//------------------------------// // Family Matters // Story: Vinyl Scratch, Mentoring is AWESOME! // by SciWriter //------------------------------// The day after our first meeting, I found Lightning and Dusk outside the music store again, Lightning was pretty much in her own world, zipping around with her toys. Dusk let me know they had been out there half the day while Lightning waited for me. Course her not being able to stay in one place for longer than a few seconds, meant that by the time I arrived Lightning Strike had a full on puppet show going, I had watched for a few moments before trying to get her attention. Apparently the Shadow Bolt and Wonder Bolt toys were going to war and Rainbow Dash (played by Lightning Strike) and Apple Jack (played by Dusty) had to save the Wonder Bolts from imminent demise (because let’s face it that’s what always happens). There was an argument about Dusk wanting to play Soarin, but Lightning shot him down pointing out he couldn’t fly. To which he pointed out he wasn’t a girl. To which she pointed out he was ticklish and proceeded to demonstrate. It was all very cute, but I figured before Dusty suffocated on his own laughter, I needed to let Lightning know I was present, and then let her get back to business of getting back at Dusty for ruining her show. Course once I tapped her on the shoulder, I became the show so to speak. Lightning had all kinds of questions for me, she wanted to know everything about being a DJ, or more importantly, about me. I steered her away from anything personal, but it was still all very encouraging. Dusk was worried them waiting around for me like that was creepy, but actually I was flattered and just let them know what times I usually frequented the store so we could hang out more. Why not? I still hadn’t really gotten back to DJ’ing, but after a few weeks of visiting with a filly who thought I walked on air and her unbelievably patient little brother (seeing as I realized he himself was only there for his sister for some reason, and wasn’t really into dance music) I was certainly feeling jazzed. Maybe I could find inspiration for my next single in that little pony fire cracker? Maybe not, but I was starting to think about it. In fact, I was feeling so jazzed come one Tuesday, that I actually tried to single out the most egotistic mare in all of Ponyville to see if I could out do her on at least something other than musical and magic talent (those two just coming more natural to me). Rainbow Dash walked by me while I was shopping, myself just coming down from an ego trip from spending time getting interviewed by a fan yesterday, and then having fun goofing off and tormenting her little brother. (Dusk was fine by the way, I was sure things weren’t taken too far, he was annoyed, but not hurt.) I started dancing around Rainbow, by pen and pad levitating in front of her as I wrote ‘I have a fan filly, I have a fan filly, I have a fan filly, I have a fan filly,’ with my mouth open in a big smile and my head bobbing back and forth. ‘Haven’t seen your fan hanging around. She used to follow you around all the time. What, she outgrow you?’ Rainbow chuckled. “Kiddo… you mean Scoots right? I mean, you read the papers right?” she asked. ‘Well… the music section. Seriously though, where is the little flapper, haven’t seen her in days.’ “WHAT!? What did you call my daughter?” ‘Daughter? I just said little flapper.’ Now, seriously, I was riding the ego express from Tartarus, I wouldn’t have been able to read social cues if they were on actual cue cards by this point. Rainbow Dash pulled my pen and pad from floating between us and tossed them to the ground with her mouth me just dodging a hoof to the face, still feeling a fair amount of pain in my horn. A quick levitation spell put Rainbow Dash in the air too far away to hit me, but she was still fuming mad and screaming at me, swinging her hooves, her struggling starting to break my hold. “What the heck is wrong with you!? What the heck makes you think you can mock a little filly whose had to live with-“ “Rainbow Dash!” came the stern voice of our local Princess. “What are you doing?” Rainbow stopped struggling in my levitation spell but still pointed a hoof and me and yelled, “She called Scoots a flapper!” Twilight walked up to me and swift slap finally knocked something loose in my head. I had heard Scootaloo referred to as a flapper several times, but until that moment I had never put two and two together and realized it was an insult to her flying ability, or lack thereof. I hung my head contritely as I let Rainbow Dash down, levitating up my pen and pad again. I knew she wouldn’t hit me in front of Twilight, but I still felt bad enough for what I had just written. ‘Sorry, I’ve heard lots of ponies call her that. I didn’t mean to offend, I thought it just meant little pegasus. You see-’ Rainbow glared at me. “Others?! Names.” ‘I don’t remember right now.’ Twilight looked at her frustrated friend. “That’s probably for the best. Rainbow, you’ll just embarrass Scoots if you go on a revenge campaign anyway. Besides, I believe Vinyl.” Rainbow nodded, sighing, and giving me a half smile. ‘Anyway, since when is Scootaloo your daughter?’ I wrote. “About a week ago,” Rainbow said with a smile, then she almost growled, “It was all over the papers, them saying I was such a “charitable” pony for rescuing her from a neglectful home, especially considering her disability. So now my little family’s problems are circulating all over town. Sorry if I’m a little testy.” I touched my horn to see that it was okay, seeing that it was, I wrote, ‘No harm no foul.’ I tried to think of how to rescue myself. ‘That WAS nice of you. Scoots is lucky. You always were pretty fond of that filly.’ “Well not always, but these last few years she’s been growing on me. Besides, you know me, I can’t just leave a filly in distress.” She smiled and looked right. “Anyway, about this filly fan, anything like Scoots was?” She then looked back. 'Well she’s a pegasus, but that’s where the similarities end it seems. My goodness but she’s a ball of energy. Thinks I’m the end all be all… which I am of course.' “No, that would be me,” Rainbow shot back. Twilight shook her head at her friend, smiling. Rainbow looked at her. “Twilight told me to do something that might help me with my frustration these days. Really I’m mostly pissed at Scoots’ parents, they’re the bad guys in all this.” She twisted her face in frustration. “I’m trying to raise awareness about foal neglect and abuse.” She nodded. “So, not to concern you too much, but is there anything off about your little fan? You should take the chance to take notice, foals can’t just defend themselves ya know.” I thought for a moment. Lightning was a little hyper but as to problems… well there was certainly a fear of rejection there, but I was sure I had already seen the reason for that. ‘Nothing in particular. She’s a little afraid of rejection, but she’s a little different from other fillies so that’s probably why, not abuse.' Rainbow nodded. “That could be an indicator, but I’d doubt it. Really unless she shows up injured or half starved, there’s probably not much to worry about. Just keep an eye on her” ‘Will do!,’ I said, my pen and pad still floating, but I saluted Rainbow with a smirk. ‘I’m gonna meet her in a minute here anyway.’ I started walking to the music store. I looked up, a small shadow gliding over the group. Her brother riding on her back, Lightning Strike touched down awkwardly. As Dusk got down, Lightning started stumbling. “Speaking of suspicious,” Twilight said. Both mine and Rainbow’s jaws dropped. Lightning had a black eye and was favoring her shoulder like crazy. Finally she hissed and dropped to the ground, trying to bite her lip to keep from crying. Dusk looked at her. “Lightning… you’re starting to worry me here. You said that was no big deal.” “I was acting tough- trying to- I’m not very tough, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW!” Lightning started to yell. Dusk started trying to help her up but she snapped at him. “I can’t walk! It just won’t move.” Both foals looked to be panicking. Rainbow looked at me. I nodded and put a spell on my little fan. Lightning levitated into the air. I trotted to the hospital, her floating by my side. She whined and hissed, but nothing that indicated she was getting worse as I went. As I went, Dusk had to break into a gallop to keep up. Rainbow started asking him questions. “How exactly did that happen?” she asked. Dusk answered as we came into the building and got to the front desk. “She crashed into a wall while we were at home.” The nurse at the front counter, herself a red Pegasus, reached over and touched Lightning’s shoulder as the colt spoke. Lightning