Chapter 1
Pinkie Pie strolled into the atrium of Golden Oak Library, looking for a good place to hide before Twilight got home from one of her many errands of the day. Pinkie was bored, and, whenever she was bored, she made a point of visiting Twilight Sparkle. Her main reason for this was delightfully simple: Twilight was one of Pinkie’s closest friends, but also the one who had been in Ponyville for the least time – at least compared to her other gals. Pinkie wanted to spend as much time with Twilight as possible, so that they both had the same amount of time being friends and having fun tucked under their respective figurative belts as her other friends. As well as this, Pinkie was always happy to be around Spike, who she also considered a dear friend of hers. Perhaps above all other reasoning, Pinkie simply wanted to have fun – and wherever Twilight is, Pinkie judged fun would follow. It was, perhaps, a part of her mysterious Pinkie Sense that made her want to hang around Twilight a lot – not that she saw this is anything more than a lot of fun.
Casting this thought from her mind, Pinkie directed her thoughts towards her next task – finding a good hiding place. Twilight was playing Hide and Seek with Pinkie, she just didn’t know it yet.
Twilight entered the library with her mind racing at a mile a minute. Barely pausing to close the door, she levitated the gargantuan collection of scrolls and books onto her desk at the far end of the room, picked out one at random, and began to read.
“What’cha doing?” came a voice from her right side. Caught by surprise, the librarian-cum-princess let out a gasp of surprise.
“’Aaah’ yourself!” chirped Pinkie, having just knocked the few books she was hiding behind to the floor. “But that doesn’t answer my question, silly!”
“Didn’t you do this the last time you were here, Pinkie?” Twilight reached out a hoof to let her friend down off the shelf. The last time Pinkie had done this, she’d got slightly stuck trying to climb down herself.
“Um, yeah! But I guessed that because I’d done it before and made you go ‘Aaah’, you’d never think that I’d try and pull off the same thing twice in a row! So I then thought that since you were out and you always leave the library doors open for Spike in case anyone wants to rent a book, I’d be able to come in here again and hide in the exact same spot as before!” Before Twilight had a chance to react to her hyperactive friend’s antics, Pinkie had pulled the scroll she was looking at off her desk and started to speed-read through it.
Envious at her friend’s ability to digest information at the speed of sound, Twilight smiled in spite of herself. “Okay, then, Prankie Pie – so you wanted to see what I was doing again because…?”
“Um, duh! Because it’s fun!” Pinkie said this as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. She pointed back down to the scroll on the floor. “So you’re reading through this genealogy stuff again, huh?”
Twilight levitated the scroll off the floor and rolled it up into a tight cylinder. “Yeah, I wanted to have a look at how the Princesses came to power back in the olden times.”
“Oooooh! Any luck finding out?”
“Well, I might have done if somepony hadn’t interrupted me.” Twilight laughed, before thinking of an idea. “Do you want to have a look through these scrolls with me? Spike’s busy at the moment reading his latest comic book, but maybe you’d be inter-“
Her sentence was stifled as Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around Twilight’s neck and pulled her into a big hug. “Absolutely! I love having fun, and this sounds fun-a-fun-fun!” Bemused once more by the permanently-cheerful party pony, Twilight levitated around half the stack over to Pinkie. “Okay then, maybe you’ll find something interesting here.”
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie beamed as she bounced over to the pile and began to read through the scripts. It was only a couple of minutes later when she let out a gasp of surprise.
“Omigosh! This has to be the greatest thing since the greatest thing ever became the greatest thing ever! Have you seen this?!” Pinkie stuck a hoof towards the middle of the scroll, and Twilight began to read.
Rainbow Dash flew through the open window and came to a screeching halt in the middle of the floor.
“Ugh, I just had this floor waxed,” Twilight mumbled to herself. “Anyway, I’m glad you came quickly, Rainbow. We were studying genealogy and found something you might find inter-
“Genealo-what now?” Rainbow interjected, looking confused at Twilight’s words. “What in the hay is that supposed to mean?”
“It’s-“
“Oh! Is it like the study of genies or something? Have you found a magic lamp?”
“Not re-“
“This is awesome! I can’t wait to make my first wish! I’d ask to be made the Captain of the Wonderbolts! Or maybe to have my own flight team! Or maybe to be in one of Daring Do’s books!”
“No, it’s not like that, Dash. Genealogy is the study of family heritage.”
“Hera-huh?”
Twilight huffed. “It’s where you come from and who you’re related to. Anyway, we’ve found something you ought to know about.” Twilight wasn’t really used to breaking news to ponies, especially not something as potentially life-changing as this. “It turns out that you’re-“
“Scootaloo’s your cousin!” Pinkie jumped down from seemingly nowhere, holding a giant cake and wearing a ridiculously pink party hat. “How cool is that!”
