It was the weekend and Rainbow Dash and Soarin' sat outside together at their favorite spot. The spot where she often came to where her life changed dramatically. She also came here whenever she wanted to get her deepest thoughts and concerns across to Soarin'.
Soarin' looked at his mate with a bit of concern as she stared at her reflection in the lake. "You wanted to tell me something?"
Rainbow Dash snapped out of her trance, yet kept her eyes focused on the little ripples in the water. "Yes," she said. "Remember how I told you that I was preparing for having our first foal sometime soon?"
"Yes. Did you bring me here to tell me that you're ready?"
Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip. "Not exactly. Remember how ecstatic Scootaloo was when we brought her over and how well she bonded with the two of us? Remember how devastated she was when I had to take her back?"
"I do," Soarin' answered.
"Well, there's this horrible nagging feeling going on in the back of my mind." Rainbow Dash straightened her posture and continued. "Scootaloo seemed traumatized when I had to leave her at the orphanage. I told her that I'd do something super special for her and told her to pray for something that she really wished would come true."
"What do you think you'll do for her?" Soarin' asked.
Rainbow Dash stopped staring at the lake and looked straight into Soarin's eyes. "I think we should adopt her. How do you feel about that?"
Soarin' looked surprised and blinked several times as he thought about it. "You want to adopt her?"
Rainbow Dash's eyes began to scan his whole body, nervously. She was afraid that he might say no to this idea. "Well, yes. You should have heard all the nice things she said about you when I took her home. She really likes you, I mean, really likes you a lot! The orphanage she stays at isn't awful, but it's not exactly the nicest place to live either. What do you think?"
"I'm up for it," Soarin' said and then smiled. "How could I say no to such a good little filly like her?"
"Yes!" Rainbow Dash closed her eyes in utter contentment and hugged her husband. "Thank you so much! This is going to be so exciting starting our new life together with Scoots and I know she wants us to be her parents so badly. I think it's the right thing to do considering that we as Christians should reach out and adopt." Rainbow Dash let go of Soarin' and giggled. "We should make this a super secret surprise for her and..."
"Like the surprise I worked on for you?" Soarin' asked with a wink.
"Hey, hey, I said I was sorry for how I mistrusted you and yes, that was the best surprise you've ever done." Rainbow Dash admitted.
"This stallion hopes to give you more surprises because you're worth it."
"Aw, hey," Dash said. "No need to make me any more mushier than you've already made me. Although I'm pretty sure just about every pony knows that you somehow found the romantic side of me."
"But are we still planning for our own foals, or is that not going to happen now?" Soarin' asked. "Either way, I just want to make you happy."
"I don't know anymore. Maybe. I can't help but realize that there are more ponies out there like Scoots who need loving parents and a good home. It's not good that they don't have a family," Rainbow said. "This just seems like a greater priority and we can see what kind of parents we make with Scoots. I'm really, really, excited about this idea. Aren't you?"
"I still don't know much about her, but isn't she the one who attends school with the other earth ponies and unicorns?"
"Yes, that's her," Rainbow Dash answered.
"Isn't she a bit young to be in school on the ground? I mean, she looks as if she should still be in flight school."
"That's another thing," Rainbow said. "There's a really good chance that she'll never fly since she was born with a disability."
"Aw, that really sucks," Soarin' replied. "She's such a nice little filly too. Things like that just make me want to adopt her even more. I guess we're going to have to make sure that one of us will be always available to fly her up to our house."
Rainbow Dash looked back towards home and then back to Soarin'. "Do you want to go now and see if we can start filling out the paper work? I think they know me quite well by now over at the orphanage. They tell me that Scootaloo talks about me practically all day there."
"Sure! I hope that this will work out for the little one."
"Oh, it will. You have no idea just how much Scootaloo would want this to come true." Rainbow Dash got up and was filled with so much excitement that the pain in her body didn't seem to exist at the moment. "Want to race to the orphanage? It's not that far from here."
"A race? If you're up for it. I'm really happy to see you get some of your zest back. Go on, I'll give you a head start and I'll follow."
Rainbow Dash smirked and then took off with a leap.
Soarin' followed behind her. He was quite impressed with her speed. For somepony who suffered with a lot of pain and had been resting nearly every single day, she was still extremely fast. It made his heart glad to see her like this because this is what she truly loved in life, to be fast, adventurous and extreme. He caught up with her mid flight and raced by her side. He took a look over at her face for a moment. There he saw her game face, her serious and competitive face. The face that said, I want to win and I'll do whatever it takes. Soarin' decided that he'd let her win the race, but passed her for a brief moment just so that it wouldn't be obvious that he was throwing the race.
