Lonely Mountains
Tad Stone
Editor and Proofreaders: Kevinltk
twilight-the-pony
“Scootaloo?”
The world felt warm. It felt secure. The softness and sympathy of the foreign voice washed over her, freeing her of all the terrors in her mind.
“Scootaloo... My dear little filly, please rise. I’ll be your eyes in the darkness.”
Never before in her life had Scootaloo felt so tired like that very moment. Every part of her being felt heavy, was dragging her to sleep. The little voices in her head were enticing her to just give in, to finally let go of the world. Then there would be nothing left for her but endless peace. The peace she had yearned for far too long.
“Scootaloo... Please wake up one more time, my little pony, for I am here as your guide.”
The filly felt a soft touch on her head; somepony was gently stroking her unruly mane. A warm hoof ran over her cheeks, removing tiny droplets of water that clung to her fur. Clumsily, she raised her own hoof, blindly pressing it against the chest of the other pony, burying it deeply into the foreign fur.
“Please, Scootaloo.”
Pulsing with each beat of her heart, a strange kind of energy surged through the filly, spreading from her centre to the most remote parts of her body. It was hot, almost burning, as it entered her veins and the plumage of her wings. However, there was no pain, no tension, only serene quiet as she felt every aspect of her being amplified.
“Scootaloo... As thy princess, I ask you for just this one last favour. Try and fight it. For me and all of your friends.”
Starting at her hoof, the warmth residing and coursing through her intensified, slowly purging the fatigue that was lingering in her limbs. Carefully, she inched forward, snuggling her snout against the soft tummy in front of her.
“Look at me, little one.”
A hoof tucked under her chin to raise her head, Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes, peering up into the deep blue eyes of the pony leaning over her.
“Princess Luna?” Scootaloo asked softly, her voice almost too faint to register.
“Yes, my little pony. I am so glad you could join me here.” On her words, the princess bent down, gently pressing her snout against Scootaloo’s. A single tear was running down her coat to fall into the eternity below her.
“Where is here?” Scootaloo looked around, finding nothing but darkness surrounding them and a single ambient source of light shining faintly below in the distance. All she could truly see of the princess and herself were flickering schemes, the images of the scene dancing on her retina. Wherever she looked, there were no walls confining them, no ground to stand on, just an endless black uniformity to stare upon.
“This is a world of your making, my little pony. Your soul and your thoughts were craving for the eternal darkness that now surrounds us,” Luna answered gently, every single word full of empathy. A sad smile on her lips, Luna looked down to Scootaloo, once again stroking the side of the small filly’s head. “My magic can’t hold you much longer, Scootaloo. Soon, you must make your decision.”
“But I have already made my decision,” Scootaloo answered weakly, feeling much too exhausted to really protest. “I thought you were just my guide to the next world. Please let me go in peace, Princess.”
“Your guide?” Luna closed her eyes for a moment, removing a small pool of clear liquid that had been forming on her cheeks. “Yes, my little filly. But not in the way you think me to be. I hold no power over what is to follow this world. Right now, what we are experiencing is merely a dream.”
“A dream? Does this mean I failed?” Scootaloo leaned forward, hugging the softness of the other pony’s chest. Her eyes clenched shut, small tears emerging from her lids.
“Failed? No, my little one. You have failed nopony. We are the ones who have failed you.” Luna sighed, shaking her head in a short but heartfelt motion. ”Right now, your body is resting at the Ponyville Hospital. You have lost a lot of blood. You have cut deep, deeper than I’ve ever seen anypony before.” She laid a hoof around Scootaloo, squeezing the small pony who did the same in return.
”When you passed out, I found a spark of a dream and forced myself in. I saw what you had done, and I called upon Rainbow in her sleep. She brought you to a doctor as fast as she could. Scootaloo, you still have a chance to live.” Luna looked down to the filly, seeing and feeling the small body trembling against her.
“I have already made my decision,” Scootaloo answered, shaking her head. ”I made it when I chose that knife.” She broke the hug, but she remained close to the princess. For a moment, she just sat there, staring into the abyss below her, before raising her head. With all the determination that was left in her, she looked up into Luna’s eyes, forcing herself to keep her gaze steady. “I can’t go back there anymore.”
