Feeding Problems

by ferret

Rainbow Dash Uncovers the Truth

Rainbow Dash looked away from the letter. It was laying there unopened, suspended on the clouds which made up her desk. They wouldn’t turn her down, right? Sure she hadn’t finished her academy degree, but she could still do that, and raise Scootaloo, couldn’t she?

She flitted back to the letter, looking down at the return address with “Ponyville Foal Services” written on the upper left corner, in neat penmanship. Sure she wasn’t the most organized pony, but Rainbow would never forget to feed Scootaloo, right? Heck she was already practically managing the filly’s nutrition regime already, albeit irregularly in large quantities to account for lost time. She went back to her window, and thought about going out for a quick soar. But she’d already done that, and she’d already done her morning calisthenics, and the loop de whorls, and the cloud catching.

She had to go to work soon, but she didn’t want to have to be moving weather all day with this letter hanging over her head. What if they thought she was too busy to raise Scootaloo? It didn’t take a lot of time, but between her sports training, and the off season academy work, it didn’t leave Dash with a lot of time for a foal. But it wasn’t any different than now, right? It just made it official, and she got to give Scootaloo a bed, and sing her to sleep every night just like dad– well, maybe not that, but, you know, something like that, but cooler. There wasn’t any special thing Dash had to do, just to make a filly’s life better, right?

What if Scootaloo got adopted already? What if it was in another city?? They could be all like, “Oh Rainbow Dash sorry but Scootaloo is gone forever but here you can have this one instead!” and Dash won’t want that one instead, even though that foal’s parents abandoned her too, and died and she really needs a... ugggh.

Dash zipped back to the letter and lifted it in a hoof, unceremoniously ripping the end of the envelope off to reveal the letter inside, with some kind of formal certificate accompanying it. She wasn’t trembling or anything when she pulled it out; she was all calm and collected about it, and stoic as heck. “Dear Rainbow M. Dash” it began. She dropped it on the desk and flew over to the window again. Then she crept back, like she was stalking a mouse, and lifted her head above her desk, reading the letter laying there.

Dear Rainbow M. Dash,
Your application for foster parent status has been processed and evaluated.
Congratulations! You have qualified for provisionary foster parent status!

“Yes!!” Rainbow Dash shouted looping in the air. She continued to hover there reading the rest of the letter.

Attached is your certification of merit. You may display it in a prominent location. Should you choose to adopt a foal, you may be required to provide it for any foal services coordinators or inspections. Under no circumstances should you ever just throw it in a cardboard box and conclude that sufficient record keeping. Following is a recommended furniture supplier who can provide a suitable cabinet and file folders.
- P. Heart, MDDS

---

Quills and Sofas
PVY South Market St.
Ponyville, KEQ

That was all that was written on it. She checked the back but nothing was written there either. “That’s it?” she said shaking the letter to reveal its secrets. “They didn’t say anything about Scootaloo.”

A sudden thought occurred to her. “Oh no!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “They must have adopted her already! I gotta hurry!” She took the certificate, hastily threw the rest of the contents of the envelope in a cardboard box, and flew out the window, blasting off across town.

---

“Hello and welcome to the Ponyville Children’s Home. How may I–”

“Scootaloo!”

“What?”

“Scootaloo!”

Sweet Joy ignored the slight techno beat that started up in the background, saying “Is that the name of a filly?”

“Yeah, Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash repeated. “I gotta adopt her before they ship her to Vanhoover!”

Sweet smiled and toyed with one of her curly pink tresses with a well groomed lavender furred hoof. “Do you have any qualifications?” she asked congenially.

“Bam!” certificate of merit, in her face. Boo yah. “That means I can adopt her!” Rainbow Dash said confidently.

“Oh you must be the mare with the dyed mane Paper was talking about!” Sweet announced.

“Dyed mane?” Rainbow Dash asked with a head tilt, “You mean the colors? That’s just my hair.”

“Sure, sure,” Sweet assured her dismissively, “Now hold on just a second miss...” she glanced down at the certificate, “Rainbow Dash?” Her eyes lit up with realization, “Oh, I know you!”

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash said striking a pose. “Well I’m kind of a big deal.”

“You’re Daring Do’s biggest fan!” Sweet gushed, “She put you in one of her books, where you annoyed her the whole time but helped save the day in the end. Did you read it? It’s called—”

“Yeah, I read it,” Rainbow Dash said flatly.

“What did you think of it?”

“The lawsuit is pending.”

“Oh.”

The silence extended and Sweet spoke up again saying, “So you are interested in adopting a foal?”

“Yes,” Rainbow Dash said, “A foal named Scootaloo. She’s a pumpkin orange pegasus with purple hair about yea high.”

“Would you like to set up an appointment for an interview?”

“No, I want to adopt Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash said enunciating very clearly this time.

“You have to set up an interview with a potential foal if you wish to adopt her,” Sweet smiled, “It is very illegal to sell you a foal you have never even met before.”

“Sell me a– I’m not a forepony for the crystal mines!!” Rainbow Dash finished her sentence with a confused and outraged yelp. Sweet stared at her for a while before saying,

“Paper told you to read about Happy Valley, I take it.”

Rainbow Dash shuddered.

