Finding Your Family

The next four days were the longest ones of Scootaloo's life. She had to go around town and tell everypony individually that she and Spike had broken up, and because they had been the cause of the problem, she dragged her parents around to every single meeting.

There was a wide range of emotions, from Rarity screaming and demanding they leave her boutique, to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle bawling, to Rainbow Dash telling them they were the worst, most awful parents to ever exist, to Pinkie Pie saying that the six thousand bits that'd already been spent on the ceremony could not and would not be refunded. It was a wide range of negativity, but always the same intensity.

When they came back from Sweet Apple Acres, the selected venue, Scootaloo didn't feel like talking, and went up to the room she'd been staying in since the breakup, that being Lofty's craft room. She and the kids were sleeping there in sleeping bags, rather than in the beds and rooms built specifically to match their tastes.

"Are you happy with yourself, little brother?" asked Holiday, not looking up from her knitting. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"

Snap sat down and sighed. "Look, Spike wasn't a good fit for her. In time, she'll come to realize that this was just a crush, and she'll find somepony better. And it'll hurt less then, because she'll not have to go through the inevitable messy divorce. I saved her a lot of time and pain."

"Did you?" snorted Holiday. "What if she really was in love?"

"No one spends eternity with their first love," scoffed Snap. "Sooner or later, she'll realize that the only reason she picked him was for the sake of the kids, and if she's married, she'll grow to resent him."

"She's already growing to resent you," countered Holiday. "You had her removed from her home, you deprived her children of one of their parents, and for what? So you can pretend to know what you're talking about?"

"We're her parents. We know what's best for her."

"We raised her," said Lofty, walking in from the kitchen. "Even if it turns out that Spike was the wrong choice, and he's not, your daughter has a truly remarkable ability to bounce back. Every time life hit her with a hard blow, she has stood her ground and faced it. If she woke up one morning and realised that she wasn't happy, the first thing she'd do is try to fix what's wrong. That's just the kind of girl she is. It doesn't matter if Spike is causing the issue; she'll make it work."

"She's still too young to know for sure."

Lofty sighed. "Do you remember when your sister and I married?"

"That was different."

"Was it? My father kept telling me that it was a bad idea; that Holly was a horrible influence on me, and that she was the only pony I'd ever dated, so how could I possibly know if it was real love if I've never experienced a stallion before. My dad hated your sister, and my mom only convinced him to let the marriage happen with the assurance that we'd be separated within six months."

"I actually never knew that," admitted Holiday. "Did your parents really hate me? I thought they were just uncomfortable with you being a lesbian?"

"No, they thought you were terrible," affirmed Lofty. "And that's why I always insisted on not visiting them for Hearth's Warming." She turned to Snap. "So what do you think? Does father know best? Should I abandon your sister because nopony ever makes the right choice the first time? Or do you think your daughter is smart enough to make the right choice and strong enough to handle the consequences of her actions?"

"She's just a filly."

"She is an adult pony in the body of a young adult dragon. She's older than you were when you and Mane eloped. And remind me why it was that you did that?"

"Because..." Snap snorted. "Because Mane's parents didn't want her marrying a stallion with no money..."

"Did her parents know better?"

Snap didn't answer, but his silence spoke volumes.

"You're allowed to not like him," concluded Lofty. "I didn't for a long time. For two and a half years, he was the boy who stole Scootaloo from Ponyville. He lost me my niece. There have been times where I was glad to be right, but this time, it's good that I was wrong."

Snap sighed and stood up, walking out into the hallway. Lofty was right; Scootaloo was very capable, even as a filly. She could handle this. She just needed a bit of fatherly advice, and she could handle this.

As he raised his hoof to knock on the door, though, he found that he couldn't bring himself to do so. It was a soft whimpering on the other side of the door that stayed his hoof; somepony was crying.

"Come here, dearest," said Scootaloo. "What's the matter?"

"I wanna live with daddy!" sobbed one of the girls.

"I miss my bed," moaned the other.

"We just came here to Ponyville," growled Cudgel. "I thought we came here to reunite our family? Now we have to split it up again. Are we all abandoning our new friends to return to the dragon lands?"

"Cudgel, stop," sighed Scootaloo. "This situation is already bad enough; we don't need to make it worse."

"Are my parents going to end up the same as Gridline's?" he asked. "Are you and dad going to fight each other for my affection? Are you each going to buy me shiny new things and then taint the gift by immediately saying "Your dad doesn't love you enough to buy nice things like that?" I listen to his parents hate each other all day when I go to his houses. I don't want to pretend not to see the problem like he does."

Scootaloo sighed. "I really hope it doesn't come to that, Cudgel. Your father loves you all very much, and he wants to be with you. He wants us all to live together. That's why he proposed right after we moved in."

Snap hung his head. There was something he had to do before he could face his daughter.