//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Decision // Story: Adoption: Spot // by Bluetree650 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Decision “Spot! Get back here!” It had been two hours since Rainbow failed to catch Spot. Twilight put him down for a nap once he’d calmed down, and gave him some soup when he woke from that same nightmare of the night at Ghastly Gorge. The last thing she expected out of his mouth was ‘what happened to Rainbow?’ Twilight had left without looking back, so she didn’t know. She told him to forget about Rainbow for a while. But he persisted. When she couldn’t give him an answer he left the house and took flight. Twilight wouldn’t have said anything, she thought he was going on a flight to burn off some steam, but ran after him when she realized he was headed for Rainbow’s house. “Spot! Listen to me!” Twilight shouted. The two flew over Sugarcube Corner, receiving curious looks from the pegasi above and towns ponies below. “She tried to kill you!” Spot stopped. He floated in place until Twilight caught up, but when she turned him around, expecting to see sorrow or fear in his eyes, she saw anger. “And you don’t question why? Did you ever ask yourself, why did Rainbow Dash not catch me?” Spot said, pushing Twilight with his hooves, “or were you too wrapped up with crowning yourself the best mother? I’ll have you know that you’ve had plenty of times when you spaced out. Maybe Rainbow had one too? Maybe it was important, or something that hurt? She talked about her mother and said some pretty personal things for a brash and prideful pegasus like Rainbow.” He started flying towards Rainbow’s house, which floated close by, “I don’t know about you, Mom, but I’m going to figure out what happened, and if you were her real friend, you would join me instead of making vain threats about court.” “If I were a real friend!!?” Twilight huffed, looking everywhere except at Spot to find something to unleash all her unwanted emotions upon, “I’m the best friend anyone can have! I know more about friendship in one cubic millimeter of my hoof than you do in your entire body!” “Then show it!” Spot shouted. Returning to Rainbow’s cloud home held an eerie sense of dread. Twilight, after getting what she thought of as a wake up call, realized that Rainbow had been giving off signs that something was wrong well before that gust of wind. She remembered that Rainbow never came after her when she slapped her in the face. She always loses her cool once physical contact was involved. How dare she want to take her son away. Anger, familiar and welcome, bubbled up in Twilight’s gut. How dare she try to take your son. She wanted to slap Rainbow again, then follow through with her real threats and take her to court. She watched Spot go inside, but didn’t follow. His words rang out like the dinner bell in her mind. “If I were a real friend?” She said out loud. Her anger slowly subsided as a meaning dawned upon her. “Real friends don’t let matters outside their control affect them. But she tried to take my son away! How could I not get angry at that?!” Slowly, still talking to herself, Twilight went inside. Rainbow clutched her cloud pillow. Her insides were being torn apart by guilt and she had failed to keep the tears at bay ten minutes ago. She lost her chance to do right by the pony that helped her through the toughest time in her life, and now she questioned how prepared she even was to begin with. Answer, not at all. The paper sat next to her on a wooden nightstand, the one that, if Spot signed, would mean he was her son forever. She thought of burning it, tearing it to shreds. There was no way Spot would ever want her as a mother now. Maybe Twilight was right, and she should stay away from the colt. “Ah! Why does this have to hurt so much?” Rainbow screamed, punching the cloud over and over again until she deemed it beaten to submission. “Why did I have to think of her then? Why not during the nap?” she grumbled, pulling at her hair. When she gained some semblance of control, she looked out of the window, Heart thudding and the urge to punch something rising, she watched the pegasi fly outside. “I had it all planned out too. I don’t think I ever put so much work into a single day, not for Scootaloo, not even for Fluttershy.” She laid back down and covered her face with the cloud pillow, blanketing