To Scootaloo’s credit, she didn’t seize up or tremble at the words that only a few months prior would have sent her into a panicked tailspin. “It’s about me, isn’t it?” she said softly. Despite her inflection, it wasn’t really a question.
There was no point in lying, and no lie that would be believable anyway. “Yeah, kid, it is,” Rainbow replied with an apologetic grimace.
“Is it about why I can’t fly? Why can’t you talk to me about it?”
The anguish in Scootaloo’s voice pierced Rainbow like a gust of chill wind on a rainy day. Luckily, the small, rational part of her brain overruled the much larger and angrier part that demanded she immediately comfort Scootaloo by telling her everything and then promising that it would all be okay. Instead she went with, “I need you to trust me for a little while longer. Can you do that?”
Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash; she wasn’t big on trusting ponies, but if anypony had earned even a modicum of faith from her, it was the pegasus standing there. She nodded and wordlessly hugged Rainbow. There wasn’t much force behind it; both pegasi had already spent all their emotions tonight. Instead, it was a simple declaration of love and understanding. “Do I still get a bedtime story?”
“You always get a bedtime story, squirt,” Rainbow said, giving Scoots’ mane a quick tousle, the emotional strain of the evening slowly starting to ebb. Rainbow lowered her neck and Scootaloo quickly climbed aboard as the two went upstairs for their nightly ritual and to get some much needed rest.
Breakfast the next morning was quiet. When both ponies were ready to go, Scootaloo hopped on Rainbow’s back and buried herself deep in the prismatic mane, as though it could shield her.
They reached Scootaloo’s old home and she hopped down from her perch, still remaining silent.
Rainbow knocked hesitantly, and in short order Misty opened the door. “It’s good you’re here. I need to talk to you,” she said with an almost but not quite smile.
“Oh. I kinda need to talk to you, too,” was the only response Rainbow could come up with.
“Could you give us a minute please, Scootaloo?” Misty asked, turning to Scootaloo.
.
Scootaloo grumbled at (again) being sent out of the room during important conversations, but otherwise didn’t argue. The three ponies entered the house, with Rainbow and Misty going to the living room and Scootaloo trudging upstairs to her old room to see if she wanted to take any of the toys she left behind on her first visit.
“You should let me go first,” Misty said before Rainbow could start talking. Rainbow nodded her assent. “So, I’ve become a bit of an expert on Equestrian family law since we last spoke.” Misty paused, as though she wanted to consider one last time what she was about to offer. “Please, sit down,” she said gesturing to an oak table in the dining room. “I’ve talked to a lawyer; custody laws in Equestria are surprisingly flexible.”
Misty walked over to a desk on the far side of the living room and pulled out a folder, setting it down in front of Rainbow when she returned to the table. “These are my terms, and they are not negotiable. Scootaloo is my daughter; I am her mother, and that means I outrank you. If we disagree, I win, as simple as that.” Rainbow was about to protest, more as a reflex than as disagreement with the sentiment, but Misty continued before she could say anything. “You are not allowed to move away from Ponyville and take her with you. I live here, so she lives here.” Rainbow nodded. That seemed fair and she had no plans to move anyway. “I expect to be notified about important things that happen in her life. However, other than those three things, you’d be her guardian, with all the rights and responsibilities that I have.”
Rainbow balked in shock at the abrupt ending, expecting more qualifiers and conditions. A stray thought suddenly hit her and she needed an answer. “If I’m her guardian, and you’re her mother, does that make us…?
“You’re not my type,” Misty deadpanned before smiling. “We’re just two ponies who care about Scootaloo.”
Rainbow gingerly picked up the papers in front of her. “So, that’s it?” Rainbow asked, still surprised at how little Misty was asking of her given that she was offering to share the most precious thing she had. “I don’t need to have Twilight read this for me?”
“No, this is about what’s best for Scootaloo,” Misty said, in such a world weary way that Rainbow couldn’t help but be reminded how much more about motherhood, and life in general, Misty knew than she did.
“You really trust me this much?”
Misty shook her head. “I don’t, but Scootaloo does, and that’s what’s important.”
The reminder of how close Rainbow had grown with the filly upstairs made her tear up with joy ever so slightly. “I can get behind that. We should probably give her the good news,” she said, quickly drying her eyes.
Misty nodded. “We should. The forms need her signature as well. But wasn’t there something you wanted to talk to me about first?”
“Oh, yeah,” Rainbow said, her elation at the previous turn of events now brought back to reality. She took a deep breath and quickly explained to Misty what she knew about Scootaloo’s neurofibroma and the risky surgical option that seemed to be Scootaloo’s best hope of ever flying. She left out the part about last night, mainly because it seemed like a special moment that she and Scootaloo had shared and she didn’t want anyone else to know about it.
Misty listened carefully, her face betraying no emotion until Rainbow finished her explanation. When Rainbow stopped talking, Misty furrowed her brow and shut her eyes, opening them a moment later, her breathing labored. “I see. Have you told Scootaloo yet?”
“No. I was kinda hoping you would tell me what to do,” Rainbow admitted.
“We need to tell her; this has to be her decision.”
For the second time today, Rainbow was taken aback by Misty’s actions. “But she’ll say yes! You know she will.”
“I do,” Misty said sadly.
