"So, Scootaloo, there was something I meant to ask you." Twilight Sparkle sat back on her throne in the Castle that overlooked the village of Ponyville, a gentle smile on her face. The alicorn had a neat stack of paper in front of her, indicative of the fact she intended to be writing for a while and that this could be a very long conversation indeed. Seated opposite her in the throne room, on the opposite side of the Cutie Map, a certain orange pegasus filly was sitting in a chair, rather than on the floor, as such a state of affairs would make conversation difficult, not to mention downright rude. Scootaloo seemed to be somewhat fidgety, though why this was the case was very unclear as she had no idea what was being asked. It was a few seconds before the filly answered the comment.
"Erm, yeah, what did ya want to ask, Twilight?" Scootaloo asked. Truth be told, a long session of questions from Twilight was something she was not looking forward to, and she would rather be out doing tricks on her scooter or helping other foals find their cutie marks. Though there was that one time they'd tried to help a griffon. That'd been an interesting one to say the least.
"Do you know who your parents are?" Twilight asked, as was her style, somewhat insensitively, as tact had never been in her strong suit of cards. There was a brief silence before the pegasus opposite her started to speak again.
"Well, no," Scootaloo said sadly, her face falling as she looked toward the floor. "As you know, I live at an orphanage on the edge of town, and this is where I've lived for as long as I can remember. According to what the orphanage has told me, a couple handed me in one night many years ago, along with some paperwork stating my age and date of birth, along with a statement that they couldn't care for me."
"Did they ever tell you the identity of the ponies who handed you in?" Twilight asked, leaning in and writing down what had just been told to her. The quill flew back and forth, surrounded by an aura of purple energy as she committed the words she had just been told to paper. There was another silence, before Scootaloo spoke again, her eyes now slightly wet, which oddly helped to emphasise her bright purple eyes that gleamed like headlamps in the room, despite it being fully lit.
"They were wearing cloaks at the time," the filly said sadly. "They never did get the names of the couple, although they stated that one looked to be an Earth pony from the way they walked, which means the other must have been a pegasus or else... well-" To demonstrate her point, Scootaloo extended her wings and buzzed them for a moment, her body barely lifting off of the ground. Those wings were a constant source of frustration to her. Due to an apparent birth defect, which meant some of her muscles were not properly developed, the pegasus could not fly, and at the most could hover for a few seconds. Nevertheless, she found doing this exhausting, and limited doing so as much as she could.
"Not necessarily," Twilight answered.
"Sorry?" Scootaloo asked in return, confused.
"You know the Cake twins, don't you?" Twilight asked, a question to answer a question.
"Of course I do!" Scootaloo said excitedly. "Those two cause Mr and Mrs Cake all sorts of havoc!"
"Well, Pound Cake is a pegasus, and Pumpkin Cake is a unicorn," Twilight continued, her voice quickly switching to 'boring university lecture' mode. "But neither Carrot Cake nor Cup Cake are unicorns or pegasi. You only need distant genetic connection to either of those species for those traits to manifest further down the genetic line, and both of them have distant relation to unicorns and pegasi."
"Your point being?" Scootaloo asked, sounding very bored by this point.
"Only one of your parents needed a distant connection to pegasi for the genetic possibility to open up of you being born a pegasus!" Twilight cried, jumping on the cutie map and flattening Appaloosa in the process. "THIS IS SO AMAZING!"
Scootaloo coughed. "It also means that finding out who my mom and dad are is even more complicated."
Twilight smiled. "Well, I think we can get a leg up in that regard with a quick trip through the portal."
"You mean to that other place where there are duplicates of us who move around on two limbs and pick stuff up with weird tentacles?"
Twilight sat in stunned silence for a moment. "How do you know that?" she asked, her muzzle scrunching up in confusion as she processed this piece of information.
"Rainbow Dash told me about it shortly after you got back from there the first time." The filly sat in silence for a moment before continuing. "Is there a duplicate of me?"
"Yes!" Twilight replied. "Not only that, there are a handful of differences. Whilst both of you have disabilities of some sort, hers is mental rather than physical. Not only that, we know who her parents are!"
