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The News2,810 words
Reactions3,370 words
Aftermath2,836 words
Comfort3,008 words
Choices2,637 words
Family3,784 words
Confession3,140 words
Coming Out3,050 words
Birth2,611 words
Homecoming1,826 words

Comfort

"Hey Scoots, is everything okay?" Sweetie Belle asked as she walked into the clubhouse where Scootaloo was pacing nervously. "Applejack said that you wanted to go to the Clubhouse. Is this about what Cirrus did?"

"Yeah, I guess," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she played with her mane a little, still she gave Sweetie a smile, it was good to see one of her friends at least. "Where's Apple Bloom?"

"Oh, she had to do some chores around the farm, she said she'd be here in a bit," Sweetie said with a sigh as she hugged Scootaloo gently. "Principal Swift said that you were suspended for three days because of what happened this morning, that's insane... he totally had it coming."

"Yeah, I know, but to be honest I overreacted," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head, she had finally started to calm down after this morning. "I mean yeah he deserved it, but it wasn't the time or the place to do that kind of thing."

"Are you kidding? He probably deserved worse, and I'm surprised Rainbow Dash hasn't gone after him by this point," Sweetie said with a chuckle.

"Oh, well Fluttershy kinda talked her out of it, but I may have sent Discord after him instead," Scootaloo said with a light chuckle. "I'd pay all the bits I have to see that."

Sweetie just laughed and the two friends shared a good laugh. It was nice to at least have a moment to relax and calm down after everything that was happening lately. Sweetie didn't know quite what to think about this whole thing yet, but she knew that she had to be there for Scootaloo, that was what friends were for after all, right?

She knew that if she was in the same situation she'd want Scootaloo to do the same for her, heck she'd probably do more for her than Sweetie would for Scootaloo given that she's always a bit impulsive. That was part of the reason she liked her so much, she was loyal to a fault.

"So, what are we going to do now then?" Sweetie asked as she looked over at Scootaloo.

"I, honestly have no idea," Scootaloo admitted as she looked down at her hooves. "Matron Blueberry isn't going to punish me at least, so I'm not going to be stuck in the orphanage until the punishment at school is over, that's something at least."

"Well that's good," Sweetie said with a smile as she released Scootaloo from the hug. "Lets just hope everything will be okay at school, a lot of ponies are talking about what happened and why you suddenly left school."

"Oh, what are they saying?"

"Oh, stuff like you got into a fight with your coltfriend or you dropped out of school, one theory is that you were called away on some friendship problem with Rainbow Dash or something," Sweetie said with a chuckle. "Nopony really knows what happened yet, though I don't know how long that's going to last."

"Yeah, unless somepony puts an illusion spell on me or something it's going to get very obvious in a few months," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. "I just have to hope that nopony will judge me too harshly for it."

"Don't worry Scootaloo, even if they do you have your friends here with you," Sweetie said with a smile. "You're going to be just fine I promise. I'll be here for you every step of the way."

"You really mean that?"

"Of course, that's what friends are for," Sweetie said as she hugged Scootaloo again. "We all will be of course, if you do something to one Crusader you do it to all of us, Cutie Mark Crusaders forever."

Scootaloo smiled as she hugged back and started to cry, she didn't know what she had done to deserve such wonderful friends but she couldn't be happier. It told her that maybe, just maybe everything was going to be okay, even if she still had a long way to go before she was really ready to really be a mother, but she was going to do the best she could.

"Hey, am Ah interruptin' anythin'?" A familiar accented voice asked and the two fillies turned to see Apple Bloom standing there with a smile on her face. "Or did yah two finally stop lyin' ta yerselves about how yah feel?"

"Wait, what?" Scootaloo asked as her face turned red out of embarrassment, what did Apple Bloom mean by that? "We were just hugging, I'd say that's a normal thing to do when you're trying to comfort a friend."

"Yeah, what are you even suggesting?" Sweetie Belle asked as she blushed even more than Scootaloo. "We're just friends, nothing more!"

Apple Bloom just laughed her head off at that. "Ya'll are protestin' too much if yah ask me. But fine, so what are we gonna do now?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Scootaloo admitted as she looked through the papers. "We still have a few ponies who need help with their cutie marks coming over this afternoon, anything else?"

Her friends just shrugged as they started to get ready for their usual group of clients to arrive.

00000

Matron Blueberry Milkshake took a deep breath as she walked alongside Principal Swift Rise. They were going together to meet with Cirrus' parents and honestly neither of them were exactly sure how they were going to broach the subject of what had happened with Scootaloo.

