Just watching Scootaloo run out of the house like that was too much for the speedster to handle and she burst into tears of shame and guilt. Running on nothing but pure emotions and instinct, Rainbow Dash started running towards Scootaloo only to be stopped by something holding onto her tail. When she stopped trying to get away she saw that it was none other than her mother, Pastel Light, who was holding her back by her tail. With tears in her eyes she said “Mom! Let me go! I have to follow her!”
Looking at her daughter and letting go of her tail she replied with a knowing, “She’ll come back.”
Still riled with emotions, Rainbow Dash looked back at her mother and angrily questioned, “How do you know?”
Pastel just looked at her daughter lovingly. “Because you did?”
Having ran through the streets of Baltimare and grabbing the quick attention of the ponies she ran past, Scootaloo collapsed into a heap of orange, purple and tears against an ally wall. She didn’t know how much time had passed sense she got there and frankly, she did not care as she bawled and bawled only stopping to mutter the word “Why?” to herself every now and then. She cried and cried until her tears ran dry then she cried some more. Only when she couldn’t cry any longer was when she was able to hear someone else in the alley with her. However, they were not here for Scootaloo. No, the sounds she heard were sounds of pain. They were… of someone crying. Crying for their own reasons.
Scootaloo wiped her face of her tears just to make out the small, blurry, gray form of someone near the alley’s other wall looking away from Scootaloo crying their own tears of sadness. Her vision was still a little blurry from her tears but she was able to make out the form of someone about her size lying in front of the one who was crying.
Scootaloo wiped her face of her tears again so that she could see whoever it was that was barely two meters from herself and what she saw was something that would make anything with a heart sad. What she saw was a puppy barely a month old crying while sitting next to, what could only be assumed as, its mother who was lying on the ground, cold and lifeless. She saw the puppy morning over the loss of its mother. She saw a puppy that was now going to live its life alone because it will never have the chance to live with its mother ever again. She saw the puppy and heard it howling wanting the comfort of its mother for which it will now never receive.
She saw this and felt an overwhelming need to do something. So she got up, walked over to the puppy, sat down and pulled the puppy up to her chest to give it a hug that they both so desperately needed. The puppy was so caught up in its crying that it never noticed the little orange filly that was now hugging and comforting it.
They remained like that until the puppy cried no more and when it finally noticed the little orange pegasus that was holding it, it nuzzled closer to her but only after giving her a little lick on her cheek. Scootaloo looked at the puppy who had just licked her and nuzzled it back as best as she could possibly nuzzle it before setting it back on the ground.
The puppy however didn’t want to leave her side and just crawled onto her lap, giving her its most legitimate sad puppy dog eyes it would ever have in its life. So Scootaloo put the dog back on the ground and laid down so that the puppy was able to crawl onto her back which the puppy gladly did. Scootaloo got up and was ready to leave the alley but first she said a quick “Good-bye.” to the puppy’s mother before leaving the alley with the puppy in tow.
Scootaloo didn’t know her way around and had no idea what to do with the puppy so she did the first thing that came to her mind. She began asking ponies where she would be able to find the nearest animal shelter was. After getting some directions from some very helpful ponies and a few minutes of walking Scootaloo and the puppy arrived at the Baltimare Public Animal Shelter where they were greeted by a smiling earth pony holding a small bag of cat food and standing behind the counter. “Well hello there.”
Scootaloo and the puppy’s moods didn’t actually improve from when they were in the ally and when the stallion behind the counter noticed how upset they both were, his tone of voice changed to a softer more caring voice. “Hey, are the two of you okay? You both look pretty upset.”
Scootaloo lowered her head slightly and softly said, “We’ve had a long day.”
“Is there something I can do to help?”
Scootaloo looked up at the stallion and asked, “Could you take this puppy? I found it crying in an ally sitting in front of… its mom. She-She… She wasn’t moving.”
The stallion made his way out from behind the counter and walks over to Scootaloo all the while saying, “Oh the poor thing.” He lifted the resistant puppy off of her. “You did the right thing bringing her here.” He directed towards Scootaloo.
“Will… she be okay?” Scootaloo asked worry for the puppy’s safety.
The stallion holding the now calmed puppy smiled at her reassuringly and told her, “Yes, she will be well taken care of and by the looks of how small she is, it shouldn’t be too long before somepony comes and adopts her. It’s still a shame though. She’ll never be able to see her mother ever again. All living things deserve to be with their mother’s until they’re ready to leave but that was just taken away from her, the poor thing.” The stallion sighed and shook his head before shifting his focus back to Scootaloo. “Is there anything else you need help with before I get her registered?”
Scootaloo once again sagged her head and didn’t even look the stallion as she shook her head. “N-No. That’s all I wanted to know. Thank you.”
