Scootaloo's Mother

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Exposition and notes
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Chapter 9

Chapter 2

Scootaloo’s Parents
Fanfic by englishwitch
Disclaimer: The following is an entirely fan-created parody. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, it’s characters and all other affiliated merchandise are the intellectual property of Lauren Faust and Hasbro. Please support the official MLP: FiM show.
I make no profit, or money at all, for the production and distribution of this fanfiction.

Chapter 2

Scootaloo stared out of the window. She’d been silent for almost five full minutes, a surprising amount of time for her. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom had tried to say nice and encouraging things after their hugs and tears were over but their words had gone unheeded.

“It all makes sense now.” Scootaloo broke the silence. She continued to stare out the window, looking forlornly out at the street of Ponyville.

Applebloom looked up from the comic book she’d been reading. “What does?”

“Why I can’t get my cutie mark.” Scootaloo replied bitterly. She finally turned from the window, jumping from the ledge and back into the room. “A cutie mark is supposed to appear when a pony finds that something that makes her special. How the hay am I supposed to know what’s special about me? I don’t even know what’s normal about me. I’ll probably never get my cutie mark. I’ll just end up being some blank flank old mare living by herself with a hundred cats.”

“How can you live by yourself, and live with a hundred cats?” Sweetie Belle looked at her, confused.

Applebloom looked doubtful. “And you hate cats ever since Rarity’s cat scratched you. Why would you even want one, let alone a hundred?”

“You’re either living on your own, or you’re living with a hundred cats.” Sweeite kept talking, oblivious that the conversation was continuing without her. “You can’t be both.”

Scootaloo sighed and shook her head. “It’s just a figure of speech alright?” She jumped up onto the bed and took the picture Sweeite Belle had been holding onto all this time. The near-decade old picture of Lyra, Bonbon and the month old Scootaloo taken on the day they’d moved into Ponyville. Her problems had been there from the start. It was probably the reason she couldn’t fly yet when so many other pegasus ponies her own age could. What did an earth pony and a unicorn know about flying? If she’d had a mother who’d wanted her, who could be bothered to raise her, she would have seen how it was done while she was still crawling. Maybe she would have been raised in Cloudsdale, known other pegasi and learned their tips and tricks for flying. She might have even been able to fly alongside Rainbow Dash by now.

She put the picture down, it was getting too depressing to look at.
"You okay Scoots?" Applebloom asked cautiously. Scootaloo just smiled and tried to laugh. It came out weak, thin and unconvincing.

"Hey, I'm great. You think a little thing like not having any real parents is going to get me down for long? C'mon. So what if I don't know anything about who I am, or where I came from, or why my mom didn't love me enough to raise me herself." She turned away from them, jumping from the bed and hurrying over to her scooter. She wanted to get outside and clear her head. Pull a few stunts, race around for a while, get the wind blowing through her mane. It would help her feel better.

As she clipped her helmet into place Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were instantly at her side. Scootaloo tried not to let the frustration show on her face. She said she was fine, couldn't they take that answer and leave her alone?

"I'm not gonna let those things bother me." Scootaloo said to them flatly. "If I'm never gonna get any answers, there's no point even thinking of the questions. Now get outta my way so I can go for a ride."

"But...we ain't in the way Scootaloo." Applebloom looked to the left, to Scootaloo's bedroom door. The filly had only to turn 90 degrees and she'd have a straight line clear run.

Scootaloo shook her head and looked at the two as though it was their fault for not standing in the right place. "I knew that." She rotated the scooter and fluttered her wings, ready to shoot off.

"Scoots, shouldn't the door be open?" Applebloom spoke up. "And shouldn't you be outside? Or at least not upstairs?"

"Remember what happened last time you went down stairs on your Scooter?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Scootaloo stopped her wings and nodded. She couldn't forget. She could swear the coat on her left flank cheek was still shorter and thinner than on the rest on her body. Stupid taffy, it was near impossible to scrub out once it had matted into hair.

"If ya don't mind me sayin," Applebloom pressed gently, "ya seem a bit muddled."

In frustration Scootaloo pulled off her helmet and tossed it to the floor. "Fine!" She turned and looked at the two fillies angrily. "Yeah, so I'm a little mixed up, who wouldn't be? I just had my whole life turned upside down a couple of hours ago. Anypony would get a little muddled." She glared, as though daring them to say otherwise.

With a sigh Scootaloo's anger vanished as quickly as it had risen. "I..." she clamped her mouth so tight she looked like she was trying to swallow her own lips. She'd never been good with all those mushy feelings and she knew she didn't always have the vocabulary to express herself properly. This was a time when that all counted against her. These were the most deeply personal things she was feeling and they were complicated emotions that she barely understood but knew she'd need a lot of big words she didn't know to even come close to describing them. “I feel like...I don’t know... Like something’s missing. I just...I...I guess I just wanna know why. Why my real mom didn’t want me.”

“Well...” Sweetie Belle spoke slowly, her face frowned in concentration as she slowly managed to piece together an idea. “Maybe we could find her? Then we could ask her all those questions and she could answer them.”

Applebloom grinned, “That’s a great idea.” Then the smile dropped. “But we don’t know where to find her. We wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Scootaloo’s mood brightened as a metaphorical light-bulb went off in her head. “Mom...I mean Lyra,” her smile faltered for a second. “well, she said that they got me a social worker’s office in Manehatten. Maybe they’d have some kind of record.”

“But we don’t know which office.” Applebloom sighed. “Manehatten’s huge. There’s gotta be hundreds of offices and social ponies with all kindsa papers stashed away. It’d be like lookin for a needle in a haystack. And that ain’t easy. I tried.”

“Mo- I mean, Bonbon never throws anythin away.” Scootaloo jumped in. For the first time what felt like years, a small smile had found its way to her face. “Our basement is stuffed with boxes of old photos, store accounts, letters,and all kids of stuff going back years. I bet she kept all the adoption papers somewhere.”

Sweetie Belle jumped off the bed and stood by her two companions. “Then lets do it.” She beamed, thrilled at an idea of her own had seemingly started them on this new mission. “Cutie Mark Crusader...mother finders?”

Scootaloo shrugged, “it’s as good a name as any.” She stuck out her hoof, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle did the same in a three-way hoofbump. “Okay crusaders,” Scoots looked at her friends with a devious and cunning expression. “First step is going down into the basement without being caught. We’ll need black clothing, ropes, grappling hooks, night vision goggles, walkie-talkies, three dozen eggs, a compass and one of little wind-up toys that look like puppies that bark and do back-flips.” She nodded her head as she ran over her check-list again in her head, it sounded like everything was there. “Pinkie Pie should have all that stuff, so lets see if we can borrow some. We’ll need to meet back here at 3am to sneak in undetected.”

“Or me and Sweetie Belle could just go outside,” Applebloom suggested. “help you down from your room with that rope we got when we tried being Cutie Mark Crusader Acrobats, and sneak in through the basement window. Everypony knows the lock is busted ‘cause Lyra ain’t got around to fixin’ yet.” She ignored the disappointed expression on Scootaloo’s face. “That is if you don’t wanna just go downstairs and go in through the basement door ‘cause you might be seen by Lyra and Bonbon.”

Scootaloo frowned, annoyed. “Yeah, I guess we could do all that. My way would’ve been more fun though.”

...***...

“Here, hold this against your head until the bleeding stops.” Sweetie Belle pushed an old cleaning rag against Scootaloo’s hairline. The orange filly took hold of the cloth in her hoof and groaned as quietly as she could given the throbbing pain that was running through every inch her tiny body. She threw an angry glare at the remains of the CMC-made rope which had betrayed her and broken as she had tried to climb out of her bedroom window. Her wings had only slowed her falling by a fraction, just long enough for her two pals to provide a soft landing, by being pony crash mats. It seemed Applebloom had taken the brunt of the impact.

“How you doing Appleblom?” Scootaloo looked over to her yellow filly friend.

“Thanks Granny Smith, I’ll have another slice.” Applebloom looked around the room with a blank expression on her face. Her eyes had drifted in different directions, reminding Scootaloo of the mail mare she occasionally saw around town, Derpy.

Sweetie Belle looked between her two injured friends and decided it was down to her to look around for the fabled documents. Even though they weren't entirely certain any of the paperwork was down here. She wasn't certain where to start. Just as Scootaloo had hinted, the basement was packed with boxes. It looked to Sweetie Belle that the piles had each started in one of the four corners and had slowly grown and spread out over time. The basement was six feet high and the piles brushed the ceiling. If there was ever a fire down here Ponyville would be kept warm all winter. Bonbon did seem to have some organisational skills, she had organised the stacks in groups and left space enough to move around, paths between the stacks. The boxes were labelled, more or less. The labels might have been enough for Bonbon or Lyra but the only clue they gave Sweetie Belle was to stay away from the pile marked Store Accounts. The rest were all pretty generic, Photos – Lyra, Photos – Scootaloo, Photos – Bonbon, birthday cards, hearts and hooves day cards, hearths warming eve cards, decorations – birthday, decorations – hearths warming, School reports, Sweetie Belle was tempted to look at that, wondering how Scootaloo’s reports compared to her own. There wasn’t time. There wasn’t, predictably enough, a box labelled Scootaloo’s adoption records, which was a shame. Sweetie turned her attention to the nearest box that bore Scootaloo’s name, Scootaloo – Foal memories, it was the bottom of a stack of four boxes, each as big as herself. Balancing on her rear hooves she pushed the top boxes away with her forelegs. They wobbled, leaned and started to tip, in the wrong direction. With a scream Sweetie Belle curled up, covering her head with her hooves as the three heavy boxes collapsed on top of her. Papers, books, pictures and cardboard buried her.

“You okay Sweetie Belle?” Scoots came around the corner, still holding the rag to her forehead. She saw a pile of rubbish and a familiar looking purple and pink tail sticking out of one side. The mound of rubbish shimmered and shook and Sweetie Belle emerged. She was dirty and shaken but hadn’t suffered anything worse than getting a few pieces of scrap paper impaled on her horn. The end of the paper hung in front of her eyes, Sweetie could only see by blowing upwards, fluttering the paper out of her eyes for a few seconds.

“I’m okay.” She climbed out of the junk pile and pried the paper off her horn. “The stupid boxes just fell on me.” She grabbed the Foal Memories box she’d been aiming for in the first place and pulled it free. With a kick of her hoof she took off the lid and looked inside. To her disappointment she wasn’t greeted with a piece of paper baring information of Scootaloo’s adoption.

On the very top of the box was a large clay disc bearing two tiny hoofprints. Scootaloo age 11 months, had been carefully scratched underneath the marks. Sweetie Belle lifted it out of the box with more care than she’d ever shown anything else in her life. Sootaloo took it from her with the reverence of a priest receiving a holy relic. “My foal-prints.” She smiled. “I wondered where they’d gone. They used to sit on a shelf in the living room, until...” She drifted off and her smile faded as she remembered why they’d been removed. “I said it was embarrassing to show them off. Mom took them away. I didn’t know she’d put them down here.”

Sweetie smiled at the cute story as she continued rooting around the box. Wrapped in an orange ribbon was a lock of hair from Scootaloo’s first haircut, carefully preserved in a tiny book were soft downy feathers from Scootaloo’s baby wings, which had been shed before her first birthday. Accompanying the feathers were several pictures of foal Scootaloo. A couple of her sitting on the back of Lyra, a few more sitting with Bonbon, and one of Bonbon looking panicked, while the baby pegasus was flying around the ceiling, circling the light.
“You’re flying?” Sweetie pointed out the picture to Scoots who just shrugged like it was nothing.

“It’s only a baby glide.” She said. She took the baby book and looked at the picture, a nostalgic smile on her face. Sweetie Belle looked confused, she’d never heard of it. Scoots wasn’t surprised, very few non-pegasus ponies would have heard of it, they didn’t need to. “It’s not real flying. Just like the surges baby unicorns get aren’t real magic. It’s just some instinctive thing.”

Sweetie nodded in understanding and looked back to the box. There were a couple more baby pictures, a tiny blue blanket, a little hat, and a few pieces of paper which were just coloured scribbles on the page.
“Nothing.” Sweetie pouted. “I thought it would be in here.”

“It must be in one of the other boxes.” Scootaloo looked around, taking in the huge number around her. The three crusaders could search for days and not find the one piece of paper they were looking for. With a sigh her eyes drifted down to the floor. A piece of paper was under her hoof, the piece that had been impaled on Sweetie Belle’s horn. Her hoof was right over the hole, and just above the hole was a logo:

Queen Galaxia Memorial Home for Foundling Foals
c/o Equestrian National Adoption Agency
Manehatten

Scootaloo lifted her hoof and stared at the torn piece of paper. Despite the huge hole most of it was still readable. It was the paperwork she’d been looking for.

Case No. LF03G4MLP

The Undersigned Petitions to Adopt: Scootaloo

Petitioner
Full Name: Bonbon, Sweetie, Drops
Full Name: Lyra, Bee-Bop, Heartstrings

Marital Status: Common Law

“This is it!” She took the page up and beamed at Sweetie Belle. Quite by accident Sweetie had found exactly what they were looking for on her first try. Clumsy as she was the unicorn was also lucky. “Sweetie Belle, you’re awesome.”

...***...

Ten minutes later the three crusaders sat in Sugar Cube Corner, sipping at milkshakes. Actually Sweeite Belle and Scootaloo were sipping at milkshakes. Applebloom was still struggling to clear her head and had developed the idea that Mr Cake was her big brother Macintosh. At least her eyes were both facing the right direction again.

“Well now we got it, what do we do with it?” Sweetie asked.

Scootaloo frowned. This whole quest required a lot more thought and consideration than most of their usual schemes. “Well, we got this case number.” She pointed to the code in the top corner of the page. “Remember that time Miss Cheerilee had Twilight give the class that lecture on good organisation?”

Sweetie nodded. Twilight’s talk on how she organised the Winter Wrap Up teams had started as an example of how good organisation could help prepare for exams, school work and home work. It had turned into a lecture about how organisation helped in everyday life and how even organising your organisation with check-lists of check-lists could make you even more efficient. Before Scootaloo had fallen asleep with the rest of the class she vaguely recalled Twilight talking about how identification numbers on files and reports could help you know what you were looking for and where it was when you needed it.

“Well this number has to be linked to some file they got on me at this home, or maybe the offices of the adoption agency. So, I guess, what we gotta do is go out to Manehatten and ask for that file.”

“You think they’ll just give it to you?” Sweetie asked.

Scootaloo’s frown deepened. She hadn’t considered that. “Why shouldn’t they? It’s my file. It’d be like asking for my property back.”

Applebloom waved a hoof. “Big Mac, can we have some more apple pie please?”

The other two crusaders followed Applebloom’s gaze and noticed a confused and blushing Mr Cake.

“How are we going to get to Manehatten?” Sweetie asked, getting back to the subject at hand.

“I don’t know. The train I guess.” Scootaloo said. Why was it down to her to plan all the details? Usually they worked these things out together.

Sweetie’s eyes widened, she looked scared. “Go all the way to Manehatten, by ourselves?”

Scootaloo wanted to poke a little friendly fun at her but in truth she was scared herself. The furthest she’d ever been from Ponyville was Canterlot and that was with adult’s around her. If she looked out of the window the royal city could be seen, holding onto the edge of the far mountains. It looked far away but wasn’t really, not compared to Manehatten. To go all that way and to do it alone...she didn’t want to admit it but she did feel slightly afraid.

She sighed. “Well, maybe, we could ask an adult to come with us.” She thought about it. She didn’t want to ask Lyra or Bonbon. For one thing, asking them to follow her while she looked for her real mother would hurt them too much. For another, what if they refused and got angry because she’d been poking around in the basement, insulted because she wanted to find her real mother after they’d raised her? They could ground her if they wanted. In a hundred different ways they could stop her from just leaving Ponyville, let alone make it to Manehatten to start asking questions. “What about Rarity?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “She’s all busy with some new big project for the next couple of weeks. She doesn’t even go to her spa appointments.” Her tone was one of disbelief, as though Rarity missing a spa appointment should be on the same list of impossible things as chocolate tasting bad, Twilight Sparkle burning a book, or Pinkie Pie doing something boring.

Scootaloo sighed and shook her head. “Okay. Maybe we could ask-”

“Applejack.” Applebloom jumped in. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked up to see which pony she’d mistaken for a sibling this time.

To their surprise it really was Applejack. The farm pony didn’t look happy. “Applebloom, is this where you’ve been? You was supposed to be home an hour ago little missy. You got chores y’know.”

Applebloom’s expression remained blank. “I just been spendin time with my friends. Big Mac di’nt say nothin’ ‘bout any chores.” She pointed across the room.

Applejack’s eyebrow raised. “Big Mac?” Her eyes fell on Carrot Cake and her confusion deepened. “Sis, you okay?”

“She took a bump to the head but we’re sure she’ll be fine.” Scootaloo said. “Pretty sure... Well... we’re kind of hoping...actually you maybe want to get her to the hospital.”

With a sigh Applejack scooped up her sister and rested the filly on her back. “What you girls gone and done now?”

