Silence
The pegasus hovered on the doorway, looking at the small, mostly empty room. The barren white walls, the empty bookshelves, and the plain looking desk gave the office an air of professional impersonality and simplicity. Rainbow Dash, however, preferred to think of it as “lame and boring”.
She flew towards the chair and threw herself on it, making it spin a couple of times. As she stared at the ceiling, she couldn’t help but think about her new job. When she was told that she’d landed a position in Ponyville’s Weather Team--almost right out of Flight School, no less--she thought it would be a cool way of making ends meet until she could become part of the Wonderbolts.
She did not expect to be stuck in a desk job, though. She should read the fine print more carefully next time. And the normal print too.
She supposed she shouldn’t be too mad about it. It’s not as if she was ungrateful to be working in something relevant to her talents, even if not precisely what she wanted to be doing right now. Even if most of her time would be spent processing files and reports, she was just a couple of promotions away from being part of the field team. Besides, having some real world experience regarding the more mundane aspects of flying would look good on a Wonderbolt application letter, right?
…
Yeah, she didn’t really believe that...
Grunting, Rainbow opened the file she was carrying under her arm and flipped through it’s pages with an utter lack of enthusiasm. The report about the wind currents and air pressure had to be done in triplicate, processed, and filed by noon for reasons only Celestia knew.
“I wish I could be out there with the rest of the team,” the pegasus said as she read over the absurdly small font of Form 437(f) and the even smaller spaces she had to fill the required text. As she mused about the odd bureaucratic intricacies surrounding the weather process, a loud knock came from her door.
“Yes, come in,” the young pegasus said, perhaps a bit too eagerly, as she closed the file in front of her and pushed it aside.
The door opened halfway, and a light yellow head popped in.
“Rainbow Dash, right?” the mare asked.
“The one and only,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, “Can I help you with something, uh, Raindrops?”
“Not me,” Raindrops said as she stepped into the room, “But Downdraft wanted to talk to you.”
Hearing the name of the current head of Ponyville’s Weather Team and her direct supervisor caused Rainbow Dash’s smirk to turn into an uncomfortable grimace. It’s not as if she hated the mare--she’d only known her for a week, after all--she simply struck her as too uptight.
“Geez, does she need help removing the stick she has up her flank?” Rainbow Dash said, leaning on her desk.
“You wish… No, she wants your help since you’re the new girl. She wants you to clear things up with the Guard,” Raindrops said with a roll of her eyes.
That caught Rainbow by surprise, “Wait. Guard? As in, Royal Guard?”
“Do you know another one?” Raindrops replied with sarcasm.
“Har, har. What the heck happened?” Rainbow asked with a hint of worry as she jumped from her chair and walked towards the other mare.
Raindrops shrugged, “I’m not sure, I wasn’t there. Apparently the field team was doing a few routine exercises when something went wrong and now Thunderlane is in the infirmary with a sprained wing.”
The thought caused Rainbow Dash to wince.
“Yeah, I know. And that’s not even the worst of it,” Raindrops said as she motioned Rainbow Dash to follow her.
“What is it, then?” Rainbow said.
The yellow pegasus looked at her over her shoulder as they both walked out of the room, “The team was forming a couple of mini-tornadoes as practice. The plan was to form them, let them run loose for a while within the perimeter of the fields, and then let them dissipate in the atmosphere.”
“I know the routine, Raindrops, what went wrong?” Rainbow Dash said, a hint of exasperation in her tone.
“A filly snuck in,” Raindrops said, giving her companion a flat look, “the team tried to avoid her and lost control of the tornado. Downdraft jumped in to help dissipate it, but it was too late to prevent Thunderlane from crashing into the ground.”
“But how could a filly have flown into the training fields? The whole area is surrounded by trees and we’re not exactly in the middle of town.” Rainbow Dash said as she stuck her arms out for emphasis.
“I didn’t say she accidentally flew into the fields, I said she snuck in. She must have been hidden somewhere, and as soon as the tornadoes were formed, the little filly ran straight towards them,” Raindrops said with a tone between anger and annoyance.