her sight in a slightly damp softness she’d grown accustomed to over the last few minutes, and eventually fell asleep. She awoke to an annoying pressure on her side. She swatted at it, merely wanting what had to be some kind of bug to go away and let her mope in peace. “Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow groaned, the voice rang a bell, then she shot up, pillow floating in the air before gently falling to the floor. A white furred colt bearing feathered wings with bright red spots on them, blue eyes, no green eyes, stared at her. It was Spot. “Now you wake up!?” Spot said, standing inches from Rainbow’s face. “I tried to nudge you, then spoke your name– it took me almost ten minutes to wake you up! And here I thought Twilight was a deep sleeper.” “What are you doing here, Spot?” Rainbow refrained from calling him Squirt, “Did I kidnap you in my sleep? Oh Celestia, Twilight’s going to kill me” Spot galloped towards the mare, “I came with Twilight, but we got separated. I hope she’s wandering your house thinking about what she did.” “What, are you two banishing me from Ponyville? Good luck getting the weather right without me.” Rainbow sat up. She fluttered to the ground and stretched, trying and failing to keep her nerves from showing. “Stop it, Rainbow! We’re not here to banish you, throw you in jail or anything like that! We’re here. Well, I’m here to get your side of the story.” Spot moved over and put a hoof on Rainbow’s left front leg, “For Celestia’s sake, what happened back there?” “I messed up, that’s what happened.” Rainbow took to the air and looked down on Spot with angry eyes, “I almost got you killed, Spot. What else is there to know?” “I know what happened, Rainbow. It was only a few hours ago.” Spot glared at Rainbow, looking directly in her eyes. “I want to know why you hesitated. Cloudy wouldn’t choose a careless pony to be my godmother, so there has to be a reason you didn’t save me. So what happened?” “What are you, some kind of psychologist? Come here to judge my innermost thoughts like they were some kind of book?” With a calm tilt of the head, Spot declared. “yes” “Oh great, they sent in a child shrink to analyze my brain“ She jazz handed her way through that, but couldn’t hide the quiver in her lip. “I’m not a shrink, Rainbow. I just want to know what happened. You were talking about your mother. Did something happen to her? And don’t bother using the ‘I’ll tell you when you’re older’ trick. You of all ponies should know I’ve seen worse. I just want to help.” “I…” Rainbow could only blink. She saw so much of Cloudy Melody in him that for a moment, just a moment, she believed his words. She sighed and put her hooves to the air. “Alright, alright. I was going to tell the story anyway, why not now?” She sat back down on her cloud bed and beckoned Spot to come up. He did and gave Rainbow his full attention. “I haven’t been much for all the mushy stuff I bet you saw Cloudy deal with, but I think I can say that I know exactly what you went through in that gorge.” This caught Spot off guard. “What? What do you mean, Rainbow?” “I’m saying that I lost my mom for no reason as well. I just woke up and poof, she was gone. My dad was in shambles and I couldn’t see straight.” Spot went limp. He turned away from Rainbow and focused on how his hooves bobbed up and down, hitting the cloud bed every now and again. “When did it happen?” “December, ten years ago” Rainbow said, lying out on her back, arms outstretched, head towards the ceiling. “It was a cold night. I went to bed fine, but had a dream of the mantacore, from the stories my mom read to me before bed. I went to sleep with both my parents, but I woke up with only one. “It happened two months after she stepped down as the Wonderbolt’s captain. We’d watched Spitfire rise to the challenge of filling her horseshoes, to everyone’s surprise, and I can clearly remember asking myself, why did she quit? Our life was fine when she’d been captain. Sure I didn’t see her much with all the practices, but she always found time for me. She still saw me off to flight camp, even gave me a few lessons from time to time.” “Do you think someone forced her to resign? Like someone was out to get her job?” Rainbow looked like Spot had punched her in the gut. She furrowed her brows and glared at him as if wanting to hit him before relaxing. “Not that I know of, but I think I see where you’re coming from.” Rainbow’s usual enthusiasm to take revenge wasn’t there, but a calm collectiveness that was as uncharacteristic as rain in the desert. “I can think of a few names that might have wanted her job, but I knew them all personally.  