“Bye Big Mac!” Applebloom yelled and waved across the store at Mr Cake.

“We’ll explain on the way.” Scootaloo said as she jumped from her seat. “And...We got something to ask you.”

Author's Note

I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, but it's the best I could make it after a few days of trying and a few rewrites. Consider it filler to move things along. The adventure starts proper in Manehatten.

In other news:
A "Baby Glide", which Scootaloo didn't explain very well, is described fully in another story of mine Just One Week. In Chapter 3

If anyone is wondering about the full names of Lyra and Bonbon, it's a combination of things and all thanks to the MLP Fim Wiki.
Bonbon's name appears to have been now officially confirmed as Sweetie Drops. I'm one of those fans who still call her Bonbon, I simply gave a nod by making her middle name Sweetie, and her surname Drops.
Lyra's middle name of Bee Bop I chose because, according to the wiki, her cutie mark and colour palette was shared by a G3 Pony named Bee Bop.

Chapter 3

Applebloom stared out at the passing scenery as the train raced through the countryside. Destination Manehatten. She was so excited she could barely sit still. She'd seen pictures, Applejack had told her of the place, even cousin Babs gave some pretty good descriptions in the letters she sent, but to finally see it for herself was a dream come true.

Applebloom had to keep reminding herself they weren't going for a casual visit. This trip was official Crusader business. They were going to track down Scootaloo's mother.

She looked away from the window to her friends. The little orange filly had been rocked to sleep by the train. Sweetie Bell was half in a doze herself. Scootaloo hadn't slept all night. She claimed it was out of excitement over the trip and Applebloom believed that had been part of it. She also suspected, not that Scoots would confirm or deny, that the filly had been fighting with Lyra and Bonbon.
Bloom had overheard AJ talking to Rarity when the crusaders were supposed to be packing. Lyra and Bonbon were in support of Scootaloo trying to track down her real mother but they were less than enthusiastic about her going all the way to Manehatten to do it. The prospect of disappointment was high and they didn't want her to go all that way just to be let down. They'd much rather Scootaloo try a different approach, like writing a letter to the home for foundling foals. Let it go through all the official channels and have the reply come back in its own time. But Scootaloo, impatient as always, wanted to do it herself. AJ said, that Lyra had said, that Scootaloo had said, that she (Scootaloo) wouldn't be stopped and if her mothers didn't give her their permission to go on the trip, that she'd just run away and do it all by herself. So begrudgingly Lyra and Bonbon had agreed for Applejack to chaperone the group on their trip to Manhatten.

The carriage door opened and AJ entered, carrying a small cardboard tray on her back, holding three paper cups from Star Buck's Coffee Cart. They were everywhere these days, even on trains.
"Hot chocolate for you an’ your friends Applebloom." AJ slid the tray onto the seat and passed her little sister one of the smaller cups. "and a nice vanilla latte with a red eye for me." She sniffed the drink, smelling the extra shot of espresso she'd had dumped in. Then she gave Applebloom a sideways glance. "Do not tell Rarity ah even know what a Vanilla latte is, 'kay little missy?"

Applebloom nodded. "Okay Applejack."

Applejack sipped at the coffee. "Hoo, that's better. S'far as Rarity's concerned, Ah was arguing with that Barista pony 'cause all I asked for was a cup of coffee, not some silly frilly froo froo drink with a fancy shcmancy name." She sipped at the drink again. "But dangit that's good." After taking another long drink she sighed. It was getting dark outside, Celestia’s sun was sinking slowly toward the western horizon. She couldn’t see the eastern but she guessed Luna’s moon would be starting to rise. “How the hay did I let y’all talk me into this?” She shook her head slowly and finally sat down. “We coulda written a letter. Prob’ly shoulda. But here we are, goin’ all the way to Manehatten for some paperwork we ain’t sure they’ll even give to us.”

Applebloom looked at Applejack, then to the sleeping Scootaloo. “Scoots jus asked if you would help. Yur the one who agreed.” Applebloom looked at her sister and smiled. “Ah think ya already knew it was the right thing to do.”

Applejack smiled and gave the little filly a quick hug. “Dang you can be bright when you try. Scootaloo’s lucky to have a friend like you.”

...***...

With a hiss of steam the train ground to a halt in Manehatten Central Station. The night was upon them now but the station was brightly lit. Applejack and her three companions walked off the train. Applebloom and AJ looked up and down the platform. Applebloom was hopping around with great excitement. “Oh, where is she? Where could she be?”

Applejack couldn’t help but laugh. “Calm down little missy.” She grabbed Applebloom and tried to hold her down. “Ain’t no guarantee Babs is gonna be here.”

“Applebloom!” The cry was heard clear across the platform, over the hubbub and shouting of all the other ponies on the platform. An orange filly with a short pink mane leapt into view for a second, then fell back down. She jumped up again, this time landing on the back of a stranger. He cried out in protest but she’d already jumped again, landing on the back of another pony. Leap-frogging her way across the platform, accompanied by the fanfare of yells and shouts from the ponies she hopped over, Babs Seed finally landed in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Applejack.

“Babs.” Applebloom threw herself forward and the two cousins hugged tightly.

“So gud to see youz again cuz.” Babs said in her thick Bronx accent.

“Babs.” A stern voice called behind her. Babs cringed slightly and looked over her shoulder at an earth pony mare with a pale green coat, a pink and light pink mane the same colour as Babs’, blue eyes and a cutie mark of an apple fritter flanked with two apple slices. “What’s did I tell youz ‘bout runnin off?” Her accent, and the colours of her mane, were the same as Babs’

“Sorry mom.” Babs cast her eyes down.

AJ ruffled Babs’ mane lovingly. “Shoot Aunt Apple Dumpling t’aint no harm done, ‘cept maybe to some poor pony’s backs.”

Apple Dumpling’s expression softened slightly. “Yeah, I guess so.” She looked among the group, looking over the group before her, at her nieces Applejack and Applebloom and the two other fillies – a white unicorn and an orange pegasus. “Youz must be Scootaloo.” She nodded to the pegasus. “We’s glad to help any friend of the Apple family. Babs and Applebloom both talked about how important it was to help youz. Whut was it youz said Babs?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders stick togevver.” Babs said sternly. She’d told her mum a dozen times but she still had trouble remembering.

Apple Dumpling nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. Hope youz find whut your lookin for kid.” She looked at the saddlebags they were all carrying and decided they weren’t waiting for any luggage. “Right c’mon all o’ youz, let’s get outta herez and back to my place.”

Scootaloo stared. “But we’re supposed to be here to find my mom.”

Applejack nodded. “And we will Scootaloo. But it’s late and we’ve been trav’lin most of the day. I don’t know ‘bout you but I’m tired and we could all do with a good meal. We’ll settle down for tonight and get down to business first thing in the mornin’.”

Scootaloo was silent for some time before finally sighing and hanging her head. “Okay.”

Following Apple Dumpling and Babs, Applejack and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were taken through the large station. Like most things in Manehatten it was lavishly decorated, with a great painted ceiling depicting a beautiful starscape of Luna’s night sky. The Cutie Mark Crusaders slowed to stare at it, heads straight up and mouths agape. Impatient city ponies grumbled as they were forced to walk around them. As though the extra two steps to walk around a small group of ponies was a huge inconvenience for them.

The large group split into two taxis, Applejack, Appledumpling and Scootaloo in one, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Babs in the other. Scootaloo wanted to be with the other Crusaders, but she changed her mind at the very last second to be with the grown ups and hear their plans being discussed.

So far it was very boring.
“Thanks again for putting us up Aunt Dumpling.” AJ smiled and nodded.

“Hey, forget about it. We’s always willing to to do a favour for family. And friends of family.” She nodded at Scootaloo with a grin. Scootaloo managed a weak smile back. Then Apple Dumpling’s attention turned back to AJ. “It’s like a regular family reunion. Pink Lady landed just yesterday.”

Scootaloo’s ears perked up. “Landed? Is she a pegasus?”

Both apples laughed warmly. AJ ruffled Scootaloo’s hair playfully. “Naw Scoots. Pink’s Dumplings daughter, mine an’ Applebloom’s cousin, she’s an earth pony. She’s just got an airship.”

“She loves to travel.” Apple Dumpling nodded. “Befo’ she settles into the family business she wants to see Equestria. All the big towns and cities, see other Apple’s and maybe work in their orchards. So she rented herself an airship and off she went.”

“Ah remember seein her landin’ that thing at the family reunion. She gave a ride to Cinnamon and Wensley.” Applejack nodded. Scootaloo’s attention was starting to drift again.

“Yep. She was visiting and, since she had the airship, she decided to give them a ride. It was nice to see her again. First time we’d seen her for months. It’s great to her have her home, even if it is for a coupla days.”

“Always good to have fam’ly around.” AJ agreed. “Heck ah don’t know how I’d feel if Applebloom or Big Mac went away from the farm for weeks.” She took a glance out of the back window of the cab, to the vehicle following their own where her little sister was sitting, laughing at something Babs was saying. AJ had left the farm once, when she wasn’t much older the Applebloom was, she’d missed it terribly and when she got back she hadn’t left it since. She’d never wanted to and never needed to. She couldn’t imagine not having her family around her, her sister, brother and granny. She glanced down at Scootaloo and felt a little more sympathy and a lot more understanding for the poor filly.

AJ sighed thoughtfully and decided to change the subject to keep her mind of the melancholy thoughts. “How’s Uncle Red?”

Apple Dumpling smiled. Her gaze was on the street, watching the buildings and ponies go by. “He’s doin’ fine. Head Ground-keeper now at central park. The parks the only place in the city he loves, ‘cept maybe home. He likes the city okay, but I don’t think he’ll ever love it.”

AJ laughed. “Ah doubt he will. Take it from a mare who knows, you can take the pony outta the farm but you can’t take the farm outta the pony.”

Scootaloo put her hooves over her ears. She’d forgotten what boring conversations adults could have.

“He tries.” Dumpling nodded. “But he jus don’t enjoy the city life like other manehatten ponies. He likes his park and open spaces.”

“Heck he’s as used to the city as he’s gonna get. Pink’s, what? My age? He’s been livin’ in the city all that time. Longer than he ever lived on da farm. He moved here for you, ‘cus he loves you. Ah think he’d live anywhere s’long as he get’s to live with y’all. Don’t take a genius to see that.”

Apple Dumpling’s smile widened and she gave AJ a grateful expression. “Thank youz Applejack.”

The cab pulled to a halt. “Here we are.” The driver yelled back to them. He’d pulled up outside a tall apartment building, eight storeys high, made of brown stone.

Scootaloo sighed and muttered under her breath, “Oh thank Celestia.” All this mushy talk was making her nauseous. She jumped out of the cab and rushed over to the other CMC’s “How was your ride?”

“Excellent!” Applebloom cheered. She and Babs hoofbumped and laughed. Sweetie Bell was silent, staring straight up. Scoots followed her gaze and her jaw dropped. Hovering above the building was an airship. At her angle she could see the great purple balloon, and the edge of the metal protective covering.

After a few seconds Applebloom realised her friends weren’t saying anything and followed their gaze. Her own jaw dropped as she caught sight of the airship. Babs glanced upwards and laughed lightly. “That’s just my sis’ ship. C’mon youz can meet her.” She tapped Applebloom on the shoulder, snapping the farm pony out of her trance. Applebloom blushed. She was acting like a backwoods hick who’d never seen an airship before.

“Sorry babs, I just never seen an airship parked on top of somepony’s house before.” They were usually landed in open spaces like fields or parks, not in the middle of a town or city.

Babs nodded. “Yeah, ah ‘spose it’s a weird sight. I guess around here we’s all used to it now. C’mon, let’s get inside.”

...***...

The apartment was large and warmly decorated. Not too much clutter, but by no means the minimalist style which was so fashionable with Manehattenites. Pictures of the happy family decorated every wall. The door opened right onto the warm living room. The place was dominated by a large sofa, surrounded by several chairs. The smell of good warm food cooking reached the noses of all the travellers as they stepped through the door.

An earth pony was asleep on the sofa, a Stetson hat pulled down over his eyes. He had an orange coat, a shade lighter than Babs’ own, a brown mane and a green ‘kerchief tied loosely around his neck.

“Dad, we’s home.” Babs ran up and shook his foreleg.

The stallion snorted and pushed his hat up, his eyes were the same shade of green as Babs’. His smile widened, showing off his buck teeth. “Babs.” He scooped up the filly and hugged her tightly. He looked to the others, lingering on Applejack and Applebloom the longest. “How y’all doin?” His accent was a stark contrast to the manehatten bronx of Babs and Apple Dumpling.

“Jus’ great Uncle Red.” Applejack smiled. “I’d like y’all to meet Applebloom’s friends. This here’s Sweetie Bell and this is Scootaloo.”

“The little filly y’all came out here to help.” He put babs down and climbed off the chair. Holding out a hoof for Scootaloo to shake, “pleased to meet’cha.”

Scootaloo shook hooves. “Thanks.”

AJ laughed. “This here’s my uncle, Red Hickory.”

Applebloom rushed up and gave Red a hug. “Uncle Red.”

Red smiled and wrapped a leg around her. “Good to see ya again Applebloom.”

A mare stepped into the living room. She had a pale yellow coat, a fluffy pink mane, green eyes and a cutie mark of three apple slices. “I thought I heard voices. Youz is just in time, dinners ready.”

Applejack tilted her hat. “Thank ya kindly cousin Pink. We’ll jus put our things in our rooms and we’ll join ya. Smells delicious.”

Pink Lady grinned. “Thanks cuz. Youz is in with me, down the hall to the left. Youz fillies is in with Babs, down the hall to the right.”

...***...

After a hearty meal of vegetable stew the four fillies retreated to Babs’ room to talk and play while the adults talked. Scootaloo was tempted to hang around the grown up to see if any topic relating to her came up, but she’d learned her lesson in the taxi and joined the others.

While the others discussed Crusader business, how the Manehatten CMC’s were getting on and what kind of things they’d done to try and earn their cutie marks, Scootaloo sat by the window, staring out at Manehatten. She didn’t really hear the others as they talked, joked and even argued. Somewhere out on those streets was the key to finding her mother. It was written on one piece of paper, inside one file folder, inside one filing cabinet, inside one building. It was a lot of “one” which added up to a huge number of things that were between her and her real family. And her real self.

Author's Note

A dull chapter with not much happening and a lot of exposition. Sorry about it.

Some, but not all, of the stuff in the chapter will help move the adventure on a little later.
But I do admit I probably spent a little too much time of Bab's family when they will only have small parts in the rest of the story. But I wanted to try and set down some fandom for others to use.

Exposition and notes

This isn't part of the main story it's just a long note on how I came to decide which ponies are members of Babs Seed's Family. Partially to explain my choices and partially in the hope that others will use this as fan-canon in their written works.

When I first saw the Apple Family Reunion and examined the Group Photo I saw several things.

Mainly the mare and stallion behind Babs and Apple Rose. Since, even in large family group photos, members of immediate family tend to stick close to each other I decided they could be Babs' family. My reasoning is:
The Mare: Apple Dumpling, shares Bab's hair colours
The Stallion: who apparently is named Red Hickory (although I personally prefer his fan name of Buckwheat - Bucky for short.) has a similar coat colour to Babs, has the same eyes and the same freckles.
And since Babs has an older sister I chose Pink Lady as she was the closest pony to the others I had proclaimed Babs' family.

And, although it won't feature beyond hints in conversation I even found myself thinking up a fictional biography for them.
Apple Dumpling - Manehattanite through and through. She is a member of the Apple family by blood. Related to the Orange family as a cousin two or three times removed. While Applejack calls her Aunt, she isn't really. She is the daughter of Apple Rose, who is Granny Smith's cousin. Although, no one knows for sure if AJ and Dumpling remember that. AJ's been calling Apple Dumpling "Aunt" for so long that's how their relationship has developed. She's an honorary aunt even if she isn't a biological one.
She owns and works in a diner in Manehatten which sells all kinds of things but specialises in Apple based treats. Her speciality is Apple Fritters.

One day she met:
Red Hickory- which is his official name, I quadruple checked this on google, fan forums, mlp wiki and imdb. The voice artist who did his one line is credited to the character "Red Hickory" along with a picture of the pony.
Now a member of the Apple Family after marrying Apple Dumpling his Cutie Mark of a baked apple is an interesting coincidence. Working as a hired-hoof on an Apple family farm he was sent to Manehatten to make a delivery to Apple Dumpling's new diner. The two hit it off right away and after a whirlwind romance were married.
Knowing his new wife wanted to make a serious go at her diner he left the farm and went to work in the city - getting a job as a grounds-keeper in Manehatten Central Park. He's head's grounds-keeper now and has grown to like the city his wife and family were born in. But he will always be a farm pony at heart.

