Rainbow Factory: The Blackest Night

by Roman Torchwick

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Sex, Tragedy, Profanity, Scootaloo, Adventure, Rumble, Violence, Crossover, Death, Anthro
Length: 5656

Following the events of Rainbow Factory, Scootaloo is reborn as a Black Lantern, and vows revenge upon those involved with the Rainbow Factory, while trying to rebuild what she lost and keep what she's become a secret from those she loves the most.

Adopted From The Sinestro Joker.

It's been six weeks since Scootaloo failed her flight exam, was sent to the Rainbow Factory, and killed by Rainbow Dash, the very mare who had been not only her hero, but her surrogate big sister. Now, through the power of a Black Power Ring, Scootaloo rises again as Black Lantern, and as a result of how she was killed and because her Spectra was extracted from her, is not only able to maintain control of her body, but has abilities no other Black Lantern has, such as the ability to feed off of Spectra to power her ring and by extension her ability to feel emotions. Escaping the Factory at last, Scootaloo swears vengeance upon those who are involved with running the wretched Rainbow Factory, including her former big sister, all while trying to rebuild the life she'd once had and doing everything she can to keep what she's become a secret from those she loves the most, including her new coltfriend, Rumble. But, when Scootaloo is discovered to be the Black Lantern, responsible for killing the Rainbow Factory management, the former Cutie Mark Crusaders and those they love quickly learn that the reach of the Rainbow Factory is long, its grip crushes tightly, and even though Scootaloo does everything she possibly can to protect those she cares about as both herself and Black Lantern, no one is safe from the Rainbow Factory's wrath. One thing is for certain, however.

It will end where it began.

Contains Scootaloo X Rumble, Apple Bloom X Featherweight, Sweetie Belle X Button Mash, and Rainbow Dash X Soarin'

Published 2017-08-26 00:50:06 UTC
Last updated 2018-06-20 15:21:57 UTC

Resurrection

Author's Note

Greetings. Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Vengeful One, newly arrived to this glorious website of ours, and the new author of Rainbow Factory: The Blackest Night, a project that I've adopted from The Sinestro Joker, who apparently seems to have been hounded out of town. In any case, let us begin this little project anew, shall we?

Resurrection

It all started the day I died. Not that anypony would ever realize it. The Rainbow Factory has a way of keeping what goes on there hush-hush. But, if word DID get out about my death, the small obituary would say something about how I was a pitiful orphan, survived by no one. Then, I would be brushed off and promptly forgotten. But, nopony knows I died, so there is no obituary. But, more importantly, thanks to a gift from out in the dark, among the stars, six weeks after the day I died was the day I truly began to live.

I am the Black Lantern, warrior for true justice and vengeance for all who fell prey to the Rainbow Factory over the years, and dark knight and savior for the downtrodden, the weak, the sad, the lonely, the freaks, the broken, and pretty much everypony else who has ever gotten the short end of the stick in life. But, nopony can know the truth about me and what I’ve become. Especially not my closest, most loyal friends or even the stallion I love, who shares his home, his heart, and his bed with me.

My name is Scootaloo. And this is my story...

Rainbow Factory-Pegasus Device

Pain, that's all she felt as she fell.

Not physical pain, though that would come soon enough. No, her pain was emotional, as she fell, the one feeling that engulfed her mind was betrayal.

She had practically worshipped her, idolized her, wanted to be just like her, she was the president of her fan club for Faust’s sake!

And yet in the end, she betrayed her, and threw her aside like trash…

Why, Rainbow Dash? thought Scootaloo as she fell to her doom. Scootaloo was a young anthro pegasus mare of 21, the age at which all pegasi were required to report to Cloudsdale for their final flight exam. She wore a white t-shirt underneath a black hoodie, gray pants, and black and white tennis shoes. Why are you doing this to me? I thought I was your little sister… I thought you loved me...

Mere hours ago, Scootaloo had taken her final flight exam, which would determine if she would be accepted into Pegasus society as one of their own, or if you’d be a worthless piece of shit kicked around by those who had made it. Or, as it turned out, be killed and have your Spectra, which was some type of liquid energy that gave ponies their pigmentation and came in virtually every single color of the rainbow, and have it be used to make the rainbows the arched across the Equestrian skies.

