After being rescued and semi raised by Rainbow Dash, one day Scootaloo suffers a tragic event, costing her one of her greatest joys in life. Make sure to read all author's notes. Also until the story plot gap is bridged please plan on more chapters before Chapter X which will be numbered when I get to it in the timeline.
On hiatus until I finish up other stories. Definitely not cancelled.
Rainbow Dash was practicing her maneuvers after flight-school like she did every day. The mare was tired of being stuck behind all of the other slowpoke Pegasi up in the clouds so she flew lower, beneath the clouds where the skies were mostly empty, save for the occasional flock of birds. Rainbow Dash was flying around Ponyville this night as it was dark and stormy, with the lights from the town helping Rainbow Dash keep track of where the ground was. The speeding Pegasus decided to do one more pass over the town before calling it a night and flew extremely close to the roof tops, for the adrenaline rush. As she was flying Rainbow Dash thought she heard a pony crying but assumed it was just the wind whistling in her ears. Her curiosity got the better of her though and she flew back, and circled around until she could hear the cries again, which came from a dark alleyway.
As soon as the cyan pony touched the ground the crying stopped, that is until another loud crack of thunder filled the air and the crying picked up again for a few moments. Rainbow Dash looked in the direction the sound originated from and nothing seemed out of the ordinary except a shaking newspaper next to a dumpster. As she walked closer the newspaper made the crying sound again as another loud crack of thunder happened, the lightning brightening the sky enough for Rainbow Dash to see that something was definitely hiding under the newspaper. When she finally was only but a foot or two away from the newspaper Rainbow Dash heard some high pitched squeaks which casued her to say:
“Hey will ya calm down I’m not gonna hurt you. Besides you should never fear, for Rainbow Dash is here!”
Rainbow then stepped even closer and used her right wing to shield whatever was there from the rain. Next she lifted up the newspaper to find sitting there, all wet and shivering, a small orange filly, with messy purple hair. The filly looked up at her with a look of fear and confusion in her eyes and reached up to Rainbow Dash.
“Ma… Mama?”
“Woah there squirt I’m not your mom, or anypony else’s for that matter, I’m barely a teenage mare.”
The filly then went from looking afraid and confused to just afraid, and looked around frantically while crying “Mama”. Rainbow Dash almost shed a tear for once, but she held it back. When the little filly began waving her forelegs around in the air Rainbow Dash was able to notice a folded up piece of parchment tied to the right front leg. She then unfolded it and attempted to read it as it had gotten soaked from the rain, which made a good amount of the ink wash away. The readable words in order were:
“Please good home my filly. Her is Scootaloo. Thank”
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped when she figured out the gravity of the situation. This wasn’t just some filly that got lost in the storm; for whatever reason good or bad, this filly was an abandoned orphan now. She looked back down at the distressed filly and attempted to calm her down.
“There there kiddo, I’ll help you find your mom. Rainbow Dash is on the case!”
The filly’s eyes lit up and widened when Rainbow Dash said that, causing her to reach for the mare again. This time Rainbow Dash scooped up the freezing filly with her right wing and held the filly close to her body. As soon as she felt the warmth of Rainbow Dash’s body the little filly drifted off to sleep as she settled in. With only one wing Rainbow Dash was forced to walk and she started off to go to the Ponyville hospital. Though every time a loud crack of thunder hit the sky the filly would wake up and squirm around while crying for a few moments before going back to sleep; which made Rainbow Dash almost drop her a few times. Upon entering the lobby it was empty and quiet except for Nurse Redheart who was sitting at the front desk. Rainbow Dash ran up and presented the sleeping filly to her.
“Hey nurse, I found this filly all by itself out in the storm, she needs to find her parents.”
After giving the filly a quick look over Nurse Redheart knew the pony was barely a month old and that the hospital it was born at would have her birth records.
“Why thank you miss for bringing her in. As it turns out though she is a newborn Pegasus and thus would have been born at a hospital in the clouds, I’ll have her sent over to Cloudsdale in the morning. I’ll just go put her in a nice warm crib and you can be on your way.”
As Rainbow Dash handed the small filly over and the Nurse began carrying her away, the filly woke up again and looked around confused. She then looked back at Rainbow Dash with the saddest face.
