Rainbow and Spitfire flew side by side as they headed toward her cloud home, Scootaloo held comfortably in Rainbow’s forelegs as they kept flying. It had taken a while to get everything together after they had left the hospital, they had insisted on her staying for one more day to make sure she was completely on the mend. After they had left and gathered Scootaloo’s things, Rainbow had decided they should head over to her house, so that they could get Scootaloo’s room ready for her before going over to Sugar Cube Corner to celebrate the reuniting of the family.
“Is Momma going to be staying with us to?” asked Scootaloo, using the tittle she had picked for Spitfire.
“Yeah she is, though only if that will work with her job, you got to remember she is the captain of the Wonderbolts.”
Scootaloo looked over expectantly at Spitfire, who giggled as she nodded her head. “I’m staying honey, even if I have to move heaven and earth to make it happen, I’m going to make sure I can stay to help raise you.”
That got a smile from the little filly, who nuzzled close to her mom as they reached the cloud which supported Rainbow’s cloud home. At first Scootaloo was scared, but after a few test steps she found that she could walk quite normally on the clouds, and quickly followed her parents to the door.
“Goddesses it’s been ages since I’ve been here,” said Spitfire, breathing in a deep lungful of air, loving the feeling of the special clouds under her hooves. Rainbow had crafted this house out of high altitude clouds, which were hard to keep together at such low altitudes, but Rainbow Dash somehow managed to keep them together, she still didn’t understand how though.
“I know, the bed hasn’t exactly felt the same with you gone you know,” said Dash, hugging her wife close as she gave her a kiss.
“Oh gag,” said Scootaloo, causing her parents to giggle as they reached the door.
“One day you won’t see it that way squirt,” said Rainbow, opening the door and walking inside. However the moment she looked inside her face lit up with a huge smile, and she quickly ran inside, tackling the pony who was sitting on her couch and giving him a big hug. “Dad!” she said as the stallion laughed, letting him go and looking at him as he brushed his rainbow mane out of his face. “What the heck are you doing here; I thought you were off in Fillydelphia working with the weather patrol there?”
“well me and Posy were passing through on our way back to Cloudsdale when we saw the newspaper, figured it would be nice to surprise you with a visit from your old man and your favorite step mom.”
“Posy is here to?” asked Rainbow excitedly.
“Yeah, she and Fluttershy are in the kitchen cooking up a storm, you know how those two get.
Rainbow quickly shot off toward the kitchen, leaving her father with Spitfire and Scootaloo, who was hiding behind Spitfire’s legs out of fear.
“Hey Spitfire, been a while.”
“Same to you Blitz, it has been a while.”
Blitz then leaned down and looked at Scootaloo, giving her a soft smile as she looked at him. “Hey there kiddo, long time no see.”
Scootaloo looked at him with confusion, causing the stallion to chuckle as he went to explain. “I was with your mom during the first year of your life kiddo; I helped her take care of you till…till you were taken away from her.”
Scootaloo stood there for a moment, then slowly walked out from behind Spitfire, walking over to the stallion and giving him a hug, receiving one in return as Blitz fought back tears.
In the kitchen Rainbow finished hugging Posy, and then rolled her eyes as she held her at hooves length, getting a good look at her. “Oh it’s wonderful to see you wearing your mane like this again; it always did compliment you better than that rat’s nest of a hairdo.”
“Mom stop it, your embarrassing me.”
Posy giggled, and then smiled when she saw her husband walking into the room with Scootaloo on his back, walking over and nuzzling her, which caused her to giggle. “So this is the little angel we have been hearing so much about, it’s nice to finally meet you.” She then looked over at Rainbow, giving her a smile before speaking. “Why don’t you get an apron and help your sister dear, I want to go with you father and talk with Scootaloo a bit ok?”
Rainbow nodded, then grabbed an apron and went over to help Fluttershy as Spitfire stared at her in disbelief, not even noticing as Posy and Blitz took Scootaloo into the living room. “I didn’t know you know how to cook!”
“You never asked,” said Rainbow with a laugh, then she went back to helping Shy with the cooking.
Back in the Living room, Posy and Blitz sat down with Scootaloo as she looked between the two, till the urge to speak finally overcame her. “Um, would you mind if I asked when you two hooked up, from everything I knew about my mom you were married to the former Wonderbolt Firefly?”
“It’s no trouble dear,” said Posy, sitting down on the couch and putting Scootaloo on her knee. “Well after Firefly took you away, your grandfather decided enough was enough and got a divorce, I can tell you that was the story of the century or a while in Cloudsdale. Any way’s, I myself was a widow at the time, and after a while he called me up and we hit it off, going out for two years before finally getting married. Rainbow sadly couldn’t attend the wedding, she was still looking for you at the time, but it still was a magical day.”
Scootaloo nodded, “um, what about when mom was looking for me. I mean I know she told me she was, but every time I saw her she was usually sleeping, or working, or helping out her friends.”
“Well the reason she was sleeping so much was because she was so tired,” said Blitz, “if she wasn’t working or helping out her friends, she was out looking for you, scouring town after town, city after city. She’d be gone for days, even weeks just looking for you, never wanting to give up.”
Scootaloo found herself awed, remembering one time she had spotted Rainbow landing on a cloud, looking dirty and worn out as though she had been flying non-stop for days.
“Anyway enough about that, I’m sure you want to hear of better things then the sad moments of our lives. But now I got some question’s for you kiddo, how long you been staying in Ponyville before Rainbow found you.”
“About as long as I can remember really,” said Scootaloo, “from what Gleaming Shores told me she found me on the doorstep of the orphanage, she figured I had been abandoned by my mom. It was a good place to live I guess, but I never really stayed there for long once my friend Applebloom showed me her tree house, I used to sneak out there to sleep when I couldn’t stand staying in the orphanage.”
Blitz nodded, and then spoke up as he looked down at Scootaloo. “now here is one thing I don’t get, I mean you have been living for eight years in Ponyville, and Rainbow moved their six years ago, how come you two never ran into each other?”
Scootaloo actually lowered her head at that question; looking nervous as she spoke. “w…well, I always kind of thought of mom as my hero, but I…I didn’t want her to see me like I was, I kind of had the notion that you needed to look nice and have your cutie mark before you could meet your hero, so I…I kind of went out of my way so I wouldn’t have to be seen by her.”
Posy quickly gave her a hug, sensing her discomfort as the little filly hugged her back. “It’s ok dear, we all have irrational fears like that, even your mom has some of her own.”
Scootaloo was about to speak when Rainbow poked her head out of the kitchen, “dinners done guys, it’s in the dining room,” she said, smiling as they got up and followed her to the dining room.
The moment Scootaloo entered the dining room her jaw dropped, for the entire table was covered food, so much food her mouth started to water, for she hadn’t seen this much food in…well ever.
“mom and I thought it would be nice if you came home to a nice home cooked meal,” said Fluttershy, who got up and gave her a big hug, which was joined by everypony in the room, all giving her affection as Rainbow got close and nuzzled her daughter.
“Welcome home Scootaloo.”
They could have stayed like that forever, but as quickly as the moment had come; it vanished when a knock came to the entryway door. “I’ll get it,” said Rainbow, walking away as everypony else walked over to the table and sat down. She walked over to the entryway, a spring in her step and a smile on her face as she opened the door. But when she saw who was standing at the doorway the words of greeting she had prepared caught in her throat, for standing in the doorway was a pony she hadn’t seen in ages, and the last pony she thought she would ever have to see again.
“Hello Rainbow,” said Firefly, “long time no see.”