The Dilemma
It was a long time before Fluttershy calmed down enough to move from her couch. When she finally did, she looked over towards her fireplace. Up on the mantle was a picture in a silver frame of her and the Cutie Mark Crusaders when they had stayed the night with her. Her eyes fell on the small orange filly sitting in the center, smiling brightly and hugging her two friends tightly together.
“I think I should tell her the truth. What do you think Angel?” Fluttershy asked, scooping the bunny up in her hooves.
In reply, Angel’s stomach growled and his cheeks flashed red.
“Oh, well then I guess we’d better get you something to eat,” she said as she headed for the kitchen.
Fluttershy opened cupboard after cupboard only to find that all she had left to eat was broccoli… that had gone bad.
“Oh my, looks like we’re going to have to go to the market.” Angel’s stomach growled loudly again. “And fast.”
Fluttershy put on her saddle bags, jotted down a quick shopping list, and went out back to check the animals’ food. Might as well stock up on everything if we’re going to the market.
She went back inside to pick up Angel and settled him on her back before making her way into Ponyville proper.
The market was fairly empty, being so early. Fluttershy only just then realized how early Scootaloo had woken her. Many of the market stall must just now be opening.
Sure enough, as she looked down the road there were unmanned stalls and some just now opening their curtains and setting up their wares.
“Let’s hope that the stalls we need are open,” Fluttershy said, turning her head to face Angel before walking up the road to visit the Carrot’s stall.
It didn’t take long to get everything on her list. All the stalls were already open by the time she got to them, with the exception of two, celery and cherries. She managed to get all of her shopping done in ten minutes.
Fluttershy was starting to head home when her vision was filled with pink and she was knocked backwards to the ground letting out a stifled shriek while the contents of her saddle bags to spilled everywhere.
“I finally found you Fluttershy!” the pink mass shouted excitedly.
“Pinkie? What’s going on? Why did you suddenly attack me?” Fluttershy asked, tears in her eyes.
“I didn’t attack you, silly. I just tackled you,” Pinkie Pie said with a smile so big, nopony else could match it. “Sorry I made all of your groceries spill all over the place though, let me help you pick them up.”
With one blurred motion, Pinkie picked up everything and stuffed it all back into Fluttershy’s saddle bags before hopping back in front of her.
“Well, thank you, but you shouldn’t be tackling ponies,” Fluttershy said, trying to keep her voice level.
Pinkie just smiled, ignoring what Fluttershy said, and bounced excitedly saying, “Fluttershy! You’ll never guess what I saw last night after the party!”
Fluttershy just stood there, waiting for Pinkie to tell her.
“Come on, you’re supposed to guess,” Pinkie said flatly.
“Oh, uh…”
“I know where Scootaloo lives!” Pinkie shouted before Fluttershy could say anything else.
“What?”
“I know where Scootaloo lives,” Pinkie said again, stressing each word. “Jeez, do I hafta spell it out for ya?”
“No, I mean, I thought Scootaloo lived…” It was just then that Fluttershy realized that she didn’t actually know where Scootaloo lived, or who her foster parents or parent was.
“Well of course she lives; she wouldn’t be walkin’ and talkin’ if she didn’t live.”
“Never mind that. How did you find out where she lives?” Fluttershy asked, mentally berating herself for not knowing already.
“Well, last night, after the party, I followed Scootaloo home because I was worried when she was the last to leave. I offered to take her home but she refused, saying she would be fine, she always walks home alone. But since I was worried, I followed her to make sure she would be fine but I had to keep hiding and she kept walking around the same block for like an hour, like she knew I was following her or something. But then she finally started walking down this one street and did you know she still lives in the orphanage?” Pinkie finished without taking a single breath.
“What?!” Fluttershy shouted in her usual soft tone disbelievingly. “You mean, she’s never been adopted?”
“Well, I went and checked to see if she had been adopted before but then went back for some reason, cause I knew you’d want to know once I told you that she still lives there, but the pony at the front desk said that Scootaloo has been there ever since they found her on the doorstep. Apparently nopony wants to adopt a filly who doesn't have a known parent, something about possible health risks later in life, ponies would rather have a foal they could be sure won't have any issues.”