“Hey nurse come back! Just give me a saddlebag and I’ll take her there now myself, the quicker the better.”
“Well okay but please stay here and wait out the storm, it seems to be letting up.”
“Uggh. Fine.”
Rainbow Dash then took a seat in the lobby with Nurse Redheart shortly returning. She had the filly wrapped in a warm blanket and handed her back to Rainbow Dash, who cradled the small bundle in her arms. The filly just continued sleeping for a few minutes but eventually woke up and started crying. Rainbow Dash didn’t know why though as no thunder had gone off, and her futile attempts to calm the baby did nothing.
“Here you go, I think she is just hungry.”
Nurse Redheart walked over and gave Rainbow Dash a fresh bottle of filly formula, before returning to her desk. As she lowered the bottle, the filly instantly noticed it and stopped crying. She tried to grab it but her tiny hooves would only slip, so Rainbow Dash held onto it as the filly began suckling the bottle.
After she waited nearly an hour for the storm to pass, Nurse Redheart finally gave permission to let Rainbow Dash leave for Cloudsdale. The flight up wasn’t too bad as the storm had settled down to nothing more than a strong breeze. On the way up the orange filly poked her head out of the saddlebag and looked down. She then giggled and gave Rainbow Dash a huge smile as she enjoyed being up in the air. Rainbow Dash returned the smile and kept on flying to Cloudsdale. Upon arriving she quickly got the attention of one of the staff and explained the entire situation. Before taking the filly from Rainbow Dash, the Pegasus nurse asked:
“So what is our little lost filly’s name?”
“Umm, I’m pretty sure it is Scootaloo… I think.”
The nurse walked off down a hallway and Rainbow Dash waited anxiously in the lobby for any news. Roughly twenty minutes later the nurse returned with the bundled up filly and had a puzzled look on her face. Rainbow Dash then flew up to her to hear the news.
“Well this is quite odd, we have no record of any Scootaloos being born here within the past few months, nor any Pegasi with an orange coat and purple mane. You can leave the filly here for a few days and I’ll check the other cloud hospitals to see if Scootaloo was born there.”
“Well, I guess that would be the best thing to do now, but I’ll be back every day to check on Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo just contently stared at the two ponies during the conversation, not knowing most of what was being said, and didn’t have a clue to what was about to happen. Rainbow Dash then looked at Scootaloo and patted her on the head, giving a final goodbye for the night.
“Ma…ma? Mama?”
“No Scootaloo I’m not your… I’ll just be going now, it’s late and my parents must be worried sick."
As Rainbow Dash started to leave the lobby Scootaloo began to cry and reached out to her while shouting “Mama!”. Rainbow Dash didn’t look back but finally managed to let out a single tear before taking off into the night sky. The cyan mare had kept her promise though as she came back every day to see Scootaloo and to check if her parents had been found. Almost a week had passed on the day the news finally came in. The nurse came up to Rainbow Dash as she entered the lobby, and had a dreadful look on her face.
“Hello again Miss Dash, I finally have some news about Scootaloo.”
“Really? Did you find her parents? Where are they?”
“Umm well no, you see the fact of the matter is the other Pegasus hospitals have no record of her birth either. I’m afraid to admit we have an earth born Pegasus on our hands, and an orphan as well.”
“That’s so… so sad. What will happen to her?”
“Well after we give her a clean bill of health, we will be giving her to the care of the Cloudsdale Orphanage for Wayward Foals, and hopefully a nice pony will adopt her.”
“Oh, I see. Well can I visit her one last time?”
“Sure Rainbow Dash, she is in the nursery down the hall to your right.”
Upon entering the nursery Rainbow Dash found Scootaloo’s crib, with Scootaloo snuggled warmly in a blanket and sound asleep. She then leaned over and stroked the sleeping filly’s mane while she said:
“Hey there Scootaloo, It’s Rainbow Dash, this might be the last time we meet, as the nice ponies here are gonna send you to a better place to live; with other foals that are in your umm…”
As Rainbow Dash pondered to find the right words to finish her sentence, the filly woke up and reached up to her again, and then asked:
“Mama?”
“No Scootaloo I’m not your mother! Please stop calling me that, you’re just making this harder for me.”
