Light in the Dark

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Chapter 1

Light in the dark

Chapter 1

Rays of sunlight crept along the ground as the sun rose up into the sky, steadily moving across the world it slowly enveloped. As it did, the rays came across a small treehouse, standing in a clearing on the otherwise tightly crowded fields of apple trees. The building had clearly been through a lot. It had several panels lying loosely on the roof, the windows seemed to be either broken or stuck and the only way to get up to the structure was a brittle piece of old wood positioned in such a way that it created a bridge from the ground up onto the balcony around the wooden building.

Inside lay a small orange filly with a purple coloured mane. The cyan dyed blanket under which she slept was moving up and down on the gentle rhythm of the pegasus' breath. She had never been one for getting up early, more one for going to bed late. This night had been no exception and thus, she was still fast asleep.

As the sun's light shone through a small window in the treehouse, it assaulted the small pegasus' eyes. Reluctantly lifting her eyelids, only to close them mere moments after to shield her eyes from the influx of bright light, Scootaloo tried to halt the urge of waking up a bit longer, eventually giving in. It was no use to try and fall asleep again on a bright day like the one she was in right now. As she got up, her mind got flooded with the thoughts of what she had planned for the day.

''I'm going with Rainbow Dash to watch her perform new tricks! She's going to show me all of them and perhaps even more! It's going to be so cool!''

Her mind was racing with thoughts and ideas. Well awake now, she quickly grabbed her helmet and scooter, which she had always kept in the same corner of the old wooden structure for years now, after which she dashed through the door, down the wooden ramp, hopped onto the board and started heading towards Ponyville.

It didn't take much time for her to reach the outskirts of the town, but by the time Scootaloo got to Ponyville's centre the streets were already growing more crowded. Not in the mood for slowing down because of it, the purple maned filly manoeuvred through the streets with agility many ponies would admire. It wasn't long before the inevitable crash happened though; and when it did, it sent two fillies flying through the air for a brief moment.

''I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you; I was just in a hurry and...''

She stopped mid-sentence as she noticed who she had bumped into. It was a very familiar face to Scootaloo. The yellow coated filly with a red mane had been her best friend for as long as she could remember, perhaps even longer. She waited a few seconds until the small earthpony recovered from the impact before continuing her talk.

''Oh, umm... Hey there, Applebloom. Sorry for crashing into you like that... anyway... umm... I'm kind of in a hurry to meet Rainbow Dash and umm... I don't really want to be late so I-''

''That sounds mightily interestin', Scootaloo, but umm... Ah should probably start headin' home, because... Ah just came here ta do some shoppin'. They're probably wonderin' where Ah am right now back home. Ah promised them Ah'd be back soon.''

''Okay then, Applebloom. I'll umm... catch you later then... I guess.''

And with that said, the orange filly jumped back onto her scooter and made way for the edge of the town. She quickly set her thoughts back on what she had planned earlier. She imagined a certain cyan coloured pegasus would probably be waiting for her by now. Her awkward chat with Applebloom had taken up some of her time, more than she would've liked. She couldn't afford any other holdups now. She didn't want to show up late in front of the pony she admired and idolized.

''I should probably speed up the pace a bit if I want to be on time.''

''Now where is she? Why is she taking so long to get here? I specifically mentioned the time at which I would be able to be here. Usually, when we've planned something, she's early. Maybe something happened to her?''

The cyan coloured pegasus was lost in her own thoughts as she walked in small circles at the spot she and Scootaloo had agreed on as a meeting point earlier that week. Rainbow Dash was never a pony to worry about things a lot, but for some reason it was different with Scootaloo. She knew that the small filly looked up to her, idolized her even, but she couldn't help thinking about her in a different way. Somehow she felt responsible for the little pegasus filly.

''Just calm down, Rainbow, she will be here any moment now and then you can start practicing your new amazing tricks,'' she said to herself.

Sure enough, when she gazed off in the direction of Ponyville, an orange speck was speeding towards her. The cyan coated pegasus squeezed her eyelids closely together to focus on the orange dot in the distance, as a way of verifying her thoughts. As it got closer and closer, Rainbow Dash wondered why the filly wasn't slowing down.

''WATCH OUT! MY BRAKES AREN'T...''

Scootaloo didn't get to finish her sentence as she crashed into the rainbow maned pegasus, who was simply standing there, lost in thought, until the speeding object hit her. The sheer force of the impact was enough to send the filly flying for what must've been at least fifteen feet through the air before she landed on her helmeted head, sliding forward from the speed she'd built up earlier on, scooping up a lot of dirt along the way, thus creating a small gulch in the ground.

Rainbow Dash had been knocked to the ground by the impact. She remained dazed for a few seconds as she tried to get up and fathom what in Equestria just happened. As she looked around, she noticed Scootaloo waddling around a few feet away from her, clearly still dazed from the crash.

''Scoot, are you alright?''

Rainbow's voice sounded muffled to Scootaloo, it was hard for her to put the sounds which were emitted from the other pegasus' muzzle together in order to create words, as her brain was struggling to return to normal after the impact. The small filly was having trouble standing up straight. Every time she took a step, she would come close to tumbling again. She gazed around for a few seconds, trying to make out the shapes of her environment through her blurred vision.

''Can you hear me?''

Scootaloo shook her head a few times as she tried to regain her normal senses, looking at Rainbow Dash with a sheepish gaze in the process. Then, as she realized what had happened moments before, the edges of her lips slowly curled upwards, forming a smile on the filly's face.

''That was... SO COOL! You should've seen me Rainbow Dash I was going so fast but my brakes weren't working and I couldn't stop anymore and I crashed into you and I must've flown through the air for like five seconds and then I landed...''

Scootaloo had to put a pause to her story in order to breathe, after which she continued the tale at lightning speed.

''And then I landed head first but I had my helmet on so I was fine but I couldn't walk straight for like twenty seconds and you should've seen the look on your face as you were talking to me and...''

''Whoa, Scoots, slow down for a moment will you?'' Rainbow Dash interrupted. ''I was right here; I saw it happen as well. Why weren't your brakes working then?''

''I don't know, maybe it's because I bumped into Applebloom earlier today, oh, that's what I wanted to tell you, I was late because I was going through town super-fast but then I couldn't avoid her and I crashed into her and that slowed me down a lot so I quickly jumped back because I had to hurry up after that because I didn't want to be late.''

All the high speed talking had taken its toll on the orange filly's breathing, causing it to change rhythm every few seconds, making for a strange mix of slow and fast inhaling and exhaling most ponies would deem unhealthy. Scootaloo then took another large breath before rounding up her story to Rainbow Dash.

''And that's why I was late.''

Rainbow Dash stood still for a moment as she tried to replay everything the orange pegasus had just said, in her mind, at a more reasonable speed. She then smiled down at the small filly, bringing her hoof up to Scootaloo's head and ruffling her mane with it.

''Well that explains it. I was starting to think you had forgotten about our little scheduled trip.''

''I would never forget something as cool as this, Rainbow Dash, I can't wait for you to show your new tricks, I just know it's going to be super cool!''

''It sure will be! You'll be amazed when you see what I've been practicing the past few days!''

''What new tricks have you been practicing then?''

''You'll see when we get to the clearing, just be patient for a change,'' Rainbow said with a mysterious grin on her face as she looked at the filly.

''Aww come on, can't you just tell me now? I promise I won't tell the others about it if you want to keep it a secret?''

''That's not it at all. Just wait for now and you'll get to see it soon enough.''

The sound of shuddering leaves could be heard, emitting from the tree which had been filled with apples a mere moment before. As the apples fell down, they were all caught in an extraordinarily placed circle of baskets at the bottom of the tree. As one would expect, the tree hadn't started moving on its own. The source of the vibrations running through the tree was an orange coated earthpony with a bright blonde mane, bringing up her hind legs to about the same height as her spine before firmly planting them into the base of the tree.

''And that's another one done. Nice goin', Applejack,'' the mare told herself. ''If ya keep this up ya will be done early today.''

With that thought in mind, she decided to speed up the pace even more, bucking the apples from each individual tree with a firm yet graceful kicking motion, catching the falling apples in the baskets she skilfully placed underneath the trees every time.

''Ah wonder where Applebloom is, Ah haven't seen her all day. When Ah got up she was gone already, without breakfast even. That ain't anythin' like her; she's normally the one with the largest appetite. Ah should probably ask her about it when Ah get ta see her.''

As she was thinking about the matter on her own, Applejack's ears suddenly twitched from a faint sound, one that could be heard not too far away.

With her curiosity sparked, the orange mare decided to move towards epicentre of the noise to find out who, or what, it was. As she walked past many rows, the amount of trees was growing thinner and thinner, until she found herself next to a clearing. The scene in front of her was something unlike anything she had expected.

''Why did Ah lie ta Scootaloo about havin' ta get back home soon? Ah haven't got anythin' ta do, let alone gettin' home early.''

Applebloom was struggling with her own thoughts as she walked down the road towards Sweet Apple Acres. Most of the time, walking in between the large trees occupying most of the space on both sides of the road gave her a feeling of peace and quiet, but somehow it had been different for the past few weeks.

''Ah guess Ah'm just worryin' about it too much. Ye, that's probably it. Ever since Scootaloo told me about it Ah've been worryin' and thinkin' a lot ta maself. Well, Ah always used ta think about her every now and then, but now it's only gotten worse.''

''Don't worry, Applebloom,'' she told herself, ''Ah'm sure ya will figure this out sometime soon. Ya just need ta let it go fer now.''

Suddenly, the yellow filly found herself standing next to a small pond, situated in a clearing between the many rows of apple trees. No ripples were disturbing the pond's surface; it caused a certain peace to emanate from the still waters. Because of the flattened surface, the pond seemed to function as an almost perfectly smooth mirror, reflecting every object in its reach with so much detail one wouldn't know it was a pond they were looking upon if they hadn't touched it.

''Wait, apple trees? Ah didn't walk that long, did Ah?''

Applebloom would often find herself ending up at this particular part of the apple farm. Often when she was lost in thought while walking back home, she would walk over to the pond, most of the time unaware of doing so. She would end up looking at her reflection in the water, talking to it as if it were another pony.

''Ah guess ya don't know the answer either, do ya?''

A pair of eyes stared back at Applebloom, giving a questioning look in return to the filly's posed question.

''Ah just don't know what ah'm supposed ta do anymore. Ah've been dying ta tell Scootaloo about all this, but whenever Ah come across her, Ah make some lame excuse and run off. Ah'm afraid of tellin' her Ah guess.''

''Have ya ever had a similar problem?'' she asked the reflection in the water once more. It would, of course, remain silent, merely gazing back at the filly, mimicking every expression made.

''Ah guess ya have, in a way,'' she said jokingly.

''Mornin', sis. Who are ya talkin' ta?''

Needless to say, Applejack was rather surprised when there wasn't anypony but her little sister in the near surroundings.

Applebloom quickly turned around, staring into the emerald eyes of the mare who had just walked up to the pond. She tried to compose herself, quickly attempting to forge a lie to help her out of the awkward situation of having to explain to her sister why she was talking to a reflection.

''Ah... Ah was... umm... singin'. Yeah, that's what Ah was doin'.''

''Ya were singin' ta the water with yer normal speakin' voice?''

''Umm... Yes?''

''C'mon Applebloom, ah've known ya for all mah life, so ah can tell when yer lyin'. Why don't ya tell me the truth?''

The little filly was getting nervous. Applejack could tell from the way she was shifting her weight from one side to the other all the time, as well as her eyes shooting off in every possible direction. She was clearly uncomfortable about the whole situation and was desperately looking for a way out.

''Oh look at the time, ah'm afraid ah gotta go do that... thing; at the... place. Catch ya later sis!''

And with that, Applebloom dashed off through the rows of trees.

''Hey, ya won't get away with it that easily! Get back here!'' Applejack shouted at the top of her lungs as she started her pursuit on the small filly.

*Whoosh*

...

