Vinyl knew something was amiss as soon as she woke up. Where Octavia was able to rise with the sun--or, when the day was overcast, the very gentle chiming of the small golden alarm clock on her bedside table--her ivory marefriend was a much heavier sleeper. Normally the unicorn was roused by the sudden thunderous cacophony of her favorite dance track booming out of the powerful stereo she used as an alarm. She had even learned to time the music so she could tell how much longer she could lounge in bed before she actually had to be up and about. Today, though, was different. Instead of waking up to the throbbing strains of electronic music that she had become accustomed to, Vinyl awoke to silence. Well, relative silence, anyway. The street outside their apartment was bustling and alive with ponies going about their day, conversing, shouting, laughing. Carts rattled as they were pulled down the dirt roads, fillies shrieked and laughed as they played in the--
Fillies.
Vinyl sat bolt upright in bed, her heart suddenly pounding. Scootaloo! What time was it? She looked over at the sound system's display to check the clock and discovered why she had overslept. The display was blank, the magic that normally kept it illuminated apparently exhausting sometime during the night. The unicorn groaned as she realized she hadn't recharged the stereo's magic reservoir last night like she had planned to. Powerful systems like this one normally required diligent and frequent recharges to continue to function autonomously; larger ones like the systems she typically DJ'ed with couldn't function on their own, and required a constant flow of magic to play, normally supplied by the jockey behind the turntable. Vinyl had known the stereo's reserves were failing, but had put off recharging them because it took a fair amount of magic, and she had had several gigs to perform in quick succession. She hadn't wanted to exhaust herself by pouring a ton of magic into her home system and risk petering out in the middle of a set. Now, though, that decision seemed foolish, as she had--as she often did--forgotten about it completely, and now, she realized as she glanced across the bed to check Octavia's mechanical clock, she had overslept her alarm by almost three hours.
Frantic, the unicorn leapt out of bed, bolting down the hallway towards the front door. Her horn flared suddenly as she yanked it open in front of her, then back closed once she was out in the street. Her original plan had been to wake up with two hours to spare, have some breakfast (or brunch, as it would be), and take a leisurely walk to the schoolhouse, arriving just in time to meet Scootaloo and bring her home. Now, she fretted, she'd be lucky to show up before Scootaloo was the only filly left at the schoolhouse, or worse, decided she'd been abandoned and went back to the clubhouse. The ivory unicorn galloped down the street, all the way across town, and finally, some minutes later, she sprinted up the path to the bright red schoolhouse. Vinyl's heart sank as she realized the yard was completely empty, class having ended almost an hour earlier. All the fillies and colts had already left, including, apparently, Scootaloo. Vinyl sighed heavily, her bed-tossed mane falling across her eyes as her head sank to the ground, tears of anger threatening to fill her eyes. One thing, she thought to herself, you had one job today. Wake up on time, pick Scootaloo up, bring her home. You couldn't even pull that off. Guilt ached in her throat as she shook her head, struggling not to cry as she imagined what Octavia would say if she found out what Vinyl had done.
"Vinyl?" The ivory unicorn's head suddenly darted upwards as a familiar voice called out to her from above. Glancing into the sky over her head, the DJ was pleased and only a little surprised to see the brilliant rainbow-hued mane and cyan coat of one of her oldest--and best--Ponyvillian friends.
"Dash?" she asked, struggling to crane her neck into a more comfortable position to examine the constantly moving pegasus.
The cyan mare grinned broadly and swooped down to land lightly in front of her. "THE one and only," she quipped with her characteristic arrogance. She held out a hoof to the blue-maned unicorn. "Haven't seen you in a while, filly."
Vinyl smiled as she bumped hooves with the pegasus. "Took the words right out of my mouth, Dash. What've you been up to?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Same ol', same ol'. You know how it is. One day you're kickin' lightning out of clouds for fun on Nightmare Night, then the next thing you know, they've made you head of the weather team and you find yourself sitting in a presentation on cumulonimbus composition theory and you can't remember how it happened."
Vinyl laughed. "Sounds...interesting?"
