Rainbow awoke to the light of Celestia's morning sun shining on her face through the open window of her bedroom. She let out a yawn and looked down at her daughter, who was still sleeping peacefully, curled up underneath Dash's wing. She smiled. Although she would never admit it, Dash thought it was adorable. She leaned Down and nuzzled the top of the filly's head. "Morning Squirt, time to wake up," Dash said caringly.
Scootaloo rolled over to face Dash and hugged her tight, with her eyes still closed. "Five more minutes mom," Scootaloo said in her sleep. Dash chuckled at this. Yeah, she had to admit, this was adorable.
"No sweetie, you have school today, time to wake up," Dash said a little more sternly, nudging the little pegasus to wake her up.
Scootaloo let out a loud yawn as she rolled on to her back and stretched out her legs. Her eyes fluttered awake and she turned to look up at Dash, who was smiling warmly down at her. "Morning Dash," Scoots said before giving another yawn. "How did I end up here?" Scootaloo asked, referring to the fact that she was not in her own bed.
"Well, after the party yesterday, you fell asleep on my back on the way home," Dash said with a smile, recalling the events of the day before.
"Oh, ok," Scootaloo said with a smile. She then muttered something too quiet for Dash to hear.
"What was that Squirt?"
Scootaloo muttered it again, looking down with a light blush on her cheeks, but it was still too quiet for Dash to hear.
"I still can't hear you," Dash said with an evil grin.
"I kind of liked it!" Scootaloo blurted out before her face turned red and she shot her hooves up to cover her mouth. "Hey, you can't blame me, your fur is really soft."
Dash grinned. "Aaaaaand?" she asked with a hinting tone in her voice.
"And I love you," Scootaloo grumbled, almost too quiet for Dash to hear, her face turning red in the process.
"Awwwww." Dash fawned. " I love you too sweetheart," Dash said as she pulled her daughter in tight for another hug.
"Mom!" Scootaloo groaned as her face blushed even redder. "Stop it."
"Awe, but I love my little filly," Dash said teasingly.
"Yeah yeah, I love you too," Scootaloo grumbled.
Dash leaned in and nuzzled her newly adopted daughter again. "Alright Squirt, time to get up. You have school today."
"Do I have to?" Scootaloo groaned. "School is so boring. I want to do cool things like hanging out with you."
Dash chuckled. "Yes Squirt, you do. Hey, at least you get to see your friends, right?"
Scootaloo gasped and jumped up and out of the bed, making Dash jump in the process. "My friends! I get to tell all of my other friends about you!" Scootaloo shouted as she ran out of the room to get ready.
Dash just chuckled. "That's my little Scoots," She said with a warm smile as she got out of bed herself to get ready.
***
Scootaloo zoomed through Ponyville on her scooter, followed closely on her side by a rainbow trail streaking through the air overhead. She was on her way to school the same way she and Dash liked to do everything: fast. As she approached the schoolhouse, she slowed down to a stop a little ways away from the building. Dash noticed and flew down to her daughter to see what was up. "Hey Squirt, what's up? Why'd you stop way back here?" Dash asked, worried about Scootaloo.
"I'm alright, I just figured I'd stop back here so we can get the mushy goodbye stuff out of the way before I got to a place where somepony might see me," Scootaloo said, probably too confidently.
Dash exaggerated a fake gasp. "Scootaloo! I'm hurt!" she joked. "You're that embarrassed by me already!"
"N-no!" Scootaloo stammered. "I-It's, it's just—"
"Oh, I'm just messing with you Squirt. If I were you, I'd be embarrassed too." Dash said as Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief. "But..." Dash began, ending Scootaloo's short-lived relief, which soon turned into embarrassment as she was wrapped up into a tight hug and lifted off the ground. "I do still have to embarrass you though. I am your mom now after all." Dash said as she sat her daughter back down on the ground. "Love you Scoots."
"Yeah yeah, love you too," Scootaloo mumbled as Dash leaned down and nuzzled her. She nuzzled back, before turning towards the schoolhouse to go meet with her friends. "Bye Mom," Scoots called out, making sure she was still too far away from the schoolhouse to be heard by anyone that knew her.
"Bye Scoots. I'll be here to pick you up after school." Dash said, giving her daughter one last smile and a wave, before turning around to head off to Wonderbolts practice. She had to ask Spitfire if little fillies were allowed to come and watch practices sometimes on weekends. You know... just because she was curious.
Scoots waved to her adoptive mother as she left, and then walked towards the schoolhouse to meet with her friends. She just had to hope that nopony had seen that little display.
***
Unbeknownst to Scootaloo, somepony had seen and heard the whole interaction between the filly and her mother. After she had seen it, Sweetie ran inside the schoolhouse, to go tell Applebloom, who was already inside, all about their little friend's sappy goodbye with her mother.
