Dream of Another Shore

by Artaelian

Crossing the river

Quite a lot of pegasi had been gathered on the news of a missing foal had spread through Ponyville. Fronting the aerial search was Rainbow Dash, who had taken Scootaloo on as a ‘little sister’ figure weeks before. Among the crowd were Jet Set and Upper Crust, currently shouting their displeasure at Filthy Rich, who in turn was trying to calm them down until Scootaloo was found and the reason for her running away could be learnt. Mr. Rich was most unhappy they planned to ignore the adoption system and just take the filly once she was found.

Showstopper found Snowdrops among the rescue team, and despite offering to help, he found himself being escorted back to the orphanage, where the staff told him off.

The search that night failed to find Scootaloo. Big Mac, who had been part of the search efforts, walked back to Sweet Apple Acres with Filthy Rich, Jet Set and Upper Crust (the pair being displeased at having to walk across a farm). As they walked, none of them noticed a yellow filly sneaking after them just out of sight.

“So,” Filthy began, “may I ask why you singled this filly in particular?”

“It’s simple. We have a rather personal reason which we wish to keep private for the moment.” Jet Set replied.

“To elaborate,” Upper Crust continued, “adopting means we will have a better understanding of how to look after a foal. This Scootaloo may be old enough to essentially look after herself, but it’s still a way for us to get used to a youth being in our lives.”

Filthy rolled his eyes, clearly thinking they were unfit to take care of a rock.

“So it has nothing to do with the defunct business her deceased father once owned?”

“Oh, we knew of that, it’s of no consequence to us. We just want to look after a foal, give them a good future while proving we are not self obsessed with ourselves, at least, not all the time. She would even be able to stay here in this town if she wished.” Upper Crust answered.

Applebloom stopped and let the four older ponies walk away, with her brother entering the house alone. She stayed still when Filthy Rich and the canterlot couple left back into town, before she too hurried into the farmhouse. Heading to her room, she was glad it was a weekend tomorrow, it would give her time to find Scootaloo and tell her what she had heard.

--
Alone in the wood hut, Scootaloo stirred, as rays of sunlight fell on her and warmed her coat. Waking up, she looked outside, at the mansion across the lake and sighed.

In the light of the morning, she could see the inside which matched the exterior as she had seen it the night before. Floorboards had rotted away or been consumed by wood eating insects, which clearly had made a feast of the single table and chair first, if the pieces of these that remained were any indication. Returning her attention to the mansion she could see outside the window, she noted how clean and bright the stone and marble walls looked, almost as if the building shone like a gemstone in the light. Before it the garden was well kept, with flowerbeds well maintained and the flowers in them arranged in matching colours.

It was always everypony’s dream to live in such a large home, whoever owned it had succeeded where many had not.

And here she was, alone and running away.

She didn’t know where she would go, just any general direction away from Ponyville. Sure she’d miss her friends, but she could return one day, when she was unimportant to Miss Amethyst, and hopefully get them to forgive her.

Setting out, she wandered through Whitetail woods. Meanwhile, in Ponyville, the search had begun anew, expanding past the town itself since the night had turned up no result. Scootaloo soon reached a trail which led away from Ponyville, though it disappeared upon the horizon giving her no clue as to any towns and cities at the other end.

Hours passed, and a storm had been put in place across the road by some town’s pegasus weather team. Scootaloo disliked the rain, even more so now she was out in it. But her choices were to continue or turn back, and she would never forgive Miss Amethyst for lying to her. In the distance through the wall of water falling from the sky, she saw the outskirts of a town, and pressed on in hopes of finding somewhere out of the rain on her arrival.

Behind her, Snowdrops arrived to the wood hut, noting that the door inside had been left wide open, and in the dust, hoofprints roughly the size of Scootaloo’s own had been left behind. Snowdrops groaned in frustration, clearly having just missed the filly.

