When Rainbow arrived at the hospital she walked up to the receptionist. "Hey there, I was wondering if the doc I saw earlier was still here?"
The receptionist looked up at Rainbow and nodded. "He's in room B06 if you want to speak with him. I know he was expecting you and he doesn't have any appointments at the moment, so you're free to go right on up."
Rainbow smiled. "Thanks. Room B06?"
The receptionist smiled back. "Yep, upstairs and third door on the right."
Rainbow trotted over to the stairs. "Thanks again."
"Anytime." called the receptionist as Rainbow disappeared up the stairs.
Rainbow walked up the stairs and walked down the hall until she came upon room B06. She knocked a couple of times and waited for an answer. The door opened to reveal a stallion in a white coat looking at her.
"Hello again Miss Dash, I thought you might come by again, so I moved all my appointments to tomorrow. "
Rainbow smiled. "Thank you doc, that's really kind if you."
The stallion nodded. "My pleasure Miss Dash. I assume you're here to find out a bit about the therapist?" The doctor said as he opened the door a bit wider to let Rainbow walk though.
Rainbow walked into the doctor's office and looked around for a few seconds before responding. "Yes, I'd like to know when I can get a appointment for Scootaloo."
The doctor's smile vanished. "Are you sure you can pay for it? I'd hate for you to go bankrupt." the doctor said, concern in his voice.
"I'm going to sell my house, so I'll have enough money to be able to pay for her." The doctor looked at Rainbow in shock when he heard this.
"Miss Dash, I must insist that you don't. Your sister needs a house more than therapy." the doctor said sternly.
"It's ok, we're going to be living with a good friend until I get enough money to buy another place." Rainbow's head dropped as she spoke. "When did I become this bad off?" thought Rainbow to herself. "When you adopted that good for nothing brat." said another voice in her head. Rainbow almost died of shock once she realised what she has said. "What's happening to me?!"
"Are you ok there Miss Dash? You look like you've seen a ghost." asked a now worried doctor.
Rainbow looked back up at the doctor. "I just had an awful thought." replied Rainbow.
"Was it about your sister?" the doctor asked. Rainbow nodded. "Listen, you're going though a lot of stress and sometimes we think, or even say thing that we don't mean. It doesn't mean that you're a bad pony. As long as you keep that feeling suppressed while around others, you'll be fine."
Rainbow smiled at the doctor. "You've seen this happen a lot?"
The doctor smiled back. "Thankfully not too much, but enough to know when it happens."
Rainbow smile widened. "So what's the name of the therapist Scootaloo is going to be seeing?" asked Rainbow, a little more cheerfully.
"Her name is Dr. Mind, and she's the best pony I know with that type of stuff. Even if she does charge an obscene amount of money." replied the doctor, finishing the sentence with a bit of heat.
"No pony can put a price on my sister's wellbeing." Rainbow said flatly.
The doctor smiled at Rainbow, thinking to himself how much Rainbow must love her sister, if she was willing to give up almost everything, just so Scootaloo could be happier. "Well, I'll just write down where she works and all that, and then I'll be out of your mane."
Rainbow smiled back. "Thanks doc."
The doctor wrote down where Dr. Mind worked, how much it should cost and how long the sessions would go for. After he had finished he handed the paper over to Rainbow. Rainbow took the paper out of the doctor's hoof and thanked him again before saying her farewells. The doctor waved and smiled to Rainbow as she left. Rainbow waved back, with a new purpose in her mind.
When Rainbow arrived back at Applejacks farm, she looked thought the downstairs window too see that Applejack and Big Mac had finished for the day and were about to sit down for dinner. Scootaloo and Applebloom were nowhere to be seen. Rainbow guessed that they where upstairs in Applebloom's room. Rainbow politely knocked on the front door. She was somewhat surprised when Rarity opened the door.
"Hello there Rainbow, what brings you here?" Rarity asked when she saw Rainbow.
