Scootaloo was surprised when she suddenly felt a pair of forelegs wrapped around her body, she looked up to see Rainbow giving her a hug and blinked a little.
"Its okay Scootaloo, we knew it was a long shot," she said with a reassuring smile and nuzzled her gently. "Don't let it get you down, you're still a great pony, you don't have to fly for that to be true."
"You really think so?" Scootaloo asked with a sniff.
"We all do," Twilight said with a smile as she trotted over to them. "Scootaloo, you don't have to fly to be a good pony or princess. Heck I can still barely fly and I'm an Alicorn."
"Thanks Twilight," Scootaloo said with a weak smile. "Still, I can't help but feel dissapointed about this... I'm going to go clear my head a little, I just need to be alone."
She releases the hug and walks off out one of the doors. Rainbow sighed a little as she watched her go before looking at Twilight.
"Should I go with her?" She asked.
"Honestly Rainbow, I don't know, maybe you should at least keep an eye on her, but she needs some time to think."
Rainbow nodded and after a few minutes went out the door, she just hoped that she'd be able to help Scootaloo, or at least that somepony would be able to.
"Is Scootaloo going to be okay, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked as she looked at her sister with a worried look on her face.
"Honestly dear, I don't know," Rarity admitted. "Scootaloo is a strong pony, I'm sure that she'll be okay, but... I don't know to be honest,this won't be easy on her."
"Ya'll will just have ta make sure yer there fer her," Applejack added and the two fillies nodded.
00000
Scootaloo sighed as she walked down one of the hallways, while she knew that she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up, some part of her had really thought that this was going to let her fly. She sighed as she looked around the hall, there were a few stained glass windows here and there, but she didn't pay them much attention. She wondered what Discord was going to say, he had done all of this to help her, but it hadn't helped as much as he had hoped.
"What bothers you Scootaloo?" A voice asked and she looked up surprised to see Luna looking at her with a worried look on her face.
"Well, umm... I tried to fly today," Scootaloo said as she looked up at the older Alicorn. "I just wound up falling on my face like I always do. I feel so useless, I can't even fly when I'm an Alicorn, what's even the point? I won't be able to help ponies or be a princess or..."
"Scootaloo, calm down," Luna said and put a wing around Scootaloo. "Just because you cannot fly, that does not mean you cannot make great contributions to Equestria. Many ponies have been able to do so despite such things, so do not let yourself get down just because of it."
"Many ponies?" Scootaloo asked as she tilted her head in confusion. "Like who?"
"Come with me Scootaloo," Luna said as she walked down the hallway, Scootaloo blinked a little bit before following her. She turned down another hall that had more stained glass windows with images of ponies and cutie marks.
"Who are all these ponies?" Scootaloo asked as she examined each of them in turn. "Are they great ponies throughout Equestria's history or something?"
"I suppose you could say that, many of them made contributions to Equestria, but all of them..." Luna started to say before drifting off for a moment. "They were ponies that were close to myself and Celestia over our long lives, that have long passed on."
Scootaloo looked up at her sadly for a long moment as she nodded in understanding. She wondered if she was going to be immortal now, would she have to bury Rainbow Dash and her friends too?
If she did, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle that.
They finally came to a stop in front of a stained glass window with a strange flower pained into it. Instead of the usual bloom it had ice crystals that resembled a snowflake. Scootaloo looked at it for a long moment as if she was trying to recognize it, she felt like she had seen it somewhere before, but she couldn't place it.
"Do you know the story of the first snowflake?" Luna asked as she looked at Scootaloo who just shrugged. "A long time ago, before I became Nightmare Moon, there was a filly who was not much older than you named Snowdrop. She was a Pegasus whose class was to create gifts for myself and Celestia for the Spring, but instead she created the first snowflake out of ice. She wanted to allow the snow to grant wishes like the stars could, so she brought the gift before us."
As Luna was speaking tears began to well up in her eyes as she remembered Snowdrop. Scootaloo looked up at Luna and realized what was going on, Luna had been banished before Snowdrop had passed away. Luna had never gotten to say goodbye, so she had been grieving for her lost friend ever since returning.
"I am sorry Scootaloo, it is hard to think about these things," Luna said and was surprised when Scootaloo hugged her and she smiled a little and hugged the filly back. "Thank you Scootaloo."
"You're welcome Luna," Scootaloo said with a smile, she was actually feeling a little better, though she had to wonder why Luna had brought her here specifically. "Umm, why tell me this though? If you don't mind me asking."
