Always Worth Living

“Sweetie Belle, where are taking me?” Scootaloo asked as her friend dragged her across the sidewalk adjacent to the freshly paved road. In front of her was the thief of her hand and the respective body attached to it, holding a tight grip.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Sweetie Belle replied.

It was Sunday, with an emphasis on ‘sun.’ The muddy mess of the day prior had passed, and the warm sun and peaceful breeze seemed to promise some good for the day. Scootaloo wanted to stay in, hoping that television or something could make her feel a little less uneasy and sick. It had been approximately forty-eight hours since she last indulged in her little white friends. She was beginning to feel the nauseating effects of withdrawal, and it sure was going to take its sweet time leaving. But then she was awoken by a pink-and-purple-haired girl urging her to get up and get dressed. No sooner did she get her shoes on, Scootaloo was being pulled down the street like a little red wagon.

Scootaloo’s only thought this whole time was of Sweetie Belle’s intentions and destination.

“Sweetie Belle, why can’t you just tell me where we’re going?”

“Because it’s a surprise.”

Scootaloo considered this not to be good. Either Sweetie Belle genuinely had a surprise, or it was something Scootaloo was not going to like. The latter would explain why Sweetie Belle was dragging her around.

Scootaloo continued her musings as the two walked down the street. After crossing the street a couple of times, the girls found themselves just a few blocks from the high school, approaching a vast playground. It was mostly an open field with a bunch of standard playground equipment—swings, slides, jungle gym—in a small area in the western area of the park. Next to them were some sand volleyball courts. To the east were a couple of soccer goals. Sweetie Belle pulled Scootaloo over the square wooden boards that separated the park from the sidewalk and toward the swings. In the distance, Scootaloo saw a girl already on a swing, carelessly and gently swinging back and forth. She had faded yellow skin and hair the color of a delicious red apple decorated with a carnation-pink bow.

Scootaloo’s eyes widened at the mere sight of the girl on the swing. Yep, something Scootaloo was not going to like. For once during this trip, Scootaloo actually began resisting Sweetie Belle’s pull as she dug her feet into the ground, stopping her and Sweetie Belle.

“No! I’m not going!” Scootaloo declared.

Sweetie Belle pulled with all of her might, ending in a stalemate with Scootaloo.

“Come on, Scootaloo. She’s really sorry!” Sweetie Belle cried, her arm feeling like a rope in a tug-of-war challenge.

“Sweetie Belle, I have nothing to say to her!”

Sweetie Belle, with a grim facade, looked at Scootaloo and made eye contact. “Scootaloo, if you don’t come and talk with her, I will kick you in your bad knee.”

Scootaloo sighed heavily, “Fine! Whatever.” She let her body loosen up so she could be dragged.

As Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo approached her, Apple Bloom stood up from the swing but didn’t say anything. Scootaloo stopped a few feet from Apple Bloom, and not once did she move her eyes from Apple Bloom nor did she remove the unpleasant scowl from her mouth. Sweetie Belle cautiously let go of Scootaloo’s hand, ready to give chase if it would be needed. But it wasn’t.

The three stood in silence for the first few minutes, an awful, awkward silence. Apple Bloom played with her hands in her lap, chewing over what words to use with her contrition. Scootaloo just stood there, with her arms crossed and eyes glaring as she awaited whatever lying filth would spew out of Apple Bloom’s mouth. Sweetie Belle stood off to the side of them, hoping that the two could eventually put this mess behind them and return to being friends once more.

“Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said tentatively, trying to get some response out of Scootaloo. Her only response was a flaring of her nostrils. Apple Bloom continued, “Scoots, Ah’m really sorry—”

“For what? Telling my secret or completely ruining what little good that was in my life?” Scootaloo snapped.

Apple Bloom kicked at the ground nervously, “Both, Ah guess.”

“You guess?! You GUESS?!” Scootaloo shouted. she leveled an index finger in Apple Bloom’s direction and narrowed her eyes, “You are pathetic!”

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle intervened with a voice that would put a scolding mother’s to shame.

