> Hoof Covers Bruise
>  by Arwhale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Cul-De-Sac
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hoof Covers Bruise


by Arwhale






Spike stood in front of the library door. With every deep breath his bulging belly rose and fell, staring up at him in mockery. He glared right back at it, brow creased with determination.

Today was the day. Today was the day he was going to start getting in shape. 

A scaly hand reached out to open the door, but after hovering over the doorknob for several seconds, it fell right back to his side. He bit his lip.

I should probably stretch a little more… he thought to himself. Don’t wanna start my workout before I’m ready.

He placed his feet together and reached down to touch his toes, but his belly acted as a wall to impede his progress. Nonetheless, he continued to push against the barrier, wiggling his fingers as they hovered only an inch away from his toes…

“Uhh… Spike?” A feminine voice piped up from behind. His concentration was broken instantly, and he twisted his head around to look over his shoulder.

Twilight stood at the base of the stairs, with two books surrounded in a purple aura hovering on either side of her head. She looked at her assistant with an amused smirk on her face. “Isn’t that, like, the fourth time you’ve stretched since you came down here?” 

Spike’s cheeks turned red as he shot to his feet. “Uh, uhh, yeah. I mean, no. I mean… not the fourth time…”

Twilight sighed. He was trying to beat around the bush, but she wasn't going to let him. 

“Spike… are you going to run or aren’t you?”

Her question nailed him right to the wall. Spike replied immediately, raising his voice as he went on the defensive. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course! I’m just making sure that I’m… loosened up enough. Y’know, to make sure I don’t pull something…”

Twilight chuckled. Her question obviously struck a nerve.

“Suuure, Spike. But if you ask me, it seemed more like you were about to pull something when you were stretching just a second ago. Your arms looked like they were about to come right out of their sockets,” she laughed.

Her giggles caused Spike’s cheeks to flush red with indignation. “No they weren’t! I mean, didn’t! I mean…”

“Spike, listen for just a second,” Twilight interrupted him before he could dig himself into an even deeper hole. “You can’t keep putting it off, okay? If you don’t force yourself, you’re never gonna do it.”

As a usual reflex, the dragon opened his mouth to argue with her, but before the words could leave his mouth, they became trapped in his throat. His hands ran over his belly, feeling it more closely. Despite the thick layer of scales, there was no hiding the extensive layer of fat beneath which gave under his touch like a water balloon.

Twilight hovered the books over to a nearby shelf, sticking them into their previous slots. Spike clutched at his stomach from the other end of the room, lips pursed together in contemplation.

“Well? Are you gonna do it?” She asked. Spike’s eyes darted between her, his stomach, and the front door in rapid succession multiple times. With the alicorn staring at him it was impossible to put it off any longer. It was now or never. At last, he gave in with a deep exhale. 

“Alright, fine,” he groaned, inching over to the door. “I’ll go now. I’ll stop putting it off.  You win.”

Twilight smirked. She muttered under her breath, “Yeah, I usually do…”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” she smiled sweetly. “Have a good run! And remember, start out slow and keep your breathing nice and easy!”

Her advice was met with a laugh from Spike, who crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, okay, Twi. Since when did you suddenly become a running expert? You read that in one of your books?”

This time it was her turn to blush. “Maaaybe… but that doesn’t make it less true!”

Spike blew a raspberry. “Pfft. Suuure, Twilight.” He made his best imitation of her from before. Twilight gave him a disapproving glare. “Anyway, I’m gonna go now. Have fun with your books!”

He opened the door, scurrying outside to avoid a book Twilight threw at him from across the room. It smacked against the wall right where he had been standing and fell to the floor with a thud. Before she could launch anything else, he slammed the door behind him with a mischievous giggle.

When it was clear he had left, Twilight picked the book back up with her magic, inspecting it for damage or marks. Miraculously, there were none. She put the book back onto the shelf, unable to prevent a smile from forming on her face. She chuckled with a good-natured shake of her head.

“Oh, Spike, what am I going to do with you?”

…

Unfortunately for the baby dragon, in the midst of his excitement, he had totally forgotten Twilight’s advice.

He started out fleeing the library at a pace he could not possibly maintain, and within less than five minutes he was forced to stop, coughing violently with his hands on his knees. He had at least made it down the street, but now he felt like a vacuum was sucking the air from his lungs, and the longer he leaned forward to catch his breath, the more his belly began to weigh him down and pull him toward the street.

When he looked back up he noticed a few ponies were shooting him perplexed looks as they walked past. His brow creased with newfound determination when he realized other ponies were watching him, and he broke out into a jog once more. 

This time, he made it all the way around the corner before he had to stop again. He coughed into a closed fist, holding his gut with his other hand. 

Maybe this whole “getting in shape” thing isn’t for me, he reasoned to himself. After all, Twilight had said a while ago that a little bulge in the belly was normal for his age…

Still, he knew that if he showed back up at the library after only being out for less than fifteen minutes, Twilight would never let him hear the end of it. She’d probably nag him, telling him that he should have listened to her and taken it slow, and that she had, once again, been right all along. But he could have none of that.

So, he settled for a compromise and walked instead.

He soon found the exercise to be more up his alley. All he had to do was walk around town for a while and Twilight wouldn’t even know he hadn’t been running, he surmised. After all, walking still counted as working out…right?

Suddenly, the intoxicating aroma of cinnamon and warm sugary glaze greeted his nostrils. His head whirled around, searching for the source of the smell: Sugarcube Corner.

He froze. Oh no.

Nutmeg, spiced apples, brown sugar and honey, flaky pastries fresh from the oven, buttercream icing: he could smell all of it. Each scent conjured up images in his brain of the glass counter inside, lined with the finest cakes, tarts, cobblers, and pies that could be found.

Oh…yes.

His stomach purred seductively underneath him with newfound appetite. He kept his feet rooted to the spot, resisting his urges to just give in and call it a day. However, the rest of his body subconsciously leaned forward, gravitating towards the beloved bakery.

It’s okay, Spike, his growling stomach seemed to say. You’ve been exercising for long enough. It’s only your first day, after all. You really should take a break and treat yourself to something nice. You totally deserve it.

“No…” said Spike aloud. “I… I shouldn’t…”

Don’t be silly, his stomach growled again in reply. Spike ignored it as best as he could, trying instead to think of something else to take his mind off the heavenly smell, but it was fruitless.

Come on, Spike, it said. He clenched his jaw muscles tight. Just one little cupcake…

“No,” he refused. But his stomach wasn’t quite ready to give up just yet. This time, it didn’t say anything in particular, but its message to his brain was quite clear.

Wuuuuurpp!

That was it. With a final resolution, Spike pointed at his belly with one of his sharp claws and exclaimed in a loud voice, “Shut up! I’m not gonna do it, so stop trying!”

“Err… excuse me?”

The sound of a pony’s voice close by made him jerk his head up, looking in the direction of the speaker. Lyra stood right in front of him, only a few meters away. Her pupils dilated with worry. 

“Err, Spike? Who are you talking to?”

Spike's mouth fell open. “Uhh, uh… nobody. Just… talking to myself,” he stammered.

To your stomach. Your stomach.

Lyra backed up a few steps, watching him closely. She smiled, but her face gave him a clear indication that she thought he was crazy. Spike didn’t blame her.

“Um… okay, then… H-have a good day.”

Spike smiled back with a pair of crimson cheeks on full display. “Thanks. You… you, too.”

She waved to him, and without another word they went their separate ways. Once she was gone, Spike sighed with relief, exiting downtown and leaving the aroma of fresh baked goods behind. 

Ponyville was small, and pretty soon he had made a left turn into the residential area of town. Multi-leveled houses stood on either side of him, containing sizable yards in addition to flower and vegetable gardens which were in full bloom. It was not like he never came to this part of Ponyville, but considering all of Twilight’s friends either lived downtown or in the opposite direction, he didn’t visit this area very often. He walked at a leisurely pace, looking around at the less familiar part of town with curiosity.

He soon came to a three way intersection. The main road went straight, and another, much thinner road branched off to the right. To his surprise, Spike realized he had never gone down the road on the right before. Curious to see where it led, he made the turn.

Right away he could see a difference in the size of the houses on this road. They were much smaller than the multi-leveled homes he had seen coming in, and their yards were less sizable as well. There were no fancy flower gardens that he could see, either. Spike knew that Ponyville was a prosperous town and that there was a high degree of economic equality, but as in every city and town, there was always a place where the less prosperous lived. From the looks of it, Spike guessed he had made it to that place. 

The road was a dead end, but Spike did not realize this until he had nearly reached the end of the cul-de-sac. He frowned, turning around and heading back the way he came. But before he could make it very far, he heard something that made him stop dead in his tracks…

A faint cry of distress.

Based on what he could tell, it came from somewhere behind him at the end of the cul-de-sac. Spike turned back around, suddenly on the alert. His eyes scanned between each of the three houses on the dead-end, listening closely. He was not sure if he had actually heard something, as the sound had been muted and unclear at best, but he was determined to find out. 

He stood there for a little while, but the only sound he could hear was the chattering of a cicada in one of the nearby trees. Even so, he stood in the center of the street for quite a while longer, the sun getting lower and lower in the sky.  

He never heard the sound again. Part of him wanted to go back and check the houses and investigate further, but he didn’t want to snoop around in places where he didn’t belong, either. Finally, after careful consideration, he decided to head back to the library.

On the way back, Spike no longer looked around him at the rows of houses, or at the trees, or at the birds that flew past. He barely even smelled Sugarcube Corner. Instead, he looked at the ground directly in front of his feet.

There was only one thing on his mind: Had he or hadn’t he heard something?

Back at the cul-de-sac, next the middle house, a blue scooter stood propped up against a tree.

…

Twilight heard the library door open behind her. She glanced up at the clock from her place near one of the bookshelves; he had been gone for nearly an hour. She grinned.

“Hey, Spike,” she said over her shoulder. “How was your run? You were certainly gone for a while.”

The door shut with a click. “Fine.”

A one work answer; he sounded less than enthusiastic. Twilight picked up on this right away, and thinking something was the matter, she turned around.

He was already walking over to the stairs, not even bothering to look at her. She furrowed her brow in puzzlement, asking, “Uh, Spike? Are you feeling okay?”

The dragon shrugged. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired,” he said absentmindedly. He was already on the first step, his back faced to her. She raised one eyebrow.

“You sure? You don’t sound like it… did you start out slow?”

She couldn’t see Spike roll his eyes at the question. He stopped halfway up the stairs, making eye contact with her for the first time since he returned. 

“Yeah, I did. I’m fine, okay? I just need a nap, that’s all,” he insisted. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Twilight did not believe him. She had known the dragon for too long not to know when something was the matter with him. Nonetheless, she could tell from his grumpy demeanor that she wasn’t going to get anywhere fast by asking questions, so she decided it would be best to leave him be for now and try her luck later.

“Okay, then. Have a good nap. I’ll be quiet down here for you,” she added. He gave her a thumbs up over his shoulder.

“Thanks,” he said before he was lost to sight. Twilight gazed up the stairwell, biting her lip.

“Oh Spike,” she sighed, shaking her head, “what am I going to do with you?”

…

It was a scooter accident. Yep, another one. Yeah, I know. I really do need to take a break from all of those crazy tricks. If I’m not careful, I might get hurt even worse next time. Got it.

It was always a scooter accident.

A cricket chirped outside her window. Being a light sleeper, on most nights this would have kept her awake for quite a while. But not tonight. Tonight, it was the fresh blue and brown spots on her hide that did the job.

Each time Scootaloo settled into the mattress, her body weight settled upon a previously undiscovered bruise, forcing her to roll over and try her luck on the other side. She rolled from right to left and back again more times than she could count, but after numerous unsuccessful attempts, she gave up with an irritated sigh and sat herself up against the headboard, laying her head up against the wall.

It was never a scooter accident.

The blinds over her window were broken and bent in several places, allowing the moon’s phosphorescent glow to seep in through the cracks. Placing one of her forelegs into the light, she revealed a black spot which had risen into a bump just above her hoof. The pegasus filly poked it gently, wincing as the pain resurfaced from the slightest touch. Bending further forward, the moonlight illuminated another mark, this time a black and blue ring on the underside of her arm. The girl rolled her eyes. Sitting still in her desk was going to be even more challenging than usual tomorrow.

Her scooter was a curse in disguise. Something she could hide behind, could use as a shield from inquiry. It was such a perfect excuse that even Miss Cheerilee didn’t ask about her bruises any more. In fact, she could already rehearse tomorrow morning in her head; she’d walk into school, and Miss Cheerilee would just shake her head at her and tell everypony to take their seats. Applebloom might give her a knowing smirk.

And that was that. No more questions. Everypony already knew.

Just another scooter accident.

> Catharsis
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this altitude, the air was thin. But over the years, Rainbow Dash’s lungs had gotten so accustomed to the elevation that she had developed a deep-seated affection for it. This was her home outside of home.

The sound of her wings flapping developed an easy rhythm as she ascended higher and higher. She extended her forelegs out on either side as if she was walking an invisible tightrope, keeping her body vertical as the clouds masked her view of the pale-green meadow below.

An ‘o’ formed on her lips as she sucked in a breath of frigid air, eyes closing for a moment in pure bliss before letting the air back out in a long exhale. Her breath turned to mist in front of her, a light breeze blowing the condensed vapor back onto her face. She breathed it back in, repeating the cycle over and over until she had reached the count of sixty, and then she looked back down to the earth. 

The ground was invisible, completely obscured by a layer of clouds now far beneath her. Rainbow Dash smirked.

Her wings flapped at an almost lethargic pace. Both forelegs remained extended for balance, keeping her perpendicular to the ground that was now over a mile down. She breathed in again, but instead of exhaling, she held the icy air in her lungs.

Her forelegs fell to her sides. She pressed them tightly against her cyan coat, and after one more flap, her wings followed suit. The air she had been holding in her lungs escaped from between pursed lips.

She dropped.

Nothing was audible except for the roar of air cascading over her ears. Eyes closed, she concentrated on keeping her body motionless, forcing herself to keep her wings pressed against her back and submitting to gravity’s pull. For a minute, her fate felt entirely out of her control.

Then…weightlessness.

The sensation of falling, of her insides rising in her chest, disappeared. Replacing it was the feeling of floating in empty space, with nothing but a net of air holding her in place.

She counted back from ten.

Nine… eight…

Her lips mouthed the numbers, eyes never opening. She had to time this perfectly.

Seven…six…five…

Her wings twitched at her sides, awaiting release. They wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

Five…four…three…

She stretched her forelegs out in front of her.

Two…

She pivoted her body forward, rolling in midair until her head was aiming down at the earth, diving headfirst with her forelegs extended in front of her head. The pegasus opened her eyes.

One… 

The ground was so close that she could practically make out each individual blade of meadow grass bowing and swaying in the breeze.

Go.

Her wings shot out, lithe back muscles flexing and veins on her neck looking fit to burst. She flapped with all her might, projecting her body forward and out. The tips of the meadow grass reached up to brush against her underbelly, and she careened toward the ground with eye-blurring speed.

But just as her body was about to strike the ground, she angled her wings parallel to the meadow, pulling up at the last possible second.

Had Rainbow Dash been flying over sand, she would have turned it to glass.

The meadow grass underneath her did not stand a chance, uprooted and hurled aside as she tore over the landscape, leaving a straight line of black soil in her wake. Wings flapping relentlessly, she didn’t slow down.

She was heading straight for Ponyville.

…

Scootaloo gripped the handlebars differently today. One foreleg rested on top, as usual, but the other one she placed under the bar. It was the only way she could grip it without pressing on the bruise on her foreleg.

Her leg kicked back tiredly on the dirt road, propelling herself forward in tune with her buzzing wings. Occasionally, she readjusted her hoof on the handlebars, grunting every time she was careless enough to touch it on the metal. It was going to be a few days before she could use her leg normally again.

The schoolhouse was only a few minutes away. Unease gnawed at her stomach, and acid rose to the back of her throat. No matter how many times she came to school marked up, she always felt the same trepidation; they’d find out. It was too obvious this time, she’d tell herself. They’d suspect something, and they’d find out.

But as soon as she arrived at the schoolyard, she always managed to push it all into the background. Nopony ever saw her sweat; show off your colors proudly, and nopony would ever be the wiser. Nopony ever was.

In the midst of her thoughts, she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye in the direction of the meadow. Her back hoof dragged on the dirt to bring her scooter to a stop, and she peered out into the expansive field.

It was little more than a blur, but it was soon readily apparent that it was getting closer to her. She squinted, watching it with a close eye. Whatever it was, it was moving extremely fast…

Her eyes grew wide with astonishment as she noticed the rainbow-colored streak the blur left behind. There was only one thing it could be: Rainbow Dash. 

Scootaloo watched with amazement as her surrogate sister screamed across the ground from right to left, moving diagonally over the landscape. The pegasus filly gave a tiny flutter of her own wings from excitement; even being a spectator to Rainbow Dash’s awesomeness was enough to fill her with glee.

Unfortunately, she was only able to watch the show for a little while longer. As the blur that was Rainbow Dash approached Ponyville’s outer limits, she noticed the other pegasus slowing down considerably until she came to a halt in midair, hovering several meters above the ground. Scootaloo was a little too far away to call out to her, but she watched Rainbow Dash from the road for a few seconds longer before she gave her scooter a kickstart, heading on her way. Scootaloo looked over her shoulder one last time, trying to catch one last look of her idol before she was lost to view.

She nearly fell off her scooter when she saw Rainbow Dash zooming straight for her.

“Squiiiiirt!”

Rainbow Dash shot past, skidding to a halt on the road in front of Scootaloo. The pegasus filly gave a whoop of surprise, putting her right hoof over her heart.

“Squirt!” Rainbow Dash beamed. She was panting from her earlier exercise, but that didn’t stop her from having the usual pep in her step as she walked over to her. “What’s up?”

“Sheesh, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo retorted back, sounding upset but smiling nonetheless. “You scared me!”

The elder pegasus laughed. “Haha, yeah… Sorry ‘bout that.” She messed up Scootaloo’s mane. “Saw you riding to school, so I thought I’d drop by to say hi to my ‘little sister’ before she got there.”

Hearing the word “sister” uttered from her idol’s mouth lifted Scootaloo five feet off the ground. It had been some time since that fateful camping trip where Rainbow Dash had offered to take Scootaloo under her wing, but it was a fact that was sometimes still hard for her to believe.

“Oh, well…” Her heart beat faster with contained joy. “Th-thanks, Rainbow Dash…”

“Don’t mention it. Oh, and I almost forgot to ask; are you still coming on Friday?” Rainbow Dash implored with a cock of her head. Scootaloo gave her a blank stare.

“Friday? What’s on… oh yeah,” Scootaloo remembered. Her eyes brightened. “Yeah, of course! Getting flying lessons from you? I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Alright, Scoot, sounds good. I’ll catch ya later— whoa.”

She was about to fly off when she stopped herself mid-flap. Scootaloo already gave her scooter a kickstart, but she stopped herself again. Rainbow Dash stretched her neck out, looking at Scootaloo’s underarm. She grimaced.

“Dang, Scoot… how’d you get banged up?” She pointed to the large splotch of black and blue under Scootaloo’s arm. The filly’s breath caught in her lungs. 

“Oh…” Scootaloo looked down to where Rainbow was pointing. When she saw the bruise, she instinctively went to cover it up with her other hoof. “This?”

“Yeah, that.”

Scootaloo swallowed her nervousness. It had been awhile since she had been put on the spot like this…

“Yeah, I, uh… I messed up on the landing when I was doing a jump on my scooter yesterday, and the wheels kinda hit a rock, so… I flew over the handlebars and… yeah.” A timid smile accompanied the conclusion of her story.

Rainbow Dash sighed with relief. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought maybe you were having problems with bullies or something like that…”

“Bullies? Oh, pfft,” Scootaloo scoffed, shooing an imaginary fly away from her face. “Nah, that’s not a problem. Just another scooter accident… ”

Rainbow Dash tousled Scootaloo’s mane again with a good-hearted chuckle. “I always knew you were tough as nails, Scoot. And you know what they say: no pain, no gain! I mean, as long as you don’t get hurt too bad… Heck, I remember banging myself up like that more than a few times when I was your age. Now look at me.” She gestured to herself with a flourish of her wings, making the pegasus filly giggle.

The sound of the school bell traveled a half-mile down the road. It was muffled by the long distance it had to travel, but both ponies heard it nonetheless. Rainbow Dash’s pupils dilated with surprise.

“Uh oh… did I make you late for school?” she asked. Scootaloo shrugged.

“Nah, don’t worry about it… Miss Cheerilee’s pretty chill about tardies and stuff like that…”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Are you sure, Squirt? I can tell Miss Cheerilee it was my fault if you want…”

“Nah. I’m fine,” she insisted. “But I really should get going… no offense…”

She buzzed her tiny wings to propel her scooter forward. Rainbow Dash waved at her as she went away. “None taken, Squirt. Have a good day! And remember, three o’clock Friday!” She called out a last reminder.

Scootaloo was still moving forward, but she replied back over her shoulder. “Thanks, I’ll be there!”

She gave her wings one more buzz, zooming off in the other direction. Rainbow Dash waited until the filly had disappeared from view before she flew away, heading back to town.

“Can’t wait, Squirt. Can’t wait.”

...

Slouching forward in her desk was her usual posture, but not today. The bruise on her underside pressed up against the edge of the desk every time she leaned too far forward, so she was forced to sit up straight in her chair. Needless to say, it annoyed her a lot, but in a sense it was a good thing because it forced her to stay awake despite only getting two hours of sleep the night before.

“Now, could somepony tell me what the root of this number would be?” Cheerilee asked, tapping the number “144” on the board. Several foals and fillies raised their hooves, but she looked them over, not calling on any of them.

“How about somepony that hasn’t contributed so far today… Scootaloo? Could you tell us?” She asked the pegasus filly sitting near the back of the room. Scootaloo jumped at the mention of her name.

“Hmm, what? Wh-what was the question?” She asked, rubbing her tired eyes. Cheerilee frowned, but repeated the question calmly. 

“Could you tell us the square root of this number, Scootaloo?”

The filly looked at the number on the board that Cheerilee was pointing to. She stared at it with her mouth open, but no words came out.

“Uhh… square root…” She thought hard, trying to remember the day’s lesson before this point. Cheerilee waited patiently, giving Scootaloo plenty of time to think.

But after nearly half a minute had elapsed, Scootaloo asked her, “I, uh… what's a square root, again?”

A chorus of snickers sounded from all around the room. Cheerilee’s ears fell back on her head, discouraged that her student had not been listening, but as soon as she heard the laughing, she immediately became aggressive.

“Now, that is enough. I do not EVER want to hear laughing at a fellow classmate for any reason. Are we clear?” She asked with venom in her voice.

The class fell silent. Cheerilee glared at all of them.

“I said, are we clear?

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” the class said in unison, averting their eyes in shame. Scootaloo slumped in her chair in spite of her bruises.

Rrrrringgg!

Saved by the bell. Scootaloo exhaled with relief.

“Okay, students, that’s all we have time for today. Now remember to study for the quiz on squares and square roots for tomorrow! It’s going to be a tough one!”

Her students groaned, but she ignored them, smiling warmly at each one as they walked past. “Have a great day, and remember to get a good night’s sleep!”

Scootaloo could have sworn Miss Cheerilee was looking straight at her when she said that. She avoided eye contact with her, keeping her gaze low and on the floor.

“Hrey, Scroot,” somepony with a familiar country twang piped up from beside her. Scootaloo turned around, seeing Applebloom with a notebook in her mouth and putting it in her saddlebag.

“Oh, hey, Applebloom,” Scootaloo rubbed at the bruise under her arm. “What’s up?”

Applebloom closed her bag. “Nothin’ much, just wrote up an extra set of notes for Sweetie Belle. Ah’m gonna bring ‘em over to her right now. You're coming with, right?”

Scootaloo nodded right away. “Yeah, of course! Oh, and thanks for taking all the notes today. I dunno, I’m just kinda… out of it right now.”

“Um, excuse me Scootaloo, but could I see you for a minute?”

It was Miss Cheerilee. Scootaloo stopped, lowering her head. She grimaced; it was a sentence every foal dreaded to hear from a teacher. Applebloom smiled an apology to her as she inched toward the open door.

“Ah’ll… Ah’ll wait out here for ya, okay?” She walked out, leaving Scootaloo alone with Miss Cheerilee. The little filly turned around with great reluctance, as if expecting to see a monster standing right behind her.

But all she saw was the smiling mare sitting behind her desk. Miss Cheerilee motioned to her for her to take a seat up front.

“It’s alright, Scootaloo. You’re not in trouble, don’t worry. I just wanted to talk to you about a few things.” She pointed to the desk directly in front of her. Scootaloo’s mind was put relatively at ease by this statement, but it didn’t stop the nervousness from lingering.

“Okay…” She moved to the desk indicated, sitting herself down in a careful manner to avoid putting pressure on a mark closer to her flanks. Miss Cheerilee’s brow furrowed at her.

“You alright there?” she asked. Scootaloo smirked, ignoring the dull, throbbing pain and pushing it to the background.

“Yeah, I’m fine. You know how it is.” She smiled to assure the teacher she was fine. Miss Cheerilee shook her head.

“Ah, yes… but you really should be more careful when you’re on that scooter… I’ve seen you riding out there, and it’s a miracle you haven’t broken every bone in your body considering all the crazy tricks you do.”

Scootaloo forced out a laugh, hooves fidgeting under her desk, out of Miss Cheerilee’s view. “Well, you know what they say…" She remembered Rainbow Dash's words from that morning. "No pain, no gain.”

Miss Cheerilee sighed. “Yes, yes, I suppose you’re right… but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you today, Scootaloo.”

The mare watched as Scootaloo shuffled in her desk. She took it as a sign of nervousness.

“I wanted to talk to you today about your participation in class…” she stated. She was not scolding the girl in any way, but rather, her tone conveyed genuine concern. “I’ve noticed that you seemed to be having trouble focusing on what I’m teaching. And it’s not just today… all last week you seemed to be having trouble. Is that wrong of me to say, Scootaloo?”

The filly shook her head. “No, you’re right. Sorry…”

“And it’s starting to affect your grades as well… they’re slipping, Scootaloo. You’re not failing, but you certainly are not performing at your best, either,” she added. Scootaloo slouched in her chair.

“Oh. I didn’t know that… I just haven’t been sleeping very well lately.”

Miss Cheerilee listened to her student’s explanation for her unusual behavior; the girl’s vague reason was not quite enough for her. She wanted to know more.

“And why is that, might I ask? Have you not been feeling well?” she probed.

Scootaloo shrugged with nonchalance. “Yeah, I’ve been feeling fine. Really, I have, I’m just…” She looked down at the big mark underneath her foreleg. “It’s… all the bruises made it hard to sleep last night, so…”

Miss Cheerilee groaned, exasperated. Scootaloo made a pained expression, sinking down in her chair again as she prepared for the inevitable lecture she was about to receive.

“Scootaloo… I don’t know how many times I’ve had to tell you to be more careful on that scooter of yours,” she began, “and I know I just talked about this to you a minute ago, but… Scootaloo, you can’t just keep doing what you’re doing and expect not to get seriously hurt one day. You might think right now that it’s only bruises, but if you’re not careful, one day you could end up with broken bones. Or worse!”

She shuddered at the thought. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was unaffected by it. She had heard this same speech one to many times. And while she knew Cheerilee meant well, hearing it yet again only served to annoy her. Anger her, even…

“I know, Miss Cheerilee, I know. I’m sorry.” She tried her best to sound sincere. Miss Cheerilee breathed deeply, looking Scootaloo directly in the eyes. 

“I forgive you, Scootaloo. But… I’m afraid that last time was your final warning. I think I’m going to have to talk with your father about your… daredevil tendencies.”

As soon as the sentence had left her mouth, Scootaloo’s nonchalance instantly went away, replaced with pure horror. She sat back up in her desk.

“Wait… wait, no, no! I thought you said I wasn’t in trouble!” She cried, indignant. Miss Cheerilee shook her head rapidly.

“You’re not, Scootaloo! I’m not talking about a parent-teacher conference for bad fillies, I’m just saying that I think I need to tell your father—”

“No, you don’t need to! You don’t! I promise not to crash on my scooter any more, okay?” Scootaloo was practically begging her, now. “I’m gonna be more careful from now on, I promise!”

Miss Cheerilee was taken aback by the distress of Scootaloo’s response. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought Scootaloo had just been suspended from school.

“Shh, relax, Scootaloo! All I want to do is make your father aware of—”

But Scootaloo wasn’t listening. She talked over Miss Cheerilee, eyes shiny as they began to well up. “No, you don’t need to tell him! I’ll be more careful, I won’t do tricks any more, I’ll focus in class, everything!”

Miss Cheerilee looked into the distraught eyes of the filly in front of her. The girl’s pale purple irises pleaded with her, her pupils expanded with fright. The mare did not know what to think of all this, but seeing Scootaloo acting the way she was, she decided to consent to the girl’s wishes just this once.

“Okay, Scootaloo,” she relented, “I will give you one last chance. But if I see you come to class again, bruised everywhere… I’m going to mention your grades to your father. Again, not to get you in some sort of trouble, but just to let him know how it’s affecting your studies. Okay?”

Scootaloo closed her eyes, sucking back the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks and breathing a sigh of relief. “Okay, got it. Thank… thanks, Miss Cheerilee. I’ll be more careful, honest.” She said in earnest. 

Miss Cheerilee nodded at her in approval. “Alright, Scootaloo. I think that’s everything.” She turned around, grabbing the chalkboard eraser and proceeding to wipe off the board. “You’re free to go, my little pony.”

Realizing she was dismissed, Scootaloo did not hesitate to get up from the desk, making a beeline for the door. Miss Cheerilee smiled; she could tell Scootaloo had been waiting for her to say that for a long time.

“Have a good day, Scootaloo!” The filly heard her teacher call out behind her. Scootaloo turned around as she went out the door, waving back to Cheerilee.

“Thanks... y-you, too.”

She exited the classroom, leaving Cheerilee there all by herself. After she finished erasing the board, the schoolteacher sat down at her desk, staring at the several rows of desks which were now empty. Resting her elbows on the table, she tapped her hooves together and held her head up with her forelegs. She sat there for quite some time, not budging in the slightest and looking straight at the desk Scootaloo had just been in. 

She could still see the terror in that filly's eyes.  

…

“So… what’d she say to you?” Applebloom asked Scootaloo as they walked side by side through the schoolyard. Scootaloo rolled her eyes. 

“Oh, you know… just stuff about how I need to be more careful on my scooter and all that…” She kicked a pebble. Applebloom regarded her with an amused expression.

“Again, huh? Well, Ah mean, yeah,” she laughed, “You do kinda show up to school with a bunch of nasty lookin’ scrapes and bruises, like, every other week. Ah don’t blame her for wantin’ to getcha to stop bein’ so crazy.”

Scootaloo grunted in reply, kicking another pebble in front of her hoof, this time much harder. It shot up in the air, landing many meters away. Applebloom shot her friend an inquisitive look.

“What?” she asked innocently. Scootaloo shrugged.

“Nothing,” she retorted. “I’m just… not feeling that great right now. Is it… is it okay with you if I just grab my scooter and call it a day? I mean, can you drop by Sweetie Belle’s by yourself, just for today?”

Applebloom cocked her head to the side. They had been going together to visit Sweetie every day since the day of the rattlesnake bite, and this would be the first time one of them couldn't make it. 

“Umm… yeah, Ah guess. You sure? I mean, if you ain’t feeling good…”

“Yeah, I’m sure… sorry, Applebloom,” Scootaloo apologized. “I’m just feeling really crummy right now.”

“Nah, that’s okay. Ah’m sure she’ll understand. Don’t want to get her sick, too.” Applebloom smiled as they began to part ways. “See yah tomorrow! Hope you feel better!”

“See yah! And thanks!” Scootaloo yelled back to her. She moved over to her scooter, which she had left lying down on the dirt on the far end of the yard after recess. “Oh, and tell Sweetie Belle I said hi!”

“Ah will!” Applebloom shouted back. They waved to each other, and Applebloom walked down the street, leaving Scootaloo alone on the yard.

All of her other classmates had walked home or been picked up already, leaving her there all by herself. Scootaloo eyed her helmet and scooter lying there, side by side on the dirt of the yard. After putting on the helmet, she grabbed the handlebar with her good foreleg—the one without the bruise—and set it upright on the ground, stepping onto the platform with her front leg. She was about to hop on. 

Then, inexplicably, she stopped herself. 

For a while she just stood there, not moving an inch, staring at the blue painted scooter. She looked at the fine wood finish, now covered in nicks and bumps from frequent use, and the once-shiny red wheels now made dull from wear and tear. 

For a reason she could not explain, something was swelling up inside her. Akin to the throbbing of her bruises, but it wasn’t pain. It was heat.

Rage.

It built up slowly, the veins on her leg bulging as her muscles tensed up. Teeth audibly scraped against each other, and her foreleg gripped the handlebars tighter and tighter until it turned blue from the lack of circulation.

And then, she let it loose. The pegasus filly threw the handlebars down, and the scooter clattered against the dirt. 

"Raaagh!" A high pitched roar escaped her as she kicked out at it, her hoof making a dull smack as it connected with the platform’s hardwood surface. She kicked it again, even harder than the first, and then again, punctuating each kick with an angry shriek. The scooter just lay there, accepting its master’s treatment without complaint.

Scootaloo switched to stomping on it now, slamming her hoof down on the scooter's metal neck. Her vision became blurred with tears, causing her hoof to sometimes miss its mark, but she did not stop. The scooter clattered against the ground with each strike, jerking left and right with the force of every hit it was dealt.

At last, after a full minute, Scootaloo stepped back, chest heaving as she panted for air. The scooter was several meters away from where it had been at the beginning, pushed across the ground during the course of the beating. Looking down, she noticed her hooves were covered in even more bruises than before, and as the adrenaline started to subside, she began to feel them in full.

On a set of shaky legs, Scootaloo hobbled over to her fallen ride, wincing with every step she took. The scooter waited for her in silence, a few new marks adorning the finish, but otherwise unharmed.  

Once she reached it, she propped it back up, standing on the wooden platform, and with a kick of her back hoof and a buzz of her wings, she headed for home.