One of them mentored me when mom couldn’t” Again, the room fell silent. No one spoke for a full minute as the words already said processed. Finally Spot said the last thing Rainbow expected him to say. “I forgive you.” “For what?” “For not catching me.”Spot looked up, smiling at Rainbow, “Sure it was scary, but I’m fine, no broken bones or anything like that. You remembered something that really affected you growing up. You couldn’t stop it and I bet if we tried it again you’d catch me.” “I would! Honest! I learned my lesson!” Rainbow trailed off, tears finally spilling out. “I really didn’t expect you to forgive me! That, that means a lot.” She wiped her eyes and forced a smile. “If you want we could ditch Twilight and I could show you where I take my naps? I’ll even buy you something from Sugarcube Corner! How does that sound?” “Hold everything!” Spot jumped and hid behind Rainbow only to emerge seconds later as Twilight walked through, grinding her teeth. “Spot, are you saying you forgive Rainbow for almost killing you!!” Twilight hissed, “How could you? Rainbow Dash let you fall!” “I did not!” Rainbow shouted. Getting to her hooves, she stared right at Twilight, posing as if to strike the princess down. “I hesitated, sure, but I would not, ever in my life, willingly let someone fall. Did I let you fall in the everfree all those years ago? How about Rarity in the young flier's competition?” Twilight back pedaled. She steadied herself and glared right back. “okay, so you didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t take away the fact that it happened!” “Would you two shut up!!” Spot yelled. Twilight and Rainbow glared, the former lighting her horn and dragging Spot behind her.  “Let go of me, Twilight! You two are at each other’s throats over this?!” “This?!” Twilight’s words came with a gasp, “Spot, I don’t know if you realize what you’re saying. You could have died if I hadn’t caught you.” Spot let out a whimper, his eyes shimmering before steeling again. “Well you did catch me! I wanted you below me so you could catch me if something happened, and something happened. You know what you did, Mom, you caught me. End of story!” “No, no, no! Not end of story,” Twilight said, “the point is you almost died because of Rainbow’s negligence. How can you forgive her so easily?” “Because I love her Mom, just like I love you.” He was able to break the hug. “Does that mean you want me as your mother, Spot?” Rainbow asked, hesitant to call this a victory. “I don’t know I don’t know I DON’T KNOW!” Spot ran to the window. Spreading his wings, he jumped onto the ledge of the hole of a window. “I don’t want to choose, I can’t choose I can’t choose! Why are you making me do this?” “Spot, where are you going!” Rainbow shouted, running up to the window, while Twilight just stared at the colt like he’d turned to a ventriloquist doll. “Away from here!” Spot yelled, kicking Rainbow in the face. Rainbow recoiled, staggered back before coming back around and glaring daggers at Spot. “Oh you little punk,” Spot shuddered, turned, then flew away. Twilight saw the fear. It was like the final piece of a difficult puzzle, and she snapped out of her daze. She grabbed Rainbow by the tail before she could retaliate against a seven year old child. “Hold it Rainbow, geez. How dense are you?” “What did you call me!” Rainbow turned, her anger changing its destination. She charged her friend, only to receive a buck to the face, much harder than Spot’s fight or flight response. “Rainbow, you bucking dolt, you were scaring him.” Rainbow only pressed a tender hoof to the throbbing in her nose and cheek, “I know, Twilight, he kicked me in the nose. I think a good scare is in order.” “No, that’s not what I meant,” Twilight backpedaled, releasing Rainbow’s tail, “I mean we're scaring Spot. Our fighting, it’s tearing him apart on the inside.” She moved forward, sitting down next to Rainbow. “Imagine this, you’re living your happy childhood, when, bam! Your parents are fighting about the mortgage. It has nothing to do with you, but you hear them yell at each other night after night. It’s grates on a child. And one of the hardest things for a seven year old to deal with, especially after going through the suicide of a loved one, is divorce.”   