Scootaloo jumped up on the cutie map as well, her hooves crushing the desert plains and railway lines as Scootzilla sought an answer. "Who? Who?"
"Cheerilee and a person called William Collins," Twilight replied.
Scootaloo frowned. "William Collins? That has to be the stupidest name I've ever heard."
Twilight sighed. "Honestly Scootaloo, what have they been teaching you at school? 'Stupidest' is not a word, and neither is 'powerfullest', based on a rant I got from Sunset yesterday." She grabbed her saddlebags, loaded with paper, and stepped toward the portal. "I'm going to ask them about what happened in their world, and then come back and hopefully apply it here in the hope that it will get us a new clue! See you later!" And she vanished through the portal, like water rippling across the surface of a lake.
It had been a busy day in Canterlot. The sun shone, the grass grew, and the birds sang in the trees as people went about their business. As the day was starting to roll towards an end, the sun was starting to descend in the sky, turning the previous mass of glorious blue cloudless expanse into a riot of golden and orange colour, interspersed with marvellous streams of crimson, with a giant ball of orange and sanguinite at the centre of it all, watching over all that everyone was doing that fine day.
And it had been a fine day, for that day had seen the Canterlot airshow. The airbase was sited to the north of the town, and it was out of here that a portion of the 86th Airlift Wing operated. A large facility, with multiple runways and squadrons on site, they had recently hosted their annual airshow, which had been a star studded event. Not only had multiple old warbirds attended in force (including a massed P-51 Mustang flypast), but a B-17 Flying Fortress had flown over from the UK as well, Memphis Belle to be exact (or Sally B, as it really was). Other notable appearances included the Thunderbirds, the US Air Force display squadron, as well as a performance from the Blue Angels, on their way up from Pensecola Naval Air Station in Florida. Naturally, of course, the 86th Airlift Wing got involved, with a flypast of their resident C-130 Hercules aircraft and a simulated combat drop from 15,000 feet. After this airshow, William Collins, alongside his wife Cheerilee and his daughter Scootaloo, were on their way back to their home in the relative south of the town, walking along the sidewalk in order to enjoy the summer evening. Well, he and Cheerilee were walking. Scootaloo had recently replaced her old scooter for a new one, and was propelling it along with her foot at a slow speed, allowing the others to keep pace. In addition to this, she were shinpads, elbow guards, and a helmet over the top of her usual clothes, out of which a small portion of her violet hair poked out in a defiant manner, refusing to be held back by such a constraining thing.
"Well, did you enjoy that kid?" Will asked, smiling. Thanks to living in close proximity to the base, he had an arrangement with the Air Force that allowed him to live with his family, rather than on the airbase itself. He felt he had been far too long away from them, and was rather keen to actually know his own child as he had been rather distant for years.
"That was great!" Scootaloo exclaimed, punching the air with her fist as she did so. "I've wanted to see both the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels for so long, and to get to see both in a single day? It's like a dream come true!"
"Well, I did try to get that assignment to Nellis, but you can probably guess why that didn't happen," Will replied. "What did you think, Cheers?"
"I had a great time myself," Cheerilee replied, smiling as well. "Although the sun could be a little intrusive, I don't think I'll forget hearing that sonic boom from the Blue Angels!"
They then walked past the plinth for the Canterlot High School Wonderbolt Statue, the statue itself yet to be replaced after the Friendship Games due to budget cuts and other similar problems. The need for replacing it with another statue would also reveal the magic coming from it to the world, and nobody wanted to be carted off to Area 51. They didn't notice the edge of the portal start to shimmer with magical energy, and just as Scootaloo rode past it, a lavender object flew out of the portal and crashed into her, sending both herself and her scooter flying. It all happened so quickly that Will had little time to detect what was going on, nor the fact that the portal suddenly shimmered for the second time. All he saw was a girl lying there, on the floor, on her hands and knees, and looking confused.
"Are you OK, Scoots?" he asked, looking into her eyes as she looked up in confusion. Only then did she suddenly scream and fall back, looking at her hands in complete confusion and the apparent change to her body.
"Help!" she cried. "What in Celestia happened to my hooves?" The girl looked over to her back, and saw nothing there, just fabric sitting over her body. "I can't feel my wings!"
