Homecoming

It had been about three weeks since Pam and Aldous had brought back Tagalong from the orphanage. He rarely spoke to anypony. He hardly spoke to his parents, never spoke to anypony at school; he never even spoke to his twin sister. He would occasionally say ‘good morning’, or simply ‘hi’, but that was about all anypony could expect from Tagalong at this point. Late one night, after dinner, Tagalong was in his room lying in bed, looking up at the ceiling. Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door that made him sit up, then a voice.

"Tagalong, it's me, Scootaloo." called his little sister. Reluctantly, he got up and opened the door to let her in. She walked in and stood in the middle of his room, while he lied back down on his bed and continued his staring contest with the ceiling. Scootaloo approached the bed and sat down on the edge of it.

"I was kinda hoping to talk to you. I just want you to know that I know what happened to you over there at the orphanage and all, and that you don't have to be nervous or scared in Ponyville. The ponies are a lot different here." Tagalong said nothing. He just looked at the ceiling with a blank expression on his face. Scootaloo was getting impatient and she wanted to know that he was at least listening to her.

"Hey, are you okay? What's the matter?" Tagalong rolled over, dragging the comforter with him and wrapping himself up in it. Scootaloo was getting frustrated and began to raise her voice at him. "Hey! Why aren't you listening to me? All I'm trying to do is help you but you keep pushing me away!" Tagalong threw off the covers, revealing his enraged face.

"Nopony asked you to help me! Nopony asked you to butt into my business! Just leave me alone!" shouted Tagalong, now furious with his little sister.

"Nopony should have to ask me to help you! You're my brother; I WANT to help you out so we can be friends, but you know what? I give up; this is pointless! You’re never going to talk to anypony, not even your sister!" yelled an enraged Scootaloo at the surprised colt. His ears perked up as Scootaloo continued her rant, "Why did I even try to help you? You never talk to anypony at home, at school, at--" Scootaloo suddenly stopped talking. Tagalong had started crying. Through his sniffles and tears, he finally spoke to her the way she wanted him to.

"You're right... you're right... I’m sorry..." he continued to cry. Scootaloo felt worse than she did before. She didn't want to make him cry, in fact, just the opposite. She went in to comfort him, and instead hurt the traumatized colt even more. Scootaloo jumped onto the bed and sat next to Tagalong, patting him on the back with her hoof. She knew that he was emotional, but this was just too much for her. She felt that if she didn’t get him to stop crying, that she would start to cry as well. Tagalong sniffled a bit more, rubbed his eyes with his hooves and continued, "I'm sorry for pushing you away, Scootaloo."

"It's okay, bro. No hard feelings." Scootaloo tried her best to sympathize with the broken pony. "It's just that I've never had anyone actually be there for me, other than Ms. Carie, but she was too busy to deal with me and the entire orphanage." He had stopped crying and started talking about his experiences at the orphanage, how the boys would make fun of him for being rejected by every potential family that tried to adopt him because of his timidness around new ponies. How they would tease him for not having a cutie mark yet, how they would pick on him for being an outcast, and how they would make fun of him for not being able to fly.

"Well, you're here now, and that's all that matters." Scootaloo suddenly gave him a hug.

"Ah, no fair, I wasn't ready!" He said, now in a happy voice. He hugged his sister back and then she asked him to join everypony in the living room for family night. Tagalong, now in a happier disposition, followed his sister.

He was greeted by Pam and Aldous who were sitting in the living room, saying things like, 'look who it is!' and 'come and sit with us!’ Tagalong had finally come out of his shell with his family, and he was happy that he did. They played charades, board games, and even told stories for hours. Scootaloo felt accomplished and she now had a brother and a friend.