Sacrifice

by Balastis

First published 30th of August, 2014

When a disaster strikes, it is hard to convince yourself that you had done nothing wrong, but Scootaloo firmly believes to be the source of all the suffering, and she would even take a journey to the hell itself to undo what had not been done.

Scootaloo has always been a good actor, much better than other ponies would guess. Developing her secret talent ever since she was three years old to hide the pain and sorrow caused by her mother’s death, Scootaloo finds it easy to assume the image of Rainbow Dash, a life-long friend of her family, for protection. However, not even the best of actors can perform forever...
And so Scootaloo is thrown into the world foreign to her own, as fear of another loss and her own death breaks her mask and reveals the sorrowful, heartbroken filly that she has been for all those years. Nopony, not even her own family, understands her secrecy, nor do they understand what could have driven her to it, forcing her to seek solace by befriending a powerful, ancient creature which only she can see.
They share many tales of their unfortunate past and eventually grow so close, that, when Scootaloo hits the very bottom, the creature offers her to take her on a perilous journey aimed to bring her mother back to life. Naturally, she immediately accepts his help, oblivious of the hardships they will have to endure and the sacrifice she will have to make, should her quest be successful.

Strange accident

The Sun was slowly shifting towards the horizon, but ponies in Ponyville couldn’t see it, because of the thick layer of clouds that was being prepared for the storm. Late afternoon wasn’t exactly the best time for a horrible downpour, but weather schedules were to be obeyed, lest there would be no meaning in their creation.

Nopony in town was annoyed by the incoming rain though, because they all knew that the rain season will give them a rainless summer by supplying enough water for both the farmers and the citizens of the town. None of them was also in hurry to get home to prevent being caught outside when the rain starts, because the weather patrol still had a lot to do.

However, in the Sugarcube Corner, which was a sweets shop and bakery at the corner of the main Ponyville square, a little filly was impatiently sitting and gazing out of the window with a worried look on her face.

Her name was Scootaloo, and she was an orange pegasus filly with deep violet eyes and purple hair, which she kept as messy as possible on both her tail and head. She was a local daredevil, who imitated the stunts and overall lifestyle of her idol, Rainbow Dash, which she knew her entire life. Truth to be told she knew some really amazing tricks to perform on her scooter, but despite her advanced age, she wasn’t yet able to fly.

Speaking of age, her twelfth birthday was in just about a week, but only chosen few knew about it. While Rainbow Dash was egocentric overboard, Scootaloo never talked about herself, not even by accident, which was the reason nopony in the town truly knew her, not even her best friends.

One of them was Apple Bloom, a county earth pony with a pale cream coat, orange eyes and neat, red mane tied on top of her head by a pink bow, which nopony has ever seen her without.

Apple Bloom was raised on a farm amidst the apple orchids by her grandmother, big brother and her older sister. She never actually saw her parents, but she was told they are both in Zebrica, helping zebras by building schools and curing illnesses, which were eradicated in Equestria dozen years ago.

Her sister and earth pony traditions taught her to be honest and humble, and she clung firmly to everything she learned, even though she had a few minor hiccups in the past. Being a farm child, Apple Bloom was also very wild, but unlike Scootaloo, she actually thought before doing something dangerous.

The second Scootaloo’s best friend was Sweetie Belle, a unicorn filly of white coat, curly purple hair with pink streaks, and eyes, which often made her sister jealous. She was always neatly brushed and styled in a way that let her natural beauty shine even brighter, but everypony knew it was a will of her sister rather than hers, because Sweetie Belle often lamented about it.

Sweetie Belle was also rather assiduous, always keen on helping her sister in her boutique, but the problem was that she was incredibly inept. Usually Sweetie Belle did much more damage than she could undo by helping her sister for a century, which made Rarity really insecure when she was around her precious designs. As a result Sweetie Belle grew up to be a timid, sensitive little being with a great intelligence, but low self-confidence.

All three of them stopped by the sugarcube corner, because a sudden carving of ice-cream assaulted them on their way to their clubhouse at Sweet Apple Acres. However, while Scootaloo ate her ice-cream in a blink, the other two fillies enjoyed the flavor and coldness of their treats, leaving her to wait for them with growing concern of the dark clouds.

The tree of them together founded a group known in the town as Cutiemark Crusaders, whose only purpose was to help them discover their greatest talent and thus get their cutiemarks, since neither of them had it yet.

Each day they tried a wide variety of activities to find out whether they were talented in doing them or not, and in case they weren’t talented, they just moved on to another activity; they called this process ‘crusading’, but ponies from town often called it a disaster.

And as Cutiemark Crusaders they formed their own secret society, designed their own symbol, wrote their own catch song and sewed their own capes; needless to say, even their classmates sometimes didn’t understand them.

The bakery was quite a nice place, even though today there weren’t many customers to admire it. Upon entering, one stood in the café area with many large round tables on his right and a small bar on his left. Right opposite the entrance door was a counter, behind which was an entrance to the kitchen and pantry.

The entire building was shaped and painted to look like gingerbread and the interior pretty much followed the suite. There were a lot of brown and pink colors in decorative motives all across the walls and supportive pillars, but not enough to call it overdone.

Usually the bakery was run by Mr. and Mrs. Cake, but they had to take their twin foals to the hospital, because Pound Cake caught some weird illness only pegasi could get, but it wasn’t anything serious since nopony was freaking out about it.

There was also an employee in the bakery, and that employee just happened to be the most hyperactive mare to be found in the ten thousand mile radius.

Pinkie Pie was a pink earth pony mare with sea-blue eyes and curly, darker pink mane and tail, whose she never brushed or tamed. Her colors made her quite an attractive mare in the town, but she was too foalish for any stallion, despite the fact she was nineteen years old.

Pinkie Pie’s cutiemark were three balloons of yellow and blue color, and they represented her special talent, which was throwing parties. Pinkie Pie loved to throw parties, but only because she could make her friends smile and enjoy themselves that way, which was all she needed to be happy herself.

She was also overly social and talkative, personal space meant nothing to her, she was friend with everypony in the town and to top all that she was a notorious prankster. Truth to be told, Pinkie Pie was both a salvation and a curse of this little town, but ponies loved her, because they knew she only wanted to share laughs.

But Pinkie wasn’t all that simple at all. She had a secret ability to predict the future, she could always get some high-tech equipment if she wanted, and she knew the truth about things other ponies considered only fairytales. Add this to her incredible randomness and you’ll get something of a great power, which nopony understood.

Scootaloo sat at the window behind the tables on the right side of the café area and watched the ponies outside with boredom seeping from her every feather. It was just about five minutes since she finished her cup of ice-cream, but it felt like several centuries for her.

To entertain herself, she watched Pinkie Pie work through the opened door behind the counter. She was smiling and humming just as she always was, even though she may have had a little more work, than she could actually do.

She worked with precision and accuracy natural to her, taking no breaks and never making a mistake while maintaining a constant pace. Watching her wasn’t exactly the funniest thing to do, so soon Scootaloo shifted her gaze upon the skies above the town.

Many pegasus ponies were working on preparing the storm to begin the spring rain season, but although Scootaloo found their work awesome, she couldn’t watch them, because it reminded her of her inability to fly herself.

Shifting to the crowds below, she noticed they were getting thinner, and so the rain was probably drawing near. She would really hate to get caught outside by it, but there was nothing she could do to speed her friends up.

She knew almost everypony in the crowd and to pass the time, she tried to recall everything she knew about ponies she saw. She always had a spectacular memory, even though there were things she would rather forget.

After a while of looking out of the window, she spotted Twilight walking in the direction of this building with a smile on her lips and a spring in her steps. She was carrying a pair of fully loaded saddlebags, but that wasn’t anything surprising, because she always took books with her no matter where she headed.

Twilight Sparkle, the Ponyville librarian, was a unicorn mare about twenty years old. She had a purple coat, deep violet eyes and purple hair with a pink and violet streak. Her cutiemark was a pink star encircled by five smaller white stars and is symbolized her talent, which was magic.

She was studious overboard, which was the reason she was so good librarian, and she clung to organization over anything. If things weren’t going the way she planned them, she easily panicked and subsequently went loony, which was a source of havoc in Ponyville more than once.

Twilight moved into Ponyville from Canterlot, where she used to be a personal student of the princess Celestia herself, which without a doubt made her one of the most powerful magicians alive. She was still a very good friend with the royal sisters, but saw them only rarely because of the distance between them.

There were many more ponies Scootaloo knew, and so she rather tried to scan the crowd for unknown faces. It was difficult, because she knew, or at least saw, most of the citizens of Ponyville, but she still managed to get a glimpse of two strangers.

First was incredibly tall pegasus stallion of dark coat and long white mane and tail. His sea-blue eyes shone with a foreign light, which hinted that this pony was probably a stranger from a very distant city, maybe even from another country. That was rather strange, because one could only very rarely see another species in a town this small.

The second pony was an older unicorn mare, with green fur and pale blue mane fitting her golden eyes and blue outfit. She was probably on visit from some big city, like Manehattan or Fillydelphia, because except for Rarity, Sweetie Belle’s sister, nopony normally worn a dress when going out.

“Scootaloo, why don’t you join us here instead of sitting there alone and looking out of the window? You can order another ice-cream if you want,” Sweetie Belle noticed the rather bored expression her friend wore.

“No, thanks!” she replied, switching to a disgusted face instead, “One ice-cream is enough for me to feel sick on our way back to the clubhouse, but I suppose I could pay you a little more attention.”

“Why’d ya feel sick?” Apple Bloom asked with a mouthful of ice cream.

“Because I am gonna be the one driving you both there, and ice-cream doesn’t mix well with any physically strenuous activity,” she replied, got up from the ground, and slowly headed towards the table, around which her friends were seated.

“Alright, then sit down for a few minutes, and after that the ice-cream will be no danger,” Sweetie Belle suggested, but Scootaloo dismissed her idea quickly.

“Pft, I can’t!” she said and pointed out through the window, “It is gonna be raining soon and I don’t wanna be out when it starts.”

“Nah!” Apple Bloom chuckled at how terrified her friend looked, “It is not gonna rain fer anotha’ hour at least.”

Scootaloo measured her with a frowned glare and then said in an annoyed tone: “Apple Bloom, you should know better than underestimating Rainbow Dash! She is the fastest pony in Equestria, so I don’t think we have another ten minutes for idleness!”

“Rainbow Dash, where?!” Pinkie Pie’s head popped from the kitchen, scanning the café area of the shop.

“Nowhere Pinkie, we were just talking,” Sweetie Belle informed her calmly.

“Oki, nevermind; but if you see her, tell her I need to talk to her about something important, alright? My pinkie sense tells me something bad is about to happen.”

With that her head disappeared back in the kitchen, and Pinkie returned to her previous work with the same vigor as before. The three fillies, on the other hoof, just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Anyways,” Apple Bloom resumed their conversation after Pinkie Pie interrupted them, “We can simply stay here, if the rain starts. Ah don’t see a problem in that.”

That was true and Scootaloo had to admit it, even though she tried her hardest to come up with a suitably grumpy answer to tease the farm girl a little longer with.

“There, no need to be grumpy,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile while the entrance door swung open.

Twilight entered and then closed the door behind her with her telekinesis, already scanning the room to see who she had to greet. She only saw the three fillies watching her curiously, though.

“Hi girls,” she said happily and walked straight ahead to the counter.

Each of the three fillies repaid the welcoming with their own words, and then they returned to their ice-cream cups, so Scootaloo wouldn’t start arguing again.

“Do you know if Pinkie Pie is around?” Twilight asked upon seeing the vast emptiness behind the counter and nopony else nearby.

“She’s in the kitchen, and she is making more ominous predictions,” Scootaloo replied quickly.

“Oh no,” Twilight uttered under her breath and leaned over the counter to take a peek into the kitchen, “Pinkie Pie, it’s me, Twilight!”

