I woke up the next morning feeling tired. I tended to often be a very heavy sleeper, and when I looked at the clock, I saw it was already 9AM. I opened my eyes wide and suddenly shot out of bed, walking into the bathroom for a shower and to brush my teeth.
Once I was done with those, I walked downstairs to the kitchen and got out some pots and pans for cooking, deciding that since it was Scootaloo’s first morning living with me, I wanted to make her first breakfast with me a big kahuna. I didn’t know her favorite foods, so I decided to leave nothing to chance and make a few foods any self respecting filly would love.
I was no professional chef, but I was a halfway decent cook, so I got to work making some french toast, chocolate pancakes, blueberry waffles and eggs. I came to find out a few months ago that eggs were the only thing from another animal ponies ate, and they were the main way they got protein. I did the eggs sunnyside up, hoping Scoots would enjoy it that way.
It was a bit of labour to make all of these, but I was hungry myself, and I wanted to make Scootaloo’s first day with me start on a bang, on a really good note. As if on cue, just as I got done setting all the food onto two ceramic plates, I heard a yawn in the doorframe of the kitchen. Scoots had woken up right on time. I turned to her and smiled, walking to the table and setting the two plates which were nearly overflowing with food on the wooden surface.
Scootaloo saw all the food and I saw her eyes open a bit wide. “Whoa, you made all of this?! This looks amazing!” Scootaloo said as she hopped up into the kitchen chair, and I chuckled and grabbed the maple syrup and whipped cream out of the fridge.
“Of course I did, silly. I’m just hoping it tasted as good to you as it looks.” I then grabbed two forks out of the drawer and walked over to the table, setting the things down onto it and handing her a fork. Without even hesitating, Scootaloo dug into the pancake mountain first, and her moans of delight told me all I needed to know about my cooking.
“Oh my gosh, these are delicious! I’ve never had pancakes this good, they’re so buttery!” She declared in pure happiness, eating the stack at an alarming rate. I chuckled and sat down at the table across from her, being the opposite of her and slowly digging into my stack, trying to savor each and every bite.
“Easy there Scoots, eat too fast and you’re gonna get a wicked tummy ache. Then you’ll have to stay in bed all day instead of heading out into town with me.” I told her with a little grin. She gasped and stopped eating for a second.
“We’re going into town? What are we gonna be doing!” She asked me as she took the bottle of syrup and squirted a liberal coating onto what was left of her pancakes. I chuckled at her.
“Well, I told you we’d get some things to Scootaloo up that bedroom, didn’t I? I meant it. We’re going to the market, and then maybe grab some lunch from the diner.” I told her with a smile, and I could see her little wings flap in excitement. Once her pancake mountain was, miraculously, all gone, she then moved onto the eggs, and she made even more sounds of delight than she had with the pancakes.
“Oh my gosh! These are the best eggs ever! Dad, why haven’t you opened up your own restaurant?!” She asked me as she devoured the eggs like a savage beast. I chuckled a bit, happy that she was making a concerted effort to call me dad instead of Jordan. That really meant a lot to me. I then thought about her question, and sighed.
“You know Scoots, I’m not going to lie, I did think about that for a time. But it costs BANK to open up a restaurant. It would be a massive headache, and I just don’t have the time or energy for it right now. Maybe someday though.” I said as I sipped some orange juice. Good thing Applejack wasn’t here, she’d probably get mad that I was drinking a competitor’s orange juice.
“You’d be really good at owning a restaurant daddy. I know you would.” Scoots told me as she finished her eggs, leaving me in shock at how she’d eaten so much food. She then pouted heavily.
“Agh, I’m full, but I didn’t get to taste everything! That’s so unfair!” She shouted, leaning back in the chair. I chuckled at her.
“And that, my dear daughter, is why you never eat too much too fast, and try to eat a bit of everything before you get full. Don’t worry though, I can save them for dinner later.” I said as I got up, grabbed some tupper ware out of the cabinet, and put our remaining food into it. I put those into the fridge and walked back to her.
“Alright Scoots, I’m gonna go get dressed, and then we’ll go shopping, alright?” I told her as I tossled her hair and went upstairs, getting on some nice clothes. Unlike what I wore yesterday, these clothes were just nice, instead of being NICE. When I was done putting the clothes on, I walked back downstairs where Scootaloo was waiting for me.
“Alright Scoots, ready to go?” I asked her, and she gave me a smiling nod. I opened the front door, let her walk out in front of me, and locked the door, sticking my keys into the keyring in my pants loop. I smiled at her and began walking towards the market, which actually was only a few minutes from my home.
Scoots and I walked together into the market, and I checked to see how much money I had in my bit bag.
