//------------------------------// // Home // Story: Moving Forward // by RuinQueenofOblivion //------------------------------// The next day Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had left to go and look at the new house that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were offering to share with them, which left Storm Chaser in the care of her grandmothers. "Come on kiddo, you're doing just fine," Rainbow said with a smile as she watched Storm try to flap her wings but didn't get very far off the ground.. While there was no guarantee that she would be able to fly, they had been curious to see if she would. At the very least, she was trying. "Aww, don't worry Stormy, you'll get it next time." "I don't think you should be rushing her like that Rainbow," Fluttershy said as Rainbow shrugged and picked her granddaughter up with a smile. "I mean, she's only two years old, you never know how long it'll take for her to be able to fly, you shouldn't pressure her." "Yeah, I know," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she hugged Storm. "But I'll bet she'll be the second fastest Pegasus in history when she grows up, behind her grandma Rainbow of course. What do you think of that Stormy?" "Faster!" Stormy said with a giggle as she shook her head which just made Fluttershy giggle a little. "Oh, you think you're gonna be faster than your grandma huh?" Rainbow said with a teasing grin. "Yep!" "Then you better practice Stormy, you're not gonna get that fast overnight," she said and tickled the two year old filly with her wings sending her into giggles. "She's definitely your granddaughter Rainbow," Fluttershy said with a shake of her head. "We'll see I guess, I think she can be whatever she wants to be." "Yeah," Rainbow said with a smile as she ruffled Storm's mane a little. "Stormy, whatever you grow up to be I know you'll be awesome at it. With me and your mom, you can't be anything but awesome." Storm giggled a little and hugged Rainbow gently with her tiny forelegs and Rainbow smiled as she looked down at the small filly. She hadn't gotten to raise Scootaloo or even see her like this, but she was glad that she at least got the chance to spend this time with Storm. She looked over at Fluttershy and thought about the conversation they had the night before. Maybe they should consider adopting a filly or something, it would be nice to have another foal around after Scootaloo moved out. She sighed a little, right now wasn't the time to think about it, but she couldn't get it out of her mind. "Hey Stormy, what do you think of having a little aunt or uncle around here?" She asked and the filly's ears perked up curiously. "I mean, its just something... I dunno." "Rainbow Dash has been left speechless at the thought of trying to talk to her granddaughter about the idea of us adopting somepony," Fluttershy said with a giggle as she moved next to the two. "What brought this on Rainbow?" "Well, I was thinking about what we were talking about last night, you know? I'm not so sure that we should rush into things of course, but I'd love to raise a foal with you someday. If, you think that we can do it of course, I'm not that good with foals..." "Don't be silly," Fluttershy said with a chuckle. "You've been a great help with Stormy and I've seen how you are with the foals at the orphanage. You'd make a great mom, right Stormy?" "Right!" Storm said with a nod. "Grandma Rainbow is awesome!" "From the mouth of babes," Fluttershy said with a chuckle. "Believe me Rainbow, I wouldn't be considering this if I didn't think you could do it. We should think about this though, its a big responsibility and we still have a lot to worry about right now with the wedding." "Yeah, I know," Rainbow said with a sigh as she looked down at Storm. "And with Traveler back in town, I don't even know what I'm going to do. Things just seem to be getting more and more complicated and I don't know why." "What does Traveler do anyway?" "Honestly, I have no idea," Rainbow admitted. "We lost touch after he left me, I think he's in the Guard and he did have the armor, but... well I don't know. Something about all of this feels weird, and I'm sure he's got some reason for being here that we don't know about." "Yeah..." Fluttershy said and kissed Rainbow gently on the cheek. "Come on Rainbow, lets just try and relax and have some fun with our granddaughter. We can worry about these things later, everything is going to be just fine." "I hope you're right," Rainbow said and looked at Fluttershy and then back down at Storm. "I really hope you're right, because Celestia only knows what might be waiting for us out there. I don't want anything to happen to my family, you know?" "I know," Fluttershy said and kissed Rainbow. "But we're going to be just fine, I promise." Rainbow nodded and the three ponies just held that pose for a long moment as they remained close. Rainbow smiled and looked between them. They were her family, the most important ponies in Equestria to her and she was going to do everything she needed to do to keep them safe. Even if it meant having to deal with Traveler and whatever he was up to. 00000 "Wow, this is, really nice," Scootaloo said in surprise as she looked at the two story house that Diamond Tiara had led them to. It was a decent sized house and it looked big enough for everypony. "How