Knowing that Babs had an older sister I chose the mare closest to the family group, which was:

Pink Lady - The firstborn daughter who a little over a year after Dumpling and Red were married. Big sister to Babs. While Manehatten in accent and temperament she takes a little after her father in her love of outdoors and wide open spaces.
Around the same age as Applejack, give or take a year, she fully intends to go into her mothers buisness one day but, for now, she's going through a gap-year travelling phase. She has a long term rental on an airship:

Which she flies around Equestria, sometimes paying her way by picking up passengers. And giving the occasional ride to Apple family members when they want to get to a reunion in a hurry.
She travels with friends - who are unseen in the picture above because they weren't family members and, as such, wouldn't be going to the reunion.
Mostly she travels to visit other members of the Apple Family, working on their farms and orchards, gathering together the various family recipes for Apple treats, along with an occasional adventure.

Babs. We all know and love. She has her mothers hair and her fathers eyes and freckles along with a similar coat colour. She had a fondness of the outdoors but takes after her mother and mostly loves the city.

Author's Note

That'll save me more pointless boring exposition in later chapters.

Chapter 4

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 4

Scootaloo sighed as she stared down at the street. Manehattan, it seemed, really was the city that didn’t sleep. Down in the street, ponies were walking around, taxi carriages were rushing up and down the street. In school they’d learned Princess Luna had gotten all jealous and crazy because nopony appreciated her night, seemed like the Manehattan ponies liked it well enough.

Hoofsteps behind her drew the filly’s attention from the window. Applejack walked as quietly as she could. She barely glanced at Scootaloo on her way to the kitchen. A second later she did a double-take and stared at the pegasus.
“What are you doin’ awake at this hour sugar cube?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.” The she gave Applejack a sideways glance. “What are you doing up?”

AJ laughed lightly and stepped into the kitchen. After a second of hesitation Scootaloo hopped down from her chair and trotted after her. Applejack was moving around the kitchen like an expert. She seemed to know where everything was. She was making breakfast and coffee, the percolator was already starting to heat on a hot plate. “I’mma farm pony.” Applejack said casually. “Up with the roosters, even if there ain’t no rooster aroun’ to crow.” She put a frying pan on the stove and cracked open a couple of eggs and lay down several strips of hay bacon and hash browns. “Applebloom won’t be far behind.”

Scootaloo jumped onto a chair to sit at the table. She hadn’t thought that she would have ever have an appetite again but now the smell of cooking was entering the air she was starting to notice just how empty her belly was. Her stomach gave a loud growl to confirm the fact.

“Sounds like somepony’s gonna want a double helpin’.” Applejack laughed and opened more eggs and hay bacon.

“I guess.” Scootaloo sighed, smiling weakly. “Applejack-” She faltered and fell silent again. AJ gave a knowing look and sat down at the table.

“It’s gonna be okay sugar cube.” She placed her hoof on top of the filly’s own. “We’re gonna go down to that home and we’re gonna find all that you need to track down your real momma.”

“I-” Scootaloo faltered again. She was so nervous she could feel her wings twitching. “What if-” She couldn’t finish any sentence. She just didn’t have the words to express what she was feeling.

Applejack however, seemed to know what was on the pony’s mind without it being said. “Don’t worry darlin’. Everythin’ has a way of workin itself out for the best.” She suddenly jumped from the seat and rushed back to the stove before the hay bacon and eggs started to burn.

“Mornin’ sis. Moonin Scoots.” Applebloom appeared at the table. Her hair was messed and her bow askew but she didn’t seem to notice. “Smells good.”

Applejack nodded as she carefully served the breakfast to tree plates. You had to be careful when you handled hot pans as an earth pony, the last thing you needed was blisters and burns on your hooves or mouth. “T’ain’t as fresh as we get on the farm, but shouldn’t be too bad.” She passed two of the plates to Applebloom and Scootaloo then turned back to start making herself coffee.

“You okay Scootaloo? Y’all look a little pale?” Applebloom said, with her mouth stuffed of eggs and hash browns.

Scootaloo nibbled at her breakfast. Her empty stomach was demanding for her to eat but she was too nervous to chew properly. She felt like she was going to choke on each bite.

...***...

The cab pulled up outside a large grey stone building. Five floors high with long rows of twelve windows on each floor, except the ground floor, there was a gap for the huge double doors. Above the door, painted in big black letters, was the legend:

Queen Galaxia Memorial Home for Foundling Foals

“We’s here.” Babs cried excitedly. She jumped from the taxi the second the wheels stopped rolling. Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Bell were close behind. Applejack paused just long enough to pay the driver some bits out of her saddlebag.

“Cutie Mark Crusader Parent Finders. YAY!” Cried out three of the fillies, except Scootaloo. They all charged up the steps toward the door.

Appplejack yelled after them. “Whoa there critters!” They skidded to a halt, Applebloom’s hoof had been reaching for the door handle. They looked at AJ with confused expressions. Applejack adjusted her hat and walked up the steps calmly. “Now, we’s here for a serious meetin’ for a serious matter’.” She gave Scootaloo a glance. “We’s all gonna be on our best behaviour. That means no runnin’, bein’ quiet, and doin’ what yur told. Or y’all can get back in a cab and head back to Aunt Dumpling’s place. Kay?”

Slowly all the crusaders nodded their heads. “We’ll behave.” Applebloom said. Babs and Sweetie voiced their agreements.

“Good.” AJ nodded. “Now, fall in behind me and let’s go.”

The inside of the building was a little dark but it was warm and seemed cosy enough. The entrance hall was empty but they could all hear the echoes of children coming from far away in the depths of the home, from the upper floors.
The entrance hall was sparse, at the far end was a large staircase. To one side was a large archway which led to a huge dining room, long tables which still bore dirt and stains from breakfast.
To one side was a line of chairs by a door and in the middle of the hall sat a table, decorated with a large vase of fake flowers. In front of the vase was a small hotel style bell.
“Kay, you girls sit in them chairs. Scoot’s your with me.”

Applebloom frowned, “But Apple-”

“Nope little missy. You’ll sit there and wait, jus’ like ah told ya.” Applejack pointed to the chair and, with some reluctance, the crusaders took their places.

Applejack tapped the bell with her hoof. From behind the door came noises of movement and the muffled sounds of someone grumbling.

The door opened and a middle-aged unicorn mare stepped out into the hall. She had a faded sand coloured coat and a mane that used to be orange but now had more grey than anything else. She looked annoyed until she saw Applejack standing by the table, then the look turned to confusion. “Yes, can I help you?” She glanced down at Scootaloo, then to the other fillies sitting by her door.

Applejack took her hat off out of respect, something she did very rarely. But there was something about this mare, she was like a stern teacher who would tell her off for wearing a hat indoors, AJ was compelled to remove her Stetson. “I’m hopin’ you can ma’am. My name is Applejack and we is here-

“we are here.” the mare corrected.

Applejack felt her teeth go on edge, she didn’t like to be corrected like that. Just because her grammar wasn’t perfect didn’t mean she was dumb. Twilight had found that out the hard way. She took a breath and tried to calm down, for Scootaloo’s sake.
“We are here.” She said slowly, enunciating each syllable to the point of sarcasm. “Because of this little filly, Scootaloo. We have some questions to ask, if you would be so kind.”

The sarcasm seemed to have been lost on the mare. She looked at Scootaloo, then to Applejack and nodded. “Do come in.” She stepped aside and pointed a hoof to her office.

The office interior gave Applejack uncomfortable memories of being sent to the teachers office back in her school days. Not that she’d been sent to the office all that often, but when somepony picked on her brother for being so shy and quiet, or even that stuck up pony, Filthy Rich, made fun of her for being a dumb farm pony and a blank flank to boot, well then of course she was going to show them her bucking skills. By bucking them in their flanks until they apologised.

The name plate on the desk read Matron- Bambi Foster.
Miss Foster took a seat behind the desk and looked expectantly at the two ponies. “Well then, how can I help you?”

Applejack looked to Scootaloo, wondering if the filly wanted to take the lead and speak. But Scootaloo was uncharacteristically quiet. Scootaloo looked pleadingly at AJ. Appleack nodded and pulled a piece of paper from her saddlebag.

Matron Foster took the paper and glanced at it. It was very familiar, the letterhead in particular.

]Queen Galaxia Memorial Home for Foundling Foals
c/o Equestrian National Adoption Agency
Manehatten

Case No. LF03G4MLP

The Undersigned Petitions to Adopt: Scootaloo

Matron Foster looked up from the page to the orange pegasus. “Where did you get this?”

“In my mom’s basement.” Scootaloo replied shyly. “I mean, my foster mom’s basement.”

“Ya see Miss,” Applejack cut in, diverting the harsh glare of the matron away from Scootaloo and toward herself. “Scootaloo here is just curious ‘bout her roots. She wants ta try an’ track down her birth mom.”

The matron’s annoyed expression actually amused Applejack, who had known her farm-pony accent was annoying to the Manehattan her. With a small sigh the matron stepped out from behind her desk. “If you would just wait here a moment while I look through our archives for this case.” She strode out of the room leaving AJ and Scootaloo alone.

Scootaloo’s wings fluttered in excitement. She could hardly believe it. After the sleepless night and all the worrying was it really going to be this easy? She grinning brightly and looked to Applejack, who’s own smile gave her more confidence. “This is it?” she said in an odd tone that made it sound, somehow, like a statement and a question at the same time.

AJ nodded. “I think it is sugar cube.”

The door opened again and Matron Foster returned, carrying a brown folder in a golden magical aura.

AJ was impressed. “That was fast.”

Matron placed the folder onto the desk. “I’m quite good at finding things. Be it paperwork, or parents for a foal.” She opened the folder and read through the paperwork within. “Scootaloo. Mother,” Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “Bonbon Drops. Second Mother, Lyra Heartstrings. Current address, Ponyville. ” Scootaloo could have facehoofed in frustration after her hopes had been raised like that. Matron Foster glanced up from her paperwork and took another look a the pegasus. “I think I might remember your case. Same gender parents adopting foals were less common than they are today. Your adoption may have been one of our first.” She fell silent again and continued reading, occasionally muttering something, but no useful information.

Then she suddenly closed the folder. “I’m sorry, but I can’t release that information.”

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped so fast it almost broke the sound barrier. She made noises, like she was choking on the words she was trying to get out.

Applejack, however, seemed to find the same words that were stuck in Scootaloo’s throat. “What do ya mean you can’t tell us nothin’?”

Matron sighed. “I can’t tell you anything, because that information is confidential.”

“But... it’s my information.” Scootaloo cried, jumping to her hooves. Her wings fluttered angrily, lifting her an inch off the ground for a second. “It’s about me. How can you keep the stuff about me a secret?”

Matron Foster had dealt with many difficult foals over the years, so she was neither surprised or impressed by Scootaloo’s outburst. She stared at the filly, unblinking, and waited for her to calm down. It took a little longer than usual, but Scootaloo finally sat down again.
“You see Scootaloo, when your biological mother agreed to have you adopted she signed a confidentiality form. She doesn't wish for her details to be made available to anypony without either her permission, or a court order.”

Scootaloo could have collapsed if she hadn’t already bee sitting down. She was so close. The name was in a folder just two feet in front of her, but now she was here she wasn’t allowed to see it? It wasn’t fair. “But...it’s my mother.” She spoke in a weak, stunned, voice. “Mine. I’m not just some stranger, I’m her daughter.”

“I’m sorry Scootaloo.” Matron replied, although her tone didn’t match her words. “If you wish, we can fill out the necessary paperwork today. The request will be sent to your biological parent and, should she consent, the information can be made available to you. However this will take time.”

Applejack asked the question but knew she wasn’t going to like the answer. “How long should that take?”

When Matron Foster gave her answer Scootaloo felt like her head had been hit with a boulder. “Several weeks, at the very least. Perhaps a few months.”

Scootaloo tuned out, falling into a stunned silence. She barely heard Applejack agree. Didn’t notice the passage of time as AJ filled out the forms. She moved like a zombie when it was their time to leave the office. The excited inquiries of her friends was just background noise in her ears she didn’t respond to. When Applejack told them what happened inside the office, Scootaloo didn’t make a protest when her best friends gave her comforting hugs.

In silence she left the home. Quietly she climbed aboard a cab. Without making a peep she arrived back at the arrived back at the apartment building where Babs lived.

She didn’t respond to anything until Applebloom asked a question which cut through her trance. “So, what now?”
Scootaloo blinked and glanced at her friends.

Applejack sighed and shook her head. “Nothin’ more we can do. We jus’ gotta wait for all the paperwork to go through. We’ll spend the night here and get the mornin’ train’ back to Ponyville.”

After everything they had failed, all because of stupid paperwork. It had been there, right in front of her, in her grasp and it had all been taken away from her at the last second. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair.

Not caring about her image. Not caring of how she would look in her friends, or strangers. Scootaloo burst into tears.

Author's Note

Bambi Foster is a complete OC for the purposes of trying to get this story moving.
And I know that things like Scootaloo crying seems against character but she's still just a filly and after that amount of frustration, anticipation and disappointment I think even most adults would start crying.

Excitement really begins in the next chapter. Some more OC's for the Manehattan CMC's and....Cutie Mark Crusader Burglars. YAY!
Compared to what I have planned, that wasn't even a spoiler ;)

Chapter 5

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 5

Scootaloo sat on the window seat, looking out at the city of Manehatten. If there were any justice, or if life were like the movies she’d seen at the Ponyville Picture House, then it should be raining. It should be pouring down with such fury ponies would think Cloudsdale had declared war and was trying to scrub Equestria clean. Life wasn’t a movie though. The weather didn’t match the mood of the main character. In fact the night sky was quiet clear, giving Scootaloo a view of Luna’s night sky and the great white moon.

A light knock came from the door. Scoots didn’t take her eyes away from the view. Applejack’s voice spoke after a few seconds of silence. “Scootaloo, dinner’s ready.”

“I’m not hungry.” She called back with no strength or enthusiasm in her voice. She would swear she heard Applejack sigh from the other side of the door.

“Okay Sugarcube. We’ll put some aside if y’all feel hungry later, okay?”

Scootaloo bit her lip for a second, she’d had the urge to yell at Applejack to not bother and to just leave her alone. “Thank you.” Was all she finally said. Applejack was doing her best and it wasn’t her fault this had been a wasted journey. Scootaloo couldn’t bring herself to be angry at somepony who didn’t deserve it.

...***...

Applejack paced away from the bedroom and came back into the kitchen area and the crowded dinner table. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Babs were looking at her expectantly. Their faces fell as Applejack shook her head. “She says she ain’t hungry. She’d like to be left alone.”

The three crusaders went “awwww” as one. Applejack almost found it cute.

“I don’t think we should leave her alone.” Apple Bloom said. “Cutie Mark Crusader’s stick together.” She made to leave the table but one glance from her sister made her stop.

“It’s nice y’all are so concerned ‘bout your friend,” She smiled admirably. “but this ain’t like a failed attempt to get a cutie mark, or comfort each other after after that bully filly has been pickin’ on you.”

“Diamond Tiara.” Sweetie Belle said.

Applejack nodded. “Scootaloo has had a big disappointment today. Now I ain’t sayin’ she won’t want her friends aroun’ her eventually but for now she wants to be alone with her thoughts.”

Sweetie Belle glanced in the direction of the bedroom, wondering how long it would be before Scootaloo would like them around her.

Apple Dumpling looked around the table, to her daughters and her husband. She couldn’t begin to imagine how she would feel in Scootaloo’s position. She had her family around her, both immediate and extended. She knew her parents, her aunt’s her cousins, she knew what it was to be an Apple and what that meant to her. The poor filly had her family; her two mothers in Ponyville, but it wasn’t a complete family, at least as far as Scootaloo was concerned. Apple Dumpling looked at her eldest, Pink Lady, the daughter who had travelled so far and experienced so much. Red had raised her and had been there for all the important events in her life. She turned to look at Babs and tried to imagine what it would be like to have never raised her little filly, had never been there for the first steps, first words, first day of school. It was too painful a thought to imagine. She couldn’t think what kind of mare Scootaloo’s biological mother was, or what could have occurred to make her want to part with her foal.

Babs wolfed down a few more bites of her food then pushed her plate away. “I gotta be excuzed.” She stated. She didn’t even wait for permission from either of her parents before she rushed away from the table.

“Now hold up Babs” Red Hickory called after her. He was interrupted by Apple Dumpling.

“Where do youz think you’re goin’ young lady?”

Babs didn’t respond at first. She rushed toward the front door and grabbed her Cutie Mark Crusader cape from a low hook on the wall. “Crusader bis’ness Ma.” With a well rehearsed flick of her head the cape was draped around her shoulders. With a quick and complex move with her hooves she knotted it around her neck. “Don’t worry about it. I’m jus’ sendin’ a message. I’ll be right back.”

“You want us to come with ya Babs?” Applebloom piped up.

Babs was tempted but shook her head. “It’s okay cuz. I’m just goin’ to the roof. I’ll be right back.” Without waiting for any other delays she ran back down the hall and out the door..

Applebloom looked to Apple Dumpling. “The roof? Why’s she goin’ to the roof?”