Will was no even more confused. "What's gotten into you?" he asked. "You've never had hooves? You're a human, like me!"
"Dad, I'm over here," another, identical voice said. Sure enough, Scootaloo was pulling herself up from having Twilight collide with her. The Princess looked very embarassed.
"Sorry, Scootaloo," she said. She then walked over to the other girl. "Scootaloo, take it easy. You need to move around on two limbs rather than four." Extending her hand, she helped the girl up.
"So, why is everypony on two limbs?" the other Scootaloo asked.
"Everybody," Twilight corrected. She then turned to the human Scootaloo. "Sorry about that, it seems your counterpart from Equestria followed me here. I have a question to ask you."
Scootaloo nodded. "Fire away."
"Why is Cheerilee your mom?"
There was a stunned silence before the girl replied. "Erm... because she is?"
Twilight decided to try a different line of enquiry. "Miss Cheerilee, how are you Scootaloo's mom?"
"Is this some sort of late April Fool's?" Cheerilee asked irritably. "She's my daughter because I gave birth to her. That's the only reason."
"I had some input in that," Will added, unhelpfully.
Twilight looked puzzled. "That leaves an inconsistency! The Cheerilee of the pony world has never married or had foals! This merits-"
"Can we talk this over at our house?" Will asked. "This is a bit of a personal topic to be discussing in the street."
About half an hour later, Twilight and the assembled Collins family, alongside the second Scootaloo, who from now on shall be referred to as P-Scootaloo to avoid any confusion, were seated in the living room of the Collins family home. Whilst Twilight was busy examining many of the objects in the room, Cheerilee entered with a tray, upon which sat a few mugs, two glasses with soft drinks in them, and a plate of cake and cookies (cake for the adults, cookies for the kids). Once thi had been set down, Cheerilee sat down and indicated to all assembled. "Help yourselves," was all she said, with a sincere smile.
It took Twilight mere seconds to take up her line of enquiry. "I ask my questions on the grounds that Scootaloo here-"
"Which one?" Will asked, seriously confused, as you would be if two of your own daughter were in the same room at the same time. Twilight groaned, and indicated to the one sat next to her, gingerly biting a cookie as if she still had flat teeth.
"You bite straight down. Attempting to grind it like a cow will take forever," she told the girl.
P-Scootaloo looked at her, annoyed. "I'm notsh a cow!" she exclaimed, her mouth full.
Scootaloo looked over at Twilight. "And mom says I have bad table manners," she sighed.
"At least you have an excuse, dear," her mother replied. "So, what did you want to find out, Twilight? I can still give you a session on how a computer works if you'd like."
Twilight groaned in annoyance, and tried to dismiss that memory from her head. That had not been her best moment at all. "You see," she began, "this Scootaloo," she said, gesticulating to the one sat next to her, "has a distinct problem. We have no clue who her parents are, and all attempts to trace them have so far come up completely blank. However, I am aware that the Scootaloo of this world does have parents."
Will sighed. "What is this, stating the obvious day?"
Twilight continued, unpeterbed. "Anyway, I was wanting to ask how Scootaloo came about in this world, and how you two met. This could give us valuable clues as to the identity of the other Scootaloo's parents, which would help us out in sorting out the differences between our two worlds!"
Cheerilee sat stunned for a second. "What sort of differences?" she asked.
"Many!" Twilight exclaimed, her enthusiasm off the charts as she continued speaking. "For example, there are no humans there; just creatures like ponies, centaurs, dragons, pegasi, and changelings, to name a few."
"I'm a pegasus over there, by the way," P-Scootaloo added, a small smile on her face. The other Scootaloo just looked astonished.
"My counterpart can fly?!" she asked in astonishment. "That would explain how I gained wings when Rainbow Dash and I were chasing down the Dazzlings!"
"Ah, yes!" Twilight exclaimed, her face lighting up like a fireworks display. "Sunset told me about that in a letter. Fascinating, huh?"
P-Scootaloo, on the other hand, just looked sad. "I hate to burst your bubble Scoots," she said sadly, "but I can't fly. It's a physical disability I have; weak muscles apparrently."