“The only ponies in this day and age who try to get foals without an interview, are ones who simply want to use the foals for temporary labor,” the purple and pink caretaker known as Sweet Joy explained, “In harvesting seasonal crops for instance. They have to fill out a different contract, which assures them strict penalties should they have a poor working environment in which a foal cannot grow and prosper, or prevent anypony from knowing whether the foal is in one or not. And they have to interview the foals too. But nopony is even trying to put foals in dangerous situations.”

Rainbow blinked, trying to absorb the explanation Sweet Joy just spat out. It didn’t help that she talked a mile a minute. She was almost as bad as Apple Bloom.

“Would you like to set up an interview?” Sweet smiled.

Dash’s wings drooped down from where they’d sprung up mid-flap. “Yeah,” she said. “Just give me the paperwork...”

At least this time, there was a spot to put Scootaloo’s name down.

“How long is this gonna take?” Rainbow Dash said apprehensively, hoofing the filled out form to Sweet Joy.

“Oh, not long I think,” Sweet said scanning over the form. “Are you free this afternoon?”

“Uh, yeah after work I have my training exercises, but I should be free around 10 or so.”

“Come by then,” Sweet said, “Your foal should be back from school by then, and we can interview her with you.”

“Oh right, school,” Dash scratched the back of her head, “Yeah I can be back by then. Will you be here?”

“I’m afraid a different mare works the reception desk for this afternoon,” Sweet said sweetly.

Rainbow Dash cringed, saying, “She won’t be like... you know...”

Sweet Joy looked up thoughtfully for a moment, then suggested, “Bring peanuts.”

“Peanuts?”

“Mares on the afternoon shift tend to be pretty hungry.”

“Oh OK...” Rainbow said uneasily, “...peanuts.” Sweet Joy smiled at her pleasantly. Dash turned to leave, then looked back, then walked a few steps, then looked back again. Still smiling. “Ugh,” Rainbow grimaced, throwing herself out the door and immediately taking to the sky.

“Glad that’s over with,” Rainbow Dash thought as she glided along gracefully. “Now I’ve just got to get to shit shit shit buck buck buck I forgot about work!”

There was the familiar sound of a jet engine overhead, as a certain rainbow colored pegasus undecitupled her speed after a harsh quarter degree turn, making like a rocket for a distant pocket of untended seed clouds and some irritated looking pegasi.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait for that afternoon to come soon enough. Her coworkers were mad at her for being a half hour late, even though she totally made up for it. It wasn’t a good day though. The weather wanted to storm too enthusiastically, so they had to fight it down instead of building it up as was planned. Then it ended up flopping entirely, meaning that they would have to double it up the next day, and no pony on the ground was going to appreciate that.

Even the afternoon training session with Scootaloo was unsettling, because Scoots just wasn’t interested in eating. Dash wondered if Rarity had been giving Scootaloo fashion pointers or something, because it was a lot like Scootaloo was trying to restrict her calories. Scootaloo wasn’t thin or anything, but she just didn’t seem to get that you need to eat to gain more than just fat.

It also made Dash nervous, because she didn’t want to let slip what she was going to do this afternoon. Things were finally coming together. Soon, Scoots could sleep over at her cloud house cuddled up together alone at night, and mares would stop giving Dash dirty looks for weeks afterwards when they did that. Seriously, what was up with that?

Anyway, so Dash wanted it to be a surprise, and she was so terrible with surprises. She was sure Scootaloo suspected something. It was obvious Scootaloo was in the know, because after practice, the filly let Rainbow Dash get away far too easily, without following her like a really cute puppy. Scootaloo must have been expecting that Dash could ‘surprise’ her at the orphanage. Rainbow resolved not to disappoint Scootaloo’s expectations.

There she was, Rainbow Dash, after the school had let out, after workout, and standing there at the Ponyville Child something or another, with a bag of peanuts. She walked in just casually chewing on a few and said, “Pardon me ma’am, but I think I have an appointment!”

The aqua green pegasus looked at Dash hungrily, so Dash stuck out the bag in her hoof saying, “Want some?”

“Sweet set you up to this, didn’t she?” The mare responded in an unimpressed tone.

“Who?”

“Sweet Joy, the morning receptionist?”

“Oh I didn’t get her name,” Dash said nervously. The mare tapped on the desk, where a triangular name plate was resting that said Packing Peanut. Dash looked at the name plate, then up at the mare, then there and back again.

“Oh, your name is Packing Peanut!” Dash said triumphantly. “I didn’t realize you had name plates.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Packy said, “Now give me those,” and she snatched the whole bag of peanuts out of Dash’s grasp.

A mouthful of peanuts later and Dash said, “Uh...”

“Sorry,” Packy said in a tone indicating she wasn’t. “I missed lunch... Sweet always seems to know when I’m going to do that.”

“I kinda know how she feels,” Rainbow said, thinking about Scootaloo’s dietary issues. Maybe she was allergic to soy? “Anyway,” Dash said, “Let’s go uh ‘interview’ Scootaloo now. Not that I need to. We’re already like, best buddies.”

“You interviewed her already?” Packy said in confusion.

“No, she follows me around after school,” Dash said, “I been giving her flight lessons and stuff.”

