> Meet the Family
>  by Thunderscourge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Meet the Parents
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, uhm...remind me why we're doing this again?"

Standing before a regal, yet functional in size, Cloudsdale home were two blue Pegasi. One, the smaller of the two, was standing with a smile as she observed the delightful architecture of the house, its pillars reminding her of those found in her own residence.

The other, however, bit his lip and quivered as he looked at the front door of it. His pale blue coat reflected the fear he had inside him well, matching the color one would associate to someone who had just encountered a ghost. His dress shirt adorned with medals of valor did little to ease his fears as the mare beside him replied.

"Because I haven't seen my family in like, foreverl Come on Soarin, I didn't think you were such a scaredy-pony."

The stallion swallowed his breath and looked to the cloud beneath him, unable to look the mare in the eye, "But why do I even need to be here? Couldn't you...well, visit them by yourself, Dashie?"

Rainbow Dash's response was fakely sweet as she rubbed a hoof against his back, "Because I asked you to?"

Soarin continued to look down, feeling his face begin to blush, "But this...the whole meeting the parents thing...I don't really feel comfortable-"

A loud laugh cut the stallion off, Rainbow withdrawing her hoof to her chest so she could chortle, "What, is the big, bad Soarin of the Wonderbolts afraid of two old ponies?"

"And if I say yes..."

"Then I'll laugh, like this," sure enough the Rainbow haired mare gave another laugh and pointed a hoof at Soarin, causing the blush on her partner's face to shift from one of endearment to one of embarrassment.

Soarin grunted and frowned, his stomach doing backflips as he spoke, "Very mature, Dash. I'm freaking out here already!"

Rainbow stopped her laughing and leant on Soarin, wrapping a hoof around one of his as she gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, I'm sure my dad will like you a lot," she paused and looked up at the sky, "Apart from the whole thing about you being my coltfriend. He'll hate that. I would watch out for my wings if I were you."

The Wonderbolt of the duo rolled his eyes, "Gee, thanks. That helps my nerves a lot."

In an attempt to make it up to her beleaguered coltfriend, Dash gave him a peck on the cheek, "I'm just messing with ya. Now, are you ready or are you going to need a change of pants?"

"I'm not wearing pants?" Soarin questioned, not understanding her reference to the uncommon item.

Rainbow was the one to roll her eyes this time, "It's a figure of speech."

Soarin did not recall said figure of speech, but decided to go with it anyways, "Oh, yeah, right. My bad."

Rainbow nudged the stallion in the ribs and nodded towards the door before them, "Come on, I'm sure they'll love you. I mean, there has to be something good about you for me to bring you home to my parents."

Soarin took in a deep breath and shook his head, almost sure that he was going to die in the coming hours, "Alright then...I'm only doing this for you, Dash."

"Thanks, Soarin," Dash gave him a light punch to the gut and jumped forward with her wings, "Now come on, no use standing around out here!"

Soarin chuckled at her antics before following behind her, nervously approaching the door that Rainbow was at the moment knocking on with one hoof.

A mare's voice that Soarin did not recognize rang out from the house, sounding distant as if it was across the building, "Who is it?"

As Soarin caught up to his marefriend and stood beside her, said marefriend chuckled and called back to the mare inside, "I don't know, maybe you should come see?"

Soarin could almost hear something crash and something else fall over before the door swung open and nearly clocked him in the face. A pink pony with a blue mane dashed right into the rainbow maned one, wrapping their front hooves around them tightly, "Rainbow! It'a been such a long time! How have you been?"

Rainbow Dash returned the gesture, blushing slightly out of embarrassment, "Pretty good, mom. Not only am I on my way to become a Wonderbolt," Rainbow turned to Soarin and gave him a coy smile, "I've got somepony to show you."

Soarin brought a hoof behind his head and rubbed his mane nervously, "Hello, ma'am, my name is-"

The pink coated middle-age mare cut the stallion off just like her daughter was prone to, "Soarin. I'm Firefly. I recognize the stallion who my little Dashie has had posters of for years."

Dash's face blushed as red as her the red parts of her mane, "Moooom!"

Her mother shrugged as she let go of her daughter and faced Soarin, "You can't deny it's true, Dashie," glancing at the dress shirt Soarin was wearing, Firefly nodded briefly, "So, I take it you're one of her instructors? Did Dash screw up and get herself kicked out of the academy?"

Rainbow shot her mother daggers as Soarin shook his head no frantically, "No, it's nothing like that at all actually. Captain Spitfire is taking care of Dash and the other recruits, while I'm in charge of the air shows for now."

Rainbow recovered from her death glare towards her mother and smirked, nudging Soarin's side, "It's pretty good that Soarin here isn't one of my bosses though. It would make dating him a lot weirder."

Firefly blinked, her eyes facing Soarin but not focusing on him as she responded flatly, "Come again."

"I said-"

Firefly stuffed a hood in Rainbow's mouth, "I heard what you said," letting out a small giggle, Firefly turned to her daughter and wrapped her in another hug to the younger mare's discomfort, "Oh Dashie, I'm so happy for you! Wait until your father hears that his little girl finally has gotten a young colt!"

Rainbow grunted and rolled her eyes, "Moooom, please."

Firefly released her daughter and took a step towards the house's open door, leaning her head towards it, "Come on in you two! We've got so much to talk about!"

The pink mare led the way inside, with Rainbow following right in behind her. Soarin took in a breath and forced his hooves to move forward one at a time, one in front of the other.

Soarin followed the two mares down a hallway in silence while the oldest among them prattled on about something to Rainbow, "You know, your father was really beginning to think that you were never going to get a coltfriend, not to mention your wicked aunt, who thinks disgustedly that because of your hair, tomboyish ways and tendency to hang around girls that you prefer an alternative lifestyle. Boo on her though for being so shallow. You're just like me, and no-one ever seemed to go around and think those things about me for some reason."

The hallway ended in a large room, with lavish furniture strewn throughout it. Soarin noticed that just like in the hallway before it, pictures hung off the walls with noticeable rainbow manes in them, but he hadn't had enough time to study any of them in any more depth.

Rainbow's mother stopped once the three had all entered the room, not noticing Soarin trip over a lifting weight that lay carelessly on the floor, "So, make yourselves at home. I'll go grab my husband."

The pink mare left in a spirited manner, a large smile apparant on her face as she did so. Soarin rubbed his head from his collision with the ground and stood up awkwardly while she left. He could see more exercise equipment inside the otherwise clean room, most noticeably tucked away under furniture.

Soarin glanced around the room and noticed a couch, but wasn't sure if he should sit since he would have to greet Rainbow's father. He shifted nervously in place as Rainbow looked around the room with a nostalgic look on her face, "Your mom seems...nice."

Rainbow nodded to him and grinned, "You bet! She's where I got my awesome personality from, so of course she's one hundred percent awesome," she ended with a hoof pointing to her own chest, making her coltfriend chuckle.

"Ever the humble pony. So, what do you get from your dad then?"

Rainbow rose the hoof from her chest to her chin, thinking momentarily, "My colors and not much else. He's nice, but he's a pretty serious guy. Comes with working as one of the bosses at the weather factory."

Soarin's mouth formed an O, "He must be a hard worker to have a job like that!" the Wonderbolt snickered as he thought about Rainbow again, "You sure didn't get that from him."

Rainbow jabbed a hoof at her coltfriend and scowled, "Hey, I work hard when I want to!"

Soarin lowered her hoof and gave her a warm smile to calm her down, "I know, Dash. You're the greatest and definitely the best pony I know."

While accustomed and fond of praise, Rainbow still felt giddy when it came from her idol and coltfriend. The result of this was a lack of eye contact and a small blush, "You sound like Scootaloo."

Soarin ruffled his brow, not getting the reference, "Who?"

"Only the best filly in the world, and my number one fan! You should get to kno-"

A level but seemingly pleased voice cut her off, "Rainbow, it's good to see you."

Rainbow glanced towards the hallway to see that her father was standing in the doorway, his azure coat and rainbow hair not all that different from her own. The young flier dashed over to him and embraced him in a strong hug, "Hey dad!"

Her father wrapped one hoof around her as well before looking past her at the other visitor, "Soarin the Wonderbolt. Welcome."

Soarin gave as large a smile as he could, his nervousness increasing every second, "Thank you, um, sir."

Rainbow released her father from her glomp and moved back towards Soarin a bit, "Awesome, you already know Soarin then. He's my coltfriend now, so I thought it would be cool to bring him to meet you guys!"



Her father didn't even blink as he stares at Soarin, the stern face having made Soarin wonder why he didn't bolt out the door, "I see."

Firefly, sneaking in the room from behind her husband, tried to diffuse the situation before it starts, "How about we all sit down and have some crackers?"

Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle as she looked at her father's unflinching gaze towards Soarin, the older Stallion studying the younger one intensely, "That would be nice, mom. Thanks!"

Firefly turns to leave again, giving a scoff, "I'll be right back. If you didn't have a guest I would make you get them, Dashie."

"Hehe," Rainbow laughed nervously, noticing that no matter how much Soarin smiled at her father the older stallion did not stop staring at him silently, "So, Dad, what's up?"

The stare that had frozen Soarin in his place ended as the azure pony turned to face his daughter, "Not very much. Everything has been going well at the weather factory. I'm glad to see you. I wasn't expecting you to visit anytime soon."

The younger rainbow haired pony scrunched her face up in confusion, "Wait, you didn't get my mail?"

Her father shook his head no, his voice remaining even toned as he did so, "No. However, I did receive a lunchbox in the mail the other day with a muffin in it. A mix up perhaps?"

Rainbow sighed and shook her head, a certain grey mailmare with eye problems coming to mind, "I do know what went wrong. Ugh, nevermind."

With a look back at Soarin, Rainbow's father gave the Wonderbolt a very minute smile, "Relax son, I'm not going to kill you."

Soarin let out a large breath, feeling much more relaxed with that guarantee, "That's a relief-"

The follow up from Rainbow's father took the wind out of the stallion, "Yet."

Soarin's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he began to cringe in the spot he stood. Rainbow took it as a fun joke though and laughed, wrapping a hoof around Soarin while giggling, "Aww he's just kidding Soarin. Right dad?"

Silence was the only answer she received, her father looking at Soarin without any expression visible on his own face.

Soarin promptly felt his stomach drop.

For his sake, the re-rentry of a pink mare in the room holding a tray of crackers broke the tension. Firefly placed them down on a nearby table and turned to face the group, "There we go. So, first thing's first, I want to hear how you two kids met!"

Once again embarrassed by her mother, Rainbow decided to look at the petrified Soarin instead of the loving mother before her, "Well, Soarin and I met awhile ago at the flying competition I won. He was one of the Wonderbolts attending it."

Her mother nodded to her, "I remember that. Still mad you didn't invite us, Dashie. That's when you did your second Sonic Rainboom, am I right?"

"Yup!" Dash laughed for a moment before saying to herself, "Hehe, that was awesome."

Soarin decided to break his own silence and try to speak, "I wasn't awake for it sadly, but she also saved my life during the competition. One of the contestants was falling to their death, and when I tried to help them along with some other Wonderbolts...well, the pony knocked me out by accident and I fell too. Rainbow here caught us all."

Firefly looked over to her husband and nudged him a little, who was still looking at Soarin as seriously as a gargoyle's watch, "I wish we had a meeting as climactic as that, dear."

His response was a slight shrug and a glance towards Rainbow, "Things worked out in the end."

Firefly looked to Rainbow as well, the big smile on her face demonstrating her positive mood, "That they did," now focusing on the last one to tell the story, Firefly asked, "So, what happened when you woke up?"

"I wasn't out for long, so when I woke up I hung out with Dash and got to know her," Soarin grinned at Rainbow, "She seemed pretty cool, even if she had a bit of an ego for such a young flier."

Her father nodded to this last statement, "We've noticed."

"Hey, I earn every last bit of my ego!" came Rainbow's indignant voice in response.

Wanting to avert any arguments, Firefly took it upon herself to get things back on track, "So that was awhile ago. I take it you didn't get together back then."

Rainbow gave a shake of her head, "Nope, that's pretty recent. The next time I got to see Soarin was at the Grand Galloping Gala, where I proceeded to save a pie he wanted to eat from falling on the ground."

Soarin blushed at the memory, remembering it fondly because it contained his two favorite things: pie and Rainbow Dash, "At that point she had saved my life and my favorite food, so she started to kind of be interesting in my eye. Sadly I was so busy with the press that I didn't get to hang out with her more that night."

"We got to do plenty of that at the Royal Wedding though!" Rainbow chimed in.

Her father rose a brow, perplexed by her statement, "You two attended the Royal Wedding? When Canterlot was attacked?"

"Yup! My friend Twilight is the sister of the groom, so I got to come be a bridesmaid. Surprisingly not as girly as it sounds, since I got to do a Sonic Rainboom to celebrate the event."

Firefly patted her daughter on the shoulder, "That's my girl. Again, I'm mad you didn't tell us about it, but oh well."

Soarin thought that as long as they kept talking, the less he would be glared at, so he went on doing just that, "After the wedding, Rainbow and I got to hang out again and dance at the party. I didn't know how to dance, and neither did she, but we managed to have fun," He lifted a hoof behind his head nervously, "It's kind of when I started to have a crush on her."

Rainbow smirked at Soarin, a small blush rising on her cheeks, "I had been your fangirl for years, so all it did for me was confirm that the amazing Wonderbolt named Soarin was indeed one awesome pony."

Now it was Soarin who blushed, "We finally got together when she joined the Wonderbolt Academy. Basically I was doing some practice, she was doing some practice, we saw eachother, and hit it off again. I..."

Soarin's voice trailed off as he tried to find a way to say just what happened. Luckily for him, Rainbow did so for him in an amused tone, "This goof asked me out on a date when he accidently said his thoughts out loud. I said yes, and it went well, so here we are!"

Firefly flitted over inbetween the new couple and wrapped a hoof around each of them, "That's so sweet, Dashie. I'm so happy for you two!"

Her father simply shrugged, "One does not simply do better than dating a Wonderbolt, so I suppose I should be happy for you as well."

"Gee, thanks dad," Rainbow sardonically replied along with a roll of the eyes, taking note of his lack of enthusiasm.

Rainbow's father looked back to Soarin again, making the Wonderbolt bite his lip in fear once more. Firefly picked up on the vibe that nothing she could do could stop the two boys from having a talk, so she decided to at least get it over with. She let go of Soarin and started to nudge Rainbow towards the door.

"Rainbow, how about we go get our family picture albums to show your special somepony?"

Rainbow initially didn't budge, confused why she should go too, "Why-?" the pieces soon clicked in her head though, and she followed her mother to the exit, "Oh, okay. Be back in a minute Soarin!" then, she added in a whisper to him, "Good luck."

Rainbow's father did not react to the departure at all, still focused on Soarin. Now alone with the elder stallion, and the silence feeling uncomfortable, Soarin decided to make small talk, "So, sir, what should I call you?"

"Sir is fine," came the deadpan reply.

More staring.

"Well okay then."

More silence. It was beginning to make Soarin crawl out of his skin. Did the stallion like him? Dislike him? He couldn't tell, because he wasn't talking. Just looking.

This time it was the father who broke the silence, "So, Soarin. I'm curious about what a stallion older than Dash is thinking when he dates her. Care to elaborate on why you like my daughter?"

Soarin's mouth hung open for a moment as he tried to gather what he should say. Luckily for him, he had prepared for this kind of question and gave a half-rehearsed response, "Well, sir, Dash is one of the most kind, loyal, friendly, fun-loving, and dedicated ponies I know, and I respect her and her dreams because only a couple years ago I was in her hooves."

Giving an affirmitive and approving nod, Rainbow's father added his own two bits, "Your forgot to mention her ego in all of that. I applaud you for being able to stand it. It's half the reason I...suggested she go have her own place to live. It takes enough energy to deal with her mother."

Soarin got the feeling that he was on the approval side of things, so he gave a confident grin as he chuckled, "Is she that bad?"

Rainbow's father nodded stolidly, "She is a carbon copy of my daughter, only a bit older and thus wiser. Rainbow is still young and brash."

"Sounds like we've both got a couple of diificult mares," Soarin noted with a chuckle.

The immediate response was the elder stallion narrowing his eyes seriously at the Wonderbolt, as if he had taken offense, "Hey, that's my wife and daughter you're talking about."

Soarin instantly resumed cringing position 597 and bit his lip, "I mean no disrespect, sir!"

The eyes of Rainbow's father went back to normal, and a small grin grew on his face, "I never said you were wrong."

Realizing that he had been had, Soarin chuckled, "You know, you're a pretty funny guy, sir."

"Back to Rainbow, she is a sweet girl and means everything to me," the eyes resumed their serious look, "Do not hurt her. She may be tough on the outside, but she really is sensitive on the inside even if she won't admit it. If I hear at any point that you-"

Soarin, in an act of bravery, cut the stallion off with a similarly serious tone, "Sir, I would never hurt Rainbow, and I will always return the loyalty and love she shows me."

Partially caught off guard, the elder pony just gave a gruff nod, "Good. I had a feeling you wouldn't be some deadbeat. Now, how about we go see what the girls are up to, Son?"

Soarin nodded back to him, a smile growing upon his face, "Sounds like a good idea, sir."




Upon entering the room where the two mares had gone to, Soarin was instantly hugged by his marefriend as her mother gave a laugh.

"Ah, good, he's breathing," Firefly noted with a grin.

Soarin wrapped a hoof around Rainbow and looked around the room, seeing that it was a study of sorts, "What are you guys up to?"

Firefly lifted up a book off the table she and Dash had been using moments before and showed it to the visitor, "Looking through Dashie's embarassing baby pictures, of course."

Rainbow dashed off of Soarin and tried grabbing the book from her mother, but the pink mare managed to sidestep her. Rainbow crashed into the wall and groaned as her mother brought the book over to Soarin, "Mooom!"

"What? You were a cute baby."

Soarin ignored the book and flew over to Dash, putting a hoof on her back and rubbing it, "She's still cute, in my opinion."

Dash crossed her front hooves and scowled, her head hurting from her collision, "Thanks a lot, Soarin."

Her father then decided to chip in, "She is still a bit of a baby it seems."

Dash took to the air, floating in the room and pointing a hoof at her father, "Hey! What is this? Everypony's turning against me!"

Taking something off of the table she had been using, Firefly walked over to Soarin and wrapped a hoof around the Wonderbolt, "Calm down Dashie. You're our little girl. It'll be hard to kick our parental instincts that cause us to embarrass you."

Dash's father followed suit, grabbing something off the table and wrapping a hoof around Soarin, to the latter's confusion and slight discomfort, "At least we aren't blowing you kisses or anything else along those lines, Dashie."

Rainbow groaned and placed a hoof on her head. This was going to be a long visit.



On the way out after a delightful visit, Soarin gave Rainbow a big smile, "That went better than I expected," he lfited his wings up and laughed, "I still even have all my feathers."

Closing the front door behind them, Rainbow began to respond, "Yeah, I'm pretty surprised-" her eyes caught something on Soarin's back and she smirked, "Wait just a sec."

Soarin tilted his head, "What's-?" a quick kick to the gut caught him off guard and knocked the wind out of him, knocking him off of his feet. After a moment he caught his breath and yelled, "Hey, what was that for?!"

Rainbow shrugged, pointing to his back, "You were asking for it."

Soarin looked towards where she was pointing and poked a hoof there, coming back with a pair of sticky notes on his hoof, "Asking for it h-?"

Rainbow, having read both of them, leant in to her coltfriend and kissed him on the lips, "You were asking for that too. Thanks for coming with me to visit my family."

Soarin looked down at his hoof and read the 'Kick me' and 'Kiss me' notes that had been left on his back, "It...it was my pleasure. Please don't make me do it again."

"It wasn't that bad, was it? I thought my parents were pretty cool!"

"They're just fine, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack every moment! I didn't want to say something wrong or stupid, and every moment felt like it was in slow motion."

Rainbow helped Soarin up and gave him a brief hug, "Well, thanks again. I promise that we can wait a week or two before visiting again."

Soarin's eyes became the size of plates and Rainbow laughed, patting the poor stallion on the back, "Just pulling your leg. You're great, Soarin."

"You're pretty great yourself, Dashie," Soarin gave a sigh before leaning forward and nuzzling his face against Rainbow's, "I love you."

Rainbow looked around for a moment and, when she was sure no-one was looking, returned the gesture, "I love you too, goof."



Unknown to Rainbow, her parents were looking out of one of their second story windows down at the couple and the clouds beneath them all. Seeing the couple's antics made Firefly grin before leaning on her own special somepony.

"So, do you like him?"

"He's okay," came the succinct reply.

"You were the one that put the 'Kiss me' note on him for Dash to find. So you going to stick with only 'okay'?"

"Yup. Maybe okay-er than most, but only okay."

"I'm going to take that as you can't stand to see your baby girl all grown up and dating boys, but are also so happy and proud at the same time."

"No comment."

> Meet the Scootaloo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: And four entire months later, I return! What am I, Rorshach in Equestria? Nah, that would mean I put a ton of effort into this. No no no, this is just for fun's sake purely. Literally this chapter is a birthday gift, like the last one, but only this time it is to me for my 18th birthday. Sure could use something fun like this for the news I've been getting the past few days...

Anyways, my birthday was this past Tuesday so I got the idea for this next installment in the "Meet the..." series after I went and saw Pacific Rim with my mother who bought me more Kaiju films than candy when I was a kid. Now, I normally thank all the people who commented on a story's last chapter, but there are 253 comments as of this moment and that'd be a tough feat. Provided half of them are me responding, but hey, I'll just say thanks to everyone who enjoyed "Meet the Parents"!

Without further adieu, Meet the Scootaloo everyone!






It was date day. Tuesday specifically. Soarin managed to have enough free time to spend the whole afternoon and the early night with his marefriend, Rainbow Dash, every week since they became special someponies.

So, Soarin fully expected this Tuesday to go like all the others when he arrived at Rainbow Dash’s cloud home with a bouquet of flowers in hoof. A push on the door revealed that it was locked, something unusual for a Tuesday. After all, Dash was expecting him, and she wasn’t into the whole sweet knocking on the door, greeting one another, embracing, being invited in, kind of thing.

She expected him to just come in and make himself at home. But that’s why Soarin was caught off guard when the door was not to be opened by a simple push.

“Dash, you home?” the confused colfriend called out, hoping that Rainbow could hear him within.

Seconds went by and the day’s sun continued to shine down on the cloud home and the light blue stallion continued to wait for some kind of response. None came, however, and Soarin soon found himself fumbling with his spare key. Dash had given it to him a bit ago in case he ever forgot something Wonderbolts related at her house and really needed to grab it.

Or so she said. Soarin had just accepted it graciously, and now found himself glad he had it.

“Dash?” he called out again as he entered the house, only to find upon entering that all of the lights were out in the house of varying blues. It was still daytime so visibility wasn’t much of an issue, and this was for the best since it allowed Soarin to see a piece of paper laying on a nearby piece of furniture that was not there the last time he visited.

Soarin trotted over to the paper and placed his flowers down, finding himself in the living room of the house. The paper in hoof, he read Dash’s terrible pensmenship from it.

“Soarin, I’m sorry but I have something real important I need to go to and got to run. I’ll be back by tonight if you still want to go out. Love, Dash,” Soarin tilted his head as he pondered just what his marefriend was doing, “Huh. Wonder what’s come up?”

Something caught the pale blue pony’s eye in the corner of the room that only added to his curiosity: a cardboard box with what appeared to be a scooter, a few books, and a blanket laying inside of it.

Soarin inspected the objects for another moment before putting the paper in his hoof down, “That’s odd,” he turned back towards the still open door, having forgotten to close it, “Oh well. No use staying here I guess. I’ll just come back later.”

Soarin shut the door behind him on his way out as he thought about just what he should do next since he had a few hours to kill, “Maybe I’ll pick up some pie to kill the time. That place with the prodigy babies ought to have some I bet!”

He remembered visiting the place with Dash before, and he distinctly remembered just how great their pies were. They tasted just like that great one from the Gala! But, Soarin wondered, since when could foals fly and use magic? Some fillies couldn’t even do that, he thought incredulously as he spread his wings and prepared to take flight.

He had pie to eat.





“Awww, there’s a party going on! How am I supposed to get pie now?”

Upon his quick arrival at the nearby sweets shop the first thing that caught Soarin’s attention were the loud voices coming from inside of Sugarcube Corner and that about a half dozen pony figures were moving about inside of it.

Soarin, determined to get pie, took a closer look at the window and tried to see if the owners were inside and not busy. His search stopped quickly after his eyes caught sight of a more interesting thing instead.

“Wait, is that Rainbow Dash in there?” Soarin frowned as he looked inside the shop at his marefriend who was conversing with some small orange pegasus filly with a purple mane, “Wonder why she didn’t just tell me where she was going to be? Did she not want me to come?”

His staring activated his special somepony’s sixth sense though, and Rainbow Dash quickly caught sight of him in the window. With a pat on the head for the filly next to her, she quickly dashed to the door and came out to greet him, “Hey Soarin! Sorry bout leaving ya hanging, but I promised to come to this party before I said I would go on our date. I just forgot the day and all and had to run quick to not let Scootaloo down!”

Soarin nodded, having come to understand in the past few weeks that Dash’s ability to tell time was less than stellar. Maybe she should wear a watch, he thought. Even a drawn on watch would make her think about time more.

“Scootaloo...why does that name sound familiar?”

Dash laughed as she playfully socked him on the shoulder, “Because I’ve told you about her like a hundred times, duh! She’s a filly from around here who started the official Rainbow Dash fanclub,” her face was glowing and smug as she finished her sentence, only to become aloof as she went on, “It’s kind of her birthday and I’m having my friend Pinkie Pie throwing her a party.”

Soarin felt quite interested in meeting a filly that Rainbow Dash liked that much and spoke up as such, “Cool! Can I come in?”

“Uhh...” came Dash’s voice, the mare suddenly becoming lost in thought.

The fact that Rainbow Dash was looking nervous made Soarin nervous too, so he put a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her, “What’s wrong Dash?”

Rainbow’s eyes fell to the ground beneath them, “Well, you see, I...”

Her voice trailed off again and Soarin felt himself frowning again. Something was off with Dash, and he wanted to find out. Before he could inquire though she spoke again, an unsure inflection to her voice, but now she was looking him in the eye.

“I’m not sure if I should introduce you to her yet. I mean, I’ve kind of taken her under my wing and...I don’t know, I’m just not exactly sure if I should introduce her to my coltfriend yet. You see, I...”

Soarin pulled Dash in for an embrace with a warm smile on his muzzle, “It’s okay Dash. You should go and have fun with her-”

He never finished that sentence, for an orange and purple blur blasted out of the shop and barreled right towards the two lovebirds, the blur revealing itself to be a small filly, “Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh! Rainbow-Dash-it’s-a-Wonderbolt! What’s-a-Wonderbolt-doing-here-”

Rainbow Dash removed herself from Soarin and placed a hoof on the filly’s mouth to stop the verbal onslaught, “Breathe.”

The filly nodded and Rainbow Dash removed her hoof, the orange child taking a deep breath before letting out a bashful, “Hehe, sorry about that,” clearing her throat, the filly turned all her attention on Soarin who was in a state of amusement, “I’m Scootaloo! It’s so awesome to meet you, mister Soarin!”

While not an egomaniac like his marefriend could be at times, Soarin did have an ego one could play to like any superstar could have: He quickly found himself smiling down to the filly as she fluttered in place with wings flapping in excitement, “Oh, so you know about me?”

Scootaloo lifted her nose in the air and scoffed, “Pfft, as if I wouldn’t know my idol’s idol! You’re one of the best Wonderbolts ever, not to mention fliers!” her tone dialed down though when a thought came to her mind, “But what’s an important Wonderbolt official like you doing here? Are you here to tell Rainbow Dash she’s finally a full fledged Wonderbolt and-”

Following Dash’s lead, Soarin stuck a hoof in Scootaloo’s mouth to stop her, “Slow down, kiddo. I was just coming to get some pie when I saw Dash here.”

The filly nodded as she took the information in, but her head bob slowed when she noticed just how close the two blue ponies were standing to one another. A brow raised in confusion, but Rainbow Dash spoke before her number one fan could question it, “Scootaloo, Soarin is...” the mare took in a breath and let it out before finishing, “Soarin is my coltfriend.”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened until they looked like dish saucers, her mouth’s smile growing the same way before the filly fluttered in the air in pure excitemnt, “Ohmygosh, that’s awesome Rainbow Dash!” upon landing Scootaloo cleared her throat and her eyebrow rose again, a thought having struck her mind, “But wait, don’t the Wonderbolts have rules against that kind of thing?”

Soarin laughed, “Of course not! Why would anypony stop anypony from being with who they want to be with?”

Rainbow bonked Scootaloo lightly on the forehead to the Filly’s consternation, “Don’t mind her. She’s just been reading a lot about fictional societies and I bet she’s picked up some odd ideas along the way.”

“Reading’s fun though!” Scootaloo pouted indignantly which only managed to amuse Dash.

Dash rubbed Scootaloo’s head affectionately and Soarin smiled at the sight, the blue mare speaking with a fun tone, “You’re right, but I’m thinking we should get back to your party, missy,” Dash looked up to Soarin and smirked, having come to a decision, “The three of us.”

Scootaloo nodded before rearing up and running full speed back into the shop, “Well then come on, we’re about to play pin the tail on the pony!” she called over her shoulder as she ran inside.

Dash chuckled and turned to Soarin, stating the obvious, “She’s a bit energetic.”

Her coltfriend nodded to her, “Balances out your sloth-”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

Her tone had been cheerful, so Soarin had thought himself in a safe zone in poking fun at her, “What? You are a bit laz-” a quick kick to the side knocked both his confidence and wind out of him though, “Shutting up now.”

The blue duo entered Sugarcube Corner with Dash leading the way, and of course they drew all the room’s eyes upon doing so. First Dash had run out and then Scootaloo, so the remaining ponies had been curious where the main ponies of this party were going, and now they had their answer.

“Hey guys, does anypony mind if Soarin joins us for a bit? I kind of had to skip our date so I could be here!”

A white coated mare with a purple mane and a fanciful accent responded to Dash’s question with a smile, “Why of course he can join us. It would be so uncouth to just leave him out while he’s already here.”

Soarin took in the inhabitants of the room with a quick glance: besides Dash, Scootaloo and him, there were two more fillies, the white pony, and a familiar-ish orange coated mare with blonde hair.

Soarin didn’t have long enough to remember why the orange coated mare looked familiar before a yellow and red blur caught his attention, a filly suddenly appearing on top of a table next to where he was standing so that they were at eye level, “Are yah a Wonderbolt like Scootaloo says?”

The Wonderbolt opened his mouth to say yes when he felt his leg get lifted up, a white filly with cotton candy hair being the offender as she observed the limb, “How do you leave behind those magical trails when you fly if you can’t do magic?”

The yellow filly poked his head with a hoof to steal his attention again, “What’s it like being uh Wonderbolt?”

Soarin’s leg dropped to the ground suddenly as the white coated filly looked with glee between him and the mare beside him, “How’d you meet Rainbow Dash?”

Soarin bit his lip nervously, never having been swarmed by children before, and tried to utter some kind of response but soon found himself with no need of giving one as blue aura surrounded the white filly. The filly soon found herself in mid dair and floating towards the other white mare in the room who was partially amused by the display, “One question at a time, darlings. Give the poor stallion some room to breathe.”

The orange mare spoke next with a southern twang similar to her family member, “Apple Bloom, what have ah told you about climbing on tables?”

The yellow filly leapt down from the furniture with a sheepish, “Oops.”

Family safe from falling, the orange coated mare looked to Soarin with a warm smile, “Ah, long time no see Sugarcube.”

The pieces in Soarin’s mind clicked together and the pegasus beamed as he remembered who the mare was, “Hey, you’re the pie pony from the Gala!”

Rainbow elbowed Soarin in the gut playfully as she addressed her friend, “Thanks for selling him that pie, Applejack. Let me save it in the end.”

Applejack gave a small nod back, “Yer both welcome. Ah’m just glad yer coltfriend was kind enuff to buy somethin’ there. Didn’t expect it ta help ya get a stallion though, Dash.”

Soarin chuckled before looking around the room hungrily, “It was more than that, but while we’re talking about pie I actually came here looking for some! There wouldn’t be any around, would there?”

The pale blue stallion found himself bumped onto the floor as a pink pony appeared as if from nowhere and crashed into him, five pie boxes stacked in her hooves as she chirped, “Five apple pies ready to go! Applejack helped me make them earlier today before we set up the party, so they’re all fresh and yummy still!”

Soarin, caught off guard, tried to regain his composure from the sudden entrance, “Oh...why thank you. How much for the pies?”

The pink pony giggled as she placed the pies by his hooves, “I already added it to Dashie’s bill, silly! I mean, why talk about bits when we should be partying? You two can work that out later! Okey doki Loki?” The odd pony started to leave the room at a much slower pace than she entered, all the while speaking under her breath, “Note to self, Loki needs to visit more. Must get Twilight to ask other princesses to help in this matter.”

Soarin just blinked and nodded as the odd being left, “Is she always this...weird?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it,” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“Okay then,” Soarin replied with a shrug, eyes and attention now on the pies by his legs. Beautiful, delicious, home made-

A high pitched and cracking voice belonging to the white coated filly shook him from his pie reverie, “So mister Wonderbolt, are you going to come play with us?”

Soarin stood back up and shrugged, a grin on his face as he looked about the party room, “Well, I’m not against having fun, so why not?”





Some many zany hours later Soarin found himself wrapping up his pies to carry in two large saddlebags the pink one had tossed him randomly during the event’s proceedings. He had some fun with the group, even if it was a little kid’s party. Dash was there and the fillies were all pretty cool, especially Scootaloo who was so cute playing with Dash in the party.

A day full of interruptions was not let down when the tomboyish voice of Scootaloo appeared next to Soarin, the two alone by the doorway as the others gathered their own things, “Why are you dating Rainbow Dash?”

Soarin, nervous and unsure what to say to the filly, decided to deflect the question, “Uhhh, hey Scootaloo. Aren’t you busy with wrapping the party up?”

“Nope. Rainbow Dash said she’s got it and would be back in a flash,” Scootaloo plopped her flank down beside him and looked up to the much larger pony, “You didn’t answer my question though.”