…

> One Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having somepony to talk to on the trip was always nice. But today, Applebloom was walking all by herself, and she didn’t like it one bit. 

Seeing Sweetie after school had become an everyday routine, and despite the long trek, neither of them ever missed a visit; on the two nights a week that Miss Cheerilee didn’t tutor Sweetie Belle at home, Applebloom and Scootaloo would go over the day’s lesson with her.

Or, at least, that was what they did officially. Applebloom was pretty sure Sweetie’s parents knew they weren’t exactly tutoring her all the way until sundown, but she was also pretty sure they didn’t care, either. In a sense, their home had become the new Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse, and even if they couldn’t go Crusading like they used to, they never let that stop them from having fun.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Applebloom readjusted the saddlebag on her back. The trip took a little while, usually between twenty minutes to a half hour depending on how fast you walked, but today it felt like an hour. There was a first time for everything, and she knew Sweetie Belle would understand why Scootaloo couldn’t come, but that didn’t stop her from feeling down about it regardless.

The road narrowed as she made the turn into Sweetie’s neighborhood. The houses here were quite sizable, and Sweetie’s house was no exception: three floors, with an expansive yard and the added bonus of a nice view of the Ponyville pond up front. The millwheel next door groaned and creaked, the sound accompanied by the rhythmic, hissing plop of water running off the wheel-slats and falling into the pond below.

Applebloom walked over the well-trimmed grass of her friend’s front yard and stepped onto the front porch. An ornate silver knocker was placed in the center of the door, and Applebloom grabbed a hold of it, rapping it against the door three times. From inside, she could hear the sound of hooves padding lightly over a carpet floor, and the door swung open. 

Sweetie Belle’s mother was on the other side, and seeing Applebloom standing there, she smiled wide.

“Applebloom, sweetheart! Come on in.” She stepped to the side to allow Applebloom entry. The filly wiped her hooves on the doormat before stepping inside. 

“Hold on, I’m coming!”

The squeaky voice of her fellow Crusader was unmistakable. Applebloom turned her head to the voice, looking at the doorway to one of the adjacent rooms. Sweetie Belle’s mother darted over the carpet and to the entrance of the other room.

“No, no! You just stay where you are, Sweetie! We’ll come to you…”

“No, no, that’s okay. I’m already, like, halfway there.” Sweetie could be heard giggling from a short distance away. “I’m fine.”

Applebloom’s view of Sweetie was blocked by the wall, but she could see her mother shooting her a disapproving glare.

“Sweetie… just, be careful, okay?” She said with the worry only a mother could have. "You're still just getting used to walking on it."

Applebloom could hear Sweetie’s quiet laughter in tandem with a set of irregular hoofsteps on the hardwood floor. “I know, mom. Don’t worry, I’m starting to get the hang of it.”

The white unicorn filly emerged, stepping her front leg onto the carpet. Her only front leg. She looked up from the floor.

“Hey, Applebloom!” A bright smile was on her face. However, it took only a moment to fade as she looked at the spot beside Applebloom. “Where’s Scoots?”

Applebloom smiled back, but there was a hint of melancholy to it. “Hey, Sweetie Belle. Scoot isn’t... she’s not feeling good, so she went home for today. So it’s just me ‘n you.”

Sweetie Belle looked saddened by the news. Her eyes expanded at the mention of Scootaloo being ill. “Oh… well, I hope she feels better…” she pushed off the ground with her two back legs, sending herself forward and landing on her foreleg in a limping step. Sweetie’s mother came forward to help her, but the filly shook her head roughly.

“No, I got it, really.” She took another hobbling step forward, eyes fixed on her front leg with intense concentration. 

Applebloom, on the other hand, wasn’t going to let Sweetie walk all the way across. She met her halfway and gave Sweetie a hug with one foreleg. Unable to hug her back, Sweetie pressed her cheek against Applebloom’s neck, a gentle smile on her face. Sweetie’s mother still hovered behind her daughter, but when it was apparent that Sweetie was in good hooves, she nodded one last acknowledgement to Applebloom and left them there alone.

“I’ve got the notes,” said Applebloom after she pulled away. “We did math today.”

Sweetie groaned. “Math? Ugh!” She pouted, walking in her unique gait alongside Applebloom. “I hate math.”

The farm filly laughed. “Yeah, Ah know. Don’t worry, Ah’ll teach it to ya. Ah’ve always liked math.” She gave her a confident smirk. Sweetie stuck her tongue out in disgust. 

“Bleugh! I don’t get how. All those numbers just make me dizzy,” she replied. “I don’t get why you’re so good at it.”

Applebloom shrugged. “Just comes natural to me, Ah guess.”

Sweetie Belle took another step forward, but stopped in the middle of the floor. Applebloom didn’t notice at first, but when she turned her head to talk to Sweetie, she realized that the unicorn filly was behind her. 

“You need help?” She asked, concerned. Sweetie shook her head again.

“No, I’m… I’m good. Just need to rest for a second,” she said with a short puff of air. Applebloom raised one eyebrow.

“Ya sure?”

“Yeah.” She coughed once to clear her throat. “I’m fine. I can make it.”

She started forward again to prove her point, but it was soon obvious that she was still not having an easy time with it. Applebloom was only an inch away from ignoring Sweetie and helping her anyway, but she dissuaded herself at the last second. This was a matter of dignity, and she wasn’t going to take that away from her friend. She swaggered from side to side to disguise the fact that she walking extra slow, hoping that Sweetie wouldn’t notice.

Since Sweetie’s bedroom had been on the third floor, her parents had moved her to the guest room downstairs. It was nigh impossible for the filly to traverse the stairs without help, and this option was far more doable. Applebloom opened the door, moving out of Sweetie’s way. The unicorn filly staggered inside, and Applebloom closed the door behind her. She undid the strap of her saddlebag and grabbed it in her teeth, pulling it off her back and tossing it onto the covers of the bed. 

The mattress was low to the ground to make it easier for Sweetie to reach. Applebloom hopped up, taking a seat on the comforter and taking the notes out of her saddlebag. Sweetie Belle followed Applebloom, using her hind legs to jump onto the bed and belly-flopping onto the mattress. The movement was clumsy, but it got the job done.

Applebloom laid the two note pages on the blanket as Sweetie scooted closer. The unicorn filly sulked.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” She sighed. “What math did you guys do this time?”

Applebloom turned the paper so that the writing was facing Sweetie Belle. “We went over this thing called ‘roots.”’

Right away, Sweetie’s face registered confusion at the unfamiliar term. “Roots? What do you mean, ‘roots?’ You mean like plants?”

Applebloom guffawed. “Plants? Oh, no. Like, square roots.” She put special emphasis on the word “square.”

Sweetie Belle gave her a blank stare. Applebloom face-hooved.

“Well… okay, how about I just show you an example instead…”

…

The tip of Twilight's tongue stuck out of her mouth in concentration. Holding a quill in her magic, she traced it carefully over the scroll on her desk, pressing down very hard to ensure the writing was clear and legible. She finished the last word in the message, dipping the tip of her quill back in the inkwell. She pressed the tip of the quill back onto the paper.

Whump!

"Aaagh!"

Twilight cried out at the sound of her front door suddenly slamming open downstairs. She jumped in her seat, her quill streaking across the page and leaving behind a broad, black line over the words she had already written.

"Hey, Twilight! Are you here?" A raspy voice called from below. 

That was all it took. Twilight rolled her eyes. She knew right away who had crashed through her front door.   

"Yes, yes. I'm coming, Rainbow Dash." She set the quill back into the inkwell, taking a closer look at the scroll. The black line of ink was impossible to miss; she was going to have to write the whole thing over again. She scowled. 

"Oh, for the love of..." she groaned. The alicorn tossed the ruined scroll into the trash and got up from her seat and trotting over to the stairs. "Gimme just a sec, Dash!"

When Twilight walked down, she was greeted by an excited rainbow pegasus at the bottom of the stairs. Rainbow Dash was rubbing her hooves together, hovering a meter above the floor. 

"Hello, Rainbow Dash. How are you d--" 

"So, do you have it? Do you?" Rainbow Dash cut her off , zipping over to Twilight and pressing her nose against the other mare's. "Did it come in yet?"

Twilight reared back a bit as Rainbow Dash got in her face, but gently pushed the pegasus back a few feet with her hoof. "Calm down there, Dash. Did what come in y--Ohh..." Twilight smiled. "That? Yep, it came in the mail just this morning. It's in the box over the--"

No sooner had she gestured to the small square box next to one of the far shelves than Rainbow Dash zoomed over to it, picking it up with her hooves. Twilight chuckled at her friend's enthusiasm. 

"Aaalright!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She wasted no time in tearing open the cardboard with her teeth. The item inside was encased in a layer of paper, and she tore that off as well, revealing the item: a brand new hardcover book. But not just any book. Rainbow Dash flipped it over to the front cover, an elated smile spreading over her face. 

"Daring Do and the Treasure of the Serpent Sea," she read the book's title aloud. She had been waiting for the latest entry in the Daring Do series to arrive, and now it was finally in her hooves. She rubbed it against her cheek in an affectionate hug. "I can't believe it's finally here! I've been waiting ages for this thing!"

Twilight laughed. "Ages? It's only been... today's Thursday, and I put in the order Monday... so three days. Not that long."

Rainbow Dash looked incredulous. "Three days? It's definitely been waaaay longer than that..." She thought back to earlier in the week. "I mean, it's felt like at least a week... wait a second. You said today was Thursday?"

Twilight affirmed her with a nod. "Yep. Why do you ask?"

Rainbow Dash appeared worried by the news. She ran a hoof over the book's smooth cover. 

"I thought today was Wednesday... That means that tomorrow is Friday." She reasoned aloud. "Which means..."

"What's the matter?" Twilight asked. Rainbow Dash shrugged, tossing the book back and forth from one hoof to another. 

"Hm? Oh, nothing. It's just that I promised to give Scoots her first flying lesson on Friday, and that's actually tomorrow..."

"Oh, I see," said Twilight. A mistake in the ordering of one of the shelves caught her eye, and she began to rearrange some of the books with her magic. "Speaking of which, how's your whole thing with Scootaloo been going? You know, the whole "taking her under your wing" thing?"

Rainbow Dash caught the book, spinning it skillfully on her foreleg. "It's been going great. Scoots is a chip off the old block." She grinned. "I actually got to talk to her this morning on her way to school, which was pretty cool. She seemed pretty excited about Friday... tomorrow." She laughed with nervousness. "Guess I should start putting together a routine for her now, huh?" 

Twilight switched the order of two of the books on the shelf. "Yeah, probably a good idea. Don't want to be unprepared."

Rainbow Dash agreed. "Yeah... And it'll probably be harder to come up with good stuff since she's a little banged up..."

"Oh? How so?" Twilight inquired. There was a trace of worry in her tone of voice. "What happened?"

Rainbow Dash gave her a smug grin. "She crashed her scooter when she was trying to do a trick." She saw Twilight wince, but the pegasus didn't seem too concerned. "I'm telling you, though, she's a chip off the old block. I remember doing stuff like that when I was her age and getting banged up, too. Little Squirt's as tough as nails."

Twilight could see the pride shining on Rainbow Dash's face. It was all she needed to prove that things between the two pegasi were going well. 

"I'm glad to hear that, Dash. She sounds a lot like you," she said. Rainbow Dash nodded, staring down at the book held in her hooves. 

"Yeah. She sure is," she affirmed. She stared down at the book, seemingly lost in thought for a moment before she spoke again. "Anyways... I think I should probably get going."

She glided over to Twilight, giving her a tight hug with the foreleg that was not holding the new hardcover. Twilight returned the grateful gesture.       

"Thanks for the book, Twi!" The pegasus squeezed her, flapping her wings excitedly. "I know you said you'd give it to me for free, buuuut... if you ever change your mind and want me to pay you for it..."

Twilight immediately shook her head at the suggestion. "Oh, no. Don't worry about it. Consider it a gift from me to you," she offered. 

Rainbow Dash drew away from the hug, crossing her forelegs over her chest. "You sure? I mean, I can go back and get the ten bits from my house..."

"No, that's fine." Twilight refused. "I have no problems with giving it to you for free. My treat."

Seeing she was serious, Rainbow Dash decided to take the gift. She clutched the shiny new hardcover with a grip of steel, and she glossed over the title once again. The prospect of more late nights spent reading was a good one. 

"Okay, then. If you say so." She flew over to the door. "Thanks again, Twi! I think I'm really gonna like this one."

Twilight waved at the rainbow pegasus as she began to leave. "You're welcome! And good luck with your flying lessons!"

"Thanks! She's in good hooves, don't worry!" Rainbow Dash assured. Tucking the book underneath her, she waved one more farewell to Twilight and closed the door with a hard slam. Twilight winced at the loud sound.

"Geez, doesn't that pony know how to open and close doors without nearly breaking the frame?" She asked the bookshelves. They didn't answer her. She frowned. 

"Yeah, right... back to work." She walked upstairs and sat back down at her desk. With a glance over at the trashcan, she eyed the ruined scroll. The alicorn sighed. 

"Darn it, Rainbow Dash," she moaned. Hovering another blank scroll out from one of the cubbies on her desk, she took out the quill and began to write it all over again.

...

“Umm… 5?” 

Applebloom grinned. “Eeyup! That’s four in a row, now. You feel like you’re startin’ to get it?”

Sweetie Belle put her hoof under her chin, skimming over the notes once more. “I think so…” She pointed to one of the numbers on the paper with her snout. “So, that little number thingy next to the big number… what’s it called again?”

Applebloom looked at the number indicated. “Oh, you mean that little number in the corner? The exponent?”

Sweetie nodded in affirmation. “Yeah, the expo… exparrot… that.” She rolled her eyes with frustration. “When that’s a two, that means you multiply that number by itself one time? And when that squiggly thingy is outside the number… what’s that called again?”

Applebloom scrunched up her face in thought. It took her a second to think, but she eventually shook her head, smiling sheepishly. “Ah dunno, actually…”

“Meh, whatever the thingy’s called,” Sweetie blew it off, “that means square root?”

“Eeyup!” Applebloom confirmed. “I think you got the gist of it.”

Sweetie Belle raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Really? I actually got it?” She was elated. “Wow, that’s like… the first time I’ve actually gotten math that fast!”

Applebloom chuckled. “Yeah, y’see? It’s not that hard. It’s actually pretty easy once you get used to it.”

“Ehh…” Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes skeptically. “I mean, I dunno about ‘easy,’ but…” She blushed, looking away bashfully, “…you’re a good teacher, so… that makes it better.”

Applebloom took the compliment to heart. She blushed as well, feeling accomplished. 

“Really? Well, Ah uh, Ah mean… thanks…” she cleared her throat out of nervousness. She never knew what to say when it came to compliments, even if they came from one of her best friends. “S-so… you wanna practice a little more? Y’know, just to make sure…”

Sweetie made a face at the prospect of doing even more math. “Well, I don’t really… agh, fine,” she consented with a groan, “I guess a little more couldn’t hurt… hey, Applebloom? Can I ask you a quick question?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Applebloom replied. Sweetie Belle looked at her with an expression of concern.

“It’s about Scoots… When you said she wasn’t feeling good, did she say how sick she was? I mean, like, is she still okay?” 

Only giving it a second’s thought, Applebloom replied in the affirmative. “Oh yeah, she’s still alright. Ah guess… Ah mean, she wasn’t real sick or anything, and she did come to school today, but... she didn’t seem normal, either. She didn’t look that great.”

Sweetie Belle listened to every word, silently directing her gaze at the pillows on her bed. “Oh. Okay… sorry, I just wanted to know because Scoot’s been… ah, nevermind.” She stopped herself mid-sentence. 

Applebloom noticed, and immediately her curiosity peaked. “Wait… been what? What about Scootaloo?” she inquired.

Sweetie Belle re-situated herself on the bed, fumbling awkwardly at the covers. “N-nevermind. It’s nothing, just… it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it—”

“No, it’s alright, you can tell me. Ah wanna know,” Applebloom insisted. “Is something the matter with Scoots?”

Sweetie Belle pressed her lips together tightly, taking a deep breath through her nose and exhaling through her mouth.

“I don’t wanna say, but… maybe I should just tell you,” she relented. She played with the sheets with her foreleg, softening her voice to a near-whisper. “I just feel like… like, Scoots has been acting… different, lately.” 

Sweetie cringed the moment the words left her mouth. The filly never liked talking about other ponies behind their backs. Applebloom’s brow narrowed down in a perplexed frown.

“Different? Like, whaddya mean, exactly?”

Sweetie pursed her lips again, a pained look on her face. “I dunno. She just seems…sad.” 

Applebloom cocked her head. “Sad? Hmm..." She screwed up her face in thought. 

"Yeah, sad. Like, just feeling kinda down about things..." Sweetie Belle said, not sounding very sure of herself.

Applebloom thought back to all the times when she had been with Scootaloo over the past few weeks. While she hadn't noticed anything too obvious, she did have to admit that, now that Sweetie had brought it up, Scootaloo had been seeming a bit odd lately. Her eyebrows furrowed downward. 

"Yeah... now that you mention it, she sort of does seem like she's... not quite the same," she concurred. "Ah can't really put my hoof on it."

"Yeah, me neither. It's just one of those things, you know?" Sweetie said gloomily. "Then again, maybe I'm just imagining things..."

Applebloom fiddled with the bow on her head, obviously at discomfort. "Nah... well, maybe. I don't know." She licked her lips. "Do you... do you think maybe we should talk to her? Just to make sure she's doing okay?"

Sweetie Belle considered her friend's proposal, and gave her a quick nod of her head. "Yeah... I think that would be a good idea. We don't have to make a big deal out of it; we can just ask her if she's been doing okay next time we see her. That's all," she reasoned. 

Applebloom stopped playing with the bow on her head. She mulled it over, and came to the conclusion that their plan was a good one. "Alright. Sounds good to me." 

The two of them lay there on the bed without saying a word for quite some time. That is, until Applebloom gestured to the page of notes lying on the covers between them. She grinned with mischief.

"So... how about we practice a little more on this stuff, and we can call it a day," she said. Sweetie Belle looked at the notes page, and cringed. 

"Uhhh... I don't really w-- ughh, fine," she caved. Applebloom giggled, and pointed to one of the numbers on the piece of looseleaf.

"Square root of 121?"    

…

Scootaloo hung her helmet over one of the handlebars, propping her scooter against the tall oak tree. She always made sure to keep it partially hidden behind the tree’s thick trunk and in view of her bedroom window, as if paranoid that a thief would come and steal it away as soon as she was out of sight.

The sun shone bright, but the trees kept most of the house in a perpetual shadow. She walked toward the front door with a cautious step, looking and listening as she approached. She clutched the doorknob between her brown and blue hooves and, as carefully and quietly as she could, cracked the door open. Her head poked inside.

She listened, hardly daring to breathe. After a minute went by without her hearing anything inside, she slid in through the crack and closed the door shut behind her. Again, she listened. 

When she was satisfied nopony was home, she allowed herself to breathe again. With more confidence, she walked down the hall until she was in the kitchen.

A thin film of dust sat atop the wooden table at the center of the room. Behind it was the counter, which had also developed a layer of dust from the lack of use. Scootaloo walked past the table, heading straight for the refrigerator in the far left corner, grabbing the handle in her mouth and pulling it open. 

She grinned. Beside the half-filled egg carton and gallon of milk, there were still three juice boxes left. She took one out and closed the door.

Minutes later, Scootaloo was sitting alone on the sofa in the next room, hunched over the coffee table with the straw of the juice box between her lips. She slurped the sweet nectar through the straw until the box formed an hourglass shape, and after extracting every last drop, she set it down on the coffee table atop a paper plate containing an uneaten jelly sandwich. 

She wasted no time in snatching it up and wolfing it down until there was nothing but crumbs left on the plate and jelly-stains left on her hooves. Her stomach rumbled below, but she ignored it. 

Taking extra precautions not to touch the furniture, she grabbed the paper plate and walked back to the kitchen. After throwing it in the trash, she washed her hooves in the sink, making sure to clean away every last jelly stain before she went back to the living room to inspect it for any messes she could have made. 

There was nothing. Feeling relieved, she left the room. 

The hallway was dimly lit by a tarnished brass chandelier hanging overhead. One of the teardrop-shaped bulbs blinked rapidly, giving it the appearance of an actual flickering candle flame. Scootaloo walked underneath it, heading to the door at the end of the hall. When she got there, the filly opened the door and stepped inside.

Minimal light from the outside world came in through the cracks in her blinds. She would have opened them to let in some more of the sunshine, but the cord had been broken for quite some time. Leaving the lights off, Scootaloo shut the bedroom door and hopped onto her bed. 

For quite some time, the filly lay there on her stomach, legs sprawled out over the cotton comforter. Now that a day or so had passed, the brown and blue lumps on her hide were starting to hurt less, and she was getting used to the sore, ache-y feeling when she laid down on top of them. She rested her cheek on the blanket, looking to the far wall on her left. 

Knicks and craters littered the drywall. Scootaloo’s eyes examined every bump and crack, every gash and bit of chipped paint. Some were indiscreet, anonymous, yet some others were not. Some were distinct; they held memories. And she remembered. 

Not wanting to look anymore, Scootaloo rolled over onto her back to stare straight up at the ceiling. But just before she was about to close her eyes, out of her peripheral vision, something on the wall right beside her door captured her attention. She looked up with only her head, her chin pressed against the base of her neck. 

It was a little calendar, the type that was small enough to stick in a saddlebag or shove comfortably into a desk drawer. A knob of sticky tack had been used to fasten it to the wall, leaving it slightly crooked but otherwise secure. On one of the days, a Friday, Scootaloo could make out words that had been written in red ink, in all capital letters:

"FIRST LESSON WITH RAINBOW DASH!!!!"

The filly’s pupils dilated. Right away, Scootaloo remembered her big sister’s reminder from that morning. Her first ever flying lesson with Rainbow Dash was on Friday. 

And today was Thursday. Tomorrow. Just one day.

Gradually, a smile found its way onto the pegasus filly’s face. She closed her eyes with contentment, and her head sank into the pillow. Before she fell unconscious, only one thought was on her mind. 

Just one more day.

As she drifted off into much-needed sleep, her smile hadn’t gone away. 

> Home Early
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One foot in front of the other. Two steps, breathe in. Two steps, breathe out. Go slow. Keep a rhythm. Don’t stop moving forward. Don’t stop…

Spike stopped. His body leaned off to the side, one hand placed on his knee and his other clutching his burning side. Breaths came out of his mouth in short, ragged gasps.

You pansy.

This time was at least an improvement over the last. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, Twilight had been right about starting out slow. He had nearly run for ten minutes this time. 

Other ponies walked on the road with him, and it took him a moment to realize he was being watched by passersby. Gritting his teeth together from the pain in his side, he straightened up and stood as upright as he could, sucking in a breath and holding it in a valiant effort to save face.

The splitting pain in his chest and belly were all it took for Spike to realize just how terrible an idea that was. Despite trying to look casual, the air in his lungs could not be contained. The air burst out of his chest in the form of a violent coughing fit, and he grunted in pain as the burning in his ribs intensified. After remaining in this state for he didn’t know how long, he finally mustered the strength to try and stand up straight again.

Lyra was standing directly in front of him only a few meters away.

“Spike? I’m sorry, but… are you okay?”

The baby dragon’s eyes widened. He had not forgotten the awkward encounter with her from the day before. He tried once again to save face.

“Okay? Oh yeah, I’m...” he had to pause to cough into his fist, hacking and wheezing like an old stallion. “…I’m fine. I’m just… going for a r…run… ugh…”

He pressed his side with his balled up fist, coughing some more. Lyra took another step closer, hesitant but nonetheless showing genuine worry. 

“Are you sure? I could get you some water or—”

“No, nuh-uh,” he interrupted. “I told you, I’m fine. I’ve got it… handled.” He reaffirmed her. His coughing and grunts of pain, on the other hand, did not make a good case for him.

She titled her head and narrowed her eyes. A drop of sweat trickled from his armpits and down his side, and it wasn’t from running.

“Erm… alright, then. I guess I’ll see you… later?” she asked, stepping back.

“Uhh, yeah… I guess,” he answered with red cheeks. Truth be told, he just relieved that she was going to leave him alone. She gave him what looked to be a forced smile and went on her way with a friendly wave of her hoof. Spike’s sigh of relief blended in with the rest of his huffs and puffs of breath, and he resumed his exercise as soon as she was out of sight.
Or, at least tried to. He wasn’t about to push himself so hard again. As soon as he began to feel winded, he exchanged his slow run for a calm, leisurely stroll. He felt his belly, pressing on the spot between his hard belly scales and his back. The flab still gave to his touch. He sulked.

Same as yesterday, he mused. He wondered just how many days he was going to have to exercise to start seeing results. Perhaps Twilight had a spell that would help…

Pansy, a voice inside his head reprimanded him. Really? A spell? From Twilight, no less? Pretty lame, bro.
Spike rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help but be upset with the nagging voice in his head, but he also knew that it didn’t make what it was saying any less true. Which only upset him more.

At the very least, he could still make Twilight think that he was taking this whole exercising thing seriously by walking around town for a little while. Come to think of it, the sun was already getting lower in the sky, and he could probably get away with heading back right now…

Paaaansyyy…

No. If he was going to walk, he was going to at least walk for long enough to make it worthwhile.

He came from downtown and into the residential area. Everything was like a déjà vu of the day before; the same multi-level homes, the same flower and vegetable gardens, the same well-kept lawns which came alive with the chirping with crickets as evening approached. 

The same fork in the road.

Before he could take one more step, he halted in his tracks. This was the place, same as yesterday. Wasn’t it? He peered down the road off to the right, comparing what he was currently seeing with the image in his head from yesterday. Sure enough, they matched up perfectly.

He waited there at the intersection, feet pointing toward the right. He leaned forward once, twice, thrice, but his body stayed rooted to the cobblestone. 

He couldn’t even really remember a cry. All he could remember is that he remembered. And now that he was here again, he wanted to go back. He wanted to hear it again, to confirm whether or not he had heard anything at all…

The sun was halfway down across the western horizon, and the sky in the opposite corner dimmed to a shade of navy-blue. It was getting late.

Gradually, his feet pointed away from the road, and he took a step back. Then another. Then he turned around, walking away from the road and heading for home.

The nagging little voice uttered one more word in his head, but he ignored it.

Pansy.

…

Three dull, metallic thwacks sounded from the front door. Sweetie Belle turned her head to the sound, smiling broadly. 

“Hey, I think that’s her!” she said in excitement. Apple Bloom looked confused. 

“Who? I d—Ohhh…” The realization hit her, and she matched her friend’s smile. Even from inside the bedroom, Sweetie’s mother could be heard running from the kitchen and over the carpeted floor, as well as her sharp intake of breath once she was at the front. The door opened.

“There she is!” Sweetie’s mother shouted excitedly. “Please, come in, come in!”

Sweetie heard the petite giggle made in reply, and her face beamed. Apple Bloom’s closed her eyes and nodded her head, now assured who it was.

“Glad to be home, mother! Mwah!” An enthusiastic voice sounded in reply, lips audibly smacking against her mother’s cheek. Sweetie Belle could no longer contain herself.

“Rarity! Is that you?” her voice cracked with excitement. She made a few clumsy motions to scoot herself around on the bed so that she was looking out her bedroom door. Another giggle.

“Of course it’s me, you goose!” Rarity’s cheery voice became louder as she approached Sweetie’s room. “I did say I was getting back Thursday, after all, and I assure you that I’m a mare of my word!”

Apple Bloom craned her neck forward, looking around the doorframe. A white unicorn emerged, tail and mane styled in their usual riccoco swirls and flank adorned with three baby-blue gems. There was no questioning who it was.

“Sweetie!” Rarity took a running step forward. Before either of the fillies knew it, she was already in the room, and Sweetie had been wrapped in a blue aura. Sweetie lurched forward with a small exclamation of surprise, carried off the bed by Rarity’s magic and pulled into her sister’s waiting forelegs. Rarity sat back onto the floor, hugging the little filly tight.

“How’s my little sister doing?” asked Rarity, a goofy grin on her face. Sweetie wrapped her foreleg around Rarity’s shoulders, squeezing her right back. She laughed.

“I’m fine… Apple Bloom’s teaching me math.” She nudged her head in the farm filly’s direction. Apple Bloom blushed, waving her hoof at Rarity from her place on the bed. Rarity glanced over at her.

“Oh, hello, Apple Bloom!” she greeted. “I didn’t even see you there, my goodness. And how are you? Are you staying for dinner?”

Apple Bloom shrugged, playing with the strap on her saddlebag. “Ah’m good… and Applejack said I was allowed to stay out till 8 o’clock, so if y’all don’t mind me stayin’…”

Rarity blew a raspberry. “Mind? Oh, goodness, why would we mind? You’re more than welcome to stay, dear. And how’s the math coming along?” she asked the two of them with a mixture of a grin and a grimace. She knew that was Sweetie’s least favorite subject. 

“It’s good, I guess… Apple Bloom’s really good at math,” Sweetie complimented. The pinkish tinge on Apple Bloom’s cheeks turned darker, and Rarity took notice.

“Oh, don’t look so bashful, sweetheart,” she teased. “Applejack’s told me all about how you help out with the finances during Cider Season. My parents I am sure appreciate you helping my sister with her studies.” She looked behind her at her mother, who was standing a little ways back from the door, out of Apple Bloom’s view. The elder mare retreated back into the kitchen, simpering and wiping a tear away from her eyes. “As do I.”

Apple Bloom nodded, adjusting the pink bow on her head. Any attempts she made to look less bashful were met with failure. “Aw, nah, it’s no big deal. Ah like doin’ it. Besides, it’s kinda fun, actually…”

Rarity gave Sweetie Belle a little nuzzle, which the filly welcomed with closed eyes. “No, it is a big deal. Don’t doubt that, please. You and Scootaloo are great friends. Right, Sweetie?” She slowly lifted Sweetie Belle up and placed her carefully onto the bed.

“Oh yeah. They’re the bestest friends,” Sweetie agreed emphatically. Rarity chuckled, but just then, her face registered sudden apprehension. She looked all around the room, craning her neck to search the other side of the bed. “And speaking of Scootaloo… where is she now? I don’t see her…”

The two of them shot each other uneasy looks. Sweetie Belle seemed to silently communicate to Apple Bloom by quickly raising her eyebrows, and Apple Bloom took the message. She answered Rarity, saying, “Scoots is sick today, so she’s at home resting.”

Rarity pouted. “Oh, really? The poor dear. I hope she feels better soon…”

Sweetie Belle laughed nervously. “Heheh, yeah… we do, too…”

Observant as she was, Rarity appeared keen to Sweetie’s nervous air. She gave her a perplexed frown, and when Sweetie noticed, she hastily changed the subject. 

“So, sis… how’d the thing go at Manehattan?” she inquired. Her older sister’s frown disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.

“Oh, the exhibition?” Rarity twiddled her front hooves, appearing as if she was keeping a surge of energy from bubbling up to the surface. “It went… well. Very well. My designs were quite the hit, I must say…” This time, it was her turn to change the subject. “…but I’ll got into detail later at dinner.”

The corners of Rarity’s lips twitched, and it was evident that she was trying to stop herself from smiling. This puzzled Sweetie Belle, but she kept her observations to a mental note.

All of a sudden, the heavenly aroma of baked pastries and melted butter filled the room. The three of them inhaled almost simultaneously, and Apple Bloom’s mouth watered. The smile Rarity had been trying so hard to stifle came out with a vengeance.

“Is that… Is mother making turnip n’ tater n’ beetroot pie?” Rarity posited the question to her little sister, the name of the dish rolling off her tongue as though she had said it thousands of times before. Sweetie tittered with excitement, and her slow nod affirmed Rarity’s suspicions.

“Mom said she wanted to make something special since you were coming back, so…”

Rarity cut her sister off with a delighted squeak, and she began to hop up and down. “Really? Oh my goodness, yes! Yes!”

The sight of Rarity, the pony pinnacle of sophistication, acting like an excited filly made Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom laugh. Though truth be told, Apple Bloom just about had the same reaction. She remembered the first time Sweetie’s mother invited her and Scootaloo to stay over for dinner. The thought of turnips, potatoes, and beetroot all together in one pie did not sound pleasant, and she and Scootaloo had only accepted their offer to avoid seeming rude. Oh, how wrong she had been.

“Alright, dearies! I think it’s just about ready,” Sweetie’s mother called from the kitchen, as if on cue. None of them had to be told twice. Not a word was spoken as Apple Bloom slid the page of math notes and saddlebag to the side and hopped off the bed. Rarity turned herself around and her horn glowed blue, lifting Sweetie onto her back and placing her there gingerly.

“Here, I’ll take you, sis,” said Rarity. “Hold on.”

“Thanks…” Sweetie Belle laid as flat she could, gripping around Rarity’s neck with her foreleg, and the two of them followed Apple Bloom to the kitchen.

…


The pie was enormous, but already half of it was gone. For a few minutes at the beginning of dinner they had all been too busy eating to talk to one another, and in that amount of time everyone had eaten enough to go for seconds. At last, the first one to break the silence was Sweetie’s mother.

“Nopony’s talking. I guess that means everyone hates it,” she said with a coy smirk. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had to cover their mouths with their hooves to stop themselves from laughing and letting the scrumptious food fall out on their plates. Rarity, on the other hand, was taken aback.

“Hate it? Hate it? Why, I’d never… oh.” She trailed off, realizing the smirk on her mother’s face. She scowled. “Mother… you know that sarcasm has never been my strong suit.”

Her mother laughed warmly. “Oh, I know, I know. That’s why it’s so much fun to use it around you.”

Rarity’s scowl deepened, but she said nothing. Sweetie Belle was overcome with a fit of giggles. 

Her mother decided it would be best to bring the subject of conversation to something else. She asked her eldest daughter, “So… how was the show in Manehattan? Did you get a lot of attention for your fancy dresses?”

Rarity could have resumed her playful disdain for her mother, but the news was too good for her to care. The frown lines on her brow disappeared, and she conceded with a roll of her eyes.

“It was an exhibition, not a show,” she clarified with a huff of breath. “But I suppose that doesn’t matter. As for attention… YES.” She nearly shouted the last word, showing her pearly white teeth to everyone present at the table. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were startled by the outburst, and they stopped eating their food mid-chew. Her mother was also surprised, but she recovered quickly.