“Straight to the tornadoes? That’s crazy. Has she said why she did that?” Rainbow Dash asked her.
“She hasn’t said much, not that she could be heard over Downdraft’s yammering,” Raindrops said, taking a turn in the corridor.
“I bet she’s not happy about this,” Rainbow Dash said under her breath as she rolled her eyes.
“In her defense, she’s had a hard couple of days. Central has been on her flank since last week, not to mention training the new pegasus,” she gave Rainbow Dash a smirk, “I’m sure you can understand.”
“You’re quite snappy today, ‘drops. Are we there yet?” Dash said, flying ahead of her coworker.
“Yeah, she’s waiting for you at the lobby,” Raindrops said as she stopped in front of another door that bore her name.
Rainbow Dash let out a defeated sigh as she lazily flapped her wings. Raindrops stared at her for a second before calling her, “Good luck, Rainbow.”
She barely acknowledged her. Limiting herself to a small nod and a muttered a thank you, she kept flying towards the lobby. It wasn’t too long before she could hear the muffled yelling of a mare, a voice she could identify very well. Steeling herself, she entered the lobby not sure what to expect.
Standing in the middle of the room was a member of the Royal Guard. He seemed to be slightly uncomfortable, though that was understandable considering who was talking to him. In front of the armoured stallion was an older gray pegasus hovering above the concrete floor who currently found herself in a heated, one-sided conversation with the guard.
And yet, what caught Rainbow’s attention the most was the small pegasus filly curled up behind the guard.
That was odd, Rainbow Dash thought. The filly didn’t seem too old, she probably didn’t even go to school yet. Could this filly, barely older than a foal, have caused the accident today? Whatever the case, Rainbow noticed something else as she got closer.
The filly was shaking.
Deciding to stop Downdraft before she got an aneurysm, and hoping that the filly would calm down, Rainbow Dash made her presence known.
“Hey there, Downdraft, uh, ma’am. You called for an awesome pegasus?” Rainbow Dash said in an attempt to lighten up the mood.
“What took you so long?” Downdraft said in a tired voice. as she turned around to face the newly arrived pegasus.
“Came in as soon as Raindrops told me, she filled me in about what happened,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Good. New girl, you deal with this. I have to check on Thunderlane and hope it’s nothing too serious,” Downdraft replied, and let out a low grumble before speaking again, “or that he doesn’t sue us for work-related injuries…”
“Uh, got it, chief,” Rainbow Dash said, a bit taken aback.
Downdraft stared down at the scared filly laying on the ground next to the guard. The anger melted away from her eyes as she saw the pathetic ball that the filly had curled up into. She let out a long sigh.
“Make sure the filly gets back home safely, please,” Downdraft said to the guard before walking away.
Rainbow Dash didn’t know what to say, what else was there to do? Downdraft had flown off before telling her what she was supposed to do. Maybe she just wanted to dump the responsibility of dealing with the filly on her, that sounded like something she would do. Rainbow looked back at the filly, whose face was buried between her hooves, not daring to face anyone.
“So… Mister Guard,” Rainbow said, clearing her throat, “What exactly happened?”
“An accident, as I’m sure you’ve heard,” the guard said in what Rainbow Dash felt was an annoyingly detached tone. He looked down at the filly and nodded at her, “This little filly ran directly to one of the tornadoes the pegasus were making, and that send everything spiraling out of control.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the guard’s choice of words, but before she could make a comment on it, she heard a small, fragile voice.
“I’m sorry…”
Both ponies looked down at the filly still curled up on the floor. She had raised her head just enough for them to look at the large light purple eyes staring back at them. The filly had obviously been crying.
Rainbow Dash bit her lip. She didn’t do well with foals, she always got nervous around them. Fighting back an uncomfortable grimace, she kneeled down until she was more or less at eye level with the filly.
“Uh… Hey there, squirt,” she said in her best attempt to sound reassuring, “what’s your name?”
The filly shied away from Rainbow Dash, as if fearing an outburst similar to Downdraft’s.
“Scoo...Scootaloo,” she finally said.