“Is that so, my little filly?” Softly sighing another time, Luna rose from her spot, trotting off into the darkness behind her.
Scootaloo craned her neck, watching intently as the princess faded in the waning light, just to reappear again in the glow of her own horn. One by one, little droplets of light emerged in the darkness. Bit by bit, surrounding Scootaloo, the texture of the dream itself changed, the millions of swirling, tiny lights creating the imitation of a beautiful cloudy sky.
With her magic work done, Luna was slowly walking back towards Scootaloo, taking her time with every step. “As the princess of the night,” she began after she was halfway back to the filly, her voice cracking with sadness, “it is also my duty to care for those who wish to dream their very last dream. Nopony wants to be alone during their final hour. Most of them are old, prepared for death as much as any pony can be. Their bodies are broken, and their minds have grown too old to remain in this world. And yet, they all have doubts. They need me to help them cross the border, and I help them as best I can.”
At this, Luna made her final step to stand again in front of Scootaloo. Slowly, she bent down, lifting the filly into the air before her.
“In your dreams, I can feel you. I know what you are thinking. This sky...” Luna took off into the extending images of clouds, Scootaloo resting motionless in her hooves. “I helped you bring it forth, but I did not create it. It is part of your very own thoughts. It is part of your own will to live, your dream to fly. Scootaloo, I can sense that there is doubt in you.”
Scootaloo shook her head, wriggling herself free of Luna’s grasp to drop down into the darkness. She refused to flap her wings as she fell, the clouds and sky above her shattering into a thousand pieces.
“Scootaloo!” Luna called into the darkness. Using her wings to catch up, the princess sped after the tumbling filly, aligning herself next to her. “Scootaloo!” she shouted anew, trying to reach the filly through sheer volume. ”In the end, I will respect your every decision, but there is hope for you in this world.”
Scootaloo remained silent, not moving a single muscle as she continued to drop. In her mind, a war was raging. The calmness in her had left together with the warm surge in her veins. Once more, the harsh reality of the world was hammering against her sanity, driving her restless and anxious. She couldn’t bear it anymore. The world, herself, everything.
She wanted to flee, but there was no way to make it happen. She wanted to feel the pain of the knife slicing through her hooves again, but this time, even that could not help her anymore. In a dream, you couldn't simply die.
At the end of her hope, Scootaloo let out a long piercing scream, the ripples of the sound waves tearing the fabric of the imaginary world around her, throwing Luna back in her path.
With all her strength, the princess surged forward faster than she had before, forcing herself near the falling filly once more. Trying to keep as steady in her path as possible, she wrapped herself fully around Scootaloo, gradually slowing down their fall until she came to halt in the middle of pure blackness.
With the care of a mother, she set Scootaloo down to the newly forming ground beneath her hooves, landing beside the filly herself with quiet steps. Carefully, as not to startle or hurt the weeping bundle, Luna fell down on her knees, placing her horn against Scootaloo’s head. Just seconds later, a gleaming light emerged from the tip, gradually sinking into the small pegasus.
Dazzled from the surge, Scootaloo closed her eyes. Only slowly, she dared to opened them again, a wave of calmness and peace once more washing over her.
Hesitantly, she looked around herself, taking her time to take in the images around her. To her surprise, she found herself resting on a cloud, her hooves sinking into the familiar and comfortable surface she loved just as much as any other pegasus. Around her, the darkness had vanished, replaced by an endless sky and a mixture of greens and greys below her.
Everything looked so beautiful. The scene had a strange familiarity, the aura of all the times she had been happy and content. Right now, however, the open sky also held another edge to it, the emotions burning in her chest. As much as she tried to comprehend it, she didn’t know what to make out of any of this.
Hesitantly, she probed the white substance below her hooves, remembering the feeling and everything that went with it. A new surge of tears fell down to join the water of her ground.
“Why are you torturing me, princess?” Scootaloo whispered, the strain audible in every word. “You are showing me but a dream. I’ll never fly freely.”
“What if there is still hope?” Luna fully lay down next to Scootaloo, draping her wing over the filly. “No matter what the doctors said, there always is some. And there are other doctors.”
Luna paused, taking her time to lay her head onto Scootaloo’s, running her snout through the filly’s messy mane. “What does flying mean to you, little one?”