The pegasus rolled her eyes. "It isn't. Well, not to anyone else, anyway. I have to at least look interested, though, you know, for my crews. Don't want them thinking they can slack just because I do. But enough about me, filly, what've you been up to? I keep hearing ponies toss your name around; sounds like you've gotten pretty popular around town."
The unicorn shrugged, mimicking Rainbow's gesture almost perfectly. "I do what I do, you know. I can't help if I'm the only one who does it quite as...perfectly." She grinned as Rainbow rolled her eyes, groaning.
"Oh, puh-lease. You're starting to sound like me."
Vinyl smirked, poking the pegasus in the chest. "Hey, at least I only sound like you. I'll worry when I start to look like you, too."
"Worry? Please. You'll get down on your knees and thank Celestia if you ever wake up with my--" she kissed her hoof and ran it through her mane theatrically--"dashing good looks." She held a glamor pose for a few moments before both mares burst out laughing.
"Seriously, though," Rainbow said when they had recovered their senses somewhat, "what're you doin' on this side of town? I thought you and Octavia lived up in the North Quarter."
"We do," Vinyl nodded, "but...well..." Vinyl tried to decide where to start. "It's a long story, I guess. I'm not sure I've got time to tell it all..."
"Scootaloo?" Dash asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"I--yeah, how did you know?" the unicorn asked, incredulous.
The pegasus gestured with a wing back towards town. "Because she's up in my cloud home right now...probably still sniffing, if I had to guess," she added frostily.
Vinyl winced. "Sniffing?"
Rainbow nodded. "And that's only if she hasn't actually broken down and started crying yet."
"Aw, buck..." the unicorn said, sighing heavily and dropping her head in shame. "I was afraid of that." She looked back up at Rainbow from beneath her electric blue bangs, guilt preventing her from actually making eye contact with the other mare. "I really did mean to be here on time, you know."
"I don't know, but I'll buy it."
"Seriously, Dash," Vinyl said, raising her head slightly, a glint of desperation flashing across the tears collecting in her eyes again. "I set my alarm for one o'clock, I was gonna get up, get ready, and be here like twenty minutes before school ended, just so I could be here when they got out, but my stereo...you know how those things go through magic, right?" She locked eyes with Rainbow, searching the cyan mare's face for any signs of understanding. "I mean, you remember how I always had to recharge yours when I came to visit, right?"
Dash nodded, her face still largely inscrutable. "Sure. I also remember they had a little light on them that went on when they needed charging. Or does yours not have one?" she asked sarcastically, knowing the answer.
Vinyl closed her eyes, another wave of disappointed anger in herself rising in the back of her throat. "Yeah," she sighed, "yeah, it does. And it was on last night." She looked at the ground between Dash's hooves. "But I was so tired, what with that week-long schedule of sets, and then bringing Scootaloo home and taking care of her, talking to Tavi about what we were going to do with her, and worrying about the future...I just didn't have the energy, Dash. I thought...I hoped, I guess, that it would last just one more night." She settled back on her flanks, unable to stop a guilty, angry tear from sliding down her cheek. "I should've given it a little boost, just to make sure, but..." She looked up at Rainbow, another tear escaping her eyelids and creeping down her face. "I'm sorry, Dash, I really am. She must be so mad at me..."
Several moments of tense silence passed between the pair before the blue pegasus sighed and sat down as well. "She's not mad, Vy. Not really. She wants to be, I think, but mostly she's just hurt."
"I bet," the unicorn said miserably. "How long was she waiting for me?"
"About an hour," Rainbow deadpanned. "At least, I assume she was waiting an hour. I didn't even notice anything was up until I came by around half past three and she was sitting here all by herself. Even then, I only noticed because usually she and her friends are totally inseparable. I flew down to see what was up, and she told me she was waiting for someone. Apparently she'd told her friends to go on home and leave her be because someone was coming to get her. I asked her if she wanted me to sit and wait with her, and--being Scootaloo--she just shrugged and said I could if I wanted. So I did." She paused long enough to heave a sigh. "I know a lot of ponies don't really give me much credit for being too emotional or anything like that, but Scoot's been my biggest fan for as long as I can remember, so I try to keep an eye on her if I can, you know? I could tell she was upset, but she wasn't talking, and she was working pretty hard to hide it. Anyway, after it was pretty obvious no one was coming--" Vinyl winced visibly "--I asked her if she wanted to come wait in my house for a while. That seemed to cheer her up a lot; I don't have too many visitors, and she's never been one of them. The second we got there, though, she started worrying that you had come after all, and that you'd be worried when you couldn't find her. I told her I'd come do a flyover and make sure, but I gotta say I didn't actually expect to see you." Rainbow's face darkened severely as she finished talking. "You blew this one, Vy. You know she's got issues already; this isn't exactly helping."
