Despite All Odds

During the train ride, Scootaloo and Fluttershy played a number of games to help pass the time. At some point, a filly in Scootaloo's class came over and asked if she could join in on their merriment. From this point on, Fluttershy watched and conversed with the filly's mother as Scootaloo and the other pony played together.

Finally, they all said good-bye as they went their separate ways once they arrived in Canterlot.

"Okay...last time I was here, I think I remember seeing a sign that lead to the Runshaw District...this way." Fluttershy said, hoping that her memory served her well.

As the two pegasi walked, they kept an eye out for the sign, but couldn't help but gaze at all Canterlot had to offer; the numerous shops selling everything from fabric to rocks, the restaurants that served food neither pony had ever heard of; everything about the large city mesmerized the pair. It was about two o’clock when Fluttershy saw the sign that directed them to the district.

While they walked, Scootaloo told Fluttershy everything she could remember to help them spot the house they were looking for. However, at one point, Fluttershy stopped and shivered. "Are you okay, Fluttershy?"

"Y-yea...I just had a feeling something bad happened..."

"What do you mean?"

Fluttershy shook her head and said, "It's probably nothing. It was most likely a cold shiver and I'm just overthinking it all."

The young pegasus looked at Fluttershy for a moment and said, "If you say so." then continued walking.

The yellow pegasus looked up into the cloudy sky and thought, 'I hope that's all it was...' before moving to catch up with Scootaloo. Finally, after another hour of walking, the pair of pegasi found the home they were looking for.

"It looks...nice." Fluttershy said with a small bit of skepticism. The outside was peeling paint and the lawn looked like it had only been mildly cared for, evident by the patches of uncut grass.

Scootaloo scoffed and said, "Let's get this over with."

Fluttershy nodded and knocked on the door. A few moments later, a yellow unicorn with a heavy lilac hair colour answered the door.

"Can I help you?" She asked, not even trying to mask her irritation.

"Umm...yes, hello. My name is Fluttershy, and I-" The unicorn ignored her and narrowed her eyes at the filly, who did the same in return.

"Ahh, so you've come crawling back, have you Scootaloo?"

"You wish May Ball. I'm just here for some things and so I can watch you sign the papers." The unicorn looked up and her eyebrows moved in confusion.

"Papers? What papers?" Instead of saying anything, Fluttershy grabbed the papers from her saddlebag and showed them off. May Ball snatched them with her magic and her eyes quickly scanned the papers while occasionally glaring at Fluttershy. "Adoption...Ponyville...Twilight Sparkle AND Fluttershy? You don't mean to tell me-"

"Yes. Twilight and I are together and yes, we live in Ponyville, and yes, we'd like to adopt Scootaloo," the lemon coloured unicorn was shocked into silence.

"Y-you can't...I mean, you're both..."

"Mares? Yes, we know. Now if you would kindly sign?" Fluttershy offered a pen from her saddlebag, but May Ball just scowled.

"And WHAT exactly do you take me for? An idiot? I would be RUINED if anypony found out a relative of mine was adopted by fillyfoolers like you! I will not sign these papers, but I do "thank" you for bringing the brat back home. The guards were beginning to ask questions." The unicorn said with a frown. She then looked past the pony in front of her and said, "Get over here you little degenerate."

Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at the elder and May Ball scowled. "I said, come here you little-" The sentence was never finished. Fluttershy stomped a hoof down, scaring both the older unicorn and the younger pegasus.

"Now you listen here! I will NOT have you talking to my daughter like that. I don't care if you are her actual relative or not, you shouldn't EVER talk to a child like that. Now sign these papers or else I'll inform Princess Celestia herself that you've been ignoring her and in turn, providing no healthy lifestyle, no education, no food, nothing."

"I...you...you lie!" May Ball said, trying to make herself intimidating. However, Fluttershy's stare made her lower herself as far down as she could go. "I-I could have you a-arrested for this!"

"I think my argument would go over far better than yours. Who do you think the Princess would believe; a pony whom she actually knows AND helped save Equestria THREE TIMES, or some stuck up pony who doesn't know what she's talking about?"