Not exactly used to handling kids, Soarin tried his best to not reveal his nervousness, “Well, Rainbow Dash is great and I really, really like her. She’s fun, she’s tough and there aren’t that many other mares who can keep up with me. There’s a lot of reasons I’d like to date her.”

A simple silent nod was followed with another, apparently unrelated, question, “Where do you come from?”

“Cloudsdale,” Soarin stated proudly, “Been living there most my life, outside of the Wonderbolts that is.”

Another nod and another question, the filly’s face revealing to Soarin that she was pensive about something, “How much older than Dash are you?”

Now it was Soarin’s turn that day to raise a brow, “A few years...why? I feel like I’m in a job interview.”

“No reason,” Scootaloo replied quickly, as if she was hiding something. Silence hung in the air a moment before she asked, “Ever taught somepony to fly?”

Soarin bit his lip, unsure how to exactly answer that, “Yes and no. I’ve taught ponies how to refine their basic flight skills into something special, but I’ve never taught somepony how to fly from scratch.”

“Who do you like better, Princess Celestia or Princess Luna?”

That one caught Soarin off guard and he found himself stuttering, “Uhhh, well, uhhh....Well, I like nighttime more than daytime and since I don’t personally know the princesses I can’t exactly choose beyond that...so Luna? Maybe?”

Scootaloo smiled a little bit which had the effect of easing some of Soarin’s tension, even if he didn’t know how he did it. Then another question to nopony’s surprise, “Do you like Mare Do Well?”

The Wonderbolt smirked, “Read the series even before Dash tried making me. I’d prefer if they hadn’t made that last one though.”

Scootaloo nodded, “Fastest you’ve ever flown?”

Soarin found himself baffled by the myriad of questions, but decided to play along even if this topic embarassed him a little, “I’m not the fastest Wonderbolt I’ll admit, but I make up for it with control and technique.”

“So Rainbow Dash could beat you?” Scootaloo asked somewhat innocently but mostly in a matter-of-fact manner.

“Not always! If the race is a straight line she’d beat me every time, but throw obstacles in and she can barely keep up with me!”

Scootaloo looked from her own blank flank to the stallion’s, “Why’s your cutie mark the Wonderbolt symbol?”

“Well, that’s a bit complicated you see. I got it when-”

The conversation, true to form, was interrupted (to Soarin’s glee) by Rainbow Dash who approached the two from behind, “Hey guys, I’m back! That was pretty fun, huh Scoots?”

Scootaloo jumped up and wrapped her front hooves around Rainbow Dash’s leg, glee simply emanating from the filly, “I had the best time of my life!” the filly nuzzled its head and purple mane into Rainbow’s chest for a moment before turning back to face Soarin, “Did you have fun mister Soarin?”

The Wonderbolt gave a small smile, not about to reveal that parties and things for young fillies were not his favorite, but he did enjoy the company in the end, “It was...interesting. In a good way. I didn’t know fillies could be that loud though.”

“Hey, I can be as loud as I want!” Scootaloo replied with a loud voice fit for Pinkie Pie, and painful for poor Dash who was directly beside her.

As Rainbow Dash rubbed an ear with a hoof Scootaloo put on a sheepish face, “Hehe, whoops, forgot you were right there.”

Rainbow Dash just gave her trademark smirk to the filly as she rubbed her purple mane, “Don’t mind that blockhead. I’m just glad you had fun, no matter the volume.”

Scootaloo instantly resumed glomping the blue mare’s leg and nuzzling into her, “Thank you so much Rainbow Dash! This has to be the best day ever!”

While the energetic filly continued this display Soarin had something on his mind he felt like voicing, “So what now? Is that it?”

Rainbow Dash looked up to him with a blushing face, telling herself she only was allowing this sappy display because it was Scootaloo’s birthday, “Well, I was planning on taking Scoots to the theater.”

“Ponyville has one of those? I didn’t know you liked plays.”

Dash sighed and shook her head, exasperated by his misunderstanding, “Movie theater, Soarin. We were going to see Paddock Rim. Care to come hang with us?”

Remembering his own viewing of the movie, Soarin nodded before growing hesitant, “Sure, but isn’t that movie a bit...mature for a filly?”

Scootaloo instantly stopped her face nuzzling to jump away from Dash and jab a hoof in Soarin’s direction, her face appearing as tough as she could manage, “I’m not a scaredy-pony, I can take it!”

Rainbow put a hoof on Scootaloo’s head to ruffle her hair, “I’m sure you can, Scoots. Soarin here just is remembering how he was about ready to fly out of the theater when we saw it. Isn’t that right, Soarin?”

“You said you wouldn’t tell anypony!” Soarin declared in anguish, causing both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash to start laughing their flanks off.

Between laughs Scootaloo choked out, “It’s okay mister Soarin, everypony is scared of something.”

“Some more than others,” Dash whispered, only to send both of them into a new fit of laughter.

Soarin decided to take a stand against the female duo, “It’s okay Dash, remember that I can name a few things that scare you too.”

“Hah, Rainbow Dash isn’t scared of anything!” Scootaloo declared proudly.

“Is that right? Then why won’t she come visit my parent’s house after I went to hers already? Or how about when she choked up before the young flier’s competition-”

Now Rainbow jabbed a hoof in front of Soarin’s mouth, cutting her coltfriend off, “Enough about me, how about we go and see the movie?”

A big smile with all teeth showing was Scootaloo’s way of showing her excitement, along with the fluttering of her small wings, “Can we get a ton of popcorn?”

Rainbow Dash pushed the filly towards the door in a signal to get going, “Of course we can. Wouldn’t be much of a movie without some!” the mare turned to Soarin with a cheeky smile as she mimicked Rarity’s voice, “Soarin will go and get the free refills, won’t you darling?”

Soarin chuckled a bit, “I just can’t win today, can I?”

“More refills you go and get, the less alien gore you’ll see,” Rainbow stated as a fact.

That made him smile.

Scootaloo grabbed an object with wheels off the wall and opened the door, slapping a helmet on as she began to leave, “Come on, if we don’t get going we’re going to be late!”

Soarin observed the small contraption Scootaloo now rode away from Sugarcube Corner with and started to voice this curiosity when he was once again cut off, this time with a stare, “Is that a-”

Rainbow Dash’s serious glare halted his words, but her eyes quickly softened and she made her way past him out the door, “Well, let’s get going! I can’t wait to see it again!”

Soarin shrugged at the sudden mood whiplash of his marefriend and chalked it up to her being a girl, and soon found himself running after the two with him pies in tow in his bags.





One long monster beat em up later, the trio of pegasi found themselves outside the theater late at night. Late for Scootaloo that was, for she was about to fall over on her scooter and her eyes were mostly closed.

Rainbow Dash scooped Scootaloo into her hooves and smiled down at the tired filly, “It’s getting late, huh? You have school tomorrow, so we’d better get you to sleep.”

“I’m not tired...” said the filly who couldn’t finish the sentence due to being asleep in the furry hooves of Rainbow Dash. Both Soarin and Rainbow smiled down at the orange filly as she slept peacefully, her half on helmet falling to the ground as she shifted a little.

Soarin reached for the filly, unable to stop a larger smile from forming on his face as he looked at the cute filly, “Here, I got her. I’m better at flying with passengers than you.”

Rainbow Dash relented and handed Scootaloo over, the filly remaining dead asleep, and picked up her helmet and scooter instead, “Just because I dropped you that one time doesn’t mean I am bad at carrying ponies, it means you eat too much pie.”

Soarin stuck his tongue out at her before taking off. Once in the air, he found that he had no idea where he was supposed to bring this filly. Shouldn’t her parents be worried she was out this late? “Where are we going by the way?”

“My house,” Rainbow Dash stated plainly, giving no explanation.

Soarin nodded before processing that information, “Oh, okay-” they were dozens of feet in the air before his brain clicked, “Wait, what?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t respond to him, instead flying silently towards her home with Soarin beside her. Her face was mostly composed, but Soarin knew her well enough to know that her being quiet of all things was definitely a sign that all things were not okay, “Is everything okay, Dashie?”

Rainbow gave off a small sigh, “Yeah, I guess I’m just kind of feeling, well, anxious...”

“What about?”

She didn’t respond in an instant, instead biting her lip as she thought about how to phrase what she was going to say, “I’m thinking about adopting Scootaloo since she doesn’t have a family. She’s been living with me a couple days now and I just have been thinking it’d make sense, but I...” Rainbow looked over to Soarin to meet his eyes, her own showing a wariness not common in the mare, “I’m cool with being like her big sister, but by taking her in I’m not sure I can be a mom to her too.”

Soarin did his best not to drop his jaw. Rainbow Dash, miss reckless and danger, thinking about adopting a young kid? That was something he didn’t see coming, “Wow, I can see why you’re nervous. This is a big thing for you,” Soarin replaced any shock on his face with a warm grin, trying to cheer her up, “But whatever you do, I’m behind you all the way Dash! She seems like a great filly, and I don’t think many others out there deserve someone as great as you to take care of them.”

Dash wanted to nuzzle with him for his support, but didn’t do so because of their flight, “Thank you Soarin. It means a lot to me,” after a brief moment of thinking, Rainbow came up with an idea, “You wouldn’t mind helping me though, would you? I mean, I know it’s asking a lot, but I’m not sure I can do this by myself.”

The Wonderbolt nodded to her happily, “I love you Dashie. Of course I’ll help you in whatever way I can.”

“You’re so sweet. Be careful, or else Pinkie might think you’re candy!” the blue mare let out a content sigh, “And after I think about it a bit more, I think I’ll talk to Twilight when she’s not busy. She’ll know what I need to do to adopt Scootaloo. She even knows what its like to raise a child because of Spike.”

“Is Spike the dragon I’ve heard about?” there weren’t many dragons amongst ponykind, so Soarin thought he’d ask given what he’d been able to learn from time with Rainbow Dash’s friends.

“The one and only. I haven’t been able to tell if Twilight’s like his mom or sister, but I guess in this case it doesn’t matter since I’ll be kind of both to Scootaloo.”

Soarin looked down to the sleeping filly in his hooves, her orange fur pressed up close against his due to his tight hold, “Does she know?”

Rainbow Dash’s face became a bit more neutral at that question, as if it were something she didn’t particularly like, “I’m not entirely sure. I’m not even sure if she’ll want me to. I’ve got to talk to her about it.”

“She worships the ground you walk on and the air you fly through, I’m pretty sure she would love to have a better bond with you. I know I like sharing one with you!”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him playfully, “How’d Spitfire ever let somepony so goofy and cheesey into the Wonderbolts?”

“She’s much more relaxed off duty, ya know. Even uses an entirely different voice!”

The Wonderbolt in training laughed because of the truth in his statement, “You know, you’re right. Kind of odd,” calming down, Dash’s tone became inquisitive and sweet, “Hey Soarin?”

“Yes Dash?”

“You said you like-like me.”

He scoffed playfully, “Is saying love really that hard?”

“More ya use it the less it means. Anyways, I was thinking-”

“A dangerous prospect,” he snarked, knowing he could only get away with it since she wouldn’t dare hit him while he was caring Scootaloo mid air.

“Hey, I’m not dumb!” Dash replied in a vindictive whisper before settling back into her previous voice, “So, what I was going to ask was if you love me enough to be there with me when I break the news to my parents about Scoots?”

Soarin’s eyes blanked, staring off into space.

“Soarin?......Soarin? You okay there?”

“Soarin? Oh my gosh, did I break him?”
> Meet the (small) Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: In keeping with the birthday-release theme, this chapter is dedicated to my closest high school friend Sam whose birthday is today! Smartest kid I've ever known, and where I went to school that really means something! Happy birthday Sam, even if you won't ever see this shoutout.

Thanks to everyone who commented on "Meet the Scootaloo"! You guys helped this chapter be released much sooner than the next likely date, October 31st (mother's birthday AND Halloween), so thank you again and I hope to hear from you again!

If someone catches every reference in this chapter they should get a medal. Not from me, but they should get one. I'd suggest Kuwagata.

Enjoy!






It wasn’t very long after Scootaloo’s birthday that Soarin noticed his special somepony return to a less nervous state of being, and he had a pretty good guess when visiting her house one night why that was.

“How’d it go?” he asked with a grin towards Rainbow, who was currently laying down on her couch with her eyes glued to a television.

Rainbow grew a grin of her own, turning the television off with a remote as she turned to face Soarin, “Pretty well, actually. You see-”





It was late and time for a certain filly to go to bed when Rainbow Dash managed to gather her courage. For some reason talking to a cute, young filly was more nerve wracking than facing down a manticore or dragon, and she wasn’t even sure about how to do this.

Scootaloo was humming to herself happily in bed, Daring Do plush at her side as she waited for the mare sitting on her bed to say something.

“Sooo, Scootaloo...”

Scootaloo replied in the absence of her idol speaking, her own tone being chipper, “Yes Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow rubbed a hoof across the back of her head and twitched an ear, still trying to put what she wanted to say into words, “I was thinking...” she still hadn’t met Scootaloo’s large eyes, instead biting her lip a little more before glancing toward the orange child, “How would you like to hang out here with me for more than a little while?”

Scootaloo, having been freaking out over the possibility of maybe living with Rainbow Dash for good at school the past few days, tried to feign innocence, “What do you mean?”

“Do you...do you want to live with me?” Rainbow managed to get out, but her nerve wracked feelings brought her to add, “I mean, it’s fine if-”

Scootaloo jumping up and wrapping their hooves around her in a tight hug cut Rainbow Dash off, “Of course I would love to live here with you! That would be AWESOME!”

The blue adult wrapped her own hoof around the filly, “Hehe, I’m glad you like the idea.”

Retracting slightly from her embrace, Scootaloo looked up to Rainbow Dash with a gaze of curiosity, “So wait, are you going to be like my sister or like my mom?”

Rainbow tilted her head as she thought it over, not having really thought out how this would all work like many things in her life, “Well, I guess I’ll have to be a bit of both, like Applejack is to Apple Bloom.”

That statement got Scootaloo to raise her brow, “Wait, Applejack’s Apple Bloom’s mom?”

In turn Rainbow Dash tried to rectify the situation, albeit to little effect, “Uhhh, no, er, maybe, I mean, kind of-” after a brief pause a perfect explanation came to mind for the blue mare and she went for it, “She’s a mom-sister figure to Apple Bloom who does what she can to take care of her. Get what I’m saying?”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo cheered, hugging Rainbow Dash again, before stating in an unsure voice, “I think?”

Rainbow laughed and rubbed the purple mane next to her while wearing a warm smile, “Hey Scootaloo?”

“Yeah Rainbow Dash?”

“Just don’t act all this mushy in public. A girl’s got a reputation to keep.”





Upon the story’s conclusion, Soarin gave his special somepony’s face a nuzzle with his own, “I’d say it went well!” retracting his head, the stallion asked, “So, what now?”

Rainbow Dash yawned, the hour being so late in the day the princess of the night was taking over her duties, “Just have to fill out some paperwork and Scootaloo is officially my little filly.”

“You’ve come quite a ways since I first met you Dashie. The mare I remember at the Young Flyers Competition was quite the egomaniac once she got past her stage fright.”

“Yeah, well, saving Equestria and learning life lessons with your friends seemingly every week might have had something to do with that,” Rainbow sardonically replied, not liking the level of sappiness things were getting to.

Soarin rolled his eyes at her tone before nudging her with a hoof softly, “Just promise me you won’t mellow out completely! You wouldn’t be half as fun.”

Dash rolled off her back and stood up on top of the couch so that she then was elevated above Soarin, sticking her nose up and laughing, “Aw heck no, of course I’m not going to get as soft as Fluttershy! I’m Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s number one flier, and nopony is going to change that!”

Soarin narrowed his eyes and his warm smile changed to a smug one, “You mean number two.”

That response made the haughty mare look down at him and scoff, “Care to put your money where your muzzle is?”

The paler blue pony turned around and closed his eyes, the smug grin remaining on his face, “Not really, no, since we both know it’s true Dash,” his eyes opened when a lack of commotion and noise caught his attention, “Hey, where is Scootaloo anyways?”

Rainbow hopped off the couch, landing gracefully, and blinked a moment before responding, “She’s, uh...finishing up a club meeting with her friends. I should probably pick her up soon...”

Soarin wanted to sigh, since Dash had obviously forgot completely about having to pick Scootaloo up at some point, but kept his countenance neutral to not make her begin doubting herself. Despite his lack of condescension Rainbow’s face still faltered and she let out a small sigh, head hanging.

“What’s with the face?”

Dash looked up at Soarin with eyes not containing any of the pride they did only a minute ago, “Can you do it? I don’t think I can now that I remembered something.”

Soarin rose his brow, not being aversive to the idea but also not understanding the reasoning, “Remind me why I’m doing this again?”

“Because you love me?” Dash joked weakly.

Eyes rolled, “I meant why you can’t just do it.”

Rainbow let out a nervous laugh while running to the door, “I promised I’d help out Twilight with some chores at the library after I kind of wrecked it with a stunt...again,” Soarin heard the door open and his marefriend call from it, “I should actually be there now, so have fun! It’s the only clubhouse by the Apple Family farm forest!”

Soarin opened his mouth to object that he doesn’t really know where the clubhouse was despite that information, but the door shut as his partially irresponsible special somepony ran to do something she probably should have been doing instead of watching television.

Soarin couldn’t help be both amused and exasperated. Dash was dutiful and would never not do something vital or job related, but she had a teency-eency bit of a problem with things beyond that as a result of her laziness.

Scootaloo was going to either adapt to that or change that pretty quickly he was sure.

“Well...here’s hoping for the best.”





“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS!”

It took Soarin more time than he would have liked to find the clubhouse, but given how the day’s light was fading fast and it wasn’t in the most obvious of places he supposed he did the best he could. A helpful tip from a stargazing pony by the name of...Cabbage? No, that was lunch to counterbalance the pie for breakfast. Orion was the name, Soarin thought for sure.

Given the night’s darkness, having somepony who likes seeing the bright stars out was a good coincidence on Soarin’s behalf and the Wonderbolt had quickly found the clubhouse and...all it contained.

The three fillies from Scootaloo’s birthday party were screaming loudly about something when Soarin arrived on the outside of the place. He tapped a hoof on the open doorway and gave a nervous smile as he intruded on their...activity.

The sound of a power drill and a saw cutting both stopped as Soarin spoke, “Uhhh, hello there.”

Scootaloo, wearing a welding mask for some unfathomable reason to him, turned around first and squeaked, “Ohmygoshohmygosh!” she tossed the mask aside and ran over to him. The filly cleared her throat before speaking, obviously trying to act cool after her previous squeak,  “H-hey mister Soarin!”

Soarin smiled down to her, still a bit nervous that these fillies were doing such...dangerous activities for...some reason, “Hey there...” he looked past Scootaloo at whatever contraption they were making that now had seven legs to stand on, two of which were facing upwards, “Should fillies be using power tools?”

Scootaloo looked back at the odd contraption, “What, this?” the filly shrugged nonchalantly, “Meh, we’ve done more dangerous stuff.”

The white coated filly in the room rubbed her chin with a hoof, scrutinizing the terrible table-thing, “Haven’t we done this before?”

The other one, who Soarin remembered being named Apple Bloom, shrugged as if it didn’t matter, and the white coated one did the same back.

What Scootaloo said still worried Soarin, who was trying his absolute hardest and best to not freak out as a reasonably responsible adult, “More dangerous?”

The white coated one jumped up in the air with a happy face and squeaky voice, “Yeah, a lot more dangerous!” the, admittedly adorable, filly’s expression deflated upon landing however, “I’m still bummed we didn’t get our fillynapped cutie marks though...”

The one known as Apple Bloom gave a nervous chuckle before putting a hoof over her friend’s mouth, “Hehe, don’t mind ‘er. She doesn’t relly think before she talks,”

The white unicorn filly pushed the hoof away and gave an indignant cry, “Hey, I reserve that remark!”

Scootaloo sighed and shook her head beside Soarin, “It’s resent.”

The unicorn gave a huff, “What are you, a dictionary?”

Apple Bloom spoke next, Soarin deciding not to get in the middle of things, “I think the word you meant was resemble.”

Before the argument could prolong, Soarin patted Scootaloo on the head and spoke in a voice loud enough to grab everypony’s attention while not sounding like a yell, “Well then, Rainbow Dash sent me here to pick up Scootaloo, so we’d best be going!”

Apple Bloom walked over to Soarin and sat down in front of him, giving him better puppy dog eyes than her pet Winona could manage, “Awww, can’t you stay for a bit?”

“As much as I’d love to-” Soarin started, but never finished. His eyes were drawn to the adorable filly in front of him with a cute bow on her head. He tore them away from the moe creature, only to see Scootaloo giving him the same face on the side of him. A turn in the other direction and the unicorn was doing the same.

His thoughts at the time were something along the line of: Too...cute...this should be outlawed.

“I...guess I could stick around a little longer.”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! the three cried out, their faces shifting from pitiable to extreme joy.

Soarin felt his nervous smile grow back on his face, “You all are pretty energetic, aren’t you?”

“YUUUP!” the unicorn yelled happily, glad that Scootaloo and the Wonderbolt would be staying longer.

Soarin put a hoof to his own mouth a made a shhhh noise, “Inside voices.”

“Okay,” the white unicorn filly replied in a soft whisper.

After seeing the power tool display and the monstrosity of a thing it led to, Soarin fashioned himself curious about this place, “So...what is it that you fillies do here?”

Scootaloo jumped and fluttered a bit beside him in joy, “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so we try to find our special talents!”

Apple Bloom stepped towards Soarin and looked right up at him, not seeming to know that he already knew her name by how her sister said it the other day, “I’m Apple Bloom by the way! Sorry ah didn’t say who ah was the other day.”

“And I’m Sweetie Belle!” the white unicorn chipped in cheerfully, her voice beginning to creep back up while also cracking a bit.

Curious by their group name, a glance to all three of the fillies revealed something to Soarin he hadn’t really thought about before in regards to them, “Wait, all three of you still don’t have cutie marks?”

Scootaloo snickered and rolled her eyes in a way that would make Rainbow Dash proud, “Well duuuuuh, if we did it would be pretty silly to be trying to get them if we had them, wouldn’t it?”

Soarin scrunched his face up, trying to think this over. These fillies all were pretty old to not have cutie marks, but it wasn’t untold of. He hadn’t gotten his all that early, but then again he knew he was good at flying before he knew it was his special talent.

That gave him an idea.

“Tell me then, what are you three good at?”

Apple Bloom gave a small laugh and a shrug, “We don’t really know, so we try everythin’!”

Sweetie Belle hopped up again, her face gleeful, “Yeah, like the talent fair where we won the comedy award!”

Scootaloo groaned at her friend’s chipper attitude, “They only gave that to us because they thought our singing was so bad it was funny.”

Sweetie Belle had either forgotten or didn’t know this previously, for she stopped dead in her tracks and face became a mix of anger and surprise, “Really?!”

“You guys were in a talent fair? What did you guys do?”

“Well, we sang, did stunts and made props. It...it didn’t go very well,” Scootaloo answered sheepishly.

“I thought it went well...” Sweetie Belle added, albeit dejectedly.

Soarin grinned at Sweetie Belle in an attempt to lift her spirits, “Ahh, don’t feel bad. I’m sure you’re a great singer.”

It did it’s purpose and the filly smiled, although Apple Bloom spoke up just as her friend did so, “Sweetie is pretteh good at singin’, but it isn’t exactly...on key.”

Scootaloo nodded affirmatively, “Well when we were practicing we seemed to do all right...Apple Bloom knew how to make the props, I knew how to do the stunts well, and Sweetie helped me write the song. It...just didn’t come together well.”

“Have you three thought about pursuing what you individually did well at back then? You mind find your talents!” Soarin noted hopefully, beginning to realize these fillies may have hope for them yet.

Apple Bloom shook her head sweetly, “If it was that easy we would have gotten em while we were practicing! There’s no way ah’m good at making stuff, Scootaloo is good at stunts and Sweetie’s supposed to be a singer or anything like that.”

“Suit yourselves. What’s your next plan for getting your Cutie Marks?”

The three gathered together in front of Soarin and looked to one another briefly, Soarin finding himself caught completely off guard when the trio jumped up and yelled in unison, “Cutie Mark Crusader Pirates!”

Sweetie pumped a hoof into the air, “Awesome idea! We can search for treasure and get all of the booty!”

Soarin tried not to snicker at what the innocent child just said while Apple Bloom piped up next, “We’re going to need uh captain.”

Sweetie Belle lowered her hoof to point at her friend, “I vote you!”

Scootaloo nodded and pointed as well, “Agreed! I want the be the ninja-first mate!”

Sweetie’s hoof shot back up, now waving like they were in a classroom, “Ooh, ooh, can I be the navigator?!”

“Sure, why not?” Apple Bloom reasoned soundly.

Soarin rose an eyebrow, “Do you three have a boat?”

The so-called captain of the group ran over to the corner of the room where the pitiable structure they had been builing before Soarin’s arrival lay, “Not at tha moment, but ah’m sure ah can make whun for us!”

“Awesome! I’ll go grab some sticks I can use as swords!” Scootaloo proclaimed proudly, beginning to trot towards the door.

“I’ll draw a map!” Sweetie Belle happily proclaimed. A moment later the filly jabbed a hoof forward and yelled, “Hey, wait a minute!”

Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and Apple Bloom looked over to what Sweetie was now pointing at, “What is it Sweetie Belle?”

Soarin, the thing being pointed at, was very confused as Sweetie proclaimed, “We can be sky pirates!”

The Wonderbolt felt his stomach drop instantly, eyes widening as thoughts of crashing and hurt fillies filled his mind. Luckily for him, Scootaloo climbed on his back and sat down on it, realizing a flaw in her friend’s idea, “Not sure we could all fit on here, Sweetie Belle.”

“But it’d be so much fun!” the cute but ditzy unicorn noted.

Scootaloo spoke up again, “Sky pirates would be stupid anyways. What’d we plunder? A rain cloud?”

“She’s right Sweetie, there aren’t treasures in tha sky,” Apple Bloom reasoned in a know-it-all manner...before asking Soarin, her voice a bit worried, “Right?”

“Sure?” he answered ambiguously in regards to sarcasm and seriousness.

This issue settled, the three fillies jumped to work with a cry from Apple Bloom of, “Get to work everypony!”

Soarin was pretty sure he should stop this, but was also just as curious as to where it’d lead.





An hour and a half later, the group reconvened with Apple Bloom having a roughly carved wooden boat ready and able to fit out the door, Sweetie holding a crudely drawn map of all of Ponyville and the surrounding area to her knowledge, and Scootaloo with three sticks that she had sharpened to an almost dangerous level...with other sticks, Soarin hoped.

“That was fast,” Soarin noted, based on their overall accomplishment.

“Eeyup. We’ve been doing this awhile,” the captain stated. Right after this was said though, Apple Bloom gave her friend with the orange coat a curious glance, “Three sticks, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo dropped the sticks to the clubhouse floor and grinned in a way that made Soarin wan “Of course! Imagine how cool it’d be to be some kind of ninja-pirate with three swords? That’d be awesome!”

“How can you hold them all though? You aren’t a unicorn,” Soarin noted, privately envying the dexterity his unicorn friends could have.

Scootaloo scooped one stick up in each hoof and one with her mouth, looking utterly ridiculous and all the more adorable in the process, “Whump imp mm motph, whnn inh etch hfff!”

Soarin chuckled at the display briefly, only to have the voice of Sweetie Belle draw everypony’s attention again, “I finished the map!”

“Great! Let’s go sailing!” Scootaloo turned to Rainbow Dash’s coltfriend, “Come with us mister Soarin!”

Before Soarin could agree, or note that it was ridiculously late out and that they all should be in bed (except him of course), Sweetie Belle chimed in once more, “We should sing! All good pirates sing!”

Apple Bloom smiled to her friend and gave a nod of approval as captain, “Ahlright. What should we sing?”

Sweetie grinned from ear to ear, “I got bored making the map at first, so I made us a song!”

“Cool! Let’s hear it, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo cheered, spitting out her mouth sword to do so.

Sweetie Belle took in a breath before beginning her song:

“YO!

ya-yo, ya-yo

Dreamin', don't give it up-”

Which she never got to continue further due to the load and concerned voice of a mare outside the clubhouse.

“Soarin!? Scootaloo!?”

Scootaloo recognized the voice of her idol and dropped her swords on the ground, letting out a nervous, “Whoops.”

In through the doorway came Rainbow Dash, who looked around the clubhouse to find the three fillies and Soarin, all of whom had weird attire on, Soarin having been forced to put on a pirate hat.

Feeling a need to explain this, Soarin tried to start their conversation smoothly, so that he could steer if away from the whole part about him not doing what he came to do, “Heey Dashie, what’s up?”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at the stallion with a furtive voice and who now felt like he was as big as the fillies in the clubhouse, “Hey yourself mister. What’re you still doing here? Scootaloo needs to get home and get to sleep” she then looked down to Scootaloo with an annoyed glance, “Which she knows.”

Scootaloo chuckled sheepishly and started towards the door, “Ooh, look at the time. I guess we better be getting home! Am I right?”

Rainbow sighed as the filly passed her, “You know what you did,” the blue mare looked to the other two fillies, who had both deflated upon hearing Rainbow Dash arrive, “Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, you two should probably think about heading home soon too. It’s getting pretty dark out.”

The duo nodded as Rainbow Dash wished them goodnight and pulled Scootaloo up and onto her own back, Soarin following suit and heading out the door.





Upon leaving the clubhouse the pegasus trio found themselves walking through the woods by it, Rainbow Dash taking the time to chew out Soarin, “You didn’t answer me.”

“Well, you see, I don’t think it was fair sending me a place with three fillies...”

Rainbow Dash looked at him seriously, “You can’t handle three kids?”

Soarin grunted and scrunched up his face, bitter that Scootaloo wasn’t defending him, “Well, I don’t think I’ve ever run into such an adorable trio! I mean, it’s just not right! Who ever had the bright idea of putting a bow on a filly? Or giving them such great puppy dog eyes?”

And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Rainbow Dash, who had been trying to keep a stern face for fun, and Scootaloo, who wasn’t sure if this was a joke or not until now, both broke out in a fit of laughter while the filly rode on Rainbow’s back.

Soarin, though, blushed in embarassment, “Stop laughing!”

Rainbow leaned on him affectionately while she continued to laugh, “Soarin, I was just pulling your leg. I forgot her first after all, so it was my fault to begin with,” a devilish grin grew on her face as the laughter subsided, the mare now looking back to Scootaloo, “Still....How should we punish him, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo sat up and stifled her laughter, “Ooh, ooh! He should read to me until I fall asleep! That’ll make us even!”

Soarin couldn’t believe this, “Us even? Don’t forget that you were one of the terrible trio of fillies who suckered me with cute faces!”

Revealing his soft spot for adorable children a second time just got the two girls to laugh again, Rainbow Dash carrying Scootaloo into the night air as their cackles filled the otherwise silent night.

Soarin tried to take off, but tripped over a branch while he continued forward and hit the ground, the two girls leaving him behind as he called out, “Hey, get back here! Come on guys, stop laughing!”

Desperate to catch up, Soarin got up and ran forward as fast as he could to take off at a higher speed. This too was met with failure, as he crashed into another pony and they both tumbled into the ground, Soarin apologizing, “Sorry about that!”

The other pony, a black maned earth pony with gaunt features, got up and rubbed off the dirt he now had on his expensive clothes, “It’s alright. Isn’t that right, Bulky?”

Soarin glanced to the side to see a very obese pony with a handkerchief around their likely bald head just laugh at the misfortune, “Sure, Skull. After all, you know all about having a crazy wife and kid, don’t you?” glancing at Soarin, he nodded towards the blue mare flying off in the sky, “They’ve gotten pretty far. Better catch them buddy.”

“Sorry again! Have a good night!” Soarin stretched his wings out and took off in a more controlled manner this time, leaving the two other ponies behind as he finally managed to take flight.





Once back at the house, Rainbow Dash explained to the exhausted Soarin (who did his best to catch up with his speedster marefriend) that while talking to Twilight the egghead had given her a laundry list of things she should try to do as a parent, and making sure fillies got to sleep on time was just about at the top of the list under feeding them.

Not that she would have forgotten that, Rainbow defensively added afterwards.

Her joke done and Scootaloo already in bed, Rainbow nudged Soarin to go and see if Scootaloo still wanted that bedtime story. Too tired to have any real response, Soarin went off to the filly’s new room.

“Okay Scootaloo, just give me a second to catch my breath...”

Laying underneath her covers except for her head, which lay upon a blue pillow with a Daring Do plush next to her, Scootaloo shook her head with a smile, “It’s okay. You don’t have to read me a story.”

Soarin blinked, confused by the flip-flop, “Wait, what?”

Scootaloo looked down at her sheets, which were co lored blue, red and yellow unsurprisingly, “I...I just wanted to get the chance to talk with you mister Soarin,” Scootaloo looked towards the doorway, “Without m-Rainbow Dash.”

“Well then lay it on me! What’s on your mind?”

Scootaloo found herself having the same issue Rainbow Dash had been having earlier that day when they had a certain talk, “Rainbow Dash is going...well, you see...Rainbow Dash is...”

Soarin figured out what the reveal was before Scootaloo could finish, but he kept it to himself so that she could do so.

“She’s going to adopt me,” Scootaloo finally managed to finish, her voice a blend of sure and unsure.

Soarin leaned over the bed with half his body so he could pat Scootaloo on the head, “I know about that kiddo. Are you happy about that?”

Scootaloo nodded fervently, “Like totally, I couldn’t think of anything cooler happening!” the emotion drained instantly after her words however, the filly’s eyes trailing down to the sheets over her, “Except...”

“What is it?” Soarin asked, concerned that maybe something was wrong.

Scootaloo nervously looked at his chest, not being able to meet his eyes, “Well, Rainbow Dash and you are together...” the filly trailed off again before clearing her throat and asking, “D-does that mean you’re going to be my dad?”

Soarin felt his eyes widen at that. He...did not have an answer as much as he would have liked to, “Uhhhh...hadn’t really thought about that to be honest.”

Scootaloo instantly took that as a no and tried to downplay the topic, “I mean, you don’t have to be, since Rainbow Dash is like the best pony anypony could want to take care of them, but...”

Soarin lifted her head up with a hoof so he could look her in the eye, “What do you want Scootaloo?”

The eyes averted to the blankets again, “I want a family,” she mumbled softly.

His mind made up, Soarin pulled the filly into an embrace, “Then I’ll be here for you as long as you need me, okay?”

