//------------------------------// // Meet the (small) Friends // Story: Meet the Family // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: In keeping with the birthday-release theme, this chapter is dedicated to my closest high school friend Sam whose birthday is today! Smartest kid I've ever known, and where I went to school that really means something! Happy birthday Sam, even if you won't ever see this shoutout. Thanks to everyone who commented on "Meet the Scootaloo"! You guys helped this chapter be released much sooner than the next likely date, October 31st (mother's birthday AND Halloween), so thank you again and I hope to hear from you again! If someone catches every reference in this chapter they should get a medal. Not from me, but they should get one. I'd suggest Kuwagata. Enjoy! It wasn’t very long after Scootaloo’s birthday that Soarin noticed his special somepony return to a less nervous state of being, and he had a pretty good guess when visiting her house one night why that was. “How’d it go?” he asked with a grin towards Rainbow, who was currently laying down on her couch with her eyes glued to a television. Rainbow grew a grin of her own, turning the television off with a remote as she turned to face Soarin, “Pretty well, actually. You see-” It was late and time for a certain filly to go to bed when Rainbow Dash managed to gather her courage. For some reason talking to a cute, young filly was more nerve wracking than facing down a manticore or dragon, and she wasn’t even sure about how to do this. Scootaloo was humming to herself happily in bed, Daring Do plush at her side as she waited for the mare sitting on her bed to say something. “Sooo, Scootaloo...” Scootaloo replied in the absence of her idol speaking, her own tone being chipper, “Yes Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow rubbed a hoof across the back of her head and twitched an ear, still trying to put what she wanted to say into words, “I was thinking...” she still hadn’t met Scootaloo’s large eyes, instead biting her lip a little more before glancing toward the orange child, “How would you like to hang out here with me for more than a little while?” Scootaloo, having been freaking out over the possibility of maybe living with Rainbow Dash for good at school the past few days, tried to feign innocence, “What do you mean?” “Do you...do you want to live with me?” Rainbow managed to get out, but her nerve wracked feelings brought her to add, “I mean, it’s fine if-” Scootaloo jumping up and wrapping their hooves around her in a tight hug cut Rainbow Dash off, “Of course I would love to live here with you! That would be AWESOME!” The blue adult wrapped her own hoof around the filly, “Hehe, I’m glad you like the idea.” Retracting slightly from her embrace, Scootaloo looked up to Rainbow Dash with a gaze of curiosity, “So wait, are you going to be like my sister or like my mom?” Rainbow tilted her head as she thought it over, not having really thought out how this would all work like many things in her life, “Well, I guess I’ll have to be a bit of both, like Applejack is to Apple Bloom.” That statement got Scootaloo to raise her brow, “Wait, Applejack’s Apple Bloom’s mom?” In turn Rainbow Dash tried to rectify the situation, albeit to little effect, “Uhhh, no, er, maybe, I mean, kind of-” after a brief pause a perfect explanation came to mind for the blue mare and she went for it, “She’s a mom-sister figure to Apple Bloom who does what she can to take care of her. Get what I’m saying?” “Yeah!” Scootaloo cheered, hugging Rainbow Dash again, before stating in an unsure voice, “I think?” Rainbow laughed and rubbed the purple mane next to her while wearing a warm smile, “Hey Scootaloo?” “Yeah Rainbow Dash?” “Just don’t act all this mushy in public. A girl’s got a reputation to keep.” Upon the story’s conclusion, Soarin gave his special somepony’s face a nuzzle with his own, “I’d say it went well!” retracting his head, the stallion asked, “So, what now?” Rainbow Dash yawned, the hour being so late in the day the princess of the night was taking over her duties, “Just have to fill out some paperwork and Scootaloo is officially my little filly.” “You’ve come quite a ways since I first met you Dashie. The mare I remember at the Young Flyers Competition was quite the egomaniac once she got past her stage fright.” “Yeah, well, saving Equestria and learning life lessons with your friends seemingly every week might have had something to do with that,” Rainbow sardonically replied, not liking the level of sappiness things were getting to. Soarin rolled his eyes