Scootaloo was absolutely amazed at how Fluttershy was acting.

'This is insane! I figured she'd have to use the Stare, but to use her connections to the Princess...Wow...'

"So, are you going to sign it, or is the Princess going to have to pay you a visit?"

"NO! I'll sign!" May Ball quickly snatched up the pen and quickly scrawled her signature where it was required.

Afterwards, Fluttershy took the forms back and with a polite smile, said, "Thank you very much. We'll be sure never to bother you again. Come along dear." Fluttershy said, nudging Scootaloo along with her wing, leaving May Ball to stand in the hall, mouth agape at she tried to process what just happened.

"Fluttershy, that was amazing! I've never seen ANYPONY stand up to my aunt that way! That was so cool!" The young filly was bouncing around Fluttershy, her little wings fluttering as she bounded through the air.

Fluttershy blushed a light pink and said, "Well, I couldn't just give you up to such a terrible pony. You deserve much better than that."

Scootaloo nodded and said, "Thank you..." The yellow pony stopped and looked down at her younger counterpart.

"Don't thank me. Twilight and I just want what's best for you. Besides, we like you too much to give you up now," Fluttershy said with a wink.

Scootaloo smiled and couldn't help the laugh the burst forth from her mouth. Fluttershy joined her and as they walked and laughed, ponies couldn't help but stare as the two walked through the town.

As they were heading back towards the train station, Scootaloo's stomach grumbled loudly, making the young filly blush in embarrassment and chuckle sheepishly. "Has it really been that long since breakfast?" Fluttershy asked aloud in amazement.

"Well...we got here at like...one-forty-five, found my aunt's house at around...two or twenty past two. I think and it's two-forty now...so yea, it's been awhile," Scootaloo said, her eyes gazing upwards as she tried to remember when she had actually had breakfast.

"Well let's get something to eat here before we go. Spike'll be so jealous." Scootaloo's eyes lit up and she chuckled mischievously.

"We could say we went to his favourite doughnut shop and say we ate ALL the best doughnuts!"

Fluttershy smiled and said, "That might be a little too mean hun."

"Yea, I guess...wait..." Scootaloo stopped moving as a thought hit her.

"Is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked, concerned at the filly's sudden stop.

The orange pony turned and said, "When you were arguing with my aunt...you called me your daughter..."

"Of course I did. The way I see it, as soon as we decided to adopt you, you became our daughter, even if we didn't have the paperwork signed." Scootaloo lowered her head enough so that shadows hid her face. Fluttershy figured that either she would begin to cry happily, or laugh aloud at how "cheesy" it was. Instead, the young pegasus looked up with a warm smile as a single tear slid down her face.

"Thank you...mom." Fluttershy smiled back and pulled Scootaloo into a hug. They stayed like that for a good 5 minutes before Scootaloo's stomach reminded them of the task at hand. Both ponies began to laugh as they pulled away from each other and headed for the nearest place of food.

When Twilight woke up, there was nothing but darkness for her to gaze into. All she could hear was her heart beating in her chest and her own breath. There were faint noises around her as well, but she didn't want to risk alerting whatever else was in the room with her. So, she tried to move, but found her movement restricted. She struggled against her bindings a little more before she realized that she wasn't on the ground; she was on the wall.

She moved each limb a little to get a sense of where they were. Her forelegs were pinned above her, both angled away from her head and her hind legs were pinned in a similar manner, which made her imagine an X in her head. 'Okay...you're pinned to the wall by shackles, your eyes have yet to adjust to this darkness, you can hear...something else in the room with you...'

Twilight swallowed a lump of fear and cautiously called out in what was barely a whisper. "Hello?" It was silent for what seemed like an eternity before she got an answer back.

"Ahh, you've awakened. That's good." A feminine voice replied, nearly scaring Twilight at the suddenness of it's voicing.

"W-who's there? Where are we?"

"It's Octavia, and I don't know. I've been here for at least a week I think and our kidnappers have yet to give me any indication as to our location."