Apple Dumpling sighed lightly. She knew the Crusaders were important to Babs, the filly had certainly been happier since she’d started the club. She just wished it didn’t interrupt important things like meals. “Babs built herself a small collection of bird houses on da roof.” Dumpling explained. “I didn’t think nuthin would come of it, what birds want ta sleep on a roof in da city? They gots nests and bird houses in the parks. But it worked, some birds started livin there and she got them to be her friends. In return for special treats the birds’ll fly messages to her crusader friends for her.”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stared in amazement and admiration. Getting local birds to be messengers was amazing. Earth ponies had their own magic, a connection to nature which Unicorns and Pegusi would never know, with the exception of Fluttershy of course. An earth pony had a connection not only to plants and trees but to animals. With a gentle patience a pony might be able to get them to do little things. Apple Bloom had seen Big Mac persuade rats not to eat their corn supply in the winter stores. Applejack didn’t have as much patience for critters. The last time some beavers had made a dam by the farm Fluttershy had been needed as an impartial negotiator. Apple Bloom’s own, brief, attempt at getting along with animals had resulted in almost being scratched by Rarity’s cat, frightening chickens and almost being turned to stone by a Cockatrice. She was a farm pony, used to the critters and the outdoors. Babs was a city pony and, frankly, she had done something astounding. She must have a real special talent if she managed to make that deal with the birds.

In no time at all Babs returned, first to the apartment and then to the table. She still wore her Crusader cape. “All done. Ma, my friends might be comin’ ovar later, kay?”

Apple Dumpling nodded. “You care to enlighten us as to why they’ll be visitin so late?”

Babs just shook her head. “Crusader bis’ness Ma.”

Apple Dumpling put on a look of mock annoyance. The smile gave it away that she wasn’t sincere in her irritation.

...***...

A light knock came at the door, rousing Scootaloo out of the doze she’d been drifting into. Who was trying to check on her now? Couldn’t everypony see she wanted to be alone.

Before she could tell them to go away the door opened. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Babs came in, followed by two young ponies Scootaloo didn’t know.
First came a white unicorn colt, with a purple mane and tale, both were full of puffy curls that reminded Scoots of Pinkie Pie’s manestyle. Like most city ponies he wore some casual clothing, a light blue jacket. Behind him was a pegasus filly with a pink coat and sky blue hair. Unlike the unicorn she wasn’t wearing any clothing. But both of them were wearing the familiar red Crusader capes.

Babs smiled proudly and stood by the newcomers. “Scoots lemme introduce youz to the Manehatten Cutie Mark Crusaders.” She looked to the ponies, then turned back to Scootaloo. “Well, two o’dem. We gots two more members but Shady couldn’t make it and Dancer is visitin’ fam’ly in Fillydelphia.”

“And trying to get a Fillydelphia branch of the Crusaders started up.” The unicorn colt said. His voice was gentle and soft, his accent the refined cadence of the cultured Manheattenite. “He promised, didn’t he Babs?”

Babs smiled. “Yeah he did.” She glanced at Applebloom, “I was gonna tell youz guys all about it if he got it goin’.” Then she turned back to Scootaloo. “Anyways, Scoots, this is Nightshade.” She indicated the unicorn with her hoof, “and this is Firefly.” She pointed to the pink Pegasus.

The Pegasus rushed over to Scootaloo. Scoots noticed she climbed, rather than flew, up to the window seat. “Pleased ta meatcha Scootaloo.” She held out a hoof and Scootaloo bumped it automatically. Scootaloo couldn’t quite place her accent. It certainly wasn’t Manehatten. If anything she sounded a little like Rainbow Dash. “There ain’t a lot of Pegasus ponies around Manehatten. Great to see another one. And one of the founders of the Crusaders. AWESOME!” She bumped Scootaloo’s hoof again. “It’s all Unicorns and earth ponies around here. I was so bored, until I met Babs, after my parents moved here from Cloudsdale to run the weather team here.” She sat down, shuffling closer to Scootaloo. “Only pegasus ponies around here are all kids of the weather teams. They think they’re better than me, just because they got their cutie marks or can fly.”

Scootaloo’s ears perked up. “You can’t fly?”

Firefly bit her lip and started to shuffle a little away from Scoots. “Well....no okay! My wings aren’t strong enough yet. We all grow at different speeds, my wings’ll work one day and I keep practising and-”

“It’s okay.” Scootaloo interrupted. “My wings aren’t all that strong, so I can’t fly yet either.”

Firefly stared in shock and surprise. Then, after a few seconds, a smile grew on her face. She almost looked like she could hug Scootaloo. Scoots was glad she didn’t. She wasn’t touchy-feely at the best of times when it came to her friends, let alone a newly met stranger.

Scootaloo looked at her fellow crusaders. “What are you doing here?”

“We’z gonna help you get the info youz need to find your mom.” Babs said proudly. “Soon as we figure out what we’z gonna do.” She smiled sheepishly.

...***...

Babs came out into the living room where Apple Dumpling, Red Hickory, Pink Lady and Applejack were beginning to get into a game a cards.
“Mom,” Babs caught their attention. “I’m gonna walk Night Shade and Firefly home okay?”

Applejack looked up from her cards. “Is Scootaloo okay Sugarcube?”

Babs shrugged. “Still sad but I think we’z made her feel a little better. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are gonna stay with her the rest of the night. She, well, she don’t wanna be disturbed by nopony else. Just be with her friends ya’know what I’m sayin’?”

Applejack nodded and smiled. Her little sister really was a pony in a million. Always there for her friends whenever they needed them.

Babs started edging back toward the door. “Well, I’m gonna jus walk Nightshade and Firefly home. I’ll be back in a little while.” She turned and hurried away. A few seconds later they heard the door closing.

“She’s up to somethin’.” Applejack said casually.

“Yup.” Hickory agreed.

“I’ll bet the the others are involved.” Applejack added.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if they were.” Apple Dumpling muttered with a nod. She tossed a couple of bits into the growing pot in the middle.

“Should someone go keep an eye on them?” Applejack looked over her cards for a few seconds before matching the bid. “Make sure they don’t get inta trouble?” Manehatten wasn’t like Ponyville, where there would always be a caring neighbour to lend a hoof if trouble were needed.

Apple Dumpling nodded. “Them crusaders always help each other if trouble starts. Normally there’s a cop around ta help if they get in a jam. Then again, Babs don’t usually take to sneakin’. If she’s sneakin’ she might not get seen if she gets in trouble.”

Pink Lady looked between her relatives and finally voiced the question on her mind. “Well, shouldn’t somepony be following them?”

Applejack smiled and nodded. “Soon. We gotta let them think they got away with it. Good for their....” what were the words Twilight had used? “self ee’steam. We can give ‘em another minute head start.”

Pink stared with incredulity. “But we don’t even know where they’re going.”

Applejack, Apple Dumpling and Red Hickory all chuckled. “Actually sugarcube,” Applejack smiled. “It don’t take a genius to know where they’re goin’.”

...***...

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie stood by while Babs, Nightshade and Firefly did their best to hail a cab. When a group of six little ponies try and hail a cab they are, unsurprisingly, ignored but all taxi drivers.

“C’mon ya dumb mook!” Babs screamed at another cab as it trotted by. “Paying customers right here!”

Sweetie Belle leaned toward Nightshade. “What’s a Mook?”

The other white unicorn just shrugged. “I have no idea. As much as I ask Babs just can’t explain it clearly.”

Firefly finally grunted in frustration. “That’s it. Nightshade, front and centre. CMC acrobats.”

Nightshade sighed. “Firefly, I don’t really-” Her glare cut him off. With another lengthy sigh Nightshade moved to stand behind Firefly, who lowered herself down onto her her knees, she spread her wings wide and flat as Nightshade climbed up, resting his fore-hooves on her shoulders and shakily positioning his back-hooves on her flanks. He trembled and shook as Firefly rose up off her knees and onto her hooves. They were shaky and looked ready to collapse any second.

“Firefly, what does this ha-”

“You good for a flash of light?” She called up to him.

Nightshade looked down, worry growing with every passing second. “I guess so, why?”

Without warning Firefly stepped off the pavement and onto the road. Nightshade yelped, he made to jump off Firefly but the filly rose her wings straight up, holding him in place. “Any time now, cab is getting close!” She yelled up at him.

Nightshade saw the taxi coming right at them, the tired driver barely even noticed them. Nightshade screwed up his eyes and poured his magic into his horn. It sparked, then sparked again. He gritted his teeth and tried harder. A ball of bright white light flashed out of the tip of his horn. The cab pony yelled, startled and skidded to a halt. His hooves scraped along the road. Firefly screwed up her own eyes and leaned back.

She felt dust blow into her face. Slowly she eased on eye open. She was staring right up the nose of the cabbie. “Oh thank Celestia.” She whispered. She felt Nightshade buckle and saw his white form fall to the pavement out of the corner of her eye.

The cab pony glared down at her. “What the heck do ya think you doin’ ya crazy palooka?! Youz trying to get yourself killed?”

“Hey buddy.” A voice yelled behind him. The cabbie turned and gawked. Five ponies had jumped into his cab. The unicorn colt was still out cold, he was being supported by another unicorn and an orange pegasus. An earth pony filly with a pink mane was the one being so vocal.

There was a flash of pink as the pegasus jumped into the cab alongside her friends.

“Jus take us to the Galaxia home for foundling foals and maybe we don’t tell the cops you tried to run over my friends.” She grinned evilly.

“Youz crazy?” The cabbie yelled back. “No way that was my fault. They stepped into da road.”

Babs nodded. “Sure. But who are the cops gonna believe? And keep in mind, we’re da ones with da dimples and half of us can cry on demand.”

They glared at each other silently for a few minutes. Then, grumbling under his breath, the pony started pulling the cab.

...***...

The home looked intimidating in the dark of the night. There were a scattering of lanterns softly glowing in windows on the upper floors but every window on the lower floor was dark and gloomy looking.

The fillies and colt jumped out of the cab. Babs tossed a few bits to the driver, leaving only a small tip, which left him grumbling more as he trotted off.

Nightshade looked up at the building and gulped deeply. “So, now we’re here, what are we going to do?”

Babs poked around the road for a few seconds until she found a sizeable rock. She picked it up in her hoof and looked at Nightshade. “Youz knows what we’z gonna do. Youz jus’ don’t like it.”

Scootaloo cleared her throat in an obviously fake and loud way. “Honestly Babs, I don’t like it either.”

Babs looked at the rock balanced on her hoof and nodded. “Yeah, okay, I don’t like it either. We all agreed tho, it’s the best way to distract ‘em. I promise tho’ I’ll come back and help ‘em out, any job they want. Cutie Mark Crusader Volunteer.” She crossed her heart with her rock laden hoof. “Now, everypony in position.”

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rushed up the steps and stood by the large double doors, pressing themselves against the wall of the stoop, as deep into the shadows as they could manage. They wouldn’t be cutie mark crusader ninjas any time soon.

Firefly, Nightshade and Babs stood on the pavement and tried to gather their nerves for what they were about to do. Babs gripped the rock as tightly as she could, reared up on her back legs, pulled her fore-hoof back and threw the rock hard. It sailed up, up, up into the air in a fantastic arc.

SMASH

A window on the third floor collapsed inward. The tinkling noise of shattering glass echoed through the empty night.

Within seconds lights came on all along the top floor. Faces of fillies and colts appeared, looking down on the street. Then older faces of adult mares and stallions appeared at other windows.

Babs, Nightshade and Firefly played their parts perfectly, yelling generic insults and making lots of noise, grabbing all the attention.

The front doors burst open. Matron Foster ran out into the street. Unseen, Scoots, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ran out of the shadows and into the building.

Babs Nightshade and Firefly ran off down the block, away from the furious Matron. The mare was screaming insults after them that would have made a sailor blush.

...***...

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo dove under a table, huddling close together to be as small as possible. The whole house seemed to be awake now. They could hear Fillies and Colts running around up the stairs, probably trying to find out what was happening. Then came the heavy hoof steps of staff members, who were probably trying to get the young back into bed. Then came the noise of foals starting to cry.

“Awww,” Sweetie whined, “we woke the babies.”

Scootaloo risked looking around the empty hallway. They had hidden here in case staff ponies or some of the younger residents of the home came down the stairs and caught them. They were going to wait until the fuss died down and then make their move. “Nopony is coming. I’m gonna risk it.” She made to move but Applebloom grabbed her wing and pulled her back.

“Hold up.” She pointed a hoof to the door. Matron Foster was walking back inside. She closed the door with a heavy slam.

“ Disgraceful. Degenerates.” She yelled furiously, stomping through the hallway. She walked past the three Crusaders without a second glance. “Decadent. Depraved. Disgusting. Depraved.” She continued stomping up the stairs, calling out more furious words beginning with D.

Scootaloo came out of the hiding place. “What is she, a thesaurus?” Above them the noise of the excited ponies was beginning to die down. The adults were regaining control and were probably getting all the ponies back into bed. Scoots turned to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, “do you know where we’re going?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “When we was here earlier we saw that Miss Foster going this way,” she pointed a hoof down a hallway to the left. “when she came back she had that folder of yours.” She trotted off, Sweetie Belle and Scoots followed close behind.

The hallway was so dark they could barely see where they were going.

“Ow, you stood on my tail.”

“Sorry Sweetie.” Scootaloo said to the patch of darkness she thought her friend could be standing in.

THUD

Sweetie Belle squeaked, “What was that?”

“That was me.” Apple Bloom’s voice came out of the darkness. “I found a wall, with my head.”

“How come none of us thought about bringing a torch?” Scootaloo growled under her breath. “We need some light. I might be a mammal with wings but I’m not a bat.”

Even through the pitch darkness she felt her friends staring at her.

“What?” she muttered defensively. “sometimes I do pay attention in school.”

“Uh-huh.” Apple Bloom’s doubtful sigh came from a shadow. “Sweetie Belle, you think you can manage a little glowing spell?”

“I don’t know.” Sweetie admitted doubtfully. “You know whenever I try magic stuff tends to, well, explode.”

“C’mon and try Sweetie.” Scootaloo encouraged her. “Even Snails can light up his horn and he still gets lost walking between his house and school.”

Sweetie sighed. “Well....okay...I’ll try.” She screwed up her eyes and concentrated, trying to remember every little thing she’d heard Rarity or Twilight say about magic and hoping, praying, that something didn’t start burning this time.

There was a noise like the Ponyville express trying to start; a hiss like steam and the grinding of metal. Then came a spark, a flicker of light coming from Sweetie’s horn. It faded and sparked again. Sweetie Belle gritted her teeth and pushed herself harder. The horn flickered then shone with bright, solid, white light. When she opened her eyes, sweating and panting she smiled and found energy to jump around with excitement at seeing her horn glowing.

Now they could see each other and where they were going. Apple Bloom looked around, and saw they had actually passed the door they’d been looking for.
“C’mon.”

...***...

The basement was huge but cramped. It put Bonbon’s storage habits to shame. There were immensely long rows of filing tall filing cabinets. The three fillies stared in shock, wondering where in Equestria there were expected to even start.

Sweetie Belle had to sit down, concentrating on keeping her horn lit, added to worrying that any second she was going to set something on fire, was starting to drain her.
“Can we start with trying to find a light switch?”

“Way ahead of ya Sweetie.” Apple Bloom’s voice came from the doorway. She flicked the switch and they were almost blinded by the glare of the bulbs after so long in the dark and dim light.

They thought the place had been large before, bow they saw its full size.
Scootaloo gasped. “Buck. How are we supposed to find anything in this place. It must run under the whole building and probably half of next door.”

“Now don’t worry.” Apple Bloom tried to reassure her. “It di’nt take Miss Foster long to find your folder, so it can’t be far. Wha-” She stopped and stared at Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo followed her gaze and they both watched, stunned, as their friend was now struggling to extinguish her glowing horn.

“Stupid horn.” She batted it with her hooves, closed her eyes and tried to focus, then tried to un-focus as focussing had started the whole thing in the first place. “Out.” She tried the same things again, with no luck. “Go out.”

Scootaloo sat in front of Sweetie and licked her front hooves, covering them in a liberal amount of saliva. Without saying a word she pressed her hooves onto Sweetie’s horn. With a hiss like fire being doused by water the glowing appendage went out.

Sweetie Belle crossed her eyes to stare up at her horn. “How’d you know to do that?”

Scootaloo just smirked and shook her head. “Mom, I mean Lyra, used to be my night light when I was small.” She sighed as the memory rose in her. “Smaller anyway. She used to fall asleep with her horn glowing and I’d put it out in the morning.” She shook her head and forced the smile away, it took a lot of effort.

Apple Bloom had listened, a smile on her own face, but she had also wandered up to the first filing cabinet and noticed something, “All these things have got number labels on their drawers.” She pointed to the label, at the very top drawer was the label:

AA01A1AAA – AB01A1AAA

“You remember the code that was on that adoption form?” Apple Bloom asked Scoots.

The pegasus filly nodded. How could she forget it? “LF03G4MLP”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Okay, well, I guess we gotta find the filing cabinets startin’ with L.”

...***...

A, B, C....

It took a long time to get from one letter to the other. After what felt like ten minutes of walking they were shocked to find themselves in the G’s. They took to jogging and then to running. Until, finally....

