Something New
The next morning was overcast and cold, the perfect morning to stay in with a smoldering fire and a good book, despite that Twilight again set off in search of more answers; boarding a train to Manehattan. Though Ponyville’s archives didn’t have any answers, Scootaloo used to live in Manehattan, and now that she had a case number to orient her she could begin a search of the Manhehattan archives.. Despite the maudlin circumstances Twilight couldn’t help but be excited on the train ride.; what made research so gratifying to her was the process. Starting with one small piece of information, that she could pull on, until the whole problem became unraveled.
Government standards being uniform throughout Equestria, Manehattans foal services was housed within city hall. But unlike Ponyville’s one story building, Manehattan’s city hall was a 25 story skyscraper. The directory in the lobby told her that she was looking for the 16th floor. When she arrived she was met with a look of shock from the receptionist. It was the same look she encountered all over Equestria when she traveled outside Ponyville. Is that really a Princess? What’s she doing here? Am I in trouble? Is my life about to change? The answers to those questions were almost always, yes, running errands, no and no. But that didn’t stop Twilight from becoming exasperated on occasion. She put on her best smile. “Yes, hi. I’m actually running Ponyville’s Foal Services office for the time being and well I need a file I think you have.”
The receptionist behind the desk quickly composed herself. “Of course, we catalog files by year. which one?”
Twilight bit back a comment about how chronological ordering wasn’t the optimal filing solution for an agency whose timelines could easily become confused.. “I’m not really sure, try five years ago. The filly’s name is Scootaloo.”
“Right away your Highness,” the clerk said, as Twilight forced another smile.
Some rummaging later, the clerk produced a manilla envelope. Twilight didn’t wait to get home, choosing to open the file right there on the counter, her curiosity getting the best of her. Scootaloo’s medical history showed she received all of her shots and yearly checkups revealed no serious health problems. She had more than a few disciplinary write-ups from her time in the orphanage, but all were for minor infractions, the most serious being the time she thought it would be a good idea to slide down the stairs on a repurposed bath mat.
“Is that it?” the receptionist asked hopefully.
No this isn’t it. How can this be it, this is barely more than a medical history, I don't need to know if Scootaloo got her shots, I need to know who she is so I can find her a home that makes her happy! “Yes, thank you.”
Her trip to Foal Services being what could barely be considered a success Twilight set off to one of her favorite places. Manehattan was home to one of the largest libraries in Equestria, and it’s crown jewel was the stately reading room. Laid out more like a museum, which it technically was given the age and rarity of some of it’s volumes, the reading room in the central branch was one of Twilight’s favorite places. As a child she spent countless hours exploring far off places and studying the works of Equestria's foremost thinkers, and though her duties as a Princess prevented her from returning as often as she would have liked she still felt right at home, claiming a small desk in the far left corner of the room where she was least likely to be disturbed. Alone with her thoughts, and armed with all of the paperwork she was likely to get, Twilight opened the Foal Services Registry. After reading a few listings to gauge the appropriate style and tone she took out a pen and began to write.
While Twilight was off in Manehattan, Scootaloo decided to take advantage of a rare afternoon off to spend time with the crusaders. Today's activity was Cutie Mark Crusaders doctors, but unfortunately the citizens of ponyville didn’t seem to have any medical ailments they were willing to let three fillies with a propensity for mayhem treat.
“How are we supposed to get out medical cutie marks if no one will let us help them?” Sweetie Belle asked throwing her hoofs in the air.
“We could look at that bandage you got there Scoots,” Applebloom suggested.
Scootaloo instinctively brought her damaged hoof closer. “But it’s already healing, we aren’t going to get our cutie marks by putting on a new bandage.”
“Maybe but we aren’t going to get our cutie marks doing nothing either,” Applebloom playfully retorted.
As usual the role of peacemaker fell to Sweetie. “What if we just play a game, it’s been a while since we had fun, just the three of us.”
Scootaloo was quick to agree if for no other reason then it would end the discussion about her hoof. “I call the going first,” she said, rushing to grab Scrabble from it’s place on the shelf.