Scootaloo given it everything she had, everything her beloved surrogate big sister, Rainbow Dash, the ground upon which she walked Scootaloo had worshipped, had taught her over the years when it came to flying.

And it hadn’t been enough. Scootaloo had bombed her test and was sent here, to the Rainbow Factory, to have her Spectra used to create part of a rainbow.

Not long after her arrival at the Factory, however, things had gone from bad to worse. After managing to get free from her captors, Scootaloo had searched desperately for a way out of the slaughterhouse of a factory, and in the process, had learned a horrible, terrifying truth. A secret that she knew would haunt her for the rest of her life, however long that was.

Rainbow Dash was the CEO of the Rainbow Factory, and was responsible for the deaths of countless innocent Pegasi, whose only crimes had been that they didn’t fly well enough for some ponies’ liking. Her hero, idol, and big sister was in fact a murderer.

Scootaloo grunted as she managed to catch a railing with her hand, although she lacked the strength to keep holding onto the railing for much longer, and if her presence in this wretched factory was any indication, her wings weren’t strong enough to allow her to fly up onto the platform the railing was attached to.

Rainbow Dash, who had a black mask in her hand and safety goggles on her forehead and was clad in a white lab coat that was covered in bloodstains and specks of Spectra, a black shirt, black jeans with a thick black leather belt, and black leather boots, made her way over to where the mare who she’d taken under her wing as a filly, who she’d taught everything she knew in hopes that she’d pass her exam and not become another life of many burdened on her conscience, only for her to fail and be sent here.

Ever since Scootaloo gotten loose and started running around the Factory, she’d acted as though Scootaloo had meant nothing to her after all these years to hide her guilt at the thought that it hadn’t been Scootaloo who failed the test. But, rather, it was she who failed Scootaloo.

Rainbow looked down at her former little sister and sidekick with as much of a look that suggested that the young mare was no more than something unpleasant she’d found on her boot as she could muster.

“Any final words, you miserable, worthless, whorse of a mare?!” Rainbow asked Scootaloo with as much rage and hatred as she could muster.

Scootaloo brought her chin high, still demanding even the tiniest fraction of dignity as she felt her grip on the railing starting to slacken. The end was almost here.

“You have beautiful eyes.”

Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, Scootaloo lost her grip and fell into the Pegasus Device. As large knives and siphons worked at extracting the latest victim’s violet Spectra, Rainbow Dash began to feel tears run down her face. The one pony she had truly called sister all these years was dead, just another nameless face to burn once the Pegasus Device extracted all of her Spectra.

And it was all her fault.

Six Weeks Later…

In the far reaches of space, a tiny black comet was zooming through the cosmos, drawn like paper clips to a magnet. Within the comet was a black ring with a strange insignia on it, consisting of an upside-down triangle underneath a broken half-circle. As the ring continued its journey through the cosmos, it entered Space Sector 2010, where the planet of Equis, which was home to many creatures told in human fairy tales, such as Unicorns, Pegasi, and Griffons, was located.

And that was exactly where the ring was going, for it had sensed a suitable candidate for its power...

Meanwhile...

The Incinerator Room of the Rainbow Factory was exactly what it sounded like: a large room filled from ground to ceiling with incinerators. The workers in this room wore surgical masks, to help keep them from catching illnesses and to try to ward of the smell from the bodies of the victims of the Pegasus Device. Well, what was left of them, anyway.

One worker in particular hefted the mangled corpse of a young Pegasus mare with an orange coat so faded it looked almost gray, and a similarly faded purple mane and tail, onto a rack to be inserted into an incinerator. The copse was missing its left arm from the elbow down, its right leg from the knee down, and was missing all but her middle finger and thumb on her intact hand and three toes on its only foot.

