Meet the Family

by Thunderscourge

Meet the Birthday

“Please?”

“The answer is still no I regret to inform you.”

Both Scootaloo and All Thread were standing in the place where all food in the house originated from, the kitchen. Standing by the family’s oven was All Thread, who was focused on the cake he was preparing. It was Soarin’s birthday after all and All Thread knew how much the stallion loved his sweet treats.

Scootaloo was taking the position of a family dog begging for scraps though, positioned right beside him and pawing at the structure that was taller than she was in an attempt to get at the delicious food atop it.

“Pleeease? I’m starving!” Scootaloo whined, her lower lip presented fully forward as she kept attempting to get up and see the cake.

All Thread did not even sigh in exasperation, having been through this exact situation before. Only this time he was not given orders to punish, albeit reluctantly, the child begging. She was too old and small to get to the cake, so he paid her little mind as he continued to tend to it.

“I apologize, miss Scootaloo, but I must decline your request under your mother’s orders.”

Scootaloo sat down on her rear and crossed her hooves indignantly at him, “But come on, it’s got to taste delicious! You can’t just let me know about the cake and not let me try it!”

“I am afraid I can,” he retorted dryly, his voice remaining flat and calm.

Not about to let her rumbling stomach go unfilled, Scootaloo decided it was time for the big guns. The ultimate convincing technique…

“Pleeeeeeeaaaase?” she pouted with the biggest and starry eyes she could muster.

…and the most pathetic one as well.

All Thread instantly regretted looking down at her when his eyes met her own. He had to admit that Soarin had not been quite this adorable at the same age, although that had little relevance. He had been told not to give Scootaloo any of the cake…

While averting his eyes from Scootaloo, All Thread noticed something on the counter that just might solve this dilemma.

Moving his front hooves away from the cake he was preparing, All Thread brought them instead to the supplies he had been using to make the cake, “You may taste the scraps if you so please.”

Scootaloo jumped to her feet and felt a large smile grow across her face as her begging routine appeared to work, “Really?”

All Thread nodded as Scootaloo began to search for a way up onto the counter, “They are not the cake itself, which is what I have been told not to allow you to touch.”

“Thanks!” Scootaloo chuckled as she finally found a seat to boost herself up, at which point she climbed onto the counter and looked in awe at the magnificent cake that lay there. Even the scraps to the side looked delicious, and she soon found herself digging into them at a feverish pace.

After gulfing down a large amount of the scraps All Thread had accrued Scootaloo turned to the butler-pony and smiled to him sheepishly. She felt like she owed him now that he had gone around the rules for her, “How are the preparations going? Need a hoof?”

All Thread noted the blue frosting sitting upon her complementary colored face as he looked up from the cake, “No thank you, I am quite fine. Your mother is still busy preparing the rest of the house with the rainbow decorations.”

“Why rainbow again?” Scootaloo inquired. After all, if it was Soarin’s birthday why have rainbow decorations and not just plain blue colored ones?

The butler continued to tend to his work, making sure to keep an eye on the filly so that she did not bump into the delicate masterpiece, “Because it includes his two favorite things, a rainbow as well as orange and purple. Or so your mother said.”

Scootaloo giggled as she thought about Rainbow Dash’s pride and how that was a more likely explanation, even if the first one made sense, “Yeah, that might be true but she’s probably just indulging her ego.”

An “Ahem” from across the house made Scootaloo remember with fear that the door was open to the kitchen.

“Not that there is anything wrong with that!” Scootaloo responded with a nervous laugh, not wanting Rainbow to be mad at her.

Turning back to All Thread, Scootaloo noticed that she was nearly walking on the cake to All Thread’s irritation.

She gave another nervous chuckle before hopping off the table and scrambling for the exit, “Anyways, I’ll get out of your guys hair if you don’t need me. I’m sure Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom wanna hang out!”

“Farewell,” All Thread replied, a little sad to not have any company in the kitchen anymore.

Those eyes were adorable after all, even if he would not say so out loud.

It was not until well into the afternoon that Scootaloo returned home, with Rainbow Dash greeting her at the door. The older mare had finished setting up decorations about the house in a manner, having done so at the behest of her fashionista friend Rarity with the stipulation that she do it herself.

Now Rainbow Dash was ready to just relax and wait for Soarin to return home, the stallion having been sent off during the day to allow the others to prepare.

The rainbow maned mare patted her filly on her purple mane to greet her at the door. Rainbow, however, was not about to mention that Scootaloo was wearing one of Apple Bloom’s bows. She wanted to hear Scootaloo’s story first, “Hey Scootaloo, what’ve you been up to?”

Scootaloo rubbed her face against Rainbow’s chest as she thought back to her very…interesting day involving the Apple Family, “Well, since you guys didn’t need me messing with the preparations, I thought I’d help Apple Bloom out today. Applejack is acting more like a mom than a sister.”