“Wait, huh? How did you figure that out?” the multi-coloured mare asked. “I thought I didn’t have any cousins! I mean, my dad has a brother and he’s married to somepony in Fillydelphia, but-“
“Oh, no, silly!” Pinkie interrupted yet again. She was a master of tact, when she wanted to be, but that little pony in her head was practically screaming with excitement, so Pinkie sort of went along with that. “Your mom had a sister, and she had a baby, and that baby turned out to be Scootaloo!”
“No way!” Rainbow shouted, taking to the air inside the somewhat cramped library, somersaulting and coming back down with a grin like a slice of melon on her face. “This is so cool! I always wanted a sister, but cousins are pretty much exactly the same, right?”
“That’s what I was saying to Applejack!” Pinkie grinned back, bouncing on her legs as she always did when she was super-duper excited. “We need to go and tell her right now!”
“I don’t think that’s wise,” Twilight said. “How do we know we’ll get the same reaction from Scootaloo? I’d hate to see her embarrassed or worried because she’s suddenly gained a family member…” The newly-appointed Princess had mused over this since Pinkie had pointed out the family connection. “We might not even be right. Genealogy is very unreliable unless everything has been verified, and although this seems right, we’d need to find Scootaloo’s mom in order to be sure.”
“Do we know where she lives?” Rainbow was prepared to fly all the way to Fillydelphia right now if it meant she gained a sister. Cousin. Whatever, so long as she could be the big sister-cousin-whatever she hoped she was.
“That’s the thing,” Twilight answered. “Although the scroll says that Scootaloo’s mom is related to your mom, it doesn’t say where exactly she lives.”
“Right.” Dash looked noticeably disappointed by this fact. “So we’re trying to find somepony, but we don’t know where she lives?”
“And we’re suuuure we can’t tell Scootaloo?” Pinkie asked. “That’d make things a lot easier. What if she lives here in Ponyville?”
“But she’s never mentioned to anypony about her family before, has she?” Twilight answered. “We don’t want to make her uncomfortable by just asking her about it – that could make her feel bad.”
“Right. So who do we ask?” No sooner had she asked the question when the answer became obvious.
“Her friends! They’d know!”
Rainbow Dash had no sooner answered her own question, when she flew out of Twilight’s library and over to Rarity’s boutique. If anypony knew about Scootaloo’s family, it would be one of the Crusaders.
Stepping into the circular shop, the silver bell tinkling above the door as the door swung shut behind her, Rainbow was reminded of why she really, REALLY hated dresses. The place looked like a small fabric bomb had gone off, with ends of cloth and stray cotton threads littering the floor of the circular shop.
Rarity bounded down the stairs from the upper floors and delivered her usual mantra. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique. How may I he- oh, hey Rainbow Dash, darling. How are you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Listen, is Sweetie Belle around? I need to ask her something.”
“Oh,” the white unicorn looked slightly bemused by this request. “She’s out with the others, trying to get a cutie mark as usual. I think this idea’s supposed to be to do with annoying Discord – they’re over at Fluttershy’s now. Why do you ask?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course, darling!” Rarity beamed. “Is it interesting? Did she find a special somepony yet? I hope it’s not that Button Mash, he seems more concerned with video games than having a marefriend, but-“
“No, it’s different. We were looking through some genie-logical scrolls back at Twilight’s, and-“
“Genealogical.”
“-yeah, that – and we saw that, er… Scootaloo might be my cousin, but we need to find her mom to be sure. We wondered if Sweetie Belle knew anything about it since they always hang around together.”
“Oh. Well, I wouldn’t know, Rainbow. Maybe you could try Applejack? Didn’t Pinkie go on that long trip with her a while ago trying to find her own family line?”
One hour earlier. Pinkie was on her way to Applejack’s, bouncing along as she always did, humming to herself. She loved spending time with Applejack as much as she did all her friends, and was just happy to be about to do just that when a thought came to her.
Maybe it was a good idea if she DID tell Scootaloo. It couldn’t do THAT much harm, right? After all, Scootaloo was pretty much Rainbow Dash’s biggest fan – maybe it’d be really awesome to have her as a sister. Cousin. Thingy. And it’s not like Scootaloo would be worried about any change that might happen, because her and Rainbow were pretty much relaxed over anything. Maybe she should be told about it. It can’t be a bad thing, right?
“Hmm. Good point, me. But then what if she got mad because I told her before she got a chance to find out for herself!”
“Yeah, but she’s pretty laid-back. I doubt she’d mind at all if she was related to Rainbow.”
