//------------------------------//
// Aftermath of an Adoption Meeting 
// Story: Dream of Another Shore 
// by Artaelian 
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Scootaloo never felt more awkward in her life than she did right there. Two rich Canterlot ponies sat there, staring at her, and she couldn’t just leave at least, not until the meeting had finished. They in turn sat there rubbing a hooftip to the other hoofarm, unsure what to do now Scootaloo was in the room.

“So, um.” Scootaloo spoke, but stopped when she wasn’t sure what to actually say.

“It’s nice to meet you, Scootaloo.” Jet Set said, a smile was on her face but it looked more nervous than a proper smile.

“Yeah, same to both of you.” Scootaloo answered.

And silence fell among the three once more, both sides unsure how to proceed. Upper Crust coughed.

“How have your previous interviews gone?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t know. All my life I’ve never once been considered for adoption.” Scootaloo answered, hanging her head and looking sad.

“Never? Why is that?” Upper Crust asked again, his face suggesting to Scootaloo that he was really shocked at this fact.

“If you could find all the ponies who adopted here before and ask them, you’d find the answer, I don’t really know, we don’t meet anyone unless sent to one of these interviews.” Scootaloo answered truthfully.

“So basically, no one has even met you before us?” Jet Set asked. Scootaloo only nodded in reply.

“Then we’re all in the same boat as it were! None of us have done this sort of meeting before today.” he laughed once.

Scootaloo only smiled, choosing not to speak, though she kept wondering why this couple wanted to consider adopting her.

“Anyway we do have some questions for you, would you be willing to answer them?” Upper Crust asked.

“Sure I guess.” Scootaloo answered, nodding her head.

“Ok, the first question, this may be difficult to answer, but what do you know of your parents?” he asked.

Scootaloo shrunk emotionally. Of course they’d want to know that, just to mainly see if she knew.

“I, I don’t know what they were like. I was only told they died in a cart accident when I wasn’t even a year old.” Scootaloo answered.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Upper Crust replied, with more detachment than Scootaloo expected, “the next question, do you have friends here in this Ponyville place?”

“Yeah, my closest friends are Applebloom and Sweetie Belle” Scootaloo answered, withdrawing a little from the recoil of the previous question, “we’re helping each other try to find our cutie marks.” 

“And would you hate it if we adopted you and moved you away from this town?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.

“I... have no idea, maybe I would at first, but if I could come see them at weekends, then I guess that would be okay.” Scootaloo answered.

“Well, if we adopt you, our Canterlot home wouldn’t be big enough. However, we do have a place in the countryside, near the Whitetail woods, we could arrange for you to stay there. I think we know all that we need to,” Upper Crust held a hoof to his chin, “just one more question, what was the name of your father?”

Scootaloo looked confused and shocked towards Upper Crust. It had seemed like he’d moved past the parents she never knew, but now he wanted to end the interview on it.
“Miss Amethyst has never let me know.” Scootaloo answered.

“Alright, sorry if that brought up bad memories. We were told not to say something like this while meeting you, but I feel we’re going to make a good choice.” Upper Crust said, ending the interview as he used his magic to ring a bell to alert the staff that they’d finished their meeting. Two of the orphanage staff came in, and one hurried Scootaloo out, while Miss Amethyst who had been the other had gone up to the couple and begun to talk.

Scootaloo returned to the main orphanage building thinking about the meeting. It had gone rather well, abruptly as it had ended, Scootaloo thought. Despite being from Canterlot, and appearing stuffy, Jet Set and Upper Crust had been rather easy going and laid back.

She had spoken to the other two orphans that had met the pair, learning from them that while initially kind, the pair had soon soured towards them. This made Scootaloo wonder what caused them to be kind to her the whole time, but sour towards the others. 

At first, she reasoned that they simply liked the idea of having a daughter, somepony to dote on, and shower with girly gifts, and the promise of a future with first dates, social dances and even possibly a wedding. But as the day wore on and became night, Scootaloo couldn’t help but wonder if there might be something in her records that could be the true reason behind their motive to adopt her.

The good thing about the orphanage now, was that the records were now in one set room, rather than strewn about in random cabinets like they had been before. The downside being, the office with them was locked when the secretary went home. So it was a good thing she had been too busy to check the door to her office when she had gone home.

Quietly heading to the records, Scootaloo carefully searched until she found the cabinet with all the records starting in ‘S’. It wasn’t long until she had found her own file.

