I got one thing I do and I do it as best I can.
Ponyville's one and only schoolteacher likes to think she's good at her job. She likes to think that she's ready and equipped for the various problems that come with educating the next generation of fillies and colts.
Sadly, there are some things you can't prepare for.
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I like this setup. It both gives some reasoning for why we don't see the aunts or parents, why no one notices that we never see them, and even gives a reason for why it continues after it is noticed.
Now all we need is what happens when the parents finally show up and make the mistake of being alone with some ponies that might like to have some words...
An interesting take you did here. And i can't blame Cheerliee, se takes her job serously after all
This feels like my GenX upbringing. Raised on hose water and neglect.
With how painfully absent Scootaloo's family is, I'm surprised RD didn't sue them for custody.
( And it's weird... 'cheese mine' I don't know if this was mentioned in the later season or not, and obviously it was just to remind the reader this isn't Earth, but it feels 'wrong weird' given the ponies have cows whom they hire to milk.
And.. hearing 'two and half years'... given the writers squashed the first three seasons into one year ... it's like a warped reality. And of course, mentioning the unfair length of train travel time... when apparently Our Town is both very very far away, and nonsensically close to Ponyville a the same time given Big Mac could just causally visit there several times a week... These have nothing to do with the story unto itself, everything said here fits perfectly within the story as it's written and aren't flaws at all. It's a "meta" sense of strangeness.)
You wrote a good story here.
12142469
The good, top tier, charcuterie cheese comes from cows, but those bastards charge a premium. You want the government cheese level kraft singles to put on your hayburgers, you get that from a cheese mine. Where does it come from? Why is it underground? Is it carcinogenic? Best not to wonder.
12142469
To be fair, I don't think that was ever formally canonized as the case, just an idea that was tossed out as a possibility but never written in stone at most, and even if it was, it'd have to mean that all of those episodes in those three seasons are all out of order chronologically and then we're left with the logistical nightmare of trying to figure out what the right order chronologically is after the fact and...yeah, it'd be easier at that point to just assume it's NOT the case.
12142490
Sadly we have Celestia saying "over the last year."
12142492
...in what episode? I kinda doubt that was precisely the context it was meant to be interpreted as.
I love that Cheerliee cares so much for Scootaloo in this story that she is willing to drive herself to the brink of madness to ensure that Scoots is okay.
12142470
Well, since this is similar to the Admiral Biscuit Soup Mine canon, gonna have to like and favorite. Sorry but you forced my hand, been that way ever since I read the XANTH books.
I always disliked Scootaloo's parents. They are quite horrible.
12142536
Wait now AB has a soup mine cannon? What , Where, Why, How?
12142492
No, she doesn't actually say that.
12142602
Then you will love the story I'm about to publish.
This was a good story. A sad one, but a good one.
I feel like this is less a story and more a setup for a scootadobption story. If you don't want to continue it I understand. Just feels incomplete.
also: WTF is a Cheese mine?
edit: oh, you already answered this.
12142777
It's actually not a setup (as I wanted to write something a little more canon compliant), but meant to be more of a lead-in for Sleepless in Ponyville. Recall, if you will, the opening to that episode.
12142616
She borrowed it from Pinkie- apparently cereal with milk is legally considered a soup in Equestria
12142790
That makes sense. Thank you for taking the time to answer me.
i just want to talk to them
media1.tenor.com/m/JovgqdaECYYAAAAC/tom-hardy-legend.gif
12142469
Time was weird on the show. Narratively speaking, they squashed the first whole year into two episodes. Nightmare Moon was supposed to be an anime-style season arc. And consider how autumn (Applebuck Season) changes into spring (Look Before You Sleep), and spring changes into winter (Winter Wrap-Up) which gives spring and summer a miss and goes straight on into autumn (Fall Weather Friends) in the space of ten episodes. And I just realized that Rarity said that Fluttershy's gown "sings Spring" in the very next episode. Luna Eclipsed (autumn yet again) had to take place at least three years after the pilot when you think about it. Of course, that begs the very question that the author of this story poses, namely what is wrong with the Cutie Mark Crusaders? It must have been more than a decade between when Diamond Tiara got her cutie mark and when they finally got theirs.
...Summer (Sisterhooves Social), winter (Hearths Warming Eve), autumn (Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000), spring (Hearts and Hooves Day), summer (Hurricane Fluttershy)...
12142602
Oh, to put it mildly.