“But what if we told her she is, but actually she isn’t after all? We can’t have that happen, not like it did with me and Applejack…” This kind of conversation between her and, well, herself, was coming up quite a lot recently. Was she sure that she liked not knowing for sure if she was related to the Apple Clan?
“Maybe it would be the same for Scootaloo, not knowing for sure if her idol and she were cousins,” Pinkie mused to herself.
She decided then that there wasn’t much point asking Applebloom if Sweetie Belle didn’t know. Pinkie decided to go to Rarity’s with Rainbow to see if Sweetie Belle was there first, and THEN come back to Applejack’s to try and find Apple Bloom if there was no luck.
However, her legs had other ideas. Despite her resolve to head back, her legs had decided to take her somewhere else completely – namely, Fluttershy’s cottage. This happened quite a lot, which was why Pinkie was always showing up in random places – she just worked that way. Shrugging to herself, she knocked on Fluttershy’s door. Clearly this was another Pinkie Sense thing that she should just go along with.
The door opened the wrong way, hitting the pink party pony in the muzzle and knocking her backwards a bit with a gentle “Oof!”
“Oops! Sorry about that,” came a drawl from inside the door. A certain draconequus was lounging in the doorway, undrinking a glass of what looked suspiciously like chocolate milk. “I didn’t mean to open the door and hit you there.” With no hint of apology on his face whatsoever, the supposedly-reformed Discord let Pinkie in.
“So what brings you here, my little pink friend?” Discord inquired further. He was always sticking his nose into other ponies’ business, which sometimes got a little annoying. Of course, Pinkie didn’t mind this, because she ALWAYS got her nose into ponies’ business. And the rest of her, if she could. It was fun trying to help ponies out.
“I dunno. My legs brought me here.” Pinkie looked down at her completely innocuous forelegs, as though they were operated by a rogue GPS system as opposed to her brain.
Wait a sec. What WAS a GPS system?
“Let me guess. You wanted to find out if the Crusaders were here?”
“How did you-“
“I’m the embodiment of chaos. I know everything.” This wasn’t exactly true, but judging from the unexpected visits of both the three fillies and Pinkie today, it was a calculated guess that she was looking for them.
“Okie dokie.” Pinkie walked through to the lounge, finding Fluttershy reclining on her sofa reading the latest Daring Do book.
After a few moments, Fluttershy slowly realised her friend was standing there. “Oh. Hi, Pinkie.”
“Hiiii!” Pinkie responded, looking around the immaculate front room. It never ceased to amaze Pinkie how someone who loved animals as much as Fluttershy managed to avoid having hair and droppings everywhere. Then again, Discord might be helping her with her usual housework – which would explain the slightly grimy state of the windows. “My legs brought me here and I dunno why, but maybe you’ve seen Applebloom or Sweetie Belle?”
“I think they’re outside trying to get their cutie marks. They said they needed Discord for something, but I don’t know exactly what for. Why do you ask?”
“Well, me and Twilight were looking through a great big load of family history thingies again, and we saw that maybe Scootaloo was related to Rainbow Dash, but we didn’t wanna ask Scootaloo about it or tell her it’s true because she might be uncomfortable with not knowing and because her mom is related to Rainbow Dash’s mom we were wondering if maybe she told her friends about it and if so maybe we could ask them if it’s a good idea to tell her or maybe instead ask them for information if they know something that we don’t and-“
This went on for a little while. Pinkie had a tendency to speak very quickly when she was excited, or nervous, or nervouscited. After she’d managed to get the entire story out in one sentence, she began breathing again, and was about to begin another possibly-age-long sentence when Fluttershy quickly responded with “Maybe they do know about it. Shall I try and ask one of them for you?”
“I’m not sure if we could get hold of one of them without the others tagging along. Remember that time we threw Applebloom’s surprise birthday party? I don’t wanna have to go through THAT again.” Pinkie sighed as she remembered trying to keep them all in different places around Ponyville whilst Twilight and the others set up the party stuff at AJ’s. It was like they’d all drank a healthy portion of love poison, only this seemed to be much more permanent.
This was a problem. If there was no way of getting either of Scootaloo’s friends to speak to Pinkie for any length of time, then they’d have to go back to the other option of asking the filly herself about her parents. Was it worth potentially bringing up a sore subject about Scootaloo’s parents if it meant she gained a sister? Cousin? Whatever? It made little difference to Pinkie, but either way, there was going to be a difficult conversation to have with the schoolfilly if there was no other way of tracking down her parents.
