Chapters It was a dark cold November night, and every filly in Ponyville was fast asleep. All except one, Scootaloo; she was at the cemetery. Tears fell down her cheek as she looked at one grave in particular.
"I miss you, dad." she cried softly to herself before coming back the way she had came.
ABOUT A MONTH LATER
It was now Christmas Eve, the Cutie Mark Crusaders has spent all day trying to get their cutie marks as usual. It was now time for the three to go their separate ways. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom started off on their ways to their respected homes to get ready for the Christmas party. Scootaloo appeared to be going home as well, but the truth was, she wasn't. Sure, she wasn't going to the party but that's beside the point. She no longer had a home but she hadn't told her friends about anything yet.
She had been sleeping in an old beaten up wooden box in a dark alley. She only had a few possessions left. Those were an old patched up blanket, a raggedy old teddy bear from when she was a baby, a picture of her parents, a small candle, her backpack for school , her scooter, her wagon trailer for her scooter, her helmet and a few basic things that she used to disguise the fact that she was living on the streets such as a brush for her hair and snow-pants so she could play in the snow with her friends during recess..
Scoot made a Christmas wish and got under her blanket to go to sleep. It was her first Christmas without her Dad. The wind and snow were picking up as the filly struggled to find warmth. A small snow storm had started. About an hour or so later she started to get really sick. Soon she fell to a state of slumber as she continued to cough, sneeze and wheeze.
About five minutes later the snow storm stopped. Rainbow Dash, who saw this as the perfect opportunity to come down, was coming in for a landing. She was on her way to Pinkie's Christmas party when she heard a faint cough coming from an alley. Cautiously the pegasus walked down the alley. Immediately she found the filly sleeping in the box. Scoot was very pale and weak. Rainbow wasn't even sure if she was still alive for she had stopped coughing.
"Scootaloo." She said trying to wake up the filly.
No response
"Scootaloo, come on this isn't funny!" she said sternly.
Still no response
"Scootaloo, please wake up!" she cried desperately as the feeling of fear sank in.
Again no response
Fearing the worst, Rainbow quickly got the filly under her hooves and took off towards the hospital. Once the filly was stabilized, Rainbow Dash remembered the reason she came down to Ponyville in the first place. She asked a messenger pony to tell her friends what was going on. Then she continued to wait for news, good or bad.
Meanwhile at Pinkie Pie's her friends were starting to get worried. It wasn't like Rainbow Dash to leave her friends hanging. Then there was a knock at the door. Pinkie Pie opened the door hoping to see Rainbow but instead she saw a messenger pony.
"Your friend Rainbow Dash found a very sick filly in a dark alley on the way to the party. She took the filly to the hospital and is waiting there for her. I believe she said the filly's name was Scootaloo. She asked me to tell you that she isn't going to be able make the party." The messenger pony said as he turned to walk away, "Goodbye and have a merry Christmas."
Immediately the two younger guests started to freak out. This news had alarmed them very much. The adults tried to calm them down but they couldn't.
"What's going to happen to Scootaloo?" hollered a screaming Apple Bloom.
"We need to go see her now!" shrieked Sweetie Belle desperate to see her dare devil friend.
Applejack and Rarity gave each other a knowing glare, and then looked at their little sisters. After a second they gave in. The two fillies raced out the door as fast as their little legs could carry them.
Back at the hospital Scootaloo was starting to wake up. She looked around very confused. How did she even get here? She looked around for answers. Just then a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane came in through the door.
"Rainbow Dash!" she cheered for her idol.
"Oh good, your awake!" the adult said happily to see that her young fan was really going to be ok, "When I found you sleeping in that wooden box I thought you were dead! Scootaloo why weren't you with your family or in a house?"
"I-I don't think you want to know why." she stuttered feeling the tears well up in her eyes just thinking about it.
Just then a nurse came in and asked if it were alright if they let two of the patient's filly friends and five other ponies to come in and visit for a few minutes. Scootaloo nodded her head to say it was ok with her.