And it's not just the neglect issues, though that's obviously part of it. The two of them just don't seem to realize that Scootaloo is, you know, a pony. I am 100% convinced that she's an "oopsie" baby; those two obviously never planned for a foal, and so they just kind of shuffle her off to be the village share-a-filly. Then, when they think she's old enough, they waltz in and just pronounce that they're going to take her off to join them at their new job, never mind upending her life, never mind spitting in the eye of destiny itself with her cutie mark and the CMC, never mind that they probably haven't been able to see her on a monthly basis (once a month train and all) since she was goddamn weaned, they have the unmitigated gall to treat her, their daughter, like a fricking cat they had to leave behind until they could find a pet-friendly hotel!
Sorry, I just... really, really don't like those ponies. If Spoiled Rich didn't exist, they'd be worst parents on the show hooves down, and even then I'm not sure they don't beat her out!
12142490
I don't even mind assuming it has to be out of order - we know that's the case. But Winter Wrap Up and Hearth's Warming Eve are in seasons 1 and 2, to say nothing of Fall Weather Friends and Nightmare Night. It has absolutely got to be more like 2, maybe 3 years just based on the number of events. The Summer Sun Celebration probably just went off without a hitch those first couple years, presumably with Luna self-imposing exile on herself those days.
This is a good story and Cheerilee is right to be worried about Scootaloo's unnatural behaviour. The only thing she could have done maore is discuss this with Mayor Mare but it doesn't seem like something she would do since it seems rather extreme.
Scootaloo is indeed seriously neglected by her parents and her aunts.
12142470
Obviously it's milk from the fifth elephant who crashed onto the world after falling off the turtle.
12142914
Largely what I've always assumed was roughly the timeline for that portion of the show--that around three years at least had passed by the end of season three, possibly more if we want to really nitpick, but generally I just assume the industry standard that every production season of a show equates to around one year in-universe, and as is so often the case in cartoons, nobody's just really aging much because it's a cartoon. It's not necessarily a perfect fit in every instance...but it is much simpler, and what I figure to be the closest to what the production team were probably thinking.
12142913
Scootaloo doesn't even seem to be really that attached to them herself, because despite opening the episode with her being so excited to be able to have any level of contact with her parents again, as well as the wish to be able to be with them more on the regular, the moment the chance to do that would inconvenience her in anyway, regardless of whether or not her parents were right or wrong in doing so, Scootaloo was immediately against it and trying everything in her power to get out of it again, even if it meant totally isolating herself again from said parents she was just moments ago so eager--nay desperate--to have some regular contact with again. And I found that just as depressing from its own slew of many very unfortunate implications, as it doesn't exactly put Scootaloo herself in the best of lights either.
Really, the whole episode was just a total wash. Probably one of the few G4 episodes that I would criticize so very strongly over.
12143034
There's a good reason Scootadopt stories are still made on the regular.
12143036
Heck, arguably the show itself did an informal Scootadopt story, given that her aunts pretty much just take her in as their own by the end of that disaster of an episode.
Ow. Ow. This one hurts. In the good way, but... ow.
12142602
12142913
12143034
Apparently Jane Goodall is still alive, and I doubt that finding how dirty a random cartoon did her would actually cause any drama but...
12143034
Eh, still better than 2,4, 6, Great.
I put a lot less weight on Scootaloo's response though, for two big reasons:
It didn't "inconvenience her in the slightest," it was "hey, honey, we're going to drag you off to the ass end of nowhere and totally upend your social life *and career* in the process without so much as acknowledging that it exists for us to upend!"
They kind of jumped into the deep end of inconvenience.
Second... she's a kid. Teen at most. At that point, even without the major extra disruptions, emotional regulation isn't the best.
Most importantly... she does what her parents don't. She recognizes what is really important to her parents, and that she needs to respect that. She accepts that her parents are going to be doing this work. She doesn't brush off their careers as something unworthy of consideration.
The two ponies whose careers and destinies were so important to them that they basically abandoned their daughter for Christ knows how long at a stretch... don't give a shit about those things as they apply to Scootaloo.
"Well, honey, when it's *us* seeking our careers and passions, you just aren't as important to us. When it's *you* seeking your career and passion, you just aren't important enough to actually have such things! Silly filly, thinking you're actually a real pony, and not just the puppy we regret leaving at the kennel for the last six months! Now, pack up your food bowl and squeaky toys and we'll get your carrier ready."