Fluttershy just listened with her hooves covering her mouth and her eyes watering.
“I’m such a horrible pony!” Fluttershy shouted as loudly as she could while turning to run back home.
“Fluttershy, wait!” Pinkie shouted after her, but Fluttershy was crying too loudly to hear her. Pinkie sighed and her face and mane dropped sadly.
“Pinkie Pie? What’s the matter?”
Pinkie looked up with tears in her eyes to look at the pony now standing next to her which turned out to be a group of ponies.
Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were all standing around Pinkie, all with curious and worried expressions.
Upon seeing tears in Pinkie’s eyes, Rarity asked, “Pinkie, darling, what happened? Are you alright?”
Pinkie just sat there, in the middle of the road, staring at them all, her lower lip quivering.
“C’mon, Pinks. Ya can tell us anything,” Applejack said in her most reassuring voice.
“Pinkie?” Twilight asked, moving in front of her.
“I made Fluttershy cry!” Pinkie shouted in Twilight’s face as she began to sob openly, causing Twilight to jump back in shock and fall onto her back.
After helping Twilight to her hooves, Rainbow Dash asked, “How did you make her cry?”
“I d-don’t know,” Pinkie said through her sobs. “I guess I s-said something w-wrong.”
“Pinkie, I’m sure that whatever happened, we can work it out,” Twilight said after dusting herself off.
“B-but, I thought it was g-gonna make her h-h-happy, but she j-just started cry-ing and ran away!”
“Pinkie, just calm down an’ tell us what ya said ta Fluttershy,” Applejack said, rubbing Pinkie’s back comfortingly.
“I-I can’t t-tell you.”
“What? Why ever not?” Rarity asked, confused.
“Because I made a Pinkie Promise,” Pinkie said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and said, “Oh,” simultaneously.
“Well… Is there any way you could tell us what’s going on without telling us what you promised to not tell?” Twilight asked cautiously.
“I can’t even tell you using hypothetics, Pinkie Promises have rules ya know,” Pinkie replied haughtily. “But I can give you some details.”
Pinkie just sat there again, not saying anything. Twilight and the others were all subconsciously moving closer to her, waiting for her to speak.
Getting impatient with Pinkie, Rainbow shouted, “Tell us already!”
“Jeez fine! You don’t gotta be so mean,” Pinkie said indignantly.
“You said you could tell us some details,” Twilight said, trying to bring Pinkie back on topic. “What can you tell us?”
“Well… I can tell you that it’s about Scootaloo and I told Fluttershy about Scootaloo living in the orphanage-“
“Well no wonder you made her cry!” Rainbow shouted, cutting off Pinkie. “You do know that Scootaloo is her-“
Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves to her mouth before she could say any more.
Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were all staring at Rainbow now.
“Scootaloo is Fluttershy’s, what exactly?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash hovered above her friends for a moment, deliberating with herself before dropping down to the ground defeatedly.
“Grr, it’s not like she could keep it a secret forever!” she shouted at nopony in particular. “Scootaloo is Fluttershy’s daughter!”
Everypony gasped and stared at Rainbow in disbelief.
“Wait,” Pinkie said, putting her face into Rainbow’s. “You knew too?”
“Of course I knew, I’ve been friends with Fluttershy longer than anypony. What I’m wondering is how you found out, ‘cause I know she wouldn’t tell anypony about it herself.”
“I found out on accident, right before Scootaloo’s birthday party,” Pinkie replied.
“Okay, so you both knew,” Twilight said before Pinkie could go off on a whole story which would undoubtedly turn into some random inconsequential thing. “Now that we all know, can you tell us what it is that you said to make Fluttershy cry?”
“I guess it doesn’t matter anymore,” Pinkie said, considering. “I told her that Scootaloo hasn’t been adopted ever since she left her there.”
“What!?” Rainbow shouted. “How is that even possible, I thought she had been adopted a long time ago.”
Pinkie shook her head sadly. “I went and asked one of the mares that works at the orphanage and she told me Scootaloo’s
never been adopted. Ponies are worried she'll have issues since nopony knows who her mother is.”
