After months of waiting, heeeere's chapter 4!

I am so so so sorry for taking so long with this story but I haven't been up to writing lately but now I'm back at it! :)

I kinda forgot about this story until people kept reviewing and saying I needed to get back at it. It's just been hard with work and all but I'm gonna try and catch up as much as I can. Sorry if this looks imperfect or rushed but this is the best I could do.

Also, I hope I kept Everypony in character in this chapter. It's not so easy keeping all characters personalities in check. And I'm sorry if this isn't perfect or looks stupid; again, it's not easy writing stories about ponies.

And I want to thank Park Ryder for helping me with this. Thanks hon!

Next Chapter: The girls tell the truth to everyone in Ponyville and Diamond Tiara's last ditch effort for revenge.

Until next time, enjoy!

I don't own My Little Pony or the characters. They belong to Hasbro.

Chapter 4: The Truth

While the incident with Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash was going on, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom talk on their way to the Golden Oak Library while their sisters talk to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

"You think this plan will work?" asked Applebloom

"Yes it will." replied Sweetie Belle with confidence, "Trust me."

But when they got to the library, they are met with an angry Twilight Sparkle and her baby dragon assistant, Spike, who glares at them. Applebloom opened her mouth but Twilight used her force field before she could speak, leaving her downhearted.

"Oh, forget it." she said in defeat and turned away, "Let's just go, they won't care about the blackmail anyway."

Sweetie Belle stopped her friend before she could walk away, "Hold on a sec', Applebloom. Guys, please, let us explain."

"Why should we?" said Spike in an angry tone.

"Because..." Applebloom took a deep breath before she answered, "we were forced to write to those hurtful gossips about everypony."

Twilight raised her eyebrow, feeling skeptical about that statement, "How do we know they're not just excuses?"

"They're telling the truth, Twilight." Applejack said in a distance.

Applejack and Rarity were coming along with their two friends, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. It wasn't easy getting these two mares back, but Applejack was up to the challenge.

When they got to Fluttershy's cottage, her whole living room was nearly flooded from her own tears. It took a lot of convincing and comforting words to get her to calm down, but when she heard someone else was hurting the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Fluttershy began to calm down and listened to what her friends had to say. Rarity said that once they get Pinkie Pie and get to Twilight's library, everything will be explained.

Pinkie Pie wasn't too hard to talk to but she can be pretty stubborn. When the girls tried talking to her, she was so upset she didn't feel like speaking to anypony nor did she want to bake anything. Her attitude changed when she heard the word "blackmail" and Applejack told her that their sisters didn't mean to do that to Pinkie or anypony.

"They told us everything." Rarity said as she placed a hoof around her sisters shoulders, "Diamond Tiara is blackmailing them."

"She...she is?" said a stunned Twilight.

"Yes!" Applebloom cried, "She got embarrassing photos of us and said that she would put them in the paper tomorrow if we don't have a good story!"

Spike and Twilight Sparkle look at each other and start to feel guilty. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pue feel guilty as well as Twilight takes down her force field and approaches the two fillies.

"We tried to tell you but you wouldn't listen." Sweetie Belle looked down, "We are sorry, guys."

"We never wanted this to happen." added Applebloom.

"It's alright, girls." Twilight gave a comforting smile and hugged the two fillies, "We should've listened to you."

"We're very sorry." Spike said in guilt.

"Me too." Fluttershy nodded, "I shouldn't have cried so much."

"Same here." Pinkie Pie spoke up, "I ignored you girls and got made for no reason."

"And I shouldn't banned you." Twilight added in guilt.

"It's okay." Sweetie Belle said with a sad smile, "We deserved it."

Applebloom and Rarity hugged their sisters and the others joined in as well, letting the two young ponies know that they were forgiven.

"And the only person we didn't tell yet is Rainbow Dash and I doubt she wants to listen to us." Applebloom frowned.

As if she heard her name being called, Rainbow Dash comes flying towards the group with a worried look on her face.

"Guys! Guys! We got a problem!" she swooped in and landed in front of the group.

"What's wrong, Sugar-cube?" asked the farm pony.

"Scootaloo ran away!" Rainbow said in horror.

"What?!" everyone exclaimed at the same time.

As everypony asked what happened, Rainbow Dash explains what went on when she encountered Scootaloo and the heart-breaking conversation that went on before the older pegasus flew to alert her friends.

Twilight and the girls were in shock, "She said that?" she asked with Dashie giving a nod.

"Yeah. And to be completely honest, I don't blame her."

"Whatever do you mean, dear?" Rarity asked.

"I poured rain on her and her friends because I was mad at them..." she confessed, surprising everypony except for Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

"Why?" Fluttershy asked in her usual quiet voice, "That sounded...pretty mean of you. Sorry..."

