Guardians come in many colours and personalities, protecting others or misusing their power. As Rainbow Dash finds Scootaloo alone after dark, it is her time to find her own place in the complicated network of protégés and protectors.
Guardians come in many colours and personalities, protecting others or misusing their power. Rainbow Dash is just one of them. As she encounters her favourite filly Scootaloo alone after dark, she soon finds herself tangled up in a complicated network of protégés and presumed protectors, both from the present and the past.
Sweat, pain and a dark lit sky. Those were the elements that all of her dreams were made of. Hard work was her life, flight her life’s goal, and every single day at dawn, those two aspects of her life would join together, an inner compulsion for perfection permeating all of her actions once Luna’s reign had begun.
Where other ponies preferred to stay in their warm and fluffy beds at night, she was training. Where other ponies stayed up late to get lost gazing into the endless beauty of the night, Rainbow had no eyes for the blinking firmament, a tangled mess of rainbow lines and loops trailing in her wake as she sped through the sky in complicated figures.
If one had been able to keep up with her and have a closer look, they would have seen her muscles shaking badly despite still flawlessly reacting to her commands in neat twists and turns.
Bruises were always hard to spot behind the thick, tangled coat, especially the purple ones, but they were there nevertheless. Some already weeks old, some from barely minutes ago when she had hit a huge tree during one of her manoeuvres, breaking several impressively thick branches.
All in all, she was a spectacular sight to behold, night and day, but still unwelcome after dark for all but a few, loud noises and glaring spectral light interfering with the sleeping habits of the ponies below.
For this reason, and maybe also because of a few restraining orders, Rainbow Dash had moved her training grounds to the uninhabited woods between Ponyville and Trottingham, an area where none of those nagging ponies could interfere with her self-enforced drill.
Wincing at the burning pain in her wings, Dash sped forward one more time, readying herself for the last and most taxing maneuver.
Small beads of sweat rolled down the length of her body, moved by strong winds and glistening in the darkness as they left their host.
The season was changing, cold masses of air shoving their way into the land, causing leaves to fall and ponies to shiver. And yet, she was still burning inside from exertion.
All in all, by her standards it had been pretty normal training session so far: hard, but satisfying.
It was only when she had sunken tiredly into a nearby cloud, that she noticed the burning cold around her. As with every pegasus, she could easily resist low temperatures, but it still felt unpleasant, a tingling sensation like a thousand small frost needles eating their way into her extremities.
A loud yawn escaped into the darkness, followed by the cracking sound her limbs always made when stretching them. This cloud would have to do for the night.
“No, go away.” A high pitched scream disturbed the night.
Rainbow violently changed her sleeping position, causing feathers and parts of cloud to float through the sky.
“NO please..., I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK. ... I want to stay.”
On a normal day, Dash was anything but an early bird. After trying several times, she had even given up on using alarm clocks. They had all ended up on the street directly adjacent to her window during their first week in their feeble attempts to wake her.
But this was different, as was intended by millions of years of evolution, the screaming filly working far more effectively than just an ordinary device that could be pushed aside, the outcries forcing huge amount of adrenaline coursing through Dash’s veins.
It took barely any time at all until she was up in the air, striking a pose of determination that would have intimidated even a manticore. Only a few seconds later, her determination was replaced by confusion. There was no aggressor, no crowd of ponies, no flailing foal. Just one small pegasus was in sight, sleeping on the ground ... on what seemed to be a grave.
Realisation came to Rainbow like everything since waking up in the middle of the night: fast and hard.
Her body felt numb, except for the growing, throbbing pain at back of her head. If it weren’t for the night, a bystander would have seen her coat becoming dull.
Adrenaline-induced strength transformed into action, the indirectly formulated call for help forcing her down to the ground faster than safety procedures would allow for. Her wings folded back to their resting place on her body, making for a descent as fast as gravity could pull her in its relentless grasps.
When she hit the muddy but still very solid ground, another bruise started to form, adding to the many others, but who cared.
Slowly, as not to wake the no longer screaming filly, Dash crept closer. It was an awkward feeling to walk without sensing your legs.
The gravestone was worn and mossy, seemingly made of a crumby kind of stone. Many pieces were missing, torn out of their respective places by the slow but constant weathering forces. Once vibrant colours had been washed off or were fading in the sun. Pony headstones were not made to last, but to become one with the nature. Not many chose to be memorised by stone as well as history.
Only with the help of her hooves tracing the leftovers of the once deep inscription, the deranged cyan mare was able to read the letters. The once delicately carved Cutie Marks below them had already turned into an incomprehensible mess of holes and bumps.
“In memory of Fast Wheels and Cold Weather Loving Parents of Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo
She had to read it again and again.
Scootaloo...
This one word began to reverberate through her brain. Again and again. No other thought was possible. This word. It was taunting her, increasing her oncoming headache and distorting her expression in pain.
Realisation didn’t come fast this time. Her brain was not ready for this. It couldn’t be. And yet her eyes told her the same as she took a closer look at the foal before her.
Water, even a small amount, can be a great force, always following its own course, changing the surroundings with its flow. Tears, however, don’t only leave a mark on the ground, but also on the pony who sheds them. Where moments ago had been only a hint of moisture, was now a constant stream of sorrow.
All of her usual coolness was gone, drained by a stronger force. In fact, everything of her normal self was gone for the moment, her motherly instinct left as the supreme ruler of her body.
Being the Element of Loyalty already came with strong feelings and an inner mind-set that nearly mentally forced her to do what is best for her friends. This feeling was even stronger. The only thing in this world that had to be done was to protect the filly, keep her safe from the dangers of the darkness that even the lunar ruler herself could not dispel.
Very carefully she laid down next to Scootaloo, folding a wing protectively over the filly, pressing their flanks together as best as possible without waking the sleeper. The least she could do was to gift the foal warmth against the cold.
Sleep again did not come easily to Rainbow this night, even though the rhythmic quality of the young pegasus’ breathing had a soothing quality to it, constantly notifying Dash that the small creature next to her was doing well.
The first shock, when she had been ruled by pure intuition, soon transformed into countless questions spinning through her head, ridiculing her because she could answer not even a single one.
What had happened? Why the hell did the filly sleep out here and not in the orphanage or with a foster family? Was this a regular event? Was there nobody to care for her? And the biggest one, emerging from all of them: What to do?
None of these questions were exactly helping with her headache. More to the contrary, she had to bite her lip as not to start screaming at the night sky in her helplessness. Her regular, poorely suppressed sobs were already loud enough, traveling far through the currently still air in the clearing.
The last thing she needed right now was for Scootaloo to wake up and see her in this agitated state.
Rainbow Dash never took pressure or even the slightest chance to lose very well. It usually left her cringing on a cloud somewhere with the thought of being useless and unwanted on endless repeat. The standard she measured herself by was an easy one: success. That’s what everyone expected of her: only the best. To fail meant to be worth nothing. Despite her plethora of colors, Rainbow Dash’s life was black-and-white when it came to judging her own value: you were a success, or you were a failure, and right now, failure was an imminent danger circling above her head like a vulture waiting for a deadly mistake of its prey.
She was twenty and had no idea of parenting, boot-camps serving as her favourite pedagogic method. She knew Applejack did know a lot about foals, having to raise Apple Bloom had taught her friend a lot about it, but asking the farm pony was not an option right now. She would not leave a foal alone in the wilderness in the middle of the night. Even she knew that much.
Deep trenches appeared in the ground, excavated by nervous cyan hooves. Rainbow opened her eyes the sky, absentmindedly staring upwards, as if the stars knew the answer.
Of course they did not, she had to find them on her own and to do that she had to get a hold of herself. This was not about her. It was about a friend, her number one fan!
She had never given up when a comrade was in need. The bright moon above her, in all its beauty and might, was the ever-present proof of that. She had vowed many times she would never do so. Now was a time for action, not for broken oaths.
The night turned quiet again, as a last tear hit the soft earth.
A mental pathway leading her way had formed in her mind, build up by sober thoughts instead of mindless panic.
What she needed most was information. From Applejack and from Scootaloo. Both were not available at the moment.
If Scootaloo had wanted to tell someone, she would have done so already. Now that her mind was finally back into something one might call a working state, Rainbow tried to remember what the filly had screamed earlier on. Had it been something about wanting to stay? Only fragments remained of the already few spoken words. It did help, though!
Apparently, Scootaloo was scared of something. Something big enough to keep her from asking for help, cheating herself out of a warm bed. Just plain asking wouldn’t help, this was all about trust. The filly had to be assured that nothing bad would happen and that nothing would become publicly known without her wish.
She had a plan at last. Still many questions, but a plan. This was as much consolidation as was possible in her situation. She huddled even closer to the foal by her side. Finally sleep could come.
Rainbow was woken again by a stirring Scootaloo trying to escape the captivating cyan wing that doubled as her blanket as well as her prison. A smile crept over Dash’s face as she gently folded it back to her side.
“Good morning, Squirt. Sleep well?”
Sleep might have been good for the filly, but waking to this surprise sure wasn’t. Two orange hooves dug deep into the ground, creating enough momentum to send the small pegasus into the air, even if only for a few seconds before she came back crashing down, sending of small chunks of grass and dirt trough the air like projectiles as she made contact with the soft soil.
Slowly she turned around, looking at Dash for a second before averting her eyes again.
The young pegasus was shaking badly, irritation and fear clearly written all over her, her posture low and her eyes now fixed to the ground, not even once daring to meet Rainbow’s deliberately unthreatening gaze again.
“Everything is alright, Scoots. No need to worry!” The adult mare didn’t quite manage to hide her own apprehension in her words.
The filly remained silent, and to make things even worse, she started to back away like prey in front of a predator.
Am I really THAT bad with foals?, Rainbow thought, a sigh escaping her lips.
Celestia’s reign had started an hour or two ago, gifting a soft orange light to the scenery. The grave was located on a small elevation in a large clearing. Only a few birds remained in the many nearby trees, left behind by their migrating companions. None of them were singing, seemingly content with the sound of the howling wind that sent the long tufts of grass in the clearing into a constant swaying motion.
No other ponies had been buried here during the last years, the small hills yielding no hints of old headstones that might have been there once. It wasn’t exactly untypical to stumble upon lone graves like this in the woods of Equestria.
Most of the scenery went ignored by Dash, her eyes flitting back and forth between the scooter that was nearly hidden in the greenery just a few yards away from her and the similarly-named filly slowly creeping towards it in a steady backward motion, not daring to lose eye contact with her surprisor by simply turning around.
It took no more than one swift flap of her wings for Rainbow to take up into the air and land again directly in front of the vehicle. However, the filly’s reaction was not the one the athlete had hoped for. Instead of just turning and waiting, Scootaloo ran off into the opposite direction as fast as her little hooves allowed her to, abandoning her favourite means of transport in fear for her own existence or whatever else was driving her away.
“Dash, You really suck at this,” Rainbow mumbled to herself. Scootaloo had to be really scared if she reasoned that she could outrun Dash. No pony could.
Rainbow took to the air again. A few strong wing beats later she caught up with the escapee, matching the running speed with ease.
“Squirt. Please. I don’t know what happened. But you don’t need to run away. I will make sure of that.”
Her words did not go unheard, but went without reaction nevertheless.
“Please. If you keep on running you just force me to tell the authorities. I don’t want to do anything without your consent. For Celestia’s sake, stop now! Do it for me! Darn it! Do it for you own sake!”
The foal stopped dead in her tracks, but Dash could not in time. A loud crack reverberated through the woods. Luckily it was from broken wood and not bone.
“You OK, Rainbow?” the filly piped.
“I... guess. Just missed the treeline.” Dash righted herself up, her eyes spinning in their sockets. “And how about you? Think you can stop running for a few more seconds?”
“I’ll ... try...” Scootaloo slowly answered, even though her expression suggested it wouldn’t be for long.
“Look, little one, this isn’t easy for me either.” Rainbow planned on not wasting what might be her one and only chance. ”I just want to help. You don’t have to tell me the whole story right now and I promise that your secret is safe with me. I just have one question and I need your honest answer: Do you have a home?”
Scootaloo remained silent, her gaze fixed on the ground.
“Scoots, I already promised you your secret is safe with me. I always keep true to my word. What are you afraid of?”
“I don’t need help. I don’t want anyone to pity me.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but sigh again. She stepped forward and hugged the little pegasus, who tried to break free of it, but Dash didn’t let her. Not before she had spoken her mind.
“I know you don’t need help, but would it be so bad to have an easier life? No one would think less of you. You’re the coolest kid I know, and nothing can ever change that!” Her voice was as tender and soothing as was her touch, the combination of both ending Scootaloo’s fight against physical contact.
“You really think I’m cool?” Was that a smile on her face?
“Why else would I have been there every time something important has happened to you this past year? Why did I promise to take you under my wing? Why did I give you a flying lesson last week? And... who do you think bought you that new scooter after you lost the old in a river at the middle of night? I just couldn’t take your sad face any longer.”
The last statement was accompanied by Rainbow softly nuzzling Scootaloo’s cheek.
The gears began to turn in the filly’s head. Dash really had been there every time: The talent show, her birthday party, the camping trip, many of her fan meetings... Dash’s birthday present to her had been the best of all: a tuning kit for her scooter that Apple Bloom had helped to put into place. And now she had just learned that her amazing new scooter had been Dash’s doing as well.
“You’re right...” she answered. Her voice was shaking a little, but she wore a small smile as she looked up to her idol.
“Now please, back to my question. Do you have a place to stay or not?” Rainbow released the pony from her embrace. Her expression was very serious.
“Promise me you won’t send me anywhere I don’t want to go.” The onset of happiness had already vanished again, the weight of Scootaloo’s decision literally weighing down her posture.
“Why would I want to do something that uncool? I promise.”
All the while shifting from one hoof to another, Scootaloo thoroughly scanned her surroundings several times before summoning up the courage to reply: “No ... I don’t have a home. Usually I sleep here or in the clubhouse.”
A gentle hoof went under Scootaloo’s chin and pushed her head up a little. Big rose-coloured eyes appeared in the little filly’s vision, looking deeply into hers.
“You know that won’t do. Till you’re ready to spill your guts you’re with me, kid. I can’t force you to talk, or to give up your freedom. You’re cool, Squirt. You should do whatever you want. I just got one exception: I will make sure you’re fed and have a place to sleep. Promise me to meet me at six pm under my cloud home.”
“But...” Scootaloo stepped back and stared down to earth again. “I don’t need any help. Can’t we just keep it the way it is?”
Rainbow went closer again, this time bringing her own head down to make eye contact, putting as much care into her voice as possible as she spoke again.
“What is wrong with you? You once nearly freaked out because you got a half-eaten apple from me. And now you turn down the coolest thing ever: a sleepover at my awesome cloud home? Come on. I want the old Scoots back for a while. Do you promise?”
Finally admitting defeat, Scootaloo promised, not with words but a simple nod. Rainbow answered with a second long embrace, this time mutual right from the start.
“Everything’s gonna be alright. I promise. Now off to school with you.”
With this, Scootaloo sped off to her scooter. Soon no more than a cloud of dust could be seen of her.
The Apple family orchard was located at the exact opposite side of Ponyville, adjacent to the Everfree Forest that Rainbow tried to avoid during her training sessions because of strong uncontrollable air currents that could easily kill you if hit unprepared.
Any ordinary pony would have groaned at the prospect of having to cross such a distance, which meant fast and intense jogging for at least half an hour if you had to stick to the ground. For Rainbow, it was breeze and a much welcomed source of relaxation. Where other ponies went to the spa, applied mud to their fur or soaked in steaming hot thermal water, Rainbow resorted to high speeds. The faster the better.
Flying was the kind of relief she was in dire need of just now, though she hadn’t done too badly in the end. At least that was what she hoped. Applejack would know and be able to tell her what to do next. If not... she didn’t want to think about that right now.
She had deliberately only promised that the secret was safe with her, not that she wouldn’t tell anyone. Telling Applejack WAS keeping it safe. The element of honesty would never break a promise. This excuse was at least good enough to keep her conscience quiet for a while. Whether Scootaloo would think on the same lines if she ever found out was another completely different story.
Just a few loops later, she couldn’t help but throw in a few exciting manoeuvres to further calm her thoughts. Rainbow was already flying low over the orchard, knowing her friend was up and working despite the early hour, of course only set by Rainbow’s standards. All she had to do was pass over the areas still bearing delicious red fruits, which weren’t too vast considering that it was late autumn.
Accordingly, scouring the place didn’t take long, soon revealing her friend in between the vegetation. She was hard at bucking apples as always, a task that could only be interrupted during the nights and a few weeks in winter in order to keep the farm running and selling.
Rainbow dove down and stopped hard, landing only inches away from Applejack on the soft grass, causing the farm pony to recoil and nearly miss the tree with her forceful kick. A lone apple broke free next to splintering bark, speeding up in its earthbound trajectory and finding its destination on Rainbow’s head before finally tumbling to the moist ground.
Dash didn’t even flinch, but grimaced and complained in low grunt: “This is soooo not my day.”
“Whats wrong with it, RD?” So far nothing unusual had happened. Something similar to this occurred every other day, always following the same basic scheme: Rainbow would appear out of nowhere, usually crashing in some way. Next Applejack would be invited for a stunt show or Rainbow simply felt the need to tell her friend of a cool stunt she’d done, something along these lines. It almost never deviated far.
“I need to talk to you in private.” Rainbow looked around nervously, searching for possible invaders from earth and sky alike.
Applejack didn’t need her instinct to tell her that something major was very wrong. This wasn’t how their usual verbal give-and-take went. This wasn’t part of the plan. Not to mention that asking for seclusion didn’t fit into Rainbow’s personality. The pegasus was too straightforward to care about idle precautions, no matter how important the issue. Up until now...
“Safest place Ah can provide. Ya’ know, Big Mac’s at Trottingham and Apple Bloom’s at school. Just spill yer guts.” Despite her thick southern accent, Applejack’s voice was very gentle and caring.
“Pinkie Promise me not to tell anyone. And I mean it. Especially not Scootaloo...” Rainbow demanded, tilting her neck to impossible poses as she was still not satisfied with her screening procedure.
“Ah promise. Now out with it!” Applejack hastily did the right gestures, only slowing down at the last part. She valued her eyesight far too much to rush the process.
Rainbow stepped as close to other pony as possible without actually joining into the same body. Applejack felt the uneven breathing on her fur, but knew better than to complain.
Dash had not thought about a good way to break the news to her friend up until now, forcing her to do something she was no good at: improvisation.
“Well... I’ve found out why no one has ever seen Scootaloo’s parents.” Rainbow spoke so quietly that Applejack could barely understand her despite their proximity. “They died. It’s already been a few years, by the look of the grave.”
“That’s mighty sad and explains a lot. But Ah can tell this isn’t the only thing you want to tell me.” An orange hoof rested on Rainbow’s shoulder.
Dash kept quiet for a while, thinking. No, she concluded, there was no way to spare Applejack the details, so she could just as well tell it all at once.
“You see... I don’t really know what happened, but I also found out that she is homeless. I found out because...” The last words were spoken too fast and too quietly to understand.
“Ya found out how?”
Rainbow remained silent, yet again searching for the right words that wouldn’t come to her. Her body started shaking as she mentally lived through the night again.
“Rainbow?”
“I FOUND HER SLEEPING AT THE GRAVE!” She hadn’t meant to shout and regretted it instantly.
Applejack embraced Dash deeply after removing a newly quelled tear with her hoof from her friend’s face.
“Sorry,” Rainbow cooed. ”Lost my cool.”
“It’s OK.” Applejack retorted, a tear now rolling down her cheek as well. “That really is the saddest thing Ah’ve heard in a while. It’s fine to be upset.”
Dash sat down on her haunches, ears folded tight against her skull.
“Scoots told me that she doesn’t need help. That she didn’t WANT my help. I just want to make sure she is safe. I want her to be happy. I just don’t know what to do.”
Applejack went down as well. She put a hoof on the back of the distressed mare beside her, softly stroking the pegasus between the wing-joints while she answered. “It seems like ya already talked to her ‘bout it. What else did she say?”
“Well,” Rainbow started slowly, “not much. I think she is in deep fear of something. No one must know of this before we know what happened. I feel we can’t force her to speak, or she might run off. She already tried that on me... At least I got her to promise me to be under my house at six so that I can take her up and she can sleep at my place. What am I supposed to do now, Applejack?”
Her answer was not one the cyan mare would have anticipated. Applejack got up to all four legs only to jump at Rainbow, giving her the most crushing hug of her lifetime.
“Ya ask me for advice, RD, but you don’t need it. Ya have done a very good job. All we can do is keep her safe. Offering ya home is just perfect. Give her time. Take good care of her. Eventually she will see that she can trust ya. If she’s ‘fraid of som’thing, the best way ta earn her trust is not to spread the word farther.”
Rainbow broke free of the hug.
“I have already betrayed Scoots by telling you. I swear, I'll never do this again.. I'll find out what’s on her mind. Whatever it takes... Whatever... it... takes.” Dash had troubles speaking those last words, as new streams of tears clouded her vision and a big lump formed in her throat.
“No, ya didn’t betray her by telling me. Scootaloo might need help from her friends, but you do as well. How about we go and I make you some nice apple tea? Ya need to calm down before six. I will come with you when it’s time and hide somewhere. If she doesn’t show up we’ll have a search party of very trustworthy ponies ready in like no time.”
With this, the two ponies slowly trotted off to the farm.
Applejack wouldn’t have needed to worry. Well, she herself wouldn’t have needed to worry, as she probably had been the one more distressed, her mind working in overdrive during all of their tea drinking and shopping, painting all kinds of bad possible outcomes onto the empty canvas that was her imagination.
Scootaloo was on time. Not a minute too early, but also not late, as was to be expected by a pony who didn't know what was going to happen, and wasn't too eager to find out
Of course the filly couldn’t be sure of her good intentions and little did she know of the surprise ready and waiting for her, lovingly prepared by Rainbow for her number one fan and new protégé.
Keeping true to her name, Rainbow dashed over to the orange speck visible on the grassy hills below her cloud-mansion, speeding up with a few powerful wing beats sending dirt and loose blades of grass to her side. Keeping the little squirt waiting only meant she would have time to reconsider and leave. And that was something that was not going to happen.
“Hi there.” Rainbow mentally hit herself for the lame conversation starter, but it would have to do. A big smile was forming on her lips, as she tried to put on her friendliest face, which honestly wasn’t too hard.
Scootaloo on the other hand rather looked anxious, her voice was quivering as she verbalized the question perpetrating her mind:
“What do you plan to do with me now?” She made it sound if she was doll and Rainbow wanted to play with her.
“Only what you want to do. I promise nothing will happen that you don’t ask for. My plan was to fly you up and let you have your go at a giant serving of hay fries and apple pie. After that you might have a bath, play a game with me or take a flying lesson with Equestria’s fastest flier. And at the end of the day a warm and comfortable bed is waiting for you. If anything is bothering you, just tell me. If you want me to put you down on earth again, also just tell me and I’ll have you back down in a flash. I just want you to be safe and enjoy yourself. So whaddya say?”
Scootaloo didn’t move nor talk, chewing on her lips, she just remained in place, gears working furiously in her head. She didn’t really have a choice, did she? With fast moving pupils and nervous hooves, she timidly nodded in agreement.
“Then all aboard the Rainbow-Express.” Rainbow crouched low to the floor, gesturing for Scootaloo to get on, hitting the air as soon her passenger was secure on her back, and for once accelerating at under Mach speeds.
“Have you ever been on a cloud Squirt?”
There was no answer, only a low mumble.
“I’ll take that as no. You’ll like it, trust me.”
Rainbow landed softly, small puffs emanating from the cloud. She stood there and waited for the filly to get off, but nothing happened.
“Emmm ... you know ... we have landed. You can get off now.”
If Dash had known what would follow, she would have taken another approach. Strong vibrations traveled down her body, spine to hoof. The filly was moving, but not in the intended fashion.
Why did she always have to rush things? , Rainbow reprimanded herself. Small wonder the filly was scared, probably having spent all day in a constant state of fear about what was to come. Expecting her to jump at mystically solidified liquid hovering at excruciating heights for the first time in her life was far from being describable as empathetic and reasonable.
Rainbow took flight again as fast as possible, the little weight jumping off no sooner than her first hoof came into contact with the grass. The orange filly wasn’t visibly shaking anymore, but newly build up snot and tears clung to her face, the result of the ongoing sobs that had started somewhere along the way. Too many tears had already been shed today, but there seemed to be no end to them.
