Spellbound Fireflies (27 page)

Rainbow’s voice wavered with her own tears.  “Y-yeah?”

“
Can
I call you mom?”

A loud sob broke her voice and she strengthened her embrace, almost curling around the filly.  “I-if you want to.”

“L-let’s go back down…mom.”

The two broke apart and beelined with nearly dangerous speed back to the ground. Twilight’s eyes widened from puzzlement to shock at their approach and they tackled her off the bench, holding her to the ground.

Her voice mystified, Twilight mumbled, “W-what?  Scootaloo, you looked great up there, but what’s going—?”

“Can I call you mom, too?”

Twilight’s heart skipped several beats.  She nodded her head in a daze and hugged the two roughly, holding them tight.  Her own happy sobs soon joined those of her family’s.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle hopped down from the bench, eyes wide and bewildered.  Apple Bloom cleared her throat.  “What’s goin’ on?  Is everythin’ okay?”

Scootaloo turned to her two friends in the embrace, eyes bright and wet, “I...I’m gonna live with Rainbow and Twilight.  I...I have a family.”  At their astonished faces, Scootaloo pulled a hoof away and beckoned, drawing her friends into the hug.  “You’re both part of it, too,” she whispered.

“Scoots...” the two marveled, while being pulled in close.

“I have a family,” Scootaloo sobbed, squeezing with utter ferocity.

Sweetie Belle sniffled and hugged back, pressing into Scootaloo’s cheek.  Apple Bloom bit her lip and closed her eyes.

For a very, very long time, all they could do was hold each other and cry tears of joy, wrapped tightly around each other in the middle of the park.

Twilight and Rainbow crossed the town center at a sedate pace, uneasiness slowing their steps.  Twilight chewed her lip and adjusted her saddlebag as they passed out of downtown Ponyville and into the Takers’ neighborhood.  “This is gonna be so awkward, Rainbow.”

Rainbow chuckled with unease.  “It’s, uh…yeah, let’s go with awkward.”

“I mean, maybe if we’d
seen
her at
all
after…”

“Don’t…erm…
Try
not to worry about it, babe.  I’m…sure it’ll be fine!”  Rainbow’s cheery voice matched her lock-jaw grin in authenticity.  Twilight rolled her eyes.

Cantering down the last block, they spotted Scootaloo’s scooter leaning up against the wall of the house and paused at the fence, each taking several deep breaths.

Twilight murmured, “I think I’d rather climb a mountain and ask a napping dragon to leave again.”

“Should we go get Fluttershy?” Rainbow teased without much conviction.

“Har har.  Let’s just go get this over with.”  She opened the gate and stepped into the yard.

“Hey,” Rainbow mused, “That patch on the roof kinda looks like a duck.”

“You
would
notice that, Fluff-head.”

Rainbow snickered nervously and raised her hoof to the door.  She swallowed heavily.  “You, uh…you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”  She raised her hoof next to her fiancée’s and they knocked simultaneously.

The door swung open and Scootaloo called, “You’re here!”  She leapt up and hugged them both roughly around the neck. She leapt back and rushed up the stairs, calling, “I’m gonna get all my stuff!  Mrs. Taker’s in the kitchen!”

The pair glanced around the living room with trepidation and made their way across the groaning floor, peering into the kitchen.

Mrs. Taker sat at the table, slumped over and sipping from a mug.  She glanced up at the two mares and their eyes met.

Rainbow Dash mentally overlaid the last time she had made eye-contact with Mrs. Taker.  The phantom look of revulsion was in sharp contrast to the dull and listless emptiness of her current expression.  Rainbow blinked in surprise and shook her head.

Twilight frowned thoughtfully; she had never seen somepony who looked so tired, not even Rarity after staying up for days filling an order.  After a moment’s hesitation, she settled on following formality.  She cleared her throat.  “Mrs. Taker?  Rainbow Dash and I have made the decision to adopt Scootaloo, pending our wedding.”  She stepped to the table and slid her saddlebag open.  “We’ve both discussed this with Scootaloo, and it’s what she wants, too.  I’ve drafted the paperwork necessary to transfer her into our custody as foster guardians.”

Twilight floated a folder from her bag, opening it and removing several sheets of paper.  She spread them out on the table.  “If you’ll sign these, it will make things go a lot smoother for everypony.”  Twilight’s voice took on a hard edge.  “Please sign them.  It’s what Scootaloo wants and we
will
go through the necessary channels if you refuse.”

