Scootaloo awoke with a slight yawn as she stretched. She cocked her head slightly at noticing what seemed like the first rays of the day flowing in through her window. It wasn't all too jarring, though, as she remembered how little she'd slept lately and figured that waking up to the rising sun still meant she'd slept, and that meant something. With that cleared from her mind she reached over to hug her fillyfriend, only to touch her bed.

As she realized she was alone, her new instincts had taken her over and she rushed to her mirror, but her shard was nowhere to be found. She searched for it frantically before noticing something else out of the ordinary, and quickly found out why she couldn't find her shard. The shard she'd grown so used to was no longer a shard, as her mirror was whole once more, perfectly in tact.

Something yet more alarming caught her eye, rather, both her eyes, as she could hardly help but notice they were back to normal, not for her lately, but for any normal pony. The rings of black were entirely gone. They weren't alone in the disappearing act, as a quick look and feel of her body told her that all the scratches and scars she'd caused herself were gone. The fur on her throat that was usually shorter than the rest from the shard was also normal, untouched, though slightly matted, as was the rest of her fur, her mane, and her feathers.

The pegasus shook her head. Sure enough, even then, she was normal, not just the normal she'd grown used to, but truly normal. She was her old self once more.

After taking a few moments to let it sink in, she walked to her closet to find her old clothes in it, a bunch of light, graphic T-shirts, a number of baggy shorts, a few pair of jeans, some ripped from her occasional crashes.

She picked out a blue T-shirt with a DJ PON-3 logo and an artistic rendering of a white unicorn with an electric blue, two-tone mane and deep violet sunglasses. After sliding into a bra and the shirt, she found an old pair of colt shorts and slid them on before taking out what were her favorite pair of jeans before she had to get rid of them in favor of darker colors.

She reached for her gloves, but froze when she couldn't find them. She glanced around for a while before shaking them from her head, writing them off as only her connection to that horrid world, to that insane dream; at the very least, she tried to do so, and managed to leave the thought mostly muted in the back of her mind.

She walked into the main section of her house. The cans were cleaned up, the couch was a bit messier from having been used more recently. The mirrors everywhere were perfectly intact, just like before Dash died.

Dash! Wait, if that was all a dream, then maybe, maybe she's still alive!

Without another though, the pegasus grabbed her keys and her board. As she grabbed her board, part of her mind told her it felt odd, but she chalked it up to just being unaccustomed to touching it without her gloves after so long. She then headed out of her house and skated quickly out of her neighborhood and into the main of Ponyville, her eyes scanning the sky, hardly noticing how swiftly everything passed her by.

Upon reaching the center of the town, she hopped off her board. She facepalmed as she realized she'd not cleaned herself up any and went to fix her feathers, only to find they were already in order, now perfectly cleaned and straightened. She reached up to find her mane was also in it's usual style. She briefly considered that she didn't remember fixing either, but her concentration was broken as a soft voice pierced the air.

"Scootaloo!" A white unicorn mare rushed over and hugged the orange pegasus tightly, a gesture which Scootaloo made no hesitation to return. It was then that a second voice sounded, one she never thought she'd hear again.

"Hey squirt, bout time you got here." Scootaloo's eyes shot wide open. Before her was Rainbow Dash, dressed in her typical tanktop and shorts. She was giving her usual smirk as she opened her arms. "You gonna hug me too or what, sis?"

Scootaloo didn't need anything more, Sweetie stepped to the side just in time to avoid getting knocked over as the orange pegasus rushed over and hugged the cyan mare tightly, waiting for the slightly messy, coarse fur of her big sister pressing against her once more. She felt the warmth as her arms neared, but as she was wrapped in the hug, she could hardly help but notice something drastically off. Dash, the Rainbow Dash, has fur as soft and fine as silk.

The orange pegasus froze in place as her eyes widened, her mind racing. "D-d-d-dash?"

"Yeah, Scoots?"

"Why is your fur so different?"

"What do you mean? How is it different?"

Scootaloo pulled away almost violently. "Your fur isn't normal. It's too soft. It's too fine it's, it's not your fucking fur!" The pegasus was distraught, and her voiced carried it loud and clear.

"Whoa, whoa, Scootaloo, chill."

Sweetie Belle stepped forward and wrapped the pegasus in a hug. As soon as she did, Scootaloo noticed the exact same feel of the fur against her. Sweetie's fur was exactly the same as Rainbow Dashes, down to the last palpable detail. As the fact settled, Scootaloo tore herself away from the mare, backing away from the two. "No, no, no, no, no, no! This isn't happening. This, this can't be a dream. This was too perfect! Please, please just stop!"

The world around the pegasus grew dark as she felt as though she were slung back. She stopped suddenly, her head swimming momentarily before clearing up to see she was in her living room, the couch ripped, the mirrors bashed and bloodied, random splatters of blood painting the walls. She looked around and shook bolted towards her bedroom and straight to her dresser, only to find the mirror still intact and her shard nowhere.

She looked around for something to use before rushing into the kitchen, searching for a knife, a fork, anything, only to find nothing she could use. She ran to the mirrors and tried desperately to remove a shard form the broken mirrors, only to find no give at all, as though there was something between her and the glass she'd hoped to set her free.

Scootaloo heard a whisper, then a soft giggle. Soon she heard a few echoing laughs, and before long, she'd dropped to the floor and covered her ears trying to escape the thunderous laughter from everywhere. She squirmed and twitched as she gripped her mane.

