Rainbow Dash sat expressionless in the shade of an oak tree as ponies stood behind the podium, said some words, and walked away. It was a perfectly clear day–not her doing, for sure–with the afternoon sun lighting up the field just outside Ponyville, bringing out the color in everything. Not what many ponies had been expecting, she noted. Funerals are so often presented as grey, rainy affairs, wrought with black garb and tears. The reality was less dreary, and all the more depressing for it.
She looked up from the grass to see a dry-eyed pony, likely one of Scootaloo’s classmates, giving some speech about remembrance or living on in memory. He was a remarkably thin colt, nearly white with a stringy brown mane. His eyes never left the prepared speech he read off the podium, and the twenty or so ponies who’d come showed even less interest. When he was done, he left the podium, and Scootaloo’s casket was alone once again. Rainbow Dash dared not look at it.
More nameless ponies came and went as Rainbow Dash leaned into the rough bark of the tree. Even some of her friends spoke, and they talked about how Scootaloo was a good friend, a brave pony, taken too young.
Rainbow Dash scoffed at them all. She was stupid, is what she was, Rainbow thought. Stupid and reckless. Breaking into the weather factory? Trying to steal lightning? Why in Celestia’s name would she try to do something so crazy?
Of course, Rainbow Dash knew exactly why.
Finally, Rarity made her way over and sat down next to her.
“Lovely service,” Rarity said. When there was no response, she kept talking. “It truly is awful, what happened. Just awful. She was such a good girl, and so young...”
“Save the speech, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash muttered, glancing at the podium. “I heard it the first time.”
“Yes. Well...” Rarity shifted uneasily. “Don’t you think you should say something? We all know how much Scootaloo adored you, Rainbow Dash. She would want you to speak at her–”
“Don’t tell me what she would have wanted,” Rainbow Dash said. Rarity bowed her head, but nonetheless Rainbow Dash stood up and made her way across the service. Ponies left and right looked up over at her, either offering condolences or whispering something to one another. She paid them no mind.
When she got to the front, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were at the podium, shakily trying to say something–anything–about their friend.
“S-She was always so upbeat,” Sweetie Belle spoke so softly that Rainbow Dash could barely hear her. “Even when she l-lost her family, she never lost her s-smile...” She tried to continue, but her words trailed off into sobs. Apple Bloom led her off, both of them in tears. With that, there was nopony before the casket but her, and all eyes turned to Rainbow Dash.
“I, uh...” She stood there, left of the podium, staring out at the crowd. Normally she loved being the center of attention, but not here. Everypony was expecting her to give some great speech, but she had no words. Rainbow Dash was motionless, gazing out past the crowd, racking her brain for something–anything–to say. Lowering her eyes, she finally looked down, and saw the face that had been on her mind for the past two days.
Scootaloo’s eyes were closed, her mouth expressionless. She was extremely pale, looking less orange and more the color of sand. She’d been dressed up in a fancy outfit to cover the grisly scar from the metal shard that tore her chest in two, and her mane, still in a ponytail, was draped around the left side of her face and over her shoulder.
But Rainbow Dash didn’t see any of that. Instead of a thirteen year old corpse, she saw a foal, a little girl, a sister she’d never had, and would never have again.
“Nopony knew her as well as I did,” she said suddenly, even surprising herself. “Sure, she had her friends, but they didn’t care about her in the same way. The only other pony who did died four years ago, and when Scootaloo turned to me after, I...”
Everypony was silent. Back behind the rest of the crowd, her friends exchanged concerned looks with each other. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle huddled together next to them, and everypony’s eyes were on Rainbow Dash.
“Y’know what? Buck this.” And with a flap of her wings, she was gone.
Rainbow Dash crashed through the wall of her home at nearly a hundred miles per hour. Her face was red, her eyes filled with tears, and she screamed as she reared back her legs and kicked her kitchen table to pieces. She tore through to her living room, ripping posters and pictures off the walls and crumpling them or smashing them into the floor.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!” Her voice was raspier than usual as she pounded a hole through a wall. In her mind, she was replaying everything the factory had told her about the incident.
“She was trying to steal a jar of lightning”, one of the night staff had told her. “We think she got in through the ventilation shafts, but we can’t tell for sure. The security in that wing of the building is practically nonexistent.”
“Trying to steal from the weather factory? Scootaloo, you idiot!” Rainbow Dash took a picture of herself and her friends and threw it into a shut window like a frisbee, cracking the frame. Turning to the window panes, she punched a hole right through the glass with a scream, shattering it and leaving her leg bloody.
One look at the red cuts and she was screaming again. It would take days for them to clean the blood off everything, they had told her, let alone repair the damage. The piece of the steam tank that exploded was lodged so deep that it went entirely through Scootaloo, pinning her body to a wall. The image of the poor filly desperately trying to free herself as she bled out had Rainbow Dash smashing another window.
She flew up the stairs, sobbing, and crashed into her bed haphazardly. “Why, why, you stupid kid, what were you thinking...” she said, curling herself into a ball as she buried herself in the sheets. But as much as she wanted to blame Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash knew who’s fault it was.
“I’m so s-sorry, Scootaloo,” she whimpered. “If I’d stuck around, if I’d been a better s-s-sister to you, then maybe you’d still...”
“Be alive?”
“Gaahh!” Rainbow Dash sprung up, flinging the blankets aside. Her tear-stained eyes darted around the room, but she saw nothing, nopony. “Who’s there?!” she shouted.
“Forgotten about me already?” Scootaloo said, emerging from seemingly nowhere. “Can’t say I’m surprised, after everything you’ve done. Or, didn’t do. Whatever’s easier.” She raised an eyebrow. “But that’s always been your style, hasn’t it?”