Ranger
Chapter 226: Remorse
By Wanderer D
"Keep your head low, and take cover. Always make sure you take cover, okay? Try to go for as full cover as you can where you can shoot back if necessary. Stay close to Breaker, she's got the medikits. You know how to use that, right? If not, I think we have a few minutes for me to show you in the firing range… also, when you throw that grenade, make sure it sort of rolls out of your hand as you do into an arc an—"
"Shut up!" Scootaloo snapped, not turning around to face Rainbow Dash, who did as ordered. An awkward silence followed as she finished strapping on the body armor she had been given. "I'm not a kid anymore, Rainbow Dash," she said, unable to keep the venom out of her voice. "You lost your chance to help me twenty years ago. Right now, last-minute-next-to-useless-training it's not going to make up for it."
"I'm sorry, Scoots…"
"Scootaloo. You also lost the right to call me that. Or do you want me to punch you again to remind you of my opinion of you?" She turned around and glared at Rainbow Dash. "You have no idea what you did to me when you pretended to be dead for twenty years."
"Scootaloo…"
"Twenty years, Rainbow Dash! Do you even know what you meant to me?" Scootaloo spat. "I adored you! And you were dead!"
"Look, I'm sorry okay?" Rainbow Dash said again, and Scootaloo found herself listening despite her anger. "I was just… when I was with XCOM, we couldn't contact the outside world… ultra-secret organization, remember? And then… after… did you watch the thing?"
Scootaloo sat down, still not facing Rainbow Dash. "Who didn't?"
"Right. Well, a lot of things didn't appear there. Soarin was killed like a month before the attack. I was a wreck… he was—" Dash cut her trail of thought. "Anyway… I just… I fell down the deep end… I was declared clinically depressed. After Applejack and him I didn't want to function. I started drinking when I could, I'd avoid clinic visits, I'd just…" she licked her lips and shook her head. "Then the attack happened and Spitfire, she had told me to take care of the others… I got the Shens out, I got Galahad and Geist and we waited for Anette but she never arrived...
"I dropped off the others in different places. We promised to meet in secret locations at specific times… I didn't go. I thought Fluttershy had died… I found Pinkie and I stayed with her for a bit… I helped her set up her roadside bed and breakfast. I even stayed there for some time, helping out and stuff… cutting wood, she cooked... I had thought around that time to contact you so… one night, I told her I'd be back, and I flew over to Canterlot."
Scootaloo slowly turned to face Rainbow Dash, who wasn't even looking at her, simply staring at her hands.
"I-I know that time had passed. I knew then it was too much time. Seven years… but Pinkie, she—she kept asking me why I didn't call you. Why I didn't visit you or at least try to find out how you were. I flew over Canterlot and… I guess it was too early for the Lost to appear. It was all dead. The school was destroyed, just like I remembered… I had hoped that the city hadn't been completely emptied, but flying overhead I could see that it had been evacuated and nobody had returned.
"I headed back, I hadn't really thought about things, you know? I think Pinkie knew where you were—"
"She did," Scootaloo said, unable to keep the accusation out of her voice. "She sent us graduation cards."
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. "I flew back. I wanted to ask her. I wanted to write or call you and beg forgiveness."
A cold feeling crept up Scootaloo's back.
"But… when I arrived, the place was on fire," Rainbow Dash whispered, "I saw a few dead bugs and a body that could have belonged to a human or ADVENT trooper… it didn't matter, it was a civilian building, noone in there had the firepower to fight them. I ran inside, I tried fighting the flames. I kept screaming and shouting for Pinkie and then I made it to the kitchen… the smoke was burning my lungs I was crawling by then, trying to keep from suffocating… she was there, with a tray of muffins or cupcakes… I never could tell the difference."
Rainbow Dash looked up at Scootaloo, eyes pleading. "I tried to drag her out but she… there was so much blood, Scoots I don't know what happened."
Scootaloo looked away.
"I woke up late the next day… someone had seen me crawl out of a broken window and they had dragged me away from the building. When I was able to stand up again, there was nothing but embers left."
Rainbow Dash took a shuddering breath. "If I hadn't left… I could have done something. Anything. I could have escaped with Pinkie in the Skyranger, looked you guys up. Maybe I would have been able to contact Fluttershy." She sighed, slumping down. "I didn't. I went away without thinking, and Pinkie was dead. Just like Applejack. Just like Soarin and so many others I couldn't save.
"I probably would have… done something. But I somehow managed to force myself to go to one of the meeting places. Galahad was there, and he brought me back to XCOM."
Rainbow Dash leaned forth, taking Scootaloo's hands in her own. "I know it's stupid. I… I know how you felt about me, back when we were in school. I'm sorry I wasn't—" she shook her head. "Smarter. Better. Honest. But I cared… I really, really cared. And I still do. And I still feel like you're someone that I can never be good enough to deserve the friendship of… and I'm scared that you're going on a mission and I'm not going to be there to fly in and save you if you need help."
"Ember's team will be there," Scootaloo said softly. "And we'll be within ground vehicle reach of the Avenger."
"I'm still not going to be around." Rainbow Dash countered. "I can never make up for what I did to you… but I care. And I'm just human, Scootaloo… I wish I could be the hero you thought I was… maybe then both Sunsets would still be here. Or Pinkie. Or Applejack or—"
"Stop." Scootaloo took a deep breath. "Just stop… it's embarrassing enough that you knew I had a crush on you and didn't—" what. Didn't what? Take advantage of a younger girl's feelings? Return love that she didn't feel? "I just don't want to deal with this right now."