--

Back in Ponyville, the search had been called off as a result of the bad weather, much to the protests of Jet Set, Upper Crust and Miss Amethyst, both being in opposition to the other. Miss Amethyst very much wanted to find Scootaloo first and block the adoption attempt by Jet Set and Upper Crust, while they wanted to take Miss Amethyst to court and prove she was unfit for her job, win Scootaloo and cost her the job of controlling the orphanage.

There was at least one mare who was unwilling to give up though. Despite having to return to the town and help set up the storm as part of her first day on the job with the local weather team, Snowdrops set off to follow the path from the wood hut, in hopes of finding Scootaloo.

Her departure from the town caught the attention of Jet Set and Upper Crust, who used magic to call her close enough to talk.

“You are going to look for Scootaloo, correct?” Jet Set asked, looking hopeful.

“I am, what’s it to you two?” Snowdrops snapped. “You want to fire Miss Amethyst!”

“If it’ll help you bring her to us, we’ll reduce the punishment we want for her from being fired to having a leave of absence while the runaway incident is looked into.” Upper Crust replied, hoping this offer would get Snowdrops’ co-operation.

“But its not just that,” Snowdrops paused to think a moment, she crossed her forelegs as she looked at the couple, “why do you want her? Ponies from Canterlot very rarely adopt.”

Both Jet Set and Upper Crust shared a look at each other, with Jet Set nodding her head at her husband. He sighed and looked Snowdrops in the eyes.

“We told Filthy Rich last night that we didn’t want to adopt her for her deceased father’s business, because it died with him. What we didn’t say was,” he bit his lip, “I had a father myself, who was a lawyer, and he passed recently. Among the documents he kept was the will of Scootaloo’s father.”

Snowdrops raised an eyebrow at this, but remained quiet to hear what else Upper Crust had to say.

“It is no secret that Scootaloo’s father was eccentric. It was his own fault for buying the self propelled cart from the designers, they had only built a prototype version. It’s what killed him and his wife, fortunately, their two daughters survived. But it got worse. In the will, he said that if he and his wife died, orphaning the two daughters before they were old enough to care for themselves, then they could never get any inheritance unless someone adopted them before they were twenty.” Upper Crust finished.

“Its true. And just think, with all that money, Scootaloo can have the same sort of life we can provide her once she leaves our care. It’ll make us look good and turn around the terrible tragedy struck life she had gone through so far. It might seem like we want the money, but all we’ll do is take it from her father’s bank account and put it into one that will be useable by her from her 16th birthday.” Jet Set added with a smile.

‘Yeah, and pocket a fair share as a reward for a “good deed” while you're at it.’ Snowdrops thought, outwardly she sighed.

“Fine, if I find her, you’ll be among the first to know, happy?” she questioned, receiving nods as answers. Snowdrops herself was happy that they would now leave her alone in her search to find Scootaloo.

--
Scootaloo was running towards the town she thought she could see, as above her the storm had gotten worse. Thunder and lightning now rumbled and flashed around her, and being in the open, she was exposed to being struck. The rain too had gotten heavier, making it difficult to see more than five feet ahead of her.

She therefore failed to see a dip in the path, one of her forelegs got caught by it, causing her to fall and the bone snapped. She fell and lay in the rain, pain coursed through her, causing her to cry. Overhead, thunder rumbled and struck somewhere far away.

All Scootaloo could think about was how she wished she had run to her room at the orphanage instead of away from Ponyville. At least she wouldn’t have broken her leg and now be laying in the middle of a trail, cold and wet with a thunderstorm in the clouds far above. What was worse, she had no idea how far away the next town actually was, or if she should even move in her state.

As she cried through the pain, she didn’t hear the pounding of hooves drawing near, or notice as Snowdrops landed. Scootaloo also put down the sounds of voices nearby as rumbling of the storm again, but she was soon enveloped by magic, and fell asleep.

Standing nearby were a very wet Snowdrops and Showstopper. After talking to Jet Set and Upper Crust, Snowdrops had gone to check around the orphanage, only to see Showstopper wandering around the streets. She had grown used to Showstopper using his self-taught magician tricks to break orphanage rules, and decided it would be helpful in getting Scootaloo back to the orphanage if she was found.

