Familial bonds: part three

by Darling Dearest

Moment of truth

The following morning arrived swiftly, sending rays of sun into Rainbow’s room. They pierced through the window and forcefully yanked Rainbow eyes open.

“Ugh!” Rainbow muttered.

She slumped out of bed, her usually dynamic, rainbow main now droopy and messy. However, it suddenly burst with life, as a shock of memory bolted from Rainbow’s brain, making it, clean and sleek once again. Rainbow had remembered her plan.

“Ha, ha. Today’s the day, Rainbow. You’re finally gonna do it! This is gonna be so awesome.”

“Dearie, are you alright in there? Is somepony with you?”

Rainbow gasped.

“N… no mom, jus’ got a little carried away.”

“Ha, same old Dashy.”

Rainbow made out the sound of hoofs clopping away, cringing all the while.

“Let’s, let’s just pretend that never happened.”

Catching a brief glimpse out her window, Rainbow noticed the worker ponies. Still slaving away, restoring Ponyville from the storm.

“Wow, I knew they went over board with that storm… But, geez. Somepony could’ve gotten…”

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, Rainbow exited her room.

The morning seemed to flash by at a speed even Rainbow couldn’t dare to comprehend. She washed, ate breakfast and said goodbye to her parents, before bursting from the house and into Ponyville.

She was suddenly in the sky, finally ready, turning what could’ve been a normal day, into an event that would shake the lives of many ponies irreversibly. Rainbow prayed that it would be for the better. She almost wanted to beg for the journey to never end, for the awkward confrontation to never rear its head. However, the majority of her being was filled with a determination that she had been without for days now, which she was so thrilled to finally have back, and that wouldn’t dare of letting her think of deterring now. Just as she had completely squashed any lingering pests of insecurity, the journey was over. She had arrived.

The house seemed small compared to what it had been like previously. No longer the looming, intimidating, haunted house that it once was. And, in it’s place, stood a small and helpless abode, clearly in desperate need of support.
Rainbow approached the door, gently knocking on it three times. She heard fumbling from the other side, before the door violently swung open.

“Whaaaaaa… oh, hello, Miss Dash. What brings you around this early in the mornin’? Wha… what time is it.”

Electric Breeze’s mane was frazzled, with loose strands of hair weaving in and out in every direction, creating some of the most powerful knots Rainbow had ever laid eyes upon. Her eyes were barely open, leaving only a thin light line for the mare to see from.

“Erm… It’s about eight, I’d guess.”

Electric’s head wavered slightly.

“Oh, is it?”

She suddenly snapped from her daze, giving off a powerful yawn, before opening her eyes wide, revealing tiered, vulnerable pupils.

“Could’ve sworn it was earlier… Anyway, what can we do for ya?”

Rainbow slowly began to brush her mane with her hoof, her eye contact slightly veering.

“Erm, could I… maybe, talk t’ you an’ Wild for a bit?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. But, Wild’s just out for a…”

“Hey honey, I couldn’t…”

Rainbow spun around, noticing Wild Twister, galloping toward the house, his face seemed oddly stern, not making full eye contact with either of the mares.

“Hey, honey. Are you doin’ alright.”

“What, oh. Great, great… jus’ great.”

“Rainbow jus’ wan’ed t’ talk to us for a minute.”

Wild’s eyes dotted from Electric to Rainbow in rapid succession, before abruptly stopping, his eyes now directly staring into Rainbow’s soul.

“Splendid, come on in, I’ll make you some hot coco.”

“No, no. Thanks an’ all, but I jus’ need t’…” discuss some things is all.”

“Oh, erm… alright then, come on through.”

Wild lead the two mares through to the living room, sweat dripped from the his fur covering his fore head, though he tried desperately to hide it.

Rainbow began couldn’t help but feel suspicious. However, she quickly brushed the issue into the left corner of her brain, letting the matter at hand take centre stage once again.

Some time seemed to pass after the three ponies settled into the living room, with each passing moment weighing down the situation with more and more awkwardness, the likes of which Rainbow had never thought could exist. She began to question if she could even bring herself to talk, though the words did eventually force themselves through her mouth.

“Scootaloo.”

“What?”

“How’s… how’s Scootaloo.”

The two parents appeared puzzled for a moment, taken back by what initially seemed to be such a simple question. They stared at each other for a brief moment.

Electric slowly opened her mouth to respond.

“She’s... she’s great.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“Look guys, I’ve know Scoots for quite a while now, we’ve been through things nopony could ever imagine together, an’ I’d like t’ think I a better pony because ‘ve it. And, ’cause ‘a that, I kinda know when somethin’ ain’t right with her.”
“What do you mean?” Wild asked.

“I remember one night, it seems so long ago now, when Scootaloo almost got herself hurt.”

“My, Celestia, was she alright!”

“Emphasis on the ALMOST. I got in their just in time, gave her a good talkin’ to. She ain’t gonna be doin’ anythin’ that stupid any time soon.”

“Yeah…” Wild added, his voice unnaturally high pitched and his eye brows raised high.