“Well, whatever happened, we need to go and comfort Fluttershy and convince her to do the right thing,” Twilight said as she began to walk up the road towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
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Great.
Also i hope you arefeeling better from that mishap a while back
I'm kind of surprised that Rainbow Dash knew about this given her relationship between mother and daughter. Kind of makes her look almost like a jerk in this case.
I hope she gets called out on it too.
Nice update as I cannot wait to see what happens next in this storyline of yours.
4064690
I'm much better, thank you.
4064745
That first sentence is a little confusing...
Other than that, all will be answered in time.
Pretty good update after all this time, but I don't think Pinkie Pie would get completly upset about making Fluttershy cry. Yes, she'd feel bad, but she wouldn't automatically burst into tears.
4064798
Let me try to explain things...given Rainbow Dash's relationship to both Scootaloo and Fluttershy, I am surprised that she knew the secret for so long and barely did anything about for the well being of both of her friends.
That's what I meant by the first sentence. I hope that clear things up.
4064922
That's what I thought you meant but I wasn't sure.
4064921
Pinkie Pie is unpredictable, though it might be just a little OOC, that's just how the story goes in my head so... yeah.
So nopony's adopted her because they think she's a coward because her mom left her at the orphanage without even showing her face? Am I only one who thinks this makes no sense at all?
4065127
It doesn't. I could understand non-pegasi avoiding her as they couldn't teach her to fly, her rebellious nature, or that she refuses the parents. Cowardice does not make any sense.
4065127 4065247
I suppose it wouldn't make sense to some, but I went ahead and changed that part.
4065295
Anyway keep up the story, I want to know what happens.
Really, there are people that would understand it? If you say so...
4065418
Yes, there are people who'd understand that, mostly people who think like that or have been in that situation. I actually have a friend who lived in an orphanage until he turned 18 and I asked him why he was never adopted so I could use it in the story. He told me that he was never adopted for one of three reasons depending on the people looking to adopt. The first being what I originally wrote, the second being what I changed it to, and the third was he ended up getting older than anybody wanted to adopt.
4065247
While those reasons would certainly make a lot of sense, I'm pretty sure that TimeLord_Whooves wanted the reason to be something that was ultimately Fluttershy's fault. That's the reason she reacted like she did, after all.
4065295
Well, it's an improvement. It still strikes me as a bit odd because I think that there are probably plenty of kids who end up in orphanages without the orphanage people meeting their parents, whether because of a situation like Scootaloo's or because both parents died or something. But if we assume that there aren't very many orphans in Equestria, I suppose it could make sense.
Also, you need to change the second-to-last paragraph to match the change.
4065456
This is true, though I don't really understand how people find this reason odd, it happens all the time still. I get the previous reason being odd as it's actually rarer nowadays for people to think like that. As for the case of a child being put in an orphanage because their parents died, more often than not, their case is handled by the local authority who are given names and details of the parents to give to the orphanage. And thanks for pointing out the second to last paragraph, I forgot to look for other places I mentioned the issue.
4065646
I just noticed your previous post where you mention that Scootaloo's situation is based on that of a friend of yours. And if that is the case, I guess I can't really complain about it being unrealistic, even if I still don't think if makes much sense. Then again, people don't always make sense anyway, so I probably shouldn't be surprised.
4065453
Whoa, I am sorry if it offended you, I didn't know. It may feel weird to me but if it is a friends real life experience that doesn't diminish it as an option. Those are some weird adoptive parents.then... their loss.
MOAR!!!
Ooh. This is getting really interesting.
Okay, Great Its here,
, wait, How long wil it take for the next chapter?
I just have to know!
4073072
This time it will probably only take me about a month to finish the next chapter.
4074084 yeah, only one month...
4065127 The potential parents do not want to adopt her because they don't know about her, what she might do in her later years, or what might happen to her in her later years. This is not a common thing in our world because many orphans do not know their parents but this is a different world.
Next chapter soon?
I honestly think that rainbow dash and pinkie pie are OOD! I mean dash is the element of loyalty How can she NOT keep a secret!?!!!?
Ya know, I was dreaming of a different POV of the husband. :/ kinda odd cus it sparked an idea in my head
whelp there goes the pinkie promise, pinky pie made