“Why does it even matter now?” Scootaloo asked, her voice quivering. “Even to you, it never did before. You weren’t there for me. Nopony ever really was. You were supposed to watch over my dreams. Rainbow was supposed to watch over my days. None of you ever came to help me, so why should this change?”
Scootaloo wriggled herself free of Luna’s grasp once more, staring into the eyes of the princess. “You don’t have to lie to me, princess. I know the truth. I’m just not important enough. I’ll never fly, and that is fine because once you let me go, I’ll have found my peace.”
“It does matter. For no matter what you think, you are important,” Luna replied, the tears stinging in her eyes. “For a very long time, I have watched you sleep. I have seen the nightmares that plague you. But Scootaloo, you are strong. Stronger than you think you are. Even stronger than Rainbow in your own way.”
Luna raised her hoof, slowly running it through her own mane.
“Your psyche kept rejecting me over and over again until now when it was almost too late. There are no words that could express the regret I feel for your pain.”
In a slow motion, Luna leaned forward, nudging Scootaloo’s head upwards with a short nuzzle to look into her eyes.
“As for Rainbow, I cannot speak for her, but I know she loves you. I’ve watched her dreams more than once, and you’re a constant part of them.”
A small smile etched into her features, Luna inched another step closer to Scootaloo. Visibly deep in thought, the princess raised her head to the sky above them, staring into the vastness of the dream before finally closing her eyes. Her facial muscles twitched, and her hooves trembled as she focused on what seemed to be a vivid memory or a mentally straining task.
“Look in your heart, Scootaloo,” Luna started after a little while, her head still directed to the sky above them, but her eyes wide open again. ”Has Rainbow really given you any reason to doubt her love for you? Has she ever been late to one of your meetings? Has she ever spoken ill of you or ignored your needs?”
Scootaloo shook her head in silence.
“Have you ever told Rainbow how you felt?”
A quiet “no” was all that followed as an answer.
“And why is that?”
Full of conflicting emotions, Scootaloo looked up at the alicorn before her, somehow wishing that the eternal ruler would provide her with an easy answer. However, Luna neither spoke nor glanced down to her, instead pointing solemnly to the sky with a short nod.
Swirling in a new myriad of lights, Luna’s horn glowed once more as Scootaloo closely watched. A new cloud formed in the sky over them, a violet and a rainbow-striped tail protruding from the edge in close proximity.
Heavy in her movement, Luna lowered her head as the last spark died out, looking intently at the filly before her. “I found this image in your thoughts, Scootaloo,” she slowly started, almost whispering in a hushed voice. ”I chose it because I have seen this before. Whenever I visit Rainbow in her dreams, this image of you is present somewhere.”
Scootaloo’s small ears flicked, but the gaze of the filly remained at the image of Rainbow before her.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Luna continued, struggling to keep her voice level. “I once asked Rainbow what it means. She said to me that this was one of the happiest moments in her life.”
Silently sobbing, Scootaloo closed her eyes, her tears glistening in the low-standing sun of her dream. Where moments ago only a few drops had resided was now a constant stream, the realization of her past mistakes burning in her mind.
“What does flying mean to you, little one?”
Luna’s tender words brought Scootaloo to finally look back at the princess again. Slowly, Scootaloo inched forward, hugging the alicorn tightly.
“I wanted the bullying to stop,” she answered, her voice muffled by Luna’s fur. “I wanted to be recognized... To amount to something. I...” Scootaloo stopped, swallowing hard as she felt an onslaught of new emotions. “I wanted Rainbow’s love. I...”
Scootaloo’s words became quiet, dying down in an onset of heavy sobs as Luna laid a hoof around her back and returned the hug.
“You don’t have to fly for any of those, my little filly,” Luna softly replied, stroking through Scootaloo’s fur. “You are strong, Scootaloo. I and Rainbow will be there for you. I promise.”
Scootaloo lifted her head, pressing her muzzle against the alicorn’s chest, a small smile on her lips beneath all of her tears. “Thank you, princess,” she mumbled, leaning fully against the adult mare. “Please tell Rainbow I love her and that I enjoyed all of our times.”
Unseen by Scootaloo, Luna grimaced, biting down on her own lip to remain calm. Trying to clear her thoughts, she inhaled once deeply, blowing out the air in a thin stream.
