Rainbow went upstairs to find Scootaloo preening her wings. All the doubts about whether she could be the pony Scootaloo needed her to be vanished as soon as she saw the little filly. As she watched Scootaloo strain to reach her feathers at the base of her wings, she couldn’t help but crack a smile. She also noticed that Scootaloo had placed the picture of her father on her nightstand, right next to her bed. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew that the doubts she had downstairs were still valid, and that they didn’t actually go away just because Scootaloo looked adorable, but regardless of that inconvenient fact, she couldn’t deny that she felt better than she did thirty seconds ago.
Luna’s warning about needing to talk to Scootaloo echoed in her head, but she pushed it down. Scootaloo seemed relatively calm and happy, a rare occurrence considering the past few days; Rainbow wasn’t going to risk that fragile happiness just so she would have a chance at better dreams. From her spot in the door frame, she contently watched the little filly preen for a few more minutes, until Scootaloo looked like she was done.
“You about finished, squirt?” Rainbow asked, reluctantly breaking the blissful tranquility.
Scootaloo turned around quickly, momentarily startled by the intrusion, and nodded, scrambling into bed. A moment later she was flat on her back, her head resting comfortably on a pillow, barely poking out from under the covers.
“Story time?” Scootaloo asked.
“Story time,” Rainbow replied. “So, what do you want to hear? Sheppard? Daring Do? How ‘bout the time I fought off a whole army of changelings all by myself?”
“Daring Do,” the filly answered, eagerly awaiting what had become her favorite part of bedtime.
“Okay then, Daring Do it is,” Rainbow said, as she began the tale of Daring Do and the Griffon’s Goblet. She had read the book enough times that she had the story pretty much memorized. She noticed Scootaloo start to nod off around the time that Daring Do was searching the jungle for the entrance to the hidden temple, and took that as her cue to end the story for the time being.
Rainbow gently kissed the little filly goodnight, and went off to do her own pre-bedtime routine. After a quick shower and preening, she settled into her own bed. Rainbow couldn’t help but notice that it felt emptier without the little filly snuggled up next to her. Both ponies slept soundly, their exhaustion outweighing their concerns.
The next morning’s breakfast was quiet. Scootaloo was clearly nervous about seeing her mom again, and Rainbow wasn’t certain how best to reassure her, so she decided to let the little filly sort through her emotions on her own.
“Do I have to do this?” Scootaloo asked as they were getting ready to leave.
Instead of responding with an automatic “Yes” the way most adults would, Rainbow surprised Scootaloo by actually considering the question. “No,” she said, after a short deliberation. “I can’t make you do this. If you don’t want to go, then I’ll tell your mom you don’t feel like seeing her, and we can try again whenever you think you’re ready. But I think you should go today. You’re not going to feel better until you do, and if you don’t want to do it for you, maybe you could do it as a favor to me?”
“Why do you care?” A worried look flashed across Scootaloo’s face. “Do you want me to go live with her?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Scoots, I want you to do whatever makes you happy, and I’m going to keep telling you that until you believe it.” Rainbow’s voice dropped a little bit. “I care because I didn’t talk to my parents much when I was young, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake.”
“If anypony else was asking me to do this-”
“Well, they’re not. I am.”
Scootaloo sighed. “Okay, but only because you asked.”
“Thanks, Scoots. Now c’mon; we should really get going.”
Scootaloo climbed on Rainbow’s back and held on just a little tighter than usual during the flight to her mother’s house.
Misty opened the door and greeted the pair with a warm, if nervous, smile. Scootaloo stared at the ground and slowly trudged into the place she once called home.
“I’ll just wait out here,” Rainbow said, figuring it best to stay out of the way.
Rainbow waited outside Scootaloo’s house for what felt like an eternity. She was nervous, but she couldn’t quite figure out why. If Scootaloo wanted to stay with her mom, then that would be a good thing, right? Her mom had experience raising a filly. It’s true that she had made a huge mistake, but one mistake shouldn’t ruin a pony’s life. Kids belonged with their parents, didn’t they? It wasn’t like she’d never see Scootaloo again; things would just go back to the way they were before, and that would be fine.
But what if fine wasn’t good enough? For, as difficult and heart wrenching as the past few days had been, Rainbow couldn’t deny that they had been rewarding. For her entire adult life, Rainbow had lived pretty much alone and done things for herself. Everything about that life was designed to get what she wanted. She had taken a job on the weather patrol because it left her plenty of free time to sleep and train for the Wonderbolts. She had moved to Ponyville because Fluttershy lived there, and also because it was conducive to avoiding her past in Cloudsdale. She did pick up a pet tortoise a while back, but other than giving him some cabbage twice a day and taking him to pet play dates in the park on Wednesday, he wasn’t much of an imposition. In fact, that was one of the things she liked about Tank, that he could pretty much take care of himself, and did most of the time.