“What? She’s the one that apparently doesn’t know why she’s sorry!”

Apple Bloom stepped toward Scootaloo, “Scootaloo...”

“No!” Scootaloo backpedaled when Apple Bloom began approaching her, “You stay away from me!”

“But Scootaloo....” Apple Bloom tried another step forward, and Scootaloo took another step back.

“No, YOU! I trusted you, and you fucked me over! And what’s worse is that you told the two bitches that could ruin me.” Scootaloo hurriedly turned around and started to walk away. Sweetie Belle reached for her shoulder, but Scootaloo smacked it away. “No, Sweetie Belle, you can kick me in the knee all you want later, but I will not stay here. I told you that I have nothing to say.” Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom before adding, “Nothing good, at least.” Without another word, Scootaloo ran off, leaving the two by themselves.

Apple Bloom fell down to the ground in tears. She buried her face into her knees and hugged her legs bent in front of her.

Sympathetic as always, Sweetie Belle crouched down beside her. She placed a hand on Apple Bloom’s back and gently rubbed.

“It’s okay, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle reassured.

Apple Bloom sniffled. “No, no, it’s not. One of my best friends hates me, and she won’t even accept my apology.”

“She’ll come around, trust me.”

For a moment, Sweetie Belle thought about giving chase to Scootaloo; but she decided against it and thought of a better option instead.

“Apple Bloom, there’s something you should know that happened Friday...”

* * *

Down the road just a few blocks was the small town’s small high school, a simple three-story building that was the learning center for almost two-hundred students spread across the four grades. It was nothing special, sure; but a certain rainbow-haired girl took all of the girl teams to nationals. That was certainly something she, the school, and the town were proud of.

On the soccer fields, which were open to the public as long as school or practice wasn’t in session, was the aforementioned rainbow-haired girl. Behind the school were the sports fields; and separating the geeks and the athletes were a green field, a sidewalk connecting the school and the fields, and a large oak tree that matched the school in both height and majesty. All of Rainbow Dash’s friends had prior commitments for that day: Pinkie Pie had a bake sale to work, Fluttershy was volunteering at the animal shelter again, Rarity and Applejack were working their respective jobs, and as always, Twilight had boarded herself in her room to study; thus leaving Rainbow Dash to entertain herself. It wasn’t difficult to do so though; all she needed was a ball. And she had one (several, in fact) that she was using to play Keep Away with the earth.

Her concentration was broken by some obscenities directed at Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom and a loud, exasperated grunt, all in a familiar voice, causing Rainbow Dash’s foot to miss the ball completely. She looked to the picnic tables sitting in the shadow of the school to see Scootaloo sit down at one, her face buried into her forearms. It was a sight to which Rainbow Dash cocked a brow.

Rainbow Dash picked up her ball, tucked it under her arm, and walked over to the bench on which Scootaloo sat until she was just a few feet behind her.

“Hey, squirt,” Rainbow Dash said in an unusually gentle voice. She could tell something was wrong—anyone could tell that.

Scootaloo sighed heavily without raising her head from her forearms. “Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash took a seat beside Scootaloo, leaning her back against the table. “What’s the matter, kid?”

“Nothing.” Her voice was muffled by the wood of the table and the flesh of the forearms. She hadn’t bothered to lift up her head.

“Uh, you were cussing out Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom; that hardly seems like nothing to me.”

“I’m fine, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo declared, though she still did not raise her head from the table.

“Really?” Rainbow Dash’s voice and wrinkled brow portrayed her doubt. Scootaloo finally moved her head, turning it Rainbow Dash. “‘Cause my little sister doesn’t normally seem this angry or gloomy.” Rainbow Dash turned herself around in her seat, sliding her legs under the table.

“Are you sure you want to talk to someone like me? I’m sure you’ve heard the gossip about me.”