Dash went over the few steps with Scootaloo and draped a wing over the little filly.
“I guess we just need to take that a little slower. I know it can be intimidating be that high up in the sky on, well, just water.” It was lame attempt, and she knew it. No one had ever even heard of a pegasus afraid to stand on clouds before. That was the way Scootaloo would see it.
But, well, to the foal’s defense, nearly all pegasi would have had contact with clouds way before school age and Scootaloo hadn’t so far, so it was probably fine. The real problem was that the filly’s already broken self-confidence had taken another devastating blow. Some part of Rainbow’s heart broke as she saw her new protégé slowly creeping away, head held low and barely lifting her hooves off the cold green earth as if she feared to lose it again.
“You probably don’t think I’m cool anymore... It’s best I just go to the clubhouse. Bye, Rainbow.”
“Aww Scootaloo, please stay,” Rainbow began as she followed the other pony. “You know you are 20% cooler than anyone else I know, right? Nothing can ever change that.” She paused, letting air stream through her nostrils in a whine. Whatever it takes, she thought to herself. “If you decide to sleep at the clubhouse, I will sleep there as well. But for now, let’s just get you a test cloud down here, so you can see it’s safe. If you then still decide to stay down here, let me get at least the fries and the pie down here.”
Rainbow didn’t wait for an answer, but instead zoomed up, grabbed a thick cloud and placed it before Scootaloo’s front hooves in two seconds flat. A new personal record.
“Hop on, Scoots.” Rainbow got onto it herself first, making a great show of jumping up and down on it.
The filly was a bit more hesitant, probing the cloud carefully first. It felt very spongy, but also hard at the same time. There was no way to really describe it or anything she could compare it to. It just felt like... well, like a cloud.
Her front left hoof was the first limb to enter the white new wonder. Once she saw that it rested safe on the fluffy surface, the rest of her followed. It didn’t take long before the filly was happily bouncing up and down, using the springiness to gain the extra height needed to perform little stunts in the air. For once, and Dash hoped this would stay at least for the rest of the day, she seemed happy.
Rainbow flew up to the top of the parable of Scootaloo’s jumps and cheered her on with loud whoops for every new trick. Now I’m my number one fan’s number one fan, Dash mused to herself after a particularly cool manoeuvre. It was amazing to see how well the filly could control her body, especially her wings which served to balance every move. Why she wasn’t able to fly was beyond understanding and not a topic that needed to be addressed right now.
After half an hour or so, none of the two could really tell, the filly’s movement began to slow down, leaps tuning into small bounces, elaborate figures merging to no additional movement at all. Her companion took that as a sign to stop her altogether and catch her in mid-air with strong hooves.
“Squirt, how about I will take you up now. You must be hungry.”
“I really am!” The answers was accompanied by a loud growl of her stomach. “Right about time Dash.” The pegasi shared a heartfelt laugh as Rainbow took them to her home.
Rainbow’s house was a marvellous sight to behold, consisting of multiple storeys framed by classic cloud-pillars and a multitude of rainbows everywhere. This time Scootaloo could finally enjoy it and she began to wonder if the splendour was also present on the inside. It just didn’t fit into her mental image of her idol.
The flight stopped right before the door, still hovering a few inches of the cloud, Rainbow simply waited.
“Tell me when you are ready, Scoots,” she asked.
“I am, thank you!” was the immediate answer. The orange Pegasus felt herself slowly being place down, hind legs first. This cloud was at least as stable as the other one. She smiled, as did Dash, currently opening the door and gesturing the filly to get in.
The inside indeed differed vastly from the outer appearance. While the columns where still visible, everything was held in a simpler and more chaotic style. A corridor and the living room served as the same room, joined together without walls, their separation only showing in a broad set of stairs that led to the next level and gradually changing furniture.
Not that Rainbow owned many parts. Most of the room was left free, making for an open yet homely atmosphere together with the few choice pieces.
A big cloud sofa rested on the plain cloud-floor at the centre of the huge expanse, an even bigger Wonderbolt blanket casually thrown over it.
While most walls where adorned by posters from several rock bands and flight teams, one part seemed to be reserved for achievements only. Scootaloo didn’t even try to count the shimmering gold and silver medals neatly arranged next to a slightly smaller number of trophies. No trace of bronze was to be found.
Scootaloo nearly forgot she had legs while staring at all that glamour. Admiration expressed in petrification.
“Impressive, isn’t it? The kitchen and the food are over here.” The filly snapped out of her trance and followed the grinning cyan mare. Only now did she notice the door leading to... heaven. When Rainbow had said giant, she had really meant it. The bowl was bigger than a foal. And the pie next to it looked delicious as well. Unsure what to do, Scootaloo just stood there, drooling, looking for reassurance at the older pony.
“It’s all yours. Just go ahead.”
That was all it took and she quite literally jumped at the fries. This was the first time in weeks she would be able to eat to her heart’s content. Sure now and then there would be a sleepover, but even there she had to be careful not to raise any suspicions. But Dash knew. There was no need to hide her hunger that could not be satisfied by school dinner alone.
All the while Rainbow just sat and watched, only just now realising how starved the little filly must have been by her life on the street. It was lovely for once to see someone forgetting all manners.
In the end, not only half of the contents of the bowl where missing, but also half of the pie, and for the next hours to come, the world had one content and happy sleeping resident more . The surprise would have to wait until the next morning.
Scootaloo woke up like every day, when the first rays of Celestia’s sun began to wander over her, as being homeless was accompanied by having no alarm clock or parent to help in process, which meant developing other techniques not to be late for school. She had learned this the hard way by getting detention three weeks in row, only barely dodging Cheerilee’s attempts asking to schedule a parent-teacher conference.
On most days, waking up was a rather uncomfortable task for her, because it came with aching joints and muscles and therefore the realisation of how hard her makeshift bed had been. But today was different somehow. She felt light and refreshed for once, instead of cramped and miserable.
Somehow she seemed to have managed to find a very soft spot tonight. Good earth? A pile of leaves? She couldn’t remember going to sleep at all last night, but whatever it was, she had to find out and remember that one!
Opening her eyes, she found that she had to shield the eyes against the glaring light burning on her retinas. Only slowly the ability to perceive her surroundings came back to her, the image clearing up as time passed.
She hadn’t been sleeping on the ground, but rather in a cloud bed, a Wonderbolt blanket keeping her warm. Beside the bed stood a small nightstand, with a picture of her and Rainbow on it. She couldn’t even remember when it had been taken.
On the other side of the room was a desk, fresh notebooks, pencils and crayons accurately arranged on its light brown surface. The walls were plastered with posters of her favourite musicians, the Wonderbolts, several skating and scooting teams and an especially big one of Rainbow.
It somehow looked like this was her room, but that was not possible. She didn’t own a room. Maybe she was still asleep? The pain that engulfed her after slapping herself suggested otherwise.
Maybe she was dead? Just maybe in reality she couldn’t stand on clouds and Dash had dropped her yesterday. No, that wasn’t it, Dash would never drop her, but as the memory of the previous day came back to her, she realized where she was. At her idol’s home. However, she was still puzzled as to why Rainbow would have such a room. Dash didn’t have any siblings, did she?
There was only one way to find out: asking. With the momentum of a great morning, she peeled herself out of the sheets and walked outside into a small hallway connecting to two other compartments.
Curiosity got the best of her, as she carefully opened the first door and peaked inside. She had found her host’s bedroom, Daring Do books strewn all over the place. Twilight would not approve of that if she ever found out.
Not wanting to risk Dash’s wrath, she didn’t move any further, instead advancing to the next door, revealing a small bathroom: a fact she was very thankful for, just now realising how full her bladder was, pressing at her intestines.
Next to the toilet the room offered a large bathtub, providing enough space for at least two full grown ponies to enjoy it at the same time.
How water could stay in something made out of cloud was a complete mystery to the filly, but a lot of things were alien to her. She also didn’t want to know what had happened to her waste products after she had flushed them down. There are no sewers in the sky after all...
Feeling a lot lighter and finding herself out of rooms on this level, the next obvious choice was to follow down the set of stairs linking the different parts of the mansion.
The living room had remained the way she remembered it to be, with the exception of an alteration of the illumination, brought by the orange glow of the sun, and Tank soaring around in wide somewhat uncontrolled circles, bouncing against a wall now and then.
Rainbow’s pet turtle was no news to Scootaloo, since her idol had brought him to fan meetings before. The filly had always wondered if it would be possible to build a helicopter in her size. Pinkie sure seemed to have no troubles at all getting to the sky on her crazy devices. Maybe she should ask the pink pony sometime, but not now.
While her visual sense could not find a trace of Dash in this room either, her olfactory centre registered the sweet scent of apple pancakes wafting in from the kitchen, an invitation that could not be ignored or dismissed.
Only a few bounces later she found the delicious source: Rainbow stood in front of the stove, apparently too busy preparing breakfast to notice her.
Cooking was not a part of Dash’s usual repertoire, taking more time to prepare than could be redeemed by the slight increase in quality and decrease in price.
Yet Applejack had encouraged her to do so instead of just making coffee for the two of them as she had planned, a notion that her friend had commented on as being “a severe act of irresponsibility” and “unhealthy even for a grown mare”. That’s what brought her here, preparing pancakes for the second time in her life, the first time being yesterday with Applejack as her mentor.
Taking that into account combined with the unreal morning time, one would be tempted to state that they turned out quiet nice. Maybe a little black on parts, but still edible and smelling great. And she had enough of them by now, only losing a third in the progress. It was time to wake her little guest.
“Boo!”
Or obviously not. Ignoring her own embarrassingly girly screech, Dash turned around, playing it cool by offering the full plate as well as ruffling up the newcomer’s mane.
“Sleep well, Squirt?”
“Yes. Thank you so much.” The statement was supported by a small hug.
“And do you like your room?”
Tilting her head a few degrees, the orange filly looked into Rainbow’s eyes and answered by another question: “My room?” Her wings buzzed up for a few seconds as she spoke.
Dash wasn’t able to suppress a small chuckle.
“Yes, your room. Up until yesterday morning it was my guest room, but for now it’s yours and yours alone. I already got some stuff to make it nice for you, though I didn’t know what exactly you need. Just tell me if you miss something.”
Tears welled in the eyes of the foal. She had her answers, but couldn’t believe it.
“But why? Why are you wasting time and money on me?”
Rainbow got down on her knees, bringing their eyes to the same level.
“Because...” she spoke slowly, ensuring that her word were not just heard but well understood, “Because you’re worth it.”
An awkward silence engulfed the two mares before Dash continued.
“Now please stop crying. I can just feel I am getting mushy already. Want some pancakes before you go to school?”
“Yes. And thank you again.” She wiped her tears away with a hoof. “Can you fly me to the clubhouse before school? I hid all my stuff there yesterday.”
“No problem, Scoots, no problem. Just be back every day at six and everything will be fine.”
Routine soon kicked in during the first week. They would wake up, get some breakfast, though usually not homemade, and go to school and work, respectively. Both would get back in time and have fun the rest of the day until Scootaloo was tired enough to go to bed on her own goodwill. As of yet Rainbow hadn’t tried to establish a fixed set of rules for her guest, as she was too afraid that this might scare the filly off again. It came as a big relief that there was no need for them anyway, at least most of the time. For a foal that young she really could take good care of herself.
While Scootaloo still constantly claimed not to need any help, she sure was enjoying getting some, her laments getting less vehement each day.
By the end of the second week the filly had opened up considerately, talking a lot about education and crusading; her everyday life. Many evenings had been spent simply conversing, Rainbow recounting tales of her childhood and other adventures in exchange for every bit of information her protégé had to offer.
Rainbow had learned that her charge loved going to school as much as performing stunts, the second one coming as the far smaller surprise. Some days the filly would even ask to be taken up earlier in order to have more time for her homework, a level of commitment to such boring tasks Dash could only marvel at.
No matter how trivial their topics seemed to be at times, Dash never grew bored of them, as they always revealed a bit more about her long term guest, piecing together a good picture of her current life and personality. Scootaloo’s past, however, remained a book with blank pages.
Not even the Ponyville archives held any information, containing only files neither on Scootaloo nor her parents, thus ending her only feasible lead in a dead end. She wished she had a better idea than to fly around and ask ponies, which, of course, was out of the question.
But that was only one of Rainbow's problems and worries. Nearly every night her ward was screaming in her sleep, waking Dash every single time, although the filly never woke from the nightmares herself.
It wasn’t her own level of sleep that Dash was worried about, but rather the mysterious content of the filly’s dreams. The words didn’t change between nights. They were the same words spoken at the grave. The very same words now also haunting Dash's dreams: “NO please...! I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK! I want to stay!” She had no clue what to make of them, no idea how to protect the foal. It hurt somewhere deep down.
Another reason for concern was the filly’s inability to fly. Her wings were strong and her technique perfect; Rainbow made sure of that in a few of their training sessions. There was no flaw with her feathers. Preening seemed to come natural to Rainbow’s protégé. As it stood, Scootaloo should already be soaring through the sky next to her idol and performing tricks. There had to be some kind of medical condition hindering her. Dash just couldn’t find the inner strength to actually tell the already broken pony. Her only hope was that it would prove to be curable later on.
And, as if this wasn’t enough for one mare already, it was getting hard to hide the fact that she had a permanent guest to her friends. It was only thanks to Applejack that they still believed her, or at least pretended to do so. Twilight was especially hard to keep at bay. The unicorn was too nosy for her own good. She obviously found it hard to take that she might not know the whole truth and could not simply look up the missing parts in one of her books.
Rainbow felt bad about lying to her friends, but there was no way to avoid it. Betraying a helpless filly’s trust would be a far greater crime.
More than just a small miracle was needed to clear up this mess, a miracle that could only be brought by Scootaloo.
A deep red sun shone through the windows, bathing the room in a romantic orange hue, highlighted by the shining bright gold and silver on the wall. Loud reading reverberated through the room, originating from a cyan mare with an orange filly cuddled up against her.
“Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone” was unquestionably the most astonishing book Scootaloo had ever read. Of course reading it together with Dash added even more awesomeness to it than it already possessed.
The filly had become very fond of her protector, not just because of the reading, but because of everything. While in the past she had viewed Dash as some kind of unreachable icon and had dearly hoped to get somehow closer to her and maybe even become her part-time sister, they now shared a deeper bond. It felt like how she had always imaged it to feel like to have family.
She wished for things to stay the way they were, but deep down she knew that it was not possible. They were searching for her. Rainbow was not her legal guardian. They would take her away, back to the orphanage. It was only a matter of time. Life wasn’t fair.
Even though Dash would never admit it to anypony, but Scootaloo could see that Rainbow was constantly worried about her. She was happy while her benefactor had troubles. That wasn’t how the things were supposed to be. More importantly, that wasn’t how she wanted them to be.
It was time to stop running. Time to take actions. Time to trust an adult again.
“Rainbow.”
The older mare stopped mid-sentence into her performance of imitating Ahuizotl. If she was startled by the sudden request, she was very good at hiding it, only lowering the book a little to gain a better look on her reading partner.
“What’s up, kiddo?” They both looked into each other’s eyes.
There was only one place completely devoid of light that she knew of. It was cold and humid. Wooden splinters stood up like an ocean of tiny spikes that could easily engulf a pony if she was not careful enough. An army of dust and dirt stood ready to attack everypony who dared to enter, sticking to fur and invading lungs. This was the description of heaven.
The entrance, a big hole in the floor under her bed, was only known to her. It was place a of solitude. Somewhere to hide from the constant beating. Someplace to stay safe from headmistress Ms. Birch.
Had it only been for all the other foals, Scoolaloo’s life would have been nice and easy despite being stuck at an orphanage, the way it had been before the new headmistress had arrived.
Now life was unbearable, a constant series of school, sleep and pain. A gruelling treadmill she was forced to run all day, the pony in charge of her violently pushing her back in whenever she tried to escape.
The headmistress was a dark green mare with light blue mane and tail. When asked about her cutie mark, a long leafless twig, she told most ponies that it was a symbol for the development of her wards who would grow up as the sprouts of the tree of society. Maybe in her youth it even had had this meaning, but it was no longer true.
Nopony knew this better than Scootaloo, every single day in her life mercilessly following the same basic pattern:
After they all had been forced into bed two hours too early, because obviously their care-giver didn’t want to have her evenings spoiled by annoying little rats, Ms Birch would enter the dorm one more time to single out a foal of her liking.
No pony really understood what the headmistress was looking for in her victims, but Scootaloo definitely had it, a fact obvious not only to her enemies. Even her closest friends didn’t talk to her anymore, out of fear of being the headmaster’s next target, but at least they had the decency to ignore her while the other foals reacted with hostility and mobbing. Life had gotten lonely.
Whoever the fresh prey of the day was, he or she would be brought to the office, a plain room only consisting of a few shelves containing the records of all orphans and a hard writing desk they had to lean on. Ms Birch’s favourite twig hung ready and waiting on the undecorated wall at all times. From here on the rules were easy: The more you cry, the more it will hurt.
By now Scootaloo could stand through a session of serious whipping without even flinching, only to cry herself to sleep afterwards, although the filly had the strong suspicion that the headmistress was listening to every sob she made.
In her hiding place, she could escape at least for a few hours each day. She had even managed to avoid a few beatings down here, although she had felt bad that somepony else would have to fill in each time.
She realised it wouldn’t go unnoticed if she missed the abuse too often, so that was not always an option, no matter how much she wished for it to be. The only real chance she stood was to run away. She was past feeling sorry for the foals who had to stay behind, but the urge to leave was bigger than her guilty conscience. She couldn’t take it anymore. It was escape or die trying.
Weeks of careful planning had brought her to the current state. Only one more piece was missing before she could finally embrace freedom.
Getting a map had been easy; the only thing required for the task being to save up her meagre pocket money of 10 weeks and buying one. Getting the needed paperwork to change school had proved to be much harder, but not attending was out of question as it would not only raise suspicions in her new hometown, but also deprive herself of daily hot free meals and a lot of fun, both of which she would be in dire need of.
In Equestria, education was not enforced by law, but rather by social convention, not creating the need of a central school register. As a lucky result of that, Scootaloo did not have to fear being tracked down for it, which enabled her to pursue her independence.
School was meant to help to discover your special talent and broaden your horizons, the reason every foal attended. Grades were given only as means of orientation.
The true learning process would begin once your cutie mark was leading your way. While some jobs required a fixed academic background, like being a weather manager or a mathematician, ponies were hired because of ability, not formalities.
However that did not hinder paperwork to be a constant attendant of everyday life, emerging as bills, countless personal documents and forms for every conceivable official act.
As Scootaloo had found out, two things where needed in order to enter a new school: a special form signed by your legal guardian and your certificate of birth.
She had already acquired the form in a visit to the town hall one week earlier, pretending to have been sent all alone by her busy father to fetch it for him. It had taken 30 minutes of arguments and her bursting into tears, something she had not meant to do but was triggered by her desperation, for the official to finally hand her the paper. Filling it out and faking a signature hadn’t been much of a challenge after this ordeal.
No matter how hard her first time experience with bureaucracy had appeared to be, the final and worst task was still waiting for her. During the past few weeks she had watched Ms Birch’s every step, memorising her enemy’s daily routine to the minute. Now was the time when the old mare would go to collect all the foals playing outside, one of the few amenities left to them for an hour each day.
Not a single foal was allowed to re-enter the heartless halls of the orphanage without feeling bad about any kind of fun they might have had during the day. A task Ms. Birch felt obliged to execute personally every afternoon, allowing herself a full fifteen minutes for her amazingly varied speeches.
It was the biggest time frame available to the filly, as the door to the office was locked at all other times.
Perfectly on schedule, the headmistress passed by, gifting Scootaloo with one of her typical disapproving glares. For once the filly didn’t care. She had more important matters at hoof.
Now was the perfect time, she was the only pony in the corridor. Hastily she dove forward, entering to office as fast as possible, closing the door behind her.
Her record was located at the leftmost shelf, the third entry in the fourth row from the top. She had spent enough time staring at this spot while a wooden stick came down hard on her buttocks to burn it into her brain.
Knowing where it was located was one thing, but actually getting it was something totally different. She grabbed a nearby chair with her teeth and dragged it over the ground, ignoring the loud screeching noises of wood on wood as best as she could.
Cursing herself that she hadn’t figured out how to fly yet she climbed onto the piece of furniture once it was in place, elongating herself as best as possible in her quest for the stack of paper. No matter how hard she tried, flapping her wings, jumping on one leg or balancing at the tip of her toe, she was short more than ten inches.
Desperate for her goal, she stepped on the backrest of her makeshift ladder, further increasing her height way more than was needed in one simple stride. While the basic idea seemed to be good, the barycentre of the chair did not agree with the plan.
Scootaloo’s tiny wings did nothing to break her fall, gravity sending foal and chair alike back to the floor in its relentless grip.
Still very dizzy, the little pegasus pulled herself back to her hooves, using the chair for support. Feeling unsecure on wobbly legs that felt like jelly, she hauled the ungrateful piece of furniture back to where it belonged.
With what limited capacity was left in her brain next to the throbbing sensation of malfunctioning synapses, she had already decided give up for today. She would have to come back the next day bringing a box or something next time. Another day wasn’t too bad, was it? She sure would make it tomorrow.
Just as the defeated filly was about to leave the room, her eyes wandered to the birch twig on the wall. The clock confirmed that she had at least three more minutes left. It was worth to try and use the stick for good at least one time, she thought to herself. Because of its long nature, the stick was hanging low, simplifying fetching it tremendously. A lot harder was poking down the object of her desire after hurrying back to the shelves.
Stick in mouth, the pointy end directed towards the shelf as best as possible, Scootaloo inched forward, the long piece of wood wobbling in unequal orbits at every move, only periodically aligning with the target.
Scootaloo jumped forward, gaining the last inches in height but also missing her target. Wood mode contact to wall, leaving a scratching mark on the plain white paint and burying the stick a little too deep into her throat, causing instant retching and the taste of iron in her mouth. It took all her inner strength to fight the gag reflex that overtook her and left her small frame shaking. Vomiting right there on the spot was a rather bad idea.
The spinning in her stomach adding to the perpetual evasive motions of the already uncontrollable poking object, she tried again, this time using an additional hoof as guidance, only missing by half an inch.
She had to make it. She just had to. Once her body felt no longer the need to regurgitate her dinner, she tried again, failing another two times before she hit the right spot. Thankfully, the stack of paper was tightly bound, so there was no need to gather the sheets if they should float about, but on the other hand, it better hadn't been, as this exactly was what made it into the projectile that it was.
Other than to exhale in a low grunt, Scotaloo did her best to ignore the impacted areas, the record of all possibly places hitting the swelling that had been forming on her forehead. But she didn’t mind. She had done it.
The stick thrown to the floor and her loot securely in her mouth, Scootaloo ran to the hallway as fast as her little legs would allow it and slammed the door into the frame behind her. It was nearly done.
Without looking back, she sprinted to the dorm where she hastily stashed her newfound passageway to freedom into her saddlebags. No one had ever looked at her school materials. This surely was not going to change today. Groggily she let herself fall on the bed, her heart was pumping furiously, her breathing a mess of irregular huffs and puffs. She could feel an abnormal amount blood rushing through her veins in a regular pulse. One more night and she would be free. One more night. Drowning in the warm feeling of satisfaction, she closed her eyes and drifted off.
“Scootaloo.” It was the voice of the devil herself who jolted the filly out of her well-earned dreams. “Since you seem to like my twig so much that you personally visit it in my office, I think you will like today’s special.”
Although the level of adrenaline in Scootaloo’s bloodstream had normalized in the meantime, it took her barely two seconds to jump up and hide under the bed. Another two second later she was already down in her hiding place. This was bad, really bad. How could she have forgotten to put back this damned piece of wood? She was such an idiot!
“Ohh Scootaloo, I know you are in there and you know there is no way to hide from me.” Her voice suggested that she was seriously enjoying herself, intentional heavy hoofsteps reverberating through the wooden floor telling her victim that she was coming, the swishing sound of air streaming around her stick that she was ready.
“The first one to tell me where Scootaloo is will get 10 bits.”
By now there was only one thing left in the young pegasus’ mind: The instinct to run, to get away as far as possible as soon as possible. Ignoring the splinters piercing into her, she crawled forward in the dark. With each step wave after wave of century old dust broke free into the air, entering her respiratory system and leaving her short of breath as she pressed on.
“Under her bed? Now what a lovely place to hide.” Dripping venom was probably the only good way to describe her tone.