*Whoosh*

The filly watched in awe as a rainbow coloured streak would pass by numerous times, flying at speeds beyond her imagination. With every next passing, the air was pulled into a miniature version of a gale, sometimes even stroking the filly's fur for a moment before subsiding; as if it went to lie in wait for the next fly-by.

*Whoosh*

She couldn't keep her eyes off of Rainbow Dash. She never got tired of watching her fly, always envisioning flying besides her one day. Today, the cyan coloured pegasus had done almost every stunt in her repertoire, from performing backflips to showcasing corkscrews, from inducing a free fall to doing loopings, she had shown them all. Then, Scootaloo noticed Rainbow Dash slowed down a bit and turned, after which she came flying towards her, landing in front of the beaming filly.

''Are you done for today, Rainbow Dash?''

''Not quite, there's one more stunt I want to do, but I'm going to need your help for this one.''

Scootaloo couldn't believe her ears. Rainbow dash needed her help?

''Best day ever!'' She thought to herself, struggling to not shout it out loud.

Rainbow Dash lowered herself in front of the orange filly, who seemed to not really get the message just yet.

''Well, go ahead. Hop on, Scoot!''

Scootaloo stood astonished for a few moments, she would never have dreamed of getting a ride from Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus she revered, idolized, was now offering her a trip on her back. It was almost too good to be true.

''Remember how you always talked about wanting to see what Equestria looks like from above? Well, here's your chance at finding out.''

After recovering from the shock of the offer, Scootaloo happily climbed up onto the cyan coloured pegasus' back, wrapping her hooves around her neck in a tight grip to prevent falling off. Rainbow Dash then spread her wings, made a long dash to build up speed; and took off into the sky.

It was an entirely new sensation to Scootaloo. As the pegasus below her started picking up more and more speed, the wind began playing with the filly's mane, flipping it in all kinds of directions. She liked it. No, better than that. She loved it. It gave her a feeling of freedom.

''Did you ever see the forest from above?'' Rainbow Dash said to the filly on her back.

''No, I haven't. What does it look like?''

''I'll show you!'' the pegasus said; and she steered into the direction of the large forest nearby. She didn't even know why she asked the question in the first place, or why she would take the filly towards such a place; she just always seemed to have a need in the back of her mind. A need to do something adventurous.

As Rainbow Dash flew further above the woods, everything else seemed to disappear from sight. When Scootaloo looked back in the direction of Ponyville, all she could make out was the top of the town hall's roof. Being so far away from the town made her feel slightly uncomfortable, but she shrugged it off, trusting the mare who was carrying her knew what she was doing.

The sun was starting to set and as it slid further behind the horizon, its light starting to fade away from the world around the two ponies. The sky slowly turned darker with every passing minute; and it didn't take long before there were only a few rays of sunlight left.

''Let's head back, shall we?'' Rainbow Dash said to the filly sitting on her back. She figured it was getting late and the others might start worrying if they hadn't seen either of them all day.

The series of unlucky events that followed happened so fast that there was barely any time to react. As Rainbow Dash slowed down to make the turn to head back towards Ponyville, she lost a part of her altitude. It was normal to drop a bit when turning, but the additional weight from Scootaloo enhanced the sudden drop, causing them to get awfully close to the treetops below. As she tried to regain height through flapping her wings more frequently and lengthier, an unexpected, heavy gust of wind caught her off guard and pushed her left wing inwards. With the orange filly sitting on her back, it had nowhere to bend to.

A horrifying snap resounded through the sky. A scream followed;
so loud that the pain the pegasus bringing it forth was in was unmistakable.
The sound of branches snapping after colliding with a falling object.
A deathly silence befalling the forest after the impact with solid ground.
The sun setting, blacking out the last beams of light from the sky.
And noone knew where they were.

Chapter 2

Light in the dark

Chapter 2

‘’Applebloom? Ah know ya’re in there. A wanted ta talk ta ya.’’

The voice of the mare sounded muffled to the yellow coated filly, who was lying on a bed in one of the corners of the small room. This particular space had been the filly’s sanctuary for almost as long as she could remember. Whenever she needed to think something through, she would come to this part of the house. It was one of the more quiet places on the orchard and thus it didn’t distract the small pony much when she was thinking.

Applebloom had stumbled on the small room when she was still very young. She had just been in a fight with her sister about something, though she couldn’t recall about what exactly. As she dashed off from the argument, she soon found herself in a part of the house she hadn’t ever noticed before. The red maned filly had discovered the small room as she passed through the many hallways. Back then, the room didn’t have any locks on the door or furniture, or any additions at all for that matter, aside from a bed. There was a small window in one of the walls that’d allow some light to enter the room. The yellow filly decided to lay an unwritten claim on the space; and that’s how it became her ‘thinking room’.

Present day, the room, aside from the bed, was still close to empty if it weren’t for a small cabinet, which stood next to the bed in the corner. It appeared hoofcrafted, though very clumsily built. The wooden pieces out of which it was constructed hadn’t been sanded before they’d been put together, the nails that were supposedly holding the cabinet intact were either only halfway through or bent at all possible angles. One could consider it a miracle it hadn’t simply fallen apart yet. It was good enough for Applebloom though, as she didn’t use it for anything other than keeping a few pictures and similar items with a memorial value.

The walls were just as blank for the most part. They hadn’t ever been painted. Even so, the brown colour the wood originally held was barely visible underneath the large amounts of dust, which had gathered there over the course of the years. The wall with the window in it had been covered up with a lot of hay as to block out the influx of light.

As of late, the small earthpony had come to her sanctuary a lot more often than she usually would. She knew the reason for it, but she didn’t want her family members to know. Applebloom was afraid of how they might react if they’d find out about what had been troubling her mind so much lately. She was especially anxious about telling Applejack. The little filly felt they had such a good bond and she was afraid of ruining it all; and so she had tried to run away from her sister when she had walked up to her at the pond.

‘’Applebloom, ah just want ta talk.’’ Applejack’s muffled voice sounded through the room once again.

‘’Just go away. Ah’m not in the mood for talkin’ right now.’’

‘’Come on li’l sis, ah’m sure ah can help ya out. Just open the door so ah can come in.’’

‘’JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!’’ Applebloom cried out as she fell into tears, sobbing into the sheets softly.

‘’Now this here just ain’t right,’’ Applejack thought to herself, ‘’Most of the time she’d at least let me in so ah could talk ta her. Somethin’ big is botherin’ her and ah know just what ah’m goin’ ta do.’’

‘’N-no… Please don’t leave me! Let me explain!’’

Suddenly the filly found herself lying on a flat surface, her eyes closed.

‘’It was just a dream, Scoot,’’ she told herself.

She had been having the same dream for several weeks now. It was more of a nightmare actually; and it was haunting her. She couldn’t let go if it.

Her thoughts were being distracted by the strange surface on which she lay. This wasn’t anything like the wooden floor she was used to sleeping on back in the treehouse. This place was softer. It felt like… Soil?

The small pegasus’ eyelids split apart in the blink of an eye. Complete darkness. Celestia’s sun had long set and had been replaced by the princess’ sister’s moon and stars. The light emanating from them couldn’t permeate through the thick forest canopy however, leaving out most of the night’s luminance, creating an environment one would only expect to behold in their darkest dreams.

As her eyes started to adjust to the darkness, she started to make out silhouettes of trees and plants around her. The filly’s eyes seemed oblivious to any detail in the surroundings, blurring the outlines of what she did see and reducing her ability to understand the situation she was in.

‘’What happened? … Are those… trees? What’s with this headache?’’

Scootaloo tried to remember what had happened the evening before, but her mind was struggling to find the answer. She decided it might be a good idea to get up, just to try and see if she could recognise where she was.

As she pulled her legs up underneath her to lift herself off the ground, a searing pain ran through her left shoulder joint, causing her to collapse down on top of it, only worsening the agony. The pain caused her brain to instantly snap out of the blurred state, causing memories of what had happened to flash through the filly’s mind.

A loud scream.

Branches colliding with her body.

Tumbling down through the tree until hitting the solid ground; blacking everything out.

‘’A scream?’’ Scootaloo thought to herself. ‘’RAINBOW DASH!’’

She began scouring her surroundings. She knew the pegasus couldn’t be far from here, the filly had been sitting on top of her as they collided with the trees, after all. She quickly pulled her hooves underneath herself, carefully avoiding putting any strain on her left leg. As she tried to get up, she couldn’t maintain her balance without the fourth leg, causing her to topple over. She didn’t want to waste time like this, so instead of getting up, she started dragging and pushing herself with her hooves.

Even though her eyes had adjusted to the darkness by now, she could only just make out the silhouettes of the trees and other overgrowth around her. She couldn’t move anywhere near as fast as she’d like to with her body being dragged along the ground. She would never find Rainbow Dash at this speed. The filly decided that trying to call out for the pegasus might speed up her search in case she was awake as well.

‘’Rainbow Dash!’’ Scootaloo tried to call out as loud as possible, but found that she could only bring forth a raspy voice incapable of producing much volume. She felt like she had to keep trying nonetheless. The mare’s life might even depend on it, she thought.

‘’Rainbow Dash!?’’ This time she managed to call out with a more reasonable voice, one which was loud enough to be heard for at least several meters. Still no reply. The orange filly figured that even if she was close by, she was probably still unconscious. But then, through the silent forest, a faint noise could be heard.

‘’O-over here!’’

Scootaloo tried to orient herself on where the voice was coming from. When she pinpointed the, according to her, direction, she started dragging and pushing herself towards it. She kept calling out every few seconds, waiting until the weak voice called out again so the filly could keep tracing it.

After what had felt like miles of travel for the amount of exhaustion she had to deal with, Scootaloo could make out the silhouette of a pony, lying on the ground on her side. She soon found herself next to the rainbow maned pegasus, who appeared to be even more bruised up than she was herself. She was close enough to be able to make out the general contours of the body. The mare’s left wing appeared bent at a very odd angle, as was her right hind leg. Scootaloo couldn’t make out much more in the total darkness, but the rest of the pegasus’ body seemed fine.

‘’Rainbow Dash? What happened?’’

‘’Well, isn’t it obvious? We crashed,’’ the mare replied with a sheepish grin on her face, as if she was trying to shrug it off with a joke.

‘’But what are we going to do now? How will we ever get back?’’ Scootaloo wasn’t scared easily, but this was something unlike anything she ever had to deal with before. Her voice, along with her entire body, was trembling with anxiety as her mind raced through all of the possibilities.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow to notice the fear in the filly’s voice. She tried to think of something she could do to comfort her, give her a sense of safety, even if it was false.

‘’Come here Scoot. I think we should try to get some rest and maybe figure this out when we have daylight to assist us.’’

She turned herself so she was sitting straight up, holding a hoof out towards the small pegasus, inviting her to lie down next to her. Scootaloo crawled over to her idol, wanting nothing more than to wake up and realizing it was all a bad dream, even though she knew that was not going to happen. As the filly snuggled up into her fur, Rainbow Dash could feel her trembling; heavily. In an attempt to comfort her she circled her front hooves around the filly, embracing her in a tight, caring hug.

As time passed, Scootaloo’s trembling slowly died down as she lay against the mare, her head buried into her cyan pelt. Eventually falling asleep; hoping that her dreams wouldn’t be filled with nightmares.

The little yellow filly was still sobbing into her pillow when a sound close by caught her attention. As she peered into the direction where the noise was coming from, she noticed something, or somepony, was removing the layers of hay, which were covering up the window, from the outside. As the last few pieces of hay were removed from the opening, the cause revealed itself.

‘’Ah’m not goin’ ta leave until ah’ve talked with ya, Applebloom,’’ the orange mare said as she slid herself through the tiny window. It was a tight fit, but Applejack was athletic enough to manage and squeeze herself through.

‘’Ah already told ya that ah don’t want ta talk,’’ Applebloom said as she flipped herself over in the bed so she wouldn’t have to face her sister.

‘’Ah know; and that’s exactly why ya should. It’s not healthy ta keep everythin’ ta yer li’l self for all this time,’’ the emerald-eyed mare said as she hopped onto the bed and seated herself next to the small yellow ball.
‘’So what’s botherin’ mah li’l sister?’’