Pinkie Pie didn’t take long and trotted out of the kitchen with several hotplates balanced on her back and an ever present wide smile, revealing her sparkly white teeth.

“Howdy, Twilight!” she smiled and scanned the hotplates on her back, “What can I do for you?”

“I brought you the book you wanted,” Twilight said and used her magic to open her left saddlebag in order to pull out its content, “I didn’t think you of all ponies would need a recipe book.”

“Being a better baker means being able to bake more stuff!” Pinkie explained, eating the entire load of one of the hotplates she carried.

“This recipe book is for restaurants,” the unicorn pointed out mildly, looking at the book in the grasp of her telekinesis.

“Sugarcube Corner might become a restaurant one day, and I want to be prepared if that happens!” Pinkie explained firmly while sniffing to the cookies on the second hotplate.

“Well, whatever. Just don’t forget to return the book by the end of the month, ok?” Twilight said, obviously not wanting to go through the Pinkie’s random ideas of future.

“I’ll send it by mail in case I had to travel abroad suddenly,” Pinkie replied, already reading the first chapter of the book.

Twilight’s look somehow froze upon the mention of the mail. It wasn’t because Pinkie Pie rarely left the town, and when she did, it was always just to save the world or something, it was because she just recently discovered some rather interesting news about Ponyville’s mailmare: Derpy Hooves, and Pinkie Pie just reminded her of them.

A moment of silence occurred, filled only with gleeful munching at the ice-creams, after which Twilight carefully spoke up: “Speaking of mail, did you hear what happened to Derpy?”

“Do you mean the accident?” Pinkie asked back carelessly, lost between the lines.

“No, I mean after that. Before she was released home,” the unicorn specified, her tone slowly gaining on seriousness.

“She is home already?!” the pink mare replied in surprise.

“And what about you girls, have you heard what happed to Derpy after that accident?” Twilight asked the three friends as well, because she was obviously very interested in the subject.

All three friends shook their heads as a sign they heard nothing about it, or at least didn’t know what Twilight was asking about. However, that only nudged her to share her thoughts aloud.

“Well, let me tell you, then,” she began firmly, and her voice already picked upon a slightly irritated tone, “We all know about the crash, but just to remind you… Derpy was flying to the western distinct with the mail she was to deliver, when she suddenly lost control of her trajectory and crashed into the tree. Now, that is something interesting, because even though Derpy is capable of tripping over her own legs, or creating her own entrances in roofs, she had such problems only during take offs or landings.”

“Twilight, why are you telling us about the crash?!” Sweetie Belle said with her own share of irritation, because she deeply hated hearing about somepony else’s misery, especially when she had to suffer through hearing it already.

“I will get to that soon,” the unicorn assured her and continued on, “She dodged the tree mostly, but her left wing was damaged to the point she could never use it again. It was a sad story, because her disorder reduces her ability to walk while leaving her flight capabilities untouched. She loved flying just as every pegasus, and her daughter also loved flying with her, so it was no wonder they were all shocked upon hearing the verdict.”

“We know that, Twilight,” Apple Bloom interrupted her again, “We were there when ya told us the first tahm.”

“But you don’t know what happen yesterday night,” Twilight said with a scolding look, “Derpy had her daughter in the hospital, and needless to say, they both spent hours crying. But then around ten o’clock in the evening, something scared little Dinky off her skin, something her mother couldn’t see. All they remember was a cold and dark, and then they both fell asleep. However, when they woke up, they found Derpy’s wing to be fully healed aside for a few new scars in addition to those she earned in all those crash landings over the years.”

“Twilight, no offence, but that is a nonsense. I know enough about pegasi wings to tell you that Derpy’s wing was irreversibly damaged,” Scootaloo said plainly, hardly believing what Twilight said.

“And yet I talked to her just an hour ago on the market place,” Twilight objected calmly.

“But how is that possible?!” Sweetie Belle asked, literally gleaming with a surprised smile.

“Don’t tell me you believe this?” Scootaloo turned her attention to her white unicorn companion instead.

“Wouldn’t it be great if it was true?” Sweetie replied briefly and turned her attention back to Twilight.

“I don’t know how it happened, but there have been some other similar cases around here over the years as I found out. Do any of you happen to have any experience with anything familiar?” the lavender mare asked, now fully serious and curious.

“Ya mean miracles?” Apple Bloom asked for a clarification.

“No,” echoed a firm answer, “I don’t believe in miracles and other stuff like that. There must be a scientific explanation for all this, and I will figure it out!”

“Well, let us know what you found,” Scootaloo said without interest and she didn’t care to hide it.

“I will!” Twilight said, unaware of her mood, “In fact I better go back to the library to begin!”

The purple mare turned to the exit, while her reminder of leaving made Scootaloo check the glasses of her friends, which were now empty. Pinkie Pie also looked up from the book and stopped eating the cookies she baked, for a moment.

“See you later, Pinkie Pie!” Twilight said and started walking towards the exit.

“Have a nice day, Twilight,” Pinkie called in response, “And enjoy your figuring out.”

“Will do!” echoed the last words before the door clicked shut.

“And we better go too,” Scootaloo insisted in a worried tone, seeing the dark clouds up in the sky.

“Alright, see you all later, girls. And don’t do much mess while crusading like the last time,” Pinkie said with a smile and departed into the kitchen with her book and the empty hotplates while Scootaloo and her friends were getting up.

Scootaloo was now really worried about the weather, but her friends didn’t seem to share her concerns, and they didn’t show any effort to speed their movements up, which naturally made Scootaloo even peskier.

The worst is fall

Scootaloo quickly ran into her house immediately followed by a sound of thunder and her two friends, which too sought shelter under the roof of her house. As soon as all three of them were inside, Scootaloo closed the door with the loud boom to prevent the raindrops from getting inside her kitchen.

The landscape was being whipped by the rain, and the light was dimmed by the thick layer of clouds that hung above the town. Needless to say the trees and grass gladly accepted the water the rain provided, but Scootaloo somehow didn’t familiarize herself with their enthusiasm.

Her house was on the outskirts of Ponyville on the way to Sweet Apple Acres. It was a simple, old, but big house with an old barn built next to it. There was also a little room in the attic that was given to Scootaloo as her own room when she was born.

The house didn’t look very different from inside, than it looked from the outside. The rooms were large, not separated by any walls except for the bedrooms and bathroom, but this plainness and space somehow added to a feeling of a happy family life.

Scootaloo and her friends were all standing in the kitchen. On their right were an oven and the kitchen line with counter, hidden beneath the layers of kitchen equipment and tools; it was rather apparent that Scootaloo’s dislike in order was inherited. And on their left was a big dining table, spacious enough to host at least ten ponies at the same time.

Behind the kitchen there was a living room with a large couch on the left, stairs on the right and a little table covered in papers in the middle. On the far side of the room was a wall separating bedrooms and a bathroom from the rest of the house.

Scootaloo looked at her friends and saw that they were both soaking wet yet smiling awkwardly at her while she was giving them an angry look, hyperventilating and growling: “It’s not going to rain for at least another hour!!”

Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked at the ground while Scootaloo rested her sore wings and gave them the oxygen they needed after the long and sorrowful trip they just endured.

“I don’t know why I always listen to you two!” she complained, “I better go find us some towels, although you two deserve to be left outside instead!”

Scootaloo wiped the water from her eyes and departed towards the rightmost door in the living room wall, beyond which a bathroom was, and quickly returned with three towels on her back.

She gave one to Sweetie Belle and one to Apple Bloom while keeping the third one to herself. It didn’t take her long to shake the bad mood off and grin, afterwards. Pegasi couldn’t get actually wet, so had only little to complain about.

An awkward silence occurred in the room until Sweetie Belle broke it with caution: “So, Scootaloo… You have a really nice home.”

Scootaloo looked at her and said: “Really?! Ehm… Thanks, but I don’t spent that much time here, because I am usually outside with you, or I am stalking Rainbow Dash on the skies.”

Apple Bloom looked around the house and listened to the quiet atmosphere here, wondering where are all the ponies that were bound to live in such a spacious house.

“How come nopony is home?!” she asked curiously then.

“Yeah, there must be at least a dozen ponies living here,” Sweetie Belle agreed while drying her mane.

“No,” Scootaloo simply replied, “I know it is a big house, and we have that large dining table, but we have only three bedrooms here. See?”

“Oh, right,” Sweetie Belle nodded when she realized there were only two bedrooms on the far side of living room and the stairs leading up.

“Still, why ain’t anypony in here? It’s rainin’ outside,” Apple Bloom asked still confusedly, trying to dry her back.

“The house is almost always empty,” Scootaloo replied, drying her tail, “I have an older brother, but he doesn’t spent that much time around.”

“You have a brother?” Sweetie Belle asked from under the towel.

“Yeah, he is eight years older than me.” Scootaloo shrugged with a chuckle, examining her tail.

“What about other members of your family?” Sweetie Belle asked, this time drying Apple Bloom’s back, because she wanted to use this opportunity to get to know Scootaloo a little better.

“Hm, my dad has some really important job at the dam a few miles up the river stream. I don’t see him all week, because he comes home late at night when I am asleep and leaves late in the morning when I am in the school,” Scootaloo said, but then stopped and thought for a while, “Y’know we had a hard time a few years ago, and sometimes I just have a feeling that we still hadn’t gotten pass it, even now.”

Sweetie Belle stopped with drying Apple Bloom’s back, looked at Scootaloo and asked: “What hard time?”

“You know that kind,” Scootaloo said, reluctant to answer, “Just… Hard time.”

Scootaloo was troubled by that one could say as much just by listening to her tone and making connections, but for some strange and described reason she didn’t want to talk about it.

“But anyways,” she quickly continued to steer away from the topic, “My brother is pretty much like my dad. They both are enthusiastic technicians, which could be either inherited, or it is just some defect all unicorns share.”

Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo a little frowned look, but it was more than obvious that Scootaloo was just teasing her unicorn friend, since Sweetie Belle wasn’t really talented in delicate manipulation needed for technical skills.

“My brother, Iron, is a not very famous inventor, but that never stopped him from trying,” Scootaloo completed.

“Really?” Apple Bloom asked a bit excitedly and looked up at Scootaloo, “What has he invented, yet?”

Scootaloo though for a moment and then answered with a chuckle: “Hm, let’s see… A perfect way how to waste time and about eight ways to set our house on fire, I think. That big barn next-door has burned down twice thanks to him and we had six more visits from the firefighters in the past years.”

“Wow, is he really so fiery?” Sweetie Belle asked, having Apple Bloom dry her back.

“Not quite,” Scootaloo replied quickly, “He was really impressed by that scooter I made and tried to copy it, but he is a unicorn, so he had to find a way to make it move. First he thought about a small steam engine, but had only twice burned our barn down, trying to construct it. Nowadays he is inventing some other type of engine when he is not in town, scaring mares with his face, that is.”

“They both sure seem like pretty busy ponies,” Apple Bloom noted a bit dreamingly.

“Pretty much,” Scootaloo said with a smile, even though she would certainly be happier, if her family had more time for her, “I mean… Given the fact I am home alone all the time, they have to be really busy.”

Scootaloo said with head up and water dripping from her purple mane onto the floor. Her towel was quickly soaked because it absorbed the water that was held by Scootaloo’s hair, however her feathers couldn’t get wet.

“What about your mother?” Sweetie Belle asked in order to shift the topic into different waters.

But this time Scootaloo’s smile vanished entirely, only to be replaced by a glom frown. She expected this question to come at some point, but she could never cope with the truth herself, let alone telling it aloud.

“My mother died when I was three,” she said with her gaze cast upon the wooden floor.

“Oh-ou!” Sweetie Belle said when she realized what she must have caused in the heart of her friend, “I am sorry, Scootaloo… I didn’t know!”

“It is alright, Sweetie,” she calmly replied yet she retained her glom frown, “Almost nopony in the town knows.”

Just by looking at her, one could easily say that Sweetie Belle struck a very sensitive topic. Scootaloo was often sad, because of her inability to fly, or because she was left alone when her friends were with their sisters, and she had to walk home alone, but it never was this bad.