many bedrooms are in it?" "Well, three, I was thinking you two could share one and me and Silver could share the other one," Diamond said. "Plus one for Stormy of course." "Are we even going to be able to afford rent on this place?" Sweetie asked nervously. "I mean, we've got enough to get by but I don't know how much this is going to cost..." "Don't worry, we're going to handle most of the rent," Diamond Tiara said reassuringly. "We just want the two of you to pay for a small part of it and don't worry about the rest." "Well that's, really generous of you," Sweetie said surprised. "I mean, we're grateful to be sure, but we weren't expecting it to be this nice." "Of course, don't worry about it," Diamond Tiara said as they headed into the house together. "We've already started to move in, I'm sure that once you get everything together it'll be fine." Scootaloo smiled a little as she looked around. This was nice, especially given everything that had happened with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon when they were fillies, she was glad that they were their friends now. She looked over at Sweetie Belle who was looking around curiously. "Its, really nice," she said with a smile as she looked over at Diamond, it was obvious that she was feeling a bit overwhelmed. "So where's Silver Spoon?" "Hey you two," Silver Spoon said as she walked in as if to answer the question and gave the couple a smile. "I'm glad you like it. Is everything going okay after yesterday? I mean, we kinda overheard everything that was happening." Scootaloo sighed a little and brushed her mane back before she looked back at the two. "Yeah, it was kind of unexpected for my dad to show up like that, and honestly we're still kind of processing the whole thing. I don't know a lot about him still, but, I don't know there's something about him that feels weird. Still, I get the feeling that there's something more to all of this that we're not seeing." "Like what, he's got some secret or something?" Diamond Tiara said and Scootaloo nodded. "Interesting, I thought he was just a Royal Guard. How is Stormy taking it?" "About as well as you can take it when an unexpected member of your family shows up at that age," Sweetie said with a shrug. "I think she's more curious than anything else, I probably would feel the same way if I was in her position. I just wish that he would be more candid with what he's been doing." Scootaloo sighed and looked at her fiance and then back at her friends. She had to admit that she wondered a lot about what kind of pony her father was like, she had ever since she heard about him. There wasn't a lot of information on him right now given everything that was going on except for what Rainbow had told her, and she didn't really know a lot about him either. Maybe he really was just part of the guard and there wasn't anything to worry about. But why would he be acting so strange? Come to think of it, why hadn't he stayed at the party yesterday? He had just kind of vanished after she had talked to him with no real explanation. She shook her head, she'd worry about that later, right now they just had to get familiarized with the house. "Come on, lets go check out our room," she said to Sweetie and gave her a smile as the two of them headed upstairs. 00000 "So, how was it?" Rainbow asked as Scootaloo and Sweetie returned home that evening and they were sitting down for dinner. She added jokingly, "Let me guess, it looked terrible and you've changed your mind about moving out and will be staying here after all." Scootaloo chuckled and rolled her eyes as she started to feed Stormy. "Nothing like that, actually it was really nice. We're going to move in at the end of the week, or at least that's the plan, we just have to get our first part of the rent paid for." "Thankfully, that's the easy part," Sweetie added. "We just need to make sure that we get everything in place and we have enough furniture that we'll at least be able to get everything together. Its, hard to believe that we're moving out of here already." She looked around, she had actually only lived in the Cloud House for a short time ever since she and Scootaloo had turned 18 and Rarity and her parents had said it would be okay. Still, there was a lot of good memories here, especially relating to Scootaloo and Storm and she'd actually kind of miss living there. She smiled and looked over at Scootaloo who gave her a nod. She smiled a little as Fluttershy started to set the food out for all of them. They smiled a little as they started eating while Scootaloo finished feeding Storm and smiled a little at the filly. "More!" Storm said as she looked up at her mom. "You've had enough Stormy," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she turned to eat her own food. "So, did anything interesting happen while we were gone?" "No, not really," Rainbow said with a shrug. "We've been talking about some things, but that's something for another conversation." "Good, did you behave for your grandmas Stormy?" Scootaloo said and gave her daughter a grin. "Maybe," the filly said and giggled a little. "Don't listen to her, she was a perfect angel," Fluttershy said with a chuckle. Scootaloo laughed a little at that, that didn't exactly fill her with confidence given that Fluttershy had a rabbit named Angel who was nothing but trouble. She