FOUR HUNDRED BOXES OF FRESHLY PURCHASED HORSE LEGO
To this day, Rainbow Dash still didn’t understand how, or better yet WHY someone would need to keep and mow a lawn made out of clouds. Too many summer days spent mowing it down (for whatever weird pegasus reason it needed to be mowed down) had left Rainbow swearing to herself that she’d never have a front yard.
And she’d definitely not make her kid mow it.
Still even as she touched down in front of her parents house looking over the old place filled her with a lot of nostalgia. Her dad had fixed up and re-clouded the place here and there, but the entire thing had all the same cracks and slopes that she had unknowingly carved into her memory during her childhood.
It had character to it. A lot of character.
A lot of happy memories.
Rainbow felt more than a few pangs of guilt rise up. It had been a few years since she had been back. But, never too late to do better.
I really should visit more often. She thought to herself as she felt her tiny passenger shift off of her and onto the cloud behind her. An orange filly trotted up alongside soon after, wearing a mask made entirely of nerves and anticipation.
“Are you sure you want me to stay out of sight at first? You KNOW I’ve met them right?”
“Scoots, you KNOW how they are. Even the easy stuff knocks em flat. Trust me, we stick with the plan. I go in first, you eavesdrop, then come in once I give the signal. It’ll be THE prank of the decade.”
“That’s not really a prank. It’s barely even a gag.”
“Yeah honestly it’s a jape at best. But seriously-”
“I never said I wasn’t on board! Hope you’re ready.”
“Are you?”
“...No,” Scootaloo admitted.
“Same.”
They both sat there for a moment, before Rainbow gave a sigh of finality.
“Welp, into the breach. You gonna be okay out here?”
“Still nervous. But I’m ready,” she rushed forward and hugged Rainbow’s leg.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” Rainbow Dash said back, returning the hug before heading towards the door. It was all planned out, the plan would work.
She just… had to get through it.
“So this isn’t just a house call. I REALLY need to talk to you guys, and it’s important.”
“Oh dearie, any visit from you is super DUPER important.” Windy Whistles flashed smiled, sitting down and scooting closer to her daughter.
“And I have to say you’re doing an amazing job at building suspense. We were just talking about this the other day, weren’t we, Bow? About how good she was at anticipation? What was it you said about her?”
Bow grinned. “It’s showboating. I’m always telling your mother, ‘Honey our girl’s the best showboater out there, and what’s showboating without anticipation? Nothing. That’s what she gets’.”
Rainbow sighed internally. Stick to the plan, sure. She’d still have to get through all her parents’ parentisms if she wanted to see it through.
“PLEASE don’t freak out until I’m done talking? You can ask questions but just… get me a rain check on the freaking out, okay?”
Both of them nodded enthusiastically.
Here goes nothing.
“So you two know Scoots- uh, Scootaloo, right.”
“Oh absolutely. You said before that you had been mentoring her. And I must say I’m sure you’re the BEST mentor. Totally.”
“Yeah, sure. It’s… a bit more than mentoring now, though.”
She had practiced this bit, darnit. It didn’t make it easier to say but might as well rip every bandaid off now.
“The thing about Scootaloo’s parents… Scootaloo didn’t have parents. She… never did. She was an orphan.”
Shock blazed across her parents’ faces, before giving way to a look of intense heartbreak, then finally confusion, at least from Bow.
“Hold on, what do you mean ‘was’ an orphan? Dash. Dash are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Windy’s eyes went wide as she too played back Rainbow’s words in her head, a tiny gasp escaping as she turned towards her daughter, hope swimming in her eyes.
Rainbow swallowed hard. Into the breach, indeed.
“So the thing is because I’ve spent so much time with her and had really taken her under my wing and you know I’ve got a big house and a lot of time and she REALLY has been an awesome kid that maybe I might have applied and I uh. Uh.”
Her parents weren’t dumb; already understanding was eroding their initial shock, giving way to broad smiles that were getting bigger by the second, enough sparkles in their eyes to start a fire.
“I might have super officially and legally-”
Their smiles got EVEN bigger. “Yes?”
“Kind of might have gone through and with all the proper filing and uh-”
“YES?”
“I adopted her.”
Bow and Windy sat there frozen, in silence. The front door clicked open.
“Juuuust about two weeks ago.”
At the same time, both ponies turned their heads to stare at their newest guest, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. At the little orange pegasus filly that they had cheered for so many times before. Today, she stood there, blushing a bit, staring back at them.
Rainbow spoke up.
“Mom. Dad. You’ve met her before… but this here is Scootaloo.”
“She’s your granddaughter.”
Scootaloo waved sheepishly at them, blushing a bit at the intense attention.
“...Hi guys.”
Rainbow was surprised how fast her parents had cried out, clambered out of their chairs, and rushed over to the newest member of their family, scooping her up in a maelstrom of tears, hugs, and kisses. Scootaloo for her part, normally against this level of non-Rainbow sourced affection, sat there with the look of a cat looking content, but rapidly losing that contentedness under the current onslaught. She looked towards Rainbow Dash.
“Mom… a little help?”
Another cry went up from her parents, who were openly weeping tears of joy now.
“Guys, give her some space, c’mon.”
