The Rainbow Conundrum

So, her mind being put at ease for the moment, Spectrum Flash left the hospital, after getting Scootaloo's room number from the doctor, as she knew that Tender Heart would more than likely be asking about her later on. She was heading to Quills and Sofa's, and she hoped that those items were not the only two things that shop sold, so that she could pick up some ink, some quills, and some parchment, so that she could write her apology letters to Gilda and Trixie. Spectrum Flash got there with no incidents, thankfully, and she found out that the store did, in fact, only sell quills and sofas.

'What the buck kind of store is this place! Quills and sofas? Those two things aren't even remotely related!' Spectrum Flash thought to herself, paying for the quills that she got there. She told the shopkeeper to direct all the charges to her bank account, which the shopkeeper took to mean Rainbow Dash's bank account. 'It's only fair, seeing as how she was part of the reason that I was sent back to the mirror pool for being her clone, after being a better big sister to Scootaloo than she ever was, after all. Not to mention the fact that Scootaloo was out in the Everfree Forest all alone today!' She thought, barely containing her rage.

She asked the shopkeeper where she could pick up the rest of the items on her list, and she was given a list of store names that also made absolutely no sense! She was told that she could pick up the ink at Ink and Toiletries, and the parchment at Parchment and Tools and she did a facehoof.

"Is something wrong, Rainbow Dash?" The shopkeeper asked, confused.

"Only that back in Cloudsdale, the shops at least had a common theme to them! Like, for instance, there was no need to go to all of these different stores for just ink and parchment and quills! You could just go to the Cloudsdale general store! Why in the name of Celestia is there not a Ponyville General Store! It would make all of this shopping so much easier!" Spectrum Flash said, throwing her hooves up in the air.

"Well, Rainbow Dash, this is a smaller town than Cloudsdale! We had to split up the items like that to ensure that each store got a steady flow of income!" The shopkeeper explained, shocked at Rainbow Dash's behavior.

"Oh. I guess that makes sense" Spectrum Flash said, calming down after what, she hated to admit, was a rather logical explanation for all of these illogical stores in Ponyville. "I'm sorry that I lost my temper there for a little bit. It's just that Scootaloo is in the hospital, after I found her in the Everfree Forest. It looked like she had been mauled by a Timberwolf!" Spectrum Flash said, crying.

"Oh...I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash. She obviously means a lot to you..." The shopkeeper said, unsure of what had brought these changes about.

"It's okay. She'll be okay. The doctors at the hospital said so. I just need to trust that they'll be able to fix her wing, and that she'll be able to fly again. I mean, after all, they are the doctors that fixed my wing when I crashed. I'm just worried that it's going to be harder now than it was then, seeing as how her wing was torn almost completely off of her body" she said, beginning to cry again. "It feels good to let somepony know about this, even if the letters that I'm writing are going to be to two old friends, and I'm going to let them know about it as well" She said, walking out of the shop, feeling slightly better.

'Two old friends?' The shopkeeper thought, confused. The only friends of Rainbow Dash that he knew of were at Sugarcube Corner, planning a surprise party for her when Pinkie Pie finally found her. He wondered how she didn't know that she was at Quills and Sofas, but figured that even Pinkie Pie had off days.

As Spectrum Flash was walking down the street, she ran into Pinkie Pie. She was suddenly lost into her memories of the Mirror Pool, and of the Pinkie Clones there. 'Keep it together! I have to keep the fact that I am a clone secret!' she thought to herself, panicking. She would only react to the Pink Menace hostilely if she appeared to know that she was a clone of Rainbow Dash.

"Hiya Spectrum Flash! I'm Pinkie Pie! I know who, and more importantly, what, you are, and I think that it's wonderful that Scootaloo is finally getting a family, even if it's a clone!" she said, beaming.

Spectrum Flash did a double-take. This was not how she had expected the conversation to go whatsoever. She had expected to have to fight off Pinkie Pie, or, more reasonably, scare her off, seeing as how she was in no condition to fight anypony, especially not somepony like Pinkie Pie.

"Err...What about your clones?" Spectrum Flash asked, confused.