The sound of furniture being moved followed by a loud crash penetrated the hiding place, sending out a subliminal message of impending doom. At the end of her capacities, Scootaloo increased her pace, only to be stopped by her body tightening up into fetal position within seconds. She didn’t think her heart could take it much longer. Her lungs had already given up on her, leaving her wheezing and coughing loudly, unable to move on the floor.
“Oh... hiding in the subceiling. Well played young filly. Well played.”
The room became silent after that, with the exception of Scootaloo’s uneven not-so-much breathing. None of the many foals above dared to speak or even think too loud.
The big question was: Had she won? Had her tormentor left the room or was she just waiting for her to come out. She was sure it was the second option, or at least she didn’t want to be proved wrong in her assumption after she crawled back out if she acted upon the first one.
She had hit a dead end. Tomorrow the headmistress would have given up temporarily. She wasn’t much of a morning pony and was literally never present at breakfast. Scootaloo would use this time to leave for good. Until than she could try and sleep. Down here she was safe.
One minute later Scootaloo found out just how wrong she was, a crowbar penetrating splintering planks bare inches beside her head. There was light once more in her life, but at the moment that wasn’t a good thing. Her hooves no longer followed her command, a mixture of missing oxygen and shock preventing her from moving altogether.
Another well-set blow ripped through the pegasus’ defiled sanctuary, enabling the setting sun to shine onto the lost soul cowering in it. The rain of wooden chips drenching the helpless foal had not yet died down when a third powerful blast hit the dissolving ground, spelling Scootaloo’s immediate doom, creating a hole that could only barely fit the foal. The remains of what once had been parquet floor cut through the filly, much like she did to the wood in return, enlarging it in a very painful way as she was dragged out against her will.
Under the eyes of a handful of stunned foals all over the room, the stupefied limp body of Scootaloo was dragged away. For all bystanders she could as well have been dead or some sort of gruesome puppet. None of them had the courage to help her. Not that they could be blamed for it. The filly was mentally cursing them now, returning the blank stares with a grimace of hatred as she was dragged to the corridor and beyond, but still, she could feel for them. She couldn’t find the strength to fend for herself after all.
Two doors went by without action, two doors on her transition to hell. The hard edge of the desk took the air of her lungs once more, crushing the filly’s ribs as she was thrown against it with brute force.
The situation was familiar, yet so much worse at the same time. The first slap came without warning, pressing a strident wail from filly. The game had just begun and she had already lost it.
“You know the rules. The more you cry, the more it will hurt and you have earned yourself a little extra already.”
The headmistress laughed hysterically while more hits rained down on the filly, leaving a crisscross of blue marks shining through the orange fur. Normally she made sure not to leave any traces, but at the moment she couldn’t care less. The foal in front of her had disobeyed her, had tried to flee from her, and probably had even been sneaking into her office. Severe punishment was due.
Awaiting blow after blow, Scootaloo bit down onto her front leg, muffled cries getting stuck in orange fur.
Annoyed by the silence of her victim Ms. Birch stopped dead in her tracks, her laughter dying down instantly.
“Ohhh. I forgot how good you are at our little game.” She spat on Scootaloo’s mane. “Now raise your tail!” Those last words were more shouted than spoken, leaving the small pegasus’ eardrums ringing.
Scootaloo obeyed, only to regret it again after wood cut into her most tender flesh. The howl that followed could be heard everywhere in the orphanage, frightening foals who tried to hide under their blankets.
“That is more like I imagined it!”
Ms Birch’s merriment was back to new heights, Scootaloo pressing her tail down as best as she could, but it was no use. Strong hooves lifted it back up again. Another smack, another wail.
“Too bad for you. You know the regime. More pain,” the mare started, her voice instantaneously serious again. “Let’s see how deep this will go.”
Scootaloo’s world went black as the stick entered her, breaking in the last sanctuary she had had left.
“Is she dead?”
“No, look you fool, she is breathing.”
“Should we help her?”
“NO! Ms Birch will do the same to us.”
Despite the pain rocking through her body with every move, Scootaloo raised her head and snarled, scaring off of the owners of the hushed voices, a blue filly and a red colt, both of them younger than her.
She realised she was lying in the corridor, just outside the office door. The position of the sun told her it was nearly time to go to school, or in her case to flee.
Mobilized by the thoughts of freedom she tried to stand up, the jolts of pain emanating from her backside sending her back down immediately without mercy. She tried again, more careful this time, finding that while the pain was still present, it was bearable if she went slowly. A few steps proved that she could walk under tolerable conditions, although she would have to drag her hind legs more than use them. She had hardly any feeling left from the waist down.
Slowly, she began to limp to the dorm following a trace of her own blood sprinkled to the ground in small drops. The room was devoid of all life, friend or foe alike, all had already gone, consequently having passed by her unconscious body on their way out, as Scootaloo realized.
Her bed, or better the parts that where left of it, lay strewn all over the place, not one piece had remained where it was meant to be.
For Scootaloo every room had a certain feeling to it, like for example her class room that had an atmosphere that somehow could be described by the words warmth, trust and learning. Putting two holes in the floor could change a room drastically, not for good, though. The flashbacks of the last day didn’t help either.
The filly’s saddlebags had remained untouched next to her nightstand. Somehow the bed had managed to fly over it, not even scratching the cheap particle board. A quick check confirmed that her record and the school form where still inside. She would have done a leap for joy, but that was physically impossible at the moment.
Instead she took the bag in her mouth, throwing it to the air to land onto herself in a swift and well trained motion. In retrospective, she should have chosen a less crude way to done the heavy container, as she only managed not to faint by breathing away the agony in short erratic huffs.
Despite her suffering, she had to press on.
The orphanage had a large collection of toys, both for inside and outside usage, mostly remains of pre-Ms-Birch times. Only a few functional scooters were left, most missing a wheel or not offering the possibility to steer anymore because of a bent handlebar, but Scootaloo had her own personal one stashed away. Not that she really owned it, but taking and hiding stuff was the only way to possess things in a place like this, with too many other foals competing over the few resources.
Since her wings were the only part left of her body that did not try to kill her with every movement, her scooter was just perfect; it was her favourite means of transportation anyway. After fishing her helmet and ride from behind the shack where they were hidden by a layer of rubble, she sped off to school. There was one more thing to do before leaving this town for good.
The education centre was just two blocks away, only a small detour on her way even in her damaged state. Ignoring all rules she did not stop at the entrance but pressed on with her vehicle. The narrow corridors did not provide much space for navigation, forcing ponies to duck aside everywhere on her way to the classroom. She did her best to block out the infuriated shouts directed at her as ponies pressed themselves tightly against walls and lockers alike.
But she refused to lose speed. She had no time to lose. Hitting a full break, she only stopped again directly in front of the teacher’s desk. Another big mistake on her part, a loud moan escaped her mouth as the braking force hit her hard.
The room had been the usual mess of playing screaming foals before Scootaloo’s entrance. Now it was dead silent, scared eyes fixed on Scootaloo, a last paper glider landing without notice.
They were all used to crazy stunts from their classmate, but what they weren’t prepared for was her appearance.
Freshly opened scabs covered her body, most of them oozing abundant quantities of blood and pus that flowed over already crusted patches. The huge blue swelling right on her forehead somehow managed to look worse than her black eye. But the worst part was her backside that seemed to be evenly split between red, blue, and orange patches. The hair on her tail had turned red on some parts as well.
Her teacher, Ms Chalk, was an eggshell white unicorn with a purple mane and tail. Her cutie mark, a green piece of chalk surrounded by a magic aura, was pretty self-explanatory.
She had always been fond of Scootaloo, because of the little filly’s personality and eagerness to learn. However she had also seen her pupil's problem to interact with other foals that she could not explain to herself. Now her worst fear about her charge had become true.
Trying to keep her voice as calm as possible, she was the first one to speak.
“Scootaloo. Please tell me what happened to you immediately.”
“Ms Birch is abusing us. Thank you for being so kind to me.”
With that the orange pegasus was off again, the pleas of her teacher to stay never reaching her.
“This was about a year ago. Shortly after that I became Sweetie Belle’s friend. You know the rest of the story already.”
Rainbow Dash pressed the orange filly tight onto her. There were no words in the world to describe her feelings. She was stunned and enraged at the same time, but that wasn’t even half of it. She suddenly felt the strong urge to vomit rising in her. This just couldn’t be right. She didn’t want to believe it and yet it was true. Never she would have thought Scootaloo’s past to be that horrible, not even in her wildest dreams.
Her first urge was to fly straight to Ms Birch and beat her up badly. But she didn’t even know the town yet, and by the way things ended, she hopefully wasn’t at the orphanage anymore. Impulse reactions wouldn’t solve this. Planned rational thinking would. Too bad she wasn’t good at this. Why exactly wasn’t Twilight here?
“What are you going to do now?” The little filly’s question came too soon for Rainbow, but of course any time this evening would have been to too soon.
Rainbow closed her eyes and went into herself. No Matter What. Those where the very words she hadvowed. Scootaloo needed her help. There was no news in that, but another truth was hidden beneath it. A warm feeling she had had problems to place until right now. The little squirt had filled a hole in her life, one she hadn’t even realised was there. The pegasus had become close to her. Almost like her sister, or... her daughter. The feeling was love. While she might not know what to do right now, something deep down in her was taking the lead, telling her what was needed in this situation.
“Honestly, I don’t know what exactly to do yet. I will need a little time to think things through. But... Just let me tell you how proud of you I am. How much I love you. You are a wonderful filly. Whatever happens, from now on I will be on your side. I promise to you that you will never have to set a hoof into an orphanage again. You have endured more than should be expected of any filly already. I will take on for you. Although I cannot change the past, I WILL set things right for your future.”
She paused as a tear quelled from her eyes. Lying down on the couch, she lifted up Scootaloo with all four legs, bringing her protégé’s face directly above her own.
“I want you to be a normal overly cool foal. I want you to play outside every day without fear. From here on let ME manage all your responsibility, let ME fight your fears. You deserve it... Do you trust me enough to care for you?”
Scootaloo silently nodded.
“Then let me be your family.”
Words are a means of despair or hope, sorrow or joy, depending on the wielder. Written or spoken, it makes no difference. They caused wars and ceased them alike. Ending a life with them was just as easy as starting a new one.
Of all the things that could have been said, this was the most wonderful, the most perfect. All Scootaloo had ever wanted was a family. Someone to care for her. And now she had both. A life had been renewed.
Rainbow put her little filly down only to wrap her hooves around her again. A gesture that was immediately returned, accompanied by 5 magic words: “I love you too, Rainbow.” Both were crying, but these were happy tears.
Dash couldn’t remember having ever smiled so brightly, not even at the best of times with her friends. How could something so beautiful be triggered by something so dreadful?
They simply lay there enjoying each other’s presence for what seemed to be an eternity. Rainbow’s thoughts had calmed a bit. A general path of action had formed in her mind. All that was missing was some information. She hated to end their moment of intimacy, but it had to be done and there would be many more.
“I have a few questions to ask you. Are you alright with that?”
“Anything you want,” Scootaloo said, nuzzling Rainbow’s chest.
“OK then.” A cyan hoof ruffled up the orange pegasus’ hair before she continued. “How about some tea? Don’t want to make this an interrogation.” She didn’t wait for an answer, but rather just put the yelping filly onto her back and trotted off to the kitchen, where she started the interview.
“Which orphanage did you live in?” A set of teacups moved to the table.
“Tlmhm.” The filly’s voice was muffled beyond recognition by the mane of her life vehicle that she immediately spat out again. Quick hooves skimmed her tongue on their quest to remove the colourful hair that didn’t quite belong there. She tried again, this time keeping her head up.
“Trottingham.” Rainbow nodded silently before posing the next question.
“Do you still have your record?” Bright red teabags went into the cups.
“They are still hidden at the clubhouse. Sorry I didn’t trust you.” She nudged Rainbow’s ear with her muzzle.
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, Squirt.”
A soft poke to a cloud provided the water for the tea before Dash continued.
“This one is important, Scoot. Don’t want to embarrass you. But hmmm... What kind of medical problems did you have after... you know... and have you received any medical attention?”
Lightning struck the beakers, heating the contents in an instant. Scootaloo’s eyes got wide in awe and she began to hop up and down on her protector’s back, her wings producing a constant current of air. Forgetting the real question and the proximity of her to Dash’s auditory system, she let out a loud fangirly squeak.
“That was sooooo awesome. You have to show me how to do that!”
“I will. Just stop it. That hurts!” Rainbow's words were interrupted by a gasp at each impact. Only a second later the beating had been replaced by a frantic sobbing pegasus clinging to her front leg. Her spine was happy for this, her mind was not. She took a tissue that was luckily located within hoof-range and handed it down to the filly.
“It’s alright. No need to tear up again. Look, your tea is ready, although still very hot.” She gestured at the steaming cups on the table.
A trumpet like sound followed. Big moist eyes met Rainbows gaze. “I’m s-sorry. Are w-we still family?”
A heavy sigh escaped Dash’s lips. “Scoot, we really have to work on your self-confidence. We’re a family now, and nothing’s ever going to change that, OK?” She nudged the filly playfully on the side, who gave a consenting smile. “Now, how about some tea and your answer to my question?”
Scootaloo went to the table, where she began to speak, all the while staring at the hot beverage in her hooves.
“The first days I spent in Ponyville I was unable to move. I had found an apple tree in the woods and sat down to eat. Couldn’t bring myself to stand up after that for a couple of days. Worst part was ... hmm ... peeing really hurt for two weeks.” Scootaloo’s tan had changed from orange to red, mimicking the colour of her drink. The last part had been spoken in a barely audible whisper, but she continued at a normal volume. “Applejack has patched me up a few times after stunts gone wrong while crusading. Can’t remember anything else.”
Rainbow took a long sip, burning her tongue a little bit. “OK. Let me tell you what I’m gonna do. First of all I will sign you in to the hospital for a complete check-up. Shots included!”
“No,” knowing her ward Rainbow interrupted Scootaloo before the filly could even raise her hoof. “I am not letting you out of that.” The orange pegasus closed her mouth again in defeat and went back to inhale her tea.
“Second thing is,” Dash continued. “Do you know Aegis?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “No. Who is that?”
“He is a friend of mine and the head of the local sheltered housing scheme for foals who got here without their parents to start an apprenticeship or something similar after they got their cutie marks. Actually, he’s the guy who helped Fluttershy after she got here and who placed Pinkie up with the Cakes.”
The orange pegasus frowned. “What about him?”
“I want to be honest with you. I am just twenty and I have no idea of how to care for a foal. I mean, for longer than a few weeks. Not even one as cool as you.” She smiled at the filly. “Also, I still want to join the Wonderbolts. That means I will have to go to their camps and I can’t take you with me. And I kind of have to rescue Equestria now and then. And you can’t fly. So, to make things short, I have already asked Aegis if he could make an exception and let me move in with a filly I could not yet tell him who she was. He said yes.”
Scootaloo tilted her head to the side. “So we are moving to the ground?”
“Only if you like Aegis.” Dash had put aside her now empty cup and laid her hooves onto her protégé’s shoulder.
“But we will still live together.” Scootaloo’s head inverted its position to the other side.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
The filly was perplexed. Not only by the diversity of new information and feelings, but also by her idol’s willingness to give up her home and move down to a normal house for her. Dash was to the ground like fire was to water. She would never bind herself to the earth, except maybe for a nap in a tree. But yet, she seemed happy to do the unthinkable for Scootaloo. Next to agreeing to be her family, this was the second greatest possible commitment. All in one day.
Deeply touched would have been an understatement for her feelings. She tried to put as much affection as possible into her voice as she answered.
“Then yes. I would love to live with you. Thank you. This is gonna be so awsome!”
Rainbow waved her hoof to stop the filly. “Don’t mention it, kid.” She wrapped her wing around her ward like a blanket and then went on: “There is one more thing. I need to tell my friends so they can help me help you.”
This time it was Scootaloo sighing. She didn’t like the idea, but after all that had happened today, she knew she could trust Rainbow. Dash’s friends would have to know sooner or later anyway.
“You can tell them.”
Dash went down to the ground, gesturing the filly the hop on.
“OK then. How about some midnight surprise crusading with Apple Bloom? Dashie needs some help to become your legal guardian.”
The night air was cool and unpleasant, even for a seasoned pegasus, inducing a numb, tingling sensation on face and hooves alike. Autumn was clearly in its last breath. The first snowfall was scheduled to be in a week from now. Hidden beneath thick layers of clouds Dash had personally placed there a few hours ago, Luna’s moon was waiting for nightly visitors like it did every night, the already few bright rays blocked out in the sky, leaving not much more than darkness for navigation...
Of course that was not a problem for a pony as awesome as Dash. She could fly with her eyes closed in the sky above Ponyville. She had proven that to herself one time and it had only taken a week to repair the library. Crashing wasn’t a good idea with a flightless filly on your back, though, so she kept her eyes wide open, scanning their path for potential obstacles at a lazy pace.
It would take them a few minutes to reach the clubhouse this way, but it was for the best for Scootaloo and they could as well use the time to quench a few more of the many questions rumouring in Dash’s skull.
“What did you eat during the last year, Scoots? Did you have to steal?” She had to shout against the strong nightly winds. “No one would think badly of you if you did,” she hastily added.
“I had the free school lunch every day. Sometimes I worked to get some bits. No stealing. School holidays where rough, though.”
Dash thought about it for a few seconds, before she retorted. “But I’ve seen you countless times at Sugarcube Corner. Did you work that much or is Pinkie ruining the Cakes?”
“No...” Scootaloo answered a little hesitantly. “I kinda borrowed the money from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.”
“How much pocket money do they get?”
“About five Bits a week.”
“And how much do you owe them?” She reared her wings back to slow their descent next to the wooden shack the girls used as their crusading base.
“Forty-eight each...” answered a meagre voice while cyan hooves touched the ground. Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh at that number.
“You know Squirt, you got the best friends in the world,” Dash said after Scootaloo had hopped down beside her. Rainbow raised her hoof to arrange the mess that was her ward’s mane back to its usual less messy state, but it never reached its target. The filly had already taken a step backwards and nearly screamed at the older mare.
“I am NOT a BAD friend!” Much quieter she continued, probably more to convince herself than Dash. “I will pay them back eventually.” She knew it wasn’t true. There was no way she could work up that much. Not with her still needing more credit every week. Her friends would never admit to her, but they had already written up the money. She had overheard them saying so on more than one occasion, when they thought she was not listening. She felt bad for every time she took new money from them, but the temptation of a cupcake or a milkshake was greater than her guilt. As to why her friends still gave her bits anyway, she didn’t know. Friendship makes ponies irrational...
“Scoots?”
She was brought back to reality with a small brown purse held in front of her face.
“I know you're a good friend. And I know you will pay them back. Here is your allowance for the last year. 100 Bits should be enough.”
The filly took a step to the side to look into her patron’s large rose eyes instead of staring at the fabric.
“Don’t you need your money for something more important than my milkshakes?”
“Celestia pays well for saving Equestria, so don’t worry about my money,” Rainbow replied while now fixing up the filly’s coiffure like she had intended a moment ago. “Your friends deserve their cupcakes as well as you do.” The purse moved over to the orange pegasus once more, where Scootaloo silently accepted it and stored it in her own saddlebag. Rainbow smiled and then went on.
“Does five Bits a week sound fair to you? Cause that is what you'll get. Now please get the record. I'll wait here for you.”
Scootaloo saluted before she went up the squeaky planks. A few loud rumbling noises later, a coughing filly returned, handing over a dusty stack of paper. Dash mentally groaned at how thick it was, but more work also meant more information. So in the end this would be a good thing and she had planned to include Twilight anyway.
Now it was time to get her friends. After the files were secured in her own saddlebags, the two went off again, heading to the farm at mediocre speeds.
Applejack’s home was dark and silent, much like to be expected at this hour of day. At times like this, doors weren’t the best option to enter a house, as it meant waking everypony, usually leaving the unnecessarily awoken inhabitants sleepy and hostile. Not a problem for Rainbow; she didn’t believe in doors anyway.
Her friend's bedroom was located on the second floor, the third window to the right. Applejack was sleeping soundly, lightly snoring and cuddled up in a big green blanket with red apple prints all over it.
It was a very peaceful sight, although Dash felt a little creepy watching her friend sleeping through a window.
A hard knock onto the glass pane ended the weird idyll abruptly, leaving behind the two pegasi still hovering outside, but waking up the snoring pony, who cast her blanket to the side with a soft rustle.
The Stetson hat that was her trademark was moved to her head even before she sat up in an automatic sleepy motion. Scootaloo, like most ponies, had believed that Applejack wore it even in her sleep or while taking a shower. The camping trip not too long ago had disproved her assumption, disappointing the filly a little, although not for very long, since she had had to face other problems that night.
Another sharp knock brought Applejack’s attention to the window, ending the slow searching motion of her head in her sleepy attempt to find the source of the disturbance through squinted eyes.
“What in the hay” was all that Rainbow could make out of the mumbling noises her friend produced while slowly trotting over the window, which was promptly opened. A warm stream of air washed over the visitors.
“What in tarnation are ya two doing here? Y’all know what time it is?” Applejack began, interrupting her yawns to speak.
“No. The sun is so bright I can’t see a thing on my watch.” Rainbow made a show by dramatically looking at her front hoof, fake-reading her non-existent watch, before she realised Applejack was not much into sarcasm that soon after getting up and went on in a steady, unperturbed voice instead. “I do know it’s late, but it’s very important. Just let us in.”
Applejack only nodded and stepped to the side. While she was still tired, even despite the cold night air ruffling up her mane, now she was worried. At least Scootaloo was in plain sight, ruling out the possibility something happened to her. But what else could it be?
The two pegasi swooped inside. Scootaloo hopped down and turned to Dash: “Can I go surprise Apple Bloom?”
Rainbow had planned on that anyway, so the answer came easy: “Sure. Just don’t wake anypony else.” Applejack drew in a breath, ready to hinder the orange bouncing ball to leave the room, but the words never left her mouth. Rainbow’s piercing gaze made sure of that.
Once she was clear to speak, she confronted the intruder of the peace: “Now please explain why not only Ah am not allowed to sleep but also my underage sister and Scootaloo, who should both be sound a-snorin’.” Although she tried, she couldn’t keep up the upset edge she had intended to use. Instead, her words were monotone and showed off her sleep-deprived state.
“Look,” Rainbow went over to her friend and apologetically bounced her flank against her friend’s. “I'm really sorry. But Scoots just told me about her past. She was severely abused and I guess she is wanted by the police. I think it could be happening other foals as well, even right now. I can explain it in detail once I get Twilight here. Can you make some coffee? This is gonna be a long night.”
With that, Applejack was left alone again, Rainbow already headed back into the night, by now no more than a cyan speck dissolving into darkness. Severely abused. Wanted by police. She recounted those words, while she absentmindedly closed her window. She probably wouldn’t need the suggested hot beverage anymore, but she would make some nevertheless. Just after checking on the fillies.
With no passenger holding her back this time she could fly at near-rainboom speeds, passing the distance to the library in mere seconds.
Twilight’s home was far more comfortable to enter compared to the farm building. The huge hollowed out tree did not just feature a lot of books, but also a nice big balcony that Dash could land on.
Still a few yards off her target, she brought out her wings, stopping her movement instantly from top speed to no motion at all with just one strenuous sweep. A technique she had learned by studying the one and only Spitfire.
Red flashing lights appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by a siren, numbing sight and hearing at the same time. Rainbow’s hooves never touched the ground; she was kept in the air by a strong purple magical aura. Unable to move at all, but still able to breathe, the cyan pegasus silently cursed herself for forgetting about the security measurement that had been installed on Celestia’s insistence right after the changeling invasion.
No ordinary pony could escape Twilight’s power. There was no point to even try to struggle free. She only wished she had been caught in a more comfortable position, as her wings were still stretched back way too far, which was fine for a split-second, but not for a prolonged wait. They would be sore for weeks following this.
Twilight was awoken by a magical pinch triggered by the alarm. This was the seventh time this had happened, only counting this month. Mostly it was just birds, with the exception of one particularly scared squirrel. Surely this time wouldn’t be any different. She got up with a heavy sigh, making a mental note to remove the trap in the morning, giving in to her annoyed neighbours who seemingly didn’t like the bright lights. Even Fluttershy had complained to her after a group of birds had informed their pony friend about the events.
