> Unexpected > by RuinQueenofOblivion > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The News > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scootaloo stared at the test results that she had gotten after her recent trip to Ponyville General. She hadn't been feeling very well in the past few days and the matron at Ponyville Orphanage had sent her to see the Doctor at the Hospital to see if everything was okay. She had been living at the orphanage since she was just a filly, now she was 15 and getting used to life in high school with her friends. She had even found a coltfriend that was pretty nice at least, but she was more nervous than anything else right now with everything that had been going on. "Scootaloo, are you okay?" A kind motherly voice asked her and she looked up to see a light blue Earth Pony mare with a short yellow mane looking at her worriedly. "You've been quiet ever since that arrived, is something wrong?" "I, honestly don't know," the teenage Pegasus said as she just stared at the test results for a few more minutes before she gave it to the matron who's eyes went wide. "Is it possible that they're wrong somehow?" "I don't know, these tests are pretty accurate Scootaloo," the matron said with a sigh as she looked at the paper and back at the girl. Scootaloo was a good filly, she had always wondered why nopony had ever adopted her, but it had worried her a bit because she was afraid that it would push her towards something more drastic, this may be exactly what she was afraid of. "Scootaloo... I, don't really know what to say... did you and Cirrus, you know..." "Yes, we did it, okay?" Scootaloo finally said out loud as tears started to pour down her face. "We did it just... oh dear Celestia... what am I going to do?" The Matron looked at her for a long moment, she honestly had no idea what to say, she hadn't ever really run into this kind of situation before with orphans. This was something that should be handled by a pony with a family, but Scootaloo just had her friends and Rainbow Dash, what was she going to do? "Scootaloo I..." The matron started to say as Scootaloo hugged her tightly and buried her muzzle in the mare's chest, crying even more as she did. "What am I going to do?" She asked softly as she just looked up at the mare. "I'm not ready for this kind of thing..." "Scootaloo, you're going to be just fine, we're going to get through this together," the Matron said with a sigh, she just shook her head. She wanted to chastise the teenager but she knew that it wouldn't do her any good. "Talk to your friends and Rainbow Dash, maybe they'll be able to help you figure it out." "Okay, if you think it'll help," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she shook her head. "What do I tell Cirrus? What will he say? What will everypony think..." "Scootaloo, don't worry about that right now," the matron said as she released the hug. "Just promise me you won't do anything rash yet, okay?" Scootaloo sniffed a little and brushed the tears out of her eyes. She was still trying to process what she had learned and honestly she had no idea what she was going to do. She took a deep breath and slowly headed out of the orphanage, she needed to talk to somepony about this, maybe her friends, they should be at the clubhouse right now, it was worth a try at least. 00000 "Hey Scootaloo, how are yah feelin'?" Apple Bloom asked as Scootaloo headed into the old Crusader Clubhouse, they had spent the last few years helping ponies in here and doing their best to help them as they needed, and now Scootaloo felt like she was the one who needed help. "I'm..." Scootaloo said as she shook her head, she had no idea how she was going to say this, especially to her friends. "I'm feeling okay I guess... I just, its complicated." "Scoots, what's wrong?" Sweetie Belle asked as she tilted her head a little and looked at Scootaloo. "You know you can talk to us about anything, right?" "I know, its just... its hard to explain," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "You know how me and Cirrus have been really close lately?" "Yeah, its all yah can talk about when yer not goin' on about Rainbow Dash," Apple Bloom said with a light chuckle. "Ah mean ya'll have been datin' fer a few months now." "He didn't do something to hurt you did he?" Sweetie asked, she had a look of determination in her eyes that showed that if he had laid one hoof on Scootaloo he would have to deal with her for it. "No, no, nothing like that at all, I promise," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her hooves, how was she going to tell her best friends in Equestria this? "He and I, last spring we got, a little closer than before, okay a lot closer... if you know what I mean." "What do you... oh," Sweetie said as her eyes went wide as she realized just what Scootaloo meant. "You two, you, you know, had sex?" "Yeah," Scootaloo said softly as she rubbed her foreleg. "I haven't really been feeling well lately so Pearl, the matron at the Orphanage, she had me go to the Doctor and..." She couldn't say it, saying it made it feel even more real than it already did. She reached into the saddlebags she had with her and took out the paper with the test results, barely looking up from her hooves as she did. The other two crusaders looked at the paper and their eyes went wider as they read what it said. They just sat there in stunned silence for a few minutes as they tried to process what their friend was telling them. "Please tell me this is some kind of joke..." Sweetie said softly as she looked at her Pegasus who just shrunk away a little. "Did they run the tests again? This has to be a mistake." "I don't think its a mistake..." Scootaloo said softly as she started to cry again. "I don't know what to do... what if its true, what if I'm really pregnant? What am I going to do?" The three friends let the question hang over them for a few minutes, none of them really knew what to say or what to do. Sweetie and Apple Bloom cared about what happened to Scootaloo, and this was going to take a lot of getting used to, what about Cirrus? Were they going to be able to break the news to him? What was going to happen when they did? None of them really knew what to think about this, Sweetie and Apple Bloom didn't even know that Scootaloo was that close to Cirrus until now. A lot of things were going through Sweetie's mind, the most obvious one being a bit of frustration over the whole thing. Scootaloo was her best friend, she had no idea what to think about what was going to happen or what this might mean for the future. "Scootaloo, we're not mad," She finally said with a smile as she leaned in and hugged Scootaloo gently. "I promise, your friends are going to be here for you every step of the way, no matter what you decide to do." "Yeah, Cutie Mark Crusaders forever, no matter what," Apple Bloom added as she joined the hug. "And hey, maybe in a few months we'll have a new little crusader, that wouldn't be too bad." Scootaloo paused a moment, she hadn't thought about that. What was she going to do with the filly or colt? At first she actually considered the option of giving the foal up for adoption, but she had been in that same boat since she was little and she didn't want the same thing to happen to them. She of course could find a couple that wanted a foal, but that had its own problems. She honestly wasn't sure what she wanted to do, and then there was still the matter of Cirrus, what was he going to say? What was he going to do? She sighed and hugged her two friends more, this was going to be a challenge to get through, but she had the two best friends she could ask for, now she just had to decide what to do. "Thanks you two," she finally said with a smile, at least she had her friends to back her up. "I guess all that's left is to tell Rainbow Dash and Cirrus... I don't know how that's going to go." "Well, if yah tell Rainbow Dash first yah might not have ta worry about tellin' Cirrus," Apple Bloom said with a chuckle. "Oh dear Celestia, lets try not to go there yet..." Scootaloo said with a groan, the last thing she wanted to worry about right now was Rainbow Dash doing something to Cirrus. "Do you think I should tell him sooner or later? I'm still kind of processing this whole thing to be honest... what should I do?" "Eh, give it a few days, maybe it'll still turn out that it was a mistake, I'd suggest talking to Rainbow still, maybe she can help," Sweetie said and Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "I know, I just hope she'll be able to help a little," Scootaloo said with a sigh before she perked up a little. "So, what's on the schedule for today?" Her friends smiled, even though Scootaloo still had a lot on her mind she wanted to still do her part to help ponies. They gave her a nod and started to talk about what the plan was for the day to help ponies. 00000 Scootaloo paused for a moment as she reached to knock on the door to Fluttershy's cottage, Rainbow Dash was at the cottage today to help Fluttershy out with the animals (though she thought it may be more to spend time with Fluttershy). She still wasn't sure exactly what she was going to tell Rainbow Dash, she had been thinking about it on and off while she had been hanging out with the Crusaders and the other ponies. Maybe this was a bad idea, she still didn't know if she was even pregnant, what if it was all just a false alarm and she got Rainbow worried over nothing? She didn't want to do that, maybe she should wait until she knew for sure, she'd probably know in a few... "Oh hey Scootaloo," Fluttershy said from behind her, which made her jump, she turned to see Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash standing there looking at her. "Can we help you with anything?" "Well, umm... maybe," Scootaloo said softly as she tried not to look either of the older mares in the eye. "Can I come inside?" "Sure, come on in," Fluttershy said with a smile as she moved past Scootaloo to open the door. "Hey squirt, is everything okay?" Rainbow asked as she looked at her little sister curiously, Scootaloo was acting different than she was used to, a lot more nervous and a bit more unsure of herself. "Its, complicated," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her hooves again. "Its what I'd like to talk with you two about inside, okay?" "Alright, whatever it is, we're here for you," Rainbow said and gave Scootaloo a light hug. "Anything for my little sister, right Flutters?" Fluttershy nodded as she opened the door and they headed inside. There were a few animals around, a few of them looked at the three ponies curiously, but didn't pay them much attention. Angel shot Rainbow Dash a glare but the prismatic maned mare didn't seem to notice or at least not care. "So, what do you want to talk about Scoots?" Rainbow asked as she looked at Scootaloo. "Something seems to be bothering you." "Its, complicated," Scootaloo said as she rubbed her foreleg again, this was going to be tricky to tell Rainbow, especially with Fluttershy here. "You see, I had to go to the doctor the other day..." "Oh dear, are you going to be okay?" Fluttershy asked. "Well, I'm not sick or anything," Scootaloo said as she sighed a little, she might as well just say it at this point. "I, may be pregnant." There was a long pause as she looked at the two older mares, she wasn't sure what to expect them to say. Were they going to be mad? Disappointed in her? She wouldn't blame them if they felt that way, she had acted pretty irresponsibly and was now having to live with the consequences. Rainbow Dash just stood there blinking for a long moment, she didn't quite register what Scootaloo was telling her right away because it sounded so unbelievable. Scootaloo was still only in her teens, why would she have done this? What was she going to do if it was the case? She had no idea what had to be going through Scootaloo's mind right now, but she knew what she had to do if she needed to do it. "Where's that coltfriend of yours, I'm gonna have a word with him about this..." Rainbow said with a growl as her eyes narrowed. She looked like she was about to dash off and do exactly what she said she was going to do before she was stopped by the feeling of a hoof on her shoulder. "Rainbow, don't do anything rash," Fluttershy said softly as she turned and looked at Scootaloo again. "What are you going to do Scootaloo?" "Honestly, I don't know, check to make sure if its true first probably before I go and tell Cirrus," Scootaloo said as she played with her mane a little. "Maybe its just a mistake at the Hospital... I hope it is, I really don't know what I'm going to do to be honest." "Well Scootaloo, if I can't beat up your coltfriend, I'll at least be here for you," Rainbow said with a smile as she hugged Scootaloo. "What are you going to do with the foal if its true?" "Honestly? I don't know yet," Scootaloo admitted with a sigh. "I'm not ready to be a mother... what am I supposed to do about this?" "Do what you feel is right, that's the best you can do, and we'll be here for you every step of the way," Fluttershy said with a nod. "Thanks," Scootaloo said with a nod, she gave the two a light smile. "So, how long have you two been a thing?" Rainbow and Fluttershy blushed at that and Rainbow laughed. "Just a few weeks now, we were going to tell you soon, but you've been busy." Scootaloo just smiled and hugged the two of them, it was nice to know that she had family to count on that cared for her. There was still a long way to go before she was sure that she was going to be okay, but for now, she felt like she belonged somewhere at least, and that's all she needed. 00000 "Oh there you are Scootaloo, did you see your friends?" The Matron asked as Scootaloo came into the orphanage once more. "Yeah, and Rainbow Dash," she said with a shrug. "They said they'd be there for me if, you know, this turned out to not be a mistake or an accident or whatever." The matron paused for a long moment as she looked at Scootaloo. She was trying to figure out how to put this into words and honestly she didn't know how to break it to the filly. "Scootaloo... I ran by the hospital while you were out and had a word with the Doctor there who had the tests performed," the Matron said softly. "You did? What did they say?" Scootaloo asked as her ears perked up curiously, maybe this was good news, but then why was she being so nervous about it? Maybe she was trying to mess with her, that made sense right? No, this was too serious to mess with a pony about. "Scootaloo, they said they ran the tests several times to make sure that they didn't get the wrong results," the Matron said sadly as she pulled Scootaloo in close, she started to cry a little. "I'm sorry Scootaloo, there's no doubt about the results..." Scootaloo froze as tears started to stream down her face, that had been her last hope, that maybe the results had gotten mixed up with that of another pony's. There was no denying it at this point, what the test results said were true. She was pregnant. > Reactions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scootaloo stared up at the ceiling of her room at the orphanage, she was still having a hard time believing that she was actually pregnant. What was she going to do? How was she going to deal with a foal when she herself had never even really had parents? She sighed a little, she had never really known her biological family and had always been kind of shuffled between orphanages and foster homes ever since she was a little filly. She really had no idea what she was going to do, she couldn't put another foal through that kind of thing, but she couldn't handle it herself either. She placed her hoof on her stomach, it was weird to think that there was a little life growing inside her right now. She had messed up, its not even that Cirrus had forced her to do it, she had been more than willing to go along with it and now she was stuck in this position. She sighed a little, what was she going to do about this? Her friends were willing to help her out of course, but that wasn't the same as being able to have somepony there all the time when she needed them. This wasn't going to be easy on any of them, she knew that, but the'd figure it out. "Hey Scootaloo, how are you feeling?" The Matron asked as she came in with a plate of cookies. "Some of the other foals made these and I thought you might want some." "Thanks," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she picked up one of the cookies and took a bite. "I'm... I honestly don't know how I feel at this point. I'm still kind of processing the whole thing to be honest and I have no idea what to think." "I understand," the matron said with a sigh as Scootaloo just took another bite of her cookie. "What are you thinking about doing with the foal?" "Honestly, I don't know at this point," Scootaloo admitted with a shake of her head. "I've never really thought about this before, I don't think I'm ready for this..." "Let me let you in on a little secret, nopony is really ready to be a parent," the Matron said with a sigh as she looked at Scootaloo. "Some ponies who wind up in your situation don't know what to do either and they wind up giving up the foal for adoption, or even just abandon them. I don't think you'd want to do that kind of thing though. I know it hasn't always been easy for you in the system..." "Yeah, I mean you've been great, you've always been there for me when I needed you, even before I had my friends," Scootaloo said with a weak smile, she was nothing like the head of the last orphanage she had been at. "I don't know if I've ever told you that have I?" "Not in those words, no," the Matron said with a smile as she hugged Scootaloo gently. "Scootaloo, you're one of the strongest ponies I've ever met. You've managed to weather more than a few storms in your life, and I know you'll make it through this somehow and you'll do whatever you feel is right. You're a good pony, you'll do what is best for the foal, and for yourself." Scootaloo smiled and nodded as she finished her cookie. "Thank you... I just have to figure out how to tell Cirrus now, I just hope something will come out of this." "Don't worry Scoots, you'll be just fine," the Matron said as she headed back outside. Scootaloo took a deep breath and laid back on the bed as she stared up at the ceiling once more. That had helped her a little but she still had a lot to think about right now, she just had to hope that everything would be okay. "Well little filly or colt, its you and me against the world," she said with a soft smile as she looked down at her stomach, it was weird talking to somepony growing in her like this. "Its a great big world out here, with lots of things that will make things hard for us, but you've got your aunts to help take care of you. I just hope that everything will be okay..." She pulled the covers up over her and yawned as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. 