“Oh, well that’s nice of you,” Packy said sounding surprised, “We don’t have a flight instructor for the orphanage, though it’s rare that pegasi don’t end up at a Cloudsdale orphanage. In fact, you listed her as a pegasus, but you meant earth pony right?”

Dash blinked, “No, I’m pretty sure Scoots has got wings on her back.”

Packy frowned, “Because well, there really aren’t many pegasus foals on the ground orphanages here. And well...”

“She needs flight lessons,” Rainbow Dash explained, “She must have been grounded at an early age. It’s rare but it happens. I’ll get her up to condition to reach Cloudsdale don’t you worry.”

“Well it’s just—” Packy cut off, looking at a paper on her desk, then looking back at Dash helplessly.

“Just what?” Dash asked, “Spit it out already!”

“I have a note here on your application, that says there’s never been a foal in the Ponyville orphanage named Scootaloo in the last ten years.”

---

Rainbow Dash stomped through the orphanage, saying “I know she lives here. I even know what room she’s in. You’ll see, just wait and see.”

“She’d better,” said a nervous pink and yellow pegasus that Packy had called over in a panic, when Dash demanded to show her Scootaloo’s room. “This is highly irregular.”

Dash opened up Scootaloo’s door, saying, “See? Here’s her Wonderbolts poster. Here’s her spare scooter. Here’s her purple Hornets flag. Here’s her me flag. Here’s her... oh, hey there.”

There was a purple earth pony filly in the room with a green mane, sitting on the bed and smiling awkwardly at the three adults, who just— well, one adult who just barged in through her door. The other two were standing outside, looking very testy at the one adult.

“You Scootaloo’s uh, roommate?” Rainbow asked hesitantly.

The filly looked up at her and exclaimed, “You’re Rainbow Dash!”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out, heh heh,” Rainbow said puffing her chest out like, super suavely.

“You saved my life once!” the filly cheered standing up on her bed.

“Oh I did?” Dash said, looking closer at the filly. “Hey, you’re Aura aren’t you?” she realized. “You were the filly in that well!” She heard a delighted gasp behind her, then Aura said,

“Yes! You were the one who flew in and saved me before all those other ponies right nearby could have done the same thing.”

Dash’s smile went flat and she glared at one of the walls for some reason, then said, “Just... you’re Scootaloo’s roommate, right?”

“Ohhh! Scootaloo!” the filly said rolling her eyes in dramatic overtones to look the other way, sitting on the edge of her bed and rocking, and concluding by saying, “Yes, no she doesn’t live here.”

Rainbow Dash stared blankly. “...what?”

“No, she just asked me if I could watch her stuff for a while,” Aura clarified in that dopey sort of familiar voice of hers, “See, that’s her Wonderbolts poster and that’s her—”

“She doesn’t live here?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, the wheels in her head spinning like quasars. “Then where does she live?!”

“Um... I don’t know...” Aura whimpered, “Can you please not yell at me?”

Dash blinked, and then shook her head, leaning against the wall casually, “Don’t worry kid,” she said, “I wasn’t yelling at you I was just yelling near you.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Dash reiterated, “Scootaloo keeps her stuff here all this time, and doesn’t live here?” She tossed her mane harshly, saying “I can’t believe she doesn’t live here!” to nopony in particular.

“Are you suggesting there is a filly out there who is homeless right now?” Choice Sum exclaimed, looking between Aura and Dash incredulously.

“She’s not!” Dash insisted, “She lives... here! I must have got the wrong room!”

“I assure you there is no Scootaloo in any other room,” Choice shot back.

“I told her she’d get in trouble...” Aura said under her breath.

“Listen Aura,” Dash said, taking the filly in two hooves, “You have to tell me, where does Scootaloo live?”

“I don’t know!” she said with alarm, “She just came up at school and she was really cool and helped me with some bullies so I let her keep her stuff here. Please don’t get her in trouble!”

“Do you have any idea where she is?” Dash asked tightly.

“I... I... um... well usually after school and her lessons, she comes here to drop off...” Aura trailed off, her eyes widening in panic, “Oh no!” she exclamed looking out the door.

“There she is!” the green Packy announced, pointing a hoof down the hall from outside the room.

“You there, filly!” Choice said, then ran out of sight shouting, “Get back here!”

Packy chased right after Choice and just sort of left Rainbow Dash and Aura in the room. Dash poked her head out into the hall curiously, but the ponies had already run off out of sight.

“Does she have a house?” Dash’s thoughts belatedly chose to voice themselves out loud. “Does she have a family? Why would she need a place to keep her stuff then? Is she trying to hide her real house? Does she have a bad family?”

“I’m sorry,” Aura said, tugging at Dash’s wing, “Please don’t–”

“Don’t worry kid, she’s not in trouble,” Dash said to Aura, “Not with me at least. But if you see her could you please, please find out where she lives? It’s really important to me.”

With that Dash just blasted out the door, running down the hallway and catching wing before she even reached the stairs.