One could almost swear that Scootaloo was about to cry, but that wouldn’t be Scootaloo. She just shook her head and then picked the totally soaked towel from the floor and threw it over the chair to dry up.

“C’mon, girls,” she urged them then, “let’s go to my room.”

Scootaloo quickly trotted up the stairs. Some old memory wasn’t nearly enough to get to her, even though it was a strong one. She, however, already pushed it to the background, because she couldn’t afford to look like some sort of weakling in front of her friends.

Apple Bloom gave Sweetie Belle an angry look and followed Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle felt awful, because she reminded her friend of something that apparently caused pain, even though Scootaloo would never admit it. Eventually and with a sigh she followed them, though.

Scootaloo quickly reached the second floor and opened the only door on the very end of the staircase. Then she went in and let her two friends slip in behind her.

Right opposing the door was a big window with a beautiful view on Ponyville and the distant Cloudsdale. In the corner was a bed, whose legs ended exactly before the window, so Scootaloo had a free access to it. Next to the bed, on their left, was a nightstand table with a firefly lamp, clock, and some photographs. On the other side of the room, on their right, was a table positioned against the wall, and next to it was a small wardrobe.

It appeared to be a tiny room, but Scootaloo didn’t spent much time at home anyway, just like she said. It was also a bit messy, but honestly no one expected anything else. Textbooks were scattered across the room on the ground and on the bed, her work desk was covered in papers and she also had all kinds of stuff laid all over the floor.

Two fillies entered the room, and Sweetie Belle closed the door behind them. Despite having so much to ask about, both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom remained silent for some time, letting the drumming of the raindrops fill their ears with tranquility.

Scootaloo opened the wardrobe and pulled out yet another towel and placed it over her head, drying her mane while she slowly walked to the window and looked out.

Ponyville was being cleaned by the long awaited rain, which wouldn’t stop for another six hours at least. Strands of water, falling from the sky were making calm sounds, and the fresh air soothed and eased Scootaloo just like it always did.

The heat of the day was removed and all that was left was a cool, wet air. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths in order to fully enjoy the mood of the storm she appreciated.

There was this thing about storms that every pegasus enjoyed, even the one still unable to reach above the clouds. They calmed and soothed, brought back lost serenity and made the world stop for a while just to enjoy the moment in time. Who needed to fly? Flying in a lightning storm was a stupidity anyway.

Her two friends were impatiently standing in front of door and waiting for Scootaloo to say something, because none of them could fully comprehend the bound pegasi had with the storms such as this one.

“Don’t you wanna sit or something?” she asked finally, her face cracking into an amused smile over her friends’ insecurity.

Apple Bloom sat on bed while Sweetie Belle took a seat on the chair at the table, but they both remained silent as if they needed Scootaloo’s permission to touch anything, or to just speak up.

She turned her face to them. Fresh air made the difference, and she was now looking and feeling much better than the wet and gloomy Scootaloo she used to be a minute ago. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were feeling much more comfortable once their friend smiled again.

“So,” Scootaloo began, “What are we going to do until the rain stops?”

All three fillies merged into thoughts. Truth to be told, there was not much to do inside such a small room, especially when Scootaloo had no board games, books or anything.

“Oh, oh,” Apple Bloom was attracting their attention. “Maybe we could tell stories…”

“…Or sing a song!” Sweetie Belle interrupted her, but Scootaloo’s pupils quickly shrunk upon hearing that sentence.

“Oh, no!” she denied quickly and resolutely, “I think stories would be the best option from the ones suggested!”

Sweetie Belle looked a bit sad, but she was also the first, who talked afterwards: “Ok, who wants to go first?”

“ME!” Apple Bloom shouted, “Ah’d like to tell y’all a story that mah sister told me yesterday. It’s ‘bout an ol’ mare, who investigates a murder…”

Scootaloo cut her in the middle of the sentence by saying: “It was a bartender, because he had a romance with his wife.”

Apple Bloom was shocked from being interrupted and even more astonished that the interruption was actually a correct answer.

“How did ya know?!!” she asked in astonishment.

“I tried to tell this story to Rainbow Dash two days ago in the Sugarcube Corner… She didn’t really listen, but she at least let me tell it to her. Apple Jack was there too,” Scootaloo explained.

The silence fell upon the three fillies… Until Sweetie Belle finally cracked the silence: “My sister told me about some book she read recently. It was about a stallion with a memory loss, who got to work on the farm and fell in love with one of the mares owning it.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Scootaloo objected in disappointment, “Do you really think I could withstand something like this?”

“Well… I thought, that maybe if you gave it a shoot…” Sweetie Belle was trying to convince Scootaloo with her puppy eyes, “You may find it really touching; it is called Cores of Apples.”

“Don’t be silly, Sweetie Belle, you know this stuff isn’t working on me,” Scootaloo said calmly, dispersing any other efforts from Sweetie Belle.

She wasn’t able to come up with anything either, though. They planned to do a mouse catching in Apple’s barn and not to tell stories out of nowhere in her room.

“Ok, stories stink!” she admitted despondently, “So, what are we going to do instead? There must be something to do!”

She turned to window and looked outside for inspiration. The rain was just getting stronger, and the yellow light above Ponyville was becoming rarer and rarer as the sunset filled the air with an intensifying darkness.

“Maybe we could…” in that moment the sound of nearby thunder pierced her concentration, and a flash above the clouds shocked her as well as her friends, “Dang it!!”

Scootaloo’s heart just skipped a few beats, and it was now making up for it with her breathing following the suit. She turned to her friends from the window and smiled a little sheepishly before saying: “What a bang, heh?”

Both of her friends were smiling just as her before all of them bursted into a long series of giggles, which lasted several seconds before it ceased. After that a silence filled the room again until Sweetie Belle noticed a small object falling from the sky right above Ponyville.

“Look,” she said thoughtfully, zooming at the object, “What is that?!”

The three fillies turned to the window and they too tried to zoom at the small object, which was falling straight to the ground in a free fall. It appeared to be a blue chunk of irregular shape, but there was something familiar about it.

“Oh, curses!! Is it a pony??” Scootaloo said in disbelieve and tried to zoom in even more.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie belle squeezed next to Scootaloo to see for themselves, but it was hard to tell, because the blur was falling way to fast and brighter clouds in higher layers made it hard to recognize the shape well.

“Oh no!” Scootaloo suddenly uttered to herself, “It is… It is Rainbow Dash, girls!!!”

The realization came with the sight of a multicolored mane and tail against the darker clouds closer the ground, and in that very moment Scootaloo’s pupils shrunk into just two little dots. The shock was terrible from the beginning, because Rainbow Dash was a friend of her family ever since she was born.

Scootaloo lost no time and ran out of the room straight towards the town. She rushed forward even though she knew she had no chance of getting there in time. Her two friends followed her, however in much slower pace.

Rainbow Dash was nearing the ground very quickly, making her way through the rain drops, which were mildly shattering on her face as she fell, and nearly dispersed clouds that hung low above the ground.

“Wake up! Wake up!!” Scootaloo was silently praying, flipping her wings as fast as she could in order to lift up and help her move faster, but she was way too far from the town for it to have any effect.

She was running as fast as her legs allowed her to, through the puddles and holes, paying them no attention and not slowing down. Only things that mattered right now were the short stripes of rainbow colored mane glowing against the dark sky above her.

Scootaloo didn’t mind the pain in her wings, nor did she mind the pain in her legs; she was just running forward with rain falling onto her feathers, and water from the pools splashing mud all over her.

She looked up to see Rainbow just a few dozen meters above the buildings. Scootaloo was breathing heavily, giving oxygen to her aching muscles in futile attempts to somehow reach the town before her, but she was just too far.

Suddenly a flesh of light appeared just next to Rainbow Dash, but it missed. And a second one! And a third one! All of them missed the falling blur, but it was an indication that somepony in town was trying to catch her.

“C’mon!!” Scootaloo was praying silently between her breaths while still running like crazy.

Another flesh, this one much stronger and brighter! A direct hit! Rainbow Dash disappeared from the sky, and the only thing hitting the ground were her saddlebags.

Scootaloo stopped, hyperventilating and still having more than a half way to the town ahead. She scanned the sky with several quick glances, but there was no sign of Rainbow Dash and no screaming of horror, either.

Scootaloo fell into the wet soil with the sigh of great relief and closed her eyes to shield them from the rain drops, just breathing heavily. Twilight mush have caught Rainbow when she neared the ground, because there was nopony else in the town, who could do a teleportation spell.

After a few moments her friends caught up with her, both of them ventilating just as heavily as her. She just raised her head and looked at her friends, whose wild breaths were much louder than any sound the storm could ever make.

“What was she thinking?!!” she asked them, angry at the foolish mare, “How could she just fly through air during the lightning storm like that?!!”

Her friends were just staring at her and letting the fresh air slowly fill their muscles with renewed energy while Scootaloo was asking those questions loudly and indignantly.

After a few moments of rest she said: “C’mon! We need to see what happened to her!”

They once again went towards the Ponyville, but this time Scootaloo was slower than before. However, even though she was slower, her friends still had problems to keep up with her, because she was driven forward by concern.

Scootaloo made her way quickly through the town and headed straight towards the library, where she knew Rainbow would be. The library was a huge hollowed out oak, where Twilight Sparkle, the librarian, lived and worked.

Water in her eyes made her sight a blur for most of the time, but she was still walking towards the library with the same pace of a faster canter.

Bursting into the library, she saw three mares standing in the middle of the spacious wooden hall and eyeing her fearfully, because she forgot to knock on the door before entering.

Fluttershy was a young and yellow mare, after Pinkie Pie the youngest of the bearers of the elements of harmony. Her long, pale pink mane and tail mostly served her as a hiding from unwanted stared, for she was incredibly shy. Only few ponies ever saw her teal eyes, hidden under innocently looking eyelashes, but those who did, she always called her close friends. Her cutiemark were three pink butterflies, because her special talent was communicating with animals on a level nopony else understood.

Rarity on the other hand, could have easily been the one oldest from the group after Apple Jack, with her being twenty two years old. She was Sweetie Belle’s big sister, although she often found it a lifelong test of her patience rather than a blessing. An elegant white unicorn she was, with a perfectly styled purple hair and blue eyes, highlighted by her make-up. Her cutiemark were three gems, although she wasn’t a miner; she worked as a fashion designer and excessively acted as a part of higher society she so desperately wanted to be.

They stood in a large round room with many small shelves set in the walls of the hollowed out tree. On their right were some comfy looking seats with tables in front of them, but none of the fillies thought about them, although their legs ached like hell.

On their left was a passage into another room and just next to it a stair case leading to the Twilight’s personal rooms. There were also another door right in front of them, and one under the staircase, probably leading into the kitchen.

There was a small round carpet in the center of the room and candle lamps set on every table, which was rather strange for a unicorn like Twilight. There were also round windows all over the room in random heights depending on where the walls were thinnest, but there was no ceiling except for the roof.

“How is she??? How is Rainbow Dash???” Scootaloo asked without a second thought, whereupon she started ventilating with her head hung down to save energy and relieve her sore neck.

“Well, actually…” Twilight started uncertainly, even though she expected Scootaloo to rush into the library second she hears the news.

“What?!” she interrupted her with a terrified sigh, “Do not say she is not gonna be OK!”

Scootaloo almost yelled in desperation. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom entered the library as well a while later. Both of them were totally exhausted from the long run and all three of them were soaking wet, again.

“Where is she?” Sweetie Belle asked anxiously between breaths.

Twilight looked at Fluttershy, then back to the three fillies and then said with her own anxious tone: “She isn’t here.”

“What?!” Scootaloo said with exhalation, “Then where have you teleported her to?!!”

“I… I don’t know,” Twilight replied anxiously, dodging her gaze in guilty manner, “She was going down so fast, and I just wanted to catch her… But I couldn’t get a proper fix on her, so I panicked and tried to just shoot from the hip… I caught her, I guess. But she was so fast! I don’t know where she could have ended up.

