Rules and Regulations
"Scootaloo, if we're going to be taking you in, you'll have to follow our rules," Spitfire began. "Dash and I have talked it over and feel that we have come up with a fair set of rules and tasks to follow."
"Anything you want Spitfire!" Scootaloo exclaimed. She hated rules as much as the next filly, but it sure was a lot better than being alone for a winter.
"First things first, you're gonna have to learn to fly," Rainbow said. "We won't always be around to take you up here, so you need to be able to do that on your own. That said, we'll start right after we finish telling you what's expected of you."
"You're gonna teach me to fly?! This is AWESOME! Can we start now? Canwecanwecanwepleeeeeeease?!"
"After you hear the rest of the rules," Spitfire said, to which Scootaloo began to listen with rapt attention.
"We want you to keep your room neat and tidy," Rainbow added. "We brought your things back from your old house. Well, everything that wasn't destroyed when the place fell apart, that is. We have plenty of space for you to store everything in your room without a pile on the floor."
"Clean room, got it." Scootaloo took a mental note in her head.
"No damage to the house," Spitfire said, with a little more force behind it than she had used previously.
"This goes double if you ever have a Crusader sleepover here," Rainbow added. "And try not to get too wild. I'm all for making noise, but know the proper time and place for it."
"One last thing," Spitfire said flatly. “We're going to have a face to face meeting with your parents after we find out where they are. And you're going to come with."
"W-what?" Scootaloo asked. The fear of being near them again was evident in her voice.
"Don't worry Scoot, they won't be able to touch you. We'll be right there with you. We just need to see for ourselves how they view their relationship with you before we can decide where to go from here," Rainbow reassured.
"Bu-but-"
"No buts. It's going to happen. As of right now, we think they might be in Cloudsdale. We're going to check it out in a week to see if we can find them there," Spitfire interrupted.
"No! We can't! If my dad sees me-"
"It's going to happen or we aren't taking you in," Spitfire said forcefully.
"We have to know for sure if taking you in is the right thing to do," Rainbow said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "Neither of us knows anything about taking care of a filly, and we need to make sure you'll be better off with us before we can take you in."
"You guys saw what he did to me!" Scootaloo screamed, now near tears. "I'd be better off on my own than with them!" With that she ran to her room, sobbing, and kicked the door closed.
"That went well." Spitfire's voice dripped with irritation.
"It would've gone easier if you hadn't been so hard on her," Dash said. "Good cop bad cop does not fit in this situation."
"I wasn't gonna sugarcoat it," Spitfire replied. "She needed to know what was going to happen."
"You saw what her father did to her," Rainbow countered. "It's not a situation she should go have to go back to. I agree we need to talk to them, but we know we're not sending her back to her parents."
"We don't know for sure that any of it is true. She easily could have-"
"How much more proof do you need?!" Rainbow almost yelled. "Her family is nowhere to be found, their family home was destroyed and no effort is being made to repair it, and she was about to endure a snowstorm under a park bench last night!" Spitfire was stunned. Rainbow had never stood her ground so firmly in an argument before. She had always seen Spitfire's point and offered a good compromise before an argument started. Now she seemed almost pissed at Spitfire. As much as Spitfire wanted to deny it, she knew her wife was right. Scootaloo's parents obviously left her behind. Loving parents would sooner die than leave their filly on her own before she was old enough to take proper care of herself. So Spitfire decided this time it was her turn to give in.
"You're right," Spitfire said. "I don't want to send her back. But we still don't know enough about her to take care of her. We need medical information, and we definitely should invest in therapy for her. We don't know what she's dealt with or how she is mentally."
"I'll talk to Twilight about therapy tomorrow," Rainbow said. "She may not be a professional, but she definitely understands the subject," Rainbow said.
"Good idea. I'll take her to Nurse Redheart for a check-up as well. That will hopefully give us an idea of what special attention she may need," Spitfire replied.
"Now that we have a plan for tomorrow, we should go talk to her. She needs to know that we're going to be there for her no matter what as long as she's with us. She needs to know that she's gonna get some love from us," Rainbow finished and got up.
"Let's hope this one goes better than the last," Spitfire said. "I don't want any more trouble tonight."
Scootaloo had finished crying when she heard Rainbow Dash's voice outside the door.
"Can we come in?"
"Yeah." Scootaloo sniffled.
Rainbow Dash gently pushed the door open. She entered with Spitfire right beside her and sat on the bed next to Scootaloo. Spitfire opted to sit on her haunches on the floor.
"Do you understand why we want to see your parents?" Rainbow asked.
Scootaloo shook her head.
"We're not sending you back to them. We just want to know anything about you that we can't figure out for ourselves. Or at least things we'd rather not find out the hard way," Spitfire answered for Rainbow Dash. "We know we can't send you back to that environment. But before we sign adoption papers, we need to know how to properly take care of you."
Upon hearing Spitfire use the word "adoption," the little filly perked up.
"You're going to adopt me?"
"Right now that's how it's looking. There aren't any youth homes near Ponyville, and we don't have the hearts to pull you away from your best friends," Rainbow answered with a grin.
Scootaloo squealed and hugged Rainbow Dash.
"THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!!!!!!" she screamed. Rainbow was struggling to pry the filly loose from the death grip the filly had on her neck. Upon successfully removing Scootaloo from her neck, the filly latched right onto Spitfire's. With a chuckle, Spitfire returned the hug, although with a lot less force.
"I do believe I promised somepony flying lessons tonight," Rainbow said. "Unless of course she'd rather wait until morning." Before Rainbow finished her sentence, Scootaloo was out the door on her way to the balcony. Rainbow kissed her wife and chased after the filly. Rainbow and Spitfire knew they'd never have a child of their own, but it looked like they were going to be parents after all. Spitfire just hoped they weren't biting off more than they could chew.