Sisterly Bonds

by Secret_Shadows

My Sister, Scootaloo

Last Time On Sisterly Bonds...

“The strength to move forward with my life, and most importantly, to love you like a sister I never had, I love you Scootaloo, I won’t ever let anything happen to you.” Rainbow said

“Search the forest, I want you to find her, and bring her back, she is injured, she can’t have gotten too far.” The mare said as several stallions ran into the Everfree.

“Greetings Rainbow Dash, we have come to invite you to the fair in canterlot!” Luna said, she smiled.

“Sister? Thou hast f-” A bit of magic stopped her from finishing that sentence.

“I don’t know Twi, they seemed insistent that they were sisters.” Spike said as he ate ice cream right out of the tub.

“I’ll look into it.” Twilight said as she levitated a book of records to the table in front of her.

“Rainbow, your sister, survived the fire.”

And Now, Part Nine...

“M, My sister is, alive?” Rainbow was taken back by this information. She didn’t know how to feel. Happy? Sad? Elated?

“D-do you know w-where she is, or her name?”

‘I wonder if she even wants anything to do with me...’ Rainbow thought to herself.

“No, I’m sorry Rainbow, I was just able to find out through old records. Theres, nothing else.” Twilight was unsure of Rainbow’s reaction.

‘Whatever is going on in her head right now...’ Twilight thought.

“There was, one thing, its not out of date and not really of relevance, but, her last known location was five years ago, near Ponyville.”

By this point, Scootaloo started to stir, she was still laying up against Rainbow on the bench.

“W, What’s going on?” Scootaloo asked as she rubbed her eyes.

Silence, both Twilight and Rainbow were silent.

“Well hey there, hows-” Applejack stopped mid sentence as she walked up.

“My sister, alive.” Rainbow said, her eyes started to water up.

“Wait, what?” Scootaloo asked, she was worried. A bit selfish in her worries. Would Rainbow still love her? Would she still think her a sister? Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow.

“Wait, y’all have a real sister?” Applejack asked, she was completely confused.

“She’s alive...All these years, and she’s alive.” Rainbow was at a loss for words.

“Dash, I know this is a lot to take in, maybe you should just rest on the train back to Ponyville.” Twilight suggested.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, lets, lets do that.” Rainbow said as they boarded the train.

Scootaloo followed Rainbow onto the train only to be stopped by Twilight.

“Scootaloo, perhaps it would be better if you sat with me and Spike.” Twilight suggested.

“Oh, uh, why?”

“I just think Rainbow needs some time alone, come on, Spike and I play Ispy during the train ride, you can play too if you want.” Twilight said as she led Scootaloo to the seat where her and spike were sitting.

Rainbow walked all the way to the back of the train car, and she sat alone in the corner staring out the window as the train started moving. Everypony was staying away from her, unable how to handle her in this situation.

‘I can’t believe she is alive, does she know who I am? Does she know she has a sister? Who’s been taking care of her? They had better be taking good care of her. If I found her, would she want anything to do with me, and if she did, would she get along with Scootaloo?’ Rainbow thought to herself. She was staring out the window of the train. She was still wearing her dirty torn dress. Oblivious to what was going on around her.

The train car rocked back and forth as it traveled through the night. The lights from the train left a shadow on the countryside as it swiftly moved through. The lights in the train car were dimmed and everypony was asleep, save for Rainbow.

Scootaloo woke from her slumber. She was laying up against Twilight. She looked around and rubbed her eyes as they adjusted to the darkness in the cabin. She noticed Rainbow, still awake staring out the window.

Scootaloo got up from her chair and started over to Rainbow.

Scootaloo got up onto the chair Rainbow was sitting on.

“Hi Rainbow.” Scootaloo said, she leaned up against Rainbow.

“Hi Scoots.” Rainbow extended her wing around Scootaloo like a blanket.

Scootaloo pulled Rainbow’s wing tightly around her. “Thanks.” She nuzzled Rainbow a bit.