There was nothing doing. By the time Dash got outside the other two were already there, blistering about how the child just took off at abnormal speeds, and when the pegasi took to the air to find her, Scootaloo had already found some place to hide under, because she was nowhere to be seen. Dash tried searching the ground, but you can only look behind so many garbage cans before you find an angry cat. Every foal she saw in her periphery just wasn’t that distinctive orange purple that Scootaloo wore so well. Mare, Mare, blue, Mare, Stallion, off white, Mare, Mare, pink and blue, that sort of thing.

Rainbow ended up back at her home, just sort of in shock. The other tenants didn’t even complain about her loud music that night, because Dash somehow wasn’t in the mood to rock out. She just lay in her bed trying to wrap around her head that Scootaloo was just... gone. What happened to make the filly run away? Why wasn’t she living at the orphanage? Would Rainbow Dash ever see her again?

Dash was still wondering the same things after work, which distracted her so bad that the intended cloudburst, well, burst. They were going to need a huge storm at this rate. The plants were starting to dry out already. Even her coworkers seemed concerned, if for no other reason than Dash was the best cloud bucker on their team. To have her make a pressure inversion like that was pretty much unheard of. After work, Dash was trying to distract herself from distracting herself, with her regular exercise routine, when she heard a familiar voice calling her from the ground.

“Rainbow Daaaaash!”

Dash swooped down and impacted the ground, a rush of wind blowing around her. “Squirt!” she said eagerly to the little orange and purple filly who was just there for her, “Where have you been?!”

“School?” Scootaloo said, with an irate look on her cute little orange face. “Where have you been? We were supposed to have a lesson today!”

“Uh, yeah heh heh,” Rainbow Dash said nervously, “I just got a little distracted, okay? I been thinking about you all day.”

“About me?” Scootaloo said sounding surprised.

“Yeah it’s just I was...” Celestia’s teats, why couldn’t Rainbow Dash have been the Element of Ninja? She didn’t want to say it, but what else could she say? “...I was sort of,” Dash said, coming up with a blank and just awkwardly saying “Thinking about maybe adopting you, squirt.”

Scootaloo got real quiet then. It was kind of scary. Dash realized then that Scootaloo probably hadn’t even seen her at the orphanage before running away. That’s why she didn’t run away from Rainbow Dash just now. And now that Rainbow spilled the beans, Scootaloo was just going to take off again, and run away, if Rainbow didn’t appease the filly’s fears right away.

“But you know, no hurry or anything,” Dash said quickly, nudging the filly enough to make her stumble. “I was just thinking maybe some day for the future, you know? If you ever need a lift I mean.”

Scootaloo hugged her.

Just sort of, wrapped her teeny little forehooves around Dash’s front. “I would love to have a sister like you, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said in a quavering voice.

Rainbow didn’t know what to do. She looked down at the filly and raised a hoof, and she couldn’t just push her away. This was weird. Why was Scootaloo acting so upset?

“So uh, about that lesson,” Dash said hesitantly, “Mind if it’s a little late?”

“You bet, Rainbow– I mean, no way Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said looking up at her hero with the biggest smile.

Rainbow Dash had Scootaloo flying on her own power by now, if with effort. That was pretty good for an armful of week’s training, right? That filly was going to be just fine. For flying at least. All that other stuff though... something was seriously wrong. After the lesson, Dash took Scootaloo right to the pizzeria. Which Scootaloo seemed reluctant to even walk into.

“Don’t worry about the cost,” Dash said, “You earned this a long time ago. Now what’s your favorite topping?”

“I uh... I uh... mushroom,” Scootaloo admitted, a little gleam of desire in her eye. Or was that dread? Dash could never tell with that filly. So they both pigged out on pizza. Scootaloo didn’t want to eat another slice, but Dash convinced her saying, “You don’t eat enough as-is, and your workout’s done so it’ll be a lot easier on your stomach.”

“R-right,” Scootaloo said, taking another slice of pizza. She tried to act like she wasn’t hungry but she practically put the whole thing in her mouth before catching herself and taking little bites. At any rate, that was a happily fed filly by the end of the afternoon, when Scootaloo said she had to go.

“Going back to the orphanage?” Dash asked carefully.

“I’m yeah I’m, I’m totally going back to the orphanage,” Scootaloo said. “Because I had a... long day and, need my rest!”

“Hey, how about I walk you there?”

“Uh, no that’s okay Dash!” Scootaloo said quickly, walking away from her entirely too hastily. “I can get there on my own don’t worry and it’d be kind of uncool and lame if some adult was taking me home and all the other foals would laugh so I...” her composure just cracked a little at that moment, “I can’t,” she bit out, and just charged away.

“Scoots, come on!” Dash yelled, running after her. “This is weird! Where are you going?”

“Just it doesn’t matter!” Scootaloo said, only speeding up, “Same time tomorrow I promise just let me go back to the orphanage by myself!”

“I wonder if you’re even going back to the orphanage!” Dash yelled angrily, using her own wings to try to give herself a boost. It was too tricky to accelerate on the ground though, with all these obstacles in the way. Unless you had tiny freaking wings that let you turn on a dime that is. Fortunately Dash and dimes were intimately familiar, and she was a better flyer than any pegasus you would meet. But it was still tricky trying to keep up with Scootaloo, who picked the oldest, dumpiest most twisty neighborhood in Ponyville to lose her in. The one that the sewers went through. Lots of ponies started here, but very few stayed, and they left their old bones behind, sagging buildings waiting for the next sap with nothing to lose.

