Scootaloo wakes up from her nap and jerks herself up on her bed. Her heart was racing faster than an equestrian racer fueled by sugar; or when she first ate candy. She was a bit sweaty, short on breath, and her body felt shaky from the adrenaline rush, but fine either way. She had a dream of her running through a forest in the dark; running from something that crept through and from the dark. This is the third time this month she had this nightmare and she was getting kinda tired from it. For once, can't she have a happy dream? At least one? After she catched her breath and her body stopped shaking, she looked out her window; the starry night is all she sees.
"How long have I been sleeping?" she asks herself. Destined to find out, she jumps out of her bed, still perked up from adrenaline, and heads out into the living room. In the dark, she trips a few times, half due to her shaking and the other half from misplaced crayons; but she makes it to her destination unscathed. She turns on the lantern in the living room and sees the mess she made:
Pieces of paper on the floor, crayons littered on the table, and her drawings underneath it all. She admires her own work before she separates the drawings into piles: her completed "masterpieces" and her "work in progress." To any other pony, they look like the same scribbles in different colors. She hangs up her finished masterpieces onto the fireplace and studies them. She made one about an island, one about a school, and one about space. Each one has one or two ponies in them. After critiquing them, she cleans up the rest of her mess. Bored out of her mind, she finds something to do. Anything to get her attention. Her creative mind is burnt out from her latest masterpieces so anything besides drawing will do.
Before taking a step, she hears the front door slam as if something was thrown at it. Scared, she jumps behind the couch, hooves shaking and adrenaline pumping through her body again. She wants to call out to who it was, but she is more afraid of who or what was trying to get in. After waiting a few moments, she makes her way to the window, hoping whatever it was isn't standing by the door. "Please let there be nopony trying to get in!" she says to herself.
Scootaloo looks out through the window in the house and sees nopony outside. Not one soul out there walking around. The only thing moving are the trees dancing in the wind. She then realizes it's the dead of night.
"Of course nopony would be out there, there is nothing to do at night!" she said to herself. She looked at the clock in the living room: 9:40pm. "Ok, maybe not the 'DEAD' of night." She sighed. Her guardian is coming home late today. His work must have been getting more busy lately. She walks away from the window and turns off the same lantern on the table next to the couch. The full-moon's light is the only light source she has now. She carefully treads over to the window that has a front-row seat to the moon itself. She rests her head with her hooves and looks out the dirty window.
"This window needs to get clean," Scootaloo says to herself. Looking past it, she stares at the stars. Every one of them illuminates differently. Each of them special but would also go unnoticed if it disappeared from the crowd. Scootaloo shakes these thoughts out of her head, at least the last part. When she is alone, she can't help having these thoughts. She sees both the realistic and fantasy versions of everything. She can imagine the same stars dancing around if she spins around while looking up at them. That is, IF she can go outside again.
She was told by her guardian to not go outside when he's out because of a "small" incident that happened last Winter Wrap Up. Small enough to prohibit her from stepping out without him. But he has been lenient about it. She does go out sometimes with his permission, but never at night. But she misses him. Or is she missing just somepony? Maybe if she had friends to have over she'll be alright. But she has been feeling sick these past few days. Sick of staying in the house that is. She just wants SOMEPONY to keep her company.
She can feel the cabin fever setting in. Day three of being inside and she is going a little bit crazy.
"Just stay calm Scootaloo," she says to herself, "just find something to do." She looks around the dark room. It takes her a while, but her eyes finally get used to seeing in the dark and she is able to walk freely. Despite this, she bumps into a small pile of letters and they fall to the ground. She groans and picks them up. Curious, she reads one of them, addressed to her guardian. It says for him to work longer due to a worker accident that happened a few days ago. This letter was a day before she started her cabin fever journey. She looks at the clock again: 10:22pm.
"Just one more hour, he usually comes home by 11:30." Scootaloo's eyes are getting droopy. She can barely manage to keep them open. She yawns very loudly and decides it's best to try to fall asleep again. She puts the letters away and plops herself on the couch and covers herself with a blanket. She has her own bed, but she likes to sleep on the couch until her guardian comes home, that way she knows he came home when he takes her to her own bed to sleep. She stares out into the living room again, keeping herself occupied until she falls asleep. Her eyes catch a glimpse of one of her drawings. A small island with a single palm tree. In the tree's shade, her and her guardian, although poorly drawn, are standing looking out into the sea.
"I wouldn't mind visiting an island and playing around with other foals." Maybe tomorrow, she will draw in more ponies on it; enough to make the island seem more alive. She closes her eyes and imagines being there. The salty smell of the air, the sand both rough and soft from the waves, and the...bug bites? She doesn't know what else would be on an island because she has never been on one. She thinks really hard on what can be on an island: campfires, fresh fruit that is as sweet as candy, and the glistening sea as if it was littered by glitter.
Before she knows it, Scootaloo falls asleep.
However, when she wakes up, she is staring out at the sun. She isn't cold anymore, but warm, or maybe burning? She might get sunburn sooner or later. As of right now, her eyes are burning. She doesn't know why she is staring at the sun itself. She winces because of the pain and rubs her eyes with her hooves. She blinks multiple times to regain her vision. She tries looking around but her eyes are still blinded. But when she can finally see...