Scootaloo then cried as she always did this past week every time Rainbow Dash denied being her mother, as she mistook Rainbow Dash’s diligent honesty for repeated rejection. Though all Scootaloo really wanted was her mother, or at least somepony to fill that role. Rainbow Dash then started weeping herself and muttered the words:
“Good… goodbye Scootaloo, stay strong.”
She then started to walk out of the room before one last time Scootaloo cried out:
“MAMA!”
“For the last time Scootaloo, I’M NOT YOUR MOTHER!!!”
Rainbow Dash then quickly flew away with even more tears in her eyes, to get out of range of Scootaloo’s even louder cries. For one last time she then flew to that alleyway where she first found Scootaloo, to remember those few memories of that helpless filly. Rainbow Dash just randomly poked around and to her surprise the stack of newspapers she found Scootaloo hiding in were still there. She ruffled through them and stumbled upon a Wonderbolt plushie, which was in mostly good condition except one of the ears was torn off. Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed the toy and flew off to Rarity’s shop, hoping to get it fixed. Upon entering the store Rarity looked up from her sewing machine.
“Hello Rainbow my darling, what brings you in today?”
“Hi Rarity, I know it isn’t a dress but do you think you can fix this plushie’s ear for me?”
“Why sure Rainbow, I can work wonders with anything that involves a needle and thread.”
Using her magic Rarity takes the plushie from Rainbow Dash and floats all the needed items over to her. With only a few minutes at her machine Rarity had the plushie patched up as good as new. After she floated the plushie back to Rainbow Dash the white mare inquired:
“So is this plushie special to you? I assume so since I know how much of a fan of the Wonderbolts you are.”
“Well actually it is for someone I really care about, so yeah, it is special to me.”
After she thanked her again Rainbow Dash left the store and took off back into the sky to go home.
Rainbow Dash had trouble sleeping that night, as the image of Scootaloo crying for her mom was burned into her mind. She couldn't help but hold onto the Wonderbolt plushie as if she were holding onto Scootaloo herself. She then decided that she would go see Scootaloo at the hospital at least one more time, if anything to return the plushie to her; this puts her mind at ease enough to finally drift off to sleep. For once in her life Rainbow Dash actually woke up early, well her version of early anyways, and flew off to the Cloudsdale Hospital. As she entered the lobby the nurse asked her:
"Oh, you're back again?"
"Yes ma'am, I have one last thing to give to Scootaloo."
"I'm sorry to say she was picked up an hour ago. Scootaloo is on her way to the orphanage."
"Oh um, really? Well can you tell me where it is?"
After the nurse told Rainbow Dash where the orphanage was located in Cloudsdale, she took off back into sky, When she arrived Rainbow Dash knocked a few times on the large wooden double doors. A somewhat elderly mare Pegasus answered:
"Hello, can I help you deary?"
"Yes actually. I'm here to see a certain orange filly, her name is Scootaloo."
"Well you don't definitely don't look old enough to adopt a foal, are you a relative?"
"Well no but I found her abandoned in an alleyway and turned her into the hospital. They told me she was brought here."
"I'm sorry but unless you are here to adopt a foal, we don't allow strangers to see the orphans, for a matter of safety."
"Please ma'am? I just have something of hers to return and I wan't to see her one last time. I'll be quick I promise."
"Well okay, she is with the other young foals down the hallway, third door on your left."
"Thanks ma'am!"
Rainbow Dash bolted past her and ran to go find Scootaloo. Of all the cribs in the room Scootaloo's was easy to pick out as she quietly sobbed and cried for her mom. When Rainbow Dash walked up Scootaloo instantly stopped sobbing and perked up, again she reached up to Rainbow Dash and called her Mama. Rainbow Dash got a little angry inside and almost wanted to yell at Scootaloo for calling her mom, but she kept her cool and simply declined the title as always. Scootaloo then started to cry again but Rainbow Dash quickly presented the Wonderbolt plushie to her.
"Hey there Scootaloo, look what I brought you. I found it where I found you."
"Toy. Mine."
Scootaloo's eyes lit up as she saw the toy and quickly snatched it from Rainbow Dash, and then snuggled it tightly. The tiny orange filly then nibbled on one of the toy's ears as she contently stared at Rainbow Dash.
"So I guess that's what happened to it's ear huh? Well I had a friend of mine fix it for you, enjoy."