“What’s up?” Rainbow asked, she was still obviously disconnected from the world around her.

“I *Yawn* Was just wondering how you were feeling.” Scootaloo said, she moved around a bit trying to get more comfortable.

“I just found out my sister, survived, ten years, I thought she had been gone, for ten years, and now, all of the sudden, she is alive. I don’t know what to feel, happy, sad, I just don’t know.”

Rainbow started to space out again, staring off into the night sky through the window.

“It’s, I don’t know what to say Rainbow, but I know everything will be alright, *yawn* as long as I’m with you.” Scootaloo said before she drifted off to sleep wrapped in Rainbow’s wing.

‘Everything is going to be, fine...’ Rainbow thought to herself. She started out the window of the train for the rest of the night. Thinking, looking for a sign, anything to help her.

The Next Morning...

Nearly everypony was awake with the exception of Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, who were still asleep in each other’s embrace.

“Rainbow, wake up.” Twilight whispered as she gently tapped Rainbow on the shoulder. “Wake up, the train has arrived at Ponyville.”

“Huh?” Rainbow said as she snapped to reality.

“Shh, Scootaloo is still asleep and it’s really early.” Twilight said.

“Oh, ok.” Rainbow said as she stood up only to be pulled back down the weight of Scootaloo in her wing.

Rainbow lowered herself to the level of the chair and rolled Scootaloo onto her back.

They left the train, Scootaloo asleep on Rainbow’s back. It was early, the sun wasn’t up yet, but there was light. There was also a dense fog and a cool breeze to the air.

“Well, bye girls, Gotta get Applebloom home, she’s been sleeping for a while now.” Applejack said as she started off for Sweet Apple Acres.

“I should be going to, I left Sweetie at home and I must be checking up on her.” Rarity said as she left for home.

“I must be getting back to the library, Owlowiscious and Peewee have been home alone for a while, gotta check up on them.” Twilight said as she left with Spike.

Rainbow took to the skies flying home with Scootaloo on her back.

Rainbow landed at her house, Scootaloo stirring on her back. She quickly made her way into the house and to the bedroom. She laid Scootaloo down on her bed and left her to sleep.

Rainbow retreated to the kitchen where she sat to think as she stared out the window for the next four hours.

After all of this time the sun had risen and she decided to go check on Scootaloo and see if she was awake yet.

Rainbow made her way to the bedroom, but stopped just outside when she heard talking.

“I’m just afraid Rainbow won’t have time for me anymore Mr. Cuddles.” Scootaloo said, she was talking to a small stuffed pegasus she kept hidden under her pillow. It was her only toy that she ever owned, aside from her scooter that she kept at the treehouse. Mr. Cuddles was her only friend for as long as she could remember until she met the kind ponies in Ponyville.

“I just don’t know, if she finds her sister, she probably won’t want me to be her sister anymore, and then I won’t have a home or a family anymore.” She said, still talking to Mr. Cuddles. She hugged the toy as hard as she could, she started to tear up a bit thinking about her worries.

Rainbow lingered outside the door to the bedroom, she overheard it all. She pushed the door open and started into the room.

“Scootaloo? Are you ok in here?” Rainbow asked as she saw Scootaloo hugging the plush.

Scootaloo was frantic and she pushed the plush under her covers and then looked nervously at Rainbow.

“What did you hear!?” Scootaloo asked.

“I heard it all.” Rainbow said as she walked into the room. She sat down on the bed next to Scootaloo.

“You don’t have to be worried, even if I find my sister, there will always be a special place in my heart for you.” Rainbow said, she extended her forehooves for a hug. Scootaloo welcomed the hug.

“S-so, you’re not going to not want me as a sister anymore?”

“Where would you get an idea like that Scoots, you’ll always be my sister, even if we aren’t really related by blood, I will always love you, you know that.”

“I love you to Rainbow.”

“Don’t forget about Mr. Cuddles.” Rainbow said as she pulled Mr. Cuddles out from under the covers.