“L!” Apple Bloom cried triumphantly.

LA01A1AAA – LB01A1AAA

The search continued for the LF section of the warehouse like basement.

Scootaloo wished her life was a little bit more like the Daring Do books Rainbow Dash sometimes read to her. Sure they were full of whole passages of Daring wandering through corridors and searching for hidden treasures but they were more exciting than this. There would be traps, cult leaders, soldiers, monsters and all kinds of other things to make the journey more interesting.

“Here we are,” Apple Bloom’s voice snapped Scootaloo out of her thoughts. The yellow earth pony had found the right drawer and pulled it open. “Let’s see.” She flicked through the different folders, looking carefully at the codes. Then she suddenly stopped.

Scootaloo’s wings flared in the anticipation. She felt her heart speed up as Apple Bloom pulled out the file folder with the right code printed on it.

LF03G4MLP
Name: Scootaloo

Apple Bloom put the folder on the floor and made to open it. She hesitated then slid the file over to Scootaloo. “Here ya go.”

Scootaloo stared at the folder for some time before she dared reach for it. She felt like if she tried to touch it the whole thing would disappear in a puff of smoke and she’d wake up discovering this had all been a very strange dream.

Taking a deep breath she reached for the cardboard folder. Her hoof trembled as she eased it open. After all the waiting, all the set backs and all the trouble, there it was, right in front of her, her mother’s name.

And she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes.

A reassuring hoof touched her shoulder. “Scoots, there it is, Your momma’s name.”

Scootaloo eased one eye open and looked down at the page.

Author's Note

Okay, so I kind of bailed out on making up OC's for the Manehatten CMC's. I intended to but eventually had the idea to use a couple of G1 ponies. So sue me, I'm lazy.
Fans who know their G1 will know Nightshade wasn't a unicorn but an earth pony. He was a blank flank in the cartoon though, which might have part of the inspiration to use him and another G1 pony. Seems only the ponies of dream valley had cutie marks.
Once I decided to use Nightshade, a pony who's special talent is singing, Firefly just kind of slipped into place, as a Pegasus it made a nice balance to the group. Everything slipped into place from there; Firefly, a pegasus filly who isn't good at flying yet, Babs, an earth pony who's still discovering herself and trying to grow up, and Nightshade (now a unicorn) who is fancy and likes to sing.
Making the Manehatten Cutie Mark Crusaders an amusing parody of the Ponyville Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Chapter 6

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 6

Name of Biological Mother: Rosewing
Address (Current/ Last Known): 328 Cumulus Villa, Cloudsdale.

Scootaloo trembled as she stared at the information she’d been seeking all this time. Her mother, her name was Rosewing and she lived in Cloudsdale. Maybe she did something really important like run a weather office, or fly for the Wonderbolts....well that one wasn’t likely, Scootaloo had heard all the Names of the Wonderbolts from Rainbow Dash and had never heard about any Rosewing. With a shake of the head she realised that it didn’t matter what Rosewing did. She could be rich and famous, or she could work as a humble janitor, Scoots didn’t care, it would be enough to see and know her mother.

A line of block capital letters caught her attention for a second.

Name of Biological Father: UNKNOWN.

That was a little disappointing but Scootaloo was still overjoyed to finally know her mothers name.

Sweetie Belle cleared her throat, bringing everypony back to reality. “We got the address, shouldn’t we get out of here before we’re caught?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “She’s right. Babs and the others’ll be waitin’ for us. We should hurry.”

Scootaloo agreed. She snatched up the piece of paper with the sacred information on it, folded it up small and tucked it under her wing to hold.

...***...

Without any further incidents the three fillies made it out of the home and into the street. To their surprise they found the front door to be unlocked, which meant they hadn’t needed Babs to provide a distraction, they could have walked in and out without a problem.

Apple Bloom looked up and down the street, looking for their fellow crusaders. “I hope they ain’t got in trouble.”

“Not yet, but they will.” The three crusaders jumped and Sweetie Belle screamed, as the voice spoke.

Pink Lady was hovering in mid air like a pagasus only she had no wings. Once the shock of this passed they noticed other things, first they saw the cap and goggles she was wearing on her head, then they saw the rope ladder she was clinging on to. Their eyes looked up, following the ladder to its source; Pink’s airship. Hovering, the propellers barely moving, the huge purple balloon was providing all the levitation. Three faces looked over the side of the ship; Babs, Firefly and Nightshade.

“How the hay didn’t we see that?” Apple Bloom gasped.

“Youz all seemed rather busy with breaking and entering.” Pink Lady said flatly. “Get in the balloon.” She climbed— awkwardly— up the rope ladder. After a minute of hesitation the crusaders followed her.

As soon as the three climbed into the main ship Pink turned on them again. “What the hay were youz thinkin?” She snapped furiously. “Breakin’ windows an stealin’ files?” She dived at Scootaloo and pulled the paper out from under her wing. She hadn’t been fooled by the hiding place for a second. “What if the cops had got here before me, huh? Youz think about dat?” She barely even glanced at the paper before she tossed it onto the deck. Scootaloo dove and grabbed it before the wind could carry away the prize she’d done so much to claim.

The orange pegasus filly looked up at Pink. “We had to. It was the only way to get my mom’s name.”

Pink huffed in frustration. “You could have waited for the paperwork to go through and find out legally.”

“But sis,-” Babs started but Pink cut her off.

“You keep outta this. I’ll deal with youz soon enough.” She turned back to Scootaloo, her mouth opened to say more but Babs’ interruption had broken her stride. She let out a long sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her hoof. “We’re going back to the apartment.” She said in a matter of fact voice. She was occupied for a second by starting the engine of the ship. The propellers glowed with stored unicorn magic then started to spin, building up speed. The air balloon rose up into the air, over the tops of the buildings and into the clear sky. Pink seemed to know where she was going, she tilted a huge wooden wheel, turning the balloon in the right direction.
“Nightshade, Firefly, you’ll go home. Babs, you’re gonna stand by and tell mom and dad what youz guys were doin’. And as for youz guys,” she looked to the Ponyville CMC. “Youz is goin back to Ponyville tomorrow.”

“But cousin, Pink-” Apple Bloom started but Pink cut her off.

“Don’t, ‘Cousin, Pink,’ me.” She snapped. “Youz is all lucky I ain’t takin youz to the police.”

“You wouldn’t snitch on us!” Babs gasped.

Pink rounded on her. “This ain’t like skippin’ a class or sneaking a cookie before dinner, Babs. Youz guys done a crime here tonight. Youz coulda got in serious trouble is you were caught.” She huffed and snorted as she tried to remain calm. She was failing in that task and she knew it. “You think bein’ grounded or detenshun is bad, try goin’ ta court, or bein’ inside a police cell. What would mom and dad think if they saw youz arrested, Babs? It’d break their hearts.”

Babs hung her head in shame. The other crusaders did the same as the weight on their actions finally sunk onto their shoulders. Pink took a deep breath and managed to regain some composure. She decided she’d said more than enough so she turned her attention back to steering the air ship.

With the quiet of the night the silence in the ship seemed to have weight. It pressed down on all of them. Pink slowly became away of a sound over the gentle hum of the propellers. At first she wondered if something was wrong with the engines. Then she recognised the sound; the stop, start gasps, the gentle sniff and muffled sobs of somepony trying to cry silently. Pink bit her lip and sighed. Perhaps she had been a little too harsh.
“Babs,” her sister looked up at her; with dry eyes. If Babs wasn’t the one crying, then who?

Pink looked from one pony to the other until she saw Scootaloo. The little orange pegasus had her head hung low, her mane flopped down to hide her face. Her hunched shoulders shuddered as she sniffed and sobbed. Something dropped from the tip of her nose, it shone in the light of Luna’s moon for a fraction of a second before landing on the deck. A slowly growing puddle of tears was emerging around Scootaloo’s hooves.

Pink kicked the engines into hover and the ship stopped. All anger was forgotten now as she approached the filly. “Scootaloo, I’m sorry.”

“No,” the young pony sobbed. “you’re right. It was wrong. We shouldn’t have broken in and we shouldn’t have stolen...” She became impossible to understand as a fresh sobs racked through her. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were there in a flash. They wrapped their legs around Scootaloo in a tight and comforting embrace. The other ponies stood around awkwardly.

It was some moments before Scootaloo calmed down enough to talk again. “I’m sorry,” she muttered miserably. Gently, with no malice or anger in her actions, Scootaloo shrugged off her friends hugs. “you’re right, Miss Pink. We shouldn’t have done it. But...I...you have your family around you. You got your mom and dad and your sister. And your cousins like, Apple Bloom and, AJ and all kinds of other family, all over Equestria. I got nothing.” she looked up at Pink, the mare saw Scootaloo’s eyes were red and puffy. Her tears had been brief but intense. “I don’t have a mom, or a family. I don’t know who I am, where I’m from, or anything. How can I know who I am if I don’t know where I’m from? Or who my family are? But it’s all here,” she tapped the paper in her hooves. “Everything I’m looking for. My mother, my family, my whole life...” fresh tears began to fall. “you...you can’t let me get so close then just send me away; send me home. It....it’s not fair,” she wiped her eyes furiously, “I have to know...I just have to.”

Pink lady sighed and placed a reassuring hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “I understand, Scootaloo. Really I do.”

Scootaloo just shook her head and backed away from Pink Lady until she hit the wooden side of the ship. “No you don’t. None of you can.” She lay down on the deck, her back to all of them.

Pink Lady sighed. She felt like she should say more but she couldn’t think of any words that seemed right. She’d speak to Applejack as soon as they arrived, perhaps her cousin would have some ideas. They were going back to Ponyville in the morning, there was no avoiding it. The train tickets had been bought, AJ had to get back to the farm and the three fillies had to go back to school. Their journey had come to an end, whether they liked it or not.

Taking her place at the wheel Pink knocked the engines out of hover and turned for home again.

They day you discovered the world couldn’t always be happy endings where everything worked out for the better was a hard lesson for anypony to learn, especially in ponies so young. Scootaloo had tried, but her attempts hadn’t worked out the way she wanted to. All she could do now was try and move on from that and live her life the best she could.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat by her friend. Babs wondered if she, Nightshade and Firefly should try to say, or do, something to comfort their friend and fellow Crusader. She was deciding against it because they didn’t know Scootaloo as well as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle did. If anypony could make the poor pegasus feel better it would be her best friends.

Apple Bloom sat down and looked at Scootaloo’s back. “Your wrong ya’know.”

Sctooaloo’s ears pricked up and she turned her head to stare at her friend.

“About not havin’ any fam’ly,” Bloom continued without prompt. “Family ain’t just them you’re related to by blood. Family is them who knows you an’ wanna see y’all happy and would do anythin’ to make sure y’all stay safe. It’s them that loves you and you loves back.” Apple Bloom placed a hoof on her friends shoulder. “So y’all have got a family. You got me and Sweetie Belle, you got AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, even Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight and all the other ponies in Ponyville. Includin’ Lyra and Bonbon,” she noticed Scootaloo flinched at the names of her adoptive parents. The farm pony chose not to bring attention to it. “Even if they didn’t have that adoption form I’d say they were your family most of all. They love you so much they took you into their home and raised y’all like you was their own.”

Scootaloo managed a weak ghost of a smile. She felt moderately better for the sweet things Apple Bloom had said. She wasn’t sure if she believed every word but it was nice to heart them all the same. How sure was Apple Bloom about her words? Family was one of the most important things for an Apple; surely the biological parent had some kind of special meaning no other sibling —no matter how close a sibling they were— could take the place of?

Pink called out, breaking the three Crusaders out of their discussion. “We’z here.”

The air ship was hovering above the apartment building, slowly lowering down toward the roof. Applejack and Apple Dumpling were waiting for them. They didn’t look happy. They couldn’t have heard what happened, surely? Pink Lady had no way of telling them.

“About time, Pink,” AJ called up to them as the ship touched down. “We been freezin’ our flanks off out here for half an hour now.”

Pink lady nodded. “I told youz not to wait for me.”

Apple Dumpling shook her head. “C’mon, you think we’d just sit around playin’ cards while youz is out doin’ all the work? Forget about it.”

Pink slid a gangplank into place on the side of the air ship. One by one the fillies and one colt started to disembark. Babs, then Firefly, Nightshade, then Apple Bloom, then Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo came last but a hoof reached out and stopped her before she even set hoof on the gangplank. The confused filly glanced up at Pink, who just smiled and winked.

Some parenting instinct flared up in both Applejack and Apple Dumpliung. Something was going on and it wasn’t going to be good. They both looked up at Pink Lady and Scootaloo. “Pink,” Dumpling began but her eldest daughter cut her off with the action of bucking the gang plank clear of the air ship. She then jumped to the wheel and pushed the engines into full.

The down draft that blew off the propellers threw the foals off their hooves. The engines were not meant to be on full power so close to the ground for that very reason. The air-ship shot upwards into the sky with a burst of speed that would have made Rainbow Dash proud.

Apple Dumpling screamed up into the air, “PINK!”

Pink Lady cranked the wheel and turned to the west; the direction of Canterlot and, eventually, Cloudsdale.

Scootaloo leaned her head over the side of the balustrade, watching her friends shrinking away into the distance. She couldn’t hear them so she wasn’t certain, but she thought she saw the crusaders —both Manehatten and Ponyville— cheering for her.

Only when they had travelled so far that even the apartment building was a tiny toy on the horizon did she turn her attention to Pink Lady. The mare had slid the goggles over her eyes, which sparkled with excitement, a mischievous grin was spread on her face.

“Why?” Scootaloo asked. Pink didn’t glance at her; keeping her eyes ahead for any low flying Pegasi or storm clouds.

“Maybe I just got an overwhelming urge to see Cloudsdale,” she smirked. “I’m not against taking passengers. Since you wanted to go to Cloudsdale and I happened to be going that way, maybe I thought I could take you with me.” there was a pregnant pause. “Or maybe I’m a nice pony who can’t stand to see a filly cry. Only Celestia knows.”

Scootaloo’s grin was so wide it looked like it going to split her face in two.

Author's Note

Rosewing (AKA Scootaloo's mother) is a background pony, who sat in the crowd at the Best Young Flyers Competition. She appeared in Sonic Rainboom (S01E16).
Since she was a background pony and even her Cutie Mark was covered I'll be making up the finer details of her life.

Chapter 7

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 7

Scootaloo stretched, feeling bones along her back crack into place. The air was chilly but very fresh. She barely felt the cold as she was wrapped in a thick, warm, blanket.

Her eyes eased open and she was met with the beautiful sight of the wide blue skies. No ground, no walls and the only roof was the roof of the world itself. It was just herself and the clouds. She thought, this must be how pegasi feel all the time. She wished she could fly.

Slowly the little filly eased herself up from the corner of the deck that had become her bed. Pink Lady had perfectly adequate sleeping areas but she had stayed on deck, staring up at the field of stars that decorated Luna’s night. She had fallen asleep there and supposed Pink must have given her a blanket at some point.

Pink Lady was at the wheel. She looked tired but still managed a smile. She had the wheel on one hoof and a large mug of hot coffee in the other. “Good morning, Scootaloo. There’s breakfast in the cabin, if you like.”

Scoots shrugged the blanket off her body and stretched out her wings. The warmth of the sunlight spread through them, then slowly across her whole body. “Morning Miss Pink. I’m not hungry, thanks.” Her stomach betrayed her with a loud rumble like an avalanche. Scootaloo smiled sheepishly, “okay, maybe I could have a little something.”

Pink chuckled lightly. “Go on, youz skipped dinner last night and you ain’t eaten since.”

Scootaloo trotted off into the cabin, returning several minutes later with several slices of toast and a large portion of hay bacon. “Sho,” she said with a mouth full of toast. “wherre arr re?”

Pink Lady smiled and sipped at her coffee. “We passed Canterlot a few hours ago, so we’ll be coming up on Cloudsdale soon.”

Scootaloo stopped mid-chew. Cloudsdale, so close. If her stomach didn’t feel so empty she would have claimed to lose her appetite. Her excitement was growing into a nervous anticipation.

Pink steered the air ship around a cloud bank and the city of Cloudsdale came into view. The great hills of clouds, columned buildings like Atheneighan temples. Falls of water and liquid rainbow only added to the beauty of the place. Pegasi flew in flocks, dark specks against the white clouds. The scale of the place was almost impossible to take in. The closer they got the more Scootaloo’s mind kept telling her ‘it can’t get any bigger,’ only for the city to continue expanding. The cloud city could be the size of Manehatten, perhaps bigger.

Scootaloo gulped down her mouthful of hay bacon. The city was easily the size of Manehatten and she had to find one pony, in all of that.

Before her thoughts could descend into a full panic she was distracted as a flock of pegasi started flying around the air ship. Many of them were just curious bystanders —or by-flyers if you wanted to be technically accurate.— One pegasus though, a white cold with a dark blue mane, flew so close he was hovering over the deck.
“Hi, name’s Brolly.” He waved to Scootaloo and Pink Lady. “Permission to come aboard.”