"What about them?" Pinkie Pie asked, confused as well.

"Err...Never mind. So, um...I assume that there was a point to you blabbing about my secret in the middle of town?" Spectrum Flash asked, getting defensive.

"Pssh...Nopony pays attention to what anypony is saying most of the time!" Pinkie said, blowing it off. "For example, I make cupcakes out of pony meat!" she said, rather loudly.

Everypony went about their business as usual, and Spectrum Flash suddenly became terrified of the pony in front of her again. "YOU DO WHAT?!?" She said, fear in her eyes.

"Oh, you silly filly! I don't actually make cupcakes out of pony meat! I just felt that would get my point across the quickest, and so I said it! No, I make them using the proper ingredients, which certainly don't include ponies!" Pinkie said, laughing.

"Anyways, there's a party at Sugarcube Corner to say sorry for sending you back to the Mirror Pool/Thank you for being the family that Scootaloo never had/Happy second first birthday! Everypony is going to be there! Even Twilight Sparkle! She even prepared a speech for the occasion!" The pink mare said, happily bouncing away.

Spectrum Flash had no intentions of being at that party. She had no desire of being face-to-face with the pony that had been responsible for sending her back to the Mirror Pool, even if she did seem okay with her being out of it. She had the feeling that this was going to be a trap, so she was going to stay as far away from Sugarcube Corner as possible. So, she continued with her shopping, hoping that Pinkie Pie would leave her alone. She stopped off at Ink and Toiletries next, to pick up the ink that she needed for her letters.

She paid for the ink that she had picked up there the same way that she had for the quills, charging Rainbow Dash's bank account, and went off to get the last item on her mental shopping list. She got to Parchment and Tools before running into Twilight Sparkle, who was actually exiting the store, after having just bought some parchment herself. Twilight Sparkle didn't notice Spectrum Flash, as she was lost in her own little world, one that revolved around organization, and checklists, and her speech that she was going to give to Rainbow Dash's clone at the party. Spectrum Flash, however, noticed her.

When Spectrum Flash saw the purple alicorn, the response was both reflexive and immediate. "You won't send me back there again!" Spectrum Flash said, having decided to take the initiative in this encounter. "I won't let you! The last time you did, my sister almost died!" Spectrum Flash said, tears running down her face. "I may be tired, I may have had to do several Sonic Rainbooms today, I may even have had to fight a Timberwolf, Twilight Sparkle, but I refuse to let you be what prevents me from being here for Scootaloo!" she said, taking up an offensive posture.

Twilight Sparkle was taken aback. ' I helped save her for the same reasons that she was getting aggressive! How didn't she know that?!?' Twilight thought to herself, before remembering the fact that Scootaloo had been getting attacked by a Timberwolf at the time, and so the clone obviously wouldn't have noticed her.

"It's alright! You don't have to worry! I'm not going to hurt you! You can calm down!" Twilight Sparkle said, hoping to calm the clone before she was forced to paralyze it with her magic, as that would not help the situation at all.

"Sure you aren't! Just like you weren't going to hurt me that first time, right? Right?!?" Spectrum Flash said, not believing her for a second.

"I didn't know that you and Scootaloo were so close back then!" Twilight said, trying to justify her actions.

"You know what, egghead?" Spectrum Flash said, spitting the normally endearing term egghead out of her mouth like it was the worst word in all of the Equestrian language. "Stay as far away from me, and my little sister, as you possibly can, and we will be JUST dandy. Don't, and we won't. 'Kay?" She said, making it clear that Twilight Sparkle didn't really have a choice in the matter.

"Now, if you will excuse me" Spectrum Flash said, walking past her to get into the store.

After purchasing the last item on her list, she walked to Sugarcube Corner, as it was the only place that she could sit down and write the letters.

"SURPRISE!" the assembled ponies shouted, all of them smiling.

"Are you all here for the party?" Spectrum Flash asked, facehoofing.

"Yeppers!" Pinkie Pie said, smiling. "I wonder where Twilight is, though. She said that this would make a perfect opportunity for her to address the public about accepting ponies, no matter how different they are! Well, I suppose in this case the differences would actually be the similarities, but the lesson's still there, right?" Pinkie said, smiling.

