Fluttershy's Parents Conversation:

"Fluttershy, what are your parents like?" Scootaloo said.

Fluttershy's ears went back, and wings snapped to her sides. "I- I don't have any parents."

"They've both passed on?" Scootaloo replied. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy seemed to be gaining a bit of her confidence back. "Oh no, they aren't dead. I don't think so, anyways."

Scootaloo frowned. "Then how do you not have parents? Did they abandon you or something?"

"I- It's not r-really something I like to talk about." Fluttershy said.

Scootaloo stammered out an apology, not wanting to upset Fluttershy.

"I- It's all right. I'll tell you about it. It j-just brings up bad memories."  Fluttershy managed. "I was emancipated when I was 14."

"Emanc-a what?" Scootaloo said uncertainly.

"Emancipated. Basically, I signed some paperwork, then we took it to my parents, and with some help, got my parents to begrudgingly sign it, and then sent it to the right ponies to be filed." Fluttershy said. "The paperwork said that I was legally an adult, and could support myself. It also said that my parents no longer had any responsibility for me, and effectively were not my parents anymore. I haven't seen them since."

"You haven't seen your parents since you were 14? Don't you miss them?" Scootaloo said.

Fluttershy thought back to how her parents had treated her. "No, Scootaloo. I don't miss them at all. I- I'm glad they're g-gone."

A single tear came from the corner of one of Fluttershy's eyes as she said this. Scootaloo went next to her and hugged her, not knowing the whole situation, but not wanting to see her unhappy.

The hug made Fluttershy smile involuntarily, and after a few minutes, she was feeling up to continuing. "When I was a little filly, I was extremely shy and reserved."

Scootaloo shot her a questioning look.

"All right, I'm still a bit shy and reserved, but I was way worse at the time. And most of it was due to my parents." Fluttershy continued. "They constantly put me down, intimidated me, and told me I was worthless. A lot of the time I-I believed them."

Scootaloo hugged her a bit harder, unsure of what to say.

"The way they tried to teach me flying was one of the more extreme examples of how they felt about me. They just took me to a cliff and shoved me off. I'd either fly, or no longer be a burden to them. Neither happened. I still have the scars from the crash, though." She moved one of Scootaloo's arms, and Scootaloo could indeed feel a long scar under her coat. "After I recovered, they just decided to send me off to Flight Camp even though I couldn't fly yet."

"Isn't Flight Camp just for students who can already take off and land?" Scootaloo asked, still feeling a bit shocked.

"It's supposed to be, and I got teased really badly because of it. The memories still haunt me to this day." Fluttershy cringed a little, thinking about it.

"But then Rainbow Dash defended you, and you got your cutie mark, right?" Scootaloo said, remembering back.

Fluttershy smiled. "Yes, she did. I suddenly had a best friend, my cutie mark, and knew what I wanted to do in life. Rainbow Dash started teaching me to be more confident in myself, and I started spending a lot of time on the ground taking care of animals. Other ponies started showing their appreciation of what I was doing with them. The mayor came to me one day, and told me that there was an abandoned cottage near the forest, and told me that if I fixed it up, I could use it, which helped a lot."

"So everything started going a lot better for you at that point?" Scootaloo said.

"Not everything. My parents actually got a lot worse. I was standing up for myself more, being more confident, and spending as much of my time as I could away from home. They didn't like that at all." Fluttershy's words turned angry, and Scootaloo involuntarily backed away. "They wanted meek, biddable Fluttershy. Doormat Fluttershy. A Fluttershy they could trample all over!"

About then she noticed Scootaloo had backed out of the hug and was cringing a bit.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!" Fluttershy apologised, and brought Scootaloo back into the hug. "I just get so angry thinking about it..."

Scootaloo relaxed marginally.

"Anyways, after a few times of finding me shaking and in tears, Rainbow Dash managed to get the whole story out of me. I've never seen her so furious. She told me that I needed to get out of there, and that that was final. At that point, I was at my wits end anyways, and agreed." Fluttershy said.