Rainbow thought about this plush for a moment as she looked at it, but then moved the thought to the back of her head.

Scootaloo blushed. “I don’t know where that came from.” She said, trying to deny owning it.

“Scootaloo, it’s ok, when I was your age I had a toy I talked to also, but, mine was called Spitfire.” Rainbow said.

“Y-you did?”

“Yeah, when we found it a few days ago in the attic, I have kept it under my pillow every night since then.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah, see.” Rainbow said as she walked over to her bed and picked up the plush spitfire toy from under her pillow.

Rainbow then sat down on Scootaloo’s bed again and set the toy down next to Scootaloo. Scootaloo picked it up and looked at it.

“It, It’s just like mine.” Scootaloo said, she held it in her hooves and examined it. It looked old.

“My mother made it for me, a long time ago, she made one for my sister to, but, I don’t know what ever happened to it.”

“So, are you going to look for your real sister?” Scootaloo looked down a bit, her ears went a bit flat as she asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t know if she’d even wants anything to do with me.” Rainbow was put into a look of deep thought and sadness.

Scootaloo noticed this. “Come on, who wouldn’t want you as a big sister?” She tried to cheer Rainbow up a bit.

“Yeah, I am awesome after all.” Rainbow and Scootaloo both chuckled at that.

Scootaloo’s stomach growled.

“You hungry?” Rainbow laughed, as she already knew the answer.

“I think, I think I am.”

And with that the two proceeded to breakfast.

In the back of Rainbow’s mind however, there was a lingering thought, that plush, it looked, familiar. She would have to examine it later.

At the breakfast table the two pegasi sat and ate.

“So, Scootaloo, do you remember where you got that old plush from?”

“I’ve had it for...” She stopped to think for a moment. “As long as I can remember, Why?”

Rainbow didn’t answer, she was trying to think of some old memories.

“Now Rainbow, you know you can’t have this one to, this one is for your sister.” Skylight was sewing a second plush pegasus for her soon to be born daughter. Rainbow was sitting on the floor of the small sewing room playing with her own plush.

“But mommy Spitfire needs a friend!”

Skylight didn’t answer, she was too caught up in sewing. Before she could sew the blue wonderbolts uniform on, she dropped her sewing tools and the plush.

“Mommy? What’s wrong?”

“I think your sister is coming, Refraction!”

Refraction flew in through a window.

“What’s wrong?”

“The foal is coming!”

“Are you sure!?”

Before she answered, the contractions stopped.

“I, I think it was a false alarm...” She trailed off.

“Why don’t you get some bed rest, I’ll take you to the doctor in the morning.” Refraction then helped his wife to the bedroom to sleep. What they did not know is, the next morning would bring a new foal into the world, but forcibly rip two pegasi from their children.

“Scootaloo.” Rainbow said, wearing a look of confusion on her face, but quickly changing it to a small smile.

“Yeah Rainbow?” Scootaloo looked up from her meal.

“Want to help me?”

Scootaloo tilted her head raising an eyebrow, “With what?”

“Finding your sister of course.” Scootaloo had to think for a moment before responding.

“Don’t you mean your sister?” Scootaloo asked with confusion.

“No, I mean our sister.” Rainbow smiled.

Scootaloo smiled back. Rainbow led them both to a small cabinet in the livingroom. It was a large wooden cabinet, the top set of doors were glass and held fancy china while the bottom doors were solid wood. Of course this was all special enchanted wood that would float on a cloud.

She opened the bottom cabinet doors revealing several boxes and picture frames.

Rainbow pulled a box out and opened it revealing a lot of pictures.

“Ok, you go through this box, and, I’ll go through this one.” She said as she pulled out a second box.

The box Scootaloo was going through, to Rainbow’s dismay, ended up being baby pictures of herself.

“Awww, Rainbow, you looked so cute as a foal!” Scootaloo smiled as she held up a picture of Rainbow Splashing her mother with water while taking a bath.