"Sure..." Spectrum Flash said, shrugging her shoulders. "Well, I'm just going to sit down, and not get involved with this disaster at all. So, I want you to run interference for me. If anypony, anypony except for an Earth Pony mare named Tender Heart that is, you should know who that is, right Pinkie? After all, you know everypony in Ponyville..."Spectrum Flash said, trailing off. "Anyways, if anypony but her asks for me, point them in Rainbow Dash's direction, if she's even here. If Tender Heart asks for me, point her in my direction. And I do mean my direction, Pinkie. She is the only pony that I want to talk to. If Rainbow Dash isn't here, though, tell me, so I can go find whatever cloud she's currently napping on, and drag her lazy flank off of it, and bring her to this party" Spectrum Flash said, unaware that Rainbow Dash was right behind her.

"Takes one to know one, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, attempting to break the ice with her clone.

It took Spectrum Flash all of three seconds to turn to her side, look her original self right in the eye, and say "No."

Rainbow Dash could hear the hostility in her clone's tone, and she knew that it more than likely was brought about by the condition of her clone's sister. 'Well, there goes breaking the ice with her…' Rainbow Dash thought, before noticing that Spectrum Flash was still talking to her.

"...know that you heard everything, I know that you also know the plan. You are to pretend to be me, while I write some personal correspondence to some old friends of mine, well, actually, of yours, but, you tossed one of them aside like yesterday's news, and you didn't even give the other one of them a chance, and I intend to fix those mistakes, Rainbow Dash. Oh, and good job letting Scootaloo go into the Everfree Forest by herself. That's sure to make quite the impression on Applejack!" Spectrum Flash said, unaware that Applejack was right behind her. (Isn't turning around to talk to somepony else fun?)

"Ya did what?!" Applejack's voice came from behind Spectrum Flash. Spectrum Flash immediately whipped around so fast that she would've given a lesser pony whiplash. Thankfully, both her and Rainbow Dash had a higher tolerance for that kind of thing than most ponies.

"Are all of you going to sneak up on me like that?" Spectrum Flash asked, throwing her hooves up into the air, already exasperated by these ponies. 'Well, there goes my nice new cloud house' Spectrum Flash thought to herself, forlornly.

"Ah'm sorry, sugarcube. Ah just wanted to say that Ah heard about what ya are doing for Scootaloo and that Ah think that it's wonderful!" Applejack said, smiling.

'I can use this!' Spectrum Flash thought, smiling. "Well, I would be adopting her, but what you just heard makes what I was going to do somewhat difficult...you see, I was going to give Rainbow Dash here" Spectrum Flash said, pulling Rainbow Dash to her side "a simple choice: Go to Sweet Apple Acres, and fulfill her heart's desire, meaning romancing you, Applejack" she said, as Applejack's face turned beet red, and Rainbow Dash tried to interrupt, but Spectrum Flash covered her mouth with her wing, and continued "Or, alternatively, I could always just show her what happens when somepony harms my little sister which Dashie here did  when she didn't fulfill her duties as surrogate big sister. Let me just say that it isn't anything pretty.” Spectrum Flash said, smiling. “So please overlook the fact that she doesn't deserve somepony as wonderful as you, AJ, as I know that you would never do something as inconsiderate, disloyal, and dishonest as say that you are going to take somepony under your wing, and then do what dear Dashie here did" Spectrum Flash said, "and try a relationship with her anyways. Who knows? Perhaps she will even surprise you!" Spectrum Flash said, smiling. ' Though, I sincerely doubt it...' she thought to herself, watching as the two of them walked off alone.

As Rainbow Dash and Applejack left her line of sight, she reflected on how lucky it was that she had been at a party for that little blow-up, as the background noise of the party had completely covered up the conversation that the three mares had been having. ‘Hopefully I can keep those incidents to a minimum' she thought, hoping to not run into any more of the Elements of Harmony at this party than she already had. "I was wondering what happened to Scootaloo in the Everfree Forest?" came a concerned voice to her left.