yelped. “Um… a wall inside?” asked the nurse. “Yea…” Dusk replied. “Um… that felt broken.” “Broken!?” Lightning squeaked out. “We can probably fix it with time but it’s still good you came in when you did.” The nurse floated some paper work to me and took her from me with her own levitation spell. “You fill that in… Parent or good Samaritan?” “The latter,” Rainbow shot in, probably knowing levitating my note pad would be hard to do along with the filly. “Fill out here then,” the nurse said. “Doctor Grave Digger will see her right away.” As my little charge was levitated away I only had one thought… okay two, first- I levitated my pen and paper again. ‘Doctor who?’ But the nurse wasn’t looking at me. That’s an irritating thing about not having audible speech. However Rainbow saw my note. “Oh yea, he’s a good one. Fixed up one of my wing a while back.” ‘But his name…’ “Pinkie’s not a pink pie,” Rainbow replied. She looked down at Dusk, moving on from that rather… interesting topic, like it was meaningless. “She crashed into a wall inside your house?” Dusk nodded. “How serious is it?” he asked. “We won’t know until the doctor does, but I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Twilight said. “Heh, no- we’re not leaving this alone,” Rainbow said. “Where do you live?” she continued interrogating the colt. “Under Canterlot Mountain,” the colt replied. “Kinda long way away, but not really if you fly… which right now well… kinda more concerned about my sister than…” Rainbow started to glare at him. “We’ll being going home with you, now. Vinyl, you stay here and make sure the filly is okay.” I didn’t like this. I understood her concern, but Rainbow was going into overdrive. Dusk was about six and probably scared himself. I shook my head. ‘I’m coming with if you’re going to his house. You’re getting a temper Rainbow.’ “Gee, I had to save my own sister from squalor via adoption and all our problems were published in the freaken’ news paper. Temper? I wonder why!” Rainbow started to yell. “Okay, okay,” Twilight said. “I would be nice to have someone besides me to reign you in Rainbow.” She looked at the door. “I’m going,” Rainbow said, grabbing the colt. I started to glare at her myself, horn lighting up. “Fine. You can come.” (***) Rainbow carried me and Twilight carried the colt as we headed for Lightning Strike’s home. Rainbow offered to carry Dusk, but Dusk was starting to get leery of her. Finally Dusk pointed us to where he said his home was. A cave at the base of Canterlot mountain. Twilight and Rainbow looked around as we came in for a landing. “This is where you live?” Twilight asked. We touched down. Rainbow looked at the right wall of the cave, commenting, “Well, I guess I can see running into a wall in that case… but who keeps foals in a cave anyway? What do they just feed you and leave you here alone or something? Where are your folks?” Rainbow wasn’t sounding like herself. Like she was fishing here. I motioned for Dusk to lead the way into the cave. Dusk was much more receptive to me than the others and I was pretty sure as to why. I lit my horn as we went further into the cave, but to my surprise that was pointless, as the hall way was lit up with huge torches on either side. We came into a large room in the cave and my heart sank. There was a huge pile of gold dead center in the cave. The other two mares started looking around with shock in their eyes as well. What was going on? This was a dragon’s cave! The ground started to shake as we heard a ferocious sounding flapping outside and then a crash. Twilight levitated Dusk and myself to her sides, a force field going around us. Rainbow then quickly flew in front of us. “Rainbow, get back here with the rest of us,” Twilight shouted at Rainbow Dash. “No, you guys run, I’ll hold him off!” Rainbow yelled. “That’s my job Rainbow, you’re a mother now. You need to get home alive.” However their conversation was cut short by a huge shadow falling over all of us. I pulled Dusk in close, more scared of impending doom and watching a child die, than questioning why he had brought us to the home of a dragon in the first place. The dragon was huge, walking on four legs and possessing massive wings. In the light of the fire behind him his green scales glistened and his orange yellow stomach looked like a fire might be taking hold inside him already. As he looked down at