Rainbow Dash was sitting in Fluttershy's cottage on the outskirts of Ponyville. She leaned on Fluttershy's shoulder while she cried. Normally, it was Rainbow Dash who was there for Fluttershy and was a shoulder for her to cry on. This was one of the rare cases when it was Fluttershy's turn to repay the favor. The two had been like this ever since Rainbow showed up at her friend's door crying, nearly an hour ago, and Fluttershy had quickly brought her inside and sat down with her.
Soon enough, Rainbow's sobs began to grow weaker, and eventually just turned into quiet sniffles, while she leaned on her friend for support. "Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy began tentatively, hoping that her friend's crying was over for now. "Do you... umm, maybe want to tell me what happened now?"
Rainbow sat up and wiped her eyes before responding hesitantly. She was by no means doing better, but she had at least gotten all of that crying out of her system. "W-why?" she began, confusing Fluttershy. She was about to respond and let Dash know that she was just worried about her before Dash began again. "Why did she do it? I-I thought I was her bigger sister that she looked up to." Rainbow looked up into her friend's eyes, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes once again. It hurt Fluttershy seeing her friend like this. It would have hurt her to see any of her friends like this, but seeing Rainbow Dash, the strongest, most confident pony she knew of, who would never shed a single tear around other ponies, completely helpless and sad like this, made Fluttershy more than just a little worried. "W-was I not a good sister to Scootalloo? Did I f-fail h-her?" Rainbow asked, with genuine curiosity and sadness in her voice.
"What! Of course, you were! You were probably the best big sister you could ever be to that little filly. I don't see why you would ever think otherwise." Fluttershy was getting very concerned now. Did something happen to Scootalloo? Why did Rainbow wonder if she was a good sister to her or not? Everypony who saw them knew that.
Rainbow let out a pained sigh before answering. "She..." Rainbow trailed off, not quite sure how to break the news to her timid pegasus friend.
"What? What did she do? Is she okay? Did something happen to her?" Fluttershy asked her friend, now more concerned than ever.
"I... I think you should just come with me. I'll explain on the way." Rainbow stood up and started to walk out of the cottage. Fluttershy stood up slowly to follow after her friend, not calming down at all in the process. The two walked in silence for a minute before Rainbow finally began to explain to her friend, now more confidently than before. "This afternoon, after you left Twilight's castle, I stayed behind a little longer to help Twilight research where Scootalloo lived. We found out... she was... homeless."
Fluttershy blanched and stopped mid-step. Rainbow, noticing this, turned around to face her friend. "I-I can't... believe this. That poor little filly. She must have been so alone, so scared." Fluttershy began walking again, albeit much slower than before, and Rainbow did as well, changing her pace so as not to leave her friend behind.
"Sadly... I guess you're right. I never saw it in her, but she must have been so alone and sad, but I still don't get why she did what she did. I mean she had her friends, she had me. She could have come to me." They were right outside the hospital now, and Rainbow stopped and turned towards the large building.
"D-Dash... what did she do?" Fluttershy asked, now seriously concerned for the well-being of the little pegasus filly.
Dash sighed. "Why don't we go have a seat first? You probably need to sit down to hear this."
***
Scootalloo's eyes fluttered open. "Uggghhh. Where am I?" Scootalloo thought out loud. She heard a gasp from somewhere nearby, before a pink mane brushed across her face as she was pulled into a loving embrace by a clearly distraught Fluttershy. "Fluttershy?" the filly asked quietly, "Where am I?"
Fluttershy pulled away from the hug and brushed her pink mane out of her eyes as she smiled warmly at the filly below her. "You're gonna be okay now." She said kindly. "It's all gonna be okay now." She lifted Scootallo back up into another hug, which was gladly returned. Something about Fluttershy's caring embrace felt comforting to the filly. It made her almost believe what the yellow pegasus mare had said.
