(Thanks again for the continued support as well as the suggestions to help the story along, just a reminder that if you have anything you would like to give your two bits about just post it in the comments below. -N64Fan)

Almost immediately upon arriving at the hospital Scootaloo fell asleep, still cuddled against Inventor’s arm with the lulling call of the clockwork beat. It was a long sleep as her body recovered in the hands of the competent hospital staff. Several days passed and many people visited the sleeping filly, they left gifts of get well cards and flowers.

There was one visitor however that visited everyday, he never brought a gift and he stayed for about an hour before he would leave to take care of things that were happening elsewhere. He would always visit at the end of the day though, just to double check on her. The man never could manage any form of sleep until he had checked on Scootaloo for the night.

Then, eventually, Scootaloo woke up.

With a loud mumbling Scootaloo mentally stumbled out of her extended sleep. The first sight that greeted her was the sight of a white medical pony with a red cross on a sheet of paper for a cutie mark. “Triage?” Scootaloo mumbled.

Triage turned around to smile at the recently awoken filly “Ah, so you decided to come back and join the land of the awake ponies have you?” She spoke in a mother-like tone to the filly as she did with all young ponies who fell into her care.

“What happened?” Scootaloo said as she rubbed her forehead with a hoof as she massaged an ache out. “All I remember is that I was walking along the road and then suddenly,” Scootaloo eyes sprung open. “I was trapped by diamond dogs, and they wouldn’t feed me any plants, they just kept throwing me meat. I thought I was going to starve to death, but then,”

Scootaloo paused as she placed her head in her hooves trying to remember what happened next, “but then they captured somepony else, he got me food from the diamond dogs and then he, he saved me, his name, oh, what was his name.” Scootaloo paused briefly again before her eyes shot open. “Inventor, that’s what he called himself!” she announced excitedly.

Triage smiled politely at the filly and walked over to her nuzzling the orange pegasus’ neck as she said, “Very good Scootaloo, you remembered a lot more than what I expected you to.” When she finished Triage raised her head again and began to walk towards the door, she was interrupted as Scootaloo began to move about.

Scootaloo stretched her body splaying her wings out to her sides, “When can I get out of here Triage? I want to move around somewhere. Oh, and I need to go see Applebloom and Sweetie Belle and let them know that I’m okay.” Scootaloo said excitedly as her wings began to buzz at her sides.

Triage walked away from the filly and took a look at the medical chart that hung on the the foot of Scootaloo’s bed. “Well, according to this chart, you're free to go whenever, we just need to wait for your parent to sign the release form.” With those words Triage hung the chart back on the edge of the bed.

Scootaloo gave Triage a curious look before talking “I’m an orphan remember? I don’t have a parent.” Triage just gave Scootaloo a cryptic smile before opening the door and walking into the hall, making sure to close the door behind her. There were muffled words on the other side of that door that Scootaloo couldn’t make out from her position on the bed. Eventually the muffled noises stopped and all was silent for a moment.

The door slowly opened and an odd biped walked into the room, “Hello Scootaloo,” it said with a smile. “Feeling better?” Scootaloo was silent for a moment as the words played in her head, the voice sounded so familiar. Suddenly the realization hit Scootaloo and her violet eyes brightened.

“Inventor?” Scootaloo asked, joy in her voice. She didn’t care what this man was, she only knew him as the being who had saved her from the dark cage of the diamond dogs. The creature’s smile brightened as he nodded his head. “Oh, thank you so much.” Scootaloo said, “I thought I was going to be stuck in there forever.”

“It’s no problem, really, but I’m going to give you two choices right now Scoots,” Scootaloo nodded apprehensively at Inventor’s words. “You can continue to call me Inventor and know me as that odd human down the road, or,” Inventor reached into the bag that still hung over his shoulder, from which he pulled a scroll of paper that he set in front of Scootaloo, undoing the binding on the paper, revealing that it was, in fact, an official proof of adoption, Inventor continued. “You can call me Dad.”