“Whoa. Sounds like it went well. Any big shots?” she asked her daughter. Rarity scoffed, wiping her mouth after taking another bite of her second piece of pie.

“Hoh, any big shots? Try every big shot in Manehattan, mother. Martingale Galloway, Jennet Jewel… It was a goldmine. Literally.” 

“Tho you goth a loth of money?” Sweetie asked with her mouth full. Her mother fixed her with a disapproving glare.

“Don’t talk when you have food in your mouth, Sweetie Belle,” she chided. Sweetie swallowed her food, wiping her mouth with her hoof.

“Sorry,” she apologized. Rarity continued her story, taking a small bite of the pie on her plate before addressing her answer to Sweetie Belle.

“Mmm. Mmhm. Yes, I suppose I did make a large sum of profit,” she said simply, but dodged around the question without saying anything more. “I also got a lot of requests for future designs, too, from lots of different ponies. They were quite happy with the way everything looked, to say the least. It was worth all the time it took to make the new dresses, that’s for sure.” she concluded. Her mother nodded her head in approval. 

“That’s fantastic, Rarity. Very happy to hear things went so well.” She turned to focus her attention on Apple Bloom. “And what about you, dear? You’ve hardly said a peep all night.”

The yellow filly pressed her hoof onto the crumbs, lifting them off of the porcelain surface and putting them into her mouth. “Ah’m fine. Just a little tired, is all. Thanks so much for the pie. It was really great,” she said graciously.

“Do you want any more? There’s still almost half of it left,” she offered. Apple Bloom shook her head.

“No, that’s okay. Ah’m pretty stuffed.” She leaned back in her chair, rubbing the tiny bulge on her belly. Sweetie’s mother grinned. 

“Oh, well, that’s fine. It’s a shame Scootaloo isn’t here tonight, though. She probably would’ve eaten the whole other half all by herself.” She chuckled. “Oh well. Leftovers are still good.”

Apple Bloom chuckled with her. After all, the exaggeration was only slight. Scootaloo always seemed to have the appetite of a full-grown stallion when she ate dinner here. Thinking about the empty seat beside her, sadness seemed to replace the feeling of food in her stomach.

“So, when is father planning on getting back?” asked Rarity to her mother. 

“He’s been away on business for a little over a week at Baltimare, but he should be back on Saturday morning,” she answered. “He’s been getting a lot of letters taking him away on jobs lately. It’s been a little lonely around here, but it’s been worse before. Nothing we can do about it.” 

Everypony watched as she scooted back in her chair, getting onto her hooves and walking over to the refrigerator. “So, does anypony have room for some blueberry cobbler? I made it just this afternoon.”

Apple Bloom was about to say yes, but her eyes traveled to the clock hanging on the wall just above the stove, and she gasped. It read ten past seven o’clock.

“Ah’d love to, but…” Apple Bloom got up from her seat as well, pointing to the clock. “Applejack said Ah had to be home by eight, an’ it takes a little while to get back, so…”

Sweetie’s mother looked up the clock, and sighed sadly. “Are you sure? I’d hate for you to miss out. I tried a new recipe I got from the Cakes, and I think it’s going to be great,” she persisted.

Apple Bloom saw the cobbler, and her mouth watered all over again. Purple blueberries glistening with caramelized sugar, a toasted, golden brown layer of crust over the top…

She looked back up at the clock, then back to the cobbler. Then back up at the clock, then back to the cobbler.

She could run home.

…

The last reddish tinge of sunlight peeping over the horizon faded to black by the time he made it to the library. His feet ached and his side still hurt, but he felt like he had accomplished something. Even the nagging voice in his head had finally managed to shut up.

His fingers clasped around the long black doorknob and he swung the door open, stumbling in on a pair of shaky legs. 

“Hey, Twilight. I’m back,” he shouted upstairs. The door naturally fell shut behind him. Twilight called back down to him, he presumed from her usual place at her desk. 

“Oh, hey, Spike! How’s the run?”

Spike clasped his fingers together and stretched his arms up to the high ceiling, standing on tiptoe with his palms facing outward. His knuckles popped loud enough to echo around the room. “It was good. I started out slow this time, so I ran longer.”

“That’s great, Spike!” He heard the legs of her desk chair slide over the floor, and she walked downstairs to meet him. “I told you that would… heeey, wait a second. Didn’t you say you did that yesterday, too? What do you mean, ‘this time?’”

Spike heard her immediate change in tone, and no sooner had she asked the question that he realized his mistake. His eyes turned into saucers as she made eye contact with him coming down the stairs.

“Uhhh, uh… I’m…” he struggled to make coherent speech. Twilight’s disapproval was written on her face, and she shook her head with a sigh. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she said. “I had a feeling that it didn’t go so well last time…”

Spike wanted to kick himself, but his bulging belly would have gotten in the way. He gave the smile of someone who knew they had been caught red-handed.

“Heheh, yeah… sorry,” he apologized, folding his hands behind his back and standing still in the center of the room.

Twilight glowered at him, but didn’t say anything more on the matter. She floated a scroll over to him.

“Nevermind all of that. I need you to send a letter for me.” She hovered the scroll in front of his hand. He brought his hands out from behind his back and grabbed it out of the purple aura. 

“Uhh, okay,” he cleared his throat, getting ready to douse the scroll in a tongue of green flame. “Where to?”

“Oh, just to Celestia,” she stated simply. Spike shrugged.

“Okay. Gimme just a sec…” he inhaled, and from the depths of his belly, belched out a cloud of green flame, enveloping the scroll and evaporating it into thin air. He coughed out a couple tendrils of smoke, and his arms fell back to his sides. “What was the letter for?”

Twilight didn’t answer him right away. She licked her lips, appearing hesitant.

“I dunno if I should tell you… can you promise to keep a secret? Pinkie Promise?” she asked. Hearing the word “secret,” Spike was immediately intrigued.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” he agreed to her conditions. In a practiced motion that he had repeated more than once before, he drew an X over his heart and slapped his closed eye with his hand.

Despite being the only other one in the room, she looked to her left and right to make sure no one else could overhear their conversation, and then leaned in closer. She motioned with her hoof for him to come closer, and he did so, stepping forward so that her mouth was beside the hole that served as his ear. She cupped her hoof around her mouth and whispered into it. Spike’s eyes widened.

“Oh, seriously? Whoa, that’s… crazy…” he did not know what else to say.

“Don’t tell anypony, Spike. You Pinkie Promised,” she tapped his belly with her hoof to drive home the point. He nodded wordlessly, and she smiled. 

“Good.” Her horn glowed again, and a scroll poofed into existence in the middle of the air, falling to the floor and unrolling all the way across the room, the bottom edge of the paper coming to rest near the front door. Spike’s jaw dropped. 

“And now that that’s taken care of, we have a few things that need to get done around here before the weekend’s over. I think the first thing we need to do is…”

Spike groaned.

…

By the time the sun came back up, Scootaloo’s body had hardly moved an inch. But from underneath closed eyelids, her eyeballs rolled around in their sockets, jerking from left to right, up and down and back to the center again. The corner of her lip twitched, and her hind leg followed suit, kicking out against an invisible assailant. She breathed more shallowly, and her ribcage rose and fell in an erratic lack of rhythm. 

With a quiet gasp, her eyes snapped open.

Lines of sunlight bled through the cracks in her blinds. They came to rest on her face, and when she turned her head, one of them formed a golden stripe across one of her eyes. Her purple-dotted hoof went up to block the light out of reflex before she went to look at the clock on her bedside table. 

It read 6:45. School started at 7 o’clock.

Without any other impetus, she tossed herself out of bed and landed on her hooves. The blood rushed to her head from getting up so suddenly, and her vision momentarily blacked out. She pressed a hoof to her temple, waiting for her vision to return. When it did at last, she bolted out her bedroom door, zoomed down the hall, and raced out the front door, leaving behind a small dust cloud as she slammed the door shut behind her.

…

Both her elbows were propped up on her desk as she stared at the strange symbols on the paper in front of her. She knew that the class had gone over the material yesterday, but the strange blend of small and large numbers, with the occasional squiggly line adding insult to injury, confused her to no end. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she grunted in frustration. She had forgotten there would be a quiz today. 

Her eyes wandered all around until she spotted Miss Cheerilee on the other side of the classroom, walking along the far wall. The mare took the occasional glance in her direction, but her focus never remained in one place. Scootaloo’s eyes shifted from her paper and over to the teacher several times, watching her closely and trying her best to be discreet to avoid raising any suspicions.

She waited until Miss Cheerilee’s head was turned away before her eyes darted over to Apple Bloom’s desk. Unfortunately for her, there was a whole row in between her and her friend, and it was impossible for her to make out the scribbles on the filly’s paper unless she leaned out of her chair to get a closer look, which was basically an automatic detention. The colt sitting right beside her appeared to be in the same boat, his pencil held in his mouth, but only a few things written on the page. 

Her last rays of hope for a decent grade disappearing, she sighed inwardly, picking up the pencil in her mouth and writing random numbers in the spaces with the faint hope that she would get at least a couple of them right. Once she was done, she slumped in her seat and stared at the quiz on her desk, sure that it was going to come back to her with a red letter ‘F’ in the top left-hand corner the following week. 

She looked up at the clock above the blackboard. It was almost half past two; only five minutes left of class. She resisted the urge to smash her face into the desk.

But that was when she reminded herself; today was Friday, which meant her first flight lesson with Rainbow Dash was today. Which meant that she was only five minutes away from freedom.

No quiz on earth could have dampened her spirits now. She had to press her back against the chair to keep her wings from buzzing and propelling her out of the desk. 

Her gaze remained fixed on the second hand on the clock, and she hardly dared to blink, watching it make its way around the circle over and over again. The minute hand inched closer to the six with each tick until it nearly split the number in half. She listened for the bell…

Rrrrring!

“Okay, class, it’s time to turn in your quizzes to the front. Finish up the problem you are still…”

Scootaloo slapped the paper down on the front desk before Miss Cheerilee could even finish her sentence and zipped out the door, the rush of air generated from her passing blowing some of the quizzes from the front row of desks onto the floor. Apple Bloom cocked her head, and Cheerilee reared her head back in shock.

“Scootaloo! Wait!” She shouted after her, running to the door. By the time she got there, Scootaloo’s helmet had been donned, her scooter mounted, and she was halfway down the road. She leapt down the steps and galloped after her student.

“Wait! I want to talk to you, Scootaloo!” She made it halfway across the schoolyard before she came to a stop. There was no way for her to catch up; once she got going, Scootaloo was . She sat her haunches down on the dirt, watching her student disappear down the road. 

“Damn it…” The swear word slipped out, causing her to slap a hoof over her mouth. She whirled around to see if any of her students had heard her. A few of her students were congregated in the doorway, watching her.

“Did any of you… hear that?” she asked them timidly. Their wary eyes showcased their confusion and uncertainty, but none of them showed any signs that they had heard her curse. For a moment, Miss Cheerilee felt as though she had dodged a bullet. But it was only momentary. 

She walked back into the classroom to see that none of the other fillies and colts had gotten up from their seats. They glued their eyes on her as she re-entered the room. She sighed, shaking her head.

“I’m sorry about that, my little ponies…” she said in earnest. “You’re free to go. Just place your quizzes onto my desk before you leave. And have a great weekend!”

As the students filed out of the room, Cheerilee tapped Apple Bloom on the shoulder after she turned in her quiz. The filly turned around. 

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee?”

“Apple Bloom, my dear…” She pulled the filly to the side, letting the other student go past. “Do you know where Scootaloo went? Or why she was in such a hurry to leave, for that matter?”

Apple Bloom looked up and to the right, thinking for a second before she answered, “Uhh… Ah think she said that she was meeting up with Rainbow Dash after class on Friday, which is today, so…”

“Rainbow Dash? And do you know where she said they would meet up?” Cheerilee’s question was interrogative, anxiously demanding an answer. Apple Bloom was a little taken aback. 

“Umm… Ah dunno. She never told me,” she replied truthfully. Miss Cheerilee’s cheeks puffed up, and she let out a deep breath of frustration. 

“Alright. That’s all I wanted to ask. Thank you for your help, Apple Bloom.” She sent her off with a gentle nudge. Apple Bloom waved goodbye just as Cheerilee said, “And if you see her, tell her that Miss Cheerilee wants to talk with her for a minute, and that she’s not in trouble. Okay?”

Apple Bloom nodded slowly, raising her eyebrows in puzzlement. “Umm, okay… Ah’ll let her know next time Ah see her…”
“Good,” said Miss Cheerilee. “Thank you so much, Apple Bloom. Have a great weekend!”

“Th-thanks. You, too.” Apple Bloom gave her final farewell, leaving Miss Cheerilee there all alone in the room.

No sooner had Apple Bloom stepped out of sight that she walked over to the stack of quizzes and snatched it up, removing the bottom one from the pile. She looked over the answers on the sheet of paper, and her eyes widened.

Not a single answer was right. 

She dropped the quiz sheet onto her desk and walked out, looking like a mare on a mission.

…
The bookmark Rainbow Dash placed was past the book’s halfway point, but she still had a long way to go. She was a pretty new reader, and despite being enthralled with the story, it was still slow going.

She didn’t know exactly what time she had fallen asleep, but when her eyes finally opened back up, the clock in front of her read five past eleven. Rainbow Dash moaned; she hated waking up this late in the day. 

The pegasus stretched out her legs, folding her forehooves together and reaching back until they touched the headboard. She kicked the covers off of her and onto the floor and did the same stretch with her hind legs, and her mouth gaped in a sleepy yawn. 

Rolling out of bed, she landed on all fours on the carpeted floor. She unfurled her wings like sails and flexed them to get the circulation back into her feathers before she went out to the kitchen. 

Three bowls of cereal was usually her average, but today she was already on her fourth, tilting the bowl and practically shoveling the cereal into her mouth. She had forgotten to eat dinner the night before because she had been too busy reading. She picked up the bowl and drank the milk before lightly tossing it into the sink with all of the other unwashed dishes. The sight of the steadily rising pile of plates and bowls made her grimace, but she shrugged it off. She could wash them tomorrow. Or the day after that.    

She had to admit that she was very glad she’d decided to take off weather-duty today, because if she hadn’t, she would not have gotten any sleep at all. Nonetheless, her eyes were still crusty, and her frequent yawns showed her that her body’s desire for sleep had not yet been satisfied. She looked up at the mini pendulum clock hanging on her wall.

Eleven thirty. Plenty of time. She sat down on the floor and preened her wings before she flew out the front door to do her daily exercise routine.

…

Scootaloo blazed down the road, her tiny wings propelling her all the way to the park. When she made it there, the pegasus filly found a tall tree and propped her scooter up against it, hanging the helmet on her handlebars.

She knew for a fact that she was plenty early, but she still wished that Rainbow Dash was here right this instant. Her wings fluttered like a hummingbird’s as she waited beside the tree, pacing back and forth over the grass. The anticipation was killing her, but it was a good feeling. All her life it seemed for the past three years, she’s been dreaming for this opportunity to learn from the very best, and now it was fifteen minutes away. 

Regardless of her excitement, she recognized that she need to relax for now. She was going to need to save her energy for the flight lesson, after all. She sat her jittery body next to the tree, waiting as patiently with her eyes aimed toward the sky. 

…

The hour hand was inching past the one when Rainbow Dash made it back. Her forehead was shiny with sweat, and she decided to get a quick shower. When she emerged from the bathroom, it was past one thirty. Plenty of time.

She wracked her brain for something to do until it was time to leave. As she sauntered down the hallway, she passed her room, and an object on the floor next to her bed caught her eye.

It was her Daring Do book. Right away, Rainbow Dash felt newfound excitement bubbling inside her chest. There was still half the book left to read, and she had fallen asleep before she could finish the chapter…

She had plenty of time to read some more before she went on her way. Plenty of time. She zipped into her room and snatched the book up from the floor, laying down on her back on the comforter and flipping to the bookmarked page.

The clock ticked away. Her eyes droned lazily over the words, delving back into the story. She flipped the page. Then another. The clock kept ticking, turning into soothing white noise in her ear. 

Her eyelids flickered. Her head began to fall back onto the pillow, but she sensed it before the point of no return and jerked it back up. Giving her head a rough shake, she continued reading.

Another flicker, and her grasp on the book loosened. Once more, she sensed herself falling asleep before it was too late and shook herself back into alertness. However, it was only five minutes later that she began to fall right back into the same predicament, but again she sensed it in time. She shuffled over the comforter, sitting up against the headboard to make it more difficult to fall asleep. Confident that she wouldn’t have this problem again, she let nothing stand in her way of reading the book in her hooves.

The book lay flat on her lap, and she snored gently with her head rested against the wall. It was half-past two.

And the clock kept tick, tick, ticking away.

…
At the park, there was no ticking. Only the chatter of a cicada, the occasional bark of somepony’s dog playing fetch in a nearby field, or the chatter of two ponies having conversation as they passed her by.

She picked at a little stone that was firmly planted into the ground, scraping away the dirt around its base. Several minutes went by before she finally dislodged it, leaving behind a crater in the ground where it had been. Underneath, a tiny earthworm wriggled in the dirt, and she watched it slowly burrow its way back into the dirt.

Rainbow Dash was late all the time, she told herself. She probably just had something to do and was running late or something…

Twenty more minutes. The pony playing fetch with the dog had already left, and the old mare whom had been feeding birds from the park bench down one of the cobblestone paths was long gone as well. She gulped, eyes turning glossy as they filled with water. She never stopped looking at the sky. 

This couldn’t be right. She really hadn’t been waiting that long, had she? Maybe time was just going by slowly because she was so anxious…

From downtown, the clocktower bell tolled.

Bong. Bong. Bong. Bonggg…

Scootaloo sat totally motionless against the tree. Four tolls. Four o’clock. And Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found.

Her eyes closed softly, and the tears spilled down her cheeks. She wiped them away, trying to maintain her tough façade, but the next breath she took was a shuddering sob. She choked it back, wiping away the wet streaks from her cheeks.  

Slinking over to her scooter, she shot the sky one last glance, one last ray of hope gleaming in her bleary eyes.

But there wasn’t a pegasus in sight.
…
The sun’s descent brought its light to the window of Rainbow Dash’s cloud home, eventually coming to rest on the pegasus’ face. The light permeated through her closed eyelids, and she gave a semi-conscious groan, instinctively rolling over onto her side to escape the sun’s rays. The book on her lap, however, fell off the bed and landed on the floor with a sharp thud. She jolted awake.

Her body faced the clock on her bedside table. When she looked at it, it took a moment for her to register the time that it read. When she did, she gasped. 

Four thirty. Her lesson with Scoot was supposed to have started over an hour ago. 

“Oh no,” she exclaimed, sitting up in the bed and staring at the clock. “Oh no…”

She leapt out of bed, spreading her wings and taking flight through her own house. “NO! Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh…”

She crashed through her front door and plummeted downward from her cloud home in the sky, turning into a rainbow blur and heading for the park. At her speed, it did not take long until she was there.

Flying overhead, she scanned the ground for her surrogate sister, looking for her scooter, her orange coat, her helmet, anything. Any signs that she was miraculously still there.

She was nowhere to be found.  

… 

Outside, the scooter sat on the brown grass in Scootaloo’s front yard, lying on its side on the other side of the tree it was usually propped up against. 

Years of dreaming, waiting, wishing and hoping. All lies. Rainbow Dash, the pony she had looked up to as long as she could remember… was a liar.

Inside, Scootaloo sobbed quietly on the living room couch, face buried in her hooves. Tears ran down her forelegs and dampened the sofa cushions below.

She didn’t want to believe it, but there was no way she could deny it. Rainbow Dash had abandoned her. Forgotten her. Betrayed her.

Lied to her.

Her sobs suddenly ceased. She looked up from the tear-stained sofa cushions, staring past the far wall and off into space. Both her hooves fell to the sofa, and the cool tears turned into burning streaks of flame down her cheek as they continued to fall. She bared her teeth like an enraged beast, and a low, guttural growl rumbled in her throat. 

She jumped up from the couch, turned around, and threw a vicious punch at the sofa cushions. It impacted squarely, but only a soft thud sounded from the strike. This only served to anger her more, and she began to wail away at the pillows, hitting them again and again. She swung as hard as she could, screaming at the top of her lungs. 

Minutes passed, and she stumbled back away from the couch, bumping into the coffee table and gasping for air. The sofa sat stock still, as if mocking her efforts, her inability to leave a dent. Her weakness.

More angry than ever before, she roared once again, charging back at the couch. All of her fury became focused on the rightmost pillow, and she grabbed a hold of it with her teeth. A sharp tug yanked the cushion off, and with one last, fell shriek, she hurled it over her shoulder as hard as she could. 

Time almost seemed to come to a standstill as it flew through the air…

…and crashed straight into the lamp on the other side of the room.

Scootaloo heard the sound of smashing ceramic on the other side of the room. Her head shot up, and the filly’s reddened face, contorted with rage only moments ago, softened in that instant. She whimpered. 

“Oh… oh no... oh my gosh, noo…”

She darted around the table, surveying the damage. The sight made her blood thin out into ice in her veins.

The little lamp lay shattered on the carpet, broken into several pieces. The ceramic appeared to be painted by hoof, small flowery designs and intricacies in an array of different colors decorating the smooth, delicate surface. And now, it was ruined forever.  

Anger morphed into fear, and her little legs began to shake uncontrollably. “Nooo… no no no…”

Just then, something that could have come out of her very worst nightmares; she heard the front door open.

“Scootaloo, damn it, where ‘re ya?” A slurred voice hollered from the front. The stallion’s voice was unmistakable; the anger it always seemed to carry was all Scootaloo needed to know it was him.

Heavy footsteps entered the house, and the door closed once more, sealing her in. The little filly was paralyzed by fear, rooted to the spot as the stallion came closer and closer to the living room…

A large stallion, around Big Macintosh’s height and carrying a set of wings on his back, emerged into the room. He wore a mail delivery uniform, but right off the bat, Scootaloo could detect the smell of alcohol on his clothes and breath.

Her father.

“I almost tripped cuz of your damned scooter bein’ in in the way…”

Her throat ran dry as he scanned the room mid-speech, his bloodshot eyes eventually coming to rest on her, standing next to the remains of the shattered lamp. Whatever he had been saying, he stopped immediately.

“Y-you… you s-s-said you’d be back Monday…” she stammered. It was all her terror-stricken brain could think to say as she sidestepped behind the table, putting the barrier between herself and her father.

Her father’s face was blank for a moment, but the skin on his cheeks was turning redder with every passing second. “You… broke it. You broke the…”

He trailed off. Without warning, his face twisted up in anger. Scootaloo squeaked in fear, taking two steps back from the table until her body was pressed up against the wall. 

“I… I didn’t mean to, dad… I-I’m s-s-sorr--”

“You broke it!” He wasn’t listening. He lurched forward, making a move to walk around the table, advancing toward her. She retreated back to the opposite corner, eyeing him like a cornered beast.

“D-dad, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, please…” she begged, curling into a ball and covering her head with her hooves. “I w-was just…”

“You think cuz she’s not here, you can do any damn thing ya want? Huh?” He yelled irrationally, marching toward her with a drunken gait. “You already did enough to take her away from me!”

Scootaloo’s eyes darted from side to side, trying to find a way to escape. There was nothing. She squeaked, clenching her eyes shut as he loomed over her, choking on sobs as they stuck to the insides of her throat.

"You little shit!"

The walls of the house muffled her screams.
  




> South Main
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The items on the list simply had to get done this weekend, she said. There was just soooo much to do in soooo little time, she said. 

Spike couldn't help but roll his eyes. Even so, he knew he could sulk all he wanted, but that still didn’t change the fact that there was work that Twilight needed him to do. 

The contents of one of the shelves lay on the floor to either side of Spike. To his left, the books lay in a haphazard pile, contrasted by the several neat stacks he had formed to the right as he sorted them out.

It was a long meticulous process, but he nonetheless did it with only the occasional sigh or roll of the eyes, which for him was an achievement. The system was simple but time-consuming; he picked up one tome at a time from the pile and examined the title written on the spine, flipped it open, and brushed through the pages before deciding which stack to place it on. 

But in spite of the ever-growing height of the stacks, it seemed like he had hardly made a dent in the humungous pile looming to the left. Although, he had to admit that based on what he could already tell, it really had been far too long since the library had been re-shelved and re-sorted…

The knocking on the front door was so hard that it rattled the hinges. He jumped, dropping the book in his hand with a startled exclamation.

“Could you get that, Spike?” Twilight requested from upstairs. “Tell whoever it is that I’ll be right down!”

Eager to get away from the tedious task at hand, even if only for a moment, he walked over to the door and called up to her, “Sure, I got it!”

The pony on the other end of the door knocked again, rapping their hoof against the door several more times. Spike huffed.

“Jeez, gimme like five seconds,” he said. The library’s hours on Fridays ended early, at four o’clock, so whoever was waiting on the other side of the door, it was readily apparent that they wanted to see Twilight badly. Expecting it to be one of Twilight’s friends, he grabbed the knob and opened the door partway, stepping into the open space.

He did not expect to see Miss Cheerilee standing there. He raised his scaly eyebrows.

“Oh, hi, Miss Cheerilee,” he greeted her with a sharp-toothed smile. But no sooner had the friendly greeting left his mouth that he noticed something was off about her; her chest was heaving with heavy breaths as though she had just finished running, and her hooves tapped the ground in a little dance. 

“Hello, Spike. Is Twilight there?” She posited the question right off the bat. Her edgy voice was further evidence that something was amiss. He nodded. 

“Yeah, she said she’ll be down in a second,” he said, stepping to the side and opening the door wider to let Cheerilee in. The other mare stepped inside, nodding a silent thank-you to Spike.

“I’m coming!” Twilight said while already halfway down the stairs. When she saw Mrs. Cheerilee standing in the doorway, she too looked a bit surprised. 

“Oh, hello, Cheerilee. So nice to see—”

“Twilight, I’m sorry to come here while the library is off hours,” she interrupted the other mare, “but I need to talk to you. Alone.” She shot Spike an apologetic look. 

Twilight picked up on Cheerilee’s grave tone. It was not often that she ever saw the amiable mare like this, and she knew right away that something was wrong. 

“Oh. Well… of course,” she said. She motioned for Cheerilee to follow her upstairs and turned to Spike. “Sorry… You just keep up the good work, Spike. We’ll be in my room.”

“Um… okay,” he conceded, walking back over to the pile with reluctance. He shot the two mares a few glances over his shoulder out of curiosity as they disappeared upstairs, with Cheerilee following Twilight close behind. He picked up the book he had dropped and resumed working. 

Or at least, he tried to. Curiosity about what he had just seen made it impossible to focus. He looked down at the book held in his claws and read over the title several times, trying in vain to categorize it with one of the stacks, but his preoccupied mind couldn’t make the connection.

He turned his gaze away from the book and directed it over at the stairs once more. He bit his lip.

Screw it.

Quietly, he set the book back down in the pile and began to tiptoe over to the staircase. He thanked his lucky stars that the steps did not creak as he tiptoed, keeping his head low and staring up, preparing himself to bolt back downstairs if necessary. 

When he was in hearing range, he stopped on the stair, crouched down low, and tuned his ears to the muffled voices above.

... 


"What is it you wanted to talk to me about, Cheerilee? You look like you've seen a ghost," Twilight observed in a low tone of voice. She could see the droplets of sweat on Cheerilee's forehead as she made eye contact with her. The other mare cleared her throat. 

"I, ahem, wanted to ask for your thoughts on a very important matter... a matter concerning one of my students," she replied. Her face was aglow with fear and dread. Twilight cocked her head. 

"What kind of... matter? Behavioral, or..."

Cheerilee shook her head. "Errr... well, no. Not exactly. It's much worse than that... you know Scootaloo, am I right?"

"Scootaloo?" Twilight repeated the name. "Well, yes I do, but not very well. I know she's one of those Cutie Mark Crusaders fillies that's always running around... and what do you mean, 'worse than that?'" Twilight asked, her voice rising in volume. "Is something the matter with her?"

Cheerilee paused for a moment, a lump traveling down her throat as she swallowed. She then replied in the affirmative. 

"Yes... I'm afraid that something might be very wrong. I cannot be certain, but... that is why I'm here right now. I wanted to consult you, since I know you are a very knowledgeable pony and could offer some helpful insight, before I make a final decision."

Every word that the schoolteacher was saying served to make Twilight feel more and more uneasy. She coughed, and asked her, "Um... final decision?"

Cheerilee nodded, gritting her teeth together. 

"Before I decide to send a letter to Foal Protective Services."   

...

Pressed up against the wall bordering the staircase, Spike listened to the entire course of the conversation.

The more he heard, the wider his eyes grew, and the harder his heart thumped in his chest. He put his right hand on his heart and pressed down hard on it as if her were saying a pledge, out of fear that it would be heard all the way up the stairs.

He knew about Scootaloo. He remembered hearing things about her family past a long time ago. Some ponies knew, and others didn't. He did. 

But he had never heard anything about something like this.

He continued listening, staying quiet as a mouse.

…

"And then when I tried to explain it to her, she wouldn't listen," said Miss Cheerilee. "I told her she was not in trouble, that I just wanted to mention the whole thing to her father, but she was just... irrational. But worst of all, Twilight, she was... terrified. Scared out of her wits. And now, I'm starting to think that maybe..."

Cheerilee trailed off, wiping her eyes and pulling herself together. Twilight had listened carefully, and as Cheerilee told her more and more of the story, her conversation with Rainbow Dash only a few hours before was called to mind. 

"...maybe something else is going on. Something at her home," she concluded, her eyes welling up with water.

Twilight mulled the facts over in her brain silently, unease building up in her gut. She remembered the story Rainbow Dash told her, and at the time it had made perfect sense to her. But now...

"So she became scared as soon as you mentioned telling her father..." she reiterated what Miss Cheerilee said before. The other mare affirmed with a nod. "And this isn't the first time she's come to school with marks?"

Miss Cheerilee shook her head. "No, it is not. She's shown up to school this year on more than one occasion with a couple of bruises here and there. But it was worse than usual yesterday, and I took notice. Whenever I've asked her in the past about it, she always tells me that she got into some kind of crash when she was trying to do a trick on her scooter, but after yesterday... I don't know if I can believe her."

Twilight nodded, biting her lip. She matched up what Rainbow Dash said before with what she was hearing right now, and her stomach churned. 

"So... did you ever get to talk to her about it? All of the injuries, specifically?"  

"No, I haven't," said Cheerilee with a groan. "What's worse is that I had planned on talking to Scootaloo after school today about it... but before I could even get a hold of her, she had already raced right out the door. I'm telling you, once that girl gets going on that scooter of hers, she's gone." 

Cheerilee's face was halfway between a smile and a grimace. Twilight's face soon matched hers. 

"And... do you know why she was in such a hurry?" the alicorn asked, having a sneaking suspicion of what the answer was. Miss Cheerilee took a deep breath. 

"I asked Apple Bloom that same question as my students were leaving class, and she told me that Scootaloo was supposed to meet with Rainbow Dash for flying lessons today. Which makes sense, considering how much that filly adores Rainbow Dash."

With that said, Twilight's guess had been confirmed. Everything Rainbow Dash said to her the previous day was matching up perfectly with what she was hearing right now. 

"Did she say where they were going?"

"No," Cheerilee answered. "I ran all around town looking for them, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I even canceled my tutoring session with Sweetie Belle today so I could spend more time looking, but..." She closed her eyes. "I didn't see either pony anywhere. I would have sent a letter to the FPS yesterday, but... I decided to talk to Scootaloo after school today about everything before I decided. But now..." 

She exhaled, sighing softly. Twilight raised an eyebrow quizzically. 

"Do you know where she lives? She might be there later. Or even right now..."

Miss Cheerilee's face brightened up for a moment at the suggestion, but it quickly faded.

"I don't know the exact address. I believe she lives on one of the little streets off of South Main Road, but... if something bad really is happening at home, then I don't want to show up at her front door and raise suspicions," she reasoned. 

Twilight pursed her lips, thinking through what the teacher had said. She agreed.

"Well... yes, I suppose... if something is actually going on, which, based on what you've told me, it sounds like there's a good chance... that might not be the smart thing to do. The last thing we want is for her father to do something drastic because he thinks we're onto him..." 

She shuddered. Cheerilee nodded her head in concurrence. 

"Yes... it's just... I just... I'm sorry." Miss Cheerilee halted to wipe her moistening eyes with a hoof. "I just really, really hope this turns out to be nothing. I--I don't want one of my students to be hurt because of... I've... I've never had anything like this happen before..."

She sucked in a breath to pull herself together. Twilight stepped forward and laid a hoof on her shoulder. 

"I know, Cheerilee. I know this is hard," she tried to comfort her. "I'm sorry..."

Cheerilee stepped back away from Twilight causing her hoof to slide off her fur and fall to the floor. She shook her head vigorously, whisking away a tear that was threatening to escape the corner of her eye.

"No, no. I'm fine. It's alright. I'm just... I'm sorry for being such a wreck," she belittled herself. 

If Twilight didn't know better, she could've sworn that there was even a trace of anger in the other mare's tone. She did not know what to make of it, but she kept the observation to herself. 

After a short period of awkward silence, Twilight spoke.

"I know you came over here to ask me advice, and... I think you should do it. I think you should send Foal Protective Services in Canterlot a letter requesting an investigation," she concluded with a resolute grimace. Cheerilee matched her expression. 

"I... I will. Thank you, Twilight. I... I just need to go back to the schoolhouse so I can find the address," she said. She wiped off the sweat from her brow. "I'm sorry for dumping all of this on you..."

"No, no no," Twilight dismissed the notion, "Don't think that. I am honored that you would come to me with something like this, Cheerilee, and I'm glad that I could help. Here, I'll come with you," she offered, draping a wing around the mare's shoulders as they began to walk toward the stairs. Cheerilee smiled.

Below, both mares heard the door open and slam shut, followed by the fading pitter-patter of feet striking the ground outside. Both of them stopped at the top of the stairs.  

"Um... Spike?" Twilight called out to her number one assistant. Spike didn't answer her. "Spiiike..."

They both got to the bottom, and they noticed a piece of paper lying beside the door. They walked over to it.

