Scootaloo sat silently on her bed, her legs pulled up towards her chest while her head rested on her knees. Tear stains were visible on her cheeks, but she had stopped shedding them hours ago.
Raising her head slightly, her eyes moved around her room. It was so empty now. Upon her return, her aunt had chewed her out massively before grounding her and taking everything from Scootaloo’s room that was a luxury. Her TV, game console, especially her phone, and anything else she even slightly could use to entertain herself.
Until a while ago she had been able to overhear her aunt talking loudly with someone, but still quiet enough to not understand anything. Judging by the fact that she had only been able to hear one voice, it was safe to assume she had been talking to someone over the phone, and Scootaloo had a good idea who it was.
The sound of creaking floorboards drew her attention, followed by a soft knock on her door before it opened.
"Hey, Scoots," Lofty said as she stepped into the room before sitting down beside the girl on her bed. "You’ve really caused a lot of trouble this time."
"I know," Scootaloo said quietly. "I never wanted all of this to happen."
Lofty shook her head. "Now you see that sometimes things do not go as we expect them to go, but you still need to take responsibility for them, no matter if good or bad."
Scootaloo remained silent for several moments before she spoke again. "What's going to happen now?"
"For today nothing, but tomorrow we are going to the police station. Granny Smith, Cookie, and myself have already talked with an officer about everything. Since we came forward on our own and there is no chance of any more danger happening, combined with the fact that you three are minors and that it’s already quite late, he said they would not come by today to collect you as long as we come on our own tomorrow to answer questions." She sighed. "We will see what's going to happen then."
Scootaloo said nothing at first. Thinking her niece wanted to be alone for the moment she rose from the bed, but before she could take even a single step, Scootaloo spoke up again.
"They’re mad at me, right?"
Lofty looked away. "So you heard me talking with them, hm?" She sighed again before she sat back down. "Yes, your mom and dad are really mad, but not only with you." Scootaloo looked up for the first time since her aunt entered the room. "They... They are blaming Rainbow Dash as well. They say she has been a bad influence on you, causing you to react like this. That's why you are not allowed to hang out with her anymore."
Scootaloo’s eyes widened, but she quickly looked back down at the floor. "I don't think that's a problem anyway. Rainbow hates me..."
"Scoots..." Lofty whispered as she pulled her niece closer, hugging her. She wanted to assure her niece that it wasn't the case, but she had heard from Vice Principal Luna how Rainbow Dash had reacted upon learning the truth. It wasn't so far-fetched that she never wanted to see Scootaloo again, and after hearing about Rainbow's reaction Lofty agreed with Scootaloo’s parents regarding the girl.
"Aunt Lofty... There’s more, isn’t there?" Scootaloo asked, causing Lofty to release her niece. "You’ve been arguing for a while over the phone, and I can't believe it's all just about staying away from Rainbow Dash."
Lofty looked at her niece in surprise before looking away. "You’re way smarter than many believe, Scoots," she said. "Your mom and dad... they blame the Holiday and me as well. They left you in our care so that you could have a stable social life instead of moving across the country for their jobs all the time. And then this happens… They are very disappointed.
"They are already on their way here, and they’re going to stay for as long as is necessary. Once everything has been settled they will be leaving again... And they are going to take you with them."
Scootaloo’s eyes shot wide open in disbelieve. "No... Please, no." She quickly rose from her bed and wrapped her arms around her aunts' lower section. "Please don't send me away!"
Lofty stared at the girl in bewilderment. "Sending you away? But-"
"I-I know I messed up, but I promise that it will never happen again! I don't want to leave."
"Scoots, no one is-"
"I will do everything you tell me, no matter what! Just please don't-"
"Scootaloo!" Lofty grabbed onto her nieces' shoulders and used them to pry Scootaloo away from her legs before getting down on her knees to look her in the eyes. "We are not sending you away, Scootaloo. Holiday and I want you to stay with us just as much as you do. You’ve been living with us for so long that you’re practically the daughter we never had. Sending you away is the last thing we would ever do." She once again looked down. "Sadly, there is nothing we can do if your parents decide to take you with them."
Scootaloo threw her arms around her aunt's neck. "I don't want to go!" she cried, tears running down her cheeks.
"Me neither, Scoots," Lofty said, wrapping her arms around her niece while tears of her own ran down her cheeks. "And I will do everything I can so that you can stay, I promise."
~*~
Pinkie laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, her limbs spread out completely over the entire bed. She had never before truly paid any attention to her ceiling, it was always just there. But now her attention was completely focused on it, and it has been like this since she came back from Fluttershy's. The entire time it has been like this, just her, the ceiling and her thoughts.
"Has she been like this since she returned?"
"Mhm."
And of course, the voices of her two sisters Marble and Limestone talking just outside her room had crept through the gap between her partially open door and it’s frame. Pinkie didn't care, and instead just remained lost in thought.
"I wonder what happened."
"Hmm."
"I have never seen her like this. She looks like her battery has died."
"Mhmm!"
"Why me? I don't know how to fix her! Why are you not going in and try?"
"Hmm..."
The one-sided conversation continued for several minutes, before the voices suddenly stopped. Moments later the door opened fully and Pinkie could hear someone stepping into her room, crossing the floor before coming to a stop beside her bed.
"Hey, Maud," Pinkie said without looking at her sister, her usual energy missing as her eyes remained focused on the ceiling.