us, I swear his eyes started to glow. The dragon’s voice boomed, shaking all of us with just its sound. “Who dares disturb the sanctity of the cave of the dragon bearer of courage?” Rainbow Dash glared up at him defiantly, but as he lowered his head, all of us took a step back- that is, all of us except Dusk. He looked up at the dragon. “Hey dad.” Twilight's force field faltered and failed, probably not able to last forever. “D-d-dad?” Rainbow said. “Well yea, guess I should have mentioned I was adopted.” He looked at the four mares. “Well um… so… my dad’s a dragon… cool right?” Rainbow stood her ground between the rest of us and the dragon. Dusk ran forward, but Rainbow then jumped in front of him and shoved him behind herself again. The dragon looked down at Rainbow, sat down, and then laid down, holding up his head with one hand. “You come with a purpose. If you wish to threaten my son, you should know, you’re that close to being a collection of stains on the cave wall. He moved to snap a finger at Rainbow Dash, the mare continuing to hold her ground. “I would never threaten a colt!” she snapped. “We’re here for answers. What kind of a dragon adopts pony children?” The dragon looked past Rainbow at myself and Twilight. “I do believe someone here has done the inverse.” “Spike isn’t exactly my son, but that’s hardly the same thing anyway,” Twilight responded. “Oh?” asked the dragon. “Still, what are you doing in my home? I am a citizen of Equestria. Even as a princess you are subject to the laws of the land. Including those against home invasion. Have you a warrant?” “Probable cause!” Rainbow yelled back. “Your “daughter”,” she air quoted her words “Came all the way to Ponyville carrying her brother with a broken shoulder. The hey is up with that?” The dragon’s head went back, shock in his eyes. He then looked down at Dusk. “Is this true?” “Um…” Dusk began. “Well she ran into a wall, but she said she was okay so we went out.” “She had a black eye!” Rainbow shouted. The dragon continued to look at Dusk. “Now Dusk, you know your sister has her tendencies. You should have insisted. Our messenger dragon could have sent me a message that something was wrong in seconds. And then I would have arrived with help.” “Well…” the colt said, trailing off. “So they’re taking care of themselves?” Rainbow demanded. The dragon nodded. “To some degree. Dragons have complete autonomy at their age, they just stay here for the company and for food. They are as any of my treasures. More valuable in fact. I protect them just as ferociously-“ “There’s more to having kids than protecting them!” Rainbow interrupted. “Can you raise them?” “I provide love, a roof, food, someone to talk to, instruction, protection, what do you want?” “How about a parent who won’t kill them rolling over in his sleep?” “They sleep up there,” The dragon pointed at a large cleft above. “It’s inclined so they won’t slip off too. Of course I thought of that. You think I’m the first dragon to so much as have a pet? I know how to not hurt them. Much like a pony owning a rabbit.” “They’re not pets!” “Are you here to ask questions, or conduct an inquisition?” the dragon asked. Rainbow did not back down even a step. “I’m sorry but, why am I taking this? You invaded my home, you’re holding my son, you’ve told me my daughter is injured and have yet to tell me where she is and now you seem to be accusing me of child abuse.” I levitated a note pad in front of me, walking in front of Rainbow, barely finding my courage. I began to write. ‘Back off Rainbow. You’re too close to this.’ Rainbow waved a wing at me to get back again, but I pretty much ignored her. ‘Do you understand how to raise foals?” The dragon looked at my note. “Why do you not speak?” ‘I can’t.’ “Too afraid?” ‘I don’t know why, but my voice hasn’t worked for nine months.’ “No insult, but that’s… disarming. Which is good, because your friends were about to be pulverized for threatening my family.” Rainbow kept glaring at the dragon. Finally Twilight’s magic surrounded her and she was dragged back along with Dusk. “I have to protect-“ Rainbow began but this time Twilight snapped at her. “YOU... HAVE... A... DAUGHTER!” Hosting her own glare that could have annihilated a cockatrice, Twilight continued. “I’m happy you’re committed to helping, but could you TRY to remember you’re responsible for a foal’s life these days? If you died before it was just your problem, but don’t you think Scoots has been through enough?” Rainbow looked away. I was happy that Rainbow was no longer there making things worse, but then I looked back into the glowing orange eyes, each of which could have crushed me in a blink. My whole body started shaking of its own accord. I almost lost track of my writing spell realizing I was standing before an fully grown dragon all by myself. I tried a more tactful approach. ‘I don’t know much about dragons, but a little about reptiles. Do you raise your young or just watch them from afar?' “What’s the difference?” asked the dragon. “We provide for them if that’s what you mean.” ‘But you have to watch over them. Pony children are…’ I looked at Dusk, trying to consider my words. But I decided bluntness was the correct route. ‘Kind of dumb.’ “What exactly happened Dusk? How did your sister get injured?” asked the dragon. “Well she wanted to see if the adage that a watched pot never boils was true. She started flying and watching it at the same time and well… ya know. Splat,” the colt explained. The dragon blinked. He then sighed. “Well… that’s Lightning alright,” the dragon looked at me. I sensed concern from the massive creature. “Are you sure? Can you not think of a way they can have some autonomy?” ‘A little, but…’ The dragon looked at Dusk, his eyes now softening. “But… Celestia herself said I could keep them. I would be observed raising them, it was part of a treaty, it was a show of trust.” He continued to look at the colt, who seemed to be paying attention now himself. “Over these last few months I have grown to care for them deeply… but if Lightning was injured because of me then… maybe it’s best they go.“ “NO!” Dusk yelled. “You don’t know what foster care was like. Don’t send us away!” He ran forward and grabbed one of the dragon’s claws. “Please! I’ll talk to Lightning, she’ll be more responsible, I promise… please!” The dragon looked at him. “I don’t want to leave again. I thought you said this was my home now. Not again!” The dragon looked up at Twilight who spoke herself on the matter. “I don’t mind them spending time here if they’re safe,” she began. “And I don’t understand Celestia’s reasoning, but I doubt you can raise them by yourself. I don’t mean to challenge a solar sister’s ruling, but-” “Princess sminsess,” said the dragon. “What matters to me is my children. If they’re not safe here then-“ ‘Wait!’ I quickly wrote. I didn’t know what I was writing, but my spell seemed to have a mind of its own. ‘Look, the dragon can keep them in a sense. What if they just lived with a pony while he’s away-a pony like me?’ “And just how are they supposed to get from this place to yours-“ began Rainbow Dash, but as she spoke the dragon breathed deep and to my horror I saw a huge blue flame engulf Dusk, the colt disappearing into ashes. We all stood stunned. The dragon then pointed at the treasure pile. Dusk stood on top of it, looking bewildered but fine. “Getting back might be more difficult, but I think we can work something out. If this pony is up for it.” ‘Just know, I’m not adopting… I’m just gonna be a… mentor, yea a mentor.’ “That’s acceptable to me. Will that be enough to placate the princess of friendship?” Twilight let down her guard. “I’ll take the matter as acceptable for now." Dusk ran up to me and gave one of my back legs a quick hug. “Thanks DJ!” he yelled. He then ran over to Rainbow Dash and kicked her front leg. Rainbow bit her lip, Dusk glaring are her. However I used my own magic to pull Dusk back and calmly sat between them, seeing the tears in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. My pen and paper moved between us. ‘I promise, they’ll be safe. You don’t have to save every foal in Equestria.’ “You don’t know… I ignored all the signs… Scoots could have died… I never want to see something like that again. Never again.” As unsure as I was about sharing life in any way with a dragon or what he considered to be his children, I still wrote, ‘I’ll be careful. I promise, I’ll protect them.’ Rainbow Dash flew slowly past the dragon and out of the cave. Twilight looked at me. “You sure you can handle this?” ‘I hope. I just don’t want to see a family broken up. Even if it is a strange one.’ Twilight nodded and flew away herself. I looked up at the dragon. ‘Name’s Vinyl Scratch.' The dragon smiled. “Torkuda.”