“Why’re you here?”
The question broke Scootaloo out of her reverie. She glanced up from the café table she’d been staring at for the last half hour, straight into Sweetie Belle’s large, emerald eyes.
“Um, I was getting lunch?” Scootaloo couldn’t help but flutter her wings a bit in annoyance. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.
“Right. But for real, though?” Sweetie cocked her head to the side. “You’ve been sitting here for a while not eating lunch.”
“How do you…”
“Tomato soup isn’t supposed to have skin on it, Scoots.”
Scootaloo glanced down at her bowl, jiggling the spoon just enough to see the congealed layer of red skin floating on top. She made a disgusted face.
“Scootaloo…”
“I’m going to go, okay? I just wanted to wait to talk to Rainbow Dash first. She said she has a plan.”
“Rainbow has a plan?” Sweetie’s eyebrow raised skeptically, and Scootaloo scowled at her.
“Yeah, she does. And it’s going to be awesome.”
“I’m sure it will be, Scoots.” Sweetie Belle sighed.
“Besides, why aren’t you there?” Scootaloo was annoyed at the implication. How could anypony believe that Rainbow’s ideas were anything less than awesome?
“Maybe I wanted to give Bloom’s marefriend a chance to cheer her up first.” The slight sneer in Sweetie’s voice made them both flinch. “Sorry.”
“N-no, you’re right. I should…”
“No, I sh-shouldn’t have…”
Both friends stopped, looking at each other, before giving a weak laugh.
“I’ll stop by later, after you and Dash have had a chance to swoop in with your superior snuggles and comforting smooches.”
“Thanks,” Scootaloo said, idly stirring her congealing soup. It was something to do with her hooves, at least.
“Are you okay?” Sweetie leaned in close to Scootaloo, peering deep into her face. Scootaloo shrugged, averting her eyes.
“Fine, I guess,” Scootaloo mumbled as she stared at the table. “I mean, how do you… how can I… it’s not even…” she sighed and trailed off with a shrug.
“Yeah, I get it,” Sweetie Belle said, her shoulders slumping. She stood in silence, neither pony saying much. “Um, I’ll stop by later, I guess.” Finally she reached out and patted Scootaloo awkwardly on the back. “You’ll do fine. You’ll know just what to say to fix this, I’m sure.”
Sweetie turned to trot away, not seeing the look of frozen horror on Scootaloo’s face.
~ * ~ * ~
“T-they can fix it, right?” the young filly stammered, trembling in her aunt’s hooves. “Like, there’s a spell? Or a magic pill?” she fluttered her wings futilely.
“Oh.” Aunt Holiday’s eyes were large and full of tears. “Oh, you poor thing. I’m going to need you to be brave, now, Scootaloo. Like a big pony, okay?”
“B-but they’ve gotta fix it!” Scootaloo yelled. “I’m a pegasus, not some stupid earth…” she cut off abruptly, her eyes going wide with a whimper. “Aunt Holiday! I’m so…”
“Hush, Scoots,” Aunt Holiday pulled her tight in a hug. “You don’t need to apologize. I know you’re hurting right now and don’t mean anything by it.” She gently stroked her hoof down Scootaloo’s back.
“But they can, can’t they? Fix this?”
“You heard what the doctor said, Scootaloo.” Aunt Holiday’s voice was calm but firm. “You can’t hide from this. But you don’t have to face it alone.”
“What do I do?” Scootaloo hated how pathetic she sounded. How weak and small. The muscles in her wings hurt, like she’d been straining them for hours. “If we can’t fix it, what am I?”
“That’s a question you’ll have to answer, Scoots,” her aunt held her tight. “Sometimes there’s no quick fix. Sometimes there’s no easy answer, or words that make the hurt all go away. Sometimes it just takes time. And hugs. Lots and lots of hugs.”
Scootaloo buried her face in her aunt’s fur, shaking with sobs. Maybe she’d have to be a grown up later, but right now she didn’t want to deal with this. Right now she just wanted to cuddle in her aunt’s hooves.
~ * ~ * ~
Scootaloo was still lost in her memory when Rainbow Dash landed next to her.
“Hey kid,” Rainbow said, sounding morose.
Scootaloo surged to her hooves. “Dash! You’re here!” Congealed soup and memories were shoved aside as she hugged her adopted big sister. “So, do we have a plan?”
“Plan. Yeah.” Rainbow chuckled nervously. Scootaloo noticed she was carrying a bag from Bon Bon’s candy store. Scootaloo stared at it curiously. “Um, c’mon kid. We’ll talk as we head over to Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Good,” Scootaloo sighed in relief. She quickly fished some bits out of her saddlebag and dropped them on the table before standing to follow Rainbow. “I’ve been spinning my wheels all day. I just feel so helpless, you know? I feel like I need to be doing something.”
“Right,” Rainbow exhaled sharply, brushing a hoof through her mane. “Um, Scootaloo, you know grief is something that takes time, right? There’s no quick fix to this.”