12143464
Oh, I'm not saying the parents weren't in the wrong too, because they totally were. But looking at it from Scootaloo's perspective, if she was really that eager to have that chance to be more regularly part of their lives again, then, precisely because she DID know the nature of their work and the importance thereof, she'd understand that'd probably mean making changes in her own life so to accommodate that as necessary, and be open to doing so if it allowed that to happen (well, within reason, as already mentioned, but setting that aside for the moment...) But when her parents did actually go out of their way to make a career change to accommodate such a goal (whether or not it was enough of a change or even the right change for all parties is another topic entirely), Scootaloo refused to even consider doing anything to make changes in her own life so to make it possible, conveying this sense that it wasn't actually that important to her at all, unlike what the episode started out literally telling us that was what we should believe.
Were the parents wrong to just expect Scootaloo to just uproot everything in her life on a whim just because they told her to? Oh, absolutely, you are totally right about that.
But I would argue Scootaloo's response to it suggests she sort of expected her parents to do much the same thing for her as well, and that wasn't any more right either. Basically both sides wanted to be closer as a family, but neither truly want to make the needed changes to make it happen. And so now it never will. Which, I agree, is probably better in the long run, as Scootaloo's parents clearly weren't willing to step up enough from the start. But even though I agree her side of the matter wasn't nearly as critical, I feel like Scootaloo still wasn't helping the particular situation either. Especially as, in all honesty? Scootaloo didn't have to stay in Ponyville to do her CMC thing at all. In fact, the CMC branching out their group from just Ponyville, instead of expecting everybody to just always come to them, was probably the smarter thing to do. So I honestly never bought the argument that Scootaloo HAD to stay in Ponyville to be part of the CMC...but it was honestly the episode's best argument for keeping Scootaloo where she was, as the rest, while not invalid, were increasingly weaker after that (overlooking the whole "the parents are unworthy" argument, but obviously the episode wasn't considering that one anyway).
Like I said before, the whole episode was pretty much a wash, making misstep after misstep from the start, and they all compound too, no less. Really, I wish to this day the episode had done the more daring thing and actually committed to the idea of Scootaloo moving away, and making the episode be all about that instead. It was the last season, after all, and by then the show's crew knew it was going to be, so they could've totally gone for broke with it without fear and explored all the themes that entailed. But the show chickened out instead, and we got...whatever "The Last Crusade" was supposed to be instead.
I actually liked "2, 4, 6, Greaaat." Obviously not the strongest episode G4 ever did by any stretch, but despite the clunky aspects to its execution, I did understand what it was trying to do, and it still got its intended point and moral across, which is more than I can say for "The Last Crusade."
For some reason, I thought I saw a comedy tag on this story, and I got really confused until I checked again.
Well I'm off to go cry in a corner and grind a axe.
of course Twilight, who grew up apart from her parents since she was 6, thinks there's nothing wrong about that
12143644
Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt like something was off with Twilight's response. Something about that really squicked me out and i was starting to wonder if it was just me with no one else saying anything
12143644
12143710
I'm not a lawyer, but without looking up the law, it seems to me that Twilight is largely correct: Cheerilee absolutely should not have been floating speculative accusations and discussing what could amount to confidential biographical details with random acquaintances -- certainly not identifying Scootaloo by name. In fact, I was growing increasingly uneasy with that aspect of the story until Twilight pointed it out.
Cheerilee was right to act on her instinct, but did it in the wrong way. As Twilight alluded to, Scootaloo wasn't showing any signs of physical abuse, and while her reaction to praise was indeed cause for concern, there were plenty of indications that Scootaloo wasn't being left to fend for herself. Cheerilee didn't yet have the evidence to support the accusations she was so close to making.
Besides, if the Equestrian equivalent of child protective services got involved, they very well might have moved Scootaloo to the full-time custody of her aunts, far away from Ponyville, tearing Scootaloo away from her familiar life and her friends. Which would have been worse for her than how the series played out.
12144508
I get what your saying but Twilight being Princess Celestia's personal student might have also made Twilight the best pony to report it to in this case. It keeps Pony Protection Services and the Royal Guards out of it and lets Twilight investigate at her own pace if she chose to do so.
While false accusations are bad, doing nothing can sometimes be worse. And just because Scootaloo has food and shelter doesn't mean that she's being taken care of.
I published my own Scootaloo story recently that takes this same thing from a different angle. What if Scootaloo's parents visited regularly, like 3 or 4 times a year, but they were lying to Scootaloo and keeping important secrets from her?
- MLP: FiM
- Drama
- Slice of Life
- Tragedy
Scootaloo has a serious conversation with her parents.12142616
Pumping to cities: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/460143/the-soup-must-flow
Mining the solidified residue after the liquid soup has been pumped: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/572117/soup-mining-in-equestria
12144715
Thank you.