Scootaloo then drifted off into a nap, while she still nibbled the toy's ear. Rainbow Dash shed a tear of joy as she watched the filly happily sleep. The elderly mare then walked into the room, astonished that Scootaloo had settled down.
"You got her to fall asleep?"
"Yeah, she kinda likes me a whole bunch, even keeps calling me her mom."
"Well I must thank you then. She was incredibly upset on the entire trip here and only calmed down a little when we put her in the crib."
"Yeah, well I'll get going now, I did what I came to do."
"Wait a moment please. How would you like to work here and help with taking care of the foals, you seem to have a certain way with them? We can't pay you any bits but you'll get free meals."
Rainbow Dash thought hard on her decision for a few moments. She normally didn't like being around noisy little foals, but she looked back at Scootaloo and felt a strange connection, like she was meant to be with her. Also the idea of free food swayed her decision as well.
"Uhh... Sure I can help, mainly to keep seeing Scootaloo, I can start tomorrow after flight-school."
"Very well, I'll see you then. Now we must leave as the foals need their rest."
It was still relatively early in the day when Rainbow Dash left the orphanage, so she decided to get an early start on some new maneuvers she was working on. Rainbow Dash zoomed through the sky, leaving behind her usual rainbow tail; she attempted another sonic rainboom but couldn't seem to manage one today, and almost crashed into the ground during the attempt. At some point during the day the thought of Scootaloo jumped back into Rainbow Dash's mind. The speeding Pegasus kept thinking about how Scootaloo would always be upset without her, and would cry anytime Rainbow Dash left her side. After thinking about that for several minutes the rainbow maned mare made up her mind that she would take Scootaloo in under her wing, and raise her like a sister. With this new personal revelation Rainbow Dash rushed home to start planning everything she wanted to do with Scootaloo. First she wanted to get Scootaloo to realize that she isn't her mom, as Rainbow Dash knows she is way too young to deal with raising a foal full time, and her parents likely wouldn't allow it. The next important thing on the list was Rainbow Dash wanted to get Scootaloo to learn to fly as soon as possible, as no sister of hers would be chained to the ground. After that she wanted Scootaloo to train to eventually become a Wonderbolt just like she is. Lastly Rainbow Dash wanted to find Scootaloo's parents, especially her mother, as no foal deserved to be separated from their parents.
The next day at flight-school was a terribly long one for Rainbow Dash, as she was incredibly eager to get back to the orphanage to see Scootaloo again. Her eagerness showed up in how she flew, even faster than usual, causing her to break a previous record she had set. After what seemed like a thousand years had passed, the bell rang and Rainbow Dash took off for the orphanage, performing a sonic rainboom in the process. Rainbow Dash was a bit too eager and almost slammed into the door of the orphanage, skidding on her hooves to stop inches from the door. She then knocked on the door a few times and within seconds the elderly mare answered it again.
"You made it here at a perfect time , all the foals just had their lunch and are now all in the play room. They need your supervision. Oh and I didn't get your name yesterday, mine is Mary Trottins by the way."
"My name is Rainbow Dash, Mary. So where is the play room?"
"Up the stairs right here and it will be the first door on your right, next to the changing table."
"Thanks I'll get right on it, you can count on me!"
Rainbow Dash gave an affirmative salute and rushed off upstairs. As she walked up the creaky steps she could already here the sounds of foals playing and having fun; though over all the noise Rainbow Dash thought she could hear a familiar cry, that of Scootaloo. When she entered the room she saw about twenty fillies and colts running/flying around. She then scanned around for Scootaloo who wasn't easily found, She finally spots her over in the back corner, sitting alone crying, and holding that Wonderbolt plushie. As Rainbow Dash walks over to her she has to duck to avoid some flying foals and watch her step to not step on the crawling foals.
"Scootaloo? It's me Rainbow Dash, I'm back, there's no need to cry."
Upon hearing those words Scootaloo dropped her toy in astonishment and turned around to see her new cyan caretaker. Sootaloo buzzed her wings in excitement and crawled up to Rainbow Dash, and gave one of her front legs a hug.
"Mama?"
"No Scootaloo, I'm not your mom like I said so many times, but I'm you sister, can you say sister?"
