Living in Equestria

It was too late in the afternoon for Twilight and I to start our plan B of flying out to the distant ridge in the south that rose on the horizon looking for all the world like an orange cloud bank if you squinted just right. We had waited around in the dragon hospital's large receiving room for quite a while for the receptionist to return... but it never did.

Now we were back on the street near the train station, looking over our options for a place to stay for the night in the tight cluster of run down looking hotels that lined the block. None of them looked very appealing, and all of them looked more than a bit shady. But Twilight was adamant about staying close to the train station for some reason and I dropped the argument quickly.

"What about this one?" she asked, pointing to the degraded sign swinging from a pole above the door.

I looked at it with a smirk on my face that carried over when I turned my gaze to back to Twilight. "The Buck Board?" I said skeptically.

"Sure! Why not?" she chirped and smiled at the sign with a painted mare sitting up, her back facing the viewer in a sexy pose. "It sounds like an interesting place to experience what life is really like here!"

"Wait..." I gave her a gentle shove to get her attention away from the sign. "Is that why you want to stay around these crummy hotels? Because you want to slum it up for some research?"

Twilight looked down with embarrassment and scuffed a hoof in the dirt. "Maybe a little?... I don't get many chances to come to a place like this." she looked up hopefully at me, "Mason, my life has been filled with books, castles, royalty ponies and good hearted ponies as friends. I know there's a whole other way that a lot of ponies live that I know nothing about!"

"And you think you're going to learn that by staying a night in a seedy motel?" I said quizzically.

"No.. not entirely! But I want to at least see what it's like... even if it is for one night." her eyes implored.

I let out a resigned sigh. As much as I didn't want to stay in some crummy place, at least there was a cider bar next door that I could go get a drink at. My time at Sweet Apple Acres drinking with Applejack had given me a taste for the stuff and Twilight could tell I was caving in even before I spoke, giving an excited cheer, nuzzling my chest with happy gratitude.

"Oh! Thank you Mason! This is going to be so exciting!" she said and gave a small hop that reminded me of Scootaloo when she was overjoyed.

The lobby was pretty much exactly as I expected. The front desk was framed by a chain link fence at one end of a dirty room with chipped flooring and a few randomly placed chairs that sat empty. The pony behind the counter was a massive, fat stallion reading a magazine and looking incredibly pale in the overhead light that flattered nopony. I felt like I was about to do a drug deal or something. Twilight, who was completely oblivious to it all, strolled happily up to the counter with a bright and cheery smile.

"Hello good sir! I would like one room with two royal sized beds, please!" she said confidently.

The stallion behind the counter slowly dropped the magazine he was reading, the cover of which showed a very young filly with it's hind legs spread open as it sat on a swing, was briefly visible before it flopped to the counter in front of him. He regarded Twilight with a withering stare.

"Ain't got no double beds, sweetheart... ya get one bed and use it however ya buckin want." he barked.

Twilight recoiled a bit but rallied gamely. "Ah! Well... I suppose that will work. How much?"

"Ten bits per hour, one hundred for the night. Just like the sign says, sugarteats." he pointed over his shoulder without looking away at the small placard on the wall behind him that said just that. "Now you want a room or not, I ain't got time to sit here bantering with ya and I'm sure your friend wants to get started right away, ain't that right? Heh heh..." he sneered at me.

"Twilight..." I said in a low, warning tone.

"Shh!" she shushed me before turning back to the stallion, fishing coins from her bag. This time, she kept the bit pouch concealed in the larger sack on her flank... at least she's learned something so far. "We'll take it!"

"Bout damn time..." he grumbled as he slid the coins Twilight had dropped on the counter through the small opening of the fence. In return, he pushed a single large key back at her with the number three stamped on it. "Up the stairs, second door on the left." he said and picked his magazine back up. "Check out is before the cleanin' lady gets here so I suggest ya finish up and get the buck out as soon as ya can."

"Thank you very much! Have a wonderful day, sir!" Twilight smiled and grabbed the key with her horn.

"Well that was educational, now wasn't it..." I shot a sarcastic frown at her as we reached the upper floor.

"Mason..." she scolded me, "I'm sure he was just engrossed in his literature he was reading. I think it's great that a stallion like him is so interested in foals and fillies, it shows a very mature side that not everypony would pick up on. You should learn to pay more attention to your surroundings sometimes!" Twilight finished her lecture and I rolled my eyes at her.

Door number three was a black wooden door in a hallway filled with similar ones that lead off in regular intervals into the grimy hallway's distance. Voices drifted through some of these that I couldn't quite make out and Twilight didn't seem to notice as she fit the key into the lock, giving a satisfying snick of tumblers pulling back before it opened.