Applebloom let out a sigh, figuring there was no point in trying to hide her thoughts from her sister any longer. The problem she faced now was different to the filly. She couldn’t find the words to explain what she so desperately wanted to explain now.

‘’There’s… Ah’ve had… Ah don’t know how ah’m supposed ta explain this ta ya…’’ was all she could say. As she kept searching for words, Applejack jumped in to help her out.

‘’Well, what is it about? Is it about somethin’ that happened to a friend? Is it about somethin’ that happened to you? Is it about cutie marks?’’

As she kept putting the options forward, Applejack was paying close attention to her little sister’s body language, trying to look for a sign that would indicate she hit the right spot.

‘’Is it about affection?’’

As her sister pronounced the words, Applebloom felt her body cringing unwillingly for a brief moment. She just knew her sister had noticed it. The mare had stopped with forwarding options. The small filly just knew she would have to tell her now.

‘’So who is the lucky colt then?’’

‘’Well… You see… That’s kind of the thing… It’s not exactly a ‘colt’.’’

The little earthpony braced herself for the angry outburst from Applejack. She waited, and waited. No angry yelling came, no insults were shouted. She decided to peek over her shoulder towards her sister, only to find her smiling down at her.

‘’Well why didn’t ya say so in the first place? There’s nothin’ wrong with lovin’ someone of yer own choice.’’

‘’But… Ah thought that ya would be mad at me… Because ah’m different… Because ah’m a… ‘fillyfooler’…’’ Applebloom said with a slight cringe while she was trying to fight back tears which were forming in her eyes.

‘’Now that’s kind of silly, don’t ya think? Why would ah get mad at ya for somethin’ like that. Ya know ah appreciate ya just the way ya are. If ya love someone with all yer heart, who am ah ta say no or mock ya about it. Heck, when ah was yer age, ah wanted ta try everythin’ as well. It’s perfectly natural ta be curious.’’

‘’But what if all of mah friends make fun of me because of it… ah just know they will all laugh at me. Ah’m sure that they’ll just make me an outcast; what am ah goin’ ta do about it when they’re all laughin’ at me?’’

Applejack had to think about her sister’s posed dilemma for a moment, but she had a conclusion fairly quickly. She knew Applebloom wouldn’t like it, but it was the only comforting thought she could give to the filly.

‘’If they would do that; then ah would daresay they are not real friends, because real friends don’t stop hangin’ out with one another for reasons as silly as someone’s likes and dislikes. Real friends need a lot more than that ta break their friendship. If ya really like someone; ya can’t have outsiders influence yer feelings. Ya need ta decide for yerself, not let them decide for you.’’

When she ended her talk, she noticed her sister was barely keeping her posture at that moment, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes; being made visible by the few beams of light which entered the room through the, now open, window. The light reflected off of Applebloom’s watery eyes, giving them a slight sheen.

Applejack was always one to notice these kinds of things early, this time was no different. She could see that her little sister was hurting; and decided that she had to comfort her, in whatever way she could. As a form of a sister’s reflex; she found herself picking up the filly, turning her around and embracing her in a loving hug, wrapping her front hooves around her sister; enclosing her within a caring embrace.

All of the stress Applebloom had built up in the last few weeks wasn’t being held back anymore. She started crying into her sister, letting her worries dwindle further with every passing tear. She cried for what felt like many minutes; and eventually her tears slowed their advance. When she had spent all of them, a sense of relaxation took hold of her after finally being relieved of all the thoughts and doubts of the past weeks. Slowly, in the loving hooves of her sister; the best sister in all of Equestria; she began drifting off to sleep.

‘’Hey Applebloom. There’s… something I wanted to tell you for some time now.’’ The filly gulped as she spoke.

‘’Really? What is it then, Scootaloo?’’

‘’Well… I… I like you.’’

‘’Well ah like you too, but what’s so important about that?’’

‘’No… I like you.’’

The yellow filly’s eyes widened for a moment as the realization struck her. There was a look of disbelief on her face, but there was fear as well; and doubt, as if she didn’t know what to say in response to this revelation.

‘’Ah… Ah don’t know Scootaloo… Ah never gave it that much thought,’’ Applebloom said as she started to back away from Scootaloo, up to a point where she quickly turned around and ran off.

‘’N-no… Please don’t leave me! Let me explain!’’

‘’Scootaloo? What’s the matter?’’

The familiar voice snapped the filly out of her dream. She gazed around as her eyes were accommodating to the, now somewhat lighter, environment. She was still lying against the pegasus whom she fell asleep to the night before. As Scootaloo looked up to her, she could see Rainbow Dash staring down at her with a questioning look on her face.

‘’What were you dreaming about? It sounded like a pretty awful dream to me.’’

‘’I was talking during my sleep?’’ the small pegasus asked, even though she already knew the answer to the question. She just wanted to know how much the pegasus had overheard, not feeling comfortable at all with the prospect of having to explain the nightmare to the pony she looked up to the most.

‘’Quite a bit, actually. It sounded like you were having a conversation with somepony.’’ Rainbow Dash didn’t want to tell the filly that she had heard her calling the name of a certain earthpony, along with the words ‘I like you’. She felt that if she would, Scootaloo might lock up, avoiding any further discussion on the matter.

‘’I… I keep on having the same dream every night, over and over again. It keeps me awake because I’m afraid of it, it wakes me up because I can’t stand up to it, it’s been like that for three whole weeks now; and I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do,’’ the filly said while trembling all over her body again, burying her face into the pelt of the pony next to her.

‘’All I want is to just be able to sleep normally again… without this nightmare haunting me every time I try…’’

‘’Well you should gather some courage and stand up for yourself then!’’ the cyan mare said to the filly, only afterwards realizing how wrong her words actually were. Deep inside, she knew it wasn’t as easy as simply ‘standing up for yourself’.

‘’Umm… I ment… You might want to try talking about it, about what happens to you in that particular dream. It might help if you would acknowledge the problem to somepony else besides yourself.’’

‘’I… I don’t know if I can do that, Rainbow Dash,’’ the pegasus said with a voice through which her fear was resonating.

‘’Of course you can. Here, let me help you out: ‘’I dream about…’’. ’’ The pegasus pretended to be talking from Scootaloo’s point of view, trying to get her to add to the line she just spoke.

‘’Me. I… I dream about… myself. I’m… walking through the streets, looking for somepony. Others pinpoint me to the location. I talk with her. I… I tell the pony how I feel … and then the pony…’’ Scootaloo couldn’t bring herself to speak the next word that was supposed to be there. She couldn’t find the strength to say what happens next.

‘’Leaves?’’ Rainbow Dash completed the sentence with a questioning look on her face, trying to see if she was correct.

‘’Yes. The pony leaves me… Without any real explanation… Just leaves.’’ Scootaloo sobbed into her idol’s fur, the stress created by this one nightmare had grown too much for even the incredibly sturdy filly to handle.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure how to react. She tried to calm her down a bit by embracing her with a hug, but it didn’t help much. She decided it might be best if she’d reveal what she thought she knew.

‘’Did the same thing happen when you told Applebloom how you felt?’’

‘’H-how did you know?’’ the filly asked with a faint hint of fear in her voice once more. This time, it wasn’t because of the nightmare, though. This time, it was because she was afraid what the rainbow maned pegasus would think of her.

‘’Like I said, you talk a lot in your sleep,’’ she said as she tried to make eye-contact with Scootaloo, giving her a reassuring smile after achieving said contact. Rainbow Dash wanted to let her know that she was not going to judge her, or be angry with her because of it.

‘’Y- you’re not mad at me? Or disgusted?’’

‘’Why would I be? It’s not my decision to make, is it? It’s entirely up to you to make these kinds of choices. I won’t deny that many ponies would view it as awkward, but at the end of the day, they can’t tell you how to live your life. Now, I think we should be focusing on how to get home. We can’t exactly wait here and hope somepony comes to find us.’’

Rainbow Dash carefully manoeuvred her three healthy legs in such a way that she was able to lift herself up without being entirely off balance. Her right hind leg felt as if it were enflamed, as well as itching all over. She tried to ignore these impulses as she began to slowly trot a small distance before looking back to see the filly having trouble to get up without the help of her left front leg.

‘’I can do this; come on; it’s just like getting up with four hooves; just one less hoof to use now.’’ Scootaloo thought to herself.
‘’If I just put this leg here… and then…’’

Chapter 3

Light in the dark
Chapter 3

‘’Shoot! not again,’’ Scootaloo thought as she fell over after trying to get up for the fifth time in a row. She didn’t want to give up on this; she felt like she had to do this. She had to. She would keep trying until she got it right. As she pulled her legs underneath herself again, readying for her next attempt, she noticed the cyan hoof which was being put down to her right side.

‘’Need some help with that?’’ the pegasus asked her, trying to sound as soothing as possible.

‘’I’m fine… I just need to get accustomed to getting up with just three legs.’’

The filly tried to come across on a convincing tone, but Rainbow Dash wouldn’t take it. She shove her hoof closer to the little pegasus, insisting she accepted her offer for help.

‘’Come on, you don’t have to prove yourself to anypony here. It’s not a shame to accept another pony’s aid. Just let me help you up, alright?’’

‘’I don’t want your help, I can do this alright? I just need to lean onto my right side more and then I can… whoa!’’ she cried out just as she was about to flip over again. The cyan pegasus put her hoof between Scootaloo and the ground however; and slowly lifted her up into a more stable state.

‘’Thanks, Rainbow Dash…’’ the filly said, though she didn’t really mean it. She turned her eyes away from the pegasus, staring at the ground.

‘’I already told you, there’s no need to prove yourself to me. What matters right now is that we try to locate ourselves and start moving homewards. We can’t have ourselves get slowed down by small things.’’

Too late did she realise what magnitude that last sentence held to the orange filly. She could see her ears droop, along with the rest of her body cringing slightly.

‘’I didn’t mean it that way Scoot, I didn’t mean to say…’’

‘’I’m slowing us down…’’

‘’No, that’s not what I was implying at all… I just ment…’’

‘’I know what you ment. Let’s just go,’’ Scootaloo said with an agitated tone to her voice.

They walked, rather they limped, silently for some time. Rainbow Dash had concluded they had to go this way, judging by the angle of the rays of light which penetrated the thick canopy of the forest. The ground on which they walked was covered with thick green and brown overgrowth, slowing them down and making every step feel as if they were climbing an incredibly steep mountain. The trees around them were extremely thick. They were covered in white and green mosses, their actual colours concealed behind the parasites. The trees rose for what seemed to be at least sixty feet into the air, where they created a thick coverage of leaves, blocking most of Celestia’s sun’s light. The few shafts that did manage to get past the canopy quickly lost their strength as they passed through the humid air.

After they had been walking for what had felt like miles, Rainbow Dash decided to stop travelling for the day and take a rest in the clearing they had just happened to stumble upon. The pegasus reckoned these places had to be limited in a place as old as the Everfree Forest; and she cherished the feeling of solid ground underneath her hooves. Behind her, Scootaloo was stumbling out of the rows of trees, drawing in large breaths every few seconds to try to get her heartbeat back to a normal pace.

‘’I could’ve… gone on… a lot longer,’’ she said in between gasps, trying to present herself to her idol in a way that would radiate strength.

‘’For the hundredth time: you don’t have to prove yourself to me. Let’s just lie down here and rest up. We’ll need some sleep if we want to keep moving every day.’’

Scootaloo sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, she felt tired. She didn’t want to show it though; and thus she tried to hold up her façade of being inexhaustible.

Throughout the hike, her left front leg had grown more and more stiff. It felt like a block of wood hanging from her body, attached with a tight rope. When she tried to lie down, she couldn’t get the leg to bend to her will. She found that she could only sway it back and forth; and even doing just that triggered the feeling of a really nasty sting in the shoulder joint. She had no choice but to lay down on her right side and avoid putting any kind of pressure on the leg.

Rainbow Dash was facing a similar problem. Her left wing was bent in weird twists onto her back, crimson streaks having doused the normally cyan feathers. The limb was bent onto her back from the joint which held it attached to her body. She could actually lie down on her left side without the wing touching the ground.