Scootaloo looked at her comfortingly. "Hey, it's OK," she said. "I've got a disability too, just I'm on the spectrum."
"So am I!" Twilight added quickly. "The Autistic Spectrum, to be precise." She then looked to Cheerilee. ""That reminds me of another key difference between our worlds."
"Namely?" Cheerilee asked, although the myriad revelations she was receiving today meant the veil of surprise had lifted somewhat.
"Both you and the Cheerilee I know both work as teachers, although she works at a somewhat younger level than you do, teaching eight or nine year old foals, whereas I believe you teach 12 and up?"
Cheerilee nodded. Twilight saw this as her cue to continue.
"Your colours are opposite as well. She has a deep purple coat with a light pink mane with mild grey streaks. However, your skin is mulberry with deep purple hair with lighter purple stripes."
"You have coats?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yep!" P-Scootaloo added in reponse. "We all have furry coats to stay warm in the winter, but it also keeps us cool in the summer somehow. Twilight and I also have wings, which is really annoying when we start shedding feathers."
"So that explains all the feathers of orange I keep finding in Rainbow Dash's house," Twilight sighed. "You could do with preening them more, you know."
Cheerilee just put her head in her hands and groaned. "Can't things go back to being normal?" she asked. Before this portal had opened she had just been a typical mother in a typical American town, as this role had mainly defined her up to this point. True, some saw her as a local schoolteacher, which was a nice distinction, but to many she was simply 'Scootaloo's mom'. Whilst she didn't mind this one bit, she did know Scootaloo would move on some day, a day she was truly dreading.
"Oh!" P-Scootaloo said quickly. "Can I mention how we accidentally got Miss Cheerilee and Big Mac dating? It was really embarrassing and somewhat foolish when you think about it."
"Big Mac, as in Apple Bloom's brother?" Scootaloo asked. "Or another Big Mac?"
"The very same," Twilight sighed.
Cheerilee spat her tea out of her mouth. "How is that not illegal?" she asked. "It would be here!"
"Our Big Mac is older than yours," Twilight replied. "This makes no sense." But then her expression changed. "I want to find out how Scootaloo came about in this world. This was the primary purpose of our visit, and I'm hoping that finding out the truth about it will help me identify Scootaloo's parents back in my world. If you wouldn't mind telling us?"
Cheerilee nodded. "It all started when I was at College, back in 1998..."
"I suppose I should start by going into my backstory. I was born in 1980 as Cheerilee MacLeod, in Vancouver in 1980."
Scootaloo looked over in shock. "You're Canadian?!" she asked. "I'd never have guessed!"
Cheerilee laughed. "Well, not anymore. I lived in Canada for most of my life. My father, Ramsay MacLeod, worked in the financial sector, and my mother, Laura, was a university lecturer. Both of them were descended from Scotsmen who had left the Highlands in the 19th Century to seek a new life in Canada."
Will interjected at this point. "When I first met her, she still had quite a strong accent. I still remember her telling me she was 'oot shopping for groceries'!" He chortled quietly, whilst Cheerilee simply looked annoyed.
"You had a Canadian Raising?" Scootaloo asked again.
"What's a Canadian Raising?" P-Scootaloo asked.
Twilight looked over in interest. "I'd like to know what this 'Canadian Raising' is as well," she said, producing a notepad and pen and starting to write.
Cheerilee sighed. "Back then, I would often pronounce the 'ou' sound, as in 'out', or 'about'," she said, putting careful emphasis on how she said the particular sound, "as an 'oo' sound, as if you had just seen a picture of a cute animal. This ended up sounding like 'oot' and 'aboot'." She stopped, and glanced about. "Wow. Feels really weird pronouncing it that way after so long."
Will interrupted once again. "It came as a bit of a surprise at first, as when we first met I simply assumed she was American. It took a while for her accent to shift to how it is now, but you still have something of a Canadian twang to you."
Twilight looked over. "Thank for that fascinating piece of linguistic trivia, but can we please continue? Miss Cheerilee, how does your story continue?"