smiled a little and took a bite of her food and looked back at her mothers. "Thank you for taking care of her so much, that means a lot to me." "Hey, no problem Scoots," Rainbow said with a smile. "She's our granddaughter after all, what else would we do? If you ever need a babysitter, don't hesitate to ask us." "Well, one advantage to this family is that we have a lot of potential babysitters," Scootaloo added with a chuckle. "So, did you have any luck with your attempts to get Stormy to fly?" "You know about that?" "Yeah, well, she's been practicing pretty often so I suspected," Scootaloo said with a chuckle. "But really, she seems to be making progress and building her wing strength up. I, do wish that I could be here when she flies for the first time though, but thanks for at least trying." "See, I told you it was okay," Rainbow said with a chuckle. "She's a good kid, I'm gonna miss having the three of you around, but you know that our home is always open to you, right?" Sweetie smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah, of course, this is still our home even if we're not going to be living here. Home is where your family is, where your heart is, that makes this place our home and anywhere else that you live." "Yeah," Rainbow said with a nod as she looked at Scootaloo. "So, are you two going to be able to afford the rent on that place?" "Yeah, don't worry about it, we've already gotten something worked out with Diamond and Silver," Scootaloo said with a nod. "And hey, its not that far away from here so coming to visit won't be that hard. I'm, just kind of worried about Stormy really, she's never lived anywhere else but here so I don't know if she'll be able to settle in. And, then there's the nightmares." "Oh dear, are they getting worse?" Fluttershy asked as she looked at her step-granddaughter. "Have you talked to Princess Luna about it?" "Well, yeah we asked Twilight to send her a message, but we don't know if she's going to answer it," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "I'm worried about her, what's going to happen if even Luna can't help her? I don't really know what to do in that case." "Don't worry, she'll help," Rainbow said with a smile. "And we'll figure something out, I think she's going to be okay as long as we have everything worked out. I, just hope that she's going to be okay is all." Storm looked between them as she smiled a little. She wasn't really sure what the big ponies were talking about, though they sounded a little worried about something and they were talking about her. Scootaloo picked Storm up gently and held her close as she finished eating. She smiled down at the filly and nuzzled her gently. "Well kiddo, you might be getting a visit from Princess Luna tonight, what do you think about that?" "Pwincess Woona?" Storm asked cutely. Scootaloo nodded and held her daughter close to her as the rest of the family finished eating. She smiled as she felt the warmth of the small filly as her heart beat was felt against her chest. She held the filly close and stroked her mane, humming a light tune to her as she looked down at her. She didn't regret everything that had happened, she had a wonderful daughter and was lucky given everything that could have happened. She smiled and patted her on the back as Storm closed her eyes and sighed happily. Storm seemed to feel safest when she was close to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, being close to her mother made her feel safe and comfortable. It was why she never felt scared or had nightmares when she slept in the same room as her and Sweetie Belle, but still, it seemed like there was a lot that was scaring her right now. Scootaloo just smiled as she stroked her daughter's mane and looked at Sweetie Belle who was smiling broadly. "What?" "You're just really good with her," Sweetie said with a smile as she leaned in and kissed Scootaloo gently on the lips. "You really are a great mom Scootaloo." Scootaloo just smiled and nuzzled Sweetie as she looked back at Rainbow and Fluttershy who nodded in agreement. "Thanks, all of you, I wouldn't be the pony I am today if it wasn't for you. Rainbow, I may not have always known you were my mom, but you were there for me whenever I needed it the most, that... means so much to me that I can't even put it into words. Fluttershy, you've always been there to ground Rainbow and you're there for me when I need you like you always have been, you're a great pony and I'm glad to call you mom too." "Of course Scootaloo, we're glad to have been there for you," Fluttershy said with a smile. "So, what am I then?" Sweetie asked with a smirk, it wasn't that she didn't know, but she still wanted to hear Scootaloo say it. "You're the first friend I've ever had," Scootaloo said with a smile. "I love you more than anything, you're my inspiration and the mare that I've given my heart to. I've made mistakes, but you still love me no matter what and that means a lot." Sweetie nodded and leaned in and kissed Scootaloo gently as Storm giggled as she looked up at the two. 00000 "Hello Scootaloo," a calm voice said as Scootaloo looked around for the source. She had drifted off to sleep that night and found herself in her dream world again. "Hello Princess Luna," she said with a smile as she looked up at the Princess as she appeared before her before