This, somewhat conveniently, enabled her to keep her broken right hind leg off the ground, which was no longer feeling as if it were ablaze. The itching was still there, however. When she looked back at the leg, it seemed to have a weird colouring on the flesh around the spot where she could feel the broken bone. It looked very nasty, revolting even, so she quickly turned her head away and tried to remove the thought from her mind.

‘’It’s going to be a long night,’’ she thought to herself, trying to get a somewhat comfortable position to sleep in. It didn’t take her too long to get a position she felt would do for the night; and after that, exhausted from the pair’s travelling for that day, she was gripped by the tendrils of sleep, dragging her off into the night.

As she trotted through the streets of Ponyville, the orange mare seemed to be looking all around her, as if she was observing every little thing in the town, much like a newcomer would gaze upon everything as if it were a miracle. The earthpony however, wasn’t new. Truth be far from it. She was looking for somepony; and she way haybent on finding her.

‘’Now where is that lazy hay eatin’…’’

‘’Hey there Applejack! Ah was wonderin’ if ya could help me out with somethin’?’’

The mare was thrown out of her thoughts by the sudden question asked by the yellow filly in front of her. She had to compose herself for a moment before being able to let the question sink in and think of an answer to give.

‘’Well, ah was kind of busy, but ah guess ah can spare a moment. What’s the problem then, Applebloom?’’

‘’Well, ah was kind of lookin’ fer Scootaloo, ta umm… tell her about… that thing we talked about, but ah haven’t been able ta find her anywhere! Ah was wonderin’ if ya had seen her, or maybe even know where she is?’’ The filly stared at her sister with a hopeful smile, praying her sister would know something about the other filly’s whereabouts.

‘’Ah’m sorry, but ah haven’t seen yer li’l friend, nor have ah talked ta anypony who does. But this is a weird coincidence, ah’ve been tryin’ ta find somepony all day as well, but ah haven’t been able ta locate her yet.’’

‘’Who were ya lookin’ fer then?’’

‘’Well, ah was tryin’ ta find Rainbow Dash. She’d agreed ta help me out on the farm today but when ah waited fer her ta show up this mornin’, she didn’t come. Ah’m thinkin’ she just flew off with those wings of her as usual, avoidin’ any work no matter the cost.’’ The mare couldn’t help but grin a little at the thought, it was typical Rainbow Dash behaviour, and she felt like she reconstructed the happenings spot-on.

‘’Well this is strange… Scootaloo said somethin’ about goin’ ta watch Rainbow Dash perform new tricks. They were supposed to be doin’ that yesterday. Shouldn’t they’ve made it back by now?’’

‘’Don’t worry about it, ah’m sure Rainbow is just hidin’ from her responsibilities, as usual; and ah bet Scootaloo is somewhere around town. Hay, she might even be back at your Cutiemark Crusader Clubhouse!’’

‘’Umm, Applejack, we quit crusadin’ a long time ago, when Sweetie Belle left to Manehattan remember?’’

Applebloom still recalled the event as if it happened only yesterday. When Sweetie Belle discovered her special talent, which had turned out to be performing, she got an offer from a well-known producer to travel to Manehattan and help her become famous.

It took a lot of thinking and discussing it with her two best friends, but in the end she had decided to take off and live a city life.

With the third embodiment of their Crusader group gone, Scootaloo and Applebloom had grown closer and closer, haybent to never lose their friendship. They ended up spending almost every waking hour together; until some time ago, Scootaloo had decided to tell Applebloom how she felt about her. The yellow filly didn’t know how to react to the revelation, so she simply ran off without answering.

Applebloom shook her head a few times, letting go of the memories, for the time being at least, as her mind focused on her sister for a moment when Applejack continued talking.

‘’But ah see Scootaloo in and around that place all the time when ah’m applebuckin’ in the evenin’.’’

‘’That’s weird… Why would Scootaloo be stayin’ at the old clubhouse, there’s nothin’ there. We cleared it all up when we had our last meetin’…’’ The filly was rudely interrupted on her thoughts as her sister resumed her talk.

‘’Anyway, ah’m sure they’re both just dandy. Nothin’ ta worry about.’’

‘’Ah don’t know… Somethin’ just feels off. Let’s just go check outside Ponyville in the fields where they were goin’ ta practice, alright? Just ta be sure?’’

The filly noticed that her sister was not going to buy it, so she did the only thing she could to make her listen. She sniffed loudly a few times and stared at the mare with massive puppy dog eyes. Not even Applejack was immune to those eyes; and it wasn’t before long that she started losing her cool. Her mouth curled a little; and at that moment, Applebloom knew she had her. Soon after, the earthpony gave in to the filly.

‘’Oh alright then. Ah’ll come with ya just ta prove that there’s nothin’ wrong, just please stop with the eyes,’’ The orange mare said with a slight reluctance emanating from her voice.

‘’Scootaloo…’’

The filly gazed around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. It had sounded familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it yet. As she peered into every direction, she noticed something strange about one of the shadows on the ground. It seemed to have a shape unlike any of the others, even though there was no one there.

Suddenly, the shadow rose up from the ground, creating an image Scootaloo knew all too well. The image before her was small, about the same height she herself was. A tail arched up before plummeting straight down, ending in a knot with a hairband around it. Her mane was flat, but decorated with a bow. The image, however, was grey; colourless; lifeless. Her face was straight, not a single emotion was showing through it.

‘’You’re weak.’’

Scootaloo was surprised by the sudden words spoken by the other filly, she wanted to take a few steps away from the grey image, but realized she was still lying on the ground.

‘’What did you say?’’

‘’You heard me. You’re just a weak pony. You can’t bring yourself to explain yourself to me. Hay, you can’t even get up on your own. You’re weak.’’

‘’That’s not true, I- I could get up anytime I wanted to!’’

Deciding to add deeds to the words she spoke, she pulled her three normally functioning hooves underneath herself and attempted to push herself up like she had tried it ever since the crash had happened. Just as she lifted her torso off the ground, she toppled over again, leaving her lying down once more.
The shadowed image of Applebloom let out a hateful laugh, enjoying the orange filly’s failure.

‘’See? You can’t get up. You’re not strong enough. How do you think you will ever get the strength to explain yourself to me, if you can’t even get up on your own? You’re not worth it.’’

The grey image began to fade away into the ground, starting to be reduced to a two-dimensional shadow once again. As her body sunk, she was pulled away, back into the lines of trees. She then vanished completely, leaving nothing but a regular shadow.

‘’I can get up on my own!’’ Scootaloo yelled.
‘’I can get the courage to talk to Applebloom again!’’

The filly’s ears drooped as she yelled out into the darkness, full well knowing she wasn’t capable of doing either of the two at the current time. As she laid her head to rest onto her right front hoof, she only wanted the thoughts to leave her alone. She just wanted to rest without worrying about something all the time. She just wanted to be stronger.

They found themselves just outside Ponyville not too long after deciding to start looking for the seemingly missing mare and filly. Applebloom was leading the way, her sister simply following her hoofsteps, as they proceeded towards the large clearing not too far out of town.

Their eyes fell upon the Everfree Forest, towering out of the otherwise flat valley. The dark woods were contrasting with the much brighter surrounding scenery, creating a magnificent view of the valley. The two ponies couldn’t be bothered to stand still and observe it though. Instead they moved with a steady pace up onto a large hill, which would hopefully provide them with an unobstructed view.

Applebloom soon noticed something lying at the top of the mound of earth, something which could only belong to one pony. The rectangular shaped board with rounded off edges, a T-shaped handlebar at one end and four wheels, two just underneath the handlebar; and the other two on the other end.

‘’Look sis! It’s Scootaloo’s scooter!’’ the filly frantically said as she rushed over towards the scooter lying sideways on the grass on the hilltop.

‘’So? What does that have to do with what we’re currently doin’? She could’ve just left it here when she went ta do somethin’ else.’’

‘’No Applejack, she never goes anywhere without it. Somethin’ must’ve happened, somethin’ important enough fer her to leave her scooter behind!’’

The filly started scouring the area. The unobstructed view, as provided by the hill, now proved to be an invaluable resource of information, as the yellow coated filly’s eyes fell upon something in the distance.

She was looking in the direction of the forest, where she had let her eyes run along the canopy, which was decently visible because of their height, when she only barely spotted something out of the ordinary. It was so far away that she had to squint her eyes towards being nearly closed, but she could make out the abnormality nonetheless.

Her vision had fallen onto a specific part of the canopy, where a rather large part appeared to be missing. It was usual for a forest to have clearings, of course; but this part was different. The area of the cleared leaves was slightly lighter coloured than the others, indicating the sun’s light was being reflected off before even going through. It was what made it stand out to the naked eye in the first place. This would mean there were branches there; and when there were branches, that ment it was not a clearing.

She didn’t even clearly recall why she knew all this, but she could vaguely remember something being said in school about colours being affected by the way light was being reflected. She didn’t feel like pondering about the ‘why’ right now, though. Instead, she quickly started harassing her sister with what she believed she saw.

‘’Applejack! Look! Over there!’’ she said while frantically hopping and sprinting around her older sister, trying to grab her attention.

‘’Now hold still fer just a second, alright? What am ah supposed ta see?’’

‘’Well look over there!’’ the filly said with her right hoof raised stiff and pointing towards the faraway spot she had noticed moments ago.

‘’Would ya mind tellin’ me what’s wrong with it? Ah can’t even see it clearly but it appears ta be just a clearin’. There are many of those in a forest, Applebloom,’’ she said with a faint tone of annoyance in her voice.

The filly didn’t like the way her sister belittled her statement; and thus she proceeded with explaining why she felt it was different from the rest of the forest. When she got close to ending her explanation, Applejack had opened her saddlebag, which she seemed to always carry with her no matter where she went, and extracted a small object.

It looked somewhat like the telescopes Twilight had shown them in her books, the big devices used by ponies to look at the stars as if you were closer. This object had a stunning resemblance, except that it was much, much smaller. It had two compartments; one larger than the other, sliding on top of the smaller part. The small part ended in something which had the shape of an eye, as if you were supposed to look through it. The large part had a piece of clear glass at the end.

‘’Umm… Sis? Why do ah have this feelin’ yer not even listenin’ ta me?’’

‘’Oh ah was listenin’ Applebloom. In fact, I do think your explanation makes sense. Ah just feel like confirmin’ what you’ve been tellin’. Ya see, this here thingy is somethin’ Twilight made not too long ago. It’s supposed ta make everythin’ look as if it’s close by. Ah guess now is a good time ta try it.’’

She put the small end of the item close to her eye; careful not to poke it in. She gingerly wielded the tool, but it was good enough. She soon found the spot which Applebloom had pointed out earlier; and with her now enhanced view, she was able to clearly distinguish the area from the rest of the forest.

It was indeed not a clearing, just like her little sister had said, but what she saw instead made her heart almost skip a beat. The branches, which she was expecting to see, were mostly damaged, or completely snapped off. The branches were broken in a very unusual way as well. It looked as if something had collided with the canopy and taken down a part of it with itself.

Applejack didn’t waste any additional time staring at the location. She felt she knew more than enough. After quickly putting the monocular back into her saddlebag; she quickly started galloping towards her home, quickly shouting back at her sister that ‘she’d be back soon’ and ‘she was just going to pack some supplies for a long trip’.

Rainbow Dash woke to the faint sound of an object colliding with the ground, over and over. As she opened her eyes, it took little adjusting to the soft lighting in the forest before she could see clearly. After that it didn’t take much time for her to find the cause of this noise. The filly in front of her was continuously moving her legs up underneath herself, then pushing up, only to tumble back to the ground mere moments after due to her lack of balance with just three legs. She seemed haybent on succeeding though, so she kept on trying. Bruises had started to form around the areas of her body which she fell on a lot during this practise; some of her coat had been scraped off by the grainy soil as well. As she kept on trying, small cuts started to open up on her skin, slowly causing her orange coat to turn crimson red. Rainbow Dash decided to walk up to her.