Scootaloo is an energetic filly who would do well in a small family that enjoys the outdoors. She doesn't have any diagnosed behavioral issues but she does have a fierce independent streak. This will be her first real family and she's eager to fit in however her new parents should be prepared to work with her on that front. Her extracurricular interest include riding on her scooter and the wonderbolts. She's made several friends in ponyville and it would be best for her to stay where she could continue those friendships.
Twilight read the paragraph she had just written, precise in its language, factually accurate, elegant in its brevity and promptly crumpled it up in disgust where it joined a small mound of other similarly crumpled papers. She’s not a puppy. I thought I was going to do this differently. How is another boilerplate ‘please adopt this little girl’ going to help anypony? She slammed the adoption registry closed in another moment of frustration. Taking a deep breath, Twilight began to mentally distance herself from the task at hand, it was her prefered method of problem solving. Break the problem down to it’s components, then work backwards.
Scootaloo needs a family.
To get a family she needs to be adopted
To be adopted prospective parents have to be interested in adopting her.
To be interested in adopting her her entry in the registry has to be compelling.
That was it, the flaw in the process! The whole stupid registry was doing more harm than good. Emboldened with an idea, Twilight quickly packed up and flew back to Foal Services. When she burst through the door the look of sheer terror on the receptionist face was enough to remind Twilight to lower her excitement levels. “If I was looking to adopt a foal, where would I start?”
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
806 users online
641,182 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Great to see this story back!
Good job on Twilight to realize just what Scootaloo needs. Now the question becomes are they a good fit for one another?
Oooh, just in time for my lunch break!
It liiiives!
Wow, welcome back!
I liked this bit:
Glad to see this story back in the land of the living. And things are about to really get interesting.
Haha, nice going, Twi. You're scaring that poor mare.
I honestly forgot about this story. Regardless, I am very happy to see it updated.
It's Alive!
Thank you for bringing this back
Looking forward to seeing where this goes, and wether Twilight ends up with Scootaloo after all.
Thank you for continuing this. I've been eagerly awaiting an update since May. I do hope Scoot finds herself a loving home, even if it ends up being with Twilight.
And so... it begins.
I’m looking forward to the next chapter, whenever that may be.
FINALLY! WOO!
9399009
I don’t think she is thinking what I think you are thinking
Really happy when I logged in to see this update. Storytelling still great and the characters just feel "right".
I'm very happy, that you're continuing the story.
May be I cn do the same sometimes.
I'm gld, that Twilight now tries to adopt her finally. It was a little bit of long overdue, but fitting at the same time.
I don't know if you want corrections in the comment section or not. But one paragraph stuck out to me.
As you can see, there are two mistakes. One is a misplaced space. It took me a few moments to realize that that was the case. Stead of "Scootalooins tinctively", it should be "Scootaloo instinctively". The second is just a repeated word.
Seriously, I honestly wanted to pronounce that as "Scootaloins".
Hor-Ray! New Chapter!
Glad to see this resurrected, Three Gems and a Scooter is one my favorite fics for taking realistic and logical approach for common premise. This one uses the same style for "Scootaloo is homeless" trope and it's executed just as well. It doesn't feel like a retread either since Twilight has her own approach to the problem which is pretty interesting to follow. I also like how it's not clear if she will end up adopting Scootaloo or not. Granted, she most likely will but the outcome where she finds Scootaloo a good family still seems fairly possible at this point.
Awesome! Keep on writing this please :)
Any plans on finishing it?
9741711
yes.....but like many authors on here I've slowed down
9744268
Oh well, that's still better than some writers, who decided to abandon their stories of completely disappear.
This story is really nice and gives warm feels.
I look forward to seeing more of this.
I'm really glad to see you upload another chapter, always a joy reading any of your stories. I especially love how you wrote Twilight in this one, cool, collected, calm, and rational, it sure is a fresh breath of air from the crazy neurotic Twilight. Not that I don't like reading about the crazy Twilight but this is really nice.