"I see...is there anypony else here?"

There was only silence. "There are, but they're probably sleeping off the pain."

"What do you mean?"

Twilight heard a sigh and then, "Apparently, we have stronger connections to the ones we love and as such, won't let them go. So, they've basically been torturing us until we either forget our loved ones or renounce our love for them."

"That's horrible! Are you okay? I mean, you've been gone the longest."

"It's nothing that can't be healed. I just hope it doesn't look as bad as it feels. I worry about what Luna might do if I'm too badly hurt." Twilight gave Octavia a confused look, but remembered that the musician probably couldn't see her.

"What do you mean?"

"You know that Luna was once Nightmare Moon, correct?"

"Of course."

Octavia took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Well...if she came upon me, broken, battered, and bruised, how do you think she would react? I know she's been alive for who knows how long, but sometimes she acts rather than thinks. She would see my abused form, and she would be consumed by anger, hate, and sorrow. Thus, she would become the Nightmare once again. She would forget about me and just go to try and bring nighttime eternal...and I don't want to lose her." Twilight nodded, finding sense in the grey pony's words.

"Who else is here? Or do you know?"

"I know there are 5 of us, you and myself included. I do not know the others that were placed in here, but I did get a glimpse of them. Perhaps you will know who they are when I describe what little I saw of them. Though, they brought you all in rather close to each other."

"Alright, so there's you, me...who else?"

"The first they brought here after myself was a blue pony with rainbow coloured hair."

"Rainbow Dash!"

"Next was a cream coloured pony. I think her cutie mark was some sort of confectionery treat?"

Twilight ran through her brain quickly and said, "Bon Bon. Who else?"

"I believe the last one gave them a lot of trouble as they brought her here. They said that she kicked one of them so hard they had thought him dead."

"Most likely Applejack...so that's you, Rainbow, Applejack, Bon Bon, and myself."

Octavia sighed and said, "I wonder why they didn't capture our loved ones and do the same to them?"

"Hmm..." Thoughts rushed through Twilight's mind as she tried to guess the intent of the group. Finally, with a gasp, it dawned on her. "They took us because they figure our lovers will want to do anything to get us free and keep us safe."

Twilight heard Octavia mutter angrily under her breath and said, "So basically, they'll be informed of what's being done to us and out of duty to protect us..."

"They'll renounce their love so we'll be safe..."

"Dirty ponies." Octavia spat.

Before Twilight could agree, she heard a groan next to her, followed by, "Ugh...my head...hey, where am I?"

Twilight recognized the voice to be Bon Bon. "Bon Bon? It's me, Twilight."

"Twilight? What's going on, where are we?"

"I'm not sure..." Twilight explained everything that she and Octavia had discussed. Halfway through, Applejack and Rainbow Dash woke up and Octavia filled them in as well.

"Well what're ya waiting for Twilight? Use your magic and get us outta here!" Dash shouted.

"Oh...right." Twilight closed her eyes and focused on breaking the shackles.

"Ah ah ah." Then, Twilight screamed in pain as electricity coursed through her body. She was quickly joined by her friends as they each got a charge themselves.

"Naughty naughty Twilight Sparkle." Suddenly, light filled the room, blinding all the ponies there. When Twilight's eyes adjusted, (and she could actually move her head after getting rid of all the tingles), she looked up and scowled.

"Star Bright!" The stallion walked in and stood in the middle of the captured ponies.

"The one and only! How do you like your new accommodations Ms. Sparkle? Not too uncomfortable are they?" He asked as he pressed a button on a small remote, shocking Twilight once again.

"Hey, you leave her alone!" Rainbow shouted before she too got shocked.

"Quiet filth." Star Bright said through a smile. Twilight narrowed her eyes as he walked up to her and stood on his hind legs to be eye level with her. He tenderly traced her jaw line while she glared at him. "Now now Twilight, let's be civilized. Tell you what, you forget the little...girl you're with and get with me, I'll let you go."

"What about my friends?" She asked immediately.