“Hmm, ok Scoots, I need to buy us some groceries, and then after that, I’ll take you to a super special shop, okay?” I told her and she gave me a very excited nod. I chuckled, and started to go from stall to stall. I got some carrots, some oats, some hay, some cheeses and eggs, and some other stuff. Soon I had a pretty full basket that was hard to carry, but luckily I wasn’t a complete nerd and had some muscles to carry it.
When I had everything that I needed, I called out to Scoots and she rode her scooter over to me. I chuckled, noticing how much joy that thing really gave her. I made a mental note to ask her about it later, but for now I led her to a sports shop in town.
Immediately, Scootaloo lit up. She ran directly to the Wonderbolt section, and I chuckled, knowing she was going to get everything Rainbow Dash that she could. And sure enough, I watched her as she got a Wonderbolts blanket with Rainbow displayed prominently on it, along with a few Dash posters, a bobblehead, and a pennant. I chuckled at her choices.
“Alright Scootaloo, if that’s what you want, it’s what you’re gonna get.” I said, and when she put everything she’d grabbed on the counter, and I reached into my bit bag to pay for it. It was all a hefty 50 bits, which made Scootaloo’s eyes open in shock.
”You’re spending 50 bits, just like that?! How the hay do you have so much money?!” Scootaloo asked me curiously, and I smiled.
“Well, being the only human here has its benefits Scoots. I’ve made a ton of money letting Twilight do some tests and experiments on me. With that in the bank, combined with my job, we’re not rich or anything, but we’ll never have to struggle financially, unless I lose my job. Which I don’t see happening since my boss really likes me and the place would go under without me. Colgate isn’t exactly good at doing paperwork.” I chuckled a bit, and once the pony working the store today put everything into bags I attached the bag to Scootaloo so she could carry the stuff.
“Alright Scoots, what do you want for lunch? We’re not too far from the Hayburger, would that be good?” I asked Scootaloo, and I saw her mouth immediately start to water.
“I haven’t had Hayburger since Mrs. Cheerilee ordered it for us on the last day of school last year! That would be delicious daddy!” She told me as she and I began to walk over there.
As soon as we got there, I had Scootaloo get us a table and I ordered our meal at the counter. I got us two quarter pound hayburgers a piece, an order of fries, and a shake. When the food was ready, I grabbed it and brought the food to the table she chose.
I’ll tell you this, the face of pure happiness Scootaloo had plastered on her the entire time we ate was something I’ll never forget. I’m sure the orphanage, while they tried their best, their food probably wasn’t the greatest. So I know Scootaloo really enjoys food like this, which she couldn’t get while living there. The way her face lit up when she started sipping the shake was priceless.
“Easy Scoots, remember what happened at breakfast? You’ll fill up too fast if you go that quick.” I cautioned her, dipping my fries in the shake. Scootaloo looked at me curiously before grabbing a fry, dipping it and eating it, her eyes popping wide open as the combination of flavors hit her tongue.
“Holy Celestia, that’s so good!” She said as she dipped another fry, then another, and so on. I chuckled, glad that she was just like me in how much she enjoyed the treat.
Sadly though, soon she devoured her entire order of fries doing that. She pouted a bit, sad that the fries were gone. I looked at the defeated look on her face before sighing and handing her my order of fries.
“I shouldn’t be rewarding you for pigging out like that, but, I’m feeling generous today Scoots. Enjoy those.” I told her with a smile, and without even replying to me she dug in again, not stopping until both my order of fries and the shake were gone. Then it became apparent to me that Scootaloo LOVED good food. I would have to remember that for later.
Soon, all the food we had ordered was gone, and I slowly got out of the seat I was using, stretching my limbs and grabbing my bags of groceries. I smiled at Scootaloo, who followed behind me as I walked out of the restaurant.
“Alright Scoots, we got one more place to go before we head home, and before you ask, I’m not telling. It’s a surprise.” I told her as I walked the opposite direction from home, Scootaloo making a sad “Aw…” of disappointment when I shut her down.
We walked for a little bit before coming to a special shop, the smell of wood and tree sap assaulting our noses. Scootaloo looked up at me, clearly confused as to why we were here, until she saw the reason why further into the shop.
There, near the back wall of the shop, were a large variety of chessboards and chess pieces. Scootaloo’s eyes opened up wide as she saw them. There were dozens of chessboards done in a variety of different sized, wood types, etc. A mare who worked here saw us and smiled.
“Hello, can I help you today?” She asked us, and I pointed to a chessboard in the display case. The board outside of the playing area was made from a beautiful, brilliantly red rosewood. The playing area was made with ebony for the black squares, and poplar for the white pieces. Those respective pieces were made out of those woods as well. It was by far the most stunning and most elegant board they had for sale.