Rainbow blushed and snatched the picture up. “That picture is not important!” She said as she threw it into a box. Scootaloo giggled as Rainbow turned a deep shade of red.

Scootaloo started to go through more pictures, the deeper Scootaloo dug, the more embarrassing the pictures became.

Scootaloo pulled out a small pile of pictures, she tried to hold back her laughter, tears forming in her eyes from the attempt before she burst out laughing.

“What’s so fun-” Rainbow was cut off when she saw the pictures in Scootaloo’s hooves.

“I haha, Didn’t know you, ahaha, liked t-to p-play d-ahaha-ress up.” Scootaloo gasped for air.

Rainbow just turned so many shades of Red, the apples at Applejack’s farm would be jealous.

“S-So, you liked t-to pretend you w-were a f-fairy princess haha, Rainbow?” Scootaloo said reading the writing on the back of one of the pictures, it read ‘Rainbow playing dress up as a fairy princess’

“Y-yeah, well.....I, I was a foal once, uh, to ya know!” Rainbow tried to say in defence.

‘Why did I let mom take a picture of that! I can’t believe I used to like that stuff!’

“Well, its ok Rainbow.” Scootaloo’s laughter started to die down a bit. “You’re secret is safe with me.” She giggled a bit more. Rainbow still redder than a burning fire.

“Why do I not believe that?” Rainbow teased, she was still blushing.

Rainbow started to look through her box. She found a picture of her mother and father.

Her father was orange coated with a rainbow mane, her mother was cyan with a purple mane. It took a moment for Rainbow to piece this together. Her father had dark purple eyes, just like Scootaloo’s.....and her mother had the magenta eyes that Rainbow had.

Rainbow looked at Scootaloo, then back down at the picture, then back up at Scootaloo.

‘Wait a minute.’ She thought to herself. She looked at Scootaloo, examining the shades of her coat and mane. ‘Who were her parents...’

“Oh wow.” Scootaloo said laughing as she pulled out another picture. She kept it turned away from Rainbow, but Rainbow could read the writing on the back. Her face instantly flushed and her cheeks turned redder than Big Mac’s coat.

‘Rainbow Stall Training’

“Give me that!” Rainbow shouted as she tried to reach for the picture, Scootaloo held it back out of Rainbow’s reach.

“I’m going to have to keep this one in a special place.” Scootaloo said chuckling as she held the picture out of Rainbow’s reach.

“Give it back, or I’ll have to bring up that colt crush you had” Hearing this Scootaloo’s wings flared and her cheeks turned just as red as Rainbow’s. Her laughing diminished.

“There, now, we are even.” Rainbow chuckled a bit, she reached her hoof out for the picture. Scootaloo placed the picture in Rainbow’s hoof and then returned the the box, her wings still standing proudly.

‘Eventually I am going to have to tell her what that means....’ Rainbow thought to herself.

They continued to look through the boxes, Rainbow finding several inconclusive pictures that led her to wonder who Scootaloo was.

“I don’t think we are going to find what we are looking for here, maybe we should head down to the Ponyville records building.” Rainbow suggested as she started to pack up the boxes, making sure to put the embarrassing pictures in the bottom of the deepest box.

“Well, what exactly are you looking for Rainbow?” Scootaloo asked as she helped put a box into the cabinet, her wings were back to normal by now.

“To be honest, I don’t know.” Rainbow was lying to Scootaloo to cover up the fact that, she may very well now know who her sister is, and she was afraid of how Scootaloo would react.

“Well, lets go then, we won’t find your sister if we stop looking now!” Scootaloo said as she started for the front door.

“Yeah, lets go.”

Soon after Rainbow and Scootaloo were flying down to Ponyville.

“Come on Scoots, Keep up!” Rainbow turned her head to see Scootaloo falling behind.

“I’m trying!” Scootaloo said, her wings were starting to hurt, she hadn’t flew this far before.

Rainbow sighed a bit as she slowed down to allow Scootaloo to catch up. Scootaloo started to sway from left to right before she started to fall out of the sky.