12142470
I am a proponent of the Grogarian Hypothesis: the titanic magical forces unleashed thousands of years ago in the battle between the semi-mythical Mag'ne wielding the Rainbow of Light and Grogar with his Bewitching Bell resulted in major (often nonsensical) changes to the geology of the planet Equus. Having actual cheese caves wasn't even the weirdest result from the magical backlash.
12143475
Whereas my take on Scootaloo is that, yeah, she was excited, she was hyped - but she also isn't the pony who asked them to do *any* of that. She wasn't pumped up that her parents would be coming home and spending more time there, but that they were coming back period. *They* then said they were going to spend more time together, and she was excited - up until they told her what that meant.
She never asked them to change their lives so they could be together more, she was just excited when they told her, unsolicited, that it was going to happen. She never, through the entire episode, asked them to change *anything*. As for the CMCs... you're right, they could have gone a different direction with it, but that would have been creating new threads to resolve, not solving them.
Consider how rare the Mane 6's completely unrelated cutie marks all being linked by the Rainboom was, and what that meant for Equestria.
Now, compare the CMCs, whose cutie marks are virtually identical, all linked to the same event, and all oriented to the same destiny. All available information points to them being *even more strongly bound together than the Mane 6 as a group.* They are literally bound together at the hip, and that gets "well, sure, that may be your particular field of expertise, but I know better and I say it's just a touching reassurance that you'll always be friends, not that it actually means anything more important than that."
(My take on 2, 4, 6 is another thing than this, but to summarize, if it didn't spit in the eye of prior RD characterization and behavior, I'd agree a lot more.)
12144702
Birthday. Birthiversary was specifically Rainbow because she moved to Ponyville on her birthday, so she and her friends celebrated the anniversary of her moving to Ponyville alongside her birthday as an excuse for a bigger party. And you can't blame Pinkie for birthiversary like you can with things like nervouscited, because birthiversary was coined by Rarity.
On one hand, I'm an EMT. Mandatory reporter. And I would report this with no hesitation
On the other hand, it feels weird applying that logic to MLP.
On the *other* other hand, I was raised by a crippled overbearing manipulative helicopter single mother who became a drug addict. I think I would've rather lived like Scootaloo, if I'm being honest
12144508
You're partially correct. . . except Twilight is also insisting that Cherilee shouldn't officially report this unless the situation escalates, and that is *absolutely wrong*. That is NOT how you handle child abuse/neglect cases; even assuming Equestria doesn't have mandatory-reporter laws like real life, a situation that raises red flags like this one does should *immediately* be reported to the appropriate authorities, *without* waiting for "definitive evidence" or "escalating out of control".
12142913
Yeah...the only reason they existed in the first place is either A) the books that introduced the aunts or B)some bigwig panicking about "loose ends" but regardless the fandom has shown MULTIPLE ways that the issue could have been handled better. One of my faves is that instead of a poor parody of Steve Irwin (who if the internet is to be believed was a fantastic dad) they could have had them as members of the guard or 1st responder types to explain the on screen absenteeism. But until that episode, there was never even a HINT that I can remember about her parents heck just have Scoots racing to the clubhouse with a letter or a gift during her cuteceñera.
And furthermore, during said episode Scootaloo was super sad when they said hey we haven't been an active part of your life in like 10 years, we're moving. But then SOMEHOW the entire town rallies around the CMC and the parents are like "okay you can stay" and we never see them again. On one hand it's nice that Ponyville stood by them even when to my knowledge (at least where fanon is concerned) the CMC were seen by a healthy majority of the adults in town as the resident "troublemakers" to put it politely. On the other, my inner world-builder is a little miffed at the missed opportunities going with her parents represented (and let's face it IRL when parent's decide to move, the kids don't often have a choice in the matter) But there's nothing to suggest that Scoots couldn't have stayed in contact with SB and AB. Maybe she could have made new friends, or started a new branch of the CMC, new locales, new adventures, the list goes on.
Overall, I agree that a competent judge would definitely find issue with "but but but rare animals" as an excuse for essentially abandoning your bio daughter to a township that considers a natural disaster or ancient menace to be "just a tuesday". No hate on Ponyville of course. The entire concept was a bungled mess.
When I was younger I was pissed off that they gave Scootaloo canon parents, but nowadays I think that her parents being emotionally neglectful actually makes her more sympathetic and lovable than her being an orphan.
Fuck Mane Allgood and fuck Snap Shutter! Scoots deserves so much better than them!
This setup is so damn perfect.
Yeah, I'm making a very cold take when I say I don't like Scootaloo's parents. Doing the bare minimum is not what qualifies as being good parents in the slightest.