"Rainbow Dash must be a very good friend of yours." Scootaloo commented.

"Oh, she was the best. The two of us went home, I told them I was leaving, and gathered my things while Rainbow Dash stood there yelling at them. They were so shocked they didn't put up any resistance. Then I put all my belongings in the cottage. Half of them were there already." Fluttershy continued.

Scootaloo motioned for her to continue.

"At that point, I went to the Mayor to make sure that she was all right with my moving in. She told me she'd already been planning on making it mine when I was old enough." Fluttershy smiled. "She also gave me the emancipation forms, and told me that I needed to sign them and get a signature from my parents, if possible, and she'd take care of the rest."

"Getting the signature from your parents sounds like it would have been difficult." Scootaloo said.

"I would have thought so, so I just filled my part of it out. I was telling Rainbow Dash about it, though, and she just said not to worry about it. She took the forms from me, and came back later with them filled out, and a few new bruises."

"Wow. What did she do to get them filled out?" Scootaloo asked.

"I decided not to ask. I gave the forms to the Mayor, she forwarded them on to various important ponies, and I've lived in the cottage ever since." Fluttershy replied.

"And they never came back and tried to hassle you?" Scootaloo asked.

"No. Though a few weeks later, something else happened." Fluttershy responded.

"What was that?" Scootaloo said.

"Well, Rainbow Dash lived with her mother, and they came to see me." Fluttershy said. "Her mother had gotten a new job that required traveling all over Equestria, and she didn't want to disrupt Rainbow's learning by pulling her out of school every few weeks. So Rainbow Dash lived with me for the next few years, till she was ready to move out on her own."

"So Rainbow Dash lived-" Scootaloo said.

"In the guest bedroom, right where you've been staying." Fluttershy said.

"Awesome!" Scootaloo said.

Sisters?:

As the two of them entered the library, Twilight turned and greeted them.

"Fluttershy! Scootaloo! Good to see both of you. Was there anything I can help you with?" Twilight said.

"Um... Well, if it's no bother... You've heard that I've adopted Scootaloo?" Fluttershy said hesitantly.

"Yes, I had, and I'm happy for both of you. Though I'm rather surprised no one noticed Scootaloo didn't have a place to live before this." Twilight replied.

"I didn't want anyone to know." Scootaloo said, hanging her head down."I was afraid I'd get sent back to the orphanage."

"We were talking, though, and Scootaloo says her parents abandoned her. I was wondering if you had any spells that would identify them, so she at least knew who they were." Fluttershy said.

"Hmm... Let me see what I have." Twilight said, pulling out a bunch of books, and rummaging through them. "Paternity tests. No. A spell to determine the relationship between two ponies. No."

She pulled out another volume. "Ah. This spell might work. It determines the location of the nearest relative to a pony."

"So you cast it, we go to where it says, and they'll be there?" Scootaloo said, interested.

"Sort of. It will actually involve several passes with a pendulum." Twilight said, reading the spell over.

"That would be great. Let's go ahead and try it." Fluttershy said.

Twilight drew a symbol in chalk on her desk, and pulled out a pendant. She went over to Scootaloo,and before she could object, pulled a strand of her mane out. She wrapped that around the pendant, placed it on the symbol she had drawn and concentrated. Her horn and the pendant briefly glowed purple.

"That should do it. Now where is that map?" Twilight said.

Hearing her, Spike pointed Twilight to a shelf with maps. She pulled out a map of Equestria, and laid it out on the desk. A quick burst of magic connected the pendant to the map. Then she levitated one end of the pendant. The other end started moving on it's own, pointing one direction. Twilight moved it until she was able to pinpoint where on the map it was pointing. Looking at the map, she cancelled the spell.

"Ponyville." She said in surprise.