Much like the downstairs lobby... I was not disappointed in the least. The faint smell of a mare's musk wafted to us as we moved inside the plain decor of the room. A single large bed that looked deflated and overused covered by a brown blanket lay brooding along one wall opposite a small dresser beside a door leading to a bathroom. A window looking out on a brick wall only an arm's length away opposite the door completed the tour and Twilight once again tried to rally her resolve with a forced grin as she closed the door behind us.

"It's... humble!"

"Humble?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Besides... we're just going to read and then sleep here for the night, right? It's not like we're moving in or anything..." she closed her eyes with a self satisfied tone from her observation, her pack lifting off her flank and placing it on the bed that gave a groan of protest at the weight.

I moved around to the far side and dropped my own bag, chuckling at myself for grabbing such a ridiculously over sized thing in the first place for such few items. I did feel like sitting down for a while and it was to early to go down to the cider bar next door. As Twilight pulled her book and quill out, presumably to document her experiences today so far, I retrieved my Daring Do book and sat on my side of the bed at the same time as Twilight sat on hers. In an almost comical way, we both fell backwards towards the center where it was badly depressed, landing half on each other with an exclamation of surprise from both of us.

"Great... " I muttered as we both tried to arrange ourselves awkwardly but it was no use. We settled for a shared lean against each other's backs and a resigned laugh as we both set about our leisure. I opened the book, feeling Twilight's bony back and warmth against me but found myself unable to read right away... my thoughts distracted by Scootaloo instead. I wondered what she was up to back in Ponyville and tried to imagine what the girls might be doing right now.

______________________________________________

The stalking pegasus knew it was running out of time and resolve quickly. It could see the barn looming closer at the edge of the orchard and knew if it didn't act now, it probably wouldn't be able to try it again for quite a while. It couldn't be gone for very long like this, already the old way of thinking had dangerously crept back into it's mind, coaxing it to take to it's wings and return to those it knew before it's recent, terrifying freedom.

It watched them leave the edge of the orchard and almost gave in, convincing itself that it was too late and it shouldn't even try. But at the last second, it swallowed it's doubt and ran forward to stand behind them at the edge of the trees, licking it's lips nervously before saying the single word it had been working up the courage to say since it arrived here.

"Scootaloo?"

______________________________________________

The three girls froze at the strange voice that had called Scootaloo's name from behind. They turned in unison and Scootaloo's breath left her body in a rush. She knew exactly who the blue pegasus was, but then again... she looked nothing like how Scootaloo remembered her.

"M- Mommy?" her voice came trembling out.

"Baby... " she said quietly, just barely loud enough for them to hear. "Please... forgive me..."

Scootaloo stepped vacantly off the Mark V, not noticing at all that it fell to the dusty ground with a clang. Walking gingerly towards her mother, she recalled that she hadn't heard her voice for so long that she forgot how beautiful it was. Her father had kept her silent for so long. Never once had she heard it help her with homework, or scold her for behaving badly.

Her mother's voice had never rung out in the early evening air as she played outside, calling her in for dinner. Those memories didn't exist for Scootaloo. But now here she was, looking like the mare she called her mommy before things had gotten bad. Like the mother who had taken care of her before her father's rage had dropped the fearful cone of silence around them both, withering their body and soul.

"Mom... is that really you?"

"Yes, Poptart... it's me." she smiled and nodded, her face filed with anxious regret. Scootaloo's eyes watered at the sound of her nickname that nopony but her mother would know and hadn't heard aloud since she was learning to talk. "I know you probably hate me... but I had to see you again. I... I'm not su-"

That was all she was able to say before Scootaloo ran to her as fast as she could, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and ribs to allow herself to be swept up in a fierce embrace that reunited a grateful mother and forgiving daughter again in the afternoon sunlight of the barn's western yard. Tears flowed down both of their faces as they cried openly.

"M-mamma..." Scootaloo sobbed, smelling the familiar, comforting scent of her mother again that she had lost and feeling it wash into her soul with powerful emotion.

The older pegasus couldn't speak, she could only sob against her daughter and whisper a silent thank you to whatever force in this world that had allowed them to be together like this again. Long moments passed, neither one wanting to break the spell that had been cast over the western edge of the farm's yard.

"Let me look at you Poptart..." she said, holding her daughter out away from her. She scanned over the smaller orange body with watery eyes, "You've changed so much!" she smiled. "What are these bandages for? Are you hurt?"

"Never mind that! Mom... what happened to you? Where have you been?"

"I've been in The Crystal Empire. Princess Cadence has been helping me to... to heal my heart, Poptart. I did... things. Things I'm not proud of that your father made me do to keep you safe. I have to make up for all of that." she gathered Scootaloo back into her hooves.