Rainbow snickered before breaking out laughing, knowing that hearing that would only confuse Soarin more. It took a moment to recover from her fit of laughter, and she only managed to do so because of the lifted eyebrow Scootaloo had.

“What did ol’ AJ do this time?” Rainbow asked as she staved off further laughs and giggles.

“She was babyproofing everything so Apple Bloom won’t get hurt, giving her safety helmets to wear, giving her more safety helmets to wear…” Scootaloo’s voice trailed off as she silently thought about how horrible it would be to suffer such a fate.

At least Rainbow Dash and Soarin trusted her to not get herself killed every other moment, not that she was very cautious when it came to danger. In fact, Scootaloo was a bit surprised that she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders were all still alive and not missing any pieces after all their adventures.

Rainbow had to bite her lip to stop from laughing at this point, “And how did you help her out?”

“Well, Sweetie Belle and I pretended to be Apple Bloom so that Apple Bloom could go do something to prove she doesn’t need AJ watching over her,” Scootaloo whistled innocently, “I, uh, kind of blew it though, and AJ’s looking for Apple Bloom now.”

The filly received a playful nudge as Rainbow snickered a little, “Aww don’t worry, they’ll be fine. AJ will make sure of that,” Scootaloo’s caretaker nodded towards the door of the house, “Now, how would you like to help me out?”

Scootalo completely forgot about being a bit embarrassed as a grin found its way onto her face, “Really? How?”

“It’s about time you learned to make pie I think. The right way.”

The filly pranced on into the house at the mention of doing something fun like making a pie, which she would inevitably help eat, “Woohoo!”

Rainbow followed her on in with a smile gracing her muzzle. This was going to be fun, although she had no doubt it would also be quite messy.

“Let’s try to get this right the first time though. I want to finish before Soarin gets home!”

It was even later when Soarin returned from his temporary exile, but before actually heading to the door of the house on the cloud he went to the mailbox below.

Looking inside, he found a variety of cards inside that all were addressed to him. Well, except the seven addressed to Fluttershy. Soarin had no idea what went wrong to lend him the other Pegasus’s mail, but he would return it to them the following day.

What was addressed to him were a few small cards, the majority came from fellow Wonderbolts (including an apology card from Spitfire) with the remaining one coming from a pair he had not expected. His parents had sent him a card, but Soarin did not have the heart to open or read it after their last and previous encounters.

Soarin prepared his wings to take off to the cloud above when somepony’s voice caught his attention.

“Oh, hey Soarin! I was just going to leave a card, but I’m glad to run into you!”

Soarin turned around to see his old friend Caramel trotting on towards the mailbox. The sight of his friend brought some much needed joy to Soarin, who was still feeling betrayed by his fellow Wonderbolts. The ones he had considered friends nonetheless.

Soarin smiled to his friend as he stopped taking off, instead moving to greet the orange pony.

“Hey Caramel, thanks for dropping by!”

Caramel retrieved the card he had brought as well as the gift it was attached to out of his saddle-pack and gave it to Soarin, who placed it with thanks in his own, “No problem! It’s hard to think about how we’re already working on our thirties, isn’t it?”

“Hehe, yeah…”

Age…another thing Soarin was beginning to confront given his specific career. Still, he always knew it would be that way and Soarin did not feel any regret at the fact that he was a year older that day.

More surprised by the whole age thing was a voice that came from above, “Thirties?”

Soarin looked up to the cloud where he could see Scootaloo peering off the edge with Rainbow Dash at her side. The two hovered down gently to his side as he responded to the filly, “Yeah, I’m kinda getting old. Slowing down. That sort of thing!”

Caramel looked over Scootaloo with curiosity, not really knowing who the filly was but knowing he had seen her around before, “Oh hey, who’s this?”

Soarin brought Scootaloo into a hug, “Well, you know my fiancé Rainbow Dash, but I don’t think you’ve met my daughter, Scootaloo. This is my friend Caramel. We went to the same school way back when.”

Scootaloo, Scootaloo, Scootaloo…after a moment of thinking, the name rung a bell in Caramel’s mind. He had seen her around Apple Bloom before at the orchard, which made sense as to why he would recognize her.

“Hey there!” he greeted the filly, not caring at all that this filly was way too old to be Rainbow Dash and Soarin’s biological child.

Scootaloo greeted him back with a smile, “Hello. Don’t you work for Applejack?”

“When they need an extra hoof, yeah. How’s she doing?” Caramel responded with a laugh.

Scootaloo shrugged, “She’s out trying to find Apple Bloom right now. Being a bit like an overprotective mom.”

“Really? Bloom do something wrong?” Caramel grew nervous due to Scootaloo’s statement. After all, it would take quite a lot to get Applejack to forego any calm and rational behavior and instead act like a henpecked mother.