“Anyway… I ended up bringin’ up you guys… An’, THAT’S when she getting’ all defensive. Before that, she seemed more than happy to talk, but then, after I brought up you, she seemed so desperate to jus’… get away.”

The room was silent for a moment.

“An’ that’s when it all clicked, Scootaloo had never talked about you guys to me before, like ever. I mean, she’s a little filly, right? They complain about their parents all the time. But, Scootaloo jus’ wouldn’t open her mouth.”

“Yeah, I guess that is a little strange.”

“Look, I get fillies being embarrassed by their parents, I’d know. But, that jus’ didn’t seem like the problem. So, I did a little digging. And, well here we’re now. I finally got her to crack one night. And, no offense, part of me… kinda gets where she was comin’ from.”

“Yeah, we get it.”

“Ya see… Wait, WHAT!?”

Electric stepped forward to speak, though she was quickly interrupted by Wild placing his hoof on her chest, smiling at her.

“We love Scootaloo, we really do. More than we could ever put into words. But…”

He let out a heavy sigh.

“We know that we ain’t the most stable ‘a ponies. We fight argue an’ we’re barely even home. So poor Scootaloo has to act like a full-grown mare before her time. We see all her friends getting’ the foalhoods they all the deserve. It pains us to know that we’ll never be able to give her the same.”

Wild looked down from Rainbow, a guilty, ashamed stare beamed from his eyes. Years of escaping the issue had finally caught up to him. Windy tied to comfort him, but ultimately came to feel the same guilt as he did.

“Hey… you guys aren’t all THAT bad.”

“Don’t pity us Ms Dash… We know.”

“No, I’m serious! You guys work your flanks off, just to give her a safe home. So, you argued a little, I… I know now that if you really love a pony, than you’re gonna fight from time to time. ‘Cause, the ponies who love us most are also the ponies who annoy us the most… And, that ya gotta talk it out before things end up way worse, an’ ya end up not seein’ ‘em for a really long time. That’s a problem that you guys ‘ve gotta work on. But, you ain’t the only ponies who have that problem, and it absolutely doesn’t make you bad ponies.”

Electric looked up at Rainbow, her mask having lifted, allowing Rainbow to glance at her true face for the first time, revealing two eyes of endless vulnerability and insecurity, which so desperately needed southing.

“You mean it?”

“What could I possibly get from lying.”

“Fair point.”

Electric chuckled, Rainbow did the same. However, the cyan Pegasus’ demeaner suddenly took a more serious expression.

“But, that don’t mean your completely off the hook though.”
Still looking ashamed, both Wild and Electric sat up straight to face Rainbow, as if they were mere foals themselves, answering to a strict parent.

“Before I met you, I thought you’d be these horrible despicable ponies, that was wrong ‘a me. I guess I jus’ wan’ed an excuse to save Scootaloo from… something, anything. But, when I actually met you guys, I realised how closed minded I’d been. You weren’t bad ponies at all, jus’ kinda mis guided. But, I can’t jus’ watch as a filly I love grows up like that.”

“We get that, we always wished she’d have a pony like you, Rainbow. But, outta curiosity, how much did ya figure out before actually meeting us?”

“Oh, well… there was this one time, me an’ Scoots were out trainin’, when I thought I’d bring up her parents. It’d been bothering me for a little while at that point. An’, I thought that there was no better time than the present. So, I just asked, talked first, thought later. Then what she said t’ me, that her parents didn’t believe that she’d ever fly. That jus’ drove me mad!”

“What, we knew it was her dream… but sometimes we can’t always get what we want, an’ with her wings, she probably won’t ever fly on her own. It’s better that she understood that now, instead of having to suffer through it later.”

“… Alright, maybe, maybe she will struggle. Maybe, she will get annoyed at how somepony else ’ll get something she wants so badly, real easy, when she has to work her flank off for it. But, telling a little filly, who wants nothing more than t’ fly, that she’ll never get to the clouds by herself. Did you ever think about what that might ‘a done to her confidence? So now, she’s been havin’ to push those words to the back ‘ve her mind, which is effort she could’ve put into her training. I don’t care how hopeless it might seem, making a filly doubt herself like that won’t make anything better!”

For a brief moment, the three ponies were completely silent. The air suddenly seemed stale.

“Celestia… What’ve we done.” Wild muttered.

“Look, that’s jus an ol’ pet peeve ‘a mine. An’, it don’t even matter in the long run. She’s makin’ good progress now.”

“Yeah, thanks t’ you!” Electric shouted, almost bursting from her chair. “If it weren’t for you, I’d hate t’ think where she’d be now.”

“Okay, what ya did wasn’t right. But, there’re so many fillies, colts an’ other children outside Equestria who’re ignored, malnourished, in horrible homes. Who have t’ grow up long before they should have to. Sure, things ain’t perfect for her, but she could definitely have it a lot worse.”

Electric smiled, the same vulnerability still shining in her eyes.

“Thanks, Ms Dash, it’s horrible to think that there’re foals out there who have to suffer through all that, but Scootaloo still deserves more than what we can giver her right now. We… we jus’ ain’t what she needs.”