Unwilling and sleepy she sloped to the balcony door, ready to rescue the trapped animal. It wasn’t really its fault after all, was it? Watching out of the window, she brought up a hoof to massage her temples, fighting the instant migraine. The bird was far bigger than expected. Only Rainbow could be stupid enough to not only enter a building through a window at night, but also to forget an alarm system she had seen being installed herself. Twilight just wanted this to be over and go back to sleep as soon as possible. Rainbow had better have a very good explanation for this.
A purple aura opened the door and slammed it shut again after Twilight had passed through it.
“Rainbow, what do you want?” Her tone wasn’t something that could be described as pleasant.
Still fixated by a strong force, Rainbow tried to at least exhale loudly, but only managed to create a soft whizzing sound.
“Not talking to me, ehh? I know you are hiding something from me! Now talk!”
Dash tried again, this time managing to make a wet gurgling sound followed by something that might have been coughing if it hadn’t been for her restrained posture. Muscles tensed up, cramping, leaving her short of breath and creating whistling sounds from her respiratory system. Maybe Twilight would hear that. For a pony that smart she was pretty slow sometimes.
Without warning, the lights turned off. Not only on the balcony, but also for a second on the pegasus after her skull made acquaintance with the hard unloving floor.
A low “What’s wrong with you, Twilight?” was all she managed as a response through her spinning head. She could see the proverbial stars surrounding her in a bright yellow.
“You tell me?”
Rainbow slowly got up, swaying like a leaf in the wind on wobbly legs. Staring at her so called friend, she started: “Look, Twilight. We got more important matters than you being mad at me for some reason. I will explain it in a second. Could you just grab a book about criminal law and one about family law and then teleport us to Applejack’s kitchen? I am not up to carrying you right now.”
She tried to open her wings, but closed them again with a small cry of pain. “See?”
But Twilight did not. She had already disappeared with a plop.
The cyan pegasus tilted her head back to look at the nightly sky, contemplating the dark grey mass of clouds in the sky. Those weird accumulations of water she could shape and move at will, like big white chess pieces. Sometimes she wished that ponies where slightly similar. Twilight would just be a rouge cloud from the Everfree she needed to push back or dissolve in order to save Ponyville from a drench. In real life the drench was ponies getting hurt. This time it was a very lovely orange ball of energy. Her friend was part of the plan, if she liked it or not, she needed to participate.
As far as she remembered, there were no more traps. At least not on this part of the building, so she went forward to the window, heavily tapping it with strong hooves. “Twilight, I really need your ...”
The last words were never spoken. Rainbow’s world went black again for a second, followed by the sudden sensation of falling and a sudden impact. She was used to crashing, but normally this was caused by herself and didn’t turn up too unexpected. She groaned while she got up once again, keeping her eyes half closed in a grimace of pain.
At least she was at the destination she wished for. Twilight was here, as was Applejack in front of three steaming cups of coffee and the two requested books neatly teleported to the table, probably without even producing the tiniest thump.
“If you want kill me, please get it over with, Twi. Just stop with the torture.” Rainbow tried to stop her head from spinning as she spoke by bringing up a hoof to her head.
“Just tell me what’s up so I can sleep again,” Twilight hissed back.
“Look Twi; you were right. I have someone over at my home.” Another groan escaped Dash as she sat down at the table. “And yes, it’s a young, lovely mare... It’s Scootaloo. She...”
A magic slap quenched her words, leaving the room silent except for the shattering of the unicorn's chair that had been flipped back violently. Twilight’s expression had gone from annoyed to plain pissed, the way she looked directly before her mane bursts into flames. The only thing holding her back to scream was the sleeping inhabitants of the farm. Through gritted teeth she began to berate her friend:
“That’s low even for you, Rainbow. Isn’t she a little young for this? What do her parents say about it? I swear, if you woke me up to save your ass from jail for...” A somewhat vile tasting hoof ended her words, breaking its way into her mouth, somehow managing not to hit any teeth. She could feel Applejack’s breath on her cheek. Her friend’s voice was level but forceful.
“What in the hay? I will stop ya here, before ya say even more things yer going to regret. I know yer tired and upset about Rainbow lying to ya and hiding stuff from ya, but neither is reason for violence nor wild accusations. Ya have more than just hurt her feelings.” She gestured at the catatonic pegasus sitting on the table with wide spread eyes and low hanging ears whose head rested on the table because all muscle tension seemed to have left her. “I would have thrown you out by now if I didn’t think Rainbow needed ya for an important reason.”
She removed her hoof from Twilight’s mouth and went over to the sink to wash off the saliva, all the while never diverting her stare to the unicorn’s general direction that could have rivalled Fluttershy. Twilight neither dared to look up nor talk.
Now free of the slobber Applejack went over to Rainbow and embraced her friend, gently rubbing her back, as she continued. “As far as Ah‘m informed Scootaloo is an orphan and homeless. Rainbow took her in to kept her safe and find out what’s going on. It seems that she has been abused and other foals might be in danger. Ah for ma part would like to know what’s going on. So please shut up and listen. Yer beyond apologising anyway as far as Ah am concerned...”
Tears dropped to the ground, forming uniform wet spots on the carpet beside a pair of violet hooves. Twilight kept silent, suppressing the sobs as they threatened to wash over her, even though Rainbow took more than a minute to recover and produce a thick stack of slightly yellowed paper before she began to retell the story in a shaky voice, leaving out the embarrassing details.
Scootaloo knew the way to her friend’s bedroom by heart, even in the dark. She had spent enough nights at the farm at the regular sleepovers. All of the bedrooms were next to each other on the second floor, so she made sure to tiptoe over the creaky planks. The trick was to only step on every third plank. She had been the first one to find out in the attempt on being a Cutie Mark Crusader Ninja. A cutie mark hadn’t appeared, though. Or it was just concealed very well...
Everything on the farm had too many apples for Scootaloo’s taste. This was also true for Apple Bloom’s bedroom: the apple wallpaper, the apple bed, the apple sheets... There were even edible apples everywhere, something she didn’t care about for first time in her life.
Silently, she closed the door behind her and dug into her saddlebags to retrieve the bits she had just gotten from Rainbow Dash, before discarding the bag to the floor as silently as possible. Scootaloo placed the money onto the bed before jumping up herself.
Apple Bloom would never admit to it, but she had a very ticklish spot right behind her shoulder blades. A first soft testing touch drew a few giggles from the sleeping foal. It took hardly any movement from Scootaloo at all to leave the yellow filly before her trashing and laughing and clearly awake. Her mission was done.
The victim set up, panting heavily, looking at the intruder like somepony who had seen a ghost.
“What are ya doing here Scootaloo. Ya know this is ma bed, not yers,” Apple Bloom inquired in her usual southern accent she had adopted from her big sister.
“I got your money and wanted to give it to you right away!” Scootaloo held up the bag with a smile that spread from ear to ear and began counting up the sum, using ten Bit coins.
“Wait, wait, what? How’d ya get in? How’d ya get that much Bits all of a sudden?”
The orange Pegasus handed over the pieces before she answered “Rainbow.”
Apple Bloom shook her head as if this would rearrange her thoughts in a way they could make sense out of that statement. It didn’t really help. Her confusion came back up as a single word: “What?”
“I was sleeping at Rainbow’s place and she brought us here, cause she had stuff to do with Applejack. She also gave me the money. She said we’re family now!” Scootaloo beamed.
The yellow earth pony shook her head again. It wasn’t just the hour of the day keeping her from comprehending. Her friend hadn’t shed any light onto the matter, more like closed the curtains and sealed off the doors. She just continued to gape at pegasus, missing any witty reply.
Scootaloo’s grin faded a little, her eyes wandering off to one of the green flower ornaments decorating the wall.
“I’ve been lying to you and Sweetie Belle.”
“What about?” Despite being woken only minutes ago in the middle of the night, Apple Bloom was now wide awake. Not just because the situation was best described as downright bizarre. Part of her still thought this was a weird dream and she would wake up any moment, but also because the instant change of mood in her friend told her something was wrong. While she did not possess the strong empathy of her sister and she had only known Scootaloo for a year, she could still read her like a book.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had suspected that something was odd about Scootaloo’s life for a long time now. Evasive was a term that did not even start to describe her friend whenever they had tried to find out about her family. The young earth pony remembered one special occasion when they had gone as far as demanding to have a sleepover at Scootaloo’s near the summer break. Not hard to tell it didn’t end well, with the orange pegasus running off and not showing up for crusader meetings for over a week.
Afterwards she had tried to turn to her sister, who informed her that she and Rainbow had already taken every possible way short of secretly following the filly to get intelligence about Scootaloo without any success, but that they had an eye out for her and not to worry too much. Sweetie Belle and she had learned to avoid the issue afterwards and never talked about it again.
Showing up in the middle of night with Rainbow and money sure had something to do with this. She had to make this as easy as possible for her crusading buddy, so she crawled over and sat next to Scootaloo, who had remained quiet after the last question because she couldn’t bring up the courage after all. Apple Bloom made sure to secure a hoof around the pegasus before she spoke.
“It’s ‘bout ya family?”
Scootaloo’s gaze came back to her friend.
“How do you know?”
The earth pony squeezed her companion.
“We’re ya friends. You never talked of them and ya ran away when we did. You never have the means to pay for anything and everything you use is borrowed or gifted. ‘Cept for ya old scooter. We are all worried ‘bout ya and sad we can’t help. Whatever is on ya heart, Ah’m listening.”
“I am an orphan like you are, but I have no other family, so I grew up at the orphanage. I never knew anything else,” Scootaloo began to retell her life story for a second time today, this time including her life with Dash and less details on her mistreatment. Somehow she felt better every time she told her story. She could feel the weight of months spent lying and hiding parts of her life being lifted off her by some mysterious force. It wasn’t over yet, but she didn’t feel alone anymore. She had a family and very good friends.
Apple Bloom listened intently to every word, now and then stroking her friend’s mane for comfort, especially when waiting through a long pause when Scootaloo was lost in light sobbing or her own thoughts. Apple Bloom went from shock to outrage to happiness, all within an hour. She was sad and happy for Scootaloo at the same time, a very confusing and exhausting feeling.
In the end she promised her friend that they would tell Sweetie Belle together, right before the exertion of the day and the late hour took its toll on both of them. They didn’t notice when Applejack came in and tucked them in with gentle and trained hooves, like they hadn’t noticed her peeking through the door now and then during their talk, checking on them like an invisible patron.
A Nocturnal Helper (Black Guardian 1, Cyan Guardian 7)
A Nocturnal Helper (Black Guardian 1, Cyan Guardian 7)
Luna’s dominion was at its end, being replaced by her sister’s light glowing deeply red on the horizon. In ancient times, a red moon was seen as an omen for a great battle to be fought during the day. But the times of swords and blood had ended long ago, they were no more than a tale told anew each Hearth's Warming Eve, but at least for today the foreboding nature of the twilight sky still held a universal truth.
The plans had been formed, the allies had been rallied. The battle would begin within the hour. It was time to say goodbye. Thankfully it was just for the day, she didn’t even want to think about losing Scootaloo.
Rainbow was the only feasible option for the filly. Scootaloo was an only child. Her parents had died half a year after her birth during an evening stroll when a group of Timberwolves had preyed on them.
The tale had been spread through Ponyville via gossip at that time as Applejack recalled from a dark corner of her memory. No pony had ever seen those creatures in the outskirts of Trottingham, before or after the incident, as far as the trio could remember. Bad luck at its worst. As for grandparents and other relatives, they had either died of a natural causes or plainly never existed. No one was left to care for and love the poor foal.
But that was only a part of what they could extract out of the bureaucratic and emotionless pages of the record, along with myriad of other misconducts of Ms. Birch and the, compared to her age, long medical history of Scootaloo.
Alone during the last year spent at the orphanage, there had been seventeen requests for adoption, all by viable parents, all of which had been denied by the headmistress.
As it stood, the young pegasus had told her of only one beating, the last and worst one, that had ended in injuries worse than hematomas. But the record had exposed a much darker truth. The files had revealed fourteen documents, signed by fourteen different doctors, treating anything from infested wounds to a black eye and a broken front left hoof. While Ms Birch probably was not responsible for all of this, considering the rambunctious nature of Scootaloo, they guessed she had something to do with a fair amount of them.
It was a good thing the filly had run away and an even better one she had come clean. There was a new and better life ahead of her now, Rainbow was sure of this. She would make sure of it within the day.
Big McIntosh was already awake and working on the farm, so Dash did not fear to rouse him, when she made her way along the creaking second floor of her friend's house. Granny Smith could sleep through a storm at her age. There was no need to worry about her waking up, either.
An hour earlier, when Big Mac had made his way to the kitchen just after falling out of bed at the first call of the rooster. He hadn’t even questioned what was going on when he had found three Elements of Harmony and a middle aged, jet-black stallion with blue mane and an iron shield as a cutie mark sitting and scheming in his kitchen. It was a far too usual sight in Ponyville to see them caught up in something big and unusual. Big Mac had even accepted that Applejack would not be able to work at the farm for the day, which meant even more tasks for him, with a simple “Eeyup.” What he lacked in words, he made up for in heart and hard work.
The black stallion who had joined their endeavour was Aegis, whom they had decided to include later in the night after they had detected that special training was needed to become the legal guardian of Scootaloo, because of her history. Dash was up to it, no questions about that, but it would take her more than a month to complete the schooling.
Up until then somepony else would have to live in the same household, someone who had the needed qualifications, who could at least check on Dash and Scootaloo as was required by law. A description matching the stallion to the letter.
He hadn’t been overly happy to be disturbed as Twilight had reported them, but who wouldn’t be when woken by a near stranger. Once he knew it was about Rainbow and her mysterious protégé he had become eager and enthusiastic, tackling the problems while wearing a smile.
If asked, most ponies would tell you that only unicorns held magic within them. Far less ponies knew of the innate magic of pegasi, used to fly and mould the weather. Only very few understood the magic within earth ponies, providing them an intuitive grasp of the future like Pinkie or the ability to understand the emotions of ones opposite as well as Applejack, not to mention the effects ones Cutie Mark had on every kind alike. Magic was omnipresent in everypony’s life.
Aegis’ magic was similar to Pinkie’s, but in a more protective way. As it turned out, he had anticipated something similar to the current situation among many other theories since the day Dash had talked to him. He already had a flat ready and waiting for them. One, as he had stated, that was perfect for a pegasus family of two, with a lot of room and big windows. He had even already gone through the ordeal of cloud-proofing it, a combination of special paint and magic, meaning they could keep all of Dash’s furnishing.
Impressive as this feed already was, he didn’t stop there, presenting them the previously prepared needed paperwork. All of it and a lot more. The forms to enroll Dash at the Equestrian School of Pedagogical Education, amazingly planned according to Rainbow's work plan and general school times, the lease contract for the flat, and most importantly Dash’s request to become the legal guardian of Scootaloo, something Rainbow had never even mentioned to him, accompanied with his agreement to supervise Dash in this role. All that had been left to do was to fill in the blanks of the needed signatures and the filly's data and of course to throw away a large stack of prepared documents for other scenarios that weren’t needed after all. Aegis sure went to great length to help others. That’s what made him him.
Still lost in thoughts, Rainbow opened the door to Apple Bloom's room where the image of her soon to be official ward, sleeping peacefully entwined with her friend as if they were one colourful filly, brought her back to reality. She hated to disturb this idyll, but she had to leave for the day, and she would not do so without notice.
The blanket of the sleeping foals was peeled back with hooves as gentle as a feather, leaving the challenge of separating the seemingly inseparable. Only by the bright orange fur of her protégé could she tell the limbs apart, piecing together more and more of the filly until she was free and thankfully still snoring like her friend, whom Rainbow didn’t want to disturb this early in the morning.
As soft-hooved as possible she crept out of the room, her ward sleeping peacefully on her back. Once outside, she placed the foal down in front of her, waking her protégé by soft nuzzling as she did most mornings when breakfast was ready. Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes, by blinking against the low red sun somehow amplifying the natural colour of the filly’s fur.
“Good morning, Squirt,” Rainbow said as she ruffled up her ward’s mane in her very own affectionate way. “Sleep well?”
“Hmm,” Scootaloo yawned back, looking almost like a snake ready to devour its prey.
“I just wanted to fill you in with the plan, then you can go back to sleep, OK?”
Rainbow looked down skeptically at the foal in front of her who slowly got up with still half-closed eyes and mouth wide open, stretched out body parts bringing up creaking sounds that did not sound like a healthy sleeping position.
“I am already awake.” The dark rings under Scootaloo’s eyes suggested otherwise, but Rainbow chose to ignore it.
“OK. The plan is this: I am going to leave you here for a few hours. Applejack’s already out. She’ll fetch Sweetie from her parents once it’s a safe time to knock on doors and then will bring you all along an adventure trip through the woods. If, and only if you are OK with it, Aegis will come, too. You remember who he is?”
They all had agreed without much discussion that there was no need for Scootaloo to find out the exact reason for the trip; hiding her in the forest in case something did not go according to plan.
Equestrian law stated three different kinds of custody: parental custody, temporary custody and long-term custody. Parental custody could be attained for genetic reasons or by adoption, a very lengthy process and something Dash was not yet ready for after such a short time. In order to gain long-term custody, three very important criteria must be met: the willingness and suitability of the adult, the willingness of the foal and the adequacy of the housing situation. All of them had to be tested by individual officials, all of whom took their own time and could not be rushed to take less than a day.
Dash had to gain temporary custody first, but that meant persuading ponies with the mental flexibility of a stone of the urgency of the situation. Having to judge within a time frame of twenty-four hours, conservative ruling was the base of most decisions, clearly working against Dash’s favour. There were a lot of bureaucrats out there who would, free of any kind of empathy, put the filly back to an orphanage while the custody was sorted out, something that would not end well regardless of the carers or location of the orphanage.
While at least Aegis and Twilight did not fear to fail altogether in the task with the princesses on their side, they had to take the possibility of over enthusiastic police officers trying to detain the filly very seriously. It was not something the filly should be exposed to; Scootaloo would not be part in any political games.
A soft yes brought Dash back to situation and the question that had just been answered. Moving through a mental checklist of things she had yet to relay, she continued her speech.
“He’s waiting in the kitchen right now if you need anything. Maybe you can just go down and have a hot chocolate with him once you feel well-rested. Anyway, while you are out in the woods I will complete all the formalities to become your legal guardian, so when I return you’ll be safe forever and officially mine to care for.”
Rainbow draped a wing over Scootaloo without noticing the gesture herself as she continued in a suddenly very serious tone.
“I will also report Ms. Birch to the police. I will make sure that she is sent to jail, if she isn’t there already, which is what I really hope for. I will ensure that she will never be free again and never hurt another foal for the rest of her life. No pony gets away for messing with my number one fan!” The last sentence was accompanied by a shaking hoof raised into the air and a growl that could put a bear to shame.
“Twilight already scheduled an appointment at the hospital for you this afternoon. As I said, I need to make sure everything is in perfect order. Don’t want you to get sick. OK. I need to be dashing off. Got everything?”
Rainbow’s wings folded back neatly against her side as Scootaloo jumped up and saluted, accompanied with a loud “Yes ma’am!”
“At ease soldier!” Dash retorted, returning the salute, standing at attention with seriousness spelled all over her face. A few seconds Rainbow nearly choked, trying to hold back her laughter, her fake grim expression gave way to a more natural grin that was in turn replaced by heartfelt laughter on both sides.
“See you in a few hours!” Still in high spirits, she took off to the air, gliding down the staircase and leaving the house through the door for once. Twilight was already waiting for her at the police station together with Spike.
Twilight’s night had been the hardest of all of the involved parties, but she had probably deserved it.
To describe teleporting over long distances as taxing was like describing a marathon as a stroll, and yet she had done it multiple times and including additional passengers as well. By the time she had transported Rainbow to the farm, gotten Aegis, and went to the hospital to make an appointment for Scootaloo, she had been on her last legs, missing her location by more than a just a few yards on her jump back to Applejack’s kitchen, only a few inches of air remaining between her jaw and the counter, resulting in a ban of magic for Twilight.
It had been the first time in years she had turned a page by hoof. Luckily for her, there hadn’t been much work left to do anyway. The multitude of letters for Celestia, containing all possible combinations of future events and an explanation of the current situation, had already been written up beforehand. She certainly wouldn’t have made it through the first one after her last trip.
As a matter of precaution for events not related to this night at all, she had spent a lot of time last month in Zecora’s hut researching and brewing magical restorers. Well, Zecora had done the brewing. Twilight hadn’t even touched the boiling cauldron.
The result of their work had been a liquid nearly thick enough to pass as solid. Its shade of green had the unusual ability to turn your stomach on the spot if you made the mistake of looking at it. The taste could only by described by words disregarded by society, most of them bad enough she didn’t even dared to mentally verbalized them. It was possible to drink it, but far from being fun and only using a combination of a nose clip, closed eyes and a strong will to fight your own body’s reaction to such vile substances.
If and only if you managed to keep it in for long enough - she had failed the first three times in a row, making a mess out of Zecora’s hut that she later had to scrub for several hours - the effect was amazing. They had originally created it for emergency situations when Equestria was under attack of some kind of villain, but it was cheap to create and therefore equally great for days like today.
The bad news was that it was stored at the library. In the morning she had had to ask Applejack to accompany her to the hollowed-out tree house. Her fear to pass out on the way had been far too great to move alone despite the tension still lingering between her and the farm pony.
Not having enough energy left to throw up anymore, Twilight had managed to keep it down in the end and was feeling much better now, good enough to give Spike a ride to the police station. This is where Rainbow should be arriving any minute now, and she was surely not going to miss the appointment.
Accusing your friends of vile things while physically hurting them for no reason but your own ego wasn’t exactly something nice to do. She did not deserve forgiveness right now. Applejack had made that very clear. She even thought so herself. Hard work for a friend’s cause was only the beginning of making up for it, especially since it was not just about one of the countless quick ideas of Dash, but rather a cause that involved a group of helpless foals and possibly high politics with corrupt officials and incapable police ponies. A cause she felt obliged to follow regardless of its origin.
She yearned for a way to end the hollow feeling eating her up from inside. Guilt was a monster and something entirely new to her. Her friends weren’t just a Celestia-given mission, they were her life. The only one she loved more than them was Spike. He wasn’t just an assistant, but her best friend and sometimes she even felt like his mother. She had hatched him, so maybe she really was, even though she had been far too young to care for him on her own in the first years.
Losing him would mean losing a part of herself. The same was true for all of her friends. At the end of the day this would make a perfect letter to the princess. Hopefully one with a happy end.
The police station was an old wooden shack located in a narrow muddy byroad, this time of the year more ice than road in the freezing early morning hours.
Not unusual for any time of the day, the street was empty except for herself and her dragon rider. Overall good living conditions and just and generous rulers had resulted into low crime rates and a cooperative atmosphere throughout the country for many hundred years, reducing visitors to a slow stream of ponies complaining about petty theft and other minor offences, leaving just enough work to keep the only police pony of Ponyville busy enough not to sleep through his working days.
The few notices right next to the entry spoke the same language, mostly consisting of outdated public letters from the mayor and warnings about the Everfree forest.
As hardworking as some police officers were, the possibility of incidents greater than the capabilities of just one pony can never be fully dismissed, no matter how peaceful the inhabitants of a district were. Whenever there was an emergency, a squadron of pegasi responsible for an entire district of multiple cities could be deployed within half an hour.
No matter how big the areas they had to cover, they hardly got any work at all, passing most of their standby duty playing card games, delivering important court orders or simply drilling, much like most of the Royal Army. As Twilight had read in reports to Celestia, some officers even described the execution of an arrest as a catharsis, a chance to escape from their boring job.
At the moment there should be work for the squad. There should have been work for a year now, searching every inch of Equestria for the missing foal, and yet no one had seen them in the skies. No one had alerted the Royal Army to assist after Scootaloo had been missing for more than one week. There wasn’t even a notice pinned to the board she was staring at. Nothing that should have been done, had been done, leaving a bad foretaste for the whole undertaking.
An impact next to the waiting mare brought the ice to break, sending splinters into all directions. Rainbow had not intended to land that hard, but a night without any sleep had a bad influence on her flying skills. Too bad there wouldn’t be time for a nap today.
Dash lowered her head to the dragon in greeting. “Good morning Spike. Thanks for helping. I guess Twilight already let you in on our little undertaking?”
Spike took a bow and lifted an imaginary hat as he replied. “Spike is at your service” He slightly paused before he continued in a more serious manner. ”And yes. I know.”
“OK then. I know haven’t said so yet, but thank you very much for being there as well, Twilight. I am sorry to have woken you a tad early today.” Rainbow gestured towards the entrance and took a few steps forward, but stopped again when Twilight didn’t move.