at her tone before nudging her with a hoof softly, “Just promise me you won’t mellow out completely! You wouldn’t be half as fun.” Dash rolled off her back and stood up on top of the couch so that she then was elevated above Soarin, sticking her nose up and laughing, “Aw heck no, of course I’m not going to get as soft as Fluttershy! I’m Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s number one flier, and nopony is going to change that!” Soarin narrowed his eyes and his warm smile changed to a smug one, “You mean number two.” That response made the haughty mare look down at him and scoff, “Care to put your money where your muzzle is?” The paler blue pony turned around and closed his eyes, the smug grin remaining on his face, “Not really, no, since we both know it’s true Dash,” his eyes opened when a lack of commotion and noise caught his attention, “Hey, where is Scootaloo anyways?” Rainbow hopped off the couch, landing gracefully, and blinked a moment before responding, “She’s, uh...finishing up a club meeting with her friends. I should probably pick her up soon...” Soarin wanted to sigh, since Dash had obviously forgot completely about having to pick Scootaloo up at some point, but kept his countenance neutral to not make her begin doubting herself. Despite his lack of condescension Rainbow’s face still faltered and she let out a small sigh, head hanging. “What’s with the face?” Dash looked up at Soarin with eyes not containing any of the pride they did only a minute ago, “Can you do it? I don’t think I can now that I remembered something.” Soarin rose his brow, not being aversive to the idea but also not understanding the reasoning, “Remind me why I’m doing this again?” “Because you love me?” Dash joked weakly. Eyes rolled, “I meant why you can’t just do it.” Rainbow let out a nervous laugh while running to the door, “I promised I’d help out Twilight with some chores at the library after I kind of wrecked it with a stunt...again,” Soarin heard the door open and his marefriend call from it, “I should actually be there now, so have fun! It’s the only clubhouse by the Apple Family farm forest!” Soarin opened his mouth to object that he doesn’t really know where the clubhouse was despite that information, but the door shut as his partially irresponsible special somepony ran to do something she probably should have been doing instead of watching television. Soarin couldn’t help be both amused and exasperated. Dash was dutiful and would never not do something vital or job related, but she had a teency-eency bit of a problem with things beyond that as a result of her laziness. Scootaloo was going to either adapt to that or change that pretty quickly he was sure. “Well...here’s hoping for the best.” “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS!” It took Soarin more time than he would have liked to find the clubhouse, but given how the day’s light was fading fast and it wasn’t in the most obvious of places he supposed he did the best he could. A helpful tip from a stargazing pony by the name of...Cabbage? No, that was lunch to counterbalance the pie for breakfast. Orion was the name, Soarin thought for sure. Given the night’s darkness, having somepony who likes seeing the bright stars out was a good coincidence on Soarin’s behalf and the Wonderbolt had quickly found the clubhouse and...all it contained. The three fillies from Scootaloo’s birthday party were screaming loudly about something when Soarin arrived on the outside of the place. He tapped a hoof on the open doorway and gave a nervous smile as he intruded on their...activity. The sound of a power drill and a saw cutting both stopped as Soarin spoke, “Uhhh, hello there.” Scootaloo, wearing a welding mask for some unfathomable reason to him, turned around first and squeaked, “Ohmygoshohmygosh!” she tossed the mask aside and ran over to him. The filly cleared her throat before speaking, obviously trying to act cool after her previous squeak, “H-hey mister Soarin!” Soarin smiled down to her, still a bit nervous that these fillies were doing such...dangerous activities for...some reason, “Hey there...” he looked past Scootaloo at whatever contraption they were making that now had seven legs to stand on, two of which were facing upwards, “Should fillies be using power tools?” Scootaloo looked back at the odd contraption, “What, this?” the filly shrugged nonchalantly, “Meh, we’ve done more dangerous stuff.” The white coated filly in the room rubbed her chin with a hoof, scrutinizing the terrible table-thing, “Haven’t we done this before?” The other one, who Soarin remembered being