Rainbow thought for a moment, then her eyes went wide. “So, he sees us both as his parents and us fighting...” she trailed off, eyes widening. “Yes! And we need to fix that. Come on!” Twilight said, waving her hoof, “I know where he went. We have to tell him how sorry we are.” Rainbow nodded, then took flight after Twilight. Her sights set on Carousel Boutique. Through the front door, up the ivory stairs, being lead through the hallway that held four rooms. Rarity’s inspiration room is first on the right, inside was a mess, but that’s how Rarity wanted it, and to the left, a perfectly usable guest bedroom. Beyond those were the bedrooms. Rarity’s on the far right and Sweetie Belle’s old bedroom on the far left, mere feet apart. Spot moved through the door on the far left, entering a warmer world. Chrysanthemum always liked her room to be ten degrees hotter than a spring day. She lived in Fillydelphia before being orphaned after all.   Colorful stuffed animals littered the floor. An open Lady RaRa backpack on the floor with the singer’s smiling face marking the large pouch where papers drooled out. The sound of Lady RaRa’s new hit single My Heart Will Go On playing looped on vinyl record throughout the room. “Please, help Chrissy clean up her room, would you, Spot?” Rarity said. The white mare held the door open, her luscious purple locks swaying ever so gently with her movements. “There’s some cookies in it for you if you do.” “Okay, Miss Rarity,” Spot said not turning to face her. Rarity raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, “you two have fun then. I’ll let Twilight know you’re over here, Spot. You know how she gets when she misplaces you.” “She knows, Miss Rarity,” Rarity had met Spot many times before. He was a grand colt, the only one in town she trusted her little Chrissy alone with, and he’d been over to her house at least three times this week, none of which had he ever told Twilight about. But again, she kept silent. Chrysanthemum and him shared a bond she could never figure out. Something deeper than common interests. Sometimes a friendship like that brought up bad things. “Alright then, if you need anything, I’ll be in my inspiration room. Remember to knock though.” Rarity left. She was down the hall when Chrysanthemum shouted how sorry she was for knocking all of Rarity’s mannequins over trying to deliver lemonade. “Just like Sweetie Belle.” a smile never left her wrinkleless features as she reminisced on the chaos wrought by her sister years ago. Once Chrysanthemum finished whining over how it was an accident all Rarity’s fabrics got soaked, she closed the door and sat against it. “What’s wrong?” Her words were cautious instead of jubilant like they usually were. Spot didn’t respond. He held himself, wings fluttering, and glared at the space heater. Black with a single fan powered by magic. One punch would break it. “I don’t know how much more I can take Annie. They’re at each other’s throats over me. They’re killing their friendship because of me. I think Twilight’s really going to take her to court. Over me!” Chrysanthemum, a five year old filly who needed help getting dressed in the morning, took Spots words without blinking an eye. She walked over and sat on her bed. “Aloe taught me a few things about massages. She says they’re great at easing tension, as she puts it.” She put on a sheepish smile that only accented her baby blue trimmed jumper. “Want me to loosen those muscles?” “Actually, that sounds nice,” Spot moved towards the bed, dim light from the curtain covered windows shined on his spots as he let his wings fall to the ground. He was too tired to keep them in place, “I tried to tell them to stop. The first time at Rainbow’s house, I used the book as a peace offering. A way to get between them, have them focus on me instead of each other.” He climbed on top of the bed and lay motionless, feeling Chrysanthemum’s hooves touch his back. “I mean, I’m afraid of heights and I willingly– we were so high up,” he shook, because of the memories or the unfamiliar touch, he didn’t know. “I pushed myself, trusting Rainbow and Twilight would save me and come together in the face of my near death experience. That I just had