It was worth more than a pretty penny though. 300 bits. That was very steep, even for me who wasn’t hurting for money right now, but I knew Scootaloo would adore the thing, and get so much enjoyment out of it. So to me, the money just didn’t matter. I may have to eat peanut butter sandwiches for a while to make up for it, but that was no obstacle to me.
“Yes, I would like to buy that chessboard and the pieces.” I told the worker pony, and she looked as surprised as Scootaloo. I guess, maybe she just never expected it to be sold, due to the hefty price tag. But she wasn’t about to complain and nodded, getting everything set up into a large wooden box for us. I counted out and handed her the bits, thanking her for her help.
After Scootaloo and I walked out of there, me carrying the box along with the groceries, she stayed silent for a bit before shouting at me.
“ARE YOU CRAZY?! That thing was 300 bits!” She told me in horror, but I just ignored it and unlocked the front door to the house when we got there.
“I know that, Scoots, but you sounded very excited to play chess. I know you’ll get a lot of fun and enjoyment out of this, and besides, when I whup your butt again, I want to do it with only the finest pieces.” I said, teasing her and tossling her mane, to which she growled gently and followed me inside.
I got to work putting things away, making sure they were stored properly, and then went up to her bedroom with the things we bought from the shop. I got a hammer and nailed up her poster, put the blanket she used last night in the dirty hamper, replaced that with her new blanket and pillows, and then put her pennant up. Now the room was looking Scootaloo’d out. This bedroom could only belong to her.
“Daddy, this is all so cool! I have a Rainbow Dash blanket!!!” She shouted out as she jumped into her bed and snuggled it, holding it closely. I felt a smile spread from ear to ear on my face. Seeing Scoots so happy made me happy, and made everything so worth it.
“Hey now, don’t go to sleep on me, or else I’m gonna have to find somebody else to play chess with.” I told her with a chuckle, walking downstairs. When I got to the table and opened the box, sure enough, Scootaloo sat down across from me. I set the board down on the kitchen table, and grabbed the black chess pieces, deciding to let her be the white so she could go first, and helping to teach her which pieces went where on the board.
We started the game, and it was pretty uneventful like the game we played at the orphanage. I was pulled in half; half of me wanted to go easy on her, but the other half told me she’d never learn if I did that. And so I decided to play it like a regular game, which meant it didn’t last very long.
When I checkmated her dragon again, she got angry at first. But then I held my hand up to make her settle down.
“Scoots, you want to know the real secret to chess? You have to think a few moves ahead. Watch this.” I reset all the pieces to about ten moves earlier in the game, and started to show her.
“Ok, look. Your alicorn is here, right? Now, she’s not in any immediate danger. But look at this.” I said as I moved my pegasus one move, and then my unicorn another. I had it so my pegasus was one more away from taking her alicorn, but she had an earth pony one square away that could take my pegasus.
Ok, so watch. I took your alicorn with my pegasus, and then you took my pegasus with your earth pony. But you didn’t see before hand…” I moved my unicorn so it then took that earth pony. “…That I had it set up so I got the best outcome in that situation no matter what. I took your alicorn and an earth pony, whereas all you got was a pegasus. If you’d been paying attention…” I said, rewinding the game a few moves.
“...You could have moved your alicorn here.” I said and moved her alicorn to the other side of the board. I did the move I would have done after that, moving my dragon to safety, and then had her pegasus move so my dragon was checkmated with no escape.
“See what I mean, Scoots? You can’t just keep your eyes on your side of the board, you have to take the time to survey the entire thing, and try to make the best move possible. At the end of a chess game, your mind should be a little tired.” I told her with a chuckle.
She was definitely trying to process everything I told her, though. For the next few minutes, she played with both sides of the chess board, trying to come up with different situations for the pieces and how her side could come out of it clean. I smiled and, while she did that, I decided to get up and cook some dinner.
Since we had such a big calorie and carb day already, I decided to go easy for dinner while still making it delicious. I went with some of my semi-famous soup. I got a big pot and filled it with water. Then I got some avocado broth, which had a consistency not unlike beef broth back home, and put it in with the water. Then I got to work cutting carrots, celery, shallots, mushrooms, bell peppers and adding spices, such as salt, pepper, curry powder, garlic powder and some sprinkles of parmesan cheese. I added that all to the pot and let it boil at medium heat for ten minutes.
Soon, the smells of the soup overtook the kitchen, and Scootaloo let out and “Mmm!” As she smelled it. As soon as it was ready, I got my ladle, two bowls, and filled them up with the delicious soup. I placed the two bowls down at our places at the table, moved the chess stuff out of the way, and we both began to dig in, both making sounds of delight as we ate.