"I know, I know!" Rainbow teared up , "I just so angry about the stories they wrote, I never realized what was really going on. It's all my fault...she left because of me..." Fluttershy gave her friend a gentle hug to comfort her.

"Maybe we can find her." Sweetie Belle suggested.

"How?" Applebloom asked,

"Well, where would she normally go?" she tried to think.

Everypony started to think of the places Scootaloo could be and that's when Pinkie Pie started to use her "pinkie sense". Her body started to vibrate and shake like a jellyfish and she could feel something in her muscles.

"Ya got something, Pinkie?" Applejack looked at her.

"Scootaloo is still here somewhere." she said, "My knees are getting shaky."

"She is?! Where?!" Rainbow Dash said as her eyes turned wide.

"I'm also feeling trains." Pinkie added as she rubbed her elbows.

"Train...train..." Twilight thinks for a moment until she gasps in realization, "The train station!"

"Let's go now!" Spike exclaimed.

"Right!" everypony started to run towards the Ponyville Train Station.

The group was running towards the train station and Scootaloo was, already, buying a ticket out of Ponyville.

"One for Manehatten, please." she said solemnly as she handed out three bits.

"Alright kid." the ticket seller nodded as he took the bits and gave her the ticket.

Scootaloo prepares to board the train as one of the baggage ponies takes her luggage and loads it on the train..

"All aboard!" the train conductor shouted.

"Scootaloo!" Applebloom and the others cried out as she and the other ponies tried to reach the train.

Scootaloo doesn't hear her friends as she goes inside and starts moving to the back of the train car. The ponies weren't fast enough to reach the train before the wheels started to move and the train began to move away from the station.

"Oh no!" shouted a worried Sweetie Belle.

"What do you we do now?!" Spike said.

Then, Rainbow Dash thought of an idea, "Twilight, do you have any transportation spells?"

"Yes but why?" Twilight asked.

"Okay listen up!" the blue pegasus ordered, "Twilight and I will go talk to Scootaloo, everypony else stay here! Got it?!"

"Right!" they all nodded in agreement.

The others stayed behind as Twilight used one of her spells to transport herself and Rainbow Dash on the train. Unfortunately, the young filly wasn't in the spot they assumed to be and started to

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash called out.

"Let's search each car." the unicorn suggested, "She's bound to be here somewhere."

They search around each car on the train and even asked other ponies where the filly was but nopony saw her because Scootaloo went into hiding. She knew that her friends and ex-friends were gonna try to follow her so she trotted to the very last car on the train and hid herself as best she could.

"Oh...where can she be?" Rainbow Dash grew more and more worried each passing minute.

"I'm sure we'll find her." Twilight tried to comfort her friend, "Let's ask the conductor if he's seen her."

After speaking to the conductor, who didn't see Scootaloo, the older mare felt more guilty than ever, "This is all my fault..."

"Mine too." her friend nodded in agreement, "We shouldn't have been so hard on the Crusaders."

"Plus, it's also kind of our fault that they had to write the gossips. We did enjoy it until there were stories about us."

"How was it our fault they wrote them?" Twilight asked, "We never asked them to write those things."

"But didn't we like reading the other gossips until they wrote about us?" she added.

"But it's not like we forced them to write them."

"Well, maybe we kind of did." Rainbow sighed deeply, "Think about it, Twilight they probably knew what they did was wrong but still did it beside the blackmailing forced them to do it. And also, because of how everypony liked it at first."

"That's true." the unicorn nodded in agreement, "A lot of ponies are into gossip these days. But, why didn't they tell us they were being blackmailed?"

"They tried to but we didn't listen and we were so mean to them..." Rainbow added in remorse.

Now it was Twilight's turn to feel guilty inside, "Yeah. But I also know there's one filly who really caused all of this."

"I know, too."

The two mares started to feel anger along with the guilt because of Diamond Tiara, who made this whole mess to begin with.

"We'll definitely have a talk with Filthy Rich's daughter after this." Twilight said.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash agreed.

After a half hour, the train stops and everypony gets off but Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle don't see Scootaloo in the crowd. With so many ponies on the train (a good twenty ponies or so), it was hard to find a purple-haired orange filly in a huge crowd.

"Oh, where is she?" Twilight muttered as they looked around.

The two friends got off the train and entered the bustling city of Manehatten to search for the runaway filly.

"We gotta find her!" Rainbow exclaimed as they started to run around the city.

The search is on! Will they find Scootaloo and convince her to come home? And what will the remaining Cutie Mark Crusaders and Mane Six do as they wait in Ponyville?

To Be Continued...