But hey, if eleven ponies couldn’t evade her in this neighborhood, then one little filly sure couldn’t.

Dash zipped into an alleyway and it was a dead end, nothing here but empty garbage cans and discarded papers flying around. She knew Scootaloo had come this way. She looked left and right trying to find any hiding spots. Her ears twitched at a thump behind one of the doors in these empty shops. Pushing the door knob, Dash found it was locked.

“It’s OK squirt, I’m not angry!” she shouted through the door, “I just want you to talk to me!”

Scoots didn’t answer. There was just a scuffling sound. And uh, somepony coughing?

“Buck this,” Dash said, spinning and bucking this. The door broke off with two good kicks and flew into the darkness of the old shop. She peered into the dim light trying to make out any movement in there. Then a filly just charged out past her, running off into the street.

“Wha–” Dash said, turning and looking after the filly. It was that all blue pegasus that Dash had seen around town here and there. She had a longer tail than Scootaloo, and the same rough cut uncombed hair that would look appropriate on a homeless filly’s head. How many homeless fillies were out here? Was there something evil at that orphanage?

“I’m coming in!” Rainbow announced, walking into the shop. It was a curio shop at one point. There were a lot of curio shops in Ponyville. Ponyville was also home to some of the least curious ponies Dash knew of. Curio shops didn’t typically do well here. She stepped around the broken door, keeping an eye out for any more fillies waiting to dart out from the shadows. One of them was sure to be Scootaloo. But this was all starting to get way over Dash’s head. Should she send the pony police in here, if there were fillies running around? What if the breeders were back?? No no Twilight said that could never ever happen again.

As her eyes adjusted, Dash was shocked to discover buck all of nothing. She turned the tables over, and looked in all the emptied out cabinets, and there wasn’t a single filly hiding in here. Thinking back on it, Dash remembered seeing that blue filly in her periphery when she was chasing after Scootaloo. Like many pegasi, Dash had a way of remembering things in her periphery better than stuff right out in front of her. And Scoots had gone around–no the blue filly had gone—

“They pulled a bait and switch!” Dash exclaimed, more shocked than angry. She’d been had! There wasn’t a whole nest of fillies here. There was just Scootaloo and her little accomplice. Dash crept out of the shop, looking rather guiltily at the fallen door, and propped it up. It didn’t exactly fit back on its old hinges, so she just sort of left it leaning there.

But Scootaloo and even that blue filly were both long gone. And she had no idea where they would be, or what to do if she found them. That left Dash with nothing to do but live her life, go on with her day, and wait. She had no choice but to trust in that filly to come to her senses, and be true to her promise to return the next day.

Scootaloo was true to her word, even though she lied about the orphanage, and was there right on time the next day for her lesson.

“Just please please please don’t follow me,” she begged, “I just don’t like being uh, followed. And don’t worry about me. I’m ...fine.”

Almost nothing that came out of the filly’s mouth these days was the truth; it was sad. The one thing that was true was when she said “I really really want to learn to fly like you!” So Dash gave it her all, as much as a few weeks plus a day could give a filly. She asked if Scootaloo wanted something healthy like a Hayburger or something, but Scootaloo turned that down too, just taking her leave after the lesson, saying she’s eaten plenty. Dash just didn’t know what to do about her.

But the next day was a weekend, and that gave Rainbow Dash a chance to be ...crafty.

One day on the weekend, Rainbow Dash snuck tippie toe into Sugarcube Corner. She wasn’t hiding or really needing to be quiet; she was just in a sneaky mood.

“Is Pinkie Pie around?” Rainbow Dash whispered to Mrs. Cake.

“Right in the back dear,” the portly pony said in her friendly tone. In the back, Rainbow Dash found her infrequent partner in crime busy baking corn cakes. It looked like some of them weren’t making it to the serving tray.

“Hey, Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash said urgently.

“Eff!” Pinkie squeaked surprised, then swallowed what mysterious thing she had in her mouth, and said, “Oh hey Dashie! What’s up?”

“I need something that will really tempt a filly to eat,” Dash said. “Like, even more than pizza.”

“Hmm, that’s a hard sell...” Pinkie pondered, rubbing her chin, “Especially since sweettart root is so hard to find this season. Plus different fillies like different things, so it’s really hard to say!”

“No, just one filly,” Dash said, “I’m talking about Scootaloo.”

“Ooooo, Scootaloo?” Pinkie jumped up to all fours. “Are you sure you want to feed her?” she said with a sideways grin (literally sideways because Pinkie had her head tilted sideways to the ground from the way she was leering at Dash). “She might follow you home!”

“She doesn’t eat enough as-is,” Rainbow Dash said ignoring Pinkie’s flippancy for once, “And I think she might be homeless.”

Pinkie’s smile faltered at that, and she said, “Oh no! But I thought Scootaloo was living at the orphanage!”

Dash shook her head, “Turns out she had us all fooled there. She just got a filly that was living at the orphanage to put up her stuff.”

