//------------------------------// // Chapter 05 - Reminisce // Story: Mystery Scootaloo // by thedarktome //------------------------------// The family members all just stared at the little Alicorn in shock while she did the same, feeling very awkward underneath their heavy gazes. She rubbed the back of her neck and seethed through her teeth before she got an idea. This'll get everypony moving. She turned on her magical glow, making everyone gasp, especially Twilight. "OH MY GOSH NOT HERE NOT HERE!" She yelled, putting up a strong shield around her. The family blinked before they backed away. Figuring she got her point across Scootaloo turned it off, making everyone stop. Twilight gently lowered her shield, sighing in relief. "Good. Now that I got your attention....can we please say something now?" She asked. "This is so strange." "You look just like my sister," Molten whispered with tears in her eyes. She trotted forward and looked her over. "I really see it....you look just like her when we were younger...besides the Alicorn thing." "Yeah....yeah, I got a headache and then boom. Town destroyed and me rebuilding it," Scootaloo commented before she was pulled swiftly into a hug from behind. "Hello, Scootaloo. I'm your aunt, Molten Fire," the pony greeted, squeezing her tightly. "Nice to meet you," she wheezed. "Now umm....Aunt Molten? Could ya'....could ya' please let me breath?" Molten let her go, allowing her to use her wings to lower herself gently to the ground. "Thank you. You have mom's grip." "It's a family thing. Come meet the rest of your family." She walked forward towards the other nine watching the scene with smiles on their faces, all eager to meet the orange filly. "By the way, I'm not a kid," she announced. "I'm twenty two." The family laughed, finding it cute while Rainbow snickered from the side. "Don't laugh, Rainbow, or I'm comin' over there." Rainbow Dash scoffed, crossed her hooves and narrowed her eyes with a smirk. "You would have to catch me first. And nopony has ever been able to catch me." "Exactly. NoPONY. Originally, I was a human. So I'm both. Double trouble, Rainbow. And seriously, I'm actually twenty two, no joke." The twins looked at her in confusion before Rainbow decided to back her up. "It's true," she said, catching their gaze. "Squirt here was sixteen when she came to Equestria and has lived here for six years. So technically....she's an adult." They all looked down at the orange filly grinning and waving a hoof at them. "Well that doesn't change anything," Blue Wave commented, shrugging. "You're still a cousin of ours. I'm Blue Wave. Nice to meet you, Scootaloo." She reached down to her and shook her much smaller hoof. "And I'm her twin sister, Golden Flutter," the golden pegasus mare beside her greeted, shaking her hoof. "Nice to meet you," Scootaloo greeted. "And I'm your uncle, Dense Seas," the blue stallion beside them stated, reaching down and shaking her hoof. "You really do look alot like my sister." "Yeah, I get that a lot," Scootaloo agreed with a chuckle. "We were in the middle of a little party when we received the news that Frozen Fire and Bright Magnus had passed, and that they had a daughter," a red version of Fluttershy said on her right. Scootaloo looked over and raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you knew my father?" "Yes, I was his sister," she said as Scootaloo approached. "My name is, um, Red Matter. It's so great to meet you." Scootaloo shook her hoof before she introduced the others. "This is Earth Flower and Dark Matter." The unicorns strode forward and shook her hoof. "You two look like Fluttershy," Scootaloo commented, motioning towards the animal caretaker in the corner, trying to keep from view. When everyone turned to her, she said, "eep!" and ducked behind a drape from the window. When everyone else turned to Red Matter and Earth Flower, they did the same and tried to hide somewhere. Red matter hid behind Rainbow Dash while Earth Flower just hid behind her brother. "And they act just alike," Twilight commented. "Yeah, this is going to be good," Scootaloo muttered. She walked over to an elderly mare in the back who had a stern look on her face. "Uhhh-" "Stand up straight!" Scootaloo locked her wings and stood on two hooves out of instinct, making everyone look to her in confusion. "On four hooves, youngun! We're ponies, not....whatever the hay you were before." Scootaloo dropped back down to her hooves. "Sorry. Instinct. When I was going to school on Earth, whenever someone said that, it meant use two legs, not...four." "Well, here it's four. Hopefully you'll get used to it pretty quickly. Unless you're going to be that one princess that stands on two hooves. Now come and give your grandma a hug." Scootaloo strode forward and hugged the elderly woman. "And I don't care if you're twenty two or eighty six. You still look like a filly. Therefore you are a filly." Scootaloo sighed through her nose in annoyance. She was not going to like this lady....mare. After a few more seconds, she let her go and breath fresh air. Why did she smell like cookies? "Well we're glad you got to meet everypony," Celestia said from the front. Everyone