"Is Rainbow Dash here?" Scootalloo asked hopefully, perking up almost instantly at the thought of possibly seeing her idol. Fluttershy giggled, "Of course she's here. She's sleeping on the floor. You've been asleep for two days." Scootalloo's jaw dropped at this, Fluttershy didn't notice though. Had she really been asleep for 2 days? She didn't even know that was possible. "You should've seen Rainbow, she would not go to sleep until you woke up." Fluttershy continued "I kept telling her that she needed sleep, but she wasn't having any of it. She eventually just dropped in the middle of the room from exhaustion." Scootalloo chuckled at this. That was her stubborn sister alright.
Fluttershy walked back over to the foot of Scootalloo's bed where she had been lying next to a sleeping Rainbow Dash with a wing over her back. She bent down and nuzzled the cyan mare. "Dash, it's time to wake up," she said softly.
Rainbow groaned and rolled over. "Five more minutes mom," she said sleepily. Scootalloo and Fluttershy both laughed at the tired mare's behavior. Rainbow was clearly more tired than they thought.
"Dash, wake up." Fluttershy bent down and nuzzled the sleeping pegasus again, this time waking the mare from her slumber.
"Uggghhh," Dash groaned. "What is it? It's too early to get up." She said as she stood up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She scanned the room for a second, trying to remember where she was when her eyes fell upon the now awake pegasus filly that she called her sister. It came back to her like a ton of bricks hitting her in the chest. What had happened the previous day, why they were even in the hospital in the first place, and probably the worst of all, the feeling that she had failed her sister. She let a tear trail down her face as she walked up to the pegasus filly and hugged her tight. Scootaloo hugged her back.
The two just sat there, shedding silent tears for a moment, until Rainbow broke the hug and pulled away to look her sister in the eyes. "Scoots, I just want you to know how glad I am that you are okay. You scared me really bad the other day. Why would you even go and do something like that?" by this point, Scootaloo had begun to cry, and Dash let out a pained sigh. "Look Squirt, I'm not mad. I just want to know why. Don't you know how much I would miss you? How much your parents would miss y—"
"My parents don't want me!" Scootaloo shouted, catching her idol off guard. "A-and neither does anypony else. All I
c-can think about is how much of a d-disappointment I am to my parents, a-and t-to you." Scootaloo was bawling her eyes out by this point, her head buried in her hooves, and barely able to get words out through her crying.
"Hey! You are not a disappointment, and you never will be! Especially to me! I don't speak for your parents, but they would have to be crazy not to be proud of such an awesome filly as you," Rainbow said, after the shock of what her little sister had said wore off.
"R-really?" Scootaloo asked weakly through her sniffling.
"Of course you silly filly. You're the coolest little filly I know." Rainbow replied with a warm smile.
Scootaloo lit up for a minute at the compliment, but then her face dropped once again. "But I can't fly. My parents got rid of me because I couldn't fly, and how do I know that you don’t think less of me because of it?” Scootaloo asked, tears once again forming in the corners of her eyes.
“Scootaloo! I would never think less of you for not flying. Just because I’m a good flyer, doesn’t mean you have to be. You’re your own pony, and you are special in so many ways.”
“R-really?” The scared filly asked timidly, almost sounding like Fluttershy.
“Of course Squirt. I love you more than anything in the world, and nothing could ever change that.
Scootaloo was wrapped up into a big, loving hug, as she buried her face into her sister’s chest. She finally felt like someone cared. Her fears that nearly drove her to do the unthinkable were finally fading away for the first time in what felt like years. The filly let a few small tears fall down her face as she hugged her big sis. These were not the tears of sadness she so often cried though, and instead, ones of joy. “I love you, sis.” She said, her voice muffled by the Cyan fur of the Pegasus mare.
“I love you too Squirt,” Rainbow said sweetly. She was glad she could be there for her sister when she needed her the most. She knew that they weren’t done talking about this and that she would need the full story so she knew whose flanks to kick for abandoning such an awesome little filly, but for now, there were much more important things to attend to.