named Apple Bloom, shrugged as if it didn’t matter, and the white coated one did the same back. What Scootaloo said still worried Soarin, who was trying his absolute hardest and best to not freak out as a reasonably responsible adult, “More dangerous?” The white coated one jumped up in the air with a happy face and squeaky voice, “Yeah, a lot more dangerous!” the, admittedly adorable, filly’s expression deflated upon landing however, “I’m still bummed we didn’t get our fillynapped cutie marks though...” The one known as Apple Bloom gave a nervous chuckle before putting a hoof over her friend’s mouth, “Hehe, don’t mind ‘er. She doesn’t relly think before she talks,” The white unicorn filly pushed the hoof away and gave an indignant cry, “Hey, I reserve that remark!” Scootaloo sighed and shook her head beside Soarin, “It’s resent.” The unicorn gave a huff, “What are you, a dictionary?” Apple Bloom spoke next, Soarin deciding not to get in the middle of things, “I think the word you meant was resemble.” Before the argument could prolong, Soarin patted Scootaloo on the head and spoke in a voice loud enough to grab everypony’s attention while not sounding like a yell, “Well then, Rainbow Dash sent me here to pick up Scootaloo, so we’d best be going!” Apple Bloom walked over to Soarin and sat down in front of him, giving him better puppy dog eyes than her pet Winona could manage, “Awww, can’t you stay for a bit?” “As much as I’d love to-” Soarin started, but never finished. His eyes were drawn to the adorable filly in front of him with a cute bow on her head. He tore them away from the moe creature, only to see Scootaloo giving him the same face on the side of him. A turn in the other direction and the unicorn was doing the same. His thoughts at the time were something along the line of: Too...cute...this should be outlawed. “I...guess I could stick around a little longer.” “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! the three cried out, their faces shifting from pitiable to extreme joy. Soarin felt his nervous smile grow back on his face, “You all are pretty energetic, aren’t you?” “YUUUP!” the unicorn yelled happily, glad that Scootaloo and the Wonderbolt would be staying longer. Soarin put a hoof to his own mouth a made a shhhh noise, “Inside voices.” “Okay,” the white unicorn filly replied in a soft whisper. After seeing the power tool display and the monstrosity of a thing it led to, Soarin fashioned himself curious about this place, “So...what is it that you fillies do here?” Scootaloo jumped and fluttered a bit beside him in joy, “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so we try to find our special talents!” Apple Bloom stepped towards Soarin and looked right up at him, not seeming to know that he already knew her name by how her sister said it the other day, “I’m Apple Bloom by the way! Sorry ah didn’t say who ah was the other day.” “And I’m Sweetie Belle!” the white unicorn chipped in cheerfully, her voice beginning to creep back up while also cracking a bit. Curious by their group name, a glance to all three of the fillies revealed something to Soarin he hadn’t really thought about before in regards to them, “Wait, all three of you still don’t have cutie marks?” Scootaloo snickered and rolled her eyes in a way that would make Rainbow Dash proud, “Well duuuuuh, if we did it would be pretty silly to be trying to get them if we had them, wouldn’t it?” Soarin scrunched his face up, trying to think this over. These fillies all were pretty old to not have cutie marks, but it wasn’t untold of. He hadn’t gotten his all that early, but then again he knew he was good at flying before he knew it was his special talent. That gave him an idea. “Tell me then, what are you three good at?” Apple Bloom gave a small laugh and a shrug, “We don’t really know, so we try everythin’!” Sweetie Belle hopped up again, her face gleeful, “Yeah, like the talent fair where we won the comedy award!” Scootaloo groaned at her friend’s chipper attitude, “They only gave that to us because they thought our singing was so bad it was funny.” Sweetie Belle had either forgotten or didn’t know this previously, for she stopped dead in her tracks and face became a mix of anger and surprise, “Really?!” “You guys were in a talent fair? What did you guys do?” “Well, we sang, did stunts and made props. It...it didn’t go very well,” Scootaloo answered sheepishly. “I thought it went well...” Sweetie Belle added, albeit dejectedly. Soarin grinned at Sweetie Belle in an attempt to lift her spirits, “Ahh, don’t feel bad. I’m sure you’re a great singer.” It did