Sorry I took so long with this one but this summer has proved to be a busy one.

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Rainbow's eyes began to flutter open. As soon at the haze had cleared from her vision she immediately recognised where she was; hospital. In that same familiar room lying in that same familiar bed. After some amount of mental effort on her part, Rainbow remembered what had happened but before she could contemplate any further she was suddenly struck by something soft and pink.

"Oh, Rainbow! I'm so glad you're okay! We promise we won't do anything like that ever again! Never, never, never, never, never, never, never!" Pinkie shouted while annunciating each "never" with a wave of her still flat mane while crushing Rainbow like some kind of distraught viper.

"Careful, Pinkie. You're going to crush her." a voice called out. Rainbow and Pinkie turned their head to see the voice came from Twilight and behind her was the rest of their friends. Rainbow couldn't help but notice however that Applejack had a bandage wrapped around her stomach. When Rainbow was finally able to squirm free of Pinkie's grip, she looked down to see that she had a bandage in the same way. She realised that these would have come from the fight with Storm which reminded her about someone else who was in the fight.

"Where's Gilda?" Rainbow asked with a slight hint of panic in her voice.

"Over here." another voice called. Rainbow looked over to the doorway to see Gilda entering the room and she, like Applejack and herself, also had a bandage around her stomach.

"What happened to Storm?" Rainbow asked next.

"Y'mean that griffon who attacked the town? She was hauled off by the police. She won't be bothering us for a long time." Applejack answered. Rainbow looked notably for a while that was just an awkward silence until Gilda spoke up again.

"I should get going. You guys probably have some stuff to talk about.".

"But what about your bandages?" Rainbow asked concerned.

"The nurse says I should be fine if I just take it easy. Same goes for you." Gilda replied before exiting. The awkward silence returned once again as all the ponies just sort of fidgeted around, not really sure what to say next. Eventually, Twilight spoke up.

"Rainbow, I know that we've already said this before but we truly are sorry for what we did to you. It wasn't right to humiliate you like that and we should have at given you the benefit of a doubt and talked to you." Twilight apologised again as tears were threatening to overflow. Rainbow's head remained low not making any eye contact. After waiting for what seemed like forever for a response, Rainbow finally began to reply.

"I-it's okay. I forgive you." Rainbow said rather hoarsely.

"Y-you do?" Twilight stuttered. Everypony else was just as surprised as the librarian.

"I couldn't possibly stay mad at ponies who were willing to stand up for me like you did to Storm." Rainbow explained. All of sudden Rainbow was being rushed from all sides as all five ponies held onto her.

"Thank you, Rainbow. So you'll come back?" Twilight asked. No response. The five ponies looked at the pegasus to see her head down once more.

"I-I don't know. Ponyville must think I'm a joke now." Rainbow contemplated.

"That's not true. Ponyville still loves you." Twilight insisted.

"I doubt that considering how much of an idiot I made of myself." Rainbow replied. As if on queue, Nurse Redheart knocked on the door frame to get everypony's attention.

"Miss Dash, you have another visitor." she informed as a small orange pegasus entered the room. Scootaloo had what appeared to be in a card in her mouth and big, hurt eyes. Her face indicated that she had been doing a fair amount of crying. Everypony stepped aside as she approached Rainbow and gave her the card. Rainbow took the card in her hooves and observed it. It was clearly made by Scootaloo and along the top it read "I'm sorry" in crayon. Beneath that was a picture of Rainbow flying in front of the sun and below that was more writing that said "Please come home".

Now Rainbow had received gifts from Scootaloo before but for some reason this card had struck a chord with her. Just as she felt the tears begin to sting her eyes, Scootaloo had wrapped herself around her idol and had began to cry into her fur.

"I-I'm sorry, Rainbow! I didn't m-mean to abandon you l-like that! Please don't be mad!" Scootaloo probably would have gone on had she not completely broke down by that point. Scootaloo's eyes then widened as she felt Rainbow's hooves wrap around her in return.

"Shh. It's okay. I'm not mad." Rainbow hushed as she stroked Scootaloo's mane.

"Y-you're not?" Scootaloo sniffed in reply.

"No. I'm not. Just promise me something though." Rainbow asked.

"What?" Scootaloo asked in return.

"Promise you'll never leave me again." Rainbow said as she tightened the hug.

"If I do, will you come back?" Scootaloo inquired.

"Of course." Rainbow answered barley above a whisper.

"I promise." Scootaloo sniffed again, though this time out of happiness.

"You mean it, Rainbow?" Twilight asked just as happily as Scootaloo.

"Yeah, I'm coming back to Ponyville." and with that answer from Rainbow, everypony in the room resumed holding on to her.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

I learned that while you shouldn't let fame go to your head, you shouldn't go behind your friend's back. Talking is one of the most important parts of friendship and everypony should be given a chance to listen.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle".

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So that was my first fanfic. I hope you've enjoyed. Please give constructive critiscm for me for possible future stories.