00000 In another part of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash was having a much harder time getting to sleep than Scootaloo was. She was pacing back and forth on the floor of her cloud house as Fluttershy watched. "Rainbow, are you trying to wear a hole in the floor?" Fluttershy asked as she looked over at her marefriend who finally stopped and sighed. "I know this isn't easy for you, but pacing isn't going to do any good." "Not easy for me? She's going through the same thing I was when..." Rainbow started to say before she let the sentence trail off. "Its like history is repeating itself right now, and I don't even know what I'm going to do." "Well, ruining your floor isn't a good place to start," Fluttershy said with a light chuckle as she hugged Rainbow Dash and gave her a light kiss on the nose. "Why didn't you ever tell her before now?" "I... don't know," Rainbow admitted with a shake of her head. "Now its going to be even worse if I do tell her, she's going to hate me for keeping it hidden from her for this long. What should I do Fluttershy?" "I think you should do whatever you feel is best," Fluttershy said with a smile as she nuzzled Rainbow gently. "Scootaloo is in a tough spot right now, she needs somepony who can help her through it and who cares about her. I can't think of anypony in Equestria who would be better suited for that than you." "Should I tell her the truth?" Rainbow asked softly. "She's always looked up to me as a sister, but what will she do if she knew I was her mother?" "Well, she might be mad at first," Fluttershy admitted as she placed a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder as her eyes went wide a little. "She's in a delicate spot right now, but she needs to know that you're going to be there for her. You should at least do that, maybe talk to the matron about adopting her at least, the truth can come in time." Rainbow sighed a little, she had a hard time admitting it to anypony other than Fluttershy but she had been in the same position Scootaloo found herself in now. She had made the decision to give her daughter up for adoption 15 years ago and now it was coming back to haunt her. She hadn't wanted to make the choice but she wasn't ready, she had never even told her parents, mostly because they would've made too big a deal over it like everything else she did. Giving up Scootaloo had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do, she had tried to make up for it by being her big sister but it didn't help that much. "I should've told her a long time ago, maybe this whole thing wouldn't have happened if I had been honest with her," she admitted with a shake of her head. She had to admit something, something that she had rarely ever admitted to anypony, but Fluttershy was the one pony in Equestria she was willing to admit it to. "I'm scared... I don't know what I'm going to do to be honest, I don't know how to be a mother, can I really help Scootaloo when she needs it most?" "Rainbow, you don't have to be perfect," Fluttershy said with a reassuring smile. "Scootaloo needs somepony to be there for her, now more than ever. She's a strong filly, but this is something that she's going to have to have help on, from all of us, and the two of you won't be alone, we'll be here for you at all times." Rainbow smiled a little and hugged Fluttershy tightly. She was lucky to have such a wonderful and understanding marefriend, she didn't want to admit it to Scootaloo but she had this weird feeling about Cirrus. Maybe it was nothing, but there was something about him that didn't quite sit right with her, and she was afraid that it was all about to come to a head. "Just don't go doing anything rash, I know you want to protect Scootaloo but you don't need to beat up her coltfriend before he gets a chance to even know he's going to be a father," Fluttershy said with a shake of her head. "Just because some colt ran out on you doesn't mean the same thing is going to happen to Scootaloo." "I know, I know, but I'm still worried," Rainbow said as she rolled her eyes a little. "Okay, I won't do any bodily harm to him yet, but I reserve the right to revisit that idea further down the line depending on his behavior, okay?" "I understand Rainbow, you want to help your daughter, I just hope that everything will be okay," Fluttershy said with a sigh as she nuzzled Rainbow gently. "I love you Rainbow, your loyalty to your friends and family is part of why I love you so much... I just hope that everything will be okay. Just promise me that you won't do anything rash, okay?" Rainbow sighed and nodded, she knew that Fluttershy was just trying to help her out and she was happy to have her for that. She just wished that she knew what to do, everything was getting more and more complicated and she had no idea what to do. "Okay Fluttershy, for you I won't do anything to hurt him," Rainbow finally said with a nod. "I promise." "Good, now come on, lets get to bed," Fluttershy said with a smile as she lead Rainbow into the other room, the two had all night to worry about what was going to happen, they just had to hope that everything would be okay. 00000 Sweetie Belle was just as nervous as Rainbow and Scootaloo were, she honestly had no idea what to think about everything that was going on with Scootaloo. She sighed a little, it was hard to believe that one of her friends may actually be having a foal, when they were only 15 years old. She certainly didn't expect it to be Scootaloo, sure she was the only one of the three of them that were actually in a relationship with somepony, but she had thought she wouldn't do that. She wasn't sure what Apple Bloom's reasons were, but Sweetie just hadn't ever been interested in colts and hadn't found the right pony to be her special somepony. Now she wasn't sure if she ever really would, she sighed a little and looked out the window towards where the orphanage was that Scootaloo lived in. "Scootaloo, I don't know what you must be thinking about right now..." she said softly as she sighed a little and placed her hoof on the window. "I just have to hope that we'll be able to figure something out, together as friends." She sighed as there was a knock at the door, that would be Rarity checking on her probably. "Come in," she said with a nod as she turned to look at the door as Rarity came in with a worried look on her face. "Hey Rarity, what's up?" "I was just worried about you is all," Rarity said with a shake of her head as she took a seat on the bed. "You seemed a bit out of it when you came home today, is everything okay?" "I'm just, trying to figure something out is all," Sweetie said as she took a seat next to Rarity. "Its been, complicated really, things haven't been easy for Scootaloo lately because... well, that's a long story really." "Well Sweetie, you can always talk to me about anything," Rarity said as she put her foreleg around her little sister gently. "What's bothering you?" Sweetie sighed and told Rarity what she had learned today from Scootaloo. Rarity listened intently to her and frowned a little at the news that Scootaloo might be pregnant, she had as hard a time believing it as is. She finally sighed as Sweetie finished and nodded in understanding. "I see, that is certainly a problem," Rarity said with a shake of her head. "So what do you think about all of this Sweetie?" "Honestly? I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing," Sweetie said with a sigh as she played with her two toned mane. "I mean, Scootaloo is a great friend and all, I want to help her, but... I don't really know what to think about this. I mean, she's going to have a foal, at our age... I want to help her, but at the same time I don't really know what to feel about it. I almost feel like there's something more I can do to help her... what do you think I should do?" "I think you should follow your heart Sweetie," Rarity said with a nod as she hugged her little sister gently. "Scootaloo needs her friends there to support her, I know that this isn't going to be easy for any of you, but she's counting on you to be the friend she needs you to be. That's all you can be right now given what's going on, and that's all she'd ever ask of you. You should treat her the way you'd want to be treated if you were in her position." Sweetie paused a moment before she nodded a little, she actually smiled at that. It was still hard to imagine what was going to happen in the future but she knew that they would be there to face that future together. "Out of curiosity, what would you do if it was me and not Scootaloo?" "Geld the colt, ground you, and then be the best aunt I can be of course," Rarity said with a chuckle as she released her little sister from the hug. "You're going to be just fine, I know it. Scootaloo is lucky that she has such good friends being willing to help her through this. If there's ever anything I can do to help, just let me know, okay?" Sweetie smiled and nodded in agreement. That was all she needed to know, Rarity was a great big sister and she just had to hope that everything would be okay. "Thank you Rarity," Sweetie said with a smile as she yawned a little and stretched out. "I should get some sleep I guess, good night Rarity." "Good night Sweetie," Rarity said with a smile as she got off the bed and let her little sister lay down on the bed before she headed out of the room. "How's she doin', Rares?" Applejack asked as Rarity quietly shut the door to the bedroom. "She's doing fine," Rarity said with a sigh as she closed the door. "It just sometimes feels like she and her friends are growing up too fast, do you know what I mean?" "Yeah, Ah understand what yah mean," Applejack said with a sigh as they headed downstairs. "Sorry we didn't get ta have tha evenin' yah wanted, but Ah'll make it up ta yah somehow, Ah promise." "Don't worry about it darling, I had things to deal with, we'll figure out something," Rarity said with a smile as she nuzzled Applejack gently. "There's no point in beating yourself up over it, lets get going." Applejack nodded and the two headed downstairs together. 00000 Scootaloo was more nervous than she had ever felt before as she walked towards the school with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. She had already told them that there was no real doubt that she was pregnant, now it was just a matter of telling Cirrus, that was what worried her the most at this point. Over the past month or so they had seemed to grow a little bit apart, Cirrus said he had to focus on his schoolwork for the upcoming finals and Scootaloo was generally okay with that. She was still a little worried though, it felt like he had been avoiding her almost. "Scoots, yer gonna be just fine," Apple Bloom said reassuringly as she placed her hoof on Scootaloo's withers. "Ah promise, everythin' is goin' ta be okay." "If you say so," Scootaloo said as she looked over at Sweetie Belle who gave her a reassuring nod. "I honestly don't know what to think at this point, I just, well we'll see how it goes I guess." Her friends nodded as they came around the corner and froze a little. Cirrus was standing there talking with another filly and giving her a charming smile, he hadn't even noticed that Scootaloo and her friends were there yet. "So, my Uncle is in the Wonderbolts," Cirrus said with a sultry tone as he gave the filly a flirtatious smile. "Oh really?" The filly asked curiously as she looked at Cirrus, neither of them had noticed the Crusaders yet. "Oh sure, he's one of the big name ones too, he's always flying in the shows and everything," Cirrus said with a grin. "He sometimes lets me sit in on their training sessions. I could, maybe arrange for you to come along next time if you'd be interested." Scootaloo was livid, he was actually flirting with another filly? What in Celestia's name was going on? The anger in her was rising and she couldn't control it much longer. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were just as shocked at this development as they watched their friend get angrier and angrier. "Scootaloo, don't do something you'll regret..." Sweetie said, but it was too late, Scootaloo was already storming up to the colt with an angry look on her face. "CIRRUS!" "What? Oh hey baby, I was just, telling her that I'd give her my math notes and..." Cirrus started to say, but he was cut short by the look that Scootaloo gave him, if looks could kill he'd have burst into flame at this point. "You heard what I was saying didn't you?" "Oh yes, every word," Scootaloo said with a snarl and looked at him. "What was I to you, some sort of conquest? I gave you everything, and you do, THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?" "Umm, what's going on here?" The other filly asked bewildered. "Are you two a thing or something?" "Oh, well see..." Cirrus said, he realized that he had been caught between two mares and neither of them were looking very happy with him right now. "I was just..." "Just what, just cheating on me?" Scootaloo growled as she glared at him with such intensity that even Fluttershy's state wouldn't compare. "I'm not some filly to use and discard Cirrus, and you're just a plothead. I wouldn't listen to a word he's saying, his Uncle works for the Wonderbolts sure, as a Janitor cleaning up after the shows, he couldn't get you into a practice session if his life depended on it. Don't waste your time on jerks like this, and tell your friends the same thing." The filly nodded and ran off leaving the three Crusaders and a very scared looking Cirrus. "Scoots, baby, she meant nothing to me..." Cirrus tried to say, but Scootaloo wasn't having any of it. She swung her hoof around and it connected with his jaw, sending him sprawling on the ground as he looked up at her trembling. "What was that for?" "For being a cheating plothead, and for getting me pregnant," Scootaloo said and stormed off with her two friends close behind. Cirrus just sat there for a long moment before her words finally sank in, and he realized just how much trouble he was in. > Aftermath > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scootaloo was called to the principal's office a little while later, she gulped a little when she saw that the matron from the orphanage was there. Thankfully Cirrus was nowhere to be found, but that was only a small consolation. The principal looked at her with a sigh and rubbed her temples. "Scootaloo, I was told earlier that you punched one of your fellow students, do you have anything to say for yourself on these accusations?" She asked her. Scootaloo shrank down a little as the Matron looked at her carefully, she didn't know what she was going to say to this to be honest. There wasn't much point in lying at this point, but she didn't want to get in trouble. "Yeah... I punched him..." Scootaloo admitted with a soft sigh. "He deserved it though, I don't have anything to excuse my actions but..." Scootaloo sighed a little, she was going to get into big trouble for this, how was she going to explain what happened to them? The matron knew about what was going on sure, but she hadn't had time to tell her about what had happened with Cirrus today for obvious reasons. "Is the pony in question Cirrus?" The Matron asked as she looked at the Principal and at Scootaloo who nodded quietly, the principal's ears perked up a little at that. "I see, why don't you tell us exactly what happened?" The Principal asked with a nod and an understanding smile. "Scootaloo, if he did something to you we can make sure that he's punished accordingly. Did he hurt you?" Scootaloo looked down at her hooves, how was she going to explain this to them? This was something that wasn't going to be easy to discuss, even with the Matron, but she had to come clean, she would probably get into even more trouble if she didn't. "He got me Pregnant..." she said softly and the Principal's eyes went wide. "When I saw him this morning, he was flirting with another student. I just, lost it I guess and punched him, I know what I did was wrong and I will take any punishment you want to give me for it." The principal sighed and shook her head a little. "I see, I was afraid something like this may come up eventually, Cirrus has a bit of a reputation of being a ladies colt, we have a whole file on complaints about his behavior but we've never been able to prove anything. Its not helped that his father is on the school board." "So what does that mean, is he going to get away with this?" Scootaloo asked as she looked up at the Principal. "He's going to just throw me away like a piece of trash and move on to some poor unsuspecting filly?" "Well, do you have any witnesses?" The Principal asked. "My friends, and the filly that was there," Scootaloo said with a nod. "They saw everything, and my friends have seen the doctor's report." "I talked to the doctor myself, I can confirm its authenticity," the Matron said with a shake of her head. "What are we going to do about this?" "I will have a word with his parents, that's the most I can do at the moment," the principal said with a shake of her head. "I'm afraid there's not a whole lot I can do unless they're willing to listen. As for you Scootaloo, there w ill have to be a punishment for what happened here today of course, fighting is not allowed on school grounds regardless of the reason." "I understand, I'll accept whatever it is," Scootaloo said with a nod. "You'll be suspended for three days and spend the next two weeks in detention, its the minimum I can do considering the circumstances," the Principal said with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry this happened to you Scootaloo, but sadly it sometimes comes up. I went to school with a filly around your age who wound up in the same situation, she wound up moving away and I don't even know what happened to the foal." "I just hope that I'll be able to do what I need to," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked up at the Matron. "What's going to happen to me?" "Well, given the situation, I don't think that it would be fair to punish you any more than you already are being punished," the Matron said with a shake of her head. "Scootaloo, are you going to be okay?" "Honestly, I don't know," Scootaloo admitted with a sigh as she looked over at the Principal. "I guess that means I have to go home now... can you get word to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle that I had to go home?" "Of course, just be safe and I'll see you in school in a few days," the Principal said with a smile as Scootaloo and the matron left the office. On the way out of the school they briefly passed by Cirrus who was heading towards the Principal's office, Scootaloo didn't even bother looking at him. She just ignored him as they passed him, she couldn't believe that he would've done something like this. The Matron put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled. "Come on Scootaloo, I don't think we need to go home just yet, why don't you go see what Rainbow Dash is up to?" "Well, other than the fact that he'd probably tear Cirrus limb from limb once I told her?" Scootaloo pointed out and then paused a little. "Why is that a bad thing again?" "Because we don't want Rainbow to get into trouble," the Matron said with a shake of her head, she didn't blame Scootaloo for wanting something to happen to Cirrus but she didn't want Rainbow to get into trouble either. "Don't worry Scootaloo, he won't get away with this, I promise." Scootaloo smiled a little as they left the school. "So, I'll see you later then?" "Of course, just take care of yourself okay?" The Matron said with a smile as she gave Scootaloo a hug before she climbed on her scooter and headed off to find Rainbow Dash. 00000 Scootaloo sighed a little, she still had a lot to think about given what was going on and it still hurt a lot that she had found out about what Cirrus was doing. It wasn't easy to try and figure out everything that was going on, but she was going to mange, somehow. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom helping her out was a good start, and she knew that Rainbow would be there for her when she needed it, but was everything going to be okay? She sighed a little before she stopped at Fluttershy's cottage, Rainbow had a day off and she figured it was the best place to start looking for her. "Hey Scootaloo, is everything okay? Shouldn't you be in school?" Fluttershy asked as she opened the door. "Yeah, I, kinda got suspended for a few days..." Scootaloo said with a sigh as she rubbed her foreleg. "Is Rainbow here? I wanted to talk to her about it." "She's just upstairs, I can get her, make yourself at home," Fluttershy said as Scootaloo nodded and sat down on the couch while the yellow Pegasus headed upstairs to find Rainbow Dash. "Well hello there Scootaloo," a male voice said and she jumped up with a start as she turned to see Discord standing behind her. "Oh, hey Discord," Scootaloo said with a shrug as she looked at the spirit of chaos. "How's it going? Still causing trouble I bet." "Oh you know me, trouble is my life," Discord said with a chuckle as he sipped the teacup and left the tea in its place on the plate. "So what brings you here on a school day, did you get into trouble?" "Oh, something like that," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked at Discord. "I'm just trying to figure some stuff out right now is all, its not been easy for me lately." "Oh, well then, if anypony is giving you trouble I'll deal with them," Discord said and with a snap of his claws was dressed in a strange looking tan uniform with a hat pulled down over his horns. "We'll blast them to Tartarus, don't you worry!" Scootaloo just chuckled lightly at Discord's strange antics, she had no idea what was going on here but she couldn't help but laugh. "Its a personal matter, I've just..." Scootaloo said and paused for a long moment, how was she going to tell Discord this? How was she going to tell anypony this? She had already made a big mistake, and she honestly had no idea how she felt about the idea of anypony else knowing. "I'm pregnant..." "Oh would you look at that, Scootaloo's going to have a little scooter or two," Discord said with a chuckle as he snapped his claw and his outfit vanished as he snaked his way over to Scootaloo. "So, let me guess, the daddy isn't exactly thrilled about the prospect is he?" "He, kinda cheated on me, and then I punched him in the face," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "Honestly I think at this point our relationship is over, good riddance to bad rubbish I guess, but I don't know what to do with this little foal now." "Don't worry Scootaloo, you'll think of something," Discord said as he placed a paw on Scootaloo's shoulder. "Your Uncle Discord is here to help you out as best he can. What do you want, have him be chased by bees... my god. Or maybe something a bit more, creative than that?" "You'd do that for me? I don't want you to get into trouble," Scootaloo said as she looked at Discord nervously. "I don't want you to be put back into stone or something else on account of me." "Oh, you're worried about little old me?" Discord said with a chuckle as he snapped his fingers and vanished before re-appearing much smaller on Scootaloo's nose. "You've got nothing to worry about Scootaloo, I know Rainbow probably would want to do something to him instead but... oh wait, I can't tell you about that, as River Song says, spoilers!" "Who is River Song?" Scootaloo asked with a tilt of her head as Discord just laughed and waved his claw. "Ask Doctor Whooves that one someday, he'd be able to tell you the whole story," Discord said with a chuckle before he patted Scootaloo on the bridge of her nose. "But really Scootaloo, you don't have anything to worry about, we're all going to be here for you in any way we can. That includes of course giving your ex a hard time for leaving you like this, okay?" "Good, do everything you can to help, but lets try not to hurt him too much," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as Discord vanished and re-appeared his normal size. "Aye aye mon capitane," Discord said and snapped his claw once more as he changed into a strange one piece mostly black outfit with a red trim and four golden circles on his collar before he vanished again. "What was that about?" Scootaloo wondered out loud as she shook her head, Discord was being weird, though that really wasn't anything new was it. "Oh, was Discord here?" Fluttershy asked as she came downstairs with Rainbow Dash close behind. "Uh, yeah, and I may have kind of set him on Cirrus," Scootaloo said as she rubbed the back of her head a little. "Hey Rainbow, how's it going?" "Hey squirt, how's the little one?" Rainbow asked as she and Fluttershy took their seats on either side of Scootaloo. "Well, they're definitely there," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her stomach. "The Matron said she talked to the Doctors and they were certain that the tests were correct." "I see," Rainbow said as her face fell a little, she looked over at Fluttershy who gave her a slight nod as Rainbow put her wing around Scootaloo gently. "Don't worry Scootaloo, everything is going to be just fine, I promise." "Do you really think so?" Scootaloo asked as she looked up at her honorary big sister. "I mean, I don't really know what I'm going to do, I don't have any experience with being a parent and I never really knew my own parents, so... what exactly am I going to do about this?" Rainbow flinched a little, but she tried to keep it hidden from Scootaloo. This wasn't making matters any easier and she kept feeling like she should really tell Scootaloo somehow, maybe that would at least help her realize that she wasn't alone in this. She shook her head a little, she didn't want to tell Scootaloo it yet, maybe somewhere down the line after she had worked things out with the Matron. She still had a long way to go before she was ready to try and raise Scootaloo, let alone try and raise Scootaloo and her granddaughter. "Don't worry about it Scoots, we're all going to be here for you, you'll be just fine," Rainbow said with a smile as she hugged Scootaloo again. "You don't want to give up the foal do you?" "Honestly? Its not an easy choice to make," Scootaloo admitted with a sigh. "I was raised in orphanages and foster homes, while I was pretty lucky I don't want my foal to have to go through the same things I did. What do you think I should do?" "I think you should do whatever you feel is right," Fluttershy said and nodded a little. "So what was it you were saying before about setting Discord on Cirrus?" Rainbow asked as she looked down at Scootaloo who flinched a little. "He... I found out today that he cheated on me," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "Apparently this isn't the only time either, he's apparently been kind of a problem at the school and, I really don't know what to do." "Why that little, I'm going to..." Rainbow started to say when Fluttershy shot her a look that made her stop in mid sentence. "You're right, I shouldn't do that..." "Rainbow, I know you're angry about this and so am I," Fluttershy said with a shake of her head. "Cirrus should've owned up to his responsibilities as best he could and not strayed, but there's nothing we can do about it. And attacking him is certainly not going to do Scootaloo any good right now." Rainbow nodded, but she still felt angry about the whole thing, she couldn't believe that Cirrus had done this to Scootaloo. She had met him and he actually seemed pretty nice, but it was starting to look like that had been a facade to get closer to Scootaloo. She sighed and looked down at the teenage filly, it was sad how much it felt like things were repeating themselves. She had been in almost the same exact situation, and she hated that her own daughter was going through the same thing, she knew at that point that she had to make this work somehow, for all their sakes. "Okay, I won't hurt him," Rainbow finally said with a sigh. "But can we at least leave that option open? I mean he kinda deserves it after what's been happening." "We'll see," Fluttershy said with a chuckle. "Besides, it sounds to me like Discord is already going to handle it." "Yeah, and the Matron and the Principal said that they were going to talk with his parents, that might help," Scootaloo added with a nod. "Maybe they'll ship him off to boarding school and we'll never have to see him again, that would be great." "We'll see I guess," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she ruffled Scootaloo's mane. "Don't worry about it Scoots, you don't need him anyway, you have everything you need to be the best mom you can be if that's what you choose." "You really think so?" Scootaloo asked as she looked up at Rainbow who just gave her a smile. "I know so, don't worry about it," Rainbow said with a nod as she and Fluttershy hugged Scootaloo. "We're going to be here for you every step of the way, I promise. And if that plothead tries anything, he'll have to answer to the two of us, right Flutters?" "That's right," Fluttershy said with a smile as she wrapped her wings gently around Rainbow and Scootaloo. " Scootaloo smiled and hugged the two older mares back. She knew that she had a hard task ahead of her, but she was going to do the best she can with the help of her friends and family, that's really all she needed to know at this point. She just had to hope that it would be enough. > Comfort > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey Scoots, is everything okay?" Sweetie Belle asked as she walked into the clubhouse where Scootaloo was pacing nervously. "Applejack said that you wanted to go to the Clubhouse. Is this about what Cirrus did?" "Yeah, I guess," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she played with her mane a little, still she gave Sweetie a smile, it was good to see one of her friends at least. "Where's Apple Bloom?" "Oh, she had to do some chores around the farm, she said she'd be here in a bit," Sweetie said with a sigh as she hugged Scootaloo gently. "Principal Swift said that you were suspended for three days because of what happened this morning, that's insane... he totally had it coming." "Yeah, I know, but to be honest I overreacted," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head, she had finally started to calm down after this morning. "I mean yeah he deserved it, but it wasn't the time or the place to do that kind of thing." "Are you kidding? He probably deserved worse, and I'm surprised Rainbow Dash hasn't gone after him by this point," Sweetie said with a chuckle. "Oh, well Fluttershy kinda talked her out of it, but I may have sent Discord after him instead," Scootaloo said with a light chuckle. "I'd pay all the bits I have to see that." Sweetie just laughed and the two friends shared a good laugh. It was nice to at least have a moment to relax and calm down after everything that was happening lately. Sweetie didn't know quite what to think about this whole thing yet, but she knew that she had to be there for Scootaloo, that was what friends were for after all, right? She knew that if she was in the same situation she'd want Scootaloo to do the same for her, heck she'd probably do more for her than Sweetie would for Scootaloo given that she's always a bit impulsive. That was part of the reason she liked her so much, she was loyal to a fault. "So, what are we going to do now then?" Sweetie asked as she looked over at Scootaloo. "I, honestly have no idea," Scootaloo admitted as she looked down at her hooves. "Matron Blueberry isn't going to punish me at least, so I'm not going to be stuck in the orphanage until the punishment at school is over, that's something at least." "Well that's good," Sweetie said with a smile as she released Scootaloo from the hug. "Lets just hope everything will be okay at school, a lot of ponies are talking about what happened and why you suddenly left school." "Oh, what are they saying?" "Oh, stuff like you got into a fight with your coltfriend or you dropped out of school, one theory is that you were called away on some friendship problem with Rainbow Dash or something," Sweetie said with a chuckle. "Nopony really knows what happened yet, though I don't know how long that's going to last." "Yeah, unless somepony puts an illusion spell on me or something it's going to get very obvious in a few months," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. "I just have to hope that nopony will judge me too harshly for it." "Don't worry Scootaloo, even if they do you have your friends here with you," Sweetie said with a smile. "You're going to be just fine I promise. I'll be here for you every step of the way." "You really mean that?" "Of course, that's what friends are for," Sweetie said as she hugged Scootaloo again. "We all will be of course, if you do something to one Crusader you do it to all of us, Cutie Mark Crusaders forever." Scootaloo smiled as she hugged back and started to cry, she didn't know what she had done to deserve such wonderful friends but she couldn't be happier. It told her that maybe, just maybe everything was going to be okay, even if she still had a long way to go before she was really ready to really be a mother, but she was going to do the best she could. "Hey, am Ah interruptin' anythin'?" A familiar accented voice asked and the two fillies turned to see Apple Bloom standing there with a smile on her face. "Or did yah two finally stop lyin' ta yerselves about how yah feel?" "Wait, what?" Scootaloo asked as her face turned red out of embarrassment, what did Apple Bloom mean by that? "We were just hugging, I'd say that's a normal thing to do when you're trying to comfort a friend." "Yeah, what are you even suggesting?" Sweetie Belle asked as she blushed even more than Scootaloo. "We're just friends, nothing more!" Apple Bloom just laughed her head off at that. "Ya'll are protestin' too much if yah ask me. But fine, so what are we gonna do now?" "Honestly, I have no idea," Scootaloo admitted as she looked through the papers. "We still have a few ponies who need help with their cutie marks coming over this afternoon, anything else?" Her friends just shrugged as they started to get ready for their usual group of clients to arrive. 00000 Matron Blueberry Milkshake took a deep breath as she walked alongside Principal Swift Rise. They were going together to meet with Cirrus' parents and honestly neither of them were exactly sure how they were going to broach the subject of what had happened with Scootaloo. She had been Scootaloo's guardian ever since the filly had moved into the orphanage when she first came to Ponyville 9 years go. She had seen her go through a lot, both good and bad, and she had no doubt that the filly could handle whatever the world threw at her, even this. The challenge now was dealing with Cirrus' parents, she hadn't really ever known them and only barely knew Cirrus himself, but she hoped they would listen to them. "Have you ever had to do anything like this before?" Blueberry asked as she looked over at Swift who just shook her head. "Yeah, me neither, lets just hope everything will turn out okay." "Yeah, we can only hope," Swift said as she knocked on the door of the two story home, after a minute a Pegasus mare with a white coat and a red mane answered the door and gave them a smile. "Are you Mrs. Crimson Star?" "That's me, can I help you?" The Pegasus mare asked curiously as she looked at the two mares. "My name is Swift Rise, I'm the Principal at the local high school where your son goes and Blueberry here is in charge of the local orphanage, there has been a, situation that we need to talk to you and your Husband about if that's okay," Swift said with a shake of her head, this wasn't going to be easy. "May we come inside?" "Is Cirrus in trouble?" Crimson asked as she lead the two mares into the house. "What did he do this time?" "Ma'am, your son has been involved with one of the fillies that live at my orphanage for a few months now, right?" Blueberry asks. "Oh yes Scootaloo, I've met her a few times, she seems very nice," Crimson said with a smile as she lead them into the living room where a grey Pegasus stallion with a blue mane was reading the newspaper. "Nimbus, these two mares are here to talk about Cirrus and Scootaloo." "What can we help you with?" Nimbus asked as he lowered his newspaper and looked up at the two. "He hasn't been causing her any trouble has he? He came home and just went right upstairs, we couldn't get two words out of him." "Well, something like that," Blueberry said with a frown. "Scootaloo had to go to the doctor the other day and when the results on the tests came back we discovered she was Pregnant. He's the only pony that she's actually been with in the past few months. When she came to school this morning, she found him flirting openly with another student and there was, an altercation between the two" Blueberry let the comment hang over the room for a few minutes as the couple let it sink in. They had a hard time accepting it right away and Blueberry didn't blame them, they were being told that they were going to be grandparents, and that their son had betrayed Scootaloo's trust. This wasn't something that would be easy for any parents to accept, she had no idea how they were going to react. "Can you prove this?" Nimbus asked as he looked between the two mares. "Do you have the records from the doctor's visit to prove that she's Pregnant?" "Right here," Blueberry said as she took out the information and gave it over to the couple and they looked it over. "I went to the doctor myself in order to make sure that the test was accurate, it was." "I see..." Crimson said with a frown as she looked down at the papers. "Can you prove what you're saying about what he did was true?" "We have witnesses that prove it ma'am," Swift said with a shake of her head. "I know this is hard to accept, but I don't think Scootaloo would lie about this kind of thing, or stray away from a pony she was in a relationship with." The Pegasus couple looked between each other and talked quietly for a long moment as they tried to figure out what to do. There was a long moment of silence that followed before Crimson got to her hooves and headed upstairs to find Cirrus, Nimbus just shook his head. "I'm sorry about this, we thought we had raised him better than this," Nimbus said with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry Scootaloo got dragged into this, she seems like a nice pony and we didn't mean for any of this to happen. If there's anything we can do to help, we'll be willing to help as best we can." "Thank you," Blueberry said with a sigh of relief, she had been worried about what they would do. "What are you going to do with him?" "We're still working on that, does Scootaloo want anything to do with him at this point?" Nimbus asked as he looked between them again. "I highly doubt it," Blueberry said with a shake of her head. "I honestly don't know what she wants, but she feels betrayed by your son and I don't blame her for it. Its ultimately up to her, but I think for the time being he should be kept away from her." "I see," Nimbus said with a nod. "Alright, we'll look into some options, that much I can promise you. "I know this can't be easy for Scootaloo, if you'll tell her we're sorry that would help a lot. We'll make sure that this incident isn't repeated again, I promise." "Thank you," Swift said with a nod. "Thank you for being understanding, I know this isn't something that most parents want