it’s purpose and the filly smiled, although Apple Bloom spoke up just as her friend did so, “Sweetie is pretteh good at singin’, but it isn’t exactly...on key.” Scootaloo nodded affirmatively, “Well when we were practicing we seemed to do all right...Apple Bloom knew how to make the props, I knew how to do the stunts well, and Sweetie helped me write the song. It...just didn’t come together well.” “Have you three thought about pursuing what you individually did well at back then? You mind find your talents!” Soarin noted hopefully, beginning to realize these fillies may have hope for them yet. Apple Bloom shook her head sweetly, “If it was that easy we would have gotten em while we were practicing! There’s no way ah’m good at making stuff, Scootaloo is good at stunts and Sweetie’s supposed to be a singer or anything like that.” “Suit yourselves. What’s your next plan for getting your Cutie Marks?” The three gathered together in front of Soarin and looked to one another briefly, Soarin finding himself caught completely off guard when the trio jumped up and yelled in unison, “Cutie Mark Crusader Pirates!” Sweetie pumped a hoof into the air, “Awesome idea! We can search for treasure and get all of the booty!” Soarin tried not to snicker at what the innocent child just said while Apple Bloom piped up next, “We’re going to need uh captain.” Sweetie Belle lowered her hoof to point at her friend, “I vote you!” Scootaloo nodded and pointed as well, “Agreed! I want the be the ninja-first mate!” Sweetie’s hoof shot back up, now waving like they were in a classroom, “Ooh, ooh, can I be the navigator?!” “Sure, why not?” Apple Bloom reasoned soundly. Soarin rose an eyebrow, “Do you three have a boat?” The so-called captain of the group ran over to the corner of the room where the pitiable structure they had been builing before Soarin’s arrival lay, “Not at tha moment, but ah’m sure ah can make whun for us!” “Awesome! I’ll go grab some sticks I can use as swords!” Scootaloo proclaimed proudly, beginning to trot towards the door. “I’ll draw a map!” Sweetie Belle happily proclaimed. A moment later the filly jabbed a hoof forward and yelled, “Hey, wait a minute!” Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and Apple Bloom looked over to what Sweetie was now pointing at, “What is it Sweetie Belle?” Soarin, the thing being pointed at, was very confused as Sweetie proclaimed, “We can be sky pirates!” The Wonderbolt felt his stomach drop instantly, eyes widening as thoughts of crashing and hurt fillies filled his mind. Luckily for him, Scootaloo climbed on his back and sat down on it, realizing a flaw in her friend’s idea, “Not sure we could all fit on here, Sweetie Belle.” “But it’d be so much fun!” the cute but ditzy unicorn noted. Scootaloo spoke up again, “Sky pirates would be stupid anyways. What’d we plunder? A rain cloud?” “She’s right Sweetie, there aren’t treasures in tha sky,” Apple Bloom reasoned in a know-it-all manner...before asking Soarin, her voice a bit worried, “Right?” “Sure?” he answered ambiguously in regards to sarcasm and seriousness. This issue settled, the three fillies jumped to work with a cry from Apple Bloom of, “Get to work everypony!” Soarin was pretty sure he should stop this, but was also just as curious as to where it’d lead. An hour and a half later, the group reconvened with Apple Bloom having a roughly carved wooden boat ready and able to fit out the door, Sweetie holding a crudely drawn map of all of Ponyville and the surrounding area to her knowledge, and Scootaloo with three sticks that she had sharpened to an almost dangerous level...with other sticks, Soarin hoped. “That was fast,” Soarin noted, based on their overall accomplishment. “Eeyup. We’ve been doing this awhile,” the captain stated. Right after this was said though, Apple Bloom gave her friend with the orange coat a curious glance, “Three sticks, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo dropped the sticks to the clubhouse floor and grinned in a way that made Soarin wan “Of course! Imagine how cool it’d be to be some kind of ninja-pirate with three swords? That’d be awesome!” “How can you hold them all though? You aren’t a unicorn,” Soarin noted, privately envying the dexterity his unicorn friends could have. Scootaloo scooped one stick up in each hoof and one with her mouth, looking utterly ridiculous and all the more adorable in the process, “Whump imp mm motph, whnn inh etch hfff!” Soarin chuckled at the display briefly, only to have the voice of Sweetie Belle draw everypony’s attention again, “I finished the map!” “Great! Let’s go