None of the workers could figure out what was so special about this corpse in particular. The Factory’s CEO, Rainbow Mirham Dash, had been coming to the Incinerator Room quite often over the last six weeks, and had been staring at this particular corpse, almost as though it had once been a cherished family member. Once, a worker said they saw Rainbow kneeling down and stroking the corpse’s mane. If the worker was to be believed, Rainbow had actually been crying and had whispered something that sounded oddly like “I’m sorry, little sis.”

But, now it was time to dispose of this corpse once and for all. With a blank, emotionless expression on his face, the worker pushed the rack into the incinerator and pressed the button to activate the incinerator. At almost the same time, the whistle for lunch went off. Although most of the workers departed to the Cafeteria, five of them had to stay behind to make sure the incinerators didn’t burn the whole Factory down.

As the workers ate lunch amongst themselves, none of them noticed the tiny black comet enter the facility and make its way through the incinerators to the now-burning corpse that Rainbow Dash had been so attached to.

The ring simply hovered for a moment, almost as if examining the corpse, before it turned sideways and attached itself to the corpse’s sole middle finger in such a way that in insignia was facing up. Then, an unheard, demonic voice spoke, giving the corpse a command.

Scootaloo of Sector 2010… RISE!

Scootaloo’s eyes flew open as she screamed louder than she’d ever screamed before in her life, her injuries starting to heal, her missing limbs started to regrow, and a skintight, form-fitting black uniform with the ring’s insignia on her chest as well as two smaller versions of the emblem on the backs of her now-regrown and healed hands, appeared on her as she kicked open the hatch on the incinerator and climbed out of it, falling to the ground, her body still on fire a little bit, amongst the alarmed workers, one of whom was already inching his way to the alarm system to trigger it.

Then, Scootaloo began to speak, and the words she spoke came forth from the depths of her reanimated heart, fresh with the memories of what had happened to her and how she had… died…

“Mothers cry and infants wail. Risen avenger, I shall not fail! Blackest Night, hear my cry! The dead shall rise and the living die!” said Scootaloo, her voice as black as night and darker than obsidian, causing the workers who stood before her to start shaking with fear, and for the one who was trying to reach the alarm to start edging his way closer to the alarm at a faster rate.

Scootaloo was quick to pick up on not only the worker who was trying to make it to the alarm, but the fear of all the workers present, thanks to the shimmering yellow outlines that surrounded them. Acting quickly, Scootaloo used her newfound power to construct a jet-black chain and used it to catch the worker and pull him into her outstretched hand, where he began mutter incoherently out of fear, if the dark spot on his pants was any indication.

“You’re afraid… good,” said Scootaloo as she placed the black ring on the worker’s chest, directly over his heart.

Yellow energy began flowing from the worker through the ring and into Scootaloo, whose coat and mane began to regain some of their original color, and some of the numbness and emptiness that Scootaloo had been feeling in her heart began to go away. Unfortunately, what was taking its place wasn’t that much better. Where only a few seconds ago Scootaloo had felt numb, cold, and emotionless, she was now starting to feel sheer terror course through her.

As for the poor soul who’s Spectra Scootaloo, now the Black Lantern, was siphoning away into herself, he was beginning to shrivel up, becoming thinner and more sunken. By the time Black Lantern had finished siphoning his Spectra, all that remained of the worker was a shriveled up and shrunken corpse.

At that point, the remaining four workers decided to throw caution to the wind and began throwing each other behind in an attempt to reach the alarm, while Black Lantern attempted to gain control over the sheer terror that was thumping through her, trying to ward off the monstrous Rainbow Dashes that had appeared.

“You’re pathetic, Scootaloo!” “You actually thought I gave a damn about you?! Man, how stupid could you get?!” “You don’t even deserve those wings you bear!” “Any final words, you miserable, worthless, whorse of a mare?!”

Black Lantern screamed with effort as she managed to conquer the fear that had been threatening to consume her. One by one, the twisted Rainbow Dash copies began to disappear until finally, they were all gone.

And not a moment too soon as the alarm went off, and a small squadron of the masked stallions in suits began to pour into the Incinerator Room, each armed with advanced weaponry.