“That’s a cool name,” she really hoped she was sounding better than how she was hearing herself, “Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here? Getting here isn’t a short flight from Ponyville.”
“I can explain!” Scootaloo exclaimed, almost pleaded, as her head shot upwards. There were obvious tear stains on the sides of her cheeks. Taking short, shallow breaths, the filly took out a small envelope she had apparently been hiding, “I… I brought a letter.”
“The Postal Office is way back in Ponyville, Scootaloo. This is the Weather Team offices,” the guard stated matter-of-factly, and causing Scootaloo to squirm yet again.
Rainbow Dash shot the guard a dumbfounded look, “Dude, seriously?”
“Even if she wanted to deliver a letter to someone who worked here, she could have come to the reception,” the guard said with a shrug.
“Just… Listen, just let the filly talk,” Rainbow Dash spat with exasperation.
“I couldn’t take it to the mail,” Scootaloo said as she rubbed the tears from her eyes, just in time to let new ones flow out, “I can’t send this one like that.”
“I don’t get it, what do you mean you couldn’t send it in the mail?” Rainbow Dash said.
Scootaloo held the envelope tightly against her chest. There were a couple of tear stains on the wrinkled paper.
“Scootaloo?” Rainbow prodded her.
“It’s for…” the filly’s voice died in her throat, “It’s for...”
Rainbow Dash looked at Scootaloo with a growing sense of confusion.
“I’m afraid you lost me, squirt,” she said.
“I… I can explain,” the filly said.
The sun was shining, and there was nothing Scootaloo could do about it. She had hoped it would rain, rain was always very loud. If it was raining right now, all everypony would hear would be the rain, and not her sobbing.
She gripped her plush toy harder, with as much force as her frail little arms had. That her arms wouldn’t stop trembling wasn’t any help. She buried her muzzle in the soft fabric of the toy and let out a painful wail. Every shake of her head made her feel the wet puddle that her tears had made on the carpet, but she didn’t care about that. She didn’t care about a lot of things.
Scootaloo heard a soft knock on her door, but she didn’t pay attention to it. She kept pouring her tears out.
“Scootaloo?” a male voice said from behind the door.
“Go ‘waaee!” she screamed into the plush toy.
“Scoots?” the voice asked again, “Please let me in.”
Scootaloo didn’t reply this time, she simply threw her toy towards the door in anger, but it didn’t go farther than a few strides away from her. After a few seconds, the door opened, and in walked a stallion with red-shot eyes.
“Princess… I…” the stallion started, but was abruptly interrupted by the screams of her daughter.
“No! I don’t wanna see you, I want mom,” the filly cried as she stood up and faced her father.
The stallion bit his lips and averted his gaze. He couldn’t bare having her daughter see the pain in his eyes, but he had to be strong. He had to.
“Princess, the doctor came in as fast as he could, but--”
“No!” Scootaloo yelled with such force and pain, that hearing her broke whatever resolution his father had left, “No! Shuddup. Shuddup. Shuddup! Mommy is gonna be fine. M-mommy… mommy is gonna be b-better. Mommy’s gonna be with us!”
Tears were flowing from her father’s eyes. “Ah… I’m sorry, Scootaloo…”
“No…”
“But mommy is resting now.”
“No.”
“You… you have to be happy for mommy.”
“No!”
“She’s resting now, she’s no longer in pain.”
“No! No! No!” Scootaloo’s face contorted into a heartbroken visage, “I dun’ believe you, I don’t! Mommy is going to be fine!”
“Princess, please…” her father said, trying to reach her.
“No!” Scootaloo shook her head as she kept sobbing, “Mommy is fine, mommy’s going to get fine. Just like when I get sick and mommy’s always with me next to my bed until I get better. Mommy is going to get better, I just need to be with her until mommy gets better. That’s all. Mommy needs me. Mommy needs her Princess Scootaloo!”