"Well, I grew up as most Canadian children do, but when I came to the end of my schooling, I applied to Berkeley University in California (where we are now), to study music. Not only was it my best subject, I had a lifelong passion for it, and aspired to become a composer when I graduated. So, once I had the grades and had been accepted by Berkeley, I packed my bags and flew off to California, crossing over a psychological border as much as a physical one."
"Why?" Scootaloo asked, looking a little concerned at that statement.
"Canadians are more than a little concerned about how outwardly similar they appear to Americans," Cheerilee replied, "and I shared that concern as well. This concern was reflected when I first met Will, as he simply assumed I was American."
"Why wouldn't I?" Will asked, incredulously. "Outwardly, Canadians and Americans sound and look the same, apart from what we discussed earlier."
Twilight perked up again, having been scribbling furiously up to that point. "That reminds me!" she exclaimed. "I was wanting to check something else. Scootaloo-"
"Which one?" the two adults chorused.
"The pony (or should I say formerly pony) Scootaloo," Twilight answered. "The Scootaloo from my world has relatives of distant relation. Does she here?"
Cheerilee thought for a moment. "I have a twin sister called Cherry Blossom, who is Scootaloo's aunt, but other than that I can't think of anybody in particular. Will's an only child, so obviously there are none on that side of the family."
"Nobody called Lofty or Holiday?" Twilight asked.
"Not related to us, at least," Will replied. "There is a Captain Lofty at the airbase, and I knew a Colonel Holiday at Ramstein, but that's about it, really."
"How did you two meet?" Twilight asked again.
"At a first year party," Cheerilee continued. "During our first week there, there was a large party organised to welcome all the new students, and naturally enough I went along in the hope of making some new friends and dealing with my confidence issues. I was looking around in the hall, the music blaring from speakers and the place thronged with people, and whilst there I walked into a young man with brown hair and eyes."
"The handsome fellow she's referring to is me," Will clarified. Cheerilee rolled her eyes and continued speaking.
"There was just something about him that was... I don't know, different? I'd had boy friends (two separate words) back in Canada, but somehow there was something different about this one. I can't really explain it. Naturally enough, I asked his name and we got chatting. Before I knew what had happened, we were friends and helping each other out with work."
"I'm from Oregon," Will interrupted. "I'd come down here from my home state to pursue an engineering degree, and sure enough I met Cheerilee. If I remember correctly, it wasn't long before we began dating!"
Cheerilee smiled at the happy memory. "Oh, how young and naive we were. As was the fad at the time-"
"Fad?" P-Scootaloo asked.
"Popular thing, cool thing to do, stuff like that," the other Scootaloo explained.
"As was the fad at the time," Cheerilee continued, in her 'please can you stop interrupting' voice, "they began referring to us as 'Cheeriwill'."
"We have that as well, it turns out," Twilight said.
"What?" Will asked. "There's a William Collins on your side of the portal?"
"That's... not what I meant," Twilight replied. "We also have a habit of representing romantic relationships by merging the names of those involved into a single word. Cheerimac, Rumbaloo-"
Scootaloo looked over to P-Scootaloo. "You're dating Rumble?!" she asked, astonished.
P-Scootaloo nodded. "Well, yeah. He is kinda cute. Besides, he's helping me to fly someday. Gotta dream about something, after all!"
Twilight, tired of the endless digressions and queries, proceeded to try and take control of the conversation in order to get things back on track. "What happened after you two began dating?"
Will looked a little awkward. "By this point, we were in the final years of our degrees, in 2001. We then went to a party in January."
"How many parties did you go to?" P-Scootaloo asked, sounding bewildered.
"You only live once," Will replied. "But that night, things get a little foggy."
"I think we were both incredibly drunk by the end of the evening," Cheerilee admitted, a look of guilt on her face. "One minute, we were in the hall, the next I was waking up the next morning with a hangover so bad I thought somebody had taken a sledgehammer to my face. Then I saw Will in the same bed, and put two and two together, even though I couldn't remember a thing."
There was silence. This was clearly a lot to take onboard, so Cheerilee continued.
"It wasn't until about three months later it became clear we'd forgotten something rather crucial that night. I started throwing up, repeatedly, and this was affecting my studies pretty badly. To try and find out what was wrong, I went to the clinic on site, and they advised I take a pregnancy test. I found the idea that I could possibly be pregnant utterly ridiculous, but I went along with the advice anyway."