Observing the distressed parents, Rainbow knew that the time had come for her to finally pitch her hypothesis to them. However, despite their openness about their struggles with her, Rainbow still knew to be careful when addressing the issue.

“Well, maybe I could help you guys out a little more.”

Both ponies looked up at Rainbow, a confused, yet hopefully optimistic look in their eyes.

“What?”

“I, I know I’m not actually her sister. But, after all this time, carin’ for her, seein’ her happy, sad. I kinda feel responsible for her. So, if you guys want, she could come live with me. She’s still your daughter an’ you’d still see her all the time. But, I got a good job with a lot ‘a time off, so I could give her all those things you want to… I’m not tryin’ ‘a take away your daughter here, I jus’ wanna give her the best I can.”

Once again, the room when silent, Rainbow felt a whole year go by in a single moment. The anguish she felt in the anticipation of an answer was enough to make her faint.

Electric opened her mouth. Rainbow braced herself.

“Rainbow, I… I don’t know what t’ say… This. Thank you.”

“I know, I’m sor’… Wait, really!”

Wild stepped forward.

“You’re like what, half our age, yet you’re still double the pony either us’ll ever be. You have your life in one piece an’ ya know what you’re doin’ with it. I won’t try an’ hide it, it weren’t too long ago that we were conciderin’ putin’ Scootaloo up for adoption. We love her more than anythin, but we knew that she deserved better than us. But, the nearest orphanage is all the way over in Canterlot, an’ we didn’t wanna take her away from her friends, so we jus’ kept at it, hopin’ that things would hopefully get better. So, if ya don’t mind me sayin’, this is the best thing that could ‘a happened.”

Rainbow was speechless, partly due to the frustration she felt with herself, letting such panic consume her, blinding her vision from what was now so obvious. She made a note to not fall into such idiocy again. However, most of her being was filled with pride and happiness, her plan was a success, she was one step closer to giving the filly she had come to adore so deeply the foalhood she deserved.

“Wow, this is… actually happening. An’, I really, mean it, you guys can come visit when ever you want, but I can give her EVERYTHING you guys have always wanted to.”

“We wish we could, Rainbow. But, the truth is… you’re just what she needs right now. Celestia know she respects you more than she does us, she’ll probably be thrilled.”

“Thanks, you guys, for understanding I mean… Speaking of, should we tell her now, or d’ you wanna wait a bit, or what?”

Wild and Electric both looked down, the same guilt that had previously filled their eyes returned. Though they also seemed fearful and damaged.

“Well… ya see.”

Rainbow’s expression toughened.

“What!”

Electric sighed.

“We woke up in the middle ‘a the night t’ the sound ‘a the door slamin’, we thought there might ‘a been a burglar in the house, so my brave husband here went lookin’ around the house, but her found nothin’. That is… ‘til he got t’ Scootaloo’s room… Now, me an’ Wild have had our fair share of arguments, but I ain’t ever heard him scream as loud an’ as painfully as he did then. Scootaloo was missin’! An’ he wasted no time chargin’ out the door, but I stopped him, he seemed way too shocked to find her, ‘specially at that hour. So, I offered to go instead… It was practically light by the time I got back, I’d searched all of Ponyville, an’ gone up an’ down all the Everfree forest at leas’ twice before I headed home. Wild had started t’ get worried ‘bout me ‘cause ‘a how long I’d been.”

The two smiled at each other.

“I hated to worry him like that. But, he’d seen to ‘a calm down quite a bit, so I thought he’d have a better chance than I’d had, with it bein’ light an’ all.”

“My first thought was to let the mayor know what’d happened. I would ‘a come t’ you, but I didn’t know where ya lived.”
“That’s fine.”

“Anyway, I meant to stay there, just in case she came back. But, I was so tired from my own search that I was out like a light in minutes. That’s why I looked so… frazzled, shall we say, when you arrived, I’d only woken up, like, a minute or two ago.”

The atmosphere of the room had become tense, the air had become so tight that Wild and Electric could almost feel it strangling them. Rainbow looked down, her mane now covered her eyes.

“R, Rainbow Dash?”

She looked up, her eyes full of desperate passion.

“I’m… I’m not mad at you. You couldn’t ‘a known when she left an’ ya tried your absolute hardest t’ find her. That’s all that matters.”

Rainbow stormed towards the door.

“I’ll make sure she’s safe knows what she did was wrong when I find her. But, if somepony has took her… I’ll show ‘em what’s what.”

“Thank you, Miss Dash… For everything.”

Rainbow grinned.

“My pleasure.”

Rainbow burst off into the sky, not willing to waste a single second, whilst her Scootaloo was in danger. Ponyville was a safe town, yet a filly unsupervised for too long was bound to endanger her wellbeing. No matter how long she would have to search, she would save Scootaloo, from whatever mess she had gotten herself into.

Comments

[Scootalooforlife]

Love this story keep it going

[Darling Dearest]

9058615
Awww Thank you. Scootaloo is best CMC! :)