Stream of Consciousness

by BellChime

Maybe the end of the tale will be like this...

And then it was over. Well, nearly. The truth came as a shock to several ponies, and some of them were angry. But in the end it was for the better. Eventually the hubbub died down and the ponies came out better then before. They realized how silly and pointless their spite had been, and they did their best to make amends with the others that they'd ignored and diminished before. Even Meadow eventually came to her senses. Despite the backlash, she managed to keep her job, and learned a valuable lesson about making assumptions. Her friendship with Flicker was preserved, though she never could look Rainbow Dash in the eye. Rainbow Dash was pardoned and returned from exile shortly afterwards. A lot of ponies still didn't trust her, but they kept their minds open and their heads on their shoulders, and thus peace was preserved. Whether the same could be said of Rainbow's friendship with the other element bearers was difficult to say. Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity had made a severe friendship mistake, but they still knew enough to understand that what they had done could not be amended in a half hour, or a day, or a week, or even a year, if ever. They resolved to try, though. Rainbow Dash went to see a therapist to deal with lingering wounds.
Days passed, then months, then years, then decades. An event like that was not easily forgotten, and the tale was passed on in the form of a fairly accurate, if somewhat simplified, urban legend. Then, somewhere along the line, the Flim-Flam brothers became merged into one being, Rainbow Dash's exile was compressed from 8 years to 12 months, then 6. Scootaloo was usually forgotten, her part in the story was mostly merged with Rainbow Blaze's. What had once been the going ons over the course of nearly a decade had been transformed into a single extraordinarily eventful year.
The most important bits survived on, though, Scootaloo made sure of that. She never told of her role. She never had to. She told of the Flim-Flam brother's dishonesty exposed, the betrayal of the element bearers, the hypocrisy of the Princesses. Good triumphing over evil, truth over lies, love over hatred. It was relegated to a campfire tale for campers, a cautionary tale for foals.
But it still survives to this day, as a warning. Perhaps if little foals hear the tale, perhaps then, they will learn from it.

Author's Note:

I'll leave the beginning and the middle to your imagination.