At this point, Rainbow arrived through the window in her typical manner. When it came to visiting her friends, she wasn’t exactly the knock-and-wait type. “What’s up? Any luck yet?” she grinned to the two ponies and one Discord, the latter of which was still standing in the hallway pretending not to listen to the conversation.
“Nope!” Pinkie smiled to the cyan pegasus. “But we’re just thinking of how we can get the Crusaders apart for a few minutes, just so we can ask either Applebloom or Sweetie Belle if they know anything about Scoots’ parents.” Nodding, Rainbow sat alongside the two ponies and joined in on the conversation.
“Discord,” Fluttershy asked before too long, “I don’t suppose you could make us some tea, could you?” Before the draconequus had a chance to respond indignantly, she continued “you can have some yourself if you like, or there’s more chocolate milk in the fridge.” Discord sauntered off slightly happier after this, and returned with a tray of steaming tea and one tall glass of frosty milkshake.
“I don’t suppose you’re having a lot of luck with this, are you?” he inquired, taking a seat in mid-air as he unsipped at the chocolate milk. “Perhaps it would be easier if I got the little ones to try and find me? I said to them that they might be able to get a cutie mark in Hide and Seek earlier.”
“That’s not even possible!” Rainbow shouted indignantly. “You sure he’s reformed?” She aimed this question at Fluttershy, who was trying to conceal the small smile that had appeared across her face.
“Oh, um, yes,” Fluttershy said. “But it’s not a terrible idea. If he goes and hides somewhere in Ponyville, they’re bound to split up at some point to try and find him. Maybe then we could-“
Pinkie finished the thought for her. “-try and speak to them separately! AND we can play Hide and Seek! Omigosh, this is the best plan ever!” As ever, Pinkie was happy to do anything to help her friends, and since doing this sounded like a lot of fun, the pink mare could barely contain herself. “Awesome! I’ll go and tell them to try and find Discord, and you two can try to talk to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.” With that, she hopped out of the door into the garden to find the Crusaders.
“I don’t know what kind of coffee that mare drinks to wake up in the mornings, but whatever it is, I think I’m gonna need some,” Rainbow said, before (somewhat unsurprisingly) dashing out of the window so as to keep an eye on the Crusaders from above.
“Where are you even going to hide?” asked Fluttershy to her chaotic roommate.
“Why, here, of course,” Discord replied, casually scratching his back with his tail as he swanned through the air. “It’s the perfect plan! That way, I don’t have to do anything strenuous like all that hiding and seeking and so on, and they’ll take an age to find me so you three can do whatever you need to do.”
“But that’s ridic- actually, that’s not a bad idea.” Fluttershy beamed at him as she flew to the window of the living room. “Okay, I’m going to try and talk to one of them. Make sure you feed Angel while I’m gone, won’t you?”
“Of course, Shutterfly,” Discord replied, not even bothering to listen to her request. After a few seconds of sheepishly smiling at the yellow animal-lover, he mock-saluted her as she shook her head at him headed out.
Twenty minutes later, the Crusaders had been successfully ushered out of range of Fluttershy’s cottage and into Ponyville to try and find the draconequus, and both pegasi were keeping a close-ish eye on proceedings from above.
“Right. Who’s talking to who?” came the first question. “Because if I’m honest, you’d probably be better off with Sweetie Belle. I’ve coached Applebloom before in trying to get her cutie mark, and I reckon she’d be more likely to spill something if I mention it to her.” Rainbow Dash was pretty sure that, because Scoots idolised her more than anypony else she could think of, it would be easy enough trying to get Applebloom to tell her something – if anything – about the excitable young pegasus’ family.
“Um, okay,” came the response from Fluttershy. “I’m sure I can just go up to Sweetie Belle and ask her. I don’t think she’d mind.”
“Oh.” Rainbow was so caught up in trying not to be too obvious to remember that it was probably less suspicious if they DID just ask the other two Crusaders straight-up. “I guess it looks less like we’re up to something… but what if they don’t know anything?”
“We’ll just have to bite the bullet and ask Scootaloo.”
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was busy scouring the streets of Ponyville, trying to find Scootaloo herself. Although there was a chance that Scootaloo would become upset about thinking about her parents – who could potentially be anywhere from living with the schoolfilly to living in the next town over, and beyond… Pinkie didn’t want to think about that, but she knew that if a clear answer was ever going to be found, she would have to ask the pegasus and, so to speak, get the word straight from the horse’s mouth.
Wait a sec. Where did that expression even come from, anyway? This day was getting weirder and weirder. Not that Pinkie minded. She liked weird days. They were fun, after all.