“What do you mean by not knowing where she could have ended up?!!” Scootaloo asked angrily now.

“Calm down, Scootaloo!” Rarity settled the conflict by standing at Twilight’s side.

“We are all concerned for Dash as well as you,” she continued with an even voice, “Twilight here did a great job, catching her. Now we just need to find her to make sure she is fine.”

“Then what are we waiting for?!!” Scootaloo urged and threw her arms wide.

Scootaloo rushed to the still opened front door, not even looking back at her friends, or any of the three mares, which were now exchanging confused glances.

“Scootaloo, wait!” Fluttershy called, but Scootaloo wouldn’t listen; she made her way outside and looked around herself, deciding which way she should go.

“Scootaloo, come inside,” Twilight called for her.

She turned towards Twilight and she was just about to say something, when another flash just in front of her blinded her. It appeared and was gone in less than a second, leaving Rainbow Dash lying in the mud and smoking a bit.

Rainbow Dash, a pegasus of a cyan color and short rainbow hair, was often given a title of the best flyer in Equestria, because of her previous achievements on the field of flight. She had only little that could be called a girly charm, although her deep magenta eyes might say differently. She was masculine and overly sleek for a mare, but on the other hoof she was fast and strong. Her cutiemark was a cloud with a rainbow lightning.

Rainbow Dash was a long time friend of Scootaloo’s family, and she was also the daredevil Scootaloo always wanted to be. She sure had no lack of confidence, for she bragged as much as she could to hide her more sensitive feminine sides, which she considered to be weaknesses.

“Rainbow Dash!!” Scootaloo shrieked and ran to the mare on the ground.

She knelt to her and placed her ear to the mare’s chest, but in the rain she was unable to hear anything, however she felt the rising and falling of her chest at least.

As soon as the residents of the library saw the cyan feathers in the mud in front of the library, they all ran out to see for themselves if their friend was alright, but none of them actually dared to touch the unconscious mare.

Only Twilight, though stressed and surprised just as anypony else, took the initiative and grasped the injured mare with her telekinesis, dragging her into the library to check on her and, if necessary, revive her.

Inside, Twilight set Rainbow down onto the wooden floor and immediately pushed her muzzle against her neck, trying to find out if Rainbow’s heart was beating. Luckily, she was able to feel the pulses of her heart on her neck and hear her breathing.

After checking her physical condition, Twilight used her magic to open Rainbow’s left eye and checked the pupil reaction. Fortunately, even in this case was everything in normal, which was extremely relieving yet also confusing.

Being hit by the lightning wasn’t just something you could shake off in a moment, so Twilight proceeded to check upon the Rainbow’s wing itself to determine the full extent of the damage the lightning caused.

Surprisingly, the wing was entirely scorched, and the burned flesh and feathers filled the library with an incredibly disgusting stench; the wound was much more serious than Twilight would think. Lightning, capable of causing such burns, would certainly be lethal for everypony, so Twilight couldn’t comprehend how Rainbow could be still alive with only a mere shock.

But that didn’t matter at the time, because she needed a medical care Twilight couldn’t provide, and so they needed to get her to the hospital as soon as possible.

Twilight heaved a large sigh of relieve and turned to the scared crowd in the library, saying: “Alright, everypony! She seems to be alright, but we still need to get her to the hospital for further diagnosis!”

“Are you sure she will be fine?!” Scootaloo asked in desperation, because she knew well what a lightning can cause.

“I am, but we must not lose time!” Twilight urged, “I will need some help getting her to the hospital.”

She spoke to Rarity and Fluttershy, but Scootaloo immediately protested, not wanting to be left behind: “And what about us?! I wanna go with you!”

“No, Scootaloo,” Twilight rejected, casting a protective spell over Rainbow’s wing, “You should stay here and dry yourself up before you catch flu; we can handle this on our own.”

With this said Twilight and the two other mares left the library through the small crowd, which gathered in front of it in the meantime. Scootaloo watched them from between the doorframes as they disappeared in the distance.

Then she only looked sadly at the ground and was just about to go back inside when she noticed the very same dark coated pony like before in the Sugarcube Corner.

He was looking on the three mares as they were disappearing in the rain, but then his gaze slowly shifted towards Scootaloo with an uncertainty of a kind Scootaloo never saw before, almost as if he was scanning whether she could really see him or not.

He was an incredibly tall pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat and light white hair. His eyes were pure blue and Scootaloo failed at noticing his cutiemark, possibly because the dark coat made it very hardly visible.

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle called on her, “What are you looking at?”

Scootaloo turned back to see a confused look on Sweetie Belle’s face, so she looked back to point at the stallion, but he was already gone before she could even raise her hoof.

She stood in confusion for a while, but she had bigger concerns now, than some stranger standing in the rain, so she closed the door and went towards the pool of water Rainbow left.

Spike, Twilight’s baby dragon assistant of purple and green scales, gave her a towel, so she could dry herself up just as her friends were doing, but he was obviously much more confused by what happened than the fillies.

He gave them one more anxious look and then his eyes shifted to the floor of the library and the huge muddy pool, which resided there. An annoyed groan could be heard, whereupon he went to fetch some rags to dry the floor up as well.

Scootaloo used the towel to shield her head from an unwanted looks of her friends’, pretending to be drying her mane off, but in fact the shock now got the time to really settle in within her, and she felt nauseous and dizzy.

“I wonder who’s done that,” Spike asked to broke the silence after a while.

“Who’s done what?!” Apple Bloom asked in a reply, not following his train of thoughts.

“The teleportation spell,” he said to clarify, “Twilight couldn’t have done it, because she was just as surprised as we were when Rainbow appeared again.”

“But, who else has the ability to duplicate her teleportation?” Sweetie Belle asked, drying her belly.

“And under the circumstances not even Twilight could handle?” he added thoughtfully.

Scootaloo sneezed, removed the towel from her face and said firmly: “That doesn’t matter anymore! For as long as Rainbow Dash is save.”

Both fillies and the dragon nodded.

Getting ill

Time dragged on and on for an eternity, but Scootaloo was determined to stay no matter the waiting, because she wanted to assure herself that Rainbow was going to be alright.

After some time she even considered visiting the hospital herself, but that thought was quickly dismissed, because Scootaloo dreaded hospitals above all. The worst moments of her life took place there, and she couldn’t help but to shiver every time she thought about that place.

Spike and her friends accompanied her in her waiting for some time, but after two hours Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had to head home to avoid punishment, since it was getting really late for them to be out. Truth to be told neither of them really wanted to enter the furious downpour again, but there was no going about it, so Scootaloo was left only with spike as her conversation companion.

He was really sweet, kind and caring, but being a baby dragon, he still didn’t understand most of the nonverbal messages Scootaloo gave him, and persuaded topics she really wasn’t fond of talking about.

Fortunately, Spike was apprehensive, and once Scootaloo said clearly that she didn’t want to talk about a certain thing, he picked a different one to discuss. Sadly though, he was prone to picking the topics Scootaloo generally disliked the most.

Twilight returned into the library after another hour of waiting. By that time Spike was lying on the couch next to Scootaloo, having fallen asleep. It was very kind of him to stay up to give Scootaloo a support in her anxiety, but he simply wasn’t used to being up this late.

“Scootaloo,” Twilight said as soon as she spotted the sleepy filly on her couch, “I thought you would still be here, even though you would have done better to head home an hour ago.”

“I know; I am going,” Scootaloo replied impatiently, “Just tell me how she is.”

Twilight only smiled and grabbed her little dragon assistant in her telekinesis, saying: “She’ll be fine. Doctors have done enough tests to be sure of that, even though they still don’t know what exactly hit her.”

“Wasn’t it the lightning?!” the little filly asked confusedly, watching the purple unicorn gently carrying her assistant upstairs.

“It was, but her injuries say differently,” Twilight nodded and slowly ascended the staircase, “She is burned rather seriously, but there is not even a residual trace of any shock whatsoever, which is strange.”

Then Twilight disappeared upstairs with Spike in her grasp. Scootaloo could still see her, since there was no ceiling in the lobby, but remained silent to leave Spike undisturbed. Instead she started thinking about what she just heard, but being herself, she quickly dispersed any more complex theories and simply cherished the fact Rainbow was alright.

“You should probably head home, Scootaloo,” Twilight suggested upon descending the stairs and giving a clock a quick glance, “Your family will be worried about you.”

There was only silence in reply, but Scootaloo’s frowned look cast upon the ground was somehow expressive in itself. Twilight realized, that she might have stirred a topic young filly didn’t like.

Whatever her reasons were, Scootaloo slowly went to the door. Twilight followed her with a frown of her own, but despite her curiosity she wouldn’t ask any unwanted questions.

“Thanks Twilight, for telling me,” Scootaloo said and opened the door into the storm and thunder, “Tomorrow I’ll go and see her for myself, so maybe we’ll meet there. See you later, then!”

Scootaloo said and rocketed into the storm. Closing the door, Twilight looked out of the window at the setting sun above the clouds. It was already pretty dark, but not enough to get lost, so Twilight retreated into her study room, choosing not to worry over the little filly’s safety.

Scootaloo ran, because as much as she loved rain she hated being wet, for it meant just more mess for her to clean up. Naturally, her aching muscles didn’t allow her to assume the same pace she maintained when running into the town, but luckily this wasn’t a Running of the leaves competition.

The streets were dark, because the setting Sun was hidden above the thick layer of clouds which blocked almost all of its light. The furious downpour also drove everypony inside their cosy homes, so the streets were empty as well.

She didn’t envy them though, because her feathers represented a perfect protection from both water and the coldness it brought. The only annoying thing for her was the water tickling her in her nostrils and eyes.

While running, Scootaloo was trying to sort her feelings, but to no avail. She felt a mixture of frustration, shame, and worry for one of her closest friends, but there was also a relief that nothing really terrible happened.

The rain and running guided her mind away from the helplessness she felt earlier that day, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop scolding herself for snapping and showing it in front of her friends after how hard she tried to build up her image.

Everypony would falter in a situation like this one, Scootaloo knew that well, but she still couldn’t stop blaming herself. Perhaps she believed that her friends will make fun of her now, or maybe she just wanted to look undaunted just like Rainbow Dash. She wasn’t sure herself.

Thanks to the huge heart every pegasus had, she soon exited the city and followed the much muddier supply road to Sweet Apple Acres. Rain would always turn this one road into a muddy pond, but nopony was particularly interested in fixing the issue.

Soon she ran pass the schoolhouse on her left, but she didn’t even notice it thanks to her head being full of thoughts. Usually Scootaloo would recall and ponder about her days while falling asleep, but it was really rare for her to purposely replay the past happenings of her life.

Slowing into a mere walk upon reaching her house’s avenue, she tried to catch her breath a little. She wasn’t exactly breathless, but running this far would take its toll on everypony.

The house was dark, and the door was closed just like she left it, so there didn’t seem to be anypony home, just like always. Scootaloo didn’t think about it though, because her mind was already busy at that time.

She entered the kitchen through the main door and instinctively started fumbling on the wall on her left for the light switch, since the room was really dark, and she couldn’t see a thing.

After a short while she found it just a little below the spot where she was searching for it, and the light finally shone throughout the room, illuminating every curve and chasing away all shadows.

Scootaloo gave herself a quick and mindless glance. The water was dripping from her in long and fast strands, creating a dirty pool under her. She knew she had to dry herself up quickly, lest she would have even more work cleaning this mess up than she had before.

So she looked up to scan the room for any of the towels she brought for her friends before, but instead she saw something that really broke her train of thoughts- Her brother.

Her brother, Chain Iron, was green eyed, twenty years old stallion, even though his behavior didn’t sometimes match his actual age. His cutiemark was three chain links connected to a line, which was rather fitting to his name. His light green coat and short cyan hair were not something one could often see on a unicorn, but it weren’t his colors what made him so strange.