Rainbow quickly got over her surprise and came up with an excuse. "Applejack asked me if I wanted to stay the night with her because Scootaloo was going to stay here as well."
Rarity looked at her friend. 'There's something that she's not telling me.' Rarity thought to herself. "Well do come on in." Rarity quickly said when she realised that she had been staring glumly at her friend.
Rainbow put on a fake smile as she squeezed past Rarity.
"Howdy there, Rainbow. The three fillies are upstairs." Applejack said as she saw Rainbow walk past Rarity.
"Three fillies?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh yes, that is why I am here. I was simply dropping Sweetie Belle off, for a sleepover with Applebloom tonight. I'm sure that they'll have even more fun with all three of them together now." Rarity said as she started to walk out the door. "Goodnight everypony."
"What? You can't leave now, stay for dinner at least Rarity. Ah'm sure you must be starving." Applejack offered, moving a step closer to the door.
"Well. I wouldn't want to intrude." Rarity slowly began.
"Nonsense, you wouldn't be intruding in the slightest." Applejack continued.
"Well, alright. Just for dinner though, I must get back to my shop after that."
"Well are you going to stand there and let all the cold air in?" Rainbow asked.
Rarity looked to see she had forgot to shut the door. She shut it gently before walking back into the living room, Rainbow leading the way.
"Please, make yourselves at home." Applejack said, with a quick wink towards Rainbow.
Rarity noticed the wink but decided not to comment. Whatever Rainbow was keeping a secret, she would tell her when the time was right, Rarity thought. She looked at Rainbow expectantly.
"What?" Rainbow asked. "Is there something in my mane?" Rainbow started to comb her mane with her hooves to see if anything would come out.
"No, no there's nothing in your mane. I just zoned out for a second then. Nothing to worry about darling." Rarity hastily said.
'If only that was true.' Rainbow thought as she stopped running her hooves though her mane.
"Dinners ready y'all." Applejack called out.
Rarity and Rainbow stood up and walked into the kitchen to see Applejack putting plates and cups on the table while Big Mac put roughly even servings of pasta onto each plate. After Applejack had finished putting out the plates and cups, she then busied herself with putting a decent helping of sauce on top of the pasta. While Applejack did this, Big Mac went around the table filling up the cups with apple juice.
"Would you like us to help you at all?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah, need help with anything?" Rainbow asked as well.
"You know I do need you two to do something." Applejack answered as she looked up from the sauce.
"What is it you need?" Rarity asked.
"I don't know if you two could do it. Especially you Rainbow." Applejack challenged her friend.
"Phhhssss. I can do." Rainbow retorted.
Applejack smiled, she knew Rainbow would bite. "I need you to sit at the table and not talk until dinners served up." Applejack said, smiling when she saw the realisation on Rainbow face, that she had just been tricked into not talking. Rarity smiled as well when she saw the look on Rainbows face.
"Well I never challenged you, Applejack. I assume that means I can talk." Rarity asked Applejack. Applejack nodded.
Rarity smiled at Rainbow darkly. "Well, I feel quite talkative today. I just know that Rainbow would love to hear all about my day."
Rainbow was about to fly straight out the window when Applejack's words stopped her. "Well it's not like she's going anywhere. She agreed to sit down at the table AND not talk. At least no pony will be able to interrupt you, if Rainbow can't talk. Applejack was trying not to laugh as she said this.
Rainbow slunk down and slowly walked to the table. She was so caught up in trying to ignore Rarity blab on about her day, she didn't realise that she never actually agreed to it. She just commented that she could. Applejack suppressed another laugh as she thought about this.
'She is always so easy to trick.' Applejack thought to herself.
"Rainbow would you please go and tell the fillies that dinner is almost ready?"
Rainbow was about to stand up, then she saw the smile on Applejack' face that she was unable to contain. Rainbow opened her mouth to say something like 'I'm not falling for that one' but closed her mouth again when she realised that would involve talking. So Rainbow settled for shaking her head.