Pink had to laugh. In her experience Pegasi usually felt like they owned the sky and everything in it, this was the first time she’d ever had one ask for permission to land on her ship. “Granted.” She called up to him.

Brolly happily touched down next to Pink. He looked around with an intense curiosity. “This is fantastic.” He casually called over his shoulder. He opened the door to the cabin, giving it the briefest of glances before turning his attention to the propellers. “We don’t get many airships coming to Cloudsdale.

“Might have something to do with the fact only non-pegasi own airships and only pegasus ponies can walk on clouds.” Pink said, perhaps a little more shortly than she’d meant to.

Brolly however didn’t seem to notice the curt tone in her voice. He had started flying again, gliding up next to the balloon, checking out the rigging. “Yeah, that might have something to do wit hit,” he laughed. “So what are- oh hello little one.” He finally noticed Scootaloo. He landed in front of her and held out a hoof. “Brolly.”

Scootaloo took the hoof and they shook. “Scootaloo.”

Brolly nodded, a smile on his face he turned his attention back to Pink. “Is she yours?”

Pink gave him a dubious expression. She wanted to point out her lack of wings but in all of her long travels she had heard of earth ponies giving birth to pegasi or unicorns. Genetics could be funny like that. “She’s just my passenger.” She explained. “Dropping her off at Cloudsdale and then I’ll be on my way.”

Her attention was broken from Brolly as the balloon of the ship almost his a pegasus. She tweaked the controls and slowed the engines. They were getting close to Cloudsdale now and they were attracting quite a crowd of curious onlookers who, it seemed, didn’t always know they had to get out of the way of the large flying machine who wasn’t as agile as they were.

Scootaloo took the paper out from under her wing. “Mr Brolly.”

Brolly looked down at the young filly again.

“Do you know where Cumulus Villa is?”

Brolly put a hoof to his chin as he thought about it. “Cumulus Villa. Cumulus. Cumulus.” He nodded. “Yeah, yeah I do, nice neighbourhood. You trying to get there?” He looked around the airship. “A lot of cloud homes in the villa, you’ll never pilot this ship through there.”

Pink Lady slowed the engines down to just above hovering speed. “Do you know anywhere nearby I can let her off?”

Brolly had to shrug. “Hard to say. Cloudsdale isn’t really made for air traffic involving ships.” His eyes brightened as an idea occurred to him. “Hey kid, if you want, I could take you there myself.”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “You’d do that?”

Brolly shrugged. “Why not? Anypony can always put a little time aside to help another.” He glanced over his shoulder to Pink. “I can take her right now if you want?”

Pink flicked a control and brought the engines to a full stop. The ship now hovered in their air, less than half a mile from the entrance to Cloudsdale. In life Pink Lady had discovered that most things could look beautiful from a distance but that beauty tended to fade as you drew closer. This was not the case with Cloudsdale. What had seemed like a beautiful from a distance was beyond words close up. All kinds of finer details could be seen now,, from the way the clouds had been carefully shaped and sculptured by hoof, painted with liquid rainbow which enhanced the designs without being too garish. Pink Lady wished she could walk on clouds so she could see the city proper.

She sighed and looked to her filly passenger. “It’s your choice Scootaloo. I can’t really get any closer anyway.”

Scootaloo trotted past Brolly and stood next to Pink. “Thank you,” she said timidly. “You didn’t have to help me but you did. So....” She smiled sheepishly. “well...” She lunged forward and wrapped her hooves around Pink Lady’s neck. The mare smiled and patted the filly’s back. “Thank you.” Scootaloo repeated.

“You’re welcome, Scootaloo.” Pink pulled herself away from the youngster and smiled down at her. “Ya’know, my little sis said youz was all great ponies and friends in Ponyville. She was right. If she’d do anytyhin’ for youz, then so would I. Now, go on. Go finish this.”

Smiling, almost laughing, Scootaloo jumped across the deck to Brolly’s side. He knelt down for Scoots to climb onto his back. She gave Pink Lady one last look. “If you see, Apple Bloom and, Sweetie Belle again, tell them....well...tell them I made it.”

Pink nodded. “You betcha.”

Brolly rose to his hooves and spread his wings wide. “Ready, Scootaloo?”

“Ready.”

Brolly jumped over the side of the air ship and soared into the sky. He banked hard and circled the air ship once, giving Scootaloo the chance to wave goodbye properly to Pink Lady. Then he banked and climbed towards Cloudsdale.

Scootaloo was silent, her eyes wide as she tried to take in all the details of Cloudsdale around her. She had never been to the capital city of the pegasus ponies before. If things had been different, if her mother hadn’t given her away, she could have grown up here. Then, of course, she wouldn’t have ever met Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. She probably wouldn’t have ever heard of Rainbow Dash. She would have had different friends and different idols to look up to. Had she grown up here she could have turned out an entirely different pony. It was an odd thought. She liked who she was and couldn’t imagine being any different. Could she have been meek and quiet like Fluttershy? Or perhaps even a prissy bully like Diamond Tiara? Could she have learned to fly by now or would she still be waiting for her wings to become strong enough? If she had grown up here would she have her cutie mark by now? The only thing she could say with any certainty was that if she had grown up in Cloudsdale she wouldn’t have known her friends and she wouldn’t have her scooter. No pony she knew in Ponyville would have come to Cloudsdale, even if they did she wouldn’t have none them. And scooters and clouds didn’t mix.

“So why looking for Cumulus Villa, Scootaloo?”

Brolly's voice snapped Scootaloo out of her thoughts. She shook her head and tried to take in the question she’d only half heard. “I’m... looking for somepony.”

“Somepony special?” Brolly asked. He dove down beneath an archway and banked sharply to the left, through a narrow ally.

“Real special.” Scoots responded casually, as though the break neck speeds and sharp turns weren’t happening. She’d hung around with Rainbow Dash too long for the thought of smashing into a cloud wall to even make her nervous.

Brolly waited but no explanation was forthcoming. He would have shrugged his shoulders had he not been flying. He was a stranger, there was no reason for Scootaloo to share her story with him.

He continued flying through the streets at high speed, twisting and turning among the buildings, avoiding pegasi left right and centre.

“Brolly.” Scootaloo asked gently.

“Yeah?”

“Why all the twisting and turning, why not just fly over the buildings and go straight?”

Scootaloo couldn’t see Brolly’s grin. “Where’s the fun in that?” he laughed. “Sure I could fly straight there, it would be quicker. But it would be a lot less fun.” To prove his point he fell into a steep dive, flying to the cloud floor at high speed. Scootaloo clung tightly to his mane. Instinctively her own wings spread out wide in a vain attempt to soar on the wind rushing over her body. Ten feet from the cloud floor Brolly pulled up suddenly. He gritted his teeth as the g-forces pulled at his body. His wings strained against physics, fighting to get him back up into the air. Then gravity suddenly lost its hold on him and he shot up like a cork out of a champagne bottle. The two ponies rose up, up, up and over the tops of the buildings.

Brolly pointed to a group of homes crammed onto a cloud hill. “Cumulus Villa.” He banked and flew towards the neighbourhood.

...***...

In what felt like no time at all Brolly was touching down in the middle of the Cumulus Villa estate.

Scootaloo leapt off his back, her hooves touching cloud for the very first time. These were the semi-solid clouds used for streets but they were almost as soft and springy as her fluffy bed back home. Celestia only knew what a cloud bed could feel like.
“Thanks Brolly.”

The pegasus just laughed, “hey, it’s no problem kid. I’d do the same for anypony.” He spread his wings and took to the air again. “Good look kid. Hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Scootaloo yelled a thanks and waved until he was out of sight.

Finally glanced at the paper she’d been carrying with her this whole time. 328 Cumulus Villa. Quite by chance Brolly had landed near 300 Cumulus Villa, which meant the home of her mother was nearby.

Butterflies started rising in her stomach. The nerves she’d felt before were beginning to return. It took all of her will not to give in to those nerves and make her trembling body move. What she wanted to do was run away, or curl up into a ball in the middle of the road until everything went away; either her problems or the whole of Equestria, whichever came first.

Far too soon for her comfort Scootaloo found herself outside house number 328. She stared up the short path to the small cloud home. The pegasus architecture and decoration aside it wasn’t so different from the average home in Ponyville.

“Okay, Scoots, you can do this. Think what Rainbow Dash would do. She wouldn’t sit here panicking, she’d go in there and be awesome.” She took a deep breath and strode up the short path to the front door. A cloud door, a surreal sight. She didn’t know if Dash had a door on her cloud home. She probably did.

Lifting one shaking hoof Scootaloo knocked.

Chapter 8

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 8

The door opened and a dark brown stallion with a red mane looked down at Scootaloo. “Hello. Are you selling filly scout cookies?”

Scootaloo’s mouth hung open, her eyes were as wide as an owls. A stallion lived here. This was the right house. Could her mother be married? Was this her husband? Could this be Scootaloo’s father? The last thought was quickly dismissed. She still had the piece of paperwork with her mothers name and address on it, which clearly stated the name of her biological father was unknown.

Creeped out by her silence and staring the stallion took a step back before trying to speak to the filly again. “Can I help you?”

Scootaloo snapped out of her daze. “Umm....is...uh...that is....well.....uh.....”

The stallion frowned. “Spit it out kid.”

“ISROSEWINGHOME” She yelled so loudly the stallions wings flared up in fright.

He stared down at her. How could such a tiny filly have such a huge voice. Slowly he brought his wings down again. “You wanna run that by me again in Equestrian?”

A nervous blush rose on Scootaloo’s face. “Sorry....is...well is, Rosewing home.”

“There’s no one here named Rosewing.” The stallion replied flatly.

The large pupils in Scootaloo’s wide eyes shrank to pinpricks. Her heart, her stomach, most of her major organs, sank. If the stallion had bucked her in the face it wouldn’t have felt as bad.
“are you sure?” her voice was quiet, flat and emotionless.

The guy rolled his eyes. “I know who lives in my house. Me. Just me.”

Scootaloo’s whole body started to tremble. She wouldn’t cry, not in front of this stranger. “But...” her voice was cracking. She tilted her head down, hiding her eyes. If she were to cry at least he wouldn’t see. “this is the address I have for her.”

The stallion just shook his head. “Look kid I told you, there’s no pony here named-” he stopped. Scootaloo dared to raise her head. Stopping could be good.

The stallion was silent for a few seconds. “Rosewing. I think....yeah...she’s the mare who owned the place before me. She hasn’t lived here for about five years.”

Scootaloo sat down hard as her legs collapsed from under her. Current/last known address. It was written there on the paperwork she was carrying. Last known. She was too late to find her mother by five years.

The stallion seemed oblivious. “Lucky mare, moved out to the Alto-stratus Estates. Great neighbourhood, lots of fancy apartment.”

Scootaloo jumped up, right into the stallions face. “You know where she is? WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO?!”

He leapt back from her, wings flared. “Bucking crazy filly. NO, I don’t know her address. The day I moved in her stuff was still being moved out. The movers had Alto-stratus Estates labelled on every box. I don’t know which building or which apartment she’s in.” He stepped forward just far enough to reach the door. “Now get off my property before I call the cops.”

“WAIT!” Scootaloo thrust a hoof out just in time to stop the door closing. She wouldn’t have thought a cloud door closing on her hoof would hurt, she was wrong. “Do you know where the Alto-stratus estates are?”

The stallion opened a door and threw a mess of paper into her face. Scootaloo staggered back and he slammed the door to a close.

Scootaloo fought against the paper for a few more seconds before she finally to untangle herself from the mess. She glared at the door, then down to the scrap paper that the stallion had thrown at her. It was a street map of Cloudsdale. Her anger evaporated and she even managed to grin. There on the cloud floor she unfolded the huge mass of paper and started to find her bearings.

...***...

Even though Cloudsdale was occupied by pegasus ponies who could fly anywhere they wished, the city still had a healthy population of taxis. Just as every earth pony didn’t want to walk everywhere, every pegasus didn’t want to fly everywhere. Sometimes the journey was too far, or they couldn’t fly because of injury, or carrying too many heavy goods, or they were parents with a young foal who couldn’t fly.

One such cab was gliding on the outskirts of the Alto-stratus estates, the carriage, pulled by a single pegasus pony and was carrying a young mare and her baby daughter.

Unseen by any pony, a small orange filly let go of the axle and dropped to the cloud floor. As soon as she landed Scootaloo had to sit down and gather her strength. She was exhausted.

From Cumulus Villa the Alto-stratus estates were on the other side of town. Too far to walk and she had no money for a cab. Scootaloo had taken a desperate option of cab hopping.
Unseen she would hide underneath any chariot that was heading into the right direction. She would cling onto the axle for as long as possible, then jump off and hop onto another cab.

It was slow, it was frustrating, it was exhausting but it had worked in the end. Scoots had hopped almost two dozen taxis. She had taken three wrong turns, ending up miles off course and had been caught twice. Only luck had aided in her escape.

It was late afternoon and she wished the day would end. She was exhausted in mind and body, she was filthy and her legs were sore from clinging onto the bottom of carriages too many times for too long.

Scootaloo sighed and flexed her wings gently, feeling the stiffness in her body as the already tired muscles were forced to move again. Despite everything she felt good. She had been through so much but she was here finally.

She looked up at the estates.
“Oh come on...” She sighed. “That’s just not fair.”

The Alto-stratus estate was huge. Six towering cloud buildings, apartment blocks, each at least a hundred floors high and, judging by the number of windows, at least ten apartments on each floor. Why did pegasus ponies have to build things so big?
The apartment buildings were evenly spaced apart, with plenty of light and flying room between each building. They were arranged in a C shape around a large playing area for fillies and colts in the centre of the estate. Despite being huge they were not imposing and the ground level, the play area especially received enough light to stop it being dark and dreary. That was the handy thing about making a city out of clouds, there would always be enough light.

Scootaloo’s mathematical skills weren’t the top in her class but even she could see there were thousands of apartments. There were six thousand in all and if she knew that it would have broken her heart.

So many set backs. So many problems and she had overcome them all. Many by the skin of her teeth. Now she was here, the last hurdle. The eleventh hour. The last furlong. The home stretch and all those other clichés adults like to spout on about. She was defeated not by red tape, interfering adults or not being able to find the answer she was looking for. She was defeated by numbers. Pure and simple numbers. Thousands of apartments for one single mare.

“No.” She gritted her teeth and tried, really tried, to find some good thought in all of this. She had come a long way, yes. She’d had many set backs, that was true. She tried to think of all the things she had achieved. She hadn’t known any details about who her biological mother and she had found them. She didn’t know where her mother was and she had found an address. She had narrowed the search from all of Equestria, to Cloudsdale. She had narrowed the search further from the entire city of millions of ponies to one area. Then one other area. She had the problem of getting there and she had jumped that hurdle too. She couldn’t be stopped at this last point, she just couldn’t.

Yet, when she looked up and counted the buildings, the number of floors and tried to work out the number of apartments, this last hurdle did seem like it was just too big. What was she going to do? Knock on every door until she found a mare named Rosewing?

“Hi Scootaloo.”

She snapped out of her funk, her eyes wide and shocked. Her head darted in all directions until she finally glanced upwards. She leapt out of the way as a huge grey plot crashed onto the cloud ground where Scootaloo had been sitting a second before.

Scootaloo stared at the grey mare with light blonde hair. A heavy satchel was strapped to her middle. She smiled at Scootaloo, only one of her eyes was focussed on the filly, the other was looking off in some random direction.

“Miss Derpy what are you doing here?” Derpy was the mail mare of Ponyville. Scootaloo was good friends with her daughter, Dinky.

Derpy tapped the satchel strapped to her. “Got some important mail to deliver and pick up. Why are you here?”

Scootaloo stared. She never would have thought that Derpy would fly all the way to Cloudsdale just to deliver mail, the journey was so long. Surely the pony express could pass it along to other mail carriers?
“I....I’m...” She sighed. “I’m trying to find somepony who lives here, named Rosewing.”

“Apartment 56D, Blizzard Tower, Alto-stratus Estate.” Derpy muttered absent mindedly.

“Only the problem is I don’t know where sh...” Scootaloo stopped mid-sentence. Her head turned slowly, ever so slowly toward Derpy.

She blinked, opened her mouth but no sound came out. She blinked again and opened her mouth once more. “What?”

“Rosewing. Apartment 56D, Blizzard Tower, Alto-stratus estate.”

Scootaloo had heard it twice now but she still couldn’t take the fact in. “You...you know where Rosewing lives.”

With perfect cheeriness and everlasting patience Derpy repeated, “Rosewing. Apartment 56D, Blizzard Tower, Alto-stratus estate.”

“How in the hay do you know that?”

Derpy seemed almost confused by the question. “I’m a mail mare. I gotta know where everypony lives.”

Scootaloo was dumbfounded by the words. Surely Derpy didn’t know every address in Equestria? The wall-eyed mare would have to be a genius to have memorised all that.

Scootaloo shook off the thoughts, her brain clicking back to the important information she’d heard; Rosewing’s address!
She threw herself forward and hugged the mare tightly. “Thank you. Thank you Miss Derpy. Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
She broke from the hug and ran toward the estate, skidding to a halt after a couple of paces. She turned back to Derpy. “I have to go now. Thank you again.”