Scootaloo returned the hug and Soarin felt his chest grow the slightest bit wet, but the sigh of relief that followed made him sure that she wasn’t upset in the slightest, but rather happy.

Soarin pulled back a little so he could look at her, “Now, how about you go to bed? I don’t want Dashie to chew us out if you’re tired tomorrow!”

“Thank you mister Soarin,” Scootaloo said emotionally before leaning back in her bed, pulling her Daring Do plush to her chest.

Soarin smiled at her and ruffled her hair, “Goodnight kiddo.”

And with that, Soarin left her room to go talk with Rainbow Dash and let the little filly sleep.

The light blue wonderbolt felt content. He hadn’t thought all that long ago that something like this would ever happen, but then again he didn’t care. He was happy, Rainbow Dash was happy, and so was this sweet filly.

Before Rainbow Dash could question him about his storytelling Soarin cut her off with a smile.

“Yes, I will go with you to your parent’s house to broach the topic about the adoption.”

Soarin felt himself be pulled into another hug, and he smiled to himself as he thought about his life.

This is how every pony’s life should be.





A/N: Hope you enjoyed, and I hope to hear from you!

> Meet the Grandparents
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: Sorry about the wait everyone, I have been busy getting settled into college and now that I am pretty much set here I have time to write again! Season 4 is coming, so I hope to update a lot more in the coming weeks! Good job everypony on catching the references last chapter, you only missed the Medabots one in the A/N last time around.

Now, enjoy and please leave a comment to let me know what you thought about the chapter!






“-and that’s why I’ve let her hang at my place the past couple weeks, and intend to adopt her as soon as I can fill out the paperwork!”

Having just explained everything there is to know about Scootaloo to two pegasus parents, Rainbow Dash let out a breath of relief. Soarin, beside her, moved a wing to touch hers as a way of reassuring her just as a moment of silence ensued. Now Rainbow Dash’s parents were center stage in this matter, and their reactions would surely be something dramatic-

“I see,” Rainbow’s father stated plainly, face unwavering as he nodded slowly. So subdued was it that Rainbow almost felt a facehoof coming on from her own right hoof, but the glance her father gave to her mother slowed her from doing so. Something was transferred in the look, as the pink mare with a blue mane grew a very large grin.

A very mischievous one.

“You know, Dashie, honey, it’s okay if you just tell us the truth about your secret love foal,” Firefly stated in a smarmy manner, quickly letting out a small laugh following her sentence.

Not amused, Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Ha-ha-ha, nice one Mom. Scootaloo isn’t even close to resembling me. I showed you the photo. She’s orange, remember? There’s no way she’s mine, and I should really know!”

Not about to let up on her joke, Firefly raised a hoof to her chin and and acted as though she was thinking, “Well, there is that year you went away to flight school...was there another reason you dropped out?” the question was jokingly serious, and Dash’s father snorted at it’s humor but Rainbow only groaned, “It would explain why you don’t invite us over to your house-”

“Mom, Scootaloo’s orange! Orange! Nopony in our family is orange!”

“What about recessive genes?” her father added, face completely deadpan. Soarin choked back a snicker, pretty glad that her parents weren’t freaking out and were instead joking about the matter.

Rainbow finally facehoofed at her father’s words, “I don’t even know what those are! Come on guys, stop it! I’m taking her in because she needs somepony, not because of some weird reason like you’re thinking! I don’t even think I’m old enough to be her mom!”

Soarin, quite sure that that specific issue could be solved by simple math, decided it best to keep such a thought to himself lest he earn the ire of Dash.

Rainbow’s mother reached a hoof over to her daughter and patted her on the shoulder, “Just pulling your leg, honey. I guess all this talk about having my first granddaughter is making me a bit silly!” a grin formed on the middle-aged mare’s face again the moment she finished her consoling, “So, when do we get to meet her?”

Feeling a bit crowded in the living room with her mother right in front of her and Soarin sitting on a couch beside her, Rainbow averted her eyes nervously to the side, “Uhhh...well...I guess whenever is okay...”

The close quarters situation was only to get worse when Dash’s mother flew over to her side to pull her into a hug, “Haha, great Dashie! How about your father and I come over tomorrow and visit the filly?”

“Sure...”

And that is how Rainbow Dash found herself tied into spending a Sunday afternoon dealing with her parents.

Or rather, how she came to pawn off her parents on Soarin and Scootaloo.





Early the next morning an orange filly found herself leaving her friend’s clubhouse and heading on to her new ‘home’ when the sight of a rainbow colored mane caught her eye.

A quick glance revealed that it was not her idol/sister/mother-thing, but rather a full grown stallion with a darker shade of blue for a coat than Rainbow Dash did. He also appeared to be a bit older, but how much the filly could not ascertain. Still, the sight of a Rainbow Dash-esque pony was enough to pique her interest, so the filly rolled right over to him on her scooter and inspected him at the closer distance.

“Woah, you look just like Rainbow Dash! Do you know her by any chance? If you don’t you should so go and meet her, because she’s the most awesome Pegasus there is around here!”

The stallion rose a brow, as if he was surprised by the specificity of the statement, “Pegasus?”

Scootaloo nervously brought a hoof behind her head and chuckled, “Well, yeah, I would say pony or mare, but my friends said their sisters were the best and awesome too, so we agreed to split it up by type of pony.”

“Well then.”

Expecting him to say something more, Scootaloo waited anxiously for the pony who resembled her hero to speak. She did not, however, expect to be met with complete silence for the next half a minute as he just surveyed the area.

In an attempt to rekindle the semi-conversation, Scootaloo decided to ask him a question, “So, whatcha doing here in Ponyville?”

The stallion looked down to the filly with a blank face, “I so happen to be visiting my family,” the blank expression became a smug grin, albeit a small one, “You wouldn’t by any chance know where Rainbow Dash lives, would you?”

Gears turned in the filly’s mind and suddenly Scootaloo felt very embarrassed for not having realized something sooner, “Hehe, uhh, yeah, of course I do,” she swallowed a breath before asking with a weak laugh, “You wouldn’t be her dad by any chance, would you?”

A nod was all she got in terms of a physical response, “What gave it away, the mane or the coat?”

“Yeah, hah, you do pretty much look just like her…” not sure what to say to the stallion who was the father of her...adoptive mother/sister thing, and thus was by default her grandfather thing. Feeling extremely nervous and not wanting to show it, Scootaloo flapped her wings and started up on her scooter to continue on her path home, “Follow me then, I can get us there!”

“So, young filly, I don’t believe I’ve caught your name.”

He was just playing along with the filly, knowing exactly who she was but also wanting to see where he could take that. The filly was quite nervous, but why not play on that just a small bit?

Another nervous laugh came from the Pegasus filly, “Oh, yeah, I’m Scootaloo. Don’t know if Rainbow Dash has mentioned me, but I’m the leader of her fan club and...ummm…”

“She has brought you up before. Quite recently in fact. Something about a living arrangement I believe,” the Rainbow dad responded slowly with another grin, not that the nervous filly could see it even though he was flying gently beside her.

Scootaloo nearly jumped off her scooter at the mention of her living with Rainbow Dash, a million different emotions jumping into her ranging from happiness to fear, the fear mostly stemming from how this relative of her idol mother would react to her joining the family.

Thinking the time for messing around with her was over, Rainbow’s father gave a comforting laugh,“No need to be worried. I’m happy my headstrong, self-centered daughter has decided to help you out. I think those friends of hers she harps on about are really influencing her for the best.”

Glancing over, Scootaloo felt her nervousness begin to shrink at the sight of his genuine smile, “Yeah, her friends are awesome! They’ve beaten dragons, manticores, and even evil big bad guys like Sombra and Discord!”

Rainbow’s father would rather not remember Discord, as he wasn’t all too fond of when he was hopping around saying ‘Fun! Fun! Fun!’ as a result of the madman, but could agree completely with what the filly could say, “They are certainly quite accomplished for such young mares. I was only a cadet in the Royal Guard at their age.”

The scooter almost flipped over as Scootaloo lost complete track of what she was doing, “Wait, what?”

“Oh yes, I doubt Dash has mentioned much about that. I stopped and moved on to a less stressful job in weather after she was born.”

This revelation shocked Scootaloo on many levels, and also made her feel bad about pranking the royal guards with Rainbow Dash not two weeks ago, “You gave up a job with the second coolest group in Equestria? Why would you ever do that?”

The chuckle that was received sounded more like a low rumble, “You may realize this when you are older, but kids both grow up fast and are a handful. I wanted to be there with my family, and so I was willing to change my life accordingly.”

Scootaloo stopped flapping her wings just as the two arrived underneath Rainbow Dash’s lofty cloud home, her scooter coming to a halt as her adoptive grandfather did the same.

The old stallion gave the filly a  “Don’t worry too much about it. I can tell you some more about it some other time,” he glanced upwards at the cloud home and realized this must be the spot, “You ready to go up?” he asked, a look having gone to her scooter. Would the small filly be able to carry that while flying?

“Yeah, but, uh…” Scootaloo flapped her wings a little bit before asking, “Could you help me up?”

Rainbow’s father had forgotten that his daughter mentioned this filly had trouble flying. Wordlessly he landed beside her and crouched down so that she could climb on top of his back.

Not everypony has as much of an affinity for flying as Rainbow Dash. Her old friend Fluttershy couldn’t even get back home on her own after she fell from the clouds.

“Thank you.”

The stallion smiled as he thought about how his wife would no doubt tirelessly assist this young filly in the art of flying. He’d be content with watching, his wife having enough energy for the two of them.





The first thing the blue stallion and orange filly were met with upon opening the half-closed door of Rainbow Dash’s home was a pink mare with a jaw hanging.

“Wait, you got to meet her first, Bifrost? Not fair!” the pink pegasus called to her husband as Scootaloo rose an eyebrow in confusion. The filly had no idea who this mare was, but had an idea given her identical appearance to Rainbow Dash minus coloration and age.

Rainbow’s father shrugged, not emoting if he actually cared or not, “Serendipity.”

“Sarah’s pity?” both Scootaloo and Firefly asked simultaneously, not understanding the word he had clinically stated.

Saddened by the way the mare and filly both had no clue, Bifrost just shook his head as he noted his daughter stepping into the hallway with Soarin in tow, “Never mind. I’ll explain it later.”

“Why’d you guys come separately?” Rainbow Dash questioned the two, not really understanding why her parents wouldn’t have come to see Scootaloo at the same time.

Before Firefly could start speaking her husband cut her off, “Somepony was impatient and left with the directions to your home before I could even wake up.”

His voice took a smug turn, although it was barely noticeable underneath his deep voice, “And I still ended up here a minute later.”

Firefly approached her husband and nudged him with a hoof playfully, “Oh hush, your directions were impossible to understand! Who needs to know all these little weather conditions every hundred feet?”

He nodded, “Point taken,” and then promptly shook his head, “And ignored.”

“Why you-”

Soarin, in an attempt to keep the peace, cleared his throat nervously, “Ahem?”

Rainbow Dash snickered at his interruption, “Well, I’ve got to finish making my pie, so I’m going to let you guys do your thing.”

“You can make food?” her father questioned as if it was a shocking discovery. Scootaloo copied Rainbow Dash’s snicker from a moment before, remembering quite well how she ate out the first few days she stayed with her idol due to the painful alternative.

The rainbow maned mare put her nose up in the air like Rarity might during a snooty moment, acting as if she was offended by her father’s question, “Of course I can! I did live on my own for awhile,”  she paused briefly before adding quickly under her breath, “And Soarin’s a good cook and teacher.”

Now it was Firefly’s turn to be surprised, looking at Soarin with dinner plate sized eyes and a face of awe, “You can cook?”

Unlike Dash, Soarin was given a good vibed question and reacted with pride, “You bet! The better I can make my food the better it’ll taste, so I’ve also been teaching Dash so she can actually feed Scootaloo something that isn’t like liquified toast.”

Rainbow’s father agreed to this with a small nod, “Makes sense. I’m better than Firefly at cooking too.”

“Hey!” Firefly yelped, causing another snicker from Scootaloo who was beginning to piece everything together about the family dynamics.

“Mom, we all know it’s true. I wish I inherited his cooking instead!” Rainbow posited.

“At least I tried, dear. You never even bothered to read a three step instruction manual before this stallion came into your life I’m guessing.”

Her daughter left the hallway to enter her kitchen as she gave a dismissive snort, “Yeah yeah, whatever. Just have fun for a bit, I’ll be back soon.”

As the others watched Rainbow leave, her father got a thought. Since he already had partially met Scootaloo, why not leave her alone with his wife for a bit?

Taking Soarin by the shoulder, he pulled the younger stallion with him towards the next closest room, “I will speak with the boy. Come.”

“Guess that leaves just you and me!” Firefly chipperly stated to the nearby filly, bending down to her level and nuzzling her own head against the orange filly’s.

Looking straight forward to the pink mare who oh-so resembled Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo rose a brow. Was it possible for old ponies to be as cool as younger ones?

“Yay?”





Closing the door behind them, Rainbow’s father spoke to Soarin in a hushed but serious voice, “So, you think she’s ready for this?”

“Scootaloo or your daughter?” Soarin asked, not having understood the question’s subject due to the limited nature of their language’s pronouns.

This logical question pleased the father, who gave a nod of approval to the Wonderbolt, “I meant my daughter, but I suppose both.”

Soarin dropped his gaze to the ground as he tried to think about it. While Rainbow wasn’t exactly parent of the year material, and Scootaloo wasn’t exactly an angel with her habit for doing dangerous stunts and activities.

After a moment the light blue stallion spoke up, “Well, Scootaloo seems to be completely in love with the idea, and I believe it just may be what’s best for her, but I don’t know about Dash…”

The subject’s father spoke aloud what he knew the boy was thinking, “She’s a bit selfish and she is lazy, but when she’s dedicated to something she goes all in for it. It’s the mix of those things that I think will make this both work and be difficult.”

Soarin let out a very minute nervous chuckle as he responded, “I would agree with you there, no offense to Dash. I love her, but part of that is knowing her faults and accepting them.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more about that,” a rare warm smile graced Rainbow’s father’s face, and Soarin felt one of his own tugging at his own lips because of it.

Seconds passed before the rainbow maned stallion spoke up again with yet another question, “Think you’re up to it?”

“Up to...it?” Soarin asked back, once again confused about the question’s subject.

“Let’s do some math, son. Who are you in a relationship with?”

Confused, Soarin stated, “Rainbow Dash.”

“Good. Who is adopting a certain orange filly?”

“Rainbow Dash,” Soarin stated again, growing a bit confused about this line of questioning.

“Very good now, here’s the tricky one. If Rainbow Dash has a filly, and you are in a serious relationship with her, what does that make you?”

“A...father figure,” Soarin stated slowly this time, realizing what was being talked about.

Bifrost patted the Wonderbolt on the shoulder, “Exactly. Now, you think you can handle that?”

Soarin smiled at him as he thought back to his conversation the other night with Scootaloo, “I kind of promised Scootaloo I would once she and Rainbow talked about the whole adoption thing and she was wondering the same thing. Scootaloo is a great filly and I want to help her how I can.”

“Glad to hear it, son. I had a feeling you’d be able to handle it a bit better than Dash, given you have a few years on her. I’d even go as far to say that you’re pretty wise for your age.”

“Thanks,” a thought struck Soarin the moment he finished thanking the older stallion, one which he soon found himself vocalizing, “You...don’t mind too much that I’m so much older than Dash, do you?”

A snort preceded the answer, “Initially, when Dash said she was dating the stallion she grew up idolizing, I was a bit concerned. Sure, Dash prattled on about you for years and years, but that didn’t mean I listened to half of it so I just thought you’d be some deadbeat abusing his position to be with beautiful mares.”

Soarin rubbed the back of his head nervously, thinking back to how awkward the subject of mares had been up until recently, “I’m kinda too shy for that…”

“And that’s why I like you. If you were some stuck up jock, I’d have run you out before you finished introducing yourself,” another brief snort, “Not that I’d have to worry about my daughter bringing home somepony like that. She hates that type of pony and would break them in two before bringing them to our home.”

“Really? Did she have issues with them when she was younger?” Soarin almost cringed as he thought back to his old school days...he was lucky enough to have his friend Caramel back then. Shy guy and guy with weird mustache managed to put up with the bullies just fine together.

Rainbow’s father scowled as he brought back old memories, “There was a gang of three Pegasi colts that bullied her and her friend Fluttershy years back,” the scowl disappeared and a small smile replaced it, “I’m their boss now. Terrible employees to be honest, and they won’t be moving up the ranks just about ever. And that’s before I factor in my personal feelings on the issue.”

Soarin rubbed a hoof to his chin as the mention of a trio of mean Pegasi came to mind, “I see...I think I’ve met them before. One’s got hair hanging in his face, right?”

“You would be correct.”

Soarin tilted his head back as he completed his recollection, “They jerkishly challenged me to a race when I was a bit younger, so I of course took it upon myself as a prideful Wonderbolt to show those teenagers their place.”

The Wonderbolt felt himself grow uncomfortable as a coy smile grew on Bifrost’s face and a deadpan question escaped his lips, “So, while we’re tangentially on the subject of my new grandchild, when can I expect another? I am trying to picture the child of two of the world’s best athletes, one of whom graduated as the valedictorian of his class and has a relaxed and good nature.”

Completely stunned, Soarin managed to stutter a bit before responding, “Uhm, how do you know that-?”

A playful laugh only served to unnerve him more, “You think I wouldn’t run a full background check on the first relationship my daughter has ever brought to my attention, with a celebrity who she has been yelling the name of for the past seven-ish years? Son, being the boss of all of the weather has its perks.”

Face red underneath his blue coat, Soarin stammered, “A-about that other bit...Dash and I don’t…”

Rainbow’s father shifted his smile so it was more of a relaxed one at this point, “I may not emote it or express it through my voice, but I do joke. I was merely stating my pleasure in hearing how you bested those three morons under my employ, in a way that might cause you embarrassment. Seems like it was a success.”

Soarin kept blushing and looked at the floor, leaving the floor open for Bifrost to continue, “Keep things going how they are though, and I’ll be expecting a visit from you.”

“A visit?” Soarin questioned, not getting why he would specifically have to visit Rainbow’s father if he were to keep his relationship with Rainbow Dash going well.

“You’ll understand what I just said in retrospect I believe,” a pause and then, “How is your family by the way?”

Stumbling to find a word for it, Soarin tried to place a name for what they were but wasn’t all too sure it was the right one, “Estranged?”

“No need to say more.”





In the living room Firefly found herself trying to play catch up with Scootaloo so that her husband wasn’t ahead of her in terms of knowledge.

“-Favorite activity?”

Scootaloo found the mare to be a bit odd, but didn’t really have anypony to compare her to. Why was she being asked all these questions? Whatever the case, Scootaloo was sure when they were done she could hear all about the adventures and things these parents of Rainbow Dash must have. She only had to stay awake until then!

“Flying with Rainbow Dash.”

“Goals?”

“To get my cutie mark!” Scootaloo exclaimed happily, although she quickly looked behind herself at her small wings, “And to learn how to fly...

“I can help with that second one,” Firefly stated confidently, “Favorite book or series?”

“Daring Do!” Scootaloo cheered loudly, both loving the series and not wanting Rainbow Dash to think her a heretic. In reality Scootaloo enjoyed the Celestial Wars books just as much, especially the original trilogy of them, but she didn’t dare say that in her new home.

The fact that Scootaloo hadn’t treated the inquiry as a ‘Gotchya’ question made Firefly more than happy, a quite serious condition, “Oh good, a reader! Dashie would never read the books we bought for her, so we just stopped trying after a certain age.”

“Of course I love reading! I love everything Rainbow Dash does! And besides, who doesn’t like to read?”

The cheerful expression displayed by the filly made Firefly’s middle-aged heart melt, “You really adore her, don’t you? Rainbow really is something special.”

“Well, um, Rainbow Dash is the best flier in Ponyville if not Equestria, and she’s so cool…” Scootaloo’s voice faded off as she thought more about why she idolized Rainbow Dash so much, “She beats bad guys up and has saved everypony from certain doom! Nopony is better than Rainbow Dash, so why shouldn’t I adore her?”

Firefly boldly wrapped a hoof around the filly and pulled her into a hug, causing Scootaloo to blush as her adoptive grandmother spoke, “No reason at all.”

Nervous about having these new family members, especially so close, Scootaloo averted her eyes down and gave a nervous laugh, “So, is, um, your special somepony going to come back?”

“Oh, of course he is. He is just talking with Soarin about some important things.”

“Important?”

“Don’t worry about it, dear,” she patted Scootaloo on the head reassuringly with her open hoof, “You already got to talk to him, so what did you think?”

“He...ummmm...well, he’s kind of quiet.”

Firefly laughed at the very apt description of her husband, “Don’t let his voice and face scare you off. He’s got a big heart under that statue of a body! In fact, he used to be kind of like Soarin back when he was younger. Sweet and shy!”

Scootaloo tilted her head, confused as she put together some of the few things she knew about her idol’s father, “Wasn’t he a part of the Royal Guard?” shouldn’t the Royal guard be bold and tough, the young filly thought.

The pink Pegasus nodded and laughed again, “Why yes, he was. I’m surprised you know about that! I sometimes wonder whether Dashie even remembers that the way she makes faces at them…”

Wanting to get off the subject of messing around with the Royal Guard, Scootaloo decided to move the topic in another direction, “How’d you meet him then?”

Firefly leaned back on the couch they sat in as her memories set in, “Well, I was a member of the Wonderbolt Academy back in the day, so I got to tag along with them to special events-”

“You were a Wonderbolt?!” Scootaloo interjected, wings flapping quickly and happily as she imagined about how not only Rainbow Dash but also her mother might have been in the most prestigious group of Equestrian fliers.

Firefly was the one giving a nervous laugh this time, a glint of sadness viewable but not noticed by the excited Scootaloo, “Haha, no, that wasn’t really in my cards. Not that I couldn’t do it, but I was too busy gallivanting around to just settle down to a career. I had some close friends back in the day like Rainbow does,” the glint became a full face expression as she continued, Firefly’s voice becoming dreary, “We’d go around and have adventures all the time, at least until they started getting a bit older. Then they started settling down and having families…”

Able to pick up on Firefly’s distress, Scootaloo leaned her head on the pink mare and wrapped her own hoof around her, “What’s wrong?”

The former Wonderbolt trainee quickly removed the face and tried laughing it off, “Just trying to remember the last time we all got together...or any of us got together, actually. Last I heard Twilight Velvet was living in Canterlot, Surprise was hanging out midwest-you know what, never mind. I’ll handle those guys later! Right now I want to spend some quality time with my favorite granddaughter.”

The logistics of that last statement got Scootaloo thinking, because she was likely the only granddaughter of this mare, and also the idea that somepony would be willing to be her Granny Smith made Scootaloo feel a little uncomfortable. Whatever did she do to deserve such a caring and great group of ponies to take her in?

“Uhhhh…”

Firefly tussled Scootaloo’s mane, “No need to be shy, kid. If Rainbow Dash is taking you in, you’re a part of the family in my book.”

Scootaloo pulled her other hoof to fit around the pink Pegasi and closed her eyes as she felt the mare fully return the gesture. After a moment of silence Firefly remembered how she had gotten sidetracked.

“Now, where did I leave off in my story?” Scootaloo opened her eyes and looked up to her grandpony, “Oh, yeah, I got to tag along to big events, even ones with Celestia at them! And where she goes her guard does as well, so that’s where I met my quiet guy-”

“We return.”

The mare and filly looked up to see Bifrost and Soarin entering the living room, having obviously finished their little chat.

“I see you two have caught up,” Rainbow’s father noted as his daughter unknowingly snuck inside the room behind him to embrace Soarin.

“Yup!” Firefly nuzzled muzzles with Scootaloo to prove the point, “You’re a pretty cool kid, Scootaloo. Grandma’s gonna have to visit you every week!”

The idea of being saddled with family visits every week did not sit well with the youngster, who didn’t know exactly how to say no, “Uhhh-”

Rainbow Dash, ever the hero, stepped in for her though to Scootaloo’s relief, “No. Sorry mom, but give Scootaloo some space,” that being said, Rainbow Dash added, “Besides, you barely ever visit just me!”

“But now we have a reason to! When it was just you we knew you didn’t want us nagging you every week, so we kept our distance,” Firefly whined innocently, holding onto Scootaloo tight enough to make the filly have to gasp for air, “But, as your parents, we have every right to spoil your foal with love and affection.”

Bifrost said nothing to this, just shrugging and giving Scootaloo a look of pity for her current predicament.

“Mooom! Seriously, what happened to the cool mare I idolized?” Rainbow Dash complained, her special somepony beside her laughing at her tone.

Firefly resumed her normal voice and rolled her eyes, “Dashie, let me have this. The older you get the less you care about looking cool or doing ‘radical’ things. I’m just fine with having some fun and loving my family now. My days of adventure are done.”

Soarin decided to try and help Firefly out a little, a goofy grin on his muzzle, “C’mon Dash, give her some slack. I know exactly what she’s talking about.”

“See? Your 50% older boyfriend agrees with me! Being old changes your opinions and actions.”

“I’m not too old…” Soarin claimed weakly, knowing what Firefly said was true.

Rainbow Dash decided to take the moment to turn the table on her mother, her expression displaying the snarky feelings she was having, “Hey mom, remind me how much older you are than dad?”

“Four years isn’t that much honey, it’s only about 10-ish percent-”

“Cuz you’re old. The age gap means less the older you are. Plus, Soarin and I are both adults and I think we can decide if it matters to us at all. Right Soarin?”

“Right?” he replied unsurely.

Firefly laughed as she noticed her daughter’s point, “Just harmlessly pulling his leg, Dashie. Glad you like him that much though. He’s a real keeper!”

Still on the couch, Scootaloo piped up, “Yeah, please keep him!”

“Should I be wearing a leash?” Soarin questioned jokingly.

The response, however, was deadpan, “Would you?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

Not about to let anypony answer that, Bifrost spoke up, “I’m going to cut you all off there. Now, who’s hungry?”

“I am!” Scootaloo leaped off the couch at the mention of eating.

Firefly left the couch to follow the filly towards the door, “Let’s go fix that.”

“I could sure use some pie about now,” Rainbow’s father noted as he too turned to leave the room.

The only pony, in fact, who wasn’t moving to leave was Soarin. He was too stunned by what Bifrost had said to move, tears of happiness welling up in his eyes, “You...you love pie too?”

“Dad, you had better not steal Soarin from me,” Rainbow Dash warned, sensing how much that one sentence from her father must have made Soarin’s day.

The response? Less than reassuring, “I’m tempted.”

Firefly nudged her life partner in the ribs as she passed him, “You’re such a hoot honey. A real jokester. Right?”

A noncommittal, “Sure,” was all she got back, but the smile growing on his face gave his joking away.

Scootaloo stopped her kitchen-charge to speak to her idol, face beaming, “Rainbow Dash, you’re parents are great!” and then her face scrunched up with an eyebrow raising, “And weird.”

“They certainly are something...” Rainbow muttered, having had enough quality time with her family for a lifetime.

In an attempt to win back his marefriend Soarin wrapped a hoof around her playfully, “Don’t worry Dashie, him loving pie wouldn’t draw my affections.”

“Awww, thanks Soarin. I’m glad to know I’m worth more than pie.”

“Then again, he does have a more mellow personality, the same radical hair, a pretty nice coat-”

“Soarin?”

“Yes Dash?”

“Shut up.”

“I love you too.”






A/N: I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a comment to let me know what you thought about the chapter!

> Meet the OTHER Parents
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: An update in a week? Didn't think it was possible, did ya? Now, I can't churn out every one-shot in this series in this amount of time but I'm glad I was able to do this one at least in a timely fashion.

Thank you to those who commented on the last chapter, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter and can let me know what you think after it!






Soarin shook off the last of Cloudsdale’s chills as he arrived in Ponyville, the windy city having chilled the unprepared Wonderbolt just as he left. It’s altitude and tendency to make the snow clouds that other areas experienced was an annoying combo for any without proper weather protection. Soarin, having left to just visit Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, hadn’t thought to bring anything warm.

Sunny Ponyville felt like such a relief to him even after all the flying, and the stallion felt himself smiling as he touched down on the fluffy clouds Rainbow Dash had her house situated on.

“Knock knock, anypony home?” Soarin playfully called out as he knocked on Rainbow Dash’s front door, fully expecting the energetic Scootaloo to rush and open it. That didn’t happened, and after a moment Soarin wondered if Rainbow was home at all.

As soon as this thought entered his head he heard Rainbow’s voice deep inside the house call out to him, “Be there in a sec, Soarin.”

Soarin could open the door with his own key, but he found not letting himself in to other pony’s homes to be more polite. Even though he spent the majority of his free time there he didn’t really live there. Dash had let him stay over a couple nights of course, but that was more towards the beginning of the relationship when neither could pry theirself from the other.

After a minute of waiting the door opened and Soarin looked at Rainbow Dash, her eyes a bit groggy as she yawned, “Sorry about that, I was just going through some documents I have to fill out that Twilight brought me concerning Scootaloo,” she turned her head towards the inside of the house to invite him in as she retreated into it herself.

“Is it going well?” Soarin asked thoughtfully, taking into account his other half’s tired appearance. She had likely been doing these papers a while, and their Wonderbolt practices assuredly were no easy task for a new girl like her. A pony body could only handle so much.

As if to resist the notion she was mortal, Rainbow assumed a more energetic face as she and Soarin stopped in the front of the house at her behest, “Yeah, I guess. A lot of work though.”

Soarin decided that if she wanted to be up and about despite her tiredness that he had best roll with it, “So, what do you want to do today Dash?” the lack of an orange ball of energy felt odd to Soarin, “Where’s Scootaloo?”

The totally-not tired Rainbow Dash grew a look on her face that Soarin knew to fear, one of mischievous intention, “She’s off crusading with her friends for their Cutie Marks. I asked her to be gone most the day, not that she minded.”

The lighter blue pony decided also to try and roll with whatever it was his illustrious and hardheaded marefriend had intended for them, “Oh, so you have something in mind?”

Her only response was a gesture towards a table in the hallway, a piece of paper with symbols and text on it being the only object Soarin noticed.

“What’s this?” he asked as he inspected it further.

His eyes shot fully open in surprise as he realized just what it was, Rainbow Dash confirming his suspicions simultaneously, “Directions. I did some snooping around and found where your family lives. We’re dropping by and saying hello.”

“Do I get any say in this?” he quivered, trying to bite his lip to keep himself from breaking down.

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes smugly, thus oblivious to Soarin’s expression, as she jokingly responded, “Nope! You met my parents, so it’s my turn to face the same torture.”

Thinking further into the matter, Soarin began to doubt that this was actually a thing and regained some of his composure accordingly, “Do they know we’re coming?”

The answer, however, made him about ten times more nervous to the point his teeth chattered.

“Nah, I thought it’d be more fun to stop by all spur of the moment!”

Soarin did take his time to pick his jaw up from the ground, but Dash was still oblivious to his plight due to her having closed her eyes again to laugh. After he accomplished the task of pulling his nerve together, Soarin cleared his throat and tried to assess the situation so he could prepare himself thusly.

“Alright then-”

“How soon do you think you’ll be ready to go, Soarin?”

His jaw dropped again, but his recovery time was quicker, “You want to go now? As in this minute?”

A snort and eyes rolling greeted him, “Well duh, it’s a long flight. Now go put on your spare Wonderbolt dress shirt you keep here. I want you looking good for your own parents.”

Glad she had thought ahead like that, especially given his parent’s...taste, Soarin nodded and promised himself that things weren’t going to be as bad as he thought, “What are you going to wear?”

“Nothing. I’m not going to dress up all fancy because that’s not the kind of pony I am. I would be a bad marefriend if I didn’t make sure you weren’t looking good for them though.”

Now she was just messing with him.

“I don’t understand you,” Soarin lamented weakly, but found himself chuckling. He was amused by her logic, but also was about to fall over in panic. The stallion was unable to tell which of these two things caused his laughter.

Dash stuck her tongue out at the male Wonderbolt, “Don’t try to, go get dressed,” she only retracted the tongue to kiss him on the cheek, “I guess I’ll bring my coat at least. That way I don’t freeze to death in the snowstorm dad warned me about.”





“Woah, this place is ginormous!”

Rainbow Dash had, in a way, described their destination upon arrival.

What she had left out was that the giant cloud mansion was second in elegance and regality to what she witnessed in Canterlot at the Gala, Twilight’s party and the Wedding. Her eyes were starry as she squeaked at the sheer intensity of the place.

Soarin’s eyes, however, were dull.

“Yeah, it is…”

Standing on the edge of the cloud where they landed, Rainbow turned to Soarin with a somewhat concerned and somewhat playful look, “What’s wrong Soarin? Homesick?”

“No, it’s not that…” he paused before putting a fake cheerful face on, “It’s nothing. Let’s go in. It’s cold out here.”

It was indeed, the two having just made it through a terrible blizzard to reach the residence. A light shield spell was erected around the mansion, allowing them some comfort and allowing them to see more than ten feet away from themselves now.

Still cold despite the spell as a result of their altitude, the two Pegasi raced over towards the front doors. They stopped at the few steps leading up to them as Rainbow slowed her dash to a halt, once again admiring the excellent look of the place. She had always taken pride in her own home’s design, and greatly admired older styles such as it and now found herself finding similar traces in this one.

Soarin hopped to the top of the wide, large, yet few stairs and pointed over to the side where he was heading/

“The doorbell is over here-” he was cut off by Dash flitting over to the double-door and knocking a hoof on it, snorting in laughter at the display as he tried to put off the bad thoughts in his mind, “That works too I guess.”

It took a moment, but one of the large and ornate doors slowly opened a crack to reveal a white coated stallion with a grey mane and grey trimmed moustache, a full body black suit adorning his body. His face was stoic, not revealing an emotion as he eyed over the floating mare before glancing over to the stallion beside her.

“Hey…” Soarin greeted meekly, not able to form any words in his mouth now that this was happening and the nervousness jumped up his throat.

The white pony bowed his older head, “Master Soarin, we were not expecting you.”

Soarin rubbed a hoof against his neck and laughed, “I don’t see how you could be, given that I haven’t spoken to the ponies in this house for nearly a decade…” the lightblue stallion calmed his nerves for a moment before smiling at the servant, “It’s good to see you though Alth.”