A hastily written message had been scrawled on the paper in black ink. It read:  

"Taking a break. Will be back soon. Spike~"

Twilight hovered the message to her face, reading it over with her features wrinkled in confusion while Cheerilee read it over her shoulder. 

"Uhh... Huh?"

...

Spike usually used landmarks to find his way around, and as a result, he never paid much attention to the street names. But right now, he fixed his eyes on every street sign he saw as Cheerilee's directions played back in his head: Off South Main Road, down one of the little streets. 

But was it the street?  

Spike passed Sugarcube Corner at a light jog, keeping his breathing constant and at a steady rhythm. He already ran earlier that day, and his legs were unaccustomed to the exercise, but the adrenaline flowing through his bloodstream made up for it. 

Ten minutes later, he reached the entrance to the same neighborhood that he had walked through yesterday and the day before that. He looked to the left and right of the cobblestone road until he found the two perpendicular wooden boards stapled at the top of a square wooden post where the road names were labeled. He read the name of the neighborhood street. 

South Main Road. 

He stopped jogging, feeling a knot form in his bulging belly, and walked into the neighborhood, keeping his eye out for the first intersection in the road. 

...

Rainbow Dash searched for more than an hour, scouring the entirety of Ponyville before finally giving up. 

The late-evening sun warmed her cyan fur as she flapped aimlessly on the way back to her home in the clouds, moseying through the air in a state somewhere between absent-mindedness and deep thought. 

She was disgusted. She was disgusting. Just to think that a stupid book could have caused something like this to happen…

“No,” she corrected herself with a low growl. “The stupid book didn’t do anything. You were the one who left Scootaloo hanging out to dry. Nopony else.”

Her hooves trod over soft cloud, but the surface felt like tacks beneath her hooves. She whisked the door open and stormed into the house, brow creased downward as the anger built against herself. 

“You suck, you know that? You suck. Eggs. Tell her you’ll be there at three, and then what do you do? You throw her under the carriage. And now she probably never wants to talk to you again!” 

Her voice started off quiet, but now she was speaking as though she were on center-stage in a theatre production. She paced back and forth over the linoleum floor, stomping her hooves with each step. 

“And you know what else? You deserve it. Kid’s excited out of her mind to learn from the best, only to figure out that the ‘best’ is just a big. Fat. JERK!”

She slammed her head onto the countertop to punctuate each word. She immediately regretted it. The force of the blows caused an onset of dizziness, and she staggered away from the counter with her head held in one of her hooves, sitting back on the floor and emitting a soft groan of pain.

“Uhhh…” Rainbow Dash pressed her hooves on both sides of her throbbing head and closed her eyes. When the pounding finally ceased and her mind cleared, she thought some more. 

Which only made her angrier. 

She stood up, shaking her head to get rid of the lingering ache in her skull, and made a beeline for the stairs, to her bedroom.

The Daring Do book lay on the floor in an upside-down V, spine-side up. Rainbow Dash bared her teeth at the offending object and plucked it up from the floor, zooming back out her front door with the novel gripped tightly in her hooves, and with a furious yell, hurled it out into the open air.

Her eyes followed the book as it plummeted toward the earth. Its pages unfurled like the wings of a flightless bird trying desperately to preserve its life, but its efforts were all in vain as it shrank into a tiny speck, becoming lost to sight.

Rainbow Dash stayed there for a while, staring at the spot in the sky where the book had disappeared. She slowly drifted back home, flapping her wings half-heartedly. When she made it back inside, she went into the kitchen and sat herself down at the table, propping her elbows up and resting her head in her trembling forelegs.  

She could have thrown that book from the upper edge of the stratosphere, but it wouldn't have made her feel any better. There was no penance; no wrong was righted, and there was no retribution. 

She closed her eyes, squeezing them shut to keep tears from leaking out the corners.

"I'm sorry, Squirt," she whispered. "I'm sorry..."

...

The claws on Spike's feet scratched into the cobblestone as he stood in the center of the intersection, looking down the sidestreet that formed a little pipestem off of what he now knew as South Main Road. 

Twilight and Cheerilee's discussion played out in his memory, and the knot in his stomach tightened.    

Down one of the little streets...

And here he was. 

He took the first step. Then the second, and then the third, walking until he was partway down the pipestem. 

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what it sounded like, but its echo had nonetheless left its mark. The sound had been so faint, so imperceptible... 

He could see the end of the cul-de-sac. No sounds issued from the little houses on either side of him, and wide rays of light from the descending sun flowed in between them and formed light and dark bands on the street. He kept walking, shifting his gaze between three of the homes situated at the very end of the road...

That was when he saw it, lying in the browning, weedy grass of the middle home's front yard, just beside one of the trees; a blue scooter. 

Spike stopped breathing. The artery in his neck visibly throbbed with the tempo of his heartbeat. There was no mistaking who this scooter belonged to.

The dragon stopped his forward progress, but only for a moment before he resumed his approach, leaning forward on the balls of his feet. Deadly curiosity outweighed uncertainty, and he was pulled closer and closer, passing the spot he had stood two days prior...

...and then he got a better look at the scooter lying on the ground. His pupils dilated. At the joint where the handlebars met the scooter platform, the metal bar was bent at a shallow angle, sticking up from the grass. One of its four red wheels lay a few feet away, and on the tree beside it, there was a wide gash on the bark.   

He stepped into the yard and crouched down, looking at the scooter with his mouth wide open. He didn't know Scootaloo well, but if there was one thing he did know, it was that she and her preferred mode of transportation were inseparable. And seeing it like this...

It felt like an ice cube was slithering down his back. He shivered, and his head shot up to look at the house only footsteps away.

This time, he couldn't have imagined it. He heard something. The faintest, tiniest squeak, like hearing a rodent in the attic of the library when he was having trouble sleeping late at night. His heart froze. 

A choked, pained squeal that barely broke through the wall, but was just loud enough for Spike to pick up. One word.

"Help!"

His stomach did a front flip, and bile traveled up his throat to burn his esophagus. 

"Help!"

The same cry as before, amplified just enough to remove any semblance of doubt. For a brief moment, he stood stock still.

Then, he lurched forward. 

Everything felt numb, the world around him appearing like a passing blur as he stormed across the lawn. His cold blood boiled as he leapt up the two steps to get onto the front porch.

"I'm coming!" he screamed in reply, so loud that his voice cracked. 

He came to the front door...

"Help!"

...and threw it open.     
> No. 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash was never one to give into despondency. Not for too long, anyway. And the longer she sat there at the kitchen table, with her head hidden underneath her hooves and her cheeks smoothed with dried tears, the more irritated she became.

With a grunt, she sat up in the chair, resting her forelegs on the table. Her eyes wandered aimlessly around the room, taking in all of the familiar mundanities of her kitchen; the white countertop, only clean from its lack of use, the cabinets above the sink that were seldom opened, the Wonderbolt calendar held in place by a magnet on her refrigerator door…

But then, she saw something else. Something right beside the calendar, held up by the same magnet.

A crayon drawing on a piece of looseleaf, with the insignia of a puffy cumulus cloud spitting out a tri-hued lightning bolt of blue, yellow, and red, in order from left to right. For the first time in a long time, Rainbow Dash really stopped to look at it, and she couldn't help but smile. 

Sweet Celestia, she’d even got the order of the colors right.  

“What’re you doing?” Rainbow Dash whispered. She scooted the chair back away from the edge of the table. “What are you doing? Sitting on your flank’s not gonna do anything. Crying like a little baby isn’t going to, either.”

She stood up. The drawing convicted her with its silent stare from across the room; the filly who made it had thought she was deserving of all her praise and adoration, and she wasn’t going to just sit back and prove her wrong now.

There was one thing she knew for sure, and it was that right now, she had to find Scootaloo. She had to find her, and she had to apologize. A soft whoosh sounded as her wings extended out, and she crouched low, aiming her body at the front door.

But before she could take off, another thought popped into her head that stopped her dead in her tracks. Just like that, all the despair she thought she had already discarded threatened to come right back at the sudden realization. She folded her wings back.

She had no idea where Scootaloo even lived. And she had already scoured Ponyville twice over to find her, but with no cigar. 

Pffft. Some sister I am, she thought bitterly. Since that fateful day at Winsome Falls, the only times she'd really gotten together with Scootaloo were when she'd catch sight of her with her friends, or in the random instances where she'd spot her riding through town on her scooter. In these events, the most she'd do was exchange a few words(and maybe a few noogies) with Scootaloo before heading on her way. In fact, it had been Scootaloo who'd asked her for lessons in the first place. Heck, she'd never even walked Scoots home from school...

School...  

The school! A light bulb went off inside her head, making her wings and ears perk up with newfound hope. Of course! The school was sure to at least have something documented with Scootaloo's address on it. And if she could find Ms. Cheerilee, then maybe... 

Her newest destination was set. She gave a hard flap of her wings and raced out the door.

...

When Spike stepped into the house, the first thing he noticed was the air. It was dank and laden with dust, and so heavy that Spike felt like his feet were sinking into the dingy carpet floor from the moment he stepped inside. The sensation was unsettling enough to bring him from a run into a cautious crouch, and his body gravitated toward the right wall. He slowly moved forward, training his ears to every sound as the door behind him swung closed. 

"Hello!" he hollered to anypony who was inside, pressing down on his chest to keep his breathing under control. "Who's in here?" 

His shouts triggered a sharp gasp from another room. In a quavering voice, somepony squeaked, "Wh-who's there?"   

The question echoed around the house. Spike crouched even lower, continuing toward the kitchen.    

"It's Spike! Spike the dragon..." the claws on his feet clicked on the kitchen tile. His head whipped from side to side, looking down another hallway to the left where he could see several doors. They were all closed. Seeing nopony there, he turned to his right. There was an entrance into another room which branched off from the kitchen, an open doorway about one pony wide.    

"Spike?" The voice rose to a desperate pitch. There was no mistaking that it was coming through the doorway. "Spike! Spike, it's Sc--It's Scootaloo!"

He heard the name-- her name-- and he remembered the library. The whole conversation. The whole reason he came here in the first place. The terror in her voice became his own. 

"Scootaloo..." he whispered. He crossed the kitchen, bumping into the corner of the table in his haste. Any remaining sense of hesitation evaporated into the heavy air. "Hold on, I'm coming! I'm coming..."

He ran into the room. 

"Spike..." He heard Scootaloo's voice from within. His head did a series of double takes as he panned from side to side, taking in his new surroundings, but he couldn't see her.

"Where are you?"

"Here!" she gasped out. "Over h-here, aagh..." 

Scootaloo's low moan could be heard from the far corner, obscured from his view behind a large armchair. He responded right away, taking three running steps into the living room, around the coffee table in the middle...

The sight before him paralyzed his diaphragm, and for a second he found himself incapable of speech or breath. Balled up in the corner, shivering and shuddering with quiet sobs, was Scootaloo.

"Scoot..." 

She weakly lifted her head, looking back at him with one eye. The other had been swollen shut, surrounded and buried under a mass of blue and black flesh. She clutched one foreleg to her stomach, cradling it under the elbow and holding it still against her body, which was so mottled with blue and black lumps that it was difficult to see the gamboge coat underneath. A puddle of blood had flowed from her crooked snout and onto the floor, smearing its crimson stain onto the right side of her head. 

When she saw Spike there, Scootaloo brought a trembling foreleg up to shield her face, shrinking into an even tighter ball. 

"Don't look at me..." she whimpered. "Don't..."

"Oh my gosh, Scootaloo!" Spike ran over to her, paying her words no heed as his vision blurred with hot tears. The sudden movement made her flinch away from him, covering her head with one foreleg while the other remained tucked at her waist.  

"Don't..." she coughed, gritting her teeth together with pain. "Spike--"

He ignored her, getting down on his hands and knees by her side, scrambling over the carpet until his head was next to hers. She winced at the feeling of his breath on her cheek. 

"Scootaloo, what happened? Oh my gosh..." he reached out to her, ever so lightly placing his hand on the side of her neck. The touch made her jerk away with a small cry, thumping lightly into the wall. Spike took his hand back as though he had placed it on a stovetop.

"Don't t-touch me..." she pleaded, scrunching up even tighter into the corner. "Please..."

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Spike assured her in a near whisper. He leaned in closer, reaching out to her again, this time even more slowly than before. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, shh... It's okay..."

He touched her mane, which was matted together with blood and sweat. Scootaloo tensed up slightly at the touch, but did not try to move away. He pushed down on her mane as gently as he could until his palm was resting on the back of her neck. He kept his hand in place.

"I'm here. I'm here for you." The vibrations of her quivering body traveled up his arm. "Okay? I'm here to help you..."

Scootaloo's head did not come up from the bloody carpet, but eventually, her cheek rubbed against the floor in a nod of understanding. Noticing it, Spike dared to brush his hand down her neck, fingers sifting through her blood-soaked mane. Scootaloo did not put up any more resistance to his touch, still sobbing quietly.

Spike's face inched forward so that it was right next to hers. Her one good eye peered at him from the floor.

"Scoot... who did this to you?"

Spike's question elicited a whole new bout of sobs from the pegasus filly. Using the leg that wasn't tucked against her chest, she pointed behind him. 

"I broke m-mom's lamp," she said. "Dad got really mad and..."

Tears leaked out of her closed eyes. Spike whipped his head around. Sure enough, on the floor next to the end table, beside a red armchair, lay what appeared to be bits and pieces of shattered ceramic lying on the floor. Spike's stomach felt like it was going to fall out onto the carpet. 

"Your dad did this, Scoot?" He asked with great apprehension, his hand never stopping its gentle caress of her mane and neck. Scootaloo hesitated before nodding once. 

...maybe something else is going on. Something at her home... 

"Okay, okay, uhh... And where is he? Is he still here?" He looked over his shoulder instinctively, feeling a cold shiver travel from head to tailtip. "Where did he go?"

Scootaloo moaned. "I don't know." She shook her head. "I-I don't know where he went..."

Spike wasn't sure if he should be relieved or even more afraid. 

"Uhh, okay... alrighty then, I, uh..." he shuffled forward until his knees were touching the edges of the red puddle under her head. "C-can you stand up?"

Scootaloo shook her head again. "N-no... My leg hurts really bad..."

She pointed down at her belly with her red-smeared snout. Spike took his hand off of her neck and sat up on his knees, panning down her body. A gasp escaped him as he noticed a massive black bruise just below her elbow that was swelling up into a balloon. The last time he'd seen something like that, it had been when Rainbow Dash had fractured her wing...

"Can you move it?"

"No..."

Spike swallowed a knot of warm phlegm that was forming in his throat. He nodded to her in reassurance to keep his own fear at bay. 

"Alright, umm... I'm gonna be right back, okay? I'm gonna go get help..." he told her. Scootaloo nodded fervently, choking on another sob.

He only had enough time to get to one foot.  

A click. The squeaking groan of the hinges and the sound of the door striking the wall. A stallion's gruff growls. 

Scootaloo's horrified whisper chilled him to the bone. 

"Hide!"

...

Rainbow Dash had made it to the school in only a matter of minutes. But when you started a race long after all of the other contestants had already crossed the finish line, it didn't matter how fast you went. You still came out a failure.

She should've known. School ended hours ago, and she should've known that it was much too late in the day for Miss Cheerilee to still be here. No lights were lit, but oddly enough, the door was still open just a crack. However, when she walked in, there were neither students nor teachers in any of the empty desks. She banged her head against the wall. 

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she hit the wall to punctuate every repetition. Rainbow Dash didn't care that it made her feel dizzy, or that it hurt. At this point, she wanted it to hurt. 

She left the empty schoolhouse with her tail tucked in between her legs. Head throbbing, she flapped her wings lazily, legs dangling in the air as she ascended higher and higher...

"Rainbow Dash!"

The cyan pegasus halted her ascent. She snapped her head up and looked around, to see two ponies standing a short distance away from her in the schoolyard. Twilight and Miss Cheerilee. 

"Uhh... Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?" Twilight asked. "You don't look so good." 

But Rainbow Dash wasn't looking at her. Her focus was entirely on Miss Cheerilee. Both ponies' pleasantly surprised expressions were about the same as they stared at each other. 

"Rainbow Dash... I wasn't expecting to see you here," said Miss Cheerilee. Rainbow Dash's mouth moved, but no words came out. "I'm sorry... I was looking for Scootaloo earlier, and I... well, I wanted to ask if you knew where she was..."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head back and bit her lip. 

"Heheh, yeah... I was actually gonna ask you for some help with that."

...

Spike pressed his body against the chair, keeping his head low. Terror affected his senses as he listened to Scootaloo's father's hooves clopping on the kitchen floor and every loud, drunken shout the stallion expelled. There was a clattering thud from the other room as a chair toppled over.

"Daaaargh!" An anguished cry made him cringe. Spike slid further behind the chair. A tear trickled down his own face with fear. 

He was trapped, and the only thing he could hope for at the moment was that this crazy stallion wouldn't come into the room. 

He peered over his shoulder. Scootaloo was shaking visibly, curled up and keeping herself in a tight ball. She winced at every loud sound her father made, and her eyes were glued to the open doorway, waiting for him to come inside. Waiting for him to see her.

The filly's battered face at last turned to Spike. From his place on the carpet, his eyes burned into hers. 

All he gave her was a smile. It wasn't wide, and it wasn't for very long. He didn't even show any teeth.

But she understood. 

The noise came to a sudden stop. To Spike, it was so unexpected that for a moment, he wondered if her father had left the room. But just as he entertained the idea of peeping over the top of the chair, he heard something else. Something that confused him almost as much as it kept his nerves on edge. 

Crying. Spike squinted, trying to decide if he was actually hearing correctly, but the stallion's blubbering cries were unmistakable. But it only took a short while for those cries to mingle in with more enraged howls, and the crying faded into the background. 

The crinkling crash of shattered glass made the two of them flinch as something was thrown against the wall. Scootaloo tried her best to stay quiet, but the loud sound triggered a soft cry of fright from her unwilling throat.     

Spike could see the panic rising in her. He pushed himself up from the ground and crawled over to her, glancing once over his shoulder. To his relief, there was nopony there. 

"Scoot, Scoot, shh," he comforted her with a barely audible whisper. "Calm down, okay, calm down, shh..."

He tried desperately to keep her sane, but Scootaloo's head only shook more rapidly, making an awful squelching pop every time her cheek hit the pool of sticky, dried blood. 

"Just go," she implored in a broken whisper. Her body shook like a leaf. "I'm not worth it..."

But Spike did not even take the idea under consideration. "No! No, I'm not, I won't. I'm gonna get you out of here, I promise--" 

Scootaloo's eyes widened with abject terror in the middle of his speech. And she wasn't looking at him. 

Spike turned his head. 

Her father stared right back at him.

...

"What do you mean?" Cheerilee appeared puzzled. "Weren't you just with her? Applebloom told me you were giving her a flying lesson today."

Twilight noticed as Rainbow Dash shrank away from them both, drawing a circle in the dirt after landing back on the ground. It reminded her of the time when she had first met Fluttershy during her first day in Ponyville. 

"Heh, I, uh, yeah, I mean... I was, but... something happened."

The last phrase was vague enough to bring any image, horrific or otherwise, to the imagination. Naturally, Cheerilee opted for the worst case scenario. 

"Something happened? What? Is Scootaloo okay? She didn't get hurt, did she?" The questions rattled off her tongue like rapidfire.  

Rainbow Dash grimaced. She lowered her head, bending at the knees. "Uhh, not exactly..."

"Not exactly?" Twilight spoke now. "What do you m-- What's going on, Rainbow Dash?"

Their pressing inquiries sounded more like interrogations to Dash's ears. Already in such a fragile state of mind, she couldn't take it any more. 

"Hold on, hold on! Just gimme a second, will ya?"

Twilight and Cheerilee were taken aback by Rainbow Dash's sudden change in tone. The cyan pegasus looked and sounded like she was on the verge of a meltdown. She turned her face away in shame.

"Sorry, girls... it's just that, well... I screwed up. Hard. And... I came here because I wanted to ask you, Cheerilee, if-- if you knew where Scootaloo lived."

...

Spike's tongue turned to cotton. 

"What the...the Tart'rus 're you?" The stallion slurred.  

At the sight of Scootaloo's father, standing in the doorway with bloodshot eyes, Spike began to tremble. Her father was a head taller than many pegasus stallions he'd seen before, comparable to Big McIntosh in size. Huge.  

Spike turned his body around and stepped to his feet, putting himself in front of Scootaloo.

"S-S... Spike." The second he felt himself stuttering, he made a conscious effort to keep it under control. He walked back one step, closing the space between himself and Scootaloo as much as possible. The stallion's lip curled up in what appeared to be disgust.

"Spike? Who the... An' who're you... doin' in my house, lizard?" A guttural growl accompanied his question. Footclaws digging into the carpet to steady himself, Spike mustered the courage to respond. 

"I'm her friend." 

The answer was matter of fact and delivered with an air of confidence. But it was all a pretense. Under the surface, Spike's insides felt like they were filled with lead. "I'm Scootaloo's friend."

Her father's contemptuous sneer turned to a snarl. He approached them, walking his full frame into the living room.

"She ain't allowed t' have friends in my house," he declared. Behind Spike, Scootaloo whimpered. "I think you need t' leave."

The tension in the room was almost tangible in the air. Palpitations from Spike's heart became so intense that they could be felt in his fingertips. He chanced a backward glance at Scootaloo. 

He saw her bruises. He saw the arm she tucked against her waist. The blood that still dripped from her busted snout and stained her swollen face. He saw the way she cringed, shivered, and sobbed from pain and fear. He turned around... 

...and he saw the stallion who caused it all. 

"I said, you need t' leave." 

Something happened to Spike in that moment. Any fear he had been feeling only moments before began to fade into the background. His hands clenched into fists. Neck muscles tightened, and his lip twitched upward into a snarl. His belly rose and fell with shuddering breaths, and he looked up from the floor. 

"No."

The word hovered in the empty space between them, floating in the air. Her father's brow furrowed downward, and anger crossed with disbelief on his features. 

"What?" 

"No. I won't leave her here. You'll just hurt her again."

The stallion said nothing for a moment. But he craned his neck forward, wobbling slightly on his legs. "You listen here, I said--"

"I know. I know what you said," Spike cut him off. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. "No."

"No!" 

Something brushed against the back of his leg. Startled, Spike looked down at the floor to see Scootaloo's hoof on his ankle. The girl regarded him with pleading eyes. 

"No, Spike, don't! J-Just... just go, okay? I'll be fine..." the last line was sobbed out. "Just go, please, I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

Despite her begging, Spike wouldn't listen. He pulled his leg away and advanced a step forward, toward her slowly approaching father. The pegasus stallion bared his yellowed teeth.

"If you won't leave, I'll MAKE you leave!" he hollered.  

But Spike pushed all of his fear into the background, replacing it with righteous rage. The whites of his eyes seemed to cloud over with red mist, and he showed her father his fangs, adopting a fighting stance.  

"No. You won't."

The two opponents halted momentarily, squaring off. Each surveyed the other. One large, one small. One angry, and one furious. Scootaloo huddled behind Spike, whispering her pleas to deaf ears, helpless to do anything.

"Spike, dad, don't--" 

They did.    

Scootaloo's father stumbled forward with a flap his wings, and in a single instant, he crossed the room. Spike had only a second to react as the stallion's forelegs reached out to grab him...  

He lurched forward, razor sharp incisors bared, and sank his teeth into her father's leg. 

An agonized scream ripped out of the father's throat as Spike's jewel-crushing jaws clamped down on his fetlock. In a howl of rage, he spun around and slammed Spike into the wall. But Spike only bit down harder, tasting blood and feeling it dribble down his throat and chest. He dug his claws into the stallion's leg and drew more blood, hanging on for dear life as he felt himself being lifted up in the air, only to be slammed into the wall again.

Spike clasped his eyes shut in immense pain, feeling his teeth loosen in his mouth. Scootaloo's piercing screams sounded distant, miles away as dizziness overcame him. The vice-like grip of his powerful jaws weakened as her father tossed him high above the floor with a wild roar.

The last impact made a dent in the drywall. The force of the hit took Spike's breath away, dislodging his teeth in the process. Two of them remained in the stallion's leg as Spike crumpled to the floor, bloody claws reaching up to cover his mouth.

Scootaloo cried uncontrollably and closed her eyes, but she was forced to listen to everything. Her father's screams bounced around the inside of her skull; the crunching, splitting thud of Spike being rammed violently into the wall over and over again were impossible to block out.  

"Stop! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please stop..."  

Her father, at last free from the dragon's horrible bite, rolled onto the floor with an ear-splitting howl, shocked and unable to take his eyes off of the rivulets of scarlet streaming down his leg. Only a few hoofsteps away, Spike lay in a barely moving heap, seeing doubles. He raised his head, but the outline of his foe writhing on the ground was little more than a blur. Spike groaned, rolling onto his belly and pushing himself up onto his knees. 

When the two frames of Scootaloo's father slid back together to form one image, he was sitting up against the sofa. Getting back up.

Even after all of the blows he'd suffered, the red mist of war never left Spike's sight. The battle was still on. Dripping red fangs showed themselves from between his curled lips. 

"AaaaaAAAAARGH!" Spike charged headlong at his target with a bestial warcry, extending his hands and claws outward.

He did not see his opponent's wild swing at his unprotected head. It connected just behind the jaw, snapping Spike's head to the left. The strength of the blow lifted him off his feet. Spike did not even cry out as he careened through the air, landing hard on his side and rolling over twice before being stopped by the wall. 

Stars danced in the darkness. The world seemed to throw him this was and that, like a sailboat caught amidst a stormy sea in the dead of night, and it was as if the ocean's cold waters had turned his scales numb. He saw and heard nothing, nothing save the ringing in his ears. 

Then his vision began to return. The sea's waves smoothed out into a calm, rippling surface, and the shrieking whine faded into a soft buzz. A white painted wall was the first thing he saw, and the throbbing ache of his head was the first thing he felt. He rolled over onto his back, dazed but at last regaining consciousness.  

The second thing he saw was the stallion's shadow looming over him. More on instinct than on reflex, Spike hardly managed to bring his arms up in time to protect his head before her father was upon him.

The stallion was past any form of coherence as he began to rain blows down on the baby dragon's entire body, striking anywhere without discrimination. Using his unmangled foreleg, he rammed Spike up against the wall while the other hung limp.

Spike peeked up, watching her father rear back on his hind legs, readying for a one-hooved stomp down on his covered head. Through the haze of pain, Spike's reflexes were still sharp as his claws. He quickly rolled over, dodging the massive hoof that slammed into the carpet right where his head had been, and lashed out blindly with his clawed hand. 

It connected with the stallion's muzzle. Spike did not see it, but the second he felt the contact his fingers curled inward, digging into the skin. His efforts were rewarded with a distressed yell, followed by a swift strike to his abdomen. Spike jerked away, falling to the floor with a flap of hide still attached to his claws. 

Unable to breathe, Spike clutched his stomach and curled into a ball, mouth gaping open in silent gasps. He didn't move.

Vocal cords splitting in a fell roar, Scootaloo's father raised his hoof, standing on both hind legs, preparing to deliver the final, crushing blow to Spike's head. The baby dragon brought one trembling hand up to shield his face, shutting his eyes tight.

"NOOO!" 

The buzzing of somepony's wings were followed by something careening into the back of his legs. The stallion, balance unstable with intoxication, tumbled off to the side. There was a loud crash as he slammed onto the coffee table.

"Ah! AAA!" Scootaloo fell face down and landed on her injured leg, shrieking in agony. But the pain was so great that she began to black out mid-scream. The lancing, searing burn turned into little more than a tingle, her chin hit the floor...

She fell silent. Unconscious.

Spike had been waiting for the strike. Waiting for the darkness to take him to a place where he wouldn't come back. But when he opened his eyes, he was still there, bleeding on the same floor, in the same house. Scootaloo lay lifeless beside him. 

And with the same hatred burning in his eyes, the same stallion, despite all of Spike's best efforts, was still getting back up. 

In that moment, something happened to Spike. Something changed. A heat grew in the pit of his belly, starting with a single spark and erupting into an inferno. It spread, traveling up into his chest, into his throat, into his mouth, to the backs of his blood covered teeth...

He opened his mouth to roar. It came out as a torrent of yellow flame. 

Fire cascaded over the stallion's head and shoulders. The sound her father made was like nothing Spike had ever heard.

"DAAAAAAGH! AAAAGH!" 

The odor of charred flesh and feathers permeated the room. Mesmerized, Spike couldn't tear his eyes away from the terrible scene he'd just caused, watching her father take flight with burning wings, tumbling through the air... and out of the room. 

That was when Spike noticed the live flames on the carpet, starting in a tight circle under the table and quickly expanding into a wide ring straight toward him and Scootaloo. He gave a sharp intake of breath. 

Scootaloo didn't move. Still reeling from shock, Spike rolled onto his back, wincing at a stabbing pain in his ribs, and crawled over to Scootaloo on all fours. 

"Scoot!" He yelled her name. Not even a flicker of her eyelids answered him. He grabbed her shoulder and gave her a hard shake, but Scootaloo remained motionless.  

Spike's eyes darted between her and the growing fire. Panic filled his lungs, and he began to hyperventilate. 

"Come on, Scoot! We gotta get out of here!" He shook her again. And again. Nothing. The tongues of flame licked hungrily at the dirty carpet, forming a tiny wall of fire that threatened to block them in. 

Spike had only one thing left he could do. 

"Scoot? Scoot, hold on, okay?" He slid one hand under her head, and the other beneath her flank. "I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? I'm gonna get you out..."

He tapped into every reserve of strength he possibly had left. One foot stamped into the floor, and then the other. The veins popped out of his arms, legs and neck, fit to burst. 

The baby dragon lifted Scootaloo's body up from the ground. Gravity pulled back down, latching onto her battered frame, but he kept hold of her in his stubby arms. 

"I got you," He barely managed to whisper to her unresponsive face. "You're okay... you're okay..."

He teetered from side to side. A spear felt like it had impaled him through the chest. 

He kept walking. 

"I got you..."

One foot in front of the other. He kept walking, past the fire.

"You're okay..."

Two steps, breathe in. Two steps, breathe out. 

He kept walking, through the doorway, past the kitchen. The fire devoured the carpet where he and Scootaloo had been. The heat wafted through the air and onto his back. 

His tendons ripped, and his shoulders popped. Two steps, breathe in, two steps breathe out. Blood from his mouth dripped onto the filly in his arms.

"I got you!" 

Still keeping his hold on her, he twisted the door knob in his fingertips and pulled it open. Scootaloo slid down toward the ground in the process, but Spike flexed every muscle in his body, expelling one final howl of pain and exertion to keep her in his grasp.

He stumbled down the tiny porch, tripped on the first stair, and landed on the dirt with a hard thud. 

Blackness clouded his vision. The world slipped away from him. 

He fell into unconsciousness, his body shielding Scootaloo in one last act of protection.  

  

  

                                                   
> Smoke
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there was a time where she’d felt more angry than she did right now, Rainbow Dash couldn’t remember. 

The conversation had lasted for quite a long while; they'd told her the whole story from start to finish. And after she'd promised not to do anything rash and to keep this a secret for the time being, Cheerilee had been more than willing to give her Scootaloo's address. But now that the anger had a chance to stew, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep her promise. 

The roaring of air in her ears was something she was familiar with. But this time, the sensation was not accompanied with the usual joyful thrill that came with a daring stunt. It was a high stakes race, one where the finish line was still far out of sight.

Out of sight, that is, until she saw the steadily growing column of blackish gray smoke billowing in the distance. Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open, letting cool air cascade down her throat. 

As the Captain of the Ponyville Weather Team, Rainbow Dash had many responsibilities. Naturally, one of those was firefighting. And smoke like that could only mean one thing: something big was burning, and it wasn't a campfire. 

“Oh no... what in the…” Her wings flapped with newfound gusto, forcing herself to switch priorities  "Not good, not good..."

Even from her low altitude, it was obvious that the smoke could be seen from all around town. Rainbow Dash stretched her forelegs out in front to cut through the air, crossing over a row of tall houses along South Main Road. A breeze blew the smoke her way, bringing with it the smell of burning wood and plaster. She was almost...

There. At a house just off of South Main Road, at the tip of a cul-de-sac. It was fully ablaze.

"No..." 

Scootaloo's house, her address. It fit every description they'd given her. It had to be. 

"Oh my gosh..."

It couldn't be. 

"Squirt!"

... 

While Cheerilee may not have had magic at her disposal, her long-held position as schoolteacher had made her good with a quill nonetheless. With practiced precision and speed, she clenched the feather between her teeth and penned the message while Twilight watched anxiously from a distance. 

"Almost done!" Cheerilee dipped the quill into an inkwell beside her and wrote the last few words onto the paper before setting the quill aside. She scooted the chair back  "That's it. Now all I have to do is send it in. Should only take a couple of days for them to get it."

Twilight nodded slowly. "Yes... Or, if you would like me to help speed up the process..."

Cheerilee pulled an envelope out of her desk drawer, but hesitated at Twilight's insinuation. "Wait, do you mean... Spike? You think Princess Celestia would be alright with forwarding the letter?"

"Of course!" Twilight affirmed. "Why wouldn't she be?" 

Cheerilee shrugged. She played with the envelope flap idly. "Oh, I don't know... Are you sure? "

"Positive." Twilight stepped around the desk to take a quick peek at the letter. "I know it would be faster to deliver it that way than to do it with the regular mail service, and we want to make sure that Scootaloo's taken out of there as fast as possible. If there is something going on, that is..."

Cheerilee closed her eyes for a moment in thought, and then nodded in agreement. The ink now dry, she folded the letter and placed it into the envelope before licking it closed. 

"If... oh, Twilight," she said, slapping the letter onto the hardwood, "I just have a really bad feeling about this. About everything..."

Twilight draped her wing around Cheerilee's shoulders and surrounded the letter in a violet aura,  "I know. But it's alright. Scootaloo's going to be okay. Once we get this letter to Foal Protective Services, they'll be able to find out what's really going on here. They're very quick in dealing with these sorts of things, I can assure you." She curled her feathers around the other mare's body in a comforting gesture and walked her toward the door. "I'll go and get Spike to send the letter, along with a personal instruction note asking Celestia to forward it to FPS, and it'll all be taken care of lickety sp--"

Unexpectedly, the air of confidence in her speech faded away so that the last words she uttered came out as nothing more than a mumble. She smacked herself in the forehead. 