bowing a little. "I, wasn't expecting you to be here, I mean we sent word asking for your help..." "I know, and I have looked into what you asked me to," Luna said and sighed a little. "Scootaloo, do you know what it is that is bothering Storm Chaser at night?" "I, honestly don't know all the details, she says something about monsters or, something," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she flattened her ears a little. "She's never really been that clear about what it is, and I'm worried about her especially given how often they've been coming." "Indeed, I'd say there are monsters," Luna said and looked at Scootaloo for a long moment as if she was trying to decide what to say. "I've tried to do everything I can to help her, but the truth is that there are only two ponies in Equestria that can help her right now. You and Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo blinked a little in surprise, what was Luna talking about? Yes Storm was their daughter but would she be able to help? Helping her in the real world was one thing, but this was the dream world and anything could happen in it, she just hoped that she was going to be able to do what she needed to. "Why us?" "Because you are the ponies that she's closest to," Luna said with a soft smile. "You said that she isn't as afraid when she's with you, that may help us here. I know that it is a longshot, but it is the only thing that I think will work, will you do it? Scootaloo didn't have to even think on it, she spoke quickly and decisively. "She's my daughter, I'm not going to leave her to the nightmares if I can help her." Luna smiled and gave her a nod. "Very good Scootaloo, I had no doubt that you would be willing to help your daughter. Are you ready to go?" Scootaloo looked around for a moment and then nodded. "I'm ready," she said as Luna opened a portal and they headed through it and into Sweetie's dream. Scootaloo was a bit surprised to see that Sweetie's dream was of a simple bedroom with Sweetie laying on the bed dressed in a nightgown. She looked up and smiled before realizing that Scootaloo wasn't there alone. "Oh, Princess Luna, I was expecting... something else..." she said with a deep blush as she got to her hooves and bowed. "What's going on? Did you help Stormy already?" "I, want both of your help, there are things that only you can truly help her with," Luna said softly. "You two are her family and what she connects with in the real world. She needs you more than anything right now, and it might finally give her some peace at night." "It might?" Sweetie asked. "I wish that I could guarantee things, but we are going into uncharted territory here," Luna said with a shake of her head. "I am sure that it will help though, hopefully that it will last until she is older." Scootaloo and Sweetie looked between each other as Luna formed a new portal. They weren't really sure what to do at the moment, but they nodded in agreement. "Alright, we'll go," Sweetie said. "Very well, then come with me," Luna said as she lead the two mares through the portal and into the final dreamscape. 00000 "Stormy, where are you?" Scootaloo called out as they stepped into the dream world which looked more like a purple void that swirled around them. "Where is this?" "This is her dream, it is a shapeless void of the unknown," Luna said softly. "She is still young so she does not know the world around her as well. I tried to reach her, but she needs her mothers. I think that if you come into her dreamscape then it should be enough to lessen or even stop the nightmares once and for all." "What if it doesn't?" Sweetie asked softly. "Then we will have to figure out what to do from there," Luna said with a shake of her head. "But this is our best chance, she is your daughter after all. I am sure that this will work though." Scootaloo was about to say something when she saw a translucent pony-like figures flying around them and could hear a whimpering sound. They started moving in the same direction as the whimpering and saw Stormy curled up as the strange creatures kept swarming and terrorizing her. "Stormy!" Scootaloo said and rushed forward as the creatures blocked her way, grinning menacingly at her. "Get out of my way, I'm not letting you hurt my daughter!" She turned around and kicked the creatures as hard as she could, sending them back as she ran forward and picked Storm up in her forelegs and held the filly close as she cried. "Shhh... its okay, we're here... you're going to be just fine..." Storm's cries started to die down a little as the nightmarish creatures started to close in on them again but a green shield dome formed around them and Sweetie hugged them both. "We're both here Stormy, you're going to be just fine." Storm sniffed and looked up at her two moms and smiled a little as her heartbeat started to slow. Scootaloo smiled and nuzzled her daughter gently. "Thank you mommies," she said with a soft sigh as Scootaloo wrapped her wings gently around the two of them. Luna smiled a little as the dreamscape changed into a filly's bedroom. She turned when she heard a small voice calling over to her. "Thank you for bringing my mommies Pwincess Woona," Storm said and waved cutely to the retreating Alicorn. "You're very welcome Stormy," Luna said and left through a portal to let the family enjoy their night together.