As they neared the orphanage, he slowed up a little bit, allowing Dash to touch the ground first.
Rainbow Dash stood there hunched over gasping for air.
Soarin' landed and stood beside her. "Are you alright, Dash?" he asked with concern.
Rainbow Dash waved her hoof at him as if to signal that she was going to be okay. She continued to gasp for air as her lungs intensely burned. A few seconds later she was able to catch her breath a little better. "Wow," she said, still gasping for air. "I can't believe that I beat you! I still have it in me, Soarin'! I still have it in me!"
Soarin' smiled and rubbed his hoof through her mane. "You sure do, Dash. There's no way that I could ever steal your thunder! As they say, you can't keep a good mare down."
"I'm a sweaty mess," Rainbow Dash said when she noticed the little pools of sweat on the ground that dripped off her body. "I don't have a towel either. Would you mind helping me out? I don't think they'd appreciate it if I came in there sopping wet."
Soarin' hovered mid air and flapped his wings as hard as he could.
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes as the breeze blew through her mane. Getting fanned off was quite enjoyable after pushing herself like that.
Soarin' came back down to the ground and stretched his wings out. "All better?"
Rainbow Dash took her front leg and wiped her brow. "Yeah, thank you very much for that. I remember my signature move to get other ponies dry called the rainblow dryer, although I think I've messed up their manes and tails with it more times than I can remember. That was one trick Rarity never allowed me to try on her." Rainbow Dash took a step towards the door and then stopped when she realized her pain flare up. "Hey Soarin', I think I regret everything I have just done with this race. Oh boy, am I going to get punished for this tomorrow. I didn't realize how much this would hurt."
"I'm sorry, Dash. Tell you what, I'll make it up to you at home with a nice massage in the bath."
Even though Rainbow Dash felt a flood of aches and pains throughout her body, she still managed to smile at him. "I think I'll gladly take that offer, thanks."
The two ponies entered the door and were instantly greeted by one of the workers who Rainbow Dash hadn't seen before. She was a white mare with a simple home as a picture for her cutie mark. "Welcome to Ponyville's orphanage! How may I..." the mare paused for a moment. "Say, you look really familiar for some reason. You're....Rainbow Dash?"
"Hey! Yeah, how did you know?" Rainbow asked.
"There's this little orange filly I take care of and check on quite often named Scootaloo. That pony can literally talk non-stop about you. She has posters and pictures of you in her room. Whenever I talk with her, it seems our conversations always ends up about you and she always shares her pictures of you with me."
Rainbow Dash giggled. "Yeah, that sounds like her alright."
"Have you come to visit her today? She's been acting very depressed lately and doesn't want to leave her room to bond with the other fillies and colts."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Is she still here?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes. In fact, she's in her room right now. Shall I go get her? I'm sure that she'd be thrilled to have a special visitor like yourself."
Rainbow Dash put her hoof up. "No, please. We didn't come to specifically visit her today."
"Oh, I'm sorry. What may I help you with then?"
"We want this to be a really big surprise for her. We want to adopt her and not let her know about it if that's possible. Do you think we can manage this?"
The mare perked up instantly with a big smile. "That can most definitely be arranged and I think that would be a wonderful surprise!"
"That's great," Rainbow said. "Although I don't think neither I nor my husband Soarin' have the slightest clue about the process of going through with an adoption. I'm sure that you just don't allow anypony to come in here, sign a document and walk out with a filly or colt, right?"
The mare laughed. "Honestly, yes, it will take some time, but it's not that bad. We do have to carry out background checks and everything, but I'm sure it will all go by in a breeze. We also have many other fillies and colts who are just as needy for a home as Scootaloo. They all need love. Would you be interested in adopting any more?"
Rainbow Dash looked at Soarin' for a moment and then back to her. "You know, that might interest us later on, but we are newly wed and we would like to take things slowly and see how well we do with Scootalo first."
"Completely understandable. Let me get my supervisor and we'll get you both started!"
Rainbow Dash looked at Soarin' and said, "Wait until Twilight and my other friends hear about this. They are going to be so surprised!" Something in the back of her mind tried to make some kind of connection with Twilight that seemed very important but she could not figure it out. Rainbow Dash quickly forgot about matters when the supervisor stepped out to greet them.