All right, then. Looks like I’ll have to go through them if I want to get out of this place for real this time. Should be much easier this time now that I’ve got the power of the Blackest Night at my command. Although, how I know about it is beyond me, thought Black Lantern as the hand that her ring was on began to glow with a eerie black energy as the Suits got ready to attack.

Not a single employee of the Rainbow Factory got out of the Incinerator Room alive.

After she drained the Spectra out of the last Suit, Black Lantern decided it was time to make a break for it. As she ran through the hallways of the Rainbow Factory, Black Lantern still had to contend with anyone stupid enough to try to get in her way and stop her from getting out. A decision that would prove to be their last mistake, although how she was able to use her new weapon’s power so proficiently despite having no training with it whatsoever baffled her. Not that she was complaining, of course.

As Black Lantern went down one particular hallway, she came to a stop at a wall covered with photographs that surrounded the words “Cloudsdale Weather Corporation Board of Directors.” Black Lantern glared at each of the photos, but spent the most time glaring at Rainbow Dash’s picture, thinking back to all the good times they’d had together. Before she’d found out the truth, before she’d found out that Rainbow Dash never even liked her, much less thought of her as a little sister.

Slowly but surely, anger, rage, and hatred began to boil up inside Black Lantern. Until, finally, she fired a powerful blast of dark energy at the wall.

And punched a hole large enough for her to fit through through it, revealing the black lightning storm clouds that surrounded the facility. Fortunately, Black Lantern had just the thing for that. She used her power to construct a giant fan that was able to blow away the storm clouds.

Unfortunately, it also blew away the regular clouds that surrounded the facility, leaving a gazillion foot drop in front of her. And the sound of approaching footsteps didn’t exactly help matters any either.

Damn. I cheated death, got superpowers that I somehow know how to use despite never actually training to use them, got so close to freedom, and now I bucked it up. No wonder Rainbow Dash called me a failure, thought Black Lantern as she looked through the hole in the wall to the ground that somehow seemed even farther beneath her than it actually was.

Then, unbidden, another voice spoke in her mind. The same demonic voice that had commanded her to rise from her grave. You know, you can fly.

Black Lantern looked wildly around for the source of the voice, wondering if maybe a ghost or something had found her and wanted to help. “Who said that? Where are you?” she asked.

How amusing. I’m right here on your hand, dummy! the voice again.

Black Lantern looked down at the ring on her hand. “My new ring is alive?” she said, hardly able to believe it.

More or less, but now is not the time to discuss this. Just jump out the hole, and fly away.

“B-but I can’t fly! Rainbow Dash tried to teach me for years! How do you think I-”

You don’t need your wings. I’ll handle the actual flying. All you need to do is use your thoughts to steer. Now, hurry up and jump already!

Black Lantern looked over her shoulder to see that there were shadows on the wall behind her, visible thanks to the sunlight shining through the hole in the wall. Taking a deep breath, Black Lantern threw herself out the hole she’d made in the wall and began to fall screaming to the earth below.

Oh, shit! Come on! Pull up! Pull up! Pull up! Scootaloo thought desperately, and, almost as if in response to her thoughts, Black Lantern began to shoot up through the air like a rocket, although her panic was causing her to fly like a drunken sailor.

It wasn’t long before Black Lantern did a faceplant into the dirt on the ground, leaving a shallow strench as she slid across it, before finally coming to a stop. Rolling herself over, Black Lantern let out a triumphant laugh. “I did it! I finally did it! I flew! Not very well, but still, I flew! And all I had to do was kick the bucket!” she yelled.

Yes, I’m happy for you, but I’m sure those guards will be looking for you. We need to keep moving. Do you know any place where we can lay low for a while before we go seek vengeance?

“Well… there is my hometown of Ponyville. But, what are you exactly? How am I not dead anymore? And how do I keep people from finding out about you?”

Let’s keep moving. I’ll explain on the way. AFTER we get you some new civilian clothes.

Elsewhere...

In a peaceful meadow with a small pond just outside the vast city of Manehattan, Rainbow Dash, who was wearing her casual clothes, which consisted of a navy blue hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath, blue jeans with a black belt, and pink and white sneakers, was laying back in a lounge chair, trying to take a nap.