Rainbow Dash landed beside Soarin and smiled to the other pony as well, only to draw his attention again, “I see you’ve brought company,” ‘Alth’ cracked the door open more and gestured for the two visiting ponies to enter. Rainbow Dash thanked him just as he held a hoof out to her, “Miss, would you care for me to take your coat?”

“Uhhh...sure,” she wasn’t exactly sure how to treat this other pony, not ever having had a servant before and not having interacted with the ones in Canterlot. Still, being a down-to-earth kind of pony despite being a pegasus she shook his hoof before she handed him the coat she had brought, “I’m Rainbow Dash by the way, it’s nice to meet you mister...”

The servant bowed again, Dash’s coat in hoof, “I am known as All Thread, head butler of this residence. It is a most humbling occasion to meet one of Equestria’s most decorated heroes and accomplished mares, miss Dash.”

The element of Loyalty found herself blushing, ego having been stroked, “Aww shucks, you don’t have to get into all of that. I’m just like any other pony,” ego in three, two, one… “If only a bit more awesome.”

Finishing his bow, closing the door and placing the coat on a hanger in three graceful motions the butler then looked over to Soarin with a professional demeanor, “Should I note your parents of your arrival or shall we let you surprise them?”

Soarin searched the floor for comfort, “I would rather catch them off guard, to be honest.”

“As you wish, sir. It is good to have you home again. I will lead you to your family.”

The seasoned Wonderbolt flashed a smile at the elder pony, “Thank you, Alth.”

The butler accepted Soarin’s gaze with a small nod before turning and doing what he had said he would, bringing them to their likely destination.

“You guys have your own butler? That’s so cool!” Rainbow Dash whispered as they followed All Thread through the ‘ginormous’ house.

“Well, we have more than one…” Soarin replied with a shrug, his voice disinterested. Rainbow noticed the look, but misunderstood it as an attempt by him to not make himself sound all-that.

“Wait, really?” the mare glanced around as the trotted to see if she could spot more, although with no success as they walked down a long hallway, “How awesome is that?”

Soarin groaned as they trotted onward, his stomach doing backflips, “I wouldn’t know...haven’t seen them all in years. Last time I really lived in this house was when I was ten. So many boarding schools, academies and training camps since then…”

“But you’re back now, right? I can’t believe you haven’t even visited in awhile,” Rainbow stated, incredulous that anypony would pass up all this.

“Heh, I wonder why that is…”

As All Thread stopped in front of another pair of large doors, Soarin and Rainbow Dash followed suit, the latter also blinking confusedly.

Had Soarin just snarked?

All Thread pressed the doors both open, revealing a suitably large dining hall where two ponies sat at a table with many suited ponies tending to them. Rainbow Dash glanced around the room quickly before the head butler cleared his throat to announce the entry, “Presenting Master Soarin and his esteemed guest, miss Rainbow Dash.”

The record scratched as the two seated ponies glanced over to All Thread and the two blue ponies behind him, both of their faces dropping ever so slightly as they did so. One, an eloquently suited elder stallion pegasus with a Cobalt mane and coat, was slightly more shocked than the other, a light purple pegasus mare in an expensive dress with a darker shade of purple for her hair.

The seated mare was the first to speak as the servants, All Thread included, departed at the behest of the cobalt stallion, “Soarin?”

Soarin and Rainbow Dash both approached the table where the two seated ponies found themselves rising to their feet. Rainbow Dash, not wanting to interrupt whatever hug or whatever moment the family would have, kept quiet and let Soarin talk as the two groups met in the room, “Hey...long time no see.”

Neither Soarin or his parents moved to embrace or greet the other physically to Rainbow’s surprise, but the father did speak, “I’ll say, boy. Look at you in your Wonderbolt dress uniform. How have your shows been going?”

Soarin’s voice took a serious turn that Rainbow Dash hadn’t really experienced outside of their training, her special somepony usually even being relaxed in that environment, “I haven’t been doing shows in awhile, I’m helping out the flight academy at the moment. I’m letting some of the newer guys get acclimated to the whole thing.”

The father snorted derisively, a small scowl appearing on his face to Rainbow’s confusion, “What a pity. Nopony hails a drill sergeant.”

Sensing a sour mood, Rainbow Dash laughed in an attempt to lighten it, “Well, I guess I’m nopony then because I think Soarin’s great.”

The father inclined his head to her, “Indeed. Who are you again? Rainbow Dazzle?”

His wife patted her husband’s hoof with one of her own gently, “I think it was Dash, dear,” she glanced up and down Rainbow Dash before speaking again, her voice directed at Soarin, “Such a young mare. You find her on your way here, Soarin?”

Rainbow Dash’s brow scrunched up as she tried to wrap her head around what was just said, trying to find a light in which what was said was not offensive and failing to do so.

All Thread reentered the room with some refreshments, but he quickly noted the mood and placed them silently down at the now abandoned table.

Soarin made no attempt to justify what his mother said, his voice instead stern as he responded to her, “Rainbow is my marefriend and we’ve been together officially for half a year now.”

His father spoke up next, face forlorn, “I suppose one could do worse than a decently fit mare who is young-”

“That’s not really a compliment-” Rainbow complained, only to be ignored.

“-but couldn’t you have at least wooed your Wonderbolt Captain? I hear she has some very high class connections, and she is undoubtedly more classy than this mare.”

Dash could not believe this. The cogs of her mind were beginning to shift and turn, Soarin’s nervousness beginning to make more and more sense to her.

Her pride, however, came first as she scoffed at the two high society snobs, “Uhm, hello? Standing right here?”

Soarin’s mother walked over to Rainbow Dash’s side and inspected her further, even prodding her with a hoof as she did so, “And that’s not even mentioning this one’s highly emotive nature. Imagine bringing such a thing to a dinner or social gathering, or the children-”

Dash batted the mare’s hoof away, face contorted in disgust, “First off, I’m not a thing, I’m a pony just like either of you two high society snobs! Second, I’m Soarin’s marefriend, not my captain, not some obscenely wealthy heiress, or anything else that might suit your ridiculous notion of what would make a ‘good’ wife.”

Soarin’s parents gasped, shocked that this impudent mare was telling them off. In the corner of the room, All Thread found himself almost smile after the disheartening things that had been said about miss Dash just moments prior were replaced with her standing up for herself.

Soarin felt himself grin as Rainbow ranted at his parents, reaching out and touching her closest front hoof with his own. There were worse ways of dealing with snobby parents than to have your marefriend stand up against them.

Rainbow calmed herself with Soarin’s touch, taking a breath to do so even more as she finished, “And lastly, I love your son, not you, and if the feeling is mutual that is just fine with me! Now I’m beginning to get why he doesn’t like seeing you two!”

“Such crude-” Soarin’s father started to say before he was cut off.

“Oh stop trying to act like you’re better.”

The purple mare in the room gaped as she looked to the speaker, awestruck by their audacity,  “Soarin?”

Said pony turned around and started towards the door, his marefriend following behind him with a huff directed at the other ponies, “Come on Dash, I think I’ve shown you enough,” at the door Soarin turned to face his parents with a sad expression, “Feel free to apologize anytime, but if you don’t I won’t be seeing you again until your eulogies.”

Nopony said anything else as the two younger Pegasi left the room.





“That was...harsh.”

Rainbow Dash and Soarin had backtracked to where they had landed, making haste once out of sight of the parents so that they could remove themselves from that environment.

Soarin choked back some tears as he studied the cold cloud beneath him, “Sorry Dash, I just...I can’t stand them,” a sniffle escaped his lips as he thought back to his years here, “Always belittling me, always acting all high and mighty, as if everypony else is beneath them just because they have money...”

Soarin glanced over to his marefriend and wiped his face, not wanting to look too weak in front of her, “And the way they treated you…”

Rainbow could see that there really was some strain here between Soarin and his family, and actually felt bad that she had forced this upon him in a way. He was too nice to just say no even if he didn’t want to do it, and now he was almost in an outburst of tears.

Dash wrapped her hooves around him gently, bringing her head into his fur and nuzzling against it, “Hey, I can handle it…So what if your parents are jerks? You’re still the best guy there is, even if they don’t realize it.”

Soarin wrapped his own hooves around Dash, thankful for having such a perfect special somepony. Some might laugh at him for being sensitive, but Rainbow instead accepted and loved him for it.

The two Pegasi kept themselves wrapped up in one another for what might have been eternity with how time passed for them, only stopping and pulling from one another when they heard another pony approach them on the cloud.

All Thread stood a few feet from them, his suit wet from the light snow dripping across it, with a hoof stretched out towards Rainbow with a familiar object, “Your coat, madame.”

Rainbow took the object, glad that she hadn’t forgotten it since she was sure she never would have returned for it, “Thank you…”

All Thread bowed to her politely before turning to his former master and stating, “I take it we will not be seeing you again for some time, Master Soarin.”

Soarin shook his head sadly, “No...no I don’t think so.”

Now the butler pony gave another bow, this one slower and with a tinge of sadness attached with the words that accompanied it, “Well then, take care of yourself sir,” pausing, he looked to the side at Rainbow Dash as she put her coat back on, “You too madame. I apologize for the uncouth behavior you were subjected to.”

Rainbow Dash smiled at him and shrugged, not really caring if two ponies couldn’t stand her. She had the ones that mattered, “Hey, it’s fine. And thank you for remembering my coat. If you ever stop by Ponyville, don’t be afraid to visit!”

Soarin felt himself smile at how well Rainbow was taking all of this, “Or if you’re ever by the Wonderbolt part of Cloudsdale.”

All Thread took another bow, this one of a parting kind, “Farewell young Masters. I suggest you travel with vigilance with the storm passing by.”

He took his leave and returned to the mansion, leaving Rainbow Dash and Soarin where they were standing before. A moment passed before Rainbow had something cross her mind.

“How’s a decent pony like him working for them?”

Her coltfriend let out a saddened breath, “Honor, I believe. His father served them, as did his father...it’s a sad cycle, honestly. I wish special talents weren’t so genetic in their nature.”

“Like how the Apple family all specialize in apple products? Can’t believe Scootaloo’s friend Apple Bloom hasn’t really figured that out yet…”

Soarin felt a smile threaten to tug at his lip, only to decide not to fight it and let himself smile. What did he have to worry about after all? Rainbow Dash was more of a real family member to him now than either of his parents, and it was her that he cared about more than anything.

“You ready to go back to Ponyville? I don’t really care to stay near Cloudsdale while this storm continues.”

Rainbow laughed, “Sure. Let’s get something to eat when we get back, because I’m starving! I thought we would at least get a bite to eat here.”

The two took flight and headed ‘home’, grateful to one another and fine with weathering the blizzard in their way with one another.





It was late when they got back, so late that Rainbow Dash had decided to let Scootaloo sleep over at Rarity’s house with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, and rounding on nine o’clock by the time they touched down by a restaurant that was still open at the hour.

The two had largely been silent on the way back, so it was only when they sat down that Soarin found it in himself to confront the issue faced earlier that day.

“So, about that...sorry, I knew they weren’t going to be nice but I didn’t think they would be-”

What cut Soarin off would be the most to-the-point yet powerful three words he would likely hear.

“Wanna get married?”

Rainbow Dash had said it so casually that Soarin almost thought she was joking, but the thoughtful expression on her face told him otherwise. The stallion found his mind racing once more that day as he was put on a spot most stallions likely couldn’t say they’ve been in.

“W-what?”

Rainbow snorted snarkily before pointing a hoof gently at him across the table they were seated at, “Do. You, Soarin. Want. To. Marry. Me.”

“Well, uh...I…” Soarin found himself not sure what to say, but he knew what the answer in his heart was. He also knew why he hadn’t been the one asking the question, “Of course I do Dash, b-but-”

“But what?” Rainbow questioned, face growing a tad bit distraught. Had she asked too soon? At the right time?

“We haven’t been together that long, and you’re still young-”

Oh, that. Rainbow rolled her eyes, getting sick of how other ponies would take note of their age difference when she herself didn’t care in the slightest except that he might not have Soarin as long as she wanted to in the long run.

“So?”

“It’s just…” the older Wonderbolt sighed and lowered his head, barely able to meet Rainbow’s eyes, “Well, do you want to do this to get back at my parents or to just get married for us?”

“Is both an alright answer? I’ve been thinking about the idea for a while now, and they just made up my mind on asking,” Rainbow found her voice go from tough to being soft as she continued, still not used to being emotionally vulnerable even after dating Soarin for so long, “So...do you want to?”

Soarin took a breath before looking up fully with a smile on his face, happy tears in his eyes, “Yes, Dash, I want to marry you. If you’re absolutely sure you want to.”

Rainbow reached a hoof across the small table to touch one of his, a gentle smile on her muzzle, “We live together, you’re shaping up to be like Scootaloo’s dad, my parents love you, and my friends think you’re great. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re the mister perfect most fillies daydreamed about while I was out playing sports and beating up guys.”

With that, she leaned across to kiss him, catching Soarin by surprise at first until he returned the kiss.

“I love you.”

It was a plain fact for Soarin, but to Dash it still brought red to her blue furred cheeks.

“If it was anypony else I’d tell them to stop being so mushy. I...like you too.”

Soarin chided her playfully, “Come on, I know you know how to say it.”

Dash giggled as he began playing with her back legs under the table with his own, “Okay, I love you, alright?”

“Not so hard, huh?”

“Yeah...not hard at all.”






A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope I can hear what you thought in the comments below! Your support inspires me, and I'd love to hear from you all! 

> Meet the Life
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: Ummm...yeah, sorry about the wait. Kind of have been getting my flank kicked in school recently by classes and other things, so writing has been a bit difficult. Also came to the realization last night I might have diabetes...gonna get that looked into, but it’d explain a lot actually.

Thank you for everyone who has been supporting this story so far, and I hope to hear from you in the comments after the chapter to know what you thought! I also have some other stories you may like, so check out my profile if you like my style! Thank you, and enjoy!






It was with a long groan that Rainbow Dash looked over her completely totaled living room before turning to the cause of said mess. Or, rather, causes.

“Now what have we learned?”

“Sweetie Belle should’n do magic?” Apple Bloom offered as a solution.

“Hey!” her friend complained from beside her, her normally white horn displaying black burn marks at the tip.

Rainbow turned to the one she would likely have to talk to more later after the other two were picked up by their sisters, “Scootaloo.”

The orange filly bit her lip as she tried to come up with an important life lesson learned, “Suffering is magic?” Rainbow rolled her eyes, causing Scootaloo to try again, “Suffering is caused by magic?”

“Uhhhh…closer...” Rainbow was looking for something more along the lines of ‘Do not have the untrained Unicorn filly try levitating something that can explode’, but she could let Soarin handle that specification later. For now she just needed to make sure things did not get worse.

Apple Bloom piped up again, “At least Sweetie did’n get into the fireworks this time.”

“No fair! You used the codeword, so I launched them!” Sweetie Belle complained at her Earth Pony friend who was recounting that time they (or rather, she) launched a pile of fireworks for no good reason and burned down not only a shop, but also the gazebo Big Mac had been working on.

Whatever were they going to do with these three?

As the two continued to bicker, Rainbow Dash tried to interject, “This isn’t going anywhere, is it?” her words fell upon deaf ears and the two continued to argue, it now escalating to the point where hooves were flying and the two fillies began to tumble around on the ground as Scootaloo nervously watched them.

Rainbow Dash was not about to pry them apart, having been quite fond of solving things with her own hooves at the same age and never really having gotten beyond that point.

“When Soarin is back and can look after Scootaloo I’m going to bring you two home, okay?”

That sounds responsible, right? Rainbow tried to reassure herself of that just before the tumbling ball of flying hooves rumbled past her and collided with her side on the way.

Rainbow rubbed her hoof and winced as the fillies continued their brawl across the room. Why couldn’t they just have a book on this sort of thing? She was beginning to question whether she should intervene or not.

The sound of something breaking behind the Pegasus made Rainbow groan and shake her head, not feeling up to this.

“Soarin, where the Discord are you?”





Warm pie in satchel, Soarin was leaving Sugarcube Corner at that same moment when his eyes caught sight of something interesting. There were many ponies who looked alike in his experience, and this old friend happened to be one of them, but Soarin always prided himself in being able to know him at first glance...sixty percent of the time.

“Hey, Caramel! It’s me, Soarin, man!”

Across the street an orange pony with a brown mane turned to face Soarin with an ecstatic grin, his old friend’s voice immediately catching his attention.

“Soarin! What are you doing here?” Caramel asked as the two approached one another, meeting halfway through the street.

Soarin blushed as he thought about this little detour and how he should of been at Rainbow’s house a good half hour ago, but the promise of warm pie kept him waiting at Sugarcube Corner, “I’m visiting my marefriend right now, but I stopped to bring home some pie. How have you been?”

“I guess I’ve been doing well. Broke up with my ex-marefriend a bit ago when Ponyville got all wonky, but I’d say I’m good beyond that!” Caramel stated in a chipper voice, referring back to that one time that everypony in Ponyville hated eachother.

The idea of a breakup made Soarin a bit nervous. He knew he was engaged with Rainbow and all, but things did go sour in some relationships. He was determined to make sure that didn’t happen to him, as he was quite accustomed to how things were and wanted them to stay that way.

Soarin gave his friend a reassuring look, “Sorry about your break up, but I’m glad you’re doing better nowadays!”

Caramel shrugged before giving Soarin a light punch on the shoulder, “So, back to you, I couldn’t believe it when I heard you were a Wonderbolt! Shy Soarin, a Wonderbolt? That’s just so awesome!”

Soarin blushed. He was also accustomed to being given high praise, being a celebrity and all, but he tended to block it out given his general humility. Hearing it from an old friend though just made him plain bashful though, “It’s nothing all that special. Everypony is great at something, I’m just skilled at flying.”

“Hey, it’s better than being a farmhand in my book,” Caramel’s eyes quickly darted around the moment he finished saying that, “Not that I don’t love my job! Celestia, AJ better not have heard that…”

“AJ?” Soarin wracked his brain for a moment before remembering who that was, “Oh, is that the orange mare who’s Apple Bloom’s mom?”

“Sister, actually,” Caramel corrected with a weak laugh.

Soarin shrugged, “Messed that up the other day too...hopefully I learn before I run into her again! She’s good friends with Rainbow and I don’t want to make her mad.”

Caramel blinked, “Wait, you’re dating Rainbow Dash?"

The Wonderbolt questioned whether he should add that he was now engaged to Rainbow as well, but seeing as how he hadn’t talked with her about telling other ponies he decided to keep it under wraps, “Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Been awhile now too, actually. You know her?”

Caramel nodded his head with a grin, “She’s friends with my neighbor, Rarity-”

Soarin was sure he remembered this one, “The prissy but otherwise nice marshmallow?”

That seemed like an apt description to Caramel, who laughed, “That’s the one! But yeah, I’ve heard quite a bit about Rainbow. She’s become quite the celebrity in fact these past couple years! Always could see her sleeping around town before, but now everybody notices her!”

Soarin blinked, “Sleeping around town?”

Caramel nodded once again, “Yeah, you can find her on just about any of the clouds you see around town one day or the other!”

He didn’t seem to notice Soarin letting out a breath of relief as he continued, “So, you said you’re going over to her house now? I wouldn’t want to keep you! I should be heading back to Sweet Apple Acres myself...AJ hates it when I take too long!”

Soarin smiled to him and waved as he spread his wings to fly, “Have fun with that! It was nice seeing you man!”

He had no idea about what his little detour had led to.





“Honey?”

“Yes?”

“Why is everything broken?”

Soarin placed his still warm pies down on the only table in the living room not upturned or scorched, his face confused and worried. Rainbow Dash was in another room with the fillies from before, although Scootaloo had come to greet him at the door and was trailing behind Soarin.

“Hold that thought, you can talk with Scootaloo about it. I’m going to go drop off Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, okay? Be right back.”

Soarin turned to say goodbye, but Rainbow Dash whisked out the door with two fillies still trying to grab one another in her hooves. Soarin rose an eyebrow before looking down to Scootaloo.

“So...interesting day?”

She shrugged, not meeting his eyes, “Kinda. Didn’t know horns could spark and kinda catch fire before.”

Soarin nodded to that, also not having known that, before trying to piece together just what happened in the room. After a moment he decided a different question was in order, “Everpony okay?”

Scootaloo sighed, “Yeah. Sweetie just should put some ice on it and she should be fine. And Apple Bloom will need some on her eye from where she got hit.”

“What’s the matter?” Soarin bent down a bit so that he was at Scootaloo’s level, making it harder for her to look away from him.

The filly sniffed as she tried to not cry, keeping a neutral face on but failing to fool Soarin, “Mom-Rainbow’s not very happy. We kind of wrecked the place.”

Soarin leant his head forward and rubbed it against hers, nuzzling her forehead softly, “It’s okay Scootaloo. Accidents happen after all.”

Scootaloo reached her hooves forward to hug Soarin and he did the same, their embrace lasting just long enough for Rainbow Dash to zoom back into the house.

Rainbow dashed into the broken living room with a nervous smile, “Hey, sorry ‘bout that. Kind of wanted them to stop arguing.”

Soarin chuckled before nodding over to the pie in the room, “Pie?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Sure,” she looked down to Scootaloo, “Hey Scoots, can Soarin and I talk for a moment?”

Scootaloo nodded, not moving at all from the fuzzy light blue chest she was up against, “Sure.”

Her caretaker rolled her eyes, “I meant alone.”

The filly gave a nervous laugh as she exited the hug and scampered out of the room, “Oh, haha, of course. Totally knew what you meant.”

Soarin bit his lip as Rainbow looked to him, not sure what she wanted to say, “You’re not mad at me for being late, are you?”

“Only a little,” she pecked him on the face and giggled, “You can make it up to me after I carry you out of the wedding bridal style.”

Soarin laughed at the possibly-not-a-joke, “So, we going to announce it to your friends or-”

Rainbow Dash guffawed and shook her head no, “I rather not have them know just yet. Rarity will overreact and make it into some big production, Twilight will likely read everything there is on the subject matter and on you-”

Her fiance cut her off to clarify something, “Twilight, the unicorn with wings?”

“Yeah, that’s her!” Rainbow affirmed energetically before continuing with a deep breath, “But yeah, I’d rather hold off on them knowing for now. After all, we’re the only ones who need to know right now, right?”

“I guess-”

Soarin was the one cut off this time as an idea struck Rainbow Dash, “Hey, I think I should introduce you to my other friends! You’ve met them all except for Fluttershy and Twilight, so how about you meet them too?”

He supposed that such a thing would not be a bad thing, but the idea of meeting royalty unnerved him a bit, “Sounds like a good idea, I think?”

Rainbow nudged him gently as she spoke in an amused voice, “Oh come on, they aren’t all that bad. Fluttershy might duck for cover when she sees someone new, and Twilight might lecture you a bit but I doubt she’ll be that boring.”

Soarin lifted an eyebrow, “Princess Twilight lectures ponies?”

Rainbow scoffed“It’s what she’s best at. She’s a bit of an egghead after all.”

He stuck his tongue out at his avid reader, “Like a dragon calling a diamond dog greedy.”

“Hey!” she complained, only for Soarin to stick out his tongue again.

He laughed as she tried to grab the tongue with her hooves, “What? It’s true.”

Rainbow’s mood took a turn for the worst as something came to mind, her shoulders sagging as she spoke, “You know, I wish it’d rub off on Scootaloo...she’s barely doing better than me when I was in school.”

“Hmmm,” Soarin tried thinking about the issue. He hadn’t heard about this previously, not that Scootaloo had many chances to get report cards in the time he’d have been interested.

That said, the former academic was now very interested in Scootaloo’s learning, especially since his special somepony was not exactly an expert in the ways of studying, “Maybe having a dropout as an idol could have an effect on her desire to study.”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash complained with a jab to his chest, Soarin snickering as he sidestepped it.

“Just saying that it is a possibility. How about I see if I can help her?”

Rainbow Dash lunged at him again, but this time it was to steal a kiss.

Having him and Scootaloo both made Rainbow quite sure there were not many luckier mares out there. Not everypony wished to be a princess after all. Some just were happy to have others to be with.





The three Pegasi were working on cleaning the broken and burnt living room when a polite knock on the front door caught all of their attentions.

“Who is it?” Rainbow called, only to receive no response. She gave Soarin a glance, seeing if he knew anypony that was coming over, but he shook his head no. The two left the living room, and the cleaning, to Scootaloo as the went to the door.

Rainbow opened the door to find a familiar face there.

Dressed in his same black suit was All Thread, who bowed to the mare in front of him, “Greetings miss Dash. I hope that I have not come at a bad time.”

Rainbow gave him an odd look, unsure as to why he was there, but opened the door fully for him to enter anyways, “No, not at all. Come on in.”

Soarin gave his family’s butler a curious look, not sure why he was there either, “What’s up, Alth?”

“I was in the area and decided to pay you a visit,” the stallion took a breath of the house’s air before continuing, “I take it there has been a fire of sorts?”

“Kinda, but-” Rainbow started, only to be cut off by All Thread heading directly to the living room.

“It will be handled.”

The two adults followed after him into the living room, where Scootaloo continued trying to sweep up soot and dust. The butler stopped in the room at the sight of Scootaloo, who similarly stopped what she was doing to look at him.

Soarin felt the need to introduce the two, seeing as they had not had the chance to meet yet, “Scootaloo, this is All Thread. He’s my family’s head butler.”

Scootaloo’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, “A butler? Your family has butlers? That’s awesome!”

Soarin gave a nervous chuckle as he thought about his family, “Alth, this is Scootaloo. Rainbow and I adopted her awhile back.”

All Thread bowed to the new addition to his master’s family, “It is a pleasure to meet you, miss Scootaloo.”

The pleasantries over, Soarin tried to stop All Thread from grabbing Scootaloo’s dropped broom and tray in vain as the butler scooped them up, “Now Alth, you don’t have to clean here. It’s really okay-”

The butler instantly got to work, simultaneously speaking in a polite but reprimanding tone to Soarin, “Master Soarin, you once tried to convince me you could clean a dining room by yourself to celebrate your parents anniversary. It happens to be the only time my job has ever been threatened because of how terrible it looked afterwards.”

Rainbow laughed at her special somepony as he blushed and thanked the stallion, “Point taken. Thank you Alth.”

All Thread looked to Scootaloo as she stood in his path of cleaning and gave her a small smile, “Young lady, you may go about your business. I can handle this myself, so you need not worry yourself on my account.”

Like music to her ears Scootaloo would swear, and the young filly dashed off out of the room to go do filly things, “Thanks mister!”

Soarin gave a nervous laugh as he watched Alth go about cleaning at a faster and more efficient rate than all three of them had been going together, “I’d offer to help if I wouldn’t get in the way.”

The butler nodded to him as he continued to work, “The would-be offer is appreciated, sir.”





Just as suddenly as the guest had arrived, he fulfilled his duty and left, even turning down offers of eating with them and taking some pie back with him. Soarin was quite sure he knew no more humble a pony than All Thread, and was grateful that at least somepony was sane in that manor back home.

As the day went on, Soarin decided he best enact that plan he mentioned to Rainbow earlier about helping Scootaloo with her work. He found her in her room, eyes glued to a television set where a movie was playing on the screen.

Soarin knocked on her door before entering, giving a large smile to the filly, “So, Scootaloo, what’s up?”

Scootaloo barely even looked to him as the movie continued, the filly completely absorbed into the events on it, “Watching a movie.”

Soarin sat down beside her on her bed, quickly admiring the Rainbow Dash style sheets, and noticed that he had seen the movie before, “I like a lot of the Marevel films.”

The movie, Thor, was having an action scene playing out which was what was capturing Scootaloo’s nigh-undivided attention, “This one has my favorite characters. Prince Loki is so much like Princess Luna, who is so much more awesome than Princess Celestia.”

Soarin took a moment to think about what she said before realizing that he agreed with her, “You know, they are a bit similar. Jealousy issues, older siblings people like better, falling from grace in an attempt to get respect...odd, huh?”

“They should totally get married after he gets out of prison,” Scootaloo replied deadpan, apparently shipping her princess with the movie’s prince.

Soarin rubbed her head affectionately as he laughed, “Fictional characters can’t get married to ponies, silly,” he noticed that this scene was only at an early part of the movie given its setting, but he was fine waiting to do what he came to do, “Now, when it’s over I want to talk to you about your schoolwork.”

That got Scootaloo’s attention away from the screen, her voice panicked, “Please don’t get mad. I don’t wanna fall asleep, but Miss Cheerilee’s so boring-”

Soarin shook his head to stop her, “I’m not mad at all. I didn’t do too well in school for years when I had some things going on in my life, and I had things infinitely easier than you. I just want to help you, okay?” he wrapped a hoof around her and pulled the filly in to a hug, which she quickly returned.

The fear quickly faded from Scootaloo as she realized he was there to help her, not scold her, and she settled into leaning her head on him, “Can you help me with my math then tonight? Reading isn’t so bad, but I don’t really like numbers.”

Soarin nodded to her before nuzzling noses with the filly, “No problem. You’ll be an ace in no time with a little help, I’m sure. Math and science are my specialties after all, since I studied Aeronautics in school. Flight academy and all.”

Scootaloo averted her eyes, “I wish I could go to a flight academy, but they don’t want ponies who can’t fly.”

Soarin was not about to have her feel sorry for herself, so he spoke up, “Hey, you’re getting better aren’t you?” Scootaloo nodded, having managed to get to where she could hover now without much incident.

The Wonderbolt took a hoof to move her head, making her face him as he spoke reassuringly, “How about this, if you manage to improve your grades enough I’ll see if I can take some time off from work and come get you after school. We can get a lot more practice in that way.”

“Thank you,” Scootaloo whispered to him. Soarin could feel the fur on his side grow the slightest bit wet, not that he cared, and he embraced her again. After a moment Scootaloo pulled herself back so that she could look up at him.

“So, uh, I’ve been wondering...what exactly do I call you?” she asked softly.

“Uhhh…” come to think of it, Soarin didn’t really care what she called him so long as it wasn’t anything bad, “Whatever you want, really.”

Scootaloo leaned her head on him and closed her eyes, “You and Rainbow are gonna get married, right?”

He had not asked Dash about telling Scootaloo, but he was quite sure she was a risky pony to tell given her age and chance of telling her friends who happened to be sisters of who they were keeping this a secret from, “Uhhh, what makes you say that?”

“I overheard you guys,” Scootaloo noted with a nervous grin, “So, if you’re getting married, I can call you dad right?”

Soarin nodded. He liked the sound of that.

Scootaloo squeezed him tightly, “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, Scootaloo,” he kissed her forehead before retracting and nodding towards the open door, “How about I go make us some popcorn for us to eat while we finish the movie?”

“Woohoo, popcorn!”

He’d grab Rainbow while he was down there. Some family time would be nice to have, especially since he did not have any work the next day.





As the movie ended and Soarin helped Scootaloo with her homework, the night got darker and darker. Rainbow Dash came up to the room and tapped her daughter’s shoulder to remind her of her nightly rituals.

“Okay, it’s bed time Scoot. Go brush or Colgate won’t be happy.”

“Okay,” Scootaloo replied in a depressed tone, her head tired and longing for her pillow and not her toothbrush.

Rainbow shook Scootaloo a little bit to wake her up, “Brushie-brushie missie!”

Scootaloo scampered out of the room to the bathroom so that she could do just that, leaving Soarin and Rainbow Dash in the room.

Soarin grinned at Rainbow, “She’s just like you, Dashie.”

His fiance shrugged, “Yeah, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”

He laughed as he took a playful jab at her, “I know what you mean! You’re quite a handful-”

Rainbow stuffing a hoof in his mouth cut him off, letting her reply to him with an amused voice, “I’ll admit I’m...slightly difficult to handle, but so what? I’m worth it.”

“So is Scootaloo, right?” Soarin asked, already knowing the answer.

His fiance laughed, “Yeah, you’re right. Doesn’t make having a pre-made filly easier to handle.”

Soarin stretched out as a yawn overtook him, also getting up to head out the door, “She worships you, Dash. Wish I had a fan like that.”

Rainbow followed him out in the hallway, where she kissed him on the lips and brought him in for a hug, “You do. She just got so lucky to be able to date you.”

Their hug was interrupted by a small hoof poking them. The adults looked down to see Scootaloo, teeth sparkling, looking up at them.

The filly glanced over to Rainbow’s room as she spoke, “So, Dad, are you going to be sleeping over tonight?”

“Sleeping over?” that was not a thing Soarin did just about ever, given how far away he lived and the irregularity of their schedules.

Scootaloo nodded vigorously, “Yeah! In some of the books I read special someponies live together in a house, even before they get married, so I was wondering if you were going to live here too.”

“Well, I...” he glanced over to Rainbow who only smiled at him, “It’s Dashie’s house and I have to go to work a bit away so I haven’t really moved in here 100%. Not that I have work tomorrow though...”

Scootaloo noticed what he meant, so she trotted into her room and let out a yawn, “Ahh, okay. Well, goodnight mom and dad.”

“Goodnight squirt,” Rainbow called to her as the door closed, leaving her with Soarin in the hallway.

The blue mare looked to the blue stallion with a large and mischievous smile, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired, Daddy. Wanna go to bed?”

“Uhhhmm...sure?”

They would have both fallen asleep right then and there if Soarin hadn’t learned that Rainbow snored quite loudly. He considered the snoring worth it, having been upgraded from the couch to her bed.






A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope I can hear what you thought in the comments below! Your support inspires me, and I'd love to hear from you all! And feel free to check out my other stories if you enjoyed this one! I'm always looking for new comments and thoughts on them as well!

> Meet the (big) Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on the last chapter. Your comments really have helped me and my mood these past few trying days, so I am infinitely grateful. I hope you will continue to enjoy, and that I may hear from you and others in the comment section below.

Now a message from our sponsors. This chapter brought to you by...people’s stupidity that gave me a headache so large I cannot sleep. Been suffering from a lot of those recently, and they’re not getting better.

Please enjoy, and let a tired college student know what you think in the comments!






Outside the Ponyville elementary school sat the infamous trio known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a large tome before them with pictures where words normally would be. Apple Bloom sat there flipping the pages and narrating them as she did so.

“There’s mah mom and mah dad. Ah wish ah could hev known ‘em, but at least ah have Granny Smith, AJ and mah brother!”

Scootaloo nodded to that, glad for her own family, “Yeah!” noticing that Apple Bloom had not actually appeared yet in the photo album, Scootaloo decided to inquire about that. She could always use embarrassing filly photos down the road for blackmail, “Where do you appear in this album?”