"What's the matter?" asked Cheerilee. Twilight sighed. 

"Unless Spike is back at the library, I have no idea where he is at the moment." She groaned. "Why he decided to  'take a break' after we'd only just begun working is beyond me."

They stepped out into the schoolyard together. Cheerilee was about to make a reply when she froze. Twilight continued to walk forward a few paces until she noticed that her wing was sliding off of the other mare's back. She turned around.

"What's wrong?" 

"Um..." Cheerilee stared distantly off to her left. She pointed with her hoof. "There..."

Without any hesitation, Twilight turned to look where Cheerilee was indicating. She inhaled sharply through her nose.

A blackish gray cloud of smoke billowed far into the sky like a plume of volcanic ash. It appeared to be coming from someplace in the city, and whatever was burning... it was big. 

"Uh-oh... that can't be good."          

...

Fear's cold claws dug into Rainbow's gut, bringing up bile which attacked the lining of her throat. She saw the glints of orange flame showing themselves from out of the rising smoke and through the cracked glass of the windows, and already a sizable, panicked crowd of ponies had gathered along the fringes of the house. Above it, she could see that some pegasi had already sprung into action, carrying over rainclouds to put out the blaze. Adrenaline coursing through her blood, she targeted one of them and raced over.

"Is anypony inside?" She yelled to the black pegasus stallion carrying the cloud, barreling into it and digging her hooves into the damp fluff. "Please tell me nopony's inside!"

The suddenness of her entry took him aback for a moment, but he didn't stay startled for long. With her help, he brought the heavy raincloud overtop of the house, turning his face away from the thick cloud of smoke rising up from it. 

"I dunno, I just got here! And nopony could get inside, the fire's too big!"

Rainbow Dash bared her teeth, leaping up on top of the raincloud and bringing all four hooves smashing down on top of it, forcing the water out of it like she were squeezing a sopping wet sponge. She jumped up and rammed it again and again in a panic-induced frenzy.

"Go get another one, quick! Go, go, go!" She slammed her hooves down with every syllable. The other pegasus didn't hesitate and flew away to do what he was told.

She pounded every last drop of water out of the cloud until it had gone white, and then she busted it with a hard kick of her hind legs, evaporating it into thin air. No time was wasted; she zoomed off and returned back with another, and by that time several other pegasi had joined her in a collective effort to put out the blaze. One of the pegasi, whom she recognized as a part of the weather team, caught her eye.

"Flitter! Where's the team?" Her voice carried over the fire's steady roar. Flitter positioned her cloud overtop a hole in the roof which was spouting tongues of orange and yellow flame. 

"They're coming! Cloudchaser's rounding 'em up!" She joined Rainbow Dash in jumping on top of her own cloud, forcing all of the water to stream into a gaping hole in the roof. 

"And is anypony still inside?" Rainbow's voice cracked with urgency. "There's nopony still in there, right?"

The cloud below Flitter turned from gray to white. "We don't know! Sassaflash tried to go in, but the fire was too big!"

Rainbow Dash bit her cheek so hard that she tasted metal. If somepony, if Scootaloo was still in there...

"Did you see a filly come out? She's dark orange, purple mane, tiny wings? Did you?" The words came out so fast she sounded like an auctioneer. With Rainbow's description, Flitter's eyes widened with recognition. 

"Dark orange... Yeah, yeah, Thunderlane and Blossomforth found a filly like that laying outside the house when they came," she called back, wringing the last bit of water out of the cloud before busting it with a hefty kick. "She was with that dragon that's always at the library... and they took them outta here on a stretcher. I think they were hurt pretty bad!"  

She flew away to retrieve another cloud. Rainbow's heart did a somersault in tandem with her stomach. Relief, dread, and confusion all blended together into one; Scootaloo made it out. 

On a stretcher. 

With... Spike?   

When the cloud had turned white, Rainbow bucked it and went for another. And still, not too far below, the fire raged on.

...

Dull, rhythmic thuds turned into hollow, echoing clops as Twilight and Cheerilee transitioned from dirt to cobblestone roads. They were very close... 

"It's not far away," Cheerilee observed. She looked for where the color of the smoke was darkest and continued down the street while several other ponies headed in the same direction. Twilight flexed her wings. 

"I'm going to see if I can get a better look!" she called back, taking to the air. She angled her torso to the right and aimed her sights downward, flying a wide circle around the growing cloud of smoke while Cheerilee cantered below. 

She was unused to running long distances, but Cheerilee pressed on. She hissed with discomfort through clenched teeth as a cramp knotted up in her side, but she kept her eyes fixed on the terrible prize, so close that she could smell the smoke drifting between the lines of houses. 

Up ahead, the road branched off into a three-way intersection. Two ponies galloped around the corner and disappeared from view, and they were soon followed by another. And then another. Cheerilee squinted, looking back and forth between the smoke and the road. The intersection branched off toward the right, toward the smoke.   

It was only when she saw this that she came to the realization. Details of Scootaloo's address were still fresh in her mind from the letter she'd only just written. Unease that was already residing in the pit of her stomach seemed to turn to heavy bricks. Could it be...?

"Cheerilee!"

Twilight came back to earth, landing in front of her on the road. Startled, Cheerilee dig her hooves into the cobblestone and came to a grinding halt. 

Only a moment of eye contact passed between them. But it was all the time it took for the horror and pain in Twilight's gaze to confirm Cheerilee's worst suspicions. 

"Ohmigosh... I think... it's Scootaloo," she panted, wincing at even the mention of the filly's name. "I think it's her house."  

...

A sizable group of pegasi had formed to combat the blaze, and Rainbow Dash was at its helm. 

"Get that one in there!" she barked to one of the team members who was toting a fresh raincloud. "Mash 'em!"

One of the groups, which consisted of at least ten pegasi, all rushed to do what they were told. They compressed a collection of several rainclouds into one another until they became squished together like a mass of wet cotton balls. Rainbow Dash planted her forehooves firmly on top of the dripping mass and flapped her wings, pushing the cloud downward toward the smoke. 

"Get the whole thing lower! Closer to the house!" she shouted. The situation's high stakes coupled with her commanding tone inspired their cooperation right away, and they all followed her example until they had to turn their faces away from the smoke that cascaded upward. The rumble of the blaze forced Rainbow Dash to raise her voice to new heights.

"Ram it!" 

Every pegasi charged shoulder-first into the cloud from all sides. The force caused all of the water to come shooting straight down like a waterfall and cascade through a large hole in the roof. They pressed in at every angle until it had gone from gray to white. 

"Get more! Go, go, go!" she urged. They all scurried away while she put together another team while several other pegasi  Below them, the entire cul-de-sac had completely filled up with ponies from all over town, crowded together to the point where the pavement was no longer visible. But Rainbow Dash paid no attention to the audience that had formed; she only noticed that the flame's height had diminished, and that clear traces of milky white and light gray were beginning to show in the smoke.

"The fire's getting weaker! Quick, bring that one over here!" She darted over to a trio of pegasi and snatched away an abnormally large cloud they had been carrying. She dragged it lower until she could feel the heat of the flames radiating onto her cyan coat and forced the water out of it. Some of it evaporated and turned to steam, but most of it flooded over the roof tiles and inside the building. When she looked up, she noticed that a great number of pegasi had followed her down with more clouds of their own, keeping up their relentless assault against the flames.

"We got it now! Don't stop!" she shouted encouragement to the rest of the team, casting her cloud aside and flying off to survey the house while the others worked at a frenzied pace. 

Tongues of flame were no longer spitting out of the windows and roof, and thanks to their efforts, the fire was now completely contained inside the house. All they had to do was douse what was left inside...

"We've got this! Bring 'em down closer!" she ordered. The fire's diminishing strength allowed her raspy voice to carry over longer distances, and every pegasi within earshot immediately complied with her command. The canopy of clouds lowered.

So did the flames. Rainbow Dash joined in once more, aiming water where the fire was still the biggest. There were dozens of pegasi working alongside her now; some were from the weather team, but many others were not. In fact, it seemed like almost every pegasus in Ponyville was joining in the firefighting efforts. 

"Keep at it! We've got this in the bag!"                  

...

It was very fortunate that the crowd was as large and as dense as it was. Otherwise, Miss Cheerilee may very well have tried to run straight into the burning building herself. 

Twilight kept at the other mare's tail, not letting her out of her sight. Cheerilee's eyes were practically popping out of her skull, and she drew in ragged breaths as she pushed, nudged, and shoved her way through the amassed crowd. Each individual flame she could see seemed to do a merry dance, reveling in their destruction of her student's home. 

"No, oh my gosh, please no..." Cheerilee begged in a low whisper to no one in particular. Every pony around her seemed to be in shock, horrified but still unable to look away. She bumped them off to the side and crawled her way through the crowd, scanning from side to side in search of Scootaloo. 

Twilight muttered hasty apologies as she bumped into several ponies, trying to keep up with Cheerilee. It was a difficult task; the schoolteacher was hell-bent on making it all the way up to the front. Twilight prepared herself to grab hold of Cheerilee with her magic, just in case... 

A rainbow streak in Twilight's peripheral vision caught her attention. She immediately directed her gaze above, to notice a considerable group of pegasi combating the blaze with a wide array of rainclouds held aloft. And sure enough, even from this far away, she could hear none other than the raspy voice of Rainbow Dash giving directions to the rest. 

"Right to left! Drown it!" she heard her friend cry. She watched as several pegasi formed a line of clouds and panned over the house from one end to the other, dragging a wall of water over the defiant flames. They were followed by a second group, and then a third. Their efforts brought the fire's roar down to a low rumble, eliciting cheers from the sea of ponies on the cul-de-sac. 

By the time Twilight looked back down, Cheerilee was nearly lost amid the bustling crowd. Twilight craned her neck, trying to keep Cheerilee in her sights. She jostled a stallion aside, ears flattening back on her head apologetically, and went in pursuit, moving as fast as she could through the sea of ponies, muttering half-sincere apologies to every pony she bumped past. 

"Cheerilee!" She called out, attempting to raise her voice over the loud chatter of the crowd. She thought she saw a glimpse of the other mare's pale gray tail up ahead, which sent her in the right direction. "Cheeri--"

Without warning, she slipped past two more ponies and almost fell flat on her face. She stumbled forward, but found her balance at the last second, leaning back and using her wings to keep herself upright. When she looked around, her brow furrowed down with confusion; there was nopony else around her. 

That was when she realized that she'd made it to the front of the crowd. She whirled around, catching the perplexed stares of several ponies from the front row. She paid them no mind. 

"Cheerilee! Where did y--" she cut herself short when she saw Cheerilee emerge right after her. The other mare did not even appear to see her, looking up at the dwindling blaze with panic and fear clear in her face. 

"Where is Scootaloo? Did you see her?" Cheerilee bolted over to Twilight. "Did she get out? Do you know?"

"I don't know! I don't see her anywhere!" Twilight answered. Oddly, her grim reply was met with another chorus of loud cheers from the audience. They both whipped around to look at the house.

It was astounding; the house had gone from an inferno to little more than a smoldering ruin by the time they'd made it down the road. Visible through the shattered windows were glimmers of yellow and orange from where parts of the fire still remained inside, but the pillar of black smoke that had been visible from miles away was now reduced to less than a third of its former size. All it took were a few more sweeps of water, and at last the bright flickering was no more. Both Cheerilee and Twilight felt a surge of relief. 

"Are they going to go inside? Does it look like everypony made it out okay?" Cheerilee interrogated. Exasperated, Twilight shook her head. 

"I already told you, I don't know! We'll have to wait and see... hold on, there they go," she pointed to a group of four pegasi that were diving into the house. She almost found herself smiling, when she suddenly realized just how bad of a sign that was; there could still be somepony inside. 

"Twilight! Cheerilee!""

Twilight was jerked away from her train of thought by the familiar sound of her friend's voice. Rainbow Dash's hooves crashed into the asphalt pavement. Startled, Cheerilee brought her hoof up to her heart while Twilight gave a slight whoop of surprise, flaring her wings out.

"Guys, oh my gosh, guys! I tried to put it out as fast as I could!" Rainbow Dash danced on the tips of her hooves, trotting in place. "I saw a bunch of smoke, but I came in late and the fire was already really big and I figured out this was Scoot's house and..."

The words were flowing out so fast that they all sounded strung together. Twilight held up her hoof before Rainbow Dash could get any further.

"Stop! Slow down a minute. Is Scootaloo okay?" she asked calmly. "Did ev--" 

"Did everypony make it out?" Cheerilee asked the question for her. Rainbow Dash shrank back, nodding her head once. The adrenaline still flowing in her veins caused her to shiver. 

"Scootaloo... yeah, she made it out, but..." Rainbow Dash grimaced, looking like she'd just been stabbed in the gut. She rubbed her right foreleg with her left, looking away from them. "...but it's not all good."

Cheerilee's face lifted and fell in the span of one sentence. She wasted no time to ask for clarification, rattling off questions one after the other. "What do you mean? Did she get hurt? Is she alright? Please tell me she's okay!"

Rainbow Dash wilted under every new question she was faced with. She took a deep breath, calming her nerves as well as she was able, and answered.

"Scoots... I didn't see her 'cause I came in late, but... she got taken to the hospital." She turned to Twilight and took another deep breath. "I don't know how she's doing, but... Twilight," she made direct eye contact with her, "Spike was with her, a-and... and he got taken to the hospital, too."

The only sound they could hear was the murmuring of the crowd. Twilight had to let the news sink into her brain for a moment, going slack-jawed with confusion. Cheerilee sat back on the asphalt, eyes welling up. 

"Spike? Wait, you said Spike was with her? He got hurt, too?" Images of Spike running in to save Scootaloo from the burning building entered Twilight's head. "They're both at the hospital?"

Rainbow Dash nodded again. She bit her top lip. "Y-yeah, they are. Flitter said she saw them go..."

One of the four pegasi who had went in to inspect the house came back out. She coughed and hacked a couple of times before making her way over to Rainbow Dash. The look of pain and disgust on her face was plain as day, and at seeing her, the formerly bustling crowd fell totally silent.  

"Dash..." She looked nauseous. "...We're going to need a stretcher--and a sheet."              

...

Somewhere in the recesses of his unconscious mind, he had the faint awareness of something vibrating beneath him. Attempts to hone his senses to investigate were only met with a swimming sensation that concentrated itself in his inner ears, and before his semi-conscious mind could attempt to inquire further, the waters pulled him back under, and he was lost to sight and to mind. 

Much time, or perhaps not much at all, passed before his senses became awakened to anything else. But when the ocean's cold waters at last brought him to shore and the tides rolled back, its soothing, numbing properties receded with the retreat of the waves. 

And in its place; a throbbing, searing ache. 

"Unh..."

Spike awoke. 

   
> Pain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As waiting rooms went, the one in Ponyville hospital was quite nice. Cushioned seats, soft carpeted floors, and colorful paintings held up by maple wood frames all seemed to fill the room with a subtly optimistic air.

To Cheerilee, it was a slap to the face. A mockery. The room was bright, but she couldn't have felt more in the dark. And as her gaze wandered around the room, her imagination was allowed to run wild with worst-case scenarios, with what could have been. Images of her student lying in a hospital bed, charred face contorted with anguish, hair burnt black and body marred with scarlet scars from the bottom of her hooves to the top of her head...

It terrified her. 

Twilight's wing lay draped around her shoulders, feathers occasionally rubbing up and down over her back. It was an unsuccessful attempt to soothe her, but she accepted the gesture with a tiredness in her heart.

"She made it out," Twilight said quietly into her ear. "Spike got her out. She's okay. They're... they're both okay. It could have been worse..." 

Twilight's calm assurance did not offer her any solace. Cheerilee closed her eyes. 

"I know, Twilight." She gulped down a warm knot of phlegm. "I just... I can't believe this happened. To one of my students, no less."

Twilight leaned into Cheerilee, resting the side of her face on the other mare's neck. She sighed. "I know. N-Neither can I... I can't believe Spike was... he... and Scootaloo..." she stuttered, finding it challenging to form the right words, "... It just doesn't make any sense."

Cheerilee nodded once in agreement before hanging her head. She pressed her lips firmly together to stop them from shaking, but remained silent. 

Across from them on the other bench, Applejack clutched Applebloom close to her side, keeping a firm grip on her. They too had seen the smoke from across town and had come to investigate. She brushed her other hoof through Applebloom's mane. 

"It's gonna be alright, Sugarcube." She had repeated this several times since Rainbow Dash had told them the news. "Scoot's gonna be fine, okay?"

Applebloom nodded, wiping her snout. When she and her sister had seen the source of the smoke, she had nearly suffered a panic attack, but she’d since calmed down. Regardless, misery caused the pink bow to sag on her head, drooping like the petals of a rose in the final stages of summer. 

"Ah know... B-But she still got hurt..." she said in a near whisper. "An' now her house is gone, and... and Spike's hurt, too, and...and her Pa..."

Applejack silenced her with a kiss to the top of her head. "Shh, Ah know, sweetheart. Ah know... This ain't easy, but... Scootaloo's still gonna turn out okay. Even though... even though this happened, Ah promise. Remember, the Nurse said she ain't in critical condition or nothin' like that. She'll be right as rain soon. Alright?" 

Applebloom leaned in closer to Applejack, letting her big sister's strong foreleg wrap all the way around her shoulders. She squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled. "A-Alright..."

Swish!

Everypony in the room jolted in their seats at the sound of the automatic hospital door zipping open. Rainbow Dash glided through the opening, landing daintily on all fours. Once she was on the floor, she walked over to the bench as if she were ascending the gallows, head dipped low and eyelids drooped with misery.

“Are they coming?” Twilight asked. Rainbow nodded. 

“Yeah. I told Sweetie’s family what the smoke was, and everything that happened. Rarity and her are gonna come." Her voice was deadpan, devoid of life. "They should be here soon.” 

She crawled up onto the bench, her step lacking the springiness that it usually possessed, and plopped her rear down onto the cushion in the far corner furthest away from everyone else. Twilight shot her a questioning stare, but Rainbow Dash turned her head away to face the wall, shutting everything else out. 

Sure enough, soon afterward, a white mare came through the door, carrying a small filly with her on her back. Rarity’s observant eyes seemed to take quick stock of the room and everyone in it as she spoke.  

"We came as soon as we heard," she said. She reached over her shoulder to run her hoof down Sweetie Belle's head, who was clinging onto her around her neck. Seeing the vulnerability and fear present on Sweetie’s face, she forced herself to forget her own discouragement and gave her student a bright, reassuring smile from across the room. It took some time for her to notice, but when she did, Sweetie returned her greeting with a timid smile of her own.   

"Hey, Rarity." Twilight hopped down, momentarily leaving Cheerilee by herself. She gave the unicorn a quick hug before looking over her shoulder at her passenger. "Hello, Sweetie."

Sweetie Belle only glanced up at Twilight. She mumbled a hasty "hello" in reply and shrunk back. The smile she had only moments ago was now gone, and her eyes peered all around the waiting room, looking as though the walls were closing in on her from all sides. Twilight simpered, taking a step closer to the filly and leaning herself forward. 

"Hey, don't worry," she cooed. Rarity watched them both from over her shoulder. "Scootaloo's going to recover just fine. You don't have to worry."  

Shivering, Sweetie nodded her head in understanding. "Okay. I-I won't... how bad?" she asked meekly. Twilight answered her in a gentle, low voice.   

"The nurse said she has a broken front leg," she said carefully, trying her best not to upset the filly any more than she already surely was. Sweetie Belle's pupils dilated to the size of tea plates, but she said nothing. Twilight continued. "But she's going to be okay. Spike got her out in time. Okay?"

This bit of news seemed to have a positive effect on Sweetie Belle. Her shivering lessened considerably, and she dared to look up and gaze right into Twilight's eyes. "Okay..."

"And speaking of Spike," Rarity butted in, "how is he doing? He didn't get hurt too, did he?" Her volume increased with each word. "Rainbow Dash told us he was with Scootaloo here..."

Hearing the question, Cheerilee grimaced. She knew that the news of Spike's involvement in this whole thing was probably more troubling to Twilight than to anypony else. The alicorn closed her eyes. 

"Spike... well, he's..." 

...

It hurt to breathe.

As he regained consciousness, a ceiling light was the first thing he could see. The sudden brightness elicited a groan, and he went to shield his eyes with his hand. But when he tried to move his aching arm, he found that moving his arm sent pain shooting up his extremities, through his shoulder and into his ribcage, igniting a searing burn which was so intense that he found himself momentarily unable to breathe. Fighting panic, he closed his eyes and tried to gasp for air, but the effort only made the stabbing sensation worse. Jaw clenched, he switched tactics, letting the air in his lungs escape through the holes made by his missing teeth as slowly as he could. His claws dug into a soft surface beneath him to brace himself against the pain.

Then, a voice. 

"Relax. Breathe light, that's it." 

It clearly belonged to a male. Spike detected it from his right, and he dared to open his eyes and roll his head over to get a look at the speaker. Sure enough, it belonged to a stallion. A stethoscope hung around his neck, and the white collar of his lab coat came up to his chin. He smiled at Spike. 

"Don't be afraid. You're in good hooves. Just breathe light and don't move too much for now." He gestured to his own diaphragm, raising and lowering his foreleg over it to mime his own breaths. "We have not done X-rays yet, but I believe you have a fractured rib."

Spike was listening, but it was hard to hear through the haze of pain. He continued the doctor's breathing technique, forcing himself to relax and stay still despite the stabbing in his side. In less than a minute, the pain was back down to tolerable levels. The doctor nodded his head in approval. 

"That's it. Nice and light." He got up from the stool, heading toward the door. "I'm going to get Nurse Coldheart to give you a new bag of ice to put on there. This one's melted," he explained, pointing to Spike’s underside. The dragon raised his head to look where he had indicated; sure enough, there was a large plastic bag of slushy ice held in place by medical tape on his fractured rib. "She’ll be here to assist you shortly. Don't mo--"

"Where's... Scoot'loo?" Spike interrupted with a grunt. It took some effort to get the words out. "Is she here?" 

The doctor stopped in the doorway. He turned his head, nodding it once. “The girl? Yes, she’s here as well. We’ve got her in another room.”

With as much breath as his battered chest could muster, Spike gave a long exhale of relief. He cleared his throat.

“Is…” He took in another shallow breath. “…she okay?” The question put an odd look on the doctor’s face. He nodded, but appeared hesitant to do so. 

“Well, yes… and no. She was still injured rather badly. In addition to a fracture in her left leg, she also experienced heavy bruising and host of other minor injuries. We’re not entirely sure how they were acquired, but…” He cleared his throat, leaving his thought dangling and changing the subject, “…But she’s very much alive, and we’re expecting a full recovery. Thanks to you, that is.”

The last statement took a moment to sink through Spike’s skull. The stallion smiled at Spike’s blank expression. 

“That was the quite the thing you did, you know. Running into a burning building to save somepony. Judging from the shape you’re both in, you must’ve gotten her out just in time. You’re quite the hero.” 

His face glowed. But in spite of this, Spike’s blank look did not change. Without saying anything more, and with a puzzled cock of his head, the doctor turned back around and exited the room.

“Keep breathing light. Nurse Coldheart will be right with you,” he called from out in the hallway. “Just stay put.”

His hoofsteps clopping on the linoleum tile faded down the hall. Not having much choice but to follow the doctor’s orders, Spike laid stock still in the bed, all alone with his only company being that of his thoughts. 

The company was most unwelcome.

Despite his long period of feverish slumber, it had not filtered out the memories. And as his eyes closed, the pictures from hours ago were painted onto the darkness like a canvas. 

He squeezed his eyes closed even tighter, but it did no good. There was no way for him to forget; there was no way to ignore what had happened, to ward away the images that came back to him like a mighty flood. What he’d done. 

He didn’t cry. It would have hurt too much. 

…

“…he’s doing okay. They think he has a broken rib, but they need to do X-rays to make sure,” Twilight revealed.  While the news was good, at the mention of Spike’s injury, Rarity’s mouth fell open. 

“Oh, poor Spikey…”

“He’s going to be fine.” Twilight reaffirmed snappily. “As far as we know, he saved Scootaloo’s life. I-I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.”

Surprisingly, Twilight’s tone of voice seemed rather unconcerned. In fact, to Cheerilee, it almost sounded like she wasn’t worried at all. But the short stammer in her last sentence was all it took to know that not everything was alright with her. Under her regal exterior, she was hurting, too. 

Giving Twilight one more quick hug, Rarity took Sweetie Belle over to the bench on Applejack’s side, and gingerly set her down on one of the cushions before seating herself. She nodded a silent hello to Applejack and her sister, wrapping her foreleg around Sweetie. 

“Hey, Rare,” Applejack answered her greeting. She tried to smile warmly, but it only came out as a sad smirk. “Hey Sw—”

“Hey, Sweetie Belle,” Applebloom piped up from Applejack’s other side, beating her to the punch. The two fillies made eye contact, and for the first time since she’d come into the hospital, a ghost of a smile played upon Sweetie’s lips. 

“H-Hey, Applebloom.” No sooner had she replied that she looked back away, cowering into the seat. 

Without warning, Applejack felt her sister moving out of her grasp, and when she looked down, Applebloom had already slipped her way out from underneath her foreleg and hopped down from the seat, going over to Sweetie Belle without so much as another word. Both Applejack and Rarity watched as Applebloom propped herself up onto the bench with her hind legs and gave Sweetie a warm hug, nuzzling her friend’s neck. Since she was unable to hug her back, Sweetie Belle just accepted the hug until Applebloom at last let go, returning to Applejack’s side. 

Every other pony in the room found themselves exchanging looks, first at each other, and then back at the two girls. Then back at the two girls. They all smiled. 

All except Rainbow Dash, who kept herself isolated from the rest of the world in the corner of the waiting room, alone with her thoughts and oblivious to everything except the despair which weighed heavy on her heart.   

…

Nurse Coldheart had come with the new bag of ice in short order, taking a few minutes at best. Spike vaguely recognized her from the last time her was here, when he’d come with… or, rather tracked down Twilight to the hospital when Sweetie’s leg had been bitten by the rattlesnake. She’d been the same nurse who’d been attending to Sweetie Belle when they’d come to visit her in her room. 

She was quick about her business, skillfully removing the medical tape from Spike’s side and setting the old bag, which was mostly water at this point, on a counter beside the bed. She stuck the new bag on, putting on just enough tape to keep it in place on Spike’s round belly.

“That should help numb some of the pain,” she said. “In just a minute, I’m gonna want you to take in as deep of a breath as you can and hold it for three seconds before breathing out. Okay?”

At the request, Spike narrowed his eyes. His scaly brow furrowed downward with a mix of confusion and distrust. Nurse Coldheart chuckled. 

“Yes, I know. It sounds a little crazy, but there’s a good reason for it.” She pointed to his belly. “It might hurt a lot, but if you don’t at least do it every so often, you might end up with pneumonia. It is not enjoyable in the slightest, but you have to do it.”

With her explanation, Spike’s expression softened a little. Distrust soon morphed into fear. He gulped. 

“It’ll be alright, I promise,” said Nurse Coldheart, smiling again. “I would tell you that you can squeeze my hoof to help with the pain, but I’m not sure about those claws…” She grimaced, pointing to them. “I’m afraid they might, you know… hurt.”

Hurt…

What followed took him completely by surprise. The memories came back to him like a film reel, a vast array of separate image frames flickering brightly in his field of vision. It was as though he were actually living through it all over again; his claws digging in deep to his assailant’s snout, the screams of agony and rage, the swift kick to his…

All of the pain he’d been successful at keeping at bay suddenly flared back up. He gritted his teeth together, incisors bared at the ceiling, and belted out a loud groan. His claws bit into the mattress again, leaving another set of scratches in the fabric. Nurse Coldheart scurried forward, taking a hold of one of Spike’s arms.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” she questioned frantically, scanning over his entire body from head to where the sheets covered his legs and tail. “What happened?”

Spike grunted. His claws gradually withdrew themselves from the bed, leaving deep punctures in their place, until at last, he managed to say, “My chest just… started hurting again… gah…”

Nurse Coldheart raised her eyebrows. “And right now? Is it getting worse, or better?”

“B—Better,” he gasped out. “Just one sec…”

He cleared his throat and laid his head back onto the pillow. Nurse Coldheart’s focus drifted downward until she could see the deep gashes left by Spike’s claws in the mattress. She frowned. 

“You okay?”

Spike nodded weakly. She sat down on the cold tile floor and scooted closer to the bed. 

“Alright. Let’s give it just a couple more minutes. Nice an’ easy, that’s it…”

...

Many minutes later, they tried again. Nurse Coldheart had substituted a thick, wooden dowel wrapped in cloth for her hoof when she'd walked him through the exercise, and judging from the deep gashes made in the cloth and the dents in the wood where his fingers had been, it had not been a bad decision.

Spike took a minute to recover, and when he came to his other senses, his eyes drifted over to the dowel and rag, which were laying on the bed beside him. Once he saw it, he found himself unable to look away until Nurse Coldheart picked it up and set in on the counter at the room's other side. 

"I know it hurts, but it will get better as time goes on," she said. "Just remember that you have to do it once per hour. It helps to make a mental schedule so that you can know what to expect and when." 

Spike appeared to be only vaguely listening. "Mm hm. I-I'll... do that." 

Nurse Coldheart nodded in approval. "Good. Since it seems you are doing well otherwise, I am going to let some of your friends in to see you. If that is alright with you, of course."

The mention of visitors made Spike's eyes, formerly glazed over, snap open. "Wait... visitors? Who else is here?" 

Coldheart picked up the wooden dowel and cloth and grimaced at the marks his claws had left. "Many of your friends. I do not know most of their names, but I do know that Princess Twilight is with them. Do you feel well enough to let them in to see you?"

Spike set his hand on top of the icepack sitting on his injured rib. The touch made him wince, but the pain was not nearly as intense as it had been before. He stared up at the ceiling, blinking slowly. 

"Y--" He hesitated for a moment, gritting his teeth together and shutting his eyes. He was about to reply in the affirmative when, for reasons nearly inexplicable to even himself, he changed his mind. "…No…" 

Nurse Coldheart’s surprise at his answer was apparent. She frowned, standing in the open doorway. “Oh… well, I suppose I will be back later to help you w—”

“Wait!” Spike raised his hand at her, wincing as the movement stretched out his chest and aggravated his broken rib. Nurse Coldheart had been turning away, but his plea made her turn back around. “Wait…”

“Changed your mind?” she asked. Spike nodded, gritting his sharp incisors together. 

“Y-Yes, but…” He looked straight at her. A lump traveled down his throat as he swallowed. “…just Twilight. I… I only want to talk to her.”

Nurse Coldheart's slight frown curved upward into a gentle smile. “Okay. I’ll let her know... Just Twilight? There are a lot of other friends that would be happy to see you...” 

Spike affirmed. "Yeah... just her. Nopony else. Please..."

And that was that. Wordlessly, Coldheart tipped her hat to him and walked out of the room, leaving the door open. The sounds of her hoofsteps receded down the hall. 

The sensation which followed her departure was like someone smearing his scales with cold, wet sand. A chill settling over his body, rooting his battered frame to the spot. Dread, fear, and shame. Guilt. 

And soon, he'd have to tell his closest friend in the whole world why. 

…

Gradually, Applebloom had drifted back over to Applejack's side, welcoming her big sister's comforting hoof around her. Still, not once did Sweetie Belle look up or around the room, seemingly mesmerized by the seat cushion. Sensing something was amiss, Rarity placed a foreleg around her withers. 

“Are you alright, Sweetie Belle?” she whispered. Many moments passed without an answer, but at last, Sweetie shook her head. 

“No… I hate this place,” she spat from under her breath. Rarity could see a shimmering in her sister’s eye before Sweetie turned her head away. 

It had not been long ago since the two of them had last been here. Only last time, Sweetie hadn’t been in the waiting room, but in a bed. And from the looks of it, her remembrance wasn’t about to fade any time soon.  Rarity pursed her lips. 

“I know. I… I don’t like it either,” she agreed. Almost as a reflex, her gaze wandered over Sweetie’s shoulder to the spot where her leg had been. Eyeing the stub, she shuddered. “Not one bit.”

Sweetie’s lip quivered. Rarity noticed right away, and rubbed the spot between her little sister’s shoulder blades in a comforting gesture. 

“Oh, darling… it’s alright, Sweetie. It is not like the last time… we do not have to worry about Scootaloo. She’s going to be just fine…”

A hot tear streaked down Sweetie’s cheek and plopped onto the cushion. She sniffled, wiping her eyes and snout. 

“I know. I just… It’s just that… I don’t want her to be like me. I-I don’t…” She trailed off with a sniffle. More tears began streaming out of her tightly close eyes. “I don’t want her to feel bad…”

In a strange sensation she couldn’t quite explain, Rarity felt like someone had struck her in the gut with a lead pipe. Concerned, she wrinkled her brow in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Sweetie Belle wiped her eyes and snout, but they only continued to run. She bit her bottom lip and took a shuddering breath. 

“I mean… I mean that I-I don’t…” she stammered, making a visible effort to pull herself together. At last, she was able to speak once more. “…I don’t want her to have to go through the same stuff as me.”

In a manner akin to slurping air through a straw, she inhaled and exhaled like she was out of breath. She continued while Rarity listened quietly, intently. 

“… I want to go to school, but I can’t. I wanna see everypony again, b-but Applebloom and her are the only ones that come and visit… I wanna play outside, but I can’t walk right.” She started out with a whisper, but slowly and surely, the volume of her voice was beginning to escalate. “It’s… I feel really alone sometimes, a-and sometimes I just feel really tired ‘cause there’s nothing to do. And now…”

Rarity’s hoof tightened its grip around her sister’s heaving shoulders. She used her other hoof to grasp Sweetie around the front and pulled her close. “…Now Scoots leg’s broke, and her house is all gone, and her daddy isn't...he isn't here..." Runoff from Sweetie’s nose dripped onto her fur. "...a-and now she won’t be able to go to school, or play outside or go Crusading, and… I-I don’t want that to happen to her. I don’t want her to feel like she's alone. I... don't want her to feel sad.” 

With this said, Sweetie fell quiet. Tears and runoff from her nose left wet marks on her sister’s chest. 