"S-s... S-si...Sis"
Scootaloo struggled to form that new word and resorted back to one of the only few words she could currently say, which was Mama. Rainbow Dash finally accepted that is all Scootaloo might say to her for a while and decided to let it go at that. She then picked up the bouncing little filly and went over to a rocking chair to sit down. Surprisingly other than breaking up a few fights over a toy and making the few most rambunctious foals settle down, watching them all wasn't that much of a task for Rainbow Dash, allowing her to spend more time with Scootaloo. After she rocked Scootaloo for a few minutes the energetic filly became restless and squirmed around in her sisters legs. as she wanted to go back to playing with her toy.
"Alright Scootaloo I'll set you down, go have fun."
As soon as Rainbow Dash plopped Scootaloo on the ground the filly quickly crawled over to the corner she left her toy at, only to find another pegasus, a small red colt, already playing with it. Scootaloo loved that toy as much as she loved Rainbow Dash, and tried stealing it back, though she was unable to pry it out of the colt's strong grip. The now angry filly then bit the colt on one of his arms. He winced from the pain and dropped the toy; then he cried loud enough for Rainbow Dash to take notice. She quickly hovered over only to see Scootaloo happily hugging her plushie and the little red colt crying and holding one of his front legs. Rainbow Dash then lifted his hoof to to find bruised bite marks the same size of baby pony teeth, luckily though the skin wasn't broken. The mare then carefully picked up the crying foal and attempted to comfort him. She then turned her gaze to Scootaloo and asked:
"Scootaloo! What happened?"
Scootaloo looked up with a guilty expression on her face, tears almost forming in her eyes, and said:
"T-toy. Mine."
Rainbow Dash was then able to figure out what happened, and her face maddened as she glared at Scootaloo.
"That wasn't nice Scootaloo! You need to share! Now I'm taking your toy away as punishment!"
Though she hated herself for doing it, after Rainbow Dash yelled at Scootaloo she set down the still crying colt and grabbed the Wonderbolt plushie Scootaloo was holding on to. The filly refused to let go and held on tight, being lifted up in the process. Rainbow Dash was then able to pry her apart from the toy, giving it to the colt, which stopped his crying. Scootaloo then went into full on tantrum mode, and started flailing her legs around as she shouted "Mine!". Rainbow Dash was fed up with Scootaloo's antics and said:
"That is enough Scootaloo! You better calm down now because I'm giving you a timeout."
She then carried Scootaloo over to the empty playpen in the room and attempted to set her down in it; but Scootaloo had grabbed onto her rainbow colored mane and pulled tightly.
"Come on Scootaloo let go! You're just making this worse for you."
Eventually Scootaloo grew tired of fighting back and finally let go of her sister's hair. Rainbow Dash then set her down in the playpen, also removing the few other toys that were there. The orange filly became extremely upset and started crying as loud as she could, while banging her hooves against the side of the playpen.
"I'm sorry Scootaloo but you made me do this. Now I'm going to leave you here for ten minutes, so you better think about what you did to deserve this."
It was only her first day with Scootaloo which wasn't even over yet and already Rainbow Dash was frustrated with her sister, though to credit Scootaloo, she was still a baby pony.
To Rainbow Dash's surprise Scootaloo managed to stay in her tantrum for the full ten minutes, seemingly becoming more upset with each passing minute while shouting "Toy. Mine.". Finally the filly's sister walked back over and picked up the flailing pony.
"SCOOTALOO!" Calm down, your punishment is over."
"WUAAAAAAAAHHHH..... squeak."
"T-toy?"
Rainbow Dash had gotten Scootaloo's attention and got her tantrum to end. The filly's face was bright red and soaked with tears. Rainbow Dash then stroked her mane as she said:
"Yes Scootaloo, but did you learn your lesson?"
"S-s, s-so, sowy. Mama."
Scootaloo also nodded her head affirmatively. Rainbow Dash then carried her back to the corner where the incident began, but the red colt already moved on and left Scootaloo's toy behind. Upon seeing her toy again Scootaloo basically leaped from her sister's hold, buzzing her wings rapidly to slow her descent. Next the now happy filly latched onto her toy, bouncing with excitement. Rainbow Dash still felt bad for punishing her but she knew it had to be done.