“Hmm, Twilight, shouldn’t we go inside?” Spike interjected, but his mount didn’t move and instead stared at the pegasus, stammering more to herself than to anypony else.
“Why are you sorry? I am the one who is sorry! I am the one who misbehaved. You did nothing wrong. I... I... no...”
Rainbow put a cyan hoof under Twilight’s chin and raised her friend’s head. Deep rose coloured eyes made contact to their violet counterparts.
“I will not say you've been nice to be around the last two weeks. I won’t say I appreciate or understand your actions. But we are friends, you helped a lot tonight and I can forgive you. Now. We got a helluva lot more important issue right now. Could we please go inside? I for my part am scared and want to be done with it.”
Surprise overtook Twilight like a rogue wave from the ocean you didn’t see coming, splashing all over you in seconds and leaving a drenched version of the former you behind. Rainbow was never afraid, not while fighting dragons, not while performing dangerous stunts. She was confident enough to laugh in the face of the most sinister creatures.
Of course all of them but Rarity had witnessed Rainbow’s serious bouts of self-doubt right before the Best Young Flyer competition. Dash didn’t take even the possibility of damage to her personality lightly.
Most of the time Rainbow was a normal dedicated and ambitious pony, working hard for her dreams, but now and then Twilight felt like talking to a fake Dash, as if her companion was just playing a role that was normally true. Rainbow’s last statement was a crack in crumbling facade, big enough to look at the true, insecure pony behind it. Twilight couldn’t decide if this was a good thing or not, but she fathomed Scootaloo wasn’t the only one in need of a stable and loving family.
She vowed to have a deeper look into it later on. She had been a bad friend long enough, although Rainbow might not have realized it herself. Scootaloo was first, though.
The three of them went through the small door into the reception area and only room of the building. Years of neglect to the inventory showed in faded colours on worn furniture and walls alike, huge fluffs of dust moving like tumbleweed over the floor on every light breeze. Stacks of paper concealed the only desk in the room and nearly hid the middle-aged blue stallion sitting behind it, taking notes on even more paper. Keeping files in order clearly wasn’t a big bar on his personality chart.
“What an unusual time for a visit. Good morning!” the officer greeted them in a deep and pleasant voice. “How may I be of any help?”
Rainbow took a step forward to stand directly in front of the table at the only available position to stretch her head through the large columns of documents in order to have a look at the policepony’s face.
“We are here to inform you that we have discovered the whereabouts of the missing foal Scootaloo with a request that I take immediate custody for her. We have the needed paperwork ready,” Dash addressed the stallion.
She rummaged through her saddlebag and retrieved the paperwork they had put together during the night. Rainbow had to take a step backwards again in order to make enough space to hand over the stack, but it was wasted energy as the officer refused to take what was given to him and began talking again instead.
“Let me find the records of the case first, please.”
Rainbow retracted the forms and what had already been a mess, became now a torrent of chaos. Mountains disappeared and rose again, as if the beholder was witnessing the miniature version of the driving forces of geology, just that millennia turned to minutes and back to millennia again in the eyes of Rainbow, Twilight and Spike.
What should have taken no more than a minute stretched to half an hour, leaving Rainbow sleeping on the ground and Twilight growing angrier to the point she couldn’t take it anymore. In a sudden burst of energy she sacked every piece of paper in the room at once with an unnerved scream and let them skip past her head reading them and sorting them into alphabetical order within seconds in her own very special kind of a data highway.
Spike wondered how she could keep her concentration up against the raving stallion shouting at the top of his lungs that she was not allowed to touch the files, threatening her with ridiculous penalties ranging from fines worth multiple thousand bits up to years in prison. Twilight had bothered to answer the first three times that she was entitled to see every single document in all of Equestria as a bearer of an Element of Harmony, but seeing that her efforts were completely ignored, she kept silent after that in contrast to the officer who had decided to extend his verbal harassment with physical action.
Step by step he crept closer to the working unicorn, a hoof held high to strike out. Too much for the newly awoken pegasus, immediately placing herself between the two of them, posing in a threatening stature, snarling and hissing.
The police pony retreated to corner followed by Dash blocking him still screaming in his location. It surely hadn’t been their intention to cause a ruckus, but the amount of incapacity left them no choice.
When Twilight was done, the room had changed beyond recognition to a place where a pony could actually work in without missing out information or risking a serious depression. Missing out the usual shelving used by authorities, she had resorted to building up piles of paper not unlike the officer had done, but opposed to his sluggish attempts aligning them neatly next to each other, sorted alphabetically and categorized into closed and open cases. She had even found the capacities to write up new file jackets on the fly, the old ones suspiciously missing for most cases.
Scootaloo’s record consisted of three parts, all located in different parts of the mess, probably lost for a long time, not important enough to immediately act upon it. Small wonder he hadn’t done anything to help the foal.
Twilight skimmed through the file before magically throwing it in front of the police pony’s hooves and gesturing Dash to back away. “Explain this to me this instant,” she demanded forcefully.
Gaining new confidence, he took up the files and read them, taking his time to the annoyance of everypony else. Especially Rainbow was anxious to find out what was inside, pacing the room and receiving no clarification from her friends.
“Well, it is clear to me. You tell me where the foal is and you’re done with this case and will not see her again.” His words contained more venom than a pit of snakes ready to attack.
Before Rainbow could react Twilight already was at it again. A strong aura surrounded her, erupting like gas explosions on every stressed syllable: “I am afraid this is not possible for various reasons you might see for yourself if you did your job properly. Be warned this will have consequences. You alone decide how severe they are.”
He brought his hoof down on a big red button located under the desk. Normally this was thought to be a secret action, but there was no way of not noticing it, not with the smug grin on his face that wrote in glowing letters he thought he was invincible. The pegasi squadron was underway.
“You will see the consequences then. I hereby arrest you for foal-napping, attempted battery and forcing access to classified information,” he spoke, producing a sets of hoof cuffs and additional sets of horn and wing cuffs, shining brightly as if polished every day.
Rainbow was already back in attack mode, but she was stopped by a gentle stream of magic tugging at her tail and the silently spoken word “no” forming on her friend’s lips.
Twilight simply stayed at her spot, stretching out her hoof for the first cuff. The visible magic enveloping her had already dissipated when the policepony was close enough to begin the procedure.
“Sir, I hereby inform you that it is forbidden by the highest law passed by Celestia herself to arrest the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Stop now and I will forget it. Proceed and you will face more than just disciplinary proceedings.”
Twilight’s challenge was answered by the clicking sound of metal joining her hooves in pairs and wrapping her horn into a thick layer of metal designed to absorb all kinds of energy. As Celestia’s student she had been trained to break free of them more than once, as had been the rest of her friends. She could literally disintegrate them into a thousand pieces in mere seconds. It was her own free will binding her, nothing more.
The same was true for Rainbow who was up next, following Twilight’s lead by giving no resistance despite the way the metal cut into her feathers, linking the tips of her wings with a chain that was tighter than necessary stretched over her back.
This certainly wasn’t how she had planned things to go, but the fact that Twilight seemed to have a tactic ready greatly calmed her nerves. In fact it was the only thing keeping her from screaming and flailing, breaking her chains or plainly breaking down crying. She had failed Scootaloo so far.
As soon as the last limb of Rainbow was secured, Twilight turned over to her friend and levitated ink and quill as well and an empty and one already written to parchment out of Rainbow’s saddlebags. Fear etched in his features, the officer slowly retreated to the back of the room, his eyes widened in surprise, his mouth opened to a gaping abyss. Never in his life had he seen, nor even heard of somepony working magic through a horn cuff. Yet, his captive was clearly doing it, a purple aura shining through the thick sheets of metal, reaching for objects throughout the room.
Feather screeched over paper, leaving hasty notes Twilight didn’t even look at while writing. Instead she focused on the angry and irritated stallion who seemingly couldn’t decide whether to run or to stay, swaying back and forth, head jerking to all directions in search of an escape route. It was probably best to help him in his decision.
“I told you twice not to mess with us. Now stay here or I will have you dragged back by a couple of Royal Guards who aren’t as nice as I am,” she stated matter-of-factly, already finishing her work and handing it to Spike who had remained next to the door all the time, waiting for orders.
Green flames engulfed the two sheets, sending them to their destination in no time at all.
Ignoring the officer now repeatedly hammering the panic button, Twilight turned to Rainbow again, loosening the grip of her wing cuffs and nuzzling her distressed friend.
“Rainbow, I am sorry. I sent letter number sixteen, and I requested for Celestia and Luna to come here personally. I want them to see this feeble attempt to restrain us.”
Rainbow closed her eyes. All letters had the same basic layout, describing the past events followed by a different anticipated future, sparing them the need of writing long explanations in situations like this. Sixteen meant that Ms Birch was no longer the headmistress, but that she was still free despite on-going investigation. With unknown consequences.
Wafts of cinnamon on apple-toast drifted through the house, pushing through every gap into every room, tickling Apple Bloom's nose, waking her with its seductive nature. Starting the day with a healthy breakfast created by her big sister was the favourite way for the little filly to get up, especially after such strange dreams like tonight. Just why would Scootaloo appear out of nowhere to tell her she was an orphan and homeless? It had felt real then, but now it seemed pretty absurd. The dream had ended by her crusading buddy falling asleep right next to her, and surely the bed next to her was empty except for the usual pillows.
Too bad she wouldn’t be able to tell Scootaloo about it. The pegasus’ family situation still was a sensitive issue that was best left unaddressed near her friend.
She would tell Applejack though, but food was first. There was no way escaping it now that she had taken the bait. The fragrance took away her free will, forcing her to leave the bed, moving her legs without her control, steering her to the kitchen without detour.
What the aroma of apples could not do, however, was to prepare her for the scene that awaited her. It was not her big sister tending to the stove, not even Granny Smith or Big McIntosh, but a black stallion she had never seen before. To complete her confusion, Scootaloo sat on the table happily chatting to him.
Maybe, just maybe, the “dream” was a little more real than she had thought a minute ago, but even if so that still did not explain the stranger cooking, and cooking well. She noisily cleared her throat, instantly ending all sounds except for the frizzling of the frying pan continuing unperturbed in its task.
Two pairs of eyes wandered over to Apple Bloom, joined with two wide smiles. Scootaloo beckoned over her friend by waving with her in the orange sun glowing hoof, but it was the stallion who spoke first.
“Good morning dear. Let me introduce myself. My name is Aegis, and I am the leader of the Ponyville sheltered housing scheme. I am here because I am helping Rainbow and Scootaloo. Your sister is out at the moment so I’m making breakfast for you all. As far as I was told, you already know what’s going on?”
Apple Bloom took a step forward to have a look into the pan to see that the toast did not only contain the well toasted bread and crisp apple chips, but also a thin molten layer of peanut butter covering everything. The best part was that there was enough of it for four ponies, surely including her. By the time she was brought back to reality by a black hoof pulling her back, she was right over the toast, inhaling the clouds of sweet aroma like an addict.
“Be careful. They are still very hot. You can have them in a minute if you promise me to share some of them with Scootaloo.” Aegis gave a wink to the filly and moved the pan to the table.
“So, Scootaloo told you what is going on?” he tried again. This time the filly answered in the affirmative voice, still staring at the steaming goods at the table. She was lost in her hunger, no longer a part of this world.
Aegis shook his head with a laugh. He sometimes wondered at the naive and spontaneous ways foals worked, placing food over life-changing events. Sometimes he even envied them to be so free and without trouble, no matter what happened in their lives. His cutie mark told him to help others to walk down the long and stony path of fulfilment as far as possible, shielding them from trouble, showing them how to be happy.
If his cooking helped, who was he to hinder the foals any longer. Everything said or done while keeping them waiting would be waste of effort anyway. He reached for the previously prepared plates and handed over the food without another word and enjoyed the simple pleasure of watching them eat, or gobble to find a better term. He had a bite of it himself, followed by an explosion of flavour dancing over his tongue. He was just too good at this.
A Time for Action (Mulberry Guardian 2, Black and White Guardians 1)
A Time for Action (Mulberry Guardian 2, Black and White Guardians 1)
The officer had decided not to flee, mostly because his fear to pass by his unwanted visitors outweighed his desire to leave by far. He was content in sitting on the floor right under his table, closely monitoring every movement outside, still in hope for the arrival of reinforcements that would never arrive.
Little did he know that Twilight had written to Celestia to recall them and that her wish had been promptly granted. When a large cloud of pegasi became visible as black dots against the bright sun he felt confident enough to leave his hiding place with a smug grin directed at the waiting group next to the entrance. Rainbow was asleep again, by the insistence of Twilight who kept guard together with Spike.
To pass the time with something useful, the unicorn had started to read Scootaloo’s record again, still not finding any clues onto who messed up and why. The testimonies of about two dozen children involved had been recorded by a state psychologist as was the usual to spare them a visit in court. A summary of the witness report of Scootaloo’s teacher was also included. All of it spoke a clear language, incriminating Ms Birch. Enough evidence was at hoof to arrest and convict her twice over. Either it had just never happened or the news had not found its way to Ponyville.
The record simply ended about one year ago with a note that Ms Birch had been banned from the orphanage and all other organizations involving foals and all further actions will be ceased until Scootaloo was found.
An Equestria wide search order had clearly been given, or there would not have been a copy of the record located in Ponyville, but nothing ever happened after that, and no document revealed the order itself.
Although Scootaloo had done a remarkably great job disguising her situation, she was just a foal. She would have been easily detected if somepony had taken the trouble to actually look at something else than paper. The filly could easily be dead by now hadn’t things turned out the way they did, a thought Twilight had banned from her mind as quickly as possible.
Irritated by the rummaging stallion, Twilight tossed aside the stack of paper and got up to look at the source of new activity in the policepony. She instantly recognized the very special military formation framed by a left and a right echelon, consisting of ten pegasi each with a big gap between them filled out by two three by three square formations surrounded by spherical force fields, containing Luna and Celestia in their centre. Twilight once read that this was the favourite way for the princesses to enter battlegrounds and travel to other urgent events, when being pulled on a sky wagon seemed inappropriate and slow. Equestria hadn’t seen this kind of formation for more than a thousand years, last being even before the time of the banishment of Nightmare Moon..
The guards weren’t moving as fast as Wonderbolts, not with heavy armour and weapons trying to drag them back to the ground after each flap of their wings, but some of them would have surely made it into the team if not for their different career choice. It would only take them a few more minutes to reach their destination. For Twilight it was time to prepare for the visit.
She went over to Dash, gently shaking the pegasus to wake her up. Rainbow responded by opening her eyes and exhaling a long deep growl before trying and failing to rub her eyes with restrained hooves. Getting up also didn’t prove to be easy, the cuffs not granting much liberty of movement. A beckoning look towards Twilight got her the discreet magical help her sore body needed to complete the task.
“You see the squad? You two are going down!” A maniacal laugh reverberated through room, originating from the officer, wearing Twilight's patience thin to the point it gave out. How could a single pony be this stupid?
“This is a traditional Royal Guard formation used as a vanguard for the princesses. Isn’t there any kind of aptitude check for police? Your files are disordered, you’re not doing your job properly, you've just committed high treason by arresting the keepers of peace and you not only endangered the life of a foal by your inactivity once, but you are doing your feeble best to endanger the existence of the same foal again by arresting her only caretakers and planning on forcing her back the place of her nightmares!”
Twilight had turned white, hairs on fire, floating over the ground, as she screamed at the policepony who had shrunken back under his table, shaking like a leaf caught in high altitude air currents, a comparison true in more than one way. He was now tumbling in high politics he should not have messed with by simply doing his job.
Satisfied with the stallion shutting up again, the unicorn transformed back to her normal version of herself and landed back on the wooden planks.
“You are going to be back with Scootaloo after lunch,” Twilight promised to Rainbow. She could clearly feel the agitation in the pegasus. It was a sign, that a less observant pony might not notice, but for her friends Dash’s distress was easily visible in faded colours, twitching wings and dark rings under her eyes. A more than unusual and pretty disturbing sight.
For Rainbow, the entire trip had been an utter disaster so far, combining all of her fears. She hated being restrained, especially in moments when her element kicked in, pumping abnormal amounts of adrenaline through her veins, forcing her to action while at the same time being completely worn out. It felt like something deep inside was being torn apart by giant claws. And yet, she had to wait, the prospect of Scootaloo being taken out of her reach burned into her every thought. All she wanted to do was to break the cuffs and fly to the filly, to give her the well-deserved and needed attention and love.
She knew she could trust Aegis and Applejack. She knew she could trust Twilight. Only because of them was she able to endure the situation. She hated being helpless, she hated being useless when somepony else was in need...
Even her two naps; normally one her favourite recreational activities; had left her worse off than before them. While she had managed to find some rest during the first one for a few minutes, her second one had been a bad mixture of being awake with closed eyes and fitful shallow sleep full of nightmares, painting a horrid and vivid vision of possible disasters.
“I wish I had your confidence,” she murmured to Twilight, who in turn put her head on the pegasus’ neck in some kind of hoof-free hug. A violet clawed hand patted Rainbow’s back next to her shoulder.
“Thanks again for being here, Twilight. And you too Spike.”
“Don’t mention it. Just hold out a little longer.” Twilight smiled at the cyan mare after breaking the embrace.
Outside of the building, the echelons had begun to dissolve. Three ponies each remained to keep the side guard, the rest of them skipping ahead in two V-formations, securing the perimeter. By now, their armours were visible, showing off matte black metal or bright polished gold, respectively to which princess was on their side. The captains shone in different shades of purple at the front of the Vs.
Guards landed beside the building, three of them covering each corner, lances spread out into all directions. The captions secured the door, waiting for the rest of the platoon outside.
Both princesses understandably did not seem to be pleasedwith the interruption of their work or sleep, normally cheerful expressions now distorted by anger and determination. The mere presence of them at the same time at the same place showed the seriousness of the events.
The door burst open with magic, barely keeping it intact. Eight ponies in two coil formations stormed into the room, secured by a white glowing magic barrier each. Twilight recognised most of the soldiers. All of them recognised her and her companies, thus ignoring them while clearing the room.
The police officer had stopped shaking, turning into a statue instead, a smelly yellow puddle forming under his hind legs. For a second Twilight felt bad for him, but then she reminded herself that he alone was responsible for the task force in his bureau.
Four guards took their post around the blue stallion. The other four took their posts in the corner of the room, before Celestia and Luna entered the scene, interleaved with their captains.
Unexpected by everypony present, the ruler of the sun erupted into merriment the second she saw Twilight standing next to her bound in regular chains.
“Don’t you two want to take them off? These look pretty uncomfortable!” she asked her number one student.
“I wanted you to see the state of your police with your own eyes.” Contrary to her mentor, Twilight was very serious.
“Please take them off then. Next time please do so without waiting for me. I have personally overseen your training to break free of greater impediments than normal cuffs, so to see you sitting around with them is just ridiculous.”
Celestia paused to let Twilight open up the constraints of her and Rainbow, smacking the chains into a corner with a loud bang before continuing in a more appropriate and serious tone.
“Your letter sounded pretty disturbing. Could you please hand me the ...?”
Scootaloo’s records had been levitated to Celestia before she could finish phrasing the question. The colour of magic holding the pages changed from raspberry to golden yellow as they moved one by one through Celestia’s vision. Each finished paper was directly passed to Luna, not wasting a second on data transmission.
After the last page had been successfully processed and stacked again, Celestia waved over the captains who hurried to them with clattering armour. She passed the police record and Twilight’s letter on to the commander of her own platoon, now standing left of her, before giving a quick chain of orders using a military style of voice, seemingly not breathing at all and keeping her gaze locked with her sister’s for reassurance for the whole time.
“Iron Shield, take your stallions and move to Trottingham immediately. You will take over the investigations from the local police. Everypony involved in the case is to be suspended until further notice and questioned within the day, including this pitiful being.” She gestured at the policepony sweating in the centre of the room, who was immediately accompanied outside by two soldiers without resistance.
”The disciplinary proceedings to determine their degree of penalty are to be hold in ten to thirty days, not later. Ms Birch is to be arrested instantly for multiple infringements against adoption law, sexual abuse of a minor in one case and personal injury of a foal in concomitance with maltreatment of charges in multiple cases. The court hearing for her will be held in five days. Clear room if necessary. I want a full assessment of the crimes she could commit during the past year because of this lapse in the system within two hours. Take as many stallions as you need for the task. You are dismissed.”
“Yes ma’am!” He saluted and turned at the spot. All leftover golden-armoured pegasi followed him outside of the room and Celestia turned to the second captain.
“Send a flier out to Shining Armour. He is to put together a task force to examine every unsolved case for similar problems. Once a problem is detected, the case is to be taken over by Royal Guards without any delay. As soon as he is done he should continue with all closed cases no older than twenty years. I expect a summary of the results by the end of this week. Please wait on standby outside. We would like to speak to the Elements alone.”
“At your command ma’am!” The stallion saluted, leaving with all the other guards.
“Strong Spear!” Twilight interjected right before he stepped over the threshold. The captain tilted his head back to face the unicorn.
“How may I be of help Ms Sparkle?” he asked, keeping his formal attitude although he knew Twilight since she was a little filly.
“Could you leave some of your Fliers Sprout here for Rainbow?”
Fliers Sprout was a very rare and visually unimpressive herbaceous plant standing only a half foot in height, its small yellow blossoms blooming only in August for a single day each year. What it lacked in looks it made up in effect, boosting the energy level of pegasi while at the same time reducing the effects of missing sleep and pain on the organism. Once harvested, it could be easily dried and stocked without it losing its effects, producing an ideal battleground booster.
The bad part was that only three known places existed where it could be grown in small fields, limiting the yearly output to barely enough to fill the military training needs and to fill up the royal warehouse for times of need. None of it was available on the civil market, not even Zecora had a plant or two stacked. Still, all pegasi guards of the Royal army high enough in rank carried a ration of it at all times.
Although Dash’s overall look had improved since the arrival of the princesses, her friend could take a little boost nevertheless. It was going to be long day for her companion, even with the help the princesses speeding up things a little.
The captain’s focus wandered over to Celestia, silently requesting permission that was promptly granted by subtle nod, before he retrieved a small brown lump under his front piece of armour and handed it to Twilight who accepted it with a thank you.
The battered door closed with a soft thud behind the last guard, leaving them alone as requested.
“Did I forget anything except for the question of custody?” Celestia inquired, looking back and forth between her sister and friends.
“We need to tighten the control on our orphanages. I will write up the laws and build up a special force right after we are done here. However, this can’t be done with military force, but rather by skilled psychologists, so it will take a little longer,” Luna responded, finding agreement from everyone else. “The most important question is the custody of Scootaloo. I understand you would like to become her legal guardian, Rainbow?”
“She already lives with me. She trusts me and she is at home in Ponyville. She has had enough hardship. I don’t want to see her someplace else than with me. Please make it happen somehow,” Rainbow pleaded, mustering the hardwood planks, her hoof producing scraping sounds on the floor.
“I fear this is not for me alone to decide.” Luna had greatly improved on using a modern speaking pattern that left her conversation partner’s eardrums intact, now even managing to show sympathy, something that was never done in the royal night court more than a thousand years ago. “We will have to follow the law; I can only fast track the decision and stand up for you, but you aren’t quite a typical choice for emergency care, meaning that ...”
What little colour had returned on the pegasus’ and more faded, leaving behind a mane more gray than rainbow. Lids shut, Dash dropped to the ground, little droplets running down her facial features.
Aghast by the sudden outburst of emotion, still insecure about modern behaviour, Luna stumbled backwards, falling over her own hooves and crashing down onto the desk that could not take the sudden burden and broke it half with a scrutinizing noise. “I ... I just meant ... to say, that... that special requirements are needed and... and we need to work them out...”
Her gaze wandered over to Twilight, searching for answers from the unicorn, sitting in the remains of what had once been a proud working place. Good thing the paperwork hadn’t been present on it anymore.
Twilight reacted by unwrapping the brown lump and forcing the greyish green contents into Rainbow’s mouth, who involuntarily began chewing the minty and at the same time salty herb.
“We already worked out the formalities, could you check if these give us the best chances?” The fruits of their nightly work changed hooves to the Night Princess, who took a few minutes to check up on everything. She hadn’t even troubled to sit up from the rubble, preoccupied with her task, again pages flittering through the air, producing a constant soft rustling.