“File number 324587J,” Scootaloo mumbled to herself, “Scootaloo.”

She opened the file and begun to read.

“Arrived to Ponyville orphanage age four months, parents deceased in horrific cart accident. One older sibling whom is too young to look after the foal. Nothing unusual yet. Ah, parents, father was a pegasus named Cloud Twist and mother was an earth pony named Daisy Blossom.”

Scootaloo felt a slight letdown when the file didn’t mention what jobs they had, or indeed the cause of the accident they had been in. This was countered by the fact she learned that somewhere in Equestria she had an older sibling, one she could track down someday, as she paused thinking over who the sibling could be. Maybe they had since become a wonderbolt? It could really make a search worth the effort she thought.

With a yawn, she headed back to bed, resolving to find somewhere the next day she could find more about her parents.

--
Town Hall was not somewhere Scootaloo normally would go at any point of her day. To her, it was the essence of the boredom from school and cranked to eleven. But she endured it, and the waiting times, to get any records of her parents. Family records were always kept it seemed, which must have been a headache to the ones that kept it all in check, as Ponyville was a very old town.

Eventually, after what felt like days to Scootaloo, but was simply half an hour, the clerk returned, placing a file on the desk. Upon the file was simply the name of her father, Cloud Twist. Shaking with anticipation, she opened the file.

There, at the front, was a photograph of Cloud Twist. His orange coat went against the grass green mane, but he was clearly a pegasus. Or had been, Scootaloo had to remind herself. Behind the photo was a list of various records. His birth date, which hospital he had been born in, who his parents were, what school he attended, his wedding date to her mother and the date of his death and where he had been buried.

Behind this was his medical record, which didn’t seem to stand out, nor interest Scootaloo. But what was behind that did interest her. It was a list of his employment. At the top, fairly mundane jobs, the standard for those who had left education behind them, but with no real direction in life yet, so resturant work mostly.

The final entry to the employment record caught her attention however. She had to re-read the line over and over again to believe it, but once it had sunk in, she begun to grow angry. The Canterlot couple didn’t want to adopt her because they liked her, she had suspected as much, they merely sought to add to their wealth and could only get to it through her!

Scootaloo stood up and stormed out of town hall, leaving the record of her father open. The last line simply said; Owner and founder of Cloudsdale Cloud Home Landscaping and Rainbow Falls.

--
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle could only watch as Scootaloo paced back and forth in the clubhouse, her anger apparent in her muttering. They had already been there, waiting for her while she was at town hall, and hadn’t need to ask if she had found good news while there. What the bad news was, however, they couldn’t tell, as Scootaloo had yet to say a word other than a short and rather sharp “hello”.

It took a couple of hours for Scootaloo to calm down and explain to her friends, who had waited patiently, what she had learnt. They seemed sad for her that the Canterlot couple had wanted her just to secure a business, but it made sense, as ponies from Canterlot were all about making bits. The rest of the day was spent trying to cheer Scootaloo up by playing with a ball to hide and seek and even ice cream, which didn’t work, but did serve to distract her.

On returning to the orphanage that evening, Scootaloo witnessed Snowdrops at the front door, all her belongings in a pair of saddlebags, and all the staff at the door. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

“Oh, I hoped I’d get to see you before I left, Scootaloo. I’m leaving the orphanage today.” Snowdrops said, as if the fact her possessions in bags hadn’t been clear enough.

“Did somepony adopt you?” Scootaloo asked, hopeful for her friend and some good news that day.

“No, unfortunately this is a rule set down by all orphanages,” Miss Amethyst interjected, “once an orphan reaches the age of twenty, they have to leave and make their own way in the world. She has her own apartment and a part time job with the local weather team.”

Scootaloo went numb. She failed to hear the promise from Snowdrops to visit when she could, a last goodbye, and Snowdrops walking out of sight into Ponyville. She also failed to feel herself being picked up by one of the staff and taken into the orphanage, and left herself in the lobby. Only Miss Amethyst remained in the end, waiting nervously for Scootaloo to snap out of her shock.

When this finally did happen, Scootaloo looked darkly at Miss Amethyst, who returned the look with one of sorrow.

“Why?” was all Scootaloo asked.

