Crusaders Forever (Unedited)

Scootaloo kept rocking back and forth. She was still mumbling to herself as the whispers started to die away. Rainbow watched in fear, she did not know what was happening. She tightened her embrace on the filly while stroking her mane.

"Shh shh, Scootaloo what happened?" Rainbow was wishing that nothing to major had happened. Before Scootaloo could answer her, Rainbow picked Scootaloo up in her hooves and whispered in her ear. "C'mon let get you downstairs." The whispers had completely died away and Scootaloo replied quickly.

"N-no i'm fine." Scootaloo had pushed Rainbow away even though she desperately wanted to embrace her sister. "I just had a bad dream." Scootaloo rose from her bed quickly and put her hoof in the air trying to look heroic. When she did her headache just returned and she quickly fell back down. Through her pain she still managed to look up at Rainbow and smile nervously. Rainbow stared at her sister. She replied cautiously.

"If you need to talk i'm right here." Rainbow bent down so she could be eye level with the filly. Scootaloo looked at her sister's eyes before replying.

"I'm fine, honest!" She quickly shifted in her bed and closed her eyes. "G'night! See you in the morning!" Scootaloo did not want to look weak in front of her mentor. She wanted to be alone and she was determined to be alone. Rainbow looked at her sister. She was confused, she stared for a few more seconds before replying.

"It's seven o'clock." She sounded bored. "I bought you take-out."

Scootaloo gulped before answering. "Err, I-i'm not hungry." She paused before finishing the rest of her excuse. "I'm really tired and stressed about the last few days, soooooo... i-i'm just gonna go to sleep." Rainbow saw right through her excuse but shrugged it off. "Just a nightmare" She thought.

"Scoots, I know when you're lying." Rainbow paused before finishing. "Everypony has nightmares, just crawl in bed with me if you have another, okay?." Rainbow stroked her back one last time before leaning in and kissing her on the forehead.

"Good night, I love you." Rainbow stood up and started to leave the room. Before Scootaloo could say I love you too, She heard a loud deep voice echo in her mind.

"She doesn't love you..." The voice sounded thirty times deeper then Big Macintosh's voice. Scootaloo cowered in fear. She didn't reply to the deep voice, she just curled in to a ball and started to rock back and forth again. The monster-like voice chuckled evilly before speaking again.

"Are you afraid? Are you guilty you killed the only pony who cared about a meaningless waste of space like you?" The voice chuckled louder. Scootaloo let out a terrified squeak before answering.

"W-what d-do y-you want?" She said between sobs. The chuckles stopped, there was a long silence. After a couple minutes the chuckling started up again even louder. Scootaloo's heart started to race. The voice stopped chuckling and replied with four simple words.

"Life for a life." Scootaloo laid in her bed, both terrified and confused. She started to sweat, her headache started to get worse. She started to hyperventilate taking short fast breaths. She was now shaking as she curled in to a ball. Then... the whispers returned, louder than ever. She was now using every bit of willpower she had to stop her from screaming. They were all chanting four words "Life for a life". She started to feel hazy and sick, her heart slowed down as her vision began to fade. Scootaloo let out a small squeak before passing out.

Sweetie awoke to the humming of birds coming from the peaceful town of Ponyville. She stared out her window and saw a group of multiple colored birds all singing from just outside her window. She let out a yawn and sat up in her bed. She stepped off her bed and trotted over to a small sized accessories kit. She picked it up with her mouth and trotted towards the bathroom. She opened the door to the bathroom and trotted inside. She stepped in front of the mirror and looked at herself. Her mane and tail were frizzy, she had bags under her eyes and overall looked really bad. She sighed and placed the kit on the counter and trotted over to the shower, she opened the glass door and leaned her head in to the shower and twisted the lever.

A high pitched *Pppttthhhbb* came from the pipes, then water started to spray from the shower head and on to the bottom of the shower. She opened the glass door and stepped in. The warm water started to flatten all the hair and fur on her body. The water felt good on her skin, she grabbed the shampoo and body wash and poured a good amount of both on each hoof.

She rubbed her right hoof on her scalp and her left over her body. She caressed her body and mane for a minute then began to rinse the remaining bubbles on her coat and mane. Sweetie turned the lever the opposite way, the water stopped spraying out of the head and started to drip. She opened the glass door and stepped out. She grabbed a towel from the towel rack and started to rub it over her body. After her body went from wet to slightly damp, she placed it back on the rack.

She trotted back to the kit and pulled some items from it. A hairbrush, an iron curler and some eye roll-on. She grabbed the roll-on and applied it to the purple bags under her eyes. After that she grabbed the hair brush and brushed her mane for several minutes, she then grabbed the curler and began to work on her mane. After a few minutes, she had the beautiful curls in her mane once again. She smiled and trotted to the stairs. Before she placed her hoof on the first step a pleasant aroma entered her nose. She took a deep breath through her nose, the smell of eggs and hash browns entered her nose. Sweetie smiled and started to trot down the stairs.

Good, Rarity is making breakfast. She thought aloud, a big smile plastered across her face. Sweetie got to the end of the staircase and happily walked in to the kitchen, Rarity stood over the stove, adding spices and herbs to the breakfast food. Sweetie trotted to the table and sat on one of the chairs by the table.

"Hiya, Rarity!" Sweetie exclaimed happily. Rarity turned to see her sister sitting by the table eagerly waiting the homemade breakfast. Rarity let out a sincere smile before replying.

"Hello Sweetie, did you have a good sleep?" Sweetie nodded and spoke again. "I had trouble getting to sleep at first but I got there!" Sweetie didn't lose any of the enthusiasm in her voice. Rarity's smile faltered, she turned to Sweetie with concern obviously on her face.