"I know, I know," Vinyl groaned, laying out in the dirt and covering her face with her hooves. "If there was any way I could--wait, how do you know she has issues?" she interrupted herself, blinking out from under her wild mane. "What do you know about her?"
Rainbow shrugged. "I told you she's my biggest fan, right? I've indulged her a couple times, hung out with her and her friends, gone to a couple plays or whatever. She and I talk sometimes, and she's told me a lot of stuff I don't think she's ever told anyone else."
Vinyl's eyes lit up. "Really? Like what?"
"Like none of your business," Rainbow said. It wasn't malicious or snide, but very calm and matter-of-fact. "If she wants to tell you, she will, but until that happens, whatever she tells me stays between the two of us."
Vinyl nodded, sheepish. "Yeah, I...that makes sense. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. It's just...well, you know she's an orphan, right?"
Rainbow nodded. "I know she hates that word."
"What, 'orphan'?"
"Yeah. She says it makes it sound like she was abandoned, which she insists isn't the case. She's a runaway, not an orphan."
"Either way, you know she's homeless, right?"
The blue pegasus sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I do. I don't think too many ponies do, though. Her friends probably know, since the three of them talk about everything, and I bet the Apples know, since she's living on their property and all."
"Well," Vinyl said, "Tavi and I were thinking about trying to...change that."
"How so?"
"We're thinking about trying to adopt her."
"Really?" Rainbow's face suddenly broke into a grin. "That's awesome! But wait...how did you even find out she's a runaway? It's not like she goes around telling everypony."
"It was pretty obvious when I found her digging in the trash behind the club last night," Vinyl intoned. "We had a chat, I managed to convince her to come home with me, and here we are. Tavi isn't exactly sold on the idea yet, but I think she'll come around. We can't just let her live in the clubhouse forever."
Dash sighed. "No, you're right. And to tell you the truth, I've kind of thought about adopting Scootaloo myself a few times, but I couldn't, because she'd have to live with me in my cloud home, and, well..." The pegasus glanced around conspiratorially and lowered her voice. "She can't fly."
"I know." Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise, and Vinyl continued. "She mentioned it in passing. She didn't exactly say why or how, but she did say that was one of the worst things about living at the orphanage. She knew she'd never get adopted because, and I quote, 'No one wants a pegasus who can't fly.'" Vinyl sighed. "Which I think is ridiculous, because Scootaloo's the sweetest, most polite, most adorable little filly I've ever met. I can't believe nopony would want to adopt her if they just spent ten minutes getting to know her."
"That's just it," Rainbow said, her voice darkening slightly. "Nopony would bother talking to them if they could help it. It's all about picking the best, the smartest, the most athletic. All the while, the most wonderful young fillies get left out in the cold, just wishing somepony would give them a chance."
Vinyl nodded, her face grim. "Well, we're not going to make that mistake. I don't care what it takes, we're going to make Scootaloo our daughter." The hardened expression suddenly faded to a more sheepish one. "That is...if she still wants us to."
Rainbow smirked. "Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem. You'd be surprised at how much she gushed about you before I took her back to my place."
Vinyl groaned. "Don't tell me that! It just makes it worse."
"Good," Dash said sternly. "You should feel bad. It means you really care about her, and even if she's mad now, if you come in telling her how guilty you feel, I think she'll appreciate it. I'll even put in the good word for you."
Vinyl smiled faintly. "Thanks, Dash."
Rainbow grinned and poked the unicorn with a hoof. "Hey, what are friends for, huh?"