“Maybe she has a host family?” Pinkie Pie said hopefully. Dash shook her head though,

“She wouldn’t need to use the orphanage at all then. Plus she keeps avoiding me when I try to walk her home. I think she might be living out of a cardboard box!”

Pinkie shook her head sadly, saying “That’s terrible. I never knew she was living out of a cardboard box! What does she do when it rains?”

“Well I haven’t–” Dash paused looking aside, “I haven’t exactly tracked down where she lives, yet. I was just speculating.”

“Well remember Dashie, you can’t spell speculate without u and a,”

“You can’t...” Dash laughed, “What?”

Pinkie smiled then, and touched Dashie where her chest had just shook with laughter. Dash blushed, and looked aside again.

“Don’t worry,” Pinkie said hopefully, “I’m sure we can work something out with Scootaloo. Now what was that about a cake?”

“I need something that she’ll actually eat,” Dash said hopelessly. “I don’t want her to starve to death just because I... messed up her life trying to adopt her. You’re the best pony I know when it comes to food stuff, so I was hoping you had an idea. She’s still coming to lessons with me and apparantly showing up for school, but she can’t even go back to the orphanage anymore. I might be the only meal she has left! And plus,” Dash leaned a little closer whispering, “If I can get her guard down with some tasty food, then maybe I can follow her home.”

“You must know Scootaloo really well,” Pinkie said, “I’m sure she’d go right home if she ate something super tasty!” She lay a hoof on Dash’s flank congenially, saying “It’s so great that somepony is finally helping her. I hope you... like being her mommy.”

Dash blushed at that and was going to deny something so incredibly uncool, but Pinkie segued right into saying, “Don’t worry Auntie Pinkie will take care of it. I know just the thing. There’s a special cake that I don’t make very often called the Marshmallow Mulberry Moon Pie, or as I prefer, the “mmmp.”

“mmmp?”

“It’s not a very popular dish.”

“So why...”

“Don’t worry your head Dashie,” Pinkie said cheerily, “Just leave the baking up to me!” as appropriate music began to play.

Cup by cup mixing the ingredients~
Scootaloo feeding up the filly sip by sip

“Excuse me has anyone seen my macrame?!” Rarity shouted, bursting into the bakery.

“W—” Dash said.

“Oh, never mind there it is!” Rarity said lifting a piece of lace that had been discarded on one of the tables. “Carry on!” She pranced out.

Dash turned to Pinkie, who just shrugged. “Anyway, you were singing?” Dash prompted Pinkie.

“Nah I already have all the ingredients prepared,” Pinkie answered casually, sweeping a hoof to indicate the spread over the counter.

“Wow, you are fast!” Dash said admiringly looking over them. “Wait... mulberry leaves? But those taste terrible!”

“It’s more of an overall flavor to the dish than individual ingredients,” Pinkie instructed, “Just crumble those right up into the flour to give it a lovely color!”

“You mean... green?”

“You catch on quick, Dashie!”

“Shouldn’t we use you know, mulberries? Not the leaves?”

“Who is the baker here, you or I?!” Pinkie said hotly right up in Dash’s face. Then she skipped across the room humming to herself while tossing ingredients together.

“I don’t know about this, Pinkie,” Dash said later, looking uneasily at the sandwichy marshmallowy cake thing. “Why a cake?”

“Well didn’t you know, Dashie?” Pinkie said in surprise, “Tomorrow is Scootaloo’s birthday!”

Dash laughed. “Pinkie there is no way a coincidence like that could happen.” Then she stopped laughing, remembering who she was with. “...is it really?”

“Yupperoonie!”

Dash took another uneasy look at the cake, saying “Isn’t it a little big for just one filly?”

“It’s just the right size,” Pinkie assured Dash. “Now we just pop it in the oven!” She pulled open the oven door with her teeth and slid the cake pan in. Then Pinkie Pie took the oboe off the counter and—wait what?

Dash stared as Pinkie Pie began playing the oboe in an aimless rambly tune at... the cake in the oven.

“Pinkie, what are you doing?” Dash asked warily. Pinkie didn’t respond in the slightest, only continued playing that haunting melody.

“I’ll just... let you do your thing then,” Dash said, making herself scarce.

The cake actually didn’t look half bad, especially after Pinkie drizzled a smooth coating of chocolate over the weird looking green pastry and puffy white marshmallow. Pinkie Pie mmmped taking in the aroma with delight. It didn’t smell half good to Dash, but it didn’t look half bad. Rainbow Dash just hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake.

Even flying towards the picnic area, she looked at the cake on her back skeptically, trying to think back if Pinkie had ever pulled a prank like this. But eh, what’s the harm right? If it’s a prank, you just show it to Scootaloo, she takes one look at it and goes,

“What is that?”

Dash’s face fell in astonishment. After the workout, she said she had a special treat for the squirt, and presented her with the cake all formal like and stuff, at a picnic table out of town with lots of privacy and space. They had to be quick, because Dash finally got that rainstorm going, and it was starting to cover the sky. But there was still plenty of time for this in the last few minutes of sunset. Just to find out what Scootaloo’s reaction would be, you know? And sure enough Scootaloo said “What is that?” just like Rainbow Dash had thought she would, but the tone in which she said it?