"Scootaloo!" the other two crusaders cried in unison as they ran up to give her a hug.
"We're so happy you're alright." Apple Bloom said.
"When we heard you were sick we came as quick as we could" Twilight added as she and another four ponies came into the now very crowded room.
After a few minutes of visiting it was time for them to go home. Rainbow stayed in the waiting room in case the young pegasus got lonely or something. By the time all of this had ended it was nearly midnight.
Chapter 3: Best Gift Ever
Later that morning, Christmas Morning, Scootaloo woke up. She saw Rainbow Dash talking to a nurse in the hallway. Though the door was closed she managed to pick out the words "Scootaloo" and "released", along with the phrase, "needs a home". Scootaloo wished she knew what they were talking about. Then she saw the nurse smile softly as the sky blue Pegasus showed her some papers. Even though she couldn't tell what they were talking about she figured it must be something good. She was really hoping it was something saying she could be released today so she could make sure her few possessions weren't missing. Seconds later she heard the door open. She looked to see Rainbow come in with a small grin on her face.
"Hey Scoot, the nurse said you're going to be released today." She said to the little pony happily, "I hope you're ok with that."
The crusader nodded happily to show her enthusiasm.
"The doctor is just going to give you a check up first," The adult said kindly to the filly, "but she doesn't want you to live on the street anymore so I found a home for you really close by. That way you can stay with your friends. Are you ok with that?"
The orphan nodded again with even more joy than before.
The doctor then came in to do the check up. Shortly afterwards Rainbow and she walked out of the hospital.
"Where is my new home Rainbow Dash?" she asked once they had left the hospital, feeling grateful that Rainbow had cared enough to find her a new home.
Rainbow just smiled for a second before taking out a certificate from behind her back. It had the words "Certificate of Adoption" written across the top. It read "Scootaloo has been formally adopted by Rainbow Dash on December 25, 2013". The small filly looked at Rainbow Dash with disbelief and tears started to well up in her eyes. The Pegasus then leaped from the ground to embrace the new-found adoptive guardian.
"Thank you" she said softly, with tears running down her face as she continued to hug her.
"You're welcome, and I know I'm supposed to be your adoptive mother but think of me as your big sister, ok?" the adult said kindly to the now adopted filly.
"You got it…sis." she replied to her adoptive big sister.
After a few more seconds of hugging Rainbow Dash got up and looked at the filly.
"Are you ready to go?" Rainbow asked her kindly. Little did she know that Scoot didn't know how to fly higher than five feet yet.
"Umm…I think you should know something. I don't know how to fly up high yet. My dad was going to teach me that weekend but he well…." Scoot started to say.
"Oh, that's ok, I'll teach you how to in a week or two. So again are you ready to go? We aren't heading up to my cloud yet. We're heading to a Christmas Party at Pinkie Pie's; she wanted to have another party because the one last night was cut short." The older pony said informingly.
"Ok, but would you mind if I got my stuff from the box you found me in." she asked not wanting to be a burden but not wanting to lose the few things she owned, either.
"Sure, I'll go with you." the other said understanding that those items in the box were special to her.
And with that they left for the alley.
Ding-Dong!
The doorbell to Sugarcube Corner rang. Pinkie ran to get it. She opened it to see Rainbow Dash along with Scootaloo. The two had left Scoot's backpack that held Scootaloo's possessions (all except her scooter of course) behind the building. Everyone was glad to see that Scootaloo was fine, especially the two other cutie mark crusaders. They wanted to go to the hospital to spend Christmas with her because no one should have to spend Christmas alone. They ran up to her again as they did the previous night and gave her a super big hug.
"Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, I need to tell you something." Scoot said to get their attention.
"What is it Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.
Now that she was sure she had their attentions she told them everything from finding her dad in the basement to Rainbow Dash adopting her. After this the two other crusaders looked at her dumb struck from the amount of information they were taking in at one time. There was an awkward silence.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Apple Bloom asked after a few seconds, breaking the silence.