‘’Scootaloo, what are you doing?’’

‘’Isn’t it obvious? I’m trying to get up!’’

‘’But why don’t you just use some object to lean onto to make it easier?’’

‘’I can’t, Rainbow Dash. I just can’t. I have to do this.’’

‘’No you don’t, you can just do it in a different way, an easier way.’’

‘’No, that just won’t do. I have to do it like this, I just have to!’’

Suddenly, a memory flashed through the cyan pegasus’ mind. A living room. On one side stood two older ponies, a blue colt, and a white mare. On the other side stood a rainbow maned filly. They were having an argument. The filly wanted to go to flight school. She had to; that’s what she told her parents. But they insisted she would stay home and grow up to take over her parent’s shop. A lot of yelling seemed to be going on. Then, the scene changed. The filly had a tiny bag on her right flank, stuffed with precious belongings and some food. She was running. Behind her stood a small house, her family’s house. She was running; and not planning on ever going back. The memory faded. Rainbow Dash found herself back in the present, with the trying filly in front of her.

‘’Okay. Keep trying then,’’ she said with a much more understanding tone.

‘’Y-you mean it?’’ Scootaloo asked as she looked up towards her idol’s face, trying to spot if she was lying or something of the likes.

‘’Yes. If you feel that you have to do this, then you should go ahead and keep trying. I won’t stop you. Just keep in mind you can ask for help at any time.’’

Many minutes passed. There was a complete silence, almost deathly, between the two ponies; even the forest wasn’t making a single sound. The only sound which kept breaking the silence was the noise of the small pegasus falling onto the ground for many repeated times. But she didn’t give up. She kept pulling herself together after every mistake. Adjusting her tactic ever so slightly with every passing fall. Until finally…

‘’I DID IT!’’ Scootaloo yelled out as she had finally managed to get up, all by herself, and balance out after getting up as well. A wide smile seemed to be welded onto her face.

Rainbow Dash had been watching the filly as she progressed through the learning stages. She had watched her fall down so many times, only to see her get back up and try over and over again. She couldn’t help but smile back at her as she had finally managed it all.

‘’Well good job Scoot! All by yourself as well!’’ she said as she got up and limped over towards the filly, embracing her in a hug after she had reached her. Scootaloo gladly participated, leaning into her idol as she let the joyful moment vanquish every sad or angry thought she had had before.

‘’Well what do you have to say about that?’’ she thought to herself, a wide grin forming on her face as she imagined the grey image’s face now that she had proven it wrong.

It fell from the sky. What little light there was, was being fractured into every single colour of the rainbow. As it passed further down, it eventually collided with a green surface. The surface wasn’t completely flat and thus it kept voyaging ever downwards. It was as if travelling through a maze, carefully having to pick its route as to prevent being stopped in its tracks.

Left; right; left; left; forward; right….

Just as it seemed to never end, an opening revealed itself, allowing it to proceed with its destined travel towards the ground. It fell down, then suddenly collided with a multi-coloured object just mere feet away from the ground. As the drop of water touched the rainbow maned pony, it drenched her coat, adding more moisture to the already doused fur.

They had been walking through the rain for several hours, but it had felt like it were several days. At first the leaves on the trees had prevented the rain from breaking through, but as the downpour continued, even the oldest and thickest of trees gave in to the torrential powers. The already tough terrain had only gotten even tougher by the soaking touches of the water. It sapped more and more strength from the two ponies with every step they took; and it didn’t look like it would stop raining anytime soon.

‘’We’ve been walking for hours now… I’m beat… Perhaps I should ask her if we can take a break; it would be nice to rest a bit after walking for so long…’’

‘’Rainbow Dash?’’

The pegasus shook her head a little as she heard her name being called out from behind. As she turned her head around and looked, she could see the orange filly looking at her with a tired gaze. She had broad dark rings around her eyes, appeared to be shaking on her hooves and seemed to be having trouble keeping her head from dipping down out of fatigue.

‘’What… Umm… whatisit Scootaloo?’’ She seemed to have a surprising difficulty to find words and pronunciate them accordingly afterwards. They were poorly articulated as well; more or less creating one slur of sound instead of full sentences.

‘’Did she just shake her head again? She’s done that almost every time I asked something now… As if she’s trying to focus herself on what I ask?... But I only called her name this time… That’s not hard to understand; right?’’

‘’C-can we rest for a bit? I’m really tired and I don’t think I can walk much further,’’ the filly said with a somewhat begging expression on her face as she asked the cyan mare.

‘’There it is again; as if she’s having trouble taking in what I tell her...’’

‘’Umm… Alright, Scootaloo; let’s just… Umm… lookfora somewhat clearspot then.’’

‘’It’s probably just because she is tired as well; she’s been walking a bit oddly for some time now anyway. A bit of rest would be good for both of us.’’

They spent the next several minutes trying to find a suited sleeping place, which was easier said than done for the two ponies. The forest was thickly grown, only leaving minuscule free spots of ground every few feet, but none of which would be any good, let alone be large enough, to sleep on.

‘’This looks… Umm… okay,’’ Rainbow Dash said as she let her gaze move across the small clearing they had just stumbled upon.

It wasn’t much, but at least the ground was clear from any overgrowth and it was more than large enough to lie down on. The rain wasn’t even permeating as much as she had expected from a clearing, as the trees which stood around it had their leaves stretch out all the way across it, creating a blanket in the air; holding back a large portion of the torrent.

Scootaloo happily let herself plummet down onto the soil, not even having the strength to say goodnight to Rainbow Dash. She fell asleep almost instantly, seemingly not being bothered by the light streams of water running down on top of her.

The other mare soon followed the filly’s example, lying down and mostly trying to quickly fall asleep. She soon got accustomed to the streams of water sprinkling on her fur; and she managed to fall asleep not too long after.

It was still dark when Scootaloo woke up. She didn’t know whether it was because of the trees blocking any light, or if it simply was nighttime still. The rain hadn’t stopped either, still causing streams of water to fall down from the dark green canopy above her head. As the water fell down, it created a tiny well in the ground on impact. This process had been going on for hours now, so the holes were starting to somewhat deepen.

As Scootaloo’s eyes got acquainted with the still dark surroundings, she began to make out the shapes of the environment once more. Looking around, her gaze stopped when she came across what looked to be the silhouette of another pony, lying down on the ground, seemingly not moving.

‘’I should probably wake Rainbow Dash up,’’ The filly thought as she trotted over in the direction of the pegasus.

‘’Rainbow Dash?’’

No response came. The body lay there, not showing any visible signs of recognition of the filly’s call.

‘’Rainbow? Come on Rainbow Dash… Wake up…’’

Scootaloo began poking the pony with her front legs. As she tried to move her left front leg, she noticed the numbness had spread from just the leg all the way into the shoulder joint, as well as parts of her chest and even the base of her neck felt numb. She decided to use her right front leg instead, poking the body of the pegasus before her as she tried to get any sign that the mare had heard her. Slowly, the strange behaviour from the past hours began to fall into place in the filly’s mind.

‘’Come on… Please wake up… We- we’ve got to go home…’’ Tears began to form in Scootaloo’s bloodshot eyes, rolling down her cheeks; after which they dropped down through the air until they hit the already moist dirt beneath her hooves.

‘’Somepony help!’’ she began to shout sporadically, not wanting to accept what appeared to be unfolding in front of her.

‘’Anypony!...

Please help…’’

Chapter 4

Light in the dark

Chapter 4

‘’Anypony!... Please help…’’
The filly’s voice faded. She wanted to keep shouting, but the realization had struck her that nopony could hear her calls for aid anyway. They were probably still miles into the Everfree Forest, far out of auditory reach. She trotted around the silhouette in the clearing, still trying to get a glimpse of something, just a little something, that would prove that the pegasus was still alive.

‘’No! She’s not dead… She’s just… Sleeping. Yes. I can see her chest moving, she’s still breathing. She’ll be fine. She’ll make it… Come on Scootaloo, do something, she’s counting on you right now!’’ She told herself, trying to talk courage into her own mind.

She started limping around at speeds which most ponies would think of as impossible with just three legs. She was hopping around the edges of the clearing, grabbing the leaves from the larger plants and putting them over the body in the clearing to try and shield it from the cold streams of water as much as possible. If she knew one thing for sure, it was that she was not going to leave the mare behind. She would stay with her until they were rescued. She would keep helping in whatever way she could, even if it would be the last thing she would ever do.

‘’Come on sis, hurry up! We’ve got ta find them fast!’’

‘’Now slow down just a second Applebloom. We don’t even know for sure if there’s anythin’ wrong with them. Even if they are in trouble and we manage ta find them, we still need ta have energy left ta help them get back. If they would’ve been able ta get back themselves they’d have done it by now ah reckon.’’

They had been walking for many hours on end now, travelling deeper into the Forest with every passing minute. They were still moving in the direction in which they had spotted the broken branches earlier, figuring that, if they would just make a beeline towards it, they would have the most chances of coming across the missing mare or filly. Keeping a straight path was not an easy task however, as the many obstacles created by the forest made it hard to continuously keep on track. The complete darkness of the night didn’t aid their travel either, having to rely on a small oil lantern Applejack had brought with her, as she had anticipated a long search.

‘’Ah know, but what if they’re in serious trouble and need help right now!?’’

‘’Well if they’ve been here for two whole days, ah’m sure they’ll be able ta wait just a bit longer until we find them.’’

Applebloom sighed at her sister’s persistence on remaining calm; she had no choice but to trust her and follow her steps as they ventured further into the woods. As a way of passing time, she started looking at the details of the few things she could make out from the darkness. The drops of water dripping through the canopy as the weather above them raged on. Those very same drops falling into the mosses on the ground, splashing them and causing them to glow eerily from the soft lighting from the oil lantern.

The lantern itself was a fine piece of hoofcraft. It was built so it would keep burning, even when it was raining outside. A suspended piece of cotton was hanging down into a small bowl, which was filled with oil. The metal casing around the bowl and cotton ran in a column-like shape, which was covered up at the top with a removable lid. The holes created by the metal structure were covered up with thin sheets of glass. It had taken an awful lot of time for Applejack to make it. Hoof crafting glass and metal caging was no easy job, but she had managed it. Now, she had finally gotten the opportunity to put it to good use.

The filly became mesmerized by the flickering of the small flame, the way it bent with the lantern’s movement, the way it attracted moths and flies to come closer. A few of them found entry through the bottom, where a small hole for air-intake sat, only to find themselves burned up by the devouring flame. Then, a yell broke the silence which had been so persistent for some time now.

‘’Somepony help!’’

The scream seemed to have originated not too far from their current position, it had sounded quite close by, even. The trees made every sound echo however, making it hard to pinpoint an exact location.

‘’Anypony!’’

This time, they were prepared for the sound. They quickly turned into the direction from where the yell seemed to originate from and started making their way through the densely grown forest. No other yells came, but it wasn’t needed for them to find the source anymore, because after a short period of time, the two ponies found themselves at the edge of a clearing, watching a captivating sight.

A little filly was limping around, grabbing whatever coverage she could find, before hopping back towards the middle, to put it down on top of what appeared to be just a heap of more leaves and the like. Applebloom was the first to dash into the open towards the other filly, calling out towards her with much relief emanating from her voice.

‘’SCOOTALOO!’’

The orange filly quickly turned her head towards the yell, barely able to compose herself before a yellow blur bolted into her, causing them to drop onto the ground together. Thankfully, Scootaloo didn’t land on her bad shoulder, so it didn’t hurt as much as she was expecting.

As her senses started working normally again, she could now see that the blur, which had just made her drop onto the ground, was none other than her best friend. The amount of joy she felt just from seeing her again was indescribable, if she would take every happy moment in her life and compared it to this, all of those memories paled.

‘’H-hey Applebloom. I guess you must’ve been wondering where I was all this time,’’ she managed to joke to her friend, with a grin on her face.

‘’Ah was so worried… Ah just knew something was wrong; and so ah came looking for ya with Applejack,’’ she said, nudging her head backwards a bit to indicate her sister’s presence.