"Tender Heart! Just the mare that I wanted to see! For a second there, I was worried that you were going to be Fluttershy!" Spectrum Flash said, with a sigh of relief. "Now, about Scootaloo, when I found her in the Everfree Forest, she was getting mauled to death by a Timberwolf. What's odd, though, is that she wasn't trying to escape. It almost seemed like she wanted to die!" Spectrum Flash said, suddenly crying heavily.

"That's just it. According to this" Tender Heart said, passing Scootaloo's suicide note to Spectrum Flash, "that was her intent. I'm grateful that you were able to save her in time! I have no idea why I didn't see this coming!" The mare said, with concern evident in her eyes.

"Don't blame yourself for something that you couldn't have possibly seen com..." Spectrum Flash started to say, before she was interrupted by Tender Heart.

"Don't say that I couldn't have seen it coming! Part of the education for running an orphanage is being able to tell the emotions of the foals living there! The signs were all there! She had been having nightmares for weeks, she had stopped going outside to play with her friends, and she had a haunted look in her eyes whenever I saw them!" Tender Heart said, angry. "I tried to get her to talk about it, I did! But she must have thought that if she did, we would have thought that she was lying! Or, worse, that if she told anyone, that they would die!" Tender Heart's voice started to tremble and her eyes watered. She stopped and sucked in a breath, recomposing herself.

"It's going to be all right, Tender Heart! Everything's going to be fine! The doctor's told me that I got Scootaloo to the hospital in time, and that she will be fine! Listen, here's her room number. If you want to, I suggest that you go visit her tomorrow, and see for yourself! I'm actually getting daily updates on her health, but I know that it will do me good to actually physically see her with my own two eyes" Spectrum Flash said, smiling. "How about we both go together? That way, the two ponies that have been her only family for her entire lifetime will be there, talking to her. I might have to leave before visiting hours are up, though. It just depends on how well these messages are received by my, well, not my two old friends, really, but by two of Rainbow Dash's old friends. Well, really just one of her old friends, and somepony that I hope to make a friend" Spectrum Flash clarified, smiling.

"Thank you for the room number, and I think that I will go see her with you. Oh, I assume that you are going to be adopting her, now that you are back?" Tender Heart asked, suddenly all business.

'Well, that was odd...' Spectrum Flash thought to herself, before responding. "Yep! Now that I'm back, I'm going to make sure that Scootaloo gets the big sister that she deserves!" She said, beaming.

"That's wonderful Spectrum Flash!" Tender Heart said, smiling. "Before you do, though, not only does she need to recover from her ordeal in the Everfree Forest, and more than likely get some counseling, which I think you're also going to need after reading that note" Tender Heart says, pointing to the unread note in Spectrum Flash's hoof, "but I also have some questions to ask you to determine your eligibility for adopting her" Tender Heart said, displaying a clipboard and pen.

"Do you have a house?" Tender Heart asked, reading from the list.

"Yep! I just acquired a cloud house cheap!" Spectrum Flash said, smiling.

"A job?" Tender Heart asked, going down the list.

"With all of the degrees that Rainbow Dash has, I'm sure that I could get a job in anything that I set my mind to. While taking care of the weather may not be rocket science, it's pretty close to it. Most ponies just think that it's simply bucking a few clouds. What they fail to realize, though, is that most of the time, I, err...I mean, Rainbow Dash is the only pony in the town that is bucking the clouds, and that they can, and will, on occasion, buck right back. By that, of course, I mean that she has been hit by lightning bolts from those clouds out there more times than she would like to admit. Oh, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that she has to organize the rest of the weather pegasi here to take care of the more mundane things, like what locations get how much cloud cover, among other things. Really, taking care of the weather is a lot more involved than ponies tend to think" Spectrum Flash said, giving a simplistic explanation about what goes into taking care of the weather.

"One last question. In case of you having an emergency, say, you get a broken bone and have to stay at the hospital" Tender Heart said, trying to not think about the current situation with Scootaloo that much as she was saying it "do you have somepony that would be able to take care of her?"

"Well, other than the two old friends that I'm writing to, there's always you?" Spectrum Flash asked, cautiously.