He was very friendly to every mare and filly in the town in a desperate attempt to find himself a relationship of any sort, but he didn’t know a thing about courting, and so he always ended up in a dead end.

Perhaps he still had something to learn when his mother departed, because otherwise he would know that ponies didn’t use courting to endear somepony they liked. It was one of the reasons for Scootaloo to make fun of him, but in the same time she was trying to help as best as she could, being a filly herself.

“Hi, Iron,” she said in a tremulant voice, because she suddenly realized the chance of being punished for her tardiness, “What are you doing here so early… and in the dark?”

“Waiting for you,” he replied with an exhale and scanned his sister’s unusual expression, “You were supposed to be home a long time ago.”

“Ehm… Really?” Scootaloo said, giving a clock on the wall behind her a quick glance and snapping out of her initial surprise.

It looked like she was about to add something else up on her defense, but she wasn’t able to come up with a suitable excuse. It was hard to fool her brother, because he usually knew much more than anypony would have guessed.

“I was worried!” Iron said slowly walking towards her after he got up from his chair, “One accident a day is more than enough.”

The mention of the accident took Scootaloo by surprise, because it once again threw her into the thoughts she was dealing with before, even though she couldn’t yet understand their meaning. The effect of this surprise was greater by the fact that she didn’t expect the news to spread so fast, so she quickly tried to hide her face behind the serene façade again, but her brother saw through the mask.

He walked over to the heating under the kitchen window, and using his telekinesis, he levitated a pair of nice, warm towels, which he subsequently wrapped around his little sister.

Then he walked around her and knelt just a few inches before her, so that he might look directly into her face. He wanted to find out what caused the blink of an expression he saw, but even though his intentions were good, Scootaloo felt rather uncomfortable.

It wasn’t fear or anxiety, but she knew her brother well enough to know he was about to start asking questions. That, in itself, wouldn’t be anything horrid, but combined with his caring look, it meant an upcoming torment.

“I can see something is bothering you,” he started exactly the way Scootaloo feared, “I can see that what happened today hit you pretty hard.”

Scootaloo replied the only way she always has – by silent starring onto the floor while hoping for her brother to catch the message.

“You know, I will always be here if you needed to talk about anything,” he tried to both assure her and nudge her to open herself.

“I know,” she replied, looking for something more to say, but her effort resulted only in quietude.

She hated talking about such topics with her family, because she really didn’t want to lie to them, but she also couldn’t tell the real truth; she had already caused enough problems, so why add any more.

“You don’t wanna talk about it, heh?” he suggested after a while of a thoughtful silence, and she nodded in agreement.

Iron actually felt like a fool for thinking he could actually untie her tongue and get her to open up a little bit, even though he knew that Scootaloo never talked about her feelings or problems with anypony. Regardless, he had to try to help her, and he would keep trying, because she was still his sister, no matter how stubborn she was.

“Alright then,” he said with a genuine smile on his lips, “Just think it through, and if you ever wanted to tell somepony, I will be here to hear it.”

Scootaloo hated doing this to him, because she knew he took this whole big brother thing really seriously. These situations were always loss no matter who, or how played them with her.

“Yeah… I am sorry,” she said in a guilty tone and, still wrapped in the towels, went upstairs, “I will be in my room if you need me.”

All of her muscles were burning, and she couldn’t even describe the feeling of bliss she felt when she finally collapsed onto her bed and closed her eyes. The towels did a great job soaking the water from her feathers, but they needed yet a little longer to absorb it all.

It sure was one tough day behind her with all that falling, worries and bad feelings. It was all so dreadfully familiar, and that only made it feel stronger, but Scootaloo just wanted to leave it all be once and for all, because Rainbow was alright.

And the more she relaxed, the more her feelings and thoughts started to finally make sense to her… She lived them once already… Long ago…

•

The Sun shone brilliantly through her bedroom’s windows, setting everything it touched alight with its gentle pink aura. Clouds that were still hanging over the town lend the rays a dimmed feeling of comfort and clarity, but unlike others, Scootaloo couldn’t fully enjoy it.

She unwillingly rolled in her bed and opened her eyes to reveal the source of the annoying light, but seeing it was morning already, she only gave a defeated sigh and let her head collapse back onto her pillow. This was certainly the worst night sleep she has ever had in her life.

Ever since she lay down to finally relieve herself, she was feeling rather strangely. At first it was just minor and insignificant twitches, but later it intensified into full scaled cramps and pangs of pain all over her body.

She felt better now, even though all of her muscles were stiff, and every inch of her body hurt. The exhaustion also brought along a nasty headache, which rather complicated thinking on all levels.

Despite all this Scootaloo kicked her covers onto the ground and clumsily climbed down her bed, still waking up. It was Friday, so Scootaloo had a school duty amongst others she wanted to carry out, but she wasn’t even as enthusiastic as she usually was.

As difficult as it was with her shaking hooves, she gathered all of her things and stashed them into her saddlebags. Being done quickly, she decided to take a quick look at her grammar homework, but sight of the first page changed her mind entirely; she didn’t have the time to do it, anyway.

Carrying her saddlebags, which felt like full of concrete now, she clumsily descended the staircase and headed straight into the kitchen. To her big surprise her brother was already awake and reading a book titled: ‘Magical devices’.

“Hello there, sister,” he said with a bit of a chuckle, not putting his book down, “Did you decide to sleep in today?”

Scootaloo just put her saddlebags onto a chair on his left and left towards the bathroom, saying: “I haven’t even fallen asleep.”

“That’s not wise,” he said with a smile and put the book down onto the table, “Rarity keeps telling me that a good amount of sleep is the key to the natural beauty.”

“Yeah, good amount of sleep and half a ton of makeup,” she uttered before washing the night off her face.

“What was that?” her brother called from the kitchen.

“Nothing!” she called back and then took a long stare into the mirror.

The filly she saw wasn’t familiar to her at all; she had large bloodshot eyes with huge dark circles under them, ruffled feathers all over her face, and her mane was sticking in all directions.

“Where is dad, anyway?” she called after a while of silence as she was brushing her mane.

“He is at work,” Iron replied, making some breakfast, “It’s rain season, remember?”

“And what about you?” she kept questioning, “Shouldn’t you be still asleep with the collage opening at nine.”

“Why, aren’t you happy to see your big brother?” Iron stirred away with his sense of humor.

“I see you every evening,” Scootaloo objected, not following his thoughts, “Are you supposed to have a test or something, because you are obviously planning on skipping your classes today?”

Iron took a while to consider the answer; it wasn’t as if Scootaloo would actually snitch on him, especially since it was her who taught him to be truant, so he replied: “Physics experiments… I hate them!”

“I thought you’d love them with you being an inventor and all,” she expressed her confusion with her brother’s motives from across the house.

“It’s not an experiment as long as you know how it will end,” he objected and carried a few bread slices back onto the table, “It’s boring.”

“Suit yourself,” Scootaloo replied plainly, because her headache was getting really nasty.

She brushed her teeth and tamed her mane so she looked presentable again. Still, the remnants of her sleepless night scarred her face, and it was certain they wouldn’t disappear anytime soon.

So she sighed, put away the hairbrush and departed back into the kitchen in her clumsy and slow pace. She thought of sitting down for a moment, but a quick glance on the clock told her she should better go.

“Are you alright?” her brother asked her in a suddenly concerned tone, “You look kind of sick.”

“Sick, are you kidding?!” she replied with a snort, “I am not sick; I just overstretched my muscles yesterday and didn’t get enough sleep, that’s all.”

“I am afraid it might be more than that,” Iron insisted despite his sister’s annoyed look, “Maybe you should go and see a doctor.”

“I am not sick!” she repeated once more with a force in her voice, recovered her saddlebags, and headed for the door, “Besides, the doctor would surely tell me to stay in a bed for a week! That’s totally not cool, not for my big pegasus’ heart.”

“Why do I keep trying?” Iron said ironically and rolled his eyes while biting down on his breakfast.

Scootaloo left the house without having anything to eat, because despite her claims to be alright, her belly actually felt like afloat. With every step she took, it felt she was closer to throwing up, but she still thought she was absolutely healthy.

Closing the door behind her, she gave her scooter one long and sorrowful look. Her wings were too sore to be able to propel her scooter on muddy roads such as those the rain created, and thus she had to walk all the way to the school on foot.

Needless to say, she was very discouraged by the thought of having to drag her sore body all across the Ponyville outskirts, but she knew this day was going to be a challenge the moment she woke up. So she departed towards the school, leaving her scooter behind with one last wishful glance.

A glorious dawn was graced upon the town she saw just below the hills she stood at. The humidity in the cold air was bending the orange and golden rays of the Sun, making the town sparkle like the glittering dust in the moonlight.

The sight was truly magnificent, but even more so was the landscape around; trees and fields gladly accepted the water rain provided and were much greener than before thanks to it. The scent of ozone hung low above the ground, and combined with the moisture and cool air it succeeded to lead Scootaloo’s attention away from her condition.

Her track to the school was quickly passing by, even though she couldn’t get rid of the aching and tingle in her limbs. It didn’t take long and she heard familiar noises of foals playing on the playground in front of the schoolhouse, waiting for Miss Cheerilee to begin the classes.

Scootaloo put on the best expression she could, given how tired and destroyed she felt, and was making her way around the building in order to get to the playground and finally sat down to relive her trembling legs. But putting most of her energy into looking and walking as normally as possible, she entirely overlooked a heavy ball heading in her direction with a speed of the thunder.

The accurate hit into her ribs really hurt a lot, but also threw Scootaloo off balance and sent her collapsing onto the ground. It wasn’t any huge surprise to hear an eruption of laughter from a certain pink filly and her grey companion as their evil intentions came to a successful end.

Diamond Tiara was the pink earth pony filly with pale purple and white hair, a silver tiara as her cutie mark, and eyes blue as the purest waters of the northern seas.

Despite her look, she was malevolent and malicious to every foal in the school, seemingly because she thought that her cutiemark, and family, had made her a better pony compared to others. She wasn’t afraid of bullying foals regardless of their age, gender or tribe, but worst she treated ponies with no cutiemark.

She was always accompanied by Silver Spoon, a grey earth pony filly of white hair braided on the left side of her neck, cutiemark in shape of a silver cutlery, and deep violet eyes hiding behind large blue glasses.

Silver Spoon almost never took the initiative to cause evil, but she was always in for whatever Diamond Tiara was doing. Nopony could tell what reasons she had for following her pink companion, but nopony particularly cared for as long as she acted evil.

“Ops, sorry,” Diamond Tiara called while giggling, “I didn’t see you there. I hope I didn’t break any bones in you fragile tiny wing.”

If Scootaloo had any energy, she would have transformed it all into a furious defense, because she knew far too well that Diamond Tiara actually did it on purpose. Unfortunately though, she could barely move, and so she just looked at her two tormentors and then let her head fall back onto the cold and wet grass.

“C’mon Silver Spoon, she obviously needs some time alone,” Diamond Tiara said in giggles, seeing that Scootaloo won’t be any more fun today, and then they left with their noses high.

This was a little surprise to Scootaloo, because usually Diamond Tiara loved arguing about all sorts of things, especially with her. Other foals were always avoiding conversations with her, because they knew she was saying things just because they hurt, however Scootaloo, and sometimes even Apple Bloom, were too proud to hold back against even petty insults.

“Scootaloo, are you alright?” she heard Sweetie Belle’s timid voice from behind her, “I can’t believe she did that!”

Scootaloo elevated her head with a great effort to see Sweetie Belle’s white silhouette slowly approaching her in a caring manner. It was rather obvious that she saw what happened, but wasn’t brave enough to step up to the two bullies all on her own.

“Yeah, I think I am fine,” she grunted as Sweetie Belle helped her back onto her feet, “Though, being hit by a giant ball into my side isn’t exactly the most pleasant thing that happened to me today.”