“Aegis is well known and respected in my social departments,” Luna concluded after the last page. “I think I can punch that through within an hour or so under the condition that the decision for who will take over long term custody will be fast tracked as well. Please hand in a psychological assessment stating who Scootaloo wishes for to be her caretaker this week. You will need to face a psychological assessment as well, Rainbow. Doctor Staple here in Ponyville has a state exam. If I understood right you will live in a domicile provided by Aegis, sparing you the inspection of living conditions. Is this all right with you Rainbow?”
A warm feelling spread through Rainbow’s body, drowning the aching feeling from it. Her wings felt as if a fire had been lit within, spreading a strange and very intense heat right on the verge to being painful, but not overstepping it.
Her sleepiness was gone, replaced by a feeling of light-headedness, blocking and enforcing her brain activity at the same time. The perpetuating trains of self-doubt had come to a halt, no longer running down any sprouts of logic, giving room for sober thoughts.
She had been overreacting, following her fears rather than what was best for the filly she so wanted to care for. That would have to stop. Luna’s plan was sound. Scootaloo would not wish for somepony else, or would she? No she wouldn’t, Dash concluded. But what if she herself was an unfit parent? No, she had to toss these thoughts aside. Everything would be fine.
Whatever it takes, she thought to herself, repeating her slogan of the last few weeks. Apparently she herself was the weak point in the plan. A fact she couldn’t change, but she would fight for the filly till the end.
“Rainbow, you alright?” Twilight’s voice brought her back to the real world for good.
The dishevelled cyan mare got back on her legs, yet again colourful hair standing out into every direction. Crusted snot and tears were smeared all over her face, diminishing the look of determination.
“I am sorry everypony. Guess the events of the night knocked me out pretty bad.” Dash’s voice still lacked its usual cockiness. “Whatever you gave me Twi, thank you again.” She turned to Luna. “This sounds good Luna. I will visit Dr Staple tomorrow together with Scootaloo. Could you send a guard to make an appointment?”
Luna smiled to Rainbow.
“Of course. Do you happen to have Scootaloo’s certificate of birth or is it lost?” she inquired, receiving the answer as a document flying towards her. She snatched it from the air using her own magic and put it on top of the stack of other documents before making her way to the door.
Celestia followed her sister outside, but came back after two more guards took off.
“I just ordered to make the appointment and to bring us some food and drink while we wait for the results,” she spoke. “I know it is hard for you, but I would like to hear the story personally again, maybe adding the details?”
Dash obeyed.
Of Darkness and Light (Orange Guardian 4, Black Guardian 3)
Of Darkness and Light (Orange Guardian 4, Black Guardian 3)
The adventure trip had been great so far, showing them the deep and mysterious woods behind Sweet Apple Acres that were normally forbidden for them. Not as forbidden as the Everfree Forest, but still related to severe punishment for Scootaloo's two friends and a few scoldings for Scootaloo. There hadn’t been a place to be grounded to for her anyway, nor a pony to enforce the sentence, although she had wished many times to get any type of attention from a serious caretaker, positive or negative. But those times would be over, thanks to Rainbow.
The trees stood dense, leaving just enough room for a pony to pass between the mossy trunks and blocking out all sun rays with evergreen leaves. There was barely enough light left to navigate, the dark corners of the of the floor only highlighted by the meagre firefly lanterns Applejack had produced from her dusty store room. It was hard progress, the five of them stumbling over roots and herbaceous plants with every step.
Moving forward was based more on instinct and tactile sensing than visual information, transforming fumbling hooves into her eyes. The perfect location for being Cutie Mark Crusader Darkness Penetrators. Not their best idea for a name as was pointed out by the adults and flocks of birds fleeing into all directions from their high pitched screams, but it didn’t matter, they had already tried being Cutie Mark Crusader Name Inventors once and it had ended in being covered in tree sap. She couldn’t remember the chain of events anymore, however.
After an hour of crawling, both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had given up, resorting to the riding services of Aegis and Applejack. Only Scootaloo was still happily pressing on, needing constant reminding not roam too far ahead from the adults, as she would be lost without their guidance.
Another half an hour later even the little pegasus had slowed down considerately, having been attacked one too many times by hideous plants only existing to trip her, but her ego stopped her from fully giving up, burning muscles or not.
In the end it was worth the effort, as she was the first one to see the light again, like a manifestation of a bright spirit dancing in the forest canopy, forcing her to stop and shield her eyes before its beauty. Giant purple pupils shrunk to the size of pinheads, allowing Scootaloo to see beyond the last treeline where a beautiful meadow shone golden in the low standing midday sun.
Soft ripples moved through the field like waves in a storm-beaten dark green ocean, shaking the last flowers of the season that glowed in a pale blue, accentuating the scene.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Aegis had appeared behind the awestruck filly, with Sweetie Belle resting on his back.
“It sure is.” The voice belonged to Applejack who had just appeared at the black stallion’s side, pausing to marvel at the scenery as did her passenger.
“This is the picnic site, girls. how about ya set up everything?” the farmer pony broke the silence.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Picnickers, yay!” the fillies screamed all at once before Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom dismounted their carriers. The trio ran towards the clearing, only to come back a minute later with embarrassed grins, retrieving food and blankets from their caretakers saddlebags.
Aegis looked over to Applejack. “Are they always like this?” he inquired.
“Always. Y’all should see their sleepovers,” came the response combined with a wink from the mare.
“Oh my. What did I get myself into...” he joked, throwing up his hooves into air in an exaggerated gesture.
“Let’s go help the fillies,” he pointed over to the group, the trio tying themselves up in the blankets instead of placing them down properly.
Five minutes later, after struggling to free the foals of the captivating fabric, the group had assembled in a small circle, the fillies re-wrapped again in the warming blankets in a more orderly fashion than before to shield them against the cold air currents wafting over the meadow. Each of them had been given a hay sandwich with apples. Originally it had just been hay and herbs between the bread, but Applejack did not approve of apple-free dishes, forcing Aegis to change his long optimized recipe. It was great nevertheless, proven by the speed the food was devoured with.
Still chewing, Sweetie Belle began to speak, spraying crumbs in all direction: “You still didn’t tell us why you are here, Aegis.”
Aegis drew in a deep breath, thinking about the best way to begin the story, but he was interrupted by Scootaloo speaking up with her little high voice before he could start.
“This is a story for me to tell. It all started a few years back, when I was living in the Trottingham orphanage...”
Different Messengers (Mulberry Guardian 3, Black and White Guardians 2)
Different Messengers (Mulberry Guardian 3, Black and White Guardians 2)
Celestia’s order had consisted of a big pink cake, originating from a certain equally coloured friend of hers, a couple of sandwiches and tea to go with it.
The cake hadn’t lasted long, preyed upon by Celestia herself who ate it as one giant piece, leaving the variations of toast to the rest of them.
Dash wasn’t hungry anyway. By now it was 1 pm, three hours after Luna and the Guards left and none of them had returned. She had finished her recounting over two hour ago.
The only guest to venture into the police station had been a lemon green stallion who wanted to place a complaint against one of his neighbours who had dug his irrigation too deep, flooding the stallion’s fields. One of the waiting guards had recorded his claim and found that he was right onto inspection of the site. The neighbour had agreed to correct his mistake easily enough as was reported back. Other than that nothing interesting had happened and even this event hardly fell into that category. All other cases had been already deemed unimportant beforehand and could wait until the new officers could be recruited.
Be it for the diminishing effects of the Fliers Sprout or the overdue messengers, Dash was back in her self-doubts, even though not as bad before, pacing in circles around the room, wearing off the floor that already showed a darker colour around Rainbow’s path.
No amount of talking from Twilight seemed to improve the situation, partly because she was nervous herself and wasn’t good at hiding it from her friend. So when a knock finally permeated the stifling air, both of them jumped to attention at the same time, with Twilight smashing the door open in a burst of magic.
A violet clad captain entered, panting and puffing, parts of his armour missing. It was the very same one Celestia had sent out to arrest Ms Birch.
He came to a halt in front of the princess, saluting before he began his short recount, wheezing in between the words.
“Reporting back from arresting the target. She is the aunt of the chief officer of Trottingham and was hidden by the same for the past year. Found her living in his cellar. Chief and target successfully captured. No more casualties caused by her. More investigations are done this very second.”
He ended in a coughing fit that overtook him and forced him down on his knees, nearly retching on the floor. Celestia was fast at his side, handing over a big cup of cold tea and conducting him to a wall he could lean against.
“That is very good news,” she addressed the soldier. “Thank you for your good service. Please rest.”
The tea and the sitting position brought about their effect, reducing his barks to uneven breathing.
“My apologies for being late and not being formally dressed to gain speed,” he answered in between inhaling deeply, but stertorously.
“Please have some tea and a sandwich and take the rest of the day off,” Celestia more ordered than offered.
This indeed was very good news, at least for the foals in Trottingham. For Rainbow it was only part of the solution. An important one for sure, but her fear for Scootaloo drove her mad, bringing her back circling as soon as she convinced the stallion was alright.
“Please stop it Dash. Luna will be here any second now,” Twilight started in a new attempt to calm down the apprehensive pegasus, blocking Dash’s path at the same time.
“You’ve already said that, Twi.” Dash simply moved around the unicorn as if nothing had happened.
“But it’s true. I—” Twilight was interrupted by an audible plop, announcing the arrival of the Night Princess, landing in the rubble of the desk no one had bothered to clean up yet. If it weren’t paradox to describe the dark blue alicorn as radiant, that would be the adjective to go for to describe her mood.
Rainbow could finally catch her breath. She stopped dead in her tracks and sat in front of the new arrival, buzzing her wings like a hummingbird (or Scootaloo), not noticing the small tornadoes building up beside her.
“Everything went perfect in the end. My congratulations Dash.”
A heavy weight was lifted from the pegasus, showing in her suddenly upright posture and a looping executed in confined space. The clean hoof prints on the otherwise dusted ceiling only improved onto the character of the room.
“Scootaloo was still listed as happily living in the orphanage. It took us a while to update her accounts. But here is your approval.” Luna levitated the form together with Scootaloo’s certificate of birth down to Rainbow, who happily took both. Even though the other ones could only guess, Rainbows expression was surely orgasmic, a moment where all built-up pressure fell from her at once. As far as Dash was concerned it certainly felt better than the last one she’d had.
“See; I told you it would be alright.” Twilight bumped playfully into her friend.
“Congratulations Rainbow.” Spike joined in and clapped on the mare’s back.
“My congratulations as well. You’ve all done the country a great service once again, my little ponies.” Celestia had placed herself next to her little sister. Somehow her mane had begun billowing in an ethereal wind. “I reckon it is time to leave. Rainbow, I wish you the best of luck for the rest of the way, even though you won’t need it. You will find the little filly considered in your next pay check.”
“Before I go, there is one thing I need to ask you, Luna,” Dash started. “Scootaloo told me that you once visited her dreams and helped her. She’s been having nightmares ever since her last night in the orphanage and probably even before that. Why couldn’t you help her?”
Dash’s tone wasn’t accusing at all, but rather interested and concerned. For Luna it still felt that way. Ever since being woken up today and hearing the news she had pondered the same questions, accompanied by self-reproach. Even for the Master of the Night, as she used to be called by some ponies before her banishment, dreams were a concept hard to grasp and even harder to control, thus she wasn’t sure of the answer herself.
“Dreams are emotions given life. I can feel them, I can see them. Sometimes I can enter them. Other times they are so strong they will reject me. I have sought to join my dreams with hers more than once, ever failing. I have seen her in condition so many times with you all in Canterlot that I did not strive for more clarification, as I should have. And because of that, I have failed in my duty as the Princess of the Night.”
“Applejack and I had our own hints. Scootaloo never appeared to be unhealthy or uncared for. She never had any injuries the Crusaders hadn’t been responsible for. We made the same mistake.” Rainbow tried to console the princess with words while already pacing to the door.
“Thank you all, but I gotta get goin’.” Dash put on her saddlebags that felt much lighter containing only Scootaloo’s record and the confirmation of custody instead of the huge stack of forms needed to gain that one single paper. She didn’t bother to close the door behind her. Strong wings propelled her into the sky, accelerating to sonic speeds. Circular expanding spectra painted the sky in her wake.
Old Debts and New Concerns (Yellow Guardian 2, White Guardian 1)
Old Debts and New Concerns (Yellow Guardian 2, White Guardian 1)
Like Apple Bloom before, Sweetie Belle was shocked, but at the same time happy for her friend. Scootaloo’s retelling had gone better than the last time, with Apple Bloom or Aegis continuing whenever she lost track in her own emotions or was missing a word.
All in all it had left Sweetie Belle thinking about her own family situation, of her loving but busy big sister and her parents who cared more about their own problems than hers. At least that was how it seemed to her sometimes. In retrospective, they had always been there for her whenever it counted. She’d had a home. She’d had love. She’d had everything to wish for, anytime. And yet she had never failed to complain to the orange pegasus about her family. The very same filly who’d had nothing of her luxuries, who’d had to fight for her very life on her own. She felt very bad about so many things she had said and done now. If only she had known.
She locked her eyes at the rippling sea before her, loosing herself in the distance of it, thinking, not noticing the time flowing beyond her. The world turned cold and warm again. Another body pressed against her, ambivalently exchanging heat. As far as she could remember she had always loved to cuddle. With her parents, Rarity, or even one of the many stuffed toys she hoarded in her bed.
The first time she had met Scootaloo, she had found the pegasus roaming around the meadows of Ponyville in search for a midday snack, claiming that her parents were out for the night and she had locked herself out. Sweetie Belle had never dared to question her friend’s statement, although it had always seemed to be a little off. Now it seemed idiotic to have believed in it for even a second.
Food had been easily prepared for her friend and a blanket for the night as well, resulting, unbeknownst by the host, in Scootaloo’s first sleepover. At the end of the day, they had both shared the same bed, falling asleep with air and fabric separating them as was normal.
It hadn’t stayed that way. The next memory was one of Sweetie Belle favourites: waking up to Scootaloo wrapped around her, soft hooves and wings alike. Her friends touch had always felt special, like no other pony she knew. She couldn’t quite place what was different however. It just felt warm and nice, as if she belonged there.
While Scootaloo had never failed to soothe her, most of the times with a simple hug, other times with words, she craved for the intimacy of that night. She had never been able to reproduce it. The pegasus would always stop her, claiming it was too tacky or girly, or that she needed to perform an important stunt.
Never up until now. There was no mistaking the little frame sprawled against her. The very same she had failed so much during the past year.
An orange hoof appeared in her vision, guiding her gaze back to reality.
“You OK, Sweetie? Thanks for beeing such a good friend all this time.” Scootaloo ran her hoof down Sweetie Belle’s long curly mane, but she was shaken off as her crusading buddy turned around to face her.
“But I failed you as a friend. I never cared for your needs.” Scootaloo recognised that face Sweetie Belle made, eyes wide and watery, mouth small and upside down. Normally she would prepare her umbrella right now. She needed to act swiftly if not to get wet.
“Sweetie, you never did. I would have given up without your help and food. Same is true for you, Apple Bloom. Do you remember the summer vacations?”
Apples. Why did it have to be Apples? Of all the places she could have ended in finding some kind of permanent shelter, why did it have to be located in the middle of a proverbial ocean of food she didn’t dare to eat.
Applejack had a sixth sense when it came to her orchard. Not a single apple went missing without notice and investigation if the workload of the farm pony allowed for it. Most of the times animals could be accounted for the “crime” and a few words from Fluttershy sufficed to keep them off.
One time Scootaloo had witnessed Applejack tracking down a blue earth pony colt, not much older than herself. It all resulted into him paying off the apples with his own allowance and a week detention after a few quick words with his parents.
She had neither money nor parents. It was starvation or being caught and sent back to the orphanage. She preferred the first one despite her rumbling stomach and the empty hollow feeling. She felt as if she was just an orange shell.
Missing school meals for the past 3 weeks of vacation had left her in a weak state, a mixture of lacking motivation and the inability to move anyway keeping her pressed to the ground of the clubhouse for the past three days except for the two times she had to use the green big bathroom around her shelter and one time to refill her water bottle.
All her saved up food was gone. All the trees outside the orchard, free to access for anypony, had no apples left, either being already harvested or not yet ripe. Even her friends were not in Ponyville at the moment. Apple Bloom was visiting Babs and Sweetie Belle had joined in on a trip of her parents to explore the Chrystal Empire.
She was left alone. Nothing to do but sitting and waiting with no energy left to do anything else, anyways.
Thankfully there was a small gurgling stream near the clubhouse, serving as bath tub as well as drinking water reservoir with its clear, cold current. At least dehydration was not one of her many fears, but the hunger was literally slowly killing her. Not much longer and she would have to find some excuse to beg Rainbow or somepony else for food without raising any suspicions. She didn’t think this was possible, thought.
The sounds of two sets of hooves walking up the ramp announced the arrival of two guests, but Scootaloo's body refused to react in any appropriate way, only allowing her to slightly lift up her head fast enough to see her two best, and only friends enter her home and their cloubhouse.
“Hi there. How was your vacation?” the pegasus weakly called out from her low position on the floor.
“Scootaloo!?” Both newcomers cried out in surprise at the same time, eyes moving to the dishevelled orange lump of a pony on the floor.
“Are ya feeling OK, Scoots?” Apple Bloom had quickly moved over, poking her buddy to see if she still reacted to it.
Scootaloo didn’t, but instead managed to speak up. “Stop that. I am not dead. I’m just feeling sick. Didn’t have any food all day.” Of course this was only part of the truth, but as it was late afternoon it should be enough to coax something to eat out of her fellow crusaders.
“Ya really look sick, Scoots. Ya should stay in bed.” Apple Bloom couldn’t hide her concern as she spoke. “Are yer parents out of town again?”
Scootaloo all but wanted to cry out that her parents weren’t even in this world anymore and she already was in her bed, but as always she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Fear perpetrated all her actions, so she just resorted to a simple nod.
Applebloom knew better than to ask any more questions and kept silent, pondering about the next step. Sweetie Belle was faster in her thoughts.
“You can have my sandwich,” she offered from the background, waving with the bread she had gotten out of her plain white saddle bags. It wasn’t anything special. Simple wheat toast with rocket salad and tomato, but for somepony as hungry as Scootaloo it was a more than welcoming sight. The pegasus filly even mustered the strength to get up and awkwardly snatch the food with limp muscles, hiding her apparent weakness as best as possible.
Past experience had taught her to eat slowly, chewing long on every piece, lest she want to throw it up again. She didn’t want that. She couldn’t afford that. Two apples that had come from Apple Bloom were next on her dining plan. She could even ignore her friends whispering to each other over the sweet crunchiness in her mouth.
“This was the first time I had eaten in a week. I guess I owe both of you my life.”
While the story served its purpose of holding back the water pretty well, the dam hadn’t remained intact, not after the last sentence of the little pegasus. Scootaloo could feel tears running down her cheek, but they weren’t her own. They belonged to the white unicorn pressed tightly against her, squeezing her as if she wanted to incorporate them both into one new pony.
“Ya owe nothing to us, Scootaloo.” Apple Bloom had left her own blanket to join in on the hug, stretching the fabric encasing her friends to its limits as she slid in.
Normally, the orange pegasus didn’t like group hugs, trying to flee them or standing impassive in the middle. Normally, she tried to avoid physically intimate contact at all when she was conscious. Whenever she had woken up tangled up with one of her bed mates at a sleepover, she’d felt embarrassed and instantly fled the room.
Today was different, though. Today she belonged right in between her friends.
She didn’t know how long they laid there, simply enjoying each other’s presence. But she did know she didn’t want it to end. But all good things had to end, sometimes to be replaced by something even better.
A rainbow streak appeared at the horizon, zooming in as fast as ponily possible.
“Rainbow!” Scootaloo’s high pitched scream tormented the auditory canals of everypony surrounding her. She jumped up, freeing herself of the blanket and exposing her friends to the cold. None of them minded, however. They all enjoyed seeing the filly bouncing up and down, little wings buzzing so hard she almost hovered above the grass.
She began to run, aiming to meet Rainbow midway. Without her scooter she stood no chance at all to reach that goal, stumbling through the high standing vegetation, trampling down rows of grass on her way.
Neither of them slowed down until moments before the impact. The image of Rainbow’s overjoyed face only inches away from her own one burned into the filly’s retina before the world became a mess of green and blue flittering around her.
A tight ball of pegasi rolled around the meadow, tufts of grass cushioning their movement.
“Hi there, Rainbow,” the black stallion smiled down at the cyan mare who had just landed in front of his hooves, lying on her back, limbs spread out to into directions and a giggling orange passenger sitting on her stomach.
“Guess who just became the legal guardian of the awesomest filly in the world!” Rainbow said, only partly addressing Aegis, stemming up Scootaloo on all for legs to look into her eyes.
“Guess who agreed to move to Aegis’ with you?” her protégé answered.
“Then who is up for a medical check-up?”
Scootaloo tried to raise a hoof into to air, but balance failed her on the uneven and moving hooves she currently called her ground, resulting in her falling to the side like a ripe apple from a tree. Luckily the grass was soft, as they had already tested.
“No need to be actually hurt to enter a hospital Squirt,” Dash mused, drawing laughter from everypony else, including the crashed filly although she was occupied with sending the dust off her coat using a few trained flaps of her wings.
Rainbow took the opportunity and got up, but went down on her knees again to lower herself to the same eye-level as Scootaloo. There was still important news waiting to be relayed: “Squirt, I must tell you that I am only temporary your legal guardian. Tomorrow we will both visit a psychologist. He will ask you for your wishes on that matter. The permanent decision will be based upon what you say tomorrow, so I want you to think carefully about what you want for your future. Don’t answer based upon what I want, and I would really love to have you around, but on what you want.”
What a silly question, Scootaloo thought. Rainbow was ready to give up her house. She had gone through an amount of trouble Scootaloo could only guess just to help her. Since one year the filly’s greatest dream had been to have a family, to have a cool big sister, a mother. Rainbow was both, and more. She had been the target of her ambitions for so long.
“The answer will always be you, Rainbow.” Scootaloo nuzzled the mare lying in front of her.
“You sure? Don’t want to sleep on it? It’s not too rushed for you?” Rainbow took a long look at the filly’s expression, searching for any kind of doubt, but not finding any. She was looking at the most sincere eyes she had ever seen, including Applejack’s.
“Then I guess it’s safe to move tomorrow as planned. Aegis?” Rainbow got up and moved over to him. “Is it OK if you handle everything alone tomorrow? I’ll put the key under the doormat I will create just for this purpose.” She leaned up to whisper in his ear. “And I promise to remove everything embarrassing beforehoof.”
“Sure thing,” he chuckled, producing a row of gurgling noises after Dash’s last statement. “You pay the extra relocation assistant.”
“I will even tip you for your services.” Rainbow winked at the stallion. “Hop on Scoots. We got a schedule to meet.”
The little filly followed put, waving to her friends as they went off.
The Scars of the Past, the Foundation of the Future (Cyan Guardian 8)
The Scars of the Past, the Foundation of the Future (Cyan Guardian 8)
The hospital hadn’t changed a bit since her last visit: blue floor, wooden celling and ornamented mint green wallpapers, accentuated with pictures of beautiful landscapes. A row of plushy cushions aligned with the wall offered a comfortable waiting area. Potted plants placed regularly made for a less sterile atmosphere.
The only thing new in this room was the nurse standing behind the oaken counter: a young caramel coloured pegasus mare with a dark brown mane hidden under her bonnet.
“Welcome Ms Dash. How can I be of help to you today?” she welcomed them in a warm tone, suggesting courtesy was more than just official procedure to her.
Rainbow placed Scootaloo on one of the cushions, before treading up to the waiting pony at a lazy pace.
“Good afternoon Miss... erm...” Rainbow gaze went to the nearly hidden white nametag adorning her opposite’s chest. “Warmheart; may I ask how you know my name when I have never seen you around here before?”
“Who would not recognise one of Equestria’s heroes?” The nurse put aside a stack of paperwork and retrieved the thick organizer of the clinic. “How may I help you?”
“I’ve got an appointment for the little filly here.” Dash pointed to Scootaloo who had just started to have a pillow fight on her own, abusing the cushioning as a soft playground.
“Ohh. I didn’t know you had a daughter. And what a cute one may I add. How old is she?”
“She turned nine a few months ago,” Rainbow answered, not even trying to hide her amusement over the irritated expression forming on the nurse while she seemed to realize something, her head flickering back and forth between Dash and the filly.
“You... you must have had her when you were—”
“Eleven” Rainbow did the math for the other mare, stating the number deadpan.
“I didn’t mean to impose on you. It just seems...unusual,” the nurse apologised with a slight bow, the effort of finding a politically correct term clearly showing on her face.