"Right." Rainbow Dash stood up, a bit too fast, knocking down one of Scootaloo's bags. "Sorry. I'll uh... just go."
"Wait!"
Dash stopped, and Scootaloo lowered her hand. Why had she opened her mouth? She felt her eyes sting a little. "I missed you. I wanted you for so long, not even as a lover, or a crush… I grew up… my feelings changed, but I missed you. More than anyone else, you were a hole in my life. I wanted to be like you, I wanted to be strong and fast and brave…"
She didn't see Rainbow Dash move, but she was suddenly being held. Close.
"You are. And you are so much more than I ever became." Rainbow Dash whispered. She smelled like oil and a bit of gasoline. Scootaloo didn't care. "I'm proud of you, Scootaloo."
The pair remained hugging until it started becoming awkward, and they slowly pulled apart, chuckling self-consciously.
"Right."
"Right. Yes."
Scootaloo straightened out and reached out with her hand. "Good luck with your mission, Rainbow Dash."
Dash smiled, grasping the hand tightly in her own and shook it. "Good luck on yours, Scootaloo."
"I'll see you soon."
"I'll be waiting at the bar."
"I'll be there."
"Don't keep me waiting."
o.0.o End Chapter 226 o.0.o
Aw man, what'd you have to go and close Schrodinger's plot hole for?
Oh yeah, and there was reconciliation. Woo-hoo.
Yey
I'm just kidding, bleak as that was, 'twas also wonderful. Well done!
That's all I need to express.
"training it's not going to"
"training is not going to"?
Why did you kill pinkie
you should've kept her alive!!!
You should've found away for RD to grow W/O killing A J, & Pinkie.
😫😭😭😭😭😭😭😦
A touching reconciliation between two characters estranged for years, and mention of an old love? Yeah I'm expecting something heart-wrenching soon because well, that's XCOM baby!
That is all.
Anybody else got that feeling that one of them is not coming back?
9488388 It's not XCOM without senseless death.
9488438
It would be too obvious.
9488438
That's XCOM, baby.
9488284
Yeah, this probably means AJ is actually dead too. The story left so many possible threads for surprise reveals but is just cutting them off one by one now.
Daww, good feels
Makes you wonder who's still unaccounted for. Twilight? That's about it...
Nice to see them making peace with each other.
9488694
Well, keep in mind that this time around human Twilight is not known by the others. They're only to going to react to her as princess Twi's twin. I bet human Twilight ended up in advent for sure.
9488714
Yeah, that's the dominant theory at the moment.
9488494
AJ was confirmed dead a long time ago.
Don't die, Scootaloo.
Well this is at least one melodrama that has been fixed.
And urgh, it was mostly already been said, but here it is 100% sure that Pinkie is dead.
Yeah, Scotaloo is not coming back. It's not a proper tragedy until The Survivor has to see everyone she ever loved dying before her time
9488821
No she wasn't, Rainbow specifically said she still heard AJ breathing and calling out names as she had to fly away. Critical condition for sure and surrounded by enemies, but not a confirmed death before Rainbow left the field. Before this Pinkie's place was said to have burned down but Rainbow hadn't said she had seen her body. KIA and MIA are two different things and in stories like this they're usually signs something more is going on. I.e. like Annette still being alive.
9489155
I could have sworn Wanderer confirmed it in the comments somewhere, but I might be misremembering.
I think the author's been pretty clear that both Pinkie and AJ are really gone.
This was just building on that already-established point to find(reveal) a backstory knife to twist to show more of what affected Rainbow and got her into her current state.
And reveal another crush from the backstory to make things awkward in present day, of course.
Yeah. Someone's gonna die.
THAT'S XCOM BABY!
Now taking bets whether Scootaloo is dead by the end of the mission, or Rainbow Dash is, or both.
9489184
If they did I didn't see it I've been going off the story itself.
9489184
9489578
Taken from Ranger AMA.
9488464
And it's not XCOM unless someone you really care about dies.
Unless you're a filthy save scummer.
Welp. At least one of these two is a dead woman walking. Or you may surprise us, but a tragic demise is getting telegraphed harder than Sam Morse's obituary.
Lot of relationships in this story. Not something I've ever experienced so I can't relate to the characters in one. Just get mildly jealous.
Well, seems I've finally caught up on the story I've been obsessively reading almost non-stop. Now I need to figure out what to do with my time. Other than finally beat XCOM of course.
9495023 Glad you enjoyed the story so far! Next chapter should be up soon!
Okay, this, this is what I'm talking about, this seems ham-fisted rather than emotional. Instead of feeling tugged heartstrings I feel like I want to slap Scootaloo. (To balance this out, I remember the old arguments Fluttershy had Tala and "Silent G" were very emotional and invested).
-GM, master of Flutters.
It's a touching moment, but if these missions are what I assume they'll be... my heart aches in more than one way.
Oka-ay, I know that this is one of those really awkward secret lesbian scenarios. How Rainbow supposed to react to this?
Damn it... Pinkie...
Wonder if Pi kie Pie know and there for send Rainbow Dash away?