What they had found wasn’t just a lonely, wet Scootaloo, but a lonely, wet Scootaloo with a broken leg. Showstopper had used magic to lull Scootaloo into sleep so she wouldn’t be a hinderance or move in unexpected ways when getting her to the hospital. He carefully placed the filly on Snowdrops’ back, and using magic to create a shield, he and Snowdrops walked slowly back to Ponyville, both worried about Scootaloo’s health, but happy that she had been found.

--
Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes, noticing right away that her broken foreleg was in a cast being held up slightly, and held in place so she couldn’t move it. Beyond this was a hospital ceiling.

Somepony had found her after she had blacked out, she reasoned, and taken her to a hospital. The leg would take a few weeks to heal, and she would be fine. But would the orphanage have sent out word across Equestria that she was a runaway to be returned to them? She sighed to herself, realising it was now stupid to stay angry at Miss Amethyst. The mare had shown signs that she didn’t like what had happened towards Snowdrops, and the alternative was to try and run away with the staff now knowing she was a runaway risk.

As her eyes finished adjusting to the light in the room, the door to the ward opened, and the pony that walked in made her heart drop. Mayor Mare slowly approached the bed she was in, revealing to Scootaloo that whoever had found her had simply taken her back to Ponyville.

“Scootaloo, it is good that you’re awake,” Mayor Mare began, taking up a seat on the unoccupied bed next to the one Scootaloo was in, “I need to ask you why you ran away. It’s important, I have to make a ruling based on what your answer is.”

Scootaloo didn’t reply right away, considering what would happen depending on how she answered. If she mentioned the Canterlot couple first, they would almost certainly be prevented from adopting her, which seemed like a good idea based on why they actually wanted to in the first place. But if she focused more on what she had seen when Snowdrops had left the orphanage, Miss Amethyst could get fired. The choice wasn’t easy, even though she knew the couple didn’t really want to adopt her because they liked her.

“I had a bad day. First, I found my father owned a business, and this is probably why the couple from Canterlot want to adopt me. Then I saw Snowdrops leaving the orphanage to live on her own. After how I had learnt why the couple really wanted to adopt me, that alone just set me to being so angry, I couldn’t see any reasoning.” Scootaloo bit her lip. When Mayor Mare said nothing, expecting more, Scootaloo continued.

“I ran because I felt lonely, that no one cared, really cared, for me anymore. I realise now, Miss Amethyst doesn’t get to decide if orphans stay forever in the orphanage, someone who probably never meets them makes the choices,” she turned her head to look directly at Mayor Mare, “please don’t fire Miss Amethyst. She really did try to calm me down.”

“I see,” Mayor Mare stood up and remained quiet during the short trip from the bed she sat upon to the door of the ward, “I feel I should tell you, since I’m sure it’ll be forgotten in just a moment. Your father’s business? Once he passed, along with your mother, it went bankrupt. There is nothing they can get by being your guardians, not in terms of a new business to add to what they have at least. Now if you’ll excuse me, there is a matter I must attend to.”

Scootaloo stared, the information slowly sinking in long after Mayor Mare had closed the door and left. Her reason to have been angry up until seeing Snowdrops leaving the orphanage had been an assumption, and the end result was her in a hospital with a broken leg. She let out a frustrated cry, put her head on the pillow and begun counting the tiles on the ceiling.

In the waiting room, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Snowdrops and Miss Amethyst sat, Jet Set and Upper Crust glaring at Miss Amethyst, who returned their looks in kind. The three became hopeful when the door opened and Mayor Mare walked in clearing her throat.

“This time she was awake,” Mayor Mare spoke, pausing as the ponies in the room let go of a breath none had recalled they had even been holding, “and she told me why she ran away. It was the end result of a misunderstanding. She learnt what her father had done for work before his passing, and assumed that was why she was being adopted, the bad news in her mind wasn’t helped when she saw the standard procedure for old orphans at work with Snowdrops.”