She then walked out of the shelter, still sagging her head as thoughts ran through her mind. Why do I feel so bad? I should be feeling happy. I help a lonely puppy get closer to having a family again. But… I still feel bad. What did I do?!
She’ll never be able to see her mother ever again.
“Sh-she won’t ever get to be with her mommy ever again…” Scootaloo’s eyes shot open when she realized what she had done. Her head shot up and she ran as fast as she could to fix her mistake.
“Mom, I’m… I’m sorry I… I didn’t mean-“
“I don’t blame you, dear.” Pastel Light interrupted her daughter. “From what I’ve seen, you were only doing what you thought was best for everyone you know. No pony can blame you for that. I just wish you told, at least me about it. I could have help you through it all. You didn’t… You didn’t have to run away like that.”
Pastel’s words were such a great surprise to Rainbow Dash that she couldn’t help look at her with a shocked and sad expression on her face. She wanted to say so much in that moment that she had no idea what to say at all. So instead she turned her away from her mother and let her tears come out slightly harder than before.
“But in the end, I’m just glad you came back home Rainbow Dash. Despite the fact that you most-likely came back for… Scootaloo, was it? Now we can talk about what’s happened and hopefully work everything out.” She smiled at her daughter who weakly smiled back at her. “Speaking of which, who is her father? I don’t remember your father saying anything about you having a colt friend.”
Rainbow Dash just let out a small chuckle as she wiped away a few of her tears. “Actually, do you remember that colt I hung out with who I just called my friend? Well… Let’s just say that we were just friends only on the day I actually met him.”
Pastel gasped. “You don’t mean that picture fellow!”
“That’s the one!”
This made Pastel quite ecstatic. “Oh, how wonderful! Are you still seeing him? Do you live with him now? You must tell me everything, sweetheart!”
Rainbow’s smile quickly turned into a frown at her mother’s outburst. “Actually, the day I told him that I was pregnant was the last day I saw him.” She paused and took a few shaky breaths. “Before I left, we went to a hypnotist pony and we… he… I… I made him forget everything about me.” Tears started to pour from her eyes once again. “I-I told him not to worry. That I would take care of her. That he shouldn’t give up on his dream. That I would go find him someday so that he could meet his child. I-I promised him so much… and I couldn’t keep a single one of them.”
Twilight couldn’t take this anymore. A lot of pain could have been saved that day if she had just told Scootaloo who she actually was. But she could also see how much it all has hurt her friend and she didn’t want to see her shed another tear. “That’s not true!” Rainbow’s whimpering quieted down at Twilight’s interjection. “You did keep your promises! You watched over Scootaloo sense the day she was born and even though you put her into an orphanage you still looked out for her. That’s why you still live in Ponyville to this very day. And Picture Perfect did follow his dream. He’s the best photographer in all of Equestria thanks to you! And he did meet Scootaloo. That’s how we were able to know to come here.”
“You… talked to perfect?” Rainbow Dash turned here widened tearful eyes towards the lavender alicorn. “Does… Does he remember anything?” She asked, a small hopeful tone in her voice.
Twilight shook her head and replied, “Sorry. By the looks of it the hypnotist you took him to did quite a good job hiding away his memories and the only way he could get them back would be if something or someone reminded him of back then or if the hypnotist who casted it removed the spell themselves.”
“S-So… Unless I talk to him he won’t remember?” Rainbow asked a little disappointed.
Twilight shook her head once more. “No. He won’t.”
Rainbow looked down sadly. “Tha… That’s good. I-I don’t want him to ruin what he has just for me.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Pastel Light was able to handle a lot of things. Having your child run away from you hurts pretty hard and having to get over something like that would make any pony strong… but when she heard her daughter talking so lowly of herself… She just couldn’t accept that. “I won’t let you speak about yourself that way! If you don’t want him to change his life that’s fine but you shouldn’t blame yourself for wanting him to love you again.” Her tone softened as she continued. “You still love him. Ever sense the day you met him I knew that you two loved each other…” Pastel let out a quick snicker before she continued. “And I knew that every time you “snuck” out of the house was to see him.”
Rainbow quickly looked wide eyed at her mother. “Wha… You-You knew?!”
“Oh sweetheart,” She began. “You weren’t exactly the quietest of escape artists.”
“Oh, heheh. Right.”
Twilight decided to interject once again. “I think we’re all missing the point here. Scootaloo is gone and none of us have gone after her.”
Pastel replied with a simple, “Oh, don’t worry about that your Majesty. In fact she should be back fairly soon.” Having said that, everypony was able to hear a set of quickly clopping hooves heading in their direction. “Perfect timing. Ehem, Twilight would you mind joining me in the living area?”
Confused, Twilight complied and went with Pastel into the other room leaving Rainbow Dash in the foyer as she had turned her entire body to face the door as the hoofsteps slowed down behind the closed door.