Anyway, Pinkie knew that there would be no other clear-cut way to find out if her parents were even still alive, let alone living anywhere within range of somepony who might know their family history, unless she asked the orange filly herself. It was important to know as much as possible about your family if there’s even a chance you’re related to somepony, because it could be a huge stepping point in your life and it was important to not be in the dark on the matter.
“Wow. That was much deeper than I expected,” she said to herself under her breath.
And in that moment, it all became clear.
Pinkie Pie was in exactly the same position as Scootaloo. She didn’t know anything about her family history further than her own parents and her sisters. She didn’t even think she HAD cousins until Applejack’s possible link into her family came into being. Yeah, she felt a little bit jealous of Applejack and her huge family – or Twilight and her parents and brother (as well as her own rapidly-expanding family)… or even of Rarity, who just had Sweetie Belle with her almost constantly, and her parents off someplace else. It was something that the pink mare had never really come to terms with – the fact that her family was no more than the few rock farmers that she used to live with was worrying to her.
It must be absolutely awful if Scootaloo’s family was similar. Pinkie knew that she would feel lonely and worried if her own small family became smaller still, or even if she barely ever saw them.
That reminded her. She really needed to send a letter full of confetti off to her parents at some point. Maybe she should invite them to town, just for a few days…
“If Scootaloo is worried about her own family, and she’s worried people might find out about her relationship with her parents, then it’s not a good idea for me – or anypony else – to delve in where it might be a totally silly idea to do so. And not the fun kind of silly, either.” Pinkie’s internal conflict lasted for the longest time, until, suddenly, she walked into the back of somepony without realising, and for the second time that day found herself on the floor.
Scootaloo helped Pinkie up off the floor. “Oh, hey Pinkie. Are you okay?”
The pink mare shook herself off and nodded. “I’m great, Scootaloo! More than great, in fact! Do you have a minute?”
Sitting outside Sugarcube Corner, the two earthbound ponies – one older, one younger, both unsure of their families – talked for a while about all manner of things. Pinkie was happy to be able to spend time with one of her friends, but at the same time worried about how she was going to ask that difficult question to the schoolfilly sitting opposite her. Scootaloo, on the other hand, was happy to be talking to Pinkie Pie purely because she was a friend of hers.
“I kinda haf’ta ask you something, kid.”
“Oh… okay, sure! What is it?” Scootaloo, as ever, was full of enthusiasm, energy, and other positive words beginning with E.
“Well… my family’s very small, you see, and Applejack’s is very big. And sometimes, I get a little bit jealous because I’ll never have a big ol’ family like hers to keep me safe when times get tough. Applebloom’s one of your bestest buddies as well, so, uh… is it just me, or…?”
That was difficult to phrase for Pinkie. There was something about it that seemed really tactless to her, but she didn’t really know what it was. She just knew that the question simply didn’t come out the way it should have done, and just when she opened her mouth to try and rephrase it, the little purple-haired schoolfilly replied “…Yeah.”
Scootaloo went on. “Sometimes, it’s hard, because I don’t really know my family at all. I mean, I don’t have any brothers or sisters, and I don’t really know my parents well either. I mean, I’m sure they love me and all, but I haven’t said much to them for years.”
“Oh? So you don’t talk much? Why?” said the pink mare. This was better than she had anticipated. For a second she was worried that
“Because they died before I came to Ponyville.” said Scootaloo. “I don’t worry myself about it, because I never knew them that much… but I just wish I knew them a little better. Because, the truth is… I don’t really have a family either.”
That hit Pinkie like a rock.
“But it’s okay!” The orange mare brightened up. “Because I have friends here that are pretty much like a family. And that’s all I ever really wanted – just to have people who will always help and care for me if I need them, because I’d always do the same in return.”
Pinkie brightened, too. There was a bond between these two that was as strong as a family connection – that of friendship and happiness, and that was fine with Scootaloo any day of the week.
And as the sun set on the most eventful of days over the town of Ponyville, Pinkie Pie realised that it was all she ever wanted, too.
“There’s something else you should probably know, Scoots. We were looking through a load of old scrolls earlier today, at Twilight’s, and it said that-“
“I might be related to Rainbow Dash? Yeah, I saw,” the schoolfilly said, wearing a wry smile. “I know. I checked those out instead of looking for Discord whilst Twilight was out on another errand. You really think I’m THAT dumb? There’s no such thing as a cutie mark in Hide and Seek!” She didn’t need to tell Pinkie that the chaotic mastermind had pointed her not-so-subtly in the library’s direction not half an hour earlier, after all.
“You know, that’s exactly what Rainbow said earlier!” The two mares, happy in each other’s company, collapsed into laughter as the last rays of sun left crept over Ponyville, to be replaced with the cool and enveloping darkness of Luna’s night.