to deal with, and I'm glad we were able to figure something out." "What's going to happen to the foal?" Nimbus asked after a long moment. "I mean, if she's an orphan, what will she do with it?" "We're still deciding what's going to happen with the foal," Blueberry said with a shrug. "Scootaloo wants to make the decision for herself and I'm going to respect whatever it is. She's spent her whole life in foster homes and orphanages because her own parents couldn't take care of her, I don't think she'd want the same thing to happen to her own son or daughter." Nimbus nodded as Crimson came downstairs with a shake of her head. "Did you talk to him?" Nimbus asked. "He's still a bit in shock after what happened earlier, but I think he knows what he did was wrong at least," Crimson said with a sigh. "This is quite a lot for all of us to take in." Blueberry nodded in understanding. "Alright, well thank you for being understanding," she said and slowly got to her hooves. "Everything will hopefully turn out okay." "There's one more thing," Nimbus said. "If we can help you out, can you not tell Scootaloo where the help is coming from? I know its a strange request, but, we need to figure out what we're going to do with our son before we're ready for her to really know..." "Okay, we won't tell her for now, but..." Blueberry said with a pause. "Someday the foal may want to know his or her family, I just hope that everything will be okay by then." They nodded and the two mares headed out. Blueberry let out a sigh of relief, she had been afraid of how this might go, but everything seemed to be fine. She took a deep breath and looked over at Swift who gave her a nod. Now it was only a matter of figuring out what this would mean for Scootaloo. She knew that they would need help, and now the chances of somepony adopting her weren't exactly high. She not only needed to find a pony willing to help raise a teenager, but one that would possibly have to help take on a newborn in a matter of months. This wasn't going to be easy on any of them, she just had to hope that everything would be okay in the long run. 00000 Blueberry hummed lightly to herself when she opened the door to the orphanage, some of the younger foals were running around and playing. She chuckled a little when she saw a familiar looking prismatic maned mare who was laughing and playing with some of the fillies. Ever since she had become close to Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash had been a common fixture at the orphanage and the foals had taken a quick liking to her. After all, it wasn't every day that you got to hang out with one of the heroes of Equestria, and Rainbow had made it a point to come at least once a week. Sometimes she wondered why Rainbow never seemed that interested in adopting a foal herself, she never really showed it in public but the Pegasus mare was actually really good with foals. Blueberry smiled a little as she trotted up to them and Rainbow gave her a wave. "Hey Rainbow, glad to see you here again, Scootaloo is hanging out with her friends at the moment," she said and Rainbow just kind of shrugged. "Its fine, I actually..." Rainbow started to say before she paused a moment as she looked at Blueberry nervously, like she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. "I wanted to talk to you about something, in private if that's okay." "Okay, lets go to my office," Blueberry said and lead Rainbow back to her office while some of the older foals took care of the younger ones. She opened the door and took a seat behind her desk while Rainbow did the same in one of the chairs in front. "So what's on your mind lately?" "I've, been thinking about Scootaloo and what's been going on a lot," Rainbow said with a sigh as she tapped her hooves together nervously. "About everything that's been going on, it feels like there's something I should do to help her and the foal, if that makes any sense." "I understand completely," Blueberry said with a smile. "So, what brought this on all of a sudden Rainbow?" "Its a long story, can you promise not to tell Scootaloo? I want to tell her myself when the time is right," Rainbow asked and Blueberry nodded in understanding. "I'm... her mother." Blueberry just froze for a long moment, she had known that Scootaloo's family had given her up for adoption instead of having died, but she had no idea who it was that had done it. Their names hadn't been on record for some reason, but now everything was starting to make sense. "You couldn't raise her so you gave her up for adoption right?" Blueberry asked and Rainbow nodded sadly. "I'm sorry Rainbow, I know that can't be easy for you, especially what's going on lately. Is there anything I can do to help?" "I want to, maybe adopt Scootaloo," Rainbow finally said with a shake of her head. "I know its a bit too late and I know you're doing a good job here but..." "You want to give her and the foal the best chance at having a family you can?" Blueberry asked and Rainbow nodded. "I understand, and I can't promise that it'll be done anytime soon, but I can at least start the paperwork and background check." "Thank you," Rainbow said with a soft smile, she breathed a sigh of relief, she was just happy that the process was going to be started. "Are you 100% sure that you want to do this though?" Blueberry asked. "You're going to not only be taking on Scootaloo, but you may be taking on her unborn foal too. That's not going to be an easy task for you, I don't want to dissuade you of course but I just want to make sure you know what you're getting into." Rainbow paused a long moment, she had been thinking about this for awhile and had only recently made the decision to go through with it. This did complicate matters of course, but it wasn't something she was going to shy away from. "Of course, I'll be the best mom and grandmother I can be," Rainbow said with a smile. "I'll be the most awesome one ever." Blueberry just smiled and nodded, she didn't doubt that Rainbow Dash could do it, and she just hoped that whenever she did get around to telling Scootaloo the truth that everything would be okay. > Choices > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next two days passed pretty normally, Scootaloo had hung out with her friends and Rainbow Dash, helped ponies whenever they needed it, and just did her usual thing. She wasn't going to let being pregnant get in the way of being who she was for as long as she could at least. The day after her suspension was up she sighed and looked up at the school, she honestly had no idea what she was going to do. How were other ponies going to react? Did they know by now or was it just her friends and Cirrus who knew about what had happened to her? "Are yah okay Scoots?" Apple Bloom asked as she and Sweetie Belle stood next to her. "I don't think anypony would blame yah if yah didn't want ta go ta school today." "I know, but I'll need to do it eventually," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "So, how many ponies know about it at this point?" "Honestly? Our classmates from Ms. Cheerilee's class know, and a few other ponies at this point," Sweetie said with a shake of her head. "Its not exactly a well kept secret when you practically shouted it at him the other day..." "What's the general response?" "Its, kinda mixed," Apple Bloom said with a shrug. "But tha good news is that most ponies are more angry at Cirrus than they are at yah, especially those that he's been with before." Scootaloo took a deep breath and headed into the school with her friends close behind. She walked towards her first class, and frowned a little, there were a few ponies whispering to one another while she went past, and she didn't want to think about what they were talking about. She went past Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who just gave her a reassuring smile, that was okay she figured, at least she had her friends on her side here. She smiled back and gave them a nod as she stopped by her locker and started to get it open to get her books out. "Well, looks like the little snitch decided to show up for school today," a familiar voice said from behind her and her ears flattened as she turned to see Cirrus looking at her. "You have a lot of nerve showing up for school today after the stunt you pulled." "What stunt are you talking about?" Scootaloo said with a growl. "All I did was tell the truth, you're the one who tried so hard to get under my tail. I don't want to talk to you ever again." She tried to go back to her locker but a hoof slammed it shut with Cirrus looking at her with a glare. "Your guardian and the principal talked to my parents, they said they're going to possibly send me away to some boarding school for this," Cirrus said with a glare. "You ruined my life, now I'm going to make yours a living Tartarus. Especially after what that blasted god of Chaos did to me yesterday." Scootaloo glared at him and tried to back away, she wasn't in a very good position to fight him again. As much as she hated to admit it, Cirrus would have the edge on her in a physical confrontation if she hadn't taken him off guard like before. "Hey, leave her alone!" A familiar voice shouted out, they turned to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom standing there with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon running off into the nearest classroom in order to get a teacher. "You ruined your own life when you decided to cheat on her like that." "Yeah, yah have nopony ta blame but yerself," Apple Bloom said as she and Sweetie moved forward and put their hooves around Scootaloo protectively. "If yah mess with Scootaloo, yah mess with all of us, right Sweetie?" "That's right," Sweetie said with a nod, Scootaloo smiled a little, she was glad that she had her friends to back her up. "You messed up Cirrus, and now you're going to pay if you're not careful." There was a long tense moment as they all waited to see what was going to happen next. Cirrus actually looked shaken as if he hadn't expected this much of a response, Scootaloo just smiled a little and put her wings around her two friends. "So you're going to have to deal with all three of us if you really want to start something," Scootaloo said with a smile. "We're Crusaders forever, I don't know what I ever saw in you, you're just a jerk who couldn't keep it in his pants. We're through Cirrus, and I don't ever want to see you again." "Is everything okay out here?" A teacher asked as she came out with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon close behind, she gave Cirrus a look. "Is there a problem here?" "No, he was just leaving," Scootaloo said as she looked at Cirrus who gulped and backed away before heading down the hall towards his first class. "Thank you for your help." "If he gives anypony trouble again let me know," the teacher said and headed out again. "Hey, are you okay?" Diamond asked as she and Silver Spoon headed up to the CMC and Scootaloo. "We heard about what happened, how are you doing?" "I've, been better," Scootaloo admits as she brushed her mane back and sighed a little. "Its a lot to take in of course, but I'm getting used to it. I'm just lucky I guess that I have such good friends who are willing to help me out when I need them." "Don't worry about it, I know everything's going to be hard for you, but a lot of us are here to back you up," Silver Spoon said with a nod. "We're going to help you out as best we can, right Di?" "That's right," Diamond said with a smile as she took a deep breath. "I'm sure that everything will be okay, but if you ever need anything just let me know." "Thank you," Scootaloo said and gave them both a nod as the bell rang. "We probably should get to class, but thank you again." "You're welcome," Diamond said and the two of them headed to their class. "Are you going to be okay Scoots?" Sweetie asked as they started to head towards the classroom. "I mean, you just told off your boyfriend, are you going to be okay?" "Well, my ex boyfriend now," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head, she wasn't going to miss having to deal with him at least. "But I'll be fine, honestly this is the best I've felt since this whole thing started. I just hope that everything would be okay, ,its not going to be easy sure, but I just have to hope that whatever is going to happen we'll be able to figure it out." "So, do yah want a filly or a colt?" Apple Bloom asked with a smirk as she looked at Scootaloo. "I think its a bit too early to be thinking about that right now," Scootaloo said with a groan as she opened the door to her classroom. "See you two in a bit?" "Of course, just be careful, I don't want anything to happen to you, again," Sweetie said with a smile as they went to their own classes. Scootaloo looked after them for a moment, she blushed a little when she realized her eyes rested on Sweetie's flanks. She was starting to think that Apple Bloom's teasing was starting to get to her if she was actually thinking about that kind of thing, what was she going to do now? "Don't let it get to you Scoots... what am I going to do now..." she said to herself while she headed into the classroom, she just had to hope that everything would be okay. 00000 "So, you're really going to go through with this Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked as Rainbow was working on filling out the paperwork for Scootaloo's adoption. "I know you've been thinking about this a lot." "Yeah, but I feel like its the right thing to do at this point," Rainbow admitted with a sigh. "Scootaloo has been through a lot and I should've done this a long time ago to be honest. I know this is hard to understand, but I just want to help Scootaloo as best I can, and maybe I can make up for being a failure as here mother before." "So, you want to try and make up for it by being her mother now and the grandmother you need to be," Fluttershy said with a nod of understanding and Rainbow nodded in agreement. "Do you really think that's the right thing to do?" "Honestly I have no idea, I just want to try and do what I can in order to help her at this point," Rainbow said with a sigh. "I just have to hope that its the right thing to do... I don't even think I can do this on my own." "Well, you're lucky that you don't have to do it alone," Fluttershy as she put her foreleg around Rainbow gently and gave her a hug. "I would do anything for my marefriend, you know that, I know you'd do the same for me." Rainbow smiled and nuzzled Fluttershy gently, she was lucky that she had a marefriend that was willing to help her out as much as Fluttershy was. It wasn't going to be easy to be able to figure this whole thing out given that she really did have a challenge ahead of her, but she wasn't going to let her daughter and grandfoal down, at least she hoped not. "Really, I'm just having a hard time believing that I'm going to actually be a grandmother," Rainbow admitted with a sigh as she looked down at the papers again. "I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do given that I don't know how to be a mother, let alone a grandmother. How am I going to do this?" "Not alone for one thing," Fluttershy said with a smile as she kissed Rainbow on the cheek. "Don't worry Rainbow, we're all going to be here for you. I know its not going to be easy, but you have to understand that we're not going to just leave you hanging, you're our friend and more. I love you Rainbow Dash, I just want to make sure that everything is going to be okay, we'll make sure that Scootaloo will be okay." "I still want to go and beat up Cirrus," Rainbow said with a shake of her head. "Yes, but you won't because you know that if you do, it'll ruin your chances of helping Scootaloo," Fluttershy said with a chuckle. "Besides, from what I've heard, Discord more than made up for it." "Was it worse than what he put me through when we started dating?" Rainbow asked with a chuckle. "I still have the mental scars from his little test." "Oh it was much, much worse, believe me," Fluttershy said with a chuckle. "Don't worry, Cirrus won't bother Scootaloo too much if he doesn't want to have to deal with Discord again." "Heh, maybe we should sic him on my Ex sometime," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she nuzzled Fluttershy. "But still, I'd rather not get on his bad side again." "Agreed, but hey when we started dating he said something weird about shipping us, I don't even understand what that means at this point," Fluttershy said with a shrug. "Don't worry Rainbow, I don't think he'd ever do something like that again, I promise." "Good, so what are we going to do now?" Rainbow asked as she finished up the paperwork, she paused and looked down at it once more. "Its weird, it just feels so, real now... I know that this is what I should do if I want to help Scootaloo, but I never really, thought about it before now. Do you really think I'm doing the right thing? Am I just doing this because I feel guilty about giving her up when she was a baby?" "Rainbow, you're one of the bravest, most loyal ponies in all of Equestria, you're doing this because you care about Scootaloo and want to help her and her unborn foal," Fluttershy said as she wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow again. "I know you, you would do this even if she wasn't your daughter because that's just what kind of pony you are deep down. You're not doing this because of guilt, you're doing this because you know its the right thing to do, and I love you for it Rainbow Dash." Rainbow smiled and nuzzled Fluttershy, that actually helped her a lot and made her worry less about what she was going to do. She still had a long way to go, but this was the first step she needed to take before she could be the mother Scootaloo needed her to be. "I've never been so nervous about anything in my entire life, but I'm glad I have you to help me Fluttershy," Rainbow said with a smile as she hugged Fluttershy and kissed her softly on the lips. "You're the best marefriend I could ask for." Fluttershy just smiled and held Rainbow close. 00000 "Hey Scootaloo, how was class today?" Sweetie Belle asked as they met up after school with Apple Bloom. "Nopony gave you any trouble did they?" "No, no, actually those that knew about it were pretty supportive," Scootaloo said. "I'm just, still kind of trying to process the whole thing. Its crazy to think about isn't it, me being a mother." "I know, but don't worry Scootaloo, we're going to be here for you every step of the way," Sweetie said as she hugged her friend gently. "I know that you want to do what you can do, and we're going to be here every step of the way." She then added so quietly that Scootaloo only barely made it out, "Especially me." "Yeah that's right, yer family, and family sticks together," Apple Bloom said with a smile as she hugged her tightly. "Friends are tha family that yah choose, and ya'll are family ta me." Scootaloo smiled at that, she knew that Apple Bloom considered family to be one of the most important things in Equestria to her, so it meant a lot that she considered her part of the family. Sometimes though she wished that she had an actual family, she wondered if maybe she still had parents out there somewhere, or maybe brothers and sisters or aunts and uncles. What kind of family did she come from? Why had her mother given her up for adoption? These thoughts had been going through her head ever since she was little and she wasn't sure what the answer might be anymore. Heck, maybe her mom had been in the same situation she found herself in now and didn't have the same support Scootaloo had. Maybe if that was the case she'd at least understand, but she still kinda wished that she had been able to be there for her when she really needed it. Still, it would be nice if she knew where she came from, but maybe someday she would. "Thanks Apple Bloom, that really means a lot to me," she said as she hugged her two best friends tightly. "You're the best friends I could ask for." "You're a great friend too Scootaloo," Sweetie said as she and Apple Bloom hugged back. "Come on, lets go have some fun before it gets to be too late." Scootaloo smiled and the three friends headed off. > Family > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another three months passed, Cirrus had never bothered Scootaloo or her friends again, and in fact after awhile had vanished from school. While Scootaloo didn't know what had happened, she suspected at least that his parents had sent him off somewhere, she didn't really care, he was the last pony she wanted to think about right now. Strangely everything was starting to feel almost normal again now. She still had to worry about her extra passenger which meant she couldn't do as much as she usually did, but everything was actually still feeling kind of ordinary at this point. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were still being as supportive as ever, Sweetie even accompanied her to her doctor's appointments at the hospital. Which was where she was now. "So, are you having any problems with your pregnancy?" The Doctor asked as she checked Scootaloo over. "Does strange cravings for whatever seems to catch my attention at the time count?" Scootaloo asked with a chuckle and the doctor just laughed a little. "Other than that, not really. I'm feeling like I'm finally starting to get used to this strangely, but I know this little one probably has something planned at this rate." "Yeah, if she's anything like her mom they're going to be causing a lot of trouble," Sweetie added with a chuckle which made Scootaloo roll her eyes a little. "So, do you want to finally know what you're having Scootaloo? I know you've been kind of uneasy about that in our past checkups," the Doctor offered. "I know this is difficult for young mothers, but you're doing just fine." Scootaloo paused a moment, she had been thinking long and hard about what she was going to do with the foal after they were born. She had finally reached the decision that she was going to try and keep them, she wasn't going to subject her foal to the same thing she had gone through growing up, that was not something she would want to do. Strangely that had kept her from really wanting to know the foal's gender, or even what kind of pony he or she was going to be. She could've found out months ago but had asked the Doctor to just tell her whether or not the foal was going to be healthy. Now that she had made a choice however, maybe it was time to get an answer finally. She took a deep breath and looked at Sweetie who gave her a smile. "Sure, I'd love to know what I'm having," she said with a smile and placed her hoof on her stomach gently. "I know I've been kind of iffy on it before, but it was just because I still had a lot to think about. I've made my decision and I'm sticking to it." "Okay Scootaloo, I understand," the doctor said with a smile as her horn began to glow and she gently touched the still developing foal with her magic like she had done so many times before. This time though she wanted to know more than anything, there wasn't going to be any more mystery at least. She smiled a little as she looked over at Sweetie Belle who took her hoof in her's and squeezed it gently. The doctor's horn started to glow and a shape of a developing fetus. Scootaloo looked at it curiously, she had never really thought about what the foal might look like, she could even see the small developing wings. "Well, it looks like you're going to have a Pegasus," Sweetie said with a smile as she squeezed Scootaloo's hoof again. "So, is it a filly or a colt?" "Well, lets see," the doctor said and moved the projection around, it was hard for Scootaloo and Sweetie to make out any features on the foal but the Doctor smiled a little and gave Scootaloo a nod. "Looks like you're having a filly, and she looks very healthy as before. What do you think?" Scootaloo just stared at the still developing foal that was growing in her womb. She had a hard time accepting all of this sometimes, but seeing the foal like this actually made it feel even more real than it already did. It was strange to think about being a mother, but what was she going to do? She knew that she wanted to keep the foal, but things weren't going to be easy for her, or for her friends. "Well, it looks like everything is pretty good," Sweetie said with a smile. "Are you going to be okay? You seem a bit more distracted than usual." "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just kind of thinking about what's going on is all," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked at the projection again. "Its weird to think about all of this, I just have to figure out exactly what I'm going to do, I hope I can at least." "You still don't know what you're going to do about the family situation?" The Doctor asked as she looked over at Scootaloo who shook her head. "I know that it can't be easy for you, but I know that everything is going to be just fine if you manage to figure everything out. You're not the first pony to be in this situation, and I'm sure that everything will be okay if you just put your faith in your friends. I'm sure that everything will be okay, just give them a chance." "I will," Scootaloo said with a smile as the projection vanished and she gave Sweetie a nod. "Thank you Sweetie, it means a lot that you're here for me." Sweetie smiled and gave Scootaloo a light hug. The doctor smiled and let the two fillies hug for a long moment. She didn't like the situation that Scootaloo was in and just wanted her to get through this okay given everything she was going through. "Come on, lets go tell Apple Bloom, and I think Rainbow wanted to see you about something," Sweetie said as the released the hug. "Okay, thank you doc," Scootaloo said as they headed out of the doctor's office together. 00000 Rainbow took a deep breath as she looked up at the banner and decorations that they had gotten set up for Scootaloo. It was hard to believe that she had actually managed to get through everything without freaking out, but the paperwork and the background check had all gone through just a few days ago. "I'm proud of you Rainbow," Twilight said as Rainbow finished putting the last of the decorations up on the wall. "When is Scootaloo going to be here?" "Sweetie said she'd bring her here from the doctor's office after they met up with Apple Bloom, do they have the cloudwalking spell on them?" Rainbow asked as she looked over at Twilight. "Yeah, I made sure I did it this morning," Twilight said with a nod as she looked over at Rainbow and sighed a little. "I'm impressed that you're actually going to do this, I know its not going to be easy given everything that's going to come with it." "Yeah, I know, I mean I've never really thought of myself as a mother, I just am glad that I'm getting a chance to be able to manage somehow," Rainbow said with a sigh as she looked over at Fluttershy who gave her a smile. "But, this is what needs to be done if I want to help Scootaloo, I don't regret it." She paused for a long moment as she looked over at Twilight and her other friends who were there. She hadn't yet come clean to them about being Scootaloo's biological mother other than Fluttershy of course, she didn't know how she would tell them to be honest. Though if she did, would they understand? Twilight had basically raised Spike with the help of Celestia, Rarity had taken care of Sweetie Belle for years, and Applejack and her family had taken care of Apple Bloom ever since she was just a baby. But Rainbow, she had been given the chance to be a mother, to have that bond and she had given it away, even if she had tried to make up for it later, that was something she regretted. Now she was putting herself in a position to hopefully make up for it, but she'd still have to do better. "How do you do it Twilight?" Rainbow asked as she looked over at Twilight who just tilted her head and looked at her curiously. "Do what, Rainbow?" "Be a single mom like you do with Spike, I mean I know you don't call yourself his mother, but you did kinda raise him and everything," Rainbow said as she rubbed the back of her head a little, this was something she had a hard time talking about and wasn't sure how Twilight would react. "I know that's kind of a personal question for you, but I wanted to know if you could give me any advice on how to help Scootaloo." Twilight looked at Rainbow and smiled a little, she hadn't ever really expected Rainbow Dash to ask for advice on that kind of thing, but she didn't mind. Actually she felt it was a sign that Rainbow was really starting to mature, and given her situation that was probably a good thing. "Well I won't lie and say its going to be easy for you or Scootaloo," Twilight finally said as she trotted over to the prismatic maned mare. "You're going to have to make some sacrifices, especially when the new baby arrives, you're probably not going to be able to goof off as much as you usually do. Scootaloo's going to count on you and the others to help her if she needs it, are you really going to be ready for that?" "Aww, do I have to? Of course I'm going to be ready for it, I've been getting ready for this for months," Rainbow said with a smirk, but really she had realized that already and was already starting to ease more into this. "But I know what you mean, I honestly..." She paused and trailed off a moment, she wasn't sure how she was going to tell Twilight this still. She still needed to figure out how she was going to tell Scootaloo, her friends should've been easy compared to that but she couldn't figure out how to put the words together. "Rainbow, is everything okay?" Twilight asked as she looked at Rainbow. "You've been acting weird ever since we found out that Scootaloo was pregnant. What's wrong, you know you can tell me anything right?" Rainbow nodded slowly before she sighed, she was going to have to come clean about this eventually and now was probably as good a time as any. She took a deep breath and looked at Twilight, she had to tell her now given that Scootaloo was probably going to be done at the doctor soon. "Scootaloo is... my daughter..." Rainbow finally admitted as she looked down at her hooves and Twilight's eyes went wide. "When I was her age, I got in a relationship with a colt and wound up Pregnant, I put her up for adoption because I didn't think I could be a good enough mother to her." "And that's changed now because you're seeing her go through the same thing you did," Twilight said and Rainbow nodded. "I had no idea, this must be hard on you." "Yeah, it is, but its why I want to do this, I want to make things right again and do what I can to help her," Rainbow said with a sigh as Fluttershy walked over to her and gave her a hug. "I messed up over 15 years ago and Scootaloo is paying for it now, I just hope that I can do something to help her out when she needs it." "Really, I'd say you already have," Twilight said with a smile. "You've been there when she needed you, while you weren't her mother, you were still there for her and that's what really counts. Now, I'm guessing Scootaloo doesn't know this yet, but you're probably going to have to approach this cautiously. She does deserve to know the truth, but you don't want to hurt her in the process." Rainbow nodded and was about to say something else when the door opened and Blueberry came in with the last of the paperwork. She gave Rainbow a smile which she returned with a nod. "Is everything ready?" Rainbow asked the matron who nodded. "Oh good, I just have to wait for Scootaloo to arrive I guess." "Do you have everything set up?" Blueberry asked. "Yeah, we got her bedroom together over the weekend, and we've got a room set aside for a nursery for the baby," Rainbow said as she looked over at Fluttershy who just smiled. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing here, Blueberry?" "Rainbow, you've had one of the closest bonds with a filly I've ever seen," Blueberry said with a smile. "I'm actually more surprised you haven't adopted her already, I saw it when I first met you, even before I knew you two were related, I knew there was something special between the two of you." "Well, I mean, I kinda wanted to help the kid out, even if I wasn't going to he her mom you know?" Rainbow said as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I just wanted to make up for what I had done and, it felt like the best way to do it. Maybe I should have done this a long time ago, but now we're here and I want to make up for everything I did wrong before, you know what I mean?" Blueberry smiled and nodded as she gave Rainbow the last of the paperwork which she signed. She took a deep breath and looked at the papers, it was hard to believe it but she was actually doing this, this was going to be a different experience than anything she had ever done before. But she still knew that she had to do it if she wanted to be there for Scootaloo and her grandchild. No matter what, she would never make the same mistake she did before. 00000 "So, what do you think Rainbow Dash wanted to see me about?" Scootaloo asked as she and her friends took the cloud staircase that Rainbow had set up for them awhile back up towards the cloud house. "She said she wanted to talk to me about something important, but she didn't go into any real detail." "Who knows, maybe she's got something exciting planned," Sweetie said with a smile as she looked over at Apple Bloom who nodded. "Maybe she got together with Pinkie and prepared some sort of party, who knows." "Maybe, really I feel like I've been on my hooves all day and I just want to get back home and relax a little," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her stomach. She was already showing a bit at this point, there was hardly any real point in trying to cover up the fact that she was pregnant to anypony that she met. Some of them had been a bit more, judgmental than her friends and classmates, but she didn't really care what they thought. She was going to try and raise this foal, even if she had to do it in the orphanage before she was too old to stay there anymore. "Don't worry about it Scoots, everything will be just fine," Sweetie said with a smile as they headed up to the front door and knocked on it. "Its open," Rainbow's voice said from inside and the three friends headed inside where Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy were waiting with smiles. "Hey Scootaloo, how are you doing? How's the baby doing?" "She's still healthy," Scootaloo said as she looked down at her stomach with a smile. "Oh, did you finally find out what you're having then?" Fluttershy asked curiously as Scootaloo took a seat on one of the chairs with a relaxed smile. "Yeah, its going to be a Pegasus Filly," she said with a smile as she looked up at Rainbow who flinched just a little, but Scootaloo didn't really notice. "After I decided I wanted to keep the foal I, felt it was the best time to find out what I was carrying if you know what I mean." Rainbow nodded in understanding and smiled as she hugged Scootaloo gently. She was still doing her best to try and figure out what she could do to help the fill out, things weren't going to be that easy but she'd be able to do that at least. She smiled a little and held her daughter close, even if she wasn't going to tell her the truth yet, but she knew that she'd hopefully be willing to at least listen to her when the time was right. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Scootaloo asked as she looked around at them, it was like they had been getting something ready for her but it was hard to tell just what. "Well Scootaloo, there's something that I've been working on for a few months now ever since I found out you were pregnant," Rainbow said with a smile as she let go of Scootaloo and Blueberry walked into the room carrying some papers. "Hey Scootaloo," Blueberry said with a smile as she gave the papers over to Scootaloo and she took them. "What is..." Scootaloo said as she started to unroll the papers and looked at them, her eyes went wide when she realized just what it said. "These are... adoption papers for me?" "Yeah, given everything you're going through... I thought you could use some help..." Rainbow said with a smile as she offered a hoof to Scootaloo and smiled. "What do you say kiddo, want to have me as your mom?" Scootaloo paused for a long moment as she just stared at the papers. She couldn't believe it, ever since she was a little filly she had dreamed of the possibility that Rainbow Dash might want to adopt her, but she had never dared even consider it especially after all these years. Now here she was, looking at the papers that would actually make it official, and she couldn't say anything, the experience had actually left her speechless. "Do you really mean it?" she finally managed to ask as she looked up at Rainbow Dash who gave her a smile. "Scootaloo, I've been thinking about this for a long time and working to make it possible," Rainbow said as she wrapped her wing around Scootaloo gently. "But I wanted to make sure that it was what you wanted first. I know this is going to be a challenge for both of us, but we can do it, together." There was a moment of silence as they all waited for Scootaloo to say something. The teenager was still in a state of shock over what was being offered to her. She finally smiled and hugged Rainbow Dash tightly as she started to cry into the older mare's mane. "Thank you..." she said through her tears as she kept hugging her, Rainbow just smiled and hugged her back, the two held it for a long moment before Scootaloo finally released it and got the papers together and signed them. "Now come on you two, lets have a little fun," Sweetie said with a smile as they got up and headed into the kitchen where a cake and some food was all set up. "Oh, before I forget some of the others at the Orphanage wanted you to have this Scootaloo," Blueberry said with a smile as she gave Scootaloo a makeshift card that had been drawn by hoof. "They wanted to come and surprise you, but they had to work on their homework for Ms. Cheerilee, I told them that I'd bring it to you and you could maybe visit when you have time." Scootaloo smiled as she opened it, they were pictures of her with two younger looking ponies that looked like they were having fun. She smiled sadly, the card was from Wintergreen and Hazel, two fillies that lived at the orphanage who she had become close to. When it looked like she wasn't likely to be adopted anytime soon, Blueberry had asked her to start helping out with the other foals, and the two of them had started to look up to her like a big sister. There was a scrawled message in crayon that read, "Congrats on being adopted Scootaloo!" "Those two..." Scootaloo said with a soft smile as she just looked at the picture again, she felt like she was going to cry once more when she realized she was leaving her friends at the orphanage behind. "I'm going to miss hanging out with