“Okay, first, you know I don’t follow gossip in this school—that Rarity’s job.” That little jab elicited a small grin on Scootaloo’s face. “Second,” Rainbow Dash continued, “if I did follow the gossip—which I don’t—I wouldn’t have heard of it. One thing I learned about gossip by being friends with Rarity is that, that sorta stuff tends to trickle from the upperclassmen to the lowerclassmen, not vice versa. And third, I don’t care what other people say. I know and trust you...” Rainbow Dash then put an arm on Scootaloo’s shoulders, “...and I wouldn’t call you my little sister if I didn’t. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

Scootaloo lifted up her arms, placed her face onto the palms of her hands, and rubbed her eyes.

“Apple Bloom told a couple of people a secret of mine, and then they blabbed it around the school.”

“And Sweetie Belle?”

“Sweetie Belle wants me to make nice with her.”

“Is Apple Bloom sorry?”

“She says she is.”

Scootaloo looked away shamefully. “It kinda meant something to me.” The incidents that transpired Friday was something she wanted to avoid remembering or discussing, especially with Rainbow Dash. The night previous was a sleepless one for her, since every time she closed her eyes she could feel the muzzle of her father’s pistol slide across her tongue, the taste of the cold steel lingering on it. And she always awoke with a bang.

“How so?”

“I-I don’t want to talk about it, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash noticed the displeasure on Scootaloo’s face as the latter kept refusing to tell the tale. She thought she’d just let it go this time.

“Okay, so it’s big?” Rainbow Dash thought aloud.

Scootaloo confirmed this with a nod.

“Okay, but I hardly believe that it’s something that should ruin such a good friendship.” Rainbow Dash readjusted herself to where she was sitting perpendicular to the bench and her entire body facing Scootaloo and placed her ball in front of her pelvis. “Look, I’ve been in your position before; and I’ve forgiven people when they were sorry.”

“But this is different, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “If you’re thinking that yours is much worse, don’t. You remember when Rarity accidentally heard...something and told someone that I slept with the entire football team last year?”

Scootaloo nodded.

“Well, after that started going around, I was devastated. I tried to not let it bother me. But people are cruel, and they just wouldn’t stop calling me names. You know how it goes. After a while, I began to take all that I could and kinda stated having some strange thoughts—dark thoughts.”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened, shocked by what Rainbow Dash had said; and she was speechless to see Rainbow Dash in such a vulnerable state. Rainbow Dash had always had a bravado about her that made her seem untouchable, invincible. But this was certainly not the case. Bullying was torture; and as with torture, everyone has a limit, even Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and continued. “But Rarity apologized, I forgave her and soon everyone else found someone else to bother. However, when I forgave Rarity, I told her that it didn’t mean that I trusted her again; she’d have to earn that.” She stood up from the bench on the picnic table and tucked her ball back under her arm. “I think you should tell the same to Apple Bloom.” Rainbow Dash offered a cyan fist to Scootaloo, who smirked before bumping it with her own orange fist.

Rainbow Dash started walking away, but she stopped when a question she hadn’t asked popped into her head. She was almost afraid of asking it, thinking Scootaloo might become irate with her if she did; but she just had to ask.

“Scootaloo?” Rainbow Dash turned around to see Scootaloo starting to get up from the bench as well. Scootaloo stopped and looked at Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah?”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly was your secret?”

Scootaloo opened her mouth to decline answering, but she stopped and thought about it. Nearly the entire freshman class knew, and Rainbow Dash could ask any of them if she wanted to know badly enough. It would be best if she heard it from Scootaloo, so all the facts were in place and not contaminated by the mouths of others.

Scootaloo kicked at the ground before asking, “Do you remember my knee injury during practice a couple months ago?”

“Well, the doctor gave me some painkillers, and I kinda got hooked.” Scootaloo looked down in preparation of the tongue-lashing she would get from Rainbow Dash.

But there was none, only a question.

“Are you still hooked?”

Scootaloo focused her eyes back to Rainbow Dash, who had a stern look on her face. Scootaloo held up two fingers from her right hand. “Two days sober.”

The corner of Rainbow’s mouth twitched in an attempt to smile, but she held it back. Scootaloo wasn’t out of the woods yet, and two days sobriety was hardly applause-worthy.