For quite some time, Rarity found herself at a loss for words. Her hoof continued its gentle massage of her sister’s back, tracing an oval pattern over her soft fur as she thought to herself, reflecting. It was enough to force tears of her own from the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back. 

“I’m sorry, Sweetie,” she said. Sweetie remained still in her firm grip. “I know what you’re saying, sweetheart. I-I understand. And you’re right. But…” She paused, searching her brain for the right words to say. “Scootaloo’s leg is going to heal. She’s… we're gonna make sure she has a place to live, a-and... somepony to live with. It's not always going to be this way. Not for her, and…” She had to take a deep breath here. “…And not for you, either. I promise, Sweetie.”

She kissed the top of Sweetie’s head. The filly turned her head up to look at Rarity, watery eyes seeming to implore her. Rarity wiped her wet cheek. “I promise.” 

Nothing else was said between them. Sweetie dipped her head down and kept quiet while Rarity held her close. Nopony had overheard them talk. 

Nopony except Rainbow Dash. She looked out the sliding glass door, pretending to be oblivious to her surroundings. But if anypony had been watching her, they would have noticed her ears angled towards Rarity and Sweetie Belle. She heard everything, only missing the occasional fragments of the conversation. Regardless, she pretended that she hadn't, remaining in her corner and mulling over the words in her mind...

Then, like a pair of satellites, Rainbow's ears swiveled toward the hall. Her head did likewise. A chill settled in the air as the innocent clip-clop of hooves on hard tile menaced from down the narrow hall, getting steadily louder until Nurse Coldheart stepped into the room. 

Her unexpected entry turned everyone's heads, and when they saw her, their conversations fell silent. It was as though her mere presence carried with it the essence of life and death, of good tidings or of tragedy. Only Twilight, after a few second's pause, dared to speak. 

"How are they doing?" Her hooves kneaded the cushion underneath her like raw dough. "They're both still alright, aren't they?"

Everypony's eyes focused in on Coldheart, awaiting her verdict. She cleared her throat, eyes shifting from right to left uneasily at the feeling of so many ponies staring at her. She nodded. 

"Yes." 

This single word elicited a collective sigh of relief from everyone in the room. Coldheart smiled faintly. 

"Yes, both are doing fine... Doctor Scopes tells me Scootaloo is responding well to the pain medication we have been giving her, and that X-ray results only show a closed fracture to her left foreleg. She did sustain... other injuries..." The skin on her neck wrinkled in a pained grimace. "... but they were not as severe. Being young as she is, we are expecting a swift physical recovery. As for Spike..." She smirked. "...He is doing fine." 

She went into no further details, concluding her report right there. Despite already knowing the news, hearing it once more from Nurse Coldheart's own mouth lifted an immense burden from all of their shoulders. Twilight bowed her head graciously.

"Oh, thank you, Nurse. Is he... I mean, is Spike--"

"I actually came here for another reason," Coldheart interrupted. "to give you another bit of news. And I mean for you in particular, Princess... It is about Spike."

Twilight raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"

Coldheart nodded. "Indeed... when I asked if he felt well enough to have visitors, he requested that he talk to you. Just you." 

As soon as she'd made Spike's request known to her, Twilight could feel a sense of unease churning in her gut. There were not many times she could remember where her number one assistant had specifically wanted to talk to her, and her alone. Even so, she kept her feelings to herself, hiding them underneath a practiced regal exterior. 

"Oh. Well, alright..." 

Nurse Coldheart stepped to the side, tilting her head down the hallway. "Follow me. His room is a little ways away, Prin--" 

"Twilight. Just Twilight," she interrupted. Nurse Coldheart cringed slightly, but a faint smile played on her lips.

"If you insist," she replied. With herself at the lead, they disappeared down the hall, but not before Twilight looked back over her shoulder. Everyone else's eyes met hers. Her face said it all; something was up. 

And they all knew it. 

...  


> Hero
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He’d only heard one set of hoofsteps receding down the hallway when Nurse Redheart had left. 

Now, he heard two. His pulse pounded against his fractured rib, making him grit his teeth. Unfortunately, he had been too busy dreading his upcoming conversation to actually plan out what he was going to say. But now that he could hear them approaching, the thought suddenly occurred to him. His eyes darted around the room as he frantically tried to piece together what he was going to say… 

But before he could think of anything, the door opened.

Two faces, one being more familiar than the other, entered. Nurse Coldheart stepped off to the side to allow Twilight in ahead of her. 

“I will be back later,” said the nurse. “I’ll leave you two alone.”  

Air whistled through the gaps made by his missing teeth as he breathed out. A span of time went by before Spike mustered the courage... and the breath... to say a greeting. 

“Hey, Twi.” He blinked slowly. He didn’t want his voice to sound so hoarse, but the pain in his rib was flaring up again. Despite his missing incisors, he forced a smile. 

Twilight mirrored it for a moment, but it quickly disappeared. Her eyes widened as she stared at the tight bandage around his chest. 

“Hey, Spike,” she breathed out. She walked to his bedside and placed her hoof on his leg. “You holding up okay?”   

Spike brought a fist up to his mouth and coughed once. He winced. “Y-Yeah. I’m fine. Thick scales, you know how it is.” He laughed weakly. “Can’t feel a thing…” 

Twilight grimaced. She pointed to the bandage. “Doesn’t look like it. Broken ribs aren’t anything to sneeze at, you know…”

Spike shrugged his shoulders in dismissal. He regretted it immediately. A stake went through his side. He bared his teeth with acute discomfort, bringing a hand to his chest. Twilight gasped.

“You okay?” She gripped his leg tighter. Spike lay flat as a board, eyes closed with concentration to keep his breathing under control. He nodded after a few moments. 

“Yeah. Sorry…” He pursed his lips. “I’ve just gotta… agh… be more careful. Stay still and all that…”

Twilight smiled sadly. Her hoof traveled up the bed until it was resting on the top of his head. Spike closed his eyes, not saying a word as Twilight tweaked his headscales. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that… Just lay back and relax for a sec…” 

Silence fell over the room. Spike focused entirely on the feeling of her hoof tracing down his scales, plucking each one like the teeth of a comb. For a minute, he let himself slip into semi-consciousness, letting everything fade into the background. 

He would have laid there all night if it meant delaying what was to come. 

…

Nopony had known what to say when Twilight had left, so they all had remained quiet instead. Occasional glances between the room’s occupants were all that were exchanged. 

Rainbow Dash was certainly not a pony to stay still for so long. Her limbs tingled with the lack of circulation that they’d become so accustomed to. She stamped her hooves lightly on the seat cushion to get the feeling back, but did little else. On occasion, she’d pick up a flurry of activity out of her peripheral vision, but she didn’t even bother to take a look. 

Any observer on the outside may have perceived her deep in thought. But they would have been wrong. Her mind had drifted to a place where she hadn’t followed, and in all honesty, she wouldn’t have wanted to, either. The outside world had been rendered featureless through the light’s glare on the window; only hazy reflections of the ponies behind her could be seen. 

She watched them with half-lidded eyes, seeing but taking nothing in: Some movement here, a turn of somepony’s head there. Another blur appearing in the hallway…

Somepony clearing their throat. All the blurred reflections moving in unison. Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened fully, and her head whirled around. 

A stallion stood in the mouth of the hall. A stethoscope lay draped over his neck, and a pair of pens were stuck into the pocket of his lab coat. His open-mouthed and wide-eyed expression gave off a great sense of urgency as he looked from right to left. In front of Rainbow Dash, Cheerilee was the first to speak.

“Hello, doctor...” Her greeting was far from jovial. The stallion cleared his throat again.

“Yes, hello. I…” he paused a minute to remove his spectacles. He polished them on the collar of his lab coat before continuing. “I wanted to ask you all something. Is there anypony here that is, by chance, a relative of Scootaloo's? I would very much like to speak with them.”

The question came out quite abruptly, and its ominous implications were felt by everyone. Rainbow Dash shivered, feeling as though a chill had settled over her like a winter’s breeze. Suddenly, she realized that everyone else in the room was slowly rotating their heads in her direction. She wilted as all eyes focused on her, calling her out. 

The doctor followed their gazes right to her. Rainbow took in a deep breath, counted to five in her head, and nodded. 

“Yes, I-I am. Well, sort of. We’re not really related, but we’re…” She swallowed hard. “…we’re practically sisters.”

Rainbow felt a cold bead of sweat tickling the back of her neck. Her answer was good enough for the doctor, who stepped off to the side and waved her into the hallway like an usher. “That is fine. Do not be alarmed; I only need to ask some questions. Could you come with me for a minute?” 

Despite his politeness, Rainbow didn’t feel like she had a choice. Nervous, she slid off the seat, hooves lightly clopping onto the tile. A fierce tingling, like someone had stuck her foreleg into a vat of glass powder, covered both of her front legs as the circulation came back to them. She gritted her teeth and walked forward anyway, glancing over at the seats to her right. 

Applejack smiled a little bit at her in encouragement while Apple Bloom stared at the doctor. There was a frightened look on her face, but she said nothing. Next to them, Rarity was quietly whispering something to Sweetie Belle, nuzzling her on the neck while Sweetie Belle hid her face in her chest.  

She was almost into the hallway when, unexpectedly, Cheerilee piped up from beside her. She raised up her hoof like a schoolfilly. 

“I'll come with, too. I’m her teacher. Not quite family, but…” She stepped down. “She is one of my best students.”

The doctor cocked tilted his head slightly, as if trying to decide whether or not to let her in. But after a second, he nodded in approval, much to Cheerilee’s apparent relief. For Rainbow Dash, however, the feeling was even greater.   

“Very well." He motioned to her with his hoof. "Come with me.”

…

When Spike opened his eyes again, Twilight was still staring at the wrapping around his chest. From the look on her face, she seemed to be in just as much pain as he was. She cleared her throat.

“Soo…” Her hoof didn’t stop its comforting caress. “I’m not the only pony here, you know.”

Spike had wished they could have stayed quiet forever, but as Twilight spoke, any hope of relaxation went by the wayside. His pupils expanded, and he bit his lip. Twilight turned away from the bandages to look at him. A smile masked the concern on her face, but Spike could see right through it. 

“Lots of ponies came when they heard what happened. Applejack and Apple Bloom, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle… and Rarity’s here, too.”

Hearing this, Spike had to roll his eyes. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He stifled a laugh. 

“Yeah. I thought she might be…” He smiled. Twilight set her hoof down beside his head on the pillow. 

“She’s worried about you. You and Scootaloo, both,” she said. “She’d probably love to see you.”

She scooted back a bit and set her hoof back down on the floor. Spike made no indication that he’d heard her. He eyed the ceiling tiles, an almost contemplative look on his face. 

Slowly, the gentle smile on Twilight’s face began to fade. Spike closed his eyes, lying face up on the bed as if he were on display in an open casket. She took a deep breath, held in it in for a moment, and breathed out through thinly parted lips. The scaly flaps above the holes of Spike’s ears twitched in reaction. 

“Spike… something’s wrong. I know it.” She reared up on her hind legs and set both forehooves onto the bed. “You wouldn’t have asked only to see me if there wasn’t.”

Here it was. No more beating around the bush. Spike grimaced, but held his tongue. Twilight’s forehead wrinkled in displeasure. 

“Spike?” She said his name again. No response. “Spike… something is the matter, and I want to know what.”

Gradually, her tone dropped in octave. Her forelegs tightened up, wrinkling the sheets. Spike tried to turn his face away, but Twilight only leaned over him further, forcing him to close his eyes in order to escape her. With a sigh, she hung her head. 

Prying wasn’t working. He was scared, and her aggressive tactics were only making things worse. For a brief moment, she considered giving up. 

But she wasn’t defeated just yet. In a natural, almost sub-conscious thought, her hoof drifted back up to his head, beginning to tweak his headscales again. The touch made Spike jolt slightly, but her soothing caress eventually lulled his body into a state of relaxation. She smiled, if only for a second. 

“Look,” she began. “I’m worried, Spike. I’m very, very worried. About you, about Scootaloo, about just… just what in Equestria happened back there. I can’t get it out of my head. And now, seeing you laying there with something on your mind, something you’re so hesitant to tell me, I just…”

She trailed off. Spike’s eyelids flickered, but did not open. With a huff of air, Twilight gathered her thoughts and continued. 

“I know it hurts to think about it, whatever it is. But you can’t keep whatever it bottled up inside. Maybe it’s because you’re scared, I don’t know. But I can tell that you want to let it out. You wouldn’t have asked to see me otherwise.”

Her hoof stopped its petting, coming to rest on the side of his face. Spike’s eyes flickered open, to see that she was right there, her nose almost touching his. Her expression softened.

“Tell me,” she pleaded. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. You can tell me, you know that. You went through something scary, I know. You saved somepony from a burning building, after all. But all that is in the past. Right now, I’m here for you. I’m here…”  

“Okay.”

Spike interrupted her, cutting her sentence short. The lights from the ceiling glinted off his eyes, and his bottom lip quivered. Twilight’s pupils dilated until her violet irises were barely visible.

“I’ll tell you.” He gulped. “Everything.”

…


They had to go quite a ways before they were out of earshot. The doctor, a yellow stallion with a cutie mark of a bandage adorning his flank, led them around the corner and a good way down the hall.

The more she thought about it, the gladder Rainbow Dash was to have another pony coming with her. She exchanged glances with the Cheerilee, who looked just as uncertain and nervous as she was. Whatever he had called them down here for, she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.  

The doctor stopped in front of a blank wall, in between two closed doors. Rainbow Dash and Cheerilee stopped a meter or so away from him, and he turned around. He looked to Rainbow with a grimace.  

“I know this may come across as rather unexpected…” He shook his head. “… and I apologize if I alarm you with what I am about to say, but… There is a very important matter concerning Scootaloo that I wish to discuss with you. Something very serious.” 

It was all he needed to say for Rainbow Dash to know that her suspicions had been confirmed; if she had been nervous before, then she was terrified, now. Next to her, Cheerilee gasped. 

“What is it? What’s wrong with her?” she asked. The doctor coughed into the collar of his lab coat. 

“Well, nothing is… wrong with her, per se. She is very drowsy from the pain medication we have been giving her, and she has hardly said a word to me or to anypony else since her arrival. But she is doing well, all things considered. But…” 

He stopped, appearing hesitant. His lips pursed in thought. Rainbow Dash wrinkled her forehead in a mixture of confusion and fear. 

“But… what?”

The stallion was hesitant to answer her. Nervously, he plucked the spectacled from the bridge of his snout and polished them on the pocket of his lab coat. When he had finished scrubbing the glass, he set them gingerly back on his nose and addressed the two of them with a low voice. 

“There is something peculiar about the nature of her injuries. At first, I foolishly assumed them to be sustained in the incident, but upon closer inspection… there is no way this could be the case.”

The volume of his voice softened progressively until Rainbow Dash almost had to strain to hear. As the words sank in, she felt the breath catch in her lungs. Her entire body tensed up, freezing her to the tile. 

“Uhh… What are you saying, then?” It was Cheerilee who asked. The doctor exhaled deeply, and turned back to her. 

“Her injuries… were inflicted.” 

…

Twilight gave Spike all the time in the world for him to get back his composure. More than a minute had gone by since their agreement, but she had no intentions of rushing him. 

Spike tried his hardest to relax, but it proved to be a challenge. He unclenched his hands, which had been closed into fists since Twilight had arrived, and at last, he began.

“It was the first day I went running, a few days ago,” he said. “You know, the day I burned myself out… anyway, I, uh…”

He talked very slowly, lungs limited by the fractured rib floating in the space in his side. Twilight’s back hooves did a light tattoo rhythm on the floor from anxiety, but she didn’t dare try and push the matter. 

“…when I was walking down South Main Street, I went down a road I’d never been on before. It turned out to be a dead end, so I turned around. But… when I started heading back, I… I heard something. I d-didn’t, I mean, I wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded like somepony screaming. I stopped and tried to listen for it again, but I didn’t hear anything again, so… I left.”

The last two words were choked out. Twilight could see tears forming in his eyes, but she didn’t draw attention to them. Instead, she gently set her hoof down on his hand, taking a light hold of it. Spike’s eyes fell shut. 

“Then… I heard you talking, today. When Cheerilee came over, I mean.” He sniffled. “I listened to you talking about Scootaloo. And when Cheerilee said where she lived, I-I realized… I mean, I thought that maybe… maybe it was the same place where I’d heard the scream. S-So… I went to see.”

As the story went on, Twilight’s eyes began to widen with understanding. Memory of the hastily scrawled note he’d left her just before heading out came back to her. It hadn’t made any sense to her before, but now…

“Wh-when I got there, her… sorry, I mean...” Spike was showing signs of losing his composure, but he held himself together as well as he could. Unwelcome images of the past started a new film reel in his head. “…In front of the house, I saw her scooter laying there on the ground. It was all bent up and ruined… and then I heard somepony crying for help inside.” He shivered. “A-and so I ran in, and I-I… she was…”

Tears spilled freely down his cheeks. He took a few shallow breaths and reached up with his left hand to wipe some of them away, but more took their place. 

Twilight’s hoof tightened around his hand. As his tale went on, the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together, one by one. She cooed encouragingly, “It’s okay. You’re safe. She’s safe. It’s okay, Spike…”

Her soothing words seemed to calm him just enough to continue. He shook his head, ruffling the pillow beneath it. 

“…Sh-She was beat up so bad, Twilight. Her leg was broken, h-her face was bleeding everywhere… it was horrible. She s-said her dad did it to her. I-I-I didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t stand up, so I went to go get help, b-but then…”

Spike’s eyes expanded with terror. Twilight’s expression soon matched his. His voice dropped to almost a whisper.

“…her dad came back.” 

…

His revelation chilled the air. Rainbow’s jaw went slack. 

“What kind of… inflicted?” Cheerilee finally dared to ask. Bits of her mane stood on end, almost as though a balloon were being held over her head. The doctor exhaled deeply. 

“I mean that, whatever injuries she has sustained… they were done to her on purpose. And as for who could have caused them… my list of potential suspects is very short.” 

He fixed them both with a grave stare. For a moment, it seemed like he had set his sights on them.

“…Are either of you familiar with any members of Scootaloo’s immediate family? Who she lived with?” 

The question’s implications were not lost on either of them; there was only one suspect that came to mind.  Rainbow Dash’s mouth gaped open while Cheerilee shook her head.

“As far as I have ever known, she only lives… lived, with her father.” She corrected herself. The stallion gave her a curt nod. 

“And did either of you know him very well?” he interrogated further. “Would you have described him as… well, as a violent type?” 

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. Worry and realization were coming to a peak. She shook her head. 

“I only spoke to him a few times. I did not know him well at all…” 

Rainbow Dash barely heard anything Cheerilee had said. Instead, her mind drifted to the bruises. The black and blue ring beneath Scootaloo’s foreleg, the discolored lump above her hoof. Her nonchalant shrug and stammered explanation. Warning signs, so obvious and so telling. 

And yet, she’d been so readily convinced…

“…you, Rainbow Dash?”

At the mention of her name, Rainbow gave her head a rough shake. “Wh-What?”

“Did you know her father at all?” Cheerilee, as well as the doctor, were looking directly at her. Taken unawares, Rainbow Dash fumbled over her words for a minute before she was able to answer. 

“Oh, uh, uhh… no, I-I never met him, actually…” She gazed at the floor, shying away from their prying eyes. The doctor brushed a strand of loose hair from his face.    

“Oh. I see… And are there any other guardians or caretakers? Her mother, an aunt or uncle?” 

Once again, Rainbow was not the one to make a reply. Cheerilee shook her head. 

“No… no other relatives I am aware of.” The schoolteacher took a step back, eyeing the doctor with a faint glow of understanding flashing over her features. She stood on the tips of her hooves. “Her mother died when she was very young…”

It was her final statement that managed to break through Rainbow Dash’s dreamlike state. She whipped her head around to engage Cheerilee with a gaze that could have cut stone. 

“What did you say?”

The other two ponies appeared surprised by the suddenness of her outburst. Cheerilee frowned. 

“Scootaloo’s mother died when she was very little. You…” She cleared her throat. “…I am sorry. Did you not know that?”

Her voice softened to something resembling a squeak. Slowly, Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, she, uh… she never told me.” 

The moment the statement left her lips, she cringed. Images of Scootaloo’s face, beaming up at her with admiring eyes and a proud smile, wouldn’t leave her sight. The face of an adoring fan, she would have called it. Nothing less, and certainly nothing more. An endearing nuisance.

It was only now that she realized just how wrong she had been. 

The stallion closed his eyes, pursing his lips as he reflected on the information he had been presented. Finally, after a period of stoic silence, he gave a heavy sigh. 

“I see.” He nodded once before taking one step closer to them. “I apologize if I have made you both feel uncomfortable with all of this. I also wish to talk to Spike later, since he was also a witness to whatever occurred, but… with injuries as serious as the ones she has sustained, it is imperative that I find out who is responsible. And based on what I have heard from the both of you… I do believe the biggest suspect is apparent.”

Rainbow only partially heard him. All of the sounds from the outside felt muted, like she had just emerged from a pool of water. An onset of dizziness caused her to lean into the wall on her side for support. 

Cheerilee, meanwhile, had locked onto the floor with a solemn stare. She sniffled, and a pair of tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.  

“Yes. I recently… very recently suspected as much.” Her voice warbled as she spoke. “She sometimes came to class with bruises. But when I… whenever I asked her about them, she’d always tell me a story about crashing on her scooter…” 

She paused, lips quivering. Her fetlocks tightened, and the veins on her neck popped out as she gritted her molars together. 

“And I believed her,” she said. “I believed all the stories. Every damn word. Until… until today.” Teardrops glistened on the tile below. “How, wh-why did I believe her…?”

The doctor smiled with sympathy, taking a step closer to her. While he appeared hesitant at first, he placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Cheerilee flinched from the touch, but did not object. 

For the moment, they took no notice of Rainbow Dash. Her vision blurred, and a pain worked its way into her gut. It was not a nauseous ache, but rather, like someone had plunged a knife into her ribs. She blinked, but the blurriness went away for only a moment before it returned, even worse than before. 

“It’s not your fault,” Rainbow heard him declare. When she peeled her eyes off of the floor tile, she realized he was directing his attention at her, as well. He smiled sympathetically. 

“This is neither of your faults,” he assured. “I know you both care for Scootaloo a great deal. I know this has been difficult for you to hear… I am so sorry.”

Rainbow paid no heed to his apology, neither accepting nor rejecting it. The floor beneath her bucked and swayed like a raft amidst a typhoon, and she had to bend her front legs to keep her balance. Her wings twitched at her sides. 

“I… I c-can’t…” She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say, and the words came out as little more than a stammer. She stumbled backward like a drunkard, going weak at the knees. The doctor’s kind smile wilted into a puzzled frown, and he made a motion toward her. 

“Is… are you alright?” he asked, hesitant. The question prompted Cheerilee to look over her shoulder, revealing tear stained cheeks and glossy eyes to her.

In a daze, Rainbow shook her head. Something warm trickled down her cheek, but she didn’t wipe it away.

Hey, Rainbow Dash! An enthusiastic, raspy voice echoed in her ear. Squealing of tires skidding over dirt, the feel of dust splashing onto her hooves. School’s out tomorrow, and I got nothing to do, so… you wanna hang out sometime?

Weather duty tomorrow. Waking up early. Too tired after. Sorry, Squirt.

She bit her tongue. The doctor said something, but she didn’t hear it.

Oh, hey, Rainbow Dash. The voice again. I was just wondering… the Cakes just came out with a new springtime ice cream flavor today. Strawberry and cream swirl! You wanna come and get a scoop with me?

Strawberry? Oh, gee, that sounds good. But I’ve got some intense flight training exercises to do for the Academy, and dairy messes with my stomach. Sorry, Squirt. Next time?

Next time never came. Her next breath escaped as a sob. 

H-Hey, Rainbow Dash… The voice, softer this time. The slow clip clop of hooves plodding on the street, coming to a stop beside her. Sorry if I… I mean, I just was wondering if…It’s okay if you’re busy, o-or if you don’t want to, that’s fine, I just… wanted to ask if you could, since I, you know… A slight pause. … can’t fly, if you wanted to… teach me, sometime?

Rainbow’s eyes squeezed shut. Against all odds, and defying all her small charge’s expectations, she had said yes. 

Perhaps she’d taken pity. Perhaps, deep down, she did still remember the promise she’d made that night in Whitetail Woods, with only the light of the moon acting as a witness. She had said yes.

And she had lied.   

Then, she felt a touch on her shoulder. Rainbow jolted from the contact, and like a scared rabbit, jumped back away from it with a startled yell, thumping into the wall with a painful thud.

The doctor jerked his hoof away like he had set it on a hot stovetop. He did not make a second move toward her, eyes wary and wide. “A-Are you…” 

Rainbow Dash only just now seemed to notice him standing there, remaining frozen to the spot. Tears ran unhindered down her face, meeting his apologetic stare for a long, unending moment.   

Then, in a fit of sobs, she whirled around, took a running step, and bolted away as fast as her legs could carry her.

…

Spike’s sharp teeth could have ground a diamond into powder. Twilight inhaled sharply. 

“Oh my gosh…” she gasped. She gripped his hand even tighter. But just then, Spike’s soft cries suddenly ceased. A flame flickered in his eyes that acted as some type of stovetop, bringing the tears to a boil until they evaporated off his face like steam. 

“He saw me, a-and… he told me to leave.” His voice, formerly subdued, became clearer. “I told him no. He told me to leave again, but I still said no. Scootaloo was telling me to leave, too, b-but I didn’t listen…” 

He took another minute of pause. Twilight felt his fist beginning to clench in her hoof, and she noticed the rows of sharp fangs beginning to show themselves through a thin space between his lips. His eyelids slid shut.

“… She was crying. She was scared, Twi. He was gonna hurt her again when I left, I know it. And I…” He bared his fangs, jaw muscles bulging as he grinded his teeth together. “I got so mad. I-I’ve never been so mad before, Twi. I went crazy. I wanted to rip him apart. I…I wanted to kill him. And…”

He bent his head down, hiding his face from her. He choked on his own air, and the next words he spoke could only leave as a muted whisper.

“…I did.”

The wake of his confession brought dead silence to the air. It was as though the very air around them cascaded down to the tile, leaving them without the ability to breathe.

Twilight’s grip of his hand, once tight as a vice, gradually loosened. Spike’s scaly fingers slipped through her grasp, and to her surprise, he yanked his hand away, letting it hang over the side of the bed. 

She opened her mouth to speak, to say something, but all the words died on the way to her lips. The only thing that managed to escape was his name. 

“Spike…” She said it as if she were the one with the broken rib. A trembling hoof went up to touch his cheek, but her assistant shied away from it, holding up his hand to block her advance. He wheezed, obviously in pain. 

“The… the fire at her house. I started it, Twi." He winced, grasping at the bandage around his broken rib. "I got so mad, and I just… it was my fault. I burned him up, I started it, it was my f-fault…I-I didn’t even know I could…”

Through the sharp, stabbing pain, he began to cry. Every heaving, shuddering breath magnified the fire in his side, but he couldn’t hold himself back. 

Seeing her assistant lying there, shaking in agony and fear, Twilight’s own eyes began to glisten. She reached out to him, but he weakly batted her hoof to the side. 

“No, n-no…”  He cringed and shrank away. His other arm went up to shield his head as his cries turned into weeps. Twilight tried again, but he once more thwarted her with another feeble swing of his arm. Her lips quivered. 

“Spike…” She said his name again. “Spike, please, it’s okay…”

“No it’s not!” He shouted back. “It’s not okay, it’s… I wanted to kill him, I w-wanted to…”

He trailed off again, struggling to breathe. Twilight flinched at the loudness of his voice, but she stayed at his bedside.  

“Spike…” His name, once more. It was all she could think to say, so she repeated it over and over again. Her hoof, for a third time, stretched out. “Oh, Spike…”

“No! Go—Go away,” he gasped out. His hand shot up to intercept her hoof, but she kept pressing forward, resisting the strength of his arm. “Go away…”

“No,” Twilight declared. She gave her head a single, rough shake, resolute. “I won’t go, Spike. I won’t go…”

Her hoof pushed against his hand, but only enough to keep it where it was. The veins showed from under the scales in his forearm, but he did not give up. His teeth scraped together with agony.

“Go away, just go away, damn it…” He still managed to yell despite his struggle to breathe. “I’m a murderer, I-I’m a monster…”

“No,” Twilight whimpered. Her voice was almost lost under the bawling of her assistant. “No, you’re not. You’re a hero, Spike. You saved her...”

The muscles in his arm twitched and spasmed from strain, on the very brink of collapse. With one last shove, Twilight finally broke through his last line of defense, and his arm fell limply onto the hospital bed. 

“No…” He tried to fight back against her, but there was nothing left for him to give. He collapsed back onto the bed with a muted cry.

Leaning forward as far as she could, Twilight wrapped her foreleg around the back of his neck, cradling his head in her foreleg. Every wheezing breath he expelled tickled her cheek.

“And you’re my friend, Spike.” She choked. Tears spilled down from her eyes and onto the sheets below. “You’re my best friend.”  

And, with this last statement, Twilight devolved into sobs. Her cries mingled together with his until they were indistinguishable.

“You’re my best friend… ” 

And then, at last, Spike gave up any hopes of resistance. He fell limp in her grasp, melting into her gentle embrace. His wails became a crescendo as she whispered into his ear. 

“…and you are a hero.” 

She continued to hold him tight.

> Better
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike was thankful for the sobs to end. Exhaustion at last paid his injured rib its due respect, and he fell silent, scarcely breathing at all. 

Twilight pulled her face away from his head, which still lay cradled in her forelegs. His eyes were shut, but their fluttering indicated he was still awake. 

“Spike?” she whispered. His eyes flickered open, only to shut back again. Twilight traced her hoof over his face, barely grazing the surface of his scales. “You gonna be alright?”

He pursed his lips in reply, and breathed out slowly through his nose. Twilight could feel the warmth of his breath on her hoof. With a wheeze, he spoke to her in a low voice. 

“What am I… What am I gonna tell her, Twi? What am I…”

A soft shush from Twilight kept his words at bay. She rubbed the side of her face against his cheek, something which he did not flinch away from. 

“You don’t have to say anything to Scootaloo, yet. She’s… you’re both hurting, right now,” she said. “All either of you have to worry about for now is getting better, Spike.”

“But...” His right hand drifted down to the bandages on his rib. He winced. “When, I mean, how will I know when it’s time? Should I ever tell her? What if… gah…”

His last few words were gasped out, his hampered lungs unable to keep up with the rising panic in his chest. Twilight gently set her hoof over his lips, pushing his raised head back into the pillow. 

“Don’t worry about that, now,” she said. “Alright? The time will come. She’ll have to know, but…”

Twilight reached over, setting her hoof on his left hand. He closed his eyes. 

“No matter what happens, you did the right thing.”

…



With mouth agape, Cheerilee watched Rainbow Dash gallop away, bolting down the hall. The doctor shouted for her to stop.

“Wait! Where are you going? Come back!” 

He was not acknowledged. Rainbow Dash turned right, heading back in the direction she had come. Eyeing the corner where the pegasus had disappeared, Cheerilee gave her head a rough shake to regain her bearings.

“What in Equestria…?” The doctor’s question trailed off in a soft voice. Cheerilee’s lips curled downward in thought. Their conversation with the stallion besides her replayed itself in her head, bringing a shallow frown to her face.

“I don’t know,” she said. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t… I probably shouldn’t have told her about Scootaloo’s mother. I… oh dear.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head ruefully. The doctor’s expression soon matched hers as he moved side by side with her. 

“You couldn’t have known that,” he said. “No matter, I suppose… Though this does make things complicated, I will admit. It will be a little while before we will consider her condition stable enough for release, given the severity of her injuries, but if there are no parents or guardians in the picture that will be able to take care of her, and if Rainbow Dash is… how old is she? I am sorry.”

Cheerilee had to think for a moment. As the age came to mind, her frown turned into a look of despair. She knew full well the implications of the question. 

“Not yet 21, I know that. Not… not old enough to adopt.” She bit her lip. The stallion sighed. 

“I see. And if all this is the case…”

Cheerilee didn’t need him to complete the sentence. She nodded her head, and sighed deeply.

“For now, I am going to have to recommend her for FPS care.” 

…



Rarity’s eyes were closed, but she was not asleep. She couldn’t have even if she’d wanted to. 

The sanitary smell of the hospital floors stuck to the lining of her throat like wet bath tissue. There was no avoiding the acrylic, sterile stench. It was everywhere. 

Nor was there any escape from the memories it brought to mind. She’d been here in this same room, sitting on the same cushions, less than two months ago. Waiting on the edge of a new reality for her sister, one from which there was no escape… 

Rarity’s remembrance was clearer now than on the day it had occurred. She hadn’t been able to sleep then, either. Totally exhausted, barely able to hold her head up… but still, she sat wide awake, staring off into the murk of night through the hospital window. Staring at her reflection, through it, or far beyond. Her thoughts had moved at too frenzied a pace to allow for rest; the story was the same for tonight.    

Her hoof tightened around the small body in her grasp. In reply, she felt Sweetie Belle sink warmly into her, welcoming the gesture. Rarity shut her eyes tighter. 

She wasn’t sure what it was at first. For a suspended moment, the tiny hairs on the ridges of her ears prickled like spines. The sound was familiar, a distant, echoing rattle coupled with a series of sharp hiccups… sobs… reverberating down the hall.

Rarity’s eyes opened. She turned to look down the hall. Out the corner of her eye, she saw that Applejack had already done the same. Sweetie Belle angled her chin up at Rarity.

“What’s that…?” she whispered. Rarity’s head naturally leaned forward with concentration. The hoofsteps were approaching fast; whoever it was, they were coming at a dead sprint. Her pupils expanded. 

“I don’t know…” She exchanged looks with Applejack. The other mare leaned forward in her seat, trying to get a better look down the hall. 

The cyan blur made everypony in the room rear their heads back, scarcely visible as it thundered through the room. Barely a second had gone by before it disappeared through the automatic door, lost to the outside. Applejack raised her eyebrows. 

“What in tarnation?” she asked the room. “Was that…?”

Applejack did not need to say the name. It only took a moment for everyone to figure it out. Rarity nodded, eyebrows raised in worry. 