“Bye Scootaloo.” Derpy waved a hoof as the filly ran towards the huge cloud towers.

Author's Note

Derpy saves the day. A little deus ex machina doesn't hurt when used in moderation.

Chapter 10

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 10

The two mares sat outside the Ponyville café. Lyra poked idly at her salad and Bonbon hadn’t even touched her cup of tea, which had turned cold long ago.

Yesterday Applejack had returned with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle but no Scootaloo. There had been some story of her running away to Cloudsdale with some mare in an airship, neither pony really knew what to make of it. Their little filly had run away with some strange mare. At least when Scootaloo had been with Applejack they had known that, no matter what, the farm pony would keep their child safe. Celestia only knew what was happening now.

The two mares looked at each other across the table. They didn’t know what to say to each other. They both were feeling the same worry and couldn’t think of any words of comfort.

“THERE!”

The two ponies looked up as a chariot flew overhead. A pegasus mare, with a yellow coat and a pink mane was pulling it. An orange coated filly was leaning out of the back of the chariot, pointing franticly.

“Land over there! Quick!”

Bonbon and Lyra both jumped to their hooves. “Scootaloo!” they screamed as one.

The chariot banked sharply, doing a full 180. Rosewing tilted downwards, pulling in her wings and coming to a slow and controlled landing.

Bonbon and Lyra rushed to them. Scootaloo was sitting in the back of the chariot, a leg wrapped around a small foal by her side. The colt held onto a small teddy bear, his eyes wide with wonder as he looked at his surroundings.

“Hey,” Scootaloo said with a casual tone and a mischievous grin. “this is Yo-yo. He’s my little brother.”

Bonbon and Lyra just stared. Neither knew how to respond to such a greeting.

Scootaloo hopped off the chariot then suddenly jumped to Lyra and Bonbon, wrapping her hooves around them both. The two mares returned the hug with equal passion. They held onto her tightly, never wanting to let her go.

“Scoots,” Lyra whispered gently, “are you....okay?”

Scootaloo slowly pulled out of the hug. Her expression had turned serious as she nodded. “Yeah.” She glanced over her shoulder at the chariot. Rosewing was unstrapping herself from the harness and Yo-yo was content to sit and stare around the town. “Yeah, I’m okay. Better than okay.” She looked at the two mares again. “I know who I am now.”

Lyra and Bonbon looked at each other, twin expressions of worry played on their faces. Bonbon was the one to ask the question, “and...who are you?”

Scootaloo wiped a piece of dust from her eye. It wasn’t tears, it was just a piece of dust irritating her eye.
“I’m your daughter.”

She jumped at them again, throwing herself into a second hug. Bonbon wrapped her legs around Scootaloo tightly. The tears started to flow and she felt Lyra’s legs join into a hug triangle, her own eyes were glistening with moisture.

“I’m sorry Moms.” Scoots whispered from within the hold of the embrace. “I’m sorry for everything I said and did.”

“It’s okay Scoots.” Lyra kissed the fillies forehead. “It’s okay.”

Scootaloo sobbed quietly. Although, later, she would deny that. “I love you Moms.”

“We love you too Scootaloo.” Bonbon whispered back. Scootaloo smirked, remembering how her two mothers had said that little rhyme all through her foalhood.

Bonbon was the first to look up and notice Rosewing. The mare was keeping a respectful distance from the family. She was sitting on the ground with the colt at her hooves. He was enjoying the feel of the dirt beneath him. The first time on the ground —the real ground and not the cloud ground of Cloudsdale— was a special moment for all pegasi.

Slowly, Lyra and Scootaloo broke from the hug, the older mare started looking at Rosewing.

Rosewing cleared her throat and tried to smile in a friendly way. She ended up just looking as nervous as she felt. “Hello...” She cleared her throat again. “I’m Rosewing.”

Bonbon opened her mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say. Scootaloo popped up between them, a huge smile on her face.
“Biological mom, meet my awesome adoptive moms; Bonbon and Lyra. Moms, this is Rosewing. She’s cool.”

Lyra couldn’t help herself, she started to smirk, which grew quickly into a giggle. Even Bonbon found herself smiling. She looked at Rosewing with a new warmth in her expression. This mare had brought Scootaloo back to them, Scootaloo was still calling the two of them mom, and Scoots thought Rosewing was ‘cool’. Anypony Scoots thought of as cool was usually worth getting to know.

She glanced at Lyra. Without even saying a word they knew they were both thinking the same thing.
Bonbon cleared her throat. “Would you like to come into our home for a cup of tea?”

Rosewing smiled broadly, a look of surprise and gratitude played across her face. As though an invitation for tea was more than she could have dreamed of.
“I would love to.”

End.

Author's Note

Short, but I think it was the best ending.
Over 9 chapters Scootaloo learned what everpony else, and most of the readers, knew all along. So 10 was a nice little epilogue to wrap things up.
Hope I didn't disappoint.

Chapter 1

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by englishwitch
Disclaimer: The following is an entirely fan-created parody. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, it’s characters and all other affiliated merchandise are the intellectual property of Lauren Faust and Hasbro. Please support the official MLP: FiM show.
I make no profit, or money at all, for the production and distribution of this fanfiction.

Chapter 1

Lyra’s music was interrupted by knocks at the door. Her focus broken she almost dropped the lyre held in her magic. With a sigh she placed the instrument down on the coffee table and slid off the sofa.

The knocking came again. “Coming.” Lyra called impatiently. Her horn glowed with a gold coloured light, opening the door as she approached.

Cheerilee, the plum coloured earth pony with a candy pink mane, stood in the door. A second later Lyra noticed the small orange pegasus filly by her side.
“Scoots, what happened?”

Scootaloo’s eyes were puffy from crying, her mane and wings were dishevelled and she clutched a blooded handkerchief to her nose with one hoof. The little filly didn’t explain, her eyes welled up again. She leapt inside and ran to Lyra, wrapping her free foreleg around her.
“Mommy.” She wept through the muffle of the handkerchief. Lyra was shocked, Scootaloo hadn’t cried since she was a young filly. She’d been sad and upset lots of times but nothing had brought her to tears for the longest time.

Lyra held her daughter in a tight hug. “There there.” She said soothingly. She looked up at Cheerilee for answers. The teacher seemed hesitant.

“May I come in?” She looked up and down the street, indicating she had news she didn’t want to discuss in public.

Lyra picked up Scootaloo with her magic, levitating the child onto her back. She hadn’t done this since Scootaloo had been a foal but a ride on mommy’s back had always cheered her up when she cried, it was all Lyra knew could work so she just fell onto the old habit. The child had grown, in size and weight, since then but Lyra could handle it. She stepped back into the living room, Cheerilee walking close behind.

The teacher took a quick look around as she entered. She’d never had call to visit Scootaloo at home. She’d spoken to both parents more than a few times about their daughters grades but that had always been at the school. On the whole Scootaloo was what Cheerilee would call a begrudging learner. She could, and often did, do the work she just didn’t enjoy it. She was more concerned with having fun with her friends than being stuck in a stuffy classroom and being forced to learn facts. Education was a chore to be over and done with as soon as possible. To Scootaloo’s credit, however, she always did a good job. She had learned the important lesson many ponies her age didn’t know; that you’d be made to repeat any chore you hadn’t done right, so it was best to put in the extra effort and do it properly the first time.
“Is Bonbon home?” Cheerilee asked. “I think she should hear this too.”

Lyra nodded. First her horn glowed again, lifting Scootaloo from her back and placing the kid on her favourite armchair. Large and blue with very soft cushions. Secondly Lyra used her magic to open a door on the far side of the room which separated the main house from the store where Bonbon sold her confectionery. “Bonbon, could you come here. It’s Scoots.”

There came noises from behind the door. Lyra guessed Bonbon was locking the shop door and placing a Back In 5 Minutes sign in the window. When Bonbon finally entered the house she had an amused smile on her face. “How much tree sap is she covered in this t-” She fell silent as she saw the tearful filly with the bloody nose. Then her mouth dropped open when she saw Cheerilee. This was more serious than a misadventure with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She rushed over the the side of the chair and looked at her daughter, then to Cheerilee again. “What happened?” She asked them both simultaneously.

Scootaloo hung her head, leaving Cheerilee to do the explaining. The teacher took a seat on the sofa without asking, leaving the two mares to stand close to their seated daughter, where they wanted to be. “As you know, this week we began some of the basics of sexual education in school.”

Bonbon and Lyra nodded, they had both seen and signed the permission slip for Scootaloo to attend the lessons. Some parents thought their children were too young to be even learning the simple facts of biology but the two mares weren’t among that group.

Cheerilee returned the nod before continuing. “Today we covered the basics of reproduction. Nothing too graphic; simple facts such as the stallion providing the seed, which fertilises the mare’s egg, which grows into a foal over a period of eleven months.” She looked at Scootaloo. The filly looked ready to cry again. Cheerilee sighed and continued, “When the lesson was done I dismissed the class for the day. At this point Scootaloo had a disagreement with a fellow pupil, Diamond Tiara. It’s my understanding that Diamond Tiara began the altercation and I shall be having a long talk with her parents when my business is concluded here.”

“What happened?” Bonbon leaned close to Scootaloo, gently nuzzling her cheek. Scootaloo didn’t answer for some time, hoping Cheerilee would finish the story. The teacher continued to look at the filly expectantly.

“Sh...she...” Scootaloo took a deep breath and tried to steady her shaking voice. “She said we weren’t a real family....that you weren’t really my mom’s, because you’re two mares and there’s no stallion.” Scootaloo wiped at her eyes with her foreleg. “I told her she was wrong.”

“Words to that affect,” Cheerilee interrupted, “however what was actually said was really quite rude. Naturally this made Diamond Tiara quite angry and, I’ll spare you the colourful language which I will bring up with Diamond Tiara’s parents, she alluded Scootaloo’s parentage to have originated from local livestock. A fight broke out between them before I could intervene.”

“I hoofed her in the face.” Scootaloo said. The corner of her mouth twitched as she tried not to smile. It would probably get her in more trouble. “Then she hit back and we wrestled and...” She trailed off and dabbed at her nose with the handkerchief even though it had stopped bleeding some time ago. “She’s wrong. Isn’t she?” She looked from one parent to the other. “We’re a real family. You’re really my parents. You’re my mothers. You loved each other so you had a foal.”

Lyra and Bonbon shared a look with each other, then a look to Cheerilee, who shared their same bewildered expression. Scootaloo didn’t know? Hadn’t guessed or figured it out? She was old enough to have realised by now, had the fact really escaped her.

Scootaloo continued looking at her parents, waiting for that confirmation. “I know a stallion is needed to make a baby sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they’re needed all the time? Does it Miss Cheerilee?” She fixed her gaze on her teacher. “Does it? A mare and stallion can have a foal when they love each other. Can’t two mares have a baby if they love each other?”

Cheerilee sighed and looked at Lyra and Bonbon. She hated talking over the filly’s head but she really didn’t know how to answer the questions. “As you can see, it’s not my place. This is a conversation for family.” She climbed off the sofa. “I’ll leave you three alone. I’ll see myself out.” She trotted away and a few seconds later they heard the door open then close.

“Moms?” Scootaloo looked at her parents with growing fright and confusion as they moved over and sat on the sofa, looking at her with serious expressions.

“Scoots...” Lyra looked to Bonbon, who looked just as lost as she did. “Well...Have you never wondered why you’re a pegasus when I’m a unicorn and Bonbon is an earth pony.”

“Not really.” Scoots admitted. “Mr and Mrs Cake are both earth pony’s but one of their foals is a pegasus and the other a unicorn.”

Bonbon blushed at this. “Yes...well...that was a genetic thing.” She finally blurted out. There were lot’s of rumours about the Cake’s and their twins None of which Scootaloo needed to know. Ever.

“We are a family Scoots.” Lyra jumped in. “A real family, no matter what that Diamond Tiara says.”

“And we love you.” Bonbon added. “And we are your parents. We are your mothers.”

“It’s just that....” Lyra looked to Bonbon. They shared a nervous expression.

“Neither one of us...” Bonbon continued. She trailed off and found she couldn’t continue.

“Moms?” Scootaloo trembled with fright. She didn’t know what they were trying to say but it frightened her.

“There’s no easy way to say it Scoots,” Lyra took Bonbon’s hoof, resting it on her own. “Neither of us is your biological mother. We...we adopted you when you were a foal.”

Scootaloo stared at them dumbfounded. Her head started to hurt as the fact sank into her head. Adopted. Bonbon and Lyra weren’t her real parents. So Diamond Tiara had actually been right, they weren’t a family. Not a real one. Fake parents and a fake family, did that mean fake love? Had Lyra and Bonbon really loved her, or had they just felt sorry for a homeless baby.

“What?” was all she could say. Both mothers came over to sit in front of their child. Scootaloo shook her head, trying to make sense of the churning thoughts in her head. “But...then...who’s my real mom?”

Bonbon bit her lip to stop herself crying out ‘We are.’ Scootaloo’s question had been hurtful, but she knew Scoots hadn't meant it that way. She was just asking about her biological mother, which was perfectly natural. “We don’t know.” She admitted. “We never had any contact with her and we weren’t allowed to know her real name.”

“We think she might have lived in Cloudsdale.” Lyra offered. “But when you came to us it was through a social worker’s office in Manehatten.”

Scootaloo looked at them in disbelief. That was it? “That’s all you know about me?”

“We know you.” Bonbon objected. She took the filly’s hoof in her own. “We know we love you. It never mattered whether we were biologically related or not. You are, and always have been, our daughter.”

Scootaloo eased her hoof away from Bonbon, her head shaking slowly. “I...I....I can’t...”

Without warning she jumped from the chair. Her wings spread and she glided across the room. Before Lyra or Bonbon managed to get to their hooves Scootaloo had raced up the stairs and ran to her bedroom.

...***...

Bonbon opened the door to the two young fillies. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle smiled up at her. “Hi Miss Bonbon, can Scootaloo come out to play?” Sweetie put on her best, and cutest, smile. Despite her sadness Bonbon felt a grin appear on her face.

“We’re got a new idea to earn our cutie marks.” Applebloom smiled widely. “Cutie Mark Crusader boat builders.”

“I’m sorry girls.” Bonbon sighed. The brief grin faded.“I don’t think Scootaloo will be coming out today.”

The two fillies were visibly crushed. “Why not?” Applebloom looked up, doing a very good attempt at Sweetie Belle’s adorable, heart-breaking, puppydog eyes. Bonbon had to avoid looking at her to stop her melting into ‘Awwwwwwww’s’

“Scootaloo is very upset right now. After her fight with another of your class mates.”

“Diamond Tiara?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head slightly, confusion dancing over her features. “Scootaloo’s upset because Diamond Tiara made fun of her family?”

“Diamond Tiara’s poked fun at us over all kinda stuff. Scoot’s has always wanted to spend time with us.” Applebloom pointed out. “We like trying to plan revenge. Cutie Mark Crusaders stick together.”

“Today is different.” Bonbon sighed. The closeness of the friends was touching to her. She wished she’d had friends like those two fillies when she was Scootaloo’s age. “You see...well I suppose it’ll be all right to tell you. You’re her best friends so I’m sure you’ll hear about it sooner or later. Scootaloo is adopted.”

“Well duh!” Applebloom rolled her adorably huge eyes. “Everypony knows that.”

“Scootaloo didn’t.” Bonbon said flatly. “Until today.”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stared, dumbfounded. Surely Scootaloo knew. How could she not? Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle knew within seconds of meeting the two mares Scoot’s called mother. They had never brought it up because it hadn’t been any kind of big deal. So Scootaloo had two mares for parents, Sweetie Belle spent almost all her time with her sister because her parents were travelling so often and Applebloom had been too young to even know her parents when they’d passed away. Her sister, brother and Granny were her family. Family was what you made, not just what you were given.
“Wow.” Applebloom didn’t know what else to say. “That must...be hard on her.”

Bonbon simply nodded. “She’s shut herself up in her room. She won’t talk to either of us.” A spark of hope rose on her face. “You’re her best friends, perhaps she’ll talk to you. She was so upset, I’m sure it would comfort her to see her friends.” She stepped back to let the two young fillies inside.

...***...

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle poked their heads into Scootaloo’s room. The place was light and airy. It was situated right over the candy store so it always had the scent of sweet treats lingering in the air. Scootaloo had a big and extremely fluffy bed against the far wall, the closest thing to a cloud Lyra and Bonbon could find. School books and half finished homework was scattered around the floor, Scootaloo’s favourite scooter and helmet leaned against the wall just under the window, her Cutie Mark Crusader cloak had pride of place on a hook over the bed and every wall held several pictures hung in frames. There were a couple of Rainbow Dash, many of Scootaloo at various ages with Lyra, Bonbon, or both, all grouped together and several recent additions of Scootaloo with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo was sitting on her bed, one framed photo was clutched in her hooves. As Applebloom and Sweetie Belle drew closer they saw it was a picture of a much younger Lyra and Bonbon, standing in front of the building that was their home. Lyra was doing her famous trick of balancing on two hooves. A foal Scootaloo, who couldn’t have been more than a month old at the time, was balancing on Lyra’s head, Lyra held her gently in her front hooves. A tiny scrap of paper was stuck to the bottom of the photo New Home, New Family written upon it in the delicate and tidy script Lyra usually reserved for writing music.

