Bonds and Secrets

*RINNNG*

Now what it is...? Rainbow Dash took her phone from her back pocket and looked at the caller ID, "It's Rarity..." She declined the call. I don't want to talk to her right now.

Dash walked upstairs to her room and fell backwards onto her bed, "I don't feel like doing anything to be honest..." Tank nudged his head against Dash's arm. She softly giggled and laid on her side, "You feel like sandpaper," she gave him a rub on the head causing him to slowly grin.

Angel stomped up and down at not having been shown the same affection that Tank was receiving.

She groaned, I can't believe let Fluttershy convince me to babysit him. Now I'm stuck with him even longer, "I tried to pet you and you bit my hand," she pointed to the tiny bite mark on her index finger.

Angel whined and after enough whining, Dash conceded, "Fine! Fine!" She slowly placed her hand on top of the bunny's head and rubbed his head as well, "Happy now?"

Angel bit her finger and hopped on top of Dash's head, "Dude," Once she saw that the bunny wasn't moving from on top of her prismatic hair, she concluded that he had fallen asleep—and like the bunny—she did the same thing.

***

*BZZZT*

"Huh...?" Sunset picked up her phone. It was a message from Pinkie, but Sunset groaned internally at how long it was.

*Rainbow Dash is a big poopyhead, or maybe I'm the poopyhead, Idk!! Fluttershy is out for the count and Rarity hasn't given us anything else to work off of, and Applejack is filled to the brim with anger!! What are we supposed to do? We're friends and of course we're going to have hiccups but...maybe I didn't handle the situation correctly, maybe I should've done something different...I just don't know...Something like this hasn't happened to me before... what if I caused a rift between us forever...Anyway, how r u? :D*

Sunset could basically feel Pinkie Pie in text from, it was like she was standing right there talking to her. It was a nice feeling, better than feeling guilty. Sunset had always felt that she wasn't as close to Fluttershy as she would've liked, and her actions in the past really messed things up for her, but she was willing to fix it and find a way to be better. It was just a matter of talking with her first...

*You're fine, Pinkie. Just a heated discussion, nothing to get bent out of shape about. Especially not the rift part...*

*But what if Dashie never forgives me?*

*I doubt it would go that far.*

*It could though. :/*

Sunset sighed and continued typing.

*Go to sleep, Pinkie. We'll all talk tomorrow, okay? When everyone has a clearer head.*

*Okayyyy :c*

***

*BEEP BEEP*

"Five more minutes..." Rainbow Dash twist and turned in her bed, but her alarm continued to go off, "Ugh...," she reached over to turn off her alarm, "just gotta pull through I guess..." she sat up and ran to her restroom to prepare for the day.

***

"Two unexcused absences, today would mark the third if you don't call it in," Luna looked right at the amber colored eyes of the current distressed guardian in the office.

"What do you mean?" A woman with coral colored hair, wearing a navy blue sweater, black pants, and black leather low-cut shoes—was filled with dread and pure irritation, "Scootaloo hasn't been here in the past two days?!"

"Do you want to hear the attendance report again, Mrs.Holiday?"

"What-" Holiday gritted her teeth and tried holding her tongue, "Where's my niece?! It's this school's responsibility to make sure she gets home safely, right?!"

"That would be the case if she actually showed up."

"Don't you have any cameras or surveillance to find out what's happening?" Or where she is?"

"Our past footage has been deleted, that's why we're currently trying to rework and update security systems," Luna walked over to a file cabinet.

"You have to-" Holiday dragged her hands down her face and breathed in, and silently walked out of the office.

Luna sighed, "I did not finish..."

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom watched an angry Holiday exit the office and out through the main doors.

"Scootaloo is missing?!" Sweetie started panicking, "No wonder we haven't seen her!" She started thinking of all the worse case scenarios, "She could be dead! Or being forced to do heavy labor!! Or Or-"

"Snap out of it!!" Apple Bloom started shaking Sweetie, "She ain't doin' heavy labor and she for sure ain't dead!!"

"But you don't -"

"I said she ain't dead," Apple Bloom said sharply, "I'm sure the proper authorities are goin' to find her, we just need to wait. Ya understand?"

"Yes, Apple Bloom..." Sweetie Belle slowly walked away with her head down.

***

"Rainbow!! A word."

"I have urgent things to attend to, can it wait until tomorrow?"

"No."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, I should've known that wouldn't have worked... "What is it, teach?"

"It's Mr.Crankydoodle!" He took a seat and grabbed several papers from beneath his desk.

"Mhm..." Rainbow Dash looked attentively at the papers, "What are these?"

"Your current test grades in this class," Mr.Crankydoodle took a red pen a wrote a D- on one of the papers, "You need to at least have a C in all of your classes to participate in athletics. You do know that, right?"

Rainbow leg out of a sigh of exhaustion and ran her hand through her hair, "What's your point?"

"My 'point' is that your lackluster performance in my biology class is unacceptable!! I've explained it so many times to you and yet you still don't get it!!"

"I don't understand your explanations, and I've told you that like, a hundred times."

Mr.Crankydoodle slammed his hands on his desk causing Dash to jolt back a bit, "Maybe if you paid attention, instead of sleeping or goofing off, then maybe you'd be passing," he took Rainbow's tests and threw them away, "If you can't lift your grade up then you can say goodbye to being the captain here at CHS. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," Rainbow Dash snatched her bag off of the ground and left the classroom with clear anger.

***

"I'm sorry 'bout yesterday..." Applejack rubbed the back of her neck, "I shouldn't have let my anger get the best of me like that..."

"It's fine, AJ, but Rainbow isn't here to hear that," Sunset stated.

"I can't force her to stand here and listen to me. Y'all seen her behavior all day, it'll only make the situation worse."

"But-"

Applejack cut Sunset off, "This is RD we're talkin' 'bout Sunset, just leave her be...trust me, it's for the best right now."

"That doesn't feel right though."

"Sunset's right," Twilight interjected, "I understand that the news Rarity brought about Fluttershy is...not the best, and we're all certainly processing it differently, but Rainbow Dash is obviously processing it worse than us," She looked intently in Applejack's eyes, "Shouldn't we be there for her? For each other?"

Applejack didn't know how to respond to that. In her head she had already thought of Dash lashing out at the group and doing something brash. She had always tried to talk some sense into her, but it never stuck, and it made her a bit saddened on the inside...

A gust of wind followed by a rainbow trail passed all the girls.

"There she goes..." Pinkie looked at Sunset, "It won't go that far, huh...?"

"Not helping, Pinkie."

"None of us are, darling."

Applejack let out a sigh of defeat, This is goin' to be a long week...