"Pff, I don't know, nor do I care. So what do you say?" By now, he had gotten inches away from her face and was smiling with shining teeth.

"I think...I'll have to say...NO!" Twilight drew her head back as far as she could and brought it forward with all her might. Her head crashed down upon Star Bright's, sending him down to the floor as pain exploded in Twilight's mind. 'Guess that's why they say never to use a head-butt....ugh...'

The stallion, once his daze had gone away, looked up at Twilight as a small trickle of blood flowed from his forehead down his face. His grin quickly fell as a look of rage replaced it.

"You...WHORE!" He brought the remote up and nearly smashed it as he pressed a button and Twilight's body lit up in pain as electricity coursed through her body to a point where she though it had replaced her blood as it ran its path and stifled the scream that wanted to leap from her mouth.

All her friends could only look on in horror as the stallion smiled sadistically while the lavender pony's body shook with spasms and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"Enough!" Star Bright turned and his rage was converted to fear in less than 2 seconds. The leader, cloaked entirely in black walked up to him and smacked the control away from him before spinning and lashing out with back hooves, sending him against the nearby wall.

The following crack that followed made everypony wince as he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Idiot..." the cloaked pony muttered. "Get him out of here, and get Twilight medical attention. She's of no use to us dead." Two ponies came in and after unlocking Twilight, carried both unicorns with magic to some unknown destination.

"Let us down right now!" Dash cried, struggling against her restraints harder than before, with Applejack right along-side with her.

"And why would I do that? You have to be contained so that you don't cause a ruckus." The pony walked over to Octavia and looked up at her. The musician tried to get some semblance of who the pony might be, but shadows covered any and all features that might give away a name or some clue.

The pony chuckled and said, "Now if you'll all excuse me, I have to get ready. I believe the time is coming for me to...work my magic, as it were." With that, the pony left. Applejack cried out in frustration as she pushed herself against the metal bonds.

"T'ain't no use...ah can't bust out..." She said between breaths.

"Me neither! Ugh! This is so...irritating!" Rainbow Dash said with a huff of annoyance.

"Calm down you two. While it is frustrating that we can't do anything, Twilight will be fine." Octavia said, taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it.

"Easy for you to say! Twilight isn't your best friend!"

"But she is in love with MY best friend Ms. Dash. So naturally, I'm going to care about her," Octavia said, narrowing her eyes at the pegasus, despite the fact that the room had been cast in darkness once again.

While Rainbow wanted to argue, she could feel that Applejack was giving her that "let it go" stare and said, "Yea...sorry."

"It's alright. I guess all we can do now is wait." So the 4 ponies all sighed at once and waited in the darkness.

Scootaloo trotted happily out of the ice cream parlor licking the frozen chocolate treat that clung to her lips as she waited for Fluttershy to finish paying. She looked up and saw the sun casting it's final glow over the horizon, painting what few clouds were in the sky with a faint orange tinge that made the young filly's wings stretch out and flutter as she imagined herself soaring through the sky.

"Scootaloo?" The little pony opened the eyes she didn't remember closing and spun to face her soon-to-be mother with a light blush on her cheeks. Fluttershy chuckled and spread a wing over her and said, "Dreaming of flight?"

"Yea...is it normal for a pegasus my age NOT to be able to fly yet?" Fluttershy knew she had to approach this topic carefully so she began to herd the filly in the direction of the train station before answering.

"I'd like to think so. I wasn't able to fly at the same time as everypony else, despite the fact I was older than them. I think you just have to have the right motivation. The first time I flew normally is when I had to save a young fox from a pack of Timberwolves. Just give it time." Fluttershy closed her wing a little, drawing the younger pegasi close to her.

"Well...if you say so." Scootaloo said, hugging the elder.

Fluttershy smiled and said, "C'mon. Let's get home. I'm sure Twilight and Spike are worried sick about us by now."

The orange filly smiled and took off for the train station, calling out behind her, "I'll beat'cha there!" Fluttershy shook her head and with a smile, began to run after the filly.