Mrs. Taker’s gaze drifted aimlessly from Twilight, to Rainbow Dash, to the paperwork.  A heavy silence fell over the room, broken only by the sound of Scootaloo thumping back down the stairs.  Rainbow poked her head out of the kitchen and murmured, “We’ll just be a few minutes, kay?”

“Okay…mom.”  Scootaloo’s grin grew wide and her pulse jumped, calling Rainbow Dash mom,
meaning
it.  She practically floated to the couch and sat down, fidgeting with excitement.

Rainbow turned back to the mares, the smile sliding off her face in the discomfort of the room.

A long, slow, deflating breath expelled from Mrs. Taker’s muzzle as she wilted in on herself.  Her voice came out low and creaky.  “…I’m usually a very good judge of character.”  She looked back up, catching their gazes and making them almost step back in shock.  Tired, dull, and listless didn’t do her justice.  Mrs. Taker was
broken
.  “I should’ve trusted my first impression of you both.”

Twilight extended a hoof towards the mare, her voice full of concern.  “Mrs. Taker, are you okay?”

“…Care,” she muttered, “You can call me Care.”  She looked back down at the spread of papers and scuffed her hooves along the table.  “…I’ll sign.”

Twilight shared a bewildered and nearly frightened look with Rainbow.  “Care, are you alright?”

There was a long pause as Mrs. Taker sat, bowed forward with her expression hidden by her bangs.   When she spoke again, her words came slowly and haltingly.  “…I never meant for any of this.  All the other fillies and colts I’ve watched in this house were much younger than Scootaloo.  I’d have them here for a year or two at the most and then they’d get adopted.  Before Scootaloo, the oldest foal I had in my care was seven.”

She stood from her chair and turned towards the counter, taking plodding steps.  “You have to understand…I didn’t…”  She stopped halfway across the room and sagged where she stood.  “…Scootaloo stopped being a foal I was just supposed to keep an eye on a long time ago.”  She stepped forward again and opened a drawer, drawing out a pot of ink, a worn quill, and an envelope.  She headed back to the table and sat down.

Uncapping the ink, she continued around the feather in her teeth, “These were always the happiest times in this house, when a new mom and dad…”  She looked up at the couple and shook her head.  “New
parents
came to take a growing colt or filly to start a new life.  I was always just the in-between.”  She dropped the end of the quill in the ink pot and drew the first sheet close.  “When the new parents never came for Scootaloo…she didn’t need a custodian anymore.”  She signed her name resolutely to the sheet.  “She needed a mom.”

With careful attention, Mrs. Taker worked her way through all the paperwork in silence.  When she was finished, she dropped the quill into the pot and leaned back.  “…I was blind to what she needed from me.  And when I saw it, it was too late…and I was a coward.”

The couple met Mrs. Taker’s gaze head on as her eyes traced over them, some of the emptiness drained and replaced by shrewd scrutiny.  Eventually the mare nodded.  “You won’t make the same mistake I did.  You’re like any of the other parents that have come through my door.  Scootaloo will have the mothers she needs…”  She dropped her gaze.  “The mothers she deserves.  And she’ll grow to be a great mare.”

Mrs. Taker checked the ink for dryness on the paperwork and stacked it all together neatly.  She carefully and reverently set her envelope on top of the pile and slid the bundle across the table to Twilight.  “When you think she’s ready for it, please give Scootaloo this letter.  It’s…what I should have said to her months ago.”  Her head and voice dropped low.  “No…years ago.”

Rainbow cantered to the table and lifted the envelope, tucking it out of sight under her wing, giving Mrs. Taker a firm nod.  Twilight levitated the papers back into the folder and returned them to her saddlebag.  She cleared her throat and said, “Thank you,” with as much grace as she could muster.

“Take care of her.”

“We will,” Twilight and Rainbow promised in tandem.  With measured steps, they left the kitchen.

“C’mon, Scoots,” Rainbow said evenly, eyeing the single box by the door.  “We’re all set.  Let’s go home.”

Jumping off the couch, Scootaloo rushed to the door, bouncing in place.  Rainbow smirked and shook her head, hefting the box off the floor and onto her back.  “This it?”

“Yep!”  The filly opened the door and grabbed her ride.  She hopped on and buzzed her wings, lifting off the ground.  Rainbow watched in amusement as her…daughter rode around on the scooter three feet off the ground, its wheels spinning lazily in the breeze.  “C’mon, let’s go!”

Twilight shut the door behind them.  “You want me to get that, Rainbow?”  She prodded the box with a hoof.  “Easy enough for me to carry it with magic.”