“Scootaloo” was the only thing Rainbow Dash was able to say before the door she stared at began to slowly creep open.
Once there was enough space and Scootaloo made her way through the door, she immediately made direct eye contact with Rainbow Dash. For a moment neither of them spoke a word. They only stared at each other, neither of them wanting to look away from the other. But the silence had to come to an end.
“I’m sorry!” Both of them spoke at once, both apologizing to each other simultaneously. They both paused giving the other a chance to speak.
Rainbow Dash was the first to take the chance to say something. “Look… Scootaloo I… I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner but… I-I was afraid that you still weren’t old enough to understand.” She sighed before continuing. “To be honest, I don’t even understand it. I just… I-I wanted to be with you so badly that I couldn’t just give you up. So I watched you as you grew up. I watched you take you first steps, I saw you when you first got your scooter, I watched you go to your first day of school… but I couldn’t be there with you. I wanted to tell you so badly but... I didn’t know how or when to say it. I really wish that I could’ve been there for you instead of just watching you from far away.”
Rainbow had to take a breath before she continued. “And then there was the day you asked be to become your sister. I was so happy that you were letting me into your life but… I was also heartbroken because it only became harder to tell you that-that…” Rainbow Dash choked up as she once again had tears running down her eyes. “Scootaloo… I’m your mom.”
With the only sound being Rainbow Dash openly crying Scootaloo to small, short steps towards her mother before she quickly ran up to her and enveloped her in the biggest hug she could muster as she too began to cry. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know why I ran away like that. It’s just that… when I saw it was you I couldn’t help but think of all the times you could’ve told me but didn’t and-and…” She shook her head and wiped away a few tears. “I don’t want to lose you!”
Rainbow Dash was caught off-guard by that. She had not been expecting Scootaloo to be so excepting of her once she found out the truth but before she could ask Scootaloo spoke again. “I-I don’t care if you lied to me. I don’t care if you gave me up for adoption. I just don’t want to be away from you anymore. I want you to be my mom. I want to go home with you. I want us to be a family. Please. Don’t let me be alone anymore.”
Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded but quickly wrapped her hooves around her daughter and held her close once again as mother and daughter as she proclaimed, “I will never leave you ever again. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that never happens.”
“I think I know someone who could help you with that.” Both of the pegasi’s heads snap to the direction of the voice only to see Pastel Light standing there smiling.
“Mom?”
“But before I do anything to help I think it’s about time you two came into the living area so that we could all become a family together. After all, this is the first day that I get to spend with no longer missing daughter and my long lost granddaughter. We have quite a bit to catch up on so let’s hop to it.” She walked back into the living room urging Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to follow after her.
“Should-Should we follow her?”
“Well, she is your grandma. Come on. Let’s go be a family.”
“Wait, there’s still something I don’t understand.” After everyone settled into the living room and began talking to each other they all decided to fill in all of the missing pieces to Twilight’s investigation. “On the back to the picture you left with… Well, Picture. There was a “y” on the back of it which I was positive was the end to a name. But you name doesn’t end that way. So why was that on there?”
“Dashy.”
“Dashie?”
“It’s what Picture used to call me back then. It was a pet name like the ones that happy-go-lucky couples still do to this day.” Rainbow Dash had replied with a look that said ‘Well duh!’ to anyone who looked.
It took Twilight a few seconds to quickly figure something out in her head. “Wait. So you spelled Dashie with a “y” instead of an “ie” at the end of it?”
“Yeah. Why do you ask?”
“Because you misspelled it.”
Rainbow’s eyes slightly widened. “I did what now?”
“Oh that seems like something Rainbow Dash would do. She never really was the best speller but ask her to fly somewhere and she’d do it in… Oh, what was the expression you used to use? Oh! Now I remember. She’s say,-
“I’ll do it in 10 seconds flat.” Both Rainbow and Pastel said the phrase simultaneously, everyone laughing as they did so.
Rainbow then suddenly stood up. “Well. It’s getting pretty late and the train will take quite a while to get home.”
“You’re leaving already?”
“Don’t worry mom. We’ll be back to visit soon.”
“We?”
Rainbow turned her head to look at Scootaloo. “You’re coming with me right?”
Scootaloo looked wide eyed at her mother. “Does… Does that mean…?”
“We’ll go fill out the papers in the morning.”
Scootaloo couldn’t help but let her tough girl demeanor falter once again as she cried tears of joy while she ran into her mother, hugging her around the base of her neck.
Rainbow just picked up Scootaloo and laid her on her own back before looking back at her mom. “Happy Mother’s Day mom.”
Pastel smiled before she replied, “Happy Mother’s Day to you as well… Rainbow Dash.” And with that, everyone went back to their homes, except for Scootaloo who for the first time she could remember stayed with her very own mom.
The End