“It had to be,” she affirmed. Applejack grimaced. 

“What in Equestria is… something’s wrong,” she said. “Ah think maybe Ah should go out and talk to her…”

Rarity was about to nod her head in agreement, but suddenly, she stopped herself. A strange, nervous feeling washed over her, freezing her head and hooves in place. 

She remembered the downcast, averted eyes and slumped over posture. Rainbow’s sense of total detachment from the world around her, deep in thought and totally silent. It reminded her of something, something very familiar to her that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. A recent memory, but nonetheless something she could not recall. Until…

Rarity gasped. Her pupils shrank to the size of pinheads.

“I’ll go,” she blurted out. Applejack, meanwhile, was already on her way to the door, but Rarity stopped her with an outstretched hoof. Sweetie Belle looked up at her with a puzzled expression, but Rarity shot a comforting smile back down at her in an effort to ease her confusion. Applejack raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh, alright… Ah’ll go with you,” she declared. But to her surprise, Rarity shook her head.

“No! I mean, err, no… I think I need to talk to her alone,” she said. “Trust me. Here, Sweetie Belle…”

Her little sister did not know what to say as Rarity hopped down from her seat, picking her up and setting her down with great haste next to Apple Bloom. The two Apple sisters exchanged flummoxed glances, looking equally unsure of what to make of what was happening. “Just stay right there, okay? I’ll be back very soon.”

Not having much of a choice, Sweetie Belle nodded. “Um… okay, Rarity. B-But…”

The unicorn nearly bowled Applejack over as she left the room in hot pursuit. 

...



The lobby passed by in a blur, and within moments, she was outside.

Rainbow felt the shock of cool air cascade over her body, from head to tailtip, and behind her, the hospital glowed brightly through the windows, obscuring the stars above. But Rainbow Dash did not look up. Her knees buckled underneath her, and her head fell into the dirt. She didn't bother to cover her head as the sobs came in droves. 

But the heaves of icy air came through gritted teeth. The blood vessels on her neck popped out like wire cords, and in a matter of moments, a heated redness began to spread over her facial features. The shuddering sobs became raspier. More guttural, turning to something akin to a vocalized growl. 

She peeled her head away from the grass. Her eyes stared straight ahead, into space, but their direction was clear. It was where she'd seen the column of smoke, toward the outskirts of town. Even in the nighttime sky she could picture it clearly. 

Her molars scraped together. Heat from a tiny spark in her eyes evaporated the tears away and into the air, and her lips curled back away from her bared teeth. Rage swelled up in her chest, heating every breath she expelled. 

Then, with a rough swing, she hit herself in the head. And then again with the other, even harder. She boxed herself once over the ears, causing a pained grunt to escape her, but she only increased the force of her hits until they weren't enough. And then, she banged her head against the ground. Every pained grunt morphed into high-pitched roars that served only to fuel her self-abuse. She dug into the ground with her hooves and scraped the dirt around her head in a fit of unrestrained fury, and then, with the strongest effort yet, she reared her head all the way back as far as it could go, preparing to smash it down...

And something snatched a hold of her mane. It yanked her head back, stopping her short of the finishing blow. In a knee-jerk reaction, Rainbow Dash reached a hoof around to dislodge her mane from the unseen pulling force, but a loud voice halted her. 

"Rainbow Dash! What in Equestria are you doing?"

It was unmistakable who the voice belonged to. The tug on Rainbow's mane lessened, but it was still there, allowing Rainbow Dash to whirl her head around.

Rarity stood only a couple of meters away. The sky blue aura around her horn glowed prominently in the dusk, and her eyes were opened wide with pupils narrowed into needlepoints that were focused straight on her.

"Rainbow," Rarity said her name again. "Rainbow, what are you doing?"

The snappiness of her earlier tone waned rather quickly as the air around them settled down. It was replaced with a near-whisper. With head throbbing, Rainbow let out another growl of frustration, and tried once more to pull herself away. 

"Nothing..." While pathetic, she tried her best to maintain a tough facade. "What are you doing here?"

Rarity saw through the façade without any effort. Seeing Rainbow's tearstained face, flushed bright red and dotted with marks, her own expression softened. 

"When you ran out of the hospital, you... I was very worried. So, I came out to see what was wrong."

The statement was unassuming and simple, spoken quietly and calmly as possible. Rainbow Dash was still huffing and puffing, obviously agitated, and Rarity did not want to make things worse. She watched with caution, keeping a gentle magical grip on Rainbow's mane. Her friend wiped her runny snout with a sniffle. 

"Nothing's wrong. Just... whatever. Go away." The demand came rather out of the blue, as though Rainbow had changed her mind about telling her something at the last second. "Just leave me alone."

Rarity's horn did not stop glowing. She shook her head, frowning deeply. 

"Why, so you can go on beating yourself to a pulp again? No. I won't do that, Rainbow." She stepped closer.  "I won't do that."

Unfortunately, her insistence only appeared to bring more of Rainbow's suppressed anger to the surface. She raised her voice, making an obvious effort to suck in any more tears that were threatening to fall.

"I said, go away!" She stomped her front hoof forward in a bluff charge, trying to intimidate Rarity. It did not work. Rarity took another step forward, the glow around her horn staying in place. 

"No. I am not stupid, Rainbow Dash. I know something is wrong..."

"I never said you were!" retorted Rainbow. She seemed hurt Rarity would even suggest such a thing. "You... you wouldn't even be able to help anyway, okay?"

She turned her head away, abandoning her bold face and avoiding eye contact altogether. Rarity took it as an opportunity to approach even closer, stopping just a couple of steps away. She leaned her head forward. 

"Beating yourself up isn't going to help anything either, Rainbow," she said. She waited a moment to see if Rainbow Dash would reply, but no sound came from the pegasus, who only turned away from her even more. Rarity grimaced. "Please tell me what's wr--"

"Me!"

Rarity blinked in momentary shock. Right after snapping at her, Rainbow's head hung so low it touched the ground. She closed her eyes, chest shuddering with suppressed sobs. Although taken aback, Rarity was careful not to raise her voice as she responded.

"What do you mean?"

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth together so loud that Rarity could hear them from where she was standing. "I... it's me, okay? I'm what's wrong. I'm... the worst pony in Equestria. Okay? You happy now?"

Bitterness underlined every word. Rarity furrowed her brow. Treading carefully, she said, "No... not happy, no. But..." She quickly switched back to the subject at hoof. "...what in the world makes you think that, dear?"

The answer came much later than before. Rainbow Dash appeared to shield her face with her shoulder, speaking down to the ground, but her voice was loud enough to make Rarity's ears twitch.

"Because... 'cause I... I can't tell you," she suddenly changed her mind. Rarity was not satisfied by that answer. She did not let her displeasure show externally, staying calm as she pressed further.

"Why not?"

"Because you wouldn't... I mean, you'd..." Rainbow groaned with frustration. "Just go away, okay? Leave me al--"

"No." Rarity cut her off before she could finish the sentence. "I already told you, no. Not until I know you won't keep doing... well, whatever it was that you were doing." She gestured to Rainbow's face. "You already look bad enough as it is..."

"No I don't!"

Rainbow Dash's hoarse voice sliced through the air with the power of an ultimatum. For a second time, Rarity was shocked out of speech. Rainbow sent a small rock flying with a hard kick, making Rarity flinch back. 

"Until I've got tubes stuck in my legs pumping me full of pain meds and I'm on a hospital bed right next to her, then I'm not 'bad enough!'" 

She turned full circle to engage Rarity with a bestial snarl. She resembled a beast cornered by a predator much larger than herself, desperation fomenting into the last rage of a final, hopeless stand. Rarity felt the air turn to frost around her, prickling her coat like bits of broken glass.

The volume of Rainbow's voice only made the silence afterward even louder. Rarity breathed through her open mouth. Her lips twitched with unspoken words, but Rainbow's gaze kept them momentarily at bay until, at last, Rarity spoke. 

Or rather, squeaked.

"Err... 'her'?" Rarity's ears fell back on her head.

It was only a simple word, asked as a question. But it was all it took. Rarity watched much of the heat extinguish from her friend's eyes until only wisps of gray smoke remained. The features of her face wilted, drooping like the petals of a summer flower at the onset of autumn, and the rage drained away from her like fluid from a wound. The veins bulging around her neck receded into her skin, and with a defeated sigh, she hung her head once more.

"S—Scootaloo. Who else would I be talking about?"

The sentence was delivered without any of the usual snark that would have accompanied it. Rarity nodded once in understanding, breathing an inward sigh of relief that her friend no longer looked ready to pounce on her. She spoke calmly and clearly, but still had not let her guard down just yet. 

"Rainbow... you are scaring me. I'm scared for you, and scared for Scootaloo, too. Please, I'm going to ask you again... what is wrong?"

She half-braced herself for another retort, but all she got was more silence. And despite everything that had transpired so far, Rarity wasn't sure which one she would have rather had. But eventually, Rainbow Dash did say something, in a tone of voice that was a far cry from her shouting from earlier. She turned her head in her direction, but her eyes were close to shut. 

"I don't want to tell you. But... I guess I deserve whatever you say to me anyway." She swept a hoof over her eyes. "Sorry for screaming at you. I'm...I-I'm..."

"You were upset. It's okay," Rarity assured her. "We all get that way, sometimes. Say things we don't mean...things we regret..."

She trailed off with a cough. Rainbow Dash shook her head slowly.

"It's... my fault Scootaloo got hurt."

Rainbow did not look up from the ground. Her eyes squeezed shut, and her teeth clenched together the moment the admission of guilt left her lips. Rarity reared her head back.

"Your fault... what are you talking about? How is the fire your fault?" 

The question came out a little more gratingly than Rarity might have intended. Nonetheless, the confession sounded so ridiculous that Rarity was less appalled than she was confused. Rainbow Dash groaned, pressing a hoof against her forehead.

"It wasn't the... ugh!" She plopped her backside onto the grass. "It wasn't, I mean, she wasn't..." 

Rarity gave her a moment to compose herself and come up with what to say. She followed Rainbow's lead, sitting down as well. She scooted herself over the cool grass and waited expectantly. 

"It wasn't the fire, okay?" Rainbow finally managed to say. "That isn't even... That's not why Scootaloo got hurt. No one even knows how the fire happened..."

With every passing statement, Rarity's confusion only became magnified. As did her sense of unease. She raised an eyebrow.

"Rainbow, I have no idea what you mean." Her sharp tone from before quickly gave way to deep concern. "Did... did you do something to her? Or..."

The backlash to the suggestion was immediate. 

"No!" Rainbow whirled onto her, eyes shimmering. "I mean... well, not really, I mean... it's not like that! No, no, no! No!"

Rarity almost fell onto her back. She held up a hoof to cover her face out of a reflex. "Okay, okay! Relax, Rainbow! I never thought you did, but... you said this was your fault, and... I'm just trying to understand. I'm sorry. Please..."

Rarity kept her hoof held between them like some sort of protective barrier. Rainbow Dash appeared to listen, and once again, simmered down. It did take some time, however. She shook her head apologetically. 

"It's okay." She scraped at the dirt with her hoof, uprooting a few blades of the damp grass in the process. "I get it..."

"Then how did she get hurt?" Rarity tried to push the conversation back on track. She dearly hoped she did not sound too impatient or anxious. "Is she going to be alright? What did the doctor tell you?"

There was nothing open-ended about the question. Rainbow Dash's ears twitched, as if they were shooing away a buzzing fly. She bit her bottom lip. Rarity was patient, but after another several seconds went by, she pressed just a little bit further. 

"Please, dear. What did he tell you?"

A moment passed, but Rainbow, at last, nodded her head silently, indicating that she'd heard. That she wasn't ignoring the question. Rarity picked up on the signal, keeping her lips sealed. Rainbow's eyes squeezed shut, her complexion wrinkling in a pained grimace.

The first words came out quietly, so much so that the wind could have carried them away like strands of floating ribbon.

"Her dad... beat her up."

The air fell away like smoke under a strong wind. Echoing mutedly, the admission stunned Rarity into silence. So quiet that even the gentle breeze felt like a roar in their ears.

No sooner had the declaration left her lips that Rainbow Dash's shoulders slumped forward, and her lips pursed shut. Her whole body seemed to quiver and shake as though she had just been exorcised of a demon, leaving her weak and fighting for balance. Her wings laid limply at her sides, the feathers curled inward like a bird's that had been dried out in the sun.

"He beat her up, Rarity. I-It had to be him, h-he... broke her leg, a-and she's got so many pain meds going through her that she's... she's... And you know what?" 

Her tone took a sudden turn. An eerie, vitriolic smirk showed itself on her lips. "It all makes sense, now. Everything. Why she wanted to be around me, why she was so obsessed? I get it. After this. much. time, I finally get it. Her mom's dead, her dad wants her dead, a-and so..."

Her voice raised in volume steadily, the shakiness of every word spoken making the hairs of Rarity's mane prickle like spines. Rarity did not say a word, watching and listening with mouth agape. 

"And then who's left? Why, the amaaazing, awesome, and don't forget the coolest pony in aaall of Equestria, Rainbow Dash!" The mockery in her tone was plain as the stars above their heads. "The pony who's so awesome, that she can't even remember your birthday, Scootaloo! Sorry I didn't get you a gift, it just slipped my mind! I'll get one for you next week? Sounds great? Awesome! See ya later!"

Her voice was reaching dangerous levels. Rarity grimaced, ears flopping back as Rainbow continued her monologue. Her hooves stamped into the dirt as she began to pace back and forth, leaving clear imprints in the soil.

"The pony who's so awesome, she'll just fly over your head and show off while you stay right there on the ground, Scoots! Look at meee! After all, it's not like you'll ever want to be able to fly just like me someday, right? Right?"

The final word was hollered, shrill with the volume. Rainbow Dash bared her teeth at the sky like a wolf. Rarity took a step back. 

"Oh wait, what's that? You do want to learn how to fly? And what's that? You want me to teach you?" Tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped onto the grass. Here speech was getting less and less coherent. "Ohhh, okay! Sure, Scoot! Whatever you say! I'd love to! But wait, there's only one problem!" she shouted. "I'm so awesome that I'm gonna forget all about it and leave you hanging at the park! And then, when you leave, you can just go home, a-and... and..."

She did not finish the thought. Her jaw appeared to freeze in place, lips ceasing to move at all. And then, for the first time since her tirade began, she dared to look over to where her friend was still standing.

Rarity had retreated several steps. Fright and concern defined her features, and she stared at Rainbow Dash with unblinking eyes. A thin film of moisture over them reflected the moonlight back to her.

Both mares gazed wordlessly at one another. A smug owl hooted in the distance, and the cool breeze picked up in speed, raising the hairs all along their spines. They remained there for a time neither one of them could have estimated. 

Until, at last, Rainbow Dash was the first to look away. Her voice carried no authority, no volume or confidence. In fact, it seemed devoid of any spirit at all.

"I... just go," she said. "I'm sorry I... go. Please..."

She shivered, lowering her head. Her wings drooped at her sides, feathers brushing against the blades of grass. Through folded ears she heard the soft pitter patter of hoofsteps, which only made her sink further into the ground.

Her pleas were answered at last. Once again, she was alone, and she couldn't have deserved anything more. The air closed over her like a cocoon, and slowly, her sensations ebbed away until even the chill of the nighttime wind was lost to her...

Something touched her shoulder. Something warm. Rainbow Dash sucked in a sharp breath, and then, that same, familiar voice, right beside her ear. 

"You're feeling guilt. The kind that almost makes you wish you were dead... or at least, that you deserve to be." It was a simple statement, but the weight of it hit Rainbow Dash in the gut. Rarity sidled closer. "I understand. I know the kind of feelings you're experiencing."

Rainbow Dash's lips curled down into a pained grimace. She bit down hard on her lip, and shook her head. 

"No you don't," she whispered. "How do you know? Y-You never..."

"Oh, I never?" Rarity's voice was as clear as it was sharp, raised slightly. But not angry. "Understand me. If there is anypony in Equestria that knows... it's me."

She squeezed a little bit tighter. The touch was not something Rainbow could passively ignore. The pegasus grimaced, and her eyebrows creased. Rarity smiled ruefully, the color in her irises dimming into gray. 

"It's not something I am proud to admit. And I know you don't believe me." She let go of Rainbow's shoulders, scooting back to give her some breathing room but staying within hoof's reach. "That's okay."

Rainbow Dash felt her scoot away, and despite herself, she looked over her shoulder at Rarity. The white unicorn gestured back to the hospital, pointing to the glowing waiting room window where the distant, blurry outlines of everypony else were seated.

"Do you see my sister?" She asked. The question was somewhat rhetorical, as everypony behind them appeared only as vague figures, but Rainbow, in spite of herself, nodded anyway. 

"Yeah..."

"And you know why she lost her leg, correct?"

Rainbow pursed her lips in an inquisitive frown. Not sure what Rarity was getting at, she nodded slowly. "Uhh... yeah? The rattlesnake bite and everything... Applejack told me about it. She told everypony."

Rarity gave her another sad smile. "Only partly true. It... yes. That was how it happened. But why she was out in Applejack's orchard to begin with, the place where she was bitten... that blame is all mine."

She paused for a moment to let the revelation sink in. Rainbow Dash's confusion, however, only intensified. Slowly, her despair and detachment from the rest of her surroundings turned to a morbid sense of curiosity, however temporary. "What are you talking about?"

Now, it seemed it was Rarity's turn to be put on the spot. She swallowed a lump in her throat, took a deep breath with half-lidded eyes. She began to speak, slowly and clearly like somepony trying to compensate for a shakiness that would have otherwise been present. 

"I had a project," she began. "One of the biggest I'd ever undertaken: a whole series of interconnected designs for a prestigious contest in Manehattan. Due to the amount of work I had to do to finish them, I hadn't gotten much sleep for many days in a row... err, if any at all, that is. At the time, Sweetie Belle was staying over because my parents were away… again."

Rainbow Dash’s brow wrinkled at the last word’s emphasis. Rarity brushed a strand of her mane away from her face, and continued on.

“By Saturday morning, I was close to done with the lineup. I had maybe a few more adjustments here and there, maybe an additional headdress I was thinking about adding, but otherwise I was done. But Sweetie Belle… she had been telling me that I wasn’t getting enough sleep. She told me she was worried about me.” Rarity shook her head regretfully. “I suppose I should have known I was doing something wrong when my own little sister had to resort to telling me off, but… I didn’t listen. Not even that morning, when everything was almost finished. I told her I’d been up all night yet again, and she nearly threw a fit on my behalf.”

A ghost of a smile showed itself on Rarity’s lips before they creased back together in a somber frown. She looked to Rainbow Dash, who met her gaze with a neutral expression of her own. But regardless, seeing that her friend was still listening. She paused, nervously brushed her mane aside once more, and resumed. 

“I told her everything was fine. She didn’t believe me, of course, but she didn’t say anything more. She made herself breakfast… just a bowl of cereal, she didn’t cook anything, heaven forbid… and went outside to play with her friends. It was a Saturday, so no school for her to worry about.” As she relived the day in her mind, Rarity peered off toward the far horizon, recounting every specific detail of the day’s events. It almost seemed as though she were delaying the climax, trying to eat away as much time as she could in an effort to procrastinate. 

Eventually, she got to a point where she had to stop herself again. Rarity swallowed, licking her lips and looking down at her hooves. By this time, Rainbow Dash was no longer looking away, instead paying close attention to every detail, however miniscule, she recalled. She could plainly see the dread turning Rarity’s cream white coat pale, and the way her breathing shallowed out the longer she waited between words. 

“I went to take a nap,” she said. She no longer fidgeted at her place, standing stock still instead. “I left the lineup in my workroom. I’d just laid my head down and closed my eyes, when I heard a something shattering from down the hall, followed by a massive crash. I knew it was from the workroom… when I got there… it was all gone. Knocked over, torn up, all over the floor… another three days’ work to fix, at least. The contest was in less than two. And next to one of the mannequins… there was a big, red rubber ball, along with a lot of shattered glass from the window.”

While Rarity’s eyes closed, Rainbow’s only widened. Almost unnoticeable, her mouth fell open, and she stared silently ahead, imagining the scene before her. Rarity’s voice became the background of the scene of destruction. 

“I knew what had happened before Sweetie Belle had even come in through the front door. She ran upstairs, a-and when I saw her… what I said, what I screamed at her, were some of the most awful, hurtful things I’ve ever spoken to anypony in my entire life. I told her I didn’t care about her, I-I said that all she ever did was ruin everything, a-and then, after all of that… I told her to get out. I even told her I didn’t care if she left and never came back.”

She choked a bit, but her composure was not lost. With a heavy sigh, Rarity regarded Rainbow Dash with a lusterless gaze. 

“That was why she was so far away. She ran away because I… basically disowned her. I drove her off. Th…that’s why she was on the orchard.” Rarity’s face blanched with shame at the revelation. “So… now do you see?”

It was a long while before Rainbow could muster up any kind of response. She could only think in a place far away, imagine the scene of the past, and hear Rarity’s words as though they were coming from a vacuum somewhere in space. Much time passed before she even realized, through her murky vision, that Rarity’s eyes were aimed at her. This forced a prompt, yet stammered reply. 

“I, uh…” Rainbow could feel her own pulse in her throat. “Y-y-yeah.”

Rarity nodded once, face stoic as ever. She wiped a hoof across her eyes as they started to glisten, and sniffled loudly. 

“I still remember when Applejack told me the news. I don’t think I’ve ever run so fast or so hard in my entire life. It was storming heavily, but I ran straight through it until I got to the hospital… I don’t remember what happened after. All I remember is waking back up on a hospital bed myself. A-And then... after everypony else left. I-I talked to Applejack, alone, and I told her everything. All the things I has said.” She stepped closer toward Rainbow Dash and sat down on the grass. “She was the only pony I ever told… until tonight.”

The pause that followed was long, almost unbearable. Rainbow remained silent. Behind Rarity, the hospital windows still glowed like tiny gems. But she wasn’t looking at them, but through the building itself; before her, the same room where she had confided with Applejack came into view. Rarity shivered as she could feel the farm mare’s hooves wrapped around her shoulders, holding onto her tight, speaking softly into her ear…

“She told me that it wasn’t my fault. That none of it was my fault. But do you want to know the truth?” Rarity whirled her head around, facing Rainbow again. “I didn’t really believe her. I still don’t, really. I knew what I’d done, and I wasn’t going to forget. I wanted, more than anything else, to trade places with her. It was all I felt I deserved. But Sweetie Belle? She deserved better.”

For the first time since their encounter, Rarity’s voice split. She swept the water from her eyes away. 

“After how much she always cared about me, wanted to help me, always wanted to do the right thing for me, and for everypony… she deserved so much better. She deserved better than to be always carted off by a mother and father who were hardly ever around to a sister who barely gave her the time of day. She deserved better than to be ignored and treated like some kind of pest instead of the amazing pony she is. She des… She deserved better than for me to just throw her away like—like garbage!”  

By the time she had finished, Rarity was yelling. All of her past efforts, however valiant, to keep herself together were slowly failing with every new word she uttered. She was almost upon Rainbow Dash, within hoof’s reach. 

Her friend’s stare was intimidating, even fierce. Rainbow Dash couldn’t match it. She aimed her eyes down at the grass. The cold chill of hopelessness and guilt descended on her with the cool night’s breeze.

“Yeah… And Scoots deserves better than me.” There was a slow, plodding pace to her speech. “I should just… I…” 

"Just what?" Rarity asked. Rainbow Dash flinched. She tilted her head to the side, shrugging her shoulders with nervousness. 

"Just... I dunno, just... go away. I've screwed things up so bad already, a-and--"

“Stop."

Rarity said the word with a resoluteness that demanded compliance. Rainbow's ears flopped back, and her brow furrowed downward with confused concern. 

"Wh-what're you talking ab--"

"I said, stop." Rarity did not even let her finish the question. Her brow furrowed sharply downward. "All this useless, self-pitying, 'woe is me'... trash. Stop it, do you understand me?” 

Rarity’s voice lowered dangerously at the last sentence. Rainbow Dash found herself retreating back a step. Her lower lip curled down into a grimace, confused tears starting to form as her friend's words nailed her to the spot. 

"I... I’m sorry, I just, uh, I-I..." Her jaw trembled, making whatever remaining words she had wanted to say tumble out onto the ground. "I don't..."

"If you go away, where will that leave her?" Rarity was not letting up an inch. "After today, what does she have left? Her father is gone, Rainbow. Her home is burned down. And now, you are going to just leave her, too? Is that what you're saying?"

Slowly but surely, Rarity’s voice increased in volume. Her head was cocked to the side in her demand for a reply. Feeling the heat, Rainbow Dash shook her head roughly. 

"No! No, no, that's not what I... I didn't mean it like that!” She shook her head adamantly. Her voice cracked as the air around her became heavy with guilt and shame. “I didn't mean it that way..." 

Her knees bent as she sank down into the grass. Rarity watched the distance between them widen, and as she looked at Rainbow's sinking expression, her own features softened. Then, she cringed herself, curling her bottom lip. 

If there had ever been a time where Rainbow Dash had looked so downtrodden, Rarity did not remember. After taking a deep breath, she nodded once.

"Alright, then. I believe you, Rainbow," she said. She closed the gap between them. "I do. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so harsh. I know you didn't mean it that way."

Rainbow Dash continued to stare at the ground. But as she spoke, her ears lifted a bit on her head, indicating she was listening. Rarity approached her cautiously, repeating herself. 

"I’m sorry if I made you feel worse, Rainbow. That wasn't called f..."

"No. You're right," Rainbow interrupted. Her breathing became shallower, and she shook her head. "I wasn't thinking. I was just... I'm just... scared. I'm scared I already screwed things up too much with Scoots already. I know I shouldn't be, but... "

She trailed off, a lump traveling down her throat. Irritably, she swept a lock of her mane out of her eyes. Rarity's eyebrows raised, but only briefly, and she sighed with shame.

"No no, I... I understand. Completely." Rarity reached her hoof out to touch Rainbow, half-expecting her friend to move away, but no such thing happened. She frowned, not out of anger, but from sympathy. "You're afraid of what she'll say. I know what that feels like. After what I said to Sweetie Belle that day... I was afraid, too. I wanted more than anything in the world to make it up to her, any way I could. But after everything that happened, I thought... I thought she'd hate me…”

Rainbow Dash refused to look up from the ground, neither resisting nor acknowledging the hoof on her shoulder. Rarity bit her lip, and then, with her other hoof, she reached around and took gentle hold of her chin, turning her head until the two of them were eye to eye. Rainbow flinched, but apart from that, she did not resist. Rarity's voice stayed level. 

"But she didn’t. She was angry, yes… hurt, confused, shocked… but she didn’t hate me. And somehow…” 

Rarity leaned her head inward, feeling Rainbow’s jaw trembling against her hoof where she held it.

“…somehow, I don’t think Scootaloo will hate you, either.” 

And with that, Rarity said no more. Save for the dull whistle of the breeze though the branches of the trees nearby, the night was silent. The petite white hoof under Rainbow’s chin fell away.

But to her surprise, Rainbow did not look away from her. With her lips pursed together, she stared back at her, eyes unmoving. A ghost of a smile played upon Rarity’s lips. 

“Tonight,” she began, “visit her, Rainbow. Say you’re sorry. Tell her what she means to you. But most importantly…”

She leaned her head forward. 

“…show it.”

…

> Best
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water hissed out of the bathroom faucet, the faint gurgling of the drainpipe echoing all around the walls of the empty room. A pair of dripping blue hooves lie in front of the basin, and scrunched up behind it lay a damp, wrinkly towel, pressed up against the wide mirror in front of Rainbow Dash’s face.

Using one hoof to keep her balance, she splashed more water onto her face, letting it wash over the streaks of red that ran from her eyes. She wiped the water away with the towel, scrubbing at the colored lines for several seconds before facing the mirror again, brushing her bangs aside.

The colored lines had all but disappeared from her face. All that remained were a few dotted bruises on her forehead and cheeks from her self-inflicted injuries, puffier than before now that they had been given time to swell, but those were impossible to scrub away. Rainbow turned the faucet off, dried her hooves and the surrounding counter, and set the towel down off to the side. 

With the sink turned off, the bathroom became eerily silent, so subdued that she could hear the faint hum of the ceiling lights overhead. To Rainbow, it was like hearing the whine of a gnat in her ear, and in a state of heightened anxiety, she felt her heart beginning to beat harder in her chest. She took a few deep breaths, gritted her teeth, and blocked it all out.

Rainbow lost herself in a rhythm of deep breathing until the door to her left opened up. Rarity poked her head inside.

“Rainbow Dash?” she said, keeping her voice low. “Are you alright? You’ve been in here for a long time.”

Rainbow’s ear perked up, but she did not turn her head. She nodded. 

“Yeah.” She wiped her face with a hoof, sending water droplets to the counter. Turning to Rarity, she asked, “Can you see anything?”

Rarity looked her over. After a few moments, she replied, “Yes… but you look much better than before, darling.”

Rainbow felt a small tinge of relief as she faced the mirror again. It did not last long, however. The bruises on her cheek and forehead were still noticeable, but the water had at least cleaned off the dirt and grime. She brushed her bangs over the brown spot on her forehead, pressing the hair down with a bit of water to prevent it from revealing the mark underneath. It felt as though a rock had been lodged in her throat, and it made it a challenge to breathe, but she willed the sensation away with grinding teeth. 

She stepped toward the door.

“Okay. I’m ready.”  

…

Cheerilee may as well have been floating, ambling aimlessly through the halls with her eyes forward, locked onto the floor. A passerby may have mistaken her for being in thought, but it was more like foreclosure. 

She imagined facing the ponies in the waiting room. She imagined sitting back down, to see her other two students directly across from her. They would ask questions, undoubtedly. They were Scootaloo’s friends; they would want to know everything. 

Or, perhaps it was even worse. They already knew. Rainbow Dash… she’d already gone back, hadn’t she? She must have told them by now. Every minute she spent away from the room was a confirmation of her own guilt, of her complacency…  

Twenty minutes, and she was still wandering. 

She couldn’t look them in the eyes and tell them Scootaloo was fine; give them only part of the truth. It went deeper than that. Her mind drifted to the letter she had written, still sealed and sitting on her desk. It drifted to the smoke, black columns erected on the horizon like prison bars. It drifted to the first time she had noticed a mottled, brownish spot on Scootaloo’s right hip…

She came to the junction once again. Turn right, walk a few steps, and enter the waiting room.

She kept walking.

But this time, she did not make it around the corner. Behind her, she heard hoofsteps. The click of a door shutting, too. 

She turned around, and saw Rainbow Dash.

…

Rainbow wasn’t flying, but the air felt just as thin and cold. For her, it would have felt like home, but the sound of her hoofsteps echoing up and down the hallway like cannon blasts brought her back to reality. 

She feared what she would see. But more than anything, she feared what she would hear. 

She took each step as though she were walking an invisible tightrope. Sucking in a breath of sterile air, she closed her eyes a moment to contain her fear before letting back out in a long exhale. She breathed in again, performing the cycle in a timely rhythm with every slow step. 

Whenever she opened her eyes, all she saw was the end of the hallway. And it was getting closer. The numbers on the doors to her right and left were hastily approaching the ones that would be on Scootaloo’s door. Her wings twitched at her sides, tingling with anxiety while her mind wandered elsewhere.  

The clip-clopping of hoofsteps behind her caught her attention. When she turned around, she was surprised to see Cheerilee cantering down the hallway after her with urgency raising her brow. 

…

“Rainbow Dash!” Cheerilee slowed down to a trot now that Rainbow had stopped. “Wait! I, I need you to… to…”

Heavy breathing kept her words at bay for a short moment. Rainbow blinked slowly, waiting for her to catch her breath. When Cheerilee had finally caught her breath, she closed the remaining distance between them with a reach of her hoof, setting it onto Rainbow’s shoulder. She stared at Rainbow intently, gripping her coat as if she were afraid the other mare was going to run off if she didn’t hold her in place. 

“Rainbow Dash, I… when you see Scootaloo, can you… I mean, could you…” 

She swallowed, her breath shaky as her eyes welled up. Her teeth clasped down onto her bottom lip to keep it from quivering. Unsure of what to think of her sudden intrusion, Rainbow stared blankly back at her. 

“…I’m sorry. Tell her I’m sorry.” She gave Rainbow a telling, sad smile. “Tell her I’m sorry for not being there for her, that I’m sorry for not realizing, not understanding what was happening… Tell her that she’s a wonderful filly, and a wonderful student, and… that I’m so sorry.”

Her voice receded into a whisper. The two of them maintained eye contact, but while the expression on Rainbow’s face barely changed, she gave the other mare a slow nod. 

“Alright,” she replied. “Sure, n-no… no problem. I’ll tell her.”

Cheerilee’s hoof fell away from her shoulder, and she took a step back. She swept her foreleg across her snout with a sniffle, but managed to smile through the pained expression on her face. 

“Okay. Thank you.” Without warning, she stretched forward and hugged Rainbow Dash around her withers. “Thank you so much.” 

She let go. Rainbow appeared a bit surprised by the sudden hug, but she gave the teacher a smile. It was a forced, thin smile, something which Cheerilee noticed, but she did not draw any attention to it. 

With an awkward wave, Cheerilee silently bid Rainbow Dash farewell, and the two of them parted ways. After swallowing what felt like a ball of lead, Cheerilee took another deep breath and started down the hall. 

Only this time, instead of the meandering, ambling gait she had used before, there was a sense of purpose and direction to her steps. Eyes were fixed forward, widened and with eyebrows raised. Blood bubbled up to the surface of her skin, flushing her face a determined red. 

She turned the corner to the waiting room, and walked inside. 

…

Like every other one in the hospital, the door was a warm shade of tannish yellow. The color was inviting, friendly, and betrayed none of the horrors that surely awaited Rainbow Dash on the other side. 

She pressed down the hairs on her coat that were standing up straight, rubbing some warmth in her legs to prevent the goosebumps from spreading. The number on the door was the right one; she’d checked it several times already. 

She listened in through the door with one ear pressed against the wood, trying to hear what was going on inside. Unfortunately, she couldn’t pick up anything. Dipping her head in between her front legs, she spoke to herself under her breath. 

“You gotta do it,” she chided herself in a harsh whisper. “You have to see her, she has to see you, s-so just… go.”