“Well, keep up the good work.” Rainbow Dash turned around and started for the soccer fields once more before stopping and adding, “I don’t wanna lose you like I did Gilda.”

As she walked, Rainbow Dash sighed to herself at the thought of her former friend—emphasis on ‘former.’ Gilda had dropped out of Cloudsdale High a year and a half ago. The two kept in touch when Rainbow Dash and her parents moved to Ponyville back in the fourth grade. But then Gilda became hooked on something, and the two hadn’t talked since their last chat. Some words were said, most of them slurred by Gilda; and like that, Rainbow Dash was down a friend. But she did not care. She had plenty of close friends, good friends, which were right there in Ponyville for her. It still hurts, though, when one loses such a close, well-connecting friend.

Rainbow Dash was now under the large oak tree and in its shade. She sat down and relaxed in the grass before looking over to the picnic table she was just at and saw no sight of Scootaloo.

Good, Rainbow Dash thought, maybe that poor girl can regain some normality in her life.

Whatever normality she could.

* * *

For about thirty minutes, Sweetie Belle had been telling Apple Bloom of the horrors of Scootaloo’s life and her attempt that happened the Friday prior. Much like anyone else that heard the sorrowful story and depressing details, Apple Bloom felt like crap, as one should. She saw it as all her fault why Scootaloo had tried to do it, but Sweetie Belle told her that this would have happened eventually.

“I’m just glad that I was able to stop it,” Sweetie Belle added. She and Apple Bloom each were sitting in side-by-side swings. Sweetie Belle fiddled with her hands in her lap while Apple Bloom, gripping the chains from which the swing hung, swung back and forth, pushed gently by Mother Earth’s vernal winds. She looked solemnly at the wood-chippings-covered ground, trying to digest all of the information she was just force-fed; and now it was giving her indigestion.

Sweetie Belle knew what she done but feared no consequences. She knew that Scootaloo cared for her too much to let her go, and she knew that Scootaloo would do anything and give everything to prevent the loss. And the way knew this was because she felt the same way about her.

The two girls didn’t really have anything to say to each other, leaving an awkward silence between them. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw Scootaloo walking back to the swings.

“Uh-oh,” she uttered. Apple Bloom looked to Sweetie Belle with furrowed brow and then looked to see what Sweetie Belle was looking at. Without a single rational thought, only emotion, she bolted for Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle sat for a moment to see how this was going to pan out—and see if her interposition would be needed.

Scootaloo stopped at the sight of Apple Bloom running to her. She barely had time to consider what actions to take before she was taken into what felt like an embrace by a very, very large bear. With Apple Bloom’s short stature, her head only reached up to Scootaloo’s collarbone, her ear pressing just above Scootaloo’s heart. Apple Bloom probably still felt Scootaloo breathing because she squeezed tighter, and Scootaloo could feel the vertebrae in her spine breaking.

“Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom cried, quite literally in this case, “Ah’m so sorry Ah did what Ah did. You’re one of my best in the whole world, and Ah don’t wanna ever lose you for no reason.”

Scootaloo was completely flabbergasted at this; and, after remembering what Rainbow Dash had said once more, she put her arms around Apple Bloom. She was still enraged by Apple Bloom’s actions the week before, but she somehow didn’t feel the same about Apple Bloom anymore.

Scootaloo tried to think of something to say, but she could only whisper a small phrase. “It’s...okay, Apple Bloom. I…I forgive you.”

At these words, Apple Bloom smiled and hugged Scootaloo a bit tighter before releasing her.

“So, we’re good?”

“Not quite,” Scootaloo answered.

Apple Bloom looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Scootaloo sighed and gently pushed her away. “Look, I’m willing to forgive you. However, I’m not sure if I can trust you or not. So I’m not going to until you’ve…proven yourself, okay?”

Apple Bloom, despite a solemn gleam in her eyes, went back to squeezing Scootaloo. “Okay.”