turned to her, giving her their attention. "But I am pretty sure they want to see the photos you have of your family?" They all looked towards Scootaloo, who was trying to remember where she put it. "Oh yeah. Ummm....There at Rainbow's, so-" "I'll get it!" Rainbow Dash zoomed out of the room and out of the castle before anyone could say a word, leaving only a rainbow trail behind that faded away. Red Matter was standing out in the open with her eyes wide before she darted behind Twilight. "-so she's going to go get it, apparently," Scootaloo finished. "Sooo......where do you guys live?" "Well we live in Canterlot," Red Matter said, stalking out from behind the Princess of Friendship. "And my family lives in the Crystal Empire," Molten told her. "We used to live in Canterlot. But when my sister and Bright Magnus went missing, we decided to leave." "Didn't want any scenery to bring up bad memories, huh?" Scootaloo asked, patting her hoof. "Yeah....yeah, we didn't want that." Before Scootaloo could respond, a Rainbow blur sped into the room, kicking up wind. Rainbow Dash landed right beside her and placed the Saddlebags right next to Scootaloo. "Wow, no wonder she's the fastest," Dark Matter muttered. "Got all one hundred twenty one, squirt!" She yelled. "I don't know why, but I'm more excited than Pinkie Pie when she sees Maud." "Thanks, Rainbow! You're the best!" "Yeah, I know," Rainbow boasted while Scootaloo lit her horn and pulled out the pictures in a line. They formed into a giant square that almost reached the ceiling of the room in front of her. "Come over, everypony! Let me show you my parents....as humans." Everyone in the room walked forward and stood behind her as she told them the photos. "This was mom," she said, pointing at an orange skinned blue haired woman with magenta eyes, holding her hand out in front of the lense while grinning. "She obviously didn't want to take a picture." "That's her! That's our sister, Dense!" Molten cheered, pulling her brother into a hug. "I don't know when they took that photograph, but I think it may have been when they realized they might as well enjoy their time on Earth." She flipped that photo and pulled down another one, telling what it was. They went through about one hundred photos, Scootaloo remembering exactly what they were all for. Then they came to some that held a very important part in Scootaloo's heart. "This...was me." She pointed towards the pregnant stomach of her mother who was busy throwing a vase at the camera. "Now that I realize it, dad was in a very bad position at this certain moment. Mom was obviously in a mood swing and he was trying to take a perfect photo. That vase must not have felt good." Rainbow chuckled before Scootaloo pulled down another photograph. Of all three of them. In the hospital. "And that was me in the flesh," she pointed out, motioning towards the orange skinned baby with a bit of magenta hair on her head wrapped in a blanket. The parents were smiling and had tears of joy. As well as a face of relief. "They were relieved because I still survived despite the accident that happened." "Wait, what accident?" "This is another photograph of me riding a tricycle," Scootaloo continued, ignoring Molten's question. "I had never ridden one before, so they decided to ease me into it. This was the tricycle, then the bicycle with training wheels..." She pulled down a photo of a two wheeled metal object with her on the top holding onto the handlebars. Her face was definitely unsure of it. "...I fell off after this picture. And this was me on a full bicycle." She pulled down another photograph with her having a face of fear on another bicycle, this one with only two wheels instead of four. "And yeah, I fell off after that too. It hurt, man!" Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Diamond Tiara laughed a little before she went to the next one. "This was when they brought me home, put me in a crib, and let me go to sleep. My life was really weird, seriously. They told me I would not stop crying until I was asleep. Even when I was breastfed. I would suck, pop it out, and then go right back to crying. Eventually, they got tired and put me in bed, where I instantly shut up and fell asleep. They were so irked." "Yeah, that sounds like Bright Magnus," Red Matter commented. "He was always the one who had no patience." After a few more, Scootaloo moved the photographs to get to the other one. "And this.....was the last one we ever took." It was the photo of the Carson family, where Scootaloo was in the middle wearing a shirt that read the Carsons. Frozen Fire was on the left with a smile that could brighten all of Equestria, and on the left was Bright Magnus with a grin that could outdo all of theirs. "That was....a month before the incident. Where I was thrown threw the portal, arrived in the Whitetail Woods as a baby with only books and pictures to remember them by. However, they still live on with me...as long as I got these photographs." "I'm sure they're proud of you," Molten said, wrapping a wing around her. "I know mom is, I just spoke to her last night." Molten looked at her confused before she looked up at her and