Spurred on by her own last word of encouragement, her head shot up, and with no more hesitation, she tapped her hoof three times against the door. 

Waiting for someone to acknowledge her from the other side made her hooves feel like they were sinking into the floor. She ignored the sensation, choosing instead to stare up at the door and listen as closely as she could. The sound of hoofsteps on the other side made the veins in her neck throb, and she struggled to keep her breathing composed. 

The brass knob clicked, turned, and the door cracked open. Rainbow Dash stared at the sliver of space until another pony’s head peered through the crack. Her mane was a pale red, and she sported a nurse’s cap with a red cross sewn onto the middle of it. Rainbow Dash gave her a nervous smile, leaning her head in so that the two of their snouts were almost touching. 

“Hi, can I…” She spoke in a low voice. After all, if the answer to her question was a no, she did not want to disturb the pony likely sleeping inside. “… you know, come in? Is she doing okay?”

Rainbow watched the nurse’s face brighten at seeing her. To her relief, but also dread, she was given a nod. The nurse took a step back, pulling the door with her, but not before placing her hoof over her lips.

“Yes, you can… and yes, she is alright,” she assured. “Just asleep. I’ll wake her now, but for the meantime, just stay quiet.”

Rainbow took the warning seriously. After nodding her head, she walked inside on the tips of her hooves, grimacing with concentration. When she was at last inside, she looked up from the floor. 

For a few moments, she forgot how to breathe. 

Scootaloo was motionless, save for the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. Her eyes… or rather, her eye, was closed in sleep, while the swollen mass of flesh encircling her other eye gave it no choice but to stay shut. The tip of her snout had been bent cruelly to the left, visible even through the thick pad of gauze that had been wrapped around it, and red-stained pads affixed with medical tape adorned her coat all around. Bruises that dwarfed the ones Rainbow had seen on her only days prior mottled every surface of the girl’s body that she could see above the sheets. But worst of all, Rainbow Dash could see Scoot’s foreleg locked in a sling, hanging limply over her belly and set in a heavy cast. 

She looked like a casualty of war.  Rainbow Dash covered her mouth and sucked in a sharp breath through her nose, vision blurring the longer she stared. 

The nurse crept up alongside the bed. Rainbow aggressively swept away the tears forming in her eyes, steadying her nerves as the nurse leaned her head over Scootaloo’s limp form. 

“Hello? Scootaloo?” she whispered. There was no response from the bed. The nurse raised her voice, but just slightly. “Scootaloo?”

Another long pause. Rainbow Dash craned her neck, staring at Scootaloo’s eyes and waiting anxiously for them to open. Her hooves scraped against the tile. When she finally saw Scootaloo’s eyelids flicker, her jaw clamped down like a vice. The nurse took notice as well. 

“There’s somepony here to see you, Scootaloo,” she cooed. Scootaloo’s head moved on the pillow, rolling a little to the side. Her mouth opened to let a breath out in a deep exhale, and her eyes flickered again. The nurse smiled. “Rainbow Dash.”

Scootaloo’s good eye flew open. Rainbow’s Dash almost flinched. 

The two pegasi stared at one another. Silently. Both expressions were blank, unmoving, and unwavering. Unspoken words swelled up in Rainbow’s throat, but they stayed lodged there like a balloon trying to float through a tube that was too small. 

After considerable effort, all that managed to escape was a muted, “H-Hey.”

There was no reply from Scootaloo. Thankfully, the nurse broke the tense silence. 

“Hello, Scootaloo.” She took a step back so that she was no longer leaning over the bed. “I am sorry if I startled you. How are you feeling?”

In a way, she ended up asking the question for Rainbow Dash. It was something that both relieved and frustrated her at the same time; Dash needed to talk to her, but her tongue felt like it had been taped to the back of her throat. 

Scootaloo glanced over to the gently smiling nurse, and her eye momentarily fell shut. She cocked her head slowly to the side, a shrug without the shoulders. 

“I’m…” She coughed to clear her throat. “…alright.” 

Her hoof… the one that wasn’t hanging in a sling… reached up to her face. Before it could touch the swollen mass around her eye, the nurse reached forward and blocked her, softly pressing the hoof down onto the blanket.

“Now, now, try not to touch it, sweetheart,” she advised as gingerly as she could. “Is it hurting a lot, still?”

There was a small pause, as if Scootaloo were pondering the question. But again, her head slowly cocked to the side. 

“Noo…it’s fine. Just… uncomfortable.” 

Strain was evident in her voice. The nurse took another step back, heading towards the door. 

“Alright, dear.” She gave Rainbow Dash a smile. “Now, would you like me to leave for a bit while you two talk?”

The question was harmless enough, but it made Rainbow’s stomach lurch. No more time to stall or put it off. She nonetheless gulped down the bile that was burning her throat and nodded her head. 

“Sure. That’s fine.” She smiled back. Then, she looked over to Scootaloo. She didn’t look back. Her eyes were aimed at the blanket. 

“Alright.” She opened the door, and leaving it open, she left the two of them there. “I will be back soon. Are you alright, Scootaloo?”

A concerned frown accompanied the question. Scootaloo didn’t look up from the bed, sniffling through the gauze on her nose. 

“Mm hmm.” She met the nurse’s gaze. “I’m fine.”

Her tone was neutral. It was enough to convince the nurse, however. With one more smile of farewell, she left the room, leaving the door open a crack.

Not a word was said for quite some time. Rainbow’s tail swished from side to side over the floor, the only sound left in the room as the clipclop of hoofsteps receded down the hall.

When it came to Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash was used to the bright-eyed looks. She was used to the way her surrogate sister’s wings would flutter excitedly at her side whenever the two of them were together, as well as how her hooves would seem to float over the ground with euphoria whenever the two of them would walk side by side. 

Of course, Scootaloo would always try to hide it.  After all, it wasn’t exactly cool to lose control. It was…weak. And if there was one thing that Rainbow Dash wasn’t, it was weak. And so, she had to hide it, however she could. 

But now, lying there on the bed with her eyes aimed at the floor, Rainbow Dash knew that Scootaloo was hiding something very different. A different weakness. 

Pain. 

Rainbow Dash swallowed her fear. Then, she spoke. “Hey, Scoots.”

The words seemed to echo off of the walls in the small space between them. It was as if speaking only made the peal of silence worse. But then, finally, Scootaloo replied back, her voice hardly audible even in the stale air.

“Hey,” she responded. Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up in momentary relief, but they soon folded back on her head. The one-word reply was more of an acknowledgement that she existed than it was an actual greeting. 

Frantically, her brain searched for what to say. Her eyes darted back and forth, imagining up scenarios of how Scootaloo would respond to each option she thought up, but every time she thought of something, doubt would shoot it down before it could leave her mouth. The terrible, awkward silence dragged on and on, and each second that passed made Rainbow’s heart sink further into her gut. 

Which is why it came as such as surprise when she heard Scootaloo’s voice again.

“Do you… where’s Spike? Do you know?”

In that instant, all of the thoughts that had been swimming around in her head felt like they had been flushed away. The question almost didn’t register to Rainbow, who blinked from surprise. 

At last, Scootaloo was looking at her. Her good eye was opened wide, and her lips were pursed tightly together. Rainbow nodded dumbly, breathing through her open mouth. 

“Uhh… yeah. He’s fine. Twilight went to go see him a little while ago…”

“Is he alright?” Scootaloo asked, this time more directly. She bit down on her lip to keep it from quivering, something which Rainbow Dash noticed. Again, Rainbow affirmed her with a nod. 

“Yeah, Scoot. He’s fine. Banged up and all, but okay.” She smiled. Scootaloo’s face didn’t match hers. “Twilight went to see him a little while ago… Nurse said something about him breaking a rib, but he’s gonna be fine.”

Rainbow saw Scootaloo’s eyes brighten up as she relayed the good news. But as soon as relief appeared to wash over her, the light began to fade from her features, and her ears and shoulders sagged. She averted her eyes, and it looked as if she wanted to sink into the mattress and hide herself from view entirely. Rainbow Dash bit her lip.

Neither of them made a sound. Rainbow could hear her own pulse pounding in her ears as she took a step closer to the bed. 

“You… okay?” The words felt ridiculous coming out of her mouth. Seeing Scootaloo laying there in her current state made the question almost rhetorical, but she asked it anyway. But, to her surprise, she saw Scootaloo nod her head. 

“Yeah.” Judging from the way her eyes glistened, the exact opposite was probably true. “F—Fine.”

Understandably, the answer was not convincing. Her stammer told Rainbow all she needed to know. Putting a hoof on the bed, she scooted herself a little closer so that there were only a few paces between them. 

For hours, she had mentally prepared what she was about to say. But now that she was here, the words she’d agonized over suddenly seemed woefully inadequate. Her tongue felt like a wad of damp cotton, but as the silent seconds stretched on, her heart only thumped harder. She forced her lips to move, and to her great surprise, sound came out. 

“Hey… hey, Scoot?” she said. Scootaloo’s gaze remained locked onto the far wall, but her ears were perked up and listening. Rainbow’s hoof pressed harder into the blanket, and she closed her eyes. “I gotta… I’m…”

But then, just as she was about to speak, she froze. This time, however, it was not out of fear. Her eyes widened with realization, and she turned to face Scootaloo again. The words streamed out of her slowly, but steadily. 

“Before I came here… Mrs. Cheerilee stopped me. We talked, and…”

She craned her neck forward. Scootaloo’s head, which had been hanging low before, now shot up so that her neck was parallel with the wall behind her. Rainbow Dash continued. 

“…she says she’s sorry. She says that you’re a wonderful student, a-and… and that she’s sorry that she wasn’t there for you before. That she never understood…” Rainbow paused here, swallowing hard. “…what was going on.”

The air around their heads felt like it had been charged with electricity. Rainbow’s hair prickled, and goosebumps formed on her legs as a chill traveled up her spine. Scootaloo’s good eye widened to twice its size, and she gave a quiet gasp. With a jolt, she turned her head away again, but she had not been able to hide the fear in her expression before it had been noticed. 

Rainbow Dash felt a stabbing pain in her chest. She pursed her lips tightly together and blinked away the water in her eyes, and then, went on. 

“And she’s not the only one.” A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face. Her voice was becoming increasingly unstable with each new word. “She’s not the only one who wasn’t there for you. Scoots… I’m so, so sorry. Not just for yesterday, for the flight lesson, b-but… but for everything. Every time I blew you off, every t… all the times you wanted to hang out, and I s-said no… I…”

She had to stop to get her breathing under control. Scootaloo sat motionless, but even from a distance, Rainbow could see her jaw trembling. The rest of her was hidden from view. 

“…When we were at the falls, and I told you I’d take you under my wing… I didn’t keep my word. I should have been there for you, but… I wasn’t. I haven’t. And I’m sorry, Scoot. I’m so, so sorry.”

Once the final apology was said, Rainbow Dash fell silent. Anxiety brought her blood to a boil, and she felt her heartbeat quicken to a flying pace. Now that everything had been laid out on the table, there was nothing left to do but wait. 

And wait she did. The silence was almost tangible, floating around their heads like a dense, soupy fog. It made the air heavy and hard to breathe. A nervous fire stirred in Dash’s mind, and to combat the flames, she began to say more. 

“…And I know I… I get it if it isn’t enough for me to just say what I’m saying now. Just saying that I’m sorry… I know I have to show it. And I want to, Scoots. I made you a deal, a promise, and I’m gonna…”

“No.”

Rainbow’s speech came to a screeching halt. She exhaled out through her open mouth. 

Scootaloo’s solitary word only just beginning to register in her brain. When it did, the anxious flames within her turned to an inferno. Rainbow watched Scootaloo shake her head. But perhaps worst of all, she could see the sad ghost of a smile playing on her lips. A hopeless, defeated smile. 

“No, you… you don’t have to worry about me. You don’t have to waste your time,” said Scootaloo. Tremors shook her words, but she choked them back with a hard swallow. “Just… it’s not worth it. You got better things to do.”

With the last sentence, her voice dropped until it was barely above a whisper. She glanced up at Rainbow Dash, but then, her head fell back onto the pillow with a sigh. 

Rainbow lungs felt like the air had been sucked right out of them. She blinked once, staring at Scootaloo. 

The other filly lay there with the most forlorn expression she had ever seen. Not only battered, bruised, and bloodied, but utterly defeated. Her good eye was dimmed gray, eyeing the broken foreleg hanging in the sling below. She seemed to be waiting, as if just expecting Rainbow Dash to pack up and leave right then and there. 

But that wasn’t something Rainbow was about to do. Feeling the surface of her skin go cold, Rainbow took a step forward, shaking her head. 

“No, no, Squirt. You’re my sister. I’m not wasting my time…”

“Yeah, you are.” The interruption came suddenly. “And you aren’t my sister, you’re… not. And all I’d do is just slow you down. You’re… better off without me. Everypony is.”

The matter-of-fact manner in which Scootaloo said it made the hairs stand up on Rainbow’s mane. Once again, Rainbow was quick to refute her, but she could no longer mask the fear in her own voice. 

“That’s not true, Scoot…”

“Yes it is,” she insisted. The sound of scraping from her clenched teeth could be heard in the still air. “You… y-you don’t get it. Okay? You don’t understand…”

“What?” Rainbow kept herself calm as she asked, but it was difficult to hide her nervousness. “What don’t I get, sis?”

“Just… I dunno, just…” Scootaloo gave a frustrated puff of air through pursed lips. “I…”

Rainbow was tempted to interrupt, but she refrained, choosing to let Scootaloo gather her thoughts instead. The situation was already tense enough, and she didn’t want to escalate it if she could help it. 

“…All I do is hurt ponies. Make things worse. Mess things up…”

Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows with bewilderment and concern, cocking her head to the side. “What are you talking about, Scoot?” 

Attempts to keep her voice from shaking were met with failure. Each thing Scootaloo admitted took to the wind right out of her, and for the first time, it seemed like her worst fears were coming true. 

“I…” Scootaloo licked her cracked lips. After some hesitation, she barely managed to whisper, “… Just… never mind. Never m—”

“Squirt,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, sounding as gentle as she could. She took a deep breath. “Please, tell me. You can tell me, I don’t care what it is.”

She left it at that. Scootaloo shook her head ever so slightly, in a way that suggested she was trying to hold something back. Tears, or perhaps even anger. “I don’t want to.”

Rainbow’s frown deepened. The brokenness evident in her surrogate sister’s expression, clear to see even underneath all her bruises, felt like a punch to the stomach. Nonetheless, she took the risk and pried harder. It was all she could do at this point; the only other option was to give up. 

And to Rainbow Dash, that wasn’t even an option.

“I know you don’t want to, Scoot. I know that…” She subtly swept a hoof over her eyes. “…that you probably don’t want to tell me, of all ponies. But please, Scoot… I’m scared.  I don’t know why you’re saying what you’re saying, and…”

Rainbow trailed off, the words tumbling out until they fell flat onto the tile. At first, her pleas appeared to have no effect on Scootaloo, who stared at a generic painting hanging on the opposite wall. She seemed intent on not making eye contact with Rainbow, but whether it was from fear, anger, or some combination of the two, remained unclear. 

Another minute slipped by without a word. Alone with her own thoughts, it seemed like a lifetime for Rainbow’s brain to anxiously search for something new to say. Something to break through the barrier of hurt and heartbreak…

Her eyes lit up with a new idea. And then, immediately afterwards, she winced as second thoughts tried to bury it under the floor. But before her self-doubt could finish the job, her lips began to move as if they had a mind of their own, and the words that came out like an arrow from a bow. 

“Scoots…I know it wasn’t a scooter accident.”

The moment the sentence escaped, Rainbow’s entire body froze. It was too late, now. No turning back. 

Even from her unclear vantage point, she could hear the sharp breath of air that Scootaloo sucked into her lungs. The tips of her ears stand up as rigid as knives, and Rainbow Dash could see the wrinkles forming in the blanket as her hoof gripped the edge of it like a steel clamp. 

An icy chill descended upon them both. Scootaloo kept her head low, hiding the swollen side of her face in a feeble effort to mask her injuries. But the one thing that stood out to Rainbow more than anything else, the one thing that made her heart rise into her throat, was the quivering in the girl’s jaw. 

What she said next made Rainbow’s’s heart stop. 

“Just… go away.”

Even though she couldn’t see Scootaloo’s face, she could hear sobbing, despite all of her best attempts to hold them at bay. A tear dropped onto the blanket. 

Seeing the tear fall, it became clear to Rainbow that she had said the wrong thing. Stepping forward, she closed the distance between them, trying desperately to think of something to say to Scoot as the filly began to lose everything that remained her composure. 

“I’m so sorry, sis. I’m so sorry… I didn’t want…”

“Didn’t you hear me?” The volume of her cry shocked Rainbow into silence. “Just go, okay?”  

Scootaloo was growing louder and louder by the second. Betrayal tinted every word, and Rainbow knew she deserved it all. She felt tears forming up in her own eyes, and her words came out in an even more desperate stream. 

“I’m so sorry I never understood before. I’m so sorry. I know that—”

“No, you don’t.” Scootaloo cut her off angrily. “You don’t know anything. You… you never cared. You never…”

She choked, expelling a series of sharp breaths before falling silent once more. Before they had a chance to drip down, her free hoof went up to scrub the tears out of her eyes.   

Rainbow Dash sat motionless on the floor, gazing straight ahead while the sting of Scoot’s words began to sink in. Her hoof fiddled with the end of her tail, letting the frayed hairs wrap around it while she tried to keep her breathing under control. 

You never cared.

The words reverberated around the room like an echo chamber. Rainbow wanted, more than anything, to refute it. To tell Scootaloo that she was wrong. That she had cared. But as much as she wanted to say it, the accusation weighed too heavy on her shoulders for her to shrug it off. 

Of course she’d cared. But she hadn’t cared enough. And to Scootaloo, not enough may as well have been not at all.

Rainbow Dash looked away. 

“Scoot… I know that what I did… what I didn’t do… I know it hurt. I can’t even imagine how bad it must’ve felt. And… I want to be able to know what to say. How to convince you that I did care, that I… but, I’m starting to see that that isn’t gonna matter.”

The statement drew an eyebrow from Scootaloo. But still, she said nothing. It was clear she was hearing what Rainbow Dash was saying, but her face maintained its façade of neutrality. 

“It doesn’t matter what I say. All that really matters is what I do. And while I can still honestly say that I care about you, Scoot… and I really, really do… I understand that isn’t enough. It never was.”

Rainbow leaned forward. It was enough to get Scootaloo to look away from the wall, but only for a moment. Her mouth stayed shut.

“I want to start over. I want to be the sister you wanted me to be… that you needed me to be. That you need me to be. I want to be that, Scoot. I want to be that for you.”

Rainbow Dash sucked in a sharp breath of air as soon as the words left her mouth. Her lips continued to move, almost as if she wanted to keep talking, but something deep within told herself to stop. To wait, and listen. 

Everything she could say had already been said. Every word of it had been sincere; all she could do now was hope that Scootaloo could be convinced of it, too. 

For what was not the first time that night, the silence was so overbearing that it made the very act of breathing seem like some sort of irreverent disturbance to the peace. Rainbow felt the stale hospital air coat the inside of her lungs like wet tissue paper with each breath, and her heart, to try and compensate for the lack of oxygen, began to thump so erratically that she could feel it in her throat. 

Scootaloo sighed. The hairs on Rainbow’s head and back stood up like needles. 

What was said next echoed around the room. 

“I… don’t.”

Two words. Two words was all it took to rip Rainbow Dash’s heart right out of her chest. 

It felt as if a ball of cotton had been lodged in her throat, and all she could do was sit and stare with her mouth agape. Scootaloo’s head fell, and she looked away again. Her jaw quivered.

Rainbow knew the answer to her own question, but she asked it anyway out of some misplaced hope that she had misunderstood. 

“You… don’t what, sis?”

It wasn’t long before she regretted even asking. Scootaloo breathed shallowly in and out, and with a trembling bottom lip, she repeated herself. 

“I don’t. I already told you, I-I don’t want you to… You’re not my sister, y-you never were… I don’t want you, I don’t need you, I… I don’t need anypony. And nopony needs me. Nopony… nopony needs some broken, blank-flank pegasus who can’t even fly, okay? So just… just go already.”

A stifled, choking sob escaped from her throat. But to Rainbow, it did nothing to take away from the resoluteness in which she had said it.

The floor beneath her hooves felt like it was buckling underneath her. She shook her head slowly, trying to deny what she had just heard, but it was a futile effort. 

“Scoot... I-I…”

She stammered incoherently, digging deep within to find something to say, but she failed with each try. Blinking rapidly, she tried to dry her eyes, tried to put on a mask of strength, but it was impossible. 

Scootaloo again. Her voice started firm, but finished with a whisper. 

“Go away. Damn it, go away...”

Scootaloo bared her teeth like a wounded dog, raising her voice into the blanket that covered her body. She clutched the white fabric close to her chest and sank further into the mattress. 

The demand to leave echoed around the inside of Dash’s skull. Blinking didn’t stop the colors from blending together in her eyes. Nor did it stop the tears that fell onto the tile. Rainbow sputtered once, eyes darting back and forth between the door and her front hooves. 

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked up at Scootaloo; her gaze was not met. 

Then, with knees quaking, she stood up. One last glance over to her former adoptive sister; Scootaloo turned her head even further away. Rainbow faced the door, stepping away from the bed. Her feathers dragged over the tile from her drooping wings. 

With her head lowered in despair, her hoof reached out to the doorknob. The touch of the cold metal chilled her blood.

But then… she stopped herself.

Before she could turn the knob, before she could leave the room… something held her back. Her shaking hoof fell away with a soft clop onto the floor. 

Both eyes stared straight ahead at the numbers on the door while she stood completely still, frozen in thought. Inside the recesses of her mind, the gears began to turn. 

“And now, you’re just going to leave her, too? Is that what you’re saying?” 

With each time her friend Rarity’s accusatory voice repeated the question, Rainbow’s jaw clamped down a little bit tighter. The sting of conviction had not lessened; instead, it had become an ultimatum. 

“No.”

Rainbow lifted her head, and she dared to look back over to the hospital bed. Suddenly, Scootaloo found that she was once again facing the older pegasus. Only this time, she didn’t immediately look away. Dash shook her head. 

“No, Squirt. I’m not leaving.” She boldly stepped forward, passing the foot of the bed. “I’m not leaving you all alone. Not again.”

She could barely believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. Scootaloo furrowed her brow, and she shrank back slightly, sinking into the pillow behind her head. Confusion set into her expression, but as Rainbow stepped forward, it morphed into a mixture of fear and anger. It was impossible not to notice. 

But there was something else that she saw; the reflection of the overhead lights danced in Scootaloo’s unswollen eye, unshed tears that were threatening to cascade downward. 

“Go away…” The desperation was plainly evident when she spoke. No longer loud, but something that could almost be called a whisper. “Why won’t you just go?”

Rainbow flinched. But rather than move back, she stood her ground. 

“Because I know you’re hurting, Scoot. And I know I’m not better off without you. I know that…”

“You’re just saying that!” Scootaloo was not letting up. Her hoof slapped the blanket with a dull thump. “You don’t know, Rainbow…”

It was the first time the filly had said her name since she’d arrived. Dash’s eyelids raised, and her pulse quickened.

“I know enough, Scoot.” Rainbow was hesitant to continue forward, but she did so one small step at a time. “I know you’re a great kid. I know that you’re a great kid who didn’t deserve to get hurt… not by me, not by your dad… not by anypony.”

Even the mention of the word ‘dad’ made Scootaloo cringe. She tried to hide herself with the blanket, covering her wounded foreleg. Rainbow Dash walked until she was only a few hooflengths away from the head of the bed. 

“I don’t know why he hurt you, Scoot. But whatever it is, you didn’t deserve it. You hear me? You didn’t deserve any of it…”

“Whatever.” Scootaloo wiped her nose on the sheets. 

“You didn’t, Scoot. I don’t care what he, or anypony told you. You didn’t,” she insisted, shaking her head. “You’re such a great kid…”

Scootaloo’s brow wrinkled, and the corners of her mouth curled downward in a distressed frown. Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows.

“What is it, Sc—”

“No I’m not.” The declaration hung in the air like a noose in between their heads. Rainbow Dash’s pupils dilated, and her perturbed frown deepened. 

Scootaloo lifted her injured arm in the sling so that she was hugging it close to her neck. The bandages on her nose and forehead moved as she scrunched up her face, disgust written plainly on her features. Chills traveled up and down Rainbow’s spine, and she could feel clammy sweat beginning to pool beneath her hooves. 

Scootaloo continued. 

“If… If I, we hadn’t forced Sweetie Belle to play kickball, me and Apple Bloom, w-we… she wouldn’t have broken the window, a-a-and she wouldn’t have got in trouble and ran away, a-and… she wouldn’t have gotten bit, and… she almost died almost died cuz of me.” 

She wiped her nose, wincing with discomfort as she pressed in on the broken cartilage. Rainbow grimaced, holding up a hoof. 

“Scoot, no. That wasn’t your f…”

“Spike’s in the hospital right now because of me, too.” Eerily, the more she spoke, the more stable Scootaloo sounded. The more confident in her assertions she became. “If I’d just…”

“No, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash asserted herself, cutting Scootaloo off immediately. She as unable to stop her voice from cracking. “No. Spike got hurt because he cared about you. He got hurt because he thought you were worth saving…”

“And he was wrong,” Scootaloo said. She buried her chin into her chest. “He should have just left me there…”

A small crack in her voice was unmistakable. Watching as Scootaloo’s countenance continued to fade, Rainbow was at a loss for what to say. She stared with her mouth agape, blinking slowly.

Gone was the perk and the spirit, the energetic optimism. Looking at Scootaloo’s face, there was none of it left. Bruises, cuts, and bandages may have marred her, but despair had dimmed her features to a murky black. 

And now, she was wishing she was dead.

Scootaloo wasn’t done. 

“And… my mom would still be here, too. If she... if she hadn't had me, she wouldn’t have gotten so s-sick, a-and weak, and…”

She halted, and said no more. Frozen in place like a statue, she stared down, looking through the bed with a stare so intense that it could have burned a hole through the sheets. 

The hum of the ventilation overhead was not enough to drown out the pounding of Rainbow’s pulse in her own ears. She dipped her head down and closed her eyes.

There it was. The final, terrible thread. The mystery now revealed. 

A shudder came from the blankets. Rainbow looked up; despite Scootaloo’s best efforts to hide herself, Rainbow could see the tears falling down. Quakes and sobs wracked her huddled frame.

In that moment, something took a hold of Rainbow Dash. Something which made her step forward, toward the bed. 

“So… she got sick?” The question left her mouth with a good deal of hesitation. The situation was fragile enough as it was, and no matter how she could have asked what was on her mind, she couldn’t help but feel insensitive anyway. "After you..."

As she expected, the inquiry was met with a distant stare at the blankets. No reply, not even a nod of her head. To Dash, it was a yes. 

The air around their heads seemed to be charged with electricity. Rainbow inhaled deeply. Then, she spoke only loud enough to be heard over Scootaloo's barely contained cries.

It was the first and only thing that came to her mind to say.

"Scoot... You're a great kid."

She took another, small step toward the bed. The sobs only got louder, and Scootaloo retreated further into her shell. She shook her head fiercely.

Rainbow Dash took it as a reply. She shook her head right back. 

"Yes, you are. All this stuff, all of it... none of it happened because of you. You don't have to blame yourself. I don't know what he told you or what he said..."

"Sh-sh-shut up..." Rainbow could barely hear her say. The covers of the bed shivered with her. 

Another step. She was right next to the bed, now. 

"...But you're a great kid, Scoot."

"I said, shut up..." Scootaloo managed to say. "Shut up..."

"You're a great friend, too. Sweetie Belle knows it... she's hurting a lot, but you and Apple Bloom help her so much..."

"Stop..."

"And Miss Cheerilee, too. She knows how bright you are..."

"S-Stop..." Scootaloo's voice lowered dangerously, speaking from between clenched teeth. "Stop..."

Rainbow was almost right beside her, now. Scootaloo shrank away, rearing her head back, but Dash closed the distance all the same. 

"...And I do, too. I know you're a great kid, Squirt," she said. "You're the best kid I've ever met…"

Scootaloo was quiet. Not even a breath escaped her. But even though her head faced away, her good eye was nonetheless aimed in the direction of the elder pegasus.

The message was clear to Rainbow, and not a word had to be said: Stay away.

Rainbow Dash could have heeded the warning. She could have left it at that and hoped that what she had said would make sense to Scootaloo. She could have considered it all she could do and left the room with a simple goodbye. 

But as it always did, stubbornness had a tight grip on her, and she would be damned to back down now. And while Scoot’s glare only hardened, Rainbow Dash could only see the desperate need hidden behind it; the intense desire for something she didn’t feel she deserved. 

With great hesitation, Rainbow Dash lifted her hoof. Like a cautious filly about to touch a strange dog, she reached out…

The reaction was immediate. Scootaloo whipped her head around with a start, eyes locked onto Rainbow’s offered hoof like it were a venomous snake. 

“I’m not gonna hurt you, sis. I’m not gonna hurt you…”

“No!” As Rainbow’s hoof grew closer, Scootaloo raised up her uninjured foreleg and shuffled back away. She held it up as a shield. “Go away!”

Her eyes bulged wide as Rainbow ignored her. She swatted at the incoming hoof roughly and batted it off to the side. Rainbow recoiled her foreleg like she had burned it on a stovetop, and Scootaloo took it as an opportunity to sit herself up, propping her body up against the headboard. 

Dash took a deep breath. Then, she tried again, only she was less cautious this time. “Please, Scoot…”

“Get away!” Scootaloo lashed out viciously, smacking Rainbow’s fetlock again. The shout made Rainbow wince. “Leave me alone!”

Vision blurring once again, the thought of giving up entered Dash’s brain. But no sooner had it entered that she drove the idea out of her mind. Breathing in through quivering lips, Rainbow pushed forward one more time. 

“I love you, little sis.” Her hoof managed to break through the girl’s resistance and rested onto Scootaloo’s shoulder. “Please…”

“Leave. Me. ALONE!”

The flash of movement was too fast for her to react. With a quick wind up, Scootaloo swung her hoof directly at Rainbow’s snout. 

Stars exploded in Dash’s vision as the hoof knocked her nose crooked. With an involuntary cry, Rainbow reared her head back, hooves shooting up to her snout. 

When she pulled them away, they were covered in red. Mouth agape from pain and shock, she looked up to the bed. 

Scootaloo sat motionless. Beside her head, her hoof was raised in the air. It shook like a leaf. Her jaw lay slack.

Blood dribbled from Rainbow’s nose in rivulets. Scootaloo could not look away; her eyes darted between her hoof and her handiwork, and with each cycle, her breathing became faster. 

“I… Rainbow, I-I…” Her pupils were so wide that the irises were invisible. Rainbow Dash stared back wordlessly. “I-I’m… I didn’t, I’m s-s-sor…”

Rainbow Dash lurched toward her. With a terrified squeak, Scootaloo cringed and covered her head, shutting her eyes tight. 

But then, something wrapped itself around her shoulder. Something soft, and warm. And even through her closed eyes, it felt somehow familiar… 

Rainbow’s subdued voice sounded from right beside her ear.

“You’re a great kid, Scoot.” The thing around her shoulder pulled her gently forward, sliding her over the mattress, while something else cradled around the back of her head and slipped through her messy mane. 

With a flutter, Scootaloo’s eyelids slid open, to find her world enveloped in cyan blue. 

Rainbow Dash did not have to squeeze hard. Her wing held Scootaloo like a protective net while her left hoof ran through her hair. Tears mingled with the sticky blood on her face. 

“I love you, little sis.”

First, there was silence. Absolute quiet. Scootaloo was frozen in her grasp, and every muscle in her body felt like a rock. 

Then, she felt the tension melt away. It was followed by a strangled, raspy sob, and then another. And another. Her breaths felt hot against Rainbow’s chest. 

“You hear me, Scoot? I love you. I love you…” Her hoof rubbed up and down the back of Scootaloo’s head. “You’re a great kid…”

The sobs turned into weeps. Scootaloo collapsed completely in her grasp, and she slumped forward. Rainbow hugged her in closer, feeling herself choking on the air. The weeps became a fit of cries, high-pitched wails that curled the hairs on the back of Dash’s neck. 

That was when Rainbow Dash felt Scootaloo’s foreleg hug her back. It clasped around her back like a metal vice, squeezing so tightly that it hurt. 

“Don’t go!” Scootaloo wept. She sank further into Rainbow’s hold. “Don’t leave, don’t leave, don’t leave…”

“I won’t, Squirt. I won’t,” Rainbow quickly answered her. “I’m not going anywhere, okay? I promise…”

The peal of Scootaloo’s wails reached a crescendo. Rainbow Dash rocked her back and forth, feeling the runoff from Scootaloo’s eyes and nose matting her fur. 

“I’m sorry, I-I’m sor—”

“No, no, It’s okay, Squirt,” said Rainbow. Her voice began to break. “I know you’re hurting. It’s okay, I’m not mad… oh, Scoot!”

Her own cries joined Scootaloo’s on the bed. 
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The girl's chest rose and fell in the softest rhythm. 

Rainbow Dash sat to the side, propped against the wall nearest to Scootaloo's bed. While her little sister slept, Rainbow's eyes were wide open. 

An hour had passed. Spent beyond her limits, Scootaloo had finally fallen unconscious, dead to the world if only for a short while. And now, Rainbow Dash had nothing left to do but sit, watch, and think. Given everything she had done, she should have been exhausted, too. But she wasn't. 

She was angry.

Not angry at Scootaloo, no. Not even angry at herself. But taking in the sight of her sister lying there, battered and feverish, she could feel a fire stirring in her chest that made the veins in her head and neck throb. It was the kind of anger that made her want to crush a boulder in her own bare hooves. The unfairness of it all... 

But for the first time since she'd seen Scootaloo that night, there was something else she noticed. Something that kept all of the rage at bay. 

Peace. It was tentative, and it was fearful. But if only for a moment, Scootaloo was at peace. 

With a careful step, Rainbow inched forward. Scootaloo remained oblivious. The breath wheezed out of her, but she slept nonetheless.

Minutes later, Rainbow Dash lay on the floor beside the bed. 

Asleep.