“Right right, sorry. It’s just-” Bow and Windy stepped away, before Windy rushed towards Rainbow and pulled her into a tight hug.
“She calls you mom!”
Rainbow returned the hug, smiling. “Yeah. She does that.”
Windy suddenly pulled away, another gasp as something hit her.
“Oh heavens to Celestia, Bow! You realize what this means?” She said, turning back to Scootaloo.
“Do I?”
“You’re what dear, ten years old?” Scootaloo nodded and Bow’s eyes widened in understanding.
“My gosh you’re right!” He said
“What? Right about what?” said Scootaloo.
Both of them turned towards her, and flashed a huge grin before shouting out simultaneously:
“Ten years worth of birthday presents!”
“Right now?” said Dash, getting concerned. “Dad I don’t think-”
“Oh please! The world’s COOLEST granddaughter ABSOLUTELY deserves to be spoiled rotten IMMEDIATELY.”
“Guys.”
“For at least a day out, Dash?” They looked over at her with pleading eyes. Scootaloo included.
Darn. She couldn’t say no to that face.
“Fiiiiine. You pick the spot then.”
Half an hour later Rainbow Dash and her mother sat on a bench, looking through the nearby windows of Cloudsdale’s largest toy store. Between the shelves they could catch glimpses of Scootaloo leading her new grandpa by the hoof between the aisles with unrestrained (and slightly malicious) joy, an increasingly and worryingly high tower of plunder in tow. The filly might have gone far too long without a pair of grandparents, but she intended to have them make good on their promise of “ten years worth of birthday presents”.
Dash had to give the kid credit, she knew when to exploit an advantage.
The mare next to her spoke up. “Dashie. How are you doing? Really, dear. How are you really doing?”
Dash shifted around. This was getting into uncomfortable feelings-admitting territory. Whatever, she'd conquered that whole mess years ago. Being honest with her parents? Totally doable. She took a deep breath.
“It’s… weird, mom. It’s a good kind of weird but if someone told me a year ago I’d be looking into adopting a kid, even Scoots, I’d think they were crazy. Hay, even a month ago when I had just started the whole, you know, legal process, it didn’t seem real. It was only like a few hours to go before she came home that it all suddenly hit me.”
“I love her so much mom. I want to watch her grow up, I want to hold her tight and tell her she can do anything and watch her DO anything and it sometimes hurts just HOW much I feel all of those things. And I’m scared that I’ll mess all of that up”
She smiled shyly.
“My friends have been crazy supportive too. Twilight’s the only reason I was able to get this through so fast. And I had to stop Pinkie from giving me a “Man I Love Flying” mug. It’s just… well…”
“It’s weird, I never expected to be a… mom. I never even expected to be a sister.”
She turned back to watch Scootaloo continue her retail crusade and smiled. “But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Windy Whistles smiled back at her daughter, before the smile faded. She turned to watch Scootaloo, avoiding making eye contact with Rainbow.
“Sweetie… you do have siblings.”
There was a thoughtful pause.
“Mom what are you-”
Her mother raised a hoof. Now it was Windy’s turn to look shy. Shy, and a little sad.
“We tried you know, Dashie. Before you came along. We saw a lot of specialists, even went to Canterlot. Tried to get every assurance we could, increase our odds, so to speak. Especially after… after the first.”
“Mom… the first?”
Windy Whistles nodded, whatever little sadness that had begun to fester blossoming up in full. Tears were in her eyes.
“Three times. Two colts, one filly. Your brothers and sister. The longest was… was four months.”
“I didn’t-”
“But then there was you. We gave it one more chance, one last race, and that was you. And after the fourth month… and the next, and the next after that… We knew.”
“We knew you were a fighter then. Not just a fighter, a winner. And we wanted to make sure you’d always know it.”
Rainbow Dash just stared ahead, dumbfounded.
“Why do you think we named you Rainbow Dash? It wasn’t just the hair, sweetie”
A puzzle Dash didn’t even know she was trying to solve suddenly had its last few pieces fall into place. And with them came quite a lot of that retroactive guilt, back again with a vengeance.
I REALLY should have visited them more often, she admitted.
They sat there in silence, before Windy moved to speak again.
“She’s amazing, Rainbow Dash. She reminds me so much of you, she always has. When she burst through the lawn on her scooter all that time ago I thought someone had traveled back in time and dyed you orange.
“Oh hay yes she’s amazing! She’s absolutely awesome. Sweet Celestia, you gotta see her on the scooter these days, it’s just… oh man.”
A wistful smile crept across her face.
“She’s more than a little stubborn though. Trust me.”
“Well, it runs in the family.”
“But I KNOW she’s going to be awesome at whatever she does. She’s got that drive.”
Rainbow gulped down the guilt.
Never too late to do better.
Rainbow put her hoof on her mother, and pulled her in for a hug as the door to the toystore clanged open. Scootaloo’s conscience had evidently gotten the better of her, at least partially. Unwilling to let her grandfather shoulder the entire burden, both she and Bow emerged, each trying to balance a small mountain of plastic bags..
“I just… I hope I can be as awesome a mom as you were,” she whispered.
Windy pulled away from her daughter, her eyes filled with tears again.
“I KNOW you will, dear. You’re awesome at whatever you do.”
And, laughing gently, she rushed over to help her husband and granddaughter.