Scootaloo ran towards the door, trying to avoid her father. If she could make it out and into mommy and daddy’s room, she could stay next to her, and she would try to read her a book, and give her soup, and give her her medicine, and sneak a candy when daddy wasn’t looking, and she would sing her to sleep, and then she was going to get better, and then they’d all go out to play together every weekend again, and everything would be okay again, and her mommy wouldn’t be sick anymore.
Scootaloo almost made it to the door before her father snatched her and held her in his arms, hugging her tightly and barely giving her room to move.
“No! Lemme go, dad. Mommy needs me! Mommy needs her Princess Scootaloo!” the filly cried as she tried fruitlessly to escape her father’s grip.
“I’m sorry, Scootaloo. I’m so sorry,” her father said between sobs.
“No! Noooo! Mommy! Mooom!” Scootaloo yelled as her strength left her, “Mooo-meee! No, mommeee!”
“I’m so sorry… Oh, Celestia…”
His father’s tears were dripping on Scootaloo’s mane. He held her with all his strength, and gave slow strokes to her mane.
“M-mo-hoh-mee…” Scootaloo said between hiccups, before burying her face in her dad’s neck, both bleeding their hearts out into each other.
Scootaloo wished it wasn’t sunny. If it was raining, nopony could hear her sobbing.
Scootaloo walked down the corridor of her house, navigating the darkness as she tried not to bump into anything as she made her way back to her room.
Her mother’s funeral had been that evening, and Scootaloo no longer had any tears left to shed. She felt weird. Sad, of course, but there was something else that her little mind couldn’t identify. It was a feeling of simultaneous emptiness and heaviness that permeated her whole body down to her core.
She walked so slowly she almost wondered if she was sleepwalking. Maybe she was, and that’s why she didn’t realise she had already made it to her bed.
The moon and the stars shone through her window, casting a blue glow over her bed and floor, but Scootaloo didn’t care.
She climbed on top of her bed, not even bothering to cover herself with her sheets, and brought her rear legs up to her chest. Scootaloo laid there, listening to the silence of the night.
“Mommy?” she whispered to the darkness.
“Are you listening?”
Silence was her only reply.
“Daddy talked to you last night, but you didn’t answer…” her words trailed off as she looked through her window.
“Will you talk to me, mommy? I don’t want you to be gone… I want you to be with daddy and me.”
The moon hid behind a passing cloud, darkening the inside of Scootaloo’s room.
“Please?” Scootaloo pleaded as her lower lip trembled. “If you can’t come back, would you take daddy and me with you? That way we can be together again…”
“It’s ok, mommy. You’re probably still tired,” Scootaloo reached to the end of her bed and pulled a stuffed toy towards her, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Silence was her only reply.
“I love you mommy,” Scootaloo held her toy close to her chest, “good night.”
“Daddy said mommy is up in the sky,” Scootaloo said in a low, brittle voice, “Higher than Cloudsdale. Higher than the clouds. Higher than the stars. And that’s why she can’t be with us anymore.”
Rainbow Dash and the guard stared at the filly with open mouths and slightly wet eyes, neither dared to interrupt the filly.
“He said mommy’s happy now, but that can’t be true because she’s not with us. How could she be happy? I thought if I wrote her a letter, maybe she could read it. Then she would see that we weren’t happy and she would come back,” Scootaloo looked at the envelope in her hooves.
“But I can’t fly well, and I don’t know anyone who can,” the filly looked down and rubbed her eyes again, “but then I remembered that there are a bunch of pegasus here, and they always are making stuff with the weather that goes up in the sky.”
Scootaloo looked back at Rainbow Dash, “But then I caused that tornado to break free, and that pegasus got hurt because of me… I’m sorry I messed up, miss. I didn’t mean to. I just… I just wanted to let my mommy know I miss her.”
Rainbow Dash prided herself in being the epitome of coolness. A paragon of awesome who didn’t bother with mushy stuff. But maybe it was the tale the little filly had told them, or her naïveté and innocence, or perhaps just the sheer sadness and grief she emanated that caused Rainbow not to be able to hold back and let the tears flow freely down her cheeks.
“Scootaloo, I…”
“I’m sorry, miss. I didn’t want to cause any problems,” the filly said, dejectedly.