“You uh... like it, huh?” said Rainbow Dash, chuckling nervously at Scootaloo who couldn’t take her eyes off of the mmmp, seemingly drawn to it like a moth to the flame.

“Well I shouldn’t– I mean I just– It smells–I’m not really that hu– I mean can I– can I really um...” Scoots really seemed like she was fighting to hold back. The poor kid was so hungry she was actually trembling. Rainbow was starting to have second thoughts about this. Had Pinkie made some kind of evil cake that hypnotized fillies, again?

“Sure you can,” Rainbow Dash said with a wary smile, ready to jump on the filly if her pupils started to switch themselves with cakes. “It’s uh... not really my thing, so it’s all yours. Happy birthday, Scoots.”

It was probably just that all the last half week of nothing to eat had caught up to the poor filly. Scootaloo looked so hungry that she wanted to eat the darn thing whole. Which would have been an impressive feat even for Pinkie Pie, at least given the filly’s size proportionally. But Scoots stopped herself from attempting the impossible at the last minute, laughing nervously and reaching for the plastic fork and knife Dash had provided.

Still, this was exactly what Scootaloo needed. She ate ravenously once she got started. A slice of cake disappeared, and then another, and then another, and with a majority of the cake gone Rainbow Dash was amazed to think that the filly just might eat the whole thing after all. Scootaloo didn’t even look up until she had cleared the cake plate. She even cleaned off the crumbs with her tongue. If Dash had been scared about how little Scoots ate before, now she was starting to get scared about how much she was eating. Wasn’t there something bad about starving foals pigging out or something?

“Are... you going to be okay eating all that Scoots?” she said, as the filly patted her very full belly with a dreamy satisfaction. That seemed to snap Scooataloo out of it. When she remembered she wasn’t alone, fear started to color her features. She had a look in her eyes. Just a little bit, like she was trying to hide it, but it was there. As if Rainbow Dash were so dangerous, that Scootaloo couldn’t even let herself show fear.

“Oh I’m fine! I’m... woah, fine!” Scootaloo said, standing up from the picnic table. Her belly was almost touching the ground, not that that was hard with those stubby little filly legs of hers. She started to waddle off, a tone of panic in her voice when she said, “I have to go um... do a thing with my friends and, things so um... don’t follow me it’s okay I’m I I I gotta go,” and then she just bolted for the town as fast as her legs could carry her.

It actually took Rainbow a second to recover from that. Just being looked at like that hurt in a way she couldn’t describe. She stood up from the picnic table as well, but unlike Scoots, she shot straight up in the air, taking a holding pattern once she was at the bottom edge of the clouds. Some would say Rainbow Dash’s coat and mane stuck out like a sore thumb, but from below she was little more than a blue swatch in the sky, a blue that merged pretty seamlessly with the grey in the clouds, and was totally invisible before a clear sky.

Scootaloo on the other hand was a tiny little bright orange dot down there, with a tiny little purple swirl on her head. It was pitifully easy to track the strongly colored filly from the air, as long as Scootaloo didn’t go under anything, or try to hide.

But she wouldn’t this time, because she didn’t even know Dash was following her. Dash didn’t really understand what Pinkie’s logic was at first, but it made sense now. Of course Scootaloo was going home. Scoots had an eating problem, and she was going to go straight for her source of comfort. Whatever she called a home.

Dash was surprised to see Scootaloo veer away from the neighborhood she led Dash into last time, going straight across town to the southeastern edge, where Fluttershy’s cottage was. Dash smirked at that, impressed with the kid’s ingenuity. Not only could she coordinate flawlessly with other fillies, Scootaloo was savvy enough to lead Dash away from her home, not towards it. Then Rainbow Dash started to put the pieces together.

“Wait a minute...” Dash said to herself, “Eats like a bird, bad at flying, night terrors, anxiety issues... if you lower the saturation, you get... woah.”

She was highly relieved, when Scootaloo continued on right past Fluttershy’s cottage, heading instead toward the ones that had gotten abandoned in the creeper vine hysteria a number of years ago. Not a particularly notable story, if a pretty dramatic one. Ponies panic easily, the Everfree was right nearby. Go figure.

It made sense that a homeless filly would come here—in fact—because it was hard to keep these cottages occupied. Fluttershy only managed it, because she was more in love with the forest than afraid of it, but even she was afraid of it. There were things in that forest. Plus this district wasn’t pervaded with the unpleasant scent of sewage treatment, and if Rainbow were a homeless filly, she’d take a few timber wolves over a sewage treatment plant any day.

Scootaloo’s path was pretty much a beeline for a particular cottage at this point, so Rainbow Dash turned her glide into a descent, circling the anticipated destination as she slid through the air like a hot knife. She wondered if she would find a lot of foals hiding out here. If there were a gang of abandoned foals here, it would be natural for them to sleep in the same spot for safety. She wondered what she was going to do about that. Nothing? Report them? Ask them why they weren’t staying at the orphanage?