***
Scootaloo walked into the schoolhouse and into Miss Cheerilee's classroom to find her friends. Oddly enough, they were sitting huddled together, and Sweetie was whispering something in Applebloom's ear. "Hey girls," Scootaloo called, making both of her friends jump. "So," Scootaloo said with an evil grin, "What did I miss?" Scootaloo asked jokingly clearly trying to hint at something.
Both of them caught onto Scootaloo's hint immediately, and both blushed heavily. "H-hey!" Sweetie shouted, with a squeak in her voice. "T-that's not it at all."
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she asked sarcastically, wanting to take the joke as far as she could. "Then, what were you talking about?"
Sweetie and Applebloom shared a glance, weighing their options. "Nothing!" they both shouted suddenly.
Scootaloo just grinned even wider. "Suuuuure." She said with an evil chuckle. "We'll see."
With that, Scootaloo let go of the topic and they all took their seats. Right about that time, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked in. "Hey, Diamond! Hey, Silver!" Scootaloo called.
"Hey, girls," Diamond called as she walked over to where they were seated. "So how was your weekend?"
Scootaloo shared a knowing smirk with her friends. "Oh it was... interesting," Scootaloo said, deciding not to give anything away just yet.
Diamond and Silver looked at each other. That couldn't be good. "Oh, uh... well what happened?" Silver Spoon asked nervously.
Applebloom chimed in, "Let's just say Scoots has a big surprise to tell y'all about at lunch today."
"Oh, really?" Diamond Tiara asked, losing her nervousness. There was no way Scootaloo of all ponies knew about their secret and wasn't telling. She would be all over them by now. "What kind of surprise?"
"The big kind!" Scootaloo said excitedly. "You'll just have to wait and see what it is at lunch."
"Okay, can't wait," Diamond said, genuinely curious about what this big surprise could be. It sounded like it really was big. "See you at lunch," She said as both her and Silver Spoon turned and headed for their seats. Once they had made it to their seats, Cherilee took up a position at the front of the classroom and started teaching.
***
"Wow, Scootaloo!" Silver Spoon said as she finished off the last of her lunch. "I'm so happy for you! That was a big surprise."
"Yeah, me too!" Diamond chimed in. "I can't believe Rainbow adopted you. That's great!"
"Thanks, girls," Scootaloo said thankfully. She was glad that she had so many friends who cared about her this much.
"So, um... Scootaloo." Silver Spoon said carefully. "I don't want to intrude, but if you don't mind me asking while we're on the subject of all of this. What exactly did happen to you before you came to Ponyville? You know, with your parents and all."
Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin in thought. Now that she thought about it, she didn't actually remember all that well. She couldn't remember where she had come from, or even what her parents looked like. "Silver, I don't think that's the
best—" Scootaloo cut off Applebloom before she could continue.
"No, no. It's alright. I was just thinking. I don't exactly remember that much about before I came here. The only thing I do remember, was my parents being disappointed in me, and thinking I was a failure." Scootaloo let out a pained sigh. Those were the few words she remembered from that conversation she had overheard between her parents. "I don't even remember what they looked like, or where I came from."
All four of Scootaloo's friends were just staring at Scootaloo with pained expressions. "Scoots, I'm so sorry," Sweetiebelle said. "I-I had no idea."
"Don't be," Scootaloo said, perking up a bit. "I don't even remember them that well, so it doesn't really bother me anymore now that I have Dash. She loves me way more than I ever remember them loving me." Her friends cheered up a little at hearing this, they were glad their friend was so happy with Dash.
"Well we're happy for you Scootaloo," Applebloom said, right as the bell rang. "Well, time to head back inside. Last one in is a rotten cockatrice!" Applebloom said, taking off before anypony else even knew what was happening.
"H-hey! No fair!" Scootaloo called, taking off after her friend.
***
When the bell rang, dismissing the students for the day, Scootaloo walked out the front of the schoolhouse to look for Rainbow. When she saw her, she ran up to her and jumped into a big hug, which Rainbow graciously returned. "Hey, kiddo. How was school today?"
"It was great!" Scootaloo said, releasing the hug. "We learned all about—" Scootaloo paused, just now taking note of the yellow pegasus that she somehow had not noticed standing beside her mother "Oh, hey Fluttershy," Scootaloo said, looking up at the pegasus who was smiling warmly at her. "What are you doing here?"
"Well," Fluttershy began, scraping her hoof on the ground nervously. "I-I know it's a bit early, but there's something we need to talk to you about."
"Oh, like what?" Scootaloo asked although she was fairly confident she knew the answer. She had been waiting on this. She knew it was only a matter of time.
Rainbow sighed. "Scoots... It's time to talk about your past."