A Do-Over

by Pip232


15: Now You See Her...

When Twilight entered the morgue and saw Scootaloo lying on a metal table, she felt a deep pang in her heart. As she approached, these pangs only got worse and worse. Oh you poor thing… While she knew Scootaloo was dead, actually seeing her hammered it home in a painful way. Suddenly Twilight couldn’t help but feel a touch of frustration towards her.

Why didn’t you ever tell us, Scootaloo? We could’ve done something for you! Her thoughts paused and her annoyance vanished as she also looked at things from Scootaloo's point of view and recalled Applejack and Big Macintosh’s earlier words. We would’ve tried to find someone who’d take you in, and if not, gone from there.

Twilight felt newfound annoyance sprouting, but it was at herself this time. And where exactly would we have gone from there? If we couldn’t find a pony willing to adopt her, we would’ve had to send her somewhere so that she’d be looked after. There are probably plenty of ponies in Ponyville who would’ve been willing to take her in, but there’s always the chance that nopony would. Why would she take that chance when she already had a place to live? Looking down at Scootaloo, she still felt something amiss.

Her mind was trying to put together all the pieces as it came up with them, but some still didn’t fit neatly. She isn’t just a healthy weight for her age, she’s athletic, she’s fit, and maintaining the pace she kept requires a lot of food. If Big Mac was right and she was living in the clubhouse she’d have easy access to all the apples she could eat, but it takes more than that to maintain a healthy diet. Even if she did supplement that with whatever Sugarcube Corner threw out she’d have some pudge on her, but she’s very lean. She obviously didn’t have parents providing her with regular meals, so where did the rest of her food come from?

Another thought crossed her mind, and this one hurt more than the others. If she didn’t have parents, who cared for her when she was sick?

Twilight’s mind flashed to when she’d been Scootaloo’s age. If I ever got sick, mom always insisted I stay in bed, but it wasn’t bad at all. I had Smarty Pants to hug and talk to, and mom would take care of me. If I could hold down food, she made sure I never went hungry. If I hadn’t had her and dad… Her thoughts trailed off as the mental image of Scootaloo lying on the floor of the clubhouse, sick, hungry, and alone flashed through her mind. It was a horrible mental image and she fought to clear it from her mind, only to be immediately reminded that the reality of the situation was worse than what she’d been thinking of.

“Are you alright, your highness?” Dr. Palliate’s voice drew her attention away from Scootaloo, and she turned to regard him before looking back at the filly.

There was a pause before she answered. “Yeah, given the circumstances I’d say so.” Twilight sighed, wishing today had just been a dream. “Today started off like any other day, now it's ending on about the worst note that it possibly could. By the way, you don’t need to call me ‘your highness’ or use my title. Please, just call me Twilight.”

“Alright, I will. Not fond of it?” He asked.

Twilight turned back to him. “Sort of. I don’t like to be treated differently from anypony else, and while being a princess affords me power and influence that others don’t have, that’s exactly why I don’t want to use it. When I used it to get back here it felt like I was pulling rank over you, and it’s not a feeling I’m comfortable-” She glanced to where Rainbow Dash should have been, but she was absent. A quick glance around the room showed she wasn’t in the morgue at all.

There’s pretty much only one place she could be. Twilight began walking out into the hall, Palliate following after her.


“There you are.” Twilight only had to turn her head to see Rainbow Dash, walking over to her with Palliate following close behind. “What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash? I thought you wanted to see her.”

Rainbow Dash looked sheepish, rubbing a hoof against the back of her head. “I do, it’s just hard to work up the nerve. I was following you, but when we started to get really close, it felt like it was getting harder and harder to keep walking. It was like my body was telling me no.”

“If you need a few minutes, that’s alright.” Twilight offered.

“Ms. Dash, I’m afraid I must respectfully disagree with Twilight.” Palliate stepped forward so he was standing beside Twilight. “You can brace for this all you’d like, but be it for thirty seconds or a week, nothing will fully prepare you for what you’ll see. I suggest you do it now and save yourself the anxiety and dread that would come from putting it off.”

What happened next took only an instant, but in that instant Rainbow Dash had grabbed Dr. Palliate by his lab coat and slammed him up against the wall. Any anxiety or hesitations she might’ve been feeling evaporated, replaced by a burning anger.

“What the buck is wrong with you!? I thought doctors were supposed to care about the ponies they treated, but you don't seem to give a damn about anything that’s happened today! Do you not care that a foal is dead?! That she’s never going to get to grow up and live her life, or that she spent what little life she had how nopony should: alone?! She didn’t even have a cutie mark yet for Celestia’s sake! And to make it all the worse, I had a hoof in it!”

Rainbow Dash felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she spoke, but she paid them no mind. “Don’t you care at all?!”

Palliate couldn’t meet her gaze, and not just because his glasses had been knocked off when she slammed him against the wall. He felt a pain in his back from the impact and without his glasses, all he could see was a multicolored blur. “You’re hurting me!” He said as he desperately tried to pry her forelegs off.

Twilight was shocked, but hardly surprised when she snapped like that. Hearing Rainbow Dash’s tirade against Palliate, she couldn’t help but agree with her. Competent or not, a certain amount of tact was expected of doctors, and he certainly didn’t have it. When he said that he was in pain, she decided enough was enough.

With almost as much ease as breathing, Twilight levitated his glasses off the floor, gently setting them on Palliate’s face. This got Rainbow Dash’s attention who turned to face her. Seeing the hurt and anger in Dash’s eyes made her hurt for her friend, and she put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Dash, I know you’re sad, and angry, and you have every right to be, but hurting him isn’t going to make you feel any better and you know it.” Twilight looked her in the eye. “Please put him down.”

Looking back at Palliate, she decided Twilight was right. She released her hold on him, letting him drop the few inches back to the ground. “Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked more out of obligation than real concern.

He gave Rainbow Dash an ambivalent look, before adjusting his glasses and coat. “My back will be sore for a little bit, but I’m fine. I won’t delay you any longer if you want to see Scootaloo right now.” There was a brief pause. “Or we can wait a moment, if you’d like.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Let’s just go. Lead the way.”

“Right away.” Palliate began walking back down the hall, the two mares following him. He opened the door to the morgue, and his eyes widened. “But, that’s not possible...” There was an incredible amount of disbelief in his voice as his eyes stared at something, or rather a lack of something.

“What? What’s not possible?” Rainbow Dash and Twilight both raced forward to look in as well, but both gained the same disbelieving expression he had.

All of Twilight’s previous questions were cast aside in favor of a much simpler one as she stared at the now-empty examination table: Where’d Scootaloo go?