“I would rather call it near impossible,” Rainbow responded dryly. “I obviously didn’t birth her. To be honest with you, I just got custody of her a few hours ago for reasons I don’t want to spread through all of Ponyville.”
“Again, I don’t mean to impose on you. I am sorry if I crossed a line,” the nurse said, continuing the task she had abandoned a few moments ago, browsing for the right entry in the thick organizer waiting before her and seemingly finding what she was looking without too much effort. “I found the entry. I will bring out the doctor for you.”
The nurse trotted to the door next to counter, shortly waving at the ‘thank you’ coming from Rainbow before leaving the room. A minute later she appeared again, accompanied by a light grey unicorn stallion sporting a bright red mane and the usual doctor’s attire; a stethoscope and a white coat. Without any detour, he went straight to Rainbow upon seeing the waiting mare while the nurse returned to her work behind the counter, deliberately positioning herself far enough to keep out of earshot.
“Hello Ms Dash. Nice to meet you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Gentle Aid.” He held out his hoof and shook Rainbow’s. “I am a Professor at the paediatrics department of the university hospital of Canterlot. I happened to hold a lecture this morning here in Ponyville and couldn’t help but overhear that Scootaloo’s registration mentioned that she needs to be examined for her inability of flight, which by coincident is my field of specialization.” He gestured down to his Cutie Mark, a blue feather surrounded by a light yellow magical aura.
“Before we begin I will need to ask you some questions, though.”
After everything that had gone wrong today, this sign of good fortune was most welcome. The doctors in Ponyville were all great in their jobs without exception, there was no denying it. But not many of them had a working knowledge of the treatment of pegasi-only diseases, and none of them had studied anything apart from the basics on flight disorders as far as Rainbow’s research of the past week could be trusted.
Rainbow had expected to have to take the filly to a specialist in Canterlot. The specialist coming to her aid by sheer luck made things a lot easier. Fate was a nimble and cruel thing at times, but right now it was working in her favour.
“I wanted to have a quick talk to you beforehoof anyway, so just ask freely.”
Rainbow glanced over her shoulder at Scootaloo, only to see her ward still had her fun in the waiting area jumping up and down on the cushions, up to little stunts while doing so.
“The registration mentions that you want us to have a full screening of the filly and thorough examinations of her reproductive system and her inability to fly. I did not find any data on Scootaloo in the hospital archives, nor did my assistants find anything in the central medical register in Canterlot. I therefore have to ask you for context, her medical history and a document stating the permission of a legal guardian for the procedures.”
As was to be expected, Rainbow thought, sighing not only inside her head.
“I just managed to gain custody over her. I hope I don’t need to write down my agreement.” She smiled at the doctor while grabbing into her saddlebags and retrieving Scootaloo’s full record and the form granting her custody. She handed both over to the doctor before she began to describe the events of the past year yet again, but in a much abbreviated form and adding all the details of the filly’s flight ability, or rather her inability to do so.
Listening carefully to Dash, Professor Aid took note from time to time using a quill and notebook he had magically taken out of his shirt pocket, nodding at each important statement or scratching his head over others.
“I have two requests for you,” Rainbow ended. “Could you not tell the filly I told you to have look at her flight inability? She is already very insecure about it and I don’t want her to jump to conclusions.”
The professor slowly closed his book with an audible thud and absentmindedly sent it back to its origin, watching the orange filly happily trying to build and climb a swaying cushion column. Pondering the implications of what he had just heard he slowly turned back to Rainbow, responding to her question.
“I would have made it a part of the normal examination anyway. So sure, no problem. What is your second request?”
“Is there a way to do the pelvic exam without er... actually inserting something?”
His head moved to the filly and back to Dash again, all the while alternating in a swaying sideway motion around its general path.
“I am sorry but no. We will be looking for remains of hopefully already healed wounds. We won’t see this kind of thing on a magic resonance tomography image. But I will include Warm Hoof. She is a very kind and gentle gynaecologist as I was told.”
“I can confirm that,” Rainbow mumbled.
Both of them hastily averted their faces, avoiding eye contact as both turned to a pale shade of red.
“How about I show you and Scootaloo to the diagnostic room?” Gentle Aid intervened, giving Rainbow an excuse to escape for a few seconds to get the filly
The room he led them to was first one to the left on the long floor leading to all diagnostic and operation rooms.
Rainbow couldn’t remember having ever been in it despite her many visits. It was bigger than the other rooms, containing enough space to give room for four ponies, two different examination areas and two large cabinets full of medicine and silvery shining instruments and still offering the possibility to run around the empty centre without a fear of accidentally hitting something, a very valuable option if you wanted to test the agility of a foal like Scootaloo.
What unnerved Dash was the gynaecological table, although it looked just like a regular one except for the height-adjustable hoofboard at the moment set to bare inches over the floor. Scootaloo would need to be prepared for that. Rainbow mentally reprimanded herself for not properly thinking of it before and therefore not allowing the filly more time to prepare herself for what was coming. The fast version would have to do.
She waited for the stallion to leave the room to get the second doctor before she placed Scootaloo on the normal examination table standing half as high as an average pony with a green hygiene paper sheet spread over it.
“OK. I will now tell you what will happen next. The doctor who brought us here will get a colleague and they will both perform a complete check-up of you.” Dash paused, inhaling deeply and slowly blowing out the air in thin stream. As well as she knew her ward in many aspects, other parts of the foals personality and upbringing were still complete alien to her. Sexual education was one of them. The terms and times to start varied greatly for all families, some including the topic from early on, others nearly waiting until the first heat season of their offspring. Only asking the filly herself could go for a viable option.
“What do you know of the difference between colts and fillies?”
Scootaloo froze for a second, trying to bring back the memory of one particular sleepover where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had combined their knowledge on that subject, which wasn’t much. She hadn’t contributed much that night either. All she had been told in the orphanage was that colts and fillies peed in different ways. And she had found out that she had a hole in her girly region the hard way, thanks to Ms Birch.
“You OK, Squirt? Did I do something wrong?” Rainbow looked intently at the filly before her. Scootaloo hadn’t noticed she had started to grimace at the thought of her tormentor.
“No. I’m OK. Just thinking.” Scootaloo put on a happy expression again, really meaning it, before reciting the results of that one night with closed eyes following the words in her head, only partly comprehending their true meaning. “Colts have a thing they can extrude that is on their belly. Fillies have a hole under their tails. This is why they pee differently. And if a colt and filly really like each other he can put his thing in her hole to make a foal.”
She opened up her eyes again and looked up at Rainbow. “It hurts if he does it, doesn’t it?”
“No. If both really want it, it’s the best feeling in the world.” Although she had stuck with mares ever since, Rainbow could still remember her first coltfriend. He had been so unlike her, slow in all aspects but this single one and yet it had felt great. His lips had been so smooth.
She forced herself to end her thoughts as she could feel her wings ready to rise. Now was not the time for erotic retrospectives. She had a task at hoof.
“Your ‘hole’ is called a vagina. It is a part of the organs needed to make foals as you said. There are more special organs for that hidden inside you.” She tickled the sitting filly on her lower stomach.
“Normally, it is supposed to feel good when you insert things into your vagina if you do it very carefully, and the thing is small and smooth enough, but most importantly when you consent to it. What Ms Birch did is not to be excused and will be severely punished. The princesses themselves are currently working on that. Only you have the right to decide over your body. Especially this part.”
She paused again, inhaling deeply once more.
“OK, here is the deal. I fear that Ms Birch might have caused damage in this region, meaning they will have to examine your vagina as well. Which includes inserting things.”
Of course this was only part of the truth. The headmistress had definitely done damage. The big question was, if it was permanent and still visible, and if so, had it any impact on her ability to conceive or enjoy her sex life.
Some ponies considered it to be lying to withhold a part of the truth. She preferred to by liar than to scare Scootaloo.
Scootaloo's eyes had become big and watery and she seemed to be even smaller than usual. “Do I have to?” she asked barely audible.
Rainbow went up the table next to her protégé and wrapped a warm pair of hooves around her companion. Combining all her emotions into one gesture she softly nuzzled Scootaloo’s ear and began to whisper into the same one. “No one will ever again force you to do something you really don’t want to do. I promise.” Back to normal volume she continued. “I am just asking you to do so. I couldn’t sleep without knowing if you are OK or not. I can’t promise it won’t be unpleasant, but it won’t hurt. I know the mare who will perform it if you agree. Every mare has to go through such a check-up every year, so she has carried out the procedure multiple times on me.”
The orange pegasus snuffled. “So you say it won’t be very painful?”
Rainbow softly nudged the filly’s nose with her own. “I already said so, Squirt.”
“Then we can do it as long as you stay with me.”
As if on cue Gentle Aid returned to the room accompanied by Warm Hoof, a yellow unicorn mare with aquatic blue mane and a simple red cross as a Cutie Mark. A big white pony puppet followed them into the room carried by a silver metallic wagon.
Rainbow strongly suspected that they had been listening outside, but she didn’t mind at all. A premature entry would have ruined her persuasions. “I am sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier. I am Gentle Aid. Just call me Gentle,” he started while still moving towards the two waiting pegasi. He shook the filly’s hoof as soon as he was close enough. “And this is my colleague Warm Hoof.”
“Hi Scootaloo.” She stepped forward to reveal the parts of her that had been hidden by the life sized plastic pony. “Call me Warm if you like.” She followed Gentles example and shook Scootaloo’s hoof as well. “I guess you know what to call me, Rainbow. Last time I’ve seen you I told you everything was fine if you ever wanted to have a foal. Didn’t think you would be so fast about it.”
“Me neither, me neither. But it’s good the way it is, isn’t it, Scoots?” She drew the filly in a short embrace again, before hopping off the examination table using her wings to make for a softer landing. “I’ll stay out of the way then, but I’ll be waiting right here.” Rainbow sat down on the cushion next to the table that had been placed there for her and other concerned parents before her.
“I’ll start with a good news then,” Warm Hoof began, smiling at the filly. “We have checked your documents and you are not due for a new shot for another year.”
“We will start with a basic physical examination.” The professor took over, seeing that the news had sunken in by the beaming expression on his patient. ”Could you please stand up and spread your wings, so we can have a look at you?” He produced a large clipboard from the wagon the puppet was still waiting on. Slowly, he circled the filly who had followed put to his request, almost straining her little wings. He took his time to visually inspect every inch of her extremities, marking down the answers to the categories on the form. The room remained silent except for his ‘hmm’ and the scratching sound of his feather.
“Do the scars still hurt, Scootaloo?” he asked after having a particularly close look at the crisscrossed tissue under the thick fur on the pegasus’ hindquarter.
“No. Just for the first month. I don’t even feel them when a stunt goes wrong anymore,” came the impromptu answer.
He took a note and continued his journey back to the front of the filly, paying special attention to the second wing after not finding a single clue on the first one.
“Everything is perfectly developed for your age. You can close your wings again, thank you.” The board flipped over to reveal the next sheet. “Next I will auscultate you, meaning I will listen to your lung and heart through this stethoscope.” He moved the device up to his ears. “Please sit up on your haunches and breathe as steady as possible. I am sorry if this is a little cold.”
Scootaloo complied to the requests, concentrating on every intake of air, bracing herself for the cold metal that turned out to be agreeable as it wandered over her chest and her back in an at least for her unpredictable pattern. “All perfect here as well. I will prepare an agility test for you while Warm will do a magic resonance tomography.” He filled in the missing information on the clipboard and hooved it over to the other doctor jumping to attention from her waiting position next to Rainbow, ending their chat mid-sentence to prepare the filly for what was next.
“You will probably know it as an MRT. I will send out a magical field that will be partly reflected by your body. I can sense that and kind of see inside you this way. You won’t feel anything of it but you need to lie perfectly still while I do it. Got it?”
Scootaloo nodded. “Got it,” she responded, eyes fixated on the professor starting to build up a complicated system of machinery unlike anything she had seen before.
Warm Hoof’s horn began to glow bright enough to lighten up a dark cave, bathing the room in a faint yellow as she brought it down to the pegasus’ abdomen, careful not to accidentally stab the filly by any rash movement. She had done this once during her trainee year to a very grumpy lady. The harsh words still rang in her ears every time she had to perform this technique, ensuring her great work, even good enough that Scootaloo didn’t even notice the examination had already started. She was keenly eyeing the construction site before her instead: gears and gauges stacking up to small mountains of metal joined by a multitude of cables ranging from thick to thin and red to violet like a mixed up rainbow spread over the ground.
Gentle Aid waved Rainbow nearer, instructing her with a few hushed words the filly could not quite grasp. Apparently he had told Rainbow to fly a few inches over the floor, because that is what she did, involuntarily drowning the light of Warm Hoof’s magic by the number of magical light bulbs of the apparatus turning on all at once.
Thin black needles on white finely graduated gauges began to vibrate, blocked off at the end of their scale, threatening to shatter them. Whatever that meant, it was spectacular. At least it was so for Scootaloo. For the professor, however, it wasn't. He was frantically waving to Rainbow, asking her to cease her flight in order to save his equipment.
“I am done Scootaloo.” The joyful expression of Warm Hoof appeared before Scootaloo, blocking of the scenery behind it. “Everything seems to be in working order, next I will—” Warm stopped, seeing that her words were lost on the foal crawling over the examination table to get a better view at the lights flickering out on the machine. Hastily she stepped aside, laughing to herself about how excited the filly seemed.
“We will switch the examination order or I fear Scootaloo will burst or something,” she called across the room, drawing the attention of the other ponies to the foal nearly falling off the edge of her seating furniture.
“Just come down here Scootaloo,” Aid waved over the prying young pegasus who jumped down with a backflip.
“I designed this apparatus myself. It can measure the agility of ponies. It will tell me how strong your muscles are and a few other things. I would like you to run around it. Try jumping or flapping your wings very hard. Just play around a little.”
The eager energy bundle of a foal didn’t need to be told twice. She was already in between the machinery, trying to light as many bulbs at once as possible. Running was good, flapping her wings while doing so proved to be only slightly better, but showing off her dance moves including her patented wing-supported backwards flip was best, lighting up the room in many colours.
She didn’t mind that she couldn’t reproduce the results of her idol. That’s what an idol was for, someone better than you who you could aim to overtake. And she had way too much fun playing with her own set of disco lights acting on her command than to get grumpy. She was happy as a cat chasing a laser pointer.
What was left for the adults was to stand in awe and wonder, with the exception of Aid who had to constantly refill the machine with his own magic while having to make sense out of the mess in order to fill out pages three to seven, a task that left him running through the room at a pace only slightly slower than the filly.
Rainbow was sure a sportive cutie mark was waiting for her ward, if not for flying definitely for dancing or scooting or maybe even a combination of both, however that may look like. Scootaloo just hadn’t realised her potential yet, another challenge waiting to be tackled in the future, but one that would involve a lot of fun and bonding time to resolve, not just for the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“OK, we’re done! You can stop,” the professor called out, drawing a loud ‘awwww’ from the frolicking pegasus and as a round of laughter from the other ponies.
“We still have a few tests left. Then I am sure Rainbow will play some more with you,“ Warm tried to appease their test subject.
“I sure will,” Rainbow chimed in, flying over to give her ward a head rub in a playful headlock, unintentionally bringing the lights up to maximum once more. “And I will treat you to any restaurant you like.”
“Sugarcube Corner!” The filly screamed as she hopped to the examination table again.
“Just be careful what you tell Pinkie, or we won’t be leaving the bakery for over a week of partying,” Rainbow mused, following a tablet containing a cup, a syringe and some disinfectant hovering over to them with her eyes.
“I thought you said no shots are needed?” Dash inquired.
“We will need a blood and a urine sample. And I need to get her weight and size. We will start with the blood if it’s OK with you.” Warm was looking at the filly for approval, who just nodded and held up her right front hoof.
The doctor looked at it for a second, finding a big vein she bathed in the vaporised alcohol solution.
Scootaloo couldn’t bring herself to look when the needle entered her flesh. She hated the feeling of it, she always had. It didn’t really hurt, not compared to her other countless injuries, but it felt wrong somehow. Like..., she couldn’t come up with a good comparison.
“You can look again,” Warm said, already injecting the blood into a set of test tubes Gentle Aid had brought over, a few drops each.
Scootaloo opened her eyes again to see a small patch covering the injection site. The needle was gone, but the feeling of it still lingered like a phantom.
A soft pair of hooves ended her worries by hoisting her down to the ground once more.
“The weighting scale and the tape measure are in another room. And I will show you where the restroom is. We don’t need Rainbow for that, do we?” Warm Hoof levitated the blood probes to the air behind her and the cup over to Scootaloo who snatched it with a hoof.
“No, we don’t,” the filly agreed, following the mare out of the room, cup balanced on her head.
“OK Ms Dash, I’ve got bad news and kind of good news, depending on how you see it,” Aid started as soon as the door was shut with soft plop. Being used to being the envoy of bad news, he left no room for Rainbow to reply before he set on. “The bad news is there is medical reason why she can’t fly yet and it can’t be cured.”
He saw Rainbow going deep inside herself, eyes closed and noisily swallowing a seemingly large lump in her throat, but he pressed on. “But there is a kind of prosthetic that will allow her basic flying skills, which is the good news.”
“Then what is the deal that you said it’s only kind of good news,” Rainbow demanded, maybe a little too harsh, jumping up from her cushion.
“Rainbow, Please sit down again. I will explain.” Rainbow didn’t follow his advice, but he went on nevertheless. “The ability of a pegasus to fly is not mainly based upon their wings as is the popular belief. The wings are just a medium to control the magic flow that creates the uplift. Every time you flap your wings, you force out a magic stream that is directed by the way you tilt and move them. While you don’t move them, the magic is still produced and a certain quantity is stored for later use, much like in a unicorn.
Big wings can help by adding aerodynamic forces to the magic flow but I have seen grown up pegasi with wings smaller than Scootaloo’s fly. Without magic you would need to have wings at least twice as long as yours to take off.”
Rainbow absentmindedly spread out her wings and contemplated what she had just learned, but still listened closely to the professor.
“And here’s the problem. Scootaloo’s body is strong and muscular. Her body control is more than just impressive for her age. Her wing flaps are perfect for flying as you have said yourself. But she can’t produce enough magic to actually fly. It might be enough to glide or propel herself forward on a scooter as you have described. Do you understand so far?”
Rainbow looked back up from her wing, to face the professor. “Yes, just tell me what I have to do, whatever it is, get on with it.” She stomped with her hoof to emphasize her determination.
“There are crystals that can store and release pegasi magic. A fully charged crystal could supplement Scootaloo’s magic for several years. The problem is all of the crystals are held by the military. I can hand in a petition to the princess, but I can’t guaranty success. I—“ He was stopped by cyan hooves wrestling him to the ground in a crushing embrace.
“Thank you thank you thank you!” Rainbow reaped in between laughs. “I will ask Celestia myself as soon as we are out of here. She can’t say no to her elements! If the gynaecological test comes out alright I am officially the happiest mare in Equestria!” Dash let go of the stallion and gave him a little time to straighten his outfit again. “You just had your part in fulfilling the second greatest dream in the life of a filly and you gave me leverage why I need to be the one taking care of her. Thank you.”
“Rainbow,” he said softly. “You don’t need any leverage. I can see you love the filly and she loves you as well. You know what. Up until now I could identify about 300 different types of magic in roughly 10,000 tested ponies. Even with the crystals a pegasus can only receive magic of its own type. Scootaloo’s type is extremely rare. She was the third pony I have ever identified it on...”
He paused for second, emphasizing the number. ”You were number two. Even if you were sisters the chances of that would be little to none at all.”
The door opened again, denying Rainbow the chance to fully comprehend what she had just heard. One of the lessons on friendship she had learned was that she and her friends were bound together by destiny even before they knew each other. The very same forces seemed to have a plan for Scootaloo as well, which was a wonderful thought to behold.
“Could you lend me a hoof with the puppet, Rainbow?” Warm asked, standing in the doorframe, the orange energy bundle jumping up and down next to her. “Blood and urine showed no abnormalities. Scootaloo is still slightly underweight, though, so I promised her she would get a few extra cupcakes and milk shakes the next weeks.”
“Sure thing,” Rainbow laughed, already shoving over the plastic pony.
“OK Scootaloo, before we start with the last examination, I want you to help me to do the same thing to our plastic buddy over here.” Warm knocked a few times against the head of the doll, revealing the partly empty nature of it. “This is a gynaecological table. You have to step on the hoofboard with your hind legs slightly spread and then lay down on your stomach, while keeping your hooves on the board.”
On cue Rainbow heaved over the puppet together with the doctor, placing it accordingly.
“We now want to control the parts that only fillies and mare have. This puppet is modelled after a real mare, so she has all the parts you have.” Warm raised the tail of the pupped to show the filly. “At the moment all this hair of the tail will get in the way. Just pin it to the side.” She levitated a soft foam peg over to Scootaloo who took it and eagerly executed the task.
“Very good!” Warm approvingly patted the head of her apprentice. “We need to look inside her. To make it easier we have an instrument for that.” She opened a box next to the table and retrieved a normal sized speculum from it, demonstrating it while she continued to speak. “We need to carefully insert this. Then we can slowly open it up a little to look inside. We will use lot of lubricants so it will go in easy and it won’t hurt.”
A bottle of clear sticky liquid was poured over the speculum by a magical aura that moved it over to Scootaloo who unwillingly took it, staring at it with wide eyes, contemplating the indications.
“Don’t worry I have a much much smaller one for you. Put it in here.” A yellow hoof pointing to the correct place encouraged the foal to tentatively begin her task, becoming bolder the farther the instrument had sunken in until it hit the dead end. She looked up again, awaiting instruction for the next task.
“Very nice. Now turn the little nub and open it up until you can see inside.” The doctor placed a headlamp onto the filly who had already begun twisting.
“That’s enough.” Warm placed her hoof on Scootaloo’s to stop it. “This is how you also look inside. I can’t see anything wrong with it. Now we will use this medical dipstick. Try rubbing the tip against the inner walls. If it turns yellow it’s alright.” Scootaloo quickly finished the task at hoof, staring at the stick that refused to change its colour to something different than boring white.
“Of course it will only do that on a real pony.” She took then stick from the filly and threw it into a basket. “Now close it again and pull it out. Then our plastic buddy is done.”
Dash waited for her ward to complete the task before she went over and embraced her. “Do you feel ready?” She whispered to her filly. “I think I am,” Scootaloo answered, leaning against Rainbow and hoofing over the speculum to the doctor.
“Then let’s get ready.”
At Rainbow’s command she and Warm set aside the puppet, placing it back onto the wagon. The paper sheet on the table was fast renewed, the hoofboard set to the right height and the filly correctly placed on it.
Rainbow placed herself on the other site of the table, her head only inches away from the foal's, hooves connected to the counterparts on her ward. “Ready, Scoots?“ she asked again.
The orange pegasus gazed into Rainbow’s eyes, gaining reassurance from them and the warm felling on her hooves. “Ready!” she said, trying to hide her wavering voice by mustering all her courage.
“I will tug away your tail now,” Warm announced. Scootaloo could feel it moving to the side, exposing her tender parts to the doctor.
“OK this will be your speculum.” The doctor magically moved the instrument in between the two pegasi, giving the smaller one time to inspect the long yet very small silvery object. It was the smallest one Rainbow had ever seen in her life, but of course she had never seen one designed for smaller fillies before, and part of her still wished it had stayed that way. Some things couldn’t be changed, but she could do her best to make it easier.
“This looks agreeable, doesn’t it Scoots? It’s so small you won’t feel much of it,” she tried to loosen up her protégé.
The wheels turned in the little fillies head. She could still say no. A part of her screamed at her to immediately do so. To run as far as possible, but she couldn’t do so. She could not disappoint Rainbow. She couldn’t disappoint herself. She was a daredevil after all. She was brave enough to take on every stunt. No one could stop her on her scooter. She had had the courage to flee the orphanage. She had even managed to overcome her fears and tell Rainbow and it turned out great so far, gifting her the prospect of a family. The decision was made. The speculum really looked small enough.
“Do it!” Scootaloo spoke with a firm voice.
The instrument disappeared again from the fillies vision and she could hear the squeezing sound of the lubricant behind her.
“Here we go. Please call out immediately if I should stop,” Warm announced.
Scootaloo could feel the sticky and cold lubricant against her. She closed her eyes and pressed down heavily on her caretaker’s hooves, bracing herself for the pain that would not come. Instead it just felt plain weird. She didn’t like it, far from that, but she could certainly tolerate the alien object in her.