"Is it anything you would like to talk about?" Sweetie's smile faded slightly, after a few seconds of silence her wide smile found its way back on to her face as she shook her head.

"Nnope!" She exclaimed sounding like Big Macintosh with a high pitched voice. Rarity was a little unnerved, she did just lose her best friend, why was she so happy? Rarity shrugged it off and turned around to check how the food was doing, seeing that the food was finished she smiled and levitated a few plates off of the counter, she then evenly split the servings of food on the plates and trotted over to the table. Rarity placed one of the plates in front to Sweetie and one in front of an empty seat, that she soon sat in.

"Thanks Rarity!" Sweetie quickly dug in to the food. Rarity smiled and returned the gesture. "Your welcome, Sweetie." Sweetie nodded and quickly returned to her food. Rarity sat down and attempted to start a conversation.

"So, are you excited to go back to school, I know its not for another week or two but still?" Rarity levitated her fork and began to eat, while Sweetie paused to swallow her food. Sweetie gulped down the food in her mouth and started to speak.

"I guess, I just don't want everypony to feel sorry for me." Sweetie said, with a little less enthusiasm as before. Rarity nodded and swallowed her food before speaking.

"Sweetie, if you want I can ask Cherilee to talk to the class about bothering you." Rarity said quietly, the concern returning in her voice. Sweetie smiled and shook her head.

"You don't gotta do that, what doesn't kill you make you stronger, right?" Sweetie smiled wearily.

"You don't have to go back if you don't want to, you know that, right?" Rarity and Sweetie both placed their silverware down in the midst of the conversation. The happy expressions they once wore were replaced, Rarity with concern and Sweetie with a blank stare.

"No..." Sweetie paused before continuing. "No, I want to see my friends again, besides its still the break and I can recover, enough, before I go back." Sweetie's smile returned, she stepped from her chair before she could leave a hoof landed on her shoulder, she turned to see Rarity. Sweetie was going to reply but was cut off when Rarity brought her in to a tight hug.  Sweetie's eyebrows furrowed out of confusion, but returned the hug regardless. Sweetie's eyes widened when she felt the fur by her neck start to get wet.

"I-i'm sorry Sweetie, i'm just worried about you." Rarity's grip tightened as she started to sob in to Sweetie's shoulder. Sweetie felt her eyes start to water as she hugged her sister tighter.

"Thanks, I-I think I am going to see Scoots now." Sweetie wiped her eyes and slowly walked out of the kitchen. Rarity didn't try holding back tears, she let them flow freely. She couldn't cope with how hard this must be for Sweetie, she didn't show it, but call it "Sisterly Instincts".

Rarity let a deep sigh escape her lips as the tears started to cease.

Scootaloo awoke from a dreamless sleep, she was glad the nightmares hadn't returned. She sat up in her cloud bed, a little to quickly. Her smile disappeared as the headache returned. Scootaloo brought her hooves to the temples of her skull. She let out a frustrated grunt and laid her head back down on the pillow. Scootaloo rolled around for a minute trying to ease the pain, but to no avail. Now she knew how Rainbow felt after "Mares Night".

"UGH! This sucks!" Scootaloo pushed her hooves on her head in a vice grip-like position as she continued her to moan at the pain. "Why, WHY does this have to happen to me!? I finally get flying lessons, now i'm basically on house arrest!" Scootaloo buried her face in her pillow and yelled as loud as she could, the pillow muffling her screams. They were more out of frustration than pain.

Scootaloo turned to the clock. 12:36. Scootaloo let out a smile, Sweetie will be here soon. She let a giggle escape her lips. The pain was still there, she just tolerated it for the time being. The door opened revealing Rainbow Dash on the other side.

"Look who's up! If you slept much longer I might have thought something was wrong. Rainbow smiled smugly and trotted to Scootaloo's bedside. Scootaloo smiled back and replied in a mocking tone.

"Oh Dash, don't be a hypocrite you sleep most of the day outside on the clouds." Dash looked a tad confused, but she was still smiling. "How do you know what a hypocrite means?" Scootaloo smiled smugly. "Twilight told me." Rainbow giggled and lowered herself eye level with Scootaloo.

"How ya feelin' kiddo?" Rainbow's smile went from joy to one of sympathy. Scootaloo's smiled faltered slightly as she rubbed the back of her head.

"You got any of those pain pills? My head hurts, still." Rainbow smiled and flew too the bathroom to collect the pills.

                                                                Two weeks later...

                                                                            ***

"Scootaloo, are you sure you want to go back to school? I mean its only been two weeks, you sure you don't need more time?" Scootaloo was packing several accessories in to her saddle bag, pens, pencils, books, etc. Everything mandatory for most schools. Scootaloo sighed and turned to Rainbow, She had a sad expression, but still managed to force a smile.

"How am I supposed to get better without help from my friends?" Scootaloo said, emotionless. She didn't care about much at the moment, she just felt, sad... and confused. Sad for obvious reasons, and confused... because of the voices, they had disappeared after the last time, she only had four words on her mind, Life for a life. What did it mean? Whatever, at least the voices were gone.

"Scoots, I know this is hard for you, and I don't think you want to deal with those bullies at school." Rainbow replied softly. Scootaloo looked at Rainbow with a "really?" type of look.

"Come on, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon cant be that bad!" Scootaloo said, with a small hint of frustration. She thought to her self for a minute, the four words she had in her head earlier had disappeared completely from her head, for a moment, and replaced with another two.

Can they?