“It is a shame they took it with them, because if they hadn’t, maybe we could throw it back at them!” Sweetie Belle giggled dusting Scootaloo off.

“That wouldn’t be a good idea,” the orange filly objected in a hoarse voice, “She would tell her father we tried to kill her or something, and of course he would believe her word over anypony else‘s, no matter what.”

“I guess…” the unicorn filly said and scanned her orange friend with a gradually concerning look on her face.

“Scootaloo, are you sure you are alright?” she said in a caring tone, still scanning her ruffled friend, “Because you seem to look rather beaten today.”

Scootaloo just shook her head dismissively and illuminated her satiation to Sweetie Belle: “Trust me, I am fine. I just didn’t sleep very well today, because of all my muscles deciding to take a revenge on me for putting them through so much stress yesterday.”

Sweetie Belle didn’t seem to be entirely convinced, but she knew better than inquiring Scootaloo about her health state. So instead she helped her gather her things, and both of them slowly walked around the building to finally reach the playground.

Playground was just in front of the entrance to the school, which was good for the foals, because they didn’t have to go far to discharge their energy. It consisted of a few benches placed around the schoolhouse, climbing frames, a sand pit, and a few outdoor tables near the benches.

It wasn’t much, but every foal in the school was grateful to the town hall for donating the school with money necessary for construction of this little place for them, and they made it very obvious by the noise they were making.

Numerous foals were running in every direction, chasing one another, playing many games, and many more activities Scootaloo couldn’t even think about at that moment. It was bound to get even crazier though, because some of the foals were yet to show up.

Scootaloo spotted Diamond Tiara circling around the playground like a hungry vulture, seeking more trouble she could cause, so she decided to leave Sweetie Belle outside with Twist and rather retreated into the school where she believed to be safe, but she was unpleasantly surprised second the stepped inside the small building, because air inside was stinky, still, dry and much warmer than she would like.

In a second she realized that spenting the following several hours in here would certainly be a challenge for her given the fact that she already felt her headache intensify.

•

Other foals were already leaving the school, thrilled by the vision of the free weekend ahead of them, only Scootaloo was having slight problems packing her things into her saddlebags.

Once again her hatred to Fridays proved justified, when her headache turned into a full scaled migraine supported by nausea and dizziness of a kind Scootaloo didn’t like one bit. In addition, all of her limbs were trembling and aching as if they were aflame, her head was spinning, and she was even sweating which was utterly strange for a pegasus.

It was only good the classes were over and she could quickly carry out the rest of her chores to finally get some extra sleep, because she was exhausted to the limit.

She clumsily threw the rest of her things into her saddlebags, not caring for their arrangement, and stood up to leave the classroom. It was a real challenge for her just to walk straight without crashing into anything, but fortunately the years of scooter practice have mastered her balance.

Her friends were at the door, having thought she was already outside, so it was a surprise to them when Scootaloo actually called them from behind. They both turned around and measured her with caring looks she didn’t like at all.

“Shall we get going? I still have some things to do, and I would like to get them done before it starts raining again,” she suggested impatiently, because standing on one place was making her head spin faster.

Both fillies nodded in unison, turned around, and slowly set on the way towards the supply road to Sweet Apple Acres. They tried to act as if nothing was going on, because they knew Scootaloo was probably just as stubborn as Apple Jack, but they still felt compassion.

“Finally it’s weekend, everypony!” Apple Bloom said in her southern accent to emphasize just how happy she was, “I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!”

“I didn’t know that farm ponies such as yourself have any time to sleep in,” Sweetie Belle objected with a smirk.

“Oh, it’s nothing but a widespread myth,” Apple Bloom illuminated with no small amount of amusement, “In fact my sister loves sleeping in; some days we can’t get her out of the bed until half to six!”

Sweetie Belle only raised an eyebrow, knowing that the farm filly was making fun of her. Rarity was generally a very reliable source of misinformation for her, because she liked the gossip so much and didn’t care for the validity of its claims.

“Sleeping in means waking up at noon,” Sweetie Belle clarified in a bit of a bitter tone.

“Waking up at noon?!” Apple Bloom gasped so much that she nearly tripped over, “What meaning does waking up at all has then?!”

“Apple Bloom, would you quiet down a little bit, because you are louder than a train!” Scootaloo had to scold her earth pony friend, because the sudden shriek nearly tore her head asunder.

“Sorry,” Apple Bloom replied in a little bit intimidated tone, because Scootaloo too used a little bit too much volume.

“Do you still have the headache?” Sweetie Belle asked after a short while in an appropriately quiet voice.

“Yeah,” echoed a similarly quiet, regretful answer as Scootaloo realized that she might have been a little unpleasant, “It’s gotten even worse, I am sorry for the shouting.”

“I don’t want to upset you, but maybe you should go see a doctor,” Sweetie Belle suggested, already bracing herself for an onslaught they usually received upon making a regard on Scootaloo’s health, hygiene or eating.

“That’s actually where I’m heading just now,” Scootaloo tried to reply in as normal voice as possible, given her condition.

“Really?!” both fillies asked in unison, because neither of them really believed.

“Yeah,” she replied, totally unaware of the issue, “Rainbow Dash is in the hospital, so I am probably gonna see a lot of doctors today.”

“I see,” Sweetie Belle said, having understood her friend’s actual train of thoughts, “Maybe you should also talk to them about… y’know… your condition…”

“My condition, what’s wrong with my condition?!” Scootaloo asked uncomprehendingly.

“Nothing, she just meant the headache,” Apple Bloom intervened with a look of resignation on her face.

“Aha. Well, I could certainly use a painkiller right now,” a much calmer quote sounded back afterwards.

“I don’t trust medicines. They aren’t natural,” Apple Bloom mumbled under her breath as she was looking at the approaching crossroad in the distance.

“Earth ponies and their traditionalistic medicinal methods,” Scootaloo taunted her gently.

“What’s that tone supposed to mean?!” the earth pony filly defended her stance, “I haven’t been sick in years!”

“Me neither, probably because I have never drunk a single sip of those smelly teas your granny makes to improve your health,” Scootaloo explained with a hint of the smile for the first time that day.

In the first moment it looked like Apple Bloom would fiercely defend the traditions of her kin, but when she thought about what Scootaloo said, she relaxed a little bit and said instead: “Me neither. I mean I really wanted to try, but most of them just taste like mud, they often even have the same consistence.”

“An honest lie,” Sweetie Belle said with her head pointed forwards with a little smile on her lips.

“I guess,” the cream filly admitted, feeling a little bad for concealing it from her granny, “When granny brings me a cup, I just pour it into one of the flowerpots to avoid drinking it.”

“So that’s why you have new plants in the farmhouse every time I come by!” Scootaloo suddenly realized the connection and a full scaled smile spread across her face.

“Not even the flowers can digest it,” Apple Bloom added with a chuckle of happiness over her friend’s smile, “I wonder how she can.”

They all giggled for the short while they had left before reaching the crossroad and then they stopped. Just as every other day, a moment of awkward silence took over as none of them really wanted to say good bye first.

“So, do we have any plans for today?” Sweetie Belle asked out of curiosity, because she herself had no plans for their group.

“Nope,” the other two fillies replied almost in unison.

“Alright, so I guess I’ll see you girls tomorrow then,” she reacted and slowly set off towards the town, “Bye!”

The other two fillies waved her back, turned around and departed in an opposing direction towards Sweet Apple Acres. They talked only a little after Sweetie left, mostly because Scootaloo found it difficult to keep up the Apple Bloom’s pace and talk at the same time.

That didn’t matter though, because in a few minutes they reached the avenue leading to Scootaloo’s house, and so their ways parted once more after a friendly valediction.

Scootaloo slowly ascended the small hill her home stood on and opened the old wooden door. The house was still and silent just as it has been for years, but Scootaloo minded it not, for she was used to being home alone after all that time.

The quietude seemed so embracing after the entire noisy day spent in the school, but she knew it was not to last, because she yet had to pass the bustling markets of Ponyville that day. At least for the moment she could savor the whistling in her ears and the slow withdrawal of her migraine, which seemed like a divine blessing for her.

Not wasting more time than necessary, Scootaloo walked into her room and put her saddlebags onto the bed, without any further thought of where it actually belonged.

Then she walked back downstairs and into the kitchen. She was heading for one of the cabinets above the kitchen sink, in which many various medicines were stored, painkillers amongst them.

The light pink circular pills looked really nice and tasty, but Scootaloo knew far too well about their bitter taste that always made her face twist in the disgust. On the other hoof, Scootaloo had to admit that, unlike other pills, these actually represented no danger to little foals, because of the unpleasant flavor.

Wanting to avoid the disgusting taste, she quickly swallowed the pill, but as she did so, she accidentally inhaled a part of the gulp and coughed for a several minutes to come. Still, it was worth getting the pill down her belly without having to deal with the bitterness.

Scootaloo knew it would take about half an hour for the pill to start working, and she definitely didn’t want to go anywhere near the town marketplace with a migraine, so she decided to finally have some meal after an entire day of fasting. She still didn’t feel hungry, though.

Simple bread with butter satisfied her appetite for the moment and also consumed enough time for the pill to start working, allowing Scootaloo to finally head into the town to finish what she had to do as fastest as she could do it.

She placed the dishes into the, already full, kitchen sink and then thoughtfully looked at the entrance door on her right. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that was urging her to stay home in the warmth and comfort, instead of going to that accursed place, but Scootaloo knew she couldn’t leave Rainbow Dash alone in that very place alone the entire day.

So, regardless of her inner spite, she slowly walked towards the door and stepped outside. There, taking one slow inhale, she closed the door again and slowly set on her way towards Ponyville general.

Probably everypony in the town knew of Scootaloo’s aversion to hospitals, but they all mistook her reasons for it; since Scootaloo always said almost the same things about hospitals Rainbow did, everypony simply assumed that she adopted the cyan mare’s opinion, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Although every pegasus would agree that staying put on the hospital beds was a mean of torture unimaginable to other tribes, it was hardly a cause for such a strong hatred Scootaloo felt towards that tall white building. The truth was she didn’t have a single happy or even a neutral memory of that place, and all those sad ones filled her heart with detestation deeper of any known seas.

Swimming in the waters of her old memories, she soon reached the crossroad leading to the schoolhouse, but she could no more hear the joyful voices of her classmates who had left the building when she got within earshot of the school grounds.

It was no surprise, because the foals were always most eager to get home on Friday afternoons, only Miss Cheerilee stayed in the class late though, to take care of her teacher business. On one hoof, Scootaloo pitied her, but she knew the magenta mare enjoyed her work greatly on the other.

Five more minutes of walking on the road placed between the fields and gardens of Ponyville earth ponies, and she reached the edge of the town and the first houses.

Needless to say, there were many more ponies walking by, but Scootaloo paid them almost no mind, mostly because her mind was occupied by her aching legs.

The commotion here was rather annoying, but it was still nothing compared to the Ponyville market which was rapidly approaching, and whose noises could be heard even from such a distance.

When she left her house, she decided not to think about her history, but she found it rather difficult with the presence of her goal. The closer she got, the more she wanted to turn around and run home, but Rainbow taught her never to leave her friends hanging, and she never would.

The marketplace was a lucid definition of the hell itself for anyone who had at least a bit of a fantasy; the crowds were slowly flowing between the stands in density that would make even lead blush in shame, ponies were shouting over one another with a volume of a thunder just to be able to communicate, and to top it all there was mud everywhere, because nopony waited long enough for the ground to dry up.

Scootaloo immediately assessed that making her way through the crowd would be a challenge she definitely didn’t want to undertake now, so there was no chance but to walk all the way around this busy, overcrowded, and noisy place, forcing her way through the mud, and bearing the ruckus with crestfallen expression on her face.

Hanging her head low and shutting off the outer world, she slowly set on her way around the circular area full of stands and tardy ponies. There simply was no energy left to be angry anymore in her, and she surrendered herself to the cold resignation without fighting back.