The fact that her cell phone went off didn’t exactly help matters any. Looking at the Caller ID, Rainbow learned that the caller was from the Rainbow Factory. Growling angrily, Rainbow Dash answered the phone.

“What do you want?!” she snapped at the caller.

“Ma’am, we have a situation,” the caller said in a filtered voice.

“What kind of situation? Keep in mind that this had better be a life-or-death situation, or else you’ll find yourself in the belly of the Pegasus Device,” threatened Rainbow.

“An escape.”

Homecoming

“Let me through! Get the buck out of my way! Get your sorry asses back to work or I’ll feed you to the Pegasus Device!” snapped Rainbow Dash, clad in her Rainbow Factory outfit, as she pushed her way through the crowd of workers and security, all of whom were eager to investigate what had been the first successful breakout from the Rainbow Factory since it first opened its doors so long ago.

She made her way to the guards who were forming a perimeter around the Incinerator Room, where the escape was said to have taken place. Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash and the Factory faculty, it was also the only place in the entire Rainbow Factory that didn’t have security cameras or any kind of security measures outside of the general alarm, which was only supposed to be used in the event of an incinerator starting a fire that threatened the entire facility.

“Okay, what the buck happened here?! Today was supposed to be my day off! So if I were you, I’d make it snappy!” Rainbow snapped at one of her guards, who merely gulped, nodded, murmured a simple, “Yes, ma’am,” and began to lead Rainbow to where the bodies of the dead guards and workers were laying.

“What do you make of this?” Rainbow asked the guard.

“In my opinion, judging by the fact that these poor bastards had their Spectra drained.”

The guard answered as they approached the shriveled and shrunken corpses.

“It seems we’ve got another Absentia on our hands.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, confused.

“But, why would an Absentia try to break out of the Factory? It’s not like one of them to do something like that.”

The guard could only shrug.

Rainbow bent down and examined the shriveled and shrunken bodies before her, taking note that they all seemed to have the same imprint of some kind of insignia upon their chest, directly over their hearts. A glance towards the one of the walls of incinerators showed that one of the hatches had been removed, most likely kicked off by somepony. Rainbow began to mutter as she struggled to figure out how such a disaster could happen.

“It doesn’t make any sense. No Absentia has ever so much as even tried to escape the Factory before, much less actually pull it off. And they most certainly never broke out of an incinerator before either. I don’t know what we’re dealing with here, but I don’t think this is the work of an Absentia. This has gotta be something else. And for all we know, something worse.”

“What are your orders?” the guard asked.

Snapping out of her pondering, Rainbow Dash snapped her orders at the guard.

“Tell our agents to tear Equestria apart until they find whoever or whatever broke out of here. Give them the information on every pony who failed their exams and were sent here within the last six months. We need to find whatever undead monster busted out of here before it can lay a finger on anyone in the Cloudsdale Corporation’s chain of command, or worse, innocent ponies.”

Rainbow then proceeded to walk away.

“And when we kill it this time, I will personally make sure it stays dead.”

Meanwhile...

Scootaloo had changed into a new set of clothing. The clothes consisted of a black leather jacket with a hood and a white t-shirt underneath, black jeans with a black leather belt, and black combat boots.

Once she was changed, Scootaloo began to ask her new ring some questions as she flew in the direction of her hometown of Ponyville at breakneck speeds.

“So...what’s the deal with you? What are you exactly? And where’d you come from?”

The ring answered, I am what is known as a Black Power Ring, the source of power for the Black Lantern Corps, who are essentially an army of the undead from all over the universe who are controlled by their power rings. They are dedicated to bringing about the Blackest Night and wipe out all life in the Universe, as bleak and horrific as that sounds. Our rings hold a limited charge, so what we usually do is make a victim feel a strong enough emotion so that we may feed on their hearts and gain power.

This alarmed Scootaloo.

“Wait. You mean I’m just a puppet?!”

Scootaloo began to feel more than a little uncomfortable at the thought that she may not be truly back from the dead, but may rather be only an undead puppet. Then, something occurred to her. “If I’m supposed to be an undead puppet with you in the driver seat, then how come I’m in control? And how come I was able to kill those guys the way I did?”