“It’s alright,” a tired voice said from the end of the room. Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and turned around to face Downdraft, who was leaning on a wall looking at them.
“Miss Downdraft, ma’am, we were just about to--”
“Oh, don’t bother, Rainbow. It’s really alright,” the tired mare said as she flew towards the group.
“Uh, really?” Rainbow Dash asked as she arched her eyebrow, “you’re not mad?”
“I’m not a monster, unlike what those rumours may say,” Downdraft landed next to her subordinate and gave her mane a quick flick before speaking again, “Besides, Thunderlane is going to be alright, it was a mere bruising. He’s just a big crybaby.”
After saying that, she leaned forward until she was face to face with Scootaloo. The little filly squirmed away until Downdraft smiled a warm smile at her, “I’m sorry about the way I screamed earlier. I’ll tell you how I’m going to make it up to you.”
Scootaloo looked at her in confusion, but it was obvious her fears were fading.
“Dash, you’re a good flyer, aren’t you?” Downdraft said, catching Rainbow off guard.
“Uh… Yes, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash said as she straightened her back.
“Do you think you can make sure her letter gets delivered?” Downdraft said, without a hint of condescension or mockery in her voice.
“Sure, I… I’ll make sure of it, ma’am,” Rainbow dash said.
Scootaloo let out a surprised gasp as her grip on the letter softened. Standing up, she gave a few tentative steps towards Rainbow Dash.
“Good,” Downdraft said, nodding to herself, before turning around and facing the guard, “Thanks for your time, officer.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. Glad to be of service,” the guard said with a hint of a smile.
Downdraft kneeled forward and looked at the little orange filly, who didn’t back away this time.
“Take care of yourself, Scootaloo,” she said, before standing up and walking away.
Rainbow Dash watched as Downdraft walked away. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as Dash thought. She would have kept wondering had it not been for the tug she felt in her leg.
“Miss Dash? Are you going to send this to my mom?” Scootaloo said expectantly, looking up at the mare.
Rainbow Dash found herself kneeling on the floor once again, facing the filly at eye level. She was close enough that she could see the now dry path Scootaloo’s tears had made on her cheeks. And she was sure Scootaloo could see hers.
“I promise you I will, Scootaloo,” Rainbow Dash said, smiling her most confident smile.
In a blink, Scootaloo jumped and threw herself over Rainbow Dash, letting her body hang from the grown mare’s neck as she muttered words of gratitude while new tears stained her hair.
“Th-thanks…” the filly sobbed.
“Hey, there. It’s cool, Scoots,” Rainbow Dash said as she gently stroke the filly’s mane.
They remained like that for almost a minute, until the guard next to them cleared his throat in hopes of subtly ending the moment.
“If there is nothing more to sort out, I think you should be going home, Scootaloo,” he said.
“Hey, don’t worry. I’ll take her home,” Rainbow Dash said, reassuring him.
“In that case, I’ll take my leave. Good morning, ladies,” he gave both of them a polite nod and turning away.
Rainbow Dash looked at him go, and as she did that, she thought about how her first day hadn’t turned out like she expected. Not that there could have been a way for her to foresee this, still she welcomed it, both the distraction from her routine, and the opportunity to comfort a young filly.
“Say, squirt, how did you get here? We’re not that close to town,” Rainbow Dash asked Scootaloo.
“I came in my scooter,” the filly said as she untangled herself from Rainbow, “since I can’t fly too well, I use that to move around.”
“That sounds awesome, I bet you can do all sort of tricks with it,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile.
“I… I do what I can,” Scootaloo said as she smiled sheepishly, “I left it near the bushes where I was hiding.”
“Let’s go get it, and then get you home,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Are you sure you can? I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Scootaloo said, looking down.
“It’s alright squirt, and here between us,” Rainbow Dash leaned closer to Scootaloo’s ear, “There’s this weather report I kinda want to skip.”
Scootaloo let out a soft giggle. Satisfied, she stood up and helped the filly do the same. And thus, they both walked away, with a wrinkled envelope safely tucked away under Rainbow Dash’s wing.