The only good thing this upsetting experience brought was that all the noise, mud, and bad air finally drove her mind away from her former thoughts, allowing her a sweet moment of ignorance before she would have to face the hospital in flesh.

When she reached the other side of the market place, it was not more than ten minutes of walk through the hilly terrain of the Whitetail Wood away, but first Scootaloo had to leave the town by the northern road.

During the walk Scootaloo stumbled across a thought discovering that the entire trip would have taken her no more than five minutes, if it weren’t for the Everfree forest blocking the direct way. She quietly cursed the trees and kept on going in her silent suffering.

The forest was much more welcoming than town could ever be; the air here was fresh and smelled of tree resin, the temperatures were also a little bit lower, and the lack of the direct sunlight filled the air with humidity.

The quietude broken only by birds’ chirping, creaking of the branches and rustling of the leaves in the light breeze ensured that Scootaloo really enjoyed this part of the trip even though she had to slow down to relieve her legs.

The hospital building stood on a small hill just in front of the Whitetail wood, overseeing the town from the distance. It was surrounded by the wood, natural streams, and green meadows and fields, which gave it a tinge of divinity.

However, Scootaloo didn’t let the visage of this place fool her; a lovely façade wasn’t nearly enough to make her forget, and it surely wasn’t enough to hide what was lurking within its walls.

She stopped in front of the entrance door and measured the tall white building with sorrow and disgust in her eyes before she finally pulled the handle and bitterly entered the main lobby.

It was a nice and warm place with many plushy seats along the wooden paneled walls. The seats were of white color which nicely contrasted with the darker brown paneling of the walls and the floor while the blue ceiling was supposed to add calmness into the feeling.

On each of her sides were large swaying doors which led to the rooms in the first floor, and in front of her was a staircase ascending to the second floor. There was a booth in the corner between the staircase and the door on her left, and Scootaloo could see nurse Redheart in it.

Nurse Redheart was a bright white earth pony mare. She had a pale pink mane and tail tied into a bun and her cutiemark was a red cross with four hearts around it.

She was rather young to be a nurse, but she was kind, devoted and caring, so nopony particularly cared about her age, although being young and having such an attractive body colors could sometime prove to be an obstacle in her work, especially when tending to male unicorn patients.

Since the week was ending, she had an awful lot of paperwork to do, and so she failed to notice the small orange filly until she was standing right in front of the small booth she was in.

“Oh! Scootaloo, you scared me!” she said amidst light giggles, “I knew you would come, and yet you managed to startle me.”

“I am sorry; I didn’t mean to do that,” Scootaloo said simply, letting the weight of this place befall her, “I just wanted to know which room Rainbow Dash is in.”

“It’s alright, no harm done,” burse Redheart replied with a kind smile, “She is in the room three-hundred-eight in the third floor.”

Scootaloo nodded and aimed for the staircase, saying: “Thank you, Miss Redheart.”

“You’re welcome,” a quick answer echoed throughout the vast and empty corridors.

Having ascended into the third floor, Scootaloo took a turn left where she knew the sought room would be, and truly the eighth door in the hall bared the tag with the desired number.

The door was closed and nothing could be heard from beyond them, which made Scootaloo consider an option that Rainbow might have actually been asleep. That wouldn’t be a surprise, since the cyan mare was always dozing at this time of the day.

Three timid knocks on the door echoed through the empty and lifeless hall followed by a very long creaking of an old hospital door. Scootaloo peeked into the room, only to see Rainbow Dash’s curious expression starring the door down in expectation of seeing who was coming.

“Squirt, I knew you were coming!” Rainbow blurted out as soon as she recognized the little filly’s head peeking in through the half-opened door.

“Hi, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said and confidently entered the room, while Rainbow Dash was struggling to sit up on her bed.

“You have no idea how glad I am you are here,” Rainbow said in an overly happy tone, “I haven’t been here a single day, but it feels like months already.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling,” Scootaloo agreed while she slowly made her way to the side of Rainbow’s bed, “The time feels as if it has stopped, and you can’t prove otherwise.”

“Exactly!” Rainbow said with a great nod, “But the worst thing is that I don’t even know why I ended up here.”

“Probably because you were so stupid as to take off into a lightning storm,” echoed a suggestion in a mildly critical tone.

“Yeah, they told me how it happened, but I don’t remember why I did it,” Rainbow said reaching for the memories that weren’t there, “It’s nothing but a blur since the beginning of the storm.”

Scootaloo wasn’t actually angry with Rainbow Dash for getting herself into the hospital, since she did a lot of stupid things in the past with a similar result, but she had to admit that seeing her falling down from the sky was a shock for her.

“Some things are better forgotten,” she uttered as she was sitting down next to the bed.

“Come now,” Rainbow noticed the glum tone and tried to both investigate, and cheer her friend up, “Memories shape who we are; even the bad ones.”

“Does it hurt?” Scootaloo said to steer the topic elsewhere and pointed at Rainbow’s wing wrapped entirely in a slightly glowing bandage.

“I can’t feel a thing,” she replied, well aware of the maneuver the orange filly just pulled off, “Nurses say it’s been scorched black, but they also assured me that their bandages should be enough to heal the damage.”

“What about your feathers?” Scootaloo asked again in her hoarse voice, “Will they grow faster too?”

“I am not sure about the speed, but Doctor Whitecross told me that one of the magical modules in the bandages speeds up skin recovery, including coat and feather growth. So, I think the answer is yes.”

“Well, at least you won’t be grounded for so long,” Scootaloo said and attempted for a smile, but it looked rather unnatural on her frowned face.

“Yeah, at least…” Rainbow said, measuring Scootaloo with an inconspicuous eye, “Scootaloo, I have a feeling that something is bothering you. Care to tell me?”

Scootaloo’s eyes slowly shifted down to the floor, because her weakness has just been exposed in front of the very pony she wanted to conceal it from: “I think I overstretched my entire body yesterday, because it hurt so much I couldn’t even get a proper night sleep.”

“And…” Rainbow nudged her to continue, even though Scootaloo wanted to stop there.

“…I hate hospitals…” she admitted in a quiet voice.

Rainbow extended her forearms and said in a compassionate tone: “Come here. It’s been so long and you still remember it, heh?”

Scootaloo grew apathetic to her memories long ago, but even though pain might have been gone, other feelings still remained in the shadows of her memory: “Some things are better forgotten…”

•

Three hours later Scootaloo was finally walking through the Whitetail wood again, but this time in the opposite direction. Rainbow was rather reluctant to let her leave and was trying to delay her by talking just about everything that crossed her mind, because Scootaloo was the only distraction she had.

So, Scootaloo learned, inter alia, that Thunderlane is incredibly grumpy in the mornings, that Cloud Chaser becomes gradually lazier and lazier, and that her brother visits Rainbow every now and then without any sound reason.

Rainbow also remembered a few flashes from her accident, but they didn’t clarify why or how it happened; she just said she remembers a feeling of drowning, bright purple light, and warmth spreading all across her body like gentle flames. Scootaloo eventually concluded that her cyan friend must have simply been hallucinating, though she didn’t say it aloud.

The Sun already began its descent on the sky, and the weather ponies were assembling yet another storm according to their rain season schedule, but there still was at least an hour of time before the rain.

That was good, because Scootaloo had yet one more place she wanted to visit before finally retiring to her cosy and welcoming bed. However, she didn’t say the whole truth in the hospital, when Rainbow Dash asked her about her next destination.

The truth was that place was on no map, nor did anypony know of its existence, and Scootaloo wanted it to stay that way, because that place has become sort of her sanctuary over the years she has been visiting it; only there she could really let go of everything troubling her heart, without having to worry whether somepony could see her or not, and at this particular day she could certainly use the magic of that place.

The painkiller she had taken when she left her house started to fade away, and her migraine was once more returning to plague her consciousness with dizziness and confusion in its wake.

She even began sweating which was a rather unfamiliar, yet not entirely negative, experience for her. That however could not be said about its cause - a burning fever that further supported the migraine.

To deepen her already bad state, a nasty nausea joined the game and caused Scootaloo’s belly to rotate in place with a wildness of a twister, but Scootaloo minded it only little over all the pains that had spread across her body.

The only fortunate thing was that she lost sensitivity in all of her limbs, probably thanks to all of her strolls that she had taken that day. It was rather strange to be walking around without feeling her legs or wings, but to Scootaloo it was the least of her worries, because she finally started to realize that all those symptoms combines could only be a result of a very nasty sickness. And that poisoned the rest of her cheerfulness with bitterness, because, no matter the actual reason, she still hated being ill.

The place where she was heading was actually a small glade, lying in the Everfree forest beyond the northern orchid of Sweet Apple Acres. The proximity of the Apples’ farmhouse abashed all of the dangerous woodland creatures, while it still allowed for a stealthy passage.

Scootaloo passed the sign welcoming ponies, coming from the woods, to Ponyville and thought of the distance she had yet to walk. Normally it would be nothing but a nice, long stroll for her, but now just getting home presented her with a challenge, let alone walking all the way to the Sweet Apple Acres and then half that distance back.

However, Scootaloo was naturally stubborn just like anypony in the town when it came to their routines, so she decided to temporarily switch her mind off and surmount the distance just by automatically putting one hoof in front of the other.

Diving into this state, the time itself seemed to lose its importance, since Scootaloo reached the main gate of Sweet Apple Acres without even noticing she had left the town. However, at this point of her stroll she needed to start paying attention to avoid being spotted.

The immediate return of her former condition made it really hard to keep up her guard, though. Fortunately, northern orchids served only as a supply of apples for cider seasons, so only scarcely one could see an Apple there, checking on the trees’ condition.

Upon passing the main gate, she furtively took a quick turn right and continued on a small pebble road around the orchid. She was walking alone in an absolute silence broken only by a mild breeze in the treetops.

On her left were small hills littered with apple trees of all shapes and sizes, casting one big shadow on the road Scootaloo was taking. On her right was much messier and much darker Everfree forest, whose trees towered much higher than any of the apple trees in the orchid, but none of them looked nearly as appealing.

Scootaloo always thought the Everfree forest was affected by some ancient curse that turned it into this dreadful, dark place. Ponies were afraid of walking anywhere near its borders and traded terrifying stories of monsters living there.

Pegasi had their share of those stories represented in many various legends they heeded so much, and so Scootaloo was always filled with mixture of recognition and anxiety when she saw the tall, wild trees.

After five tremendously long minutes she reached a little turning with a long, white fence on her right and followed it until she saw its more worn part where she usually entered the forest.

On the other side of the fence was a precipice covered in low-growing bushes and bracken, but it wasn’t too steep for Scootaloo to slip. She still had to be careful, though.

She reached her little spot and inconspicuously looked around herself to ensure she wasn’t being watched by any prying eyes, and then she leaped over the fence as quickly as she could, almost immediately disappearing in the low bushes.

Over the years she has been walking here, she created a small path amongst the trees, thorny bushes and the vines that were better to be evaded, but she always had a little trouble finding it, since the forest was growing much faster than anything else she had ever seen.

Her trip through the forest took her another ten minutes of a painful reality, since her symptoms were getting worse by the minute, and since her lack of concentration caused her some pretty deep cuts on her sides and neck. But neither of those could prevent her from reaching her goal now.

Clearing the last trees, she finally spotted what she yearned for the most - the little glade with trees around it in a perfect circle, and a small, peaceful waterfall filled with cool, fresh water just in front of her.

Scootaloo slowly walked over to the small lagoon the waterfall created, thanking the goddess for giving her the strength to make it here. The short grass, barely reaching her ankles, felt like a smooth carpet, muting the clapping of her hooves as she walked.

Scootaloo wasn’t exactly an order-heeding pony, but she never hesitated to devote an hour of her time to eat the grass here a little bit, or to remove a broken branch from the nearby trees to preserve this little place as best as she could.

Truth be told, she often felt tempted to share this big secret of hers with her friends or family, but she never tried to tell them again since her brother told her to keep those greatest secrets for herself.