When they had got to the train, Scootaloo took pride in the fact she had beat an older pony who could fly just by running and Fluttershy bowed and called her the "Queen of Speed" (and Fluttershy just hoped Scootaloo wouldn't tell Rainbow Dash of the title) as they waited for the train itself to arrive. "So...you and Twilight will be my moms tomorrow?"

"Mhmm."

"Hmm...so how am I supposed to call for one of you, but not the other? I can't just call out like, "Hey mom!" can I? I mean, it would confuse the two of you, right?"

"You have a point..." Fluttershy put a hoof on her chin as she thought of a way past this future conundrum. "Aha! You can call me Momma, and Twilight can be Mommy." The yellow pegasus said with a pleased grin.

Scootaloo just laughed and said, "Kinda babyish, but alright Momma." The filly said with a wink.

Fluttershy just answered by pulling the child into a hug. As they pulled away from each other, the train pulled into the station and within the next half hour, they were home-bound.

As they got closer to Ponyville, Scootaloo began to yawn and had to fight to stay awake. However, about 10 minutes before they pulled into the town's station, the filly was out like a light. So, with the help of a unicorn seated in the same car, Fluttershy got the filly onto her back and headed for the Library the promised warmth and love.

When she got to the Library, she slowly opened the door and looked around. She didn't see Spike or Twilight, and the fireplace looked as if it had been dead for at least several hours. "Spike? Twilight?" Fluttershy called as she headed for their bedroom after placing Scootaloo onto the couch and bundling her up in blankets after removing her snow-gear. 'Twilight's warm clothes are still hanging up...so she can't have left. She's probably just sleeping. It is almost midnight after all.'

Fluttershy thought as she ascended the stairs. 'But Spike's things are still gone...he should've been back from wherever he went by now.' The pegasus just shook her head and thought, 'Maybe he's staying the night at the young filly's house who he's so fond of.' However, when Fluttershy opened the bedroom door, she saw no unicorn snoozing in their bed.

She turned on the light and scoured every inch of the room before flying back down and searching all over the house. As each room was searched with no results, Fluttershy's panic nearly hit a peak. 'Where is she?! I need help!' So after making sure Scootaloo was still asleep, Fluttershy took off full speed for the candy-shop.

When she arrived, she knocked on the window to the couple's room. She continued to knock until a sleepy Lyra opened the window. "Fluttershy? It's like...early..." The mint unicorn said while rubbing her eyes.

"I can't find Twilight and I need your help!" The pegasus said all in one breath.

"Kay...Bon Bon...hey, Bon Bon..." Lyra disappeared into the darkness of the room and after a minute, the light came on and Fluttershy could see the panic building in Lyra's face. "She's not here!" So the two headed to the next closest place which was the apartment that Vinyl had been using when she wasn't in Canterlot or in Rainbow's cloud home.

"Eh? Umm...alright...hold on..." Vinyl said as she retreated back into the house to dress in warm clothing before following the two out to Sweet Apple Acres. When they arrived, they saw a tired looking Spitfire laying on the couch with Big Macintosh beside her.

"What happened?" Fluttershy asked.

"Apple Bloom said she saw some ponies yelling at Applejack so she went to get Big Mac and by the time they had got back...she was gone. I flew all the way from Cloudsdale after I got the letter and have been looking for her all day..." The Wonderbolt said with a sigh of depression. "From what Apple Bloom said, they had at least three other ponies with them."

Fluttershy, Lyra, and Vinyl all looked at each other. "So they've all been...kidnapped..." Vinyl said, sitting down on the floor as reality hit her.

"Yea...but how do we find them is the question?" Spitfire asked, sitting up as Big Macintosh left the room. That's when the door to the house flew open to reveal two ponies.

"Rarity?"

(Author's Note: Stuff! And things! No, but seriously, sorry it took so long to post. Incognito, my wonderful editor, has most likely been quite busy so I had to take matters into my own hooves and kinda...steal it before he could finish editing and edited what was left myself...please don't hit me?

Anyways, things be picking up and stuff. So...stick around, yea?)