Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy had been huddled together on the Emergency Room bench for hours. There was nothing for them to do except wait... which was torture. The ponies hardly spoke to each other, their minds elsewhere... on what was happening behind the double doors; the place where none of them were allowed to go.

Rainbow Dash had finally run out of steam, too exhausted to do anything except sit there. Fluttershy tried to comfort her tired friend by placing a foreleg on her shoulder... but she could see it did little to actually help. The cyan Pegasus shook uncontrollably, partially out of distress and partially because she was still freezing. Many ponies in the ER had naturally assumed the three mares were there because Dash was sick, yet despite having a low-grade fever, Dash had repeatedly turned down Nurse Redheart's suggestion to see a Doctor. The blanket she had on over her shoulders helped to keep her warm, while the few pills she'd been given would probably alleviate some of her symptoms... at least for the time being. It was quite possible that her time spent in the downpour would end her up in the ward, too, but that didn't matter now. Single-minded as always when presented with a tough problem, Scootaloo's well-being was her only concern.

"I'm sure we'll know once they have something more they can tell us," Fluttershy said, breaking the half hour long silence.

Dash gave no answer.

"They've been telling us a lot of things, Fluttershy," said Twilight firmly. "That's the problem."

It was true. Any reports they'd been given they could do nothing with. So there they sat, waiting for the longest time...

Sitting in silence, Dash could remember much of the past few hours with disturbing lucidity. She played the events in her mind again and again, even recalling her last words to Scootaloo right before they took her away:

"I'm so proud of you."

Scootaloo had done exactly as she was told and stayed awake. She did not, however, answer her cyan idol back.

The Pegasus remembered looking into Scoot's eyes as she was hoisted up... the look returned by the filly was unmistakably morbid. Dash's heart sank when she realized a nasty truth -- Scootaloo might very well die before even making it to the hospital. It didn't matter that, this time, Equestria's fastest flier had beaten the cart to the scene since it could only go so fast. Turning to the adults around her, Rainbow begged the Nurses and Pegasus drivers just to let her ride with them... or even drive, despite knowing full well it takes a special kind of license she didn't have to operate the ER carts. Locking the doors up tight, they answered her coldly:

"We know you two aren't related. You can't come with us."

She then turned to Apple Jack, the one friend whom she'd found on the road while hurrying back to the scene. The Element of Honesty would certainly be able to help her out. The farm pony fell silent, putting a hoof to the back her head:

"Ah don't know what to say, RD..."

Dash realized this was up to her, so she answered without hesitation... finally in tears:

"Please! I'll give each of you a hundred bits and just hang back... I just don't want her to die alone."

Getting on their cart they answered her back without even looking:

"You're in no shape to ride with us."

They left Rainbow standing by the ditch. After a moment she glared up at Apple Jack... who immediately looked away in shame. As much as she wanted to, RD didn't waste time giving AJ the third degree. Instead she took off like a shot... quickly gaining on the cart almost in the clouds.

Since tearing through the skies above Ponyville felt much better than idling behind the cart, Rainbow once again beat the cart to its destination by several minutes. It was during this time that she went to get Twilight and Fluttershy at the closest place to the hospital... the library.

One moment they were enjoying a fine brunch, the next they were on their way... leaving Spike to tidy the mess. Though Dash had the time to get more than just two, she found Rarity wasn't in her shop and Pinkie Pie was out on an errand. Leaving the Cakes with the news was quite devastating to them both, so much that Mr. Cake had taken off his hat fearing the worst... not that Rainbow had time to notice.

Dash wasn't the only one rushing around over Scootaloo's health:

Twilight had given Spike the unfortunate task of tracking down the others... his little legs carrying him from place-to-place as fast as he could go. He'd been told afterwards he could either make the trek home or come to the hospital. Twilight eventually received a note from a grey Mailmare stating that he'd informed everypony. His absence suggested that he'd gone home since... which was understandable to Twilight. Spike didn't want to sit around at the hospital, as it would be no different than bringing AB or Babs... it would just upset him. The purple Unicorn pictured her assistant curled up in bed, crying. She wanted to go to him... but it would have to wait. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy needed her, too. She wasn't about to leave her cyan friend in this state... and there was more to it than just that:

Rainbow wasn't the only one feeling as though she could have done better... both Twilight and Fluttershy felt like terrible ponies for a very good reason:

They'd known full well that Scootaloo was missing again, but were not alarmed as before since they knew it was due to a simple hoof fight with her old bully. Twilight dismissively rolled her eyes at AJ as she told her the story, stating afterwards that she had brunch to help prepare. Fluttershy suggested, because it was starting to rain, that Scootaloo would probably be turning up back at the Acres pretty soon. Had they actually helped, instead of brushing their friend off and leaving it all to Dash -- who just had a "bad feeling about all this" -- maybe Scootaloo would have been found sooner... maybe even unharmed. It didn't matter now. They all knew that Apple Jack had made the long walk home in the rain and wondered how angry she was with them for not taking her seriously.