“Why don’t you tell her this yourself?” she asked, nudging Scootaloo’s ear as she spoke.
“I can’t go back,” the filly responded, shaking her head. “I might or might never fly, but for my parents, that will never matter. You can’t make them love me. Can you, Luna? You can’t make them want a failure such as me...”
“No, my little pony, I can’t,” Luna spoke softly, a protective hoof resting on Scootaloo’s head. “The ability to truly change a pony’s heart is beyond my reach.”
“Then I can’t go,” Scootaloo said in a strong voice, a strange certainty in her words. Reluctantly, she heaved herself to her hooves, ending the embrace.
Around her, the dream had changed, the cyan sky replaced by dusty planks. A tiny cubicle of a room had formed, encasing them and blocking out nearly all light. Somewhere in the distance, two voices could be heard, a male and a female pony shouting at each other, although their exact words could not be understood.
“I can’t bear them anymore,” Scootaloo went on. ”Even in my sleep, I can hear them shouting at me, feel their hooves on me.”
In slow steps, the filly made her way over to the lone mattress, running a hoof over the soiled sheets. Warily, she lifted the fabric before her eyes, looking at the dried stains of her own blood.
“Just read my letter, Luna. I have no trouble leaving this part of my life behind.”
Scootaloo dropped the sheets, almost throwing them off herself as she turned back to Luna.
“I am a flightless monstrosity for them. Just a failure on their part, and that will never change.”
Around them, the world began to flicker, planks and sky yielding to new darkness. Trying hard to mask the trembling of her hooves, Luna stood up as well, a faint source of light gleaming below them once more.
Tentatively, she took a step towards the filly, speaking with a clear voice. “No, Scootaloo, that might never change. But...” She raised a hoof to silence Scootaloo who had opened her mouth to reply. “But I can still protect you, Scootaloo... I have not much time left in this dream. My power is waning. But there is one thing I can promise. If you choose to live, I will remove this pain from your life. You will not have to face them again.”
Luna took another step towards the filly, an intense eye contact connecting them.
“Scootaloo, once I leave this dream, it will break down. Sustaining your life will be harder for you. You will feel pain. You will struggle. There is only one question you need to ask yourself: Will you fight or will you yield? Stay on this earth, and I promise you all the help I can offer. I will find a happy family to take care of you... Leave this world forever, and there is nothing I can offer to you anymore. Many have tried to reach beyond, but all have failed... Including myself. If nothingness awaits or more, I cannot tell.”
Her whole body shaking, Luna closed the gap to the filly with a last step, her head held low in a subdued gesture of respect.
“I have made my decision,” Scootaloo quietly spoke up after a short wait, craning her neck to rub her head against Luna’s. A small grin etched into her features, the filly aligned her mouth to Luna’s ear, whispering her answer into the fluffy appendage.
A sincere but sad smile on her face, Luna reached forward, hugging the small pegasus for a final time. “Farewell, my little filly,” she whispered.
The princess’s muzzle remaining pressed against Scootaloo’s, the alicorn vanished, leaving Scootaloo alone in total darkness.
Crying in discomfort, Scootaloo fell to the ground. All the warmth in her world was gone. The pain was taking over once more.
“I didn’t know!”
Despite the fact that her hooves were trembling and her vision was blurred, Rainbow held onto the blood-smeared note before her, trying but failing to read it for yet another time.
It was no more than a simple piece of paper, a plain ruled page ripped out of a notebook. An ordinary black pencil had been used to scribble a few hasty notes.
If it weren’t for the red stains that had soaked into the wettened cellulose, it would have been unremarkable, seemingly unimportant. Nothing more than the scribbles of a foal who had yet to fully master the art of writing with one's mouth.
However, the truth could not be any farther from that. Tonight, the world had changed forever. A small filly was fighting for her life – the very same life she had tried to take not even one hour ago – and that single page was the answer to everything. It was speaking of abuse. A lost foalhood. A dream to fly.
For Rainbow, there was nothing left to do but wait and ponder about the future. Her part was done. Her past mistakes had been committed. If there ever would be a time to set things right, she didn’t know.
“I am sorry, Scootaloo,” Rainbow whispered into the darkness of the room, unsure if the filly lying before her could hear her or not. Deep inside, she wished that her words could somehow reach to the small pegasus, that her presence could make a difference, but the reality before her was too harsh and cruel to truly believe in such notions anymore.