A few weeks later and it was dinner time for all the foals. Already having a bad day at flight school and then having to deal with getting twenty plus foals to sit down to eat really stressed out Rainbow Dash and put her on edge. Scootaloo had been drawing for the past few minutes and finally finished her work of art. After the filly grabbed the paper with her mouth she ran up the hallway to the dining room where Rainbow Dash was busy trying to get a difficult foal to sit in a high chair, and then jumped onto the table.
"Look. For you. Mommy."
"FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE SCOOTALOO!!! GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEAD I'M NOT YOUR MOTHER!"
Rainbow Dash slammed both of her hooves on the table, and her unexpected angry outburst caused Scootaloo to drop the paper and jump back. The frightened filly fell down in the process and landed on one of her wings. Scootaloo then scampered off back down the hallway as she cried. It took a moment but eventually Rainbow Dash realized what she just did and looked at the paper Scootaloo brought. It was a crude crayon drawing of her and Scootaloo flying in the sky, there was the word me with an arrow pointing to Scootaloo and the word mama, which had been crossed out and replaced with sister, with an arrow pointing to Rainbow Dash. Seeing this gift her little sister made for her really kicked Rainbow Dash in the stomach, as her heart sank for how terrible she felt for yelling at Scootaloo like that. After she managed to get the last foal in his chair Rainbow Dash went off down the hallway in search of Scootaloo, and just followed the sound of her cries. Eventually Rainbow Dash gets to the end of the hallway to see a big potted plant, with a cowering filly behind it, crying.
"Come on out Scootaloo, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"NO! Sniff. YOU! SCARWIE!"
"But Scootaloo I was only..."
"NO! MEANIE! Sniff."
Scootaloo was trying her best to stay hidden in the corner behind the potted plant, where she felt the safest for now. Rainbow Dash then left and quickly returned with Sctooaloo's Wonderbolt plushie.
"Hey Scootaloo. Look what I brought you."
"NO!"
Even her favorite toy wasn't enough to calm Scootaloo this time, as the upset filly stayed in her corner sobbing. Enough was enough so Rainbow Dash just moved the potted plant out of the way. Scootaloo then tried to dart out past her sister but was caught by her hind legs. Rainbow Dash then picked her up only to send Scootaloo into a bigger fit.
"OWWWIIEEEEE! NO! OWWIEE!"
Upon picking up the kicking and screaming filly Rainbow Dash could see Scootaloo had injured one of her wings, as it was spread out limp while the other was tucked nicely against her body.
"I'm so sorry Scootaloo, I didn't mean to frighten you like that. I just, I just had a tough day is all, it wasn't your fault. I also really like the drawing you gave me."
Scootaloo still hadn't forgiven Rainbow Dash yet but she stopped struggling, only because of her wing. Rainbow Dash carried Scootaloo to the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets to get the first aid kit. In only a few minutes Rainbow Dash set her sister's injured wing in a splint and had it all bandaged up with an ice pack. Scootaloo then flexed her wings in excitement now that the pain was mostly gone.
"Th-thanks. Mom... Si-sis... Sissy."
From then on Scootaloo was able to remember to call Rainbow Dash her sister, or "Sissy" as she was able to pronounce, slipping up only a few times saying "mama". About a month after the injured wing incident Rainbow Dash arrived at the orphanage again, but when she went to the room Scootaloo slept in, she found her little sister locked up in a cage, or so she thought. When Scootaloo noticed her walking in she immediately went to the side of her crib and stuck her hooves through the bars, trying to reach Rainbow Dash.
"Sissy!"
Mary was also in the room as well attending to the other foals, and was caught off guard by Rainbow Dash's demand:
"Hey you let Scootaloo out of that cage this instant! Or else I'll..."
"Oh please calm down Rainbow Dash, no need to be alarmed. That isn't a cage, although I guess it does work like one, but you more than anypony else should know that is a Pegasus crib. Scootaloo escaped from her crib last night and I found her clumsily flying through the orphanage, so we moved her into a Pegasus crib for her own safety. You'll have to teach her how to fly now Rainbow Dash, so she will be ready when she attends flight-school."
"Wow is it true Scootaloo? Did you really fly?"
Scootaloo giggled and said: "Yes. Sissy. I flyed."