Apple Bloom did not sense her friend’s childish intentions and hooved through the book, “Hmmmm,” at the sight of a patch of red hair with a bow, the Earth Pony poked the page with a hoof, “Here’s mah first photo!”

“Awww, you’re just a little baby!” Sweetie Belle cooed at the sight of the photo, adoring the baby Apple Bloom. Then she noticed something weird about the photo and those around it, “Uhhh, Bloom?”

“Yeah?” her accented friend responded.

“Where are your parents?”

Apple Bloom thought about it for a second, “Well, the book is dun by date. Granny Smith lahks it that way ‘cuz of her memory.”

Scootaloo tried looking to see what Sweetie meant, and it did not take long to notice the discrepancy. Photo of Applejack going to the city? No parents, they had passed. And since the photo of Apple Bloom comes after that one...

Sweetie Belle did not take the whole thing into consideration and innocently chirped, “Hey, that’s weird! Apple Bloom, why were you not born until after your parents stopped taking photos of themselves?”

Apple Bloom’s brain broke as she tried to make it make sense, “Uhhhh….”

Scootaloo reached over to her ignorant friend and knocked her on the shoulder, “Sweetie!”

“What? It’s a leginamate question!” Sweetie Belle complained as she rubbed a hoof on her now sore shoulder, “It just doesn’t make any sense-”

A wooshing sound in the air made Scootaloo’s ears twitch and the filly jumped upright, “That’s cool and Imma let you finish, but I have to go guys. Dad’s here.”

“Dad?” the other two questioned, not knowing what she was talking about.

“Uhhh, mister Soarin. He and Rainbow Dash have adopted me, remember?” Scootaloo clarified, blushing red as Soarin landed in the grass nearby them with a streak of blue and grey.

Sweetie Belle bonked herself on the head with a hoof, “Oh yeah! That’s so cool that you have two Wonderbolts for parents!”

Soarin trotted over to the trio with a nervous smile, “Hehe, Wonderbolt. Yeah,” he looked down to Scootaloo who was struggling to pick up her bookbag, “Hello Cutie Mark Crusaders. You ready, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo managed to strap the saddlebag on finally before spreading her wings, “Yup!”

Having spent time with both Soarin and Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo was able to get from their school to their house. She did not have the endurance to go farther than that yet, but she was improving bit by bit.

The two Pegasi lifted off gently into the sky, Soarin making sure to stay right beside Scootaloo in case she fell, and the two Crusaders on the ground waved at them as they departed, “Bye Scootaloo!”

Scootaloo waved back, causing her to wobble a little in the air before she could catch herself. After that little slip up, both her and Soarin picked up the pace a little and headed home.

“Hey Scootaloo?”

The orange filly glanced over to Soarin as they flew softly towards their cloud home, “Yeah?”

Soarin grinned at her, but it was a bit nervous, “How would you feel if I had some more time to hang out with you?”

“That’d be cool, I guess, but isn’t being a Wonderbolt very time consumering?”

“Consuming,” Soarin corrected, “And yes. Just wanted to see what you thought.”

A silence filled the air afterwards, one that Soarin decided to break, “So, have you told your friends yet about Rainbow Dash and I getting married?”

Scootaloo shook her head as they came up on the house’s front cloud, “Nah. You guys haven’t told anypony yet, so I thought I shouldn’t.”

Soarin resisted the urge to hug her as they landed, not wanting to mess her up, “You’re so considerate.”

Scootaloo just nodded silently, feeling embarrassed like any child is by their parent giving them praise. Soarin just patted her on her head before turning and lifting off again.

“Well, I have to run some errands. Tell Dashie I’ll be back soon, okay?”





Knock, knock, knock.

That was what preceded the door to the Ponyville library opening, leading Soarin to find himself face to face with none other than the newest royalty there was in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle.

“Uh, hello your high-”

The bookworm cut him off with a laugh, “Twilight Sparkle is fine. Seriously, everypony needs to calm down about that.”

Soarin put a hoof behind his head nervously, not having really planned this full encounter out except for a couple bits, “Rainbow Dash thought it would be best if I met you.”

Twilight stepped out of the doorway to give him space to enter, “Oh, come on in then. I was just getting some books for Fluttershy on how to take care of disobedient animals and putting away books that fillies shouldn’t be trying to read.”

Soarin entered the library and Twilight closed the door behind him as she nodded over to the previously mentioned Fluttershy in the room, who nervously nodded to Soarin as Twilight spoke, “You danced with Rainbow at my brothers wedding if I remember correctly,” the Wonderbolt nodded to her as Twilight continued to spout off information, “Soarin the Wonderbolt. She checked out all the articles on you after I got her into reading-”

Soarin was going to have to bring that last bit of information up with Rainbow. Just what had she read?

“-so it makes me so glad to see you two here together! It’s like a romance novel,” Twilight blushed at her own words, her smile guilty, “Not that I read those.”

Fluttershy moved slowly over to the other two and tried to greet Rainbow Dash’s fiance, “Hi…”

Soarin greeted her back with a little more energy, “Hello, my name is Soarin. You must be Fluttershy.”

She nodded and glanced to her side, where a white rabbit Soarin had not noticed before stood with a carrot about to be eaten, “Uhm...you probably haven’t met Angel Bunny.”

“I don’t believe I have,” Soarin bent down to the rabbit’s level as best as he could, “Hello Angel, I’m Soarin-”

Anything he had been told about carrots being good for your eyes quickly was forgotten as the carrot crashed into his face, and his left eye in particular.

“Well then,” Soarin stated, absolutely not knowing where to go from there. Part of him wanted to eat the carrot in spite, but it had been on the floor.

Fluttershy looked down to her pet with a disapproving face and spoke with as harsh a tone as she could muster, “Angel, that wasn’t very nice. Now show mister Soarin you’re sorry.”

The rabbit crossed its arms and looked away from the ponies, completely unashamed, “Pleeeeaaaase Angel? For mommy?”

Soarin stood back up and laughed it off, making a mental note to himself to never get a rabbit as a pet, “It’s okay, I’ve faced worse than a fluffy rabbit.”

Twilight laughed too as she began to tend to various out-of-place books in the room, “Hah, I bet. The Wonderbolts always get to react to pretty interesting monster threats.”

“Yeah, they do. Been a bit quiet the past few weeks to be honest. Almost like all of the beasts there have died off,” Soarin noted, not minding too much that he didn’t have to fight off dragons and the like. It was not as easy as it had been a few years back.

Fluttershy seemed worried about what he said and her mouth formed an O, “Oh, I hope not. I found this interesting one the other day. I named him mister Squish because he makes that sound whenever he moves with his eight tentacles.”

The rabbit beside her made strangling gestures, so Fluttershy explained, “Angel dislikes mister Squish ever since mister Squish tried to eat him. He’s smart enough to get out of a cage it seems, and he can fit through a hole the size of a bit somehow.”

Soarin nodded to that, “Pretty smart octopus.”

“You know what it is?” Fluttershy felt embarrassed that she had no idea what it was.

“Well, I am assuming given what you’ve said. I am just surprised it is doing this well on land. Must be enchanted. Did it appear out of nowhere?” he gave a nonchalant shrug.

“Well, yes…”

“Somepony was playing a prank on you I would bet,” he quickly felt the need to made an addendum to that statement, “And Rainbow would have told me if it was her. She did a good one of Pinkie Pie the other day, I heard. Purple Pie more like it.”

“I remember that one,” Twilight turned away from the books to re-engage in the conversation, “I was too afraid to leave my room to help Pinkie out because of a snake infestation, so she was stuck purple for a week.”

“Snake infestation?” this was news to Soarin.

He almost missed the slight eye-twitch the princess gave off as she spoke, “Talking snake. Very bad day.”

Fluttershy attempted to reassure her neurotic friend, “Snakes aren’t that bad, Twilight. You just have to not startle them.”

“You would say that,” her friend snarked to the amusement of the rabbit.

Soarin gave a cough to draw their attention, having a specific goal and topic to broach for the two that Rainbow Dash had tasked him with in an attempt to get him to meet them, “Anyways, I was just wondering when you two are the most available for a big event Rainbow and I are planning.”

“How big?” Twilight questioned as she summoned a calendar from the side of the room.

“Pretty big,” he glanced down to the evil rabbit with a grin and got an idea, “Like, if one of Pinkie’s parties is the size of this rabbit, then it would be as big as me.”

Twilight began to flip through the pages of the calendar with a surprised expression on her face, being quite surprised that Rainbow Dash would go to the effort of putting something together at all, “Oh wow, I really will have to check my schedule. When were you thinking this would be, roughly?”

“Anytime in the next half year.”

“Hmmm...let me see,” Twilight flipped through that time range and analyzed the few free spaces she had open on it, “Because of my new duties, I would say the best time would be in about four months. Canterlot needs a lot of clean up with Luna away on business and those Changelings having done their thing again.”

Soarin grinned at the other pony whose schedule mattered, “How about you Shutterfly?”

“I’m Fluttershy, and, um, I am available whenever…” the meek mare glanced to Twilight, “Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie probably will want to know Rainbow’s getting married, Twi.”

That made Soarin’s eyes grow large, “Wait, you know?”

Fluttershy nervously looked at the ground, “Rainbow wouldn’t put together any kind of event if it wasn’t that important. Or a new Daring Do release date.”

Twilight scoffed, “She still thinks that she is a bigger fan than me. As if she could like my mom more than me.”

Again with the revelations, Soarin was quite a bit shocked, “Your mom writes Daring Do?”

“Yeah, under a pseudonym. Took me forever to figure that out,” Twilight stopped going through the calendar and instead decided to look at her guest with a big smile, “And congratulations! I have to visit Rainbow and tell her when I get the chance. When did you propose? Tell us everything because she’ll likely exaggerate if we ask her.”

“Uh, to be precise, she proposed to me...”





Many hours later Soarin found himself coming home to Rainbow’s house, not his own back near Cloudsdale, and when he came in he found his girls in the newly refurbished living room watching the large television put in there. Soarin was quite impressed that All Thread had managed to fix up the entire place as if the Cutie Mark Crusaders had never been there.

Rainbow waved him over in the dimly lit room to the couch where they both were laying down, “Come and join us Soarin, we were just watching one of Scootaloo’s shows and eating popcorn.”

Soarin found a place on the couch that allowed him to nuzzle and embrace both of the mares, “What show?”

“Pony Rangers,” Scootaloo replied, eyes glued to the television as she spoke, “Super heroes are awesome! They’re having the show’s 20th anniversary, so we’re watching the big reunion and fight!”

Rainbow chuckled at Scootaloo’s description of it. She was enjoying spending quality time with Scootaloo, even if the bad ponies in the show had terrible rubber outfits, “Don’t worry, you’ll live Soarin. Get past some cheesy stuff and it’s pretty decent.”

Soarin actually found himself feeling nostalgic as he looked at the show, “I know, I was young once too! I remember they went to space when I was a colt. Always wanted to do that myself!”

“Ask Princess Luna, it’s nothing special,” Rainbow snarked, taking a hooffull of popcorn into her mouth as she did so.

Soarin poked her side playfully, “She’s going to give you nightmares for saying that.”

“Let her, I-”

“Shhh,” Scootaloo warned as the characters on the screen stopped fighting so that they could talk. This stopping gave Soarin a moment to catch sight of some familiar characters which revived many a childhood memory in him.

“Oh hey, those are the guys I grew up with! Cool!”

“Shhh!” Scootaloo repeated.

“Okay, okay-”

“Shhhh....” the last one came out more like a hiss and a threat.

The family continued to watch the show and rest there together when two more familiar ponies appeared on the screen. One was bulky and the other was as thin as a skull, and Soarin could have sworn he had seen them somewhere else before.

Ignoring the feeling, Soarin decided to talk to Rainbow about his exploits that day as the show cut to a commercial break.

“Hey Rainbow?”

“Yeah?”

“I did what you asked and talked to Twilight and Fluttershy, and also asked their availability. Fluttershy instantly guessed about the wedding though.”

Rainbow shrugged, not really caring that the cat was out of the bag. It would have happened at some point anyways, “Eh, doesn’t matter. Make sure not to let Rarity’s ODC get to you about it over the next couple months.”

“Can I be the flower girl?” Scootaloo asked cheerfully.

“Of course. Just don’t go overboard, okay?”

Scootaloo was learning from Rainbow Dash for better or worse, as she snorted, “I make no such promises.”





After a night of TV, Soarin’s cooking, Rainbow Dash’s not-too-bad dessert cooking, and some nice family time together, everypony was going to bed.

Was.

A candlelit room with a note on the door saying-

Little brother please.

Love, Scootaloo.

threw a wrench in the mix.

Soarin blinked as he looked over the small note, “That’s...bold.”

Rainbow sighed deeply before leaving their shared room and going over to Scootaloo’s with the note in hoof, “Excuse me a sec.”

With a short knock, Rainbow let herself in to the filly’s room and closed the door behind her, “Scootaloo? Mind explaining this to me?”

Noticing that her plan was foiled and worried that Rainbow Dash would be mad, Scootaloo instantly spilled the beans with a rapid pace as her eyes began to grow watery, “Well, I wanted a little brother so I could hang out with them, so I went to the library and started looking for ways to get one, but Twilight didn’t let me go where the books about how foals are made are, so I read a book instead about a family and in it they get a new foal after having a romantic night with candles and nice food and-”

Rainbow flew over to where Scootaloo lay on her bed and gave her a reassuring smile, “Hey, it’s okay Scootaloo. I’m not mad.”

“You’re not?” Scootaloo asked as Dash wrapped a hoof around her.

Her mom shook her head, “No, of course not,” Rainbow sighed again as her eyes fell to the floor, “In fact, I’m kind of sad. I wouldn’t really mind giving you a little sibling, but I’m a Wonderbolt and can’t have a foal yet.”

Scootaloo was not exactly in-the-know about the whole baby process, “Why?”

Rainbow brought her lips to the filly’s head and kissed her before explaining, “Having a foal is hard for a mare, Scootaloo, and I wouldn’t be able to fly around as easily. It would be hard for me to even fly!”

As Scootaloo returned the hug given to her, Rainbow felt herself mumbling under her own breath, “Maybe in a few years...okay?”

Scootaloo was far from mumbling as she ecstatically perked up, “Really? You mean it?!”

“Sure...” Rainbow had never really put much thought into having a foal, since it would kind of dash her dreams of becoming a Wonderbolt before. But now that she was one she could think about such a thing, she supposed. Not right after joining, but maybe later on she reckoned. And if Scootaloo wanted it and if Soarin was okay with it…

Rainbow felt herself blushing at the thought.

Scootaloo, meanwhile, was still busy living it up that Rainbow Dash had agreed to some level, “Woohoo! That’s awesome!” reaching for the bedside desk, Scootaloo withdrew a piece of paper from it, “I’ve already drawn what they’re going to look like! What do you think?”

Rainbow tried not to laugh at the picture on the paper, which was literally a traced baby image of Soarin with a few modifications, “Scootaloo, this is a trace of Soarin’s baby picture with my mane. Kind of looks like my dad though because of that.”

The filly rolled her eyes, “Well duh, of course it should look like Soarin, but it’s got to have your hair! I mean, why wouldn’t it want such a great, colorful set of hair?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes back at the filly, “Scootaloo, did you choose your mane color?”

“Uhhh...no?”

While no scientist, Rainbow Dash was not exactly stupid, “Exactly. It’s kind of random. I mean, there is nothing that says family members can’t have different colored manes than their parents, but look at Sweetie Belle’s parents. Neither of them have pink in their hair, do they? And Applejack doesn’t have the same hair as Apple Bloom, or even Big Mac.”

“I feel like we’ve gotten off topic.”

Rainbow kissed Scootaloo on the forehead and whispered in her ear, “Bottom line, just...give me some time, okay?” Scootaloo nuzzled her head against Rainbow’s, who then whispered, “Goodnight.”

Soarin would be very confused why Dash came back with a completely blushed face later without wanting to talk about it. He was just happy for all of the free candles, even if it did mean Scootaloo was hoping they would adopt her a brother.

He didn’t exactly piece together the right puzzle, as Dash would later explain to him.






A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed and will enjoy it next time on "Meet the Captain"! Please comment in the section below and help make the day of a lonely college student!

> Meet the Captain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on the last chapter. Your comments really have helped me and my mood these past few trying days, so I am infinitely grateful. I hope you will continue to enjoy, and that I may hear from you and others in the comment section below.

Disclaimer: This chapter is based partially off of Rainbow Falls. It contains pieces of the canon, but just as this story is not 100% following canon neither is this. I had a chapter dedicated to Scootaloo meeting Spitfire before I heard word of how the Wonderbolts might be in Rainbow Falls, so I held off on publishing it. Now it is scrapped and replaced by this, because I felt the other chapter was way too unfitting given the recent episode. Don’t compare this to the episode in terms of small bits like when or what, because I will be fully rewriting the episode and publishing it here. This is just the pieces outside of it that pertain to this series.

Please enjoy, and let a tired college student know what you think in the comments!






Scootaloo had walked into the hospital with a lowered head, her eyes focused on the floor as she guiltily approached her destination. After all, in a perfect world she would have come much earlier but by the time she had heard the news it was much after the fact.

Soarin had been hurt while practicing for the Equestria Games, Rainbow had told her when picking Scootaloo up from her weeklong stay in Canterlot. That, and his team had ditched him at the drop of a hat because of it.

That’d be just a normal level of rude and insulting if they had not then asked Rainbow Dash to take his place.

From what Scootaloo could tell, while she was away her mom had been stressing over this quite greatly. She could join the better team, replace Soarin, and let down her home team and friends in order to get a better chance at winning the Equestria Games. Or she could stay with her original, flight impaired team and not have much of a chance while letting down Spitfire and Fleetfoot who too were trying to get through the tryouts.

As Rainbow tried to handle that mess, Scootaloo decided to check on Soarin. It was about time for the tryouts and he still wasn’t home, so she was worried he wouldn’t be able to compete even if he had recovered enough to fly.

“How are you?” she asked as she entered his room, closing the door behind her and peeking around the room to check if there were any other occupants. Nopony else was in the room other than Soarin, who sat on his bed with a frown on his face.

Scootaloo couldn’t blame him. She had to push her friends to get them to ditch her, whereas his own supposed friends didn’t take a moment to breathe to get rid of him.

Soarin quickly hid his disparaged expression and suppressed whatever feelings he had been mulling over at the sounds of her voice, “Not actually too hurt, to be honest. I can leave as soon as they finish the paperwork.”

His words relieved Scootaloo’s worries, “That’s good,” she bit her lip as she thought back to why she was so bashful on her way there, “I’m sorry I didn’t get to come sooner.”

He wasn’t about to let her feel guilty over something that was not her fault. After all, she had come to see him after all. Unlike his team, “It’s fine. Not everyday you get asked a favor by the Princess of the Night. You must have left a good impression on her in your dreams.”

Scootaloo chuckled nervously, not able to eat praise up like Rainbow could, “Hehe, I guess,” she quickly went back to biting her lip as she thought about her mom, “She’s really torn about all this.”

The mention of how Rainbow was feeling irked Soarin. Rainbow might act tough, but she caved under pressure pretty easily the moment her tough facade was cracked. This situation would most certainly do just that, and she had even discussed not participating at all if it meant she could get out of letting somepony down.

“Has she talked to you?”

“Yeah…” Scootaloo found her empathy for Rainbow Dash morph into anger at the reasons behind it and Soarin’s current grief, “How can they just do that to you? Aren’t you guys a team? Haven’t you been together for years?”

The forlorn Soarin shook his head as he tried to turn the event into a lesson for the young Scootaloo, lest she ever be in a similar place, “It’s what happens when you care too much about winning and not enough about the friends who helped get you there. Some ponies are just that way.”

Scootaloo stomped her front hooves on the ground, “But that’s wrong!” she took a moment to calm herself down before sitting down on the floor, distraught that two of her mother’s own idols had turned out to be so rotten, “You and mom would never do that to anypony.”

Soarin rose from the bed and trotted over to Scootaloo, placing a hoof gently on her shoulder while forcing a smile upon his face.

“Don’t worry about it Scootaloo. How about we go see how Rainbow does at the tryouts?”





In a delightful turn of events for Soarin, Rainbow Dash had been chewing out their boss Spitfire and his teammate Fleetfoot for their actions. His being there only helped her play the guilt card on them, and soon enough they accepted him back on their team. A whole crowd of ponies nearby, Soarin accepted the invitation despite his personal reservations. He didn’t want a bigger and more reputation damaging scene to be made.

And he was a Wonderbolt after all, and the same pride that made him angry at his team also made him want to compete. Rainbow gladly took her original position on her hometeam and with her help they managed to qualify for the Games. With Soarin on their side, the trio of Wonderbolts passed with flying colors.

It turned out that they could be the best flying team without having to sacrifice one of their own for another. Odd that they had to learn this given that they were all three of the very best of Equestria’s top fliers. Soarin quickly departed without a farewell after the event, staying only long enough to meet up with Rainbow Dash. Spitfire had apologized to the two of them, and he supposed that was good enough for then, but he had no desire to hang around two ponies he had once considered friends.

Upon reaching their now shared home, Rainbow was the first to speak. Their flight home had been silent, Rainbow not knowing how to take the fake smile plastered on Soarin’s face. By the time they landed she thought she had it worked out.

“You okay?”

Soarin laughed and kept the smile on, straining his face as he exaggerated the expression, “Hahaha, I look okay, don’t I?”

Rainbow embraced Soarin and buried her face in his fur, “You put on a good act.”

He sighed as the fake smile drained from his face. He had put it on ever since Spitfire’s pathetic apology and attempt to douse the bridge she had burned, “Gotta save face...the Wonderbolts don’t need to lose any more of that now after today.”

Her head lifted as she looked Soarin in the eye seriously, “Hey, what happened with them wasn’t your fault.”

His eyes fell to the side, her direct eye contact making him feel nervous, “I know, but I’ve been thinking…” he took in a breath before shaking his head, “You know what? Never mind. Another time.”

Rainbow used a hoof to pull his face in to a kiss. Soarin let her and returned it, the physical pleasure being short because of their shared tension.

As Rainbow drew back she spoke, “If you need somepony, I’m always here for you. Now and forever. You got that?”

“I love you Dashie,” Soarin laughed, attempting to engage in another kiss with the hope that it would lift his mood a little. Rainbow halted him with a hoof to the mouth, her face turned in a weak smile.

“And I want you to know that, if I had to choose between the Wonderbolts and you, I’d choose you every time.”

Soarin lowered his head and sighed at the thought, “You know, I wouldn’t have blamed you too much if you did take my spot. It’d have been their fault, and you only have everything to gain by competing with a great team at the Equestria Games.”

Rainbow tilted his head up and gave him a quick peck on the muzzle, “I would rather have a team with you.”

That was something he hadn’t thought about, but the notion brought forth many ideas in Soarin’s mind ranging from sweet to glorious payback, “You know, since I’m technically living in Ponyville with you anyways, why don’t I join up with you guys?”

That made her eyes light up, “I’d have to ask the others. Wouldn’t want to pull a Spitfire.”

He appreciated the intense loyalty she held towards others, and could not help but feel his mood raise as he thought about what a great mare he was with. The world’s best flier, a hero, and a good pony to boot. She was destined for so many great things in all the life she had before her, “You’re right. You’re such a good pony, Rainbow.”

She rolled her eyes and snorted, “Pfft, as if I didn’t know.”

That too rose his mood, as another fact about Rainbow Dash was that she was quite blunt about just anything even when it would suit her to be otherwise, “Honest, if not modest.”

She gave him a coy smile for his remark, “Letting the next pie burn.”

“No! Not the pie!”

After a moment of laughing, a thought crossed Rainbow’s mind and she quickly began looking around.

“Hey, where’s Scootaloo?”

In their shared spite at Spitfire they had forgotten something quite important.





Spitfire had stayed behind at the grounds for the tryouts with the intention of finding Soarin to apologize again. Her earlier one had been a little weak, and she did not want him wavering in his desire to win the Equestria Games. She needed him at his best if they were to win, and hurt feelings couldn’t get in the way.

The crowd had petered out pretty quickly after the big names had left, save the fans staying to get autographs from Fleetfoot and her. Those too quickly left after Spitfire issued them the premade autographs she spent many an academy day preparing.

It was after these left that she got the chance to search for Soarin, alone because Fleetfoot scoffed at the notion of apologizing and left, but no sight of him was to be found. This, however, gave somepony else the chance to find whom they were looking for.

The yellow pegasi noticed an orange filly approach her after nopony was left in the area. Another fan she presumed, so she reached for another of her signed autographs.

“Hey kid. Want an autograph?”

Spitfire stopped reaching for the autograph the moment she could see the intensity of the child. Their eyes were narrowed slits and their face was impassive, these things catching the captain off guard.

The child scoffed as she defiantly stood in front of Spitfire, her hoof stomping on a fallen autograph, “Why would I?”

The captain’s response came out more like a question than the statement it had been intended to be, “Because I’m a Wonderbolt?”

Spitfire’s visitor snorted, “Would have surprised me if I didn’t already know, what with how-”

Another voice chimed in from side, belonging to a white unicorn filly who had just apparated out of nowhere Spitfire would swear alongside a pale yellow earth pony, “Scootaloo, shouldn’t we be going?”

The name that belonged to the orange pegasi before Spitfire caught her ear, and she could not help but feel she had heard it before, “That name’s familiar. Have we met, kid?”

Scootaloo shook her head at the mare who had lost her respect, “No. I’ve watched the Wonderbolts practice before, but I’ve never met you Captain Spitfire,” she stated her title with a scathing tone. Scootaloo had looked up to the Wonderbolts because they were the ones her own idol idolized, so finding out that their captain was some jerk really destroyed her feelings about them.

Spitfire could not help but feel like she was being insulted, but she responded to what was said, “Watched us practice? Isn’t where we practice a little dangerous for a little filly like yourself? Don’t your parents-”

“They’re the ones who brought me,” Scootaloo cut her off, “Soarin’s fine, by the way. Not that you visited him like any good teammate would.”

The sudden mention of Soarin baffled Spitfire, but she wasn’t about to let the filly lecture her on that front, “I was busy, I couldn’t just go out of my way to check on him after he got himself injured right before the event.”

Scootaloo snorted angrily and kept the intensity of her glare at Spitfire at a level where it would incinerate the fiery mare should looks be able to kill, “So you lie about how hurt he is to try and replace him with Rainbow Dash, who so happens to be younger and faster.”

Spitfire had had enough of this, and did not want to let some disgruntled kid ruin an already bad day, “Well, yeah, but I’ve already apologized about that. Look, kid, I’ve got things to do. Seeya later.”

Spitfire’s wings had just flapped enough to bring her five feet in the air before Scootaloo’s voice halted her.

“You just wait until mom realizes she’s better than you!”

The statement made the captain want to laugh, “And who’d that be? Because last time I checked, there aren’t that many ponies even close to me at flying. Wonderbolt captain and all.”

Scootaloo growled as she jabbed a hoof up in the air at the failed idol, “Rainbow Dash is the best flier of Equestria, and she’s a whole heck of a better pony than you!”

The name made Spitfire’s expression drop completely, going from annoyed to stunned, “Wait, say that again. Rainbow Dash?”

“Scootaloo, come on,” the earth pony filly groaned, a bit nervous about the event as a whole. Scootaloo was standing there and chewing out the captain of the Wonderbolts, something the filly could only imagine going badly.

Scootaloo glanced over briefly before returning her glare to Spitfire, “You two can go home if you want. I want to ask this jerk what she was thinking when she tossed Dad aside and made Rainbow Dash choose between her friends and her career!”

The two fillies, sensing their friend’s conviction, approached Scootaloo and stood behind her in support. If they couldn’t get her to leave, they would at least stand by her.

Spitfire was still confused about the revelation that this child was somehow related to two of her Wonderbolts despite looking nothing like either, “Okay, how is that even possible? You may not be that old, but Soarin and Rainbow Dash haven’t even known each other that long,” another thought struck Spitfire that surprised her too, “And they’re together? I didn’t even know that, not that I ever asked or looked into their social lives. Not my place.”

“Yeah, they’re together, and they’re both great ponies who know a whole lot about things like loyalty and integrity, unlike you!” Scootaloo huffed at the hovering Spitfire, “I looked up to Rainbow Dash for years because she’s the best pony in all of Ponyville, not only because of her flying! She knows what’s right and what’s wrong, which surprises me because her idol is a total and complete jerk! She never abandons her friends!”

Trying not to let the kid’s words get to her, Spitfire rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves, “Yeah, whatever kid. I made a mistake, big deal. Sorry it involved both of your parents, but what do you want me to do about it? I already apologized.”

The Pegasi filly calmed herself down and let in a deep breath before continuing, “You should stop pretending to be the hero you aren’t. They both were hurt because of you, and a small apology to them isn’t going to fix that.”

Spitfire did not know how to retort to that, but she did not need to as the sound of beating wings caught her attention.

Arriving beside the orange filly were the two Wonderbolts spoken of, and both of them seemed a bit weary.

Soarin was the first to speak, using a warning tone to hush the filly. He had heard a bit of what she had to say before landing, and he did not want to make the issue worse, “Scootaloo.”

The filly instantly shrunk, any anger still apparent instantly alleviated and replaced by nervousness, “Oh, hey.”

Rainbow Dash nuzzled Scootaloo, just glad that they had found her so quickly after their initial major mess-up,  “We were worried about you.”

Her attention was quickly brought to the two fillies behind Scootaloo, whom Rainbow had not even mentally noticed with her sole focus on Scootaloo, “You girls need us to help you home?”

Realizing that they weren’t needed anymore, the two fillies shook their head as the Earth Pony spoke, “Naw, we’re good. Seeya Scootaloo!”

As they departed Rainbow turned to Spitfire and gave her a small nod, “Thanks for looking after her.”

The captain shrugged, “I wasn’t actually. She just found me before I left. She’s pretty mad about what I did to you two, and I can’t really fault her for that.”

Rainbow Dash groaned, “Scootaloo, what did you say to her?”

“Nothing that wasn’t true,” the filly mumbled.

Soarin sighed as he put a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, “We’ll talk more about this at home,” he looked to Spitfire with a frown, “Sorry captain.”

Having the chance to apologize again, Spitfire took it as she had intended, “I’m the one who’s sorry. I guess I didn’t know just how much I’d hurt you both, especially since I didn’t know you two were together,” she sighed and lowered her head, “See you two at the base tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Soarin replied noncommittally, picking Scootaloo up and preparing to lift off again. He really did not want to deal with somepony who would so casually betray them, even if they did feel some amount of grief over it.

Rainbow gave her captain another nod before lifting off with Soarin, the mare too not really being in the mood to deal with her.

Spitfire couldn’t help but feeling even worse as the three left her alone.





Upon arriving home, Scootaloo was prepared for the worst. She expected to be punished for badmouthing the Wonderbolt captain, no matter how in the wrong the mare was. As such Scootaloo’s first action upon arriving home was to begin apologizing.

“I’m sorry, I just got really angry at her for-”

Soarin did not let her finish as he brought her into a hug, proud tears rolling down his eyes, “Don’t be. You’re just like your mom, Scootaloo. You can’t just sit by when something’s wrong,” he gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Thank you for standing up for me.”

Scootaloo returned the hug all the while still worrying as she was prone to do, “But what if you get in trouble because of me?”

Soarin pulled back to shake his head, “I’m not worried about myself. Not at all. Just Dash, but given how things went today I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

In an attempt to divert the subject a little, Scootaloo asked about something else, “So you and mom are both going to be competing at the Equestria Games, right?”

He laughed as he responded, some good news having come his way during the search for Scootaloo, “Yeah, but I think I’m going to not be on the Cloudsdale team afterall.”

Not being in-the-know, Scootaloo was very confused by this, “What? But then how are you competing?”

“Turn’s out Rainbow’s friend Shutterfly is uncomfortable being in front of crowds, especially when it has to do with flying. She only put two and two together after the try outs,” a big grin grew on his face, “And, since I live here in Ponyville nowadays, I can fly for them.”

This news could not have been sweeter for Scootaloo, “Aww yeah! I hope you two crush Spitfire!”

Having just stood aside to let the two have their moment, Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof and scoffed, “Oh, I completely intend to. She may be the Captain, but if she needs to act so pettily to win then that means she’s scared somepony else might win.”

Soarin looked over to his fiance with a delighted smile, “You take her and I’ll take care of Fleetfoot. I’m may not be the youngest flier on the Wonderbolts, but experience can replace raw speed in many ways.”

Still in Soarin’s front legs, Scootaloo nestled herself even closer to him.

“Best. Parents. Ever,” and with a small sigh, "I love you."
> Meet the Grandparent
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: Thank you to Sagebrony07, SwimmingDalek98. themouthofmush, Trouble Cleft, fatboi1000, Drgnwolf, DragoDog21, Sean De Retro, Killabyte, BenRG, Shadow_Wolf, D48, Shrinky Frod, Rokas, Chaos Eclipsed, shynight, John 117, Rocket0007, Alaborn, Vernerok87, maskedferret, jlm123hi, TropicalWings, Darkiepie, and Graf Seppelin for your comments, and especially The_Whovian16, who left me the longest comment/review I think I have ever seen or received!. Your comments really have helped me and I am infinitely grateful. I hope you will continue to enjoy, and that I may hear from you and others in the comment section below.

Please enjoy, and let an exhausted college student know what you think in the comments!






Given that only two of her closest friends had wings, her parents gave her an appropriate amount of space, and that her home was on a cloud, Rainbow was not used to actually having to answer the door. She and Soarin were both taking the day off from work after the whole debacle with their Captain, and so she was actually home to hear the polite knocking on it.

Scootaloo was away at school, so it was not as if she could send her to get it and Soarin was sleeping in their bed.

It was under these very specific circumstances that Rainbow Dash found herself getting up from the couch and tending to whoever decided to stop by.

She originally guessed it would be some delivery pony, perhaps even the ditzy Derpy, asking for a signature on a package that was probably not even addressed to anyone who lived at the house.

Opening the door instead revealed an elderly stallion in a suit that she remembered quite well.

Rainbow brought a hoof back to rub the back of her head as she opened the door more so she could stand in that space, “Uh, hey? What’s up Alph?”

The butler pony gave a polite bow to her, “Hello miss. Is the master home?”