Carrying another pony up into a cloud home might have been a challenge for any other pegasus, but Rainbow Dash had spent the better part of her life training incessantly for her eventual tryouts for the Wonderbolt aerial acrobatic team, and her flying muscles were exceptionally more powerful than average, at times topping out at an incredible 20 wingpower, easily twice the best performance of any normal pegasus. This made it all but trivial for her to tote Vinyl up into the clouds where the unicorn discovered she had forgotten to cast a cloudwalking spell before Rainbow put her down, leading to a heartstopping five seconds of freefall before Rainbow caught her and brought her back up, howling with laughter the whole way.
Vinyl blushed fiercely as she cast the spell she had learned several years ago when Rainbow had first invited her to spend the night in her cloud palace. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, featherbrain," she muttered.
"Thanks, I will," Rainbow giggled. "I've never heard anypony make a sound like that before! 'Just like old tiEEEEEEE!'" Rainbow mimicked the last words Vinyl had said before beginning her descent, then threw herself to the cloud floor and continued cackling.
Vinyl rolled her eyes and went up to the front door of the cloud castle. "I see your ego hasn't faded any. Was that always there?" she asked, gesturing to the glinting mockup of the pegasus' cutie mark situated over the entrance.
Rainbow recovered enough to look up at the image. "Oh, nah. I just put it up a while ago. I change stuff from time to time, you know, spice things up a bit."
Vinyl looked around at the rest of the cloud home. "Yeah, I can see that."
"I'll give you the grand tour sometime. You know, when we're not trying to get you back on Scootaloo's good side." Vinyl grimaced as Rainbow trotted past her and threw the front door open. "Hey, Scoot, I'm home!" she shouted into the foyer, her voice oddly muted by the thick clouds that passed for walls.
Vinyl's heart jumped as she heard the familiar voice of the little orange pegasus calling back. "Hey, Dash!" The voice got louder as Scootaloo came out to the front from somewhere deep in the house. "I was just thinking, do you think it would be okay if I spent the night--" She stopped suddenly as she rounded a corner and saw that Dash was not alone in the entryway. Her face flashed through shock, then joy, and then settled into a hard, angry sulk as she realized who the other pony was. "Oh," she deadpanned, her normally exuberant voice thick with disdain, "it's you." Vinyl forced a smile she hoped was more disarming than it felt. Scootaloo was unmoved. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to pick you up, of course," the unicorn responded, her nervous grin widening. The filly didn't respond.
Several seconds of awkward silence passed through the misty foyer before Rainbow Dash forced a cough, breaking the standoff. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I think you guys have some catching up to do, and I've got some...stuff to, uh, work on. In my room. I'll just get out of your hair." She floated down next to Scootaloo and hesitated momentarily, muttering something inaudible into the filly's ear. Vinyl tried to read the expression on the little orange pegasus' face. It was fairly easy.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and then narrowed them at Vinyl, looking daggers at her. "Do I have to?" she whined, glancing over at Rainbow Dash.
The cyan mare smiled wanly and ruffled the littler female's mane. "Yeah, kid. Just trust me, alright? Have I ever steered you wrong before?"
"Well, you did try to help me earn my cutie mark in quarray eel wrangling."
"Okay, but--"
"And there was that time you tried to teach me how to fly by dropping me out over the lake and telling me to glide."
"In my defense--"
"And then there was that trick you tried to show me on my scooter, which it turned out you need wings to do."
"Right, but I couldn't--"
"And that one time--"
"Okay, okay!" Rainbow cut her off, flailing her forelegs. "But when have I ever steered you wrong when it really mattered?" Scootaloo opened her mouth again, but Rainbow put a hoof to her muzzle. "Never mind. Just...trust me on this one, okay?"
Scootaloo sighed. "Alright, Dash." The older pegasus mussed her mane one more time before swooping up, around, and out of the room, deeper into the house.
The two remaining ponies stood in the foyer for several more seconds of silence before Vinyl cleared her throat to break the ice. "So...I see you and Dash are pretty good friends."
Scootaloo shrugged. "Not really."
The unicorn raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean? You seemed pretty friendly just a second ago."
"She's just helping me out. She's pretty cool that way. I don't think she wants to be my 'friend,' though."
"Why wouldn't she?"
Scootaloo scowled, her frosty demeanor hardening. "Why are you here?"