"Baby, I'm so sorry." she continued as she stroked Scootaloo's purple mane lovingly, "Your father... he threatened that if I ever stood up to him, he would drop you on a cloud and leave you. I was so worried... but he can't do that anymore, Scootaloo, he can't hurt us anymore."

"I know, mamma..." Scootaloo hugged her mother again as fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

"Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle's unsure voice came from behind the smaller pegasus. "This is... your mom?"

Scootaloo stepped back and stood beside the larger, dusk colored pegasus, wiping her eyes with the back of a hoof and letting a growing smile take over her face. "Apple Bloom... Sweetie Belle... this is my mom, Nightleaf."

__________________________________________________

Rarity's hooves slowly carried her towards the blanket covered cage by the kitchen door of the barn. She could hear Spike's ragged breathing long before she reached out with her horn's magic to lift the edge and see inside to the ball of purple and green scales that lay curled up there. She thought he did looked a little better, his scales were a bit darker now and lacked that sickly pallor she remembered from last night.

"Spike?" Rarity said softly. His small body tensed visibly at the sound of her voice but he didn't answer.

"Spike, please... we need to talk."

"I don't wanna talk..." his small, gruff voice came from inside the ball of scales.

"I- I should have taken your affections for me more seriously, Spike... I should ha-"

"I don't want to talk..." he said miserably, cutting her off. "... it hurts."

Rarity took a deep breath, knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep again tonight if something didn't happen to close this rift between them. Without any idea of what else to do, she simply lay down next to the cage in the dirt.

"Alright then... I'll wait here until it doesn't hurt." she said resolutely.

Time and silence greeted Rarity's decision and the first ponies to encounter her there much later were Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, coming around the corner of the barn with excited, happy faces. When they noticed Rarity sitting in the dust beside Spike's cage, they ran to her, already talking rapidly.

"Rarity! Rarity! Guess what?! Scootaloo's Mo-" Sweetie Belle caught sight of the mood her sister was in and quickly shifted gears. "Is...everything alright, Sis?" Sweetie asked. "Why are you..."

"Everything is fine, girls. Please... be a dear and leave us alone for a while, would you? Spike and I have some things to discuss."

"Buy ya aren't talkin..." Apple Bloom observed and gave a confused look to Sweetie Belle.

"Girls..." Rarity warned.

The two did as they were asked, looking over their shoulders as they moved into the barn at the odd sight of Rarity allowing herself to get her clean, white coat dirty like that.

For a long, long while nothing happened.

___________________________________________________

As Scootaloo walked beside her mother, the initial shock and happiness of seeing her wore off slightly and she was left feeling an awkward tension between them. She had no idea what to say to her. She had been so disconnected from her life since she was a small filly that Scootaloo realized she hardly knew anything at all about her mother.

"I'm so happy to see you again, Poptart. Cadence said this would be good for me... I'm glad I finally listened to her." Nightleaf smiled down at the orange pegasus. "But I have to say something, Scootaloo... and now that I see you, I think you've grown up enough to hear it." she paused.

"What, mom. You can tell me..." Scootaloo's bright purple eyes looked up at Nightleaf's eagerly.

Nightleaf stopped and faced her daughter between two large trees, her eyes wet again as she fought through the wall of shame that was trying to keep her silent. Cadence had been working with her all this time to get to this point, insisting that she would never fully heal until she could say what she was about to say. Hearing Scootaloo call her "Mom" was making it hard to do...

"I... I was a coward, Scootaloo. I m-made a choice not to do anything about how your father treated you and instead... I took the roots your father gave me to feel better about myself. They made it easier for me to not... not care. I was a b-bad mother to you." Nightleaf hung her silvery head low, waiting for the repercussions.

Scootaloo's eyes filled with tears again, shaking her head. "Mamma... I don't care! I just want you back!" she cried.

"Scoot... even after what I did to you?" Nightleaf's head came up, voice cracking now as she fought off a sob.

Scootaloo fiercely rubbed the tears out of her own eyes and stood adamantly before her mother with confidence. "It was his fault! Not yours! I know that now 'cause somepony special loves me for who I am... even when I thought it was all my fault dad was being like that! Mamma... Whipwind was a bad pony..." Scootaloo softened and let the tears finally fall from her eyes unhindered again, "..but I love you. I always have."

Nightleaf felt something let go inside her, a heavy weight of shame in her chest that had been pressing on her heart for so long she had forgotten what it felt like to be without it.

Cadence was right all along. All she needed was a little courage and now she found a reason to have it... in a shape of a small orange pegasus she could call her daughter once more.