at times, an’ as she should be, she’s a filly. So, if she thinks she’s right or had a good idea, she’s got the determination to follow through with it. An’ as we said, she don’t like bein’ foalsat. She’ thinks she’s too big for it, makes her feel embarrassed. So, whenever we’d hire them, they’d come over, Scootaloo would ignore them for a little while, wait for them to look away. An’ like that… poof, she’d be gone. Obviously, we weren’t there, but from what we’ve heard, she’s like a ghost vanashin’ into thin air! Most night’s we’d find her in some bush, or old shack somewhere at the edge ‘a town. Sometimes she’d go to the clubhouse ‘a her’s, but we kept findin’ her there, so she got wise an’ moved on t’ different places. For the longest time… we wouldn’t find her at all! We wouldn’t see her until the next mornin’, when she’d obviously let her self in after we’d stopped lookin’. We’d just be so tired after a log day, that we didn’t have the energy to be keepin’ up lookin’ for her after hours an’ hours ‘a searchin’. So eventually, we both reckoned that our best bet was to jus stop hirin’ foalsiiters altogether. At least then we could go to work knowin’ that she’d be warm an’ safe at home, instead ‘a doin’ Celestia knows what in the streets. We know it ain’t perfect. You’re right, she’s still a little filly an’ should have… No, deserves to have somepony there keepin’ an eye on her, makin’ sure she’s safe an’ doesn’t get scared. But unless she can swallow that pride ‘a her’s, it’s the best system we got.”
Rainbow remained still for a moment, completely paralyzed, aw struck from what she had just heard. She knew that Scootaloo could be narrow minded and hated being embarrassed, but she would never have thought that she would have gone to such lengths to avoid any slight reminder of her young age.
She still had every intention of moving forward with her plan, her determination only increasing after hearing the parent’s testimony. However, this knew information reminded her that their relationship was undoubtedly going to change, with Scootaloo’s needs as a filly requiring attention from time to time, as much as the young one liked to pretend they didn’t exist. Thus, at that moment, Rainbow decided that she would enforce harsher rules regarding foalsitting, for the brief occasions when she would have to leave for long periods of time. Scootaloo would hate her for it, possibly diminishing her reputation as “the cool pony”, but Rainbow needed to know that her little filly was safe on those nights where she couldn’t be there.
Rainbow almost found amusement from the situation, Scootaloo undoubtedly having gotten her determination from her idol. And here she was, acting like an old mare, contrasting her usual lax, encouraging personality with thoughts of safety and harsh rules. But, as much as Rainbow wanted Scootaloo to be free and independent, and no matter how deeply she desired a relaxed relationship with the young filly, as it had been for so long, she valued her safety more than anything. The thought of her being so isolated on so many cruel nights making her feel cold and uncomfortable. However, Electric and Wild were beginning to stare, thus she snapped back to reality, a shocked expression still stitched to her face.
“Wow, I never knew Scootaloo did that. I can talk to her if ya want, see if I can persuade her into acceptin’ foalsiiters as a good thing.”
“That would be wonderful, Rainbow Dash. Having all your help through this has been more appreciated than you could ever know.”
Rainbow hesitated, if she was to bring forth her plan, now was the ideal time.
“There, there might be more ways I can help you guys.”
“Oh, em. Please don’t worry Miss Dash, everything you’ve done so far has been so helpful, we couldn’t possibly...”
“I’m not sayin’ I definitely can, I still got some things I gotta work out first. But, if I can. Will you accept it?”
Electric sighed.
“Honestly, Rainbow. Anything that you can possibly do to help us give Scootaloo a better foalhood is more than welcomed… When do you think you’ll know?”
“Tomorrow… Definitely by tomorrow. I f you want, I can come over tomorrow morning, an’ I’ll lay out what I can do an’ what I got planned.”
“Perfect, that alright with you Wild?”
“Yeah, what time though?”
“About… nine-ish.”
The two nodded.
“Good, now. I’ve taken up enough ‘a your time, an’ I got things I gotta sort out. So, I’ll see ya tomorrow.”
“Absolutely, Rainbow Dash, let us see you out.”
Electric and Wild then led Rainbow to their doorway. Innocently passing there staircase where, unbeknownst to them, stood Scootaloo, standing in silence. She had heard every word of the conversation, she showed fear, uncertain as to what Rainbow could’ve meant by the things that she said. Thus, she ran up the stairs, her usual friendly smile replaced by an emotionless expression.
Wild and Electric smiled, waving off Rainbow as she took of into the now lovely blue sky. Whilst she still wished to visit her friends, Rainbow knew that there were still two ponies who needed to be informed of her plan first, who would unrequitedly support her through this legendary process. Before anypony else, she had to tell her parents.