That, Miss Scootaloo, is a very good question. I have no idea how such a thing is possible. Perhaps the way you died has something to do with it. What can you tell me about what happened?

As much as she did not want to relive the memories that lead up to her death, Scootaloo knew that if she was going to get the answers she needed, she would have to explain. With each word, the taste of bile formed in her mouth as she spoke with despair and hatred.

“Well, I bombed my final flight exam and got sent to the Rainbow Factory. Which, I had found out then, is run by Rainbow Dash, who used to be my idol. She taught me everything she knew about flying and was the closest thing I had to a family… before I learned the truth about her and that she was responsible for the deaths of Faust-knows how many ponies. Anyway, the Factory uses this horrible machine called the Pegasus Device to extract color, or what they called Spectra, from their victims in order to create rainbows.”

Hmm… so the reason you’re in control and not me is because, at the time of your death, you had your ability to feel emotions sucked out of you, thus allowing you the ability to drain this… Spectra, in order to power the ring and your own ability to feel emotions.

Scootaloo shrugged, unsure of the ring’s reasoning.

“Yeah, well, as long as I’m not a puppet, I think I can live with whatever happens next. Especially killing off every last pony who is part of the management of the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation and the Rainbow Factory. What they took from me, I will take from them!”

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes as she drew near to a large metropolis and landed in front of a sign that read Welcome to Ponyville. The resurrected mare cooled down as she looked at the sign.

Home sweet home.

She entered the town and began to make her way through the city’s streets. Everything was just as she remembered it being. Sugarcube Corner was still a giant desert ripped straight out of Hansel and Gretel. The elementary school where she and her oldest friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, had once attended was still there.

As Scootaloo looked around, she couldn’t help but chuckle. Everything was just the same as it’d been when she’d left for her final flight exam…

Scootaloo frowned as she remembered the exam.

How long HAS it been since I died?

Spying a newspaper stand, Scootaloo walked over to it and read the date on the front page. Her eyes widened as she read it.

Six weeks? I’ve been gone for six weeks? Wonder what Dash has been telling everypony about me. Scootaloo thought bitterly, a surge of hatred coursing through her at the thought of her former mentor and sister. Not to mention how was her death covered up, exactly. No doubt her so-called “sister” had to pull some strings and spread some sort of lie to keep investigators off the trail. On the word “sister,” Scootaloo had an idea. As far as she could recall, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had no plans to leave Ponyville anytime soon, so why not get back in touch with them?

Besides, they’ve been far better sisters than Rainbow Dash had ever pretended to be, thought Scootaloo.

Scootaloo’s mind came to a screeching halt at the thought of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow lived in Ponyville too. How long would it be before she figured out she was here, and tried to draw her out by threatening those she cared about?

Scootaloo knew one thing for certain now that she was back from the dead, armed with super powers no less. She had a lengthy list of ponies to kill for what they’d done to her and so many other, nameless, faceless ponies whose lives had only just begun. And one thing she knew for certain was that Rainbow Dash was last on that last. It was too early for a final confrontation with her.

“Excuse me, but who the Tartarus do you think you’re fooling?” demanded a stallion’s voice from behind her.

Scootaloo turned around, the hand her ring was on clenched into a fist, ready to call upon its power if she needed to, to find that there was a gray pegasus stallion with a black mane and tail wearing a black zip-up hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and navy blue and white sneakers glaring at her.

“Rumble? What the buck are you-”

“Don’t you Rumble me, bug. I don’t know how you know my name, but I know what you are. You’re just some changeling spy taking the shape of a dead mare so you can bring in the rest of your hive to attack us. I got news for you, pal, that ain’t gonna happen,” said Rumble with a fierce glare.

“Look, Rumble, I don’t know where you got this whole idea that I’m a changeling spy from, but I can assure you that I’m no changeling.”