Plastic straps had been fastened onto Scootaloo, restraining her to the bed and slightly lifting up all her limbs, except for her tiny wings. From what Rainbow could make out in the meagre shine of her tiny lamp in the otherwise dark room, two IV-stands had been attached to the bed. Through thin transparent tubing, liquids were running out of their plastic containers into Scootaloo's bloodstream, a peripheral cannula stuck into her hind leg allowing for their fast entry.
All in all, Scootaloo looked weak, almost lifeless, with her dull-coloured fur. Her chest was heaving, a wheezing sound escaping with each new breath as she struggled for air even under the oxygen mask that had been strapped to her snout.
If it weren’t for the countless medical monitors attached to the little body, Rainbow would have thought the small pegasus was dying and maybe that was even true nevertheless. All she could do was stare at the moving graphs, trying to grasp their various meanings, and wait.
Scootaloo’s fate was in the hooves of the doctors now. They knew what to do. They were the ones who could interpret the data and save her dearest friend. Rainbow was no more than a helpless bystander, a pawn in a party of chess. She wanted to fight, and yet she had no other choice but to wait and watch. She wanted to be a part of the battle, but all that was left for her were emotions of worry and guilt as she sat in darkness.
Unnerved by the whole situation, Rainbow stood up from the small cushion that had been brought in just for her, pacing through the room for no more than just a few steps before deciding otherwise. Slowly, she went back to where she had left Scootaloo’s note lying on the ground just moments earlier, gently picking it up with her mouth. Deep in thought, she ran her hoof over the surface one more time before carefully placing it onto the nightstand to her side, the paper almost glowing in the light of the small lantern she had placed on the table.
Hastily, Rainbow turned around, no longer daring to directly look at any part of the sad message her friend had left behind. Tears were falling to the ground next to her as she just stood still, her whole body shaking. Her gaze was directed to the small window to her side. She had promised herself to be strong, but what did this even mean in a situation like this? She was alone. Right next to her, a pony she loved could as well be dying. She could no longer hold in her tears, but it didn’t matter. If there ever had been a time to cry, it was right now.
Freeing herself out of her stupor, Rainbow forced herself to look at Scootaloo, biting her lip to endure the sting in her heart. Scootaloo looked so small in the huge bed, almost lost among the surrounding structures. It just wasn’t right to see her like this.
Patches of her fur were missing where it had been shaved off to allow for medical equipment to connect. On other spots, dark stains of blood still remained on her matted coat, a broad trail leading up to the thick casts of linen that had been wrapped around both of her front hooves. Rainbow couldn’t help but stare at those in particular, the bitter image of what was beneath still lingering in her head.
Long, straight, open wounds from hoof to knee. Damaged tissue. Seeping blood caked on fur. It was hard to accept a pony would want to do something like that to oneself, let alone a foal. And yet, it was true. She had seen the knife lying next to the filly, the rain washing off the blood from the blade. She had found the letter. She had lifted the filly from the dark street, rushing her to hospital faster than any other pony could have done.
Even now, it all felt like a dream, the reality feeling too absurd to be true. She just wanted to open her eyes and be done crying, but it would not happen. She had already been woken once tonight, but unlike any other time before, the nightmare had only followed after that, and it would not end.
Trying hard to finally break free of her inertia, Rainbow stared down to the ground, looking at her hoof as she moved it forward just a few inches, her other limbs following in automation. Step by step, she slowly closed the small distance to the bed, carefully reaching up to the unconscious filly. However, as much as she wanted to simply touch the foal, to hug her until the world was good again, she couldn’t bring herself to do it, her fear to hurt the little bundle overriding all her other thoughts.
Slowly, she retracted her hoof, overwhelmed by a loud noise that was ringing in her ears. For a second, she felt disoriented, her mind searching for the source of the disturbance until the very reason became suddenly very clear to her.
Mentally panicking, Rainbow looked up to the monitors, trying to make sense of the various data but failing to see anything as her eyes switched from image to image in frequent succession. Squiggly, green lines and red numbers. That’s all the graphs had been to her before and were now. A language without meaning that couldn’t tell her what was wrong.