“Rainbow!” Scootaloo screeched as she continued to fall, she tried to flap her wings but she was too tired.

“Hang on! I’m coming!” Rainbow responded as she flew as fast as she could, short of a sonic rainboom, to catch Scootaloo. She stopped herself a bit below Scootaloo. Scootaloo landed on her back and let out a sigh.

“Thank you!” Scootaloo wrapped her forehooves around Rainbow’s neck in a hug.

“Yeah, no problem...” She trailed off.

Soon after they had landed just outside of the Ponyville town hall.

Rainbow walked into the town hall, Scootaloo still on her back resting after her little incident. The town hall was a large wooden building. Inside the lobby were four sets of stairs spiraling up the outer walls. In the center of the room was a large marble receptionists desk that circled a receptionist pony and conveniently mayor mare.

“Mayor Mare!” Rainbow said as she galloped over to her.

“Why hello Rainbow Dash, hello Scootaloo, how can I help you two today?” She smiled.

“We were wondering if you’d let us go through the records, I want to try and find something out.” Rainbow wore a serious look on her face.

“Oh well of course. Anything for the Element of Loyalty and friend!” Mayor Mare then led them to a set of stairs that went down. On the way down they met Twilight, who was levitating a set up books up the stairs in a purple aura. Twilight didn’t say anything, her muzzle was buried in a book and she didn’t see them.

“So this is the record hall.” Mayor Mare held her hoof out as if to select the room in its entirety.

Like the floor above this one was completely circular. There were shelves that lined the walls and then several lined in multiple circles. In the center of the room was a small table, four chairs, and a small candle.

“Thanks for letting us go through the records Mayor!” Rainbow smiled.

“Of course Rainbow.” The mayor returned the smile before walking up the stairs out of their way.

“So where do we start Rainbow?”

“Well, you take the outer shelves, and, I’ll take the inner ones. Try to find anything regarding either myself, a pegasus named Skylight, or a pegasus named Refraction, K?”

“Right!” Scootaloo put her hoof to her head as a kind of salute before running off to one of the shelves.

Rainbow started on the first shelve. Searching the named of the books and scrolls on it, to no avail. Nothing with her name or her parents. When Scootaloo was finally out of view behind one of the bookcases, Rainbow ran over to the shelve with the ‘S’ archives.

‘Scootaloo, Scootaloo, Scootaloo’ Rainbow thought as she looked through the shelve.

Eventually she found a small piece of paper. It was an orphanage record. The record had several names and statuses on it, but one status caught her eye.

‘Scootaloo - Deceased, Natural Causes’

Rainbow looked at this paper, then up at Scootaloo who was now in view but not paying attention to Rainbow.

‘Who is she...’ Rainbow thought to herself.

Rainbow put the paper under her wing to hide it, she was going to take it to Twilight later.

She resumed searching for records on her sister. She found a record on her mother, but it was a simple bank statement of no importance. Several moments later and more false hopes, Rainbow discovered a paper in a box, the tip of the paper was sticking out. It was chard and it had the name Skylight on it.

Rainbow pulled the paper out and read it. It was barely readable.

‘Cloudsdale Hospital ’ The paper had some more writing after that but it was unreadable. Then, closer to the bottom it read, ‘Scootaloo’ Then it had some more unreadable words. And at the very bottom of the paper, it read something that would change Rainbow’s life. ‘Parents: Refraction & Skylight’

Rainbow dropped the box, now only holding the paper in her hoof. Her eyes grew very wide. She nearly fell over.

Scootaloo started over to Rainbow after hearing the thud of the box hitting the floor.

“Are you ok Rainbow?”

Rainbow quickly put the paper under her wing to hide it and she picked the box back up.

“Yeah, go back to looking.”

“Ok!” Scootaloo returned to searching. Rainbow simply sat down in a chair and thought for a moment.

‘Sc-Scootaloo is, m-my s-sister...’