“So Scoots, where have you been living all this time?” Rainbow asked, truly curious about her sisters living arrangements.
“Well,” Scootaloo said, pulling away from the hug. “I’ve mostly just slept in the clubhouse at nights, and at my friends' houses when we had sleepovers. Before we had the clubhouse though I was mostly out on the streets.” Scootalloo let out a sad sigh.
Dash noticed this and asked, “What's wrong Scoots?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking about having to go back there when I get out of here. It’s usually pretty cold, and anything but comfortable.”
“Who said you had to?” Rainbow asked, a mischievous smirk spreading across her face.
“What do you mean? But I thought—" Scootalloo paused, her eyes growing wide, "y-you don't mean..."
"Of course I do Squirt. You're coming home with me. I can't just let my little sis live on the streets can I?" Scootalloo's eyes grew wide in excitement as Dash said this. The little pegasus filly jumped forward and enveloped Dash in a hug, which she gladly returned. "Love you Scoots."
"Love you too, sis." Scoots buried her head into her sister's chest, just enjoying the warmth of her sister's fur in the embrace. The two stayed like that for a long time, Scootalloo savoring the feeling of being loved, and Dash just being glad that her little sister was okay. Their hug was interrupted by a knock at the door. They reluctantly released the hug and looked up to see Nurse Redheart walk in carrying a clipboard.
"I see somepony's finally up," she said in her usual cheerful voice. "How are you feeling today Scootalloo? Do you want to talk about what happened?"
"I'm alright," Scootalloo said, now sounding much more cheerful than before. "I don't really feel like talking about it right now though. I still don't want to talk about it."
"That's okay, you take all the time you need sweetie. Now, I think there are a few ponies here who are waiting to see you." Scootalloo instantly perked up at this.
"Really? There are ponies here to see me?" Scootalloo asked, with a true look of surprise on her face.
"Well, of course, sweetie, a lot of ponies really care about you." She said, earning a small smile from the pegasus filly. "Would you like me to go get them?" She just got a nod in response. She turned around and walked out, returning with the sound of hoofsteps behind her. "Alright girls, she's in here."
The second the other two Crusaders locked eyes with their friend, their eyes lit up with joy. "Scootaloo!" they both called as they ran over and jumped on the bed, wrapping their friend up in the biggest hug of their life.
"Don't ever do that again! You really scared me Scoots!" Sweetie said with tears in her eyes.
Scootalloo sighed. "I know. I'm really sorry girls. I just couldn't deal with being all alone anymore, especially knowing that I let everypony down."
"WHAT?!" They both shouted at the same time. "Where in Equestria would you get that idea?" Applebloom continued. "You've never let us down. You're the most loyal friend we know, and we are fellow Crusaders forever."
"I know girls, but my parents kicked me out when I was super young, and the last thing I remember from them was hearing how disappointed in me they were. I've been living in the Clubhouse ever since we fixed it up." Scootalloo said, once again starting to form tears at the corners of her eyes. "I just couldn't take it anymore. I felt like no one cared, I had nopony to take care of me, and I had nowhere to go. I-I... I know it was wrong, but I just couldn't deal with it anymore." Tears fell from her face as she was brought into another hug with her two closest friends.
"Scoots..." Sweetiebelle started. "I... I'm so sorry. How did we not know before? Why didn't you tell us?"
"This is all our fault. We should've—" Applebloom was cut off by an orange hoof being shoved into her mouth.
"Stop that right now. This is not your fault. It was me who decided to not tell you, and I've had a lot of practice hiding my feelings, so don't you dare even start to blame yourselves. I won't allow it," Scootalloo said determinedly. "I'm really sorry girls. Are we still friends girls?"
"Of course!" Sweetie practically shouted. "Friends to the end!"
"Yeah! Friends to the end!" Applebloom chimed in. "Nothing could ever change that."
Scoots brought her friends in for another hug. She had a feeling she would have a lot of explaining to do in the next few days, but right now, she just wanted to enjoy being with her friends.