‘’D-don’t you worry about me now, Applebloom. Please help Rainbow Dash out first, s-she is in a much worse state than me.’’

Applejack walked over to the small heap, which was covered with leaves, in the clearing, keeping her lantern in front of her at all times to avoid tripping over anything hazardous. As she got to the spot where the covered up mare was lying, she started to remove some of the leaves in order to assess the situation.

When she removed the parts which were covering her wing, she was shocked by the sight of the heavily damaged feathery extension. It seemed to have popped from the joint it was supposed to fit in, as well as being broken on several places along the way to its tip. It was bent awkwardly onto the mare’s back, and streaks of crimson blood had coloured the once cyan feathers into a dark brown-purplish.

Applejack quickly removed the remaining leaves, unveiling the broken hind leg in the process. With a quick gaze upon it, it seemed to not be in a state as bad as the wing. The bone appeared to have mostly stayed in place, but a large swelling was visible at the spot of the fracture.

With no time to spare, the mare decided it would be best to simply carry the cyan pegasus to safety as fast as possible. With that in mind, she manoeuvred her head underneath the pony’s chest with some wiggling. She then pushed forward, causing the body to rest on her neck. By simply pulling herself up on her legs, she had hoisted her friend onto her back. As she looked back towards her little sister and Scootaloo, she noticed the latter was swaying from side to side ever so slightly, seemingly close to unable to keep herself standing straight.

‘’You j-just go and help your sister with R-Rainbow Dash first, Applebloom. I’ll just w-wait here for you to come back after bringing her to s-safety,’’ Scootaloo said with trembling voice. She found it was getting harder and harder for her to stay focused, as well as continuously having to adjust her own body to prevent it from toppling over again after getting up.

‘’That won’t do Scootaloo, ah’m not goin’ ta leave ya here. Y’all are coming with us, ah’ll bring ya home with me even if ah have ta………’’

The sound died out for Scootaloo. Even though she could still see her friend’s lips moving to articulate the words, she was unable to hear them. Shortly after, her vision started to become blurry, until there was barely any contrast left. All she could see was a big yellow flock, with the entire surrounding blacking out. It didn’t take much longer until she toppled over, falling onto the ground in front of Applebloom. She saw the blur moving around frantically, stopping in her tracks to try and lift her up. Then, when Scootaloo couldn’t make out any images anymore; and her eyelids became too heavy to keep them parted; everything blacked out.

There was an annoying tingling sensation on her right front hoof. In a reflex, she attempted to make it go away by bringing its left counterpart over to touch it. As she tried to lift it however, there was a strange feeling which couldn’t be described other than a kind of numbness in the leg. It didn’t matter how hard she tried to get the limb to head her commands, it wouldn’t listen. It felt like there was nothing there.

‘’It is still there, right?’’ she suddenly thought, quickly parting her still closed eyelids in an attempt to find out. The sudden influx of bright light caused her to become momentarily blinded though; and made her quickly shut her eyelids tight again.

‘’Where am I? What’s with this bright lighting?’’

Thoughts started rushing through her mind. She felt like she needed to know where she was; and more importantly, why she was there in the first place. She appeared to be lying on a soft material, soft enough to cause her body to sink in to about half of the depth of it. On top of her lay some sort of foliage, it too felt soft to the touch. Her nostrils flared as she took a deep breath, trying to get an idea of her surrounding through smell. The air smelled like disinfectant, the type one could only seem to find in recently cleaned rooms, or inside a hospital.

‘’Hospital?!’’
The thought rushed through her mind as she put the pieces of the puzzle together. She quickly tried to open her eyes once more, only to have them being shut tight by her bodily reflex. She was determined to get answers though; and thus she kept exposing her irises to the blinding light until they finally started to adjust.

Once they had adjusted enough for her to keep her eyelids parted, she began to peer around the room she was in. The walls were white, as were both the ceiling and the floor, though the floor was covered with ever swapping colours of tiles. It looked somewhat like a chessboard, with a black tile, then a white tile, then another black one and so on. She appeared to be the only person in the room, with the second bed, which was situated to the left of her own, being empty. It was supposedly there in case there were too many patients for each of them to have separate chambers, but that didn’t appear to be a problem right now.

She let her gaze run through the entire room, absorbing every little detail she could find. There weren’t many, as the room was mostly plain white. There was one painting on the wall opposite of her bed though, but her vision was still a bit too blurry to be able to differentiate the entities painted onto it.

Then, she shifted her vision towards the leg she had been trying to move earlier on. It was still there, much to her relief, but even with visual assistance, she couldn’t get it to move, not even an inch. Just as she started to panic from the strange sensation of seeing, commanding, but not responding, a voice broke her fixation.

‘’Ah, I see you’ve woken up,’’ a mare in white clothing said to her, as she entered the room through the -how could it have been different- white door.
‘’How are you doing then?’’

As the filly tried to reply, she couldn’t produce any sounds other than a few squeaks and hacking coughs. Only now had she realized how dry her throat was; and she figured the best way to let the mare know what she wanted, was to try to recreate a drinking motion with her, somewhat functioning, right front hoof.

‘’Ah, you must want something to drink, don’t you?’’ she said as she trotted over to a sink, which was attached to the wall to the right of the filly’s bed, and filled a cup with some water. She then walked over to the bed and offered it to her.

Scootaloo happily accepted the offer, closing her lips around the edge of the cup as she tried to drink from it. The nurse slowly lowered the edge towards the filly, who thankfully started gulping the water down her throat. The feeling of the liquid moisturizing her gullet was more than welcome to her; and she soon found herself having drunk the entire content of the cup.

‘’T-thanks,’’ was all she managed to say to the mare in an extremely raspy voice, as if she hadn’t used her vocal cords for weeks. The nurse simply smiled in return, putting the cup back near the sink; then proceeding to head towards the exit.

‘’I’ll go and tell your friends you’ve woken up. If there’s anything else you need, you can press the yellow button on the nightstand next to your bed. I will be returning in a while as well, so you won’t have to worry about anything. It’ll all be taken care of.’’ And with that, she left through the door and turned right, starting to move down the, what Scootaloo presumed to be, hallway.

She rested her head back on the soft pillow, before noticing the tingling sensation in her right leg once more. She looked down at it, noticing a small tube, covered up with bits of tape, running along the leg. It stopped right at the spot where the tingling feeling sat, so she assumed it was stuck into the leg with a small needle or such. The substance flowing through it was clear; and it moved slowly. It looked like water to the filly, but she knew that couldn’t possibly be the content of the liquid. If it would’ve been just water, they wouldn’t have had to put that through a drip. No, this had to be some kind of medicine being administered, even though she had no clue what for.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sound of something small galloping at high speeds through the hallway. As the sound came closer, she recognized the rhythm.

A yellow blur shot through the room, almost leaping through the air before landing on the bed. It then lunged forward and embraced the orange filly in a tight hug.

‘’OOF; Hey there, Applebloom.’’

‘’Oh gosh Scootaloo, ah was worried sick about ya! Ah’ve been waiting here ever since ah brought ya in, ah couldn’t get maself ta leave without knowing whether ya would be okay or not!’’

‘’Ever since you brought me in? Oh sheesh, how long have I been out?’’ the filly said with a hint of confusion in her voice.

‘’Almost five whole days, Scootaloo. At first the doctors weren’t even sure if ya would wake up anymore, ya had been badly dehydrated and famished, yer body seemed to be giving up. Ya somehow managed to pull through though.’’ Applebloom paused for a brief moment before bringing out her last few lines.

‘’Ah’m so glad ya did. Ah don’t know what ah would do if ya weren’t here anymore Scootaloo. Ah would be so lonely,’’ she said as she tightened her hug with the other filly. Scootaloo returned the hug with her functioning leg, wrapping it around the filly’s waist. She got caught up in the moment, slowly turning her head slightly in an affectionate nuzzle, causing Applebloom to flinch in surprise.

‘’S-sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you… It was an acidd-‘’

She was cut off from her words, as the yellow filly suddenly returned the gesture. They lay there, embracing one another, for what felt like an eternity.

‘’Ah’m sorry for runnin’ off when ya first told me, Scootaloo. Ah was afraid ah guess. Not afraid of you, but afraid of what others would think. Ah did some thinkin’ after that; and I made my decision a few days ago. Ah decided that ah really like ya too. Ah’m willing ta try; if ya want that as well.’’

Scootaloo lay there for a moment, still astonished by her friend’s revelation. For a short time, she couldn’t believe that Applebloom actually had similar feelings for her. A wide smile formed on the filly’s face as she nuzzled her friend once more, only wanting to hold her close; and never leave her side again.

‘’Ahem’’

Scootaloo woke up to the same nurse who had administered the water to her earlier that day, as she made a few exaggerated coughs and the likes. At first the filly didn’t understand why she was doing so, not until she felt a weight pressing down on her chest. She could feel her cheeks burn and glow red as she looked downwards, where Applebloom was sleeping on her tummy. She quickly tried to wake her up; she didn’t want to keep the nurse waiting for… Whatever it was she wanted to do.

‘’Hey, Applebloom?’’ she said as she poked her with her right hoof, trying to wake her up gently. ‘’Time to wake up.’’

The yellow filly on her chest started to stir as she was being poked, slowly coming to terms with waking up; looking at Scootaloo when she opened her eyes.

‘’Scootaloo? Why are ya pokin’ me?’’ she said, then noticing the filly was gesturing towards something behind her. When she looked around and noticed the nurse, she too began to blush, quickly getting off of the bed and taking a little sidestep, creating a bit of space for the pony.

‘’Now then, with that cleared up, I’ll commence,’’ the mare said while looking at a piece of paper she had been holding in her hoof. She trotted over to the bed, grabbing a pencil from one of the pockets on her clothing. Without saying anything, she suddenly poked Scootaloo’s left leg several times with the pencil, moving up the entire length of the limb.

‘’Hey!? What are you doing that for?’’

‘’Oh, I thought you would understand the procedure, my apologies. I’m trying to get a response from you whether you can feel the pokes or not. I should’ve probably mentioned that before starting… Anyway, can you tell me, then? She said as she poked the bottom of the hoof at first, moving up along the leg with a poke every few inches.

‘’No; nah ah; nope; hold on, I felt that one!’’ she said with an excited tone in her voice when the nurse had poked a spot not too far underneath her elbow. The mare dictated herself as she wrote down onto the piece of paper:

‘’Leg starting to regain sensitivity; now receptive for external impulses about an inch below elbow joint.’’

‘’The medicine seems to be doing its job just fine. If your body keeps recovering at this rate, I daresay you’ll be out of here sometime next week. Now then, I’ll leave you two alone again,’’ she said with a slight smirk as she proceeded to exit the room, which was empty once again; except for the two fillies.

‘’Well, I guess that solves the mystery of the liquid in the tube,’’ Scootaloo said jokingly. ‘’I wonder how they came up with it though.’’

‘’Well, when ah carried ya in here, ah told the doctors yer entire left side was very stiff. It was discoloured to a strange purplish colour back then as well. After they’d brought Rainbow Dash up to a surgery room, they went ta investigate that stiffness. Apparently ya had contracted a disease which was causing yer limbs ta ‘freeze’.’’

Upon hearing Applebloom talk about Rainbow Dash; and a surgery room even, Scootaloo’s mind was suddenly racing with all kinds of questions about her idol.

‘’Ohmygosh I totally forgot about Rainbow Dash, is she alright? Did they manage to fix her broken wing and leg? Where is she now? I’ve got to go see her! Can I go see her?’’

‘’Whoa, just calm down Scootaloo, she’s goin’ ta be just fine. The doctors managed ta place the leg and wing back in their normal positions and put splints on both of them. She was suffering from a feverish kind of disease, but they administered her several medicines and she recovered for the most part. She’s currently being kept in an observatory room, just ta make sure nothing goes wrong. Her friends are with her there, so ya don’t have ta worry about her being lonely. Besides, ya aren’t in any condition ta walk right now,’’ Applebloom quickly said, trying to assure the orange filly that everything was going to be just fine.