The filly yawned just at the thought of her long day posing as Apple Bloom, “Long story. Probably take me twenty minutes or so to say everything.”

The moon rose quickly in the sky thanks to the princess of the night, and with that the visitor decided he had best head home, “Well, it’s getting late and I guess I should be going. It was nice seeing you all though!”

Rainbow waved to the Earth Pony while smiling and glancing towards her fiancé, “Maybe you should stop by sometime. Soarin could use a friend here in Ponyville.”

“Sure thing! Bye everypony!” Caramel called to the Pegasus trio as he departed into the darkening night.

“He seems nice,” Rainbow noted as the three prepared to lift off and land on their cloud home.

Scootaloo piped in as a question wracked her young mind, “How’d you go to the same school though? He can’t fly I don’t think, so what would he be doing at a flight academy?”

Soarin laughed as they all approached the house and the front door, “Long story, even longer than what you probably went through today, but I went to high school in Canterlot along with Caramel, as well as the former head of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. Didn’t really know the guy, but it got me an invitation to the Royal Wedding on top of being a Wonderbolt.”

“That’s where we first danced. Hard to think that it was so long ago!” Rainbow remarked. It had been a long time since the Royal Wedding, and she had to say she was pleased with how things had gone since then. Becoming a Wonderbolt, dating her idol, giving Scootaloo a home, and proposing to her coltfriend instead of having him do that all happened in that time.

Soarin brought Rainbow in for a kiss before entering the house behind Scootaloo, “I know, right?” with a hoof inside the house, his eyes were instantly drawn to the assortment of rainbow colored decorations around the hallway, “Now, what do you three have in store for me?”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him, “I think you’ll enjoy it. Head on into the kitchen so we can get started. It’s already pretty late.”

He relented and walked into the kitchen as ordered while All Thread did the opposite, stepping into the hallway to greet him and the others. Scootaloo and Soarin continued on in to the kitchen while Rainbow stayed behind to speak with the butler.

“I have finished the preparations. If you need me, I will-”

Rainbow cut All Thread off with a shake of the head, “Nuh-uh, you’re partying with us.”

The professional pony began to protest despite the losing battle he was fighting, “Mistress, I must insist-”

Rainbow whispered so that the others would not hear their conversation while her eyes gleamed at the new addition to the household, “You’re a part of the family. You don’t ever have to exile yourself for our sake.”

Her words sunk in to the butler, who fell quiet as he pondered what to do. Not known for being the most patient, Rainbow Dash decided to forego whatever mental debate he was having and instead force him to come.

“Either you join us or we won’t be having the amazing dinner you’ve made for us. Okay I don’t know how Soarin’s parents treated you, but if it’s anyway like they treated me I can tell ya things are different here.”

Rainbow smiled to him as his face fell a little, emotion partially seeping into his normally stoic face. Bringing up the so called parents of Soarin and their treatment of anypony was a sour topic for the butler who had spent his life serving them out of a sense of duty, all the while resenting their cold behavior, especially when it was towards their own son.

Not about to let him be grim, Rainbow prodded him and nodded to the kitchen, “It’s Soarin’s birthday, and I think he’ll want the pony who helped raise him to be celebrating it with him along with the rest of his family.”

With that, she left the hallway, with All Thread following suit not a moment later.

After sitting down around the table, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo each giving Soarin a card, and preparing to eat, Soarin found himself in tears as he looked around the table.

The cake was large enough for a few ponies to eat, but on its rainbow striped frosting were three frosting ponies expertly designed and crafted to resemble Soarin, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Beside them, however, was a fourth and very crudely made frosting pony that (somewhat) looked like All Thread. Scootaloo beamed and showed off her teeth as she noticed the others look at her own masterpiece she had added while Rainbow was talking to All Thread.

Elsewhere on the table was a beautiful pie that gave off a scent similar to what All Thread’s best recipe might create, but also gave off a whiff of the Apple family’s work. Soarin required some great personal restraint to not tear into it at first sight and whiff, to the delight of both Rainbow and Scootaloo.

Lastly though, Soarin looked around to the others in the room and could not help but continue drizzling tears. Having the ponies he cared most about around him to celebrate him made him forget any of the pain left over from what his friends had done recently, and instead he was focused on how much he appreciated them all.

“Thank you everypony…it’s hard to believe that you all care so much,” he said with a sniffle, one hoof wiping the water from his face even as All Thread silently offered a handkerchief.

Rainbow brought a hoof to touch his own as he brought it away from his face, “Hey now, you deserve it.”

Scootaloo nodded repeatedly from across the table, “Yeah, that’s right! You’re the best.”

Soarin looked to All Thread and smiled to him gratefully, “Thanks for putting this all together, Alth.”

Not about to take any more credit than what was due, the butler shook his head, “I cannot claim credit for it all, master Soarin.”