“Yeah, he’s in our room resting. You need to see him?” Rainbow asked while pointing a hoof towards the back of the house where a staircase lay.

He gave a similarly polite nod to her, “If he is asleep it can wait. Would it be any trouble if I were to stay until he rises?”

Not about to turn away a nice pony who Soarin was attached to, Rainbow opened the door more and made room for him to enter, “Sure, I guess. Come on in.”

Upon entering, All Thread made a quick appraisal of the house’s inside condition. Dust coated some lesser used objects and pictures, a scooter lay strewn across the entrance floor, and the furniture appeared as if it had never once been cleaned. This was saying something, as he had done just that during his last visit.

Work was to be done at some point.

Noticing how closely he was observing everything, Rainbow gave a quiet laugh as she attempted to be a good host, “Uh, anything I can get you?”

His attention snapped back to the mare at his side, “I can make us tea if you so please.”

The blue mare laughed at the mention of the foreign substance, “I don’t think I can even remember the last time I had tea. Or if I even like it. I’m not about to stop you though. Kitchen’s over there.”

The butler entered the room Rainbow was referring to and it took serious self restraint to not quarantine the area. After all, he was only a guest, and did not wish to overstep his bounds.

“This will require some work.”

“Do whatever you need to man,” Rainbow chortled as she followed him in, “So, what’s up? Any reason you’re visiting in particular?”

All Thread began going about gathering the necessary supplies to make tea as he answered, not wasting a moment as he got to work, “Master Soarin sustained a severe injury I have heard. Given his age, it will require greater care than just time.”

The mention of her fiancé’s age made Rainbow blush, “He’s not an old-timer you know.”

All Thread, being of advanced age himself, could not agree more. Soarin had a great deal of life ahead of him after only three decades, “You would be correct, but his injury will not heal as quickly as he is likely accustomed to. Such is the issue with aging.”

Rainbow sat in a chair around the room’s main table, curious what the brew he was making would taste like, “You seem pretty good for an old guy yourself, so I guess you know what you’re talking about.”

Not comfortable with receiving praise, All Thread changed the subject so that it was instead on the lady of the house, “Word is that you stood up against his team when they unscrupulously dropped him even though it would further your own career. It seems master Soarin has found a true partner.”

Rainbow let out a short sigh at the mention of Spitfire and Fleetfoot’s actions, finding solace in that Soarin had always been her favorite even when she was a diehard Wonderbolt fangirl, “I’m the element of loyalty. I couldn’t just betray him like that, or my own team. I’ll always put those I care about first if that’s what it comes down to.”

All Thread kept a frown from unprofessionally growing on his face, “If only that was a quality the master’s parents could admire. I am afraid they care only for wealth and status.”

Rainbow scoffed and leant back in the chair so that it was teetering on its back two legs, “Well I don’t really care about them. I didn’t have a clue about his parents when I began dating Soarin, and them being rich snobs doesn’t change anything.”

A yawn was the only warning of another pony’s entrance to the room, “Hey Rainbow-“ the recently awoken Soarin felt his tiredness jump from him as he saw that Rainbow was not the only other pony in the room, “All Thread?”

The butler continued to prepare the tea, giving a small bow the first moment it became convenient, “Hello sir. How are you faring today?”

“Just fine, thanks. What’s up?” Soarin parroted Rainbow without realizing it.

Once again, All Thread let his purpose be known, “I came to help assist your wing’s recovery, if you will let me.”

Soarin flexed the wing and thought back to what the doctors said about it, “It was doing just fine, but I wouldn’t mind if you helped make sure it gets better. Nothing worse than a wing healing the wrong way.”

Glad that that was agreed upon, All Thread continued his work intently, “I will finish making this tea and then tend to your wound.”





After the tea was served and Rainbow left to get her daily exercise in, Soarin found himself alone with his old companion. Given his nature, the butler remained silent and simply tended to the living room that Soarin drank his tea in, cleaning the place so that it was less unbearable for those in the cleanliness business.

Soarin, on the other hand, did not want to be left in an awkward silence with another pony. He was determined to find out why his old friend was dropping by more often than even Rainbow’s parents recently, "Hey All Thread, I was just wondering if I could ask you a question."

"Anything you wish, young master. After all, you did just ask one and I daresay you may just follow up with another," was the polite but dry response, All Thread having quite the dry wit.

Soarin could not help but be amused by the servile snarker he knew so well, "Why are you here? I mean, I know that you care about me, and I'm grateful, but…"

Putting down the cleaning utensil Soarin had not even known they had in the house, All Thread gave a small sigh similar to the one Rainbow had emitted upon the subject of Soarin’s parents.

"If you must know, I have terminated my employment with your parents."

That suddenly made a lot of sense to Soarin, who never once prior thought of the elder pony retiring given his dutiful nature but now could understand given his life experiences, "Oh, so you retired?"

All Thread shook his head no as he resumed cleaning, "Retiring is not something I desire to do. I just intend to follow my family's tradition of serving your own in my own way."

It took a moment, but Soarin wasn’t oblivious enough to miss the unsubtle hint given.

The Wonderbolt gaped as he put the puzzle pieces together, "Wait, you want to work for me?"

"As observant as always, sir."

Soarin was unsure about what to say. On the one hoof, having a butler to help him and Rainbow out would be nothing short of amazing especially with Scootaloo in the mix. On the other, butlers were hired and thus paid. While Soarin and Rainbow were both Wonderbolts, the highest paid fliers around, Soarin had never factored in possibly paying somepony else. As the one who managed the bills, he tried to run numbers through his head as he spoke.

"I don't know Alth, I don't know how Rainbow and I could pay you. We're well off, but I never even thought about possibly paying somepony else's salary."

All Thread continued to clean as he spoke, not making eye contact, "I only require a place to sleep and food to eat. I have earned quite a fortune in my employ to your parents, not a bit of which I have spent."

This new factor turned a possibility into a sure deal from Soarin’s perspective, "Let me talk to Rainbow about it, but I'd so appreciate having you around the house. Things have been getting a bit more chaotic since we took Scootaloo in, and an extra hand couldn't hurt."

All Thread gave a bow to his new ‘employer’, not even smiling to keep his professional appearance, "Thank you, sir."

“And you know that you can stop calling me that, right?”

“Of course, sir.”





After Rainbow returned from her exercising, Soarin pulled her aside in the house away from where All Thread continued to tidy everything in sight up.

"Uh, Rainbow, I have something I need to talk to you about."

Dash stretched out her legs and wings, feeling a bit sore from the workout she did, "What is it?"

"All Thread was wondering if he could maybe possibly be our butler."

All stretching stopped as she stated, not asked, "What."

Soarin could feel her apprehension, so he tried to explain the situation the best he could, "He quit working for my parents so he could instead work for us. Free of charge, with the only catch being that he would live here."

It took less than a moment for Rainbow to shrug and smile at Soarin, "Sure. We got an extra room down here and this place is way too big for us to clean by ourselves. It’ll make taking care of Scootaloo easier too."

Soarin brought himself forward to embrace his fiancé tightly with the biggest smile on his face, "Thank you Dash!"

Rainbow tried to play it off coolly, "He's a good guy. Wouldn't want to disappoint him."





Rainbow was not the only one to return home, or to be surprised about seeing All Thread that day. 

Scootaloo dropped off her saddlebags by the front door when she first peeked into the living room and noticed a familiar but still unfamiliar pony there. Soarin, having been the one to pick her up, quickly was questioned about this, "Dad, what’s Alth doing here? Did Sweetie Belle set something on fire again while I wasn’t around?”

Having kept the matter a surprise for her, Soarin grinned smugly as Scootaloo in a befuddled manner watched the butler clean their house a second time, “No, not this time. Alth is going to be staying here as our personal butler though.”

Scootaloo looked up to him as if he was joking, knowingly that her parents did indeed love a good practical joke, "Wait, really?” after receiving a positive nod, Scootaloo fluttered up into the air excitedly, “Woohoo!"

Being a child, Scootaloo’s first action thereafter was to rush over to All Thread and greet him as Soarin trailed behind with a snicker. 

"Hey, remember me? I’m Scootaloo!”

The butler let his façade down for moment to smile at the child, “It is nice to see you again, young mistress.”

Rainbow made her way into the room and embraced Scootaloo to greet the filly. While she did this she gave a mischievous look to the orange furred girl, “Watch out for when she uses her eyes to try and sway you to do what she wants, Alth.”

“I don’t do it that much!” Scootaloo pouted with her front hooves crossed, not liking the accusation and how truthful it was.

This revelation did little to faze the experienced butler, “No need to worry, I have resisted master Soarin’s own attempts in the past.”

Rainbow tried to keep herself from breaking down into a laughing fit as she looked at Soarin, “Wait, you did it too?”

He cast his eyes to the side, “Who remembers?”

“I, for one,” All Thread snarkily responded in his polite tone, “By chance, does the young mistress require any assistance going to and coming from school?”

Rainbow looked down to Scootaloo and nuzzled her face against her, beginning to understand her own mother’s fascination with physical gestures, “Not really, but it wouldn’t hurt if you picked her up tomorrow would it?”

“It would be my pleasure. Shall I begin preparing tonight’s dinner?”

Soarin felt his stomach rumble, bringing him to the realization he hadn’t really had a breakfast or lunch, “That’d be great, actually. Need a hoof?”

All Thread wiped his clothes off before placing his cleaning utensils down and heading towards the room’s exit, “Not at all sir, although I thank you for your offer. I will be sure to make something the young mistress can find palatable while being nutritious.”

Scootaloo stuck her tongue out disgustedly, “Bleh, nutrition.”

Upon seeing the glare of her mother, this was quickly amended.

Scootaloo gave a weak hoof pump into the air, “I mean, yay, broccoli.”





Hours later the small family sat around the dining table with plates of varying degrees of finished food, all of whom appeared very content. All Thread had not originally set a place for himself at the table, but Soarin had cajoled him until he did so. 

The Butler ate with grace that neither Scootaloo or Rainbow Dash ever had or would have, and that Soarin had forgotten in his long detachment from his parents. He felt odd eating with the others, but the relaxed atmosphere helped him out of his own comfort zone in the matter.

After finishing his own food, Soarin leant back in his chair contently.

“It’s good to taste what real food’s like again!”

Scootaloo snickered as Rainbow instantly glared at her fiancé, partially self conscious about her cooking especially when it came to Soarin’s opinion of it. She knew he was the better cook, not that it mattered now with an experienced chef preparing their meals, but she still had her pride.

Soarin verbally backpedaled, realizing his mistake too late, “Not that your cooking isn’t real or delicious. I, uh…”

All Thread picked up on the vibe coming from Rainbow Dash as he touched his handkerchief to his face and wiped food out of his small mustache, “Does the mistress wish for me to withhold the master’s dessert for the night?”

Rainbow was already beginning to like their new addition, “That sounds good. Wouldn’t want you too get too fat off this real food, honey.”

Soarin felt tears welling up in his eyes as he thought about whatever great food he was going to miss, “Awww…”

Rainbow ignored his pity look that she was sure he taught Scootaloo and instead looked to All Thread with a raised brow, “What did you make anyways? I didn’t even think we had anything to make.”

His voice remained neutral as he sardonically replied, “The necessary ingredients for a blueberry pie were available, I regret to inform the master. It was his favorite.”

With a sniff of the air, Rainbow quickly caught the scent of a freshly baked pie and confirmed what he said. The smell was delectable, and a theory popped into Rainbow’s mind as a result, “So is he the reason you like pie so much?”

Soarin hung his head resignedly, still broken over the lack of pie he would get, “Yeah…”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and let out a breath, not really mad but enjoying messing with him all the same, “Fine then. One slice.”

“I love you so much,” Soarin leant over to Dash and kissed her on the face, receiving one in kind.

Scootaloo gagged at the sight, “Bleh, icky,” she looked below the table, “Right Tank?”

All Thread too looked beneath the table and found himself surprised to see a tortoise sitting there with a propeller strapped to its back. Given the broccoli it was munching on, he could only assume it had been fed from the table. Since he had been sure to watch Scootaloo eat her own healthy food, that meant that the culprit was either of the other two adults.

All Thread sighed as he thought about how childish even full grown ponies could act, “I see there is a family pet. Does it require any special arrangements?”

Rainbow shook negatively, “Nah, Tanks usually good. He comes and goes all day, and he isn’t that much of a big eater. Just got to fix his gear every now and then.”

Soarin snorted as he looked beneath the table at the tortoise, “Yeah, I barely see him and I live here now!”

Removing his handkerchief and placing it on the table, All Thread stood up and approached the counter where the pie rested. Soarin salivated as his old friend and caretaker cut into it and separated it into pieces, placing one piece on each of three plates. He then brought it over to the table and handed one piece to Scootaloo and Rainbow each.

He held on to the last piece until he finished speaking, faintly mocking Soarin in a joking manner, “Here is your pie, sir. One piece as requested.”

Soarin tried to whisper to All Thread, but given all of their proximity it was still completely audible, “You and I both know I could finish that whole thing.”

All Thread’s reaction to this was to walk over to the rest of the pie and retrieve a slice for himself, but no extra ones for Soarin, “Yes, I do sir.”

Rainbow cheekily smiled at Soarin, who was busy grumbling under his breath about betrayal, “I say he should get employee of the month.”

“And such great competition I have,” All Thread commented as he sat back down at the table and prepared to eat once more, ignoring the pouty face Soarin was giving him.

It did not work two decades prior and it would not work now.





The following day, All Thread kept to his word and arrived at Scootaloo’s school right at its end. He quickly picked out the orange and purple filly out of her classmates in the school’s courtyard, and he approached her the moment a path could be made through the children swarming the area.

"Hello young mistress. Are you ready?"

Scootaloo grinned brightly and tapped her bags, "I'm all ready. Thanks Alth!"

The two fillies beside her, a white unicorn and a yellow earth pony, gaped at the sight of All Thread to his confusion. Had they never seen a butler before?

As if to answer his question, the earth pony nudged Scootaloo, "Is that…is that a butler?"

"Yup!" Scootaloo chipperly replied, running over to All Thread’s side with the huge grin still plastered on her face.

The unicorn continued to gape, "But even Rarity doesn't have a butler! How do you have one?"

All Thread bowed to the two fillies who were obviously friends of his mistress, "I have been serving master Soarin's family since I was about your ages. I am All Thread."

Scootaloo wrapped a hoof around one of his front legs, "He's like a part of the family who also doesn't mind cooking and cleaning for us! He's totally awesome."

All Thread looked down to the filly, "We should be returning soon, mistress, if we are to make sure you finish your homework."

Scootaloo’s friends snickered, so she defensively asked, "What? He cares and that's what matters!"

Scootaloo released his leg and turned to leave in a huff. All Thread first gave a small bow to the two fillies before following after his new mistress, “Farewell.”

It did not take him long to catch up given the difference in leg length between him and his young charge. Upon doing so, Scootaloo turned and looked up to him, something having crossed the young filly’s mind.

“So, you helped raise dad?” she innocently inquired.

All Thread recounted Soarin’s childhood and thought about how to best put it. The poor colt had barely spent one hundredth the time with his family that most others his age would have, and had spent more time being looked after than cared for.

After some planning, All Thread decided how he could best put it for her, “I was his caretaker while his parents attended their various high society functions. I daresay I have spent a significant more amount of time with him than they have.”

That raised another question for the filly, “What are they like? I haven’t met them, and mom and dad don’t talk about them at all.”

All Thread did his best to not frown. To keep the professional look up in front of the young filly, “They are very different than your father, I regret to inform you.”

“Oh, so they’re rich snobs like my classmate Diamond Tiara?” Scootaloo questioned with a small snarl at the end. Noticing her attitude, All Thread could only assume this Diamond Tiara was a rotten egg.

“I must assume so.”

Scootaloo’s young mind had another idea crop up in it that she needed an answer to, “So, if you helped raised dad…” as her voice trailed off, he nodded, which led to her continuing, “Then you’re like a grandfather, right?”

All Thread had never considered himself Soarin’s father, even if he had been a proxy parent of sorts with his caretaking duties. He did not want to let the filly get the wrong idea, so he shook his head, “I only was doing my duty.”

It did nothing to deter Scootaloo’s mind from going where it wanted to though, and the young filly wrapped her own hoof around his leg again, “Close enough.”

A warm hoof around his own…the loving smile of a child…

Perhaps, All Thread pondered, the idea was one he could become accustomed to.
> Meet the Birthday
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: To start, I would like to thank Quillin Words for the fanart of All Thread! You should all go check it out on Deviantart at the following link: All Thread

Special thanks to Sirflysalot, Darklordcomp, unclefester84, SeventhBrony, Shadow_Wolf, Sean De Retro, Rokas, Flare, Killabyte, OminousBrony, Sothe17, Shrinky Frod, Blue Streak, WildStallion, Drgnwolf, SageBrony07, Bronzedragon, Seether00, Onyxfire408, SwimmingDalek98, Chaos Eclipsed, Quillin Words, jlm123hi, The_Whovian16, Pyromaniac, Vernerok87, DragoDog21, djthomp, themouthofmush, MLPDavester, Graf Zeppelin, Vates Despero, maskedferret, HB_DS2013, Rainbow87dash, Andris_Greatwing, and ROB24DOG for your comments and thoughts last chapter, and I apologize for the delay!

I hope you enjoy and that I can hear your thoughts in the comment section below!






“Please?”

“The answer is still no I regret to inform you.”

Both Scootaloo and All Thread were standing in the place where all food in the house originated from, the kitchen. Standing by the family’s oven was All Thread, who was focused on the cake he was preparing. It was Soarin’s birthday after all and All Thread knew how much the stallion loved his sweet treats.

Scootaloo was taking the position of a family dog begging for scraps though, positioned right beside him and pawing at the structure that was taller than she was in an attempt to get at the delicious food atop it.

“Pleeease? I’m starving!” Scootaloo whined, her lower lip presented fully forward as she kept attempting to get up and see the cake.

All Thread did not even sigh in exasperation, having been through this exact situation before. Only this time he was not given orders to punish, albeit reluctantly, the child begging. She was too old and small to get to the cake, so he paid her little mind as he continued to tend to it.

“I apologize, miss Scootaloo, but I must decline your request under your mother’s orders.”

Scootaloo sat down on her rear and crossed her hooves indignantly at him, “But come on, it’s got to taste delicious! You can’t just let me know about the cake and not let me try it!”

“I am afraid I can,” he retorted dryly, his voice remaining flat and calm.

Not about to let her rumbling stomach go unfilled, Scootaloo decided it was time for the big guns. The ultimate convincing technique…

“Pleeeeeeeaaaase?” she pouted with the biggest and starry eyes she could muster.

…and the most pathetic one as well.

All Thread instantly regretted looking down at her when his eyes met her own. He had to admit that Soarin had not been quite this adorable at the same age, although that had little relevance. He had been told not to give Scootaloo any of the cake…

While averting his eyes from Scootaloo, All Thread noticed something on the counter that just might solve this dilemma.

Moving his front hooves away from the cake he was preparing, All Thread brought them instead to the supplies he had been using to make the cake, “You may taste the scraps if you so please.”

Scootaloo jumped to her feet and felt a large smile grow across her face as her begging routine appeared to work, “Really?”

All Thread nodded as Scootaloo began to search for a way up onto the counter, “They are not the cake itself, which is what I have been told not to allow you to touch.”

“Thanks!” Scootaloo chuckled as she finally found a seat to boost herself up, at which point she climbed onto the counter and looked in awe at the magnificent cake that lay there. Even the scraps to the side looked delicious, and she soon found herself digging into them at a feverish pace.

After gulfing down a large amount of the scraps All Thread had accrued Scootaloo turned to the butler-pony and smiled to him sheepishly. She felt like she owed him now that he had gone around the rules for her, “How are the preparations going? Need a hoof?”

All Thread noted the blue frosting sitting upon her complementary colored face as he looked up from the cake, “No thank you, I am quite fine. Your mother is still busy preparing the rest of the house with the rainbow decorations.”

“Why rainbow again?” Scootaloo inquired. After all, if it was Soarin’s birthday why have rainbow decorations and not just plain blue colored ones?

The butler continued to tend to his work, making sure to keep an eye on the filly so that she did not bump into the delicate masterpiece, “Because it includes his two favorite things, a rainbow as well as orange and purple. Or so your mother said.”

Scootaloo giggled as she thought about Rainbow Dash’s pride and how that was a more likely explanation, even if the first one made sense, “Yeah, that might be true but she’s probably just indulging her ego.”

An “Ahem” from across the house made Scootaloo remember with fear that the door was open to the kitchen.

“Not that there is anything wrong with that!” Scootaloo responded with a nervous laugh, not wanting Rainbow to be mad at her.

Turning back to All Thread, Scootaloo noticed that she was nearly walking on the cake to All Thread’s irritation. 

She gave another nervous chuckle before hopping off the table and scrambling for the exit, “Anyways, I’ll get out of your guys hair if you don’t need me. I’m sure Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom wanna hang out!”

“Farewell,” All Thread replied, a little sad to not have any company in the kitchen anymore.

Those eyes were adorable after all, even if he would not say so out loud.





It was not until well into the afternoon that Scootaloo returned home, with Rainbow Dash greeting her at the door. The older mare had finished setting up decorations about the house in a manner, having done so at the behest of her fashionista friend Rarity with the stipulation that she do it herself.

Now Rainbow Dash was ready to just relax and wait for Soarin to return home, the stallion having been sent off during the day to allow the others to prepare.

The rainbow maned mare patted her filly on her purple mane to greet her at the door. Rainbow, however, was not about to mention that Scootaloo was wearing one of Apple Bloom’s bows. She wanted to hear Scootaloo’s story first, “Hey Scootaloo, what’ve you been up to?”

Scootaloo rubbed her face against Rainbow’s chest as she thought back to her very…interesting day involving the Apple Family, “Well, since you guys didn’t need me messing with the preparations, I thought I’d help Apple Bloom out today. Applejack is acting more like a mom than a sister.”

Rainbow snickered before breaking out laughing, knowing that hearing that would only confuse Soarin more. It took a moment to recover from her fit of laughter, and she only managed to do so because of the lifted eyebrow Scootaloo had.

“What did ol’ AJ do this time?” Rainbow asked as she staved off further laughs and giggles.

“She was babyproofing everything so Apple Bloom won’t get hurt, giving her safety helmets to wear, giving her more safety helmets to wear…” Scootaloo’s voice trailed off as she silently thought about how horrible it would be to suffer such a fate. 

At least Rainbow Dash and Soarin trusted her to not get herself killed every other moment, not that she was very cautious when it came to danger. In fact, Scootaloo was a bit surprised that she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders were all still alive and not missing any pieces after all their adventures.

Rainbow had to bite her lip to stop from laughing at this point, “And how did you help her out?”

“Well, Sweetie Belle and I pretended to be Apple Bloom so that Apple Bloom could go do something to prove she doesn’t need AJ watching over her,” Scootaloo whistled innocently, “I, uh, kind of blew it though, and AJ’s looking for Apple Bloom now.”

The filly received a playful nudge as Rainbow snickered a little, “Aww don’t worry, they’ll be fine. AJ will make sure of that,” Scootaloo’s caretaker nodded towards the door of the house, “Now, how would you like to help me out?”

Scootalo completely forgot about being a bit embarrassed as a grin found its way onto her face, “Really? How?”

“It’s about time you learned to make pie I think. The right way.”

The filly pranced on into the house at the mention of doing something fun like making a pie, which she would inevitably help eat, “Woohoo!”

Rainbow followed her on in with a smile gracing her muzzle. This was going to be fun, although she had no doubt it would also be quite messy.

“Let’s try to get this right the first time though. I want to finish before Soarin gets home!”





It was even later when Soarin returned from his temporary exile, but before actually heading to the door of the house on the cloud he went to the mailbox below.

Looking inside, he found a variety of cards inside that all were addressed to him. Well, except the seven addressed to Fluttershy. Soarin had no idea what went wrong to lend him the other Pegasus’s mail, but he would return it to them the following day.

What was addressed to him were a few small cards, the majority came from fellow Wonderbolts (including an apology card from Spitfire) with the remaining one coming from a pair he had not expected. His parents had sent him a card, but Soarin did not have the heart to open or read it after their last and previous encounters.

Soarin prepared his wings to take off to the cloud above when somepony’s voice caught his attention.

“Oh, hey Soarin! I was just going to leave a card, but I’m glad to run into you!”

Soarin turned around to see his old friend Caramel trotting on towards the mailbox. The sight of his friend brought some much needed joy to Soarin, who was still feeling betrayed by his fellow Wonderbolts. The ones he had considered friends nonetheless.

Soarin smiled to his friend as he stopped taking off, instead moving to greet the orange pony.

“Hey Caramel, thanks for dropping by!”

Caramel retrieved the card he had brought as well as the gift it was attached to out of his saddle-pack and gave it to Soarin, who placed it with thanks in his own, “No problem! It’s hard to think about how we’re already working on our thirties, isn’t it?”

“Hehe, yeah…”

Age…another thing Soarin was beginning to confront given his specific career. Still, he always knew it would be that way and Soarin did not feel any regret at the fact that he was a year older that day.

More surprised by the whole age thing was a voice that came from above, “Thirties?”

Soarin looked up to the cloud where he could see Scootaloo peering off the edge with Rainbow Dash at her side. The two hovered down gently to his side as he responded to the filly, “Yeah, I’m kinda getting old. Slowing down. That sort of thing!”

Caramel looked over Scootaloo with curiosity, not really knowing who the filly was but knowing he had seen her around before, “Oh hey, who’s this?”

Soarin brought Scootaloo into a hug, “Well, you know my fiancé Rainbow Dash, but I don’t think you’ve met my daughter, Scootaloo. This is my friend Caramel. We went to the same school way back when.”

Scootaloo, Scootaloo, Scootaloo…after a moment of thinking, the name rung a bell in Caramel’s mind. He had seen her around Apple Bloom before at the orchard, which made sense as to why he would recognize her.

“Hey there!” he greeted the filly, not caring at all that this filly was way too old to be Rainbow Dash and Soarin’s biological child.

Scootaloo greeted him back with a smile, “Hello. Don’t you work for Applejack?”

“When they need an extra hoof, yeah. How’s she doing?” Caramel responded with a laugh.

Scootaloo shrugged, “She’s out trying to find Apple Bloom right now. Being a bit like an overprotective mom.”

“Really? Bloom do something wrong?” Caramel grew nervous due to Scootaloo’s statement. After all, it would take quite a lot to get Applejack to forego any calm and rational behavior and instead act like a henpecked mother. 

The filly yawned just at the thought of her long day posing as Apple Bloom, “Long story. Probably take me twenty minutes or so to say everything.”

The moon rose quickly in the sky thanks to the princess of the night, and with that the visitor decided he had best head home, “Well, it’s getting late and I guess I should be going. It was nice seeing you all though!”

Rainbow waved to the Earth Pony while smiling and glancing towards her fiancé, “Maybe you should stop by sometime. Soarin could use a friend here in Ponyville.”

“Sure thing! Bye everypony!” Caramel called to the Pegasus trio as he departed into the darkening night.

“He seems nice,” Rainbow noted as the three prepared to lift off and land on their cloud home.

Scootaloo piped in as a question wracked her young mind, “How’d you go to the same school though? He can’t fly I don’t think, so what would he be doing at a flight academy?”

Soarin laughed as they all approached the house and the front door, “Long story, even longer than what you probably went through today, but I went to high school in Canterlot along with Caramel, as well as the former head of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. Didn’t really know the guy, but it got me an invitation to the Royal Wedding on top of being a Wonderbolt.”

“That’s where we first danced. Hard to think that it was so long ago!” Rainbow remarked. It had been a long time since the Royal Wedding, and she had to say she was pleased with how things had gone since then. Becoming a Wonderbolt, dating her idol, giving Scootaloo a home, and proposing to her coltfriend instead of having him do that all happened in that time.

Soarin brought Rainbow in for a kiss before entering the house behind Scootaloo, “I know, right?” with a hoof inside the house, his eyes were instantly drawn to the assortment of rainbow colored decorations around the hallway, “Now, what do you three have in store for me?”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him, “I think you’ll enjoy it. Head on into the kitchen so we can get started. It’s already pretty late.”

He relented and walked into the kitchen as ordered while All Thread did the opposite, stepping into the hallway to greet him and the others. Scootaloo and Soarin continued on in to the kitchen while Rainbow stayed behind to speak with the butler.

“I have finished the preparations. If you need me, I will-”

Rainbow cut All Thread off with a shake of the head, “Nuh-uh, you’re partying with us.”

The professional pony began to protest despite the losing battle he was fighting, “Mistress, I must insist-”

Rainbow whispered so that the others would not hear their conversation while her eyes gleamed at the new addition to the household, “You’re a part of the family. You don’t ever have to exile yourself for our sake.”

Her words sunk in to the butler, who fell quiet as he pondered what to do. Not known for being the most patient, Rainbow Dash decided to forego whatever mental debate he was having and instead force him to come.

“Either you join us or we won’t be having the amazing dinner you’ve made for us. Okay I don’t know how Soarin’s parents treated you, but if it’s anyway like they treated me I can tell ya things are different here.”

Rainbow smiled to him as his face fell a little, emotion partially seeping into his normally stoic face. Bringing up the so called parents of Soarin and their treatment of anypony was a sour topic for the butler who had spent his life serving them out of a sense of duty, all the while resenting their cold behavior, especially when it was towards their own son.

Not about to let him be grim, Rainbow prodded him and nodded to the kitchen, “It’s Soarin’s birthday, and I think he’ll want the pony who helped raise him to be celebrating it with him along with the rest of his family.”

With that, she left the hallway, with All Thread following suit not a moment later.





After sitting down around the table, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo each giving Soarin a card, and preparing to eat, Soarin found himself in tears as he looked around the table. 

The cake was large enough for a few ponies to eat, but on its rainbow striped frosting were three frosting ponies expertly designed and crafted to resemble Soarin, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Beside them, however, was a fourth and very crudely made frosting pony that (somewhat) looked like All Thread. Scootaloo beamed and showed off her teeth as she noticed the others look at her own masterpiece she had added while Rainbow was talking to All Thread.

Elsewhere on the table was a beautiful pie that gave off a scent similar to what All Thread’s best recipe might create, but also gave off a whiff of the Apple family’s work. Soarin required some great personal restraint to not tear into it at first sight and whiff, to the delight of both Rainbow and Scootaloo.

Lastly though, Soarin looked around to the others in the room and could not help but continue drizzling tears. Having the ponies he cared most about around him to celebrate him made him forget any of the pain left over from what his friends had done recently, and instead he was focused on how much he appreciated them all.

“Thank you everypony…it’s hard to believe that you all care so much,” he said with a sniffle, one hoof wiping the water from his face even as All Thread silently offered a handkerchief. 

Rainbow brought a hoof to touch his own as he brought it away from his face, “Hey now, you deserve it.”

Scootaloo nodded repeatedly from across the table, “Yeah, that’s right! You’re the best.”

Soarin looked to All Thread and smiled to him gratefully, “Thanks for putting this all together, Alth.”

Not about to take any more credit than what was due, the butler shook his head, “I cannot claim credit for it all, master Soarin.”

“Mom and I made the pie!” Scootaloo announced with a chipper tone.

“Pies,” Rainbow coughed out jokingly with a glance to the trash in the corner of the room.

“You said you wouldn’t mention the others!” the filly complained with a pouting face, not liking having her moment ruined.

Soarin was left a bit perplexed as to the fates of the other pies, “There were more?”

Rainbow looked to the filly in the room with a smirk, “Scootaloo needs a bit of help learning how to cook is all.”

To counter Rainbow’s playful ribbing, Soarin gave Scootaloo a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, I wasn’t a great chef when I first started either. Alth can attest to that!”

Dash snickered as she thought about her own skills, “And I’m still not. At least I know some of the Apple family’s recipe for some good pie!”

“Here here to that!” Soarin responded with a laugh, which the others soon joined in with.

Yes, even All Thread.





After a night of being together, Scootaloo found herself exhausted and ready to sleep. The first sign of her exhaustion came from a yawn that graced her lips, at which point she decided that she had best hit the hay.

“I’m going to go to bed. Goodnight everpony.”

Soarin brought her into a hug from the living room couch they were sitting on before she could get up, “Goodnight Scootaloo. Thank you for everything,” he kissed her on the head before releasing her, “I love you.”

Scootaloo returned the hug before dismounting from the couch and trotting drowsily towards the door, “Love you too, dad.”

After Scootaloo left the other three in the now silent living room, a thought crossed Soarin’s mind.

“Oh, hey, I forgot to read her card.”

Rainbow nodded as Soarin pulled the card out and began to open it, “I wonder what it says?”

Upon opening it, Soarin’s attention was sucked into the card completely. All Thread did not mind the silence, though the more talkative Rainbow Dash was left uncomfortable by the dead silence as Soarin poured over the card Scootaloo had made for him.

“Soarin?”

Soarin cleared his throat before lifting up the card into some better light and reading the card aloud, having already finished reading it twice to himself.

“Dad,

I’m not sure I can say all of this stuff out loud, but I still want to let you know.

A year ago I only knew you as my idol’s idol. The Wonderbolt who Rainbow Dash thought was so great.

But, then you offered with mom to take me in. And since then, whether you’ve been offering advice or giving me a hoof with what I’m doing, you have always been taking time out of your day to make me feel special.

I am so thankful for all of the ways you have made me feel special, and for being there for mom and I.

Today’s your birthday, Dad, and I want you to know how important you are to me and what a difference you have made, and continue to make, in my life. You’ve helped make me happier than I ever thought I could be.

Happy birthday, with all that mushy love stuff,
Scootaloo”

This time Soarin made no move to wipe the tears from his eyes. Nothing he could imagine could make him happier at that moment.





Soon afterwards Rainbow found herself checking on Scootaloo in bed, glad that the filly was getting old and mature enough to have put herself to bed while also a bit sad that she didn’t really get the chance to do so herself.

As Rainbow entered her room Scootaloo rolled over under her covers to face her in the dark, “Hey mom. You think Dad’s happy?”

Rainbow took a seat on the edge of Scootaloo’s bed so that she could not disturb her too much while also able to touch her orange leg through the cover, “You bet. Wanna know what his favorite part of the day was?”

“What?” Scootaloo asked through a large yawn, her eyes dreary as she tried to look at her idol and mother.

“Reading your card. It meant a whole lot to him,” Rainbow cooed softly to the filly. 