“I will now widen it. Again, tell when I have to stop.”
The feeling didn’t change much for the filly, with the exception of Rainbow’s snout against hers.
“The medical dipstick is coming in.”
It felt like she had imagined it to be: A soft poke inside, but again no pain, just weirdness.
“Perfectly yellow.”
Scootaloo heard the clonk of the trash can somewhere near her.
“I found some scar tissue resulting from the incident. I need to treat it or it might tear again in the future. There is a spell to do so. When I am done you won’t notice you ever had them. You will feel a burning sensation and a foreign sensation in your stomach. Ready?”
Panic struck the filly. That wasn’t part of the plan. They hadn’t agreed on that. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t. She had to get up.
Something warm and wet moving over her snout stopped her turmoil. Her eyes came up open fast enough to see a part of Rainbow’s pink tongue flitting back into the mouth it belonged in.
“Please Scoots,” Dash caressed her trembling hooves. “Warm wouldn’t have brought it up if it wasn’t really important. Its discomfort now or real complications later. Can you take it for me?”
Just maybe she could nevertheless, Scootaloo thought. “If you keep holding my hoof,” she cooed.
A fast glance from Rainbow told Warm to start.
The doctor was right, instead that burning meant flames shooting through her and sensation translated to pain. Not as bad as most of her crusading mishaps, but still... Vivid memories kept flooding back...
Hot tears streamed from the filly's pressed shut eyes, leaving little salty stream on her cheeks that were constantly removed by a grooming tongue. If not for Dash, she would have screamed and squirmed.
It was moving inside her, going deeper.
“All done.” Warm called out.
Relief washed over the filly as the instrument left her together with the heat of the operation. It felt good now that is was gone. She could almost convince herself that it hadn’t been too bad now that the images had stopped to penetrate her mind again.
“You’ve earned more than just cupcakes.” Rainbow ruffled up the orange pegasus’ mane.
“A milkshake?” Scootaloo opened her eyes to see a leftover tear running down her idol.
“The world if you want it, Scoots. The world.” Rainbow muzzled her once more. “Now let’s get to Twilight for a short message to the princesses and then we will get you this milkshake.”
Waiting. Of all the virtues she didn’t possess why did it have to be it waiting again?
The room was empty except for herself, a lonely row of cushions matching the colour of the curtains, waiting to be used. The pictures of happy ponies lining the otherwise blank walls did nothing to calm down the pacing mare. Neither did the huge cactus in the corner nor the apparently partly hoof-woven red blue carpet.
A single sound-proofed door stood between her and the filly talking behind it, but that alone was not what was troubling her. Her own fantasy was.
Scootaloo hadn’t done anything to nurture the nagging fears eating away at her sanity. Something deep inside her was feeding them, chipping away logic and reason.
Scootaloo wanted to live with her. The filly wanted to stay in Ponyville. She would not wish for anypony else.
But still, the mystery of what was going on inside forced her to go round in circles, literally and mentally, painting images of different futures she would never see her number one fan in.
What was even worse than the thoughts of Scootaloo not wanting her was the idea of her ward needing her, but not being able to help her. What if she was deemed an unfit parent?
So much was at stake, so much out of her direct control. Why couldn’t she be any better? A cyan hoof came crashing to the wall, splintering thin wood that cut into flesh, but Rainbow didn’t mind at all. She didn’t care that the waiting room was now joined to reception area in more than one way. What mattered was the little pegasus. The one she wanted to help more than she was able to.
Just why could she never live up to her own expectations?
She retracted her right hoof again, sending even more fragments onto the otherwise spotless carpet. Her hoof was more red than cyan. It seemed like she would have to pay for more than just to repair the hoof-sized hole the wall. Maybe one of her friends would know of a good blood detergent that left the fabric intact.
The rising volume of voices behind her told her that the door of her desires had been opened, yielding what she had longed for, but at the worst possible of times. Always go for the best first impression, Rainbow thought, turning around in one swift motion, hiding the hole as well as in any way possible and tugging her hoof behind her in an unnatural pose.
Well done, Dash. Well Done. Just how could she be that stupid?
“Hey, how did it go?” Rainbow greeted to orange pegasus running towards her, faking a normal expression to the best of her abilities.
“I like Dr Staple. He gave me cookies and I told him how much you helped me and that I want to live with you.” Scootaloo stood in front of her protector like a puppy waiting for a treat, the missing wiggling tail supplemented by fast wings.
“That was very kind of you. Then it’s now up to me to finalize that decision.” Rainbow hoped that no pony noticed that she awkwardly used her left hoof to ruffle up the filly’s mane as usual. “You can go play outside if you promise me to stay within shouting distance.”
“I will!” Scootaloo was already out of the door, too fast for Dash to say another word.
“I will be waiting inside for you Ms Dash,” the brown earth pony waiting in the doorframe said. “Whenever you feel ready.”
He turned back inside, followed by Rainbow flying to avoid putting weight on her hoof and dispersing even more stains through the praxis. When she put her hoof under her armpit she could almost stop the bleeding, but more importantly she could hide it.
Against all clichés, the treatment room did not contain an ottoman, but rather a set of very comfy looking armchairs in a very subtle shade of red, in one of which Dr Staple was already sitting. A small table separated all of them, offering a small variety of drinks and small baked goods. The flickering light of a fire burning at the side gave the room a very homely touch.
Rainbow chose the seating directly opposite the doctor, pressing down extra hard on her wounds despite the pain. The upholstery looked pretty expensive.
“Please, call me Rainbow,” she started, forcing a smile.
“OK Rainbow. I am Candid for you then.” He opened up the blue notepad that had rested on a small oaken shelf next to his chair. “How do you feel, Rainbow?”
“Anxious... scared...worried...” Rainbow looked down to the floor. She couldn’t face the psychologist. Not while her mouth was acting without her brain. She had failed Scootaloo for sure now.
“And why is that?” the Doctor leaned forward in a slow gesture, resting his head on a hoof.
“Because I don’t want to lose Scootaloo.” Dash brought herself to look up again. “Did you like the filly?”
“She was sweet and we got along very well. So, yes.” He sat back again, moving the now free hoof to his temple.
“I would like her to see a psychologist about her past and I was wondering if you wanted to do it.” Rainbow ran her barely free hoof through her colourful mane, lowering her head to manage without reducing the pressure on her veins.
“I would have asked you for exactly the same thing later on, but let’s not talk about her. Right now I am more concerned about you. Don’t you want to put a bandage on your hoof? That sure looks nasty.” He produced a first aid kit from one of the drawer.
“So you noticed,” Rainbow cooed.
“I am not blind, Rainbow. I’ve seen the hole in my wall as well, but let’s forget about that. Let me tend to your wound.” He had taken out disinfectants and a set of gauze bandage.
“Please don’t take away Scootaloo,” Rainbow started, refusing to yield her hoof. “At least place her somewhere in town so I can see her and she can stay with her friends.” She swallowed hard to drown the upcoming wave of emotion.
“Rainbow!” he struck a more serious note. “Even if I could decide where to place Scootaloo, and I can’t since this decision has to be made by the foal protective services, I would put her in your care. And unless you force me to do otherwise, I will strongly advise them to grant you custody. Now please. The blood’s running down your fur already.”
Rainbow looked down her side. He was right. It was already clotting in lumps on her coat. She would have a hard time explaining that to the filly short of a shower in the practice.
Admitting defeat, she surrendered her hoof. Dr Staple was fast to clean up the mess in front of him, using an abundance of paper towels and a disinfectant that stung like hell, increasing the pain to a level that even a seasoned crash flier like Rainbow couldn’t help but cry out loud. Good thing Scootaloo is playing outside, Rainbow thought. Not even a soundproofed wall could muffle this much noise.
“You will have to see a medical doctor about that,” the stallion announced, starting to wrap up the hoof in a very tight bandage. “Some of these cuts are pretty deep and will need stitching. Since you already demonstrated your extreme stubbornness, I assume you can’t be persuaded to go right away, can you?”
Rainbow kept silent, staring at the plain white gauze instead.
“I will take that as a no then,” the doctor continued after a long sigh, clearing up the medical equipment and waste in front of him as he spoke. “What do you gain from the filly?”
“I am not fighting for her for my own profit!” Rainbow protested, suddenly not quiet anymore, supporting her protest by striking the armrest. A motion she came to regret instantly, not just because of the agony soaring through her nervous system.
“I didn’t mean it that way Rainbow,” he said like a teacher who had just been disappointed by his best student, which reflected his true emotions to some extent. Before he said another word, he took his time to pour out two glasses of good Apple family apple juice, one of which he passed over to Rainbow, deliberately leaving the pegasus to stew for a while.
“You obviously have some very strong emotional reactions towards the filly; strong enough to endanger my interior. What I want to find out is what makes her so special to you. What is it that drives you crazy right now?”
“I am not sure.” Rainbow took a long sip from her glass, clearing her troubled mind by concentrating on the flavour. Only Apple Family Cider was better. “I kinda feel lonely at times, even when I am with my friends. And Scootaloo, she is so nice to be around. When I first met her she was no more than just another fan. Everypony always tells you to avoid having devotees invade your personal live, but being the friend of the sisters of my friends, there was no way escaping that little energy bundle. I think she exploited that option pretty well to get my attention. I came to know her a little closer and grew very fond of her. I secretly kept an eye out for her, but kept it professional on the outside. At least until she lured me into a camping trip with her.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but smile to herself as the images came flooding through her brain. “Those last weeks we lived together, I didn’t feel lonely anymore. She’s no ordinary fan. She loves me for who I am, not because of what I do. I love her, too. All in me wants to take care of her. I want see her happy.”
All the while Rainbow had spoken to the ground, but now she raised her head, staring to the ceiling instead.
“And yet I feel like I don’t deserve her. Scootaloo can do so much better. Look at me. I am sitting here, bleeding, destroying things rather than helping her. Everypony thinks I am great. That is what I want them to think. That is what I tell myself.”
She brought up a hoof to cover her eyes, as if to build a dam for the rising moisture. ”Everpony thinks it’s easy to be me, that being the best comes natural. But it’s hard. I love being me, but sometimes I feel like I can’t stand up to the pressure anymore. But I have to...”
The last words where no more but a whisper.
Dr Staple took a few more notes before turning back to Rainbow, taking in the scene before him: a young successful mare, weather manager of the district of Ponyville despite her age, bearer of an Element of Harmony who had saved Equestrian more than once if the news could be trusted, high profile candidate to be the youngest Wonderbolt in history and selfless saviour of the victim of the first child abuse case in Equestria since thirty-two years, all in one pony, was sitting in front of him, broken by self-doubts resulting from low self-esteem.
It seemed paradoxical, but it was all too common for his liking. Many foals were raised in too high expectations, resulting in adults who drew their self-worth solely out of their accomplishments or resorted to admitting defeat and burying their ambitions for the rest of their lives. A case like Rainbow was a singular event in his carrier nevertheless, this mare took everything to new extremes, but he knew exactly what to do.
“Do you think your friends expect you to be the very best in all you do?” he carefully asked.
“Doesn’t everypony?” Rainbow tried to place the expression on the stallions face, but could make nothing of it. For her the answer was obvious. The few times she had lost to another pony everypony had been disappointed. Why should her friends be any different?
“Let me tell you something, Rainbow.” He sat aside his notes and moved to the front edge of his armchair, leaning closer to Dash. “Yesterday I had two very unexpected guests in my practice. The first one was a soldier of the Royal Army who asked me to clear space today for two urgent examinations to decide over the custody of a mistreated foal. He said that I would receive a copy of all needed files within the day if I agreed. What I did. A few hours later I was visited by a nice young mulberry unicorn who not only handed me over the missing paperwork, but also took her time to brief me personally about the situation. But she did not only talk about Scootaloo. She also expressed her concerns about your psyche and asked me to try and help you. I hope you believe me when I tell you that she is very worried.”
His eyes moved to the plain black clock directly over the door and back to Rainbow.
“To be honest with you, she is probably already waiting outside. She seemed to be quite the punctual one. She even mentioned something about rescheduling her scheduling schedule...”
Rainbow closed her eyes, exhaling air in a long stream, thinking. “So; Twilight knows.”
“Is that a bad thing?” The doctor posed the question despite already knowing the answer. Rainbow's body language was giving all away: fiddling hooves and biting her lip.
“I am not sure. But I don’t like it. I don’t need help,” Rainbow pressed out, the last sentence sounding more like a rehearsal than her actual sentiment.
The doctor flipped back a few pages in his notepad. He couldn’t help but grin at what he found.
“What advice did you give Scootaloo when she told you the exact same thing?”
“That nopony would think lower of her when she accepted help.” Realization crept into Rainbow. Her own reasoning had beaten itself. She had already accepted help for so many things, always rationalizing it was for someone else and not for herself. It was time to admit to herself that she was in dire need of support.
“OK. Please tell me what I need to do.”
“I’ll write you and Scootaloo an ill-note for the next two weeks. Your co-workers won’t know the reason and it will give you time to relax and think, but most importantly the opportunity to enjoy each other. For today I would say you speed off to the hospital. Twilight can collect Scootaloo and bring her to her home to wait for you. I will draw up my recommendation to the foal protective service, stating that they should grant you custody. After that I will get a craftsman to close the hole in the wall and then we’ll forget about it forever.” He paused to create eye contact. “I have one condition: I want you and Scootaloo to come back every week for therapy.”
“I promise. Thank you for your help.” Dash downed the last of her juice and flew to the door. If she had to face Twilight, she would do it now when she still had the courage to admit to her problems, but Dr Staple stopped her when her hoof met the handle.
“Before you leave Rainbow, I want you to know that I can’t think of anypony better suited than you for Scootaloo. You did more than just great so far. Let me accompany you to talk to Twilight.”
A Late Guest (Black Guardian 4, Eggshell White Guardian 2)
A Late Guest (Black Guardian 4, Eggshell White Guardian 2)
“Can’t you always cook for us?” Scootaloo tried to put on her cutest face to persuade the black stallion standing at the stove and stirring a large pot of carrot stew.
“What is wrong with Rainbow's cooking?” He had told the filly not to jump onto the counter several times, but apparently it was no use. He more blamed it on the sweet smells of his cooking than on her rambunctiousness.
“It’s not as good as yours.” Scootaloo inhaled deeply, taking in all the aromas, her head nearly inside the pot and ignoring the nearly scalding hot steam streaming through her fur.
“Shouldn’t you of all ponies appreciate the effort of Rainbow to learn to cook just to provide YOU with a healthy warm meal every day?” Aegis scolded the filly, softly pushing her back far enough to avoid her falling into their meal and to be able to continue stirring again.
“I am sorry.”
Even without all his years of training Aegis could tell that she really was. Ponies who weren’t didn’t stare to the ground or the oaken working top in her case.
“Don’t worry about it. I promise to cook just for you whenever my schedule allows it.” He produced a spoon from a drawer right next to him and scooped some broth on it, carefully blowing on the surface a few times before navigating it into the filly's wide open anticipating mouth. Her taste buds did a little dance as the flavour spread to all parts of her tongue, stimulating it evenly. She knew Aegis didn’t need her input, but it was very nice he always asked her nevertheless.
“It’s perfect. I can’t wait to eat it.”
”Then how about you set the table? Rainbow should be back any minute now.” Aegis took back the spoon and placed it into the sink.
“Aye Aye.” Scootaloo jumped down to the hardwood floor with an audible thud, wincing as the impact jarred her joints more than she had anticipated. She absolutely loved her new home. Dash had taken the time to decorate every aspect of it as a team with her during the last days, choosing the placement of poster, pictures, trophies and colours. They had built up a storage mechanism for her scooter in the corridor and bought a brand new huge cloud bed for her room, one that could be made usable for non-pegasi by a special bed sheet for sleepovers. Even the fireplace sported a brand new family picture.
Now she didn’t only have a room that belonged to her, she’d already enjoyed having one in the cloud home, but rather a whole flat that left hints of her living here in every corner. Still, she missed the soft cloud floor sometimes.
Mere weeks ago, she had had nothing. Amazing how fast she’d come to complaining about problems that actually weren’t existing. Scootaloo mentally reprimanded herself for being so ungrateful and began flitting through the kitchen in her task, uncontrollably opening and closing random drawers and cabinets until she found the needed pieces of porcelain for her task under the amused eyes of the black stallion. It would take some time until she could remember what was placed where.
As if on cue the door clicked open as soon as the last plate was at the table. Scootaloo left it ringing on the surface, dropping it the last inch as she sped to the front door to tackle down the cyan newcomer.
“How did it go?” The young filly started the questioning section without waiting for Rainbow to fully pass through the door.
“It went perfect. Ms Birch got the maximum penalty, meaning she will spend the next ten years in a dungeon under Canterlot. After that, she may go into an open prison depending on her psychological assessment. Anyway, she won’t even see a foal again in her life. The judge made that very clear.” Rainbow beamed at the filly. She had sat down at the threshold while talking, a hoof hidden behind her back. A dark blue lightening shaped crystal encased in gold ornamented titanium shimmered mysteriously around her neck.
“You haven’t even heard the best news yet! A got two surprises waiting for you,” Dash continued, teasing her filly in front of her who started to shake in excitement.
“I got your permanent custody.” She showed Scootaloo the piece of paper she had hidden behind her back until now, resulting in another love attack from the filly and an embrace that nearly choked her. As happy as Rainbow was about this as well, she needed air to live.
“Easy, Squirt. I'm more than just excited as well, but also very tired,” she coughed, pushing the clingy filly back a bit in a loving but firm gesture and ruffled up her lavender mane. Aegis influence was already showing in a too neatly combed coiffure that didn’t quite fit her ward.
“Where did you get that cool new necklace? Is it part of my second surprise?” Scootaloo traced a hoof over the surface, feeling the small lines of the intricate design depicting motifs she couldn’t quite understand.
“This is an old war amulet for pegasi. I received as a gift from Celestia. It’s part of a far greater surprise for you that I will need a few months to prepare for. Just show a little patience. My current surprise is a live one. No need to be shy, just come here.” Rainbow yelled the last part into the darkness behind her.
An eggshell white unicorn became visible in the faint light spreading out from the door, obviously fighting to hold back her tears of joy. A battle that was lost within seconds.
“Ms Chalk!” Scootaloo bounced forward, forgetting all rules about emotional and physical distances that had to be kept in a student teacher relationship. Of course the unicorn didn’t mind at all and answered by hugging back and even more tears escaping the now fully broken dam.
“It is so good to see you. I had feared you were dead for so long, but I have never given up on you...” The teacher took a step backwards, holding Scootaloo in place by a hoof on each shoulder, scanning the young pegasus from head to toe.
“You sure have grown.”
“How about we move the reunion inside? It’s cold outside and I can smell dinner is ready,” Rainbow interrupted the pair, gesturing them to follow her as she stepped into the warmth of the corridor.
Soon after, every pony had been assembled around the dinner table. Aegis had a habit always creating an abundance of food, so the extra pony could be easily accomodated for.
“You know that Ms Chalk here has been searching all Trottingham for a full year until now and has sent over two-hundred letters to ponies in many cities to ask them for help?” Rainbow opened the conversation and took a spoon full of the seductively smelling food into her mouth while the eggshell mare replied.
“It only came to two-hundred since no one ever replied. Turns out the police intercepted every single one of them.”
“And one of the officers admitted they were following her around the clock and threatening her not to leave the city.” Forgetting all her manners Rainbow sprayed soup over the table as she spoke. “Can you believe it?”
Scootaloo could not, but no sane being on this planet could. It was beyond understanding. She was only happy her teacher had made it out of this mess.
“Like all of Trottingham’s police force and the mayor have been dismissed and charged with denial of assistance and unlawful detention and only the many lawyers know what else. Many heads will roll during the next weeks,” Dash continued. Her mouth was now free of any more liquid ammunition to disperse. “I’ve said it many times already. But I am very proud of you, Squirt. And Princess Celestia is as well.”
“Me too,” Ms Chalk joined in.
“Princess Luna is enforcing the new monitoring mechanisms for every orphanage, school, and all other facilities set up to protect foals. No other pony will have to endure what you have been through anymore. Princess Celestia is busy reforming her police. And I mean all of it, starting at the training and ending at a new hierarchy system that will leave no pony without supervision from an unassociated counterpart.”
Rainbow had stopped eating to get up and wrap herself around Scootaloo from behind, softly nuzzling the filly’s cheek.
“You have influenced Equestria to the good for generations to come... as is to be expected of the only pony in this world rivalling my awesomeness.”
Rainbow’s couch had been too huge to fit into one single room in the somewhat smaller flat, but even the part that did, was big enough to make for a comfortable place to sit together in the living room. They had made a habit out of it to meet on the soft cushioning at least half of all evenings, cuddling and spending time together right there, reading Daring Do, playing games or simply talking.
Two new pieces of metal had joined the impressive collection aligning on the wall right next to it, shining silver and golden respectively as brightly as the rest of the polished medals. The only difference was that they hadn’t been earned for athletic flying or even by Rainbow.
They were the proud result of Scootaloo’s very first Equestrian Junior Championship in scooting, besting at least two dozen other ponies equally distributed in gender and kind, all of them older and sporting a scooting cutie mark. Oh how they had hated to be owned by a blank flank. It had taken Rainbow some work to convince her protégé to participate and to train her for the event, but just the look at the faces of the other foals combined with the orange filly’s joy had more than made up for all of it.
The qualification in the local tournament had been a breeze. Having your own small skate park in the front lawn, authorised by Aegis and provided by Celestia as a thank you for great and fearless services to the country, really paid off and showed in the ever increasing repertoire of spectacular tricks.
Great things were waiting for Scootaloo in this world. Rainbow was sure of that. Her persistent lack of a cutie mark could only be explained by the notion that it was connected to some kind of scooting equivalent of the Sonic Rainboom. Once she had been gifted the ability to fly she was sure to get it.
Two and a half months had passed since Rainbow had received the crystal from Celestia and half of it had changed from dark blue to a cyan only slightly lighter than her own coat. The doctor’s prediction had been the doubled timeframe, even assuming a smaller stone. No pony could beat Dash. Another three month and they would be soaring through the sky side by side. She had played through that scenario many times in her head, sometimes even dreaming of it, ticking off the days in her calendar in happy anticipation.
The stone handed to Dash was second in size, only losing to one single other crystal, the yellow mineral encased into Commander Hurricane's armour, although it had probably not been yellow when the Commander had worn it. All history books described her to have been a mare as black as her armour. As many history books liked to point out, only the golden gleam of the ornaments of the plating could have been seen at night, spreading fear by mere sight.
After the birth of Hurricane’s first daughter, the whole country had been searched for a crystal rivalling the size of her mother's. Rainbow was wearing the result of this work around her neck.
Written in letters not used anymore for many hundred years, a message had been etched into the sturdy metal collar by a very skilled unicorn smith. Twilight had helped to decode them, detecting an ancient but still present protective spell worked into the material: “Take this part of me, as you are mine to protect beyond death.”
As opposed to her mother, Hurricane's daughter had indeed died of old age despite serving in the first lines during the great war against the invading gryphon empire.
It was more than fitting.
“I nearly did the triple flip.” Scootaloo’s voice echoed through the flat, perfectly in time as it was getting dark outside. Not once had she been late so far or even argued with the small set of established rules forcing her to fixed bed and dinner times that could only be excused on special occasions and beforehand approval.
Rainbow got up from the couch and trotted to the corridor, a big smile adorning her face. The “nearly” showed on her daughter in scrapes that hadn’t been there when the filly had left in the morning, but nothing too serious. Dash was only thankful for the fact that nopony knew the little pegasus without sporting this kind of injuries, otherwise they might have come to her, accusing her of being a bad parental figure. Instead, she had received nothing but praise of how well Scootaloo was doing thanks to her.
“You will make it tomorrow, I’m sure. Dinner is already set Scoots. I will wait in the kitchen until you’re washed up.”
“What did you make?” Only now Scootaloo opened up her helmet, hanging it up on the assigned wardrobe hook.
“Grilled aubergine filled with wheat grains,” Rainbow answered, leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen.
“Sounds great!” echoed from the bathroom followed by the drizzling sound of water running over hooves. Dash used the time to help both of them to a big serving of the freshly prepared food. It didn’t take long for the filly to follow her.
“You know I never asked you why you went to Ponyville and stayed here? You had so many possibilities to flee to much farther away from Trottingham.”
Scootaloo sat on the free chair next to Rainbow and took the plate that was hooved to her. She didn’t need time to think about this:
