"Well, I guess this is it." Scootaloo said to herself as she looked down over the edge of Ghastly Gorge. She had left the clubhouse as soon as she left the note and her determination had not wavered in the slightest since then. If anything her resolve had been strengthened as she had passed through the town without incident. Nopony had stopped her to ask how she was, or what she was up to. Barely any of them had even acknowledged her. Somepony of sound mind might think that they were probably so used to seeing her ride around that they just thought nothing of it anymore. Scootaloo could barely be considered of sound mind anymore though. She had just taken it as a sign that no one really cared about her and that she was doing the right thing. Either she would fly, or she would be free. She told herself she would be free either way. Free from the taunts, the pain and misery, and the shame of being unable to fly. She took one last look over the edge, gulped, and dove in to the nothingness that waited below.

It was exhilarating. The rush of the wind and the feel of it as it caressed her body brought a smile to her face as she closed her eyes and flapped her wings as hard as she could. Regardless of what happened now she knew what it was like to fly. She could tell now why Rainbow tried to fly so fast. As she picked up speed as she fell, she felt more and more exhilarated and, perhaps ironically as she was plummeting to her death, alive.

It took about half a minute for her to realise that things might be going wrong. She was flapping her wings as hard as she could but she was still falling, she was still going down.

"I knew this could happen, and this might be for the best." she thought to herself as she began to accept her fate. "I'm sorry for being so useless...At least now you won't have to deal with me anymore." she muttered quietly in to the air to nopony in particular.

Scootaloo exhaled as she felt herself hit something soft and before she knew it she felt herself flying up in to the air at an incredible speed. She opened her eyes and saw that she was indeed headed straight up towards the edge of the gorge she had jumped from what felt like a lifetime ago. She looked behind herself and saw a rainbow trail, the kind left in the wake of a Sonic Rainboom. For a scant second she toyed with the idea she had somehow managed to pull off a rainboom and that she had simply been flying downwards, not falling. Her brief moment of hope was shattered however when she looked down and saw she had landed on a large piece of blue fur. She would recognise where she was anywhere. She had landed on the back of Rainbow Dash. Her idol, her mentor, yet another person who had let her down. Scootaloo would have continued her poisonous thoughts when she noticed something. It looked like Rainbow Dash was crying. Scootaloo couldn't understand why she, the bravest pony in all of Equestria could be crying. She decided instead to just wait until they made it to the top of the Gorge. She had assumed that was where they were heading at least.

Given Rainbow's speed it didn't take long at all and before Scootaloo knew it she had been bumped off of Rainbow's back and pulled in to the tightest hug she had ever experienced. She scrambled her way out of it and sat staring away from Rainbow.

"What they hay was that all about?!" Rainbow demanded. There were still a few tears in her eyes and so she quickly wiped them away with a foreleg.

"What was what about? Why are you even here?" Scootaloo replied. She turned a little towards Rainbow but still wouldn't look her in the eyes and instead stared at the ground. Tears were forming in her eyes but she refused to let them fall.

"I came because I found what you left in the clubhouse. I came to stop you from doing something stupid. You don't know how thankful I am I made it in time." Rainbow replied with a smile. Scootaloo didn't buy it however and still refused to look at her.

"I know you don't care. I know nopony cares." Scootaloo said, unable to hold back the tears anymore. They fell freely from her eyes and matted the fur of her coat. "I can't even fly so why don't you just leave me alone and let me get it over with!" she shouted as she made a break towards the edge of the Gorge again. Rainbow reacted quickly and blocked Scootaloo's path. She pulled Scootaloo in to another tight hug and wiped away her tears.

"If I didn't care about you I wouldn't be here right now." Rainbow said, trying to comfort Scootaloo with words as well as with actions. Rainbow gently brushed Scootaloo's mane with her foreleg to help calm her down more.

"If you cared about me then I wouldn't be here right now." Scootaloo countered with an argument of her own. Rainbow had to admit it was a good one, but she knew how to answer.

"Squirt...Scoots...I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you. I really didn't know any of that was happening. I'm so sorry Scoots. Please don't do anything like this again." Rainbow said, breaking in to tears once more. She nuzzled Scootaloo and continued brushing her mane, trying to calm herself down now as much as Scootaloo.

"Why didn't you just let me fall? Why didn't you let me just end my pain already?" Scootaloo said so quietly that Rainbow might not have heard her if she wasn't so close.

"Because nopony deserves to be that alone, to hurt that much. I never wanted you to be alone Scootaloo and I never would have let you be if I knew." Rainbow replied.

"So what? You're going to magically fix everything now and take all the pain away?" Scootaloo replied snarkily.

"No, I don't think even I can do that. But I am going to help you deal with it Scoots. If you'll let me that is."

"If I let you? If I let you back in just so you can be mean to me again and to always tell me I'm not good enough?" Scootaloo was beginning to shriek as all her anger boiled over and she didn't bother trying to contain it anymore.

"I never said you weren't good enough." Rainbow stated simply, bringing a look of shock to Scootaloo's face. It wasn't an answer she was expecting.

"Yes you did! You were always telling me to do better and to try harder and saying I wasn't good enough!" she attested. Rainbow Dash sighed.

"I told you that you can do better yeah, but that doesn't mean you aren't good enough. I can try to do better, everypony can. If you're really trying your absolute hardest then tell me, okay? To me you really are one of the coolest little fillies I know." Rainbow said, trying to reassure Scootaloo.

"But I can't even fly." Scootaloo replied. Her mind wouldn't crack and allow Rainbow's words to penetrate and convince her that she was anything other than useless.

"We can work on that. I can teach you and if you really, really, really can't fly then it doesn't even matter anyway."

"It...it doesn't?" Scootaloo said as she stared up in to the large and moist eyes of Rainbow Dash. She saw no hint of a lie in them.

"Of course it doesn't, why would it?"

"It mattered to my parents...and to the orphanage...and to anypony who might have adopted me and given me a home..." Scootaloo said, looking away from Rainbow once more.

"Yeah but I'm something they're not, and never could have been." Rainbow said, turning Scootaloo's face around so she was looking in to her eyes again. She wanted her answer to the next question she expected Scootaloo to ask to be said without a shadow of a doubt, and while she looked straight in to her eyes.

"And what's that?" came Scootaloo's inevitable reply, and the question Dash was expecting.

"I'm somepony who loves you." Rainbow Dash said. It had the effect she was hoping for. Scootaloo started crying again and dove deep in to Rainbow's chest, crying and muttering apologies.

"I'm so sorry Dash, I'm so so so sorry." Scootaloo said between sobs.

"It's okay Scoots, I messed up too. Can you forgive me?" Rainbow replied.

"Of course I can, if you can forgive me." came Scootaloo's soft reply.

"Consider us even." Rainbow said as she nuzzled Scootaloo again. The pair stayed like that for a few more minutes until they inevitably had to let go of eachother. When they did they gave eachother a once over glance and let out a small giggle over the mess that had become their coats thanks to all the tears. Rainbow Dash's chest was mottled where Scootaloo had buried herself in to it and Scootaloo herself had developed frizzy hair in her mane where Dash had been crying. Eventually the small giggles became full blown laughs as the pair let out all the stress and tension that had been building up. Rainbow Dash was the first to stop laughing as she picked Scootaloo up in her mouth, silencing her, and tossed her on to her back.

"What are you doing?" Scootaloo asked, poking her head through the space between Rainbow's ears.

"Well first of all we're going to get you cleaned up, and then I'm going to see if I can teach you to fly. SAFELY." Rainbow replied, stressing the last word. She was in no hurry to have a repeat of the day's events. Scootaloo beamed and nuzzled her way in to Rainbow Dash's mane, wrapping her hooves around Rainbow's neck so she wouldn't fall as the two of them were flying. Rainbow kicked off from the ground and Scootaloo gave another squeal. One of delight this time, instead of anguish.

She decided it was much better to be flying than falling.

Author's Notes:

Thank you everypony for reading this. I hope you don't mind the ending, as I expect some were expecting a nice old fashioned suicide, but I wanted to end on a hopeful note. No matter how you may feel about your life, or the people around you, someone will always be there for you if you let them in. Don't live your life keeping others out. The first half was written in a depression where I felt like I was nothing, and this second half is the realisation that I am something, and that there are people there. I hope you enjoyed the story. I'd also like to take this chance to say "yay" over the fact that before I submitted this chapter it got over 100 views and not a single downvote.

*cue downvoting over the happy ending*

I'd offer to write an alternate ending where Dash doesn't make it but I'm not sure I could actually do it. I've killed off characters before in my other, non-pony works, but I don't think I could kill off a pony. Especially one as small and cute as Scoots.