“Nah, it’s not heavy.”  She set off at a brisk canter, the box bouncing on her back, following Scootaloo out into the street.  The trip back across town went quickly, the couple practically skipping in their walk with Scootaloo flying around them in circles.  Twilight opened the door to the library on their approach and Scootaloo dropped her scooter to the ground, flying in through the open portal.  Twilight lifted the box in a glow of magic off Rainbow’s back and kissed her fiancée on the cheek.

Rainbow kissed Twilight back and mumbled, “You take her up first so I can put this letter somewhere.”

Twilight nodded and hurried in after the filly.  Rainbow shut the door quietly behind herself and slipped over to Twilight’s desk, sliding open her personal drawer.  Far more carefully than when she hid her Wonderbolt acceptance letter, she opened her wing and set Mrs. Taker’s note under a stack of journals.  She tapped the drawer closed with a kick and climbed the stairs.

Passing by Spike’s room, she approached the second door, halfway up the stairs to her and Twilight’s room.  A fond smile spread across her face as she thought of how many times she’d passed the spare room without giving it a glance.  That would never happen again.  The realization widened her smile as she entered.

Scootaloo bounced on the freshly made bed that was off to one corner, giggling merrily.  “The springs’re way better on this one than my old one!”  Twilight stood in the middle of the room over the box of their daughter’s belongings.  A dresser was at the foot of the bed and a small writing desk sat along the opposite wall in the cozy room.

Rainbow sidled up to her fiancée, sliding her wing along the mare’s back.  Twilight stared into the open box, a frown creasing her muzzle.  Rainbow followed her gaze.

Inside the box, Scootaloo’s Wonderbolt goggles sat on top of a Rainbow Dash Fan Club wig, her folded up Cutie Mark Crusader cape, her talent show outfit, and a stack of old homework papers, quills, and ink bottles.  Twilight’s frown deepened.  “Is…is this all of your stuff?”

“Well, yeah,” Scootaloo answered, hopping off the bed.  “What else would I have?  I don’t have any fancy dresses or anything.”  She stuck out her tongue in distaste.

Twilight touched the side of the box with her hoof and said nothing.

Spike wandered into the room off the stairs.  “Hey, you guys’re here!”  He scampered over to the filly and hugged her around the neck.  “Scootaloo!  Welcome to the family!”

“Thanks, Spike,” she said warmly, hugging back.  “It’s awesome to have a…big brother, or whatever.”

Spike stepped back and puffed out his chest.  “It’ll be great to have a little sister!”  He gazed off into space and his tone grew wistful.  “Imagine…somepony else to help me put away books.”

Rainbow snickered.  “Spike!  She’s not gonna be
your
number one assistant.”

“Yeah, yeah.”  Spike waved a claw dismissively at Rainbow.  “So, Twilight, did’ja need help getting stuff put together in here?”

Twilight slowly came out of her reverie, lifting her head with her expression set hard.  “Yes, Spike, if you don’t mind.”  She turned to the dragon.  “Those books we talked about.  Bring them.”

“Sure thing,” he said, turning to the door.  “Which ones?”

“All of them.”

Spike paused, but Twilight’s tone invited no argument.  “…Alright, Twilight, if you say so.”

“I’ll help,” Scootaloo chimed, following Spike downstairs.

“And bring up some spare wood while you’re at it, please.”  She turned to Rainbow and dropped her voice.  “You have twelve Wonderbolts posters, right?”

“Thirteen.  Why?”

Twilight looked back into the box and then around the sparse room, her frown unsettled.  She said in a near whisper, “Think you could part with a few of them?  This…”  She looked back into the box.  “There’s nothing here, Rainbow.  This isn’t a bedroom, it’s a guest room.”  She turned her pleading eyes on her fiancée.  “This isn’t right.”

Rainbow scanned the room slowly.  With a single nod, she rushed from the room and up the stairs.  Flying up to the top loft, she looked at the assortment of Wonderbolts merchandise plastered to the walls.  Carefully, she landed on the floor and cantered around the room, letting her gaze linger over each and every one; the simple symbol posters, Fleetfoot’s rookie photo, the show commemorations, Spitfire when she was promoted to captain; a fond and nostalgic smile growing wider as she looked.

“…Which ones?” she asked herself.

After a long pause, she stepped to the closest and carefully removed the tacks holding it to the wall of the tree.  She laid the poster across the bed and spit the tacks into a pile next to it.  She moved to another poster.  Then another.