them." "You know, you don't have to leave them behind," Rainbow pointed out and Scootaloo's ears perked up a little. "I mean, I could still help around the Orphanage and you can come with me. I'm sure the other foals would love to see you." "Yeah, you're right of course," Scootaloo said with a light chuckle and looked at Blueberry. "I mean if that's okay, I don't know how often I'd be able to come by, but I'd love to be able to help out as best I can still." "Well of course, don't worry about it," Blueberry said as she took a seat at the table, she was starting to cry a little too. "Its just, you've always been one of the best fillies I've ever taken care of Scootaloo. I'm happy for you, and I had hoped this wouldn't be goodbye forever." Scootaloo smiled and shook her head. "Of course not, I'd love to see you more," Scootaloo said and then thought for a long moment. "Ms. Blueberry, there's something I'd like to ask of you. Could you, be my daughter's godmother?" "Really, you'd ask that of me?" Blueberry asked with a surprised look on her face. "Of course, you raised me, and I turned out okay, I can't think of anypony I'd rather trust with her," Scootaloo said with a smile. "I'd be honored," Blueberry said and hugged Scootaloo tightly. Scootaloo just smiled and hugged her back, it was nice to know that she could still count on everypony that cared about her when she needed them. > Confession > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A month had passed since Rainbow had adopted Scootaloo and she was finally feeling like she had a home here. The room they had set up for her was nice, they had brought over all her stuff from the orphanage and made sure that she was going to be comfortable. The nursery was being painted a light blue, while Fluttershy pointed out that was more a color for a colt, both Scootaloo and Rainbow just chuckled and said that it didn't really matter. Scootaloo at the moment was seated in her chair in the nursery as she looked around at the walls with a light smile. "Well, looks like we're almost ready for you to be here," she said with a light chuckle as she rested her hoof on her stomach. "Just a few more months and you'll be out here with us, huh? I never thought I'd really be this excited to think about it, but I'm honestly kind of glad I'm having you..." "Talking to your stomach again Scoots?" Rainbow asked with a chuckle as she opened the door. "Do you think it really helps the foal?" "You never know I guess, plus this book Twilight gave me said it might," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she picked up a book that she had been reading. "I don't really know if its true, but I like it, its kind of therapeutic, you know what I mean?" Rainbow chuckled a little, the truth was that she had done the same thing while she was carrying Scootaloo. She sighed to herself, she still hadn't worked up the courage to tell Scootaloo the truth, her friends had said that she needed to tell her as soon as possible, but she just hadn't ever really thought the time was right to tell the teenager the truth. "Do you think she'll like the room we made for her?" Scootaloo asked as she looked up at Rainbow. "I mean, its nice and all, but we kinda did make it like what we'd want it to look like. I just, I'm not really sure what to think about all of this to be honest. Do you really think I'll do fine as a mother? I mean, I honestly don't know if I'm going to be ready." "Scootaloo, from what I understand, nopony is ever really ready to be a parent," Rainbow said as she pulled Scootaloo into a hug. "Honestly, adopting you was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make because I'm not really ready either, but I wanted to..." She trailed off, she had almost let slip her real motivations for what she was doing and she didn't know what to think about that. Scootaloo's ears perked up a little as she looked up at Rainbow. "You wanted to what? Is everything okay?" "Scootaloo, when I was your age, I went through the same thing you are," Rainbow finally admitted. "My coltfriend, he turned out to be a pig and dumped me as soon as he found out. I admit though, I didn't have the guts to punch him in the face, good for you." "Heh, yeah, he deserved that," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she tilted her head a little. "Wait, does this mean you have a filly or colt out there? Did you put them up for adoption or something?" Rainbow flinched at that, how was she going to explain this to Scootaloo? She sighed a little, maybe she should finally come clean to Scootaloo about what had happened, there was no real point in hiding it anymore. "Scootaloo... there's something I should've told you a long time ago," she finally said with a sigh. "I know you're probably going to hate me for this, but... Scootaloo, the foal I gave up for adoption when I was a teenager, was you." Scootaloo froze, a rush of emotions went through her mind at that revelation. She felt angry that Rainbow had kept the truth from her for this long, sad that she hadn't been trusted with this information, and just confused at what was going on now. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" Scootaloo finally managed to get out. "Why are you just telling me this now?" "Because with, everything that's been going on... I just felt like I should, given everything that's going on," Rainbow said with a sigh as she looked down at her hooves. "I'm sorry Scootaloo, you're right I should have told you a long time ago. Maybe this whole thing is just my way of trying to make up for what I did, but I really do care for you, I'm really sorry about this." Scootaloo paused for a long moment as she looked around and then up at Rainbow again, what was she going to do now? She had no idea exactly how she was supposed to handle this, just when it actually felt like everything was coming together for her for once, this happened. "I, need to think about this..." Scootaloo finally said and got to her hooves. "I'll be back later, I promise!" Before Rainbow could say anything she headed out of the nursery and then out of the cloud house and down the stairs to the ground below. 00000 "Oh hey there Scootaloo," Rarity said when she answered the door to Carousel Boutique, Scootaloo had been crying and the Unicorn mare just looked at her confused. "Is everything okay?" "Its... complicated," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she shook her head. "Is Sweetie Belle here? I really just, need somepony to talk to right now." "Of course, she's upstairs right now," Rarity said with a smile as she opened the door for the Pegasus filly and she walked inside. "Is everything okay with Rainbow? "Its, complicated like I said," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked at Rarity. "Can I talk to Sweetie in private for a bit?" "Sure of course," Rarity said as she let Scootaloo go up the stairs and sighed a little, she wasn't sure what twas going on here but she was worried that something may have happened between her and Rainbow Dash. "Just, let me know if there's anything you need okay?" "Okay," Scootaloo said as she headed up to Sweetie's room and knocked on the door. "Scootaloo!" Sweetie said excitedly as she hugged Scootaloo tightly. "How's it going? How's the nursery looking?" "Its, looking good," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she hugged back. "I just, needed somepony to talk to right now... do you mind if I come in?" "Come on in, don't worry about it," Sweetie said with a smile as she let Scootaloo into her room. "What's wrong Scootaloo, you know you can talk to me about anything." "Rainbow Dash told me today that she's my mother," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked down at her hooves. "Apparently, she went through the same thing I'm going through, I just don't know what I'm going to do about all of this, on top of being pregnant I mean." "You're kidding right?" Sweetie asked as she looked at Scootaloo who just shook her head. "Why wouldn't she tell you, why did she wait until just now?" Scootaloo sighed and told Sweetie what she had been told by Rainbow Dash and she sighed a little, this wasn't something that was easy for her to tell anypony. She was still having a hard time believing it herself, how was anypony else going to understand it? What was she going to do now? "That's, pretty hard to believe," Sweetie said and blinked a little. "I know, but I don't think she was lying, why would she lie about that kind of thing?" Scootaloo said as she sat down on the bed and started to cry a little and Sweetie held her close. "I still don't get why she wouldn't have told me Sweetie..." "I'm sure her reasons seemed good to her at the time Scootaloo," Sweetie said with a sigh as she held her friend close. "Rainbow Dash cares about you, she wouldn't do something like that for no good reason, you know that right?" "I know..." Scootaloo said with a sigh as her ears flattened a little. "And I guess if she went through the same thing I'm going through I understand why she would've given me up. But somehow, I just kind of wish that everything would've gone differently, like maybe if she had told me before this wouldn't have happened." "Who knows, maybe it would've happened anyway," Sweetie said as she placed one hoof on Scootaloo's stomach. "You can't beat yourself up about this forever, and you can't hate Rainbow Dash for it forever either. She's trying to do her best to help you and she genuinely cares about you, that's not going to change. Do you really think Rainbow would purposely want to hurt you?" "Well, no," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "Its just really hard to understand why she wasn't honest with me I guess. I'm glad she told me, but... I don't really know how I feel about it now that I know, do you know what I mean?" "Yeah, I get that, if I learned something like that I wouldn't know what to think either," Sweetie admitted as she shook her head a little. "So, what are you going to do?" "Honestly, I need to calm down a little before I can do anything," Scootaloo admitted as she looked down at her hooves. "I think this whole thing is starting to get to me, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with myself. Rainbow is family to me, she's always been family to me even before I knew about this." "So what does it really change? All you know now is that you two are related by blood, but that doesn't change the way you feel about each other," Sweetie said with a smile as she pulled Scootaloo in close. "You're the first friend I ever really had Scootaloo, you're brave, and loyal, and even if you don't always seem it you're smart. I couldn't ask for a better best friend." Scootaloo smiled as she looked up at Sweetie. She blushed a little when she looked into the white Unicorn's green eyes, there was still a lot she had to think about, and right now she really didn't know what she was going to do. "What do you think I should do Sweetie?" "I think you should calm down, and then go back to Rainbow Dash and tell her what you feel, and then maybe you can find it in your heart to forgive her," Sweetie said. "I know you can Scootaloo, you're a good pony." Scootaloo smiled and nodded a little as she wrapped a wing gently around Sweetie. It felt nice to be close to her friend, she was warm, calming, and she let Scootaloo talk. Scootaloo smiled a little at Sweetie and rested her head on the Unicorn's withers. "There's, something I've been thinking about for awhile," she finally said with a sigh as she tried to put the words together. "You've been a lot of help over the last few months, I mean so has Rainbow and Apple Bloom, but, you've always been there for me the most when I needed you. I guess that's kind of why I came to you, I needed somepony who could help me out and you were the first one to come to mind." "Well, I'm glad that you would trust me with this kind of thing Scootaloo," Sweetie said with a smile as she nuzzled the Pegasus filly gently. "I know you'd do the same for me if I was in the same situation." "Yeah, I would," Scootaloo said with a smile as she nuzzled back. "Sweetie... I, know this is a bit strange to say, but over the past few months I've been feeling something more than just friendship about you. We've been friends for as long as we've lived in Ponyville, and... forget it, its silly." "No, tell me what you wanted to say," Sweetie said as she looked down at Scootaloo with a tilt of her head. "Sweetie, I've started to have feelings for you for awhile now, like... romantic feelings," Scootaloo said which surprised Sweetie a little. "At first I thought it was just Apple Bloom's jokes getting to me a little, but the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that it was real. Sweetie, I think I'm in love with you..." Sweetie just blinked a little, she hadn't expected Scootaloo to just confess her love like that, but she smiled and leaned down and kissed Scootaloo gently on the lips. The Pegasus filly was surprised and her wings shot up, but she returned the kiss. After a few minutes the two finally broke the kiss as they looked into each other's eyes. Scootaloo was blushing and Sweetie just smiled a little as she stroked her friend's mane. "Does this mean you feel the same about me?" She finally managed to ask as she looked at Sweetie nervously. "Scootaloo, you don't know how long I've waited for you to say those words," Sweetie said with a smile. "I've felt like that for longer than you have, but when you got together with Cirrus I was afraid that I'd never get the chance to tell you the way I really felt. Scootaloo, I love you, more than anything else, that's something that isn't going to change. I just want you to know that just because everything's been happening lately, I will always love you and care for you, no matter what." "Even though I'm pregnant?" "Are you kidding? I've always loved foals, don't worry about it," Sweetie said with a chuckle as she pulled Scootaloo into a hug. "You're going to be a great mom, and I'll be there to help you along the way." Scootaloo smiled a little and gave Sweetie a kiss on the cheek as she blushed a little more. "Thank you Sweetie, you don't know how much that means to me. I guess its strange, after Cirrus I wasn't sure if I'd ever really feel this way about another pony, let alone a mare." "Don't worry about it Scootaloo, you're going to be just fine, I promise," Sweetie said as she nuzzled Scootaloo gently. "I promise, I'm going to be here for you whenever you need it. You're my best friend in all of Equestria, and I'd do anything for you." "Find a surrogacy spell so you carry the foal for me?" Scootaloo asked with a chuckle. "Anything but that," Sweetie said with a laugh as she leaned in and kissed Scootaloo again. "I know everything is going to be a challenge for you with the little one on the way, but I want to be there for you. Either as your friend or as your fillyfriend, I promise I'll never let you go." Scootaloo smiled and pulled Sweetie in close, the two of them just held each other for the longest time. It was a nice feeling for Scootaloo to have somepony that was close to her and wouldn't try and use her like Cirrus did, and Sweetie was just happy that she finally had been able to tell Scootaloo how she felt. Scootaloo gently wrapped her wings around her friend and closed her eyes, she just wanted to stay there for now, all her worries felt like they were a million miles away. She'd have to figure things out soon enough and go and apologize to Rainbow, but for now, she just wanted to be here, in this moment. 00000 "Rainbow, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked as Rainbow entered her cottage, she looked like she had been crying. "What's wrong?" "I told Scootaloo the truth finally..." Rainbow said and Fluttershy's ears perked up. "She ran off and said she'd be back later, I don't know what to do though... what if she hates me for what I did? What if she's never coming home again?" "Well, did you tell her why you did it?" Fluttershy asked and Rainbow nodded. "Well, then maybe she won't hate you since she's going through the same thing right now. She just needs a little time to process the whole thing and figure out what she's going to do moving forward, I don't think she'd really hate you just because you're her mother, but she does still need to figure out how this is going to affect your life together." "I had hoped everything I did to help would make it easier..." Rainbow said with a sigh as she rubbed her foreleg a little bit. "I don't even know what I'm going to do, I knew I'd have to tell her eventually but I didn't think that it would happen so soon. I don't blame her if she hates me forever for withholding the truth from her, but I just want to have a second chance, you know what I mean?" "I know," Fluttershy said with a nod as she looked at Rainbow and shook her head softly. "Did you ever tell your parents about Scootaloo?" "Yeah, they knew... I told them not long after they first met her, it didn't exactly go well given they were pretty excited, but I asked them not to tell her until I was ready," Rainbow said with a sigh. "Now what am I going to tell them?" "You'll figure something out, I'm sure," Fluttershy said as she pulled Rainbow in close. "Rainbow, you shouldn't have left Scootaloo like you did, but you were doing what you felt was right at the time. You don't have anything to regret, and she grew up to be a fine young mare. Yeah, this is a bit of a bump in the road, but she's going to be just fine because she has you and her friends to help her." "You think so?" Rainbow asked and Fluttershy nodded. "Okay Flutters, I believe you," she said with a smile as she kissed Fluttershy gently. "I don't know what I'd ever do without you." "Don't worry about it Rainbow, I'll be here for you and Scootaloo whenever you need me," Fluttershy said with a smile as she kissed Rainbow again. "Come on, she probably just needs a little time to think and talk with one of her friends maybe, I'm sure everything will be okay, lets go make some dinner." Rainbow nodded and they headed into the kitchen of the cottage. Rainbow just hoped that everything really would be okay, even if things weren't going to be easy for them, she knew that Fluttershy would always be there for her when she needed her, and right now she really needed her. > Coming Out > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Are you sure about this Scootaloo, I mean we can always come back tomorrow or something," Sweetie said as she held Scootaloo's hoof as they were getting ready to enter Rainbow Dash's cloud house, it was later that evening and by now Scootaloo had calmed down enough. "Yeah, I'm sure, this is something I have to do," Scootaloo said and took a deep breath as she took out the key to the cloud house and opened the door. "Can you come with me Sweetie? I, just need somepony to be there with me is all." "Of course Scootaloo," Sweetie said with a smile as she and Scootaloo headed into the house together. Scootaloo took a deep breath and looked around for Rainbow or anypony else really. After a moment Rainbow came out of the kitchen and looked at Scootaloo a little worriedly. "So, what do you think?" She asked as she looked at Scootaloo with a worried look on her face. "I know I messed up, and I'm going to do everything I can to make up for that mistake. Will you still have me as your mother?" Scootaloo looked at her for a long moment and then over at Sweetie who just gave her a smile and a nod. "Rainbow... mom, I know its not going to be easy at times, especially to deal with me, but I know that you just wanted to give me the best chance you could. I guess its because I'm going through the same thing that I know what you were probably thinking at the time, and I forgive you for that. I may have done the same thing if I didn't have all these ponies helping me out." Rainbow smiled and hugged Scootaloo tightly as the two started to cry a little, Sweetie just watched and smiled as the mother and daughter hugged each other. "Thank you Scootaloo, you don't know how much that means to me," Rainbow said as she started to cry more, holding Scootaloo closer. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, every day I didn't tell you was painful to me." "Its okay, I still love you," Scootaloo said as she released the hug. "Now, there aren't any more secrets you're hiding from me are there?" "Oh, you mean like your two headed twin sister that we keep hidden in the attic?" Rainbow said with a straight face, which got a strange look from Scootaloo before she just broke down laughing. "Very funny mom," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head, she had no idea what she was going to do with her mom at this point. "Seriously though, you're not hiding anything else from me are you? What about my father, he's not some evil count or something is he?" "No, no... at least I don't think he is..." Rainbow said as she tried to think back. "We kind of lost touch before you were even born, but that's not important right now. No, there are no more secrets that I haven't told you about, I promise." "Well, that's good, because we have something we want to tell you," Sweetie said as she moved up next to Scootaloo and gave Rainbow a smile. "Do you want to tell her or should I?" "I'll tell her I guess," Scootaloo said and smiled at Rainbow as she placed a hoof on Sweetie's. "Mom, me and Sweetie are kinda, sorta, you know, a couple now." "Really?" Rainbow asked as she looked between the two and looked at Sweetie with her magenta eyes feeling like they were going to pierce through the Unicorn's soul. "Is this true Sweetie Belle?" "Umm, yes, I really love your... daughter I guess," Sweetie said, that was going to take some getting used to, but she wasn't going to stop just because Rainbow was trying to scare her. "Are you sure about that, because you know what will happen if you hurt Scootaloo," Rainbow said. "This time, we won't leave it to Discord either, and a mother scorned will be much, much scarier than anything a God of Chaos can whip up." Sweetie gulped and shivered, she had heard about what Discord had done to Cirrus, she didn't want to imagine what Rainbow would do to her if she hurt Scootaloo. Thankfully, Sweetie was not the kind of mare to back down just because the going was getting tough, she knew she loved Scootaloo and she wasn't going to be scared out of it. "Yes, I love Scootaloo very much and I promise that I won't ever do anything to hurt her, you have my word as her friend and fellow crusader, I will love Scootaloo no matter what," Sweetie said in a determined tone, she looked back at Rainbow with an intensity in her green eyes that showed that she wasn't going to back down. "I love Scootaloo more than anything, and I will do everything I can to be the best marefriend I can be for her." "Are you willing to help take care of her daughter?" Rainbow asked as she looked at her harshly. "Are you willing to change dirty diapers, help feed her with formula, help raise her, help Scootaloo be the mom she needs to be if necessary?" "Yes." Rainbow looked at her for a long moment and then smiled as she pulled Sweetie in close, the Unicorn let out an eep of surprise but smiled a little when she realized that Rainbow at least wasn't going to hurt her. "Sweetie, I know you're going to do everything you can to help Scootaloo, she's lucky to have somepony like you," Rainbow said with a smile as she hugged them both. "Then what was that all about?" Scootaloo asked, that was something she hadn't ever expected Rainbow to do and she was still processing what had just happened. "Making sure that she really does love you of course," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she ruffled Scootaloo's mane. "I'm not going to let you get with just anypony, not after what happened with Cirrus." The three just shared a laugh as they went to get dinner together. Sweetie smiled a little, she had been worried about how Rainbow Dash would react but she clearly didn't have anything to worry about given that everything seemed to be okay, she just hoped that everything would stay that way from now on. Scootaloo was smiling, she finally was starting to feel like everything was looking up for her. She still had the question of how she was going to do as a mother of course, but she knew that she wasn't going to have to do it alone. Sweetie Belle was going to be there for her, all her friends were going to be there for her, all she had to do was hope that everything was going to be okay and that she wouldn't mess this up too badly. "So what's for dinner? I'm starving!" Scootaloo said with a smile as they all sat down at the table and Rainbow passed out the take out she had picked up earlier. 00000 The next day Scootaloo headed over to the clubhouse with Sweetie, Sweetie had stayed over the night before and they were on their way to at least tell their friends about it. Since Scootaloo was pregnant she hadn't gotten to do much in terms of Crusading, but she had been there to at least consult. "Hey Scootaloo, how's the baby doing?" the familiar voice of Diamond Tiara asked as they entered the clubhouse, she and Silver Spoon had been helping out recently and it was going pretty well all things considered. "She's fine, just she's being a little bit of trouble as usual," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she placed her hoof on her stomach where the foal gave a little kick. "Have you thought about any names? I mean if its a Pegasus so I'm guessing some sort of weather or sky related name?" Silver Spoon asked as she looked over at Scootaloo curiously. "Yeah, maybe, then again I don't exactly have a normal Pegasus name myself," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she rubbed the back of her head. "I haven't really asked mom why she picked that name for me... Its kinda weird I guess, I might have to ask sometime." "Yer mom?" Apple Bloom asked and Scootaloo facehooved when she realized she hadn't told her other friends about what she had learned from Rainbow Dash the day before. "Oh right, yah mean Rainbow Dash, Ah didn't think yah were already thinkin' of her as yer mom or anythin' yet." "Well, umm..." Sweetie started to say as she rubbed the back of her head, she wasn't sure what to say to this either. "Scootaloo, do you want to tell them or should I?" "Well, you see, as it turns out, Rainbow Dash is my mom..." Scootaloo said as her friends' ears perked up curiously at that news. "She just told me yesterday, and, well I told Sweetie because I needed somepony to talk to about it. Its been hard to accept I'll admit, but I'm starting to figure it out I guess." "Okay, that's not what I expected at all," Diamond Tiara said with a tilt of her head as she looked at Scootaloo curiously. "I just hope that everything's going to be okay with you and Rainbow. Is everything going okay with you two?" "Yeah, I guess everything has been going okay now that I know, even if it was kind of hard to understand why she didn't just tell me when I was younger," Scootaloo said with a sigh. "At least she finally told me, and, well, it gave me and Sweetie..." "Oh mah gosh, are ya'll actually datin'?" Apple Bloom interrupted, which made the couple blush heavily. "Well that's great, Ah'm glad ya'll finally admitted yer feelings fer each other." "Hey, I only really kinda figured it out in the last month or so," Scootaloo said as she blushed even more as she looked over at Sweetie and put her hoof on the Unicorn's. "But I'm glad that I do... Sweetie Belle is an amazing mare and I'm glad we're together..." "Me too," Sweetie said as she kissed Scootaloo on the cheek. "I know that everything's going to be hard given what's been going on, but I don't care. I love Scootaloo more than anything and I'm happy that she's my fillyfriend now." "Aww, you two are so cute!" Silver Spoon said with a smile as Scootaloo put her wing around Sweetie gently. "Does Rarity and Rainbow Dash know yet?" "Yeah, we told them both yesterday," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she shook her head at the memory of when they told Rarity. "Rarity was a bit, overly enthusiastic about it I'll admit." "By which she means that Rarity went a little overboard with figuring out what we'd do for our first date, not to mention trying to overthink things with the whole idea of marriage," Sweetie said with a laugh. "I think Rarity is getting way too ahead of us right now, but she means well at least." "Yeah, I mean I wouldn't mind marrying Sweetie someday..." Scootaloo said and blushed when she realized she had said that out loud. "When we're older of course, if she wants to... I mean, it really is too early to think about that... I mean she's cute and..." "Scootaloo calm down," Sweetie said with a giggle as she nuzzled the flustered Pegasus gently. "Don't worry about it, you're going to be just fine, and maybe someday we will. Lets just not worry about that right now, okay?" "Yeah, ya'll have bigger things ta worry about, like names," Apple Bloom said with a chuckle as she gave the couple a smile before she looked over at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. "So what about ya'll, how are things goin' with yah?" "Well everything is going pretty well," Diamond Tiara said with a shrug. "I've just been dealing with my mom as usual, she's trying to get me set up with some colts, but my Dad isn't having any of it, so that's something at least. Me and Silver Spoon have been..." Scootaloo looked at them curiously, were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon dating? "Well, your mom sounds like she hasn't changed that much," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. "So, what's the plan for today?" "Well, a new family moved into Ponyville today, and they have a pair of twins who are both trying to get their cutie marks, so they've asked us to help out as best we can," Diamond Tiara said and nodded to the others. "Does that sound good?" "Yeah, lets try it, Scootaloo are you going to be okay on the sidelines again?" Silver Spoon said and Scootaloo nodded a little. "Better safe than sorry, I'll be fine," Scootaloo said with a nod as they got up and headed outside to meet with the foals. Scootaloo smiled a little when she saw the two fillies who were both Unicorns that were waiting for them. She took a deep breath, she still had a long way to go before she was ready to be a mom. She had her friends there to support her, but this wasn't going to be easy still. She smiled a little as she looked down at her stomach, she couldn't believe what all was ahead of her. Her daughter's first words, first steps, and of course when she got her cutie mark. It was going to be weird to think about it like that, but she was going to do the best she could do. She smiled a little and watched the fillies start to work on getting their cutie marks, she just had to hope that everything would be okay in the future. 00000 "So, Scootaloo took it pretty well huh?" Twilight asked as Rainbow was waiting for her to give her some more books on parenting. "I know you were really worried about telling her about the whole thing..." "Yeah, everything turned out to be pretty fine I guess," Rainbow said with a shrug as she brushed her mane back a little. "So, how many more books do you have on parenting anyway?" "Probably too many," Twilight said with a chuckle as she put them all into a stack and levitated them down to Rainbow who put them all in her saddle bags. "I can't believe i'm actually going to be a grandmother, I feel way too young to be a grandmother." "Well, I think you're going to do just fine," Twilight said with a smile as Spike came in with a few more books. "Besides, this should all be fine for you both. Did you get all the books I asked for Spike?" "Yeah, I have them right here," Spike said as he gave the books over to Rainbow Dash. "Is Scootaloo doing okay?" "Yeah, she's doing fine, apparently she's now dating Sweetie, I didn't really expect that," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she rubbed the back of her head. "I'm still kind of figuring out the mom thing to be honest, I guess me and Scootaloo are going to be learning at the same time." "Yeah, but of course there's the whole age difference thing," Twilight said with a chuckle as she got down off the bookshelves. "These books should hopefully help you both, I just hope that you and Scootaloo are going to be okay given everything that's going on." "Yeah, me too," Rainbow said with a nod as she looked down at her hooves. "I'm just glad that she doesn't hate me for what happened, but still I should've told her a long time ago. I guess I'm just lucky she was willing to forgive me all things considered." "Yeah, I know you'll do fine Rainbow," Twilight said with a smile. "You just have to try your best and believe in your friends and you'll do fine." "I hope you're right Twi, I really do," Rainbow said with a sigh as she looked at the books. "I've never been more nervous about something before in my life though." "Don't worry about it Rainbow, you're going to do fine as both a mother and a grandmother," Twilight said as she hugged Rainbow. "Just be there for both of them and you'll do fine, I have faith in you." Rainbow smiled and hugged her back gently as she looked down at Spike who nodded in agreement. "Thank you Twilight, lets just hope that everything really will be okay." "Don't you still have to tell your parents about this?" Twilight asked as she looked at Rainbow and she flinched a little at that. "Oh, right, your parents are still a bit..." "Over-enthusiastic?" Rainbow said with a shake of her head. "Yeah, I'm a bit worried about how they might react to that, but I guess I'll have to tell them eventually... preferably after the foal is born." "Oh that reminds me, I have a book here of Pegasi names," Twilight said as she levitated a book down and gave it over to Rainbow. "I know that its up to Scootaloo, but I'm sure she'll find something awesome in there." Rainbow chuckled a little and flipped through the book a little, there were some nice names in there. She was a bit surprised to see Scootaloo's name in it, she had almost forgotten what it had meant in the old Pegasus language, which made her smile a little. Scootaloo: Strong and Brave of Heart. She smiled and put the book away and looked at Twilight. "Thank you Twilight, this is going to be a lot of help," she said and gave the Princess one more hug before she headed out of the castle. She had a lot to think about, and everything was going pretty well at least. She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, a lot of things were going on right now, and it was just a matter of seeing what happened next. "Well Scootaloo, lets see if Twilight's books are going to be useful," she said and headed to her cloud house to drop the books off. > Birth > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scootaloo groaned as she rolled over onto her side, she was now almost 11 months along in her pregnancy and was about fed up with the whole thing. She looked up at the ceiling of her room in the house she shared with Rainbow Dash and sighed a little. It was hard to believe that it had been so long since she had found out she was Pregnant, the last few months had been crazy to say the least. She had been to the doctor more times than she cared to count and it felt like the baby was going to come any day, but she was certainly taking her sweet time in getting here. "Hey Scootaloo, breakfast," Rainbow said as she came into the room with a tray and some food and and a glass of milk that she set down in front of Scootaloo. "How are you feeling today?" "Other than like I've got a beach ball in my stomach?" Scootaloo asked with a groan as she wolfed down her breakfast. "I can't wait to get this foal out of me already, somepony kept waking me up in the middle of the night." "Well, maybe she's about ready to come out," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she brushed her daughter's mane gently. "Don't worry Scootaloo, she'll come out when she's ready, you're not going to do yourself or her any good by rushing it." "Are you sure?" Scootaloo asked with a sigh as she placed her hoof on her stomach. "Don't worry about it Scootaloo, she'll come out soon, I'm sure of it," Rainbow said with a shake of her head. "Did I make you wait this long?" Rainbow frowned a little, in truth Scootaloo had been born early, she never could be certain but she suspected that it might have contributed to the younger Pegasus' lack of flight. There was no real hard evidence of course, but Scootaloo had never been able to fly and Rainbow was afraid that it might've contributed to the problem a little. "Honestly Scootaloo, you were a little early," Rainbow said with a sigh. "The doctors weren't even sure if you were going to make it, but you pulled through, you were a tough kid even back then. You weren't going to let something like being born early keep you from taking the world head on and kicking its flank." Scootaloo chuckled a little at that as she flexed her wings a bit. She had certainly done her best to be that over the years, something she had probably inherited from Rainbow Dash even if neither of them had realized it at the time. She smiled a little and hugged Rainbow as best she could. "Thanks mom." "For what?" "For never giving up on me, just... sometimes I wish things could've been different, you know?" Scootaloo said with a sigh as she released the hug gently. "Like, what if you actually did raise me, do you think my life could've been any different?" "Scootaloo, we don't have to dwell on the what ifs, this is what happened and nothing is going to ever change that," Rainbow said as she ruffled Scootaloo's mane gently. "Besides, everything turned out okay in the end, right?" Scootaloo smiled and nodded a little as she laid back in bed. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom said that they were going to be coming by soon and at the moment she just wanted to relax a little. As long as the little foal in her womb behaved at least, it would be nice to be able to rest. That's when she felt it, it took her a moment to realize what it was but there was a pain in her abdomen. She looked up at Rainbow Dash and cringed a little. "Mom..." "Yeah Scoots?" "The baby is coming." Rainbow's eyes went wide and she grabbed the overnight bags they had packed for just this situation. Rainbow helped her out of the house and off towards Ponyville General. It was time to have a baby. 00000 "Is she okay, what's the word on the baby?" Sweetie asked as she came into the hallway where Rainbow was pacing, she had been asked to stay outside for the moment while they ran some tests. "She's okay, they're both okay for the moment," Rainbow said with a sigh as she stopped pacing and turned to look at Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom who were looking worried. "She's been in there for a few hours now, don't worry, everything is going to be okay... I hope." "Yeah, me too," Apple Bloom said with a sigh, they both didn't want to admit it but they were worried for Scootaloo. There was always the risk that something would go wrong, especially given her age, but the doctors seemed confident that she would be okay. "Are you okay Rainbow?" Sweetie asked as she placed her hoof on Rainbow's shoulder, the older mare just sighed and shrugged a little. "What's wrong?" "Honestly? I'm scared," Rainbow admitted with a shake of her head. "The closest thing I've had to this is when I had Scootaloo and, I don't know just somehow I feel more terrified than ever about this." "Yeah, I know how you feel," Sweetie said as they took a seat across from the room where Scootaloo was in. "I can't believe we're actually here... it all feels so unreal, like the last few months have been more like a dream than reality." "So, what are we gonna do now?" Apple Bloom asked as she looked between the two. "Scootaloo needs our support now more than ever. Ah know that tha two of yah have been gettin' closer, but yah don't have ta worry about her, she's a fighter and she'll make it out of this somehow." Sweetie smiled a little at that, it at least helped her feel a bit better. She cringed a little when she heard Scootaloo cry out from inside the room, she didn't know if that was normal or if something was happening. She hated not knowing, her fillyfriend was in there right now and she might be in trouble, what was she going to do? "Calm down Sweetie, it was probably just a contraction," Rainbow said as she placed a hoof on Sweetie's shoulder. "Are you going to be okay?" "Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out myself," Sweetie admitted with a shake of her head. "I just, hope that I'll be able to be what Scootaloo needs me to be, you know what I mean? I don't really know anything about raising foals, but I know she's going to be counting on me to help." "She's gonna be countin' on all of us," Apple Bloom reminded her. "Don't worry about it Sweetie, Ah know yah want ta be there fer Scootaloo because of how close ya'll are, but nopony is gonna be doin' this alone. Scootaloo needs us all at our best if she wants ta get through this, we're all gonna have ta pitch in." "That's right, which is why we're all here," Fluttershy said as she walked up with the rest of their friends and Blueberry in tow. "What's the word on Scootaloo?" "She seems to be doing okay at least," Rainbow said as she looked over at Blueberry who gave her a smile. "I'm glad you could make it Blueberry." "Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world," Blueberry said with a smile. "I'm glad to see you're all here, have you and Scootaloo been doing okay?" "Yeah, we're doing it fine," Rainbow said as she took a deep breath. "Its not been easy honestly, but we've managed at least, and everything is set up for the new foal. I just..." "You still don't know how you're going to handle all of this?" Blueberry asked as she looked at Rainbow who nodded softly. "I know its not going to be easy for you and Scootaloo, but I know you're going to do your best to help her," Blueberry said and her friends nodded in agreement. "She loves you Rainbow, I could always see it in the way she talked about you. You're going to do fine, I know it." Rainbow smiled a little as she nodded and she looked over at Sweetie who nodded in agreement. She laid back and closed her eyes, maybe fore some time she'd at least be able to relax and hope that everything would be okay. The Doctor headed out of the room and gave them a smile. "Hey, well the good news is that the baby is going to be here any time now, would you like to see her?" "Sure," Rainbow said with a smile as she got to her hooves along with Sweetie and Apple Bloom. "Just a few at a time, okay?" The Doctor asked as Blueberry came up next. "Just two or three at a time, okay?" "Why don't ya'll go see her first?" Apple Bloom asked as she looked at Sweetie Belle, Blueberry, and Rainbow Dash. "Ah think she'd want ta see tha three of yah first, we can all wait." Rainbow nodded and they headed into the room where an exhausted looking Scootaloo was laying in the hospital bed. She smiled as she looked up at the three of them. "Hey you three," Scootaloo said weakly as she sat up a little. "Is everypony out there or am I hearing things?" "Yeah, everypony is here, the Doctor just wanted a few of us to come in at a time," Sweetie said with a smile as she leaned in and kissed Scootaloo gently. "So how are you feeling?" "I've felt better to be honest," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she shifted uncomfortably. "The Doctor said that I should be ready soon, I just... well its really hard to be comfortable right now, its still kind of hard to believe that I'm laying here right now." "Yeah, but I'm proud of you," Blueberry said and Rainbow nodded with a smile. "Things aren't going to be easy going ahead, but I know that you're going to have the right ponies by your side in order to help you get through it. You've become close to a pony when I didn't even think you'd be able to again after Cirrus, you're a lucky pony, Scootaloo." "And we all love you very much," Sweetie said with a smile as she nuzzled Scootaloo gently. "You've been through a lot, but its finally almost over... well, this part of it at least." "I know, and then I'll have the most important part of my life ahead of me," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she cringed a little as there was another contraction. "Thank you, all of you, you're the best family I could ask for... you and the others." "Family is the most important thing after all," Rainbow said with a smile as she stroked Scootaloo's mane. "Now stay strong for us, okay? You're not going to let this beat you, I know you're strong enough to survive the worst the world can throw at you." Scootaloo smiled and nodded as she laid back on the bed. She felt like she still had a long way to go, but she knew that it was all going to be worth it in the end. 00000 "Breathe Scootaloo, you're doing fine," the doctor said as Scootaloo pushed. "I can see the foal, you're doing fine, don't worry about it." Scootaloo cried out as she felt the foal coming out of her. It was a sensation like she hadn't ever felt before, the doctor had put some spells on her to numb the pain but it still felt something even with the spell. As she cried out one more time, her cry was joined by a new one as she fell back onto the bed, breathing heavily as the doctor held the crying foal in her forelegs. "Congratulations, its a filly," she said with a smile as she gently placed the filly into Scootaloo's forelegs. Scootaloo smiled down at the crying filly, she was a light blue color with a light purple and light blue mane and tail. She held the small filly close to her, it was hard to believe that such a small creature was the source of such a noise, and of everything that had happened over the past few months. Sweetie and Rainbow Dash came into the room not long after and smiled as they saw the little filly. Rainbow smiled as she looked down at her newborn granddaughter, but moved back a little so Sweetie could get closer. "She's beautiful," Sweetie said as she looked at the filly with a smile. "Did you ever decided on a name for her?" "I've been thinking about it for awhile," Scootaloo said as she smiled at the two of them. "There's a lot of good names in that book that Twilight gave us, so I've been thinking about it for awhile. Its kinda hard to decide, you know what I mean?" "Yeah, I know," Rainbow said with a chuckle. "I remember picking your name, I honestly just felt it was the name that fit you the best. Maybe if there's something that you feel the same about with your daughter, I don't know if that helps any..." Scootaloo looked thoughtful as she stared down at the filly, who was now asleep in her embrace. She sighed a little, there was only one name that she really liked that felt like it really fit her and she smiled a little. "Storm Chaser, I'll name her Storm Chaser," she said with a smile as she held the filly close to her body. "Welcome to the world Storm Chaser." "Welcome to the family," Rainbow said with a smile as she gently took the filly into her forelegs. "She's beautiful, just like her mom." Scootaloo smiled a little as she laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. She couldn't believe that she had actually been through this whole thing, it felt like it had been yesterday when she found out she was Pregnant, but here she was, with her daughter and the other most important ponies in Equestria to her. "She really does look great," Blueberry said as she looked at Storm Chaser and smiled. "Hey there Storm Chaser, I'm your godmother, I helped raise your mommy at the orphanage I work at. Don't worry, you've got a great mom who's going to take good care of you, and a great family." Scootaloo smiled and nodded a little as she closed her eyes and just relaxed, she still had a long way to go before she was sure she'd be ready to be a mom, but she was going to do her best, and she was confident that she'd be just fine. "Hey Storm Chaser, I'm your grandmother," Rainbow said with a smile as she smiled down at the filly. "I'm still pretty new to this, we all are really. But I promise you that I'm going to be the most awesome grandmother you could possibly ask for, welcome to the world. You've got a great life and a great family, and I promise that we'll all be here for you whenever you're going to need it." Scootaloo smiled up at Rainbow Dash, she was happy that she had somepony like that to help her when she really needed it. She smiled and looked up at Sweetie who was looking down at the filly and gave Scootaloo a nod and a smile. She knew that everything was going to be just fine. > Homecoming > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Well here we are Storm Chaser, home sweet home," Scootaloo said as she carried her daughter into the cloud house with Rainbow and Sweetie close behind her. "Its a pretty nice place, and you'll have everypony you'll need to help you when you'll need it." Storm Chaser just smiled and cooed gently as she looked around with her big eyes, she was getting used to this strange new place and these strange new ponies. Scootaloo smiled as she stroked the filly's mane gently and smiled at her. It was hard to believe, but Scootaloo was happier now than she had ever been, she had everything she could have ever wanted with her friends and family. She looked at Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle who gave her a reassuring smile. "You look great Scootaloo," Sweetie said as she gave her a nod. "You and Storm Chaser are perfect together, I couldn't be happier for you both. You're going to be just fine as a mother, I know it." "Yeah, you're going to be just as awesome as your mom is," Rainbow Dash said with a smile as she looked down at her granddaughter again who just cooed and nuzzled against Scootaloo. "It looks like somepony is hungry, you better help her with that." Scootaloo smiled as she moved off to the side and set up so she could nurse Storm Chaser. She closed her eyes and thought back on everything that had happened. She had been through some of the toughest times of her life in the past 11 months, but she had made it through and had gained a wonderful daughter, and a closer bond with her friends and family. It was strange to think about it, but maybe given all that had happened she didn't actually know if she would have wanted to go back and change a single thing. "So, did you ever hear about what happened to Cirrus?" Rainbow asked as she looked over at Scootaloo who just shrugged a little. "Last I heard, he wound up in some boarding school up north," Scootaloo said with a shrug. "His parents sometimes have been coming by to try and help as best they can. Its kinda strange really, but at least they're willing to help out as best they can... I don't really know what I'm going to do though." "You're going to be the best mom you can be," Sweetie said as she leaned forward and kissed Scootaloo gently on the lips. "Just like you always knew you would be, I have faith in you." "Thanks Sweetie," Scootaloo said with a smile as Storm finished nursing and she burped her gently, the filly yawned a little and drifted off to sleep. "Lets get this little one to her new bed." Sweetie nodded as Scootaloo gently picked her daughter up and carried her into the nursery. She placed her down in the crib and for a long moment just watched the sleeping filly. "I wonder what the future's going to hold for you Storm," she said softly as she watched the filly with a soft smile. "You've got a lot of growing up to do, but you're lucky because you have a lot of ponies who are going to be there to make sure that everything will be okay. I wish I had ponies like that growing up, but what matters is that you do... I've got a lot of learning to do myself, but we're going to all do this together. Just be the best pony you can be, that's all I ask of you." She smiled a little when she felt a foreleg wrap around her and she looked over at Sweetie Belle who had come in while she was thinking. "She's going to do fine, she's got a great mom that's going to be there for her every step of the way," Sweetie said as she nuzzled Scootaloo gently. "Maybe, even two moms?" Scootaloo chuckled a little as she nuzzled Sweetie back. "We're only 16 Sweetie, I think you've been hanging out with your sister too much." "Maybe," Sweetie said with a light chuckle as she placed her hoof on Scootaloo's gently. "But I really want that... I don't care if you think we should wait a couple of years, I'm going to wait for you. And in the meantime, I'll be there to help you and Storm Chaser as best I can. I'd, like to be something more than just your fillyfriend someday... and I'm willing to help with Storm right now." "You hear that Stormy, you've got two moms now," Scootaloo said with a chuckle as she kissed Sweetie gently on the cheek and checked the baby monitor she had set up. "So... how long until Pinkie throws me a party?" "Well, see about that..." Sweetie said as she trailed off a little. "She's downstairs right now isn't she?" Scootaloo asked and Sweetie nodded. "Please tell me she promised to be quiet." "Yeah, she promised, but you know Pinkie," Sweetie said with a chuckle as they headed downstairs where their friends were all waiting for them. "Hey there Scootaloo, how's the new mom doing?" Twilight asked with a smile as Scootaloo took a seat on the couch next to Sweetie Belle. "I'm okay I guess, just a little tired still," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she looked at all her friends. "Thank you, all of you. I wouldn't have made it through the past year without the support you've been giving me and Rainbow." "Well of course Scootaloo darling," Rarity said with a smile. "We're here to help you because we're your family too, that's what friends are, the good ones at least. But still, I know you and Sweetie are dating, but try and be on your best behavior, okay?" "We will, just top trying to get us to try on wedding dresses, we're not even ready for that," Sweetie said with a chuckle as she placed a hoof on Scootaloo's. "We're happy just the way we are right now, and when the time is right, maybe then we'll be something more." "Fine, fine, you two are no fun you know that?" Rarity asked and everypony laughed, Scootaloo especially, it was good to be able to laugh at something as silly as Rarity being Rarity. "Come on, lets stop just sitting around, there's a party to be had!" Pinkie said with her usual enthusiasm as she started to take a party cannon out before she stopped herself. "Right, not the time for that, I'll use it in the sequel!" "The what?" Scootaloo asked as she looked at the party pony strangely. "Nothing, nothing, I should keep my muzzle shut, Auntie Pinkie's going to go get the stuff!" Pinkie said with a giggle as she bounced off to go and get the cake for Scootaloo. Scootaloo just laughed and shook her head, things were certainly going to be interesting around here with Pinkie. She couldn't help it, there was just something oddly entertaining about the Pink Pony despite how odd she was. She closed her eyes and leaned back on the couch, things were finally looking like they were going to be going pretty well for her. 00000 "Mommy, watch me!" The energetic voice of a filly called out and Scootaloo smiled a little as she watched Storm Chaser zipping around in the air, her wings buzzing as she sped past Scootaloo on her scooter. It had been 5 years now and the pair were on their way to take Storm to her first day at school. Scootaloo smiled a little as she watched the filly fly circles around her. While Scootaloo had never been able to fly, her daughter had no such handicap and she was getting faster every day. "Keep that up and you're going to give your Grandma Rainbow a run for her money," Scootaloo said with a laugh as they stopped in front of the Ponyville Schoolhouse and Storm came in for a landing and hugged Scootaloo. "Are you going to be okay at school today, Stormy?" "Yeah, I'll be fine, this is where you and mommy Sweetie went to school right?" Storm asked as she looked around curiously. "With your Auntie Apple Bloom, that's right," Scootaloo said as she ruffled the small filly's purple mane gently. "So be good and I'll tell you all the secrets of the school when you get home, okay?" "Okay!" Storm said as she hugged Scootaloo tightly and looked up at the mare with a smile. "I love you mommy." "I love you too Stormy," Scootaloo said as she hugged her daughter tightly, she didn't want to let go of her for any reason, but she knew that the time had come for her to start her own adventures. "Now get in there, make friends, and above all, have fun." "I will!" Storm said as she released the hug and rushed up into the building, Scootaloo just smiled a little as she watched her go. "See you later Mommy, see you later Mommy Sweetie!" "She's growing up so fast isn't she?" A familiar voice said from behind her and she turned with a smile to see Sweetie Belle standing there. "Oh hey Sweetie, sorry we didn't wake you, but Stormy slept late and we had to get out of the house fast..." Scootaloo said as she trotted over to her wife and gave her a light kiss on the lips. "Its okay, I'm just glad I got to see her off to her first day at school," Sweetie said as she looked up at the schoolhouse. "Its hard to believe that this is where it all first started for us huh?" "Yeah, where we met, and formed the Crusaders together," Scootaloo said with a smile as she wrapped her wing gently around Sweetie. "Now passed on to the next generation of troublemakers." "Hey, I wasn't that much of a troublemaker," Sweetie said and Scootaloo shot her a look. "Okay, maybe I was, but I wasn't as bad as you two." "Just keep telling yourself that," Scootaloo said with a laugh as they headed off to meet up with Apple Bloom. She took one last look back at the schoolhouse where Storm was. It was strange to think about it, but as she went over the events that lead up to Storm's birth, she wasn't sure if she would want to change a single thing. She had a wonderful family, and a wife that loved her unconditionally, would any of that have happened if she hadn't slept with Cirrus all those years ago? Maybe having Stormy had been unexpected, but she didn't regret it one bit. She knew that ultimately it had put her life on the right track as strange as it seemed, and she was just glad that she had the chance to be a mom. Now it was time to see what further adventures awaited her.