So, in theory, the idea that maybe she’d have to change her life to make decisions with somepony else in mind should have terrified her. And it did, but she found that the thought of Scootaloo snuggled up with her kept that fear at bay.
While she was wrestling with her emotions, she remembered something Pinkie once told her. If you’re ever unsure of something, flip a coin. Heads is one thing, tails is the other. Then, when the coin lands you’ll know how you feel because you’ll either be excited or disappointed. Rainbow Dash didn’t really believe that. Life was too messy to be reduced to a simple game of chance, and a feeling based on the results of a coin toss, but she did have a bit on her, and it wasn’t like there was anything else to do.
She took a bit out of her saddlebag and held it between her teeth. Heads? I let Scoots stay with me. Tails? I tell her she has to stay here. She flipped the bit into the air, watching as it oscillated. She was about to catch it as it came down, when the door opened revealing a clearly emotionally wrought Scootaloo and Misty. The coin fell into the dirt with a soft thud as Rainbow just stared at the two ponies.
“Well?” Rainbow asked, mentally kicking herself that she couldn’t come up with something more eloquent to say.
“Why don’t you run upstairs and see if there’s anything you want to take with you? I’m going to talk to Rainbow,” Misty said to Scootaloo in a soft tone. Scootaloo wordlessly nodded and went upstairs.
“Does that mean…?” Rainbow asked once she was alone with Misty. Misty nodded, her eyes watering.
“I’m sorry,” Rainbow said.
Misty shook her head. “No, you have nothing to be sorry about. My daughter is going somewhere where she feels safe and loved; as a parent, that is all I can ask for. I have some work to do before Scootaloo will trust me again, but that’s on me. You were there for Scootaloo when I wasn’t, and now you’re offering to give her a home for as long as she needs one. For that, I owe you a debt I cannot possibly repay.”
Rainbow was unsure of what to say. “I promise I’ll take care good care of her,” was the response she finally settled on.
“I know you will,” came Misty’s soft reply.
The two ponies stood there awkwardly for a few minutes while they waited for Scootaloo to return. Words were inadequate; what did you say in a situation like this? Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Scootaloo to return, her small saddle bags fuller than when she left. Staring at the ground the whole way, Scootaloo walked out the door and stood next to Rainbow Dash.
“Well, I guess this is it,” Misty said with a forced sense of cheerfulness.
Scootaloo mumbled something incoherent and jumped up on Rainbow’s back. “Can we go?” she whispered in Rainbow’s ear. Rainbow nodded and flapped her wings in preparation for takeoff. She gave a small nod to Misty and promptly took to the skies, refusing to look behind her; the image of Misty watching her daughter fly away was not one she wanted on her conscience.
The two ponies soon arrived back at Rainbow’s cloud house. Scootaloo hadn’t said anything on the flight home; as Rainbow let her climb down, it was easy to see that the little filly was distressed.
“I’m guessing that wasn’t easy for you. How ya holding up, squirt?” Rainbow asked as Scootaloo set down her saddle bags.
Scootaloo’s words came pouring out of her like a damn that had just broken. “I…I don’t know. Mom said she was sorry, and I wanted to forgive her, but every time I looked at her I just got so angry, and everything in that house reminded me of him, and now I’m here, and I feel like I should be happy, but I’m not, and I know this isn’t fair to you, because you shouldn’t have to take care of me, but I don’t have anywhere else to go.” She paused for a moment before staring intently at the ground, “I’m a terrible filly... none of this would be happening if I could just forgive her.”
Rainbow felt the familiar tightness returning to her chest. She sat down next to the orange filly and looked her square in the eyes. “Scoots, you’re not a terrible filly. You’re a wonderful filly who had a terrible thing happen to her. I don’t want you to worry for one second about this being unfair to me. I meant it when I said that I loved you, and that means that if my little sister needs a place to stay, I’d rather it be here than anywhere else. I don’t know how all this is going to work, but nothing is more important to me than you. I mean that, I really do.”
“But you shouldn’t have to take care of me. That’s not your job.”
“Would you rather go live in your clubhouse?” Rainbow said trying to lighten the mood a little.
“That’s not funny,” Scootaloo mumbled.
“I think it’s a little funny,” Rainbow smirked. The smirk quickly disappeared only to be replaced with a more serious expression. “How about you let me worry about what my job is? Right now, I say that my job is to take care of my little sister, because that’s what sisters do.”
Scootaloo looked up at the cyan pegasus, “You really are the best big sister ever.”
Rainbow nuzzled her little sister affectionately. “Most ponies don’t get to choose their families; you’re pretty much stuck with the one you get. I got lucky, with the coolest little filly I know choosing me to be her big sister.”
Scootaloo smiled and happily hugged her big sister, a feeling of serenity washing over her for the first time in months. “I got lucky when she said yes.”