Vinyl reflexively grimaced at the jab, but struggled to pull a smile back to her face. "I'm here to pick you up, of course. Tavi said I would, right?"
"She said you'd meet me at the schoolhouse," Scootaloo said. "You didn't."
"I know, and I'm really--"
"If you don't want me around, you can just say so," Scootaloo spat, her anger not quite masking the faint moistness in her eyes.
Vinyl's heart sank at the accusation. "That's not it at all. I just--"
"I'm used to it, you know, being unwanted." Scootaloo's voice trembled as she struggled to maintain her composure. "It's not like this is the first time somepony's tried to get rid of me."
"I'm not trying--"
"Rarity doesn't like it when I stay at the boutique because she thinks I'm going to mess it up, and Applejack doesn't want me to stay in the orchard when they're not around, because they think I'm going to steal something." Her voice got slightly louder and more tremulous as she spoke.
"You know that's not--"
"And even Rainbow Dash didn't want to bring me here today. She doesn't think I know, but I can tell when somepony doesn't want me around." Her facade cracked, taking her voice with it and bringing tears streaming down her cheeks. "She didn't even want to sit next to me in the schoolyard until she saw I was crying, you know." The little filly swiped furiously at the tears on her face. "I wish I hadn't. I wish she'd just stayed away. I hate it when somepony feels sad for me and thinks they have to take care of me. I don't want you to pretend, alright?" she nearly shouted, her voice still oddly muffled by the heavy atmosphere of the cloud home.
"I'm not pretending, Scootaloo, I really am sorry."
"I believe you," the filly said, her voice suddenly soft. "I know you didn't want to make me feel bad. Nopony ever does. But you don't have to take care of me because you feel like you have to, alright?"
"That's not why--"
"Stop lying to me!" she shouted, her voice cracking fiercely and sending the last word into a pained shriek. "I'm not a baby, I don't need you to hold my hoof! Just leave me alone!" With this, the filly turned and ran back around the corner, deeper into the house. Vinyl sat, dumbfounded, as she heard the sound of a door opening and then slamming, followed by the unmistakeable and heart-wrenching sounds of Scootaloo openly sobbing.
As if summoned by the sound, Rainbow Dash suddenly reappeared from somewhere upstairs. "Wow," she muttered awkwardly. "What did you say?" Vinyl gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut to resist the frustrated and desperate tears welling up in them. Upon seeing her pained expression, Rainbow backtracked. "Sorry, I was kidding. That was kinda mean."
"No," Vinyl said, shaking her head. "You were right. This is all my fault. I can't believe it...the easiest thing in the world, just wake up and be somewhere on time. I couldn't even do that right." She hung her head in shame, a lump painfully rising in the back of her throat.
"Aw, come on," Rainbow said, floating down to put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "It's just one time, right? She'll get over it, you know. She's a filly; they overreact sometimes."
"No, Rainbow!" Vinyl suddenly snapped at the pegasus. "It's not just one time, it's just one MORE time! It's the most important time! The only time it really mattered, the one chance I had to prove to Scootaloo and Octavia that I can handle something this important, and I screwed it up!" The tears were flowing now, running down her cheeks in hot streaks of shame, leaving cold trails of guilt and frustration in their wake. "I kind of thought this one time, I'd be able to take something seriously, you know? Maybe prove to my marefriend that she can trust me with important stuff, maybe show her I'm responsible enough to marry, but I can't!" A sob interrupted her tirade and she covered her muzzle with her hooves, hoping to stem to tide.
Rainbow Dash was on the floor next to her now, wrapping her forelegs and her wings around the distraught unicorn. "Hey, shh...Vy, calm down, alright? It's not as bad as all that. Look, I know you...you're just like me, you know. We're both kind of flakey sometimes, but when it really counts, we know how to get things done, right?"
"No, Dash," Vinyl said, pushing out of Rainbow's grip and walking back towards the front door. "Not this time. I really screwed up. Just...take care of Scoot for a while, could you?"
"What, like...let her stay here? Why? Where are you going?"
"Home. I have to do some thinking."
"Vy--" Rainbow called after her, but the unicorn had already left, slamming the door angrily behind herself.