"Make it stop! S-sweetie! Please! Make it stop! I, I don't care how, just make it stop!" She sobbed openly as she screamed out. "Sweetie! Just make it stop!"

After what felt like hours, the pegasus felt something she'd never expected. She felt a sting in her right shoulder followed by a warmth slowly flowing over it. The laughter quickly faded and her vision suddenly flickered black, then white. After a moment, she shot up in her bed, panting, covered in sweat. Within moments of waking, she felt a brief sting on her shoulder, followed by the soft coat from her dreams holding her. At first, the pegasus began to pull away, but as everything registered once more, she quickly pulled her fillyfriend into a tight hug.

"Scootaloo, are you okay? I'm so sorry, but I didn't know what else to do. I panicked."

Scootaloo held Sweetie Belle tightly still as she slowly steadied her breath. "Sweetie, please, don't ever apologize for that." She choked back tears as best she could. "Please, don't apologize. You, you have no idea how terrible that was." She tried to continue, but her tears finally overcame her and she clutched the mare tighter as she wept.

Sweetie Belle wasn't quite used to this new side of Scootaloo, but she wasn't about to let that get to her. She held the pegasus in her arms, letting the orange mare let out her emotions, and tell of her nightmare.

After Scootaloo calmed down and finished telling about her dream, Sweetie Belle slowly pulled from the embrace before walking with the orange mare to fix some tea. After a short chat and both finishing their tea, the two shared a brief kiss before returning to bed.

“Are you sure you’re okay now, Scoots? You can tell me if you’re not, you know?”

“Y-yeah. I’m fine. I mean, it’s not like it matters. I’m not getting back to sleep. We both know that.” Scootaloo let out a sigh as she fell back onto her pillow.

Sweetie Belle frowned and lay beside her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Do you want me to try and stay up with you?”

Scootaloo pulled her fillyfriend close. “No, Sweetie. You need your sleep. I’ll be fine. I promise.”

Sweetie Belle gave a slight nod before huddling closer to the pegasus and closing her eye, only to be interrupted immediately by another knock at the door.

She sighed and looked to Scootaloo, knowing what the knock meant, but was surprised to notice her asleep. The unicorn carefully pulled away and looked towards the window to see that a good few hours had already passed.

Sweetie Belle blinked and heard the knock again. She cocked her head and figured it couldn’t have been the same as normal if there was another knock. With that, she decided she would let Scootaloo get whatever sleep she could and got up to answer the door.

Within seconds of opening the door, Sweetie Belle saw a flash of white before there was only darkness. All idea of time was lost as the darkness faded slightly. Sweetie Belle tried to move, but found herself restrained at her limbs. She then tried to cast a spell, only to be met by a numbness at the base of her horn. After a moment, she noticed a sheet, a very thick one, at that. It wasn’t much longer before she noticed that it didn’t seem to be falling right over her.

That was when it hit her: her horn was gone, she was strapped down, and covered up. Then the slightly unsteady clack of hooves against concrete brought her realization to full: she was in the cellar, and Scootaloo was supposed to kill her.

Almost on cue, she heard the voice of her fillyfriend mumbling as though reading the typical note. There was a pause before she heard a few slow hoofsteps, and another, more brief pause, before the sheet was pulled from her to reveal Scootaloo, staring blankly at her. She tried to speak up, but a magical gag kept her silent, just like the others. She tried to thrash against her bonds, but they held her firmly in place.

Scootaloo blinked, but her expression stayed blank for some time. After a while, though, she pulled out a knife and slowly, deliberately, moved it towards Sweetie Belle’s throat. Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened as pure fear took over her entire countenance, her whole self. Then, she heard Scootaloo speak.

“They told me you were against me, Sweetie. They told me all about how you were just using me. You betrayed me, Sweetie. I loved you, and you betrayed me.”

Sweetie Belle began crying, desperately trying to say “No” to tell her fillyfriend that she would never turn on her, that she would never use Scootaloo, that she loved her, but the gag prevented even a single sound from escaping her mouth. All she could do was watch as her fillyfriend drew the knife closer and closer to her throat, and the last moments of her life ticked away, soon to be gone at the hands of the mare she loved.

Sweetie Belle felt no pain, she felt no sting, instead, she felt two arms fiercely wrapped around her. After a moment, the world began to fade back in, and she saw she was still in their bed, and that Scootaloo was awake, and holding her tightly, as well as stroking her mane.

“Oh my gosh, Sweetie. Are you okay?!”

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and a few moments to let her mind catch up with what had just happened. It didn’t take long before she buried her face into the crook of her fillyfriend’s neck, returning the embrace as tightly as she could. It wasn’t long after this that the roles from before switched, Sweetie Belle now sobbing and telling about her nightmare.

After Sweetie Belle calmed down, the two noticed sunlight coming in through the window. It didn’t take much for either to agree that they could both use some time out and about. With that in mind, the two got up and went about cleaning up and getting dressed before walking out, entirely unaware of the shadow coming from the bedroom window.

Author's Note

I realize that Solace was entirely too abrupt. Instead of a prequel, I'm editing and extending Unraveling! Also, for any who enjoyed this chapter, please thank Chromegas_Flare as he was a major help in the process of this chapter. He really helped me work through my ideas and refine what I had. Also, I apologize for the first half of this being the same as Solace. I liked the chapter, but I needed to fix it. This story is now likely far from over, so I hope you don't mind sticking around for the ride.