Tears showed in Scootaloo’s eyes as she tried to force words out of her mouth but was choked off by joy from the fact that the one thing she had convinced was never going to happen had just occurred in front of her. After several minutes of struggling with her emotions she finally managed to get a single word out. “Dad.” Inventor’s eyes glistened over at her response and he pulled her into a tight hug which Scootaloo readily returned. From the doorway Triage watched with a knowing smile.

After several minutes the filly and the man managed to sort out their feelings and they succeeded in getting Scootaloo checked out of the hospital, As they walked out of the hospital they were empty handed of any of the gifts the young filly had received. This was due to Scootaloo having asked to have the gifts she had received to be given to other ponies who were in the hospital, to which Triage happily accepted.

As they walked down the many intersecting pathways to a destination only the human knew, Inventor was the first to speak, “I haven’t had a child in a long time Scoots, so if I do something wrong you're going to have to tell me, okay?”

Scootaloo nodded and grinned “Will do Dad,” The duo walked on in silence after that with the flightless filly following Inventor as they went, they turned down the road for the orphanage and the orange pegasus’s heart skipped a beat, nervousness coated her features as they got closer and closer to the place Scootaloo had been a long time resident in. And then they arrived at the orphanage.

And then they walked directly past it.

The look of relief on the foals face can’t be over exaggerated as she looked up at her dad. The new father returned a knowing smile of comfort and they continued on, a few houses down they turned and walked up to the door of a white house. With a wink to the young filly Inventor reached into one of his jacket pockets and pulled out a key. Putting the key and turning it the door opened slowly to reveal the dark interior.

Upon entering the house, though Scootaloo went at it a bit hesitantly, Inventor closed the door and dropped them both into pitch black. With the flick of a switch the lights turned on, the act of which was accompanied by a loud “SURPRISE!” Scootaloo stumbled backward and fell on her rear at the shock. The house was decorated with a large amount of party favors and in the middle of the picture from Scootaloo’s point were three ponies. Pinkie pie, who no doubt planned the party, stood in the middle. The pink party pony was flanked on either side by Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, all three of who were grinning ear to ear.

The party consisted mostly of the cutie mark crusaders off playing party games, but not before everypony at the party congratulated Scootaloo on her adoption. Besides the rest of the CMC and Pinkie this included Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. As the party swung into full force Inventor found himself standing near one of the walls. Twilight made her way over levitating two cups of punch.

The lavender unicorn passed one into the human’s hand, who nodded his thanks in response for the drink. They stood silently for a few moments as they both took sips of their drinks, the mysterious clockwork beat still bouncing around the room. “You certainly wasted no time jumping into this adoption thing.” Twilight said to break the ice.

“I don’t regret it though, after me and the mayor worked out an arrangement for my job and this house I knew it was all going to work out.” Inventor paused to take a sip of his drink before continuing. “And besides Jo-, Scootaloo is a good kid.” Inventor looked at Twilight who was beginning to turn and face him. “You know,” Inventor said interrupting Twilight as she opened her mouth, “your bolstering of my reputation helped a lot in getting the deal worked out for the mayor. I owe you my thanks.”

“You're welcome,” Twilight said taking the hint to the let the situation drop, she found it in her duty to Scootaloo to say a few words on what she suspected Inventor had just hinted at however, “You can’t use her as a placeholder for something you lost Inventor.” Twilight said wisely, eyeing the haunted man out of the corner of her eye.

“She isn’t Twilight, she is much different in just about every regard, but when I was running away from those diamond dogs I was reminded of my daughter Joy. She was so innocent, she didn’t deserve what she got, and I miss her dreadfully. However, I know that Scootaloo is not Joy, and she deserves much more than being a placeholder in my heart. She is unique unto herself I assure you.”

Inventor paused in his explanation as he sighed and took a drink of the punch. “And even though she isn’t Joy, she still brings me quite a lot of it whenever I see her smile. I couldn’t just let her stay at that orphanage like some discarded toy, she should get more.” At this Twilight nodded in agreement and wandered back to the center of the party to chat with her friends.