“Therefore,” Mayor Mare noted how eager and hopeful the two opposing parties were, “I rule that the runaway was not the fault of Miss Amethyst or the staff of the orphanage, but also, the adoption may not be blocked by the orphanage. The adoptees anger was taken towards the staff, not out on the foal. Unless they prove otherwise once she is in their care, adoption is allowed. Good day.”

Before Miss Amethyst could protest, Mayor Mare had walked out of the room, shutting the door closed before she let out a sigh of relief, rather looking forward to returning to her office for some quiet before the next problem came along. And hopefully not in the form of a certain pink on pink mare. Back in the room, Jet Set, Upper Crust and Miss Amethyst finally looked at each other without any anger or hatred in their eyes, with the paperwork sitting on the table between them.

--
It felt like hours since Mayor Mare had been and gone to Scootaloo. And she had finished counting the ceiling tiles twice over. 3,628. That’s how many tiles there were. She debating if it was even worth counting them again, the answer would be the same each time she counted, and without a clock nearby, she had no idea of how much time she had actually passed.

It came as welcome relief when the door opened, and Scootaloo’s spirits were raised when she saw Snowdrops enter. They immediately dropped again however when Jet Set and Upper Crust walked in behind her, the two unicorns pulling over chairs for themselves as Snowdrops took the unoccupied bed.

“Are you willing to listen to us?” Upper Crust asked Scootaloo, who simply nodded.

“We feel it best to try and explain to you why we are adopting you. You see, your father had a… unique, way of viewing the world,” Jet Set seemed to be biting his lower lip, clearly holding back far more colourful words he really wished to use, she was speaking slowly and purposefully, making sure Scootaloo didn’t misunderstand anything, “while others keep in mind time is limited, your father thought everypony lasted forever. He was so sure that you and your sister would never become orphans, he joked to his lawyer that if he and your mother died, you and your sister could never get your inheritance if you remained orphans to the age of twenty, which is when orphans leave orphanages and live alone.”

“Indeed. As such, when that is just what happened, my grandfather had tried to make him change his will, even up to the night he passed from the world with your mother. Once a pony dies, the will is their final word in the eyes of the law. Recently, I went through these old files and found the copy of his will. We don’t hide how we behaved towards others before, but we felt if we could find his foals and adopt them so they could get their inheritance, it would be a start in making up for our terrible behaviour in the past, while at the same time providing the children a life they deserve, full of any opportunity to get somewhere.” Upper Crust finished, blinking very rarely as he waited for a reaction from Scootaloo.

“And did you adopt my sister?” Scootaloo asked, hoping at last she would get the first real bit of good news.

“We found her, but the orphanage wouldn’t allow the adoption process to go through, as the departure procedure had already been put into effect. We were just five hours too late”, Scootaloo’s heart sank at what Upper Crust had said, “but we weren’t too late for the younger sister, who just happened to be at the same orphanage. Sure we had to go through the shortlisting process, but we always knew our choice would be you.”

Scootaloo said nothing. They seemed to really mean what they were saying, they actually wanted her, not for any business her father used to own, or what he had left behind for her, but to help her. And they had been stopped at adopting her sister. Though maybe they did slightly, she didn’t really know on that.

Her eyes went wide when she ran over one sentence that had been said. Her lost sister had been at the same orphanage, and had been processed to leave…

“My sister was at the same orphanage and made to leave. But… the only pony who left was,” she turned her head to look at Snowdrops, who had a grin that pulled her lips back and bared the teeth in her mouth, “you…”

Snowdrops quickly got off the bed she was sat on and crossed to Scootaloo, lightly holding her while making sure Scootaloo’s injured leg stayed still. And Scootaloo, despite her own promise to never cry at any ‘sappy’ moments, found tears forming in her eyes and running down her cheeks. She didn’t like crying, but maybe tears of joy would be ok.

“And so, Scootaloo,” Jet Set spoke up once the sisters ended their hug, “before we sign the forms, we felt it best to ask you. Will you be alright with us becoming your legal guardians?”