started to explain. "I don't know how, but mom has somehow linked me to a place she calls 'The Communications Plane', where I can speak to her when I sleep. I was surprised when I saw her in my sleep. She somehow knew I became an Alicorn and contacted me. She said she's always watching and I do NOT doubt that. She's probably watching right now in this room." She looked around, making sure she's not being watched before leaning down into Apple Bloom's ear. "Between you and me....I think she's using Sweetie Belle to watch me." "No I'm not." "See? Wait what?" They all looked around trying to place that oh so familiar voice. "I'm always watching sweetheart," a voice said from all over. "Hey, sis! You still look like a 'hot red' mess." Scootaloo sighed at the very bad pun before she turned around trying to spot her mom. "Mom, where are you?!" "You have a really nice throne, Celestia." They all turned around to see an orange skinned and blue shoulder length haired pony that was very...wispy. It was like she was a burning fire that was shaped like a pony. She sat down on the throne and got comfortable, sighing in pleasure. "Oh, yeah! This feels good on the flank, now I know why you sit on your butt doing nothing all day!" "What? You take that back, right now," Celestia playfully scolded while walking up to the throne. Frozen Fire blew raspberries at her before she jumped out of the seat, chuckling. She pulled Celestia into a hug before she quickly trotted over to her daughter and pulled her into one as well. But instead of a motherly warmth, it was cold and distant. Scootaloo shivered. "What? Are you too old to accept your mother's hugs? Gotten too mature, 'Cutie Mark Crusader'?" "Mom, you're freezing my flank off." "Love you too, sweetheart." "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!" Twilight yelled rushing over and looking over the spirit. "How are you here? Where did you come from? How did you manage to-" Frozen Fire stuffed a hoof into her mouth nonchalantly. Twilight shivered from the very cold feeling. "Calm yourself, Ms. Sparkle. I must speak to my family first before I answer your questions." She removed her hoof and walked over to her crying sister. "There there, you hot mess. Stop crying." Molten Fire sobbed before she pulled her sister's cold soul into a hug. Everyone else in the room except the elements and the others stood to the side and watched the coincidental family reunion. After a few minutes they broke apart. "How? How are you here right now?" Dense Seas asked. "An old spell I cast on myself before I was murdered," she answered. "I'm going to explain what's going on. It was a mix of Dark Magic and Light Magic that we created on Earth using crystals and a lot of chemicals. The people who were after us were looking for my daughter. Which is why we threw you through the portal. Bright and I knew they were coming. So we developed another spell that was able to give the host the ability to open a portal back to Equestria. I gave it to Bright Magnus and he took Lareen to a place where they would not be disturbed. But we did not know they were coming that early. So I stayed behind and destroyed everything we had created with magic. Destroying the molecules and everything else before they burst into our apartment and killed me. But I had completed the mission. And so had Bright Magnus. He got our daughter safely to Equestria where they will never get her." "But why were they after her in the first place?" Dense Seas asked. "Her magic. Which was going to be used by a crime boss and his cell that had somehow found out about us. He was going to use it to take out his enemies. He already had weapons. Guns, cars, and other things. But he wanted more. He wanted something that could torture his enemies and keep them alive so he could do more harm and send out a message. Not to mention give him longevity. He was going to be a human version of, sorry Luna, Nightmare Moon." The said princess waved it off, completely use to it by now. Frozen Fire looked behind her at the lavender alicorn. "And Princess Twilight?" "Yes, Frozen Fire?" she asked, stalking forward. "When you go to earth...be armed. I'd prefer it if you didn't go at all, because it is very dangerous. But your investigation has already begun, it would be futile. So when you go...be prepared and watch your back. Stay on your toes. This group does not kid around and they will do unspeakable things to you if they catch you. They, as well as the police, are still looking for Lareen....Scootaloo......Princess Scootaloo..." "Mom..." "I promise to be safe, ma'am," Twilight responded. "Good. And Celestia?" "Yes?" She responded walking into her view. The mare rushed forward and gave her a hug. "I miss you. Watch over my daughter. Please." "I promise to keep a close eye on her. As well as everypony else in here," she whispered back, a small tear leaking from her eye. "Thank you. Scootaloo, I'll be seeing you tonight." Before Scootaloo could respond, she disappeared in Blue Flames that left as fast as they came. They looked at the spot they were at before Rarity decided to break the silence. "Well....that was...unexpected....but welcome nonetheless."