//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Memories 
// Story: Runaway 
// by RedScootaloo 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash yawned. She hadn't slept in a while now, yet wasn't ready to rest for a second as long as she didn't find Scootaloo. After she had traveled to Manehatten three days ago, she had immediately started searching the filly.

She had thought about asking the police to help, but since Scoots was an orphan they would put her into an orphanage, which was what Rainbow was trying to avoid. Though there was a way out of it... She could adopt her. But then again, she didn't know if that was fine with the pegasus filly.

So she just tried it all by herself, flew across Manehatten, watched the people come and go, always sticking to the parts Scoots was most probably hiding in: The 'Central Park', the small alleys of the western town quarter, the garages of 'Harden's street' and the area around 'The Final Sprint'.

She was afraid to go there and ask Rusty. It wasn't Rusty she was afraid to meet. Actually, she looked really forward to speaking with him again. No, it was something else.

Orion coughed blood. Rainbow didn't know what to do. He looked so bad, but she couldn't come closer. The risk, that she could infect herself was too high. "R...Rainbow..." he whispered. His voice was scratchy like a rasp. It worried her.

"Yes, Orion?"

"There... There's something I need" he stopped and coughed again "to tell you..."

Rainbow took a deep breath for her response. "Don't talk too much, dear. You can tell me later. You will be fine in a couple of days..."

"No!" he shouted, raising his hooves to his throat in response to the pain zapping through him. "I need to tell you... now."

Rainbow waited. What would be coming next?

"Au- Aurora and I..." He stopped.

Rainbow glanced at him, unsure what to think. "You and Aurora what?"

"We... we've been..." He paused again, not knowing what to say. "We had s- sex."

Rainbow Dash winced in mid-air, nearly causing her to crash in a building, if she wouldn't have pulled herself up in the last second. This memory was painful, too painful for her. She and Orion had been a pair for over a year back then. They had had sex...

She turned around. A tear dropped from her left eye. She started walking. She walked past the others, only stopping to pick up the child that lay on the ground. Orions child... Her child. Orion had nothing to do with her now. He would die, like Aurora, and it would serve him right.

Rainbow Dash had never been so furious before. She ignored everypony else and walked on, left the area. She couldn't fly with the baby yet, but she would try until her wings were strong enough.

She had an idea of where to go. There had to be a pony who could help her. The pony who she had lived with for a couple of days, until Orion pushed her to come with him and his group. She only left because of him.

Now she had a lot of explanation to do for Rusty and Sharon.

The tears in her eyes had stopped, and the anger of that day had returned. She tried to let it out by speeding up, but it didn't work.

She landed. She couldn't fly on if the thoughts were just coming back. This wasn't the first time this happened, and whenever she had tried to fly and think, she had hurt herself pretty badly. She couldn't allow that to happen now.

Rusty looked at her, skeptical, unsure what to think of her now. He had missed Rainbow Dash all these years. Yet he couldn't just accept her coming back and giving him a baby. Her baby. She was only fifteen years old and already had a baby. But that was what happened on the street, when you fall in love with another pony.

But the warmth in his heart when he saw the rainbow-maned fillies took his decision.

"I can see why you don't want to be reminded of Orion all the time. But if I am supposed to take her, I must take a promise from you. You come back someday, explain everything to her and take her with you, if you got a place to live in by then."

Rainbow nodded. This was the best deal that she could do right now. She knew she couldn't be a street pony anymore. She had a child, and would have to take it back some day. But first she would have to make something out of herself.

The sound echoed over a few kilometers. Rainbow Dash had bucked a wall near her to release the anger and broke it down. Now she had to leave, before anypony would blame it on her - which wasn't really wrong. But she had no time sitting in jail or doing social work for it.

She had to visit her child.