Walking slowly in front of the lagoon, she already fixed her senses onto the mass of falling water in front of her; its sounds, colors, smell, touch of water droplets forming on her face, was like a catalyst that immediately blew away every weight from her heart.

She lay on her belly just at the edge of the lagoon and finally closed her burning eyes, letting the serenity of this place free her from all the frustrations and troubles she felt, even though she knew it didn’t have the power to cure her cold.

The grass was softer of any blanket she ever held in her hooves, and it too intensified the feeling of relaxation to the point Scootaloo’s head emptied itself of any thoughts, and she almost fell asleep.

The water started soaking her feathers, since her fever fluffed them all up, but she couldn’t complain about it, because the vaporizing water actually took away most of her body heat and thus eased the fever a lot.

Lying on the shores of the little lagoon, she slowly drifted away, leaving even her distressed condition out of the reach of her mind, but eventually an intensifying thirst pulled her back into the word of wakeful.

Her throat was sore, so it probably wasn’t the best idea to be drinking from the ice-cold lagoon, but it was still better than thirst in any way imaginable. Scootaloo decided to take just small sips and to warm the water in her mouth before swallowing it, but the water was actually even colder than she thought, so she quickly took a just few gulps instead.

As she was drinking, she suddenly heard a sound of cracking branches somewhere from behind her. Immediately she perked up and scanned the area the sound originated from, but she could see nothing.

Usually, she would relax after a while, thinking that the sound was nothing but the breeze in the treetops, but this time she had a weird feeling of being watched.

Feeling it at school was absolutely normal with Diamond Tiara around, but here, amidst the trees with nopony to watch her, it was rather upsetting to notice that the feeling have persisted.

Slowly she let her guard, but she didn’t dare to take another sip from the lagoon, or to close her eyes again. The feeling could have been weak, but ponies learned to trust their instincts over the ages.

Once again she relaxed, even though she chose not to reach the same level of relaxation as before. It was still enough for her to release the tension in all of her muscles, but it wasn’t to last much longer.

In a few minutes a powerful sound of thunder startled her almost into jumping up in fright as she didn’t expect to hear it so soon. This place always made her to ignore the time, but she usually didn’t mind it… Now she did.

With dread in her eyes she looked up onto the dark skies, where the storm was already prepared and about to start raining down tons of cold water onto everything that wasn’t shielded from its outrage.

The thunder usually meant last ten minutes before the rain, and Scootaloo would really hate to get wet with her feathers all fluffed up like this, so, loosing no time, she stood up as quickly as she could and ran home, giving the glade one last glance.

Despite running as fast as her legs allowed her to, she still wasn’t fast enough to make it before the storm began. As a result, she entered her house breathless, soaked, and in pain of sort she never thought she could withstand.

Her legs were shaking furiously, but she couldn’t feel them anymore through the coldness; she was breathing like crazy, but she couldn’t fill her lounges with enough air to ease the burning in her chest; her heart was buzzing to supply all her muscles with oxygen she couldn’t get, and her belly was floating through her body, making her dizzy and nauseous.

If she had doubts before, she was absolutely sure of being sick now. There simply was no way this could end up with a simple cold or anything similarly harmless. And that only made her angry at herself for being unable to watch the time.

Bitterly she limped to the bathroom to wash the mud and water off herself and to warm up with some hot water. She had showered or bathed hardly a few times in her life thanks to her feathers, but luckily she still knew how to use a bath.

After she got out of the shower, she dried herself up and then proceeded to much less tempting task of drying the floor in her house she had stained when walking to the bathroom. Fortunately, neither her brother nor her father was home yet, and so she was in no danger of being punished for it, at least.

Half an hour after her arrival home, she crawled into her room and gratefully collapsed onto her bed, closing her burning eyes with feeling of bliss that spread all across her body. The dripping of the water lulled her to sleep in just a few seconds; she didn’t even pull the blanked over her.

It is not flu

Next morning was even worse than the day before. Scootaloo’s head was spinning and aching like set on fire. In fact, her entire body was aching except for the wings which probably already gave upon the pain.

Her swollen throat would hardly allow her to swallow any larger gulp, if she could get out of the bed to fetch some food. Quite ironically, she was now much hungrier and thirstier than she was when healthy.

Then, of course, there was the fever. Not only Scootaloo felt like a fluffy ball, but she was also quite smelly thanks to the sweating. It was rather agitating for her, because she wasn’t used to smelling herself like this, not even from her previous sicknesses.

She tried to get up, because as much as her back and neck resisted, she still needed to eat and drink at least a little bit, but it was hardly a surprise to see that no matter the effort, she could merely sit up, let alone walking to the kitchen and making herself a meal.

Her eyes immediately aimed for her nightstand table where she noticed a small sheet of paper, a plate with sandwiches and a cup of tea, all arranged for her to notice it.

Despite being hungry and thirsty, she picked up the little sheet of paper first, put it close to her eyes, and read it. It was still a challenge for her tired, bloodshot eyes to recognize the letters even on such a small distance.

Good morning, Scootaloo,

Yesterday I came to check you to your room and you looked really bad. I assume you could use a few days in bed and also a breakfast and hot tea. I placed it all on you bedside table so be careful not to spill the tea on you, it is hot.

I need to go to the town hall for a meeting, but I will be home soon.

I love you,

Dad.

As soon as Scootaloo read this letter, she felt just a little bit better. Not that she was healthy again, her body was still aching like hell, but at least her heart was uplifted.

Scootaloo picked up one of the sandwiches and slowly ate it. It was nothing difficult to chew or swallow, and she was grateful for that, because every swallow hurt her terribly. Then she drank her tea; it was still warm, though not hot. And Scootaloo felt much better now, when she ate and drank something.

The quick glance on the wall clock revealed her that she slept more than twelve hours, which made her miss the visiting hours in the hospital before Rainbow Dash would be released home. That made her head drop back onto her pillow in regrets and ever persisting weariness.

“Whatever, I’ll go see her later,” she thought to herself then, “I am in no condition to be strolling in the town, anyway.”

She closed her eyes again, and almost immediately felt the darkness pulling her consciousness away. She was far too exhausted to put up any fight, but she wouldn’t even if she could; sleep was the only relief from the pain she had right then.

Three hours later a gentle knock on the door woke her up. She wasn’t certain whether she really heard it or was just hearing things, but soon one more knock on the door proved the truth.

“Come in, dad,” she called in her hoarse tone, but to her surprise she saw a face of a little, yellow filly instead of her father’s to peak into the room.

“Oh c’mon, Apple Bloom!!” Scootaloo coughed, “You shouldn’t have come here! Now you are gonna get sick too!”

“Scootaloo, ah work all day in the fields! Some flu will not get under my skin! Besides, your father said you could probably use some company,” Apple Bloom replied, letting Sweetie Belle inside.

Scootaloo curled deeper in her bed embarrassed that her friends can see her sick like that, and said: “Great, dad told everypony, didn’t he?! That’s so typical!”

“Also, we bought you some vitamins, you might need them,” Sweetie Belle added, and placed some oranges and apples on her bedside table. She also picked up an empty plate and cup and brought them down to the kitchen.

“So, how are you feeling?” Apple Bloom asked after Sweetie Belle left in her southern accent.

“I am sick, Apple Bloom, that’s a bad question!” Scootaloo said skeptically.

“Ah know, but ah though about how bad it actually is,” Apple Bloom asked again, this time with more clarity.

Scootaloo sighed and answered in an annoyed tone: “Well, I have a headache, my entire body is in pain, and the fewer makes my coat vaporizing! Are you happy now!?”

“Ok, ok! I can tell you are not feeling that well,” Apple Bloom said and let the sick pegasus relax a bit.

Few moments after, Sweetie Belle entered the room again, carrying a new cup of hot tea. She placed it next to the fruit, however she needed to make some place first, so she removed a pencil case and an old photograph from the nightstand table, and put them onto Scootaloo’s work desk.

“Thanks, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo thanked, her grumpiness washing away.

“You are welcome,” she replied simply and looked back at the table, but continued after a while of scanning the old photo, “Scootaloo, who is this pony, I have never seen her in the Ponyville before?”

Scootaloo gazed upon the table to see who Sweetie Belle was referring to, but then her eyes set on the old photograph and her expression changed drastically. She hesitated for a while as if it could hurt her; old memories were definitely bound to this photo as well as no small amount of pain.

After a while of silence she spoke: “That’s my mom.”

Faces of both her friends were displaying their initial shock, but Apple Bloom very soon switched to a rather angry expression and aimed it towards Sweetie Belle.

“I am sorry, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle apologized immediately.

“No need to,” Scootaloo replied simply, “You meant no harm.”

Hearing the tone of the sick pegasus, Apple Bloom was desperately searching for anything that could change the topic of discussion a bit and cheer her friend up a little bit, because she could pretty well say what was she feeling right then.

Then her gaze fell down on the floor and she spontaneously shouted happily with a little orange pinion in her hooves: “Hey look! I found a feather!”

“Yeah, that is going to be mine, but keep it if you want. Pegasi feathers represent the true freedom,” Scootaloo said uninterested, but happy for something else to talk about.

“There is another one,” Sweetie Belle said, pointing on the floor and following Apple Bloom’s example for the moment.

“Girls, this is a room of a pegasus; there will probably be tons of small feathers on the ground,” Scootaloo replied with a small chuckle on her face.

“Yes, but… There weren’t any feathers around here yesterday,” Sweetie Belle thoughtfully pointed out and Apple Bloom nodded after a short consideration.

Scootaloo’s face suddenly sobered, she overcame the pain in her back, sat up and looked on the ground. There really were a lot more feathers than it should be. Both, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked rather confused, but Scootaloo had an expression of a fearful anxiety.

“Every pegasus loses a feather or two every once in a while…” she said, pointing on the ground, “These are my flight pinions…”

Then her pupils shrunk with the fear of realization. She slowly turned her head to look on her wings, but the sight made her unable to talk or move as her breath got stuck in her throat.

“What is it Scootaloo?!” Apple Bloom tried to reach for Scootaloo’s mind through the obvious shock, but Scootaloo was not responding.

After a moment of waiting for her reply, Sweetie Belle decided to force her way around Apple Bloom and look herself, however when she did make her way to the bedside, she too lost her speech over what she saw.

“What is it?!!” Apple Bloom barked suddenly, because none of her friends was answering her, and then she pulled the cover off of Scootaloo only to unleash a furious shower of thousands small feathers.

“What in the hay…” she said, still unable to understand what was going on, “This can’t be normal!”

Scootaloo lost a considerable amount of her feathers and mane all over her body, but worst were her wings which were completely bare of any coat that used to cover them.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle joined her, “Some cold wouldn’t make all of your feathers fall off like that! What is wrong with you?!”

“I… I…” Scootaloo was unable to say a word.

“Scootaloo, talk to us!” Sweetie Belle anxiously shouted to snap her friend out of her state, “What do we do?!”

Scootaloo slowly turned her head and said: “I need to go to the hospital!”

Her voice was full of fear and pain of her body, but there was something else… There was some other pain that could just be noticed in her watering eyes, when she looked at her friends through the veil of a mortal fear.

Another quick knock on the door echoed and doors opened. Through them was peering a grey head with a short, black mane.

“Ah, girls. I thought I heard…” he stopped, when he noticed Scootaloo’s scared look.

He opened the door entirely in one quick swing, looked at his daughter, and asked anxiously: “Scootaloo, what’s wrong?!!”

Scootaloo slowly turned her head towards him and showed her hooves full of feathers. Her father’s face lost all of its color in a blink of an eye.

“It came back,” Scootaloo said in an absently quiet voice.

“No, no, no, no! No this again!” her father muttered, trying to pick his daughter from the bed, “C’mon Scootaloo, we need to go to the hospital!!”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle blindly followed them downstairs and then all the way across the town to the hospital, even though they had little troubles keeping up with the grown-up stallion.

One question though kept irking their minds, along with other fears and anxiety, and that question was: ‘Again’??