The remainder of the night went by without much import, Rarity complained about how Inventor needed new clothes and that he should come by to get measured for a pair, Applejack told him that he should come by and get a few apples from her cart in the morning as a gift from a friend to a friend. To finish up the offers from Twilight's friends, Pinkie Pie assured the man that she would clean up the party when he was gone the next day. So, when the party ended, each of the party guests left with smiles on their faces.

Pinkie Pie was the last one to leave for the night and Inventor stopped her at the door, “How much do I owe you for the party Pinkie?” Inventor asked as he reached into his bag.

Pinkie put her hoof on his hand before he could pull his money out, “This one was free,” Inventor was about to reject the offer when the pink pony spoke again, “We’ll call it my gift to Scootaloo.” Inventor thought about that for a moment before nodding his thanks to the pink pony as she left with a smile on her face.

With a similar smile of contentment Inventor turned to face Scootaloo who was off in a corner of the room about to fall asleep, “Not gonna sleep in your bedroom Scoots?” Inventor said as his smile widened. Scootaloo looked up at him first with wide eyes before dashing off and up the stairs, excited with the prospect of getting her very own room. “On the right!” Inventor shouted up the stairs after her. Shaking his head while the smile clung to his lips.

Scootaloo ran through the door into her room quickly flipping the room light on and began to look at the room that was laid out before her. The walls and ceiling were painted a fiery orange to match her coat and the bed in the middle of the room was the same color, aside from the bed the only other things in the room were her small scooter that she had owned for about a year now that leaned against the far wall and a doll that sat in the middle of the covers on the bed.

The doll was a very childish design but the initials that were sewed onto its back made its value above that of any other doll that Scootaloo had ever seen. S.B. and A.B., Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. The young pegasus jumped onto the new mattress and curled up in her bed as she swiftly fell asleep with the new sleeping companion tight in her hooves.

Mere minutes later when Inventor scaled the stairs himself he checked into the room himself to see the pegasus sleeping contentedly on the new bed the doll held tight between her hooves. With a smile Inventor turned the light off in her room and let the house fall into the darkness before he closed the door behind him.

In the middle of the night as Inventor slept Scootaloo snuck into his room and closed the door behind her. The sound was enough to wake the man from his light sleep, “What’s the matter Scoots? Something wrong?” Scootaloo climbed onto the bed with the doll in her teeth before she spoke.

“I can’t get any sleep dad, everytime I close my eyes I dream that I’m back in the diamond dog cage and that I’m still starving to death.” Scootaloo said with a quivering tone. “and so I was wondering...” The pegasus’s voice fell off into an incoherent mumble as she spoke.

“You were wondering if you could sleep in my room tonight?” Inventor finished for her. Scootaloo looked at Inventor and nodded her head several times, “Of course you can Scoots, I wouldn’t like to dream of being in that situation any longer than absolutely necessary, which in this case would be not at all.” Scootaloo jumped up happily and landed directly on his stomach. Surprising Inventor as he left out an ‘oof’ from the sudden act.

“Just don’t tell anyone about this okay?” Scootaloo said as she drifted off into the sleep that had eluded her earlier that night. “Sweetie and Applebloom would never let me live it down.” There was a yawn and Scootaloo was out like a light and into the dreams of a happier variety as the soft clockwork ticking played its constant lullaby to led her away into dreams that came from a happier place.

“Wouldn’t dream of it Scoots,” Inventor replied softly with a smile to the already slumbering pegasus, Inventor stroked the purple mane of the pegasus filly a few times with his left hand before he let his it rest across her side and he fell into a shallow sleep for himself where the familiar mathematical equations moved around against the black backdrop, this time though the darkness seemed to have a bit more of an orange hue to it.

(Hope that did an apt job of explaining why Inventor adopted Scootaloo.)