Over in Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash was busy finishing up some work as weather patrol manager. The last few clouds that afternoon, had been cleared away so that Celestia's sun could shine brightly above Ponyville even more without anything getting in the way.
"Finally," the rainbow maned pegasus sighed to herself, "Now maybe I can get home and relax."
As she was exiting the factory hand getting ready to head home to her cloudominum, she accidentally bumped into somepony, and the two fell over on their flanks. Since they were both standing on cloudy matter, they were not injured.
"Oof!" she groaned, and then recomposed herself. "Oh, sorry about that, buddy."
"It's alright, it's alright..." The stranger sighed, brushing his coat.
Rainbow Dash then looked up at the huge stallion who looked much bigger than her, his coat was light gamboge, and his greyish tangelo mane covered his eyes.
Two other pegasi stallions were with him, one with a dark greyish brown coat and an amberish grey mane that also covered his eyes albeit slightly, and the other, a Persian bluish grey coat and a reddish brownish grey mane that like the bigger one, also covered his eyes.
They each had individual and respective cutie marks of three basketballs, a steel barbell, and three footballs...
"Hoops? Dumb-Bell? Score?" Rainbow Dash asked, surprised to see her former fillyhood bullies, whom she hadn't had seen since the Young Fliers Competition.
"Well, well well, long time no see, Rainbow Crash." Hoops smirked, using the old nickname he and his pals would always call her back in foalhood, this time rather playfully.
His friends, Dumb-Bell, and Score chuckled to themselves.
"Very funny," Rainbow Dash laughed sarcastically. "Old habits, seem to die hard with you guys, eh?"
"Aw, lighten up, Dashie," Dumb-Bell said, changing the subject. "Hey, we saw you in one of the latest articles of that newspaper, the Foal Free Press. The stuff they've been writing's full of pretty neat and funny stuff! Like this one!"
Hoops pulled out a copy of the Foal Free Press and pointed to the front page, which had a picture of Rainbow Dash getting a hooficure at the spa.
"Who knew you were sometimes in touch with your feminine side, Crash?" Hoops teased. He and the others started laughing even harder as if it was the funniest joke ever told.
"Get that thing away from me, Hoops." Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I don't want to talk about it. And I already gave those jerks involved with Gabby Gums what for for printing that stupid story!"
"That's funny," Dumb-Bell said, raising an eyebrow. "Word around Cloudsdale is that you once mentioned that you wouldn't mind it if there was a story printed about you! This was the best you could get, or was that not enough?"
Rainbow Dash remembered mentioning to her friends that she wouldn't mind it if Gabby Gums wrote a story about her.
"Yeah, but... I didn't want them to tell this story!" she complained. "Now every pony thinks I'm a huge softy!"
"Well, there's an old saying, Crash," said Hoops with the others joining in briefly. "Wise stallions say, 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it and it just might kick you in the flank.'"
"Well, thankfully, they're not getting another story from me. I made sure of that!"
"Oh, really?" Hoops asked.
"Yeah," the sky blue pegasus said rather proudly. "I dumped some rainwater on those troublesome little fillies when they came by asking for another story."
The three stallions all froze.
"Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa... WHAT?!" Hoops gasped, his front bangs flared up to reveal his eyes filled with immediate shock. "You took your anger out on three little fillies?! That's pretty low, Crash, and that's coming from the guys who used to pick on you and Fluttershy all the time at 'Junior Speedsters Flight Camp'."
Rainbow stood silent for a moment, surprised at his reaction. "But I..."
"They're just fillies! Foals! Children!" Dumb Bell shouted, disgusted at Rainbow's confession. "All foals make mistakes, but they don't all do them out of malice! I even heard that one of them was somepony who practically worships the living Tartarus out of you, she must be so crushed by now! Looks like you've not only already lost your fanbase and your reputation, not just as yourself but as a hero to every pony in Equestria! I guess it's true what they say, 'Hero worship is unhealthy sometimes'."
The trio turned away from Rainbow with a indignant snort, ready to take off for home themselves, but then Hoops turned his head back to say, "Y 'know, if we really wanted to, we'd dump one of those storm clouds all over you and see how you like it!"
"Yeah! Smell ya later, Rainbow Crash!" said Score.
And with that, Hoops, Dumb-Bell, and Score flew off, laughing to themselves.
Rainbow Dash herself was left to fly home as well, as she headed towards her cloudy home in the sky, the events of yesterday clouded her mind.
She remembered how angry she acted towards the Crusaders when they came by to ask for another story, and over something she technically brought onto herself, she could almost envision Scootaloo running away from the cloud alongside her friends, crying in guilt and heartbreak yet Rainbow Dash herself didn't notice then. This made the sky blue pegasus' heart shrivel up in guilt, as she also remembered her own words and the words Hoops and his friends had spoken to her, and they were right.
Once Rainbow Dash had reached the door to her house, just as she was about to open the door and get inside, something had caught her eye.
An envelope with a letter inside had been left on her doorstep, yet it was opened and the letter wasn't addressed to her.
Rainbow Dash pulled out the letter and read it slowly in the sunlight, it was a letter addressed to Scootloo's parents and her two aunts back home down in Ponyville. The message read:
Dear Mom, Dad, and Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty,
These past 6 years of love you've all given me have been the best of my life, however with recent events and with all of Ponyville against us, me and my two other friends have decided that we can't stay where nopony else wants us, and we must move on.
Don't bother to come looking for me, I will be fine and maybe someday I will come back to visit. But for now, by the time you read this, I will be far, far, far away with my friends, and by now we have found a new place to live in, especially where there are no hotheaded, pigheaded, egotistical pegasi to dump rainwater on us for something so ridiculous as a gossip column.
Sincerely,
Your loving daughter and niece, Scootaloo (At least until my new family renames me)
After reading the letter, Rainbow Dash was filled with shock and guilt. Because of her selfish, petty, egotistical feelings, she had driven the one pony who truly looked up to her and wanted to be like her when she matured into marehood away.
But there was something else that she noticed upon looking down below where she had opened the letter, another piece of paper had fallen out, it was a note, written in crayon, presumably from Scootaloo's mother, or one of her two aunts. This message read:
You just couldn't let it go, couldn't you? Well, I hope you're proud of yourself and that raincloud of yours too!
Rainbow Dash turned the paper over to find that the message was written on a picture of her and Scootaloo at Sugarcube Corner when she made an appearance for her fan club. The entire photo was crossed out in marker with a big red X on it, right where Rainbow's face was.
All Rainbow Dash could do was stand there, overcome with guilt. Said guilt was crushing her soul as if she had been hit with a ton of bricks.
Not only did she lose her temper at three little fillies, but now as a consequence, she had now lost her number one fan and friend she had known for some time.
As her eyes welled up with shame, all Rainbow Dash could quietly whisper was, "Scootaloo... what have I done?"
Next thing she knew, she was flying off from her home, her mind racing in panic for she knew she had to do something, anything to fix this.
I wonder if the others know she's gone... she thought to herself.