"Hello, Pinkie," Maud replied in her monotone voice. "What's wrong?"
This time Pinkie turned her head to look at Maud. "What makes you think something is wrong?"
Maud cocked her head to the side and blinked slowly. "Just a hunch."
Pinkie sighed before she once again looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know what to do, Maud. We hurt Sunset really, really bad. I wanna make it up to her, to make her smile again, but I just don't know how."
Maud slowly sat down beside Pinkie on her bed. "Tell me what happened." And so over the next half hour, Pinkie told her sister about everything that had happened over the last two weeks.
"I came back home after getting Fluttershy back to her house and into her room, and now here we are," she concluded her story. "I know that I made a huge mistake, but there must be a way to make up for it." She sighed. "It's just that everything I can think of doesn't seem enough for what we did."
Maud remained silent for a few minutes, thinking over everything Pinkie told her before she spoke again. "Pinkie, there is nothing you can do at this point besides leaving her alone."
Pinkie lifted herself off her bed to sit up properly. "No, there has to be something I can do! I could-"
"Pinkie, no," Maud said firmly, grabbing her sister's shoulders with both hands. "As you said, you hurt her deeply, and she doesn't want to see you right now. You will only make everything worse."
"I agree with Maud," a new voice spoke up from her room's doorway. Looking towards it, Pinkie saw Limestone standing in the doorframe, frowning at Pinkie while she crossed her arms in front of her. Marble was standing just behind her, looking at Pinkie worriedly. "If you try to force an encounter with her you will just make her angrier."
"But... But..., Pinkie stammered, her eyes moving from one of her sisters to the next before she looked down. "I only want to make her smile again..."
"We know," Maud said, releasing her sisters' shoulders, "And right now the only way is to leave her alone so that she can heal herself."
"You said that she said she can't forgive you now, so there is still hope that she will be able to one day," Marble said after squeezing past Limestone to sit on the other side of Pinkie's bed.
"But," Maud spoke up, "It’s also possible that she may never forgive you and your friends. If that's the case you need to accept it."
Pinkie looked around the room at her sisters before she sighed. "You’re right. I don't want to make everything worse, I just need to hope and be patient." Slowly Pinkie smiled before she pulled all her sisters in a group hug, one which Limestone only accepted with lots of grumbling. "Thanks! You’re the best sisters I could hope for!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Limestone grumbled. "Can you let me go now?"
"Hmm, nope, not yet!" Pinkie replied, pulling her sister even closer, much to Limestones annoyance, but she didn't try to escape, instead giving her sister what she needed.
~*~
Everyone who had ever met Canterlot High’s star athlete would describe her as very energetic. Whenever she had the time and opportunity she would occupy herself in one way or another. Some of the rare moments of idleness where those when she was spending time with her friends, napping or when she was in class, with the last two sometimes occurring at the same time.
Today, however, Rainbow was sitting on her room’s deep windowsill, completely still except for the movement of her breathing as she gazed out of her window at her neighborhood with a blank stare. It was a rare occurrence, only happening when something was troubling the girl.
Upon arriving home from school the girl has been seething in anger. Learning that the kid she trusted, the one she decided to take under her wing so to speak, was one of those responsible for everything that happened over the last two weeks had made her blood boil. She paced feverishly around her room, ranting to herself as a way to release her anger.
Over time she calmed down, which led to her retreating to her thinking place on her windowsill, thinking more deeply over the situation while watching the outside world. She sat there for hours, lost deep in thought. By now her anger had shifted from Scootaloo to a new target.
Herself.
It was true that the Crusaders had started everything by posting those secrets and twisting everything to point at Sunset as the one behind it, but it was Rainbow herself that decided to blindly believe it. She was the one who decided to yell at her, who decided to punch and threaten her. She, along with the others, was the reason the school believed Sunset to be Anon-A-Miss. She was the one who talked with Gilda, unintentionally causing her to go after Sunset. If she had just walked away when Gilda began to talk, maybe nothing would have happened.
But she hadn’t, and now she had to live with the consequences. The worst part was not knowing what was going to happen to her. Would she be arrested like Gilda? Sent to jail? Even if not, it would always follow her wherever she goes, just like Sunset said. She should call herself lucky if anybody at school wanted to have anything to do with her after this.
Looking down out of the window she saw a familiar car driving onto their lot, with her mother stepping out soon after it came to a stop.
A deep uneasiness came over her. It was another thing on her mind the entire day; how should she tell her parents about what happened and her involvement?
Her mother and father have always been so proud of her. Most of the time they tended to get on her nerves with how overexcited they get about everything she did, but they’re always there for her, helping and encouraging her whenever she needed help or had a problem too big to handle on her own. The thought of how disappointed they were going to be once they learned about everything made her heart ache.
Sighing deeply Rainbow slowly left after several hours of sitting on the not so comfortable windowsill, and began stretching her aching muscles as movement on the street caught her attention. Her eyes widened when she saw a police car driving down the street, slowly approaching their house. Following the car's movement, Rainbow hoped that it was just a random patrol passing by, but she knew how unlikely that was in their small neighborhood. Sure enough, the police car stopped in front of their house and two officers stepped out, approaching her mom who was still going through the mail at their front door.
'Well,' she thought, 'that's by far not how I wanted Mom to hear about it.' With another sigh, she walked towards the door and opened it, ready to accept whatever was coming just as her mother opened the front door and called for her.