Hastily, she reached for the red button that had been mounted to side of the bed, nothing but the simple urge to hammer at it until help was here ingrained in her mind. However, before her hoof could even touch the matt surface, a brown stallion in a white doctor’s coat had already teleported into the room, two pegasus mares rushing after him through the door.
With no time to properly react, Rainbow simply stared at the stallion as he made his way over to the monitors in a fast stride, his gaze constantly fixed on the moving numbers. “We have a PEA!” he shouted after no more than a second, at the same time, hastily gesturing the two nurses further forward into action. “Administer 1 mg epinephrine now!”
Rainbow was violently shoved aside as the nurses rushed forward, one of them retrieving a syringe from under the bed, injecting it into Scootaloo’s bloodstream through the peripheral cannula in her hind leg.
At the same time, the doctor had jumped onto the bed, a button on the respirator softly clicking in his magic. In a rhythmic motion, he began to stomp on Scootaloo’s chest, each hit causing groaning noises to escape the filly.
In the background, Rainbow had sunken down into a sobbing heap as she closely watched the scene unfold before her eyes, all the time murmuring words of consolation to herself. She hadn’t even bothered to move away from where the nurse had pushed her, instead just rolling over to her stomach on the spot. She knew what was happening, and yet she could not fully comprehend it. It was all too fast for her. It just couldn’t all be over already. It was only now that she completely understood the gap Scootaloo would leave in her life. It just couldn’t be. It just shouldn’t be possible in this world.
If she only had some way to help as the doctor continued in his work, drips of sweat running down his head as he was desperately trying to revive the filly by manually pumping blood through her. But there wasn’t. All Rainbow could do was to count the seconds, summing up the time without results.
“Don’t you die on my watch!” the doctor shouted after more than a minute, trying hard to persist as everypony in the room just stared at him, waiting for further orders. “Come on!” he continued his roar after a few more stomps, trying to keep steady in his work. The sound of crunching bones could be heard throughout the room.
“She’s coming back,” one of the nurses called out a few seconds later, causing the doctor to look up at the monitors himself as he continued the stomps.
“Atta girl,” he answered, almost sighing in relief. A smile had appeared on his lips as his eyes switched rapidly between the graphs and numbers. Panting heavily, he finally let go of the filly after a few more seconds of vigorous pumping, barely catching himself as he jumped down to the ground afterwards.
“Get her to ER five,” he ordered the nurses weakly. ”I need a scan of those ribs. Start a noradrenaline treatment and closely monitor her at all times.”
After a short nod, the two mares rushed out of the room, taking Scootaloo’s bed and all the equipment with them, the doctor hurrying after them.
Left in the room alone and dejected, Rainbow forced herself to sit up on the floor, taking a few steps forward to the empty space where, just moments ago, Scootaloo had been. Her brain was trying to fully comprehend what had just happened, but no clear thought entered her mind.
Too many emotions in too short succession had to process, too many events that happened in too short of a time. The only thing she could grasp was that Scootaloo was still breathing and alive. The doctor had saved the little pegasus, and maybe that was all that mattered in dire moments like these.
Right there and then, Rainbow started to feel very tired as the adrenaline slowly left her body. The sadness rising in her even stronger than before, she sunk down fully to the ground, quietly sobbing with her head in her hooves. “Don’t ever leave me, Scootaloo,” she whispered into the empty room, her words resounding on the empty walls, closely followed by the sounds of a set of heavy hoofsteps behind her.
Reacting calmly, recognizing the aura of the newcomer, Rainbow craned her neck, staring at the dark figure in the deep shadows behind her.
“Don’t you fear, Rainbow. The filly is strong,” Luna spoke up. With slow, but secure steps, the princess advanced out of the darkness, her long-casting shadow reaching up to the wall in front of Rainbow. “It might not look like it, but I know she will pull through. She gave me a promise.”
In the silence of the room, Luna made her way over to Rainbow, carefully lying down herself next to the pegasus.
“Luna,” Rainbow coaxed after a while, slightly lifting her head to look to her side. “Does this mean I am dreaming?”
“No, Rainbow, you are not.” Luna gave the pegasus soft nudge with her snout, removing a few tears with her hoof. “I came here to see a few things myself.”
There was a another long silence in the room until Rainbow spoke up again, her words slow and faint, yet full of emotion. “Will I ever see her again, princess?”
