“Are you going to visit Rainbow Dash?”
“Yes, Scootaloo, I’ll go to her later,” Twilight replied absent-mindedly, continuing her walk through the park. The weather was cloudy, and only few ponies were there, not caring about the upcoming rain. Twilight looked at the bench she and Rainbow Dash had been sitting the day they caught the Toolsmith. Now Lyra and Bon-Bon were sitting there, Bon-Bon still covered in bandages, but looking much better than few weeks ago. They waved hooves at Twilight, but she didn’t feel like talking to them. She noticed that orange filly was following her.
“May I go with you?” Scootaloo asked.
“If you want… By the way, you’re not grounded anymore?”
“No, my parents are no longer mad at me. They’ve read the news… At first I wanted to look for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, but then I thought that visiting her would be a right thing,” said Scootaloo sadly. Twilight didn’t know what to say. She felt something similar, but didn’t know how to express that. Instead she said:
“You know, Scootaloo, that I’ve never actually met your parents? Who are they?”
“Oh yeah,” orange filly cheered up a bit, “They’re both pulling flying chariots, so they’re travelling a lot. Even Rainbow Dash thought that I was an orphan…” again, an awkward silence fell. They went through the gate of the cemetery.
“So… what happened to the Toolsmith?” asked Scootaloo.
“She’s still in a coma. If she ever wakes up, she’ll be imprisoned for life, either in jail or in the asylum,” said Twilight.
***
“In a coma? As I said, Karma all along,” concluded Surveillance. They were standing in the hospital corridor. Twilight examined her face in a mirror. She had a black eye and several cuts, but at least doctor managed to magically regenerate her teeth.
“Anyway, we want to thank you very much, Twilight Sparkle,” said Hot Pursuit, before her boss could say something more. She leaned to her and added “Of course, Surveillance will never admit that he was wrong, but…”
“I heard that!” Surveillance frowned, “Ms Sparkle, I never thought that I will say that, but if you still want to work with us, I’ll be very glad to…”
“No.”
“What?”
“I can’t. If you want to ask me for advice, you know where to find me. I don’t know if I’d withstand one more case like this, and that’s why I want to quit.”
“This has something to do with that poor bas… I mean, your friend?” asked Surveillance politely. Twilight only nodded her head.
***
They trotted up the hill. Scootaloo suddenly stopped, seeing a lonely pony silhouette near one of the graves.
“What’s she doing here? How dare she…” she asked Twilight.
“You know, she was her friend too,” replied the unicorn, “and remember, she’s not guilty of her sister’s crimes.”
When they approached her, Cloudchaser made a move as if she wanted to fly away, but eventually she decided to stay.
“Hello,” she said, not looking at them.
“Cloudchaser… is everything all right?” asked Twilight, knowing what the answer was.
“Nothing is all right!” pegasus snapped. For a moment Twilight recalled that moment in her basement, when she was sure that Flitter was going to kill her, “My friends are dead, my sister is almost dead and everypony hates me for what she did!”
“I don’t hate you,” Scootaloo said. Cloudchaser looked at her.
“Cloud Counter said the same,” her voice was much calmer, but still it was shaking a bit, “But I just couldn’t be with him, after all that… I broke up with him,” she turned her gaze back to the grave, “I’ve been there when she killed her and done nothing… I don’t even remember that…”
“Don’t bother yourself with that,” said Twilight, who was also watching three umbrellas engraved on a tombstone, “You were under the influence of the potion, you couldn’t do anything to prevent that,”
“I could! She is my sister, I thought I know her!”
“We all thought we know her,” another voice said. Everypony looked around to see two ponies walking slowly toward them.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Not so loud, kid, remember where we are,” the cyan pegasus said. Her chest was bandaged and Fluttershy was helping her to walk, but she was in relatively good shape.
“You were released from the hospital?” asked Twilight.
“As you can see. Still, no flying, no physical exertion, unless doctor says otherwise,” she turned to Cloudchaser, “Listen, ‘Chaser, I’ve heard what you said, and I have one thing to tell you: I went through this too. I felt really guilty when I realised that Parasol and Lightning Dust died because of me. Even when they told me that I wasn’t myself, I thought that I could do something, like not drinking that energy drink…”
“But I could do something! I lived with her!”
“You just couldn’t predict that. No one could,” said Rainbow Dash. Cloudchaser sat silently, still not entirely convinced.
“And don’t think we hate you. If you want to talk about that, we’ll be there for you,” Fluttershy added, embracing Cloudchaser with her wing. The violet pegasus stopped sobbing, but still looked rather glumly.
“Um… Twilight? Do you think we should leave?” Scootaloo asked quietly.
“No, Scoots, you can stay,” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight, however, decided to walk away, leaving the four pegasi on the top of the hill, watching the sun piercing through the dark clouds.
THE END