“Scoots?” Sweetie spoke. Scootaloo flinched, snapped out of her deep thought by the voice of her young friend. The orange filly tried to put on a brave smile, wiping at her eyes with her foreleg. She’d been crying heavily, her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, tears matted the hair of her coat together in streaks running down her face.

“Hi guys.” Her voice cracked. She cleared her throat, hoping it would fool them, already knowing inside that it wouldn’t. “What’s hap'nin?” She placed the picture behind her back, trying to hide it.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle jumped up onto the fluffy bed. “We heard you found out you was adopted.” Applebloom put a hoof on her friends shoulder in sympathy. Scootaloo tried to shrug it off. Behind her Sweetie had grabbed the picture. She’d glanced at the photo several times on previous visits but this was the first time she’d looked at it in detail. If Scootaloo was a newborn foal then the picture had been taken a little under nine years ago.

“So?” Scootaloo’s fake smile widened to creepy proportions. “Hey, lot’s of ponies are adopted.” They knew this voice, it was Scootaloo’s ‘I’m trying to act cool and casual even though this is really bothering me.’ voice. “What does it matter to me? So I don’t have a real family?” She shrugged off Applebloom and jumped to the floor. “It doesn’t matter that that my whole life has been a lie where I got two mares playing Momma to the little abandoned orphan.” She paced back and force, stomping her hooves heavily as she walked. “What do I care that my real mom didn’t want me? Huh? It doesn’t matter. I got along great without her!”

“Yeah.” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle agreed. They sat on the edge of the bed, watching their friend with growing concern.

“Who needs parents?” Scootaloo growled. With every sentence her voice grew angrier and louder. “My mom wasn’t there to teach me how to ride my scooter, but I learned how. And I’m pretty damn good at it ain’t I?”

“The best.” Sweetie Belle squeaked. Applebloom nodded vigorously.

“Damn Right!” Scootaloo snorted. “First steps. First words. First day of school. I didn’t need her for any of that. If she didn’t want me that’s her loss. She lost out on the chance to raise one hay of a filly!” Her wings flapped furiously, raising her off the ground several inches. “To Tartarus with all of them! I got through my whole life without any real parents. I’m gonna get through school without any real parents, I’m gonna learn how to fly without ‘em! I’m gonna earn my cutie mark and it’s gonna be AWESOME and I’m gonna do it without any help from ANYPONY!”

She fell back to the floor with a heavy THUMP. Her small wings lay limply against her back. Her head flopped forward, covering her face with her purple fringe. Her whole body shook and trembled. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom stared, silent and scared, as they saw a tear fall off the end of Scootaloo’s nose and splash on the wooden floor.

Scootaloo sobbed and sniffed deeply. Her head inched upwards to stare at her two best friends. “Why didn’t she want me?”

Sweetie and Applebloom jumped off the bed. Racing to their friend they wrapped their hooves around her in a tight three way hug. As against hugs as Scootaloo was, she didn’t have the energy within her to resist this time. All three fillies had tears in their eyes. They sobbed silently together, holding each other for the comfort.

Author's Note

So yeah, as we haven't seen Scootaloo's parents in the series yet I thought 'Why not Lyra and Bonbon?' It just seemed amusing. The little Pegasus filly with one of the fan's favourite background pony couple.

Okay, not a very funny chapter. More of the comedy will come in later chapters, during the misadventures of the CMC.

Chapter 9

Scootaloo’s Mother
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 9

Apartment 56D. That meant apartment D on floor 56. So Scootaloo was extremely pleased to discover the building had an elevator.
Not an elevator by the usual standards; a metal cage run by a counter weight system worked by earth ponies. This elevator was a platform made of feather light cirrus clouds inside a hollow tube —also made of cloud, as were most things in Cloudsdale— which had a warm and gentle thermal wind blowing through it. By sitting on the light cirrus cloud a pegasus could use the thermals to up though the floors of the building with the absolute minimum amount of wing effort. Even Scootaloo’s small wings were enough to carry her up through the floors.

So there she was; on floor 56, standing in front of the door to apartment D. Scootaloo tried to convince herself that the feeling in the pit of her stomach was being caused by the altitude. It felt like a dozen Parasprites were dancing a polka in her gut.
“C’mon kid,” she tried to imitate the voice of Rainbow Dash. The polychromatic pony wouldn’t he nervous or afraid, she’d be awesome; as always. “You can do this, just raise your hoof and knock.”

Yet Scootaloo didn’t move. Now that she was here she couldn’t bring herself to do it. All this time her thoughts had been about finding her mother. Find the adoption forms, to find her mother. Get to Manehatten, to find her mother. Find the paperwork, get to Cloudsdale, Find the right area of the city, find the apartment, all just to find her mother. She would find her mother, ask her questions, find her answers and learn who she was.

But what if it didn’t happen that way? She’d chosen to not dwell on the thought before but there was no stopping it now. It was shouting through her skull. The mare Rosewing had given her up when she was a foal, maybe not long after she’d been born. What had been the reason she’d made that decision? What if it was simply because she hadn’t wanted at foal. What if time hadn’t changed that attitude and she still didn’t want to know Scootaloo? What if she sent her away with no answers? Or worse; what if she told Scootaloo some terrible reason she’d given up her filly? Could there be something wrong with Scootaloo that nopony had told her about? Was that why she still couldn’t fly when many other pegasi her own age were able to glide around with ease?

Scootaloo curled up and lay on the floor, trying to stop herself hyperventilating. A hundred ‘What if?’ thoughts were charging around in her brain and none of them were good. She couldn’t do this. She should just go home and forget about all of this. She shouldn’t have come here in the first place. It was stupid to think the parent who hadn’t wanted her in the first place would want her now.

Before she could move however, the door to the apartment opened. A surprised looking teenage pony stared down at her. She was a pink coated pegasus with a sand coloured mane, magenta eyes and a songbird cutie mark. “I...um....can I help you?”

Scootaloo’s panic was forgotten. A new panic was starting to take its place. Had she got the wrong apartment? Maybe Derpy had got it wrong? Or worse, was this mare a daughter of Rosewing and, therefore, her older sister?

The filly climbed to her hooves. Her whole body started to tremble. “I....is.....does....Rosewing live here?”

The teenage pony nodded. “Yeah, but she’s not here right now. She shouldn’t be long, she usually gets back from work around now.”

As though she were an actor waiting for her cue, Rosewing appeared. She flew through an opening at the far end of the hallway, which served as both a window and a landing pad for pegasi who didn’t need to take the elevator. Scootaloo had never seen her before but guessed it was her. Who else would be turning up at this already difficult time? She was a yellow mare with a pink mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a black cloud with three silver snowflakes. She stared at the teenager and the little filly, especially at the filly. The orange coat and purple hair made her breath catch in her throat. She stared at the filly, unblinking, and the filly stared back with the same fixed expression.

The teenager stared between the two ponies. She knew something seemed to be going on between them, but chose not to press the matter. “Miss Rosewing, this filly was looking for you. Yo-yo is down for his nap, I gotta go.” She disappeared into the apartment for a second and reappeared with a saddle bag strapped to her middle. “I’ve got a....homework.”

Rosewing snapped out of her staring contest with Scootaloo and glanced to the teen filly. “Okay Nightingale. Same time tomorrow?”

Nightingale nodded. She spread her wings and moved to the opening.

“And good luck with your date.” The older mare giggled as Nightingale blushed, her pink coat turning scarlet around her cheeks.

“Thanks.” She said over her shoulder as she leapt into the air and glided out of sight.

“Nice girl.” Rosewing commented in a distracted tone. “Great babysitter.”

“Baby?” Scootaloo barely whispered the word but Rosewing still heard her. The stare she had been snapped out of a moment ago threatened to return.

She slowly stepped toward the door. “The hallway isn’t a place to talk. Why don’t you come inside?”

Scootaloo followed the mare, a stunned silence had fallen over her.

The apartment showed all the signs of being a family place. There was a scattering of toys around the floor, children’s books piled on one end of a cloud sofa, bags of clean nappies and baby bottles were by a coffee table.

“Take a seat.” Rosewing indicated the sofa. Her voice sounded distant, almost distracted. She was trying to sound calm; like she knew what she was doing, but in truth she was panicked and trying her hardest not to freak out. “I’ll just-” she stopped as a small shape moved in the corner of her eye.

From out of the nursery came a tiny colt foal. He couldn’t have been more than a year old. He had a periwinkle coat and chestnut brown hair, and the biggest green eyes Scootaloo had ever seen. He tottered on his four hooves uneasily, as though he’d just learned to walk. His tiny little wings fluttered like a bee’s, carrying him for brief points across the floor. He seemed to like the walking more than the flying though. It was probably a novelty for him, pegasi could usually fly before they could walk.
His face lit up when he saw Rosewing. “Mama.” He fluttered his wings, hovering up off the cloud floor before rushing over to her. Rosewing scooped him up in her hooves, hugging the little colt tightly.

“Hello little one. Yes mommy’s home. Now, come along, you should be taking your nap.” She carried the foal back into the nursery.

Scootaloo sat on the sofa, dumbfounded. She had just seen a little colt greet his mother. That same mother had carried the colt into his bedroom for a nap. Her head swam as new possibilities occurred to her. Rosewing was her mother. She was also that colt’s mother. They shared a mother so that made him....she was usually better at working things like this out but the surprise seemed to have stopped her brain from working.....her brother. She felt a wave of disorientation flow through her as the fact sank into her brain like a boulder crash landing in a pond. She had a brother. Oh buck, she had a brother! Why the hay would Rosewing ever want to know her older child? She had a perfectly good colt, why would she need a filly turning up looking for a family? She already had one.

Scootaloo was about to move for the door, it would be better to leave now; there would be no tears, no arguments, no fuss. They could all go on with their normal lives and forget everything that had happened. Before she could move however, Rosewing returned. She was silent as she came into the room and took a seat in a comfy cloud chair. She let out a long and deep sigh before turning to Scootaloo. “So,” she said calmly. “what brought you here today, to look for me?”

Scootaloo took a deep, shaking, breath before she began telling her tale. Beginning with her name, where she lived and who her adoptive parents were. She moved on to discovering her adoption. Rosewing for her part stayed silent over her surprise at the filly being unable to guess she was adopted. Scootaloo moved on to her discovery of the paperwork in Bonbon’s basement, then the trip to Manehatten and the meeting with Matron Foster at the home. She didn’t skip on the details of her breaking back into the home and stealing the paperwork. She gave a brief description of her adventure through Cloudsdale. “I did it all,” she said finally, “came all this way, to find my birth mother.” Then with a stuttering voice she asked the questions she both feared and desperately wanted to ask, “are you...my mother?”

Rosewing was quiet for some time. A worrying amount of time for Scootaloo, who felt every second pass like it was an hour. When she finally spoke it wasn’t to answer the filly’s question, it was to begin telling a story. “When I was a teenager, younger than Nightingale,” she smirked with a dry laugh, “barely past being a filly. It was my birthday actually. And my colt-friend and I, Nimbus, were having a little....let’s say....private party.” Both she and Scootaloo shuffled around in their seats uneasily. “We got carried away and....have you learned sex-ed at school yet?” Scootaloo nodded. “Then I suppose you can guess what happened.” She was glad to skip over the finer details. She hadn’t spoken about them to anypony and had never expected to be speaking them to Scootaloo of all ponies.
“I became pregnant.” She sighed. “My parents were old fashioned and didn’t approve of pregnancy without wedlock. They demanded to know who the father was but I didn’t want to tell them. Nimbus didn’t force himself on me and I was more than willing to proceed, knowing the risks. He was a high-flyer in high school, star athlete. We were still a year from graduating but he was up for a sports scholarship to get him into college. He could have been a great hoofball player, a Wonderbolt, anything. He was smart, with a college degree behind him he could have done....anything.” She was well aware she was repeating the word ‘anything’ perhaps too often. She was also very much aware she was getting off topic. “If he was forced to marry me, just for the sake of keeping my parents happy, it would have ruined all of that. Nopony can waste time putting himself through college when he has a wife and baby to support. When my parents couldn’t get the answers they were looking for they disowned me. Threw me out and never spoke to me again. I had to move in with my grandparents in Cumulus Villa.”

She was silent for a full minute before speaking again. “Then....I....” She sighed. “I came to the most difficult decision I’ve ever made in my life; to give up the foal for adoption. I had nothing back then; I was a high school filly, I had no job, no prospects, I had no home except what the generosity of my grandparents gave me. I couldn’t provide for myself, let alone a foal. I had no future and that was no future for a child.

“Even though I know it was the best decision, I’ve regretted it every day.” She looked to Scootaloo and the filly saw the sincerity in her eyes. “By the time the filly was born though, I’d signed the paperwork and there was no going back.” Tears rose in her eyes. “When they handed me that beautiful baby filly I barely had time to name her and have one picture taken before, as agreed, she was taken away from me.” She wiped her eyes with a hoof. “Excuse me.” She hurried off her chair and trotted out of sight down a hallway. Scootaloo was taken aback by the mares sudden departure. The surprise barely had a chance to pass before the mare returned. She held a tissue to her eyes with one hoof and a photograph in her wing.

Instead of returning to the chair, Rosewing came across the room and sat down on the sofa next to Scootaloo. She held out the photograph for the filly to take. Scoots stared at the image as she took it in her hooves.
The Rosewing in the picture actually looked older than the one in front of her. This was probably because of how haggard the Rosewing in the photo was, her mane was a mess, dark marks under her half closed eyes, her forehead shone with a layer of sweat. She was in all ways drained and exhausted. It probably had a lot to do with the new born foal she was holding. The tiny filly was half obscured by a blanket but Scootaloo could see her little orange face and the tiny puff of a purple mane.

“When they took her away from me I....lost myself for a while.” Rosewing continued as Scootaloo examined the photo. “After carrying her for eleven months I...I changed my mind.” She shook her head. “That’s something of an understatement. I was desperate to get her back. I fought. The doctors and nurses they....they had to hold me down and sedate me. It was the last time I saw the foal.

“After a year or so, and some counselling, I began to feel it had all been for the best. The foal had been placed with a loving family who could provide for her better than I could. I began the long road of making my own life. I finished high school and started weather training college. I always had an eye for fine details so I specialised in snowflakes. When I graduated I started work at the weather factory as a snowflake maker. Each flake is hoof-made you know.

“After my grandparents passed I inherited the house in Cumulus Villa. They had precious little else to give me. I sold it and moved in here. After that my life became quite ordinary and mundane. I worked in the factory and lived in my home. Until two years ago, I met a stallion. We began to pursue a relationship and grew quite close. Our relationship did not last, it happens. We grew apart and, eventually, he moved away to manage a weather team in Vanhoover. It was a few months later I discovered I was pregnant. Yo-yo, you’ve seen him, was born over a year ago. His father sends Bits to help out with bills every month.” She shook her head as she realised she had been off topic for a little while now. Scootaloo had said nothing to put her back on the subject.

“I’ve done many things in my life and I’ve met many ponies and I love my little colt. But I never, not once, stopped wondering what happened to the little filly I had to give up.” She placed a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder and looked at her with sadness, and curiosity, in her eyes. “I gave that foal up so she could have a chance at a better life, so she could be happy and well provided for...So...are you happy?”

Scootaloo cast her eyes down and thought hard about how to answer the question. How to answer? Did she even know the answer? “I don’t know.” She admitted. “I....” she sighed. “I guess I feel....I feel like something is missing. A part of me. I....I thought that if I found my birth mom....I....I’d find that missing piece.”

Rosewing smiled and shook her head slowly. If she knew the filly better she might have hugged her. “That comes from knowing yourself. What makes a pony is their family. Not the pony who birthed them but the ones who raised them. Be it a parent, step parent, adoptive parent or relative. These guardians have a hoof in raising them but they are not the only ones. Sisters, brothers, half-brothers and sisters, step brothers and sisters, cousins and, yes, even friends. Those who you are around every day, those you trust above all others, those you love, those who’s advice and opinions you trust. They are the ones who help raise you, with their love, advice and the experiences you share with them, help make you the filly you are and mare you’ll become. Those who love you and who you love, they are your true family. Not some mare or stallion who’s DNA you happen to share.”

She was silent for a minute, letting Scootaloo absorb the speech.

Then she repeated her earlier question. “Are you happy?”

Scootaloo was silent for longer. She was reminded of something Apple Bloom had said to her a day ago. It was very similar to what Rosewing had just said. She hadn’t believed the words, at least not entirely, back then. Yet, now, thinking hard and sincerely, she saw what her friend had been trying to say.

Finally, Scootaloo nodded her head. “Yes.”

Author's Note

Did I lay it on too thick? I can never tell ;)