"Because I knew if I told anypony, even you two, an adult would find out and send me to an orphanage far away." She replied with a sigh to have that off her chest.
The two little ponies understood. They wouldn't want her to be sent away either.
"Well at least now you're ok and have a home." Sweetie Belle added a few seconds later.
They then spent the rest of the day talking, playing and crusading in a more Christmassy fashion. The crusading is what we're going to talk about though. They had been wrapping presents, tree trimming, and Christmas cookie making all day.
LATER.....
"And a partridge in a pear tree." the three sang out proudly as they ended the song.
Scoot and Apple Bloom were ok at it but Sweetie Belle had obviously sung the best. They had been singing in the white snow for at least half an hour so all three had their snow pants on.
"Nice job girls." Twilight said supportively of the crusaders, "Now why don't we go get some lunch into your stomachs."
About an hour later after eating lunch it started to snow again so the three decided to take off their snow pants and stay inside for a little while. The three felt sad however, they were convinced that they would never get their cutie marks for Christmas.
"Oh come on, don't be sad about not having your cutie marks on Christmas now!" Applejack said in comforting way.
They knew she was right and that they should be spreading joy not sadness. So they continued their crusading with a smile till the end of the day.
Once Princess Luna had brought out the moon and it was time for them to go their separate ways they were positively, without a doubt sure that this had been the best Christmas ever. As Rainbow Dash picked the filly with her hooves Scoot thanked whoever granted her Christmas wish, that she had a family again.
Chapter 2: The Truth Revealed
Scoot had fallen asleep about a half hour ago. Rainbow Dash was happy to see that the filly was getting some sleep. She left the room and went to the waiting area to get some rest herself. She had only walked five steps when she heard a blood shattering scream come from the room she had just exited. Immediately the sky blue pony dashed into the room where Scoot was staying.
"What's wrong?" she asked the pony as she ran into the room.
"I-I-I just had a bad dream, that's all" she stuttered trying to convince the older pony she was fine, but she wasn't.
Sure she had a bad dream, but it wasn't just any bad dream. She had a bad dream about what had happened about a month ago, when her dad died. The story of it just being a bad dream didn't convince Rainbow Dash.
"Scoot, I can tell something's bugging you. Please tell what's wrong; I only want to help." Rainbow Dash calmly said to the little orange pegasus.
"Ok, I'll tell you. I guess somepony's going to find out sooner or later." She started, "It was about a month ago. I had just come in after playing all afternoon with the other crusaders. I called for my dad so he'd know I was home, but he didn't call back or anything so I looked around the house for him. When I found him he was on the floor of the basement and didn't appearing to be breathing. I took him to the hospital, like you did for me, but by the time I got him there he had already died. That's also the reason you found me in that wooden box. I don't have a home anymore. I didn't want anypony to know what was going on because I'm having trouble accepting it myself. I'm very happy you found me though; I don't think I would have made it if you didn't."
"I'm so sorry." she said sympathizing with the homeless child, "Wait, what about your mom?"
"She died when I was too young to remember." the orphan explained.
"Why didn't you tell anypony?" the speedy pony asked.
"I knew if anyone found out I would be sent to an orphanage far away from here and I all ready have had so many hardships this past month. I didn't want to lose my friends too!" she replied swiftly.
Rainbow nodded her head to say she understood.
"I know that must be rough but I think you should have told the other crusaders at least. It's not right to keep those feelings bottled up." she explained.
"Yeah, I guess your right. I'll tell them the next time I see them." she said as if a great burden was just taken off her shoulders.
"Well, just go back to sleep." She then said as she left the emotionally scarred filly's room.
Scoot did not have another nightmare that night; she also went into a deep slumber after Rainbow left her small hospital room. The athletic pegasus had a plan to give Scoot back the joy of having a family. Hopefully it would be ready before she was released.