Very few things can throw you into pain and sorrow so deep you can't see a way out of it. The worst of them is the loss of someone you care about. You can't even think of a light at the end of the tunnel, much less see it. And that's how the Cutie Mark Crusaders felt on what should have been another cutie mark searching day.
Only it wasn't. And there was only two members of the great CMC now. And these two felt very, very sad and very, very guilty. If only they hadn't come up with the so called brilliant plan that had ended in tragedy...
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(Carousel Boutique)
"No, Rarity!! I won't go! I can't!!!"
The yell was finalised by a slamming door as Sweetie Belle fled into her room.
"Sweetie..." Rarity sighed. She leaned her head against the door. "Darling, may I come in?"
"NO!" Sweetie Belle yelled, her young voice full of agony.
Rarity sighed and trotted down the stairs, her heart aching for her little sister. She couldn't imagine the pain that was in the little filly's heart right now. She stopped and turned around.
'Sweetie needs me!' She thought. 'And I am going in whether she likes it or not!'
She tried her sister's door and found it locked. She rapped with a hoof and got no answer.
"Sweetie Belle, please let me in!" She called.
"Go away, Rarity!!!! I'm not going!! I can't go!!" Sweetie Belle's sobbing reached Rarity's ears.
"Oh, Darling, I know you feel very sad right now, and you want to stay here and cry forever," Rarity said. "But Sweetie, you must go, and say goodbye. You'll never get another chance to say it."
"But there shouldn't have been a chance to say it at all!" yelled the filly in anger.
"I know, Darling." Rarity sighed. "I don't know why it happened. She was so young. Too young. But if you don't go, you may end up regretting it."
"I can't!" Sweetie Belle cried. "I can't say goodbye when I don't even know how to say I'm sorry..."
"Sweetie, whatever do you mean?" Rarity asked, frowning. The filly was making no sense.
After a long silence, the door unlocked and sliwly opened, revealing a red eyed Sweetie Belle.
"I mean..."she tried, and choked. She took a breath, tears pouring from her eyes, and tried again.
"It was all our fault." was all she got out, before she collapsed, sobbing, in her astonished sister's grasp.
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(Sweet Apple Acres)
Applejack was, at that moment, having the same trouble with Apple Bloom that Rarity was having in town with Sweetie Belle.
The filly had locked herself in her room and was steadfastly refusing to come out.
"Come on, sugarcube!" Applejack said. "Ya gotta come out. Ya need to go say goodbye."
"No!" Apple Bloom yelled. "Ah'm not going! Ah can't. Ah just can't."
The conversation went on for some time almost word for word like Rarity and Sweetie Belle's. Finally, Applejack, having had enough, stomped a hoof.
"Apple Bloom, Ah know you're hurtin', but lockin' yourself in there an' not sayin' goodbye is only gonna hurt ya worse in the long run. You'll regret it if ya don't say goodbye."
The door was suddenly flung open and Apple Bloom yelled in anguish, "Ah can't do it!! Ah can't go cause it shoulda never happened but it did an' its all our fault!!!"
She fell into her big sister's forelegs, sobbing heavily, while Applejack blinked in astonishment and confusion.
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(Twilight's Castle)
"Well? Will you do it?" Rarity demanded.
"Rarity, I can't just perform a spell to enter thier memories without a good reason!" Twilight said. "Not wanting to attend the funeral isn't one."
"But we can't get nothin' outta them!" Applejack said. "They're hurtin', Twi. Bad. But they can't tell us why."
"I know you're worried," Twilight said softly. "But the best thing to do is to let them tell you. I can perform a calming spell so they aren't in such hysterics."
At the nods of the two worried mares, Twilight went over to the wailing fillies and lit her horn. She touched first Apple Bloom, then Sweetie Belle, and their crying slowed considerably. She stepped back. At that moment, Pinkie and Fluttershy entered.
"We can't find Dashie anywhere!" Pinkie said sadly. Both mares stopped at the sight of the softly crying fillies. "Aw."
Fluttershy went to them, wrapping both of them in her wings and trying to comfort them. Spike came in with two cups of tea, and he and Fluttershy got the fillies to drink some.
Once they were calmer, Fluttershy said softly,"There now. Feel better?"
"No " Sweetie Belle replied, sniffling. "Scoots is still gone, and its still our fault."
"Darling, you keep saying that," Rarity said. "But what do you mean? It wasn't your faults."
The two remaining Crusaders looked at each other as fresh tears flowed from thier eyes, thier expression miserable.
"It is our faults." Apple Bloom finally whispered.
"We dared her to do it." Sweetie Belle said, voice low. "She said no, and...and..."
"An' Ah called her chicken." Apple Bloom confessed tearfully." So she set out to prove she wasn't."
"She tried the jump over the gorge," said Sweetie Belle, whimpering, "but she...she...she..."
"She couldn't make it." Twilight mercifully finished for her, quietly.
"So it was all our fault!" Apple Bloom wailed, as both fillies went back to sobbing dismally all over again.
"Girls, it was not your fault." Rarity said, as she and Applejack took over holding thier little sisters. "It wasn't right to dare her, but you didn't know she wouldn't make it. It was not your fault."
"If we hadn't dared her, she wouldn't have done it!" Apple Bloom cried. "Ah'll never forgive myself!"
"Me either!" Sweetie Bellle choked.
Spike, in a somewhat uncharicteristic display of affection, hugged them both.
"You should go, say goodbye." He said.
The fillies sniffled, exchanged looks, and finally nodded.
**********************************eEverypony, it seemed, was present for Scootaloo's funeral. Front and center was Rainbow Dash, her big sister, and her friends, as well as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. The two fillies were wearing thier CMC capes in honor of thier fallen friend.
As ponies filed away from the fresh grave, leaving only Spike, the Elements of Harmony, and the surviving CMC, the two fillies stepped forward. They had already talked to Dash and confessed thier guilt. She had hugged them and assured them they weren't at fault. Now they stood side by side, gazing at the gravestone.
"We're sorry, Scoots." Apple Bloom said sadly.
"Yeah. Really sorry." Sweetie Belle said. "And I hope you forgive us, cause we wouldn't want you mad..."
The two fillies wrapped thier forelegs around each other and sobbed bitterly, thier hearts breaking further.
Then, as one, they moved closer and placed a third cape and a scooter against the gravestone.
"Goodbye, Scootaloo." They said softly.
They walked away, leaving behind thier best friend and her broken, eternally unmovable scooter.