“Mom and I made the pie!” Scootaloo announced with a chipper tone.

“Pies,” Rainbow coughed out jokingly with a glance to the trash in the corner of the room.

“You said you wouldn’t mention the others!” the filly complained with a pouting face, not liking having her moment ruined.

Soarin was left a bit perplexed as to the fates of the other pies, “There were more?”

Rainbow looked to the filly in the room with a smirk, “Scootaloo needs a bit of help learning how to cook is all.”

To counter Rainbow’s playful ribbing, Soarin gave Scootaloo a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, I wasn’t a great chef when I first started either. Alth can attest to that!”

Dash snickered as she thought about her own skills, “And I’m still not. At least I know some of the Apple family’s recipe for some good pie!”

“Here here to that!” Soarin responded with a laugh, which the others soon joined in with.

Yes, even All Thread.

After a night of being together, Scootaloo found herself exhausted and ready to sleep. The first sign of her exhaustion came from a yawn that graced her lips, at which point she decided that she had best hit the hay.

“I’m going to go to bed. Goodnight everpony.”

Soarin brought her into a hug from the living room couch they were sitting on before she could get up, “Goodnight Scootaloo. Thank you for everything,” he kissed her on the head before releasing her, “I love you.”

Scootaloo returned the hug before dismounting from the couch and trotting drowsily towards the door, “Love you too, dad.”

After Scootaloo left the other three in the now silent living room, a thought crossed Soarin’s mind.

“Oh, hey, I forgot to read her card.”

Rainbow nodded as Soarin pulled the card out and began to open it, “I wonder what it says?”

Upon opening it, Soarin’s attention was sucked into the card completely. All Thread did not mind the silence, though the more talkative Rainbow Dash was left uncomfortable by the dead silence as Soarin poured over the card Scootaloo had made for him.

“Soarin?”

Soarin cleared his throat before lifting up the card into some better light and reading the card aloud, having already finished reading it twice to himself.

“Dad,

I’m not sure I can say all of this stuff out loud, but I still want to let you know.

A year ago I only knew you as my idol’s idol. The Wonderbolt who Rainbow Dash thought was so great.

But, then you offered with mom to take me in. And since then, whether you’ve been offering advice or giving me a hoof with what I’m doing, you have always been taking time out of your day to make me feel special.

I am so thankful for all of the ways you have made me feel special, and for being there for mom and I.

Today’s your birthday, Dad, and I want you to know how important you are to me and what a difference you have made, and continue to make, in my life. You’ve helped make me happier than I ever thought I could be.

Happy birthday, with all that mushy love stuff,
Scootaloo”

This time Soarin made no move to wipe the tears from his eyes. Nothing he could imagine could make him happier at that moment.

Soon afterwards Rainbow found herself checking on Scootaloo in bed, glad that the filly was getting old and mature enough to have put herself to bed while also a bit sad that she didn’t really get the chance to do so herself.

As Rainbow entered her room Scootaloo rolled over under her covers to face her in the dark, “Hey mom. You think Dad’s happy?”

Rainbow took a seat on the edge of Scootaloo’s bed so that she could not disturb her too much while also able to touch her orange leg through the cover, “You bet. Wanna know what his favorite part of the day was?”

“What?” Scootaloo asked through a large yawn, her eyes dreary as she tried to look at her idol and mother.

“Reading your card. It meant a whole lot to him,” Rainbow cooed softly to the filly.

Despite her tiredness, Scootaloo perked up a bit at hearing that, “Really?”

Rainbow laughed softly while nodding to her, “I only wish I could be that mushy if I wanted.”

Scootaloo’s hooves crossed once again that day with protest, “Hey, I’m tough! I just, um, am in touch with my feelings! Yeah, that’s it!”

“And you’re all the cuter for it,” Rainbow joked, knowing it would ruffle her feathers a bit more.

“Uhm, where is he?”

Rainbow patted Scootaloo softly, “He’s probably still looking it over with that big smile on his face.”

“He really liked it?”

Rainbow nodded with as big a smile as she could muster, “Of course he did. What it said meant a lot to him, you know.”

“I just wanted to let him know that…” the filly’s words failed her both due to a lack of articulation and of mental clarity coupled with her nervousness about the topic she was trying to raise, “You guys didn’t have to…”

“But we did, and we would do it again,” Rainbow leant in to embrace Scootaloo lovingly, “Goodnight. Have a good night’s sleep, okay?”

“Goodnight, mom,” Scootaloo softly replied as Rainbow got up to leave.

The more Scootaloo said it, the more Rainbow noticed she didn’t mind. Not being all the old herself, the phrase scared her a bit not too long ago, but it was things like this that made her really notice she didn’t mind the new title and job.

What’s more, she knew Soarin felt the same way. The big softie.