“I never set the rules. If I had things my way, you, Snowdrops and the others that were here before Filthy Rich had this place rebuilt, would live her even if you weren’t adopted. But there’s a governing body which decides that all orphans must leave at a set age.” Miss Amethyst answered, calmly and staring intently at Scootaloo.

Scootaloo didn’t move, she blinked once, but didn’t seem too happy with the answer. Unnoticed by her, Oca, Rina and Showstopper had arrived to the staircase and were looking at her and Miss Amethyst from them. 

Showstopper mumbled to himself something on the lines of ‘she’s going to run away.’

“But that’s unfair! She has to go on now with just herself to care for her! And you lied to me, to us! You made me believe we would remain her even if we never got adopted!”

“Now Scootaloo, listen-” she said, reaching a hoof for Scootaloo’s withers.

“NO! You listen! You lied! If I don’t get adopted, then you’ll just throw me aside like trash one day too! And you’ll do it with a smile, just like you did with her! I’m not going to give you the pleasure!”

Before Miss Amethyst could react, Scootaloo bolted for the front doors, kicking them open. Miss Amethyst called out to the other staff, who were slower to react than she was, as she gave chase after Scootaloo down the path to the gates. They had been locked after Snowdrops had left, but Scootaloo found it no problem to slip through the bars, giving her an advantage over the chasing adults, who had to wait for the gates to be opened.

Scootaloo didn’t stop running despite the advantage she had, and had made it to Ponyville itself when she heard Miss Amethyst calling to her, demanding that she stop. Turning a corner and finding an alley, Scootaloo hid behind some boxes, quickly pulling tarpaulin over the gap where she was, and remained still. Miss Amethyst, who had been faster than the other staff had seen Scootaloo run down and turn into the street, but hadn’t been fast enough to see Scootaloo hide in an alley, as such, she continued on and ran right past.

As the beat of running hooves faded, Scootaloo realised that the staff must have split up, hoping to corner and capture her. She remained still and quiet. Thinking, she formulated the idea that they would expect her to head further into the town, and not back towards the orphanage. Checking from the safety of her hiding spot, she first made sure none of them were nearby, and headed in the general direction of the orphanage, before following a path that led elsewhere. Soon, the sun set and the chill of the spring night set in. Her wandering had led her to the side of a lake in the Whitetail woods, eventually coming across an abandoned wood cabin. With nowhere else to spend the night, she looked inside and found it to be dry and warmer than outside, and so wandered in.

With a heavy sigh, Scootaloo settled down for the night, drifting off to sleep despite the chill in the air, comforted only by the stars and moonlight.

--
Miss Amethyst was frantic. She had returned to the orphanage without the runaway Scootaloo, her mood was not helped by the arrival of Jet Set and Upper Crust, who had been told to visit when they wished to see the orphan they wished to adopt, only to learn due to seeing an unadoptable orphan leave, had ran away.

Showstopper watched from across the hall as the Canterlot couple verbally abused Miss Amethyst, and then storm out, stating that they would find Scootaloo, take her in and ensure she would never return to the clumsy care of the orphanage. Miss Amethyst returned to her office, where she broke down in tears. Other staff had gone to Ponyville, seeking help in locating Scootaloo, and no doubt the Canterlot couple would pursue public officials to secure Scootaloo before the orphanage.

Having watched impassively, Showstopper had come to the conclusion that Scootaloo had had a bad day, leading to her actions. This was something he decided would be best to bring up with the secretary. Here, he learnt someone had been in the files, and only Scootaloo’s had been disturbed. When asking further, he learnt her father had run a company prior to his death.

Showstopper started methodically analyzing the situation, looking for something that hadn’t been seen by the other ponies. Scootaloo had been in a bad mood, triggered by the Canterlot couple somehow, and her father had run a company. Perhaps, he reasoned, she assumed they wanted her just to get at this company. And pressing further, Showstopper had found that the company Scootaloo’s father had run was long since dissolved. Maybe Scootaloo herself didn’t know this, and with seeing Snowdrops leaving, her bad mood had caused her to take her feelings out on someone.

Just a bad series of events, which now meant that Scootaloo was somewhere out in the town, probably cold and alone, with a lot of worried ponies. Oh and two angry ones from Canterlot, but maybe a few hours would help calm them down.

Unnoticed by the staff, Showstopper himself walked out of the orphanage and into Ponyville. He had one destination in mind, probably the only one that could find Scootaloo before the couple and see her return to the orphanage before they found her.