It seemed to have worked, as Scootaloo rested her head back down onto her pillow. She appeared to be thinking about something though, her eyes seemingly peering into the distance, even though a ceiling was blocking her view by hanging a few feet above her head.

‘’Applebloom?’’

‘’What is it?’’

‘’About yesterday…’’

‘’yes?’’

‘’Did you… Did you mean it? What you told me, I mean.’’

Applebloom smiled at the question posed by her friend. She walked over to the bed, hopping onto it. She then lay down, facing towards Scootaloo and looking into her eyes.

‘’Y’know; when ya first opened up ta me those few weeks ago, ah wasn’t so sure about what ta do. But ah did lots of thinking after that; and when ah had ta carry ya all the way here out of that forest, ah didn’t hesitate for a single moment. Ah couldn’t stand the thought of losing ya. When we hugged like we did yesterday, ah knew right then and there that ah had decided who ah really wanted ta be with, just like ya had in those weeks before. Ah ment every single word of what ah said; and ah’m happy ah said them.’’

During her talking, she had slowly inched herself closer towards Scootaloo, who was all too happy listening to her story. When she surprised her by suddenly leaning forward, pressing her lips onto the astonished filly’s; they would’ve been perfectly content with remaining in their state of bliss for as long as they were allowed to.

This unfortunately made them end sooner than they would’ve wanted, as a pink pony came hopping into the room. Her mane was as puffed up as always, in the same light-pink colouring, making it look as if the pony had simply glued a ball of cotton candy onto her head. A large smile was covering most of her face, which was not a new thing for this particular pony.

‘’Good mooorniiing sleepyheads! I figured if the nurse had been by, you’d probably be awake, so I thought ‘’I should go see if she’s awake now’’ and so I went through the hallway on the bottom floor and then I had to go up the stairs and then through the other hallway-‘’

‘’Pinkie…’’

‘’-Where I had to start looking for the right room and there are -many- rooms here, did you know that? There are so many rooms that they can theororetitically keep every pony in Ponyville here! That’s a lot more rooms than Sugarcube Corner has! Even if it had there wouldn’t be enough cupcakes for everyone, because there are only a few ponies baking and -many- ponies eating. Then they wouldn’t have enough to eat so they would have to go away and- ‘’

‘’PINKIE!’’

‘’Huh? I was about to get to the part where I entered your room!’’ the pink pony replied with her oh so common oblivious attitude.

‘’That’s cool and all, but why don’t you skip the explanation part and simply talk about the ‘now’ instead? I’m sure the trip was very… interesting… but you can always tell me later!’’

‘’Oh, well, I came by to check up on how you were doing. I knew you were going to be okay all along of course, but it was still a looong wait! So I spent some time with Rainbow Dash instead while you were still asleep, but she was asleep as well for the first two days so it turned out I could’ve waited anywhere. Applejack with her right now so I thought I’d come by and say hello to you! I came by earlier as well but I saw you were having a sleepover so I decided to come back later; and here I am!’’

Throughout her storytelling, Pinkie Pie had been bouncing through the room as if she were a skippy ball, shooting from one side to the other in one fluid motion while waving her hooves in the air to illustrate the story even further. The mentioning of the ‘sleepover’ made the two fillies blush slightly; knowing that the party pony was partially right. It was easier for Scootaloo to hide it, thanks to her darker shaded coat. It was not that simple for Applebloom though; and she had no other option than looking at the ground to avoid having Pinkie notice the faint red colouring on her cheeks.

‘’Hey, what are you looking at the floor for? Are the tiles dirty? Should I ask the nurse to call for a cleaning group? Oh I know, I’ll clean them up myself!’’

The mare stuck out her tongue while lowering her head, after which she pushed off with her hind legs, sliding herself forward through the room while her tongue was making contact with the tiles, functioning as a cleaning machine. It was a mystery how she was able to keep her tongue from drying up, but both of the fillies decided it was probably one of those things that Pinkie could do, but couldn’t be explained.

Strangely enough, the floor did seem cleaner after the pink mare was done sliding across several times. It even had a slight sheen, but Applebloom couldn’t decide whether it was because they were clean, or because of a thin layer of saliva lying on top of it. Either way, she was a bit grossed out by the unusual cleaning method and tried to shake off the thought of having to walk on it sooner or later.

‘’Now that the floor is all clean, tell me about the sleepover! Was it fun? Did you play games all night and have a pillow fight and gave eachother makeovers and tell ghost stories and…’’

The two fillies slowly brought their hooves up onto their ears, covering them from Pinkie’s vocal rampage. It was of little help however, as the high-pitched voice penetrated almost all solid objects, including hooves. When the mare finally halted her relentless assault, she looked at Applebloom with a massive smile on her face, expecting an answer confirming her description of a fun sleepover. The yellow filly kept her muzzle shut tight however, as she didn’t know what to tell her. It didn’t take long for Scootaloo to notice and jump to her aid, quickly taking up the task of speaking for her.

‘’No Pinkie, we didn’t do all those things.’’

A loud gasp could be heard all the way through the hospital, indicating something had severely upset somepony.

‘’But… Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do at a sleepover? How can you possibly have fun if you don’t do all the fun things?’’

‘’Well… We weren’t exactly having a sleepover.’’

The party pony raised an eyebrow for a moment as she moved her hoof to her chin as well, thinking about the filly’s statement.

‘’How can they not have a sleepover but still sleep over? There’s no way, right? If you sleep over at someone’s place, you’re having a sleepover. What am I missing? Unless…’’

Another loud gasp filled the building’s hallways, this time even being loud enough to make the nurse wonder if everything was okay. After peeking her head inside, she noticed Pinkie Pie was standing there, so she figured everything was normal. They had had several occasions where the pink pony had caused a massive uproar, where it would later turn out to be nothing dangerous. She suspected the same was the case right there as well; and thus she simply shook her head a little and moved on, closing the door first to stop the loud pony from harassing the entire hospital.

‘’A COUPLE!’’ Pinkie exclaimed with an even larger smile on her face. This time, it was a triumphant one, being extremely gleeful about solving the ‘mystery’.

‘’Umm… well… we aren’t really-‘’

‘’Do you know what this calls for? A PARTY! Oh I know just the thing! I’ll throw a ‘Scootaloo-and-Applebloom-are-together-after-several-years-of-being-friends-and-now-they-are-more-than-friends-party’! It’ll be super duper and lots of fun and we’ll all have cake and pie and we’ll play games like truth or dare and we’ll eat pie and we’ll play all night and did I mention we’ll eat lots of pie?’’

Scootaloo was taken aback a little by the sudden outburst of plans from the pony, not really knowing what to tell her. She was still a bit uneasy about others finding out, even if it seemed to go well so far with neither Rainbow nor Pinkie making a big deal out of it.

‘’That sounds mightily fun Pinkie Pie, but ah’m afraid me and Scoot don’t have any time fer a party right now. We’d love ta join if we did, but unfortunately we don’t. And without the main guests, what fun is there in having a party, right?’’

‘’Hmm…’’ the pink mare mumbled as she, once again, brought her hoof to her chin, this time she didn’t take half as long to think about it though; and she didn’t even seem taken aback in the slightest.

‘’Okay then. I suppose I’ll have to hold that Scootaloo-and-Applebloom-are-together-after-several-years-of-being-friends-and-now-they-are-more-than-friends-party some other time. Oh, I’m going to check up on Rainbow Dash! I’ll see you both later! Bye!’’

And with that, she was off and bouncing through the hallway, en route to Rainbow’s room, leaving the two fillies alone in the room once again, leaving behind the questions that accompanied the thoughts of revealing what now, after Pinkie Pie’s outburst, seemed to be a pretty official relationship.

‘’We won’t be able to hide it from everyone forever, what if the wrong ponies find out? I don’t even want to think about what Diamond Tiara would do if she found out. We’d be bullied for the rest of our time here in Ponyville for sure. And I don’t think Applebloom is comfortable confessing something like this to her older sister. If we just kept it hidden for now, we won’t have much trouble with it anyway.’’

‘’Ah know there will be ponies disagreein’ with us two being together, but am ah ready ta reveal it ta everypony close to us? Ah know ma big sis’ doesn’t mind, but what about Rainbow Dash? Ah don’t think Scoot will be comfortable revealin’ this to her. We should probably try to not mention it to everypony at first, it would make everythin’ a lot easier fer us.’’

As they both lay there, lost in their thoughts, their eyes met. It was almost as if they could read each other’s minds, silently agreeing with one another as if they had spoken a thousand words.

‘’Umm… Ah should be headin’ home fer the evening ah suppose. Ah’ll come back tomorrow again, okay?’’ Applebloom said as she had glanced out of the window to see that the dusk had started to set in. ‘’Ah’m sure ya can go without me one night.’’ She added to it, as she tried to point out the idea that she wouldn’t be gone for long after noticing the mood of filly in front of her changed after saying she had to leave.

‘’Yeah… that should be no problem… no problem at all…’’ Scootaloo replied as the yellow filly leaned in for a hug. Her voice lacked any sign that would show she ment it. Because she wasn’t sure about it. Because she wasn’t sure if it would be no problem at all. As Applebloom left the room, the closing door gave the orange filly a weird feeling of finality.

Chapter 5

Light in the dark

Chapter 5

The sun had long set to make room for the moon. The sounds of nurses in the hallways and patients talking had long made way for the ever aching silence. The orange filly, lying in her bed, had been trying to fall asleep for a long time. Her eyelids had long grown heavy and wanted to close, but her mind wouldn’t let them.

She had tried everything; sleeping under the blankets, on top of the blankets, halfway under and halfway up top. Nothing seemed to help. She had even gone as far as trying to lie down on the ground, only to discover that the drip, which was still attached to the leg, couldn’t reach that far, demanding her return to the bed.

She twisted and turned several more times before giving up, lying down on her back and facing towards the ceiling. Even though it was dark, the white paint on the walls was still visible. It gave the room an eerie glow; and the filly didn’t like the way it toyed with her imagination. She could see shadows walking along the walls, the floor, the ceiling. She knew they weren’t really there, but that didn’t make them less frightening.

‘’Did the door just squeak? No, it must be my imagination. It’s still closed, and there’s nopony there. Everyone in the building is asleep, except for the nightshift nurses. I must’ve imagined it for sure.’’

Just as she calmed herself down, a sudden sensation on her right side caused her to jolt aside in terror, letting out a high scream in addition to the evasive manoeuvre. Something, or somepony, had poked her side all of a sudden without warning, inciting even more fear into the already terrified filly. She now lay on the far side of the bed, away from the thing that had touched her, all curled up and shivering heavily.

‘’Oww, sorry if I scared you, I just didn’t want to make too much noise, if the doctors or nurses find out I’m here they will take me to my own room again for sure,’’ the pony whispered to Scootaloo.

She knew that voice. It was a bit more raspy than usual, but still very distinctive. The light cyan coat was visible ever so slightly through the glow of the white walls, revealing her general contours, but leaving out most other features.

She wanted to reply, to say hi to her, but for some reason she couldn’t get her vocal cords to do anything other than trembling. Her entire body seemed to disobey every command she gave it, paralyzed in shock from the unexpected event.

‘‘What’s the matter Scoot? Did I scare you that much? Oh boy… You seem to have caught it quite badly there. Come here, I’ll help you out,’’ she said while sliding onto the other half of the bed, careful of her splinted wing and leg, wrapping her front hooves around the trembling filly to try and help her relax again.

As she held Scootaloo to her chest, an odd thought came up in her mind. Why was she doing this? She wasn’t the type to comfort someone, to hold them close by? She was the ever-distant, non-caring Rainbow Dash. So why wasn’t she right now? On top of it all, this particular pony was the only one who triggered this behaviour. No other fillies or colts made her act the way she did when she was around the orange filly. So why was that?

Her thoughts were cut off when the shivering ball she had been holding called out for her.

‘’R-rainbow Dash?’’

‘’Yeah?’’