This was not going how Rainbow thought it would. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she expected Misty to protect her from having to face the consequences of a potentially life-ending surgery. No Scootaloo, you can’t have surgery! - Sorry squirt, I tried. Then she could continue being Scootaloo’s hero, secure in the knowledge that Scootaloo would remain safe. But where Misty seemed resigned to fate, Rainbow only grew angrier. “Then how can you say we need to tell her?!”
“The hardest lesson to learn as a parent is that you can’t protect your children from life. One of us needs to talk to her about this. You’re a pegasus, I think you might understand what she’s going through more than I do.”
“I do. But just because I’d say yes, doesn’t mean I want her to,” Rainbow said, still grasping at any straw that might allow her a way out.
“You can’t make that choice for her, but I suppose that’s up to you.”
With nothing left to say, Misty got up from the table and went upstairs, coming down a moment later.
Scootaloo came down the stairs shortly after, her hoofs tapping lightly on each step.
Misty gestured to a chair at the table and patted it gently. “Sit down, pumpkin,” she said, opting to use her pet nickname for her daughter that she saved for occasions where Scootaloo was scared or otherwise needed reassurance. “The last time you were here, you said you wanted to know that you could stay with Rainbow,” Misty paused and swallowed hard. “Well, if you sign those, then that’s what will happen,” she choked out.
Scootaloo stared at the papers in front of her. She knew that she wasn’t able to understand all the big words and funny-looking sentences, but she thought that maybe if she stared hard enough a different kind of understanding would dawn on her. “Why are you doing this?” she finally asked in a voice that sounded as small as she felt.
“I thought… isn’t this what you wanted?” her mother replied, her voice equally small.
“It is, but…” Scootaloo’s voice trailed off as she was unable to put into words her thoughts about the fear that her mother would abandon her and the possibility that the two might not love each other anymore and how a part of her wanted everything to be back to normal, although maybe with more Rainbow Dash. She looked around the room as though she was seeing it for the first time. She looked back over to her mother who was trying to fight back the nascent tears forming in her eyes. “I can’t do it. I can’t move back yet,” she said as her voice started to crack. “But, umm... maybe we could spend the day together. I got a new scooter and I’ve been practicing some tricks and… I mean if it’s okay with Rainbow.”
“Fine by me, squirt,” Rainbow said quickly.
Misty nodded, unable to speak thanks to the desert growing in her throat. She got up from her seat at the table, walked over to Scootaloo, and embraced her in a warm, comforting hug. Scootaloo froze for a second before she returned the hug, burying her face deep in her mother’s coat. The two stayed like that for a long minute, the hug growing more intimate and Rainbow growing increasingly uncomfortable at the idea that she was intruding on a very private moment.
Finally Misty broke the hug and when she looked up her face appeared lighter, as though the weight she had been carrying had lessened. Scootaloo seemed less burdened as well, though both sets of cheeks glistened with the remnants of tears. “Can we get ice-cream?” Scootaloo asked, wiping her eyes.
Both Rainbow and Misty burst out laughing, the tension and emotion in the room rendered null and void by the childish request.
Rainbow left Scootaloo to spend the day with her mother, and with nothing to do for a while aside from the paperwork she had to do now, she figured she may as well pay a visit to Twilight. They had left things in an odd place last night and Rainbow could use some reassurances that her friend wasn’t as angry with her as she was previously.
Seeing the open window to the library, Rainbow chose to forgo the door and opted for her usual entrance to the Golden Oaks Library. A powerful flap of her wings later and she glided through the window and landed in the middle of the library.
Twilight looked up from behind her desk, only instead of being mildly annoyed, as was her usual reaction to Rainbow’s choice of entrance, or happy to see her friend, she looked irate. “I’m not speaking to you, Rainbow Dash,” she said in lieu of a more traditional greeting.
“What’d I do? Is it because I flew in through the window again? Fine, I’ll use the door.”
“It’s not about the window, though yes, I do wish you’d use the door,” Twilight stopped herself before she got lost on her tangent. “You called me Princess!”
The day was still young but already Rainbow was getting tired of ponies surprising her. “Umm... Twi, you are a princess.”
“Yes, Rainbow I am well aware of that, thank you very much,” Twilight said with a previously unheard amount of sarcasm dripping from her voice. “Last night, I was trying to stop my friend from making a terrible decision, and you implied that you didn’t care what Twilight Sparkle thought; you only cared what Princess Twilight was saying, and that hurt.”
“Twi’, I call you worse things than Princess... hay, as far as I’m concerned, your name is practically egghead!” Rainbow said, not really sure if she was helping her case.
But Twilight wasn’t the least bit interested in Rainbow’s attempt to mitigate her insult; her voice grew louder and sharper. “How could you do that, Rainbow!? You know how much I hate it when ponies treat me differently because of who I am; fine, I get it, I’m a princess. But you, and Pinkie and Rarity and Applejack and Fluttershy aren’t supposed to treat me any differently. I try to help you and instead of listening to me you accuse me of treating you like you’re just another pony who has to do what I say because I have a stupid crown.”
Rainbow tried desperately to disregard the anguish in her friend’s voice, but looking at the pony across from her she knew that she was in trouble. The expression on Twilight’s face was one that Rainbow couldn’t recall ever seeing. She had seen Twilight angry and annoyed and upset and sad, but she had never seen Twilight actually hurt before. “Look, Twi-”
“Unless you’d like to check out a book, I’d like you to leave my library now,” Twilight said, gesturing toward the door.
Rainbow heard the door close behind her with a resounding click.