"Of course not, my apologies for not being more specific, you see Snowdrop was blind," Luna said as she released the hug gently. "She spent her whole life unable to see, but she didn't let that stop her from giving a great gift to Equestria. You do not have to be able to fly or see or even speak to make contributions Scootaloo, you are a good pony who has a lot to give to Equestria, you must never allow your disability to get in the way of that."
Scootaloo smiled at that and nodded in understanding. "Thanks Luna, that really helped a lot, you're awesome."
"Of course Scootaloo, you are going to be a great Princess one day," Luna said with a smile. "You do not need to be able to fly in order to do that, all you have to do is be the best pony you can be."
"I'll do my best," Scootaloo said with a smile as she started to walk back towards the dining room before looking back at Luna. "Luna... I'm sorry you didn't get to say goodbye to Snowdrop. I wish I could have known her, she sounds like a great Pony."
"She was, and I believe that you two would have gotten along wonderfully," Luna said. "Now go on, I'm sure your friends are worried about you, I will see you again later."
Scootaloo smiled and waved a hoof at Luna before running off again. Luna sighed as she took one last look at the stained glass window as she started to cry again. She was surprised to feel a foreleg wrapped around her neck and she looked to see Celestia looking at her reassuringly.
"She was a good pony Luna, she always believed that there was still good in you as well," Celestia said as she reassured her sister. "Even in her final days, her thoughts were of you."
"I just wish that I had been able to see her one last time," Luna said sadly as she shook her head. "She did not deserve what I put her through."
"No she did not, but she is still alive," Celestia said, and pointed at Luna's heart. "She's alive in you, as long as you remember her, she will never die."
Luna smiled and the two sisters parted again to return to their duties.
00000
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Sweetie Belle said as they got ready for bed, the CMC were spending the night together in Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash's quarters. "Are you going to be okay with, you know..."
"I'll be okay, its not going to be easy, but I'll manage," Scootaloo said with a smile. "Besides Luna helped me feel better about the whole thing, I'll be fine now."
"Well, Ah'm glad she helped yah out," Apple Bloom said with a smile as she and Sweetie Belle hugged Scootaloo. "Ah'm sure that yah will be able ta figure somethin' out."
"Besides, you're the future Princess of Crusading, you'll do fine," Sweetie Belle said and Scootaloo facehooved.
"Sweetie Belle, we still don't know what I'll be the Princess of yet," Scootaloo said as Sweetie Belle giggled. "And all this speculating isn't getting us anywhere, we'll find out when we find out."
"Hey, whatever yer gonna be Princess of, Ah'm sure it'll be somethin' cool," Apple Bloom said with a smile.
"Yeah, you're a cool filly, so that would make sense," Sweetie Belle pointed out and then chuckled. "Just wait until Diamond Tiara finds out, she's going to freak!"
Scootaloo laughed at the idea of Diamond Tiara's reaction, even though she was now their friend, she was definitely going to freak out as soon as she found out. They smiled and let go as Rainbow Dash came up to the three of them.
"Okay girls, its time for bed, you don't want to be tired tomorrow," Rainbow said with a smile, she was glad that Scootaloo was happy again as she ruffled the filly's mane.
"Aww, do we have to?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yes, you do," Rainbow said. "Now come on, get ready for bed and I'll read you the next chapter of Daring Do like I promised."
She smiled as the three fillies ran off to get ready for bed and went back into Scootaloo's room in order to get the book. It felt like everything was getting back to normal at least, she just had to hope that everything was going to be okay.
When the fillies came in and laid down on the bed, Rainbow took a seat next to the bed and started reading the book out loud.
"As Daring Do started to run away from the pedestal, there was the sound of crashing coming from behind her as a massive boulder came rolling right at her..."
00000
The rest of the night passed quietly, Rainbow Dash unusually for her was the first one to wake up. She wanted to make sure that everything was okay, so she checked in on the fillies. She couldn't help but smile as they were sleeping calmly, Scootaloo had a smile on her face, so not wanting to disturb them Rainbow went back to the main room.
She was surprised when there was a knock on the door, expecting it to be one of her friends she was surprised to find that it was the mare that had come to her home for the foster process.
"Uh, can I help you miss..." Rainbow said, she realized that she couldn't remember the mare's name.
"Silver Lining, I'm here to follow up on your foster work with Miss. Scootaloo," Silver Lining said as she looked Rainbow over. "We received a letter today stating that you don't want to be her foster parent anymore. I admit I was confused by this, so I wanted to speak with you about it before anything is done."
Rainbow blinked at that, what did that mean? Rainbow hadn't sent any messages to them at all, what was going on?