“I know that!” Scootaloo shot back. “But I thought, I don’t know…” she trailed off, feeling silly as they trotted down Ponyville’s streets. It was a clear, cold day, the kind that usually had all the foals (and lots of the adults, too) out fooling around in the snow, building snow ponies, making snow angels, or even building snow forts to prepare for the inevitable snowball ambushes. Usually Scootaloo would have been right beside them, helping Rainbow prepare some sort of snow ambush, or maybe cajoling her marefriend inside for some hot cider and cuddles.
But today felt like a different sort of cold, at least for her. She looked around at the other ponies going about their day, chatting, laughing, greeting each other. She had to look away to stop from scowling at them all. “I thought that maybe you’d come up with something awesome.”
“You really trust me that much, huh kid?” Rainbow mused. “Okay.” She held out the bag she was holding under her wing, letting it open so Scootaloo could see inside.
“Chocolates? You got them chocolates?” Scootaloo didn’t even try to keep the skepticism out of her voice. “Really? I’ve been sitting around all day, waiting for some incredible plan on how we’re gonna help our marefriends through their grief, and the best you have to give me is two boxes of chocolates?”
Her voice was growing louder and more shrill, enough that some of the Ponyville residents were beginning to stare.
“Keep it down, would ya?” Rainbow scowled at Scootaloo. “Do you really think I’m that dumb?”
“Well, I didn’t,” Scootaloo accused, and Rainbow flinched.
“Right. Well, let’s get out of town and I'll tell you the whole plan, okay? Only you’ve gotta trust me.”
“If you say so.”
Scootaloo tried to lose herself in the scenery.
It only took them a few minutes to get out of town. Scootaloo could tell just how much Rainbow hated walking on the ground. She could see it in the way Rainbow’s wings kept twitching, the way she stepped lightly with each hoof, as if every step could be the beginning of a takeoff. It was an oddly kind gesture from the older pegasus, though Scootaloo was long past the point where she hated being reminded of what she couldn’t do.
“Okay, we’re out of town,” Scootaloo declared, though it was barely true. They were still in sight of most of the buildings, and Sweet Apple Acres was still hidden by the rolling hills and legions of bare apple trees. “Fill me in.”
“I will,” Rainbow said, but paused, hesitating as she looked up at the sky. Scootaloo waited impatiently. “Um.”
“You know, if you couldn’t come up with anything, you could have just told me, Dash,” Scootaloo sighed. “I wouldn’t have wasted…”
“It’s like this,” Rainbow suddenly interrupted. “I’m bad at mushy stuff, right? And since you’re cool just like me, sometimes you are too. It’s okay.”
“I guess,” Scootaloo narrowed her eyes, studying Rainbow’s distant gaze.
“We’re really bad at this kind of thing. Only, we’ve gotta do something, right?” Rainbow exhaled, shaking her head violently enough that her mane whipped about. “I hate seeing her hurt.”
Scootaloo swallowed hard. She knew how that felt. Her gut burned with helpless frustration. The last few weeks had been rough.
“So here’s the plan. We get them chocolates.”
“That’s lame.”
“I know it’s lame, Scoots. That’s the point.”
Scootaloo froze in her tracks, pawing at the snow on the road with one hoof. “Um, what?”
“It’s supposed to be lame, Scoots. Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to show up. We’re going to give AJ and Bloom the chocolates. And they’re going to give us a look. You know, that look.”
“That look?” Scootaloo raised one eyebrow at Rainbow, who had started to blush.
“Yeah, that look. You know, the one that says—” she mimicked Applejack’s drawl, “—Sugarcube, that’s jest about the dumbest thing y’all have ever done. What’m I gunna do with you?” She returned to her normal voice. “That look.”
“Oh.” Scootaloo pondered hard. She knew that look. Apple Bloom had one too.
“But you know what?” Rainbow’s voice was distant, deep in thought. “Whenever she gives me that look, I think… maybe she’s not really annoyed at me. She gets that look in her eyes, and I see the…” her voice dropped, and Rainbow leaned in as if she were sharing a very embarrassing secret. “…I see the love, the affection.”
“So your plan is to annoy them into giving us the affection look?” Scootaloo didn’t quite get it.
“No. The plan is to be there with them.” Rainbow looked uncomfortable. “You know. For mushy stuff. Hugs and cuddles and crying and stuff. The chocolates will just make them remember how much they like us.”
“…you’re crazy.”
“I know, right?” Rainbow feathered her wings, a ghost of her usual cocky grin on her face. “It’s gonna work, Scootaloo. It’ll cheer them up a little. Um.” Rainbow stopped and turned to her. “We’re in for the long haul, kid. It’s gonna be a hard few days for them. But we got this, we’re awesome.”
Scootaloo pondered this for a moment, before nodding firmly. “Gimme one of those boxes.”