"Well, as much as it would please me to be in that list, I am, above all else, a professional. That means, of course, that while I may care for the poor foals that stayed at my orphanage as much as possible, as soon as they find their forever homes, I distance myself from them, so I can move onto the next town, and start an orphanage there. You see, I've actually been waiting for Rainbow Dash to adopt Scootaloo for a long time now. I thought for sure that she was going to that day that she didn't come back to the orphanage. I'm guessing your hoof was in that?" She said, smiling.

"Yeah..." Spectrum Flash started to reply, with a cautious look on her face "is that a bad thing?"

"No, not at all! I just wanted to clarify, that's all!" Tender Heart said, pleased that that particular mystery was finally solved. "But, back to the matter at hoof. How do you know that these two old friends of Rainbow Dash's are going to come here?" She asked, concerned.

"I guess that I don't" Spectrum Flash said, just as concerned.

"Well, that's the last thing that you need to take care of before you can adopt Scootaloo. After that, she's all yours" Tender Heart said, smiling.

"Got it!" Spectrum Flash said, fires of determination burning in her eyes. She had taken down a Timberwolf, escaped from the Pinkie Clones in the Mirror Pool, and saved her sister's life by getting her to the hospital in time. She was not going to let anything stop her from adopting her now.

After Tender Heart walked away, telling Spectrum Flash that she appreciated what she was doing for Scootaloo once more, Spectrum Flash began to write her letters. At first, she was unsure of what she should put into them. After all, these people had been hurt by Rainbow Dash, not her, but she still felt responsible, even though she knew, logically, that she had not been involved in those situations. She also knew that she couldn't call either one of them friends in the letters, even though she felt that she had known Gilda throughout most of her foalhood. It was Rainbow Dash's foalhood memories that she was remembering, not her own, as she had never got to experience a foalhood. Not that she was complaining, exactly, she was just considering what should, as well as what should not, go into the letters. After a while, though, she had an idea. Just let the letter come to her while she was writing it! Nothing could go too wrong there, right?

Dear Gilda,

I know that this is going to sound completely insane, but the pony that is currently writing to you is the clone of Rainbow Dash. I'm writing to let you know that, while I may not have been the pony involved in the incident, I feel terrible about the way that she tossed you aside like yesterday's news after all the good times that we...er, I mean, the two of you had in Flight School. Sorry about the 'we' thing. I'm trying to work on my separating the memories of me and her, and while it is quite easy to do with the ones that I am deeply and personally ashamed of, it's not quite so easy to do with the ones that I wish that I actually had. Anyways, I wanted to give you my most sincere apologies for what she did to you, and I also wanted to thank you for the karate lessons that you gave Rainbow Dash. You don't know how much those mean to me.

Sincerely,

Spectrum Flash

After having written the letter to Gilda, she began to write the letter to Trixie. The process was the same as the one for the letter to Gilda had been, and she got through it quickly.

Dear Trixie,

I know that this is going to sound completely insane, but the pony that is currently writing to you is the clone of Rainbow Dash. I'm writing to let you know that, while I may not have been the pony involved in the incident, I feel terrible about the way that she interrupted your stage show, and called you a loudmouth. With the amount of bragging that she does, each and every single day of her entire life, calling herself the "best flyer in all of Equestria" when she can't even help a single filly learn how to fly...let's just say that she has no room to talk. I also wanted to apologize for the fact that she interrupted your stage show. That was the most despicable thing that anyone could ever do to a professional entertainer, and believe me, if anyone ever interrupted her precious bucking Wonderbolts, she would be PISSED. Well, anyone but her, that is. Then she would expect them to let her on the team on the spot. See what I mean about her having no room to talk? Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I am sincerely sorry for her actions when you were first here in Ponyville.

Sincerely,

Spectrum Flash

Spectrum Flash read the letters that she had just written and realized that they sounded insane. She was sure that neither one of them would believe her for a second. 'Hey! I know who can help me here!' Spectrum Flash thought, as she allowed herself to fall asleep where she was sitting. While it wasn't very comfortable, it was necessary for contacting the Watcher, Princess Luna.

She decided, before going to sleep, that she would read the note that Tender Heart had given to her after contacting Luna.