sailing!” Scootaloo turned to Rainbow Dash’s coltfriend, “Come with us mister Soarin!” Before Soarin could agree, or note that it was ridiculously late out and that they all should be in bed (except him of course), Sweetie Belle chimed in once more, “We should sing! All good pirates sing!” Apple Bloom smiled to her friend and gave a nod of approval as captain, “Ahlright. What should we sing?” Sweetie grinned from ear to ear, “I got bored making the map at first, so I made us a song!” “Cool! Let’s hear it, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo cheered, spitting out her mouth sword to do so. Sweetie Belle took in a breath before beginning her song: “YO! ya-yo, ya-yo Dreamin', don't give it up-” Which she never got to continue further due to the load and concerned voice of a mare outside the clubhouse. “Soarin!? Scootaloo!?” Scootaloo recognized the voice of her idol and dropped her swords on the ground, letting out a nervous, “Whoops.” In through the doorway came Rainbow Dash, who looked around the clubhouse to find the three fillies and Soarin, all of whom had weird attire on, Soarin having been forced to put on a pirate hat. Feeling a need to explain this, Soarin tried to start their conversation smoothly, so that he could steer if away from the whole part about him not doing what he came to do, “Heey Dashie, what’s up?” Rainbow narrowed her eyes at the stallion with a furtive voice and who now felt like he was as big as the fillies in the clubhouse, “Hey yourself mister. What’re you still doing here? Scootaloo needs to get home and get to sleep” she then looked down to Scootaloo with an annoyed glance, “Which she knows.” Scootaloo chuckled sheepishly and started towards the door, “Ooh, look at the time. I guess we better be getting home! Am I right?” Rainbow sighed as the filly passed her, “You know what you did,” the blue mare looked to the other two fillies, who had both deflated upon hearing Rainbow Dash arrive, “Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, you two should probably think about heading home soon too. It’s getting pretty dark out.” The duo nodded as Rainbow Dash wished them goodnight and pulled Scootaloo up and onto her own back, Soarin following suit and heading out the door. Upon leaving the clubhouse the pegasus trio found themselves walking through the woods by it, Rainbow Dash taking the time to chew out Soarin, “You didn’t answer me.” “Well, you see, I don’t think it was fair sending me a place with three fillies...” Rainbow Dash looked at him seriously, “You can’t handle three kids?” Soarin grunted and scrunched up his face, bitter that Scootaloo wasn’t defending him, “Well, I don’t think I’ve ever run into such an adorable trio! I mean, it’s just not right! Who ever had the bright idea of putting a bow on a filly? Or giving them such great puppy dog eyes?” And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Rainbow Dash, who had been trying to keep a stern face for fun, and Scootaloo, who wasn’t sure if this was a joke or not until now, both broke out in a fit of laughter while the filly rode on Rainbow’s back. Soarin, though, blushed in embarassment, “Stop laughing!” Rainbow leaned on him affectionately while she continued to laugh, “Soarin, I was just pulling your leg. I forgot her first after all, so it was my fault to begin with,” a devilish grin grew on her face as the laughter subsided, the mare now looking back to Scootaloo, “Still....How should we punish him, Scootaloo?” Scootaloo sat up and stifled her laughter, “Ooh, ooh! He should read to me until I fall asleep! That’ll make us even!” Soarin couldn’t believe this, “Us even? Don’t forget that you were one of the terrible trio of fillies who suckered me with cute faces!” Revealing his soft spot for adorable children a second time just got the two girls to laugh again, Rainbow Dash carrying Scootaloo into the night air as their cackles filled the otherwise silent night. Soarin tried to take off, but tripped over a branch while he continued forward and hit the ground, the two girls leaving him behind as he called out, “Hey, get back here! Come on guys, stop laughing!” Desperate to catch up, Soarin got up and ran forward as fast as he could to take off at a higher speed. This too was met with failure, as he crashed into another pony and they both tumbled into the ground, Soarin apologizing, “Sorry about that!” The other pony, a black maned earth pony with gaunt features, got up and rubbed off the dirt he now had on his expensive clothes, “It’s alright. Isn’t that right, Bulky?” Soarin glanced to the side to see a very obese pony with a