‘’C-could you… Could you please s-stay here? I-I don’t know why, but I feel s-scared of the d-dark. I s-see shadows m-moving all the time, as if there’s s-something there. It f-feels as if I’m still out in the f-forest, except that I’m a-alone…’’

‘’Well, I only came by to check up on how you were doing, if the nurses find out I’m gone from my room they’ll come looking for me. I should probably-‘’ She cut off her own words as Scootaloo clasped herself around Rainbow’s torso tightly, pulling herself against her idol’s chest even more. The cyan pegasus was somehow softened by the filly. She couldn’t help it. She wrapped her fore legs around the orange ball a bit more tightly in return to the filly’s grip.

‘’I guess I could stay a bit longer, no, scrap that, I’ll stay as long as you want me to. It’s not like they’re looking for me already anyway.’’

She could feel Scootaloo loosen up a little from her assuring words, even though she was still shivering and clasping onto her. It wasn’t hard to tell that the filly was bothered by her fears a lot. She could see it in the filly’s eyes, flickering open and shooting in all directions from time to time. Her uncontrollable shivering, her tight grasp around the cyan pegasus’ chest; all were signs of what the filly herself would mark as ‘weakness’, something she normally never showed when she was around her idol.

Rainbow knew that the filly had to be extremely embarrassed by her own behaviour, even though she had no way of controlling it. She was afraid of losing her ‘coolness’ by behaving like this. She always tried to radiate strength when she was around the pegasus, but now she couldn’t.

In a form of reflex, the thought occurred to Rainbow Dash about how she herself would feel if she’d look weak in front of her idols. She knew that Scootaloo was probably having a similar issue, and thus, she did the only thing she could think of to make it less of an embarrassing experience to her.

‘’You know, when I was a filly, I used to be afraid of the dark as well. Except that I had no valid reason to do so. I caught some wandering fireflies back then, and put them in a glass jar. I would keep them with me at night so it wouldn’t be so dark. Funny, isn’t it?’’

This seemed to have the desired effect, as the filly who had previously been burying her head into the mare’s chest now looked up ever so slightly, her shivering hadn’t subsided yet, but at least she wasn’t diving away in horror anymore. It was a start, and a good one at that. She decided it was a good idea to keep talking, as her voice seemed to have a calming effect on the filly as well.

‘’And you’ll never guess who helped me get over it. The one pony of whom one would least expect it: Fluttershy. Back then she was afraid of almost everything, even more so than she is these days, so you can probably guess that I wasn’t too trustful about her when she told me she could help me out. Turns out she was quite the expert on calming others down. For days on end she would take me outdoors at night, showing me that the dark wasn’t just frightening. It can be beautiful as well, if you know where to look for it.’’

‘’Well would you look at that. I’m pretty good at this whole ‘taking care’ thing. Who would’ve thought? Sure, she’s still trembling a little bit, but nowhere near as much as before; and she’s not hiding away anymore either, so I must be doing something right at least.’’

Scootaloo had loosened up a little, relieving her muscles from constant tension from being pulled against the cyan pegasus. Her talking had given the filly a sense of relaxation, albeit very faint. It was enough for the time being though, as she started to talk back.

‘’I don’t even know when it started being like this… I used to fall asleep without a single problem, but at some point, it all changed. I can’t remember why. I just know it did. When we were out there, in the forest… I think that made it worse. I still hear the sound of the wolves in the distance, even though I know they can’t possibly be here. I still feel the damp air, even though it’s as dry as can be. I still see the shadows moving, as if there’s something hiding there, even though I know there isn’t.’’

She started cowering again as she went to name the things she saw or heard, or, at least, what her mind made her think she saw or heard, tightening her grasp once more.

‘’I can imagine an experience like the one we had to go through can be somewhat traumatizing to a filly. Just know that there is no shame, at all, in being afraid of something. We all have fears; and it’s something every one of us learns to live with. Some ponies may say they aren’t afraid of anything, but if they say something like that, I will bet all my bits on it that they’re lying. Nopony is afraid of nothing. Everypony is afraid of something.’’

She gave the filly a reassuring squeeze as she finished up her sentence, urging Scootaloo to resume her talk. She wasn’t even sure why she did all this, or why she seemed to be so good at this, but she didn’t mind it at all. It gave her a warm feeling, knowing that she was doing something good; and not just for herself.

‘’It’s just… It’s just so dark in here…’’ Scootaloo whispered to the pegasus, peering up at her, looking into her magenta coloured eyes slightly.

Rainbow Dash peered through the room. It was indeed quite dark, darker than one would expect in a room like this one. She spotted, what she presumed to be, an easy fix for the stated problem though. On a nightstand on the filly’s side of the bed stood a small lamp, barely visible through the dark, but nevertheless undoubtedly there. She leaned over towards it, careful not to land on top of the filly who was still holding her, and started tapping the object blindly as she tried to find the switch to turn it on.

She found it after tapping clumsily for a few seconds, and the small lamp started giving off a faint glow. It wasn’t much of a light source, but it was one nonetheless.

‘’Is it better like this?’’ she asked after lying back down onto the bed.

The filly shook her head. ‘’It’s still dark… The shadows are still there...’’

The cyan pegasus frowned in thought for a moment. ‘’What can I do to help her out? How do I make her see that the dark is not just a frightening thing..? Wait, that’s it!’’

She pulled up from the bed, stepping off, carefully avoiding her broken hind leg, and indicated to Scootaloo that she would be right back.

She trotted over to the window, checking at first whether it was locked or not. It turned out it wasn’t, so the mare was free to open it and peer outside. She looked up at first, as if she was checking on something. After a few seconds she mumbled something to herself, after which she looked to both the left and the right while hanging halfway through the window, once more mumbling to her own with an approving tone. She then walked back over to the bed, and lifted the filly up.

‘’Let’s go Scoots. I want to show you something. We’ll take that blanket with us as well, it might be cold.’’

‘’Umm, I can’t leave, I’m stuck to the drip with this tube,’’ the filly stated while raising the leg with the tube attached.

‘’Nah, you can pull it out…’’ the Rainbow Dash said, instantly turning words into deeds by removing the drip from the leg, leaving only the plastic casing used to connect it to the veins. ‘’… just like that.’’

She then threw the bed’s blanket over her neck and wrapped it around her fore hooves several times so it wouldn’t get in the way, after which she placed Scootaloo on her back. She then moved over to the window once again, leaning out carefully, then grabbing hold of something that appeared to be just around the corner.

The orange filly clasped herself around the mare’s neck tightly, holding on for dear life, as the pegasus started climbing the water drain that was attached to the hospital’s wall. She didn’t seem to have much trouble doing so, even though she had only three legs to climb with.

It didn’t take her too much time to reach the top, carefully grabbing the hard, rocky edge of the rooftop before pulling herself, Scootaloo, and the blanket up onto the roof. She then lifted the piece of cloth over her head after unwinding it from her legs; and spread it out onto the roof, after which she grabbed the filly from her back and put her down onto it, sitting down onto the remaining part herself.

Scootaloo looked around, somewhat dumbfounded, seemingly not understanding why they were there.

‘’Why did we come up here, Rainbow Dash?’’

‘’Isn’t it obvious? We came here for that,’’ she said, emphasizing the last word while pointing up into the sky. There was not a single cloud within miles; every star could freely shine down onto the land. To add to the already magnificent view, the moon was fully visible. It stood very close to the earth as well, making for an incredible sight.

Every crater, every hill, every mountain; every single detail of the lunar body was visible with the naked eye. Millions of stars added to the amazing view, lighting up the night’s sky and turning the blackness into a dark blue instead.

‘’So, what do you think? Do you like it?’’

Scootaloo couldn’t do anything but gaze in awe at the magnificent view playing out in front of her eyes, her mouth hanging half-open. She was stunned by the beauty the stars, the moon and the sky brought. Her eyes tried to look at every single star, but soon found themselves lost in the enormously vast landscape of light bulbs. She had seen the night’s sky before, but never had it been so perfect, never had it been so beautiful.

‘’Heh, I take that as a yes.’’ The pegasus grinned.

The filly remained silent, mesmerized by the view. It wasn’t until a breeze snapped her out of her dreamlike state that she realized how cold it actually was up on the roof. Her body started giving off light shivers, indicating it needed to warm itself up.

‘’Feeling cold?’’

‘’Nah, it’s not cold at all. I’m fine.’’

The pegasus couldn’t help but grin at the filly’s rediscovered attitude, as she started with putting up the façade of the indestructible, unfaltering pony again. She knew it was all show; and that the filly was probably freezing, and thus, she extended her right wing and wrapped it around Scootaloo, pulling her in once she had a firm grip, pressing her to her side slightly and letting the wing serve as a barrier to the wind.

‘’Better?’’

‘’Yeah… thanks.’’

They sat like that for some time, mainly gazing at the sky. Even Rainbow Dash was still amazed by it sometimes, even though she had seen it numerous times before. For some reason, she loved it even more now that she shared it with the filly who idolized her. She snapped out from the trancelike state when a question popped up in her mind.

‘’Scoot?’’

‘’Yeah?’’

‘’If you don’t mind me asking… That last night in the forest. Why didn’t you leave?

‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’I heard from Applejack that, when they arrived at the scene, you were doing everything you could the shield my body from the storm. Why did you stay with me? You could’ve just ran off and find rescue yourself; and send them towards me afterwards. So why didn’t you?’’

Both of them remained silent for some time, Rainbow looking at the filly expectantly, Scootaloo thinking about the question. Not before long, she thought of a suitable answer.

‘’The thought crosses my mind, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. When you were lying there, not responding to anything, I felt like you needed my help. I didn’t want to leave, because… I don’t really know. I guess I just… I always wanted to be more like you; and leaving a friend behind by running off would be unlike anything you would do in the same situation. I think that’s why I stayed.’’

They grew silent once more. Rainbow was processing what the filly had said, thinking about her words. She was a bit surprised when Scootaloo started talking again, as if she had left something out.

‘’And… I think that most of all, I stayed because I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you… You’re always there when I need someone; you’re always so kind even though I know it can be annoying to have someone hanging around your ankles all the time… You’re like a…’’ The filly gulped before continuing, as if she was expecting a bad reaction from the mare next to her. ‘’ You’re like a big sister to me…’’

A sea of warmth washed over Rainbow Dash after the filly finished her last sentence. She didn’t know why, but it gave her an incredible feeling, as if every bad memory was washed away by this one phrase. ‘’big sister’’.

She wrapped her hooves around the filly and pulled her close, embracing her in an affectionate hug. It was a form of confirmation to the filly. A confirmation that the mare didn’t mind the way Scootaloo thought about her. They remained like that for some time until the filly opened her mouth once more.

‘’Thanks, Rainbow Dash.’’

The pegasus smiled down at her ‘little sister’ before replying to the statement.
‘’You know, when I woke up, I was told that I had suffered from extreme hypothermia, very close to a level that would kill most ponies. So that means that if I would’ve been out in the forest, unprotected, I would’ve probably died. So I think… I think that I’m the one who’s supposed to be thanking you. Thank you, Scoots, for saving my life.’’

A silence followed in which the both of them were just holding eachother; loving each other’s embrace. However, this blissful silence was soon broken by the sound of ponies running through the hallways below them, shouting things to one another. They could hear the door to Scootaloo’s room swing open; and a mare shouting down the hallway: ‘’this one is gone as well!’’, after which the door was slammed shut again.

‘’Sounds like we’re in some big trouble when we get back down.’’ The pegasus grinned down at Scootaloo.

‘’Well, who says we need to go down now?’’ the filly replied with an equally large grin.

‘’I like your attitude. Who knows, maybe you’ll be just as awesome as me one day.’’

And so they lay on the blanket, wrapped in each other’s hooves. They no longer paid any attention to the frantic yelling below them. It was just them, together, in a perfect moment.

‘’It’s strange…’’ Scootaloo said sleepily, ‘’… It’s always so dark, but when you are here, it’s not that bad anymore. It’s like you make the darkness go away.’’

Rainbow looked into the filly’s eyes once more, revelling in the sight of the sparkly bulbs gazing back at her.

‘’If that’s how it is,’’ she spoke slowly, making sure the filly heard every single word she said,

‘’I’ll be your light in the dark.’’