Dusk engulfed the sky as Celestia’s sun retreated. Apple Bloom organized the bedrolls one by one, carefully. Sweetie Belle stored toys away with focus. Scootaloo stared at the sky through the window, her sight wandering off to where her wings could not take her.
“It’s going to be sleep time soon girls”. Said Apple Bloom, tiredness within her voice. Only the wind whispered a reply.
It was not long before they all finished their tasks and sat together, above each´s bedroll. They were immobile, their eyes fixed onto… something. They stared at something unusual. Not at each other, neither at the floor or the roof. They stared at something which laid outside of the eye´s reach, something that was barely more visible within their thoughts. They stared at everything, they stared at nothing.
The day had gone by incredibly slow, none were sure why. It was a usual sleepover in the clubhouse, planned casually just the day before, yet something pushed them back and stopped all movement in the world.
They had never felt anything similar to it, not even from before they got their cutie marks.
“Could it be a monster?” Pondered Scootaloo. The other two could not think straight.
“What now?” Said Sweetie Belle. “Do you feel like doing something?”
“I don´t know. I barely feel like sleeping,” Replied the pegasus.
Silence followed for some time, then, Bloom spoke.
“Ah´ don´t know, the day´s been really… weird.”
And silence took over again. Minutes went by as their bodies bended down thanks to gravity, and yet, none rose until half an hour passed. It was Apple Bloom who stretched her back and looked at the orange skies through the window, before gazing back at her stoned friends.
“Come on girls! What´s so sad about today? We gotta do something,”
“I don´t know,” replied Sweetie, looking back at Apple Bloom. “It´s just draining me. I think I rather sleep.”
Scootaloo didn’t raise her head, she just replied with a “yeah” and kept quiet. With such words from both of her friend´s, Bloom lost all hope and joined their silence. During the next thirty minutes she tried to puzzle out the issue, but to no avail. It was sleep time.
Stars glimmered throughout the deep blue mantle of Luna´s night as each filly laid in bed, trying to sleep. Their eyes were closed, but their minds did not stop gazing at the memories of that day. As much as they wanted to simply forget and move forward, some unusual desire, a much stronger one, dragged them back to the guilt of having lived through that day.
However, soon enough tiredness swept their thoughts away and they were greeted once more in Luna´s realm.
Luna was in her balcony, admiring the sleeping kingdom below her. The moonlight bathed the scenery of the city as a fresh breeze caressed her skin and mane. She closed her eyes and set her fore hooves on the banister, allowing her chest to overlook the landscape as her head reached for the sky. It was only then when she opened her wings wide and let the wind grasp every bit of her skin, accompanied with the silence of the night. She lit her horn, and thus started her task as defender of dreams and rest.
Almost no monsters that night. The princess felt relief as she noticed the environment of millions of lives finally resting. So much had changed since the dark times in which she turned to madness, that she still had not grown used to the newfound peace of the night.
It was not long before she found the dreams of the three fillies. She was surprised once more, for they feared something much greater than themselves. Yes, Luna had feared the same in the past. Of all the things that could torment a filly´s mind, how could they suffer from such thing? Was that another example of the progress accomplished since her banishment?
It did not matter, she had a job to accomplish, and she knew how to do so. Luna approached the three but did not enter their dreams. Instead, she shaped them from outside, as if clay pottery, one step away from being cooked.
Author's Note
Reccomendations of any sort are welcome as well as grammatical advise.
Scootaloo woke up, but she was not in the tree house anymore. A dense forest surrounded her, leaving few gaps for light to reach her below the tree tops. She rose a few minutes later, growing tired of the never-changing scenery, and started walking. She did not know where she was, however, and although a blurred picture in her mind, she knew where she was walking towards to, the reason hidden.
The forest remained quiet except for the constant sounds of leafs and branches being pushed and cracked by wind and hoof. There was a goal to reach at the end of her trip, something awaited her amidst the trees. Memories about the day which had just gone by remained in her head, but slowly melted away as she felt her destination get closer. Her pace became faster with each passing second.
She could feel her skin itching to reach whatever it was that she chased. A sudden excitement ran throughout her, like a chill, and pulled every single one of her muscles forward.
Her wings flapped, her hooves stepped faster and faster… she was running. The wind rushed against her and refreshed her body, her head rose in order to capture every bit of sky visible from below… the gaps between her steps kept growing wider and she was soon lost to her marathon.
She felt just the same way whenever she rode the scooter, albeit less tiring. She did not mind however, after a whole day of standing still, she urged to forget about everything and keep running through mountains, plains and even more forests until she reached the end of the world. But she would be stopped before that, by the sight of what she was searching for when she first started walking.
There he was, a pale cyan stallion sitting next to a rock, looking up towards the very same spots of sky Scootaloo had daydreamed into as she ran. He was a pegasus as well. His mane was yellow, pale like his coat. But despite his dim colours, his constitution was not weak at all.
Scootaloo approached him and noticed how he towered over her. She sat beside him and stared into his eyes, which would return the gaze back at her own shortly after. A small smile made its way into the stallion´s face as the two swam within each other´s eyes. He then broke the ice.
“Hello,”
“Hello mister.” She replied.
Silence followed. He looked to the trees above him again, before continuing the conversation.
“Do you like it down here?”
“It’s quiet, it’s nice,”
“Would you like it better up there?” He asked, followed by him looking at Scootaloo again, while pointing with his right wing to the small fractions of sky visible from below.
The same urge from before made her spread her tiny wings in excitement and made her forget all shyness.
“Y- yeah!”
“Then let´s go.”
No more words were spoken. Before she could ready herself, he held her close to him with one hoof, jumped into the air and flew right through the thick foliage blocking the sky.
She had closed her eyes in fear, but opened them shortly after she no longer felt her skin being scratched.
It was her who smiled then. The wind rushing past her skin and wings, the tenderness of the clouds at a hoof´s grasp, and the vast landscape unfolding before her eyes forced the joy and the tears out. She was flying, thanks to the efforts of that stranger who carried her. She was finally flying, and the sun of dusk she once stared at finally made sense.
She reached out towards the world with her small hooves and laughed, like a baby born only minutes ago. Green fields filled with flowers alongside the forests and mountains of the wilderness; quiet rivers, clear lakes and oceans bursting with life; the immensity of the world she inhabited was hers, and she belonged to it. All equestria laid itself within her vision, below her wings.
The stallion eventually stopped by a cloud and Scootaloo sat beside him, still watching the world below.
“Thank you mister,” She said. “For showing me this,”
“It’s pretty isn’t it?”
“Yeah. It’s like a dream,”
“Indeed.” He replied, while looking at the stars above them.
“It took me decades to realize what you have overnight: the gift of soaring, this freedom that comes with the sky opening up and embracing you with its clouds, with your wings stretching out to their whole size.”
Scootaloo looked at the stallion as he spoke, then turned her head up to see the same skies of stars, flowing like a shoreless ocean.
She spread her small wings to their full width as a tender gust of wind caressed both pegasi. Her eyes started weighting more and her body less as the softness of the clouds called out for a long sleep. Her back leaned slowly against the cloud, but found nothing to lay on. Instead, Scootaloo fell and time seemed to slow down as the same wind kissed her good night. She closed her eyes and fell asleep among the skies.
Author's Note
Will upload more stuff soon enough. Two chapters left. Hope you like it.