"Hmm... Scootaloo, stand over there for a moment." She said, gesturing at a spot. After Scootaloo moved over there, she drew a circle in chalk around her, and made it glow briefly with her horn. Satisfied, she picked up the location spell again, only to have it pinpoint Ponyville again.

"Well, I suppose that's convenient. Lets see where in Ponyville they are." Twilight said. She pulled out a map of Ponyville, and repeated the process, only to have it center on the library.

"All right, this is ridiculous. According to this, your closest relative is in the library right now, Scootaloo. And that circle makes sure it isn't pointing at you." Twilight said.

"Um... I did adopt her. Could it be because I'm legally her guardian?" Fluttershy said softly.

"No, it wouldn't work that way. It is based on your genetics, and can only pick up on biological relationships." Twilight said. "Well, only one way to tell for sure."

Twilight activated the spell again, this time not bothering to link it to a map. The pendant swung around and pointed straight towards Fluttershy. She walked around Fluttershy in a circle to be sure.

"Um... This doesn't make much sense. She may be my daughter now, but I know I didn't give birth to her." Fluttershy said, puzzled.

"You wouldn't have to be, just closely related. Just a moment." Twilight dived back into the pile of books she'd just been looking through and pulled one out.

"I knew I saw this spell a minute ago." Twilight said, flipping through the book. "All right, this looks simple enough."

She erased the circle around Scootaloo. "All right, I'll need both of you to stand next to each other for a minute."

Once they were in position, she put one hoof on each of them, and sent magic running through both of them. For a moment, a dark blue light glowed over both Scootaloo and Fluttershy.

"Let's see, dark blue. Well, that's surprising. It explains the location spell, though." Twilight said. "Congratulations, Fluttershy, you are Scootaloo's big sister. Same parents, as well."

Fluttershy went pale. "Scootaloo, how old are you?"

"Um... 9 or 10, I think. The orphanage wasn't exactly given my birthday or anything when I was abandoned." Scootaloo said.

"I think I can guess. You were probably born n-nine or ten months after I l-left home."  Fluttershy stammered out.

"Oh! Oh." Scootaloo thought for a moment. "But you can still be my mother and my big sister as well, right?"

"Yes. I'm glad to be your big sister. It's j-just-" Fluttershy blinked away tears. "They t-tried to replace me with you, and when they weren't satisfied, threw you out as well! And they knew I would have taken you in and abandoned you instead!"

"I could have been living with you all this time-" An angry glint showed in Scootaloo's eyes. "You're right, Fluttershy. We don't have any parents."

"I'm sure I'm missing something here." Twilight cut in, confused.

"Oh, you never heard about my parents, did you?" Fluttershy blinked away her tears. "It's a long story, and I'm not really in shape to tell it right now, unfortunately."

"I suppose I can see that." Twilight said, looking at Fluttershy.

"Ask R-Rainbow Dash to tell you the history between me and my parents, and she can fill you in." Fluttershy said. "You might also fill her in about what happened tonight, as I'm sure she'll want to know about this."

"All right, I'll ask Rainbow Dash to elaborate on the situation." Twilight replied. "I didn't really expect things to be this dramatic."

"T-That's not your fault, Twilight. Thanks for your help tonight. The two of us should probably head back." Fluttershy said, sniffling.

With that, Scootaloo and Fluttershy left the library, and headed back to the cottage, while Twilight hunted down Rainbow Dash for an explanation.

Deleted conversation I might work back in in a different form later:

"We've got plenty of time, so let's just walk to the school. I'm not the best flier, so I'd prefer not to try and keep up up with your scooter." Fluttershy said.

"Ok, Fluttershy." Scootaloo said. "At least you can fly. I keep asking Rainbow Dash about teaching me, but she's always busy."

"Oh my. Um, that might be for the best." Fluttershy said, as they started walking.

"You think I shouldn't learn how to fly?" Scootaloo said, feeling a bit hurt.

"Oh no! It's just that Rainbow Dash, er, probably wouldn't be the best teacher for you to learn to fly from." Fluttershy shrank a bit as she was talking.