Over by the swings, Sweetie Belle watched the two and was both surprised and glad what had occurred. She was almost certain that there would be some hair pulling on Scootaloo’s part, and she would have to intervene. Sweetie Belle began wondering what happened to change Scootaloo’s mind. The two were talking—and that’s all she wanted—but Scootaloo didn’t change her mind very often. Sweetie Belle looked again and smiled at the two in the distance, hoping that things can go back to normal.

Well, as normal as it could get.

* * *

The three stayed in the park a bit longer before Apple Bloom had to help her older brother and sister with the fields and some of the other chores. Not a word was spoken about Sweetie Belle telling Apple Bloom about Friday, and Sweetie Belle was glad that it wasn’t. She knew it would pop up eventually, but that would be Future Sweetie Belle’s problem.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just decided to go home after Apple Bloom left. It was getting late, and dinner would be ready soon.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked most of the trip in silence; that is, until they were walking on the sidewalk leading to Sweetie Belle’s house. It was a warm, decent day for April. The light breeze from earlier had died down, and a couple cumulus clouds drifted by. The freshly mowed lawn of the houses still looked happy from the rain the day before. The sun was just beginning to set as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were just about to get home, only a few houses away from it.

“Scootaloo, what made you change your mind about Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle asked. For some reason, that question has been eating away at her, and it just helped to get some sort of an answer.

“Eh, it’s nothing.”

“Oh, really? You completely forgiving Apple Bloom when minutes before you couldn’t even be near her? That’s nothing?”

“Yes, yes, it is.”

Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes at Scootaloo as the two stepped onto the porch. “Fine, don’t tell me,” she said.

Scootaloo opened the front door to Sweetie Belle’s house. “Okay, I won’t,” she commented with a grin as the two stepped into the house.

Beside the door was a fairly large television, and across from it was the forest green three-seat couch flanked by a coffee table and a tan recliner. The middle spot of the couch was occupied by Sweetie Belle’s father.

Magnum, at the sight of the girls, hopped off his spot on the couch, a grin hidden behind his moustache.

“Ah! Girls, you’re home!” he exclaimed. He motioned for them to follow, “I have something to show you two!”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo merely looked at each other in interest and complied with the man’s wishes, following him into the hallway. He led them past the door to Rarity’s room and through the across from Sweetie Belle’s room, the third on the right. Magnum threw open the door and revealed a marvel to the two with a flip of the light switch.

The room was once an at-home athletic center for the macho, mustachioed man. It was large, the size of Rarity’s room, Sweetie Belle’s room, and the wall separating the two all put together; and it had housed an elliptical, a treadmill, a stationary bicycle, and a large rack of iron free-weights. They all had gotten hours and hours of use; hours that the man with the moustache had felt he had wasted. Muscles grow weak with time, but memories never die. It took a grey hair in the ol’ soup-strainer and two daughters reaching high school to realize what he had missed. He was no longer a player but instead, a coach. And a coach doesn’t need his muscles do his job. Whatever exercise he needed could be done at the high school gym while waiting for those numbskull meatheads.

The room basked in the electrical light, unveiling the novel changes that were made. Where the treadmill once stood against the left wall, Sweetie Belle’s bed; and against the wall opposite to it was another bed. That bed held Scootaloo’s bedspreads and a few pillows in cyan pillowcases. Three or four small expandable racks were holding Sweetie Belle’s clothes, and they were pressed against the wall in front of her bed. What seemed like her entire room—her desk, her shelves, and everything else—were in the room, pushed to one-side of the room, leaving the bed on the other side alone.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged confused glances. Sweetie Belle turned to her father.

“Uh, Dad, um...what...uh...”

“You like?” Magnum exclaimed, slapping both Sweetie Belle’s and Scootaloo’s backs. “I don’t really need those exercise machines anymore so I put them down in the basement. And I thought this room might have some better use. I still have to put the closets together and install them into the walls. That may take a few days to do, but there’s no reason why you two can’t sleep in here tonight!”

Scootaloo’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked up at the large man. “Us two? As in...”

“Yep!” Magnum put a hand each on Scootaloo’s left and Sweetie Belle’s right shoulder. “You two are roommates!”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo slowly turned to each other with the toothiest grins each of them ever had.