Despite her tiredness, Scootaloo perked up a bit at hearing that, “Really?”

Rainbow laughed softly while nodding to her, “I only wish I could be that mushy if I wanted.”

Scootaloo’s hooves crossed once again that day with protest, “Hey, I’m tough! I just, um, am in touch with my feelings! Yeah, that’s it!”

“And you’re all the cuter for it,” Rainbow joked, knowing it would ruffle her feathers a bit more.

“Uhm, where is he?”

Rainbow patted Scootaloo softly, “He’s probably still looking it over with that big smile on his face.”

“He really liked it?”

Rainbow nodded with as big a smile as she could muster, “Of course he did. What it said meant a lot to him, you know.”

“I just wanted to let him know that…” the filly’s words failed her both due to a lack of articulation and of mental clarity coupled with her nervousness about the topic she was trying to raise, “You guys didn’t have to…”

“But we did, and we would do it again,” Rainbow leant in to embrace Scootaloo lovingly, “Goodnight. Have a good night’s sleep, okay?”

“Goodnight, mom,” Scootaloo softly replied as Rainbow got up to leave.

The more Scootaloo said it, the more Rainbow noticed she didn’t mind. Not being all the old herself, the phrase scared her a bit not too long ago, but it was things like this that made her really notice she didn’t mind the new title and job.

What’s more, she knew Soarin felt the same way. The big softie.
> Meet the Kinda-Sorta-Semi-Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: To start, I would like to thank MaskedFerret for helping me out at Bronycon with brainstorming for this story. Go thank them, not me, for this!

Anyways, thanks to Flare, Alicorn Spectrum Destiny, fatboi1000, Sirflysalot, Emerald Knight, shad0w2323, SageBrony07, SwimmingDalek98, SeventhBrony, Sean De Retro, Killabyte, Sadow Wolf, Rainbow87dash, WildStallion, Sothe17, moonview, Deathray783, Blue Streak, RainbowFlash96, MLPDavester, themouthofmush, Quillin Words, ROB24DOG, jlm123hi, Rokas, Lovepugkate, AllPowersCombined, Eden, DragoDog21, Graf Zeppelin, Vernerok87, Drgnwolf, Maskedferret, Bright0Night, Kenshinryuu, and rainbowangel409 for actually commenting last chapter and not just posting error corrections.  Your support is always appreciated, and I love hearing from you all.

Sorry about the wait, but without further adieu, the chapter! I hope you enjoy and that I can hear your thoughts in the comments below!






“Hey Soarin, I got something to ask you.”

It was a weekend and Soarin had not intended to do very much. While not ancient, age was certainly beginning to kick in for him and he felt an ache in his whole body from the stunts he had been pulling in their air shows. This was the reason he kept making sure he was assigned more teaching and paperwork duties than the actual shows.

He was laying on the couch when Rainbow Dash approached him, and so he rolled over to face her while simultaneously wondering where the orange furball next to him had gone. He must have dozed off while watching morning cartoons with Scootaloo.

“What is it?”

Rainbow stopped beside the couch so she could lean in and rub her forehead against his face. The whole intimacy thing was new to her, but she could try a bit here and there.

The other part of a relationship though was something she also was clueless about. She had been putting Soarin through the hoops meeting her family and friends, but she had not really reciprocated other than that one unfortunate run in with his parents.

“You’ve met my family, my friends, Scootaloo, Scootaloo’s friends…” 

Rainbow Dash paused as Soarin’s eyes widened, likely a result of him seeing where this was going.

To ease his tension a bit Rainbow smiled to him and spoke as chipper as she could manage, “I think it’s about time I meet some of your friends!”

That made Soarin gulp in sudden self realization. He didn’t have a grand roster of friends…sure, he could count some ponies he met when he was in high school like Caramel, but that was kind of stretching the term.

As for his other “friend” candidates…well, he was not too happy with them at the moment even if he was feeling a little less sore in that regard.

Soarin averted his eyes from Rainbow’s, “Well, my bests friends were my fellow Wonderbolts, but we’re in a rough patch right now…”

Rainbow was relentless though and did not give up against such weak resistance, “How about we fix that then? Invite them over for dinner.”

“I…” Soarin could tell that this was going to be all she brought up the rest of the day, or week, if he did not relent at some point in some way, “If you want to, sure. I guess being mad at them forever wouldn’t do anypony any good.”

Rainbow quickly pulled him into an embrace to demonstrate how pleased she was that she was getting her way, “That’s the spirit. Now I’ll work with All Thread and get everything ready. You just get them to come here!”

Beneath her, Soarin was less enthusiastic.

“Easier said than done…”





Part one of Rainbow Dash’s ingenious plot was completed. Next, she needed to secure some actually good food so that Soarin didn’t have to cook. It was up to Soarin to grab those he considered friends and  bring them, so she would make sure they had a nice meal waiting for them after their flight.

“All Thread, you home?”

Which meant she wouldn’t be cooking it. The bonuses of having a semi-kinda-retired butler living in the house.

He appeared faster than Rainbow would have thought an older pony could have, but she was not one to balk at anypony’s speed and let the feat pass by without a word.

“Yes mistress Dash. Is there anything you need assistance with?”

Getting called “Mistress” made Rainbow feel older than she was, but she didn’t really care too much about the whole age thing. Her mom being like a decade or something older than her dad after all helped her get over such issues.

Rainbow chuckled as she observed the old pony who was for some reason still wearing his butler outfit despite his semi-sorta-retirement, “Soarin is going to have some of his friends over and I wanted to have a nice dinner. Not really my style, so thought I’d ask you for help!”

The bow given to her made Rainbow chuckle nervously.

“Anything in particular that you require, mistress?”

“Nah, anything should be good so long as it’s, you know, good.”

As ever, her ability to convey what she needed and wanted was unparalleled.





Two parts of the master plan were handled, leaving one very important piece left. Given how Scootaloo was not exactly happy with the Wonderbolts, having her home and eating with them would kind of be a joykill for the whole matter.

Scootaloo was busy reading comic books upside down on her bed when Rainbow tracked the filly down. Her purple mane was hanging off the bed as her eyes intently poured over her precious Power Ponies book.

Rainbow cleared her throat to get the attention of the enthralled filly, “Scootaloo, Soarin and I are going to need the house to ourselves tonight. Could you stay with Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle for the night?”

That instantly captured the attention of Scootaloo, who rolled over on her bed and slid the comic across the sheets so she could shoot a large grin at her idol, “Sure! Need more candles?”

Being surprised by where Scootaloo’s mind had jumped, Rainbow took a step back in embarrassment as her cheeks flushed red beneath her blue fur.

“No!” she yelped desperately before regaining her cool and giving a fake smile, “I mean, thanks, but uh, we’re good. We’re just having company over and it needs to just be adults, okay?”

“Fiiiiiiiiiine,” Scootaloo whined as she got up from her bed, “I’ll go see if they’re available. Maybe we can find out why Apple Bloom doesn’t appear in the older pages of her family photo album!”

As Scootaloo exited the room past her Rainbow Dash giggled, “Yeah, you do that,” sending her off made Rainbow feel a little bad, but she knew it was for the best, “Have fun Scootaloo, don’t try anything too crazy for your Cutie Mark!”

“Bye mom!” Scootaloo called from the staircase.

Standing alone in Scootaloo’s doorway, Rainbow felt her heart seize up at that last word. Even after all this time the whole being a mother thing was new and uncomfortable, “Heh. Mom…”

When Rainbow moved to leave the doorway she nearly backed into somepony else, causing her to flap into the air and whiz around to face the pony who she nearly hit.

The nice dress clothes told Rainbow who it was even before she finished turning, “Woah, All Thread, you scared me!”

The butler bowed and cleared his throat, “I apologize mistress. I only wished to inform you that I am prepared to retrieve whatever materials you require of me for tonight’s dinner.”

Seeing as how she was done with her sinister, ultimate plan Rainbow felt bored. This caused her to receive this news in a much more enthusiastic manner than she normally would, “Awesome! Mind if I tag along? Might as well learn some of this fancy stuff.”

“Grocery shopping is not what one would consider fancy.”

Rainbow leaned forward in the air so that she could pat him on the head affectionately.

“Hahaha, yeah, you keep thinking that.”






On the way back Soarin had had a very awkward, short, but ultimately useful chat with the two mares he brought back with him. Something along the lines of “sorry” and “okay”, but he was not going to linger on it any longer. It was supposed to be a nice night, and he wouldn’t bring up such business if he could help it.

“Rainbow, I’m back!”

Across the cloud house Soarin could hear her call back.

“You bring them?”

As Soarin opened his mouth to confirm that yes, he had, Rainbow decided that appearing from out of nowhere was not something only All Thread could do. She whizzed into the hallway and up to the door with a smile on her face, looking straight at the mares standing behind Soarin who in turn took notice of Rainbow Dash.

“Private,” Spitfire saluted, though her voice was the casual tone Rainbow Dash had heard at the Gala rather than the harsh one used at the Wonderbolt Academy.

Rainbow Dash saluted back before welcoming her in with the same hoof, “Captain Spitfire.”

The other mare, Fleetfoot, looked around the inside of the house with some curiosity as they all made their way towards the kitchen, “When Soarin said he was bringing us over to his house, I thought he meant Cloudsdale…” she turned between Soarin and Rainbow Dash with a single raised eyebrow, “How long has this been a thing?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Nice to see you too, Fleetfoot.”

“Still, not bad for an older stallion—”

Soarin cleared his throat to cut off his blunt friend, “Anyways, why don’t we sit down and eat? I’m sure you guys are hungry.”

The mention of food brought Fleetfoot off of the topic of Soarin’s successes to her increasingly rumbling stomach, “You can say that again. Where’s the chow?”

The group made their way over to the dining room table, and after Spitfire and Fleetfoot sat across from Soarin and Rainbow they all set up to eat. As the others went about preparing to eat, the starving Fleetfoot had her attention caught by something in the corner of the room none of the others seem to have noticed.

Spitfire tried to start a conversation as their exquisitely cooked meal began, “So…uh—”

Fleetfoot cut her superior off with a sudden jab in the air with one hoof, “You have a butler?”

The others looked to where Fleetfoot was pointing, and while Spitfire too was surprised both Soarin and Rainbow Dash were amused by Fleetfoot’s shock.

Rainbow Dash nodded to the surprised Wonderbolt, “His name is All Thread. He’s a part of the family.”

All Thread gave a customary bow before returning to standing in the background, ever ready to tend to whatever they might require of him and also within hoof’s reach of the extra meal he had cooked himself.

“You have a butler,” Fleetfoot repeated, still not believing what was in front of her eyes even as she began to eat the food prepared by said butler.

Soarin shrugged, just remembering that he had never really brought his family situation up at work before, “My family is rich. He was their butler until he came to stay here.”

“Got any brothers?” Fleetfoot unabashedly questioned.

“Or sisters?” Spitfire joked as she saw the money signs appear in Fleetfoot’s eyes.

Their reactions made Soarin laugh a little, but he shook his head no, “Sorry. My parents were too annoyed by one foal to have another.”

Things grew quiet again until Spitfire cleared her throat and tried to start another topic, “So…you two…”

“Rainbow Dash and I have been doing this a long time. You know that much,” Soarin reminded Spitfire, who only nodded while trying to find words.

“Never knew you were…well…” she looked around to make sure there were no fillies around, “Sleeping over.”

Rainbow brought a hoof up to Soarin’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, this doesn’t effect and won’t effect our work at all. We’ve made sure of that.”

That only received a nod from the mares, with Fleetfoot still distracted by the existence of a butler in the corner.

Next it was Rainbow who attempted to bring something up to talk about, “But enough about us, I was hoping to get to know you guys a little better.”

Fleetfoot brought a hoof to her chest before announcing half through a mouth of food, “Fleetfoot, single, interested in big, quiet stallions with money and land, not to mention the fastest Wonderbolt!”

“Only for track related events,” Spitfire snorted, which both Soarin and Rainbow got in on with their own giggles.

“Quiet!” Fleetfoot complained as the others all laughed at her.

To get the heat off of Fleetfoot, Spitfire opened up about herself, “Well, I’ve been working with Soarin for close to fifteen years now. We both went to the same flight academy where we went on to succeed at completely different things.”

Soarin continued to snicker, albeit now with another target, “You never were that great at your aerodynamics courses.”

Spitfire was not about to let him get the last laugh though, “You see, the reason I think he is so slow compared to everypony else is that big brain of his that he doesn’t use half the time.”

Fleetfoot began to crack up in her seat as she got the chance to riff on somepony else, “Especially when he sees pretty mares! Boy does he get distracted.”

Rainbow smiled at them both before she snarked, “Funny, he seems perfectly fine when he flies with you guys.”

Fleetfoot threw her hooves in the air as she let out a hearty laugh, “Oooooh, sick burn!” after calming down for a moment, Fleetfoot continued, “Nah, he’s just good about not looking at coworkers the wrong way. Of course, you had to come along and mess that up, but then again he seems to fly straight when he’s with you too.”

“Ladies, ladies, you’re both pretty,” Spitfire interrupted with a big smile on her face, “But long story short, I’ve been working with this big dope almost as long as you’ve been alive.”

That brought back memories for Rainbow Dash, “I remember getting posters of him when I was a filly, so yeah…”

Spitfire nodded to that, “Your parents must have enjoyed hearing that you were dating your idol.”

“You mean creeped out,” Fleetfoot pointed out with a snort.

Rainbow shrugged, “Nah, my mom was pretty okay with it. Probably helps that I learned just the other day from my friend Twilight that my mom was the one who started the Wonderbolts, so bringing one of them home was a plus.”

Silence met that statement as both Spitfire and Fleetfoot gaped.

After a moment Spitfire managed to gather her thoughts and words so she could respond, “Wait, your mother is Firefly?”

Rainbow Dash nodded with a nervous grin.

Fleetfoot stared at Rainbow with disbelief, “And you have not brought this up before because…”

Rainbow leaned back defensively, both amused and guarded about this new line of questioning. She had not really thought about the issue yet, and now she was being interrogated on the issue, “She never once mentioned it to me when I was growing up, I swear! Besides, I haven’t been seeing them that much the past few years.”

Soarin nodded to the last point, “Yeah, I remember how they seemed to want you to visit more.”

“You met with them and you didn’t get me an autograph of the famous Firefly! Soarin, how could you?!” Fleetfoot cried out indignantly.

“Hey, I didn’t have a clue! She didn’t bring it up!”

Spitfire was just as indignant and semi-furious, “How could you not know who our founder was? What is the matter with you!?”

“I’m the one who suggested we make learning history a part of our entrance exam, not the one who actually had to study for that test!” Soarin explained to excuse his own lack of knowledge about their history. That had always been something Spitfire was better at anyways since she liked looking at all the mares and their uniforms in the books while Soarin was busy staring off into space.

Rainbow found herself amused at this turn of events, “I had no idea my mom was that big a deal. No wonder she doesn’t go out much…”

Spitfire continued to be a history buff, “Firefly retired and then dropped off the radar completely. She must have settled down and met your father. Without her though we wouldn’t exist!”

That made Rainbow Dash understand her own mother’s silence on the matter a little more, “Makes sense she wouldn’t bring it up though, since she wouldn’t be able to live normally if everypony knew who she was…”

“And you’re a blabbermouth, so the secret couldn’t be kept…” Soarin’s words trailed off as he realized what he was saying mid-sentence.

“Hey!”

“Oooh, that’s a ticket to the couch!” Fleetfoot joked as she sensed the incoming argument.

“But I don’t want to sleep on the—”




After they saw their guests off for the night, Rainbow Dash turned to Soarin with a big smile. She was grinning at him about how nopony had to argue about anything too serious.

“That didn’t go too badly, right?”

Soarin looked off into the dark night sky with its bright moon courtesy of Princess Luna and thought about the night. It had been a long time since he just did something fun with his friends…he ought to more, he supposed, because that might make betrayal issues less common.

“Ehhh…I guess.”

Rainbow Dash brushed against his cheek and gave him a quick peck on the muzzle, “Friends do stupid stuff. You just got to learn to get over it and move on.”

Soarin returned the gesture, a smile forming on his own face, “You’re right.”

A thought struck him that he had not really noticed until just then.

“Where’s Scootaloo?”

Rainbow Dash gave a shrug and a nervous laugh as she realized she wasn’t even that sure, “Carousel Boutique or Sweet Apple Acres for the night.”

Perhaps, they both thought, they should go to some parents 101 classes.

The mystery was solved when, in the distance, a large red fire erupted where Rainbow Dash knew there to only be farmland.

“Sweet Apple Acres.”

This was going to be a longer night than either of them expected.

> Meet The Ex-Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N: To start, I would like to thank MaskedFerret once again for helping me out at Bronycon with brainstorming for this story. Go thank them, not me, for this!

Anyways, thanks to SeventhBrony, SageBrony07, OneOverTwo, TaylorSky, The red knight, Shrinky Frod, OminousBrony, Spectrum Destiny, jlm123hi, SwimmingDalek98, Magthere, Quillin Words, Seether00, Fatboi1000, BoneWolf1, Drgnwolf, CaptainSanchez, hanatoro, hudson, Kenchinryuu, thasbrony, WildStallion, Quillin Words, BenRG, Ebony Stallion, Sky Blazer, Themaskedferret, The Yaoi Mistress, DanteRevolution, Lovepugkate, Paladin Redflare, Shadowwk, Killabyte, Fixit Wrenches, VvendettaV, Graf Zeppelin, Corrupted Spirit, HB_DS2013, Krosis, DragoDog21, Baby Rhino, Bright0Night, themouthofmush, and Commander Rainstorm for commenting last chapter!  Your support is always appreciated, and I love hearing from you all.

Sorry about the wait, school and life has been painful, but without further adieu, the chapter! I hope you enjoy and that I can hear your thoughts in the comments below!






“Knock, knock. Open up.”

Soarin was just lounging about on his Saturday afternoon, on and off teaching Rainbow how not to create toxic sludge when cooking, when he heard the faint noise of knocking on their front door followed by the semi-annoyed and semi-tired voice of someone Soarin had not heard before.

“Whose there?” Soarin gleefully called out to them as he went to get the door from his position on the couch. Rainbow was quite likely busy trying not to set the house on fire, but hopefully All Thread could manage things for the time being.

“Very funny. Now open up, dweeb!” 

Soarin had not reached the door yet, but now he was feeling wholly less hospitable. Who could this mean spirited person be visiting them? They sounded like a punk, and their androgynous voice made it much more difficult for the Wonderbolt to figure out who or what was outside.

When he reached the door, Soarin stood defiantly behind it while still speaking through it, “Not if you are going to be so rude.”

“Who the heck are you, man? I thought Rainbow Dash lived here, not some moron who doesn’t know how to open a door!” the androgynous sounding punk yelled, obviously losing their temper over Soarin’s unwillingness to open the door.

It was then that Soarin noticed that Rainbow Dash had snuck up on him and had managed to get beside him. Her face appeared annoyed, though not the slightest bit confused as to who this might be.

“Soarin, just open the door,” Rainbow grunted, her eyes focused on the door that stood in-between them and their rude visitor.

Soarin relented and pulled the door open, revealing a brown and white feathered Gryphon with a golden beak. She appeared in a state of anger, though exasperation and uncomfortableness could be read in her face by her snarling expression mixed with the averting of her eyes.

Since Rainbow seemed to have a better idea about the situation than he did, Soarin let his fiancé handle the matter.

“Gilda,” Rainbow coolly noted, her voice harsher than Soarin was used to.

The Gryphon, the so called Gilda, looked up to meet Dash’s eyes with her own for a second before looking everywhere but at Rainbow, “Uh, hey.”

Soarin could feel the tension in the air, and given his lack of knowledge he took a step back, “I take it you two know eachother.”

“We used to be best friends,” Gilda explained alongside a angry look at Soarin, though she managed to keep most of her emotion out of her voice.

Rainbow continued to glare at the visitor, making Soarin feel somewhat uncomfortable with the unadulterated anger being held back by his significant other, “Used to. Until Gilda here tried to make me choose between her and all my other friends after she was mean to them.”

Gilda snarled at Rainbow Dash’s statement, anger boiling over the truth being said, “At least I didn’t betray my best friend for some new—”

Rainbow tried to cut off Gilda by speaking halfway through her claim, only to be cut off herself, “At least I didn’t—”

Soarin cleared his throat loudly enough to cut the two arguing females off, “Rainbow, could we talk for a moment?”

Rainbow snorted angrily before retreating back to the living room, not saying another word as she departed as suggested by Soarin. Her tail snapped back at Gilda as the latter tried to get a look at her as she disappeared, only for Soarin to approach the roused Gilda with a fake smile.

“Wait here.”

With that, Soarin slammed the door in Gilda’s face and left to join Rainbow before Gilda could protest.

“Dashie, I know you seem to have a grudge with your old friend, but maybe you should extend the olive branch.”

Rainbow turned around to face Soarin with a confused face, not getting Soarin’s reference, “Olive branch?”

Soarin rolled his eyes, partly amused that Rainbow’s house had architecture from a culture she did not understand a reference about. Still, he was not about to let his fiancé argue with somepony and get upset without first trying a more peaceful alternative. He didn’t want his dear Rainbow Dash to be stressed out over someone who used to be a friend.

“Make peace with her. She’s trying to be tough, but she really seems hurt. You don’t have to be friends with her, but leaving on bad terms isn’t going to do either of you any favors. So let her in and talk things over, okay?”

Rainbow looked at Soarin with some confusion and some anger, though each began to peter out as she slowly came to understand his reasoning. With a sigh she nodded to him.

“Fine.”

Soarin gave Rainbow Dash a reassuring kiss on the forehead before returning back to the door so he could open it for their guest.

“Come on in. Rainbow is in the first door on your right,” Soarin stated to the flabbergasted Gilda, who had not expected for the smiling and nice pony beside Rainbow Dash to slam a door on her face just a few moments ago. The anger that had otherwise grown in her was lost to confusion as she tried to piece together who this stallion was.

Now that she was allowed inside, Gilda entered and took a look around before going any further. As she did this, the voice of All Thread called out to Soarin from the kitchen.

“Shall I take her coat, sir?”Soarin looked over Gilda and imagined for a moment what she would look like without her natural coat of feathers, “I do not believe she has a coat,” after waiting a moment, Soarin added, “And I believe that this is a someone Dash does not like very much.”“I won’t take her coat then, sire,” All Thread responded after pausing momentarily. He had not expected to have a guest in this household who was hostile, unlike his time under Soarin’s parents where every guest was some scheming noble or something of the like.

Gilda ignored the two of them to continue on to where Rainbow was. She found Rainbow Dash sitting on a couch, and could see that across from it was a chair. With a quick swoop, Gilda rushed over to take a seat in the vacant chair.

Rainbow just watched blankly as Gilda made herself comfortable. She was not happy with her former friend in any way and, unlike some might feel, she had not felt too much longing to see Gilda again after they stopped being friends such a long time ago.

Gilda was the one to breach the silence, her own voice hesitant and nervous because of her own feelings on their relationship, “Sooooo…” she jabbed a talon over towards the room’s entrance, where Soarin lingered but remained silent, “You shacking up with that Wonderbolt now?”

While Soarin blanched, Rainbow snorted angrily, “He’s my fiancé, and no, we’re not ‘shacking up’ or whatever the street lingo is these days.”

Seeing that her small attempt at humor was not met favorably, Gilda tried to think of something else to say while trying to excuse herself, “Oh. Whoops.”

“What do you want, Gilda?” Rainbow grunted, her face fully displaying how angry she was. Gilda had hurt her friends in the past in petty ways, and Rainbow hated how Gilda made her choose which friends to keep. For the element of loyalty, being forced to take a side hurt more than it might for a regular pony.

Gilda became abashed as her eyes’ gaze fell to the floor, “I just came to…” she swallowed her breath, but more importantly her pride, before finishing, “I just wanted to say sorry.”

Rainbow turned her head away, becoming more stubborn than a mule in an instant, “Apology not accepted. Not until you apologize to everyone else you’ve hurt.”

The flat out rejection caught Gilda off-guard, who gaped at the decree, “Seriously Dash? Don’t you know how hard this is for me? I’m trying as it is! Can’t you meet me half way?”

That drew Rainbow’s attention back to Gilda. The mare growled a little as she pointed a hoof at herself, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, you did!” Gilda retorted, though she did not follow it up, instead seething in the chair she had sat down in.

On the sidelines Soarin debated whether he should intervene or not. This could either end terribly or end up with the two girls making peace…with a sigh, he decided to wait to see where this was going before making  a decision. He hated seeing Dash angry or uncomfortable, but at this point that seemed to be the only direction. Hopefully it could accomplish something though.

Rainbow snarled at Gilda’s accusation, “Oh yeah?”

Gilda crossed her front legs, her talons gripped the opposite arms with fury, “I come and visit you after who knows how long and you blow me off for your new friends who you get to see all the time!” Gilda jabbed one claw at Rainbow Dash from across the room, “Not only that, you let that pink puffball stalk us the entire time we were trying to do our own thing!”

Rainbow instantly went on the defensive in both her words and tone, “Pinkie Pie’s my friend Gilda, and you have to accept that! Sure she’s quirky, but all she wanted to do was have fun with us. You were just being selfish!”

Gilda brought her clawed hand back into her chest, hurt and anger flaring up on her face, “Oh, I was being selfish. Excuuuuuse me for traveling such a long way to see my friend, only to get mad that she doesn’t even want to bother to spend quality time with me! Sorry for feeling a bit betrayed by that, so called Element of Loyalty!”

Rainbow Dash tried to retort her former friend’s claim, only to find that she really had little to fire back. She had spent time with Gilda, but she had not probably spent as much time as her friend would have wanted. And she knew from experience Gilda did not like ponies, so leaving her alone in a town of them was irresponsible on her own part as a host of sorts.

“I…” was all Rainbow could mumble, her resolve lowering as she could witness the hurt in Gilda’s eyes and voice.

Not to be stopped, Gilda continued to yell even as her voice began to be choked by the tears that the tough Gryphon was fighting back, “And oh, forgive me for how after a really aggravating day I lost my cool! I had to put up with so many lame ponies just so I could hang out with you, only to then be utterly humiliated by your own pranks at a party meant to welcome me to Ponyville while not spending almost any time with you!”

Rainbow bit her own lip as she remembered the pranking spree she had gone on that day. Gilda had ended up exploding in anger as a series of pranks all landed on her, and her outburst and anger had caused Rainbow to sever their friendship. She learned later that Gilda had been going behind her back and was rude to her friends there, but it was Rainbow’s own pranking habit that had led to the breakdown at the end.

“You still were rude to my friends before that,” Rainbow tried to rationalize, knowing full well that she had no idea about that at the time.

Gilda began to breathe heavily as she tried to calm herself down, “Yeah, yeah…I know, I know. And that’s what I’m here to apologize for,” after pausing for a moment, she jabbed a clawed finger at Dash again, “But I also came for an apology from you too.”

That wrought a guffaw out from Rainbow, who appeared genuinely surprised about Gilda’s request, “From me?”

Silence hung over them both for another moment before Gilda looked down and nodded her head, her voice straining between trying to sound tough and also cracking.

“Yeah. I…” she sniffled and rubbed a hand across her eyes before pulling each arm in for a self-hug, her eyes shut as they continued to try and stave off tears, “I thought we were always gonna…be together, but it seems like you didn’t—and don’t—feel the same way…” 

The emotion on the Gryphon’s face made Rainbow’s heart sink. She hadn’t thought much about the incident since it happened, but it appeared that her friend had been plagued by it ever since. Rainbow could remember all of the good times they had back at the flight academy, at least before Rainbow dropped out. Seeing her old friend and roommate in such a weak state for once was off-putting, since Gilda was usually acting as tough and mean as she could because she could.

Soarin was observing with interest, still only staying so that he could intervene should things escalate. For now though things did not seem to be on a collision course with disaster though, so he just waited as the two talked.

“Gilda…” Rainbow whispered as she got up and approached her former friend, wanting to show through physical touch that she was sorry too.

Before Rainbow could touch her, Gilda swatted Rainbow’s hoof out of the way and made her way towards the door with a strong thrust of her wings, “Know what, too much sappy stuff is going on here. I’m out.”

“Gilda, wait!” Rainbow called as Soarin stepped in the way to block Gilda’s quick exit. Rainbow did not want to have this end here, not when they still had some things to get off each of their chests.

Gilda stopped, her shoulders sagging as she lowered herself to the floor. She was unused to feeling all of these emotions and she had no idea what to do.

With her friend paused, Rainbow approached her again and put a hoof around her, “Gilda, I’m sorry. I…I didn’t put myself in your shoes…Some loyal friend I was,” Rainbow sighed as she realized her own fault in the matter, sighing as she tried to think of what to say. After all, being emotional was not her strong suit either, “And I’m sorry for what I did. That was immature of me, and I wish I could go back and change how I did things then. Maybe then we wouldn’t have…”

Gilda turned to look at Rainbow, and in the next moment the two found themselves embracing as long lost friends ought to. Gilda was blushing heavily underneath her feathers, and she was thankful no-one could see.

“And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how I…feel,” Gilda had a lot of trouble saying that last word, though once it was said it seemed like she had burst the dam of her emotions as she just segued into a completely unguarded state, “I was totally uncool that day. I’m sorry for causing you all such a hassle. I’ll just go now.”

Rainbow reluctantly let go of Gilda, who seemed determined to leave. Despite beelining towards the exit, Gilda stopped to take another look at Soarin, some recognition forming on her face,  “You know, I think I remember you. You’re that hotshot Dash always had those posters of…Soarin, right?”

Soarin remembered hearing something about Dash’s posters about him, “Hehe, yeah. That’s my name.”

Gilda snorted, some of her tough arrogant façade returning, “Boy I hated those things,” she pulled him in close with her claws so she could whisper to him in a threatening voice, “Anyways, you take care of Dash. She’s the only friend I’ve ever really had and, little known fact, Gryphons used to fight and eat ponies. Don’t hurt her.”

Soarin smiled to her, unfazed by her unsubtle threat, “Oh, don’t worry about me. I love Rainbow.”

Gilda nodded, appeased by his answer, “Good. That makes two of us,” she cast her gaze back towards Rainbow, who was giving her a weak smile. Still addressing Soarin in a whisper, Gilda added while looking over Rainbow, “And thanks for getting her to talk to me. You’re not as bad as those other ponies.”

Clearing her throat, Gilda prepared to leave again, “Seeya, Dash. I’ll be around Cloudsdale if you ever want to…you know…” she blushed again, though everybody could tell she was simply because of her embarrassed expression, “visit.”

Soarin looked to Dash and nodded over to the now open couch. It took a moment for Rainbow to get what he was saying before she called out to Gilda, who was now at the front door and letting herself out.

“Hey Gilda, you know…you could stay here tonight if you want.”

The two could hear the door creak shut before Gilda popped back up at the living room’s entrance. She looked over the room to find the same couch that Soarin had gestured to Rainbow about before looking to Soarin as well.

“That cool with you, man?”

Soarin chuckled as he thought about the irony of her question, “I gave Rainbow the idea, so I’d hope so!”

“Mom? Can I go flying before it gets dark?”

All attention in the room turned towards the other entrance to the living room, where Scootaloo was entering with a bright look on her face. She had been sleeping in from the sleepover she had thrown for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle the night before, the other two having been picked up in the early morning by their family members.

While Rainbow and Soarin were surprised Scootaloo was awake, Gilda was surprised Scootaloo existed.

“Aaaaand you’ve got a kid. Really? That why you drop out of the academy?” Gilda snorted, her emotional state recovering now that she was not at complete odds with Rainbow anymore. 

“Foals don’t grow up that fast Gilda,” Rainbow groaned as Scootaloo approached her with beaming eyes.

Once beside Rainbow Dash and hugging her leg, Scootaloo brightly piped up to the house guest she didn’t know, “I’m adopted!”

Rainbow patted her adopted daughter on the head while a sigh escaped her own lips, “Yes, you are.”

Gilda looked at Scootaloo for a moment, studying the foal intensely, before remembering what Scootaloo asked when she came in.

“Hey kid, want to learn some flying tricks? I’m as good as your mom, if I do say so myself.”

Scootaloo appeared wowed by that statement, as well as by the fact that Rainbow did not dispute it. After a moment of awe, she looked up to Rainbow Dash with pleading eyes, “Can I?”

Rainbow looked over to Soarin, who gave her a reassuring smile. With this in mind Rainbow nodded yes to Scootaloo, “Go ahead.”

This done, the filly let out a loud “Woohoo!” before dashing out of the house to get ready. This left the three adults, though Rainbow’s previous anger returned as she addressed Gilda.

“Gilda, make her cry and I never want to see you again.”

Soarin quickly chimed in to support the idea, “And my best friend is the leader of the Wonderbolts. Crying might prove fatal to you ever leaving this country, or lead to time behind bars for child abuse.”

Gilda rose an eyebrow at Soarin, having expected this from Rainbow Dash but not the goofy looking guy who she was living with, “Wow, you’re tougher than you look. Alright, no crying,” Gilda turned to leave before coming up with a caveat and turning back to them, “But if she starts crying because she fell on her own face I’m going to just eat her.”

The glares sent her way almost frightened Gilda to death, making her instantly throw her hands up defensively, “Hey, hey, joking, joking!” on her way out again she grumbled, “Sheesh, and I thought I couldn’t take a joke…”

Not about to let this be unsupervised, Rainbow and Soarin both approached the exit as well. As they followed behind Gilda, the Gryphon approached Scootaloo outside and tapped her on the shoulder, “Hey twerp, you ready?”

Scootaloo nodded up at Gilda with a bright smile on her face, “So, I know you’re mom’s friend, but what’s your name? Is it something awesome like Thunderblast? I’ve never met a Gryphon before I don’t think.”

Gilda winced at the mention of being Rainbow’s friend, but she quickly hid it and gave a pseudo smile to Scootaloo, “Name’s Gilda. And for the record, Thunderblast is a dumb name. Maybe if you change it a bit it could work.”

“Thundercracker?”

Gilda shrugged, not caring one way or the other, “Eh, better. What’s your name?”

“Scootaloo!” the filly claimed with joy, her wings fluttering as she jumped up a bit.

Gilda rolled her eyes, “Now I see where your naming quality comes from.”

Scootaloo was too innocent to tell she was being insulted, “Naming quality?”