"Rainbow Dash is an awesome flyer!" Scootaloo said, feeling a need to defend her.

"She is, and when you're ready for advanced flying tricks, she can probably teach you some great ones. But, well, she's always been a great flyer. She just took off flying one day like she'd always been flying. She wouldn't have much idea why anyone else was having trouble." Fluttershy explained.

"Oh." Scootaloo was silent for a moment. "So I should learn how to fly before getting lessons from Rainbow Dash?"

"Yes." Fluttershy said. "Preferably from someone to whom flying didn't come as easily."

"Ok." They walked along for a moment. "How did you learn to fly, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy's wings clamped to her side, her pupils dilated, and she seemed to cringe a bit. "I- it's not im-important. Look, we're just about at the school."

"Yeah, and looks like we still have time to spare." Scootaloo said. I wonder what I said wrong?

"And that looks like Apple Boom and Sweetie Belle over there." Fluttershy said. "Why don't you go ahead and join them? And remember to give my note to your parents after school, and come by my cottage with a reply, all right?" She smiled weakly.

"Ok. Thanks, Fluttershy!" Scootaloo said. At least she doesn't appear to be holding it against me. She trotted over to greet her friends.

-----

More early attempts at scenes that I still may want to do in modified form:

Fluttershy watched as Scootaloo went over to her friends. I shouldn't have just shut down the topic like that. Remembering her parents cruel attempts at making her learn to fly still made her shudder, though. She still had a scar or two, though they weren't easily visible.

Switching gears, she went over to talk to Cheerilee before class started. She knew her to be compassionate and concerned about her students. Perhaps should could help a bit.

"Fluttershy!" Cheerilee greeted her with a smile. "How can I help you?'

Then she switched to a more serious look. "Have any of my students been giving you trouble?"

"Oh, no." Fluttershy quickly said. "I am a bit concerned, though. What can you tell me about Scootaloo?"

"Well, she's hardly the most conscientious student, but she does try. She's very good athletically, even if she doesn't turn in her homework half the time." Cheerilee said.

"I was wondering if you'd noticed anything out of the ordinary about her behavior, actually." Fluttershy said.

Cheerilee closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. "She late to school pretty often. I've noticed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle tend to share their lunch with her. And not that long ago, I noticed that I seem to be missing records for her parents and home. I was going to ask her about that, actually."

"For the moment, can you hold off on that? I'm going to see what I can do for her, but it's a bit delicate. Just send anything that needs to go to her parents to me for the moment." Fluttershy asked.

Cheerilee stood for a moment in thought. "All right. I'll let you handle it. Just let me know what's going on once you've got things under control, and let me know if you need help."

"Thank you, Cheerilee." Fluttershy said sincerely.

"That's quite all right. I'd want to make sure Scootaloo's problems are taken care of anyways, and it sounds like you already have a handle on it." Cheerilee replied. "Now, I'd better rein in these fillies in and get class started."

Fluttershy left Cheerilee to it, and left the school, deep in thought. She'd need to make sure of the legal situation, assuming Scootaloo was homeless. Usually there'd be several layers of bureaucracy to deal with on that end of things, but in a small town like this, it was mainly a matter dealing with the mayor.

And with the number of animals she had visiting, and her pet adoption service, she had to be on good terms with the mayor. She decided to stop by the town hall.

Taking off at a good trot, she was there in no time. Entering, she saw several ponies wandering about, occupied by various tasks. She saw the Doctor intently examining a nearby clock with an odd metallic device in one hoof. She passed by him, vaguely wondering what exactly Time Turner had a doctorate in, anyways.

Heading down the hall, she saw Madam Mayor. Noticing her, the mayor came over to greet her.

"Fluttershy! Is it already time to renew the paperwork on your pet adoption agency? I'd thought we had a bit more time. We may as well take care of that straight away."

Obviously, this got rewritten later for chapter 3