"You know, that could be counted as talking, because your still communicating." Applejack said, giving her friend a small smile, hoping she would take the bait.
"They're completely different things!" Rainbow blurted out before she could stop herself. Rainbows hooves immediately covered her mouth.
Applejack and Rarity burst out laughing.
"That doesn't count, you tricked me!" Rainbow yelled angrily. She blushed and looked away when she realised that she had spoken again. Applejack and Rarity started to laugh even harder.
Three fillies came running down the stairs then. "What's so funny?" Sweetie Belle asked, seeng her sister rolling around on the floor laughing uncontrollably.
"Nothing!" Rainbow yelled. "Nothing's funny!" Then she blushed an even deeper red and blocked her mouth with her hooves, causing Applejack and Rarity to start laughing again. When the two mares had finally taken control of their bodies again and when Rainbow was suitably annoyed, Applejack put the pasta sauce on the only plate without it and put the pot back in the kitchen. When she came back to the table she saw that everypony was just staring at their food. They all looked up when Applejack got closer. "What are you waiting for? Dig in." As soon as Applejack said that the other ponies started to eat, all aside from Big Mac, who had already finished and had disappeared to do whatever he wanted to do at this hour. Applejack took her seat at the table and saw that everypony was already half finished. 'Is that how it is'. Applejack said to herself before digging in. Applejack was the first one finished. She looked up to see everypony staring at her in disbelief.
"How in the world do you eat so fast?" Rainbow asked Applejack after watching what she could have easily confused with a garbage truck emptying a bin. No chewing, not even swallowing from what Rainbow saw. Just everything sliding down her throat.
Applejack gave a little burp of satisfaction. The only pony in the room not totally surprised (or horrified in Rarity's case) was Applebloom, who was used to this by now.
"My god Applejack, where are your manners?" Rarity asked, still getting over her surprise at the pony vacuum front of her.
"Don't know, Ah can never seem to find 'em." Applejack replied, smiling slightly.
Rarity smiled back at her friend. "After all this is her house Rarity, she can act however she wants." Rarity told herself.
The ponies talked talked about inconsequential issues for quite some time, before Rainbow sniffed the air. "Hey AJ, it smells like something's burning."
Applejack sniffed the air to see that Rainbow was right. "I'll go see if Big Mac put something on the stove and forgot about it. It wouldn't be the first time." Applejack stood up and walked into the kitchen to find Big Mac.
The fillies had gone to bed quite some time ago. "Hey Rarity, wanna see them before you go?" Rainbow asked.
"I suppose I have time to say a quick goodbye. Though I've already stayed longer than I meant to."
Rainbow and Rarity walked upstairs to where the fillies where sleeping. They quietly opened the door to see that it was completely light. "I swear I turned the light off when I left before." Rainbow said to no pony in particular. Rainbow flicked the light switch and everything got a little bit brighter.
"Hey Rainbow, Rarity, we have a big problem here." Applejack called from downstairs somewhere.
Rainbow nodded to Rarity. Rarity quietly walked back down the stairs to see what was the matter while Rainbow hovered just above the ground to avoid stepping on any loose floorboards. She quietly flew into the room to see what was causing the light. She smiled when she saw that Scootaloo was sleeping soundly, occasionally snoring softly. Rainbow thought that Scootaloo sounded so cute when she snored.
All of a sudden, all thoughts of Scootaloo vanished form her mind as she gasped. She saw what was making the room light up. Though the window rainbow could see a massive fire in the distance. Her wings failed her and she dropped onto her legs, waking the fillies.
"Turn the light off." Scootaloo groaned.
Rainbow was just staring out the window, her tail low, her ears dropped. The fire was coming straight towards them.
Applejack sprinted into the room to wake up the fillies and to warn Rainbow, when she stopped. She saw something she had never seen before. She looked over to the window and saw that Rainbow was shaking. Rainbow turned around and looked at Applejack. Fear was evident in her eyes.
The fire was coming from Ponyville.