The ponies really suffering from this were Babs Seed and Apple Bloom. This was especially true since, as they sat in the darkness of the club house waiting for Scootaloo's return... Babs had time to think about what had happened:

She thought about how easy and natural it was for her to defend herself in the ways she had been trained... and how she never once actually meant to hurt Scootaloo. She thought about how, with just a little more practice, that would never, ever happen again... but she would have to devote herself to studying the arts as her teacher had said. She asked herself if she was willing to do that... and she didn't have to answer to know for sure. It was then that she noticed a peculiar mark forming on her flank: an apple shaped ying-yang, dotted with seeds of the opposing color. She quietly covered it up and carried on trying to lift her cousin's spirits as she had been, but... eventually it would be noticed by Apple Bloom. AB would, once again, be the last blank flank she knew.

It was then that Apple Jack showed up, soaking wet and bearing the bad news...

Evening was approaching fast. The three mares wanted to know whether or not Scootaloo was even going to make it through the night. Unfortunately she was not in a state yet where they could be told for sure. The unknown, however, was only part of their torture.

It wasn't as easy as Rainbow Dash had said. Scootaloo wasn't put to sleep in the back, going to wake up sore but in one piece again. It took about half an hour for them to hear it, yet every sound they heard ruminating through the almost sound-proof doors reminded Dash of how empty and confusing her promises must've been to the poor filly. It weighed on her mind every second with the magnitude of a thousand suns, making her sick to her stomach. Right now it was silent, but they knew that wouldn't last. As the door opened, they heard a barely precipitable whimper:

"Please... no more scrubbing."

Scootaloo was brave, but the next time they heard the sound of her moans and cries as rock and debris were picked and abraded away from her sensitive young skin... the exhausted older Pegasus bolted up and vomited into the nearest trashcan.

Fluttershy continued to try to comfort Rainbow Dash as Twilight tried to make sense of it all. Even though they each took care of Scootaloo, no pony present had the right to decide her treatment. As she was a Ward of the State, that decision was left up to Mayor Mare... who in Canterlot at the time on official business. Rushed reports by magic, the same reports shared with Twilight and her friends, the Mayor made a quick and decisive choice... which the three could not. She was going to the leave the decisions to the doctors... the filly's injuries being above her medical knowledge.

Unfortunately, given the nature of some of Scootaloo's injuries -- a partially collapsed lung being among them -- she had to be kept awake during a lot of her treatments. Being a priority, her lung was taken care of first, followed by the setting of bones into temporary splints. Only then could the doctors take pity on her... reaching for Novocaine and other mild pain killers they had on hoof. She needed something to dull the pain as they cleaned out her cuts, particularly the longer one by her stomach exposing her gut...

After only a mild dose her heart rate sped up, her breathing quickened, and she began to sweat profusely. This suggested to the Doctors that she was allergic to the anesthetic, but fortunately it was applied in a small enough amount that they still managed to get that part of her clean and wrapped without complication. They tested another with a different makeup on her hoof, missing a common allergen... less effective a nerve block, but still something. It yielded a similar result. Even after testing a small amount of morphine, her vitals sharply dipped and she blacked out. The filly flat-lined fast, and they were reaching for the defibrillator paddles when she suddenly came to. It was frightening for the doctor to see, having only read about a few isolated cases like this. They then had to give her both antihistamine and adrenaline... the later of which wasn't going to help matters.

Scootaloo was still in a state which required more work, yet they didn't want to risk giving her any new painkillers without a proper allergy test, seeing how sensitive she was to them. Despite that, the nurse held up everything needed for an epidural only to have the doctor woefully shake his head. There were more pressing matters to attend to -- injuries that could get infected and cause serious complications without treatment. She would have to be awake for now and, despite being mostly out of it from the shock of everything, more aware than she would ever have liked to have been.

The best they could do was give her some topical and an amnesiac, the later of which would only help afterwards. For now they would have to set aside their feelings and work towards saving her life.

"I can't take it anymore, Twilight," Dash said, after being silent for nearly four hours. "I can't do anything for her except sit here!"

"That's really all any of us can do," Twilight responded. "It's an awful place to be in."

Again Fluttershy tried to hug Rainbow Dash... only to have her shrug it off:

"Yeah, thanks Fluttershy, but I don't want it right now." The yellow Pegasus quietly backed off as Dash continued. "I wanna be in there, holding her hoof through all this... I can hear her calling my name and it's driving my crazy!"

"It's not allowed..." Fluttershy said meekly.

Looking over at Fluttershy... for a brief moment Dash lost herself in a flash of rage. She drew back a hoof preparing to strike her yellow friend; the timid Pegasus cowered and shut her eyes, mentally preparing to be hit. Rainbow took one look at what she was doing and sighed, releasing the tension in her foreleg:

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy... you're right. I can't go back there, I'll be thrown out... but there's gotta be something I can do."

Twilight smiled:

"Eventually they're going to come through those doors and tell us Scootaloo's stable... we can go from there."

Dash spat:

"Yeah, and for the time being she can feel like we all abandoned her."

Despite Dash's stubborn bitterness, Twilight stressed the obvious:

"Rainbow, you know there's nothing we can do!"

Rainbow Dash didn't have a logical response and she knew it... too exhausted to argue, she instead stared at her purple friend friend for a good, hard moment, then turned away. The Pegasus pulled the blanket over her head like a cloak and groused to herself quietly.

The two mares looked at each other not knowing what to do. Fluttershy went to put a hoof on Dash's shoulder again, but Twilight stopped her:

"Just leave her be, Fluttershy."

Hesitantly, they turned away from their cyan friend... for now.