She had been Scootaloo's guardian ever since the filly had moved into the orphanage when she first came to Ponyville 9 years go. She had seen her go through a lot, both good and bad, and she had no doubt that the filly could handle whatever the world threw at her, even this.

The challenge now was dealing with Cirrus' parents, she hadn't really ever known them and only barely knew Cirrus himself, but she hoped they would listen to them.

"Have you ever had to do anything like this before?" Blueberry asked as she looked over at Swift who just shook her head. "Yeah, me neither, lets just hope everything will turn out okay."

"Yeah, we can only hope," Swift said as she knocked on the door of the two story home, after a minute a Pegasus mare with a white coat and a red mane answered the door and gave them a smile. "Are you Mrs. Crimson Star?"

"That's me, can I help you?" The Pegasus mare asked curiously as she looked at the two mares.

"My name is Swift Rise, I'm the Principal at the local high school where your son goes and Blueberry here is in charge of the local orphanage, there has been a, situation that we need to talk to you and your Husband about if that's okay," Swift said with a shake of her head, this wasn't going to be easy. "May we come inside?"

"Is Cirrus in trouble?" Crimson asked as she lead the two mares into the house. "What did he do this time?"

"Ma'am, your son has been involved with one of the fillies that live at my orphanage for a few months now, right?" Blueberry asks.

"Oh yes Scootaloo, I've met her a few times, she seems very nice," Crimson said with a smile as she lead them into the living room where a grey Pegasus stallion with a blue mane was reading the newspaper. "Nimbus, these two mares are here to talk about Cirrus and Scootaloo."

"What can we help you with?" Nimbus asked as he lowered his newspaper and looked up at the two. "He hasn't been causing her any trouble has he? He came home and just went right upstairs, we couldn't get two words out of him."

"Well, something like that," Blueberry said with a frown. "Scootaloo had to go to the doctor the other day and when the results on the tests came back we discovered she was Pregnant. He's the only pony that she's actually been with in the past few months. When she came to school this morning, she found him flirting openly with another student and there was, an altercation between the two"

Blueberry let the comment hang over the room for a few minutes as the couple let it sink in. They had a hard time accepting it right away and Blueberry didn't blame them, they were being told that they were going to be grandparents, and that their son had betrayed Scootaloo's trust. This wasn't something that would be easy for any parents to accept, she had no idea how they were going to react.

"Can you prove this?" Nimbus asked as he looked between the two mares. "Do you have the records from the doctor's visit to prove that she's Pregnant?"

"Right here," Blueberry said as she took out the information and gave it over to the couple and they looked it over. "I went to the doctor myself in order to make sure that the test was accurate, it was."

"I see..." Crimson said with a frown as she looked down at the papers. "Can you prove what you're saying about what he did was true?"

"We have witnesses that prove it ma'am," Swift said with a shake of her head. "I know this is hard to accept, but I don't think Scootaloo would lie about this kind of thing, or stray away from a pony she was in a relationship with."

The Pegasus couple looked between each other and talked quietly for a long moment as they tried to figure out what to do. There was a long moment of silence that followed before Crimson got to her hooves and headed upstairs to find Cirrus, Nimbus just shook his head.

"I'm sorry about this, we thought we had raised him better than this," Nimbus said with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry Scootaloo got dragged into this, she seems like a nice pony and we didn't mean for any of this to happen. If there's anything we can do to help, we'll be willing to help as best we can."

"Thank you," Blueberry said with a sigh of relief, she had been worried about what they would do. "What are you going to do with him?"

"We're still working on that, does Scootaloo want anything to do with him at this point?" Nimbus asked as he looked between them again.

"I highly doubt it," Blueberry said with a shake of her head. "I honestly don't know what she wants, but she feels betrayed by your son and I don't blame her for it. Its ultimately up to her, but I think for the time being he should be kept away from her."

"I see," Nimbus said with a nod. "Alright, we'll look into some options, that much I can promise you. "I know this can't be easy for Scootaloo, if you'll tell her we're sorry that would help a lot. We'll make sure that this incident isn't repeated again, I promise."

"Thank you," Swift said with a nod. "Thank you for being understanding, I know this isn't something that most parents want to deal with, and I'm glad we were able to figure something out."

"What's going to happen to the foal?" Nimbus asked after a long moment. "I mean, if she's an orphan, what will she do with it?"

"We're still deciding what's going to happen with the foal," Blueberry said with a shrug. "Scootaloo wants to make the decision for herself and I'm going to respect whatever it is. She's spent her whole life in foster homes and orphanages because her own parents couldn't take care of her, I don't think she'd want the same thing to happen to her own son or daughter."