Dash’s features darkened as she recalled the sordid tales Twilight had regaled her with. If there was something wrong with that orphanage, Dash wasn’t going to let the legions of Tartarus stop her from uncovering it, much less a few nervous fillies. They’d understand if she uncovered their secret, if she helped get them a decent place to sleep, along with who knows how many foals that were imprisoned in the orphanage against their will. No matter how scared the fillies were of discovery, it never helped to try to keep bad things hidden, even if it put your friends in danger. Dash learned that out the hard way, not too long ago.

The thickening clouds were offering convenient darkness, as Dash swooped up to land on the cottage roof, touching down as light as a feather and awaiting Scootaloo’s arrival. The cottage didn’t have a green roof like Fluttershy’s did, but Fluttershy grew that herself so it wasn’t a surprise. The building had seen better days though. A lot of the straw was crumbling and rotted after having gone a few years without maintenance. The roof probably leaked. Rainbow winced as she remembered the storm she and her fellow pegasi had wrought in the sky, wondering how many fillies thought they would have to huddle in here tonight with no one to comfort them. There was a lightning flash overhead. It illuminated Scootaloo.

Dash ducked down but the filly wasn’t looking anywhere but straight forward. She’d gotten her scooter at some point so at least she didn’t have to run that fast on a heavy stomach. A heavy stomach that Dash gave her. Stupid Pinkie. Stupid Dash! Pinkie was just trying to help; she did exactly what Rainbow Dash asked for. Why hadn’t Rainbow just stopped the kid after the first slice! Now she had a stomach ache and it was all Rainbow’s fault.

Scootaloo vanished inside with hardly a pause to toss her scooter away. With a feline grace, if cats had wings, Dash glided down and into the building after Scootaloo, not even bothering to touch down, so her hooves didn’t make noise on the creaky floorboards.

The cottage had a single main room like most of them here, with an upstairs bedroom, a separate bath and kitchen. Rainbow landed lightly at the threshold to the main room, listening to the filly’s heavy breathing. Dash couldn’t say anything, because her heart caught in the throat when she realized the kid wasn’t just out of breath, she was sobbing. With the storm and the small windows, it was as dark in here as that abandoned store, bringing uncomfortable memories back for a moment, until Scootaloo bit the knob on a gas lantern, twisting it to lend an ironically cheery light to the room. The pattering of raindrops started to hit the roof, reminding Dash of this filly’s so very tenuous existence.

There was a lot of stuff here. It looked like the former occupants had left in a hurry, because there were still moving boxes piled everywhere. The furniture was sparse, but at least there was furniture. A really ratty looking couch. Dash couldn’t help but notice that there were already posters on every inch of exposed wall that wasn’t molding, but only below the level that a filly could reach. A filly who couldn’t fly, that is. And they weren’t all Wonderbolts either. There was the Sisterhooves Social poster, colored like—Celestia damn it. There was the ... Pansy Festival? Since when did Scootaloo like pansies?

And in the center of it all, where the most space was cleared out, was a little filly, sobbing out incoherent half words around her tears. Scootaloo was stumbling forward trying to curse herself out, but couldn’t even get a full word out. What was wrong with that filly? She looked a lot more distraught than some filly who had only had too much cake to eat.

Dash was so scared. She wanted to say something, she needed to say something, but Scootaloo looked so scared. Rainbow didn’t dare move a muscle. She wanted to leave the room and give Scootaloo what remained of her dignity, but there was no way Rainbow could now without being seen. The filly was still facing away from her, bracing her hooves firmly on the floor, but they were in a cheerfully lit room in warm earth tones. That was the opposite of the situation in which Rainbow Dash could camoflage herself and Scootaloo could be seen. Rainbow wasn’t that stealthy. So she had to say something. But what could she say, that wouldn’t shatter this kid’s heart?

Scootaloo’s entire body shivered, and then her abdomen contracted sharply. Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes bugged out as a gigantic blue glop erupted from her distending throat, practically the size of the filly herself, flying halfway across the room, to land with a disgusting plop. It happened so fast, Dash could have missed it, if she ever again regained the ability to blink. That wasn’t cake. That wasn’t cake at all! Still facing that... thing she just puked up, Scootaloo just went right back to sniffling, whimpering in less distressed tones. Then it moved.

“What the bucking hell?” Rainbow Dash shouted.

The rain overhead turned into a roar.

Author's Note:

Celestia bucking damn it.

Comments

[SoralTheSol]

'_' WTF

[Reese]

"The one that went the sewers went through."
I'm not sure what this was meant to mean.

...Okay. Well. This story just got rather odd. :D

[Draco Dei]

Still, this was exactly what Scootaloo needed. She ate ravenously once she got started.
-So... maybe not a Changeling after all???

*Reads Comic Linked*

Well... that's... I guess that explains the problem and... now I see why you had all the analysis of unwanted pregnancies, because, yeah, that actually explains a lot, and is a very interesting situation.

Not actually a difficult situation to manage if she had the right support network and her condition was properly documented (See: explain the situation to Twilight and then dive for cover as she, to slightly paraphrase one of the pre-readers of The Two Deaths of Fluttershy "Sciences the Tartarus out of Fluttershy Scootaloo."

[ValenceBond]

Hey, for some reason the letter in this chapter isnt showing up correctly. I was able to get the gist of what it said, but you might want to fix it.

[TwilightShipper]

the Element of Ninja

I am all for that to happen.