Starting over

As cherry walks out from her office, a blur of cyan knocks her over and yells

“Where is she? You said she would be here!”

Cherry stands up again and responds to the Pegasus with

“I said she had been here, not that I was keeping her here for you.”

“What? We ask for all of the ponies who can to be on the lookout for her and try to help us get her back, and you decide to let her go! What is wrong with you! She might get hurt out there! She could be all alone starving out in the cold! How could you do this!”

“For the record, she isn’t starving or cold. As a matter of fact she isn’t alone, nor will she be mistreated in any way where she is now!”

The rainbow maned Pegasus gives her a look of confusion then anger as she pins the red mane earth pony to the wall and continues to shout

“Are you telling me she’s gone as in dead? If so you're, then you’ll be joining her soon!”

“Miss Dash, get ahold of yourself. I would never commit to such a heinous crime! What I mean is that she is not traveling alone. As a matter of fact, she is being taught a career in which a single job, could be more than your paycheck over a span of ten to twenty years! Furthermore, she is being taught by the best in the business himself and he swore not to let any harm come to her!”

“And what job might you be talking about. Also who is that teacher you mentioned, I just might look him up so I can give him a good clobberin for foalnapping scoots.”

“The colt you are looking for is none other than Jonny Bench, and his profession is…”

“.. A bounty hunter!”

Twilight sparkle finishes for cherry.

“Princess Luna told me about him back when I first became an alicorn. She said he was the most dangerous and feared pony despite his age and size. His name alone can scare the army of any nation! How in Tartarus, did Scootaloo persuade him to teach her?”

“He doesn’t sound that dangerous. Hay, I bet I could beat him up with one hoof tied behind my back and blindfolded!”

“Rainbow, I want you to go down to the hospital and ask all of the stallions there to tell you exactly how they got there and to think about what you just said.”

“Why would I need to do that cherry?”

“Because, each and every one of them got their flank handed to them by Jonny earlier today, and he didn’t even break a sweat! He knocked out 20 Adult stallions in one minute and he wasn’t even breathing heavy! He could beat you in a fight In ten seconds flat! Also if you had gotten here about five minutes earlier, you’d have caught them leaving town. By now they should be about 400 miles from here. If you hadn’t wasted so much time interrogating me about the wrong stuff, you might have caught up to them by now! Not that it matters if you’d have caught up with them if the filly you want to find doesn’t want to go home! That's right she told me that she wanted to leave Ponyville and get a new look on life! She said that there life was like a living hell, in which her only joys were her friends who she said were often too busy to hang out and talk with her!”

Cherry yells at Rainbow Dash, who is looking heartbroken and says

“ She never said anything about that to me, but then again, I’m usually so busy with the weather that I rarely talked with her about anything that I didn’t think was important. Great, now I’ve really screwed up big time. Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

Cherry replies

“Of course she’ll forgive you, but you need to give her time to try something new. She said that she’ll return to Ponyville exactly one year after the day she left, so remember to wait for her. But just remember that she might not be the same pony whom you once knew. She may have matured a lot from before she left. If you really want her to return and stay I Ponyville, then you’ll need to be there for her, got it?”

Rainbow nods her head in understanding and says to her friends

“Let's go home girls, Scoots will return when she’s ready.”

after that they all board the train to return home and await the fated day where their friend would return home, and wonder just how much she’ll have changed.