to give them that extra push by putting them in the same room.” Spot hit the bed pad, groaning, “Rainbow went along fine. She didn’t hate me for ruining her friendship.” Suddenly, before Chrysanthemum could use words only spoken when the two were alone to calm him, he stopped. “I never should have told Mom. This all started then. Before it was the worry of loosing some hair, or fur, maybe a broken bone with a lot of kisses and alone time with her– my life was great back then, and now I’m tearing it apart!” A sharp pain echoed the loud crack in his back. “Would you calm down, Spot? Everything is going to be fine.” Chrysanthemum eased up, she made circles between Spot’s shoulder blades, just how Aloe had taught her. “I want my room to be an escape from your troubles. One where you can be happy no matter what’s going on around us. Just relax.” “I guess you’re right, Annie.” Spot felt his left wing being extended. He lay his head down as gentle pressure was placed on the joints. The slight pain numbed his mind, freeing him of his parent’s fights. He fell asleep before he knew it. A half an hour later, he woke to the sound of the door opening. His eyes blearily made out the form of Chrysanthemum sorting through the trash on her floor. The music had changed from Lady RaRa’s calm voice to the dapper sound of Big Benny’s jazz house, recorded by magic through the record player. “Spot.” Spot made no attempt to move. The room felt boiling hot at that moment, and the smooth rhythm of Benny’s trumpet sounded like a cat being grated with a nail file. “Blazing Spotlight, look at your mother,” Twilight said, “Please” Spot lifted his head. Chrysanthemum had stopped cleaning and watched, offering a kind smile. He knew it was all she could do. “Mom,” Spot said. Not only Twilight, but Rainbow had shown. His heart thumped. The first thought was that the two had moved their argument into Rarity’s home. To Chrysanthemum, but that thought didn’t last long. For one, Rainbow was flying still, and she rubbed her hooves. Twilight bit hers. “Chrysanthemum, would you mind giving Rainbow and I a moment of privacy with Spot?” Twilight said, “we need to patch things up is all. Shouldn’t take more than a minute.” “Bring Rarity!” Spot shouted. “That won’t be necessary, Chrissy,” Rainbow said. She landed and trotted up to Spot’s side. This time she saw the fear in his eyes and hated herself. “Twilight told me how close you two are, and she said it was likely that he told you about our fights.” “We just want to apologize in private. I’m sure he’ll tell you later,” Twilight added, moving to the other side of Spot. Chrysanthemum looked towards Spot. She saw how tense he got, the little beads of sweat rolling down his brow, but she also saw how calm and in control Twilight and Rainbow were. They looked more worried than angry. “Alright. I’ll be back soon.” Spot watched as Chrysanthemum closed the door, then looked up at Twilight. She wore a smile, “Calm down Spot, neither of us are going to hurt you, jeez.” “Yeah, you need to relax more. I can take you to my napping spot, it’s a bit of a hike, but it’s worth it. Trust me.” Rainbow nudged the colt’s arm. “Anyway, I might as well get it over with. remember when I said I messed up?” “We messed up, Rainbow,” Twilight said. The princess got up and knelt before Spot, as if proposing. She took his hoof in hers and spoke with the clarity you’d expect from royalty, “When you told me your story two weeks ago, about Cloudy. It was the first time I ever saw you act so violent. I thought you were mad at me for dying your coat white, but you were just scared and didn’t know how to bring her up. Am I right?” “Yes,” Spot said, nodding. “I should have seen the pattern. As our fighting got worse, you became more unpredictable,” “Ugh, I’m not good with all this mushy stuff,” Rainbow groaned. She stood on all fours and spoke with clear determination. “Look, Squirt, we understand. You can’t choose between the awesome me and the egghead Twilight. So we came up with a solution.” “I would have liked to have a bit more build up, Rainbow” Twilight shouted, then took a deep breath instead of taking it further. Something Spot noticed. “Rainbow’s right, Spot. The two of us have come to an agreement.” “We’ll each take you every other week,” Rainbow said, almost pleased with interrupting Twilight, “Starting today you’re sleeping at my