"What result did you get?" Twilight asked. Cheerilee rolled her eyes, and simply pointed to Scootaloo, sat next to her.
"Oh!" the lavender girl replied, an awkward smile on her face. "Positive."
P-Scootaloo was seemingly having trouble following the conversation, and asked what seemed to everybody else a ridiculous question. "Positive what?"
There was a mass facepalm. "She was pregnant!" Will replied. "You know, having a baby?"
"Or a foal, for our world," Twilight explained.
"I was not having a foal!" Cheerilee snapped, sounding a little frustrated. She then turned to her daughter. "Sorry, I get a little emotional recalling this. Seeing that test result, realising that you were growing inside me... I was just so scared."
"I was the first person she told," Will chimed in, "and I immediately felt guilty over what had happened that night. I don't know about your world, but 20 is a very young age in our society to be pregnant. I also recall she was scared I'd leave her over this, but I couldn't do that."
"What did you do?" Twilight enquired.
Cheerilee spoke next. "He... he proposed, then and there. He wanted to move forward, give our child a loving family and the best start they could possibly get in life. He'd said it many times before, and I'd always believed it, but it became truly apparent then that he loved me."
"I still love you!" Will protested. "Nothing's ever gonna change that!"
"Did you finish your course?" Twilight asked.
"We both did," Cheerilee replied. "Our parents were a little surprised to learn they were going to be grandparents, but they commended Will for supporting me no matter what. Despite all that was going on, I graduated with a 1st, and married Will quite a bit before then, before I started showing. Mind, it did get a big difficult to concentrate with all the stares I was getting, mostly people looking at my belly. Not that I can blame them; by the end I was huge!"
There was a pause, until Scootaloo cautiously asked another question. "Wh- what was it like giving birth?"
Cheerilee sighed. "I don't remember much about it, to be honest. I remember the day, September 10th, 2001, but I spent most of the actual birth either unconscious or on painkillers." Her eyes slowly began to water, as powerful memories began to flood into her mind. "And then I got to hold you for the first time. It was one of the most surreal things I have ever experienced, seeing you for the first time. You had (or should I say, have) your father's eyes, and we're not sure where the skin tone comes from, but that purple hair- you definitely got that from me. It may sound cliched, but having you was the best decision I ever made."
Will then spoke up. "Sadly, I haven't been around as much as I would have liked. The very next day the Twin Towers came down, and I was deployed to Germany as part of the 86th Airlift Wing. It's been a big regret of mine, not being around that often to help Cheerilee. I'm also concerned that I don't really know my own daughter, but from what I've seen Cheerilee has been doing a good job."
Cheerilee glanced over to him. "Overall I agree with the sentiment, but it could have been phrased a little better. I became a teacher for two main reasons. The first was so that I could actually use my degree. The second was to keep an eye on Scootaloo. There was no way I was throwing her into the daycare system." She looked to Twilight, suddenly spotting the empty mug next to her. "Would you like another drink?"
Twilight stood up, finishing off her notes. "No thank you, Miss Cheerilee," she replied. "I've got what I need, and the Cutie Map has contacted me, so I must be on my way. However, I would like to thank you for sharing that information."
"Not a problem," Cheerilee replied.
"Come on Scootaloo!" Twilight called. When two girls stood up, she spoke again. "The pony Scootaloo. We need to get back to Ponyville, as it's school tomorrow!"
The two individuals headed out, as Scootaloo (the human one) called to them. "See you soon, Twilight!"
The princess waved until she was out of sight.
The next day, at school, Scootaloo trotted over to her desk, a mixture of memories and confused thoughts flooding her mind. Just then, Miss Cheerilee trotted over to her.
"Ah!" the purple pony said, smiling. "Just the pony I was looking for."
"Yes, Miss Cheerilee?" Scootaloo asked nervously. She wasn't sure what this was about. Had she damaged something with her scooter? Handed in the wrong piece of homework?
Miss Cheerilee's face went serious. "Scootaloo," she said, calmly and slowly, "there's something I need to explain to you..."