Nimbus nodded as Crimson came downstairs with a shake of her head.

"Did you talk to him?" Nimbus asked.

"He's still a bit in shock after what happened earlier, but I think he knows what he did was wrong at least," Crimson said with a sigh. "This is quite a lot for all of us to take in."

Blueberry nodded in understanding. "Alright, well thank you for being understanding," she said and slowly got to her hooves. "Everything will hopefully turn out okay."

"There's one more thing," Nimbus said. "If we can help you out, can you not tell Scootaloo where the help is coming from? I know its a strange request, but, we need to figure out what we're going to do with our son before we're ready for her to really know..."

"Okay, we won't tell her for now, but..." Blueberry said with a pause. "Someday the foal may want to know his or her family, I just hope that everything will be okay by then."

They nodded and the two mares headed out. Blueberry let out a sigh of relief, she had been afraid of how this might go, but everything seemed to be fine. She took a deep breath and looked over at Swift who gave her a nod.

Now it was only a matter of figuring out what this would mean for Scootaloo. She knew that they would need help, and now the chances of somepony adopting her weren't exactly high. She not only needed to find a pony willing to help raise a teenager, but one that would possibly have to help take on a newborn in a matter of months.

This wasn't going to be easy on any of them, she just had to hope that everything would be okay in the long run.

00000

Blueberry hummed lightly to herself when she opened the door to the orphanage, some of the younger foals were running around and playing. She chuckled a little when she saw a familiar looking prismatic maned mare who was laughing and playing with some of the fillies.

Ever since she had become close to Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash had been a common fixture at the orphanage and the foals had taken a quick liking to her. After all, it wasn't every day that you got to hang out with one of the heroes of Equestria, and Rainbow had made it a point to come at least once a week.

Sometimes she wondered why Rainbow never seemed that interested in adopting a foal herself, she never really showed it in public but the Pegasus mare was actually really good with foals. Blueberry smiled a little as she trotted up to them and Rainbow gave her a wave.

"Hey Rainbow, glad to see you here again, Scootaloo is hanging out with her friends at the moment," she said and Rainbow just kind of shrugged.

"Its fine, I actually..." Rainbow started to say before she paused a moment as she looked at Blueberry nervously, like she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. "I wanted to talk to you about something, in private if that's okay."

"Okay, lets go to my office," Blueberry said and lead Rainbow back to her office while some of the older foals took care of the younger ones. She opened the door and took a seat behind her desk while Rainbow did the same in one of the chairs in front. "So what's on your mind lately?"

"I've, been thinking about Scootaloo and what's been going on a lot," Rainbow said with a sigh as she tapped her hooves together nervously. "About everything that's been going on, it feels like there's something I should do to help her and the foal, if that makes any sense."

"I understand completely," Blueberry said with a smile. "So, what brought this on all of a sudden Rainbow?"
"Its a long story, can you promise not to tell Scootaloo? I want to tell her myself when the time is right," Rainbow asked and Blueberry nodded in understanding. "I'm... her mother."

Blueberry just froze for a long moment, she had known that Scootaloo's family had given her up for adoption instead of having died, but she had no idea who it was that had done it. Their names hadn't been on record for some reason, but now everything was starting to make sense.

"You couldn't raise her so you gave her up for adoption right?" Blueberry asked and Rainbow nodded sadly. "I'm sorry Rainbow, I know that can't be easy for you, especially what's going on lately. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I want to, maybe adopt Scootaloo," Rainbow finally said with a shake of her head. "I know its a bit too late and I know you're doing a good job here but..."

"You want to give her and the foal the best chance at having a family you can?" Blueberry asked and Rainbow nodded. "I understand, and I can't promise that it'll be done anytime soon, but I can at least start the paperwork and background check."

"Thank you," Rainbow said with a soft smile, she breathed a sigh of relief, she was just happy that the process was going to be started.

"Are you 100% sure that you want to do this though?" Blueberry asked. "You're going to not only be taking on Scootaloo, but you may be taking on her unborn foal too. That's not going to be an easy task for you, I don't want to dissuade you of course but I just want to make sure you know what you're getting into."

Rainbow paused a long moment, she had been thinking about this for awhile and had only recently made the decision to go through with it. This did complicate matters of course, but it wasn't something she was going to shy away from.

"Of course, I'll be the best mom and grandmother I can be," Rainbow said with a smile. "I'll be the most awesome one ever."
Blueberry just smiled and nodded, she didn't doubt that Rainbow Dash could do it, and she just hoped that whenever she did get around to telling Scootaloo the truth that everything would be okay.

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