“Nothing, let’s just get to flying,” Gilda deflected. After a moment of preparing to flap her wings, Gilda had a thought. She hated the thought, but she knew it was something that made Rainbow Dash happy. And if it made Rainbow Dash happy, it might make this twerp happy, “Though, first I’d like to show you the chant your mom and I had to do when we were at the academy.”

“I so want to go there when I’m older!”

“Pfft, if Rainbow Dash the professional slacker could get in you should be fine. Just pay attention and you’ll be a shoo in.”

Back at the front door of the house, Rainbow Dash and Soarin looked on at the two with warm interest. Rainbow Dash found herself smiling as Gilda began to do the flight academy chant that Gilda seemed to dislike, though Rainbow herself was always inspired by. Soarin, on the other hand, was glad that Scootaloo seemed to be enjoying herself with a Gryphon who had, minutes ago, been in an antagonistic relationship with them.

“They seem to be doing just fine,” Soarin commented with a smile. Rainbow just nodded as she watched Gilda finish the chant, the Pegasus mare amused greatly by her friend’s deliberate choice of how to start things.

“I’m proud of you, Dashie,” Soarin whispered, “You did the right thing talking to her.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Rainbow blushed as Soarin began to kiss her neck.

Soarin paused his kissing to address a question he had not had answered for him yet, “Why’d she hate my posters by the way?”

All Soarin could think to explain the matter was that Gilda was jealous of them, but that—

A strong collision into the side of his head made Soarin stop all mental activity before shaking his head and trying to get his bearings. After a moment he found himself face to face with a green face hovering in front of him with beady black eyes on it and a large shell behind it.

“Ahhh, what is this thing!?” Soarin yelped as he backpedaled quickly into the house.

Rainbow Dash rose an eyebrow to Soarin, “That’s Tank. Don’t you remember Tank? He’s my only pet.”

“You have a pet!?”

Despite living in the house so long, Soarin had yet to really remember that there were more than four residents technically.

> Meet the Guest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I live. Special thanks to all those who commented on and supported this story in the long time since my last update, a near innumerable amount of people at this point, so I'll just give you all a blanket thank you this time around.

I spoke of it in a journal, but this chapter was stalled by a variety of things, chief among them the fact that I find writing for Tank boring. So I changed the subject of the chapter and was able to finish it in half a week versus the nearly two years I tried to get a Tank chapter done. This one is a bit of a prelude to another chapter I intend to do, but is standalone in its own way. It does however have very loose ties to my other story We Remember Everything, so if any of you are fans of Princess Luna, Loki, or the subject of this chapter, feel free to go enjoy that story too.

It also will contain a small reference to my ongoing story "Equestria Was Merely a Setback", which I also recommend if you enjoy the subject of today's chapter. SoarinDash is technically canon in both stories, but admittedly receives little focus since Rainbow is only a secondary character in one and hasn't been introduced in the other yet. Still, if you enjoy my writing, I hope you might enjoy my other stories as well, since they could use some love!

Hope you all enjoy, and I hope to hear your thoughts in the comments below!





Soarin rose one weekend still feeling like he had gotten no sleep, it having just been one of those days where his body did not seem to want to help him out any. This exhaustion led him to drowsily walk into the kitchen of his and Rainbow’s house and not notice that two full grown mares were seated at the dining table rather than a mare and filly as he would have expected.

“Good morning Rainbow.”

His fiancé snorted playfully, “Morning? Pfft, you slept through half the day.”

Soarin took a seat down across from Rainbow and the other pony at the table, groggily nodding to them, “Good morning Scoo—” 

He paused when he noticed that he was seemingly seeing double: why were there two blue ponies there across from him? And why was one a full grown, if a bit skinny, mare instead of a little orange filly?

Focusing his vision, Soarin noticed that the pony had a silver-blue mane and was wearing a purple cape, while nearby them was a purple hat that they likely had worn previously, “Uh, hello? I don’t think we’ve met…”

The mare smiled as she turned her nose up and spoke in a haughty tone Soarin recognized well, for it reminded him all too well of how his family spoke and how those they associated with did, “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie. It is a pleasure to meet me.”

“Uhhh…” Soarin nodded slowly, still not understanding why they were inside his house. They had to be Rainbow’s guest, right? She certainly reminded him a bit of how Rainbow could be at times, what with possessing an obvious ego, “Okay?”

Realizing Soarin’s confusion, Rainbow explained to her significant other, “As you heard, this is Trixie. I helped her out when she got trapped by a small army of Diamond Dogs who thought she was their queen. Trixie, this is Soarin. He’s a Wonderbolt like me, and nearly as good.”

Still speaking proudly, though imparting some of the pride towards Rainbow, Trixie responded, “I find that hard to believe given your standards. Equestria will not know a better flyer until I earn my own from Princess Luna.”

“Well, Soarin’s good enough to be my idol, and also is gonna be my husband soon enough,” Rainbow winked, still happy that she had proposed to him.

Trixie blinked at this, revealing subtly a lack of true understanding of the subject matter, “That…that’s a good thing, right?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow affirmed before turning to Soarin, giving him a short blank look, and then snickered to herself, “Hopefully.”

Soarin ignored the jape and rolled his eyes, while Trixie reacted with the enthusiasm of somepony who was basically told to be happy, “Congratulations are in order then! The Great and Powerful Trixie offers her services for your coming nuptials.”

“Business rough right now?” Rainbow asked, doubting that Trixie would offer to perform at a wedding if she had literally any other choice.

Trixie lost all composure as she leant over on Rainbow and began to plead with her sorrowfully, tears suddenly forming in her eyes, “I have no wagon, no shows, and no food, pleeease hire me.”

Soarin was still hadn’t really woken up yet so he didn’t say anything yet, instead focusing on Trixie’s Unicorn horn and making sure it wouldn’t impale Rainbow. This left Rainbow with the sole power to okay the request, and so after a moment the mare shrugged and made her decision, “Ehhh, I guess you can sleep on the couch for the time being, if you’ll do stuff at the wedding for us. I mean what’s one more when we already have four ponies around in the house?”

“An approximate twenty five percent increase in expenditures,” Soarin flatly noted with a yawn. He was not a god at saving money, but he could understand that having someone extra living in their house, even for a short time, would still cost something.

Trixie looked between them and lifted her eyebrows, only coming up with two and not four as the total head count, “Wait, four ponies?”

“Yeah, there’s Scootaloo and Soarin’s butler All Thread, who joined us after Soarin moved in.”

Trixie furrowed her brow further, “What’s a Scootaloo?”

“Little orange filly? Our kid?” Rainbow responded as she pointed between herself and Soarin, the latter of whom realized instantly how that simple explanation could be taken the wrong way.

“H-how?” Trixie stammered, her naiveté about familial relationships creeping out again.

The confusion in turn confused Rainbow, who was not sure what was not computing correctly in her guest’s mind, “How what?”

“You’re not married yet. How do you have a filly? That’s not how it works,” Trixie said back as if she was speaking basic, common sense as if the matter was some kind of math equation like two plus two equaling four.

“I…” Rainbow’s jaw fell as she realized just how clueless Trixie was. Did she really not get it? “We adopted, Trixie. We adopted Scootaloo. She’s not our handiwork.”

At the word ‘adoption’, Trixie had tuned out and frowned, “Lucky…”

Just to make sure that they got everything straight now, Rainbow pressed her guest on the matter, “Uh, Trixie, you do know that foals can be born to people who aren’t married, right?”

“Of course Trixie knows this!” Trixie proclaimed with a sure voice, only to then disarm the lie she just told by following it up with another sentence, “She…just requires you to explain to make sure everypony is on the same page.”

Rainbow guffawed and Soarin nearly choked on the food he had been munching on for breakfast, while Trixie tried to not look nervous about her ignorance.

“Uh, Rainbow, you tell her. I’ll see how Scootaloo—”

Not really willing to give her semi-friend “The Talk”, Rainbow tried to shove it off on her fiancé, “What? No, you do it! You’re the oldest one here after all, so you know the most, right?”

“She’s your friend, you really ought to be the one to do it.”

Bored by the two arguing about who was going to explain how exactly biology worked, Trixie slipped out of the kitchen and into the living room where she heard some other noise. There she found what she presumed was a “Scootaloo” watching a television program that Trixie recognized as one of those spandex wearing superhero shows with a lesson of the week and giant monsters the heroes would fight.

Scootaloo noticed that Trixie, who she actually recognized unlike the reverse, was standing in the doorway and so invited her to sit down with her, “Wanna watch?”

Trixie looked back towards the kitchen where she heard “I insist, you should tell her” and then made her way over to the couch, not seeing why she shouldn’t partake. After all, it was just a twenty minute program after all, and she found the full body costumes of these heroes to be ridiculous in an amusing sense.

“Sure. Trixie is not otherwise occupied.”

Partway into the program, Scootaloo turned her attention from the enthralling show and to the mare who had joined her in watching it. Looking at Trixie, Scootaloo noticed that Trixie had gotten really into it and was seemingly perturbed that a commercial break had come on. She had looked over to ask a question though, so she decided to distract Trixie from the dumb commercials and bland products being put forth for the masses to consume.

“Mom says she saved you from Diamond Dogs. Is that true?”

Trixie turned her nose up at the suggestion that she, the Great and Powerful Trixie, needed saving…though it wasn’t entirely inaccurate if she were to be honest. She had been found by a group of Diamond Dogs some time back and they mistakenly thought that she was a queen capable of finding gems for their obsession with the objects. Seeing as how she was not like Rarity and could not find gems at a whim, Trixie had only stalled them from their objective until she could be rescued…with the pony she requested aid from being none other than Rainbow Dash.

It had taken a bit of effort, but with Rainbow’s help she had managed to fly away to safety and was free from the shackles cast upon her while she remained with them. Still, she had contributed significantly to her own escape with careful planning and her own natural propensity for tricks, so she (for good reason) considered herself instrumental to the success of Rainbow rescuing her…and perhaps her ego would not allow for herself to reflect back upon the incident as one where she had been in great danger if not for someone else’s aid.

“Trixie saved herself. Your mother was her assistant to the act with her flying capabilities.”

Despite her ego, she still had to afford Rainbow her due credit: if Rainbow was the one telling the story the positions would be flipped, for one thing the two had in common was certainly their tendency to glorify themselves.

Having remembered Trixie’s disposition from her previous visits to Ponyville, Scootaloo understood that by Trixie admitting that Rainbow did anything at all she was in turn admitting that Rainbow had a large role in the ordeal, for if it was truly something small she would have diminished it even further, “Isn’t she like the best flyer ever?”

“I suppose she is satisfactory for the role of a subordinate. Not a main actor or lead role by any means, but a definitely fine ensemble member.”

The small admission pleased Scootaloo all the same, still possessing her hero worship for Rainbow Dash even now that their relationship had changed, “I’m so happy I get to live with Rainbow Dash now. To me she’ll always be the best.”

Trixie could sense that starry eyed hero worship, which in conjunction with Scootaloo’s adoption rose the all too common feeling she had of envy. That this filly was so happy and could live with the person she idolized as a surrogate mother reminded herself of her own situation of looking up to someone, only without the same end result, “I wish I could do the same…”

“You want to live with my mom too?”

Trixie scoffed at the child’s misconception, “No, no, I meant her equivalent in my own scenario. I don’t have a family either, but I do look up to somepony a lot,” not exactly wanting to explain her complex situation to a filly, Trixie kept it vague, “I let her down though, really badly, so I don’t think she’ll reciprocate.”

Having overheard part of the conversation in the other room, and taking a guess, Scootaloo flashed Trixie a big smile, “You shouldn’t have to worry. I mean, Princess Luna’s awesome. She’s actually part of the reason why Rainbow Dash adopted me! She got us closer, and when Rainbow wanted to adopt me Luna signed the papers and everything.”

Seen through by a child, Trixie crossed her hooves and looked away while scoffing again, “Trixie has no idea what you are talking about. It’s not as if she considers a former villain driven by jealousy her substitute mother.”

“You mean like yourself?” Scootaloo snarked, having learned well from her idol.

An idol who, at that moment, realized that the pony she was lightly arguing with Soarin over was no longer in the kitchen, “Wait, where’d Trixie go?”

Trixie responded by calling out from the living room, “I have located your ‘Scootaloo’. A reward is unnecessary but welcome.”

The audible sigh was ignored by Trixie as she looked back at the TV after what felt like the longest commercial break in history.





“Why is Trixie getting groceries?”

Soarin rolled his eyes both at their guest’s third person speaking habit as well as her innocent whining. He had to admit he saw a bit of his fiancé in this other mare, namely the fact that their egos were likely among the top most ones in Equestria, but whereas he felt that Rainbow’s was completely genuine, he had a sense that Trixie was blowing hot air to cover for the fact that she wasn’t as good as she wanted to be. She spoke even haughtier than Rainbow, but it was an obvious front put up to mask her insecurities.

Rainbow though? Rainbow was just really good at what she was proud of, so her ego was genuine and unadulterated. She would say she was the best at something, and tended to back it up more often than not.

Answering Trixie’s question as they walked through Ponyville’s market, Soarin fought off another yawn, “Well, a Unicorn like yourself can carry them better, and if you’re going to sleep on the couch you may as well pull your weight.”

He hated waking up feeling tired, but perhaps being too tired to get worked up over Trixie’s fake ego was a good thing.

“Trixie is light and has little weight to pull,” Trixie argued back, her thin physique a result of a lifetime of living frugally on the brink of destitution. It was a direct counterpart to her perceived rival Twilight, whose comfortable upbringing and penchant for food (likely picked up from the cake obsessed Celestia) left her on the heavier side of things for their body size. 

“Wait, is that Trixie?”

“Duh, I think it is!”

Trixie’s eyes widened as she heard those familiar voices, though her surprise quickly segued into irritation as her eyes narrowed at two young colts who approached her, Soarin, and Rainbow.

Soarin could see her irritation, but he did not understand it just yet, “Fans of yours?”

Trixie brought a hoof out to point to the young colts now standing by them, “These are Snips and Snails,” she lowered her hoof and spoke to Soarin flatly, “You will come to hate them.”

“I’m sure they aren’t that bad,” Soarin said in an attempt to stay optimistic.

Trixie’s response was deadpan, “They thought bringing an Ursa into Ponyville was intelligent.”

“I wonder where they got that idea,” Rainbow winked as she joked at Trixie’s expense, “Though I guess Spike may have had something to do with it…”

No sooner had the colts been introduced had they tripped over their own hooves, tumbled, crashed into a nearby vendor’s stall, brought it crashing down on themselves and the owner, ruined the products being sold, and then finally let out a groan of pain.

Having witnessed this, Soarin could see where Trixie was coming from, “Okay, I think I get what you mean. Bulk and Skull are smarter.”

“Exactly!” using her telekinesis to fix some of the stall, pick up what had fallen over, as well as pick up and push away Snips and Snails, Trixie shooed away the sources of her present irritation, “Now begone, children. Trixie desires affection, just not yours. Anything but yours.”

The shopping went well even as ponies whispered to one another and gossiped about Trixie’s presence, Ponyville’s population being petty as ever, though at one point when Rainbow was picking up some ingredients for pie Soarin came across the stall of Applejack. He loved the taste of Sweet Apple Acres’ apples and the pies they made, though he had to admit he was becoming partial to other types of pie Rainbow was making for him.

“Uhhh, Soarin, ya bring the wrong blue pony to town today?” Applejack questioned as she noticed Trixie beside Soarin, given that Rainbow was out of her field of vision with how busy the area was at the moment.

“Rainbow insisted we bring her along,” Soarin noted right before hearing the flap of his fiance’s wings, with Rainbow using them to fly over the crowd and join them, “Didn’t you Rainbow?”

Remembering that Applejack wasn’t too fond of Trixie still, Rainbow tried to defuse what could become a problem before it got to that point, “I helped Trixie out awhile back, remember, so we’re cool. She’s sleeping on our couch for the time being, so we’re putting her to work by helping us out here,” she leant over towards her friend and whispered, “Just need to make sure she doesn’t run into Twilight.”

Despite her attempt at secrecy Trixie still heard her, responding with a snooty upturn of her nose, “I got in a food fight with her at the castle. She certainly wears pie better than she does a tiara, and she’s almost as good at wearing cake as she is at eating it.”

Rainbow fell over in laughter at the idea of her friends having an all-out food fight using their magical powers, Soarin grinning as well as he wondered just how old the two Unicorns were to be acting like that, and Applejack sighing as she had to admit Trixie’s criticism of Twilight’s eating habits actually held some merit, “Ah have been meaning to tell Twi to tone down tha cake eatin’ a bit…”

After they paid Applejack for the food they came to get, Trixie made a show out of twirling the apples in the air in a complex pattern to show off her precise control and prowess of her abilities. It gave Rainbow an urge to show off as well, but that was difficult to do when there was little context for her to do anything: Trixie was carrying nearly everything with her magic

“What task shall Trixie accomplish for you next?”

It took Rainbow a moment to think about all of what they had gotten already and what still needed to be acquired, “I don’t know if we have any bread, but we can just pick it up another time if we don’t. I think we’re almost done.”

Hearing that they might not be getting bread made Trixie give a small ‘hmmph’ before she launched into an explanation as to its virtues, “Bread is the most magnificent of foods. So cheap, simple, and easy to flavor with additions such as butter, jam, and other such things you can get for free at a restaurant. Trixie always takes as many as she can fit in her hat.”

“Isn’t that stealing?” Rainbow questioned, since it sounded unscrupulous.

“Trixie could use them during her meal free of charge, so why can’t she bring some with her?” Trixie explained her sound reasoning, “Bread also comes free with most meals, so by eating a cheap entrée you can essentially eat two for one.”

“You are quite thrifty. I wish I knew tricks like that, but…” Soarin’s voice trailed off as he thought about how to phrase ‘I was really, really rich’ in a nice way. Unlike him though Rainbow lacked the same degree of tact and just flat out said it as she nudged him.

“But Soarin here is a rich boy, isn’t that right?”

“Formerly rich. But hey, it’s not like I’ve been some snob my whole life. I’ve always tried to be helpful as much as I can, like feeding homeless ponies or donating bits to good causes—”

If Trixie did not have fur they would have seen her face go pale as she came to a realization that froze her in her tracks as they separated from the city crowd, and then after a moment find her voice and yell.

“WAIT!”

Soarin and Rainbow both did as Trixie said, sharing their confusion with a quick glance to one another as they watched Trixie try to think something through. They did not have to wait long before Trixie levied a hoof in Soarin’s direction and gaped as she finished organizing her thoughts and memories.

“Y-you’re the one who fed me bread!”

“…what?”

Realizing the lack of context she gave them, Trixie cleared her throat before using her magic to not only carry the food they got, but form shapes with it of a stallion and a filly.

“Trixie had no friends or family growing up, but thanks to a stallion feeding her for performing a small magic trick she received her Cutie Mark and became a performer to earn bits to eke out a meager living as a humble show-magician.”

The incident slightly rung a bell in Soarin’s mind, but that had been so long ago he barely could recall the specifics. To Trixie though, it was a formative moment in her life, and now to Rainbow this gave her yet another reason to think of her fiancé as a sweetheart.

Trixie’s happy surprise dulled into anger as she narrowed her eyes and formed a crude representation of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Applejack with her limited supply of food.

“Then the Friendship Brigade attacked…”

Rainbow rolled her eyes as Trixie’s happy memory faded away in favor of her bitter ones, “Missing a few details there, aren’t ya Trixie?”

“Trixie possesses a brilliant memory and cannot remember a time she forgot something.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Rainbow wasn’t going to be the one to point out the silliness of what Trixie just said, so she left it as-is, “So wait, what you’re telling me is Soarin’s the reason you’re a magician?”

Returning back to the previous topic, Trixie bowed her head and body to Soarin, “In a manner of speaking, yes. The alternative was starving to death, so I am doubly thankful for your generosity.”

Rainbow Dash smiled at Soarin and nudged him again, “Way to go, big guy,” she moved her face to give him a sweet kiss as she spoke, “No wonder I like you so much. You’re one big ol’ sap.”

While Soarin turned to receive it, their mouths did not meet. Confused, they felt something tugging at their faces, and a quick examination showed a purple-ish aura surrounding their heads. Trixie cleared her throat as she continued to hold them a slight bit apart from one another, preventing their public display of affection.

“Trixie shall remind you that we are in public and such scandalous actions should be reserved for behind closed doors where Trix-I mean ponies are not privy.”

Thinking she had made her case well, Trixie undid her magic on them and left them be. Surely they would listen to reason and not make passerby’s uncomfortable? 

Rainbow grew a glint in her eye though, “You mean like this?” Trixie tried to stop her, but it was too late as Rainbow began to make out with Soarin in a very passionate manner specifically to unnerve Trixie. When finished, she looked back over and winked, “Are you uncomfortable yet?”

She was fortunate that, even with an eye twitching and her body rigid, Trixie managed to keep hold of all the groceries. Still, she gave no response as the relationship-challenged mare remained still.

“I think you short circuited her.”

Rainbow sighed before laughing a little bit about it, just glad Trixie hadn’t dropped anything, “You know, given how she seems to be at Scootaloo’s maturity level in some ways, I’m not too surprised.”

Trixie remained twitching, though she began to mumble something to herself relating to some seemingly traumatic event she had witnessed recently.

“Huh, guess we really did break her,” Soarin joked, not having expected an adult, even a young one like Trixie, to react so severely to ponies making out. No wonder she didn’t understand “the talk” if she could barely stand to watch ponies be affectionate…growing up without anyone to see as examples of any form of personal affection likely helped feed into this, since she was acting like an eight year old who just saw their parents make out.

Feeling responsible, Rainbow moved to help Trixie back towards their house, “I’ll bring her back to the house. Mind finishing up the shopping?”

“Sure thing,” Soarin said, fine with the arrangement since there was not much left to do. This settled, Rainbow carried Trixie with her as she flew back to their home. It was certainly good fortune that Trixie, even frozen as she was, was carrying their groceries exactly like she had been without leaving any behind or dropping them.

Still, Trixie continued to twitch on the way back, so Rainbow decided to check in on her.

“Uh, Trix, you okay?”

Shaking out of her state, Trixie laughed it off, “Of course Trixie is okay! Trixie has never been better! She did not walk in on her teachers doing…something…”

Rainbow thought she understood, and she snickered as she thought about just what naughty act Trixie had accidently stumbled upon and was reminded of just a moment ago.





Once they were at the house again and had the groceries put away, another thought came to Rainbow’s mind. Trixie said she was basically destitute at the moment, but why was that? If she was Luna’s student now, shouldn’t she be able to just stay with the Princess in Canterlot?

“Why aren’t you with Princess Luna?”

The normally audacious Trixie grew quiet as she averted her eyes, but answered all the same.

“Trixie let her down extremely at a competition, and my plans to take on an Ursa Major to earn forgiveness fell through since Trixie could not find one, so Trixie does not wish to return until she has redeemed herself in the eyes of her highness.”

Her usage of the third person was beginning to grate on Rainbow, who decided to address it while shifting the topic away from the drama surrounding her guest, “You know, you don’t have to keep talking like that. You don’t need to impress anyone here.”

Trixie switched from meek to sheepish as she relented, “I may have needed some practice with it. Princess Luna doesn’t like it when I speak of myself in the third person without reason. Perhaps when I am a Princess like Twilight I may use the royal ‘We’, but I have been starved of my ability to boast.”

Quite the boaster herself, Rainbow sympathized, “Pfft, that’s gotta suck. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t let everypony know how awesome I am,” her mind paused at the other thing Trixie said, something she had a hard time believing, “And you? A princess? Like that’d happen.”

This restored some of Trixie’s normal demeanor as she flipped her nose up and spoke in a matter-of-fact voice, “Celestia taught Cadance, Cadance is now an Alicorn. Celestia taught Twilight, now Twilight is an Alicorn. Now I am being taught by Luna, so it would be unfair if I were to not receive such a reward for my difficult studies.”

“What does Luna even have you do?”

“Train rigorously twelve hours or more a day, fight monsters, and prepare for competitions to show off my skills.”

That would certainly explain how she appeared to have better control over and power with her abilities than she previously displayed in Ponyville, but the middle part was what Rainbow cared the most about, nearly salivating at the prospect of fighting giant monsters.

“Wait, really? Can I help?”

Trixie was baffled by the request since she misunderstood which part Rainbow was interested in, “I do not require aid in my performances, but if you wish to—”

Rainbow shook her head as she clarified, “No, I meant fighting monsters! That sounds awesome!”

“No.”

The flat, basic response caught Rainbow off guard. It wasn’t like Trixie to just be curt and blunt, which implied there was some good reasoning behind it. Still, Rainbow wanted to get in on the monster fighting action and so she pressed onward.

“No? Oh come on! I bet you need an extra hoof here and there, right?”

Trixie continued to hold her position and explained it in a surprising display of empathy, “You have a husband and daughter. Trixie is alone and nopony would care if she were to be mauled someday.”

What Rainbow heard actually gave her pause. Not only was Trixie considering the fact that Rainbow had a family, she also was emphasizing the fact that nopony would care if something happened to herself…which, given that she really had no friends and no family to speak of was not far off the mark. It also showed that she considered herself expendable in comparison, and that was most certainly different from the usual haughtiness the mare carried with her.

Like Soarin, Rainbow was beginning to see the chinks in the arrogant armor worn to hide a deeper insecurity.

“That’s…honestly a bit thoughtful of you. You alright?”

“Trixie is not soul crushingly lonely,” was the awfully specific denial as Trixie looked away, hurt in her eyes.

Having learned a few lessons in friendship in her time since Twilight came to Ponyville, Rainbow decided to be helpful to somepony who looked like they needed it, “I bet Soarin’s got some friends if you want to hook up with somepony. You got a type?” she laughed as Trixie shrunk away and blushed beneath her fur, though Rainbow did put some thought into the matter: who would even go for somepony like Trixie? She couldn’t actually think of anypony in Equestria who would at the present time with how far the mare’s name had been dragged through the mud. 

After some contemplation Rainbow added, “You remind me of one pony I know named Blueblood.”

“Type? Type of what?” Trixie cluelessly inquired, never having dated or really spoken about it, so she did not know what the alternative definition of ‘type’ was. When Rainbow just shook her head and sighed, Trixie moved on to what else the Pegasus said, “As for that useless thing named Blueblood, one training exercise I had was using him as a weight to practice my magical strength. He is heavy, and was interfering with lessons, so he became the lesson after being stuffed in a bag.”

Rainbow snorted and fell into a fit of laughter at the idea of Trixie using the pompous pony as a literal weight in her training, “Oh my gosh, I wish I was there! I’m sure Rarity would have paid to see it.”

Trixie smirked to herself at the memory, as well as the pest’s subsequent shaving by Luna and forced tattoo of a target to dissuade him from being such a nuisance in future cases, “Bee nest perhaps could have enjoyed his misery. I know I did.”

Their little chat was ended when a voice called out from another room.

“Mom, it’s time!”

This prompted Rainbow to take off with her wings and rush across the house, with Trixie lazily following behind.

“Oh, right! Be right there!”

Trixie caught sight of Rainbow by the door, where Scootaloo had just exited. Turning back to explain, Rainbow spoke quickly.

“I’m training Scootaloo how to fly like a champ. Got to keep at it after all and not slack off!”

Having been on the receiving end of some of the family’s snark that day, Trixie returned some of her own barbed words, “You are skilled at the latter, though flying is a hair bit more of your specialty and so it is what your Cutie Mark displays rather than a pillow.”

Rainbow snickered, not really having a comeback given that she really was lazy in some ways and just so happened to be a prodigy at flying, “Yeah yeah, anyways I’ll see you later. Feel free to hang out in the living room and kitchen, but if you go in the kitchen be careful, Soarin will not be happy if you eat his pie.”

When Rainbow left, Trixie came upon a realization spurred by the loud rumbling of her stomach.

“Trixie is starving…”

She did not want to eat any of the new groceries, having been told for what they would be used at what meals and at what times, but this left her with few options since the kitchen was basically empty otherwise.

What she was truly searching for as she disassembled the kitchen in a quest for food was her favorite cheap sustenance, only to find that as Rainbow hypothesized earlier they did not have, “What self-respecting pony doesn’t have bread?”

As she continued to search, Trixie began to grow flustered as the only food she could actually find was pie after pie, which she had been told she could not have.

“Why do you only have pies!?”

After a good ten minutes of searching, Trixie gave up…both in her search and her reluctance to eat pie, since there were so many of them that surely they would not miss one of them. Right?

“Fine then. Pie it is.”

She wolfed down the entire tin of pie at a speed Pinkie Pie could be jealous of, and as Trixie cleaned her hooves and muzzle she came to notice that somepony was staring at her from the kitchen’s doorway.

“You ate…you ate…” Soarin blubbered as he gaped in horror, “Why did you…”

Caught blue hooved, Trixie tried to downplay the situation, “Trixie was hungry and was told she could be in the kitchen.”

“But my blueberry pie…why did it have to be my dessert for tonight?”

The reasoning was one of complete egotism, which honestly shouldn’t have surprised Soarin yet he still gaped as Trixie explained it, “Trixie is blue, blueberries are blue. It was a simple choice to pick the flavor most reflective of my greatness.”

Seeking revenge and revealing a childish side of himself to match Trixie’s own, Soarin grew a glint in his eye like Rainbow’s from earlier.

“You’re Luna’s student, right?”

While Trixie had not been very fearful of repercussions prior to that moment, she almost broke out in a cold sweat instantly at the mention of her teacher.

“Y-yes…why?”

Soarin shrugged nonchalantly as he basked in her nervousness, “I wonder how much Luna will like to hear that her student is a lawless heathen thief who would dare encroach upon proper manners and eat her host’s pie?”

In a half expected fashion, Trixie threw herself at his feet and pleaded for his forgiveness, “Trixie is sorry! Please, don’t tell Luna! Trixie will do anything! Forgive Trixie, she has never been over somepony’s house before!”

“I suppose it can be forgiven…” Soarin decided that some punishment should be meted out, “But you have to help Rainbow make the next one.”

“Trixie shall help with the next dozen! Please don’t make Luna hate Trixie more!”

Soarin honestly doubted that Trixie was really even that much in Luna’s ill graces, but since he didn’t know for sure he kept quiet and changed the subject to something he had been thinking as he finished the shopping.

“Anyways, I was thinking, and since I’m going to be retiring from the flying squad of the Wonderbolts soon, I’m going to need to focus more on the more business and organizational side of things. Would a certain washed up magician mind granting a few pointers?”

Regaining some of her dignity as she rose up, Trixie scoffed at his description of her, “Would a washed up magician’s advice not be worthless?”

Soarin shrugged again, trying to downplay the favor he was offering her, “Perhaps not, if taken in moderation. I’ve heard you’re one of the best magicians in the world after all, so you must be able to do something right.”

“Not that anypony cares. Stupid Princess Twilight ‘forgives communist pony who wants to end the world but not pony corrupted by magic whose life she ruined’. And don’t get Trixie started on her being promoted to Princess because she fixed a spell. Trixie has done that a hundred times!” Trixie bitterly grumbled, and Soarin couldn’t really blame her: the circumstances of Twilight’s ascension and how she had forgiven her most recent foe of nearly world ending crimes while still holding a petty grudge against a magician was a bit odd.

Siding with the ‘washed up’ magician in this regard, Soarin continued forward with his offer that could actually benefit both of them, “Maybe if you help the Wonderbolts out a bit we can see about helping your reputation.”

“If you do that, I may just do your wedding for free.”

Soarin liked the sound of ‘free’, even if it was a bit corrupt to hire a pony for his job and then receive a personal favor from them later on, “It has to be the very best, so I think having a professional handle it would be quite welcome. Rainbow wouldn’t have it any other way, though chances are she will have part of it be an air show.”





The two had continued to talk about business matters until Rainbow and Scootaloo returned later that night, at which point they ate dinner and Trixie quickly fell asleep on their couch. While she could be annoying in her own way, Soarin found himself not as put off by her as somepony else might: he already had to put up with a similar attitude on a daily basis, and he loved Rainbow despite how haughty she acted, so he could tolerate her friend being similar.

Still, one thing did grate on him, and he was hoping he would not have to suffer through it indefinitely. Looking at the conked out Trixie from the living room’s doorway along with Rainbow, Soarin whispered.

“She isn’t going to stay for long, is she? The third person thing is a bit…”

Rainbow giggled at his complaint, since she understood it quite well after spending time with Trixie previously, “I’m not going to kick her to the curb. I mean, I may feel a liiiiiittle bit guilty about being one of the ponies who led to the events that ruined her career. Let her sleep on the couch a couple days and I think I’ll feel better.”

As Rainbow finished saying this Soarin caught sight of something interesting.

“Is…is she clinging to a stuffed animal like a security blanket?”

Rainbow tried to keep her laughter down so as to not wake up Trixie, “Homeless and poor, yet she has a stuffed Princess Luna? Seems the Princess at least has one big fan …two if you count me, three with Scootaloo.”

Soarin decided to not mention that Rainbow had one of Daring Do, but what caught his attention was the way in which Rainbow described Princess Luna having fans: she made it sound like they were the only ones, “Is she insecure?”

“Yeah, imagine a more refined version of what you saw today with this mess. I bet Princess Luna would like you though, she’s the more sport-sy one of the Princesses,” Rainbow frowned as she thought back to how she first met Luna, “To give you an idea about how insecure she can be, you know the whole Nightmare Moon thing?”

“The bad pun of a name? Yeah, I’m familiar with it.”

“All because she felt unloved and jealous of her sister.”

The thought of Luna becoming a villain out of envy and out of insecurity saddened Soarin, who thought it unfair in some ways how much Celestia was favored over her sister. If things were different he’d feel the same way towards Celestia if Luna was the favored sister, but for now Luna was the underdog.

In an attempt to make light of the situation, Soarin nodded towards the asleep Unicorn in their house, “Good thing this one isn’t an all-powerful Alicorn, right?”

Said Unicorn was dreaming something vividly and was fumbling with one hoof as her other one tightly gripped both her blanket and the pseudo-Princess Luna, “Trixie…power…maximum…”

Rainbow rolled her eyes as she listened in on Trixie dreaming of power, “Great, she even dreams of being the best. Not even I can claim I go that far.”

“Ponyville…merely…setback…”

Also amused but afraid that if they lingered they would wake their guest with laughter, Soarin motioned for Rainbow to follow him out, “Let’s let your sort-of-friend/guest sleep.”

They did so quietly, though in leaving they missed further mumblings from Trixie that may have revealed her friendly affection for them both that she likely would never say out loud.