--
Many months later

Dear Diary,

I’ve gotten used to writing in you since I was given you by Miss Amethyst and told to use you every day. It seemed stupid to write to an object like it was alive at first, but I got into the habit and now I can’t picture myself not writing this way.

So today, what can I say? Jet Set and Upper Crust came to visit from Canterlot. They may be busy there, but it is nice they’re keeping their promise to visit me at least once a month. And Snowdrops gets to live here too. She isn’t adopted by them, but they couldn’t say no when I asked if she could live with me.

What else, oh! I saw the wood hut across the lake today. I don’t know why sometimes it is there, and others it isn’t. Its like something is putting it there and taking it away on a whim. Sounds silly right? Who would move a building in and out of sight just for fun?

The mansion is great too. Just last weekend, I had the girls for a sleepover. Applebloom’s cousin, Babs Seed, was in town too to visit, so she joined as well. It was great, though a little weird the butler, Silk Touch, insisted he set up the campfire and hang in the shadows to ensure our safety. We didn’t burn anything though, for once, and it was fun to roast marshmallows.

The thing is, even though I’ve been adopted for a few months now, I still wake up and have to make sure I’m not dreaming still. And as eggheady as this sounds, the wood hut and mansion on opposite sides of the lake represent how my life has been recently. Run down, abandoned and alone before, much like the wood hut, but now I’ve crossed the lake and arrived at another shore, the shore I’ve always dreamed of. They may not be my parents, no one can ever be, but I can have the chances I’d have been denied before.

Well, I gotta go now, Jet Set told me she had something exciting planned for tomorrow, and I need to get some sleep. Goodnight diary!

-Scootaloo

Scootaloo closed the diary, returning the quill to the pot it had been in before she had opened the diary. With a yawn, she crossed her rather large room, which was filled with only toys she felt she would use. The door clicked open, and Upper Crust walked in, tucking her into bed and wishing her goodnight. When he was sure she was deeply asleep, he cross the room to a painting of the Wonderbolts and moved it aside with his magic. Reaching with more magic, he unlocked the safe that was behind it, and placed inside a box, and then he relocked the safe, returned the painting to the wall making sure it looked like it hadn’t moved and also remained too heavy for the young filly to lift, and then quietly, he walked to the door and looked back at the sleeping Scootaloo.

“I hope this can make up for those horrible words I said to you, my friend. I can’t ever take them back, but giving one of your daughters a better life should be more than enough to make clear how sorry I am.”

As the door clicked behind him, Scootaloo groaned lightly in her sleep, shuffling under the covers slightly, and once more became peaceful.

~The End~

Author's Note:

So sorry it has taken over two months for this last part to be released! My one and only editor, who I depend on to help me fix anything that just doesn't make sense or work has been crazy busy IRL since the last chapter went up, poor guy only had enough time this last weekend to look at this last chapter and make suggestions and changes.

Regardless, with his input now done and the chapter approved, here it is, the third and final part of Dream of Another Shore! There may be a third in the 'orphan Scootaloo' series depending on the overall reception to this last chapter and the story overall, but for now I'm moving on to my next project, which won't be ready for a while, as I plan to write it out in full first before editing work begins properly.
I hope you all enjoyed Dream of Another Shore, and keep an eye out for a blog post soon which will contain details of how the story was originally planned to go before being changed to the version you have read.

Comments

[Kenshinryuu]

I honestly want to see what happens next with Scoots. At least Jet Set and Upper Crust weren't after a new business. I do have to wonder about what Upper Crust put in the safe behind the Wonderbolts painting since it seems to be meant for Scootaloo.

[Vailen]

I wouldn't mind seeing this continue

[Gadgetphile]

Nice to see a story where the rich ponies aren't stuck up / evil. Just needs to get a few mistakes corrected.

[maniacal grin]

I would also enjoy another story

[Flicker Flame]

Is there a reason that the sequel to this stories sequel is this story?