There was a steady beep of the heart rate monitor attached to Rainbow Dash, the source of the only noise in the sanitary room aside from the occasional sniff from Applejack, sitting beside the bed with her muzzle on the edge of the bed, but the nuisance was from being out in the rain so long more than anything else. Twilight sat idly by the window, watching the black storm clouds squeeze every drop of water onto the ground, lost in thought on ways to banish the depression and wake Rainbow Dash. Rarity fretted along side Fluttershy on the guest sofa as they watched the cyan pony's chest rise and fall with the heart monitor.
Finally when the doctor made his rounds at 8. A.M. the next morning, the long silence that had taken them was broken. "Ms. Applejack? You were the one who brought Rainbow Dash in correct?" Applejack raised her head and faced the doctor, nodding silently. "She had one heck of a fall. Burns, fractured wing from impact, two broken ribs from impact, bruised shoulder bone, bruised ankle bones, she might have a concussion, but from what the report shows, her wings, right shoulder, and chest took the blunt of the crash." "But, she'll turn out all right?"
The doctor smiled, and it was instantly infectious. "Of course, there will need to be a few months of physical therapy and taking it easy for a while, but she should make a full recovery. I am worried about her nerves though, electricity can be very cruel to some ponies, and forgiving for others. Has she ever been electrocuted before? Pegasi do show a tendency to be more resistant to electrical shocks."
"I'm fine" she groaned. Everypony's head swung towards Rainbow Dash as she tried to force her eyes open "I'm fine." she said again, raising a hoof to rub her eyes.
"Rainbow Dash! You're awake!" The doctor quietly shoved his way to Rainbow Dash's side and turned to everyone else, "If I could please ask you to leave, I'm going to perform a quick examination and then I'll be able to determine the best course of action.
The examination was quick, just like the doctor said, but not fast enough as they walked back in ten minutes later and gathered around her side. "So what happened?" Applejack asked first,
Rainbow eased herself in to a more sitting position, wincing at the pain in her ribs and wings. "Trying to disperse the storm, it was too much. We collected too much cloud and we had to cloud break before it got out of hand, but by the time we started, it was too late."
"And right up to the lightning?"
"I was trying to cut the size of the clouds in half by going right down the middle, but like I said, we collected way too much cloud for this storm." Rainbow looked at the window, raindrops still pounding down "How long has it been raining?"
"This is the dawn of the second day." Twilight said.
"And it's at this level of intensity still? It'll take days for this to rain itself out."
The ponies nodded, Fluttershy was able to quip in a bit of information about the pegasi weather team, "After you fell, the other pegasi realized it was too dangerous and started clearing it by working the outside and are going to make their way towards the center."
Rainbow laid back, "They'll take forever."
"Rainbow?" Applejack asked "We may not have forever, just before the storm, weren't you suppose to meet with Scootaloo?"
Rainbow's eyes widened for a moment but then settled back down. "Yeah, we were suppose to meet at the park, but I was still working and couldn't get out of it."
"So you mean to say that you made an apppointment with Scootaloo on a day you were working?"
"Yeah, cause usually I'm done with work and long gone by the time I was suppose to meet her, but they had me flying all over Equestria for any spare rain cloud I could find.
"So why didn't you take the day off?" Applejack pressed, "Why didn't you take any of the seven times ya were suppose to?"
"She's just a fan, and I can't spent all my time with just one fan who really likes me." Applejack was tempted to smack her, raising her hoof, but stopped herself because of the bandages Rainbow wore.
"Scootaloo may be a fan of yours, but she ain't just a fan! She's your friend! She's Applebloom's friend, Sweetie Bell's friend, and that made her my friend, and Rarity's friend, Fluttershy's friend, and Twilight's friend. So why in the blazes is she not yours? Is she not cool enough for ya? Not fast enough? Well, maybe if you spent more than ten minutes not thinking about yourself and devoted two seconds to helping her because she asked for it, and you promised that you'd be there for her, you'd realize how much of a great amazing filly she really is!"
Applejack was panting, letting loose a torrent of anger that finally receded to a controllable level. Before any of her friends could say anything, she quickly apologized "I'm sorry Dash, but you gotta know that Scootaloo really looks up to you, if she wasn't your friend, then she really wants to be."
The other ponies were contemplating what to say that hadn't already been said by the brutally honest Applejack.
"So where is she anyway?"
They all looked down, darkness coming over their faces. "We don't know, we were hoping you knew. Pinkie was the last to see her but she said that you might've gone back to check on her after you were finished flying around."
"So that means no one has seen her for two days. I hope she's alright." Fluttershy quipped,
"I was up in the air for three days! I didn't get any sleep. I remember flying over Scootaloo, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't even if I wanted to, but if I broke my concentration, I would've collapsed." Rainbow Dash said defensively.
"None of that matters now, what matters is that we need to find out what happened to Scootaloo, after you left her again for the seventh time, Rainbow Dash." Twilight said finally. "I've been going over what I know about tracing spells in my head and a scrying spell came to mind. I should be able to see what she sees, but I need a catalyst-something important to her."
"Uh-Twi'? She left her scooter. I found it while pokin around Scootaloo's house, it fell over and was in the mud. Applebloom must'a missed it."
That news was a surprising to Twilight as it was to everypony else.
"She left her scooter? But she never goes anywhere without it! Let alone leave it outside to be cluttered up by the mud." Rarity said.
"I know! I can always hear that thing comin a mile away! If she left it, she musta been real upset with a certain pony."
Rainbow Dash frowned, Her scorched mane hanging in front of her face as she felt worse for what might have happened to Scootaloo.
"Applejack, where's the scooter? I'm going to find out where she is, and maybe out what direction she's went off in. She might of just..." Twilight trailed off, realizing she didn't know anything else about Scootaloo's daily routine except for that she was always with Applebloom and Sweetie Bell.
"...I'll have Pinkie ask Cheerilee if she's seen any sign of her, or maybe a few of her classmates might know." Twilight said picking up again.
"And, regardless of the weather, I'll start asking around town to see if anyone has seen her, some pony must have seen her wander off." Rarity said.
"I'd like to join to, if that's all right." Fluttershy said,
"And I'll get Applebloom to take me to all of her haunts, everywhere those fillies been is someplace Scootaloo may be."
"I'm going." Rainbow Dash said, throwing off the covers.
"Oh no, you are getting bedrest until you can at least walk. Once we find her, then you will go to her and tell you her sorry, repeatedly, and make it up to her by giving her a whole week of time to her- because she doesn't deserve anything less." Twilight said.
Her stubbornness was still driving her, forcing her to crawl out of bed and wheeze. "I'm going to try."
"As much as I know you want to help find Scootaloo, you really need to stay in the hospital Rainbow Dash.
Twilight agreed, already enveloping her friend with a glow of magic and setting her back down on the bed. The five able bodied ponies started making their way for the door.
"Get some rest Rainbow." Fluttershy said, the last pony to leave the room with only the racing heart monitor as company.