“Yes, Rainbow, you will.” Luna spread out her wing, carefully draping it over Rainbow as she spoke. “She made that promise not just to me, but also to you.”
Rainbow just nodded, the room yet again turning quiet.
“There are two things I must ask you though. For her...” This time, it was Luna who was the first one to break the peace. The princess paused, taking the time to look at Rainbow who was staring at the ceiling with open but dilated eyes.
“You must promise me something as well, Rainbow,” she went on, her voice strong but at the same time soothing. “Scootaloo needs a loving family and friends around her when she wakes up. I will do all the paperwork for you, but Rainbow, please be there for her. Please take her home where she belongs.”
Feeling exhausted, but at the same time strangely fulfilled, Rainbow inched closer to the princess, resting her head against the other pony’s neck. It was strange, but she felt secure next to Luna, only now truly realising the strain the night had put on her.
“I promise,” Rainbow whispered, her croaking words reverberating in the darkness. “That’s more than I could have ever wished for after this night. I thought I had lost her forever. I‘ve failed her so much.”
“No, you haven’t,” Luna replied, almost interrupting Rainbow with her tender words. In a cloud of her magic, she swiped away the rest of the tears that were lingering on Rainbow’s cheeks, the liquid dissipating together with the mild light of her aura. “It is only because of you that she returned to us. It is only because of you that she made it to the hospital in time. Don’t blame yourself for the past, Rainbow. You could not have known.”
Rainbow gave the princess a gentle bob with her head, carefully nuzzling the alicorn’s neck. “Thank you, Luna”, she whispered, the corners of her mouth raised in a slight smile. “I’ll do anything to make her happy again. I promise.”
“I know you will, Rainbow,” Luna answered, squeezing the pegasus gently with her wing, her voice trailing off in the tranquility of the room. “I know you will...”
Rainbow didn’t yet reply, for a moment just concentrating on the warmth of the body to her side. She just felt very sleepy. Luna’s presence was filling her with a strong weariness of a kind she had never felt before. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to open her eyes again.
“What is the second thing, Luna?” Rainbow carefully asked, her eyes instinctively wandering over to the door. “I’ll do anything you ask for. For her...”
“This one, you must do for yourself as well, Rainbow,” Luna replied, warmly smiling down to the smaller pegasus. “I’ve asked a friend of mine to come to Ponyville. He’ll be here very soon, and he’ll stay for as long as you need him. Just talk to him, Rainbow. He is a great psychologist. He’ll help you and Scootaloo through the first few months.”
“I will,” Rainbow said, running a hoof through her own mane. “What about you, princess? Do you have somepony to talk to?”
“I am old, Rainbow, ” Luna answered, her voice permeated by different emotions and her tone swaying with every word. “I have seen death all my life. Celestia rules the day and all the good that comes with it. I… I rule the darkness. It is my duty as the princess of the night, but it’s tearing strongly on my heart.” Luna stopped, exhaling strongly. “But at the end of each night, I know it will be alright because I know my sister will listen.”
Luna became silent, in an automatic motion looking out of the small window into the sky beyond.
“I know my sister will always be there for me now,” Luna stated in a surprisingly strong and secure voice. ”I know that now because you and your friends gave me that chance. Whatever I did tonight, it was the least I could do.”
Feeling Rainbow’s hoof running over her side under her wing, the princess trailed off, carefully observing the pony beside her.
“Would you mind staying with me for a while, Luna?” Rainbow mumbled. Already half asleep, she sunk fully to the ground, her head secured on a pillow of her own hooves. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”
“Don’t worry, Rainbow, I’ll stay.”
Right there and then, Rainbow closed her eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep under the wing of her nightly princess.
“Sleep tight, my little pony,” Luna spoke quietly as she smile down to the pegasus on her side. “I will watch over your dreams tonight. And tomorrow morning, you will be held up in the circle of your friends.”
Author's Note
It's been a long wait and I have to admit, progress is slow on my bigger project. So far I only have managed to write around 40k words, which is around one third. I'm not sure when I will be ready to start posting anything of it, so I decided to give you a few oneshots during the wait. Hopefully more will follow in good time.
If you haven't already, read my other stories Guardians of Many Hues and Lonely Mountains for more Scootalove.