place, then next week at Twilight’s. Each of us gets to spend time with you, and you get not one, but two moms.” She leaned in and poked Spot in the side wither her elbow, “Not a bad deal, eh kid?” He couldn’t respond. Spot swam in the relief that seemed to come from all sides until he drowned. Unable to hear the concerned voices of his parents, he fainted with a smile on his face. A few days after Spot returned from his epic naptime mission, as he called it, Pinkie threw a “My Best Friends aren’t fighting anymore” party, which was changed from “My Two best friends are raising a child and might get married one day” party, for reasons. Spot and Chrysanthemum sat at their tree behind SugarCube Corner watching the party through the back window like a show. The moon was out. It painted the familiar soft edged roofs in a gentle white light. “It feels weird not being at a party, Spot,” Chrysanthemum said. She sat in the surprisingly chilly night air with her back resting on Spot’s for warmth. “Shouldn’t we go in soon?” “Annie,” Spot said. He looked up at the stars, and thought about asking Twilight to teach him astronomy. She would, oh Sweet Celestia she’d jump at the chance like a spider on a fly. “The past two weeks have been harrowing to say the least, but, I think it was worth it.” “Worth it?!” Chrysanthemum lifted her head off of Spot’s neck, shivering as the cold air tickled. “Spot, you were stressed out, miserable, even afraid to go home. You remember those times you had me open the front door so you could sleep with me?” “I do, but look Annie,” he pointed a hoof at the window. Inside was Rainbow Dash and Twilight, chatting. “They aren’t fighting, they aren’t arguing, they’re talking. Two ponies that were head over heels for me, who looked close to killing each other, are chatting at a party. They’re both my mother. I have two ponies that will look out for me, challenge me, annoy me, everything a family does, all because of the past two weeks. “And do you know what’s best?” Spot said, “It’s that in here,” he pointed to his heart, “it doesn’t hurt as much anymore. Whenever I think about Cloudy, I don’t cry. Because I can see the light forward. Those two,” he pointed at Rainbow and Twilight, who had left the window to grab some punch, “are taking me by the hoof,” he teared up, “So you see, the pain I went through. It was all worth it.” Chrysanthemum wiped at a few of his tears, “Oh you baby,” she chuckled, “blubbering about this or that. We should be inside, partying our butts off. It’s freezing out here, could we please go inside now?” “In a second,” Spot said once he calmed down. He looked into Chrysanthemum’s eyes, a bright smile, almost devious, slowly grew, “You should do it too, Annie. You should trust Rarity with your deepest secret.” Rainbow Dash and Twilight sat on the ground at Pinkie’s party. It was sort of taboo, so they didn’t plan to stay long. They were in the kitchen where it was less crowded, looking at the document Twilight was going to send back. Filling in the first blank that decided who Spot’s mother would be was both Rainbow and Twilight’s names, and at the bottom, in crummy handwriting Twilight was hell bent on correcting, read Blazing Spotlight. “So, once you mail this back to the Foal Protective Services, it’ll be official, right?” Rainbow said, unable to avert her eyes from the paper as reality started setting in, “We’ll be the parents of the same child?” “Yeah,” Twilight said, “We’re parents. I mean, I was a parent to start with, but now we’re working together.” “I’ll leave the scheduling stuff to you,” Rainbow rolled her eyes, “All those boring egghead tasks are yours. Hey,” she got serious and her eyes turned to daggers, “just because we’re raising the same kid doesn’t mean I love you.” “I don’t love you either!” Twilight shot, completely caught off guard. “You’re a friend, Rainbow, there will be no… GROSS!” she got up and started walking down the hallway that lead to the party room. She needed a cupcake all of a sudden, “get your head out of the gutter Rainbow!” Rainbow groaned before following after her, “you know that’s not what I mean!” she grumbled, thoughts of all the fake love letter pranks she was going to get now. “Dumb Egghead.” She shot away from the window where, if you looked out, you could see two foals, a white one and a pink one, yelling and screaming like an old married couple.