“Oh, really? Then how do you explain being still alive, when I saw Scootaloo, the real Scootaloo’s body in Rainbow Dash’s arms? I even attended her funeral for Faust’s sake! And you have the balls to go cavorting about disguised as her?! I don’t think so!” snarled Rumble as tears began to run down his face.

Scootaloo heaved a frustrated sigh. “Look, Rumble, I can understand how you can think I was dead, but the truth is, I was just comatose, okay? Dead to the world. I only recently just woke up, and now I’m back.”

Rumble scoffed, still not believing it. “Oh, really? Tell me, if you’re the real Scootaloo, then what’s the group she, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle formed when they were foals? Answer me!” the stallion demanded.

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo said, knowing the answer instantly.

Rumble’s angry face almost instantly faltered. The next moment, Rumble had tears coming down his eyes as he flung himself on Scootaloo. “Scootaloo… how are you still alive? Rainbow said there was no way you could’ve survived your accident,” he sobbed.

“Well, I guess she was wrong. Point is, I’m still alive and I have no intentions of leaving any time soon. Say, how are Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle these days?” asked Scootaloo as she and Rumble broke apart and started walking down the street together.

“Well, Apple Bloom’s still working Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack and Sweetie Belle’s still working on her first album and still lives with Rarity. Truth be told, not much has really changed since you left. Well, apart from the fact that Rainbow Dash moved away and didn’t leave any forwarding information, but other than that, nothing’s really changed,” explained Rumble.

Scootaloo felt a surge of relief run through her at this news about Rainbow Dash. With her gone, she could take her revenge and operate from Ponyville without drawing unwelcome attention from her former big sister and her henchponies.

“That’s good. You know, seeing as I’m back in town, I wouldn’t mind getting back in touch with them. Mind if I borrow your phone?”

Elsewhere...

Inside one of the bedrooms of the Carousel Boutique’s Corporate Headquarters, which also doubled as the home of the apparel company’s founder and CEO, a unicorn mare around the same age as Scootaloo with white fur and a lavender and pink mane and tail wearing a purple zip-up hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and combat boots was performing her latest song for her coltfriend, who was a brown-furred Earth Pony with an orange mane and tail wearing a black hoodie with blue jeans, and blue and white sneakers, along with her best friend who was an Earth Pony mare with butter yellow fur and a red mane and tail, the former of which had a faded pink ribbon in it. She wore a green button-up shirt, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. With her was her own coltfriend, who was a pegasus with a pale-ish yellow fur, a brown mane and tail, a skinny build, and who was wearing a blue button-up shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, black jeans, and black and white sneakers.

“We see, today, a world we couldn't see. Before I say goodbye to you, one more last fist bump…” sang Sweetie Belle as her song came down to a close. Once it had ended, Apple Bloom, Button Mash, and Featherweight burst into applause.

“Bravo! Bravo!” called Button Mash.

“Encore, encore!” called Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle blushed as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Thanks, everypony… it’s not quite ready yet… but, I really appreciate the support,” she said.

Apple Bloom quickly picked up on Sweetie Belle’s tone of voice. “What is it, girl?” she asked her longtime friend.

Sweetie Belle sighed. “I just wish Scootaloo was here to see this… I know it’s been six weeks, but… it still hurts, ya know?” she said.

No sooner had the words left her mouth then her cell phone went off with a text message alert, as did Apple Bloom’s. Glancing at each other, the two young mares pulled out their phones and read the simple message.

She’s alive! Come to Starbucks Coffee Shop on Buckner Ave. and Golden Oaks Lane ASAP.

“What in tarnation is this all about?” asked Apple Bloom.

“I don’t know. But, I think we’d better get down to Starbucks right away,” said Sweetie Belle.

“We’ll come with you,” said Button Mash, to which Featherweight nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, just in case this is a trap, like that one time you two and… Scootaloo… got foalnapped by Queen Chrysalis,” said Featherweight, the tone of his voice suggesting he was walking on a minefield.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nodded, but said nothing as they and their coltfriends got ready to head down to Starbucks, each of them unsure of what awaited them there.

Author's Note

And thus concludes Chapter Two. Well, not really much else to say here other than I'll see you guys next time for Chapter Three.