handkerchief around their likely bald head just laugh at the misfortune, “Sure, Skull. After all, you know all about having a crazy wife and kid, don’t you?” glancing at Soarin, he nodded towards the blue mare flying off in the sky, “They’ve gotten pretty far. Better catch them buddy.” “Sorry again! Have a good night!” Soarin stretched his wings out and took off in a more controlled manner this time, leaving the two other ponies behind as he finally managed to take flight. Once back at the house, Rainbow Dash explained to the exhausted Soarin (who did his best to catch up with his speedster marefriend) that while talking to Twilight the egghead had given her a laundry list of things she should try to do as a parent, and making sure fillies got to sleep on time was just about at the top of the list under feeding them. Not that she would have forgotten that, Rainbow defensively added afterwards. Her joke done and Scootaloo already in bed, Rainbow nudged Soarin to go and see if Scootaloo still wanted that bedtime story. Too tired to have any real response, Soarin went off to the filly’s new room. “Okay Scootaloo, just give me a second to catch my breath...” Laying underneath her covers except for her head, which lay upon a blue pillow with a Daring Do plush next to her, Scootaloo shook her head with a smile, “It’s okay. You don’t have to read me a story.” Soarin blinked, confused by the flip-flop, “Wait, what?” Scootaloo looked down at her sheets, which were co lored blue, red and yellow unsurprisingly, “I...I just wanted to get the chance to talk with you mister Soarin,” Scootaloo looked towards the doorway, “Without m-Rainbow Dash.” “Well then lay it on me! What’s on your mind?” Scootaloo found herself having the same issue Rainbow Dash had been having earlier that day when they had a certain talk, “Rainbow Dash is going...well, you see...Rainbow Dash is...” Soarin figured out what the reveal was before Scootaloo could finish, but he kept it to himself so that she could do so. “She’s going to adopt me,” Scootaloo finally managed to finish, her voice a blend of sure and unsure. Soarin leaned over the bed with half his body so he could pat Scootaloo on the head, “I know about that kiddo. Are you happy about that?” Scootaloo nodded fervently, “Like totally, I couldn’t think of anything cooler happening!” the emotion drained instantly after her words however, the filly’s eyes trailing down to the sheets over her, “Except...” “What is it?” Soarin asked, concerned that maybe something was wrong. Scootaloo nervously looked at his chest, not being able to meet his eyes, “Well, Rainbow Dash and you are together...” the filly trailed off again before clearing her throat and asking, “D-does that mean you’re going to be my dad?” Soarin felt his eyes widen at that. He...did not have an answer as much as he would have liked to, “Uhhhh...hadn’t really thought about that to be honest.” Scootaloo instantly took that as a no and tried to downplay the topic, “I mean, you don’t have to be, since Rainbow Dash is like the best pony anypony could want to take care of them, but...” Soarin lifted her head up with a hoof so he could look her in the eye, “What do you want Scootaloo?” The eyes averted to the blankets again, “I want a family,” she mumbled softly. His mind made up, Soarin pulled the filly into an embrace, “Then I’ll be here for you as long as you need me, okay?” Scootaloo returned the hug and Soarin felt his chest grow the slightest bit wet, but the sigh of relief that followed made him sure that she wasn’t upset in the slightest, but rather happy. Soarin pulled back a little so he could look at her, “Now, how about you go to bed? I don’t want Dashie to chew us out if you’re tired tomorrow!” “Thank you mister Soarin,” Scootaloo said emotionally before leaning back in her bed, pulling her Daring Do plush to her chest. Soarin smiled at her and ruffled her hair, “Goodnight kiddo.” And with that, Soarin left her room to go talk with Rainbow Dash and let the little filly sleep. The light blue wonderbolt felt content. He hadn’t thought all that long ago that something like this would ever happen, but then again he didn’t care. He was happy, Rainbow Dash was happy, and so was this sweet filly. Before Rainbow Dash could question him about his storytelling Soarin cut her off with a smile. “Yes, I will go with you to your parent’s house to broach the topic about the adoption.” Soarin felt himself be pulled into another hug, and he smiled to himself as he thought about his life. This is how every pony’s life should be. A/N: Hope you enjoyed, and I hope to hear from you!