I got some club crackers and broke them up with my fingers, putting them into the soup to help thicken it up into an almost chowder-y consistency and add more flavor. The buttery richness of them just added so much more to the soup. Soon, I was in heaven, and Scoots was too.
But, all good things must come to an end, and all too quickly, our soup was all gone. I grabbed my bowl as well as hers, and began to clean the dishes from the day, while Scootaloo moved the chessboard back and continued to play.
I was really happy she was so enthralled with chess. Being an adrenaline junkie and was good and all, but now she and the other Crusaders had their cutie marks, and they were growing up. Chess would help sharpen her mind, and she would need that for when she was older.
When I was done with dishes, I put them away in the cabinets and walked over to Scootaloo. “Alright Scoots, we’ve had our fun today. Now, it’s late, and you have school tomorrow, little miss.” I told her, to which she let out an unhappy sound.
“Aw…but dad, I was wanting to spend tomorrow with you!” She said sadly, pouting a bit. I got down onto one knee and gave her a hug.
“I know Scoots, but your education is more important. We’ll still have time together, I promise. But I can’t just let you skip school. It’ll all be ok, alright?” I assured her, and she nodded gently.
“Now, I want you to go upstairs and take a bath, and get ready for bed, okay?” Scootaloo sighed a bit, but nodded and hurried upstairs to the bathroom. Right then, there was a knock on the back door. Somepony came in, and looking over that way, I saw that it was Twilight.
“Hey! So sorry I couldn’t come over last night. I had a bunch of surprise paperwork come up and I barely even had time to bathe before bed. Sooooo, how’d it go? Who did you decide to adopt!” Twilight asked me excitedly, a big smile plastered on her face. I just chuckled a bit.
“Follow me.” I said simply, and I let her upstairs to Scootaloo’s bedroom. I let her take a peak inside from the hallway, and Twilight was able to deduce it immediately.
“Whoa…really? Scootaloo? I would have never wagered that.” Twilight said, before smacking herself with her wing. “Not that I’m not excited for you! Scootaloo’s a great filly and I know you’ll make her very happy!” Twilight said with a smile. I smiled back before leading her downstairs, where Twilight noticed the chessboard for the first time.
“What’s the chessboard for?” She asked me curiously, and I told her.
“Well, I may have gotten Scootaloo hooked on it.” I said, and Twilight looked very surprised for a minute, before gasping and reaching into her bookbag.
“Here! I happened to have this in the bookbag. Give it to Scootaloo, it’s a book detailing proper chess openings and strategies. I think she’ll enjoy it!” Twilight said, but I just chuckled a bit.
“Twilight, there’s a big difference between getting Scootaloo to play a board game and reading a book. I think the book will be pushing it, but I’ll try.” I said as I took the book from her. Right then, Twilight looked at the clock.
“Well, I got to get back to the castle and put my little one to bed. Spike needs to get to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow though, HBFF!” She said before trotting to the back door and flying off. I smiled and closed the door behind her.
It was then that I heard the water upstairs stop running and I heard the squeak of mattress springs. I went upstairs to Scootaloo’s bedroom, where sure enough, she was laying in her bed, ready for sleep.
“Hey Scoots, Twilight came by and told me to give this to you.” I said as I handed her the book, and she looked at it for a moment before huffing.
“A book on chess? Well, I’m already playing chess, I guess I might as well nerd out all the way. But don’t tell anyone else dad! I don’t want the ponies at school thinking I’m a nerd…” She said to me as she took the book and put it under her pillows. I smiled and pet her mane gently with my hand, getting the mane out of her face.
“Can do, Scoots. Now, you sleep well. You got a full day of school ahead of you and I want you giving it your all, ok? Good night.” I said as I leaned down and kissed her forehead, and she smiled and closed her eyes.
“Goodnight daddy, I love you so much.” She said as she then rolled onto her side, getting comfortable. I smiled at her back.
“I love you too, baby. Get some sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said to her as I walked to the doorway and turned the light off, darkness enveloping the room so she could sleep. I gently closed the door and walked into my room in turn.
I, like last night, shed all my layers and got into bed, but I wasn’t feeling shocked like I was last night. Tonight, I had a much clearer conscience, and I recalled the days events with a smile on my face.
Scootaloo is turning out to be an amazing daughter, and I really hope nothing changes that. I’m not a fool though, I know complications are going to arise, it’s only natural. But I’m going to enjoy the quiet before the storm as much as I can, and be the best father to Scootaloo I can.
I may miss those bits I spent today later, but for my new daughter, I’d do anything. And tonight, as I feel asleep, one thought dominated my mind again.
I’m finally somebody’s hero.